Tuesday, April 19, 2011

I stared up at the blonde girl in my doorway. "Seriously?" I dragged a hand down over my face. "What's going on?"

I mean, it wasn't like I was tired or anything, but did we have to do this now? Hell, she probably needed her sleep.

"Can it wait till morning?" I asked.

"I—" Leah paused. "Not really."

I sat up. "Well come in, or you'll wake my dad up."

She nodded, opening the door further before slipping inside and carefully closing it behind her. Leah moved the few feet to my bed as I turned and scooted back to lean against the wall next to the window, sitting sideways. I motioned with my left hand for her to sit on the bed, and while I expected her to simply sit on the edge, she actually got on and crossed her feet, looking at me.

"So what's going on?" I asked again.

"Somebody… somebody just anonymously released a lot of information on the gangs and a bunch of the villains in Brockton Bay online," she said, looking right at me.

I straightened. "Like who?"

"Some of the E88, Lung, couple Merchant capes, a few no-namer small time parahumans and people who haven't even been a real problem," she answered. "It's bad, Taylor. This city's still trying to recover from Bakuda and this is probably going to cause an outright gang war. The E88 are finished in name—turns out they were operating out of Medhall and Kaiser was the CEO—but I doubt they're going to go down without a fight."

I let my head fall back and thump quietly against the wall. "Fuuuuuck."

The E88 ran Medhall? Well, there went one of the biggest things keeping the Bay afloat. No wonder the Nazis were rooted so deeply: they were funding a good chunk of the city.

"And the response?" It wasn't like the PRT could just ignore the information.

Most likely…

"It's going to be chaos. The PRT and Protectorate can't disregard the info, and if they don't deal with it all while it's still valid they could be seen as either inept or ineffective," she said. "The problem is they're already stretched a bit thin from trying to help out after Bakuda's attack, and this… this is going to tear them apart. Not enough resources to properly respond, already overworked, and instead of working in an ideal scenario where a group of the Protectorate can outnumber a villain and come down on them hard, the PRT capture squads are only going to have one or two heroes with them, if any."

Yeah, that's about what I thought.

"…There's going to be casualties," I concluded. The PRT may have been created to handle parahuman criminals, but the ones in the Bay typically had been at it for a long time and were very good at what they did. Even twenty officers against a scared, experienced cape…

"It's going to be a bloodbath," Leah corrected. "And there's nothing the PRT can do except try to minimize it."

Haaaaaah. God, when it rained it poured, didn't it?

"So why're you telling me this?" I asked. "Not that I don't appreciate the warning, but what can I do? At most I'd probably get in the way of the PRT doing their jobs more than help them if I tried to."

Leah smiled slowly. "Ah, but see, that's the thing. From what I've picked up on the Director here, she doesn't like having to ask for help, but she will if she has to. And who do you think the first outsiders they're going to ask are? Who's the largest and most experienced independent group in the Bay?"

Oh. "New Wave." …And Victoria, I thought.

Leah nodded. "In order to minimize casualties, the Director will likely ask New Wave for assistance in managing the situation… by having them act as a delay."

A… delay?

"See, there's no time to integrate them into the PRT capture procedures, so instead she'll use them to keep one or two capes pinned down, or put down, while allocating the officers and heroes that would normally be there to handle the capture to the more urgent threats, and then come in for capture against a cape that's tired from having to deal with a bunch of blasters and Little Miss Alexandria."

I nodded.

"And that, is where you can make a difference. New Wave can work around a highly mobile close-quarters Brute because they have two of their own. And frankly Taylor, you're kind of terrifying in your capabilities as a cape, so you shouldn't have too much problem with things."

Well…

It would let me use the new armor I had based on Greg's designs.

Alright then. If Leah, who seemed to be a pretty high-level Thinker from what I'd been seeing, thought I should do this and that it would help, there wasn't much reason not to.

Okay.

'Victoria?'

I waited for a couple minutes while Leah watched me curiously.

'Victoria!'
'There's something happening in the city, are you awake?'

This time, there was a response.

'wh'
'wha is ittttt'

'There's an emergency. I don't know if you guys know yet, but someone leaked a bunch of villains' identities and information online and someone I trust says the PRT is trying to organize to act on it now.'

'what'
'shit. okay im awake now'

'The PRT's probably going to try to contact New Wave to help with detaining or at least delaying some of them and keeping casualties to a minimum.'

'fuck'
'let me get my rents up'

I turned to the blonde sitting on my bed, and she looked at me expectantly. "Alright, I told Victoria. Er, Glory Girl." It was so weird thinking of her like that. "She's getting her family up now."

Leah nodded. "She's how you coordinated with them during the bombing?"

"Yeah."

"That's cool," she commented nonchalantly.

I gave a short laugh. 'Cool'. I felt odd calling Victoria 'cool' after what I knew about her. More like unexpectedly normal. "Yeah, she's actually pretty nice."

The corners of Leah's mouth twitched and it looked like she was holding herself back from saying something, before she just nodded.

It was a few more minutes, more than I'd expected honestly, before I got another text.

'everyones up now'
'and you were right'
'just got a call from the prt and everythnig'
'so im guessing you want in'

'Please.'

'you ready to go?'
'cause we still gotta get suited up andd everything so you could come over here now'

'I'm ready,' I sent back, instantly shifting forms and creating my new armor, making Leah jerk back in surprise.

'kk heres us'

There was a pair of coordinates in the next message, and I was already figuring out the distance and time it'd take. 'Be there soon.'

Leah recovered, looking me over and then returning her eyes to my helmet. "Do you mind if I run intel on this?"

I paused for a moment, then created a pair of contact lenses, earbuds, and what looked like a piece of tape from my hand. "Here," I said, handing them over. "The contacts will overlay your vision with whatever's going on. I should be able to manage them no matter what happens in the background. Earbuds for sounds, the tape goes on your throat as a subvocal mic."

She hurriedly put them in, and I kept the contacts transparent for now.

"Can you get off the bed for a moment?"

Leah unfolded her legs and stood up as I fluidly moved off, before I lifted the mattress and grabbed the sword that still sat under it. I had to physically clamp it to my back with my nanomaterial since whatever material it was (I was still trying to analyze it) apparently wasn't magnetic. The thin layer of nanomaterial that had been on the flat of the blade ever since I got it I moved to the edges, building up on them so they made a guard and effectively dulled the blade. It rendered it useless until I moved the nanomaterial back to the flats, which would ensure there wouldn't be any accidents, or any chance (however small it was) of it somehow being used against me.

"Alright. You should get comfortable, because this is probably going to be pretty disorienting as it is. You can stay in here if you want," I told the girl next to me.

"Okay. Good luck."

I smiled, even if she couldn't see it, but she seemed to pick up the sentiment anyways, clambering back onto the bed as I slipped out into the hallway. I couldn't leave from my room's windows since they faced the front and sides, so I had to go down through the kitchen.

Thankfully, I knew all the creaky spots and was unnaturally silent as I was, so I made it down and out the kitchen door without any incidents.

In order to prevent any chance of someone noticing me, even in the back yard, I crouched, and jumped, landing on one of the panels of my Wave-Force armor. Without pausing for even an instant, I jumped again, repeating the action and ascending four hundred feet into the air in seconds, where it would be practically impossible to see me in my (new) dark armor against the night sky.

And then I started running.

"Hey Taylor? You hearing this?" I blinked, and then synced up my senses with Leah's tools.

"Whoa. Okay, yeah, I see what you mean by disorienting. I am so glad I can't get nauseous right now," Leah said. "Anyways, I'm probably going to be pretty quiet unless I have anything I can add, so that it doesn't seem like you're talking to someone and won't distract you."

"Alright, thank you," I returned.

Four and a half minutes after I'd started, I reached the Dallons' house. It was in the nicer part of the city, south of downtown. Two stories, medium-sized. Bigger than mine and Dad's house, anyways.

But the important thing was that the lights were on. At least downstairs they were.

I quickly descended steps of my Armor to the front door, pushing the doorbell rather than knocking. I heard footsteps moving to the door, and then unlocking it before it opened, revealing Victoria in her costume.

For a moment she just stood there, looking me up and down. "Relentless?"

I raised a hand. "Hi."

"Um. I'm not imagining things, right? You look different?" she asked, sounding confused and a little bleary.

"Yeah. New armor. Sorry for not warning you first," I apologized.

"'s—" She yawned, hiding her mouth with the back of her hand. "'s cool. Looks really nice. C'mon in," she said tiredly.

I walked into the hallway, Victoria closing the door behind me. It felt weird being in a normal house with a helmet on, but there was nothing for it.

She stepped past me and led me down a couple rooms until we reached what seemed like a dining room, with a large table in the center of the room. The rest of the Dallon half of New Wave was there, Brandish and Flashbang standing and looking at what appeared to be a map on the table, a phone next to it. Panacea, on the other hand, was seated at a chair at the head of the table, her hood back and resting her head in her left hand even while looking at the map, appearing even more tired than Victoria.

It was my first time seeing her, and I was surprised at how plain she looked compared to her sister, with frizzy brown hair and a few freckles across her nose being the only things that stood out. She was the kind of person I could have seen in the halls at Winslow and wouldn't have even given a second glance.

When I walked into the room with Victoria, everybody turned to look at us. Well, Panacea just tilted her head a bit and looked up at us from under her eyelids, revealing her eyes to be slightly bloodshot.

"Relentless? Is that new armor?" Brandish asked.

"Yes, ma'am," I said, still feeling a bit self-conscious around her.

She seemed to accept the answer, because she looked back at the map. "Normally we wouldn't be including anybody else in this. However, Glory Girl seems to trust you and we could probably use all the help we can get."

"And she was the first one to tell us anything, Mom," Victoria said.

"True," Brandish agreed. "Lady Photon, are you still there?"

"We're still here," a woman's voice said, coming from the phone. "So we'll be going after Krieg, and then Cricket if possible. Can you handle Fenja and Menja, then? We need to keep them from getting to Kaiser's side if at all possible so the PRT can deal with him without interference."

"Good counters on their side, but Fenja and Menja might be tricky. Brandish and Flashbang's abilities will probably be a help, since the twins' power counters Brutes pretty well. Then again, you and GG might be able to do enough damage you can still hurt them," Leah added.

Brandish looked around at us, and when nobody said anything, she answered. "We should be able to."

"Okay, I'll inform the PRT that we'll be handling them. It's too bad we can't do more, but this is who we've been requested to handle. And surprisingly politely, coming from the Director," Lady Photon said. "Good luck."

"You too," Brandish returned.

There was a beep as the phone call ended, and then she looked up.

"Strategy. Flashbang's orbs can still affect Fenja and Menja's senses, as we know. Our focus will be on disorienting and trying to deal damage. Ideally, they won't have a chance to grow any, but ideal scenarios don't often happen. Relentless, is there anything we should know about your abilities?"

I thought for a moment. "I can contain things in my forcefields, but if they try to grow I'll have to keep increasing the size so they don't crush themselves. Eventually, I might not be able to hold them practically. I've never had to surround anything as large as they can get," I said. "Otherwise… even at scale they shouldn't be able to hurt me."

"Alright. Glory Girl, Relentless, you'll travel independently, I assume?" We both nodded, Victoria seeming a little more awake now. I looked at the map, where a bunch of pins and names were, and made note of where the one for 'Fenja/Menja' was.

"We'll meet up two blocks south of the location and proceed from there. Flashbang and I will take the car." I blinked, and was almost confused by how mundane that seemed for capes, literally driving to where you would fight. "Panacea will st—"

"I'm coming."

Everybody looked at the exhausted-looking brown-haired girl.

"…Panacea—" Brandish started, but was cut off again.

"Mom, I'm. Coming."

Brandish's lips formed a thin line, her face starting to scowl before her eyes darted over to me for a second and then returned to her daughter, her expression flattening out.

"Fine." The way it was said made it sound like it was the complete opposite of 'fine', with the added Mom-tone of 'we'll be talking about this later.'

"Okay!" Victoria said brightly at my side, drawing everyone's attention. "You guys go get in the car and armor-girl and I will start heading over."

Nobody moved, and Brandish looked back over at Panacea. "Well? You wanted to go."

The healer took a deep breath, and then stood up, walking around the opposite side of the table from Brandish and Flashbang towards us, her parents following her as she passed us and went further down the hall.

"Fly safely, Victoria," Flashbang said, the first thing I'd heard out of him the entire time. The blonde next to me nodded before she turned to me.

"Let's go, I wanna see how you do this," she said, leading me back towards the front door, turning the hallway lights off at the same time. Locking the door behind us with a key she acquired from another spot somewhere on her suit, she looked to me.

"Well?" she said, looking interested. "I completely missed it when you came to the strip mall, so I've never seen."

"Fine, fine. Just try to keep up," I said with a laugh, and then I jumped.

I bounced off of my panels until I was about halfway to the clouds, Victoria racing behind me to try and catch up.

Just as she was about to reach me, I started running towards our destination, laughing. I wasn't at full speed, because I doubted Victoria could keep up, but I was going fast enough that she couldn't catch up easily.

It was only as we were reaching the waypoint that I slowed, and then tried something different from my usual tactic. Instead of stairs, I made an ever-extending ramp in front of me, slowly increasing the friction as I slid down it like a skateboarder so that by the time I reached the bottom I only had to casually step off.

Next to me, Victoria appeared.

Despite the entire experience, she wasn't out of breath and not a single hair had been disturbed, it looked like.

"That… that is cheating," she said.

I looked over at her. "That was only about half-speed."

"Ridiculous," she said with a huff and a shake of her head.

"If it's any consolation, I think I'd rather be able to fly instead," I offered. I wasn't sure if I was serious, but flight like she had was always one of my dreams as a kid.

She smiled happily. "Hah. Yeah, it is pretty awesome."

A moment later, Victoria's phone rang. She dug it out of her side-pocket before glancing at it and then accepting the call. "Mom?"

"The PRT updated us. They've been sighted moving towards the Medhall building. We're already en-route. If you find them, you have permission to keep after and harass them to slow them down. Don't give them a chance to hit you, Glory Girl. Tell Relentless to do what she can as well. We'll be there soon."

"Will do!" Victoria replied. "Bye!"

She ended the call and put the phone back away, turning to me. "You hear that?"

I nodded. "Yep."

Victoria grinned. "Then let's go and ruin some Nazis' night."

"You have anything more accurate, Leah?"

There was no reply.

"Leah?"

Suddenly there was the sound of a throat clearing. "Yeah, hi, sorry. Had to remove the mic for a bit. I'm here," she said with what sounded like a repressed giggle.

…I figured it was probably better not to ask. "Have you heard anything more about Fenja and Menja?"

"Nope, sorry Taylor," she replied. "Everything I can get from online is at least ten minutes out of date, and that's not good enough for something like this. And the PRT is in pretty hard lockdown, they're not saying anything at al— Wait! Right there!"

The two were right below us, partially powered up and moving quickly through the streets as they ran towards the Medhall building.

Victoria and I had taken a direct path towards it from where we'd been, and it looked like the twins had made it about half-way there before we caught up.

As soon as I saw them I motioned at Victoria and got her attention, pointing down at them. She nodded, and on my next panel I pushed myself down. I shot downwards, my aim true, and just before landing twisted around, slamming into another Armor panel I'd put millimeters above the street.

I stood up slowly, looking at the story-and-a-half-tall women who were now in guard positions thirty feet in front of me, my sigils flaring and rolling across my new armor before settling. "Hello ladies," I said, making sure my voice carried across the gap. "I hope you don't mind if we interrupt your night out on the town tonight."

There was a loud crack as Victoria pounded her fist into her hand, echoing out from where she hovered in place behind me. And even though I couldn't feel it, I knew her aura had to be cranked up as high as it would go.

"I texted Mom and Dad with the location," Victoria said out of the side of her mouth towards me, and I nodded as the two giantesses raised their weapons and grew further even as we watched.

They took a half-step forward, and then Menja rushed us while Fenja… turned and ran away?

They were trying to stall us so that one of them could get to Medhall and help their side. Even one cape could tip the balance of a capture and arrest like that for Kaiser, so it made sense that was what they would do, but still.

No.

There was no escaping to go and help Kaiser today.

Faster than they could likely see, I accelerated from dead stop to moving at over sixty miles an hour, easily passing Fenja before I spun and stopped, blocking her from reaching the end of the street. She skidded to a stop, her sword and shield raised as she stood twenty feet away, and gave a muttered "tch."

I flexed my Klein field, panels manifesting into existence around me and then fading, energy crackling through the air from being exposed to so much of the capture/storage manifold and sparking off of me.

By this point Fenja was two stories tall. Her shield and sword had grown with her, the sword now almost twice as long as my claymore despite being an arming sword and starting out half the size.

Well, if she got a sword then it was only fair I used one, too, right?

I grabbed the hilt that was sticking over my shoulder and released the clamps holding the claymore to my back, pulling it over my shoulder and holding it in a single hand.

She raised her sword in into what I took as a classic stance, and then rushed me.

I brought mine up to block her as she brought her blade down on me, bearing the weight of the two-story-tall warrior-woman with barely any effort.

I was proud of having engineered a custom body more and more. I had no doubt I could have handled this with just my nanomaterial, but like this I wasn't even exerting a single percent of my full force to keep her where she was.

I stepped to the left, letting her sword slide along mine towards the ground before she stopped pushing down. Fenja turned it into a swipe to the side and I had to dig my feet into the cement to prevent her from pushing me off my feet.

Honestly, I could have just been using my Wave-Force Armor to block her, but if I relied on that all the time, I'd never get any chance to learn how to do anything else, if that made sense.

I shoved her sword away, bringing my blade up in a blink to draw a line across her forearm. I had the nanomaterial along the edge molded so it was only about as sharp as a kitchen knife, as using the actual monomolecular edge of the sword could very quickly lead to missing limbs, and as much as I wanted to stop her, I didn't want to have "potentially lethal maiming" over my head.

Still, the cut I'd made was much smaller than I'd expected, though Fenja still drew back with a hiss.

"They don't just get stronger as they gets larger, they get harder to hurt too, Taylor. I think it's some kind of Breaker effect. Something that reduces force or damage somehow?" Leah said.

"Thanks," I grunted, blocking another blow.

I was definitely fighting defensively rather than trying to be aggressive, but I had a reason: I didn't need to hurt her, all I needed to do was keep her occupied, wear her down, because while she could eventually get tired, I never would.

And okay, maybe I was trying to avoid a repeat of the Lung incident.

Fenja went to bash me with her shield, and this time I did use my Armor, white hexagons flashing into existence and flaring out from the point of impact.

"I can do this literally all night, you know," I told her.

She scowled at me, bringing her sword back towards me. And then the fight was on.

She was fucking done with this.

There were not words to describe how absolutely done with this shit she was.

All she wanted was a full night's sleep, but nooooo, apparently the city couldn't even do that without fucking it up.

And then Mom had wanted her to stay at home? Where she couldn't even do anything if they needed her?

Yeah, no.

The car hit a pothole, jostling her where she sat in the back seat.

Three AM. Three AM. Couldn't this at least have not happened until sometime during the day? Was that really too much to ask?

Streetlights flashed by as they followed the GPS' instructions to wherever Victoria had texted them.

The car suddenly stopped, and Amy sat up a bit more as her dad quickly turned off the car, and she unbuckled herself at the same time as her parents. Her hand was on the car door's handle, about to pull it, when her mother turned around, opening her own door.

"Panacea, you are to stay in the car unless we need you, is that clear?" her mom said, one-hundred percent into Brandish-mode, and Amy knew that doing anything other than agreeing would accomplish absolutely nothing.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine."

The car doors shut as her parents got out, and Amy watched through the car window as they ran down the street they'd parked in front of towards where Victoria was harassing Menja, trying to avoid her spear as much as possible.

Further down the street that armored woman—Relentless—was matching Fenja blow-for-blow, sword-for-sword. Victoria hadn't shut up about her for the past two days, and Amy had to crush the jealousy that rose. She couldn't exactly blame the woman for her powers. Still, if Amy had powers like that, she could be out there with them, not just stuck in the car until someone got hurt.

Like she was fucking useless or something.

It was always like that. "Oh Panacea, stay back!", "Panacea you're too valuable to risk!", "Panacea heal us after we've done everything!". Bullshit. Her mom and dad were just as fragile as she was, they just had training and experience. There was practically nothing stopping her from being out there with them except for that.

Brandish stopped in front of Menja, the woman taking a step back to keep both her and Victoria in sight, parrying the hard-light weapon Brandish held, which didn't even do much to the steel when normally it would have sliced right through it. Flashbang surprisingly kept running, towards Fenja and Relentless.

She watched as Victoria tried to catch Menja off-guard while Brandish kept her busy. Flashbang and Relentless had begun integrating the former's namesakes into the fight, bursts of light popping around Fenja, while Relentless didn't even seem inconvenienced by them, probably thanks to her obviously tinkertech helmet.

…

Yeah, fuck this, she wasn't just going to stay in the car while everyone else was out there. She might be the healer, but she wasn't totally defenseless. Hell, she'd taken Tattletale down in the bank without the villain even noticing her, just by standing up and touching her neck when she passed by, completely oblivious that Amy had even been there.

And damn had that felt good, too.

Amy climbed out of the car, shutting the door behind her before moving towards the tree set into the sidewalk at the corner. At least this way she could actually respond if anything happened. She leaned against it, watching her family and Relentless corral the two E88 capes and keep them from running off.

Was it really so outrageous that she came along for things like this? Half the time she thought her mom was against it for no good reason rather than to "protect" her.

Fuck, she could probably take the two giantesses down faster than anybody else, all she needed was skin contact like with Tattletale and this would be done and she could just go back to sleep for a few hours.

The fight turned in a blink. One moment Brandish was moving closer towards Menja's legs, likely to try and incapacitate the woman, and the next she was staggering backwards, a large gash on the outside of her thigh. Menja took advantage of the break in attack and kicked out, and Amy could only watch as her mother tried to step back but her leg gave out beneath her, the giantess' foot connecting with Brandish's side and throwing her fifteen feet away, towards the middle of the street …and further away from where Amy stood.

"MOM!" Victoria yelled.

Amy was instantly up, trying to see a way to get to her mother, but with Menja in-between her and Brandish, she was effectively blocked off, unless she was willing to risk getting in the middle of the entire fight and exposing herself.

Victoria dove straight towards Menja. Unlike earlier when she'd been moving back and forth, avoiding the woman's spear, her path now was completely predictable, and she was rewarded with the spear swatting her aside towards the other side of the street.

Amy gripped the tree at her side, ignoring the way its biology spread out in her mind as she watched Victoria get back up and launch herself at the giantess, only to be slapped down again, this time impacting the side of the building and falling to the ground.

"Stay down," she heard Menja growl, the haft of her spear coming down to impact Victoria's stomach, and Amy could almost hear the whoosh of air as her breath was driven from her lungs.

Victoria!

Brandish was still in the middle of the road, having rolled onto her side to try and get up, but Amy could see that her leg refused to support her. Further down the street Flashbang and Relentless had doubled down on Fenja, but Menja had already turned and was running towards the end of the street where Amy stood, huge strides eating up the distance.

Amy's hand tightened on the bark of the tree, her heart pounding and adrenaline rushing through her.

Was this seriously it? Menja was going to escape, just like that? The entire fight, completely pointless because one of them got away? Brandish and Victoria getting hurt, all for nothing?

She had a chance, just like in the bank. She could do something and change things, act on her own and achieve something that was hers, or she could just let things happen, staying out of the way and letting everyone else deal with it. Just like always.

"Fuck that."

It was so easy, almost too easy, to push the tree at her side to grow, to sculpt it into a tangle of branches that placed it right in Menja's way, the growth happening far faster than anything she'd ever done with people. The giantess slid to a stop in front of it, but Amy was already directing the branches to reach out towards the woman. "No getting away. Not this time."

The branches twined around Menja's limbs even as she struggled, and Amy felt some kind of… excitement? at the way she effortlessly reshaped the tree and reeled the woman towards her. "Do you know what time it is?" she asked, reaching out to touch Menja's skin as soon as she was close enough. "It's 3AM. I am supposed to be asleep. I have school tomorrow. It is too fucking early for this shit. So how about you just go to fucking sleep."

And then Amy knocked the woman out.

She was breathing heavily like she'd just run a mile on the track, but she only took a second to catch her breath before dashing down the street. She glanced at Victoria, but her sister was already starting to stand up, so she moved towards Brandish, sliding to a stop and kneeling next to her.

Touching her mother's neck, she saw the damage to the vastus externus and rectus femoris muscles, and took the time she needed to stop the bleeding and repair the muscles. Half the ribs on her left side were cracked, and it was another minute or so to repair those, Brandish's breathing becoming substantially easier from it.

"…Thank you, Amy," her mom said, pushing herself up.

"Holy shit, that was amazing, sis," Victoria said, drawing up behind them, seemingly having gotten her breath back. Still, Amy held out her hand, Victoria staring at it for a moment before blinking and putting her own on it. Victoria's biology bloomed into her awareness, and Amy forced her attention to the bruising that was forming on her stomach and lower chest, fixing the blood vessels and tissues with a thought.

She looked further down the street, away from where they came from. Sometime in all the excitement her father and the armored woman had brought Fenja down, a weird layer of white translucent hexagons set on top of her front, preventing her from sitting up.

"Everybody okay?" Flashbang asked as he walked towards them, Relentless trailing behind him even as the layer of hexagons stayed where it was.

"Now we are," Brandish said. "Now, Panacea…"

She could just tell what was coming, and she couldn't deal with it right now. Maybe later, but definitely not now. "I just knocked her unconscious. Same thing I did to Tattletale, Mom."

Brandish just looked at her oddly for a moment, and Amy had to wonder what she was thinking now, before her mom nodded and looked away. She still had a feeling this wouldn't be the end of it. "And Fenja?"

"I've got her under my forcefield," Relentless said in that oddly distorted-yet-clear voice, the glowing white symbols all over her fading as they watched. "If she shrinks I can just lower it."

"Well, then I think I have a call to the PRT to make," Brandish said, standing up. Amy followed her and realized that sometime in the chaos her hood had fallen down.

She didn't put it back up.