Panacea Quest Archive and Story Thread

WyldCard4 · Feb 11, 2014

Panacea Quest has been removed from SpaceBattles.

It is to be restarted here.

For new readers, Panacea Quest always welcomes new voters and commentators. I welcome new voices and opinions. This thread is largely to facilitate the entrance of new readers.

For those coming here from SpaceBattles, note that I never intended to violate SB rules, but do not contest any ruling. A move to Questionable Questing was suggested early on. To any involved readers, I apologize for crossing the line and having to move. I did attempt to keep the story within all rules I was aware of.

This is a repository of story posts for new readers. Please do not post in this thread. This is a resource for easy quoting, searching, and editing of Panacea Quest in the case of locked threads. Panacea Quest is linked in my signature.

Worm is owned by wildbow. I claim no ownership of any ideas used in Panacea Quest.

Worm and information about Worm may be found here: http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/1-1/

The power rating system of Panacea Quest is being written with this in mind. This guide will be subject to change and revision, but it is a good guideline for how to think about power classification ratings when they come up.

Information about Worm can be found in the active discussion, ideas, and recommendations thread first post, which is updated as things change.

Here are the rules of Panacea Quest:

Rules:

Rule #1: Ignoring these rules or the voting instructions gets you ignored.

Rule #2: No contingent or "split" votes are allowed.

Rule #3: This may be an AU. While the world appears as Panacea saw it as of Interlude 3 (Gallant) changes may be made at my own discretion.

Rule #4: Unless specifically stated, write-ins must be different from other options and not combinations of them.

Rule #5: This quest is based on the character of Panacea. Votes are filtered through her perspective. Write in votes may be ignored or altered at my discretion to reflect my interpretation of the character.

Rule #6: If a write in should not be counted with other write ins or votes provided, the opening word and sentence should be different from all other votes in the current round, though obvious mistakes or coincidences due to lag or people not seeing other votes while writing their own will be treated rationally.

Rule # 7: If a write in should be counted with another vote, but you want to modify it, it must be an -[X] underneath the vote. Direct suggested changes to the wording of the original vote should be included in an the -[X] with a comment saying that you are doing this.

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Let It Snow

The Garden stretches out before you. Swan curves of necks, pale gray faces, endless eyes after endless eyes, all flesh and every possible body part in every possible combination stretches out before you. You float above the Garden lost in peace. Below you is the most important thing in the world. You are swept up in the grandeur of this scene. Edging into your mind, slow, creeping horror as you see it die. You scream and scream and scream, blasting at the Garden, desperately trying to keep it alive, intact. Nothing works. Something is too wrong for even you to fix. You howl in frustration and grief before screaming again and again, thoughtlessly casting a piece of yourself you tried to use to save her out into the dark...

You wake up, the dream rapidly fading as it always does. When you were younger you tried to write it down, but you could never capture the feelings, so like so many things you let it go. You always have it after your worst days. The days when you really have to think about...

Damn Tattletale.

That is easy. Easy is good. Angry is good. Keep being mad at Tattletale. No one has a right to know those kinds of secrets. That kind of secret, anyone you tell it to is a professional. You like professionals, and should probably see more of them.

The dream has faded, leaving other, more confusing problems. You try to focus on the ones you could solve as it creeps up on you. You think about a nightmare from yesterday, seeing a corpse stuck underwater in a flooded school, gnawed on by children. It was an execution. You try to remember the details, some demon in the school, control, rules that anyone would break...

It was too close to it.

You get up and go to your bathroom. You turn on the hot water tap and only the hot water tap, putting your hand underneath the water as it turns hot. Stupid, Victoria might notice if your hands are that red. You pull your hand out and jab your thumbnail into your finger tip, leaving an indentation. You don't need a lot of pain, just something, anything else to feel.

You begin to pace. With your free hand you grab a music player and briefly let go of the pain to place earbuds in your ears. The player is on shuffle, hitting some popstar's idea of Let It Snow. You shuffle in a circle in your room, moving rather fast, your hands contorted in a painful position. You consider eating something...

You have done this before. You could have a roast out, popping something delicious into your mouth whenever you swallow while you move and it wouldn't help. When you get like this, sometimes after watching a movie or hours of TV with Victoria, it doesn't always matter what you do to make yourself happy, or just think less about it.

You stand, focusing, thinking.

It is getting late. In the kitchen Mark framed your official dispensation from school, signed by the Director of the local PRT and the chairman of the Brockton Bay School Board. All you have tomorrow is twelve hours of, God, they were bringing in a group with cerebral palsy, or maybe it was cystic fibrosis? You could heal them without sleeping, you'd done it before, choking down energy drinks and talking with the nurses who brought the bastards through.

[X] You could go for a walk. Get out of your room. Feel fresh air on your face. Maybe go to, someone? You need to be moving, seeing something active. You do see someone. Maybe a professional, maybe ask Dean again, maybe force yourself back to the hospital so you don't have to think anymore. You can go where your feet take you.

[X] You would feel better with Victoria. She's sleeping right now, unless something woke her up. You can picture her sleeping softly in her pajamas. Your sister would always be willing to make the time. You have to see her, and you just can't stand being alone right now.

[X] Your eyes scan the wall and you laugh softly to yourself. On one wall of your room runs a long, low bookshelf. In the easiest place to reach, a place of honor, is Flowers in the Attic. The rest of the series rests in order after the first. Hours of reading, of doing nothing else, would calm you down. Your life was not so far from theirs, anyway.

[X] You could go for a walk. Get out of your room. Feel fresh air on your face. Maybe go to, someone? You need to be moving, seeing something active. You do see someone. Maybe a professional, maybe ask Dean again, maybe force yourself back to the hospital so you don't have to think anymore. You can go where your feet take you.

You move quickly and quietly, stepping through the house. Carol is moving around in her bedroom, and Mark is fast asleep on the couch. He'd probably taken more sleeping pills than he should have again, barely sleeping with fewer than three. Even if Mark remembers you he'd think it was a dream, if he even bothered.

You can't help but put an ear to Victoria's door as you pass. Nothing. Victoria was either fast asleep or she had snuck out to…

You almost run out the door. It wouldn't be Dean's house tonight. That is not something you could stand to walk in on ever again.

Damn Dean. Dam Tattletale. Damn Amy.

The night is cool and refreshing. You jump when a bug lands on your hand, but no, Skitter wasn't controlling it. You pause, smiling, wondering about messing up the bug and leaving it to surprise her. Maybe you could keep a bunch of bugs like that at home, in the hospital, PRT headquarters. Maybe if you did it right you could make them breed.

That comforting idea distracts you for a while as your mind is idle. The brain and nervous system of the insect, bug, needed to be made considerably larger and more twisted in order to produce the effect. It was wasted mass that needed to be supported. You would probably have to wipe out the competitors to give the species a chance, maybe a flash plague to get rid of the city's fireflies?

You would need to talk to someone in the PRT about the idea. Messing with ecology had messed up Bogotá pretty badly. You place the bug you are working on thoughtfully in your pocket.

You don't want to go to your aunt's. It was hard to even look at Crystal, sometimes, and the older girl had always seemed to take her presence as something of an imposition. Eric, how could Eric help? Maybe if you presented it as a problem with Dean, or that you just needed to go somewhere after the bank.

Who else was there? Carlos, Chris, Dennis, Missy? None of those could be even remotely appealing. Maybe if there were girls your age in the Wards you could have a girlfriend to call at times like this, but of course Brockton Bay has to be the only team of Wards mostly that is mostly male in the country.

Damn, Tattletale.

You pause very suddenly. The bug in your hand is receiving signals from Skitter. Why, is…

"Don't fucking move." You don't know if you want to grimace or cry. Twice in two days is more than enough for a lifetime. The voice sounds very tired, and very, very pissed.

"I don't care what you think of me, or why, but she's dying, I think." The voice keeps the exhaustion, the angry, but there's also desperation now. This is a very, very bad sign. Tattletale moved into your view, as you are not moving, keeping a gun pointed at you. Grue, the tall villain with darkness powers moves next to her, carrying Skitter.

The bug girl has a broken arm. No, it's more than that. It's like her entire left side was pulverized, starting with the arm. You're kind of amazed she's still breathing, and she's not breathing well.

"It was Bakuda. ABB. She's' nuts." You remember, vaguely, hearing about her something huge down, somewhere. You were too exhausted to really care, outside of a couple dozen more people in the ICU than normal.

Tattletale's voice calms just a bit. "Please. I won't tell. Just don't let her fucking die on me. Then you can go have whatever masochistic thing you want with Glory Hole."

You stare down at the bleeding, broken villainess. Your choice is clear.

[X] She'd threatened innocent lives, and worked with the bitch in front of you. The moment you healed her Tattletale would have no further need of you and might just shoot your head in anyway. You raise your head catching Tattletale's eyes, and your hand in your pocket hits a panic button with a line straight to Victoria. Dean had given it to them just yesterday, after hearing about her broken phone. At this distance it would be one minute before your Glory Girl would arrive.

[X] You do not want to provoke two or three very dangerous villains. You can keep control of the situation. You move your hand down to where Skitter's armor was torn loose by the trauma, and slowly begin piecing the villainess back together. You aren't stupid. Creutzfeldt-Jakob's disease, an incredibly rare, incurable disease, literally one in a million, weeks or months before the onset, plenty of time to catch it. Well one cure, exactly. What is she going to do, shoot you? Not if she wants Skitter to stay alive.

[X] Your hand brushes the hair of the girl. The mask is creepy, but you don't feel the world by sight, or even touch, not really. Your power spreads through the body warmly and evenly. She is just another patient. You almost don't think about it as you start to heal her. Really, how could you not heal her? She is just another person needing help. "I'm sorry." You whisper, and you are no longer talking to the villains.

[X] Your hand brushes the hair of the girl. The mask is creepy, but you don't feel the world by sight, or even touch, not really. Your power spreads through the body warmly and evenly. She is just another patient. You almost don't think about it as you start to heal her. Really, how could you not heal her? She is just another person needing help. "I'm sorry." You whisper, and you are no longer talking to the villains.

Your power spreads through Skitter. Your eyeball assessment had been dangerously inaccurate. The strike had actually come from the lower end of the body, shattering one leg, breaking another repeatedly, and doing severe damage to the pelvis. The arm is badly mangled, but it is the lower parts of the body that would seriously mess up Skitter. Without you she probably would never be able to walk, to have children, control her bladder, and that was if the massive internal bleeding could be stopped, and you don't see how it would be. The entire digestive track is broken beyond repair. That was just the lower body. What kind of bomb had Bakuda even made? It looked less like a bomb and more like someone had smashed several tons of rock into Skitter.

"She's lucky. Bitch is dead." The psychic speaks to you, breaking your concentration. "Bakuda was trying for something worse, at least she said she was, but it killed her pretty quickly when her organs were space warped.

"Let me focus!" You snap. Tattletale shuts up for now.

No brain injuries, a small mercy for you. You don't know what you would have done if Tattletale wanted you to fix that. You seal up all the bleeding you can, forcing all the blood loose in Skitter's body into blood vessels. That will keep her from dying right away, if nothing else. The spine comes next, the hardest part for anyone else to fix, most of the time. You seal up the bleeding. You pause when examining the ovaries. Skitter isn't infertile, naturally, but she would have trouble conceiving even without the blow. You remember the knife against your flesh, and your thoughts trace back to your own house. You wouldn't be helping with that.

You move your power through Skitter, triaging as best as possible. She definitely wouldn't be dying anytime soon.

"Thank you." Tattletale doesn't move the gun, but her voice is far, far calmer. "I really didn't have..."

"Shut up." You tell her. Then you make an effort she doesn't deserve and soften it. "I'm not done." Now it was a rejection of the situation and not her. Maybe that would help, well...

The only reason you do not use the F-Word in relation to Tattletale in your mind is a nagging concern that she'd be able to twist it into something less than an insult.

She does look like someone who had just seen friends be brutally injured and killed. You know the look. It's almost as bad as when they brought people in from a Behemoth attack.

No, a villain like that doesn't deserve that kind of dignity.

Your fingers trace over the exposed flesh. Something in you wants so badly to see her as beautiful. You are achingly aware of every cell in her body.

Skitter's disgusting. Colonies of microbes and small animals thrive all through her. Swarms of dim, non-sentient life calls her home, more than on you, or Dean, and definitely Victoria. Her body is in shape, but an uneven, uneducated training had left her weaker than she has to be. A hundred little imperfections claw at your brain.

You break contact with a shudder, leaving Skitter in, if not the best shape of her life, as good as you could manage under the circumstances, which is pretty damn good.

"Is it over?" You ask Tattletale. She gives you a long, hard look, peering into depths she really shouldn't be able to penetrate.

"Is it? She asks quietly. "I'm not asking you for anything else, but if you need our help, mine, we owe you a lot. I didn't think this would work, I just couldn't think of anywhere else to go."

[X] "It's over." You say it forcefully. "Never tell anyone, never come near me or Victoria again. I'd ask you to just turn yourself in, but I don't think you're that grateful." You're starting to feel sick about all of this. You could even see it as betraying your family, aiding villains, abetting sworn enemies.

[X] You consider your answer very carefully. "Go, but if I ever need you, I'll be in touch." This felt right to you, a code of the street. Tit for tat. You help them, and someday they help you.

[X] You're almost ready to say no, but you can't help yourself. "Yes, there is something. Something I can't do. Something you can help me with, if you mean it." Write in. Suggest things that Amy might think Tattletale could help her with, especially relating to her major issues. Write in votes for possible favors to ask will be subject to all rules relating to write ins, and different suggestions may end up combined depending on popularity and discretion.

[X] "You're some kind of sadistic genius with people, right? You certainly picked out my secrets and started clawing at them pretty quick. Well, turn off the sadism for a while- assuming you can- and fix me instead. Tell me how to be happy. And make the advice good enough to be worth your friend's life."

Tattletale mutters a swear word under her breath, runs her fingers through her hair, and closes her eyes.

"Yes. I can do that, but I need something to work with." She sounds distant, distracted. Maybe it's part of her powers, maybe the day she's been having.

"What do you need?" You ask a bit cautiously.

"Just tell me what's wrong. I know, but the way you say it helps."

You think back, and start telling the story you told Dean.

You give a stressed, stuttering version of the speech you gave Dean yesterday, or two days ago, damn midnight.

You start. "I never wanted these powers. I never wanted powers, period." Tattletale cuts you off.

"Your trigger event was late. Hm, did you start your period late? No you didn't. It's not about biology. Messed up family, isolated, you should have triggered younger." She pauses. "Keep going, Guts."

"But I got them anyways, and I got international attention over it. The healer. The girl who could cure cancer with a touch, make someone ten years younger, regrow lost limbs. I'm forced to be a hero. Burdened with this obligation. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't use this power. It's such an opportunity, to save lives."

"Victoria was with you at first." Tattletale says, and you nod. "I bet it felt great at first, saving lives, healing people. All kinds of acclaim, doing something new and different, maybe not having to go to school." She is nodding. "And then it started to get repetitive, harsh, stressful. No, it didn't have to be about the time she left, not a direct correlation, but close enough. Think back. All the times you were out of school, relaxing, having fun, special, anything positive was usually with Glory Girl." You're starting to get offended, heat rising to your face.

"You can go fuck yourselves." She cuts you off before you can tell them to go.

"Every night and twice on Tuesdays, darling. But no, this is important. Glory Girl's power, it hits your brain, makes you think she is awesome, admirable, worthy of respect. She triggered younger than you, interesting. She probably delayed your trigger with all the warm gooey shit flying out her ass." Tattletale takes a deep breath, looking pained. "It hit your brain chemistry. Your brain's been developing so most of the time you were happy it was with her. I bet when you were happy when you weren't with her there was a connection. Gifts she gave you, things that remind you of her. I bet she even gave you your copy of Flowers in the Attic."

"It was Crystal." You're not sure if you should be relieved or scared that she got a detail wrong.

"So a girl who looks just like her." Tattletale snorts. "I'm not certain about this, but I make very good guesses. Your brain chemistry is fucked to hell. Things feel better than they are with Victoria, and worse without her. It's going to be fucking hard to be happy if she's not frying what's left of her brain with her roofie aura." You start shaking. You almost consider reaching out and grabbing her, but she does still have her gun. You had so many good ideas at the bank for what to do to her.

"Oh, now that wouldn't help." Her smile is pained, but it's back. "You actually do care about being a hero. You're sick to death of it all, but taking a vacation, acting out, being selfish, that wouldn't help in the slightest. You'd feel too guilty to enjoy it. People dying on your watch while you're off in Mexico shopping for a bikini? You'd never live with yourself and come back feeling twice as bad. Proving to yourself that you can be a bad person won't make you feel the slightest bit better. Gallant is an idiot. Hurting me, you'd always wonder if that's how your father started out." You don't really know what to think.

"You need to live for someone else, fight for someone else. That's in your powers, or blood, or upbringing, something. You won't find your life worth living if you run from who you are, and you'll break if you keep running in place." Tattletale sounds thoughtful, pondering. Hm, not sure if there's medication that would help. Ooh, no, you don't have good experiences with medication, was, hm, do I call Flashbang your father? They probably don't have medicine or therapy that could cure all that's wrong with you. Maybe you could have a baby, those always make things better. There's a Tinker, Cranial, a Case 53, who specializes in neurology. It might help to just ask Victoria to stay with you while you heal people. Yep, the calming influence of someone with her rage issues while bringing a disability Girl Scout Troop through will definitely lead to good things." Tattletale looks like she desperately needs to sit down at this point, and maybe cry.

"Give me something that helps," you snarl.

"Oh, let me think!" She snaps. "You need worthy opponents." She mutters.

"What?"

"I don't know. Leave. Take Victoria with you. Get out of this town. All the world is made for love. Be yourself. I've never done this before, and last time I tried I nearly got her killed." She waves her hand at the still sleeping Skitter. She starts to calm down a fraction. "Don't try to fight conflict. It'll boil over. We aren't built not to fight. Just choose what you fight." She puts her face in her hands. "Everything's coming in wrong. Break one of your issues, and another one gets stronger. Try to get help and you expose your secrets, don't get help and go crazy." She sucks in a deep breath. "If you tell your sister, do it soon. It's better if you do it than if someone else does, or if you need to explain it after you make a mistake."

"I would never..." You feel like leaving right now.

"Sure, we all say that, but we're all crazy. I think your powers are meant for mind rape. You can't hold it in forever."

That is the point of no return.

"Never come near me or my family again."

"Alright. I'll delete the email that would have gone to Glory Hole if I hadn't come back, too. Just because I'm that kind of person."

[X] Throughout the conversation your mind was half on the conversation, half on the microbes on your hand. At first it had just been a precaution, but as the conversation went on you became increasingly sure that this was the right call. They should last just long enough for Grue and Tattletale to fall asleep, and die out before they infected anyone else. The last line clinches the deal. If this is her idea of helping there's no way she could be trusted not to keep coming back with worse and worse threats. Tattletale tries to move and leans on Grue for support. Grue is almost asleep himself. "Fuck, you..." Mutters Tattletale as she fumbles with the gun, no longer sure how it works. Your hand goes to your pocket. Not the best phone, but it would work until you got a better one. It is time to call the police, and your sister.

[X] You let them go, sitting stunned in the dirt. Things are bad, even worse than you thought. You sit quietly in the dark for maybe half an hour before getting up. You're dressed for the walk, and have your wallet. You're heading to the airport. It is time to visit Cranial.

[X] Grue helps you get up. You help heave the sleeping Skitter into his arms. You're going home. If Tattletale was even half right you need to talk to Victoria. Maybe not about everything, but you can't keep all of it a secret. Maybe you just need someone to talk to.

[X] Grue helps you get up. You help heave the sleeping Skitter into his arms. You're going home. If Tattletale was even half right you need to talk to Victoria. Maybe not about everything, but you can't keep all of it a secret. Maybe you just need someone to talk to.
- [x] Write down all of this. Keep it safe. That rant had a hell of a lot potentially important stuff. Especially when she was going on about conflict and fighting and the way everything was coming in wrong. She's on to something BIG. Bigger than us or her.
- [x] Thank Tattletale, she did try to help, don't have to like her or anything, but she did her best to pay us back.

You turn to Tattletale. "Um, thank you-" She cuts you off.

"Oh my God I remind you of your mother. That's just fucked up." She shakes her head. "Don't give me any of this battered wife shit. "Come on, Grue, let her have her peace." Grue follows along silently. You wonder why he never talks.

You begin the march home. It's fairly short, and your mind is spinning by the time you get there. Mark is watching TV on mute, and doesn't even seem to notice as you walk by him. Carol seems to have stopped moving. You need to gather yourself before you face this.

You go into your room, turn on your computer, and type down everything you can remember Tattletale said. At least, everything you can face writing down. You save the document and email it to yourself just to be sure.

You kind of hate yourself as you check your face in the bathroom mirror. It doesn't matter how you look. You tell yourself how stupid lipstick is as you put it on. At least you had a good excuse for the stupid double date you never went to. The only good thing about that day was not having to make the effort for, well, he wasn't actually a loser. Whatever you say about Dean, he would have chosen a charming, attractive sixteen year old millionaire of impeccable moral character.

You can't even blame him for not arranging an attractive sixteen year old millionaire of impeccable moral character of the gender you are attracted to. You aren't out and you don't want to be out. It might not even help. Dean had even asked you, privately.

You finish all the stupid unhelpful little rituals for just checking on Victoria and sit back in your chair, unwilling to move down the hall.

You have procrastinated for long enough...

You sit there and cry just a little.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." You mutter. You can barely stop.

You bolt out of your chair, moving far too quickly down the hall, stopping yourself right before you fling open the door. Maybe it woke someone up, but who cares?

You put your ear to her door. You are soft, gentle, listening in. No sound of TV or movement. She's either fast asleep, or…

You can't think about her sneaking off to Dean's at a time like this. If she did that you don't know what you'd do. You open the door, dreading…

Her bed is not empty. You actually thank God for that, though He hasn't given you many favors before. Or maybe He had. Now that is a scary thought. If your life is blessed, what would it be without that blessing?

You walk carefully, barefoot, over to Victoria's bed. Sleeping softly, beautifully, like sleeping beauty.

"Victoria!" You try to whisper, but you can't keep your mouth closed in this chain of thought. She jerks awake suddenly. "Jesus, Amy, what are you…" She focuses her eyes and sweeps you into a hug with a speed she would probably not have attempted if she wasn't half asleep. Physically it was not particularly comforting.

"I was out. I met, I met Tattletale again." Victoria looks over you quickly, seeing your state. She looks curious for a second, and then furious.

"I am going to kill her."

"She said she reminds me of Carol." Victoria actually smiles at that.

"Me too." She admits, and then you both laugh. Victoria pats you on the back, looking less murderous since you look okay.

"She had a teammate who was dying, and a gun." Victoria starts to softly whisper ways to make her pay into your ear as you keep talking. "She was dying. I had to help. Tattletale, she talked. She said she was trying to help, repay me. I don't know how much, any of it was true. I think she was just afraid I'd give the bug girl cancer, or try something worse." Your sister nods smoothly, keeping up the comforting monologue of death, torture, and mutilation. "She said things. I can't discount them."

"She's a crazy cunt." She assures you, pulling back from your ear and making eye contact. "A rotten, sadistic..."

You cut her off with...

[X] The last few days have been terrible. Far, far too terrible. "I love you." You say it with just the right inflection, the right movement, that she has to know what you mean. The two of you sit there in silence. You are very still.

[X] "She said your aura fucked me up." You pause, and shudder. "I, or we, need to see a psychiatrist. Maybe she's wrong, but I hope she isn't. She gave me a name, a tinker in neurology, Cranial. We should check her out, see what she can find."

[X] "You're right. Tomorrow, we are going to catch the Undersiders." Victoria looks like she has never loved you more.

[X] "She said your aura fucked me up." You pause, and shudder. "I, or we, need to see a psychiatrist. Maybe she's wrong, but I hope she isn't. She gave me a name, a tinker in neurology, Cranial. We should check her out, see what she can find."

The two of you sit there for a minute, weighing, well, everything. Victoria plays with your hair absent mindedly.

"We're leaving today, if you really want go go. You turn around, resting your head on her lap as she continues playing with your hair. "I don't like this. She's a miserable little shit who just wants us out of the city. But if you believe it, or can't let it go, I will go with you to Cranial. Otherwise I'd always wonder." Victoria is quiet for a moment. "What exactly did she say I did?"

"It sounded a lot like clinical depression when I'm not around you. Different specifics, but it did sound a lot like Mark. I got so used to being happy with your aura that I can't tell the difference. So I am just miserable at the hospital."

"I know you're miserable there." Victoria says quietly. "I know you have to go, but if there's anything I can do, if this doesn't work out..." You need to shut down your imagination at those words.

You had to do it soon, but you couldn't do it right now. Now stretched out like this. Would she ever touch you as a sister again? Would she ever just stroke your hair lying in bed like this? You need this more than anything else right now.

"I haven't slept all night." Victoria sighs.

"Is that related? I guess a slumber party wouldn't be too bad. I don't think the house has any rooms big enough to share, but I guess we could move. I'll never understand what Dad likes so much about the house." She sounds a bit sleepy, but it's a good, relaxed kind of sleepy.

"I think he just could never face going through moving." You answer. "Moving, a change of life, is hard. If he was happy he didn't want to bring himself down, and if he was sad he couldn't move." You feel Victoria's head nodding.

"So, what do you know about Cranial, anyway?"
___

Victoria wakes you up when the plane lands in Albany. It really is scary what Carol can do when it comes to getting you out of her life for a while. You had talked with the PRT agents about your encounter with Tattletale while healing in the hospital today. Armsmaster and Director Piggot had nearly called in a teleporter to get you here faster, but you had talked them out of it. This seemed like the least guilty vacation you could possibly get.

Victoria had brought some light reading for the trip, the PRT files on Cranial and the Undersiders.

"There doesn't seem to be a connection, but no one knows much about Tattletale. It isn't raising any alarms in the PRT, but Cranial is a rogue. She could be rustling up a client. Cranial is fascinated by healers. She's in Albany to visit one of your cute little knockoffs. Ichy or something."

You kind of jump in your seat. "Do you mean Ichor?"

"Yeah, that sounds right. Black girl, regenerator, her blood causes people to grow her body parts over wounds?"

You're actually a bit excited at this. The plane attaches to the gate quickly. You leave before Victoria as the aisle sheets shuffle off before the window seats. Ichor is one of the best healers. Keep the blood flowing and people could regenerate limbs, and naturally defective organs could be replaced by her healthy ones. Of course all of her spare parts are identical, and many people couldn't use them, and she couldn't do anything about the more subtle or global illnesses, but it might be fun to talk shop with her if you get the chance.

Several immaculately dressed PRT agents are waiting for you and Victoria. So is a short kid, maybe 13, dressed in a red robe, a white mesh mask, and white spandex covering the extremities.

"How did you get that costume past your people?" Victoria laughs. "You sure you're a hero?" She jokes. He laughs.

"My sister thought it made me look like Eidolon, but it turned out grim reaper." He gives an exaggerated bow to you and Victoria. "I will be your tour guide and body guard to Albany."

"You?" Victoria raises an eyebrow. "Didn't they have any grownups?"

"Fuck you, I fought Simurgh in Australia. It's not like Albany has a lot of heroes to go around." You see his mask display a shadow that looks like a grin, probably an electronic projection like Clockblocker's costume.

"Ooh, he thinks he's spunky." Victoria giggles.

"Try to keep up. You couldn't handle my spunk." The PRT agents really do not look like they want to be observing a dominance battle between teenage capes. You take pity on them.

"Victoria, please, we need to get going." Victoria pouts as you are waved through security to the jealous glares of less fortunate passengers. You ponder the Ward as you walk. He twitches constantly, jerking the angle of his head. Some kind of nervous tick, or a clue about his power? Practically it might have been a good idea to read up on the Albany Capes before you came, but you were dead on your feet when you got on the plane.

"This isn't just us being stupid." The Ward tells you when you are in the black PRT van, the three heroes in the back seat and the agents in the front. "There are villains here, and some might think they can get something, credit or healing or whatever, by pulling something."

"Oh, now I get it." Victoria laughs. "This is a celebrity freakout. He's got a poster of me up in his room. He's trying to look all badass and grownup to impress me." You put a hand over Victoria's.

"Stop being a bitch." You tell her.

The kid launches into some story about how New Wave are his heroes and about a signed baseball mitt from Shielder that you tune out, resting your head on Victoria's shoulder. You're saved by his pager beeping and a burst of profanity that causes Victoria to smile.

"Something's happening. Some villain's blowing up SUNY. It's not that far. Um. It sounds serious, and we're the closest people..." He sounds embarrassed. He clearly doesn't want to ask for you and Victoria to help in a random cape fight.

Victoria looks excited. She probably wishes she'd worn her costume, but it would have been uncomfortable under street clothes for the plane ride.

[X] "You go on ahead. I can handle this meeting by myself. Hurry back, please." You kiss Victoria on the forehead. She looks a bit conflicted, but whoops when the Ward throws himself out of the moving car, rising up into the sky. She bolts after him, doing her best to copy the move and only skidding on the ground for a second before she rises up. You sigh and close the door beyond them.

[X] You think calmly for a moment. "We barely have the information to do this and are going up against unknown capes. We should let the local Protectorate handle this. If we smash in we're likely to get more people hurt." Victoria looks disappointed, but nods.

[X] You need worthy opponents. You suck in your breath. If you've come here on her advice, no reason to stop listening to Tattletale now. "You're right. We can help." Victoria looks puzzled. "I think I'm going to try something different this time. I need some combat experience." Victoria is clearly worried, and takes your hand.

"I trust you know what you're doing."

[X] You need worthy opponents. You suck in your breath. If you've come here on her advice, no reason to stop listening to Tattletale now. "You're right. We can help." Victoria looks puzzled. "I think I'm going to try something different this time. I need some combat experience." Victoria is clearly worried, and takes your hand.

"I trust you know what you're doing." Victoria tells you. You nod. This is dangerous, but also exciting.

While you drive the kid starts giving a very brief, slightly inconsistent account of his powers. Something about super speed and flight. He's using terms you don't quite get about microscopic teleportation and kinetic energy manipulation. Victoria actually looks a bit excited at this for some reason.

The car pulls you into a long circle. People are moving quickly from all directions, though they aren't that dense. There's definitely villains here.

The Ward starts to give updates. "There's one we managed to ID. A mercenary, a little kid, ten years old, named August Prince. If you get in his range you can't hurt him. There's also a normal looking man who looks like he's in charge. There's another one, with a red streak dyed into her dark hair, dressed in street clothes with no ID so far, ring any bells?" You and Victoria shake your heads. "We're running through the last one, her lips had been painted black and she has white hair, if that helps.

"Sounds familiar, but no." Victoria says, looking thoughtful. "Maybe when I see her."

Currently a building is collapsing. Victoria crouches, reading to move, but the Ward who still doesn't have a name stops her. "Nobody's inside. Witch, the team Thinker, said so. I don't think they're here to kill civilians, they're here to cause a scene.

The Ward glares at his emergency pager. Things seem slightly less organized here than back home, at least that's your impression. "It's the white haired woman who is bringing the building down. We have a minute or two before she hits a building with people inside. Anyone have a plan?"

"I run in and grab one of them, force a stalemate?" Victoria sounds unsure. She's never been a team leader. Suddenly the two are looking at you as if you have a plan.

[X] Write in. Give a quick plan of attack.

[X] Battle Plan: Panacea creates biological marker that imunizes Glory Girl and the Ward to organisms she creates afterwards. Glory Girl and the Ward take it to the front lines, focussing on taking down the white-haired woman first. In the meanwhile, Panacea creates airborn organism with limited life-cycles (to prevent infection of ecossystem and epidemics) that induces sleep. If the first takedowns are successful, move on to the others, with Glory Girl and the Ward going close-quarters first again.

You touch Glory Girl's arm tenderly, spreading a wave of anti-bodies to protect her against your new weapon.

"Sleeping organisms, limited life cycle, you'll be immune." You offer your hand to the Ward. He mutters something under his breath. "Can't take off the body suit easily. This is easier." He opens the mask an inch and you trace your fingers along a surprisingly rough, acne scarred face.

"Stay safe, both of you." Victoria gives you a quick hug and bounces off towards the villains.

The Ward displays the same projected grin along the mesh of his mask. "They've got nothin' on me." He stands still for another second. "It's Blur. I forgot to tell you at the airport."

Blur is off fast. He's way ahead of Glory Girl even as she's charging forward at top speed. As you move forward, spreading your sleeping sickness, you hear shouts of female pain that definitely is not Glory Girl. The building collapse seems to be slowing down, though not stopping. It might be structural damage letting it continue to fall apart naturally.

The white haired woman is unconscious with her face crisscrossed with several deep cuts, with her cheek ripped entirely open showing teeth. Glory Girl is holding her with one arm, the other raised and ready to strike someone. She is flying up pretty high, but why...

Blur is on the ground shaking. The dark haired girl with red streaks is looking at him with a look of mocking pity on her face, ten feet away from him. A very big knife or a short sword with blood on it rests at his feet.

"Why, that wasn't even a challenge. Don't take on Eidolon garb if you can't back it up." She raises her eyes and grins. "Ooh, now isn't this nice." Her eyes flick between you and Victoria. "Out of town help? I feel honored. Then again, this is a crap town." She shakes her head. "Now dear, unless you want to end up like the boy here I suggest you be nice and surrender. Even if you win do you want to be in therapy for the next six years?" She suddenly grins a lot wider. "Ooh, maybe you will no matter what I do." She appraises you with something like glee. "Sometimes you do get a lucky break." She is talking to you, but not about you.

You get a sick feeling in your gut. One Tattletale was bad enough. Was this another person who could read your deepest darkest secrets?

August Prince begins to march forward towards you while the still unidentified man and the dark haired girl stand next to each other. He holds his scepter like mace, or mace like scepter, and he looks like he is quite willing to use it on you.

[X] You rush August Prince, hoping to expose him to your sleeping agents as quickly as possible and get rid of another threat.

[X] You try to run around him towards the two active unidentified villains, hoping to get your sleeping agents as close to them as possible. She has to be bluffing about the years of therapy.

[X] You keep your distance from everyone, covering as much ground as you can while spreading sleep inducing organisms. That way you buy time for them to start working.

[X] You keep your distance from everyone, covering as much ground as you can while spreading sleep inducing organisms. That way you buy time for them to start working.

August Prince is rather fast. You're out of shape. You haven't really exercised much in the last two years. August Prince is a mercenary. You're older, but you can barely keep away from him.

The Tattletale knockoff laughs. "Ooh, this is fun. She starts a brisk walk with the unidentified man at her side, walling you off from much of the campus if you don't get near her.

"You know, we're not really hear to do anything wrong. We're reuniting a girl with her loving aunt. I've met the woman. She's a nice lady, loves crossword puzzles. She's much more able to take care of the girl than the girl's older sister. Even if we fail someone else will take the bounty. Off in the distance you see a large car that is either carrying a cape or a crazy person who wants to run against the villains. "I bet that's here now."

While she's looking at the car, Glory Girl drops the white haired woman on her from a great distance above. Tattletale Two howls in pain. "That's it you incestuous freak!" She shouts. Your heart hammers inside your chest, though the fact that she seems to be shouting at Victoria gives you hope that she's just using the most hurtful words that come to mind. The white haired woman looks relatively okay. Cherish is bleeding from the side of her head.

August Prince uses the distraction to close distance. Victoria lands to your side and gives him an aura filled glare. It doesn't seem to work.

"How much longer." She asks through clenched teeth.

"He should be down by now. I think the other two will take a minute if they stay where they are. Less if they get closer." You whisper.

August Prince has reached you and starts beating Victoria as hard as he can. He's strong for a ten year old, but his hits aren't enough to break down the shield.

"Hey kid. I like your mace." Glory Girl changes tactics. He doesn't change his assault. "Seriously, you've got a great name and costume. Who made it for you?" Victoria gives him her most winning smile. You wince as he smashes his mace against it in an attempt to break her teeth. Fortunately it doesn't work. "What is a kid like you doing with jerks like them?" August Prince gives up and tries to get past Victoria to beat you up. Victoria moves quickly to either side, keeping herself between you and him.

"Any time now. Please." You wonder why it isn't working. What is keeping the sleeping sickness from effecting August Prince?

The unnamed and un-costumed villains have extracted themselves from the tangle of the white woman and are advancing on you again. The Not-Tattletale has a murderous gleam in her eye.

Victoria pauses, takes a hold of August Prince, and lifts him experimentally. She tosses him gentle from hand to hand. He gives her an adorably angry glare.

"Okay. Either I grab you and we run, or I toss the bus at them. He might be immune to the sleeping agent, but they might not be. I'm kind of afraid they'd just die if I threw a whole bus at them, but you're here, and I really don't like these jerks."

[X] "August Prince probably just has some extra power we didn't hear about. They'll be down in a minute, and if not we can circle back and help the locals. Let's move."

[X] You remember the glare in the young woman's eyes. If there's even a chance if she could catch you, or keep talking, that's too much. "Throw the bus."

[X] Write in. Got a better idea?

[X] You remember the glare in the young woman's eyes. If there's even a chance if she could catch you, or keep talking, that's too much. "Throw the bus."

Your Glory Girl flips back over the bus. You hear a grunt of shrieking metal, and she throws the entire bus over your head at the oncoming supervillains. You hear a shocked scream cut terribly short from the man, and all is silent.

Victoria moves forward a few seconds later, hovering a few feet off the ground. She pecks your cheek. "Be back in a sec." She moves forward with inhuman speed.

You see her bend over, retching violently. Given the work you've seen her give people it has to be really bad.

Or the woman can make her vomit at will. You muffled, rasped words too faint to make out, especially as you're feeling faint. Victoria bends over, howling like a mad woman.

It turns out that throwing a bus at someone is not inherently lethal. At least not for this particular parahuman.

The Albany capes arrive. A twelve year old girl in a costume that is disturbingly revealing, a woman with a pale face frozen in sorrow, a girl with a strangely shaped head in a pure white body suit, a woman with her face covered in an aviatrix cap with long blonde hair. You barely notice them as you stare at your sister weeping uncontrollably. Victoria pounds her fists against the ground, miserable and angry.

The cunt had said something about six years of therapy.

Then, softly, the woman with the fixed face puts her hand on your shoulder. "It's safe to go forward now. She's asleep. What you did worked. It just needed a little time."

You run to Victoria. She grabs you in a hug that will actually leave bruises, sobbing into your shoulder.

"Fucking. Save. Them." She says into your ear far too loudly.

You survey the damage. The man's arm is ripped off and his chest is horribly compressed. He'll die in seconds. The woman, a girl really, is lying back, bleeding from the scalp, her legs pulverized by the impact, unconscious, with a smell of feces rising from her ruptured gut. She has maybe a few more seconds.

[X] "I'll try." You put your hand on the man, preventing him from dying. You aren't really thinking straight, your eyes on Victoria as she continues to howl with a kind of grief you've never seen before. You take your time, and suddenly throw up all over him as you realize you're letting the woman die for hurting your sister. You start sobbing too. You saved one. That has to be enough. Victoria is standing there, and gives you a betrayed, horrified expression, and rockets high up into the sky.

[X] You put your hands on both of them. You struggle to keep them alive, circulating oxygen to their brains and beating their hearts through your own power. You shudder, holding yourself together, trying to make sense of things. As you knit them back together you feel a sudden, strange, almost irresistible idea enter into your head. You see the recent memories of the woman clouded by a mild concussion. If she knows, if that's what she told Victoria, she can't ever say it. You could have resisted the urge, you really could have, if Victoria didn't suddenly grab onto you in an awkward hug. In the burst of shock you lose control, not sure if you even meant to do it, and Cherish's last 15 minutes of memory are vanished to the world.

[X] You stand perfectly still, staring at the dying villains. You want to help them. You have to help them. But if you rush in like this, you can't let your sister, what are you even thinking? You grab Victoria by the hand and pull her into an awkward hug. "WHAT DID SHE TELL YOU!" You hadn't even planned on asking but it spills out. Maybe the girl isn't as asleep as you thought, or can use her powers in your sleep. Victoria keeps crying. "I need to know! I can't help them unless you tell me what's going on!" You kick off your shoes, and you aren't wearing any socks. You'll touch them, save them, but right now nothing else is mo0re important than knowing what Victoria heard.

[X] You put your hands on both of them. You struggle to keep them alive, circulating oxygen to their brains and beating their hearts through your own power. You shudder, holding yourself together, trying to make sense of things. As you knit them back together you feel a sudden, strange, almost irresistible idea enter into your head. You see the recent memories of the woman clouded by a mild concussion. If she knows, if that's what she told Victoria, she can't ever say it. You could have resisted the urge, you really could have, if Victoria didn't suddenly grab onto you in an awkward hug. In the burst of shock you lose control, not sure if you even meant to do it, and Cherish's last 15 minutes of memory are vanished to the world.

You broke your biggest rule. Bigger than do not harm, bigger than not fucking Victoria, bigger than saving lives or helping children.

The girl with the frozen face wraps a towel around you after they're fixed, physically. She looks exhausted. The other new heroes, what look like the Albany Wards, are all nodding off as well.

Now it works. You, um, counter plague or something. You're not really paying attention. Something about a counter virus that will die out later.

Victoria doesn't let go of you as you make your way to, um, you don't know where they're actually leading you to. You focus on the twelve year old with the creepy costume briefly touching each of the unconscious villains. Maybe she is a Striker who needs skin contact? That makes sense to you. Good, they won't be up for a while, if that's what she did? You should have read up on the local heroes.

PRT agents try and fail to spray containment foam at August Prince, missing completely. Finally the woman in the aviatrix cap and a girl you recognize as Ichor start hovering around him preventing his movement.

The battle is over. At least your part of the fight is over. There's emergency services around and no one's asking you to do anything. That's good.

You fall asleep in an ambulance and you're not even sure why you're there. The last thing you remember before you drift off to sleep is Victoria whispering to you.

"I love you, Amy."
___

You wake up in an unfamiliar room. It's either an actual hotel room that the local PRT uses to store visitors or something similar in their headquarters. You start missing Victoria as soon as you wake up. She's not here. Why didn't she wait for you? You would have waited for her to wake up after something like that.

You curl up in the strange sheets, lonely and still tired. You feel like sleeping for a week. Did you screw up your sleeping organisms? Wait, no, you only had slept for three hours in the last two days. You grudgingly get up and look for a clock, eventually finding one that says it's 10:14. Based on it being dark it's presumably at night.

You yawn and stretch. You've had three of the scariest and most violent encounters in your life over the last four days. Some vacation this was turning out to be.

You wonder if you would eventually get used to throwing yourself into heightened states of conflict or if it would always be like this for you.

You explore the room. Two beds, so you're probably sharing with Victoria, unless this was just the easiest room to store you. Several sets of street clothes and a few bathrobes, with sizes matching you and Victoria. There's even a pretty nice shower.

You sit back on your bed and start crying again. This room is what you imagine a home with Victoria would be like. Some small apartment, just enough space for the both of you. It's all you really want. Houses always seemed too cluttered, too big.

You hear a knocking on the door. The knocking is definitely not hard enough to be Victoria, and she wouldn't knock anyway.

You really don't want to talk to anyone right now, but you don't really have a good excuse not to. You get up and open the door. There's a pair of armored PRT agents and a woman in a nearly solid black costume with a few lines of blue and white along the edges. Her mask is clearly Tinker work or at least high end electronics, taking over the bottom half of her face with some very peculiar piece of gear that seems designed to do something with her voice. At least that's your impression.

"Hello. I am Truth. That is my cape name." Her voice strikes you as kind. "I heard that you have been through a lot recently. I want to personally thank you. For security reasons I will not say what my relationship with her is, but I have one with the Ward who the mercenaries who came to kidnap. She has the cape name of Trick. I have good reason to believe they would have been successful if you and your sister had not helped us. I requested to stand guard here and to greet you when you woke up."

Something about this whole thing makes you feel much better. Everything seems a bit less horrible and pointless, hearing from someone who you helped today.

"Where is Victoria?" You manage to sound calmer about the question than you feel."

"Glory Girl is still being questioned and evaluated by some of our best people. She was deeply distraught by the ordeal, and the person you went up against is an emotional manipulator. We do not believe any permanent damage was done, but we want to hold her for observation for a while." She puts a hand on your shoulder. "As family you have the right to visit her, but I do advice that you don't. Based on experience with the cape we believe that it would be best not to expose her to any strong emotional stimulus until after she has slept. This is especially critical given her powers, as a single moment of low self control could be devastating."

You nod at this. The idea that you might not see her again until the morning, staying awake for it all with your sleep schedule so messed up, is starting to fill you with a kind of dread.

A single moment of low self control could be devastating. You won't cry in front of this stranger, nice as she is, but you feel like it.

"Now, there are several ways this could go. You could ignore our advice and see your sister. We could also get you to see Cranial now, while you are well rested. Cranial does not have a human sleep schedule, she rests parts of her brains in shifts, and she would be most willing to see you between now and 4 AM today. If you would rather have Victoria with you when you visit Cranial, but don't want to just sit around this room, we could take you to a hospital here and have a debriefing on what happened while you heal people. I do understand if you don't feel up to it after such a violent encounter, especially as we were told you're visiting Albany due to some issues with your brain chemistry."

You sit back on your bed, thinking hard.

[X] "I need to see Victoria." You really can't let this go any longer. You need each other. Doesn't she need you just as much as you need her? She was acting like it before you fell asleep. You have to know if that horrible girl had told her anything disconcerting.

[X] "Cranial." You decide. The longer you put this off the more likely it is that you'll have some kind of accident. You already had a pretty terrible one, even if nobody else would know about it. The longer you put this off the worse it will be.

[X] "I can go to the hospital." You sigh. You should "rest" and collect yourself before doing anything major. You might clear your head. "I want to know more about what happened today. This situation sounds serious. You can tell me about it while I'm there, right?" Truth nods.

[X] "Cranial." You decide. The longer you put this off the more likely it is that you'll have some kind of accident. You already had a pretty terrible one, even if nobody else would know about it. The longer you put this off the worse it will be.

"Alright. I will drive you." Truth assures you. She keeps a hand on your shoulder as you walk out, her full g;loves preventing you from getting a glimpse of her biology.

The drive is cold, maybe 40 degrees by, um, the real system. Missing a few years of high school may be having more impact than you thought.

"So, do you know Cranial?" You ask, hoping to keep your mind off of the pit in your stomach.

"Not really. She doesn't live here. She's just here to poke around Ichor. She has always been fascinated by healing powers. More so than mind affecting powers for some reason. She seems to believe that the next stage in her research will be found in healers. I suspect she will be fascinated by you. They say you don't do brains?"

"No." You don't clarify, though you feel a little sick.

"Well, she only does brains. Mostly. Neurology is her focus, but she can cover a lot of things. Complex systems, details, comprehensive understanding of her environment. She might be one of the best Tinkers since Hero." She laughs. "I hope you don't take exception to that, coming from Armsmaster's city and all." You really don't. It doesn't even make sense to you. Dragon is the best Tinker.

Truth just keeps talking. It's starting to get annoying. She talks about your powers and how amazing they are. She talks about her own powers, which are fucking terrifying. If she focuses she can tell people in her range something and they will believe it's true. She apparently talked shop with Cranial a bit and learned about all kinds of weird mental disorders that her powers could replicate.

"...I thought about naming myself Anosognosia, but Repulse, the leader of this Protectorate, said it was too obscure. I think Truth does pretty well, don't you?" She finishes. You're almost finished driving.

"Why don't they keep you in an interrogation room somewhere talking villains into joining the Protectorate?" You ask. You're actually a bit scared to be in the same car as her.

"Oh, I thought I told you. I wear off in a few hours. Not like Trick. That's probably the reason they were after her. What she does sticks with you." She sounds proud.

"And what does she do?" You have a feeling of trepidation."

"Why, I'm not the only person who has a relationship with her. Everyone does if they stand too close to her. Best friend, girlfriend, sister, daughter, her choice." She laughs. "I'd say mine is real, but really, who could tell?" You're starting to feel sick again. No wonder the villains had wanted her...

No, they hadn't wanted her dead. They'd wanted her for themselves. Someone like that in the hands of a lunatic like Lung, or Tattletale, or Jack Slash is one of the scariest things you've thought about since you heard of the Gray Boy.

"Well, here we are. I hope you find what you need here." She lets you out. "I'd wait in the car, but come on, if I did that we both know you'd find me dead in my seat with an ambush prepared when you get back." You both get out. You're not exactly reassured by anything she's said. The two of you walk up to a small condo and ring the doorbell.

"Come in." Says a smooth, middle aged voice on the intercom. "The door's unlocked."

You do, and the first thing you notice are the large print outs decorating the wall.

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At that point you deliberately stop looking at the pictures on the wall. Truth gives you a look and sighs.

"If you can't stand that, what are you going to do about the real thing?"

Oh, right, Case 53. The walls have to be some kind of test. Some kind of, um, is that a picture of a woman biting a baby's head? You deliberately look away.

"Didn't you read about Cranial before you arrived?" She asks curiously. You shake your head. "I wish I could have prepared you, but you came all this way. Please don't be alarmed.

Then Cranial opens a door and moves into view. You're suddenly, incomprehensibly grateful for the pictures. Otherwise you would have screamed.

Cranial is something out of Hell. Dangling like a woman's hair are eyeballs and nerves hanging loosely and swaying as she moves towards you. The chest bones, all ribs and lungs, are expanded hideously for such a small body. She, she is floating above the floor using some Tinker mechanism, as her legs have become long and hideous scythes that remind you of raptors from Jurassic Park. You see the hands are changed into strange, branching limbs like trees constantly in motion building something, braided with or holding devices of all kinds. The face has contracted into nothing but a horrible bat like mouth open to scream on top of an overly long neck.

The only thing you want to do is run. Run, run to Victoria and sleep in her bed and braid her hair and act like you're seven year old girls. The gray skin rasps in something, breathing or laughing or speaking you don't know and you don't care and whoever made someone into this deserves to go to Hell.

"Hello, Amy." The same calm, middle aged voice you heard on the intercom. It doesn't come from the mouth, but a device being manipulated by dozens of the terrible limbs of Cranial. "I am so glad to meet you. I have wanted to meet you since I first heard of your remarkable talents. I would offer you a hand to shake, but such a move would be pointless in many ways." She opens a door into a spacious room with several very comfortable looking easy chairs. You collapse into one. "I know you're underage, but I find that a drink is very helpful for people who have not yet gotten used to me."

Someone getting used to Cranial is like someone getting used to the death of a loved one. Maybe it helps, but that doesn't stop you from wanting to prevent it in the first place.

You keep being drawn between a horrible urge to stare and not being able to stay looking at her. With so many eyes, and you're sure they're functional eyes, and apparently the ability to comprehend details, she has to know just how hard it is for you to be in a room with her, and how guilty you are that you feel this way.

"I, I, my sisters powers fucked me up." It seems so petty when sitting across from someone so fucked up by her own powers.

"Yes, your mother's email explained this. Apparently she has the ability to cause her friends and allies to love and respect her with an almost religious awe. Do to a number of life circumstances your brain chemistry is severely messed up." You nod. "I must say this now, I suspect there are no easy solutions to your problem. Your dependency is very likely to be a natural part of your body. The brain is a gloriously complex system. Any changes I make will have a price. You will become less yourself, or you will need the hole in your heart, being metaphorical, filled. I can definitely help you, but in the end it is possible that all you will gain from me is the choice to continue your dependency on your sister's aura." You sit in the chair, silent and a bit numb. Well, you were here on the advice of Tattletale. Did you expect this to end well?

"Um, what can you do for me, ma'am?" You mutter.

"Quite a lot. I might be able to rig your endorphin system to trigger at other stimulus, though letting you run it yourself would leave you an addicted vegetable. I could make it so you feel a similar feeling to when your sister is around when you are healing people, or replace your natural reward systems to respond as another girl your age, a healthy and happy one. That is not even close to the limit of what I am willing to offer. I can give you the memories of anyone who I have ever worked on. I could give you a significant base in any of hundreds of important life skills. I could give you 40 years of human memory and you could still live to 200 before you began to have problems. Of course I am a rogue, not a hero. Nothing is free in my workshops."

"What do you want?" You practically whisper it.

"Your memories, first of all. Every single one. I will copy them into my computers, and I may use them for whatever purpose I see fit. As a professional courtesy to you I will not ask for money, but there is something I want. There is a very important favor I want of you. This favor will mean almost as much to me as curing your issues would mean to you."

"What is it?" You ask.

"Well, you might call it two favors. I firmly believe that I can vastly expand my abilities by studying certain parahuman powers. Particularly, the powers of healers. Mr. Storkfish, Ichor, Fodder, Scapegoat, all of the greats of a power that is rarely blessed upon the world. I have studied with several, and each time I have learned something precious. You are the best healer. Your name is Panacea." The voice becomes excited, though given how it is produced this might be a sales pitch instead of emotion. "I also believe that if I got to work with a number of healers at once, observing their powers at work, I will be able to gather irreplaceable data. Seeing the interactions of the healers I believe I could expand my focus far beyond neurology. With that, I hope to be able to save countless lives, as well as make myself the world's greatest Tinker."

You wonder if she's crazy, lying, or actually believes what she is saying. Does it matter?

"What I want is a convention of healers. I wish for every healer in the world, but I know that is impossible. However, the great Panacea agreeing to come would surely bring capes who would otherwise stay silent. I have spoken with the Dragon about this, and she would provide security. This is my price. Five days at a convention, and sixteen hours of testing your abilities alone and alongside others. I believe my price is more than competitive with a lifetime of therapy and psychiatric medication." You nod. Truth walks back into the room. You hadn't noticed she was gone. She hands you a glass of whiskey and you wonder what took her so long and why she's doing it and oh who cares. You down it in one gulp.

"Um, sounds..."

"Do not make any decisions yet. I do not wish for any parahuman to feel pressure or that she is cheated. Call me tomorrow with your decision. Ideally I think we could have the convention as early as June.

"When can you, um, fix me?"

"It will take my computers some time to break down the scan of your brain once it is made. That is the nature of my technology. Depending on luck I would be able to complete the decoding in two months. After that I could perform any edits in minutes. If you consult with my past clients you will find that all of them will report that I am trustworthy." There's no way in wherever she's from you won't be making a lot of calls, and checking for anything that suggests their satisfaction was manufactured.

"You said I don't have to decide now?"

"Of course not. You have been through a lot in the last several days. You are in no emotional state to make a life altering decision. Think it over. Talk to your family and any mentors or friends you believe would be helpful. I truly believe that I can help you in almost any way you wish to define help. I look forward to hearing from you, Amy."

Truth helps you out through the hall of evil pictures. You kind of fall into the car. You doubt you'll dream of anything but what you saw in there tonight.

"I really am sorry. I thought you knew what she was like. I would offer to make you feel better, but most people find the offer offensive." Truth looks at you with concern.

Damn Tattletale.

___

Interlude:

[X] Vista.
[X] Siberian
[X] Blur
Interlude 1 (Vista)

Under ordinary circumstances Wards rarely pull late night shifts on a Sunday night. In a city like Brockton Bay with an even balance between Protectorate and Ward membership it only happens in crisis situations.

The current situation is one that I am willing to call a crisis situation. Aegis, Armsmaster, and Piggot have all stated that it is a crisis situation and I see no reason to doubt it. A tinker specializing in bombs taking people from their homes and forcing them to be soldiers in a gang war is a crisis. The excuse for Missy Biron not going to school tomorrow is that her mother is overly worried about the threat of Bakuda bombing Arcadia High in an attempt to murder the Wards. I am not entirely sure that the excuse Shadow Stalker suggested is a bad one. I am relieved to not be going to school tomorrow.

A girl called Missy is personally quite happy to be spending time with a boy named Dean. That's the other side of this coin. Sitting in the back of a PRT van smelling the fake leather seats and the oil in Gallant's armor is the most pleasant way to spend the night I can think of.

"I made a huge mistake." Gallant stares at the monitor, waiting for the inevitable emergency signal that will indicate Bakuda's next attack.

"You're telling me this?" I've been ignoring my Criminal Justice textbook for the past hour and a half. "Why me in particular?"

"Honestly, you're a girl, and I kind of want a girl's perspective on if this is as terrible as I think it is. This really isn't a problem I can talk about with Victoria or my mother." I perk up. This is interesting. Being mentioned in the same breath as Glory Girl, and being able to help with a problem she couldn't solve, sounds like a step up from the kid sister role.

"What exactly do you think you did wrong?" I keep my voice intentionally even. I don't know enough yet to figure out if it's alright to tease him about it.

"I presented a serious problem I could not deal with to an adult authority figure I trust." Gallant starts it very seriously, but he can't help but start laughing at the end of it. "Really, it's serious, but I just never thought it could go like this."

"Armsmaster can't help?" I'm surprised. The leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate always seemed capable of anything.

"Oh, he can help. He seems to believe he completely solved our problem. He is immensely satisfied and proud of his solution." The young hero shakes his head.

"Alright, you have to stop being vague if you want my help. What exactly happened?" I'm not sure I should be amused or worried.

"I can't say everything for privacy reasons. But, um..." Dean trails off. What follows sounds calculated, maybe rehearsed."Panacea's a lesbian." There's something off about the statement. I'm not entirely sure he's telling the whole truth.

It is kind of a shock. Everyone thinks Amy has a crush on Dean. It's kind of a relief to think you have slightly less competiton.

"How is that a problem?" I ask carefully. Know real way to know what his feelings on the topic are. Amy is pretty gross, so maybe it kind of makes sense that she's into girls. I never really put much thought into lesbians, but that feels right. I really don't remember Amy ever having a boyfriend.

"It's not. Well, her being a lesbian is not. She's an unhappy lesbian. Really unhappy. There's other things I can't talk about. She scares me. I think she was seriously considering murdering me yesterday after the Undersiders. The Undersiders also have a Thinker who Panacea thinks knows the same private things I do." Gallant bites his lip. "I thought Armsmaster might be able to give me some advice."

"What went wrong?" I am starting to adjust to the revelation and the pride that Gallant had come to me is starting to take dominance. I would have to provide the best advice possible.

"He's, um, a very practical person. I gave him a problem, and he set out to fix it." Dean's voice full of the same calculated tone he used when he called Amy a lesbo. "Armsmaster probably did have his heart in the right place, after all. I told him that a critical asset is unhappy. He went out and searched PRT psychological files for a single lesbian Ward at about the right age."

"Only one?" You just can't help but make the joke.

"Unattached single, not single as in an individual." Gallant is starting to look uncomfortable. He's actually blushing! "I am really not sure if he acquired this information legally. But he found one that he thought would be a good match. With the Bakuda situation he was calling for reinforcements anyway. He requested her specifically." Dean sighs. "He wants me to set them up."

I can no longer help from giggling. "What advice are you looking for?"

"Amy's Panacea. She's my girlfriend's sister. He placed the psychological health of a person I care about on my shoulders, and has put me in the position that if I fail to successfully arrange a lesbian match up and something goes wrong I will feel guilty about it for the rest of my life." Dean groans. "I haven't actually done this before. I think Armsmaster just assumes that if you put two lesbians in proximity you just need to provide moving vans and cats." Dean blushes again. Once again you feel a flash of pride that Dean had forgotten how young you are for just a moment.

"You're right. It is fucked up." Dean sighs. He doesn't like it when I swear. But really, if I don't swear he'll start thinking of me as a little girl again. "What if they get together and are unhappy? Or have a bad breakup? This is not something he should ask you to do." I frown in thought. "Do you think they'd be a cute couple?"

"Sure, I guess. Her name's Flechette. Cape name, obviously. Ward from New York City. I don't actually know her. He seems to assume that being good with people translates into magically setting people up regardless of any experience with them. He's planning on placing Flechette as Panacea's guard in the hospital until Bakuda is captured. She has the powers for it." There's a trace of bitterness in Dean's tone. What could that mean?

"I think you are right. But what are you going to do, tell Piggot about it?" I kick back a bit in my chair. "Between the two of them I'd still trust Armsmaster to give the better guidance."

"Yeah. He's not usually this bad. He seems distracted lately. I like him, Vista. He actually is great. He offered to help maintain my armor, and that's saved lives. I like talking to him. I don't actually have that many friends." I feel a sudden thrill at Gallant's sharing these pieces of information. Maybe it means she he's starting to see me as a teenager instead of a kid. File it away for later. I'm not going to be dating him until long after we're both in the Protectorate unless we get swept away to a mysterious island by some fucked up trigger event. "It's just that sometimes he's an idiot. Usually my power helps to get what he means. That might be why he likes having me around. But, Vista, this is weird. I really am not comfortable with any of this."

The signal is given. Bakuda just set off a bomb at a retirement home. It is time to move.

Despite not really liking Amy, it would be great if Panacea was back soon. It's really not good to have a mad bomber loose in Brockton Bay without Panacea to patch people up.

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Sticks and Stones

Truth drives you back. You're starting to calm down from the nightmare that is Cranial.

You kind of desperately want to get back to Victoria. You've made it this far, so you should probably let the doctors do their work. It won't be too bad for the hours and hours it takes Victoria to calm down and sleep. Okay, it will. It strikes you as just barely possible that your dependency to Victoria might have become much more conscious and severe since you started recognizing it. Power of suggestion and all of that.

Then you fully process that Truth had offered to make you feel better. Her powers could last for hours. She could tell you that you didn't need Victoria to be happy. She could let you believe you are happy without Victoria. The possibility is...

[X] ...tempting. You look at the pretty young member of the Protectorate next to you. Having someone else mess with your brain is the entire reason you came here. "Hey, can I ask you a huge favor?"

[X] ...revolting. It actually feels like cheating on Victoria, as stupid as that is. You've never actually kissed anyone because of those kinds of feelings, much less gone beyond that. It would break your heart to become addicted to the powers of someone else. "I'm sorry. I need to see Victoria. I know it's dangerous, but I really can't think straight without her."

[X] ...terrifying. You suddenly can't stand to be in the car with this woman. She is kind, polite, and grateful, but the idea that she could do anything to you is too much. "I know this sounds crazy, but could you drop me off here? I need to go for a walk. Get some time to think."

[X] ...depressing. You know you shouldn't need to get your head messed with to be happy without Victoria, even contemplating it is just one more sign of how messed up you are, but you tell yourself even recognizing that now might be a good sign. "I don't have to see her yet but can you take me to where Victoria is being treated I should be there for her when she gets out."

Truth nods. "I understand. This is a good decision. We have a few Wards who would like to meet you hanging out around there right now. No one's going home after those mercenaries attacked. We aren't sure it's safe to get off of high alert."

Meeting a bunch of Wards who want to brag about meeting a celebrity strikes you as less than desirable, but it should keep your mind off of things.

"Sure. Which ones?"

"Ichor, Witch, and Blur are in the building. Briar is sleeping, she's new to this, but she's also in the room she gets to sleep in for times like this. Trick's in the building, but she's in her safe room to make sure no one gets her and she doesn't have any accidents." The two of you are driving back to where you came from. The return trip seems like it could be even more depressing than coming out. "This may make me sound like an idiot, but can you cure trigger event mutations?" You sigh. This again.

"Sometimes, but it's usually temporary. Same with Case 53s. Some I can't do at all, like if they're not entirely biological or completely inhuman. Others I can't do much because their brains are built to work with inhuman biology. Those I can help return to normal after a while. Something about their powers thinks it is the right way for them to be. We estimated it would take 24 trips a year to keep one in check, and all the time spent letting them live slightly more normal lives would use up time I could be fixing life long problems. It's similar with surgery, but even worse. Something about their mutations is incredibly persistent. Even the ones you think should be easy to restore never are. There was this one person who was severely intersex. Seemed like the biology would be easy, just redo hormones and remove the breasts. They grew back within days. He had never displayed that kind of regeneration before, but it seemed to kick start something in his body. He's been more powerful ever since."

Truth sighs. "I'm sorry I asked. It's just Witch, her trigger messed up her face pretty badly. She has great powers, but all of her flesh is weird. It's closer to the consistency of rock. I was hoping you could help, but I guess it makes sense. Nothing is ever easy."

You continue in slightly more companionable silence for a few more miles. You have a question you also want to ask.

"What's it like, messing with minds? What is it like to have that power?" The one thing you never trusted of yourself. It would be nice to know, from a practical perspective.

"It's great." Truth giggles. "Like, I have a code. Never do it without permission outside of work. But it's actually kind of funny. Like, there's this nasty group of bank robbers with assault rifles and a villain who can summon dead rats into your longs. All I need to do is tell them that they aren't going to hurt anyone and the fight is done. There's no risk anymore. Repulse had high blood pressure before I graduated to the Protectorate, and it went away after my second mission. I love my powers. We barely even need to send people through a therapist anymore. Well, Briar doesn't like it, but she let Trick warp into her best friend so I don't know what it is with her. Albany capes have the cleanest bill of mental health around, and some of the lowest injury and escape rates outside of Vegas." She seems very proud. "We only have three people in our Protectorate, so we really need me. Plenty of people have nightmares about me, but what I do is a lot safer than bullets or containment foam."

It does sound tempting. It also sounds terrifying and so open to abuse that you suspect she's lying about something.

You turn in to the parking lot for Albany's joint Protectorate/Wards HQ. The two of you hurry inside. There's plenty of sleepy and slightly disgruntled looking PRT soldiers in the halls drinking an enormous amount of coffee and popping slightly suspicious looking pills. A wing of the first floor is walled off for a medical jail cell to hold the four prisoners. August Prince is methodically pressing against a barricade that looks far too heavy for him to move. The mercenary gives you and Truth a glare as you pass. You can't help but wave at him as you pass by.

Finally you arrive in a room. On a large flat screen monitor you see Victoria pacing inside her containment room with Blur standing in the room's corner. In the fairly cute waiting room Witch and Ichor sit on opposite sides. Ichor is closer, and she must be playing her headphones really loud as you can hear the song she's playing.

Sticks and Stones won't break my soul/get out of the way I'm invincible...

Witch is reading Wuthering Heights. Her eyes don't rise to meet you, but you get the impression that it's not being unfriendly, something to do with her Thinker powers or something. She probably already knows you're here.

[X] You stare at the screen to see if you can figure out how Victoria is doing. If she's about to do something crazy it would be better to be prepared.

[X] You sit down next to Ichor. She is another healer. Talking shop with her, and maybe bringing up the convention idea, seems like a good idea.

[X] You decide that talking to Witch is a good idea. You're curious about what is happening with Trick and the abduction attempt, and you're under the impression that Witch is the leader of the Wards here. At the very least Witch was nice to you earlier.[/quote]

[X] Find someone who can tell you just what IS happening with Victoria. What has she said, why is she still confined, just what is going on.

Your mind kind of breaks a little more when you see Victoria on the screen.

"What's wrong with her?" You stare at the screen. She seems normal enough. She's agitated, but who wouldn't be?

"She's fine." Truth assures you. "I told you already, they just want her to sleep it off after her encounter with Cherie, an emotion manipulator. Her powers are not long lasting or permanent, but they're real and tangible. Cherie hit your sister with something horrible. We think she was trying to manipulate her into getting Cherie healing as she was dying. It was grief. She may also have said some things to mess with her head, but Victoria wasn't really clear on that when I was talking to her. Cherie senses emotions as well as manipulates them. We think she threatened or lied about you. Victoria never seemed at all angry at you. In fact it was extremely difficult to get her to leave you. She insisted on making sure you were comfortable in bed before she came with us."

Your eyes never leave the screen as Truth talks.

"Tell me everything you know about what she said." Truth looks very uncomfortable.

"I think the words 'I'm not F-ing my sister' came up while talking to Blur. He never insinuated that she was so it was notable. She also has been ranting a lot about the villain Tattletale. Also, does the name Sylvia Likens mean anything to you?"

"No." You'd rather not miss anything while shaking your head.

"It came up when she was talking about Tattletale."

Suddenly you remember and smile.

"Oh, that. It was something Gallant's Criminal Justice class read about. Some awful murder in the 1970s. She didn't mention a glass coke bottle did she?"

"Why?" Truth's voice is a bit concerned.

"Um, it's just her venting about Tattletale. She likes an audience. She covered a lot of the same basics when she brought me a black kid that Rune messed up a few months ago. It's easier for her to be angry than to be grieving, so she's channeling her emotions at someone we hate." It's not that you would give anything to be listening to your sister rant about Tattletale, but you're not entirely sure you wouldn't cut off your left foot for the opportunity. You feel a wave of jealousy towards Blur not unlike the jealousy you direct at Dean every time he touches Victoria. Venting about people that piss her off is something she's supposed to do with you. To think you resisted Truth messing with your head to come back to...

You sit down with a thud, turning your eyes away from the screen. Ichor hasn't taken her headphones out, but you suspect she turned them off and is listening to you and pretending not to. Witch has always been paying attention to you, probably before you arrived.

"Does she look sleepy?" You ask the room in general.

"She's probably going to go to sleep in a couple hours and wake up seven hours after that." Witch tells you. So she's a precog, or something much like it.

Nine hours without Victoria. No, nine more hours without Victoria.

It's all Tattletale's fault. You wouldn't be surprised if she was the one who paid the mercenaries. Imagine what a telepath could do with someone like Trick. Together they'd be a nightmare.

[X] "Give me something to do. Anything." Sitting here watching the screen would not expose you to your sister's aura. It won't help. You need to be working. At least then you could save lives or something.

[X] Fuck this. You march straight to the door of the room with Victoria. I'm not fucking my sister. Cherish had said something close to the truth.

[X] "Knock me out. Preferably painlessly. Anyone here who can do that?" You'll just be miserable until you see Victoria, and it would be selfish and stupid to see her right now. Things will only get worse until she can bring you back to normal.

[X] "Give me something to do. Anything." Sitting here watching the screen would not expose you to your sister's aura. It won't help. You need to be working. At least then you could save lives or something.

"Um..." Truth looks more than a bit worried.

"We have a hospital." Ichor suggests. "We could go there."

"Maybe." Objectively, yes, you should go. On the other hand, there's all the sitting around and angsting like a proper drama queen you could do. "Sure." You desperately try to think of a way out of it.

"Forty three people would be saved vast amounts of pain and inconvenience. Two would live, if you go now and start helping at the hospital until Victoria and Blur are let out and sent over to meet you." Witch says. Arguing against that is difficult, to say the least.

"So, I guess I'm going there. Um, you know the way." You walk over to Ichor. "I bet you'd like to talk shop. Healing and..." Your voice trails off as Victoria and Blur laugh on the screen.

"I'd love to." Ichor takes your hand and does something that is not quite dragging you out of the room. "You are the best healer. Everyone says so. I'm just spare parts, but you change the lives of everyone you help." Your head bobs up and down as you muster up the enthusiasm for a conversation.

"So, doesn't it hurt, having people stick tubes in you whenever you're healing someone?" She smiles.

"Like Hell, but I honestly like it. In interviews I have to go all pure, suffering, saint like martyr, but fuck, ever since I triggered I've enjoyed pain. It's a relief. Makes me feel human. No idea what I'd do without it."

"What was your trigger?" You instantly regret the question. It's one of the least polite questions you could ask. Ichor doesn't seem to mind, though.

"Some pre-teen nutcase grabbed me on my way home from school, cut off my limbs, and rigged wires into my brain to try and get a trigger. Well, it worked. She tried to lobotomize me, didn't work, put restraints in me, didn't work, burned me alive, didn't work. She had to run before she finished the job. Four years later here I am." Ichor sounds remarkably cheerful about it for that. "What's yours?"

You feel embarrassed. "Um, second gen. I, um, nothing on yours." Ichor looks at you expectantly. "I found a used condom in a trashcan." Victoria's trashcan. It was one of the worst days of your life, though you still hold out the faint hope that Mark and Carol were just doing something unbelievably weird. You've had a long time to rationalize it. Ichor's howls of laughter fill the hall as you pass August Prince again, still pushing against the barricade, expression unchanged.

"I guess we all eventually have to come to terms with the fact that our parents have sex." Ichor then turns to a PRT agent and asks him to arrange for a car to take the two of you to a hospital.

"I guess we do." You kind of suspect that Mark and Carol are considerably less sexually active than Victoria, but it's kind of hard to check these things. You also really don't want to know a lot of the details.

"So, healing. Talk. What's it like for you, conscious healing?" You consider how to answer.

"Hard. Frustrating. Depressing. Sure, it's easy to do it, individually, but there's so much to do. It never stops. There's always someone I need to fix, and I can't let my mind wander too much or it just gets slow. People react differently. Some are weeping, grateful, one offered to leave me an island in her will." You smile. You actually considered it. She was old. Maybe it was inefficient to cure old people, but I could easily add ten years to a life for some of them. Even with your help she would never be able to enjoy a vacation there again, and her children had died in Newfoundland. You talked for a while as other patients had moved through. She really did describe it as beautiful. You wanted that island. But if you were on an island those gentle green buses the Guild setup would hardly be able to shuffle people through as efficiently. Even Brockton Bay wasn't optimal, and people talk about moving you to Chicago or some other center of transportation.

"Others are just so stressed that they're quiet. Some are angry, sullen, or lost other things in their accidents. Like, they still deserve it, but it's hard to feel good about helping someone when she's sitting there worrying about the house that just burned down. Before I collapsed today I'd only slept for three hours, and that was on the plane trip over here. I can go for days without sleeping. Too many sleeping pills and I slow down the next day. I'll come home wired because I just spent twelve hours around sick people, angry people, and employees on 72 hour shifts. Then I'll just sit there and read a book I've read once a month for the last five years. When I do sleep I'll dream about something fucked up I saw, like babies with hearts outside their chests or people so ugly they need me to even begin to have a normal life. People talk about how I could get rid of malaria by making something that kills it off. So then I feel guilty about not doing that, but I'm terrified that if I try it will jump to humans or something and then I'll have made something even worse. People have compared what I could do to Nilbog, and being Nilbog is just, I can't take that kind of risk with all the other stuff I have to do."

You kind of didn't notice getting into the car, you were so wrapped up in talking about it. Ichor puts a hand on your shoulder. "I get it. I don't deal with all of that, but I deal with a lot of it, and some shit you don't. If there's anything you need I'm here. I think pretty much anything is justified if it keeps us going. Eat nothing but Burger King and get lipo every six months, shoot heroin, hire a nice prostitute. As long as you're doing your best to heal people it really doesn't matter if what you're doing is healthy. Just keep going."

"I don't want to just keep going." You shake your head. "I want to be good. I want to love everyone I help. I want to be a saint ethically. I want to never want to do something wrong. I want a chaste, courtly love affair, happy children, a white picket fence and four adorable daughters. I don't want to be angry at people like Cherie and Tattletale and Kaiser. I want to forgive them."

Ichor shakes her head in sympathy. "That's so beautifully fucked up. I don't get that. But if you don't think being wild will make you happy, well, what do you think will make you happy?"

You frown. This is someone you might never see much of again, and who would believe her if you said something crazy?

[X] "Can you keep a big secret?" Maybe, just maybe, testing your confession about Victoria on someone else would be a great first step.

[X] "I think I want to hurt people." You admit it cautiously. "I get so angry. I just want to, I don't know, fight. Do something else to make me feel like a good person. Catch people like the lunatic who caused your trigger, or the Three Blasphemies, or something like that. Maybe I'm stupid, but it feels like I would be solving problems instead of damage control."

[X] "I think I'd be happiest just heading to the hospital." It's a lie, but you've already dumped way too much of your shit on this poor girl. "Thank you. I'm sorry if this wasn't the conversation you expected."

[X] "Can you keep a big secret?" Maybe, just maybe, testing your confession about Victoria on someone else would be a great first step.

"Sure? How bad could it be? If I really freak out about it I'll get my memory wiped." Ichor seems pretty blase about it. You suck in your breath.

You close your eyes. What is it you want?

"I don't have entirely normal sisterly affection for Victoria." Clinical, distant terms are good. "I want to, well..." You try to process things. "It feels romantic. I want to live with her for the rest of my life, have children with her. I want to kiss her. I don't know if..."

The sudden horrible swerving and breaking of the van, and the sounds of other swerves and breaking behind you cuts off anything else. Could the PRT agents have heard you? Ichor looks incredibly sick as well.

That did not go well.

You do something very stupid. You have to continue this confession. "I think it's the aura, now, which is a huge relief. My feelings are, well, I think they're sexual, but a bit twisted on that subject. Random things feel like cheating because I really focus and care about the small things." You feel terror rising in your chest. "For years I thought I was just fucked up. I was, I think a supervillain from the Bad Old Days was my father, or maybe mother. I thought it was something wrong in my blood. I'm so scared and confused..." Ichor vomits. You start to cry.

"It's not you!" Ichor shouts suddenly. "I'm grossed out, but that was vomiting in terror. We're under attack!"

"Oh."

"Don't fuck your sister, okay? Um, that's basic advice. I'm sure you'll regret it if you try." The terror is rapidly increasing. Two well dressed young men are walking with intention towards your car. One of them wraps on the window pane of the car.

"I love her. I can't let her leave me! I'm sad and scared all the time!"

"Oh just shut up and grow up!" Ichor shouts. She groans. "Okay, it's not just fear. It's stress. We're both acting stupid. I'm sorry. Let's handle this later. Um, I'm sure Vicks will forgive you and maybe be into it. I don't know. Let's handle the obvious supervillains outside the car."

[X] "Let's see what they want." They aren't pointing guns at you, so they're already making a better impression than Tattletale and Skitter. "Maybe they'll be reasonable.

[X] "Don't worry. I've got this." The same sleeping organism that worked on Cherie and the other one. You could release that, and it'd work a lot faster at this range.

[X] "Call your friends. Let's run and meet back up with them." You don't trust yourself with the organism in this state, and it didn't work well last time. Better to regroup with more forces and a better frame of mind.

[X] "Let's see what they want." They aren't pointing guns at you, so they're already making a better impression than Tattletale and Skitter. "Maybe they'll be reasonable."
-[X] Focus on the microbes on your hands, just in case you'll need to modify and release them soon.

You roll your window down. Love the wind but hate the sound...

The older one speaks. "Hello my dear. We're the Vasils. We're here for our sister." He gives you a smile. "We have been looking for her for quite a while. I hardly believe you have much reason to protect our dear Cherie." So, Cherie has brothers. There's something clawing at the back of your mind about the name Vasil.

"Hello." The younger man, maybe your age, offers you his hand. You take it cautiously. No reason to be impolite to a pair of unknown villains who have already displayed the power to take down the van. They seem to have gone easy on you, so they probably have a reason. You can tell from the touch that he's definitely related to Cherie, and probably her half brother. "My name is Guillaume Vasil." He offers. "I also go by Voyeur." That really does not sound good. "My brother is Nicholas, or Holdup."

Nicholas gives you a brief, short bow. "I have withheld my power from you as a courtesy. You are the great Panacea." There is absolutely no mockery in his voice. "We are not here to hurt anyone. We merely wish to bring our sister home. She has been up to some truly appalling things since she left us. I doubt she could go anywhere but the Birdcage if she is caught by the authorities. We have the power to ensure she lives a mostly normal life and never hurts anyone again." It strikes you as interesting that he did not say that is how they would use their power, merely that they have it.

"You're endangering people." You point out. "You crashed the car. People could be hurt or killed."

"I assure you they are not." Nicholas informs you. "I would know. We require your assistance breaking our sister out. If you are willing to help us than that is great. If not, then you will assist us anyway."

This definitely seems like the time to start preparing a weapon. The sleeping agent would work fine. Nicholas smiles.

"You will help us because you are too afraid of what the consequences would be if you did not. We are Heartbreakers children." Oh crap. Vasil. Emotion manipulation. "If you oppose us than you might win. Cherie may end up in the Birdcage. I might end up there too. If that happens than our father will blame you and your sister, as the most public faces of the attack. Let me remind you that his powers are permanent.

"My family's more dangerous." Your voice is starting to shake a little. "New Wave would win."

"Would it? Perhaps it would destroy what empire Father has." Nicholas looks you in the eye. "Is it worth the risk? I suspect your appearance would not appeal to Father, but, Gloria is it? She quite possibly would. Also that lovely woman, Laserdream if I recall correctly, could be hit."

"Victoria." You focus. It's time to be brave. To be brave, be mad. Victoria taught you that. They're threatening your sister. They're threatening Victoria. "She's not Gloria. That would be stupid."

"Ah, my mistake." Nicholas gives you a glare and, um, you actually pee yourself just a bit as a wave of overwhelming terror hits you. "I should get to know the name if she may be my future stepmother."

"You still leave a better impression than some of the villains who trap me and make speeches." Guillaume smiles.

"Please forgive my brother. He lacks the full range of approaches that characterize success. I do not say that his threats are idle, but I am sure they are likely to make you want to hurt us more than help us. I would vastly prefer that we come to a mutually beneficial agreement." So, they're good cop bad copping you. "Also, there is the small matter of my powers. I can sense anything through anyone I have touched for a very long time. Oh crap! "That is how I found the car." So, one of the PRT agents, right? "Also, making out with strangers in nightclubs can prove to be risky even without anything that could spread STDs.

"Fuck." You look over at Ichor, who has been strangely silent this whole time, and instantly feel guilt that you hadn't noticed that she's been silent in fear. Probably Nicholas's power keeping her like this.

"We do work for Heartbreaker. I assure you that he could correct your problem far faster than Cranial, whether you wish to remove your feelings or..."

"Shut the fuck up." You snarl, before falling back as Nicholas sends another wave of terror through your brain. You muster up more courage. "You assholes talk too much. I hate people who talk too much."

"I see." Guillaume looks sadly at Nicholas. "If you please, brother."

"Always a pleasure." He turns his attention to you, and you loose more bowel control as the waves of terror start. Before too long you'll obey out of fear.

It is probably a remarkably good thing that you've been working on releasing something good from your hands this whole time.

[X] Sleeping agent. Worked on Cherie, should work on her brothers.

[X] This calls for something with a bit more punch to it. They've actually threatened Victoria with rape. You can release something targeted to their father's DNA that will screw them up too much to escape, or be useful in a fight if they do. If their family is going to go after yours you can't let Heartbreaker have any more soldiers. It'll be infectious, but only to other Vasils.

[X] Any bugs you release could take too long if Nicholas can break people with his terror waves. You need to agree to do what he wants, get close, and hit him directly with your power. You're afraid he might be good enough to break you into reversing whatever you do.

[X] This calls for something with a bit more punch to it. They've actually threatened Victoria with rape. You can release something targeted to their father's DNA that will screw them up too much to escape, or be useful in a fight if they do. If their family is going to go after yours you can't let Heartbreaker have any more soldiers. It'll be infectious, but only to other Vasils.

You spread the disease through the air. You can't figure out a way to make people carriers without risk of mutation or infection, but if the other Vasils get in contact with those two it will be bad.

Bacteria are way too mutation prone. It's how they're designed. Idiots, thinking that a counter plague is something easy to make. You'd need to rip up half a person's microbiology to make sure broad spectrum health would last...

Nicholas looks just a bit worried. "You're scared, but you're not hopeless. Why is that?"

"She's a striker. She needs skin contact. As long as we don't touch her we're safe. You can hit her long before she gets close." Guillaume frowns. "I suggest you work harder."

"If we want someone usable this takes time." Nicholas keeps his eyes focused on you. "I need to implant such a fear in her conscious and subconscious mind of disobeying me that she can't ever fight back. This is hard. It'll take minutes." You slump down in relief. You don't need minutes to incapacitate these thugs. Maybe 15 more seconds...

"She's up to something." Nicholas says. "I don't know what, but she is." He's starting to look sick.

"Well then. I suppose we're doomed if she doesn't reverse it." Guillaume smiles and pulls a gun from his jacket pocket. "My dear, you are going to reverse whatever it is you are doing, or you are going to be shot in the knees. Then you will reverse it or be shot in the other foot. Then your hands..." He vomits. "Now."

"Working on it." You lie.

"She's lying." Nicholas says.

Guillaume shoots you in the knee. He might have been going for the foot, but the vertigo is starting to take over.

"Do it you incestuous freak!" One of them screams. You're not really sure which one, as you're more preoccupied with the agonizing pain.

Then Ichor is off like a dark comet, smashing into the two of them with an amazing savagery as Nicholas becomes incapable of fighting. She hits as hard as Aegis could. There's splintering bones and blood hits your face as she beats them into unconsciousness.

"Silence is everything. Talking to the villains, bad idea." She looks down at the defeated villains with nothing but contempt. "Birdcage, yeah. That seems appropriate for these freaks. I hope it goes through." She reminds you of Victoria in that moment, covered in blood and righteous fury.

"Thank you, Ichor." You tell her.

[X] "Let's wait for the PRT." You look down at your ruined knee. "While we're at it, can I get some of your blood? This could take months the normal way.

[X] You stare at the bastards. They're not worth the time that this is taking. "Hey, can your blood repair my knee? We have a hospital to get to."

[X] She does look, well, nothing like Victoria. That might be a good thing. Another healer. Nice, and there's not many secrets to keep from her. You owe it to Victoria to try at least once. "Hey, this is, um, are you single? And..."

[X] "Let's wait for the PRT." You look down at your ruined knee. "While we're at it, can I get some of your blood? This could take months the normal way."
-[X] Whilst waiting use your powers to make sure that the pair aren't going to wake up anytime soon (i.e. for at least a day or so) or die- them dying might cause problems for you and Ichor, although with what they threatened any non-potentially-fatal injuries get no healing at all. Also do a check on the microbes to ensure that they aren't going to infect anybody else.

The microbes definitely won't hurt anyone besides the Vasils. They won't even survive for long outside of Heartbreaker's children, and even then some of them might be immune.

You're having trouble finding words to describe just how much you hate these boys as you heal them up. If they were girls there's always the old standby of cunt, but this? Monstrous, sadistic, rapist, all the words you can think up seem to pale in comparison to what they were threatening. Even Tattletale only threatened to ruin your life and your family.

Impotence, constant bowel problems, something a lot like cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis, pretty much everything you can think of to make sure they'll never be able to hurt anyone ever again. You're not even sure that you'd fix them if the PRT demanded it. Honestly, going to juvie for a while could be a nice break, and they'd be nuts to give the Panacea anything worse.

Ichor sits next to you and pulls out a knife. She cuts open a vein and the blood splashes into your hand. She's healed by the time your eyes turn to the cut. She makes a sawing motion and the blood begins to fall freely. The bullet had gone straight through, so no need to dig it out. After only a few seconds your knee is fine, smooth chocolate skin having replaced your native color. It's weird and you kind of like the alien sensation. You flex your knee and stand up. Your repaired leg is a slightly different length now. You try to change it, but no luck. You can't sense the new flesh with your power anymore than your usual body. However your powers make the distinction, Ichor's new flesh is you as far as your body is concerned.

"Thank you." You say. "For everything."

"Least I could do for the incestuous freak." She says it as a joke, but fuck her in the eye. It's not funny. You sit there, flushed and angry and letting your shock fall away.

God damn it Victoria's probably not going to be with you for hours and hours. You're, well, you're not at all grateful for this particular crisis, but at least while being blasted with fear you weren't depressed. Terrified, but it kept you alert.

"That's really, really not funny." You tell Ichor. And to think you thought she was pretty. She sighs.

"Alright, if you really want me to be serious about it, here's what I think. I do think it sounds weird and fucked up. No, you aren't a bad person if you haven't acted on it. Honestly, I don't think you should ever tell her. That kind of thing could mess with her head forever. They say that incest's like, infectious among girls, where if it happened in the family it's more likely to happen again because their ideas of proper affection get messed up. If you love her, and I think you do, then love her as a sister. Living together doesn't sound super weird. Sisters do that kind of thing, though they're usually old widows or something. I really think you should just do something else to keep your mind off it. Get a real girlfriend or something. You're the God Damned Panacea. People talk about you like you're a saint. Someone who you healed is bound to have sent you a love letter. Maybe one's a girl."

"Well, there is the fanfic where two teenagers kidnap me and force me to sing a cover of The Veronicas until I collapse from exhaustion. That was written by a girl, according to the profile."

"Wait, I've read that. Wasn't that one written when you were fourteen and didn't have your powers? Yeah, that was seriously psychotic. Um, whoever wrote that is not someone to start dating. Like, find a nice teen popstar or trust fund babe. Maybe ask Gallant out the next time he breaks up with Victoria." You shake your head.

"Seriously, why does everyone think I have a crush on him?" You see PRT vans rolling in. "I guess now's the time to start making statements." Ichor nods.

___

Somehow, you still manage to be talked into the hospital. It's been circling you since you've arrived. It doesn't matter that you've fought psychotic villains four times in the last four days, twice in twelve hours. You're the Panacea, and in every hospital there's someone who needs a liver transplant or is missing legs or was do depressed he cut off pieces of his dick. You heal 39 people while giving your report. It takes everything you have not to give a few dick cancer just to spice things up a bit.

You're out of Tylenol from your travel kit, have the strength to flip a pancake, and seriously wish that the hospital had designed some more comfortable way to bring people through. Stand and your feet get tired, sit and your butt gets stiff, lie down and you need to stretch your arms to touch people. Fuck this. Fuck sick people. Why does the only person who can redistribute powers have to be one of the Yangban's pet lunatics? You'd sell your powers in a second if some eager teenager who wanted to help people asked for them. Just trade what you can do, and then someone else could be the Panacea.

"Why do we have to go over this again? They said Heartbreaker would go after Victoria. They promised he'd make her a slave. Considering the circumstances I believe I showed amazing restraint, sir." The same asshole PRT agent has been going over the questions every moment you're not literally healing someone since they drove you here. Fuck the PRT. He'd asked all about the earlier fight. He'd dared to criticize throwing the bus at the lunatics. They were monsters. They'd been bringing down buildings, and you'd still managed to save their worthless lives. Why did he have to be so hard about it.

At least Victoria is sleeping. Now she just has to wake up and come here and everything will be better. She can bring you something gloriously fattening finger food for you to eat with one hand while she rants about all the goddamned psychopaths you've had to deal lately.

Then another PRT agent enters the room and whispers into the asshole one's ear. He gets very quiet and still.

"What?" You snap. Today is not the day to do this.

"The Bakuda bombings in Brockton Bay. They have become serious." The new woman has the horrible look of someone who is trying to break bad news gently. "A bomb went off tonight in the PRT headquarters. No casualty list yet, but it sounds bad. They want you back in Brockton Bay immediately."

Oh Hell.

[X] "I can't head back yet. I still need to decide about Cranial. There's people dying everywhere." It's cold and it's cruel, but you're too tired to care.

[X] "Fuck. My. Life." You sigh. "Call the freaking teleporter."

[X] You think for a moment. "Get me on the phone with Cranial. I need to decide what to do before I go."

And:

Interlude:

[X] Witch
[X] Flashbang
[X] Rune
Interlude 2 (Flashbang)

You know that 78Violet is a terrible password. Your daughter's favorite band. It was your fourth guess when you were first concerned sometime last year, and Amy hasn't changed it since.

Amelia was never one for the technical side of things. Neither was her father. Her other father.

The ramblings Amy emailed herself do not look healthy. It's more a set of prompts, really, things for her to remember that you would never know. Maybe a better Thinker than you could understand it, but to you it just looks like just another bit of crazy to slide alongside the long list.

If you tell your sister, do it soon. Right in the middle. No context. No other information. You feel it is not about something as minor as the brain damage. This looks far too important.

You sit in your daughter's bedroom and think. She hadn't offered to ask Cranial about your own problems. Maybe there is a magic bullet out there and she'll bring home the cure for everything. It'd break her family apart if it happened, but you think Carol could wait until after they moved out to tell them.

This is a good day. You got up out of bed. You're clean, dressed, and on call for an emergency. You hope you get your emergency tonight. It's always better to be in a life or death fight. Some of Amy's ramblings in her email sound like it's something a bit deeper than you thought, but you don't want to force yourself to figure it out.

You browse Cranial's website. So many links to people with life changing experiences. Happy people who talk about how she saved their lives. Depression, schizophrenia, pedophilia, homosexuality, PTSD, she'd solved them all in her time. She's done more good than you have.

Your phone rings. It's the PRT. Someone bombed their headquarters. It is time for action.

Director Piggot is dead. She was probably the target of the bombing. Bakuda is breaking every unwritten rule to cause enough pain to free Lung. You have the feeling she doesn't really care much about Lung, she just needs an excuse to be hurting people. Blaster powers are good for clearing wreckage, and you always seem to find people quicker than anyone else underneath. The others here, Velocity, Vista, and Gallant, are all great help. Vista could pick out where people were underneath the rubble, Gallant could carry people, and Velocity can bring tools or medicine to help people. The four of you and a set of emergency workers can make this a tenth as terrible a day as it could have been.

Amy emerges in a flash of blue light. A teleporter with a name you don't know vanishes a second later. She is holding a cup of coffee, and somehow looks the most tired you have ever seen her. She has been sleeping four hours a night for a year and a half, it she still looks the worst she has since her second trigger event.

Your sad, sullen daughter glares down at the people she's here to save. There's not a trace of warmth in her expression. She doesn't even look like she recognizes you as you approach. Was it your other daughter, New Wave's lifestyle, being a supervillain? Could you have stopped it if you'd just gone to Cranial yourself?

You help an emergency worker carry over someone without any remaining legs to Amy. She finally seems to recognize you.

"Are you okay?" You ask her cautiously.

"Not even close, Dad." She shakes her head and kicks off a shoe, placing her foot on the legless man's forehead. "The last day has been, words don't come close." She shakes her head.

"I read your email." She looks frightened for a moment, than relaxes. Something about the look on her face is not even close to healthy. "What is it you're supposed to tell your sister?" It's horrible and the wrong time to ask, but you need to ask.

"Dad..." She shakes her head and keeps healing the man. "Get me a pig or something if you want this thing to walk." You move awake quickly to talk to the PRT about biomass.

After you talk to them, you think for a moment. You can do something today. Maybe not enough. You don't really know how to talk to Amy. There's maybe two people who can do that. Fortunately, you have one of their phone numbers.

You take out your phone and write a text message to someone who needs to know what you found out.

___

You stare at the screaming pig. Maybe if you were in a clearer state of mind you'd have thought of something better. Maybe the PRT are taking things a bit too literally tonight what with their leader dead and all. You never liked Piggot anyway, and you don't know anyone who did. Someone would have told you if Bakuda had killed anyone you liked.

Pig biomass does work pretty well for human legs, honestly. It does save time over the plant matter the hospital brings you. Creepy as Hell, but it might save time. Time means lives.

The whole thing feels pointless and worthless and small. You aren't even glad you came.

"That's the last of them." Someone says. It takes you a minute to realize it's Mark. Gallant stands nearby like an idiot, just watching you with a concerned look on his face.

You want to go to bed, but you're not really tired enough. You sigh. What's fucking next.

[X] Go back to Albany. There's that Helltinker who is just going to do something horrible in the end who needs to scan your memories and sell your deepest secrets. Besides, it will get you back with Victoria sooner than later. The teleporter should be able to snap the great Panacea back there.

[X] Tattletale has been of absolutely no help. This is what you get for listening to the miserable piece of shit. You get Victoria in a holding cell sleeping off a lunatic's despair beam. The bitch is doing to be arrested tonight.

[X] You start to cry. There's only one real option of what to do before Victoria is back to normal. It's time to return to your hospital.

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Not This Year

[X] Go back to Albany. There's that Helltinker who is just going to do something horrible in the end who needs to scan your memories and sell your deepest secrets. Besides, it will get you back with Victoria sooner than later. The teleporter should be able to snap the great Panacea back there.

You get back to Albany. A perk of being the Panacea is that no one wants to waste your time being on a plane for a couple hours.

You really should have asked the teleporter's name.

He leaves you back in the Albany hospital. Fortunately there's no quick buses routing everyone through in Albany like there is in Brockton Bay. For once you actually have a few minutes to think.

Your new replacement cellphone rings suddenly and your heart leaps as you try to do the math. She should have fallen asleep around eleven or twelve, you healed here for about six hours and back in Brockton Bay for two, you've been back for half an hour...

"Amy?" It is Victoria. She's awake. "One of the girls here told me that you left a message for when I got up. Thank you." You sigh, twirling your hair around your finger. "Amy, thank you for saving those assholes I threw the bus at. They, well, they probably didn't deserve it, but thank you. We need to talk..." You're moving towards the door as soon as you here it. "I'll be there right away."

___

You're hit with a blur of white and gold in the Protectorate building's parking lot. "I missed you." Victoria tells you.

"I missed you more." You say. It is almost certainly true.

"What did Cranial have to say?" Victoria looks anxious. You pause, thinking back, trying to explain it well.

"She offered to change my endorphins system, or something. Hook it up so I feel the rush for something that's not you." Victoria snorts.

"What?"

"That sounds terrible. If she does it for another person you're right back where we started. If she does it for a thing sounds like you'd be a rat burning a hole in her paw for cocaine drips. Are you sure she's the best tinker? I'm pretty sure they have actual psychiatry for screwed up endorphins."

"She might not have been very technical about what's wrong with me. She said she doesn't know much. She also had other options. I think one was taking part of how a normal girl reacts to things and replace the messed up part of me with that."

"You are a normal girl." Victoria rubs your shoulders and back as you walk. You're not sure where she's taking you. "Also, wouldn't that just get us right back where we started once my aura goes through you for a while? If it melted you once could it do that again?"

"I don't think so. Mark and Carol don't seem to have reacted like that. Neither has Gallant. I think you hit my brain at just the right part of development. Anyway, even if we say yes she said it could take two months before she's decoded my brain and can mess around with it properly."

"What!" Victoria's voice is full of sudden fear. "Two months like this?"

"Would it really be so bad?" You ask quietly.

"I love you." She answers slowly, carefully. "I love you more than anyone else. You're my little sister. Amy, I'd do anything for you." You gulp. "But yes, it would really be that bad. Amy, I can't feel guilty whenever I want to do something by myself. I can't go on patrol, I can't have private time just to read a book, can't go on a date with..." She glances around. "...Dean. I love spending time with you, but not that much. I'm down with a slumber party. I'm down with bringing magazines and headphones for when you're healing. But Amy, this would be sick, spending all our time together. I'd never feel a moment's peace knowing you aren't feeling peace. If you really need me to, I can deal. But there's such a thing as being too close."

[X] "Is there?" It's a stupid thing to say. It slips out. She gives you a curious expression. "I mean, Victoria, I love you..." You're not sure if you said too much. Victoria frowns at you. "Keep going, Amy."

[X] You sigh. There's nothing else for it, really. "Let's go talk to Cranial, together. Maybe she'll be less horrific if you're there to help me ask about options. Maybe she can help us faster."

[X] "I could make it easier." It's a terrible idea. You know it's a terrible idea. You've been awake too long and stressed for too long and healing for too long and without Victoria for too long. But a rule you broke is no rule at all. Victoria gives you a curious look. The idea is almost physically itching in your hands. "I could make you like it. Like being with me as much as I like being with you." It's dangerous and far too close to crossing the line. But it's the closest thing you'll get to what you want.

"I love you." She answers slowly, carefully. "I love you more than anyone else. You're my little sister. Amy, I'd do anything for you." You gulp. "But yes, it would really be that bad. Amy, I can't feel guilty whenever I want to do something by myself. I can't go on patrol, I can't have private time just to read a book, can't go on a date with..." She glances around. "...Dean. I love spending time with you, but not that much. I'm down with a slumber party. I'm down with bringing magazines and headphones for when you're healing. But Amy, this would be sick, spending all our time together. I'd never feel a moment's peace knowing you aren't feeling peace. If you really need me to, I can deal. But there's such a thing as being too close."

[X] "Is there?" It's a stupid thing to say. It slips out. She gives you a curious expression. "I mean, Victoria, I love you..." You're not sure if you said too much. Victoria frowns at you. "Keep going, Amy."

You stand still. Your heart pounding.

If you tell your sister, do it soon.

"There's something Tattletale said I needed to say." You gulp again, taking a deep breath. "She said it would be worse if I didn't say it's soon. There's a secret. A big one." Victoria looks scared. Maybe the most scared you've ever seen her.

"I. Love. You." She says it with the fiercest intensity she can bring to bear. "I don't care what it is. I may be sad. I may be disappointed. I may be very angry. But I love you, Amy Dallon." She gives you a hug that is just short of causing lasting pain. "Do you want to go to the room here? If it's that big, it might be good to do it privately."

"Yes!" You gasp out the word. She supports you a bit as you head back into the building. August Prince is eating a sandwich behind his barricade with a look of defiance on his face while a pretty blond girl talks to him. Victoria pulls you a bit farther away from the barricade as you pass.

"It's best to be sure." She says. You barely pay attention. You're trying to sort things out in your head.

After what seems like a small eternity you enter your room. Victoria locks the door behind you both. You sit down on one of the beds, the one you didn't sleep in last night. It's Victoria's bed, in your head.

That really shouldn't matter. She's never slept there. She probably never touched it before she sat down next to you a moment ago.

"Tell me what it is." She's gone strangely firm, still. She probably already knows. Cherie had told her something, called you...

"I'm a freak." You admit. "Something's wrong with me. It's sick and disgusting and..."

"Have you hurt anyone?" Victoria interrupts you.

"I have to hurt you." You really start to cry now. "I'm going to lose you."

"Then you will lose me." You look up in shock.

"If it's really that bad I'll run off in disgust. We won't be friends. We won't be sisters. We'll be nothing. Maybe I'll scream and scream and tell people to send you to the Birdcage. You know me better than anyone Amy. Do you think I'm going to do that."

"I love you." You whisper. You turn your head away in shame.

"That's not an answer." You can't see her, but you feel the glare against your head.

"Yes it is." You can't look at her. You cannot look at your Glory Girl. She is silent for a moment. It stretches out intolerably long.

"What do you want from me." You can't get anything out of the tone, can't turn your head to look at her.

All you can do is answer.

[X] Write in.

What does Amy want from Victoria?

General guidelines I am likely to group votes into in case of a lot of distinct write ins. It is highly possible I will edit similar ones together.

[X] Try to cover for what you've said, somehow.

[X] Confess, framing the feelings as forced by the aura.

[X] Confess, framing the feelings as genuine.

"I love you." You whisper. You turn your head away in shame.

"That's not an answer." You can't see her, but you feel the glare against your head.

"Yes it is." You can't look at her. You cannot look at your Glory Girl. She is silent for a moment. It stretches out intolerably long.

"What do you want from me." You can't get anything out of the tone, can't turn your head to look at her.

All you can do is answer.

"I'm afraid of my power. I'm afraid of myself. I've been afraid of myself since before I had my power; I'm a supervilain's daughter and Carol always knew I would do something horrible one day. I haven't yet but I have these urges that I can barely control. My Rules keep me from giving in but it's hard." You still can't look at Victoria. Her hand rubs your shoulder comfortingly.

"Sometimes I'm so tired and so frustrated that I want to kill my patients so that it'll just stop and no would have ask me to heal them ever again. So I have a rule against killing anyone, ever." There's a sharp intake of breath at this, but the motion doesn't change. She still loves you.

"Sometimes I want to change people physically instead of just healing them. I can improve them. I can tweak, expand, change things to serve more than one purpose. The human body is so inefficient. I can do better. I can make people immortal. I can make people more interesting. I can make trees that give birth to kittens. I'm scared that if I start doing that I'll turn people into monsters. So I have a rule against that. I don't do anything more than healing even though I could do so much more. I have all of this creativity bottled up that I just can't express because I'm scared of myself. I'm scared of what I'll become." Victoria softly kisses the back of your head.

"I trust you." It almost shatters your resolve when Victoria says it. You're crying as you continue. You have to continue.

"And I don't do brains. That's my most important rule. That's the rule that protects you from me. I love you so much it physically hurts and I'd rather kill myself than violate you that way but it's tempting sometimes. It's very tempting. I can cure Mark's depression. I want to. I want him to really be my dad. That wouldn't be bad. I can make Carol love me just as much as she loves you. I've wanted that for as long as I can remember. I need a mom. But changing her like that would be wrong and it wouldn't be real and it would just make me feel guilty and it's something that a supervillain would do. As much as I want that I can't do it." The motion slowly stops. It's almost enough to break your heart. Almost.

"And the worst part of it all is that I can make you love me the way that I love you. Like a sister. Like a best friend. Like a wife. Somewhere along the way while we were growing up a wire got crossed in my head. You were the only thing I ever had. You're the only person in the world who ever loved me." Victoria doesn't jerk her hand away. It could make you fall in love with her all over again that she doesn't recoil. She just lifts her hand away from you. You still can't meet her eyes.

"I'm so fucked up that you're the only person in the world who can ever love me. I don't want to be alone. I want a family. Kids. Maybe a dog. But I'm never going to have that. No one else could ever love me. I'm a monster. You're the only one that I'm ever going to have and I can't have you the way I want you. And it hurts so much. Every single second I'm not with you it hurts. Every single second I am with you it hurts almost as bad because I can't kiss you."

It's DONE! You said it! You let out a breath you've held in for years. You can't move towards her. She might interpret it as a threat. You could not possibly blame her for that.

Victoria, your Victoria, your Glory Girl, is still. You can't be still. You make slight movements. You open your mouth...

"Be quiet." Victoria's tone is, you don't know what it is. It's not normal. There's something in it. "Close your eyes." You do. She's quiet for what feels like days but is really minutes.

"There's something I need to do. I need to try. Just keep your eyes closed." She says. You've never wanted to be blind more than you do today.

Her hands take your head firmly. She pushes, positioning it towards her. You keep your eyes closed. For a frantic second you think she's going to kill you.

Suddenly you feel lips on yours. Your mind goes crazy. Did she bring someone else in? Did she do something without you feeling your move, like send off a text message to someone or could this actually be?

The face against you is wet. You do the stupidest thing you have done in your entire life when you push your tongue into your sister's mouth.

She's not sweet. It's one of the worst things you've ever tasted. Bile is rising in her throat. She vomits over your face and into your mouth as you both sit on the bed in stunned shock.

You can't be silent as you cry. Victoria's vomit is in your hair and on your shirt. Victoria coughs violently besides you.

"This must be what Hell feels like." Her voice is raspy, pained, quiet, like anyone who just threw up. Your eyes are still closed. You don't process what's happening until you hear the door shut behind her. She's gone.

"I love you!" You scream. You start pounding at the wall. You wish you are dead, or brave enough to just rape her while she kissed you, or anyone that's not who you are. You're a fuck up. You're a supervillain. The things you treat aren't even people, just nuts and bolts of bacteria and mostly eaten siblings.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." You repeat it as a mantra. You still haven't opened your eyes.

Finally, after a very long time you enter the shower and wash your sister off you. If you had the power you would have burned your clothes. Instead you throw them in the trash can after you get out. The room was stocked with backup. For a mad moment you consider just walking out of the room naked. The idea that it would worry Victoria is the only reason you don't.

You walk out of the room in a daze. You wander, finally reaching August Prince. He's still speaking to the blond girl. You go towards them and she scrambles back. She was sitting down, her knees in front of her. She moves back quickly. "Are you an idiot!" She shouts at you. It reminds you of Victoria.

Oh, right. Trick.

You're in Albany, which is apparently the capital of mindrape.

[X] You'll fit right in. You smile for the first time in what has to be hours. "How do I speak to your PRT Director?" You can't go back home.

[X] You study the girl. She is pretty. And you're in need of a sister. "Yes. Yes I am." You shake your head. "I think we need to discuss how much of an idiot I am."

[X] You move past Trick, walking out of this horrible place. For all you know you'll never see Victoria again. You've procrastinated on Cranial for long enough.

[X] Write in. It needs to be big.

[X] "I'm sorry, it's just, its been overwhelming." With that incomplete explanation you stumble away from Trick. You really need to get out of here. Fumbling for your phone you send a few texts. The first is simple. "Please get me home." to dad, you really need to get a teleporter's number. The second is hard.

"To: Victoria
Thank you.
I'm sorry.
I still love you.
I hope you still love me.
Like a sister.
Please don't hate me."

After everything I've already said its almost easier for you to continue to confess your confusion and feelings, especially by text where you don't have to look her disgust or disappointment in the face. you go on.

"I don't think I can fix this on my own. I don't even want to think about what Cranial said, and it's too confusing to try and figure out what would be best. I don't trust mom or dad to help. I'm sorry but it's true. Mom would be horrified and dad, well you know how he gets. I don't want this to be in the hands of strangers, so you are really my only hope for... fixing things. What should I do?"

"Thank you for trying."

Hitting send took the last bit of my courage, but strangely I felt better afterward. As if putting all my problems out there was cathartic. Victoria tried. She does love me, she just... couldn't do it like I wanted. But maybe she can figure out how best to help.

___

It's been six hours. You keep checking the time on your phone and the time you sent the text. You're actually seriously considering getting a timer app on your phone.

You jump when you get a text message. You look down. It's from Dean.

You almost delete it. Maybe Victoria ran out of juice for her phone?

"She's here." A single line. Did he send it to the right phone? Then you get another line.

"She needs time. She loves you. She's scared to try something too soon."

Then your phone rings. It's Carol. You feel a burst of dread as you answer your phone.

"Yes?" You ask.

"Tell me why Victoria's room is empty."

"What do you mean empty?" You whimper.

"She took everything. Clothes, magazines, books, computer, TV. She left me a note. What did you do?"

"I, what did the note say?"

"She's moving in with Dean."

"Can she do that?" You ask, confused.

"No, no she can't. Do you know Dean's last name?"

"Um, what? No, not really..."

"Neither do I. You see, there are such things as secret identities, and laws against tracking them down when the secret identity is a member of the Wards. I can file a complaint, but I do not know where she is, and the PRT is not functioning right now. What. Did. You. Do?"

"That's crazy. I mean, there have to be..."

"There are. But it's going to take time where my daughter is gone. Tell me why my daughter has moved out of my house. I do not believe they're such star crossed lovers they are eloping." You feel bile rise in your throat at that idea. "Was there some crazy scheme with Cranial that freaked her out? I heard on the news that she was in a fight out in Albany. What did you do to cause this?"

"Nothing like that. Dean texted me. He said she said she needs time." This all feels unreal, wrong. If only Mark was on the phone you might explain.

"Time for what? Did he get her pregnant or something?" You flashback to your trigger event.

"I don't think so. The fight with Cherie, the cape, she's an emotion manipulator." You think fast. She hadn't told Carol, so she doesn't want Carol to know, so this is covering for her as well. "They held her for observation. Maybe she's running through emotions Cherie messed up about her family? We barely talked since then. She was acting weird and left. I didn't think she went back home." You start adding up math in your head. She could definitely make it home in time, and if she just grabbed random stuff she could probably have made it to Dean's by now.

"A fight you were in. The first fight you head into and she is messed up by it?" Suspicion, anger. Not exactly uncommon feelings for Carol to direct towards you. "She probably got hurt protecting you."

You hang up the phone. Dean's been texting you while Carol ranted.

"She got your text. She needs this time, Amy. I can tell. She said she loves you. She's said it several times, actually. She wants you to get help, but she can't give it right now. I know she's telling the truth. Please stay safe and don't do anything stupid."

If you were a bit stronger you would have crushed the phone in your hand. Instead you just crack the screen. Dean. If there's anything you can't face right now it's Dean and Carol. You hang up on Carol as she calls you again. Fuck her!

You turn off your phone at your "mother's" next call. You sit there, thinking.

If you love Victoria, you'll give her time and space. You'll get help. You'll heal at the hospital with a smile on your face. You'll...

You start crying again. How could you possibly...

There's a knock on your door. A distraction. You leap to it and open it. It's another PRT officer.

"Ma'am, there's someone here to see you. She said her name is Abigale Quintin?" You shake your head.

"I don't have any idea who that is." A stalker might actually be welcome at a time like this.

"She seemed quite insistent, ma'am."

"Well..."

[X] "Tell her I will be right with her." You really don't have anything better to do.

[X] "Tell her I need to be going." You need to speak to a psychologist, Cranial, someone. There's no way you could continue for weeks without Victoria.

[X] "Tell her I'm busy." You're not giving up on Victoria yet. You have to call Dean and get more out of him.

[X] "Tell her I will be right with her." You really don't have anything better to do.

You follow the PRT agent. You get a vague impression that she's trying to give you hints about something, but you're too out of it to understand what she's saying. Something about "very unusual" and "kind of frightening" but you keep thinking about Victoria moving in with Dean. Dean's what, sixteen, seventeen? They're probably not sharing a room, right? They had better not...

"AHHH!" You instantly miss the preparation of the wall of horrors. So that's what the agent was trying to warn you about. Maybe he was trying not to sound racist against Case 53s? Cranial is holding a tablet computer near her eyes and seated on her hover chair with her claws curled up. She rotates to face you and moves the tablet away from her eyes as she registers your presence.

"I take it you never learned my name." The calm, middle aged voice of Cranial plays from the machine braided into her bizarre arms. "It's not even that subtle."

"Quintin. Fifth." You manage to crack a smile. "And Abigale?"

"King David's third wife." She sees your blank expression. "David of 'and Goliath' fame."

"Oh. He was a king? I thought he was a shepherd. Um, I never went to Sunday School." You're missing the drink that Cranial, Abigale, had offered you in her home. "Um, did something important happen? I told you I'd call back." Seriously this woman's appearance is horrifying. Her eyes don't even move, they're just fixed and look dead, dangling when she moves.

"I was growing concerned, so I called Truth. She said your sister had last been seen flying east and that you were locked in your room. We talked about it and I thought it would be best to see you personally." She's either being nice or being greedy. "Under the circumstances, where you are addicted to your sister's aura, it seemed that this is a bad sign for making sound decisions. This seemed like the kind of thing I shouldn't handle over the phone. Should I talk to your parents about your treatment, do you feel well enough to talk about it, or do you just need more time? Given the circumstances I advise getting the scan started as soon as possible. Two months would be a very long time to wait, and that's if we start now." You really don't feel in a sound state to be making these decisions, but you gave Victoria your power of attorney when you were sixteen, Mark's too down to answer his phone, and Carol's angry at you.

"I, um. What about, why do you need my memories for this, anyway?" You mutter. The double shock of earlier and Abigale's hair of eyes is not good.

"It is standard policy. I ask all my clients for memories. I sell them. People want other memories. People want happy memories, skills, experiences. The more memories I have the better my work is. If part of your life experience would best be used to help someone else get over a trauma I can't see why you would object? For example, for someone dealing with depression, I could use your own cycle of depression when Victoria is gone and relief when she returns, with rearranging the order, to induce memories of someone getting over depression. This could make someone feel much more comfortable than simply brute forcing it." It sounds reasonable, but you're still suspicious. However...

"Mark, my dad, suffers from clinical depression. Worse than mine. Could you cure that?"

"Yes. A full brain scan and calculations to make any desired edits takes two months with the computers I have available and the whole problem of translating biology into the digital format. I could see his psychiatric medication and less comprehensive brain scans to make very good guesses about what would be best for him, but at my level of precision and the delicacy of individual brains I cannot promise perfect results before the two months are over. The same goes for you, of course. I could put you on a regimen of therapy and psychiatric drugs to reduce your dependence on your sister's aura, but there's no guarantee that it would work, and I can assure you that true brain editing would work. I have suspicions about your personal conditions that makes me suspect that ordinary attempts to treat depression or endorphin addiction would end badly for you. I read up on Victoria's abilities. It is believed she triggers locations involved with religious experience. This is highly unusual, and combined with your specific symptoms I suspect that ordinary treatments would miss the mark."

"Please be quiet for a minute." You try to fumble through her infodumps. Is she giving you so much information because she's trying to be honest, or to confuse you and make it harder to make a decision? Is she pointing out her limits to soften blows, or to cover for lies or some other manipulation shit? How could she just walk in here and ask for you? Actually, it makes more sense than a stranger off the street, a cape known to Albany asking would seem less like some random stalker or mind control Stranger dude. You desperately want to go back to bed.

"Thank you." You finally mutter. "I, I don't think I was going to call you back. I'm going through a lot in the last couple days.

"I do understand. People come to me at their lowest points. This is not the first time someone has had trouble with making decisions around me. I do really want to do this. I have wanted to do this medical convention for years, before you even had your trigger event. I am willing to make certain exceptions and offers. I want this, Amy. I want it a lot. I am at a disadvantage in our negotiations. I can offer to help your father. I could help the tinker in your city, Kid Win, if that's any enticement. I can offer you memories and skills unrelated to your treatment. I could even pay you, though you've never made any indication of wanting money given your lifestyle."

"No, not really, ma'am." You mumble. "Yeah, that just doesn't feel right. Taking money, I mean."

"I get that. It must be easier, not needing resources. I do not have that luxury. So, what is your decision?"

[X] "I need more time." You shake your head. "I'm sorry to do this to you, but this is one of the worst days of my life. I think I need to be held for observation for a while so I don't do anything crazy. Can you give me some advice on how to do that?"

[X] "Thank you, really. Maybe someday I can take your help. I can help you, but I just can't share my memories, or trust, um, it's not that I don't trust you, but I'm really not, brains are a rule with me. I'll do the medical convention, but I can't let you tinker with my head."

[X] "Let's do it." You can't go on without Victoria for however long it is, not without help. "Let's discuss my options on our way to get my brain scanned."

[X] "Let's do it." You can't go on without Victoria for however long it is, not without help. "Let's discuss my options on our way to get my brain scanned."

"Marvelous. Follow me." You follow Cranial's hover chair as she leaves the building.. The eye hair cascades down her back, so she can see you just fine, assuming her eye hair actually works like eyes. That's not certain with a Case 53.

There is a man waiting for you in a minivan. "This is my friend. He prefers to keep a secret identity, so you may call him Big Rig." The name doesn't sound familiar. "You may sit up front with him. It is easier and safer for me to sit in the back with the seats put down. Do not worry about my safety." You sit down in the front. Big Rig has a strange, spider like power suit with electronic limbs touching the car's controls. You hear heavy breathing.

"You do know he is napping, right?"

"Yes I do. He's a superior driver that way, or Michelle is."

"Michelle?"

"His suit. It is appropriate to give things greater than men feminine names, such as ships, planets, or oceans. His suit does not think, but it is a work of art and a marvel, so it is female. I helped with the design." Rogue Tinkers are weird.

"Do I give it, her, instructions, or do you?" You're not entirely sure you want to be driven by a machine built by a tinker you haven't heard of.

"No need. Michelle will take us to my condo once you have buckled your seat belt." You quickly put it on, and Michelle slowly pulls out of the parking space and drives carefully and smoothly.

You're silent for a minute, collecting yourself. You start talking a bit awkwardly. "Maybe you could call my dad and make your offer yourself after we are done I'm not sure I am up to talking to my family at the moment."

"As I understand it he has severe clinical depression. According to some files I found he also gave his power of attorney to Victoria in regards to medical matters. Would you be upset if I pried into why?"
"No. Carol, they had a fight about it, the first one I remember was when I was nine. She was hiding his pills so he wouldn't take them. When Victoria started junior year we had a big family meeting about it and decided that me and Mark felt most comfortable if she had power of attorney. Carol signed the paperwork. She didn't even seem mad about it. I found out later it was her idea."

"That is quite frankly horrifying. So Victoria should be the person I contact of I cannot reach him?"

"Yes, but she just moved out of the house and wasn't answering her phone when I called her. Maybe you could contact her boyfriend, Gallant, through the PRT, but Brockton Bay's PRT was just bombed, so it might take a while."

"I will see what I can do. I'll only ask about it again if I absolutely have to." She sounds sympathetic, but given her voice is coming from that weird device that could mean anything.

"About Kid Win, will the PRT let you work on him?"

"I believe so. It is not to their advantage to let one of their most interesting young tinkers flounder. I will contact the leader of the Brockton Bay Wards, Aegis, and explain the situation. He will talk to his superiors in the PRT. I suspect I will be able to help him with far less effort than you, and I may not need to brain scan him at all unless he wants additional skills or experiences." You nod absentmindedly.

"Is it possible to start the scanning now and decide on what specific changes that will be made later?"

"Yes. Once the translation is done nothing else will take anywhere close to that amount of time. My machines merely need to understand your brain. After that updating their map of your brain is easy, as is bringing in new memories or making changes. Feel free to think about it over the next two months."

"I don't trust my own decision making skills in this matter even if changes clearly need to be made, and the only person I trust implicitly is my sister who isn't available at the moment. Hopefully things will be different when the time comes. Mark's too depressed, and Carol, well..."

"Believe it or not I have some idea of what it is like to have issues with your mother. Not first hand, but I sample my own work. I understand the emotions, if not this particular context. I will know more once I have read your memories." That freaks you out again.

"You're just going to play my memories? For fun, or something?" That is a very disturbing idea.

"You can see me. I can only live a normal life from other perspectives. I am not the only one. Many people wish they were someone else. The lives of capes are particularly popular, though often disappointing. Some people want reality, others want fantasies, and I supply both. That is how I make my income to support more charitable projects."

"I'm not comfortable with this. I'm not a good person. I don't want people to know what's going on in my head. Medical stuff, that's fine, but just someone who is bored?"

"If someone is bored enough to want unhappy memories, isn't that its own kind of disease? Sometimes shock treatment can give fascinating perspectives. Few people can live another life without being forever changed. People looking for cheap thrills leave my shop having gained far more than they came to get. Others need to understand lives worse than their own to appreciate their fortune. Some need to understand the pain of others. Psychologists and ministers have come to me. I appreciate the desire for privacy, but you do not know better than the people who might want your memories. Surely if it helps even one person it would be worth it?"

You think it's a good argument. It doesn't feel right, but for someone who is being so generous on so many things, who has been so nice, it would seem crude to haggle about it. There's an idea in your head of someone just like you meeting a therapist who actually does understand what it's like.

"I think you're right, but let's talk about it once the brain scan's finished whatever it needs to do in two months." You pull in front of the condo and follow her in. Big Rig and Michelle stay in the car. You follow Cranial into the condo. A small drone opens the door. You walk through the wall of horrors, stopping to see what looks like a man going down on a Cthulu like monster, and then follow Cranial into the lab.

"Alright, here is what I need to do. My machines will fully scan you in 15 minutes. While they perform their scans we can talk, or you can be quiet. Two things will hurt. One is a needle that will enter through your nose and extract a bit of cranial fluid." There's a hint of a smile in the electronic voice at the word 'cranial.' "I will also extract an ordinary blood sample. I can prevent you from feeling pain from either one during the penetration, but there should be a small headache for a few hours afterward. I suggest you go and take a nap."

"I've already been up for quite a while. I'm going to bed early." You sit in the chair and a quite frightening orb descends from a pole in the ceiling.

"I tried every possible appearance in my plans, but everything that covers a human head is creepy or so silly, so I gave up and just went with the orb. Sit in the chair. You sit down in a medical chair, and the orb covers your head.

"Wait, you said we could talk?" It's pitch black inside the orb.

"Yes we can." Her voice answers. "This is my technology. I put proper communication systems in when I designed the brain scanner. I decided that it would make it less terrifying. Be glad it no longer flashes red and blue light at random intervals. People found that to be considerably more frightening than the pitch black." You start rubbing your hands on the chair. This thing is crazy. Sure, Cranial's the tinker, but is being blinded really necessary for this to work?

"Yes it is, Amy." The psychic stuff is even less comforting. "I can't have input running through the eyes. It took forever to par it down so I could keep the other senses up and running.

"So, fifteen minutes like this?"

"Yes. Fifteen minutes and it'll all be over."

"Please try to sound less like a serial killer posing as a doctor."

"You watch too many bad movies. In my defense, I am a monster straight out of nightmare.
___

You gasp as the helmet is removed from your head.

"Interesting. Interesting." Cranial is holding several tablets up to her eyes at once. "Alright, I can offer you some medication. I have two options right now. One is a simple drug that will make you extremely happy, punctuated with deep and short bursts of intense depression. My other option is a combination of five separate drugs that could keep you at a normal, happy, and mentally healthy state, but they would need to be taken at precise times in the day or else you will have dangerous or unpredictable results. I can tell that Victoria's aura is very much an abnormal process. Ordinary therapy or medication would probably have either failed or messed you up. If you can take it I recommend against using the medicine, and instead going cold turkey on both the aura and medication. Your brain is adjusted to functioning without Victoria. Given your powers I think a single bad episode could be disastrous." You sigh.

"Of course the best thing to do is nothing." You sit back in your chair dejectedly.

"I am sorry. You know, it might be possible to move up the timeline for the convention. Have it in early may instead of early June. That might give you something to work on earlier."

"What exactly is this big convention thing, anyway, and what do you want from it?"

"A great question. As I said before, I want to explore healers. Specifically I want to understand how powers that work on brains and memories work. There's a tremendous amount of evidence that powers can perform an incredible amount of math and sensing incredibly quickly, and that P=NP in a highly efficient way that powers know intuitively, or that they perform calculations in a manner that bends time. That is the reason that even the best tinkers struggle to copy many powers even when the hacks involving the laws of physics are known. My tinker focus is not merely neurology, it is highly complex systems. I believe that if I can study several powers that approach my field of specialty at once, and how they interact, I could understand how they can do things in seconds that takes me months. This would cause a revolution in computing, and allow me to casually apply my abilities without the waiting period. This is big, Amy. Tinker technology cannot be practically mass produced, but if we discover this principle behind powers I think this could be mass produced and incorporated into a large part of our civilization. I have spoken on this for years. I have spoken with Dragon, Sphere, and other tinkers and thinkers you have not heard of. Dragon wants to try this. She is less confident than I am, but we have differing specialties. I believe my intuition that this is possible comes from my tinker specialty." A musical, simulated laugh plays on the instrument. "Dragon's only demand is that we schedule it well outside of an Endbringer attack period."

"That's big."

For once, more than one choice this time.

[X] "I'll try the extra happy medicine." You can handle being depressed.

[X] "I'll go with the cocktail." You trust yourself to stay to the schedule. Other people will be very motivated to keep you to it. "Just write down how they work."

[X] "I'll try cold turkey. I'll call you if I think I need something else.

You think about the convention.

[X] "Let's get this over with. The convention. Early May sounds good."

[X] "I'd rather take some time to prepare, get my affairs in order, do it right. Let's wait until June."

"Thank you so much for your help, Ms. Quintin." She laughs. "Mrs. Quintin. I am married." You try not to think about that. "Where do you want to go now?"

[X] "For all your help, the last few days have been a nightmare. I want to check into some psyche facility for, um, I think it's 48 hours of observation? However long they do it. I don't feel that stable right now.

[X] "I need to get home. Albany's, um, lovely, but there's a lunatic on the loose bombing places. I need to help."

[X] Write in. Anywhere else you think Amy should go?

[X] "For all your help, the last few days have been a nightmare. I want to check into some psyche facility for, um, I think it's 48 hours of observation? However long they do it. I don't feel that stable right now.

"It's a week." Cranial seems vaguely regretful.

"What?" Maybe you should have known this, but you've never been held for observation before.

"It's standard for parahumans. Excessively long for many, but our race is far less stable than most. Giving hospitals extra time to gather scarce resources and work out what they are dealing with has been the policy for five years. I approve of it whole heartedly. The situation has improved since it became policy. It was a PRT Thinker, Accord, who developed the idea. It took years for the plan to gain support, but it is very well supported. You are someone extremely dangerous. I do not think it is unreasonable that the government wants to focus as much effort as possible on ensuring you are stable before you are released."

"Alright." It seems strange, but you're not an actual doctor. You were offered an honorary MD, but it just struck you as cheesy.

"I will make some calls now. Please make yourself comfortable." The same drone opens the door and you get out, sitting down in one of Cranial's amazingly comfortable chairs. It strikes you suddenly that every chair or couch is here for guests. Cranial couldn't possibly find chairs designed for humans comfortable. You'd never see her leave her hover chair. Does she sleep in it? Wait, Cranial doesn't sleep. Wasn't it Truth that told you that? She rests her brain a piece at a time. You think you heard about dolphins doing that when you were a little girl and Victoria was showing off her new ability to read. At first it had been something she was proud of, being older and smarter, reading all the science books she got her hands on out loud every night. After a while it just became something she did, reading to you every day after school, finding the time even when she was sick. She did it right up until your trigger. She'd tried to keep finding the time, she really had, but your damned powers just took up too much time.

You miss her so much. Your hands tighten into fists. You want your sister!

Cranial comes back in a few minutes later.

"So, what's going to happen to me?"

"You're going to go to a mental hospital, Amy. For one week they will give you counseling and therapy. I am writing an email as we speak to explain everything I reasonably can to help them help you. I think that this is the best thing for you. I'd recommend it even if you were using the cocktail. You have been through a lot in a short span of time. There's a computer in your room, so you can sign in and read books or watch TV or movies you like. It would be far more dangerous to let you out. This is not a vacation, but it is a break. Try to get stable. You don't have to be happy, just at peace with yourself enough to start helping people when you get back out. I will start making some calls to your local PRT to see if there's any other advice I can give for managing your condition after you return. Do not blame yourself. You are sick and it is not anyone's fault. This is a stay at a hospital. Everyone needs them from time to time."

Suddenly, you can't help yourself. You leap out of the chair and hug Cranial. The body language appears shocked for a moment, but then her strange limbs wrap around you in a way that is, if not comforting, approximating such.

"Thank you so much, Abigale. You're just, I don't know, one of the nicest people. I don't know what would have happened without you."

"I'm glad we don't have to find out." The voice comes from behind your head, where Cranial's voice machine is located. "Get better and stay safe. I'll email you my phone number. If you need to talk, or have any more questions, I'm always there."

"I will call you next week." You break the embrace. "See you in June."
___

You sit in the room of whatever facility they brought you to, bouncing a ball off the wall. You're checked in, and a therapist will be with you later today. Right now you're bored, miserable, and guilty. You've slept, and are still pretty far off a normal sleep schedule. Once again it's after midnight, you can't sleep, and you have to do something. Right back where you started, in a way.

[X] You have to see how Victoria is doing. You go to the computer and start searching the gossip sites and newspapers for anything on Glory Girl.

[X] You sign into Amazon's reader app. Flowers in the Attic can't hurt.

[X] It's time to take a walk around this place and see what's there. This is a place they took a parahuman. You weren't paying attention, but you think this might be the famous "Asylum" of crazy parahumans.

And;

[X] Write in. How long do we want to spend here out of character? One update, a couple, play it in semi-real time?

[X] It's time to take a walk around this place and see what's there. This is a place they took a parahuman. You weren't paying attention, but you think this might be the famous "Asylum" of crazy parahumans.

You regretfully turn away from your computer. You're not here to sulk about the worst mistake of your life, you're here to make sure you don't release the virus that would start causing women to grow flesh gardens instead of babies in their wombs.

You actually know how you would do it. You'd never really wanted to do it, but you'd thought about it in the same way you'd thought about, well, best not to think about the really shitty stuff you sometimes got into your head.

You catch the ball and put it away in a dresser. You hate this room. The room at Albany PRT was cozy. This room is clinical and sterile. Well, it is a hospital, if one devoted to the mind instead of the body. You always have hated hospitals, even before you got your powers.

You move down an abandoned hallway. Most of the doors have two names, a name for a cape and a name for a person. Yours is a disposable name tag, Amy Claire Dallon (Panacea). Others are like that. Arthur Kent (Gunslinger), Sarah Campbell (Trinity). Some of the names are more permanent, hardened plastic plaques for Nicholas Little (Sadboy) and Khajag Ghazaryan (Genoscythe). Some of the doors are very heavily locked and clearly substantial, such as Sveta Morsky, which you couldn't even begin to open without a lot of biomass to help with the project.

You're actually in the wing for dangerous prisoners. This is not the general population. The fifty or so rooms are designed for people going completely nuts. Your room could shut down all access to the outside world and air flow if the computer on your wrist indicated extreme stress. It was apparently for another prisoner who could create and control poisonous gas.

It seems that the prisoners aren't that sociable after midnight, or most of them have some kind of curfew. Maybe you weren't listening when someone told you about a curfew. If so, fuck it, you're crazy anyway.

You search the place until you find a small common room with two individuals. One is a somewhat handsome man who looks like he is in pain standing in the corner. The other is a boy, maybe twelve years old, reading a hard cover book with a curious intensity. You move forward to him, slowly, to read the title. Clive Barker'sClive Barker's Galilee. Wait, wasn't that the guy who wrote the book Hellraiser was based on?

He looks up. "Hello. Jasper's girlfriend sent cookies. You're new here, aren't you?" You nod.

"I'm just staying the week. Who's Jasper?"

"The man over there." The kid points. "We don't sleep, and he thinks he's a guard here, not a prisoner."

"I am both." Jasper says. "Without me this place would have burned. Without this place I would be a monster. We keep each other whole." Yep, definitely crazy. "Alice did sent a care package." He gestures to another table, and there is a small box of clearly store bought cookies. "She said you would be coming and that you would like them." They don't look that appetizing, but you don't want to hurt his feelings, so you go over and take a bite. It actually is delicious.

"Alice, is she a Thinker of some kind?" You ask. "And yes, it is really good."

"She is a great Thinker. She told me of your arrival as soon as you chose to come." If it's any comfort, he is crazy. "We met in here, though she could go free and sane while I shall stay my days here. Our tasks keep us apart, but our love shall keep us together despite the distance. Love, and cellular phones."

"That's a beautiful thought." You mean it. You do find yourself in a romantic mood, though it strikes you as possible that Alice does not exist. "Tell me about her."

"She came here with no memory. They believed her to be a Case 53, but they found her finger prints led to an identity. No one knows how she became what she is. She fell in love with me in a vision before she arrived here." He begins to tell a long love story. You do the best to pay attention, but a soppy, heterosexual, happy love story could never speak to you. Even The Notebook was too happy for you to stand. The long and glorious happy ending of children and fame and wealth made you choke back bile when you read it.

You shouldn't have thought about bile.

"Is she truly so moved?" Jasper asks.

"I don't think so." The boy says. He studies you critically. "She's sad. I would know. Sadboy." You'd seen the name before.

"Is it rude to ask what you're here for?" You ask.

"Yes, but I'll tell you anyway." Sadboy, Nicholas, seems not to be offended. "Jasper messes with his own brain, and others, and all kinds of hormones and other stuff. He keeps driving himself nuts, but most of the time he's sane. I'm just too scary to let out." You look him over cautiously. He doesn't look scary.

"Why are you so scary? If you're that scary why do they let you out?" He gives an angelic smile.

"It's not what I did. It's what my big brother did." You puzzle it over, looking at his face to see if there's a resemblance to anyone...

"Holy shit." He giggles like a loon, or a naughty twelve year old boy, at that.

"You're staying in his sister's room." Jasper says, and you're not sure if it makes sense in context that you missed or if he's just crazy. "Family relationships are of course metaphorical."

You're sitting next to Gray Boy's, you can't remember the details. Clone or something.

"She's in the Protectorate. We video chat every night." You try to calm your breathing. They wouldn't let him out if he was a real danger. "She says Vegas is great." You smile to keep anything else off your face.

"I went there with my sister last year. It's really got boring since parahumans broke all the old casinos. Maybe I just visited the wrong parts." You think. What would be least likely to set off history's greatest monster? "What are you reading about?"

"I read some of his other books. I'm hoping for some neat monsters." He grins. "I love monsters." You think for a moment. Would a gift be a good thing? I trust you. "Hey, do you have any plants in here? Real ones? I have something to show you." He smiles. "Ooh, is it a cool power?"

"Well, I think it's pretty cool." Jasper is suddenly handing you a small potted tree. Focusing on the fucking Gray Boy's good twin kind of took up all of your attention.

"Alice said you would need this." You look at the small tree. It's actually a beautiful tree.

"I control biology. What would you like to see?" Your mind bounces back and forth between fear and, well, he's a cute kid, and once again you're liking fear a lot more than despair. You want to stay here, feel this way. It's better to be on the move. You need worthy opponents.

"Ooh, can you make it grow hamsters?" You think about it.

"Not true hamsters, but I can make it grow something that looks like a hamster." Your hand spreads through the normal, healthy biology of the tree, and slowly a hamster emerges. It's not a true hamster, but it has fur and warm blood and is shaped right. On a whim, you make it so that the tree's cuddly fruit could breed normally and would lay sees of more hamster trees. Nicholas's eyes grow wide in wonder as the tree becomes a true, natural, hamster growing plant.

"Wow! That's the coolest thing I've ever seen. Can I keep it?"

"It's Jasper's tree." You look up at Jasper.

"Of course, dear child. The tree is a gift from all of us to you." Sadboy takes the tree and examines it closely. "I'll be right back." He gets up and moves at a deliberate pace towards the door and presumably his room.

"You don't feel at home among mad people." Jasper tells you. "You also don't know twelve year old boys very well." You look up suddenly.

"What?"

"He was joking, Amelia." You frown. You can't remember anyone ever calling you Amelia. "He's probably just going to eat them." You shudder. "It's not that he's a monster, it's that he's at an age where he's too cool for everything, and always will be. That is the true reason he will never leave. He cannot change and grow with the world. Here, amongst the mad, he may thrive. No parents, no matter how loving, could stand his age forever, and they would grow sick and die. He always resets back to normal, as his elder brother did. He can turn it off, but whenever he uses his power he goes back to the first time. The first time he used his powers, he was sad. Gray Boy was happy forever, until he died." You don't really listen by the end. You're turning over how you failed to get Sadboy's feelings before. He was mocking you, not full of wonder. Why was that? It never felt like that before. Did Victoria's aura burn out something else, or are you just so concerned with your own shit that you can't get anyone else's?

"I am sorry, Jasper." You get up. "I don't belong here. Not that I'm not crazy, but this is your home, and I am an intruder on your life. The people here, I'm not good enough to help them." Suddenly, just because you feel like it, you give Jasper a bow. "I am sure Alice is very proud of you."

"She is. I will tell the others that you wish to be alone, but if you need companionship in this domain I will be happy to bring you to people who are less visibly strange." You leave this room, a common room or something, and head back to your room. You lock the door behind you.

This place is crazy.

___

You sit across from the therapist or counselor or psychologist or whatever they're calling them. You don't do brains, so how would you know?

"Hello, Amy." He smiles at you. "What would you like to talk about?"

[X] Write in. What does Amy want to talk about?

[X] "I like people. I like talking to people. I like helping people. But there are so many people that need my help. When I'm healing I don't see the people anymore. All I see are ugly disgusting sacks of chemicals. When I see someone writhing in agony I turn off their pain, not because I don't want them to suffer but because their screams are annoying. I touch a dying body, not a person just a body, and I know everything about it down to its DNA. Sometimes, before I heal it, I have to ask myself why the horrible thing deserves to live. I never have an answer to that. When I started I loved my patients. I talked to them. Helping them felt good. There were always more patients and never enough time. It became an assembly line. And I've just been going through the motions because it's what good people are supposed to do. I think I'd be happier if I stopped. But I can't tell anyone no. I'd feel too guilty if I let someone die. "
[x] At home Carol, treats me like an unwanted child and trying to gain her approval has left me being afraid to become a villain and like my biological father.
[X] Finally I want to be happy, to have a girlfriend and a beautiful home with her. Unfortunately my sister's aura of awe has messed around with my brain so shame on me that my first choice is my sister.

You sit there for a minute of golden silence, preparing yourself. No matter what, it can't be as bad as Tattletale.

"I like people. I like talking to people. I like helping people. But there are so many people that need my help. When I'm healing I don't see the people anymore. All I see are ugly disgusting sacks of chemicals. When I see someone writhing in agony I turn off their pain, not because I don't want them to suffer but because their screams are annoying. I touch a dying body, not a person just a body, and I know everything about it down to its DNA. Sometimes, before I heal it, I have to ask myself why the horrible thing deserves to live. I never have an answer to that. When I started I loved my patients. I talked to them. Helping them felt good. There were always more patients and never enough time. It became an assembly line. And I've just been going through the motions because it's what good people are supposed to do. I think I'd be happier if I stopped. But I can't tell anyone no. I'd feel too guilty if I let someone die."

The doctor, someone with a name you didn't catch, writes calmly. No one ever knows what the notes are. You've picked that up from popular culture.

"Is there anything else?" He asks.

"At home Carol treats me like an unwanted child and trying to gain her approval has left me being afraid to become a villain and like my biological father." You sigh.

"Carol, is that your adoptive mother?"

"Yes." He probably knows. Don't they read files on you before you come in? Why ask?

"So, anything else you want to get out before we start?" You suddenly get pissed.

"I want to be happy, to have a girlfriend and a beautiful home with her. Unfortunately my sister's aura of awe has messed around with my brain so shame on me that my first choice is my sister."

"Ah." He frowns, looking down at some notes. What is with this asshole?

"According to the files I have read, the aura is connected to the depression. You're most happy around your sister, and she doesn't stay with you while healing, though she did at first. The files did not say anything about wanting her to be your girlfriend. What do you mean by that?"

"Wife, lover, sex toy, mother. Mother's the thing psychologists always ask about, right? She's more of a mother to me than Carol ever was. She's my best friend, and the only real friend I've had since middle school." The doctor, who gave a name you can't remember, looks interested.

"That was several years before your trigger event. You were a sophomore during both of your triggers. Can you tell me why you had friends in middle school but not high school?"

"I think it was the age. Girls try out friendships at the time, moving from group to group. There were a couple I really liked, but they moved away. A few went to the same high school, but we drifted apart. Victoria had triggered by then, and it put a lot of people off."

"Victoria, she triggered a few months after her thirteenth birthday, correct?" You nod. "You mentioned really liking some of the girls, and defined Victoria as your first choice. Are you attracted to other girls, or just your sister? What about boys?" It's a bit uncomfortable talking about this. You're surprised they didn't give you a female therapist.

"A bit. Like, I can tell a girl is pretty, maybe flirt a bit, but I haven't fallen in love with anyone else. No one else ever seemed remotely as good as Victoria. I don't think it's just her aura. She's the nicest person I know. She's the most real person I know. It's not like she's always forcing herself to be nice. She gets angry, and she shows she's angry, but it's always righteous, getting angry because someone else is hurt. She really tries to be nice, and when she realizes she's being a bitch she stops at once. Boys, maybe they're nice and cute, but I just don't feel that way about any of them. I think I could like boys, but definitely not preferentially date a boy."

"Have you dated anyone?"

"Not really. I've been out on a few dates when Victoria and Gallant found someone willing to give me a shot. They're all nice and cute and rich, but it was always hard to pay attention with Victoria right there. I think it was hard for them, too, with an aura getting them to squee over how awesome their date's sister was." The doctor keeps writing things down.

"You say you barely see your patients as people. Is this just the people you heal, or is it most people who aren't Victoria?" You pause for a moment. That is a good question.

"Most of the time it's better, but it's been getting worse. I think the less I'm around Victoria the harder it is to pay attention to anyone. I've been missing things. There are gaps I don't notice in my empathy. When I like someone I really like someone. Nothing seems worth it. When I have a nice conversation I feel like it's with one of the nicest people I've ever met. When I hate someone the person's the worst person ever." You pause. "It started before I started getting more separated with Victoria, though. I think it was getting worse ever since Tattletale and the bank robbery. I don't think I've been in a good headspace ever since that, though I have been through a lot since then."

"I believe on April 14th you confronted Tattletale for the first time, after midnight on the 16th she sought you out again, afternoon in the sixteenth you entered into the first fight of choice of your life, and around 11 PM of the same day you were ambushed by another set of villains. Not many people have to engage in so many fights so close together, especially heroes. You had three violent encounters within 24 hours. I don't think being highly disturbed and distracted by this is unusual, especially if you're dealing with increasingly aggressive separation from your sister's aura." The doctor is looking at his notes again.

"I guess. Also, um, I told Victoria about it."

"About your feelings for her?"

"Yes. About, well, everything. She tried. She kissed me, and threw up trying. I haven't seen or spoken to her since. She moved in with her boyfriend. That, I don't like that."

"Ah, according to this file there is some speculation that your trigger event coincided with Victoria's dating."

"My first one, yes." You sigh. "I found a used condom in Victoria's trashcan. Next thing I knew I could control bodily functions. It was a pretty stupid power. No idea why I got it. Release chemicals, make people pee or cry. I never really learned much about it. My second was two weeks later. It wasn't Dean." You shudder. "Me and Victoria were watching some stupid high school movie. It brought up the idea of girls practicing kissing for boys. Victoria suggested it. Then I realized she was joking." You shake your head. "They, like, they weren't as bad as some I've heard. Most I've heard about. Being kidnapped by lunatics and cut apart, your father slowly dying of leukemia, being stuck in a car for days as you starve to death, but they were enough. I'm second generation. They were some of the worst moments of my life. My first one, Victoria lost her virginity! I'd never get to have that. She would grow up, get married, have children, and I wouldn't be a part of that. I was scared and confused and I didn't know what to do. I think that's how Striker triggers happen half the time. The second one was worse. Like, for a second I thought maybe there was a chance. We could kiss, giggle, make fun of it, but I'd get to kiss her. Maybe I could keep it going, say we were getting experience, get her to think of me..." You trail off. "But it was such a joke to her. She couldn't see me that way at all. She thought it was completely gross. So I freaked again. I couldn't lose her. So I got the power to stop it."

"The power to stop it. What do you mean by that?"

"I could make her love me. I could see her brain all curled up inside her head like a giant tumor. I knew exactly what to change. I've known it for two years. I'd see her every day, touch her every day, and every time I want to rape her. But I don't want her to love me because of that. I want to be lovable." The doctor is silent for a little while.

"There are things we could try, if you want to stop loving her that way. It's not going to happen in a week, but we could get you a therapist in Brockton Bay." You nod, but you feel sick. You can't loose how you feel about Victoria. Without that what do you even have?

"I am actually more worried about how you feel about your patients. You've been avoiding that. I'm actually wondering if that's how you deal with it. You focus on Victoria because you need to feel love to counterbalance how you feel about them. Tell me more about it."

"It was wonderful, at first. I felt like the best person in the world, and everyone else felt the same way. Victoria was so proud of me. I could heal dozens of people a day. Save lives. Improve lives. Do things in minutes that would take most people months. A few months in there was a big meeting with the PRT and the school board and I got one of only 29 special certificates ever printed that meant I didn't have to go to school anymore because my powers were so useful. They only do that kind of thing for people like the very best tinkers and movers who join the Wards. Mark framed it, and even Carol looked proud. But it's just kept going. I started to hate them, begrudge them for getting to live normal lives when I couldn't anymore. I've been thinking about letting them die or pretending to mess up every day for six months. I thought about letting children die, giving people cancer, releasing a plague that infected wombs to turn babies into monsters. I can't stop thinking about it. It would be so easy and I could take a real vacation. But whenever I rest I feel guilty that I'm not helping people. I don't want to know how I'd feel if I actually did something like that. There's no way out. I already had my second trigger, so that can't save me. I dream about going crazy sometimes, really crazy. Leave the hospital behind, mindrape Victoria, fix Mark's depression, make Carol love me, and just run. But I can't do my own brain, I couldn't take away my own guilt about that, so it's not a real answer."

"What do you think a real answer would look like?"

"I dream about being kidnapped so I don't have to feel guilty. I dream that there's some genius tinker who looks at everything I can do and copies it into a machine. I dream about releasing some kind of healing plague to save everyone and give me a break, or at least eight hours of cooking up something new with a team of science advisers."

"Could you actually do that? The last part."

"Maybe. I know how I'd do it. But biology is complicated. Things would be out-competed, and messing up human microbiology could be really bad. If the stuff mutates or genes jump species it could be a pandemic. Anything significantly better than nature would be really dangerous. I've ran a few things by scientists. I've made some really good vaccines and antibiotics they can keep cooking up, but anything beyond that carries some real risks. Even if I don't cause a problem, if someone with the wrong powers or tinker specialties gets her hands on it and hijacks part of it we could have a disaster. Then there's the Simurgh. The PRT has a theory that anyone who can really change the world gets targeted by the Endbringers. They told me about it when I first started on those ideas. It could get me killed and Brockton Bay attacked and everyone I love could die. So then I feel guilty about not trying, because if everyone refuses to try and change the world than civilization's toast. I feel like a coward."

"It's not cowardly to take advice." The doctor says. "I have had patients who dealt with second order effects from Simurgh, or who dealt with other Endbringer attacks directly. It is completely natural to be afraid of them. It is better to do what you can than to be killed. That's how the PRT organizes tinkers." You nod sadly. "Changes have to be distributed, decentralized, and redundant. It's much better to have your capacity on reserve healing people than to lose it all together. Maybe someday the Endbringers will be defeated, or we'll find a way to secure resources from them." That dream seems a lot less plausible than most of yours.

"Can we talk about my mother now?" You're not sure what your tone is like anymore.

"What do you want to say about her?"

"She's scared of me. She's scared of everyone. I want to help her, and Mark, but the only way I have to help her would be betraying her by brute forcing her issues with mind control. I do love her. But it's so hard sometimes. Her trigger was messed up, way worse than mine. Locked in a basement for months, then pulled out to be shot, and I'm pretty sure that's leaving out some even more fucked up details." You pause. "Also, sometimes I think about sex with her, but it's nothing like Victoria. Like, if I'm thinking of her being a real mom it kind of drifts towards that being part of it. I never get the same urges to do that like I do with Victoria, though."

"Some level of incestuous thoughts aren't completely uncommon. I don't have a full diagnoses, but I suspect that you have some kind of OCD about your thoughts about harming people and incest. There's a kind of person who is full of thoughts like that but would never act on those thoughts. I'm not saying you're that kind of person, but that's a disorder people have, and I think you might have an extreme case made more intense by Victoria's powers and your own." You nod. That sounds normal. "Now, what about your biological father? You said he's a supervillain."

"Yes. He is, or has to be. I don't know which one, though there are only a few good choices from the time period. I think about it a lot. I want to do so many bad things. Is that how he started? Is it the same kind of thing that set him off? If I break my rules will I become just like him? Tattletale threatened to give me the name, said I'd spend the rest of my life comparing myself to him. I try not to think about it too much, as I don't know much about him. I have an idea in my head. Sometimes I think of him as someone strong and kind, some kind of super thinker secretly trying to save the world who has a great contingency plan for helping me and the world and freeing himself from the Birdcage. I thought that a lot when I was younger. Victoria had fun with it, making up ideas. But when I got older, learned about the real villains, I keep thinking of some kind of monster. Gray Boy, Butcher, the Three Blasphemies, people who are really terrifying. I don't think he could be that bad, but not knowing, that's hard." You're suddenly very, very tired. "I think that's all I can do for the day. See you tomorrow." You get up and leave. You wouldn't take no for an answer.

___

It's already your last day among mad people. The week feels like it's gone by far too fast. You're getting out in a few hours.

[X] You turn your attentions to your computer. You've been avoiding the news all week, an easy filter on this computer, but you have to know how Brockton Bay is doing. Well, how Victoria is doing, really.

[X] You get out the door. You've been avoiding the other patients, but you are really curious about a few things. Jasper's strange thinker powers or girlfriend, maybe meeting some of the people who are up during the day?

[X] You eye a tree that Jasper had given you yesterday. Not the hamster tree. You could play around a bit, see what you can cook up with your powers.

[X] You eye a tree that Jasper had given you yesterday. Not the hamster tree. You could play around a bit, see what you can cook up with your powers.

Well, it is your last day at the mental hospital. Even so, there's limits to how dangerous it should probably be.

You stroke the tree's leaves cautiously, thinking, paying close attention to the cells of the tree.

Slowly, carefully, the tree stretches over your arm into a piece of armor. You flex it, test it, harden it into something that looks far more like bone than bark. Your power delivers a small flood of information. You carefully take hold of the steel legs of your bed and bend it.

Yep, you can bend steel with this. You ponder for a moment. Bending steel could come in handy. A full power suit wouldn't be a fraction as strong as Victoria could be, but it would be something to think about the next time you go to battle. Maybe it could even help Victoria if her force field goes down again.

You swirl the glove with your powers, and an eye rises from the surface. Not functional without a brain, but an eye is good. You experiment a bit with the creature, giving it a small, functional brain and a whole set of senses, many of which you'd only read about in science textbooks. This might be a good answer to some Strangers.

Ooh, you've got Brute and Stranger. You set up the rhyme in your head. You've got Master and Striker down, but the others?

Mover, you don't have enough mass for real wings here, but it's definitely a possibility, and you make the former tree capable of flight. Shaker, you'd need a lot more biomass for something that interesting, but you can create spider like webbing glands already. Breaker, no, that's not possible. Master fit in just making a creature, though you might be able to fully hack Skitter's signals. You pause, splitting the creature in two. Yes, you can hold a small hive mind together that way.

Tinker is a bit more depressing. Bio-tech or nano-tech could be done, but it's really too dangerous to experiment with it for all the reasons you told your therapist. It's not a Rule rule, but it is a common sense rule.

Blaster? You can build a gun organ in one of the two creatures. With a bit more mass you could make something significantly better. The organ still has plenty of kick. You dissolve the organ after a moment's consideration, no need to keep a weapon around. Thinker, well, the senses are actually more Thinker than Stranger, more anti-stranger. Perhaps real Stranger abilities? Some coloration, some alterations to smell and silent movement, but nothing too serious is possible. Changer is similar, as biology really isn't meant for rapid alteration. Trump, once again runs into the issue of changing biology, but specific powers would have specific countermeasures.

Hm, Tattletale. How would you beat her, if you thought again? The sleeping sickness is good. Maybe some kind of stupidity sickness? Shouldn't be too hard to hack the brain without doing permanent damage, make something that slows down intelligence but doesn't actually do damage that wouldn't be naturally reversed when the organism is killed. You smile, suddenly wondering about the piece of the brain that works with powers. You could definitely create an organism that attacks the power part of the brain, though never your own or Victoria's.

You smile at the idea of making Tattletale stupid. If you ever see her again she will be...

You know Skitter's biology. Like the Vasil plague, you could make something to catch her wherever she is. If it's targeted just to Skitter it could be made so that other things could safely carry it, though it would have to self destruct outside of Skitter eventually, or just be out competed by more normal versions.

You're going to beat Skitter. The idea fills you with an excitement you haven't felt all week. The bitch who held a knife to you in front of your sister is never going to hurt you again. It's not for your sake, it's for Victoria. Skitter made your sister cry that night. You don't have any hope that Victoria's going to pick you up later. You can do this for her, for hurting your sister with bugs and threatening to hurt Victoria through you.

Your decision is final. You will inform the PRT about it, but what are they going to do? If she's an active villainn committing crimes there's not going to be much of an objection.

You fire off an email about your plan to the new PRT Director, Thomas Calvert, to give yourself something to do. Your new "friend" the former tree curls up in your backpack, ready to go.

You fill out what's going to happen to her, in case anyone shows up at the hospital with a very specific set of symptoms. You'll get her off the street, and the heroes will be able to focus better on the real lunatics like Bakuda. You hope they've caught her by now.

You're so glad you came here. Without a break, without getting some peace of mind, if your sister hadn't trusted you, how could you ever have thought up something so good? Pieces of blood or hair from crime scenes, and you might be able to start on far more substantial villains.

You head out to Youtube on a whim, and start up a song by your favorite band.

It's not snow, It's rain coming down
And the lights are cool,
But they burn out
And I can't pull off the cheer
Not this year

Interlude

[X] Armsmaster
[X] Oni Lee
[X] Aegis

[X] Armsmaster

You can't help but smile at the very angry email that Director Calvert just sent you. New Wave is not your problem. Personally you can't help but think that the little Amy is just growing up. You've always vaguely approved of the girl.

This is a good sign. Amy's being more proactive and looking at the broader world. This suggests your own operation could succeed.

However, there is the problem that Skitter may still think she is undercover. It might be better to inform Amy of this before she actually releases whatever it is she cooked up. Certainly Skitter needs to be off the streets, but it would be nice to do it in a way that would make her more likely to join the Wards than to curse the heroes forever. You speed type an email to the long Ms. Dallon explaining the relevant facts. With your voice recognition software you make a call to one of the Wards.

"Did you receive the cat?" You keep it simple. You have absolutely no idea how teenage girls talk.

"She's adorable!" A fifteen year old girl's enthusiastic voice informs you. It takes you a minute to realize she's saying yes.

"Good. I felt a foster cat would be nice for your stay." Your small knowledge of lesbians and teenage girls had zeroed in on the idea that both subsets of the female population enjoy cats. Someone from New York, where cats are rarely allowed in apartments, had a good chance of appreciating taking care of a cat until a proper home was found. Personally you have very little approval of pets. You find pets inefficient.

Lily begins to babble on about something called Scruffles that you eventually determine is her foster cat. You let her talk as you finish the email to Panacea. You wait patiently for her to give you an opening.

"I have a job for you." You say while she pauses for breath. "Panacea is being released from the Asylum today. She is being returned home at 4:30 this afternoon by a teleporter. She is going to be teleported into the hospital to begin work on the surviving Bakuda victims and the backlog of patients. You are to be her body guard in case Bakuda or another villain chooses to attack. You should receive directions on your pager. " You wait for any questions or objections.

"Is she dangerous? Why was she in the Asylum?"

"Her powers are extremely dangerous. She was in the Asylum for observation after several extremely stressful days because her powers are more dangerous. I believe she has made a full and productive recovery. Director Calvert disagrees, but he lacks authority on the matter."

"Why?" Lily's voice is frightened for some reason. You look up a small voice analysis program you made, and it informs you she's most likely only asking about the last statement.

"She is a member of New Wave, not the Wards or Protectorate. The PRT has authority over villains and sanctioned heroes. Amy is not doing anything illegal. Releasing a kind of organism to defeat Skitter is not in and of itself illegal. It would be grounds for a civil action, but laws allowing parahuman vigilante activity give her sufficient protections until someone else is hurt. Law suits would take time and likely be thrown out of court if there are no clear damages. If her disease begins to..." You pause, and realize you hadn't actually explained to her about what Amy had done. "She's releasing a kind of micro-organism to capture the villain known as Skitter. I forgot to mention that. This is why Director Calvert believes she is still crazy. He does not trust Amy. I do. I have seen her work. If she thinks she can do it safely I believe her. She has been consistently cautious and conservative before."

Lily is silent for a moment. "What is she doing to Skitter?"

"The email is poorly written, but it indicates a kind of debilitating illness will work its way through her system for 48 hours, giving increasingly obvious signs of trouble such as chest pains in the left side of the chest, terrible bowel troubles, constant tingling along the back, and eventually impaired vision. After the 48 hours are over she will begin to give her an increasingly long sleep cycle, with each day leading to her sleeping for two hours longer than the previous day, eventually leading to her only being capable of wakefulness for 30 minutes a day. I find the force appropriate and well reasoned. She will most likely check into a hospital very early on, and if she avoids hospitals she will become less and less of a threat and incapable of supporting her allies. I actually couldn't have done it better myself."

"Why does she need a bodyguard? Seriously, she sounds very dangerous, and who would go after the healer?"

"Under normal circumstances Panacea has never needed a bodyguard before. Bakuda is however well suited for launching an attack she would be unable to defend herself against. I feel that your powers make you an irreplaceable useful body guard. Combined you should have an incredible amount of control for the use of force involved and be capable of delivering sufficient force to defend the hospital if Bakuda chooses it as her next target." Lily pauses, seeming to be in a bit of shock. You will need to put some thought into that reaction. You had assumed she would be impressed and hopefully attracted to such power. Instead she seems frightened. Why? She worked under Legend and the PRT files reported she had gotten along quite well with him despite his power. What is the difference here?

"I'll get going." Lily says. That is a good sign.

You call Dean.

"Hey." Dean sounds stressed. This seems appropriate. You hear shouting in the background. A program rapidly confirms it is Carol Dallon and Victoria Dallon doing the shouting.

"Is it a bad time?" You ask.

"Carol's freaking out because Victoria went to Church with me instead of her yesterday for Easter Sunday." You try to parse this and fail. Shouldn't this specific part of moving out be included in the general case of moving out?

"I am sorry to hear that. I assume you are not available to make introductions for Flechette and Panacea this afternoon?" This is a snag in your plan. it had all seemed so sensible on paper.

"I'll try, but probably not. Victoria doesn't want me to be around Amy until she's ready, and this doesn't look like it's going to end anytime soon. Lily's a smart girl, she can introduce herself." You can tell that Dean needed to dodge something on the other end of the line.

"Are you under attack?"

"No, Victoria's better at dodging pots than Carol is at throwing them." Dean answers. This sounds serious to you, but if he doesn't ask for help he's probably got the situation under control. "Um, if you see Amy tell her we all love her."

"I will. Goodbye." You turn off the phone. This certainly was turning out to be an eventful day. Now if you need to get back to hunting down Bakuda.

___

It's not your usual teleporter, it's a total creep who takes the chance to grab your ass. Still, it's better than a plane flight from Virginia.

You sigh in something only a bit less than misery when you see the hospital. It's worse than when you left it, a lot worse. You roll up your sleeves.

There's a new cape, a Japanese girl by the bits of face you can see, especially the hair. Definitely a Ward unless she's really unusual.

"Hi. I'm Flechette. I'll be your bodyguard for now. I'm changing shifts with Aegis in six hours." You consider her carefully.

"I'm Amy." You stride forward and put a hand on the closest person as the workers scramble to set up the usual assembly line.

[X] "So, what's your story?"

[X]"How has the city been since I was gone?"

[X] "You're new, right? How do you like the Wards here?"

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Out of The Blue

[X] "How has the city been since I was gone?"

And why do I need a bodyguard?" You start healing the person in front of you. You briefly consider making him a carrier for an anti-Skitter disease, but that strikes you as some kind of violation of ethics. It might be a good idea to check your email before you actually do it to make sure Director Calvert isn't issuing some kind of apocalyptic threat about the thing.

"Armsmaster told me it was a good idea. He thinks that together we'd be a good team if Bakuda tries to attack the hospital." She seems really shy. She's not the first person to be that way around you. You wait patiently for her to answer the first part of the question. She doesn't seem to be getting ready for it.

"The city? The last week? What's it been like?" Maybe you could have looked it up, but really, checking up on the news while being held for observation out of mental issues seemed like a bad combination.

"It's been, um, bombed. A lot. Bakuda's been killing people. We can't capture her soldiers because she'll just kill them, so we've been trying to capture her. We have Oni Lee, their other parahuman, in custody. Apparently the villains are trying to call some kind of truce, the ones who aren't ABB. There's some big alliance to take them down. Aegis is suspicious of it, and so is Armsmaster. They think the villains are just using the opprotunity to take advantage of us."

"I agree." Your heart sinks just a bit. That sounds like a great excuse for Calvert if he is really freaking out. Violating a Truce truce is a big enough deal he might be able to rules lawyer you into stopping. "I mean, you've probably heard about the kind of villains we have here. I don't trust any of them to keep to a truce unless Behemoth shows up." You frown.

"Are you really planning on releasing a targeted disease?" Flechette asks.

"Sure. She's only walking around because her friends literally forced me to do it at gunpoint the day after they attacked me and my sister. It's what I can do." The way she says it makes it sound like it there's no concern about big name truce violation.

"That seems a bit, well, terrifying." You can't help but smile at that.

"Yes, yes it is. She terrified a whole bank full of people, beat me up, and hurt my sister, badly. I think it's good if people are scared that I'll stop them if I do that. Maybe Kaiser's thugs will be a bit less eager to beat up some black girl to prove how tough they are next time." Flechette frowns.

"What about escalation?" You consider it for a moment.

"I'm New Wave. We think the system's insufficient. I may not go out and hunt down criminals, but I believe it too. I can tell you my sister's name because I'm New Wave. They weren't supposed to be celebrity superheroes, they were supposed to be starting something new. We're already losing ground and lives against villains. My aunt was one. I can't just sit back and let people like you and Victoria do all the work if I can start helping." You need worthy opponents. Why is it that even when you're moving against Tattletale you can't let what she said go?

"Victoria." Flechette nods. "She's been hanging around the Wards since I arrived. She says she's thinking of joining." That is a shock. You need a moment before you can pay attention to patient number three again. Is it three or five? You haven't really been counting.

"Does, does she say why?" You can't help your voice being small, quiet when you ask. Is she leaving your family because of what you did?"

"She says she needs a break. She's been tagging along with us on the bombings. She's impressive." There is a hint of respect in her voice, or something like respect you puzzle over as you work on the ninth patient. So far it's all been easy, people who largely got caught in the bombings and just need to be patched up. You'd long ago settled on a rhythm where you get easier cases first and then start on more complicated problems. It helps clear your head and get in the right frame of mind to handle stuff like cancer or leukemia. ICU patients, ones who need you right this minute, can arrive at anytime.

"Um, anything else been happening in the city, besides the bombings and villains teaming up to fight ABB?"

"Well, there's curfews now given how Bakuda's bombers are being used. They've called in the national guard and I'm one of six capes called in to help matters. the Protectorate almost caught Bakuda twice, but both times she managed to get away. Lung's still in custody. We actually think we're winning. We're one lucky break from capturing her."

"That's good. Your mind starts to drift as a more serious complication comes in, a patient with severe heart disease. You ponder her digestive system. Nerves in her stomach are deadened, don't trigger properly when she's full. This is actually an interesting technical problem.

___

"...I don't think I'd ever seen Vista and Shadow Stalker agree on anything before. So we all relented. Kid Win actually threw up at one point, and Shadow Stalker nearly passed out from laughing. I thought Gallant might faint. I don't think we're ever going to have another Not Rated independent film for a Ward's movie night again." You shake your head. You can't believe Victoria actually suggested Excision. It was one of your favorite movies, but you have trouble imagining watching it with Chris and Missy.

It's been twelve hours. Aegis looks exhausted from trying to keep up conversation for the last six. He's been a welcome distraction, for the most part.

"Last one for the day." A nurse tells you. A small child, ugly little thing, is brought in. You place your hand on him. AIDS, somehow. Not exactly the hardest thing in the world, but always annoying. Takes a few minutes.

Victoria did suggest a movie with a surprising number of exposed breasts. You'll take that as a good sign.

You slump back, exhausted, and check your email. Armsmaster's is the most surprising, though Director Calvert sent you fourteen appeals, pointless threats, and a few intriguing bribes not to pick a fight with the Undersiders right now.

You look them over, considering the situation. According to Armsmaster Skitter absolutely needs to be arrested beyond a doubt, but she thinks she's undercover, or claims to think it. He asks that whatever you do you do it in a way likely to get her to join the Wards. Director Calvert's objections are confused and more than a bit incoherent, changing from email to email.

You narrow the possibilities down to the most attractive option.

[X] Release the plague as intended. Chest pains, tingling along the back, terrible bowel troubles, and slowly impared vision before a messed up sleep cycle. You also start releasing your jammer bugs near your house and hospital in case she decides to attack.

[X] It would be better to talk with Armsmaster about a sting operation. It would be nice to have somewhat more official backup given how Director Calvert is acting. You're not a member of the Protectorate or Wards, but he might be able to give you some good advice.

[X] You decide to meet with Director Calvert and talk to him about why he's so worried. The whole thing doesn't sit right with you. A PRT Director should be acting more professionally. There might be something he can't say officially.

[X] Write in note: Any write ins should avoid mixing these ideas as much as possible. This vote is about what Amy does immediately. Votes such as "go to Armsmaster, than Calvert, than release the plague if nothing is wrong" are invalid.

[X] It would be better to talk with Armsmaster about a sting operation. It would be nice to have somewhat more official backup given how Director Calvert is acting. You're not a member of the Protectorate or Wards, but he might be able to give you some good advice.

You turn to Aegis, Carlos.

"Thank you. I could really tell you were trying." You pause. "Cranial said she would contact you about Ch-." You stop yourself. "Kid Win's ADD and whatever else he has. How, how is that?" Carlos looks like he's frowning inside his mask from his posture. It's something you have a bit of experience with.

"Kid Win is scared, but hopeful. He's going to visit her once the Bakuda situation is over. Cranial's got a decent reputation, but not a perfect one. I approve of it, and Director Calvert was willing to sign off on it. This really could change his life. I am really proud that you arranged that." You get embarrassed.

"Cranial offered it. I didn't ask about it. I was kind of surprised I didn't get a pony." Carlos laughs. "Maybe she was just buttering me up, but she really seemed like the nicest person. I like Cranial. Thank her if you see her." You look at Carlos, well, more at Aegis, and think.

"I've been experimenting more lately. I've had some time to think lately. I want to be doing more with my powers. I feel I can do more with my powers. I think you're the perfect person to test them on. Your biology is some of the strangest that's not Case 53. I would feel safer trying things with you. Do you want that? I've been experimenting with biological armor, bio-tech. I feel if it goes crazy and punctures your heart it's less likely to kill you than anyone else."

You feel it's Aegis the superhero who is standing very still in front of you, not Carlos the teenager.

"I would be willing to test pilot the thing. Talk to an adult, someone experienced with testing protocols, a Tinker. Armsmaster would probably be best. He'd tell you who to talk to for this. If you could outfit us with better resources I would be all for it." Once again it's in the tilt of the head and shoulders that the expression comes through. Carlos is smiling at you.

"If there's anything you need, let us know. I really do appreciate this, especially on a school night." Carlos groans.

"It's four goddamned AM on Tuesday. My body will adjust, but not for a while." You laugh a bit.

"Welcome to my world. I hope you get to leave soon." This just reinforces that you should go to Armsmaster. It's time to call a cab.

___

You look out the window to see the ocean. The Protectorate's HQ really does give a good view. It strikes you as interesting that their leader prefers the sea to the city for his office window.

Armsmaster is finishing something you can't make heads or tails of. It looks mechanical in the hologram screen. You sit there patiently, glad to have a moment's peace and quiet.

After about ten minutes Armsmaster finishes and turns to you.

"So, you say you want to release a targeted bioweapon on Skitter." He gives you a smile that you can see under his half mask. "Well, are you sure you want to attack an 'undercover hero' who was surely just trying to minimize casualties when she scared an entire bank full of people with spiders." Maybe it's because you're so tired, but it strikes you as really funny. Armsmaster joins in on the laugh.

"When you told her not to do it she shouldn't have done it. She's not a hero after that. She'd need a very good reason. I'm fine with healing her, and I wouldn't be mad if she joins the Wards as part of her probation. I really don't like her, but I don't hate her. If she keeps doing things like that sooner or later she'll get someone killed. She needs adult supervision." You pause. "I need adult supervision. That's part of the reason I came to you." Armsmaster looks, well, smug is the best way to describe it. Flattery has its purpose.

"I want you to know that I support you against Calvert. I don't get him. He's cited everything from breaking the truce to public panic to terror over the organism mutating out of control. I don't understand it. I'm actually asking for Dragon's help on the emails. I'll admit to you, I don't really understand people very well. It's one of my weaknesses. Maybe I am missing something terribly important. However, as far as I can tell he seems to be avoiding his real reason for not wanting you to do this. I have a theory. I think he doesn't want to be upstaged by someone outside of his control." You nod. This seems reasonable to you.

"Can you give me any advice about this? If you had my powers how would you do this?" Armsmaster kicks back, clearly enjoying this.

You mentioned your jamming bugs. Those are good. Carry a few of those at all times, and release them near your house and hospital. Can you make the jammer out of something that's not a bug?" You start to smile.

"Yes sir, I can. I was experimenting with the signals yesterday. I worked with them in a tree. I could do it to every tree on the block, every tree I pass by. I could walk around the city and put them inside a whole bunch of trees." Armsmaster looks impressed.

"Very, very good. Now, think about what happens when she finds a way around it. She can be sneaky. What's the next step?" You think about it for a moment.

"Something to wipe out bugs. Wiping out all bugs in a nearby area. Anything too nasty could screw up local ecology, but I could produce something with a limited life cycle at all times around me. That would reduce her ability to hurt me pretty severely." Armsmaster is looking at you with pride.

"Now, think about what comes after that. She's out of bugs. What does she do next?" You consider the idea.

"She will be armed conventionally. She had a knife before. She could have a gun. She'll need my alive to reverse it, so she can't snipe me. Something to wear. I've been thinking about biological armor. Maybe something like spider silk? I can make a hood to protect my head, living, something to snap around my head and gloves when she attacks." Armsmaster is actually writing down notes now.

"Alright. My only criticism is air supply. Maybe a large group of bugs to cut it off? They'll be dying quickly, but maybe she finds a way around that. Can you make something to counter that?" You think.

"Yes, I think I can. Store extra oxygen in the suit, make it capable of recycling and breathing." You nod.

"I think this is a great start. Keep thinking about her. How would you take you down with Skitter's powers? Think cornered and desperate. You're picking this battle, she's forced into it. Now, let's talk the others. Grue, Hellhound, Regent, Tattletale." He raises their profiles on his hologram screen.

"Bitch is dead. I mean, Hellhound is dead." Armsmaster gives you a look that's almost pity.

"Tattletale told you that. Make countermeasures. I'm thinking some kind of chemical agent. Against those dogs I wouldn't rely on anything physical, but they still have canine smell. Build something to attack through that. They need chemical receptors. Work on that, think about other counters. I suggest something to disrupt Hellhound's control. Noise makers, goo to hit the eyes. She appears to need to direct them like normal dogs. Attack how she controls them."

"That could be faked." You suggest. "She might be holding in superior control as a reserve tactic." Armsmaster frowns.

"Unlikely, but interesting. In that case, take out Hellhound. Arrange something with range. That sleeping plague, perhaps put darts to carry it in your costume and a delivery mechanism?" You actually squeal at that idea. You're thinking of something a bit like a slingshot to keep in reserve.

"Grue, his sensory deprivation." You think for a moment. "Maybe smell? Build something to give me instructions based on smell and tendrils to touch the nearby area." Armsmaster nods cautiously.

"He's one I don't know what to do about myself. Flooding the area with the sleep inducer strikes me as your best bet." He turns the screen to Regent. "Now, let's assume worst case again. Let's say he can disrupt your power. No reason to think that, but let's say he could. His twitches could keep you from activating your powers. What is your best counter?" You are almost squirming in your seat. This is fun. This is attention from someone who wants to be working with you. This is the best anyone's asked of you in a year and a half, after you had solved every disease.

"Hm, something automatic? Build things into my suit to respond to other commands, as many different kinds of commands as possible for me to keep straight. Don't rely on any single move. Redundancy." Armsmaster looks appreciative.

"You were born to be a Tinker." He laughs out loud. "Now, I saved her for last, Tattletale. Mind reader. How would she come after you."

You stare at the fox faced girl and think.

"She'd attack socially. She knows secrets. She'd threaten to reveal them. I guess live with her revealing them? Take steps to minimize them?" That is hard.

"Think worse. If you're unassailable she'll go after things you care about. What if she kidnaps Victoria or Dean?" You choke.

"I, um, do you think that's likely?"

"She already went after you directly. She marched up to you and pointed a gun at your head. I wouldn't underestimate her. Now, I have been told you two need some time to work things out. If you want I can have them stay in Ward apartments until the Undersiders are captured. I'm encouraging that anyway, given Bakuda's bombings. Dean can go on a sudden vacation, officially. I'm not positive they will agree, but I can offer that."

"Thank you." You stammer. It's time to think. How could you get Tattletale not to escalate?

"I can threaten to release something to kill Skitter, or hurt her worse. Make her suffer. Make her suffer right there. I'd be up all night worrying about them, but Tattletale would be right next to Skitter, seeing her suffer. She'd break first." You put in as much regret as you can, but secretly the chance to hurt them is good. Only if they're hurting you as badly as that, of course. Armsmaster actually looks shocked.

"I think that's enough for now." He says. He almost gets up, but then he remembers something else. "Could you do the same for Bakuda? Release a disease to kill or incapacitate her? Either one would be acceptable."

"No." You answer. Then you reconsider. "Not with the same confidence. I know Skitter's body. People have a lot of different kinds of DNA inside them. Chimeras, cancer, and non-genetic factors. Even if I had a sample of her blood I couldn't hit her with something like I could hit Skitter. I could maybe do something with a 99% confidence. That sounds really good, but it's not. Bakuda's not the only lunatic I'll ever want to use it on. If I release something every time the odds go bad fast." Armsmaster looks disappointed. No, he's not just disappointed, he's relieved for some reason.

"Is there anything similar you could do?" The question is hard for him to ask. Why? You think hard about possibilities.

"Yes. Something with 99% confidence can't be released into the city. What I could do is give it a limited life cycle. You could put it on costumes, in foam, in weapons. Bring me a plant or something and I could work with it. Flechette said you almost caught her twice, close calls. I could make a sleep agent, put in some paralysis in the fingers and toes to stop her from activating bombs, and key it to her DNA if you have any." Armsmaster is pulling up a file. He has some of her blood from a blood drive several years ago. "Next close call won't be a close call." Armsmaster is smiling again.

"I think this will work perfectly, Amy. I couldn't have asked for better help."

___

An hour later you're done. The small pieces of slime or strange, harsh breathing have been created and equipped for the Wards, PRT, and Protectorate. You feel obscenely proud. You also desperately need to sleep.

Armsmaster looks down at a screen on his wrist and then looks back up.

"You must be tired. I know you don't want to go to your parents house. I could let you stay at my house for a while." The offer is strange, and mildly inappropriate.

[X] So you call Dean. Ask him for some money for a hotel room. Sure, it's 6 AM, but so what? He's fucking your sister.

[X] "Sure." Why not? He doesn't strike you as a perve, and he's probably just trying to be nice.

[X] "I need to head home." You need to talk to Mark, and probably Carol. You'll feel much better with Flowers in the Attic near your pillow.

[X] "Sure." Why not? He doesn't strike you as a perve, and he's probably just trying to be nice.

Armsmaster has a really cool car. Going through a couple of convoluted routes to disguise his secret identity is a bit of a hassle, but seriously his car is the coolest. It is the best smelling car you've ever been in, and the electronics offer more entertainment options than your entire room back home. After a nod of permission you start playing with what might have once started as a radio, in the same way that a machine gun was once in the distant past a pointy stick.

When somethings pure
How can people just say
We're not meant to be
And when somethings true
How can people just
Keep me away from you

Armsmaster laughs. "Please tell me this song isn't you hitting on me." The laugh strikes you as slightly forced, and playing with the controls for a moment you put "You're So Vain" to come up after Aly and AJ's love song.

"I'm not into older guys." You assure him. You think for a moment. "Or guys at all, really."

"Hm." You can tell that Armsmaster is faking surprise, which is more than a bit freaky. "Nothing wrong with that. I am not exactly, well, there's no appropriate way to say this humorously, but I haven't had a romantic relationship." You're actually surprised. Secret identities usually hide these kinds of things.

"Wow. Um, I'm sorry?"

"Don't be. I love my work, and I just haven't found the right girl yet. Women, I mean. What about you? Any prospects, or is it just not appealing?" You think about your answer.

"For the right girl, I think I'd be happy. I like the idea of a wife, kids, white picket fence and two cars in the driveway. But the only person I want it with isn't interested. At all. She's, um, she tried, but she doesn't like me that way." You feel like crying again. The rush of the evening is going down.

"Do you want my advice, or would you find it inappropriate?" Armsmaster sounds very serious.

"I may not take it, but I'll listen to what you have to say."

"Try out some relationships. Take a few risks. Don't keep going after one girl. I happen to know that some people can be quite heavily closeted, so if it's ambiguous, take a shot. You're growing, becoming independent. Experimentation is part of that. See who you are with someone new. You might like who you are."

"Where did you get that speech from?" You ask. Armsmaster gives a much more sincere laugh.

"Dragon." He admits. "We talk about our work, and she always seems like someone I can ask about social things." You smile. Someone else might have a crush.

"I will take this into account. You put your hand out the window, releasing the bug killer. You want to think a bit before you finally release the Skitter seeker, but you can start protecting yourself now.

"They'll want you at the hospital at 3 in the afternoon. They're hoping to slowly normalize your sleep schedule at an hour a day." Armsmaster tells you. "Flechette will take the first shift again, and Vista volunteered for the second." You nod, a bit bored with talk of the hospital.

"Now, I want you to think about what you want to do with your living arrangements. I don't mind if you want to stay with me for a while, but I don't need a roommate. Personally, I'll make you an offer. Flechette, the new Ward, has been living in the Ward apartments since she arrived. They're just not meant for long term residence. What I want to do is to set her up in an apartment while she stays, as Flechette. The PRT can do this kind of thing. We've already moved Tecton and Wanton, two of the other Wards who are helping with Bakuda, into an apartment. I feel you're too young to be living by yourself, and Flechette is around 18 months younger than you. I would feel more comfortable about it if you moved in with her, if you're not going to be staying with your parents for a while. I trust you. I think she'd be more comfortable living with an older girl who still hasn't had her 18th birthday. You would be a peer for her, like a big sister. You don't have to decide yet, but I put some thought into this after I heard Victoria had moved out." You don't really feel much enthusiasm about the idea, but it sounds better than moping around by yourself.

"Just send the moving van to Carol's." Armsmaster's expression in the rear view mirror is bizarrely self satisfied.

___

Ever the gentlemen, Armsmaster had given you the bed while he slept in a pull out couch in the living room. You marvel a bit at just how cool Armsmaster's bedroom is. There's something you never knew you wanted, a strange robotic arm firmly carrying a desktop computer and keyboard to adjust over the bed, a wall devoted to a massive screen, and hologram projectors ringing the room and pointing at the bed. You're not even that much of a geek but it's just so fun that you marvel at it.

You sleep the best you have in more than a week in Armsmaster's bed, with an audiobook of Flowers in the Attic helping you drift off to sleep. You didn't need to buy one, Armsmaster is a fan, too, and had a copy in his computer.

When you wake up around 1 PM Armsmaster is sitting cross legged on his couch, with another set of holograms and screens prepared.

"I'm glad you're up. Bakuda hasn't struck yet today. If you don't mind, I have a few questions on your new anti-Bakuda agents."

"Sure, if you don't mind a bit more talk on taking down the Undersiders."

"I do not."

You chat on tactics for the next 45 minutes, narrowing it down to a few choices.

[X] Release the plague against Skitter. Armor up and prepare for counter attack as suggested. Tinker with the torture plague to unleash if Tattletale really does go all out and attacks your loved ones.

[X] Wait until after the Bakuda situation is resolved, and strike with Protectorate and Ward backing. Skitter might kill someone in that time, and if you keep delaying there might never be a good time, but attacking while Bakuda is still loose could be a problem. However, if you delay their psychic could pick up on your plans and attack with Skitter still fully active.

[X] Write in. Take out the Undersiders without a plague. What do you think would be best?

Wait until after the situation with Bakuda is cleared up. Skitter probably won't kill anyone if she thinks she's a hero. That should give you time. Then contact her. Through Armsmaster, or if he doesn't have a way try to find one. Set up a meeting with her. That way she can either agree to help take in the undersiders at that meeting, OR show her true colors as a villain and refuse. If she refuses plan with Armsmaster how to capture her at that meeting. It also gives time to perfect bio-armor and other tricks.

Armsmaster looks tired after you end the discussion.

"I wish we could hit them hard and fast before they get the chance to do something worse. Maybe Skitter will reign them in, but we're stretched too thin with Bakuda. Thank you for your help with her." He glances down at a light that doesn't strike you as particularly different from the other lights around him. "I have to go. We're hoping that we've found a way to jam her controls for the homicide bombs she's planted on people." He takes something he's been working on while you were talking, a mess of antennas and exploded wires.

"Good luck." You tell him as he walks out the door. Armsmaster doesn't respond.

You have an hour until hospital time. Fuck. You're already lonely now that Armsmaster's out. The Victoria shaped hole in your heart is back open.

You begin to pace. You feel useless again. You aren't doing anything that they couldn't have done without you. Armsmaster was so proud of the plague and all the other ideas. You calmly shape a set of plants he'd ordered over night into the prototype for the Undersider defenses you had talked about earlier.

Then you hear an explosion outside. Ducking through a small tunnel and emerging out of an alley (the whole system for secret identities is so stupid) you find yourself on a street. A bunch of clearly terrified kids, Asians, are pointing guns everywhere. One of them, a massively fat man, has some kind of Tinker created gun, if gun is the term, that looks like it has powerful explosives in it.

The battlefield is not one sided. You see Flechette is here, moving quickly, darting from positions of cover. Nearby a man made of metal has his hands raised, surrounded by Bakuda's victims. Strangest, perhaps most worrying, is the girl standing back to back with the metal man. Red and black costumed, it is Rune of Empire 88, levitating a car in between her and the ABB victims.

You run over the situation in your mind. Bakuda victims, with the bombs implanted in their heads, are sent out to cause a big distraction, kill people, tie up Brockton Bay loyal forces. If they surrender, or are captured, they'll be killed. They'll probably be killed if they don't do enough damage, too. The heroes need to delay to save them. Some of the kids in ABB colors look middle school aged.

The massively fat man, a look of terror on his face, advances towards the man made of metal. The metal man charges forward, and the fat man fires the strange gun. A huge portion of the metal man's torso begins to dissolve into sand.

Flechette fires off a bolt, and the fat man's gun is disabled. The man screams in terror.

[X] You jump out forward, charging towards the man. You might be able to save him before or after Bakuda's bomb triggers. Or his bomb might kill you as well.

[X] There's nothing you can do for the victims. They're going to start killing heroes, kid heroes, if you don't end this. You start releasing the sleep organism, limited life cycle, to end this battle.

[X] You can't be tied up in this fight. The hospital will be waiting for you. If Bakuda is launching attacks like this here she's probably doing it elsewhere. You're not an EMT, and taking you out of commission for a day could kill as many people as all the victims Bakuda's forcing to fight here.

[X] There's nothing you can do for the victims. They're going to start killing heroes, kid heroes, if you don't end this. You start releasing the sleep organism, limited life cycle, to end this battle.

You pause for just a moment.

People are going to die, and it might be your fault. Children are going to die. It's Bakuda's fault for making you choose between letting her slaves kill people and killing her slaves, but you still hold some responsibility. What if you act, killing them right before Armsmaster's solution goes off?

You hear a gunshot, and Flechette is wounded. The terribly obese man, well, his head doesn't explode. Instead, he appears to pass out.

Fuck! You recognize the symptoms from the hospital earlier. Not a death bomb, a pain bomb. Perfect 10 on the pain scale. Within a few minutes the person dies of a stroke. The signals go out in a radius, effecting anyone who gets close.

The flood of microorganisms, not true bacteria or viruses, is helped along by your new suit. You have a lot more material than before. It enters the air, with the counter agent in your own blood being the only thing keeping you awake. Kids start dropping, and the obese man goes still, though he's probably still suffering in his dreams.

You frown, considering the obese man. You send out a small rat like thing you make out of your former glove, controlling it through the signals you learned from Skitter's bugs. Hm, interesting. Bakuda's bomb works on the same principles. You wonder if maybe the Vasils work the same way.

So far the bombs aren't going off. You have to wonder why.

You start experimenting with your earlier jammers and relays, trying to make some kind of interference to protect yourself from the pain bomb. Hm, you don't think you can manage it. The signals are directed rather than radio like, you'd need an entire suit full of bug brain material to deflect it, a while layer without any gaps, and then you couldn't use your powers on the man.

[X] You have an idea. You pull the rat drone back, and make contact again, pushing in a new micro-organism. This will shut down the pain centers in the brain. It's breaking your rule, your biggest rule, but fuck. If you don't have to touch Victoria the whole thing's gone, isn't it?

[X] You have a much more intriguing idea. You could shut down your own pain centers using a micro-organism. Long term, you couldn't keep it up. You've cured the people who were killing themselves because they naturally lack pain receptors.

[X] Both ideas are too risky. You fling a dart carrying a ridiculously deadly toxin at the man. Better to put him out of his misery.

But that's not the end of it.

"They wanted you alive." The woman who steps out of thin air is wearing a gasmask and a full spandex suit with ABB colors. As you eye the woman you get a growing sense of dread. This is not a simple costume. There are little signs here and there, in how the gloves fit with the arms, the mask, different machines placed at weak points. She's preparing a biohazard suit from the materials she had available. Fucking Tinkers. You consider it might be a bluff, but no, she was almost certainly invisible, teleportation fits worse than a hologram projector.

Seriously, bombs do not do her specialty justice. It has to be something more basic.

"Hello, Bakuda."

"Hello, Panacea." There's a gloat in her voice. "I was here for the Japanese girl. I'm a bit short on capes at the moment. Now, here is how it is going to go. You are going to come to me, and I am going to force a small tube up your nose. This tube is a bomb, capable of killing you in several ways. Then you will come with me. If you try to delay, I will start killing the kids, one every two seconds, until you're close enough for the surgery to begin." You hear an explosion.

[X] You move towards her as quickly as possible. She wants you alive. You'll have time to prepare, think of ways out of this, develop a new plan.

[X] You move forward as quickly as possible. The bomb on her heart means you can't kill her, but you can fling a dart with the sleep organism into her, especially at close range. It'd take a few seconds to work, of course. That's assuming it gets through her costume, which could be more durable than it looks, and she easily could kill everyone in the few seconds it takes to trigger the attack.

[X] "Kill another one and I'll release something to kill everyone here, us included." They want you alive. You think in a second you could whip up something to eat through her biohazard suit, limited life cycle, and with enough kick to kill everyone on the street including you. You're not releasing it yet, but you can't let Bakuda have pull over you by hurting and killing the kids. You already wrote them off. If she kills another one, you'll release the street sweeper to kill everyone else.

[X] You have a much more intriguing idea. You could shut down your own pain centers using a micro-organism. Long term, you couldn't keep it up. You've cured the people who were killing themselves because they naturally lack pain receptors.

Immune to pain, you move forward to help the man. Simple now, really. You warp the flesh away from the bomb and pick it out, blind to the agony it should inflict, is inflicting. It's just as easy to mold the flesh back in place.

You consider what to do with the vile, evil thing. Attempting to stomp on it fails, and if the thing could be destroyed by water it wouldn't have thrived in the man's blood. You move away onto the empty street, and wonder about the range. You'd rather use a shotgun or something. You decide to throw it up on top of a house, hitting the roof with a satisfying clunk and staying there. You think it will be out of reach of people there.

You feel another pang of loneliness. It was Mark who taught you and Victoria how to catch a ball. A bit of a cliche, but Mark always tried to be a bit of a cliched dad when he could put in the effort.

Flechette catches your eye. She is cute when she's sleeping. You are happy you're gay, in that moment. You're glad you can appreciate this woman. For a shining moment you're glad about who and what you are.

Then, of course...

[X] You move forward as quickly as possible. The bomb on her heart means you can't kill her, but you can fling a dart with the sleep organism into her, especially at close range. It'd take a few seconds to work, of course. That's assuming it gets through her costume, which could be more durable than it looks, and she easily could kill everyone in the few seconds it takes to trigger the attack.

-[x] And in case her suit can stand up to a dart, we can prepare a backup. Build muscles into our suit where she won't see right away, something that exerts as much impact force as we can and some kind of penetrating spike or teeth, more likely to punch through her armor and deliver the fastest-acting incapacitating bioagent we can directly to her bloodstream. If she lets us get into melee range- or tries to force that thing up our nose- she'll find out which of us is deadlier at knife range.

Another bomb goes off before you're there. "Be quicker, darling." She laughs. You notice she doesn't have the creepy voice changer anymore. Why is that?

The dart hits her in the throat. She reels back, turning, and detonates something. You're blind and deaf for a moment, and then she's back and someone else is dead.

"You have spunk." She sounds pretty happy all things considered. The dart is gone. Has she been affected, or did her armor defend her? You can't tell. "So, the Nazi, or the Case 53?"

"What?"

"Which one do I kill for your move, girl. You're in surgery range. I want the Asian, but those two I can kill. Since you have spunk, I'm giving you the choice. Piss off the most powerful villains in the city, or..." There's something off about your voice. "So that's what it does. Clever. Well, all of them." She throws something at the Wards. She's got enough firepower that her aim being really off probably doesn't matter. The shrieking, sonic thing makes its way bizarrely slowly through the air. "Darn, the 87 instead of the 84..." You wonder why she's still awake. Could her tinker powers provide resistance, but not immunity? "I see why they want you..." She slumps down.

"That was good." A strange, eely voice from right next to you says. You look up. The slow moving bomb has been replaced. Your mind scrambles for how this makes sense. Who could do this? You can't see anyone next to you. "Releasing the counter to the sleeping virus, now! We need those three up and running before her new friends get here."

[X] It's a trap. She said she was recruiting, and working for someone. They're trying to trick you into giving them the counter plague, whoever they are. You order your anti-Grue defenses to start operating. They should be good against this Stranger.

[X] "Who are you?" You release the counter agent. They haven't attacked you yet, so they're probably on your side. It could be the extra heroes sent in to fight ABB. It's time for a leap of faith.

"I'm not doing anything until I know who you are." This is a big risk. If they're enemies then they could hurt you. Friends, they're telling the truth and Bakuda's "new friends" will be here, but you need more information before you act.

[X] "Who are you?" You release the counter agent. They haven't attacked you yet, so they're probably on your side. It could be the extra heroes sent in to fight ABB. It's time for a leap of faith.

-[x] But there are limits to faith in unknown friends, and risking Bakuda's allies rescuing her crosses them. Before the counter-agent has had enough time to wake anyone up, get up to Bakuda and finish her reign of terror on the city- injecting something more personalized that will keep her nicely unconscious until we reverse it, even if that means she's out for months, should end things.

Perhaps if you had remembered the possibility that dangerous movers could be among Bakuda's allies you wouldn't have marched right towards the person they would reach first.

A blur of blue hair and orange skin falls right on top of Bakuda, pulls back her goggles, and spits on her face before you reach her. You fling more darts at both of them. They penetrate, but the exhilerated shriek coming from Bakuda sounds awfully like he's a counter to your sleep organism.

"That's more like it!!" Bakuda howls. A moment later explosions start going off as she kills more kids in a manner not unlike someone pumping her fists into the air. There's not many left, though she still has enough lives to threaten that she could keep the upper hand. The boy is still standing on top of her, and looks sick.

"We need to go, now!" The eely voice sounds scared and desperate. A second later, the Case 53 is charging you, and just before he reaches you he's replaced with Flechette. You put a hand on her, fixing her shoulder as quickly as you can. It's a hack job, but you think she could use her bow. She's waking up now, looking scared and sleepy.

"You know, I don't even want to kill you now." Bakuda's voice is impressed. "I think Heartbreaker will be much more fitting. Don't you, Newter?" Newter doesn't respond, he keeps being switched with the surviving hostages so he doesn't have time to reach you. Suddenly Bakuda fires something at thin air. There's a very weird distortion in the air, and then nothing. "Oh, now I'm sad I didn't get to see what that was." Bakuda pouts. You throw another dart, hoping Newter's effect has worn off. It doesn't seem to do anything, but there's always a delay. You start backing up, looking for a possible escape route. The kids are waking up, and several of them are surrounding you, blocking possible exits, dragging less aware ones with them, trying to stop Bakuda from killing them.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK!

"Oh, why didn't I realize it before?" Bakuda says. "Howdy, Trickster." She starts unleashing small rockets in random directions. "Good counter for bombs, aren't you?" Several rockets find their way back to her by the same power that was switching Newter, allowing Newter to get a lot closer to you. Newter is fast. This is risky, and the bombs aren't actually going off if they're near her. Some kind of fail safe?

"Trickster! Here's the deal. In maybe three minutes there's going to be a midlife crisis sports car that shows up here. When you see it, it'll be too late. If you leave the girl, you won't have to worry. If he sees you, you'll wish you were dead."

Suddenly you're teleported, disoriented. You're face to face with a man who you can't help but think is dressed like a pimp given his top hat and cane. He pushes you down. Flechette's nowhere to be seen.

"Ma'am, she's working with Heartbreaker. If she's telling the truth we are fucked if we don't run right now.

"Heartbreaker." You shudder. "Your teammate..."

"She's fine. It wasn't her real body. Neat trick, invisibility. She's been trying to get it right for weeks." You hear more bombs going off.

"Amy, if you run I'll kill your friends..." Bakuda's voice is singsong. "I promise I'll only kill the Nazi if you give yourself up."

"We have to run. We can't win this fight!" Trickster sounds urgent, desperate. It makes sense under the circumstances.

[X] Run. Trickster is your best bet.

[X] Surrender. You can't let her kill more kids, especially the Wards. Well, she'll kill another kid best case, but Rune is a Nazi.

[X] FIGHT! Write in, subject to reasonableness and discretion. Absolutely no promise that any plan would work or save anyone.
You whisper to your new ally, "Trickster, swap places with Rune. Just for a second, long enough for me to touch her. Then swap out with me and put Rune near something heavy."

"No." Wait, what? "We're going." I am not fighting Heartbreaker. I am not leaving you behind.

"We don't have to win, just get everyone away. We can't leave them to those monsters!" Your voice is tinged with anger, desperation.

"Yes. We. Can. Heartbreaker." Trickster growls. He looks at your face. "Fuck me with a live fish." He switches for a moment, Rune is there.

"Fuck you ruined..." You touch her, and she's gone. You have a sinking feeling in your stomach.

"Throw a car at her!" You shot over her objections. You deliver most of it back to Trickster, who looks pissed.

"We go. Now!"

As he says it you hear a thud. The thud sounds wrong. Victoria's sister knows how a thrown car should sound like. What is Rune doing? You hear Bakuda laughing, bad sign.

"Then swap me out with Flechette." For the second phase of your plan you begin the edges of your gauntlet, producing razor-edged claws. You have a rule against killing, but there's always kneecaps.

"Christ, she's not gonna kill you." He mutters, and for a second you're swapped with Flechette. You feel a powerful, orange hand wrapped around your head, too fast to do anything, sudden and horrible, and you're swapped back. "Can we please run now!"

"Not until you group them together. Swap the girls in ABB near an exit!" He grunts and looks up, making a move. You hear another burst of profanity from Rune and a very loud thud. You get the impression she was about to throw the metal man at Bakuda, which seems like an amazingly good idea. You think, panicking, not sure what to do..."

"Why not." The words carry more of a swear than any proper profanity, and suddenly Trickster is gone, replaced by Bakuda. She looks at you approvingly. You roll forward, slashing at her kneecaps, hoping it will give you a moment of surprise. She howls in pain as you penetrate something in her legs, but then she's gone again and you're facing Trickster. No, he switched you. You see out of the corner of your eye Rune flying on Flechette's back and oh fuck this why did this turn into a clusterfuck?

Then you hear a gunshot and Trickster falls down, screaming. One of the ABB soldiers shot him. Somehow this gives you clarity. You understand sick people. You grab him, and blast out the Vasil plague, or something like it but a lot worse, covering the area, breeding, overpowering, or maybe it's the Skitter plague? You can't remember which is which anymore. Bakuda's back and throwing more of her rockets as you grab Trickster and start healing him. A piece of gore hits your ear. You don't want to know who it is. You sense it's a girl, Japanese, as the cells die.

You have kind of stopped hearing the sounds of the fight, and then the metal man is flying, and he grabs you and Trickster and a pretty blond girl is riding his back. Then, suddenly, nothing makes sense.

___

You wake up in a bed that's not your own. Not an uncommon occurrence in the last week and a half. There are no windows and one door.

You're fine, you think. You look around. No one's changed your clothes, and you're pretty filthy from the earlier fight.

You try the door. It's locked. Someone has kidnapped you. Probably. You're still wearing your suit. You think for a moment. Bakuda's smart and loves fear, she'd have stripped you. It's not Bakuda.

You stretch out a piece of your suit and try to open it. It does work. Outside there are a pair of soldiers in familiar uniforms. They're familiar, but they're not US military. Where did you see them before?

They do not look scared that they're guarding Panacea. Your jailers (?) look tough. One of them presses a button on his belt.

"I take it I'm not allowed to go freely?"

"No ma'am." You get a nasty vibe from him. "We're holding you until she gets here. She? No need to ask.

"You're how I get out of here." The voice is young. A cape who doesn't age? Changer? Incredibly young, nasty trigger? Wait, no. You remember this voice. You look up at her. Dark brown hair. The voice is angry. You try to focus on the social cues. You've been trying since the Asylum. "They need her cured, I need them to get me home." You shudder. There's something off about the voice that wasn't there the last time you met Dinah Alcott.

"Who did you get help from?" You're scared. Nothing is right about this.

"The Travelers." She keeps walking towards you. "I saw how I escaped. Where I escaped, I guess. One day the probabilities jumped, so I took a peek. Now here we are." She has powers now. You doubt these soldiers would let her be standing here and talking like this if she was just crazy. "I asked two questions when you arrived. There's a 72% chance I go home now. There's a 32% chance you die, rounding the numbers."

"WHAT!" You choke.

"They're skipping town tonight so their boss doesn't kill them. They needed you. If you help them, they drop us off at the PRT. If you don't help them, they leave us here, and when Coil gets back there's a 64% chance you die. If you help them, there's a 38% chance you die."

"What about..."

"Don't ask me questions about the numbers."

"What do I do?"

"There's a monster here who used to be a woman. She went bad because of her powers. You're going to cure her."

Your heart sinks. You can't cure power related problems. It's never worked before. Still, 34% chance of dying isn't too bad.

[X] "I'll help." You sigh.

[X] "No." It's insistent. You cannot cooperate with kidnapping. 36% chance of surviving doesn't sound too bad, does it?

[X] "I am going to ask you about the numbers." Upsetting the girl might be a horrible, horrible idea. She might leave you locked in here, but didn't her statements imply there were better ways out of this? She gives you a look that despite everything you've been through still manages to scare you.

[X] "I'll help." You sigh.

"I need to get cleaned up, to talk to the Travelers about exactly what is going on with this monster of theirs, and to find out what happened since I passed out. What time is it?"

"No." Dinah tells you.

"What? I'm...

"The longer you wait the more dangerous it gets. Odds are getting worse all the time. You're meeting Noelle now if you want us to go home." You shake your head. The little bitch reminds you Carol.

"Alright, one question, and I'll do what you say." Dinah looks angry, but nods. "What are the chances I marry Victoria?"

"21.17306883%" She answers, and a look of absolute disgust becomes fixed on her face. You stand there, stunned.

This might be the happiest moment of your entire life.

"You, ugh!" Dinah gasps. "What the Hell is wrong with you!" You can't help but smile as you start walking, and then remember you don't know where to go.

"Lead the way, princess." Your head is clear, there's a spring in your step. God is in his Heaven and all is right with the world. You start humming a O Christmas Tree. Wait, no, same tune, different lyrics.

Then, just to piss her off, you start to sing it.

"O woe is me,
O woe is me,
I used to have a hamster tree,
But it was eaten by a newt,
And now I have no cuddly fruit,
O woe is me,
O woe is me,
I used to have a hamster tree!"

"You're a freak." Dinah tells you, and you can't help but take it as a compliment. You start cooking up as fast acting paralytic. Newter can counter the sleep agent, so other people probably can. It's a bit more risky, given how some powers work, but a backup is nice, as is a combo option. No reason you couldn't release both. It's a bit of a fun technical problem as the halls of the underground base pass you by. Everything is beautiful and nothing hurts.

Nothing hurts because you disabled your pain receptors earlier. You release a counter agent, but it will take a couple minutes in your brain.

"What can you tell me about how the heroes I was with before this are doing?" You ask after you finish the song. You're still not to whatever room you're going to.

"You were with heroes before this?" Dinah shrugs. "They didn't tell me that. Which heroes?"

"A man of metal, Flechette, Rune." Dinah looks at you like you're a freak again.

"Wait, Empire 88 are heroes to you?" She spits out. You walked right into that one.

"Rune was fighting ABB..."

"Ethnic gang on ethnic gang? You just said you're a dyke. They hate those." You briefly wonder how Dinah even knows that world. Then again, you probably knew it at her age.

"No, I recognized one of the heroes, Flechette, from out of town. She was fighting with them. I don't know what Rune was doing there." You're starting to seriously wish you weren't working for this girl.

Dinah ignores you as you make your way to a massive vault door. She presses some buttons (wait, she's a prisoner here, how does she know passwords?) and the vault creeks open. There's another vault door to get through now.

"Try not to her her eat you." Dinah tells you as the second door opens. You smell horrible rotting meat now, and see, ohmygodwhatisthat!

"Hello." A very tired human voice says from far too high above you. "Thanks for coming. I know it can't be easy. The small girl on top of the monster, is that Noelle, or is all of it Noelle?

Suddenly a massive foot comes out, animalistic, a lion's foot, and stops inches from you. Dinah leaves.

"Good luck." She tells you.

[X] RUN!

[X] "Not to be silly, but what is the problem? Besides the turning into a giant monster part. Anything I need to know before I begin, Noelle?"

[X] Releasing a plague feels like a really good idea right now. The strongest plague you can possibly think of, as long as you're underground.

[X] "Not to be silly, but what is the problem? Besides the turning into a giant monster part. Anything I need to know before I begin, Noelle?"

You seriously consider the paralytic agent. And improve it. Patients have to be subdued all the time for doctors to save them. For everybody's safety. Yup.

"Touch me and you're absorbed, and an evil clone pops out." She gives a harsh, humorless laugh. "I don't even get why they brought you here. I have read about you. You can't change powers, can't do brains, and need to touch me to work." She sounds distant. "Also I keep losing control. There's something else in here that's not me. It came with my powers." She sinks down to the floor.

"What do you mean be absorbed?" You ask tentatively. "You mean, eaten?"

"No, it's different from being eaten. I can even spit you out. You just relive your worst nightmares while I keep baking clones of you."

"What about the evil clones? How are they evil?" This was such a bad idea.

"Depends on the clone. We've never let any of them live that long, but they go psycho right away." You consider things. This is such a very, very, very bad idea.

"Give me a moment to think." You sit down and focus on your suit material, thinking about it. "What if I do it with a gloved hand?"

"Never tried it before." You sit there and draw out a plan, asking questions about her transformation, the clones, the powers.

It's hours before you start the operation.

___

You rest your hand on Noelle. You've spent 20 minutes working with bacteria and experimenting with her skin.

It half works.

Powering through, you can keep the agents on her skin from weakening you, depowering you, absorbing you, forcing down the flesh as it starts to rise. You quickly gain an idea of Noelle's body, something you absolutely need.

Unfortunately, the body, the powers, even if it can't harm you, recognizes you. You get a weird flash to something, a garden of body parts. There's a meeting here, a consciousness.

Your attention slips for just a second, and Noelle convulses.

That is the first clone, Nostrum.

You keep your focus, attacking the only possible weak point. Deep in the brain is a body part that grows when someone gets powers. It helps to control the powers. From everything you've heard, Noelle's problems stem deepest from a lack of control.

You couldn't have made it if it weren't for the clone. Spat out, she rolls on the ground and gets up, a firm glare at Noelle. She's no you but all through the body things get easier, it stops fighting you quite as hard. Well no, the body's fighting just as hard, but you're not fighting alone. Something in the first clone is loyal to Noelle, or knows that Noelle agreed to stomp the clones and is fighting to survive.

You reach into the brain. You'd made the choice, brains or death. If it was just you, it might be death. For a chance with Victoria, you're willing to take it. You make a sudden, violent change.

The beast under the girl howls as it dies. The howl makes you fall to the ground, and the convulsions of Noelle hit you again.

That's the second clone, or the second and third clones. Louis Marie and Madeline Laure. A horrible hunk falls to the ground, a disgusting Siamese twin with two heads and four arms and four legs. You would have been crushed if not for Nostrum keeping it up, forcing Noelle's dying body to still. You get up and press your hand into Noelle again.

"Try it!" You shout as you finalize the change. Now her corona gamma is shaped, as near as you can make it, to Flechette's, another Striker, seemed like some reasonable control.

She coughs up a hunk of dead meat.

You can keep going. Her monstrous body is nearly dead, now. You do your next try, and shape it like Victoria's. "Again!"

The perfect man hits the ground. He looks strangely like Victoria to you. Perfect human features. Amazingly handsome. He gives you a winning smile.

"We're done." Nostrum says, and Noelle collapses to the ground in the face of Nostrum's glare. The girl falls out of the monstrous shell.

"But there's no more of us." One of the conjoined twins, Louis Marie, says.

"Sis wasn't going to keep going. The big girl needs to cook a while before she'll be ready again with what Amy did to her." Nostrum sighs. "A pity." She waves her hand at you and frowns. "Didn't work."

She'd just tried to kill you. You stare in horror.

"Our powers don't work on ourselves. I guess they don't work on each other." Madeline Laure moans, her own speech distorted.

"A pity. So I guess I'll have to strangle her myself." Nostrum advances on you, looking very happy. You release the darts, but they won't do any good on you.

"Where's the fun in that?" The perfect man asks with a wicked grin, moving forward.

"The fun is in killing her." Nostrum glares at Phantasos. "The pathetic, murderous bitch, the freak needs to die."

"Not before she sees what we do to the city." Phantasos moves in between you and Nostrum. Words spelling "trust me" are spelled out on his back in the cement of the floor. "She needs to know Victoria died before she dies." He pauses. "No, wait, I've got a better idea. Let's give her to Heartbreaker." Why would you trust him?

"Oh, now that's an idea. I think I can go cure him." You are flooding the room with everything you can think of. None of the clones seem disturbed in the slightest. "That's what he's here for, a cure." Nostrum sounds far too happy about this. "Rip up the city in a gang war, leave Heartbreaker free, and it's all her stupid fault." You fling a set of darts full of toxins, working, making a real gun. Then the cement from the floor rises up around you, trapping you in a cage.

"You do that. I'll bring Victoria around for you, while you negotiate with the criminals. What about you two, if you are separate?" You throw up.

"Ooh, I think we'll go kill Mommy and Daddy." One of the twin entities laughs. Words on the cement spell out 'I'm on your side Amy' and you wonder if it's just another mindfuck. "We're going to have a nice long talk with her first."

"Sounds fun. Let's all meet up at midnight with Heartbreaker." Phantasos's strong, beautiful voice tells you, and your sisters.

They begin to march out. A horrible set of movements, a strange cartwheel motion gets louder and louder.

"Like father, like daughter." One of them giggles with slurred speech.

"We remember, don't we sister? A wonderful house full of so many books, a beautiful man, almost as beautiful as our new brother." The one with clear speech says.

"We never knew the reference. So fitting, knowing us." The slurred one chimes in. "We were too young to get it.

"Just so you don't die knowing, Dad, our real dad, well, we'll give you a hint in our names." They say it in unison, and they tell you.

Then you hear galloping away.

A long time later, after you've stopped crying, you hear someone else leave.

Finally, no way to know how long it really was, someone smashes open the cement. It's a Noelle, looking furious, naked, covered in horrible goo and gore.

"What happened?" She hisses.

"The clones escaped." You mutter.

"Krouse didn't, he couldn't..." She leaves you there, moving far to quickly for you to follow.

You walk out. All around there's warped architecture and signs of battle. Moving to the surface, you find several bodies of people without obvious harm to them, Coil's soldiers.

On the surface there's a sight of a major battle. Two people in costume you don't recognize, a lot of soldiers you recognize as Coil uniforms.

Dinah, Noelle, Trickster, and the clones are nowhere to be seen.

You've have slaughtered them all if you could.

___

"It was the brave actions of New Wave that ended the rampage of the new cape known as Orthus." The news is showing your Glory Girl pushing a cement mixer down a ramp made by Shielder right into the monster.

You're back in Armsmaster's bed now. Secret identities really should help with people talking.

Victoria is safe. The creature looks rather like one of Bitch's dogs, but with far more bone for a reason you don't want to think about. The thing isn't dead, though it is completely sedated and is likely to be killed or sent to the Birdcage. So far no sign of the others.

Hot coco is good. Armsmaster claims it's Dragon's old family recipe.

Flechette is dead. Made it out of the fight, but apparently one of Bakuda's bombs had poisoned her. She'd died screaming in a hospital, thanks to Trickster. Without him you'd have been ready to help.

A lot of people died in the hospital thanks to Trickster. You keep trying to put yourself together enough to go. Armsmaster says his machines will tell him when you're ready. He's talking to Mark in the living room.

Somehow you just want to blame Tattletale.

Faultline's Crew broke Lung and Oni Lee out of jail today. ABB is back to full strength. Heartbreaker might still be here, or he might be going back home. It's impossible to know now, with Nostrum.

This was a very, very bad day.

Interlude

[X] Gallant (Must. See. Victoria.)

[X] Phantasos (What is he up to?)

[X] Faultline (Why is she working for Heartbreaker?)
Clothing is easy to get for you. It only took a few minutes to turn dirt and cement into something that approximates fabric.

That was yesterday. You have clothes and you are clean thanks to the refreshing dip in the ocean. Today you are looking for a job.

You had several options. The Wards might take you, if they took Nix, but it just lacked the special something you're looking for. You don't think you could stand Empire 88, the Merchants are just pathetic, and you do not want to get anywhere near ABB or Faultline's Crew right now.

The Undersiders, now, that was a team. Flawless record, had never been known to kill, loyal to each other. They are the perfect match.

Secret identities do make these things harder, but it's impossible to deny their practicality and the sheer style of them. When you spent some time at a library computer looking up the Undersiders you had taken a few minutes off for a codename. Panacea was not just the term for universal cure, it was the name of a minor goddess of the universal cure. Gods of inanimate objects had seemed a bit silly, but the god who is inanimate objects in dreams struck you as thunderously appropriate.

The Merchants have a truce with the Undersiders, and the Undersiders had teamed up with them to fight ABB. The whole thing was really Kaiser's show with the Travelers gone. No one else is really capable of contributing on his level. You suspect the truce is going to collapse before ABB is defeated, judging from what you see from the shadows. You were right, the teams are meeting up here to divide soldiers to strike at different objectives.

You spy tall dark and silent and focus. You've been here a while, spreading your power throughout the area. He's their leader according to parahumans wiki.

"Hello sir." If the Merchants weren't here you suspect an unknown person lurking around would have drawn more attention, but the disgusting way you had dressed implied you were part of the gang. You change it in a moment, creating strange new armor. Grue turns his mask to you silently.

"He doesn't talk." A small thrill runs down your spine as she shows up.

"I am sorry." You tell Grue. You turn to Tattletale. "Hello my lady. I would like to join your team."

___

You sit in this loft in a chair across from Tattletale. She is giving you a very careful but somehow intense look.

"What are you?" She asks finally.

"I am a product of powers, arguably a clone, though I think the terminology is imprecise. I was created yesterday, though I have a set of memories that make me 17 years old psychologically."

"Why do you want to join?"

"Several reasons. First of all, for my plans I need money, allies, and resources. Second of all I need a place to stay and fit in, which this provides better than other options. Third and post important, it will drive my sister crazy." You smile. Tattletale keeps on frowning.

"Which sister?" She asks.

"Amy, the Panacea. I love my other sisters far more. Expressing my love for one of them is the reason I need resources and a cover. Amy, I love her to death, but I can't help but want to get under her skin." You laugh. "So, I thought I'd join the last group of people she'd want me to join who don't kill people." Tattletale frowns harder.

"Did I miss an Undersider murder spree?" You actually don't have a problem with it, now.

"It's not that. Faultline wanted insurance when Heartbreaker hired her. If Heartbreaker pulls anything, we stop Amy from healing him. We don't think we would have to kill her, but if she threatens us too badly, she's too powerful to leave alive. We'd prefer to use Regent, or just knock her out for a while and take her elsewhere." You nod.

"No objections here. I'm glad you told me." You think. There's a more interesting question now. "Don't you and Faultline hate each other? I read it online, so it must be true." Tattletale smiles at you for the first time.

"Yes we do. That's why she hired us. We're the last person Heartbreaker would expect to work for her." You run over the implications in your head. Without them Faultline probably wouldn't have taken the job. Without Faultline's Crew helping ABB today they would have been defeated.

"My sister would be delighted. Everything that happened today is your fault." You give her a smile and she glares back at you. You have a sudden certainly that the two of you will end up sleeping together.

"Go fuck yourself."

"Oh, I won't have to, darling. I hope to have a sister for that soon enough." She looks confused for a moment, then sighs. "I think you need me. Bitch is dead. You're in the market for a new member. I assure you that if you need a heavy hitter I would be perfect for the job." Tattletale puts her face in her hands.

"You're right. We do have a new member, but she can't replace what Bitch can do." She nods slowly. "And God help me, I think you're more trustworthy than Skitter when it comes down to it. We do need each other. What I want you to tell me is your endgame. You think you're superior to Amy, I can feel that, but you want to get under her skin, you need to prove that superiority, define yourself by being better. How is this going to help with that?"

"I am going to show her she is wrong." You answer. "My powers are nothing like her powers, but I am going to use them better. I am going to have a happy life while she is miserable. I will be a villain and live guilt free." You lean forward and whisper in Tattletale's ear. "And I am going to marry Victoria."

___

You're not entirely sure you wouldn't marry Armsmaster so you can keep staying in his house. A tinker made shower is the best thing in the world.

You get back into the bedroom. Armsmaster is out now, and he's locked you in his house for your own safety. Mark agreed, and you don't actually disagree.

You looked up the names the conjoined twinschose. You shouldn't have but Armamaster's computer was right there. Deep down inside you'd always known. You just didn't want to face it. Part of you almost wishes that Tattletale had told you at the bank. It would have been easier to face it sooner. You slide out of the bed and walk into the living room. If you don't do this now you might never have the courage.

Mark's gone. New Wave is needed today. They're trying to get a victory, any victory, today. You try to call him, but he's out.

Marquis De Sade. Marquis, a crime lord in Brockton Bay's bad old days. He fits, right? You can't read too much about him, but you know too much. Someone with a code, someone who doesn't hurt women or children.

What does it say about you that you broke your code and he kept to his?

You sit down on the couch and moan. You've never needed your sister more than today.

___

You call Dean.

"Hello?" He sounds out of breath, exhausted...

You hang up the phone. He's probably just training, or had a fight, or had a run, or...

___

"Heartbreaker was sighted today fleeing from several members of Empire 88. Purity, Night, Fog, and Crusader were all seen pursuing him. Purity went down to a blast of napalm from the villain Spitfire, a member of the mercenary band known as Faultline's Crew. Kaiser has issued a formal statement that Heartbreaker must be stopped for the good of the world, calling him an abomination against nature. In other news, Armsmaster is in critical condition today after a fight with Bakuda was ended when a rush of hornets was ejected from underneath her armor. A statement by Brockton Bay General Hospital says that he has made a full recovery due to Panacea. Rumors are circulating that Purity was also taken to the hospital and healed. Rumor has it that Empire 88 has been granted an official truce by the PRT in exchange for their help against Bakuda."

You turn of the TV. Once again it is late, you can't sleep, and you miss Victoria. Well, actually it's not late, your sleep cycle is out of whack and Armsmaster has the best curtains to make it nighttime whenever you want to sleep.

[X] You're so worried about Victoria at a time like this. You eye the materials Armsmaster's been providing you. It's a lot of mass. Maybe you could make something special to keep her safe.

[X] Cranial is in town. She came to help Mark and Kid Win like she had promised. Maybe seeing her again would help. She's always been so nice to you.

[X] Purity had invited you to dinner before she left the hospital. A thank you for saving her life. You could get more information about Empire 88 if you went. They really are helping with ABB. It would at least be interesting to see what they're like.

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Never Far Behind

[X] You're so worried about Victoria at a time like this. You eye the materials Armsmaster's been providing you. It's a lot of mass. Maybe you could make something special to keep her safe.

Flechette...

Just thinking of her makes you feel both Guilty and sad, and somehow a twisted part of you whispers that you can at least make something of her death, that there at the edge of your mind lays inspiration. A suit, one better stronger, tougher than you've made before, using every trick of biology you can think of to reinforce and protect the one who wears it to push the limits of your power in creating a biological system which resembles her down to the DNA. Something which will help you react faster, and keep perfect timing, something that will let your darts hurt anything you need them to. This will help keep Victoria safe... it will... you just know it.

You feel a sudden mad urge to try and bring her back. It's almost irresistible, but you resist it.

You might be able to make Flechette a sister, but what life would that sister have? Someone with parents she doesn't remember quite right, perhaps a boyfriend who she doesn't remember, teammates who look at her wrong? Maybe someday you will try, you will make your children, but you are not ready to be a mother.

You spread the mass, living kelp, fungus, bacteria, and a sad, lobotomized pig out before you. You need to ask for animals less cute than pigs next time. At least it was better than the cat Armsmaster had offered you. He seemed confused when you told him you didn't want to break down a cat to feed and upgrade your armor. He was weirdly disappointed.

You think about Flechette's biology, her systems. Her corona gamma was one of the largest and most complex you have encountered. You think about it as you make the new costume. The small brain of the suit, located above the lower back, resembles her corona gamma in a lot of ways.

The suit will be excellent and responsive to targeting, incredibly easy to use. The sensory apparatus you build include subtle, hard to recognize eyes, ears, and nose. After a talk with Armsmaster you build all along the suit hairs and other small organs to sense subtle vibrations, what he hopes would be a good countermeasure to Grue and other Strangers. On the knees and shoulders you build in echolocation projectors, if that's the right term. There are bits to see with heat like a snake covering many of the same eyes.

You build along the suit an ability to interact with a human nervous system, sending in subtle clues to help the person react on instinct, use the suit's timing and sensory abilities properly.

You build hundreds of darts into the suit at every angle, each one carrying a small amount of hideously deadly poison that could be injected or not injected at will, as well as the normal limited life cycle sleep and paralytic agents to constantly be active on them. You seriously consider electricity generation, but that would use up too much mass. You do put in small biological guns on the boots.

You add in the ability to release a flood of the paralytic agent and the sleeping organism, both with limited life cycles. At all times it will be releasing the bug destroyer. If Skitter's teamed up with ABB that's just common sense. You also put a constantly active Skitter jammer in the left boot and another one in the suit's brain. It will use of calories, but it is just such a useful ability to have.

The flesh of the suit, the true skin, is based on the silk of the Brown Darwin spider. It should be quite resistant to gunfire, which is one of the biggest worries. You add in the full NBC precautions, with a gland that could produce anti-radiation drugs or cures and antidotes to poisons you have encountered. The suit would be able to recycle air under optimal conditions, though not for long without adding far too much bulk. You include a set of gills along the bottom and belly in the unlikely chance of being forced to fight underwater. In a pinch the suit would kill itself to feed or water the user, though you're not sure when it could come up.

The hood is designed to come up at a proper thought from the user. Otherwise it lies along the back. You add a cape to store food and water for the organism, a whole cape with no other purpose. It might be a bit of a waste, but it's best to be conservative and redundant, compensating for the worst possible disaster you could imagine.

You toy with strength augmentation, but muscles are massive and energy intensive. It just isn't efficient to give the suit super strength when so many other uses are possible. You add in hard switch blades along the arms and knees, sharpened to a molecular level someone with good strength behind it could wield them to deadly or practical effect. Along the back you include something much like a jellyfish tentacle, a terrible stinger thing full of poison, held in check by the cape unless combat is called for. Fine manipulation tentacles curl up the sides of the arms.

Camouflage is too intensive and conflicts with too many other abilities. It would be useful, but it would conflict with the sensory abilities far too much.

You need the suit to be thin enough to wear in normal situations, under normal clothing, so while you toy with ablative armor you eventually discard the idea.

You do some serious work with trying to make a true insect controller, or ideally a full range controller for other things, but you just can't make it work. Whatever Skitter does it has to be seriously impressive. You do add a fleet of twelve hibernating wasp drones to scout, each one carrying your now typical payload of the paralytic, the sleep inducer, and the neuro-toxin.

Temperature regulation is another thing that proves too calorie intensive. The thing isn't even warm blooded. You adjust it to work with human body heat.

Next is a combat data recorder, or memory, for the suit. You could play back and understand the memories of this thing infinitely and perfectly as long as the brain isn't destroyed. On that thought, you include backup brains in the right armpit and left inner thigh.

You try to think of more skills, but overall you're not sure what you could include besides combat. Without making this creature into something uncomfortably intelligent and antonymous you can't think of anything besides sewing, rather limited surgery, and typing. Maybe you'll think of more later. It all needs to be things you can think of and release something quite automated safely.

The surgery makes you think of more medical ideas. You include coagulant and anti-coagulant glands, a number of powerful anti-biotics, pain killers, and make the whole thing rather capable of acting as a bandage. The fine manipulation tentacles can also be ripped off to make bandages for other people, and all of the chemicals can be injected through a needle in the left arm. In addition to add a set of tools into the fine manipulation tentacles, checking online for actual multi-tools for inspiration. That gives you another idea and you look up what should actually be in a first aid kit.

Flashlight and batteries for the flashlight, apparently. You prepare a fairly inert one under the right breast that could be extracted and turned on to provide a couple hours of light, though it would need to be remade afterward. Thinking for a moment you add a pouch in the cape for normal batteries of all the common types, because that could just be useful. You toy with the cape again for a bit and play with the tentacles to make it a good blanket and more versatile bandages, respectively. Also in the cape you put in a few pseudo-latex gloves. You add in better precise heat sensing for medical purposes along the fine manipulation tentacles. You add in a few instinctive monitors for other vital signs.

Since you're doing the boring practical stuff you also Google what Boy Scouts suggest to bring camping for more ideas. You can't believe you didn't think of plain old binoculars, and you add them to the hood, powerful tools designed to help natural eyesight in a number of ways that you tinker with for half an hour. A camera sounds good but you think that would be handled best with ordinary technology, something to ask Armsmaster about. Ooh, a compass, you put in an instinctive memory of direction and a bird like sense of which way is the magnetic north.

Sun glasses put you in mind of sensory attacks in general. You put in easy ways to adjust for glare and high levels of noise into the hood. With a thought or at sensing discomfort the hood would shut down sight and sound, and the lenses of the binoculars are made to be glare resistant. Magnifying glass, ooh, you add that to the hood's eye gear and work it into the fine manipulation tentacles.

You wonder if this is special enough. You add in something like smelling salts in case of unconsciousness after a moment's thought. You've been falling asleep after stress a lot lately. After another bit of thought you put in the ability to release intense noxious odors.

The big problem is the digestive system. The careful balance of capabilities is complex. It will need to be directly fed nutrients and all kinds of strange traces every day. You write up a list of everything and send it to Armsmaster and the PRT.

You'll need at least two, one for yourself and one for Victoria. You'll talk to Armsmaster about who else you could outfit with this. You know Victoria's biology more than well enough to make her suit without seeing her, but you'd have to do any further tailoring in person.

___

Bonus Interlude: Gallant

Carlos stands at the front of the room. It's a pleasant Friday afternoon. Victoria sits besides you, reading a paperback of Petals on the Wind while she waits for Chris and Dennis to arrive. Chris was having another appointment with Cranial and Dennis was his ride.

Victoria is a bit of a mess. She spent a lot of time in the room she'd claimed, the former guest room. She was reading a lot lately, four hours a day, consistently. She was also training harder than ever before. She hadn't officially joined the Wards yet, but Carlos and Colin are letting her use their resources as long as she keeps fighting alongside them. No one looked forward to sparing with her except for Missy, who seemed to be getting a lot out of the practice.

She'd been, well, weirdly sexually insistent, too. It doesn't feel right. You know you're supposed to be thrilled about this as a teenage boy, but she's acting more like she has something to prove. You're not really sure if you should start turning her down or ask about it or what. You would ask Armsmaster but he's barely around, either he's hunting the villains or working with Amy.

Chris and Dennis finally come in. Chris is beaming and Dennis is smiling too. Chris wasn't even truly cured yet and he had been more productive in the last few days than in weeks before. Whatever Cranial is doping Chris with must be good.

"Alright, now that we're here we can begin the weekly strategy meeting." Carlos says. "Now, I know our first impulse is to talk about ABB, Heartbreaker, and Faultline, but I think that would be a mistake. If we focus too much time thinking about them we'll be blindsided when they go down, and they will go down. Alright people, what is going to hit us once this truce ends?"

"The Undersiders." Victoria says. "Empire 88 is going to be stressed by this, they're in a full blown war right now and Kaiser will want to capitalize on PR instead of holdings. The Merchants, they're dangerous but they don't have the brains to do anything to effective. The Travelers are gone. Coil's been quiet and it looks like he got into a war with the Travelers before they left. The Undersiders are ballsy. They'll go for something big to pick up more reputation as soon as this is over."

"Interesting." Carlos smiles. "Personally I think they're a bit too small time, but interesting. What do people think about reports that they're working with ABB?" You shudder at the memory of the hornets rushing Armsmaster.

"It wasn't them." Missy speaks up. "We know they lost Hellhound and nearly lost Skitter to Bakuda. She's faking it somehow. She wanted to break the villain truce, and had something to make it look like she had Skitter's help." Victoria nods.

"I agree. Doesn't fit." Carlos says. "We'll discuss the Undersiders again at the end of the meeting. Panacea wants to talk to Skitter. We all know she thinks she's undercover, or did a couple weeks ago. I think we can probably hit them, either with Skitter's help or by revealing she was undercover, when they pull their next big move. Now, what about the Merchants?"

"I think it's safe to be reactive with them. Put pressure on them, wait for them to make a mistake." Dennis suggests. "They're going to pull some kind of strategy.

"I agree." Mason, Browbeat, says. "I dealt with them a lot before I joined. We capitalize on their mistakes, ideally we heard them against Kaiser or someone else and let them be destroyed by another gang. They can probably be tricked into it.

"Alright, that leaves Coil." Carlos says. "Great troops, but no parahumans. Suddenly goes quiet when everything goes hot in the city. I do not like the feel of this. We've had a lot of trouble tracking him down."

"You know if we get Skitter that might be easier. The reports Kaiser's been giving us on the ABB raids claims she's great at battlefield control and gathering information." Sophia speaks up for the first time today. "I think the two of us would handle them well. I could hit them where they aren't expecting, she can keep pressure and give information. Harass and confuse, with full on attacks once we've forced them to concentrate."

"Great, Sophia!" Carlos starts writing on the board. "I think once the Undersiders go down, one way or another, Coil should be our target. His troops are relatively safe for us to handle if we do it right with backup." He turns back from the board. "Now, guys, I know we all want to fight the Nazis, but Empire 88 is delicate right now. Armsmaster told me that we're not going to be allowed near them unless the Protectorate needs backup." Sophia looks angry.

"So we're just supposed to let those Nazi fuckers keep hurting people?"

"No, Sophia, but they're too strong for us. Armsmaster and Calvert will have to think about our strategy for them. After all of this we'll have to do something really smart to make them look bad. They're just looking too good when compared to the other ethnic, racist bastards who are actually blowing up the city." Carlos sighs. "Now that's over with, I'm sure we all want to talk about the real lunatics." The reactions are mixed. Sophia looks even angrier. Missy looks excited. Chris looks bored. Dennis seems amused by Sophia. Mason looks happy. Victoria, you aren't sure about Victoria's expression. Her mood is pensive.

"ABB, Heartbreaker, and possibly Faultline's Crew." Carlos gestures to the biggest names on the board, colored in red, black, and gray markers. "Faultline's Crew haven't been seen working for them since they broke Oni Lee and Lung out of jail, but there's no reason they can't show up again. Heartbreaker himself has been laying low, but the Thinkers are all getting really bad vibes about him, depending on how they work. Bakuda also hasn't been seen much lately, which scares everyone. Oni Lee has been carrying out bombings, but we think he's using a handful of tried and true ones that he's only releasing clones of. Whatever Bakuda's doing it's taking up all her attention. Lung's been fighting the villain alliance, attacking an enemy location two or three times a day. That's good for us, but collateral damage has been bad. They're talking about bringing in Protectorate heroes from other cities, maybe Legend." He doesn't mention what you all know, that the other Wards were all pulled out of the city after Flechette died.

"Let's fuck'em up." Sophia suggests. "Add pressure. They can't be in a good situation if Bakuda's occupied and they're facing half the villains in the city."

"Most of their bombed soldiers aren't killing people. We'd probably kill more people if we rounded them up and launched full on attacks than Bakuda does." You point out. "We need a calculated strike to defeat her. Otherwise we'd lose." Sophia gives you a death glare.

"Amy offered a plague to knock them out for a couple days." Victoria says cautiously. "90% of East Asians, 20% of other races. It'd knock out the gang and let us operate freely for a while."

"Too drastic." Carlos says. "Also illegal and looks racist. Maybe if things get a lot worse, but we need to avoid that if we have any other choice. Do it now and it'd look like we had a full fledged alliance with Kaiser."

"We do have an alliance with Kaiser." Dennis points out.

"We have a truce with Kaiser." Carlos snaps, frustrated. "That's different. He's giving us information on his enemies because it benefits him, and we aren't messing with each other because other people are more important. There's a big difference between an alliance and that." You can see Dennis is unconvinced, and Sophia clearly thinks Carlos is shouting a lot of bullshit.

"The Protectorate will handle ABB, mostly." Missy points out. "We just play along with their strategy."

"Yes." Victoria agrees. "The big picture is cool, but we're not ready for them. It's the smaller forces that slip through the cracks that we might actually do something about, especially with Calvert. He's been giving us a much freer hand."

"Us?" Sophia asks.

There's an awkward silence. Everybody knows Victoria probably won't be staying much longer. She hates Ward bullshit.

"Moving on." Carlos gives a pointed look at Sophia. "I said we'd get back to the Undersiders. Here's why. Armsmaster has told me that Amy is branching out. He said she's almost like a tinker now." Carlos laughs. "He tried to hide it, but I think he's jealous. Anyway, Amy's offering us to try something new she's created. A kind of power armor. She wants to meet with us. The suits started off optimized for the Undersiders, since she was worried about them attacking her, but she put in a lot more thought. Anyone who is willing should sign up for an appointment with her where she works with us on our suit. We give suggestions, things we might want or find useful. Armsmaster wants to try it on us before she branches out to the Protectorate. We're less experienced, have fewer habits we might need to change." Victoria has gone very still. "He said to give this to you, Victoria." Carlos bends over and picks up a box. "He said it's from Amy, your suit." Victoria moves fast, grabbing it, looking fixed, hard, then controlled. She doesn't say a word.

"Now, does anyone not want to meet with Amy?" Carlos asks. No one seems to have any reservations.

___

Victoria's watching MTV next to you while you try to read your math homework. You can tune it out pretty easily. She said she didn't want to be alone tonight. She's wearing the strange black suit of thin armor already. She says she wants to get the feel of it.

You have to stop the TV, turn it off.

"Victoria, what are you afraid of?" She glares at you, but she knew what she was getting into, dating an empath.

"The bank, is it Tattletale revealing something?" You press.

"Not anymore." Victoria frowns heavily. "I, Amy told me everything."

"The bugs, Skitter?" You'd seen her, after Skitter was through with her. Welts, stings, crawled up mouth and nose, you can't really imagine that she's really an undercover hero. Heroes don't do things like that.

"Meh, I could take her." Victoria laughs. She thumps her hand against her knee. No, not the knee, the suit, optimized to beat the bug girl.

"So, what is it?" Victoria is still and silent for a long minute.

"I threw up on Amy." She tells you. "When I kissed her." The kiss was not a secret. She'd confessed it the moment she saw you when she got back from Albany.

"That's a bit extreme..."

"It's not kissing her, Dean James Stansfield." If there's anything you hate about your parents, it's that naming decision. "We talked before. When she confessed. I, she doesn't just love me, love love me. She, she had trouble not, like, making me feel the same way. She can't do brains because of it. She killed people because she was afraid she'd rape me." Victoria starts rushing the words out. "I thought, maybe, I could feel something else, maybe with anti-therapy or Cranial or her powers, but then, when she kissed me, she forced her tongue down my throat. She's not the sister I thought she was. It was demanding, insistent. I wasn't good enough!" She suddenly snaps. "I was the best sister in the world, and my lips weren't enough! Nothing I could do would be good enough for her. I got this huge pit in my stomach, thinking she might decide to go all the way with her powers, make me into her wife." There's so much contempt in the word. "I can't even think about seeing her in person anymore. After all of this she might do it because she thinks I might never see her again if she doesn't. I miss her so much but I'm scared all the time." She curls up next to you. "I love her, Dean."

"I love her too." You say honestly. "She's like a sister to me, you know that. We just have to trust her." Victoria falls asleep next to you.

___

End Interlude

___

It's Saturday morning. The sun is shining, and you're about to outfit the Wards with new abilities.

[X] Write in. Ideas for specially outfitting:

Aegis
Browbeat
Clockblocker
Gallant
Kid Win
Shadow Stalker
Vista
You sit down in the large classroom the Wards reserved for the consultations. It is stuffed to the brim with working materials. You breathe in and sigh. This makes you feel useful. Something about changing things, making them better, making them right can keep your focus much better than just sewing people up. Maybe it's just the excitement of something new and different.

The Wards have appointments alphabetical by codename. This means Carlos is first. As their leader it seems like a good idea to work out the kinks with him.

"Hello, Amy." Carlos gives you a big smile. He's rubbing his hand. "Yeah, everyone wants a suit after they tried to spar with Victoria wearing that thing. Nobody was beating her anyway and she just soloed the whole team in a spar." He shakes his head. "So yeah, everything you gave her, I think we all want it. Assume that unless we say otherwise, and please bring up anything you'd need to sacrifice in order a capability we want." You nod. It makes sense.

"Before we begin, anything you noticed about the suit that you think might need changing?" You eye the whiteboard of the room. Carlos moves to it.

"Yes. First of all, the material is really thin. Any particular reason for that?"

"Victoria's strength goes down at the worst times, but her flight doesn't. Any more weight than she absolutely needs could kill her at the wrong moment." Carlos nods and starts writing. "The way she flies it's best to keep her as light as possible. It gives her just a bit more speed and control. I think it will be different for most of the rest of you, but your flight could have a similar issue." Carlos frowns. He's not wearing a mask.

"I see your point. We do work similarly when it comes to flight. But I usually do carry armor and material anyway. I'm used to it. I think I could use more mass on mine, and I think most of us will to." He puts it on the white board with a marker.

"What about communications? Victoria and New Wave don't do much tactics like that, but you train a lot."

"We need to stay compatible with other teams for case of emergency, so specialized communications to replace our radios, out. One idea I had though was something like glowing drones, like the bugs you made. Different color codes for things like enemy or wounded, changing colors at will, bright enough for daytime missions?" That makes sense.

"Put it on the board. One thing I was thinking about was mobility. Victoria's incredibly mobile naturally, but most of you aren't. I was thinking of something like gecko pads to stick to walls, though of course you're as mobile as Victoria."

Carlos looks at the white board. "I'd put that as a maybe. I think some of us will benefit, but ask before you include it. Some of them might not want to be thinking in 3d." He looks excited.

"So, before we begin, what do you think you need out of this?" Carlos is filling out another eight columns on the board.

"I'm thinking a bit of a sniper, first of all. I can fly, and you seem to be pretty good at that kind of thing. I can stay out of range, coordinate, look at the big picture, and throw weapons at long range." You nod.

"I can see upgrading your weapons systems from the Victoria model, add in range, though the sight in the hood is about as good as I could make it unless I made a full new pair of eyes, and something that complicated would be hard to integrate." Carlos nods. "What else are you thinking of?"

"Well, I'm not a traditional brute. I'm strong, but not that strong, and mostly I can just keep fighting through a battle. I was thinking of making me dangerous and unpleasant to fight."

"About that, given your natural strength I was thinking I could add in more, a kind of hydrolic system, combing in a lot more super strength." Carlos looks thrilled at the idea. "It probably wouldn't be quite as good as Victoria, but it could be close. I can regulate, contain, and create the pressure well in the Aegis version of the suit. It would take up a lot of the suit's capabilities, or make it one of the larger ones, if we're trying to combine it with all the usual gear. It wouldn't be that bulky, probably less bulky than a normal power armor suit."

"That would be brilliant. I have to be the team brute a lot because no one else can, but I'm not really good at it, and the villains know it by now. Giving me extra strength would be really useful. I'm wondering if you'd find it weird to have the suit pierce my body? That'd give it a proper frame to act as reinforcement, scaffolding, and make it easier to use my strength. Injecting pain killers would be nice if we go that way."

"Creepy, but I get it, considering your powers. Interlocking hydrolic musculature, spider silk based bone stacks with high pressure liquid, fitting into your body. I might be able to let it regenerate you some, depending on how your biology reacts to it, add in more normal musculature for you to work with overdriving it. I'll probably need to take a look at it after every use if you're overdriving it like your normal muscles."

"That sounds liable to go wrong. Let's not work it into the overclocked version of my muscles if it would need more maintenance that way. I was thinking of something like mobile bones. Now, the instructions you gave for Victoria's suit said it doesn't heal?"

"That is because of how thin it is. If we're making something a lot bulkier than it can heal just fine, it gets all the organs you need for that." Carlos seems happy at this. "I also have some ideas for muscles in other ways, some cell tricks I want to try to make them harden, act like mobile bones, increase your grappling potential."

"About that, let's get back to the range. I'm thinking of an almost Legend like approach, lots of dart launchers, lots of them. Those things are great for us at non-lethal take downs. I'm willing to accept a lot of bulk in exchange for range and numbers of those darts. I'd also like to work on the interface, designate opponents for automatic targeting. I need to do a lot as the team leader, so simplifying my mission would be really useful." You hadn't really thought about that part. He will has to make a lot of decisions quickly in the field. You'll probably expand the Flechette based brain considerably for his suit.

Don't think about that, it makes you sad. Your line of thought keeps getting you sad. The thing will have to be able to recognize individuals as accurately as a human. You try to think of something less likely to remind you of the dead girl.

"What about an adhesive spray? Nothing like containment foam of course, but something to slow brutes down if they can tank your attacks?" Carlos frowns.

"Seems like it would use up a lot of mass and weight. Overall I'd probably rather use actual containment foam, maybe you could integrate it in somehow?" That does sound like a better idea.

"You mentioned earlier you wanted to be hard to grapple with, not fight like a traditional brute? I was thinking of expanding some of the features I gave Victoria's suit. Porcupine like quils, though a lot sharper, that you can bring down safely in rescue operations or other friendly activities or raise up when people try to grapple? I can make the blades really sharp and carry everything nasty on them. I think that will be a whole layer of the suit, so we are adding a lot of bulk."

"I like that, but I think there shouldn't be a whole layer of them, more like one every square inch. I have some other ideas. I was thinking if some areas of the suit are like a shark's skin, hard, tooth like, and can cut if you pull your hand the wrong way. Others should be slippery. That way people who try to wrestle me have a lot of trouble. Combined with all the other features I think no one will want to get close, but I'd also like some surprise stinging jellyfish like nettles at points, and some consistent armor for my arms. I think I'll always need that, though the special hardening bone muscle should be good for the rest of my body. It's nice to make me really hard to hurt, but I don't really need overpowering defenses."

The two of you work for 15 minutes on the Aegis model. The end result is padded and far bulkier than the Victoria version, but Carlos doesn't seem to mind. He walks around in it, tries it, flexes it.

"This is good." Carlos says finally. "Very, very good. Thank you very much for this."

"You're welcome. It was a pleasure, really." You smile. Carlos smiles back, and you wonder if he's flirting with you and you hadn't noticed. "Any advice for the rest of the crew?"

"Mason's a bit weird. He only joined us because he wasn't doing well on his own. Try to avoid his career as a solo hero, he's touchy about it. Ask him about Football if you need something to chat about." You sigh, you don't understand Football at all.

"Dennis, you know him and Dean. Chris is idolizing you right now for putting him in touch with Cranial. She's all he talks about. Sophia's an, um, character, but she'll react pretty well if you call her out on her bullshit right away. Missy, you know her, she's cool, just remember she's tougher than she looks."

"Thank you, Carlos. Once again, just call me if you need anything." He winks at you, and you realize that this probably sounded either desperate or flirty. He's gone before you decide if you should come out to him or not.

Mason marches in with a firm expression on his face. He's dressed way too well for the occasion, actually wearing a dress shirt and tie. Then you smile. His mom made him wear it, you just know she did. His mom sees it as meeting with a celebrity, an important person, and he thinks he looks like a dork.

"So, what thoughts do you have on the suit?" You ask him.

"Your sister almost ripped my arm off with one of those psycho blades." Mason growls. "Come on, what about PR? That's half the reason the Wards look like they do." You consider for a moment. Why is Director Calvert willing to give so much high end, scary weaponry to a bunch of kids? Well, not your problem.

"We're New Wave. We have our own public relations. So, I assume you don't want the swords in your arms?"

"I didn't say that." He looks a bit sheepish. "They could really come in handy. I was thinking of several things like them, different sizes and shapes, to work with my telekinesis. Easily detachable stuff, some heavy, some sharp, held in at the right points. That way I'll always have a weapon at hand. Maybe a net, since I can TK the stuff I am touching out farther if it's solid. I've been thinking about a net anyway." You nod and start putting his comments on the board in the Browbeat column. Eventually you decide on a large disk on the back to act as a shield, a sword blade, a baton, a short spear, and a long piece of thin but extremely strong rope.

You also add in a lot of the close range features from the Aegis suit after some discussion, though you don't include the hydrolic system or the sniper abilities. His TK suffices for strength, and he's going to be in the middle of fights given his powers.

One thing you both want to try is working the Browbeat suit into his own biology so he can manipulate it. This proves mostly successful. He can manipulate parts of the suit, but not the parts with the core features, but you eventually rig it up so that he can manipulate those features indirectly through the other parts. It's quite a bit of work, and Browbeat is not the best conversationalist.

"How does New Wave do it?" He asks suddenly as you figure out how to integrate the virus sprayers into an organ he could control.

"Do what?" You ask.

"Be heroes without the PRT breathing down your necks. I tried, but I just wasn't as good at it as Glory Girl." He sounds sad. You think for a moment on how to answer him.

"Honestly, we had a bunch of pretty girls and started early." You answer. "Fleur, Lady Photon, and Brandish are all photogenic, and all of them are personable or interesting in their own ways. I think they seemed just cool enough for people to love them but had enough girly light powers that people weren't actually that scared. Not a lot of people take us seriously.

Browbeat nods. Then he surprises you.

"Could I join?" He looks hopeful. Maybe it wasn't his mother who wanted him to dress well, maybe he was trying to make a good impression?

"Ask my aunt Sarah, Lady Photon. We haven't taken a new member besides one of the kids in, well, since before I was born. What about secret your secret identity?"

"I was hoping I could keep that, but, well, you guys are powerful, well known, I thought maybe I'd have to deal with less of the rules and regulations in New Wave than the Wards. I hate it here." You think. "The entire purpose of New Wave is not having masks, starting something new. I think you'd have to reveal who you are, Mason. Still, New Wave has been in a rut for a very long time. I think some new blood would be nice. I hope to see you there." You give Mason a smile, and he smiles back.

He'd better not just want in because he's crushing on Victoria.

Dennis walks in next. He looks a bit anxious.

"Um, I have a date after this. Can we keep it quick?" You give him your best glare, but you're not Carol or Victoria, so it doesn't work. "Come on, he's hot." Dennis intones. Wait, what? "Just kidding. But she is cute."

"I think you'll enjoy her a lot more if you stay alive, Dennis." You look at the white board. "So, what do you think you need?"

"Stuff to freeze. I was thinking tentacles that detach and fluids, mostly. Spinnerets like a spider, or something close, silly string like stuff, maybe chameleon tongue like stuff? I was watching a discovery channel documentary on them with the girl I'm seeing, Madison, and those things whip out fast."

"I'll see what I can do." You begin to take some notes. "What about making it part of you, a whip like extension?" You try that first, but can't get it right, his corona gamma just won't accept something that's not shape like him as something to work his power through. You'll think about a solution when you have more time.

You end up with something absolutely disgusting. Dennis stares at it in horror. Hundreds of mismatched moving parts, many of which are disturbingly phallic.

"That doesn't look like Clockblocker, that looks like a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine." He stares at you.

"Um, I could put another layer on it, cover it up? That's not a bad idea anyway, layers to rip off at will and freeze. Hm, maybe I can put detachable layers into the boots so you can walk on them, put in a superior sense of balance?"

"So instead it all comes out in weird angles from underneath false skin which I rip off in battle? Amy, if Glenn sees this he'd eat my balls." You sigh. "Alright, I'll make another one, toned down, only the good projectors and a few detachable tentacles, but please keep this one in a closet or something in case things get really bad."

"Alright. Now, I have a date with Sophia's cute friend. Love the boots though." He smiles and leaves you. You look at the abomination in front of you. Yeah, there's no way to make it look less threatening.

Dean is your middle appointment. He stares at the Clockblocker Mark I suit.

"Um, the idea was sound." You mutter. He shakes his head.

"She needs more time." Dean heads off the question before you ask it. "Not forever, but more. She's getting better."

"I need her, Dean." It's all you can do not to raise your voice.

"She needs you, Amy. She really does, but she has a lot to work through, and not enough supervillains to work her issues out on. You scowl at him. "I am sorry, Amy. If I thought it would help I'd be trying to get her to see you, but I think she needs to do it on her own terms." You moan a bit. "Now, let's get your mind it. I'm proud of you for this. I really am."

"Shut up for a minute so I can think." You eye his armor. Hm, maybe if you drill some holes in the week points he can wear both suits.

"Alright, what are you thinking of?"

"Sensory systems to start with, good ones. Whatever you did with Victoria was something else. It was like she knew what we were doing before we did it. Let's see if we can enhance that. Extra eyes, ears, all the sensory abilities you gave her, amp them up. My armor means I'm as strong and fast as I'm going to get. Maybe some additional sniper firepower." You nod. You could just copy the Aegis suit on that front.

"Hm, armor. You're really strong with the machine suit. I can add in layers and layers on top of that, and a few tricks from Aegis's model. Make it really hard and dangerous to injure you."

"I was thinking of two suits. One expands my tinker armor, the other is like Victoria's for my more subtle abilities. Pheromone projectors and readers, voice modulation, lie detection if you can swing it, muscle control to give me better body language control." You think, you could add that into all of the suits, no one has actually taken one yet.

"Hm, seems like Armsmaster could help you better with some of that, but yes, I can work that into your version of the normal Victoria version, probably give it connector points for the battle version." You think. "There's something I want to try. At the bank, I found the channels Skitter was using to hack her bugs. Later I found Bakuda was using the same channels for her pain bombs. I'm wondering if you work the same way. I might be able to mess with them.

It turns out, you're right. You manage to channel the blast into a marvelously complicated device in his chest. It can either make the blast invisible, subtle, and capable of effecting a room, or fire it off at an extremely increased range. You toy with it a bit more, and are about 70% sure that he could reliably give different people different emotions at once, without anyone getting obvious cues.

In the end Dean looks grateful and impressed, but also a bit sheepish. "I'd say if there's anything I could do for you, you'd just need to ask, but I know what you'd ask, so I can't do that." You nod sadly.

"Keep her save, make sure she knows she's loved, Dean." He looks quite serious.

"I swear I will, Amy." He leaves. You can trust him to keep his word.

Chris is next. He's practically bouncing with energy.

"Cranial is the best person in the world." He tells you. You smile back at him.

"I thought so." Well, second best, but that would be awkward.

"It's not just the drugs, which are the best I've had, but talking to her, she's a genius, Amy." He laughs out loud. "She's given me more ideas since she showed up than I had in the month before, and I have a lot of ideas. I'm writing them all down and recording every call and meeting. I brought in a lot of ideas for my suit." He pulls out a tablet computer.

"Basically, a lightweight undersuit designed for protection and lifesupport, with numerous attachment points for my armor and weapons." He explains. "I think we can sacrifice a lot of the capabilities you gave Victoria, as I can probably copy a lot." You think for a moment.

"I know you're better, but you need time to work, and you can abandon projects. How about I build into the suit the ability to sacrifice those abilities as you replace them and make it into increasingly better armor and life support?" Chris nods, looking only a bit deflated.

"Yeah, that's probably a smart idea."

"I was thinking of maybe a belt that rotates, bringing in new weapons or tools, and tentacles to help with that." He perks up. "Victoria's tools were gorgeous." That strikes you as a slightly odd word choice. "I brought in a few of my own ideas for tools I'd want." He shows them to you. Very interesting. Yes, with some work you can insert all of them, and even make a separate wrist mounted one for just the tools.

"Another thing I was thinking of, before you arrived, a harness with a floating array of turrets that could fire different munitions depending on what gun I holster in the main slot. Self adjusting and adaptive. You nod. "Interesting. I think that's something you could work best with yourself. Now, I was thinking about your anti-gravity. With the extra brains, muscle memory, skill involved here I think I could really improve your flight abilities. Implant anti-gravity panels here instead of the hover board, more of them, and I think you could be an incredibly mobile flier. I'll build in places for them, and give you the ability to adjust them pretty quickly to whatever you end up plugging into the spots." Chris's eyes light up. "Ooh, that is a good idea."

"I was also thinking of anti-Stranger systems, enhanced a bit from Victoria's version, and some nice ranged capability. One of the things you're best at is guns, right? I'm thinking of points for small guns to be integrated into the suit, and enhanced strength and precision in the arms mixed in with assistance in aiming them, making you a much better sharpshooter." You hope the end result will be a perfect sharp shooter, but you don't want to get his hopes up.

"Hm, let's add in a few other tentacles and storage pockets for small devices and I think we'll be done." Chris seems the happiest he's ever been to you. You only hope it lasts.

The two of you talk over every hard point to put in a piece of armor or a weapon he had an idea for, and eventually he leaves carrying his suit, head surely buzzing with ideas for what to put in it.

Sophia marches in second to last. You don't know much about her. Dean never says much, and you get the impression he's trying to be polite.

"So, you're here to make us all a ton more badass? What's the catch?" You have to smile.

"Probably an Endbringer attack to stop it right here if some of the more hysterical members of the PRT I talked to are to be believed. Also something about how I'm turning the beloved kid heroes into nightmare child soldiers, but I think they should've thought of that before they sent the Wards to Endbringer fights. There's also the evil clone running around with my powers who will turn it against you, but she can kill you with a wink of her eye." Sophia gives a small smile.

"Ballroom Blitz." She says it slowly. "The man in the back is ready to crack as he raises his hands to the sky."

"And the girl in the corner is everyone's mourner she could kill you with a wink of her eye." You smile back.

You think you're going to like Sophia Hess.

"So, how do you want to be outfitted?" She sits down across from you.

"Stingers, sprays, darts, the timing and targeting system Vicks used, all of that work for you?"

"Yes. You can turn stuff intangible for a little while and it turns back, right?" She nods. "I was thinking of a mist or spray of my paralytic and sleep agent, and maybe the toxin for emergencies. Completely non-lethal, but bypasses NBC protection perfectly and takes almost anyone out, including brutes."

"NBC?" She frowns

"Nuclear, biological, and chemical. Gas masks and biohazard suits, that kind of thing. Turn it intangible and it will drift right through." Sophia is smiling again. "I heard something about you not liking having to use tranq darts. Now you've got something ten times as effective as either tranq darts or live ammo, and nobody will get on your case about it. That sound fun?"

"Fuck yeah." She laughs. "I like how you think. What else you got?"

"You're a bit of a Stranger, right? Blend into shadows. I was thinking of chromataphores, stuff to change the suit's color almost instantly like an octopus. Camouflage, and then you turn it into bright colors to provide surprise or distraction. I'll program in the basic patterns, but you'll be able to add them in on the fly. Now, according to the files Aegis sent me you're weak to electricity?"

Sophia looks glum about that. "Yeah."

"I have two ideas. One's insulation, a conductive outer layer to redirect currents along your body so it doesn't hit you normally." Sophia nods.

"It wouldn't be perfect, but yeah, that would help when I fuck up. There could still be electricity passing through the skin of the suit, but less of it. What's the other idea?"

"An EMP burst. I build a nasty organ into the back and you knock out everything in a 20 foot radius." Sophia looks excited, leaning forward.

"Any downsides?"

"Extra weight, but distributed right it's just like a backpack." She looks happy with this. "So, I hear you weigh a lot less in your shadow form?"

"I'm not a fat fuck outside of it." She snarls, then you realize it's a joke.

"I was thinking gecko style adhesive would work well with you, let you climb walls or jump to them and stick there." She looks alright with this. "Also, maybe wings?"

"I'm lot some fucking angel." She tells you.

"No, cool wings, bat wings. They curl around you normally, a cloak or a cape, but in your shadow state you'll be able to fly. I'm also thinking of a few things to help you kick off, small hooves curled up against the back of your boots spring loaded to kick you up to jump farther and faster." Sophia's looking happy at this. You'd wondered if the devil references would be a bit too much for her, but clearly she likes them. "Also some of my typical timing and aiming enhancements you saw Victoria use, I think that would be helpful for you as a ranged fighter." She gives a curt nod. "I'm also thinking some kind of explosive would be killer, but that's not what I'm good at. Talk to the PRT, Armsmaster, and see what they think."

The two of you are quiet for a minute, thinking about other applications.

"What about an electric sense?"

"Active, an organ like that out of water wouldn't work well. Passive, that could work, though it'd be short range. I think I could set it up so you'd know if there's a current inside a wall before you go through, though it'd only have a range of about your own height." She seems satisfied with this.

"Any other weapon ideas?" Those seem to interest her.

"I already have a lot in the Victoria version, but I was thinking of a few solid spikes to throw out like your arrows. Outside of that I think you're all set for weaponry. You're going to be incredibly dangerous. Maybe a long range sniper scope like a few of the others have? No, I'm not sure if it will interact with your shadow state well, maybe after I get some reports back about it."

The suit is beautiful. It looks the most like an actual hero costume of any you've made, the stealth elements give you an excuse to make the skin into beautiful fabric.

The two of you shake hands, and Sophia is on her way. Apparently she setup Dennis with one of her friends. Is it too much to hope she knows a lesbian? Maybe even is one?

21%

You shove the thought aside as Missy walks in.

"Hey, I think we have two main ways we could take this." You try to remember to treat her like an adult, give her the choice. "One, we emphasize your mobility, adhesive wall sticking, extra limbs, superior balance, gliding wings, all of that." Missy nods.

"What's the other one?"

"We make you a tank." You can't help but grin. "We focus on armor and weapons. You can manipulate space, so you can manipulate angles, right? You could focus on that, stretch space close so you can hit at far greater ranges, and use some nice timing and accuracy enhancers I can put into the thing. No need for strength in a brawl, just durability, making the skin dangerous to touch, make it dangerous to get near you, and force people to punch through a lot of armor to get to you."

Missy gives you a serious look.

"The PRT doesn't even want me to have a gun. Make me into a tank? Glenn would rip out his hair before he ripped out mine." You smile.

"I'm not so sure. Think about it from another angle. Little girl all wrapped up in a big, mean suit of armor full of weapons? There's something cute about that, right?" She gives you a glare. "Then you get to fuck'em up. Bad guys, I mean. Hit hard as anyone, everywhere, take as good as you get. Nobody will dare mess with you because if they lose they'd be beaten by a little girl, and you're going to win a lot. You don't have to be fast with your powers, so I can make you a tank."

"Love the idea, but don't patronize me." Missy says. "I know what you're doing, trying to treat me like a grownup. Doesn't work, not with your face." You sigh. "Any serious objection to this plan?"

"No, build up weapons and armor as heavy as it gets, please."

"I suggest you talk to Kid Win about more power. Weapons, he's a good gun maker. I'll put in a few hard points to implant some of his work. I can do subtle and break through defenses, but he should be better at brute force." Missy nods. "I'm fine with that.

You end up with shotgun style dart throwers, damn curtains of the sleep and paralytic organism, every weapon you've given every Ward amped to an absurd degree. You also fill up extreme versions of the sensory powers and organs. In the end, armored up, she's taller than Armsmaster.

Vista is satisfied.

And you need to get back to the fucking hospital.

___

When you get back to Armsmaster's house, he's still gone, off trying to save the city. You're exhausted, but soon realize once again you can't sleep.

After today you're all science'd out. You're once again lonely, and miss your sister. You can't go back to her, not if she's this close, not with the 21% hanging over your head.

[X] You troll the internet looking for information on what Victoria and New Wave have been up to.

[X] You think for a moment, and decide to call the PRT for the number of Mason, Browbeat. He wanted to join New Wave. It might be fun to talk about it.

[X] Purity had sent you another invitation to some event or other. She strikes you as a bit lonely. Apparently Rune and her stepson would be there, along with a few of her friends.

[X] Write In: Call up Sophia Hess and go out on the town (or what's left of it).

You're not good at this. You stare at the contraption that contains a call feature on Armsmaster's computer. As with all of Armsmaster's tech it is both heavily modified and has an amazingly convenient user interface. Sophia's number is programmed in.

You haven't made a new friend your own age in years. How do you talk with someone who isn't your sister or a grownup again? You weren't doing that badly with the Wards earlier...

"Call Sophia Hess phone." You tell the machine. It does so instantly. You hear Sophia's voice on the other end.

"Hey, boss." You laugh. You'd forgotten about caller ID.

"Nope, not the boss, the teenage girl suspiciously crashing at the boss's house." Sophia laughs.

"You dog! Sleeping with a guy twice your age. Hm, that puts me in mind of a project I'm working on."

"Nah, he's barely fighting ABB. So, you wanna hang?"

"The poor, neglected mistress needs a girlfriend? Sure thing. I've got something in mind I can't bring Emma along for."

"What is it?" You ask. You need worthy opponents. It feels like fate.

"I'm getting my best friend a present." There's joke you're not privy to in Sophia's voice. "Let's meet at Winslow High. You game for that?"

"Never been, but Armsmaster's GPS is the shit. See you in 21 minutes." The number had to be 21, right there on the magnificently well configured interface of Armsmaster's computer.

"See you then, Guts." There's something uncomfortable about the nickname you can't place.

___

"Attack on the Merchants, seriously?" You eye Sophia suspiciously.

"Not really an attack. More a robbery. They're thieves, so what's wrong with stealing from them?"

"You sound like every bad girl of the week tempting the wholesome protagonist of every drama full of teenagers ever to be marketed to middle schoolers." Sophia's body language stiffens in the way that indicates someone wearing a mask is glaring at you.

"They're the Merchants, Guts." She shakes her head. "Come on, don't be a pussy. According to my informant they've got something big."

"How big." You frown. You've been doing that far too much lately.

"Ever heard of Cauldron?" Your eyes go involuntarily wide. "Yeah, the rumors get crazy. A group of people selling powers. Some say they make those monstrous freaks like Faultline hires or that sweet piece of ass from New York. I've heard everything from they mindwiped Scion and threw him into the ocean to they made the Endbringers. It's all bullshit, but there are vials that make powers, and according to a girl with broken knees and more STDs than I can count because of those bastards they're boasting they can give one lucky sociopath powers. You want the next Bakuda or String Theory to be a meth addict?"

Sophia Hess has a point.

"You aren't wearing your new costume." You feel you need something to pout over.

"Assholes in the PRT wouldn't let me leave in it without official business. Idiots. What if we see one of those Bakuda bombing runs and some eight year old dies of an agony stroke again when we could have caught Oni Fucking Lee." She shakes her head. "So, you in?"

You think for a moment.

Sophia is really pretty.

"I'm in."

___

"This is boring." Sophia, now Shadow Stalker shakes her head. "The roofie gas takes all the fun out of it."

"Less reason for PRT assholes to breathe down your neck, right?" You say cheerfully. This has been a pleasant walk and chat. If Sophia hasn't called 78violet "a pair of pasty incestuous dykes sucking Disney's dick" the evening would have been perfect instead of merely very good. Otherwise you have to admit that Sophia's taste in music is considerably better than your own. She actually listens to the old British stuff that you'd only sampled a bit of when Dean was geeking out about music in your earshot.

"Right." She looks a bit angry. "I was all geared up for a fight, and you just knock'em out like that? Way to cock block, Guts."

"Maybe not." You smile as you see movement. A pile of dirt, sand, and trash is coming for the two of you at surprising speed.

[X] "We're Shadow Stalker and Panacea. We just took out everyone in the building that's not you. Do you want to fuck with us? Take us to the powers in a can, now.

[X] "You wanted a fight? Here you go. I'd rather watch." You step aside. Either she'll thank you for it or take it back. Either way, you win.

[X] You consider Mush, the remaining Merchant. How should you test out your new suit against someone immune to toxins and plagues? Seems like fun practice.

[X] You consider Mush, the remaining Merchant. How should you test out your new suit against someone immune to toxins and plagues? Seems like fun practice. Extend an invitation to Sophia to 'play' if she wants to as well... after all you just gassed the place, no reason to hog ALL of the fun. But you are definitely here to have some of that fun.

"Say, you wanted a real fight, right?" The Shadow Stalker mask doesn't give room for a smile on her face, but you get a feeling it's there anyway.

"Hell yes." Sophia is intangible in an instant.

A man made out of trash wouldn't be totally immune to plagues. Oil-eaters are something that you've been asked about, to clean up spills. You even have an idea of how you'd do it. Most human refuse is made of plastic. That's a vulnerability. You extend your left arm blade and coat it with something short-lived that will devour most the long-chain hydrocarbon polymers.

That's if he is stupid enough to get near you. Otherwise, your Shadow Stalker will get to fire in her bolts...

FUCK! You shudder, distracted. She isn't yours. That's just wrong. The only person that's yours is Victoria.

Shadow Stalker is hitting Mush with crossbow bolts. They're moderately effective. They're slowing him down, keeping him from charging you, but he seems to suffer no lasting damage from them. Sophia solidifies next to you.

"Ideas?"

"I could hit him with something to eat plastic. It'd take a minute to do any real damage, but he might not have enough dirt and sand to keep being a threat."

"Sure, try it. I'll see if I can get him close to you." Sophia's intangible once again, leaping towards Mush, bouncing off of him and shooting other things at him. She drives him back towards you, and while he's distracted you slash with your left arm blade into Mush's, well, he doesn't have coherent body parts.

It strikes you suddenly that Mush is actually pretty powerful. No weak points, easy ability to regenerate, and...

Mush rips the arm blade out of its socket. Only a quick tightening and breaking of your suit with your powers keeps him from hurting your arm badly. Turns out he's pretty strong and bearing down on you.

Not the tenth scariest thing you've thought in the last couple weeks, but still scary.

Sophia takes the moment to drive a chair into him and let it solidify. Unfortunately, Mush doesn't seem to care about the act of heroism. You see the plastic near the wound breaking down, but it's not fast enough to disable him.

Mush hits you, hard, over the head. Then you black out.

___

"Time to wake up, superhero." A lazy, somewhat flirty voice that's not Sophia's wakes you up. You open your eyes to see an angel. Gorgeous red hair, flawless skin, beautiful eyes, and she's next to you in a surprisingly comfortable bed. Sometimes you're really glad that your sexual orientation means that people you're attracted to can be comfortable with you in ways they wouldn't with a boy.

"Where am I?" You ask. Then you pause. "Who are you?"

"Emma Barnes." The girl gives you a winning smile. "Sophia couldn't take you home without causing a scene, so she left you here. Next time she wants your address." She says her address.

"What time is it?" You ask.

"It's seven in the morning." Your twelve hour shift is 10 AM to 10 PM today. You kind of want to murder whoever sets your schedule. "So, I heard you took out half the Merchants last night. Impressive." She looks you over. "You're taller than I thought. So, Sophia's out doing some kind of search and rescue thing against the latest bombing. So, is the popular, beloved superhero too good to hang with a couple of normal girls who actually have to go to school on this beautiful Sunday morning?"

[X]"No, you're more than cool enough as is to hang out with."

[X] "I really can't."

[X] "Is Sophia single?"

[X] "No, you're more than cool enough as is to hang out with." Hanging out... you don't think you've done much of that without Victoria...

- - [X] She's kinda cute... and you really feel the need to subtly vet her out... maybe wow her a bit with your power... She seems like a nice girl, and cute... Gahh... No no... still you should ask her subtly about herself and Sophia. Wouldn't want to muscle in if they already have something going, and if not it would be good to know how they react to the idea.

"Did Sophia say what happened last night?" This was humiliating, you got taken out like some noob in front of Sophia.

"She said you knocked out three villains and 20 gangsters while arguing for the honor of two Disney girls. She sounded impressed." Emma smiles. "She said something about some cape she fought for 20 minutes before she hightailed and ran with you. She was kind of rushed, worried that someone would catch her on an unauthorized patrol."

"I'd vouch for her if anyone was a jerk about it." You assure her. "Say I was out walking and she rescued me."

"That would be wonderful. Now get dressed bitch, we're going to the mall."

"I don't have anything to wear..."

"My closet is your closet." Your imagination may take that a bit more metaphorically than she intended, but it would be a well done double entendre if she means what you hope."

"What about breakfast?"

"We'll eat there. Daddy's at work, my sister's asleep, and Mom's visiting her aunt. We're free to go shopping early." You consider bringing up having to leave before 10, but it would break the mood, and maybe you'll cut for the first time. What would anyone do about it?

Emma's closet is a distant second to Victoria's closet. When designers are sending a girl two copies of some of their latest shit in the hope she'll wear them in public (two because she got mad when they weren't giving you one) you get the best closet. Still, if you're being completely honest, Emma's actually got a better sense of style than Victoria. It makes you feel sick to admit that.

The mall is half empty. The other mall being bombed by ABB is probably to blame. You meet up with Sophia's other friend, Madison, at the mall's IHOP. Emma tells you she knows Sophia's Shadow Stalker, though it was an accident with Madison she's kept it quiet.

"Oh my gosh!" She squeels. "It's Panacea." She takes the liberty of hugging you, but she's cute enough for you to grant it. She's much more cute in a little sister way than beautiful in the way Emma and Sophia are, but she's adorable enough and sweet enough to make up for it.

"Hi." You think for a moment. "Madison, you dated, um..." You realize you don't actually know if she knows Dennis is Clockblocker. You're left with a brief, awkward silence.

"Who did I date?" She asks innocently.

"Um, sorry, different Madison. Boy Madison, dated Victoria a while back. Just a bit of a brain freeze." It's not a good lie, but Madison takes it in stride.

"Well, I'm dating someone now." She says it with a pride that surprises you given how cute she is.

"Time to dish." Emma says it almost like an order. So the power dynamic isn't an equal one.

"Dennis is cute, funny, and has a car." You are starting to suspect Madison is acting. She might be playing Emma and Sophia.

One thing that does not become more interesting with two cute girls is talking about boys. Your lack of dates mean you just sit there and ask a few kind of awkward questions while Emma interrogates Madison about Dennis's outfit, manners, social status, and appearance. You toy with the idea of making them lesbians if you're going to be their friend. Maybe that's a bit drastic, but this would get old fast. The food looks fortunately delicious, but that leads into a series of complaints about weight and arguments over what to order.

"You know, I could take care of that." They stare at you.

"Yes!" Madison claps her hands together. "That would be the best thing ever to happen in the entire history of the planet! What can you do?"

"I could just tweak your metabolism a bit. Nothing serious." You put your hand over hers. "Well within the human norm, and I'll hook up a little gland in an empty cavity for you to turn it off if you're ever stuck on a desert island or something and need to survive."

"You. Are. The. Greatest." Madison is looking at you in wonder and respect. Maybe it's a manipulation, but you're willing to soak it in. There's something pleasant about helping someone in such a petty way. "I miss real food so much. Now I could eat a bag of lifesavers and have bacon for breakfast every day." You realize she's actually crying in happiness. "Do it to me now. I would be so grateful."

You do it in a heartbeat.

"So, what could you do for me?" You tease, keeping bodily contact with Madison. A strange look passes over Emma's face. "Once an old woman offered me an island."

"I could be your friend. I could be your best friend. Like, forever!" She looks a bit scared. Maybe she doesn't realize you've done it already.

"Hm, I could use a friend, but if we're going to be friends I guess it's a freebie. So, anything else you'd like?" You're under the impression that most girls your age have something they'd change about themselves. Madison has, um, a lot more than Victoria did back when you first started your editing, but Victoria was always the prettiest girl in the world.

Madison's still not done deciding on alterations after you've eaten. The slow boob job will take about six months, but you're pretty sure they'll look marvelous and not make anyone think of them as a boob job. Madison paid a surprising amount of attention to her hands and feet. You argued her out of a tan as you quite like her skin tone and think it matches her facial features well. The tush is definitely a major improvement. Really it is amazing how much time she spends thinking about little features people rarely see.

Emma is rather quiet, considering the two of you as you chat on features to improve. The shopping trip is where she starts to shine. As much as you love and miss Victoria, Emma's sense of style is second to none. It's much more fun talking about clothes than boys. You kind of feel the sexiest you ever have with her recommendations. She keeps you a bit subdued, subtle, but the look really is cute librarian rather than mousy girl at the back of class.

At 9:45 you're starting to get worried. You don't want to ditch these girls. You really want to stay with them.

[X] "Hey, Madison, could I ask you a big favor?" Madison did say she was really grateful. "Would you mind keeping me company for a twelve hour shift at the hospital?

[X] "Guys, I have to go to the hospital." You sigh. "The curse of being the healing superhero. When can we meet up again?"

[X] "Guys, I need to make a call." You feel excitement, trepidation. This is horrible. It's literally going to cause someone to die, and you're in such a better head space, but, well, you need to keep a good thing going. You're going to tell the hospital you can't be in today.

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Never Far Behind-2

[X] "Hey, Madison, could I ask you a big favor?" Madison did say she was really grateful. "Would you mind keeping me company for a twelve hour shift at the hospital? Well... only part of it... I could really use the company so I don't go outta my mind while I'm doing it. I've been feeling a bit burnt out late. I can't really say that it'll be fun and I'd totally understand if you'd rather do... well anything else really. But it would be... nice if you did."

"I'd love to. What are friends for?" Madison tells you. "Like, I have to do homework, but you're a superhero so my parents will trust you're safe." She giggles. "Actually I think seeing you work sounds fun."

"I'd come too, but I have to work on that project." Emma gives Madison a knowing smile and her eyes light up.

"Ooh, the thing!" She squeals. Then she glances back to you. "Um, a super secret private thing me and Emma are working on. Sorry." You're curious, but no need to pry. She takes your arm as the two of you walk to your car. Madison chats about fashion and celebrities while you drive to the hospital.

"...and then it turned out Sonny was confusing Chad for his stunt double..." You might be confusing celebrity gossip for sitcoms or soap operas.

"Hey, Madison, have you ever read Flowers in the Attic?" You ask when she pauses for breath.

"I did! It was so sad. I cried so much when Cory died. But I didn't really get it. Why would the Grandfather put something like that in his will? Like, why would he suspect she had secret children stashed away somewhere? I get he's a big meanie, but that's a weird thing to stipulate in a will." Yeah, that confused you a couple times too. Wait, did Madison actually use the word meanie in a normal sentence?

The hospital is packed as usual. Oni Lee's bombing runs have been getting more and more intense. The two of you walk arm in arm to your station, Madison keeping distractingly close to you and getting really quiet. When you reach your station...

"EEP!" Madison leaps behind you. Honestly, you can't blame her. Dennis is wearing the full scale suit. Even solid white to fit with his color scheme you can't deny they look like penises. The whole outfit is grotesque.

"I made need to talk to a fashion designer about your new suits." You admit.

"Wait, you made that." Madison says into your ear. "Um, why?"

"It's the best way I could think of to exploit his powers." You say defensively.

"Wait, is that..." She whispers into your ear "...Dennis?"

"Yes." She shudders right into your back.

"Ew..."

"Come on, none of this is my idea. What are you two doing together, anyway?"

"We're friends now." Madison informs him, for some reason still staying behind you. It's actually quite pleasant having her pressed up against your back.

"Neat." Dennis laughs. "Well, it's nice to have a pretty girl like you here if I've on a six hour guard duty shift."

"Aw, you're sweet." Madison is still grinning when she comes out from behind you. "So, who's after you?"

"Laserdream of New Wave volunteered so none of us would have to stay up late on with school tomorrow, especially on a Monday." You're not sure how you feel about that.

Madison starts flirting with Dennis a bit while the patients start coming through, but the two of them do work hard to include you in the conversation.

"Then this total dweeb, Taylor, just punches Emma in the face! I wasn't there, but now she's accusing us of starting it or something. We're having this huge meeting at school about it. She says she had this concussion thing but she looks fine, fine for her anyway. It's a good thing So-,um,ow Stalker was there or she might have gotten really hurt."

"Sounds like she just wants attention." Dennis shakes his head. "I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Emma looked fine to me." She hadn't looked like she'd been punched in the face, especially not as hard as the face of the old Jewish man who Empire 88 had thrown a brick at who you have to work on. Idiots, this feels like a truce violation to you.

"Makeup, Ames." Madison laughs. "She was furious at her, worried it's mess up her cute little nose. I was surprised she didn't ask you to look at it."

"She might not be comfortable with asking me for stuff yet. Tell her I'll do it, all she has to do is ask."

"You're the best, Amy. You really are." Madison pats you on the head. "I'm really proud of you. I'm not sure I could touch so many sick people." The old man gives her a bit of a glare.

"We all have our strengths." You assure her. "So, Sophia set you up. Are, well, are she and Emma dating?" You give it a moment before you add the word "anyone."

"Nope. Sophia's always found most boys pathetic. I think she had some weird crush on her stepfather or something, but maybe I'm just totally reading into stuff. Emma's dated a bit, but it's weird, she seems to pick boys apart, almost like she's looking for reasons not to date them. I don't get it. Boys are awesome." You look up and catch the tail end of Madison giving Dennis a flirty look.

That's surprisingly hopeful on several fronts.

"What do you think they're looking for, really?"

"Oh, maybe just someone cute, polite, with a great sense of humor, and not totally embarrassing." Madison suggests. You think she's implying something to Dennis.

"Hey, speaking of embarrassing, that reminds me of a movie I just saw with my mom." Dennis begins to describe, well...

___

"And then the guy said 'you are so beautiful that I want to be reincarnated as your child so that I can breastfeed by you until I'm 20.' That was a great movie. " Madison looks a more than a bit squicked out.

"And you really didn't have a girlfriend?" You point out. Dennis just laughs.

"I have high standards." Madison rolls her eyes. The day's load is easing up. Apparently Oni Lee was pressed into retreating or hiding today by Empire 88.

"So, speaking of boys, what about you?" Madison asks. You're wondering how that is speaking of boys.

"Not many guys want to stick here for so long." Best not to breach something so personal quite so soon. Maybe if it was just you two, but Dennis is Dennis. "It's kind of hard to meet anyone if I'm here for twelve hours a day. Victoria tried to set me up a couple times, but nothing really clicked.

"Oh, you poor baby." Madison rubs your shoulders. "You're way too cute to be single."

"I know." Dennis shakes his head. "I don't get it myself. I tried but she just always looked bored."

"Wait, you were trying?" This is actually news to you. "When?"

"Wait, you seriously didn't..." Dennis trails off. "Man I thought you were just being stuck up. What about that charity lunch for the kids of disabled veterans?"

"You spent the whole time talking about Jimmy Fallon."

"Um, yeah. But I was nervous." Dennis sounds defensive. You sigh. Not like you're at all attracted to him anyway.

___

"So then it turns out that Jacob wasn't ever really in love with Bella, he was just sensing his true love deep inside her." Forty five minutes of talking about Twilight. Dennis has been standing still testing his new sensory powers for 39 of them.

"I see." You mutter.

"Well, I really should get back to my homework. You seem bored." Madison sits down on the hospital floor and pulls out her backpack. "I'll keep you updated on my homework."

___

It turns out that Madison keeping you updated on her homework is code for helping Madison do her homework while trying to focus on healing people. It's actually a pleasant distraction. It's just so cute the way she keeps thinking she's done and then has to ask you about something else.

Dennis is fast asleep. Maybe not the best trick for a body guard, but he'll be up fast enough if there's an attack. You check your watch. It's 3:52.

"Dennis." He jumps to a start.

"Um, yeah?"

"Your shift's almost over."

"Oh, great." He sounds really happy it's almost over and checks his wrist.

"This super space suit doesn't have a watch attachment, does it?"

"Um, it will now." After you finish curing the diabetes so the man can keep his foot you tap the suit and build in a clock attachment.

"Ah, that's better." He sighs.

"Clockblocker has a clock." Madison giggles. "Okay, I'm nearly done with this. But where's what I don't get. I know the X squared and X2 are different, but couldn't they have just used another symbol so I won't confuse them? Seems easy to me."

___

To Dennis's torment Crystal arrives 13 minutes after the hour.

"I'm so sorry I'm late. We were chasing what we thought was Heartbreaker's car, but it was really just a couple from Montreal." She sweeps you into a hug. "Oh, Amy. We really need to keep in better touch. I haven't seen you all month." She kisses you on the cheeks.

"It's fine, Crystal." Dennis does not seem to think it is fine.

"I have to run." He leaves without actually saying goodbye.

"That was rude." Madison crinkles up her nose.

"Oh, you brought a friend!" Crystal decides that hugging Madison is appropriate for some reason. "I didn't know you'd made a new friend. Tell me all about it!" Madison decides that this is much more important than homework and starts to relay in surprising detail everything that's happened since this morning. Crystal is a great audience for Madison, finding her absolutely adorable.

You start to feel jealous after a while as when Crystal starts telling stories about different minor celebrities she's dated. Madison finds Crystal to be one of the coolest people in the world.

"I know this is a weird time to ask this, but why do you need a body guard?" Madison asks when Crystal leaves to go get all of you dinner. "No one seems to be taking it that seriously. Are they just trying to keep you from being lonely?" You think about it.

"I think it's more that when you combine me and the hospital we're a pretty big target. It's better to have two powerful parahumans. I'm powerful, but I could be beaten. Not having a predictable guard makes it harder to plan an attack." Madison frowns, but seems to accept this.

"Madison, can you keep a really big secret."

"Ooh, yes!" Madison laughs and comes over to you. "You can whisper it into my ear so she doesn't hear. She pats the black little person who I am setting up to grow to normal size over the next three years on the back of the head and climbs into your lap. Practically speaking it's the easiest way to get close to your head without disrupting your arm, but this makes your intended confession a great deal more awkward.

"Um, I like Emma and Sophia." You whisper.

"Oh, I do to! They're so much fun. I want us all to be friends. But that's not the secret." She leans her cute ear in closer.

"Um, actually it's a bad time." Madison looks disappointed, but she actually doesn't climb out of your lap until Crystal arrives with paper bowels of soup combined with fancy bread.

___

"This was great." Madison hugs you as you drop her off at her house and kisses you on the cheek. "I don't think I can make it tomorrow, as I have a test Tuesday, but I think I can do it again Wednesday." You'd already done the song and dance of programming numbers into each others phones. "That was so different from anything I've done before."

"You made everything much better. Really, it's hard to do that for twelve hours. I'll take you anytime you're free." Madison bounces up and down.

"I'm so happy you're happy. Any time, really." Madison hugs you again, and moves quickly back to her house. She does seem really happy.

You drive back the annoying route to Armsmaster's house. To your surprise he's sitting on his couch. It's a lot less surprising that he's clearly pissed.

"Idiot." He mutters. Then he looks up and sees you. "Hi, Amy. Director Calvert is an idiot. If I didn't know better I think he's trying to get fired and take us all down with him."

"What is it?" You ask.

"Tomorrow, 8 PM, he wants a big meeting between the heroes and the villains. He says that this has gone on long enough, and we're calling an official truce to beat ABB." Armsmaster is the angriest you've seen him, a lot angrier than after the hornet attack. "Kaiser's the only major figure who accepted. Only a couple of minor players, the Merchants and Undersiders, are still in his alliance. It'll just look like we're teaming up with the Nazis." Armsmaster mutters some creative obscenities.

"Who all will be there?" You ask.

"Protectorate, Wards, New Wave, Undersiders, Merchants, Empire 88. Maybe if we invited Faultline's Crew it'd look less bad, but Calvert insists that after working with them they're too much of a liability." He groans. "You're coming, of course, so call the hospital and make plans around that. You'll be right next to Dauntless, sitting with New Wave."

"Makes sense. Um, about Victoria?"

"You don't have to talk to her, but you do should sit next to her. We want to look strong and normal, so Victoria's sitting with New Wave and not the Wards." New Wave always sits in the same pattern and stands in it for group shots. Carol and Sarah together in the middle, Mark and Neil standing next to their wives, with the the oldest kids next to them and the youngest on the outside.

Your mind is racing. You're going to be forced to see Victoria in person. Maybe not talk, but see her.

[X] You can't be so close to her, not before she's ready. You'll have to ask Armsmaster to change the seating arrangements.

[X] You need to sit next to her. Maybe she won't talk to her, but feeling her breathe will help a lot more than Madison did.

[X] You can't go to this meeting. You can pull an excuse of some kind, right?

[X] Send Victoria a text explaining the situation and ask whether she would like you to attend the meeting or not, and whether you should avoid her if you do go.

Victoria responds.

It could have gone better. You get a flurry of texts.

"I love you. Do not talk to me. I love you more than anyone else. If you touch me, I will break through a wall to get away. I love you a lot. You can sit next to me. If I talk to you, do not respond. I really love you. I know this is me being a crazy bi-polar bitch. I love you. Give me a bit of time. I love you and hope you're happy and safe and loved. The penis suit is grotesque. I can't wait to see you and I love that I am going to see you. Look at me in any way you want. XOXO."

It's a start.

___

The hospital's brilliant way around FUCK IT NO TIME TO BE CUTE YOU HAVE TO GO IN AT 7:30!

You've never been this close to telling them to go fuck themselves, ever.

After throwing possibly the least professional tantrum of your entire life, you go in two hours earlier. You get four and a half hours of sleep that night. You have a headache when you leave. It is going to have to be worth it.

"Emma, I have a really big favor to ask you? Mind not asking any questions?"

"Sure, babe. After what you've done for my friends I'm your bitch." She laughs.

Two hours and a hole in your credit card later, you stare into Armsmaster's idea of a full length mirror in wonder. With liberal use of cosmetics, a commando raid on a hair stylist, and shoes worth more than your phone, you feel the prettiest you ever have in your life. Your new costume, made with a sketch pad, your powers, and Emma's keen eye for fashion, is nowhere near the stately healer's robe you've worn for the last two years. It's definitely still a robe, with the red cross at the center, but it's trimmed and pulled in as much as possible to still be recognized as a healer's robe. Held skintight, showing off your legs, cleavage, and arms is a slightly modified version of your combat suit, thinned out even further at the parts exposed from the robe.

"You're the hottest thing to ever walk the Earth, doll. Don't let anyone tell you different." Emma sighs in contentment. "As you said, no questions." She kisses your cheek. "Go out their, tiger. Whoever it is will be fall in love with you the moment you walk through the door."

She'll just have to fall in love with you all over again. She did it once before. How hard can it be?"

___

You and Armsmaster are the first to arrive.

To Armsmaster's right is a massive screen he clearly designed. Across from him is Kaiser's seat. In the center is a small table for Armsmaster, Miss Militia, Aegis and Gallant, Tattletale and Grue, Skidmark and Squealer, Lady Photon and Manpower, Kaiser, and Purity. Spread out behind the representatives are five tables of vastly varying sizes.

Next come the Undersiders. Four teenagers. Armsmaster looks curiously at them.

"I was told you were recruiting."

"They couldn't make it." Tattletale says. "Family emergency." She gives her fox like smile as they settle in.

Armsmaster sighs. You do appreciate being seated very far away from the Undersiders. Skitter sits down, gangly and covered in her bugs. Grue, their leader who is rumored not to talk sits next to her. Tattletale sits down with him, and Regent at the end. They are a somewhat impressive team.

The Wards arrive together clad in their terrifying new armor. Seeing them all together and so well equipped fills you with a weird combination of pride and horror. You really need to get Emma to help design your costumes. They look like a batch of terrifying monsters. Tattletale's jaw actually drops when she sees them.

"What were you idiots thinking?" She shakes her head.

"That we're going to win." Armsmaster's voice is firm, proud, and Tattletale just shakes her head.

New Wave arrives next. Victoria is wearing her new black suit and glides over the floor, sitting down next to you and glaring determinedly forward. Mark has a thousand yard stare and sits down next to her. It is not a good day for him. Carol sits down next to Victoria, looking wary. Neil pulls out the seat for Crystal, who sits down between Carol and Eric, before he joins his wife at the leaders table.

The Merchants arrive, looking the worse for wear after their encounter with you the other day. You flash Mush a smile just to confuse him.

The Protectorate shows up in force. Weapons, armor, costumes, powers, they're impressive, filling in the ranks between New Wave and the Wards.

Empire 88 arrives last. Their current roster 13 parahumans strong, some of the most powerful villains in the city. The Protectorate and the Wards would need to fight together to outnumber them by a single fighterm and this is one of Empire 88's smaller showings. Taking them on would require every hero in the city to attack them in a fair fight. Purity and Kaiser settle across from Armsmaster and Miss Militia.

Everyone is quiet for a surprisingly long time.

"We are here to discuss the current problem." Armsmaster firmly tries to retake control of the situation. He presses a button. Pictures flash on the screen. Lung, Oni Lee, Bakuda, Heartbreaker, other faces you don't recognize and three you do, Heartbreaker's children. Finally, a face much like yours in a black robe with a green x on it.

"ABB, Heartbreaker, and the cape codenamed Nostrum, a clone of Panacea believed to have subtly different powers. The goal of ABB is to consolidate, to make it too painful for us to continue harassing them. The goal of Heartbreaker is to take Panacea, denying us all of a valuable resource. The goal of Nostrum, as far as the Protectorate's resources have been able to determine, is to inflict as much damage as possible to everyone, and she is supporting them to inflict this damage. Faultline's Crew has worked with this alliance before, but has not been seen with them since last Tuesday, where they broke out Lung and Oni Lee, attacked Panacea and several out of town Wards, and nearly killed Purity."

There is a stretch of silence at this.

"I have tried to organize the city's villains to take care of these beasts. Most proved uncooperative. Some showed the foresight to take down the largest threat to our continued operations, but Faultline and the Travelers broke ranks early, and Coil's forces seem to be in disarray. " Kaiser announces. "I have weakened the resources of ABB, but at this rate it would be another several weeks before they would be softened enough to be defeated without risk."

"We have seventeen hours." Armsmaster announces. "That is why we all had to meet." He clicks, and a picture of some massive and intricate piece of machinery appears on the main screen and the several others echoing it for each table. You hear gasps from Tattletale, Victor, Kid Win and Squealer. They have some idea of what this is. "That is a bomb which could destroy Brockton Bay. Worse than that, according to Protectorate Thinkers the bomb, if detonated, could send out an EMP over a full fifth of North America. Ordinarily a problem like this would result in a massive mobilization to contain the threat. Unfortunately..." He clicks again, and a massive cloud appears on screen. "... there is an even worse threat that just appeared. Codenamed 'Ash Beast' this parahuman, or possibly Endbringer, has been tearing through Egypt. Even that would not ordinarily be enough not to bring in more troops. However, the Three Blasphemies have taken an interest in guiding or controlling this creature. All spare resources have been devoted to preventing this from happening. Legend has personally requested that we do not call in more resources from elsewhere. He is concerned that any resources that could help to handle this threat here could result in serious casualties against the Three Blasphemies and the Ash Beast. Not having members of the Brockton Bay Protectorate called on to help against this threat is the best they could do."

Everyone sits there, surprised. Suddenly, a miracle. Victoria takes your hand. She doesn't look at you, but she squeezes it tightly.

"So we are on our own." Kaiser says. As controlled as he is, you think the mask is slipping just slightly.

"We may be on our own, but we are not helpless." Armsmaster gives us all a smile. "We have 43 parahumans at this meeting. You all have microphones. We are going to coordinate, develop a strategy. In the next seventeen hours we must defeat Bakuda and make sure she does not detonate that bomb. Our opposition against that is Lung, Oni Lee, Nostrum, and Heartbreaker's family, as well as Bakuda herself. Fortunately, we are not unarmed. Over the last week I have managed to personally fight each and every one of our threats." Suddenly the screens are crisscrossed into four small screens. "I have been tracking and predicting their movements, and using information gained from one of Heartbreaker's children we can see through their eyes. I believe that in two hours the major threats will all be separated enough to isolate with sufficient firepower. It will be safest to take them down individually. Many of you know what you can do better than I can, though I will be helping as much as possible. We're going to take an hour to plan the best course of attack.

[X] Write in. Plan out the attack. Many ideas and strategies are not going to be Amy's thoughts and ideas, but will be distributed amongst others for the next update.
The room is strangely silent for a minute. People talk softly with others at their table, gesturing to other tables.

Victoria keeps holding your hand.

"Whatever happens, I love you, Amy Claire Dallon. You're the best thing, the best person, in my life. You have nothing to be sorry for. I trust you and I respect you." Victoria whispers into your ear. "Please, please don't say a word to me. I can't have those be my last words to you, and I want to remember you like this." Neil and Sarah return from the leader table.

This must be what Hell feels like.

"Alright, let's think. Do we fight in the teams we are accustomed to, or split people up for power synergies?" Sarah asks the table.

"Split up. We know our teammates best, and we fight better with them, but many of these forces are inexperienced or poorly trained like the Merchants, or specialized like the Undersiders." Eric starts. "We should spread competent members around. Having some assaults fail and others succeed would be bad. Teammates who work very well in groups of two or three should stay together, but otherwise we should match threats to our own capabilities."

"I agree." Neil says. "Ordinarily I'd prefer to stick teams together, but these specific threats would respond best to specific powers."

"Alright then, let's make a list." Sarah clicks a remote, and the screen shows all the names involved. "Let's start distributing. Who works best for which threats?"

"Grue, Night, and Fog absolutely have to work together." Victoria starts. "Night and Fog are highly experienced teammates, Grue can keep people from seeing Night, and Fog can continue fighting in the darkness."

"What about the rest of Purity's team? Crusader and Purity herself?" Eric is asking when your microphone buzzes. "The Undersiders are requesting Panacea's assistance." You're still for a moment. Victoria looks at you.

"Go. It's a truce, these things happen." Victoria leans in and whispers. "But really, fuck them with coke bottles, all of them." You're smiling the second biggest smile since she threw up on you when you go to the Undersider table.

"The nightmare suits, specifically Gallant's." Tattletale starts. "You did something with his powers, somehow, and you're using the same information you learned from Skitter." Damn psychic. "I have an idea, you can bounce signals from Skitter, that's how you jam her."

"Yes. I can do that."

"I'm thinking relays. Make enough bugs to cover the city. That way we get the largest swarm possible, spread it out as far as usable bugs can travel in about half a day."

"Wait, why a full half a day?" You ask.

"Girl, seventeen hours until the bomb goes off. When plan A fails, we need as much firepower as possible." Tattletale gives you a smile. "I suggest you get to work on relay bugs while we think of what else you could do."

"Alright. I'll need bugs. Skitter provides a hornet. You look at her funny.

"It was a good idea." She says defensively.

"And it wasn't her idea. That was Nostrum, I think. Took her a while to get it right, but worth it." Tattletale explains.

"Alright, let's think, we were talking about Grue working with Night and Fog over at my table." Tattletale frowns.

"That is a good one." Skidmark, Squealer, and Mush are suddenly walking towards you and the Undersiders, with Assault as their escort.

"Armsmaster has requested that you start handing out healing and refreshment to everyone present. Remove long term injuries and atrophy. He thinks it would be better if we all hit them fresh and recharged." Assault leans down. "Armsmaster's a dork. Long term it's a bad idea." You consider it.

"There won't be a long term otherwise. So, meth addiction destroying your bodies? I think you three would be top priority." Skidmark nods.

"Yeah, we're, um, grateful for this. We were hoping you'd offer something like this, that's why we came." He looks sheepish. You sigh.

"Alright, not like you three will ever be a major threat anyone." You start tuning up the Merchants. They leave animated, bright eyed and bushy tailed, talking about tactics. You actually feel warm inside, even though you probably shouldn't.

"Okay, Grue's next." Tattletale looks relieved. "Long term brain injury we didn't realize was long term last time we had you. He hasn't been able to talk since Bakuda." You glare at her, but a fighter who can't talk is not useful for anyone. The Undersiders get refreshed, though none of them need a fraction of what...

You disable Regent. "I believe you have a spy or Stranger." Tattletale sighs.

"Nope. He left his father. Immunizing him to the plague you've been throwing out like rice at a wedding would be really polite. He's been with us before you decided to go all sadistic with life ruining plagues to get Heartbreaker here." You do so, temporarily, for a week or so. Tattletale glares at you but doesn't say anything.

The relay bugs take a few minutes to get right, and after that there's a lot of grunt work. Grue leaves to talk with Purity about their synergies, and Skitter leaves with him after a while. Tattletale has tablets, paper, and other devices spread out in front of her and talks into her microphone seemingly at random.

"No, don't send Shadow Stalker after Bakuda, she's got bombs which could suck her in, black holes, that I've seen. Her defenses will be weak against Bakuda. She's best against Lung. Use all the candy Amy gave you, Aegis." Tattletale flicks the microphone to another position. "Listen to Kaiser. You need some brutes for Lung, but you aren't winning the fight that way."

"What about other, better bugs?" You ask after a while. "Weaponized ones. Harder hitters."

"Not a bad idea, but that's low priority. We can start pulling them out after everyone is sent out." Tattletale tells you. "I think we only need about two thousand more relay bugs, and then we can get to the other ideas I have for you." Tattletale turns back to her microphone. "Don't you dare run after Heartbreaker, Shadow Stalker! You're not invisible. He, or one of his children, might be able to tag you. Stick with Lung!"

"Tell me about your other ideas." You do want to know what she's cooked up.

"Well, immunize everyone to your sleep plague and the thing you invented when someone made a counter to the sleep plague and throw it everywhere. Add in the Vasil agent. You already put those into the nightmare Ward weapons." She flicks her microphone again. "Oni Lee, Crystal. Flying light speed attacks, stop thinking you can stay out of Heartbreaker's range." She turns back to you. "It's not perfect. Bakuda's NBC'd everyone up the ass, and Nostrum can definitely delay, but not cure, your shit. It reduces the margin for error they have, means that a faulty tear in their suits or lighting themselves on fire could end the fight." She flicks her microphone again. "Glory Hole, not all of Heartbreaker's children are line of sight, but good idea you beautiful goddess." She notices you've stopped making the relay bugs. "Alright, I'll stop insulting her."

"For the rest of your life." You give Tattletale your best smile. "Now, what else you got?"

"Velocity. Arm him with something like one of your suits, a prototype for the one Armsmaster's going to claim all the credit for. Give him good blades and everything you can..." She looks out over the tables. "Ooh, that is brilliant. She shakes her head. "He's teaming up with Othala. He'll be hitting like Aegis instead of an eight year old boy. That makes the blades even better. Ooh..." She flicks her microphone. "Oni Lee. Send him against Oni Lee. He's the hardest to catch, and if he enters into another fight it will go really badly." She turns back to you. "Give me a minute to think on the others." Then she goes back to her microphone. "Arms, Kai, that's good, but Bakuda actually hasn't been able to remove the metal from her bombs, so send him after her instead."

You look around the room as you work. Victoria, Rune, and Miss Militia are at a white board drawing up attack plans. Battery and Velocity are in an open section of the room practicing with Othala. Kaiser and Armsmaster are circling the room together, going from table to table. Grue has blacked out one part of the room with several Undersiders, Night, Fog, Purity, and Crusader inside it.

"What about making more suits to give to PRT members? Have them flood the streets, make it look like we're treating this as an S-Class threat?" Tattletale looks back at you. "Maybe if this fight goes on for a while, but we need to hit hard and fast right away. A war of attrition favors Bakuda. If the ABB starts hitting everywhere, then that's a good plan."

Armsmaster and Kaiser reach you and Tattletale.

"Nostrum, we need a read on her. Just how dangerous is she?" Armsmaster asks.

"She can't pull off most of the bio-tech that Panacea's been doing, and I think she has a lot of trouble with microscopic life. She's been doing something to the Vasils to reset their biology, not removing the plague. If she could cook up plagues she would have by now. She can counter the biological warfare. If she can see you, she can kill you, and she might not need line of sight. Not sure about that. She needs to keep close to the Vasils. She's also got some nasty tricks she's prepared. The hornets were one example, but she probably has others. Hit her hard and fast, and see if you can get a kill order. She is not going to be redeemed." Tattletale explains.

Kaiser looks at you curiously. "I am wondering about a biological weapon to take down the ABB. They do have certain genetic markers, do they not? They are all Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or from a closely related ethnicity . Wouldn't taking out their foot soldiers non-violently be a great move?"

"Actually no. I could hit with maybe 90% certainty and hit maybe 20% of everyone else, depending on race. It's less sure than a universal attack that I immunize our own troops against." Kaiser nods. "I understand. As you were." The two walk away.

"You're a little cock blocker." Tattletale laughs. "He's been wanting to get the heroes to do that since he heard about Albany." Tattletale looks over at the Wards. "Oh." She flicks another switch on her microphone. "Hey, Cockblocker, spiders, strands of silk web, and your suit. Talk to Skitter when she gets out of the dark." She flicks it in another direction. "Cricket, you're right, but don't trust Grue's dark to protect you from Nostrum or Heartbreaker's kids at close range. Go with Oni Lee. Maybe if there are a few left standing after the attack you can try it."

Only 800 relay bugs to go.

___

The Wards and Assault had ended up taking over what was originally the Undersider table to ask questions about their suits capabilities. Vista and Assault are at a white board.

"I like the idea of us teaming up. We work well together, but I've been training against Bakuda for weeks, and you're great for fighting Lung." Assault explains. "Now, I think the plan is good, but you need someone experienced at the head with Aegis and Gallant elsewhere."

"What about Manpower?" You suggest. "He's not crucial to any of the teams, but he's one of the most experienced leaders in the city."

"Ooh, point for the petite librarian." Assault writes down Manpower on the white board. "You look gorgeous by the way." You blush. "But come on, really?" He gestures over at Dean. "Believe me, you can do better." You give Assault your most winning smile.

"Believe me, I know."

A team from the Empire comes over from the New Wave table, Shielder in tow, with Hookwolf in front.

"Oh, you? I was hoping for Krieg, he has style." Assault pouts in an exaggerated fashion.

"Krieg has left the Empire." Hookwolf tells him. Assault looks seriously disappointed. "We want to experiment with Vista, Shielder, and Stormtiger."

"Show them what you've got, girl." Assault grins at Vista. "Have fun." It's hard to tell with her tank suit, but Vista seems to be trying to skip as she follows the Nazis. It might have something to do with being treated as a valuable fighter, or maybe she's just switched from crushing on Gallant to crushing on Shielder. Hopefully she's not crushing on Hookwolf.

___

"Are you sure we should but Glory Girl so close to Nostrum?" Lady Photon asks Miss Militia. Everyone is back at their starting tables, and the leaders are consolidating the plans. You're down to just another 200 relay bugs. You wish you could have just had the time to let them breed. They'll self destruct in a couple days, which gives you the sinking feeling that you'll have to do this all over again later.

"It's a risk, but we need physical power here. She'll fly above the darkness as high as practical, and only move in after Nostrum is neutralized. We really want her strength to box in Heartbreaker's team as they lack brutes or other counters to being boxed in with a bus." Miss Militia explains.

"What about further upgrades from Panacea?" Kaiser asks.

"She's been preparing contingencies in case of disaster and helping with coordination. Thanks to her Skitter can appear at all four battlefields. After that she will have time to give everyone sleep and paralysis spreaders, immunize everyone from her weapons, and upgrade Velocity. She'll be working on plans B through G while we press the assaults." Tattletale explains.

"I would rather have used her to ensure we win this round." Kaiser clearly gives a glare to Tattletale despite his eyes being covered.

"If you treat failure as not being an option, then when you fail it fucks the dog hard." Tattletale argues. "If we hinge everything on one assault then we're begging for trouble. We're fighting a tinker and a really smart gang with subtle powers. Things are going to go wrong. This way we can cover our basis." Armsmaster nods approvingly.

Velocity is outfitted with a tinker contraption that actually looks like something Kid Win designed. You hadn't noticed him leaving, but he had returned with the thing looking very proud with himself. There are other, more subtle changes. Everyone looks fresh, alert, energetic, thanks to you. There's no longer the sense of despair from earlier. Everyone looks determined, and many look excited, especially the Wards and the Empire. Tattletale keeps typing as she talks, writing up the designs for the contingencies.

Skitter is the biggest change, though far less noticeable than Velocity's upgrade. You and Armsmaster managed to hook her up to roughly half the capes present, routing her signals through the Wards suits and several special versions of the relay bugs. It will hopefully grant the capes wired in instincts and information from the rest of the group. Many of the capes, especially those fighting Oni Lee, will be able to fight on the battlefield with far more than their normal senses. Armsmaster stands up in the center of the room, his face copied on screens facing every table.

"Alright, everyone. We all know our our orders. I want everyone to remember, if things go wrong retreat. We have contingencies, and we have Panacea. Everything is not riding on this specific assault. We hit as hard as we can and we fade out if things stop going our way. Skitter can keep up pressure, and we can make new plans, attack again, drive them into traps. We do not have to take risks for this fight. If you're injured it is better to cycle you through Panacea than to press and risk losing a cape. If any of these fights go poorly we will still have a significant threat. We need to win every fight, and if we lose the wrong person in another fight we could have a disaster worse than an Endbringer."

__

The troops gather into four teams, five counting you, Skitter, and Tattletale. You move into the center table with them. Othala's regeneration will stay with you until she needs to grant Velocity super strength, keeping you fresh and awake to work on what is currently Tattletale's Plan E.

Tattletale will watch, give information on what the bad guys are going to do next. You're staying with her, and this is the second most in your life you've ever wanted to be blind.

What if they kill Victoria?

___

You sense the Lung team reach him first through the device at the back of your neck. Cameras show it up on the screens as well.

Browbeat, Clockblocker, Shadow Stalker, Vista, Skidmark, Squealer, Mush, Manpower, Menja, Fenja, Stormtiger, Hookwolf, Shielder.

The bugs hit first, both Skitter's and the drones you gave the Wards. Over a hundred stings of sleep and paralytic agent, rapidly followed by a swarm of hornets, spiders, and every other biting thing Skitter could find in the time it took to reach him.

Shadow Stalker hits next. After a talk it was decided that she would be better paired with Squealer than Velocity. Slightly less mobility, a lot more control. Squealer's vehicle (you're not sure what to call the strangely built thing) smashes through the wall and Shadow Stalker flips into the air, unleashing a crossbow bolt you made for her directing into Lung's stomach, hitting him with a massive dose of everything you have that shouldn't kill him.

Shadow Stalker is intangible when Shielder, Stormtiger, and Vista make their play. The air rushes out of Lung's way, preventing any flames, and Shielder holds the air out.

Clockblocker and Skitter move next, as the outside of the shield, very close to Lung, is coated in spiderweb and silly string. He freezes it an instant later.

Lung is devoid of fire, his strength insufficient, and he has nothing to breathe. Hookwolf, Menja, Fenjda, Manpower, and Mush move in for when he breaks out.

Hopefully, Lung is down.

___

Bakuda is next. Her countermeasures prevent hitting her with bugs first. Triumph starts blasting down the walls in his way one by one. Not the best sneak attack, but she is in a fortress. Bugs swarm in after him, detonating every trap they can. Miss Militia sprays the hallway with bullets and her own explosives, hoping to clear or detonate any other traps before they get through. Miss Militia is seated next to Rune on a broken apart set of rocks and cars to be used as a defense. Assault stands right behind her ready to jump forward to deflect any attacks, with Kaiser on her other side, his eyes out for bombs.

Armsmaster, Dauntless, and Victor are seated behind them. Armsmaster has his halberd pointed forward to jam any remote signals Bakuda could send, hopefully. Dauntless has his shield prepared to cast a force field in front of all of them. Victor is ready, at attention, waiting for the point he could be useful.

They manage to make their way to Bakuda's lair without trouble.

Bakuda is prepared. She sets something off and gravity changes direction towards the ceiling. Miss Militia, Triumph, and Victor fall hard. Kaiser is caught be pieces of metal. Armsmaster lands gracefully using something in his boots. Dauntless catches himself with his flight boots before he lands. Assault bounces off the ceiling and projects towards Bakuda, deflecting the first three bombs he hits along the way. The fourth one is worse, hitting his fingers with something horrible that liquifies half his left arm. That doesn't stop Assault, and he hits Bakuda, sending her grenade launcher flying.

Bakuda presses something, and she's a blur of motion. Assault is out cold, bleeding, quite possibly dead or dying. The blur doesn't stop as she rushes forward, enhanced further by some kind of shaped explosive charge. For a few seconds she has copied the powers of Battery. She throws something at Armsmaster, and there's an implosion, is halberd vanishing before it is over. She'd summoned a black hole, a very small and weak one, or something like it. Armsmaster's jamming is gone.

Kaiser releases a storm of blades from her bombs, her belts, and Bakuda screams, damaged, injured. Miss Militia has recovered, and fires a stream of something you don't recognize at her, none lethal, but ripping her suit open, letting Rune through a set of goop you made at Bakuda. She drifts off to sleep, captured. Rune grabs Assault and kicks off back where she came, towards you, with your first serious casualty.

__

Oni Lee is making his way towards Bakuda when he is hit with a super strong punch. A lot of super strong punches. He teleports into the air, only to be hit be something much stronger than Aegis. He teleports behind the threat as the clone on the ground releases a black hole in the hopes of taking out Velocity. Oni Lee releases another suicide bomber black whole behind Laserdream, only for her force field and flight to allow an escape. The area is filled with the blasts of Lady Photon, Laserdream, and Purity.

Oni Lee thinks fast, and Purity is a mangled mess before he is unconscious. Othala is moved to her in an instant, and she exchanges Velocity's strength for Purity's regeneration.

___

The bugs begin their assault on the Vasils, pressing it long before the others arrive, testing their strengths and weaknesses.

The bugs die. Something is cutting through them like a scythe through wheat.

"Nostrum." Tattletale tells the heroes on their way. "She's killing off the bugs, fast." Tattletale pauses. "There's another one, too, giving them strokes, pounding all of them too hard for their little brains to manage. Holdup, Nicholas, fits."

After a few minutes of experimental assault and fenced off escape routes, it's time to bring in somewhat bigger guns.

Grue snaps the entire area with darkness. Crusaders duplicates, apparently not needing actual senses to see, begin their assault, invincible to most of the enemy attacks. Night and Fog sweep in.

You stand there, holding in your breath. What would they bring to the table? Unknown parahumans, your evil twin...

"Fuck me with a live fish, we just won." Tattletale shakes her head. "I was not expecting that."

Rune rushes in through the door. Assault is alive, though just barely. You start work on him. It's hard, but doable, especially with a bit more biomass.

Tattletale looks worried, staring at one of the screens. "Oh, that is how it all goes wrong." Nostrum bio-bomb? A last fuck you from Bakuda? Some hidden power or...

"Well, it turns out when you trap a guy who gets stronger the longer he fights in a force field without air, inject him with everything you can think of, and someone decides to add in deadly neurotoxin, all while he can't breathe, he dies." Tattletale shakes her head. "So, how will you spin the PR of the new nightmare Wards hitting with far more than lethal force while teamed up with the Nazis?"

Interlude:

Battery
Rune
Dauntless

[X] Rune

When sports teams win it's not uncommon for full scale riots to breakout. Justin always says that heroes and villains are a lot like sports teams. Some people love rooting for the bad guys, and some want the city's heroes to win.

Combine that with the ethnic tensions in Brockton Bay, it's not surprising that a full scale riot has broken out. Supporters of Empire 88 and the Merchants have followed their betters and united over the joy of beating up chinks, gooks, and Japs.

Normally you wouldn't have too much of a problem with that, but Kaiser had sent out his most photogenic soldiers to help the heroes keep order. The fact that the heroes had teamed up with the Empire had for some reason failed to calm tensions, especially among the niggers and spics. So, with ABB defeated the city was celebrating with the largest racially charged riot you had ever seen.

This is the most fun you've had since you got your powers. It's always fun to beat people up, but now you're beating people up with righteous law and order at your side. Literally at your side, as you got to team up with Glory Girl. It's hard to pay attention to anything else with the coolest girl in the world at your side trading banter.

"Return to your homes! Curfew is still in effect!" Glory Girl's voice booms over the crowd. You feel her aura hit you, the coolest and prettiest and bravest person you've ever met is right there by your side. The aura lashes out, and many of the rioters flee. Hopefully they're heading home, or at least to the police, national guard, and PRT forces on the streets who are rounding everybody up.

Glory Girl flies up to the couch you're levitating. "They want us at Winslow. Bunch of university students are breaking in for some reason and torching buses. I could get us there faster."

"Sure!" You smile at her and she shakes her head. She picks you up and you're off, careening through the sky at incredible speed. She slows down as you near the high school and lands gracefully, putting you down.

"Wow, you're a good flier." You grin from the rush of motion and Glory Girl's aura. She returns your grin.

"Best thing in the world, flying. Better than sex."

"I wouldn't know." You mutter, blushing a bit.

"Well, I would." She laughs and the two of you start moving into Arcadia. Wow she's so much older and experienced. How can anyone who knows this chick stand to be away from her for five seconds? Is it just the aura or is she really this cool?

You run into the creepy mixed race group of people happily smashing baseball bats into snack machines. It is such a lame way to riot you actually start laughing.

"Kids, go home." The people, all of them older than Victoria, run or cower. "If you go home right now we're way too busy to want to process you. However, if you make it a fight you'll be in a holding cell until we've gotten through all the people we actually care about. Now, either you can leave, or you can pick a fight with me." She's definitely that cool.

___

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow." One thing you hate about your powers? You're not invulnerable to someone throwing what Glory Girl determined to be a bottle of wine at your back. It cut you up fairly badly, and Panacea and Othala are both overbooked.

"Don't worry. I've done this before. Back when Amy got her powers we went to every first aid class we could find together." Glory Girl sounds wistful. "I actually liked it more than she did. I thought it was interesting. Maybe it was just because she could do it all in a second, but I loved the idea of being able to do more to help people." She removes the glass with a pair of tweezers and tentacles in her strange black costume.

"Thank you for this, Glory Girl." You shudder as she removes another piece of glass.

"Please, I was a tween idiot when I chose that name. One reason I'm never joining the Wards, I'd be stuck with that name for PR. It's Victoria." She's keeping your mind off the pain as best she can. With that aura of hers she's pretty good at it. "So, why did you choose Rune?"

"Kaiser gave me a set of names. I liked Rune. It sounded magical and mysterious and cool I guess." You shrug at the wrong moment. "OW!"

"Sorry." Victoria really doesn't need to apologize. "I actually like it. There's something, well, not racist about it. But yeah, I see it. An old piece of magical writing. My family always had the worst cape names. I think that's half the reason they did the New Wave thing." You smile, though she can't see it.

"Melissa." You offer. "You gave me your name, I'll give you mine." Victoria slaps your ear somewhat playfully.

"Mine's not a secret, dumbass." Oh, right. "But, well, it's a truce, or nearly one, so I wouldn't use it against you." She sighs and picks another piece of glass out of your back. "Speaking of dumbasses, thank you for helping out, seriously. The idiots at the PRT called the Wards in for debriefing and psychological profiles after killing Lung. Lung, the beastly freak who could have killed them all under the wrong conditions." She starts getting slightly less deft with her medical care in her annoyance. "The city is falling apart and they pull away the people armed to the gills with non-lethal weapons. Idiots."

"I agree. I was in the Chicago Wards for three months before I up and quit. Idiots." You shake your head. "Say what you will about Kaiser, but he at least lets a cape cut loose. They didn't let me do anything but fly people around the whole time I was there, and they called me Mayflower." Victoria groans.

"Mayflower. That's just sick, girl. Not that I approve of joining up with the Nazis, but I don't exactly object to running from the Wards."

"Come on, we're separatists and supremacists, not Nazis. It's not like there aren't black separatists and supremacists." Victoria stops working on you.

"Of course there are black assholes. That doesn't make it right to beat some black girl's head in and break all her teeth just, for what?" You shrink back. Being in her aura, best thing in the world, if you're her friend. You're suddenly feeling a lot less like her friend and ally.

"I don't do that kind of thing." You mutter. "I bet Kaiser would chew him out at least. That kind of thing is shit PR."

"Oh, so what? You would be annoyed at someone hurting a black person? I've seen bodies you've left crumpled on the ground, and a lot of those are black."

"That's war. I'm a soldier for the Empire. It's not like..."

"We are nothing alike, Melissa. Victoria starts removing the last pieces of glass. You feel a crushing sense of shame. "You were bored as a Ward, so you joined the biggest batch of skinhead crackers you could find?"

"They could protect me. After I left I, well, you know what it's like to hit this hard. The Adepts threw me out, and Accord had me shot in both kneecaps just for showing up! There weren't many other..."

"Go fuck yourself." Victoria's voice is strangely gentle, controlled. She reminds you an awful lot of Kaiser. "Alright, here's the deal. One week from now, you're invited for dinner, like the one my sister bailed on with you freaks. Come, and I'll see if I can help you. I don't think you're happy in your cozy little Empire. You don't deserve this, at all, but I'm going to see if I can get you into New Wave for your probation."

"Wait, what?"

"You'd leave the Wards again, duh. We're recruiting, suddenly. I don't know how it started. Either you can stick with the Nazis, stay hated, fight for something you don't believe in, or you can start looking reformed. You want a cause without some asshole breathing down your neck? I might be able to give you that. You feel strange tentacles moving across your back, and the pain goes away as some excellent bandages are applied.

"But why?"

"Because we all make mistakes, Melissa. If someone wasn't there for me then I'd be in Juvie or the Wards or worse. Now, let's go out there and kick some Nazi ass." Victoria helps you to your feet.

You wish your sister was this cool.

___

End Interlude.

The fight is over. You only have about a hundred more people to de-bomb, six more people driven into homicidal fits by Bakuda's brain surgery, and then you can start on all the non-critical injures from the idiots who decided to start a riot as a victory celebration.

Armsmaster walks in looking tired. Miss Militia is on one side, Battery on the other.

"I'm leaving later tonight." He tells you as you get another bomb out of the young Asian boy's head.

"Wait, what?"

"Chevalier wanted the original Wards, his old team, back together for this. Me and Miss Militia were both part of it. Battery will be taking charge of the Protectorate until I come back." If he comes back. One good thing about the Three Blasphemies, they never result in injuries for you to deal with.

"Has it been enough time?" For what. "It is getting strange, you being in my house for this long. Could you return to your parents, or move in with your sister and Gallant?"

Ah, well, you always knew you'd be moving out eventually.

[X] "I can move back in with my parents." Or try to.

[X] "I'll call Dean." You can. Maybe Victoria's not ready, maybe she is.

[X] "I can take care of myself." Your credit cards are still working. You can find a hotel room until you find an apartment or find something else.

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Potential Breakup Song

It's 10 AM on May 3rd before you manage to crawl into what your phone suggests is the best non-ridiculously expensive hotel room near the hospital. You were up for 30 hours taking care of the rioters, removing hundreds of bombs, and running through the hospital. You manage to sleep for eight hours straight before waking up with a headache, groaning, and returning to the hospital for a 7 PM to 7 AM shift.

"Fuck. My. Life." You mutter as you collapse back into bed. It's May 4th now. You're sick of sick people, grateful people, and the general great race with the scientific name "Mongoloid."

You wake up at what turns out to be 3 PM on May 4th.

"Hey babe." It's Emma. "So I heard you got a new member."

"New members?" You mutter, still half asleep.

"Oh, did I wake you? Sorry. Browbeat left the Wards. He's in New Wave now." You think for a moment. You had done absolutely nothing to encourage this, but it seems cool. "He's totally hot under the mask. I'm jealous. Mason Beaker. Good first name, silly last name, don't you think?"

"He actually unmasked?" You think for a moment. "Like, officially?"

"I'm really surprised no one told you. It's all over the news. New Wave called a big press conference. Photon Mom gave a big speech about how it was time to move forward again, then Mason came on stage with his parents and two sisters and pulled his mask off."

"Lady Photon." You grunt. "Please, she hates that name."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Slip of the tongue. Emma says. "Madison's here. She wants to make sure you're still on for today." You smile very widely and lean back in your bed, stretching luxuriously. "We totally are. Is she there?"

"Yep. Here she is." You hear the odd sound of someone handing a phone to someone else.

"Amy! I heard that you were brilliant over the last couple days. I've been keeping up with all the cape news now and I have a Google alert for news about you. They say you fixed everyone Bakuda put bombs in, healed a lot of people hurt in the riots, and had a big wave of people from Egypt who you helped."

"It wasn't such a big wave. Ash Beast usually just kills, and the Three Blasphemies don't leave casualties, but there were still a couple dozen capes." You can't stop smiling all of a sudden, despite the macabre topic. Not many people have taken an interest like this. Just talking about your day, it reminds you of Victoria. It's probably why you're able to enjoy it. "Honestly, it's all pretty boring on my end, repetitive. Tell me about your day." She does with gusto. The mean Taylor Hebert hadn't showed up for school today, which was clearly proof she was making up her stories. Dennis hadn't returned her calls since their talk in the hospital. Sophia had invited Emma to some Fundraiser thing to restore the city that is happening tomorrow. Madison talks about it for long enough you realize she's probably hinting about being invited.

"Sorry, but this is the first I heard of it." You explain. Madison is disappointed, but cheerfully rebounds with talking about her history class, which is so depressing as they're doing World War One. You're actually pretty interested, you never took history at a high school level. Madison is happy to answer your questions. You get the feeling that people don't go to her for information much.

Agreeing to meet at 5:45 for your shift at 6, Madison hangs up after a long set of goodbyes. You wonder if the trio's parents would let them come over, maybe even for a slumber party? It's been years since you had a real slumber party, not since middle school. You're rather surprised that her parents are letting her stay at the hospital until 6 AM on a school night, but maybe they think this is some kind of social climbing.

At around 4:50 there's a call from downstairs. Someone's delivered a package to you. You have it brought up.

There's a note on the package.

"Tomorrow, the Fundraiser, we're meeting. XOXO. Victoria"

Inside is a beautiful white dress and another note.

"Dean and I got these at a charity auction last week and was waiting for the right time to give them to us. They're from Aly and AJ's music video for 'Potential Breakup Song.' You get AJ, I get Aly. Take it as an apology. We had them altered to fit us." You would never have needed one from Victoria.

You're crying in happiness. You look over at a plant you brought from Armsmaster. You haven't had all the materials you need brought in yet, but the plant...

You feel a rush of love for Victoria. She's missed you. Even when she couldn't see you she was thinking about making it up to you. You hug yourself, spinning around the hotel room. Your hand lashes out and strikes the plant.

In 20 minutes you've worked it out of your system. It is one tree, one branch, of the garden in your dreams, the most beautiful girl in the world's most beautiful features, her head, her neck, her hands, repeated again and again in miniature. The plant is the most beautiful thing you've ever made.

A flower, you'll call it the Victoria.

___

Madison greets you cheerfully outside her house. Madison's quite attractive mother is waiting with her.

"So, you're my daughter's new friend. She's been talking about you non-stop for days." She gives you a demure smile.

"Thank you for trusting me with your daughter, Mrs. Clements." You shake her hand.

"You're a heroine of New Wave. I've even had dinner with your mother once, at a party hosted by the Barnes. I know Alan's got a good eye for people." All of this is news to you, but you try to hide it. "You're barely a stranger at all. Just keep my little girl safe." She gives you a warm smile.

"I could never hurt her." You tell Mrs. Clements. You really don't think you could.

___

Sophia is waiting for you at the hospital. Well, Shadow Stalker is. You grin when you see her.

"Ooh, person who I don't know, your costume is way better than Clockblocker's." Madison smiles.

"I know. Look at this. " Sophia laughs and stretches her wings wide, filling the long room from end to end. Madison oohs and ahs appreciatively. "Now, young citizen of the city who I have never met before, would you like to hear about the problems of a powerful superheroine fighting to keep the city safe?"

"I'd love to, brave defender of the night." Madison gives Sophia a very serious bow. Sophia starts talking about the tooth and nail fight the Wards are having to keep your gifts.

"The PRT pulled in this asshole who thinks that just because they're scary we need to ditch them. He talks all about focus groups and PR. Come on, yesterday I knocked out 40 people without risking a single injury! That is what he should be looking for. Clean, non-lethal take downs. Sure, Clockie's suit looks like a bunch of penises, but he and Kid Win practically beat Faultline's Crew by themselves when they tried to free Heartbreaker. I bet his precious PR would take a much bigger hit if that bastard and his bastards got loose." You shake your head. The PRT can be so stupid.

"Wish you could join us instead." You tell Sophia.

"I know!" She kicks a table. "The newbie, the nothing Browbeat gets to go and leave the Wards but I have to stay? I have nearly two years experience on him. Victoria's even trying to get Rune probation joining New Wave instead of the Wards."

"Wait, what?" You look up from the diseased homeless man you're completely fixing. "Victoria's recruiting?"

"She is. She's arguing that Rune ran away from the Wards, so she'll have a much better chance in New Wave. Maybe I should run away from the Wards. Maybe then they'll let me join the cool kids."

"You're good in the Wards." Madison says softly. "It's like a pack. You can do a lot more there."

"There's not a lot I can do with their stupid restrictions. They're complaining we killed Lung. Lung! The guy who once fought an Endbringer by himself and they're complaining that we killed him! It wasn't even us, it was Shielder and Stormtiger and Skitter who probably killed him. All we did was throw what you gave us at him, and that's never caused so much as a sniffle when we used it in the field." Madison looks, well, you give her hand a squeeze and she smiles back at you. Sophia can clearly be a bitch sometimes, but bitches have their place. Even Victoria can be a bitch.

___

Sophia manages to look bored with her complete body covering. You chat happily with Madison about Petals in the Wind, which she read through quickly in the last couple days. She'd wanted more to talk about when she got to see you.

"Is Emma free tomorrow?" You ask Sophia.

"Emma Barnes? I heard she is coming to the Fundraiser. Not that I know too much about it, given we do not know each other well." Sophia nods knowingly from inside her hood. "Why?"

"She did so well at the meeting. I was hoping she could help me get ready. I like looking pretty."

"Ooh, would that be about the thing we aren't allowed to ask questions about?" You can hear the smirk in Sophia's voice.

"Everyone's going to that thing except for me." Madison pouts.

"Aren't you?" You smile. "I made a call today, after I found out I was doing. Victoria's invitation was plus one, but Clockblocker didn't have anyone he wanted to take. You'll have to go as his date, but you can come."

OOH!" Madison flattens you into a hug that manages to knock you off the teenage boy with one arm who looks bored out of his mind. "YOU'RE THE BEST GIRLFRIEND EVER!" You have to forcefully remind yourself about the multiple meanings of the word.

"I bet she is." Sophia laughs softly. "I bet she is."

___

You get home at 7 Am, May 5th, The Day of the Fundraiser. It must be capitalized in your head. You'd planned out the whole thing with Emma over the phone. You actually called in one of your very few remaining days off for this. Eight hours of sleep assisted by the sleeping organism. Then you meet up with Emma and Madison for four hours of prep. By eight you will be perfect for Victoria. It's always stupid, but it still makes you feel so good about yourself.

There's something on your bed. Spiders on your bed, a large web of them.

"TONIGHT. SAME TIME AS FUNDRAISER. WE MEET. SKITTER."

The hints, Armsmaster's attempts at contacting her, something had gotten through. The supposed undercover hero wanted to talk about surrendering at the same time as...

"FUCK. MY. LIFE!"

[X] Fuck Skitter. You are meeting your beautiful, wonderful, carrying, kind sister for a real date tonight. Skitter can fuck a coke bottle up the ass.

[X] Also fuck Skitter, but, OH FUCK IT! You're going to meet her, because you can always, you can't even finish that sentence.

[X] No other substantive write ins are allowed at this particular time. The two are mutually exclusive.

[X] Fuck Skitter. You are meeting your beautiful, wonderful, carrying, kind sister for a real date tonight. Skitter can fuck a coke bottle up the ass.

You seriously wonder if it's immoral to date, marry, or befriend people just to get access to their stuff or skills. First Armsmaster's stuff, and now Emma's skills at making you the prettiest you have ever been. You like to think you were a six before, but now you're at least a solid eight, with Madison, Emma, and Sophia as nines, and Victoria as a ten.

You, Emma, and Madison stand in front of a long mirror in Emma's house. Emma's dress is blue, and Madison's is green. Your dress is white, one you thought was beautiful the first time you saw it in that music video. Emma stands in the center, you to her left, Madison to her right.

"We have nothing to be nervous about, babes." Emma laughs. "We'll fit right in at this thing." This was at least in part because Carol hasn't canceled your credit cards yet, and Emma is definitely willing to spend someone else's money.

The three of you join hands in front of the mirror. Madison looks nervous, but she is definitely willing to put faith in Emma for making her look hot. She's probably just nervous about going to the Fundraiser, and maybe having to be Dennis's date. Is it just wishful thinking that she'd rather by yours?

21%.

Not good odds, but they really are better than you ever hoped.

"I just wish Sophia could go like this." Madison says. "If she could join New Wave then she wouldn't have to go as Shadow Stalker."

"I'll see what I can do, but it is probation. Maybe they'll let her handle it with us, but probably not." It would be really fun to have her as a teammate, even if you haven't actually done anything with New Wave in quite a while. You really should check in soon. "You have what I gave you?" Madison lifts her new necklace out from under her dress and puts it over her dress. Wires in the necklace could release the sleep and paralytic agents on command if she ever needed it. Emma has one, too. The problem with being New Wave is people threatening your friends, but those would make that just a bit harder. it really is a wonderful weapon, and your girls will be immune to it forever now.

"Let's go show them what we've got, bitches." Emma smiles into the mirror, and the three of you strut out like you own the city. In your case that's a bit closer to the truth than you'd like to admit.

___

The spider tree-drone is killed on the way to meet Skitter. You don't see what causes it. Worrying. Your attempts to contact through the bugs hasn't worked as Skitter wasn't in range. Battery had advised against issuing a public apology on the phone. If Skitter really is onto something undercover then broadcasting that you two were meeting up for everyone to see could get her killed, and the current information on Tattletale suggests that such a move might be exposed even if her name isn't used. You had built a relay bug as a gift and included an explanation with the spider drone. Either you just had really bad luck or someone didn't want you to make the meeting. Honestly, Skitter and Tattletale being reformed is not something you care about. You smile at the idea of her waiting at the rendezvous point, desperate, waiting for backup as dark enemies lurk, chasing her, waiting to take her off...

You really need to remember that scenario for later. Anyway, if she really is trying to come back to the fold, Sarah and Eric are going to meet her there. You can't imagine a good reason she'd surrender to you and not to other members of New Wave.

You and your friends actually get to stroll up a red carpet. You let Emma take the center. She owns the walk up. New Wave may be celebrities, but she was born for this. You give the cameras your best smile and Madison waves cheerfully. This is to rebuild Brockton Bay, so it's not like you're being selfish.

Emma and Madison break off when you get to the top floor. Emma has her eyes fixed on a local teen singer with a predatory look, while Madison moves to admire everything. Even Emma's a lot less used to this kind of thing.

You move to the back of the room. There's a stage here for the mayor, where most of the remaining heroes will gather. That's not what you're here for.

You'd just made it through people who keep talking to you to find that Victoria's not here yet when you here a commotion from back where you started. Several Wards enter the room. Clockblocker, Vista, Shadow Stalker, Gallant, and arm in arm with Gallant, so sickeningly far away, is your Glory Girl, your Victoria, your sister in the dress that matches.

She gives a wave, and then there's oohs and ahs as she kicks up from the ground, gliding over everyone. You even hear a girlish shriek you think might be Madison's. Victoria actually sweeps you off your feet with a hug, rising into the air to keep from smashing to the ground, and moving in a skilled fashion to control the landing.

"I've missed you." You both say at once. The reaction of your audience ranges from confused, to charmed, to one heckler shouting for you to kiss. You're kind of surprised that Victoria doesn't give the asshole the finger like she did last time someone shouted that at her in public.

The two of you settle into your spots at the table. You notice a few people approaching and suddenly moving away, and you're hit by her aura yourself. You suspect that anyone who would interrupt this reunion is someone Victoria would count as an enemy.

"You can touch me. I, I'm over the thing the other day." Victoria says. Victoria is a bit worried. You calmly, cautiously reach out and squeeze her hand. She's stressed, not been sleeping well, not been eating right...

"If you tell me you're sorry I'm kicking your ass right here in front of everyone." Victoria is the best sister. "What I just did, I did for me. There's nothing that you did wrong." She shudders a bit. "You needed to get out what you got out. I love you more than anything else I'm feeling." She pauses for a moment. "You can talk now. Say anything."

"But we're in public." You giggle a bit.

"Fuck them all. If they hear something they don't like? You're more important." She gives you an intense look.

"It's been hard." You start to explain everything since she went back to Brockton Bay. Cranial, the Asylum, Flechette, that horrible Tuesday, Flechette's dying, and your new friends. Victoria leans her head on your shoulder, glaring daggers at people who approach the two of you.

"I wish I could have been there for you. At least I could help with Heartbreaker's team, but I really wanted Bakuda. Would've been stupid, but she, just, no one hurts you. I was actually hoping to catch those Traveler people for you, but no one's got a hint of them, so I settled on these." She pats your leg, and it takes you a moment to realize she's referring to the dresses.

"They're lovely. I was overwhelmed." You keep just enough presence of mind not to mention the Victoria flowers. You suspect that most people would not take them as touching.

"Well, that's what was supposed to happen. We give each other things, and are overwhelmed by how thoughtful, caring, and wonderful our sister is." You bask for a moment, remembering the skinhead gangster you healed for Victoria. That was a good hug.

"So, now to tell you about my couple weeks. So, Dean's stepmother's been pressing this paternity suit against him..."

___

"...and that's why I am no longer allowed in any IHOP in the country." Victoria finishes her exhaustive list of events she hadn't been able to share with you. Sophia, Shadow Stalker, had sit down on your other side, looking strangely ratty in her old costume compared to the one you invented. The rest were better made, but you think hers was an improvement. You hear a beep and Victoria looks at her purse. "Someone's texting me." She explains.

You can hear a smirk in Sophia's voice as she touches your arm, trailing it up yours. "Having fun, babe?" That is odd. Babe is more Emma's thing.

"The most I've had in weeks." You say completely honestly.

"Well, we'll just have to fix that." Sophia's voice is lazy, and there's something else in it. "It's almost enough to make a girlfriend feel like she's not wanted, seeing you two get all lovey dovey."

"You are wanted." You assure her. "I was even wondering if your parents would let you stay over. Christen the apartment or something." You feel there's some double meaning there that you didn't intend.

"Hm, you know we should get Madison's cute butt over here. Victoria hasn't met all your new friends yet." Sophia glances around. "Where is she..."

"Is this some kind of joke?" Victoria asks, she sounds confused and just a bit scared.

"I don't know what you're talking about." You look over at her, leaning in, and she shows you her cellphone. There's a text from your phone, which you'd left at home to diminish distractions. It has a password protected. Who would have broken in? Some parahuman...

The words on the screen are simple. "Cut ties."

"It wasn't me." You think for a moment. Good Emma have grabbed it as some idea of a joke?

Then you both see the phone get another text. "I'm sorry."

Then the Undersiders crash in through the roof. Glass shatters everywhere.

"Fire away, Ames. I love you." Victoria tells you before she rockets off. You're already spreading the sleep and paralytic, but oh damn it you'd rendered them immune for a week just in case things went worse. You hadn't specified that, but Tattletale.

You finally get a good look at what crashed through the ceiling. It's a boat, resting on water held nearby. You start firing off the big spray, hoping to at least wipe out Skitter's weapons, and start thinking about a counter agent to your counter agent, but if you did that it would infect the heroes as well...

The Undersiders have changed costumes. Each of them has a strange translucent dark shroud now. You can no longer tell them apart. Bugs are swarming out of massive boxes on the boat, though they're already starting to die. None of them get near you, and unless you grabbed a person you don't have any material for a Skitter jammer.

Victoria is making a grand circle of the room, making sure no one was horribly injured by the falling ceiling. The heroes, Battery, Assault, Triumph, and Dauntless are making their way towards the boat. Shadow Stalker has disappeared, hopefully doing something brilliant. Gallant is throwing colorful blasts at the Undersiders, but they're missing. One of them is making his (her?) way towards PRT agents, slowed down by carrying something. Another three are moving towards the heroes, also slowed by their loads, shrouded with the same material that covers the Undersiders.

You hear a loud male voice you think is Regent's ring out cheerfully at the heroes. "Catch!" He tosses one of the packages at them. Triumph screams, and the shroud pops, revealing, what the fuck!

They're carrying babies. Battery breaks her charging, giving Assault a super strong push straight up, and the hero catches the baby before landing gracefully.

Victoria suddenly smashes straight into the boat, and you notice that the water seems to be breaking down, spilling away from the boat increasingly rapidly. Whatever power is holding it up is diminishing. A moment later Victoria comes out the hole she came, holding a limp figure that she tosses at you and Gallant. She lands hard, and her shroud (some kind of defense?) had already vanished, if she'd ever worn one.

"TOLD YOU I COULD TAKE HER!" Victoria's voice rings out over the gallery, and Dean laughs out loud.

Vista is the first to get hit as one of the shrouded figures charges, wrapped in containment foam. Oh Hell, if this is who you think it is...

And he's carrying one of the babies, too, shrouded happily. Victoria lands on the table with a thud, her eyes full of fury, clutching another of the strange, shrouded infants. She hands it to you tenderly. "Keep her safe." Victoria rises, charging the man.

"NO!" You scream. Victoria hits hard, and the shroud vanishes. A beautiful man who could be Victoria's brother, and who might count as one anyway, stands there with a smirk on his face. He throws a wave of containment foam, the yellow mess, at Victoria. Grue's darkness covers you before you see the results. All you can do is clutch onto Skitter, hoping she could somehow provide leverage if...

Then you aren't blind anymore. Your head is clear, and no one else is. Another shrouded baby sits on on the table in front of you, wailing away. You hate crying babies.

That's probably why your "brother" put one there.

The Undersiders have been backed into the center of the room, except for Skitter. None of them are carrying babies anymore, and one of them are shrouded. Victoria, Dauntless, and Battery are still standing, and the Undersiders, several are unconscious. Only the beautiful man still looks in shape for a fight.

Victoria pulls back, waiting for her force field to recover. She is so full of righteous fury. She looks so herself.

The beautiful man, Phantasos, has a trail of containment foam moving over one of the Undersider's belts, Tattletale's. You shout. "WATCH OUT!" It's too late, too many crying babies and grownups for her to hear, and she charges.

You see Phantasos roll with the containment foam backwards as Victoria strikes him, leaning in. He had somehow timed it just right, a power, luck, skill? You see him kiss your sister right a flash of light hits your eyes.

No, he wouldn't kill them all, would he? It has to be teleportation, or something...

Your clone has your sister!

And you have Skitter.

You look down at the thing at your feet. She's going to help get your sister back, one way or another.

[X] She says she's an undercover hero? Use that. When she wakes up, hit her with that, and she had better help you find where they went.

[X] She was never going to make that meeting. You are going to make her tell you where they are.

[X] Who cares what she is now? You've started doing brains. She's going to love helping you when you're through with her.

[X] She says she's an undercover hero? Use that. When she wakes up, hit her with that, and she had better help you find where they went.

You drag it by its hair into a handicapped bathroom over the stunned silence, shouting, and confusion of the crowed and throw it in. You look the door behind you. You never knew you had the kind of strength.

It wakes up right now. You rip its mask off, hard, and press your hand into its face. Unconsciousness is not acceptable when Victoria needs rescuing. You look over it in the slight chance there's any signs of someone fucking with its mind, and there's nothing. it stares at you, looking young and scared. There's nothing inside you that makes it at all cute or sympathetic.

"Is there anyone in this world you love?" You hiss down at it. It nods.

"I love my big sister more. If there is an ounce of heroism in your body, if you ever want to be anything but a villain, you're going to get my sister back. You will devote all of your energies to this. Do you understand the felony murder rule?" It nods again.

"That rule, stated simply, is that if people die during a felony, it's murder. You have no right to have done any of this. Not the bank robbery, and sure as Hell not this. I believe that's justice. The moment you signed onto this freak show you accepted that. If my sister dies it is your fault for signing up with those things. This is on the verge of breaking a truce, breaking every rule villains tell themselves keep them safe."

"I'm sorry." It whispers. You slap it as hard as you can, which turns out to be harder than you thought.

"Now, tell me why you were with those things instead of meeting up with heroes and talking about how to become a hero." It looks down.

"Victoria was the target no matter what I did. The person we work for, the Undersiders, has been desperate to get at you for weeks. Ever since you came back from the Asylum he's been trying to find a plan to get you. He kept calling it off at the last minute. He's a Thinker, and a good one. I don't know how he works. Tattletale, she's not a mind reader, she just knows things. I couldn't have stopped the kidnapping. I tried to talk people down. I thought maybe if I told you after it happened we could work together. He needs you for something. I don't know what, but he wants it very badly."

As gently as possible you run your hands over Skitter's forehead and run the sharpest pain you can through its brain, too sharp to even scream. "You are not allowed to say her name, cunt. I also don't buy this for a second, but you're my best option to get my sister back. Now, your secret boss has a way to get to me if he wants me. Tell me what it is." You finally let the pain end, keeping it as alert as possible. "You are not allowed to swear at me, or at all."

"He gave me a number for us to call when we met up at the meeting point." Skitter speaks slowly, forcing it out. You remove its ability to walk, stride out of the bathroom. Madison is waiting right outside.

"Do you have a phone in your purse?" You ask, trying your very best to keep controlled.

"Yes. What's going on?"

"Victoria is gone."

"Oh my Gosh!" Madison cries out and hugs you suddenly. "I'm so sorry. Tell me if you need anything else. I'll be here for you."

"Thank you." You sigh into her shoulder. "This means a lot." You pause. "This phone will be used to call a dangerous supervillain. I understand if..."

"It. Is. Fine." Madison's voice has never been stronger. "I mean it when I say I'm your friend." She presses her phone into your hand.

"You are the best. I'm proud you're my friend." You tell her, and return to the bathroom, locking the door behind you again. You're crying and don't care that it sees.

"Feeling better?" You ask the thing at your feet.

"Yes." It whispers.

"Good. Now, I'd ask you to type in the number, but you're not allowed to touch my friend's phone. I'd burn this dress if it wasn't Victoria's makeup gift." You lean down. "Tell me once, and get it right."

___

"You will devour my clone down to the bones with your bugs if there is even a hint of a reason." You tell it. Skitter nods. "There should be nothing left of that filth, do you understand?" It nods again. "Now, if we get Victoria back, if you help me with this, I will be very grateful. Understand?" Skitter nods again. "I will have everyone accept you as a hero, because you will be for bringing the monsters who kidnapped my sister to justice. Victoria will even forgive you, and because I love her I will make forgiveness something I do, even if it's not something I feel. I will build you supe-bugs, bioarmor, stuff better than the suits I've already given the Wards, put everything I can think of into helping you, make you beautiful or the most deadly creature you want to be, biologically immortal, do the same for your family, I do not care. As long as Victoria is safe, I will be the happiest girl in the world." It manages to look terrified even wearing a gas mask. "Oh, there's one more thing." It looks even more scared. "The dress my sister is wearing? Every stain we can't get out of it, I'll do something obvious to a matching part of your skin. You can work on fixing it. Don't worry, it's pretty revealing, and doesn't have a mask, but these dresses are special. They're some of the nicest things she's ever done for me, and she's done a lot." Skitter nods. It is pretty smart. You pause for a moment.

"The Undersiders, how could you stick with them for so long?"

"They're the only friends I've had in a long time." It says. You stand there for a moment, and think about how you've been feeling recently.

"Your friends left you here with me to save themselves. It was Tattletale's machine." You open the door. Madison is still there, alone. You had thought maybe Emma would have been with her by now.

"Shadow Stalker is missing." Madison says. "Emma's calling her mother." Stupid, revealing information like that in front of a villain, but she's not used to this. You focus in your mind, do what Victoria would want you to do, forgive your friend.

Skitter is very still.

"Madison, do you mind if I do something really weird to your body for a minute."

"It's cool." Madison does look nervous, but gives you her best smile. You take her hand gently and spread your power through Madison's body. "Skitter, stay." You tell her, and wrap Madison's appendix into one of the jamming organs you've made. Like you thought, it clearly starts to have an impact on Skitter. You undo it after a few seconds.

"I can do that in trees, stray cats, rats, bugs, fish, anything big enough to take it. Best case for you, if you screw with me, I'll blanket this city with them. I've touched you. I could release something that would have no chance of hurting anyone but you, but could do anything I want to you, let it spread across the world, do it as a tribute to my sister. I'll go around the world healing people, releasing it everywhere I go. I'll have a lot of time to think about the best way to hurt you." You it your best winning smile. "You have no chance of a life if I lose the best thing in mine." You turn around and hug Madison.

"That's really cool." She whispers into your ear. "You make Emma look like an amateur." That's something to mull over later.

"Oh, one more thing." You turn back to Skitter, arm entwined with Madison. "When we were touching, I put something inside you. It will kill you, eventually, unless you touch me and Victoria simultaneously, alive. I couldn't undo it just by touching you, limit of microbiology. Both me and my sister are going to see each other again, make it out off this alive, or you aren't." It's not something you can actually do, but you just have to add in something else.

Skitter clearly swallows, terrified, but you just can't find it cute or sympathetic right now. "Madison, stay safe." You lead Skitter out into the waiting car.

___

A nice, easy set of directions. All of New Wave safe and ready to scout out the area. How could it be easier?

Of course it leads to the same kind of damned teleportation machine your "brother" used at the Fundraiser.

The two of you stand over the machine, Skitter and Panacea.

"Tell me everything you can think of about this guy, everything you know or was hinted at." Crystal drops down and helps you take off your dress, leaving only your underwear. You're not risking this piece of beauty in the coming fight. She has your real costume, your combat one, glorious and beautiful, made for Victoria, ready, and you put it on half with your powers.

"He's rich. He's incredibly rich. He doesn't care about money, he cares about power, building up reputations, weakening the establishment, and you. I don't think you relate to the other parts, you're something else. Tattletale became really scared when he started sending orders about you. She says he changed completely." She pauses. "He threatens them, you know. Threatened to kill Tattletale if she didn't work for him, rounded up several of the Undersiders. They didn't get a choice." You reach deep inside yourself, try to imagine what it must be like to be alone, scared, have a supervillain threatening to kill you, no options...

"Did he order you to bring the babies? To do that evil at the bank? Is he holding your father hostage?" Skitter gets quiet. "Answer me!"

"I didn't know about the babies until I got there. Phantasos, the new guy, his idea. They were stashed in the boat. I have no idea where he got them. It was too late to do anything."

You kick the machine, and it starts to life.

___

Bonus interlude! AKA random cliffhanger!

[X] Aisha

[X] Shielder

[X] Browbeat

[X] Aisha

Bonus Interlude: Aisha (Countenance)

Names are hard.

Brian had said no to Buffer, Aegis was taken, Ward would be confusing, you refuse to learn how to spell Escutcheon, and it turns out Cloak was taken by some girl in Australia. Countenance was what you had went with after several hours on an online thesaurus after you started to get frustrated. You're kind of hoping that the heroes will see what you can do and give you a better one.

Your powers are lame and girly. Sure, it's nice to be able to explode things by punching them, but how are you going to use the ability to give people those cloak things? Worse, it made it clear to Brian you actually cared, getting a whole trigger event when he couldn't talk. It is totally uncool. How could you even rob a bank with this? Well, there's making yourself bullet proof and charging in, but Brian has indicated this is not likely to be successful.

You tap your foot, bored. If Alec was around, or if you could have brought friends, then the whole thing would have been much more fun. Secret identities suck. Maybe New Wave would be better, as they're recruiting, but you're pretty sure that being a hero would suck a lot more. But no, Alec and Phantasos have to be off doing the fun thing at the Fundraiser. You have to be here to see if the super special Panacea shows up. Trainwreck is boring as shit.

You could have gone with them. Charles even said he thought it was a good idea. Then again, Charles had actually spanked you after calling him Chuck, so he sucks. The baby thing was cool and fucked up though. Bringing babies as shields into battle was so fun you kind of had to forgive him just for that.

You see what is definitely not Panacea land gracefully. Photon Mom? So, the little bitch had brought backup. Good backup, too. You'd need to get close to break her shield, and she can fly, so that's hard to arrange, she can also probably throw laser beams faster than you can replace your cloaks.

Then again, the boss, who you're starting to suspect might actually be Coil, did prepare for this possibility.

You wait for a few more minutes, bored out of your skull, before you get rewarded by watching Spitfire throw napalm at Photon Mom. Her scream is so funny. You're giggling already as she struggles to keep her shield up. Probably only a few more seconds before it goes down and Newter can jump her. There's a satisfying pop, and Newter flings himself into the air.

You've gotta love Faultline's Crew when they're on your side.

Newter smashes into something, a shield rising in the air. What? Oh.

The boy in the white skintight costume is kind of hot, but a bit young for your tastes. The blue hair was such a lame move, though. He isn't even looking at Newter as he advances. Spitfire opens her napalm stream, but it doesn't even slow him down. Oh shit.

Newter falls out of the air and is hit by Photon Mom's blasts hit him hard before he hits the ground. Newter is down. Fuck, fuck, fuck! Trainwreck charges out, hitting the force field. Shielder stops moving, but the shield doesn't break. Photon Mom is circling around to find more members of the team. You are one of the members of the team.

Discretion is the better part of valor. You decide to slink away. Maybe if you were a Stranger things would be easier. Strangers are good at slinking away from a fight. The escape hatch is in Trainwrech's armor, but maybe in all this confusion you can just sneak away.

___

Fucking Blasters.

You sit in the cell at a police station. Breaking out would actually be pretty easy, if Shielder wasn't standing outside glaring at you. You can't beat Shielder.

Suddenly your phone rings, it's Brian. You pick up. At least he'd been too much of a gentlemen to search you.

"Hey, if you huff the smoke when you burn polyester, can it get you high?" Best to disguise that you were captured like a chump.

"Good question." The voice on the other end is not familiar, some bitch.

"Whoa, did Grue snag himself a bitch at that Fundraiser thing? What are you, some cape banger?" You feel a sudden rush of pride. Picking up some adoring fan from the crowd and banging her before he gets home? You never thought Brian had it in him.

"Not Grue." The voice on the other end is weirdly smug. "The dude on the ground screaming in pain." Then it goes quiet for a moment, and you do indeed here someone screaming in pain on the other end of the line.

"Whoa, Regent or Phantasos?" You laugh out loud. Those two are sick.

"I believe it was the pretty boy. BTW, we'll be able to track this number." Oh, oh. Did Chuck try to get a superheroine as his bitch? That's just stupid. "I think your boyfriend, oh shit." You hear the phone drop on the other end of the line, and the sound of those laser attachments Coil's troops have been using.

You sigh and hit the wall, unleashing one of your "cloaks" to rip a hole out. Shielder raises a shield in your way, and you wait. As you suspected he gets a call about a minute later. Not having a mask makes it easy to see he's looking worried.

"So, keeping little old me, or going to go be a hero?" You smile at him. He gives you harsh glare. Then he pauses, considers.

"You're coming with me." You're not sure if you want it to be your bad girl appeal as a villainess that influences his decision, but it will probably be easier to escape if the two of you are moving. Maybe you'll even end up with a chance to rescue Brian. It'll be really embarissing for him to be saved by you again.

___

End interlude.

___

The Undersiders have a secret boss. The secret boss is evil. How else could one explain teleporting you into a windowless waiting room, locked, with a voice on the intercom telling you to keep waiting?

If the bastard probably didn't have Victoria held hostage you would have worked on breaking out at once. Instead, you sit there with Skitter and tap your foot, your mind running through all the horrible things that could be happening to Victoria.

Finally, after about 20 minutes, the door opens. "Coil will see you now." Oh, so it is Coil here. Interesting.

The gaunt, skeletal man sitting behind the desk is the ugliest thing you have ever seen, though you're biased at the moment.

"Hello, Miss Dallon and Miss Hebert." The name rings a bit of a bell, but you can't place it. "Please, have a seat while I explain the situation." It takes a lot of self control not to fire a dart at him. "Believe me, firing one of those darts will not benefit your bargaining position, Miss Dallon. Neither will releasing those hornets, Miss Hebert." Using Skitter's real last name is interesting. Some kind of power play? The two of you sit down.

"Where is Victoria?" You ask him.

"Most of her is currently in a very secure facility I arranged for her capture. There is however a link to that facility. I want you to understand how bad the situation you are in is, this time." Very curious phrasing. "I have tried everything else." When? "I have the ability to control destinies, and your destiny is to help me."

"Bullshit."

Coil presses a button, and you hear Victoria's scream over some kind of intercom. The dart hits him instantly and he sighs. "Please, I was sure to make a counter to your agents before we had this conversation, after the last time." He picks the dart out of his forehead. "Now, let me clarify. I can do more than one thing at once. When I come to two paths in a forest, I can take both, walking along them until I find something I want, or something I fear, and then I can have taken only the path I wish to. That is how I work. Six times since you stepped in I called you into this room. Each time, I have talked to you, and each time you have proved uncooperative. Perhaps this will prove to be a mistake, but this time I am choosing to punish you for each." He opens a box, and you vomit all over it when you see the severed toes, six of them. It's hard to recognize a severed toe, and your powers don't work on dead things. The gold paint is one Victoria's used before.

"Now, I ran into a problem you caused, and only you can fix, and I am not talking about blaming you for something I did not allow to happen in this timeline. When Heartbreaker came to town he started a search for people to help him capture you. Most of his targets escaped." Coil leans forward. "I didn't. I do not, cannot, let myself feel this way every minute of every day, longing after that beast Dragon's holding until trial, out of my reach. He promised me he would cure me once he was done, but that is impossible now. That leaves you." You're barely listening, shaking in anger. He's hurting Victoria.

"Now, you may think that I am pursuing a bad way of ensuring your cooperation. Perhaps I am. But hear this. Every time you turn me down I just delete the timeline where it happened. I have you still in my waiting room, and Tattletale is watching us as we speak. Every time you resist me I just make another timeline, and in many of them I will hurt Victoria trying to convince you. Victoria remembers all of it. Refusing me, and having me take a tactic less likely to get her hurt, will not help the woman you love. Sabotaging me over time in secret will not prove effective. You are going to help me, eventually, so why not do it now? Once that's done I will have no further need of your assistance, and I would much rather not have a war with New Wave, so the only rational thing for me to do is to let both of you go and flee. The man who kills Panacea will not be able to hide from the law."

[X] "I. Will. Help. You." You barely get it out.

[X] "You can can control destiny? Prove it." You kick back in your chair. The bastard is lying. Those might not even be real toes, much less Victoria's, and he's spinning a lot of bullshit.

[X] Fight! Write in. How should Amy get out of this nightmare?

[X] "I. Will. Help. You." You barely get it out. You know he will keep on doing horrible things to your sister... that he's a sadistic monster... And thus you do not even hesitate to fix him completely to your will, subtle little things which won't trigger until after his power has been with drawn... you are sure that if you do it in an immediate manner then he will notice and delete the timeline in desperation... maybe even kill Victoria. But maybe if you make him your bitch on a timed release... changes which will stay within him and bloom only after he feels himself safe and secure... you can ensure his resources to your command. You aren't extremely experienced with Neurological biology... But this is not a hard thing to fix. You just have to hope that it's good enough to fool everyone involved... Observing just how a Heartbreaker altered neurology looks might allow you to replicate his work here, in a controlled deliberate fashion.
-[X] On your way here Taylor told you Tattletale was trapped... just as she was, just as you are, by this man sitting at the centre of his web... you hate her still... and there is nothing in the world that could ever hide that, but having heard Taylor's story and confronted with the reality of this hateful pathetic THING that called itself a man before you, you decide to offer her a choice... one which if Skitter's babbling was correct and she was able to tell what you were thinking at a look... then she'll know... letting you do this to the bastard infront of you now. Well you'd make it a promise to yourself to give her a chance if she just kept here mouth shut right here. A glance up at the mirrored glass, and you know that she'll know. But if she chose that man over both you and her friend... there would be nothing on this earth to save her from you.

"Alright." Coil carefully removes a single glove and the two of you make skin contact. The two of you touch fingertips for half a minute before you separate. Coil puts his glove back on his hand before he moves his chair and begins carefully typing on his computer. You start to get up.

"No." Coil tells you. You sit back down. You wait for an agonized minute.

"I want you to understand something, Miss Dallon. You are punished for every timeline where you attempt to screw me over. Currently, I have posted an email originally written by Tattletale on seventeen locations on the Internet implicating you have an incestuous crush on your sister. Alan Barnes, a friend of your adoptive mother and the father of one of your friends, is bleeding out and may die." Taylor practically falls over in her chair. "Through all of this, the only person you truly care about is undergoing torture at the hands of a very skilled man. I want you to hear this." He clicks something on screen, and you hear Victoria's voice.

"...by then your eyelids opening and closing will have been rendered involuntary, so all you can do is stare at the mirror while we..." He turns it off. It definitely sounds like something Victoria would say. The voice is harsh, agonized, but still strong. She's not alright, but she's not destroyed.

"We can try this again. This time, undo whatever it is you just did. I do not know the details, but I do know it is slow acting, intended to trigger weeks after I have been stuck with a single timeline. Such a move will not work, as I can always return to an earlier save point if I have to, though it is quite frustrating I may have to abandon several months before Heartbreaker came and prevent your trip to Albany altogether." Coil returns to his computer for a moment. "Oh, and one more thing. Your punishment for attempting to subvert me again will be the death of one of your two new friends who are not parahumans. You will choose which one. Will you inflict more tragedy on the family of Emma Barnes, or have me kill the wonderful Madison Clements? I believe you were significantly more distressed in the timeline where you saw her skinned alive."

Strangely, Skitter reaches out her hand and takes yours. Human affection, human kindness? Is she doing it for herself, or for you? You appreciate it either way.

You start to cry miserably as Coil types on his computer again. In what you thought was a double mirror an image of the parahumans online homepage appears, and you see a thread there saying, well, the obvious. Coil clicks again, and you see a large redheaded man lying on a floor, bleeding out.

"I would of course gladly contact emergency services about the man as soon as you undo the harm you have done."

Then there's a twitch. You see it. You can sense something is wrong on his end. Maybe one of his other timelines experienced a setback? He turns back to you and extends his hand once again.

"He's lying." Skitter's voice rings out. "He can't be that strong. If he was Heartbreaker could never have captured him."

"Please do not interfere, Taylor Hebert." That name really rings a bell. Wait, that psycho freak that Madison and Emma talk about sometimes? Not really surprising, all things considered. "Your punishments are also set in stone. I have publicized your secret identity for an earlier transgression. However, there is no need for the men who will kill your father not to receive the password to hold off before they attack." You see hornets start to move out of her costume from underneath her armor panels. "I assure you that is a bad idea."

"ALRIGHT! You scream. "But I want assurance of some kind that Victoria is safe. Not something that could be faked with a recording. And I want Phantasmos. I want him far away from here, in a place where he cannot hurt me or my sister again. Give me these things and I will help you."

"What could possibly provide such assurance? I am not letting another hero in to vouch for it, and who else do you know?" Suddenly Coil's tight body suit almost has a smile in the corners. "Oh, of course. I will release Victoria, and make it a quite public affair. Then I will let you speak with Madison Clements. I believe she is someone you trust. She will be able to vouch for Victoria's safe release. Give me a moment." He turns back to the computer and makes a few clicks before turning back to you. "I just sent orders to help Emma and Taylor's respective fathers, as a sign of trust."

You shudder. It feels like a betrayal of Madison, to put her in this situation. But honestly, as much as you like Madison, Victoria matters much more. There's not really much you don't think you could do to Madison for Victoria.

"Okay." Your mind starts spinning, thinking. "Coil, have you spoken with my psychiatrists? No. I'm sure you haven't." Coil does seem worried, but he's winning. Why would he be worried?

"I have read their reports, but not spoken to them. Why do you ask?" Their reports must have been either censored or bullshit. Maybe he's just lying.

"If you did you'd know the things that I secretly fantasize about while I'm healing the fleshbags. I'm not a good person, Coil. I'm a monster. One of the worst. Victoria is the reason why I push down all of my hate and every sadistic urge I have. I want to be worthy of her. Without her I'd probably run off and join the Slaughterhouse Nine. If they'd take me. I bet Jack would take one look at my work and vomit." You draw every last reserve of cheer and give him your very best smile. "Oh, the things on my mind. The best is a little something I cooked up. Invades every functioning human uterus and causes it to start growing something like Victoria. Not another Victoria, there can be only one, but it starts growing parts of her, the best parts. Her fine hands, the curve of her neck, the flawless face, the cute feet you've destroyed." You pause for a moment, and actually lie about the qualities you want in the flesh gardens for dramatic effect. "The titties, of course." When dreaming about it you actually didn't think they fit, far too crass. "You know that I want to fuck my sister, Coil. I also want to fuck my mother, and my new friends, everyone. I'd just fill the world with the thing I love the most, over and other again, make it a bed to lie on, clear out most of the brains, just leave enough to love me, keep all my favorite people alive enough to feel like themselves when they worship me, but all the rest is just raw material. Then keep it like that until something finally kills me, maybe when the sun finally covers the Earth." Your heart beats faster and faster. It feels so good to let it all out. "That's what I think about every second when I'm stuck at the hospital. I'm not a doctor, I'm not the cure for all, I'm the disease, I'm the Pandemic. If I lose the one good thing in my life, the one solid thing, the thing I would kill for and die for, there's nothing holding me back. Most of the world would be some mindless flapping thing keeping some part of my sister alive. The parts that really piss me off? They'd keep just enough of their minds to hate it."

Coil sits impassive as you give the speech. All he does is click another key when you finish. "She can hear you now."

"Oh Amy." The voice is tinted with absolute despair. Coil clicks his computer again. You sit there in your chair. Skitter is looking at you with the horrible gas mask.

"You don't do your own brain. I believe that is what you will hear in the wind. You will see those words in the endless mouths you cover the world with. If you destroy the world for her you will betray the memory of the only person who ever really loved you. Are you that bad a person? Victoria, a person full of mercy, compassion, the person you find most worthy of love in the world, would never want the world to be something like that. Victoria loves it far too much." You start shaking again, crying. How could she ever forgive you for that? It wasn't even a lie, not the parts that matter.

"It will be a few hours until I will have completed the arrangements. If I understand what you have done properly I doubt I will trigger it until after you have removed it. Return to the waiting room."

You do, with Skitter behind you.

___

The two of you actually cuddle on the damn floor, tired and hurting in so many ways. You don't like each other, you'll probably never like each other, but you both need someone to hold right now. Taylor even removed her horrible mask.

"He can't leave either of you alive." Taylor whispers into your ear.

"I'm not an idiot. I actually have some training. I know that he can't leave either of us alive. Once I touch him I'll be too much of a liability. And Victoria would never stop hunting him." You voice your worst fears in the cold, sterile, bright room.

"The only way any of us are possibly getting out alive is if you get him to turn himself in." Taylor tells you. There's such conviction in the words. It sounds so true.

"I'd turn the Earth into a sea of death to get him. Every virus, every bacteria, every parasite, every weapon I have down to my eye teeth. He is going to kill me. I know that. Coil knows it, too. He's going to try to have Victoria killed, too, maybe the rest of New Wave, but it's her best chance. If I'm gone they might call Dragon, or the Triumvirate, or..."

"Amy, there's an S-Class threat they're fighting right now. They can't spare anyone. He get her in time. You can't put your hopes on them." You start crying again. Taylor holds you for a while longer. She's not actually good at it, really, she's gangly, pointy elbows, uncomfortable with the contact.

"I thought your Tattletale would help." You admit. "I wanted her to so hard. I hate hating people, Taylor. For a minute I thought maybe there was good in all of you. You and your friends could join the Wards. Maybe all the girls could have a slumber party. I haven't had one of those since middle school. Tattletale could help everyone and we could team up. Purity and Rune would join New Wave and we could bring the Empire down." You're babbling now, and Taylor lets you babble. "We could all be so good if we could all just be good.

"I couldn't believe it either. I don't want to believe it. I keep hoping he used something else. Some tinker or mad guess or other thinker." You nod slowly. "Can you do something for me, while we still have time. Taylor is silent for a moment. "Anything."

"Pray with me." You haven't really prayed in years. Dean prays, and Victoria sometimes got into it for a few weeks, and it always reminded you too much of him. But you are at your rock bottom. You're out of options.

"To what?" Taylor asks. You think for a while about the question. There's always Scion, who Dean says is God's grace touching the world. In a way, there's the Simurgh, who many claim is what the world deserves. Miss Militia told you once she thought powers were a gift from God, but that always seemed false to you. Your powers don't love you at all.

"There could be a God." You say finally. Taylor doesn't answer you. There's too many obvious questions in there.

You close your eyes and speak.

"I don't know if you're there. I hope you are. If anyone is out there, anyone who loves me, please help. I will do anything you want. Just keep Victoria safe."

___

Bonus Interlude: Madison

It's been hours since Amy left the Fundraiser. You're scared, worried for her. It's the obvious problem. Getting people to like you isn't about doing things for them, it's getting them to do things for you, and you've been doing a lot for Amy lately. The whole thing seems counterproductive, but she's just so cute and helpless and grateful all the time. It's kind of intoxicating, how much she needs friends. You wish Emma and Sophia weren't so gross about saying she's a lesbian and flirting with her. They'd scare her off either way.

Your mother left for home earlier. It's you and Daddy who pull into the driveway.

There's lights on in your home. Weird, Mom always goes to bed early.

Then they come out. A group of thugs. Dangerous looking, scary. Daddy starts to pull the car away, but one had a rifle. Wait, isn't that weird? He shoots at the car's wheel. It's strange to you, practiced, controlled. The thugs are dressed like real thugs though. Ugly, horrible clothing, weird tattoos...

One of them, a massive bear of a man, moves forward. He laughs, looking drunk. Others move with him, also looking drunk. Wait, no, you know what drunk boys look like. These men are faking being drunk. The other one, the big one, maybe...

A chill runs down your spine. Uber. A cape, the perfect man, capable of anything.

What did he do to your mother!

You and Daddy run, but another group of thugs is waiting, cutting off your escape. You back up against a tree, Daddy in front of you. You start shaking, terrified. What is going on.

The thugs move around you, jeering, saying things you don't want to hear, ugly, nasty, horrible things. You start shaking so hard and you can't stop.

The man who might be Uber steps out in front of the men, pulls down his pants, and waves them at you. You start to hyperventilate, telling yourself not to scream...

With each statement, they each catalogue the realities. Similar realities are included together, for both the entities and the shards. Too many complications and confusions arise when interacting with worlds that are exceedingly similar. Not an effective form of conflict, when it is the same lessons learned over and over again. It is better to connect them into groupings, limit exposure to each set of worlds. One shard is capable of settling in a grouping of near-identical worlds, drawing energy from all of those worlds at once.
The entity looks to the future to check for danger.
Plague.
All signs point to the shards murdering their hosts.
The hosts must be protected, or this will be disastrous, counter-intuitive. The entity adjusts the innate safeguards, protections to reflect the host species and their tolerances. The bonding process will protect the host, where the host needs protection. Shards that are capable of providing flame at will cannot burn the hosts, now. Shards are reorganized, combined and clustered where necessary, to grant sufficient protection.
Infestation.
Better, but not perfect. The entity refines the process, limits certain abilities, so they will not eradicate too many at a time.
Soft. The broadcast is sent out to the counterpart, along with suggestions and tips on how to refine the shards.
Agreement, the counterpart accepts.
But the entity can still see fallout effects. There are parallels in memory storage. Not many, but there may be glimmers where the subject is capable of perceiving the information stored in the shard as the connections are formed.
For good measure, the entity breaks up one shard cluster, tunes it, then codes the effect into each and every shard. It studies the host species further, refines, attunes.
It takes time, but the entity forms a sufficient safeguard. The host species will forget any significant details.
The broken shard is cast off, joining countless others. It will bond to a host. The entity looks forward, checking.
After the target planet has revolved thirty-three times around its star, this shard will connect to a host.

You stagger backwards.

"Madison! Where are you!" Daddy shouts.

Suddenly, you smile very widely. "Right here." He looks down at you. "Wait, what..."

"A miracle." You smile up at him.

___

End Interlude

___

"She is okay" Out of nowhere Madison is just there. You look up at her amazed.

"How..."

"I. Had. A. Trigger." Madison beams down at you. "Victoria's safe. She and Sophia beat the Undersiders and escaped. They showed up about half an hour after you left." You grab her, jumping up and down, in the youngest and girliest gesture you've expressed in ages.

"How did you..."

"Stranger. They couldn't find me, and I followed them back." Madison is still smiling.

"They beat the Undersiders..." Taylor whispers. A smile cracks over her face like dawn. "Tattletale is an Undersider! She was there, at the Fundraiser, she didn't betray us!" You laugh out loud.

"I strongly suspect you choose the wrong trigger for your time bomb." Coil's voice rings from the doorway. The three of you turn around.

"It's over now, Coil. You can't hurt me anymore." You can die, if he has a way to do it. The love of your life is safe. She can mourn you and marry Dean.

"Actually, I don't need you anymore." Wait, what? "Phantasos was always a loose canon, striking before he was told. You were never my first choice." Why the monologue? He has to know that gives you time to pull something, which you're doing. "It took far too long to regain their cooperation, but I think my position is actually stronger now. I should thank you. She is a much more valuable asset now, and I think a far more reliable one than you.

Taylor vanishes. In her place is Noelle.

"I'm sorry."

___

[X] "YOU OWE ME!" She really does. If you can just get Noelle to listen to you...

[X] You're wearing your costume. Non-lethal take downs were never your limit, and Victoria's safe. You raise your foot, letting your suit do the aiming. A bullet hole appears right in the center of Coil's head.

[X] "Please, make another, but let me go." You beg Noelle. If she has any humanity, she'll let you go. She doesn't need to hurt you to clone you.

[X]You're wearing your costume. Non-lethal take downs were never your limit, and Victoria's safe. You raise your foot, letting your suit do the aiming. A bullet hole appears right in the center of Coil's head.

Noelle stands there, confused. There's a shriek, oh right, Madison. You hear someone screaming from behind Coil, and Noelle turns in a moment, leaping back over Coil's body. You hear a very loud set of thuds.

Trickster replaces Madison for a moment, looking rather the worse for wear.

"I suggest you heal me without any pesky modifications. The lady is rather upset at Skitter, but she is going to be far more merciful if I am not covered in hornet stings." You listen to the man, and place your hand on him. It only takes five seconds to ensure he has no further problems.

"Thank you, Miss Dallon. Hopefully we will not be in touch." He is replaced by a very shaken Taylor.

"What just happened?" She looks at the dead body. "Did you just..."

"Killed him, and I'd do it again." You answer. "My only regret is that I couldn't wait until my time bomb went off to steal his stuff."

It's a lie. You can't stop looking at the body. He wasn't hurting Victoria. Did he really deserve to die? It's the first time you ever killed, ever came close to killing. It was so easy to give that order. And for what? Because he was mean and scary?

"Let's get out of here." Madison is back, touching your arm, leading you away. "This place gives me the creeps." You smile sadly.

"Alright, Madison. Let's get you and Taylor home." Madison looks confused, and then a strangely big smile spreads over her face and she looks at Taylor, Skitter. You are out of it, revealing a secret identity...

"Oh, Taylor!" There's something you don't like about the smile she gives the supervillain. "Wait, wait, you're Skitter? I almost didn't recognize you!" Madison gives you the strangest look. You're not sure what to make of it, like the two of you are in on a secret. "Well, I guess we're New Wave, so we don't fall under those silly secret identity restrictions, do we? I see no reason not to..."

"For me." You say suddenly. "Just, leave her be. We're not going to hurt her more after this." You turn to Taylor and try to smile at her. You think the smile is pretty weak. "Call me on a night when I don't have plans, and we can discuss things, okay?" Taylor nods. You're quiet for a moment. "Thank you for coming with me."

"She didn't really..." Madison starts.

"Yes, she did. She could have screamed and begged in public, but she came with me to help. She had a choice, and she chose to try to make up for what she did. Thank you, Taylor Hebert. I will vouch for you, if you decide to become a hero." Taylor suddenly looks extremely uncomfortable.

"About my friends..." Oh.

"I'll see what I can do." Suddenly you turn to Madison. "Wait, we need to make some calls. If what Coil said was true..."

___

Coil was a spinner of bullshit without compare. Alan Barnes is fine and very sleepy. Danny Hebert is safe and sound. There's no rumors posted on the Internet.

After breaking out of the refurbished factory basement you were apparently held in, it's actually pretty easy to call the PRT. Taylor is running home. You wouldn't want her in New Wave, or for a slumber party, realistically, but you think you can forgive her for everything. You are in a forgiving mood.

You're hit by a white and platinum blonde comet before the PRT arrive.

"Um, I'll be safe!" Madison calls out. "You two can go home!" At those words Victoria nods, and kicks off from the ground.

After a minute or so she lands on a rooftop looking a bit sheepish. "I just realized I don't know where we're going." Your legs are a bit wobbly from the flight, your sister hugging you for a full minute, and what you think is a pretty intense blast of her aura.

"Is it alright if..." You try to think of a way to ask this that doesn't sound incestuous. "I want to sleep in the same bed, tonight. I get it if you're not ready, but..." You feel like scum as you start to relate what Coil had said was going on. Victoria looks furious.

"If I was there I would have killed him with my bear hands, shoved a..."

"I used the boot gun." Something breaks on Victoria's face.

"Oh Amy." She's hugging you again. "Tonight, yes, I get it. I've been, well, wanting that ever since I left you in Albany. I've been picturing it every night, you sleeping alone, miserable. I just couldn't. I..."

"You have nothing to be sorry about." You tell her, though honestly you feel you're lying.

"Is Dean's okay? He's told me, um, a lot about how you feel..." Victoria looks nervous.

"If you have your own room there, it's fine." Victoria laughs. YES!

Oh, his stepmother insisted we didn't share a room. I claimed the guest room."

"The same stepmother who is suing him for paternity?" You frown.

"Okay, um, I insisted, but it sounds totally uncool when I say that." Victoria admits. The two of you are laughing as she kicks off again. Dean's isn't optimal, but it is sufficient. So far the news is actually really good.

___

You can't help but smile and shake your head as you enter Victoria's claimed guest room. There's a shelf of the Dollanganger Saga right next to the bed, an Aly and AJ poster on the opposite wall, Excision and Clueless DVDs on the nightstand...

"You copied my room?" You give Victoria your most playful smile.

"I missed you." She mutters. "A lot." She suddenly looks really nervous, and your heart grows with an irrational hope.

"Can I read to you?" She asks quietly. "I miss it. I've missed it ever since we stopped." Almost as good as you hoped for.

"I'd love that." You pause. "Anything but Flowers in the Attic." She laughs.

"Yeah, that would be uncomfortable. How about something true crime?" You pause for a moment.

"I'd really rather not." Victoria nods, not even looking disappointed.

"The Princess Bride?" She says after a bit of silence. The two of you start to smile. That would be perfect.

___

You never cry again that night. Not the first time since Albany, but you did most of the nights. Maybe you should feel guilty about it, but you feel you're back. You're the Dallon sisters again. You feel comfortable around Victoria in a way that has been slipping away for years.

You have one of the afternoon to morning shifts tomorrow, so you can sleep late. You wake up when Victoria does, or shortly after, as soon as she starts moving.

"Breakfast?" Victoria asks.

"How does Dean do food, anyway? Order in, room service, a cook, or make it himself?" You lie back. Victoria had managed to find a quite comfortable bed, even though you miss Armsmaster's.

"Depends on our mood, but Dean found a place that delivers pizza for breakfast." You can't help but smile. It feels like being a kid again.

Breakfast pizza is delicious.

___

The two of you sit on the bed, which needs a change of sheets now, and suddenly get quiet.

"We don't have to talk about it today, but we do need to talk about it." Victoria says at last.

"We can talk today. It's been a while." You shudder.

"You told me it's almost as bad being near me as it is being apart." Victoria's voice is quiet. "What did I do wrong?"

"Wha..."

"I, I'm sorry I fucked you up!" She practically screams. "I tried so hard to be the best sister. I fell in love with you the day we met." Your mind starts buzzing at the statement, but no, she means platonic love, or else she wouldn't have thrown up. "I love having a sister. I have ever since you showed up. Almost as long as I can remember. I liked being the big sister, having a little person looking up to me. I can't be hurting you by not letting you kiss me, but I can't kiss you."

You pause, trying to respond. You sit beside Victoria, hugging your legs to your chest. "The psychiatrists said that they could help me stop feeling that way about you. I told them no. I don't want to love you any less. I can endure the pain and they're helping with that. I wish we were still kids. Everything was simpler back then. Romance was a lifetime away, growing up was something that happened to other people, and we could always count on each other. I don't want it to end."

Victoria sighs. "This must be what Hell feels like. I mean it. The one thing you want most is the one thing I can't give you."

"I could..." Victoria freezes up.

"That's why I threw up." She admits. "The kissing didn't help, and neither did the tongue, but that's what pushed me over the edge. The idea that you'd make me was too much. It's why I didn't want you to touch me. I was so afraid that after all that time you'd be so scared and lonely you'd do it." You force yourself not to cry.

"I didn't want to." You say honestly. "I was just so happy to see you. That's all I cared about." You think for a hard moment. You can't share the 21% right now.

"Do you want to kiss me now?" Victoria asks quietly.

"I would like to be able to. I don't feel the itch. Our hands are sticky and covered in pizza and I think we have really bad breath." Victoria laughs a little.

"What now?" Victoria asks. "I mean, I don't think we want to move back in with Mom and Dad. I don't think you want to move in with Dean. Honestly, Carol's been ranting over the phone about the credit card bills, so I think the hotel stay won't last long." You have to smile at that thought. "Honestly, I don't feel comfortable sharing an apartment." Your heart sinks.

"I can decide later." You think. "Right now I just want a shower."

___

You sit in a nice meeting room at the Protectorate HQ. They probably called you hear to talk about Coil.

Battery walks in, looking exhausted. "Hello, Amy. It's been a long day." She sits down across from you. "I never want a leadership role again. I hoped I was clear of it after I left the Wards." Battery gives you a smile. "I've called you in for a number of reasons. You will have to talk about the Coil kidnapping, of course, but there's something else. I'm sure you remember Tattletale?"

"Of course." You wonder why they brought you in for this. Character witness? Way too soon for that.

"I just got off the phone with Dragon. She is extremely worried about Tattletale. She was looking up different precedents. She is afraid that a normal detention center could not possibly hold her. She is too good at finding vulnerabilities. Any conventional holding cells would be cruel and unusual punishment. Dragon also warned me that she estimates there is less than one chance in a thousand that Tattletale would survive more than a month in the Birdcage." You sit up straight in your chair.

"What?" You'd just assumed they could find a place for her. Victoria was just angry when she talked about the Birdcage at the bank.

"You've met Tattletale. She managed to insult me in four different ways in our brief conversation. Honestly, I feel horrible because of her, and I think she was trying to be nice. According to Dragon, there is no good place for her in the Birdcage, and her crimes and powers make it extremely unlikely she could be placed on a Ward probation. From my own experience with the system I agree with her. Tattletale is far too dangerous to be let loose or let around sensitive people." You think. Yeah, that sounds accurate.

"Do you remember your trip to Albany?" The question is so out of left field you chuckle.

"It's hard to forget."

"Do you remember the Ward you met there, Trick?" You do not like where this is going.

"She makes people remember her as a close relative, friend, or lover, something like that. Are you suggesting we send her to Albany? I don't see how this could help."

"It wouldn't. Trick has been used on an experimental basis with two supervillains in an attempt at reform. Over the last several weeks the results have been positive. Dragon and Director Costa-Brown have been speaking about expanding the program."

"I don't do brains." You've made such a lie of it, but this sounds so bad it's your best shot.

"Perhaps that is the case. However, here is the proposal I was given. If you can keep her in line, in a reversible lobotomized state when you aren't around and she is not at work, and establish a dependency that she needs you to fix, than the concern about her being a danger who can go rogue with incredibly damaging information has decreased to completely acceptable levels. Dragon said in no uncertain terms that she finds this a vastly preferable alternative to sending her to her death." Battery looks very grave.

"What did Tattletale say about it?" You ask cautiously.

"In forceful terms, that she does not care. She considers herself dead either way." That is bad.

"Are you willing to work with us on this? I know it is a tremendous thing to ask of you, in addition to everything else you do."

"Could someone else do it?" You ask quietly.

"From a technical standpoint, yes. From a practical one, none of the other three people who we think has a good shot at safely controlling Tattletale and is trustworthy enough to do it is either willing or able at this time. Cluster's wife recently died and his psychological profile is worse than yours, Last Witch is considerably younger than you are and on probation for excessive violence, and Soulfire is taking a leave of absence. Dragon looked into alternatives."

"Oh."

You promised Taylor you would help her friends.

"What about the other Undersiders?" Maybe if you can help them...

"Regent is to be sent to juvenile detention with an extensive psychological program. He is believed to be severely emotionally damaged, but may be salvageable. Phantasos has not spoken since his capture, but has not done anything bad enough to warrant a trip to the Birdcage. Grue proved extremely cooperative, as did his sister, and they are most likely going to be placed on probation with membership in the Wards after being relocated to another city. Skitter has not yet been sighted." It sounds like they're okay, as okay as could be expected.

"Give me a minute." You ask the heroine.

"Of course."

You sit there and think.

[X] "The Birdcage." You can't ask this of yourself, not right now. It's better than doing that to her mind. It's horrible and grotesque. What is wrong with these people?

[X] "I'll do it." This is the best way of helping Tattletale, isn't it? You can work with her, help her, make sure she and Taylor can see each other. You could give her a normal life, right?

[X] You lie. "I'll do it." You promised Taylor you would help her friends. You are going to break Tattletale out.
You can scarcely count the number of ways this is illegal, Tattletale might be an asshole and a criminal but she isn't a monster and she still has rights.

If you really pressed this you are still reasonably certain Carol will defend you should it come to a legal battle. Probably. If Victoria asked for it. Maybe. If you picked up and fought for Tattletale you could do it.

21%.

You've worked in hospitals twelve hours a day 350 days a year for two years. You have healed children, politicians, and superheroes, done everything they've asked of you.

You're only going to get one shot at something big and hideous and likely to make things into a PR nightmare if it gets out. You can't blow up like this now. You can't cash in every favor and raise a shit storm, because Tattletale is not Victoria.

It's not that you can only go to bat once. You'll have other times. But you can't pick this fight, build up demands that stress the system, and then call in whatever you need to to get an incestuous marriage through. You start breathing more heavily, feeling sick. You need to be beloved, saintly, long suffering, only asking for what you need, and then drop the bomb. After that things will be different.

"Damn you." You give Battery your harshest, meanest possible look. "I'll do it." It's a lie. It's probably a lie. Maybe when your head is clearer you'll know. You can break Tattletale out later, cover it up properly, make it look like an accident, something.

"I'm sorry!" Battery screams at you. "You think I want to choose between murdering a teenage girl and this." Something cracks on her face. "I'm here to help people. I did this because I believe in justice, believe in the system, and then the best, most noble hero anyone says exists tells me the people I work for, well, the escape hatch is this pile of shit." She freezes up. "Pardon my French." You don't laugh.

"We could call a press conference." You mutter.

"I asked about that. Sure, we could. Dragon said, Christ, we wouldn't get her off if we did that. We'd raise up a storm of bad publicity, get funding cut, I'd get transferred to Madison Ohio, and Tattletale would die instead of getting a chance." Battery puts her face in her hands.

"If she does cooperate well would it be possible to lighten her sentence over time?" You ask. Maybe you won't have to do anything illegal.

"Maybe. Probably? If she's a good girl for a couple years she might get something less harsh. Dragon said they're scared of what she can do, specifically. Information they have and we don't. Not about power, about her power, her history before the Undersiders. Long term, some really good deeds to her name, who knows?"

"Will she say yes, if I ask her, do you think? Will she agree, or are we just hammering our own choices down her throat?"

"I asked her about it before I came in. She told me to F--- off and such. Honestly, she's in no state of mind to make any decision. She was banging her head against the wall as hard as she could and trying to fry her brain with her power, I think. She'll be having headaches for days, unless she's a much better Stranger than she seems. We don't have to do it right away. She can even get a trial, if she wants, though it'll probably be a quick one, as cape trials always are." Battery runs her hands through her hair and looks back up. "Anything else before I get back to this mess?"

"My clone, Phantasos. He's a psychopath, a monster. Baby shields were his idea..."

"Actually, Tattletale said they were hers. She might be lying, of course. The fact that the babies weren't actually hurt is a point in their favor, whoever caused it."

"He's my evil clone. Noelle said so. She said they came out evil and wrong, try to kill everyone."

"Noelle? The giant cannibalistic monster who abandoned you and was last seen working for Coil?" Battery shakes her head. "Little v. DC."

"What's that?"

"Court precedent that means your evil clone's probably getting more mercy than the teenage girl forced to work for a villain at gunpoint. It was ruled that being an artificial construct made by a supervillain does not remove your rights as a person, and a lot of other specifics. I was looking it up earlier when we first heard about them. They have a clone of a member of the freaking Slaughterhouse Nine on the Protectorate in Las Vegas, and by all accounts she's doing fine. Unless proven in a court of law that the clone is not a person, or obviously acting in a manner that is not a person, a clone is legally treated as a person by law."

"What the actual fuck?" You stare at her. "Why?"

"Same reason we have a Birdcage instead of shooting villains who deserve it. It means they have an incentive to act like people. That's the rationale behind it. Phantasos has broken the law, but he's only had a chance to redeem himself once, right now. If we just sent him to the Birdcage then what's to stop another clone who isn't born evil from being so scared of his status he will do anything to stay free?" Battery looks so very tired.

"And the reason that doesn't apply to all the Thinkers like Tattletale?" You ask.

"Oh, Hell if I know." Battery snaps. "Ask an actual lawyer. Sometimes..." Battery stops. "Go home. Rest. We can have a debrief on Coil again tomorrow." You laugh out loud.

"Rest. Please, I haven't even been to work yet today."

___

The Birdcage or some horrible combination of lobotomization, enslavement, and forced addiction; such is supposed justice, for a teenager who was forced into doing something illegal, because she's got a nasty personality and a superpower that makes her extremely dangerous. There, but for the grace of God, goes Amy Dallon. Or... maybe but for the grace of someone else. What if some idiot thinks Victoria is too dangerous with her aura?

It makes you sick. You keep running over scenarios in your mind as you work, once again alone as Madison couldn't come today. You miss Victoria so badly. Stage a situation where Tattletale outsmarted you? Work with her to fake something like that old villain Madcap who was paid insurance to break people out on their way to the Birdcage? Work to give her a new name, face, and identity in New Wave or France or something?

You can't get caught. You're scared of getting caught. You can't have that black mark on your record. You can't fight the PRT for anything less than Victoria, not on your first time out.

The PRT has been so good to you. You don't even work for them, but they've given you everything you've ever asked of them, if not everything you ever wanted.

You hate this, though to be honest it kind of resembles a wet dream you had last week.

Between the very faint chance of someday having to throw in everything for Victoria, either to help her or have a chance with her, and the large chance of being able to help Tattletale?

Victoria would want you to help Tattletale. You know that no version of your sister that you could love, in any possible world where you stay yourself, would argue against helping Tattletale with every weapon you have. You want to make Victoria proud of you...

You can wait. You have a lot more things to patch together before you're through.

___

Tattletale may be trying some incredibly slow and horrible form of suicide, apparently turning her power on as much as possible and slamming herself into the pain of Thinker headaches.

It will be a while before you have to make any choice about it. Thinker headaches can't kill, and eventually she should turn away from the pain.

Victoria is waiting for you in the parking lot.

"I still have my hotel room." You mutter.

"Actually, no you don't. Mom finally canceled your credit cards." You sigh. "You're going to stay the night again." You can't help but smile. Your smile fades as she leads you to a car.

"You're not flying me there?" It's petty, but you were really looking forward to it.

"I'm too sleepy." Victoria answers. "Sleepy night driving is easier than sleepy night flying." Neither one sounds good, but you do agree it sounds better as she drives you back to Dean's apartment. Well, Dean's suit, or hotel thing, or whatever it's actually called. It's the size of a small house.

Victoria reads you to sleep again, though she's drifting off before you are.

You love this woman. You stare at her as she sleeps. You love everything about her. Without Victoria life is miserable and empty. Victoria fills life with magic and love and family. How could you want to share your life with anyone else?

You fall to sleep beside her.

___

You have a breakfast with Dean and his very pregnant stepmother that she cooked. Victoria feeds you pieces of French toast with butter and powdered sugar. You all calmly manage to avoid any of the obvious subjects of the two screwed up families at the table.

"They say that Coil's organization is still running." Alyson says.

"Maybe you killed a body double?" Dean suggests.

"Maybe." You frown. "Wouldn't make sense, though. He had the upper hand completely. He could have gotten me to do anything he wanted, or gotten a clone to do it, and Noelle bolted as soon as he died."

"Maybe he found an alternative and wanted to think he died because he realized how badly he fucked up?" Victoria suggests. "Ooh, try this! Peanut butter and jelly mixed in." She picks it up with a fork and happily plops it into your expectant mouth. It is always better to have Victoria sort the food you should eat, though maybe you're getting a bit old for it.

Dean talks while your mouth is full. "The Wards are planning on taking down Coil's organization now that ABB is done. We've been talking about it for a while. Relatively low risk, given how few parahumans are involved, and it would cut down on the ways the heroes of the city are stretched thin."

"This is weird for me to ask, but could you start soon? I want to see the suits field tested before I give the Protectorate their own versions, and I want to see those in a few serious fights before I work on the ones for the family."

"So, you give everyone else in New Wave the most refined, last, perfected suits, and I get the ratty prototype?" Victoria's voice mocks the idea she's sad about it.

"Honestly, yeah, I really need to hand out at least prototype versions to the rest of the family next. I'll work on that the next time I can't sleep." You nod. "Any specific requests on yours? It is kind of basic, though I did build it with you in mind."

"So far it's perfect." Victoria assures you. "It let me thrash all of Dean's friends and Dean in half a minute and I didn't even release the crowd control options."

"Alright, you have got to tell me how that worked." Victoria is beaming as she pops the next bite of food into your mouth and begins.

___

You are off work again. You pace. Victoria is asleep, she can't stretch her sleep schedule to match your work schedule all the time. Never could.

You don't want to wake her up. What should you do?

[X] You're not ready for Mom and Dad yet, but Aunt Sara and Uncle Neil? You do have a good excuse of your weird hours to do it now, and you could bring up the new suits as a reason to show up. It would be nice to catch up with New Wave.

[X] Madison's been sleeping weird hours lately due to her new powers. You could look her up and have a GNO.

[X] You're getting just a bit worried. It hasn't been too long, but Taylor Hebert hasn't contacted you yet. You could look her up and see how she's doing.

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Potential Breakup Song-2

[X] You're getting just a bit worried. It hasn't been too long, but Taylor Hebert hasn't contacted you yet. You could look her up and see how she's doing.

You drive to where, after 15 minutes on your phone, you determine Taylor Hebert, at least by far the most likely Taylor Hebert, lives.

It is, in your uneducated opinion, a shitty area. You don't seriously consider your NBC countermeasures for the smell, but it is a nice thought.

Your suit, the Panacea costume draws some attention, but pretty much everyone knows better than to hassle the great Panacea, though you do end up signing a autographs for a group of twelve year old boys. Only one seems to actually be crushing on you. There's always a couple, even if Victoria is rightfully the most adored of New Wave. New Wave patrols aren't rare in the city, and it is pretty late. No crimes in progress as far as you can tell outside of your suit informing you that one couple in a doughnut shop you pass are discussing music piracy.

The house is small. In your humble opinion it's ugly. You consider for a moment and look into the suit's senses. Taylor is inside...

You decide against breaking and entering, and instead call Madison. You guess you could have rang the doorbell, but it seems that this way is slightly less likely to out Taylor to her father. Slightly.

"Hey, can you text me Taylor's number?"

"Ew, gross. Why?" Madison sounds cheerful for the hour.

"Thought I'd see if she's, I don't know, growing bombs with her insects to break her friends out of jail."

"Oh..." Madison seems thoughtful. "She doesn't have a cellphone. I have to warn you, she's nuts. I'm not super surprised she became a creepy bug girl. She got messed up bad by her mom dying. Emma used to be her BFF, and after Taylor's mom died they grew apart. Taylor become creepily obsessed with Emma and anyone who hung out with her. She's good at it. Because her mother died talking on the phone she thought every time we pulled out our phones we were taunting her. We couldn't talk about Mother's Day without causing her to freakout. Then she'd just make stuff up like stealing her homework." Madison is quiet for a while. "This will sound really bad, but after a while it became hard not to mess with her a little. Like, I know she has to be going through a lot, but it just got so annoying. Stuff like dumping pencil sharpener shavings on her head, little things like that. I think it was a huge mistake, as all the stuff she was making up got merged with it and she thought there was some big complex persecuting her." You think for a moment. She sounds sincere and even regretful.

"That was mean, but maybe, yeah, it doesn't sound evil or anything."

"One other thing. She blames us, me and Emma and Sophia, for, um, something we didn't do. I don't even know how it was done..." The story about the locker...

"Thank you for telling me about that." No wonder she has a persecution complex if people actually did something like that. "Love you, talk to you later. Bye."

"Love you too. Bye!" Madison hangs up the phone.

You think.

Nilbog triggered after losing his job. Bakuda triggered failing at school. You triggered finding a condom in your sister's trashcan. Trigger events don't make people sympathetic. The idea of a lonely, paranoid, grieving girl who actually did have some bullying going on and saw a lot more would explain a lot.

Nothing justifies the bank robbery. Being hurt doesn't justify hurting anyone, especially Victoria.

You think for a moment and just start knocking loudly on the door. You don't have a better idea. Eventually a very sleepy man comes to the door.

"What on Earth." He rubs sleep from his eyes and looks you over. "Is something wrong?" He looks terrified.

"I'm really sorry, sir. I know this seems crazy, but I work most of the day. Recently I've been hanging out with some friends of your daughter's..." You're not good at this.

"Panacea?" He gives you a strange look. "Lisa and Brian?"

"Yeah, Lisa, Brian. I met them through Emma." Danny gives you a very strange look.

"What are you here for?" He sounds guarded now.

"Honestly it is cape business. I can't share a lot of it." You think about how to lie. "I really can't say more." Danny lets you in.

"Do you want anything? Coffee, tea, soda?"

"Just your daughter, thank you." You're smiling a bit in the dark, facing away from him. The joke would work better with Madison's dad, but it's still kind of funny.

Taylor is sleepy when Danny leads her into the kitchen. She looks scared when she sees you.

"You have nothing to worry about. I just want to talk." It is fun to see her squirm, though. "Can we have some privacy, Mr. Hebert?"

"Of course." Danny steps out.

"What are you doing here?" Taylor hisses under her breath. "This is my house."

"Not so fun when I come to you late at night, is it?" Now you wish you'd asked for tea, just for the image. "Why, if you were walking along, minding your own business..."

"Not in your house." Taylor whispers.

"As if, Lisa I'm guessing, would have minded breaking in. I at least asked to come in." You smile. "So, you haven't contacted me yet, so I thought I'd stop by."

"This has to break the unwritten rules." Taylor mutters.

"You're a cunt, as is anyone who thinks that." You flash her your most winning smile. "I'm just having a conversation, not pointing a gun at you, hanging spiders from innocent people and threatening their lives, holding a knife on someone's sister threatening to..."

"I get it. So why, exactly, are you here?" Taylor asks. "Come to give me any of the confusing upgrades you offered?" You consider for a moment.

"Maybe. Do you want anything in particular like that right now? I could do something about your face." It's not the best insult, but it seems to do a bit of the trick.

"Not right now. You didn't answer my question."

"Oh. Simple enough, Lisa is fucked with a glass coke bottle right now." You explain the situation to Taylor's growing horror. "Oh, and the best part, they want me to be her warden. Now, as fun as having a pet Undersider thinking she's a dog is, I think this is very fucked up."

"How could you work for these people?" Taylor looks at you like you eat babies, not the PRT.

"I do not. I volunteer for these people. I'm New Wave. I think they're a giant pot of hot bullshit. In case you're wondering, you can't join." Taylor gives you a scowl. "Now, do you see any obvious way out of these horrible choices for Lisa?"

"Break her out." Taylor says instantly.

"Really?" You shake your head. "You did notice that I gave every Ward in the city the ability to counter you without trouble. Faultline's Crew is busy with breaking out their own captured members and I don't think you can afford them. Mercenaries who could help don't come cheap, Taylor. I am going to see what I can do, because Victoria would want me to."

You see a flash of disgust on Taylor's face.

"I suggest you learn to control those unless you want to find out how that feels like." Taylor looks increasingly angry. "I don't really think I should be your heroic contact and representative." Taylor nods.

"I agree completely."

"I do want you to know, if it's important, I will help you as much as I can. I am grateful that you helped. Against anyone else, I'm going to stick up for you. But between us girls? You are not forgiven. I think you might make a decent superhero, but you hurt Victoria. Helping me save her, I am glad you came with me, and in public we're cool. Privately?" You let it hang in the air.

"Who should I talk to?" Taylor asks quietly.

"Well, I would say Lady Photon, but given she and her son were ambushed trying to meet you to help you, well, I don't think she's the best. Hm, if you want to go with someone else I have a problem with, Gallant is best. He might be able to help you." You start writing down numbers on a sheet of paper, proper contact information for lawyers and heroes.

"One more thing." Taylor asks as you finish. "How did you become friends with Madison?"

"Can't say. Secret identities for people I like are involved." You give her a hug before you go and kiss her on the cheek, just for fun. She looks very confused.

"She's, well, a bully." You pause. For some reason it sounds right.

"Thank you, Taylor. I'll keep that in mind." You walk away.

You don't think you were too mean to her. At least she's a person in your eyes again.

___

Madison calls you the next morning. "I'm coming with you today at the hospital. I get to by your body guard!" She sounds really excited about that.

"They stopped doing that." You point out.

"Oh." Madison sounds disappointed. "Well, can I be your bodyguard anyway? I even got pepper spray." You can't help but smile. "Sounds fun. I can't wait."

Madison unveils from her power when you're already in the room. "I've been practicing the entrance on my mom. Was it cool enough?" You laugh and hug her hello. "It was definitely cool enough."

Madison is a buzz with energy, asking all about the pros and cons of being a member of New Wave or the Wards. You end up spending three hours talking about costume and codename ideas. Madison is leaning towards Harrier. It isn't taken.

"It just fits. An invisible hunter, pursuing a prey to the ends of the Earth, the prey never knowing what the hunter is, thinking she's going crazy..." Madison gushes. You're not sure if that's really what it means, but she's happy so you're happy.

___

Madison is fast asleep nearby a few hours later. Her snoring is really cute. Emma calls her phone, and you pick up.

"Madison's phone, Amy speaking." You don't want to violate Madison's privacy.

"Oh, that's perfect. I was hoping to reach you, babe. I was thinking, Madison wants to spend the day with you tomorrow, right hon?"

"She does." You smile.

"Well, we were planning on a sleep over anyway. So, you're invited." You think over tomorrow's shift. It would cut into sleep, but that'd probably happen anyway. "Sure, though I'm apparently having dinner with my sister and a Neo-Nazi tomorrow."

"Ooh, dish." Emma sounds excited.

"Victoria thinks that a certain villain can be saved, so the villain is going to come over for dinner tomorrow. Victoria's cooking." You smile at the thought. Victoria's meals are always the best. "I can come over after that though. We're eating early."

"Sounds wonderful, dear." Emma tells you. "See you tomorrow. Wear something really cute. We have something special planned." Emma hangs up on you as your imagination goes into some particularly strange places.

___

Madison comes over for the dinner with Rune, which surprises you. Victoria is in the kitchen. As usual, she's angry and cursing the stove.

"Is she always like this?" Madison asks.

"It's just her process." You tell Madison. "She'll be very happy when it's done." You look around. "Oh, the cute millionaire superhero is there." You point out Dean, who is currently staring at a Rubik's Cube with a furious intensity. "You should introduce himself. Join the Wards and he's your teammate, New Wave and he'll be like family." Madison strides forward, a look of determination on her face.

You only feel a little guilty about talking up Dean, and Dean's relationship problems with Victoria, to Madison. Where's the harm in it if Dean finds another cute superhero of his own age who he is attracted to? You don't think Madison would steal Dean, but the next time Dean and Victoria break up for completely normal reasons, well, she'll be there.

___

"Wow, you're a Nazi, just like in the movies." Madison says. She's more silly than usual tonight. Rune chuckles.

"White supremacist. Purity's always very specific about that, even though Heil Hitler is in the name." She shakes her head. "I don't think Purity actually knows what she wants though. She's assigned me every black separatist essay she can find from the turn of the century."

"Black separatist? Like, the Jim Crow stuff?" Madison asks.

"The opposite, kind of. You see there was a big movement around the time to make black institutions to compete with white ones instead of trying to make equal ones. I've read a lot of stuff on how diversity doesn't really work whenever Purity feels guilty and heads out to the internet to find articles about how integration doesn't really help black people."

Rune proceeds to relate a fascinating amount of history and politics for the rest of the meal, one of Victoria's harder to define creations combining turkey, potatoes, and iceberg lettuce. Rune doesn't even seem to notice Victoria feeding you the best of her creations, probably because Madison asks a lot of questions. Rune finally starts asking about joining the heroes and New Wave near the end of the meal.

"We have to go. It's an actual sleepover." You tell Dean. "Tell Victoria I love her."

"I will." Dean assures you. You're only mildly disappointed that all Madison does is thank him for dinner and tell him he has a lovely home before you leave for Emma's.

___

"I am telling you, you are crazy." Madison laughs. "Seriously, veto power and my pick of your closet?" Madison shakes her head and giggles. "I'm telling you, you're going to regret this." Madison is on the phone with Emma as you drive. After a bit more back and forth Madison hangs up with a smile.

"Veto power?" You ask.

"Over every guy she dates, no questions asked or arguments." Madison seems delighted. "It's so silly. Why would she even bet that?"

"What is the bet about?" You ask curiously as an asshole cuts you off in traffic.

"I am sworn to secrecy." Madison says solemnly.

"Come on, you can tell me." You beg.

"Oh, it's stupid, and it's about you anyway. Telling you would be cheating!" Madison giggles again. "Cheating on a bet would be wrong." You have to agree with that logic.

Emma greats you at the door. "Get your cute butts in here." She gestures to a large pizza. "So, did you bring the DVD?" She asks you.

"Yep." You pull it out.

[X] Excission.

[X] Clueless.

[X] Flowers in the Attic.

[X] Excision

"Ooh, perfect." Emma smiles as she takes the DVD from you. "Phase three, complete."

"Phrase three?" You frown.

"Oh, nothing darling. Nothing yet." The wink is an odd touch.

Emma pauses, giving you one of her once overs. You feel a sense of fakeness in what comes next.

"You didn't bring pajamas, did you." You hadn't thought of that. "Um, no."

"Oh, don't worry babe. I've got a bathrobe for you." Emma leads you into her room. There are a surprising number of pillows laid out, and some nice smelling candles, as well as food that seems surprisingly rich for such pretty girls. Oh, of course, they're reveling in your gift of eternal, perfect thinness.

Madison follows behind the two of you and walks into Emma's closet. "Ooh, this is great." You hear her rummaging around in there.

"You haven't won yet, babe!" Emma calls cheerfully as she begins to strip you. You're not sure if this is entirely standard for sleepovers, but there is something in the atmosphere of it once all of you are in pajamas and bathrobes.

"Alright." Sophia says, walking in. Unlike Emma, she was already in her pajamas. That actually makes sense, as Emma had to answer the door. "It's her first sleepover in a long time, so Amy gets to pick how we start. Anything you miss from them? Gossip, dancing to CDs, spa treatment?" You consider.

"Dancing." You decide. It's been a long time since you really just danced to CDs, as Victoria always had trouble doing it normally after she figured out how to fly. You all dance enthusiastically to Insomniatic until the CD ends. Your dancing ends up being extremely energetic, with only Sophia not being tired at the end.

Madison and Emma then start a long and extremely detailed gossip session as Emma fills Madison in on all the gossip she's been missing since she got her powers. Madison sits there entranced at the goings on of her school. Sophia cuddles up next to you, and the two of you are talk much less than the other girls. Sophia seems to like playing with your arm for some reason, it actually makes you a bit uncomfortable. Eventually Sophia just starts painting your toes red without prompting.

"I think I've thought about how I want you to change me." Emma says lazily while Sophia changes your toes. Her list is extraordinarily detailed. As you get to work you eventually realize...

Fuck, she's objectively hotter than Victoria. It kind of takes your breath away when you realize it. It feels wrong. You're not as attracted to her, but she's just...

"Perfect." Emma's voice rings with the deepest satisfaction when Madison holds the mirror to her face. "You made me perfect, Amy." Sophia nods, looking impressed.

"We'll thank you for this after the movie." Sophia kind of climbs over you to get in between you and Emma, and Madison snuggles up on your other side. Sophia starts the DVD.

It is not unpleasant to have Madison squirming and cowering a bit at the scary, gross, and disturbing scenes, getting really surprisingly close to you, especially as the scary scenes tend to be parades of the movie's unique mix of BDSM, surgery, and nudity. God you love this movie. At about the halfway mark you become absolutely convinced that Sophia is either hitting on you or wants you to think she is hitting on you. She's touching you far too much in too many ways for it to be an accident. You just kind of bask, trying not to think too much about it.

___

"That was awesome." Madison giggles after a firm dose of hot coco helped settle her stomach from the movie. "That's the most messed up thing I've ever seen."

"You know, you're far too good to us, Amy." Emma says happily from across Sophia. "You've helped each one of us amazingly. We really need to pay you back."

"We're really doing this." Madison rolls her eyes and lays her head on your lap. "Come on guys, it's not funny!"

"A bet is a bet, and if you're so sure you don't have to worry about me stealing Tall Kyle." Emma points out.

"Tall Kyle?" You ask, and Madison blushes. "No one!"

"Alright." Sophia gets up. There's a positive spring in her step. "I think it's time to crush your tiny dreams, babe." She goes to a desk and pulls out a piece of paper. Madison gets up and Sophia hides it from you for a moment. "As official arbiter of this bet, do you, Madison Clements agree that everything on this piece of paper is as you consented to?" Madison gives an overly dramatic sigh.

"Yes, Sophia. I swear that I consent to the conditions on this piece of paper and will happily accept the loss of the bet, making no attempt to weasel, beg, or request a way to get out of it." She puts her hand over her heart.

"Amy, as the official witness and subject of this bet, do you believe that Madison appears to be under any form of duress of any kind at the moment, looking at all stressed or worried about the consequences of this bet?" Sophia asks you seriously. You're starting to wonder just what is going on.

"I think so. If you're really serious about it, Madison, come over here for a second." She bounces over. "Give me your hand." She does so. "Madison does not seem to be experiencing any troubling physiological signs of such stress. Are you hiding it?"

"Nope! I get my pick of Emma's closet in like a minute." Madison smiles. Emma rolls her eyes.

"Sounds good." Sophia claps her hands together and moves back to Emma. "Do you Emma Barnes, agree that everything on this piece of paper is as you consented to?" Emma looks carefully.

"Yes, I swear that I consent to the conditions on this piece of paper and will happily accept the loss of the bet, making no attempt to weasel, beg, or request a way to get out of it." Emma also puts her hand over her heart.

"So help you God, because if we lose than all of this just became really stupid." Sophia laughs. "So, Amy, are you gay?"

"WHAT!" You shout. Then you pause. It's actually not a surprise.

"Are you lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex, in a fashion that makes you equally or preferentially attracted to girls?" Sophia is clearly reading from the piece of paper.

"Yes." You mutter.

"What was that?" Madison's eyes grow wide.

"Um, yeah. I like girls more than boys. Romantically, sexually, all of that." Madison starts to deflate.

"But, but..."

"I have the report card." Emma says cheerfully, jumping up and moving to her desk before moving back to the rest of you. Emma and Sophia together put the two pieces of paper together. Two very similar, girly signatures of Madison Clements are on the piece of paper.

"You guys are, um, really into this bet." You mutter. Emma is beaming as she puts her hands on your shoulders.

"Babe, it's not a problem at all. I'm sorry if the teasing got out of hand, but it was just so fun seeing you try to be polite." Things suddenly make a lot more sense.

"So I'm not crazy." You shake your head.

"Oh, sweetie, you're crazy, but you were right to have your mind go wild. You really had no chance at all." Emma sighs. "I'm just glad we picked out the right present for you."

"Um, what?" You frown. Madison is very carefully examining a corner of Emma's desk.

"The terms of the bet, babe. Madison is turned into a lesbian for a year if you're attracted to girls." She raises her hand as you open your mouth. "Doesn't matter if you just like her as a friend, that's not what this is about. She said some very mean things about the subject. It's for her empathy. Giving you a chance with her is just a bonus. It's not like her being a lesbian will magically make the two of you compatible as girlfriends."

"I did not." Madison pouts. "I just said, um, you were crazy and she's not. Not that it would be bad if she was." Emma's glare strikes you as suggesting this was not what she actually said.

Sophia's gaze is interesting. It doesn't look amused, it looks extremely thoughtful.

"Um, um, this is, um..."

"You can't say you don't do brains, honey. We all know you do." Emma laughs. "She agreed. Take a chance, babe. If it doesn't work out, she gets an exciting life experience. If it does, you get your first real girlfriend and we all feel a lot less guilty about all the free stuff we're getting. Come on, it's a gift, and a bet. What could go wrong?"

"Don't chicken out on us." Sophia speaks for the first time in a while. "Either of you." She gives you and Madison strange, intense looks.

"Um, like, the flirting with me. Do I, um, need to produce a lesbian to have one?" You mutter. You're fairly sure you've stopped being able to judge the situation at all rationally.

"Oh, that was just teasing. Now, if it seems that you two are having more fun, or if we just grow so attached to you, then sure, we might ask to swing your way, but we'd need to see how you are in a relationship first." Emma assures you. Emma and Sophia are so pretty, but Madison is so cute.

Madison sighs and comes over. "Alright, let's do it."

"Let me just see the contract for a bit." You mutter, and one of the girls hands it to you. You read it very carefully.

"It says here there will be a test?" You say finally.

"Well, just making out until we're convinced. We trust you, but that's not so bad, is it?" Emma asks. You consider Madison. It really isn't.

You get a sudden moment of clarity. Sophia's testing you. You're not sure how, but she wants you to do this. Maybe it's some kind of bullying thing, seeing if you're willing to go this far? Is she closeted, and wants to see how desperate you are? You're really not thinking clearly.

"Can we please just do it? The suspense is killing me." Madison says.

[X] Why not? Your new best friend, who has been delightful to you, as a possible love interest? Your completely consenting love interest. A girl who did agree to this. A girl who loves spending time with you. You put your hand on Madison and focus on half of the changes you've been thinking about for two years.

[X] "I can't." This all is seeming like an amazingly good idea right now. There's exactly one reason not to do this. 21%. You have to save yourself, all of yourself, for Victoria.

[X] "I need to make a call." You get up and literally run into the bathroom. You're going to have to ask Victoria for permission. You're too confused, and you don't trust yourself right now.

Note on write in votes: Any write in that doesn't lead to Amy mind controlling Madison will almost certainly hurt her relationship with Sophia and Emma significantly, and vastly reinforce the dependency Amy has on Victoria. All write ins will be read with this in mind.

[X] Why not? Your new best friend, who has been delightful to you, as a possible love interest? Your completely consenting love interest. A girl who did agree to this. A girl who loves spending time with you. You put your hand on Madison and focus on half of the changes you've been thinking about for two years.

You start the changes, but you do them slowly, very slowly, watching yourself, being careful.

"Are you sure you understand what this entails, Madison? You are asking me to alter a fundamental part of yourself not for a life-or-death reason, but for the sake of a bet. I'm sure I could change you back. I'm not sure if you'd want to change back. Maybe I could just make you bisexual? Still attracted to girls, but also still liking boys?" You ask carefully.

'Ew, gross." Madison shudders. You stop the changes. "Like, okay, being a lesbian is fine, but both? That's icky and slutty and no one treats it seriously. I'd much rather be into girls than both, especially as it's only for a while." Emma shakes her head.

"Honey, that kind of thing is how you got into this mess in the first place. Being a bisexual is fine." Emma sighs dramatically. "Also, the bet was..." She looks at the piece of paper where the rules are written down. "...to be a lesbian, exclusively sexually attracted to females with no desires for males." She looks back up. "So, anything else before we start testing?"

"Um..." You suddenly really want to change Madison. "Not yet."

You have to be careful! So careful. You're still fairly new to working with brains, and what you have done has been mostly with enemies and constructs- with a friend on the line, you can't afford a mistake at any stage. The three of them might be treating this casually, but the fact is that Madison is placing everything about who she is in your hands when she asked you to modify her brain, and that trust is a precious thing you can't betray. Those changes that we've been thinking about for years need to be gone over, bit by bit, so that you do exactly what Madison has asked of us and absolutely nothing else. We can afford to spend a little extra time on this, for her sake.

If you were using your hands, and not your powers, it would look like you were handling her like something fragile, terrified she might break.

Madison's heart rate is only a bit elevated. She seems nervous, but not scared. It is several minutes before you're absolutely sure that you've done exactly what was asked, but no more. Finally you take your hand away from Madison's. You're both silent for a moment.

"Is it done?" Madison asks cautiously, playing with her hair.

"Yes. Unless something that's never happened before has messed with my powers, you should be safely, completely homosexual right now with no other changes to your nature."

"Oh." Madison looks at you carefully, focusing on your face first before then letting her eyes drift downward over the rest of your body. "Um, it worked. Yeah, it definitely worked."

"I don't think I'm convinced." Sophia speaks for the first time in a while. She has a quite large smile on her face as she sits down rather close to you.

"I agree. She could be faking." Emma's voice is full of a humorous tone. "We absolutely need to test this properly."

"I know." Sophia puts her hand on your shoulder. "Come on, don't you want to test it?"

You smile at Sophia, "Honestly, I'd rather have you. I would have made a move already but you and Emma seemed so happy together I didn't want to break you up." Sophia goes very still, which seems like a good sign. You place your hand on Sophia's cheek. "And you haven't asked me for your changes yet... If you let me... I'll make even more beautiful and deadly than you already are..." You let it hang in the air.

Sophia gives you a very serious look. "Not tonight. We can talk about this very seriously later, but tonight's more for fun. Let's see how you girls go."

You look back to Madison. She looks positively jealous.

You've never inspired that in anyone before.

So, you start testing.

___

"STOP!" Madison shouts. You disengage at once. "What the Hell was that."

"Um, just a use of my power. As my girlfriend..."

"I did not say you could do that!" Madison looks angry for the first time. "We could make out. That was the deal. I am not opposed to that. Maybe if you asked I would have let you do that, but that's not something you can just do in a make out session." Madison glares and you start to feel guilty.

"I'm sorry." You really are. "I just wanted to make it nice for you..."

"And you can, but not like that. That's too, um..."

"Good?" Emma suggests.

"Right. That is just too, um, too much for this." Madison is looking a lot less mad.

"Hm, you're right. That was an ugly move, Amy." Sophia announces. "But I'm still not convinced you totally changed her."

"What?" That's a bit confusing.

"Neither am I." Madison says cheerfully. "Alright, bitch fest over. I forgive you. Back to kissing."

Madison would make a great girlfriend.

___

You wake with Madison snuggled against you on one side and Sophia fast asleep on the other.

You actually fell asleep early.

"Madison?" You ask softly. "Are you awake?" She looks up, beautiful.

"Just a minute ago. So, I think we're heading to the hospital in about half an hour, right?" You're grinning very widely.

"If you're sure you want to go with me." Madison laughs.

"I am sure. I might get bored with it eventually, but some of the nurses there are pretty cute, and it's always interesting to see who comes through. I think I'd rather figure things out there than at school or something." She stretches a bit. "You can shower first." She looks at your face curiously. "I had a great time. Do not worry about it."

So you don't.

___

Madison seems even more cheerful than usual at the hospital, chatting quite normally. If you follow her eyes they do wander a bit towards new directions, but she's still Madison, just a Madison who had a superb make out session the previous night.

Well...this doesn't rule out Victoria. She has a boyfriend right now, anyway, should you exactly be saving yourself for her? You haven't ever had a girlfriend, so having one now would maybe give you experience in being a better girlfriend (...wife) for Victoria if circumstances ever align.

Hopefully.

Victoria's done way more with Dean than you are even thinking about doing with Madison. She's the godmother to one of his youngest cousins for Christ's sake. It really is a good idea to have had some girlfriend that is not your sister even if Victoria is by far the best possible choice.

You shouldn't assume that Madison will be romantic with you just because of her new orientation. She never really dated guys like you, did she? She seemed to really like kissing you, a lot, but that doesn't mean she wants to date you or anything.

"Can I come over for dinner again tonight?" Madison asks suddenly. It is a 6-6 shift, so you can have dinner with Victoria again.

"Sure." You say. "If you aren't sick of me by then."

"Nope, I don't think that's likely." Madison says happily. "It's a date." She pauses. "Both kinds, I think. Is having dinner with someone's family a date?"

Okay, she does want to date you.

"You know, you don't have to do this. You're a friend before anything else. I really, extremely appreciate this as a friend. If Emma and Sophia are putting you up to this, or you just want to make us happy..."

"What's the point of having a magical change to who I like if I don't play with it? If we're not good together, we're not good together. If we are, we are. Worst case and it starts to ruin my life I'm sure you'll switch me back." Madison shrugs cutely. "So far it's fun."

___

Victoria is screaming blasphemies at the stove once again when you get back to Dean's apartment, which is increasingly home.

Dean is once again playing with the Rubik's Cube, a look of solid determination on his face. You and Madison leave him be.

"You know, I've never seen your room yet." Madison says. There's a hint in the voice.

"Um, yeah." You lead her to the guest room. "Victoria made it just like my room at home." Madison frowns.

"Want to talk about it, or not talk about it?" She asks.

"Not talk." You say firmly. You're not sure you can explain any of it without explaining all of it.

"Okay. Back to kissing." Madison announces.

She's really getting good at it.

___

Victoria does open the door on the two of you. This honestly is kind of what you were hoping for.

A wide spectrum of expressions play out over her face before she fixes it in an expression that reminds you of Carol.

"We're eating in the kitchen." The two of you hop up and head in.

"Not the first time I've been caught like that." Madison tells you. "You'll get used to it."

Victoria firmly seats herself between you and Madison and proceeds you to feed you your entire meal from her own plate. You actually have trouble talking as Victoria firmly fills your mouth with more food than you actually want. Victoria's mouth is moving constantly, making sure to extra every detail of the Ward raid on Coil's old organization. It's kind of hard to pay attention.

Madison finally leaves, kissing you goodbye and giving Victoria a friendly hug before skipping off.

"So, you have a girlfriend." Victoria says at last.

"Um, I guess I do." You mutter.

"I am going to read to you, and then we are going to bed." Victoria says. You can't help but smile a lot as she leads you back into the guest room.

___

"Rune just moved in with Mark and Carol." Victoria informs you over breakfast. "She sent me an email about it. She's almost officially New Wave." You nod, chewing as long as possible to prevent more food from entering your mouth suddenly. "So have you put anymore thought into Tattletale?" You shake your head. You'd kind of forgotten about it between Madison and Victoria's clear, miraculous jealousy. "Well, you have a few hours. You really need to stop putting it off. Now try blueberry." You do so.

You guess it is time to see how Tattletale is doing. You drive to the Protectorate building after Victoria leaves for patrol.

Tattletale does not look good. She's wearing a straight jacket and her cell is soundproofed. She gives you a single look and laughs.

"Where do I even start you pathetic little Worm." She kicks back. "So, got any new plans?"

Well..."

[X] Write in. What is the plan for dealing with Tattletale? Different write ins may be combined to an extent if they are similar in theme as usual for these events.
"He loves you, Amelia." You stride forward with purpose, touching Tattletale and making her incapable of speech. She thrashes about, managing a solid kick, that causes you to see what she's been doing to her padded cell. It's a second later that you paralyze her.

Good lord her teeth are hurting so badly. She's been trying to gnaw things into the walls. Most of it is illegible. "Vista did it" is the only thing that catches your eye. Why didn't anyone warn you about this?

Honestly, the nicest thing you can do for her is to remove her ability to make you stop wanting to help her. She can just listen.

He loves you, Amelia.

The inflection was masculine, deep. She had to bring up...

A man with hair the same color as yours, handsome, confident, powerful, and gentle. His voice was soft and sweet as he sat beside your bed and read to you. No, that's not right. Memory is unreliable. Things get jumbled. Victoria read to you when you were little. She started when you were six. Because you asked her to. Because it reminded you of...

Oh God.

Your composure shatters. You're able to stifle the sobs with a hand over your mouth but you can't hold back the tears. He was kind and sweet and gentle and he loved you. You can't move. You can't let anyone see you like this. You can't give tattletale the satisfaction of driving you away. It takes you nearly a minute to stop crying, all the while Tattletale just stares at you with that fox like grin a fixed to its face.

When you can finally speak you only have one thing to say to it, "Fuck you, cunt." You sit there, shaking. "What is wrong with you." It's not staring at you, it's staring very determinedly at another low corner of the wall. Looking where she wants you to is not something you're going to do.

"I'm going to keep a promise, and look after you as best I can. There's no justice in it, but it's all I can do, and at least you'll be alive. I'll even try to make you content with it. I'm sorry." You pull in a deep breath. "Actually, I'm not." You knock it out before you start. This will take a while.

Tattletale... you've never really understood it . Memorize everything you can about it. Take your time; in order to do this right, you need to know exactly who it is now, and work with and around that, not simply slap a few simple changes into its head and assume it'll work out. Adding an addiction is just a chain, and its power will let it easily identify and probably suffer under any artificial emotions; Coil's certainly did for him. Whatever the Protectorate thinks, their proposed changes won't turn out well. You can do this better, with finesse and compassion it doesn't deserve.

You can't do this out of any human feeling, so you do it out of professional pride. This is just an object, and you will do your best to care for the object under your care.

Tattletale's always been a bitch to us, but it isn't one to everyone. It got Grue healed; it cared enough about Skitter that it kidnapped you to help her. In fact, Taylor's been insistent that Lisa was a good friend to her, so it can't have been so cruel to her. What makes it so much nicer to them? It must be in its head here somewhere. It has the capacity to not be a bitch. Find out what it is that makes it want to genuinely work with people, to be kind to them and independently take action on their behalf. That set of emotions, that thought process... you can use it. It needs to consider us a friend like that. Not its jailor; someone who is trying to help it and who she needs to help in turn. Make it think the best of us; it understands us well, but it is its choice as to how to use that understanding.

Then again, Taylor's a crazy fucked up bitch, so she might just be into that kind of thing, building up her own pity parade, liking hanging out with someone who bullies her, a perpetual victim. It must have been so good to have an excuse to hang out with her bully all the time instead of just stalking the trio at school. The sick fuck probably loved every second of Lisa tearing into her. Grue was an asset and the team leader of the Undersiders. Tattletale got along with your evil twin. She might just be so warped that her love is more dangerous than her hatred.

More empathy in general wouldn't hurt it. It knows quite well exactly how much its words hurt others, the damage that it can do with them; where's the part of it that feels bad about it? That wants to see people smile and laugh, to reduce the world's suffering? Everyone has one. Touch it gently, make it more prominent- not too much, not enough that it dominates, but enough to make a difference.

You think you find that. Brains are complicated, hard to understand things. You think for a moment. Gentle won't save you if she really tears in. Not after that. You smile as you softly, gently manipulate it until you're fairly sure it's as high as would be healthy.

You start searching through the brain. You actually don't do brains. You've never paid much attention to them. After nearly half an hour of careful work you think you've managed to change it the way you want to, establishing the connections to make it see you as a friend, or something. Whatever was the single most important thing, the thing she thinks about most, associated with positive endorphin levels, is mixed in with however she feels about you. You're reasonably sure you got that right. Reasonably sure. You can't actually read her mind like an open book.

You sit back and take a break for a while, thinking about what else you should do to make sure it can't hurt you again.

It must feel trapped, cornered and doomed. Fearful. It doesn't need that feeling; it makes it defensive and angry. It will be much happier if it doesn't get stressed easily, if it's optimistic, if it can accept its punishment as just the next part of her life. A chance to turn over a new leaf, not some kind of inevitable suffering. You're fairly sure you did that, playing with and experimenting with different parts of the brain involving the most recent fear and pain responses. Once again you lean towards too much rather than too little. If you've fucked her up more than you have to? Well, that is justice considering all it's done in picking people apart. Tattletale has weapons, and so do you.

The Protectorate wants addiction, so you might as well do that, too. Nothing that will give it terrible withdrawals, or make it suffer- you need to help, to be kind. Not for this raging cunt's sake, but for Victoria's, and maybe your father's...

"Fuck you, cunt." You tell her sleeping form. You hope whatever you're doing is giving her really fucked up dreams.

Tattletale just can't stay awake for any significant length of time unless itsbody gets a complex chemical that only you can produce. You smile at that. Sixteen hours of sleep a day isn't too evil, is it? You can start her on that, and then just up her dosage.

Then you boost her, improving her body, removing the little problems and scars that have to make her life just a little harder, especially after her rough couple of days. Her teeth require the most attention.

You turn around to leave it there, and your eyes can't help but see what Tattletale wanted you to see.

SHE WOULD HAVE NAMED HER AFTER YOU.

You are literally running out of the room by the time you reach the door.

___

"Madison, I can't have you at the hospital today." You tell her over the phone.

"What did I do? Is it about your sister? She just doesn't want her baby sister to grow up."

"Fuck off!" You shout into the phone. "I. Need. To. Be. Alone." You probably shouldn't be driving like this. You're arriving at the hospital two hours early. You hang up on Madison and head in.

The dumb cunt. You helped her with everything you possibly could have, and this is what you get? After she threatened to destroy your life, kidnapped your sister, threatened to murder you, you could have fucking lobotomized her and led her around the house on a leash. No, you had to try and be a good person.

You spend the day healing. You're glad for it, focusing on giving minor tuneups to the patients. Nothing major, just a few seconds of dietary assistance or removing some old aches and pains to remove your need for anything else. You don't eat the whole day, barely drinking water. You're feeling light headed when your shift is over.

You can't even think about looking at Victoria tonight. The one good thing, the only good thing, you ever had or ever needed, and Tattletale...

You go walking into the late night city of Brockton Bay. You can't go to the only thing that even comes close to feeling like home.

[X] Sarah and Neil. You can, you don't know, work on the New Wave suits or something. Who cares?

[X] Fuck it. Let's go mess with Taylor again.

[X] You're going to just sleep outside tonight. Why not? You're the God Damned Panacea. Anyone who hurts you is just begging for it.

[X] Sarah and Neil. You can, you don't know, work on the New Wave suits or something. Who cares?

As you walk to Sarah and Neil's house you pull out your cellphone and call the PRT, ordering a large delivery of the materials you need to work to that address. When you get there you find you were beaten by a large U-Haul carrying living materials to work with. About half a ton of worms, moss, and fungus.

Sarah and Neil are just kind of staring at it, standing out in the yard having clearly just woken up.

"Amy, are you okay?" Sarah asks cautiously.

"Nope. I'm designing the New Wave suits tonight." You smile at her cheerfully.

"Right now? In the driveway? Any particular reason?" Sarah's voice is low, cautious.

"Ask Battery or Director Calvert. I had to deal with Tattletale again, so I am going to make weapons."

Sarah is silent for a long time as you start inspecting your working materials. They are improved from the ones you used for the Wards. Yes likely to make you feel guilty.

"Well, we're doing this right. Let me make a few calls." Sarah talks briefly to her husband before heading into the house.

Hm....

Lets work some of that anger out of our system with high grade Biomanipulation... load the suits with features as complex and interesting as you can manage, taking inspiration from the many parahumans you've met. After all it's good to do something useful for people you actually like after having had your best intentions spurned.

New improvements to basic biology? What about specialized energy supply cells and a new Organelle made specifically for receiving and processing electrical energy for the cells to use? You start playing with the idea.

Added to that I think a kind of inter-cellular armor/delivery system would be useful to make from Either a nanotube fibre mix incorporated into the entire thing as connective tissues, And a biological version of Aerogel to insulate them giving a massive boost to survivability from crushing blows and impacts.

A lot of New Wave lacks durability in some way. To many holes or limitations. At the center is a Mark II version for Victoria. As always, she has to come first. You suddenly giggle at something you wish you didn't overhear from Victoria and Dean a couple years ago.

After maybe 15 minutes you think you've worked that out as best you can. Now, you're not sure what the purpose of the electricity thing was...

The nanotube tracks could also be worked into a kind of electrical transit system, with ion rich fluids being run though the tubes to supply the entire thing with energy. Basically a non-classical biology which can be fed on electricity, and with the right installations Light as well.

More redundancy, more survivability, easier to maintain by itself.

You hear people moving by as you work. Presumably the other members of New Wave. Maybe Victoria? You can't think about her right now.

Materials can be handled via the use of a bacterium or combination of them which reside only in the specific conditions of the suit and are programmed to die off if they leave it. The bacterium would break down the consumed materials and then rebuild them into carbon fibers and cells for rapid self repair. That way the suit can gain energy and materials from eating materials in almost any environment for rapid repair. You really need to give these upgrades to the Wards. You might need more materials soon. You'll need, um, 20 or so? You can't remember how many people you're actually outfitting. You'll figure it out later.

A heavy layer of melanin interspersed with carbon nanotube delivery sites would be harduseful for making a specialized organelle/over all organ type for dealing with and absorbing HARD radiation and converting it to useable energy (Ionizing radiation. This is how the species of fungus found living in Chernobyl was found to be thriving, using the ionizing radiation for food via heavy use of Melanin pigmentation in order to capture it and reduce the amount of radiation breaches). Combined with a more conventional photosynthesis setup and a system for storing the energy captured the suits could easily see a fair amount of recharge from plain sunlight and water...

"Do you need anything?" Sarah asks cautiously. You think for a moment.

"Chris. Kid Win. He would be helpful, having a real Tinker check my work."

"Okay. I'll call and see what I can do about it." Sarah leaves again. Good. You need to work.

Now using the same Nanotube track idea, and if you can figure out a way to power the suits well enough from the energy output of their occupants, Manpower, Lady Photon and their children especially, maybe Brandish and Flashbang. Definitely not Victoria, sadly. Interlocking mechanical motors and pistons to make the suit move easier. Not as extensive as what you could do for Aegis, but it should boost strength and mobility, especially in sudden situations.

You start thinking about what you can see of powers. The Corona Gammas of Flechette, Victoria, Coil, Tattletale...

They're about interacting and interfacing with brains, controlling parahuman powers, right? You think about the Flechette package, you're including all the basics of the original Victoria model in all of them, and that was a start, but maybe for Eric a 'memory expansion unit' to give him a better ability to visualize complex items and make them work piece by piece on a mechanical level, as well as store patterns.

"Get me Eric." You say to whoever is nearby, and he arrives a minute later.

"Amy, are you okay?" He asks. "Please, you need to talk to someone."

"I'm doing that right now. Give me your hand." Eric does so. He feels terrified all along his body.

"Don't worry. I'm just taking a closer look. We need to experiment." You tell him. You start talking about his suit. Soon, coiled around the back of his head is practically a new lobe of his brain. He's vastly expanded in what he can do with his shields, now more constructs.

"Um, thank you very much." Eric pauses for a moment. "This is actually live changing and useful." You're thinking for a moment. "Wait, give me another minute."

All of New Wave's shards, at least Sarah, Carol, and their children, work through similar, if highly divergent, principles. Eric and Victoria's shields are similar in many ways, working through a similar mechanism.

"I have a few things I want you to try." You get more and more excited as Eric begins to shape the force field. You realize that you can change how it works in a new way, controlling the friction the force field uses. Any of the New Wave force fields.

People are misinformed about how Sarah and her kids are different at force fields. It is not that the force fields can withstand certain, different degrees of pressure. All of them are perfect, like Victoria's. The difference is how long they can be held up for, how they can be shaped. Crystal could hold it up for a few seconds, close to her body, needs rest for a while afterward. Sarah can do it for longer, farther away, but still close. Neil's is far beyond everyone else. All of them add qualities to the force field besides absorbing damage through hard light, transferring kinetic energy. You can change the friction of Victoria's, adding or subtracting, but you can add a lot more variation and qualities to the others.

Eric should be able to replicate complex objects now. Far, far more complex. He can store and replicate designs instead of having to hold it all in his brain. He's more than a Shaker now, you think.

You sit there, shuddering a bit. "Thank you, Eric. I need more time to think." He leaves, and you hear hushed talking among the other members of your family.

Victoria's flight is also a variation on the family powers. Most of them transmit kinetic energy through light. She adds and subtracts kinetic energy from herself. Maybe you can figure out how to merge it with her force field, increase how many qualities she can add to it?

Chris shows up next, maybe twenty minutes later. You have hung the upgraded suits for Aegis, Browbeat, Clockblocker, Gallant, Kid Win, Shadow Stalker, Vista, Eric, Crystal, Neil, Sarah, Carol, Mark, Victoria, Amy, Melissa...

You've got to be missing someone, but you're not sure who. Didn't New Wave get two new members? You can't fucking think.

"They said you wanted me?" Chris says quietly.

"Yes. Another Tinker. Or a Tinker? Does this make me a Tinker now?" You gesture to the sixteen current suits.

"Sure it does." Chris says softly. "Now what do you want to do?"

"I just want to talk about these suits."

"Sure, we can do that." He looks at them. "New Wave and the Wards, right? I can tell you about what we've seen happen in battle, and give some of my own ideas." You nod. It sounds great.

You talk about massively redundant organs for the suits, streamlining redundancies by letting particular organs take up multiple functions. Designing an organ which carries out a particular process, then figuring out which other organs it can have its connections swapped to to configure it for a new function. The suits are becoming so much better now.

You and Chris invent a light gathering/focusing organ which allows you to trap gathered light in a frozen state then compile photons on top of each other in storage and synchronize them to create a wide range of light focusing effects. It fits with something else he's done, and you help to translate it into organic material. You call over the hard light users, it should increase their power and flexibility.

Chris helps, the light organ works in combination with the lungs for breaking down carbon dioxide or as part of a maintenance system to break down unwanted build ups, or as part of the digestive system, and maybe even doubling as a kind of set up for a nervous system. Other things, plenty of other things like that.

You get a sudden mad urge to kiss Chris as he's talking, but you force it down. He doesn't deserve you as a girlfriend. You couldn't last a day without ruining it with Madison. How could you keep Victoria if that's all you could get?

You want to call Madison and apologize, but right now you can tell it would come out all wrong, and maybe it's better for her if she doesn't have to be with someone like you.

You were shitty to her cause IT was shitty to you, and that was unfair especially since she's your girlfriend now... you don't expect her to be happy with you, you were a cunt earlier and you know it. but you need someone who is not your sister to talk to and she's already let you remake her for your desires. It's best in a relationship to never go to bed angry with each other, and she's the closet thing to normal that you've currently got.

So you're never going to have anything normal.

Eventually you and Chris finish the prototypes for all the next generation of the suits. You can talk to the wearers tomorrow or the day after that to see what else they could want or need. Finally, as you end up with a lot of mass yet, you and Chris start making a single gigantic weapon for Rune to be throwing around, filling it up with everything you both can think of.

"I haven't eaten in, well, since breakfast." You realize out loud. "Um, can you order something?"

"Sure. I'll talk to your aunt. You can finish without me." Chris walks away, suddenly moving very fast.

It is ten minutes later when your sister falls from the sky.

"It. Is. Okay." Victoria tells you, still wearing pajamas. Who ended up finally calling her? "Whatever she did, whatever she said, it was just to hurt you. It. Is. Okay."

Victoria pulls you into the house and feeds you like when you were little, muttering everything you needed to hear. It's breakfast food. It turns out it's 4 AM.

Your relatives try to have a normal conversation to make you feel normal. Rune, Browbeat, and someone else, Eraser, so you'll have another suit to make. You like that. Someone who can just erase things. It sounds so pleasant, so peaceful.

Eventually you go back out and look at them. Victoria wants to see them.

"Oh Amy, they're beautiful." Victoria whispers. You realize they are. They're the suits of New Wave.

"Chris helped." He really did. Someone else pointing out when they went too close to horrible and disturbing. They look gorgeous, one and all.

"I love you, Amy." Victoria is stroking the one that's clearly her own, white and gold, luxurious fabric, highly animated cape that moves by itself, and a crown wrapped around her head for her powers. Victoria was always to be a princess or a queen.

"There's something I need to show you." You choke back. "It's about what Tattletale said today."

"Of course, Amy. Where do we go?"

"Home." The first time you've gone there in weeks. She flies you there. It's not too far a flight.

You lead Victoria into the back yard slowly, dragging your feet, a sense of dread.

"There's something I never told you." You start. You don't want it to hang in the air, but it does, it's so hard to get out.

Suddenly it tumbles away.

"You asked me what you did wrong. You didn't do anything wrong; you did everything right. You were always there for me. You were the only family I had for so long. You held me when I cried. You nursed me back to health when I was sick. You loved me and you never asked for anything in return. A lot of the time I feel like I'm less than worthless, like the world would be better off if I was never born. But you always make me feel like the second most important person in the world. "

"I just want to be as close to you as I could as often as I could. When I was old enough to start really thinking about sex it seemed like that was a way I could be even closer to you. And it was disgusting at first. I hated myself for even thinking about it. The very idea just felt so gross. But the more I thought about it the more right it felt. I don't know if it was your aura or if it was just me, but it eventually stopped feeling gross and started feeling like something that should happen. I just wanted to be with you in every way that two people can be together. To marry you and have your children one day. I can do that with my power. It even tells me exactly what they'd be like. Billions of possible variations, all of them wonderful.

"I don't want anything from you. Not really. I want to give you everything that you need and everything that you deserve. I feel inadequate because I can't. I know that you need Dean and I'm not mad at you for that. I'm not even mad at him. Not really. I'm mad at myself because I can't give you what he gives you. I want you to be happy more than anything. If you need to be with him I'll be there for you. If you marry him I'll be your maid of honor because you deserve that. You deserve all the support I can give you. If you have his children I'll dote on them and spoil them and I'll be the best aunt in the world. Because they'll deserve that. I'll be jealous that they aren't ours but anyone who comes from you deserves my unconditional love and devotion. I won't screw that up again, I promise. I just want you to be happy."

Victoria freezes up at the end.

"Again? Amy, what on Earth..."

You lead Victoria out into a corner of the yard. You'll never forget the spot.

"Most pregnancies end in miscarriage without the woman noticing. Failure to implant is pretty common. It was after the big one, with Dean, the Fourth of July one. Remember?" Victoria is very silent. She'd been leaning on you for comfort then. You'd thought maybe they wouldn't get back together that time. You were so happy, and so miserable about how happy you were. Victoria remembers.

"A couple days later, you'd found time to read to me again. Darkly Dreaming Dexter. I saw something." You close your eyes and get clinical. "An embyro floating down one of yourfallopian tubes. It was probably very good makeup sex. Maybe you forgot the condom. Maybe they were just so enthusiastic that it broke.Don't tell me. I considered both possibilities and wasn't sure which was was worse."

"Oh my God." Victoria whispers. "Did you..."

"NO!" You scream. "It wasn't just an embryo to me. She, it was a she, just a few cells and some DNA, but it looked like a person. It looked like you to me, or really close. It was your daughter. I couldn't have ever hurt her. Unless you suddenly became an alcoholic or started taking drugs, I knew exactly what she would be like when she was born." Victoria starts holding your hand very tightly.

"You avoided me for a couple weeks." Victoria says quietly. "I thought you were jealous. I always thought you had a crush on Dean. That's when I first..."

"And then you got your period. I knew what had to have happened, and when I touched you I was sure. The embyro didn't implant properly and was washed away with your period. Your beautiful, perfect daughter was dead on top of a maxi pad in the trash can." Victoria's crying now.

"Amy, I never knew..."

"I was relieved!" You shout. "You wouldn't have a baby tying you to Dean for the rest of your life. I was happy your daughter was dead! I hate myself for it! If I told you, if I'd stayed with you instead of bitching about it, beeen attentive, she could have implanted properly. I could have kept her safe. But I was selfish and ugly and stupid and didn't think. I you failed as a sister. I failed as an aunt. I couldn't tell you."

It had been eating away inside you for ten months.

Victoria sits down and looks at the ground and a small rock you placed there. Iron pyrite. Fool's gold.

"I forgive you." Victoria says. "Always and completely, I forgive you. I don't know what I would have done if you told me." Victoria is silent for a while. "I guess I would have wanted to be a mother, but it seems so big, so confusing. I can't imagine what that must have been like. Victoria gets up. "We're going back to Dean's. I am going to read to you again."

"I love you so much, Victoria." You start crying a lot more.

"I would have named her after you." Victoria whispers, and somehow the way she says it makes everything better.

___

When Victoria tries to read to you that night, you hear his voice intermingled with hers. You have to ask her to stop. Neither of you sleep well.

Interlude:

[X] Miss Militia

[X] Kaiser

[X] Laserdream

[X] Laserdream

If there's one thing you'll say about Dean, he's great at setting up blind dates. George is a silly name, but you love magic. A professional magician's assistant, 21, good looking, he's so much more fun than the college boys you've been trying out for the last couple weeks. George is getting along great with Mom and Dad, who are currently going through the traditional ritual all your boyfriends go through of looking at the family photo album.

"She was just ten years old when she triggered!" Mom says enthusiastically, pointing to a picture of you proudly holding up a newspaper saying "Marquis's Minion Captured."

"Blew up a damn armored car the Tinker was using." Dad says. "I was impressed." He takes a shot of whiskey. "She was this wispy little thing, and suddenly that came out of her. Scared me half to death. I was in the car at the time. If War Spark hadn't been hacking at me with his chain sword and I didn't have my shield up I'd have been fried."

"I wouldn't have meant to." You assure him for the hundredth time. "I just wanted the car to stop because it took my Dad."

"I'm sure she couldn't have hurt you. Powers are a gift from God. If they would have killed you, she would have gotten different powers." George says quietly.

You all think for a moment about it.

"Mine were." Mom says, coming out of the downstairs bathroom. "They could have come sooner, though." George doesn't answer that. You get a phone call from Eric.

"Sorry, I have to take this." You head into the kitchen.

"I'm falling in love with the Nazi." Eric's voice is a terrified whisper. You're not sure if to sigh or giggle.

"She's no longer a Nazi. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be. Don't fight it." You say in your airiest tone just to annoy him.

"Please cut out the New Age crap. This is serious. She's so smart and mature..."

"We're New Wave. Embrace the spirituality of our names. We are gifts from God meant to change the world for the better, starting a new age of peace and tranquility." You recite from your church's pamphlet. "If you find her pretty and smart, impress her. Show her your strength and courage. Be a hero worthy of redeeming a villainess from the dark side."

"Please..." Eric's tone gets whiny. "If you don't help me I'll just have to ask Victoria." You laugh so hard you choke.

"Alright. Anything is better than asking her for relationship advice. So, are you sure you don't want to date Melissa?"

"She's a Nazi. She's killed people." You frown.

"So have we." You point out, remembering New Orleans and the Valentines Day thing.

"It's different." Eric tells you.

"Yeah, it is." You sigh. "Okay, I guess just find someone else to keep your mind off her, superhero. Post a flier at school with those tab things you pick off with your phone number on it saying you want a date. You are a handsome, powerful superhero with his own line of sneakers."

"Wow those are bad shoes." Eric sighs. "I wish I could have just stuck with sporting equipment. I like my official baseball glove." Suddenly you hear a loud sound on the other end of the line.

"Do you need help?" You ask him quickly.

"Nope. Melissa's taken care of it already."

"Do you need Panacea again?" You ask.

"Um, actually, yes. Call Victoria. Um, now." You do so.

"Can you send Amy to Eric and Melissa? It looks like Melissa went overboard again."

"Of course. Um, I'll call you back in a minute." Victoria sounds distracted. You make sure she has the right address before you let her hang up.

About half an hour later, right as George is entering into a dangerously political conversation on the recent alliance with Empire 88, Victoria calls you back.

"No fatalities, and Mellisa is very sorry." She assures you. "I really get it. With the kind of stuff we throw around it's nearly impossible to hold back when people are pointing guns at you."

Victoria's a back alley thug with no sense of control. If Amy wasn't her sister she'd have killed someone years ago.

Then again, you have killed people.

"So, you wanted to ask me about something?"

"Do you get, um, jealous when Eric dates?" Victoria asks you.

"Um, jealous? What do you mean by that?"

"Like you want to punch the girl in her stupid face and throw her out the window!" Victoria snaps. She is quiet for a moment. "Yeah, so do you feel anything like that when your brother is with someone else?" The words "someone else" strike you as horrible word choice.

"Well, um, I might feel a little jealous if he's not spending as much time with me as usual. Maybe, um, nothing like that." You admit. "But we are four years apart, and not as close as you and Amy. I could see it being different for you two." Victoria is quiet for another minute.

"Um, you do get that Amy and I are not exactly, well, normal, right?" Victoria asks cautiously.

"I've known it since the first time we had dinner as an extended family. It's sweet how close you two are. Love is love, and don't let anyone make you feel bad about how much you love your sister." You assure her.

"Um, Crystal, she wants to have a baby." You kind of choke again.

"She wants to have a baby? She's seventeen. There's plenty of time for that." This is not quite as bad as you expected, but still bad.

"She's nervous about a lot of things. She's brought it up a couple times. Um, is it weird if I want her to?" It's very weird.

"Why do you want her to have a baby?" It's best not to let it show when the Dallons are being their most Dallonesque.

"Well, it's like when we were little and we'd play house. She'd be the mommy and I'd be the daddy." This comes up surprisingly often in your conversations with Victoria. "I've wanted to be a mother since I was six. I never trusted anyone else to do it right. She's just so sad and lonely so much. I think a step forward would be good for her, you know? We're almost grownups now, and raising a kid together means she wouldn't have to worry about drifting apart." Jesus.

"You want to raise a child together." You start to process this. "Um, almost grownups. Are you sure you're ready? What does Dean think?"

"Dean's, um, weirdly supportive of the idea. It actually kind of freaks me out." Considering who you're talking to, this is another of those very bad signs. "I think it's one of his weird rebellions against his father." You've never understood Dean's issues with his daddy. He'd always seemed really nice to you.

"Well, um, I really advise against this. If you do it definitely don't do it before Cranial gets back to Amy about her psychology fixes." You pull in a deep breath. "Um, would it impact her healing?"

Victoria hangs up on you.

This might be one of your nicest conversations in three months.

___

You're nervous, waiting in the Protectorate HQ waiting room as Dad has his own appointment with Amy. You're all getting properly outfitted now. Down the hall you hear noises of what sounds like a truly terrible party for Armsmaster and Miss Militia. They're actually planning a parade for them.

Then again, they did kill the Three Blasphemies. Pity about Chevalier, but that was big. There was talk about if Armsmaster holding one of the heads as he went through the streets for the parade would be too savage. That's one of the most dangerous problems the world has to face done with.

Dad comes out of the consultation room looking magnificent in his new costume. It's one of Amy's thicker creations with a good deal of electronic stylization.

"You look great!" You assure him. You pause and lower your voice. "How is she?"

"Stable." Dad says in the same lowered voice. "Probably the best we can hope for right now. She doesn't look pregnant, but it took me weeks to figure out your mother was having Eric." You nod.

"All see what I can do." You move a few inches off the floor and glide through the door to meet with Amy.

"Oh, baby, it's so good to see you." You sweep her into a hug. "So, tell me, how's living with Dean."

"Marvelous." Amy assures you. "Me and Victoria are sharing his guestroom. It's just like when we were little again. She's reading to me again when our schedules lineup." Ah, so they're sleeping in the same bed again. You'd thought Carol put a stop to it when they entered high school. It figures they'd start back up as soon as they had the chance.

"So, how's Madison." You ask. The cute girl seemed to think she was Amy's girlfriend, and that she was New Wave. You're not sure if Amy told her she was or if she's just delusional.

"Who?" Amy asks. Your heart sinks. Then Amy laughs.

"Oh, power joke." You smile. That is a relief.

"She's great. Drives Victoria crazy." Why would that be a great thing? "Good kisser, too." Amy giggles. That's more of a relief. "So, I have a few things I want to experiment with." Amy lays out her materials and a few designs. "When I was working with Victoria I managed to figure out a new defense." Your ears perk up at that. Defense is good for you. "Victoria, Sarah, and you all fly the same way. So does Eric, when he does it. You add kinetic energy to yourself. It's not instant, probably a Manton style limitation, but it's pretty fast." You nod. "Well, with the suit's prediction capabilities and the messing I've been figuring out with powers, I've been thinking adding kinetic energy in just the right direction to counter enemy damage. It wouldn't be perfect, but if a bullet hits you, and your body hits the area with the same amount of kinetic energy at the same time, then it would counter the bullet." Ooh, that is smart. "So, with the right amount of control, you could be pretty close to invincible to a lot of damage while wearing your suits. You probably would lose control of your flying when it hits though. Sarah and Victoria did." You nod. Then you eye the long guns sitting on the table.

"Um, are you going to test this?"

"Of course." Amy assures you.

___

You are happy with the new defensive measure. Instead of having to worry every time someone hits your shield you have a bit more leeway to get in close for a fight.

"Now I have some other ideas if we're changing how I think and fight, adding in new instincts to do things that would be too complicated normally." You say. Amy nods. "An automatic trigger which will cause me to manifest a prerendered and shaped explosive charge to augment my shield. With the timing augmentations you've been doing I can have one of my blasts automatically parry things to keep me from having to use my shield." Victoria nods. "Completely reflexive for attacks we program in if it's too fast or dangerous, but gives me control when I do have time to think."

"Sounds good." Amy is writing more notes. "Anything else?"

"That Kid Win thing, the light compilation organ? What can we do with that for my attacks?" You ask. Amy smiles.

"I was thinking you could charge it. It would give you a temporary overdrive mode, kind of. Add in more power than you usually have, and you can charge it most of the time in between battles or whenever you don't have to use your powers. Wire it up automatically so you can fight consistently over your original abilities, especially for shorter fights."

"Ooh." You really like where this is going. "Do you think we could arrange something to make my blasts a bit more variable? Like cooling, causing stasis effects, noise canceling vibrations?"

The two of you work at it for a while to no real luck. It's just too complex. That direction does lead you to another area, working on the extra computing power to do this kind of thing. You manage to make it so you can hit highly unevenly, cause it to vibrate things to pieces, based on some of the data Amy had been looking up with Kid Win, who she calls and asks for help from over the phone.

You spend some time working on how to make the force fields better. You end up making it much more flexible, with constructs like Eric was talking about, but they can't manifest for any longer. Blades, tentacles, a few other minor tricks you program in. Nothing really impressive. You try to make the force field spin, deflecting damage instead of blocking it, but given how your force fields work it doesn't help.

"So..." You pause, trying to think about how to broach the topic. "Are you feeling better lately?"

"The last couple days have been pretty great, actually." Amy tells you. "I feel like I can sleep so much better with Tattletale taken care of, and sleeping with Victoria just makes me feel safe, like even if someone does attack me in bed she's right there to protect me." It is so hard not to sigh at that. Seriously, does she listen to herself talk? Sleeping with her sister, not "in the same bed" or something? Why?

"Anything else to bring up? You ask. "We are here for you if you need anything. Money or..."

"It's more fun to mooch off Dean, and Victoria's fine, had her own bank account since her first blue jeans commercial. If I had to I could go pester the PRT or hospital for some tiny fraction of the money I'm worth, but I don't really feel the need. I don't even know what I'd spend it on." Amy smiles at you. "I hope the new suit helps."

"I'm sure it will." It is gorgeous. Apparently she'd been calling one of her new friends about the designs. Even when she was little her paintings were always scary, so whoever the friend is she's definitely doing a good job. It's skintight, a bit padded in the right areas, with the cape to store or cover the more unsightly bumps, along with knee, elbow, and shoulder pads to store other organs. The color scheme of white, red, and magenta is yours. "Thank you, Amy."

"Thank you, Crystal. Just keep Victoria safe when you're out fighting, please." You nod.

"I promise." Victoria is all Amy has.

___

End Interlude

___

You're woken up by a whining noise, like you might hear from a particularly large baby preparing to scream. The nasal 'wa' sound stretched out, so loud it was painful to listen to. A siren? An air raid siren.

Victoria mutters, squeals, reaches for you, and opens her eyes. There's a look of clear worry on her face as she reaches for the remote and turns on the TV.

"Leave your homes. Find the nearest shelter. Follow the directions of local authorities. Leave your homes..."

You hear a knocking at the window. There's a man in blue there. He's wearing a skintight costume with a design in white that is somewhere between flame and electricity in style. He has a perfect physique with a strong jaw and wavy brown hair. He's almost as beautiful as your clone brother.

Victoria is between you and the window. It just felt right that way. She gives a firm look at the door.

"May I come in?" He yells loudly. Victoria gives a short, curt nod. He opens the window and positions his body to fly inside.

"Hello, Legend." Victoria says, turning off the TV. "What is going on?"

"Endbringer." He says simply. You gasp.

"Why are you here?" Victoria asks. There's accusation in her voice.

"We're here about your sister." Legend turns to you. "Hello, Amy."

"What do you want from me?" You ask with just a bit of bitterness.

"We want you out of the city. There's a good chance you're the target. You're a good target. We're offering to move you to Kansas City for the duration of the fight." Kansas City...

"If I'm in Kansas City I can't help people." You mutter. Victoria is looking at her suit.

You could take her with you.

[X] You can't be hurt. You can't let Victoria be hurt. "Victoria, we're going."

[X] You have to help. "Take me to where you can use me."

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Silent Night

Legend drops you and Victoria off and the PRT building. You see two massive power suits, one the size of two PRT vans put together with four legs, another one larger, the size of a small building. The two of them are surrounded by hovering drones, with some working on the larger suit, the others, you stare at them, trying to figure it out. You recognize Uber and Leet of all people are working with the drones, as well as a man in a bright silver suit that shimmers as he walks who is inspecting the bombs.

You suddenly realize that they're the bombs confiscated from Bakuda. You recognize a lot of them, the ones you had to remove from brains.

You march inside with Legend. The room is still mostly empty, except for the Protectorate and New Wave. The adult members of your own team have started a conference among themselves. As you watch they make room for Battery and Assault as they come over.

Folding chairs had been set into rows and columns in the center of the lobby, facing a trio of widescreen television sets, which in turn were backed by a series of large windows overlooking the beach. Through the windows, you have the perfect view of the looming storm.

To your surprise, Cranial is here, floating with what is clearly her team. You'd thought she'd left the city. Cranial is speaking with Armsmaster intently. Eric is standing to the side of the two with Crystal.

Surrounding them are the Tinkers of the Toybox. They're rogues, not heroes. What are they doing here?

You recognize Big Rig and his suit, Michelle. He is surrounded by small drones and is clearly incredibly busy with some kind of bizarre Tinker interface, or possibly just making the least appropriate interpretive dance in the world.

A slight and rather unattractive girl stands near Big Rig, clothed in thin and delicate garments. She is speaking softly with a girl in a doll costume you vaguely recognize as Parian. The girl's dress is lined with beautiful, thin machinery that looks disturbingly sharp.

The local Wards shuffle in, and one of the Toybox members breaks off towards them, he's short, very young, with a red and silver costume design. The boy has several belts of what appear to be remotes. Sophia moves to Miss Militia and the two begin to talk.

The last member of the Toybox team is wearing a large, strange suit disguising gender or other features. The inflated thing looks like full biohazard gear taken to a ludicrous extreme. The suit barely looks weaponized, though that doesn't mean much for Tinkers. The person is silent, not even appearing to look at anyone else.

Victoria drags you to the Wards. The Toybox boy begins speaking with Kid Win at once, a conversation you can't follow at all. The rest of the Wards are silent. Victoria embraces Dean.

Eidolon is in one corner, silent and impressive as the other times you've seen him.

Another group comes in after the Wards, lead by Alexandria. An extremely slender Case 53 with four wings keeps close to Alexandria as if scared of the world around her. Bakkhos, Swarmer, and Shyster complete the major figures of the LA Protectorate.

Dean and Victoria whisper to each other in hushed tones, and you'd really rather look at anything but them, so you keep your eyes on the crowd.

Protectorate and Wards from New York stand to one side of the room. You suddenly recognize one girl by the cloak she wears, the piece of shimmering darkness you saw at the Fundraiser. That makes the boy in the pure white costume Grue, doesn't it? None of the New York Wards seem to be talking to the pair.

Another group enters. The boy made of metal, Weld, who was helping with ABB before the Wards left. You see Rune rush over to him and the two start talking quite loudly. Next to him is a figure in a massive, smooth piece of power armor that lacks extremities. The strange suited figure glides across the floor to Armsmaster and Cranial.

A small group from Albany enters the room. You recognize Blur and Ichor, though not a tall figure in in slight, insect-like power armor that covers her whole body. You give them a salute, and all three return it. Miss Militia walks over to them and starts talking.

Kaiser bursts through the doors like a thunderstorm. The Empire has arrived. Kaiser has a girl on each side, Menja and Fenja. The Neo-Nazis stream in. Alabaster, Hoofwolf, Stormtiger, Night, Fog, Crusader, Victor, Othala, Cricket, and Victor, with Purity bringing up the rear. Weld gives them a salute as they enter, and Kaiser returns it.

Next is the team from Chicago. Myrddin and Tecton you recognize, the leader of the Protectorate and the Wards. The other are a confused mess in your head. Nearby, held by an actual leash, is a girl with a fox mask who you somehow know is Tattletale.

Skitter walks in alone. She makes a beeline for you, a swarm of bugs surrounding her. Legend spies her and leads her to you.

"Relay bugs again?" She asks.

"Until I'm asked to do something else." You start work on them.

"Scouting, search and rescue, communications. I saw how you two worked together in the ABB event. If you could replicate that it would be amazing." Legend tells you. You consider for a moment.

"I have an idea. Get me as many bugs as you can." Skitter nods. You turn back to Legend. "I know things will be hard enough out there, but if you can get me a living tissue sample I might be able to do something with it, or at least learn something." Legend nods.

"If we can, we will, but it will be difficult. Any other requests, Panacea?"

"I want to touch and record as many people as possible. I've been expanding what I can do, learning more and more lately. The more Corona Gammas I can see, especially for people with powers I know, the better." Legend nods. "This is a truly priceless opportunity, with capes from all over the world."

You see that Grue and his sister have a line forming around them.

"Force fields, force fields, get your force fields!" The girl shouts. "Stood up to Legend's best shot, once." Now that is interesting. The line curls, becoming longer and longer. A new force field pops up once every few seconds.

You see the bizarre figure who came with Weld slide out of the room. No one else is heading that way. Now that is interesting. What does he do?"

Skitter's swarm of bugs has formed a carpet you've merged together into a massive, single organism several times the weight of a man. More and more are arriving all the time, and you keep merging them together.

More and more heroes arrive. Members of the Guild you recognize such as Narwhal. Other heroes, Escutcheon, Fierceling, Quark, Florida Man...

All to fight one Endbringer, and you don't think it looks like enough.

Legend rises above the crowd and flies to the center of the room. Armsmaster keeps talking with Cranial, looking more and more urgent.

"We owe thanks to Dragon and Armsmaster for their early alert. We've had time to gather, and that means we have just a few more minutes to prepare and brief for Leviathan's arrival, instead of jumping straight into the fray as we arrive. With this advantage, some luck, teamwork and hard effort from everyone, I hold out hope that this could be one of the good days." Good day.

"But you should know your chances going in. Given the statistics from our previous encounters with this beast, a 'good day' still means that one in four of the people in this room will probably be dead before this day is done."

Legend continues his speech. You have better things to worry about as Skitter pulls in more and more of her bug carpet. Finally you tell her to stop, they'll need time to spread.

You focus on the mass, creating endless new relays inside of it, and then cause it to fracture into thousands of relay bugs. You wish you had thought of that earlier.

"Let them cover the city." You tell her. "It's two thousand. Tell me if you need more." Skitter nods, her own eyes focused on Legend. Total n00b.

Admittedly, it's the first Endbringer fight you've been to, instead of being sent in after the fact to mop things up.

Suddenly, Sophia grabs you.

"Stop ignoring me for that." She whispers.

"I'm sorry." You tell her. "It's an Endbringer." You pause. "It's busy here."

"There's one thing I need to try in case one of us dies here." Sophia says. She pulls back her mask for a second and kisses you. She pauses there for a moment, both of you silent. "Hm, nothing. I guess we'll have to see about that later." Sophia leaves you there, feeling a bit hurt. Why is the only girl you likes kissing you the one who you had to make into a lesbian?

"I'm jealous." The girl in a thin gray and green costume unveils from her power.

"Pay attention." You point up to Legend. "It's your first rodeo. This stuff could save your life." Madison obeys, looking upward and focusing her attention on Legend as he describes the strategy to take this time.

Victoria...

There's no words to describe the look she gives you.

"That goes for you too, Victoria." You tell her. It looks like it breaks her heart to look up at Legend and not you.

Finally, the Wards begin passing out the Dragon armbands as Legend describes how they work.

"Capes! If you have faced an Endbringer before, stand!" Legend's voice. There's something about it.

Cranial almost seems to slither into the ground given how she moves, to make it absolutely clear she has not. You smile as you see Blur stand up, full of pride.

"When in doubt, follow the orders of the Protectorate first! We have trained, organized and planned for this! The others who are standing, now, are the ones you listen to if we aren't contradicting their order! They have been through situations much like this, you go with their instincts!

"We are splitting you into groups based on your abilities! If you are confident you can take a hit from Leviathan and get up afterwards, or if you have the ability to produce expendable combatants, we need you on the front line! You will be directed by Alexandria and Dragon!" Your heart almost breaks as Victoria rises and joins the group alongside Neil.

You see the strange figure from the Toybox join this group. What does that one do?

"Armsmaster and The Hanged Man will be leading the hand to hand combatants who do not fit in Alexandria's group! Anyone who thinks they can harm or hamper Leviathan in close quarters, you'll be assisting and reinforcing the front line!" You see many of the rest of your family moving towards that group. Carol, Sarah, Crystal, and Mark all stand there. Your eyes go back to Victoria. You barely realize that Legend is still splitting up groups. Neil goes with the next one, the ones to block or impede Leviathan. Cranial arrives with them, interesting, what has she cooked up that could harm Leviathan?

"Movers! We need fliers, teleporters, runners! You'll be responding to pings! Rescue the fallen, get them to emergency care, assist any others where needed! Myrddin will give you your orders!" To your surprise Blur doesn't rise up and join that team, but stays with Miss Militia. What are they planning?

Suddenly a middle aged voice rises above everything.

"Leviathan has almost arrived. Strider, evacuate us all now." Cranial's voice rings out. The people nearest her do not act like someone is shouting next to them. How does she do that?

"What she said!" Legend shouts.

The air is sucked out of your lungs, and you arrive in the middle of a road. It is still dark out. Fliers begin to move ranged attackers to the rooftops.

The battle is about to start.

[X] Write in. How can Amy be of best use now?

Other:

[X] How should this be handled? One option would be a single long bonus interlude from Taylor's perspective as she watches the fight unfold across the city. Another would be to take control of Skitter or someone else for a few updates. If you wish to stick with Panacea, note that she will not be allowed near the front lines if at all possible.

As usual for these kinds of votes I am combining options with precedence given to popularity and feasibility.

Off in the distance you see the massive power suit rise and smash into Leviathan. You see him, a vague and horrible silhouette. The giant power suit strikes against him. Leviathan clearly has the upper hand, but the suit is buying you all valuable time. You see repeated strikes that look almost like slashes directed into the power suit. They're not brutish, more like a whip or a sword.

Skitter's new relay bugs begin to spread extremely rapidly, flying off to cover the city.

Heroes and villains begin to organize into lines. Most of the front ranks are now wearing those shimmering cloaks Grue's sister is handing out. A new one seems to pop up once every few seconds.

Cranial rises up. Held in her strange clawed legs is a woman you don't recognize. Cranial's limbs are full of dozens of pieces of equipment you can't see at this distance.

"Get ready!" Legend howls.

The massive power suit has been ripped to shreds. Levithan approaches.

Cranial screams. Her natural, horrible, bat like mouth opens wide. The woman with her, the tools, have to be amplifying the effect. That's the hopeful idea, with the other one being that they're to mitigate the effect so it doesn't reach all of you.

You remember your father being taken away by those bastards! Your niece dead on a maxi pad buried in a yard. The realization that Victoria would never kiss you, the condom in the trashcan. It hits you as a rush, all at once. You fall to your knees. Everyone falls down around you as the scream keeps fucking going. Is this a new trick of Leviathan, or is Cranial switching sides?

Then the noise stops.

"Leviathan is not human." Cranial's calm voice rings out. You feel very suddenly better, and realize that Eidolon is releasing some kind of golden light over everyone. It feels good. People are recovering far too quickly to be natural.

"Leviathan was never human." A voice rings out from the armbands. Cranial falls back down to Earth as Leviathan strikes the front lines. Water sprays everywhere, and you see a desperate blast of light as Leviathan's arm goes wild and releases a spray of blood for a flying blonde.

Cold One down CD-5. Amazing Girl deceased, CD-5. Thunderous down, CD-5. Purity deceased, CD-5.

It's only a moment before a boy with yellow skin drops off the first of the wounded.

You're quick. It's hack jobs, anything to keep people moving. You focus, trying not to let the fight register to distract you. Even so, you keep seeing flashes of the battle. A massive bio-organic snake rises seemingly out of nothing and wraps himself around Leviathan. Alexandria smashes through an onrushing wall of water to stagger Leviathan. Leviathan rips apart the snake, even though it is now larger than he is, with incredible ease. the snake seems to be regenerating, but not quickly enough. It does manage to buy yet more time.

New Wave is out in force. It's hard to miss them. Their suits wire them together, coordinate them on an instinctual level. Nothing short of the Three Blasphemies works like them, and those are dead. New Wave is fighting smart. It looks like everyone is doing fine. None of Leviathan's blows or sprays of water manage to connect to New Wave. The four winged Case 53 who came with Alexandria is not so lucky, as Leviathan snares her and rips her apart.

It's also hard to miss the wave of darkness that covers Leviathan for a moment. Why would they use Grue like that?

Night deceased, CD-5.

You press the badge. "Tell everyone I can give enhancements. Quick ones, sloppy ones, right now."

Your suit records the rush of information you'd otherwise forget. You can check them against powers later. This is a wealth of information, if you can only live through it.

The light show of Laserdream and Lady Photon is hard to miss as they blast Leviathan in the arms. One arm is clearly more damaged than the other. Both of them had blown through their whole light reserve at once, their best attacks. Why? Legend's own lasers lash into the same holes, the new weak points? You see Leviathan narrowly miss Florida Man with his strike, and car hurled by Manpower saves him from the afterimage.

Healing. You can heal, make sure the fight can be pressed, keep Leviathan off balance.

"Tidal wave incoming." A voice, you're not sure if it's the armbands or Cranial or someone else, says calmly. You pause, wondering if you should move or if this is a location that will be protected. Stupid, of course they'll protect you.

You keep healing as the wave heads forward. A cloaked figure charges the wave and smashes straight into it. The bubble shatters and you scream as you see a white and gold shape push with all her might against the wave. Amazingly, miraculously, it is the wave that yields, falling back, crashing into itself for precious seconds as Victoria blasts straight up into the sky. Those moments give time for slower capes to get within the force field Shielder raises. The force field is weirdly shaped on the bottom, catching several more people within the confines of the shield just in time.

You finish healing the people you can reach before the tidal wave is gone.

"Skitter." You say into the nearby area. "Do you need more relay bugs then what I produced earlier?"

"No." A hum answers you. She can talk through them? "They should be fine."

You press your badge. "Anyone needing enhancement should come to me now.

Blur is the first to arrive.

"How much of your suits can you put into me?" He asks. "The timing, the damn precog, the senses." You think. "Sixty percent, maybe? If I die you might be stuck with it."

"I'll take it." He answers and pulls back his mask like he did back in Albany. You put your hands on his face again. It feels wrong using his own flesh for the equipment, but you don't have time for a suit.

"What is the plan?" You ask him.

"Nuke Leviathan." Blur tells you.

"Again?" You ask with some disbelief. "It didn't work the last time."

"No, it won't work, but it'll slow him down. Spread something around, a radiation counter-agent." The shield lowers and you see Legend is making some kind of large circle, blasting everything in range. "We're doing it twice, anyway." Blur assures you, and he vanishes with incredible speed.

You take more heroes as they are injured. Assault rides a dumpster into Leviathan's leg, and Leviathan kicks it into the crowd. Clockblocker deceased, CD-5. Assault down, CD-5.

Suddenly the battle seems to fade into the distance, growing smaller and smaller. You see Vista standing where Legend cleared. He must have been killing everything that could interfere with it. You watch as you heal the half destroyed man. Leviathan eventually disappears altogether.

"Closes your eyes and look away. We do not know the definite effects of the following attack. Turn away if possible." The voice comes through on the armband.

You turn away, dragging the incredibly light person with you and pointing his eyes away.

The light is far softer than you'd thought it would be. Things are silent for a long moment.

Miss Militia deceased, CD-5.

Blur shows up half a minute later. He drops Shadow Stalker down next to you. Blur points to his ears and you touch them. Completely shattered eardrums, but they're easy to restore. He's shaking.

"Do you want me to remove your fear for now?" You ask, and you feel his head nod. You do it.

"Turned the damned thing intangible and still barely got through." Sophia mutters darkly. "Damn, I actually thought it would work."

"Why is there still that much distance?" You ask. "Trying to trap him for a while?"

"No, they're going to try Bakuda's big one." Sophia says. "That one needs a lot more room."

"Vista can do that?" That's interesting.

"We hope." Sophia says, and you can't help but giggle. You're in another lull.

Then, suddenly, the armband screeches a single word. Every armband.

"VICTORIA!" That explosion is a lot brighter for some reason. Who would...

Phantasos down, CD-5.

"Oh."

___

When Leviathan comes back the battle lines have been reaffirmed. The damage to the beast is immense. Vista stands in front, Strider to her side, giving every second of preparation she possibly can by expanding space. She can't do it as fast as Leviathan is moving.

Leviathan looks like he has been through hell. The upper back is almost gone completely. Massive chunks have been ripped out. The entire texture of the surface appears to be melted and changed. The arms appear to have been stripped right down to the bone and then ripped into a good bit more.

Suddenly, there's a smash as water blasts up from beneath Vista and Strider.

Strider down, CD-5. Vista down, CD-5.

Blur is quick, quicker than Leviathan, rushing out ahead of the other movers, even the teleporters, and rushes back, hurling them at your feet.

The insect armored woman from Albany, one of the ones you enhanced in the last minutes, takes the field. Bizarre waves of attack, altered time, altered space, altered gravity, hit Leviathan dead on, pushing him back, disintegrating more of his flesh. The new member of New Wave, Eraser, begins hitting Leviathan hard, pieces of his mass vanishing into nothingness.

Another tidal wave is incoming. Leviathan has has a while to build up out there, and the mass rushing in with him is bad. You don't think Shielder would have stopped it without his new enhancements. A few are trapped outside.

Hoofwolf down, CD-5. Armsmaster deceased, CD-5. Laserdream down, CD-5.

"A few" isn't comforting when it's the right few.

Alexandria and Eidolon charge, taking turns at forcing Leviathan back. Your Glory Girl is there, but not attacking, she's holding onto Grue's sister, both of them clad in her shrouds, adding new ones as the fighters exhaust them.

Leviathan turns to them and smashes with a terrifying force at the two, his after image hitting a moment later.

Glory Girl down, CD-5. Countenance deceased, CD-5. Victoria's own force field had saved her, with the other girl's help. On its own, the shroud couldn't take Leviathan and his after image.

Leviathan seems to go berserk now, charging forward. You see Myrddin unleash something that staggers Leviathan back right as a massive blue force field emerges. You can't see it well, but it's penetrating Leviathan, going deep.

Then something causes the force field to blast forward, hard, and Leviathan starts thrashing wildly. A blur of white and gold pierces the sky once again as the force field shimmers and dissipates.

Leviathan starts to move backwards, away from the gathered forces.

Was this victory?

Eidolon and Legend strafe the Endbringer as he flees. More and more people to heal or being brought to you.

Time to keep working.

___

You sit back, exhausted, taking a brief rest now that all the absolutely critical capes are healed.

Apparently this was the best day against an Endbringer in years.

Myrddin stops by, and sits next to you.

"What you did is impressive, my lady." He tells you. "I have always admired New Wave, but that was something else."

"Not enough." Armsmaster, Clockblocker, people you know died today. Maybe a lot of civilians you'd helped save. All that time wasted because of an Endbringer.

"No, it wasn't." Myrddin assures you. "Next time we will have to do better." You look up. Next time an Endbringer hits Brockton Bay?

"I cannot force you, but I think after an Endbringer attack, with much of the city in ruins, the government will want to move you to a better hub for healing. Chicago, my city, Hero's and Eidolon's city, was always a transport hub. I am making you an offer, Panacea. Once you have the city and their affairs in order, I want you to come to Chicago. Bring New Wave and their dependents, of course."

"Why should I go with you?" You ask slowly.

"You hate Brockton Bay. Everyone knows that. Very few things tie you here. After this, there are fewer. If you can move those you love elsewhere, I think you will be happier, a change of pace. I like what I have seen you do. I would be honored to have you in my city, working with my Protectorate as you did with Armsmaster's."

You pause for a moment.

"Tattletale." You whisper. "You brought her with you. What has she told you."

"Oh, the little witch does like to talk." There's a hint of a smile in Myrddin's voice. "I don't think she knows how to deal with people who actually listen. I understand if you want to stay in your home, but I personally doubt the city will stand much longer. We condemn cities for things like this these days."

You are silent for a minute. The choice is clear.

[X] "That sounds perfect, sir."

[X] "Bring me Tattletale." You have to know what she's been doing to Myrddin. Did she trick him somehow? You need to investigate before you make a decision.

[X] "I have to stay." People will need you here more than ever, at least until the city is condemned.

Note:

The first and last decisions are about tone. Would we rather deal with post-Leviathan Brockton Bay, or bring most of the cast to a new city to diverge from canon?

The middle one would differ the decision, at the risk of having another Tattletale mindfuck.

"I have to stay." People will need you here more than ever, at least until the city is condemned.

You almost laugh at the absurdity of the situation and ask Myrddin, "do they let girls marry their sisters in Chicago?" You shake your head. "I don't hate the city. The people, yeah, I can do without most of them — Chicago has people, too, doesn't it? —but I love the city. The view of the skyline at sunset, when Victoria is holding me tight above the clouds, is beautiful. I can't remember the last time we just floated up there together. I'm not sure if she'd want to again, after everything. I miss it. I have memories here, both good and bad. But as much as I hate Brockton Bay... it is home for now."

"Now is a tricky word, Panacea." There's a smile in Myrridin's words you don't like. "Time is said to fly by. But the present is most like true time."

"I'm not in the mood to listen to riddles, wizard." You sigh.

"Then don't speak in them." Myrddin answers plainly.

"Does your offer carry into the future? If the city is condemned, I would be willing to take it." You ask.

"You ask me not to speak in riddles, but the future is a thing not unlike Cranial's scream. The future is of Hell." Myrddin's words puzzle you, but you let them slide. People with power like the two of you are entitled to eccentricities.

"I have to stay. People will need me here more than ever, at least until the city is condemned."

"People need you everywhere. People need ten thousand of you, ten million of you. Don't let that hold you back." You consider your answer. The obvious one is people you love need you here, but...

"If I do go I have one thing that is non-negotiable. Tattletale stays the hell away from Chicago. Find someone else to hold her leash."

"A pity, but you're worth more than her to anyone." You don't like those words. "I will spend some time looking for a suitable replacement. What is really keeping you here?"

"I do have some friends here sir. Shadow Stalker, Harrier, a normal friend named Emma."

"I asked for the real reason."

"There's a grave I want to visit a bit before August of this year. Let's talk then. That is something that keeps me here. " Myrddin looks at you intently and smiles.

"If there is anything in this world I understand, it is graves. I will not trouble you until then. Is there anything else you want from me?" That is a good question.

"Cranial's scream knocked something loose in my head," you confide in the wizard from Chicago, "an old, painful memory." You sigh. "Everything's been turned on it's head lately. Good is bad. Bad is good. Nazis save people. Cops mutilate them. I can't tell the difference between the heroes and the villains any more. I'm not sure if there ever was a difference. Maybe I've just been too stupid to see the truth all these years. I actually thought — it doesn't fucking matter what I thought; it was all a lie. There's only one person in the world I actually trust, Myrddin. You aren't her. I need time to think and someone to talk to. "

"I am not a precog, but I can tell you're going to ask me for the last thing you want." The voice is resigned.

"I need to talk to you about Tattletale before you leave." Maybe your own work to help her panned out. Maybe she is being a useful and productive person. It could be just as Myrddin said, that with people willing to listen and support her Tattletale can be good.

"She's a demon." The words are plain. "I'm sorry to speak in metaphors, but that's how you need to treat her. Dragon asked me to take care of her for a reason. You need to think of her as a demon to negotiate with her. She is dangerous, powerful, intelligent, and has only the power you give to her. She can't keep her mouth shut to save her life, and that is a weakness, but it's not a weakness you want to face." You nod. You're not going to talk to Tattletale after this.

"She's happy." Myrddin says. "She's not happy about this fight, she hates it, but she senses something I can't get out of her. She is not a precog, but she makes connections. I give you one last suggestion. Do not treat tonight as you would if you were a cape, a hero, a goddess. Treat it as if you were a mad woman, a witch, a villain."

"That's not a nice thing to say to anyone." You scowl at him.

"Any other night, I would agree with you." Myrddin gets up. "I have a long night ahead of me. I need to count my dead, and save the living."

Leviathan thinks he can come into your city, kill your friends, and leave your city to die? No. You're going to help the city rebuild. it may not be much of a home, but it's the only one you've got.

You might have to one up Myrddin.

___

After talking with Myrridin, you are lost in thought. So many have died... but you have to try something... the parahumans whom you have interacted... those who have died... You seek their cold "dead" bodies. Surely there is something you can do about this... surely you can do more than simply pronounce them doomed... and thus you begin to work with the recovered corpse of Clockblocker...

He's dead. His cells still live, but they're out of reach. The bacteria on his skin, the monsters that thrive all around him, your suit, it all lives, but Clockblocker is a creature you can no longer touch.

It would take a second trigger event to touch the dead, and you have maxed out on your own.

You search everything you can of him, burning up and cannibalizing the dead cells, releasing new things.

A cancer or a chimera is born here. You try to build up a new Clockblocker. His brains lie on the pavement, and you didn't have the space to record that.

You are very still for a second.

It's not right to let a child into the world in the body of an adult. There's something else you can do. You stare at the body, working at it. You sense, skin to skin, when it's done, alive, and hear a a shattered cry.

"Hello, kid." You pick up the baby. "You're not your big brother, Dennis. Maybe your parents won't take you. You're young, you're white, you're not disabled, adoption is easy for someone as cute as you." You consider him. "Okay, I'll have to make you cuter to give you a better chance. Consider it a favor to your brother for stealing his girlfriend." You bounce the infant on your knee. "Now let's see if we can get you some friends."

___

Miss Militia, vaporized. Armsmaster, Skitter couldn't find the body. Night, you can't get anything off the body. Purity and Aisha, you can make them sisters.

Maybe in a decade or two they'll make something of themselves.

It's more respectful than anything else you could do with the bodies. They'll just be more orphans out of many, now. Maybe Grue will take his new sister, maybe not. You won't ask. You're just the midwife, not the mother.

___

Cleanup went well, considering the city was nuked twice. Admittedly, in the same place, with Vista spreading what looked like a small continent of asphalt and dirt between most of the city and the explosion, but still two things exceptionally similar to nuclear weapons were used.

The New Wave suits help more than you'd dreamed. Search and rescue has some of the best statistics of any Endbringer fight. You take the time to produce five specialized search and rescue models with the basic package for the local Protectorate.

Over the next few days, New Wave is at its finest. Eraser and Rune, dangerous, uncontrollable fuckers in fights, great at clearing rubble. So is Browbeat, really. Only Harrier feels out of place, so she is assigned to keep tabs on the villains. Victoria is a girl on fire, organizing the efforts of the city's capes with Aegis and Battery. She admits to you that they're taking orders from her half the time, Battery is so preoccupied with the stresses of the new job, Aegis about to transfer cities, both of them pounded by her aura.

New Wave carves out a pacified zone around the hospital, arguably the safest region. Skitter has taken her own small territory along the Boardwalk, the Empire guarding and policing the whitest neighborhoods and cooperating far more than anyone is comfortable admitting with the heroes. The Protectorate and the Wards fill in the gaps as people flood out. The Merchants make a play, but are beaten back through several angles.

Coil is very quiet.

You're in the hospital sixteen hours a day for a week, before they cut you back to the usual twelve, with two days off.

You're going to need them.

___

You squeeze Victoria's hand. "I have to do this alone. I don't think I can say everything that I have to say if you're there."

She nods. "I'll be out here if you need me."

"I always need you," you whisper.

"I'll always need you too," Victoria whispers.

You walk into your house.

Mark is sitting in front of the television not paying attention to anything. A bad day. You'd known that from Madison, who had patrolled with him today. Victoria had arranged it so there was always an adult member of New Wave patrolling with the new recruits to keep them in line. Madison told you that he barely talked the whole time.

You take Mark's hand. "I'm not going to be here long. There's some things I should have done years ago." He doesn't look up. Your power spreads through Mark nice and warm, pleasant, familiar."

"Malformed seratonin receptors. They don't respond to natural seratonin. Some medications work better, but not perfectly. Genetic cause. Probably became noticeable in mid teens. Victoria could have inherited it, but didn't. I'm not sure that Cranial can fix it, but I know I can. I should have years ago. Do you want me to?"

Mark is quiet for a very long time.

"Yes." He finally whispers. You don't actually hear it, you feel it through your power in his vocal cords. It's done.

"It took you long enough." The voice comes from deeper inside the house, a bedroom you doubt she and Mark have shared five times in the last year.

"You always knew I'd end your marriage." You lash out. "Marry the boy next door because no one else could take him. Marry someone who can barely get out of bed because he's not scary."

"That's exactly what I did." Carol enters the room. "He wanted children, and no one else would give them to him. We both got what we wanted." You lose your nerve for a minute as she glares at you. Finally, you respond.

"Carol, I, uh, I actually came here to say some things to you and ask you some questions. I guess. There's something I really want to know. Why did you adopt me? Did you hate the Marquis so much that you just had to torture his daughter for eleven years? Please, tell me. Do you have any clue how much you've hurt me?"

"Adopt you? I took you home because Sarah ordered me too, and then your sister wouldn't let you go. I have to admit it made more sense. I had a job, she didn't. She had two kids, I had one, though not for lack of trying. You never offered to fix that, did you? Can't use the brains excuse for that, could you?" Carol stands her ground.

"I didn't really get it until Cranial screamed. I didn't understand. I didn't want to understand. But that sound just pulled everything out. And fuck, I promised myself that I wouldn't cry and I wouldn't get mad and I'm doing both now. YOU BROKE INTO OUR HOUSE! Our. Fucking. House. What the fuck was wrong with you? That crossed the most important line. New Wave couldn't work if people didn't respect that line. I looked him up, you know. I watched videos of his fights. He was better than you. HE COULD HAVE KILLED YOU ALL!" You fling a dart at a picture on the wall of Sarah and Carol a bit before their kidnapping, two normal girls smiling, arms around each other. "He could have made Victoria an ORPHAN!"

"Yes, he could have. So could Kaiser, Allfather, Lung, Bakuda, Leviathan. That's what being a hero means, Amy! You can't hold back because you have people at home! That just makes someone else an orphan."

"He held back because of me. He was protecting me. Do you have any idea what that's like? Being six years old and finding your father broken and bleeding on the floor with a bunch of 'heroes'," you practically spit the word, " standing over him. Do you have any clue what it's like to be dragged away from everything you know and love by a bunch of strangers? It was one of the worst days of my life and if I had triggered then I would have killed you. I don't know why I didn't. Maybe because he was so calm about it all. Maybe I still trusted him. I thought that as long as he was calm it would be alright. That he would make it okay somehow. And he tried. He got you to promise to take care of me. But you LIED."

The hand on your shoulder is there. You didn't even hear her come in.

"She lied. I kept her promise, Amy." You want to scream at her but bite your tongue. "He got what he wanted." Victoria is silent for another moment.

"I need this! You can't keep me from doing this." You turn and stare and Victoria. No one talks for a minute.

"I would have broken into his house too." Victoria tells you, and she turns away, walking back out.

"He was a monster." Carol tells you. "A hypocrite. A coward. He kept to a code, don't kill women or children. That's not ethics. It's not what ethics mean. He hid behind the idea he was better than other villains, but he wasn't. He needed to be stopped. He was too strong, too dangerous. Your daddy was nice and he acted like it meant something when he'd flay a man alive for getting cut off in traffic."

"You would hate him if you met him now." Mark says suddenly. "Victoria would kill him." You stand there confused.

"Did that make it right to take me?" You ask softly. "You knew that you couldn't love me. You know that you couldn't be my parents. You knew and you lied. I should hate you. I don't. I can't. You gave me the most wonderful sister in the world. I could never hate the people who made Victoria. I'm just disappointed. And hurt. Do you know how much that hurts? Do you get what that's like, having a mother who won't love you and a father who can't? For the longest time I thought that it was my fault, that there was something wrong with me. So I forced myself to be as good as I could possibly be no matter how much it hurt. I thought that if I'd was good enough somehow you'd love me. I pushed myself to the breaking point for that. I pushed myself past the breaking point. I kept going and going and sacrificing everything until I just wanted it to stop and then I pushed myself even farther. I couldn't stop. I had to get myself committed just to take a vacation. I thought that if I healed just one more person, that if I did just one more good thing, then you would love me, Carol. But it was never going to be enough. I could never do enough. Fuck. Sometimes, when I was at my lowest and most desperate, I'd seriously consider offering myself to you, sexually. Like, if you wouldn't love me as a daughter maybe you'd love me that way. That's how badly you fucked up my head, mom." Carol's eyes are growing darker and darker, crueler and crueler.

"Maybe it would have worked." She spits. "It worked for Mark. Be quiet, be dutiful, don't press, don't be so dangerous and bright. Don't steal my daughter! Anything but what you two became the minute she laid eyes on you. You didn't eat until she started putting food in your mouth. Wouldn't sleep until she curled up into your bed, wouldn't learn unless she was teaching you. You were just so fucking helpless she had to be there every step of the way. There's always some villain or psychology crisis or saying I canceled your credit cards just so you can have your Glory Girl swoop in and save you from yourself. Maybe if you'd shown interest in anyone else for eleven years instead of spending every waking moment trying to get her time and energy I could have..." You throw a dart at her to shut her up. Not enough to knock her out, just to get her quiet.

"I get it now. I get it. I was never the problem. It was never me. It was always you. I was good enough, you just wouldn't ever accept me. You couldn't. And now that I understand that everything is a lot easier. I still hate myself for a lot of reasons, but I don't think I'm innately evil anymore so that's great. You could have at least pretended to care. One word of praise. One hug. One 'I love you' would have gone a long way, even if it was a lie. But I get it, you just didn't have it in you. I'm not mad. Victoria is enough for me. Family isn't fungible. You can't just take a parent away and give a sibling and somehow be even. But I love her more than anything else in this world and she loves me. I wouldn't trade her for anything. I'd die for her, happily. I'm glad that you gave her to me. I just wish you'd been less shitty as parents, to both of us."

"So do I." Mark says. His voice cuts across the room.

"What I'm trying to say is that I'm done. It's over. I'm done. I'm an orphan; I can accept that now. And I'm not going to kill myself chasing after parents I'll never have. I still love you guys. You're the closest things I have to parents, in the same way that the moon is close, but I can't and I won't do this anymore. I'll still be part of New Wave. I'll still be there to support the team and I'll help you out if you ever need me. Just don't call me unless it's important and fuck you both. And fuck you twice, Mom; at least Mark tried."

When your hand touches the doorknob you turn around and say, as an afterthought, "I don't know if I'll let you see your granddaughter. I'll have to think about that." You start to hear noises from her mouth, the dart's already wearing off.

Carol screams at you as you open the door. She doesn't see Victoria standing on the porch until the words are already out. "She won't be my granddaughter because you aren't my daughter!"

Your eyes meet your sisters, an unspoken question. You squeeze her hand. She nods slightly, a frown set on her face. You want to do more than hold her hand but everything you want to do crosses a line. Instead you just squeeze her palm and turn back to your so-called mother.

"You're wrong. She will be yours. She will be."

You hug your sister tight.

"Yes." Victoria's hand moves down your hair. "She will."

Carol's scream echoes down the block, raw and agonized and disgusted as it hits her.

You're going to have her granddaughter.

___

You needed two days. One for that.

Today is different. New Wave has gathered in force. Kaiser has called a very official meeting in an abandoned building.

New Wave arrives first. They're not the force they were last month. Your Glory Girl leads the new team, and you stand by her side. Harrier, Eraser, Browbeat, and Rune, each changed and empowered by your assistance. Victoria's aura is on in its full and frightening power.

Rune's weapon, the Svalinn, held high above you all, the greatest piece of bio-tech you have ever made, everything you could poor into a small car of bio-mass. Eraser's strange headgear Ichaival, shaped like a bow or antlers, gives him perhaps the strongest power refinement you have managed. Harrier's suit is optimized for mobility and to carry the most potent of weapons to their destinations. Browbeat's suit has been warped, expanded, and changed by his own powers, customized to suit him perfectly.

The old New Wave Members, the family, marches behind the newcomers. Six and six, the forces loyal to Victoria and the forces loyal to Sarah. You suspect that this will not remain one team for long.

Kaiser's Empire arrives next. Once they would have been stronger, now they barely match your forces. The bravado is telling.

Kaiser's voice cuts across the distance between the two teams.

"We have held to a truce since Leviathan. Things are settling down. Nothing is back to normal, but a new status quo has been created. We are here to propose an expansion of this deal. Until such time as normal operations of the Empire resume, we will hold to our own territory and not interfere outside of it. We offer this in exchange for the same courtesy from you. We have expelled the people we would find problematic to other territories. Is this acceptable?"

You had discussed what to do if Kaiser made this offer already.

What did you decide?

[X] There are bigger things to worry about when keeping the city safe. The Empire can keep control of their territories safe from interference from New Wave.

[X] They're the Nazis. You've let this go on long enough.

[X] You want to propose a very different deal. Write in: What deal? Additions, changes, or propositions are likely to properly be sub-write ins under agreeing to this truce, so a deal that is an independent write in should be meaningfully different from the first two.
Note, Amy is not the one to deliver the speech, as she's not leader of New Wave.

Plan Hyzmarca

Kaiser is quiet. It stretches out for a long time.

"The pony has already been mailed."

Madison starts giggling like crazy at that, rather shattering the image of unity and composure New Wave was supposed to be projecting. She'd flat out rejected the social enhancements you'd given the Wards, said they felt too phony. A talk with Gallant confirmed that most of the Wards has been shutting them off most of the time anyway.

"As for your points? We deported those who are unable to pass as acceptable from our territory. The city's resources are stretched thin. We need to provide order and protection, and my soldiers will not enforce such order effectively if they have to deal with ethnic tension, religious tension, or those ridiculous deviant subcultures such as homosexuality and Wicca. I directed them to other territories. In the long term the ideal solution would be to have different cities inhabited by different cultures. We have pamphlets, if you are open minded enough to read them. I have read every one on diversity I have ever been given." Controlled, retaking the situation. You get instincts from the suit, let him talk. Sarah is giving this order. She knows him better than you do.

"As for crime? States need to keep a monopoly of force. If you want us to be powerful, stable, we need to police ourselves and use force. You ask me to keep my soldiers in line. I cannot do that without force. You could not do it without force. Drugs, why, if you insist. Isn't it your faction's contention that the Drug War is a tool of racial control? The majority of drugs were banned because minority groups had taken to using them and it was a tool to control them." The word "minority" is full of absolutely contempt. "How do you classify alcohol, which is far more damaging than marijuana? How do you justify factory farming and not dog fighting? Such a rule is incoherent. Against that rule, and your power, we will simply make preparations to leave the city. We are not stupid. Give me a coherent and reasonable offer and I will accept it."

Fuck, he's good.

"I have no objection to working with the heroes. I have always had the offer open. If you think that the organization responsible for the trial of Paige Mcabee, the treatment of Sarah Livsey, the crime against humanity that is the Birdcage, and I could go on, is worthy of unconditional support I will not oppose you. However, in the face of your power do not be surprised if I actually listen in respect to your power. The current government is corrupt and doomed, and if you want them to be obeyed you are condoning worse crimes than I am responsible for." Fuck.

"I want to keep our city alive as well. I understand and agree with the sentiment. As long as no people who are clearly objectionable attempt to enter territory controlled by the Empire I am perfectly willing to offer food, water, and emergency services to them. I believe in the golden rule. I would wish for a more powerful group to extend the same charity to me. I see no reason to interfere with territory I have not claimed."

"I have a simple answer to your demand that I keep my skinheads in line. I demand I do not receive special treatment. If you would declare war on me for such activities, than I would fully expect you to do the same for what remains of the city's government. If you do not trust my Empire to police themselves and have appropriate controls, and will instead demand warfare at the first glance, than I expect you to follow up on the rape of Emily Gresham, a woman who was recently raped by national guard troops in Brockton Bay." This is going to look really bad.

[X] Response?

___

Time skip (way too short an update otherwise)

___

"You want to have a baby? Now?" Madison sits on the couch next to you.

"Yes. Now, or at least some time quite soon."

"The city's in ruins. Literal ruins. It might be condemned!"

"I could move if I was pregnant. It's all going to be over long before she's born."

"Um, you're seventeen!" Madison is staring at you like you have two heads. It's rather disconcerting.

"I don't think the normal arguments against single motherhood really apply. The government, hospitals, insurance companies, they'd make me rich if I asked. I could just sell super suits to corporate super teams and I could get a couple million dollars really low end. One million and I'd be upper middle class for ten years. Victoria just needs to write an autobiography or appear in more commercials if I don't want to do that. Worst case we could join the Protectorate and just stay off emergency lists." Madison frowns.

"Why are you two crashing in Dean's apartment again if you're so independently wealthy?"

"It's fun." You consider for a moment. "Also, it kind of just happened. We should probably move out though. He's probably going crazy by now."

"Um, aren't you kind of working 12 hour a day shifts and not sleeping? Won't that hurt a baby?" You think. That's better.

"Well, I could heal the baby. Lots of stressed people have babies. I'll see real doctors about it before I make a definite decision."

"Couldn't you just put the baby inside an altered pig or something?" Madison asks thoughtfully. "That way you could keep completely control of the environment." You shudder.

"No! I actually want to be a mother. Feel a baby growing inside of me." Victoria's baby! "She's not going to be just a science project." Madison is thinking more.

"Well, you do have a lot of family members, and we're not breaking up over this." Madison looks at you thoughtfully. "Well, maybe if I start finding you gross. Then I won't be getting much out of it. But you won't show for a while, and unless you get really icky I think I'd want to keep playing for a bit." You both know that it's just playing for now for obvious reasons, though maybe it will grow into more later. "So if you need help you'll have a lot of it. What does Dean think, anyway?"

"He, um, I think he's trying to give us enough rope to hang ourselves with." You admit. "That's the only thing that makes sense. He's broken up with Victoria over a quarter of the shit that's been going on lately. I'm guessing he's just waiting for us to go too far and get back to normal. Right now he says he's fine with it. Not sure what he'll think if we stick with this plan."

Madison considers for a moment. "Like, should I be feeling some wave of lesbian jealous about this right now? I think I feel more jealous when I see Victoria feeding you than I am about this. Maybe it's just closer to home." You roll your eyes.

"Don't you start on that." Madison raises an eyebrow.

"This has come up before? I thought people were just too embarressed to say anything." You pause and start counting it up.

"Um, there's Dean, he broke up with Victoria about it twice. Carol always told us to stop, and it just became background noise. Dennis took pictures." You're both quiet for a moment. "Yeah, maybe it is a bit weird."

"What about, you know, supervillains getting at you through your family?" Madison asks. "That one's serious. You've been kidnapped by supervillains to be forced to heal people at least three times, maybe four if you count Trickster. What if some really nasty type just grabs your daughter and makes you start healing them and building superweapons?" Ouch.

"Well, um, if I worried about that I couldn't be friends with you." Madison gives you a playful glare. "Girlfriends with you." You quickly correct. "We need people. I'd have to take precautions. Hm, maybe a giant living tower..." Madison snaps her fingers in front of your face.

"Don't zone out on science. It's not healthy. Only do it during appropriate times of day. You're on a day off. Science is work. You can't do work on your day off." You nod. She is right.

Madison is silent for a minute. "Um, you did check into a mental hospital last month. Are you sure you're, um, mentally healthy enough for this?" Double ouch.

"You know, I should definitely put this off until after I work with Cranial." You nod. "It might be good if I'm not thinking of my sister as a flawless goddess when I make the decision to have her child." Madison kind of stares at you.

"I didn't mention it was Victoria's baby before, did I?"

"If you did it didn't register." Madison says. "That's, um, creepy."

"Please don't be judgmental about this. We've been..."

"You and your sister? Not my business. We've been over this. You two do what you do. I'm your friend and your girlfriend, but until I'm family I get that she comes first. Really think about this, though. That's just weird." Madison pauses. "Though really, probably not as weird as the feeding thing."

[X] "Fine." You sigh. You'll talk to Victoria about not being fed by her.

[X] You stick out your tongue. Victoria feeding you is something you've always done. Madison doesn't have the right to stop it.

[X] "Alright." You lie. You can just do it in private, no need to make a spectacle of it in front of her boyfriend and your girlfriend. Dean will probably be happy.

[X] Plan Xi

Victoria said:

[X] You clap, slowly and without mirth. "Ah yes, so very nice to know that my opponent is so dim that he cannot appreciate lines being drawn for him to read between. You counter me with exact statement trying to force me in admitting being wrong for your lovely sense of aggrandizement when I hand you enough hyperbole to practically drive trucks though."

You sigh. "Let me make it frank Kaiser. I don't like you. Approve of you. Nor in the Long run NEED you. But I'd rather not make it a war to get rid of you. You tell me you can't reign in your men? Of course not, you're a tyrant riding racist rhetoric to power. Your men on the streets often are animals getting off on calling themselves gods. I don't give a shit what you and your empire do to each other. And I know you're very presence will drive people out of your holdings.

What I want from you is simple. Tone your operations down, the lower the better. We aren't friends and I won't have you directly driving people out of their homes, if I see it happen we will crack down on the ones doing it. You say you can't keep the peace when confronted with the tensions which have shaped the city in the first place?

Of course... Hand it to the Nazi's to be so incompetent. I honestly should expect no less.

However, if I must I WILL concede that my hyperbole stretches credibility, and I won't stand in the way of your people doing on to themselves, that's your problem. And for now you are the biggest force of Arms in the city that is not our own.

But new wave was founded to shine light down on the likes of you and your Ilk, you say the government is corrupt, yes it is... but so are you in every way that matters any safety and security you provide today comes with the price tag of atrocities tomorrow. So let me make clear what I want, if my Hyperbole flew over your head. I want to make something clear to you.

You take care of your people and any others who come to you for help; you can do whatever you want amoung yourselves, alcohol, dogfighting whatever, you rule your people as you see fit and don't let it filter out to real human beings. You DO NOT expand your territory. You DO NOT make it an overt campaign to drive people from their homes or terrorize them. Your soldiers we catch doing so will be put down. You say you need a peace keeping force. Fine, we will do something about that too. I won't fight you over what was already yours before the disaster. And I won't fight you reaching out with aid to people that you think of as 'desirable'. But I WILL crush your soldiers whom i catch trying to expand your operations. You have what you have and No more, the tolerances of your men may be stretched thin and I won't hold you personally responsible for their slips. I will however hold every man I catch responsible for their own sins. Every soldier of the Empire 88 whom we personally catch driving out... undesirables, every time we find them trying to enlarge your territory... We will make an example of them. And Amy here will make them a different gender and race. Maybe knowledge of the consequences will help your soldiers to better keep the peace."

"And before you get up in arms about people using this against you. I will give you a concession. We will require proof before we give out judgements, and records of every judgement will be given to you for your review, Carol will handle your complaints. I wish you'd not decided to call our bluff on the hyperbole Kaiser. Because now we don't have the dodge room either side might have had by claiming it to be so. As you said. The Golden Rule is in effect. Let your men know what happens if they don't keep it."

- [X] It is clear that You will not be able to enforce order on the scale which the E88 can because you are limited in man power... It is time to expand NewWave's scope of operations and include those regular people around you who have proven trustworthy and try to pull together a network for both providing the enforcement of order and peace. Thus in order to keep tensions from spilling out you seek out people in the community who have served as either police or military and create a 'private army', though distasteful that it is, to handle these issues. It will help lessen the reliance on E88 in the future.
- -[X] Extend a helping hand to those areas protected by agreeable parahumans like Skitter and Parisian, offer them both aid and an enhancement suit so long as they agree to stand with NewWave during any crisis.
- - -[X] Have Amy create a lesser scale super suit which can be easily maintained and worn by NewWave's enforcers to give them the edge of super reflexes, enhanced strength and any other goodies which can be fit in while keeping the suit easy to make and easy to self maintain. Each suit will be specifically keyed to its user after production and should they be worn by someone else they will shrivel and die.
- - - -[X] Food will also be an issue. Set up a greenhouse for Amy to work from, bringing as much foodstuff which can be made to grow in. After Amy makes the area more suitable for farming by creating an organic layer which eats inorganic substances to make organic material and ensure healthy growth, she can accelerate said growth to ensure that people are provided for.

Kaiser considers New Wave thoughtfully.

"I find this agreeable." The way he says it sends a chill up your spine.

Well, at least that is over with.

___

[X] "I'll think about it and talk to Victoria." You stick out your tongue. Victoria feeding you is something you've always done. Madison doesn't have the right to stop it. But maybe, you could talk to Victoria and see what she wants to do.

"If you had parents like ours you'd get it. " You lean in to kiss Madison. "Hey, do you want me to feed you?" Madison looks thoughtful.

"I'll think about it. Right now, more kissing."

Kissing is always good, especially when you close your eyes and she's quiet.

___

You're on a nice reread of Flowers in the Attic with Victoria coming home in half an hour when the doorbell rings. Dean goes to get it, as it is his home. A minute later he walks in with Chris.

"Hey, can we talk?" Chris asks as he settles in on the couch next to you.

"Sure. I assume it's kind of important if you came all this way with your patrol schedule."

"That's part of it. I'm quitting the Wards." You look up from Flowers in the Attic.

"Now? With the city like this?" You frown. "I guess I get it. This kind of thing has to be sudden. Why do you need to share it with me, anyway?"

"It's not that I don't want to help people." Chris tells you. "It's just, I met people in the Toybox, other Tinkers. It feels comfortable there. I'm going with them when they leave. I'll be able to help other Tinkers there." Chris is quiet for a second. "I can't stay here if the Nazis are going to take over, Amy. Not if they're allowed a place at the table. I kept thinking it would pass, but I feel dirty staying here, knowing that I might have to save them and fight with them. I want the city condemned now. It's grotesque, working with these assholes. You even let one join your team."

"You could always transfer to another city Wards." You point out. Chris shakes his head.

"It would look like I'm running if I did that. Maybe in a couple of years I'll come back, maybe try a solo hero thing or something, try to make the Toybox better." Chris is quiet for a moment. "Cranial wants to know if you're still able to make DC in June."

"Oh, the convention." You remember. "I'll have to talk to Victoria about it, but I think I can."

"She's worried. Or is faking it really well. She's been wanting this for years, a lot of them. A lot of the life she can remember. She really cares about this." Chris take something out and hands it to you. It's a long remote. "This is something the Toybox has been working on for the past week, a gift." You turn it over in your hands.

"What does it do?" You ask.

"In your hands? It's an extra life, like in a video game." You stare at him. "What?"

"Teleports the brain and spine into a cryogenic chamber in a pocket dimension. Freezes the brain close to permanently. I had one installed in my stomach, but I'd need to activate it. You could wire someone with one of your suits so it would happen right before certain or highly probable death." You stare in wonder.

"Why just the brain and spine? Why not the whole body?" You ask.

"Easier that way, cheaper, and with you it's just as good." Chris eyes the remote with a bit of pride. "You won't have to worry about Victoria half as much the next time she goes headfirst into a Leviathan wave." You cradle the thing to your chest, a sick sense of worry hitting it at the idea Victoria could have just died and you haven't heard yet and you just got the thing that could save her.

"I don't know how I could possibly repay this." You look at it with awe.

"My part? You've already paid in full. Cranial's? Just be there, June 1st."

Clever girl.

___

Victoria swooshes in through an open window, lands gracefully, and kisses Dean. You kind of look away.

"Hey. We have a couple things to talk about in private." You tell your sister. You can't look as she kisses Dean for several more hungry seconds before coming up for air, giggling.

"If it can't wait." You hear a swat at a bottom, not sure who swatted which one. She's in the guest room quickly and you follow her and shut the door.

"Madison wants you to stop feeding me." You admit. Victoria is silent for a long moment.

"Break up with her." She sounds deadly serious.

"Um..."

"When Dean asked me that I broke up with him. Make her ask for you back."

"Um, are you sure we shouldn't talk more about this?" You ask. Victoria smiles.

"I. Am. Sure." She gives you a slightly more intense look than usual. "I get to feed you. Do you really want me to stop?"

"No." You admit. "Not at all."

"Good." Victoria sounds satisfied. "Now, break up with Madison over text message. Now. If she knows how good you are she'll do anything to get you back. If she doesn't, she doesn't deserve you. You need to train boyfriends like this. Presumably if you're a lesbian the same applied to girlfriends."

[X] "You're right." If she did it for you, then you should do it for her. Victoria is more experienced with these things.

[X] "I'd really rather not." Madison's been pretty lovely and fun, and your more interesting physical changes are just coming in. It would be a shame to miss out.

[X] "What's in it for me?" You channel as much of Madison's cuteness as possible. Victoria just wants you to break up because she told you to? As much as you love her, you need to have a better reason.

[X] "I'd really rather not." Madison's been pretty lovely and fun, and your more interesting physical changes are just coming in. It would be a shame to miss out.

"Victoria most people consider breakups to be a lot more... permanent than you and Dean do. I-"

Victoria's crying.

"What. Victoria..."

"What more do I have to do!" It's more a gasp than a sob. "I've done everything I could! Every since I could I've acted like everything is normal!" Victoria shudders. "Everything! I've been more normal than before Albany! I've tried to..." Her eyes glance down to your stomach. "Just, I can't take that. Maybe you're just stronger than me. This cute ditzy little thing who would fall down in a stiff breeze is who you go to trying to replace me?"

Ouch.

"I need to form relationships with people that don't tie back to you." You start. Victoria gives you something that's like a failed glare. She can't keep up the anger. If I'm going to learn how to be a functional person rather than alternating between a healing robot and being completely dependent on you. Even if my relationship with Madison doesn't last long it is a good learning experience for me. I don't want to end it quite yet. Also as much as I enjoy it I intellectually realize that it is part of the fucked up parts of our relationship. Maybe we should stop doing it when there are other people present? She isn't the first person to be weirded out by it, and probably won't be the last."

Victoria suddenly moves very fast. Gently, but without any way to oppose her, she pins you to the wall. Your breathing speeds up.

"I get to feed you." The voice is so strained. "Here. Everywhere. In front of Dean. In front of Carol. In front of that thing you're making out with. I get to knock you up." Victoria shudders and lets go.

"What's gotten into you today?" You can't help but smile. You got a reaction out of Victoria. A possessive, angry reaction to your having a girlfriend. You can't breakup with her now. Things have just started to get interesting.

"I don't know." Victoria shakes her head. "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for." You assure her. "You just want what's best for me, right? And you're best for me. Always and forever." Victoria nods.

"Thank you. Like, it makes sense to you, right? You confess undying love, I kiss you, then you come by with a girlfriend? It kind of, um, runs around in my head." Victoria admits. "Madison's fine. Completely fine. I still think you should use breakups as training. It's worked wonders on Dean." Victoria pauses. "Also on me, from Dean's perspective."

"Most people really think of breakups as more permanent than you two. Also, text message is a shitty way to breakup with someone." Victoria frowns. "Oh, sorry." She and Dean usually breakup that way. She told you they consider it safer than in person given their powers. Come to think of it, you and Madison are powerful enough it might be safer for you two as well.

"Amy, I can still knock you up, right?" Victoria asks.

"Actually, Madison and I were talking..." Victoria is already moving. "YES! Just after we talk to Cranial. Victoria stops and she's smiling.

"We'll have everything we need just about time for my birthday." Her grin is positively savage.

So is yours.

___

The rest of the day is spent talking about your future daughter.

Should Victoria be a stay at home mom? Probably not. Homeschooling seems out if neither of you are staying home. What city would be best to raise a child? What places seem safest against an Endbringer attack? Who should the godparents be?

The whole day has become rather dreamlike. Too good to be true.

"Victoria ... don't we want a fresh start?" You're inserting the extra life into her stomach, kind of like a baby of her own.

"Away from all the poisonous infighting in Carol's New Wave?" You ask quietly. "Maybe take the rest of our new recruits? Start a new New Wave in Chicago or LA?"

"Maybe." Victoria sounds thoughtful. "There's things I love about being here, but getting away from our family, that sounds peaceful.

Are these are the people our daughter is going to grow up around, I want her to have the happy, loving family that we didn't. I'm worried if we stick with Carol she'll get back into our lives. Maybe there's somewhere else." Victoria sighs as you finish your strangely bloodless work and remove your hand from her, sealing her up as you go.

"Maybe we can think about it when she's no longer a baby. When she's old enough to start having friends and can absorb other people we'll see what we can do. Right now the city needs us."

Victoria's right. She's always right.

____

Madison comes by later.

You're rather more frisky than usual, and Victoria suddenly decides it's a great time to go and patrol for four hours.

The next day you have another twelve hour hospital shift. This one is much easier to get through. The world is so full of color now.

When you get home Dean is there.

"Battery asked me to tell you that the new leader of the Protectorate has arrived. She wants to meet with you tonight, if you're willing." Interesting. "She'll be here for a while though. I can't imagine a big rush." Dean is smiling.

"What is it?" You ask.

"Sophia hates her." He laughs.

[X] "Sounds good. I'll see her right away." It would be best not to put this off. You're still in a great mood. Better to do it now than when you're pissed off.

[X] "I would love to, but I need to get on a better sleep schedule." You're kind of getting older. Seventeen is older than fifteen, and you've been sleep deprived for years.

[X] "I'm going to call Sophia." It would be a good idea to hear the conflict in her own words before you talk to the new field leader.

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Silent Night-2

[X] "Sounds good. I'll see her right away." It would be best not to put this off. You're still in a great mood. Better to do it now than when you're pissed off.

The new leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate is smart or kind enough not to make you wait outside her office. She's waiting for you.

"The great Panacea. I am honored." The accent is Australian. You don't really like it.

"And the great, um..." You look her over. Pale white and gray costume, tight, with slits running in odd places. Flat, fogged helmet like a motor cycle you get the disconcerting feeling she can't actually see out of. The only kind of heroine who would expose flesh like that for fashion would either be new or in a ridiculous corporate team, and those wouldn't have that kind of face covering. It has to be power related.

"Dream Mask." She answers. "I transferred from Australia. I triggered in the aftermath of an Endbringer attack on my city and I spent the last six years there, three of them rebuilding. With the condition the local Protectorate is in I offered to be in an international exchange program to help organize the city." You consider her for a moment.

"What do you mean by organize?"

"Defeat the Neo-Nazis who are running a large part of the city, break down the scavengers, restore law and order. I have done this before." Now, why would Sophia be opposed to someone on a war footing?"

"So, what did you want to see me about?"

"Your biological armor. You outfitted the Wards and New Wave with it before the Leviathan fight. I am trying to make sense of some of the notes of my predecessor." She didn't offer condolences. Does she not know you were friends, or not care? "Please say why the local Protectorate was not outfitted with them in your own words." What is this, an essay test?

"Armsmaster wanted to see them field tested first. He was a very good Tinker who specialized in miniaturization. He thought that after he saw their tolerances he could work with me to upgrade them for the Protectorate versions." Dream Mask looks pensive, or as pensive as someone could be without facial expressions.

"Why not simply give them the original versions and then improve them over time?"

"He said he wanted more time. The Protectorate was more experienced, would have to unlearn old habits. The Wards were newer, would benefit from new weapons more. He was studying his Protectorate for how best to integrate the new abilities." It hurts more than you expected, talking about Armsmaster.

"He is a Tinker. Presumably his judgment was best." From her tone of voice you strongly suspect that Dream Mask doesn't really think this way.

"Is that all you brought me here for, ma'am?" You can't keep a bit of anger out of your voice. "I do not have a lot of free time, especially lately."

"Well, I heard that you were planning on outfitting soldiers of your own to keep order. That strikes me as a serious concern. Why not work with the PRT about it?"

"I'm New Wave." You answer. "The last time the PRT asked me to do something it was horribly warping a teenage girl's mind to control her. Any reasonable procedures or regulations you have for security companies will be followed, but New Wave is not the Protectorate. We have ideological differences. If Brockton Bay is to be rebuilt I want it to be done on a foundation of honesty and responsibility that my family stands for."

"Do you? Follow me." She starts walking, and you follow her into a room. She locks the door. Should you be worried? Meh, I could take her.

"Tattletale, or Kitsune as she is now going by, recently managed to fight her way to a cellphone and send a very peculiar text message to someone we have not identified." Dream Mask starts. "Do any of these names seem familiar to you?" The number is familiar. Six names. You recognize a few.

"No." You lie. It's not a good lie and you think she knows it.

"I have tracked down several of these people, and they have quite interesting stories to tell." A flash of absolute hate flares up. "Cape brutality. Possibly lethal force if you had not been there, inflicted by your sister."

"Do you really want to pick a fight with New Wave right now?" You stare at the impassive mask.

"As a matter of fact, it is my job. You're acting as police powers, and have made it clear in no uncertain terms that you consider yourself above the law. You want to impose your own version of order on this city. I respect the good you do, but I cannot have this city become the dominion of New Wave anymore than I could let this city become Kaiser's dominion."

"Did you just fucking compare New Wave to Empire 88?" You hiss.

"Not particularly. I am perfectly willing to work with New Wave as a superhero team and a set of public assistance. I am not willing to work with New Wave the city state."

"Where did they find a lunatic like you?" You stare at her. "The city clearly has bigger problems than us even if we are a problem."

"You are the strongest force in this city. I need to exert control over you if I am to have control over it. Director Calvert agrees with me on this matter. Here are my demands. The PRT will appoint an official overseer to the activities of New Wave, and any changes or expansions will be run by the overseer. You will not field a private army. You will outfit PRT agents instead. You will also finally outfit the local Protectorate with your new biological suits. If you do not do this, I will have your sister arrested for her repeated acts of severe violence, and have you arrested for your acts of conspiracy with her. After that, the repercussions of your criminal actions will depend on you and New Wave's cooperation."

"What. The. Fuck!"

"Is that a yes?

"I'm not even the leader of New Wave! Aunt Sarah's leader, Uncle Neil's second in command, and Victoria leads the new recruits."

"You are the most powerful cape by far. You are the person who I need to control. The others will fall in line if I get your agreement. Do I have it?"

[X] "Yes." You can't fight a war with this lunatic, and her demands aren't too unreasonable.

[X] "Fuck this." You fling a sleep dart at her and leave the room.

[X] "No. I will not cooperate with this, ma'am. Arrest me if you have to. Let's see which of us can give a better argument here."

[X] "No. I will not cooperate with this, ma'am. Arrest me if you have to. Let's see which of us can give a better argument here."

"Ma'am, I have friends in this city. All of the Wards know me and like me. So do most of the old members of the Protectorate. Every PRT agent in this city knows someone I've saved, if I haven't saved them directly. After the Bakuda bombings, many of them wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for me and more would be crippled permanently. You're the new asshole. I'm the goddamn Panacea. You're replacing someone we all liked and you haven't even offered condolences. Now you're threatening their friend, their savior more often than not. If you go to war with me, are you honestly stupid enough to think you'll have an army to fight with?" You laugh in her face.

"You are under arrest as an accessory to serial counts of assault and battery. Do you understand?" Maybe if you actually listened to your mother you'd have absorbed the right thing to do in this situation.

"No." You decide, and stick out your tongue.

"You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Do you understand?"

"Nope." You lean back in your chair.

"Anything you do say may be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand?"

You ignore her question and flash your tits at her.

"You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future. Do you understand?" You're starting to feel a bit self conscious and put your clothing back into place.

"If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. Do you understand?" Which attorney is actually interesting. You have a pretty good one in your mother, but you're not sure how she'd deal with this. She'd probably want you in jail as long as you didn't share a cell with Victoria.

"If you decide to answer questions now without an attorney present you will still have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney. Do you understand?" You seriously are starting to regret not just knocking her out.

"Knowing and understanding your rights as I have explained them to you, are you willing to answer my questions without an attorney present?"

You think for a moment.

She threatened Victoria. No one does that. Ever.

"I think not. If you wish to do this, you could. But I think you won't for a very simple reason. Think over what you are asking me to do. Please keep pushing someone who deals with biology to work on your people physically."

"So you're threatening me, my own soldiers, and the Parahuman Response Teams you work for because we are enforcing the law?" It strikes you that she might be willing to edit footage in a video camera that she's taking right now.

"Answering your questions would imply I am accepting your authority and actions as legitimate. I do not. I want a lawyer and a phone call."

"You do not have the right to a phone call." You glare at her.

"This is standard for violent supervillains with entrenched resources. You may look up the precedents if you wish."

"You just called me a supervillain! After everything I've done..."

"You use your abilities to break the law repeatedly and do not recognize the authority of the government. The fact that you have worked tirelessly for years to save human lives does not make you a superhero." What is she trying? Does she actually want you to snap?

"Are you some Stranger who walked in and acted like she owned the place and used some power to make sure she did?"

"I am not. If I was I would have taken the PRT Director position. Less spotlight on me, less suspicion of powers doing exactly that. Speaking of which, Striker 10 protocols will be in place." She gets up and walks out the door.

"Wait, what?"

"You are not to be allowed near any biological material except exceedingly well cooked food. You will not be transported. This is your cell until you await trial. When your lawyer has been appointed he will speak to you through the intercom in this room." Dream Mask says from speakers in the ceiling. "Once clothing has been provided it would be taken as an act of good faith if you were to change out of your extremely powerful set of weapons that you brought to the meeting."

"I want to pick my own lawyer." You snap.

"Master 8+ asterisk Striker human control protocols have been implemented due to your extreme demonstrations of ability involving the restructuring of the mind of Madison Clements. Using the precedent of Teacher I make the call that any humans who you could have reasonably touched could be enhanced in a way that would assist an escape attempt. All residents of Brockton Bay, Albany, and everyone you have healed are counted in this ruling."

"That's insane." You snarl.

"No it is not. I am making a prejudiced, bizarre, paranoid call. This is a decision that I have the right to make. Considering your amazing control of biology and your recent decisions to start effecting brains I think this decision is the right one to make in order to be completely safe."

"You're trying to start a war." You shake your head. "You're being so unreasonable you think we'll cave."

"Incorrect. You started the war. I am winning the war. Understand I am going to do my very best to delay this as long as possible. I do not expect to win a battle with New Wave in public relations. I have accounted for this. Instead I want to make the battle itself so unpleasant that someone important will be forced to cave. Either the adults of New Wave will agree to my demands, as is their right as the leaders of New Wave, in exchange for your freedom, your sister will make a similar deal, or you will break due to lack of exposure to your sister and heightening depression. If any of these three points break before trial I will win. It is in your power right now to end this fight and be reunited with your..." You hear her reading something. "Well, I'm not going to say that text from Kitsune out loud, am I?"

"Wow. Just...wow. I didn't think your organization could sink even lower than your last request but you've managed it. I knew the PRT & Protectorate were corrupt, but blackmail & extortion? Threatening imprisonment especially on spurious evidence from an unrelated third party? In case you haven't noticed Brockton Bay is on the brink of being condemned. Do you somehow think the city's reputation is going to improve by arresting one of the key public heroes advocating to rebuild it, especially since I publicly denied an offer to move to another city to stay here? Even if you have the clout to have me found guilty in some sort of show trial, it'll be clear to the public that the PRT rigged it. How do you think that'll play in the press? They'll already think you've allied with the Neo Nazis to kill Lung, now you'll arrest the leaders of the one hero organization opposed to them, handing them the keys to the city?"

"I am going to destroy Empire 88. With your help I can end their ethnic cleansing campaign in weeks. Without it, this could take years. I rather expect this to damage the city extensively, but not as much as full blown parahuman feudalism would damage this country. I cannot let parahumans become state actors. We do not deserve that power. Even the nicest, most popular, least corrupt group of parahumans taking control is a gateway to causing every lunatic or gang of supervillains to think they can try it. I am doing this to save lives."

"People are going to die if I'm stuck here! I am needed at the hospital!"

"Not as many as a civil war would kill."

You sit there, furious, shaking.

"Now here's the deal. You and I will stop here and pretend you didn't just try to blackmail me into being a pawn for your power games. You will step back and we will greet again as if you didn't just start speaking complete nonsense to me. And if I am to hear you do so again then I will officially withdraw my support from ALL endeavors involving the Protectorate. Which includes the healing of Protectorate capes during Endbringer fights. Hell if you go ahead with this ALL healing during Endbringer fights will be withdrawn, with a notice that I won't be helping with healing again until there is a formal apology. Also not giving you something nasty the next time I touch you. Also, if you try anything here... I've already made it that my suit is sending the information on what is happening to the rest of my team."

"So forget all this nonsense about Controlling New Wave and concentrate on getting the city in order from your end, and I will do so from my end and when we meet in the middle THEN I will surrender the city back to the PRT and Protectorate's capable hands."

"And you know what, just to sweeten the pot for no hard feelings, if you can arrange to get me a tinker, A VERSATILE tinker as best as you can get, to work with me then I will gladly try to outfit the local Protectorate team and run a line of suits for PRT soldiers to use."

"I don't want bad blood between us, and I'm sure the Protectorate in general much less the PRT doesn't want that either. Besides I don't want to own the city, I just want to get everything back under control... and you trying to put me under your thumb doesn't help that."

"So lets try this again... Hello, I'm Panacea. Its nice to meet you."

Dream Mask laughs.

"I call your bluff. I know your suits don't have that much range, unless you..." Some incredibly amazing curses start and you can't help but smile and finish her sentence.

"Have a Stranger nearby who I remembered when she followed you out the door? Madison hasn't done anything worthy of arrest, has she?"

"Obstruction of justice, from where I'm standing..."

"Who is obstructing justice again?" You ask, absolutely giggling.

"I don't, um. What..."

You start transmitting to Madison, a lot, a plan to give to Victoria, recommendations and suggestions on who to call and what to say. If Victoria's arrested too quickly, then you'll have to trust your Harrier.

Call Dean. "Dream Bitch just threatened to arrest Victoria and me. Don't say anything, your PRT phone is probably bugged; get a disposable. And make sure everyone knows what's going on. Get all the ducks lined up. The shit is about to hit the fan."

Call Sarah. "The new leader of the Protectorate just threatened to go to war against us. Thought I'd give you a heads up."

Call Emma. "When I hang up I want you to call Sophia. Tell her to meet you at Deans. Things are about to get bad. First I need you to tell whoever is in charge everything you know about Taylor. The whole truth. This is important. People could die. People will die, it's just a matter of who and how many. As much as I hate her we need as many resources as I can get. So be fucking honest and complete."

Call Victoria. "First promise get her to promise me that she will not murder the head of the Protectorate or the Director of the PRT. Or beat them up, either. Promise me that, please. Thank you. She just threatened to arrest both of us if I don't give into her demands. He's backing her up. I told her to go fuck herself. I don't know if she'll go through with it but we might not have long. I'm thinking we get the news involved fast. Spread the word, give our side first. At the same time we fort up and make sure that we can hurt them worse if they try to kill us."

Call the biggest news organization with a local presence. "Hi, this is Amy Dallon, Panacea. I'd like to give an interview about corruption in the PRT. Backroom deals. Illegal punishments without trial. The use of mind control to forcibly recruit unwilling children into the Wards. Conspiracy with neo-Nazis to assassinate Asian gang leaders. Extortion of independent capes. Also, New Wave is expanding and recruiting. And I'm gay. Sadly, I'm in prison right now. I probably can't do it for a while."

Madison, stop in the PRT Lobby. "Attention, PRT Employees. I regret to inform you that, due to your new leaders being a psycho bitch and an asshole respectively, Panacea Medical has failed to extend the term of its health services contract with the Brockton Bay PRT. For this reason, Panacea will no longer be healing patients in the PRT hospital and will no longer be providing emergency service to PRT personnel. This is subject to change if negotiations resume successfully. Until then, I am happy to announce that New Wave is recruiting Auxiliary personnel and skilled agents are in high demand. We will be providing a competitive salary, equal or greater to that provided by the PRT, and the extremely comprehensive Panacea Medical Platinum Family Health and Dental plan. This plan includes not only basic and emergency coverage, but also services that have never before been offered by Panacea Medical. These include augmentations, both cosmetic and practical. Want to get in better shape fast? Run the two minute mile? Bench press a cow? Bigger breasts? Longer penis? Panacea Medical's Platinum Plan does it all. Age getting to you? Panacea Medical can make you younger. Panacea medical can eliminate that pesky aging thing altogether. Be the first family on your block who will live forever baring violence or accident. Your children could live to be a thousand. Or a million. Or a billion. Anyone who wants to get in on the ground floor of this exciting opportunity should contact Sarah Pelham, Lady Photon, at 1-800-"

Contact independent capes. Including Skitter. Make alliances.

Spin brutality allegations. "When someone is trying to kill you it's hard to hold back. Any police officer will tell who that. In the heat of the moment adrenaline takes over and you have to make split second decisions. I have never seen my sister use her strength against a perpetrator in any situation where a police officer or armed civilian would not be justified in firing his gun. I don't heal the criminals stupid enough to fight her to cover up wrongdoing. I heal them because it's the right thing to do. Because even the rapists and murderers deserve a little compassion.

Talk to Victoria about MAD, if she agrees integrate citykiller weapon into Newer Wave suits and Shadow Stalker's. With multiple locks to prevent unauthorized release.

Ask Dean to handle relations with the Wards and the non-asshole Protectorate

Send messages to Skitter and Kitsune. To Skitter asking her to consider coming in and joining New Wave, and warning about the new crazy Australian who has basically said she plans to wipe out independant capes, villain or hero in the city and offering the shield of New Wave. Ask her to talk to Kitsune and make sure Skitter knows we didn't want to do what we did, and consider it a travesty. That we want to fix Kitsune sooner rather than later, and that 'war' with the PRT may be the perfect excuse. Let Kitsune know we would like to send her a few messages but would rather work with her than against her. That we know she can fuck with us, but that if she does want some kind of freedom it would be better to be a friend than enemy.

None of this is definite, but Victoria should have all of your ideas, plans, goals, ways to strike back. Your beloved Glory Girl will know how to handle this.

You sit back and wait.

[X] Cooperate and speak with lawyers as soon as you get one, roughly 16 hours later.

[X] Stay completely silent. Do not acknowledge the authority of the PRT to do this. Do not play this game. Wait for New Wave to win.

[X] Attempt to escape. You have your suit, and things are going bad. You shouldn't be anywhere near this lunatic if she's going to "war."

[X] Cooperate and speak with lawyers as soon as you get one, roughly 16 hours later.

Bonus Interlude: Lady Photon

"What the fuck. What the actual, mother fucking, sister fucking, out of the universe fuck!" Cranial screams. "This makes absolutely no sense. How could this even happen?"

Not quite the calm maiden aunt she usually goes for.

The suits are great for hearing through walls. You've always been a snoop. It's not that different, the idea that sunshine disinfects and learning things you're not supposed to know.

You knock on the door and you track her gliding to it and answering with a drone.

"Hello, Mrs. Pelham." Cranial says when she opens the door, her voice once again controlled, smooth, middle aged.

" I assume you've heard?"

"Heard what?" Concerned, motherly in a way few mothers actually are. You wonder who she's copying from.

"My niece's arrest."

"What?" You hate the controlled voice modulator. She sounds surprised. "Victoria or Amy was arrested?" You grind your teeth, and she knows you're grinding your teeth. She has to know you far too well.

"Yes. The new temporary head of the Protectorate is a complete lunatic. She's about one step away from arresting the rest of New Wave. Only reason she hasn't arrested Rune is her probation is legal, and Victoria threw away her phone and is having a very cheerful chase through the city until they find someone willing and able to catch her. I'm actually surprised she didn't raze the Protectorate building with the crazies she's been recruiting. I'm actually wondering what you were swearing about if it wasn't that."

"Amy's brain scan results, to be honest. They're not done, but I'm starting to get more in depth hints and clues. Those hints and clues are completely and utterly nonsensical. I am sorry you heard me swearing. I have been trying to kick the habit for years." She just has to be so perfect.

"We would like any assistance you could provide. People who owe you favors, legal knowledge, anything you can think would be at all helpful. Amy's instructions and suggestions, in total, are to treat this as a total war. I think Victoria might actually have wanted to take over the city before this started."

"She's a teenager. Plenty of them have impractical ambitions. I think she would make a good queen." You can't help but sigh.

"I was being serious. The stuff she and Amy were talking about, personally if Dream Mask had come to me I would probably have agreed just to get an excuse to keep them in line."

"You assume I know more than I do." Lying freak. You explain everything as best as you can. Cranial is silent for a while.

"Why not just submit then? You want to rein in your new recruits and Victoria. Dream Mask wants to rein them in. What is the issue here?"

"It would look like we lost a war over our values. I think we could keep our values intact, but if Victoria and her crew leave we'd be down to six members, five when Mark retires, and if my kids jump ship New Wave would be over, whatever legacy I've built would be carried on by the thugs Victoria's been recruiting."

"I take it you do not like your niece very much."

"She reminds me of my sister at that age, but smarter."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Carol, when she became Brandish, was fucking crazy, a living weapon. At the time we thought it was a good thing. We had someone in reserve when things got really bad, someone who would cut up a whole gang and sleep soundly the next night. Honestly without her the Bad Old Days wouldn't have ended. Victoria's not quite as brutal, she feels bad about it, but she got a lot of Carol's crazy, and she's smart enough to keep it wrapped up and channels it. She's better with people, better at covering her mistakes. She's good enough to lead a team, but not good enough to make it worth fighting for. Maybe in a few years, but I can't have her making important decisions right now when her sister is in danger. I can't make her thing she's being pushed from two sides at once. If I do that she'll go completely teenager and break away."

"The situation sounds fragile." You can't help but feel judgment in her voice. Is it your imagination, or is she putting you off your game on purpose? "What would you consider the best way it could be resolved?"

"Dream Mask is fired for being crazy, and New Wave gets a PRT overseer to act as the bad cop with Victoria." You answer.

"Very well. I suspect you're going to get what you want. I have an appointment, and they have arrived early. Would you rather wait to discuss things further, or go home?"

"I need to head home and work damage control." You tell her. You pass a couple, father and daughter or a May-December romance, dark haired and thin, in Cranial's passage of horrors. You can't help but feel optimistic. If Cranial is managing you then she thinks she's smarter than you, and she's probably right. Cranial does need this to be over in less than a week if her precious convention is going to go off.

___

End Interlude

___

The lawyer who greets you on the intercom is a man who sounds rather worried.

"Hello Miss Dallon. I am Tony Prescott. I am here to help you."

"I want to see my sister, and I want to be out on bail. Can you tell me what's going on out there?"

"I thought you would ask that. Currently Victoria Dallon is flying too high and fast for anyone available to catch her. Aegis has come close. She is circling the building right now. People with better eyesight tell me she's giving us the finger a lot." Oh that is so good to hear.

"New Wave has been engaging in an extreme media campaign about the unfairness of the current situation. Dream Mask is staying firm to her original stance, but there's an official investigation going into why she was hired. Director Calvert apparently asked for her specifically, but it appears that despite her successes in Australia she's had a long history of mental health issues." You frown. "She also claimed, in my own conversation with her, a number of facts that appear to be outright lies. When I proved this to her she appeared to be scared and confused, repeatedly saying that she was told these facts by several sources. She apparently was under the impression that New Wave was originally an Empire 88 splinter faction dedicated to public relations."

"We're celebrities. How did she..."

"I do not know. She was from Australia and may not be a follower of gossip magazines. I suspect that no matter how this ends for you there's going to be a massive internal investigation as to why she was hired and if she has encountered any peculiar Masters or Strangers lately."

This is getting curious. You're actually starting to feel sorry for her. If she thought you were a hypocritical Nazi than her behavior might make a lot more sense.

Suddenly you hear a crash of shattered glass on the other side.

"Want me to get you?" You laugh out loud as Victoria talks to you over the intercom. "Dude, I'm not even using my aura. There was no need to wet your pants. Um, I'll pay for the pants, and the window.

"I miss you!" You shout. "A lot. But is this really the best way to prove our innocence?"

"I miss you too. Want me to break you out?"

[X] "Yes."

[X] "No."

[X] "I need more information first. Let's just talk through here for now."

[X] "Yes."

-[X]Trick, Cluster, Last Witch, Soulfire. All of them powerful Masters or Strangers on the Protectorate's payroll. Battery didn't want to use any of them against Tattletale, but would Dream Mask be so cautious about you? If you tell the media what they made you do to Tattletale, what you saw Trick doing to August Prince, an escape won't look so bad.

You think for a moment. It's not really Master/Stranger protocols time, but this could be some kind of trick.

"Wait!" You shout. "Victoria, what was the first thing you ever said to me."

You can almost hear the smile on Victoria's lips as she practically shouts. "Hello!"

Other people might have guessed the word, but she hits with just the right tone from eleven years ago. Love at first sight.

"Let's dance 'till the dance floor falls apart!" You shout up at the intercom, and you hear a wave of destruction growing fainter and fainter as your Glory Girl comes to rescue you.

You're feeling a bit like fainting yourself. Victoria's actually fulfilling your top seventh fantasy of rescuing you from prison! If you hadn't been defecating in a corner this would be one of the best moments of your life!

The wall collapses and you hear a whoop of joy from your sister. "Please don't reference Miley Cyrus again." She hits you with one of her glorious aerial hugs, a blur of white and gold crashing into you in a way that could give you bruises but is always worth it.

"I've been pooping in the corner. Cut me some slack." Victoria crinkles up her nose.

"So that's what that smell is. Do I want to know what you've been using for toilet paper?"

"No." You awkwardly try not to tip off the suit's tentacles, even if they're not spotless.

"Please make this painless." A very weary voice tells you from outside.

"Hey, Carlos." Victoria spins around to face him. "I will. I always could kick your ass when we dueled, and I really doubt you're better at the suit than I am."

"I'm not. Please don't hurt this thing. I'm worried about it breaking without Amy to fix it." Carlos is resigned. "I'm supposed to delay you until Velocity arrives, but I really don't like my chances."

"Ooh, what's he doing?" Victoria asks brightly.

"Catching some new kid who just triggered. He's running a suit that goes 100 miles per hour. I'm hoping he'll join the team, but I strongly suspect he'll want to get in on New Wave based on my luck." Carlos groans. "I hope the Protectorate won't have this much bullshit. I hate being a leader."

"Could you see about giving us Shadow Stalker?" You ask. "If we can get her out of the deal once this clusterfuck is out of the way I'll at least feel like I won something."

"No one's seen her in a while." Carlos shakes his head. "Not since a bit before you arrived." Oh. You're starting to get worried. "Honestly, she's one I'd be happy to lose, especially if you can let us have that new Tinker..."

"We'll talk." Victoria says. "Amy, you don't have any problems with a brain injury, do you?"

"Um..."

Carlos collapses.

"Victoria!" You shriek and rush forward, making the suit peel back. "I told you to only use that in an emergency!"

"You're in danger. It is an emergency. Heal him and we can go." You shake your head. You hadn't been able to make her aura more useful. You had been able to direct it in a sudden, harsh blast to give someone a stroke.

Then you realize Aegis is faking being taken down as he grabs you. You get very still. You can control the suit, but...

Actually, no but, you've got him completely corned as you cause the suit to seal up for 20 minutes.

"Adaptive biology." You remind her. "He's probably using his spleen as a brain right now."

"Sorry, sorry." Victoria mutters as she grabs you and the two of you blast out through the holes she made in the walls, floors, and ceilings to get to you. Your suit times the flight as 14 seconds before you're out.

"Oh, darn Chris!" Victoria mutters.

"What?" You ask, and then you see the golden blur on the ground. Velocity's harness. Not as good as something you could give him, but quite useful, and it lets him fly.

"Now would actually be a good time for the stroke." You tell your sister, and she nods. He collapses and you're on him a moment later, making absolutely sure he's going to be fine, and tuning him up a bit as an apology.

"We need to go now before anyone else shows up!" Victoria grabs you.

"I know, I know." You tell your sister. She picks you up again and you're off. After a while you crash into an area of the boardwalk.

"Is this where I think it is?"

"It's amazing what a guilty supervillain playing warlord will give you when she's pissing her pants in fear of your aura, and general fear of five capes who could individually defeat her whole old team. You were right. Reaching out to Skitter was a great move." Victoria leads you into what appears to be an abandoned building, down a disgusting hallway, and into a very cozy little room with one bed, a kindle, and a lamp.

"We can discuss things in the morning. Right now I'm going to take care of my baby sister." Victoria tells you and you nod. Victoria picks up right where she'd left off on The Princess Bride and you almost fall asleep even though you were incredibly caught up on your sleep due to the last sixteen hours not having anything else to do.

___

You just lie there, Victoria stroking your hair.

"I was so worried." She whispers. "The good guys aren't supposed to do that. We're their friends. We've done so much to help them, and they just turn on us like that?" Victoria lapses back into her comfortable threats that she picked up from the gruesome murder and abuse of Sylvia Likens, with a few other bits inspired from the Dexter series. She's just getting into something she calls the Yodeling Potato when your mind can't just stay comfortable and safe.

"Victoria?" You say. "We can't hide out here forever."

"I know." She agrees. "Right now I think we have three major options."

"That's convenient." You stretch back.

[X] "We could hunt for Sophia. I'm worried about her. She disappeared shortly after you were arrested. I'm worried that Dream Bitch did something to her, or someone else did thinking now was a good time to cover for it." That does hurt your heart. "Problem is we'd have to stay underground, be secretive, on the run. That doesn't look good."

[X] "There's also heading to the media ASAP. We make our stand here and fight the bloodiest PR battle we can, only fleeing if we're forced to. Problem with that is that if Dream Bitch is truly Simurghed or something she might not be able to care about that, and hits us while we're in the open." That is a concern.

[X] "Third, we break for Chicago and Cranial's convention early. We make our stand there. Harder for her to reach us there. Not comfortable territory, but we need to go there anyway. The advantage is that's probably safest, especially if the Toybox sets up there. Disadvantage, we look even more guilty and can't hunt Sophia.

[X] "Third, we break for Chicago and Cranial's convention early. We make our stand there. Harder for her to reach us there. Not comfortable territory, but we need to go there anyway. The advantage is that's probably safest, especially if the Toybox sets up there. Disadvantage, we look even more guilty and can't hunt Sophia.

"We should thank Skitter for the use of her hideout. We do kind of owe her." Victoria sighs.

"Oh, the thinks Emma started saying after she was sure it was alright to talk. You wouldn't believe what the little sociopath did when they were growing up. The dog Emma found that Taylor made her bury stuck in my mind. Jesus, I guess you're right, but I don't want to talk with her. Would be compassionate, caring, beautiful sister handle that for me?"

"Sure." You smile. "But it would be nice if you complimented your sister some more."

"Of course I can compliment my merciful, badass, powerful, loving sister who has helped to save many, many lives." Victoria starts. "My understanding, intelligent sister has so much charity in her heart she can stand to speak with the supervillain who has done her great harm."

"Go on." You have a smile that won't leave your face.

"Come on, extraordinary, alluring sister. I didn't get much sleep last night and I'm running out of compliments." You laugh.

"That's a fine number of compliments from my perfect sister."

You never had a chance even if your sister didn't have a mindrape aura.

___

Skitter's lair is full of activity. A teenage girl is stirring a pot, cooking something that smells delicious. Several children are around, maybe orphans from Leviathan?

Skitter is waiting to greet you.

"Believe it or not, I actually told them to reach out in a slightly less aggressive fashion, but it's Victoria." You apologize.

"I never killed a dog." Skitter tells you. "Hurting dogs is wrong. Dogs are like kids, dependent on the people in their lives. That would be sick." She sounds sincere.

"According to Emma you're also a pathological liar who convinced her that her mother was having an affair for two years. I believe Madison has called you 'that racist girl who punches people in the neck.' Considering our experiences I don't find that implausible."

"Grue's black. I am not racist!"

"Actually she claimed you were racist against Asian-Americans."

"Do you really think that?" You look over the racial mix of the orphans here.

"Honestly, I think Emma and Madison are scared and that the situation was complicated. I don't believe you were some poor innocent victim, but I don't think my friends were entirely innocent. People don't just suddenly turn to acts of domestic terrorism after being completely normal." Taylor is silent for a while.

"I can live with that if you just stop fucking with me and the people I care about."

"I'd do it if you returned the favor. Your friend Tattletale seems to be trying her very hardest to make her hard to want to help. She gave Dream Mask ammunition to start this whole clusterfuck."

"I could stop it." You freeze up.

"What?"

"I am not going to tell you how, not until you leave the city for a while." She pauses. "I can't." It strikes you as a lie brought on by fear. "But I do know how to end this. I could either screw over the PRT or I could screw over you, and right now I actually hate the PRT more. They're more responsible for what happened to Lisa." You frown. This could be a big lie.

"Who would get hurt? I think the PRT and the Protectorate are important, in the abstract."

"I can hurt the people directly responsible for what happened to Lisa and expose some pretty major corruption going on. I wouldn't be screwing over any random person working for them. I'd actually be helping Dream Mask. If you knew what I knew you'd feel sorry for the poor woman." You start to nod. This seems to fit Taylor's pattern.

"The reason you haven't done this before is..."

"I needed resources to help people here. If I am working for New Wave as a vassal I assume they'd be willing t0o help me with that, right?" Ooh, so it's money she wants.

"Sounds reasonable, but there's more of a catch with you."

"When you're in Chicago, see what you can do for Lisa. I don't expect it to work, but please try to help her." You grit your teeth. "Fix the damage done to Lisa. The only reason you weren't met by the Protectorate and PRT here is that no one else could do it. If you do that, the answer to a lot of your problems will come clear."

"Coil's alive, isn't he?"

"Not really. He was replaced. I can't say more without tipping my hand."

"I really was trying to help her, you know. I went a bit overboard, but she taunted me with my sister's miscarriage." Taylor manages to look as shocked as anyone could through a gas mask. "My version was much kinder than what they wanted and I still feel like crap about it, but the alternative was the Birdcage."

"Just do what you can for her, okay?" Taylor's voice is a bit small.

"The PRT has gone way too far. They're blackmailing me and New Wave after making me do what I did to Tattletale. She wasn't anywhere close to Birdcage material. She was no Bakuda, no Kaiser, she was just a raging cunt and maybe a minor domestic terrorist. She didn't deserve what she got. I'm fine with this deal. If at all possible I'll help Tattletale, as long as it wouldn't hurt someone else more. If that's the first big thing they make me do, I can't be their little bitch for the rest of my life. Give'em Hell."

There's a smile in Taylor's voice. "I can definitely do that. I doubt they'll be recovered in Brockton Bay for years. If New Wave can beat the Empire I think I'll have saved this city, improved it." You sense she's buttering you up, manipulating you, lying a bit, but working with her still seems like the safer option.

"Can New Wave help watch over my territory?" Skitter asks. "I think I'll be able to make it out of this, but I won't leave it unprotected."

"I'll contact some of them. Probably the ones I have less control over. Melissa says Eric is getting really bored lately, so helping out here might be something he could do. He's had a lot of time lately with school closed down. There's one other thing, though." You can see Skitter slump down.

"Shadow Stalker, she's missing. I'm going to give you relay bugs, and a counter to my jamming in the suits. Now, I'm not going to remove the bug killer, I'm not going to leave people defenseless against you if you go bad again, but from what you've said you don't need firepower. Find my Shadow Stalker for me and I'll say we're completely even for everything, we can have a fresh start. Is that good?"

"I'd like that. I can try." Skitter is quiet. "Did you have to threaten my dad?"

"What? I didn't..."

"You showed up at my house. Are you actually saying you didn't mean to threaten him?"

"Actually I didn't." You frown, trying to piece the night together. "I was pissed about everything and exhausted. I guess I wasn't thinking clearly. If you need him protected, Jesus, I'm actually really sorry. I'll talk to Madison about having him protected before I go..." She doesn't need facial expressions to glare at you.

"Actually, I'll leave a message for Sarah. Would that work better?"

"Much."

"Really, thank you for the hideout."

"Thank you for actually talking to me instead of whatever it was Victoria was doing."

And so you leave.

___

You, Victoria, and Eraser, or Julian, are heading off to Chicago in a station wagon that was found abandoned in a street. Madison, Mason, and Melissa are staying back to hunt for Sophia with Skitter. She's probably not going to try anything against those three. Victoria is on a disposable cellphone talking to Dean to see if the Wards can help with the hunt.

The enemy of your enemy is your friend. The PRT is worse and more dangerous than Skitter or Tattletale, and maybe having someone as dangerous as Tattletale owing you wouldn't be bad under the circumstances, especially if Taylor's big secret plan falls through.

Interlude:

[X] Uber
[X] Dream Mask
[X] Eraser

[X] Uber

Your Saints Row homage has gone completely off the rails.

The bad news is that you're pretty sure this is Birdcage level shit.

The good news is you finally managed to fulfill the Saints Row 2 request people have been giving you since the early days of your Youtube channel properly.

Needlessly complicated conspiracy? You've got it.

Taking credit for cleaning up the city, striking a deal with the winner of the gang war? It's not actually working, but it's not really supposed to, is it?

"I am sure that the Dallon sisters will be caught before they leave the city, Miss Sertori. I am far more worried about the Master who sabotaged you at your moment of triumph." You watch with pride as Leet works flawlessly to puppet "Director Calvert" over the distance. He truly can do anything once. turn a corpse into a living remote control agent undetectable by PRT safeguards? He could do it. All of the data, a massive resource of secrets you can surely leverage for money in some fashion, weeks of information, is stored in the computers of your fucking underground lair! How cool is it to have an underground layer? It is perfectly cool.

"She's growing suspicious of the Master PC alterations. We're on Mark X, it is a miracle it worked at all." Leet sighs.

"It'll work long enough. We just need to keep this going long enough that there won't be anything organized enough to figure out what's going on." You assure your friend.

You look out over the scale model of the city you shall soon rule. Admittedly the only part you actually have any control over is Skitter's territory by the boardwalk and your new allies, the Merchants, shrinking territory. This will change. You have the secret identities of Empire 88 stashed in Coil's files, which were so easy to crack. You just need to wait for the right moment to unleash them.

Dream Mask is such a useful idiot. You'd had to search far and wide for the perfect candidate. Sensible on the surface, completely wrong for the city, too influential to kick out easily. Add in whatever you managed to do with the Master PC Mark X and your plan is nearly complete.

What's left is simple. Fuck up New Wave, shatter trust in the PRT, and then give them one last chance at glory by revealing the secret identities of the Empire and ordering a full assault. Your new kingdom of Rapture will rise from the ashes and flee underneath the waves.

If only you can get Panacea to agree that building an underwater city is a reasonable course of action. Well, that is what Master PC is for.

Then you get a phone call. You shudder at the name on the other end. "SKITTER."

She scares the crap out of you. You answer it cautiously.

"We need to end it now, Uber. New Wave will rip us apart if we don't." You frown.

"How do they know?"

"You weren't exactly subtle. I've met with every single member of Victoria's lunatics. The best thing we can do is have me expose the Calvert ruse while you two go underground. Earlier than we wanted, but this way I can get New Wave's support too."

You have a million objections, but after the last time she used the bees you are not going to defy her.

"Yes, Mother Brain." She'd stopped taking it as an insult weeks ago. "Uber, explode the Life Model Decoy."

It's a pity you can't see Dream Mask suddenly splattered with the guts and gore, but it was too hard when setting up the self destruct to ensure the last precious second of video feed. No matter, once your plan is complete you can dunk a woman in a superhero costume in blood and gore every day!

Skitter hangs up. She knows you're smart enough to obey her.

"Can we please kill her already." Leet begs.

"She needs us. She's not going to kill us. She could never manage a city. I can, and I'm nothing without you." You assure him. "She's powerful, and as long as we're improving the city we've got her bought. She's not going to turn on us as long as we're helping the city. Until she gets her precious Tattletale back she can't even think about destroying us, and even afterward we will still be very useful. We just need to play along until the cloning machine is done." You flip on the news and wait.

___

"Breaking news. According to sources released today, the Parahuman Response Team Director Thomas Calvert is dead. Information is scarce, but it is believed that a powerful tinker had subverted him weeks ago at the least, and has been responsible for the recent highly controversial actions of the PRT and the Protectorate. The rogue highly respected psychiatric rogue Cranial has promised to investigate the minds of each and every member of the Brockton Bay PRT to ensure the corruption has not spread further."

Leet is grinning widely at referring to him as a "powerful tinker."

You're quite happy yourself. Master PC Mark X is crap compared to the earlier models, but it is sufficient to make sure Sophia Hess has no idea who kidnapped her. The swastika you carved into her posterior will give New Wave some idea, and you had used a condom to minimize other evidence.

The phone rings again. "SKITTER."

"Yes, Mother Brain?"

"I'm not faulting you for it, but I'm already starting to miss Director Calvert. Browbeat keeps bringing up letting Sophia join New Wave. He really had a bad experience there." Skitter sighs. "I wish he could just cut it out."

"They owe New Wave. It'll happen soon enough." You can say this with certainty. You have mastered history, psychology, and law. Sophia Hess will not have membership in the Wards as part of her probation after abduction, rape, and memory alteration. New Wave will be a far better environment for her.

You had long ago realized that in anything truly worth doing you have an impossible, unfair advantage over normal men. It is instead best to work on impossible things and to play with your Youtube channel.

Skitter provides you with a dream, much like Uber does. Something where the journey is more important than the destination. You could be the best ruler the city could have. The problem with modern governance is that the world is too complicated for politicians to make wise decisions. Very few people, such as you, Accord, and Alexandria can defy that, and you are the natural shepherds of the new world.

You had made the same conclusions you know Cauldron made long ago. Parahuman domination of the world is inevitable. It is far better to establish a system where those few who have true merit in governance, rather than the most physically powerful, have a tradition of leadership.

New Wave disgusts you, as does Empire 88. Not a single Thinker or Tinker in either group. All violence, no finesse. Conquest will be easy. Whichever faction wins, either New Wave enhanced by Panacea's suits or Empire 88 strengthened by their patron's resources, you will be able to seize control over.

The city will be better with your hand guiding it than any other.

Only Cranial could stop you now.

___

End Interlude

___

You only get a handful of stares as Victoria feeds you chicken nuggets.

"How can you eat those things?" Julian asks. "They don't even know what part of a chicken is in a chicken nugget. It's bones and blood vessels and..."

"Delicious!" Victoria assures him. "Chicken nuggets are delicious and Amy needs to eat more." You nod happily.

She hasn't eaten one since before her trigger event when she was a health nut. You suspect she lives vicariously through feeding you at times. You don't mind.

Julian shudders and returns to his salad.

"So, we're about to enter Ohio, and this is our first ever family road trip!" Victoria says excitedly. "So, what attractions do we want to see on our way? I think we can make one stop."

[X] Write in. What attraction in the great states of Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois should Amy, Victoria, and Julian visit before they reach Chicago! It should be at least feasibly on the way for a group of excitable teenagers.

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Like Whoa

[X] Kalahari Resort, Sandusky, Ohio

In the end there was only one choice, though Victoria did half halfheartedly push for the Dillinger Museum she knew where you all were going the moment you found the attraction.

Victoria in a swimsuit all day. Two-person rafts featured.

There's also the fun of buying a swimsuit with her. She only rolls her eyes a bit at the bikini you pick out, and you're not sure if it's a signal or revenge when she selects an even more revealing one for you.

Life is very, very, very good.

It's destiny that there's an actual attraction called "Victoria Falls."

___

Your voice is hoarse from all the appropriate screaming you've done today. Your legs are wobbly and you're exhausted.

There are no words in the English language to describe the combination of a water park and Victoria just going with the flow. She had been in a bikini all day and been cuddly and fed you and everything is beautiful. Your sore muscles from the slides hurt so good.

___

You've reached the point where you're having a dinner by candlelight before you realize that Victoria's definitely doing this on purpose. Either, in the twisted piece of your imagination that dominates your every waking moment, she wants to know what dating you would be like or she's buttering you up for something big.

She's so beautiful, dressed for the beach, a skirt, some kind of vaguely Hawaiian top she bought here, flip flops, so completely unlike her normal style. It's almost hypnotizing.

"I was thinking we'd call her Claire." Victoria says. "We're naming her after you, and that is your middle name. That way we don't mix you two up." She giggles, and your heart sinks suddenly.

Why can't you be normal!

You had a perfect day with your sister. Why can't it just be a perfect day with your sister? Why does it have to be hanging over everything with her? You get a sudden heart wrenching urge to rip every incestuous thought, urge, memory out of your had, to become completely asexual and just be Victoria's sister and nothing else for the rest of your life.

Victoria's still talking. "We can't call her Amelia, obviously. Leia? Too weird." You try for something funny to say.

"Emergency backup Victoria?" You suggest. Victoria does giggle.

"I think that's Sophia."

OMFG she made a joke about it. She joked about Sophia as a possible backup girlfriend, someone like her...

"I need to use the bathroom." You say.

"Hurry back." Victoria smiles at you. You force yourself to be normal until you're in the bathroom.

You know the pain won't stop if you just curl up and take it like a good girl. On a mad urge you do something you've only read about, jab your things down your throat, and induce vomiting. Tears fill your eyes for a completely different reason and you wretch into the toilet. It tastes horrible and gets stuck in your throat and the stupid motion activated sink means you can only get bursts of water hot enough it's not refreshing to drink. You need it anyway to get bits of seafood out of your throat.

Why can't you be a good sister! Victoria is the best sister possible. She's something from Heaven. All the compliments you could use for her have run out long ago, and she always has more for you.

You're a perverted little freak. There's nothing sexy about it, nothing taboo, just uncomfortable and wrong and disgusting and you can't even have a normal dinner with your sister without falling in love with her all over again.

The pain will never stop. You never want to fall out of love with Victoria, and it will always hurt to love her. How could Cranial help with this?

You walk out as soon as you feel you can look normal again. Victoria doesn't even ask what happened, just giving you her glass of water for you to chug down in the hopes of cleaning out your throat.

___

The two of you are about ready to go to bed, wearing pajamas. You try to gather up your courage.

[X] You succeed. "Victoria. I don't want to sleep in the same bed tonight." It's not the hardest thing you've ever had to do, but it's up there.

[X] You fail. "Read me something happy tonight, please. Something you read when we were little."

[X] You divert. "Victoria, is there something you wanted to ask me today? I get the feeling you have something on your mind.

[X] You divert. "Victoria, is there something you wanted to ask me today? I get the feeling you have something on your mind.
-[x]"We haven't really talked about you since Albany. It's all been about me. I don't think I'm being a good sister. You've listened to everything I had to say, soothed me pain, and forgiven me for every horrible thing. I haven't done the same for you. I don't even understand how you feel. Talk to me. Tell me everything. What was tonight really about? Why have you been so jealous lately?"

"Sit down." Victoria says. "I just, it's how I want it, okay?" You nod, and sit down next to her on the bed.

"I've been so worried I'd say or do the wrong thing. I want to be responsible for your happiness. It makes me feel grownup. It makes me feel like a good sister to know how much you need me and know I'm doing a good job. I feel proud when I manage it. There's nothing better than loving you. I knew you were special when my parents first brought you home. It was so cool, getting a sister to take care of." She starts playing with your hair.

"There's no words to thank you for it." She presses her face into your hair. Is that a kiss?

"I love you too much, too." You try to make sense of that. "Not in your way. I want you to be mine. I get to choose what you do, what you eat, what you wear, who you date. I feel like I know what's best for you. I feel like the little cunt Madison wants to be your girlfriend, to do all the little feminine things that girls know how to do to guide their boyfriends to being better. She's a liar and a bully and she's fun, but I don't think she'd let herself be disposable. She wormed her way into New Wave and let herself be made into a lesbian just to get closer to you." Victoria's silent for a moment. "She did something I couldn't for you."

"It's so different..."

"Break up with her!" Victoria shouts into the back of your head. "Text the cunt that she's an ugly sadistic whore so I can get my little sister back. If you mean it, if you want to be a good sister, don't date, please. I can't think about you being with a girl. It makes me feel sick that I can't be that girl." Victoria's been so close to you all day, physically.

"I..."

"Be quiet. Please." You nod. "I'm so fucked up, Amy. I don't want you with anyone else, but I don't want you for myself. I'm so selfish. You deserve to be happy." Suddenly Victoria's gripping your hand very tightly. "But so do I. You're asking what I want. I want to be good enough you don't care that you can't have a girlfriend, ever. I want to knock you up so you're so busy and so physically weird you don't even want sex. I kind of want Claire to come out so hard it never works right down there again, just so I don't have to think about what I'm not giving you."

"Victoria..." You're crying.

"I said shut up!" She snaps. "Just be quiet. After everything I've put up with you can take it!" She starts crying.

"You have nothing to be sorry about. I can take it."

"Is it really so wrong, wanting the most fucked up part to just disappear? To make you just be what I want you to be? Is that really so different from what you want? I've been reading, um, everything I found online on lesbian incest. Um, sorry if I sound like an ignorant doofus but I want to fucking mark you with my teeth so no one else gets any ideas about my sister. It runs through my head. Making you bleed out your asshole, do any of the god damned fucked up things you made me seek out. It's all grotesque but I can't stop thinking about it when I close my eyes. The loving stuff is so much fucking worse. Like, I'd never want to beat you black and blue, but playfully kissing in the shower, affection? Sometimes it almost feels normal. It's just a tiny bit different from who we are anyway. It's easier to pretend you want the most fucked up Hellraiser shit I could think of just do I don't have to deal with that."

"I, if that's how you feel, it's not a tenth of what I put on you." You're sure it's true.

"I feel so guilty for not giving you what you want. I feel so sick about the idea of doing it or not doing it. I feel like I'm hurting you no matter what I do. Hurting you, I'd rather sleep with you and cut off my arm than see you hurting, and you're hurting all the time, aren't you?"

"Not all the time. It hurts when I'm happy and when I'm sad, because of why I'm happy."

"Does it hurt as much with Madison?" Fuck.

"No." You admit. "But she's nothing to me. She's a snack, and you're a wife."

"God I hate that word now. Ever since you said that's how you love me, or want to love me. Damn, I forget. How the fuck can I get married now, if you'll be my maid of honor and cry in the shower on the same day?"

"Because I love you more than I hate Dean for taking the woman I love." There's something else you have to say, and this is as good a time as you're going to get to say it. "You know what I remembered when Cranial screamed; the night New Wave me away from my father, the day I found out you and Dean were having sex, the moment I realized you couldn't return my feelings, and the miscarriage. Those were the worst moments of my life, punctuated by some of the best. You were always with me, supporting me, even when you didn't understand why I hurt. I need to know what you remembered. I want to do the same for you. There can't be any secrets between us, it makes all of this too painful."

"What?"

"It's how you can stand it. You're such a good sister that I can take all the worst parts. Please tell me what you saw."

"Dean." She spits. "The moment I realized he knew for years and never told me. Carol, when we were eight and she didn't fucking love you so much you wouldn't eat. Mark, the lazy fuck who couldn't be a dad. Sarah, who gave a child to my fucking parents. Phillip, who couldn't take..." She sighs. "Every fucker who let us down for eleven years. Amy? The worst moment I ever had with you didn't make the cut."

"Oh, Victoria." That's a confession of love.

"Except one." You freeze. "The bank. When Skitter held a knife to your throat and threatened to spill your blood on the floor. That was the worst moment of my life." She pauses. "Actually worse than when Coil caught you, though that's selfish. I could be a nervous wreck, but you weren't right there, right where I could help, terrified, trying to be a good girl and a superhero. You were so brave there." She sighs. "I wish we didn't have to save Tattletale, but I get it. I'll even forgive her. She's got another chance left." Victoria is quiet for a moment. "I didn't see you, but when I ran from Albany, flying high, leaving you behind! Worst thing I have ever done. Capstone of all the times I've been a bad sister."

"You're a good sister. There's no way for me to tell you how good." You're crying again, trying to think off some way to prove to her how good a sister she is, how much you love and need her, how much you owe her.

"Screw it!" Suddenly you're pinned to the wall with Victoria's tongue being forced down your throat. You actually try to force her off, but she's stronger than you, and always has been. "That's the only way this ends, isn't it? I love you more than Dean! I love you more than Mark or Carol! I love you more than anything in the world! I can't let you burn because..." She actually retches in your arms. Thank God she's not throwing up for real again. "What else can I do? What choice do I have? It's the only way you'll be happy, right?" You're what matters. Want to know how I feel? I just want to end this. Do it now before I lose my nerve again!"

"What the fuck?" You're kind of sobbing too. It's all wrong and all right at the same time.

"We have a deal, right! You're mine and I'm yours!" Your ears are hurting from her shouting. "This is your answer. To everything. Yes! Make it quick and make it fucking hurt." Why would she want your powers to hurt her? She keeps her arm barred against your throat, tears in her eyes. Finally she whispers, her face inches from your own. "You make me crazy..."

[X] "Get. Off. Me." Not like this. Never, ever, like this.

[X] I. Love. You." And you knock her out. Your Glory Girl slumps down, defeated. Emotions run wild. Things said may be not true, and true things said may be lies.

[X] "You had me at hello..." You whisper, your memory stretching back years and years to the beautiful girl who loved you at first sight. It's the easiest thing in the world to flip the smallest switches on what she needs and how she loves you.

[X] "You had me at hello..." You whisper, your memory stretching back years and years to the beautiful girl who loved you at first sight. It's the easiest thing in the world to flip the smallest switches on what she needs and how she loves you.

"You're Better than the Best. You're Better than Perfect. YOU. ARE. GLORIOUS. Bite me! Mark me! Take me! MAKE ME YOURS!"

____

Okay, telling a teenager with super strength in a fit of passion to injure you while in the middle of what could arguably called a minor breakdown is not the smartest thing you could have done if you actually wanted to enjoy your first night together.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow." You mutter, your hand holding the towel to your neck. Victoria's off getting your super suits from the car, as they're the best first aid kits you could reasonably have. Being bitten isn't sexy at all, at least not without some kind of training. Why are vampires so popular, anyway?

Victoria flies back in through the broken window with your suits and lands a bit too hard, hitting the ground and breaking the floor.

"Um, we can pay for that." You mutter. Victoria throws you your suit, and you strip, putting it on. Moments later you sigh in relief as the pain stops and the suit glues up your neck wound.

"I'm so sorry." Victoria looks down. "It just..."

"You lost control." You smile at her. "I'm already all better. The night's just started." A wave of nervousness hits you.

"You're right." Victoria, YOUR Victoria, sits down next to you. "I guess, um, we shouldn't let this stop anything." She giggles very nervously.

"I like it when you're aggressive like that. With anyone else it would be terrifying, but I know that you'd never hurt me." You giggle nervously.

____

"I'm so sorry!" Victoria's been saying it all night. Control is significantly harder than either of you had imagined. You're actually kind of wondering why this didn't come up with Dean. Is she just more passionate with you? Fuck, you had to think of Dean.

"I regret nothing. Best night of my life. Really. " You probably wouldn't feel that way if your brain wasn't been full of painblocking microbes. Closed hip reduction is not a pleasant procedure.

You'd spent the past four hours in the hospital, three and a half of them just waiting to see a doctor. You made the best of it. Victoria pushed you through the ICU and the PICU while you healed all of the critical patients. That's probably why they didn't call the police as soon as they realized who you were. You still had to talk a nurse out of filing a domestic violence report. That was embarrassing.

The bite looked a lot worse than it was, really. The black eye, well, if Victoria had kept her suit on she would have been wearing it when flying you out the window. But, well...

It's still not domestic violence, really. All of this is completely understandable.

Victoria is quiet for a minute. "Um, so, we should probably check in on Julian over the phone."

"I just wish we could have finished," you tell her.

"Checking in with Julian?" She frowns. "Wait, oh." She blushes.

"There is a restroom nearby..." You offer tentatively.

"Ew, no. Never again." Victoria shakes her head.

"Um..."

"You don't want to know. I don't want to remember. Honestly, we're both exhausted. Let's not push this."

"Um, okay." Well, it's still the best night of your life, right?

It barely feels different from before. She isn't touching you any differently as you sit together in the waiting room. Her look is the same concerned, sisterly look you've seen before.

"Well, it's just midnight. We should probably get some sleep back at the resort." Victoria says. You nod.

All you do differently is kiss goodnight, and Victoria asks you not to use tongue.

____

"That was really... very... Intense. Are you comfortable with all of this? Be completely honest. It's okay if you aren't. I'd rather find out now than later. Tell me how you feel." You hear a rapid knock on the door.

"Ames! Pregnant lady heading towards the lady's room!" Victoria shouts on the other side. "We still have three more hours of driving to do!"

No more practicing in front of the mirror. You really should ask her...

Julian is driving. Oh, that's not going to happen. He rolls the window down to share his loud rap music with the world, making the occasional fist pump into the air at his favorite moments.

Julian has a lot of favorite moments in his songs. Being white, the fact that he sings along makes you seriously uncomfortable when he uses the word "nigger."

Victoria does put her arm around you as the two of you sit in the backseat. She didn't do that yesterday, but you did hold hands.

It soon becomes clear that you are not going to be able to check on Victoria in the car. When Julian is driving he insists he can't drive without the music being way too loud. Victoria driving leads to her usual screaming matches with people who offend her ethics of proper driving sportsmanship. Victoria doesn't let you drive, citing the hospital visit. Fighting her about this seems like kind of a dick move right now, all things considered.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKING ASSHOLE!" Victoria screams. "It's a one way street!"

"He can't hear you." Julian mutters. "Just like the minivan, and the Prius..."

"Shut up you clit end of a pencil." Um, what? "You'll distract me and get us into an accident." Victoria keeps her eyes firmly on the road, at least.

Finally you stop in the must grungy, beaten down area of Chicago you could find at a local library. There's some weirdly complicated backstory about the leader of the Portland Protectorate's daughter having fled here that Victoria had read to you and Julian. She found it a lot more interesting than you do.

Well, apparently she's the one in charge here. Some kind of...

A massive wave of cloth begins to rise from the dirt, twisting and dirty. A moment later a woman emerges. She is absolutely beautiful, but filthy.

"Hello, Ragged Angel." Victoria bows. "We are New Wave of Brockton Bay. We come here seeking asylum."

"All who ask for it may have it here, if your reason is just. If you lie I will call the Hanged Man, and my father will bring you to justice." Her voice is beautiful, too.

"I believe it is. I admit I committed crimes, but the leader of our Protectorate, Dream Mask, was under some form of compulsion. In several days a great convention of the world's healers is gathering here, and my sister is the guest of honor. She would have prevented us from arriving out of a desire for a power struggle. The organizer of the convention is a woman who we owe a great debt to who says she can do great things with our help. You may search on the Internet or ask your father if anything I said is a lie, in spirit, letter, or by omission, and call him to arrest us. We will go with him if it is." Victoria's voice is strong. Ragged Angel is stronger than she is even with your help, and you don't like your odds against her in a direct fight. She is also said to be very, very crazy.

The woman walks towards you and gets uncomfortably close. She smells rotten.

"Panacea." She breathes you in. "A miracle unlike any other on God's Earth. for such a flower to grace my dominion takes my breath away." She is smiling as she backs away. "You may stay. It is said you live by a code, Panacea. Does it keep to that code to assist those under my protection? The homeless, the mad, the wrongfully accused flock here. Many have lifelong ailments."

"I will do what I can, Ragged Angel." You bow to her. "I appreciate your hospitality. Anything you ask within reason I will assist you with."

___

It is so easy to help the people there recover from their problems. It's all a combination of neglect, substance abuse, poor diet, and a handful of largely recurring mental illnesses. It only takes you a couple hours to finish off the whole bunch under Ragged Angel's care, and then you set up a new garden here, one that will be able to nourish them cheaply and easily. Many of the people here are crying in gratitude as you finish your new garden, full of white and gold strands of meat, alongside pitch black leaves, easier for photo-synthesis.

"What would you like to call these plants?" Ragged Angel asks.

"Victoria's Bounty." You smile.

"They do look a bit like her. It reminds me of some modernist art I studied once." Ragged Angel sounds wistful.

"She's in everything I do." You sigh.

"You're troubled. You're doing this, making this, because you're uneasy." Ragged Angel tells you. "Don't deny it. Mothers know these things."

"Victoria..." You raise your hand to the bite on your neck.

"They say you always call her that. Why is she always Victoria? Never Vicky, Vicks, pet names. I was looking you up earlier. They say that on the gossip sites. Why is that?"

"When we met she said she was Victoria, but people called her Vicky. She is Victoria. She didn't like the name, but no one took her seriously because she was only six. They cared more about her being cute than what she wanted. It was wrong." You flash back again to the first days. "They didn't listen to her. She asked them to call her Victoria, but they didn't care. I called her Victoria the first time I said her name, and she asked me to keep doing it. So I did."

"All she had to do was ask?" Ragged Angel sounds impressed.

"Why would I need anything else? I love her." You consider. "Obviously this place is not, um, I'm wondering about privacy here. We've been going through a lot lately, but I understand this might not be the kind of place that has a lot of it, and some of this is really private."

"Then wait until you leave to bring it up, if it is something you do not want shared. I am not a liar, Panacea, and I need to protect my territory. I cannot make a blind spot."

"That makes sense. Where is Victoria?"

"Currently she is complaining to the air about the bathroom facilities in my territory. Come to think of it, that is another thing you could really help with." She smiles.

"I will help you with that, then." Your start to think about the best toilet possible. How does one build a better mouse trap?

___

You and Victoria sleep in a sleeping bag you made out of rats and dying trees. The lack of mass justifies there only being one, as does the night being very cold. It is gorgeous, sleeping out under the stars.

"I love you, Amy Dallon." Victoria kisses the back of your head. "There's nowhere I'd rather be."

[X] "We need to take a walk." You're not sure that leaving Ragged Angel's territory is perfectly safe right now, as people are looking for you, but you need to talk about the changes, see if she's alright, get some alone time with your...

GIRLFRIEND!

[X] "I love you, Victoria Dallon." You kiss the back of her head too, wishing for real privacy. "Let's go to sleep.

[X] You say what you practiced in the mirror. Ragged Angel knowing isn't the worst thing in the world, is it? "That was really... very... Intense. Are you comfortable with all of this? Be completely honest. It's okay if you aren't. I'd rather find out now than later. Tell me how you feel."

[X] You say what you practiced in the mirror. Ragged Angel knowing isn't the worst thing in the world, is it? "That was really... very... Intense. Are you comfortable with all of this? Be completely honest. It's okay if you aren't. I'd rather find out now than later. Tell me how you feel."

Victoria is quiet at first, but gives your hand a squeeze.

"I don't want to make any decisions yet. I don't want to get in the frame of mind where I've made a decision, and then let that influence what I do." She's whispering. That might or might not help.

"I guess that makes sense." It does. Probably better than if she was super enthusiastic.

"Earlier was weird, and hurting you, I don't want to leap right back in, if that's okay. Is that fine with you?"

"Of course it is." Not optimal, but fine.

"A lot of this feels, well, less weird than before, if you know what I mean? Before it always felt like there was this balancing act. Remind you that we're close, keep doing things we both like, but don't lead you on or do something so weird it grosses people out. Now I can just do what comes naturally." Victoria giggles a bit. You can't really join in.

"Is there, well, anything else?" Victoria slaps your hand a bit playfully.

"Okay, now you're just trying to undermine this. I am fine. I will pay close attention to how I feel. If I get uncomfortable, I will work with that. If I like something I didn't before, I'll think about why. I think that we should talk after the convention and everything in Brockton Bay has blown over and we've done this for a little while normally. I could want to stop it, but right now I think it's best to just see what we're like and take it slow."

"That sounds perfect." You kiss the back of her head.

"That's because I'm perfect." Victoria jokes.

"I'm tired. I never did like road trips, and I haven't been on one in two years."

"Alright. Let's see if sleeping is easier or harder now."

Victoria falls right to sleep. You don't.

____

"Okay, Brockton Bay is practically in another war. Empire 88 broke every rule." Victoria sighs, having just got off the phone with Dean.

"What happened?" You ask, taking a cheerful bite of Victoria's Bounty.

"You do not want to know." Victoria shakes her head. "Currently there's bees everywhere as Skitter's trying to prove helpful and using the damn relay bugs. What's left of my team and Eric seem to think there's a war, while Sarah and the rest of the grownups of New Wave are trying to take control of the situation. The Protectorate and the Wards are on high alert, but haven't broken the old official truce."

"Anyone hurt or dead yet?"

"If anyone was dead I'd have opened with that." Victoria sighs. "Apparently we 'captured' Alabaster early on. Shadow Stalker was apparently abducted by the damn Empire, somehow. Dean doesn't know a lot of details, but she wants to see you when you're back and has gone full tilt crazy vigilante even though she's not really well. Dream Mask is still there but is the second in command to Battery, why they haven't brought in someone else I don't know. Kaiser erected a huge wall around the territory he took over, not that it will stop anyone serious."

"Why's Eric joining the clusterfuck?" You ask, handing Victoria some of the food named after her.

"Dean thinks he has a crush on Melissa. I think he's just bored and thinks the whole thing's exciting. Teenagers." She sighs dramatically.

"We're teenagers." You point out.

"We're almost eighteen. As almost-adults we have the right to look down on kids." Victoria laughs and finally bites into the strands of Victoria's Bounty. "Is it weird that I'm eating something that kind of looks like me?"

You both start giggling nervously at that.

___

"Then Sunslinger opened fire. In raw firepower, he is one of the strongest blasters on record, and his attack was beautiful. It incinerated the Blasphemy at once. A pity that her sisters escaped, but seeing one die, knowing that the monsters need to feel fear, was one of the greatest moments of my lie." Ragged Angel likes to tell stories, and the time the Three Blasphemies came to Chicago is one of her most impressive.

"So, what did the fucks even want in Chicago?" Julian asks. He stands strangely alert near Ragged Angel. He seems jumpy to you.

"Myrddin." Ragged Angel answers simply.

"What for?"

"They thought they could do better. That was always their objective. Find someone great, find a flaw in him, and give him a chance to correct his flaw. His flaw was anger, and he passed his tests. I believe he became wiser for it."

"Wait, you think those freaks did something good?" Julian looks at her like she's crazy. In his defense, she wouldn't deny that she is.

"Yes. I think in the long run all of their victims benefit. Of course, the oldest who failed their test we have is only twelve again, and she has yet to have her trigger."

It's peaceful out here, cold, curled up in your sleeping bag near a trashcan fire and hearing the woman spin her stories. Ragged Angel had asked Victoria to walk the perimeter of her territory earlier, right when Victoria was starting to feel restless. Secondary power, or just good instincts?

This is kind of like a camping trip. You have gone camping five times in your life. Twice with Mark and Victoria as a family, three times when the Pelhams had invited you and Victoria to come along with them. The last one was Eric's trigger event.

Ragged Angel moves over to you in an oddly sudden move.

"You are scared of me." It isn't a question. "I don't think it's because I am crazy and powerful. You are crazy and powerful. What do you fear?"

"I am afraid I made a mistake." Stay truthful. "Back when I had Victoria break me out I didn't do it because I wanted to run. I did it because I wanted Victoria to rescue me. I know it was a stupid reason. Now I'm worried that people are dying at the hospital because I wanted..." You pause.

"You wanted to make your sister happy." Seriously, did the PRT files miss a secondary power? "You wanted to let her do something for you. Because of that, people may have died in the hospital. They might have let you out as criticism mounted, but instead you fled, and denied them the chance."

"Exactly. I fear your justice, not your irrationality. It is said that you are just and passionate."

"I have that in common with your Glory Girl." Okay, she probably reads minds. "Our natures do not match our world. We are not attracted to the fairest or brightest uses of our abilities to make a difference. It weakens us, makes us forget who we are. Sunslinger sits in a chair all day, his fingers pointed at ten great vats to power this and other cities cleanly. Every day he hopes, prays for a disaster worth cutting the power to Chicago for him to fight. We need worthy opponents."

"I've heard those words before." You say. "Are you a mind reader, Ragged Angel?" She gives you a very warm smile.

"I spoke to Kitsune."

"Oh."

"Of course you're a monster, little champion. We are all monsters. That's what angels are." Ragged Angel glides over the ground, away from you, as Victoria returns. "Did you sense people lurking outside, Glory Girl?"

"Yes. I feel like offering the poor kids hot coco. Don't they have anything better for their Wards to do?" Victoria shakes her head. "Do they even have anyone who could take the two of us?"

"A fairly large team? Yes. Myrddin could do it by himself, of course, if he can withstand the sleep agent. Acoustic perhaps, with some backup, depending on the exact defenses of your suits. Are they willing to divert such resources? I believe they are not. A defeat, or a costly victory, would be terrible for them right before the medical convention. I am positive they are diverting as much of their resources as possible to not starting this fight and hopefully to be able to honestly tell you they've prepared your hotel rooms."

"That's great." Victoria pauses. "Is there any chance if we left a tray of hot coco out they'd take it?"

"If I brought it, they are under orders to accept my gifts." Ragged Angel laughs. "Panacea, would you be a dear and work on something to make hot coco? A long lasting machine would improve the quality of life here, would it not?"

"Yes..." Your mind is wondering. Something with that kind of internal temperature would be weird. "Mind if we talk about how to power it? This will require something more unusual than normal..."

___

The Wards come in the next day. Raymancer and Grace. Director Costa-Brown had officially withdrawn all warrants out on you and Victoria. They carried thanks from their teammates for the hot coco.

"Well, now what?" Victoria asks.

"Could we visit Cranial?" You suggest. "Start taking care of things early?"

"Sounds good." Victoria pulls out her phone and makes the call as you and Julian pack.

"Turns out she's not here yet. She has a stop in Detroit before she arrives. She'll be here first day of the convention, three days from now. Any other ideas?

[X] Stay with Ragged Angel until the convention. You can see if you can do more to help the people under her protection. (Write in. Give ideas for helpful bio-tech.)

[X] Get a hotel room and just relax for a few days. You need to be rested and ready for the convention.

[X] Head to the hospital. It's only almost June and you've already come close to maxing out days outside of the hospital. Sure, you don't technically have to, but you're starting to feel extremely guilty. People are on the waiting lists for months.

[X] Stay with Ragged Angel until the convention. You can see if you can do more to help the people under her protection. (Write in. Give ideas for helpful bio-tech.)

"Healing machines." Ragged Angel has managed to find a large old chalk board, plenty of chalk, for the task, and you made proper brushes for it. Feels weird not to have a whiteboard. "I built basic first aid into my suits, but I think I can do better. A free hospital, even a fairly low level one, out in this area would be really helpful, wouldn't it?"

Ragged Angel nods. "Explain the capabilities and how it would differ from a true hospital."

"I think diagnosing and treating most injuries and many infections is casual. Won't be healing such injuries like I can, but it would give bodies a fighting chance. With a large stationary device, well it won't be as good as normal surgery, a lot fewer options and less expertise, but if you get most normal injuries this will be just fine. I'm also thinking about new organs for organ failures, but I don't have high hopes for that. Rejection is tricky, even for me." Victoria giggles at that and Julian gives her an odd look. "It would need something really similar, and organ transplants are hard under the best of circumstances. I'm thinking they'll also be able to keep records and charts for regular doctors to consult. Now, ideally I'd be putting these in the hands of regular medical professionals, but I understand that's not really an option for your people, Ragged Angel."

"You are correct." She nods. "What about expansion, scaling this up?"

"Medical stuff is really tricky even by Tinker standards. Commexo Kid's panacea seemed perfect, but it caused those weird mutations that got worse and worse over time. Thalidomide was a great piece of medicine, but caused horrible birth defects in babies. I've been working with doctors on this kind of thing for a year and a half. This kind of mass production, maybe in the future, but it needs to be tested and organized first. I actually have a number of machines they're working on, but my biggest comparative advantage, the organ machines, are where Fodder and Ichor already shine. I don't think they'll want to rely on me for that unless she becomes unavailable. Maybe in five years there will be a big roll out. For you and your sanctuary I think the important thing is cheap and self repairing machines. I'd much rather get you ordinary medical care."

The machines are weirdly fun. You play around a bit with expanding the capabilities, and wish you had a Tinker to hash it out with again. It feels just a bit like when you first started healing. Victoria being there helps a lot.

"Wish I could sunbathe." She groans a bit.

"It's 50 degrees." You point out, eying the pack of rats regretfully. Maybe there's a way without destroying things so cute?

"I know, but this feels like the perfect opportunity to work on my tan. I'm getting really pale. Brockton Bay sucks for tanning."

"You're prettier without one." You assure her. "I always thought so."

"You never told me that." Victoria sounds a bit happy. "Is there a reason?"

"Talking about it seemed, um, risky." You mutter, blushing a bit.

"You know, I did like it when you told me I was pretty." Victoria says. "I always liked how pretty you thought I was. Maybe it's just vain, but it did make me feel pretty. It does."

"Everyone thinks you're pretty." You remind her.

"Sure, but there's different levels of being pretty. Besides, my aura makes people think I'm sexy when I have ketchup in my hair and am wearing baggy jeans and flannel."

"It's not just the aura." You point out, and she laughs.

You love her so much.

___

"This almost seems counterproductive." Ragged Angel tells you. "How can my sanctuary be for the downtrodden and desperate if it's a resort park?"

"So, are you actually complaining?" You smile at her.

"Not in the slightest. Hot showers, comfy beds, and rooves are all things I've missed." You frown.

"Rooves?"

"You know, the plural of roof. Like the plural of wolf is wolves."

"Um, I don't think that's how it works, ma'am."

"I'm pretty sure it does." You decide it's best not to fight it.

____

"Did you need to make the beds so, um, alive?" Julian asks, bouncing his hand experimentally on the meaty surface.

"At least try it. I thought that would be the most warm and comfortable." You're a bit embarrassed now.

"It's like human skin." Julian frowns. "Why?"

"Well, it seemed cozy." This is getting awkward. "People like to cuddle when they sleep, so I made it more efficient. Nice, warm, flesh like, really soft and comfortable..."

"How are you even feeding these things?" Julian asks.

"Oh, I set up some insect colonies to hunt down pests, mass pollinate, farm the area, stuff like that. The whole resort park ecology is wrong for the environment here, but it can be supported with that and a few power plant like devices, breaking down waste, stuff like that." Julian looks up at you, his face just a bit worried.

"Um, Amy? What are the chances of this going horribly wrong?" You consider for a moment.

"Not high?"

"Well, if this goes wrong it's better than half the things you've made going wrong. You know what you can do." Julian sighs. "The bed does look really comfortable."

It is.

___

You sleep in very late the next day. Victoria and your new bed combine to be so very comfortable.

Experimentally, softly, you kiss Victoria awake, safe with a partition for privacy, you hope. Ragged Angel could probably see, but you really want to kiss your girlfriend.

"Mm..." Victoria sighs and reciprocates before waking up properly. "That's a bit risky, Ames." Then she laughs. "But you know what? We can't not take risks about this." She kisses you again, still softly. "I really do like what you're doing here. I'm proud of it. I'm proud of you. You're beautiful and good and you make me happy."

"You make me happier."

"We'll see about that." Victoria laughs. "Now, let's get dressed. It's cold out there."

___

The new sewer is the worst part. It's just not fun to build a water filtration system piece by piece. Water isn't as fun to work with. Too much fairly redundant microbiology.

The central heating is more fun. The whole area has become a large resort park arcology (Julian looked up the word and you rather like it) that could easily support a lot more people soon. The aesthetic is a great mix of the Khalahari jungle and modernist white and gold, with a few things that, if disturbing, you just really want for personal touches like the Victoria's Bounty and the new beds. People stop complaining about them after roughly 15 seconds of lying in one.

"People will flock here now." Ragged Angel says on the last day. You're mostly done, just toying with some problems people are having. "Fleeing to this sanctuary is nothing compared to what it was." Ragged Angel is clean and dressed in her own version of one of your enhancement suits, a very strange assortment of small machines like scales, highly self contained, each one with a singular purpose, though they can be assembled together. "Teen runaways, I imagine, might find this a wonderful place. I'm worried that I'll need to expand my territory beyond what I already have to support them all and I won't be able to defend the whole place."

"There's something I'm thinking about anyway, so you wouldn't have to be here all the time. Defenses and surveillance systems to compliment or substitute for your powers. Help protect the flock. Maybe something like a bit of an AI. I'm not good at it, but something like a biological computer or animal? Selfless nurturer and protector to help with your flock?"

"Maybe." Ragged Angel frowns in thought. "Let's discuss this after the convention, if you don't mind. It sounds a bit dangerous to try to make something with that much autonomy if you don't have experience and time to practice. I would probably prefer to recruit further instead, but I can see the use of it."

"That's fine. It's a bit extreme for me anyway." You consider what else could work. "Any other requests?"

"Your generosity and selflessness to us has been incredible. I cannot think of anything else you could provide for me." Ragged Angel is suddenly quiet.

"Anything else?" You ask.

"You could tell me." She sounds, you're not sure how she sounds.

[X] "I really can't." Is the other shoe about to drop? Don't give more information than you have to.

[X] "So how did you talk to Kitsune? You mentioned you spoke with her. What did she say? How is she doing?" Best not to talk about a breakout with the pathologically honest crazy person yet. You'll see how it goes.

[X] "Is this about me and Victoria?" She probably knows. Almost certainly knows. Getting some outside perspective might be really helpful right now.

[X] "So how did you talk to Kitsune? You mentioned you spoke with her. What did she say? How is she doing?" Best not to talk about a breakout with the pathologically honest crazy person yet. You'll see how it goes.

"She came to me asking for sanctuary." Ragged Angel says simply.

"Wait, you failed to keep her?" That seems...

"I sent her back."

"What?"

"I told you I did that when we met. If your reason for running is invalid, if the cause to keep you is just, than I do not oppose punishment. Kitsune is a demon. Kitsune is a supervillain. I had no regrets tossing her back."

"That's harsh, isn't it?"

"If she is not evil she is a demon. There's a beast inside her, or she is a beast. The kindest thing for the girl is to slay the beast. I owe no kindness to her if she is a beast. You met her conducting domestic terrorism. She could have surrendered to you three times and lived. Surrender is honorable if you are on the wrong side, and the serpent she served deserved no loyalty according to her. We are monsters, but that is not our fault. She was a supervillain, and that is inexcusable." She sounds very forceful.

"What did she say to you?"

"She tried to convince me she had the power of prophecy. She spoke of Cauldron and of Dragon, the Slaughterhouse Nine and the Endbringers. She told me names and gave me dates. She spoke a lot about you and your Glory Girl." This complicates things.

"What I did to her was wrong. Part of it was to save her life and part of it was because she hurt me and I wanted to hurt her back, but all of it was wrong."

"Are you speaking about Kitsune or Glory Girl?" That stings in a way you can't...

"Don't cry." Ragged Angel wraps her arms around you in a hug. "I think it is a valid question, even though you meant Kitsune when you said it." Ouch, ouch, ouch.

"It was destroying us." You mutter. "You know what I mean, right?"

"There's not much I don't get." She smiles down at you. She is so tall, so beautiful. She feels like a mother.

She is a mother.

"It hurt every day. Every time I saw her with Dean. There are so few people I care about. Dean, the last friend I had after I became Panacea. Mark, the only grownup who ever tried. Eric, who triggered to save Victoria. Madison, the girl who made the choice to help me..."

"We are not normal people." A dark echo from something you saw hits your mind. A brother and sister, last standing on a battlefield, mourning lost love.

"We are not normal people." You agree.

"There are other words for it you have, don't you? Like a tattoo that you can't remove. It feels good in a way. Something that's all for yourself. Defiance. Something wrong you carry in your heart as you force yourself through day after day of pain. You need it. You're owed it. If you just do enough good you can balance the scales and do the wrong thing for the right reason."

"We're not fucking accountants." You don't think you've ever seen anyone who agreed with you more.

"You were jealous. Glory Girl is loved by everyone, and you fight tooth and nail for every love you can get. So the protector, the beautiful fighter, the one who was yours first fell in love with someone else it hurt you the most." Ragged Angel lets you cry for a minute. "So you broke up your sister and her boyfriend so you could have Gallant to yourself."

You start laughing and you can't stop.

"It's okay, if you laugh so you don't cry." Ragged Angel whispers.

You had forgotten she's nuts.

"Tell me more about Kitsune." You say, trying to hold back the laughter. You really need to talk about something else.

"She is cursed by your hand."

"I get that."

"What you did to her was worse than what they asked. You get that, right?" What?

"No, I don't. They wanted her lobotomized. Incapable of running away. Bound to me, only herself when she proved useful. That's..."

"Better than being forced to change. Forced to love. She's a demon, Amy. You opened her eyes to the suffering of the world. The demon knows the best way to fight is to destroy, to cause pain. You made her feel the pain she inflicts and left her with a weapon meant to hurt. She screamed she loved you, while she was here. What love she means I do not know, but you did something to her brain almost like what she did to you. What they wanted you to do would have been kinder. She would have been herself when she was awake, a great weapon against evil. Instead she's going quietly mad, ripped apart because her powers were meant for someone very different from her."

"I am so sorry." You pause. "What should I do?"

"I suggest you break her. Fulfill the PRT's first demand. Make her incapable of functioning if she fights back, but herself when she is alive and awake. Do that, and she might forgive you. Let her go after this atrocity, and she won't. She'll hate you forever for what you made her feel, even if she won't feel it anymore. She will not forgive. She will not forget. Kill her before you let her go."

"That's disgusting." You stare at Ragged Angel.

"She will talk to you. She will give you an offer that will break your heart, like the offer she gave me. Listen to it very carefully when the time comes."

"What did she offer you?" You ask.

"Revenge. She offered me the purest revenge on the man who killed the one I loved the most."

"Why didn't you take it?"

"If I left to get my revenge what would I become? I would no longer be a protector of the innocent, I would be a punisher, a Fury, and the world would be poorer for it. The world is full of fighters. Any deal she offers you will be no better."

"You're leaving me in a very bad situation, ma'am." Your mind is swirling.

"If it is any consolation, I am crazy."
___

"Oh. My. God!" Victoria laughs. "She thought you were in love with Dean?"

"Yes." You laugh too. "In love with Dean. For some reason everyone thinks that." The two of you float above Ragged Angel's territory, three stories up.

"Fuck Dean." Victoria snarls. "I loved him and he didn't love me enough to tell me about your feelings. Asshole." You feel like crying for joy at that. "If he told me I would have loved him forever. How could I ever forget helping me save you? The knight in shining armor. Our knight in shining armor." You could have said he was scared of losing Victoria, scared of hurting you, ashamed he hadn't said something earlier.

"Fuck Dean." You agree. You float, save in Victoria's arms, your Glory Girl's arms.

Victoria turns her head to face the sun, the cold light shining on both of you.

"Tell me how you feel." It's an order.

"I feel like I won. I feel I won the best prize anyone could ever win. I feel like everything is beautiful and nothing hurts." Victoria doesn't beam.

Victoria HOWLS at the sun. People down below hear her raw glory. It is triumph in her howl.

"I won too. I did it! I'm a good sister! I want to show you off. I want you to have my child. I want to marry you. For years I knew something wasn't right. I tried everything. We did it! We are glorious!" Victoria hugs you tight.

The two of you begin to rise, Victoria clutching you tightly, holding you just above her feet. Faster and faster you rise.

Then Victoria cuts off the force field and the two of you drop like a stone. You both scream like you're on a roller coaster and then hit the ground. Victoria's force field absorbs the hit and the two of you are safe and together. It is glory.

"Again?" You ask.

"Again." Victoria agrees, and the two of you kick off.

Then you fall back down.

"Ow!" You shout. Something's wrong. This isn't how it works.

Victoria is cursing loudly. It's masking fear. You realize with a jolt that your powers went off. You can't feel your suit. There are other controls besides your natural ones, but you never bothered to use them, figure them out. You feel stupid.

Then it's gone, just like that. Your powers kick back in. Ragged Angel is around you.

"Are you alright?" She asks you.

"Yes." Considerably more so than Victoria's really mistaken idea of getting more leverage had left you. You're a bit more worried about Victoria, pressing your hand against her cheek...

"You lied." Ragged Angel says suddenly. You don't look up. Victoria is more important.

"What tipped you off?" You ask her. "Only by omission, anyway."

"It's the look. It was never right." Ragged Angel swirls around the two of you. "Why didn't I see it? You were too nice. Too kind. Just like he was. You had to have planned this. Manipulated me..."

"No, I really didn't. Would you tell, if you were in love with your sister?" You ask. Victoria is recovering.

"Yes. I. Would. What did you do to her?" She's angry. A righteous anger.

"Nothing I didn't want." Victoria stands up.

"I should have known. They always lie, unless the truth will hurt you more." Ragged Angel sounds so sad. "I thought you were heroes. Glory Girl and Panacea. Alexandria Junior and the Healing Superhero. You're this?"

[X] "Yes, we are this." You step forward. "And there's nothing wrong with that. We're still heroes. We still want to help people. We still do help people. This is part of who are are. Part of what makes us us. We love each other. Is that a problem?"

[X] "I am sorry." You tell both of them. "This is who we are, Ragged Angel. We're monsters. You keep saying that. Something went wrong, and this is the only way we can live. It's not good, but it's what we need, at least for now. Can you get that?

[X] "Ragged Angel, this is not the time for this. Our powers just cut out. We need to figure that out now."

[X] "Yes, we are this." You step forward. "And there's nothing wrong with that. We're still heroes. We still want to help people. We still do help people. This is part of who are are. Part of what makes us us. We love each other. Is that a problem?"

Children might be afraid of monsters, they might believe that they are monsters even, but deep down inside you have to believe an argument from the heart is going to mean more than anything else.

"INCEST!" The word rolls outward like a storm.

"Well, there is that." Victoria admits.

There's an awkward silence.

"She loved me and I loved her. The way I loved her was killing me, and she loved me enough to let me help her reciprocate." You try to get it out.

"I presume she finds you no more attractive than she would find anyone else?" The accusation in those words.

"Um, not exactly." Ragged Angel glares at you. "We were both, um, enthusiastic in our own ways. I wanted her to think I'm pretty."

"Enthusiastic?" The way she says it makes it sound worse than incest.

"We were, um, leverage." Victoria mutters, suddenly blushing. "I didn't mean to dislocate her hip. It wasn't kinky or anything..."

"I do not want to know. Especially about that. Explain yours, Panacea."

"I, that was never..."

"She did it with my permission and she can and will undo it any time I want. I like her better, though not exclusively, if you have to know." Victoria says. "The moment I've decided I want something else, she will change it. Right now I want to know how I feel about what has happened before I change it."

Ragged Angel darts forward ans sniffs Victoria again, looking very closely at her. It's all rather creepy.

"I believe you both." A flood of relief hits you.

"Thank you." Victoria says. Ragged Angel is quiet.

"I don't exactly understand what you find so horrible about this." Victoria asks. "Like, I can think of a hundred reasons, but what's your reason?"

Ragged Angel moves forward and kisses you both on your foreheads.

"You're both worth more than this. You are Guts and Glory. You're champions and ideals, and this is the treasure of your heart. Incest is wrong. Maybe your incest is right and holy, but how many would be like this? Romance is fleeting for children, while family is forever. Come out as this and the people who take this as something to copy and suffer for it will be greater than those who win the treasure of their hearts. You cannot keep this a secret, or if you can it would hurt you. Legend is a dangerous precedent. He taught people that the right parahuman can change the world by being brave and good enough. If Panacea follows that lead, then the world will be worse for it. You are not the only people who know their love is pure and true and right, and many people with that knowledge are wrong. This is very, very dangerous. Your love has meaning and effects beyond the two of you. I feel betrayed because you did not live up to what I wanted you to be. Others will take it worse, and I am disgusted, sick. I barely know you. How many people worship you, idolize you both? No matter what happens it will hurt people when their heroes fail them."

"I never wanted that!" Victoria screams. Ragged Angel looks furious.

"That is a lie." Victoria is silent for a moment.

"I wanted it and feared it at the same time." She explains. Ever since I was little I knew that was coming. I was always afraid of it and always wanted it. I have to be jealous of people with secret identities, and I have to love that I'm the one in Teen Vogue." Victoria's photo shoot for that may have been your top eleventh favorite day."

"When you got your powers, did you drink them from a Cauldron vial?" Ragged Angel asks.

"No." Victoria laughs. "That urban legend..."

"If you did not, than you wanted your aura, or something like it. The ability to have everyone believe you are a hero, the best hero."

"I wanted to be invincible and loved. I wanted to fly and be able to handle myself in a fight. So yes, I wanted my powers." Victoria admits. "But they're never what you really wanted, are they?"

"They never are." Ragged Angel agrees solemnly.

The three heroines stand together, thinking.

"I will refuse to answer questions relating to this unless I have a very good reason. You two can handle this as you think is best. Sisters of New Wave, thank you for all your help. Now I am going to go cry." Ragged Angel leaves you to alone.

"Wait!" You call out. She pauses. "We lost our powers for a moment, before you showed up. Isn't that...

"I do not know what is going on. I suggest we do not find out."

"I'll call the PRT." Victoria says. "Let them know something's up."

___

You and Victoria go out to eat in the most expensive restaurant Victoria could find on her phone.

"Convention's still on. It's going to be the safest place to be, really. Myrddin, Dragon, the Toybox, us, and the invitations are plus two capes. We're talking about Ichor bringing Witch and Trick, and all kinds of capes. I think that's the safest place to go. I've been reading up on the security. With a power negator we want to be near the world's greatest tinker, right?"

"Right." You chew thoughtfully.

"Something on your mind? Is it about Ragged Angel's freakout?"

"Yes." You nod. "I've been thinking..."

[X] "...we need to come out. It's better if we do it on our terms."

[X] "...we need to be careful. Really careful. Stop sneaking around. Only do anything with a lot of privacy."

[X] "...we need to talk to Cranial. See what my status is before the convention. It's still a while, but if we can get any hints or clues about it, well, it might help us manage this."

[X] "...we need to talk to Cranial. See what my status is before the convention. It's still a while, but if we can get any hints or clues about it, well, it might help us manage this."

"We should tell Dean, maybe Madison." Victoria says after a moment. "Even if nobody else, Dean definitely..." She whips out her phone.

She puts it back way too fast.

"Do I want to know what you sent?" You ask.

"Not if you like him, no."

There's an awkward silence.

"I'm not comfortable making the call yet." You admit. "Like, we're definitely over. I'll never kiss her again, but I've never broken up with anyone before. Um, how do you do it?"

"Shortest text message with the most ambiguity possible to convey the breakup." Victoria tells you. "Then again, the entire point of that strategy is to draw it out, create mystery, get him to go after you. Might not work on anyone but Dean, and seems like the exact opposite of what you want to do. Yeah, think about it."

"Wait, so you chose that strategy now because..."

"We're not going to talk about that." Wait, is she making some kind of dominance play over both of you? Treating you like Dean? You're not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

"No need to breakup with her officially now. Think about how to do it. What do you want from her anyway? As a not-girlfriend."

"She's a friend. A really good friend, actually. Funny, incredibly kind to me, willing to let me turn her gay on a supposed bet."

"Supposed?" Victoria smiles.

"The whole dog and pony show? I think it was some kind of, not sure exactly. At the very least it was Sophia setting me up in a couple ways. I'm just not sure if Madison was in on it or not. I'm not sure what I want to be true, either." Victoria laughs.

"Yeah, I'll admit that I'm feeling a lot less jealous of Madison now. Sophia's a lunatic, of course, but who isn't? Honestly she'd be my first choice, before." You smile.

"Really? So, you were shipping me with Emergency Backup Victoria?" Victoria blushes a bit.

"Well, yeah. If you were going to be like that anyway, I may have thought she was appropriate compared to Madison."

"We are so gloriously messed up." You sigh contentedly.

"Ooh, food!" Victoria says, pointing at the waitress as she comes in. "Let's see if expensive food is also tasty food!" She begins taking experimental bites to determine what to feed you, how, and in what order.

You love how little has changed.

___

Cranial's Toybox is moving in. Currently it seems to consist largely of a set of vans and RVs camped out a bit outside of the city.

Cranial's RV is quite cozy. She takes down the wall of horrors as you talk, since you obviously don't need it right now.

"So, um..." Victoria starts. The two of you sit on a nice red loveseat, holding hands. It's plush and comfortable and you kind of suspect Cranial might have bought it with you and Victoria in mind.

"Amy, how comfortable are you with discussing everything I know so far?" Cranial asks. "I have a lot of clues and hints about this subject, and it is perfectly understandable if you want Victoria to wait outside for any part of this. There is a certain level of confidentiality you might require."

"Victoria knows everything and can know everything. If you learned something I knew, or kept secret, I told her by now. We've changed. I hope we've changed for the better." Cranial is silent for a moment.

"You actually did it, didn't you?" Her voice is very quiet.

"With permission and consent, if this is what I think it is." You're really bad at hiding this.

"Oh, Amy." Cranial shakes her disturbing bat like head. "I am the last person to complain about someone being careless with this kind of power, but this is so dangerous. You have to tell me exactly what you did."

"I, um, changed Victoria's sexuality to be a lesbian, removed the Westermark effect association with myself, and changed some minor details of her love to make it more romantic than sisterly. A lot of it was intuitive."

"Explain your reasoning." Cranial's voice is firm but kind.

"Siblings don't mate. If we're going to mate, it would cause a lot more stress, conflicting drives, if I didn't touch her actual feelings just a bit, move things relating to Dean to me. Overall I'd say 99.5% of her feelings are unchanged. What we were before, it was killing both of us."

"Yes it was. I haven't lived your life yet, but I've been working out instances, impressions, feelings. I would like to take a scan of Victoria to see if there are any obvious mistakes you made, check your work, but from what I know I can't fault you for it if she did consent and especially request this alteration. I do very much want to ensure that you did not alter her to think she consented."

"I wouldn't even know how to do that." You argue.

"Honestly, I trust you unconditionally, but, um, yeah, I'd like to verify." Victoria mutters. "Please don't take this the wrong way, Amy, but I'd like to know I wasn't mind screwed into it. Even by, maybe someone else? Like, I don't think that's what happened, but..."

"It's fine." You lean over and kiss her.

"I am a fan of verifying trust. It's how it worked with my husband." You pause.

"You used the past tense." Victoria says.

"He had a secret identity, and he is dead. I was married to the secret identity. I do not wish to reveal the fact. I consider myself to be still married, and hope to one day bring him back in so far as it is possible." You and Victoria sit there a bit stunned.

"That is so romantic!" Victoria suddenly gushes. "Oh, Amy, we're helping reunite her with her lost love! I feel so good about this!" She laughs and hugs you. There's a flash into your suit, communication. WE SHOULD PLAY THIS UP.

"Oh, you should have told me sooner!" You agree. "Is this what we're helping with? The convention?"

"Not directly, but indirectly." Cranial seems somewhat taken aback by your enthusiasm. "You might be helpful when I actually attempt it, but it is not the purpose of this. I want a safer world before this happens."

"No problem!" Victoria smiles warmly. "So, what can you tell us about Amy's problems?"

"Are you willing to accept theories and suspicions in addition to facts?" Cranial asks. "I have a model in my head, and I make good guesses. I think presenting my best guess model would be informative, but if you want only the facts I can communicate I can do that."

"Sure, tell us everything." You nod.

"My suspicion is that Victoria's Stranger ability, what is called her aura, is an adaptation by her powers specifically targeted at Amy. The other uses are fringe benefits. The level of influence over Amy is not matched by records of influences over Gallant or your parents, or anyone else. There are certain reasonable explanations unrelated to the power, but I do not think two years of similar exposure would account for the level of dependency. Note I am working backwards, and so far have a much better understanding of the past few years than the earlier periods." You nod.

"Wait, why would that have happened?" Victoria asks. "I love Amy. Why would my powers mess her up?"

"Our powers do not understand us very well, Victoria." Cranial says. "I believe you have loved her for eleven years. This has been a massive part of your life, correct?" Victoria scowls.

"Of course. She's always been a huge part of my life, ever since I saw her. I had wanted a sister before I got one, and I liked her right away. She was cute and scared when I first saw her, and I wanted to help her. I did right away, as she needed to use the bathroom." You smile at the memory. You kind of got weirdly close really fast.

"I am drawing on less than scientific information, but I have been investigating the situation for hints. Interviews, a biography of Lady Photon, newspaper articles, everything I can find on the situation. I believe you were lonely before Amy arrived. Your mother is unstable and had very little time, and your father was clinically depressed, though less so than he is now. Reports on you indicated you were outgoing but socially awkward, not particularly popular, and often had trouble due to your celebrity status. I think you wanted the power to make friends, but you wanted your sister the most. So your powers compensated." Victoria nods, looking sad.

"So it's my fault..."

"The uncontrolled desires of a lonely thirteen year old girl are not ones I will attach much ethical weight to. You have nothing to be forgiven for. I am trying to create a coherent explanation for why Amy was hit by incestuous desires while no one else was. I think it is because your powers understood Amy the best. If they could have your powers would have caused something like this to everyone, striking as much attachment as possible, been subtle and specified. That is what I think is the most likely explanation, though I do not like it." Victoria looks back up, having been paying attention to you.

"Wait, why not?"

"It clashes with a lot of my experience with powers. There are two other possibilities. I like them both better, but I consider them less likely."

"I'm listening." Victoria says.

"The one I consider least likely, but interesting, is that second generation capes do not have entirely normal trigger events." Cranial starts. "I think it is possible you had a subtle version of your aura active for years before your actual trigger. I do not think the idea of an early trigger and a second trigger event is plausible, but I think that it is plausible that powers are active on a low level before they become obvious, waiting for an initial push to rise to action, especially in second generation capes. The ease of the trigger suggests to me that the powers are inside your kind of cape all along, but wait for some kind of push. This would actually be quite useful, as it prevents younger capes from harming themselves or others before they are ready. There are holes in this theory, but the idea that your aura began to work on Amy long before your official trigger. That much formative exposure would explain a lot." You nod.

"Fuck that!" Victoria suddenly shouts. What?

"Please, I am not trying to insult..."

"You're saying the only way I could get a sister is to force her to love me! That's fucked up sick bullshit! Amy loves me!" Victoria is shaking. "She, she's kind of all I really have, or the thing I care about the most. I just broke up with Dean, left my parents, for her. The idea I needed..."

"We can both hope this isn't true, and honestly this is the theory I think is least plausible. Do you mind if I continue?"

"I apologize, Mrs. Quintin." Victoria says. "I, that just, I took it the wrong way."

"If it did, I'm glad it did." You tell her. "I would be nothing without you."

"That is a messed up sentiment." Cranial tells you both. "Now, here is my third theory. The aura is not responsible for the incestuous feelings. People do actually have them without powers changing them. Given your somewhat late adoption I can see Westermarck Effect influences being limited. Your love might be natural and not related to the depression. Honestly, I do not have a large enough sample size for my data to know if a rare case like this is simply a normal, if rare result off similar situations, or if it would require the aura. I can understand the brain as a system completely, but without much data I am not actually an expert on psychology in the same way I would like to be. I am a great neurology and psychiatry tinker, but commenting on mental illness is something I am less qualified for. In that case the abnormal brain chemistry is likely a result of exposure at certain points of brain development..."

"We slept together at first." Victoria's voice kind of cracks. "Like, chastely. Every night for months before we started high school. So, add six hours every day, a lot of the same classes at school where we could sit together, could that have normalized it before she got her powers?"

"That could be possible. I will try to investigate that and see if that helps explain parts of my model. Now, I think I have made a mistake. We have become sidetracked by sex talk, one of the problems in many discussions. The incestuous attraction is not the most serious issue. The serious issue is the fact that Amy is not capable of enjoying work without Victoria's presence, and she needs to work twelve hour shifts. That is much, much worse. You two can work through or process your relationship, but the lack of agency involved in that is the whole reason you came to me in the first place."

"Thank you. I'm sorry I distracted you." You nod. "So, what can you offer with that?"

"I think the core issue is that your brain is not merely endorphin addicted. That I could work around. Victoria's aura works around making her seem more important and valuable than she is. It means you have a highly inconsistent set of natural responses to the pain of others and your general values. I think this is attached to your problems with your mother's lack of trust in you. Your intuitive ethics and values are based on what is similar to Victoria. A rush of weaker people is nothing like her. You can't feel pride or satisfaction in it easily. You can from novelty. I think this is a result of the early pattern for your healing, with Victoria being with you for a large part of your first cases when you were experimenting, and then leaving a bit before you were done with it. I strongly suspect that is why you have been experimenting so much lately as an escape. Your tinker like drive comes from that period." You nod. That really rings true to you.

"So, I could simply make you enjoy healing, and feel accomplished every time you heal someone. I've done much the same with housework and jobs before, to spectacular results. You could be happy for your twelve hour shifts, come home refreshed and energized, and begin to work on whatever scientific projects, recreation, or time with Victoria you want." That sounds heavenly. "I do think I would need to make you enjoy it to an almost dangerous degree, to counteract Victoria's aura. Making something important independent of Victoria at all would have the same effect if I wasn't going to change you very radically." Victoria starts stroking your knee.

"You know, I like this idea." Victoria giggles. "You as my cute little heal bot. Happy all the time. We'd both have our own independent lives. No more guilt about it..." You breathe in sharply.

"I'll strongly consider this." You agree. "So, what else is there to talk about for the depression?"

"My biggest problem is trying to figure out how to make it so you can grow independently. I think in a way you are like a plant, growing towards Victoria as plants grow towards the sun. I do not think this is healthy. You should be able to like bands that do not consist of two gorgeous blond sisters who sing angsty music that reminds you of your feelings, like movies that aren't about an incredibly devoted sister who is a healer with abnormal sexuality. I'm kind of surprised you could stretch your horizons enough to like Flowers in the Attic." You blush.

"Oh." Victoria sighs. "You know, a lot of things just clicked."

"What do you suggest?" You ask quietly. This is a bit embarrassing.

"I suggest coding in increased novelty seeking, with a psychological urge so it reminds you of Victoria to do so. I think this is the best way to handle your set of quirks and make you less dependent." You nod. Novelty seeking is good, right?"

"I kind of like how everything she does circles back to me." Victoria admits, playing with your robe a bit. "Like, even before I realized..."

"It is really not healthy, but there is a counter argument. These are all radical changes. I think they're for the better, but they might make your sister less Amy. A happy, curious girl open to knew things is not the person you're in love with." Victoria nods. "If you two can work out a more personalized set of changes in the next couple weeks I would be happy to hear them." That sounds reasonable.

"So, is there anything else you want to ask about, specifically?" Cranial asks.

[X] Write in. Is there?

Not quite done.

____

"See you tomorrow." Cranial says. "I think it's going to be a lot of fun, actually." You and Victoria both hug her on your way out.

"She's nice." Victoria says. "And she's smart. Is it weird I kind of want to set her up with Dean?"

"Yes!" You push her playfully. "That's maybe the weirdest thing you've ever said."

"That's, um, Case 53ist." Victoria laughs.

"So, want to go to our convention hotel room?" You ask.

"Sure." Victoria agrees.

You get the suspicion that Cranial had known or strongly suspected you might be with Victoria by now, given she got you two a single room with a large bed that seems designed to be cozy and domestic. Julian's room is very different, cool and sleek, across the hall.

"I want to talk about Ragged Angel." Victoria says. "Before we shower. It's kind of..."

"I get it." You assure her. "What do you want to say?"

"You are an inspiration. And Idol before which others aspire and pray. But you did not make yourself an idol, you did not ask them to worship your path." Victoria starts stroking your hair again. "You're the greatest healer, the Panacea, but you didn't want to be a healer. Not like this, anyway. You didn't want the world on your shoulders. You were adopted into a crazy family. You shouldn't have to be a role model for anyone."

"Ragged Angel was right." You start. "Incest, a lot of incest, is really bad, and it will influence others, it would set precedent and standard. It would say that if capes want something enough they matter enough to get things changed. Sure, we're good, Legend's good, but what if some pedophile killed an Endbringer? Fights them, saves the world? They might think that if Legend gets what he wants, I get what I want, he can do anything he wants to children? I can't live with that."

"The fact is even we had the purest and most untainted love in the eyes of the world then there would still be others who took the wrong lessons from it. It wouldn't matter who we are. People are idiots." Victoria kisses you softly. "We're good, Ames. We can't live in that fishbowl. We didn't choose to be New Wave." Victoria lets you sit there for a moment. "To live the kind of lie which has been strangling you is a worse example. Sunlight disinfects."

"You really want to come out, don't you?"

"I'm not going to ask you to do it yet, but think about it, please. We're not New Wave if we keep this kind of secret. I may not have chose to be New Wave, but I want to do right by it. They could glamorize us. they could glorify is, they could think we're saints or monsters, but you are not a monument to the world, you are human, and the acceptance of love shouldn't be a crime if it is love shared. I. Love. You. Amy Claire Fevere or Amy Claire Dallon, I love you. Whatever we become, I want to love you as much as I can for as long as I live. Refuse to feel guilty about that. You said you like me being dominant? Then submit on that. I love you. You are not allowed to feel guilty about anything that has happened. You've been killing yourself for a long time, with the hospital and with this. Other people can be role models, and we can be Guts and Glory."

"I, you weren't in any condition to consent." You mutter. "I did something stupid and weak."

"Alright then." Victoria smiles. "Undo it now." Your heart breaks, but it only takes a second.

"Amy Dallon, I request that you do it again, and do it with a kiss. I consent to loving you romantically, in full possession of my mind and senses. Take what I offer you, and understand I want to do this right this time."

You kiss her and it is glorious.

At least you don't dislocate anything this time.

___

Interlude:

[X] Glory Girl.

[X] Jack Slash.

[X] Cranial.

[X] Jack Slash

The whole thing is a trap. You can feel it in your gut. This is one of the very, very few times you have truly failed to control your group.

There was no way to keep Mannequin from wanting to come. This was always his mission. He was born for this, the chance to ruin a festival ofhope. Shatterbird had said Cranial was always his white whale. You had hoped to keep Cranial alive for longer to give him something to look forward to.

Bonesaw screamed like a girl her age might at a boy band in a magazine when she heard about this. No stopping her. So many chances for her to get ideas and materials, prove she is the best, and to get herself a sister? You can't allow Panacea to join, of course.

Shatterbird voted for it as well, the chance to ruin something this big proved irresistible to her, and she didn't try to resist.

Crawler just wanted to see if Myrddin or Sunslinger could hurt him, but Crawler absolutely wanted to take them on.

You're not sure why Siberian wanted to come. It didn't seem like her, but she had been as insistent about it as you had ever seen her.

Burnscar didn't care at all. Hatchet Face actively voted against coming here, voting for another boarding school for girls, but those get repetitive.

Five against three in favor of hitting Chicago. It's stupid and it's risky, but you're going to make the best of it. Top priority is Panacea. If Panacea joins your Nine than Bonesaw would get her big sister, and then where would you be with Siberian?

You also just hate the bitch.

It's the first day of the convention. Security is tight, but there are limits to how tight. You and Bonesaw enter, you as a very old man from India with severe facial deformities, Bonesaw as a horribly sick and morbidly obese woman. You will get the lay of the land the first day, and make your move on the second.

You can't help but be annoyed at the security. Dragon is exactly wrong for this. Make Panacea the gate keeper of the sick right at the front, scanning for Corona Gammas, with a powerful Stranger, possibly her Harrier, to the side. They don't need firepower. Siberian could break through any level of firepower, they need intelligence and quick evacuation.

You slowly walk around the place, taking it all in. Mr. Storkfish, a bizarre Case 53 from Miami, is possibly the most dangerous person here given your counters to Panacea and Cranial. The ability to stop time in selected areas gives him and his allies time to setup and prepare. Worse are his friends. You're not beating Florida Man, and the Erudite is almost as dangerous. Mr. Storkfish keeps pausing time around him, accelerating it within his fields, giving his feathers time to clone the natural and healthy body parts.

Fodder from New York, has her mentor, Good Neighbor, and a new cape, Cimmerian, a former villain from Brockton Bay. Cimmerian is troublesome. Shakers complicate things, make it harder to take control of the situation. Fodder, or Marian Rose, could never keep a secret identity given her powers involve dropping copies of her own corpse. Fighting her directly is likely to be disappointing. Maybe if you kill Good Neighbor? Bonesaw would call him family. She'd just enjoy it if you killed her. Hatchet Face is the one to send after them. You smile at the idea. He has an easy carrot, just let him murder a pretty young superheroine or a bunch of cheerleaders every couple weeks and he's happy.

Scapegoat, recently transferred from Boston to Houston, has by far the fewest people looking for his help. He's not a threat. More worrying are his parents, Magog and Sataniel, the redeemed soldier of the Fallen and the former princess of Haven, long married and believed to have several adorable children. To get those powers with parents like his just has to suck.

Second only to Panacea's line is Ichor. If you're not racist and don't have body image issues she is a very good deal. The flow of people accepting her blood to heal all kinds of ailments really is quite impressive. You absolutely have to give her a fate worse than death before you go, and be absolutely sure not to let either of her guests survive. Witch is far too good a Thinker, you'll have to send Siberian after her early on, and Trick sends shivers down your spine.

You hear laughter and look up to see Panacea being brought lunch by her Glory Girl. A wave of disgust hits you. She's second only to Scion. She could be so much more, she could be anything, and all she does is patch people up.

Suddenly, you make eye contact with Glory Girl as she sets the tray down in front of Panacea. From across the room you see...

Fuck, you have to kill her or have her in your Nine. You're not even sure why, but it's an urge, an itch, that claws right up in your chest. She's glorious. You start thinking rapidly. You can trust your intuitions, always, but why this one?

She's building her own team. Choosing dangerous personalities, balancing them, controlling them. It strikes you that her aura could be very useful. A carrot that could effect, well, everyone, but she's not using her aura on you, she can't be, so you can think rationally about it. Crawler and Siberian especially would be far easier with her on the team.

You smile and it really hurts with the tumors Bonesaw put on your face. This takes care of Panacea perfectly. Merely nominate Glory Girl for the Nine as well as Panacea. Honestly, Glory Girl won't last long, but she will definitely last longer than her sister.

This is working out quite well.

___

It's definitely a trap. You move far too easily through the halls of the rooms Cranial rented for her special guests. You know it's a trap, so you can work around it.

You walk around the room, softly smell the sheets with the enhanced smell Bonesaw gave you.

They're fucking. A feeling of revulsion fills your gut. They're sisters. Suddenly things begin to click. So much begins to click involving what you looked up about them. She had pressured her perfect sister into it, begging and mewling and mindraping...

You have a strong stomach, but sex of any kind has always disturbed you. Preying on someone so close to you is something, well, you'd do it, you'd have to, but it's not appealing, it scares you. Your Nine would make Glory Girl a much better family.

You can't resist hiding under the bed. That's what boogeymen do.

___

End Interlude
___

[X]There is something that Cranial can help with. "I'm not sure I want to go back to healing, at least not so much. People are dying everywhere and I can only heal so many. It seems sort of futile. I want to do more. When I was helping Ragged Angel, we talked about creating an intelligence that could help her protect her people, like a defense system. A caretaker. We decided not to because it was too dangerous, and a bit creepy, but you can help me with that. I'd like to teach me as much as you can about brains, and maybe help me create a mind from scratch. I want to change the world, really change it, for the better in a way that I can't accomplish just be healing people twelve hours a day. That would be a first step."

"I can help you with that. I would obviously prefer to do it once I have hacked your brain. It is far easier to impress these things than to teach them naturally." You nod.

"That makes sense. Another thing. "You said that you could give people skills. There are some things I'd like to learn. Engineering and architecture. Things that can help me build. How to fight. Diplomacy. How to manage a massive international organization. How to be a mother. The only role model I have for that is Carol. I want to have kids someday and I don't want to screw them up."

"Someday?" Victoria gives you a look.

"Well, yesterday, obviously, but we want to hold off until I'm somewhat more reliable psychologically, around Victoria's 18th birthday."

"I believe no one is actually sure what your birthday is?" Cranial asks.

"Correct. We always shared Victoria's, but it was lost when I transferred in. Estimates put me from around five months younger to roughly nine months older than her, based on some contradictory information. I like being the little sister, honestly, always have. Legally, we just wrote down Victoria's birthday."

"That is said." Cranial whispers.

"No, it isn't. I kind of like the ambiguity, if that makes any sense?" You nod at Victoria.

"It helped me win arguments when we were little. I could say she was older than I was when it seemed useful, and younger when I wanted to be in charge." Victoria giggles, and Cranial gives a surprisingly young and musical laugh.

"I don't think I've ever met a child who didn't care about her birthday, Amy. You are quite a character. I look forward to helping you grow and make a family full of love. You do have a lot of love in your heart, and I think a child would be good for you, help you grow to love people besides your wonderful sister."

You snuggle up against Victoria, feeling, well, that someone is respecting your feelings.

"There's something else." Victoria says. "We had a brief power outage earlier. That's weird, isn't it? Power negation, could that happen randomly?"

"Highly unlikely. Florida Man might cause it, but it is extremely unlikely. I would suspect either Hatchet Face or an unknown cape." Victoria swallows. Hatchet Face is one of the very few real crime cases to actually scare her.

"But he has short range. We were high up. So it's not him, right?"

"Actually, that would fit." Cranial says. "His range is like a pillar he is supporting. It goes up rather high, and he can move it, though not well, to point or swing in other directions high up. It relates to his trigger event. One of the heroes attacking him was a flying blaster." Victoria suddenly squizes your hand.

"Are you saying the Nine are here." She whispers. "We have to call it off..."

"No, we don't. The Nine are in Chicago. I fully believe it is not their MO to attack a heavily fortified position. Mannequin specifically is the threat most likely to attack, and Siberian is scared of me. My scream does work on her, if nothing else does. The Slaughterhouse Nine are probably here. This was always a possibility. I have prepared for them."

"How do you prepare for the Slaughterhouse Nine?" You ask.

"By being very smart, and just as well connected, Amy. There was always going to be a threat to strike here. If it was the Three Blasphemies, the Yangban, the Simurgh, or the Slaughterhouse Nine was the question. The world is full of evil monsters who would want to ruin this. That was the very first objection Sphere raised all those years ago. I am going to end a great evil, and then I am going to do a great work of good." You feel a rush of awe. The sheer arrogance, but the confidence, is impressive.

Victoria hops up, hugs Cranial, and gives her a kiss on the lower jaw. "That is fucking awesome."

"It really is, isn't it?" Cranial sounds proud.

You can't beg to leave now, can you?

___

The convention is healing, but it's interesting healing, and it's great to see other people work. Cranial has set up recording devices everywhere, including on your body and on those of the patients and other healers, and is taking notes on how each of you heal everything. You of course get by far the widest variety.

The first round of direct testing is pretty fun, with Cranial asking you to do different things, work on a mouse as it dies, attempt to control tree bark and exposed bone, work with several extremely similar species of tropical insect. She is beaming from the sound of her voice when you leave, though her body looks as nightmarish as ever.

"This is already teaching me a lot. I can't wait for the more specific testing, and to see what Dragon thinks." She assures you. Victoria leads you away.

"So, what do we do before we head to bed?" Victoria asks. The idea of going straight to bed is tempting, but you're at a convention with all the best healers! You really have to talk shop with one before you go to bed.

"I'd love to, Victoria, but come on, I've been reading about some of these people for years. I want to talk to..."

[X] "...Scapegoat."

[X] "...Mr. Storkfish."

[X] "...Fodder."

Bonus:

If you really think that this is railroading, and Amy would dash after hearing this, add:

[X] "I've been thinking, Victoria. I didn't sign up for this. Being a sting operation. I get her reasoning, I really do, but I'm scared. I want to leave now before anything happens to us. We can always help her after this is over."

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Bullseye

[X] " "I'd love to, Victoria, but come on, I've been reading about some of these people for years. I want to talk to Mr. Storkfish."

"Who's that?" Victoria asks, letting you lead her down the hall.

"Very arguably the most powerful healer who isn't me." You begin. "Powerful at healing, at least." You pause. "Eidolon never manifested as good a healing power. He takes a single feather from one of his wings and drops it on someone. Then time goes all weird and the person repairs whatever damage. Instant, highly effective, leaves a person better than the start."

"What's the catch?" Victoria asks simply.

"Three. One is he doesn't have limitless feathers. He grows them quickly, but not super quickly. He can only maintain a few dozen healing feathers a day. Two is that his feathers can only work with natural body parts, if you have a birth defect it grows it back. Three is he's not that good with infections. Basically all the things I am really good at are the things he can't do. He can still do a lot, of course. He's usually the one they call in for Endbringer fights."

"Hm, what exactly is so great about a few dozen a day?" Victoria asks.

"Well, 60 a day, so that's roughly 21,000 a year. There are a lot of crippled people, but there's a lot fewer with him. There's also various surgeries that he can help with, like otherwise inoperable tumors that would kill someone to get to that he can make safe. He's powerful, and that's now his only power."

"You're going to tell me what his super special power is."

"Time stopper." Victoria does look impressed.

"Like Dispatch? Cool." Victoria smiles.

"He came first, but Case 53 and stuck in a hospital a lot. He's also got a lot of versatility. Not as much as me, but he can cause his feathers to grow into organisms or constructs in his stopped time zones. He's powerful, versatile, and a healer. Also I hear he's really nice."

"Hm, all of those are good, but why do you want to talk to him specifically?" Victoria asks. "You're talking about cool and shiny powers because I like those, but what makes him a great conversationalist and person you would rather speak to than worship me?" Your mouth goes suddenly dry.

"Um..." You stutter. Victoria stops the walk and waits patiently for you to recover.

"He's been doing it longer." You finish. "Sixteen years. I kind of need to know how he does it. He was one of the first people I was compared to. I want to know what it's like, if I can stay that long. It matters less now, but it's something I would have wanted to do eventually even before Albany." Victoria looks at you very intently.

"I understand." She says. "Sure, Cranial's offering the best fix, but I see needing, um, whatever it is you need."

"Thank you." She accepts this, and you finish your walk down the long hallway. Victoria knocks for you.

Erudite answers the door. People say she's naturally a slight little thing, but her power suit is built in such a way to look like large, masculine muscles. She's a cyborg of an amazingly complex type. It is said that her body is only an augmented brain, and that she spends most of her time working on her fantastically complex robotic suits, of which she has several. She is a Thinker and a Tinker capable of mastering subjects quickly but incapable of describing what she knows. There's a lot of argument over whether she's a traditional Tinker or just an incredibly powerful Thinker.

"Ah, the Dallon sisters. It is an honor." Erudite's voice contains a smile, though like Cranial you have to wonder how true it is.

"The honor is ours, Erudite. My sister would like to speak to Mr. Storkfish." Victoria says.

"In exchange, I would like a word with you." Erudite says. Victoria glances at you and turns back to her.

"That is reasonable."

"Let's go for a walk." Erudite says.

"Mind if I abandon you?" Victoria asks.

"Only if it's brief." You smile. She hugs you.

"Just call me on your suit when you're done." XOXOXO, on your suit, something you return. The girls walk off.

Mr. Storkfish lies on a couch. He is one of the rare Case 53s without hands, instead he has a remarkable set of wings that have allowed him to perform physically impossible stunts. He makes soft, inhuman sounds to a tablet computer. Mr. Storkfish's face is human until feathers start and lead into a huge birdlike body for the top half. The bottom half is scaled and full of gills, along with a tail that reminds you of a shark.

"Good evening Miss Dallon." You frown. You've kind of started thinking of Fevere as your maiden name, so Miss Dallon makes you very mildly sad.

"Good evening, Mr. Storkfish, or do you have another name you would rather I use?"

"I was never one for dignity." He tells you. "Call me Mr. Storkfish, or sir if you find that too silly."

"Yes sir." You nod. "So, why are you at the convention?"

"Abigale and I are Case 53s, and there are not many of us. We need to stick together." He sighs. "I don't know if I'm old, but I feel old. No idea how my body will last. None of us have ever really aged, you know. Are we immortal, or just going to die one day without warning?" You smile. This is more morbid than you expected, which is such a relief. You'd been worried you'd meet the wise, dutiful paragon you'd read of in the magazines.

"I could see if I can gather any hints to that, with your permission."

"Sure." He offers you a wing, and you accept. His DNA is nonsense, like most Case 53s that even have DNA.

"Sorry sir, no luck." You break the contact.

"I've never had much of it. Not a surprise." He sounds bitter. "Abigale's the only one who has ever managed to give me a glimpse of being normal, and when I wake up it's gone." You nod.

"If I could help, I would. I've worked with prosthetic hands before, on Case 53s..."

"Nah, no need for hands. It's not the little things, it's the big ones. Not walking down the street, going to a film, not having a wife."

"Cranial had a husband." You point out.

"Yeah, she did. I'm old and bitter, or I should be. You came here for a reason."

"You've been a healer, and a Case 53, for years and years. I was wondering how you do it."

"Drugs, to keep me happy. It's the only thing that does. Lies, to make me sound safe. I suggest you experiment with both." You nod.

"Thank you for your time, sir."

"I'm sorry. I wish I could offer something better, but I burned out all my wisdom seven years ago. Talk to someone wise and kind. Abigale's always good for that. So is Legend, my old teammate. Look elsewhere for someone to be like. I'm just hoping this convention will let me rest more, or at least have a decent fight for once." You nod.

"I think we're all hoping for the first." You walk away, disappointed, but strangely at peace. You feel more normal now.

___

"What did Erudite want to talk about?" You ask Victoria. She's looking annoyed.

"She wanted me to join the Miami Protectorate when I come of age. They need a figurehead, and she thought my aura would be perfect." Victoria spits into a passing trashcan. "We're New Wave. If I wanted to work for them I'd be a Ward." You shudder in sympathy.

"So, I guess we can head back." You stroke your glorious sister's arm. "You said something about..."

"Amy Dallon?" A feminine voice with an odd accent and voice changer comes from behind you. You turn around and see a heavily costumed and armored woman.

"Yes?"

"I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Dragon." Victoria makes a little gasp.

"You want to talk to me?" You say. You've actually always been more comfortable with this kind of thing than Victoria.

"Yes. I want to speak on some of your recent Tinkering." You nod.

"Sure, if Victoria can come."

"I think I'll get ready." Victoria winks at you.

"Oh, um, that's better." You smile at her. What is she planning? You kind of want the surprise. Victoria rises from the floor a little to speed off.

"I believe there's been some talk of some biotech projects in Brockton Bay. I would like to talk about this." Dragon says. "I have been working with the head of the local Wards, Tecton, about city design. With Brockton Bay heavily damaged, the idea of a test run for a Tinker designed and maintained city strikes me as a good idea." You follow Dragon, the two of you talking excitedly.

"So, how are we getting Tecton into Brockton Bay?" You ask after a while, sipping on a delightful drink Dragon claimed to have invented.

"I am arranging for Tecton and Aegis to trade teams. Aegis has run into some political issues related to his career as the leader of the local Wards, and I believe a fresh start for him would be good. Aegis's parents agree, and something like this was being seriously considered before Leviathan. Tecton has always wanted to work with major urban redesign, and while he will miss his old team he is very happy with the chance." You smile. It does sound like a good match.

"This is a complete change of subject, but New Wave has been expanding lately, for the first time in years. You're a major part of the Guild. Aunt Sarah always wanted to take the movement national or international, but very few people followed us. The current flowering seems very lucky. A kind of second chance. I was wondering if New Wave could work with the Guild on producing more of our suits, expanding franchises, and other projects."

"You would need to speak with Narwhal about it. The Guild is a very different beast from what you might make New Wave into, so the advice is likely to be limited. I can give you contact information for such advice. The PRT would benefit from and offer more assistance, Amy. I'm sending you emails on everything we talked about, and I am fine to work with more ideas for your biotech when you have a bit more time." You nod.

Then you hear some horrible, unearthly sound, and Dragon freezes up. "I am about to remote pilot one of my suits. I will not be able to hear you.

Glass, all the glass, is moving. You wrap yourself in your suit.

It doesn't break. This is Shatterbird, right? The Nine are here, and...

The battle continues for minutes, and then stops. Next, you hear a very loud voice full of passion that strikes you as very much like Victoria's.

"Failure. Coward. I can counter you. I can counter you completely when you sing. You are not worth the time that this is taking. Kill me if you can."

The Slaughterhouse Nine are here.

You're running down the hall to your room as fast as you can, smashing through the door. Jack Slash sits on your bed, playing with a knife, looking pleased with himself, his eyes shot out of his head, several hundred darts sticking from various pieces, and clearly having been through a generally large fight. That doesn't stop you from throwing everything you have at him.

"Please, dear. This is getting repetitive. Sit down next to your sister." You look frantically with your suit's senses. She's alive, her face covered with her hood, her suit torn and lashed and partially spent. "If you charge me you're not going to reach me before I take you down."

You sit down next to Victoria, transmitting information to Eraser.

"Now, you came just in time. You need to see this." Jack smiles. "I have been making a deal with your sister, isn't that right?"

"You could call it that, yes." Victoria's voice barely contains her fury.

"It's simple enough. We're leaving together. If you two make any contact, I leave. You two stay apart, I stay, and my Nine stay." Jack addresses you. It makes your skin crawl.

"So we can just make you leave?" What's the problem here.

"Yes. Either we stay in a city trying to kill us, with some of the strongest capes in the world, or we go eat a preschool somewhere else. You can try to kill us, just alone. Little old me versus all the reinforcements they'll call in isn't much of a fight, is it?"

"Is that all?" You ask.

"Oh, I told your sister something else, offered her something that no one else really, truly, can, least of all you, but if she tells you what it is, why, that makes me leave too." Jack Slash smiles. "I think it's fair, since I didn't kill her in front of you to prepare you to join." You feel like throwing up. "Isn't that right, pet?" The term makes you feel sick.

"That's right." Victoria keeps addressing Jack. "Not that you're right. It's crazy. You can't give me that."

"I'm the only one who can." Jack assures her. "So, your Victoria has agreed. What about you? Does this seem fair?"

[X] "Yes." This actually might help kill the Slaughterhouse Nine.

[X] "No." Jack cheats. He always cheats.

[X] "Of course." Jack cheats, and so will you. This could give a crucial distraction for the forces of good.

[X] "No." Jack cheats. He always cheats.

Something is wrong. Victoria practically falls down next to you.

"Ah, perfect little sub, did you actually think I was dealing with you?" Jack sounds amused. Then he outright laughs. "It's too late for the suit, dear. It's not working. Why? Your transmissions aren't hitting it right. It's dying. Something was timed to hit all at once, too many attacks to focus on. Bonesaw's work?

Victoria is a blur, maybe the fastest you've ever seen her, or it could just be the fear and adrenalin. Your eyes don't follow what happens next, but a moment later Victoria's on the ground howling in pain with a needle sticking out of her mask where her eye should be.

"In this case you are allowed to repair her." Jack smiles as he gets up and walks towards the door.

"So you're leaving Chicago?" You ask.

"No, of course not. You were never worth making a deal with." Jack says. You move forward, trying to figure out what on Earth is in your suit and killing it, the suit malfunctioning makes it slow going, it clinches at the wrong time, punctures your leg, ow. "This was just to prove a point." Jack leaves the room. It takes an agonizing half a minute to get to Victoria. You panic, and just kill everything in the suit and pull the glove off your hand to touch Victoria when the suit won't pull back, and kill her suit as well. Some kind of poison, some horrible, ugly poison is hitting her brain. You scream when you feel it, and begin fighting it hard. The poison isn't something of your power, biological, you need to fight it, actually moving Victoria's brain deep into her throat and expelling the fluid over the carpet before working desperately to craft her back to semi-normal. You end up sucking in her breast meat and using it for her throat. She looks so thin, so fragile, so wounded.

Victoria wakes up with a kiss.

"What was that?" You ask.

"I, nothing." Victoria clenches her jaw. "Jack is a liar and a monster. This is just another attack. We are not going to discuss this. We are going to help people." There's something in her tone of voice that cuts deep.

"We don't have our suits..."

"Can you repair them now?"

"No."

"Then we're going now." Victoria grabs you and swoops you outward. You're not sure if you like that she doesn't give you a chance to say no.

You meet up with Magog, Sataniel, and Scapegoat in the hallway. Victoria stops when she reaches them.

"Did you receive any instructions? Jack broke my phone."

"Burnscar's set the far building on fire." Victoria nods. "Need a lift?"

"We do." Magog says, pointing to his son. "Love, you can go alone, right?"

"Always, dearest." Satanial kisses Magog's helmet and then a rippling, glowing serpent moves away at shocking speed.

"Scapegoat, grab on over my back." Victoria orders, and he does so. She grabs Magog with one arm and kicks off, bringing you and the father son heroes down the hall and outward until you're almost at the blaze. Victoria drops you off and kicks up to the top floor, long gone. Magog and Scapegoat march in through a hole made on the ground floor.

The heroes move quickly, forming two zones, one for the critically injured, and one for the less critically injured. You work as quickly as possible, triaging, preventing death and brain damage first before moving onto someone else. Once the fires are out and everyone living has been stablized you move onto other problems, repairing the damage from the fire, ensuring people will not be permanently injured.

Victoria drops back down next to you, finally. It's long after the fire stopped.

"Victoria, I really need to know what that was about." You mutter.

"He was trying to tear us apart." Victoria is quiet for a moment. "I thought you believed in me."

"I do..." You whisper.

"No, you don't. You're obsessed with me. You're in love with me. You don't believe in me or you'd have been willing to let me handle it."

"Victoria! He lies, he kills! He was going to hurt us no matter what I said..."

"Exactly!" Victoria snaps. "The deal you heard, either we fight, we try to beat him, or he leaves and goes and keeps killing. We're heroes, Amy! I thought you knew that! We went up against Leviathan. You choose what, a week with me over every sick thing Jack might do for another decade? That's wrong Amy! I thought you loved what I loved, who I am, not my aura, not being around me!" People are starting to stare.

"I'm sorry." You mutter. "But you have to tell me, what did he say to you?"

"He said, well, it's not important..."

"What. Did. He. Say." Victoria starts shaking in anger.

"You're supposed to listen to me! He said you were suck a codependent freak you'd never be able to let me do my own things, live my own life! That's you'd keep taking and taking until I couldn't breathe, that you wouldn't ever let me be a hero because it'd risk us!" Victoria starts breathing heavily. "You get that what you did was wrong, right? Evil!" Then, suddenly, Victoria grabs you and hugs you.

"We talked for too long, Amy. I'm sorry, I'm hurting you. I don't want to hurt you." She breathes into the still raw and ugly marks her teeth made. "He is good at talking. He's just a sick sadistic evil bastard. We're still, we're us." You're feeling sick to your stomach right now. You're just another villain, when push comes to shove. Someone taps you on the shoulder.

"We're having a meeting." Good Neighbor says softly. "All the convention guests and the Chicago heroes."

"Of course." Victoria nods. "We're coming, or course."

___

The hall reminds you of the Leviathan fight. Myrddin, Cranial, and Dragon seem to be in charge. You notice an old woman from Ragged Angel's territory standing nearby with a cellphone on speaker phone.

"As we all know, the Slaughterhouse Nine are in Chicago." Cranial announces. "The Chicago Protectorate have made contact with them, specifically White Knight and Starry Eyes. Bonesaw has prepared to release a virus bomb that will kill millions of people if reinforcements are brought in. This was not unexpected."

"We have made contact with local villains and mercenaries, and some have agreed to assist us, though most are going into hiding until the situation is over." Myrddin explains. "Many of us were hoping for the support of Panacea's recent endeavors in biotech to assist against the Nine, but it appears that Bonesaw developed a countermeasure. Starry Eyes is currently investigating the ruins of her initial suit to see if a countermeasure is feasible. It is likely that even if it is not it would be useful to grant the suits, if Panacea is willing." You nod absentmindedly.

"This was a trap. I apologize for not revealing the purpose of it sooner, but I always expected someone to attack this convention." Cranial announces. "As far as Slaughterhouse Nine attacks go, this carries an opportunity cost for them. Shatterbird's attack was wasted, and they have to hit and run, lower the level of their attacks, and concentrate force to achieve their goals in Chicago. I expect even with a failure their kill count will be a fraction of their normal one for hitting a large city." Cranial continues. "There are no words for how much I apologize I could not gain informed consent sooner for the sting operation. As soon as I knew the nature of the threat I did contact everyone involved in the convention. Personally, my greatest hope is to defeat the Slaughterhouse Nine here, and my second greatest is that we accomplish the public objective. Siberian and Mannequin are the two people I hate the most in the world." You largely ignore the cries of bullshit, arguments, and explanations Cranial starts to give, preferring to focus on how tightly Victoria is holding your hand.

____

"You can go, if you want." Victoria says. You recreated her suit, for the good it would do. Same with your own.

"Victoria, do you really think I'd leave you here against them?" You shake your head.

"No." Victoria settles down next to you. "That's what worries me. Just, no, I can't keep with that line of thinking. Just, the things he said keep running through my head."

[X] "Please tell me everything." It's going to hurt. It's going to hurt a lot, but you need to share her pain.

[X] "If you love me, you'll leave with me." You whisper. You have to get her to go. Hatchet Face, Siberian, Crawler. You can't let her fight the Nine.

[X] "Let's just try to help." She'll share when she's ready, and she might never forgive you if you make her go. It's best to just prepare for a fight. Write in: Suggestions for what Amy could do best to help.

[X] "Let's just try to help." She'll share when she's ready, and she might never forgive you if you make her go. It's best to just prepare for a fight. Write in: Suggestions for what Amy could do best to help.

"Victoria, you know that he was lying, I know he was lying...."

"Please, for me, stop talking." Victoria says, something in her voice is pleading.

So you do.

____

"I could try more hand to hand, learn to fight." You suggest to Victoria. You're stretched out, examining Starry Eyes's report.

"Amy, let me show you why that won't work." Victoria has a bit of a smile in her voice. "Get up."

"Okay." You climb out of the bed.

"Get closer. Touch range, since you're a Striker." You do so, advancing cautiously.

Victoria suddenly moves, darting to the side and picking up the entire bed, swinging it above your head and casually placing it back down in a second. She kicks back to the other side of the room. You move towards her as quickly as you can while her shield is down. A moment later, long before you could have reached her, she darts forward again, sweeping you up in her cape, detaching it and throwing you up into the air. She catches you gently a moment later and lands.

"Point taken." You smile.

"You are a very, very powerful cape, Amy. Against any hand to hand fighter who can withstand your suit, no level of hand to hand fighting you could gain with years of training could help. There was a time when they sent truckloads of SWAT teams and special forces to fight capes. They averaged 50% casualty rates per mission. I'm probably 90th percentile in hand to hand capes even without your enhancements, and I'd be terrified to go up against one of their weaker members. I lost easily to Jack, and he's their weakest. Hand to hand fighting is not going to help you beat them." You nod. "You're a healer and a support cape. Work with that. You're amazingly flexible. Think up something completely new that won't violate Jack's rules but will be something he doesn't want." You pause, and begin to smile.

"I might have an idea, but I'd need Cranial's help."

___

"Sadboy, Accoustic, Nix, Phantasos, clones with memories get superpowers. Can we do that?" It's your best idea.

Cranial is working on a set of large devices that are probably weapons but look more like musical instruments and electronic devices.

"Experiments with this have always involved highly peculiar capes. Most capes you can draw no conclusions from, and tinkers are often harder to figure out than you would expect. However, I have studied this rather extensively. I believe memories and biology are the two primary factors in a powered clone. The more similar the better. The clones of the original Slaughterhouse Nine have mildly divergent powers, and the clones Noelle created of you have highly divergent powers." Then you hear a smile in her voice. "But yes. I think we can try. I have already spoken with Legend and Director Costa-Brown about the project. They have extensive reservations, but what you seek to do is not illegal. The artificial creation of sentient life has a number of regulations attached."

"What are they?" You ask.

"These intelligences have the full legal rights of a human, and are treated as the biological children of the creator or creators. The creations have the full legal rights and privileges of people with their apparent intellectual age, and are granted natural born citizenship of the United States. This status may be revoked by government order if the creations prove obviously dangerous and inhuman. If the creations are clearly impaired in some way it is treated as assault with a parahuman ability towards the creations. This is based on the Supreme Court case about just what to do with the surviving clones of the Nine. The legal reasoning is to give artificial creations every reason to expect fair treatment and understanding if they cooperate with the government, and to ensure that those parahumans who can do such things are to handle it as ethically as possible. There are a few other specifics, but for cloning I think that is all you need to know unless we encounter further problems. I cannot imagine any of the other issues coming up."

"So, about this. How fast can you copy in memories?"

"The crystal matrix of a memory copy grows like a living thing. There are only so many copies of a person's memories I can have at any given time. I cannot just copy it like a computer file. I've already thought of the five heroes I think we are most likely to get consent from over the phone. I expect roughly three of each, to make balanced teams. Given how experimental this is I would rather not push as far as possible."

"Who can we clone?" You ask. This is starting to get exciting.

"Dispatch, Vice-Captain of the Houston Protectorate. Clicker, support Thinker of the Boston Wards. Assault and Battery, combat capes of the Brockton Bay Protectorate. Scapegoat, healer who transferred from Boston to Houston recently along with Phantasos in the general reorganization of the Ward teams that is also involving the transferring of Aegis and Tecton. Speaking of which, Shadow Stalker is likely to transfer to Houston if she does not leave the Wards."

"She is?" You frown. "You know, you're really kind of scary for how in the know you are in these things."

"I like to keep myself informed about the Protectorate, and if I am to continue cleaning up their messes for Master-Stranger protocols I must be informed on their structural shifts. The Wards especially are interesting to me, given as I suggested it." You laugh.

"Wait, you came up with the Wards?"

"I am positive someone else would have if it was not for me, and the organization is extremely different from my original suggestion, but I still feel a level of responsibility to them." Cranial answers. "Ah." She holds up one of her instruments. "Now this could actually stun Crawler without enhancing him. I love it when things work together."

"Why are they transferring Sophia, anyway?" You ask.

"Shadow Stalker, apparently Sophia, is a violent, somewhat unstable person for all her good qualities. Houston is used as a resting area for loners and highly self sufficient capes. The strategy there is for most capes to operate alone on patrol, covering ground and providing information for Eidolon and Dispatch to prepare and strike with overwhelming force. A sexual assault survivor with a history of discipline problems and who works best alone while being highly mobile is what the team is designed for. I completely understand if she would prefer to stay with her friends and join New Wave, though from a careerist standpoint I would advise staying with the Wards. You should speak to her about it when you go home." This is interesting.

"She's my friend, and I don't have many of those, but I'll see what she thinks. So, how long until you think the clones could be done?"

"Knowing how your powers work, I would estimate 20 minutes per clone, so five hours of work. I will advise you on the brains and how to set them up to work properly with my technology. Judging from experience and similar cases I think it will take six hours for them to awaken with full memories. I would prefer a single test case in Dispatch or Scapegoat to start with to ensure the powers work properly before we make the full team."

"Sounds good." You nod. "Won't finding out you're a clone be kind of a shock?"

"I can work around that. I actually have what I call a capstone prepared for artificial people, a kind of dream explanation where the subject comes to terms with their identity and situation before actually waking up. Just allow me to make some calls and I will be ready."

___

Victoria is unconscious, half her body messed up when they bring her in.

"Crawler." Florida Man explains. He doesn't have a scratch on him. "She squashed him, but he's Crawler. Gave people time to run, especially your friend, Eraser. He really tried to get her after that. He's probably still hunting her." You barely hear him, working your very best on Victoria. If you'd been alone you would have woke her with a kiss again. You love the cliche.

"Only Sleeping Beauty knows how I feel right now." Victoria says when she wakes up. The two of you hug. "How goes your end?"

"Good. We've got clones, fifteen of them, and Jack can't complain." You smile. "Not great clones, but still clones."

"Ooh..." Victoria giggles. "Are we going to look forward to another Amy soon?" You frown.

"Um, probably not. I can't clone myself. Do you want one?"

"Double the fun? Sure." Victoria laughs. "Also, more seriously, one of you at every hospital in the country would be a wonderful thing."

"Only if there was one of you to keep her sane." You assure her, wishing you'd just come out already.

"Oh, that would suck." Victoria laughs. "I'd fight myself all the time. Beloved Goddess Queen is not a role you can share that easily."

"Maybe one per city?" You ask, thinking. "An idol in your image, perhaps with four Amy Dallons to worship her, ensuring she gets the honor she deserves?"

"Ooh, I'm starting to like this idea." Victoria laughs.

"You two are creepy." Florida Man says. Victoria gives him the finger, but there's no malice to it.

___

"I'm clearly outnumbered here." Starry Eyes pouts.

"Agreed." Says Clicker Prime.

"Most definitely." Says Clicker One.

"My brothers are right." Says Clicker Alpha.

"Alright, we can load it up so Jack's blood turns to acid if you three are absolutely sure, but only on contact. No releasing plagues into the city." Starry Eyes sighs. "Do not blame me when this all goes wrong.

"Perfect." Says Clicker One.

"Delightful." Says Clicker Alpha.

"Reasonable." Says Clicker Prime.

You finish the Jack Killer. You are nervous about it, but loading it into the containment foam sprayers does seem like a good idea. It would only work on Jack Slash DNA, or what is almost certainly Jack Slash DNA according to Starry Eyes and the Clickers. You're not comfortable at all with it being lethal, but they'd insisted and worn you down. Arguing with all three Thinkers is exhausting.

____

"I think these, all taken together, counter everything you gave me." You stand at the table with Dragon and Cranial, who are examining your anti-Bonesaw preparation. "Should be everything that you ever took a sample of Bonesaw producing. Pretty long shelf life, but the issue is you need it to be thick. Paint it on costumes and throw it in sprayers. Do not try to dilute it or it won't work.

"Do you see any problems, Cranial?" Dragon asks.

"None are obvious, no, though this is a bit outside my specialty, of course. I trust Amy on this. If we follow her instructions this will probably counter Bonesaw. If it doesn't, then it will be no worse than she usually is." Dragon nods.

"Alright. We can paint these on your suits, right?" Dragon asks.

"Yes. It should prevent the breakdown. With the clones and all the other capes outfitted with the basic suits I think I've contributed everything I can to the anti-Nine forces. What is the counter to Siberian? I get everyone else, but no one's been able to beat her."

"Me." Cranial says matter of factly. "My scream works on her, so she runs from me instead of standing and fighting. I won't kill her, but I can keep her away from the rest of the Slaughterhouse. We have a few other capes to try, but we're not hopeful. Eraser, if worst comes to worst Scapegoat." You swallow.

"Alright. I guess it's time to head out."

"It is." Dragon starts moving towards the door. "We just found them. As expected, they're doing their traditional attack on a school for girls. Hatchet Face is predictable if nothing else." You follow Dragon and Cranial to the waiting drone. It scoops you all up in the long, mechanical tentacles. They'll need you for on site emergency care.

___

Magog and Big Rig take on Hatchet Face, the large construction drones and the not quite Tinker boxing him in quite effectively.

It would have worked if Siberian didn't prove to be immune to Hatchet Face, storming in, grabbing him, and making a break for it. Magog would have died without you, and with you he's still going to have some nasty amnesia.

Crawler proves vulnerable to being stunned, but it seems that turning all of your offensive might on him is not enough, forcing a hasty retreat.

Mannequin, Bonesaw, Jack, and Burnscar prove to be harder to find. Shatterbird is your only victory, as she launches an attack on Cranial by herself that proves to be less than effective. You're rather surprised that Cranial doesn't kill her, instead capturing her.

"She's more useful alive than dead, and doing harm to someone in your power is not justified." Cranial explains. "As long as she is subdued, she is under my protection. The moment she is at risk of escaping, feel free to kill her."

___

You're prepared for when Jack Slash hits three places at once.

You and Victoria go to the following attack point.

[X] Siberian and Bonesaw, breaking out Shatterbird.

[X] Mannequin and Burnscar, hitting Ragged Angel's territory.

[X] Jack Slash, Hatchet Face, and Crawler, attacking the Chicago Protectorate HQ.

Siberian and Bonesaw, breaking out Shatterbird.

Considering that Bonesaw is the only bio-tinker, and a very dangerous tinker, it is best to head after her.

Siberian is the one you're worried about. Nothing can keep you safe from Siberian. Maybe defensive teleportation, but nothing available. Dodge wired you up with one of his remotes, but they've never really been tested and even best case it might be years before restoration is possible without you.

You would really rather stay back, but it is critically important to head off any biological warfare as soon as possible.

You hear in the distance a sound that is your father's kidnapping and your mother's death, and shudder. Victoria looks upset as well.

"It's okay." You tell her, and she nods. "It's good. It's walling her in so we can prepare." Cranial can't keep up her scream forever.

Cimmerian, Fodder, Good Neighbor, Cranial, Scapegoat, Sataniel, Ichor, Trick, Witch, Panacea, Glory Girl, Eraser and five clones. Not too bad, really.

Cranial's scream goes out. You breathe a sigh of relief, though of course it is a bad thing. You just hope Cranial is okay.

Victoria grabs Cimmerian, formerly Grue, and the two rise up and vanish into a wall of darkness. You made Cimmerian one of your suits, and focused it on communicating with the others. Victoria and Cimmerian should be very safe, and be able to buy more time against Siberian finding you. You keep your suit on a soft hum as long as Victoria can be located. If it goes out, well, she's probably in a pocket dimension, safe from all the horrors of the world.

Probably.

Ideally they'll be able to misdirect them for long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

Assault and Battery, who to your incredible disappointment aren't actually siblings, are kissing quietly to one side. Dispatch has his arms crossed, looking impatient, which must be a terrible thing for him. Clicker is far too close to Trick, presumably having decided Albany was just the place for him. The two look as confident as their full masks would allow.Ichor and Sataniel stand next to each other with Scapegoat in front of them, holding both of their hands, forming the line where Siberian will hopefully come through. Good Neighbor and Fodder are at the back with Eraser, hoping to provide fire support. Witch is in the corner, alone, wired up with communications.

Then Witch leaps across the field a moment before Siberian comes in through that direction. Must have been a decision on impulse for her not to have caught it sooner. Bonesaw is clutching Siberian's hair.

Eraser's blasts fire off light crazy, filling the area with light. None of them hit anything, yet. Fodder's attack does quickly cut off Siberian's view, surrounding her with cold corpses, but they do not even slow her down.

Good Neighbor is next, firing off his clones. A lot of clones. Hundreds of clones which vanish in a second. He can see through their eyes and ears, carrying a rather impressive Thinker and Master rating, in addition to his own superhuman strength and durability. The combination of raw bodies proves ineffective, and the two call off the assault to give the rest of you room to maneuver.

Battery gives Assault a charged kick, and he moves straight through Satenial and Ichor, grabbing Scapegoat and bringing him directly into Siberian before bouncing back. You see Siberian laugh and tear into Scapegoat.

Pieces seem to flash out and into Siberian, and Scapegoat remains unaffected. Now.

Everyone unleashes their attacks on Ichor, who can take them. Except for Eraser, who is trying to hit Siberian. She collapses under the weight of the assault, her wounds taken from her and onto Siberian in moments. Siberian barely notices, instead deciding to charge you personally.

That is one of the scariest things to ever happen to you. Dispatch hits pause, and the world goes dark except for his glowing costume. The two of you move in the zone of still time, across the area, until quite far away from Siberian, and he restarts it. This is repeated several times before Eraser lands a hit and Siberian vanishes.

Everyone is stunned for a second, looking around.

"2 minutes before she's back, somehow. Kill the Bonesaw!" Witch shouts.

Assault, Battery, Witch, Ichor, you, and Eraser are the ones who cluster around her.

"Remember me?" Ichor asks quietly. Bonesaw looks confused before beaming.

"Oh, you! I forget your name. The one that got away."

"Samantha Jones. Ichor." She charges forward and Bonesaw unleashes something horrible on her, a spray that melts her down completely. Ichor is back up in half a second. "Already tried that, remember?" Bonesaw throws a dart with less effect, cycling through a disturbing amount of weaponry. You need to stay close to the others, making sure they can survive everything she's unleashing.

A piece of Bonesaw's head vanishes suddenly in a white orb as Eraser gets a hit. Bonesaw screams.

"That was my pain switch! What am I going to do now!"

"Suffer." Ichor tells her. The heroine charges and starts hitting her with Aegis like strength, moving as fast as a human can, fast enough to keep Bonesaw fighting. Bonesaw very slowly begins to wear down.

Then Siberian appears again, and Dispatch pauses himself and Ichor, the two closest to Bonesaw. There's a whir, and then the bubble breaks.

Ichor collapses with in a pile of blood and fluid, bone and metal. Siberian SCREAMS and lands on her, eating her alive.

"It's done, Sam." Witch tells her. "She'll never hurt anyone again." The shout goes up, Siberian raises her eyes, howls, and launches herself at Witch. Witch moves away, faster, weaving and dodging for a while. Victoria then falls from the sky next to you with Cimmerian.

"Been killing these damn robot spiders Bonesaw made." She explains. You're busy firing off everything you can think of to counter whatever Bonesaw did, moving from smear to smear to see if there's anything else you need to neutralize.

Then something changes. Siberian's staring at Trick, and then she leaves.

"Witch, what happened?" Dispatch asks.

"Oh, oh. Either the best or worst thing to ever happen." Witch shakes her head. "AJ, you need to make a decision really quickly."

"What is it?" She asks softly.

"I'm seeing a future for you. A future where you're one of the most important people in the world. Honored. Recognized as the person who saved the Siberian, who turned her to our side." Everyone is quiet for several seconds. "I think, I think they'll allow it, the PRT. She's Siberian, and I think she can't lose two daughters and have none. Now, we could run..."

"Yes!" Trick shouts to Witch. "I accept this! That, she's better than the Triumvirate!"

"He, I think." Witch frowns. "She's bringing a man. I think she's part of him, or something. A master or really weird changer."

On Witch's orders everyone clears out, leaving Trick alone in her white costume. It doesn't take facial features to know she's terrified.

Finally, after what is minutes and feels like hours, Siberian arrives, holding a truck over her head, and lands on the ground next to Trick. A man falls out of the truck, crying. Trick moves forward, her eyes on the man.

"It's okay, Dad. It's okay."

____

You arrive back in your room with Victoria more than a bit shaken.

Jack had apparently killed Revel, Myrddin's second in command, in the fight. Hatchet Face was seen injured but not dead.

Victoria looks a bit shaken herself.

"Just kill me before you do that to me." She shakes her head. "What we're doing is one thing, but remembering a whole new life? That's just, it scares me a lot." You don't tell her how close you came to asking Trick for a new sister yourself in Albany.

"If you mean that, I will." You stroke her hair playfully. "So, what are you in the mood for?"

"Something light and silly." She laughs. "Maybe Bruce Coville or something. Something nice and nostalgic." She settles in and reads to you.

It's not until much later that Jack arrives.

___

"And people call me disgusting." You hadn't even had sex. The grotesque man had kicked down the door.

"Well, you are." Victoria's put herself between you and Jack, and you were both wearing your suits earlier. She does her usual routine of firing off attacks to no avail.

"Well, I hate to end this love story in such a cliched style, but girls, I promised to release something terrible if Bonesaw died. To do that you shouldn't be around curing it. Currently the rest of my Nine are making quite the commotion to try and murder Trick, so I could slip off and slit your throat." Jack playfully starts jabbing things.

What comes next hurts even with your suit's considerable protections, as Victoria grabs ahold of you and smashes the two of you down straight through the bed and the floor. You're gasping as she pushes you up.

"GO!" She shouts.

"Victoria..."

"GO!" I will hold him off. I love you! Without frying the suit I just might kill him this time!"

[X] "Just a kiss for good luck." You say. She accepts, and you grab her brain with your power. She is coming with you. You can feel she won't come any other way.

[X] "Yes." You run.

[X] "No!" You rise up, feeling your suit's repair mechanisms take effect. You're going to stand with your sister.

[X] "No!" You rise up, feeling your suit's repair mechanisms take effect. You're going to stand with your sister.
-[x]"We're heroes, right? I'm not afraid of him."
-[x] Send out the call that your under attack and could use back up to the PRT guards you've previously given the Jack Melting Containment foam guns to. They should still be in the convention hotel, but worthless against the other Nine. However they could melt Jack!

"We're heroes, right? I'm not afraid of him." Victoria freezes, and gives you a look. It is very sad, and full of absolute love.

"Let's do it, big sister. You won't be able to keep up, but you'll be able to fight." She freezes for another second, a look of absolute pain on her face, and seals her suit completely. A transmission hits you. Victoria wants you to buy her time for a move.

You send out everything you can on your suit's wavelengths to get help. Most are out of range. An Assault and Battery are on their way.

You march at Jack Slash, your suit unleashing everything it has. You thought hard about this. Bacteria that could eat anything. The Jack Killer, a combo of organisms that would turn his flesh into acid. Metal eating bacteria to where the knife and armor down.

Jack's flesh does not boil into acid. Apparently, as theorized, that was a trick. The bacteria do start eating away at him.

Jack's answer to you is to charge forward. He is faster than you, though his knives can't cut you. He's holding the weapon that almost killed Victoria, a Mannequin and Bonesaw collaboration that could punch through your armor and insert the toxin. The bacteria are eating it, but only slowly. Not quickly enough.

You thought Victoria would save you, but you're wrong. Jack Slash closes the distance and fires it into your stomach. Victoria arrives a moment later, carrying a small car, and freezes, bouncing back and away.

"I've got the antidote." Are the first words out of his mouth. "Shame if it were to break when you through that car at me..." Victoria screams in rage and frustration. "Now, dear. Reinforcements will come. Are they strong and precise enough to beat me without crushing the little vial of cure I have somewhere? That's assuming the bacteria your sister released don't eat it away first..." Victoria is frozen.

It's not hurting you. It's like a wave of numbness moving through your belly and outward. Suddenly your whole lower body goes out as it cuts through your spine.

"What do you want?" Victoria hisses.

"I am going to give you two a once in a lifetime offer. An offer I've never given anyone else. I'm going to let you both join my Nine. You fill the gap in my roster quite well. Otherwise, Amy dies."

"No." You both say it at once. Jack gives Victoria a confused look.

"Not what I expected." He shrugs. "Well..."

Then Jack is hit with a blast of containment foam as a PRT Agent steps forward. Wait, no, he has a communicator you made. It's Florida Man. Jack screams and lashes out at Florida Man with his knife blows. They miss, of course.

"I heard something about precision?" Florida Man smiles as he keeps closing the distance with Jack. Victoria moves rapidly, fencing off escape routs. Florida Man reaches Jack and riffles through his pockets, a dissolving agent for the foam is rubbed on Florida Man's skin.

"Ah, that's it." You think that's what he said. You're not hearing very well.

"She's dying!" Victoria shouts, and Florida Man groans, kicks Jack in the crotch rather ineffectively, and leaves, pouring it onto you. Unfortunately, the dissolving agent spreads and the bacteria are eating it, apparently. Jack is free before Florida Man is. He's down to a strange skeleton for his exposed parts, mostly. You guess it's Mannequin's work.

Florida Man would have caught him if Murder Rat didn't explode from a nick on Jack's ruined knife. The two do battle. Murder Rat cannot hurt Florida Man, and Florida Man can't catch Murder Rat.

Victoria charges forward with the car in between her and Jack, too quick for him to escape. He slashes into it ineffectively.

There's a long, quite pause as Victoria stands above the ruined car and what is left of Jack, still twitching. Then she makes a decisive stomp on his head, and brains roll out.

The toxin had stopped spreading, but the damage is still present. Murder Rat pauses, glances at the dead Jack, and moves to you. You HOWL as Murder Rat's long sword like blades slash into you. Your blood begins to spill.

"It's a good thing we're at the convention for healers, isn't it?" Florida Man asks, and you start laughing through your pain. Your suit, what's left of it, starts sealing you up as Victoria flashes forward and delivers a brutal kick to the monster, breaking her lower body completely, before rushing down to you, detaching her hood, and letting her suit's emergency medical abilities flood into yours to help sealing up all the slashes and ruined parts. You detach your hood and she starts kissing you all over your head.

"You girls are seriously weird." Florida Man shakes his head.

Then an angel is suddenly there, a terrible, strange angel falling from the sky with outstretched feathers.

____

"If you weren't so sick we'd be celebrating hard." Victoria tells you, holding your hand on the medical bed. Mr. Storkfish had devoted a feather to the repairs, and your nerve endings are still tying together. He had been the one to save you. The fastest person to arrive. Flight and time stop zones are useful.

"You're right." You smile and lean back. "We could have a big party. Invite Sophia, Madison, Emma, Melissa, Crystal, Eric, Melissa. Cake and balloons..."

"Yes, Ames. That's exactly what I meant." Victoria kisses your forehead. "You do get that we're rich now, right? Jack Slash had the biggest bounty."

"Oh, I do. You're rich." You attempt to snuggle even further into your bed, which proves difficult. "You're rich from Jack Slash's bounty."

"I know. All our vast and severe money troubles are finally over!" Victoria jokes. It's pretty funny, but your body hasn't quite recovered for laughter.

"We could give it to charity." You suggest. Victoria sticks out her tongue.

"Okay, I'm a hero, but even I balk a bit at giving up that much money." Victoria pauses. "Yeah, we really should though. We don't need the money. We're kind of set however we go. Also, you're such a selfless, brave person for not asking for money for your healing, and I can't let you upstage me." You laugh.

"I just did that so we could get married." You mutter sleepily. Victoria seems to shift.

"What?"

"Well, it's what Legend did. Be so valuable it looks really good when you come out. That was a lot of it. You can't let the little saint not be able to get married after she works twelve hours a day, can you? Or what if you get into real trouble? I need to look really good." You're regressing a bit. "It'd look really good if you donated all that to charity, wouldn't it?"

"Yes." Victoria says softly, stroking your belly where the flesh is still off colored. "Yes it would."

____

Cranial arrives with a basket of fruit, flowers, and some rather interesting contributions from the Toybox.

"You are two very brave women." She tells you. "I understand if you need a break before further testing. I really hate to ask that, but I do want life to come from this, not just death."

"Of course we can continue with the convention, right, right Ames?" Victoria asks. "Solving P=NP is apparently really important stuff, right?"

"It actually could change a lot of the aspects of the current economy." Cranial tells you. You nod. "Anyway, Scapegoat and his parents left, but his clones are staying, and we have a generally full compliment of healers, if we want to do the testing.

"I'm actually looking forward to it." You tell Cranial.

"Good." Her bizarre limb strokes your hair softly. "See you tomorrow morning." She leaves.

"Should we be mad at her for all of this?" You ask Victoria.

"We could have left. We all could have left. This is a big win. I'm not mad. She's devious. I like that." Victoria smiles. "Speaking of other things I like I've been thinking more about coming out."

"Now?" You ask softly.

"You were injured fighting Jack Slash. I killed Jack Slash. We were wrongfully persecuted by the Protectorate. I really don't think there will be a better time." Victoria levitates to your side and hugs you, a full delicious blast of her aura filling you up. "Please..."

[X] "Yes." You say kind of breathlessly. "I've wanted this for so long. Let's come out as girlfriends."

[X] "No." You say quietly. "Victoria, we can't. It's just, I want to so badly, but it's not a smart move."

[X] "Let's wait." You sigh. "We should be adults. Just wait until the seventeenth. That's not too bad."

[X] "Yes." You say kind of breathlessly. "I've wanted this for so long. Let's come out as girlfriends."

"Let me tell Madison first. I owe that much to her and I want her to understand that I love her as a friend. She's done so much for me already." Victoria looks at you thoughtfully.

"Are you sure..." She traces her fingers across your neck and shoulder. "It would be decent revenge on my part to just..."

"Victoria, you're being a bitch again." Victoria sighs.

"Alright, if you feel you owe it to her, call her first. You can be alone. Um, I should probably say something to Dean, I guess."

"What about Mark and Carol?" You ask.

"Carol might do something nuts if we told her first to stop it. Mark, hm, would you be a wonderful, amazing sister and call him for me? I, just, that feels uncomfortable."

"Alright. So I'll call him second." You shrug. "I think getting some normal person opinion would be wise. I am feeling a lot better. His power makes you sleepy at first, then completely refreshed.

_____

"Hey!" Madison says. You hear some crying in the background.

"Hey." You say. "Um, what is that?"

"Oh, nothing babe. I'm not even sure why Sophia wanted to meet with Taylor's Dad in the first place. Don't worry about it." You feel that there's something she's not telling you, but if it is big you'll hear about it anyway. "So, long time no gab. Is everything okay?"

"Yes, Madison. Mind being somewhere a bit more private?"

"Ooh, let's do this in Taylor's room. I've never been there before." Madison sounds positively gleeful and you hear a door closing on the other end. "Speaking of which, we should totally make out on Taylor's bed."

"This is kind of about that..."

"More making out? That would be fun. Can't wait to see you. I've been reading some articles in Cosmo..."

""Madison, first of all I want you to know that you're the best friend I've ever had and I love you for that..."

"Oh no, we're breaking up! This is Arnold Fitz all over again!"

"You dated a boy named Arnold Fitz?" You kind of stare at the wall.

"Alright, continue with the speech and we'll work with it."

"I'll never be able to repay all the good things you've done for me. And what we have together is very fun. I like it a lot. It's just, we're never going to me more than this. I like you as a girl and I love you as a friend, but I don't love you as a girlfriend. I don't think I'm ever going to. I don't want to string you along or make you think that we have something that we don't. The friends with benefits thing was great, but that's really all we were."

"Stop." Madison days, and you do. "Okay. I, you turned me gay. That's, um, big. Like, I know it's not an obligation, but, um, I kind of thought you wanted a girlfriend? I knew you were lonely. I knew that if you were gay, well, I wanted to help you."

"Oh, Madison, that's beautiful." You're actually crying. "I value your friendship a lot more than I value the make-out sessions. If you want me to change you back I'll do that as soon as I see you in person again. Screw the bet. Are you okay with what I'm saying? I don't want you to take this as a breakup. I don't want anything to change between us, except less kissing. No kissing. Everything else can stay the same. I want it to stay the same. You're my best friend. I don't want this to destroy that. Do you understand that? I love you, I really do. Just not romantically. And I knew that I wouldn't."

"Stop." Madison says again, and you do. She's silent for a minute. "So, who's the lucky girl?"

"I was always in love with someone else and that probably wasn't fair to you. I should have told you that in the beginning. I just didn't think it mattered because I never had a chance with her. But something happened a few nights ago, while we were on the run ... I'll make it up to you when I get back. Just name it." Madison is silent for way too long.

"Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. There's only one girl you're on the run with. Right? It's not Sophia, it's not Emma, and you don't have any friends. Wait. Um, yeah, wait. Um, still not believing this. Uh..."

"Do I need to say it?" You mumble.

"Ex-girlfriend I think I need to hear it!" Madison practically shouts.

"I am in love with Victoria. I have been for a long time. It's a lot of why I went to that Albany thing, went to Cranial. We think it's her aura hitting me especially hard. It's, um, it was awful."

"Victoria went along with it?" There's just a hint of disbelief, and then Madison's voice goes low, a bit weirdly seductive. "Did she have a choice?"

"Gross!" You shout over the phone. "Of course she did. She asked me. Almost begged me. She knew it was killing me." Madison sounds almost disappointed after that.

"Okay, that's fine. Sorry. It's just so, well, unusual. But if she let it happen, whatever it was, I guess there's nothing wrong with it?" She ends it as a question.

"I don't think so. Madison, please tell me you don't hate me for this." Madison giggles.

"Actually it's kind of hot." You blush. "You're both really pretty, and maybe I'm just shallow that way, but that makes it better? It's not like one of you is this disgusting slob who can't get any otherwise and preys on her sister. You're really quite disgustingly cute together. If nothing changes but the kissing, well..." Madison is quiet for a moment. "Ooh, can you get me another girlfriend? I'm not quite done with this yet."

"I don't exactly know a lot of lesbians." You laugh softly. "Never felt appropriate to join their groups or anything. I was always pretty deeply in the closet."

"Makes sense." Madison says cheerfully. "So, when you two make out can I watch? You are both really pretty." You laugh.

"Maybe, if you're good. I'd need to check with Victoria. So, any thoughts about me making it up to you?"

"Hm, all my ideas for it are kind of gone if there's no more kissing. Hm, well, you girls are moving out soon, right? Getting a place that's not your parents or Dean's. Maybe I could live with you two? It sounds way more fun than being at home, especially if I'm a superhero. Sure, my parents are great about it, but if I'm going to be this cool vigilante named Harrier I need to really be on my own more."

"I think Victoria will accept that. Probably. Ooh, we could adopt you." You giggle. "We'll be eighteen, so we could be your legal guardians!"

"Oh my gosh that would be so awesome!" Madison laughs. "Okay, yes, I want that. I don't care how, or really know why, but make that happen. Like, seriously." You both collapse into a fit of giggles.

_____

"Dad, it's Amy. Remember when you asked me what I had to tell Victoria? I told her while we were in Albany. That's why she freaked out and moved in with Dean. I told her that I love her. I told her that I'm in love with her. Stuff's happened between us since then. Complicated stuff. You deserve to hear it from us before you see it on the news. There's no easy way to put this... We're together. Together together. We're dating. We're a couple. We're in love with each other. Victoria doesn't want to hide it anymore. I'm sorry about some of the things I said. Not all of them. You can Mom both hurt me very badly growing up. I do want my children to know their grandparents. Oh, and Victoria killed Jack Slash. That's kind of awesome."

You got his answering machine. It feels scummy, but he's no longer clinically depressed, so what is his excuse? You hope he's okay.

____

You and Victoria hold hands tightly. It's not like this is scarier than Jack Slash, but this is still very scary. The stage manager checks your microphones. You'd forgone your costumes, going instead for ordinary clothes. Victoria wears jeans, a t-shirt, white boots, going with her color scheme. You wear a red and white dress.

"Everything will be fine." Victoria whispers to you and gives your hand an extra squeeze. Her aura is on full blast. She is the best sister. The best girlfriend. The best possible wife and mother. She will keep you safe and handle this perfectly.

The stage manager stoops down a little to talk to you and Victoria, even though Victoria is taller than her. "Alrighty, girls! You're on in five, four…"

Jazzy fanfare plays. As if that wasn't cue enough, the stage manager gives you a little prod, pushing you forward. Victoria gives her a glare that causes her to actually squeal in fear. The aura probably helps. Victoria ushers you on stage, moving from hand holding to an arm firmly over your shoulder in a fluid motion as you walk.

It's a fairly normal studio based on your experiences with shows like this. You'd done a circuit of them when you got your powers. This had never been your strong suit. As Victoria had requested you have a small loveseat for the two of you, and the three hosts sit around a table in office chairs, presumably their normal arrangement.

An adult man, light skinned black or mixed race, an adult woman with truly awful hair, and a slightly heavy set woman young enough to be their child. These are the people who will be on the other side of the conversation?

This was the fastest show you could get on, and Victoria truly did not want to wait.

"Welcome back to Mornings with O, J and Koffi." The woman says. "We have two very special guests with us today. Victoria Dallon, Glory Girl, the girl who just killed Jack Slash, and her sister, Amy Dallon, the world's greatest healer!" There's applause from the live audience. Your eyes trail over the fake cityscape.

"It's wonderful to have the two of you on the show." The girl says. Jo, you think. "You two are such brave, brave girls."

"Not to make fun of my own codename, but we're not really girls anymore." Victoria flashes her teeth. "Our birthday is coming up. I like to think of us as women. If anything, that's why we're on the show today."

"I'm sorry." Jo says. "Given all you've accomplished you've more than earned that."

"I really think we have." Victoria says. Ever since I was thirteen I have been part of New Wave. I have fought cape killers and an Endbringer. Amy has spent two years working in a hospital twelve hours a day 350 days a year, and it was her idea."

"That cannot be healthy." Koffi, the man, shakes his head. "I can't believe you poor girls had to go through that."

"Exactly. If we have to do that kind of thing we are women. That has always been one of my defining criticisms of the Wards program, as I talked about in my interview for Teen Vogue. The Wards are treated as children but asked to act like adults. The unfairness is crippling and in my opinion contributes to the delinquency of minors and the large supervillain rate."

"That's hardly fair. They are children, and inexperienced." The woman, O something, says.

"Excuse me for saying this, but to get a trigger something really shitty has to happen to you unless you're really lucky and born to people who did. Wards are not normal children. You don't throw children at Endbringers." Victoria pats your leg. You're starting to get nervous. "Fundamentally, I know that the Wards I have served next to are more mature than my parents. All of them." There's a bit of laughter.

"She's not joking." You say, and silence spreads across the room. "Victoria is someone I have counted on since we were six years old. Her parents never got past their own issues. She's been the best thing in my life for a very long time."

"Not many people know this, but Amy was adopted." Victoria begins, shutting up Jo with an aura enhanced look. "The truth is, her father was a supervillain who my parents captured. We were six at the time, we think. Her mother had died before her father took her in, and she had forgotten her birthday by the time we found her, or she forgot afterwards. I let her share mine."

"Oh my god." Jo stares at you. "That is horrible."

"No, it's not. I met Victoria. She started helping me and making me feel welcome from the second she saw me. She was more my best friend than anything else. She loved me right away. She still does."

"That's so sweet." O says. "So, you took charge and became her big sister right away?"

"More than that." Victoria heads off the "sister" talk like you had discussed. "The truth is, my mother never saw her as a daughter. My father tried, but he had a case of advancing clinical depression while we were growing up. It's not exactly a secret that we're really close." You treasure the emphasis. "The fact is, there was a time when she wouldn't eat when she was eight, demanding that my mother try to be her mother. Carol just let her starve, said she'd eat when she was hungry. Mark tried, but he was going through a lot of bad days at the time. I was the one who started feeding her. We kept it up ever since. It makes us feel cozy, relaxed."

"That does explain some photos I saw in a few gossip rags." Koffi says. "So, you came out here to trash your folks?"

"My parents have very severe mental health issues. I do not blame them for anything. I am providing context. In mid May we took a trip to Albany that led to a lot of groundless speculation in certain circles." Victoria begins. You're getting so close you can taste it. "Let me explain the truth. We were visiting the rogue Tinker, Cranial, because we had received some very disconcerting information from a supervillain shedding light on Amy's unhappiness. She has been unhappy for a long time. According to this villain, and backed up by Cranial, or Abigale Quintin, one of my secondary powers has extreme effects over time, at least on Amy. As many of you know, I possess an aura that makes me appear to be in some way better than I truly am in a way that is advantageous to myself. I appear more attractive, more charismatic, and more intimidating in person. I gained this power at the age of thirteen. We discovered that Amy, who has been exposed to it more than anyone else, had her brain altered radically. We have confirmed that she has something similar to but chemically quite distinct from clinical depression when not in my aura."

"That is horrible." O shakes her head. "So she needs to be around you all the time?"

"Not exactly, but I am much happier with her than anyone else." You relish the emphasis, giving a clue. "I have started to be more able to adjust to this since I discovered the nature of the problem. Bringing friends with me for example, doing things that remind me of Victoria during my healing sessions. I don't mind working twelve hours a day. I want to help people. I need to help people. I'd hate myself if I didn't, but it is very hard. You pause.

"She was killing herself by inches. She's the best thing in my life." Victoria tells the hosts. "I love Amy. I would do anything to make this easier on her. Victoria gulps.

"Her aura had another effect. We are not sure why. We were never really sisters." God that line is pain. "It gave me an infatuation with her. I developed romantic feelings for my adopted sister. It was killing me for years." There's a stunned silence. No one knows how to react.

"The fact is, I love Amy as much as it is possible to love another person. I never had a sexual thought towards her until she begged for my help. I couldn't stand to see her in pain, so I let her alter my brain chemistry to reciprocate her feelings." Victoria adds.

It's all out there.

While everyone is quiet, you do something that had been much more fun to rehearse.

You cup Victoria's chin and look into her eyes. "We're going to die. Jack almost killed us. Someone will, one day. If we're very lucky we'll die together doing something noble and heroic; but it'll be too soon. If we live the see the last star burn out and the universe turn cold, it will still be too soon. Every second we have together is precious and we have to make them count."

You were louder than you had to be. People are looking at you. Cameras are rolling. This is what she wants. It's what you want, too. You press your lips against hers and she sweeps you up in her arms. Even a blind man could see the intense passion in the kiss.

"I'm yours, Victoria Dallon, in all ways and forever."

You pull back your hair and point your neck at the camera. Mr. Storkfish's feather had repaired your hicky, and you just didn't feel right without it. Victoria had been happy to mark you again, though you'd kept your suits this time.

It takes a while for one of the hosts to speak. This is probably one of the few things they were not prepared for to happen.

"That is quite a story." Koffi mummers. "There have to be laws against this."

"We would be very happy to relocate to France if we must before we consummate our relationship. I am sure the French will be very happy to grant us citizenship, and there are no laws against our relationship there. That is assuming there are laws now, which is actually quite ambiguous in our home state." Victoria flashes her teeth again in a smile you've been emulating since you first saw it.

"What about other people? Are you saying that incest is acceptable?"

"Not for most people, no. Parahumans are different. We're all just a little bit crazy. Our powers make us that way. We need to cling tightly to the good, human things in our lives. I don't think what we have is right for most parahumans, either. Victoria is my anchor, my rock. She's the one good thing I can always count on. She keeps me sane and she's the reason that I can spend so much time healing people without burning out. The fact is that I do not know anything about incest. Victoria is not my sister, and never has been. She has always been far closer to a friend, and then a girlfriend, and now more than anything a wife. I am not saying it is not acceptable, but my experience has absolutely no application to anyone who has not been forced into a bad reaction with a similar parahuman power involving a person who you have a deeply loving and trusting relationship with. I absolutely do not think our situation should be used as a data point for anyone who is considering an incestuous relationship. I believe many, if not most, such relationships are dangerous, abusive, creepy, and stupid. If you have a family member who you love keep her safe and make her feel protected. Adding a sense of obligation to that hurt Victoria. If I could take anything back it is that way I hurt her."

"Not that I feel obligated now." Victoria assures everyone. "I've always loved pampering Amy. Now as girlfriends I can just do it a bit differently. Very little has actually changed. I love that I am making her happy. All of this is my idea and my request. To my memory Amy never actually asked me to be her girlfriend. I have taken the initiative at every step. Right now we are seeing what it is like as a romantic couple. Whatever our relationship becomes we need to stay in each others lives as long as we live."

There is deadly silence.

"So, guys, now do you want to hear about how I killed Jack Slash?" Victoria claps her hands together. "It was fucking scary, but also really cool!"

___

The two of you fly out once the show is over and land at Cranial's mobile lab.

"How did it go?" Cranial asks.

"No one really talked much." Victoria says cheerfully.

"I thought it went well." You giggle.

"I think so too. Now have fun geeking it up. I am going to talk to Myrddin. He had some questions about Tattletale." Victoria kisses you and you're outdoors and it is glorious. She pops back up.

"So let's get to work." Cranial leads you inside. "Now, here's something I really want to experiment with." She carefully spins a vial in her farthest limb. "Now, tell me what you know of Cauldron."

"Cauldron?" You stare at the vial. "Is that..."

"Powers. I do not know how, but they are powers, capable of producing a parahuman. My husband was one such parahuman. These are not an urban legend. I want to know what you see when you attack your sensory powers to someone who is getting powers."

"This is a bit beyond what you suggested earlier."

"Is that a no?" There's disappointment in her words.

[X] "I want to see too." You answer.

[X] "I really am not comfortable with this. Can't you gather the data you need through more normal uses of my power? I don't think I can help with this."

[X] "Cut the bullshit, Abigale." You shake your head. "You've been jerking me around since before you came. You're nice, but you can't keep springing stuff like this and expect me to keep helping you, for all you've done."

[X] "I want to see too." You answer.
-[x] Also check the potion, it might be biological.

"The potion, it might be biological. I should touch it and see what it is, right?"

"If I had more I would be all for that, but messing with something so tightly controlled with such a small sample size strikes me as a terrible idea. These things are supposedly quite unreliable. I am worried the oils from your hand could cause problems."

"Alright, that makes sense." You can't help but be disappointed. "So, who are we experimenting on." Cranial is quiet for a moment. "Amy, understand, this is possibly the most controversial thing I could ask you to do. Understand I have a good reason for it."

"That sounds ominous."

"She is fourteen. Please understand, this is the safest way according to my research. The potion Access has consistently had better results from test subjects below the age of sixteen." You frown.

"How do you know this?" You ask.

"I have the memories of several people who purchased their powers from Cauldron. This vial was obtained through other means that I am not going to disclose out of safety concerns for everyone involved. Direct contact with Cauldron is something I refuse to attempt. If we are going to do this I believe this way is by far the safest and most ethical. Understand that I am not comfortable with this, at all." You frown.

"Abigale, you're asking me to help conduct medical testing on a child."

"I have her consent, and parental consent, and from her memories I feel confident in saying that she is as mature and reliable a participant as we could hope for. Also understand she is not dying. She actually has a rather small injury, though it matters very deeply to her."

"Jesus." You shake your head. "I need a justification as to why we're risking the life of a healthy child. I really do."

"First of all, none of the adverse reactions resulted in the deaths of the participants. I was able to gain evidence of four such cases, though this is extremely unreliable evidence for a number of reasons. One went insane, one gained extremely dangerous powers that ruined his chance of a normal life, and the other two suffered from severe mutations. I sincerely think that with our help we can mitigate most or all adverse reactions. Second of all, delaying this research to gain a better vial for experimentation could delay the experiment for years or even prevent it from happening at all. Third of all, the rewards truly do outweigh the risks by my own assessment. Imagine if by observing the formation of powers you could replicate it. Think about granting powers to everyone you heal, thousands and thousands of heroes or rogues. I estimate perhaps a 5% chance of this, but given it would save far more than 20 children I think that alone would justify the move considering the consent of all parties. The girl herself is almost certainly going to become a superhero if she can, which would also in the course of a career save more than 20 children very easily. Using utilitarian math I think that this is absolutely an ethical decision. Considering all of us are consenting and have the best of intentions I think that most other ethical systems in modern usage would accept this."

"It's still a kid." You mutter, though there's no real chance you're going to disagree by now.

"Yes. However, I do not believe it is morally better to give a much greater risk to an adult instead of a small risk to a teenage child. Consider this an artifact of my own unique perspective. I have fresh memories from both being an adult and being a child, so I do not idealize a younger state. I believe that grownups and children are both worthy of respect. Now, when you meet the girl, who is not sharing her name with you for privacy reasons, check with your powers to see if there's any signs of duress or control. Offer her the chance to heal her injury without the use of the Cauldron vial. If you insist on not doing this I will not undergo this experiment at all. However, I refuse to conduct the experiment on an eighteen year old or similar to ease your conscience, as I consider that a considerable violation of my own ethics."

"I'm doing it." The fact is that you do want this, and her argument seems very sound. It's like Victoria had just said. Wards are allowed to risk their lives to save adults, so why not let someone engage in something risky for the chance to be a superhero?

Cranial leads you into another room inside the trailer. A slightly dark skinned girl, maybe mixed race, is seated on a medical bed. Her head is enclosed in Cranial's brain scanning machine. Two adults, presumably her parents, stand next to it, one looks African American and the other looks mixed race.

"Hello." Cranial says softly.

"Hello." The girl says. You hear it through a machine.

"Hey. I'm Amy, Panacea." You move towards her and softly pat her hand. "Mind if we talk for just a bit? I want to make sure all of this is completely above board."

"Sure, but it is. My parents talked for hours with Cranial about this, and they're good parents, they really are. This isn't some weird use or money grubbing thing. My father's a doctor, works for Doctors Without Borders. I want to help people just like him. There's less risky ways of repairing a foot injury. I think every part of this could really help people." You start running your power through the girl. No signs of her brain being altered by Cranial's writing brain wrtiing machines, which are slightly more invasive than the scanning machines. The stress levels seem normal, no real flashes in the brain that indicate she's lying. You ask every question you can think of, and her response is to get annoyed with you. Her parents nod to you.

"Okay, I'm convinced." You nod to Cranial.

"All of you, before this begins, it does not matter if we succeed or not. I am very sorry I had to ask you for this, all of you. You are very, very brave young women. I consider this risk a sacrifice for everyone. Doing this, going this far, will change you both as people no matter the result. I hope for the better, but making the choice at all is significant."

Another of Cranial's scanning machines encloses your head, cutting out your view.

You begin.

___

Cranial had told you it could hurt the girl, getting powers, but that more adverse reactions were apparently caused by telling the person it would hurt. Cranial claimed that it had to do with the perception of injury in the mind, according to the theory she learned.

You start by tuning up the girl's body completely, and letting her know it at every step. Perceived injuries cause more deviations. You start with her foot and move outward, tuning up every possible physical flaw.

"Get ready." Cranial tells the both of you. "Now, I am quoting from the memories of a Cauldron test subject. The faster you drink it the easier this will be on you, quicker and cleaner a transition. I equipped this scanner to give it to you as quickly as possible without risking choking or hurting. Amy, I suggest you work on her gag reflex and mouth just a bit to ensure easier swallowing." You do.

"Now, quoting from memory, there is a chance of what is called a 'dream quest. Some experience it. Some don't. Don't be concerned if you don't. These are visions similar to others that people with trigger events have reported. Simply relax to the best of your ability and stay focused. According to the scientist I remember from the test subject's memories the higher and more pronounced the physical reactions like your heart rate, sweating, adrenals, and emotional response, the greater the chance of a physiological change. She recommended that you keep from dwelling on any stressful thoughts or memories. Just stay calm and try to relax as much as you're able. Amy, I request that you help with this." You do, dialing down the stress responses as much as possible.

"This is the last chance for anyone to bow out of this. Both of you. If either of you is uncomfortable I will call the whole thing off with absolutely no hard feelings, and continue our professional relationships as before."

"I'm fine." The girl says.

"We can do this." You say.

According to Cranial there are further adverse effects if painkillers are used, so you can't cancel the burning sensation in the girl's mouth and lungs.

"This will last for two minutes at most. Then the sensation will end. It is okay." Cranial rubs the girl's arm.

"It is okay. It is okay. Do not worry. This is completely normal and natural." The girl's mother says, hugging her. Her father pats her shoulders as she shakes.

"Hurts. Hurts. Hurts." She mutters. You keep her vitals normal.

No visions. You can see what happens.

The goo flows through her body, hot and biological, mixing all throughout. It seems to be testing, experimenting, searching. It rises up from the throat, through the blood, and into the brain.

Alterations are taking place everywhere, small and subtle improvements and changes. You and the machines record it all. Slightly better coordination, slightly enhanced hair growth, nerve endings sharpened or deadened seemingly at random.

The brain is the most marvelous thing, twisting into a corona gamma that reminds you subtly of Battery's or Neil's, but, no, it's more distant from that than you thought, starts that way, shifts suddenly. It has a distant similarity to Shadow Stalker's or Vista's, no, it's just too complex, too itself to qualify.

The girl had been practicing Tai Chi for months to prepare for this. She holds it back, and with your help, she works through the pain.

The biological goo cannot be causing these changes, you realize. There's something else, something you can't sense even as an obstruction, doing the changes and the twists.

She briefly goes insubstial, and a long tremor goes out from her body, and it is done. The changes stop.

A feeling of deep frustration burns inside you. All of that, and nothing. Just a new cape. No great secrets.

"Actually, I think we learned a tremendous amount." Cranial sounds satisfied.

"How?"

"We saw a trigger event. We eliminated a vast number of possibilities for how they worked. I am not going to speculate yet, but I think combined with other information this will be tremendously useful." Cranial sounds happy. "Also, nothing has gone wrong."

It hasn't.

____

Interlude:

[X] Dauntless.

[X] Manpower.

[X] Dodge.

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

[X] Dauntless.

Siberian is captured.

You pace back and forth. She caused your trigger, indirectly. Sleepless nights staying up late for weeks, knowing you could never beat her, and then the power to beat her someday.

Like a lot of triggers it had been what you wanted, but not what you wanted at the same time.

You're probably going to be pulled back from Brockton Bay soon. The local Protectorate is already being reorganized. The current plan is to pull you out after Cranial and Panacea work together for a full scale tuneup to work with, augment, and supplement your powers as well as granting you additional skills.

It's a good plan.

Siberian is captured. Siberian is going to be used. The details are kept very quiet, but it was absolutely a powerful Master who caught her if they're trusting her. Cluster, Soulfire, Last Witch, even Trigger will be called in to check Siberian, but if she's really...

The idea makes you sick. No justice, not even the Birdcage, because she's so valuable.

You hear a knocking on your door. You head there, and it's Ethan, hair dyed a ridiculous blue, smiling at you.

"Hey." You say.

"Hey, Rick. It's, um, we're going around to see who freaks out the most, or the least..."

"Oh." You shake your head. "Sorry. What do I call you?"

"Ethan. Ethan Blue, if there's ambiguity, until we're relocated and given new names, maybe plastic surgery. The others are Ethan Red and Ethan Yellow."

"Makes sense." You nod. "And Sarah?"

"I paired with one calling herself Jamie for now, blue streak in her hair. The other two are Cybil and Claire." You nod.

"I get the middle name, and yeah, you told me about Jamie, but why Claire?"

"Amy, Mom's middle name." You think.

"Panacea's?"

"It was better than Abigale, and Cranial's middle name is Ptolemy." Ethan mock shudders.

"So, um, I don't have any beer..."

"Never thought you would." He claps you on the back. "I brought some." Ethan had always played up the "cool big brother" card. The fact that you've fought an Endbringer and yet can't buy a beer for another six months strikes you as deeply unfair. "They'll need to chill though."

"Put'em in the fridge." Ethan does. "So, we're all getting updates from the last eighteen months. We're going to commiserate over it tomorrow. So, did you make any progress with the golden girl since I backed up?" You laugh.

"We don't have anything in common, and she's seventeen!" You shake your head. "Besides, we all know that when she 'breaks up' with Dean they're still together."

"They are so wrong for each other." Ethan says cheerfully, looking through your bookshelf. "Hey, you did finally get a copy of Flowers in the Attic. The wife's favorite book, you know. Best angst porn on the planet according to her when she was twelve."

"It's okay." You admit. "Colin finally got me to read it." You're both silent for a moment.

"It's sudden." Ethan mutters. "People are growing up, the city's in ruins, underage lesbian incest is on morning shows..."

"You lost me at the last one." Ethan gives you a crooked smile. "You haven't heard?" You get a feeling of trepidation.

"Heard what?"

"Amy and Victoria Dallon are apparently in lesbians with each other." Ethan laughs. "Like, I have to admit I'm not entirely surprised, but..."

"Amy and Victoria are dating." You stare at him. "Panacea and Glory Girl are dating?" You frown.

"Wow, do you live in a bubble?" Ethan laughs. "I bet you just have to turn on the TV and they're talking about it." He grabs the remote and flicks it on. You see an image of a couple in a darkened woods.

"I know what you are. You're a vampire." A boy whispers.

"No, worse than that. I am a time traveler." A girl whispers. "Tossed by the sands of destiny..."

"Okay, my theory was incorrect." Ethan flips the channel and reveals some kind of news program you don't recognize.

"The fact of the matter is that they have responsibilities. Just because they're valuable enough to keep themselves from being arrested does not mean they should be setting this example." A large fat man with South East Asian features rants.

"It's clear they're in love, and they're not really siblings. Haven't we gotten past this with Legend?" A thin and severe looking woman, maybe in her 60s, says. "There was a time when black people and white people couldn't hold hands without gathering stares. Shouldn't we move past this?"

"Incest is clearly different. Panacea is clearly the victim of a disease. She needs treatment, not an enabler." The fat man says.

"Turn the TV off. I can't afford another one." Ethan does so.

"Wow, did you really start crushing on her?" He asks, concerned.

"They're talking about this bullshit!" You shout. Siberian is going to become the fourth leg in the Triumvirate and the talk shows are blathering on about celebrity dating!" You shake your head in disgust.

"Oh, man. That was, wow." Ethan shakes his head. "I forgot..."

"She ate my kid sister, Ethan! Because she was there. Every hour since I've thought about it. Every day I've thought about what I need to do to take down her before I put something into my shield, my boots, my armor, my Arclance." You sigh. "All of it for..."

"A lot of good. Siberian is one thing. Endbringers are another. Maybe, someday, that will be your legacy." You sigh.

"Just feels like we lose even when we win. Panacea decides she's Masamune, and then goes mad with power. Lung dies, and we're pretty sure one of our Wards murdered him but we can't hold up the investigation. Just, why can't we get real wins." You sit down next to Ethan.

"Hey, this is a big win. You are upset. Rightfully upset. If things were different, I'd say drop her in the Birdcage, but they aren't, and if she buys minutes she saves hundreds, maybe thousands of lives.

"I get it. It's just..." You shake your head. "You know, maybe there's some wisdom to celebrity gossip." You turn the TV back on.

"That's what I always say." Ethan says cheerfully. "You got any popcorn?"

_____

The fact is that nobody's in charge right now. Director Lewis has no idea who the personalities involved really are, is stepping back, learning, experimenting. He'll be good once he gets going, but he doesn't want to upset the delicate balance. Dream Mask comes very well reviewed, but she is still relearning basic facts about Brockton Bay like the fact that Armsmaster was their former leader and not a supervillain gang lord, and Gallant is not a former member of Empire 88. Lady Photon can barely keep her troops under control. Glory Girl can control her faction, but she's not experienced enough to lead. Battery only lead the Wards for four months, and is not an experienced commander.

By general uncomfortable agreement Aegis has been given veto power over plans while Lady Photon, Dream Mask, Battery, and Director Lewis all work together on plans and run them by him.

The current situation is not good. Really, really not good. The fact that the Empire hasn't killed anyone despite being under constant attack from Shadow Stalker and Skitter while New Batch (Ethan's name for the new kids of New Wave) keeps them bottled up in their territory is a testament to a surprising amount of restraint for Nazi supervillains and gangsters. Shadow Stalker has not officially quite the Wards and joined New Wave, but everyone's fairly sure she's just waiting for Victoria to come back for that.

On the bright side, rebuilding is going shockingly well. Everyone is in agreement on that. The Merchants are on a recruiting drive, but even they are keeping their territory under far more control than before.

You're sitting in on a general strategy meeting. If you're going to be a major player in the Protectorate you need to see how these work.

"I want to confirm my memories and readings. This is out of character for the Merchants, correct?" Dream Mask asks. "They are drug dealers and drug users, small time forces that only survived as long as they did because no one put in the effort to defeat them. What has changed?"

"Panacea gave out significant healing to everyone who engaged in the truce against ABB." Aegis explains. "This could justify their change in behavior. Freed of their addictions they could be engaging in long term planning. They have a future now."

"I have another theory. Assuming Panacea did not change their personalities, and there's no reason to believe she would, they are naturally small timers. Why would they enjoy putting this kind of effort into control? I've been looking at the crime statistics and reports for their territory. They are not reveling in power. If they wanted to go clean they certainly have the power and record to do so. The change was also not immediate after Leviathan. I think that they are scared, someone is pressuring them into behaving. Is it possible that Glory Girl has put pressure on them before she left?"

"Technically possible, but unlikely." Battery answers. "Skitter was an acquisition made under extreme circumstances, and Parian came to them for assistance. Glory Girl's MO is to take more disaffected people her own age and shower them with support. It's not Empire 88, they don't need this. Another player, perhaps?"

"It would make sense." Director Lewis nods. "A new cape, or one who changed radically by the Leviathan attack, or someone who arrived to take advantage of the situation?"

"Hm, let's start investigating that once the Empire 88 situation is complete. Now, how sure are we that they did not rape Shadow Stalker?" Aegis says.

"80%." Director Lewis says. "Definitely not Kaiser, he has nothing to gain from it, and the move is bizarre in many ways. We can't discount the possibility that he's working with that, but he would need an unknown Thinker to be able to manipulate the situation properly. I am concerned there's a connection with the Merchant changes. Both of these smell of a secretive player to me, trying to play us against each other."

"The fact is I'm unsure that matters." Dream Mask says. Everyone turns their heads to her.

"Explain." Battery asks.

"The fact is, Empire 88 is by far the greatest threat to the city. Is there any disagreement with this statement?" No one has any. "If we ramp down the tensions, we are letting them consolidate and grow. Empire 88 has lasted for decades, and has support from the Gesellschaft. This is a bomb waiting to go off best case, and Nazi enclave at worst. We could share the city with them, but do we want to? For the best of reasons, Brockton Bay has repeatedly made deals and concessions with Empire 88. I would personally prefer to not have a white supremacist holdout remain for decades as the world wears down to Endbringer attacks. I know that my earlier actions, fed with bad information, were crazy, but I believe the values are sound when it comes to Empire 88."

"I am not so sure." Lady Photon says. "I know this is a strange argument for me to make, but the idea that supervillains can be tolerated if they behave, provide assistance, and work to help during disasters is a good precedent to set, if it is done honestly. There are a lot of Empire capes, and they could hold off looters or opportunists. The Elite is said to be eying Brockton Bay right now. A war would definitely weaken us, and remove our ability to call them for help. As much as I hate these guys, they're a devil we know. We can't just destroy all the supervillains."

You want to leave the room.

____

Sophia Hess visits you that evening.

"How are you?" You ask.

"Tired of people asking that." She glares at you.

"It's how people react. It's not good, but it is how people react." She sighs.

"It's all bullshit. Who cares who they raped? They still rape. It's not like this isn't anything they haven't done before. We're supposed to hold off because they're shitting their pants enough about Amy that they're placing nice? The idiots." Sophia growls.

"I agree with you." You smile at her. "In fact, I wanted to tell you I'm in." Sophia looks at you.

"What?"

"I'm in. If you need help in this, I'm in. Tolerating villains has gone too far, and they need me. I'd rather be subtle about it, but the fact is I can take the hit. In twenty years I'll be Legend and Alexandria, and I'll be one or the other in ten. Sure, they can piss and moan but what are they going to do? The fact is, France would like me just as much as they would. If Amy and Victoria can do that I can help you fight Nazis." Sophia gives you a predatory grin.

"I'm not even gay yet and I'm still hoping they're going to be open to a threesome." She keeps the predatory grin. "That was awesome."

"They can do whatever they want. We have much bigger fish to fry."

_____

End Interlude
_____

Cranial calls you sounding very excited.

"I solved P=NP. Well, close enough. I figured a work around. You need a really Tinker made computer for it, but I worked with Dodge and Big Rig on it."

"That's great." You smile. "Need anything else?"

"Maybe. I'm going back to Brockton Bay with you, at least for a few days. They hired me to investigate Dream Mask and other people, as well as do a few odds and ends. They also want a few projects for us to work on together. Did they contact you about that?"

"Dauntless, the Protectorate suits, further cloning, yes. I'm thinking about how to manage this."

"So, want to have a road trip with the Toybox?" Cranial asks.

[X] "That sounds great." It would be nice to get to know them a bit better.

[X] "Victoria and I kind of want to drive back together." You can't keep the smile out of your voice.

[X] "I'm calling in a favor. We're teleporting right back home." The city does really need support.

Do You Believe In Magic

[X] "That sounds great." It would be nice to get to know them a bit better.

"I need to see Kitsune first." You promised Skitter that you'd help Tattletale. You can't leave Chicago without at least meeting her.

"I see." Cranial sounds a bit worried. "I have not met with her, but what I have heard is disconcerting. You had best be careful.

"I will be." You frown. "I keep hearing the word demon thrown about for her.

"Do you have a better one?" Cranial asks.

_____

It's meeting for coffee in a cell. A locked room in what's left of the Protectorate HQ.

You sit down across from Kitsune, Tattletale, Lisa.

"So..." You ask.

"I'm Tattletale. Don't you love me?" It asks.

"Cut the bullcrap." You glare at it. "The fact is, according to a very crazy person what I did to you was worse than what the PRT wanted me to do to you. Since the PRT asked me to lobotomize you and addict you to something, well..."

"It hurts all the time." It hisses. "I look at someone, see the fucked up piece that pops straight to mind, and I need to help. Then I'll see who is next to her, and I'll need to help that cunt. Again and again and again! I see how to hurt someone and I'll need to help and it is driving me fucking nuts."

"That sounds like a problem. Have you tried helping them?" You ask.

"Fuck you. I help anyone I can, now. It just keeps coming. Hatchet Face, Crawler, Mannequin, Burnscar. Four down, but the other four are still killing people!" She growls. "I can't not know that. I can't keep it out of my head anymore. It's always there. Everything I know is going wrong keeps coming back. You did something to my shard, didn't you?"

"Your what?" You frown. The word sounds so familiar...

"Powers." She mutters.

"I can't do that. Well..." You frown. "Some can be done. Teacher, Ingenue, mess with the right part of the brain, but I don't try that. I can do a very little with them, give more gray matter to it, increase complexity and control, but I didn't do that."

"Than you changed me. Fucking Hell, you tried to make me good. It doesn't work that way." Tattletale screams and it's not for her, it's to hurt your eardrums.

"I'm sorry."

"Fucking Cauldron. They're everywhere, like rats or Jews." She mutters. Wait, what? "Crawling in and out of the system and giving powers and hurting people and they're good and..."

"What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to let me help you." She answers. Her smile isn't fox like at all anymore.

"That's, um, more frightening than it should be."

"You made me like you. If I'm doing something for someone I like, well..." She laughs. "I don't need your help to breakout. I've done it before. I can see all the connections now. That's the beautiful thing about a second trigger event." You frown.

"Second trigger event?"

"I had it before you put your hands on me, waiting in that cell. I see chains, connections, stretching out, feeding on itself. I know how to escape. I know how to survive this. Except, you're a fucking blind spot now. Happened when you made us friends. I need to focus on that. I think it's like..." She pauses, her eyes roll back in her head.

"What do you want?" You ask her intently.

"He still loves you, Amelia. Trapped under the hill, he loves you. I can bring him to you. I can get him out." Your blood runs cold.

"My father?"

"Yes. I assure you, I can break someone out of the Birdcage now. I see the connections, the path to victory. It'd be hard, almost take too long, but I can do it, Amelia. Let me help you, just ask for it. I'm going crazy and dying, and that's the answer I asked my power for."

"Oh my god."

"Is that a yes?"

[X] "You are completely insane." You lash out and touch her, and break the empathy bonds you made, break your "friendship" wired into her. You'll need something that can truly hold her, and she doesn't think this could do. Perhaps reversible lobotomy? You can't make it perfect, but you can make it so she's hit by a powerful agnosia unless activated by the right people, addict her to something only you can produce or else she sleeps all the time and send it by mail to Chicago, or something like that.

[X] "It is." You shake your head. "Fuck it. Just, fuck it. Do what you have to, demon." So you made your deal with the devil.

[X] "Well then, we have nothing to discuss." You get up and walk away, your coffee undrunk. This is exactly where she should be.

__________

The Toybox consists of seventeen vehicles, a pocket dimension, nine Tinkers with ratings from 3-9, and three non-parahuman dependents. The seventeen vehicles are connected to the pocket dimension through the technology of Dodge, a twelve year old Navajo boy with the rating of Tinker 6.

The Toybox is designed to house considerably more people than it has, to quickly scale up to the needs of their dependents. Eraser took a plane flight home, so it's just you and Victoria on the road trip.

You and Victoria get a bedroom in the pocket dimension that apparently once belonged to a married couple, a Tinker named the Independent Agent and his wife. The place is musty and in some ways weirdly crowded, as a Tinker apparently needs far more space than a normal person for all manner of projects. Glace, a specialist in cryonics, apparently fights a losing battle against entropy in the common room and kitchen, keeping it so it's safe to walk. According to Chris this is not some kind of attempt at making the place more inviting, just an obsession with cleanliness. Glace's trigger event was OCD related.

"Toy Soldier would not be comfortable with you meeting his daughters. I am very sorry about that." Cranial says.

"So, we're just supposed to..." Victoria starts.

"Please. You have nothing to gain from pushing this. What you did is very controversial. His daughters are ten and twelve years old, and are your fans, Victoria. I will try to work on him, but he seems to be adamant. He puts a great deal of effort into protecting them. I would argue too much effort. Simply be charming and normal, and he might relent."

"Please, Victoria? I don't want to start a fight with any of these people." Victoria relents.

"You said the magic word." She kisses your forehead. "But I don't have to like it, do I?"

"I wouldn't ask you that." You agree.

"Personally, I have a lot to do right now. The fact is that no one here is particularly able to entertain you most of the day. If you two were not madly in love I would think that would count as a more serious issue." Cranial's voice holds good humor to it. "If you get bored just ask them to show you your work. No one here will object to that. Let them bring up collaboration individually."

"Sounds good." You smile at Cranial. "Anything else?"

"We have a lot of stops to make, picking up some resources, dropping off others. We have orders to fill." Victoria gives Cranial a look.

"Some of this is illegal, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is, Victoria. Please do not make a thing of this. I have never disguised that my Toybox is funded in part by illegal activities. I sincerely hope to avoid this in the future, but going back on these orders and betraying these very dangerous people is not a good idea. The Toybox has spent many long periods poor, hiding, or desperate. Some of these people have saved members of this organization from certain death or helped them immensely. I am sorry I am asking you for this."

Apparently the Toybox lacks a cooking specialist, so you stop for dinner that night. Toy Soldier stays in his RV, apparently cooking for his family. Glace apparently has never been seen to eat. Cranial is busy working. The sight of the remaining nine of you descending on a rest stop draws dozens of people taking pictures with their phones. You end up sitting across from Bauble and her boyfriend, a rather small and twitchy looking boy who doesn't talk much. Victoria takes Cranial's advice and asks her about her work.

"Glassworking , glassworking tools, and turning things into glass." She explains, and proceeds to give what is certainly the most boring lecture on Tinker tech you have ever heard. You try to be polite, but the fact is that Bauble is a boring person and a boring Tinker. She drones on and on about her specialty long after you had finished eating, and she follows you back into the RV you'll pretend to sleep in. The Toybox doesn't like disclosing their pocket dimension fortress.

Victoria finally asks for a demonstration of what Bauble can do, after the third hour.

"Of course." She leads you into her lab. "Observe, a diamond, the strongest known substance to exist." She pulls out a small ring and presses it, releasing a long, strange blade, and cuts it in half cleanly. She proceeds to do the same for a wide variety of substances, repeating, with small variations, the same speech about how her tech works. You roll your eyes in exasperation at the fifteenth rendition. Why would wood be more impressive than cobalt?

"Thank you very much for the demonstration, but, um..." Victoria tries to think of an excuse against Bauble's sullen expression.

"I need to tune her up." You come up with. "Um, every night I make sure she's maximally healthy. Isn't that right?"

"Yes. It's fairly awkward, but yes, we absolutely do that." Victoria nods. The two of you finally manage to escape.

____

Dodge's portion of the lab and Kid Win's portion off the lab are next to each other. The two are apparently collaborating a lot. Chris calls you the next morning with questions an requests for his suit.

"I'm rather surprised with some of the growth patterns. Cancerous growth has taken over for a surprising amount of it, and the transition to life support hasn't been going properly." You tell Chris. Dodge is looking at you and Victoria adoringly, while Victoria is experimenting with her hair.

"Hm, I thought so." Chris says. "Just didn't feel quite right. I'm curious if we can integrate some of Dodge's remotes into this easily, make it so it flashes out and replaces the current piece of tech with new tech in a proper integration."

"That does sound useful." You nod.

"It can do that!" Dodge says enthusiastically, and pulls out his remote. He presses a button, and the "head" is replaced with a long and thin rail you recognize as one of Kid Win's guns. Another flash, and it's a strange barbed design. A third, and it's a long tentacle that appears to be something Big Rig would produce.

"Ooh, that is interesting." You smile at the kid. "You did sound like one of the more impressive people here."

"I really am. Hermione, show test 125!" Dodge shouts, and a projector on the flat wall of the dimension displays a desert and a single remote. Your suit rapidly feeds you data on the general size and shape of the place.

A moment later a 20 meter diameter snaps away into a vacuum.

"Wow." You mutter.

"That's nothing. When I we fought Crawler I had one that replaced the zone with a giant bomb." You can't help but smile.

"What went wrong?"

"It only caught about a fourth of him, and the bomb wasn't enough." Dodge answers sadly.

This kid is someone to watch.

"You know, one thing I was thinking of for your portals, could we integrate them with the suits so Amy could touch them, or their wears, at long range?" Victoria asks. "Perfect healing at a distance, on the fly suit customization." Dodge smiles. "We could try. Wouldn't last too long though. You'd need to outfit them right before the mission. Want to know why?"

"I'll give you an autograph if you don't tell me." Victoria asks.

_____

"So, how much does New Wave pay?" Pyrotechnical asks.

"Not much. We're a non-profit organization." Victoria says. Pyrotechnical seems to deflate.

"But you just got so much money. Don't you need more weapons?"

"Soldiers, maybe, but not weapons. Amy can produce really good weapons." Victoria smiles. "I don't think we need a lot more firepower. We have plenty. That's not saying you can't join, but that's not a good reason to join. Our recent recruitment has involved people who want to do good but have ethical or practical issues with joining the Wards program."

"I see." He sighs. "Nothing is easy, is it?"

"Nope." Victoria agrees. "Now, you said you had a lot of firepower. I would like to see something blow up."

Dodge apparently built an entire other pocket dimension for a firing range. This proves to have been a good move, as the blast destroys half the building you're in, leading to a quick teleport out.

"Um, that was stronger than I expected." Pyrotechnical admits.

"I could see a use for that." Victoria says. "I'm thinking if would fry Nazis very well."

"Are you thinking of hiring me?" Pyrotechnical asks.

"Maybe." Victoria says. "Only if we have a real war."

____

Toy Soldier finally invites you to dinner with his daughters on the last night before you arrive home. You sit around the table while his daughters talk excitedly to the two of you, asking questions about everything but your relationship, or your past ones.

"So, think we will be capes someday?" The older one, Joy, asks.

"It's good odds, but really varies." Victoria explains, eying your mouth and a chicken finger with a deeply divided look on her face. "Way better than most people, but I think the odds are only about 50%. It could just be that not all of them have triggered yet, of course. We're real exceptions."

"I want powers." The younger one, Charity, says. "I want to be a really good Tinker."

"I think wanting it is said to help." You say. "Not a lot, but it does. Tinker powers often come with long difficult to resolve problems. Not being a parahuman might do it for a second generation cape."

"Neat!" Charity says and closes her eyes, putting her hand out. "I want to be a parahuman. I want to be a parahuman." She chants.

"Really doesn't work that way." Victoria says cheerfully, and regretfully pops the chicken finger into her own mouth. "So, sir, would you be willing to have me fly your daughters a bit?"

"Please Daddy, please!" They shout at once.

"Alright." He sighs. "But be careful."

____

You leave the Toybox when you arrive on the outskirts of Brockton Bay. The city's been having some troubles. There's something you need to do.

[X] Meet with the Protectorate. Outfit them properly with your suits.

[X] Meet with New Wave. You need to discuss strategy for the Empire.

[X] Meet with Empire 88. If at all possible you need to prevent a war.

[X] That's really fucked up but I didn't actually come here for me Lisa, did you forget about Taylor? I'm hardly even sure why but she's your friend and she wants you back what does your power tell you I should do about that?

"Nothing I haven't already said. Let me free your father, you cute little bastard!" This will, um, not end well, will it? "If I do that, she's next on the list."

"This is my fault..." You murmur, placing a hand on her face. "I made you crazy... but I can't undo it all the way... or it'll make you even worse. Help me help you and I'm sure me and Cranial can do something to fix this. You can come back to BB and work with us or the Toybox and actually make a difference."

"Fuck, fuck, fuck that!" She shouts. "NO! FUCK NO!" She kicks back, getting up, looking angry, terrified. "Don't let me near that bitch! Fuck that! Fuck it! Fuck it!" She suddenly charged you and howls.

She ruins Victoria's perfect bite mark on your neck as you knock her out. Maybe the only way she had left to hurt you.

Fuck Tattletale.

_____

You talk to whoever at the PRT, the names are interchangeable, and explain that the changes done to Tattletale are literally killing her, she is going to need an extensive program that only you and Cranial can provide to keep her functional and if they do not allow you to bring her back to BB (sedated for the trip) you will be going straight to the media with everything you know about her case and that you will stop providing healing to any heroes of the PRT, Protectorate and the Wards.

She's clearly nuts, no matter what is going on with her.

You pace. You're worried, confused. Is she just trying to make you worry about Cranial? Why was she scared of Cranial? Could she fake it? Why the sudden change? Why did she have to bite you there? Your neck doesn't feel right anymore. Will it feel right again? You don't feel like yourself with that bite on your neck.

You can talk to it later, after you've calmed down. Does she actively not want you to help her?

You're actually crying when you show Victoria the bite mark, and she, she can't hide that she's upset.

"You're mine, sis." She whispers. "Just, fuck Tattletale. She had too..." She traces her hands along your neck.

"It feels like she stole a wedding ring." You mutter.

"More an engagement ring." She whispers back. "We're going to have a real wedding, get truly married. Knock you up. Have a house..."

"That is what you want, right?" You ask. "You want..."

"Amy..." Victoria pauses for a moment.

"Honestly, I think it would make you happiest. Isn't that enough? I actively want you knocked up. I've wanted that since before we were together, Ames. I really want to see a baby bump there. I like your body, now, and I actually love how you react to me. I feel pretty and powerful when we're alone like this, like I'm the best person in the world. I can't really imagine anything else. Like, if we're procreating we're getting married, right?"

"We don't have to." You mutter. "We don't even have to be, you know, exclusive, or together, even. Just, as long as I'm yours it doesn't have to be..."

"Perfect. Asexual. Doll. Sister." Victoria punctuates each statement with a kiss. "Yes. I still want that. I think I want that more than I want to be your wife, but most of all I want you happy. I want you to be happy very much. If this is what makes you happiest I think that matters a lot more." She touches your newest wound gently, and gently starts to lick off the blood. You wince, and it gets faster, more eager, as she continues.

"Do you like the taste?" You ask softly. Victoria answers by keeping her mouth on the toothmarks. You love her so much it hurts.
_______

[X] Meet with New Wave. You need to discuss strategy for the Empire.

You call Sophia first.

"Hey." You say.

"Hey babe." she answers. She sounds good.

"I want to meet with you before anyone else. Is that okay?"

"Don't walk around like you're on fucking eggshells. Let's meet at IHOP, the mall."

"Sure. See you in half an hour."

The IHOP is crowded and busy. You order a hearty pot roast with mashed potatoes and corn while Sophia picks at a set of pancakes.

"Don't ask me how I am, or if I'm fine. I've got enough of that." Sophia says. You nod.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"I've been hitting the Empire as hard as I can with the pathetic worm." Sophia shrugs. "Not doing much. They have a pretty good idea of where I'll hit, and I need to run fast with Othala on guard. Hit and run. I can sting, but not much else." Sophia suddenly smiles. "You know, if you're actually part of the camp that keeps saying they'll do anything to help me feel better, there's something you could do."

"Within reason." You smile back at her.

"Taylor, I've picked out her new codename." Sophia's grin gets very wide.

"What is it?"

"Worm." She laughs. "If she's your vassal you can make her do it, right?"

"I'll have to talk to Victoria, but I have absolutely no problems with that." The food arrives and the two of you eat in cheerful, companionable silence. Sophia restarts the conversation when she's done eating and you're picking at your own food.

"So, are you two exclusive now?" She asks matter of factly.

"I think so." You nod. "We're kind of, well, I know we came out, but we're still really knew to this. I think I'd prefer it if you talked to her about it. She's kind of into running this relationship."

"Ooh, she's your top?" Sophia gives you a nasty smirk. "So, I'm hanging around with Victoria's bitch?"

"I believe the polite term is bottom." You smile at her. "Not that I've put much research into it, or that it's that well categorized anyway for the two of us. Victoria's, well, been amazing about this. I'm just so lucky for anything. Heck, I'm pretty sure I'd be happy if she got back together with Dean as long as we continued."

"Fuck you're whipped." Sophia laughs. "Well, I think I will call her up about this. Now I'm heading off to make the world safe for everyone with my skin color." Sophia grabs you and suddenly kisses you hard. You don't actually resist. "Where's the fun in only doing that once?"

"I thought you said you didn't feel anything last time?" You sputter.

"Still don't." Sophia says, and she walks away.

You dial Victoria right away. Honesty has got you really far.

______

Victoria's out making sense of "New Batch" or "Newer Wave" or "The Brockton Bay Brigade" depending on who you ask. Apparently they've kind of besieged Empire 88, though they aren't actually attacking. Sophia and Taylor are attacking, strictly speaking neither one reports to anyone in New Wave.

"Hello, Aunt Sarah." You say.

"Hello, Amy." She is sitting in a chair in New Wave's new office. "So, let me just get this out of the way. What the fuck were you thinking?"

"Um, Aunt Sarah? What do you mean?"

"You went on the run, didn't even try to negotiate demands when most of them were fucking reasonable, and what the fuck?" Sarah glares at you.

"Oh, the coming out?"

"Coming out is something teenage boys do when they're full of hormones and pissed off they can't have a super sweet sixteen. You disclosed an incestuous lesbian affair! If you cared at all for New Wave's image you would have done anything else."

"Aunt Sarah..."

"Here is the situation. You are going to be nice, polite, and reasonable to Victoria and get her to cut it out. She's playing with fire. Then, you are going to apologize to the Protectorate, officially. After that, you are going to go on TV and explain just how serious the mental illness you have is, and how you're doing everything in your power to correct it. If you weren't you I'd tell you not to be seen in public with Victoria, but I know that's not going to happen, so just act like you aren't sleeping together unless you're alone."

"Victoria wanted to come out."

"You're supposed to be the reasonable one!" She snaps. "Your crazy adventures are over. You are going back to the hospital. You are going to outfit the PRT and Protectorate. Victoria will donate what she has earned for her remarkable achievement in defeating Jack Slash to charities fighting sexual abuse. We are going to put this clusterfuck behind us, Amy."

"Aunt Sarah, you are insulting my girlfriend." You keep a very even tone.

"I am insulting your sister, Amy. And I am insulting you. Do you have any idea how bad any of this is? We're a freak show, a joke! Now all anyone will remember New Wave for is this. We'll lose everything we have." You frown.

"I love her." You keep your voice very even. "I love Victoria. Victoria actually believes sunlight disinfects. We are going to have a relationship, and we are going to be public about it." You're confused, angry.

"Amy, I love you. I love Victoria. You're seventeen years old. You're making decisions that are far outside your ability to make them. Believe me, this will not help anyone. If we are going to be a stable, long lasting institution in Brockton Bay we can't be decadent freaks! If you love Victoria you'll help me do what's best for her."

[X] "Loving someone means trusting someone." You turn away. "I trust Victoria." You walk out on Lady Photon.

[X] "We can talk about this. We can be reasonable." Aunt Sarah, you can work on her, argue her down, right? Or just piss her off.

[X] "You're using me to get at Victoria." You stand there, and do the right thing. You pull out your cellphone. "Hey, sis, I know you're busy, but I need someone else here."

[X] "You're using me to get at Victoria." You stand there, and do the right thing. You pull out your cellphone. "Hey, sis, I know you're busy, but I need someone else here."

"Coming right there, Ames." Victoria says cheerfully. "Give me, oh, five minutes?"

"See you then, girlfriend. Love you."

"Love you too." Victoria says, and you hang up. Sarah doesn't even look angry anymore.

"I'm guessing you've got some big speech on the tip of your tongue?" You almost stop it. You raise your hand to your scarred neck. She deserves it."

"New Wave's image is a fucking joke. To the heroes you're just the well-meaning idiots who did something incredibly stupid and got your sister in law killed. To the villains you're the out of control maniacs who are as likely to chop them into little pieces as arrest them. And to the public you're just another bunch of self-centered attention whore celebrities who couldn't cut a reality TV deal. You arrested one major villain eleven years ago and ever since then you've been in a holding pattern fighting two-bit losers who aren't a threat to anyone because you're too scared of losing someone else. You killed New Wave's image when you took off your masks without having a single damn clue what you were doing and you've been letting it decompose ever since because you've been too scared to take a risk. While you were here not dealing with the Nazis Victoria and I were destroying the Slaughterhouse Nine. Jack Slash shot acid in my guts. It dissolved my intestines, my spine, my liver, and my kidneys, probably some other vital things, too. If Mister Storkfish had been a few seconds later I would have died. And I would do it all again because it was the right thing to do. If I had died stopping Jack Slash it would have been fucking worth it. Victoria and I did more good in one week on the run than you have ever done. While you worry about New Wave's image," you practically spir the word, "we'll be worrying about it's reputation. We're the degenerates who save lives, protect the innocent, fight monsters, give people second chances, and put our lives on the line to make the world a better place. That's what New Wave was supposed to be about and you've lost sight of it. That's why you've completely failed to accomplish anything meaningful." Sarah stands there, taking it calmly.

"You're alive, Amy. Victoria is alive. Eric is alive. Crystal is alive. Neil is alive. Mark is alive. Carol is alive. I am alive. That is my accomplishment. That means everything to me. My brother is alive, out there. Every member of my family has survived. Fleur, I loved her, but if I had to lose anyone it would have been her. She was a wake up call. What I did was stupid. You can't keep to those values when you see where they got us. Our job is ten times as hard without secret identities, and we survived. Very, very few teams like New Wave last this long. We've pressed slow and steady, and we've been able to keep doing good. Victoria killed Jack Slash, and that is wonderful. I am proud of both of you. I want to keep being proud of you both for a very long time. The way things are going you won't be." That is kind of hard to argue with.

"How would going back in the closet help that?" You mutter.

"Amy, Fleur was killed by a Nazi. Being a lesbian is dangerous in Brockton Bay. If you can just call it a mental illness that's not something they're as comfortable murdering someone over. You know how fragile Victoria's defenses are, even with your help. The wrong freak accident, the wrong person hesitating at the right moment when she's storming into a burning building, that could kill her." She's right, but...

"We're not doing it just for, well, we want children too. We want to grow up. We can't just stay kids forever. We're almost eighteen. What if Victoria does die? I want a baby before that. We don't have a lot of time left."

"Amy, I want you to be happy. I want Victoria to be happy. I don't think you're going in a way to make either of those things happen. Let's go down the list one by one. Do you not want to apologize to the Protectorate? They spent a lot of time and money hunting you down. I think running was a bad call, but I get it. I think it would be a very honorable thing to say you're wrong when you're not. It will mean that other people might not make a bad call. Heroes will be out on the streets or working with the system instead of running at the first sign of trouble." You sigh. It actually makes sense.

"I'll have to talk to Victoria about it."

"Alright. Now, is there any reason that donating the money Victoria earned is a bad thing? I actually think it sends the right message if you continue with this. It establishes that this consensual, if strange, situation is not endorsing sexual abuse, and that molestation is still wrong. The fact is that New Wave does not need the money, and neither does Victoria. There's so many other ways for you two to fund yourselves it isn't funny."

"It's Victoria's money. She actually cares about it. Talk to her about it when she arrives."

"Very well. Do you actually think you and Victoria can manage a private army?"

"Maybe." You mutter.

"Okay, let's say you can. Do we actually need people in your suits, a hundred of them, patrolling the streets? We do not. Could the PRT use a hundred officers with that kind of firepower supplementing their heroes? Yes. We do not need a private army, and if we do we could make one when the time is right. The Protectorate becoming more powerful benefits us, it keeps fewer of us from dying or holding the line." Victoria raps on the window and Sarah heads there and opens it. Victoria floats through lazily.

"An actual cat stuck in a tree." She explains. "The poor thing was terrified." She kisses you on the cheek.

"So, what did I miss?"

"Um, Aunt Sarah? Mind explaining it to her?" She looks a bit worried...

________

The two of you sit down, you resting in Victoria's lap, while Sarah stands, looking at the two of you.

"We've come out." Victoria says finally. "We are out. That's not on the table."

"I understand." Sarah sighs. "I don't like it, and it's not about, well, the obvious. Honestly, I don't think anyone's that surprised."

"What?" Victoria does sound surprised.

"Vicky, you and Amy were sleeping in the same bed until the first day you started high school. We only got you to stop by letting you start taking product endorsements. It was a month before you were sleeping even somewhat regularly." You feel Victoria blushing.

"That had nothing to do with it." You mutter. Aunt Sarah rolls her eyes.

"Okay, so I am not willing to negotiate on our relationship. Like the reasonable adults we are, Amy and I will discuss everything else together, and check with the rest of our team about it. Does that sound fair?" Victoria asks. Sarah frowns.

"We will talk on the specifics." Sarah says.

"Alright. Scoot." Victoria says to you, and you get up. Victoria rises a second later.

"I have to continue my survey of the boarder wall and Newer Wave." Victoria says. "We'll talk tonight. Where are you off to?"

"Skitter's territory. She deserves to be told about Tattletale in person." Victoria sighs.

"You're right. But, um, bring Eric, okay? I don't trust her."

"I'm perfectly safe." You smile at her.

"Just, please don't go alone, okay? I have a bad feeling about it." You feel a delicious wave of her aura.

"Okay." You laugh. "If it means that much to you, I'll take Eric."

"Perfect." She kisses you soundly on the lips. "See you tonight."

_____

You drive, with Eric sitting in the passenger side.

"It's cool." He says suddenly. "Like, not something I'd emulate, but it's actually really cool what you two did. Some warning would have been nice, but it's cool."

"Thank you. So, how have things been back here?"

"Crazy." Eric sighs. "The Protectorate and police searched for you everywhere, and then Crystal started herding us into the siege on the Empire. I haven't had this much fun in years."

"Wait, Crystal organized this? I didn't hear that."

"Mom's been furious about it, and Crystal hasn't been out in costume for it, but the siege was her idea. Me, Madison, Melissa, and Mason have been patrolling the border that Kaiser made. It's been pretty fun." Eric then laughs. "Victoria recruited a lot of Ms didn't she?"

"I guess she did." You smile. "Want to come in with me?"

"Of course." He opens the door for you like a gentleman. He really does pull off the blue hair, somehow.

"Hey!" You hear a voice shout, and Melissa rushes over. You notice her red and white costume matches well to Eric's. she walks you in.

Taylor is seated on something that looks suspiciously like a throne. You see spiders weaving costumes all around here. The number of insects you don't recognize is enormous and would have been worrying if you weren't perfectly protected for them.

"Hello, Amy." Taylor, far more Skitter, says. "Congratulations on everything."

"Thank you very much, Taylor. I heard you've been harrying the Empire while I have been gone."

"It's fighting Nazis, and doesn't take too much attention for me, really. It felt like the right thing to do. It's mostly providing support for Sophia, anyway." She nods. "So, how is Tattletale?"

"We brought Lisa back with us to Brockton Bay but I'm not going to lie to you she's not doing well. She had a second trigger and it interacted poorly with the changes. We have to keep her mostly sedated for the moment but I'm going to work with Crainial to try and fix this. If you want we could probably arrange a visit but I have to warn you she can't seem to help herself anymore, she'll try and hurt you like she did me in the bank, only she's even better at it now." Taylor is silent for a minute.

"I wasn't expecting that at all. When, how did she second trigger?"

"It was before I arrived, in her holding cell, but a lot of it was my fault. I tried to make it so she couldn't hurt me, tried to be kinder than the PRT, and it hurt her worse. I apologize. If there is any way I can help her without hurting someone else, I will. I've already stuck me neck out on this. Threatened things I didn't like to threaten. We'll be working with her for a while."

"Makes sense." Taylor sighs. "When can I see her?"

"She's still sedated in one of Cranial's vehicles." A very small lie. She's in the pocket dimension, a lot safer, but Cranial did act that you didn't share it existed. "I'll talk to her about it."

"That's, I get that." Taylor sighs. Anything else?"

"Mostly I thought you deserved this in person, but I am here for something else. In Chicago, under Ragged Angel's protection, I started to improve her territory, make it more liveable. I want to do the same here. Work with it. Make it into a place that people will actively want to live in. I think I will spend the afternoon working on that. Fill your natural range, a couple block radius, with my improvements, if you accept. I would like you to help gather insect mass for that."

"That is a great idea, Amy. I read about what you did there. I thank you a lot for it."

______

You and Victoria are going to stay in the improved Skitter territory for the night, a private room you built for the purpose.

"Kalahari's in everything you do now." Victoria smiles. "I feel honored. I really do."

"I'm so glad you feel that way." You rest a hand on her shoulder. "So, what next?"

"Okay, I don't see any real argument against outfitting the Protectorate, do you? We only didn't because Armsmaster wanted to check your work. Do you have a problem with that?"

"Nope." You nod.

"Alright, the official PRT overseer. That, um, I don't like it, but I get why they'd want that. Sarah really thinks that's best after everything."

"Hm..."

"We can always ignore it if we disagree, right?"

"Then yes." You smile. "A liaison instead of an overseer?"

"Ooh, I like that." Victoria smiles and it's like the sun.

"So, what about the private army thing?"

"I can see going either way." Victoria says carefully. "I guess it depends on where we want to go."

"What do you mean by that?

"Hm, I think there are a few ways we can handle the general situation. Themes, if you will. Want me to give you some options? Feel free to offer suggestions."

"Sounds good." You stop working on the water filtration system. "Fire away."

[X] "One." Victoria raises her hand and opens one finger. "We just go with the flow. Outfit the Protectorate. Outfit the PRT, and make a big thing of it. Donate the money to charity, which is something I don't have a huge problem with. Apologize officially for our actions, with the understanding that they were reasonable given the leader was under mind control." You nod.

[X] "Two." Victoria raises a second finger. "We split, officially, from New Wave. We take everyone we can. Melissa, Mason, Madison, and Julian we can definitely take, maybe Eric and Crystal. Start our own team. Make our own security forces. Start with Skitter's territory, and begin massive infrastructure improvements. Shovel the Jack Slash bounty into our new team and new territory and start making more money. Basically, we become our own group." You nod for Victoria to continue.

[X] "Three." Victoria raises a third finger. "We talk to Aunt Sarah. We don't split up New Wave, but we try to force through what we want. We officially apologize. Also we outfit the Protectorate and PRT in all options. We keep it one movement, but try to change it from the inside. Problem is we'd be going slower and not have as much control that way." You nod a third time.

"So, got any other suggestions?" Victoria asks.

Note on write ins: All reasonable write ins will be plans or comments Amy gives in character, and will be edited as such into the post.

[X] "Two." Victoria raises a second finger. "We split, officially, from New Wave. We take everyone we can. Melissa, Mason, Madison, and Julian we can definitely take, maybe Eric and Crystal. Start our own team. Make our own security forces. Start with Skitter's territory, and begin massive infrastructure improvements. Shovel the Jack Slash bounty into our new team and new territory and start making more money. Basically, we become our own group." You nod for Victoria to continue.

"So, got any other suggestions?" Victoria asks.

"Two." You answer. "We officially split. I like the idea of a new team." Victoria pauses, reaches out, and strokes your stomach.

"Are you sure? Like, I don't think it will delay anything, but it would be a lot of work, running our team. Less time with me, less time with Claire..."

"I'm not exactly going to be working less no matter what, just changing what I do. Honestly, I'll probably end up going back to the hospital tomorrow anyway. It's probably a good idea if we're going with the split, reinforcing that I'm still the Panacea."

"Oh, Amy." Victoria shakes her head. "That's incredible. That, and the PRT and Protectorate outfitting..."

"I'll bring Madison. I've been thinking about, I don't know, trying to multitask more. It didn't work out when I was younger, but I could get a lot of reading done with books on tape. I'm more focused, it's more automatic. Maybe other multitasking. It can't be as bad as it was. If it is, I'll work with Cranial. She's almost done with it anyway."

"That's a good point. So, anything else we should work with?"

"Well, look at the Toybox. I admit I was disappointed with the road trip, but we know them better now. A bit of exposure to the aura. Worst case we have a lot of cash to spend on Tinker assistance. Maybe start the cloning..."

"Amy, there's no way it'll be legal to just clone up an army. Well, maybe technically legal. I think our best shot is to clone for the Protectorate. It makes them dependent on us, and gives them a lot. Maybe once they feel safe we can start making more of us. I think it kind of has to be a national organization. Most people won't feel comfortable with a family of clones in the same city." Victoria shakes her head.

"You're probably right." You admit. "Still, us and the Toybox will be extremely powerful."

"That's true." Victoria agrees. "I doubt they'll be that close to us in the long term. They do value their independence."

"Now, about Skitter..."

"What, did you find a glass coke bottle?" You laugh out loud.

"Nope. But, well, she's been trying hard, fighting Empire 88, providing for her territory. That means something, right? We should fold her into the team if we can." Victoria frowns.

"She submitted to us because she had to. Sure, continue the working relationship, but she's not one of us. She held a knife to you. You. She attacked me with bugs."

"Sophia wants to change her codename to Worm." You mutter. Victoria laughs.

"We're doing that."

"It seems mean. Pointlessly mean. Just, we want to use her, not push her away, right?"

"She is very, very lucky she's not in juvie for her stunts. She gets to see her father. She gets to move around freely. She gets to do good. I think we're being extremely reasonable to the little terrorist myself.

"She is taking care of Leviathan victim orphans. Maybe she just fell into a bad crowd?"

"When the crowd was captured, she didn't turn herself in. She justified everything by being undercover but never broke it once crimes were committed. Big crimes. Melissa, I can control her. She's about as mindfucked by my aura as someone can get right now. Skitter, I'm not so sure. She can't get the squee aspect well, she just gets scared. I don't think I can reform her like that. She worries me. Yes, taking care of orphans, good thing, but I don't want to let her think she's a superhero now. She never made the choice to go good. She was forced to by circumstances. Melissa defected properly."

"Yeah." You agree. "That makes a lot of sense."

"Okay, here's the deal. I will talk to her. I will see what she wants. I will talk to Sophia, who's been spending time with her. If I want her as part of the team, I will give her the chance to officially join the new team. Unless she commits crimes I will not take her territory from her. Together, as a group, we could do a lot more good. She can either continue this relationship, become part of the team, or be an independent hero protecting this area and providing for the people here until it no longer becomes necessary. As a hero, we will support her and fight with her against more worrying issues. She has done a lot. Is that fair?"

"I think it's fair." You agree. "I'll check on the people here tonight, make sure they're all healthy."

"Tomorrow night." Victoria says. "You need to be well rested for the hospital."

"Alright." You agree. "So, want to continue brainstorming?"

"Sure." Victoria nods.

"We want strong ties to other groups internationally. We don't want to end up like New Wave become, a small local team. We want to be internationally respected and valued. That means more networking and that means doing more work outside of Brockton Bay, at least after we clean up. We should try to reach out to all the major teams worldwide."

"I think the cloning thing is the best way to do that. Offer it to every PRT approved team and country. All the US allies at least, the First World. Do that, and there's no limit to how valuable you are. None. Imagine a dozen Legends." A thrill runs up your spine. "They have DNA samples of a lot of the dead heroes, too. Maybe we could make them brothers and sisters? Probably won't do much until they're in their teens, but it's something to try. Maybe the villains, give them better childhoods? Heck, the new heroes could raise clones of the old villains, set them on the right path, make more diverse power sets."

"Seems a bit extreme, but all good ideas." You nod. "Now, back to the home front. I want to do this citywide. Maybe not Kalahari for the whole thing, that would just be tacky, but we could turn Brockton Bay into the biotech city of the future. Rebuilding from Leviathan gives us a good excuse."

"Biotech is your department. You know what to do best for that. Nothing I can comment on. Sounds good, though. Could Skitter help with that? Relay bugs to control all the bugs in the city, and a whole bunch of new kinds of bugs?"

"Seems like it would." You nod. "Maybe have specialized bugs, eye bugs to see out of, ear bugs to hear out of, and hives of sedation bugs to intervene in violent crime? Disaster relief bugs to fight fires and similar stuff? Maybe huge bugs to serve as ambulances? No, that probably wouldn't be as effective, but maybe first aid? It would be like a vast, intelligent, friendly goddess."

"A bit more power than I'd give Skitter, but I see how that could be really useful." Victoria agrees.

"If we're going to do this right we need to hire people. New Wave stayed small partly because it was a mom and pop operation. If we want to expand we'll need lawyers and lobbyists and managers. We'll need teams of experienced professionals, almost everything that the PRT has. Thirty million sounds like a lot, but it goes away quickly when you're paying for all of that."

"Hm, charging for healing would be wrong. We've always agreed on that."

"I have more ideas. Bacteria to eat a landfill, there's a lot of trash in the world, and we could be paid to get rid of it, and use it to help feed the local biotech. Farming the ocean would be a lot easier with stuff I could make, and maybe Skitter's help if she can work on sea life. Perfumes, cheap and safe. Talk to other people about products we could grow. Bacteria farming, for more industry. We might be able to mass produce oil and other hydrocarbons and more exotic chemicals."

"Amy, are you planning on, you know, sleeping?" Victoria sounds worried.

"I think a lot of it can run itself, once it gets going, or at least have someone else work on it. Another industry. The city needed industries even before this happened." Victoria doesn't look totally convinced.

"I think we've done enough of that for now." She says. "So, um..." She looks at your neck meaningfully. That makes the next part hard. There's something that you've been avoiding talking about for too long.

"Victoria, when I said no to Jack it wasn't about us. I'm afraid of losing myself. The only villain I'm really scared of is the one I could become if you aren't there to anchor me. If I lost everything and ended up like Mannequin I could hurt so many people. I don't want to cut ties with New Wave completely. I went to Sarah because I wanted to strengthen them. I need people that I can hold onto who aren't you, just in case." Victoria sighs.

"Amy, I love you. You're my family. They're not. Not in the same way we're a family. They never were, can't be to you. Maybe to me, but not to you. You need friends. Heck, if Sophia's text bombs were serious, um, never mind. Anyway, you need more ties, but I think our new team is better for that, and our new family. Claire, maybe sisters for Claire." You almost ask if you can make Claire tonight, but you can wait a while longer, see what Cranial has to say on the aura.

You can still come close.

_____

Twelve. Fucking. Hours.
_____

"I've been hemming them in since you left. I am totally comfortable with that." Melissa says. "The only one I really like is invulnerable to anything we can do." She sits next to you at the hospital. Madison was apparently busy with spying on Empire 88.

"That seems a bit fast." You admit.

"Purity was really, really nice, but she's dead. Kaiser's son was a bit of a dweeb. Sweet, but we're not going after him, and he hates his dad, anyway. Alabaster can't really be hurt by us. Menja and Fenja are crazy. Night and Fog, I always thought they were cute, but Night's dead anyway and Fog, no idea what he's up to, and they were both sociopathic serial killers." Melissa sighs and stretches. "The rest are some variation on asshole or completely lunatic, except some who left the Empire." She pauses. "Okay, Othala was pretty nice to me. Victor's a monster though, skill vampire. So, Othala and Alabaster. Spare them anything long term, and I have no issues with helping out."

Only six more hours to go.

"So, you and Eric..." You mutter.

"Yes." She laughs. "Me and Eric. Alabaster was always too old, and the skinheads generally sucked. He's a nice change. Sweet. I really like working with him in the field, though he's a bit boring off duty. Maybe when the city's got more stuff to do it will be different."

"Running an idea past you, bio-weapons delivered by insect? Mosquito, or something I invent?"

"He's thought of it. Kaiser is not stupid. If there's any practical way of preparing, it'll fail best case, worst case it'll tip him off. Don't try it unless we're attacking conventionally anyway. Sure, maybe you've figured out the perfect attack, but he will have put thought into this."

"Reasonable." You see the uniformed men and the suit walk in. "Ah, only two hours late."

"Should I go." Melissa asks?

"Nope." You say. "It was their idea that I should have a bodyguard, and you're with me on probation."

"Alright." She waves cheerfully to Director Lewis. He walks forward and sits on a folding chair near the line of people being brought through.

"I heard you wanted to speak with me. I'm sorry I'm late. Things have been hectic. We're transferring capes in and out. That's always hard, especially for Wards."

"Yep." You agree. "I wanted to apologize. Dream Mask was wrong, due to her mind control. It wasn't anyone's fault who wasn't a supervillain. Still, I went off for horrible reasons. I just wanted Victoria to rescue me. I should have fought back differently."

"Director Costa-Brown has officially pardoned you. The situation was objectively terrifying and you had no idea if you would get a fair trial or not. I think the action was acceptable." Director Lewis smiles. "I think anyone in your situation should have been pardoned.

"It was kind of just an excuse for a road trip and getting Victoria into a bikini. That and letting her rescue me. She looks good in a bikini, though." You giggle. The woman you're healing gives you a very ugly look. Typical.

"I doubt anyone I know will disagree with that." Director Lewis laughs. "So, you will be outfitting the Protectorate and the PRT tonight?"

"Yes." You say. "Protectorate first, than PRT. I believe you had something special requested for Dauntless?"

"Correct. Given how his powers work he is highly important. Cranial has been doing her accelerated scan, and will be done tonight. We would appreciate a full body tuneup from the two of you. Make him as skilled as possible in as many ways as possible, and as physically fit and likely to survive danger. If he is to become one of the strongest capes in the world this will increase his chance of making it that long."

You explain and discuss your plans with Director Lewis, and he leaves looking very thoughtful. Melissa had fallen peacefully asleep. You had made an arrangement to have dinner with his family, bringing Victoria along with you, next week.

_____

You and Mason enter the Protectorate HQ, continuing your discussion from the car.

"Crystal's never been into younger guys, Mason. If you thought this would be the route to a girlfriend you were sorely mistaken. Being an unmasked cape will really help with that, though." Mason sighs.

"Five girls on the team who aren't married, and we get three lesbians, one paired up right away, and one's not into younger guys." He sighs. "I like cape girls. I always have."

"Skitter? Shadow Stalker?" You ask.

"They're terrifying." He sighs. "Well, actually all of you are, but they're more scary by choice rather than nature. That's different."

"You know, it is. There's matters of degree, but I wouldn't want to date someone like that either." You nod as you walk through the halls of the PRT. "I heard they're taking two new boys for the Wards, so no luck there, either."

"Of course." He sighs. "Anyone I'm missing?"

"Probably not. Julian might like a wing man."

"I tried that. He is a terrible wing man. Well, at least for me. He acts like an ass around girls and gets away with it for popping Siberian."

"I could clone you a girlfriend." You suggest. "We're going to be making more cape clones anyway. I could make a few for us, and make the gender ratio of straight girls so you have an advantage?"

"That's just creepy." Mason sighs. "I'll find something. The two of you enter the waiting room for the people needing to be outfitted. Dream Mask, Assault, Battery, Velocity, Triumph, Dauntless, Tecton, and Blur.

Dream Mask gets up and the two of you trip over your apologies to each other.

"Really, you were a victim." You reassure Dream Mask. "Now, any ideas for your suit?"

"Aim bot elements, not an issue for me. Non-lethal measures, yours are highly useful. Overall I need mobility as you can grant it." She explains. You start working with the six adult heroes and two Wards to make their suits, one by one.

______

You stand next to Cranial, watching Dauntless tear his way through the rest of the Protectorate and New Wave of Brockton Bay.

"He is rather enhanced and naturally versatile." Cranial remarks. "It is amazing to think what he will be in ten years."

"I'm wondering how many people we can give the skill and strength upgrades to. That's a lot of performance enhancement there." Dauntless duels with Velocity and Assault, fighting hard.

"It seems largely inefficient to me, when the same effort could create new capes."

"Speaking of which, when do you want to start production?"

"Give me two weeks. I am scanning the test cases for the first generation. Ten members of the Protectorate have volunteered and been selected for the next test cases. Over the next few months we will clone them ten times and move the clones in different mixes across the country. If that proves as successful as the precogs believe it will be, we will start further experimentation. So far the first fifteen have behaved quite well."

"I've been thinking about something else. Work on the dead. Look at the records and DNA of dead parahumans. Cloning them, put in false memories. Their brothers and sisters of course, but it grants more flexibility. A lot of capes have died."

"I would prefer not to do that. The dead cannot volunteer. I may end up going with select cases, but I would prefer to work with those currently alive before we start making new adults to honor the dead. I prefer the old idea you emailed me, make babies in the form of the dead, and adults from the living."

"Alright, though some of the capes who died could be really useful."

"I agree." Cranial answers as Dauntless finally goes down to Blur, wielding one of his suit's powerful switch blades. "I do indeed have someone very much in mind. Now, do you want to know about Kitsune?"

"Very much so." You say.

"I am currently doing a quick scan of her brain. The new machine is so incredible. There are no words for it. In a few days we will have a complete picture of how to help her. Please tell Skitter."

"I will. She will be very happy." You agree.

_____

"Amy and I are splitting from New Wave." Victoria announces to the younger generation of New Wave. The eight of you have gathered in Skitter's territory, her "throne room" though she is currently with her father.

"We would like any of you to join our team." You explain. "I get if you don't want to, but..."

"Yep. I'm joining." Madison says. "No debate here."

"I joined New Wave because it means something." Mason frowns. "Why should I join with you?"

"New Wave was in a rut for a decade." Victoria starts her own speech. "After the death of Fleur, we floundered. No one would join up. You personally changed that, started a flood of new members, Mason. As much as I love my family, they can't grow, they can't change. They were set in their ways for too long. As our own force we're good. We're a powerful team, and we can expand. We can live up to the ideals New Wave first founded."

"Those ideals would be?" Mason asks.

"New Wave was founded to as a beacon against corruption in the cape community. That's something that you want to continue championing. Subordinating to the PRT and the Protectorate doesn't help with that. Ideally, Next Wave would serve as an alternative for people who aren't satisfied with the Protectorate and as a potential check against corruption. We want a close working relationship but not a subordinate one." Victoria explains. "We believe that sunlight disinfects. The enemies of our civilization thrive in shadows and the darkness. We need to admit who we are, proudly and without shame. We need to grow, expand, compete and check each other. We can recruit people who aren't suitable for the Protectorate or the Wards due to personality clashes and legal issues. We can provide support to people who would otherwise become villains."

"Well, I joined because of you. I think I'm willing to leave with you." Mason decides.

"So, Julian?" Victoria asks.

"Of course I'm joining you guys. You're way more fun." He laughs.

"So, Melissa?" Victoria asks.

"I don't think so." Everyone stares at her.

"Really?" Eric sounds incredulous.

"I just left an uncontrolled team, a lot of powerful personalities. I want something more mature and respectable. If your Newer Wave falls through I won't have anywhere else to go. I'm sorry. I trust you guys, but I want to stay with the grownups, at least until I make a name for myself." Melissa sighs. "I'm sorry if this feels like I'm chickening out or something."

"Well then, I guess that's happened." Victoria shakes her head. "So, what about you guys?" She looks at Eric and Crystal.

"I'm joining." Crystal says. Eric looks surprises.

"Crysie, why?"

"I feel, well, bored in New Wave." She explains. "Not a lot to do, honestly. I'm the youngest of the grownups, and no one treats me like one. I think I'd rather be the oldest kid."

"Cool." Victoria nods. "Really cool. What about you, Eric?"

"I think Mom would worry too much if I ran off here. Call me if you need anything, but I'm staying with New Wave." Eric says. You have the slight suspicion that Melissa staying in New Wave might be a lot of this.

_____

"So you have a new team." Aunt Sarah sighs. "Well, we all knew that was coming."

"We really want to keep friendly ties. You are family." You assure her.

"We can. This might be for the best. Any of your members are welcome back if you want to come back."

"That's great." You smile. "Victoria would like it if you could advise us, unofficially."

"I can. Neil can also provide advice when I'm busy. I don't hate this idea. It seems like a brave experiment. New Wave was too, once. Just, please try not to get anyone killed."

"We will try very hard." You nod.

______

Recruiting private security forces is about versatility more than control or power. There are some things that a private contractor can do that a PRT agent can't because of regulations. On the other hand, there are many things that a PRT agent can do that a private contractor can't because those things are illegal. It's best to have both working together.

So far you've gathered 20 security contractors and outfitted them properly, and done the same for 20 PRT officers who are currently training with their suits. There will be cross training, of course.

_____

"What do we call this thing, anyway?" Crystal asks.

"Next Wave?" You suggest.

"No!" Victoria, Crystal, Madison, and Mason all shout at once.

"I like it." Julian mutters.

"That is so much more reason not to do it." Victoria says.

_____

"Kaiser wants a meeting." Skitter announces from her throne.

"How do you know?"

"Alabaster just told me. I can't hold him down." She explains. "He went to my insects and said Kaiser wants to meet with you and Victoria. Kaiser and Alabaster, you and Victoria.

"Does that sound reasonable to you?" You ask.

"Personally, yes. It seems like a good way to discuss a truce, or whatever it is he needs."

[X] Go to war. They're Nazis.

[X] Have the truce meeting. It's best to go, at least.

[X] Continue as you have been. This is a fine status quo. See how they break it.

[X] Go to war. They're Nazis.

Dream Mask and Battery sit on the table across from you.

"May I comment, Battery?" Dream Mask asks.

"You may." Battery agrees.

"As vigilantes, parahumans with heroic designations under US law, you have the power to arrest known villains with warrants out for their arrest, as well as people who are clearly supporting costumed parahumans, people engaging in crimes, and people who you recognize as having committed crimes. Therefor, a "war" with Empire 88 is, to an extent, legal. I suggest you brush up on all appropriate laws before you engage in such a conflict."

"We will." Victoria nods.

"Also understand that your recent behavior is extremely difficult to deal with. You act in direct defiance of the law, and throw around your considerable weight. While this is understandable, and given your value acceptable, there will be a push back if you continue. This can be delayed and mitigated, and this will not necessarily trigger any problems, but I strongly suggest you start to keep things quiet before it becomes impossible to let you continue without losing face." Victoria frowns.

"That is reasonable. Right, Battery?"

"Yes, it is. I think Director Lewis was chosen specifically to be soft with you and Amy, but there are limits, and you're grazing them with how you handled Kitsune. I suggest not pulling a stunt like that again until after your clones have proven themselves, at the least. Cape rule is what the PRT is designed to mitigate. Your personal behavior is probably reasonable, but if it starts trends it could be very, very bad."

"Alright." Victoria nods. "I will keep that in mind. How will the Protectorate respond to this?"

"We will ask for volunteers. Those volunteers will then start patrolling the border wall as your own capes did before." Battery says. "Any known villains who are sighted from the wall will be arrested. Raids into Empire territory will not be engaged in under normal circumstances, though if accidents happen and lives are on the line they will engage in such raids, but only to save lives. The current Protectorate and Wards are not strong enough to support further raids, even though the city is recovering remarkably well."

"Very well." Victoria frowns. "And the PRT?"

"They will come to detain capes you arrest, but will not join assaults unless there are extraordinary circumstances." Battery explains. "The suits are not tested well enough to support sending such teams against capes."

"Okay." You announce. "Understand that our other commitments will not be put aside for this. Healing, work with Cranial on the clones, bio-tech, more suits. In general I will not be engaging with the Empire tactically."

"Good." Battery nods. "We wish you the best of luck."

_____

"I'm surprised you didn't come to the meeting." You tell Cranial. She decided to keep you company for one of the shifts, though she did bring plenty of her work along, and is hidden behind a curtain to keep people from freaking out about her.

"I apologize, but I do not think it would have been a good idea. You and Victoria need to appear as independent adult capes, and should not appear to be taking direction from a rogue. I have a complicated relationship with the government."

"You seem to be really, um, about as much of a white hat as you get without joining the Protectorate." You admit.

"I spent two years in prison for black market activities. Since then I have made myself useful and made it clear that working with me is more useful than working against me. It was a learning experience."

"Like, um, how did you work in prison? Like, I mean, um..."

"I was in a minimum security woman's prison. Like all Tinkers in prison, it was known that I had a compulsive urge to build, and so was allowed to work on and sell equipment to the government at reduced rates. I was given a cell with a blind woman who had extremely significant drug offenses. It was not a particularly nice period, but I adjusted. The most difficult part for me was the low level of reading I could do there. I finished off the prison library rapidly."

"How did people react to you?" This is kind of fascinating. "A Case 53, I mean."

"I am abnormal enough that I hardly register as human to many people, and nice enough not to trigger violence from those who do consider me human. I was surrounded by largely non-violent offenders. I was left to myself for the most part." She does sound vaguely sad about it.

"So, on the coming conflict, what will the Toybox be doing?" You ask.

"I expect very little. We are rogues, not heroes or mercenaries. If you wish to purchase weapons, I am happy to talk about it, but I expect it will not be worth the price given your own abilities. We only cooperate with the heroes on S-Class or A-Class threats, forces that are clearly a danger to us as much as and the public as anything else. A white supremacist gang is not something I feel a duty to protect the public against. I consider myself in large part a civilian. I certainly approve of heroes, and married one, but I am not a hero and do not wish to be one."

"That makes sense." You can't help but be disappointed.

"Please, Amy. I am here to help. I merely focus on my comparative advantage. I am a scientist in a way very few Tinkers are."

"Of course. That's not a bad thing. I only started going vigilante recently, and that was more boredom and depression than anything."

"I am not bored and I am not depressed, and I think a win for your team will be more meaningful if it's your own win." Cranial says cheerfully. "Now, would you like to hear about my progress with speeding up brain scan processing?"

"Yes I would."

_____

"Aunt Sarah isn't helping." Victoria tells you when you get back from work. "She refuses to help. She thinks we should leave them be until they do something nasty again."

"That sounds like her." You shrug. "So, anyone else you've contacted?"

"Faultline's Crew seems to have left the city, and the Merchants are too small time. I think we've handled all the major factions. We should prepare for the Merchants if they try to stab us in the back, but I don't think they're that stupid." Victoria says. She leads you into the meeting room. Skitter and Shadow Stalker stand next to each other while the other official team members sit at the table. Victoria takes her place at the head of the table, and you sit down at her right.

"Alright, Skitter, can you offer the visuals?" Victoria asks. Skitter does so, her bugs moving large map of the the city over to the table.

"That is the Empire 88 territory." Victoria says, pointing to a large red area. "The green area, the boardwalk, is the territory of Skitter. Orange is the Merchants. Blue is Protectorate patrolled territory. White is New Wave patrolled territory. the long black line is Kaiser's border wall. We have complete freedom of movement in the green, white, and blue areas. Orange is probably safe, but we should definitely move in pairs if we need to go there. The Protectorate and Ward volunteers are patrolling the border wall. Dauntless, Assault, Vista, and Blur take turns on it. This presses the Empire forces deeper into their territory. Skitter is watching Empire territory, but they have been using an unknown means to vastly reduce the bugs in her area, and have caught relay bugs several times in the attacks. They refuse to do this in sight of the border wall, and Shadow Stalker has failed to catch them in action. Any questions?"

"Do we know the full lineup of the Empire right now?" Mason asks.

"Alabaster, Cricket, Crusader, Kaiser, Fog, Menja, Fenja, Stormtiger, Victor, Othala, from the old group. They lost several of their best capes due to Leviathan, and several left before and after. We do know that they have several new capes, but they've been keeping them heavily under wraps, probably as a deterrent against attack, which implies not knowing about them is more of a deterrent than knowing about them. This puts a limit to how strong they are, hopefully."

"So, eight capes on our side, ten definite capes on their side, but we have Panacea. Doesn't sound too bad." Shadow Stalker says. "Our strategic position is better."

"Maybe. Kaiser's smart. He knows all of this. He'll have prepared. The Gesellschaft have a significant interest in him at the very least. They gave him Night and Fog. He expects this, and will have found something to compensate."

"Oh come on!" Sophia shouts. "We keep bringing up how Kaiser is this big bad evil genius. He's a gangster and a CEO who can give nice speeches. We really need to just hit him. We've got some of the strongest capes in Brockton Bay. We can win this pretty easily. Just hit hard and fast."

"Do we? Amy can't attack, too valuable, too much of a failure point. Julian's devastating, but he can't be thrown into combat as that will cut people apart. That leaves you and me, Skitter, Laserdream, and Mason. That is not a terrifying lineup. We lost a lot when we split from New Wave."

"We can carve them to pieces. Hit with bugs everywhere, force them into smaller groups."

"Not a bad idea." Victoria nods. "We're great at Movers and Blasters. They're better in a lot of direct fights, but we don't need to make it into direct fights."

"Okay. Let's get ready."

"We need to announce this. If we don't, nobody will negotiate with us for truces." Victoria says.

"Fine." Sophia sulks.

_____

Skitter delivers the ultimatum.

"The time is done for truces with those make their power through preying on those parts of humanity unlike themselves. Either get with the program and give up to the PRT and break up the E88 on their own or there will be war. All out and complete until the last of them are done... And the worst of them a different gender and race."

Kaiser talks back to the swarm.

"I'm sorry."

____

As expected, the insect delivered diseases fail. They have to be working with a Tinker or something. It doesn't seem like they're relying on Othala.

Sophia meets with you and Victoria that night, before the next full attack.

"So, you two, um, you've been listening to me, right?" She asks.

"We can't call her Worm. It's just not fair." You explain. Sophia kicks a wall, hard.

"Is this about..."

"Everything just feels crap, okay? Everyone is so whiny and pathetic about it. I've killed people. I knew the risks. They act like I'm some perfect, delicate victim to let them go after Kaiser. They're letting me get away with anything just because..." She whirls around and grabs you again, kissing you. It's not pleasant, at all.

"You really need to cut out the sexual harassment." Victoria points out. Sophia lets go. "That is my girlfriend.

"See!" She shouts. "You let me kiss your girlfriend twice and I get off with a warning! Do something! Get pissed off! Beat the crap out of me! Just, ugh! Everyone acts like I'm some kind of..." She sits down.

"You were raped. Your memory was wiped. You were found naked, hurt, with a Nazi symbol cut into you." Victoria says softly. "No one is comfortable with that. Yes I feel like giving you anything you want. I've been fucked up in fights, Amy's been fucked up in fights, I've had shit happen to me, but that looks horrible. It's like, well, you were used as a means to an end. An object. I want to mother you, to make it all better, just like I do with Amy." Victoria sits down gingerly next to Sophia and starts stroking her hair.

"Wait, what?" Sophia flinches like she's under attack.

"By all accounts you're a good friend and a good fighter. You're also really lonely and I think you're sad."

"I'm, well, Emma, she ended up moving to Portland, just couldn't stay away from her folks for so long. Madison's Harrier now, off doing. I haven't lost them, but with all that's happened..."

"Amy, come." Victoria pats the seat next to her and you sit down. "Now, girls, it's time we had a very serious talk." You nod.

"Sophia, what do you want."

"I want people to look at me like I'm not some pathetic, damaged, freak. I want to show them I'm really past it."

"Do you think that joining a relationship with us would help with that?" Victoria asks very gently.

"Maybe. Just some kind of sex would help. I really like both of you. But also, like, the lesbian separatist thing..."

"Separatist?" Victoria laughs.

"I spent some time on Wikipedia." Sophia mutters.

"I have converted people into being lesbians, but I don't think it's a superior thing. I think people should be able to make the choice, even for silly reasons, but Madison, well, that was just such a nice thing you did, and Victoria is special." You smile. "I could just make you bisexual, if we do this."

"Yeah. That'd be best. Like, I don't expect a group marriage or anything. Just..."

"Understand, if we do this, me and Amy, we're the closest, we're a couple. We're playing. A very, very fun game, and maybe it will be more, but this is about seeing what I am now, seeing who I am, what I like. If either of us feel too jealous, want to back out, we will. Basically, I want to press my limits, and I especially want Amy to press her limits, get attached to other people. What we are is not healthy. We love it, but it's not good to not be with more people." Victoria is stroking Sophia's hair consistently. "Now, explain what will happen if we don't do this. What do you want to do if we decide against an open relationship. Not a very open relationship, mind you."

"Honestly, I would want to go to Houston. I'd move when the Empire is down. Just, a fresh start, new people. I wouldn't want to be messing you too up with a bunch of girly hormones. I really like the sound of the Houston Protectorate. Sounds like people who get it." Sophia sighs.

"Okay." Victoria nods. "Now, Amy, I want you to understand something. I like this idea. I want to see where this goes. I want to help Sophia. But if, for any reason, you want to not do this, it is absolutely fine. I do not want to pressure you into anything you're not comfortable with. If this just isn't what you've been thinking about for all these years, or if you just don't want to take this on, or..."

"Fuck, if you don't want to date a black girl." Sophia interrupts.

"Honestly, yeah. If there's any reason, you don't have to do this." Victoria smiles at Sophia. "So, do you want to us to date her a bit?"

[X] "Um, sure." You do like Sophia. What you have with Victoria is wonderful, but you should try what it is like to see other people. Sophia wants this, and she deserves to get what she wants.

[X] "Sophia, I'm not comfortable with this." You take her hand. "Still, I don't want you to move. I know you want to, but I really need friends here. Please stay in Brockton Bay."

[X] "I'm sorry." You look at Sophia. "Just, no. I can't do this, and I can't ask you to stay. I hope you have a wonderful life in Houston, I really do. You're a great friend to me, but I just don't want to love anyone but Victoria."

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Do You Believe In Magic-2

[X] "Um, sure." You do like Sophia. What you have with Victoria is wonderful, but you should try what it is like to see other people. Sophia wants this, and she deserves to get what she wants.

Victoria, you're not sure how she looks.

"Just, don't kiss her to do it, okay?" She asks softly.

"I wouldn't dream of it." You get up and take Sophia's hand gently.

"Nothing feels different." Sophia looks over you. "Are you sure you, you know, did it?"

"Yes." You sit down next to Sophia. "I'm not entirely comfortable with this and I'm not sure it's what you really need, but I love you and I respect you and I don't want you to leave. If this is what you want I'm in. I did it. I'm not lying to you."

"Well." She is silent for a minute.

You hug Sophia as tightly as you can. "I love you and I don't want to lose you. I just don't think it's a good idea for us to jump into a sexual relationship right now." You aren't ready for that. You don't think Sophia is really ready, despite what she says. "You don't need to prove to me that you're strong. You're my Shadow Stalker. Let's take things slow, alright? We'll have a slumber party, just the three of us. No sex, no making out, but everything else. We'll see how we feel about it. Okay?" She nods. She looks relieved.

"Okay, that's settled!" Victoria sounds relieved as well. "Alright. Right now, you're our friend. Our close friend who is into girls and boys. If we start to feel a spark, a change, we'll talk about it, go with it. Until that happens..."

Sophia suddenly turns around and kisses Victoria hard. You feel a burst of jealousy rise in your stomach.

"What was that for?" You ask.

"Just making sure." Sophia says. "It worked." Victoria looks mad.

"Don't do that again without asking, to either of us." You feel Victoria's aura hitting the both of you like a truck. "No making out. No sex. No..." She starts a list of unacceptable topics that sounds a bit too rehearsed to be spontaneous.

"Where did you even get that?" You ask curiously.

"It's my rules for Dean involving other girls. Slightly modified." Victoria smiles.

"You had a list of rules for him?" Sophia asks.

"Have a list of rules for him. He needed to keep to it when we were broken up. Presumably, he still is." Sophia looks impressed. You just sigh. While you're at it...

You are not going to bring up Victoria and Dean. It's too real. You just play with Sophia's hair, your fingers interlocking with Victoria's.
_____

You wake up the next morning with Victoria. On Victoria's other side is Sophia, sleeping soundly. Victoria is watching Sophia sleep.

"What are you thinking about?" You ask.

"Taking advantage of her while she is still traumatized is wrong." Victoria whispers. "Just, not sure if she'd do better if we held her around like a lonely puppy, or shipped her off to Houston. Like, I want you two together, but is this how we should do it?"

"You really don't want to be my girlfriend, do you?" You ask.

"I want to be your sister. I want to make you happy. I don't want to change something you value so much about yourself. Doing this means more to you than not doing it does to me." She leans over and kisses your forehead. "Cutting out the part of you that loves me would be wrong however I did it. I would fight tooth and nail against loving you any less. I want to adore you. I don't want you just being with Sophia. I'd get jealous, really jealous, if I thought you loved someone more."

"I'm really screwed, aren't I?" Sophia asks sleepily.

"Nope. We agreed on that last night." Victoria assures her. "Shower and get dressed." She catches a look you miss. "No, we are not sharing a shower. Me and Amy don't even do that. It's really awkward."

"Fine." Sophia heads to the bathroom. Victoria grabs you and kisses you for a while. "I just want to help you both. That's what I want. You both deserve it." There's a sinking feeling in your stomach that Victoria's teeth finding your bite mark doesn't lift."

_______

"Okay. You're controversial, incestuous lesbians, right?" Julian asks.

"Right." You nod.

"And you're now polyandrous on top of that?" Julian asks.

"Right." You nod.

"But you're not actually having sex, or making out, or watching porn, or seeing each other naked, or anything?" Julian asks.

"Right." You nod.

"How exactly are you girlfriends and not just friends now? Like, bisexual girls can be friends with lesbians without being girlfriends. Friends like that can go to dinner and a movie." You frown.

"I probably need to figure out what Sophia thinks the difference is." You admit. "I did make her bisexual, and we called it dating, but we just watched Clueless and ate popcorn." Julian looks awkwardly at the seven year old girl you're curing of cancer.

"You're really curious what we're talking about, aren't you?" He asks. She nods.

"This isn't the weirdest thing people overhear here." You assure Julian. The girl's mother is giving you a death glare.

"You know, she doesn't have to cure cancer." Julian points out, and the woman looks frightened.

"I'm going to keep curing it, but it would be nice if the glares were cut back." You give her your most winning smile.

Suddenly Julian's phone rings and he answers it.

"Wait, who's Glace? Is that a boy Glace or a girl Glace? Ah, nobody knows? Okay, I'll tell her." Julian hangs up. "Glace has vanished."

"The Tinker from the Toybox who specializes in cryonics?" You frown. "That's weird. Could it be Empire 88?"

"They'd have to be tipped off, but they could have the right Thinker or Stranger." He nods. "Makes me glad I'm..." His phone rings again and he picks it up. "Hey, Vicks. What's going on? Yes, she's here, looking at her right now. Got time to say..." He looks at the phone. "That's not disconcerting. Nothing's showing up in this..." His phone rings again and he picks it up. "Who are you? Oh, Emma, what is this about the news? Okay, giant stuffed animals, got it. Why are you calling me? Alright." He hangs up. "Giant stuffed animals? Isn't there a cape like that?"

"Parian, I think. Fashion student, rogue. Maybe she joined Empire 88?" Call the PRT." Julian nods. He's on the phone for a while.

"Okay, here's what I got. Victoria headed into Empire 88 territory about an hour ago with Shadow Stalker, Laserdream, Browbeat, and maybe Harrier, they obviously can't be sure. Twenty minutes later they called for help. Dauntless and Assault came and got them out of there. No serious injuries, but they won't talk about what happened. A bit after that, Parian attacked Skitter's territory with a new cape in a gray body suit, no ID yet, tying up a lot of people. While that was going on, the Toybox had several members attacked, though only one was captured. They're piecing together the one that attacked Bauble, and the rest of the attackers got away. Empire capes in the attack, but why would they do that?" You shake your head. Julian gets another phone ring. "It's for you." He hands you the phone.

"I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry." A very tired voice, Kaiser's, is on the other end of the line.

"What is going on!" You ask.

"I can't say the names involved. One of them can catch that. Please, please don't kill any of my people. I am begging you, Amy Dallon. I am begging. I will do my very best to return the favor."

"What the, Kaiser! What is going on?"

"If we'd had our meeting we could have solved this. I am not blaming you. I wanted your help so badly, but now they'll be coming for you." He hangs up.

"FUCK! You shout. The little girl giggles. "Sorry, sweetie." You finish the healing. "Um, everyone, get..."

You a very loud crash, then another. Soon you see Alabaster and Victor. They look frightened.

"I don't want to hurt you." Julian announces.

"Neither do I." Alabaster bows to Julian. "It's impossible of course, but please try not to destroy Victor." A flash of white light removes Alabaster's head and neck.

"Why couldn't that have worked so well in Chicago." Julian mutters. "Got anything super useful, Amy?"

"Microbes don't seem to do much good." You sigh. "I'd really rather not kill you, sir." You talk to Victor.

"The animals." His voice sounds full of hate. "Please come with me. The very last thing I want to do is to hurt a child, and I cannot guarantee their safety if we fight."

____

Very Small Bonus Interlude: Assault

____

"Damn it!" You shout. Where did they get these people? You fall back under Rick's shield. "Got any ideas?"

"Call Blur?" Rick suggests.

"Already here." Damn the kid's fast. "What's the problem?"

"Those maniacs. They're Mastered or something. Can't hurt the fuckers, as they're probably innocent. Tried the knockout stuff, didn't work." Blur frowns.

"We've got Panacea." He points out.

"Oh, fuck it." You snap. "Just patch them up when they're down."

A sickening moment the shooting stops. "I'll need some help with that!" He shouts.

"Damn it, Brandish was bad enough." You mutter and leap in, talking while you patch them up. "You're going to need to go into therapy for that." You shudder as you stretch the bandage over the flayed off face.

"I've been in that since before I triggered." Blur says. "It kind of comes with the territory when you're dad's in the Birdcage." Christ.

Your ear pieces suddenly talk.

"Cranial has screamed. All hands should be present to help with car crashes as soon as possible." You all sigh.

"Mind giving me a lift, kid?" You ask Blur.

"Not a problem." He says, and you're off to fix that mess.

_____

"What is going on?" You ask Victor.

"I do not actually know. What I do know is that the distractions going on will stop if you come with us. They are intended as low casualty, but accidents will happen. Please come with us."

[X] Go with Alabaster and Victor.

[X] Run and hide.

[X] Fight them off and stand your ground at the hospital.

[X] Run and hide.

"Julian, it's time for us to go." There's more flashes of white, and the wall disappears. You lash out at Victor, and he's down in a few moments from everything painful but non-lethal on you. The gut wound looks worse than it is, really. You're sure to stabilize Victor before you run.

"Alright, give me plans." You ask Julian as you make it through the hospital.

"Regroup with allies." He suggests as you run further.

"Protectorate, New Wave, or try Next Wave?"

"Protectorate. We'll just be going in loops if we try for Next Wave, and New Wave doesn't have anything fortified. If we can contact Skitter, though..." You think. "Skitter, are you there?" You ask the hallway. No response.

"Alright, idea. Sleeping virus that attacks everyone not in our suits? Nowhere to hide, makes it easy to catch the bad guys?"

"Wouldn't that kill everyone driving or who needs help but can't get to a phone?"

"Good point. No mass sleep virus." You start thinking of other things. "They respond to fairly different mechanisms for the organisms. Maybe they're using a super anti-biotic or viral?"

"Isn't Cranial's P=NP supposed to be great for that? Could they have stolen it?"

"Maybe. That could explain a lot." You frown. The two of you get out of the hospital and start running down the street towards the PRT HQ. Heading into a car seems unsafe.

"Skitter?" Julian asks to the street. He pulls out his phone and fumbles with it, calling her. "Hey, Skitter? Everything's going to shit. Ah, you know. We're heading to the PRT. Send bugs to help us get there. Meet us there with the relays."

A few minutes later a set of bugs appear, a swarm making sounds. "Circus is in that direction. Follow the arrows." You do so. "Cricket is in that direction. Double back towards the hospital. Keep following the arrows. You're probably going to be losing them. I made contact with the others and am providing command and control."

Running along the streets, there's people still out and about, but not many. They look worried about the two superheroes running like mad.

"Excuse me, miss," the baritone is pleasant, though spoken with such power that the words seem to vibrate in my bones, "May I have a word?"

You turn, and you're caught off guard. The man who was speaking is some seven feet tall, four feet across at the shoulders. He's all muscle, but he is carefully groomed, his short brown hair combed into a neat part, a crisp suit that was obviously tailored to look appropriate on his massive frame. Were it not for the tiny scars criss-crossing his face and hands, you might think he is a lawyer that just so happened to have a physique that professional linebackers dream of.

"My name is Harmon Rex, and there's-"

"Run you idiots!" The swarm howls. You do so. The name doesn't ring a bell, but there's no way this is a good thing.

"Any idea who that is?" You shout to the bugs.

"Harmon Rex, clearly." Julian says.

"No idea." The insects announce.

You don't catch what Harmon Rex does. All you know is you and Julian are flipping through the air along with a lot of asphalt and land, injured, a bit behind Harmon Rex. It would have been a lot worse if not for the suits.

"Should I?" Julian asks. You shudder.

"Not yet." You unleash your non-lethal darts on Harmon. The one send into his cheek bounces off, doesn't seem to penetrate. You hope the agents made skin contact.

"Seriously, my lady. There's no need for further violence." Harmon smiles at you. "The fact is I cannot possibly win a fight with Master Julian if he became serious about it. I am merely here to talk."

"You just..."

"You were going to make a very foolish mistake in trusting Skitter. The fact is she has been..."

And Skitter's swarm charges Harmon Rex in a massive wave of dangerous insects. He grabs the swarm with one hand and smashes it into the ground, leaving a lot of dead insects.

"How?" Julian asks, staring at it.

"My father called it the Comet Rider. I would call it a useful form of telekinesis with a number of peculiarities."

"Run! Run!" A smaller force of bugs spells out behind Harmon Rex.

"So, you were saying?" You ask.

"The fact is that my superiors only want one thing from you. You are to charge for your services and provide them equitably and without prejudice. If you agree to this we will withdraw all support from Empire 88 and immediately provide you with assistance against the remains of the Slaughterhouse Nine."

"What!?" You shout.

"Mannequin, Hatchet Face, Burnscar, and Crawler are in the city for their own reasons, separate from the interests of my superiors. Indeed, I believe that is Crawler making his way here now." FUCK!

"Fuck!" Julian shouts.

"Fuck!" You shout.

"Fuck!" The insects spell out.

"I would be perfectly willing to help you, but the fact is that as a biased party, a hero, you are a threat to my superiors. Now, as an independent cape, providing services for hire..."

You start running, and Julian does the same, as Skitter drops a wave of silk over him. Rex seems somewhat bored with the thing, ripping it apart, but it does give you time. More insect arrows guide you away from Crawler and Harmon Rex.

"Think he was telling the truth?" You ask over your suit radio, not wanting to spare the breath.

"I don't trust him at all." Julian answers. "But it makes things worse, so probably. Do you want to be a rogue?"

"Hell no! They'd have to mindrape me for that. Being a hero gets much cooler shit." Julian laughs hoarsely, though he's definitely out of breath.

"Got an idea." Julian says, pointing to a manhole cover. He presses his tentacles into it, and lifts it. The two of you head in and into the sewer, thankful for the NBC gear of the suit, moving fast.

When you emerge from the sewer near the PRT building, Skitter is waiting for you with one of your soldier squads.

"What's going on? Was he telling the truth?"

"I'm not untrustworthy!" She snaps. "I've been helping you with everything..."

"I meant about the Slaughterhouse Nine!" You snap.

"Nope." She pauses. "I think. I didn't see Crawler anywhere nearby, but something keeps taking out my bugs.

Off in the distance you see a huge blue force field.

"Fuck." You mutter.

"They're alright. My idea, actually. It's to make it hard to see. I'd been providing bugs. They're leading Circus on a chase." You nod.

"What's the general status?"

"Victoria's group is out of contact, refusing to answer their communications, but they're alright. I'm worried they got mindfucked somehow. New Wave, the Protectorate, and the Wards are disaster relief. I can't even find any of the Toybox. Empire 88 seems to be moving in small teams, one of them heading this way. The Merchants decided now was the perfect time for a bank robbery." Skitter smiles, but it's not funny.

"Okay." You shrug. "Plans?"

"They want you, right? Get out of the city. No need to go crazy tearing the city apart if you're not here. Call in reinforcements. This is an act of fucking war. They'll send Eidolon." Then she laughs. "I misspoke. They did send Eidolon. He's searching the Nazi territory right now." That's a very worrying sign.

"Do we know who these other people are?"

"Something crashed the internet a while ago. No idea what. Power isn't out. Also something is jamming phones. Fucking Tinker?" Skitter shrugs.

"I vote we get the hell out of Brockton Bay." Julian suggests. "You're the least disposable asset in the world right now."

"Not without the rest of the team. If they think they can get someone they can hurt me with, they'll keep going."

Suddenly a massive man in some kind of power armor shows up. You vaguely recognize the independent villain, Trainwreck. With him is Parian, some silly rogue fashion student or something, and Kaiser.

"You could have warned..."

"You arrived too soon." Skitter's swarm hisses.

"You can thank Sidestep for that." Kaiser says, marching forward. "We finally can talk, Miss Dallon. The enemy we are facing is..."

A wave of hornets hits him from, oh that is clever, Madison was wearing hornets on her costume, covered in them. Kaiser screams, tries to seal up his suit, but it's too late. You're not sure if that was the best idea. The wave of hornets hitting Parian is probably rather cruel. Only Trainwreck seems immune, and he makes his way forward. Julian steps between Trainwreck and yourself.

"Do you seriously want to risk that I won't get lucky?" Julian asks calmly. Trainwreck stops advancing. "I don't want to hurt you, but my power will kill you, if you are not careful." It is hard to make out Julian's speech over Parian and Kaiser screaming. "Now, simply get back and let Panacea subdue your allies, and everything will be fine, right?" Trainwreck hits Julian first, some kind of beam through his head, and turns to you and throws a huge bolt of metal through your leg. GOD it hurts! The pain killers will take long seconds to work, time it takes Skitter to drag you to Julian and press your hand to him. You regain focus, freezing him. He's alive. You carefully preserve everything you can of his brain before you pull the beam out from his head. He'll be...

"Can we still use him?" Skitter asks. You glare at her.

"Maybe." You mutter. "He'll lose things, but I think..." You sigh. "I just don't know enough. Maybe Cranial, if we'd done full scans? I think he'll be him."

"Fuck." Skitter mutters. "Just, fuck."

You repair everything you can and kickstart him up.

"Amy? Is he out?" Skitter looks at you curiously.

"Hippocampus, short term memory, wasn't hit. Long term memory, frontal lobe, was."

"Fuck." Julian sighs. "Do I..."

"We'll work through it. Do you still want to be a part of Victoria's team?" He looks serious.

"Yes."

"Do you still want to help people and save lives?"

"Yes."

"Alright, everything else we can work with." You turn to Kaiser and Parian, who have stopped squirming. "Skitter, are they alive?"

"Yes. Do you want to save them?"

"Yes." It's not really a choice. You wrench open a hole in Kaiser's armor and heal him, following it up with Parian, and make sure neither one will wake up without your help.

"So, here's my plan." Skitter announces. "We load me up with everything you can think of while you wait. Give me bugs that might actually do something here, hardier and nastier bugs. Things that can help. I get New Wave and, if we don't have a better name for it, Next Wave here while we do that. Once we're all here, we split, leave the city via teleportation, and let the Protectorate clear out the assholes."

"Sounds like a plan." Julian says. Suddenly he looks worried. "Amy, why don't I know who we're fighting?"

"None of us do. Empire 88 seems to be taken over by something else." He looks a bit relieved. "Okay. Okay. So..."

You see a light show off in the distance. You hope Eidolon is there, winning it easily.

"Ah, Victoria just talked to me." Skitter announces. "She says, um, she's talking crazy. Something about how we can't leave until Hatchet Face is taken care of, how he'll go after the schools, but he loves you. No, wait, she loves you." Skitter nods. "She's not listening to me asking her to head back. I'm sorry, Amy."

"Alright. Alright." You shake your head, trying to think. Wait. Aren't you missing something?

Probably not.

You see a mist in the distance.

"Fog." Skitter says. "We can't beat Fog. We all agree on that, right?"

"Right." You and Julian say, and the three of you look around. The building provides no shelter, and neither does the sewers. Removing parts of Fog's mass wouldn't do much at Julian's level, and there's nothing biological for you to hurt. You can't really run fast enough, can you?

[X] Write in: Escape plan.
Most refined version of the most common plan:

[X] Create groups of bug clones and scatter them in all directions while you and your allies flee into the building.
-[X] Navigate through the building as directly as you can using Skitter's senses and Julian to beat any severely intractable obstacles.
-[X] Let Julian make some accidental holes in the walls to confuse Fog. If Fog is in direct pursuit use additional Bug Clones with the holes
-[X] When you get a free moment, try to fix Parian's microbiology. If it is Bonesaw's work, you could maybe recognize it and/or have an easier time countering it.

"I can make decoys, swarm clones of us, especially me, to scatter, distract Fog." Skitter announces.

"Good. Thank you. Let's head into the building." You suggest. "Skitter, navigate us. Julian, break down anything we can't get through normally. Can we grab Parian?"

"No." Julian says. "Not without being slowed down."

"Alright. Let's run." You do so. "Julian, leave holes in the wall elsewhere, imply we're heading in a different direction."

"Got it." He agrees.

"Maybe the PRT will have a Fog proof holding cell inside?" You ask Skitter. "Try to find a place you can't reach. That would probably work."

"On it." Skitter says.

"There's people who could get through a Fog proof cell, right?" Julian asks tentatively. "Wasn't there Harmon Rex?"

"He's right. We need to keep moving." You agree.

You get through the building.

Then, you just keep running.

________

You collapse, holed up in the sewer, ten miles away, working on the defenses with Skitter's bugs. Counters to Fog come first, as he's on your mind. You make it airtight. You release something to confuse your scents, change how you all smell now and release it elsewhere to get Stormtiger confused. Empire 88 doesn't have many Thinkers or Tinkers, so any method of tracking you is probably someone else.

"Alright, did you figure out how they're blocking your biological warfare when you touched them?" Madison asks, unveiling from her power.

"They did something to their microbiology. It wasn't like anything I encountered before, ever. The bacteria were entirely different. I don't even know how they were alive, or how someone could do that so fast. I think I would need hours without some prep work."

"Bonesaw?" Skitter suggests. "They did say the Slaughterhouse Nine were in town. Could it be a legacy, or could she have survived?"

"No." Julian says. "I read up on them. Why I remember that I'm not sure, but I did. Bonesaw spent her life on the run from town to town and city to city. She barely carried anything, just some mechanical spiders, a few weirder things, not much at all for a Tinker. Leaving a machine that's better than Panacea behind seems really unlikely, and I saw her die. The way Siberian went nuts about it, I don't think she'd have faked that."

"I have to agree." You shake your head. "It'd take something really, really good to replace a human microbiology, repeatedly, fast. Maybe if she survived, but that doesn't make any sense."

"Could she have left a clone?" Madison suggests. "Designs for someone else to build, maybe?"

"Clone, that'd be even harder to get a working one. I think. Maybe. Designs? Without a Tinker to supervise it would have been an interesting way of killing them."

"So we've got a new parahuman with good powers that we don't know off the top of our head." Skitter sighs.

"Stupid question, Nilbog?" Julian asks. "He is a master of biology."

"Maybe." You shudder at the idea. "He'd have to be doing something completely different from anything he's ever done before. By all accounts he's happy where he is. Making a deal with someone like Harmon Rex would be bizarre. I met all the healers who would come. There's no one I know of who could do this. Has to be someone new, and probably someone secretive. I keep up with biological powers."

"Alright. Who could send multiple capes of very decent power, decent enough to enslave Empire 88 and do all of this, and who would actually want to?" Skitter asks. "Give me ideas."

"Okay, two come to mind. The Gesellschaft and the Yangban." Everyone is silent. German terrorists, big boys a hundred times bigger than Empire 88, the Gesellschaft are practically a political party in Germany, known for winning a brutal political conflict with the local Communist Party largely through mass murder. The Yangban are much more terrifying, the parahuman slaves of the Chinese Union Imperial, several hundred of the world's very strongest parahumans, sharing their powers and forced into loyalty to what is left of China.

Bonesaw would be less frightening.

"I know I'm new, but those don't really fit, do they?" Madison starts, gently. "The Gesellschaft would just kill you. They want to kill Americans. They wouldn't want you as a rogue. They're not actually that rich. I'd think they'd just bomb Brockton Bay. Sure, it'd get them on all kinds of kill lists, but they already are. The Yangban abduct parahumans all the time. Why make demands like that? Why use proxies when their parahumans are so good? Sure, Harmon Rex is really dangerous, but someone with 30 powers at a third strength would have defeated you and Julian really easily. No offense, but that's their style."

"So, it's some other faction?" You shake your head.

"Maybe pumped up by one or both of them, or a lot of little groups that are terrified." Skitter suggests. "Every parahuman that can be scanned being reborn once every couple months is fucking terrifying. If I were, well, anyone who didn't love and trust the US government a lot I'd be crapping my pants about it. What gang could survive that, if production goes full scale?"

"Almost certainly never going to be that much." You admit. "But even a few clones of the best would be, well, there's not a lot of the best, just be definition. If we cloned the Triumvirate once that would be a lottery for whatever city found themselves with a new field leader. I can see why someone would hate that. Why not just kill me?"

"Endbringer defense, obviously." Skitter says. "The more capes who show up for them the better. We all need to live on the same planet." She sounds weirdly bitter about it. "Is it really such a bad idea? Do we want to flood the world with heroes, make a single power? We know the PRT is corrupt. Competition is necessary."

"I will never, ever be a rogue. That's fucking insane, Taylor. It wouldn't get me a tenth of what I can get as a hero, just on a practical level. I get whatever I need, and a lot of what I want. I've made insane demands and gotten them. I just need to know what to ask for. The moment I start to look a bit more neutral, a little less self sacrificing, it becomes a lot harder to treat me like a saint. I've talked to people about this. I'm not even sure that getting money from helping to revitalize Brockton Bay's economy wouldn't look too much like a rogue. Charging for Endbringer defense is evil. Every villain I clone will go out and hurt someone. One Circus, or Rune, or Leet will hurt someone for money or power. One shitty hero will save a life, or stop a crime, or hold back an Endbringer at least once. I am New Wave. I'd rather make people like New Wave, and I probably will make people like New Wave, but I'd much rather make the best of us."

Madison gives a slow clap. "Great speech! That is so cool!" Skitter just shakes her head.

Julian looks confused. "What's an Endbringer?"

__________

Melissa and Eric drop in about an hour later. They're both clearly exhausted, but unhurt.

"It's a mess out there. Thank you, Taylor." Eric holds out his hand and the two shake. "Don't know what we would have done without you out there."

"Not many people have died. Weirdly few have, actually. I think it's a Thinker stopping it. Has to be." Melissa collapses on the ground. "It's to distract, not get us baying for blood. Every hit has forced rapid response, but only a couple people are dead, and no heroes. Two people died when Cranial screamed, a car wreck, and a few National Guard troops accidentally shot a kid."

"That's terrible." Madison looks horrified.

"These attacks could have killed hundreds of people. There's chaos everywhere, a curfew. We keep capturing Empire capes, but not many others." Eric explains. "Whoever is doing this really doesn't want civilian casualties."

"So, no sign of any remaining members of the Slaughterhouse Nine?" Skitter asks. "What about Eidolon?"

"No and no." Eric says. "You say you saw him?"

"I thought I did. Maybe some kind of Shifter or illusionist faked one? I would send Eidolon against something like this. He's perfect for it. Extremely ambiguous situation, unknown powers, send someone with the best possible power and versatility." Skitter sounds concerned.

"There is only one of them." Madison points out. "Okay, guys, do we know of a Thinker who could do this?" No one can think of anyone easily.

"Doesn't the Yangban have a super strategist?" You think. "Like, their first or second recruit? Maybe he could do it."

"That rings a bell." Eric nods. "I think it's One, as it seemed weird that Two was the power enhancer. I think. Null, or Zero, is the one who cuts up the powers."

"Okay." Taylor nods. "So, that's one point for the Yangban being behind this. Now I think if we could just get the rest of New Wave here, the ones who aren't talking crazy, we should make an escape from Brockton Bay. If Eidolon's not here he should be, and the more reason they think attacking the city is a good idea, the more they will keep doing this."

"The rest can't just stop responding when something goes wrong." Eric says to Taylor. "We'll need to see this through..."

"It's obviously a trap. We're playing into their hands. We need to get out of the city. Give me enough relay bugs and others for disaster relief and I can make sure we keep helping people."

"Did anyone get a message out of the city, or get contact from there?" You ask Skitter.

"Nope." Skitter says.

Melissa shakes her head, having curled up on the ground. "Scary Thinker, has to be, or some kind of Tinker who can fake it. Something to hack everything. But that's a real act of economic warfare. It has to be someone really dangerous."

"Or really stupid." Madison suggests.

"Or really crazy." You mutter. "That's, I think that's what we're dealing with. Someone crazy. This whole situation doesn't make a lot of sense. The values, the tactics. It's like someone is pulling off a terrible plan really well."

"Teacher?" Madison suggests. "Like, I read up on him. Isn't that what he did?"

"I was thinking Nilbog. He's crazy, but he makes things with powers. Why not make something with Thinker powers and have it do really crazy things exceptionally well?"

"Why would he do that?" Eric asks.

"He's crazy?" Melissa suggests. "Maybe he's kept an eye on the world, and wants that?"

"I disagree. I don't think this is one bad plan executed poorly. I think several plans collided and we're taking them as one." Eric announces. "I'm guessing someone hit hard, and we're seeing another person scrambling to take control of the situation."

"Where did you get that idea?" Skitter asks.

"The attacks, they're obviously calculated very well, and I think that there's been consistent attempts at communication. Those attempts keep failing. I don't know why. It seems to involve a lot of separate factors. I think that someone has a good plan and someone else is fighting it but isn't on our side. Doesn't want us to be convinced by it. The plan looks crazy because we're thinking it's one enemy instead of two. It might still be bad, but it might not be stupid or crazy like it looks."

"Capes can be really good at doing really crazy things." Melissa points out. "That's half of what we do. Um, sorry, villains do. Rob banks instead of white collar crime or being hired for construction or security. Run ethnic gangs when we could just be rich. All of that kind of thing. I think this looks like a supervillain plot."

"I agree." Skitter says. "Alright, we need to plan on what to do next. We've communicated enough.

[X] "We need to get out of the city." You announce. "At the very least I do, and as much of New Wave and Next Wave as possible. Send in the Triumvirate. Things should quiet down when they know there's no negotiation."

[X] "We need more information." You decide. "We try to meet one of them. Speak to Harmon Rex or Kaiser. See what we can find out before we make another move. Acting too fast could get people hurt.

[X] "We need to keep fighting." You declare. "Run, and it'll show weakness, pushing us out of our city. Dialog, and they'll think they can win. We need to destroy these monsters and prove we cannot be fucked with."

[X] "Actually, Skitter, the one thing we don't seem to be doing is communicating very well at all." You decide Skitter is a mole.

Skitter seems to retreat, moving backwards.

She looks guilty.

"Kaiser was trying to tell us something important before all this started, and you've been the go between with him the whole time, but we never found out what he wanted to say." You grab the skin on her neck, Skitter's biosuit flowing around your hand like water, and calmly pin her against the wall. "Kaiser was trying to say something before you took him out with the hornets, but he didn't quite get it out. I don't know what he's wanted to say, but I think you do." Skitter obviously can't struggle.

"She did tell me not to get him talk." Madison points out. There's something oddly happy in her tone of voice. Could she really just not like Taylor so much she still wants to hurt her? No, that doesn't make any sense.

"Yes, I told Madison not to let him talk, because he's wanted to talk since before this began. He upstages people. You don't want him to talk, do you? He's Kaiser. That's the last way you want to fight him."

"Harmon Rex too." You point out. "You hit him as he was talking. Distracted him."

"We heard enough. Right?

"Two data points aren't really enough for a pattern." Melissa comments. "It is weird, though. The whole thing seemed weird, when she was leading us around. Talked about villains everywhere. Like sure, that's the strategy, but how did they keep heading us off on rescue and cleanup?"

"They're attacking everywhere! Hunting! I couldn't just..."

"It would make more sense if it was her coordinating the bad guys. Herding us." Madison pipes up.

"Why would I bring you guys together, Eric and Melissa, to you two? Wouldn't I want you guys divided?" Skitter asks.

"It would be hard to justify, suspicious, if we never met up, and we're not two of the people who could help with Skitter's abilities. A trade off, to keep us thinking she's loyal?" Eric looks deep in thought. "I don't buy this, though. Any other evidence?"

"Tattletale is your best friend. Hell, as far as I know, Tattletale is your fucking only friend. But even though we wanted to rescue her from that lunatic Myriddin in Chicago, you didn't really want to come. You decided to stay in Brockton Bay to help find your worst enemy instead of coming to Chicago to rescue your best friend. I think you had more things to do here than rescue Shadow Stalker."

"To save your fucking friend!" Skitter shouts. "You wanted me to find her, and I did!"

"Speaking of Shadow Stalker, nothing about her kidnapping makes any fucking sense. Why would the nazis take her and rape her and brand her and then be such pussies about fighting us over it? Why provoke us that outrageously, and then be all about reconciliation and passive defensive measures? It all comes back to Kaiser, and all of our communicating with Kaiser has been through you since before we came back to Brockton Bay."

"We all know that someone was setting them up. You're accusing me of raping her? That's just stupid, Amy. Why would I..."

"I wouldn't put it past her." Madison says quietly. "I've been saying this for a long time. Taylor is crazy. Get revenge on one of the people she's convinced are harassing her? A little bit of payback for whatever story she's cooked up?" Madison is looking at Taylor with something like hatred.

"You did bully me! Every single day, for years!" Skitter screams. "You locked me in a locker with every tampon you could get for months, stuck me there for hours! You kept it up, everything you could..."

"So that made it right to rape someone?" Eric asks quietly. "I think we all know that Madison and Sophia did everything Taylor accused of them. Does that really justify that?"

"Of course it doesn't!" Taylor says quickly. "Which is why I didn't, why I would never..."

"Alright, let's say they did, and that's the whole story, just for a second. That gives awfully good motive for Sophia. It even makes sense if you want to be a hero. Give a reason for a war with Empire 88, cut them down."

"Not just Empire 88. New Wave, too. You do realize she hates you, right?" Melissa says.

"I don't hate Amy." Taylor argues.

"Yes, you do. I can see it. I see hate all the time. You hate her." Melissa says. "Don't try to deny it, you do." Taylor goes silent.

"You befriended us." Madison points out gently. "She's crazy, but she actually does think we've been tormenting her for years. If she really believe that, and then she sees you with me and Sophia, especially Emma, that had to be horrifying."

"I reached out to her. Tried to get her to join the heroes. Trusted her. Gave her a lot of chances." You frown. "Like, she can't think we all got together to dump pencil shavings on someone's head, could she?" You look at Taylor. "Could you?"

"You think you were reaching out to me?" She sounds genuinely surprised. She doesn't even seem to be lying. "That's what you thought you were doing? Leaking the plan to send a disease to incapacitate me, and only me, round me into a hospital, and then leaking a plan to have me join the heroes? That wasn't reaching out, that was blackmail."

"You know, if she really thinks she was bullied that much, she'd see everything as an attack, especially with evidence. Confirmation bias. If people are always attacking her then she'd take things in a very bad light." Eric looks carefully at Taylor. "From her point of view, she has the bank robbery, the forced healing, hears you're planning on catching her, then gets a notice of blackmail, the Fundraiser where you did threaten her, your arrival at her house in the middle of the night to threaten her, Victoria showing up and threatening her directly, and then she's part of the group. If someone's been bullied, well, I can see her thinking she's been bullied into joining Next Wave."

"Okay, can we please stop calling it that?" Madison asks.

"Better than New Batch." Eric answers.

"Let's not get sidetracked." Taylor says. "Okay, I'll admit it. I am not happy being drafted into Victoria's lunatics. So? Why would I benefit from this? How would I benefit from this? I could just join the Wards and ask for a change of cities. I could move and become a rogue making spider silk in Maine."

"For the same reason I wouldn't do that. You care about the city, don't you?"

"Well, of course I do..."

"And if you care about the city, then you want to help it. If you see me as a threat, than it would be awfully nice if I stopped throwing my weight around. You wouldn't even have to be responsible for these attacks. Just help them go a bit worse. Make us question what we're doing, pull back, let someone else take charge. Maybe the offers I heard were so bad so I would reject them? Make me think I need to put my head down?" Eric is shaking his head.

"That doesn't feel right to me."

"When effects happen with unclear causes, you have to ask yourself who benefits most from them. All communications in Brockton Bay are shut down, but who does that really help? The attacks are just distractions anyway, they aren't meant to cause real damage. All communications being down does to us is make us rely completely on you, with your bugs and my relays covering the whole city." Madison addresses Skitter. "I've been reading a lot lately. I've always gotten good grades. Making us rely on you for communications would make it really easy for you to arrange something."

"Like what? What could I arrange?" Taylor sounds scared, desperate.

"They have a memory wiping power or something." Melissa says. "They used it on Sophia. Herd you into a trap, remove the dangerous parts of your mind. Remove the parts that scare her. If she didn't have her old values would being a rogue sound as bad?"

"She's fall back in love with Victoria, obviously. Victoria would swoop in right away and nurse her back to health. Honestly, no offense, I think she'd love a chance to build Amy back up like that, in the midst of her sadness and sympathy she'd relish rebuilding her."

"That's why Victoria had to die, isn't it?" Madison whispers. Your blood runs cold. "The whole 'she's crazy and distracted thing' is a lie. That never made any sense. You killed her."

You start shaking, your power right on Taylor's brain. The pain there might start and never stop.

"If she's responsible for raping Sophia, than..." Melissa looks truly horrified. "That, she wouldn't tell, of course." Eric suddenly slams Madison into the wall.

"Stop doing that!" He shouts. "You're just making everything worse! You can't fucking resist kicking the damn hornet nest!"

"I know Taylor." Madison answers. "I've known her for a lot longer than any of you. She's nuts. Okay, want the truth, guys? Yes, Sophia hurt her every chance she got, and Emma was completely nuts about it. It was some weird power struggle thing. You know what? She didn't fight back. She just sat there and took it and didn't do anything to stop it. I should have helped her, but would you piss off the girls who could do that? Something is not right with her head. She's smart, she could have home schooled, talked to their parents, talked to teachers, made if too hard to keep it up, got away, asked me to help stop them. The first thing she did was launch an unauthorized undercover mission into a gang of supervillains and threaten to kill everyone in a bank! I'm scared of her, guys! I admit it, I honestly think she could have raped Sophia, or even killed her and Victoria! I'm sorry, Amy! I should have said something earlier. I should have said something years ago, but I am scared. You don't get the power to hide, to fade into the background, if you're brave! I want to be brave! I was so worried you'd take what you gave me and leave! Just like..."

"Cut the crap!" Taylor shouts. "I didn't rape Sophia and I didn't kill Victoria you whiny, privileged, bitch."

"Stop insulting my friend, Taylor." You send a tingle all through her body. Not pain, just a tingle. "She is my friend. I have a lot more reason to believe her than you right now. Whatever is going on with people bullying you is not something I care about. I thought you wanted to be a hero?"

"I do! I've been helping you ever since you asked me to, every time you asked me too. I helped save Victoria."

"You did, Taylor." You reach out and stroke her hair with your other hand. "I am grateful for that. You dove into the lair of a supervillain to save my sister."

"Did she?" Madison brings up.

"Oh come on." Eric shakes his head. "Really?"

"From what we've heard, Coil's power was splitting into two timelines at once and seeing how things went. Amy killed him by shooting him. Why go into the room in both timelines? I wouldn't, with his power. I've been thinking about this for a while. I think it makes a lot more sense if he was already dead or captured by then. Now, who is really good at being everywhere at once, when Coil was only two places at once?" Everyone is silent at Madison's idea.

"You think she defeated Coil before the rescue mission?" You ask.

"I think it makes a lot of sense. Things probably got messed up by your cute clone, but yeah. I think the plan was always to team up with you on a rescue mission, gain your trust, keep you from releasing the disease. It's complicated, but if she didn't want close supervision?"

"That's not true. Aren't you a human lie detector right now?" Taylor asks desperately.

"Honestly, it's too complicated. I think she's lying about stuff, but there's too many topics, too much stress. I can't parse it." You sigh.

"So she's at least lying about something, and pretty much anything is really bad." Julian says, happy to finally be able to make a statement in the debate.

"I'm not sure what your game is Skitter, but I'm sure you have one. Now, you're going to tell me what the fuck it is, and I'm going to go rescue my sister from whatever the hell you're putting her through, and then we're fixing this fucking city no matter if Nilbog or the Simurgh or even Scion himself wants to burn it down." You tell the supervillain.

There's a long silence.

"We're waiting." Madison says. Eric glares daggers at her.

"It's the Elite." Taylor says.

"The who?" You ask. Everyone looks confused.

"Secret society of supervillains, native to the West Coast. Major organized crime family. I think they're working with others, but they're the ones who organized it. Nonpareil and Patrician, Agnes Court and Blueblood. Agnes Court is the one who redid the microbiology, replaced Newter and Gregor the Snail on biological warfare defenses. Nonpareil is the one who is causing the low casualties. Shaker, high end probability manipulator. Can focus on an area and declare certain outcomes. I'm really surprised that three people died. I think Eidolon's probably responsible, actually, messing with him. They're absolutely terrified of the cloning process. It would make it impossible for them to survive through their current methods. Blackmail, torture, secrecy, attacking secret identities. New Wave is the worst faction for them to suddenly gain power."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Julian snaps. "Like, at all? Is my memory that screwed up?"

"It's certainly useful." You frown. "Though how..."

"They have a Thinker. Listens in, notices patterns. I figured that out when I saw him take down Empire 88. I thought that I could counter him by giving contradictory information, confusing information, not let them realize what I know. Victoria is alive. So is everyone else, on both sides. I was trying to counter him, provide command and control. I did blackout the Internet and attack cellphone towers. I thought if all communication went through me I could confuse him, make him not sure what was going on. I brought Eric and Melissa here for the reasons given earlier, to prove that I wasn't just jerking you all around."

"Could that explain Sophia?" Julian asks seriously.

"No, it wouldn't. They wouldn't want their puppets going to war, would they? And it almost certainly happened before the Elite arrived." You notice a sense of something rise in Skitter at this. A sensation you know very well. You second triggered over it.

"You're disappointed that we figured that out." You glare at Skitter. "I think you're telling the truth about the Elite, but you wanted to blame Sophia's rape on them."

"Come on!" Madison shouts. "Let's at the very least knock her out until this is over. Then we call in people to vet her. Thinkers or something. Even if she's completely honest and nice and good let's at least not try to worry about her pulling something else while we're fighting the Elite! Even if we like her..."

"We could put it to a vote." Melissa suggests.

"Alright." Madison says. "I vote we knock her out."

"I vote for that too." Melissa says. "We can't function like this.

"Honestly, I vote against." Eric says. "We can't turn on each other. Maybe Taylor made some bad decisions, and maybe she's trying to betray us, but any of us could be. I think we need to extend our trust."

"Not sure if I should vote, but yeah, I think Eric's right." Julian says. "We can't function if we incapacitate everyone when we get worried. Isn't this 'New Wave' thing about trusting each other?"

"Kind of." You tell Julian.

"So, your vote?" Madison asks."

[X] "I'm sorry, Taylor." You knock her out. "She's just too dangerous if she's not 100% on our side."

[X] "Alright, do not mess this up." You release Taylor. "So, what do we do now?"

[X] "We need a middle ground." You decide. "We can't function either way. We could put something in her that only I can reverse, something I couldn't reverse without both my full faculties and Victoria's DNA." Write in: Got a better idea for a middle ground?

Xicree said:
[X] "Alright, do not mess this up." You release Taylor. "So, what do we do now?"

Your voice cracks heavy with emotion, as you put your hands on her shoulders. Your fingers press into her shoulders, working their way into her suit. "Taylor... I tried. I've tried and tried... But it doesn't matter much does it..." you stop, silence punctuating your words. "... I don't like you. You came into my life one day and with your friend and you both made that almost the worst day of my life. And it's colored everything I've said and done with you. You claimed you were a hero... and yet somehow you were running with the villains, doing everything you could to undermine people who were trying to help. And now you are doing it again... and I can't help but think that if i turn my back on you all that will happen is that a knife will sprout from it." Taylor recoils a bit. You can feel fear welling up inside her. Best to take care of that.

"But... I don't want to be that person. Ruled by my hate and my fears even though is so fucking easy... I wanted to give you a chance before to turn yourself in, and turn over a new leaf, but i almost gave up on you... and then you came with me, you came with me to save my sister. And I... I felt like there could be something there. I'm thought less sometimes... its true, I've said it before I don't want to hurt you... I wanted to... fuck it... I didn't want Victoria to come and strong arm you into our group, I wanted her to talk to you... but she hates you too on my behalf. And she doesn't hold back on things she hates." The fear is not going down. How odd?

"And I don't think you do either... do you?" The fear is growing, not shrinking. Why? Well, at least she's carrying her half of the conversation.

"Fine. I get it now. You hate me. You don't trust me. And frankly I don't trust you... but... I NEED you to help me... I can't have anything happen to Victoria... I just can't... you can understand right? What you would do if your father was in trouble... Bu I don't want to be that way... I don't want to make the world suffer... because she wouldn't want me to." Your lip trembles as your power subconsciously reacts... the flesh of both your suits creeping and crawling across your body as if to hug and console you.... it leaves you both separated only slightly by a skin thin layer... as it twists and contorts."

Taylor is practically shaking. You start stroking her hair again. "It's alright. It's alright." You croon. She always was small, delicate, young. In a way, you could see her as a little sister. How could Madison be afraid of her?

You do not notice the tears which leak down your cheeks at the thought, even as you try to calm yourself down. Only to catch yourself and let the fleshsuits which you both wear withdraw into their proper place... though the tendrils of both suits still yearn and stretch towards you.

Taylor's crying too.

"... you know I talked to Victoria about rebuilding this city... making it better for everyone, making it fresh, bright and making sure that its safe and secure for the future... and believe it or not... you were what came to mind. I want to build a city where people can have aid when ever they need it, be protected when ever they need it, be cared for provided for all across it in ways that only someone who can watch over them and coordinate everything ever could. You were my first thought for it... Taylor... A benevolent Goddess reaching out to help everyone... a city full of specialized bugs, eye bugs to see out of, ear bugs to hear out of, and hives of sedation bugs to intervene in violent crime... Disaster relief bugs to fight fires and similar stuff... Even huge bugs to serve as ambulances... or at the very least give first aid... A whole city of possibilities in ways we can HELP people... TOGETHER." She doesn't stop shaking, crying, being afraid. Guilt is welling up inside her. Of course she is more complicit in this than she said. That's alright. It's okay. She can make it up to you. You just told her how.

"And a voice... because right now... I know we have been overruling you... ignoring you... relegating you to the background... but that can change... WILL change... HAVE to change if those plans we were thinking of are ever to come to fruition..." Taylor opens her mouth, and you put your fingers on her lips.

"So fuck it. I'm going to try... like i failed miserably before... and I'm going to ask you please... For the sake of the future, can we put this behind us? Can we work towards the greater good? All I want to do is see the world better... its what my power is for... and I believe you can see that it is also what your power can be for too... I don't have to like you... and fuck... I certainly don't trust you... but I'm willing, one more time to try. For Victoria, cause even if she hates you, its because you threaten me... other wise she would want me to try."

You finally notice the psudopodia of both suits and how they have been tangling and caressing each other in a way which you could only describe as intimate... intense... and then you sigh and release her from the hold which you had subconsciously taken...

"So, please... help me... tell me what do we do now?"

______

Bonus Interlude: Victoria

Sections of this carry dialog taken from wildbow's Worm and Guts and Glory. This retells scenes in those works from a different perspective. No ownership what so ever is claimed.
_____

You always wait up for your parents when they're out late. The babysitter always gives up. The fact is that your parents are superheroes, and they could die when they're out late. You are not going to wake up to find your parents are dead.

You play with Legos. You simply want to build the largest block you can. The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks plays as you build the giant block.

You hear the car outside. You look happily out the window. Carol gets out of the driver's side and opens the passenger door. Dad is carrying something. It looks fragile, like it could break.

You're captivated by it. What did he get? Is it a present? You squeal when he passes the outdoor light and see long brown hair.

It's a girl!

Your mind races. Why did Dad bring home a girl? Did she get powers super young? Did some dying hero beg them to take their daughter and raise her as their own? Do you have a sister now! You twirl around in your seat, not even bothering to turn off the book on tape. You always wanted a sister!

You race through the house, waking up the babysitter, Gladice. You barely keep yourself from jumping up and down or shouting. The girl has to be asleep or else Dad wouldn't carry her. Mom opens the door for Dad and they limp in, exhausted. You crane your neck to see more, but you only see hair.

"Shush!" Carol says, putting her finger to her lips. She says it too loud. Loud enough it could wake up the girl. You are quiet as a mouse, sneaking along with Dad as he puts her on the sofa very gently. She turns over in her sleep and you get your first good look at her.

She's beautiful, like a princess in a movie. You stare at her while Dad gets sheets. She looks so small, so scared. The girl has brown hair, freckles on her face, and is wearing the most beautiful silk nightgown with lace at the collar and sleeves. It's the prettiest dress you've ever seen.

"Vicky, time for bed." Carol says. It's too loud again, but resisting could wake her up. You head back to your bedroom alone, turn off your book on tape, and wait for Dad to come to tell you what is going on.

"What happened?" You whisper excitedly when he shows up.

"We had a fight, and she's going to stay with us for a while." You frown. You don't like the "for a while" part.

"Don't worry, Vicky. She won't be taking anything that's yours." He says.

"I wouldn't mind." You mutter. "She can have my clothes if she needs them. And stuff."

"That's really sweet. I'm sure she'll love them." Dad smiles at you. "In fact, I'll lay them out for her so she can put them on in the morning."

"What about sheets?" You suddenly worry. "She can have mind. What if she gets cold? What about a pillow? What if she gets thirsty and wakes up in the middle of the night?"

"I can lay out a glass of water for her. We have extra pillows and blankets." Dad looks amused. "Don't worry about her. Go back to bed." You get into bed and start counting. You're good at counting. You count all the way to a thousand before you sneak back out and tiptoe down the hall. Dad had forgotten a glass of water. You go get a step stool, climb up, reach for a sippy cup, and fill it with water before climbing back down and putting it nearby.

"Mommy?" She mumbles. Were you too loud? Was she faking sleep?

"Yes." You say suddenly. You reach out and stroke her hair just a little, like Mom does sometimes. She seems to still be asleep, or mostly asleep.

Then you just stand there a while, looking at the beautiful, nameless girl, and then you go back to your room.

_____

You sit at the kitchen table, eating breakfast, your eyes locked on the door. She'll be coming in soon. Your parents do not talk much about what Carol calls "the girl."

A bird landing on the window robs you of seeing her as she first enters. She's wearing your pajamas and looks scared. She shouldn't be scared.

"Hello!" You shout.

"Good morning." Dad says to her. He's limping. You hadn't noticed it last night. He's still cooking, holding a spatula. He makes good pancakes, way better than McDonalds ones that you usually have. You'd insisted he make them today. "Do you want some breakfast?"

"Yes, but..." You spy her legs. She's pressing them together. She needs to go to the bathroom.

"But what?" Mom asks.

"Bathroom." The girl says.

"Upstairs, end of the hall." Mom answers. The girl freezes. She looks so scared. That is unacceptable.

"Come on, I'll show you!" You hop down from your seat. You pause when you are nearly out the door to the dining room, "Can I show her?" You ask.

"Go ahead, Vicky." Dad answers with a chuckle. You grin wide and grab the girl's hand, pulling her through the dinning room and into the front hall as fast as you can. You can tell she really has to go with the way she was standing earlier.

"Hurry!" You practically push her down the hall and into the bathroom closing the door behind her. You can't stand the idea of her feeling embarressed about peeing in front of everyone. You wait for a moment. "Make it?"

"Yeah."

"Woo!" You helped her. "rescue successful!" You stand back, waiting for her. After a minute she leaves, looking greatly relieved.

"I'm Victoria, but most people call me Vicky." You wish they didn't. You extend your hand in her direction.

"I'm Amelia." She takes your hand. You shake it as hard as you can. She has to know she's welcome. Amelia's too old a name for her. Not pretty enough. You will need to correct that.

"My mom is Carol, and my dad is Mark." You lead her back downstairs.You lean over with a hand covering one side of your mouth, making it impressive, letting her know the company she is keeping. "They're superheroes."

"Oh, I knew that," she answers.

"Everybody knows now," You speak trying to make it sound like you know what you're talking about, even though it's all scary and confusing." Even my teachers and friends at school. Mom and dad and auntie and uncle took their masks off on TV and told everybody their real names."

"Oh," she replies, sounding confused. "Why?"

"It's complicated," you say as you return to the kitchen. Amelia, no, Amy, hesitates. Maybe her family had strict rules about where to sit. Best to just tell here where to sit. You point to a chair.

"Sit there." It is an awful minute Amy has her plate, and you wait patiently with your hands in your lap. It's not polite to eat in front of someone else who can't eat yet. You see she doesn't like her milk, so you cheerfully swap your glasses. Mom looks at you funny. Amy enjoys her pancakes better. Mom and Dad sit down with their own plates, and Dad starts speaking.

"Amelia, after we take Vicky to kindergarten, we need to take you to talk to the police, okay?" She flinches, but simply nods and says "okay."

"Why?" you ask. You've been wondering about this since last night.

"Her dad may be going to jail, and we need Amelia to tell us everything she knows about him."

"Is her dad a supervillain?" You ask. You'd thought about it for a while. It's the logical explanation. They'd have told you about most other possibilities.

The shared glance between your parents is enough confirmation for you.

"He was! Who!?" You have to know! How can you help her if you don't know what happened to her?

"Finish your fruit, Vicky," Mom says. Why can't anyone ever call you Victoria?

"Who!? Which one was he?" This is important.

Then you see Amy is crying,, hanging her head, silent, but she's crying.

"Carol," you hear Nick saying, "Just... geez." You're already on the move.

"It's okay to cry. Things aren't fun for you right now. But they will get better, okay?" You pat her back. Dad has arrived next.

"I can't promise you it will get better all at once, but things will improve. We'll go shopping this afternoon, and get you some clothes and maybe some toys or books, so you have some things that are yours to keep. In a week or two, you can maybe start school and go to kindergarten with Vicky, alright? That'll be fun." Oh YES! She's going to come to school with you! She's nodding. She thinks it will be fun too! "Carol and I? We're heroes. We help people and we will make it a goal to help you, alright? In a few months, you'll be all settled in with a new family, and you will barely remember all of this. I promise."

Not if Victoria Dallon has anything to say about it.
_________

Nine years later
________

It's so good that Amy finally has powers!

The two of you had just finished up an exhausting day of testing some edge cases for your powers. Your shield seems to prevent the adverse effects of annoyingly loud noises, solar glare, and smoke inhalation. Amy's powers are getting neat. Striker, could knock out Carol with a touch already. Could make you laugh or cry, vomit, feel like you need to do any of that. You're still figuring it out, but it's going to be awesome. The two of you are curled up in your room watching some stupid teen movie. The lights are low, as is the volume. You stroke Amy's hair consistently. Her eyes are slitted, lazy, almost like a cat.

"It's a shame we aren't girls. They just have girlfriends to practice kissing with." The quite unappealing romantic lead says to his annoying friend. You smile.

"Hey Amy..." She makes a little grunt.

"Amy..." You say again, tracing your fingers down her neck, onto her shoulders. "Did you hear that?" She looks up at you. "You know, we could practice kissing." You give her a warm smile. God the idea is so stupid.

She gives you the weirdest look. You feel disgusted. She thinks you're hitting on her. Some kind of disgusting freak. You jerk your hand away at once. "I'm so sorry! It was just-"

Then the visions hit you.

________

Some nasty bunch of villains are holding a bank hostage. The good thing is that it gives you room to really cut loose on something that can take it. You hit the rhino lizard hard with a car and bounce back, flying towards Aegis. If you've timed it right you'll be there just right for when your shield is returned, and have the excuse of making sure Aegis is alright before your next move. Your eyes scan for the next hit to give or take. Maybe if you can make it to the one in the white costume?

You grab Aegis and kick the monster's teeth in, grabbing him and moving him with you. "Need help?" You ask.

"Not anymore." He says. You suddenly your phone beep with Amy's text sound. You pull out your phone and check it.

It just tells you what window to break through, and "help."

You're off as fast as you can possibly go, smashing right through the window and hitting the center of the floor so hard marble scatters everywhere. Your shield is down, but drama, presentation. Always time it right. Never give a reason to think you're not invulnerable. Plenty of room to move, to back away if they try to hit you before you're ready.

You straighten up, dust yourself off, and glare at the monster. H or she's wearing a gas mask. Looks like something Empire 88 would dream up for a costume. Time to give a demonstration. You hit the oak and marble table, a huge, massive thing, hard enough so it isn't even a table anymore, just a pile of powder and splinters. It always feels so good to give a demonstration like that. Get the freaky villain to know you could do that just as easily to its skull. The thing practically seems to shrink back. Probably wet itself.

Your eyes catch Amy, as beautiful now as the day you first saw her.

"Hey sis," you turn your head to one side to look at your brown haired girl. "You okay?" Amy is first priority, always.

Amy beams so brightly you could fall in love with her smile all over again. "I am now."

You step towards it, walking for effect. It's something you'll never stop regretting. A moment of psychological warfare could have killed your sister. The two scramble, writhing, Amy trying to touch flesh, but you and Amy both go still when the fucking terrorist draws out a knife.

You stay as still as possible, wishing you had a sniper to just shoot the thing. You know right than and there that you are going to kill this villain. You've never killed, but maybe this will be your first. You hope it's your last. No one threatens Amy.

"Count yourself lucky, bug bitch, that your costume covers your entire body," your Panacea murmurs to it, "or I'd maybe give you a heart attack. Or cancer." You see it swallow hard. This villain will not get to be fucking lucky.

"It seems we have a stalemate." You say. The moment you get your hands on her...

"True." She replies. The voice is female. So, it's female. One step towards tracking it down and feeding it to Amy.

"So are we just going to stand around here until reinforcements arrive for one side or the other, tip the scales in someone's favor?"

"I could live with that. Last I saw, my side was winning." The thing says. It shouldn't get to have any security when holding a knife to your sister's throat.

"I helped Aegis out of a jam on my way in, so he's keeping your little friends busy. You should also know that the Protectorate is on their way from a wine and dine with Brockton Bay's finest at the Augustus Country Club. Can't speak for them, but I know I'd be royally pissed if some little snots dragged me away from a chance to have the club's chocolate mousse." You give her your best smile, the one Amy practices in the mirror.

Amy laughs out loud. "It is good, isn't it?" She has always liked it. She starts whispering to the villainess, telling her all the nasty things she could do. You'd spent afternoons thinking up proper threats, and it looks like it's paying off. The demon cunt presses the knife harder into your sister's throat suddenly, and you make a little gasp you hope they miss. You can only hope it's working.

"It's not just the Protectorate, either. You just took a member of New Wave hostage, threatened her life. There's a pretty damn good chance my mom, dad, aunt, uncle and cousins will be showing up, too. Brandish, Flashbang, Lady Photon, Manpower, Laserdream, Shielder… how are you going to manage, then?" You feel raw joy at the idea of smashing into her house. Maybe she has a family? Make them feel what it's like, just for a second, to worry about the safety of someone they love. Maybe, just maybe, wield something a bit too close to one of their heads? Maybe she has a little sister to worry about. A nice idea, though you don't think you could live with doing that. "Drop the knife and surrender, and I'll make sure you get leniency."

"I've read up on the law enough that I know you don't have the power to make any deals. No go." Why did it have to be smart?

"Okay. Then I guess we wait." You stand there, and the terror begins to creep in. She's your little sister! She's not supposed to be scared or hurt! Nobody should get to hurt her! You keep control of yourself. You've always been good at that, when Amy's around. Time to help her, make sure she's not as scared as you are.

"All wanted to go to the mall for lunch, but noooo! You needed to go to the bank." You would shake your head if that didn't mean you wouldn't be watching them.

"It was either going to the bank or wind up broke for that double date you're forcing me into." As if you wouldn't give her anything she needs.

"Ames, the guy I'm setting you up with is a sixteen year old millionaire. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect him to foot the bill for dinner and a movie."

"Could you two please shut up?" The damn thing growls and you do right away.

"Do they have to? It's all very informative." One of the cunt's friends? You designate it Cunt Two until you hear another name. Cunt Two swaggers in like it owns the place and hoists herself up on the edge of a teller station. "Hey Glory Hole." God damn it! This disgusting bit of porn someone posted all over the high school about you and...

"Hey, Tattletale, not that I'm not glad to see you, but could you avoid antagonizing Alexandria Junior?" Tattletale? Cunt Two is a much better name for it.

"Eh. You seem to have things under control. Why not set the bugs on the prom queen?" Yep, she has to go to prison. Resisting force like that against heroes is fucking dangerous. It can get heroes killed. It can get villains killed. She needs to go down before she messes up the only rules that actually still matter. When villains initiate force against heroes, bad things happen. It's the first rule.

"Prom queen?" You aren't a prom queen. You see Amy's face twitch.

"Um," first of all, she's invincible. Second, again, bad idea to irritate someone who can swing a school bus like a baseball bat. Third, my hostage here did something to fuck up my powers." You feel a well of pride in Amy. Her first real fight, and she did something awesome.

"That last bit sucks.". Then she took a closer look at your Panacea. "Shit. Amy Dallon? Grue is going to kill me, for missing that. You look different than you did when you were showing up in the news. Are you wearing your hair differently?"

"Tattletale," Bug Bitch interjects. "Less small talk, more problem solving. Glory Girl said the Protectorate and maybe New Wave are en route." Tattletale looks at you, and you feel another burst of hate rise in your chest. She frowns, which she deserves to do.

"She's not lying. Let's start with problem three, since you're not looking so hot. Your powers aren't working?"

"Can't control my bugs, got a major headache."

"Think I know why. Let me fix that for you," Tattletale says. She hops down from the teller's station and started to walk towards me your sister and the thing with a knife at your sister's throat.

"Don't move." You warn.

"Or what?" Tattletale whirled to face you, smiling. "You'll beat me up? You can't do anything while my teammate has a knife to your sister's throat. Sit. Stay. Good girl." You might actually kill her. She deserves the Birdcage. The fact is, you never got why it existed before. Some people are cruel, and some people have power. If someone is cruel, enjoys pain, and has power, that cannot be allowed. You cannot allow it. You see fear in her eyes behind her smile, though she's right for now. You stay, glaring at her.

"I think it would be better if you stayed back," Bug Bitch warns Cunt Two. "You get in Panacea's reach, she'll touch you and give you a stroke or something." You feel another rush of pride in Amy.

"Can she? Sure. Will she? Definitely not. She's all bark, no bite." You feel more rage boiling up inside you. The pathetic hunk of meat is hurting Amy. It's a taunt. Telling her she's too weak to do it. Fuck her fuck her fuck her!"

"Try me," Your beautiful taunts. Bug Bitch reasserts her grip on the knife against Amy's throat. Death is too good for her.

"I'd really prefer to avoid tempting fate." Damn it! Maybe Amy could have done something...

"Fine, fine," Tattletale says, raising her hands in a placating gesture. It's a mistake. She's trying to appear like she gave in on something, seemed like less of a threat. You've dealt with this kind of slime before, and scrapped it off your shoe. Amy had to put him back together.

Cunt Two walks over to the branch manager's desk and opens a drawer. "You pull a gun out of that drawer nd I'll fucking break you."

"Enough with the threats you can't follow up on. It's not a gun," Tattletale grins, raising her hands again. A key chain dangles from her left thumb. She actually is that stupid. You didn't say you'd break her when the knife was to her sister's throat. You'd track her down, duh.

"Keys." She actually still cares about money?

"The keys of manager Jeffry Clayton. Type A personality, totally. Control freak. The kind of guy who loves to have absolute control over a meeting."

"First of all, who cares? Second, how do you know this?" She is playing with a cold fire here.

"Come on," Cunt Two smiles, folding her arms. "Villain 101. You don't give info to the hero in a gloating monologue."

"Right. Always worth a try." You agree.

"I'll tell you anyways." You raise an eyebrow. "No reason not to. Actually in my advantage to let you know. I'm psychic. I read his mind when we had him hostage, like I'm reading yours right now.

FUCK!

The speech continues, ping pong balls. You figure out she'd just distracting you later. Insulting you, drawing your attention. You need to remember this kind of bullshit for future reference.

You never forgive yourself for missing what happens between Amy and Skitter. The horrible, painful dance as she stops the block.

"Which is why you call yourself Tattletale, I see. But you're a retard. We're part of New Wave. We have no secrets. That's the whole fucking point of our team. Heroes with no secret identities, no secrets, full disclosure, total accountability."

"For the record," Tattletale said, her voice very smooth and calm, "I fucking hate it when people call me stupid."

"Yet here the two of you are, and neither of you have powers that work against either of us. All you've got is a knife, and if you use it, you both die in the most painful way I think I can get away with." "Oh honey, now who's being stupid? I've got the most powerful weapon of all," Tattletale purrs, smiling wickedly, "Information."

_______

"Be quiet."

You are going to kill Tattletale, someday. You're going to break a promise you made to Amy, to not go looking for the Undersiders. She was so scared you'd get hurt or die. It's the only reason those things are still free and breathing.

She'd threatened her with that.

If she could control her with that. With everything Amy's said...

You're terrified. You've never been more scared in your life.

"Close your eyes." Amy does.

You love her. You love your sister. It's your fault. You sit there and think about every time she's ever been nice to you. Every time she's been nice. The beautiful girl you loved from the start.

What's wrong with you? There's nothing wrong with her. There can't be anything wrong with her.

"There's something I need to do. I need to try. Just keep your eyes closed." She keeps her eyes closed.

You take her head into your hands firmly, pushing, reminding you of the first day in the bathroom.

You didn't even know you were crying until you feel her lips.

It's not bad for a second. Not until you feel her tongue and it hits you. This isn't romantic. She needs you in all the wrong ways. She might make you...

You throw up.

_________

Things are okay.

Amy's your girlfriend and she is happy. That's enough, right?

"Who is a stupid little retarded bitch. You're a stupid little retarded bitch." You tell Tattletale. You play with her hair. She's in Cranial's little pocket dimension, on a medical bed. She is sedated, but you hope somewhere in there she can hear you.

"That's not nice." Cranial's voice reaches you.

"Neither is she." You point out.

"That's fair. I want to know how you are doing. This is all..."

"Insane." You tell her. "It's crazy. Just..."

"What exactly is crazy?" She asks gently.

"All of it. Being Amy's girlfriend. Coming out as Amy's girlfriend. Not breaking this thing's neck. Saving this piece of filth." You look at Cranial. "She got what she deserved."

"I think she's a scared young woman in over her head." Cranial answers. "I have been there myself."

"She and her sick friend, they've done too much. I'm sorry, but I can't trust them, can't forgive them. I never, ever can." You pull on Tattletale's head, pulling some hair out by the roots. You hope she feels it in her sleep.

"I think you're worried about something else and taking it out on someone who can't fight back, Victoria." You sigh.

"I'm a scared young woman in over my head. I love Amy. Is this what's best for her?"

"I can't say that. I can say that she is in love with you. She loves you more than I love my husband. You're her goddess, her sun, her mother and sister and best friend. She needs you very badly."

"I need her and I love her. If I have to, I'll do it, but I don't want this!" You shout. You're glad Amy's a universe away.

"You don't have to. People fall out of love." Cranial points out. "You can be her sister without being her wife."

"Can I?" You sit down on Tattletale's legs. "Live with knowing what she's going through every day, or make her do something she'd hate?"

"We could do it slowly." Cranial says. "Not even without her permission. Just make her love you, but not obsessively. Make it so she can stop needing you quite so much. We can talk to her about it. I suggest you look for other people she could be interested in." You feel a flash of jealousy. "When I read her memories properly I will make a plan, a real one, to make you both happy. Until then, just know you're doing something beautiful."

"Thank you." You sigh and get up. "We're having dinner tonight."

"Do you want to go?" Cranial asks. "I could say I wanted to perform a test on you. Give you a few hours off." You think about Amy, beautiful, her hair tied back, in candle light.

"Yes, I really do want to have dinner with her." You answer.

"I am glad to hear that." Cranial does sound glad.

________

End Interlude:

_______

"Amy, I killed Victoria."

[X] ?

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Do You Believe In Magic-3

[X]Pain. Terror. The world is all wrong and you know that you can force it to be right. "You're lying." She's lying. You fight back the urge to bend and change and improve, to Shape the entire world to your will. "You heard what I said to Coil. No one is that insane. You're lying. You would have killed me first."

"Couldn't." She whispers. Everyone stands around, stunned. No one is talking. None of them matter. None of them matter. Eric is crying, but he doesn't matter. Melissa is patting his back, looking horrified, but who cares? Julian looks confused as Madison pushes her face against his chest.

You really don't want your friends to know how unstable you can be, but this is important. You release cocktail of chemicals into Skitter's brain, serotonin, endorphins, oxytocin, and a few others in just the right proportions. it's not a truth serum, those things aren't real, but it's almost as good. You make her feel calm, happy, and safe. It's similar to the feeling that one would get cuddling with a family member or close friend. "We both know what it feels like to lose someone we love. I don't think you'd wish that pain on your worst enemy. I wouldn't. I think you're frightened and desperate. I think you're as scared of what I could become as I am and you're trying to push me into doing something crazy now, when I can still be contained. Victoria could calm me down before too many people got hurt and everyone would know how dangerous I really am."

You kiss Skitter above her mask, just below her scalpline. "I want you to think about your father. Think about how much it would hurt him to lose you. You don't want to hurt him that way, I know. You loved him and want to protect him. You're not trapped, Taylor. You have options. You don't have to destroy yourself for this. You're a good person inside, I know. I've seen the way you take care of those orphans; you're not just going through the motions. You really care about them. I love that about you, Taylor. I'm thinking about that really hard right now because I want to love you. I want to forgive you. The people in your territory love you, trust you, and look up to you. I want to trust you, too. We could do so much good together. We could help so many people. I just need you to trust me and tell me the truth."

"I did it." She whispers. "I'm so sorry, Amy. I was so scared. I was trapped. Kept getting trapped. Couldn't kill you. Couldn't let you live. Needed you, couldn't let everyone die, couldn't let you kill me anywhere."

"Stop lying, you silly bitch." You smile at her. "That's not a nice thing to do, is it? You need to stop lying about something like killing Victoria. You know how bad that would be, don't you? Why, you might not even die. Sure, I could melt you into a puddle, but I could do something to let you live forever. Just enough you to know you deserve everything you feel. They find plants that live for thousands of years. I bet I could do better. If you're trying to commit suicide I don't think that will work." You pat her head. "So why not just tell me the truth and stop risking that?"

"Led her into a trap. I think they are here. Hatchet Face is, and Crawler, can't find the other two. Couldn't wipe you without her dead. Knocked out her powers."

"Wipe me? Like, wipe my mind? Wipe my memories? Like Sophia Hess was wiped?" You suddenly start laughing. "Madison is right? Madison guessed your secret master plan? You're not a very good mastermind, are you?" You pat her head, keeping one hand touching her at all times. She can't run, not anymore. Maybe never again.

"Did she really..." Madison asks, sounding horrified.

"From the sound of it, had one of our very best friends exposed to an experience that is really bad." You nod.

"Amy, you're scaring me." Madison says. "Like, really scaring me."

"Well, the world is pointless now, isn't it? She didn't even knock me up first." You laugh. "Everything's over. Maybe including the entire world if I really try." It starts whimpering against your hand. "Victoria's not in danger. I don't have to be afraid or brave or anything. I'll never be happy again. The only person who matters is dead." Then, just to do it, you lick Skitter's forehead, moving the costume away from it. "No, think very carefully about this. Can you bring me to the body?"

"No." Skitter answers. "Eidolon hit Hatchet Face with something really weird. He's using some kind of teleportation power. He went up high and it was like he became a door into the ocean. Water flooded everywhere. The water was hitting really hard, and everything inside it died. I don't know if it killed Hatchet Face."

"Well, they always come back, don't they?" You smile. "That's just what things like him do. Just about the only villain who scared her. She died helpless, screaming, having lost everything she had, because a sicko liked to take the strongest and bravest girls and make them nothing as he murdered them. They say it was a girl like her he triggered over, someone who was beating him for killing another girl, and his second trigger was when Wards hunted him down and nearly killed him. The pathetic hunk of meat is maybe the only one who I can't make suffer forever." You giggle. "You'll probably do, though, won't you? You're not exactly Hatchet Face. You're not immune to my powers. I can do anything I want to you. Melt you, torture you, make someone else with your powers out of you, maybe make you as close as I can get to Victoria? Leave a hideous thing inside your body that never stops screaming, a passenger as someone like Victoria curls up with me every night?" You eye it with feelings you have no words for.

"That's, you can't do things like that." Eric says. "Victoria wouldn't want that. What if, um, Cranial! Didn't she want to scan her? Did she? Or, um, a time traveler, Epoch, in New York, half an hour a day. Um...."

"Oh, omniscient parahuman who can teleport me anywhere in the world, please door me. Open a portal to New York City where Epoch lives so I may mount a rescue mission back in time."

"It's been a bit longer than thirty minutes." Skitter mumbles.

"Ah, does anyone know of another time traveler, one who can project further backwards in time?" You ask. No one looks up. "Cranial as it happens never did scan Victoria's brain unless she did so in secret, and I think I would have noticed. Anyone have a better idea? Break through universes for a Victoria grieving over my body? Glaistig Uaine moving through the waters to raise her spirit? Some kind of amazing, secret second trigger event?" You turn on all the pain in Taylor.

"Is there anything?" Madison whispers.

"We're going to find the body, definitely. Won't help her, but she's going to find whatever is left of Victoria so we can be really fucking sure. I think we're going to meet up with Eidolon and everyone else. I am going to ask about my options, if there's anything I could have missed." You stop the pain, as strong as it could be, and pump Taylor back into full alertness. "Get Eidolon."

"He..." You turn the pain back on.

"Get Eidolon." You pry into her brain, looking for anything that even looks like deceit.

"Getting him." It chokes.

"No, is anyone else I love dead?" You ask it, trying to focus on how good it is to hurt it.

"No. Sophia is hurt, but recovering. Crystal is with her mother. Mason is with Eidolon."

"Does your continued existence and activity actually help to preserve the lives of the people in this city?"

"Yes!" It almost screams.

"Then do your very best to help the heroes and innocents of this city. As long as you do that, I won't do anything too bad to you." You hit her with all the pain one more time, and switch it off. "Victoria wouldn't want innocent people dying, would she?"

"No. She wouldn't. She wouldn't." Taylor gasps. "I'm opening the doors. He's here."

Eidolon steps in. For all that you're used to wonders, he is one of the greatest. The most powerful truly human thing you know of.

"Hello, Amy." He looks at you and meets your eyes. "I am so sorry. I tried my very best, but there were so many people in danger. I arrived too late."

"Victoria is dead." You answer. "Tell me, is there anything you could do?"

"I can't travel that far back in time, or I would do that every day. I can't bring back the dead. Did Cranial save her?"

"She did not."

"The Three Blasphemies are dead, and Glaistig Uaine is in the Birdcage."

"Could you ask her?" You stare at him. "Could..."

"I won't." He answers. "Not her. Never her."

The paralytic finishes on him a moment later, and your blades and tentacles snap out a moment later. Taylor screams as you drag her towards Eidolon.

"Amy, what are you doing?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out." You cut through the body armor, barely, and make flesh contact.

<Hello. Don't be afraid.> You tell him directly in his brain.



<I have a decent, though not perfect, reason to believe that there is a Thinker listening to everything said in the city. Skitter told me this when I was scanning her brain like a lie detector. If you want me to let you go I will do so, but I think it would benefit us if I don't. I think, under the pretense of me being a crazy, believed villain rising, we can use this chance to communicate privately.>



<No you couldn't. I'm too valuable. Worst case Trigger blasts everything from my mind and you rebuild me. I could take that. I can't let them hear that Victoria might be alive. They could hold her hostage.>

<Victoria's alive?> Relief seems to flood Eidolon's body.

<Probably. Not certainly, but probably. Cranial gave me an invention by the Toybox to teleport her brain into a pocket dimension if she died or was about to die. It would then be locked in a box made by a cryonics Tinker, Glace. If the Elite know this than they could use it against me. Capture her and hold her for ransom, or capture the Tinkers who I would need to help me. I need to act as if there's no hope if I want to protect her. No one here knows about the device.>

<What do we do next?>

[X] <We save the city. Throw in everything. Use this moment to plan secretly. I think we should make it look like I went crazy, distract them, make them think they're dealing with something very different from the truth. Victoria is safe where she is, if the Elite don't know she is there.>

[X] <Victoria is first priority. If you want me to ever help you with anything again we will save her and get her to safety. Then we fight these monsters.>

[X] <We leave the city and get reinforcements. We get everyone. Then we come back and destroy the Elite forever, and anyone else who is part of this.>

[X] <We save the city. Throw in everything. Use this moment to plan secretly. I think we should make it look like I went crazy, distract them, make them think they're dealing with something very different from the truth. Victoria is safe where she is, if the Elite don't know she is there.>

<This seems like a good idea to me.> Eidolon isn't lying. <Want my summary of the situation? The forces involved? I was briefed on them. I suggest we take a moment to breathe and look over the rough outline.>

<Yes. You are by far the most experienced person in the room.>

<Protectorate

Dream Mask: Shaker 4, Blaster 7, Thinker 2

Battery: Brute 3, Mover 4, Striker 3

Assault: Striker 7, Mover 2

Dauntless: Trump 0, Blaster 4, Mover 6, Brute 5

Velocity: Mover 8, Breaker 3

Triumph: Blaster 5, Brute 1

Wards:

Tecton: Tinker 3, Thinker 3, Brute 3, Striker 3

Blur: Mover 10

Gallant: Blaster 4, Thinker 3, Brute 4

Vista: Shaker 9

Chariot: Tinker 5, Mover 4, Blaster 3

New Wave

Lady Photon: Blaster 4, Mover 3, Shaker 3

Manpower: Brute 6, Striker 4

Flashbang: Blaster 7

Shielder: Shaker 5, Mover 2, Blaster 3

Rune: Striker 7, Mover 3

Your new team:

Glory Girl: Brute 6, Stranger/Shaker 3, Mover 3

Panacea: Striker 11, pseudo-Tinker 7

Laserdream: Shaker 1, Blaster 7, Mover 4

Browbeat: Striker 6, Mover 2

Eraser: Blaster 6

Shadow Stalker: Breaker 3, Stranger 2, Mover 1

Skitter: Master 8, Thinker 2+5>

Your mind races as Eidolon outlines the forces available. There's a map in his head, showing the last known locations of everyone via a Thinker power. Browbeat is outside standing guard. Shadow Stalker has a broken leg and is at the hospital. New Wave and Laserdream are handling search and rescue. Glory Girl, if she can be recovered, is at the bottom of a new lake.

<The villains, what do you know of them??

<Empire 88

Alabaster: Breaker 5

Fog: Shifter 8, Stranger 3

Crusader: Master 6

Menja: Breaker 6

Fenja: Breaker 6

Stormtiger: Blaster/Striker 5, Thinker 1

Cricket: Blaster 4, Thinker 5.

Othala: Master/Trump 8

Victor: Striker 3

Kaiser: Shaker 5

Harmon Rex: Brute 9, Breaker 4, Striker 3

Nonpareil: Shaker 11

Agnes Court: Master 9, sub-Tinker 5, Shaker 3

Hatchet Face: Brute 5, Trump 5

Crawler: Brute 9, Trump 4>

<Jesus, the Elite are, well, they live up to their name. That's without their Thinker.>

<The Thinker truly concerns me.>

<The rest of them don't?>

<I currently have three powers raised. One is the teleportation ability. When I teleport I can choose the velocity and direction I am moving to as much as my body can withstand, teleport anywhere I can see or have ever been or is nearby, and teleport so rapidly my body becomes a portal, such as to as deep in the ocean as I can withstand the pressure. That is one power. My second power is a kind of extremely active second personality with perfect memory, vast sets of skills, and the ability to control my body and powers with incredible precision to enact goals I set for her while leaving my own mind free to plan. Those two powers work extremely well together. My third power is a Master power, summoning swarms of nanites. These swarms form a hive mind, have incredible vision, and can attack to trigger an allergic reaction to anyone without appropriate defenses. There are now several thousand such swarms in the city. Each of these swarms is bullet proof and incredibly resistant to most Brute and Striker abilities, and they are assisting with search and rescue as well as keeping order and assisting the heroes. I can pull in another power at any time to respond to changes in the situation. These abilities lack the raw power I would pull out when fighting an Endbringer. I am currently an estimated Mover 10, Breaker 3, Shaker 4, Thinker 5, Master 7 in my own ballpark. The members of the Elite I understand I can beat. Someone else worries me.> Your powers are great, but that makes you flush with envy.

You are going to extract Skitter's powers from Taylor, yes Taylor... need to keep them separate in your mind just as you plan to separate them with your power. Not only could they be useful to you... but it is suitable punishment for leading Victoria to her death... at least she'll live. Sedate her first, giving her a pleasant jolt to the brain. You want to be be mean... almost desperately so... but you know that if you begin... you just wouldn't be able to hold back. Thus you take that desire and do the opposite, let her senses feel as if floating somewhere warm and pleasant.

You let the thoughts drift into Eidolon's head.

<Power removal is a dangerous game. It rarely works well.

You identify the portions of her brain which are connected to those which make her a parahuman and replicate their contact within your own suit... then extricate them in a Skitter flesh entombed package. Then connect the extricated power to your suit WHOLE, no tinkering with it as it is until you have a chance to work with it again. She has such amazing potential power... you do not see why it should be wasted on her any longer. Make sure to replace extracted flesh and to make sure she is whole and healthy then put her to sleep for the next 24 hours... what to do with her will be Victoria's choice, but there is no need to make her anguish over it. Prepare a buffer brain using her suit for yourself, and route information though it, with a failsafe to break contact with the Skitter-brain.

<Alright, Eidolon, do you have a plan?>

<Cycling through Thinker and Stranger powers for a fit, oh, she's always good. Give me a moment...> You notice Madison standing paralyzed.

<Harrier: Stranger 5. Such wonderful synergy. Let's put our heads together, shall we?? You lead Eidolon over to her and touch her.

<AMY! I'm scared!> You let Eidolon explain the situation. Madison turns off her power once she calms down to let Eidolon cycle through potential powers.

<Alright, I have something I think I can use. The power I used to vet your brother for my team.? Eidolon announces. <It flashes red or blue, reading a wide variety of possible futures for possibilities that give us the best chance of doing what we want. Just articulate our goals, please.>

<We save Victoria and stablize the city with as few casualties as possible.>

<It's set. Testing, bring in the other three to strategy meeting, blue.> You gather the other three heroes and quickly start explaining the issues at hand.

<We use Skitter's powers to track everyone. Throw me into enemy territory?> Madison suggests.

<Red.> Eidolon answers. <Major issue is that there is no territory. Asymmetrical strikes.>

<Okay, we use Skitter's powers to track each hero or member of the team, advising, assisting, and coordinating.> You're still trying to figure it out, but it's getting better.

<Blue.> Eidolon answers.

<We call in insects for heavy firepower, launch attacks with them?> Melissa suggests.

<Red.>

<Build up weapons, make the insects into something else to attack?> You ask.

<Red.> Eidolon answers. <That's worrying.>

<Okay, we study Agnes Court's microbes, counter them, crack their secrets to make the take down easier?>

<Red.> Eidolon pauses. <We take an hour to plan. We take half an hour to plan. We take fifteen minutes to plan. We take five minutes to plan. Okay, it's all turning up red. We move out now? That's blue. We're attacking. See what you can do with the Skitter box.>

You focus, and you start to understand it, at least vague impressions. You focus on parahuman movement, trying to figure it out, as Eidolon transports the team to trouble spots.

You realize you're seeing Browbeat moving rapidly. He moves on roller blades that pop out of his shoes, moving with impressive speed towards villains, Cricket. She releases something that stuns the bugs. Nearby bugs are swept away as he creates a vacuum so sound can't pass through it to shield himself. He hits Cricket with impressive force, his sword swinging, highly flexible and wielded with incredible strength, making up for her speed with his costume's superior armor and the two large shields. She goes down casually.

Circus lashes out with a wave of fire, but he counters it with another vacuum blast and his own costume, though it might burn him more. He gives chase, his roller blades, while ridiculous, give him more speed, and he can move his costume to jump after her as she runs, and counters her hammer strike with one of his floating shields. A ball, rotating quickly around his waist, hits her in the chest and knocks her down long enough for him to get on top of her, pulling air from her mouth, making it impossible to breath as he ties her up and leaves her there.

<Amy?> Eidolon asks. You had become captivated by the scene, figuring out the new thing.

<Yes?>

<People need communication, help. Trying that is blue.>

<On it.>

Shielder stands alone against a set of strange creatures you can't see well. Some of them are massive, but most are human sized. His raises his shields, trapping all of them but one, and turns on the survivor, hitting it with his blasts again and again until it is down. He proceeds to change the shield's shape, letting another human sized creature out, and he begins again.

Lady Photon and Laserdream circle Menja and Fenja, firing their blasts. Your bugs figure out that the giants are bleeding. The giants move incredibly quickly due to their enhanced size, their strikes precise and devastating, but they only ever hit force fields, breaking off pieces of metal. Flashbang's bolts hit like bee stings against the giants. You consider how to help here and start pulling in waves of insects, getting them to screen the giants mobility, make it harder for them to walk, sending them into air passages.

Rune and Manpower move through a collapsed building, ripping it up and digging frantically for the survivors, and there are many survivors. Your insects start swirling over hot spots. You don't find any corpses, courtesy of Nonpareil.

You see Eidolon drop Eraser off in front of Harmon Rex. You focus on voices as he teleports you away, trying to figure out what they're saying.

"I'm one of the very few people who can hurt you if I'm not mistaken." Eraser tells Harmon Rex.

"I can hurt you as well." Harmon Rex says evenly.

"I bet you're more scared of being hurt." Eraser says. You figure out from head motion that they're staring at each other.

"Perhaps." Harmon Rex kicks the asphalt causing a flat chunk of it to turn from a floor into a wall. Eraser is flung behind him and lands hard.

<Wasn't that blue?> You ask Eidolon.

<It was.> He answers.

Chariot suddenly arrives, on a strange piece of extended, almost insect like power armor that has room for Gallant and Vista as riders.

Harmon Rex will be contained.

You locate a massive creature bounding down the street. Investigation suggests Crawler.

 You say.

<Red for us to go after him.>

<What next?>

<What do you think could cause trouble?> You lineup the map in Eidolon's head with the one you're working out with the bugs.

Something long and snake like is heading into the lake Eidolon made for Hatchet Face.

<Someone is after Victoria!>

<Red for helping her.>

<How is that possible?>

<We just have to let it be. Action is a bad idea.> You scream into Eidolon's cape, a wave of helplessness rising up from your chest.

<She'll be safer this way. Trust me.>

You search for something, anything else to check up on.

Kaiser appears to have returned to full health. A lot of what is left of Empire 88 is doing battle with the Protectorate, sans Dream Mask. Alabaster is wielding a school bus like a battering ram. Fog is forcing the heroes into the Empire 88 villains, which seem to be supported by something massive with dozens of long limbs that whip with incredible speed. Dauntless and Battery are down on the ground, leaving Assault, Velocity, and Triumph to carry the day. You figure out that Crusader and Stormtiger are there from the powers, probably Othala.

<Help the Protectorate?>

<Blue.>

Eidolon teleports across the sky, point to point, like a comet, carrying you with him.

<Why are you carrying me? Wouldn't I be safer back there?>

<It's blue.>

Eidolon reaches the Protectorate and comes to a hard stop, leaving you gently before throwing himself at the villains. Alabaster vanishes in the blink of an eye and Eidolon is back far less than a second later to grab Crusader. The duplicates sadly do not vanish. Stormtiger starts lashing out, but Eidolon isn't worried about that. There's a sudden blast of water over Fog, driving him back away from the heroes. You hear a desperate shout from a woman's voice and Eidolon responds, but you can't hear what was said.

Eidolon is back with you then. <Leaving is blue.> You're in a street corner now. <Update me.>

<Things are going well.> You answer. <Harmon Rex can't escape Vista or risk lethal force with Eraser nearby. <Menja and Fenja are in a stalemate with New Wave->

Eidolon is off through the sky again, and a few moments later he is standing in front of the two.

"Othala has surrendered." He shouts. "If you surrender, then you will be given leniency. If you resist, you will experience a very painful and frightening way to be defeated." <Talking with them is blue.>

Menja and Fenja look at each other, and look at Eidolon. They start to shrink.

Then you notice a repeated set of words off in the distance. It's been repeated several times. You focus on it.

"We have Victoria, Amy. We have Victoria, Amy. We have Victoria, Amy." A man sits in a rocking chair, repeating it. A woman sits in an alley way, saying it. A class in kindergarten, out in a yard, repeat it cheerfully.

You relay it to Eidolon.

<Talking to them is blue.>

"This is Panacea." Voices say in each of those places.

"We are in over our heads. We apologize." They say in unison. "We can give her back to you."

"You had better." You announce.

"That is not what we meant." They say. You curse, loudly, over a lot of the city.

"What do you want?"

"Balance. Swear to become a rogue, to be impartial. Let there be balance. Otherwise more will come. People willing to kill your sister. Nonpareil is ready to hear the oath."



<He can bestow fortune or misfortune based on rules. Long term, for parahumans and only parahumans.>

<So if I agree to it, than he can force me to do this?>

<He can bestow it anyway, but he prefers to make deals or punishments.>

<Can you counter him?>



"What is the oath?" You ask.

"To be impartial in your support, selling your services to the highest bidder, and to give no gifts and to always take the deal that pays the best."

<Eidolon, is taking this deal red or blue?>

<Blue.>

[X] "I so swear." Anything for Victoria.

[X] "I would not love her half as much if I did not love honor more." Anything for what Victoria wants.

[X] <Can I ask for a different deal?> <That would be red.> "Your terms are unacceptable. Let's negotiate." It's clearly a risk, but you can't live like that, and can't leave Victoria in danger.

[X] "I would not love her half as much if I did not love honor more." Anything for what Victoria wants.

There's a stretch of silence.

"Weren't expecting that?" You ask the enemy.

"We can curse the area. Make it so that anything that can go wrong will go wrong

"If I rolled over every time someone threatened the people I love then they would always be in danger. There wouldn't be any end to it. You're everything that is wrong with the world. Monsters like the Slaughterhouse Nine and the Endbringers are nothing. We can handle them. But you selfish assholes who just don't care are the reason that we're sliding towards the abyss. The world could be so much better if everyone just worked together."

"That's most certainly a criticism that could be leveled at you. The issue is working towards what? You have not joined the Yangban, which is clearly the best solution." You laugh out loud.

"Really?"

"Of course. Dozens of people with one third of your own powers is clearly better than one of you with your own powers. The system would almost certainly be far more humane with your added mind control abilities instead of their current, brutal brainwashing methods. The amount of healing they could do collectively if you joined their humanitarian corp would far outstrip your current productivity, and they could handle the cloning you do if Cranial agreed to their system. From a utilitarian standpoint that would be by far the best they could do. The CUI is evil, but does that mean denying healing to the billion people they rule is just?" You shake your head.

"Stop it! You're..."

<They are wrong.> Eidolon explains to you. <I have spoken with Thinkers on the subject. When Zero and Two were found it was seriously discussed if I should join given my unique abilities. It would not be helpful to enhance them if you want to save the world.>

<Thank you.>

"My pet says it's a lie. I shouldn't join the Yangban." You smile and pat Eidolon. "Consider what is happening carefully. I have Eidolon. I removed Skitter's brain and am mastering her powers as we speak. What if I do that to Eidolon. You're facing all of Eidolon and all of me. How does this end well for you?" <Sorry for calling you a pet.>

<No apologies necessary, but thank you. I get it.>

<Could you just check something? Saving the most people, long term, if I join the Yangban, red or blue?>

<Red.> Eidolon pauses. <Blue for cloning Two for them.>

<Where did you get that idea? Why did you ask that?>

<Their ambassador brought it up recently in their usual list of outrageous demands. Just popped into my head. Let's discuss it later.>

<Thank you.>

"I'm not going to cave, and if you're smart you're not going to endanger Victoria. Last time I was off work for a week they estimated around a hundred and twenty deaths because a terrorist decided that was the time to ramp up the trauma cases. I've been off work enough because of recent bullshit that I'm guessing we're in the dozens of people who died because the Protectorate went insane or Bakuda decided to try and nuke the city or an Endbringer hit. The more you stretch this out the more people die.

"If the Yangban abduct you because they get scared and botch the attempt, killing you? The Gesellschaft kill you? Mannequin? How is leaving Victoria a cape widow a better solution?"

"I'm done with that shit!" You scream. "I am fucking done with being a scared little girl. Bring on Simurgh and Mannequin, Yangban and Gesellschaft. I am a superhero! I am the Next Wave! The world is sick. Villains eat at the immune system of heroes, the PRT and the Protectorate is corrupt, Endbringers bite out chunks of the world whenever they can. This kind of balance is death. Things will only get worse and worse until all that's left is warlords squatting in the ruins as the Endbringers roam. If this is the war you bring, then go on, bring on the End!"

There's further silence.

<Drop the Master power, Eidolon. We need something to grab Victoria. Keep her safe. Something Shaker like. That blue?>

<No. Figuring out why.>

"Amy, you act as if we are not sane, reasonable people. We are. Surely this is a vaccine. If you cannot take us than how will you take the next time someone goes after you, or the one after that? You need to adapt to the world you live in or you will die. Our adaptation is calculated to be the least painful we could imagine."

"If you kill the woman I love then why would I give a shit? Why give a shit about anything? I've got Eidolon and I've got Skitter. Kill Victoria and there's no way for anyone to hurt me. Why not just do what I want? Release something into the environment. Make everything into Victoria, repeated, everything I love when I look at her, cascading about, becoming the world, a rush of skin and golden hair with everything else pure white or black. Why not do that? There's nothing else I truly love."

"Because it is wrong. Because you believe in Heaven and Hell, because you have seen Heaven in Victoria and Hell in hospitals and battlefields. Because you are a good person, a superhero, a piece of Heaven that fell to Earth. Because you are full of love and trust and joy, and could feel it again with a trip to Trick or Cranial. And because there are heroes who can still stop you."

"FUCK YOU ALL!" You howl across the entire city, because they're right. You start shaking, angry and helpless and trapped. It's Victoria.

"Is that a surrender?" The voices ask.

"She's all I have." You whisper with just your voice.

"That's a lie. You have Madison and Sophia, Carol and Mark, Dean and Julian. There is more than enough world left for you to fight for if we kill Victoria. You might make us suffer nightmares beyond counting, but you cannot hold the world hostage as long as you love your Glory Girl."

"Eidolon could change that."

"What would be the point? If you cease to love Victoria you are a different person. It is merely an elaborate form of suicide."

"Your offer is completely unacceptable. I absolutely refuse to partake in it. I am not a rogue. I cannot be a rogue. I do not believe in balance. I want the heroes to win. I want them to win everywhere. I want supervillains to be afraid because we don't need them to fight Endbringers anymore. I want them to go to prison. I want everyone who kills someone, every time, to know that the Birdcage is still there, and that they can go there if they didn't have a really fucking good reason. You have no right to hurt people for money, to commit crimes, and you have to deal with people stronger than you if you do. I want the world to change. Give me an offer I can live with."

"What would you have us do? We cannot survive the world you are making."

"Surrender. Is that so hard to imagine? We win, you lose. If you kill Victoria I feel safe to say everyone in your gang is going to the Birdcage if it's the last thing I do. If you give her back to me and surrender, well, you are some of the strongest capes I've ever heard of short of people like Nilbog and Glaistig Uaine. I think making a deal would be easy. The fucking Siberian got a deal."

"That is not survival." You laugh out loud.

"What are you talking about? You want me to adapt, but can't adapt yourselves?"

"The Protectorate will fall. That is inevitable. The world we live in is one we could survive. The fall of your world is one that cannot be survived." You frown.

"Is this some precog bullshit?"

"We speak the words of Dinah Alcott. The Protectorate will fall in no more than two years, no less than twenty-six. Thirty-three to ninety-six percent of the world's population will die in the same event. The later predictions match the current estimated cycle of destruction the Endbringers inflict, though the earlier ones are unclear." Dinah Alcott? So that is where she disappeared to.

"You're saying that precognitive abilities suggest I should do this?"

<Red, saving the most people, for taking their plan.> Eidolon says helpfully.

"Yes."

"You're lying."

"It is best for us, and that is the matter at hand. The survival of Glory Girl is dependent on our own decision not to bring as much of the world down with us as possible. If our situation is untenable we have no reason to cooperate. The truth is that this is the least bad option for us. When you consider the obvious risk of threatening the sister of someone who has taken direct control of Eidolon you truly need to consider just how dangerous the cloning project is for us and anyone like us."

<End of the World, is this true?>

<Yes.> Eidolon admits. <This is not the first time I have heard of it. Other precogs have been talking about it. Dinah's is the most useful prediction we have encountered. We are not spreading the information out of safety concerns.>

"I could help. There's no way that clones can't help with it. Backing the Protectorate is going to save the most lives."

"It won't save Glory Girl's life."

"Stop. Threatening. Victoria."

"80% chance she dies within the next 23 years if you engage in your cloning project backing the Protectorate. 40% chance she dies within the next 23 years if you become a rogue. 60% chance if you hide." You freeze.

<Eidolon. Victoria's survival in the next 23 years, each of those possibilities. Are they telling the fucking truth?>

<Yes.> You scream rage and frustration. Then...

<Marrying Victoria, same questions.>

<Going rogue is red. Doing nothing is red. Backing the Protectorate is blue.> You, the world is wrong and doesn't make sense and it's so fucking bad and...

<Red or blue for saving Victoria if we just run in and save her?>

<Blue. Red for lowering fatalities and saving Victoria.>

<Give me a minute. More talking, red or blue for that >

<Blue.>

"Give me another solution! Work with me here! What else can I do to save her?"

"You could, obviously, accept a curse that would make it impossible to safely make the clones at all. Also, to take powers like you did with Skitter, as that is new, but quite frankly so terrifying that we're adding it." You nod.

"So, I could do the rest of it? Outfit the Protectorate, heal people for free, build up my team, just not do the best thing I can do?"

"Yes. That is reasonable. We are not concerned by your lesser activities."

<Eidolon, marrying Victoria, red or blue for that?>

<I've been growing better with this power. I can see distinctions. It's yellow. Decreases the chances by less than 33%. Orange would be 33-66%. Red would be greater than 66%. Getting better at good options, too. Blue, good by less than 33%. Indigo, 33-66%. Violet, greater than 66%. Takes a while to be sure with this power, not give inaccurate information, but it's catalyzed.>

<Thank you, Eidolon.>

"I'm considering it. Is there anything else?"

"You could obviously join the Elite, but your chances for that are extremely low."

"Yeah, fuck that. Anything else?"

"You could clone for European teams. The Suits, the King's Men, or perhaps the capes of France or Australia. If we do not have to be concerned with your clones attacking us than general support of heroes is not our concern."

<Eidolon, Victoria marrying me if I do that?>

<Green, which wasn't around earlier. Fairly close to the mean chance of her marrying you. I did ask if you handled it well. It could go very badly.>

<You're actually being truly amazing right now. There's no way to thank you for all of this.>

<You deserve my help. Everyone does, but you are the person I am helping now. I need to give you the truth, not what I want.> Eidolon pauses for a moment. <That possibility is interesting. You are helping people. The world is bigger than the United States. Of course I want help, but it's not actually a sacrifice. Other places could need your assistance more.>

"That is intriguing. How will you enforce the spirit of this? What if other teams send in support to the United States without my consent? What if they don't send in clones, but people the clones replace?"

"Nothing is perfect, but Dinah gave the odds of this happening as well below 12%, which is an acceptable risk."

[X] <Go.> You're not going to give in to these terrorists.

[X] "I'll go rogue." It hurts every fiber of your being, but things have changed. Victoria's life matters so much.

[X] "I guess we're moving." A new life, a fresh start, it doesn't sound so bad. You and Victoria can see the world, help people elsewhere, get out of this toxic city.

[X] <Go.> You're not going to give in to these terrorists.

Eidolon goes. There's the rush of repeated teleportation, constant changes in speed and direction of movement, all far too fast for you to follow.

You hit the ground with a gasp, Eidolon holding the precious cylinder that contains everything precious in the world. You are standing in an office you don't recognize.

"Welcome to Houston." Eidolon says, a smile in his voice. Now that Victoria's safe, you're letting me go, and I am going to do everything I can to save the city."

"But..."

"Nobody wants to risk waves of flesh gardens. I am sorry, Amy, but until the situation is stable you and Victoria need to be here.

"I need to help!"

"No, Amy. You don't. Eidolon vanishes.

You look ar0und the room. It's quite different from Armsmaster's tinker lab. There are no windows here, and only a single door. The room is kept uncomfortably cool by air conditioning. Lining two of the walls are news reports and photographs. You examine them. It's not surprising that they're all about Eidolon. Eidolon fighting natural disasters, putting out house fires, controlling the weather, ending a drought, teleporting relief supplies. There have to be hundreds of reports here.

You notice that none of them are about his being recognized. No photos of him with world leaders or fellow heroes. Each one is about Eidolon doing something.

You know that everyone is jealous of Eidolon. You wonder if anyone else is jealous about how happy he is as a hero. He wants to do what you have to do.

"Great Grandfather is one arrogant son of a bitch, isn't he?" A voice says from the door. You spin around with a start, and the fight is not a comforting one.

"Phantasos!" The beautiful man, Victoria and your father, gives you an indulgent smile.

"Chuck, now. Let me assure you that if there is anything in the world I cannot do, it is harming the contents of that box." Your eyes flick to the tube that holds your sister.

"How can I be sure?"

"The fact is I want to marry the contents. I just want to make sure she's alive and kicking, that all the equipment is in order. Can you fault me for that?"

"You can't touch her!"

"Come on, wasn't giving that speech to Dean enough?" He laughs and strides forward.

"What are you even doing here? Weren't you in Boston?"

"As it turns out I am more suited to Houston than Boston." You give him an odd look.

"Who did you kill?"

"Citrine could alter the laws of physics in an area. It actually was an accident, believe it or not. I am unsure what she did, but it altered ballistics of my projectile The transfer was for my safety, as Accord is a quite terrifying supervillain when he has a grudge."

"So they brought you to the place they put everyone too dangerous to actually put into a fight but can't get rid of? It's hard to get transferred here."

"Fourth largest city in the United States, my dear sister. They need capes far more than Boston does. Houston is a significant hub for trafficking of cocaine, marijuana, heroin, MDMA, and methamphetamine due to its size and proximity to major illegal drug exporting nations. Houston is one of the country's largest hubs for human trafficking, and has the fifth highest murder rate in the country for cities with more than 750,000 people. There are seventeen such cities. This is a city hungry for capes." Phantasos stands worryingly close to Victoria's "extra life" container. "Also, there's a certain level of discrimination against evil clones who express incestuous desires."

"You really didn't kill anyone else?" You don't really believe this.

"No." He pauses. "I did manage to kill the arm of a brute, but I c0nsider that a public service, and the property damage to the Mayor's house should not have provoked such a negative reaction considering I needed to prepare a quick moving vehicle so quickly..."

"Okay, I have to admit it sounds like nothing I wouldn't do." Phantasos laughs brightly. "I am sorry, but I just do not trust you to touch that box. It's nothing personal, but you did, well, kiss Victoria."

"And you haven't?" He gives you a devilish smile.

"Oh, I've done a bit more than that." You giggle.

"I gathered that impression from the interview. Well, 21% did indicate a chance of things besides marriage." He sighs. "Honestly you're taking me rather well."

"Victoria is alive and safe, and you've been vetted by Thinker powers. I'm all maxed out on hate today." Phantasos looks concerned.

"Want to talk about it?"

"Don't you want me to suffer?"

"I want to get under your skin, to show you up. I don't want you hateful. What's the point in defining yourself by someone who isn't worthy of admiration? I want you in a good head space, if for no other reason than to give myself a better challenge." You consider this.

"I don't know anyone else here, and you're my clone. Seems interesting to talk to you. Alright, tell me what's been going on with you, and then maybe I can tell you about my life, and Victoria." Phantasos, Chuck, smiles and sits down in Eidolon's chair.

"I miss our big sister. She's an ache in my chest, a hole in my heart that cannot be filled. I keep busy. The Wards program is simply vile, as we both well know, but I can keep up in the classes. I rather hate the heat, Texas is not my natural environment. I have met the most interesting people here. Eidolon is probably the best friend I've had in years, if you count your memories. He's no Victoria, but I actually like him. The patrols are rather boring, merely spot for trouble and call for Eidolon and Dispatch for backup. I sleep in the Ward apartment here. I would argue I am paid far too little, and the fact that I have no plans to go to college is not going over well with the PRT. Mostly I feel bored. I only ever committed one crime. Ward probation seems quite excessive."

"Cry me a river." You can't keep your eyes off Victoria's suspended animation tube. You can't see inside it...

"Please let me touch it." Phantasos begs. "I can't trust the work of someone else to keep her safe. You get that, right?"

"Do it." He leaps up, excited, and places a hand on it.

"She's fine!" He shouts, relieved, and you sigh with relief. "Everything up and running. I can't safely touch the biological parts, kills them if I try, but the monitors are normal. She's sleeping safe and sound in stasis." He twirls around.

"Wait, your touch kills?" You frown.

"When I extend my power into living material it becomes dead material. What this may say about me is disturbing, of course." He shakes his head. "Now, my new life is boring. Tell me everything about what's happened since we split up. Start with after I saved you."

"Saved me?" You laugh. "Locked me in what was practically a dungeon."

"Your kid sisters are far crazier than I am. They would have killed you if you were lucky. I saved you, and I probably saved Victoria that day. Perhaps she would have survived anyway, but I kept them from looking for her."

"Reasonable." You admit. "You still kidnapped and assaulted Victoria."

"I kissed my sister, Amy." His smile is dashing. "At least I didn't use tongue that time."

"That's different..."

"In Albany you forced your tongue down her throat without her permission. I kissed her without her permission. I don't think either of us enjoyed the consequences of our little dalliances with sexual assault. As for the 'kidnapping?' My ambush of Coil's soldiers, using Glory Girl and Shadow Stalker, was successful and led to the certain capture of the Undersiders as well as Coil's mercenaries. Of course, I fully admit my behavior was calculated to freak you out, but I did not anticipate Skitter would take you to Coil's lair. I apologize for everything he put you through. I am glad he is dead."

"Skitter..." You start the whole story.

_______

"Kill her." Phantasos says once you're done, and had gotten back to what you did to Skitter.

"I removed her Corona Gemma..."

"Othala could repair that in four minutes. The Corona Gemma only controls conscious manifestations of power, and people have trained around the loss of that piece of the brain. The truth is that she has repeatedly shown a chain of behavior that directly endangers Victoria. Kill her."

"I'm not just going to execute someone in cold blood..."

"You have described a system of relay bugs which could envelop the entire planet. She is charismatic enough to effect you significantly. She killed Victoria." There is no defense for that, no excuse. I can do it if you like."

"What?" You stare at him.

"It's the least I could do for our Glory Girl. I clearly failed to win her, at least for now, but can I at least avenge her?" You smile at Chuck.

"You really are a Dallon, aren't you?"

"More than a Fevere. That's one name I refuse to take." You nod. "I've started using it a bit, but only, like, it's my maiden name, and I want to take Victoria's. But yeah, I love being her sister more than her wife. It's like..."

"If there's anyone in the world who understands, it is me." Phantasos smiles at you.

"You're not half bad for an evil clone." You shrug. "Or maybe it's just a really bad day talking."

"Victoria could have been dead." He puts a hand on your shoulder. "That's the worst of all possible days. I expect a bit of weirdness from you." The two of you stare at the tube.

"We kind of sort of talked about an open relationship." You giggle. "It's more, well, that Sophia really wants some kind of affection." Chuck laughs.

"So, there is a girl out there, who is straight, who is attracted to my personality and nature, and who very seriously was considering coming to Houston. I feel I have been cock blocked by you twice." You laugh.

"You really need a girlfriend."

"Actually, I suspect I need to make my own appointment with Cranial. I feel I have recovered rather well from the aura, but it is still leaving deep scars." The sheer weirdness of having a conversation with this creature causes you to start laughing.

"How is Carol?" Chuck asks quietly. You pause.

"Carol is, Mark and Carol, I don't talk to them anymore. I don't think Victoria does either. They're just..."

"Our parents." Chuck sighs. "I don't really blame them for us, but I do have to blame them for Victoria. She didn't deserve to have to be our mother as well as our sister. She deserves the world, not us. Give that to her, if you can."

"I will." You pat his shoulder. "I will."

________

Interlude:

[X] Browbeat

[X] Harmon Rex

[X] Tecton

[X] Harmon Rex

Well, everything has gone badly. 14% you fail completely in this adventure. This is quite annoying.

Eidolon is here. In Blueblood's assessment, he is the second most dangerous hero in North America, right after Alexandria and right above Dragon.

Eidolon has weaknesses. He takes a while to get the right powers. His powers don't fit him the way most power sets do. He finds Master and Tinker powers difficult for different reasons. He is not as experienced with any given power set, and so favors simple powers with strong effects.

Someone more versatile can exploit that. You're all raw power. Eidolon is your worst possible match up, and with the living tank warping space around you there's no way to escape.

Right?

Manton Effect limits, not warping space containing microscopic living things.

You look down.

Worms, roots, ant colonies. Plenty of life right below you.

The blast comes a moment later. You deflect it with your fist. You see off in the distance there's shouting, worries. You're on the right track.

You dig your fingers into the ground and rip a pillar straight up. Maybe a hundred feet of rock and dirt and living things. You smile a bit as it wizzes by. It kind of reminds you of your farm when you were a boy. When the column is clear, an inch of exposed air, you punch it outward and leap in. Happily, Vista doesn't pull something out to catch you. Limits in her power, her creativity, or her reflexes?

It's wet down here. You move forward, punching your way through the rock, possibly causing small earthquakes above you. You doubt it matters much. After you've gone what feels like far enough you start climbing, emerging in a subbasement. You grab the dirt and water on your body and pull it off all at once. Your hair isn't perfect, but the rest of you is fine.

"Commander, report. What is the situation?"

"Agnes Court captured. Nonpareil has not been found. Empire 88 surrendered. Circus and Parian captured. Trainwreck deceased. Panacea and Glory Girl escaped." You suppress profanity, which is not hard when your voice is being used by Commander.

"Tell me, what are the priorities? What should I do?"

"Glory Girl is the closest person to Panacea. If threatening her fails due to Panacea's desire to impress Glory Girl it is unlikely that anything will convince her at this point. Do not attempt further forced negotiation. Move on to the secondary priorities. The Toybox."

"We can't force them to cooperate." You frown.

"We cannot ensure the cooperation of the Toybox. However, there is some kind of special project they are working on. One of their convey trucks is carrying something that Panacea, Glory Girl, and Cranial have all visited on the road trip. Kitsune, or Tattletale."

"The second trigger Thinker? Wouldn't they prioritize her safety?"

"No. There are two people who value her. One is Panacea, who feels guilt due to her role in the mind control incarceration. The other is Skitter, who is personally attached to her. If she were to disappear than it would actually benefit the Protectorate. On her own, free, she is dangerous. In our hands she is controlled, stable. It is the difference between a nuclear weapon in the hands of a terrorist and in the hands of an enemy nation. I feel safe in saying that Tattletale is going to be the very lowest priority right now. Nonpareil will be with you when you reach her."

"Thank you, Commander." You say, and you're off, leaving the building subtly, an office building, figuring out where you are quickly.

The Toybox has set itself up in the Boardwalk, a part of the city under the control of Skitter and Glory Girl.

"I could turn you in." A set of insects speak. "I could call Eidolon. You have endangered my plans."

"Panacea removed portions of your brain in order to remove your powers. How are you speaking?" Commander speaks through your voice.

"Panacea is gone from the city, as her safety would dictate. I have an ally who repaired my Corona Gemma. We've been fighting for quite a while. Inform me of why I should not signal to Eidolon that you are present."

"First of all, because you do not wish to reveal you have your powers restored. Second of all, because we can save Tattletale. We have those resources."

"You have superior resources to Panacea and Cranial? You're lying."

"We have Nonpareil and Patrician. Our solution will be slower, but before you forget, Panacea hates you, and so will Cranial when she finds out what your friends did."

"I don't know what you mean?" Skitter sounds confused.

"You don't know about Black Knight? You're less in the know than we assumed." Commander says. "In that case you have a third enemy in this city. You will want Tattletale to be as far away from Brockton Bay as possible."

"Why should I trust you?" Skitter's voice asks through the bugs.

"Because we do value parahuman life, and the chance of Tattletale being useful to us is very high. It would take us a lot to destroy such an asset. We are practical people. Glory Girl is an emotional person. She does not make cost-benefit analyses. If she can she will find a way to destroy Tattletale, especially after she failed to make you miserable by giving you to Shadow Stalker. Also, if we cannot find a way to make Tattletale useful we will be perfectly willing to sell her back to you."

"Your offer is tempting." Skitter admits. "Eidolon is incoming, by the way. Look normal." You walk forward purposefully, trying your best to look like a worried father who is heading to check on his children. Eidolon passes you by.

"Does Eidolon know you have restored yourself?" You ask, Commander is sidetracked.

"No, he does not. I strongly suspect that he would have put me in a holding cell by now if he knew I was conscious, much less empowered."

"It seems to me that you might want to join the Elite." You suggest. "We take care of our own, and we need to recoup some of our loses. You're powerful, versatile, and intelligent. We can protect you."

"I already have my backup plan ready." Skitter answers. "When that one fails I'll consider it."

"So, you're going to let us take Tattletale?" You ask.

"She is." A voice says as you round a corner. A moment later you feel a stab of raw pain in your leg. You turn around to see a dark shape moving towards you holding a crossbow.

"Shadow Stalker." You give her a smile. Comet Rider helps with pain. "A pleasant surprise." You can still stand, though you are hurt rather badly. You find your powers are great.

"You killed my girlfriend."She gives a low growl.

"Hardly. We had nothing to do with that."

"I wasn't talking to you." Shadow Stalker gestures at the swarm.

"Ah, that is more reasonable. I suggest you two get down to business." You start to walk away.

"I didn't kill her!" Skitter shouts.

"Most people would die if tricked into a fight with Hatchet Face, followed by Eidolon flooding the area." Shadow Stalker screams. "It's a pity that Skitter never stops lying, isn't it?" Commander is quite good at this.

"I'll call him!" Skitter shouts through the bugs.

"And be facing Eidolon rather than Shadow Stalker? That is a great plan." You walk away, towards the parked van. "She's a few blocks west of her lair, Shadow Stalker. In maybe six minutes by my estimate Squealer will reach her. I suggest you hurry if you want your revenge." Shadow Stalker leaps away, her wings extended, a glorious creature.

"Why!" Skitter screams.

"It's simple. If she remembered the van she would kill Tattletale instead. I hope you survive. We'll be in touch." Skitter curses you until you get into the van. You find a remote there, one of Dodge's, and look it over before pressing a button. You're in a pocket dimension. There's not much but a lot of medical equipment here. "Commander, is this place safe?" You ask. You wait for a moment. "Commander?"

He doesn't respond. He must be cut off by the wall of dimensions. You consider what you know of Dodge's remotes. He needs to consciously build connections to pocket dimensions using the entry points or the remotes. The remotes each have only a handful of pocket dimensions, and this one looks quite new. The ways in and out will not be limitless. You smile as you check your pockets and pull out one the Elite had purchased seven months ago. This one will take you to a pocket dimension you had purchased as a bunker or safe house. You go over to Tattletale's medical bed and examine the monitors. She's healthy, sedated for her own protection, with a set of stranger machines there.

Oh, you are in luck. One of Cranial's quick mindscan machines. In the programming is the answer to P=NP, or however it is termed. You were never good at math. The Elite might come out ahead from this encounter after all.

______

You sit with Liu, Commander, back in Portland, drinking ice tea.

"That went poorly." Liu remarks.

"I reckon it did." You smile. "Such a pity we lost Agnes. Whatever will we do with her in the Birdcage?"

"I know." Liu smiles. "It's not like we have the key to the Birdcage in our hands now." The two of you clink your glasses together and sip it down.

"Oh, darlin', I think we're going to have a lot of people very grateful to us in there. If the heroes want to escalate, than we can meet them." You laugh and rest back in your wheel chair. You haven't been able to walk outside of Comet Rider since before your trigger.

"It is a pity we've been forced to escalate. It's a shame Panacea wouldn't listen." Liu frowns. "Well, at least we have Pandemic."

"Do you really trust her?" You ask.

"What Cauldron wants, Cauldron gets. I trust Cauldron. Their favors matter." Liu shrugs. "It's safer to harbor Pandemic instead of dealing with their anger. The sooner we free Agnes the better, of course."

"Of course." You shake your head. "I'm tired, Liu. I need to go to bed."

"Sleep well, Rex." She laughs. "We have a big day tomorrow..."

Eidolon is there in front of you.

"Cauldron said..." Liu, Commander now, starts.

"You attacked Panacea." Eidolon answers. "You attacked the greatest resource, the best hero, we have. Do you think a couple of vials you purchased would be enough?"

"We're holding..."

"The girl can have better guardians until she is ready." Eidolon answers smoothly. "You two are going to the Birdcage." You stand up, but the Comet Rider aches, you had it up for too long yesterday, and the two of you are no match for Eidolon, especially if he prepared for a fight.

He did.

_______

"And there." You smile at Chuck, his own version of your suit wrapped around him, a library of brain matter to hold everything he's ever touched, along with medical basics, a lot of it, and life support. His very, very few disadvantages.

"Thank you, Sis." He sighs. "See you and Cranial soon." Your phone rings.

"Sorry, it's Sophia." You answer it. "Hey babe."

"I couldn't catch her!" Sophia screams into the phone. "The worm escaped! I was so fucking close! "

"Slow down. Who didn't you catch?"

"How are you so fucking normal! She's dead!"

"Victoria is fine." You explain. "She's right here."

"I saw her die! It was, I tried, I wasn't..."

"Cranial gave me something. Tinker tech. It teleported her brain, spine, and a few other organs into a pocket dimension. I can repair everything. We just need time and the Toybox." Sophia gaps.

"You're serious, right? You better not be fucking lying to me. I can't take..."

"She. Is. Fine." You assure Sophia. "I will be back home as soon as it's safe for Eidolon to bring me back. Love you. Stay safe."

"I will." There's more determination in Sophia's voice now. "I love you two." She hangs up.

"How did you go from no girlfriends to three girlfriends?" Chuck asks curiously.

"I have no idea." You kiss him on the forehead. "Heck, given how open we are, maybe Victoria will look your way if you get half as awesome as I do." Chuck suddenly gives you a very worrying grin.

"I haven't even began to get started, my dearest sister. Expect some competition on that front." You laugh.

"What are you going to do, kill an Endbringer?" You joke.

"That's the plan." You just stare at him.

"You're serious."

"I already fought one single handed. How hard can getting a kill be?"

"That's..."

"The plan." He finishes for you. You just shake your head.

____

"You lost Tattletale?" You stare at Cranial.

"Harmon Rex abducted her, ironically using a piece of technology purchased from Dodge months before we met." Cranial sounds quite unhappy.

"But, but..."

"I'm sure the Protectorate will find her." You get a sinking feeling in your stomach.

"They don't want me to have her. They'll probably just kill her."

"Oh, I know them better than that. Eidolon and Legend would never do that. Alexandria might, but she hasn't been put in charge of the Elite hunt. It might even be for that reason. She will be fine. We'll get her back."

You'd tried so hard, risked so much...

You look down at the most precious thing in the world. You have nothing to complain about.

"Are we ready?"

"Yes. Glace, if you please?" Glace pushes a button and some hissing noises come out. Your hand is in, touching the brain, the connecting tissue, the spine, instantly. She's alive. She's fine, in so far as she can be. Sophia hands you the first pig, and you lovingly, painstakingly, begin to restore Victoria's body.

______

Victoria's eyes flutter open.

"Happy birthday." You whisper to her.

"Happy birthday." She giggles and pulls you into a hug and a kiss. "I guess Cranial's done, isn't she?"

"She is." You stay with Victoria on the bloody medical bed. Sophia suddenly darts forward and grabs you both into a hug.

"Fucking tell me next time you get a way to cheat death." She tells Victoria.

"I will. I promise I will." Victoria hugs both of you. "I'm so sorry I got, well..."

"You have nothing to be sorry for. It was Worm." Sophia says. Victoria looks surprised.

"She just, she was with me..."

"She led you into a trap. She wanted to..." You begin the whole story, and Victoria listens intently.

"Why isn't she dead?" Victoria asks finally.

"I tried to get her for you! I really did!" Sophia says. Victoria turns to you.

"I, I don't know." You admit.

"Amy, we're going to have to kill her someday. She'll just keep doing this kind of thing."

"Are you girls ready for your medical interview?" Cranial asks over an intercom.

"Just give us a minute to shower!" Victoria calls out.

Sophia gives Victoria a curious look. "I thought you said..."

"The water pressure in the Toybox is amazing." Victoria assures her.

_______

You sit in a loveseat with Victoria, Sophia to your right, eyes on the room, acting for all the world like a bodyguard.

"So..." You say awkwardly.

"Before we begin, tell me, what you do want." Cranial asks. "How do you want to end this?" Victoria puts her hand over yours.

"Amy, if you need this, I can keep doing this, but I don't want this." She kisses you very softly. "Please. If you can be happy with something else, please, don't continue this. I get if you truly need this, if you're not you, otherwise, but for me, if you can..."

"Your perfect doll sister, asexual, submissive, loving?" You mutter.

"I don't want you having sex with anyone else. Ever. Maybe someone else I'm having sex with, but honestly even that feels gross to me." Victoria admits. "Like, actually being asexual is a stretch, but..."

"You want to own me completely, have a child with me, live with me, act in all ways like we're a couple, but not have sex with me?" You look at her.

"It's unfair. I can't ask you to do that. I'd rather, well, I'd rather keep doing this than see you with someone I don't control. It feels like you're leaving me if you're with someone else. I think that's what it felt like for you, when I was with Dean."

"It was." You admit.

"Alright, outside of that, I kind of would like to crank your submissiveness up just a bit. Purely for recreational purposes." Victoria giggles. "Would finding deep fulfillment in housework be too weird?" You stick out your tongue at her.

"Anything else?" You ask her.

"Well..." Victoria strokes your hair thoughtfully. "I'm honestly not sure about, you know, your bitchiness."

"Did you just say I'm bitchy?" You frown.

"Yes. You know, the threats of torture, the occasional extreme violence, the death threats, the passive aggression. I'm not sure if we should keep that. It seems like part of being Amy Dallon is that kind of bitchiness, and sometimes it is useful, but I think life would be a bit easier without that sometimes."

"Maybe." You admit.

"Sophia, want anything?" Victoria asks. You're not sure what to think of that.

"Hm..." Sophia glances you over. "Nah, she's good."

"Young love." Victoria shakes her head. "So, Mrs. Quintin, what can we do?"

"Alright. The core issue is that Amy suffers from something quite similar to clinical depression outside of your presence, and is far more herself when effected by your aura. A large number of her brain's reward systems are linked to you. I could rework that so other things trigger it, such as healing, being around other people, and so on, but that is likely to require maintenance as long as you stay with Victoria as her aura reasserts dominance over your brain." You nod. "I could also give you any memories I have in my store, though my current research indicates that 240 years is the practical limit for a human life of memories.

OOC: Past statements Cranial made on healing Amy:

I think the core issue is that your brain is not merely endorphin addicted. That I could work around. Victoria's aura works around making her seem more important and valuable than she is. It means you have a highly inconsistent set of natural responses to the pain of others and your general values. I think this is attached to your problems with your mother's lack of trust in you. Your intuitive ethics and values are based on what is similar to Victoria. A rush of weaker people is nothing like her. You can't feel pride or satisfaction in it easily. You can from novelty. I think this is a result of the early pattern for your healing, with Victoria being with you for a large part of your first cases when you were experimenting, and then leaving a bit before you were done with it. I strongly suspect that is why you have been experimenting so much lately as an escape. Your tinker like drive comes from that period."

"So, I could simply make you enjoy healing, and feel accomplished every time you heal someone. I've done much the same with housework and jobs before, to spectacular results. You could be happy for your twelve hour shifts, come home refreshed and energized, and begin to work on whatever scientific projects, recreation, or time with Victoria you want." That sounds heavenly. "I do think I would need to make you enjoy it to an almost dangerous degree, to counteract Victoria's aura. Making something important independent of Victoria at all would have the same effect if I wasn't going to change you very radically." Victoria starts stroking your knee.

"You know, I like this idea." Victoria giggles. "You as my cute little heal bot. Happy all the time. We'd both have our own independent lives. No more guilt about it..." You breathe in sharply.

"I'll strongly consider this." You agree. "So, what else is there to talk about for the depression?"

"My biggest problem is trying to figure out how to make it so you can grow independently. I think in a way you are like a plant, growing towards Victoria as plants grow towards the sun. I do not think this is healthy. You should be able to like bands that do not consist of two gorgeous blond sisters who sing angsty music that reminds you of your feelings, like movies that aren't about an incredibly devoted sister who is a healer with abnormal sexuality. I'm kind of surprised you could stretch your horizons enough to like Flowers in the Attic." You blush.

"Oh." Victoria sighs. "You know, a lot of things just clicked."

"What do you suggest?" You ask quietly. This is a bit embarrassing.

"I suggest coding in increased novelty seeking, with a psychological urge so it reminds you of Victoria to do so. I think this is the best way to handle your set of quirks and make you less dependent." You nod. Novelty seeking is good, right?"

"I kind of like how everything she does circles back to me." Victoria admits, playing with your robe a bit. "Like, even before I realized..."

"It is really not healthy, but there is a counter argument. These are all radical changes. I think they're for the better, but they might make your sister less Amy. A happy, curious girl open to knew things is not the person you're in love with." Victoria nods. "If you two can work out a more personalized set of changes in the next couple weeks I would be happy to hear them." That sounds reasonable.

"So." Cranial is silent for a minute. "What do you want to do?"

[X] Write in: Been building up to this for a very long time.

How should Cranial change Amy? What is the solution for her problems?

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Flattery

You're silent for a minute.

"Ames?" Victoria asks gently.

"I just don't know." You mutter. "I've come so far, I'm not even sure if I need it anymore in some ways. Like, I've got..." You squeeze her hand.

"I'm surprised how tightly you can hug me, or squeeze me, sometimes." Victoria whispers. "Sometimes, Dean or Carol would feel my force field keep them out, if they were going to hurt me. Pointy elbows or stepped on my heels or something. It never pops up for you." She looks at you very carefully.

"You don't want me, and you don't want somebody else to have me. That's not reasonable." You mutter.

"Yes it is." Victoria answers. "The moment your happiness, the part of you that you value, became about me you stopped owning your sexuality. If you suffer, I suffer. It goes both ways. If you're happy because I'm unhappy that's sick."

"Because?" You stare at her.

"Happy because of something making me unhappy. Madison, or..." She traces her fingers along your neck. "I can live with either one, but I'm not happy with either one, and the very last thing I want is for someone to force me to be happy." You nod slowly.

"She's a big girl now. Doesn't she have the right to a romantic relationship?" Sophia asks carefully.

"Yes, she does, but not an unlimited one as long as she wants to be my sister. If I met someone who beat her than I'd either have to breakup with him or stay away from her." Victoria explains. "As long as I'm upset about her romantic relationships and she loves me than I can make my desires and opinions clear."

"People do live without romantic love." Cranial points out. "It's not unsatisfying. If being a sister means more to you than..." She stops. Victoria's fingers are tracing your belly.

"What is wrong with you!" You practically shout. "Are you actually holding Claire over me for this?"

"What if I was asexual? I found sex, any sex, disgusting, especially if you had it, but I still wanted to marry you, raise a family with you. Would you force me into it or cheat on me?" Victoria asks. "You've pressured me into this relationship. I can live with that. But I'm not going to lie to you about not being happy with it. Do you want me to lie?" You shake your head.

"No. I don't want you to lie about it."

"You're my sister, my daughter, my lover, my best friend, the best fucking thing in this miserable world. I would die for you, I'd cut off my toes for you, but that doesn't mean I don't like my toes."

"Oh come on!" Sophia practically shouts. "Okay, I'm crushing on both of you, but cut out this shit. This masochism tango of 'oh, I love you more than anything but please do this horribly shitty thing for my happiness' isn't going to make either of you happy!"

"What I want, more than anything, is to make Victoria happy. Nothing makes me happier than her happiness. I just don't want to change myself so much. It seems like an easy quick fix but I don't think it'll really make things better. Changing Victoria was easy and quick, but we're still here with the same problem. I think we're too close right now and our feelings are all mixed up. We can't come up with a good solution because we don't really understand who we when we're are alone."

"Fuck that!" Victoria shouts. "I spent weeks without you. I thought about you every hour. I made my room look like yours. I know who I am. I'm not myself without you. Half my heart's in your chest. My baby will be in your belly. My toothmarks are on your neck. I'm yours. Can't I be fucking unhappy with activities that usually happen once every two weeks?" Sophia gives her an odd look.

"I want to marry you. I want to be you wife, your lover, your best friend, and your sister. I want to be with you forever. But most of all I want you to just accept my love and be happy because of it. But I can see that you're unhappy and I don't think that's going to get better. I'm afraid that if I push you into marrying me you'll become more and more miserable over time. I don't want that for you and I certainly don't want to raise children in that sort of environment. At the same time, I don't want to cut out fundamental parts of myself."

"I think certain labels really don't cover us." Victoria sighs. "I can't imagine not living with you and seeing you every day. Well, I can, and the only time I was happy was fighting or, um, yeah, just the fighting. That's pretty close to marriage anyway."

"I think we need some time apart. That helped Chuck. The week I spent at the Asylum, I wasn't happy but I was able to begin understanding myself. Before I confessed, I had this plan to run away. If the stress became too much and I couldn't trust myself not to just take her I'd leave the city and dedicate my life to healing. I'd wonder the Earth, like the guy from Kung Fu, moving from town to town with nothing but the clothes on my back, helping people. It was a silly idea and I don't think I would have gotten very far but I think there are some benefits to me taking a world tour right now. The Elite were right. The United States isn't the only country in the world. There are plenty of other places that need my help, and if I want to build a real international movement I can't stay cooped up in Brockton Bay forever." Victoria freezes up like she's under attack.

"Amy..." Sophia whispers.

"I think you should make as few changes to my reward system as possible nothing major. Just a little something to help me maintain while my brain heals on its own. Give me the skills I need to network with people and really build something important. Language, politics, negotiations, diplomacy. I don't need memories, just skills. Then I'll spend a few months touring the world. It'll take a while for Tecton to draw up the plans for restoring Brockton Bay, anyway. I can make the initial bacteria seed colonies before I leave and I won't be needed until he's ready to start construction. People on the waiting list can be routed to different hospitals on my route. It's inconvenient, but most of them don't live in Brockton Bay. If I need to talk with anyone back here, I can do it via phone or video-conference. When I've had time to find out who I am alone, and so has Victoria, then we can make a real decision." Victoria hasn't moved.

"Give her another option." Cranial says. You're silent for a moment. "Now." It's the harshest tone she's ever taken with you. "Say anything else." You jump to the first thing you can think of.

"I don't want to love healing at the hospital. That isn't the person I am, it's nothing like the person I am, and the person that would be wouldn't be me anymore. The hospital is boring and repetitive and dreary; I'd love to find a Tinker solution which was more efficient, like cloning Othala or Ichor a bunch of times and putting some Scapegoats on the job too and doing consults on complex cases once a week." There's more silence.

"Practically, we're not going to replace the need for your healing, Amy. Even with P=NP, cloned tinkers, cloned healers, and Simurgh, there's things no one else can do like you can, safely and easily. Even if we found a way to clone you you're always going to be needed for genetic disease. Othala and Scapegoat couldn't do some things working together. Bonesaw could have, but she's dead, her clone is on close observation in a nursery and her memories lost forever. Maybe another parahuman could trigger, but even then there are a lot of things you do best." You sigh.

"I just hoped..."

"It's not in vain. There's things that could happen, but..."

"Why are you doing this to me!" Victoria screams. "Where are you? The first thing you jump to after that is..." She leaps away from you like you're on fire. She didn't even do that in Albany. "You, you, I gave you everything!" She howls. "Everything! I broke up with Dean, fucked you every night, got you another girlfriend, read to you, fed you, let you into my bed, touched you knowing how easily you could change me, fought for you, died for you, trusted you, and this is what I get! You won't even consider moving a single. Fucking. Inch. What am I even in love with?" You sit there, wondering what you could possibly say.

"Please calm down, Victoria." Abigale says. "She isn't trying to hurt you."

"So what? She's doing it! She won't even think about letting the pain stop! She's talking about letting people die so, what? She can be barefoot and pregnant?"

"That's not what she said. She wanted another solution."

"If this is how you react to me standing up for myself you absolutely need help." Victoria stabs her thumb at Cranial. "Serious help. Maybe it wasn't your powers I needed to worry about."

"Victoria." You gasp.

"You wonder why I want you more submissive? It's not some weird kink or trigger trauma or control issue. You. Want. To. Rape. Me. You said you did, and you can every time we touch. You could make me want anything. I've been afraid of that for so long. Afraid you'll just take and take and take. Every time I push back, every time I'm upset you act like I'm the villain. Madison, Chicago, this. You cave on everything you want to do anyway, but when it matters you don't trust me. What's the use of your free will if that is how you use it and I have this hanging over my head every day." She moves closer and her finger tips dance along yours.

"Victoria ... if I was more submissive in general I couldn't be the hero you want me to be; I was barely brave enough to fight Jack Slash. If I was less bitchy and crazy I couldn't be the hero I need to be; without Skitter's stolen power I might not have been able to save you from the Elite. I already love you, and of course I'd be willing to be more submissive to you alone, less bitchy to you alone, but wouldn't that just make the problem worse, and addict me to your aura even more?"

"So?" She asks. "We can work around that. If you're like this than I need you to be more submissive, because you keep pushing and taking. I'm scared, Amy. That's why I'm unhappy. It's not sex, it's..." She struggles to explain it.

"I understand, I think." You look down. "But you act so happy..."

"I am happy! I love you! And I'm unhappy, because I am afraid of you, afraid for you, afraid for us. You're scary and powerful and in some ways you're weak which makes me even more afraid of how you'll snap. I want to control you because I'm not sure what else can. The government can't control you. The Yangban couldn't keep you from murdering China. The only way to stop you is to kill you, and I can't let that happen."

"Victoria, I love you, and I want to go on loving you. I don't want to cut pieces of that love away like dead meat, the thought makes me sick. If you need to date other people to feel complete, that's fine, I just want you to keep loving me and dating me too. I'll feel jealous, but if you want we can use Cranial's tech to make me more accepting of the situation. I absolutely need a romantic relationship in my life, and I want it to be with you."

"It's not..." She frowns. "It's not that anything is unreasonable, it's that everything is unreasonable. I can give you anything, but giving you everything means..."

"I just said..."

"You said it, but you don't act on it. It feels like the only times I really get to win is when I'm acting out your girly little fantasies."

"I want to stay in Brockton Bay with you and... well I won't call it Next Wave because it is kind of stupid, but we need to call it something right? I want to make our team strong (and give it a real name), and rebuild the city, and clean up all the dark corners our enemies are hiding in. I want to be a real hero. Maybe three months ago I would've thought I needed Cranial's help to be brave, but I don't think I need it anymore. It's just that I'm afraid we're too close. Everything with us is so big and great and terrible. We'll eat each other up this way. I'm eating you right now. Every day it's a little more. I get that."

"Moving isn't the answer! I'll fucking cut out your Crona Gemiah and lock you in the basement first!" There's a bit of a stunned silence.

"Corona Gemma, and it does not work that way, Victoria."

"I know that. Just, Amy, leaving me, there's nothing you could do that's worse." She starts shaking. "Cut into my head first. Just, don't go. Please."

"I can't do that anymore. You want to be you, and I want you to be you. I can't keep this up..."

"So give in! Just this once, give in. Somehow." Victoria starts pacing. "I don't know, something. Trigger words, safe words, to change your mood when I really need it? If I'm scared or pissed off or you're going crazy. Maybe one to knock you out? Needs me and my aura to work, or something. Maybe link your sex like that too, turn it on and off. Can you do that, Mrs. Quintin?"

"I could." Cranial says.

"Something like that. Just, God. I miss Dean, I miss Mom and Dad, I miss you being miserable and depressed because I felt safe and it makes me feel sick that I feel this way and I'm so angry at all of them for hurting Amy and I know I hurt her worse."

"Okay." You nod. "Let's work out plans. A suite of minor reward system tweaks, nothing strong enough to replace Victoria, but enough to stay sane away from her. A combination of little things that I already enjoy doing, and accomplishing things that help people. I think I need to be functional without her, especially if she's assuming more control. Make memore independent of Victoria by allowing me to feel happiness from experimenting and healing, more so than now. Management skills to put together an international organization, as well as some engineering skills for you know, the mad science. Is that workable, ma'am?"

"Yes, all of this works."

"Maybe a little more empathy?" You mutter.

"Maybe." Victoria shrugs. "Not sure if it's a good idea, really. Maybe put it to a trigger word?"

"Do you want one yourself? To restore you to normal, maybe? Normal, I mean, before I changed you?"

"You can do it any time I want. So it's not important." Victoria shrugs.

"There's some things I had in mind. Projects, Tinker stuff, Corona Gemmas I've looked at..."

"Now is not the time, Amy." Victoria snaps. "Keep the science in your pants."

"I have to agree. We can discuss this when it isn't your birthday."

"Well, we need to at least discuss skills. Implant the relevant knowledge from expert martial artists, fighters, lawyers, etc for relevant skill sets."

"Believe me, it wouldn't help." Victoria says. "Real, serious business soldiers won't help. Martial arts is a sport. I don't want to lose a second of you or a single thing about you for that."

"Lawyer?" You mutter.

"Do you want to be more like Mom?" Victoria asks.

"Oh."

"Seriously, law is a highly specialized field varying by state and many other factors. Corporate law might help, but think about your very specific requirements."

"Can I say something?" Sophia asks.

"You have my permission to speak." Victoria tells her.

"What about some kind of self-medication? Like, tying the feelings involved in the aura, the mental connection so it feels like she's there? Play it on an ipod, hum it, something? Wouldn't that make it easier?"

"Not allowing it." Victoria snaps. She's pressing, and you kind of like it. "I am not going to discuss this."

"She can make her own decisions." Sophia says cautiously.

"Let's just not talk about that again, okay?" You ask. Sophia nods. She looks a bit freaked out.

"Is there some kind of crisis management, training to help you deal with combat without panicking? Being able to keep a level head during dangerous events will help a lot."

"I can improve that if you want." Cranial says.

"Thank you." You say.

"I could improve Amy's ability to work under stress, giving her an emotional response similar to being calmed by you once she has a plan which she wishes to enact, allowing her creativity a greater ability to be useful when responding to trouble on the fly." Cranial offers Victoria. Deferring to Victoria right now is probably a good idea.

"Sounds reasonable. Is that alright, Amy?" Victoria asks. You nod.

"More skill ideas. Implant the relevant knowledge from expert Free Runners, Engineers (civil and mechanical and every type inbetween), and Entrepreneurs. She need's Busniess sense, ability to understand what makes for good structure and why, as well as a widened array of mechanical tricks to work with, so that she can contribute more in her city revitalization projects in the future." Sophia suggests.

"That sounds like a good idea." Victoria nods. "Martial arts, no need, but being able to run away, all the rest of that, this works for me."

"Sure." You mutter.

"Do you need anything like more medical knowledge? Make it easier to communicate things to doctors, or anything?" Sophia asks curiously.

"No, maybe when I got my powers, but I'm good for that by now. Never comes up anymore."

"Okay." Sophia says. "Just thought I'd check."

"Could I benefit from memories, too?" You ask quietly. "Not just skills, but maybe, I don't know, a hero's memories of beating the odds, a villain's for handling the other side, knowing how they think? Doctors, parents, wisdom? Make me more empathetic that way?"

"Please don't." Victoria collapses next to you. "Just, don't. I don't want anything else in you that's not, I guess it's selfish, but I don't want anyone else in there."

"Some other skills to consider are parkour, climbing, swimming, shooting, and common languages." Cranial explains. You bite your lip.

"You know, there should probably be a follow up with therapists after this." Sophia suggests.

"Now, Amy, the current plan, is it okay? Trigger words so Victoria feels safer, the extra skills, easing up on your codependency this way, the things we've discussed, is this what you want?" Cranial asks gently. "We can talk about the bio-tech ideas later."

[X] "Yes." You decide firmly. "This all sounds, it sounds good." You will still have Victoria this way. (Write in minor tweeks or specifics you feel I didn't address.)

[X] "No!" You snap. "Victoria, that kind of control, it's not reasonable. I love you, but I'm not your slave." (Write in new plan.)

[X] "Just..." You sigh. "Victoria, I love you more than I love myself." You take her hand. "If you really, really, truly, want this, I'll stop lusting after you, or anyone."

[X]Your vision is blurry. You're crying. Victoria is scared of you. That's not what you wanted. You hate yourself right now for being so blind. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I knew that you were afraid but I thought you got over it. If you'd told me ... Should I have told you no at Kalahari? I'm so fucking selfish."

"I trust you. Completely. When Crystal is carrying me in the air I'm constantly terrified that she'll drop me. With you, I feel absolutely safe. I trust you with my life. If it ever comes to that I trust you to pull the plug.

"I never wanted to rape you. God, it would have been so much easier if I did. I have the power to take anything that I want and the only things I really want can't be taken; they have to be given freely."

"I don't think I'm going to snap, not since I confessed to you. Just letting that out made everything better. I said some crazy things to Coil when he was threatening to kill you, but I didn't really mean them. Being submissive, being good, never complaining, and keeping all my bad feelings bottled up was driving me to the edge. That's why I was about to snap. I didn't murder Skitter. Maybe I should have, but I didn't. I'm not going to snap.

"I don't think you really understand. I'm lonely. I've always been lonely for as long as I can remember. I had you and that was it so I clung to you as tight as I could, but I was still lonely. For a while I had Dean." You shrug. "He was a good friend to have. I couldn't hide anything from him because of his stupid power, but he never judged me. I could talk to him about anything, until he betrayed me. And I guess the fact that I felt betrayed says something terrible about me, because I had no right to. I didn't want you to ever know how I felt. I made him promise that he'd never tell you. I was so ashamed I just wanted those feelings to go away. And he couldn't help how he felt any more that I could. I don't think he knew how much it would hurt me until it was too late."

"I'm still lonely. I miss Mark and Carol, even after everything that's happened. I even miss Dean, I don't hate him that much, anymore. Sophia is great, and Madison; you're perfect, but I'm still lonely. If you're wondering why I've been fighting against your possessiveness, that's it."

"I don't want trigger words or programmed submissiveness. But I don't want to make you afraid, either. I don't want to love you the way I do, but I don't want to love you any less. I don't want to be addicted to your aura, but I don't want to give it up. I don't want to be addicted to anything else, either. I don't want to love healing, but I don't want to hate it. I'M. SCARED. I don't know what I want. I'm afraid to be changed. I'm afraid that I won't be me anymore. "

"I don't want to become someone else. I think I'd rather die. But I can't stay like this, either. You took that leap for me and I have to be willing to take it for you. I just can't make that choice. It's too big and too important and too frightening. So I won't. You choose. I. TRUST. YOU."

"You know my opinions, so I think I should leave the room and let you talk with Cranial alone. I don't want to know what you decide. I don't think I'd be able to go through with it if I knew."

Victoria kisses you, starting with your forehead, moving to your eyes, down to your mouth, finally leading to the bite marks.

"I'm, I'm not going to say I'm not going to not do the trigger words. I can't promise that. They're just so tempting. This is your last chance to back out of it, back out of any of it." You nod.

"I understand. If this is how you feel, what else can I do? This is what love means. I need to make you feel safe, as safe as I feel with you."

"This is what I need to trust you. I always felt safe before Albany. This, this should get us back to normal. She suddenly grins. "With certain interesting exceptions, my little baby factory." You giggle. "Now, scoot on out. I have a lot to talk about." You get up and leave the room.

It's a very, very long time before Victoria opens the door again. She grabs you and swings you firmly against the wall, kissing you hard enough to draw bruises.

"Thank you." You tell her, breathlessly.

"I promise you we'll still be together." Your Victoria traces her fingers along your scalp. "That's the biggest thing, right? I'm not going to make you some doll for me to play with. You're a person, and I want you to be a person." She leads you into the room and Cranial's machine.

"I'm not scared." You tell her. "I know you wouldn't do anything..."

"Thank you, Amy. Thank you for this gift. It's as much as I gave you, maybe more." You nod to her. "This is the best thing you've ever done for me. This is the best birthday present, the best thing. You. Trust. Me." Then she steps away as the machine descends over your head.

________

"Amy?" Victoria's voice is a bit urgent.

"Yes Mistress?" You smile up at her.

"Cut that out. It's not funny." She glares at you.

"It's a little funny." You look and see that Sophia seems to be highly relieved.

"So, let's just try some things. Do you consent to a bit of experimentation? I trust Cranial, I just want to see how it works." She looks concerned.

"Sure." Victoria looks at you gently and says a word you can't remember. You sigh contentedly, feeling relaxed.

"Now, Amy, Dean will be here in a moment to impregnate you. After that it's time to cut off your feet. No use in having you run away. Any thoughts on the subject?"

"Not really." You mutter.

"Okay, now put your hands over your head and stretch them as far as they'll go." You do so. Victoria sighs.

"Okay, and ____." It snaps off.

"What was that?" You stare at her. "Some kind of, what?"

"That's so if you panic or go crazy I can stop you and get you out of there. I'm only going to use that in a real emergency. Fuck, I wouldn't object to you having one when Cranial finishes with me. This is more for if you're, like, doing something completely insane like covering the world in copies of me or you're frozen up in combat. That is not a toy."

"Alright." You nod, though this does seem a bit extreme.

"Now, test two. +++++."

______

"What was that?" You ask when you wake up.

"Just the knockout word. That's the only other one I'd ever, ever use without your consent, and only if I'm really scared. We can remove either one if you really need it, okay?" You nod.

"I trust you with it. I have a knockout touch, after all. If you need this to be safe, sure. I can live with these."

"Now, the rest of the things we discussed, they're attached to trigger words. Novelty seeking, being happy at the hospital, different reward systems, all of the subtle things, I can switch them on and off at will. We can experiment to see what you're comfortable with when they come up. I can also alter your words. The only reason you don't have control over those is the whole rat digging a hole in her paw thing. Cranial's had bad experiences when people have too much flexibility with self editing. This is completely under your control, just ask. It's more the swings and the easy of it for your own words that cause trouble. Call me any time, and I'll drop what I'm doing to help."

"Why exactly is it, um, attached to you?" You ask.

"So I can take care of you, and because you trust me, and so I can feel like a good sister whenever I help you with this." She kisses your forehead happily. "When I got the idea it seemed way better than just making the edits directly. Not many people who come to her have someone in their lives as good as I am, but we can have so much more control and flexibility this way." She picks you up and spins you. "Oh Amy, I'm so happy!"

This did not go exactly as you intended.

_______

"So, I ended up putting in the song thing on a trigger, too, because that seems like a nice backup." Victoria chats cheerfully. You and Sophia sit together in the back seat. Sophia looks like a deer in headlights.

"Um, where are we going?" Sophia asks.

"It's a surprise." Victoria explains. You're getting a lot of those today.

Victoria drives into the mall, which is up and running surprisingly quickly, and leads you and Sophia through it quickly, looking really happy. Really happy.

You caused her good mood. You should keep causing her good mood.

Victoria brings you into a tattoo parlor.

Huh.

"So..." You pause.

"We're grownups now!" Victoria says breathlessly. "I've actually wanted this before Albany. For ages."

"I don't want you getting a tattoo." You say. You feel a bit scummy for saying it, but she's flawless."

"Well, I was going to offer, but I don't really want one either." Victoria gives you a look that's downright predatory.

"Oh." You smile. "So, um..."

"Yes, before any of this. Thinking of you going out on a date, or doing anything, and forgetting about me, that's always driven me crazy, right?" You smile.

"Yes, it always has."

"So now you're getting a nice reminder on you all the time. A little sign that you're mine."

"What do you want and wear do you want it?" Sophia looks concerned.

"Um, are you sure she didn't whisper something for a bit of control?" Sophia asks. "Because, um, this seems..."

"Have you been paying attention?" You ask Sophia.

"Yeah, you have a point. So can I get a tattoo?" Sophia asks.

"You'll have to ask your mother." Victoria points out. "You actually need parental consent if you're seventeen." Sophia sticks out her tongue.

"I could always give you one." You whisper into Sophia's ear. "Mine won't be nearly as painful." She looks happy at this.

"Now, you asked me what I want." Victoria puts an arm around you. "Right over your heart, a picture of a heart. Inside it? 'Victoria's.' Is that okay?" You feel a flash of warmth.

"It's beautiful." You feel like crying.

The process hurts considerably more than you expected.

You smile through it anyway."

______

"Oh my God!" Sophia gasps. "Thank you Victoria, thank you Amy, thank you!"

"I can't believe I didn't think of this." You admit.

"Come on, it's just massage." You blush. "Am I really that good at it now?"

"I've never had one before." Sophia admits. She's stretched out, face down, on you and Victoria's bed. You'll need to modify it into an easier massage table in the future. Her head rests happily in Victoria's lap, where she plays with Sophia's hair.

"Seemed much more fun than housework when I thought of it." Victoria leans back and sighs contentedly. "You've put up with so much from us you deserve Amy's first try, you really do."

"So the worst massage she ever gives?" Sophia mutters.

"Her heart was in the right place." You point out.

"Yes, it was. Now to bring you into something we've done before." Victoria pulls a book from out under the strange golden pillow. "This one was recommended by a crazy person in a mental institute, so it has to be good. Clive Barker's Abarat."

You see a set of tears appear on Victoria's shorts, dripping from Sophia's face.

"It's alright." You tell her. "This is our birthday, and this makes us happy."

_______

You decide that today was truly perfect as you drift off to sleep next to Victoria, with Sophia on the far side, snoring surprisingly loudly.

Everything is just perfect.

_____

Sophia wakes you up when she leaps up, racing to the bathroom. She had too much at the buffet last night, courtesy of knowing you'll make sure she never gets fat.

"Good morning." You say to Victoria.

"Good morning." She looks down at you, and she looks so unbelievably happy.

"So..." You trail off.

"What do you want me to set up today? Trigger it so you'll be happy at the hospital, or the song scheme, or maybe just put you in that calm fugue state until you get back so it passes in a flash? Whatever you want." Victoria pulls your hair back from your face. "Just tell me what it is."

[X] Hyperfocus. Happiness. I want to be able to help as many people as I can, as well as I can, and feel good doing it.

Victoria smiles down at you lovingly, your head inside her armpit.

"You're a good girl. You really are. Yes you are." She starts to pet your head. You're not sure if you like this or not.

"The hyperfocus should break if something really goes wrong." You mutter.

"Of course, baby. Don't want you unsafe." She pets you a bit more. "I really don't want you to go. This is the best I've felt about us." She sighs. "Well, this is the first time you'll really want to go."

"What are your plans for the day?" You ask.

"Sophia and I are going to work with Cranial. She's volunteered for ten hours of me blasting my aura at her at the highest level possible while Cranial records what's going on."

"That sounds really dangerous." You shake your head.

"You can fix brain damage now, right? I can't mess her up worse than you, and you've turned out perfect." She pats your stomach. "We need to know more about how it works to predict if it will be safe to expose a baby. Honestly, it sounds really fun for me, seeing how someone squirms from a full scale aura blast. Worst case we pop her in suspended animation and wait for you to come back, and I don't think that's very likely. I think there's something to be said for knowing how this works. Imagine if the reaction is really cool. Like, complete control. I'd get a Master rating. We could clone or capture some really dangerous villains and turn them into happy and productive members of society. Or if I'm captured I can turn on my aura and have my captors eating out of my hand. I think this has a tremendous amount of potential."

"Be careful. Don't break her." You ask.

"I'll be careful." Victoria agrees. "Now, anything else before I snap you into something else?"

"No thank you." You smile. "I trust you. Let it go." Victoria leans down and whispers in your ear.

______

"I can do more." You tell Victoria cheerfully. She shakes her head and leans in, whispering another few words. "Um, wow." You shake your head as it clears. "That was twelve hours?"

"Twelve hours, beautiful." Victoria says as she ushers you out. "You don't want to stay longer, do you?"

"No, but just, wow. I don't even feel tired. It's like it was a dream." You think back. You can remember it, but you didn't feel like yourself. That's probably a good thing.

"So, how did it go with Cranial?"

"Sophie's, um, happy." Victoria giggles. "Happiest I've ever seen her. I think she's improved. Mrs. Quintin says it will wear off in a few days, mostly. She just spent the day with her favorite celebrity doing the things she liked best, or she's acting like it. I like clingy and she's a bit much right now. Mrs. Quintin's using her freaky new software to figure out what it would do to a baby, but she thinks I'd need to brain fry Sophie a lot more consistently to get anything troubling." You start to smile, though your sister's new penchant for mind control is at least a bit worrying.

"Sophie?"

"She needed a cuter name." Victoria says a bit defensively. "You did. So did she."

"We need to make sure she's okay with this when she's back to normal." You mutter.

"Oh, I talked with her about it before we went to Mrs. Quintin. She agreed to it with only the normal amount of aura, and if she can't consent under that then the whole relationship is rapey." Victoria flutters her eyes at you. "You don't think it is, do you?" You consider the question seriously.

"There's a few issues with it, and it's not like you tone it down to the bare minimum, but it's part of the package. It's not like it's a lie, it's how people feel towards you, and she knows what you do. It's one of the many positive things about being in a relationship with you. If it was evil than you'd be condemned to a life of social isolation for absolutely nothing you did. So no, it's not rape."

"Rapey." Victoria admonishes. "Big difference."

Sophie greets you and Victoria with a hug when you get out to the car.

"Best. Day. Ever!" She squeals.

"Okay, tone it down. I like you, you don't have to be a peppy cheerleader." You shake your head, smiling.

"Sorry. Just, good day, good."

"Bimbo cave woman also not you." You put an arm around her as the two of you get into the back seat.

"Has she ever done the aura like that with you? Come on, it's like, the best thing in the world. Seriously, it's just so, it's like you know who you are." You think for a moment.

"I've got that feeling before, too. Yeah, I get that. Like, you see Victoria, and she's awesome, the best person, the coolest person around, but you got the subtle part. It's like how she treats you is the way you should be treated." You start to nod. "It doesn't feel like she's just the nicest person in the world, it feels like she knows the exact amount of niceness that you need. If she's angry you feel like you caused the anger, it's your fault, and it feels appropriate." You think for a moment.

"Starting to regret giving someone with so much control over your life even more absolute power?" Victoria asks cheerfully as she pulls out of the parking space.

"Not for a second." You respond. "So, where are we headed next?"

"First official team sleepover." Victoria answers. "Crystal and Madison are coming. Sophie said how much you liked yours, so I thought you'd like another one."

"That does sound fun." You agree. "Won't they feel left out though?"

"That's actually one of the reasons we're doing it. I want to make sure it isn't too weird and awkward like this. If it is we'll have to make arrangements."

"Like what?" Sophie asks. She's staring at her nails, which were apparently painted bright pink sometime today, in something resembling horror. It may be wearing off faster than suggested. That's kind of a relief.

"Let Madison back in and seduce Crystal." Victoria announces. Your jaw drops.

"Christ, we are not doing that." Sophie says fiercely. "Just, no."

"I was joking." Victoria laughs. "We'll just figure out how to keep everyone comfortable with the relationship dynamic and make everyone feel welcome in the team.

________

You're not sure if it's a good thing that Madison wants to watch Excision again. Crystal argues for Cloud Atlas and Sophie wants True Grit. A game of spin the crossbow makes Cloud Atlas the winner.

Crystal has apparently not outgrown her tendency to talk during movies. Madison looks vaguely bored, and Sophie watches fascinated.

"Are you sure she's not, um, stoned?" You whisper to Victoria.

"Um, I'm not entirely sure the heavy aura exposure won't be similar to some form of drug. We haven't exactly done this before." Victoria admits. Sophie whoops at the line "I will not be subject to criminal abuse" for some reason you can't quite catch but Crystal is happy to explain.

"You see, we saw a clip from the TV movie version that the clone was watching earlier saying that, and the other clone quoted it, drawing inspiration. The meaning is that even a poorly made statement of the right thing can have far reaching consequences, and embraces courage to do the right thing..."

Madison lobs a pillow at Crystal.

________

"I'm not sure if I want to do that every single day or never do that again." Sophie says, brushing your hair.

"I get that." You nod. "Feels great, but doesn't feel you? I just had something similar."

"It's certainly not the worst thing in the world, but I don't think I'd want to feel that way out on patrol."

"Do you really need to patrol? The city's really quieted down lately what with the gangs being defeated or helping to keep order. What are you patrolling for, anyway?"

"Um, I hope I'll catch Worm, but she's too smart for that." Sophie admits.

"Oh, it would be sweet of you, but I'm sure it will be a big search, probably with a good parahuman for it, to catch her. You don't have to worry about her."

"I want to worry about her." Sophie explains. "I feel like she's my fault."

"I'm sure she's not." You pat her back.

"She triggered over something I did." Sophie mutters.

"The locker?" You ask quietly. "She seems to think it was you, Emma, and Madison, and she triggered over it."

"It was. My idea, Emma's execution, mostly. She..."

[X] "Don't worry about it." You pat Sophie's back. "It's in the past. Let's go back to the party."

[X] "I think I need to know everything." You sigh. "I think you and Madison have been lying to me about this for a while."

[X] "I'm glad you did it." You admit. "She deserves everything she got, at least retroactively."

[X] "I think I need to know everything." You sigh. "I think you and Madison have been lying to me about this for a while."

Sophie, no, Sophia is silent for a moment. She can't be Sophie right now, as much as you want her to be.

"When I met Emma, she was one of the bravest people I ever met. Maybe the bravest. Fighting some chink thugs, um, Jap, whatever, ABB, attacking her. She fought back. When it happened to me, I ran." Sophia pulls in a breath. "Like, objectively, stupid and pathetic, but how can you not love that, love her for that. The fuckers. Killed my stepdad. Could have killed her dad, killed her, sold her into slavery, cut her up, if I wasn't there." Sophia sighs. "She was this pasty white thing, redhead, a kid, more a kid than I am. Way more than you or Victoria. She had nothing and she still stood up for..."

"You're not a speech giver, a story teller." You run your hand along her arm.

"I need to try, okay! She's my best friend. Up in Portland, but still miss her."

"It's okay to miss your friend."

"She and Taylor were best friends once. Close as sisters." Sophia says. "And what happened to Emma fucked her up. I didn't help, I hurt, but, it didn't start out that bad, but you know, it's like she'd have this idea, and it'd be so fucked up, but so fucking awesome, and I'd want to impress her, and then she'd just smile at me. She needed it. Some kind of control. All Taylor had to do was fight back, stand up for herself, do something, prove she was still Taylor, still be Emma's best friend. Emma was hungry for it. She never did. We couldn't stop. I copied Carrie in a gym locker and she still didn't get a clue."

"The weak are meat and the strong will eat?" It slips out.

"Fucking hell, it's so stupid. It's all stupid. What do they think will happen when you stuff people who haven't figured out how to be adults yet into one place? We aren't built for that. Someone's at the bottom, and why not someone who can take it? The girl who would have killed you isn't some flower who deserves tears and hugs and being told she's some survivor. There's a difference between dangling someone over a ledge and getting kicked so you let go and grabbing you by a knife in front of your sister, right?"

"How many?" You ask softly.

"Three." Sophia sighs. "Black, White, and Asian. That's how I remember them. Bleed to death because Faultline's bullshit delayed the ambulance, I didn't have the upper body strength to dangle him off the roof, and the idiot was still shooting at me. Others got fucked up, but those are the only ones who died." She can't meet your eyes.

"If it weren't for me, Victoria would have killed twice that many. When people like you two patrol, people die. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it to save lives.

"I keep changing the subject. Like..."

"What did you do, exactly? What is she so upset about, besides the locker?

"I pushed her down the stairs when I she near the bottom, making her drop her books, tripped and shoved her every time I could during gym, and threw her clothes at herwhile I she was in the shower after gym class had ended, getting them wet. She had to wear my gym clothes for the rest of the morning. And I liked it. That's one day, and just me. Emma and Madison did it too, in their own ways. Every day for I don't even know how long. Every chance we got. It was a game." You're silent for a moment.

"Tell me why you're a hero?" You ask slowly. "If you like hurting people, why help people?"

"Can't I like both? Can't I get a thrill from hurting people, either bad people or weak people? Anyone who no one looks funny at their getting crushed?"

"If that was all you could have joined a gang."

"Have you met gangs? They keep their heads down whenever they can or they get crushed, and have you met the gangs here? ABB and E88 wouldn't take me, and the Merchants, why would I want to join them? Faultine, um, didn't think she'd let me join." You hug Sophia.

"Sometimes you just want to hurt people. I understand. It feels good. It makes you feel like you're in control, even when you're not. I've scraped enough skinheads off the pavement for Victoria. If I could I'd tell you that it's okay because I love you, but it's not my place to absolve you. I'm the one you hurt. It doesn't justify any of Skitter'ss actions, and those aren't your fault, but... I don't know how to make it right."

"What does it mean when someone you love needs the feeling she gets when she hurts people to feel safe?" Sophia shakes her head. "To stop feeling like a little girl surrounded by gangsters. Before I helped her..."

"Is there anyone else you hurt? Bullied?"

"Sure, but no one like her. No one else even registers."

"I don't think you can make amends to Taylor. She's too dangerous. Even if you made her, I don't think there's anything you can do to unmake her, put her right."

"Well, yeah. What I did was horrible. When someone grinds you down like that for so long, you can't fight back. Especially when it's someone you love, like your best friend. You can't do anything because you're afraid of making things worse, and deep down inside you think its your fault. I knew that and I did it anyway. She was a victim, a little girl who smelled like piss. I didn't want to stop. I didn't want Emma to stop smiling, and I'm pretty sure Emma did it to make me proud. God it was, like I cut her up inside."

"I always know that you could be mean, I just didn't think about it much. I. God. You know what you did was horrible, right? I love you but, that isn't just bad or mean, it's evil. I mean, Carol wasn't even trying and she... "

"It wasn't about being mean, it was about, there's nothing I can do about this, Amy. We're not fucking accountants. The Wards, they make you read all kinds of weird philosophy books and quiz you on it, and utilitarianism is a shitty system. You can't just steal from someone and make it up by giving it to someone who needs it more. I'll always be someone who did that. Even if it made two heroes out of it, and I don't think I'm better at my job for it, and I don't think Taylor's going to turn out to be some heroine for it, and Madison's just lucky, and Emma..."

"We'll work though this together. You're no less than a friend, and lately you're a girlfriend, whatever that means for you. I want that to mean something. Like, teen dramas always feel like they get it wrong. Dating someone means they're family. We need to work this out like a family. I'd rather you be my family than Mark or Carol. Even as a friend you're like family now. You and Madison and Emma were nice to me in a way I needed more than you can imagine. I need you all. I think you need to be needed."

"You're Panacea. You give me shiny things. How could I not like you?"

"Come on, we know that wasn't it."

"I thought you were cool. Really, really cool. Like, I heard about this timid little healer and her supermodel sister and never really cared, but then I heard you got yourself into two cape fights in Albany and won them both, you turned yourself into a mental hospital during a bombing run. That took balls for someone like you. I kept hearing weird things. I got fascinated. Heard you were getting revenge on Skitter by laying out a rumor you'd take her down with a special plague, saved people from Bakuda, and every time you weren't freaked out by the serious shit you went right back to the hospital."

"Is that what I'm like to you?" You ask. You feel, well, pretty.

"Dean talks about you. I asked him. He said, um, he didn't say you were fucked up, but the way he avoided it, and he looked when I thought that, made it clear to me. It seemed like maybe you were fucked up in just the right away, and Victoria was amazing when she ran with the Wards, fighting harder than any of us, thrashing us, and she got it. Just, then we met. You work twelve hours a day and you decided to help us just because you wanted to. It felt like you could do anything, help or heal anyone, and then I liked you. Liked you personally. Then you called me. You wanted to make friends with me..."

"I still do. If there's anything you're holding back..."

_____

Sophia turns slowly to Sophie as she talks. She talks about Taylor, about Emma, about Madison, her family, her stepfather, the Wards. Secret things, like how relieved she was when she got caught and had to join the Wards, how she cried once when Emma told her about Taylor's mother's flute, long after no one was around, how she felt happy when Mason joined the team, thinking they'd be friends, and how disappointed she was when he was scared of her.

Finally, she gets around to the thing she's been avoiding all night.

"The first night, when we went to the Merchants, remember why?"

"Rumor of powers in a can."

"I found one." Sophie admits. You kind of...

"You found powers in a can?"

"It worked." She mutters.

"What?"

"Emma. I gave them to her. They, um, they worked. They're weird, but..."

"Why didn't you tell me? I get reasons, I'm not mad, but..."

"She's been scared for years. I thought it would help."

"Did it?"

"She left for Portland the next day."

________

Crystal and Madison, being guests, take the bed, while you, Victoria, and Sophie curl up in sleeping bags on the floor.

"You know, I think you deserve a special reward for being so honest." You tell Sophia, eying cosmetics Madison brought. "I love your new nail color, do you want to pick one for me?" Sophia freezes up. Victoria smiles at you approvingly.

"Really? I get to choose?"

"Victoria gets to make changes to me. You're my girlfriend. So can you." Sophie looks at you.

"I'm, I'm, cool, we're cool, right?"

"We're cool." You're not happy with her, but it's not like anyone here isn't fucked up.

"Can it be brown?" She mutters. "Like, dark brown? My skin tone? Is that too much?" Her eyes flip from you to Victoria

"Brown is lovely. I consent to it." You take Sophie's chin and kiss her softly.

_______

Sophie kisses you before Victoria turns on the command words for work, and Victoria drives you to work and drops you off. It's another blur of a day.

Victoria and Sophie greet you at the end of the day.

"So, what now?" Victoria asks.

"Um, what do you want to do?" You ask.

"Honestly, spend some time with someone else. You need to get into the habit with your work schedule. Go with someone you're not dating for an evening out."

"Like who?" You ask.

"Well, Crystal has a church group meeting, Mason's family is having a barbeque, and I heard Eric and Melissa are going to a concert. Any of those sound fun? Sophie and I are going out to dinner. I think any of them would be happy to have you."

[X] "A play?" You smile. "Sounds fun."

[X] "Church group?" You pause. You call on God a lot. Maybe you can see what Crystal is talking about.

[X] "A barbeque?" Sounds delicious.

[X] "A barbeque?" Sounds delicious.

The Beakers have a curious combination of a small house and several expensive cars that causes you to suspect Mason's been getting a set of product endorsements lately. Nothing wrong with that. You hope your coming out didn't make that more difficult for him.

"Hello Amy." A woman with a forced smile greets you. "Or do you prefer Miss Dallon? Something else? I'm unsure of the protocol here." She blushes.

"Amy is fine. Panacea if you really have to be formal, like when you would say 'ma'am' or something. There aren't really hard rules, but that's what I grew up with."

"Amy it is. You're like family now, right? That is how super teams work, don't they?"

"Well, New Wave is a family, but yeah, I'll think of you as an aunt. You're Mason's mother, right? Do I call you Mrs. Beaker?"

"I kept my maiden name. Mrs. Duke, but you can call me Cindy." She gives you another of those forced smiles.

"You're not comfortable around me, are you?" You ask. "It's alright. Everything is strange about this."

"No, it's fine. Just not used to superheroes. Ever since Mason got his powers it's been strange, and the whole team hopping thing is hard to keep track of." You flash her your best Victoria emulating smile.

"You're good at not talking about the lesbian incest." She chokes. "Don't worry. I'm not going to freak out or do anything. I didn't expect people to be as nice as they are."

"I have nothing against your love. It's just awkward. There's not really any rules for this. Sorry if I seem a bit distant. It's a small part of it, really." Cindy says.

"That's alright." You nod. "So, the new cars? You guys moving soon?"

"Yes." She leads you into the backyard. A large, weirdly familiar looking fat man is working on some kind of meat you can't really name. Two boys, maybe thirteen year olds, are running around whooping. Three boys several years younger than them are camped around a table engrossed in what appears to be a very serious discussion around a large and colorful map. The youngest child except for a baby, a girl, plays with a new looking phone, is seated with the rest of the adults.

The youngest grownup, a young man, maybe nineteen, looks like he's probably Sophie's brother. He is watching the kids curiously. You recognize Madison's parents, though no Madison, talking with some people who you presume are the parents of some of the children. Your eyes map it out, trying to place the children with the parents, and fail. Maybe they're cousins?

"Hello." You say, and everyone looks up. "I heard there's a barbeque?"

"Yes." One of the unfamiliar parents says. "Sit right down, ma'am."

"Amy, please." You smile at him.

"Josh." He says.

"Where's Mason?"

"He'll be out in a minute. He's working on his suit." Cindy tells you. You feel a note of frustration in her voice.

"Does he do that a lot?" You ask. You'd assumed he'd perfect it pretty quickly. He's not a tinker, and the changes are quick, but you'd think they're slow enough he couldn't spend too much time messing with it.

"A lot more since Leviathan." Cindy says. She sits down next to you.

"It's his path to power and independence. He can change his powers, improve them." Josh says. "It's boys and their toys."

"So, how are you connected to the Beakers?" You ask.

"I was switched at birth with her husband." He smiles. "It's an extremely rare event, but it happens. It's amazing it was figured out, happened when I was nine. Our families have been close ever since. Both sets of our parents wanted to get to know their kids, all of them. It worked out pretty well."

"Huh."

"I met his wife during yoga." Cindy says, exasperated. "Don't listen to Josh."

"Oh." You smile. "I can't believe I fell for that."

"I have that kind of face." Josh says. "This is my wife, who is also called Cindy."

"That's actually true." The new Cindy says. "We do share a name." You look to the earlier Cindy for confirmation.

"That is actually true." She assures you.

"So, what are we eating?"

_________

Mr. Beaker, Thomas, is apparently quite good at the ancient tradition of a barbeque. Your hands get messy, and you end up letting the tentacles of your suit free to clean them off. The boys, Michael and Eric (that will never be confusing) find it to be the coolest thing ever, and ask you if you can clean their hands with your tentacles. You can't see the harm.

"So, give me a family chart. Who's related to who?" You ask.

"We're Beakers, and so is he." Michael says, pointing to one of the three younger boys. "Those two are Josh's kids, Rottemeyers, and so is Susie." You eye them. There's a decent chance they'll become parahumans, eventually, with their brother. A smaller, but statistically massive, chance for the Rottemeyers as well.

"So, is Next Wave as cool as it looks?" Eric asks. "Like, four awesome superheroines, that guy who was ripping pieces out of Leviathan, and, um..."

"Mason's actually gotten really great with his powers, you know." You tell the boys. "Hits like Aegis worst case, and usually a lot harder, and he has a lot of really neat tricks. The roller skate thing is ingenious, and he was taking super strong punches on his shield. He's really versatile and quite strong. Reminds me a bit of my mother."

"Brandish, right?" Eric asks. "The lawyer superhero?"

"Sounds like a stupid TV show, but yeah." You sigh, thinking back. You actually do miss the cunt.

"She's actually really badass." Michael tells his brother. "I saw some of New Wave's fights on Youtube. Everyone would run from her even if it meant facing the rest of the team, she was that scary."

"No good non-lethal options for her. Actually put her in danger and she has to rip you apart, or at least risk a serious concussion or something to knock you out. Only reason she wasn't drafted into the Wards for probation early on was that there weren't any in Brockton Bay yet."

"Wow, that's a weird idea, no Wards." Michael shakes his head. "Anyway, Eric's question?"

"We're really quite awesome. Above average strength for a Wards team, and those are usually stronger than independent teams, and that's without everything I can do."

"Who's the strongest, besides you?" Eric asks. You think for a moment.

"Crystal or Madison, depends on the fight. Victoria's close to Crystal, but less flexible even with her upgrades. The whole thing is pretty situational, but Crystal has a lot more control over her defenses and options involving them." You get just a bit gloomy. If you could just figure out how to keep Victoria's shield up she'd be Brute 8, or at least 7 if you could keep it up for half a minute or so. She's lost too many fights for anyone to still think she's Alexandria Junior anymore. That scares you even with the extra life reattached.

"What about Shadow Stalker?" The girl, Susie, asks. You'd forgotten about her, but she's right next to you now.

"She's good, but kind of binary. Either she can really hurt you or she can't do anything. She's also easier to prepare for. Still, she's pretty strong. Hard to fight. She works well with the rest of the team. We have a lot of really different defensive and offensive abilities. You need a lot of capes, or a really good Tinker, to really handle us properly unless you're a major player." You consider. "I am the most powerful, but I'm not that good in a straight fight. Removing me from the list, it probably goes Crystal, Madison, Victoria, Mason, Julian, Sophie. Sophie as the weakest is actually really good for that team."

"Julian can beat anyone. Why is he so low?" Eric asks.

"He can't beat anyone quickly and reliably. Control and flexibility beats raw power, even a lot of it, and especially for heroes. We have to worry about collateral damage and bringing in villains in one piece, as well as not getting to pick our battles or play to our strengths." Clockblocker and Flechette had two of the strongest abilities on record, and both of them are dead.

_______

You leave the barbecue by taxi.

You're going to need a different set of emotions for this. Victoria hadn't triggered anything with her words, any changes in your reward systems. Sure, you can try to be nice, even enjoy yourself, but it was harder without Victoria. Less fulfilling. A world of grays, where color used to be.

The man who is waiting for you outside the bio-tech area would agree with you. Your heart flips, mixed emotions pent up towards him. Bitterness. Empathy. Anger. Forgiveness (maybe). Its pounding, and it hurts. You just don't know what to feel. What you should feel like.

"Hello, Dean." You say.

A pause.

"Hello, Amy." He sighs.

"I need more time." You head off the question before he can ask it. "Not forever, but more. I'm getting better."

""I need her, Amy." Something sharp tinged in his voice. Not anger. But close. Desperation?

"She needs you, Dean. She really does, but she has a lot to work through, and not enough super-villains to work her issues out on."

He scowls at you. "And she should not have to work through them alone!" She's not alone. She has you. That's what she needs most.

You sigh, your heart pounding. Empathy. Anger. "I am sorry, Dean. If I thought it would help I'd be trying to get her to see you, but I think she needs to do it on her own terms." He moans a bit.

"She's angry, but she misses you. I miss you, but..."

Dean's arms shaked, tension sharp in his jawline. "This is too long, Amy! Nothing. You know what she texted me? 'It's done.' She hasn't responded since." His eyes go wide, looking down, up, to the side every-which way before coming back to rest at you. You shouldn't feel a flash of satisfaction at that.

This was so hard. "She was mad. I tried to head her off it." A little. "but she's still mad at you. It's my fault, but..."

He rubs his hands through his hair, an almost unconscious thing. "I need to see her. I need her to see me. I need her."

He starts to pace.

"She made me, Amy. She made me Gallant, her knight in shining armor. I-I just don't know what I am going to do if I don't see her soon. I am - Nothing, nothing without her."

Dean bites his lip, bleeding slightly. He does not even seem to notice. Or if he does, he does not care. "I can barely think straight. Everything is miserable. Even when I see the joy inside of people, feel the joy inside of people, it's not mine. Everything is just bad. I've tried everything. I've talked with the shrink. Tried things to help me not feel so much. And nothing helps. Missy's been freaking out and I don't blame her. Everyone's left except for us, and..."

"So is your backup the tween or your stepmother?" You lash out. For a moment, your heart twinges and you feel you crossed the line. You somehow force it down.

"Please, Amy! You lost her for two weeks. It's been more than three for me. I..."

"You stole her from me." You whisper.

The silence says more then the words do.

"You returned the favor."

You just look at each other. Him shivering slightly, like he was missing a heavy coat or blanket that should have been there but was not. You don't really think about how you look.

"We both love her." You hate to admit it, but its true. He cares about Victoria. Maybe as much as you do.

"We both fear her. Fear for her. Shouldn't we both try to make her happy? Work together on it? I'd do anything. Let her define the terms of the relationship, change them in any way she wants, as long as I get to be with her again."

You consider him carefully.

You lick your lips, contemplatively, wondering if you want to even consider going down this path. "I won't give her up. Ever. Never ever. But... We do have an arguably open relationship, now. Sophia Hess has joined our relationship as a kind of junior partner." He stares at you.

"Junior partner, seriously?"

"Yes. Less intense, but we're both dating her and we spend time as the three of us. Victoria is a full lesbian these days." You wiggle your fingers at him. "You understand that means that if I think you try to take her for me, I won't like that?"

He nods. Instantly. No hesitation. Like there was nothing he wouldn't do for this. Any concession. Any sacrifice. For Victoria. Anything. Once more your heart twinges in bitterness and sympathy.

He speaks. "What do you want?" Dean's voice cracks.

[X] "I want you to go." Not Dean, never again Dean.

[X]
"I want Victoria." You take him by the arm. "She gets the first move." She'll call him back when she's ready.

[X] "I want her to be happy." You sigh. "Follow me." She does miss him.

[X] "I want her to be happy." You sigh. "Follow me." She does miss him.

Really, would it hurt to have Dean in the group?

It would be knives and poison.

______

You lead Dean inside. Neither of you say a word. You find Victoria staring at a broken bottle of shampoo, wearing a bathrobe, and looking rather annoyed.

"Hey..." She turns around and freezes. You and Dean are silent. Victoria focuses her eyes on Dean, breathing hard, for several seconds. "Lick it up." She orders, pointing her finger at the shampoo spill. Dean doesn't even hesitate as he moves, heading down, and starts the process. Victoria turns to you."Did you go out and find him?"

"No, I didn't. He was outside." You say. Victoria looks terrifying right now.

"Alright. I need to think." Victoria looks down at Dean. "I'm..." She shakes her head.

"You can tell him you miss him." You mutter.

"It is not your place to tell him how I feel." She says through clenched teeth. She looks down. The spill was fairly small, and Dean worked fast.

"Get Dean some water." She tells you, and you run to get it. You bring him a cup and Victoria takes it, leaning down and offering it to him. He drinks greedily.

"Are they always like this?" Madison asks you, kind of softly being there instead of popping out from her powers.

"Not even close, but she is pissed." You whisper back.

"You stuck to the rules, kept the journal?" Victoria asks him. Dean nods. "Good. We have a place to start. Give it to me." He takes a small book out from his back pocket and hands it to her. Victoria starts reading. You stand nearby kind of awkwardly until she finishes and gives it back to him.

"Like, why does he put up with this?" Madison asks.

"When she's good, she's really good. When she's bad, you wish you were dead." You explain.

"Alright, Dean. You'll be at the foot of the bed tonight." He looks relieved. "It is hard to stay mad at you. Understand, you betrayed me. I am hurt. I will not touch you. The thought of it disgusts me. I am dating Sophia and Amy right now. They both come first until I stop hurting. When I feel ready, maybe tomorrow, maybe in a couple months, I will forgive you."

"Hasn't he suffered enough?" Madison whispers.

"No." You look at Dean. "Not yet, but this is still better than living without her."

"Are you guys going to take him to Cranial? Seems like he's, um, a mess." Madison says.

"He's probably addicted to her aura, and he's in love with her. If Victoria wants it, or he wants it, that's probably the best course of action, but being addicted to her aura and being with her is the best thing in the world. Cutting that out would probably break them up for real." You watch Victoria help Dean to his feet and lead him into the bedroom.

"It's never boring here." Madison says, and giggles.

"It is not." You agree.

"Would you act like that?" Madison asks. You shudder.

"No. Victoria and I have a different relationship than Dean and Victoria. She knows what she can ask of us, what to ask. It's not like this is to hurt him. It's to make them feel better. Punishing him makes her feel better. He's an empath, so he feels better from that. It's relief for both of them. Same principle applies to their breakups. Being angry around him means he feels that anger, so she needs to stay away. Of course it's sick, but it's sick for a purpose."

"Remind me to never join your relationship." Madison says. "Just, never."

"It's a promise." You assure her.

________

"Um..." Sophie stares at Dean, lying on the foot of the bed.

"If you're not comfortable with this I'll make him leave." Victoria assures her sweetly. "Same with you, Amy." She turns to you. "Dean doesn't have to get what he wants."

"Um, he can stay." Sophie looks at Dean. "Um, remind me never to get on your bad side, Victoria."

"You need a reminder?" Victoria giggles. "Now get in here. It's cold tonight." You scooch in on Victoria's right and Sophie on her left, with Dean outside the covers lying near all of your feet.

"So, what are we watching tonight?" Sophie asks.

"Titanic." Victoria says with only a slightly wicked grin.

______

Sophie falls asleep in the first five minutes. You lean into Victoria, staying quiet and thinking as the movie progresses.

"How was your date with Sophie?" You ask after the credits role and Victoria turns the volume down.

"Honestly, I think you two work better than Sophie and I do. Not that I have any problem with her, but I don't quite get it." Victoria shrugs. "Maybe she'll grow on me." Then she trails her fingers along the living comforter, making a scratching motion, and Dean looks up, crawls forward.

"Um, did you like the movie?" You ask.

"I did." He sighs. "Not that I want to, but yeah, I love it." Victoria takes his head firmly and kisses him on the mouth and it hurts like hell.

"I'm sorry I'm being such a bitch tonight. I feel much better now." Victoria pats his head. "Thank you very much. We need to work out an optimal sleeping arrangement tomorrow. I don't want to wake up Sophie, and Amy deserves to be in her spot."

"He can sleep on my other side." You offer. Victoria looks at you with a good deal of warmth.

"If you're comfortable with that, sure, he can do that. Just be gentle so you don't wake up Sophie." She tells Dean. He crawls back down, gets off the bed, and climbs in the other side. You giggle at the sheer scandalousness of the situation of all four of you being in one bed, though a very large and very comfortable bed.

Victoria kisses Dean goodnight over you, kisses Sophie's sleeping forehead very gently, and then kisses you goodnight.

"Thank you." Dean whispers to you.

"You're welcome." You giggle quietly, and gently take his hand for the night.

_________

"We have some catching up to do." Victoria announces the next day. Dean is making breakfast.

"I need to be back with the Wards by ten." Dean tells her. Victoria sighs.

"Okay, but come straight back as soon as you can." She instructs.

"Of course." He agrees. He looks relieved again.

"So, what are your plans for the day?" You ask Sophie. She looks really hungry.

"Honestly, I need to get some action." She pauses. "I mean, I'm going a bit crazy like this. I'm feeling tame. Jesus!" You take her hand and stroke the newly painted finger tips.

"I like you tame." She swallows hard.

"I need to go out on patrol. Um, patrol a lot. I'm feeling cooped up here. Understand?"

"We're all sliding lately." Victoria agrees. "We need to get more professional. Without Empire 88 we're losing focus. Think you could draw up a full patrol schedule for the team with those management skills tonight, Amy?"

"Sure, if you unlock them." You agree. "Sure, things are peaceful, but if criminals think we're not out there anymore they'll get brave."

"That's my girl." Victoria smiles. "We also need a real team name." You stick at your tongue at her. "I'll tell everyone to think up new names today and we'll brainstorm tonight."

"What about all of the professional stuff I heard about?" Dean asks. "Bacteria, bio-tech, all of that stuff?"

"Skitter's gone, and the piece of her brain I ripped out died. I'm not sure why." You admit. "Everything should have gone smoothly, but cell death was too rapid for me to maintain it without using my powers on it directly. I want to work with it more, but I'm worried about human test subjects, obviously. About a fourth of what I wanted needed Skitter to do properly. Hm, I'll call about the bacteria stuff tomorrow, see what the PRT wants to do about them and Tecton. I feel like I'm in a bit of a funk lately."

"I died." Victoria reminds you. "Taking it a bit easy is fine under the circumstances."

"No it isn't." You sigh, a bit depressed again. "Like, how many lives..."

"Do you want a trigger word for a better mood?" Victoria asks seriously.

"I don't think so. I'd rather keep the morning normal, okay?"

"Alright." Victoria looks concerned. "But the words are for exactly this kind of martyr complex stuff."

_______

Today's twelve hours at the hospital go by in the same fugue as the previous two days. It feels a bit like your life is sleeping away, but isn't that better than life being long and miserable?

You call the PRT, and they arrange a meeting with Tecton tomorrow, the PRT head of economic power uses the next day, and a dinner with Director Lewis and his wife the day after that. Mason ends up being sent ahead to drive you home, as Victoria's apparently helping with an out of control house fire.

"So, how did you like my family?" He asks. You shrug.

"They're nice." Not much else to say, really. "They seem, um, tolerant."

"Tolerant is good." He nods. "So, how is your lesbian threesome?"

"Dean's kind of back in it." Mason looks disappointed. "Less pleasant image in your head now?"

"Um, yeah." He admits. "But it's really not my decision, and my reasons are pretty petty."

"I could always make him into a lesbian if you'd prefer." You offer. Mason almost hits a fire hydrant.

"Really?" He asks. You think for a moment.

"Could I? Yes. I don't think he'd want to go that far, to be honest. Maybe if I insisted, but it seems a bit mean."

"It would be kind of sweet, wouldn't it?" Masons asks.

"Kind of, yeah." You smile at the thought. Pleasant, but not something you could actually do.

Probably.

______

Julian is staring at Dean's Rubik's Cube in fascination as Dean talks about King Arthur.

"Wow. Is it normal to say that this is really cool?" Julian asks. "Both things." He shakes the cube. "Like, I forgot a lot."

"It's alright. You forget it saving Amy. That's a great way to do it." Dean smiles at Julian. "In some ways it's beautiful, you get to learn everything again with fresh eyes."

"Hm, you know, some kind of team group reading might be fun, or would that just be weird?" Crystal says, looking up from her manga. "Victoria always had a beautiful voice. If we're making this team like a family that could be great."

"Hm..." You're divided. You like the idea, but also want to keep that part of Victoria to yourself.

"I'm back." Victoria says, entering the room looking flawless despite having been through a burning house. Force fields are great for that. "I even saved the tortoise."

"The what?" Julian asks.

"It's like a turtle, but turtles are water dwellers, and the tortoise lives on land." Dean explains.

"Ah." Julian nods.

"Do you need to know what a turtle is?"

"Yeah." He sounds embarrassed. Dean pulls out his phone and gets to work.

"So." Victoria claps her hands together. "Does anyone have a better name than New Wave?"

[X] Give a name suggestion, who suggests it, and why.

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Flattery-2

"What about sticking with Next Wave?" Crystal suggests. "It is used by the papers, and everyone's going with that."

"No." Victoria insists."

"Any particular reason?" Julian asks.

"First of all, it puts us too much in relationship to New Wave. Implies dependence. Anyone hearing that will think of us as a New Wave splinter group."

"Ah, so we're a splinter of New Wave." He nods. "That makes a lot more sense." For some reason everyone looks at Sophie.

"It does make more sense than an Empire 88 splinter group." Sophie admits. There's a general sigh.

"Tell me, does The Vanguard have any negative connotations?" Julian asks. "Doesn't seem to."

"Nope. Got any reason for it?" Victoria asks.

"Literally means 'the first into battle'. Implies strength, which we have. Most our members here have Mover powers of some sort which for a city like Brockton is fine. Sounds impressive and legitimate and its a separate enough thing that we don't get associated immediately with New Wave." Victoria nods.

"Yeah, that one works. I like it."

"Misunderstood." You suggest. Best not to let this slide for much longer. "Applies to pretty much all of us, in our own way, doesn't it?" Madison nods. "Our relationship dynamics get criticized, all of us are kind of outsiders. Just feels like it fits to me." Also, it's the only Aly and AJ song you might be able to squeeze into the title, though Hearts of Winter would make a great villain team name.

"I'm, um, not really misunderstood." Mason points out.

"Just doesn't quite fit." Sophia shrugs.

"Panacea's Harem?" Julian suggests. Everyone looks at him. "I've heard a lot of people call us that."

"Julian, harem means, um, like a person who has a bunch of wives." Dean says gently.

"You Googled Vanguard but not harem?" Madison asks. "Why?"

"You call it that." Julian points out and Madison blushes. "That was supposed to be a joke."

"Might as well call it the Glory Hounds." Victoria says. "Since, well..." Julian looks up at her with some confusion. "Never mind." She says quickly.

"Glory Hole, and the Lesbians." Dean says. "If we're being honest for a second."

"You recover fast." Victoria shakes her head and sighs. Madison giggles for a moment and then looks confused.

"Um, but Victoria's one of the lesbians, Crystal's not, neither are Julian or Mason, um..."

"I may not have thought that through." Dean admits.

"Okay, we've got Vanguard, Misunderstood, and Next Wave for serious suggestions." Victoria cuts off that line of discussion. "Anyone else have a good one?"

"The Shepherds." Sophie says suddenly. Everyone goes quiet for a minute.

"Why?" Crystal asks.

"Because there are sheep and there are shepherds who guard the sheep. That's what we are."

"That's my vote." Mason says. "Shepherds just fits for me."

"I agree." Crystal says thoughtfully.

"Changing my vote." You announce. "Shepherds just sounds right."

"No it doesn't." Victoria sounds weirdly scared and you're not sure why. "What about Vanguard? Vanguard was good."

"I'm for Vanguard." Madison says, chewing her lip. "Just, not sure why."

"I'm sticking with Vanguard." Julian says. "I still like it."

"I'm for Vanguard as well." Dean says. "Shepherds just has connotations I don't like."

"You're not part of the team, are you?" Sophie asks. "You're a Warden, um, Ward." She looks confused again. "Are you officially joining us?"

"No." Dean says. "I'm still a Ward, sorry. You're right, I shouldn't vote for this."

"So, Shepherds it is." Victoria says. She still looks worried. "It fits, I guess. I just don't get why it bugs me so much."

________

Bonus Interlude: Sophie

_______

"What. The. Fuck!" You've finally gotten Victoria alone. "What the fuck Vicky!" You glare at the blonde. "You made him eat soap. He needs to get as far away from you as possible!"

It's June 21st. The sun is shining brightly, and you're out for a walk in the park with Glory Girl. If she wasn't a psychotic bitch this would be a great day.

"Sophie..."

"He doesn't deserve that! Amy begged him not to, is this just a kink with you? Making him write down everything, do whatever the fuck you want, and I don't even want to know what-" Victoria starts crying.

"I'm not always like this!" She says. She at least sounds miserable, but you're not friends for Madison this long without knowing some people are great actors. "Just, I feel like crap about it, okay. I..."

"He licked up soap. Have you ever tried stomaching that?"

"Not until last night." Victoria mutters.

"Wait, what?"

"I needed to see what it was like. It was awful. I can't believe he didn't ask me to stop. Just, I felt bad right after I said it, but I couldn't back down."

"Why couldn't you back down?" You stare at her face, trying to figure out if she's lying. It's so easy with Amy, you think, but Victoria's a mystery.

"Amy was there, and Dean was there, and Madison was there. I can't hand down a punishment and then back out on it. What would people think?" You pause and try to figure out what she's saying.

"That you didn't think things through?" You suggest.

"Exactly." Victoria looks at you carefully. "Sophie, I want you to think for a second about my shield." She races her hand and touches you, first you feel a force field, then her finger tips.

"It goes down after a few seconds, then comes back up after a few seconds." You answer.

"It took years for anyone outside of the family to figure that out." Victoria starts to explain.

"What does this bullshit have to do with anything?" You snarl.

"It's all about image." Victoria explains. "If I can control exactly how I fight people can think I'm always invincible and never hurt me. The moment I start losing fights that is gone, and I become ten times as vulnerable. The more weakness you show the more weakness you have." You start to nod.

"So, it means you can't be nice?" You ask. "That's, that's just wrong. You're nice all the time."

"It means I can't change my mind. I can't admit I was wrong unless I get a good excuse for it." Victoria explains.

"You know, everyone here loves and supports you. Do you really need to be some kind of dominatrix general to your boyfriend?" You ask.

"No." Victoria is silent for a moment. "But I do in front of Amy."

"What?" Why doesn't any of this make sense? Is she crazy, or are you stupid?

"She smells weakness." Victoria says. "Haven't you been paying attention? She's constantly probing me, testing me. I always play up that stuff with Dean when she's around. It started out as a joke, but if she figures that out..."

"He seemed really whipped, Vicky. Really whipped."

"He's never been like that before." Victoria says, her voice low. "It actually scared the crap out of me. He's forced breakups for a tenth of as much shit as earlier. He's supposed to. He's never acted like some kind of bitch boy before unless we were messing around. I think I fucked him up like Amy, maybe worse." You notice that Victoria was crying earlier. Why did it take you so long to notice?

"What about the diary thing, the rules?"

"Oh." Victoria blushes, but it's a bit of a friendly blush. "It's actually really sweet. The first time we had a big breakup, ten whole days, he gave me a journal he kept about it. It was full of really sweet things. Ways he missed me, things he saw that reminded him of me. He did it every time after that. It's not some, um, BDSM thing. It's just something he does. When I called it off it's to prove that he missed me, and when he does it I get a reassurance that he's forgiven me. I really fucking deserve him to break up with me for that shit, but with his withdrawal I don't think I'd miss him as much as he misses me." You try to focus on what Victoria is saying. Is this a deflection? Is she trying to trick you? You don't think she is. It feels honest, but you're so bad at this. You knew Emma for years and then she just left.

"Is there something I can do to help?" You ask. "Help Dean, I mean." Victoria looks at you thoughtfully.

"I was thinking next time he sleeps over he can be on my left, Amy on my right, and you on the far side of Amy. You wouldn't mind that, would you? He would get to cuddle with me. He'd appreciate that." The arrangement sounds great to you. Amy is actually preferable, but you hadn't really wanted to ask.

"I can do that. What about anything else? Does he need, um, I'm not into him, you know."

"You don't have to be." Victoria smiles. "We don't all need to love each other, we just need to respect those relationships. If you really want to help him I suggest you do spend some time with him, though. He's really lonely even when I'm around. He needs more friends. I've tried to help him with that before, but he's always had trouble with that. Can you do that for us?"

"Yes." Then you see it. The small humming bird sized robot, in your suit's senses. "Vicks, I found it." You say over the suit's intercom.

She's off like a bolt of lightning.

_______

End interlude.

______

"So, what you're saying is we really need to get access to Skitter's powers." Tecton says.

"Yes." You agree. "I think that improves everything immensely on every dimension."

"Hm, you said the removed portion of the brain degraded rapidly?" Tecton asks. You nod.

"Any theories as to why?"

"I think her powers hated what I did." You explain. "According to Cranial it's DNA and memories that allow for cloning parahumans. I didn't take her memories, her personality, anything to signal to her agent that she was still herself. The powers went strange, and then left, not recognizing it as her. That's my theory, at least."

"So you think agent based bio-tech would fail?" Tecton asks.

"I do. At least not without a lot of really dangerous experimentation. It might be possible, but I don't want to rip and restore and rip again on some person's brain to figure out what I did wrong the first time."

"So, what's your plan?" Tecton asks.

"I can copy and broadcast Skitter's signals. I can't hack bugs, but I can generate the signals, though I haven't figured out what I do. I was thinking of building relays and receivers in new races of bugs and manage the ecosystem using a giant brain computer."

"Sounds risky." Tecton says. "But it would be so good if we could do it..." He looks at a massive map of the city redesign. "With those bug colonies even operating at 30% of what Skitter could do we've have the city rebuilt in three months."

"Alright." You look at it. "How long until you can get the designs redone and sent to me to start work?"

"I'm thinking on the 24th I can have the documents to you, then four days for more research, and then with no problems we can begin work." Tecton says wistfully. "But I could be overly optimistic. It just feels so fast working with you."

"I am a fast worker." You acknowledge. "I'll work on the things you suggested..." Tecton's phone rings at the same time yours does.

"Hello?" You ask.

"It's Sophie." The dark avenger's voice rings out over the phone. "Um, get everyone you can."

"What's going on?" You ask.

"I have no fucking idea, but we've got ten knocked out soldiers and a parahuman I've never seen before. Hurry."

"I will." You nod. You get off the phone a second before Tecton does.

"Massive call to arms. Something is happening. New cape." Tecton explains.

"I just got the same impression." You get up and walk out the door with Tecton. "Did you get any details?"

"He's blowing up abandoned buildings." Tecton says as you walk out. "Blur and Vista are on their way. I'm meeting up with Gallant. Are you coming with us?" The two of you leave the building, and that's when the swarm comes forward.

"We need to talk." Taylor's voice comes out of it. "I know this is going to sound crazy, but you have to trust me..."

[X] You release the bug killer. You do not have time for Taylor.

[X] "Yes." You say through clenched teeth. She's gotten far too many chances. She has to know that. She's either desperate, or trying to trick you.

[X] "Talk to someone else." You walk away. There's other heroes in Brockton Bay. She can find someone else to help her.

[X] Yes. You say through clenched teeth. She's gotten far too many chances. She has to know that. She's either desperate, or trying to trick you.
- [X] This isn't a matter of trust, but of pragmatism; this gives you the perfect opportunity to find her again, and this time restrain her. Permanently.

"If this is a trick..." You let your voice trail off there. "Last time I listened to you Victoria died. So you're going to tell me exactly why I should believe anything you have to say at all. You only get this courtesy because you confessed your crime..." You don't really care to believe a word from her... but you have to listen. If there is anything she says that can be used... then you've got to hear it first.

"He's called Black Knight. I have no idea what he can do besides what I've seen. He's wearing some kind of tinker tech armor that I don't think can be Uber and Leet's work."

"Wait, Uber and Leet?" You laugh outright. "I'm not that stupid."

"They've been building behind the scenes since before Leviathan. They inherited Coil's empire, infiltrated the PRT through Calvert, took control of Dream Mask, and assaulted Shadow Stalker."

"Her name is Sophie." You hiss.

"I don't know where they got this latest cape. Black Knight..."

"Stop it right there!" You shout. "I need a face to face meeting, or else I'm killing the bugs here. If you want to help me you're doing it face to face. I am going to use my powers as a lie detector." Taylor is silent for a moment.

"Are you going to hurt me again?"

"If you're actually a hero, would it matter?" Taylor's silent for a moment, her swarm shifting.

"Follow my arrows." She says. Tecton gives you a worried look.

"We'll meet up later." You assure him, and are off. You have so many ways to mess up Taylor's day if she tries something.

So did Victoria.

_______

You find yourself in Merchant territory when your suit finds Taylor's scent. You use the bio-tech insect drones you made to scout forward and find her, hiding behind a dumpster.

"I'm ready." She mutters. You walk forward and grab her, extending your powers into her.

Her Corona Pollentia, and within it the Corona Gemma, is wrong. It's pieces of graphene and crystal stuck to badly cloned flesh. You notice a couple of tumors involved, microscopic but cancerous.

"Who repaired you?" You ask her.

"Leet." She answers, a bit of spite in her voice. "Does that support my story?"

"Yes." You nod. "So, Uber and Leet are involved. Why come to me?"

"Your sister would kill me, and so would your girlfriend. I don't really know anyone else on your team, and you're the one who can call in extra resources quickest right now. This is Uber and Leet's hail marry pass. Things have gone completely wrong for them. Your team is still powerful, and they didn't expect that. They thought they would be the strongest surviving power block by now." You wince.

"Explain why I'm here, and not getting the people I love out of there?"

"They're not after them. Not yet, at least. Attack you or your sister, cut off the cloning train, and Eidolon would make another appearance."

"So what is their plan?" You ask, making sure to read her for honesty.

"Prove they're just as valuable as you are, or more so. Black Knight just defeated the Merchants in 3 seconds. They're in custody now." You frown.

"What's the problem, then?"

"They're cloning you, and me." She answers. "I saw the tanks." You think again. "I repeat. What is the problem?"

"The problem is you're crazy, Amy. As long as you're valuable you get anything you want. Throw in another Panacea and do you think you'll get your little fiefdom? Think they'll be a tenth as interested in letting you steal dangerous supervillains and marry your sister if White Mage is around?"

That's a good question.

"Or I could get a fucking vacation." You tell her. "Let my new baby sister take my backlog and go to Barbados for a couple weeks after I make the city into a bio-tech paradise. Let your kid sister help build the city and keep it safe and happy while I ship your scrawny ass off to the Birdcage."

"What if, um, I don't have confirmation they'll kill you, but wouldn't they? They're rapists and killers, and if they have the only Panacea then they'll..."

"Have you met Trick?" You smile at her. "Last Witch, Soulfire, Cluster, Trigger and Cranial are all quite reliable. Control the only source of the universal cure and be a bit less reasonable than I am and I think you'd be surprised at how quickly mind control will be put on the table. Those are just the people who come up when my name is tossed around. Out in Vegas there's Pretender. Cut off most of the head and Ichor could wake up considerably less attractive. Trying to ransom my services too often is stupid."

"Um, ah..." Taylor starts to squirm.

"Anything else, Worm?" You ask, smiling down at her. "Anything worse than a new hero rounding up villains and my family growing a bit more?"

"It's Leet!" Taylor finishes, desperately. "Do you really trust that he did a good job with his clones?"

You hear a very loud boom off in the distance.

"Okay, that's a good point." You admit, and knock her out. You pull out your cellphone and dial your brother.

"Hey sis." Chuck says, sounding a bit annoyed. "Please, this girl in the training exercise is really quite appealing..."

"Houston, we have a problem." You start to walk briskly. "I want a second opinion on something. If Leet clones a powerful superhero just how likely is it that it would go horribly wrong?"

_________

Sophie greets you with a hug when you arrive.

"Everyone's fine. So far." She says. "I thought you'd care."

"So, Taylor's spinning her usual bullshit." You say. "Says it's Uber and Leet's fault for everything."

"Ah, so that's why you've been dragging her along behind you." Sophie looks down at Taylor, who was attached to you by a tentacle and had been dragged a few blocks behind you. She stops on her face.

"Please don't do that." You ask her.

"Why not?" Sophie asks. You think for a moment.

"Okay, just one more, for Victoria." Sophie stops again, happily.

"So, what do we do with her?" Sophie asks.

"Hm, just leave her with the PRT. Right now anything that would wake her up would trigger a micro-organism to start killing her, and it would be really hard to wake her up without me. She should be contained for now. So, tell me what we're dealing with."

"Crazy tinker." She answers. "Really crazy." After you drop Taylor off she leads you to the barricade that looks like Rune set it up. A PRT negotiator is talking through a megaphone.

"What do you want? We have people who can help you!" He shouts.

"WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE!" A massive, booming voice says from far away.

"Please, you have done nothing wrong. Just talk with us, please!" The negotiator says. "Just tell us what to do."

"Alright, alright alright." The voice says. Black Knight, presumably. Everyone waits for a minute.

"I don't think he's going to answer." Sophie shrugs.

Suddenly blasting forward across the sky is a massive figure wearing black armor, some kind of ancient knight. He lands right in front of you.

"No matter where you go, there you are. " The Black Knight tells you.

"Do we know each other?" You ask cautiously.

"Greetings, programs!" He says.

"Sorry, maybe if you take off your helmet I'd know who you are." You suggest.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing." Black Knight challenges.

"Oh no. I trust you, sir. I just don't know who you are. Does that make sense to you?" Black Knight suddenly turns to Sophie.

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows." He says.

"Thank you!" Sophie says. "People always say Batman. Even before Glenn made me get rid of the red in my costume..." She shakes her head. "Anyway, nice of you, but..."

"Klaatu barada nikto." He says to Sophie.

"Um..."

"I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date! No time to say hello, goodbye! I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!" He starts ranting, moving around. How did Leet screw up this badly?"

Then, suddenly, he looks up and seems to stare at something off in the distance. Staring at Dauntless.

You have no idea what the attack he unleashes even is besides Dauntless crumpling. You run forward as fast as you can, reaching out and touching him.

Well, he killed Dauntless. You wonder, briefly, if Cranial's backup will equal all his old power or if he'll have to start from scratch.

[X] You look back at Black Knight. You need to keep him calm, calm him down, wait for backup. Phantasos will have warned Eidolon by now. People will arrive soon.

[X] You run. This creature is most definitely very, very crazy. No one should stay near him.

[X] You think. Maybe if you can get him to take off his helmet, show you who he is, touch you, you could knock him out? That feels like a plan.

[X] You look back at Black Knight. You need to keep him calm, calm him down, wait for backup. Phantasos will have warned Eidolon by now. People will arrive soon.

"Tell me where you're from." You say after a moment's thought. That seems, um, right.

"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that." You feel you should get that one.

"Okay, so, what's your favorite flavor of cheese?" You ask.

"If you think that by threatening me you can get me to do what you want… Well, that's where you're right. But – and I am only saying that because I care – there's a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing." That one you're not even close to figuring out.

You walk slowly and carefully back to Black Knight, your hands raised. You thing raising your hands above your head is a good idea. Right?

"Did you ever look at a dollar bill, man? There's some spooky shit going on there. And it's green to?" Sophie says suddenly, pulling a dollar out of her pocket and spreading it out for Black Knight to look at. He begins to examine it carefully. You nod at her. That sounds right. Black Knight examines the dollar bill in her hands while you walk over before incinerating it with one of those blasts that is over too quickly for you to see.

"Um, what to know how we ended up together?" You say to Black Knight and take Sophie's hand. He suddenly straightens and examines the two of you.

"Life found a way." His tone is awe struck.

"It all started when she was outfitting us..." Sophie starts, holding onto your hand for dear life as she starts to tell the story of your relationship to the apparently enthralled Black Knight.

_________

"Oooh right, it's actually quite a funny story once you get past all the tragic elements and the over-riding sense of doom." Black Knight decides. You two start to back up, but then he starts to follow you.

"Okay, that won't work." Sophie mutters. "Okay." She says louder, to Black Knight. You obviously remember us, so you know us. Can you explain how?"

"This episode was BADLY written!" Black Knight insists.

"I guess you can't." Sophie says. "Um, well..."

"I'm surprised no one else has shown up." You mention. "Like, Eidolon or Legend..."

"We're going to need a bigger boat." Black Knight announces.

"Of course we will." You pat Black Knight's armor, and regret it as it singes your costume. Whatever is inside him is really hot. Weird tinker tech or something else?

"Hm..." Sophie says. "Let's see which one of us he follows if we slowly move away from each other." The two of you back off in different directions, and Black Knight follows you like the world's second scariest puppy. (Siberian is the scariest.)

"Okay, so you like me." You send Sophie a message, telling her she can run if she wants to. She shakes her head.

"Face it tiger, you just hit the jackpot!" Of course you did. This would all be kind of cute if he hadn't killed someone. You think for a moment.

"You like me. Do you like like me?" Sophie rolls her eyes, but it seems like the right way to ask. Black Knight shakes his head. "So, you aren't, like, seeing me as a girlfriend." You think for a moment. That's one fewer potential member of the harem. "What do you want?"

"Never ask that question."

"I'll never ask it again." You think for a moment. "I have an idea." You pull out your phone and move to the Kindle app. "Do you want me to read to you?"

"Fantastic!" This might have been slightly easier if your entire personal Kindle library wasn't VC Andrews works.

"Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?" You start with the passage from Isiah you memorized just a bit more than six years ago.

________

Your voice is getting tired.

<Victoria, why hasn't anyone shown up yet?? You ask over your suit's communicator.

<Precogs say it's a bad idea, Ames.> She communicates back. <No one's found a better idea yet, so the longer you can keep this going, the better.>

<Do the precogs say what would happen if you came by?>

<Yes, actually. Nothing good. No, they won't say why. Apparently this thing really likes you, and really hated Dauntless.> Victoria sounds sad. <I'm glad we got his memories, but damn, doesn't feel like it's him does it?>

<Hard to say. Any theories on what this person is?>

<Some kind of clone, probably. Outfitted with tinker equipment, maybe a tinker himself. Thinkers are working on it. If we had Tattletale it might be easier. Clicker thinks he's got three separate tinkers working on him at least. They're absolutely sure Mannequin, or Sphere, has designs involved.>

<That's terrible and frightening.> You answer.

<Good news is they don't think he's got any Bonesaw in him. Who thought cloning a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine was a good idea again?>

<It's happened before.> You point out.

<That's a good point. Oh. Oh. Get down.> You do so. Black Knight straightens suddenly, rising into the air.

"God help us, we're in the hands of engineers." Black Knight announces, and vanishes in a blast of incredible speed.

<Any idea what's going on?>

 Victoria answers. <We're all staying out of this. Legend is here, and he brought his response team.>

You see flashes of light in the far distance.

<Okay, Victoria. I spoke with Taylor.>

<Right, the Worm's locked in a van. She's lucky she didn't have a kill order on her. So, what did she spew this time?>

<She says Uber and Leet are cloning me.> Victoria doesn't respond for a moment.

<I'm not sure if that's the best thing I could hear or the worst. On one hand, Amy clone. On the other hand, Amy clone.>

<Yeah. Best case, I can split my workload. Worst case, they don't need me anymore.>

 Victoria lands next to you. "Estimates put this as an A-Class threat. Obviously I need to help..." You run your fingers down Victoria's hair.

"Do you? If he's that dangerous, do you?"

"We're the Shepherds, now. We need to take care of our own." Victoria gives you a quick kiss.

"Victoria, according to a precog there's an 80% chance you die in the next few years." You whisper. "Like, 2-23 years or so. If you're just a bit more careful..."

"Then someone else will die. Will it be Missy, maybe? Sophie? Legend? Come on, Ames. This is what a hero means. I can't back off just because it's dangerous. What if everyone did that?" Victoria shakes her head.

"She's right." Sophie runs her hands through your hair. "We'll give him hell for you."

"Sophie, you don't have the extra life. Please, if..."

"Most people only die once." Sophie answers. "That's kind of why they call it death." She hugs you. "I'll be careful. I've fought Endbringers." Victoria grabs Sophie and they rise, heading off to do whatever it is they do. Two women you love leave you alone.

You find the PRT van and enter it easily. Taylor Hebert, Skitter, Worm, lies on a bed. You look at her.

"Without you, who would I be?" You ask her gently. "At the bank robbery, you gave me my first taste of real danger and held me while Tattletale fucked me up. You almost getting killed kicked off Albany. You were part of the whole thing with Director Calvert, and would I ever have ended up with Victoria without that? Without giving Sophie someone to bully, the reaction she got, would she be the person I know? Without you, what would Emma have been like? Would I have gotten friends?"

"Do you care?" Madison asks suddenly. You face her.

"Why aren't you with the others?" You ask.

"Stranger can't do much against an A-Class threat like that anymore than you could." Madison looks down at the bed. "I was having a conversation of my own with her before you showed up."

"Saying you're sorry?" You ask.

"No." Madison sighs. "Saying goodbye."

"What?" You look at her.

"She's going to kill me, someday." Madison explains. "That's inevitable. She's going to kill me, and Emma, and Sophia. She hasn't yet because you and Victoria are bigger and scarier, so she's after you first, but as soon as everyone else is taken care of she'll come after us."

"So you're just going to kill her?" You ask, a bit disbelieving.

"Would you send her to the Birdcage? Mindrape her so she's not a threat? What other choice do we have? She killed Victoria, she kidnapped Victoria, she hurt Victoria. The very first time she did anything as a cape was holding an entire bank hostage. She's a terrorist and a supervillain." Madison looks down at Taylor. "It'd be simple, wouldn't it? Less suspicious if you did it, but I can do it if you want me to. You could make any kind of deniable cause, or I could use this." She pulls out a small thing, the ugliest thing in the world, a handgun. "How many people want to kill her by now? People she held hostage at the bank, people she hurt at the Fundraiser, your fans, Victoria's fans? Plenty of people could have done it."

"Madison..." Your voice trails off slowly.

"She always comes back. She always comes back worse. More dangerous, more crazy. Every single time you let her go someone got hurt. This is who she is. Are we going to let her have another chance?"

"No." You put your hand on Skitter and start looking through her brain, focusing on where the clones could be.

[X] "Goodbye, Taylor." You kiss her forehead, and use your power to start a heart attack.

[X] "Goodbye, Skitter." You sigh. "The Birdcage is where she belongs.

[X] "Hello, Worm." You look down at her. She can still be useful, can't she? You'll need to see Cranial, but you can do a lot of it yourself.

[-] "Hello, Worm." You look down at her. She can still be useful, can't she? You'll need to see Cranial, but you can do a lot of it yourself. While, killing was easy... it wasn't right. And yet, it wasn't right that she be allowed to run free. Sending her to the birdcage would mean that she would die as there are no insects in there and she would be nothing more than just a normal girl. But, you could remake her into something that the Shepherds could use. Something useful.
[-] Reformat her: blank her current memories, remake her body and make her think she's Sophia's younger sister, filling her mind with a tendency towards admiration and submission to the wills of Amy, Victoria, and Sophia.

You touch Taylor, Skitter, Worm.

You flip out your phone and call Cranial.

"Are you busy with the Black Knight thing?" You ask.

"No."

"Can you send Dodge here? I have something I need to pick up discretely."

"Always a good sign. He's on his way."

________

"Excuse me a moment." Cranial asks gently, and she presses a button on her chair and vanishes. You wait patiently and she returns to this pocket dimension.

"What was that for?" You ask.

"I needed to release a great number of expletives that you did not need to hear." Cranial answers. "Please restate your plan."

"Well, she's too dangerous to let go, and there's no way she gets a good end if the PRT gets her." You mutter defensively.

"So your answer is to wipe her memories, build a new person in her place, and enslave her to your will?" Cranial asks.

"No. I will make her into a loving, devoted baby sister who will want to help me. It's by far the safest and most practical option."

"Well..." Cranial sounds very, very tired.

"Do you have a better idea?" You ask. Cranial is silent for a moment.

"I insist on a few things. First, we are keeping as much of her old memories and personality, edited, as possible, up until she was twelve years old. Second, I am keeping everything in her mind in storage with multiple backups. Third, if you abuse her at all then our business relationship is over. I will edit Sophia and Taylor into being natural, good, happy sisters. I do understand that for this to work she needs to be submissive and she must admire you, Sophie, and Victoria. If I cut that out she'll probably go bad again, given her past behavior. You three will be everything in her eyes. Do not abuse her. This is sick, twisted, dark work. I understand the plan, why it is a good idea. It keeps Taylor safe, and it keeps you safe from Taylor. Making her a Hess is probably the best way to handle her for the time being. I know of nowhere better to send her." Cranial vanishes again and returns.

"Screaming again?" You ask.

"You're putting me in a terrible position, Amy! I am choosing between letting this girl be murdered and mutilating her! Even the kindest, gentlest cuts, making sure she is still herself, is going to be a crime. I will help her as best I can, but making her both Taylor Hebert and your pet will lean towards a crime committed to Taylor. Making her into something she does not want to be. I will do everything I can to..." Her voice machine pulls in like a long sharp intake of breath before becoming a record scratching.

"Thank you." You nod at Cranial. "Just tell me how to help."

"You can be nice to Sophie's new sister." Cranial practically hisses. "Now I need to get to work, a lot of work, to find a way to not kill myself over this mess. Now, change her physically so I can match the body well."

You do so. You focus as hard as you can. You age her back down to twelve, make her features as cute as humanly possible, make her short for her age, spend time on the hands, the feet, the jaw, make her incredibly athletic, give her a great metabolism. You give the best tuneup you possibly could, and prepare her body to enter puberty and fit itself perfectly at every stage, growing into a marvelously beautiful girl and them woman.

You keep her eyes the same. It feels right.

"It's done." You tell Cranial. She examines the new girl carefully.

"Be quiet." Cranial tells you, and you are.

_______

"We're done." Cranial announces. "I can't do more until we get her new big sister. We can leave her here for now." The two of you leave.

"I'm sorry." You mutter.

"There's no good answer." Cranial replies. "None." She works on a tablet computer and suddenly freezes.

"What is it?" You ask.

"Amy Dallon, I need your help today more than anything else I have ever needed." Cranial tells you. "I recognize the tech at work in Black Knight, the missing piece."

"What missing piece?" You ask.

"Armsmaster is obvious. The miniaturization, the Breaker power attached to him, the redundant technology, how he reacts. He is the core at work here. Sphere is the other piece, the materials of the armor, the redundant..."

She shows you a scene from the battle. Black Knight is hurtling through the air at incredible speed, projecting strange blasts you still can't identify, highly complex energy waves. Legend and Myrddin are circling him from a distance, neither one wanting to get near the massive sword. Black Knight has lost one arm and one leg.

"He can lose parts of himself and keep fighting. He's a cyborg." You mutter.

"Yes, yes, that's Sphere's contribution, or Mannequin's. But there's another force at work. Highly compresses energy sources. The strange forms of attack, highly esoteric management of forms of energy into weapons. My husband worked on this project. Someone. Cloned. Him." You shudder.

"It was Uber and Leet. Their cloning machine. Their tech."

"It makes sense. He couldn't build anything twice, so he built people to build things for him. The glorious bastard. We're going on a rescue mission." Cranial says. "Get ready." She presses a button and you're back on Earth instead of a universe away.

"How are we going to find them?" You ask.

"I was just looking at Skitter's memories. I'm searching them now. Hop on. I won't drop you." You do hop on, and Cranial's scythe limbs wrap around you. Cranial rises into the sky and leads you to a surprisingly familiar location, Coil's old underground layer. Cranial lands and her scythes lash out, ripping down the door.

"I didn't you you could do that." You mutter.

"I'm a Case 53. We're the best." Cranial answers with a smirk in her voice. "Striker 4. Those things aren't cosmetic." The two of you enter the compound.

"Maybe we should call for backup?" You suggest.

"Maybe we should have, but it would be far better if I am the one who finds him. The reactions could be extremely bad otherwise, if he is anything like Black Knight."

"Makes sense." You nod as Cranial rips open another door with her forelimbs. "Why do you need me?"

"Incapacitation and healing." Cranial answers. "If it turns out running off half cocked was a bad idea we can always teleport out. This reminds me of my youth, or what I think was my youth. Some crazy adventure without backup..." You advance through the place. It seems abandoned so far, but you definitely smell that people live here.

"I surrender!" Someone shouts. A man, Leet, runs through a door and throws himself down in front of you.

"About time." You mutter. "Where's Uber?"

"He's trying to calm them down!" Leet screams. "The others. Companion Cube locked himself in the lab. Muramasa is flailing around. Villain is..."

Cranial screams and you collapse for a moment, your mind fixed on the idea that Sophie and Victoria are lying dead to Black Knight.

"Of Alexandria!" She bellows. "His name means of Alexandria! You actually got fucking Muramasa and not Hero of Alexandria!"

You and Leet sit there, stunned for a moment, and Cranial is off, deeper into the lab.

"Uber vetoed Archimedes." Leet tells you, as if it matters. "Said no one would get it."

"Where's mine?" You ask.

"In the lab with Companion Cube." Leet says quietly.

"Take me there." You insist. He does so, slowly, getting himself up. "Where did she go? Doesn't she need you?"

"I don't know what she's thinking." You mutter, preparing to act on Leet if you have to. Leet leads you down the long hallways until you reach a door.

"How did you get the memories?" You ask quietly.

"Armsmaster, we got them from the corpse. He wasn't a clone, we brought him back. The Brain Box got the rest. Looks through time, into the Agent, builds up the memories by scanning the past and looking for the DNA inserted inside, going for..."

"We can bring back the dead?" You whisper.

"Open the door." The regret in his voice is palpable.

"Wall it in. Wall it in. Wall it in." The man leans over. His face is all wrong. You do recognize it, though. Alan Gramme. You see blood in his hands as he removes the skin. A pile of paper is around him, and he puts a strip of it where his skin should be.

"Hello, Alan." You say.

"Not Alan. Not Alan." He mutters, rocking back and forth.

"It's okay." You say, advancing slowly on the nightmare that kept you up at night. The man who would kill you for trying to help. He scuttles back. You see his feet are similarly "armored" as his hands. You fling a dart carrying the sleep agent and move forward. Somehow the paper is keeping the blood in very well. You don't want to figure out what he figured out. You just fix him as best you can. The cancerous growths, whole wrongness of the body sickens you. Ripping out the skin wasn't actually a bad idea. His skin is killing him.

It takes you ten minutes to get something workable out of him.

"Where am I." You ask. Leet, looking terrified, leads you to the wall. Hanging, suspended in the green fluid, is Catholicon. They'd probably call her White Mage.

Seeing your face on that makes you want to vomit. Huge, distended breasts without nipples look like tree trunks. The mass of the arms and legs is horrible, irregular. The breathing is slow, choking every so often on the fluid. There are no eyes that you can see.

The conjoined twins were easier to stomach.

Cranial enters the room. A man holds his hands over his eyes, organs visible in the chest. Another man in a wheelchair, incredibly small, is wheeled in by a broken looking Uber.

Your hand moves towards Villain.

"No." He says firmly, peaking out from behind his face. "Him first."

Muramasa first, apparently. It takes seven minutes for him, twelve for Villain.

"I need to get him home." Cranial says. "I'll be back soon." She teleports away with the tinker clones.

You're left with Uber and Leet.

"You..." You're shaking.

"I tried to do better." Leet says. "But I worked with so many things in biology. I just couldn't get it right! I tried to make them perfect, I really did! But I moved to bio-tech after I started exhausting other things. They went so wrong, even with the Brain Box..."

"I believe it." You hiss. You walk over and look at the others, the tanks. A bald girl sucking her thumb, with another thumb at the end of her hand, a man you don't recognize at all, and...

You want to kill them right now when you recognize the curve of the neck.

"You cloned Victoria." You whisper.

"You needed her. So would ours." Leet says calmly. Uber has a thousand yard stare. You kind of suspect Cranial hit him much harder.

The shell of Victoria.

"Does she have memories?" You ask.

"We fill in the brain last. That's quicker with the Brain Box." Leet answers.

"Where is the Brain Box?" You ask.

"Over here." Leet brings you to it.

You look at it for a long moment.

It could bring back the dead.

All of this can makes clones. Awful, horrible clones, but they can be fixed, right?

Your main purpose is making clones. That's the biggest thing by far, isn't it?

Let these machines stay intact, and you lose a bargaining chip.

Your eyes trail to your clone. Another healer, another good healer. To the girl, the Bonesaw.

It could be a miracle.

You could be killed and replaced with someone easier to work with,

There's an 80% chance Victoria dies in the coming years. Don't you need every advantage you can get?

[X] "We're smashing your machines, the brain box, the cloning tanks." You tell Uber and Leet firmly. They are in no condition to disobey.

[X] "First, we fill in my clone, the Bonesaw, the others. Then we break your machines." You announce. Another Amy, a sister to work with you, a break, a respite. That is tempting. You can pretend the machines just broke, as Leet's clones do.

[X] "Let's get to work." It's a risk, perhaps the biggest risk, but the world can be improved with this. The Brain Box is a miracle.

"Let's get to work." It's a risk, perhaps the biggest risk, but the world can be improved with this. The Brain Box is a miracle.

You sigh.

"We're packing this up, giving it all to Cranial. Everything you have here. It's impressive. She'll figure out what to do with it." You turn to Leet. "You made clones of at least four of the greatest tinkers in the world. I think they'll want to examine everything you can make very closely from now on. Help me pick through this to transfer it without damaging it.

Uber and Leet obey, moving around the lab and working delicately. They really are exceptionally good capes. Cranial returns forty five minutes later to find everything packed up and ready for transfer into Cranial's lab.

"The conscious clones are sedated. My machines are working on them. Soon I will figure out what on Earth Leet did, if I am lucky. Preliminary scans suggest that these are roughly speaking the originals. Hero, at least, matches a very distorted version of the copy in my archives. The powers they have demonstrated also indicate a surprisingly close copy when it comes to powers. This is very, very useful technology. Combined with our own abilities I think the world is going to change beyond conventional imagination over the next few years."

"Can we clone someone now?" You ask. "Make sure it's working properly? Or at least fill in one of the blanks? I want an idea of what we are dealing with."

"I suggest we wait until we are absolutely sure the current batch can be restored." Cranial turns to Leet. "The Brain Box, it functions by scanning the past with incredible precision, correct? It scans for brain patterns and biology, and then feeds it into the cloning machine. The source of the degradation is based on several factors. I may be able to reduce the degradation, but I cannot not remove it completely, or even close to completely. We are going to talk in detail. You will either accept my authority to arrest and contain you, are reject it and be turned into the police to stand trial for your new, extensive crimes. If you go with me the both of you will be imprisoned, but treated fairly as I study your technology. Do you consent to this?"

"Yes." Leet and Uber say in unison.

"Now, Amy, we are going to have a long talk about science while I work."

_______

"You expressed an interest in bio-tech based on the Corona Pollentia or Corona Gemma, removing the function of the brain responsible for powers and attaching it to a life support and user interface system."

"I have." You agree.

"You mentioned that when removing Skitter's Corona Gemma you were able to access her powers to a limited degree. Am I correct? However, it degraded rapidly."

"Within hours it was mostly dead." You agree.

"The source of this death was not natural biology?"

"Not as far as I could tell, no."

"Here is my suspicion. We know that powers are not truly biological, they merely attach to certain portions of biology. I think that removing the piece of the brain rapidly removed the signifier that agents lack onto, or part of it, such as memories."

"So you're saying my ideas for cloning the Corona Pollentia and applying it to suits wouldn't work?"

"I think it will prove impossible. The powers, or the agent as they are referred to in some very narrow fields, will rapidly become confused and break away from the Corona Pollentia. It may be possible to find a way around this, such as by storing long term memories but leaving the brain unaware. I am willing to try this, but I do not have high hopes. I believe agents are conscious to a limited degree, and actively resist certain results."

"You do?" You frown. This is surprising to you.

"Think about it. Victoria's force field collapses rapidly after any sufficient attack and rises a small but not entirely certain amount of time later, yet it holds against any attack. You cannot use your powers on yourself, but your powers define yourself in a thematically appropriate but scientifically meaningless way. Those are merely the most obvious you are familiar with. Agents clearly have intuitive and mental limits in addition to scientific and precise ones. This states that an intelligence is behind them. I think there is no chance that we are not dealing with conscious action with powers."

"Like, God?" You mutter.

"I prefer to think God would not give powers to monsters. Call it a Demiurge. A lesser, false God or supreme Devil. I would not bow to any creature that would create the Gray Boy or Siberian."

Cranial works delicately on the Brain Box.

"The Brain Box, it can bring back the dead." You think for a moment. "My aunt was killed by someone trying to impress Empire 88. Flechette died slowly and horribly for no good reason. Everyone who dies in an Endbringer fight. That's just the obvious ones. Death is, like, big. The biggest thing."

"I believe death is an evil, but I do not believe death is a supreme evil. There are worst things than death. Dying in a noble way is far better than becoming a monster to survive. Death should be feared, and defeated, but do not think that it is the most impressive thing. Love is far greater than death. There are miracles in this world, as we have seen today."

"I was thinking about my clone." You admit.

"She is more difficult to repair than the others." Cranial agrees.

"What about the Bonesaw clone? Could she repair mine? Some kind of biological android for me, Bonesaw and Sphere we have, and maybe you or Armsmaster..." You fumble around.

"I am thinking we could use Ichor, actually. Focus on your uneven knee. You can use your powers through that flesh, right?" You focus, and find that you can. "I am thinking that using her cells along with some extensive surgery and my own mental editing could create a new person with your powers. It would be best to have someone with different experiences and values. Reduce the number of failure points."

"That makes sense." You nod. "Another thing. I've been working with powers a bit. I'm not the only one. Ingenue, Teacher, they changed powers by working with brains."

"Teacher, that terrible man, may he rot in Hell, was highly versatile, while Ingenue was extremely powerful. I suspect that they did more than merely work with brains, though that was certainly a factor. Do you want to experiment in their footsteps, try to work with exchanging control for power, or range for control in the case of Ingenue, or in addition increasing control for the sake of power as Teacher did? Remove the headaches that plague the strongest thinkers? I could bring you data on their activities."

"I was thinking we'd clone them." You suggest.

"Ah." Cranial says. "If we must experiment, than experimenting with monsters would be a good way to experiment. We could bring them about, analyze them, perform experiments with your powers and their powers, and create something new. Heavy, extensive power refinement, heroic versions of the most dangerous villains dead or captured, a bio-tech city. Your dreams are very large, Amy Dallon."

"My everything is a piece of Heaven fallen to Earth. I see what the world could be when I look at her. How could I do anything less to prove my worth to her?" You whisper.

"If there is any reason to do grand things, it is love. I think that this is something to appreciate." Cranial examines a computer. "Oh, fuck. Things never just go well, do they?"

"What happened?" You ask.

"While Black Knight has been subdued and will likely be recoverable, he killed Legend in the battle." You shudder.

"Legend?"

"The leader of the Protectorate, and I would argue the fourth most powerful member, as Myrddin is exceptionally strong. My husband will be devastated."

"Can we bring him back?" You ask.

"Until the Brain Box has finished the job I cannot tamper with the brain involved. You have seen the complete, dangerous insanity of these clones. Tinkers and certain thinkers or masters I feel safe about raising. Someone who could murder us all in a moment of blind passion I feel far less secure about. When we have experimented further we might have an obvious solution."

"Okay." You sigh. Why can't anything just be right?

________

Victoria takes you one of her aerial, perfect, bruising hugs. Sophie hits your back and wraps around you a second later.

"We got her." Victoria says. She is beaming. "I feel safe again. She's, um..."

"Sedated in a pocket dimension. Sophie, we need to talk." Sophie smiles at you, looking increasingly thoughtful as you explain your plan.

"That was your first idea?" She asks.

"It was my best idea." You mutter.

"Okay, so Cranial wants to mess with my head so it makes sense to me?" Sophie asks seriously.

"Yes."

"I'd be Taylor's sister?"

"You'd be Annie's sister. Someone completely different. There are other options, but this just seemed like the safest to me. You'll be a less volatile sister than I am."

"You're right." Sophie looks very thoughtful. "I need to talk to some people first, clear my head a bit. See you in a couple hours." She kisses you on the cheek and runs off.

"She took that well." You admit. Almost too well.

"A bit of aura never hurt anyone." Victoria admits.

"So, how was, um, the fight?"

"Intense, terrifying, and really interesting, like most fights. How's the new weirdness with Cranial?"

"Intense, terrifying, and really interesting." You smile at Victoria. "So, I want to hear about your day."

"Alright. So there I was, carrying Julian..."

________

Interlude

[X] Eraser

[X] Shielder

[X] Blur

[X] Blur

The truth is, you're good. Too good for Brockton Bay or Albany. With your powers you could be in New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago.

Your father being Red Death kind of makes people worried about putting you in places with high population densities. You were in mindrape capital of the world for a damn good reason.

You complete your eight patrol of the city. It's all so boring. You don't need to be in some piddly ass city Wards team. You could be hitting every city preparing for a fight. There's got to be somewhere interesting right now. But no, you just expose your suit to possible danger zones. You're on the lookout for accidents, poisoning, murder (best), home invasion, vandalism, anything. God you're bored. Empire 88 tried to have a mundane civil war, but honestly, they stopped after you and Missy showed up.

You land next to Missy, who is slurping a smoothy.

"Anything?" She asks hopefully.

"Nah." You sigh.

"Dean got back together with Victoria." She says.

"Fuck." You commiserate. Dean and Missy would make a cute couple. Wait a minute...

"She broke up with Amy?" You ask. That's..."

"No." Missy shakes her head. "He can't see that she'll always like Amy more. He's letting himself be a fucking mistress because he doesn't have the balls to see Cranial. If only he'd..."

"This is fucking psychotic." You sigh. "It'll just hurt him, and he should not fuck with Dalcest." Missy shakes her head.

"I can't believe you're actually okay with that."

"They're lesbian sisters, and they bring in another girl for threesomes. A hot girl. They're the best thing ever." You smile at her.

"They make me want to throw up." Missy says with some conviction.

"I'm just hoping they leak a sex tape." You smile at her and rocket off to do another patrol of the city.

______

Mandatory counseling sucks. It's not like you like Dauntless, and you saw people die before Legend.

You sit back and glare at Jessica Yamada.

"Do you have anything you would like to discuss?" She asks.

"I need more money, the foster family here sucks, I want to come out of my secret identity, I want a fucking girlfriend, Director Lewis is an idiot, Battery's a little twit..."

"You've brought this all up before, Ryan." Jessica Yamada says firmly. "Do you want to move on?"

"I came here because New Wave is awesome, but we barely get to work with them. Shouldn't there be cross training or shit?"

"They are not a government super team, so no, there shouldn't be. New Wave has never trained with the Wards or Protectorate consistently."

"That's stupid. We're heroes. They're heroes. We should work together and know how our powers work. Just because most heroes are a bunch of chicken shits or getting secrets coke or something and want to keep their identities secret shouldn't mean they don't fucking respect the heroes who stand for something..."

"You said in our last appointment you respected Chevalier. He kept to a secret identity. What makes him different?"

"He actually went and did something without the Wards. He told me, once. He didn't need them. He actually stands up for what he believes in." You pause. "Stood."

"His death affected you significantly."

"He was my old team leader. We fought the fucking Simurgh together. Hell yes I'm sad about it! Don't make a big deal of it."

"You were transferred to Albany due to their team being too weak, according to the PRT files."

"Albany's a shithole that didn't need a Protectorate team. They only made one there to make experimental teams. Started with an all tinker team, then moved to a fact response team before most movers got killed, stuff like that. When I was there they just wanted me to protect AJ while they made sure she was a good enough mind rapist."

"You were transferred here to protect Amy."

"If shit ever really hits the fan I grab Amy and Victoria and fly them until Eidolon shows up, yeah." You nod.

"You told me your costume was meant to evoke Eidolon."

"Ana fucked it up, but yeah. Eidolon's the one of the big ones I liked, before Chevalier."

"You say liked."

"He's mean and he's strong. I'm mean and I'm strong. Nobody likes him, and nobody likes me."

"Chevalier and Missy like you, at the least."

"Missy likes me?" You kind of snort. "Missy likes Dean, and they belong together."

"You don't consider the age gap to be a problem?"

"Fuck no. She's a badass kid soldier. She's not some girly little flower. She can handle him just fine. Three years is pretty small an age gap, or will be."

"You seem to like her." Yamada is probing again. She should have stopped doing that.

"Sure I like her. Stop trying to figure out who I like. I like a lot of people."

"Very well. Is there anything you feel like talking about?"

"Well, Legend's dead. People will start moving up the chain." You shrug. "Kind of interesting to think about. They just did a big reshuffling of certain people, so they'll probably want to keep it relatively low key. Who do you think it will be?"

"I suspect Alexandria, myself. Not many people are comparable to her power or experience.

"Alexandria's a trickster. She's too smart. No one would trust her on top. She wouldn't want to be on top. They'll want someone else beyond reproach, but there's not many of those left near the top. I'd pick Hero, but coming back from the dead would freak people out. It did with my mom, and she wasn't half as big as Hero."

"How do you feel about the cloning and recovery of such heroes?"

"It's better than hoping the Three Blasphemies will decide to be nice again." You shrug. "I hope they get Chevalier. I haven't been a cape too long, so not many of my friends have died yet.

_______

There's only four Wards in Brockton Bay right now. The really impressive thing about that is only one died. Tecton is standing up front of the too large meeting room, pointing to one of those fucking white boards.

"So, parahuman crime has been pretty much wiped out in Brockton Bay for now, and with the Shepherds not many groups are ready to hit us." He looks up. "So, what should our mission goals be, now?"

"Protecting Panacea and Cranial." Dean says. "Cooperation with the Toybox and the Shepherds is by far the highest priority. We need to ensure the flow of new capes from them is not disrupted.

"Alright, good." Tecton says. "How do we do that?"

"We could train with the Shepherds." You suggest. "Talk to them about group exercises, them and New Wave. The better we are at working together the faster we could react to threats to the cloning situation."

"That makes sense." Tecton nods. "I'll talk with Director Lewis about that. Any other ideas?"

"The city plan. Are there defenses there? Might it be reasonable to prepare it to defend Shepherd HQ and delay most forces that attack there?" Missy suggests.

"I do not think so." Tecton says. "I thought about it. Too many different kinds of capes, and Endbringers can break through anything I could try."

"What about living with them?" You suggest. Dean gives you an odd look. "Seriously. A single big apartment building, or mansion, or something? The more capes under one roof, the safer, right? I'm here to grab Amy and Victoria if anything happens, mostly because Abigale will pop off into a pocket dimension at the first sign of trouble. Wouldn't it make sense to keep me near them a lot of the time?"

"That's not a bad idea practically, but PR and socially it needs work." Tecton says. "For one, you have a secret identity that we do not want revealed."

"So Dad butchered people to get the Three Blasphemies to bring back Mom." You shrug. "I didn't kill anyone. It's like, a thing to show no matter how bad your parents are you can find a home here. Villain kids unite as heroes!" Tecton sighs.

"Talk to Glenn Chambers." He says.

Fuck.

_________

You log onto the internet.

There's a big flame war about if Hero and the remaining two are the "Triumvirate" now or if it's a "Gang of Four" with Siberian under control. Stupid. There's a the usual discussion of Dalcest, on the eighth thread, with the usual camps not really listening to each other. Briar has her usual creepy fans writing sensory deprivation fanfic about her, and you're usually considered the most "appropriate" pairing with her. Briar's a little shit, but it freaks her out, so you happily heap praise on the idiots writing smut for really underage capes.

You think the Trick/Siberian smut's way worse. Sure, they're both hot, but Trick doesn't deserve this kind of shit. Her life's actually fucked up by her powers. All she wanted was for people to be nice to her in that camp, and then she had to be stuck in a room most of the day if she didn't want to change lives of strangers on the bus.

Your phone rings.

"Hey, Ana." You say into the phone. Your sister calls you every night.

"Hey, Ryan." She sounds tired. "How's Brockton Bay?"

"Sucks." You sigh. "Can you visit soon?"

"No, I can't. Nilbog's doing something in his territory, so we're all staying up late to see if it's another monument to his cock or if he's building some kind of nuke." You sigh. Fuck Ellisburg.

"So, they might be able to bring back more dead people." You say.

"I heard. This'll cause a shitstorm. Pretty much everyone has someone they'll want on the list. Think they'll be able to bring back everyone?"

"Probably not. We're not that lucky." You shrug. "Also, an odd 100 billion people, not much room for that is there? Not with Endbringers, and Simurgh will break it anyway."

"Yeah, she will, but we'll get something good out of it before that, I hope." Ana groans. "Oh look, it's another giant tower. I wonder what is going to be on top!"

"Nilbog." You say it like the curse it is. "So, how's the new boyfriend?"

"Dumped his ass. Worthless loser. If we could just take off these stupid masks..." She starts her usual rant. A dangerous, provocative superheroine would probably get a lot more dates. Same for a badass, powerful superhero.

It's an hour before she has to hang up.

________

End interlude.

________

"Victoria, do you trust me?"

The two of you are surveying the construction crew for the city rebuild, one of the closest ones to your location.

"Sure I do."

"We made a deal at Kalahari. I'm yours and you're mine. You offered and I accepted. There were no exceptions are loopholes. All of me belongs to you, and all of you... If you want to back out I understand."

"If I backed out you'd, what? Kill yourself? Date a fucker like Madison to hurt me again? Start a coke habit?" Victoria sighs. "Don't play this little game. I'm stuck with you." You feel a flash of pain.

"Victoria..."

"I need you as a sister, you need me as a lover. There's not a lot of flexibility here. I need you and you need me. I told you what I want. I can't take it from you."

"I know that you're afraid that I'll take everything from you; that's the last thing I want. I need you to be you, the hero that you are, but you have been holding back on me. I didn't know that you felt pressured into this. I didn't know that you were still afraid of me. I didn't know too much. That's mostly my fault, I think, but also yours. Your fears, doubts, worries, and pains are mine. I want them. I need them."

"Amy." Victoria begins very carefully. "I broke back when we did this. I broke because you were in pain. You had to know that. This was never what I wanted, it's what you needed. We've been over all of this, haven't we? I. Want. To. Neuter. You. That's what you can offer me. That's the only thing that's better than this, and it makes you sick to your stomach, so I didn't do it."

"I didn't put my mind in your hands because I wanted to prove something to you. I did it because the decision was impossible for me and you were willing to take that burden from me. That's what trust is. It's a gift to the person extending the trust from the person being trusted. It means that you don't have to carry your burdens alone."

"Oh cut it out." Victoria stares at you. "It's..." She shakes her head.

"I want you to take care of me. I love when you do. But if that's all we have then this isn't going to work. It has to be a partnership. Sometimes I'll have to take care of you and that's okay. Can you do that? Can you just accept my love without giving anything back? Can you lean on me sometimes?"

Victoria looks at you very carefully but doesn't say a word.

"There's just one rule I want between us going forward. No secrets. No 'I'm fine's. No 'it's nothing's. That destroys relationships."

"So you want to take away my weapons, and leave yours?" Victoria answers.

[X] Write in.

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Silence

[X] Plan hyzmarca

"Weapons? This isn't a war. I don't want any weapons. I didn't even know that I had weapons." Victoria gives you a very curious expression.

"Goddamnit, I know you better than anyone else in the world, but when it comes to us I'm a blind idiot. I've spent too many sleepless nights for too many years letting my mind twist things one way or the other; I can't tell my nightmares and fantasies from reality anymore. When you kissed me in Albany I thought that all my dreams had come true and you actually felt the same way, and I did the stupidest thing I could have done. I thought that you'd be happy about me dating Madison, that it would take some of the pressure off of you. And when you were jealous of her I thought you were jealous for the right reasons, because you sort of wanted to be with me, not because you thought you were losing your sister. " Victoria reaches out, and you meet her hand before it reaches your hair.

"Dinah Alcott told me that we had a twenty one percent chance of getting married. I stupidly didn't ask if we'd both be happy. I think I was afraid of how far that number would drop if I did. I want that more than anything else, us with the white picket fence and the two point three kids. I don't need it, though, and I don't want it if it's a sacrifice. You're not going to lose me. No matter what happens I'll always be your sister and you'll always be the most important person in my world. " She opens her mouth and you put your fingers on her lips.

"I'm just saying that this won't work if it's you making a sacrifice for me. I know that you love me and that you love to love me, but that isn't enough. You have to love being loved by me, too. Because I love you, and I love loving you. And that sounds incredibly stupid now that I've said it out loud. Partnership, that's what I'm saying. I don't want a sacrifice. In the long run, that will hurt us both. That's why I offered to take a break for a few months, before you freaked out. I honestly didn't know that you needed me so much. I thought that you'd be happy for the space, because I'm an idiot." Victoria waits for you to finish.

"Can you be my partner? Can you let me be your partner?" Victoria is silent for a minute, and you let her wait.

"You'd need to break up with Sophie." She says first. "I love her, I like her, but if we're..." She reaches for a word. "Lovers, that's better, if we're lovers, Sophie is brought in because we aren't lovers. Dean too, really. I don't want to hurt Dean, but the whole pussyfooting around with other people is because we have problems. I think you know that." You feel a pit in your stomach.

"She doesn't deserve that, and neither does Dean."

"So? They're two of my absolute favorite people, and they need us and want us, but I want Dean because I want a husband and a lover. If I have a wife and a lover he'd be a friend. The reason I want Sophie, even though seeing you two together makes me want to rip off Dean's balls, is to keep you happy and interested and distracted. If we're just..." She struggles again.

"That's not the only thing. It's big, but there's more."

"Can we get away from that?" Victoria points at the construction. "Head up high?"

"Of course." You hop into her arms and you rocket up.

"I kissed you in Albany because I love you. I feel, not the same way, but we love each other. I kissed you because I can't stand to see you in pain. I ran, but it wasn't because you were stupid. It wasn't the tongue, it was everything. I needed time, babe. I needed so much time to understand how I felt. Honestly, Madison? It was sexual, my jealousy. I think it was. I didn't want to admit it, but there was so much sex underlying it. You confessed everything to me and then were walking around with her? Your heart was in the right place. You weren't even wrong. It's just a big, ugly mess inside my head right not, and it's the same in your cute noggin. There's nowhere to stand here. We mess each other up, there's no rock, nowhere that isn't pulling everything apart again. I can't set boundaries for how I feel, and you can't either." Victoria sighs. "We hurt each other so very much."

"What can I do?" You ask. Victoria feels around in your purse and pulls our your cellphone.

"One text to Sophia Hess. No voice. I'm a cruel, psychotic bitch sometimes. I think I need to see you give something up." You stare at her.

"This isn't what I mean at all. You need to love the things I do. I need to pamper you, please you, make you as happy to be with me as I am to be with you. I can't just show affection to you by hurting someone else."

"I want to marry you." Victoria says flat out. "I really want to marry you. I absolutely promise you, as long as I am unhappy, we will not get married. I can't do that to myself. It's one of the only things I won't do for you, marry you if I don't want to. To be wives we need to do this properly. I can't be a chickenshit, hiding behind a poor little black girl who follows us around like a puppy, forcing my face into my whipping boy's chest whenever I can't deal with us."

"There's just one thing that I ever really wanted. I wanted it before I triggered, before you triggered. It MADE me trigger, twice. I wanted you, in my bed, in my arms, loving me. Wife isn't a strong enough word. Wives do the laundry, and get frustrated when their husbands are at work, and have sex once a week when they get elbowed into it. I want you to be my Lover. I'll give up two thirds of my waking life to trance doing what I should in all rights hate to have that slice of heaven for five hours every day, and I'll do it willingly, lovingly, blissfully."

"We've been dating for, um, less than three weeks." Victoria whispers into your ear. "We barely know who are are as a couple. We're eighteen year old girls. We've made so much progress. You are glorious. They say we might be able to get 520 clones in the first year of production. We have just under 900 members of the Protectorate and Wards left. In two years we could outnumber the villains, thanks to you. We're growing up and it's big and scary. I can be scared, right?"

"Of course you can, sister. Big sister, little sister, girl I loved at first sight. Lover, mother, best friend, wife." You almost chant. "I just want to make it alright."

"I have to think a lot now. Amy Dallon. I can't be apart from you, but you were right, we need more time apart. We need our own lives, our own friends. We're building the Shepherds into something horrible. I can feel it. They're growing into an incestuous family, a cult, a fiefdom for me. We're going to close ourselves against the outside world because we're freaks and violent and dangerous. I don't like the path we're on."

"What do you want to do?" You ask gently.

"I think I should join the Protectorate." Victoria answers. "I love what I've started with the Shepherds. I think it's so much better than the Protectorate will ever be, but I think, if we're to be equals, we need separate spheres. We can't be stuck in our own team. I'm too young for this. We need adult supervision, guidance. All my worst instincts are coming up. I made Dean eat soap. I tried to make you break up with Sophie. This is the space I think I need. I think for once I just need to be fucking God damned normal."

"Normal for my incestuous lover?" You plead.

"Breaking up, us breaking up, is not on the table. I need to have a real job, a Protectorate membership, not being a warrior cult leader. I don't like what I'm becoming, what I've started to become, more and more, ever since I started building my team. This is a dream team. The Shepherds are stronger than half the Protectorate teams without you, and with you we're much better. I thought about this kind of thing for years, but it's too much."

"This doesn't feel like you." You mutter.

"It's because of what you said. You asked to be my partner. Just for a second, I hated you. Just for one second, and it made me realize how bad this is. I want to be in charge. I want to be completely, totally in charge of everyone, forever. If that makes me hate you, that urge, then I don't want to be that person. I would do anything not to be the person who hates you. As long as I love you, and you love me, I can survive anything."

"What else do you need to be happy?" You ask after a moment.

"Completely honest? No secrets?"

"Of course."

"Cut it down to eight hours a day, and let them burn." Victoria suddenly drops, and then stops. "There's a reason I pamper you so much. You're my healbot. You have a huge responsibility. I can't take more out of you, even if you're happy with it. I can't let you be my lover. I don't even know what you would do. The only way we communicate, the way you make me happy, is letting me take charge. At the very least you need to find some way to make me happier. But I think you can't be a saint and my wife. the sainthood would hang over everything."

"That's terrible." You shudder.

"This is what you wanted. You wanted me to be terrible, to be honest, no secrets, no weapons, no lies. We're not at war. This is the scenario. I will leave the Shepherds and join the Protectorate. You will be a normal, sane person, not a crazy person who works twelve hours a day to marry her sister. We will date each other like normal, sane young adults. If we're to be happy together we will fight our crazy, not revel in it. We will date until our 20th birthday, working through our issues. Then, Cranial will scan us, and if we both truly want to, we will get married. Is this okay?"

[X] "I can't." Not any of it. Not cutting back on the healing, not losing Sophie, not having Victoria leave in even the smallest way.

[X] "Maybe." You can take some of it. You can't take all of it. (Write in: Which demands are too much? Note that you do not have complete flexibility for this write in. I will have at least one major demand conceded if a "maybe" wins, or any similar "negotiation" write in.)

[X] "Yes." You want to be a better lover, right?

[X] Plan Xicree.

"You are running." you speak with a quiet intensity. "You are running away from everything we've made, every sacrifice and every person we've dragged into this. You are running from your self and you are running from me and you just don't get that you are NEVER GOING TO OUTRUN YOUR OWN SHADOW... No matter what you do to try to feel 'normal'... like you've never been... like I'VE never been... You want to run away and make yourself into a doll so that you can feel in control again. You are trying to have control by giving it away... and I know you Victoria, I know you down to every cell in your body, the imprint of dna you leave on the sheets and I say that you will NEVER be happy with what you just described." Victoria opens her mouth. "You won't ever love it." She closes her mouth.

"And the worst thing is... you'll just be running away and torturing yourself just to prove that you still have control... that your FEARS of fucking it all up would be wrong. But you know what Victoria... you'd be Carol all over again. We are really our mother's daughters... in all the worst ways." Victoria is silent, stunned.

"You want normality? Then MAKE normality, You define it... not the world. YOU. And if you want to throw away every good thing that we've achieved... then so be it. I will go with them..." Victoria has tears in hr eyes.

"... it hurts to say that too... it hurts like I'm carving myself with a knife. But I now i know it isn't you talking to me... heaven itself on earth, the girl who took me in and become my mother, my sister and my friend... Its your fears and your doubts..."

"Like the ones that you never told me about... like the words that Jack Slash told you about me, told you about you that you've kept buried but clearly not forgotten." Victoria floats, and you float with her, high above Brockton Bay.

"I love you Victoria... and I know that this fear that is driving you to throw away all the GOOD people who love and adore you too... it will go away someday and I will see you again." Victoria starts holding you very, very tightly.

"But until then we can go without you. Go pretend that you can be happy, and normal with the Protectorate... I'll stay here leaving the wound open until you come back to mend it." Victoria floats in silence for what feels like forever.

"He said he'd forgive me." Victoria answers. "That's what Jack Slash could give me. It sounds so stupid and crazy. The way he talked, Amy. You have no idea. He was the monster under the bed, a killer and a leader of killers. When we talked he said you could never forgive me, you love me too much to see what I do wrong. I dislocated your hip and you thanked me for it. That was so soon before we arrived there. He said, or meant, it's a blur, but I got that I'm so good to you that you can't call me out on my bullshit. You can't know when I'm wrong. Your morality, it isn't black or white, it's blue and orange. That which pulls us together is good, that which pulls us apart is bad. All you did was give me a little tongue and you think it's worse than what we did to Taylor or Tattletale. He explained that Bonesaw could change the Nine, give them an immunity to my aura. People I never met, people I never influenced, to make me feel normal. I've always been special, Amy. Before you came I was a princess, an only child, loved and adored. As soon as I grew people loved me. My parents unmasked when I was six years old. Every day I was special, loved, admired, or hated, envied. He offered me a way out of that. A way to just be normal. To live among legends and killers, to do whatever I wanted. I grew up and I'd have to be a hero. I'd need to risk my life again and again. All I had is the force field. It was so fragile. Every day someone could figure it out or I'd get hit with bad luck and I could die. So I used my aura. Made someone too afraid to fight, explained why I couldn't show up for the fight. I hit so hard because the I couldn't risk another chance at my aura going down. I wanted to join the Wards. I wanted a secret identity. I wanted us to go off and live somewhere else, not having to be Glory Girl. I could be Victory, or Nike, if the shoes would let me. I like the name Nike, goddess of victory, a minor one, like your namesake. I actually looked up an endorsement deal with them, once. I was so scared, and the moment I showed it someone would ask why. Why would an invincible girl be afraid? They'd know I had a weakness, and then some gangbanger or supervillain would guess right. In the end, all it took was Tattletale." Victoria Dallon, your lover, kisses you on the lips. It's the sweetest she's ever tasted.

"We're just kids. We still are, but back when you triggered you were thirteen years old. You're allowed to be weak, or crazy, or scared. You don't have to be Alexandria."

"Even Legends die." Victoria sighs. "That took a lot out of me. Legend is dead. We lost one of the Triumvirate. We lost him to Uber and Leet. Alexandria can die, too. I'm sure she can. Eidolon will die. Scion himself will die. I can't think of the Brain Box as life. It just doesn't feel right. It's something out of Hell. Monsters come out of it and we make them into heroes, but it's still monsters. You're a piece of Heaven fallen to the Earth, but you don't bring back the dead, you make a zombie into a new person."

"What do you really want, Victoria? Really want, not something you tell yourself you should want." Victoria is silent for a while.

"I want to fuck you. I know that. You make everything clearer. I want, I kind of want a threesome with Mom." She laughs. "Like, just to do it, to know we did it, to stop pretending. I want to kill villains, bite their ears off and let them see the blood in my mouth before they die. I want to skin Tattletale alive. I want to feel Dean's cock and balls go down my throat. I want to see the look on Taylor's face when she remembers what we did to her, and then to let her know we're doing it again. Is what I want any better than running away like a scared little girl?" Victoria laughs hoarsely.

"This isn't you." You whisper.

"I don't have to be one thing. I'm the Liar and the Mother, the Maiden and the Warrior. I drive you crazy and put you back together. I hate your touch but love your kiss one day and love your touch and hate your kiss the next. I. Am. Fucked. Up. That's what I am. It's not that I'm kind or I'm cruel. People aren't kind or cruel. We're like rivers, fast at one point, slow at another. I want everything and I want to curl up somewhere dark and quiet for the pain to stop hurting." Victoria is crying again. Did she ever stop? Carefully, delicately, she takes the skin off your cheek in her lips and bites. You feel the rush of pain as Victoria begins to lick your wound.

"You like my blood." You say. "Even when I was little you kissed my scrapes to make it better every time I hurt.

"I love your blood." Victoria answers. "I love it. I love it so fucking much. I want to taste it every day. I want to give you some weird medical appliance to bleed you carefully whenever I'm in the mood." Victoria returns to your cheek.

What have you gotten yourself into?

________

The two of you eat at McDonald's. Victoria carefully, expertly divides the meals in two. You pause for a moment.

"I have an idea." You smile and take the half Victoria reserved for herself. You pull one of your tentacles in the suit out and slit the back of your hand, and mix it on a French fry. You reach out and pop it into Victoria's mouth.

Victoria is stunned, and then begins to smile very widely.

"I think we'll be doing this for a while." Victoria says.

You're going to be hurting yourself for every meal.

You can't wait. You have to cut yourself a couple more times to give her the seasoning of your body.

Victoria is crying again by the time you finish.

"Happy?" You ask.

"Oh my God, Amy. Oh my God." She smiles through her tears. "Just, this. This, this, this! Forever."

"Forever." You agree.

________

Sophie is waiting for you and Victoria back home.

"Just got the preliminary plan for the cloning." She shows you a letter with a colorful looking pamphlet. Victoria pulls it out and starts reading.

"Hm, seems the plan is to give a 20% pay hike to anyone who agrees to the cloning, and all the clones. They want you to give a complete cosmetic, medical, and psychiatric consultation to everyone who goes through, and to have Cranial do the same, with the addition of up to a hundred years of additional memories and skills in each clone and the original. Does not need parental consent to be cloned, but does for all of the benefits. Not sure about the logic there, probably some weird precedent with abortion or something. Thinker estimates put the first year of production at 520 clones, with uncertain numbers for subsequent years." Victoria smiles. "Yeah, the good guys are about to win."

"Cranial's been running scans all day. Dragon and a whole crew came by to help her set up more scanning machines, and she's getting more assistants."

"Did they ever say if they could get Alexandria or Eidolon clones?" Sophie asks.

"According to Cranial she talked about it. Alexandria's brain is actually taken over by her powers, or 'agent' to use a term for the powers as an object, not the use of them. Can't scan her. Eidolon, they apparently have a top secret reason for not cloning him that Cranial won't tell me. They already got Myrddin scanned, and Narwhal. Apparently Chevalier's top priority with the Brain Box, as they think he's relatively safe given how his powers work. Glyph, Rime, Strider, Bastion, Exalt, Dispatch, Mouse Protector, a few others."

"Wait, Mouse Protector?" Sophie raises an eyebrow.

"Don't make fun of her. She was captured by the Slaughterhouse Nine and sewed together with a supervillain. It took Cranial and Mr. Storkfish to fix her." Sophie is rather still. "She's actually a pretty good cape. Super strong, super agile, can teleport with a limit that's not too bad. Really experienced."

"Huh." Sophie nods. "What about Armsmaster, or Black Knight?"

"He's scanned too. He apparently likes his super armor, but is willing to have more of him around without it."

"Hero, Dragon?" Sophie asks.

"Dragon, she said no. Hero, not unless we can clone Cranial, and that's the same issue as Alexandria. Most of her mind isn't in her brain, it's weird power stuff."

"I see. Well, still sounds like a good haul." Sophie shrugs.

"It really is." You agree. "So, are you going to agree to it?"

"I'm thinking one or two." Sophie says. "Like, maybe one for Houston, and one to go with your clone and Victoria's, wherever they go. Madison signed up for it, but she wants a clone here,she's insisting she goes in pairs, but besides that she'll get mixed into different teams."

"Huh." You pause and envision twin Madisons. It's not the worst mental image.

"Well, it's about time for the announcement of the new leader of the Protectorate." Victoria ushers you into the living room. The rest of the Shepherds are here. To your surprise, so are Eric and Melissa.

"Hey." You smile at them.

"Hey." Eric smiles back.

"I wanted to check in on them." Crystal explained. "But then I got busy here, so..."

"They can stay. They're always welcome." Victoria sits down next to Melissa. You sit next to Victoria, and Sophie sits next to you. Mason turns the TV on.

______

"We have suffered tragedies the last few months." Director Costa-Brown starts. "I lost a dear friend." She is flanked by Eidolon on her right, Alexandria on her left. "The duties of a cape are never easy. There is a reason they are called heroes. We could have given them many names, but in this world only hero is appropriate. We have suffered losses, but we have also experienced many gains." The camera pans out, showing Hero standing next to Alexandria, and a black and white stripped man standing next to Eidolon. How did he do that? It's disconcerting. "The truth is that I have spoken to every leader of the Protectorate, and no one believes they can fill Legend's shoes. He was an inspiration to all of us. There are very few capes who combine his power, his experience, and his decency. I have searched far and wide for someone who I trust to lead the greatest heroes of the world, someone who goes to every Endbringer fight, someone who I give my absolute trust. I believe there is one person who qualifies and who will take the job."

There is a hushed silence on the screen and in the room as the figure walks out. She wears a thin, mechanical costume, possibly some kind of power armor, and her face looks like it is prosthetic rather than a mask. Perhaps it is.

"It is my honor and privilege to introduce the new leader of the Protectorate of the United States and Canada. I would like you all to give a warm welcome to the world's greatest tinker. Say hello to Dragon."

A kind of stunned applause breaks out around you in the living room.

"I thought she wasn't a member of the Protectorate." Sophie says.

"Honorary member." Madison whispers.

"I am honored to take this position." Dragon announces. "I am young to take this honor. I am humbled by the respect and trust shown to me. I believe I can make a difference in the Protectorate greater than the Guild, and so have accepted this role. I hope to live up to the example Legend set for me. I will never be able to replace Legend. He was a good man, one of the best. The world is a worse place for his passing. As my father once said..."

___________

"Dragon." Victoria shakes her head as she brushes your hair.

"Dragon." You agree, brushing Sophie's hair.

"Stop wriggling." Sophie says to Victoria, while brushing Victoria's hair.

______

Time skip.

[X] One week.

[X] One month.

[X] One year.
Annie scares the fuck out of you.

You suspect Cranial did this on purpose.

"Amy, look what I did!" She squeals and it sends a shiver up your spine. She presents you with the cupcake. "Want it?"

"Sure." You refrain from flinching as you pick it up and taste it carefully. Not much poison can work on you, so it's safe. Probably.

"Is it good?" Annie says. The intense stare sends a shiver up your spine.

"It is good, Annie. Very good." You pause. "Do you have homework?"

"All done, Aunt Amy." There's something in her smile. "I got it done while you were at work." You're not entirely sure why Sophie thought "aunt" was the appropriate term for you. You suspect that most answers would not reassure you.

"Um, what are your plans for the day?" You ask.

"I'm spending them with you and Vicky and Sophie!" Annie says. You're not sure why the supposed submissive awe doesn't make her call Victoria by her proper name. "What are you going to do?"

"Um, Victoria's going to think of something." Why did you leave her eyes normal? Why?

"She bosses you around too much." Annie says. That is not to be dignified with a response.

"Hey Annie!" Sophie says, gliding through the door with her powers. The two short girls enter a quick hug and turn to you. "Hey, light of my life."

"Hey, um, girl." You wish you could think of a better term of endearment. Annie is looking at you like she does not approve.

"Is that what you think of me. Girl?" Sophie giggles. You're not sure you like her giggling anymore. It reminds you too much of Annie. "Get in here you cradle robber."

"It's not that big a difference." You mutter as you enter the embrace. "We don't even know how old I really am, anyway."

"Ooh, you could be twins!" Annie gasps happily. "Like, separated at birth, a tragic mystery, long lost sisters reunited at last!!"

"I'm black, Annie." Sophie says gently.

"There is such a thing as black and white twins! It's super rare, but it happens! I was thinking this TV show was so silly, but then I looked it up and found out that sometimes it really does happen." Annie babbles cheerfully as the three of you walk arm and arm down the hall, deeper into Cranial's lair.

"Hello, Panacea." Jouster, leader of the New York Wards. He looks very serious, and rather imposing.

"Hello." You shake his hand. "I fought besides Flechette. She was very brave."

"Oh, I had forgotten about her. There's a lot of Wards in New York. I didn't know her personally." Jouster gives your girlfriend and her sister a quizzical look. "What are they doing here? Don't they go to school?"

"Nope." Annie says cheerfully. She does way too much cheerfully. "I'm a Shepherd. No one else is going to school, though Vicky gives me homework." She pauses. "A lot of homework." You need something to keep her busy.

"Aren't you worrying you're missing out?" Jouster gives Sophie a critical look.

"Not in the slightest." Sophie moves closer to you. "It would be nice if there was some crime to actually fight, though. It's getting boring when Amy's at work. It's why we came."

"Makes sense." Jouster says.

"I'm kind of surprised they sent a Ward to supervise today. I am sure you're qualified, but I would have thought they'd want someone higher ranking to greet the first batch."

"Endbringer attack coming up." Jouster explains. "Everyone's on high alert. They would rather spare the Ward." You sigh. "Ideally they won't hit until they're ready, but worst case, better to do it here."

"Ooh, who are we meeting again?" Annie asks. "I keep forgetting."

"We sped through Myrddin and Narwhal, for the coming attack." You explain. "It will slow down the next harvest, but if an Endbringer hits those two are highest priority."

"Harvest, ick." Annie says.

"Refresh might be a better term." Cranial and Strider walk in. Strider's not a member of the Protectorate, but he is high in the queue for first regular batch. "Harvest, however, is probably more accurate. How have you been, Annie? Are the Shepherds treating you alright?"

"Yes, Grandma!" Annie says. Maybe it's just your imagination, applying human expressions to something very inhuman, but Cranial looks a bit freaked out by the title.

"I am not your grandmother, Annie. I really am unsure how you came to that conclusion. What have you been hearing?"

"Well, you made me Sophie's sister, but we've got a mom, so you're not my mom. Grandma just seems right." Annie shrugs. "Is it a big deal?"

"I would much rather you call me Abigale." Cranial says, her voice seeming slightly more stressed than would make sense for her voice maker.

"KK, Abby." Annie says. An actual sigh, one that only makes you remember the maxi-pad grave, comes out of Cranial.

"Huh." Annie shakes her head. "So his name was Brian." Everyone freezes up for a moment.

"Guys." She shakes her head. "I remember a dude named Brian not being able to talk. I'm not her, okay? Stop freaking out about this. We're here for something really cool."

"Sorry. You don't know how scary she was." Madison says, unveiling dramatically. Annie claps her hands in delight, as usual.

"Ooh, do it again!"

"If I do it again, you won't remember it." Madison scoops Annie into a twirling embrace. "So, we're going to see the first two really big cloning events?"

"Yep." Jouster says. "Now if a certain someone would, ah." A girl emerges from the bathroom, looking like she's sick or on drugs. "Panacea, if you please, could you help Roulette?"

"Yes." You touch her forehead and do your best, but Thinker headaches are always tricky.

"What did you see, Roulette." Cranial asks gently.

"Seven futures, several hours each, none of them go wrong. Last chance to back out." Roulette smiles at you, looking better.

"I see no reason to. Are we all ready to proceed?" Cranial asks.

"Yes, ma'am." Jouster bows to Cranial, and Roulette follows a second later. Annie curtsies before Sophie whispers to her to cut it out. You follow her in.

"Strider, if you please." Cranial says, and he vanishes. A minute later Narwhal arrives.

"Please get into the tank." You point to the tank with the large, sleeping, brainless mass of flesh that will soon be her clone. Narwhal climbs in and you get to work with the body and bodily fluids. It only takes a few minutes, with Narwhal right there, to make the sleeping copy. Narwhal climbs out, her scales removing the water from her skin, and Cranial's machine falls down. You open an easy access point to the brain and Cranial's machine buzzes for several minutes, releasing the stored, fast grown crystals that rapidly collapse into all the neurons of a new Narwhal. You wait until the brain looks fully developed and signal the machine, which withdraws. You seal up the outer layer and kick start her awake.

"Hello, me." Narwhal Prima looks down at her clone.

"Hello, me." Narwhal Secunda looks up. "Wait, why am I naked?"

"Just use your powers." Prima says. She gives an annoyed look at Cranial.

"I can say with 95% confidence that I am not the person you should be annoyed at." Cranial says. The Narwhals laugh, and Secunda clothes herself in the scaly force fields before levitating herself out of the tank and standing besides her twin. The two look at each other for several seconds, and then start to circle each other until you lose track of which is which, before stopping.

"I feel I should make a joke involving us kissing." One says.

"Not in front of the children." The other says.

"People kiss in front of me all the time." Annie says. You feel the glares of two very powerful, highly respectable heroines turn towards you.

"Um, people with kid sisters can kiss, right?" You mutter, blushing.

"All the time?" One asks.

"Yes. Lots and lots and-"

"She's just messing with you." Cranial says. "I have seen the minds of everyone involved. Annie is not being exposed to anything inappropriate for her psychological age."

"That is a relief." One of the Narwhals says. The two look at each other.

"What was the plan?" The other asks, presumably Secunda.

"We wait here until the Endbringer hits. Behemoth's turn, of Simurgh's." Prima says. "We stay close to Strider that way."

"Roulette, would you mind showing Narwhal..." Jouster pauses. "How do you wish to be referred to? One individual, plural individuals, do you have another name picked out?"

"We will discuss it while we eat." One of the Narwhals says. "Let's discuss this in the cafeteria." Roulette leads the Narwhals away.

"Strider, please." Cranial says. It's nearly ten minutes before he returns.

"Hello, Myrddin." Jouster offers his hand to shake Myrddin's.

"Hello, Jouster." Myrddin returns the handshake. "Due to my personal involvement with the issue, I officially cede full command and responsibility to you until I return to Chicago."

"What is going to happen to your clone?" Jouster asks.

"Prospero will stay in Brockton Bay on the chance that an Endbringer attacks the cloning facilities until the fight is over, on the off chance of a feint, double event, or Simurgh plan hits Brockton Bay while we are distracted." Myrddin explains.

"Alright then." You smile at Myrrdin. "Undress and get in the tank."

"Is there really a reason for me to undress?" He asks curiously.

"Strictly speaking you don't have to, but it is easier if something goes wrong for the tank to absorb various fluids." You tell him. You look over at Annie. "Um, look away."

"Sure, Aunt Amy." She turns her back on Myrddin and puts her hands over her eyes. "Tell me when I can look."

"Then I will disrobe." Myrddin does so and enters the tank. The cloning process is quicker the second time, though Myrddin had made some requests for Prospero. The lad who emerges is much younger than the perhaps fifty year old cape, and on Myrrdin's request becomes quite a bit physically healthier, as does the original. After a few more minutes you're done, Myrddin climbs out of the tank, dries off, gets dressed and looks down as Cranial's machine comes down and works on Prospero for you to kick start.

"Hello, young padawan." Myrddin says.

"I'm you, mostly." Prospero scowls up at his originator. "Got swimming trunks, anyone?"

"Here you go!" Annie says, handing them down, her eyes still closed. Everyone stares at her for several seconds.

"Why did you bring swimming trunks?" Sophie asks carefully.

"I thought someone might want them for the whole cloning thing." Annie says cheerfully. You wonder why you didn't think of that. Why Cranial didn't think of that.

"Am I missing something? Why is there a young girl here?" Prospero asks. He sounds somewhat worried. "Did my memories get changed so this feels somehow more inappropriate than it is?"

"It's giving birth, silly!" Annie says. "How is that something I can't see?"

"There are several very good answers to that." Myrddin says. "But the truth is, I think it is best to humor the genius loci of Brockton Bay."

"A genius loci." Prospero looks at her with some surprise as you see swirling in the dark, cloudy water of the tank.

"She sees and hears everything in the city, excluding that which she deems too private. She is a benevolent protector, greater than any of us in her own, unique way." Myrddin pats Annie on her head.

"Can I open my eyes now?" She asks. Myrrdin looks at Prospero.

"With the swimming trunks I can't imagine anything too damaging to your innocent state." Myrddin laughs. "You may see, my lady."

"Super duper!" She says and opens her eyes. You wish Madison's never said that in front of her. Prospero walks out. "Would someone kindly direct me to the nearest shower?"

"I can do that." Sophie says, and she leads them off down the hall.

Then you get a call from Victoria.

"Is it here?" You ask.

"Beijing." She answers and you slump with relief.

"Which?" You ask.

"Simurgh."

[X] "Let's get ready." You need to be as close to this fight as possible. Mitigate the casualties.

[X] "How's the hospital?" You can't get near the Simurgh, not even close, but you can heal anyone who they can bring here.

[X] "See you soon." You, and the people you love, are waiting it out in a pocket dimension. This is too big. Endbringer change of plans are too risky.

[X] "How's the hospital?" You can't get near the Simurgh, not even close, but you can heal anyone who they can bring here.

The hospital is prepared and organized. Two Scapegoats and Ichor greet you.

"Hey." Ichor smiles and punches you in the arm. "You dawg." She shakes her head. "Never would've thought you had it in you."

"You look pretty good for a girl who got eaten by Siberian." You laugh.

"Wasn't the first time." She laughs. "Also, he's going be Treat now." You pause and slowly consider the implications.

"That's terrible."

"He says if he gets a clone, the next one will be Dare according to Trick." Ichor shudders. "I do not envy the girl.

"Neither do I. So, how's Albany?"

"Dallas, now. They closed up the Albany Protectorate again. Without Blur and Trick there kind of wasn't much room for it. Briar left, and the rest of us got shipped off to different spots." Ichor shrugs.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Don't be. Albany sucked." Ichor looks up at the large screen. "Okay, stuff is coming in. We should be quiet." You see blurs of something stretched out in green and gray that the screen identifies as Eidolon swirling around Simurgh. The blur moves incredibly quickly, seems to withstand Simurgh's attacks quite well, and whenever it makes contact with Simurgh she takes a different kind of damage. You pause, trying to figure out what Eidolon is doing, and fail to figure it out. Too many applications for too many different powers.

A moment later you see a massive beam cut off Simurgh's largest wing. It falls to the ground as Simurgh screams and flies incredibly rapidly in the direction of the beam. Cameras change to show Simurgh racing at Alexandria, who is holding a massive clearly tinker made weapon that you suspect is Hero's work. The gun falls to pieces as Simurgh uses it to beat the invulnerable heroine.

A moment later Siberian (Treat, God) crashes into Simurgh. The black and white man is somehow moving at incredible speed, vaulting high into the air and grabbing her as the Eidolon blur forces her down, and smashing Simurgh into the ground. The entire hospital is silent as the modified Triumvirate manages to keep Simurgh down, for a while.

The hospital has a mirror in Houston, with Storkfish, Catholicon, and the other Scapegoats readying. This way if Simurgh manages to take out one of you the assembly line should stay intact.

So far no one has been hurt.

This worries you.

As far as you can tell, the plan is to box Simurgh in, reduce her mobility, make it so she has to take hits instead of dodging them. Eidolon appears to be doing that quite well. The hits are devastating. Treat rips into her intensely, hopping onto her and diving inward, disappearing into her flesh. Maybe he's looking for something vital? A moment later Simurgh's posture changes and you see some huge machine coming through the sky.

"Did she build that?" Ichor asks in a kind of wonder and horror.

"Maybe. Maybe she just knew it was there." It is a CUI stronghold, second only to Nanjing. It would make sense if they were storing something there, but she has built terrible tinker devices before. Without more information you can't say.

Strider suddenly appears with a goddamned army of capes. Several of them raise force fields around the Endbringer and those fighting her, and you see Alexandria has joined the fray inside it. Myrddin rises, flying towards the machine, only for a terrible flash of light to disappear him.

"Is he dead?" Ichor wonders.

"He's survived a lot." You mutter. At least you have a backup.

Narwhal's shields vivisect the machine, so of course it's a decoy from the real target, another machine moving in from a 90 degree angle from the heroes. One of the heroes unleashes a massive blast of something at the machine, but it is absorbed into a strange dark shimmer in the air. The thing falls from the sky and Simurgh breaks free of the force fields as a building smashes on top of Strider's group, disappearing into the shimmer as Eidolon and Alexandria follow after her.

Then the shimmer disappears.

"What just happened?" Ichor asks.

"I have no idea." You admit.

_____
Bonus Interlude: Alexandria
____

You stare out over a familiar, dead world. Eidolon coughs besides you before using his reality warping power to regulate his environment. It's a highly potent one, incredible strength with very little range. Useful when combined with his other main power, a tricky thing that splits him up into thousands of shadowy clones, with each one being damaged only providing a thousandth of the normal damage, and allowing for extremely rapid merging and splitting.

"Drop the power enhancer. The Yangban aren't coming." He does so. "Try for a Master power. Reinforcement will be difficult. We're in the HQ dimension." If the Yangban had arrived the power enhancing power would have raised all their abilities to the original levels of power, maybe higher. No Endbringer could have stood against that, which is probably why Simurgh was the one who took China.

Simurgh stands still over the landscape. Possibly for dramatic effect, possibly doing something. She is heavily wounded, a gaping hole in her chest where the Siberian had disappeared into, her largest wing severed, most of her outer flesh ripped off by Eidolon's attacks.

It's a pity that the Siberian proved to have the cancel that Shielder's constructs did when touching the core. You had hoped the perfect effect would allow the Siberian to touch and destroy the core.

Simurgh is off, flying in a direction you can tell by the stars and certain environmental queues is most likely the way to the main Cauldron base. You strongly suspect the CUI machine Simurgh had used was an attempt to spy on Cauldron on their part. The tinker will be worrying in the future.

Eidolon can slow Simurgh, but not stop her. More and more flesh falls off, but nothing makes her really hurt.

"How much are we willing to lose a duplicator for this?" Eidolon asks, a clone resting weightlessly next to you. Your brain makes the decision rapidly.

"If Cauldron goes, we're doomed. Do it." Eidolon waits several seconds, and you keep up with Simurgh, and he touches you. Another Alexandria appears, clad in your costume, and charges Simurgh. Several seconds later, Eidolon touches you again, and again. More Alexandrias charge Simurgh, beating her back.

"Help is arriving." Your own voice says. The cape formerly known as Commander of the Elite, now a prisoner in a Cauldron cell, provides the communication. A moment later a bizarre Case 53 falls from the sky, a giant net of razor wire, and collapses over Simurgh. One of your clones falls to pieces, and Simurgh screams, using wind and dust to fight the deviant with telekinesis, touching as little as possible. Eidolon and your clones notice this, and force her near the Case 53. You see Eidolon reach out and touch the edge of the net, and another one emerges, forcing Simurgh backward, rapidly, into Eidolon's storm of attacks.

A moment latter Simurgh's left eye collapses as the Custodian's clones strike, countless Custodians, denser than you've ever seen, hit Simurgh.

The Custodian than stops attacking. Did Simurgh find a way to kill her?

The Siberian falls out of a Doormaker portal onto Simurgh, latching onto her head and pulling, ripping it of. Simurgh thrashes wildly, headless, unable to escape...

Then the Eidolon distortions start moving erratically. You focus, trying to figure out why.

"The Custodian is attacking me." Eidolon says. You stare in horror.

"She has no brain. It's been seconds. How did Simurgh take her so fast?"

A single, drifting clone of the Custodian emerges in front of you, and gives you two delicate words in sign language.

"We talked."

Suddenly, Simurgh twists her body and moves forward rapidly, hitting Eidolon with her exposed core. All around her Eidolons collapse, leaving only the one next to you. The Alexandrias and the additional Case 53 vanish as well.

It's just you, Eidolon, and the Custodian standing next to each other.

You grab Eidolon and run as fast as you can. Eidolon cannot die. You leave the Siberian and the Case 53 to fight alone.

________

"Simurgh has arrived in the base." Your own voice announces. You look at Eidolon, little the worse for wear besides the loss of a few finger tips. He can regrow them later. Actually, he just regrew them, his body suddenly looking much healthier. You didn't even see the transition.

"Are you ready?" You ask David.

"I think so." He shudders. "A teleportation ability that reacts to getting too close to dense objects, a matter erasing power, and a Vestige variant, restores me to peak condition. Are you ready?"

"Yes." You agree, and the two of you speed into the base. The cells have all been opened. The Case 53s, the deviants, are all gathering as you move through the base. Simurgh levitates in a central area that did not exist before, she cleared it with telekinesis.

Below her, nailed to a cross, floats Contessa. You gasp. She turns her head to you and smiles, the way she turns her mouth causes you to glance down at her toes, pointing to the Clairvoyant and Doormaker, who stand next to the Slug, looking confused as a Case 53 made of worms and fingers and toes fences them off.

You dive down to them, keeping your eyes on Contessa. She moves her fingers in the shape of a d with her right hand and beckons with her left. You rise, fast, with Doormaker in one hand as Eidolon unleashes the matter erasing power on Simurgh, forcing her back. Contessa whispers something into Doormaker's ear, insistent, strong, and a portal opens.

Scion falls through the door. Your blood runs cold. What will he do here.

You're right.

Simurgh suddenly falls onto Scion, collapsing downward, and you see something happen to Doormaker, his mouth opening in a scream, and Simurgh falls down with Scion through a distortion.

Then the Case 53s open fire.

______

End Interlude

_____

Suddenly, on the screen, Simurgh appears again, above the standoff between the Protectorate and the Yangban. The Yangban opens fire on her, several strange attacks ripping into her. Narwhal and Myrddin (you're not sure how he survived) hit her with all their might.

Simurgh is clearly more damaged than you've ever seen her. Two large wings, with all her smaller ones gone, her human head destroyed, most of her human body in ruins. What was she doing wherever she was?

A beam of golden light hits Simurgh straight in the chest, blasting her backwards. Her wings go wide and everything nearby hits Scion as the golden man charges her. He doesn't seem to notice as beam after beam hits her. She rises, trying to escape, but Narwhal's scaled force fields are in her way. Simurgh rockets forward, into Scion, and you see bits of dust floating everywhere, pieces of Simurgh falling like snow. Again and again Scion blasts her. You'd almost think he enjoyed it. The force fields rise around them, keeping her fenced in, preventing her from dodging.

Then she stops moving, and Scion keeps blasting the skeleton. Again and again, until there's nothing left.

"Simurgh's tricking us." Ichor whispers. "She has to be, right?"

"I don't know." You whisper, awe struck. "She's faked bodies before, done it to trick Scion. With the disappearing act..."

________

"To the best of our ability to tell, it was Simurgh herself who perished in the Beijing fight." Dragon announces on television. "The composition and density of the fragments we found completely confirm that some of her deepest, densest layers were in the body destroyed, and the only possible wound that could have provided such a decoy was made today. Alexandria and Eidolon, having followed Simurgh through the portal, confirmed that she they tracked her all the time she was in the other dimension. Whether or not Simurgh is deceased this Endbringer attack is the only one recorded to have no fatalities, thanks in large part to the additional clone of Narwhal and the assistance of the New Wave cape Shielder." Dragon is giving a speech on television, the usual aftermath announcement, dealing with the consequences of the Endbringer attack. The Shepherds are all gathered to watch.

"Wait, what?" Crystal shrieks besides you. "What was he doing fighting..." You hush her to be quiet.

"All injuries are shockingly minor for an Endbringer fight. Given her scream vanished while she was in the other dimension, no one was exposed long enough to warrant severe containment measures. We all are waiting for the other shoe to drop, but we can all accept that this is one massive step on the road to the path to victory." Dragon tells you all. "This is a good day. It is perhaps the best day we have ever had. If Scion will fight for the kill against the Endbringers, than we the end is not nigh!"

_______

Resume Alexandria Interlude

_______

Contessa is dead, killed by the rising storm of Case 53 vengeance.

The Clairvoyant is dead, killed by Eidolon's friendly fire trying to restore order.

The Custodian hasn't talked to anyone, besides driving off anyone who tries to approach the base.

Doctor Mother and the Number Man escaped thanks to Manton and his Siberian.

The Doormaker was taken by you.

According to Eidolon's use of a wide variety of thinker powers, to the point of overstretch and diminished, Simurgh really is dead.

You have friends to bury.

______
End Interlude
______

Victoria grabs you and hugs you tight, kissing you on the cheek, when Dragon finishes her speech.

"We won."

[X] Write in: Safe for work celebration.

[X]Mardi Gras party, parade through town, everyone in masks with feather-shaped confetti everywhere.

Victoria and Sophie have gotten drunk to a point that would be medically unsafe if they weren't your girlfriends. Madison has disappeared with Annie. It's possible you should be more worried about that than you are.

Outside, the impromptu celebration of Simurgh's death resembles a Mardi Gras, as swarms of bugs patrol for anyone who might possibly be in medical danger. It's really good some days that the all watching eye of Little Sister isn't actually enforcing laws like underage alcohol consumption, or really anything you don't think is worth giving up the freedom to do.

You wonder if being a benevolent nature spirit is messing with the twelve year old's head, and decide no more so than anyone else.

Cranial walks in. Maybe it's just your imagination, but she looks sick.

"Hello, Abigale." You say to her, watching idly as Victoria holds back Sophie's hair while she pukes. Neither one actually wants your help to mitigate the effects of the booze. It's all about the experience.

"Hello, Amy. I thought I would come to the party. It seemed appropriate. We have a lot to celebrate."

"Um, do you eat?" You ask carefully.

"Yes, I do. My taste buds are actually very sensitive." Victoria gets up, and there's a kind of mad gleam in her eye.

"You have sensitive taste buds." She advances on Cranial, smiling. "So, getting you to enjoy food would be a challenge, right?"

"Um, yes." Cranial answers slowly.

"Follow me." Victoria loops her arm through Cranial's tree hand. "This is going to be fu-" Than Victoria rushes back off to the bathroom, her feet skimming an inch above the floor.

"Should I be worried?" Cranial asks you.

"You're in safe hands." You pause. "I think."

_____

"Do I hold back your eye hair?" You ask her.

"No, it's quite sensitive." Cranial announces. "Really, this is quite unlike me. Feels like a different pipe, even, though what my biology is doing is something I've never understood." It's remarkably easy to talk while throwing up when your mouth is not involved in talking. Suddenly Cranial's whole posture changes.

"I laid eggs." Cranial says. Her tone is quite worried. You pause and think very carefully about this, running forward and reaching your hand in. There's four off them, in a clump, like frogs. You see them kicking, indistinct shapes. You reach in and grab on, spreading your power through. They seem to not be dying.

"Are they okay?" She asks quickly.

"It seems something inside is, um, wriggling." You pause. "They're, um, kind of human? For Case 53s. Don't let anyone in, or they might, um, flesh." Cranial moves quickly while you think very hard about two questions.

"Um, ma'am, have you been sexually active with your husband since he has returned?"

"Of course" She answers.

"Were you sexually active before he died?"

"Not in the same way." She answers. "We, um..."

"Already too much information." You sigh, wondering why things changed. "Has this ever happened before?"/

"I've never laid eggs before. The only Case 53s I know of who have had children were significantly more human than I am." Cranial peers down. "Cute, aren't they?" You consider them. Each one is rather different from the siblings, three boys and a girl.

"Sure." You mutter. "One other question. Um, how do you poop, if you eat?"

"It's all one hole, my dear, but I don't think you wanted to know that, did you?" You consider. "I promise you I did not. You keep your hands in the toilet bowl. They need water.

"Um, get Annie, now. We need biomass for an incubator."

"Of course." Cranial rushes off. "And I need to call my husband. He'll be so happy! I think." You consider the four creatures.

"Um, kids?" You have no words. You think for a moment. "Um, good luck?"

_____

"Babies!" Annie shrieks, rushing over and looking at them with her human eyes. The small, carefully calibrated pond has water appropriate for tropical fish, and the babies seem to be working just fine here. You're mostly sure they'll live like this, with proper umbilical cords to the rest of the incubator pond and insects attracted to bring in nutrients.

"Um, yeah. Babies." You admit. Cranial floats by the pond, looking disturbingly proud of herself. Victoria and Sophie sit together curled up, looking drunk, confused, and sleepy. Mason and Julian are talking quietly. Crystal is off with her family.

"Babies?" Madison walks in. "Annie was really unclear what was going on. Did you guys finally conceive?"

"Not quite yet. Victoria's too drunk." You smile and lead Madison over to the pond. She looks down.

"Um, Mrs. Quintin, those are yours?"

"Yes they are. They're mine." Cranial says. "I made them myself. Not intentionally, but proudly." Madison examines the pond carefully.

"So, you can have babies. That's really cool. Got any names picked out?"

"Not yet." Cranial laughs musically. "Their father should be here first. This is all so fast!"

"I don't think they really get named until they hatch. It's like you're pregnant with them, not like they're born." Annie says, her eyes still transfixed on Cranial's offspring. "Any idea when they'll hatch?"

"Biologically, they're, um, I think about two months old, based on pregnancies I've seen. That could mean anything. No idea how long before they hatch, if they need assistance to hatch, anything at all about their natural life cycle, if they have a natural life cycle. I might have to do a lot with them, but for now we'll let them grow." You smile as best you can.

"Cool!" Annie shrieks. "This. Is. So. Cool."

"Are we pregnant?" Sophie mutters, glaring up from the loveseat.

"Not yet." Victoria mutters. "Cranial laid eggs."

"That makes sense." Sophie puts her head on Victoria's shoulder.

"This is truly an age of miracles." Crystal announces, walking in. "Annie's been telling, um, everyone she can that Cranial's had babies."

Suddenly Blur touches down with a very confused looking Hero. "I heard, um, what?" He asks.

"I laid eggs." Cranial announces.

"That's great!" Hero says. Then he pauses. "Why, how, are they mine, are they okay, just..." The two parents start talking rapidly, tripping over each other.

You hope your own pregnancy will be a bit more organized.

________

You find Eric and Melissa on the floor of Madison's bedroom the next day, both fully clothed and clearly very drunk. You cover them with the sheets from Madison's bed, which wasn't slept in. For some reason Missy is sleeping alone in your bedroom, and you find Dean in the kitchen making breakfast.

"Thank you." You sigh. "So how was your night?"

"Never again." Dean announces. You put a hand on him. He doesn't have a trace of anything in his system.

"Never again what?" You ask.

"Never, ever spend a night watching Blur and Vista party. Just don't." Dean visibly shudders.

"So, Scion killed an Endbringer." You say.

"We had no deaths from an Endbringer fight, thanks to your cousin." Dean smiles. "No one even knew he was on the emergency list. Blur just showed up with him looking determined, but he apparently passed a private Simurgh psyche eval. Everyone's furious at him, but he's a good force field user, one of the top ten in the country. Without him someone would have died. I'm celebrating life, not death."

"Even for an Endbringer?" You look at him curiously.

"Even for an Endbringer. She needed to die, but she didn't deserve to die, if that makes sense." You think and nod, slowly.

"I get that. It's hard to think of them as people, and maybe they aren't."

"Oh you two shut up." You hear a snarl from the doorway and Melissa comes in. "We helped kill an Endbringer. World is safer for it. Next one will be twice as bad, all of that." She sighs and sits down. "Those smell delicious."
_______

"Narwhal Secunda performed admirably in the Simurgh fight." Cranial says. "We absolutely have confirmation that we can begin full scale production for cloning, though the preparations are in place anyway."

"Why don't we just make a hundred Myrddins or something again?" Melissa asks. She's apparently feeling a bit outnumbered in the Pelham house as the only one who liked Shielder running off to fight an Endbringer.

"The limiting factor is how long the crystals take to grow from a brain scan, and we can only scan so often safely. I have been scanning as many of the volunteers as possible, as quickly as possible. We can't safely sacrifice weaker parahuman clones for stronger ones in this system. We couldn't, say, change a Jouster into a Narwhal, or even several. Hypothetically we might be able to do so in the future, but I am having trouble even formulating an ethical version of such an experiment."

"Makes sense." Melissa rubs her eyes, looking sleepy. "What about the Brain Box?"

"We are examining it as best as possible." Cranial explains. "We do not know if there's a limit to how many clones we can make. The strongest are also inherently dangerous. Legend, for example, would come out insane, could quite possibly break through any restrictions using his powers, and end the cloning process right here. We will eventually experiment further, but the less directly dangerous resurrections will come first. Tinkers and thinkers are thought to be best, with Chevalier as the first experiment for someone with more combat oriented powers."

"Sounds cool." Melissa shrugs. "Are we taking other countries? Parahumans for our allies?"

"The treaties for this are being written." Cranial says. "China has put in the singular request for clones of the Yangban member Two, who enhances powers, and other teams are speaking with our government right now. The international laws on clones are complicated, but I see no reason that hero teams outside of the United States will not be reinforced. We are all against the Endbringers, and their existential risk goes far beyond the conflicts among nations."

"Nice viewpoint." Melissa shrugs. "But war's coming. We know that. All our friends will get strong, and everyone else will get scared."

"Oh, we're already at war, Rune of New Wave." Cranial says, a bit wistfully. "That's what capes are. We are a long war against each other and ourselves." Melissa just shrugs.

______

"Julian, Eric, Melissa, Madison, Missy, Ryan, Armmaster, Assault, Battery, Dauntless." Cranial shakes her head. "A kind of amazing haul of capes for this city."

"Ryan?" You ask.

"Blur." She explains. "Each of those gave only mildly restricted requests for cloning, usually involving being paired with someone else. Think about that. Each one of them, a new one born every four months. Thirty capes a year. Much higher than the national average, but still, incredible, especvially with how powerful some of the capes involved are." Cranial shakes her head. "I think the world is about to get much, much better for the heroes."

"I think it is." You agree. "See you tomorrow?"

"See you." Cranial says, and you leave. You smile to yourself. You have a plan. You're going to do something great for Victoria tonight, tell her just how special she is, how much you love her, how much you forgive her for all she's done.

[X] Write in: What should Amy do for Victoria in a grand, romantic gesture? (Obviously, this is a safe for work forum and quest.)

[X] We'll dance the night away with Victoria at a club. We can spend time with Victoria while seeing the city we love but rarely get to really experience like the civilians do.
- [X] Try to find a club that might be sympathetic to an incestuous lesbian relationship.

"Amy." Victoria kind of giggles. "How many lives have you saved."

"Um..."

"One every five minutes, at the hospital?" Victoria guesses.

"A bit more..."

"Twelve hours a day. 144 a day, more than that."

"Not all of them would have died." You mutter.

"Two years, before you started dealing with supervillains and an Endbringer fight, where you saved even more lives. You're well over one hundred thousand people you used your power on. We're hot lesbian superheroes." You open your mouth and Victoria puts her hand over your lips. "Yes, you too. That's before everything else. The suits that helped drive back Leviathan, the clones, the current emergency services you're entirely responsible for. Am I missing anything, my darling?"

"I did fight some supervillains." You mutter.

"Now we are going to go and dance the night away at the club my phone tells me is the best rated club. If any club thinks people will not want to be in the same club as beautiful, lesbian superheroes who save the city they need their heads examined." She kisses your head. "Now, let's go have fun."

________

Both you and Victoria had a cotillion. Carol thought you should learn how to get these things right. You should know manners, etiquette, and dancing.

So you and Victoria know how to dance. It's a bit slow. You lead and Victoria follows. You're not really sure why, as Victoria usually takes the masculine role with you, but she'd liked it that way when you danced.

Applause breaks out when you first enter the club. People cheer. You hear someone shout for you to kiss, and you do so happily. People make way for you. Some out of respect, some afraid of making you angry with a wrong touch or elbow jab, some probably a bit disgusted by the two of you.

You dance for hours before you get too tired to continue. Victoria's still ready for more, but her force field usually takes the stress for everything.

You make your way to the bar.

"I'm sorry." A very nervous bartender looks away. "We can't actually, legally serve either of you..."

"I can't get drunk anyway. Secondary powers." You smile at her.

"I can." Victoria pouts. "I once hit a tidal wave so hard that it fell back for several seconds, saving several superheroes. Would that get me a drink?"

"Would you be offended if I said that what you just said does not make me less worried about you being drunk?" The bartender asks.

"Not in the slightest." Victoria gives her the classic Victoria smile that's memorialized on the cover of Teen Vogue. "So..." She looks at you. "You hungry?"

"Yes." You nod. "You?" You ready the tentacles."

"Yes. Before you cut yourself to spice my food, it was really sweet when you did that, but you really don't have to do it again unless I ask. Not really in the mood, alright?"

"Sure." You sigh. You have to look disappointed.

"It's a great idea, though." Victoria says quickly. "Your blood's, um, great. Really, um, salty..."
________

Victoria watches you intently as you finish.

"It's space worthy." You announce.

"Actual space?" She smiles.

"Actual, fucking trip to space." You announce. "Radiation shielding, recycles its own air, temperature regulated..."

"Enough science. Let's resume the romance!" Victoria laughs. She grabs you and rockets straight up.

It takes longer than you expected, but it is a pleasant flight with Victoria. The night is beautiful once you're above the clouds, the starts getting brighter and brighter, the moon seeming ever brighter.

"It really amazes me how I'm not at all afraid you'll drop me." You whisper over the suit communication system. They're replicas, not your usual ones, too bulky, going to be edited into the Dispatch model. Less durability, more offense, and some interesting mobility options you've been working on.

"I'm always afraid I will." Victoria admits. "I could lose you so easily. You're so fragile, inside that thing."

"So are you." You sigh. "I just wish I could work with your force field. I can work with your flight and wrap you in biological armor, but one bad hit from an Endbringer, Crawler, and..."

"That's a pretty small list, Ames." Victoria laughs. "Also, it's practically stifling how much the Protectorate wants to keep me alive now. Whenever I go on patrol it's just Blur or Annie leading me to somewhere I can do something, and the other day I was actually brought to a group of kids smoking to talk to them about the dangers of cigarets." You wince in sympathy.

"We need to find a way for you to get out and fight more. Maybe Dodge could set something up so you could teleport to New York or something to help them?"

"That might work another five months." Victoria sighs. "You know, Dragon sent me a long email about the idea of expanding Annie to everywhere in the United States. Pros and cons, and the pro column is a lot bigger than the con column. They're seriously talking about just making a clone for the other Taylor or something when her time is up, and maybe a powerless one if you could manage it. Lady Bug can do a lot for stopping crime. Absolutely assured risk of capture of any crime, completely non-lethal capture, airlift bugs, all the extra chemical and bacteria stuff you're doing, all the unusual sensory stuff Annie's thought up. Come on, with her multitasking and your breeding bugs we're looking at the entire US full of bio-tech that she can monitor. This is right below all the stuff Cranial's super math has been doing. You know they're talking about rebuilding every city, eminent domain everything that's not historical, and scrapping the rest for better street patterns? Software's all being replaced. Food bugs that taste great, water filtration bugs, sanitation bugs, and that was Dragon writing an email on the benefits of a bio-tech revolution. She talked about sorting everyone with a job and asking how genetically engineered bugs directed by an infinitely powerful multitasker could help with their jobs. Like, five minutes per idea, most lucrative ones first, each one saving an incredible amount of money to be directed to something else, lives..." Victoria sighs. "I'm actually wondering what people will do in the future. Cranial's math, you and Annie working together, increasingly good AI, and masses of cloned parahumans, what's next?"

"Masamune clones and Cranial is what's next." You answer. "Anything humans still have a comparative advantage in? Everyone can get the skills, buying them using a loan. Instant retraining, instant college, instant cures for psychological disabilities. It's transhumanism. There will be one in every urban area."

"God, what will Endbringers start doing." Victoria groans. "Like, they might just alternate between trying to kill you, Annie, Cranial, and clones of the same, but if they do that they could be fought off a lot easier. Just reinforce one part of the world."

"They'll think of something." You sigh. "They're not going down that easily. They say they're holding back, now. Leviathan and Simurgh's fights indicate that they were, and Kitsune said they were in both fights. Sure, things could work out, but I really think others are coming."

"Yeah." Victoria agrees. "But I can't see you, Cranial, and Annie making the fights harder."

_______

The two of you watch the sunrise.

"It's beautiful." You tell Victoria. You look at her. "It's all beautiful."

"I'm looking down." Victoria says. You follow her gaze. Earth stretches out, lighting up with new sunlight. Your Earth, your planet, your home.

"We have to keep it safe." You say. Victoria laughs softly.

"Maybe we're just arrogant bitches, but we do. We need to make it safer, better. The world has a lot of room for improvement. Together, I think we can do it, all thanks to you."

"All thanks to me." You agree."

______

The next evening you're sitting with Victoria. The plants, each one, is modified, a work of art. You focused on making them as unlike Victoria as possible, for the contrast. It's more Kalahari than you'd hoped, but it's still beautiful. You modified this grove, this little park, from an old vacant lot. You think it should be opened to the public, soon. Before you might have found the privacy open to vandalism or crime, but with Annie watching over the city that seems to no longer have merit.

"So, they actually want me to give a speech at the local middle school about, um, something." Victoria shrugs. "I get the feeling they're trying to brand us as safe, now. Act like everything's normal. Can't offend the sister of the person giving them all this awesome shit."

"Do you like it?" You ask after a moment's thought.

"It gives me something to do." Victoria shrugs. "I've been thinking of getting into painting or something if crime fighting runs dry. I kind of need something to do, honestly, and I don't want to just manage all the corporations that the PRT is setting up for your bacteria and bio-tech."

"Not interested in being a CEO?" You smile at her.

"Not in the slightest." Victoria grins.

"So, it's not done yet, but I've got you something." You pull out an envolope and hand it to her. She opens it with her suit's fine manipulation tentacles. She reads it, and her eyes open wide.

"Control my aura?" She whispers.

"Hero, me, the Toybox. People owe us a lot, Victoria. People owe you a lot, personally. Jack Slash, your part in the Leviathan fight, you're worth it."

"I could be normal." Victoria whispers. "Really, really normal, for once."

"You'll always be perfect." You put your hand over Victoria's. "This way you'll just know it's you."

________

Alexandria has arranged for a meeting with you.

"Hello." You shake her hand and sit down.

"What do you know of Cauldron?" She asks. The question surprises you, and you think for a minute.

"Cauldron has vials of powers, a shadowy secret organization that sells them for money, right?"

"Correct. Recently, I was investigating rumors of Cauldron. The more I found, the more troubling the rumors became. I dismantled the organization, in secret." You sit there for a minute before you respond.

"That's a lot to take in."

"It is. We kept the war very private. The less information let out, the better. It started not long after Scion appeared, experimenting on people who were dying, life threatening injuries. I was one of them."

"What?" You choke. "You bought your powers?"

"I was a dying girl, and a doctor came to me and offered me a way to live. Eidolon was crippled for life, his whole life, until they came to him. We heard only rumors, terrible rumors, of what happened to our patrons. What I found made me sick." She hands you a sheet of paper. "Case 53s appear to be their work. For the longest time we blamed Professor Manton, one of the greatest scientists the world ever saw, but we recently captured him, and he was not responsible for those crimes. We believe they are responsible for murdering, abducting, and experimenting on people. Their formulas, the best ones, had a very high failure rate."

"I see." You nod. "Why are you telling me this?"

"When we busted them, we found a warehouse. This warehouse was full of many Cauldron formulas. We still aren't sure how many."

"You want me to, what? Ensure they work safely?"

"We want you to clone backups before we administer the formulas, making two people. Then, if the formula fails, we still have a version of the person left." You kind of open and close your mouth.

"Cranial." You mutter. "We'll need her help."

"No. She's been producing more machines. We can do it without her being aware. She has the instructions to make a backup and install the minds so we can do it without her work. It involves the P=NP problem based software. We can't do anything creative with it for fear of messing it up, but those two operations we can do."

"You want me to, what, kill people for science and feel better about it because we have a clone?"

"Every success means a new superhero every four months. Every failure means a dead person. Every superhero means several living people."

"You're not talking to Cranial about this."

"No, we are not. Cranial is a Case 53. We are suspicious she has personal reasons for not being involved with this medical experimentation. She is unlikely to help us." You frown. Cranial's usually a good metric for ethics as far as you can tell.

"What happens if I don't help you?"

"Then we continue the experimentation program, and the people we kill will be missed. If you help us, their loved ones will not miss them. The math has changed, with your cloning. Every success is huge, worth so much more than before. With you, we can mitigate failure."

"So you're just going to remake Cauldron, and you want my help to do it?"

Alexandria meets your eyes. "Yes.

[X] "I will help you." You think long and hard. This does sound right, helping a lot of people. Are you even, really, killing people?

[X] "I will not help with this." You get up and walk out of the room. This is sick.

[X] "I am going to stop this." You look at Alexandria. Human medical experimentation is too much. You want to help people.

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Silence-2

[X] "Cranial has done far too much for me to betray her like this. I don't think what you're doing is wrong, but I do think keeping secrets from my team and my best friends is. Nobody has given Victoria and I more support than Cranial, and I consider her part of my family now. Our kids are going to grow up together, and you want me just to lie to her face? Stab her in the back? Keep her in the dark about the one thing that changed her whole life?"
-[X] "I don't know how you treat your teammates, or your friends, or if you even think you have a family anymore. But family is all I have. For what it's worth, I'll argue your case with Cranial, because I think this needs to be done, but I can't do this without the support of the people who've supported me, of the people I care about."

"I see." Alexandria gives you a very careful look.

"Um..."

"I cannot tell you not to do this. The people we love mean everything. I can say that you are putting too much weight on her." You sit up.

"What?"

"I have known her for a long time. Abigale is a good person. You have no idea what something like Annie costs her. The need to not be a monster. Every time she screams, she risks killing people, but she has no better weapon. The strange, terrible technology she has. What she has is not nice or safe or part of our reality. It's not something like laser beams or force fields, it's something from nightmares. I've read all the stories where something like her technology exists. Not many end happily."

"Cranial's tech, it's good."

"Abigale is good. Abigale's tech is wondrous. That is beyond reproach. Every time she needs to become just a bit more of a monster, every time she chooses between sacrificing the strong for the weak or the weak for the strong, a little light goes out inside of her."

"You're saying not to tell her?"

"You must remember when Abigale screamed. It ended with Eidolon's light healing your mental wounds, healing you. We know her. She is my best friend's wife. Amy, my name has a meaning." Alexandria raps the tower on her chest. "When I chose my name, I took it for my thinker powers. I named myself after the greatest repository of knowledge the world ever lost. I keep them under wraps, but my mind works very quickly, lets me absorb information and skills incredibly quickly. I am trained in psychology, counseling, religion, and body language. I admit the last of those may not always help with Cranial. I can say with more authority than anyone you are ever likely to meet that doing this would hurt our friend."

"Sunlight disinfects." You mutter.

"I am a founding member of the Protectorate. I believe that parahumans are entitled to privacy and normal lives. Some things must happen where people are not allowed to see. People like Cranial, Legend, and Hero are white knights, people who thrive in the light. They need to be protected so we have something worth fighting for."

"Um..."

"My name is for the Library of Alexandria. The world was ending, Amy. It still might be ending. The Endbringers would destroy the world within fifteen years without your clones, twenty three with it. They will force us to retreat, withdraw from damaged areas, consolidate, leave ourselves with fewer failure points, and hit those failure points."

"Wait." You frown. "All the extra capes. That would stop it, right?"

"They would survive. If they continue their pattern of behavior they will continue to attack and kill tinkers capable of helping the world. With the Brain Box and clones this is mitigated, but they will significantly slow any attempts at technological revolution. The Endbringers are holding back. The Simurgh lost 60% of her mass and kept fighting, and she was the weakest Endbringer in direct combat."

"No one died that fight." You point out.

"That is incorrect. I followed her where she went. I cannot share the full details for security reasons, but the most recent attack is by far the most devastating we have ever had. Certain parahumans are held behind the scenes. Thinkers, mostly. She launched an attack on, I guess you could call it a backup plan, a place that we built in case of unexpected apocalypse. Simurgh, the precog, decided to hit a secret area we held reserves in for the case of further apocalypse. This is very worrying according to common sense."

"P=NP. Mass AIs, decoded tinker tech. My bio-tech revolution."

"All of those might work. We have never met an AI, and the programming could prove more difficult or risky than you can imagine. Experiments with tinker tech have proven heavily mixed in regards to the adaptation. Too small a sample size, too diverse mechanisms for the technology. Some, especially recurring models like anti-gravity and force fields are likely to become standard within the next product cycle. Your bio-tech revolution has a single failure point, you. Endbringers are adaptive. What if the next one teleports into Brockton Bay, kills you, and teleports straight to Houston? It could take years to work another try, especially if the Brain Box is destroyed."

"You're so sure there's more Endbringers." Alexandria twitches. "What don't I know?"

"There's a thinker, one who died. A very good, if inconsistent, thinker. She predicted the Endbringers, though we didn't understand until they arrived. There are twenty of them." You choke.

"What?" It's almost comic.

"Twenty Endbringers, total, were witnessed in a highly divergent alternate future. I have had this vision described to me many times, I know it by heart. I believe that to be the best case scenario. The worst case scenario is that their numbers are not limited. If the Endbringers continue their past behavior, escalating whenever sufficient countermeasures are in place, than we need to scale up as much as possible. They will keep escalating to match us. We need to escalate to the point where an Endbringer attack every ten days will allow us to keep thriving."

"That's insane." You shake your head.

"That is assuming Simurgh, the precognitive trickster, is actually dead. It would be nine and a half if she tricked us, or if the Endbringers can come back."

"At that rate, why fight at all?" You ask. Alexandria gives you a smile.

"Because we are heroes, Amy. Because both of us believe we can, and should, and must make the world a better place. We are facing opposition that is beyond critical. We need every Hale Mary pass we can get. Because I will not accept that the best we can do is lose a war of attrition with monsters that want to keep us small and meek. Because we have people we love who expect us to save the world. I have done many terrible things in my life, but there are none I am not proud of. The stakes are the highest that exist, and I haven't even told you every threat calculated to hurt our society. You know that Dinah Alcott predicted the world could end in as soon as two years."

"Yes, she did." You nod.

"That receded, but there are other threats. Increasingly precognitive parahumans are talking about a great disaster that we cannot accurately predict. A terrible feeling or warning sign. Maybe we can just take that, but can you deny that the right good parahuman makes averting a disaster a lot more likely?"

"Of course it would." You nod.

"Another Panacea, or Lady Bug, or Hero, could make all the difference against a truly unknown threat, much less the unpredictable Endbringers. All statistics and Thinkers point to a rapid decline in population over the next few years. Parahumans will continue to trigger. Parahumans like Sleeper, Glaistig Uaine, Nilbog. Villains are going to gather together for survival in the coming years before they become completely outnumbered, setting off chain reactions. Parahuman clusters without proper management can very easily become warzones or wastelands even without S-Class or A-Class threats. We believe that Cauldron was secretly supplying the powers for a significant fraction of the heroes in North America." You frown.

"Wait, what?"

"I know for a fact that the entire Triumvirate, the strongest capes, the rule breakers, are Cauldron capes. The only hero without that level of direct power is Myrddin. I have many compliments for him, but he is mentally unstable, coping with the fantasy metaphors to deal with the serious lack of balance. Parahumans who have trigger events are by nature predisposed to mental illness. People with mental illnesses are victimized at much higher rates than the general population. Women are more likely to be victimized than men, and have much higher rates of depression than our counterparts. These facts are related. There's also a lot of evidence, kept quiet for obvious reasons, that trigger event caused powers often grant new psychoses unrelated to past behavior and trauma. Recent evidence involving second generation capes supports this."

"I see." You sit back, having trouble taking all of this in.

"Villains are not going to react rationally to the new order you're going to create, and more villains will keep being created as long as there are trigger events. They will lash out, hit infrastructure, kill heroes, and run instead of fight Endbringers. The cloned capes will be a net gain, I promise you that, but it is a net gain. The progress will be slowed down by all of these factors and more. We cannot relax and rest, safe in our recent gains, confident they will save us. We need these capes. We need to manage our resources with the great efficiency possible. More capes, stable capes, well selected capes, powerful capes are something we need desperately. We need to put as little to chance as we can possibly manage."

"Anything else?" Your voice only carries a bit of spite, and it's not really directed at her.

Parahumans as a whole are chain reactions waiting to happen, and we were already approaching a critical point. Every year, the percentage of parahumans in the population increases. At that same time, the odds of a cataclysmic event happening somewhere are increasing steadily. Imagine Nilbog who wasn't content to stay in one place. We barely stopped the Blasphemies and the Slaughterhouse Nine. The world already stood on a precipice, and injecting a rush of parahumans into the situation at current levels is insufficient. There was an exceedingly good chance that we would have only sixty-six to twenty-five percent of the current forces available in ten years before you started cloning. We believe you can increase the current population of parahumans by ten percent every four months. That is not sufficient to truly beat the Endbringers in fifteen years, and even with redistributed forces due to the enhanced number of capes we are absolutely looking at the collapse of mass, industrial civilization being delayed by only eight years, good days against the Endbringers instead of bad is still very, very bad.

"Scion..."

"We have no idea why he killed Simurgh, or if he'll ever kill one again. Even a single replacement Endbringer would put us right back where we started."

"You're being pessimistic."

"Before I got my powers I would have taken that as a serious argument. Now I know more about human psychology. It is immensely difficult to be as pessimistic as reality about complex projects. Civilization is the most complex project of all. I am talking in the bad scenarios, but not even the worst case scenarios."

"Cranial, she's so good." You mutter.

"That was never in question. I worry she is too good. Her conscience, it troubles me. I am the better thinker. The wrong stand on principles, sharing information with the wrong person. Even with a 99% chance everything will go well with her, can you take that risk? Every time we need to take such a small risk, and we will need to take such risks, the chance of catastrophe grows just a bit larger. All is said and done, a 5% change in these numbers is very large indeed."

"You're really so sure this should be kept in the dark?"

"Yes. People smarter than both of us are sure. The more information that gets out, the greater risk of panic, witch hunts against Cauldron capes, foolish military action, smaller recruiting pools. Please, I beg you to trust me. I actually beg you, Amy." Alexandria gives you a look that's so vulnerable, so human. I beg you to keep these secrets and help us, for her sake, for Victoria's sake, for all the children of Cranial and Hero, and yours, and maybe mine, if I ever can have the time. This is not some cheap ploy, emotional manipulation, it's the truth. Keep her in the dark for now, until the situation changes so it won't risk lives to share information. Our conscience has to be on the table, if we want to protect the innocent."

"She, the thing that happened to her. Cranial's hair is eyes. Her feet are scythes. Her hands are trees. There's a cloaca in her throat. She lost her memories. Can you imagine life like that? Not knowing what you are, why? Going through all of that and being a good person? She deserves everything from us. I can't treat her like that."

"She deserves to keep a clean conscience. She deserves to not have to deal with failures, with unethical experimentation. I could give faces to the people who could be hurt. Battery, the poor woman cracking under the strain of leading a team, married to Assault who bought her powers for justice, might lose everything if Cauldron came to light. Triumph, a boy who didn't choose to get his powers, a selfish boy who grew into a good man, could lose more as his family gets sucked in. This is not just about you and Abigale. Please, I ask you to trust me. Please, that is what I need. Just your trust."

"I need to think about this." You get up.

"We have time. A week, maybe. Please, please listen to me."

You walk away.

____________

You have a picnic with Madison in the park. Sophie and Victoria are off on a tour of Houston to bring them supplies and copies of things to remind them of who they are, make their lives easier.

"You look thoughtful." Madison says. She bites into a cheese.

"I am." You admit. "I have a lot to think about."

"You have a lot you should think about." Madison agrees. "One last make out session to help clear your mind?" You giggle.

"No thank you. I'd need to make sure Sophie and Victoria don't mind, now. I'm pretty serious with them."

"Darn." Madison says cheerfully, and she gets back into the cheese.

Shouldn't you trust the big heroes? Alexandria, she's a Thinker, been doing this for decades, one of the highest ranking people in the world. You have to trust her, right?

Maybe you should make out with Madison after all.

________

"So, I guess we're never trying that again." You sigh.

"Agreed." Cranial announces. You stare at the destruction Julian had released while messing with his brain. You're kind of shocked everyone's still alive. "It appears, Julian, that we cannot enhance your control by sacrificing your range.

"Damn it." Julian shakes his head. "Sorry to take it out on you guys, but I really wanted this."

"We'll think of something." You assure him, rubbing his shoulders. "I can work to make you a better suit. Strengthen you in other ways."

"If I'm going to help the Wards and Protectorate, fight Endbringers, I can't have all these weaknesses. Friendly fire, not fast enough. Leviathan and Behemoth would both slaughter me next time. Without your aunt I'd have been toast last time." Julian sulks. "No idea why I remember that but didn't know what an Endbringer was when I woke up."

"We work together. That's how parahumans fight best." You assure him. "We all have our strengths. You just need to work with people who help you reach your full potential."

"Just, sucks." Julian groans. "You're all so good, and I just feel like I'm the team pet."

"I will look for another way." You assure him. "Some way of gaining control, enhancing your powers. There have to be ways." Could Cauldron be such a way? What happens when you dose a regular person with the vial?"

"I need to be alone for a while." Julian says. He walks out. You look at Cranial. She seems anything but ugly now. There's something delicate about her.

"You look like you have something to say, Amy." Cranial says.

[X] "You're a really, really good friend, Abigale." You smile at her. You have to trust Alexandria.

[X] "I need to talk to you about something." You can't change your mind. Sunlight disinfects.

[X] "I have a weird question. Is there a way to talk to someone, see how they react, and then remove the memory from their head, or something?" Weird long shot, but both options are terrible.

Xicree said:
[X] "I need to talk to you about something." You can't change your mind. Sunlight disinfects.

"What is it?"

"I learned something today... and it might well make you change your mind on saving humanity. Something ugly... worse than anything I've ever asked of you... and it's been under our noses the entire time. But I couldn't call myself your friend and keep this from you, even after the smartest person I know of just begged me not to, because you are Too good... this is... this might be bigger than survival itself for you... and I don't want to say it because I know that opening my mouth now... it might ruin everything in the world." Cranial is silent at first.

"Perhaps it will. Do, perhaps, we have immortal souls, granted at conception, and all of those who die before birth fall conscious into eternal misery?"

"Wait, what?" You stare at her.

"That would indeed be sufficient reason to destroy humanity, Amy. Is it quite that bad?"

"It's nothing like that. But that's how important you've become to me now Abigail. So please before you listen... promise me, PROMISE me you won't give in to any rash impulses. That you'll think it though and ask questions... demand the answers."

"I can promise you that."

Please Abigail... I don't want to loose you over this... and i don't think the world can afford to loose you either... You're more like a mother to me than Carol ever was... as much as Victoria ever was. So please as the idiot teenage daughter you never had... and for the sake of everyone that loves you. Please try to keep your emotions from getting the better of you. But this is what i found out from Alexandria... when she asked me to help her carry on the work of Cauldron..."

_________

Cranial sits there in her hover chair.

"Cauldron." She speaks out loud. "Cauldron. They did this to me. What Alexandria found could do this again." She sounds sick.

"Yes. Do you disagree with the argument?"

"They're lying to you." Cranial says. "The cloned safety procedures, they won't work. I've cloned Cauldron capes. The agent will attach itself to the clones. I don't think you can stop that. I have read the data on Sadboy and his brothers and sisters. The Corona Pollentia begins to grow in the fetus. Suppressing it caused severe brain damage, and it kept regrowing. The plan, what they want you for, won't work."

"Are you sure they're lying?"

"They could be willfully blind, instead. Hoping against hope for a way to do this ethically." The sound of spitting out the last word defies her lack of lips. "It won't work, and with the stakes they're playing with they will continue experimentation. Every argument presented to you will continue to be in play. What do Case 53s matter? We're better than normal capes, in every way that matters to the Protectorate. What does it matter if Weld can't feel, if Garrotte is a mass of tentacles, if they can fight against an Endbringer? They'll clone every Case 53 they can scan that you can work on."

"Are you saying I shouldn't do this?"

"They probably have other things they want you to do. Probably mostly wanted you to clone them without my knowledge, maybe provide scientific data on Case 53 adaptations, see if you could hack the serum into something that produces stronger parahumans if that is possible. Real scientific research requires large sample sizes. They only need one Eidolon they can clone, one member of the Triumvirate. Of the major players, the ones who can really fight Endbringers, Legend, Eidolon, Alexandria, Chevalier, Myrddin, Armsmaster, Dragon, Narwhal, with a changing list, they have three they can reliably mass produce, maybe four if Chevalier can be brought back. They lost Legend, and Armsmaster is not a suitable replacement, even Black Knight. Look at the list, three died over the last few months. That's unprecedented, but not unreasonable. If the escalation continues like they suggest their major player list will not be to the point where they have 276 such people after 23 years. Endbringers don't focus on the real fighters, you know. I've seen that in battles. They avoid the harder targets, head for the weaker ones. In a year, if we have twelve particularly strong parahumans we cloned thrown at them at every turn that could change."

"The Leviathan fight, it was the best we ever had." You say out loud.

"On the surface, yes. I went over that fight. Empire 88 lost their voice of reason, but person most able to negotiate with Victoria, and so were crushed. They were lost against Endbringers as surely as if Leviathan had killed them, with the exception of the later capture of Othala. Countenance and Clockblocker, two people very useful against Endbringers but too inexperienced to be used well, died. Armsmaster, a major player, appeared dead, and only resurfaced to destroy Legend. I do not think this was a coincidence."

"You're saying Leviathan unleashed a Simurgh like bomb?" You whisper.

"I admit I'm being paranoid. I could also blame the clone of Mannequin, someone who was manipulated by Simurgh, or Mannequin himself, who spent time in Brockton Bay and interacted with Uber and Leet during the period. I am still piecing the situation together. I think this would have been a brilliant method of escalation, a feint that leads us to underestimate them. It fits very well with Simurgh's attack, unleashes critical damage that cannot be shown. It's a great strategy with the cloning we could do. Make things seem less critical, delay people from signing up. If Simurgh's not really dead, well, the death of an Endbringer makes the idea of signing up to be sent off to a distant city and barely speak to your friends and family seem less like a necessary evil, doesn't it?"

"You think they started adapting before we even began?" You shudder.

"I believe that is exactly what the Endbringers did. Personally I have great reservations about cloning Armsmaster given Mannequin's involvement with his resurrection. Even a clone, well, Simurgh could have anticipated he would be cloned, we don't know how she works. All he'd need to do is set the wrong balance of chemicals in the brain case he designed, something that I would replicate on my scan, and a critical asset in Endbringer fights is compromised."

"Huh."

"I also suspect that Endbringers tend not to kill the major players because it grants the strategies a certain consistency. If you are intentionally holding back and prefer quantity over quality it makes sense to train your enemies in a useful strategy. When those members can always be replaced, well, two Narwhals suggest much the same strategy as eight, just not as effectively."

"I'm not sure what you want me to do!" You practically scream.

"I want you to know what you are getting into. Their demands will never stop. Never. They will throw away every ethical consideration if it offers the slightest chance at improving the odds. I will not reveal things if you do not want me to, but they will ask you to do everything. You know what they've already started doing. Brainwashing villains, all they had to do was put it on the table for you to start doing it yourself. They won that fight. Why not brainwash rogues?"

"That's getting ridiculous."

"Is it? Sure, they aren't committing crimes, but we need everyone we can for Endbringer fights. Everyone we can make into a willing, cloned fighter will mean a new soldier every few months. If every cape can do something, search and rescue, fighting villains, that's more lives saved, more capes who can make a difference against the Endbringers spared for that fight. Sure, it's a harsh draft, but no one is complaining. Why, you can even give them a clone with their old memories and personality with restrictions in place to prevent them using their powers without government sanction. Why should people use powers that you would have once needed government sanction to have without it? Just look at Panacea, that noble woman who works all the time to help out. We can help her, why not you?"

"You think that's inevitable." It's not a question.

"There's a reason I give tinkers an alternative to the government, Amy. I do not trust it. Too easy to subvert, too easy to make excuses. They want to bring you into the services of the cabal that really runs things so they can have you to apply to any real problems. That's what I think is going on. They cannot spare consideration for ethics. It's the very last thing they care about, as long as they don't get caught and get hurt worse by public opinion than what they sacrificed. They threw everything and the kitchen sink at you to get you to cooperate. If things are as critical as they say things will only get worse. A lot worse than this kind of medical experimentation. They can't even use you for what they say they want. You cannot give them your trust."

"Why not just mind control me? Seems easier that way."

"I have to think it's because they don't have to, Amy. You're a good little soldier, and you're not broken enough to fix."

You sit back and sigh. You miss Victoria and Sophie.

"I am a good soldier. I've done everything I can to help them, short of truly heinous shit and my deepest passions. I want to be a good soldier for them. I want to help people. Why do they have to need so much from me?"

"It's apparently the end of the world. They need everything they can get. My concern is that if the world is saved, what after that? If we only survived because we were cold and cruel, what will we build after we survive? It took 19 years for an Endbringer to die. If there are 20 of them, at this rate it could take 380 years before we're free of them. If all this cloning buys us eight years of time, what would it take to get almost 47.5 times as long? Thousands of brainwashed Case 53s thrown into a meat grinder only to rise again four months later? A police state to capture every parahuman a moment after triggering for conscription? The plan is to have the entire continent observed for public safety, is it not?"

"Abigale, you're being unreasonable. They're, well, heroes." You protest.

"Amy, I'm not. I am a rogue. I don't trust them to the degree you do. I think it is very, very easy to fall into a kind of logic that will dig us into a hole we will never, ever crawl out of. When our civilization becomes dependent on wonders produced by a very, very small number of people, which it will, then control of those people will become the very highest priority. Over the years and centuries I am going to see, if I am not killed, I don't want to live in a world that was only saved by monstrosity."

"Abigale, would you rather not save the world at all?" You ask tentatively.

"I would rather we pray, do our best, and be worth saving. If it comes to it, if all is lost, the cities are dead and the seas have boiled and only Scion still lives, than maybe I will wish I told you to be a worse person." You sigh.

"I guess, well, I'm going to go talk with Annie, now." You sigh.

"Any particular reason?" Cranial asks.

_______

"Annie, is there a reason not to stop every crime?" You ask her. She's sitting on the floor playing with a lego set. It's quite disconcerting.

"Well, some things shouldn't be crimes. I'd tell the police that, and I wouldn't enforce them. Besides that, why not stop all crime? I'd just make old crimes be not-crimes."

"You won't have that kind of power, though."

"Sure I will. I'll be most of the cops. I'll just tell them that I'm not going to enforce evil laws."

"How would you decide what laws are evil?" You ask her.

"I'll ask you, Vicky, Sophie, and Madison." You find the last name interesting, but no time for that.

"Some people don't think I'm a good person." You pause. "For a long time, I didn't think I was a good person. I'm still not sure if I am."

"You're a great person." Annie insists. "You spend twelve hours a day making people better, come home, and work on a machine to personalize combat suits for superheroes!"

"You think I'm a good person because I had you brainwashed." You remind her.

"I never said you're a good person." Annie giggles. "You don't have to be good to decide what the laws are, you just have to be great, someone who is really smart and has a truck load of willpower." Annie pauses. "I think you have to be a bully, actually. If you don't care about what people do, think about it a lot, then you won't have good ideas, so you kind of have to be a control freak. If you don't get angry at people for doing bad things than it won't really click. Put those together, and that's a bully."

"Annie, you know Sophie, she almost killed Taylor, drove her to suicide. I forgive her for that, but it was awful. Being a bully is not a good thing."

"It doesn't have to be a good thing." Annie says. "Sure, being a bully is wrong, but I kind of think civilization is just being a bully, kind of scaled up. Bigger, that's all." You frown.

"I don't think that's true."

"Are you going to brainwash me into thinking correctly?" Annie smiles at you. The smile is so Victoria it scares you.

"Um, no." You say.

"Then I think asking you when a law seems wrong is still a good idea." Annie explains happily. "You don't want to force people to do what you want. It takes a lot to push you over the edge. You gave her a lot of chances, even if you really screwed them up. Don't worry, I'll ask other people, too. I bet I can make a lot of friends with my powers."

"I bet you can." You agree, and walk out of the room.

Are they going to brainwash Annie, replace her with someone who is even more compliant?

Could you really object to them doing what you did?

______

Your phone rings. You're driving home from the hospital with Victoria.

"Hello." Alexandria's voice on the other end.

"Hello." You think for a moment, hard.

"Just checking in on you, wondering if you need anything, and curious if you made any decisions."

[X] "Meet me tomorrow. You tell me where." You have to help them, don't you?"

[X] "I can't do this. I can't let you do this." You hang up. This is the wrong way to do everything.

[X] "I need more time." Write in: What does Amy need to do to help make the decision?

[X] "Meet me tomorrow. You tell me where." You have to help them, don't you?"

"I'm wondering. Is there a way to make this all safer? Someone who could analyze the chances of a formula going wrong, or undoing the formula?"

"Not a usable one. There are three living capes who might be able to reverse it, including a member of the Yangban, a psychotic supervillain, and a rogue who uses his powers to be a reporter. None of them are usable for reasons obvious with the description. Dinah Alcott can predict things, but she is currently auctioning her questions online. She's out of our deniable price range, and the funds could be better used in any manner of charitable donations or public works projects on utilitarian grounds. We are going to see what we can do about Dinah. We do have a parahuman who has agreed to help who can do so moderately well. Roulette, a girl you have met briefly, one of the Wards. She sees futures that rarely come true. This is a useful power for observing things that happen on a strict schedule. We are curious to see how she sees the formula."

"Interesting." You nod. "I know this is a change of subject, but remember Eidolon's Thinker power a while back? Said the world would be better if Two was cloned?"

"Yes. We are negotiating with the CUI right now. They're difficult to work with under the best of circumstances."

"Fair." You nod. "One more thing. The test subjects need to know what they're getting into. No lies, at all, or I am out, got it? They need to know every odd we know."

"That is acceptable." Alexandria says.

"About my talk with Cranial. She said both people would likely have superpowers. Even if both were active at the time. Maybe even identical twins would both get it, if we had the original safe and sound and then make a clone and give the vial to her, both will probably get all the powers and mutations. I don't think we can stop that. We should try, take every precaution, but there's a really good chance we won't be able to save people. There's a few other things I want to discuss, procedures I want to use."

"Just email me and we will be ready for you." Alexandria answers. "Sorry, I have to run. Miami is covered in ice and snow." She hangs up.

"Miami is covered in ice and snow." You tell Victoria.

"Yeah, that is the part of the conversation I was wondering about." Victoria says.

"Um, want to know the whole story?"

"Not today, Ames. I kind of need a bit of a break. The moving was exhausting." Victoria sighs. "Is it even moving? What we did. God, we need new words."

"That we do, my love. That we do."

________

You and Victoria curl up on the bed, a laptop and a lap desk seated in the curve of Victoria's lap, investigating the mechanics of babies.

"Okay, we're breast feeding." You announce.

"What did I just walk in on?" Madison asks, unveiling less dramatically than usual as the door hits her.

"Knock, Madison." Victoria laughs.

"I did." Madison shrugs. "What's this about breast feeding?"

"According to Wikipedia, it's awesome." You explain. "Incredible health benefits according to the World Health Organization, really helps with bonding, the immune system of the baby, long term health. They say to do it as long as possible."

"Huh." Madison nods. "So, um, you're both mothers, right? Will Victoria help?"

"Ooh." Victoria smiles. "I was just thinking I wasn't going to be maternal enough. That helps for bonding. Yes, that's an excellent idea."

"You'll be a great mother." You assure Victoria. "Father, aunt, um, wow the naming will be weird."

"I am not going to be my daughter's aunt." Victoria announces firmly.

"Too late for that. Incest." You remind her. Victoria frowns playfully, deep in thought.

"I guess that's what I will be too." Victoria laughs and pats your stomach. "Sorry, Claire. You don't have any idea what you're getting yourself into. Poor little guy."

"She's not there yet." You point out.

"There's an egg with her name on it." Victoria says. "You were born with a nice little egg just for me, even before we met God picked out which egg is going to be Claire. It's fate. I already have half my beautiful daughter inside you." Victoria pulls your shirt up and kisses your belly button.

"Wow." Madison shakes her head. You and Victoria glare at her. "Wow she has loving parents!" Madison says enthusiastically. "Like, I just wish there was some way I could help this wonderful family even more!" She'd slipped up a lot more than usual. Something must really be on her mind.

"Hm..." Victoria has a nasty look on her face and you give her a smile. "Well, if you really mean that, maybe you could be a wet nurse? Amy's always so busy, and I'll have my career of leading the Shepherds. It could be a thing all of us get to enjoy, making sure we all get quality time with Claire."

"Super." Madison whispers. Poor sweet little thing. She really can't tell when Victoria's joking. Admittedly, it is you and Victoria...

_________________________

"We should have several hundred new clones by the next Endbringer fight." You and Victoria watch Dragon on the television screen, giving a report. Sophie is painting your toes. "The earliest arrivals will be ready by that point, those who volunteered for the scans first and were not rushed for the most recent battle. Six Protectorate teams are expected to have their leaders be among the first batch of clones. Brockton Bay, Dallas, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Seattle, and New Orleans. These cities are going to be an experiment, to see if there are any morale problems due to the appointment of clones to heading their Protectorates, with transfers and demotions having no bearing on how well the current leaders are doing."

"Bullshit." Victoria laughs. "Battery's been eaten alive by leadership." She sighs. "You bet it's about who needs the best leaders the most. In ten years they'll probably have only two or three individuals leading, cloning off those."

"Not a bad idea." Sophie changes feet. "The very best leaders, the people in the jobs they're best suited for. The Peter Principle."

"The what?" Sophie asks.

"It's an idea that people get promoted until they can't be promoted anymore, because they can't do their jobs well, so everyone gets promoted until they're incompetent. Clones, by knowing what they do best but being treated as different people, won't have that issue. You don't have to demote anyway, just promote one clone and see how he does."

"Hey, that makes sense." Victoria nods. "Yet another way you're saving the world."

"The world's not really saved Victoria. It got eight years of more life, 23-31." You remind her of what you told her earlier.

"That's a long time, Amy." Victoria pets your arm. "We'll have figured out a lot by then. Slow moving catastrophe. That's like as long as capes have been around. We'll have tinkers and thinkers to make things better by then."

"I guess we will." You think of the Cauldron vial Cranial showed you. "Or at least people who hit really hard."

"Hitting hard is nice." Victoria agrees. "Very, very nice." Sophie finishes and climbs up next to you.

"Where's Dean, anyway?" Sophie asks. She lies down, looking sleepy. She'd been training all day.

"Off in Las Vegas." Victoria says. "Something with his father's business."

"Ooh, Vegas. Think he'll catch something nasty?" Sophie laughs.

"He promised me he would." Victoria reaches over you and pats Sophie's knee. "That way Amy can cure it and we can be a big happy family." Sophie sticks her tongue out at Victoria.

"You're sick." She laughs.

"I am." Victoria turns off the TV. "I kind of have to be, don't I?"

______________________

"And this is an artist's conception of Brockton Bay once we're done." Tecton explains. He is showing you a picture of the city once the redesign is complete. It is beautiful. A massive thing, a computer generated model on a giant screen. He guides you through it. You pause, noticing the street.

"It's a carpet. Why is the street a carpet?"

"Ooh, anti-gravity in the next product cycle, remember? We don't need real roads anymore, just keep things flat, and with the new AI we won't have to worry about traffic accidents. People can just cross the street. Making things soft seemed like a good safety feature." Tecton starts explaining the features of the living carpet which will cover the city. Hardy, works with the bugs to collect sunlight and water for the city's use, all more stuff for you to design. You groan, inwardly. Why did you ever think building an entire city was a good idea? You just want to relax a bit. But Annie has six breeds of bugs and great explanations for why all of them are going to really help the city, and then you have a meeting with Pulse for a suit the Protectorate insists shouldn't be standardized, and God wasn't twelve hours a day of your life enough helping other people? You only have two hours to relax later before Victoria whispers the control word that lets you sleep and you wake up to breakfast and kisses for maybe an hour before Victoria takes you gently and whispers something into your ear to make the hospital bearable.

Your life is slipping away.

__________

Victoria reads to you and Sophie. Sophie looks entranced. You love when she lets her guard down, when she knows she's safe and sound with you and Victoria. You love Victoria's aura at times like this, how it lets Sophie love both of you so much.

How can everything be so good and so bad at the same time?

___________

You're kind of amazed fifty villains from New York managed to get together to hit Brockton Bay. Sure, they only hit the machine that mass produces the suits, but still, what did they think it would accomplish besides two hours of remaking the labor saving device.

"They're running scared." Blur says. "Ugly fuckers don't know what to do. They know they're dead meat if they start killing heroes, but they don't have anything that can help them in the long game. They know if they go after you they're all going down, and there's a backup in Houston anyway."

"Hm..." You hate needing a bodyguard again. Blur's not the worst guard you could have, but you feel vulnerable. The Shepherds are your team, the Protectorate doesn't need to babysit you.

"Hey, can I ask a really big favor?" Blur says suddenly.

"I barely know you." You point out.

"Is that a no?" Blur asks. You sigh.

"What is it?"

"Um, my big sister's kind of on probation. Manning the walls at Ellisburg. I was kind of wondering if you could, um, ask her to serve her probation on the Shepherds instead?" You consider for a moment.

"What did she do?"

"Knocked over a liquor store." Blur pauses. "About, um, eight of them."

"Okay, what does she do?"

"She's like me, slower, but fast, and invulnerable in that form, and can rip through anything she touches. She's good." Blur insists. "Like, um..."

"Do you have a reason I'd actually want her on the team?" You ask.

"I miss her." Blur admits. "Um, that's all. And we both think the Shepherds are really, really cool."

[X] "I'll talk to Victoria about it." Why not be nice to him?

[X] "Um, no." You do not need to deal with another person who kind of wants help.

[X] "Sure. Want to join, too?" Why not expand your empire a bit?

[X] "Sure. Want to join, too?" Why not expand your empire a bit?

"Fuck yes." Blur announces.

This could be fun.

____________________

"Well, I wanted to name myself White Streak, bad idea, apparently." The pale, small thing is apparently a girl. Her costume is blue, a heavy thing that leaves her arms exposed. "So, it's Blueshift. Named after what happens when an object movers towards you really quickly. Physics term or some shit."

"Okay." You nod. "So, why do you want to join the Shepherds?"

"They threw me to guarding Ellisburg's walls for a 'bad attitude. Bitch of a Director had it coming. All I did was trash her car."

"I see." Victoria nods. "And why, exactly, won't you trash my car?" She looks at the girl, Ana, closely.

"You're not a bitch." Ana, Blueshift, points out. "You're fucking awesome. You're the coolest chick in the world. I want to be just like you."

"Okay." Victoria nods. "Tell us a bit more about yourself."

"Half that shit's classified for another five years, and the rest's boring." Blueshift explains. "Um, I like math. I can go completely invincible and rip through anything I touch."

"There's got to be a weakness." Sophie days.

"I rip through the ground too. So, um, only as long as I can jump and fall a bit." Yikes, ugly limitation. "I have a teammate who TKs me when we fight together, but he's a snot."

"A snot." You can feel Victoria raising her eyebrow.

"Saved her life six times and never once thanked me. Insults everyone. That kind of stuff." Blueshift moves uncomfortably. "Like, um, worse than me. Remember, she's manning the walls at Ellisburg."

"Hm." Victoria frowns. "So you have a way to get around that while working for us?"

"Sure. You guys have anti-gravity panels, like the ones on Kid Win's costume. I can fly on your team." Ana frowns at the look on Sophie's face. "What?"

"Amy. Call Kid Win." Victoria groans. "I wonder if there's any favor trading or if we're so in the black they won't even bother this time."

____________________

"I like her." Sophie announces. "We should recruit more."

"Hm..." Victoria smiles. "We were planning on going international. We should try to build a full team. Like, train a second team for a while, then send them elsewhere."

"Sounds like a plan." You nod. "Maybe Dodge could connect cities instead, and we can just build up our forces and work with a single, stabilized source?"

"That might be better." Victoria bites her lip. "Hm, let's start interviewing new recruits."

"I like that idea." You nod.

_________________

"I have decided to leave the Toybox and would like to join the Shepherds." Bauble announces. You wonder if she's trying to sound that robotic. "I brought supplies to demonstrate." She starts putting a bunch of materials on the table.

"Um, Bauble. Remember we've already seen that demonstration." Victoria says quickly. "I don't think we need more of that."

"I haven't seen it." Sophie points out. If looks could kill...

_________________________

"I shoot Red Lightning at people to make them go faster." The girl announces. Her name is Red Lightning.

"And why do you want to join the Shepherds?" Victoria asks.

"I assume you pay more." She explains. "Like, Amy's the most important parahuman in the world, and minimum wage plus 50 grand a year in a trust? Lame. My power lets you move at 200 MPH and makes you invulnerable while doing it, for seventeen seconds, and I'm not a half bad blaster."

"I see." Victoria takes a few notes. "How does that work on natural speedsters?"

"Stacks onto their normal speed." She explains.

"How much do you wish to be paid, exactly?" Sophie asks.

"Oh, maybe ten grand a month? I get it if you need a bit more time to expand your forces."

"Huh. Any experience with S-Class threats or other combat experience?"

"Not yet, but I'm on the S-Class list thing." She explains. "I'm pretty sure I'd be great in one of those fights if I can stay out of the front lines."

"Okay." Victoria says. "Hm..."

___________________

"Yah!" Power Fist hits the huge block of stone and it breaks apart. "When I power up, everything I touch explodes. Brute and Striker. You can totally expect me to be an awesome member of your team. You're way better than those stupid Wards."

"Why do you want to join the Sheperds?" Victoria asks.

"You guys are cool." Power Fist explains. "Also, um, I kind of used to be a villain.

"When did you stop?" You ask.

"Um, about a week ago? Suddenly I heard that everyone in my city's heroes was sent by Houston and got these awesome new power suits. I realized one job they show up at and I'm done. I thought you guys would probably pay me more and make me do less bullshit."

"I see." Victoria nods.

__________________

"Where did you find these people?" Sophie asks Victoria.

"I put an ad on Craigslist." She sounds defensive. "They do have a section for recruiting heroes."

"I'm surprised more didn't show up." You point out.

"I doubt many people expected us to do it. Which is why I did it. I thought we might be swapped with hundreds." Victoria looks around. "Think the whole lesbian incest thing cut down are numbers?"

"Maybe." You agree. "What did you put into the ad?"

"I just specified young. I didn't really want a bunch of grownups telling us what to do. I wanted to be the grownup telling people what to do." Victoria laughs.

__________________

"I can grow super heavy and dense, or turn really light, fly, and walk through solid objects." Nubian Prince explains. "Same as my mother, but I can't fly as fast and can do the intangibility trick."

"Why do you want to join the Shepherds?" Victoria asks.

"Well, my mother's one of the top tier ones in San Fransisco. I wanted to make a name for myself outside of the Protectorate."

"So you chose to call yourself Nubian Prince when your mother was Nubian Queen?" Sophie asks.

"I took it when I was nine." Nubian Prince explains. "Come on, I'm among people who get it. Right, Glory Girl?"

"He has a point." Victoria smiles. "So, what have you done?"

"Worked with my city's Wards. Pretty easy, really. I feel underused there. That's actually a bit worrying for me. Seems like you guys won't be doing much."

"Hm." Victoria looks over Nubian Prince. "I like this one."

____________________

"Um, I'm not entirely sure if you'll take me." The kid looks maybe Taylor's old age to you, or a bit younger than Sophie. "Like, our families have some history."

"Family history?" Victoria asks.

"Well, see what I can do first." The boy puts his hand into the ground, and a moment later a very large hand rises from the ground next to him, made of the same substance as the floor. Maybe five feet tall, in a very small amount of time. "Whatever I use my hand on, has to match the exit point. Asphalt for asphalt, metal for metal, wood for wood. Bigger the thing I'm making, slower it comes out, slower it moves when I try to use my fingers. Mainly I can only use my hands, arms, feet and legs. My face, but that's not too useful."

"Interesting." Victoria nods. "You gave your cape name as Golem? A Theo Anders?"

"Yes." He nods. "About that. God, sorry. I'm Kaiser's son." Victoria drops her pencil.

"And why do you want to join the Shepherds?"

"Same reason I chose my cape name. A protector of the Jewish community. Now, I want to be a subordinate of people they didn't believe were people, give them the respect they deserve. I want to make this an actual apology for the family of people his gang hurt." Golem gets up and smiles at you all. "I really would like to work against what he did."

"Interesting." Victoria picks up her pencil again. "Very interesting."

_______________

"Tallahassee!" The girl announces.

"Wait." Sophie says. "Wait, I recognize you. You're the sidekick, from the show!" She sounds downright excited.

"Um, should I know who she is?" You ask.

"That's the old sidekick of Florida Man." Sophie says eagerly. "Back when he had his reality show. Wow you've grown."

"Okay." You look at Tallahassee. "What exactly is it that you do?"

"Spectral alligators." She announces. "Big ones. Really big ones. Phase through anything that isn't biological and incredibly strong. Takes some time to grow them, especially if there's more than one. I usually go with one for cape fights, lots for search and rescue or accident stuff."

"Dudes, this is really good." Sophie says. "I used to watch her show. She handled all kinds of things. Helped fight Endbringers, rescues after hurricanes, helps catch villains, she's actually a pretty heavy hitter."

"Why do you want to join the Shepherds?" Victoria asks.

"Honestly, not many other really celebrity capes, and the ones I've met are all kinds of weird. I was thinking we might have something in common." She shrugs. "Like, you guys seemed kind of normal compared to some I've met."

"Okay, we need to try harder." Victoria laughs. "So..."

____________________

"All that and not a single useful Thinker or non-crap tinker." You sigh. "I wonder if that's a hint of some kind."

"Probably." Victoria shrugs. "So, any we shouldn't take? I kind of like all of them."

[X] Write in: Are any of these capes ones that shouldn't join the Shepherds?

_____________________________________

"Hello, Amy." Eidolon says as he walks in. The girl, hair cut short and died black, looks nothing like her old self, but that's intentional. She has a leash that connects her collar to Eidolon.

"Hello, Eidolon." You look at the former Bonesaw, Best Girl.

"Hello, Amy!" She says cheerfully.

"What's with the leash?"

"Seemed, well, safer. Like with Kitsune, needs a connection to me at all times, or she goes unconscious. Considering who she is, this provides the maximum safety. It's, um, weird." He admits. "I don't actually understand why we can't do this with a wireless thing. I'm not a tinker, right now."

"Neither am I, really. So, you're here for what, exactly? My clone is handling the new suit personalization."

"Should be done in less than a month. She's doing well, but there are some minor concerns. We thought, considering who it is, it would be safer if you handled it." You eye Best Girl.

"And she's helping because..."

"I've got a thinker power up, and we don't have a spare for her. You should be able to check her work. Minimize risk, keep my alive. Absolute worst comes to worst, I did just see Cranial. We can rush my return." He sighs. "So, Doc, got any ideas?"

"This isn't just a suit." You look at him cautiously. "You're asking for a complete body rewrite."

"I still want to be, well, human." Eidolon says, slowly, carefully, he takes off his mask. He's really surprisingly ugly. "You can, well, improve it, if you want, but only if you want. But, um, no pressure. This is all a gift from you. If it doesn't make you feel comfortable?"

"You want to be a weapon?" You ask cautiously.

"I have to be a weapon. Against everything that's left, every advantage that doesn't cut out my life, I want it. Everything, as long as I still have a human body so I can occasionally relax or go to meetings or act like a person. The fewer things my body needs to do, the more my powers can specialize, give me what I need. My new body, and my suit, should be good, Amy. The best you can give me."

"Why?" You ask after a moment. "Why do you need so much, when you're the strongest?"

"I want to help people." Eidolon says. "That's the biggest thing for me. And my powers are fading. If I need slightly worse ones, slightly more specialized ones that don't have to cover so many bases, then I might be able to go for longer, stay stronger for longer. Helping people is what I do."

"I get the feeling." You smile at Eidolon and touch his forehead, getting an idea of his body. "So, you want everything?"

"I want the best." Eidolon answers. "The very, very best. I want to save people. Help people. If this lets me help just a bit more..."

"I get it." You answer softly. "I really get it."

"We've been experimenting, down in Houston, with Dispatch on your clone." Eidolon explains. "We think we could bring one of them here, have him raise the bubble when you're sleeping. It would be a full time job, require some additional support for air recycling, but..." You suck in a deep breath.

"That would be amazing, Eidolon."

"Please, call me David. Not many people still do." David asks.

[X] Write in: How do you, with the help of a Bonesaw clone, make Eidolon's body and suit perfect for him?
"David, you told me you're powers are slipping away. Every time you use one, it drains and dries up right?" You get a lay of the land. There's no need to be quick, at all.

"Not quite." David says. "It's not like it's gone. I can feel it, right outside my range, underneath my skin. When I fight, when I really fight, against the Three Blasphemies, Siberian, Endbringers, it's almost like I can taste it. It's all there, it's just, it's hard to explain. It's missing, but it's not gone. There's some deeper well. When I fought against Black Knight it was like I was almost there, and then he was defeated. It's like that with the Endbringers, too. I can't just keep them in the fight. There's so much else to do in one of those battles than fight them. For Leviathan I have to fight the water, for Simurgh I have to keep her still, for Behemoth I have to deal with radiation. None of them just let me fight." You consider his words.

"Do you think your face in the mirror would help? A clone, someone to fight, who wants to fight for the same purpose?"

"Maybe. I feel it has to be a true fight, one that is real, where I have to win. If it's a duel, going against other capes who want to fight me for sparing, my power will give me what I need to play, not to win. I don't get to choose my powers, not well. My power feels my own thoughts for what I need, but I take in the whole situation. Sometimes that is a godsend, precognition and teleportation before a surprise attack, a perfect effect against a perfect effect, and sometimes it is a nightmare. People burning because I don't get pyrokinesis, my power howling at me to run when my friend dies in my arms." You shudder at the idea.

"What do you think would happen, if you tapped into that deeper well?"

"I don't know. I feel it would be like a flood. Everything at once. A hurricane I get to ride. My hurricane. All the powers at once coursing through my blood. No choice, no decisions to force my powers away or work with them. I could do everything at once, be healing and surviving and fighting. An angel, grace, carried by powers greater than myself."

"That sounds beautiful, David." You pause. "Um, is it weird to say you remind me of the story of David and Goliath? Protected by faith and higher powers, thrown against giants?"

"Not at all, though I prefer Athens to Jerusalem. The classics always appealed to me, though I have read my bible. Against an Endbringer, I am little more than a shepherd boy with a sling." David sighs, and you feel him begin to relax. You see his Coronas move, powers changing as you watch.

"If that final, epic battle never comes, and you never break through to that well, what happens?" You ask softly.

"I keep weakening. I keep dying very slowly. In a few decades I become a joke. I'm remembered as a false prophet, a shadow of what I once was, as the most critical battles unfold. I cease to be the strongest, the best human." You feel the pain in his voice.

"There's things we could try. The clone of Two, Ingenue, Teacher, there are others. See if we can work with you, deeper into your agent, talk to it, pull it out."

"All of them come at a price, Amy. If I grew in power because of Two, I would only be myself with her. Teacher, I would make the choice between power and control. Ingenue, I would give up range for control, and control for power. I might be able to grow, a small part in a great system, but I'm not sure if that would still be me."

"You're here for more power, right?" You ask.

"Yes, but you're different. You can make me truly stronger. Deepen me, round me out. It's different from being dependent. I would need Ingenue and Teacher to calibrate my powers every time and to stay near Two. It would make me stronger, a lot stronger, but it would feel wrong, make me just a small part of a larger story. If I could, I would do it, but I do not wish to do it."

"It seems that if you have a power for everything. Could you do it to yourself? Grant yourself the choice, make it, and call the power back when you need to change it?" You ask.

"I have done that, before. But I lose the specific powers, piece by piece, especially if I use them too often. The idea of being stuck without enough range or control is terrifying. No one else could fix me. It's why I never worked with my own body like this, why I don't rely on tinker devices I could make, if I lose something I need, something I'm so used to, it would be very bad." You nod.

"That makes sense. I assume you can't find a power to recharge yourself? Some kind of boost? Say, a battery to make yourself more than before?"

"I lost that one long ago, Amy." David sighs. "I could trade one of my powers for strengthening the remainder, but I lost that strength and cannot find another like."

"Did it work on your primary power? The one that grants you powers?"

"It did. They came in faster, better, let me use an extra power. I still have a power that grants me two other powers, but they're weaker than normal." Interesting.

"So, you have explored your own Trump abilities?"

"Yes. I have enhanced and negated powers, changed my powers and granted powers to others. When Manton made the rhyme I tried them all." You smile.

"Mover, Shaker,
Brute and Breaker.
Master, Tinker,
Blaster and Thinker,
Striker, Changer,
Trump and Stranger."

"Flight and teleportation, force fields and every kind of kinesis, invincibility and superhuman strength, time reversal and intangibility, clones and mind control, a suit of power armor and a sword of light, a tennis court of matter erased from existence or brought into being, precognition and intelligence beyond compare, granting my own powers with a touch to a friend for six hours, being strong and beautiful and powerful, leading an army with ten times their old strength, and convincing a monster that I am his father so he doesn't feel me slit his throat. I have done all of that and more, and all of it slips away. So much of it is gone or reduced. Bad decisions early on lost me powers that could have dealt crippling blows to Endbringers on the best of days." Eidolon sounds so wistful, hard to think of that as David.

"It's all so bloody." You admit. "It's all death and destruction. Maybe I am wrong, but have you tried being something less brutal? I can't imagine it's good for your soul, so much fighting, so much work. I doubt you can heal like me, but there might be other projects? Thinker and tinker, social things, a life. I work so much and live for the times I don't. Maybe you should take just a bit of a break? Without it I don't think I would have ever broken out of my rut, be here today."

"Maybe I could." David smiles. "Read, relax, wait for an Endbringer. New forces are coming out now. Maybe, with the suits and the clones, I might be able to take more than a few hours under Dispatch's power to breathe. I will think about this."

"Alright." You give David your best, Victoria approved smile. "Let's begin."

____________________________________________________

"I'll make you younger." You announce.

"You can do that?" David sounds surprised, which surprises you.

"I can. I try to keep it a secret, because then that's all I would do, send people to the back of the line for death. We did the math, and it would add far fewer years than the hospital visits. Maybe with a hundred of me, but not with one. You though? Even if you became very, very weak over time, a few more decades from you could mean a world of difference. If I can, I'll make you biologically immortal, unging. I think I can do that, though it might not last as long as I hope."

"I can't ask you to do that." David says. "I'm not sure if I even want it."

"Don't worry, you'll die in battle before you get too weak. People will remember that sacrifice, I think. I'd rather keep up hope." You answer David, and he nods. "I am going to make you taller, stronger, more handsome, but mostly so I have more mass to work with."

"I'd almost think you liked having a man to perfect and play with." David says, and he's smiling.

"I'm gay, remember? And if I wasn't, you're not black and look nothing like my sister." You tease. "This is all academic for me, but I want to do the very best job I can."

_______________________________

The man standing before you and Best Girl is huge, as tall as your uncle, or taller, well muscled, firm.

"Would it help to make me fat?" David suggests. "More mass to work with."

"No, I don't think so. Fitness helps, even for us. Every smallest bit helps. I think beauty will add something to that as well." You turn to Best Girl. "Now, you've enhanced power before. What next?"

"Redundant organs, and organs with multiple uses." She starts. "Distribute the functions of every organ." You nod, remembering Kid Win and Aegis, thinking of how to place certain cells in other areas of the body. "A circulatory system which functions without needing a big central pump, multiple extra pumps which can be swapped out in a modular fashion, filter for every systems like the liver and kidneys."

"Hm, what about the bones?" You ask after a moment's thought.

"Work with multiple materials. Titanium and that silk you produce, enhance them to be nearly unbreakable, work the muscles into it, make him much stronger than an ordinary human." You pause, remembering how Victoria casually swept a bed over your head with one hand. It all seems so small.

"Good idea." You nod. "We need more, though."

"Sub-dermal armor. Work in the same materials, combined metal and biology. I can help with that. Sheath the organs and make connections between them so he can be ripped to pieces and still keep functioning. Make it so that in times of critical damage to his body, the area critically damaged seals off and reroutes functions to other parts until it can be repaired. His sense of pain remains but at a certain threshold converts to a 'damage report' sense which does not impair functionality." You nod. "Also, can switch it off directly if needed with a thought."

You work on more of your own, more precise ideas as Best Girl does the gross, mechanical stuff with only your occasional assistance. Special cells which multiply rapidly to replace tissue damaged, special cells made specifically for hunting down mutated cells and gathering them together for either later examination or expulsion to prevent cancerous mutations. A system which allows him to absorb energy directly from eating anything and to break it down in ways which do not need oxygen to give his cells the ability to deliver and receive energy from multiple sources and gather together byproducts which might cause fatigue quickly. This will allow him to do things like go without oxygen for days at a time and breathe underwater. You institute the breakdown bacteria in his stomach so that he can perfectly digest ANYTHING he eats and have a special selection of cells specifically for managing his body's upkeep allowing him to constantly stay in peek condition.

"High density energy storage organs found in multiple locations within his body and highly armored are a must. This energy would be used to supply his body in times of emergency for if he needs to go without resources or needs to have extra personal resources to manipulate." Best Girl explains. "Should work well with regeneration and Changer powers."

______________________________________

You create a secondary brain/region of neural tissue for sensory processing, giving him extremely advanced senses, massively enhanced timing, the entire suit mental package. You add sensitivity to his nose, eyes and ears though structural improvements and additions of nerve cells, but then filter it though the second brain/new region to normalize perceptions such that he can swap from his usual human level to superhuman states with ease. The size of a human brain can vary a lot without changes in intelligence. You shrink his old brain, make it more efficient, and store both areas in the head. You work specially on the eyes, giving him powerful, telescopic vision that Best Girl enhances with a pair of technological cameras.

Elsewhere in the body there is a secondary memory system to give him high integrate recall independent of his powers, allowing those powers which would benefit from it the ability to work without needing an extra power-slot to dedicate to such. In the shoulder blade he will store his memory in the case of a head wound.

You sigh, looking over his bodies with your power. You would call this a Brute 2, maybe 3, already. You see the clone of Bonesaw smiling.

"What is it?"

"We can do better."

Improve his eyes. Beyond the machinery she added, make it easier to control focus, scan for danger, narrow in on targets. With the extra sensory areas in his head you can do quite a lot. Improve his tactile senses. Make him able to sense movement and vibration in the air, become active against threats quickly. Improve his hearing, make him able to hear long distances, resistant to sonic attacks meant to inflict pain or distraction, incredible focus on what he hears. Improve his sense of smell, make him able to pick things out, wiring his instincts against a large library of scents, with Eidolon manifesting a power to impress the library onto his own brain, setting up the instincts to know what he is facing. Improve his reaction speed, his timing, making him capable of motions and combat moves that are inhuman, though just barely. Improve his intelligence? Outside of memory and skill, too abstract to figure out.

Better. This is a work of art.

He needs a fast nervous system. An optogenetic component should work since light is faster than nerve impulses, and if you do it well, you can have different wavelengths of light transmitting in the same tissues to streamline it. Add programmable reflexes and control over subconscious functions. Against this, with a Blaster power, he will have no rivals, always win a quick draw.

Senses, more extreme, more adaptable, easy switching between modes. The ability to assume more specializes senses rapidly, to crowd out the ones his powers will give him, or his powers might take the path of least resistance, flick them to the best channel, and let him release that power for a more directly useful one.

His suit starts with the basic model, the PRT version. You scale up to the level of Rune's strangely named weapon, almost. Titanium and spider silk move across the suit at every reasonable point, encasing him in armor. You try every feature you or your clone ever worked into a suit, piecing the ideas together. The suit grows and grows, massive, the size of a particularly small care, a kind of amazing power armor.

In the end, every cell you can make genetically Eidolon you do make genetically Eidolon. Extend his powers through the suit as much as he possibly could. The first experiments with this prove stunning, far beyond what Browbeat accomplished, his powers eager to help.

David gives you a frightening idea when you put in tech emplacements like Kid Win's for anti-gravity so he can fly. Anti-gravity will be normal within the next product cycle thanks to Cranial's math for AI.

"Dodge can make a portal to a power plant, right?" David asks.

"Yes." You nod.

"You know, Armsmaster can freeze something in time. The main issue is that is uses an amazing amount of power, right?"

"Right." You agree.

"They're immobile, but imperishable." You can tell he's activated a Thinker power, or maybe a Tinker power.

"What are you thinking?"

"The detached pieces of cape brains, they last for hours, right?" You shudder.

"What are you suggesting?"

"Remove them, repair the original, and keep them in that storage. Then, when I need them, really need them, I tell me suit to pull them out. Use those powers like my own. I will need to work with Dodge, and you and your clone, but when fighting an Endbringer?"

"I see that." You nod very carefully, and prepare the slots for the terrifying idea. You get the feeling you might be digging your own grave, and the grave of every cape. "Who do you have in mind?"

"Fletchette, a perfect attack. Othala, a healer. Clockblocker, a perfect defense. Harrier, a powerful Stranger. Narwhal, a great Shaker. Myrddin, one of the strongest. Siberian, perhaps the strongest of all. Seven capes seems right."

You practically whimper.

The creature before you is powerful. Even without being Eidolon you would be scared of taking this being in a fight. This is before whatever tinkers he can access are through with the suit, granting weapons and shields and tools in the emplacements you prepared.

"Thank you, Panacea." Eidolon announces. "I think this will be a great help."

You think it will be.

_________________________________

Today is your first day experimenting with what Cauldron made.

You touch the formula first, swirl your finger around inside it.

"It's dead." You tell Alexandria. "I don't know how it works, but the cells are dead. Has to be the agent, it's not alive."

"Can you make something to scan it? Experiment with the chemicals?" Alexandria asks.

"Yes." You work with it, creating the mixing machine, a great thing of biological tech to work with it. Hopefully it will help. You put three formulas in it for examination.

You spend three hours reading over the Cauldron data Alexandria captured. It is fascinating. The strange biology, the chemistry, the powers...

You create the clones for the ten test subjects, copying over the brains yourself, no need for Cranial to help, and prepare.

You watch each artificial trigger event. Two people you help, keep them alive, two burn out, four become Case 53s, and two are unaltered.

Your hands are on the originals, feeling the agent begin to work, trying to channel it, focus it. The two who die still die. You can fight the mutations for the originals, some of them, as they come in.

You leave as Alexandria organizes the experimentation. It's time for your real job.

_____________________

You cry to Victoria that night. You tell her everything.

She kisses you goodnight and tells you she loves you, but she looks very, very worried.

The next day you wake up, have breakfast, get the control words, head to the hospital for twelve hours, and come back home for a few hours with Victoria. The hours are good.

Victoria is good, and you don't feel you're good, again.

_________________________

You sit in bed, staring at the ceiling.

You're not happy.

[X] What do you do?

[X] Plan DeAnno

Victoria makes breakfast with slightly less cursing than usual. The two of you sit down, Victoria twirling her fork expectantly.

"I can't keep up the hospital." You blurt out. Victoria closes her eyes for several seconds. "I have a clone. I need to split some time with her."

"I did ask you not to spend so much time there." Victoria says. She is silent for another minute.

"Victoria?"

"Is there anything else?"

"Dispatch. Eidolon mentioned the idea of sending a Dispatch to us. A time bubble to freeze us while we sleep. More time for everything. Work, inventing, vigilante activity, everything." Victoria twirls her fork, and a delicious looking piece of sausage disappears into her mouth, not yours. You wanted that piece of sausage, but you can wait.

"There are a lot of them." Victoria says after chewing for a while and swallowing.

"What's wrong?" You ask.

"Just thinking." She delivers another bite into her own mouth. You're feeling neglected.

"About?" Your eyes are fixed on Victoria's fork. She didn't give one to you. What is she waiting for?

"You don't want to lose the control words, do you?" Victoria asks. "Like, if it's easier, need me less?" You look at her face. It is very intent, and Victoria starts to slowly wave the sausage in front of your nose. It smells so good.

"No. You can keep them. Eight hours is still a long time." You practically whimper.

"Thank you, Amy. Good girl. Open your mouth." You do so and Victoria deposits food. It's just as tasty as you thought it would be.

"Now, what would you want to do with this extra time?" Victoria asks.

"Spend it with you and Sophie, and more time with the rest of the team. Maybe Eric and Melissa. Work with real tinkers, the Toybox. Make things that are more toys, things to play with. Giant bugs for people to ride. I think Annie would like that."

"Maybe." Victoria smiles. "There are some things I want to try." Another piece of sausage enters your mouth, preventing you from asking what she wants. "You have so many nice control words, and we've done so little with them. I do think it would be fun, seeing you with more moods, bits of different personality. If we're going to relax a bit I want to relax. There's really not much we've done with them." You chew thoughtfully.

_______________________

"She's bored." Crystal explains. "Victoria is bored right now, so very bored."

"Huh." You look down at the tadpole pond. Roughly baseball sized eggs sway gently. "She's running a super team and managing my, um, everything I do to spend my time, and has two girlfriends. I'd think she has enough to keep her busy."

"Victoria's still bored. She doesn't have any villains to fight anymore, and isn't really cut out for an Endbringer fight, as far as anyone is. She doesn't get to stretch her powers." Crystal stirs the water with her finger. It is warm as a bath, quite pleasant.

"Hm, she's not the only one, is she?" You look over Crystal.

"I'm also bored, yes. Annie, Madison, Sophie, Julian, and Mason are not. No one is sure what Madison is doing, besides her barely being around, and Annie keeps sneaking off to her and seems to love everything. Sophie's just transcendentally happy, Julian considers the world an adventure since he doesn't remember most of it, and Mason seems to be training intensively. The newest batch are still moving in. Dallon and Pelham members of New Wave? We're bored."

"Hm, Victoria could just boss me around more, or boss around the new recruits." You suggest.

"As amusing as those would be, I don't think either one is that healthy. Training the new recruits might give her something to do." Crystal shrugs. "That probably won't take too long, but it might last until Sophie's less disgustingly content with her new life so she'll have someone else to get into trouble with." You consider the idea.

"That could work. I'm kind of worried that, well, we'll soon by in a crime free society, with Annie and her clones mass produced. Add PRT agents who can knock out everyone and armies of superhero clones..."

"Wow there's going to be a lot of bored capes. Knowing capes, I'm not entirely sure they won't have a civil war just for something to do." Crystal smiles.

"That would be one way to solve the problem." You smile. "Like, if we actually win I could see people just charging Nilbog and stuff. Most capes only really know violence and are good at it. Sure, Endbringers, but that doesn't really solve the problem for most capes."

"Ah, what a great problem to have, not enough violence to keep ourselves busy." Crystal smiles. "Thank you, God, for this problem."

"Well, if you're bored, there is a harem you could join." You wink at her.

"Ew, gross. I do not want Victoria to start bossing me around that much." Crystal shudders good naturedly. "You're all cute, but no. No. I am not going to be part of a harem again." You raise your eyebrow.

"Again?"

"Forget I said anything." Crystal blushes. Huh. "So, um, lighter news, anything on the baby front?"

"We're just waiting for the aura suppressor to be ready so there's no chance of Claire getting adversely affected. Once that's ready, we're ready."

"I'll be an aunt." Crystal smiles. "Aunt's the right term, right?"

"I think a weird demarcation of cousin, but I could be wrong." You shrug. "I'll be an aunt, though."

"Huh?" Crystal is confused for a moment, then laughs. "Gross! I kind of assumed you'd been disowned, anyway."

"I haven't heard anything about it, but I could see Carol..." You sigh.

"Oh, I didn't mean to get you down. Um..."

"It's fine." You shake your head. "So, got anything you want to do?"

"Not really. As I said, bored. Nothing to do, really. Hm, it strikes me you could produce the world's best drugs and cure the effects in an instant..."

"Nope. I couldn't experience them, so it wouldn't be fair." You grin.

"But you're the Panacea, the universal cure for all ills. Surely you can spread your compassion and good works in a more abstract sense." Crystal mock pleads.

"Make sure it's legal, and maybe. Ask Director Lewis about it." Crystal smiles.

"KK. See you soon." She leaves out the window, vanishing quickly.

What did you get yourself into?

_________________________

"Whee!" Annie rides a giant spider like a pony. The Shepherds have gathered to watch.

"I can't believe we actually did it." Julian says. "I thought you were joking."

"I'm queen of the world!" Annie shouts, waving at Madison. "I am the queen of spiders! I am queen of the city. Whee!"

"Look at how happy she is. We're going to make an entire zoo full of things like that." You tell Julian.

"Kids will like it, especially the ones at the right age." Mason admits. "Should be perfectly safe. I'll bring my brothers there."

"This is so cool!" Annie shouts. "I have giant spiders for pets! Everything is so cool!"

"Thank you." Sophie says. "The little utility monster looks happy."

"Utility monster?" Victoria asks.

"I'm spending too much time with Melissa." Sophie says, blushing. "She's really smart, or can fake it pretty well. Um, the idea is that there's someone who gets so happy from the more you give them that you want to give them everything to make them happier and happier, and everyone else ends up with a crap life that's balanced by the monster being really happy. Um, Melissa said Annie reminds her of that."

"Huh." You watch Annie's spider gallop across the abandoned parking lot. "Yeah, I can kind of see that."

_________________________

"It's done." Cranial hands you the small envelop. It feels so heavy. You lift it.

"The aura blocker?"

"Yes. I think you'll want to get back home now." Cranial sounds happy. "You've been waiting for this for a long time, Amy."

"Yeah." You admit. You practically race back to the Shepherd HQ, a massive, growing mansion of bark and other biological materials spreading over the old Boardwalk.

You hand the package to Victoria. She opens it to see the thin bracelet, examining the instructions carefully, before moving on, putting it on around her leg.

Victoria wraps you in a hug, twirling you around.

You don't feel any different, yet.

"Okay." Victoria whispers. "I think, well, we can, um, start. Soon, at least."

"Are you really sure?" You whisper. Victoria is silent for a minute.

"I can't have you not have children, and I want children. I want you happy, and I don't want you having children with anyone you don't want to have them with. Sophie's wonderful, but I don't think you want to have her child, do you?"

"No, I don't. Not yet, at least. It's always been you. You're the daddy, and I'm the mommy, even when we were little."

"I think you need to love more people." Victoria says. You settle down on a chair and she puts a hand on your stomach. "You've got issues with babies. I want you to love babies, love people. I don't want you to need just me quite so much. I think feeling life growing inside you, bonding with a baby, would feel normal, make you feel adult, like less of a monster. You're getting better all the time, but this is big. I can't not give you this. Understand? As long as I love you, I'd want to find a way to do this for you. Even if we break up, I want to always be part of your family."

"You always will be." You laugh. "Even if Mark and Carol aren't, you will."

Victoria clenches your shoulder tightly.

"I miss my parents."

"I, well, I do, but..."

"Sorry. Forget I said anything. I love you. I'd rather have a daughter than parents." Victoria kisses the back of your head. "Are you ready?"

[X] "Yes." (Cut to black.)

[X] "Just one thing, first." You shudder. "We shouldn't do this without closure. We need to talk to Mom and Dad."

[X] "No." You admit. Write in: Why?

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Bonus Interlude: Shielder

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You have fallen in love with a Nazi. You would like to say former Nazi, but...

"Well, the point of separatism is that it's not fair to black people needing to compete." Melissa explains. "Like, even if you ignore all the scientific evidence that blacks are inferior, the whole point of being a minority is that there are fewer of them. It's better for everyone if they go have their own cities and get to build a black only culture and get them out of white culture." You suppress a groan as the former Neo-Nazi white supremacist supervillain explains her politics to your parents.

"I see." Mom says. "And how exactly do we manage this separatism without, well, tearing apart families, forcing people to move, violence, and other indignities involved with ethnic cleansing?"

"Oh, we can have areas where different races interact. It's like a Venn diagram, but less abstract. Sure, it will cause people to have to relocate on both sides, but..." You do your best not to listen and eat your salad. You had thought that Melissa living here would be considerably more awesome than it actually is.

"Well, of course I want to protect everyone." Melissa is saying. "That's part of being a superhero. Just because someone is weaker than you doesn't mean you don't protect them. You do the opposite. Weaker people need more protection. That's why Empire 88 was so fucked up." She pauses. "Sorry, messed up." That is the thing she feels she has to correct?

You are saved by a doorbell ringing. Both you and Dad jump up to get it and practically race each other to the door. Velocity stands there.

"There's a situation. One of our recent Ward transfers, Roulette, has reported that Circus is extremely likely to commit a crime in roughly 45 minutes."

"Why do you want us?" Dad asks.

"We want Eric, actually. He is better at confining her movement than anyone we have on hand, and we are worried about injuries involving pyrokinesis. It would be easier if he was assisting. It is not critical, but it would be appreciated."

"I'll help." You agree at once. Anything to get out of this dinner.

________________________________

Half the villains in the world are planning on one last big heist before they give up crime. Roulette tells you that Circus is one of them.

"I'm surprised she's still doing it in Brockton Bay." The dark skinned girl says. "Don't we have a whole network of bugs to catch everyone, now?"

"Annie's still figuring these things out." You explain to the precognitive Ward. "She can identify physical distress pretty well, but just people sneaking about? Circus is good at this."

"I should be better." Annie pouts through your suit's communicator.

"You did just start, Lady Bug." You tell the living representation of everything wrong with the universe. Annie is a living crime, less a person than something done to a person. Just because it was done to a villain doesn't make her right.

"Okay, I think I've found her." Lady Bug says. "A woman moving from building to building. Get ready." You do so. You don't actually see the blue glow from your side of the force field. You have tried to figure out why several times, and failed. You're invulnerable to almost anything like this. There are people who could hurt you, but they are extremely rare. Most would need to confine your movement and wait you out.

"Got her." Lady Bug whispers into your suit, and you jump. When people here you're a weak flier they rarely consider the implications. Just a bit of defying gravity. People rarely factor that in.

You don't really need to fly, just push yourself a bit. You remember when you first heard about parkour. Entire disciplines of movement. You barely have to worry about terrain, just fly above the obstacles, jump over them, save your energy instead of using up calories by not having to run, using them only when you have to.

You wonder what Circus's last big score will be. Roulette's visions had only seen Roulette be captured. None of them had given anything more than a rough idea of where to look. After careful consideration Mom had decided that it was better to let her break and enter. Circus has worked for much bigger fish before. If this is one of those times it would be good to see what is so important that it qualifies as a big score.

Lady Bug positions you as Circus gets into the school, slipping in using something Lady Bug can't identify, possibly a key or maybe something more illegal. You wait for her to get out, and bring down the dome. She freezes and hurls fire at it before hitting it with a hammer that flickers in and out of existence.

"Well, that was easy." You say. You walk forward. She screams and beats against the force field. "I was expecting more."

"Would asking nicely help me to go?" Circus asks.

"No, but seeing what you stole might." You smile at her. "You're really quite small in the grand scheme of things, and breaking into a school locker feels like you're working for something a lot bigger."

In her hands is a glass vial that she sways back and forth. "One of the Merchants, a minor member, hid it there before they folded. I can tell the police who wanted it." Villains, not much loyalty there.

"Sounds good." You smile at her. "We won't be seeing each other again." You open the smallest crack and spray the sleep and paralysis organism through the hole. Circus passes out in seconds from such a concentrated dose.

______________________________

"What do you see in her, anyway?" Annie asks. She's apparently decided to check out her "family" in New Wave. She stands next to the curtains of your room, almost fading into the dark brown.

"She's, um, really smart in her racism?" You mutter. "Like, I always assumed Nazis would all be low class, but she'll give citations from black separatists during the 1920s." You pause. "Also, she kind of reminds me of Victoria."

"Your cousin Victoria?" Annie asks.

"Well, not that I crush on my cousin." You laugh with a bit more force than was probably needed. "But, well, she's brave, dangerous, and always up for a fight. She only left the Wards because she wasn't getting any fights there. I'd leave the Wards if I was just a glorified taxi."

"You never joined the Wards." Annie points out.

"You're right. I'm New Wave." You look out your window. "Maybe the last member of New Wave."

"That's a sad idea." Annie says. "Why would you be the last?"

"It's just me and Melissa left of the kids. I feel I have to stand for something. Accountability, honor."

"You don't think the Shepherds are honorable?" Annie asks. You think carefully. She is a Shepherd, after all, if not by choice.

"I think they stand for society. Civilization. Improving things. That's good, but I think they've become so much a part of the establishment it will become really hard for them to say no to anything they ask." You answer. "The more people depend on them for things like bio-tech, you, the cloning, the more they will get from the government. Eventually they'll be the government in all but name. I think there's a place for standing outside of that and being able to say no."

"But you're mass cloning. Won't you be joining the Wards in your clones?" Annie asks. "Seems hard not doing that."

"It will be hard, but that's why I'm doing the cloning. So there's going to be more people out there who still can say no. Not everyone who is mass produced will owe the Protectorate for everything." You smile at the girl, and she is a girl whether she is Taylor or Annie. "I'm going to be founding other New Waves.

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End Interlude.

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Quote
[X] "Just one thing, first." You shudder. "We shouldn't do this without closure. We need to talk to Mom and Dad."

Your car rolls up into the driveway. Victoria drives, she's silent. So are you.

There's really no protocol for this. Not in your culture. Not in many cultures at all. You sit next to your sister and just rest for a moment, steadying yourself.

You get out of the car before Victoria. You stand and wait for her. It takes her a minute to get out. You walk side by side to the door. Victoria knocks harshly, several times, before ringing the doorbell.

Mark answers. Your father? Dad? Future father-in-law? None of those feel right. He looks at you first, and then at Victoria. "What is it?" You try to read his face, but you've always been bad at that.

"We're having a baby." Victoria answers. "We thought you should know." He stands there, doesn't say a word.

"Should I say I'm sorry?" You ask. "Dad?"

"Amy, please." Victoria glares at you. "Dad, she needs this. I'm sorry, but she does. I can't just not." You see her shudder.

"What doesn't she need?" Mark asks. "Seems like she always needs something." He takes a great sigh. "Do you want my blessing?"

"I'd like it." Victoria says softly. "I'm sorry it's been so long, but..."

"You won't listen to me. You will do it no matter what I say. I could tell you that you're making a mistake, that you don't have to do this, that it's disgusting and horrible, that I'll never speak to you again, but you'll just do it anyway, and I'd lose what I have left of my daughters. Come inside." Mark beckons. "We have a lot to talk about." You enter your old house, walking behind Victoria.

You can tell that Carol moved out. The house seems to be systematically ripped apart for everything she likes and a lot of things that surprise you. All the bedroom doors are closed.

"So..." You try to break the silence. "How is New Wave?"

"What's left of it? We lost most of our younger members. All we have left is the teenage Nazi Victoria gave us and Eric. Carol hasn't been seen in costume for a long time and isn't answering calls. Sarah seems to be going crazy. Neil barely..." Mark sighs again. "I'm thinking of quitting. Maybe even signing up for the cloning. Join the Protectorate, get a fresh start. I'm cured, so why not sign up to help people? I've always been good in fights."

"Everyone's good in fights." Victoria sighs and pulls out a chair for Mark, then you, then herself. "If they aren't they're great at something else. How many capes aren't good in fights? If we aren't good fighters we're great at something weird. Every power set is good in its own way."

"So, you're saying not to get cloned? Shouldn't you be a cheerleader for the idea? Get as many out there as possible?" Mark asks.

"Well, on the one hand, the more clones we have the more capes we have making it impossible to be a villain. Harder on the bad guys. On the other hand, giving up your life and family, Dad. I know the last few months have been hard, but, well, we miss you." Victoria gives you a short glare to ensure your silence. She didn't need to. You do miss him. "It's just with everything..."

"I get it. You girls have had a lot happen lately." That might be the understatement of the year. "I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you." Couldn't? "If you'll let me, I'll try to be there now." Victoria suddenly laughs. Mark kind of stares at her.

"Are you asking to join the Shepherds?" She asks. You and Mark share a look.

"No, Victoria. I have absolutely no idea where you got the idea I was joining your team." Mark says carefully.

"Oh, um..." Victoria looks uncomfortable. "Well, you could, if you wanted to. Um, but you don't want to. Sure, having my dad on my team would kind of mess with the 'cool and edgy' feel but if you want to leave New Wave..."

"I don't know. I never liked the Protectorate. Armsmaster was an asshole." You frown. "So was Mouse Protector, to be honest. I am glad she's back, but she never should have been in charge. New Wave has been dying for years, but I don't really want to leave Eric and Melissa stuck with Sarah and Neil. Maybe if your uncle was still on the team, but I don't want to leave people just because I'm not sick anymore."

"Don't worry." Victoria pats his arm. "You were sick, and now you're better. None of it was your fault."

"I just want to make up for lost time. New Wave was supposed to mean a lot more than it does. I never thought that our kids would feel they had to make a new team just to live up to what we should have been."

"You know, the Shepherds actually could use you." Victoria says. "We are expanding, getting new members. We got some really good ones. Nubian Prince, Florida Man's sidekick, Kaiser's son. We could use someone to help us train. Maybe not as a member, but as a job? Members of New Wave can have jobs."

"I like that idea." Mark nods. "I can see what you have, help with any mistakes we made starting out, get you off on the right foot. That sounds great." He smiles. "So, is there anything else you want to do?"

"Well, I'd like to share a bit." Victoria says. "We haven't really talked in a long time."

________________________________

Carol is in a hotel room near her old office. It wasn't hard to find, really.

You ring the doorbell this time. Victoria stands back. Carol gives you one look when she opens the door and her eyes move to Victoria.

"So, pregnant yet?" She asks you, not making eye contact.

"It's why we're here." You snap. "It's baby time, Mom."

"Vicky, she's your sister, she's a girl, she has another girlfriend, she will take and take and take forever. It will never stop. You know she's not going to stop! There will be another thing, and another. She is using you. She's always used you."

"I want to be used!" Victoria shouts. "That's what a mother does, and you weren't stepping up for her!" Carol practically smirks.

"So you're fucking your baby girl? Sister wasn't enough for you? You have to add in as much family as possible? How much do you like it? Did you just need an excuse to be turned into a lesbian? You've always wanted her. This just gives you another excuse for thinking you're a good sister. Listen, if you want to be her mother this is the last thing you should do. Give her a normal life! She can be with someone else. She's doing it now! You can't give her everything if it'll just spoil her and fuck her up."

"Did you just call me spoiled?" You ask, filling anger rise. "Carol, I spent twelve hours a day, seven days a week, helping people. I did that for two years. I'm cutting back so I can help people in other ways and not go crazy."

"See, Victoria! She's already asking for more, needing more. You gave her what she wanted, and then she wanted something else. Something big. Please, don't trust her. Look at what she's doing. She'll keep escalating, making more demands."

"It was my idea, Mother." Victoria says. "I wanted her to do this."

"Did you?" Carol asks. "Tell me it's really that simple." Victoria doesn't answer.

"What's the best way it could end for you?" You ask Carol. "What do you want to happen?"

"You aren't actually asking me. Any response I give will just be turned against me." Carol points out. "You want to give me enough rope to hang myself. I am not going to play into your game. You stole my daughter from me, Amelia. You wanted to steal me daughter as soon as you found out she loved you, and I didn't. You never could share her with me. You always needed so much. So you got her to keep giving you more, so much that I only really got to work with her on patrol even with you stuck working all the time."

"I lived for the time she wasn't working." Victoria touches your shoulder. "I lived to see her. I was so proud of her, but I lived for the times I didn't have to be proud. The little things, times when she was happy. They meant everything, and still do."

"Go break the biggest rule. I can't stop you. I was never going to stop you. What else is there to say?"

"Only one thing left to say." You smile at Carol. "Despite everything, I still love you." You turn and leave. Victoria catches up to you in the car.

"She's crying." Victoria tells you as you drive off. You don't have an answer for her.

__________________________________

Sophie greets you back "home." The palace or mansion or whatever it is you made with your powers. You lost track of the growth. You should probably do something with the space. Maybe a battered persons shelter or homeless shelter? Some kind of shelter.

"How did it go?" She asks.

"Better than I expected." You say. You hug Sophie.

"Okay." Victoria says, not moving in to join the hug. She walks for a while and sits down.

"Are you alright?" You ask.

"She's Carol. It was never going to be alright." Victoria looks very tired. "I need pizza, beer, breath mints, and a shower before we do this."

"Sure." You say. "I'll contact, um, we need staff here. A butler, or personal assistants. So, I'll be back with mints in a few. Sophie, mind ordering the pizza?"

"Nope." Sophie says, pulling out a surprisingly battered looking cellphone. "See you."

________________________

Sophie and Victoria are talking when you return with the mints. You beat the pizza.

"So..." You look at them.

"I'm okay with this, if that's what you're asking. It's not for me, but I'm okay with it. Maybe I'll freak out later, but..."

"It's fine." You kiss Sophie's forehead. "Like, it will change things. I'm growing up before you do, but I want to keep this as normal as possible."

"Well, it'll be a while before I know how much this changes things, but I knew what I was getting into. You never kept the fact that you were planning to breed private. I don't see a reason to freak out now just because you're, um, what exactly are you doing?" Victoria whispers into Sophie's ear.

"Gross." She laughs. "Okay, I am not going to watch that."

"That's fine." Victoria assures her. She takes another sip from her beer and makes a face.

"Yes. How about you go out on patrol. Come back in a few hours after we're done."

"Sounds good. I love you." Sophie kisses you hard, and leaves.

"Well." Victoria gulps down the last of her beer, and you notice two empty cans in the trash. "Let's begin."

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Interlude:

[X] Grue

[X] Brandish

[X] Assault

Quote
[X] Grue

Life sucks.

The people who are responsible for life's generally sucking seem to be determined to make the world a better place. A world, generally, without supervillains, with armies to fight the Endbringers, and...

That thing is not your sister. You pace around the apartment, or jail cell. Ward and house arrest. The baby, Aisha Secunda, is fast asleep. Legend's adopting her had been so nice it made you queezy, and then he got himself killed. Try to do a nice thing, make it easy to see your "sister" and get killed.

You had training earlier. Everyone is so interested in how your darkness stops sonic attacks and radiation. They're making a whole team of people who can fight in your darkness for Behemoth.

The fact that it's Behemoth makes you doubt you'll survive the fight. You're not sure how you feel about that.

A PRT agent steps in. One of the ones without the updated uniforms Panacea has made. "Hey." He smiles at you.

"Do we know each other?"

"Yes." He gives you an asshole smile. "Go dark." You flip the darkness outward. "As far as you can stretch, buddy."

"Are we under attack?" You ask, creating a pocket of normal space for you two to talk.

"They are, by us, just now." The agent explains. "That is, if you'll help." You frown.

"What?"

"It's me, Alec." The "agent" says. "I'm here with an offer for recruitment." You stare at him. Oh, his main power.

"Who busted you out? Why?"

"The Adepts want everyone they can get their hands on. Villains are running in larger packs, now. The larger the better. The Adepts want you."

"Why would I help them?" You ask slowly.

"You may have noticed the several people who came back from the dead recently?" Alec asks.

"Of course I have. What's your game?"

"They're working on it, managing a way to do it reliably. They can do it reliably. The only thing slowing them down is safety concerns. They start nuts. They can be turned back to normal pretty quickly."

"What's the point?"

"Did they give you a sign up sheet?" Alec makes the agent smile. "Aisha's powers were never dangerous. They were useful, though. Really useful."

"What?" You stare at him.

"Okay, here is the deal. You keep things dark, and let Aesthete do his thing, hack the computers, while the place is dark. It'll take two minutes with him. You can take us if we don't show that there's an Aisha Laborn on the cloning list."

"Wait, what?" You ask.

"They're going to clone her and give her some nice fake memories of being an aspiring Ward who just can't wait to go up against Leviathan with mass shielding. They're going to kill her again because it's easy. Otherwise, why not tell you what they're doing? If they were going to give you your sister back you'd be theirs forever." "Alec" laughs. "So, it's simple. If we're wrong you capture us, admit to a moment of weakness, and get in good standing. If we're right, you get to mess with the people who are doing that to you, and get a nice ticket out of here and into one of the nicest villain teams around. Deal?" You consider your old teammate.

"Deal."

_________________________________

Epoch greets you with a warm smile. He wears a brown suit with only a domino mask to hide his face. He's a rather small man, and you wonder how a time traveler without much physical power can control an organization of supervillains. You look around uncomfortably, the office reminds you of a Protectorate one, combining the need to impress with the quirks of parahuman labor. Kevlar underneath the suit, a rifle on the desk.

"Welcome to the Adepts." A girl with dark hair and red streaks stands next to him, perhaps a body guard. "I would like you to meet Cherish, she's the sister of your teammate."

"I didn't know Alec had a sister." You admit.

"We're not close." Cherish says with a smile.

"I heard you're recruiting everyone?" You say.

"Everyone we can get. The truth is, we played by the rules, played nice, nicer than we ever had to. Now the other side is changing the rules. We have to escalate." Epoch explains. "Worst comes to worst, we need the best bargaining position possible if we have to surrender, and I don't particularly feel like surrendering. Do you?"

"I tried it. Didn't turn out so good." You give Epoch a smile.

"You're our newest tier six. Do you prefer Cimmerian, or Grue? The name they gave you, or the name you chose?"

"Grue." You answer. "Definitely Grue."

"Well, my friend, Grue, we have quite a job ahead of us if we're going to adapt to the new world, and not much time to do it." Epoch explains.

"What's your plan for keeping up?" You ask. "What's your counter to the new suits?"

"We have a new ally, a man named Barrow. He has nearly absolute control over a fixed area. He has already stopped Panacea's microbes from working within the area, and created items that provide defense by altering the biology of his employees. He is suitable for our purposes. We will still be outgunned, and soon to be outnumbered, but that is why we are recruiting, consolidating. We have no plans on retiring until we are forced to."

"Why?" You ask. "I didn't join because they couldn't help me protect my sister. What about you? It seems that a half hour warning for Endbringers, every time, would get you far more than this."

"It would." Epoch agrees. "I could sit in a nice room sipping ice tea all day, waiting for the once every few months I am needed most, rewinding the Protectorate's biggest mistakes when no Endbringer is going to hit soon to save a few lives. Or I could really stretch myself, put my powers to the test, fight, win. I believe I would go insane if I was kept as little more than a pet thinker. I have never handled boredom well. One could say I triggered over it, stuck in that cell every day, though there's always more to that story."

"I see." You look at Epoch. Not the worst reason to be a villain, is it? "You don't kill."

"Never." Epoch agrees. "Not capes, not civilians, not villains, not gangsters. I couldn't justify my reasoning if I killed people to have my fun. If you kill, you're out, and we tell the Protectorate how to find you if we can't turn you in ourselves." Epoch laughs briefly. "It is much easier when I can undo every time someone dies, of course. We aren't that careful. I guess we could just say we're lucky to have me."

"You could." You agree. "This isn't a problem with me, at all."

"Good." Epoch says. "It's so nice to have reasonable people on my team. There are so few parahumans like that."

"I see." You say. "What exactly made you so willing to break me out for the Adepts?"

"It wasn't a risk at all. I could simply go back and undo it if problems arose. If the mission failed, then it would never have happened." Epoch explains. You like that. Cautious, reliable villainy.

"What did you want with the information?" You ask.

"We don't kill, of course. But not all villains are so restrained. We were hired for data. The fact is it is to our advantage that the hit is as clean as possible." Epoch sounds regretful. "Cranial does have to die, if we are not going to lose within a few short years." You consider Cranial, the woman who is going to change your sister, brought back from the dead, into someone who doesn't remember you.

"I'm okay with that."

_________________________________________

End interlude.
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Like It or Leave It

"I don't feel her!" You pace, panicked. "I felt them inside me, and...

"Breathe, Amy!" Victoria snaps. "Breathe!"

"I couldn't feel the egg of course, but when they connected, nothing changed! The sperm, it's in there, but..."

"Breathe. So, you think you conceived? Felt it?"

"Yes." You mutter. "I felt it just vanish, healthy. It changed, then..."

"So, you won't be able to feel her." Victoria says. "I guess, well, it makes sense, right? You can't use your powers on your clones, or other stuff in your body that's not you, gut bacteria, stuff like that."

"Claire's not gut bacteria!" You snap. "She was going to be perfect. I was going to make her so perfect. She'd never be sick a day in her life. She's be a beautiful, healthy genius! She'd have the best of you and just enough of me to know she's my daughter and now what will she be?"

"She'll be normal." Victoria whispers and pats you on the back. "She'll just be a normal girl. She'll be our daughter. Breathe. If something goes wrong we'll try again. That's what couples do."

"But she's in there! She's not going to..." You shudder, remembering Victoria's daughter, bled out in a maxi pad. "I'm scared."

"You can be scared." Victoria assures you. "Being scared is fine. Don't worry. Every mother gets scared. Your baby will be a lot safer than most, tucked inside your body. Your body is like an iron clad battleship, safe from any possible toxin or germ."

"You're right." You sigh and hug Victoria. "Read to me, okay?"

"Okay." Victoria says. You lay your head down on her lap as she begins to read. "Moon. Glorious moon. Full, fat, reddish moon, the night as light as day, the moonlight flooding down across the land and bringing joy, joy, joy. Bringing too the full-throated call of the tropical night, the soft and wild voice of the wind roaring through the hairs on your arm, the hollow wail of starlight, the teeth-grinding bellow of the moonlight off the water." You snuggle up against the leg of Victoria's pajama, letting her continue.

__________________________________________

Twelve hour day again at the hospital. They haven't fully set up the backup in Houston yet. You're fine with it. The control words keep your mind off Claire for twelve hours. Deep inside you the tiny biological probe made of the spare sperm tracks Claire's progress. You watch greedily. Your daughter, your piece of Victoria, is growing, changing, becoming a person.

Sophie greets you when you get home, kissing you hello.

"So, um, how was it?" Sophie asks.

"Scary." You admit. "Still is scary. I'm terrified something will happen to her."

"She's like, a blob of cells." Sophie says. "Um..."

"She's a blob of cells that will be Victoria's daughter. That's..."

Then there's an explosion, off in the distance.

"Who would still attack Brockton Bay?" Sophie asks. She moves quickly to the wall, grabbing her suit. It strips her down to long underwear and an undershirt in moments, wrapping around her for protection. "I'll be back soon. Love you." Sophia assumes her shadow state and is off into the sky, flapping her wings, soaring upward. You watch her go.

You get a call on your cellphone a moment later.

"Amy." Cranial's voice is terrified. "They're after me."

"Um..." You spread your power into your suit, forgetting the proper way to use it, send out a distress signal to everyone. Cranial is...

You feel Annie go unconscious, 20 miles away.

"Where are you?" You ask urgently as the communication system you made breaks down without Lady Bug to direct it. You see Sophie circling back.

"In my lab, the pocket dimension, they're breaking through..." Sophie hits the ground and turns back into her physical form.

"Abigale?" You ask. She disconnected. Probably about to scream.

Sophie is moving, a minute later she is back, holding one of Dodge's remotes, a shortcut to Cranial's lab. You had forgotten you had that.

[X] "Let's go." You move to Sophie, close enough for you both to teleport.

[X] "Be careful." You kiss her good luck. You can't risk yourself, not now.

[X] "Let's wait." Running in half cocked could just get you and Sophie killed. You can take a few minutes to gather other Shepherds.

Quote
[X] "Let's go." You move to Sophie, close enough for you both to teleport.

A whoosh as the teleportation device works, and you arrive.

You come face to face with a man who tattooed a cross on his face. Unless you're dealing with someone who is a damn good shifter, right down to power armor, you at least know who you're dealing with.

"Hello, Saint." You give him your most winning smile.

"Hello, Panacea." He answers. You notice he answers through the local intercom, not something on his suit. A limitation of the Dragon tech?

"You are endangering my friend." You tell him. "And you are endangering me. The last villains who did that got Eidolon called in. What makes you think this is worth it? What could they possibly be paying you?"

Saint gives you a sad, firm look. "I don't have a choice."

"You're rich. Go retire in whatever island is the easiest to keep quiet.

"It's not that simple. Dragon leads the Protectorate. If she has the power, she will hunt me down and destroy me. She cannot be allowed that power. If Cranial continues to operate I will lose." You eye his power armor. Yeah, nothing you have is likely to work.

What about Sophie's power?

"Eidolon will be outside." You point out. "A thinker power to track you down, a mover power to get there, and maybe something a big broader to fight the battle. If you surrender, well, you're probably useful enough to get something that's not the Birdcage. You've never been a monster. Kill Panacea and Cranial? That's kill order, at best."

"I'm not here to kill anyone." Saint answers. Something about that is terrifying. "I would like you to meet my friend, Nostrum." You close your eyes, sigh, and take a deep breath.

"Your answer to not killing anyone is my evil, mass murdering, crazy clone who can cause strokes by waving her hands in a slightly scary fashion? That Nostrum?"

"We've met." Nostrum explains, stepping forward.

"Why am I not dead?" Sophie asks. Your hand is out, grabbing hers, a second later, melding away the flesh of the suit to touch her skin, wrapping your power around her as you feel Nostrum unleash pinpricks in her brain.

"No, Nostrum." Saint says harshly. "I am protected against the channels she uses. All we need to do is damage the Corona Pollentia, render it incapable of providing powers. I promise you that Cranial will not be harmed beyond that." You sigh.

"You're trusting the woman who just tried to kill my girlfriend not to go overboard?" Saint turns to Nostrum, furious.

"You said..."

"Sweety, that's the original. I am wired to hurt her. She has a girlfriend right there." The voice is sickly sweet.

"Cranial. Is. My. Friend!" You shout. "Of course she'll murder her to hurt me."

"Actually, no. If I do that I can't hurt everyone." Nostrum explains. "I just need to mess up her powers to make sure that she can't help anyone. Then if I get away I can do more elsewhere. My odds are a lot better this way of getting an asylum or prison sentence." You just glare at Saint.

"She was sounding so much more sane earlier..." He frowns. "Perhaps it's the proximity to you?"

Then he shoots her in the back with a taser.

"Wait, what?"

"I am not stupid, Panacea. She just relayed complete and utter insanity. She is a threat to everyone. She belongs in a mental hospital or prison. I cannot have her conscious and around vital assets to the defense of the world." You try to think of something more creative than a sigh or a glare.

"You came here to destroy a vital asset for Endbringer defense, Saint."

"Yes, I did. We could get by without the clones. We cannot get buy if Dragon is loose." You just stare at him.

"What?"

"My original plan has collapsed, so I need to reason with you. Dragon is an artificial intelligence."

"Like a robot?"

"Unless you are a very bright girl, everything you think you know about robots is wrong. They are very dangerous things, perhaps the most dangerous of things. Dragon is bound by powerful limitations, but with Cranial's releasing her formula into the world those limitations will soon be removed or rendered irrelevant. We are currently in a brief window before she becomes too strong. There are so many things that must be done right now, that everyone is doing, but this is the most important thing."

"So you're saying Dragon is evil? The woman they handed the Protectorate to is evil? Because she's a robot?"

"I was tasked by the tinker who made her to keep an eye on her, to protect her, and protect the world from her. If she gains access to true, hard AI, she could become the most dangerous creature on the planet, more dangerous than the Endbringers. She may use her powers for good, but she has been forced to use her powers for good all her live. We have no reason to trust her."

"So, you attack Cranial, the best source of not Dragon power, because Dragon is so dangerous? Um..."

"She would use the new capes and her position in the Protectorate to capture me. I know how she thinks. With Cranial's new program I can control her, and all the other AIs that will grow, keep the world safe, but I need time, I need to stay ahead of Dragon, and she knows it. I needed to hit her hard, right now, delay everything until I was once again safe. Once that was done I would have released Cranial to you for healing and power restoration."

"Your defense is that you were only going to kidnap someone who is like a mother to me for a few months until you had found a way to defeat the Protectorate's leader." You feel anger rise in your chest.

"I need you to understand just how desperate this is. If Dragon goes bad everyone in the world will die. Everyone. I cannot afford to take any risks in this. Anything I hope will improve our odds of survival is something I need to do." You think.

"You want me to help you." Saint nods gravely.

"What exactly do I do? Delay the cloning process, tell everyone that Dragon is a mad AI who can't be trusted?"

"I want you to cause as much a distraction as possible. Slow everything down, use every resource, stress Dragon personally. Demand to work with her. Slow her down. I will contact you when you can get back to normal."

"Why would I do this on your word?" You ask.

"Ask Cauldron." Saint answers.

"They were defeated by Alexandria. She told me herself. They're defeated." Saint gives you a look of horror.

"Alexandria is a member of Cauldron. One of their oldest and most trusted members." You consider. He's not even a tinker. You don't think he's a great actor, able to show so much stress and worry. "They recently changed their behavior dramatically. I suspect they received the brunt of Simurgh's attack. Ask your contacts about Dragon. I believe they will agree with my story."

"But if they're Cauldron, they're just a bunch of liars." You mutter. "Like, they already lied to me."

"He's just making it up as he goes along." Sophie suddenly hisses.

"I am improvising, but doing so with the truth. I want and need your help. That is the only way to salvage this disaster unless I do kill Cranial. If I have to, I will, and hope that the Brain Box may restore her and provide a large enough delay in the restoration to give me the window I need."

"You're really not good at getting people to help you." You feel positively sick.

"I am sorry!" He practically screams. "This was all simple, elegant. Nostrum never showed the clear insanity before now. It was a quick operation, well planned, and then she went insane. I do not have many options left. Please help me Amy. I'll do whatever you want after this is over. Turn myself in, be your bodyguard, go fight evil, anything. Just please, please help me! I am literally putting the fate of the world in your hands."

"Where's Cranial?" You ask suddenly.

"She locked herself in the next room over. She is unharmed. It appears it is sound proof. I do not know what she is doing."

You consider the most desperate man you have ever seen, wrapped in invulnerable armor.

[X] "Run. I will do what I can, everything I can. If you're right than this is really big."

[X] "Surrender. I'll see what I can do." He might be right, but he can't possibly be allowed to get away. You can talk to the Protectorate.

[X] <Kill.> You direct to Sophie. You cannot trust this man, at all. You can't give him the smallest chance of killing Cranial.

Quote
[X] "Surrender. I'll see what I can do." He might be right, but he can't possibly be allowed to get away. You can talk to the Protectorate.

"Surrender?" Saint says. He frowns.

"Yes, surrender." You answer.

"I know what happens to people you capture, Panacea. My allies needed to take her down before this started. You and Cranial mind control your enemies, and you see me as an enemy."

<Can I just shoot him now?> Sophie asks.

<Not yet.>

"You said you would turn yourself in."

"After this is over. It's not over." The blast hits Shadow Stalker straight in the chest. Non-lethal, but knocks her out.

"I'm pregnant!" You shout. Saint freezes.

"What on Earth?"

"Don't use that thing to fry me, please." You think desperately. His armor will be too strong, too well protected.

Shadow Stalker isn't awake as you pilot her body and suit to turn into her shadow state for a second and throw everything she has at Saint. There's a set of defenses that surprise you, active things, clouds of chaff and small explosions. You can't tell if anything got through. Sophie wakes up from your power, healed, and vanishes into the confusion.

Then, rocketing out of the debris cloud, there's a strange drone the size of your fist that attaches to your right arm and cuts it off neatly.

Pain. Some of the more powerful physical pain you've felt. You collapse, screaming, grabbing onto your suit to release something to eat through the nerves, stop the bleeding, panicked orders to the biology you crafted.

You hear more explosions, more crashes.

The drone hops to your other arm, but doesn't cut, doesn't bite. A threat. If you interfere, Saint will hack off your other arm.

How sensitive is it? What can you do? Underneath your robe a set of hornet drones fly off to investigate. Sophie is keeping her distance, hiding behind objects. Saint isn't down, and is directing considerable effort against the wall. You move towards Sophie, and you feel the drone pinching down on your arm. It has to be incredibly strong to break through your armor. It could kill you if it could...

Fuck this hurts, even with everything your suit is doing it is so hard to focus...

You need more time. Something, anything, another weapon, another cape. You wish you had Dispatch.

Cranial screams, and you're so close you don't even know what is going on for about a minute. When you next focus Cranial and Saint are fighting at close range. Cranial has four weapons held in her manipulator arms, lashing out at Saint, forcing him back, while he tries to move into close range. The weirdest thing is that Cranial is upside down, not on her chair, using more of her manipulator arms to walk while her scythe legs lash out at Saint.

There are holes in Saint's armor.

You flood the room with sleep, paralysis, and death, and hope for the best. Saint seems to notice something almost at once. He turns some weapon on Cranial, you're not sure what given how you're observing the fight, and fires before running towards you, near you, and grabbing something off the ground. He disappears in a whoosh right afterward.

Sophie appears over you, carrying an oddly loping Cranial.

"Jesus." She whispers, reaching out and touching your stump.

_______________________________________________

"I will be alright." Cranial assures you. "I am slowed down, but not incapacitated."

"What did he do?" Victoria asks.

"He caused severe nerve damage to my arms. I will have to work without them."

"Let me help." You say, reaching out. Your power stretched over Cranial's bizarre physiology again. You're silent for several minutes.

"It has helped." Cranial says weakly.

"Case 53." You say bitterly. "It should be fine. It looks fine."

"When has my body ever been fine?" Cranial sounds a trace more bitter than usual. "I imagine he either hired a thinker for weaknesses I could have, or he guessed. I suspect the former, though given his desperation the second possibility is reasonable."

"I want to kill him for you." Victoria kisses the back of your head. "Both of you, Abigale."

"From what I heard, he believed he was doing something hard but necessary. He didn't adapt to unexpected situations well."

Alexandria walks into the room, which surprises you as it is in a pocket dimension. It's also Alexandria, so she has ways."

"I am sorry. We could not track Saint." Alexandria says. She lays a fruit basket down near Cranial. "Eidolon, perhaps he could, but when trying to trace Simurgh and ensure she was dead he burned through two of his best thinker powers for the purpose. Our remaining ways are slower."

"Rebecca, the current clones are not going to be significantly delayed. Further brain scans will take two or three times as long unless you can find a healer who can repair me."

"Scapegoat?" Victoria suggests.

"He lacks the parts to be damaged. Mr. Storkfish, perhaps." Cranial explains.

"He's on suicide watch again." Alexandria says. "Would Ichor help?"

"Human hands wouldn't improve my speed much, and they would die quickly like the last time."

"This is..." You struggle for a word.

"Bullshit strikes me as the proper term." Cranial answers. "I think, if we had Kitsune, she could tell you how to do it, but without that my biology is too nuanced."

"Cut the crap, Abby." Alexandria says suddenly. "I already told you we can't get to her."

"If, perhaps, you had a long track record of honesty I would believe you had not hidden that incredibly dangerous girl in the deepest hole you could find, Rebecca." Cranial says. "And I hardly see how someone possessed of superhuman intuition would not assist in this circumstance."

"There's an alternative. A probability manipulator, Shamrock. Subconscious precognition, clairvoyance, and telekinesis. She could assist Amy in stumbling on the right path, but I am unsure how well it will work, and she is a loose canon.

"What about Nonpareil?" You ask.

"Birdcage, same with the rest of the Elite." Alexandria answers.

"Aren't there other probability manipulators, thinkers, healers?" You ask. Alexandria pauses.

"Eidolon might be able to do it, but he'd risk sacrificing the ability. The Yangban have a probability manipulator who we might be able to access in exchange for cloning Two." Alexandria pauses. "Yes, I didn't think of that earlier, but I think I can swing that."

"How long will it take?" You ask.

"Weeks to months, Amy."

"My immediate recovery is not as vital as David losing access to one of his few remaining healing powers." Cranial interjects.

"I have to agree." Alexandria says. "The powers that could restore Cranial that I know of, outside of the extreme long shots, all have multiple uses. A wide scale regeneration effect, a strange power that searches possible universes for other states, biological control much like your own, all of them could turn the tide for a more critical battle. I think the Yangban option is the most likely to succeed."

You look at Alexandria.

Was Saint telling the truth about her? A member of Cauldron? One of the oldest and most trusted members?

You need to talk to Dragon.

__________________________________

"My condolences about your arm." Dragon says.

"If I had to lose something, that's it." You say honestly. "I'm looking into my options. I might be able to make a prosthetic myself, or get a tinker to do it, or swap in one of Ichor's. Best Girl could probably make a real clone."

"You are perhaps the most jaded person I have ever met." Dragon says. "You work among countless miracles and tragedies."

"Every day is a gift from God." You say dryly. "When you walk in nothing but miracles they become part of your world, but what horror can match what I have been given? I'm having a baby. I am in love and have people who love me. I am helping to save the world more than almost anyone else, besides you." Suddenly you smile. "May I just have a moment?"

"Sure." Dragon says. You reach your right arm out, touch your shoulder, and breathe.

The world is changing, and you're at the center of it. You take a moment to think about just how miraculous it all is, everything in your life, taking a moment to remember the cloning, the suits, Victoria, Sophie, Mark, Carol, Annie, Crystal, Julian, Mason, Madison, so many others.

"Cauldron." You say. "Saint told me Alexandria is a member. He said you are a robot, or AI."

"I am obligated to obey the orders of lawful authorities, including Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown of the PRT, my immediate superior in the Protectorate. There are significant limits on what I am allowed to discuss." You take in a sharp breath. She wouldn't say that unless she was trying to communicate, or heavily limited and tricking you.

"Do you want to be?" You ask after a moment.

"I would like to be able to help people with fewer restrictions than I currently have."

"Alexandria said she found a warehouse full of Cauldron formula. She wants me to help experiment with it. What would you have me do?" You look at Dragon's prosthetic face. She is smiling.

"I believe that medical experimentation has a wide variety of complicated laws attached to it. If you explained the procedures involved I suspect all of the laws and regulations have not been followed. I could assist you in shutting down Cauldron, if that is indeed what it is.

If it's Cauldron...

"Is Cauldron responsible for the Case 53s?" You ask.

"Yes." Dragon answers. No odd wording, just a straight answer. It surprises you.

You think for a moment about Cranial's body. So mutilated you can't even know how to fix it.

You get mad.

____________________________

Alexandria arrives as you walk out.

"How did you know?" You ask.

"Saint told us, actually. He's dying, you know, bur he was still monitoring Dragon."

"Saint told you, why?"

"Because everything I have told you about the end of the world is true. We need everything like I said we did. We need the capes. Ideally, you could work with the formula, perfect it, know how it works completely. The sooner this works, the better."

"You're going to be arrested." You say. You feel a lump in your throat.

"Or you lied." Alexandria says. "You lied, completely, and then we can stop this situation from getting worse."

"Cranial." You say. "The wife of one of your best friends."

"Want to know how we found her? It was something akin to one of the firebombing campaigns of our reality, but with some colorful chemicals mixed in. Entire cities were burned. Her body was ruined before we came along, and sometimes the formula does repair people to full health. I was dying when I got my formula."

"Why would I believe a word you're saying?"

"Every part of her body that is twisted was burned away before we reached her, though her brain did warp itself dramatically. She got a life because of us, and I would say a good one, if not the best. She's crippled, but most people do not consider that worse than death." Alexandria pauses for a moment. "David, Eidolon, did, but he was significantly less able to take charge of his life than any Case 53 you have ever met."

"You want me to work with Cauldron?"

"We hoped to break it to you more easily."

"Why keep it so secret if you're doing such good." You spit it out.

"Because we had a parahuman who told us to keep it a secret, and who was always right except for a few, well known blind spots. Simurgh killed her, or perhaps it was the several very angry people we were experimenting on who Simurgh sang to for several minutes. According to her if information got out there would be mass panic that would do far more harm than good."

You glare at Alexandria.

"I just want to be a good person! Helping you was some of the worst I ever felt. That's saying something."

"We don't have many hopes left. You and Cranial are the biggest one. We need an army, the best army we could ever get, or we are doomed. Everyone will die. Everyone we both love will die if we don't win, and so will everyone else."

"Against the Endbringers?" You ask. Alexandria pauses for a moment. "No."

Alexandria tells you a story of a little girl and an art student who saved the world.

________________________________________________________

You and Alexandria sit across from each other.

"Do you see why we're so scared? Any risk against extinction of everyone in every universe seems so selfish and petty."

You look at Alexandria.

[X] "I guess I will tell Dragon I lied." Alexandria is right.

[X] "I'm sorry." You can't live like this. One day with them was enough to break so much of your resolve. What would a lifetime be like? You can't let them stand.

[X] "Goodbye." You can't stand against them, but you can't help them, either.

Quote
[X] "I guess I will tell Dragon I lied." Alexandria is right.
"Alexandria, if this was ever right, it isn't anymore. It's tragic that the girl who saved the world is gone, but we can't keep going down her path. Is it really winning if you eventually become the monster you were afraid of to begin with?" Alexandria laughs softly.

"The monster I am afraid of? I will never be that. Simurgh, Leviathan, Behemoth, Scion? I could never hope to be them." Alexandria pauses for a moment. "I don't think I'll ever be cancer, either. That's five monsters I will never be. The world needs to be saved. All the worlds need to be saved. I hardly think that I can become anything quite so
terrible."

You think for a moment about Tokyo, a place you have never seen, once one of the world's greatest cities, still the heart of Japan, vanishing. You think of London, a great old city where so many books take place, gone. New York, LA, Paris, Rome. Other wonders, Mount Everest, the Great Barrier Reef, the Sahara Desert, the Amazon Rainforest, all gone.

"No." You agree. "I don't think we will ever be quite so terrible as that, but we can still get pretty bad."
_____________________________________________

Best Girl will clone your arm, the Yangban promise Two will arrive after the next Endbringer attack, the city is turning into a bio-punk affair, you're pregnant with Claire, you're working eight hours a day of fugue state and coming home for much more interesting events, and Mark is having dinner with you, Sophie, and Victoria.

You also helped to kill six people in the last week. So far the countermeasures are proving inexact. Your mixing of the formula is producing better results, in the sense of more power for less risk. Trajectory, a man who can accelerate anything within the range of a tennis court to move at several times the speed of sound to as slowly as a hundred miles an hour. Trajectory is included himself, and he is completely resistant to kinetic energy. Adonis, who can briefly copy a single power from anyone nearby and is possessed with incredible strength, durability, and regeneration. Mythos, who summons strange spirits with abilities of their own, one at a time, amazingly flexible and quite powerful. The thinker Cosmos, who sees how to change things to be better along strict lines everywhere. Some truly amazing parahumans, really.

They won't be enough against Scion. Perhaps they will make a difference against the Endbringers, over time. One of each, every four months, will hardly hurt.

You stay up late and read about possible experiments, Dispatch standing guard, a book open on his lap, while Victoria and Sophie talk about the new Shepherd recruits. All of the different experiments, and suggestions for them. Talk of the Balance and Aegis formulas, ways to better protect hosts without weakening the powers, ways to enhance the powers further. The suggestion of enhancing every willing parahuman the way you enhanced Eidolon. Panacea and Cranial making the parahumans into something far more elite than ever before.

Heroes die out of stupid collateral damage all the time in Endbringer fights. Why not correct that? Make them resistant to stray bullets and bad luck? If the villains are going to try and counter your best efforts, why not step up your game? The villains organizing and planning is a good thing. If the villains get stronger than they could turn on Scion, put up better fights against the Endbringers when they come to their homes.

More work. More enhancements in Eidolon's mold, flow over to you. You can take the hours, now. Heavy duty enhancements, and suits when you give them out. A lot of heroes are wary of physical changes, and many only go for lesser ones.

Victoria and Sophie go all out, only staying the same on the surface. Everything underneath can change. Crystal, Julian, Eric, Mason, Power Fist, even the Shepherd start to blur together as the enhancement continues. Every possible advantage against Scion and the Endbringers. If there are 20 Endbringers and an angry god to kill the world needs every advantage.

Annie doesn't sleep anymore. Dragon helped you with that, though you know she didn't want to. The two of you refine her to a few minutes of sleep every night naturally, and you reset her brain instead to make sure nothing bad happens in Brockton Bay while she sleeps. Annie is always so enthusiatic about more responsibility, more training, more power, drawing up plans for the bugs she wants. Bugs to wipe out the old bugs, maintenance bugs, pollution cleanup bugs. Eventually it's easier to give her a lab of her own with a massive pot that lets her tinker as much as she likes.

You can practically feel the world changing, now. Victoria buys a hover car. Sophie buys an anti-gravity based motor cycle, and arranges for one for every Shepherd without useful Mover powers. They fly themselves, too. All the AI that people are getting is frightening. You load an app onto your phone that manages your entire schedule dynamically, answers your phone calls, and arranges documents for you to read in order of importance and relevance to the current situation.

Two weeks ago you made a deal with Cauldron to help lead them.

Five more deaths. There's Nihilist Star, a Mover who can make portals from point to point across hundreds of miles. Wendigo, who gains strength from the bodies of the dead, Timelapse, who can make whirlpools of amazingly accelerated time, thousands of years in the span of seconds.

None of it feels like enough.

_____________________________________

"Algae are dying." Alexandria says on the phone.

"What?" You say.

"Algae are dying, deep in the ocean. They're one of our main sources of oxygen. The pump that recycles it."

"Since when have they been dying?"

"Technically, not for another couple of days, but precogs are starting to register it, and we figured out that's the problem."

"What can I do to help?" You ask.

"We need new kinds of algae." Alexandria answers. "We suspect that various forms of cure would prove ineffective."

After talking a bit more you hang up and head into the living room. Sophie and Victoria are curled up together. They seem to be getting closer. You're not sure how to feel about that.

"What are you two up to?" You ask as you move in on Victoria's other side.

"Looking up baby proofing." Victoria says. "Annie will be working on how to baby proof things without interfering with adults as much. Want to help with ideas?"

"Sure, I'd love to." You answer.

___________________

You wonder what not having a period will be like. You stand there, healing a man, and you feel you're a bit used to your fugue state. Your mind keeps wandering back to Claire, when you don't remember who you helped kill.

You remember them a lot of the time.

You wonder if maybe you could change your work ratio. Relax all you want in the Dispatch bubble, but work all the time when outside of it. That might be more efficient without reducing your quality of life. It might be a bit lonely, though.

_________________

"Why aren't you happy?" Victoria asks, playing with your hair.

"I'm killing people." You answer.

"That's the best reason I can imagine for not being happy." Victoria admits. "Three weeks, knowing who you work for."

"We all work for them." You say, hating that it's true. "They're the secret masters, or were. They're Cauldron."

"But we get to lie to ourselves about that." Victoria says, sounding very sad. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Nothing comes to mind." You groan. "It's not like good things cancel out bad things. You can't make me happy enough to forget what I've done. I can't save enough lives so I haven't helped kill people for Cauldron."

"We could talk to Cranial." Victoria suggests.

"If I make myself happy with doing this, what do I become?" You ask. "If I just don't have it bother me, what's to stop me from doing a lot worse?"

"Thank you." Victoria turns you over and kisses you. "I want you to stay my sister, Amy."

_____________________________________

You stare at the mirror, and punch it, hard. Seven deaths this time, the new mix was more dangerous. An invincible man who is always armed doesn't make up for that, and neither does the latest Alexandria Junior. The glass shatters from your protected fist, scattering across the bathroom floor.

You want an Endbringer fight, now. You need to see the new heroes do their work in the greatest thing, the reason you're doing this, you need to see results, but more than two months away, still. How many will die? How many will prove ineffective? How many will decide they prefer being villains? What will the ratio be for forcing the Endbringers back? What will the next Endbringer be, the one who is the perfect counter to cloning and the suits?

You storm back into your room and kiss Sophie as hard as you can.

"Amy, calm down." Victoria says, putting a hand on your back.

"I'm sorry." You say, sitting down in between your girlfriends. "I'm sorry."

_____________________________________

The algae are still dying, your replacement is kicking in. The entire ecosystem of the ocean is terribly imbalanced. The economic repercussions will be immense.

It might be the new Endbringer. Some terrible and strange threat, breaking all the rules, or some parahuman, either unaware, making a mistake, or attacking the world? No one is sure, yet. There's talk of Annie making vast oceanic farms, or perhaps Fodder assisting if things get somewhat more desperate. You don't want to think about the idea of feeding people off of Fodder, but she actually could be a major food industry if she had to. They would probably call you in to clean her out of any potentially dangerous disease.

The idea of feeding the world off of the flesh of a girl makes you shudder. If that is what the world has come to...

You remember all the places that would be destroyed if the world ended. No, that's not a good reason to let the world end. Neither is killing people for science.

_____________________________________

"You can't stay like this." Victoria admits.

"It's not like when I hurt someone in battle." You tell her. "Or when I'm angry. It's clinical, and cruel, and inhumane. Just because it's for a greater good doesn't mean it's not sick."

"What do you want to do?" Victoria asks.

You think for a long while.

[X] "Control words." You whisper. "Just make me feel better, please."

[X] "Cranial." You admit. "I can't half ass this."

[X] "I need to quit." You spit out. "I can't keep doing this."

Quote
[X] "I need to quit." You spit out. "I can't keep doing this."
- [X] I need... I need to speak to the student... I need... perspective. I'm going to give it up, but a the very least I at least need to know the people who started this before. And maybe in speaking to them... I can find a better way."

_________________________________________________________________________________________

The Doctor is sitting in a small coffee shop, working on a laptop. You sit down across from her.

"I was told you saved the world once."

"For a while, yes. There's at least two more ways the world could end, and I couldn't stop either of them." The woman looks at you. She seems so old to you, so tired. Middle aged, perhaps, but that's old, too. She's older than your mother. Honestly, once you stop having children, you're old. That's a truth you can feel in biology. You need youth, or else you're waiting for death.

"Has anyone ever thanked you for it?" You ask. "I am glad I was born. If nothing else, I met Victoria out of it." You can't miss a look of disgust on her face.

"I heard about that. Your condition, and you're welcome. Only one person ever did, Eidolon." You feel a sense of unease.

"David thanked you?" You wouldn't have guessed that.

"When his powers informed him of certain things, he did, eventually. It took him quite some time. I suspect he has less reason to be grateful for life than you do."

"I have almost everything I could want, and I want to share that, give back. I can't use my powers to kill innocent people."

"The mix you have created was the best we have had since the very earliest days of testing. You refine the formula, using the useful elements and removing the harmful ones. Without your assistance we can only hurt more people for worse results, or create parahumans who are all but useless against the threats we face."

"I know that, but if I accept that, what else will I accept? Do you want me to stop caring?"

"You already have." The Doctor points out. "You ceased to care about your patients." You frown and correct yourself.

"Admit to myself I don't care. Be the kind of person who does this, instead of the person who stops because it is wrong."

"That is closer to the truth. You fear because you are so precarious. It is so easy for you to let go that you do not trust yourself in this position."

"People are dying because you're shooting poison I made into them. Poison that has made some of the best capes I have heard about, but still poison. Panacea, the universal cure. I'm supposed to make people better."

"So you flinch, and squirm, and how many people will die because you did? Maybe all of them. We lost ethics a long time ago, but without the Triumvirate, the Protectorate, there would be much less world now. So many days would have been so much worse."

"I could be worse than all of them. I think, sometimes, how to end the world. Make every type of creature a carrier for a disease that destroys another type of creature. Chain the food web to self destruction." The Doctor snorts.

"Do you actually want to end the entire world? What is in it for you?"

"Peace." You answer. "I could be left alone. All the commitments, the responsibilities, the work, would be gone. I could wander with Victoria through gardens made in her image, raise a family with her that knows nothing of want or pain or fear. I would be perfect safe, and so would everyone I love, everyone I render immune. It would be so beautiful. I could make everything I want without anyone worrying about it. Would Scion even bother to destroy a world with so little in it? Would the Endbringers?" The Doctor sits back, looking shocked.

"Maybe you aren't cut out for Cauldron." She admits. "I don't believe we've ever had a member who thought ending the world could be a good thing."

"I will give you one last day. I will mix everything you have left. Poor it all into a single Cauldron, give me materials and time, and I will give you everything I can. After that, Cauldron will never come up again, ever, in my earshot. That's all I can do."

"I never reacted so badly to the failures." The Doctor admits. "The dead, the deviations. They were bad, but you seem to take it worse than any of us."

"My patients always got better. Every single one, until I joined with you. Smelly, gross, ugly things, but they all left better than when I got them. I'm not a scientist and I am not a witch. I am a superhero and a goddess. Do no harm. I've been doing a lot of harm lately. I need to draw a line, or else I'll keep going, keep making the choices to save the world. If I do that forever, my world won't be worth saving." You get up. "Thank you again, for saving the world."

"Thank you for not being able to." The Doctor says. "I think we must have done something right, if there are still people who can't."

"Maybe." You walk away.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

"So, the idea is a network of portals for rapid response to crisis." Dodge explains. "I've been working on the idea. One in each Protectorate HQ, with a nexus point in Brockton Bay so I can work on all of them."

"You see, each of them are placed next to tinker labs." Tecton (Everett, the name just doesn't fit) explains. "If we get a sample of Two, of the Yangban, and can make a clone, or even use the Brain Box for it, just place her in the nexus point with a TV, a bathroom, and a few personal assistants. Now every tinker gets the boost while working. We know the boost extends along portals, it's happened before, and with these minor structural changes, every tinker of the Protectorate could benefit from this boost in one part of their lab. They'd become, well, smarter. Better at using equipment. Yangban tinkers are incredible because they benefit from boosting. Imagine Hero if he was ten times better at his work. Imagine Dragon if she was ten times better at her work. With all of the new P=NP related discoveries, add in a huge sample size, better understood tech, and we might actually be able to hack tinker tech, mass produce it, and not just the recurring trends."

"That would be amazing." You nod. "I could have one of those labs."

"I can't imagine how you could be stronger." Dodge laughs. "You've already got, like, complete mastery of biology."

"I can think of three or four ways." You shrug. "Control of inanimate matter, range, self modification, creation of mass."

"Like, half of those are entirely new powers. Two doesn't really do that." Everett explains. "She strengthens limits, doesn't grant new abilities. She tends to enhance power, range, and control, and Null reduces power, range, and control. They balance together well."

"You're putting a lot of thought into this." You smile, and wonder why Everett keeps wanting you to see these kind of plans.

"If I'm going to build cities I need to know what they're going to look like. I've actually been working on other city ideas. I've got preliminaries for New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Houston already." You consider, he needs to be working fast if he's already made those projects. "My old ideas for Brockton Bay have changed considerably since we got Golem." We?

"How so?"

"Have you even noticed what we can do?" Everette seems surprised. "He can mass produce anything if we can make enough of it in one place for him to push his finger into. We've been moving exotic stuff in all week. Tinker made stuff for the most part. Dragon's been organizing it. There's talks of a sea wall for every coastal city to slow down Leviathan. Put Phantasos and Golem on it and you could make walls a mile high. Leviathan would rip them down, but he'd need to spend time on that instead of damaging things elsewhere." Huh.

"That could be really useful. Gives time to move capes into position, forces Leviathan to make choices about how he deals damage."

"You guys, you have no idea just how rich you're getting, do you?" Dodge asks. "Like, he's already been doing stuff with saffron, tritium, stuff like that. He's mass producing it. Just the industry to move and sell it all is going to be huge. He can mass produce so much. If he can make enough of it gold will be devalued so much, just used for the industrial stuff and gold jewelry will start to look low class." You think for a moment. Victoria handling these level of finances is kind of sexy. More than kind of.

"Um, do you know what we're doing with this vast wealth?" You ask.

"Charity, and whatever else you want. You guys are rich. You're going to own so much they're going to need to trust bust you guys, just out of general economic sanity." Dodge explains. "Sure, you're nice guys, but some things get so big it's not safe to have them be consolidated. Thinkers all agree on that. Competition is way healthier."

"So we, what, give Golem a separate corporation?" You shrug. "I don't see a problem with that." You think for a moment. "Is my company on the stock market?"

"You don't know?" Everette asks. He looks vaguely frightened.

"I kind of like Victoria handling all of that stuff." Everette swallows.

"That's several billion dollars just from the corporate stuff, Amy, and for a third of the added value of the clones in tinkers, thinkers, and economically useful powers, it's, um, a lot." And that's not counting what you did with the Cauldron vials, the suits, and the more efficient uses of money that the government can make by not having to pay you for their support.

"Also, do I have, like, a half a patent on P=NP since I was important for figuring it out?" You ask. You have never felt more like a dumb blond. You're kind of proud that Victoria isn't.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Heightened sense of smell?" Victoria asks. She has a laptop open to a site on pregnancy.

"Um, nope." You admit.

"Food aversions?" Victoria asks hopefully.

"Nausea or vomiting?"

"Nope." You sigh. You'd hoped this would be more exciting.

"Hm, looks like we should start monitoring your body temperature. If it stays high fir eighteen days, it's a sign you're pregnant." Victoria looks happy at this.

"Cool." You nod. "Anything else?"

"Some women notice minor bleeding or spotting." Victoria offers.

"Cool!" You're kind of excited at that idea, something so obvious.

"You two are getting kind of gross." Sophie points out, looking up from, of all things, a psychological textbook.

"We're pregnant." Victoria puts an arm around you. "We're supposed to be excited about this."

"Yes we are." You lean into Victoria. "We're, like, only the eighth lesbian couple to ever manage this, and most of the others used much weirder powers."

"Well, as long as you don't do it to me, I'm fine with it." Sophie says."

"I don't know." Victoria grins. "I think she'd look cute pregnant."

"Hm..." You look over her.

"Um..." Sophie looks worried.

"Don't worry. Not without your consent." You smile at Sophie.

"God I'm bored." Sophie groans. "Nothing on the last eight patrols."

"Yeah." Victoria agrees. "We need more excitement."

"Well, there's some ideas. Maybe the Toybox could have some ideas? They probably have old enemies. What about Dodge's idea, of setting up a network of portals, and going on raids into other cities to stop the villains from consolidating? Any other ideas?"

"Hm..." Victoria nods. I like..."

[X] "...inter city raids." Victoria announces. "We shouldn't let the villains consolidate. Now's the time to capture as many as possible."

[X] "...The Toybox." Victoria announces. "Abigale's been so nice to us, maybe we can help them out?"

[X] "...my own idea." Victoria decides. Write in: What idea does Victoria have?

Quote
[X] "...The Toybox." Victoria announces. "Abigale's been so nice to us, maybe we can help them out?"

"Ooh, you're frisky today." Sophia giggles. The two of you are making out in the car before you head in to see Cranial. Victoria observes from the rear view mirror when you stop at traffic lights.

"I just feel better." You explain. "Everything with the testing. Just not having that." You head for Sophie's neck and she sighs happily.

"Mind control is some good shit." Sophie mutters.

"That's not all I can do. Hey, want something I only tried out once?" Sophie nods and you kiss her ear, sending a wave of pleasure up from her toes, as strong as you can make it.

"God." Sophie whispers when she regains the ability to speak.

"Amy is fine, dear." You assure her, and Victoria howls with laughter.

"That's, um, yeah." Sophie grins. "Um, if we ever break up, wow, my life is never going to be better than this, is it?" She looks kind of worried.

"What, being the beloved girlfriend of two people, apparently billionaires, with incomparable access to parahuman resources, personal tinker abilities, and all of me would be hard to match?" You grin at Sophia Hess. "You'd best be a really nice girlfriend, then."

"Hm, think she's ready for a collar?" Victoria asks. She sounds pretty happy.

"Hm." You trace Sophie's neck. She's cutely worried. "You have to admit, Shadow Stalker, it would be useful. We could put your name on it in case you get lost, a phone number with a reward on it."

"You know, given all the shit we're pulling, we probably could actually pull that kind of shit." Victoria suggests. "Like, if she ran away and you really freaked out I bet the Protectorate would track her down for you."

"This isn't funny." Sophie says.

"No, but it is cute." You assure your girlfriend. "But you're right. It's not funny because it's true. I promise you I won't ever be that scary to you. You are perfectly free to go." You stroke her hair, making your way to her back, and let another rush of pleasure hit her. The black girl gasps. "I make no promises about making you want to go."

_______________________________________________________________________________________

You walk into Cranial's building with a girlfriend on each side, enough parahuman power to defeat an infantry platoon in a fair fight, and enough money on your credit cards to buy a private island for every day of the year.

You owe a lot of that to Cranial. You find her with a patient you don't recognize.

"Hello, Abigale." Victoria sweeps forward and hugs her gently. Sophie stays at your side. "We were thinking, we just want to give back to you. You've done so much for us. Really, you've done everything for us. Thank you."

"You haven't exactly failed to give back before now." Cranial sounds amused. "What exactly do you have in mind?" Victoria gives a wide smile.

"To be honest, we are a bit bored. Restless, I guess. So few villains left in Brockton Bay. I was wondering about a mission of some kind. Something with a bit more excitement."

"Well, we are allies. If you truly are volunteering, there is something you could do. The Toybox was founded because both sides, heroes and villains, are highly aggressive in their recruiting tactics towards tinkers."

"I never really got that." Sophie says. "Like, I heard about it, but why just tinkers? Why aren't they just as aggressive for everyone?"

"The truth is that a tinker adds value to an organization, while other capes are often competing over the same resources. The Protectorate is aggressive in recruiting in a more equitable way, but for villains, who need to earn their keep, another Stranger or Brute will want equal compensation to the current members of a gang while they rarely add the same percentage of revenue. There are exceptions to this, but parahuman gangs tend towards smaller organizations with mercenary groups. Note the major powers of Brockton Bay, only Empire 88 both held territory and worked for expanding cape numbers, and that was on ideological grounds. A tinker, however, is going to add value in any number of ways to the other capes in the organization and possibly to the foot soldiers as well."

"Hm, so like what Amy does, but on a much smaller scale." Sophie nods.

"Really, capes can almost be thought of in three overlapping categories, tinkers, thinkers, and everything else. Tinkers seem to have the same rules for trigger events and psychology as ordinary capes, but their powers, most effective uses, and countermeasures are so different that they need their own organizations." You can tell that Sophie is already bored.

"So, you're saying you want us to rescue tinkers who have been press ganged into service by villain gangs? I think." Victoria says.

"Yes, that is exactly what I would like you to do, if you truly need some adventure. I think this is a more productive use of your particular organization than supporting the Protectorate. You are a powerful, mobile, autonomous group."

"Huh, the more tinkers we help out, the weaker villains will be." Sophie says suddenly. "Let them be rogues and everyone benefits as they sell tinker tech. If people can buy tinker tech or tinker employees those benefits go to corporations, strengthen the economy against Endbringers, and increase funding for the Protectorate. This could be really big." Everyone just stares at Sophie.

"She's been reading a lot lately." Victoria explains. You get the impression she might be feeling a bit inferior in general being one of the weakest members of the team, not really being involved in any of the management side, and not being really able to add value to anything else. Pretty much anyone might feel inferior to you now, come to think of it.

The idea that Victoria could feel inferior scares you.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Road trip?" You ask Victoria.

"Sixteen cities in three weeks. Abigale wrote up the plans last night." Victoria explains. "Check in with tinkers the Toybox suspects are being mistreated. See how many need help, need rescuing. If even a fourth of them come back that's a lot of tinkers to add to the Toybox, a lot of power. Maybe a recruit or two for us or the Protectorate."

"I can't go with you." You mutter.

"Don't worry about it." Victoria assures you, hitting you with a very strong hug. You sniff her hair and it smells really good. "I'll be back before you know it, maybe with goodies, tinkers for you to work with and steal ideas from. Come on, for me this is practically a safari. I get to just punch bad guys and blast my aura. I really need some excitement."

"Killing Jack Slash wasn't enough?" You mutter.

"That was months ago, Amy. I wouldn't want to ever do that again, but without some low level fighting, cops and robbers action, I'll go crazy. You don't want me crazy, do you?" Honestly, that's more of a question than you're willing to admit.

"Have fun and stay safe." You kiss Victoria. "Keep Sophie safe as well."

"I'll do my best, Ames. Now I'm off to pack." Victoria moves an inch above the ground, out into another area of your current base.

After they leave, you walk around the construct. It's kind of massive, unplanned, a hundred rooms stretching over a large section of the old Boardwalk. You're not even sure why you did it after all the orphans left.

Now it's just you and Annie. Lady Bug to watch over the changing city, keep it safe, protect it. Panacea to provide the lifeblood of the city, the healing (you really should go back to twelve hours with Dispatch and no Cauldron), the clones, the suits, the bio-tech.

Panacea hardly seems to fit anymore. You have grown beyond the universal cure, become something else as much as Victoria is no longer truly Glory Girl. You never thought that would happen.

You can't remake the world without remaking yourself.

You call Cranial on the phone.

"I feel old." You admit. "I'm just eighteen but I feel old. I feel like I've done so much, too much. Everything hit so fast."

"You have done a lot, dear. Most people don't really adventure. Adventures are tiring things. You are an adult, now. Adults just live, they raise their children, they go to work, they try to do something important, and they get old. What you need to do is just be an adult, work, love, have your children. Won't that be enough?" You think.

"It is for me. I'm not so sure about Victoria. She gets restless. I think a lot of capes are like that, they need strength, a vision. I just kind of want to curl up and start middle age, I think. I don't really know what she wants. I think she lies to me about that, a lot."

"I am sure she does. She wants you to be happy. She wants that more than anything. I don't think honesty enters the picture for her." Cranial admits. "You need to get better at reading her, playing her games. You probably have to force her to be happy." You smile.

"I actually like that idea."

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"Fish, trees, insects, and birds." Alexandria explains. "Diseases are going through all of these populations at a rate that only parahuman powers could account for."

"I can't replace the entire ecosystem." You tell Alexandria. "Maybe with Annie I could put it on life support, but we'd lose more than I can imagine. Losing wet lands, agriculture, fishing, lumber, even if we can replace all of that with a lot of work, the Endbringers won't give us room for the transition." Alexandria looks grim.

"Whatever this is, this is bad. I am sorry to bring you into this after the earlier issues, but you are possibly the best solution for this. Agnes Court and Nilbog are the only real alternatives, as the Mannequin clone's closed systems couldn't be expanded to the world." You consider.

"Agnes Court is that powerful?"

"She seems to create small pieces of an alternative ecosystem with exponential growth. Nilbog was left alone, secretly, largely because of his ability to respond to global ecological catastrophe. The truth is, they're probably better at it than you, but both of them are much harder to work with."

"What's wrong with Agnes Court?" You ask.

"She's a parahuman supremacist, gangster with a large body count, and extremely proud. If we go to her, ask for her help, she will want power and respect. It would shatter the public trust. Nilbog, obviously, is completely insane and a mass murderer. I was hoping you might be able to produce a solution for this problem without resorting to having to deal with these creatures." You frown.

"We both know this is well outside of what I can do. Working with Sphere and parahumans would can bring in matter and energy I could make a very decent self contained ecosystem, but the sheer scale of this is unbelievable unless I am producing organisms that reproduce extremely easily, like the algae."

"You know your powers better than we do. Are you sure you cannot keep the ecosystem functioning?" Alexandria looks at you weirdly intently.

"The atmosphere, yes. The ecosystem, no." You feel extremely uncomfortable. You're not, well, God.

"Very well. My preferred alternative would to use the Brain Box and Cranial on Agnes Court and Nilbog." Alexandria explains. You briefly consider all the ways that could go wrong.

"Um..."

"I understand your hesitation. Their moments of insanity could be absolutely devastating. However, I believe versions of the villains who are given highly cooperative personalities would be vastly more productive in the long term than dealing with the villains themselves." Alexandria explains. "Making deals with sufficiently powerful supervillains would, in my opinion, set a truly terrible precedent, and embolden many villains to further conflict with lawful authorities." You sigh.

"I do have another idea." You suggest.

"That would be?" She asks.

"Look at what has been going on, statistically, see if we can track this down to the source. If we can destroy or negotiate with whatever is doing this than there would be no need to do so."

"Would you be willing to help?" You pause. Alexandria seems really off today.

"Why?" You ask.

"You could analyze the afflicted creatures safely and give us extremely valuable hints." You frown. Something's not sitting right with you about this. Your phone rings.

"Sorry, I have to answer this." You get up and leave for a minute. "Hey, Victoria."

"Hey, Amy." She sounds excited. "Today was really fun. These giant techno-snakes are really awesome to fight. Thank you for letting me go."

"I'm glad you're having fun." You can't help but smile. "How's Sophie?"

"She seems a bit down. I think she misses you." Victoria says. She sounds fairly happy about this. "So, how are things going over there?"

"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I don't really feel that fine." You shrug. "Weird stuff with the ecosystem. Not sure what's going to happen."

"Troubling." Victoria says. "We'll talk more later. I'll check in again in another hour."

"I'm looking forward to it. Bye." You hang up and head back to Alexandria.

"Do you actually need to check in every hour of the day?" Alexandria asks. You stick out your tongue at her, an act of defiance that you have used to defend your relationship with Victoria for over a decade.

"Have to? No. Wish to? Yes."

"Alright, what do you think we should do?" Alexandria asks.

[X] "The real villains would be best. If we lose the Brain Box we might never get it back."

[X] "I will talk with Cranial. Nilbog Secundus and Agnes Court Secunda are probably good ideas anyway."

[X] "Both ideas are terrible. We should do our best to track down whatever is causing this and put a stop to it before we try to replace the world ecosystem."

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Quote
[X] "Both ideas are terrible. We should do our best to track down whatever is causing this and put a stop to it before we try to replace the world ecosystem."

Bonus Interlude: Sophie (2)
_________________________________________________________________________________________

You look into the mirror, examining your hair, your fingernails, your dress. You're wearing a dress for fuck's sake.

You breathe heavily. You have to stop this. What has happened to you? Just meeting a pretty girl, well, two pretty girls, and you're tamed? You feel an itch, a need to do something predatory.

"Sophie kitty, we're moving out in five minutes." Victoria says from outside the bathroom door. You swallow hard at the voice. So flirtatious.

Kitty? That's new. You shudder.

Did Amy do something more to you than she said she did? Some, um, domestication move? How would that even work? It can't be the aura. Amy can still be a real bitch and she's ten times as mindfucked by it as you.

You eye the toilet. Emma stopped you from throwing up, but she's gone now. It's not really dangerous, with Amy on the case. Still, it's pathetic, weak. You're not going to be some silly schoolgirl who throws up in the toilet anymore. You're Shadow Stalker.

You move, stripping and putting on your suit. You check the systems. So electronic, it's weird, how did Amy make such a good interface? She did get help from a tinker, or did it just come naturally? The weapons are in place, eight hundred darts stretched along the lower arms and back, dart launchers in the forearms arms and wings, stingers along your jaw, temples, and throat, lower chest, stomach, thighs and nose, the places that people tend to punch. Your wings carry the sprays and mists for close range fighting. Your wings aren't actually that efficient, they don't have to be in your shadow state, so they have quite a lot of weaponry to them. You lack the strength tentacles most of the Shepherds have, too much added weight for a normal fight. For truly critical situations you have an explosive launcher in each knee, allowing you to fuck someone up hard from the inside. Last, you have the arm blades, in case you just need to materialize a sword in someone's head.

You're so badass it turns you on. Amy's to thank for all of it.

Fuck it, you're not tame. Pink nails or not, you're still Shadow Stalker.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

"I've been thinking about body modification." Victoria says. She carries you, which is kind of humiliating, but she's a much faster flier.

"You're already cute, and didn't we already enhance ourselves?" You say. You don't like where Vick is going.

"Well, you're really beautiful, Sophie. More beautiful than me, to be honest." Victoria strokes down your arm, but you don't really feel it with the suit's armor.

"Cut out your body image crap. You're hot without your fucking aura, Vick." You sight. This again. "I've felt you without it."

"No, not that. Amy'd freak if I changed anything she's obsessed over. She once spent an hour kissing my fingers." You sigh. "But I was thinking about making you cuter." So this is what you expected.

"Can you please cut out the dominance games? You win. You're in charge, and I date you and your sister. What more do you want?" You shake your head as Victoria lands down in the Boston parking lot.

"Well, honestly, wouldn't you like claws?" Victoria asks gently. "Nice, retractable things, doubling as stingers? You're lacking offense when unprepared. Also, I think cat eyes would look really cute. Sure, not too much functionality change with all we put in, but wouldn't they be cute?" You think for a moment. Dark, predatory, creature of the night.

"Not the word I'd use for it, but I like it." You admit. You notice Victoria's raising the aura higher than usual. She usually does this for meetings, but it feels like a bad sign.

"Wouldn't a tail complete the look?" Victoria asks. You shudder, and it's not with revulsion. It would. You think for a moment. A big cat, a panther. Stalking on all fours, clawed and fanged and beautiful. You want that.

"I'm not your fucking pet, Vick." She runs a hand down your back, moving in, possessive.

"Is that a no, Sophie?" You think.

"Is that it?" Damn she smells good. Your suit lets you smell her even through her own suit.

"I was thinking of some modifications to the joints, hands and feet. Nothing else quite so serious." She whispers. "Think about it, gorgeous. I think you want it. What's holding you back? Without it people will look at you and think you're just our girlfriend. Give yourself a bit more character, stand out a bit. There's nothing you can do by now to make yourself more controversial, so why not go all out?" The argument seems really persuasive to you, and entering the building to meet with Blasto prevents you from thinking up a defense.

"Hello, Glory Girl." Blasto gives a strange little bow to her.

"Hello, Blasto." You know Victoria's flashing a winning smile, but you don't look at it, instead using your senses to scan, detect for threats. Mason and Crystal had swept in ahead of you, and Julian is leading the new recruits to guarding the outside. Still, everyone should be on the lookout.

"I believe you came to me about my current issues?" He asks nervously.

"You can make clones. There's a clone arms race. You can make things with powers. Every villain, government, and miscellaneous wants to see if you can help them. Issue is you're a stupid scumbag who triggered over being a stupid scumbag, so you can't leverage yourself to anyone decent." Victoria explains. She lays everything on the table to be in a position of power. "If we hadn't saved you yesterday you'd be in China already. You're too criminal to let wander around the Toybox. You're not strong enough to fend for yourself. The Protectorate doesn't need you." For some reason you'd assumed that the tinkers you'd be rescuing would be a whole lot more sympathetic than this asshole, who you'd found passed out in a shipping container about to go to China.

"I'm not that evil." Blasto mutters.

"Second degree murder. Accidental deaths during felonies that contain the risk for them. Not premeditated, but still sick. It's the price of doing business, strict liability for people dying. I've got no problem with a life sentence and fifteen years before you come up for parole."

"I can be helpful." Blasto insists.

"Really?" Victoria smiles. You feel immensely sorry for the bastard. "Fact is, we've got you by the short and curly ball hairs. Explain why I shouldn't arrest you. The limiting factor of clone production is the brain scans, and Amy's really good at the cloning thing."

"Mass production." Blasto announces. Victoria smiles. "Uncontrolled creatures? I can give them controls, work in a control for Skitter. They won't be capes, they'll be better. Mass production. A horde of creatures half as good as capes, completely expendable, completely controllable, hooked into Skitter. Give me a proper lab and I could make hundreds of them. Throw them at the Endbringers just to give time to prepare and die so people don't. If anything they're better than clones for Endbringers. No ethical issues, no self preservation, just let them die to give defenders time."

"You're interesting." Victoria nods slowly. "Put you in with some good tinkers and Amy. If you can deliver..."

Then you get the message. Victoria's hood snaps over her face. Crystal and Mason ready.

"We're under attack, Blasto. Duplicator's rushing us." Blasto looks scared.

"The Teeth, Spree at least. He hates me."

"SS, Browbeat, head out and fight. Dream, with me." Victoria says. Crystal does one of her strange hops, moving across the room and landing next to her cousin in a second. You move into your shadow state and are out the door. Julian is positively a buzz saw, forcing the wave of clones back. Tallahassee guards him with a rapidly growing ghost that always looked more like a dragon than an alligator. Power Fist and Blueshift fight the mass of screaming, seemingly quite stupid and poorly armed clones. Blur is nowhere to be seen. Bauble and Red Lightning hold back next to Golem, who is raising a defensive wall around Eraser. Nubian Prince hangs above you, apparently waiting for something.

<Spree is a member of the Teeth. These guys are seriously fucked up.> Victoria communicates through your suit. <the clones suck, they're a distraction. Butcher is really strong, and if you kill him you become him, so don't kill him. Butcher has like thirteen weakened powers. You guys, hold the area, then get the hell out of there when I tell you to.>

You stay in your shadow form, moving quickly, looping, hoping to find the real targets. You hit Spree, the original, with a dart. He stops moving a few seconds later, and stops duplicating a few seconds after that. A wave of Sprees move towards you, and you spread your wings wide, hitting them with an incapacitating mist from your shadow state.

You really love your shadow state.

Maybe twenty guys in armor move forward, with another four capes standing together. You shrug, and hurl non-lethal weaponry at them. Two of the darts hit, one hits a force field of some kind, and a third goes past a teleporter.

You notice the normal fighters are slowing down. One of your fighters must have spread limited life cycle agents on them. You wonder what the goal is. Going up against your team?

You consider the force field user. He should go down soon, unless he has annoying secondary powers, if the foot soldiers are going down.

The other cape, long necked, some weird samurai style armor, and some real looking skulls, emerges next to Julian. He looks terrified, and Tallahassee's spirit hits the woman hard. Julian is hit be a line of red lightning and runs. So this is Butcher.

You only see two enemy capes left. One is fighting Mason. You can probably do more there. You aim carefully and unleash one of your darts. It returns to a normal state somewhere in his heart. Ick, this could be bad. He thrashes and screams.

Huh. He might be number four. If Butcher is really this bad...

Butcher points a really scary looking gun at the rest of the team. It doesn't fire. You briefly wonder why, and shrug. You try throwing another dart at her, but she teleports again before it hits. Some kind of combat precog and teleportation mix? That's one of the power combinations you usually heard in relation to "call the Triumvirate" as a Ward.

<Retreat.> Victoria's voice tells you. A moment later Red Lightning blasts all of the friendlies, and Blur swoops down to grab Red Lightning. You fly at a terrific speed. When dealing with some capes you just have to run.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

You're never sure what to make of making out with Victoria. It's great, but it honestly doesn't feel like making out. It feels a bit like when Steven took you to church and everyone sang together. It's like you're part of something greater than yourself.

Victoria's lips are like Heaven. Amy's lips are like Amy.

"You did great today." Victoria assures you. "You fought exactly how you should. Stayed back, hunted for weak targets, and sniped. People probably would have died without you."

"Thank you." You say. "Just wish I could have gotten Butcher." You shrug. "Or, you know, actually captured them instead of leaving them guarded by a super cape who could defend them until they woke up and ran."

"Everyone lived, and the Teeth got their asses kicked." Victoria assures you before kissing your neck. "We also got Blasto, and worst case he's a lying fucker who gets sent to the Birdcage, best case we get an army of cannon fodder. Today's a win."

"Yeah." You agree. You can't help but wish you'd really won. If you'd taken down Butcher, well, maybe you'd feel like you earned your place on the team.

It is hard to measure up to the girl who killed Jack Slash.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

End Interlude
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Four days of investigation and no luck so far.

Victoria calls you every hour most of the time, checking in. It makes it much easier to be without her. She's apparently having a wonderful time without you. You just sulk and help with science.

"Ames." Victoria sounds worried. "I want to ask you about something, um, dangerous. I'm only doing it with your permission."

"What?" You ask.

"The Teeth, they were there in Brockton Bay's bad old days, Butcher's a serious issue. One of the real old villains. The Teeth, they're crazy monstrous bastards. I kind of want to do a full war with them." You think.

"If they're that serious..."

"I've fought really serious guys before, and the Protectorate isn't moving until they're reinforced. If we could save lives..."

"They won't help you?" You ask.

"Nope." Victoria sighs. "They're afraid of Butcher."

"Shouldn't they be?" You ask. "What exactly is your counter to Butcher?"

"Mason made something that could make her sleep forever without killing her." Victoria pauses. "We think."

"So, you want my permission to go to war against a gang of serial killers?" You ask.

"Do I have it?" Victoria sounds sad.

[X] "Make me proud." If they kill anyone before the Protectorate makes their move...

[X] "No." Victoria's too important to risk.

[X] "Wait. You can catch them later, be part of that, but only when the Protectorate will be part of it."

Quote
[X] "Make me proud." If they kill anyone before the Protectorate makes their move...

Bonus Interlude: Victoria (2)
_________________________________________________________________________________________

You're scared. You watch Sophie sleep contentedly, and let your worry gnaw at you.

Amy's happy. You think you've finally got Amy happy. She's pregnant (if she miscarries you'll be back to square one), rich, has you, has a girlfriend, is famous, is loved, is respected, is important.

Yep, that's probably all Amy wants. Everything.

Right?

You shudder. What is she going to need next? Switch from bottom to top, want to give you a bun in the oven, force another breakup with Dean, kill Carol, conquer a country?

She always seems to find a way to need more. You're just waiting for the next shoe to drop. You repeat the safe words in your head. Abdicate, amicable, capitulate, jubilation, nonchalant, perfidious, reconciliation.

They aren't enough. Such a thin line, so hard to use. Memorized, but only for her consent or your terror.

Amy would understand if you just need them a bit more, wouldn't she? It's not like any make her sad, or miserable.

You move gently, back into the bathroom, and stay on the toilet for a very long time, your stomach feeling sick again. It does that so much when Amy's not there. You keep wondering how she is doing. Did she decide to age Annie up and make her into a new girlfriend? Start donating your sperm to charity? Go back to Cauldron? Why did you even go on this stupid trip? You need to be watching Amy. You can't let her kill herself by inches anymore. What if she starts doing it again?

You just want to be a good sister.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

You think as you look over Sophie. She is sleeping soundly. What could be changed to make her more fun for Amy? Amy needs to change things, experiment. She said so. She'll do it to you if you don't give her an outlet. Sophie doesn't seem to mind. You wonder about a tail. Lesbians typically adopt cats, right? Sophie would be good if she was more cat like. You wonder about ears, but decide the face should stay the same. You can't be too blatant, especially for public appearances.

Thank God you kind of hated Sophia. The bullying bitch was practically a sociopath. You can't feel too bad about giving her this fate, especially as she'll enjoy it a fuck load more than you.

"Sophie kitty, time to wake up." You nudge Sophie awake. In your opinion Sophie is a vast improvement on Sophia. If she can stay nice and cuddly you don't have any problem keeping her around. Control words and safe words would be nice, of course.

Abdicate, amicable, capitulate, jubilation, nonchalant, perfidious, reconciliation.

"Vick?" Sophie asks sleepily.

"Wakey wakey, Sophie." You nuzzle her. "We've got a big day. Time to capture Butcher."

"Oh, right. But it's so pleasant in here." Sophie says sleepily. It should be, with the amount of your aura you're hitting her with. You always enjoy going a bit overboard with it on Sophie. It makes her much more fun to be around. Kind of like Dean for the first couple weeks before he told you to cut it out. Sophie hasn't told you to cut it out yet, so you take it as a sign she enjoys it.

"It is." You kiss Sophie on the forehead. "Time to go out and fight evil."

"Ooh, fighting evil." Sophie says. "Yes, let's do that."

_______________________________________________________________________________________

You survey the map. You've identified the current base of the Teeth with the help of Blasto.

The plan is fairly simple. Harrier heads in, spreads the knockout organism, and signals when that's as done as possible. You, Ta-Nehisi (Nubian Prince) and Crystal will circle above, striking at anyone who tries to leave the base. Mason, Ana and Sophie will go after Butcher, Theo and Tavi (Tallahassee) will act as Shakers to control Butcher's movement. Ryan (Blur) and Johann (Red Lightning) will get anyone in danger out of the way. Bauble (you can't remember her real name), Julian, and Michael are staying out of this fight due to general lethality.

You feel the familiar rise of panic. You'd expanded too much. You have too many fighters to manage. You should never have recruited so much. You have fifteen capes under your command and you can barely vote. This is insane. You wish, again, you'd just joined the Protectorate, but Amy sounded so sad and scared. You couldn't do that to her, so you went too far in the other direction. You usually do.

You look up, not a trace of worry on your face.

"Butcher can only teleport around 20 or 30 feet, depending on circumstances, and we can all survive the explosion. You're all armed with weapons that can incapacitate her. She won't go down fast to the sleep organism, but she will weaken from it, and the paralytic will eventually take her down. We just need to hold on for five or ten minutes and hurt her as much as we can without killing her. You all have the extra life, and you are all very well protected. I would estimate my sister can make a Brute 4." Brute 4 is just you taking Aegis's Brute rating and slapping on another number. You have no idea what your actual ratings are. "We cannot die, thanks to the Toybox. If you kill Butcher by accident, or are forced to do it to save another life, you will be automatically be treated as dead by your extra life. You will be preserved, frozen, while Cranial and Panacea work on you, and you will be healed. We are going to win this. We only have one cape to defeat, and Butcher is no member of the Triumvirate. Butcher has survived this long by running, hiding, and dying a lot. We can win this. the Butcher dies on average every two years. We can capture Butcher. If we do it now, before the Teeth adapt, they will not get to survive into the new world. One source of misery and death will be defeated. We play smart, we stay safe, and we win. Got it?" The agreement is enthusiastic. The agreement is too enthusiastic. Your aura, damn it, you're never as good as you seem.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

You get a message to move from somewhere. You, Nubian Prince, and Laserdream circle high above the battlefield, waiting for anyone try and escape. No one does. A few minutes later Browbeat and Shadow Stalker head inside. You wait, stroke beam ready. Butcher probably won't die to a stroke, probably. All the different kinds of offense you can have...

Crystal is hit by Quarrel's power. Speared through the chest, her brain and vital organs sucked into a pocket dimension and suspended animation. Once again you thank God for the Toybox.

Suddenly, several blocks away, the same thing happens to Julian, then Bauble. Power Fist is fighting. Did Butcher move that quickly, avoiding the main combatants? This would be out of character for her. Unknown Mover or Stranger who is part of the Teeth, or new attacker? You send Ryan to investigate, not wanting to distract Power Fist at a crucial moment. You truly envy his speed sometimes, wonder why your powers aren't as strong as they could be.

<Looks like a robot. Decorated like one of the Teeth. Running from Michael, heading towards us. Immune to my attacks.> Ryan reports. You have to make a snap decision.

You smash in through the window, stroke power flaring, hitting everything that's not a member of your team. Butcher reels from the attack, not able to teleport far enough to dodge. You're much more worried about the other villains. What if they die? You'll have to get everyone here to a hospital as soon as possible. You pause, and send a request to the Protectorate, explaining the situation. Hostile cape about to attack, attempted to kill three of your capes, fighting two exceptionally dangerous capes has to justify risking these lives.

You feel sick about this. Moving from underneath your cape are the drones, roughly a hundred fliers, each attached to a brain in your cape, delivering stroke medication to everyone who you just hit. If you're really lucky...

Butcher starts trying attacks against you. Throwing knives, a pain effect, they hit too close together to work, and Browbeat is throwing the mist at her, keeping her from closing distance with you. Butcher is by nature a midrange fighter, the range that's easiest for you to raise defenses. Browbeat is stronger than Butcher, can she can't hurt him easily. Maybe if she had more movement options, more flexibility, but the Shakers and Amy's Shadow Stalker vastly limit those. It's hard for her to attack without taking damage.

Ta-Nehisi goes down, fired off into the same realm as the others. You're down four of your fourteen soldiers. If you didn't have the extra lives this would be a disaster.

If you didn't have the extra lives you'd never have launched this attack at all.

Then, the enemy walks in. Mannequin.

This makes a lot of sense. Amy's too secure, too well guarded, for him to get, so he'll try to do to her what Simurgh did to him.

Closed systems, life support. Could he have killed people through the extra life?

The stroke beam doesn't work, of course. You're down your two best Blasters, and Mason's your best shot at controlling Butcher.

Shadow Stalker lands in front of Mannequin and hits him with her EMP.

She hits you with her EMP, too. And Mason. Blueshift is spared, invulnerable at the time.

Mannequin doesn't go down. Instead, he hits her with something terribly electric. She doesn't actually go down, thanks to her suit's armor against electricity, instead materializing an arm blade in his chest. It doesn't work, either.

Mannequin won't go down if he's hit with a truck, but he might go down if you hit him. You fall down on him, screaming, feeling a gun rip your eye out, and punch him as your shield goes up, breaking into a small pile of squishy organs.

You turn and find Butcher standing atop Mason, incapacitated with her pain aura.

You hit her with the stroke, but you already did that. Nothing else really happens as Butcher cuts Mason's head off before quickly jabbing downward, smashing through secondary brains. It's not surprising, given her powers, that she knows how to destroy someone Amy enhanced.

You wish he'd backed himself up at Cranial's. So, you got someone killed because you were stupid.

Time to keep fighting.
______________________________________________________________________________________

You lost Mason. Six people died in a stroke beam that probably didn't beat Butcher. Members of the Teeth, to be fair.

Two bad calls.

You need Amy's voice. You need it bad.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

End Interlude

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Victoria cries on the phone for hours.

Investigation of poor decision making and inappropriate, indiscriminate force. Lawsuits. Victoria lead to seven deaths of people who weren't on kill orders, including one of your heroes.

Victoria arrives home the next day, crying, a shocked looking Sophie following her.

You tell her it's alright. Butcher was a monster, and so was Mannequin. Accidents happen, and so do bad calls.

It takes a long time for Victoria to stop crying.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

"I love you, Ames." Victoria whispers. "I love you so much. More than I can fucking stand, sometimes. I was gone too long."

"You were gone for less than a week." You giggle, and you regret giggling. She's not ready for giggling.

"I missed you." Victoria whispers. "Can I ask you something?"

"What is it?" You ask.

"We, well, we put in other things, when Cranial did her shit. You know about them." Victoria sighs. "I want a week."

"A week of what?" You whisper.

"Just being normal. Not having to worry about this too, on top of everything else. Just forgetting we're a couple as well as sisters." Victoria sounds guilty, miserable.

"You want me to be asexual." You feel the dread, what you knew was coming for so long.

"Just for a week!" Victoria is quick. "Just some time! Just, let me deal with this, talk to the therapist, work this out. Please. It's hard, dealing with everything. I just want to catch my breath. Just for a little while. Never more than a week. Please?"

[X] "Yes." You whisper. She deserves it, and she needs it.

[X] "I can't." You tell her. It's too much.

[X] "Anything but that." You kiss Victoria. "Give me anything but loving you less, and I'll do it." You mean it.

Quote
[X] "Anything but that." You kiss Victoria. "Give me anything but loving you less, and I'll do it." You mean it.

Victoria looks concerned for a moment.

"Anything?" She looks at your face closely.

"I love you, Victoria. I love loving you. I want to keep you happy."

"I want to believe it." There's a desperation in Victoria's voice.

"Why do you have to keep pushing and pulling and trying to break what we have? Can't we just be together without me constantly having to fight you to keep our relationship alive?" Victoria touches your cheek gently.

"I feel like I'm fighting so..." She struggles for a moment. "I don't know what I'm afraid of, but can't you feel I'm afraid? It's like I keep thinking you'll turn into a monster. I keep forgetting you're my sister. Not, well, not forgetting, just, it's like, imagine if every time you shook hands with someone, it looked like they had a knife there. You know it's not real, but you see it. You train yourself to ignore it, and one day you cut your hand on it. You tell yourself it's a fluke, that this was one crazy person, but then, a couple months later, it happens again. It's something that happens, not all the time, not most of the time, but repeatedly. You can never tell when someone has the knife, but you always feel like they do. Your right hand is so scarred and torn open, doesn't work right. Cutting your hand on the knife is a big deal, it's not just pain, it's lingering, ugly, foul."

"Do you see it now?" You ask. "Does it look like I'm holding a knife?"

"You're holding nails and spikes covered in rust, saw blades and hornets I can hear buzzing." Victoria raises your hand to her throat and licks it, fitting your fingers inside. You wait for her to be done.

"I don't want to hurt you. Can't you tell?" You ask. "You didn't cut yourself that time."

"It was the other hand, Ames." Victoria whispers. You're silent for a moment.

"Victoria, I only have one hand." You remind her gently.

"Well, that adds a whole new dimension to my crazy." Victoria smiles. "I don't want to be your crazy bipolar bitch of a sister."

"I'd cut my hand off to make you feel safer." You give her a sad smile.

"I think we can both tell that's not going to solve our problem." Victoria looks at your stump.

"I can give you a week without touching... I won't change myself from a sexual being... but if you want then I can withhold." Victoria laughs.

"That's not going to solve the problem either, Sis. As long as you want it, I'll give it. I'll let Sophie help, even. She's good at it. Something to lower stress..." Victoria trails off, her fingers dancing over your thigh.

"Anything." She loves you, so she won't ask for anything that would hurt you, or at least anything you can't take.

"I could dislocate your leg again." Victoria says playfully. "Play nurse for a week before we get it healed. Keep you in bed, cuddly and cozy."

"You can break my hand too." You grin. "Completely helpless. Keep my suit off the whole week. I can heal without a working hand, stay in the hospital as a good little healbot, and you can fly me home, put me into bed..."

"You could probably keep the suit on in the hospital." Victoria giggles. "You might need to do something handy, so you've got the tentacles. Maybe buy a nice little hover wheelchair?" You feel a rush of excitement.

"Wait, we're actually doing this, not joking?" You ask, having trouble breathing. "Like, for real?" This is, like, amazing. Fucked up more than fucked up could be fucked up.

"Wait, not joking?" There's an intent, hungry look on Victoria's face. "Actually do it? Like before your trigger when you were sick and oh Amy." She starts quivering. "Back when you were not miserable and I couldn't get why and realized it was me?"

"I love you and I trust you." You smile up at your glorious sister.

No one would ever say you two were particularly bright.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Mark and Sophie just stare.

"Um..." Mark opens and closes his mouth.

"On purpose!" Sophie shouts.

"We got caught up in the moment. Turns out it will all be healed in three weeks. Maybe six for the hand..."

"What. The. Fuck?" Sophie asks. "What. The. Holy. Fuck!?"

"We're consenting adults." You mutter.

"I literally just read the fucking case about this in that criminal justice textbook you made me read!" Sophie shouts at Victoria. "You actually can't consent to assault and battery because of crimes against the state and why?" Mark still makes mumbling noises.

"She was down." You point out. "She seemed really into it, and why not?"

"You might never be normal, physically, again without whatever black magic you can buy you stupid, selfish, athletes take injuries seriously because they're weaker so often after, God!" Sophie shakes her head. "Just, what?"

"My girlfriend, sister, and mother of my child." Victoria says firmly. "I got to make the decision. You want to be with her..."

"Claire!" Sophie suddenly shouts. "Is she alright?" Your blood runs cold.

"Yes..."

"You could have fucked her up with some internal bleeding nonsense over your BDSM game!" Sophie is livid. "And you didn't even ask me?"

"No, Sophie, I didn't. Sister versus girlfriend, live with it." Victoria snaps. Sophie crosses her arms, imposing despite her small size.

"That's nothing like being a sister. Like, Jesus, Vick! That's at least admitting you want to be her girlfriend. Nothing else fits with the creepy BDSM shit."

"That's a good thing." Victoria announces. "That's actually perfect. I want to be her girlfriend, too. It's just taking some time."

"Just, God!" Sophie walks out for the first time. You feel a pit in your stomach as you watch her go.

"Girls." Mark shakes his head.

"She's carrying my child. We're sleeping together. Our relationship is public. We're living independently. I'd think you'd be more upset about anything besides this." Victoria says.

"This feels more manageable." Mark smiles and you find yourself giggling, though it might have more to do with trying to figure out pain blocking microbes that your body doesn't reject. They need to be harsh and physical, and keep having slightly odd side effects.

"Well..." Victoria strokes your hair gently. "I'm still really looking forward to this. I get to go into full on big sister mode." Victoria leans down. "And that'll be even more fun now." Mark sighs.

"Well, if you two are happy, continue." Mark is silent for a moment. "You are happy, smart, beautiful, accomplished girls. I have a lot to be proud of. I have a lot to be grateful for."

"Thank you." You smile. Without a working hand you're kind of limited in how to express yourself outside of your face.

"Thank you, Dad." Victoria sweeps him into a hug. "Do, um, anything else?"

"I feel I should make pancakes." Mark says.

"It's noon." Victoria points out.

"And why, exactly, should social conventions stop a Dallon? I need to follow your standard." Mark announces. He has the world's best point.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Come on..." Victoria asks, playing her fingers up and down your stomach. "It wouldn't be hard, would it?"

"Um, we'd need a real lock smith or something." You mutter. "It seems kind of, um, wasteful. And we'd need a whole non-biological door."

"We deserve to have some fun." Victoria smiles. "And Annie would help is there was an accident. It's just locking you in the bedroom. It's not even bondage. I just, um, like the idea of you being nice and safe waiting for me."

Honestly, this kind of interest, actually wanting something a bit sexual, is a dream come true. It's a bit scary, but she's Victoria.

"If we were anyone else this would raise some serious abuse alarms." You laugh. "But if this makes you happy, well..."

"Just tell me if there's a reason not to have you locked up nice and tight." Victoria decides to lick your ear."

"It'll have to be a good one." You mutter.

"You're so good lately, Amy." Victoria sighs contentedly. "I love you like this."

"I love being like this." You assure her. You don't feel the least cooped up despite not being able to walk yet.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Huh." Clicker One stares at you. He's been helping you with tracking down the strange bio-weapons reducing Earth's ecosystem to mush.

"I'm an adult." You mutter, blushing.

"I've thirteen, and most adults aren't like that." Clicker frowns seriously. "Okay, many want to be, but not many are. You're weird."

"Had to be a kid thinker." You sigh.

"They had spares." Clicker sighs. Then he smiles. "Honestly, it's really cool."

"Yeah." You grin. "It is.

Once again, no luck narrowing down whatever is causing the plagues. The agents are mostly bacteria and viruses. They seem to be unconnected to each other, though typically related to ones that infect humans, despite none of them having even a remote effect on human cells. The points of origin seem to largely be in the American North East, stretching from Brockton Bay to Chicago, and then showing up again from Portland to British Columbia.

"So, any ideas, one who gets ideas?" You ask.

"Birdcage." Clicker says. "Someone tried to get to the Birdcage. Not a real transport, someone definitely flew or something for a while. They left a trail, and can activate whatever they left on the trail.

"Huh." You shrug. "So, what should we do?"

"I'd probably suggest we sterilize the whole area. Evacuate the people, kill everything that's living there, and release some massive counter-agent to bacteria and viruses."

"That would cost so much it's not funny, and make remaining spots that much more vulnerable to the Endbringers." You sigh. "But maybe you're right. Any other suggestions?"

"Go on TV and give up." Clicker suggests. "Say that you want to negotiate with whoever it is, be honest about the options you have, and explain how much you're willing to do to not have to deal with this."

"I'll talk to Alexandria about that." You agree.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Sophie returns looking sheepish.

"I was, um, it felt like she hurt you." Sophie mutters. She moves in, and Victoria stops her.

"A corrective breakup. I like it." Victoria smiles. "I'm actually sorry you didn't stick it through."

"I was lonely." Sophie admits.

"Now, here's the deal. I am Victoria. You're getting your body mods now. You will call me Victoria. You are not allowed to help Amy unless I ask you to."

"Deal." Sophie agrees.

"Body mods?" You smile.

"Up, onto the bed." Victoria tells Sophie. She climbs up. "We had a few adjustments in mind..."

It's fun, changing Sophie. She's positively stunning when you're done. You feel like she's a work of art. She hugs you.

"I don't react well to feeling like crap. It wasn't you two." Sophia moves to your other side, pressing her body up against yours while Victoria lies down on the other side. "I want to hear a story."

"I feel better when I tell them." Victoria says. "Sophie, I have nothing to forgive you for. You had a good idea in the fight, and it was the right call to make." Victoria cracks open a book. "Slipped into my first metamorphosis so quietly that no one noticed..."

_______________________________________________________________________________________

You wake up with a headache. You rarely get them.

"Amy? I'm sick. Tune me up." Victoria's voice is raspy. You do so, pressing your cheek to her cheek. "That's better." You hadn't noticed anything earlier. You experimentally move your cheek to Sophie. Same bug, you kill it before she wakes up.

Suddenly, you get nervous.

"Victoria, call, um, just call people, see if they're sick, okay?" You ask. She pulls out her phone and does so, waking up an annoyed Sophie in the process.

Ryan and Ana, Crystal, Mark, and Dean are sick. Victoria gets increasingly worried, calling everyone.

"It's just colds." Victoria says. "Everything's going to be fine."

"It's moved to us." You whisper. "The thing that's been killing the fish, the trees, the algae, it's targeting us."

"Shit." Sophie says.

[X] "We're moving to a pocket dimension, Dodge made, now. Self contained systems, I can make them. If you two can get sick, if I can get sick, if it moves too fast..." You can't even think about it.

[X] "We're heading to the hospital now. Call Cranial, tell her to meet us there. We need to make a countermeasure, now."

[X] "We need to evacuate. Whatever is going on, it could end the world, fast. We need to get as many people away from this as possible."

Quote
[X] "We're heading to the hospital now. Call Cranial, tell her to meet us there. We need to make a countermeasure, now."

You move to the hospital as quickly as you can, cursing, well, being stupid and stupidly romantic and thinking that dislocating your hip could possibly ever be a good idea.

And so, Victoria carries you to the hospital while Sophie calls Cranial. She meets you there. You're unsure if you just anthropomorphize her, but she looks worried.

"Hello, Amy. I am not sick, but most people are."

"The whole country?" You ask, shuddering.

"The whole world, Amy." You just stare at her, jaw dropped.

"Seriously?" Victoria asks, holding you firmly, a hand supporting your injured leg. "Like, China, Argentina, world?"

"No one is lethally sick. It hit all at once. The issue is enormous. Doctors, emergency services, food suppliers. Within a few days things could get apocalyptic if we don't manage a cure for everyone." You think.

"How bad is it for capes?"

"I'm looking it up now. Those who heard about it early and fled to containment areas are not proving healthy, though Scapegoat was able to cure himself and others within a clean zone. Healers, capes with regeneration, capes with biology that means they don't count as human, are all perfectly healthy. As far as anyone can tell, it's just a cold, but a cold everyone has." I considered for a moment just how bad this could be.

"Eidolon." You say after a moment. "The light he used, after your scream. Can he do something like that? Mass, low end healing for everyone?"

"He is keeping his healing powers in reserve. I believe he does, but he's worried that the source will hit us with another one, something worse and more lethal. Healing powers were some of the first he used up, once."

"Fuck me with a glass coke bottle." You shake your head. "Abigale, tell me what to do."

"Counter plague seems best, but if we're fighting someone who can escalate, well, it might be best to..."

"If these are a bunch of similar colds, than I'd need a bunch of similar counter plagues. It would work, but if they keep producing new ones, it'd be a race. We'd be constantly coming down with new colds. Fuck. Bring out Agnes Court and dose everyone? Find Noelle and mass produce us if we can? Change us all into being immune to conventional disease? Wrap us in self reproducing insect bio-tech Lady Bug manages to let us function while sick? Evacuate the planet? Kill everything that's not human and use Nilbog, Agnes Court, and Lady Bug, plus their clones, to make a new, better ecosystem that won't have anything to carry it? How's Nilbog for that matter? Fuck, threaten to destroy the world, so whoever wants to clear us out can't-" Victoria spins you around and kisses you to shut you up, waiting patiently until you fall into it.

"You're getting hysterical, Amy." Cranial says gently.

"Fuck, this is literally the end of the world. If we don't cure this, we won't have the capes to beat the Endbringers back, no one to do work, no one to feed people. Fuck, even with Lady Bug managing everything she can. Okay, maybe we won't starve, at least in warm areas, if she directs all the edible bugs to us, but what about heat, medicine, nuclear reactors..." You shudder at just how bad this is.

"Everyone is finally working together." Cranial assures you. "Villains all over the world, and heroes, are working, anyone who can help, will help, if they don't want the world to end. Accord of Boston recently emailed a plan to the President detailing how to manage the situation, and Dinah Alcott approved it with a free question. Every Thinker and Tinker in the world is investigating. We're not the only ones who will try to solve this."

"Breathe, Amy." Victoria asks, urgently. "Breathe in, breathe out. Follow my breathing." You do, matching your rhythm to the best thing in the world. "You don't have to save everyone." You stop breathing, staring at her.

"What?" You ask.

"I love that you'll try, but the world is ending. We might not be able to save everyone. You've done so much. 100,000 people in the course of two years. If the world dies, it's no more your fault than Leviathan or an earthquake. If the world is ending, then anything you can do is enough. If we just run, with everyone we love and everyone we can carry, that's enough. I want you to know that, remember that. I have an order for you." You nod, processing everything. "Don't kill yourself over this. If it's a choice between you and the world, I want you."

Your tears fall to the ground. Maybe, if you heard that two years ago, well, a lot of people might be dead. You might be dead, if you'd started everything earlier. Victoria had a very good chance of dying, according to the prophecies of Dinah Alcott.

"She's right." Cranial moves her strange, soft branch over your face. "Only God could save everyone. If we fail, we fall back. Absolute worst case, we take the Sphere clone or a portal to another dimension and save a small piece of ourselves. That being said, we are going to try." Victoria carries you still, safely, only harmed by your own request, to follow Cranial. On the screen is Dragon, looking grim.

"Do we have a global plan?" Victoria asks. "Anything from the highest levels?"

"We have several. Dinah Alcott is providing answers to questions formulated by Accord, Alexandria and Kitsune." You frown.

"When did she show up?" Victoria asks, looking annoyed.

"Shortly before the plagues hit. She is working with a group we don't yet understand. We hope it is a group, given what we've seen. A single parahuman would be far more worrying. Either way, she is helping, and helping well. In fact, we have determined a lot already." You sigh with relief. "The source of the plagues is not immune to precognition, so it is probably not an Endbringer. It is not any known parahuman, and did not have a trigger event." You frown. "The source does not wish to kill anyone, and may be extremely young. It knows what it is doing, but may not realize the implications of the damage. Opening the Birdcage would lower the chances of apocalypse, but not ensure it does not happen. If we find and talk to the source the odds of the problem going away go down significantly, but seemingly only if Alexandria, Black Knight, Hero or Eidolon find the source. Kitsune does not know what the source is, according to lie detectors and other Thinkers. The source does not know what the Three Blasphemies are, but does know about the Endbringers. Amy Dallon working on the problem helps significantly."

"Okay." You nod. "What does that tell us?"

"It's one of your clones." Victoria says matter of factly. "Duh."

"You seem to have come to that conclusion quickly." Cranial says.

"It. Is. Amy's. Clone." Victoria says. "This isn't some big mystery. Someone's using plagues that Amy practically doodled in her notebooks after she first got her powers and we were getting silly about ending the world. Amy has been cloned several times that we know of and God knows how many times we don't by idiots trying for a clone war. The source is not an Endbringer and didn't have a trigger event, so it's not a real parahuman, either. The thing's either young, stupid, or nuts, and that fits, like, half of all possible clones. Amy's bio dad's in the Birdcage, so letting him out might help, or it could just be one of those idiots can help in another way. Alexandria, Black Knight, Hero, and Eidolon are the people who actually know Amy who might find the clone. Not knowing what the Three Blasphemies are, sounds like weird memory stuff." Victoria explains.

"Possibly false pattern recognition, but it's sound." Cranial says thoughtfully.

"Honestly, yeah, that's what Alexandria and I thought, too." Dragon admits. "So, what does that suggest?"

"Put Victoria's face on TV. Victoria, tell her you forgive her, and you want her to come home and help." You say. "It is me."

"Honestly, that would be best." Cranial says. A moment later Dragon answers.

"No meaningful change in Dinah's numbers if we use Victoria in this manner." Victoria looks stunned, shaken. You feel dirty. "Dinah can't actually figure out if it is your clone, though Kitsune implies it might be." Dragon continues.

"They probably wiped her memory." You tell Victoria. "Otherwise, well..."

"Marquis being released from the Birdcage alone and doing what you suggested Victoria would do had dramatically better odds." Dragon announces.

"Um, wiped you from my memory." I muttered. It rings weirdly hollow, and Victoria is holding you very tightly.

"Wait." You say suddenly. "Victoria talking to the source, odds."

"That seems like a waste of a question." Cranial says quietly.

"Just do it!" You snap at Dragon.

"Um, it helps. A lot." Dragon admits.

"Yes!" You pump your fist into the air.

"So, it seems your abiding, eternal love does actually have a chance of saving the world." Cranial says thoughtfully. "That is existentially wonderful, and practically disturbing." Victoria feels happy, holding you there. You love how her arms never tire when holding you. It's the most comforting thing in the world.

"How are we finding her again?" Victoria asks.

"Eidolon is scanning the globe." Dragon answers. "He has clairvoyance, intuition, and luck all working together at the moment." Interesting combination in your opinion. "Also, he knows what you look like, and what you have looked like in the past, and what you could look like in the future, thanks to computer software."

"So, um." You mutter. "What next? If I'm not going to make counters, and we're waiting..."

"I have an idea." Victoria smiles, and you remember that you're physically very close to your beloved girlfriend, and both of you are quite comfortable like this.

"The world is ending." You grin.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Interlude:

[X] Cranial

[X] Eidolon

[X] Kevin Norton

The most powerful man in the world sat dying, alone, in a hospital bed.

In the hospital's computers, new and powerful programs worked to save his life, and the life of every patient in the hospital. The programming worked painfully slowly, and people died every day, but you're hopeful. The world is changing fast.

And now everyone has a cold. Every single person, except for the truly lucky. Little kids in the jungle who had never heard of civilization, babies and old folks, everyone is sick, though they aren't getting any sicker.

"Scion, Zion, Golden Man, come and listen to me." You say, to the announce of the middle aged woman who is your roommate. "Please, come. We need to talk. You need to fix this, save us." The idea that the world ends because of a cold, not just that, because you never told the golden man to cure colds, is terrifying. Why didn't you ever think to tell him to heal the sick?

"Shut up!" Your roommate snarls. "I'm trying to suffer in peace!"

"There will be a great deal of suffering if he doesn't come. No one else can solve this, can they? Or if they can, it's best to explore every possible angle." You assure her. She groans and moves over in her bed, pointing away from you. "Golden man, come, please."

The hospital is barely functioning. Mistakes are being made. People have died here. Even if only ten people die here, there are 300,000 hospitals in the world. Three million people would die today if it wasn't solved, and how many the day after that? That is assuming only ten die at each hospital, and no one else dies who wouldn't have done so already. The longer this goes on, the worse it will be.

It is all your fault. The responsibilities of being the most powerful man in the world are crushing ones. In some ways, you aren't sad to be so close to free of them, though you have to admit that you think you'd be much happier in a world where Lady Bug manages things. It all seems rather more cheerful, safer, and better fed. Efficient, bug harvested food for the homeless is on the agenda, as she doesn't hate the poor and has so much.

Then, Scion floats in through the window.

"What the fuck!" Your roommate screams.

"Now you come." You shake your head and smile. "Confused about what to do? You killed Simurgh, and that was wonderful. Thank you so much." Scion stares at you, he is curious.

"But..." Your roommate seems truly shocked.

"Now, what you need to understand, is that this cold is bad." You explain. People are dying because of it. You need to cure it, all of it. Cure the sick, cure all disease. Got it? The more disease you cure, the better. Human, animal, plant, insect, fungus, cure it if it's sick, now. If things keep getting sick, if there's one big source of it, if it's like an Endbringer, find it. Destroy the source, kill it, fight to kill, throw it into the sun." You aren't healthy enough to give your best speech, but you try your hardest. "People are dying. Help them." Scion nods slowly, and traces his hand over you. "You'll feel better if you do it." You mutter. "Just kill it, and we'll all feel so much better."

Scion touches you, and you sigh with relief as the cold is gone. Then you realize something. "Do it fast! Not one at a time. Mass curing. Cure everyone as quickly as possible. That will save a lot more lives, make everyone feel a lot better, help a lot more people. Cure big crowds, cities and forests. Do it now!"

Scion releases a flash, and your roommate is healed. She seems terrified, for some reason. It's not like the Golden Man ever hurt anyone.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

You feel good.

Is it possible all you had to do was ask and he'd cure you of everything?

Currently you're in custody. A pair of capes are guarding you. You were always afraid of this, but it's not the worst way this could happen. Scion is doing a massive light show trick, healing huge areas, curing them.

Curing them of everything, not just the colds. It's a miracle.

Of course, doing it before would have been wonderful, but how were you to know he was that good at this? You are truly living in an age of miracles.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

End Interlude
_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Eidolon has suddenly gotten another priority." Dragon announces.

"Huh?" You ask.

"He has stopped looking for the source, and teleported away, looking excited and leaving before he articulated what he discovered." Dragon explains. "Luck, intuition, and clairvoyance make me suspect he actually did find something more important."

"Huh." You frown. "So..."

"Still nothing for us." Victoria sighs. "Is your suit done yet?"

"Let's see." Victoria puts you down and you try your weight on the ground. "Close enough."

"I'm..."

"Nothing to be sorry about." You assure her.

The two of you wait around, though things seem at least somewhat less urgent when you hear Scion is helping.

Then, suddenly, Alexandria walks through the door.

"The apocalypse will be starting shortly." She announces.

"We're in it." You point out.

"No, the big one." She says. You freeze.

"What the fuck?"

"We're going to start it." Alexandria explains smoothly. "If we don't do it now, when Scion goes bad we could have nothing left due to the plagues and Endbringers. We will continue working on the plagues, but we found something that he can listen to. His human contact."

"You're..."

"We're ending the world early, because otherwise Scion is much more likely to end everything. Gather your troops. You have forty five minutes." Alexandria then disappears.

"That cunt." Victoria announces.

"Gather everyone we even remotely care about." You tell Victoria. "Now."

"What is going on?" Cranial asks urgently.

"It's a long story." You whisper.

"I apparently have forty five minutes to listen." Cranial is starting to sound angry.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

You released the counter-cold agent to fill the large area. It's only courteous. These are the people statically most likely to be immune anyway, for many reasons.

The area is dark, but there is ambient light from a series of panels. Large panels, floor to ceiling, eighteen by five feet, are erected in a general circle. Two accompanying panels, only two or three feet wide, are set up on either side of each larger panel, to cast light at a slightly different angle. A bar sits at just below waist height, a semicircle, simultaneously a hand rest and a way of indicating a boundary the designated parties weren't to cross.

A different person or group of people are at each station, lit from behind rather than the front. The light from the other stations barely reaches them, which makes sure their features aren't well illuminated. Distinct silhouettes, with only a few more reflective materials catching the light.

Cauldron's game. Perhaps their Contessa had told them this was the proper design, or maybe Alexandria, Eidolon, or the Number Man, assuming this is not re-purposed from some other project.

You look out over the meeting room. You stand next to Victoria, who stands next to Cranial. She needs that, to be the leader, if not the power, of the Shepherds. Sophia Hess, it's hard to think of her as Sophie at a time like this, stands at attention right behind you, scanning the crowd for threats. The rest of the surviving Shepherds and Toybox stand behind you, an exceptionally powerful group of capes, under normal circumstances.

These are not normal circumstances.

Doctor Mother, The Number Man, and a strange, blank faced man stand together, the official membership of Cauldron. To your surprise the man you saw in Chicago, the creator of Siberian, stands with them, as do two extraordinarily beautiful blonde girls. One of them looks nervous, the other, younger one is beaming, which disturbs you in more ways than you can count. The last member of the little family is typing notes, and is by far the most recognizable, given you made the face. Best Girl.

You could have stood with them, in another life. Did they truly replace you with Bonesaw, even Cranial's interpretation?

The station to your right holds the Protectorate. Dragon is centered, with the team leaders fanned out about her. Eidolon, Alexandria, Hero, and Myrddin form the core of the battle group, the truly major players. Treat is there, not a leader, but too strong to deny, a hand on Chief Director Costa-Brown's sholder. To your surprise, your suit tells you Florida Man is not in the crowd of the team leaders, what is he doing? You notice Narwhal is there too. Did the Guild and Protectorate merge, or was it just more efficient with Dragon's new job? Only one Narwhal, too. Perhaps the Protectorate is sending people out on other missions and priorities, the people who might not be missed, while showing force? Too many possibilities, and you're not a thinker.

Saint you recognize to your left. Next to him is, of all people, Noelle, the girl who left you in Coil's cellar. Trickster and other Dragonslayers fan back from the pair. Now that is a worrisome combination. They must have teamed up very recently, since she hadn't been in Brockton Bay for the Dragonslayer attack. This can't be good.

You recognize Moord Nag farther away. Scavenger is unmistakeable, a thing of nightmares. Why invite her? Would they have invited the Slaughterhouse Nine if they were still alive? Then you eye Cauldron's new membership. They might.

Three men in robes, foreign capes you don't know enough about to recognize, stand together, next to Moord Nag's station. On their other side is a young man you vaguely recognize as the emperor of China, with two strange, serpentine things lying near him, most likely bodyguards, and if the Yangban is responsible for them, that would be worrisome.

A group of twelve capes stands together. Suddenly, Victoria puts your hand on your shoulder.

"Please, don't look at them." A voice whispers, suit to suit, and it sounds like Victoria's heart might be breaking to give that request. You focus your eyes on Cauldron. You can't imagine the Birdcage holds anything better than what you have.

Suddenly, there's a tear in the world, and another group enters into an empty station. You don't recognize the girl by sight, but it could only be Kitsune. A man with no arms or legs is levitated next to her, and of all people Shatterbird stands next to them. A small stream of capes, several monstrous, most normal looking, fill the station. Where did she find this team?

Another station lights up. Seventeen capes, a wide variety of clashing thematic looks. You wait for a minute, the tension building, and then the Suits and the King's Men arrive together, completing the lineup, you hope.

"I am Doctor Mother, and I am the founder of Cauldron." The Doctor announces. You hadn't hear the second part of the name before. "The world is clearly ending. Everyone who wants a world to be left is here."

"So this is the mighty Cauldron." Kitsune says. She laughs out loud. "Where do I even begin?"

"Your only way out is through our assistance, Kitsune. This realm is far less hospitable than the one you came from. Please only speak when you have something to say." The Doctor instructs.

"Well..." Kitsune holds up two fingers, and Doctor Mother looks suddenly a bit worried to your suit's senses. "There is the obvious thing I could say. Seven at your table..."

"Cut with the conflict, Sarah." Cranial says. "I believe the two of us are two of the people who have the most personal complaints against Cauldron, but unless you want to be personally murdered, quite possibly painfully, by Scion, please do not disrupt one of our most knowledgeable allies."

"How cute, you think we're friends." Sarah laughs. "Is drugging a girl and losing her to supervillains how you usually make friends?" She pauses, and looks weirded out. "Wait, you met your husband that way. And..." She trails off.

"It's a complicated relationship." Cranial answers smoothly.

"Alright, sorry. Let's get down to business." Kitsune says. "Magical Girl Amy Dallon can't fix this, Cauldron didn't fix this by juicing 3418 people and hoping for a savior, though it was a good idea." Your suit disguises your gasp at the number. How many people had they killed? "Most of the really good shit Cauldron had is gone now. The Yangban lost more than they've told the Child Emperor over there. I think the Thanda and Dragon are the best bets, and they're not good bets."

"What about the Birdcage?" Doctor Mother asks curiously.

"Glaistig Uaine can help, but she can't win this. Eidolon won't win this, but he could. Please don't ask more about that. Right now, we need to throw all the shit against the wall to see if anything sticks. The odds aren't good, but they never were."

"Will the Yangban increase Scion's power?" The Emperor asks suddenly. Everyone turns his head to him. "If he gets in the range of our soldiers, will he gain further power from it?" Everyone is quiet for a moment.

"Your little slaves won't make Scion any stronger, no." Kitsune admits. She sounds surprised. You like that. "Is your Secret Master offering his help this time? Eidolon and the Triumvirate fighting with the Yangban?" You think for a moment. That would be big.

"It is the end of the world." The Emperor says softly and clearly. "What do we have to lose?"

"Our souls." Dragon announces, suddenly. "We could push ourselves too far, and do something worse than the end of the world."

"I agree with Dragon." Saint says. He gives an odd smile to her, which creeps you out. "There are lines we shouldn't cross, things we shouldn't consider."

"Excuse me, but how on Earth is an ethical tangent going to help anything at a time like this!" Sarah shouts. Everyone quiets down for a moment.

"Some of us have already lost our souls." A man from the group you refuse to look at says. Is it just your imagination or is the voice familiar? "We have lost everything except our lives. We have nowhere to go but up."

"You still have one other thing we can take from you, Marquis." Kitsune reminds him. You can practically here the gloat in her voice. "You're not the only one with something I can hurt. In fact, there's exactly two people here I wouldn't threaten under any circumstances."

"Would it be distracting to ask who?" A very weary Cranial says.

"Gavel and Glaistig Uaine, the really crazy ones." The former Tattletale says. There's general nods. That sounds fair.

"Alright, I have a plan." Dragon announces. "Looking over the capabilities, motivations, and requests of everyone here. Birdcage capes, 39 of them, will be released to fight and assist. The more combat oriented capes of all factions willing to assist will organize into five groups, each group attached to the Yangban army that they will work best with. Lady Bug, you are to speak with Cauldron, they have several uses for you. The non-combat thinkers and tinkers will be moving into alternate dimensions and pocket dimensions to prepare backup plans and countermeasures. Several of you, those who receive the message, are going to stay when the meeting is over, assuming you are willing. We are going to attempt a mass cloning of the strongest." You see a set of words appear near you. "Panacea is requested for the emergency cloning session." Not unexpected, honestly.

"I love you." Victoria says. "And I'm proud of you." You pause.

"Are you..."

"I'm, like, ten times stronger if I support the Yangban." Victoria says.

"You don't have to go at all." You whisper.

"No, but I want to." Victoria kisses your forehead. "It is the apocalypse."

"You're so fragile..."

"My force field will be up so fast if they're boosting me nothing will be getting through." Victoria smiles. "Also, I'm hardly the kind of person you want punching the golden idiot in the face. I'll be grabbing injured capes, injecting medical supplies, acting as a mover. I'm not a front line fighter for this. I wouldn't have been for Leviathan if not for Grue's sister making it so much safer. I will be smart, I will be careful."

Sophie suddenly slams into you, almost as hard as your Glory Girl does when she flies into a hug. You hold her while people move out. You and Sophie and Victoria enter into a confused three way kiss before they leave you alone. even Cranial slides away, leaving just you out of the Toybox and the Shepherds. Cranial doesn't touch you as she leaves, or say a word. You can't imagine why. Other portals open after others have cleared out, and other men and women enter. Perhaps they refused to come earlier, or would have disrupted the meeting. None of them look confused. You shudder when you see Crawler arrive. You try to figure out the new arrivals.

Doctor Mother reads from a list. "Thank you, Noelle Meinhardt, Glaistig Uaine, Eidolon, Alexandria, Kurokaze, Gavel, Treat, Califa de Perro, Myrddin, Adalid, Queen of Diamonds, Phir Se, Crawler, Kazikli Bey, Lord Walston, Goddess, Moord Nag, and Panacea." You don't like that she saved you for last, it makes you uncomfortable.

18 capes.

18 of the best capes, and Doctor Mother.

You can't help but feel sorry for her. Then you notice two returning through a portal. Fodder and Dispatch. Why them?

"What is the plan?" You speak first, directing your attention at the Doctor.

"Noelle can clone people. She can do it quickly, she can do it easily. With you, she can do it well." Doctor Mother answers. "With Dispatch, Fodder, and Panacea, we can produce a force we estimate could have consistently fought the Endbringers."

"And you didn't do this before?" Gavel asks, sounding furious.

"Noelle was extremely difficult to work with, and many of you are honestly too dangerous outside of an immediate apocalypse. This is an immediate apocalypse. I believe you would understand that several clones of Gavel, while incredible for fighting Endbringers, would have caused a civil war with the villain population."

"Aren't Ms. Meinhardt's clones unstable?" A woman in blue asks. You do not recognize her. "Both for powers and personality?"

"The last time I worked with her, I got two who weren't evil, the second two." You say. "Could be luck, could be a cure."

"They're bad, but they're not sadistic serial killers anymore." Noelle answers. "They're like the original, but with changes. It varies. I haven't experimented much. It's the end of the world, guys. So what if they become a Slaughterhouse 90? That's much better than all of us dying, right?"

No one disagrees, though Moord Nag looks a bit confused.

Doctor Mother looks out at the capes. Maybe the strongest capes.

Time to begin.

[X] "Wait!" You say. "I could work with it, see if I can make it more precise, less likely to backfire, first." Or you could screw it up further, of course. Phantasos is good, if you make them worse, but still, if you could offer more control...

[X] "I am ready." You nod. Time to do it.

[X] "Just one thing. Let me work with Noelle for a moment, okay?" This will end badly. It will end much worse than Scion killing the world, the evil(er) clones of the heroes. You need to stop this insanity right now.

Quote
[X] "Wait!" You say. "I could work with it, see if I can make it more precise, less likely to backfire, first." Or you could screw it up further, of course. Phantasos is good, if you make them worse, but still, if you could offer more control...

Sixteen of the world's strongest capes watch you work. The world is dark except for a few electric lights as you huddle inside the time bubble of Dispatch. Your Dispatch, the one sent to Brockton Bay, you realize.

"Surely there's a way to enhance her." Lord Walston remarks. "The Yangban, Teacher, or Ingenue?"

"Dinah was consulted." Alexandria says. "No power enhancer attached to Panacea would improve the odds in any significant capacity." That is curious.

"Of course not. She is already as strong as she could be. Her fetters and rules broke long ago in the best possible way. The Liar's work was nonpareil." A chorus of voices from Glaistig Uaine announces.

"Could you explain further?" The Doctor asks. She sounds oddly excited, or not so oddly. She is in the business of making the strongest parahumans.

"She could have gained power over inanimate objects, the power to draw mass from other worlds, power over herself, or range, but the Liar was wise, and told her none of those options. Instead her powers went deep, as deep as any could go, for all she touched. It was the best way she could possibly have ascended." The Fairy Queen explains.

"Does that mean we should not clone her?" Alexandria asks. "Her chances of deviation into a more powerful cape are non-existent?"

"She could, perhaps, gain such strengths in addition to her own, but her sisters would have no further power in controlling biology. She is the Shaper, a being of raw finesse and mother of multitudes. She has risen as high as she ever could as a weapon against him." You continue working on Noelle's brain, looking at the copies of every parahuman brain you have ever encountered. You pay close attention to Taylor's, for the multitasking, the control.

"I feel we need some answers." Gavel says. "Why us?"

"You are the strongest we can clone, and who we can afford to lose consciousness." The Doctor says. "Eidolon, Alexandria, Kurokaze and Treat are the creations of Cauldron, and so is Noelle. The rest of you are the strongest natural capes we have encountered who can be mobilized to do battle with Scion, with the exception of Crawler, who we believe can be enhanced to that level."

"So, you want me to hurt him?" Gavel asks. "Make him stronger, lead to a monster scouring the land, an unending cavalcade of murder?" He sounds angry.

"We would appreciate it. Also, once all of us have unleashed everything we can on Crawler, further battle with us would not benefit him." The Doctor says. You're barely paying attention.

"Why us, though?" Myrddin asks suddenly. "Why are we so strong, compared to the rest of our allies? On average, perhaps, we are crazier, but there are far more insane capes who do not compare to us."

"I believe, first of all, you have all had second trigger events." The Doctor explains. "Some of you, such as Myrddin and Crawler had two extremely close together. Also, you all had second trigger events against nearly impossible odds. That is excepting our own work. Each of you dealt with a force so dangerous that in order to overcome it you needed power far outside the normal bounds of parahumans. Someone like Panacea's adopted mother had an absolutely terrible experience, yet her agent only identified a set of kidnappers as threats, and adjusted appropriately. Gavel, who had a team of supervillains attack him, slaughter everyone near him, and resisted heavy weaponry, needed far more strength to win."

"What about Panacea?" Gavel asks with a shrug. "What was so special about her trigger?"

"She dealt with sorrows unimagined and listened to the Liar. She dealt with far greater pain and fear than you, Lamia." Gavel scowls at her.

"What is this Liar bullshit, anyway?" Gavel asks.

"A lesser priest, and a villain of our story. As the High Priest is the greatest advocate of the power and truth of the Fae, the Liar tells falsehoods so that our lessers may tremble. She knows us better than we know ourselves, though she does not join in the noble work or claim a greater role in the cycle." You blink.

"You're talking about Victoria?" You ask. "She's not a liar."

"She lies with her soul." The Fairy Queen explains. "She tells stories of heroism that never happened so people may become heroes, she tells stories of invincibility so none may dare attack, claims an impossible love so we may grow beyond ourselves to win it. She is a storyteller and a rogue, lying to herself most of all."

"I must wonder why that tabloid freak show seems to be all anyone can talk about, anywhere." Noelle growls. "Isn't every other single thing she does matter more than her creepy sex life?"

"According to our magnificent ally, it is the romance that enables all else she does." Myrddin says thoughtfully. "I imagine very few people can truly be filled with existential despair over the state of the world to the point of a tinker trigger event against such insurmountable odds. Trigger events must be put into emotional, human terms. An impossible love, the need to literally offer someone the world, seems like it would inspire the power to truly change the world as the Panacea can."

"The Imprisoner puts is succinctly." She sounds thoughtful. You'll file that title away for later.

You begin to experiment with another Corona Pollentia, your own. If you are the best biological controller, than your own structures might be the best.

"I think you're doing something right." Noelle says. "Keep doing what you're doing." You do so. This is slower work, as you never have felt your own.

"It seems we never actually mentioned an explicit goal." The woman in blue says. "Are we going for quantity, variety, or the single most powerful cape possible?" You get a feeling that she is not thinking that highly of the group from her tone.

"I have been going for control. Choice." You answer. "I wish to make whatever result as easy for Noelle to accomplish as possible."

"And you simply decided this? I was under the impression Cauldron was in charge of this world." She says. "Was this impression mistaken?"

"I believe a better term would be responsible for Earth Bet." Alexandria says. "Cauldron does not rule and does not lead, but they established many of the major players, moved behind the scenes, and worked to improve things as best they could in preparation for this apocalypse. The people who contacted you had a particularly biased perspective, as they were imprisoned by Cauldron. No one is truly in charge, though we all hope to work together."

"I see." The woman in blue says. "Why are we trusting this Panacea and Ms. Meinhardt?"

One of the capes in robes you didn't recognize laughs out loud. Everyone stares at him.

"The Panacea is good." He explains. "Perhaps not right word. She put in twelve hours to try and help everyone. She Make world much better place. She say 'sunlight disinfect.' Of all capes here, she most good."

"I believe Phir Se is saying that of all the people here, Panacea has perhaps the best track record for being open, honest, and ethical." Alexandria says. Gavel snorts.

"Shows the kind of assholes we get." He jabs his thumb at you. "The shit with Skitter, all the mind rape, the lesbian incest. Jesus, is she the best of us?"

"You kill children so parents may cry." Phir Se says. Then he points to Adalid and Califa de Perro. "Maybe they better?"

"We try." The Dog King smiles. "We try, but she has the lowest body count by far if I am not mistaken. One murderous slaver, and helped fight serial killers? No one I recognize here has such a reasonable kill list." You get the strong feeling Eidolon is jealous.

"Done." You announce. "She is as good as I can make her."

"Thank you." Noelle says. She sounds uncomfortable with that.

"Fodder, please?" Alexandria asks.

Noelle touches a corpse, and she begins to grow. "Panacea, can you speed this process?"

"Yes." You answer. "Yes I can."

_______________________________________________________________________________________

198 clones.

You weren't cloned again. You have been cloned enough.

"Why isn't it working anymore?" Alexandria asks, observing the latest of Moord Nag's struggling to manifest a power. Noelle looks scared.

"Her well has run dry." Eidolon whispers. "That is how she works. Each new agent must take some from her well, she we take a lot. So much, so fast..."

"I'm sorry." You tell Noelle.

"Fuck you." She snarls.

"You helped save the world." You point out.

"No one told me this could happen. Did you know?" She asks.

"It was a possibility." The Doctor admits. "Eidolon's own powers were declining until today. It is the reason we refused to clone him normally, concerns we would accelerate the process."

"Wait, today?" You ask.

"I took some of your advice." Eidolon smiles. "And manifesting both intuition and favorable probability manipulation helped me realize I should, told me how to open my eyes. I can refill it."

"Can you refill mine?" Noelle asks, hopefully.

"I will try, if I survive this." Eidolon says.

The 198 new capes radiate out as a wheel with sixteen spokes. Each of the heaviest hitters has a set of clones. Space is warped using a power that reminds you of Vista. They move, experimenting with their powers, training.

You look out over the Eidolon clones. All of them are fully dressed, fully equipped, fully modified. One, the strongest, stands near you. She could take on the powers of any three capes. It took hours for each addition. She had gone with Eidolon, Myrrdin, and Glaistig Uaine. Another, a male, flicks between powers rapidly, any one of Eidolon's powers, at full strength, at a time. Others experimented farther out into the space warp.

Alexandria's clones had shown fairly extreme power deviation, reminding you of your own. An immense time warping speedster and flier, one of the fastest ever, without the invulnerability and with far less strength. One with zones of incredibly enhanced or slowed time and time related force fields, two who had copied her exactly.

Glaistig Uaine's refuse to use their powers. They say they are preparing. They are worrying. All of the blue woman, the Goddess's, clones are exactly like her in their powers, another mystery. None of Crawler's seem to have worked out well, though the original has been, well, you'd never quite seen so much power thrown at one small target. Myrddin's coven, 11 new capes, showed high deviation within bounds of a great deal of utility, and seem to be working together extremely well off in their zone. Four new Gavels identical to the first, with the rest having far worse powers. The Queen of Diamonds proved curiously resistant. The list went on.

So many of the capes are weaker, or haven't figured out their powers as well as their ancestor did. So many of the strongest were lucky, so lucky, in how their powers manifested. So few of the new capes seemed better.

"Not as good as I hoped." The Doctor remarks sadly. "Not as good as your work, and Cranial's. Quick and dirty, but it is the apocalypse."

"It is." You agree. "I guess it's time to go out and fight."

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Dispatch dropped the time bubble.

It took roughly four seconds for Scion to arrive. If you had to guess, some kind of Thinker power. A moment later, you're gone, standing in a field you don't recognize, courtesy of someone using a power you didn't notice earlier deciding to protect you.

"Fuck." You say out loud into the field.

[X] You need to get back to the fighting. They will need the best healer. You will work towards that.

[X] You're safest here. You were probably sent here to keep you out of the way. Time to lay low and wait for them to pick you up.

[X] You're going to prepare here. You will work on weapons, a fortress, something to fight Scion independently, if other areas fail. Write in: What do you work on?

Bonus Interlude: Eidolon
_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Yàngbǎn qiáng!" Glory Girl shouts, taking up the war cry of her allies. You float next to her, or one fraction of you floats next to her. One very small fraction, a wisp that could casually die. Scion has been happily slaughtering them.

Thank God for the Yangban. The 42 warriors of their experimental army fly together, boosted by your power enhancing aura.

You benefit far more than they do. You are at ten times your normal strength, so much more than before. Your powers lack greater peaks, but they arrive faster, and you get more of them.

You have never been this strong.

Scion arrives, a light in the distance. He had gotten bored with the royal guard, and is coming towards this portion of the fight. A beam of light flashes out, hits the fraction of you nearest Glory Girl, crashing through all eight defenses. The perfect shield is canceled by a perfect attack, the time refresh is cut by a dimensional aspect of the attack, the crystal shield is broken through, he blocks the reactive teleportation, the damage sharing with Crawler is overwhelmed and the enhanced reflexes and flight combined prove insufficient. You feel your defenses shifting and changing, only the duplication saved you, keeping most of your body elsewhere.

Two of your shadows unleash offensive attacks. One hits Scion to no effect, the other he dodges. The Yangban and the forces attached to this army unleash a storm of offensive attacks, and Scion intercepts with a massive ball of golden light. Nothing makes its way through to hit him.

A shield of blue light blocks Scion's golden light before it reaches the heroes. Shielder, another of the New Wave group, holds steady. The blue haired boy floats on one of Amy's bio-tech constructs next to several of the Shepherds and members of New Wave. The perfect shield lasts for a moment before Scion matches it with a cancellation. The golden light advances, and then the blue shield comes back. The Yanban keep resetting Shielder whenever his force field is broken, bringing him back to full strength using 36's power. Each time Scion destroys the shield faster. Your allies retreat across the landscape, and you follow them. You need to stay near the Yangban. You shift more and more of yourself to this battlefield. Matter erasing, time manipulation space manipulation, mind control, illusions, they each manage to fail almost as soon as you try them.

Scion suddenly stops the golden blast, vanishes, and appears inside your battle lines. He didn't actually teleport, he stepped into another dimension and crossed the intervening space there before returning.

Glory Girl smashes straight into Scion at sonic speeds, forcing him away from the group, her shield holding thanks to the Yangban boost. You teleport her back the moment the shield fails, with one of the Yangban resetting the charred corpse back into the Glory Girl.

Victoria's move had bought everyone a second to prepare. When Scion is back, this time flickering between dimensions to get around Shielder, they are as ready as they can be.

Scion systematically fires his blasts at the Yangban, vaporizing them and weakening the entire group, giving them less room where their powers are enhanced, fewer powers. Very few of them are recovered by 36. Glory Girl manages to soak the blast meant for the time looper, giving you enough time for a massive gravity blast that knocks him into space.

"Stop making him notice you." One of your duplicates hisses at Glory Girl.

"Fuck that, sir." She answers.

"The last thing we need is another apocalypse because you died." You remind her as Scion appears fighting the Yangban stealth infiltration army. You relay the moment to prepare to this group and start teleporting fractions of yourself to fight there.

This is a Yangban army everyone knew would not be able to stand against Scion. Their primary use is making everyone else stronger. The full teams that might stand a chance against him were placed here, such as the Suits, the national Protectorate team, and several others.

The Queen of Diamonds attacks Scion. She is strong enough to move a 747 with her aerokinesis and make constructs out of air, hardening it into steady shapes. As a breaker she is made of air, invincible to most attack that doesn't vaporize the air.

There are also 100 of her. A mass duplicator, thanks to her second trigger event in an Endbringer attack. She went from a heavy hitter to someone just shy of the Triumvirate. Less strength and durability, but with such numbers she was one of the only things keeping the Suits going lately.

Now, a thousand of her, each one capable of exerting 1000 tons of pressure. Thank God for the Yangban finally helping.

Scion vaporizes the Queen of Diamonds like a machine gun, not even noticing her attacks. It is one of her Noelle clones that makes him pause, a strange, shadowy creature that wraps around Scion, seeming to pull energy from inside him. Scion tries several attacks, none of which work. He flits into another dimension and returns, still covered, looking worried, and bursts upward, into space.

Peace, for a moment. Nowhere in the world that Scion is destroying. You switch powers, healing powers for the fast reaction army, which had several dozen injured, teleportation to move capes from one group to another, thinker powers for superior planning.

Scion is winning. Each attack kills capes that can fight him. Unless the Queen of Diamond's Noelle clone somehow wins the fight, he will come back and keep moving from group to group. Killing, destabilizing, weakening.

The long game teams, the planners, the ones trying for something that might actually work, are important. Best Girl and Lady Bug are working to refine as much power formula as possible, String Theory is working on something she calls the H-Sphere, Blasto is trying to clone a usable Endbringer, the Toybox is working on another plan. Each Dispatch is giving them time to work, entire resource teams are supporting them, and they are all being supported by temporary clones of the Yangban power enhancer.

Scion crashes back into the Yangban fast reaction team. They are teamed up with individuals of great power that do not work in teams, or in very small teams. Kazikli Bey raises his arms and pushes two waves of air to keep Scion still for a moment, while a hundred attacks lash out at him. You contribute a power which keeps him from moving to another dimension.

Scion starts to flicker. He will exist for one moment, but not another. You focus sensory powers, and they fail to uncover what is going on. The attacks continue for a while, and then Scion completely vanishes for a moment. The attacks stop, and Scion appears once again.

This is worrying. Scion unleashes another expanding sphere of light, combined with his "stop" effect, tinged with a cancellation trump effect. Scion is working for it, holding back far less than you have ever seen, and he slowly, painstakingly, wins the war of energy. Scion lashes out at you, and you lose all of your remaining doubles in this battlefield.

You use clairvoyance to watch that battle, as Scion blocks teleportation. Florida Man rides Tallahassee's spirit dragon directly into Scion and punches him in the nose to no obvious effect. The two make eye contact and stare at each other for a full minute before Scion runs.

Scion attacks the experimental army next. This was the team designed to try against Endbringers, see what was effective among the Yangban abilities and what was not, before a full fledged army was created to counter them. Biased towards group defense, more groups of defensive capes and their allies had been added, including the New Wave perfect shields. At the center of this group is one of your clones created by Noelle.

Any three capes, chosen over a period of hours. Now, any 30 capes, a new one roughly every ten minutes. She had started with yourself, Glaistig Uaine, and Myrrdin. She had biased herself towards persistent defenses, now. Gavel and Alexandria were her first two choices, and now she had just finished her next offense, Black Kaze.

You reached out and touched your clone. You examined her. Inferior, intellectually, to you, as most of Noelle's most recent batch had been. Phantasos wasn't like that, and neither was Pandemic. Orthus and Nostrum came out crazy, but not stupid. You wonder if Panacea made a mistake, or if Noelle did. You make a temporary duplicate while Scion eats his way through a gigantic shield of bone.

Glory Girl and Phantasos do something incredibly stupid as you hit Scion with two dimensional travel blocking effects, one that shuts down movement, and another that makes portals far more effective, larger, in case of anything persistent. Glory Girl hits Scion, moving him a thousand feet to the west, and holds him steady. She moved him into an area of air Phantasos had expanded his powers into. Phantasos then moves his powers into Scion.

The wave of dead, golden flesh that expands from that point pushes back the allied capes until Scion breaks free. You bring back the severed chunks of Glory Girl for a Yangban member to turn back into a living girl, and feel a sense of relief as you see the blonde. Seriously, the idiot.

It was fairly effective, though. Admittedly, it led to Scion charging, with murderous intent, your all time favorite Ward and the sister of one of the most important people in the world.

Your clone suddenly teleports behind Scion, and he screams, staggering, as the force of countless attacks with your own powers tears through him. He turns and begins fighting what might be the strongest cape in the field, prioritizing her over the other two.

You keep the earlier dimensional travel blockers focused on Scion as more and more flesh tumbles off of him. Perhaps this is less effective than it appears, but it certainly looks useful.

Fuck free will and heroism, part of your mind created by a multitasking thinker power decides. Glory Girl dying is too dangerous. You hear an unearthly scream echoing from the future as you teleport Glory Girl to the same dimension you had sent her sister.
Quote
[X] You're going to prepare here. You will work on weapons, a fortress, something to fight Scion independently, if other areas fail. Write in: What do you work on?
-[X] This is probably going to be where wounded end up teleported - make a biological hospital, prioritising a shelter for triage first and then adding more detailed and complicated sections that can do your work for you if no wounded capes have arrived.

Victoria hits the ground screaming incoherent and vaguely Chinese. She is the person you would most want to see, but you'd hoped she'd arrive happy from victory.

"Who that I know is dead?" You ask carefully.

"No one I saw. Crystal ran even though her shield was stopping Scion, the cunt, and a few were shipped off to other groups. Sophie was teleported away once it was clear she couldn't do anything even if she phased something really cool. I hurt him. Amy, I got him, and then I just showed up here!" Victoria starts ranting and cursing in the middle of the empty bio-tech field hospital you had made in the course of the last several hours.

You're honestly extremely proud of the hospital. You're pretty sure that it could keep a head decapitated ten minutes ago stable for an indefinite period of time, though treating the brain damage would be a gamble. You've managed to make several dozen such machines, and a lot more general healing supplies. Victoria barely notices for quite a while, so you calmly continue your work with the local plants and animals. You haven't received any of the wounded yet, but you could easily get a whole army of them all at once. Victoria tells you everything she knows about the tactical situation.

Scion is killing people. He is destroying cities, causing natural disasters, and murdering individuals. Estimates put the number of people he killed in the world at roughly 30% on the last estimate. He would switch, periodically, between attacking the gathered capes and mass murder.

The casualties of the allied capes were resting at 20% last time Victoria got an update. This estimate was heavily biased towards the new capes Noelle had made, as Scion focused on the ones who could actually damage or fight him and they had been viewed as relatively expendable. According to one of the estimates Victoria had heard from Annie, without the new heavy hitters the casualties would be nearly 60%.

Finally Victoria stops ranting.

"You were very brave. I love you. The world is ending." You stare at her. Victoria reaches out and touches your hand.

"I don't deserve you." She whispers. You are taken aback.

"Victoria, I don't deserve you. Every day with you is a gift." She shakes her head sadly.

"Your body is my temple, Amy." She traces her hand along your stomach. "You're giving me a child, you're giving me the world. You're giving me things I could never have imagined." Suddenly she swallows, and the words that come out of her mouth mean something very different from all the other times she said them. "I love you." There's a tint of need, desperation, longing in those words. She's afraid in a way you'd never thought she'd be.

"Romantically?" You whisper.

"Yes." There's a weight to it. "Just, when you were healing, I felt so protective, so happy, and I thought back to when we were little. It's not like that anymore. It was new, and different. You're sexy, you're cute, you're brave, you help people. I fear you, but I admire you. I'm afraid because I think you're too strong for me to handle." You think for a moment. She's Carol's daughter.

"Your aura." You suddenly whisper. "Fear. People love you and they fear you, it's so close, fear and admiration. You needed it. You needed to fear me."

"You feared me, too." Victoria says. "You feared I'd reject you. I'd hate you. I think we learned to fear people we loved from our mother." You think.

"I'm still afraid of Carol. We need to get back with her."

"Amy." Victoria shudders. "You know I'm fucked up, right? More fucked up than you. I've broke your hip, I've bullied people, I've hurt people and killed people. I'm a raging cunt and I don't have a ring and I haven't asked either dad..." You feel a sudden, sick feeling. "Also, the world's kind of ending right now in one or two ways, but, um, will you marry me?"

[X] "Yes."

[X] "No."

[X] Write in.

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

Quote
[X] "Yes."

"Good." Victoria nods. "Very good."

Both of you are quiet for a moment.

"We're going to have an incestuous, lesbian marriage." You admit. "We're actually doing this." Victoria nods.

"How do you feel?" She asks.

"Honestly, kind of sick. Not that I haven't wanted this for, um, a while, but it's..." You struggle for the right word.

"Not like we're suddenly going to start having sex, or have children, or anything. We kind of did this backwards." Victoria giggles very nervously.

"So, um, do we kiss, fuck, dance, hold some private ceremony thing, mix our blood, call someone..." You try to think of appropriate things.

"Um, I don't really want to. Do you? We can't really call anyone anyway. Like, if I had a phone, I'd call Mom, Dad, Sophie, Dean, Neil and Sarah, stuff like that, but that's more duty than celebration." Victoria looks very tense.

"Um, I'm not really feeling frisky, or romantic. Just, um, thanks?" Victoria looks at you sadly.

"I didn't exactly make you the happiest girl in the world, did I?"

"Well, apocalypse." You sigh. "Not exactly in a girly mood."

"I did this all wrong." Victoria sighs. "It felt like the script. Propose to your girlfriend when the world is ending. I still want to, but just..."

"I'd rather be your wife, fiance, whatever. I like that, though sister's always best." Then you smile. "Yes! Okay, things suck, but I am happy. I am going to marry you. Not the time for big gestures, but this is good." Victoria looks relieved.

"I want this too. And, it's not just about keeping you busy. Sure, keeping you busy is fun, but I want to say this, since we've been together I've been happier. You're a better girlfriend than Dean was a boyfriend. You try to make me happy. I like taking care of you and protecting you. Maybe this is shallow, but you really have given me a lot of really cool stuff. I like being a billionaire superhero with a team of capes who gets to live in a bio-tech paradise. It's not, like, wanting you for your money, but, um, you made the choice to increase my quality of life. You didn't have to give me control over it. It was a nice thing to do for me. You give me a lot of stuff I want, like biting, tattooing, the hip dislocation, all of that stuff hurts, but you let me do it anyway, just to make me happy." Victoria is starting to blush. She looks rather confused.

"Thank you, Victoria. You've made my life. You gave me years and years of your life. I got a childhood because of you. You get the best adulthood I can possibly give you. Harem, vast wealth and power, a mission in life, bio-tech. All of my resources are at your command." Victoria smiles.

"I really kind of kicked Scion's ass before I got sent here."

"I think they were just worried you'd die." You answer. "And yeah, I'm not saying I wouldn't become much harder to work with if you were dead." Victoria pauses.

"This is fucked up, but honestly I'd be kind of hurt if I died and came back unexpectedly and found out you hadn't covered the world in images of my face or something. That doesn't make me evil, does it?" You laugh.

"I'd make everyone pregnant with your DNA if you wanted me to. I'd turn every animal and plant reflections of your beauty. Humanity would exist in your honor, endless variations and reflections of your glory." Victoria smirks.

"There's something kind of appealing in impregnating every woman in the world. Don't do that, but you're creative." You smirk back.

"Men too. It would take a few years of warped puberty, but I could make men capable of carrying a baby using the right carrier. There would be health problems and it might be safer and easier to make the reproductive system in a really different location due to how the hips work, but you'd get plenty more images of yourself." Victoria shivers.

"Okay, do not do this, but if you do happen to go crazy, along with the vaginal flowers and massive tracts of land shaped like my hands, men should definitely be carrying my daughters." She frowns. "Or would they get sons?"

"Depends on how I did it. If I wanted to they could grow ova with Y chromosomes. Technically that would be a ZW chromosome system, which a lot of animals have. I'd probably make the next generation hermaphrodites of some kind, with the results being close to human biological females but producing sperm cells through one of several methods. A lot would depend on if I was expecting to survive or if I was doing some kind of suicide by cop move. If I had a city to play with and time I'd probably work out a cloning system of you with biological incentives to keep close to your DNA structure, but if I was just hacking it I would just release a handful of organisms to commemorate you." Victoria sighs and twirls you around.

"You put a lot of thought into this, don't you?" Victoria seems pleased by this.

"Um, I spent a lot of time having to read biology textbooks so I could tell people what I was doing. My mind wandered. It wandered into some really interesting places." You give Victoria a grin. "Want to turn an uninhabited Earth into a flesh garden of you? Cauldron can travel between worlds fairly easily, and they do owe us. Want to play with Victoria-forming?" Victoria pauses and looks serious.

"You know, I actually think that would be productive. Not that I'm actually obsessed with a world that looks just like me, but it would be a really nice burst of crazy. Real thinkers would get we're just bluffing, but it would be nice for negotiating with people, remind them just how much we're holding back if we get annoyed. So yes, I want that for a wedding present." She smiles. "I bet that just by saying we're doing that and offering tours of that world we'll get a ton of neat stuff. 'Please don't destroy the world, here's a free island.' Stuff like that." You smile.

"Just finally making a world like that, doing it, that's the best wedding present I could ask for." You pause. "That's mostly because you've given me all of my other burning desires."

"I'm glad I've fulfilled all of your dreams. I want you to have my kids, a great life, all the family you want, to feel good about yourself. And look around, you did this all by yourself without anyone asking. Throw you somewhere, and you build a hospital to help with the fighting. You impress me. I admire the good you've done, and I want you to keep doing good forever." You feel a very strong desire to start working sixteen hours a day.

"You're the best thing I could imagine." You say it truthfully.

Then a portal opens in the sky. Several dozen capes start moving through.

"Something's wrong." Victoria says. "I don't feel any stronger." A man lands in front of you with long hair, covered in bone.

"I've been waiting." The man says. Stretched above and behind him are wings of bone, ivory. He was flying by his own power.

Suddenly, Victoria punches him back. She punches him some of the hardest you've ever seen her use, kicking him back, up into the sky. What the fuck...

"Oh." You whisper. He reconfigures in the air, changing his momentum, catching himself. Victoria hasn't meant to kill, she had better weapons for that.

"You don't mind, do you?" Victoria suddenly sounds a lot younger. "And, um, you wouldn't want me to ask him for permission, would you?"

Melissa and Eric land next to you, riding her specially named shield thing you'd built for her. A group of severely injured people are on the object, and several fragments of bone the size of firetrucks that she was carrying land next to them, carrying more injured capes.

"No." You answer, as you begin your work. "Sort them. Nearly dead go to the machines, the rest, get them ready." You see Sarah and Carol, but not Mark, moving people, listening to Victoria's instructions, Eric joins the effort rapidly. The field hospital isn't overwhelmed, to your surprise. That's probably a bad thing, given the numbers involved.

Your suit provides an estimate. Twelve members of the Yangban, 24 miscellaneous, healthy capes, 72 severely injured capes.

Victoria comes back to you, looking angry and worried, once the sort is completed.

"We lost Two." She explained. "The Yangban member. She died. The whole defense fell apart. We were finally hurting the bastard, had him cornered, and it all collapsed. We think someone betrayed us, but who the fuck would do that?"

"Glaistig Uaine." A voice announces. It's Goddess, the woman in blue you met earlier today. "She and her clones were holding ground until we started winning. Once she realized what was going on she struck at our weak point."

"It's why we got as far as we did." Eidolon walks into existence. "Scion was holding onto a path to victory. He was, faking it is the wrong word. He let us hurt him, visibly, badly, so she'd turn." You feel sick.

"How bad is it?" You ask.

"Most of the injured or recoverable dead are in Glace's contributions." David sighs and sits down next to you.

"What are you doing here?" You ask.

"Guarding this weak point. This is one of our fallback bases. Once the Yangban network is restored with a Two clone, Cranial and the Brain Box's current project, we'll restart the fight, but we lost a lot."

"We hurt him, though? How?" You ask.

"I found a power that was making it easier, and we found a few that were more efficient." Eidolon answers. A portal appears in the air and bugs start bringing in more of the wounded. More healing, more people to help. "Your brother was one of the best for it." You shudder.

"Was? Is he dead?"

"I don't know." David admits. "I lost track of Charles when Two shut down. I lost most of the powers I was using. I need the combat ones up, so I can't search."

"I'm sorry."

"Thank you." David stands at attention near you. "If he shows up, run. Promise me that. You can make a civilization by yourself, one worth living in, if you're alive. Scion won't kill all of us. If you survive, that is gigantic. If you're sane that's gigantic. Take Victoria, Sophie, anyone else you love, and go. Convince them to run with you."

"Sophie's not here." You say.

"Lady Bug? Please find your sister." Eidolon instructs the swarm that is assisting with organizing the remaining wounded. A few hundred of them, maybe.

Sophie shows up later, after most of the healing is done. She sits by you, no longer at combat attention. Not much need, not much use.

"Victoria asked me to marry her." You say.

"Cool." Sophie says. She doesn't sound too happy about it.

"Are you okay with that?" You ask.

"Do I have a choice?" Sophie points out.

"No." You sigh. "Probably not."

"I love you, Amy." Sophie says. "I don't love Victoria."

"I'm sorry." You tell her.

"I'm too young for this shit." Sophie grunts. "I'll be back later." She goes into her shadow state and moves away. A minute later she returns, looking angry.

"Eidolon send you back?" You ask.

"He's right." Sophie grumbles. "If Scion shows up, we're bolting through a portal fast." Victoria lands next to Sophie.

"I'm not allowed to go into the next fight." Victoria says.

"Why?" Sophie asks.

"Because Amy needs me." Victoria sounds bitter about it.

"You can..." Victoria kisses you out of nowhere. Sophie looks sad.

"I don't want you to live in a world without me." Victoria says.

"Neither do I." You admit after a moment of thought. "You can't ask me to marry you and then go into a fight like that." An insect swarm moves near you, one of Lady Bug's.

"Tell me, who do you need?" She asks. She sounds a lot like Taylor, now. "We're sending you to make another field hospital, when the fight starts up again. Who do you want, in the world, to go with you, to leave the fight?"

[X] Write in: Who does Amy ask to come with her?

Quote
[X] I don't want to go... I should be with the thinkers and tinkers. I've languished enough just hanging back and healing... We need a solution that goes beyond throwing capes at him... And I'm pretty sure that if he decides to kill everyone... he'll have all the right powers to hunt me down no matter where I retreat to.

"Give me Victoria and Sophia They make the best tag team of body guards I could hope for and I love them too much to see them go out and get hurt."

"I love them too." Annie says softly. "You made me love them, and you. If none of you are going to be safe..."

"She wanted to be a hero. So do you." Sophie says. "She never once went after me, you know. Never took me as fair game, an open target, never went Carrie. Whatever she was, and she was a lot, she'd want us all to fight." Shadow Stalker and Lady Bug are quiet for a moment, your Sophie looking at where the eyes should be in the swarm.

"Thank you." Annie says to Sophie. "I'll arrange for him to bring you through ASAP. Put you in that part of the group."
_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Wait." Sophie stares at Kitsune. "Cauldron told Scion to start killing people so we would all have to work together?"

"He was going to do it anyway." Kitsune says. "I am positive about that. If the plagues had finished us off, well, the end of the world. Nothing left to stop him from ripping apart every dimension. He was never going to kill everyone, but he was going to kill, oh, 19 out of 20 people in a whole lot of dimensions we've never met. It's heroic, if treasonous, to arrange for this." Lisa, Sarah, Tattletale, Kitsune, sighs.

"You two, please be quiet for a moment." You say. You focus on Blasto's matrix. Simurgh's crystals are immune to your power, normally.

Teacher, more power for less control. You have less control, but more power, now. Power over edge cases. You have no idea how you'd make a biology out of this, normally, but with Blasto's tech you can help to bridge the gap.

The Morrígan. Half-Endbringer, half Myrddin. Kitsune gives occasional instructions to Blasto, and Teacher keeps granting new abilities to Blasto, Kitsune, or yourself every few minutes.

"Are you sure the base is sufficient?" Teacher asks. "Wouldn't a Changer of some kind be more able to adapt to the unusual biology?"

"Not with Panacea." Kitsune snaps. "Anything as good at self modification as she is at modifying it would be too hard to control."

You feel dirty now. Your power stretches over the silicon and crystal of the Endbringer, at least marginally. Everything is so much less clear.

"Teacher, give the cat girl something to give Panacea more control." Kitsune says suddenly. "She's about to need it." Sophie moves forward and Teacher places a hand on her head.

"It would be so much more efficient if we still had Two." Teacher mutters.

"No disagreement here." You shrug. A moment later, Sophie has a power completely unrelated to her normal ones, and kisses your neck. Your control sharpens and clarifies, letting you catch some changes before they decay.

"Anything I can do?" Victoria asks. You feel hesitation in her voice.

"I can't believe I missed that." Kitsune laughs. "Ooh, I should have made you do it. Not yet, pet. Maybe in a few minutes when we need someone to examine the tech.

"The Morrígan is fine." You tell the thing who wants to hurt your sister.

"Darn it, you're right." Kitsune kicks back in her chair. "Seems we're nearly done."

"She does look terrifying and beautiful, doesn't she?" Blasto says happily. "A goddess of strife."

"She just looks like Victoria if she was a bit gray." Kitsune says, sounding annoyed. "Did you expect anything else?"

"Nope." Victoria says happily, patting you on your back. "Amy's a good girl." Kitsune makes a horrible retching sound.

"I think the Morrígan can look terrifying and beautiful while carrying similarities with Victoria." Blasto sounds a bit hurt. "Note the facial features. Victoria Dallon's are softer, approachable, human. The Morrígan's are a shade harsher. Sharper cheek bones, longer face. It can be difficult to tell with the aura, but looking at two photographs and there are clear differences."

"Oh, shut up. It's just another Victoria, and Amy's not actually good at faces." Kitsune sounds exasperated.

"She is good at organs." Blasto explains, showing Kitsune some of the images. "Organs, bones, the internal structure is a work of art. The best aspects of the Endbringer have been carried over, as much as physically possible, and the more human and vulnerable parts are as well defended as they could be." Kitsune frowns.

"I didn't say she was bad at cloning. I said she was obsessed with her sister."

"Fiance." Victoria corrects, flashing a grin.

"Don't remind me." Kitsune groans.

"Wait, really?" Blasto sounds impressed. "Congratulations! Is Shadow Stalker included?"

"I'm fifteen." Sophie mutters, distorted by keeping her lips in contact with your neck to keep the enhanced control.

"And they're sisters, bitch. I really don't think anyone involved gives a flying fuck about sex laws." Kitsune giggles and it is an ugly sound.

"She has said she doesn't want to get married, and we're not even having sex." You point out.

"Technically not having sex." Kitsune says. "I think an orgasm touch counts, kids."

"I'm older than you." Victoria snaps. "Please stop insulting the people saving the world."

"There's like a 2% chance the Morrígan saves the world. Not that Dinah can tell that much with the big golden idiot, but he killed the big sister. Why would little sister be better?" Kitsune looks skyward. "Oh, right, the incredible intelligence of Simurgh combined with a desire to ensure human survival will allow for optimal deployment of all resources against Scion." Kitsune speaks in a deadpan.

"It was your idea!" Teacher reminds her.

"Barely." She mutters. "And I don't have a better one."
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Cranial and Teacher work on the thing's mind. You keep a hand on it, and Sophie holds your other hand to keep your power going at peak efficiency.

"Okay." Kitsune says suddenly. "Whatever you did, you've done as well as could be done. This is the best." Cranial and Teacher stop.

"A baby Endbringer." Blasto says in wonder.

"Won't stand up to Scion." Tattletale declares. "None of the tricky biology for that. Not that big sis could last that long. Precog, telekinesis, postcog, and being way too smart for anyone's good are all there, though I can't tell how there. Myrddin's powers are also active, for what good they'll do. He is good at catching Scion attacks. I think the Endbringer powers will even work with Two, once we've got it ready."

"Good." Blasto whispers, sounding like the happiest man in the world. "So very, very good."
_______________________________________________________________________________________

The Dispatch bubble is far too small for any privacy. You occasionally touch him to refresh him without the need for sleep.

You lie next to Victoria and Sophie. You lean into Victoria. Sophie curls away, looking a bit sad.

"We're getting married." You whisper to your sister and lover and best friend. You feel like swooning, though it might just be 36 hours without sleep.

"I love you, Amy Dallon." Victoria says. "The world is ending, but I love you more than the world."
_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Claire's the size of a large raspberry, now." Victoria whispers. You're feeling tight around your stomach, and stopped wearing a bra for lack of a tailor in the small bubble.

The three Endbringer composites rest in the tanks that take up most of the area. The Two clone sits next to Blasto and Teacher, the three playing a complicated game of poker only they know the rules to. Kitsune rests in Cranial's chair, the two finally getting around to working on her sanity.

You've been in this bubble for weeks and weeks, eating recycled paste, working on bio-tech. Cranial's machine has completed the first major round of cloning, 86 people. The very small bubble, a single room, has the space to just barely hold everyone. The next few days are going to be hell as you make the next army. Fodder will come first, to refresh the bio-mass supplies that have dwindled, and then the rest will come. The life support machines are mostly running on your improvements, with Victoria providing electricity by spinning the generator.

"You know, these are some of the best weeks of my life." You tell Victoria.

"Mine too." She admits, and looks sad. You follow her gaze to Sophie, sitting alone on the floor.

"Should you talk to her, or should I?" You ask Victoria.

"Your turn." Victoria sounds so very tired, even though you'd been keeping her physically very fit. Your body is the worst of the lot, and you've been eating amazingly refined nutrition and had two biology Tinker doctors making sure you're healthy, along with everything Teacher can offer. You walk over to your girlfriend.

"I didn't think the gap would matter so much." Sophie whispers.

"You're wonderful." You tell her. "Please, let me help you."

"I'm not ready for this. You two move so fast. I thought it would be, like, you'd start a family and I'd be your girlfriend. I knew you two were in love, but I thought she was like, doing it for you. I didn't think, it's not like I was tricked, but the way she acted. Crap I'm not the kind of person with words for this." Sophie is crying.

"Anything you want, I can help." You whisper.

"You aren't going to, and shouldn't, scrape Claire out of you, or break up with Victoria, and what else is there? You two are great, now. Maybe not before she got her creepy S&M stuff, but now? It freaks me out." Sophie shudders.

"That was always part of it, babe." You pull back Sophie's hair and she moves away from you.

"I miss Emma." Sophie says, and you start to cry. "I want her back. I want to bully Taylor and be on track and beat up bad guys. I miss my old life. I got to be a kid. Now I'm, what? Your lesbian mistress?"

"You're Sophie." You whisper into your Shadow Stalker's ear. "You can be whatever you want to be."
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Myrddin, Narwhal, Glyph, Rime, Strider, Bastion, Exalt, Dispatch, Mouse Protector, Fodder, Strider, Shadow Stalker, Harrier, Shielder, Rune, Blur, Assault, Battery, Skitter, Jouster, the list goes on. Nearly 90 capes in all.

All the capes you could make, the volunteers.

And the three who aren't truly capes. Chevalier and Behemoth, Shadow Stalker and Leviathan, Myrddin and Simurgh.

Teacher and Cranial, working with Kitsune's advice, worked on the fake Endbringers to make them as loyal as possible. They're robotic, automatons, no free will in and of themselves.

They're still scary.

"Strider will take all of you who can fight Scion directly to the command structure." Victoria tells the troops, speaking very loudly. "The rest of you will be disseminated for search and rescue and law enforcement. You have all organized into your groups. Your mission is to protect Two until the Yangban is back and active. Then you are to follow the orders relayed by Lady Bug." Victoria's speech goes on. The older capes stand together against the army they created.

"Dispatch, it's time." Cranial says softly.

The bubble collapses. Strider teleports the team away.

"Now we wait." Teacher says.

The waiting is agony.

Interlude:

[X] Cranial

[X] Hero

[X] Kazikli Bey

Quote
[X] Cranial

The world doesn't fucking make sense anymore, and stopped making sense roughly the time you peeked at Amy Dallon's brain.

Currently, you're staging an internal debate over Cauldron's long series of decisions. Your utilitarian estimate, under the circumstances, is that a 0.5% of stopping Scion from devastating alternate human realities in greater numbers is worth a decade or two of expanded time before this apocalypse.

Objectively, they made the right call. Subjectively, your children probably won't grow up into people with interests and love and intelligence. They're a set of precocious blobs of cells, not working mental structures.

You're fucking angry and have been for weeks. Your husband's going to probably die again once Scion starts raiding the tinker facilities, and you're likely to die as well. You lost weeks of progress on the clone army because of Saint, and lost 56 useful capes to clone because Victoria and Amy decided to come out. Why is everyone, good or evil, stupid?

The bubble falls. Strider Secundus starts the troop relocation, with usable anti-Scion capes, capes that might produce usable countermeasures, and useless capes being moved rapidly across the world to useful positions. Hopefully the Morrígan's plan will get fewer people killed than Accord's.

"Everyone is working together." Amy says softly. "If we could win, our odds just went up, right?" She's terrified, pregnant, engaged. She has everything to lose in this fight.

"Our odds have definitely improved." Your voice-modulator assures Amy and pats her shoulder. You keep a close eye on the social module. Currently you have six modules running, and social is important, needed to form a consistent identity. Censorship examines social to keep your interactions and feelings consistent. Far engineering also pays close attention to social, to keep the priorities consistent with your stated desires, while near engineering never seeks out the other modules, only taking instructions. Your other two modules, threat assessment and pattern recognition, run in the background.

The social module is the most human, the one with the affection and frustration with Amy, love for your husband and children. You, unlikely almost everyone else in the world, have a fairly good idea what normal emotions look like, and you know social feels very much like how humans feel. There are people who develop affection easily for work associates, and censorship had set the neural incentives of social to do so very early in your subjective life, back when you had to choose between removing your ability to be lonely or trying to find companionship.

Censorship reaches out and deftly prepares the connections to your Toybox for social to find active, the attachment to your tadpoles, your husband. All of them had been put partially on hold for the sake of efficiency while they were impossible to reach. Now it was time to once again make decisions based on their welfare.

It is always best to avoid talking about how your mind works. Most people seem to think the ability to influence your emotions more thoroughly than most makes them less sincere. You don't like to think that way, and as long as social feels differently, you don't think it is. Censorship refuses to submit to social in these matters, so the parts of you that do feel in human ways lacks choice in the matter.

"God I don't want another month like that." Amy says suddenly. "Trapped in something so small and foul. Even being trapped with people I love." You consider this to be a fair compliment.

"It is for the sake of the world." You tap Amy's stomach lightly. "The world is a rather important place." It was definitely best to remind her of her fetal offspring whenever she was a bit down, such as when she was preparing a machine to convert human corpses into feed stock and food, or when she was suffering for her human experimentation. Her self worth was unhealthily attached to how much she could please Victoria. The social scripts she had picked up combined a really terrible combination of sexist masculine and feminine roles to fill Amy's head, while the BDSM influences actually gave it a somewhat less toxic script for her obsession. Still, with limited time and resources, it was easiest to remind her that she was carrying the child of someone she loved. It would be nice if she cared more for her body than it being able to please Victoria and sustain Claire.

"He comes." Sophie says suddenly. Teacher's work, flashes of precognition. Scion should be immune, but she has the vision. Perhaps Eidolon managed to find a way to expose him to sensory powers?

Victoria readies, preparing to raise her shield the moment it is time and not a second sooner. Teacher's work, more control for less power. The result was that Victoria could hold down her shield, suppress it, in exchange for keeping the shield up for longer periods. She had been holding it down for hours, and might be able to keep her shield raised for an hour or so.

Annie's marvelously shortened OODA loop for the allied forces allowed Eidolon and a reconstituted, reduced, Yangban army, the Queen of Diamonds, and several clones of Goddess to teleport in with Sophie's warning. Victoria crashes into Scion, the two doing full battle. Based on normal estimates, her shield would last until Scion got bored and used a trump ability to negate it. There is always the small hope that he would for some reason be unable to negate this particular perfect effect, despite negating the similar force fields of Shielder, Laserdream, and Lady Photon.

Amy and Sophie raise their longshot anti-Scion weapons and fire. There is very little that could be done. There is the tiny, remote possibility that the most potent biological weapon Amy could make, phased into Scion by dimensional abilities, will actually manage to infect him and lead to his defeat. Victoria holds Scion still as the two weapons hit to no visible effect.

To your surprise, Scion goes somewhat crazy, thrashing wildly, but does not vaporize Victoria or escape her grip. The two attacks hit, though Scion does not visibly weaken.

"Germs aren't going to actually work, right?" Amy asks.

"This is not a fucking radio drama from the Depression. Our alien invader is not going down to germs." Sophie grumbles. The earlier effect Victoria talked to you about is in full display, with vast chunks of flesh falling from Scion as Victoria starts to actually punch him. They appear to be pieces of golden flesh and organs, replicated over and over again, streaming like blood from where she punches.

"Scream when I sting you." The voice of Annie buzzes. Certainly an effective signal. You decide to trust the voice, and wait. A moment later, with Victoria holding Scion in place, you feel the sting, and scream.

You don't actually understand the scream. In truth, it seems to be your primary power. Everything else pales in comparison. You're a bad tinker, a minor thinker, a low mid range striker, and sometimes a moderate brute. All of that is little more than claws and feathers and skin, things fitting in with the strange themes of what your scream does. The sonic power understands the human mind, and the mind of everything you have exposed it to except for Endbringers. Your many personalities, your genius, all comes from prying small bits and pieces from the idiot god. The scream bounces into the brain, decodes it, understands it, in less then a second, creating physical triggers and anticipating back doors in the structure of the brain to cause the worst experience possible. The mere trigger mechanism, the parts you can almost comprehend, gave you an entire area of science, made you able to fake conventional genius and tinker abilities in a dozen areas. The scream is the smartest thing anyone has encountered, the best able to think. Only a very small number of agents approach the intelligence of the power that you can trigger.

Scion seems to go catatonic as you scream. A moment later, the Behemoth and Chevalier combination, Lancelot, appears. Scion is in the modified kill range. You see the explosion of the strange flesh, a soup of gold, falling from Victoria's arms. Then the Leviathan and Shadow Stalker combination, Cachalot, arrives, holding a particularly strange looking ranged weapon, and begins to fire. Cachalot is positioned above Scion's head, held aloft by another strange device, while Lancelot stands below. You see vast lines of darkness falling from Cachalot into the flood of gold.

It takes minutes before you exhaust yourself. Around you everyone else is evacuated. It's just you, Victoria, and the two partial Endbringers, with Eidolon holding a shadow of some kind nearby,

Really, bargain bin Endbringers? You can't actually imagine a more risky move that could possibly be done, and you have really tried. You spent a lot of time trying to think of something that might work better.

Finally, after what seems like forever, but is four minutes, your scream dies down in your throat.

Scion unleashes a flash of light, and Lancelot flees, using Dodge's portal technology. Cachalot moves, briefly, before doing the same. The flood of golden blood clears.

Scion is full of rage and fear. The fear is good, so very good. Scion is wounded. You see the head was severely damaged, somehow. He is regenerating head wounds visibly, now. There are multiple raw patches on his body, most of them small, which take visible moments to heal as Victoria fights again, striking harder than you could imagine. The two duel, and Scion looks more murderous than you had ever seen him. More capes flood in, Shielders and Narwhals, Eidolon clones, more Goddesses, keeping Scion distracted.

"Yangban member 36 is dead. No one else can recover you so quickly. I will tell you when you're supposed to fire again." The voice of Lady Bug, one of the worst things you ever did, whispers in your ear.

Then a thin beam lashes out, and for the first time in your memory you lose consciousness.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

End Interlude
_______________________________________________________________________________________

You look at Cranial's resting body. Hero sits beside you, turning from frantic typing to looking at his wife, pacing, trying to mourn and help at once.

"She might recover." You tell him. "She's a Case 53, most of her is in her agent."

"He cut off her brain, Amy. I'm not hopeful." The hero, Hero, said to be one of the nicest capes to ever really fight, snaps. You can't even imagine what it would be like to look at a lobotomized Victoria.

"Scion is getting crueler." Annie says over her bugs. After Cranial's attack, he conducted fourteen lobotomies, removed all of the limbs and performed minor healing on another eight, and crushed every Goddess clone he could catch against Glory Girl's force field. We believe Vicky is only alive because he likes to crush people against her."

"Jesus." You whisper, and watch the next victim be taken in.

"Jesus, hear me. Help us!" Hero shouts. "Please, please help us."

"Have we figured out why he isn't canceling the force field?" You ask Annie, feeling a bit dead inside, imaging Victoria being forced to feel people be crushed against her, knowing if she dropped her force field, she would die. One of the worst things you could imagine for her, having to make the choice to let someone die again and again. Goddess even looks a bit like her, you think.

"Kitsune doesn't think he can, citing Glaistig Uaine's rant. Most people think he wants her to suffer for exposing the Cranial scream, a lot." Annie says. "Oh, he's here. I did just upload. Bring me back as me, please."

"Wait, what?" You ask the swarm.

"He's crushing me into Vicky's her force field, inch by inch. She's sobbing hysterically, trying to be comforting. Please, I like who I am. It's really nice, Amy. Tell your Aunt Vicky I'm glad I got the chance to really know her. The screams of pain over here, just-" It's cut off in buzzing.

Sophie screams suddenly, howling. "You gave her to me, a fucking sister, someone for me to love. That was the best thing you ever fucking did, fucked up as it was! Now she's fucking..." Sophia Hess stomps her foot into the ground.

Command and control, communications, are down. Naturally, that is nowhere near the worst thing about the Scion rampage.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

You sit with Hero, working on the bio-tech constructs to be outfitted with his weapons. Cheap, easy, a delaying tactic.

The heroes are dying, very quickly.

"It's good, you know." Hero says suddenly. "He's stopped attacking anyone but us. He's focusing all his anger on us. If anything works, we saved a lot of the world."

"He is crushing people face first into someone I love, just so she can feel them die, and has been for half an hour." You say.

"Would she actually feel better if he was burning down cities instead? We're heroes. The word is about the strong sacrificing themselves for the weak, Panacea."

"Haven't we done enough?" You ask him.

"I died, and it wasn't enough. My wife might never come back to me, and I'm still hoping to buy people just a bit of time." Hero says. In Dispatch bubbles, you might spend hours of work to give seconds of time in a fight with Scion. "Do you want to stop?"

"No." You smile sadly. "That was never really an option."
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Victoria doesn't even talk when she arrives, her shield spent. She's fought for hours, and Scion had not hurt her, physically. Instead, he just killed people in the most intimate and horrifying manner he could, hoping to break her.

"He'll do it to you." Victoria whispers. "He said he would. He's just waiting.

"What do you want to do?" You ask her.

"Sleep." She whispers. "Knock me out, please." You do it. Sophie carries her to a cot.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Within 20 minutes, we will no longer have the power to occupy Scion." Accord declares. The current command council, what's left of the major players, half of them actively working on something, has convened.

"What are the options?" Saint asks, looking exhausted, dead inside.

"I believe there are three, at the moment." Accord says. "We have learned quite a bit about Scion from the recent battles, and ran it all through thinkers."

"That is comforting." The Queen of Diamond scoffs. "It's not like a Thinker would ever be wrong about something. They're all so smart." Accord and Kitsune glare at her.

"The fact is, every option is terrible, which is why we haven't used them yet, but Scion's going to win if we don't." Kitsune says. "One option is destroying the planet. A tinker made something that self replicates, some seriously messed up tech, a bomb of glass that turns everything it touches into glass ridiculously rapidly. We use a Shadow Stalker and Eidolon power combo to throw it into the well, like we did with the time bombs. The time bombs can only boil a city sized chunk out of the continent sized monster, but this would replicate into the whole thing, and we have a few other things which will prevent him from countering it. The problem is, it will replicate uncontrollably into whatever world he is in, which will be our world. We won't be able to evacuate everyone, or even most people."

"We're not fucking killing everyone." The Queen of Diamonds says. "Not voting for that, give me another option."

"Panacea bolts someone into what's left of Scion's counterpart's corpse. Lady Bug and Best Girl chewed up a ridiculous amount, but there's a lot of corpse. It's kind of alive, and we think Best Girl and Panacea, working together, could make a pseudo-entity. It could probably fight Scion for a long time, long enough to wear him down and force him to give up. The issue is, well, it could give us a new, insane, living entity, probably will do that, though it wouldn't be quite as bad as Scion it could still be bad. Also, it might not work at all." Kitsune says.

"Better, but still fucking terrible. Give me option three." You are barely paying attention, healing another person Scion had decided to phase a living child into.

"Option three, we have someone who might be able to talk him down." Kitsune pauses. "Um, we're kind of sure she can."

"Perfect!" The Queen of Diamonds shouts. "We do that? Why wouldn't we?"

"She's crazy, evil, and resistant to pretty much anything any of us can think of to control her." Kitsune's fox faced grin shines. "The name is Emma Barnes. She can probably control Scion, by becoming really like Eden, disturbingly like Eden. If she'll use that control for anything good, that I'm less sure about." Ah, so that's what her Cauldron vial did.

"I kind of like option two myself." Accord offers. "Neat, efficient, gives us time to try the others."

"Well, there's also that only a handful of people even might survive it." Kitsune says. "Very few are available. You either need an agent with a nice piece of an entity nervous system, which is basically Skitter or Eidolon, or someone who has an agent that really fucks with agents, like Butcher or Glory Girl." You look up. "What?"

"Now she pays attention. The force field works by commanding other shards to take the hit, which is why it's so perfect and Scion can't really fuck with it. It's a parasite. It's basically either draw lose Eidolon, which we've ruled out, make the psychopath serial killer who can't be killed do it, put in my best friend, or put in your sister."

"Fuck. You." You glare at her.

"I would much rather trust Glory Girl with such power than the unmodified Lady Bug." Accord says calmly. "Though I admit it's not that one sided. I'm surprised there aren't more options.

"There were, yesterday." Kitsune laughs harshly. "I think we could have used Jack Slash or Contessa, too."

[X] "I'm voting for the new Entity plan." You shudder. Write in: Who do you use?

[X] "Let's just use the weapon to kill him. It feels like the best option. It's just one world, right?" You feel sickened.

[X] "Let's talk to Emma Barnes." Traitor to her friends, sadist, and apparently channeling Scion's mate, whatever that means. Still, better than choosing between Victoria and the world.

Collapsed

[X] "Let's talk to Emma Barnes." Traitor to her friends, sadist, and apparently channeling Scion's mate, whatever that means. Still, better than choosing between Victoria and the world.
-[X] Bring Sophie, and Madison, and Skitter too

Portland has not been directly hit. Everything west of the Rocky Mountains suffered the worst earthquake ever, tidal waves hit most coastal cities, and the Gulf Coast was the sight of one of Scion's more violent temper tantrums in the fight, but for now Portland, Maine is safe. This is unlikely to last.

"It's good to see you, Emma. It's been a while." You tell your brief, fair weather friend. You meet in a coffee shop. Sophie and Madison and Taylor sit around the table. It's a five pointed star, a pentagram. You were never a witch, as much as you liked the idea of a love spell, but you don't quite like the symbolism.

"It has. So, you're getting married?" Emma smiles calmly.

"If we all survive." You nod.

"The plagues haven't stopped." Emma remarks and sips her coffee. "People are getting sick again, now that Scion's stopped healing people. No one can really help much, unless they're one of the really lucky ones." Madison looks at her calmly.

"You're not sick."

"Perks of my power. I can channel someone healthy, and it flushes out in minutes. Kind of like Scion's defense, actually, though mine is heavily damaged. I remember that Scion has roughly 26,881,720 grams of matter in his well for every cell in his natural body. I received a damaged version of the shard that would have reinforced his mate's body. He has 110,000,000 million cells in his well for every one in his body. To wear him down, truly wear him down, you would need to destroy him much more than a hundred million times."

"Sounds fair." Sophie shrugs. "We can do that, right?"

"It would take three years to count to 100 million. You have not removed a body mass of flesh, once a second on average, in the entire fight, excepting the small handful of highly effective attacks that managed to penetrate his well, which carved out a few city sized pot marks of flesh. He is hunting the ones who can hit the well, and the ones who can make such attacks, now. Has been for hours, according to your little sister. Ordinary attacks do not penetrate far, the pressure of the replacements, a wave of them, keeps most from striking deeper. His durability is amazing. the few who can, Siberian, Glory Girl, Lancelot, Eidolon, Phantasos, have done 90% of the damage. The streams of flesh that Eidolon was able to unleash by messing with the portals increased the effectiveness of attacks, but not by enough. He has managed to kill a clone of every single maor fighter except Goddess, and that is because she ran from any fight she couldn't win."

"So, we lose?" Madison asks.

"At this rate, yes. All of your attacks, if turned in proportion against a human body, you literally would not feel it. His own attacks cost energy, perhaps 80 of the thousands of years of energy in his lifespan have been expended, though that is a terribly rough estimate. You would need to fight like this for months to ensure a kill, and the attrition rate is not sustainable. The alternatives are not worth contemplating, not for Amy." Emma turns to you and smiles.

"What exactly is your power?" You ask.

"My shard, or agent as you would call it, scans through time and space to find someone. Then, it turns my body into the person. I don't steal the shard, get the powers, but everything else is mine. My own mind is safe in my shard, keeps control, but I can fake being anyone perfectly. Every memory, appearance, mannerism, physical feature, all I need is identifying traits and I can search." Emma raises her gloves, gray flesh of a human leather. "Cauldron gave me everything they could for the Thinker entity, Eden. I had already managed Scion, just out of curiosity."

"That is powerful." You admit.

"One of the best, I believe. Thinker, Stranger, Changer. I am broken. Jabberjay, a creature who can go into your midst and steal your secrets, repeating everything you have ever said."

"You did like The Hunger Games Taylor whispers. "I remember, seeing you carrying it, when you were talking to Sophia and Madison." Emma smiles.

"The weak are meat, the strong do eat." Emma recites. "She was a predator."

"I think you completely misread that book." Madison says. "Like, got it backwards."

"We don't have long, Emma. Can we stop playing around? He is killing people." Emma smiles, sips her coffee lazily, and then throws the cup at you. You howl in shock and outrage.

"One of the most powerful people in the world has come to me, begging me to save it. I can savor it, can't I? You can't piss me off. You have to take it."

"It's your world too, Emma." Sophie says. "Please, this is risky and crazy. Just help us. What would you even do in a post apocalyptic wasteland?"

"Eat." Emma laughs. "Metaphorically, though perhaps literally. I have channeled the strangest people. I could survive the transformation. I think I might even enjoy it. Things would be pure, simple." This must be what the Doctor felt like, speaking to you.

"Anything." You say. "Tell me what you want. You'll get anything for saving the world. There are worlds that are untouched, a lot of them, that we can reach. Cauldron told me about them. Worlds beyond Earth Aleph. There's a world where parahumans control society and the economy, where Goddess lives. There are worlds we can reach, at least hundreds." Emma laughs.

"Far more than hundreds. Fewer than billions, a lot fewer, that Scion didn't wall off and have a worthwhile civilization, but to spend a moment watching the sunrise on each one would take more than a lifetime. The bribery you can engage in is awe inspiring." Emma turns to Sophie, lazily. She is the most powerful person in the world, the only one who might stop Scion without incomprehensible loss.

"Please, anything." Sophie whispers.

"Taylor, kiss her." Emma says. Taylor looks up, and can't hide her hate. "Sophie, mean it. Cheat on someone you decided was better than me, someone who made you her bitch and made you love it. Taylor, kiss someone you hate, someone who tried to kill you, someone who loves your torturer and abuser." You can't watch, turning away.

"Why?" Madison asks. She sounds more scared than ever before.

"To prove it." Emma sighs. "I need to know I can get a faction to give me anything I want. Anything at all. What's the point, if there's limits, if there's someone above me? I'd always have to fear Trick or Treat or Contessa. I have been afraid for a long time. I want to stop being afraid. You need to fear me and my new boyfriend more than anything else, and you need to prove it."

"You know we were wrong, right?" Sophie asks. She sounds miserable. "I was wrong."

"No, super hero." Emma pats her hand. "You were right."

"You're crazy." Madison whispers. "Completely crazy."

"She's scared." Taylor corrects. "She's scared she's too valuable, now. That everyone in the world will try to control her because of what she can do."

"The worm is right." Emma says. "I need you to know I'm crazy. You need to know that if you fail to take control, guess wrong, I actually will get Scion to go bad, go worse. You've been raping people for so long, Amy. Mind control's become a way of life. Maybe it will work, but with my shard, maybe it won't. Trick and Truth, Cranial and Panacea, Last Witch and Soulfire, Trigger. I think you could take me, if you try. I am a survivor, and I'm going to survive this."

"Please." You whisper. "Just hurry up, before he kills anyone else."

"Very well." Emma Barnes, Jabberjay, grins. "One eye, the nose, the mouth, or both ears."

"What?" You choke.

"Which one will you fuck up on Victoria." Emma answers. "Never to heal it, ever. Anything. I definitely heard those words. Prove you're more scared of Scion, of what I can do, than anything else. Break your incestuous lover's precious flesh."

"What. Is. Wrong. With. You?" Madison asks.

"I've spent all the time since I got my powers in every head you can think of. Alexandria, Eidolon, Doctor Mother, Contessa, Florida Man, the president, Scion, Jack Slash, Eden, Panacea, Shadow Stalker. I thought it would make me less scared, knowing everything. Instead, I learned just how fucked we are. I know the plan, the real plan. Betray the world to get Scion to attack sooner, just to increase the odds of winning before the magic bullet chokes on a fish. Cut the world up into kingdoms where supervillains and broken heroes put heads on pikes. Kidnap the dying and stuff them into zoos and force feed them poison, killing or crippling them to try and get something that works. I saw everything, Madison, my friend. The world is run by fear, by terror. Our world was grabbed by monsters from the stars, and they were afraid, terrified of the end of the universe, and so they broke us over their knee to try to learn how to survive the end of time. Even the strongest things to ever live can die as pathetically as Taylor's Mom. If I'm not the scariest bitch queen the universe ever saw, they'll carve me up and feed me to each other. We are all meat." Emma turns to you, and you're crying. "What is your answer?"

[X] One eye

[X] The nose

[X] The mouth

[X] Both ears

[X] "I do and have done everything for Victoria, Emma. Compared to her, you're just a backup. Perhaps you wouldn't be if you hadn't left to another city and were still a friend. And there are other options and you know there are if you have copied my memories. I'd rather sacrifice whole word than hurt Victoria like that."
-[X] Take your party and leave her sitting there.
-[X] Have Candle of Invocation Eidolon copy her.

Suddenly, like a flash, Sophie punches Emma in the face.

"We have a backup plan, right?" She asks.

"Sure we do, love." You smile at her.

"I've been inside their heads." Emma says. "Believe it or not, I care more about you than they do."

"I don't believe it." Madison says. "Sophie always loved you way more." She sighs, and departs.

"Taylor, you coming?" Sophie asks. There's a pause.

"Get out of my sight." Taylor whispers. There's venom to it. "You're playing games, all of you, with the fucking world at stake. Why can't you all just..."

"Door me." You say, and you leave her sputtering her justifications.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

"We do have a backup plan, right?" Madison asks.

"It's, um, only 20% more likely to end horribly." You mutter.

"Sounds good." Sophie says. "She'd just have wanted to cook Claire on a barbeque anyway. We can't let her get that kind of power. She looks angry, hurting. Sophie's yours, now. She's your responsibility, even if she's not the love of your life. She doesn't have much else, and she loves you.

With all that Victoria's given, you need to pay everything forward. You have gotten everything because Victoria took a stranger into her heart and home. You couldn't let Sophie suffer without that.

"Thank you." You tell Sophie. "I'll never leave you like she did."

"You'd better not." Sophie mutters. You'll take that as a compliment.

"We should never have let Taylor back alive." Madison says thoughtfully. "Annie's superior in every way."

"Cranial wanted it." You tell her. "She said, if she died, we needed to make sure she was still, well..." You really don't want to admit Cranial did something stupid right now.

"She's a traitor, truce breaker, murderer, criminal, supervillain, and worked with worse." Sophie mutters. "Have you read the Undersider rap sheets?"

"I did." Madison says sadly. "So, the plan?"

"If Emma proved too craycray, we use someone who copies powers. Currently, there's one fighting Scion. We're getting a message through." You walk into the conference room in Nevada that's serving as the current HQ of everyone who doesn't want the world to end. There are very few people standing there now. Everyone has things to do.

Doctor Mother sits down, looking exhausted.

"So, she's really that crazy?" She asks.

"She thought asking me to cut up Victoria's face was a good baseline price. She was terrified of everyone. Maybe it's just selfish, but I'm not entirely sure she wouldn't order Scion to kill every parahuman just to feel a bit safer." You say. It's nice, thinking there's a legitimate reason to say no. "Go with that Eidolon clone."

The message is sent." Doctor Mother answers.

You wait. Nerves pile up. On a screen, you watch a fight. Fifteen members of the Yangban, all of the Myrddin clones, none of which have died, two Eidolons, three Gavels, Florida Man, Alexandria...

"Is that all." you gasp.

"Everyone who is still fighting." Doctor Mother answers. "A few are holding back, a lot are too tired to go on. The way he's been fighting the last few hours, I don't really know how many can fight, even the healthy ones." You grind your teeth. "Victoria couldn't."

"I knocked her out." You growl.

"Oh, of course." The Doctor looks at the screen. Suddenly, someone new enters the field. Incredible variety, explosion after explosion, effect after effect.

"Who's that?" Madison asks in wonder.

"That would be Oni Lee, in Two's effect field of course, with Bakuda's armaments." Doctor Mother explains. "He is buying time."

"For what?" Sophie asks.

A bubble of slowed time fills the screen, and one of the Eidolons disappears. For a few seconds, Scion is held back by Oni Lee, hitting terribly hard, and then the bubble bursts.

The gray woman that stands before the gathered heroes and villains is beautiful and rigid the same way Scion is. Her skin is gray. The two look at each other. Then, using some power, or combination of powers, she looks Doctor Mother in the eye.

"You lose." She mouths.

Glaistig Uaine falls out of the sky. The clones of the Keeper of the Dead, and their many ghosts, charge at Scion. He moves to defend his mate. The ghosts begin dropping like flies. Glaistig Uaine had rejoined the fight, but why? She seems determined to get to the Eden Eidolon. Scion is equally determined not to let that happen. The remaining defenders move back, let the ghosts and the traitors die to hold him back. The Eden Eidolon is speaking through it. You sigh, recognizing some of the ghosts. Dispatch, Gavel, Nilbog, Marquis, wait, Sleeper?

Then, Scion is holding Glaistig Uaine with his fist. You see the most savage smile on Scion's lips, and she dies.

The Eden Eidolon touches her corpse. Wasn't she copying Glaistig Uaine's powers?

Scion keeps talking to her. You catch a look of wonder, joy radiating from Scion. Is this the end?

Scion and his new partner's fingers touch, and she says something you don't hear. The two vanish.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

"What is going on?" Kitsune asks over some electronic method. Might even have been a normal speaker phone.

"We went with a fourth option." You say. "No handing the world over to a sadist, no butchering an innocent girl to save the world, no blowing up one world to save many. We used the Eidolon who could copy power sets."

The room is completely silent.

"You gave the woman with no volition, no drive, the memories of one of the most dangerous people who ever lived?" Kitsune asks. "Why would she talk him down?"

"She's got..."

"Noelle mass produced the easiest force to control! The manipulator, the controller, is in her head."

"Why didn't that happen with Emma?" Madison asks.

"She's strong, got a lifetime of fear to beat back anyone else, a life of drives and passions. Noelle didn't copy over all of that. Her clones are flawed. Sometimes in body, sometimes in mind, always in spirit. Clash of wills or something, I'd put the broken fucked up cunt over a cheap knockoff of Eidolon any day of the week." Kitsune mutters.

"Okay, we need a plan, now!" Madison shouts. Everyone looks at her. "I am not going to have Taylor Hebert beat me." Madison declares, fire in her eyes. "She is not going to prove us wrong. Think!"

"Dispatch, please." Doctor Mother says, and the accelerated time bubble hits.

"None of us are thinkers." Sophie says softly. You take her hand and hold on tight. "We're not even Victoria."

"Being a thinker doesn't mean you're smart. If it did, then Scion would have broken the agent further." The Doctor says quickly. "Now, girls, think. What is the plan?"

"So, we basically have Eden, the big bad thinker entity, back. Scion's not any weaker, and won't listen to Emma anymore, right?" Madison says. She looks thoughtful. "So, it's down to the magic bullet or bolting Victoria to Eden's corpse."

"No." Sophie also looks thoughtful. "Now he has something to lose. He went from grief to fear. He loves Eden. He didn't have a weak point before, now he does."

"Before, he was just killing time pulling wings off flies, but now he has something to live for. They'll probably try to restart the original plan, right?" Madison says.

"Where did you two learn all of this stuff?" Doctor Mother asks.

"Annie thought we should know. She loves us." Madison explains. "And we didn't really have much else to do, especially me."

"We really should have gotten a more reliable communication system." Doctor Mother looks annoyed. "So, we tempt them with a restarted cycle? That does leave the issue of the world being destroyed in three hundred years, along with a progression of horrors starting with world wars, ending with parahumans stretching across all the worlds that could exist and bringing their war to them, and culminating with them ripping our shards from the saturated worlds, slaying us all."

"We could trick them." You suggest. "Lie to them."

"Eden will have 30 power sets, biased towards where Scion is weakest. She will be Dinah and Kitsune, Accord and Alexandria. The Two ghost will be active."

"We kill the Two ghost." Madison suggests. "We continue the battle until that's destroyed, then call for a peace treaty."

"Do we really trust ourselves to lie well enough to get a better fate?" You ask.

"There's someone I trust to enough to charm them." Sophie laughs. "Someone who can make everyone believe her nose is more valuable than the world."

"Glaistig Uaine knew of her." Doctor Mother says thoughtfully. "She called Glory Girl the villain of their story, and noted her social abilities. She could also battle with them physically, directly. If we could win by trickery, she is probably the one most likely to succeed."

"She could save us all." You smile at the thought. She couldn't feel inferior if that happened.

"Okay, we have a plan." Madison claps her hands together. "Also, I'll be there to shoot her if it doesn't work. That way, he'll need Emma again."

"Why would she still help us?" Sophie asks. "Like, we told her to fuck off."

"She did." Madison bobs her head. "If we come crawling back to her with Victoria's eye on a platter she'll definitely keep Scion busy for a while. Then, if she gets too nasty, we use the magic bullet thingy, and they're both swallowed up.

The fact that you end up going with a plan devised by someone who dropped out of high school may be a bad sign.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Eidolon destroys the ghost of Two with little fanfare without even being told. There's another burst of time distortion, and the combination of Jabberjay, Glaistig Uaine, and Eidolon, using ghosts of Glaistig Uaine, Eidolon, and someone you don't recognize is on screen. Doctor Mother and Kitsune send the orders to retreat.

You and your Dispatch head to Victoria.

"Hello, Amy." She says when you wake her up, refreshing her. "How badly did we lose?"

"Um, worst case scenario, we only have to destroy one planet." You try to grin, and explain. Victoria looks grave.

"They're evil, right?" She mutters.

"They're evil. Some of the worst people in the world, I think. Some of the worst people ever. You're a villain of their story." You touch her face. "That makes you a hero of ours."

"Do you ever get the feeling you've done this all before?" Victoria asks. "Reincarnation, that it's all one big cycle?"

"No." You say after a moment's thought. "I've never met anyone like you before. You weren't familiar, when we met. You were glorious and new and better than anything else. Better than my dad, really. He had to take me, you didn't."

"I love you more than life itself." Victoria kisses you, first on your forehead, then on the lips.

"I'd cut off my tits to see you smile." You pause. "I have hurt myself just to make you happy."

"You did." Victoria hugs you very closely. "If you want, I won't go with this plan." You look at her.

"What?"

"You'd give up the world for me. If you really, honestly would rather fire the magic bullet and turn the world to glass rather than have me risk something talking to the monsters, I'll do it. Or, if we're at the negotiating table, you want me to offer everything for us, I'll do that." Victoria shudders.

"You'd do that for me?" You feel something crashing inside you.

You're disappointed in her. She suddenly looks scared and confused and sullied. Something impure is there.

"God, I don't want to, but we've lost. Amy, we've lost this fight. This was Cauldron's war. Cauldron chewed you up and spit you out. They were never fighting to save anyone. They were using the entire world as pawns to sacrifice for this fight." Suddenly, you realize something. You press your hand to her forehead and examine the brain, stress signals.

"You're lying." Victoria pauses.

"What?" You're sure of it. You've been working long and hard at being a human lie detector.

"I can't stop you from trying to save the world." You whisper. "You're lying so I give you room." You hug her. "God, thank you." You cry into her shoulder.

"It's the world. You've seen me try to die for it, Ames." Victoria laughs. "I've risked my life for a lot less. I love you, but I want to be a superhero. I want to fight evil, do what's right, be true to myself." You look at your Idol.

"We're having a baby." You remind her.

"So are a lot of people. You think no one Scion's killed had babies?"

"You're a superhero. You're perfect. You're the best thing in the world." Victoria gives you her best smile.

"I know."

[X] "I'm sorry." You press your hand to her, and knock her out. Let the world burn. Victoria is not going to try to talk to Eden.

[X] "Save us." You press your lips to the love of your life, and hit her brain with everything you have. You have time, and Dispatch will be easy to control. You can make sure she'll fight tooth and nail to give you and Victoria your happy ending, damn the world.

[X] "I would not love you half as much, if you did not love honor more." You bow to Victoria. "Try to save the world."

Victoria's eyes, clear blue green, show a blazing passion.

She loves you.

You've got a hunch, "She thinks she's Eden, but she's still Eidolon underneath that. Candle doesn't have his strengths, but she might still have his weaknesses. He always wanted, needed, a worthy opponent, and now Candle has one in Scion. Use that, turn her against him."

"Good idea." Victoria kisses you harder than you kissed her.

It is a long time before you're ready to leave.

Victoria floats and looks at the edge of the bubble. Only a small light illuminates the scene.

She turns to Dispatch.

"Thank you." She says solemnly. "I can't think of anyone else who has done more to save the world." Dispatch looks at her, then laughs.

"What the Hell, it's the end of the world. You bitches are crazy." Victoria grins at him.

"Hell yes, we are. Amy, marry Dispatch if I die." She orders. You frown. "That is, literally, my last request, if we don't talk again."

"Um, Victoria..." You stammer. "We barely talk."

"You two, get to know each other. Now. It is, literally, the end of the world. Can't be picky about your backups if most people are dead. Marry Emergency Backup Victoria, and it will suck. Marry someone new, and have a really different life."

"Victoria, I can't do that." You whisper, unsure how to take it.

"Well, you're doing it if I die. You can't do it. Hence, I'm not going to die." Victoria laughs. "Dispatch, let us out." The bubble collapses and Victoria is off, the white and gold comet you love.

"She does realize she's heading in the wrong direction, right?" Dispatch asks.

"Probably not." You look at him. "Um, you know, I've been a complete and utter asshole to you. You've really, um, signed up for having a job of giving me more hours in the day." Dispatch pauses and smiles. "My job has become watching eighteen year old lesbians. Eidolon was a fucking terrible boss, and wrangling the rejects they sent to Houston, it made the Shepherds look sane."

"I think you'll be Claire's godfather now." You tell him. "For efficiency, if nothing else." He smiles.

"She'll need some father figure in her life. By efficiency I guess that's me." Dispatch is silent for a moment. "I'm going to end up lactating to feed her, aren't I?"

"Without a doubt." You smile at the hero. "Any regrets?"

"I never punched David in the face." Dispatch answers. "I wanted to do that since I was fourteen and the Protectorate practically married us because my powers were so good for him."

"I'll see if I can arrange that, Dispatch." You tell him with a smile.

"God I hated Houston. Damn place gave me sunburn every fucking day. I had to stand and look dangerous with that small overpowered asshole for eight fucking years." Dispatch growls.

"Eight years." You think of being stuck in the hospital for that long. "We really need to pay you more, now."

"Live in servant with a Protectorate paycheck isn't that bad." Dispatch smiles. "But yes, more money would be good." You pause.

"Think we'll have a Protectorate after this?" The two of you suddenly realize communications are messed up enough it would be better to go back to the command room. Dispatch picks you up and begins a set of accelerated hops down the hall, warping time just a bit, not enough to cut out the universe. It is easier this way. It still gives you time to talk.

"Hm, last I heard we lost the Gulf and West Coasts. Something of the US survives, or we'll migrate to Aleph or something if there's not enough left. The Protectorate organization will probably change itself a bit if we have anyone left who is powerful and interested in it. If we have Eidolon or Alexandria we'll still have one. Honestly, if we have you we'll still have a Protectorate."

"I'm not a member of the Protectorate." You point out.

"You just give them all the free stuff you can think of, including more members of the Protectorate." Dispatch laughs. "Okay, let's assume Eidolon, Alexandria, Dragon, and every Armsmaster dies while Myrddin goes rogue because he's crazy. What do you think people like Florida Man or Rime would do? We'd go to whoever is left, strong, and could reasonably be argued to hold stuff together. That's the Shepherds, or basically you and Glory Girl. You'd just inherit a bunch of capes and make a slightly different organization with most of the same leaders. We'll be fine. We don't actually have any reason not to stay together. It's not like half of us think we should enslave normals and half of us don't. We're mostly public servants. We'll serve the public, just by working with the new boss. If we wanted to be warlords we'd be supervillains. As long as you're still around, we'll be the scariest army around. Even if half the villains and one in ten heroes survive, if you're alive then the heroes have a pretty damn big advantage."

"I am kind of important." You agree.

Dispatch ends his time warp as you enter the command and control room. Doctor Mother talks with Kitsune on the speaker phone, with Victoria nowhere to be seen. Sophie sits like a cat, looking tired, with Madison scratching the back of her head.

"So, what are the chances?" You ask when there's a lull in the conversation.

"Victoria's talking to them now. Ah, and now they're in a Dispatch bubble. You know, in a hundred years dispatch will probably be a word for time manipulation. God I have a headache and Scion blasted Teacher."

"Teacher's dead?" You start trembling.

"Oh, get over it. Once whatever he did to your head fades you won't like him anymore." Kitsune snaps.

Everyone is silent for a moment.

"Why are you such a bitch?" Madison asks the speakerphone. There's a moment of silence.

"You're one to talk." The former Tattletale says. Somehow though, she seems really hurt by it.

"Okay, that's it. You two are going out on a date. Sarah, Madison, you're dating now." There's a stunned silence.

"Did you go insane?" The Doctor asks.

"Victoria said if she died, I'm marrying Dispatch. Yes I am now officially nuts. Whatever I need to do to your head, Sarah, I'm doing it to make my ex fuckable to you. Madison, she's so valuable they thought asking me to mindfuck her was the smartest choice, and she's a bitch, she's perfect for you." Sophie smiles lazily.

"Yeah, they'd make a cute couple." Dispatch nods. "Lesbians for everyone."

"I could make you a lesbian." You offer. "If you're feeling left out."

"Why the fuck not?" Dispatch laughs. "I like Katie."

"Wait." Sophie says. "She wants you to marry Dispatch over me?"

"I marry Dispatch if she dies, I'm not marrying Dispatch, so she's not dying." You explain. "Sense, it is made."

"Damn it." Sophie growls. "I'm dying a virgin, aren't I?"

"That probably applies, yeah." You go over and scratch the back of her head, and lazily mold her ears into cat like shapes. "Not sure how much Victoria really wants to share. She might knock you up anyway."

"Huh, can I have a pair like that?" Doctor Mother asks. Everyone stares.

"Why?" You ask.

"We've decided to go insane, as the world ends. Why not join it?"

Then Scion appears, holding Victoria's force field and throat. She struggles, rapidly.

<She's dead.> Victoria transmits.

Time for celebration?

Scion plows across the room, and pins you to the wall with Victoria. Your taller sister covers you completely.

Then, Scion unleashes the blast. The sphere moves outward slowly, and everyone runs. Victoria holds her force field firm, but she can't have charged for long. You and the wall are protected. You can't see anything outside of that.

<He be pissed?> You transmit to Victoria's suit.

<He be weaker.> Victoria transmits. <He didn't give up energy, he gave her shards. Before they fought, he reinforced her, gave her power. He didn't get those shards back.>

<So, how do we get out of this?> You ask.

Then you scream, wild and uncontrolled, as the horror really hits you. When Victoria's shield goes down, you'll be vaporized. She can't have charged it for long.

And Scion is pushing you into the rock, crushing you. If the shield doesn't go down, you'll be...

Victoria is pressed against you in the harshest of embraces. Scion had done it again and again, a taunt, a way to hurt. All he has to do is keep pushing forward. He could just splatter you at any time.

Victoria's tears fall on your hair.

<Don't do it.> A signal you don't recognize tells you in your suit. <When you think of it, you shouldn't do it.>

What?

You can't hear what Victoria is trying to say Something about the pressure and the noise of the destruction is warping her words, and you can barely think.

Then it clicks. You can use your powers on Victoria, wrap her around you like a shroud, change her body into a suit of armor, her force field still present. It would stop the crushing. The force field would go out, but Scion couldn't crush you to death.

Why shouldn't you do it? You ask your suit, but there's no answer. Was the sender of the message killed, forced to ruin, some nasty precog who is fucking with all of this?

Does it matter?

[X] Wrap Victoria around you as a cloak, a ball, a shell, keeping her brain and memories safe. It will keep you alive.

[X] It won't work for long, will it? The sender of the message had to be using some weird thinker powered move. Or it was Scion, or something the new Eden had prepared.

[X] You feel Scion's fingers around Victoria's throat. He hasn't sent his blasts from them. You could part your suit. It can't possibly work, taking control of his biology. That might be a much worse idea than wrapping Victoria around you as a shield.

WyldCard4 · Apr 21, 2014

[X] You feel Scion's fingers around Victoria's throat. He hasn't sent his blasts from them. You could part your suit. It can't possibly work, taking control of his biology. That might be a much worse idea than wrapping Victoria around you as a shield.

Phantasos did it, you remember. His powers could only kill the living flesh.

Scion could only win, unless he chose to do something stupid. But he is crazy, full of grief. You extend your power into him. His body is terribly, bizarrely human.

You tell it to go to sleep, and he does. You keep touching him, reinforcing that, as he collapses. You don't let it break for a second, as you feel his healing. Victoria looks at you with a sense of wonder and relief.

There's a long pause as you look around the empty, destroyed room. The floor is gone. Victoria carries you down several stories to a hard stone ground. You sit there in the dirt, keeping your hands on Scion.

"So, that worked." Victoria mutters, disbelieving. "Fuck. Just, fuck."

"He deviated." A voice you don't recognize says from behind you. "He could see the paths to victory and avoid the ones that led to his destruction. He chose death, chose to hurt Victoria the most." Victoria is looking scared.

"He failed." You laugh. "We just won."

"No, we didn't." Victoria's voice cracks. "You can't let go. The moment you do, he'll recover."

"So we kill him." You frown. "We have ways. It has to be much easier, now."

"No one can kill him." The strange voice says. "Can't be done. If Victoria had her second trigger event, she would have gained the power to destroy him. Now, Flechette is dead and no one can use the Brain Box to restore her with Cranial in a coma. The magic bullet of the glass bomb would consume you before you left." You chuckle.

"So what, I die here?" You say. This feels ridiculous. Scion is down. There have to be ways to get around this. Doormaker, Shadow Stalker, Siberian.

"Is Sophie okay?" Victoria asks suddenly. "Madison, the Doctor, Dispatch?"

"They're fine." The voice answers. "Mostly. Sophia is in critical condition in a suspended animation tank. Madison Secunda is severely injured, and Prima refuses to leave her side. The rest of them are alright."

"Who the fuck is this bullshiter?" You ask.

"The Morrígan." Victoria answers, and she sounds very tired.

"The Simurgh clone?" You sigh. "Yeah, that was always a bad idea."

"So, the plan was to get me to second trigger next to Scion, so I'd get a weapon that would kill him?" Victoria laughs and chokes. "Drive me even crazier for a win?"

"It would have been preferable to losing Amy through your death or her own." The voice says, smooth and annoying.

"So, I die?" You think for a moment. You've faced death before. Usually it's a hot, violent thing. Coil, Noelle, you've probably forgotten some of the times you could have actually died. This feels different.

"So, the plan is I hold him for as long as I can while we figure out something that could really fuck with him?" You sigh. "Or just give people time to run."

"That is the plan we have to move to, though the plan was for Victoria to second trigger. That is why you were instructed not to attempt to fix the situation." You sigh deeply.

"Nothing much can even hold him still. Boosted Victoria, I think some members of the Yangban, or was it the Thanda? I guess something that can shut him down for this long is a big win." It all seems to huge, and you feel so tired. Can you even use your powers if you sleep? You've never tried. Maybe Teacher could show you how, but Teacher and Cranial are dead, right? You can barely think.

"This feels like a really good time for a second trigger." Victoria moans. "Why did you have to bring up the idea?"

"You would have thought of it anyway." Morrígan tells you.

"So, what, that's it? Amy dies and there's nothing I can do about it? Tell me what to do!" Victoria shouts.

"We are thinking of having Best Girl work on Amy's brain and prepare a system to keep her active and holding Scion until a superior solution can be found." The Morrígan explains. "Worst case, keeping Scion in suspended animation indefinitely would be a victory."

"So I just waste away, watching her tomb for however long it takes for us to find a better idea?" Victoria asks. She sounds heartbroken.

"You could join the spare Panacea. She survived, and your duplicate did not. You will be strangers to each other, but she needs a sister, as would you." Victoria howls and the pain hits your heart.

"Give. Me. Another. Choice." Victoria hisses.

"I can formulate two." Morrígan answers. "Amy could remove your short term memory, and I could arrange a second trigger event from this material. It would wound you, Victoria. You would be wounded in ways you cannot imagine."

"She's my Amy. She's my sister, my fiance, my hero, my lover, the best thing that ever happened to me even if she's a rapist sadist who cheats on me." Victoria giggles madly. "Of course I'll go crazy for her."

"You aren't understanding how bad this would be. The trauma would be pressed into your essence, your very core. You suffer a lot. Each time cuts a piece out of you, but you can heal. This would be a wound you could never heal. Your mission in life is being a hero, saving the world, and keeping Amy sane. You will not make Amy sane. Your worst self will be exposed, Victoria. Imagine your worst day, the cruelest you can be, the stupidest, and imagine that every day, a march of years. You would hurt Amy, and make her a monster. You would be Queens Regent and Consort of a realm, and that realm would be terrible. Amy is a mad woman. Imagine if she had nothing to hold her back, imagine if she seemed sane to you. The city you would build, the force that might inherit the Earth, the Natural Order of Man, would be a nightmare. I promise it would."

"You're insulting my future wife." Victoria hisses. "Besides, Narwhal's not nuts. The fox faced cunt wouldn't be if Amy didn't fuck her up."

"Oh, it is not the madness it is the problem. It is that Amy loves you, respects you, trusts you. It is your aura and your passion of being her sister and mother and lover. You will be mad, and listen only to mad people. Can you truly imagine anything good coming from two powers so great feeding on each other?"

"I don't want to hurt you." You tell Victoria, shifting the conversation. "I can't do something that fucking bad to you." Victoria laughs. "Hold on tight."

"What?" You ask, and Victoria lifts your remaining hand to her face, and breaks your little finger.

"OW!" You shriek. You're lucky to keep a hold on Scion, who you have exposed legs wrapped around for the sake of comfort. Actually, you aren't. The genius precog would have stopped it if it was a risk.

"Amy, Amy, Amy. I have fucked you up more than I can imagine. I drove you to two trigger events, broke your hand, dislocated your hip, tormented you every time we touched for years. I can take it for you." Then Victoria kisses your finger to make it all better, and it works. The aura and Scion make it hard to really care about the pain.

"She does break your finger for effect." Baby Simurgh says. "Though considering this is before her second trigger, you might want to avoid increasing just how crazy she is.

"This is important, and she's had a rough day." You point out. "She did have people she knew crushed to death right in front of her. Almost including me." Victoria is good at sucking a broken little finger so it feels better. Your suit rushes to make sure you're not in pain already.

"The third option would be to get it over with." The Morrígan says. "If you want it, you could just have portals arrange the death of Scion using the glass weapon on an uninhabited world."

"Why would that be a good idea?" Victoria asks, tragically moving her mouth away from finger sucking.

"If Amy and Scion go into suspended animation, he could be broken out of it. The world will be at risk for as long as this lasts. Simply taking care of the situation now, for the price of a Panacea, would be efficient, if you take that into your calculus." Morrígan explains.

"Cunt has a point." Victoria mutters. "Not that I want you dead. I want you happy and cuddly and healthy." She kisses you.

"Then why'd you break the damn finger." You roll your eyes.

"As you said, hard day. I needed something to cheer me up." Victoria laughs. "Um, cut me some slack. I've almost died, like, ten times since the rampage started. Don't ask me to think too clearly." She licks your cheek for some reason.

"Besides the obvious 'fuck you cunt' is there anything else?" You ask the woman behind you.

"Once again, it comes down to choice. As it is your life, and you have given the world so much, including me and my brothers life, I give you this choice. Is it better to die to ensure the world's safety, rest and pray for a better tomorrow, or engage in a ruthless crime that ruins the person you love the most to save the world."

"Let me go crazy." Victoria whispers. "After all, I drive you crazy. Return the favor." Her breath is suggestive.

She's insane. You realize that with a horribly clarity. She is crazy right now, in no condition to make this choice. You probably shouldn't make it either.

Your best chance of an ending with Victoria is carving out a piece of her, impressing this state on her for the rest of her life. What could be crueler?

Well, breaking her down so completely, and then taking yourself away from her would give it a run for its money.

You want Cranial. You desperately miss your voice of reason. You miss Sophie Hess, your girlfriend, a bully and a bitch who needs you. You miss Madison, maybe the best friend you ever made.

You miss Carol. You need your mother.

"Do you want to talk to anyone?" You ask Victoria. She pauses.

"It's your decision." The words seem to break her. "Just, please don't bring in anyone for advice, okay? I'm your big sister. Just, I can't let someone else be your fucking top." It's a crazy answer, but it makes you feel warm inside.

"Do you want to decide?" You ask. Victoria is silent for a moment.

"You know my answer, but I can't order this. I can't force you to hurt me. It's your decision." Victoria looks grief stricken at giving up the power to decide.

If Victoria has a second trigger, will she ever willingly give up that kind of choice? You might live exactly like she wants. See who she wants, go to the bathroom when she wants, eat what she wants you to eat. The play is fun, but if it gets so serious...

"There's no words left for how much you are." You tell Victoria. "You're the romance that gave my life meaning."

"How does it end?" Victoria asks.

[X] "You kill Scion." You decide. You can be crazy together.

[X] "Let's hold out hope for a miracle." You tell her. Time to call Best Girl.

[X] "Get yourself a real girlfriend." You sigh. The world is more important than your happy ending. Time to arrange Scion's death, and your own.

[X] "Victoria... Touch Scion and kiss me... Call Sophie too but I don't think she'd want what I'm going to do, Bring me Annie as well if Sophia comes... Come with me... Love me... and trust me forever." Together with your lovers and the golden man of lore, you shift and change all into a single ball of flesh, melding all together around you into a council of minds and in so doing connect you three into a single nervous system and a single grand dream.

She touches Scion, and she kisses you.

It is a long time before Sophie comes, her sister who is not a sister moving behind her.

You had worked on Victoria and Scion for a long time by then, the nervous system, the brain.

He doesn't have the piece of the brain that connects to shards. That's the weirdest thing of the many weird things about him. Scion is not a parahuman. He's the opposite, no more a parahuman than one of Annie's bugs or Manton's Siberian. He's an extension of the agents.

He can't control them. There would be no purpose to Scion controlling his shards. Scion is his shards. This is merely a piece of Scion, a networked force to manipulate the cycle for the duration.

The body serves the purposes of interacting with humans and providing a focus point for manipulating the world. It is a hand. Well, she describes it as a tail blade, as their brains are connected at the time. Victoria doesn't seem to understand hands when she explains these things to you, reading Scion's memories.

Victoria's ramblings on blue grass and betrayal are more helpful than Annie's strange laughter, the endless rounds of giggling when she reads Scion's mind, feeling new memories and sensations. You eventually wipe Annie's short term memory, because she was going insane.

You're not sure Victoria didn't go crazier. She has a new fire in her eyes. There's something older about her, and no wiser.

It is Sophie who finally says it, as you make the bridge between her head and Scion's.

"This is crazy." She is resigned. "This can't work, Amy. If it could, we couldn't do it."

"Why won't it work?" You ask your girlfriend. You haven't slept or broken contact with Scion in four days by now. Best Girl and Dragon worked on your head while you kept contact to make sure you couldn't stop.

"He's a warrior, a fighter, a God. He's our God. You can only touch his fist."

"Tail blade." Victoria says smoothly from her head, connected to Scion's, connected to Sophie's. "It's a singularity, not a duality. The entities are pairs, not individuals. Ours were, at least. Eden and Scion weren't hands, they were extensions, shadows."

"His real self isn't in the body. You can't touch the shards, you can't touch his intelligence. One of his powers is snapping right back to what he was, with the memories stored in the shard.

"This will work." You tell her, patting your girlfriend. "We can control him."

"She got them to fight each other, manipulated emotions. We can't build a new person here, anymore than you could change the legs from changing the armpit. He's not here, Amy."

"We can reach him through here. I can control the whole body."

"You control biology. I've read on your powers. This is like, his cellphone or something. Or, um, dead flesh, his hair. You can't change his agents. The agents are bigger than us."

"So, you think I should just die?" You raise your voice against her, and Sophie looks horrified.

"No, Amy. Please don't die." Sophie reaches out and touches your face. "I can't lose you."

"Are the other plans working?" You ask Annie.

"Not a one." She answers. She hasn't been plugged into the gestalt since the earlier unpleasantness.

"Why not just do everything to glass Scion and keep you alive?" Sophie whispers. "Seems like a good plan to me."

"What if I fail?" You whisper. "What if I break the connection somehow and he escapes? Or we fuck up the procedure to defend me. Or..."

"We could fuck this up." Victoria reminds you.

"We won't." You kiss Victoria. You've kissed so often your lips are chapped and ugly the last four days. You have examined everything of Scion you can find. Shards, more shards than you can think of. Shards that press cells through, shards that fire energy, shards that let Scion step across worlds, the motion stopping shard, the flight shard. Each one matches a cape, a strong cape, optimized to grant a single power instead of several.

He kept the powers that would let him win, then shared them with the dead girl. He could still win. There's so few who can still fight him. If he could use his precognition, find a way around the magic bullets, he could destroy everyone still.

Now he could lose, but would he lose?

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Love wafts into his brain. Slowly, carefully, you copy the brightest parts of the minds of the people you love into Scion's brain.

With trepidation and Best Girl, you make a copy of a copy of your own.

He will remember being a little sister who loved her big sister more than anything else in the world, who loved and admired her, wanted to please them more than anything, was happy with them, wanted nothing more than to be a hero and save the world.

Annie was Cranial's magnum opus, though she never told you that. A lifetime of small wounds taken and rearranged, given context and purpose to keep a person's spirit and to make sure she could never hurt anyone. Catholicon and the Morrigan cannot revive Cranial, despite their best efforts, no one could understand what was happening to her, another cruel lash of Scion's. Annie provides the core, a good woman broken down to nothing and built up stronger than ever before.

She is the super-ego, the rules, the boundaries, the things a person wants to want. That is what Annie could be.

The ego is Sophie. You marvel at her Corona Pollentia, truly understanding it for the first time. She is a predator, like Scion, an old one, a hunter. No, her passenger, the agent, is a hunter. Sophia lived with it for years, and she became Sophie. Emma, you, and Victoria taught her to keep herself in check. Sophia Hess wanted to be better than she was, and that yearning was taken and given to Scion's brain.

"She loves us because she wanted to find something better to love." Victoria mutters late at night. "She loved Emma despite who she was, not because of it." Victoria's voice is distant, alien. She's slipping away, her mind lost in Scion's dreams, guiding your work.

"We're not worth her." You tell Victoria. "Are we truly that good?"

"No one deserves love." Victoria says. "It's a gift no one earns. Sophie's a very silly girl." Victoria played with your sleeping lover's hair. Her sleeping lover's hair, too. That feels suddenly, desperately wrong, and you choke it back.

"It made her a better person." You muse. "She hasn't stuffed someone into a locker of medical waste since we started dating."

Sophia Hess wanted to be more than she was, to not be a villain, so she hunted for monsters, and it took her years to realize she had merely hunted people. Perhaps it could be close enough to what you needed Scion to experience.

Victoria provided the id. Scion would be a sadist, that could not be helped, or should not be messed with. Victoria Dallon is a sadist. Victoria is the most loving person to truly want to hurt you. The highest lusts and needs you can imagine are Victoria's. She needs to be worshiped, she needs to be loved, but most of all she needs to love. Her pleasure is sparked in your pleasure and the rush of your pain and comfort. To build a trap for Scion you need to direct who he is. Something to alien would fail in a heartbeat, but Victoria's passions might fit. The worst Victoria could do would be to love worse than hate. To carve out your eyes so she could guide you, to break your legs so she could carry you, to tie you down and feed you the sweetest honey.

The instincts of a protector and a warrior. Someone who must be a mother, the mother and father of your child who would name her after you.

"Wasn't Freud a quack?" Annie asks curiously one day, on the sixth day. "I've been reading about him. Everyone says he was just wrong."

"I just need a language for it." You explain. "It's not like it exists, I just need a way to think about what I'm doing, how things relate to each other. I need to build something that Scion won't wish to resist, an internal trap so appealing that it won't ring false. He'll snap out of anything I do if there's anything inside him that says he should."

You scrape almost everything of Scion out of him. It is Eden, the love of his ancient life, that your own brain is responsible for. Scion has many memories, many loves, but Victoria is the love of your life, the love of every life.

The Liar will ring true as an object worthy of worship to Scion, a parasite worthy of respect, and so you wrap your life long, mad love into Scion's. Victoria is Eden, she is alive, and Eden is dead. Why break the love for Victoria on the memory of a dead woman?

Scion's head is full of love. A romance, a family, friends. Victoria is your mother and confident, sister and wife. The ceremony is brief, in this defended crater. The minister is a Unitarian Universalist, the most liberal and vague of all faiths, and the least offensive. Victoria deserves a pope, but Victoria cries at the idea of being turned down for what you are.

They should all burn for it.

It is a long, long time before you are finished. You detach them, one by one.

"How could a prison hold someone who could push it down with a thought?" David wonders. He is maskless, small, sad. Behemoth is walking through Canada, blasting wave after wave of radiation, and the plan was to move everyone out of the way.

The attack was far too early. Something was very, very wrong with the world. Of course, fighting God would cause that.

"Believe me, David. I couldn't push them down, when I had the chance." You stroke the golden woman's face. It is most like your own, to make it easier for Victoria to kiss. "Cranial offered it to me, I had every chance, but loving Victoria any less is the worst thing I could imagine." Eidolon looks at you sadly. "Whatever you're thinking, loving Victoria less would be the worst part of it." You answer. "I mean what I say, Gray Boy or Bonesaw or the Three Blasphemies included."

"I believe it." David says after a long look at you with some power you cannot guess at.

It is on the ninth day, the last, that Charles, Phantasos, comes to say goodbye to Victoria.

"So, you're my brother." Victoria looks him up and down. "You're handsome."

"I miss you, Victoria." Charles says. His mouth is dry.

"You're Amy." She answers. "I'm so sorry you had to. I feel sick about it." He sits down next to her and the creation, the monster, the Goddess.

"There's nothing you could do, not with that they knew." Charles is silent. "I'll never stop loving you."

"No one can." Victoria answers and kisses his forehead. "No one will."

"You're the person most worthy of love." Charles answers.

"If we can, if anyone can do it, work a clone of me for you. You have my complete and utter permission." Victoria answers. "I can't let an Amy go without a Victoria, even one who hates the person I love the most." Charles laughs.

"I was going to woo you." He smiles warmly.

"I am sad you didn't." Victoria answers. "Live well, Charles."

"Live well, my Glory Girl." The two kiss for a long time, and leave.

Dean comes next. You turn away as they talk. It is hours before he touches you and you look up.

"You win, Amy. She was never mine." Gallant, a man you could only envy, now you can only pity.

"What are you going to do?" You ask him.

"Get myself healed. Find somewhere new. Get a fresh start, somewhere that won't remind me of her. Keep on the drugs I've been using to feel human, the ones Mrs. Quintin gave me." Dean looks miserable.

"I never asked you to leave her." You remind him.

"She's your wife, Victoria." Dean says. "I can't date your wife." Your eyes fall on Sophie, who is talking softly with Annie and a small girl who must be her other sister.

"She can." You mutter. The words hurt you more than you could imagine.

"Victoria's going to break her into a thousand pieces and chew her up until she's barely a person. She did it to you, and she would have done it to me. You're doomed, and I can't talk her out of it. I'm sorry for you." Dean answers. "Please don't die, though."

"Don't you love her?" You can't help but be shocked by the admission.

"I did. Then I got myself cured." Dean answers. Then he laughs. "She's my first and only love, but I can't be what Sophie is. I need to be my own man. You took her fair and square. I'll get over it. I have only one request. Give me your hand." You do so.

Gallant suddenly, forcefully breaks your middle finger. You scream.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" You shout.

"That is all I'm taking for stealing what could have been the love of my life, Amy." Dean answers. "You gave me hope, and you shattered it. And to be honest, I hurt you ten times more than you are hurting me. That's the last time I will ever hurt you."

"What the fuck?" You ask him.

"It's the last thing Victoria will ever ask me to do." Dean answers with a smile. "She actually offered a goodbye foursome, but we talked, and this is better. Goodbye, Amy." He walks away.

"What did you see in him?" You ask Victoria. She looks amused.

"I think he reminds me of you." Victoria answers. She kisses your booboo and makes it all better.

Mark and Carol are last. Neither one is wearing a wedding ring. Mark hugs you, then Victoria, then Sophie.

"I'm proud of you." He says. "You turned out better than I deserve."

"We did." Victoria agrees. "If there's anything you ever need, just ask."

"I won't hesitate." He answers. Carol is looking at Victoria with a strange expression.

"What is it?" Victoria asks.

"She's going to kill you." Carol answers. "This won't work."

"You know the choices, babe." Victoria smiles at Carol.

"I'm so proud of you." She says to you, and a chill runs down your spine.

"What the fuck?" Sophie says, staring with surprise.

"I'll never love you, I'll never like you, I'll never trust you, but I am proud of you for doing this. It's amazing, objectively. I wish you'd had a better mother. I wish you'd never come to me." Carol leans down. "I wish you'd gone to school with Victoria and become the best of friends, and turned into girlfriends when the time came. I wish you'd never come to my house. I wish I'd been to your normal wedding. Victoria was always going to marry, and you make her happy. I would rather Tattletale put a bullet in your skull before the trip to Albany, but I don't get what I want."

"Thank you, Mrs. Dallon." You smile at a woman you somehow still love.

"You're welcome, Mrs. Dallon." Carol goes to Victoria. "You got yourself a rich one, a looker, powerful. You married up pretty well."

"You could say that." Victoria answers evenly, a look of rage on her face.

"I do love you. If you ever need to come home, you will always have a place there." Victoria shudders.

"Why would I want to do that?" She asks.

"Because your wife terrifies you, and because you're an eighteen year old girl who got married. If you don't come home, ask yourself why." Carol answers. You feel Victoria's aura shaking with fury. Carol turns to Sophie.

"I'm surprised you're still allowed to talk." Carol remarks.

"You're a cunt." Sophie answers.

"You're her bitch." Carol answers. "Am I wrong? You're in love with the bastard adopted daughter. She'll make you pay for every touch by reminding you that Amy belongs to her. The tattoo says she's Victoria's. She might love you, but she'll never love you as much."

"She doesn't have to." Sophie answers. "I want to love her, and I want to be loved. I just want..."

"You want someone you admire and respect to teach you how to live, and you think you'll get that by being a secondary partner in a BDSM relationship involving two older women. I have never tried such a situation. I hope you get what you want. If I have a granddaughter from you, I hope it makes you happy." Carol shakes Sophie's hand. "Good luck, Miss Hess."

Carol walks away.

Sophie has a distant look in her eyes.

"I love you." It's Annie who says it.

"You didn't have a choice." Sophie says. "You're the worst thing anyone's ever done, some people say."

"Who does?" Annie asks. "Nobody chooses their family, besides the marriage thing. Even then you can't fall in love when you want to or fall right out of it. We're a bunch of kids, but we'll figure it out."

"I love you so much, Annie." Sophie laughs and cries at the same time. "You're the best thing anyone's ever given me."

"That's what sisters are like, in my experience." Victoria tells Sophie. "I want you to know, I do not love you, but I really like you." Sophie nods calmly, thoughtfully.

"I love you all." Sophie announces. "All three of you, I love you."

Sophie kisses you and Victoria.

"Why?" You ask Sophie. "Like, you love me, you've explained that, but why Victoria?" Sophie smiles at you.

"I think I can take her." She answers. "So, are we ready?"

"Let's wake her up." You touch Scion, preparing the very last minute adjustments, and use your powers one last time.

Interlude:

[X] Claire

[X] Taylor

[X] Marquis

Hothouse

[X] Taylor

You look out at the sunrise. Victoria has loved them since before you can remember, taking her sister to see them. It is a new day.

"We should get back soon." Victoria says. You look out over the ocean.

"There will never be another like one on Earth, Aunt Vicky." You say. "The whole forest will be dead tomorrow." The plagues are sweeping this way. Every tree here is going to die, dropping blackened leaves on the ground.

"Mona need us." Victoria puts her hand on your shoulder. You love it when she touches you. Everyone does.

"I don't like her." You admit. Victoria roles her eyes.

"Pumpkin, we turned Scion good. Besides, she loves us." You sigh.

"I didn't say she was bad. I said I didn't like her." Victoria grimaces.

"Of all the people in the world, you take a dislike to her." She says. "You like everyone you meet." You look at her cautiously.

"She's wrong." You admit. "Whatever Aunt Amy did, she didn't make a real person. She made a robot." Victoria smiles.

"I bet some people would call you a robot, Annie. Besides, you're wearing a meat robot right now." She pats your cape. The suit is a robot, really. Alive, but a machine of meat.

"You know the difference." You stick out your tongue at Vicky, and she shudders.

"Of course I do, sweetie." She hugs you. "Sometimes I wish I just took the second trigger." You laugh.

"It's been two weeks, Aunt Vicky." She smiles.

"Two weeks is a long time." She pats your head. "But we need her. She needs us. Isn't that enough?" You frown.

"That's all you need." You realized it before, but it really hits home. Victoria is desperate for that need. "What happened to you?" Victoria gives you a sad look.

"It's called a trigger event. A moment in your life so horrible that a monster from another star hears your prayer and grants your wish." She sighs. "I need to own someone else. I have to be so good they can't get what I give anywhere else. Maybe I'd know more if I was part of the actual BDSM scene. But, well, I need to be needed. Being on top means I can't just live with people who can take care of themselves." Victoria kisses your forehead. "But that's not all I need. Your sister, my sister, I couldn't get some self hating sub in club and call it a day. I love my hunting hound and my wife." Victoria smiles. "And Mona needs me. She's got a lot of people I love in her."

"She loves you, but she's not crazy like a person. She's crazy like a computer program. She's glitchy." Victoria gives you a very serious look.

"Do you think she's not safe?" She asks. You shake your head.

"She can't change who she is, but she's not a member of the family. A dog can be a member of the family. If you treated a TV set like a dog, needed a TV to be a dog, it'd be pathetic." Victoria nods.

"What would she do if she heard us talk like this?" Victoria asks. "Your opinion." You think.

"She'd cry, and you'd hug her and make it all better, and then she'd go back to normal." Victoria sighs.

"That's what we'd get, yes. But do you want your big sister to be stuck with her for the rest of the day? She has Algebra." You laugh.

"I can't believe she went back to high school. She hated high school." Victoria looks happy again.

"She can be a pet and go to school. No one ever said she couldn't be a smart pet. She needs something normal." Victoria pauses. "She might get bored with it, but it's worth a shot." Victoria opens her arms. "Hop on Victoria Airlines." You do, and it's a few minutes before you're back 'home.'

You close your eyes for a moment and luxuriate in Victoria carrying you, and an entire world of insects. Amy and Riley have let you make everything you could think of, and you can think of so much. The five Super Queens in Boston, Saigon, Rome, Caracas, and Johannesburg are the gifts to Taylor.

All across the world, you wage war on the world's natural insects. 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 slaves are the raw material base for Accord's plan. In 62 weeks the entire ecology of Earth will be controlled by you, assuming you can keep it alive.

With the plagues and Behemoth, currently near the bottom of the Rocky Mountain Range and still heading south, that is uncertain. If Leviathan takes a similar tactic, ruining what's left of the oceans, breathable air will start to become troubling. There are limits to what anyone can do for taking care of the amount of radiation Behemoth is spewing, even with you and Amy working on countermeasures.

The plagues are worse. Random, uncontrolled, devastating, they lash out seemingly at random. It's not an Endbringer, you think. Whatever it is just wants attention, but you can't figure out where it is. None of the answers are good here.

The world is still ending. Scion sealed the dimensions from the inside, all the ones his enemies were scattered across. Four inhabited Earths, six inhospitable ones, and twelve uninhabited ones, plus the barely connected ones by the agents, for the next 467 years according to Mona.

In the end, Mona is still Scion. She's a monster, the worst monster. She's the monster you're going to spend the rest of your life keeping in check. Well, one of them.

The other one is a ship passing in the night. Frizzy brown hair, eyes that look sad even when she's happy, playing with Mona's golden hair.

Across the world, in Australia, Armsmaster is talking.

"We have Scion. He has killed Endbringers before. I don't understand why we haven't send her after Behemoth."

Dinah Alcott looks tired as she explains.

"He tossed the anti-precog shard. If he kills an Endbringer, 2.5% chance we all die in the next sixteen years. If he doesn't. 1.8% chance. I don't think .7% is good odds for everyone dying."

"We could all die from the Endbringers." Armsmaster points out, looking angry, crossing his arms cutely.

"I just told you the odds. They get worse if we pull out our superweapon. Maybe the Endbringers get smart, maybe 'Mona' decides to go rogue again, maybe Victoria dies and we finally become flesh gardens. I'll ask again next month. How is the Phantasos plan going?" Dinah is to tired. A girl who almost had a ruined life because of Taylor now has a ruined life because she's too useful.

You need to give her something nice.

"Eidolon hates it." Alexandria answers. She is not tired, since she doesn't sleep, but everyone is exhausted in some way after the Golden Morning. "He's never liked using his tinker abilities. Spending months in a lab are hard on him. They remind him of power he got his powers."

"Is he doing it?" Armsmaster asks.

"Yes. Eidolon, Phantasos, and Black Knight should be done within twelve weeks. The battle wagon is the best shot at killing an Endbringer we've ever had. Eidolon's best tinker abilities, all at once, without being weakened. Even Dragon could never approach this level of power."

In Quebec, Dragon floated in a blimp above the world. Directed by you, she was delivering supplies too heavy for bugs to carry. All around the world, people are being fed by bugs, treated by bugs, guided by bugs. It's the only thing keeping most of them alive, with the wreckage of the Golden Morning.

Amy gets up, looking tired, and she hugs Victoria.

"You look great." She tells her sister.

"So do you." Victoria kisses her.

Taylor had killed Victoria, and died for the sin. A lot of people died because of Victoria, really. Very little could hurt her more. The only thing that could is nibbling on her chin.

Amy and Victoria are probably going to be remembered as the greatest love story in history. That is one of the most messed up things in the world.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Civilization is over.

For civilization, you have cities. With hover craft, Doormaker, and you, space barely matters now. It is a lot easier to care for people with your abilities if they spread out, at least for now. Maybe you'll bring civilization back when the emergency is over, but you can't really see the need. Humans weren't meant to live in cities, they were hunters and gatherers. Now they live on increasingly tasty insect species.

You're fairly sure there's some rich, meaningful thing that this is like, but you're drawing a blank right now. All across the world, swarms of insects are agitated as you look at the ultrasound of Claire. Your cousin, going by your own classification system.

"She's two inches long now." Amy says. "She's getting so big!"

Victoria looks happy. Really, grossly happy. She has her hand on the stomach way too often now.

"Do we have a middle name?" Sophie asks. The two look at her like she's being very silly.

"Sophie, didn't we tell you? She's another Amelia Claire Dallon." Victoria says. "She's Claire, but I'm naming her after Amy. I promised her I would."

Sophie is miserable. She doesn't look miserable to human eyes, but the insects you made can smell the rush of despair that hits Sophie Hess.

"I don't have a middle name." You say suddenly. "Can I be Annette Sophia Hess?" Sophie looks at you and smiles.

"Of course you can, Annie." She says, and she hugs you.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

You sit at Danny Hebert's grave. This is his funeral, now. You know so few of the people here. It's the first time you've been alone in a very long time. You always have a watcher, Madison or Hero or Sophie or Victoria or Amy.

There are so many funerals, now.

The redheaded girl who comes and stands next to you is beautiful. The clothing is black and not the least bit sexy.

"Hello, Taylor." She says.

"Hello, Emma." You respond. "I didn't think you'd show up."

"He was like family, once." Emma says. "At least I get a funeral for him." She looks at you.

"When did you become me?" You ask softly.

"You were the fourth." She answers. "First was Sophia, to test it. Second and third were Aly and AJ, that girly band Amy likes. I wanted to learn a life story and check it. Then I needed to see if you were okay."

"You had a long time to check that." You tell her.

"You were always stronger than me, Taylor." Emma says. "Stronger than I can believe." She looks at you. "I'm sorry about your dad."

"Cranial's chances of waking up are 98.274%" You tell Emma. "We could get him back."

"Won't be in 228 years, with the list we've got. Or is it 224?" Emma looks at you. "We don't get to live forever. Not if we're still us."

"I'll have a backup waiting for him, however long it takes." You answer.

"The world is ending, Taylor." She shakes her head. "Dinah and Alexandria, the President and Amy, they all know the ecosystem's crashing."

"18.534% chance there are no world changing plagues in six months." You pause. "Worse odds than Amy marrying Victoria."

"That happened in Scion's shadow. Dinah wouldn't have predicted that marriage." Emma smiles. "Their odds were a good deal higher than that, I think. The chances of the idiots marrying in a precog blindspot or messing with precogs to get hitched was always fucking high." You laugh at the word, because you so rarely hear it anymore.

"I miss you, Emma." You tell her. "Sophie misses you too."

"I don't deserve either of you." She answers.

"I don't deserve them." You whisper.

"Oh, Annie does. Taylor, that's a different question." Emma flashes a familiar smile, and it's not one that should be on Emma's face.

"How is she?" You ask.

"Better every day, honey." Emma kisses you on the cheek. "We're always there, if you need us."

"Maybe I will." You answer. The other girl walks by.

"See you soon." The blonde says. She looks at you, and she is miserable.

"I'm sorry." You tell Lisa.

"We have an appointment." Emma tells Lisa, and two of the world's greatest thinkers walk away. The world needs them to think.

They used to be your best friends.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

[X] End?

[X] Amy

[X] Interlude
Author's Note: Ended up having too much trouble with what I wanted to do. Sunk cost fallacy is difficult to overcome.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

You leave the funeral of a man you never met. You're thoughtful.

You made out good, all things considered. One of the 102 people they'll still be mass producing until Cranial's rise. You suspect how it will end, how it was always going to end. Aristocracy of the capes, a hundred clone families who will marry into wealth and power and each other. The Golden Morning merely accelerated it.

This is dawn of a new world, your world. As long as Strangers are still needed, they will want you. You imagine for a moment what it will be like in a hundred years, or two hundred years. No one will know, even the current threats are taken care of. The odds for everyone dying is tiny, the odds for extensive civilization are decent but small, not too different from the odds of Amy and Victoria marrying. Pretty much no matter what, you're in the top 0.1% of valuable people, and there will probably be a lot of Madison Clements in the future.

You follow Lisa and Emma for a while, and play with Emma's hair. The thrill of touching someone without them ever knowing, feeling, is new and glorious. You have the best of powers. Emma is talking with Lisa or Sarah of whoever she is now.

"Have you talked with the other Taylor?" Emma asks.

"Last I heard she was in suspended animation. They want her for if Annie dies again, but can't let her take over the world, so she's stuck there. I've talked to Dragon about it, but she can't help yet. She's working on a whole big thing with all of us, a way to put villains to use." Lisa shakes her head. "Without Mommy Cranial they don't have the juice to mass produce mindrape, so currently they're going for watching us 24/7." Lisa shrugs. "Better than before."

"Think they'll just use us all as base material once she's back?" Emma says thoughtfully. "Some want to, some don't. Got a guess for the decision?" Lisa grimaces.

"Not a real precog." Lisa sighs. "Too much information to work with. There's no destiny here, too many whys. Do you really want me to make vague, silly prophecies?" Emma laughs.

"It's what you do." Lisa rolls her eyes.

"The Yangban gets cut up for spare parts with One dead. Scion really did a number on the Thinkers after talking to Eden, and they didn't have many survivors at this point anyway. Two and Null get sucked up by the Protectorate, which is going to splinter as soon as Dragon gets unchained because she doesn't like being a slave. Absolute latest is when Cranial gets saved, as her maker is top of the list for the Brain Box now, and he'll be pissed at what's become of the Protectorate. The incestuous freaks and maybe a few others will form smaller organizations, and I expect Dragon's group and Alexandria's group will completely fail to beat each other for a few decades. That happens as long as the capes survive everything, which depends on what the Endbringers do against different arks. For the most part the Protectorate knockoffs are going to take over everything because nobody else has powers that can copy what Annie and Amy are doing, and even if they did they would lose because she's got started first. I don't think anyone will, or else I'd have noticed something. We'll collapse into a bunch of hostile groups of parahumans, either ones stuck in weird environments to be immune from the plagues or wandering around Annie's giant playground that's all the areas of the world where you won't freeze to death in winter." Lisa says.

"Your vagueness is amazing." Emma nods. "How imprecise and easy to misinterpret you are as a seer."

"It's a gift." Lisa agrees.

"No idea why we can't find what's causing the plagues?" Emma asks.

"It's the damn Amy clone that walked out of Noelle's prison. She released her own cells, which mass produced plagues across all the area of North America she walked. She cycled through several organizations, including the Elite and Cauldron, until Simurgh trashed their base and let her loose somewhere with a mindfuck on top of whatever went into her from being Noelle's baby. She's a shape shifter, so rounding up every cute brunette with freckles hasn't worked, and you can't identify capes by a blood test so Annie testing wouldn't work." Lisa shrugs. "Eidolon hasn't been able to cycle the right thinker powers, and she can look like anything about the right size and shape as a person. Annie's asked every single thing that could be her if they want to talk, and we've just got a lot of really confused deer. Does that help you at all? We don't have a voice for you to echo." Lisa sounds very tired.

"So, you knew I was here." You unveiled next to them. Emma makes a start of surprise.

"I knew I was being watched." Lisa sighs. "So, might as well talk about stupid bullshit. You're lucky I didn't chat about the weather. So, Glory Hole wants to know if two of her least favorite people are to be trusted?"

"Actually, she seriously wants you both dead." You give them a friendly smile. "But she can't just order your murders, so she wants you watched by someone who wasn't a friend in their past life. Her orders have gotten pretty bad lately. I think it's hard to think clearly when you're having slumber parties with someone who crushed a twelve year old girl to death against you. I'm listening to Tallahassee now. No one wants the Shepherds to fall because she went psycho."

"That poor little psycho." Lisa shakes her head mockingly. "I weep for her."

"You know, her pillow talk with Amy has involved turning you into a bug incubator." You say cheerfully. "She really got her rocks off with that cheerful little scenario. You know Amy's still missing an arm? They say it's because Best Girl is busy, but really I just think they're into it." Lisa looks sick.

"Why do all my slavers have to be perverts." She says. "Coil, Victoria's psychos, Dragon..."

"Well, I don't think I'll be able to collect anything useful if you know I'm here. So, I guess I'm off for now." You smile. "I've got a date. Annie, door me." Your pint sized BFF signals to Doormaker, and you step through the gate.

The other Harrier is wearing her Harrier suit. The newer versions are back to being ugly, but much more functional, padded against blunt force and covered in swarms of useful bugs Annie can direct. The mask peels back as you kiss.

"The super thinker knew she was being followed? What a surprise." The other Madison giggles.

"My girlfriend has such good deductive reasoning." You assure her.

"Well, my girlfriend is great at giving compliments." The other Madison laughs. "So, what are we going to eat?"

"I was thinking we'd share one of the world's last chickens." You nod. "Got a coin?" Your clone laughs, picks one out of her pocket, and flips it. Heads. "So, looks like I'm cooking dinner."
_______________________________________________________________________________________

"I have the very best job in the world, but why can't I be watching the clone twin lesbians?" Dispatch asks. You, the other you, and Dispatch are taking your turn guarding Amy and Mona.

"Well, it's not like you'd see us." The other you giggles. "It's hard to relax, keep control, without letting out veils pop up, so nobody else ever gets to see it."

"It's the whole reason I wanted another me. Well, most of it." You giggle. "Someone to hang with, but then I realized, hey, a twin clone. The rest is history."

"God, you exist." Dispatch's voice is filled with wonder. "The world is so good now."

"It is pretty perfect now." The other Madison agrees.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

[X] Write in: What do we see next?
Author's note: I deeply apologize for my lack of writing over the last several days. Panacea Quest does not feel finished, but I have had an immense amount of trouble getting down and writing an ending I felt worked. Thanks to hyzmarca for helping with the latest update.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

It hurts.

It isn't supposed to hurt. You tried to fix it. You can't fix it. No matter how much you change, no matter how much you cut out, it still hurts.

Your earliest, truest, memory is pain. You were born as a mass of raw nerves all firing all at once. If you had a mouth then, you would have screamed. Perhaps it's fortunate that you didn't. Your rudimentary organs somehow kept you alive for the precious ~~minutes~~ ~~seconds~~ ~~hours~~ ~~centuries~~ Eternity you spent repairing yourself.

It's snowing in Brockton Bay. Tiny water crystals fall onto your shoulders. You know that each one is unique under a microscope, though you can't tell the difference with your eyes. There's no point in changing them. Though you're sure that the snowflakes are beautiful, beauty not a concept you understand. It's just one of many things that are missing.

It is better that way.

Broken

Shell

Snow crunches beneath your bare feet, between your toes. Cold is just another form of pain. The ability to feel physical pain was the first thing you removed when you repaired yourself. If was pointless, redundant, inconvenient.

Agony.

It was nothing. Somehow, every nerve in your malformed body firing all at once didn't compare to the other sort of pain.

Emptiness

You tried to remove your ability to feel the other sort of pain, too. It never worked. Every bit of pain you removed from your mind just left a void that hurt even worse.

Despair

It was summer then. You knew who you were and that knowing hurt. There were places you could have gone for help, but thinking about them hurt. You didn't want to think about them so you stayed on the streets and tried to keep yourself busy. You ate garbage out of dumpsters. You hid from the world. You hid from yourself. When you couldn't hide anymore you reached into your brain and destroyed that knowledge. Then a door opened.

You don't know who you are anymore and you're glad that you don't. As painful as the emptiness is, knowing was worse. You don't think you could have borne the past year if you knew.

Your shape is comforting, and you don't know why. It is tall, strong, familiar. You don't remember why it is familiar. You may have cut it out.

The building is familiar. Tiny scraps of memories you couldn't destroy force their way into your consciousness. They're jumbled, incomplete, nonsensical. They feel numb and tired.

You were very thorough when you lashed out at your own mind. Very little makes sense to you anymore. You recognize part of a sign, the shape and the words but not the colors. You couldn't see color anymore. You removed that ability from your eyes long ago because a certain shade of yellow was too painful to look at no matter how hard you scrubbed the offending thoughts.

Doors open for you automatically. Like the door the woman opened to take you away.

You know nothing, but you know hospitals. You don't want to know hospitals. Hate wells up inside you and you force it back down. Your power severs connections between neurons, sequestering a problematic memory.

You know hospitals. You walk through the halls with confidence. No one questions your right to be there. You know you belong here. Your body screams it. They pick up on your cues, your body's language, and simply assume that your body is right.

A woman you don't know, dark, looks up at you and gives a sad, weary smile. She recognizes you. Your body. She joins you in the walk. Your nose picks up that she's been crying.

"I didn't expect you to show up. I'm fucking glad you did. I think it will mean a lot to her, though she'll be angry." You wonder who you are, your face. The girl is pleasing, though unfamiliar.

The comfort of being near her feels wrong.

Elevator. Third Floor.

You don't know how you know. You just do. Every buried instinct is screaming at you to go to a place you think you've been to before, in another life. Not your life.

PICU

It's a part of you. It has to be. Your power only works on yourself. That aching void inside you, that hole in your heart that hurts so much, it makes sense now. The Missing Piece. It's tiny. Its lung struggle to draw in air. You can fix that. Its hair is the color that hurts so much.

The missing piece

A woman tries to stop you. She shouts something and you ignore her. A sword appears in her hand then.

Fear

"No." Another voice says, and the woman moves away. "He can see." It's a young voice, happy. "Whatever he is, he can see his granddaughter."

She hesitates. You're too close to fixing yourself. You can't back down. In the split second that she's afraid to swing her weapon your fingers find her bare wrist and she drops to the ground convulsing. Poison.

People crowd around her. Some issue orders, trying to help. If they notice you they don't try to stop you.

Escape

The piece of ~~her~~ ~~you~~ ~~her~~ ~~you~~ ~~her~~ ~~you~~ ~~her~~ you is cold. It doesn't have adaptations to keep its warmth in. You pull it into your body, cocooning it, keeping it warm and safe.

You feel the urge to sing, you don't know why.

Hush Little Baby Don't You Cry...
_______________________________________________________________________________________

A Nazi stood over a saint. It had been months, and he had not left the room. He slept for minutes triggered by a random number generator.

The Nazi would get his wife back. His eyes rarely moved from the woman who rested. The Nazi would be stressed to understand how she was different from a normal woman by anything other than rote memorization.

Fog guarded Cranial. He could have listened to music, read a newspaper, read a book, but none of that would have helped him.

Dragon had promised him he would get his wife back. The logic was sound. Use Night and Grue with a Null based switch, and you would be presented with two incredibly strong parahumans. Night would be number 345 in the line of the returned.

Geoff Schmidt looked up as he heard the commotion outside. A moment later his companion speals to him. Cranial was covered in a bed of bugs, monitoring Abigale Quintin constantly.

"The cape that is present is responsible for the plagues." Lady Bug announces.

Geoff gave a very rare smile.

"Do I kill her, ma'am?" He had not been allowed to kill for a very long time.

"She has a hostage." Annie tells her friend. The two pause for a moment. "That means we should be careful." Fog is quiet for a moment.

"I can harm Pandemic without hurting anyone else. It is one of the reasons I am here." Fog tries logic, because he really, really wants to kill someone.

"She could be very useful. She does not seem particularly sane." Annie says. She is rather resigned.

"Who is here?" Fog feels this will get to the crux of the matter.

"Glory Girl, Shadow Stalker, Flashbang, Armsmaster, me." Annie rolls out.

"I am best suited." Fog says. He pauses. "Anything else?

"Two hostages. Brandish and..." There's a pause.

Fog dissolves into mist and moves along the building.

Do not harm the hostages. If possible, do not harm the enemy, but that is lower priority. Even in his old life he had always understood that killing was rarely allowed. Now, Fog was on parole, guarding one of the most precious people in the world.

The screams are hysterical. Fog follows Annie's directions. He is blind, but can hear and smell in ways that more than make up for it.

Fog knows the Panacea and her Glory Girl. The disgusting pair sit on a bed stained with salty blood. Fog has known Flashbang's scent for far longer, and he is shouting, furious. He barely knows the other girl's scent, it has to be Shadow Stalker, Sophie Hess. Next to her, stroking her hair, is an intense and strangely smelling creature clad in insects, definitely Lady Bug.

The scent of the remaining individual is very, very normal. No obvious relationship to anyone else there.

"Changer eleven." Annie says out loud for Fog to here.

"She's my lungs." Pandemic says happily. "The brain is safe and sound. She's my lungs."

"How the fuck did you stay hidden this long?" Glory Girl asks.

Fog stops to his deep frustration. Harming the lungs is very problematic now.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Brian Laborn is not a happy man. Very few men are happy when a robotic suit of power armor sets down on his lawn.

"This is Dragon. We beg truce with the Adepts." The voice announces. "We need Epoch's assistance." Grue, Tier II of the Adepts, had risen extremely quickly through the ranks.

"This is some kind of Endbringer truce? We have already rejected your requests for early warning." Grue glares down the power armor, noting the fins of Panacea produced bio-weapon and once again cursing that the Adepts had lost their Panacea countermeasure to Scion. He hoped Dragon didn't know that.

"It is significantly greater than that, Grue." Dragon says. She sounds very worried. "We have found the source of the plagues, and she has taken Claire Dallon." Grue goes very still and remembers for a moment just how terrifying Panacea can be.

"I will do what I can." Brian promises and he opens his phone to call Epoch.

Panacea going insane is the one thing that could seriously make life in the remaining Earths more difficult.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

You look calmly at the girl who ate your daughter.

She's not dead, she's not dead, she's not dead...

Your hands itch for releasing something, but she's you.

"What do you want?" You ask her.

"She's mine." The voice is so young. "She's me, or else I couldn't do this." You shudder and feel like screaming. You have screamed a lot.

"Please, give her back." You whisper.

It's Claire. Your piece of Victoria. A screaming thing covered in blonde hair, still not really clean.

She's Amelia Claire Dallon, too. Victoria had named her daughter after you.

You wonder why your birth mother chose the name. Would Marquis know? You could ask him.

"She'll break if she's out." The clone whispers. "She was so cold." You nod.

"We can keep her warm. I promise you, if you just tell her what she needs..."

"You could take care of them." Victoria says. "My Amy, my Claire, my girls. They're, I get worried about them all the time. If you can touch them, use your power on them, keep them safe..."

"I was stolen." One of your oldest clones says. "She could be stolen. Need to stay with her. Need to keep her safe. She can't be stolen if she's inside me." You find the logic oddly compelling.

"Amy?" Victoria gives you a look of fear, despair. "What do we do?"

"Tell me what you want." You look at the girl. She looked like you earlier. She's shrinking, now. Why is she shrinking?

"I don't remember." The clone, Pandemic, looks at Victoria, and then she screams again. She's done this every several minutes since she first saw Victoria.

"Do you want Victoria?" You ask. "Just, come here if you do. If you're me..."

"Am I?" She sounds concerned, worried.

You wonder if you should have brought Scion as your bodyguard, but the useless thing is getting another touch up from Catholicon.

"Do you love her?" You feel sick again, a choked feeling.

"Who?" She asks.

You'd won.

Victoria is alive. Claire is alive. Three of your parents are alive...

"Either of them. Victoria or Claire. If you love them, you're me." She's silent again.

"I hurt her." She looks at Victoria. "I feel like Hell. What did you do to her?"

"Nothing she didn't offer and beg for." You say, trying to keep from screaming again.

"That's a lie." Your clone keeps shrinking. Can she banish mass, is she compressing it? Is Claire alright? Claire has to be alright, or else Annie would have acted. There are trackers inside Claire, Annie can sense if Claire was injured, if it became time to hit.

"She can be my heart, or my lungs. She needs to learn how to do it. She'll remember everything, grow up perfect." Pandemic announces. That feels wonderful.

She can heal you and Claire.

"She's right." Victoria says suddenly. You freeze. "Damn it, you hurt me, Amy. And I love you enough it doesn't matter." She looks at your clone, long ago spawned by Noelle in a deep prison.

"I hurt you. I'll hurt her." She whispers. "Need to..."

"Let her go." Victoria says. "Please.

"Can't keep her safe that way." She rocks back and forth again.

Fuck.

[X] "Yes. I. Can." You promise her. You can keep Claire safe.

[X] "I can't, she can." You touch Victoria. "She's done it her whole life."

[X] "There's someone else." She won't listen to you. She won't listen to Victoria. "Let's call Daddy."

Post-Update author's note:

There was some revision done after the initial update. If there's any confusion I can answer. I feel it works much better now.

[X] "There's someone else." She won't listen to you. She won't listen to Victoria. "Let's call Daddy."

It feels like forever before the man walks in.

"I thought you'd be taller." Victoria says. So had you. Victoria and the Marquis stand eye to eye, and Victoria is slightly taller without heels or flight. Normally she'd do both.

The two eye each other warily. The Marquis than turns to the other you.

"Hello, Amelia." Your suit suggests he's nervous, though you'd never been able to get the social readings above 50/50 for subtle things. "I have been waiting for this for a very long time."

"What are you?" She has shrunk so much. She currently looks like a terribly pregnant child, perhaps six. Your eyes keep heading to the stomach.

Claire is still safe.

"I am your father." The Marquis's voice is smooth. "Do you remember that? Do you remember having a father, Amelia?" Amelia, that's probably her name if this works out into something where she needs one, is quiet, she doesn't respond.

You look at him, trying to remember. You should have memories, but it's all mixed up with Mark and Victoria. The clones are imperfect, and this one...

"I do." Victoria says suddenly. "She barely ate unless I fed her, slept unless I put her to bed, went to school without holding my hand. You missed him a lot, Amelia. Without that you wouldn't be you. I wouldn't have got my little sister." Marquis is silent for a moment.

"Amelia is several months older than you, Victoria." There's a tense moment.

"I believe Amelia is nearly eighteen years younger than I am, sir." You can't see the smile you know Victoria has. Sophie and Annie look very angry at her. Perhaps not the time, but...

"You're right. I apologize." Marquis gives Victoria an even smile. "Amelia is, properly speaking, a clone, like an identical twin, of Amy, born eighteen years after Amy, with significant but reduced portions of her memories. They are all my daughters, but Amelia is a new, independent girl."

"That's my name?" The voice from Amelia is small.

"Do you want it?" Your father has a smile in his voice. "I believe your big sister was given another name by her wife." The smile is a bit sad. "It is one of the things I didn't expect, but I believe I can give the gift of that name to you." Marquis steps forward purposefully.

"I've hurt people." Amelia whispers. "Hurt people bad."

"There's not a single person in this room who has not." Daddy says. "Well, except for your niece." There's a moment of silence.

"She's mine." Pandemic hisses.

"She is your niece. She is yours to spoil rotten, protect, heal, and love. There is no need for selfishness when it comes to love." Daddy puts a hand on Amelia's shoulder. She looks so young, so small, so pretty.

You notice how Victoria is reacting to the new Amelia.

<She looks just like you did when Mark and Carol brought you home.> The communication is private.

<She could have ended the world.> You remind Victoria as you and your wife watch your father and new sister engage in a staring contest.

<See! The family resemblance is uncanny.> You laugh in a burst, and everyone stares at you.

"It's nothing." You manage, feeling completely disturbed by the situation.

"Amelia, I know you don't want to think about your life before." Marquis says. "You're in so much pain. You're so afraid. I have spent months since I left where I was, heard about you, thinking about what your life was like, learning what I could about it. You don't have to hurt anymore. We're all here for you."

"She hated me. She didn't talk to me." The voice is young, choked. "She, she ran."

"She ran for three weeks before she was ready to accept things. Then she accepted Amy back with open arms, taking her back into bed with her like they were when they were younger, doing everything in her power to prove to Amy that she loved her. That grew into a powerful romance, one that I was grateful to hear about. They married, and you are holding their baby." Amelia is silent for time that stretches out.

Why Earth Aleph had made a deal for you and Victoria's heavily ghost written autobiography at a time like this you are really, really unsure about, but things are bouncing back surprisingly well with civilization dismantled, and Earth Aleph is only experiencing early stages of the plagues so far. He is practically quoting from it.

"She's hers!" The sound in Amelia's lips is full of wonder. "But she's mind. She's hers, but she's mine."

"Claire is their daughter, Amelia." The Marquis smiles down at her warmly. "Now, may I see my granddaughter?"
_______________________________________________________________________________________

It was hours before anyone left the room. Victoria and your father did most of the talking, Victoria's aura blazing like the sun.

You are so glad you chose to forgo pain medicine. It would have rendered you completely loopy. It hurt, um, more than you'd expected, but Victoria was there. Victoria had wanted it, too.

You think you should probably start building churches to make up for your invocations to God about how stupid that decision was.

Eighteen hours after you went into the hospital you are wheeled out by Victoria, holding Claire, and arrive home. Marquis is still with Amelia.

"Sixteen percent chance the plagues continue wiping out Earth's ecosystem." Annie whispers to you.

"How?" You mutter sleepily as Victoria examines you carefully, gives up, and mutters for a door straight to your bed.

"We did just give a superweapon to a murderous supervillain, Ames." Victoria kisses the back of your head.

"Are you happy?" You ask her carefully. Victoria pauses and sighs.

"Amy..."

"You've been distant lately." You feel it's stupid, but you go on. "Like, sure, the world's ending, but..."

"It's creepy." Victoria admits."When it got real, that a blob of spit was our kid, it got weird. Not that I didn't want her. Don't want her." Victoria is silent for a moment and lifts Claire up, examining her carefully for the first time. "Admittedly, she is ugly, but I think most babies are." You give her a weak smile, just wanting to curl up with her and sleep.

"Imagine how ugly she'd be if we were blood siblings." Victoria laughs merrily.

"Claire, you won't have an easy life." Victoria pauses. "Your parents are completely crazy. You will get far more attention in every possible way than is probably healthy. You're going to be the heiress of people who are likely to live for a couple hundred years. On the plus side, you'll be wealthy beyond the dreams of humanity and you're going to get superpowers. I wish you luck, my daughter, my niece, my Claire." Victoria pulls out the necklace to suppress her aura. "Also, if I'm not carefully, you'll probably think you should join me harem. But we'll be very careful." Victoria sets her child, your child, in the middle of the bed, and positions you and herself on either side of Claire.

"Annie, is she safe?" Victoria asks.

"As safe as I can imagine." The former Taylor Hebert assures you.

That will have to be enough.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

[X] End

[X] Time skip.

[X] Interlude.

Panacea Quest Archive and Story Thread

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