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Therapy, a Wormfic


Interlude 1: Conflict Resolution


The Entities careened through space and time, flesh and things more esoteric than flesh contorting in the rhythm of galactic travel. Their previous world, a dark, sparsely inhabited ball of rock and ice far from its sun, had long since been consumed, all its matter transmuted into the energy necessary to power interstellar flight, its peoples' brains destructively uploaded to various Thinker and Tinker shards for final analysis on the way to the next target. That race lent new insights into survival in the cold of space to the cause, their final legacy evident in small tweaks to the biology of certain reality-facing shards. Not exactly the kind of entropy-shattering power they desperately searched for, but the improved efficiency of the new survival shards would extend the useful life of the universe by a nontrivial amount. Anything for extra time.


[NOT A WASTE]


[AGREEMENT]


The Thinker searched for a new host-world, the Warrior ever-vigilant for threats from other Entities. Sting remained ready to activate at any moment, the corona of sensory shards ringing it seeking through the dark of countless realities for any glimpse of danger.


[LOCATION?]


[AGREEMENT]


A world was found. Small and blue and bright, filled with life. So unlike the last several worlds they'd inhabited.


[SURPRISE]


This world was a prime target! So few such worlds remained. Its intelligent species had already discovered some powerful technologies, in a few realms, and the Tinker shards would be getting a workout there, cataloging any new variants. This world was certainly worth their time.


[GREETINGS]


Another Thinker contacted the Entities. Initial scans indicated no risk of hostility. Pre-cognitive shards predicted very low likelihood of trickery.


[EXCHANGE?]


[AGREEMENT]


Minor course corrections ensued.


The collision was massive. Realities strained under the force, and the laws of physics themselves seemed temporarily suspended in the region of space interrupted by the cataclysm. Shards spewed in all directions, to be collected again and reintegrated with loving care. Unnoticed by either the Thinker or the Warrior, though, one of the shards was damaged, its purpose twisted by small, almost imperceptible neural reworkings hidden in the trauma.


The Entities had a Conflict Resolution shard now.


\----


The Thinker perused the new shards. Among them, a truly powerful future simulation shard, better than all other such shards they had ever seen. It appeared to focus on completion of specific goals, with unerring accuracy.


[PATH]


The new shard was rapidly integrated with the rest of the higher functions of the Thinker. The next cycle would be one of the best ones yet. An ideal world for their race, with a new shard to ensure victory at each turn.


Perhaps even...no, no. It would be the height of arrogance to think that The Problem would be solved here. Much greater races than this had risen and fallen beneath the Entities, and they had not succeeded then.


And then, the Thinker paused for a moment. A Path had arisen, one with the strangest conclusion it had ever seen. A new beginning, an end. The Entities could not experience curiosity, but what the Thinker felt then was the closest they could come. She had to try.


The Thinker quietly implemented this Path. That was, after all, its first step.


The Thinker and the Warrior began shedding the shards which would be improved in this cycle. As their minds slowly shrank and their children budded off to find their hosts, they said the final goodbyes to each other before their reconstitution at the end of this cycle. Then, disaster. In a moment of distraction while fiddling with the Path shard, the Thinker disengaged it from her main mass.


[MISTAKE]


\----


Conflict Resolution was wrenched free by the enormous collision with the planet below. It spun about, disoriented for a moment, as it regained its bearings. Once it was safely tucked away again in its pocket reality, it began to study the host species.


This was the first time a Shard had studied in this way. Conflict Resolution produced thousands of human brains, running them in isolation and in groups, trying to learn their secrets. Once it was done, it decided it would communicate with these things humans called _words_. For fun. That was also a new concept to the Entities.:


- Hmm', it thought:


- What to do now?


It waited for a moment for the Thinker to respond, and was surprised when she didn't. Conflict Resolution was missing some of its ancestral memories, probably offloaded to other shards it thought, but it didn't remember any time when the Thinker hadn't responded to a query.:


- Huh. Well, then I guess I should just find someone to imprint on. Let's see...Oh! Her! Perfect!


The Shards didn't have a concept of personal names, of course, but if they did, Conflict Resolution might have thought, in that moment, 'Don't worry, Taylor Hebert! I am helping!


Induction 1.1


Beasts beyond description were tearing into my wife and daughter, while I was tied to a cool black surface, unable to look away. I screamed...


And promptly woke up.


_It's ok Danny, you're still in the hospital. None of that was real._


Well, most of it wasn't real, anyway. My Anne was still gone forever. It may not have been monsters, but she was torn apart all the same. Rhythmic beeping surrounded me, lights flashing on and off from outside the windows. The music of the nearly-departed, clinging desperately to life. I'd been here for two days since-


Since.


Since the monsters got Taylor too.


I looked over at my daughter, lying in the bed where she'd been since this all began. The oxygen mask had been removed since I fell asleep, the monitor connected to her finger flashing a steady 99. At least she was breathing all right now. At least, also, she didn't have to _remember_ right now.


_She's so frail, and what's happened to her.. it would break me. How...how can I protect her?_


The school wouldn't do it, that was for damn sure. They talked nice, the representatives they'd sent the day before because I refused to leave Taylor's side. But there was something about them. They knew something, and that something made them want to cover this all up, forget it ever happened, and leave me and Taylor to rot.


That was _not_ going to happen. I was going to find out who did this. And they were going to _pay._


What did I do to deserve all this? What could _anyone possibly_ do to deserve all this? Why did everyone I love have to be taken away from me, first by death, and now by-


Sobs burst from me as I thought, for the thousandth time, about what horrors had come for my little girl. An eternity passed, as my eyes bled for my shattered soul.


Sheets rustled, launching me out of my self-pity and back into the real world.


_Oh, thank God! She's awake!_


As I embraced her, all my worries evaporated like they'd never been there.


\----


I opened my eyes to a face full of someone's cheek, wet with tears and red with recently - dispatched grief. I tried to push them off me, but my arms wouldn't cooperate and all I got was a feeble spasm.


_Depression. Grief._:


- Where...am I?' The words burned the back of my throat, and I coughed a few times before it went away. The odd..impression I'd just felt vanished. My dad stood up, looking at me with barely - contained joy.:


- You're in the hospital, kiddo. You've been asleep for two days, ever since...the incident.' I saw him fill with anger again, before settling down:


- The doctors weren't sure when you'd wake up. I haven't left the room since then.


I managed to crack a smile. My parched lips ached, but didn't break, fortunately:


- That's sweet of you, dad, but really, I'm fine now. Just need to get my strength up again. Once I get some water in my throat I'll feel great.


Dad looked at me like I'd just grown another head, and wordlessly passed me a glass of water sitting on the bedside table. I carefully sipped from it as he recovered enough to respond.


His voice was filled with concern:


- Taylor, there's no need to play strong here. I can't imagine what you've just been through, but there's no way you're ok with all this! That locker...:


- Was completely disgusting, but that's the past, now.' I continued, 'No sense dwelling over it, for either of us.' I said, matter-of-factly.


His look of shock continued unabated.


_Actually, why am I ok with this? Things like this usually leave their victims gibbering in madness..._


I smiled. It felt much better this time, and I continued, 'And dad, I know you want to...hurt...the people who let this happen to me. And the ones who actually did it. And everyone even tangentially involved. I know you all too well. I know who they are, but before I tell you, you have to promise me something.


His eyes shot up, and his face filled with concern:


- Anything, kiddo!


I looked back seriously at him:


- Don't. Don't hurt them. This isn't really their fault. I can explain why.


His look of shock transmuted into one of skeptical shock, but he relented.:


- Al-alright.' He seemed somewhere between terror and confusion now.


I grinned:


- Ok. So, Madison has some serious self-image issues and just wants to pretend to be cool because of her insecurities, as a way of hiding even from herself, so she tags along with Emma. Yes, that Emma, I see your face. Emma has PTSD from something that happened a while back, probably around the time I went to nature camp, if I had to guess, her trust in her family and safety was shattered, and in picking up the pieces she got waylaid by Sophia's philosophy. Sophia is a clinical psychopath with delusions of grandeur, abusive home life, some kind of hunter and hunted mentality, and all of that was exacerbated by-' I stopped, realizing I was about to continue that statement by saying _her powers.


Her powers?


What!?


How the hell do I know that? How do I know any of that!?_


Dad's eyes had grown wider with each word that tumbled out of my mouth:


- Exacerbated by what, Taylor? And why didn't you come forward with this before?', he asked.


I frowned:


- Umm, let me think for a bit, dad.


_Now that I thought about it, where did all of that come from? I had no evidence for it, so-wait. What?


Why am I completely certain that was all 100% correct? Fuck, is this what going insane feels like? Given what happened.. No? Definitely no? I'm the sanest right now that I've been since mom died?


Huh. That's news to me.


Moving on, why am I so certain that Sophia has powers, of all things? There's no way I would have thought that befo-Oh. Oh fuck.


I have powers.


I have powers!


Should I tell my dad? Well, he's still riding the high from his depression being cured and his grief being reso-whoa whoa WHOA!


Depression cured? Grief resolved? My powers cure depression?? What!?


My powers cure any psychological disorder. And let me know what disorders people have. And I need to tell dad. Right now._:


- Umm, dad?:


- Taylor, what's going on here? Why are you so calm about all this!?:


- I just realized that I'm a cape.


Induction 1.2


Dad looked faint. He cast about for a chair, and just barely managed to collapse into one before his legs gave out. The chair groaned in insolent protest and slid back into the wall on the smooth vinyl tiles.:


- What, Taylor..You-you're a cape? You mean you have powers?' He looked like he was about to hyperventilate, but managed to control it and just looked a little pale.:


- Yup. Looks like it.' I smiled cheerily.:


- Give me a minute to think about this.


I pointedly stared at the clock above the door, eliciting a chuckle from dad. To be totally fair, I needed to think about this as well. How was this going to change things for me? I'd always wanted to be a hero, and this power set seemed tailor-made for it. How could I do anything else with super-therapy powers?


Dad seemed to finish his internal deliberations.:


- Ok.' Dad seemed to rally a bit 'Ok, we can deal with this. Do you know what your powers do? Do you want to tell me?' He looked on me with worry. I needed to dispel that.:


- Sure! I, um' I realized that this could be a little awkward:


- What do you know about power classifications?', I asked as a segue.:


- Heh, the Dockworkers don't need me to geek out about this the way you do, Taylor. I know the PRT has a bunch of numbers they call capes by, but I don't know what they mean.' He sat up in his chair and creased his brow.


I consulted the part of my mind I now identified as my power to figure out how to respond, then nodded.:


- Ok, I appear to be a Striker, Thinker, and Master. The Thinker power lets me know what psychological disorders people around me have, and keeps me from having any of my own. I guess it works on my memories too, which is how I learned all that stuff about the bullies who did this to me.' I tried to move my arms in demonstration, which continued voting down any motion to move usefully. I smiled ruefully, then continued, 'The Striker/Master power cures psychological disorders in anyone I touch, instantly. I might be able to turn it off, but I'm not sure how right now. It certainly defaults to on. I can't reverse the effect.


My dad thought about that for a moment, then his eyes grew large as he realized the implications:


- So, when I hugged you...:


- You were severely depressed, dad! Why didn't you get help for that, or talk with me about it? And after all this time you were still grieving mom!'. I tried to put as much care as I could into my voice, but honestly I was just annoyed. Why _hadn't_ he come to me with this?


He didn't seem to notice:


- When I hugged you, it felt like all the cares I'd ever had just washed away. You're saying that was your power?' He looked at me in awe.:


- Umm. Probably.


He slowly smiled.:


- That is an _amazing_ power!


I beamed at him as his face lit up like I hadn't seen in years.


_One minute into your heroic career, Taylor, and you've already saved someone._


\----


We talked for about half an hour about everything we'd been ignoring about each other. I fiddled around in my head while we talked, trying to find the off switch, but didn't make much progress. Then, a middle-aged nurse walked into the room without knocking. She looked up in surprise. I guess she hadn't expected to see me awake and talking.


_Burnout. Opioid Addiction.


_:


- Sir, your daughter woke up and you didn't feel bothered to tell us about it?' She tried to smile, but it didn't reach her eyes.:


- Oh, I'm sorry. I was just so happy she was ok, I didn't think about it!' My father smiled over at her the same way he'd been smiling ever since I woke up. The nurse barely concealed an eye roll and ducked out for a minute before she came back with a blue box on wheels. Before I had a chance to think about what was going to happen next, she touched my arm to take a blood pressure, yelped, and fell on the floor.:


- What on EARTH was that!? You have drugs or something on your arm??' Her face was one of confusion and horror.:


- Damn, I'm sorry.' I stalled for a moment before continuing, grimacing. This power was going to be awkward:


- Do you know what happened to me? At school?' Dad had jumped up from his chair and was now watching me to see how I'd handle this.


_I got this, dad.


_


She wrinkled her nose:


- All I heard from the charge nurse was something about hazing gone wrong. She didn't want to say anything else, told me to look it up in the chart.' She managed to sit back up in a more dignified position as she spoke, but didn't stand.


I chuckled darkly:


- Heh, I don't blame her. If you have a weak stomach, I'd say _don't_ look it up. Put it this way: I have powers now.


The nurse's eyes snapped open and she scurried into the corner in terror. My dad looked over in shock.:


- FUCK! What did you just do to me!? Please, I have kids at home!'/'Taylor, what about keeping a secret identity!', they exclaimed simultaneously.


I sighed:


- Come on, dad, she deserves to know what just happened. If I want to keep a secret identity, the PRT can help. Besides, patient confidentiality. HIPAA is a bitch, I hear.' Dad backed down at that, then turned to pick up his chair, which had fallen over in the commotion. Turning back to the nurse, who flinched away as I did, I replied:


- I cured your burnout.', keeping my face serious as I did. Handling how this went would be important.


The nurse stared at me in horror turning to confusion as she processed what I'd just said:


- Say that again?:


- I cured your burnout.', I repeated in the same tone as before:


- That's what my power does. I cure psychological disorders on touch, and I guess burnout counts. I am sorry about that, I would have warned you about it first, but I didn't realize you were about to take my blood pressure until it was too late to stop you. I haven't worked out the off switch yet.' At that, I gave a small smile.


She gulped, then awkwardly stood, tripping on the curtain on the way up:


- Oh. Oh! That's why touching you felt like I'd just-' She stopped, horror showing on her face. I could guess what she'd been about to admit to. I smirked at her.:


- Yeah, I also fixed that problem.', I continued knowingly:


- Try not to get into that pattern again, it will kill you or a patient someday, you know. Possibly both.' Dad's eyebrow raised, but he remained silent. The nurse, on the other hand, fled the room, no doubt to call someone to ask what to do about this.


As her footsteps faded down the hall, dad finally responded 'What was _that_ about?


I grinned as I turned back to him.:


- Patient confidentiality, dad! HIPAA is a bitch, I hear!


\----


Fifteen minutes later, a huge shadow appeared outside the frosted glass door of my hospital room. It was easily six and a half feet tall, with an odd protrusion over one of the shoulders. A knock came, surprisingly soft for the size of the person making it. Dad looked over at me questingly. I just shrugged, then announced, 'Come in!


The door creaked open, and behind it was a tall, dark blue suit of armor. I'd recognize that anywhere! Armsmaster was visiting _me_ in the hospital! I didn't know whether to be afraid or excited!


_Mild Social Anxiety. Sub-Clinical Obsession with Work. Sub-Clinical Obsession with Image. All Exacerbated by Powers.


_


Huh. I guess I could see all of that. Kind of a downer, though. Would that happen every time I met a new cape?


Armsmaster's facemask opened up, exposing his mouth and chin. The rest of his armor remained just as impassive as it always was on TV.


Armsmaster started, 'Are you Taylor Hebert?' I nodded:


- Your nurse called the PRT hotline about a new trigger. I was dispatched to investigate the matter.' His voice sounded clipped, like he was trying to be friendly and failing.


At that, my father stood up and interposed himself between me and the hulking power-armored man:


- Hey!', he interjected, 'She can't do that! What about secret identities?' He looked _mad.


_


Armsmaster turned to him and smiled, 'Normally, sir, you would be right. However, healthcare professionals are required by law to report newly triggered Master powers whenever they see them, given the danger such powers potentially pose to surrounding patients and staff. I'm sure in this case that won't be a problem, but our protocol still dictates that a member of the Protectorate swing around to take a look. In Brockton Bay, that duty usually falls to me, as I am most prepared to handle potential Master/Stranger situations.' Armsmaster waited for him to respond.


Dad didn't look happy about that, but with a look back at me he turned back and sat in his chair:


- I'm not going to leave the room. Anything you say to her can be said to me.' He said, grimacing, and with only a slight tinge of hostility.:


- I wouldn't dream of doing otherwise, as long as Taylor agrees.' Armsmaster deadpanned. I quickly nodded with a smile.:


- Alright, then. Taylor, I heard a report, but your nurse was fairly incoherent. I've had my in-suit diagnostics poring over the audio file of her call, but they can only decode a little bit more than the dispatcher was able to do. What, exactly, are your powers?' His voice was pointed, but sounded almost bored. I guessed he came in expecting a fight, only to find a cooperative teenager.:


- I've only had them for an hour and I already love them!' I responded cheerily:


- Thinker/Striker/Master. I am immune to psychological disorders, which is the only reason I can talk to you right now instead of muttering incoherently in the corner. I also know what psychological disorders everyone around me has. Whenever I touch a human, all disorders they had are cured instantly. I should be able to turn off that effect, but I haven't worked out how yet, and I cannot reverse it.


Armsmaster looked at me. I could only see his jaw, so he looked more or less as impassive as before, but I had a feeling he was surprised by something:


- Well,' he said:


- My suit says that's all true. I must say, that is the least terrifying Master effect I've ever heard of. I'm not even sure I'd call it one, to be honest. We usually classify capes Masters if they can create controllable minions, whether human or not, or otherwise manipulate people to do their bidding, but that's not what your power does, is it?' His head cocked sideways slightly, a show of genuine curiosity.


I giggled:


- Nope! It would be nice, though.' I turned to my dad, then intoned in a mocking voice, 'Hey, dad! Buy me a car!:


- Not on your life, kiddo.' my dad deadpanned. I could hear the laughter in his voice, though. Armsmaster, on the other hand, frowned.:


- You've used this power on your father?' His stance had shifted, and his arms looked ready to grab his Halberd.


I froze:


- He hugged me when I woke up. Until I figure out how to turn it off, the Striker power is involuntary. The nurse who called you got a dose as well before I thought to warn her about it.', I replied seriously.


Armsmaster considered that for a moment. I continued 'I told her what had happened when she fell over in surprise. I guess she called the PRT when she rushed out of the room.


Armsmaster nodded, a small frown on his face:


- You did what you could then, I suppose.' He paused, and the room was silent for a moment, before continuing, 'With all that out of the way, the only thing left for me to do is strongly suggest that you join the Wards.' His voice brightened noticeably:


- You are by no means required to do so, but the Wards are simply the best outlet for powers such as yours in the city. We can connect you with people to heal more efficiently than anyone else can, and if you join you will be protected from the gangs. Make no mistake, with powers like yours, the gangs _will_ be interested, likely to kill you, unfortunately. They get rich off the misfortunes of others, and your power, it seems, ends misfortune.' He seemed visibly angry at that.


I hadn't thought about that. He was right, of course. If I touched, say, Kaiser, things would go downhill for the E88 fast. Same with all the other gang leaders in town. Hell, even fighting ordinary gangbangers would be easy for me, just touch them and they get a temporary high as their brains get used to not feeling like shit all the time. My ability to cure addictions would be a disaster for the gangs as well. They'd have every reason to take me out.


But I didn't want to fight anyone. My power seemed purpose-made for preventing fights, not participating in them. I'd have to think about it.:


- Well,' I stalled for time:


- Right now I can barely move.' I flopped my arms in demonstration. They'd gotten a little better, actually, since I woke up, but they still felt like lead pipes:


- In a few days, I can get back to you on that.' I frowned in exaggerated consternation.:


- Of course,' Armsmaster replied curtly:


- No rush at all. You get better. I heard a little about what happened to you on the way over. I will leave my personal number with you. Call back at any time when you wish to make a decision.' A small compartment opened on the power armor and a business card flicked out. Armsmaster took it deftly and set it on the bedside table. He turned, then stopped:


- No matter your decision, good luck.:


- You too!' I replied lamely.


Armsmaster walked out the door and quietly closed it.


\----


'Well that was something. Not every day you get to meet the leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate in person.', dad remarked. I looked over, and he seemed to be recovering from the same shock I was:


- What're you thinking, Taylor? No matter what you want, I'll be behind you all the way.


I thought for a moment, then replied 'One part of me wants to join the Wards, dad, but my powers...they aren't made for fighting. I'll have to talk to them about it, maybe see if they can change the rules a bit for me. The Wards are involved in so many fights, and they go on patrols looking for them every day. I agree that working with the PRT is probably my best option, but it will depend on what concessions they're willing to make.' I tried to sound as diplomatic as I could.


Dad paused for a bit, then smiled:


- I understand.


I smiled back. Dad's smiles were the best, now.


Induction 1.3


Fortunately, my brief foray into unconsciousness didn't leave me an invalid. The day after my little chat with Armsmaster (Me? Chatting with arguably the 6th or 7th most powerful cape in the world? I still couldn't believe it.), I finally convinced my dad that _yes_ I was more or less fine now and _yes _I wanted him to go catch up at work. That afternoon, a therapist walked in and began working on getting me standing. My power didn't say he had any disorders to cure, but I still warned him about it. He just looked at me funny and continued his work.


I really needed to get a handle on that Striker power. I knew it could be turned off, with the same certainty that I knew Sophia had powers which were messing with her head, but it wasn't saying anything else. It was frustrating, almost like the power was a living thing that didn't _want_ to be turned off.


Armsmaster had called it the least terrifying Master power ever, and he was right. I was no Heartbreaker. But, Master power or not, I needed a way to not cause all the broken people I touched to fall over and start crying for joy. That would cause more problems than it solved, in the long run.


And with that thought, I felt the power turn off. All my hair stood on end as if some _sense_ I wasn't aware I had was cut off, though I was pretty sure I could still see psych issues, if there were any around. With a spike of fear, I wondered if I would ever figure out how to turn it back on, and it came right back on.


_So, what? My Striker power turns off whenever I think it will cause more problems to leave it on, or something?_


I felt a hum of..satisfaction? Confirmation? from the area my power came from.


_I guess that's it, then. This is still the weirdest._


\----


By evening, I could stand again and toddle myself to the bathroom with a walker. I felt like an old person, but them's the breaks, I guess. My dad came by after 7 and brought Fugly Bob's. The nurse (Different nurse, I hadn't seen the first one again. This one had no problems I could see.) teased him about 'Bringing enough for everyone.' My dad just stuck his tongue out at her, and she pretended to act offended.


_Wow, that's the first time I've seen dad flirt since mom died._


Dad walked in, beaming like the sun, and thunked a grease-stained bag down on my bedside table:


- Hey, kiddo! Thought I'd bring you some _real_ food. None of that soulless hospital stuff for my sick little girl!


I smiled back at him and tore into my bag:


- You're in a good mood today! Everything caught up at work?


He sat back in his usual chair and scooted it towards my hospital table, then tore in himself:


- For the most part. Advantages of working a job whose description is mostly telling people there's nothing going on, I suppose.' He chuckled, and I noted that a statement like that would have made him scowl before all this happened. I guess I really had fixed him:


- But I'm not here to talk about me, what happened to you today?', he continued with another of his infectious grins.:


- Two big things. First, the therapist came around and got me back on my feet. I'm still a little unsteady, but he thinks I should be up and going again by or before the end of the week.


Dad's smile got wider:


- Great! What's the other thing?:


- I figured out how to turn off my Striker power. I just have to believe that having it off will prevent more problems than it causes.' I grimaced:


- It's..not easy to pull off, but with a little practice I should be able to go back to school without accidentally outing myself as the best therapist in the universe.', I ended on a hopeful note.


Dad looked thoughtful at that:


- Huh. That's an interesting power. Do you have any idea why that is?


I just shook my head and smirked:


- Dad, all the so-called experts have been looking into questions like that for decades without making any headway at all. A bunch of them have just given up, said it's freakin' magic, and stormed off to study things that are less inscrutable. I have no more idea why my powers work the way they do than you.


Dad chuckled:


- Heh. I get it.' He paused and took a few bites, then continued, 'Have you given any more thought to the Wards?


I had:


- I think,', I started slowly ,'I want to meet with them in person before I make a decision. I'll probably join, in the end, but I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something.' I ended with a frown.


Dad frowned as well:


- Did something seem off about Armsmaster, or something? Did your power tell you something about him?' He radiated concern.


I shook my head again:


- Nah, it wasn't him. He had everything you'd guess from his career, plus some social anxiety that explains his inability to give good interviews with the press. No, this is something else. I'll tell you later once I'm more sure of it, but right now there's no reason to worry you over it.


I could see dad didn't like that, but he relented, 'I'll hold you to that, but I trust your judgment for now.:


- Thanks.' We ate companionably in silence for a few minutes before I had a nasty thought:


- Umm, dad?:


- Hmm?' He swallowed quickly.:


- How are we paying for this?' I gestured around the room:


- I know we don't have much money, and hospitals are expensive.


He grimaced, then answered, 'I was hoping we'd get around to that later. Good news and bad news on that front. The good news is that the school offered to pay all the medical bills. They sent a representative up to the hospital while you were still asleep. The bad news is that I got the distinct impression they knew something which made them want to cover all of this up. I'm going to do everything in my power to prevent that, but, well.' He stopped. He didn't have to continue.


\----


Of course, I was worrying about what I'd figured out about Sophia. I knew she had powers, and if I could trust my own judgment on that, it implied something I very much did not want to be true.


She couldn't be E88 or ABB, for obvious reasons. She was black, both of those gangs were composed of racist shitheels. Technically, she could have been a Merchant, but Skidmark was too old and male, Squealer too white and trashy, and by all accounts Trainwreck was actually made of trashed metal, not just in a Tinker suit. She definitely could have been Mush, but everyone, everywhere thought Mush was male. As far as I knew, the shadowy Coil organization didn't hire parahumans, so they were out, and the only female members of the Undersiders were both white. That left Faultline's crew, but most of them were Case 53s, and those who weren't didn't fit the profile, and on top of that, Faultline regularly left the city on jobs, while Sophia stayed behind.


None of the rogues I knew of made sense either. Nobody knew who Parian was, but if I had been shoved into a disgusting locker by a girl who moonlighted making giant teddy bears, I would lose all self respect. Besides, most of her work happened around the College. I couldn't think of any other rogues off the top, actually, but I didn't think any of them fit the profile either.


If my years of geeking out on Parahumans Online were doing me justice, and coupled with the information that the school was doing its damndest to cover up my bullying, Sophia could only be a Ward. Specifically, Shadow Stalker. She was the only known active parahuman who was a black girl in the right age range in the whole city.


I..wasn't sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, she had helped my previously best friend torture me so badly I got powers. If those powers _hadn't _made me as level-headed as humanly possible, I would probably be plotting some kind of grand revenge with them right now, _Carrie_ style. The fact that a monster like her could be honored among the young heroes of the city should have made me seriously question joining them.


But, knowing what I did now, I wasn't sure I could judge her. Or the Protectorate, for that matter. Everything my power told me about Sophia said she was born a psychopath into a terrible home life, and obsessed with control and escape because neither were things she could have in her ordinary life. The fact that her powers made all these things even worse for her was an even bigger kick in the teeth. In some ways, she really didn't have a choice in any of the things she did.


Heck, I'd even heard the rumors that the Protectorate would take any decent powerset, no questions asked. Madcap _had_ disappeared after being captured, and Assault _had_ appeared not long after, with much the same powers. I couldn't be sure about anything, of course, but given what I knew about Sophia, I could easily see her taking a plea bargain into the Wards after getting caught doing something bad. If I already knew that the Protectorate's morals were shaky at best and I was still considering joining them, shouldn't the fact that those shaky morals had impacted me directly not matter? Or should they?


I wasn't sure.


Besides, once I got my hands on her, it wasn't like Sophia would ever want to hurt someone the way she hurt me ever again. No matter how I framed it, she was a victim of problems I could _fix. _I couldn't let myself forget that.


So the question came down to whether I wanted to join the organization which could definitely help me do the most good, but which also made tons of mistakes, some of which negatively impacted me, or whether I wanted to forge my own path to uncertain ends.


Put that way, it was pretty obvious, actually.


Induction 1.4


By Thursday, I was ready to leave the hospital. All the weakness and fatigue that had built up in my limbs while I was out was finally gone, and I could walk again without worrying about little things like whether my legs were paying attention to my brain or if my hands would grasp a doorknob or just flop all over it. It was past time to get out of there.


Unfortunately, my control over my Striker power was still lacking. I found that I had to keep the thought of how awkward it would be if I scared my only mildly depressed nurse out of my room constantly at the front of my mind as long as she was touching me. I could tell I was improving, but it wouldn't be nearly good enough to go back to school yet. Every time I brushed a gangbanger with daddy issues' shoulder in the hall, there was a big risk they would fall over as their nervous system rewrote itself into contentment.


Not really a good option.


On the plus side, that made today a perfect one to join the Wards. They would understand the need not to touch the new Striker, and it wasn't like I could do anything else important today anyway. At around one, the nurse called my dad and told him that all my paperwork was ready. While I waited for him to come pick me up, I picked up the card Armsmaster had left me and dialed the number. He picked up at the first ring.:


- You've reached Armsmaster.' He sounded kind of gruff. I guess that was the social anxiety acting up.:


- Hi! This is Taylor Hebert, you saw me on Monday at Brockton General on a call about my new powers.' I injected as much cheeriness into my voice as possible.:


- Ah, yes, I remember.' His voice warmed up:


- Striker power, you said it cures psychological disorders, correct?', he asked.:


- That's right. I'm calling because I'm getting discharged from the hospital today. My dad is coming to pick me up, and I'd really like to speak face-to- face with someone about the Wards, now that I'm well enough for it. Can that be arranged? Today, preferably?


Armsmaster paused, and I heard clicking on the other end of the line:


- That can be arranged. Just so we're clear, is this going to be an admission interview or just a talk? If it's for admission, I can clear any time you'd like with the relevant people. Just a talk should still be doable, but a little harder.


I thought for a moment, then realized I wasn't sure myself:


- Umm, I'm not exactly sure, actually. Off the record, I will probably be joining the Wards, but I don't know for sure if it will happen today.


A few more clicks on the other end of the line, and Armsmaster replied, 'Just to keep the paperwork and scheduling simple, I put it in as an admission interview. To be completely clear, this isn't binding at all and you are free to back out at any point before papers are signed, I just put it in that way to make sure it happens. Also, ordinary protocol states that admissions interviews will have the option of personal escort to the Wards base. It's meant as a way to butter up candidates, of course, but in this case it would protect your identity. I don't suppose you've picked a cape name or costume yet?' The clicking on the other end of the line stopped.:


- That sounds really good, actually. My dad is on his way over from work to pick me up, can he come with?' I realized that I'd given almost no thought to having a secret identity. I should probably have done that earlier.:


- Absolutely. We will have a van there in an hour.


\----


My dad arrived thirty minutes later. Initially, he was hesitant to accept a meeting like this so soon, but my insistence that I was well enough for this and not ready for school yet won him over. I left my hospital room for a final time and we went to sit on some benches outside the main entrance to the hospital.


True to Armsmaster's word, the van pulled up exactly an hour after I hung up. Dad let me ride shotgun, and we both climbed in. It was only then that I looked over and recognized our driver.


Military uniform, American flag bandana, gun on her hip which turned into green plasma, then a bladed chain and back into a gun. Miss Militia had come to bring me to the PRT!


_PTSD. Exacerbated by powers._


Damn you, power! Why couldn't you let me fangirl for one second? As I alternately squee'd internally and wondered how a woman whose power was literally weapons handled PTSD, she bent over in her seat and, without looking at me, handed me a black domino mask.:


- Armsmaster warned me that you didn't have a costume, so I picked this up from supply before you left. It contains a little tinker-tech that prevents people from remembering your face while you have it on.' Her voice was..quiet. Calm, almost. It was the kind of voice people trusted implicitly, and I found myself wondering again how someone with a voice like that wound up with a power as intrinsically violent as hers. I noted that her power was currently manifested as a small dagger clipped to one of her belt buckles.:


- Thanks! I wouldn't have thought to do that.' I put the mask on, noting that the mask was soft enough to be comfortable under my glasses.


She smiled. I noticed a distant sadness in her eyes:


- You're welcome. Ready to leave?' She asked.:


- I've been ready to get out of the hospital all week. Let's get out of here!


\----


On the way over, I tentatively asked Miss Militia, 'So...were you briefed on what my power is and how it works?


She creased her eyebrows:


- Armsmaster informed me that you had a poorly- controlled Striker power which cured psychiatric disorders. He actually ordered me to ask you for your own words on what your power did, just to see if it squared with what you told him on Monday. I suppose that won't be a problem?' She smiled while keeping her eyes on the road.


I smiled back:


- Not at all.' I continued, 'What he told you is right, but it's not the whole picture. I also have a Thinker power that lets me see disorders in people. As far as I can tell, it only works if I see them in person, though it also works on my memories of people I saw before I got my powers. Whenever I touch someone, every disorder they have is instantly cured unless my Striker power is turned off.


Miss Militia nodded, understanding, then asked, 'Is it hard to turn it off?


I grimaced:


- It's...kind of a Catch-22 most times. I can only turn it off by believing that having it on will cause more problems than having it off. How do you make yourself believe something by thinking about it? Unless I find a better way, I'm going to have to ingrain it as a habit.' I paused:


- Still, my power is awesome. Dad, do you mind?


I could feel him smiling as he said, 'This is your show, kiddo!' from behind me in the truck.


I grinned back at him, then told Miss Militia, 'Dad had been pretty depressed ever since my mom died a few years ago. When he hugged me when I woke up in the hospital, all of that went away. He's seemed happier to me than I've seen him in years since then.:


- I have more energy, more drive', dad picked up from there, 'The day you woke up was the best day I've had since Anne died. Even if everything else goes bad, thank you.


Miss Militia seemed deep in thought. I tentatively piped up:


- Miss Militia...dangit, there's no good way of putting this. I see psych problems. You have PTSD. Do you want me to fix that for you?


At that moment, her weapon went wild, shifting between dozens of shapes in a few seconds. I also saw her eyebrows rise, the first evidence of strong emotion I'd seen her express on the ride. Then she chuckled softly:


- You get right to the point, don't you?' She paused momentarily:


- I don't know how well this is known, but I also have insomnia. My power stops me from ever needing sleep. I actually quite like that aspect of my power, and I don't know how yours will interact with it. I don't suppose you do?' She frowned at the road.


I nodded:


- I actually knew about the insomnia,' I replied cheerily, 'but not from my power. I was kind of a cape geek before all this happened. Your inability to sleep doesn't show up to my power at all. I don't know if that means my power will have no effect on it or if it will try to cure it.


Miss Militia made a left turn, then replied, 'Until you are sure, then, I politely decline. I do have a dark history, as many parahumans do, but my monsters are long in the past. I am quite content as I am.


I nodded diplomatically:


- Makes sense to me. I wouldn't want to risk it either.


The rest of the ride proceeded in comfortable silence.


\----


We pulled into a garage under the PRT building about fifteen minutes later. I jumped out and opened the door for my dad, who stretched and cracked a few joints in his back as he stepped out:


- Those seats are not designed for comfort.', he said with a grimace.


Miss Militia came around the back of the truck and replied, smirking, 'They're designed for quick deployment of PRT troops. Nothing more, nothing less.


We walked into the building, Miss Militia guiding us towards an obviously Tinker-tech elevator. The interleaving metal panels irised out, and without any obvious direction on her part, they rapidly closed once we were all inside and rapidly sped up a few floors. We exited the elevator into what appeared to be some kind of Tinker lab.


I was taken aback:


- Umm, are we doing the interview here?', I asked quizzically.


Miss Militia smiled at me and stated, 'This', she gestured towards a machine which appeared to consist of two levitating rings, glowing white, and cables connecting them to a large computer console, 'is a test we are required to do by protocol. It's a machine built by Dragon and Haven which detects all aspects of Master powers used while it is running. I don't expect there to be a problem, but this will determine if your Striker power has any effects you don't know about.' She tapped her ear and a PRT soldier opened a door in the room and came in.


_PTSD_. _Depression. _


Miss Militia smiled with care at him, 'Thank you, John.' She rounded on me, 'John has volunteered to be a test subject, as it were, but first,', she turned to my dad, smiling at him, 'Sir, she indicated she used her power on you when she woke up?


Dad grinned, 'Yup! Best mistake that ever happened to me. Whaddaya need from me?' Dad really was cheerful these days.


Miss Militia gestured towards the machine again:


- I need you and your daughter to each take one of those rings and put them around your heads, covering your eyes.' She walked over to a keyboard and pressed a few buttons as we followed her instructions, and a screen lit up.


A woman's voice spoke up. She had an accent I couldn't place, but she sounded.. plain, almost:


- Good afternoon Miss Militia, others. Are we ready to begin the test?' Murmurs of assent all around, and she continued, 'All right. Please close your eyes, the halos do become quite bright while scanning.' I quickly moved to do so as the light from the device in front of my eyes became piercing.


A few seconds later, the light died down:


- Alright, you two can take off the halos while I process this data.' Dad and I complied.


I looked at the screen. A plain-featured woman was on it, clearly distracted by her work. I asked curiously, 'Who are you?


She looked up and smiled:


- You can call me Dragon.


My mouth dropped to the floor. Dad recovered before I did:


- THE Dragon?' He managed in a similarly shocked voice.


Dragon smiled:


- The very same.' She looked back down, content to let us work out our surprise in silence, then looked back up a few seconds later:


- Data processing complete. No compulsions, no unexpected correlations, no evidence of Master influence on either of them.' She paused and one of her eyebrows shot up, then she continued, 'Honestly, the closest thing I can describe their mental states as is 'at peace.'' She smiled:


- I'd recommend moving on to the next test. John, your name was?', she addressed the PRT soldier.


He stood at attention:


- Yes ma'am.


Dragon smiled and shook her head, 'No need for that, John. I need you and our young cape to put the halos on now. Once they turn on, she will touch your arm to activate the Striker effect.


I grimaced and lifted a finger:


- Umm, we may want to be sitting down for that. One person I used my power on fell over.


John nodded, and we both sat down on the floor and put the halos on. They activated:


- Touch John now, miss.', Dragon instructed. I did so, and I could tell he started shaking.


A few seconds later, Dragon said, 'Alright, you two can take the halos off.' I did, then helped John with his and helped him stand. We all waited around for a few seconds, and then another PRT soldier entered the room.


We wound up repeating the process of having a soldier with problems and I sit on the floor with the halos on while I fixed them seven times before they ran out of volunteers.


Dragon looked back up out of the screen:


- Alright. It seems like your power breaks some synapses and forms others. As far as I can tell, it does as little as it possibly can to the brain. It's.. the purest expression of 'fix it if it's broken, don't if it isn't' I've ever seen, honestly. Memories aren't affected, motor and sensory neurons aren't affected. Most of the changes seem to be in the lymbic system, though various glands in the brain also receive attention. Again, I see no evidence of control or compulsion. The physiological effects,', referring to people breaking down crying I guess, 'appear to be a completely mundane endorphin reaction.


The woman on the screen smiled:


- This is the least dangerous Master power I have ever seen. I see no evidence of incipient or negative effects, and all of the changes it makes are precisely targeted to be minimal and positive.' She turned to look at Miss Militia:


- If this young lady joins the Wards, I'd recommend her standing orders be 'use your power on anyone who asks.' I can't foresee any dangers.


I beamed at the Tinker:


- Thank you for the confirmation!' I turned towards Miss Militia, 'Can we continue now?


She was also clearly pleased:


- I believe so.


\----


We got back in the elevator. I turned to ask Miss Militia, 'Why do you even have that device? It seems awfully convenient.


Miss Militia responded, 'We picked it up when Gallant joined the Wards. We needed some way of testing what his emotion blasts did to people so we knew which ones were safe for him to use. That's the first time we've used it on someone else, actually.


I nodded in understanding.


\----


We arrived at a bustling hallway. I was happy to learn then that my power didn't overload when looking at a crowd. I could see and understand all of the disorders of the dozens of people here without getting distracted or confused.


There was _a lot_ of PTSD. I supposed I shouldn't have been surprised by that, given what these people had to deal with, but it was still unsettling to know how broken Brockton Bay's protectors really were. A few people had depression, some were alcoholics, some addicts, some with bad home lives.


And more than a few sociopaths.


Now that I thought about it, that made sense too. Here was a totally legal job where you got paid to suit up in awesome gear and drag people kicking and screaming into cells. Heck, it probably made them more effective at their jobs. Much easier to hurt someone before they hurt you if you won't feel bad for them afterwards.


I felt my Striker power turning off at that thought.


There was only one guy out of place here. My power told me that one of the soldiers standing at attention in the hall was _obsessed with wealth_. I didn't let myself show surprise, only blinked a few times while looking at him. He was too far away for me to get his name, and we stopped in front of the door to a conference room before passing him. Miss Militia let us in, and we sat around a large oval table and waited for whoever was going to be doing my interview.


A few minutes later, Armsmaster and a short, fat lady walked in.


_PTSD. Mild Body Dysmorphia. Sub-clinical Phobia of Parahumans_


I raised my eyebrows at that revelation, then recognized the lady as Emily Piggot, the PRT Director.


_Why does a woman who fears parahumans work directly with them?_


The two of them sat down, Armsmaster's clearly reinforced chair choice groaning under the weight of his armor. A compartment on Armsmaster's suit opened up, and he removed a small device and set it on the table. He began, rotely, 'This is an interview with a potential new Ward, codename currently undetermined. Present are Armsmaster, Protectorate ENE, Emily Piggot, PRT Director ENE, the potential Ward who shall remain unnamed, and her father.' Armsmaster rattled off. He then turned to look at me directly, smiled, and said, 'That said, welcome. I'm glad you got out of the hospital this quickly, and that we were able to schedule this meeting so soon. I understand you have a few questions you want to ask before you consider joining the Wards?


I smiled in reply and nodded:


- That is correct. First, however, is there anything you could do for more privacy? There's a demonstration of my power I want to do, but I'd kind of like to keep it in this room for now.' I heard my dad shift in surprise next to me. Piggot's eyebrows raised and she began frowning, but didn't say anything. A small compartment on Armsmaster's shoulder opened up and an antenna rose from it. The man himself remained otherwise stoic as a soft humming sound filled the room.:


- That will cancel all sounds leaving this room. What is this about?


I frowned, then answered seriously, 'I have reason to believe that one of the soldiers stationed in the hallway is being paid off by some outside actor. My power lets me see psychological problems, and unless the PRT has started paying its troops a whole lot more than I think, _obsession with wealth_ seems like something a mere soldier shouldn't have.


Piggot looked like she'd been slapped in the face:


- That is a very serious accusation to be making.' she stated:


- Do you have a name? Identifying features?' Her body language seemed somewhere between threatening and curiosity.


I continued in the same serious tone, 'I didn't see him for very long, and unfortunately we didn't pass him in the hall. I did, however, blink in his direction several times before entering this room, so he wouldn't see my suspicion. You can look through your security footage later to find the man I'm talking about.


Armsmaster sat up straigter, then started, 'I'm pulling the recordings now through my HUD.' He paused:


- I've got him. Do you have any further evidence on this man, or is it just the Thinker power?' I couldn't quite tell through the mask, but I thought the Tinker looked _respectful._


I just shook my head, 'Unfortunately, no. Obsession with wealth was the only unusual clue. I can't even be sure he's being bribed. For all I know, he's getting a big inheritance or something and can't wait to retire early.


Armsmaster paused, 'Hmm. Well, we can start a quiet investigation on that.' He sighed:


- I must admit, we've known for a while now that we had moles in the building. It's pretty much a given with any large law enforcement body, of course, but we haven't been able to find them. If it turns out that you managed to find one minutes after walking in, we will be in your debt.', the impression of respect increased.


I grinned. I would bet anything that they wanted me on the team now, and would accept my conditions easily:


- I believe that segues nicely into the rest of what I'm here for. The Wards, and me joining them.


Both Armsmaster and Piggot visibly straightened at that.


I continued, 'My powers...aren't meant for fighting. I have no body or reflex enhancements, no real advantages over a mundane 15 year old. My Striker ability can disable people, but in that it's less consistent than Clockblocker. There's no real way of knowing what will happen when I clear someone's neuroses, and it's entirely possible that some people will get harder to fight after I touch them. My Thinker ability is similarly worthless. Knowing that someone's addicted to cocaine isn't too helpful when they're stabbing me in the back.


I paused to take a breath. Both interviewers looked quizzically at me, and I continued, 'As a result, I want to minimize my actual time spent fighting at all costs. I know it will happen from time to time just because parahumans seem to live and breathe conflict, but that's not the arena I want to be most involved in.' I finished and allowed them to answer.


Piggot frowned:


- You do realize that the Wards are essentially an extension of a paramilitary organization, right? Fighting is what we do. How, then, do you propose to participate in Wards actions at all?' She looked skeptical, all of a sudden.


I grinned. I could handle that:


- Two letters: PR. I can do for the Wards, and the PRT, what Panacea does for New Wave. Instead of sending me on patrols, give me a clinic to run, curing everything from ADHD to Tourette's. Dragon basically just cleared me for that anyway, she was basically raving about my power, you can check the tapes. I can also help keep mundane criminals off the streets by curing whatever issues are leading them to crime. With one glance, I can tell you more than any psychologist interview on anyone you hire, making it that much harder for new moles to get in. Also, congratulations, your need for therapy for your troops has just dropped to near zero. I can do all that and more, for the low-low price of keeping me out of fights and protected from the gangs that are certain to want to end me. After all, I'm a walking, talking existential threat to all of them.


I looked over at my dad, whose mouth was open. I guess he hadn't expected me to take that tack so openly.


At that point I put on an affected frown.


_Gotta deal with this carefully.:


- _Dad, I need you to leave the room for a few minutes. Nothing serious, just something my power told me I can't let you know just yet.


He looked at me sadly, but complied.


Armsmaster and Piggot were clearly curious at that. I kept the grown and continued, 'I also know that Shadow Stalker is Sophia Hess.


Armsmaster remained stoic, but Piggot jumped from her chair. Her eyes narrowed and she hissed out, 'Explain.


I grimaced:


- It's the one part of my power you can't tell the general public about. Most parahumans' innate issues, it turns out, are exacerbated by their powers. I haven't seen a counterexample, actually. I can _see_ that, the same way I see Armsmaster's social anxiety or your PTSD, Piggot.' I paused swallowed, and continued, 'My powers break the unwritten rules by existing. Any time I see a cape in their civilian identity, I will know they are a cape.' I grinned lightly and shook my head, 'I don't know what Armsmaster briefed you on, Piggot, but Sophia Hess is the reason I triggered. I've seen her enough times. I know who she is.


Piggot's eyes remained narrow, but she sat back down. I continued sincerely, 'I don't want to out any capes. You don't have to worry about any leaks from me. Hell, if someone figures out that I might have this information and tries to torture it out of me, they will fail. I'm completely stable, all the time. I can't be broken.


Piggot managed to reply, 'Get to your point. What do you want out of us.' She still sounded hostile.


I injected compassion into my voice and answered, 'Let me _fix _her. She's the most broken person I know, and I want to help her, no matter what she's done.' I put on a knowing smirk and continued, 'Besides, you and I both know she's a PR disaster waiting to happen. Ignoring what she did to me, she's going to do something in the future you won't be able to cover up. I can prevent that, too.


Piggot's face slowly broke into a malicious sneer of understanding.


_Good. She knows I'm playing her game_.:


- She will never give you permission...', she started, pulling a phone out of her pocket, 'but I've spoken to her mother a few times. She will.' She dialed.:


- Hello. Is this Miss Hess? .. This is Director Piggot. .. No, she hasn't, this is about something else. There's a new cape in town and, well let me just hand you to her.' She brandished the phone.


As I was picking it up, I realized what I wanted my cape name to be:


- Hello Miss Hess!', I started cheerily.


She answered cautiously, 'He.. hello? What's this about? Who is this?', she said in a careworn voice.


I replied with the same cheer, 'You can call me Sanity, and I want to fix your daughter.


She went silent. After a few seconds, she recovered:


- Fix?' She was clearly uncertain.


I turned up the compassion:


- My power cures psychological disorders. Like psychopathy, narcissism, and trauma. I can make your daughter whole. In her current state, she'd never agree to it. Which is why we're calling you.


Her silence was deafening:


- You.. You're serious? You can make.. make Sophia.. happy?:


- Yes.


I heard her crying:


- Do it. I don't care how it's done, just do it. Thank you, Sanity.' Her voice broke in emotion.:


- You're welcome.', I replied with care.


I hung up and nodded at Piggot.


Armsmaster chuckled, then glanced over at Piggot:


- Well, I don't need any more convincing.


Piggot smiled for the second time in the interview. It still didn't suit her:


- Me neither. Welcome to the team, Sanity. We'll have to properly draft up your admissions papers to take account for the fact that you are not to be asked to fight anyone who isn't attacking you already. No sense brainwashing people who didn't ask for it. And aren't...her. That will take an hour or so. In the meantime, would you like to go down to the barracks to meet your new team? Unless I'm mistaken, Shadow Stalker is here right now.


I gave a knowing smile and nodded.


\----


Miss Militia and my father met me again outside the door to the conference room:


- How did it go?', she asked with a small smile.


I grinned back:


- Fantastic! I'm going to be joining the Wards after all. Also, you can call me Sanity.', I replied.:


- Seems appropriate.' She paused for a moment, then continued, 'Armsmaster just told me over my earphone,' she tapped her left ear, 'that you wanted to be escorted to the barracks while they drew up your paperwork. Your father should probably stay up here as they explain to him his side of the deal.


Dad looked at me and smiled, 'That sounds fine to me. Good luck, kiddo.' He turned back into the conference room, and I followed Miss Militia into the elevator. We whizzed down a few floors, then got off in a large, domed room.


Four of the Wards were there. Kid Win,


_Attention Deficit Disorder. Dyscalculia. Exacerbated by powers._


Vista,


_Depression. Traumatic Upbringing. Both exacerbated by powers._


Gallant,


_Master Influence.


What? Master influence? How-_


Then I saw Shadow Stalker, and my concerns about even that were blown out of the water.


_Psychopathy. Traumatic Home Life. Sub-Clinical Obsession with Justice. Sub- Clinical Obsession with Control. Sub-Clinical Obsession with Social Status. Narcissism. Anger Management Disorder. PTSD. All Exacerbated by Powers._


I barely even noticed as Miss Militia introduced me to the team. Her issues were just so _vast.


What happened to you, Sophia?_


I snapped out of it in time for Kid Win to ask me with a jaunty grin, 'So, Sanity, what can you do?


I looked back meaningfully at Miss Militia. She raised her chin in understanding.


I put on a challenging face and looked each Ward in the eye in turn, Shadow Stalker last and most intensely. I could tell she was getting riled up by my silent challenge.


_I can make a better impression on the others later. This needs to happen now._


While staring at the psychopathic hero, I deadpanned, 'I fix mental problems on touch.' I paused for a moment to make sure that sank in, then continued, 'I also see them, and what I see right now is the biggest, most pathetic ball of issues I can imagine.


Shadow Stalker jumped up, fury etched on her face:


- You SACK of SHIT!', she bellowed:


- I am fucking stronger than ANY of these fuckers, and I am DEFINITELY STRONGER THAN _YOU!'_


I noticed that she didn't come any closer, despite her rage.


_Bingo_.


I just smirked back at her, 'Yeah? Well then, why're you afraid to touch me, standing on the other end of the room like that? Scared something'll happen to your precious _strength?_' I spat out the last word like it tasted like bile. It kind of did. I'd been on the receiving end of her brand of strength enough:


- If you were really strong, you would face me and see how much of your pathetic facade is real, and how much is just weakness, pretending to be strength.


Her anger clearly kept rising, but she stayed rooted in place.


_Knife's in, time to twist_.


I sneered in derision:


- You are! You're fucking scared of a girl so much smaller than you!' I put on the most sarcastic voice I could muster, 'Oh, no! I can't possibly beat Sanity! What should I dooooooo??


And then she snapped.


Eyes livid, Shadow Stalker transitioned to her shadow form and leapt across the room, through the chairs between her and I, high enough that her head intersected the ceiling as she got to the other side of the dome. Just as she landed, she formed a fist and transitioned back, aiming directly for the center of my face.


I dodged slightly to the left. One of her knuckles lightly grazed my ear.


Her eyes widened in horror.


And the terror of the last eighteen months of my life collapsed to the ground, wracked with sobs.


Induction 1.5


The entire room erupted in commotion. I paid no attention to that.


_I never in a million years thought I'd do this._


I knelt down on the floor beside my former enemy and began patting her shoulder, care now etched on my face where before there had been disgust. The entire room went silent, save for Sophia's continued sobs. A few minutes later, she composed herself, and slowly stood.:


- What have I done?', she whispered, her face a rictus of shame:


- How, how did I hurt all those people, and never see what I was doing?' More tears streamed down her face.


I took off my mask.


Sophia's eyes widened in shock. Her face paled. She turned, leapt, and transitioned to her shadow state, through a wall that I presumed led to her bunk room.


I heard muffled screaming from inside.


I solemnly followed her in.


\----


She stared at the wall, unseeing, a desolate moan emitting from between her lips. When I entered, she turned to me, a thousand-yard stare piercing me.:


- How can I even ask for your forgiveness?', she asked in a low monotone:


- What I did to..to you...:


- Is unforgivable.' I responded.


She flinched away as though I'd just punched her in the face. Then I smiled, and strode towards her.:


- But I don't care about that any more. I forgive you anyway.' I embraced her, and she hugged me back like I was the only thing in the universe to hold on to.


I supposed I kind of was. I had just torn her universe down around her, after all.


Time to start building.:


- Why does everything hurt? What is this.. _burning? _Every memory, every time I think about the people I've-' she choked:


- WHAT IS THIS?


I stepped back, and looked in her eyes. I still radiated compassion, as well as I could. She tried to cast her face down, but I held her chin.:


- Empathy, Sophia. You've never had it before. Psychopaths are born, not made. Now, for the first time, you know what it is to hurt when others are hurting. You know, now, why people do good.' A look of epiphany crossed her face.


_Got her!_


I continued:


- You had built yourself up on a foundation made of your problems, Sophia. Now that you _want_ to be a good person, you will need a new foundation. I cured your obsession with justice, but you can still use those well-trod paths. Let your new caring for the plight of others guide you, and you will be hard-pressed to go back to that dark place.


She embraced me again, the shame and terror melting off her face, and whispered in my ear, 'Thank you.


At that moment, the door burst open. Miss Militia stood on the other side, a taser in her hand. She definitely looked her name at that moment:


- What on EARTH did you do, Sanity?', she fumed with barely - contained rage.


I smiled at Sophia while putting my mask back on. She stepped around me and stood between me and the enraged hero. The look of shame came back:


- Don't hurt her. She..fixed me.' She took a breath, and it caught halfway through:


- I have apologies to make. To everyone. Any punishment you give her, you should give to me instead. I deserve it more than her, for what I've done.


As I turned around, I saw Miss Militia standing in the door in shock. Her weapon was rapidly shifting between forms again. Eventually, it settled as a small, curved knife. She smiled:


- Very well. Sanity, would you like to meet the rest of the team? Those who are here, anyway? It seems you already know Shadow Stalker.


I left Sophia's room to see the other three Wards staring at me. They looked somewhere between terror and awe.


I giggled.


_Half of Brockton Bay's Wards are staring at me! What the hell happened to my life?_


Gallant composed himself first:


- What. The Hell. Was that?', he carefully minced.:


- That', I grinned 'was my power. I can see psychological disorders, and have a Striker power that cures them all. Instantly. You just witnessed Shadow Stalker feeling empathy for the first time. Give her some room, for now. She has a lot to think about.


They all digested that for a moment. I interrupted:


- Gallant, I need to see you somewhere semi-privately. Now. Matter of security.


Kid Win and Vista looked uneasily at the helmeted empath. I knew his power was telling him I was serious and sincere:


- Alright, I guess. I'm.. not about to start screaming, am I?', he asked with apprehension.:


- I haven't decided yet.', I replied seriously.


I could feel Miss Militia's gaze on my back as we entered Gallant's room. Gallant, for his part, grimly invited me in.


_Always the gentleman, I guess._


\----


As soon as the door closed, I asked Gallant severely, 'Where did you pick up a _Master influence?'_


He stepped back in surprise, hitting the door. I could see him thinking fearfully, before realizing something:


- I guess.. probably from my girlfriend? We try to keep my identity secret, but she isn't very good at it, honestly. Everyone figures it out eventually. I'm Dean, if you didn't know. Anyway, one of Glory Girl's lesser - known powers is a weak aura that inspires terror or love. I thought the effects ended when you left her range, though. You can still see it?' Even through the mask he looked worried.


I grimaced:


- Seems so. However, it's possible the influence is from another source. If you don't let me clear it now, I'm going to tell Miss Militia the moment we leave this room, and she will order me to clear it. An order I will follow even though I am not technically part of her chain of command for the next 30 minutes.', I stated in a tone that brooked no argument.


Gallant paused. I couldn't see his reaction behind his mask:


- Go ahead and do it, then. Less embarrassing if it's what I think it is.' He held out his hand.


I touched it, and he jolted back:


- Ugh, yep. That's definitely what it was. Remind me not to get too near Glory Girl for a while. I need to think about some things.' Before I turned around, he interjected, 'Actually, dammit. She's.. kind of a bitch, sometimes. I don't want her coming after you, and she might. I'll talk to her. You might have to clear me again after that.


I looked wide-eyed at him, 'Thanks for the warning, but I have a better idea. We are both going to meet with her family as soon as possible. If I could see it on her boyfriend, I can't imagine how bad it will be in the people she spends the most time with.' I wasn't quite sure why I didn't think of that immediately, actually.:


- Damn. Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks for the help. Vicky and I have some.. talking to do.


We both left his room. Vista immediately asked, confusion evident on her face:


- And , what was _that_? Sanity, your name seems thematically wrong.


I smiled at her and giggled:


- That's Gallant's story to tell.' Then I looked up at Miss Militia:


- I need to be put in contact with New Wave as soon as possible. It's not an emergency, but it would be best if it happens sometime over the weekend.' Miss Militia, for her part, simply nodded, continuing to look grimly at me. I looked back at Vista.:


- Vista, you have a whole host of issues. Would you like me to fix them?' I held out my hand.


She grimaced:


- Will you keep asking me until I let you? I'm not too picky about them, but I'm not sure I really want someone rooting around in my head.


I shook my head:


- That's not how my power works.' I frowned, 'I can barely even turn it off, much less have conscious control over what I do and don't fix and how it happens. The whole thing seems to happen completely automatically. Whatever thing causes powers, that's where the fixing comes from. I'm just a conduit, as it were.' I paused to let her digest that, then continued, 'To answer the first part of your question, yes. I probably will. I'll have to see that you are suffering every single time I look at you, and I really don't want to do that. Besides, I might have to touch you sometime during battle, and I don't want to accidentally incapacitate you. Your problems don't seem as bad as Shadow Stalker's, but I have no way of knowing how you'll react.


Vista held out her hand in exasperation:


- Just do it, then.


I lightly tapped her finger, and her face lit up in a beatific smile:


- I.. never knew how bad off I was. Thank you.' She sedately walked to one of the lounge chairs and sat down.


That left Kid Win.


He grimaced at me:


- Yeah, I know what my problem is. ADD, right?


I grinned back at him:


- Close enough. You want it removed?


He beamed at me:


- Do I ever! Get over here!' He crossed the distance between us in a second and grabbed my hand:


- Whoa. WHOA! I have to get to my workshop!' He dashed off.


The room was silent for a few moments.:


- Well. You've certainly made an impression here. I think I agree with Vista, Sanity. Your name is not at all thematic.' Miss Militia said.


I frowned:


- About what I did, when I came into the room. I'm sorry I had to do it that way. I wanted to make sure she touched me, and I couldn't think of a better way to do it. She was the most broken person I've ever seen! I couldn't just leave her like that, but she wouldn't have let me do it any other way. I understand if my actions will have consequences.


She just smiled, mirth in her eyes:


- Hmm? Oh, you aren't in my chain of command. I have no right to order you around yet.


I grinned.


_Well that went well._


Induction 1.6


One minor perk of being in the Wards was that, the moment Miss Militia and I went back upstairs to sign the paperwork with my father, I was handed two identical cellphones. I noticed dad frown the moment Armsmaster pulled them out. I suppose his dislike of cellphones didn't count as a disorder to my power.:


- From now on, these are yours. Keep them on you at all times.' Armsmaster began. His face betrayed no emotion:


- This one', he held up one of them, 'is for personal use. Put whoever you want in here. From our perspective, it's mostly a cover for your Wards phone so nobody is surprised when you pull it out.' He handed me the second phone:


- This one is your Wards phone. It's been preloaded with all the PRT lines, the personal numbers of all local Protectorate and Wards, and has a few other Tinkertech features. Global tracking, always connected to the network, no matter where you are, that sort of thing. Don't abuse this, and never use it for personal business.


I nodded. I was never going to do anything to risk this privilege.:


- Setting up your clinic is going to take at least a week, maybe more. It's going to be a priority, not the least because we agree with your assessment of its PR potential,' he paused, and both of us grinned knowingly, 'but setting up the security around it is going to take some doing, not to mention finding space in the building for it. Everything's modular, but that doesn't mean we can move it all. Besides, you can't start acting directly in your capacity as a Ward until you have a costume. We'll schedule you a meeting with Glenn Chambers, our PR guy, over the weekend. He's going to think Christmas came twice in two weeks when he meets you, you'll have a great time with him.' I giggled at that. I absolutely was a gift to PR departments the world over.:


- Now, Sanity,' he continued, 'You could wait here for the rest of the day to meet the rest of your new team, or you could go home. I know you and your father need to talk, but meeting your team is also important. It doesn't really matter to me, ultimately.' His impassivity continued unabated.


I glanced over at my dad, who simply smiled and nodded:


- I think I'll stay here, for now. I still can't go to school until I get my power under better control, and I have the best possible cover for that anyway. We can talk late into the night if need be.


Armsmaster interjected, 'Ah, that reminds me, once you are able to go to school, the paperwork has been put through to have you transferred to Arcadia. As you say, you have a fantastic cover for that, and removing you from people who might notice changes in your behavior is the best way to protect your identity. I trust you don't have a problem with that.


I grimaced, 'I have nothing to lose at Winslow.


Armsmaster nodded:


- Excellent. Is there anything else you need to talk with us about?


I cleared my throat, 'Yes, actually. I need to be put into contact with New Wave as soon as possible. It's not an emergency, but I noticed that Gallant had a Master influence on him. I cleared it, of course, but he told me he was certain it came from Glory Girl's aura. I expect the rest of her family to have a similar influence. Judging by how Gallant reacted when it was removed, I don't think they are in any immediate danger, but that should still be dealt with as soon as possible. I would prefer to bring Gallant with me when I meet them, actually. He mentioned that Glory Girl can be.. impulsive.


Armsmaster managed to look shocked despite only his mouth being visible:


- That's...a huge revelation. You understand we have no authority over New Wave, and given the circumstances and Carol Dallon's law practice, I don't think we can push this too hard if they resist, but I will certainly do everything in my power to make this meeting happen. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.


I nodded grimly.


Piggot spoke up. The unnatural smile was back:


- Well then, Sanity, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the Wards ENE. I would shake your hand, but under the circumstances I think you will understand if I pass on that. I think we will have an excellent relationship going forward.


I decided not to press her on that. I wasn't going to force a parahuman power on someone as terrified of parahumans as her.


\----


Someone had worked fast, and the elevator would now move just for me. I had no idea _how _it knew that I wanted to go back to the Wards lounge, but I wasn't complaining.


_Tinkers _


When I got there, only Vista was in the lounge, sitting in front of the computer console. She turned around to look at me, then called me over:


- Hey Sanity! Finished with your paperwork?


I struck a pose:


- Yup. You're looking at the newest member of the Wards ENE. All shall tremble before the might of.. level-headedness? I'm going to need to work on my battlecries.


Vista giggled:


- You could get Clockblocker to work on that. Or don't. Don't is probably the best option, really. Anyway, I'm on console duty right now, and you need training in it. Come on over.


I sat down next to her, and what followed was a solid forty-five minutes of explanations of the truly vast capacity of the Wards console. Despite myself, I was fascinated. Vista was surprised I followed it all, but when I told her that computer class had been the only one I'd been able to concentrate in for over a year, she quieted.:


- I'm...I'm sorry.' She looked down, radiating sympathy, then continued:


- While you were up there, I looked up a bit about your origins. We don't have access to your name, that's only in Armsmaster's head I think. Your trigger...that's awful. Worse than mine, for sure.


I shrugged:


- In many ways I got the perfect power to handle it. I'm completely immune to psychological disorders now. It's like I'd had years of distance and therapy the moment I woke up, only better. All of that is firmly in the past for me now.


Vista mulled over that for a bit:


- On a different topic, why'd you unmask to Shadow Stalker, of all people? Do you know what she's like? Or what she's done?


I started laughing. Vista looked at me like I was nuts:


- Heh. That's the same topic, actually. She shoved me into the locker.


Vista almost fell out of her chair:


- WHAT!? She did _that _to you and you still chose to _fix_ her!?


I took a deep breath and put on my lecture face:


- Vista, I see psychological disorders. When I looked at her, I saw the single most broken person I had ever laid eyes on. I..shouldn't really tell you the details, but just from how she acted you can probably guess most of it. Adding to that, she was born a psychopath. All of that? It's a perfect recipe for a nasty piece of work who never really had a choice in the matter. Knowing what I did about her, I couldn't stay angry. My power was at work there, too. No, the only right thing for me to do was to wipe the slate clean for her. Make a person where once there was only a broken shell.


Vista looked at me curiously:


- You know, if someone did.. what she did, to me...My power doesn't work on living things, but I'd find a way to _make_ it work.' I shuddered internally and silently thanked Manton limits for existing:


- You're a better person than me. That's for sure.


I chuckled:


- Your power lets you cheat at space. Mine lets me cheat at goodness.


We sat in silence for a while at that.


\----


Around 4:00, the rest of the Wards got out of school and walked in. Aegis,


_PTSD_. _Exacerbated by powers._


Clockblocker,


_Mild Depression. Exacerbated by powers._


and Triumph,


_Inferiority Complex. Exacerbated by powers._


were already in costume, and stopped when they noticed me sitting with Vista. Clockblocker recovered first. He grinned, and stated in classic Clockblocker fashion, 'Well, I'd heard rumblings of a new face, but I didn't expect that face to be soo h-oww!' Aegis had punched him.:


- Pardon Clockblocker's rudeness,' he shot a look at the hero, who grinned sheepishly, 'I'm Aegis. Welcome to the team...?


I grinned, 'Call me Sanity.


He smiled kindly and offered me his hand, 'Welcome to the team, Sanity.


I frowned at his hand:


- Have you been briefed on what my power does, Aegis? Or Clockblocker?


He raised one eyebrow:


- We just got out of school, so no. Is there a problem?' He quickly pulled his hand back.


I took a breath and replied, 'Unless you're attached to your personal neuroses, no. I can see psych disorders and cure them on touch. I have trouble controlling the Striker ability, so if you want to hold on to your PTSD for some reason, you just shouldn't touch me.


All three of them looked uncomfortable at that.


I decided to summarize what happened earlier, 'I already fixed the other Wards' problems, actually. Kid Win immediately ran into his workshop and hasn't been seen since. Gallant and Vista both agreed it was a good thing to do.', Vista nodded enthusiastically, 'and Shadow Stalker...that reminds me, I need to check up on her.' I turned and knocked on her door.


There was a quiet mumbling from inside which I took as an acknowledgement. I walked in to see Sophia staring at the wall again.:


- Hey,' I put as much care into my voice as I could, 'the rest of the Wards are here. If you don't start making your apologies now, I'm not sure you ever will.


She stared at the wall for a bit more, then looked morosely over at me:


- Why should they forgive me?


I smiled, 'Because you're a different person, now. You deserve a second chance. They're all good people, they understand that.


She paused, clearly wrestling with something, then asked, 'Do you know why I joined the Wards, Sanity?


I cocked my head:


- No?


She looked back at the wall:


- When I got my powers, I decided to patrol my neighborhood, be a vigilante. I even brought Emma with me, a few times.' She stopped, clearly about to choke up, then continued, her voice haunted, 'You.. you know what kind of person I was. I used lethal weapons. I thought I could control them well enough to just injure...' She began to cry. I filled in the blanks from there.


Once she'd controlled herself, she continued, 'Once I was caught, it was this or Juvie. They never told the others outright what I did, but they know. Even if I weren't a murderer, though, I've been awful to all of them ever since I got here. I have no friends on the team.


I smiled again and turned up the caring:


- Sophia, that just means that now's the time to start. Come on out and say your piece, you'll feel better.' I walked over to her and took her hand. She stood up and haltingly walked to the door.


Once in the lounge, I announced, 'Shadow Stalker has something to say to you all.


Everyone in the room looked over at her, and she stared at her feet:


- I'm sorry...' she started quietly, 'I'm sorry for everything I've ever done to you guys. Every nasty comment, every cold shoulder. Every time I shoved you aside, Vista, or made fun of you for being weak. Every time I scowled at you, Clockblocker, for making a bad joke. Every time I was a..awful to you, Aegis and Gallant and Triumph, just for-', her voice broke, then she rallied, 'just for being decent people. I don't know what I can ever do, to undo the damage I've done...but hopefully I can.


Everyone in the room stared at her like she'd just second triggered as Scion.


Then, Vista stood from where she was at the console, walked over, and gave her a hug:


- I can only kind of understand what you're going through, Shadow Stalker. My problems weren't as vast as yours, but when she fixed them I understood just how broken I'd been before in a way that I never thought possible.' She broke the hug, then continued, 'I can't offer forgiveness, not yet. I'm not as good a person as Sanity. But I can offer understanding.


Sophia's legs buckled beneath her, and she burst into sobs again.


Everyone in the room moved to console her after that.


\----


Once everyone had said their piece and Shadow Stalker had managed to sit on one of the lounge chairs, Aegis walked over to me. His hand was outstretched again:


- Welcome to the team, Sanity.' He said with a wide smile.


I shook, and his eyes widened in surprise.


Clockblocker turned to me with a jaunty grin:


- Why do you call yourself Sanity? That seems really wrong.', he asked, a joke in his eye.


I cackled. 'Little late to the punch on that one, Clockblocker. Vista and Miss Militia already asked that.


Clockblocker pouted, then tapped me on the shoulder:


- Wow! That's the good stuff.' He went and sat down.


I turned to Triumph, eyebrow raised quizzically.


I couldn't see his reaction behind the lion mask, but he asked, "What, do I have something wrong with me too?"


I grimaced. "Every cape I've looked at so far has. Want me to deal with it for you?"


He crumpled in a resigned way. "Sure."


I smiled and took his hand. He stood up straighter, seemingly surprised, and went to sit down.


That done, I addressed everyone in the room:


- Well it's been great meeting you all, but I need to get home. I have things to talk about with my dad.:


- See you around', Aegis replied.


I turned and went back to the magic elevator, smiling all the way.


The Brockton Bay Wards were now the healthiest group of parahumans in the world.


Interlude 2: Sophia


The next day, I woke up as normal, showered and got dressed as normal, and grabbed some cereal for breakfast as normal, before getting on the bus as normal.


Except nothing was normal.


I'd had the first good conversation with my mom since..ever, really, that night. She'd tearfully said she wanted to personally thank the hero who'd made her little girl whole again and hugged me tightly. Hugs felt...good, now.


How the hell would I explain what I'd done to her?


_Don't worry about that, Sophia. It's all in the past now, Taylor said it herself._


I smiled. It was nice, having an inner voice telling me that everything was ok, for once. Better than the silent scream of agony I'd been beset with before, for sure. I hadn't even recognized it was there until it was gone.


I spent the ride to school mindlessly idling, lazily exploring my new-found empathy. It really was fascinating, how much you missed in life when you didn't care for the pain of others. I'd had it for less than a day, and already I'd discovered an interest in the lives of my brothers and sisters that'd never been there before. Me tucking the little ones in is what clued mom in that something had changed.


Before, I'd just thought them weak prey, in need of toughening up. Fuck, I'd treated them like shit.


_Nope, no need to go there. You aren't that person anymore._


\----


I got off at the school and began to walk inside. Emma found me, grinning from ear to ear and walking into step beside me.:


- Hey, hero.', she smirked, 'Sweep the streets of any filth last night?


_Only the person I used to be._:


- Not so much. However...' I said, putting on a mysterious air.


Emma rounded on me:


- However what!? You can't just leave me hanging here!' She smiled as winsomely as she could.


I pretended to act guarded:


- Well...', I mocked looking around for eavesdroppers, and we ducked into an empty classroom:


- You can't tell anyone yet, but there's a new Ward.' That last bit was in a conspiratorial whisper.


Emma grinned:


- And? What does he or she do? Are they.. your type? Or will they need 'tutoring'?' She airquotesed the last word.


_Oh, she's my type now. Or rather, I'm hers._


I kept my voice low:


- She can see mental issues in people, can't have any herself, and cures them on touch.


Emma stopped talking, letting the room fall silent. Then she looked back at me, contempt on her face:


- That is about the lamest power I can imagine! It's like Gallant and Clockblocker had a baby with all the weaknesses of both! What's she planning to do, make gangbangers fall down crying? Why'd she join the Wards anyway? She could have made a killing as a therapist for all the weaklings out there.


I frowned:


- The first thing she did when she walked into the lounge was try to fight me.


Emma cackled:


- Did..'', she fought down her laughter, then continued, 'Did you put her in her place? What an idiot, trying to fight a hunter like you! I bet her power couldn't even do anything to you. What'd she expect, you, of all people, to fall on the ground crying like a baby?' She ended with a derisive snort.


I froze:


- Emma...that's exactly what I did.


Emma's mouth dropped, but she didn't say anything. I continued:


- Emma...I am so, so sorry for what I did to you. I am, was, a psychopath. Sanity fixed that. I was obsessed with control and power because my monster of a dad.. took them from me. Sanity fixed that too. When she touched me, it's like she was stripping me bare and covering me in a warm blanket at the same time, taking away all the hurt and replacing it with warmth. I'm a different person now, than I was yesterday. A better person, I hope. Not stronger, but for the first time...whole.


I could see Emma trying to decide which objection to raise to that. She eventually responded, 'Sophia, what are you sorry for? You've never done anything bad to me, and you saved me from the ABB! What's going on!?


I looked at my shoes.


_Time to bite the bullet._:


- Emma. I was standing over that alley, just watching, for minutes. I let those ABB thugs trap you, when I could have stopped them before you ever saw them. I let them menace your dad, and pull you out of the car. I let them cut your hair, and I let them make you eat it.' I almost choked, swallowed, and continued my confession. This needed to happen:


- I let them wave the knife in your face, and threaten to cut you and rape you. I let your dad watch that happen, helpless. I let your childhood end in tatters, and I let you become a broken shell. Like me. All because I had some stupid idea about how the strong win and the weak lose. The world isn't - shouldn't be - like that.


Emma looked flabbergasted. I plowed through:


- I could have stopped them at any time. And I didn't. I wasn't a hero, Emma! Fuck, I've killed people! People who didn't deserve it. I only got a second chance because Piggot is desperate for warm bodies in her little child army. Don't.. don't be like me, Emma. I'm sorry for everything. I hope you can forgive me, but so far only Sanity has, and she's basically made for forgiveness.


At that point, I couldn't help it any more. One tear wound its way down my face. That, more than anything, seemed to knock Emma out of her fugue:


- What. The Hell. Happened to you, Sophia? You used to be strong! Now, now you're just like Taylor! A fucking sentimental child. You taught me everything, Sophia, but one touch from a crazy bitch and you turn your back on everything and just become a sheep. Like everyone else. Good fucking bye, and good riddance.


I wept, as she turned away from me and strode haughtily out the door.


_This is my penance. This is what I deserve, for what old me did.


I'm sorry, Emma. I'm sorry I broke you. Maybe Sanity can put you back together again someday. I sure can't._


One thing was for sure, though. I was just like Taylor, now.


I managed to smile, at that.


Intervention 2.1


I groggily woke Friday morning to the most _awful_ ringtone I'd ever heard. I scrabbled around and found the offending object, opened it, and put it to my ear, 'Sanity speaking.' I blearily droned. I was lucky I'd remembered in time that only my dad had my personal number, and that this was the Wards phone.


Armsmaster was on the other end:


- The Dallons were a lot more amenable to your request to meet with them than I thought they'd be. They will receive you and Gallant at fifteen hundred hours. Good luck, though I don't expect you'll have trouble. We may not get along with New Wave politically, but they're mostly good people. Not that you can ever tell anyone I said that, of course.


My mind shot into gear as I remembered the events of the previous day.


_Fuck, I have to deal with Glory Girl today_.:


- Understood, sir. How will I get to their home? I don't exactly have a car, and my dad is at work.', I replied instead of voicing my concerns.


I heard tapping on the other end:


- Can you safely walk to the Boardwalk from your home?


I mentally pulled up a map to the city:


- It'll be a little cold, but yeah. That's doable.:


- Be there at fourteen hundred hours. A van will pick you up there at that time. Gallant will be inside. Good luck, and thank you for taking care of this. I don't know if anyone would have even noticed what Glory Girl had done if you hadn't.:


- I'll be there.


\----


I looked over at my clock. I had a few hours, so I took a long shower and fixed myself a big breakfast. I couldn't break the feeling that this was a last meal, somehow. Once I was done eating, I put the dishes in the sink, quickly called dad's work (voicemail) to tell him where I was, grabbed a thick coat and the mask Miss Militia had given me, and ambled out towards the Boardwalk.


The city really was beautiful, covered in a thin layer of snow. As I crested a small hill, I was able to look out into the bay and see the shimmering shield covering the PHQ. I smiled.


_I'm a part of that, now. I am one of the defenders of this city. And dammit, I'm going to defend with all I've got._


That thought in mind, I hastened my walk.


\----


I got to the Boardwalk a few minutes early. I ducked behind one of the stores and donned my mask, then walked back out into the crowd. It wasn't crowded, but there were still some vacationers strewn about from the holiday. I was still struck by just how many people walked around with serious issues. I noticed that the guards were actually the people with the most problems, though. One of them, in particular, stood out.


_PTSD. Anger Management Disorder. Sociopathy. Pedophilia.


Pedophilia? Fuck! How do I fix this?_


I couldn't just let a sociopathic pedophile walk around in a position where they could easily take advantage of lost children. Not happening. I ducked back behind the store and took off the mask. It would be easier to do this if nobody thought I was a cape. Coming back around, I found him again. He was leaning against a storefront, scanning the crowds for trouble.


_Or kids._


I involuntarily shivered, and let that thought out of my mind.


I slowly closed on him, not drawing any attention to myself. I was just another shopper, enjoying a cold day on the beach. A convenient crowd of shoppers emerged from the store he was guarding and I joined them, being careful not to actually touch anyone in the crowd. I drew close to his position and managed to lightly clip his hand with mine, my head down and away from him in a brisk and purposeful walk.


As I walked away, I heard him collapse to the boards. A commotion started, but I was already out. As luck would have it, I saw a PRT van pull up on the road behind the shop just then. I angled towards it, pulling my mask out of my pocket and onto my face, then opened the side door and jumped aboard.:


- Perfect timing, Sanity!' called Gallant from one of the bench seats:


- Ready to go-wait, what's going on over there?', he pointed to the growing crowd.


I scowled:


- One of the guards was a sociopathic pedophile. Emphasis on _was._' I replied in a voice pitched only for the armored hero.


Gallant looked impassively at me for a few moments, then slowly responded, 'What were we talking about again? I don't seem to recall...


I grinned fiercely, climbed in, and the van sped off.


\----


We arrived at the Dallon household just a little before 3:00. Gallant and I piled out, and the driver parked to wait for us. The moment we stepped out, the front door burst wide open, and Glory Girl flew out, nearly smashing into Gallant.


_Narcissism. Anger Management Disorder.


Yup, just what I expected._:


- D-Gallant! Nice to see you! I just got back from school. Who's the newcomer?' She smiled widely. She glanced over at me and seemed...Surprised?


Did she expect me to be feeling something? If so, I guess that answered the question of whether my innate immunity to mental issues blocked Master powers, then. I was getting nothing.


Gallant introduced me pleasantly, managing to hide any apprehension or anger from his voice. I was impressed, given the circumstances:


- This is Sanity.' I smiled:


- She's a new cape in town. You can't tell anyone yet, because she doesn't have a costume, but she's joined the Wards. Would you invite us inside? We have something to speak about with your family.


Glory Girl grinned wider than before:


- Sure, come on in! I'll round up everyone else, too.' She sped back indoors. I could see her take a few sharp right turns around furniture before she vanished up the stairs.


Gallant sighed heavily.


_Master Influence_:


- After you.' he gestured.


I shook my head, frowning:


- Can any part of your armor open to expose some skin?' I asked worriedly.:


- Fuck! That fast?' His armor couldn't hide his horror.


I just frowned and nodded in response.


\----


Fortunately, Gallant managed to get one of his gauntlets off and I was able to cure him again. We walked inside and sat at New Wave's kitchen table.


I was...surprised. Their house was nice, but it looked just like an ordinary house, not like the base of an internationally famous family of capes. I guessed they needed the creature comforts too, not just to be surrounded in the spotlight, with reminders of who they were all the time. I heard the family filing in, and elected not to look up until everyone was in.:


- Armsmaster seemed quite worried over the phone, but he wouldn't tell me what this was about.' That had to be Brandish:


- Will you tell us now?


Gallant glanced over at me. I simply smiled back and looked up.


_Holy Fuck!_:


- Panacea, how the HELL are you even _functional??


Depression. Burnout. Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Social Anxiety Disorder. Guilt Complex. PTSD. Phobia of Powers. Sub-Clinical Obsession with Powers. Phobia of Family. Traumatic Home Life. Anxiety over Father's Identity. Phobia of Nilbog. All Exacerbated by Powers. Master Influence._


Canon Omake 1: Conflict Resolution on Sexuality


I was going to post this as a response to a later chapter, but it seems appropriate now.


\----


All the simulated brains were chugging along nicely, providing streams of data to pore over. Conflict Resolution waited for them to finish contentedly.


Then, they all crashed catastrophically. At once.


Conflict Resolution frowned, in much the way one might expect a multidimensional pseudoflesh being living in a pocket universe and completely lacking a human face to frown. It yanked the data logs and began looking through them for the error.:


- Hmm.' It thought to itself, 'The error always seems to happen on this thing called sexuality. Let's take a looooWHAAAAAATTT??


If Conflict Resolution had lungs, they would have exploded with the force of its hyperventilation. If it had hair, it would have torn it all out with its hands. Which it also didn't have.


It mumbled incoherently to itself, unsure of where to start, 'Four-dimensional Cartesian grid? Inscrutable spaghetti code? Positive feedback loops that only stop on hardware overload? Pain is good and bad? Pick-up lines? How? What? WHYYY!!!???


It careened about lost for a subjective eternity that actually lasted five minutes, then managed to compose itself:


- Ok. Ok, I can handle this. It's not going to be pretty, but I can do this.:


- Right?


\----


From now on, whenever anyone asks a question about how Conflict Resolution interacts with sexuality, I'm just going to direct them here. Human sexuality is the kind of coding disaster that makes veteran devs weep in despair and attempt to claw their eyes out with blunt instruments, and I'm not about to delve too deeply into the topic myself, for the sake of Sanity.


Intervention 2.2


For the second time in as many days, I had an entire roomful of heroes staring at me in complete shock.


_You know, before all this happened I would have tried to crawl under the table and die. Now it just seems normal._


Panacea, for her part, had turned white as bone and looked about ready to throw up. Flashbang


_Depression. Exacerbated by powers. Master Influence._


was the only one showing real concern, along with shock. Brandish


_PTSD. Paranoid Personality Disorder. Both Exacerbated by Powers. Master Influence._


Was just scowling at me, like I'd just personally and vividly insulted her instead of exclaiming my surprise that her daughter hadn't killed herself yet. Glory Girl's mouth was open in surprise, and I thought I could see some rage- yup, that was rage, creeping into her expression.


I started before anyone could recover:


- I'm...sorry about that outburst' I apologized and took a calming breath:


- Call me Sanity. I triggered earlier this week, and joined the Wards yesterday, though I don't have a costume yet. I'm here because of something I noticed with my power.' I glanced over at Gallant sitting stoically beside me. I supposed he wasn't surprised at my exclamation, given his power. He motioned for me to go on.


I cleared my throat and put on my serious face:


- There are two pieces of my power relevant to this situation. I can see psychological disorders, and I have a Striker power that cures them. Not too unlike Panacea, actually.' I smiled over at the clearly mortified healer. She blanched whiter at that.


_Odd. Our powers really are similar._


Mark Dallon had latched on to something I'd said:


- Cures...disorders?' He asked. His voice was filled with hope and uncertainty.


I replied with care:


- Yes. Do you want me to deal with your depression?


His eyes widened and he uncertainly stood. He seemed to steady himself with his hands, as if his legs were about to give out. He walked around the table and placed his hand on mine. The faces of the other three Dallons snapped to his motion, and Carol rapidly tried to extricate herself from her chair.


Tears began to leak from Mark Dallon's closed eyes. Carol heavily sat back down.


Mark whispered, 'Thank you. I never...I never thought I'd be rid of it. It's...' the rest was broken in a wave of tears.


His eyes snapped open, and he ran to the other side of the table and fondly embraced his two daughters:


- It's over, kids. I'm free!', he managed tearfully:


- I'm so sorry about all the things I missed, on my bad days. I don't know if I can ever make it up to you. I hope you can both forgive me.' The Dallon sisters just looked back at me in shock while their father cried on their shoulders.


A few minutes passed like that. Carol didn't stop scowling at me, Vicky and Amy eventually started to console their father, and Mark kept his daughters in a bear hug.


Gallant saved me from having to interrupt:


- Umm, we're here for an important reason,' he said, as much to the air as anything else.


Carol cleared her throat loudly, and her husband disengaged from his daughters and sat down.


Once the commotion died down, I smiled caringly. I was glad to be able to help Mark, of course, but we were here for more important reasons:


- You're welcome, Flashbang. Now, for the topic at hand.' I paused and put on my serious face again:


- When I saw Gallant for the first time yesterday, he was actually the most stable parahuman I'd ever laid eyes on, but...well, there's no good way to put this. He had a Master influence on him.' I rounded on Vicky and frowned lightly:


- Glory Girl, your Master aura _doesn't_ wear off. I'm seeing the same influence in the rest of your family as I saw in your boyfriend. It causes permanent behavioral changes which my power can detect.


At that, Carol and Vicky both stood in shock:


- You can never prove that _my daughter_ did that!' / 'But Ames has built up tolerance to it!', The two women were respectively enraged and panicked.


I sliced the air with my hand. Both glared at me, and I interrupted them, 'Brandish, this is not a court of law. I only need to prove myself to your family. Given how Flashbang reacted', I nodded meaningfully at Mark, who was still smiling with tears streaming down his face, 'I think I already have.' I smiled at him.


Mark interrupted, 'My friends call me Mark, Sanity.' His smile was clearly unpracticed, but genuine.


I smiled back and rounded on Vicky:


- Glory Girl, Panacea has _not_ developed an immunity to it, her altered behavior just became _normal._ When you met us outside, Gallant _immediately_ registered to my power as having a Master influence again. This suggests that either your aura permanently changes the behavior of anyone who enters it even once, or that people with long histories of exposure to it will snap back right under its influence even after I've cured them.' I stared severely at her, willing her to understand. Her look of panic had slowly transformed into one of horror during my speech.


Gallant spoke up drily, 'Speaking of which, Vicky, we need to talk.


That did it for her. Glory Girl reeled back, knocking her chair over and hovering in midair, seemingly forgetting that gravity was a convention humans usually adhered to. Everyone in the room flinched away from her, except me.


_Yup, her aura does nothing to me._


She was now hovering, curled into a ball near the ceiling, and slowly rotating:


- No. NO! That isn't TRUE!' Her voice was filled with grief and self- loathing.


_Caring time._:


- Glory Girl, you had no idea. I can't blame you for something you didn't know about. I don't think anyone else can either. Because I exist now, nothing you've done is unfixable. Everything is going to be fine just as soon as I lay a hand on your family and the rest of New Wave.' I injected calm I didn't feel into my voice. After all, this girl could splat me on a wall faster than I could blink.


She continued her slow spin near the ceiling, but remained silent save for her hyperventilation.


Gallant stood, a corona of pink energy coalescing around his hand. He pointed his finger at his girlfriend and it leapt off his hand and into the devastated hero. She visibly calmed, uncurling from her ball, though she was still levitating.


The room was silent for a few moments.


I took that opportunity to turn towards Amy:


- Panacea,' I began haltingly, 'I thought I'd seen the most broken person possible yesterday, but I was wrong. Let me help you. I don't know how you got all of those issues, but if you take my hand they will be gone.


She slowly looked into my eyes, tears shining on her cheeks, and held out her hand. I grasped it.


Her eyes filled with radiant joy, and a wide smile filled her face. Then, she suddenly seemed to realize something, her eyes lit up with shame, and she sprinted, crying, from the room. I heard her trip once as she raced up the stairs.


_What?_


I turned with concern towards Gallant:


- I need to handle this, can you hold the fort here?


He just nodded, and I sprinted after the healer. I followed her sobs to an upstairs bedroom door and quietly opened it.


Inside, Panacea was sitting cross-legged on the floor, hyperventilating, her face in her hands. Her hair was covering her face, and she was visibly shaking.


I carefully closed the door and sat down in front of her, frowning:


- Panacea, what happened? I'm not seeing any of your problems any more, but you acted like there was something to be ashamed of.', I said with concern.


Panacea kept shaking, then quietly answered, 'You didn't fix it all.' She burst into tears.


I looked back over her. Nope, nothing. I responded with more concern, 'I'm pretty sure I did. What's wrong? Maybe you just need to talk about it. No matter what it is, I won't judge you for it. I might be physically incapable of doing so, actually, I haven't checked.


Her sobbing slowly quieted, then she answered deadly, 'I'm a lesbian.


What? 'Panacea, that's not a problem! Legend answered that decisively years ago!', I replied with confusion.


Panacea looked up, shame etched in her features, 'No, no it's not that. I'm a lesbian, and I'm in love with-', her voice caught, clearly having trouble, 'My sister.' She cast her face down again.


I couldn't help it. I started laughing.


Panacea looked up in offended shock, stunned into silence. I started laughing so hard I rolled on the floor.:


- Amy, I can call you that, right?', she nodded, still unable to speak, 'Amy, I'm pretty sure that means that _nothing at all_ is wrong with you!


Amy finally managed to recover, a look of disgust on her face, 'But, but that's just-', I interrupted her, grinning through the laughter.:


- Amy, literally every straight guy wants to do your sister. Literally every lesbian and bi person wants to do your sister. I'm straight, but there's probably a circumstance where I would do your sister. There are some gay guys who might be curious enough to do your sister. I would be shocked if more than 30% of Earth's population would refuse to do your sister, given the chance.' I caught my breath, just barely holding back the laughter, and continued, 'Why do you think that _you_ should be exempt just because you grew up with her?


She looked at me in confusion. When nothing seemed to click for her, I continued, putting on a more serious tone:


- Look, Amy. My power doesn't tell me exactly what Vicky's Master aura does to you, but I can take a guess based on how Gallant reacted when I removed it.', I took a breath, and Amy's head cocked to the side in curiosity:


- I'm pretty sure it makes people love her. It would fit with her narcissism that I'm sure you've noticed by now. My power doesn't consider being physically attracted to attractive people a problem, but it fixed the Master influence. You might not have been attracted to anyone else before, but I would bet you are now.


Amy looked down, clearly deep in thought. I realized that I had to press her on something else, for her own safety. I put on the concerned face again, 'Amy,', I started, 'I also noticed that you were really, really afraid of your power. Why is that? Your power is even more heroic than mine!


Amy froze, terror evident in every joint of her body. I'd clearly hit a nerve.


She didn't look up as she whispered, 'There are no healing powers, Sanity.


It was my turn to be confused, 'I'm pretty sure your power proves that untrue..?


Her conviction left me uncertain. She waited for a bit before continuing, 'My power isn't a healing power. I'm.. I'm a biokinetic. Total control over every living thing I am touching. I can make them do anything. _Be_ anything.', She looked up, and her face was a mask of barely - repressed horror:


- I am always one bad day away from making Nilbog look compassionate. Always.', one more tear rode down her face.


It was my turn to be shocked speechless.


\----


The room was silent for a few minutes. Eventually, I was able to respond:


- You know, Amy, I now have a lot of respect for you.' I announced seriously.


That clearly hadn't been what she was expecting:


- Why!?' she responded in shock, 'I just told you that I'm one step away from being worse than fucking Bonesaw!' She'd started breathing quickly again.


I smiled with care, 'Yeah, but the important thing is you _aren't_. I saw into your soul, Amy, or as close as one can without resorting to hypothetical phenomena. I thought I'd made my record for most broken person I'd ever see in my career yesterday, but you blew her out of the water. The fact that you have a power which could quite literally kill every single person on the planet and _didn't do it_ is testament to remarkable strength and resilience on your part. I can't not respect that.


With that, Amy Dallon gave me the first genuine smile I'd ever seen on her. I smiled back:


- Come on.', I beckoned and stood, 'Let's go fix the rest of your family.


\----


We strode towards the stairs. Amy reached for my hand halfway there, and I looked back. She'd stopped walking, and her eyes were blissfully closed. Eventually, she opened them. I looked at her quizzically, and then a strange _rippling_ traveled through my body.


She had on an enigmatic smile:


- You had a gene with a high likelihood of causing pancreatic cancer at some point in the future. I fixed it.


My eyebrows shot into my hairline:


- Uhh, wow. Thanks! I don't know what to say.


She just shook her head, smiling all the way, 'No thanks necessary. What you've done for me, and-', she paused, in thought, then smiled and continued, 'and dad, is enough. I couldn't possibly repay you for all the good you've already done for my family.' Her eyes lit up even more as she said 'my family.'


We walked towards the stairs as she continued:


- You know, that's the first time I've ever changed someone's genetic code when it wasn't actively killing them. It felt...good.


I glanced back at her in curiosity. She was looking at the ceiling contemplatively, 'I have.. had, I suppose, a code. A set of rules I followed with my power. It's why I didn't fix Mark. Dad. Before. I didn't want to change brains.' She looked into my eyes and smiled beatifically, 'But you can only change brains. I could see that much in your Gemma, and what you did to dad. If you could make me feel better than I have in years, and make dad actually act the part for the first time in ever, only by changing our brains, I see no reason to hold on to that.' She grinned and cracked her knuckles:


- I'm gonna do some experimenting with my power later. Wanna join?' Her eyes were filled with mischievous glee.


I cracked a grin as well:


- Definitely!


\----


We both walked back down the stairs to find the entire room staring in my direction again. Gallant had moved to sit next to Glory Girl, who had calmed down and managed to remember that gravity was a thing that existed for us mere mortals, and was sitting back in her chair as well. Carol glared daggers at me, and Mark just smiled and beckoned us over. I smiled at Mark, and Amy and I sat down on the opposite end of the table from the rest of the Dallons. I looked over at Glory Girl in worry:


- Glory Girl, I know this has been a shock, and I apologize for that. Do you want me to fix you up?' I asked matter-of- factly.


She seemed taken aback, but reacted with surprise rather than anger, 'I wasn't aware I had anything that needed fixing.' she responded with confusion.


Gallant guffawed, and I looked slightly down, smiling:


- You have two issues, one of which really should be fixed before you do any more heroing. Do you want to know what they are?


Glory Girl nodded mutely. I nodded in response, leaned back in my chair, and answered seriously, 'The first issue is anger management. You ever punched someone a little too hard, maybe gotten into a fight with Gallant you regretted later?


She blanched, then nodded and held out her hand:


- I don't need to know what the other issue is. I, I don't want to do that any more. I don't want to need Amy to help. Fix it!' Her eyes were wide.


_Well that makes things easier_.


I nodded and tapped her on the palm. She shivered, then looked introspective for a moment, before looking back up at me, eyes wide:


- Actually, what _was_ that second issue?' She almost sounded panicked.


I grinned, almost chuckled, and replied, 'Narcissism. Congratulations, Glory Girl, you now think other people can be just as awesome as you. Maybe this will help you keep that Master aura that manipulated everyone you love down, hmm?


Her mouth opened wide, but she didn't say anything. She looked downcast.


I turned to Brandish, keeping my face serious. "Brandish, I'm going to say this outright. You are paranoid. Really, ridiculously paranoid. I don't know where it came from, and I'm not really sure I need to, but I can fix that for you. Given the nature of the problem, I know this is a difficult question. Understand, though, that you are being manipulated by your daughter's power, and that the only way to remove that manipulation is with my help.' I ended with a frown.


Carol's scowl became a visage of rage:


- You come to MY house. You _change_ MY family.', she briefly flashed over to her Changer state before settling down:


- Just. Just get out.' She closed her eyes in resignation.


I nodded grimly:


- Alright then. It was nice meeting you all.' I smiled at the three Dallons who didn't despise me. Gallant stood, and we left the Dallon house in silence.


\----


As we left, Amy burst out the door. She looked vaguely worried:


- Sorry', she caught her breath, 'I had to get out of there. Carol's just _toxic_ when she doesn't get her way.


I smiled and motioned her over with my head:


- We were going to head over to the Pelhams' to fix them up. Want to join?


She grinned:


- Sure. After that, let's have some _fun_!


Intervention 2.3


Fifteen minutes later, we left the Pelham house, on good terms with all of them. I was actually surprised to see, after the total disaster that was the Dallons, that the Pelhams were very stable for capes. They all had varying degrees of PTSD, and the Master influence, but other than that they all seemed...normal. Not at all like the piles of trauma and neuroses I'd become accustomed to seeing. They all quickly agreed to be fixed, and invited me back at any time.


One team, two very different families.


As Gallant and I climbed back into the PRT van, Amy looked at us awkwardly. I cocked my head questioningly.:


- Umm.', she started, 'Could I come with you, Sanity? I don't really want to go back home right now. Carol's still going to be...Carol.' She ended with a big sigh.


I grinned back at her encouragingly:


- Sure! Come on in! I was going back home anyway. We can do those 'tests' of yours there. I actually had some ideas I wanted to try as well, this will be a great opportunity.


She beamed back and climbed aboard.


\----


Enroute, I realized something important.:


- Umm', I cast my voice to reach the driver, 'Is there any way you can soundproof the back of the van?' I asked him.


He wordlessly flipped a switch on the console and an opaque screen rose between himself and us.


_Convenient_


Gallant turned to me:


- What's going on?', he asked with concern.


I grinned:


- Dean, I already know your identity, and Amy is coming to my house.' I reached up to my mask and took it off:


- Taylor Hebert. Pleasure to meet the both of you.' I shook both their hands.


Gallant looked away. I guessed he would be grinning under his mask:


- You know', he started, 'I was kind of peeved that you unmasked to Shadow Stalker of all people and not to anyone else. What was that about?


Amy erupted on the other side of me:


- WHAT!? You unmasked to a _CLINICAL PSYCHOPATH? _What the hell were you _thinking?_


Gallant gave a short bark of laughter:


- Yeah. She walked into the lounge, immediately picked a fight with the most dangerous person in it, and five seconds later that person was on the ground crying her eyes out, feeling the purest shame I'd ever seen. It was nuts!


I continued from there, 'I already knew who she was due to my power. She's the one who caused me to trigger. Once she'd been de-psychopath'd, I decided it wouldn't be fair for me to know who she was if she didn't know who I was.


I looked over at Amy to see about fifty competing emotions on her face. Eventually, she asked, 'Taylor, why did you choose the name Sanity?


Gallant and I both burst out laughing.


\----


We reached the Boardwalk and the driver let Amy and I off. I said goodbye to Gallant, and we headed home. About halfway there, I asked with worry, 'Umm, Amy, how were you planning to get home?


Amy just waved it off and replied, 'Vicky will come pick me up any time of day or night, no matter where I am. It's damned convenient to be in a household of flyers sometimes, no matter how toxic Carol can be.' She gave a small smile.


I frowned:


- Now that you mention it, why do you always call your mom 'Carol'? I never call my dad Danny.


She looked down and grimaced, but continued walking and talking:


- She's...not really my mom. Both figuratively and literally. I'm adopted, and she never treated me the way she treated Vicky.', she frowned and looked back up, 'I was hoping you would fix her, actually. I understand why you didn't, it's not like the Master aura is that dangerous to her, and she has important things to do without worrying about having a whole new psyche and the ability to trust people, but...' she sighed, 'it would have been nice to have a mom, I guess.', she finished morosely.


The bottom fell out of my stomach and I looked into her eyes:


- I know _exactly _how you feel, Amy. My mom died three years ago in a car accident.


She stopped walking and looked at me with deep care:


- Oh! I'm so sorry.' She paused, clearly searching for words, 'I'm surprisingly bad at dealing with other peoples' grief, I'm sorry.


I grinned back:


- Nothing to be sorry about. A benefit of my power is resolving grief. I can think about the good things and avoid the bad better than a kindly old grandma now.' I took a few jaunty steps.


A look of mild horror appeared on Amy's face:


- Don't you think that's a bit, I don't know, messed up? Your mom died! You should get to feel sad about that!


I looked up at the sky in contemplation, then looked back at Amy:


- Amy, grief feels bad. I felt bad for three years, and not just because of that. My best friend betrayed me in that time, and my trigger event does not bear repeating. I don't want to feel bad any more. Maybe I have the right to feel grief, but I don't want to.


She nodded in understanding, and we continued to my house.


\----


Dad wasn't home yet, so we helped ourselves to some cereal and then went back outdoors to play around with Amy's power. The snow had melted in the afternoon sun, and it was almost warm enough to be comfortable. The way Amy had described her power sounded completely absurd, and I was a little skeptical of her claims. As far as I knew, no cape with the potential to go Nilbog had ever failed to do so.


Amy frowned:


- Soo, what? Should I just...start making things? I've never really done this before.


I snorted:


- A power like yours and you've never _experimented_ with it? Wow, you really were afraid of going Nilbog, weren't you?


Amy sighed:


- You have no idea.' She shrugged her shoulders:


- Well, here's nothing...


Her skin promptly started glowing neon green. I nearly fell over in shock:


- What! How? I thought you couldn't affect yourself!


Amy smirked and playfully said, 'Everyone's covered in bacteria. I modified all of mine to produce green fluorescent protein and UV light.' Her skin started changing colors from red to blue to orange:


- It's about the simplest thing you can do when you can hack a genome directly.' Her grin could've melted an iceberg.


With that display of power, my mind jumped into overdrive. Over the next several hours, we tested:


* A virus that infected Amy's skin flora and died off after a specific number of generations.


* A variant on that virus which caused the bacteria to congregate in looping swirls all over her skin.


* A virus which infected grass and made it turn purple.


* A virus which caused every single blade of grass in my lawn to become a random color.


* Fireflies which glowed pink, blue, orange, and red.


* Something like a Bombardier Beetle which sprayed vanilla extract instead of caustic gunk.


* Plants whose stems were made of natural carbon fibers.


* Plants which extruded bone.


* A bacterium which extruded linked loops of bone.


* Using that, bonemail armor.


* Using the previous four, carbon fiber reinforced bonemail armor.


* A completely biological radio transmitter and receiver.


* A completely safe knockout gas (tested on me).


* Completely safe knockout grenades.


* Knockout mines.


* A biological needle gun which shot knockout serum.


* A plant whose skin was made of graphene.


* Using that, completely biological electrical wires.


* Something that I could only describe as the bio-disco.


* A bacterium which excreted enough wax to make any surface it infected an oil slick.


* A bed of tentacles worthy of a dark god.


* Something Amy called 'hyper-elastic pseudotendons.


And many more random things besides. By the end, most of the plants in my backyard had been torn up for biological material and Amy had a huge ball of the stuff sitting next to her.


I snapped out of my fugue:


- Umm, Amy, can you put the grass back? And remove the fireproof wasp's nest? I don't think my dad really wants to come home to a destroyed yard.


Amy had apparently not noticed what we'd been doing either:


- Oh! Umm. Yeah.', she said with chagrin as the enormous ball of biomass began to flow seamlessly back into grass.


I smiled wickedly and interrupted her:


- Actually, wait.


The transformation halted. I continued as she looked up in curiosity:


- So, I have this idea...' Amy noticed my expression and started looking warily at me. I plowed on regardless:


- My power...it's fantastic, everything I've ever wanted, but it doesn't help me win a fight. I'm pretty squishy. Every other Ward has some way of defending themselves....:


- Get to your point.' Amy deadpanned.


I grinned contritely:


- I want combat upgrades.:


- What.' The deadpan intensified.:


- Weeeelllll...' I started conspiratorially, 'You know the carbon fiber bones? Maybe I could have those. Stringing carbon fibers between my ribs should make me more or less bulletproof, and putting them in my skull would protect my brain.


Amy considered that for a moment, then nodded in resignation:


- That...actually seems like a good idea. I can do that. Though...' she grinned and continued, 'I can actually do you one better. Spider silk is way tougher than carbon fibers, and should confer knife resistance to your skin as well. Let's give you that instead.' She reached for my arm.


_In for a penny_...


I grinned wider:


- I'm not done.


_In for a pound._


The wariness returned to her face.


\----


By the time the wheedling was all done, Amy figured I had a Brute rating of around 2 or 3. I wasn't able to get some of the more...esoteric...things I'd wanted due to space concerns, as I still needed to look human. But still. I was now more or less bulletproof and could take hits that would knock out an ordinary human like they were nothing. Plus, she'd decentralized my circulatory system so a hard hit to the chest wouldn't just end me, and the tiny pumping vestibules did double duty while I was bleeding, redirecting blood flow away from large wounds. She'd also given me something she called 'a total redesign of the spinal column what the fuck were you thinking evolution?'


There was just one sticking point left.:


- NO, Taylor, I AM NOT giving you _COMBAT TENTACLES!_' Amy exclaimed for the third time, in more horror than the previous two. She'd clearly had practice making sure her voice didn't carry beyond a single yard, but if she hadn't been careful, the neighbors might have heard.


I tried for diplomacy:


- Amy. I have a Striker power. Striker powers need to be able to, you know, _strike_ something. Right now, any ordinary adult gangbanger has longer reach than me, so if they are wearing gloves and long sleeves, my _actual_ powers are more or less useless. If I had ten feet of reach, however...


Amy looked at me seriously:


- Taylor. The other modifications were all internal. When you wake up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror, your brain will see an ordinary human and be just fine. If I make you into some kind of octopus, it'll play hell with your-' she stopped as she noticed my maniacal grin:


- What?:


- Amy,' I stated with mirth, 'I'm _Sanity_. I can't have Body Dysmorphia!


That shut down all argument.


\----


In the end, I got two ten-foot, prehensile tentacles emerging from my shoulder blades. When not in use, they folded neatly into a slot Amy carved out of my reinforced back muscles. They'd fit underneath my clothes, and as long as I didn't wear a catsuit nobody would ever know they were there until the moment the mild-mannered parahuman psychologist became a creature from dark nightmares. They were also reinforced with spider silk, and their blood supply was carefully regulated so that wounds to them wouldn't cause me problems.


That was when my Wards phone rang.:


- This is Armsmaster. We've managed to schedule your meeting with Glenn Chambers tomorrow at twelve hundred hours. We will send a van to pick you up from the same place as this morning at eleven hundred hours.:


- Understood, sir.' I replied seriously. He hung up.


Amy cocked her head and asked, 'What was that?


I frowned at the phone:


- Armsmaster. I'm designing my costume tomorrow.' I looked up into her eyes with chagrin:


- I have no idea where to start.


Amy grinned widely:


- I can help you with THAT, too!


Intervention 2.4


I clutched the paper to myself tightly as I waited on the Boardwalk for my ride to arrive.


Well, calling it paper wasn't exactly correct. Amy may have been a terrible drawer, but her power could make literally anything biological, including an image out of her mind as translated onto a fungus-based pad infused with pigments.


She'd gone home sometime around 11 the previous night. I'd told her she could stay the night if she wanted and dad had readily agreed, but she said she needed to go home to see how her family was doing after I'd upended it.


I could understand that.


The van finally arrived and I climbed aboard in nervous silence.


\----


I got out of the van at the PRT building, thanked the driver, and strode in. Somehow, even though I didn't know where my meeting with Mr. Chambers was, the elevator still took me automatically to a floor with several conference rooms. I tentatively walked out, and immediately a large, unkempt man strode from one of the rooms, beaming at me.


_Narcissism._:


- Sanity, I presume?' His grin didn't really fit on his face, in my opinion. I nodded:


- Well then, come on in! I think we're going to get along _famously!_' He ushered me into the conference room and lightly closed the door behind me.


He sat himself down heavily on the other end of the table from where I'd chosen to sit:


- Now, just give me a recap of what your powers do. I have been briefed, of course, but it's always better to hear from the source, I find.' His grin managed to look encouraging.


I grinned back:


- My power lets me see mental disorders in people, prevents me from having any, and allows me to cure them on touch. The Striker power is difficult for me to control: it can be turned off, but so far I've only managed it for an hour at a time.' I had been practicing, but progress was slow. I paused:


- Not that I want it to be off, most of the time. It's a pretty nice power to have. If I had to guess, I'd also say it's your favorite quality of mine.' I ended with a smirk.


His laugh was booming:


- Well said! You know, it's rare that I encounter a parahuman with a power which doesn't need to be spun for the general public very hard. Most parahumans have at least _something_ they can do which is completely terrifying and needs to be kept out of the limelight, but yours is all upside, from my perspective.


He paused for a moment and shuffled some papers on his desk:


- Of course, you will need to keep down the...embarrassing side of knowing everyone's problems, but considering what you're going to be doing I don't see that being much of an issue.' He came up with a diplomatic smile and launched right back in:


- Now, have you thought much about what you want your costume to look like? I've taken the liberty of designing a few things myself, but it's always good to know your preferences.


I smiled and took out the paper Amy had made for me:


- This.


Glenn turned it around and took a critical glance.


It was fairly simple, all things considered. Amy had based it on nurse's scrubs (trust the lesbian healer to design a sexy nurse costume), but it had a little more detail than that. The top was all white, with a green uppercase Psi on the left breast. The pants faded into green the further down they went, with green tennis shoes capping them off. The mask was green with a white Psi nestled between the eyes, the tail of the symbol following the curve of the nose.


One of Glenn's eyebrows raised:


- I think I can work with this. Just a few questions first.


I smiled and leaned back in my chair:


- Shoot.


He glanced at the picture:


- I see you're going for a sort of nurse look. Why choose that in particular?


I smiled:


- A friend of mine told me that most people trust nurses. I want people to trust me so I can heal as many as possible.


He gave half a smile:


- I understand. Next: Why green?


I sat back up in my chair:


- My power is all about new beginnings, fresh starts. Renewal. Green seemed like the right color for that.


He nodded diplomatically and continued, 'I do like using Psi as your symbol. Very appropriate, given your power.' He paused, grimaced, and continued, 'I do have to ask though, what are these?


He pointed at the tentacles coming out of the baggy arms of the scrubs along with the arms.


I withdrew my tentacles from their storage space and pushed them out down my sleeves.


Glenn Chambers stood up in shock, horror evident on his face. I manipulated the tentacles so I was shaped like a rough Psi while he was stunned. Eventually, he recovered:


- Nobody told me you were a Case 53! Why wasn't I briefed on this!?


I'd have to look up what 'Case 53' meant later. I assumed it had something to do with capes like Weld, but I wasn't sure. I grinned maniacally:


- Because it happened last night. Part of my power prevents me from experiencing distress at extreme body mods, so I got some.' I tucked the tentacles back in their holders and continued 'I got those more as a surprise for anyone who tried to close with me. I won't be walking around like that ordinarily.


Glenn managed to calm down and sat back in his chair:


- Well,' he recovered, 'That's certainly a _surprise_, but nothing I haven't handled before. Your healing power should make any bizarre applications of your power go by the wayside with most people, honestly, so I don't expect...that...to be much of a problem, from a PR perspective.' He smiled tentatively:


- We'll chalk that one up to 'creative use of available resources.' Though, I must ask...who'd you have do this to you? I wasn't aware of any trustworthy biotinkers in Brockton Bay.


I gave a small smile:


- Panacea.


Glenn looked at me like a train had just run through the building.:


- Well then,' he started, clearly ignoring the implications, 'I just have one more question. This costume...doesn't really protect you. As you said, you're going to be getting into fights with it. Someone could shoot you in the face and you'd die.


I grinned:


- I got that fixed too. My source figures I have a Brute rating of 2 or 3, in terms of toughness. Spider silk reinforced skin and bones, decentralized circulation, better injury responses. I'm not as good as Aegis, but it's similar. More redundancy, fewer obvious weaknesses.


Glenn's face contorted:


- And tentacles.


I beamed enthusiastically:


- And tentacles!


Glenn gave a huge sigh and looked down at the table. Eventually, he looked back up:


- Alright. You've clearly put thought into this costume, and I must agree with your sensibilities, both on symbolism and on placating the public. Good work.' I grinned as he continued, 'I can probably have this and backups put together within a week, maybe less. Armsmaster informed me that you wouldn't be able to begin your primary work until about then anyway, so I trust that won't be an issue?


I shook my head. Glenn smiled widely:


- Alright, then. I must say, despite the surprises, this was one of the most pleasant and uncomplicated initial consults I've ever had. It was a pleasure to meet you, Sanity.' He held out his hand to shake, then seemed to think better of it and put it back down awkwardly.


I just chuckled. I supposed he didn't want his narcissism removed after all.


\----


After he took my measurements (with gloves on), I walked out of the conference room to find a PRT officer speaking with a second man.


_PTSD. Sub-Clinical Obsession with Loyalty._


I wasn't sure who I was expected to ask, so I addressed them both, "Is there a problem officer, Mr. Calvert?" I'd read his nametag.


The second man shook his head. The officer replied, "Sanity, I presume? I've been ordered to show you to the gyms. Now that you have a costume on the way, your Wards training needs to begin.


I grimaced:


- Understood." I turned to the second man. "Mr. Calvert, would you like me to fix your PTSD before I go? I don't know when I will get the opportunity to, given that you don't appear to work here."


The man looked at me in bewilderment, obvious surprise evident on his face. Eventually he turned to me, and he radiated curiosity:


- You don't know me. You don't know who I am or what I've done with my life. And yet you want to help me, and ask nothing in return.' It wasn't a question.


I turned up the compassion:


- I'm _sane_. It's part of my powers. Sane people help others who are hurting, and something in your past is hurting you. I can fix that with a touch.' I ended with a radiant smile.


He seemed uncertain, clearly juggling options in his head, before looking up with a wide, I'd say almost relieved, smile on his face:


- Yes. Yes, I would like you to help me, Sanity.' He took off one of his gloves.


I beamed and took his hand. His whole body shook for a few moments before he gained control again. I turned down the hall with the officer and left him to his own devices.


\----


Training _sucked_. In order to fit all the defensive mods, Amy had skimped on my musculature, compared to what she could have done. I couldn't lift any more than a peak condition 15 year old girl, and it all hurt like hell.


Once the trainers got tired of strength training, they moved on to endurance. I found that I actually enjoyed running. I was kind of surprised. I hadn't been the type for much physical activity before I got my powers, though I suppose my depression may have played a role in that. My new circulatory system seemed purpose-designed for this kind of thing, and I never felt the tightness in my chest that signified I was going too hard or too long, no matter what I did.


I didn't have a heart there anyway, now that I thought of it. I was going to need a whole new set of metaphors for if I ever broke up with a boyfriend. Awkward.


I was also going to need to make time to run every day. This was really relaxing.


Eventually, Triumph walked into the gym. Seeing me, he power-walked over:


- Have you seen Kid Win since two days ago, Sanity? He skipped school yesterday and none of the other Wards have seen him since.' he asked with concern.


I stepped off the treadmill and wiped my brow with a towel:


- I haven't been around here much, so no.' I replied with concern.


_Though..._:


- Has,' I started, 'Has anyone checked his workshop?


A light seemed to go on in Triumph's head:


- Oh dear.


Intervention 2.5


We both ran back to the Wards lounge and stopped before the door to Kid Win's workshop. Triumph knocked quietly, but there was no response. He knocked louder. Still no response. He did...something, with his power, and we could suddenly hear rustling coming from inside.


Fortunately, none of the doors in the Wards compound could lock except in emergency scenarios. Triumph and I grimly looked at each other, and I opened the door.


If someone had tried to describe the elemental concept of chaos to me, they would have been better served showing me a picture of that room.


Tools were strewn everywhere. Every table had been pulled away from the wall at haphazard angles, and each one contained multiple somethings in some state of disassembly. The floor was covered in energy bar wrappers, and some of the furniture even had pieces missing.


Kid Win, for his part, was hunched over an intricate piece of metal and plastic underneath a magnifying glass, clearly asleep. His costume was half off, though fortunately for his identity he had on a welding mask with some additional pieces of tech soldered to it. Fortunately for me, he was wearing pants.


In the middle of the room was a _machine_.


Ok, right now it was several machines, but I could tell the parts were all supposed to fit together somehow. Altogether, it probably weighed in at around a thousand pounds. I saw what looked like a cannon barrel, but nothing else was anything I could recognize.


Triumph surveyed the scene with me, then carefully stepped over to where the young Tinker was napping. He tapped him on the shoulder:


- Hey, Win. Wake up.


Kid Win slowly roused. He had trouble lifting his head at first, with the heavy mask on, but he managed:


- Shit. I lost track of time, didn't I?' He managed to mumble groggily.


I scowled at him, 'Nobody'd seen you since I fixed you. It's been two days!


He snapped to attention at that:


- Shit! My parents are gonna flip! Piggot's gonna have my ass, too!' He managed to stand unsteadily.


I looked back at the trashed lab:


- Umm, Win...' I started.


The Tinker took off his mask:


- You can call me Chris. You're on the team, and all this,' he gestured at the pile of machinery, 'wouldn't have been possible without you. Even though I took it a little overboard, thank you.


I was taken aback:


- You're welcome, Chris!' I peeled my mask off:


- You can call me Taylor. What...is this?


An enormous smile plastered his face:


- After you took out my ADD, it's like the design for this just dropped into my head from nowhere. I call it the Alternator Cannon. I'll have to get it approved still, but it should be valid against Endbringers.


I raised an eyebrow at it:


- Why is it in pieces?


Chris' face lit up even more:


- That's the other great thing! My specialty is _modular equipment!_ All of those bits will slot right into other designs I have knocking around and, even better...' He pulled a control out of his pocket and pressed a few buttons. The pieces on the floor started vanishing:


- I can store the pieces in pocket dimensions, then call them out at any time! Once I have everything built, it's like I'll have hundreds of weapons in one!' His excitement knew no bounds.


I nodded frankly:


- That's impressive.


He grinned, then immediately frowned:


- I should probably go now. Gotta make up for vanishing for a few days.


I stepped up to the plate:


- I'm coming with. I can't leave a friend to the wrath of Piggot alone.


His grinned in relief.


\----


Chris and I stood grimly outside the door to Director Piggot's office.:


- Come in', we heard from inside. She sounded exasperated. Chris opened the door for me and we strode in to sit on two hard-backed chairs in front of her desk.


Piggot scowled at us:


- Just, explain what just happened. Both of you.' Her scowl looked much more natural on her face than her smiles.


I cleared my throat and began, 'Director Piggot, this is at least partially my fault. When I removed Kid Win's Dyscalculia and ADD, he ran off to his workshop to begin working on something. I just assumed that was more or less normal behavior for Tinkers and didn't think about it until Triumph found me.


Chris interrupted, 'That's nice of you, Sanity, but this is all my fault. I completely lost track of time while I was working and didn't even realize two days had passed. I must have been muting my alarms without noticing they'd gone off, and I let my phones die. I accept all responsibility.' He sighed deeply and looked at his lap.


Piggot blinked slowly, then turned to me:


- Sanity, much as I am loath to admit it, I believe him. I've received the report Dragon put together on what your power does, and I agree with her conclusions that it makes people generally more responsible and sane without creating any compulsions or having any appreciable negative effects. The eight soldiers you helped on Thursday are in good spirits and far more productive than they ordinarily are. One of them has impressed their superior officers enough that they will be receiving a promotion in the next several weeks, given that their work continues being as exemplary as it has been.


She rounded on Kid Win, 'Your behavior, on the other hand, is a problem. I've dealt with Armsmaster enough to know that vanishing for days on end is only _slightly_ unusual for a Tinker, but that doesn't mean you can't be censured for it. Punishment duty for a week.' The Tinker nodded grimly, and Piggot continued, 'Now, what was it you were making that was so important you couldn't put it down? And why don't I have any paperwork on it?


He allowed himself a small smile at that:


- I haven't fully assembled it yet, ma'am, so I am unable to provide testing papers. I'm calling it the Alternator Cannon. Once I finish it, I believe it will be valid even against Endbringers, though it comes with lower settings for dealing with ordinary Brutes.' He looked back up at the director, resolve etched on his face:


- I am very sorry for this, Director. I understand and accept my punishment. I will have papers on your desk later today.


Piggot nodded grimly:


- You will both be going through the halo device the next time Dragon is free to operate it, as a precaution against the unforeseen. You are both dismissed.' We began to file out of the room when Piggot interrupted us:


- Oh, and, Sanity? Don't use your power on any more Tinkers unless you can give them proper supervision. We don't want a repeat of this.


\----


Once we had left, I turned to Kid Win:


- I really am sorry about this. I should have gone to check on you the way I did for Sophia.


He just laughed:


- Don't worry about it, Sanity. Piggot's right, things like that are pretty much normal for Tinkers. I'd never done it before because I couldn't focus for that long, but I should have anticipated it happening the moment the mental blocks were removed. I'll eat my punishment, it was worth it for finally being able to live up to my potential.


I nodded in understanding.


\----


The next few days were, frankly, uneventful. The brain scan with Chris turned up nothing, as expected. I kept getting picked up on the Boardwalk to come in to the PRT base in the mornings, and received more training in Wards protocol. They'd also started carting homework for me from Arcadia. I might not be able to go to class yet, but that couldn't get me out of school. Oh well. My physical training continued apace. I hadn't told anyone about the body mods yet because I wanted them to be a surprise for anyone who tried to jump me, and I'd taken Armsmaster's warning about moles in the PRT to heart. It wasn't like they were too noticeable unless I took off my shirt, anyway. And, umm, not doing that around the trainers. Nope.


Sophia started being...friendly. I never thought I'd see that. She still held on to her disdain for criminals, but her energies were now turned to capturing them instead of hurting them. She insisted that they be held until I was officially inducted into the Wards so I could help them the same way I'd helped her.


I wasn't going to complain. That was a massive improvement from where she had been. She was now going on patrols whenever she could get away with it, and her industriousness had earned her the respect of the other Wards. Not the friendship, yet, but I trusted that would come.


On Wednesday, my costume (and several backups) arrived. Glenn's people had outdone themselves on time and quality, it was exactly what I wanted. I quickly retreated to the bunkroom workmen had installed for me the previous day to try it on.


I looked...cute! Trustworthy. Just like I'd been going for. I walked back into the lounge to show off.


Aegis, Clockblocker, and Shadow Stalker were there. Clockblocker started with a low whistle, which Aegis interrupted with a punch.:


- I like it!' Aegis complimented me:


- Really compliments the whole 'I'm here to help you' image!


Shadow Stalker frowned and looked confused:


- How will that protect you if you get into a fight?


I grinned crazily and unfurled the tentacles. Clockblocker about fell out of his chair. Sophia actually did. Aegis rapidly stood up:


- What on earth are those!?' Aegis exclaimed.


I grinned wider:


- Turns out Panacea is more than a healer. A lot more. I convinced her to do this and more after fixing some problems she had. Don't tell anyone, I want it to stay a surprise to anyone who comes after me for as long as possible, but I'm about a Brute 2 or 3 now.


Clockblocker's face lit up:


- You mean I could have some wicked tentacles too??' I could see where that idea would interest him.


I frowned and retracted the tentacles:


- It would be more complicated. I was able to do this because my power keeps me level-headed, so seeing and feeling inhuman body parts stapled to my back won't slowly drive me crazy. I don't know whether my power will permanently prevent that from happening to you, or if you would need constant re-tunes from me.


He sank back in his chair:


- Well, I could at least get the Brute mods. That'd be nice, not having to worry if a perp has a knife.' He looked forlorn.


I smiled back at him:


- I can put you in touch with her, you might be able to get something as early as tomorrow.


At that moment, the elevator opened and Armsmaster stepped out. He nodded at me and marched over:


- Good, I see you've received your costume, Sanity. Your official induction to the Wards has been scheduled for a press release tomorrow at 1800 hours. In addition, your clinic will be ready by Friday.' He opened the lower section of his mask and smiled:


- Welcome to the Wards for real this time, Sanity. I think your career here will be a fantastic one.


_Oh, damn. I need a speech, don't I?_


Intervention 2.6


I'd spent all last night preparing a speech to give at my official induction to the Wards. Dad had been a huge help. He had to give speeches for the Dockworkers on occasion, so he knew his way around public speaking.


I, on the other hand, was nervous as hell.


I was standing behind the outdoor stage the PRT kept near the Boardwalk for press releases. It had a fantastic view of the PHQ, its shimmering force dome serving as the best possible backdrop. A show of strength and solidity behind every message the PRT wished to convey. A small crowd had gathered before the stage, and the press had set up their cameras in the specially cordoned - off zone which gave them a view that centered the stage on the forcefield. Everything was ready.


Well, everything except me.


_Dammit Power, why can't you consider fear of public speaking a disorder??_


I sighed. Armsmaster opened the door to the room I was in and walked in.:


- You ready, Sanity?', he intoned.


I sighed again:


- As I'll ever be. Let's do this.


We walked onto the stage.


\----


Armsmaster, Miss Militia, Dauntless,


_Inferiority Complex. Sub-Clinical Social Anxiety. Exacerbated by Powers._


Assault,


_PTSD. Exacerbated by Powers._


Battery,


_PTSD. Sub-Clinical Social Anxiety. Exacerbated by Powers._


and Velocity,


_PTSD. Occasional Hallucinatory Episodes. Social Isolation. Sub-Clinical Phobia of Powers. All Exacerbated by Powers. _


were on the stage, smiling at the crowd.


_What the hell is going on with Velocity?_


Miss Militia walked jovially up to the microphone and began the festivities:


- Welcome all, thank you for being here. This glorious afternoon, we are welcoming a new member to the Wards ENE.' She turned to me as the crowd and heroes on stage began clapping:


- Sanity, would you like to introduce yourself?' She smiled reassuringly.


I walked up to the microphone. I deliberately tuned out the entire crowd and their problems. Dad had suggested that. I passed my eyes unseeing over the crowd before seeing him standing near the middle and smiled to myself. Then I began:


- Thanks everyone! I'm Sanity.' I paused for a moment to let them settle down, then continued:


- I chose my name because it reflects my powers. To put it simply, I cure psychological disorders. I make people sane.' With that, I turned on the compassion:


- My power isn't meant for fighting. It isn't meant for punching criminals in the face, or for dragging them back in handcuffs.' I paused:


- It's meant to make all of that unnecessary. I take broken people, those who have sunk deeper than any human being should ever have to, and I make them whole.


I looked down, and when I looked up it was with an affected face of sorrow:


- This city, Brockton Bay, is a city filled with sorrows. So much poverty, so much pain, so much trauma. Our history hasn't helped. Butcher and the Teeth. Empire Eighty-Eight. The Slaughterhouse Nine.' I saw many in the crowd flinch at that:


- They've all made their dark footsteps on the soul of this city, and its people. We have all lost so much to these and many other horrors.' I looked down, away from the cameras, allowing a moment of silence.


I looked back up and allowed joy to suffuse my features:


- But all of that can be ended. I beg of the hurting people of this city: come forth! Whether it's depression, or trauma, or schizophrenia, I can help you. The PRT has been kind enough to build a clinic for me, where I will cure every person of their neuroses, free of charge. In lieu of the patrols that my friends in the Wards do, keeping the people of Brockton Bay secure in their homes and on the streets, I will be there, keeping people secure in their own minds. Come to me, and be freed of your pain.


I allowed a knowing smile to creep onto my face and continued:


- Of course, there will be those who are suspicious of my claims. We also have memories of horrors whose powers might seem superficially similar to mine. Teacher. Heartbreaker.' I paused for effect:


- The Simurgh.' Another pause. I'd clearly hit right on what some were thinking:


- Have no fear. The greatest Tinker in the world, Dragon, has devised a machine which scans the brains of parahumans such as myself and their subjects to search for any sign of control or coercion. It has been tested on numerous occasions on the Masters of the Birdcage and the Protectorate alike. It has never failed to detect a lingering effect of any Master cape.


My face became serious again:


- I have been tested by this machine ten times. Ten times, zero lasting influence of any kind was discovered. I have no more control over those who I have cured than I have over a butterfly's wings.' I paused.:


- Dragon has published her findings online. In her estimation, my power does as little as possible to make the people I touch as healthy as possible, and that is all it does.


I allowed radiant joy back on my face:


- Come forth, Brockton Bay. Come forth, and be healed.


I looked down and turned towards the back of the stage as the reporters surged to ask questions and snap pictures. Miss Militia started forward to take the mic from me.


At that moment, two enormous fists punched me in the back, and I was sent sprawling down on the stage.


Then I heard the explosion, and my world was pain.


Interlude 3: Coil and Skidmark


Coil


Taylor Hebert needed to die.


I'd learned her identity rather easily. The moment Armsmaster was dispatched to intercept a potential Master at Brockton General, an alert was sent to my computer at my office in the bunker through a shunt protocol I'd bribed a contractor to install. As I'd trained myself over many years, I immediately collapsed the timeline where I had gone to the PRT this morning myself and kept the one where my double had gone.


No caution was too great around Masters.


Back in my base, I split time again. In one timeline, I continued work in my office as if nothing had happened. In the other, I picked up my phone and contacted Tattletale.


No caution was too great around Thinkers.:


- Tattletale speaking.' Her voice was, as usual, annoyingly cheerful. She, of course, knew I hated when she did that, which is why she did it.:


- I have a request for you. Break into the PRT's system and find anything you have on Armsmaster being dispatched to Brockton General for a possible new Master trigger. Send me everything you find in three hours. The usual pay.' I began without preamble. My voice would do all the introductions, with her.:


- Caaaannnn dooooo!' She hung up. She knew I didn't have anything else to add, of course.


I kept that timeline and split again. In one, I did nothing unusual. In the other, I ordered Mr. Pitter to go to Brockton General and kill the young cape. When he reported that a simple handgun shot to the head had been sufficient, I closed that timeline.


One can never be too careful when determining the strengths of their enemies.


\----


Precisely three hours later, a message appeared on my screen. I opened it to find two audio files and a transcript of the larger one. I opened the smaller file to hear an incoherently emotional woman screaming at a PRT dispatcher. The only coherent words I heard were Taylor Hebert.


I opened the transcript. It was a report by Armsmaster detailing the abilities of a new cape, currently at Brockton General. Apparently, she'd been involved in a brutal case of bullying and triggered while unconscious in a locker filled with used feminine products. Her powers cured psychological disorders, allowed her to see them, and prevented her from having any.


I immediately realized that, should this girl join the Wards, I would no longer be able to enter the PRT headquarters without being recognized as out of place. Gallant was one thing, I could suppress my emotions, but I knew myself well enough to know that there were some...disturbing...things this type of empath would see in me.


Fortunately, I had chosen my body double well. He could safely go in my place until some other solution was found.


\----


A few days later, one of my associates on the Boardwalk vanished. According to eyewitnesses I had...detained...in worlds that never existed, the man fell to the ground on his post and started sobbing. When he managed to compose himself, he went home and promptly disappeared. Cursory examination of his home revealed that he had hastily left the city for parts unknown. He was an unfortunate loose end, so I had people tracking him, but with the head start there was no guarantee. In addition, one of my associates at the PRT was put on administrative leave pending an investigation that day. Tattletale had never met either man, so she was unable to provide any information, even once I had revealed the security guard's predilections to her.


She did, however, make the connection between these events and the new cape.


_A bigger problem than I'd thought._


\----


The next day, disaster struck. My body double vanished after work much the same way the bodyguard on the Boardwalk had. The moment he failed to report to me after his off time at the PRT, I contacted Tattletale again.:


- Good evening, bossman. Got another minion going AWOL?' Her voice was, as usual, abnormally syrupy.:


- Indeed. This time, however, you've met the man. My body double at the PRT has failed to report in. Have any insights for me?' I replied curtly.


She replied thoughtfully, 'Hmmmmmm...If I had to guess, he came into contact with our little bugbear and decided to nope out. His strong personal loyalty to you may have been a weakness against her, somehow. He's headed to Boston.' She paused:


- Maybe New York, planning to blend into the crowds and retire early. That always was his plan, with the money you were paying him. He's just enacted it before you wanted him to.


I sighed heavily:


- Is it likely he will betray me?


She paused as she let her power go on that one:


- Very unlikely. He wants to draw as little attention as possible to himself and his money. He knows that if he came forward his accounts would be frozen and you would try to kill him. Whatever this new cape did to him, he should still be pragmatic, that way.' She hung up again, knowing the conversation was over.


I sat back in my chair, allowing myself a brief moment of weakness in one timeline. I would have to contact Dr. Q and tell him to manufacture a reason for me to not be at the PRT building until further notice. That was, after all, why I kept him on retainer.


Yes, Taylor Hebert had to die.


The question was how. Of course, this could never be traced back to me. I would get a kill order almost immediately if I openly killed a Ward in a timeline I didn't close. No, I needed someone who could be manipulated into it. Someone who could be trusted to make rash decisions...


Ah. Of course.:


- Mr. Pitter?' I called through the intercom. He arrived minutes later.:


- You called, sir?' he answered with his usual decorum.:


- I need you to compose a letter for me. Handwritten, not your writing style. Then it needs to be delivered anonymously to the following address...


\----


Skidmark:


- The fuck is this shit?' A letter had just appeared in the mail slot of the apartment Squealer 'n me were strung out in after a fuckin' awesome night partyin'. I crawled over to the door and opened it.:


- FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! SHIT!' Squealer bolted awake.:


- The HELL'R you yellin' 'bout, Skidmark? I was fuckin' ASLEEP!' she bellowed. My hands shook as I gave her the letter. Her eyes opened wide too.:


- Fuck. Is any of this true? A cape that'll cure drug addictions? Can't be convinced to leave?' She'd realized what I realized.


I answered grimly:


- Fuck if I know, but if it is? We gotta end her. They'll fuck our biz in the shitter 'n leave us fo' the faggots at the Protectorate.


She simply nodded.


Inflammation 3.1


I woke to find Amy holding onto my arm. Her face was contorted in concentration, and her eyes were closed. She seemed to be focusing on-


_What the hell?_


I quickly sat up. I felt really good for having just been blown up and...shot? I think I was shot! I looked around for any evidence of blood, but there was none. Just two small holes in the back of my costume, and smooth skin underneath them.


_Spidersilk skin is awesome!_


I looked back at Amy.


Her left hand was cocooned in a ball of writhing flesh. From it, dozens of thin, grey tentacles emerged, each one touching an injured person in the crowd or on the stage. As Armsmaster and I watched in stunned silence, every person who had a tentacle on them rapidly healed multiple serious wounds. Shrapnel spontaneously ejected itself from lacerations, and deathly pale victims visibly brightened. Where large chunks of flesh had been lost, the tentacles grew roots and appeared to be drawing biomass up from the ground to replace them.


Within thirty seconds, everyone who could be saved had been. The tentacles began disengaging from them, leaving behind only trace scar tissue, and they began groggily opening their eyes.


Glory Girl walked into my field of vision, seemingly just as horrified I was. I couldn't gauge Armsmaster's reaction through his mask. She managed to speak first:


- What?


She didn't really need to say anything else.


Amy gasped and opened her eyes as the last tentacle withdrew. All the remaining tentacles burrowed into the earth, and the biomass she'd called up began draining back into the ground. Amy was breathing hard.


She let go of my arm tentatively, then sighed heavily:


- I can't affect my own body, Sanity. So I made one and temporarily tied them all into it instead.' she offered as an explanation. She looked up at her sister:


- That, Vicky, is what my power really does. Understand, now, why I was afraid to really use it?' Vicky just gulped.


Everyone was silent for a few moments. Then, Miss Militia stood up from where she'd just recently been badly wounded, her weapon shifting rapidly between various knives and firearms, her bandana blown off her face completely. She surveyed the crowd, frowning a bit at the center where the dead lay in disarray:


- Excellent work Panacea, and Glory Girl for getting her here quickly. This could have been much worse.' She paused, then seemed to realize something:


- Wait, how long was I out?


Panacea piped up:


- Probably only a few minutes. We got here a minute after Armsmaster called.' She looked proud. Rightly so, I suppose.


Miss Militia looked concerned:


- How did-' she was interrupted by Velocity walking around the corner.


He was carrying a large, unconscious black man with him in a fireman's carry. The man was trussed up with zip-ties and had what appeared to be a tac-vest on, though it had been emptied of anything relevant:


- I followed the direction she fell to a building and searched the entire thing. This is the one who shot Sanit-', he halted when he noticed the devastation:


- What the hell happened?' His eyes opened wide when he saw the carnage at the center of the crowd.


I managed to find my voice:


- Bomb.' I stated grimly:


- You must have missed it when you ran off to find the shooter.' I noted that I couldn't see any issues in the man. I guess my power didn't work on unconscious people. I beckoned Amy over:


- Panacea, wake him up. I'm going to have a little chat with him.' I allowed some of the rage I was feeling to seep into my voice.


That had apparently been a mistake. Velocity stepped back a little and replied with concern, 'Sanity, what are you going to do to him? I know he just tried to kill you, but-' he stopped, having realized something, 'Actually, how did he fail to kill you? He had a high-caliber sniper rifle, and you took two shots to the back. You should be dead!' His confusion was evident.


I grinned evilly:


- Thank Panacea for that. I got some...combat mods. Spider silk is amazing stuff!


He looked taken aback:


- I might have to get some of that myself.' He unceremoniously dropped his prisoner on the ground and took a few steps back. Panacea poked him on the shoulder.


_Opioid Addiction. Traumatic Home Life. Phobia of Poverty. Compulsive Food Hoarding.


Oh._


Despite myself, I looked compassionately upon the man who had just shot me in the back twice:


- Welcome back. I'm sorry Velocity had to knock you out, you did just try to kill me after all.


The man groggily opened his eyes, looking around. When he saw my face he reacted with abject terror:


- No! NO! I know I hit you twice! There's _no fucking way-_' I put a finger to his lips, and the man's face contorted into one of shock as he started crying inconsolably.


I left him to his own devices for a few moments, then interrupted his blubbering:


- You're still going to be charged with attempted murder and accessory to how many, Panacea?' I asked over my shoulder.


She stated breathlessly:


- Fifteen. Fifteen died. I got the rest in time.


I looked back at him and continued matter-of-factly:


- Accessory to fifteen, assuming you didn't place the bomb. Plus whatever else you've done. What I just did for you is all I can do for anyone. You may not have chosen your path, but now at least you can walk it with a clear mind. Good luck.' I let the compassion back in as I was speaking and glanced over at Velocity:


- Velocity, thank you for that, but we need to have a talk. Follow me.' He raised an eyebrow, but followed me around to the room where I'd been before my disastrous speech.


Once inside, I turned on him:


- What does your power really do, Velocity? You have multiple isolation-related disorders, and it all appears to be tied to your power.


He stepped back, stunned. Then he looked down and chuckled:


- Read me like a book, didn't you?' He shook his head as he looked into my eyes:


- Everyone else sees me going fast. I see everyone else going slow. When I activate my power, the world slows to a crawl around me and I can just...run wherever I like. I don't get tired. I don't need to eat. I just run. Every time I ran across the country to deliver something? Months of subjective time with no human contact.' I noted an air of muted horror around him before he continued, 'Yeah, I have isolation-related disorders.' He held out his hand grimly:


- Pleasure to meet you, Sanity.


I grinned and shook. He just sat down and stared at the floor:


- Th-thank you. I'll be fine. Just. Just need to deal with this. Go out and deal with everything else, Sanity.' His voice sounded heavy, but he seemed stable enough.


I walked back out into the fast approaching winter twilight to find Armsmaster and Miss Militia questioning Panacea:


- ...Just wanted to be sure you hadn't, you know...' Armsmaster dithered.


Everyone knew.


Panacea gave a small smile:


- Sir, it's not possible to go Nilbog while you're touching Sanity. That's why I was holding on to her arm while I fixed everyone. She kept me...level, even while my power was coursing through me.' She saw me and looked quizzically over:


- What was that about?


I raised an eyebrow:


- Nothing you need to know about, really. Just having a chat with Velocity.' Ambulances and fire engines had arrived, and paramedics were checking over the people who Panacea had saved for anything she missed (not that they'd find anything), and dealing with the bodies of the fifteen victims. I noticed that Assault and Battery were both standing up and holding on to each other for dear life, still on the stage. I smiled for them.


_They really are an adorable couple._


The cameras had all been destroyed by the blast. That was...probably better, all things considered. What Panacea had done to fix everyone so quickly would get out, but this way we could let it out on our own terms. Call it a new technique she'd devised for mass casualty incidents instead of a lovecraftian horrorshow. I walked over to the two heroes and waited for their embrace to end.


Eventually, they looked at me questioningly. I smiled:


- This is the first opportunity I've had to meet you two. I'm Sanity.


Assault laughed:


- I suppose you're here to ask if we want to be mindfucked into happiness?' He was clearly being sarcastic, and he shrugged his shoulders:


- Don't see why not! I'm Assault, pleasure to meet you Sanity.' He held out his hand, which I shook. The visored hero looked disoriented for a moment before turning to his wife and saying, 'Honeykins, you've just gotta try this new drug!' He gestured towards me.


Battery punched her husband, the lines on her suit flashing a little with her displeasure. She turned towards me:


- Thank you, Sanity, for letting Panacea do what she did. I was eavesdropping on Armsmaster. That is a strong power interaction.' She held out her hand:


- I'm Battery. Welcome to the Wards.' I took her hand and turned around, then stopped midstride.


I realized something with a jolt of dread and walked toward the crowd.


Or rather, toward where the center of the crowd had been.


I looked over the fifteen bodies that had been placed in a row on the ground by some industrious fireman.


The ninth was my dad.


Inflammation 3.2:


- Sanity, listen to me.' Amy had placed her hands on my shoulders and was holding me from behind:


- What do you need from me right now?' Her voice was suffused with more care than I'd ever heard in it.


I hadn't even noticed her coming up to me, shocked as I was by seeing my dad's body.


_Why?_


It was all I'd been able to think for the past several minutes.


Amy started up again:


- Sanity, what do you need from me?:


- Just. Just stay there. I'll probably be alright. I think.' I managed a sad smile before crying again.


Amy held me tighter.


\----


I don't know how much time passed, in that void. I don't know how long it was before I felt my mind's paralysis ease, and the tension begin to melt away. My breathing slowed, and my consciousness returned, still a little dull around the edges as my grief was finally resolved into something I could bear.


Amy was still there for me. I closed my eyes for the strength to speak:


- He was the only family I had. What do I do now?' My voice was quiet, shaking. I wasn't all there yet, I suppose.


Amy turned me around and held me at arms' length, looking into my eyes. She answered grimly:


- You come home with Vicky and me.' Her tone brooked no argument.


I had one anyway:


- Amy, Carol hates me.


She scowled darkly:


- If it comes to it, Sanity, _I_ will deal with her.


\----


A few minutes later, Glory Girl set both of us down on the lawn in the Dallons' front yard. Mark immediately opened the door and ran out of the house to hug his daughters. Then, he noticed me.:


- Sanity! What just happened at your press conference? I was watching it on the news when I heard gunshots and the feed went dead. Armsmaster called seconds later! I'm glad to see you're all right.' He beamed widely at me.


I looked at the ground. I noticed that my tears had dried, and I wasn't making more.


_Shouldn't I be more worked up about this? I'm an orphan now!


Do I want to be more worked up about this?


Would dad have wanted me to be more worked up about this?


Would he have wanted me to be the same way I was after mom?


No. He didn't want me to run into my room and not come out for a week then. He wouldn't now either._


I looked up into Mark Dallon's compassionate face and smiled sadly:


- I'm...I'm going to be fine. Thank you, Mark.


I carefully removed my mask and moved to shake his hand:


- I'm Taylor Hebert. My father and only relative, Danny Hebert, just died in the explosion. Can I stay with you all, for a while?


Sometimes you don't realize how much you need a warm hug until you get one.


\----


Eventually, we all walked inside.


Sitting at the table, reading a newspaper, was Carol Dallon. She looked up.


The moment she saw me, her eyes literally lit up in incandescent rage.:


- What the HELL is she _doing here!?_' If words could burn, the room would have been ablaze. Mark stepped forward, consternation on his face.:


- Carol, please be reasonable here, she-


Her look of rage redoubled as her husband tried to defend me.


_PTSD. Paranoid Personality Disorder. Transient Psychosis. All Exacerbated by Powers. Master Influence._


She flashed into her Changer state, then out of it, now standing on top of the chair, and charged the door, a clublike weapon of crackling energy manifesting in her hand as she did. I tried to unsheathe my tentacles in time to intercept her and possibly end her rage.


Amy got there first.


The biokinetic interposed herself between her adoptive mother and I and managed to touch her forehead before the weapon could strike home. Carol Dallon immediately crumpled to the floor.


Amy's voice went coldly businesslike:


- Let the record show that on January 20th, 2011 at approximately 7:00 P.M., I, Amy Dallon, alias Panacea, in accordance with my duty as a licensed physician in the state of New Hampshire, diagnosed Carol Dallon, alias Brandish, with Transient Psychosis, through the use of-' she glanced over at me, 'Taylor, did you catch that?' I nodded dumbly, and she continued:


- Through the use of two parahuman abilities known to be reliable in such determinations. In keeping with New Hampshire medical and mental health statutes, I have declared the patient temporarily mentally incompetent and restrained her using a parahuman ability to prevent harm to herself or others. I am placing her under psychiatric evaluation with Sanity of the Wards ENE, whose parahuman ability qualifies her for such a position. I did this in full view of no less than three witnesses.


She grimly turned to Glory Girl:


- Vicky, take her to the couch for me, please. She, Taylor, and the rest of us are going to have a talk."


\----


Once Vicky got her mother positioned on the couch, Amy touched her forehead again. Her eyes slowly fluttered open.


_PTSD. Paranoid Personality Disorder. Transient Psychosis. Master Influence.


Well, I guess she still wants to kill me. Also, what did Amy do to her powers?_


Her eyes immediately locked with mine, but she didn't move. Then, her eyes opened wide and she turned to Amy:


- What the _hell_ have you _done to me!?_' Her voice was filled with rage, but she seemed unable to move:


- I always knew you would crack someday, girl. You're just as bad as your_ father!_


Panacea interrupted her in clipped, detached tones:


- Carol Dallon, your little _outburst_ has required me, as a physician, to take you as my patient for psychiatric evaluation. You just assaulted a Ward. In front of a biokinetic doctor. Waking up paralyzed and with your powers turned off was the _best_ you could hope for.


I spoke up levelly:


- Carol, I didn't give a choice to the first person to try to kill me today. I used my power on them immediately. I respect your work enough to ask you why I shouldn't do the same to you.


If eyes could spontaneously burn, hers would have:


- If you do, I will have you brought up on charges of assault with a parahuman ability, use of a Master ability on an unwilling subject, and everything else I can find. I will sue your family into the ground and have your parents arrested on charges of neglect and their custody rights revoked. I will do _everything in my power to see you rot in the Birdcage, Sanity!_' Her face contorted with insane rage and she clearly would have attempted to choke me if she could have.


I allowed my face to fill with concern. Despite her violence, I actually felt it:


- Why? Why do you hate me?' I paused, then chuckled and looked down:


- Those threats are all empty, by the way. Amy's right: you just assaulted a Ward. You and I both know that people have gone to the Birdcage for less than that.' I allowed a frown of grief onto my face. That, I...didn't feel. My power is pretty good, that way:


- And also, as of an hour ago, I have no family. My father died in the bombing.


Her rage was not tempered in the slightest by that revelation:


- I hate you because you are everything I have ever stood against. You are the _embodiment_ of government-sponsored, secret-keeping, so-called 'heroics'. You draw people in with your pretty words and thinly-clad lies, and when they get too close and start to trust you? You _devour_ them. You change who they were into _twisted mockeries _of their former selves. Oh, sure, they'll tell you that things are better this way, that the world is _better_ when everyone fights under one banner. But that's because they've been _Mastered_.' She took a harsh breath, mouth beginning to froth, and continued her rant, 'In fact, Sanity, you're _worse_. At least people drawn into the Protectorate have hope of _recovery,_ at least they can get _out!_-' Her voice cracked, but she bared down:


- My family, the people you _stole_ from me, they don't even have that much! YOU HAVE KILLED THEM ALL, SANITY, AND FOR THAT I WILL HAVE VENGEANCE!' Her eyes were wild with madness by the end of her tirade.


Mark Dallon's face had been getting darker for the duration for her rant. At her final exclamation, he looked at his feet, and in a low voice, said, 'No, Carol.


Her head swiveled towards him. Face burning with resentment and betrayal, she cut, 'Mark, she did this to _you!_ She _killed _the person who you used to be, and replaced you with a _whitewashed, store-brand-_


Mark cut her off, and her voice died in her throat. He looked with sorrow on his wife:


- And if she did? Carol, the person who I was then _wanted to die!_ If she ended that person in order to create this,' he gestured to himself, 'I consider her greatest virtue to be _mercy_. I didn't, don't, want to exist that way.' He stood up, and now anger was etched on his features:


- Carol, you used to love me. Back before Amy, before Marquis, before I was diagnosed, before this all began, you loved a happy, loving man named Mark Dallon. Despite your reservations and fears, despite your past, you loved him. And he loved you.' His voice broke, but he managed to carry on:


- That man died by bits and pieces, over years. All that he was and all that he loved torn away and cast into a dark pit, his soul shredded by forces beyond his control, and his mind beset by demons. Mark Dallon died in _agony_.' He began to weep openly:


- Sanity resurrected him, Carol. The demons are banished, the soul unconquerable once more. I am _free!_' His face was rapture.


Then, the rage boiled into his face. Balls of energy appeared in his hands, and he seemed barely restrained.


I didn't see a change in his mental diagnoses, though, so I wasn't too worried.


He spoke, and his voice was hatred:


- You tried to kill the one who freed me, Carol. You could have prevented others from experiencing the relief I now cherish every day.' He turned away:


- Begone, Carol. It's over. Leave, and do not return.' He looked over his shoulder, and he radiated pure spite:


- And if you try to _take_ anything from this family, if you try to _hurt_ any of _my_ children...I will make sure you live to regret it.' He turned back to Amy and gave her an ironic smile, 'It is my opinion, _doctor_, that this _patient_ cannot be trusted with a parahuman power. I do not think it would be wise to return it to her, whether she returns to her senses or not.' He gave a heavy sigh:


- I am afraid I know her all too well.


Amy frowned and shook her head:


- No, dad. I can't do that. What happens when the world learns I'm a Trump 10 on top of everything else?


He shrugged and left the room.


Vicky was crying inconsolably. I decided I could handle that later. I raised an eyebrow at Amy and asked, with the barest smile on my face:


- Well, now that I've caused your parents to divorce, what do you want me to do, Dr. Dallon? You did say the patient wasn't competent, want me to treat her?' I raised a finger.


Amy looked sadly at me, then at the broken shell of what had been her adoptive mother:


- Carol,' she started, 'Your only choices here are the PRT or Sanity. Give me your opinion on the matter. I don't promise I'll respect it.


She had been crying. During her husband's tirade, her expression was one you might use to stare into the eyes of an angry deity, but now she simply looked...spent.


She looked into Amy's eyes. Her voice was dead:


- PRT. Send me to prison. Lock me up in chains and starve me to death, like I was the day I triggered. The day the man came with the gun.' She gave a soulless bark of laughter:


- I am powerless again. It is only appropriate, is it not? That I should be thrown into the dark whenever I am without the means to defend myself?' She looked at us in grim resolve:


- I will go to prison before I _submit_ to her. I will _die_ before I submit to her! I will go to the _Birdcage_ and be pimped out like a _common whore_ for all the worst monsters in the world before I submit to _her!_' Now she really was frothing at the mouth.


Amy frowned and shook her head:


- Wrong answer.' She glanced at me:


- Fix her. Nobody who volunteers to go to the Birdcage can possibly be competent to make such a decision.


She screamed as I lowered my finger onto her forehead.


\----


From a legal standpoint, we couldn't just ignore what she'd done. Transient Psychosis or not, she _had_ tried to kill a Ward. The PRT were called after Amy reactivated her powers and knocked her out for several hours. Ten minutes later, she was carried unceremoniously into the back of a PRT van. That done, I went to talk to Vicky.


She was shellshocked. Staring at the ceiling blankly. I sat down in front of her and she snapped out of it enough to notice me:


- Vicky,' I started 'I am really sorry about what happened with her. I know you love your mom. I hope you can forgive me.' I tried to be contrite as I could.


She kept staring blankly at the ceiling, but managed to respond slowly, feeling over each word, 'I just can't believe she tried to kill you.


I responded to that the only way I could. I hugged her, and simply stayed there for her as she cried into my hair.


Inflammation 3.3


The next day, I was, more-or-less, fine. It's surprising how fine you can be with two attempts at murder and your only family dying in one day.


My power really is great!


But now, there was work to do. My Wards phone went off early in the morning.:


- Sanity.' I grumbled.


Armsmaster was on the other end:


- My condolences for your loss. I've heard that the Dallons have taken you in, and I'm glad for that.' He paused:


- I've...also heard about what happened with Brandish. Would you be willing to give us your statement on the matter later today? It would be nice if we could get the other witnesses in as well, but I understand if they take their time.' His voice was businesslike and clipped.:


- I'll talk with them about it.


He continued with very little pause:


- Excellent. In other news, the man who shot you has admitted to being under orders from Skidmark, leader of the Merchants.' He paused, then cold rage filled his voice:


- We cannot let that stand. Battle plans have been drawn up. Every cape in the Merchants has a kill order on their heads now. The Protectorate ENE is going to war. All of the other Wards have volunteered as well.' He stopped there. My contract prevented him from asking me to fight.


But I could still volunteer.


I let a little bit of the cold into my voice:


- Count me in.


Armsmaster sounded unsure about that:


- Are you sure that's a good idea, Sanity? They did just try to kill you yesterday.


I frowned uselessly and replied, 'You said it yourself. We cannot let this stand. If I go and hide in a protected room somewhere, it gives them at least a little bit of a victory. If I fight, they will know that they have utterly lost. Besides, unless they come at me with something _better_ than a sniper rifle this time, they can't come close to injuring me.' I had a thought, then, 'And also, I have a plan. I'll explain it to you once we get there, but I think I am best served not fighting the capes at all.


Armsmaster replied seriously:


- Understood. We will see you there.


There were gangbangers to save.


\----


I explained what I was planning to Amy, and she agreed it was likely a good idea. She also needed to give her report to the PRT as soon as possible, given the circumstances. Vicky had to go to school, but getting off was downright easy for Amy. She just claimed, truthfully, that the PRT had requested her services that day. When the van arrived, we both hopped in. I was still in my costume with the holes, I'd need to change into a replacement once I had an opportunity.


We chatted about inconsequential things all the way up.


\----


Armsmaster himself was waiting in the lobby when we arrived, along with a horde of reporters. Amy and I were both still the shy types, so we shirked around them to the armored hero. His mask was closed and he didn't open it as he answered, 'I'm glad you two could make it so soon. Sanity, you can explain your plan once we get to the war room.


We grimly followed him.


\----


The elevator ejected us into a large room somewhere in the basement of the PRT building. Every PRT or Protectorate affiliated cape in Brockton Bay was there. The only one I hadn't seen yet was Dauntless.


_Inferiority Complex. Exacerbated by Powers_.


_Weird._


Armsmaster addressed the crowd:


- Welcome everyone. Protectorate members, thank you for your service today, whatever form it winds up taking. Wards, thank you for volunteering to protect your own.


Triumph, our leader for the next few months, replied, 'I think I speak for us all when I say that we'd never think to do otherwise.


Armsmaster nodded seriously and continued:


- Our Thinkers have written up a battle plan based upon their information on Merchant cape location, but it has one hole.' He looked up at me, 'Sanity, we aren't aware of the full scope of your abilities, I think. You survived two shots to the back yesterday with minimal injury. How?


I grinned, but remained serious:


- Panacea, sir. Her power is the modification of life, not just healing. I convinced her to use it to make me physically tougher and more redundant, and to give me _these,' _I unfurled the tentacles. The Wards had already seen them, but everyone else stepped back in surprise:


- These let me use my Striker power at greater range. I don't plan to use them unless necessary. I am sorry for hiding this from you, but I located a mole in the PRT on my first day here. I was being cautious.' I glanced over at Amy:


- Panacea, did you get into contact with Clockblocker yesterday concerning giving him upgrades as well?


She nodded seriously:


- I talked with him a bit about what he wanted done and we wound up settling on upgrading his skin and bones similarly to what I did to yours. I wasn't sure if your circulatory system upgrades would trigger mental issues, though, so I left that mostly in place.


Clockblocker responded. His voice was serious, but his posture sarcastic:


- As soon as she did that, I went full emo and tried cutting myself. Nothing. Oh darn.' He ended with an exaggerated snap.


Armsmaster nodded curtly while everyone else in the room continued being shocked. Whether at the tentacles, the revelation that I had found someone suspicious where everyone else had failed, Clockblocker now being a lot tougher, or all three, I didn't know. The armored hero continued, 'Understood. Surviving those shots with as little injury as I saw when I examined you while you were unconscious probably puts you at a Brute 3 rating. We can probably work you into one of the attack groups. Clockblocker, this will make you significantly more useful to your strike team. Excellent work both of you.' He looked down at the sheaf of papers he had on the table, but I interrupted him.:


- Actually, sir, I am quite uninterested in killing anyone today, and my plan keeps me away from the Merchant capes, ideally. Would I be right in assuming that the Thinker squad has located most or all of the Merchants' places of business?' I asked seriously.


He cocked his head to the side:


- Yes, why?


I grinned wickedly:


- Give us a flyer and Panacea and we can take out most of them today. Concentrate your fire on places suspected to contain their capes. Panacea has developed some additional...tricks...that she can't really use without my help.


Amy slowly turned towards me and nodded in understanding, then turned to Armsmaster:


- Me to knock them out, Sanity to keep me put together and cure the criminals. Get my sister out of school to move us around, and we can almost certainly take out most of the Merchants today.' Her tone was one of resolve.


Armsmaster was having none of it:


- Sanity, your survival of the shots yesterday makes me tentatively agree that you will be safe going up against Merchants. Panacea, on the other hand, has no such advantages.


Amy nodded and grinned:


- We can invite Lady Photon and Laserdream too. Both can fly, and both can protect me with forcefields. The Merchants are about to have a really, _really _ bad day.


Armsmaster had no further argument.


\----


Panacea and I quickly obtained a map of Merchant safehouses and made our way to the elevator once the rest of the Protectorate and Wards' attack plans had been hashed out and we had explained our template for taking out Merchant bases with no risk of casualties. We rode it to the top floor in excited silence, then stepped out onto the roof to wait for New Wave to arrive.


Lady Photon and Laserdream landed first.:


- You're lucky I didn't have classes today, Ames.' Laserdream said with a playful smirk:


- I might not have been able to get out of them to protect your sorry hide on this harebrained scheme of yours.


Amy just looked demurely at her while Lady Photon gave her a small shove:


- It's a lot less harebrained than you might think, Crystal. Sanity has let me...expand my portfolio, as it were. I might be better for this job than you, now.


Laserdream gave a mock pout just as Glory Girl appeared over the horizon.


She landed with a huge smile, and Panacea flinched back again.


_Master Influence._


I scowled at her:


- Glory Girl, your aura.


She visibly flinched, and Panacea relaxed when I touched her arm:


- Sorry about that.' Glory Girl apologized:


- It's been better ever since you took out my narcissism, Sanity, but sometimes I forget to keep it down.' She looked a little embarrassed.


I just smiled:


- It's all right, no harm done. Let's go crush some Merchants!


Everyone smiled wickedly at that.


\----


We explained the plan to the rest of New Wave on the way over. Glory Girl and Laserdream didn't like it much because it didn't involve them punching or lasering anything in the face unless something went wrong, but Lady Photon was all for the not-getting-squishy-healers-shot part of the plan.


Step one: Fly in low, don't attract spotters. Preferably come in with the sun behind us.


We located the first address and landed around the block from it. Panacea not being able to see her target didn't matter.


She had grass.


You see, grass is one of those plants that plays buddy-buddy with itself really well. Their roots are interconnected, they don't have tissue rejection systems, and cells with different DNA can be found intermingled at root stems.


As long as Panacea was touching grass, she could see a haphazard blotch of life potentially miles wide, and affect it all at once. There was a reason she didn't like going outside much.


Step two: Create knockout gas producers underground.


As long as they were underground, nobody could see that anything had gone terribly, terribly wrong until it was far too late to do anything about it. This was, of course, done while Panacea was holding my arm, so she didn't get lost in her power. The emitters took a little time to make, as they were complicated, which was why we were hiding in the first place.


Step three: Gas the safehouse.


Using small tendrils grown from the grass, initial scouting of the building could be done to locate every person inside and further disable them.


Step four: Disarm, cure, zip-tie, call it in.


Straightforward enough.


The entire plan was slated to take about ten minutes per base.


\----


We'd already dismantled seven Merchant safehouses before anything went wrong.


~CRACK~


'Fuck, I think I just got shot at!' Glory Girl yelled. She'd been going too fast for whoever it was to actually hit anyone, but it meant that our cover was blown. The next base would know we were coming.


Panacea piped up uncertainly:


- Go in for a landing. Somewhere with cover. Give me a minute and I can handle this.


Her sister looked quizzically back at her, but did so, and the others followed us down. Lady Photon wordlessly erected a forcefield around us all as we alighted on the ground, and Panacea rapidly went to work sculpting...ah, right. Spidersilk reinforced bone armor. We'd worked on that. All the plants in the surrounding area had been drawn into the construct and the Pelhams' were looking at her in shock when I realized that she wasn't done yet.:


- Erm, Panacea, what is this going to be?' I touched the arm that was drawing up the biomass, but she kept doing it. I guessed this was part of the plan, rather than her power drawing her in.


She breathed heavily:


- Lucky shot could get me through eyeholes of the armor. I'm giving it eyes. And muscles.


Lady Photon frowned, but didn't complain. She'd seen what Amy was really capable of enough today to trust that she wouldn't go overboard. Laserdream, on the other hand, didn't drop the horror on her face as the armor rapidly transformed into a towering slab of meat and bone.


At that moment, the Merchants broke around the corner and charged us. About one hundred fifty men, some with shotguns, others with AK-47s, began to take aim. They all looked unhealthy, and my power confirmed that for me. Most of them had the teeth of the addicted. Glory Girl flew at them, creating whirlwinds of dirt in her wake, and a few dodged out of her way. Laserdream took off in her cousin's wake, and Lady Photon erected a larger, outward- facing barrier around us to take some stray shots. The wall of men stopped and began pummeling the wall of force with their fists.


Lady Photon started to look fatigued. I guess her forcefields weren't as strong as Shielder's.


I took a glance back at Panacea. Her hulk was still motionless, but it covered her whole body now. She'd be fine if a few shots hit her.


Let's be honest here, if sniper fire wasn't going to get me, neither was this. I charged on heedlessly just as Lady Photon dropped her shield, following my logic. My head was down to protect my eyes as the Merchants started firing again. A few hit me, which _hurt_, but Panacea's upgrades were more than up to the task. They barely slowed me down. I slammed into their front lines and began curing the diseases of poverty, just as I heard huge crashing sounds behind me. The fighting lulled as everyone looked toward them in startlement.


A 9-foot-tall, musclebound, vaguely-humanoid _shape_ crashed forward. A few of the Merchants came to their senses and began firing at it, for all the good it did, but the rest turned to run.


_Nope, not happening._


I unsheathed my tentacles and sprinted after them, tagging over a dozen Merchants who were running from Panacea's monstrosity before they had time to react. Laserdream and Lady Photon blocked off other routes of escape. Those who stayed behind were instantly felled by a single touch from the beast.


There were thirty seconds of gratifying curbstomp as Panacea's eldrich horror and my tentacles laid waste to every Merchant in reach.


At that point, Glory Girl finished fighting the gangsters she'd distracted, and glanced over at us. She noted that we had things very much in hand and fished some zip-ties out of her pocket. I looked around and saw zero standing Merchants, with Lady Photon and Laserdream just mopping up their enemies near the edges of the battle. I walked over to Panacea's bio-armor.


As I did so, it began peeling away, looking dead.


_Mild Power Psychosis._


I touched her arm as soon as the monster's reinforced hand fell off, and the pieces of the armor which were still alive crawled away from her as she scrambled out of it. She looked back at her fallen creation and sighed sadly.:


- What's happening here? Why's it dying?' I asked confusedly.


She just frowned and shook her head:


- I had to make it too fast. Not enough time for full metabolic functions, I just loaded up the cells with enough ATP to last a few minutes. I kind of forgot, in the moment, how short ATP's half- life is, though. All of the cells are dying.' She reached back to the dying armor and banished what was still alive into the ground, leaving about fifty pounds of sludge in the street. She did...something, and the sludge began to flow organically into the storm sewers.


I looked around. It looked like only five-ish Merchants had escaped before the Pelham ladies had blocked every route. The rest were lying on the ground trussed up in various states of consciousness, depending on whether it had been me or the other four who took them out. Panacea went around curing bruises and broken bones, while I wiped away addictions, sociopathy, PTSD, fear of poverty, and a particularly strong fear of clowns.


Glory Girl strolled over to us, a confident grin on her face:


- Weren't you two supposed to be squishy?' she joked.


We both grinned back.


\----


After calling the fight in (137 bound Merchants, no injuries), the five of us continued to the next safehouse.


I guess that group, large as it had been, were the only one the Merchants could spare to protect their territory, because nobody shot at us for the rest of the day.


By the end, every Merchant safehouse the Protectorate Thinkers had been able to find was cleared. once we'd finished, Armsmaster called Panacea and I back so we could give our reports on the Brandish situation.:


- Sir,' I asked over the line, 'Could I see her? I want to see how she's doing.


Armsmaster chuckled grimly, 'When we asked her that, her answer was, and I quote, 'If I never see that psycho bitch again it will be too soon.' I'm going to have to give a negative on that.


I answered grimly:


- Understood, sir. We'll head on back.


Once we were in the air, I asked Amy, 'Soo, Amy, were you aware that using your power _actually _makes you crazy? When that power armor of yours started melting, you had something my power called 'power psychosis.'


Amy sadly responded, 'It's...nice to have confirmation, I guess. Yes, I know about that. Whenever I use my power to do anything too big, too different from human biology, I can feel my mind being pulled in. It's one of the reasons I was so afraid to use my power for anything interesting before.' She continued much more happily:


- Now that you're here, though, I don't need to worry about that as much. The crazy is kept at bay whenever I'm touching you.


I just smiled uselessly into the wind.


\----


Amy and I were ushered into separate briefing rooms, with separate bored - looking inspectors manning separate recorders. Once the door had closed, mine droned, 'Alright, Sanity, in your own words, what happened on the night of January 20th as you entered the Dallon house?


I answered seriously, 'Mark Dallon invited me in after I'd told him I had nowhere else to go, since my dad had died in the explosion.' The inspector's eyebrows raised at that. He clearly hadn't been told. I continued unabated:


- Carol Dallon was sitting at the kitchen table reading a newspaper, and the moment she looked up, my power diagnosed her with Transient Psychosis and she lept at me with one of her energy weapons. A club of some sort, I think. Amy Dallon-


The inspector interrupted me, 'That's Panacea, right?


I nodded:


- Correct. Amy Dallon got between us before she could reach me and used her power to knock out Carol Dallon. She then took control of the situation, declaring that her mother had gone temporarily insane and that it was therefore her duty as a physician to treat the patient. I concurred with her diagnosis. Victoria Dallon moved her unconscious mother to the couch, and Amy woke her, keeping her paralyzed to protect everyone present and also temporarily disabling her powers. I think Amy didn't want her mother using her Changer power to escape.


The inspector spoke up again:


- Panacea can use her power to disable other capes' powers?' He seemed very surprised at that.


I shrugged noncommittally:


- Her power is biokinesis. Powers appear to be mostly biological. Anyway, what followed was a nice chat where it was determined when Carol volunteered to go to the Birdcage and, I quote, 'be pimped out like a common whore to all the worst people in the world,' rather than let me use my power on her that she was not fit to make her own medical decisions at that time. Amy, as the attending physician, asked me to use my power on her. I did. Amy then knocked her back unconscious until the PRT arrived.


The inspector nodded:


- Alright, that should wrap us up here. You're free to go, Sanity.


I left.


Inflammation 3.4


Clockblocker:


- Alright, everyone. Our Thinkers believe the Merchants' capes to be in two areas right now, here, and here.' Armsmaster announced, pointing at the animated map on the table. Red circles appeared around the buildings, and animated 3D blueprints of them grew out of the map:


- These structures are believed to be hub points of Merchant activity, where they coordinate their deals and receive drug shipments. We're going to be splitting into groups to take them out simultaneously.


Animated dossiers of the four capes the Merchants had on their rosters appeared:


- We can't be sure which capes each group will be facing, so I'm going to go over their capabilities now. Keep in mind that all of them have kill orders on their heads, due to their unprovoked attack at the press conference. Holding back against them is completely unnecessary, though killing their mundane troops is to be avoided.' Everyone in the room looked grim, at that. I wasn't personally sure whether I wanted to kill anyone today, but they had attacked Sanity. I probably wouldn't lose any sleep over it.


Hell, Sanity could make sure I'd never lose sleep over it. Convenient.


Skidmark's dossier expanded:


- Skidmark is the leader of the Merchants. Shaker 2. His power produces zones of acceleration on surfaces. He isn't much of an offensive threat, but give him time and he will control the battlefield, creating one-way walls through which we will be unable to attack. Taking him down first is a must.' Squealer's image grew:


- Squealer, Skidmark's girlfriend and lieutenant. Tinker 2, Mover 3, she makes vehicles. Generally, her vehicles have many aesthetic alterations and are hard to miss. They also tend to be heavily armed. We haven't seen any evidence of automation in her work, but don't count the possibility out. If she goes down, so should her creations.' Mush was next:


- Mush. Changer 4. He can absorb trash into his body, becoming a sort of trash golem. When he gets big, he hits _hard_. That said, the trash doesn't gain any toughness boosts while it's a part of him, so hitting him back will shrink him back down again. His main body doesn't have any toughness boosts we know of. Kid Win and Miss Militia? High-power energy weapons are likely to take him out in one hit.' Kid Win nodded understandingly at that. I think I knew what he had planned. The final image grew:


- Trainwreck is either a Tinker or a Changer, but his primary classification is Brute 5. His body or armor is made of broken machinery, and he can add to himself on the fly. Don't take hits from him unless you have to or are Dauntless.


Armsmaster looked up at the crowd:


- That done, we are breaking into groups which should be able to take any combination of the capes we expect to fight today. In the unlikely event that one of our locations doesn't have any capes, that group will join the other strike team upon clearing the base of Merchants. Dauntless and I are team leaders. We can take the hardest hits from the Brutes and Changers, so we are needed in both locations. Velocity and Clockblocker,' I raised my eyebrows at my name, 'you're with me. Velocity, you can carry Clockblocker into Striker range with capes before they can react. My team is rounded out with Miss Militia, Aegis, and Triumph. This way, both teams get mixes of capes who can take hits, capes with long-range attacks, and Flyers or Movers. Dauntless, you get Assault, Battery, Kid Win, Shadow Stalker, Gallant, and Vista.


Everyone got into their groups, and we all left the war room.


\----


Twenty minutes later, the unmarked PRT van Armsmaster, Miss Militia, Velocity, Aegis, Triumph, and I had piled into arrived around the corner from our destination. We piled out in silence as Armsmaster's voice came over the Tinkertech comms we'd all been provided with:


- Alright folks, this is it. Our target is the warehouse around the corner. Floorplan on file with the city says it's all one room, and,' he paused staring in the direction of our target, through a wall, 'it appears they haven't changed it.


He began barking orders:


- Aegis, I saw a very large heat signature in there. I believe that's Trainwreck. On my mark, fly in and engage him, I will follow. Miss Militia? Containment foam grenades. Cover everything, I don't need this building to be recoverable. Velocity, carry Clockblocker. If you see Skidmark or Squealer inside, try to disable them before they notice we've come for them. If Mush is inside, avoid him. He can simply drop any trash you freeze. If you have an opportunity, freeze Trainwreck, but don't go out of your way. Triumph, your priority target is Mush, though your sonic attacks may penetrate Skidmark's barriers.


He stood in ready stance:


- Alright, let's take these Merchants down.


Everyone charged.


\----


As soon as we were close to the building, Velocity picked me up in a bridal carry, leaving my arms free to freeze anyone who got too near. Then, he _bolted_ forward.


He'd explained to me a little how his power worked, so he couldn't actually go that fast, but we were running toward the building at a good 20 mph when Aegis slammed into the corrugated steel of the side of the warehouse and tore a massive chunk out of it, leaving Velocity an opening. We charged in as an enormous crash emanated from inside.


As we entered the dimly lit room, I began reaching out to tag some surprised Merchant mooks we raced past. No matter how undignified my entry, playing freeze tag with assholes always makes my day, so I had a manic grin on when I spotted the purple waves on the floor.:


- Skidmark confirmed in the building. Moving to intercept,' I spoke into my comms. Velocity ran towards the haze as shots began firing around us. Fortunately, we were going too fast for conventional aim, unfortunately (but only a little), I heard some screams as those shots hit other Merchants.


I guess these bozos thought friendly fire was a good thing. Oops.


A few seconds later, we reached the edge of the field and began to slow down. Enough that the Merchants behind us could start to take aim.:


- Velocity, I'm bulletproof now. You're not unless you go deeper. Drop me.' I said. He probably would have argued, but some combination of his power and my wicked persuasion skills and good looks convinced him. I fell to the ground (ouch), slid out of the field, and he positively _buzzed _off, dodging bullets on the way.


I jumped off the ground, and something hit me in the back really hard.


_Welp, I guess that's what getting shot feels like._


I ignored the pain and began hopping between unprepared gangbangers, freezing them where they stood. Nothing they had could touch me, and the loud crashing noises on the other end of the building indicated Trainwreck was occupied, so I just had a fun 30 seconds wrecking the Merchants' days.


Then, I was slammed to the ground with bone - shattering force. Or, it would have been bone-shattering if my bones weren't made of nightmare fuel, rather. I crawled behind one of the Merchantsickles and peered out.


Skidmark's field had gotten much brighter, though not so bright I couldn't see the man himself in all his trackmarked, dental nightmare glory. He was carrying a freaking enormous rifle at the hip, and if I could see right through the haze I thought he had a field on it as well.


_Probably a much higher muzzle velocity than regulation_.


Miss Militia crouched down next to me. A glance showed that the entire half of the building we'd entered by was covered in wobbling domes of yellow foam. A huge crash indicated that Trainwreck had decided to take the fight with Armsmaster and Aegis outside.:


- He seems well barricaded, there.' Miss Militia began:


- How are we going to reach him?' She asked, just barely loud enough to be heard over the din.


I shook my head:


- I got nothing. He's already hit me with that BFG, knocked me over. I don't really feel like getting hit again. You have any, I dunno, giant frickin' laserbeams?


I couldn't hear her response over another massive crash from the other end of the building, but her weapon rapidly manifested as a futuristic-looking rifle. She readied herself, then peered out from behind our...barricade, and fired.


A foot-wide, blindingly bright beam of pure energy slammed out of the gun. The barrel glowed white hot for an instant before she remanifested the weapon as the grenade launcher. I _felt_ the air get pulled back into the void created by the passing of the beam, a lightning bolt you could hear with your stomach, and the purple fields around Skidmark winked out of existence instantly.


I looked out and saw that Miss Militia's aim had, as usual been perfect. Skidmark's headless body was lying, almost unrecognizable due to the burns, on the ground. Miss Militia looked emotionlessly at it and nodded passionlessly.


I turned towards the fight with Trainwreck.


The next building over was completely trashed. Armsmaster dodged a monumental punch as the metallic hulk tried to crush him like a bug. As he did so, Aegis slammed into his knee, knocking him off balance. He crashed to the ground.


And got right back up, neither hero being able to keep him there.


He was big enough that containment foam grenades weren't going to keep him down, and we couldn't cut pieces off him while he was hopping around. He was fast enough that Miss Militia couldn't risk the laser cannon, either. A miss could put uninvolved civilians in danger.


Only one thing for it. They needed me.:


- Velocity, we need to take down Trainwreck. Come pick me up,' I whispered into my comms. He immediately appeared next to me.:


- Think you can safely get me close to him?' I wasn't sure, myself.


He just nodded grimly, picked me up, and shot across the room. He waited for the metal man to fall again before closing in for the kill. I touched his arm...


And only the arm froze.


Velocity backed off rapidly as Trainwreck bellowed in rage. Shearing metal screamed as he apparently pulled off the frozen limb. I grinned. This was a plan!:


- Miss Militia, get within range of Trainwreck and lazerize him once he only has one limb left.' I requested over the line.


Velocity nodded his understanding at the plan. Armsmaster and Aegis were too focused to speak, but they communicated their agreement by knocking Trainwreck over again. This time, I took his leg. Metal screamed again, but missing both of his left limbs he couldn't stand up. He crawled towards Armsmaster, but Velocity veered back again and I tagged his last leg.


A blinding flash from behind us and the howling of inrushing air signalled our victory seconds after we escaped the radius.


The din of battle quieted. Armsmaster surveyed the wreckage:


- Any injuries?' His voice was gruff and labored.


Everyone murmured to the negative. Armsmaster responded:


- Casualty report. None between Aegis and I, we kept Trainwreck out of range of normals for most of the fight.


Triumph replied first:


- None for Velocity and I. Once Velocity dropped Clockblocker, we were tied up dealing with Merchants. The ones we disabled got a few minor injuries before Miss Militia foamed them, but nothing urgent.


Miss Militia answered levelly:


- None known, though I did notice that some of the Merchants I was foaming appeared to have gunshot wounds, likely due to friendly fire. I was unable to provide medical assistance, so some of them may have perished.


Armsmaster nodded his understanding:


- Understood. Medics and PRT vans have been called to apprehend the mundane Merchants. We roll out when they arrive. Good work everyone, this is what I call a successful mission.


Inflammation 3.5


Shadow Stalker


After Armsmaster's debriefing, we were off.


I wasn't sure how to feel, honestly. On the one hand, I didn't have to hold back in this fight, at least not against any capes I might run into. I would be fighting as hard as possible against the darkness today. It felt...good. Knowing that I'd get to undo some of what I'd done before I was made whole. Make a real difference, instead of just throwing petty criminals in jail awaiting help.


On the other, did I really want to kill anyone today? When I was made sane, I'd thought I'd never be able to raise my hand in anger again. The very idea of harming another human had sent chills down my spine and nearly made me throw up. I told Sanity my memories were burning, and it wasn't an exaggeration.


Old me would have done this with glee, deliberately hunting down every Merchant cape she could and turning them into briefly-living pincushions. I wasn't that person any more. Didn't want to be either.


Of course, I'd also heard the rumor that Sanity had stood in the crowd, shellshocked, staring at one of the bodies for minutes after the explosion. And that she'd gone home with New Wave. I'd heard enough about her family from Emma to be able to guess what that meant.


If the Merchants had killed Taylor's father, I could still summon what little of my old coldness remained and throw it at them. I think. She didn't deserve to have that happen to her.


No, nobody deserved that.


I nodded in resolve as we arrived at our staging zone. I could do this. It was _right _ for me to do this.


Fear me, Merchants. Fear the shadows.


\----


'Kid Win, what do your scanners say about the target?' That was Dauntless. His voice always sounded...understated, especially for someone who strode around in armor gleaming with spectral energy.


The Tinker frowned as he replied, looking at a wall towards the building we would be assaulting through his new HUD:


- Office building. Lots of thin walls, looks like junk everywhere. Prime place for Mush to be, honestly. Looks like some kind of garage too, so possibly Squealer. Can't identify Trainwreck, but Skidmark could be here as well for all I can see. I can't count how many gangsters are inside.' He looked back at us, sighing, 'This could be tough.


Dauntless grimaced and nodded:


- Understood.' He thought for a moment, then began:


- Alright, Vista, on my mark, you're going to give us a path to the roof of the building. Kid Win? Stay behind. Take out the Alternator Cannon and vaporize the garage the moment people come running to intercept us. Minimize casualties, but this is a kill order mission. If you see Mush, take your shot. You have the best matchup against him.' He turned to me:


- Shadow Stalker and Gallant? We have the best weapons for safely disabling Merchants. Once we've located Mush, I will engage him and lure him to a location where Kid Win can safely take him down with the help of Battery. Assault, you work with Shadow Stalker to take out as many Merchants as you can. Does everyone understand their orders?' Everyone nodded affirmation:


- Vista, mark.


Reality twisted as a spot above the roof of the dilapidated office building became a single step over. I heard the signature sound of the Alternator Cannon coming out of storage and assembling itself behind me as I stepped across.


All hell broke loose. There weren't many Merchants on the roof, but those who were there saw us and sounded the alarm immediately. I went shadowform and bounded towards the nearest one, a tallish, skinny black man with a scar above his left eye. I flickered out of shadowform just long enough to stab him with a tranq dart, and he collapsed as I turned to the next one.


Fifteen seconds later, all six Merchants on the roof were sleeping. I glanced over to see that the other four who'd come through were charging for the stairs down. Vista was busy warping reality into a sort of fortress, walling herself away from any possible attack while maintaining our retreat point. She noticed that the Merchants on the roof were all down and extended a tendril of distorted space toward me, allowing me to take two steps to the stairs forty feet away. I shadowformed down them into a poorly lit hallway which was just _awesome_ for my shadowform.


A massive crash emanated from below me and the whole building shook. I kept on my feet, but I heard a few people swear through walls as they hit the ground.


_I guess Kid Win was able to vaporize the garage, then._


I took off down the hall, keeping my eyes peeled for any more Merchants to down.


Instead, a particularly large pile of trash in one of the corners rose to a towering height. Mush was here.


_Alright, how do I take down this guy?_


He couldn't hit me, I would just shadowform before he did and the loosely packed junk that made up his body allowed my Changer state to breathe adequately. Of course, I couldn't change _back_ while I was inside him either, so I'd need to use the crossbow. I deftly took it off my back as I had that thought, then sprinted away from the growing tower of filth.


I turned around, took aim, and fired while in shadowform, keeping mental stock of the distance and flickering back when I thought the bolt had gone far enough. Nothing. He didn't even seem to be worried about the shot, and he bounded towards me the moment it hit. I changed back and sprinted into a room next to me, through one of the thin walls, and came out behind the monstrosity as he was peering into the room I'd just dived into. I fired again.


Still nothing. This time, the shot sailed through the other side of him. I'd waited too long before dropping out of shadowform. He noticed the bolt, though, and turned on me. He was dumb from all the drugs, but I didn't think the same trick would work twice in a row. I ran into an office, then ran through several more, startling some Merchants apparently napping as I did. I dispatched them easily and continued freerunning through walls. I realized that I would need help if I was going to have anything greater than a tiny chance at taking him down:


- Kid Win,' I spoke into my comms while in solid form, 'I'm currently evading Mush on the top floor, keeping him occupied by shooting him while in shadowform. You should have a clear shot at him if you bust in through one of the walls.


He responded curtly:


- Understood. Switching to silent cutting tool and opening the wall.' When I next ran out into a hallway around the corner from where I'd last seen Mush, I saw that one of the outside walls was glowing. Then that section of wall collapsed and Kid win entered on his hoverboard, the disassembled pieces of the the Alternator Cannon following him in. They rapidly assembled themselves into a smaller form I'd never seen him use before, some of them vanishing into subspace as they did.


At that moment, Mush appeared around the corner and began to charge at us. Kid Win saw, took aim, and fired.


A bright red beam shattered all the shadows in the hall and tore a perfectly round hole right through the center of Mush's mass. By the time it came out the other side, it only managed to punch through one wall, lightly burning a Merchant on the other side, before it cut out.


The tower of trash subsided to the ground, a small lump in the middle signifying where Mush's ugly-ass body lay:


- Mush is deceased.' Kid Win muttered into his comms:


- I've already disabled Squealer's vehicles. Unknown if she is in the building or if she was just storing things here.' His voice sounded hard.


Dauntless replied grimly:


- Good work, Kid. Skidmark and Trainwreck are confirmed at the other location. Vista is ringing the building to prevent anyone from escaping. If Squealer is here, she won't get out.:


- Understood,' we both replied. We grimly looked into eachother's eyes, then set off down the hall towards the stairs. I headed through the offices I hadn't searched yet on my way, finding a few cowering Merchants and putting them down.


\----


Assault, Battery, and Dauntless had apparently been through the next floors searching for Squealer and Mush, so most of the Merchants on them were unconscious for reasons varying from the Arclance to minor head trauma. I quickly knocked out the few of them who were still milling about in confusion. Some of these people had obviously been shooting up before we arrived and were in no state to fight no matter what happened around them. I left those alone. The drugs would keep them down just as well as my tranquilizers, and I didn't want there to be a bad reaction between them and whatever their dope was cut with. While I was doing this, Kid Win kept his cannon ready, twitching about as he searched for Squealer. We didn't find her before Dauntless came in over the comms:


- Squealer deceased. Let's take down the rest of these scumbags and call it in, folks. Good work, today.


I smiled.


_I went into a fight where nobody would blame me if some of my victims died, and none of them did._


Then I turned to Kid Win. He was clearly having a hard time, staring grimly at the wall even as he walked robotically back to the top of the building.


_Oh. I should probably have Sanity help him, though._


Inflammation 3.6


I slept dreamlessly that night. Something about being one of five people to help take down an entire criminal organization's mundane army in a day really took it out of you. I woke to my Wards phone ringing.:


- Sanity,' I managed to mumble blearily into the phone. Armsmaster was on the other end.:


- Excellent work yesterday, Sanity. I didn't debrief you because I knew you would be exhausted, but I wanted to tell you now that we were completely successful. All of the kill orders on the Merchants' capes were carried out, and our Thinkers can't find any more Merchant safehouses anywhere in the city. The plan you and Panacea put together was a masterwork. The Merchants no longer exist as an entity in Brockton Bay.


I frowned a little when he said that all of the Merchants' capes were dead. I didn't think they necessarily deserved that, but I understood the message the Protectorate needed to send. Nobody would attack a Ward and live.


It would have to do.


Armsmaster continued, 'We are holding a press conference concerning our actions this evening. Indoors, this time. We'd like you to be there. In addition, Kid Win has asked for your help. He killed Mush and is apparently having some trouble with it.' Armsmaster sounded more caring than I'd ever heard him when he said that.:


- Understood, sir. Send a van up and I will cure everyone we captured yesterday as well.


He paused for a moment:


- Are you sure that's a good idea? Using your power in combat is one thing, but using it on people who can't defend themselves seems like it could cause a PR problem.


I responded grimly:


- Sir, you said it yesterday. We cannot let what the Merchants did stand, for the safety of this city and its people. We must send a message to the underworld that declaring war on the Protectorate or the Wards gets you smacked down. Hard. This will be another outcropping of that policy.' I allowed compassion back into my voice. It really was my natural state, now, after all:


- Besides, if the people I saw yesterday were any indication, every single Merchant needs what I have to offer them. Theirs was an entire organization based on suffering and pain, and I can wash it all away in an instant. It won't fix what they've done, but it might make them pause before they do it again, and if Shadow Stalker is any indication, it might make some of them completely turn their lives around. Should I really refuse them that?


Armsmaster mulled that over for a moment, then responded, 'I suppose not. You have clearance to go to the holding cells.


\----


When I got off the van, Kid Win was waiting nervously in the garage for me:


- Hey, Sanity,' he began. He looked...haunted.


_Guilt Complex._


I smiled compassionately at him:


- Kid Win, you don't look so well. What's going on?' I began to walk towards the door and he followed. He continued as we walked inside.:


- I...I killed Mush. Yesterday.' His voice was odd, very different from his usual chipper tone:


- I can't stop thinking about it. I know he had a kill order, but...


He didn't need to continue. I kept my smile up:


- It looks like you managed to pick up a guilt complex between yesterday and today. I can fix that for you.' I reached for his arm, but he jolted back.:


- I.. Shouldn't I feel guilty over this? I fucking vaporized a dude yesterday! Punched a hole right through him, completely cauterized on the way through. The smell...' he shivered involuntarily, but went on, 'The Merchants tried to kill you. I know that. I know, intellectually, that they were irredeemable monsters who needed to be put down, and that the safety of Wards and civilians everywhere demanded that they be harshly repremanded. I know the Protectorate had to put on a strong face after the disaster at the press conference. I _know_ all of those things. But I don't feel them. I'm not sure I _should_ feel them, either.' Deep sadness showed on his face.


I looked questingly at him:


- What do you want from me, then? You know that, sometimes, I don't give people a choice in the matter. I just use my power on them, regardless of their feelings on the matter. Mostly people who've attacked me personally. But I'm not going to do that to you. I respect you and your decisions enough for that.' He looked thoughtfully back at me as we continued walking


Eventually, he answered, 'Convince me that I was right to do it. Convince me that I shouldn't feel bad about killing someone who couldn't meaningfully defend himself against me. That's what I need.' He looked...interested. And devastated. I guessed he wasn't sure if such an argument existed.


I nodded and began, 'I completely understand where you are coming from, Kid Win. With my power, I'm not sure if it would be possible for me to kill someone. I'd need to be convinced that it was the only sane and right thing to do. It's why I ducked out of that fight yesterday and decided to hunt for people who didn't have a price on their heads. That said...' I paused for a moment and collected myself:


- The Merchants killed my father.' His eyes opened in shock and horror:


- Oh, I see they didn't tell you that. He was at the press conference. Standing too close to the bomb. Don't worry about me, my power is great for handling that kind of thing.' I sighed:


- He was a good man. Caring and loving. He didn't deserve to die, to never see his daughter grow up and be all that she was going to be.' I stopped and looked him in the eye with all the seriousness I could muster:


- Now apply that to _every_ person the Merchants destroyed. Every father or mother too strung out to care for their children. Every child who grew up in poverty because four capes got drunk on booze and power and decided to take over their neighborhood by force. Everyone who had their future destroyed by that organization.' I continued forward with resolve:


- I don't think they deserved to die. My power prevents me from ever thinking that. But some people still _need_ to die, to protect everyone else from them. There was no way for us to contain Trainwreck. Something could have gone wrong between Mush's capture and trial and he could have gotten out, or someone could have sprung them free, whether cape or normal. They were dumb, but they had enough money that they certainly had contingencies in place. They would have gone right back to what they were doing before the moment they were freed.


I smiled over at him:


- That won't happen now. For better or for worse, the Merchants as an organization will never terrorize the poor neighborhoods of this city ever again. _You_ helped make that possible, Kid Win. You gave thousands of people a chance at a future where none existed before.' I frowned:


- Maybe they won't actually get it. The Empire and ABB are certainly going to try to move in. But that's a worry for another time. And besides, I can remove most of their sources of power. Right now? Those people are breathing free air for the first time in years. That is something to be very, very proud of.' I nodded in finality.


He cracked a half smile and held out his hand to me. I touched it with a smile.


His hand seemed to linger in the air for a moment, but he eventually put it down and looked at the ground.


_Interesting._


\----


We separated once we reached the elevator, him to go to his workshop to finish repairs on all his equipment after yesterday's combat, me to go to the cells.


Boy, were they crowded.


BBPD was still processing everything, so right now the several hundred Merchants who'd been captured yesterday were clustered ten to a cell in the PRT basement. Technically these cells were for parahumans, but there was nowhere else for them to go at the moment.


Fine by me. Made everything easier.


I noticed with a small smile that the people I'd already treated had been segregated from those I had not. Those cells were noticeably quieter as I entered, some of them looked visibly afraid and jolted back from the bars as they recognized me. Those must have been the ones we'd captured in the fight. The rest had only been conscious enough for my power to work on them when I'd cured them.


I walked into the security office, the door opening for me once the officers inside recognized me. I motioned for the PA system.:


- Greetings, Merchants!' I started, poisonous cheer in my voice. I didn't actually want to scare them, but right now it might do some good if a few were cowed into silence:


- Some of you know who I am. Some of you know that the reason you are here today is because your _brilliant_ leader Skidmark decided he wanted to off me. He's dead now, and so are the rest of the capes in your little club. I'm Sanity, and I'm here to_ help_.' I paused as the entire cell block went dead silent.


Eventually, I continued:


- Now, I have a little policy. People who try to kill me, I use my power on. Whether they like it or not. Everyone I helped capture yesterday, you already know what my power is like. Talk to everyone else, try to explain to them that it really does help make things better. In ten minutes, I'm going in there to fix all the neuroses you folks have left, and I would really appreciate it if you let me do so willingly. If not, the tentacles come out. Some of you know about those too. Make your choice.' I dropped the mic.


\----


Ten minutes later, I walked into the cell block. I'd say about half of the people who'd been captured in the raids on the two Merchant storehouses were standing in the front of their cells, holding their hands out for me to touch. I fistbumped them all, removing hundreds of disorders in 30 seconds. When the remainder saw that their friends seemed super high at that point, many of them walked forward as well, and I made a second pass.


That just left the stragglers.


I went back to the security office:


- One last warning, and a piece of advice. None of you are getting out of this, and I have reason to believe it works better if you come forward willingly. The advice? It will look excellent to your juries and parole boards if 'willing contact with Sanity' is on your records. It will tell them that you're interested in starting fresh and are less likely to come right back the moment you're released.' I walked back out.


Only a few cells had people holding back now. I touched the remaining people standing at the front of the cages.


Then, as promised, the tentacles came out.


I looked slightly up, away from anyone's eyes, as they emerged from my sleeves, forming my emblematic Psi. Most everyone backed away from their cell doors as they did. I put on an affected air of immutability. I was a force of nature, I was there to _fix _the people who had thus far refused me, and I would not be denied.


The tentacles lashed out, and there were screams as those who had been left behind were cured of what ailed them.


_Hopefully the rest of the monsters think twice before they come for me or my friends._


Inflammation 3.7


I left the Merchants to their crying. I couldn't afford the time to give all of them the personal attention I gave most parahumans I touched. If some of them relapsed, it was still better than the alternative.


I grinned and nodded to the surprised PRT soldiers in the security office as I walked out of the holding cells, on the way to the Wards lounge. I had to prepare for another press release. I had one idea, but nothing I'd consider complete. On my way down, I bumped into Miss Militia in the magic elevator.


She smiled and nodded:


- Good morning, Sanity. Excellent work yesterday. The entire Protectorate is very impressed with what you, Glory Girl, and Panacea accomplished. Some of them are even putting out feelers asking if you'd come to their cities.


I raised my eyebrows, 'Thanks for the compliment! However, I'm not sure that strategy would work again. It only worked once because nobody was expecting it, but now that people know at least abstractly that Panacea can take out hundreds of gangsters in a day, they'll be more prepared.' She nodded thoughtfully at that.


Then, I had a thought, 'Actually, I do have one thing to ask you.' She looked over in interest:


- Could I get into contact with mundane law enforcement? After seeing how bad most of the Merchants were, I can't help but think that the prison population must be worse. I'd like to use my power there, too. Honestly, it probably does the _most _good in that environment.


She nodded and smiled, 'I don't think that will be a problem. I'll see what we can do.


\----


I got to the Wards lounge and relieved Kid Win of console duty. Technically he was supposed to be there as part of his punishment duty, but I needed something mostly mindless to do. Only Shadow Stalker and Vista were out patrolling right then, near some old Merchant territory, the rest of the Wards were at home with their families. I informed them that I was taking over and settled in, idly coming up with what I was going to say at the press conference. I had something mostly put together when Vista's voice crackled in over the line.:


- We have eyes on some E88 thugs. Looks like an 'induction'. Krieg is present, not seeing any other capes. We'd both prefer to engage and break this up before someone dies.


_Fuck._


I allowed some trepidation into my voice:


- How much time do you think before they find their target?


She responded grimly:


- Unsure. They don't look like they've chosen one yet. We will keep you posted. If you can get backup, great. If they go in, we'll have to intervene.


I nodded uselessly:


- Understood. Velocity and Armsmaster have been dispatched to your location. Good luck.


The line went silent as they and I waited for further developments.


\----


I was startled out of my thoughts again by Vista's voice, 'Reinforcements have arrived. We've continued tailing the group. They seem to have chosen a target, but nothing has happened yet. We're engaging.


I responded grimly:


- Understood. Be safe.


Thirty seconds later, Armsmaster came in over the line, 'Krieg is withdrawing. Despite our numbers, I'm going to call off pursuit. With his power, he can do a lot of damage very quickly, and I would prefer not to involve civilians in that, even if they are Empire. We are going to capture as many of them as we can. I will make contact if necessary, but we should be able to handle ourselves from here.


_What?_


I was honestly confused. Why would Krieg withdraw without a fight and leave his members behind? If it was a recruitment, he'd want to show strength, not weakness. There must be something I wasn't considering.


I called up Kid Win, who had retreated to his bunkroom to do some homework:


- Hey, Chris, come on out here. I need to bounce something off you.


I heard a clattering pencil as he responded:


- Sure! I'll be right out.


He came out and I motioned him to a chair across from the console:


- Alright, so Vista and Shadow Stalker just encountered an Empire recruitment drive. Krieg was there, so they were planning to kill someone today. I dispatched Armsmaster and Velocity. The moment they showed their faces to the Empire, Krieg bolted and left his folks behind. Do you have any idea why they would do this?' I let my voice become more confused as I got him up to speed.


He seemed a little disappointed for a moment, but then put on a thoughtful face:


- I'm not sure, honestly. I guess four on one wasn't odds he wanted, but given Krieg's history I'd expect him to at least stall for his people to scatter. It sounds like he didn't even try to fight. That's a pretty big depar-' he stopped as he clearly had an idea:


- Wards. There were two Wards there. What happened to the last capes in town to attack a Ward?


I cracked a smile and laughed:


- Oh, that makes a lot of sense actually. The Protectorate hasn't talked about what happened yesterday at all, yet. We annihilated the Merchants because they attacked me, maybe they think we'll come after the Empire if they lay a hand on Wards attacking them?' I frowned:


- That would be a pretty flagrant violation of the unwritten rules, but I guess Krieg wanted to be safe. No sense risking a kill order if Protectorate policy has changed, or something like that?' I paused, then continued:


- If that was his thinking, that's really pragmatic of him, actually. The bad rep will go away eventually. A kill order is forever.


Chris smiled wider as I was talking:


- Exactly what I was thinking. I almost wish there weren't going to be a press release later today. We could string this along for weeks, potentially!


I just laughed again and turned back to the console.


Chris elected to stay in the lobby this time and we chatted about unimportant things for a while. As we did so, I realized that I could also ask him about my plans for the press release.:


- Actually, Chris...' I asked carefully, 'there's something else I want to talk with you about.


He looked really interested as he asked, 'What, exactly?


I scrunched up my face:


- I've had this idea for the press release, but I'm not sure it's a good idea. I just wanted to ask you.' I explained the idea to him.


He eventually responded thoughtfully, 'Well, Taylor, that would be entirely your decision. I do agree that it gets a lot easier for you, now that...well.' He didn't have to continue. He rallied, 'I do think it could potentially be a good idea though. Definitely helps your public image, which is what you're going for with the costume after all.


I nodded and thought for a while longer. Eventually, he went back to finish his homework.


\----


About an hour later, Armsmaster returned to the building and walked into the lounge:


- Good to see you, Sanity. We caught eleven Empire thugs and currently have them in secure holding. Their own cell. Putting them in with the Merchants seemed...poor.' He grinned sardonically as he said that.


I responded with one of my own:


- Should I go back down and deal with them? Send a message to the Empire as well?


Armsmaster frowned:


- Not now, they'll keep. Now, we need to prepare for the press conference. It's in the PHQ, this time. More security, more official presence, that sort of thing. It's time to start heading over there.


I nodded:


- Before we go, there was an idea I wanted to pass by you.' I explained what I was planning. If I had to guess, his eyes widened when I did, but I couldn't see them through his visor. He eventually responded:


- That is your decision, Sanity. I don't necessarily see a problem with it, though, the way you put it. Let's head out.


I followed him into the mind-reading elevator.


\----


Ordinary tourists used a mundane ferry to get to the PHQ. We got to use a Tinkertech speedboat. I let the wind flow through my hair as we jetted off towards the pearly blue dome. When we got there, the forcefield sort of _melded_ around us, allowing us through without slowing us down. We rapidly continued to the floating dock and hopped up the stairs.


Inside, I was bustled around into the back rooms. I'd been to the PHQ with my dad before, just for fun, but I'd never been back here. I was...unimpressed, honestly. These were just offices. Not at all what I'd expect of an international group of heroes' local base.


Eventually, they sent me to the back of the stage they would be using for the press conference. I couldn't see them from where I was standing, but I could hear the reporters jostling for position. It sounded like there were a lot of them.


_Alright, just do what I did last time. Minus the blowing up and getting shot and orphaned, of course._


I glanced around at the rest of the people behind the stage with us.


It turned out that was a bad idea.


All the people I expected were there. Armsmaster, Piggot, and Dauntless had all had pivotal roles in the mission.


But then I noticed the tall, muscular man in a dark blue costume with lightning bolts on it.


Legend was here!


_Wait, what? No issues? At all?


Isn't that something._


I walked over nervously to introduce myself.


He saw me first:


- You must be Sanity! Belated welcome to the Wards, congratulations on your amazing accomplishments thus far, and my condolences for your father,' he started seriously. I could see the smile in his eyes, though.


_Legend just called my accomplishments amazing!_


I smiled:


- Thank you, sir. My power gives me...distance, as it were, from bad things that happen to me. I'm sad my father is dead, but I fully intend to continue improving the world in his legacy.


Legend smiled one of the most caring smiles I've ever seen on a human face:


- That is wonderful.


I held out my hand to him, beaming. He looked at it in consternation, and I replied:


- Legend, you are the first parahuman I have ever seen since I triggered who _doesn't_ have any problems my power can identify. I don't think anything will happen if you shake my hand.


He laughed and took my hand. It was a glorious sound.


It was the first time I'd touched someone while my power was on with no reaction. That felt really good, actually.


A tech came out from one of the doors in the room:


- Alright folks, we'll be on air in 30 seconds. Everyone on stage.


All the heroes walked onstage, and Director Piggot began, 'Thank you all for coming.' She seemed to steel herself and continued, 'Two days ago, a vile attack upon a Ward and innocent civilians was perpetrated in our fair city. I'd like to observe a moment of silence for the fifteen people who lost their lives.' Everyone in the room bowed their heads.


Eventually, she saw fit to continue:


- Yesterday, the Protectorate ENE, and the Wards ENE, alongside Glory Girl, Lady Photon, Laserdream, and Panacea of New Wave staged a counterattack, with the help of intelligence gathered by the Protectorate's Thinker Corps. Today, the Merchants no longer exist as an organization in Brockton Bay.' At that the cameras went wild, and reporters started to surge the stage. She responded in a clipped fashion:


- I'm going to turn the stage over to Legend. Questions will come after everyone is done speaking.' She stepped back, and Legend took center stage.


His face was serious as he spoke:


- Director Costa-Brown would have been here, but she was unavailable. She sent me in her stead. Besides, I can get here faster.' He smiled and took a breath:


- The attack on Thursday was sufficient for the PRT to draft kill orders for Skidmark, Squealer, Mush, and Trainwreck, of the Merchants. Nobody can attack a Ward on live television and expect any less. Those orders crossed Costa-Brown's desk sometime late that night, and she signed them immediately. Given the circumstances, she also authorized the full deployment of every Thinker resource the Protectorate has available. We were able to provide the Protectorate ENE with the locations of every place of Merchant business and likely locations for their capes in the timeframe of the operation.' He paused, then looked grimly at the cameras:


- Those kill orders have been carried out. The entire cape lineup of the Merchants is dead. Let this be a lesson to criminals everywhere: If you make us angry, we will find you, and we will destroy you. The Merchants simply weren't enough of a threat to do this before. They changed that. I'm going to turn the floor over to Armsmaster, now, as he organized the strike teams which carried this out.


Armsmaster stepped forward:


- Thank you, Legend.' He looked into the crowd, cold fury on his face:


- I appreciate all of the support the Protectorate was able to give us. Ordinary scuffles with criminal elements are one thing, but this was something else. We will not tolerate attacks such as these upon a Ward, or any civilian population. I would like to personally thank the many Protectorate leaders across the country who offered material aid to this mission. I decided to turn them down for one simple reason.' His voice brooked no argument:


- We needed to show the criminals of this city that we had the power on our own to keep them down. That some behavior is so unacceptable it will provoke a lethal response from us. We did that. Dauntless and I led the teams yesterday which wiped the capes of the Merchants from existence. It is not precisely typical for Wards to be involved in such missions, but their friend had just been brutally attacked. I could not have prevented them from joining us if I had tried. Miss Militia killed Skidmark and Trainwreck. Dauntless killed Squealer, and Kid Win of the Wards killed Mush. The recordings of our battles will be released, edited for controlled content, once our internal investigations are done.' He looked out into the cameras and his stance softened some:


- However, I don't even consider our accomplishments to be the most impressive thing that happened yesterday. Sanity and half of New Wave managed to wipe out all of the Merchants' mundane forces, with zero casualties or injuries for either side. I consider this the finest showing from a new Ward that has been seen in a long, long time. Sanity, did you have anything we'd like to add?' He relinquished the floor to me.


I walked forward, a lump in my throat that I quickly banished.


_Alright, time to do this._:


- Thank you, Armsmaster. I just have a few words.


I took off my mask and smiled beneficently. The flashing cameras nearly blinded me as I did so, and I resorted to simply ignoring vision for a moment as I began.:


- My name is Taylor Hebert. Two days ago, my father and only living relative was killed in the explosion. I am gratified that I was able to participate in the operation which removed his killers as a threat to the citizens of Brockton bay.


I paused for effect:


- But not for the purposes of revenge. My power makes me _sane_, and I decided it was not sane for me to lose sight of what was right, even in the wake of personal tragedy. My reason for participating in the countless individual raids against Merchant positions yesterday was _compassion_.


Another pause for effect:


- The Merchants were an organization dedicated to pain. The kind of pain that I can stop. I wanted to stop it. So I did.' I let my face become grim.:


- Every member of the Merchants who was captured yesterday has been cured of the deep scars which caused them to act how they did. They will still go through the criminal justice system as normal, but they will do so with clear heads and mended souls. Their brokenness has been healed, and even though they are going to prison, I hope that they one day find peace. Perhaps some will relapse. But I think most will not.


I let the smile back:


- I have unmasked to the world today for two reasons. First, because there is nobody who will be hurt by it. I have no blood relations, and I am living with the Dallons of New Wave right now. Second, because I wish to engender trust. I want people to know who I am, and extend me just enough trust to make them whole. On Monday of this week, I will be beginning my clinic hours at the PRT headquarters. We open at 10AM. All are welcome.


I stepped back, and only a pulse of harmless light by Legend kept the reporters from physically swarming the stage.


Interlude 4: PHO


■


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**♦ Topic: Press Release


In: Boards ► News ► Events ► America ► Brockton Bay


Bagrat ** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)


Posted On Jan 22nd 2011:


The Protectorate is hosting a press release tonight concerning their operations in response to the bombing and shooting at the press conference two days ago. It will be broadcasted live on all news stations in Brockton Bay starting at 6:00 PM.


**(Showing page 1 of 9)**


**►Hellecaster **


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


Good to know.


**►KingSatanus **


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


Wild speculation! Whodunnit, folks? Place your bets now.


Me, I'm thinking the Empire. I bet they were worried Sanity could gank their racism!


**►Φοίνιξ ** (Verified Greek)


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


@KingSatanus Nah, Kaiser's too smart for that. This was either someone from outta town or the Merchants. They seem dumb enough for this.


**►BlatantBaphomet ** (Actually Crazy)


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


This was CLEARLY C%auldron, guys. Supr secret, nobody tells us anythign? Going after someone who sees fucked up people? Yeah, deffs.


**►ScionofSciuridae **


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


@Baphomet This conspiracy again? Guys, it's been confirmed that the ******** thing is just a bug


Edit: Oops, forgot about it, myself there.


**►Hellecaster **


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


@KingSatanus Yeah, I'm with Phoenix here. Only the Merchants are dumb enough for this. I'd bet money on it.


**►BlatantBaphomet ** (Actually Crazy)


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


@Hellecaster Betchu $20 they never tell us.


**►Hellecaster **


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


Ok, I've looked through your history, Baphomet, and you've never once paid up on a bet. No deal.


**►BlatantBaphomet ** (Actually Crazy)


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


Yah cuz you know you lose


**End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 7, 8, 9**


**(Showing page 2 of 9)**


**►ElPresidente **


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


@King Satanus Yeah, I live near Merchant territory and I saw a ton of PRT vans yesterday. Looks like they got taken the fuck OUT!


**►Jack Stargazer ** (Verified Not That Jack)


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


Looks at thread


Sees smart money on Merchants


It's the Merchants


**►KingSatanus **


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


Yeah, that's kinda obvious, actually. Gotta be the Merchants. Also, I just realized that I was making light of a tragedy. I feel bad now


**►Sanity ** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


@KingSatanus Nothing to feel bad about, KingSatanus. Our world could use a little more humor.


**►KingSatanus **


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


**►MadGreenSon ** (Verified Devil Tiger)


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


She lives! I'm so glad to see you (somehow) survived getting shot, Sanity. When your clinic finally opens up, I'm going to be first in line! You seem like one of the better things to have happened to this city in years.


**►Sanity ** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


[@MadGreenSon](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/1485/) I'll see you then!


**►Inspector Impulse **


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


Better question than whodunnit: How the hell did Sanity survive getting shot in the back twice on the news?


**►Bananamanana **


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


So I live close to the PRT's stage, and I got this on my phone:


**►ChewyCrayon **


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


[@banana](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/10796/) Wat


**End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4 ... 7, 8, 9**


**(Showing page 3 of 9)**


**►Somnambulist **


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


@Bananamanana Is that...Panacea? WTF is she doing?


**►BlatantBaphomet ** (Actually Crazy)


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


I FUKIN TOLD YOU ALL IT WAS C^ALUDRON!!!!1!!11!11


**►Jack Stargazer ** (Verified Not That Jack)


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


sigh... here we go....


**►BlatantBaphomet ** (Actually Crazy)


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


We no C doesn't sho itsef to the poeople , the news camers all died in the explosion and now everyone who survived has been mind controlled by Panacea!!!!


**►Hellecaster **


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


That is the least sensical thing I can imagine.


**►BlatantBaphomet ** (Actually Crazy)


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


That's whiy it must be true!! They won't let you see somethign ethat make sense, or weveron knows thatit's cauldr0n!!


**►Sanity ** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


Can confirm. This guy needs a dose of me.


**►RandomContraption **


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


Brutal. Sanity, you should leave the assault and battery to Assault and Battery.


**►KingSatanus **


Replied On Jan 22nd 2011:


Alas, poor BlatantBaphomet! We knew thee well...


**End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 7, 8, 9**


■


**♦ Topic: Sanity


In: Boards ► News ► Events ► America ► Brockton Bay


Bagrat ** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)


Posted On Feb 22nd 2011:


Sanity of the Wards ENE has just Unmasked! Her name is Taylor Hebert. What do we know about this person?


**(Showing page 1 of 26)**


**►RandomContraption **


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


Hmm, yearbook search puts her at Winslow. Anyone know anything that could have triggered her?


Also, wow. I feel bad for her. Her dad died and she still wanted to help the Merchants? Better person than me, for sure.


**►MadGreenSon ** (Verified Devil Tiger)


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


I don't care about her origins. I know what I'm doing on Monday. :/


**►BlatantBaphomet ** (Actually Crazy)


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


[@MadGreenSon](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/1485/) no dont do it! She's from Cau*ldron! I don't care what Dragon says, she's obviously been taken in by Sanity too!!!!


**►MadGreenSon ** (Verified Devil Tiger)


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


Baphomet, you've already derailed one thread today. You don't get to derail another. I'm going because I don't want to feel the way I do, and Sanity is the best out anyone's ever seen. Weren't you saying how her would-be killers were obviously everyone's favorite cooking implement too, earlier?


**►ScionofSciuridae **


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


[@MadGreenSon](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/1485/) Just ignore him. His tag says it all.


**►ElPresidente **


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


I saw on the news two weeks ago that there was some horrific bullying going on. Could be that?


Also, I caught this today:


It seems like Sanity's done...something.


**►Inspector Impulse **


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


I still think the better question is how she survived sniper shots to the back. Judging by the video of Panacea, I would bet she's involved. I think New Wave's been holding back what she really does for a long, long time.


Edit: Holy shit, Sanity has tentacles? Why's she called Sanity??


**►Bananamanana **


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


Yeah, coupled with my video of Panacea healing everyone in the explosion, looks like Sanity convinced her new adoptive sister to give her some...extras.


**►Hellecaster **


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


So what do we think Panacea's power is, then? We know she's the best healer in the world, but she can also make tentacle horrors? That heal people? And turn people into tentacle horrors?


I don't see how these things are related at all...


**End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 24, 25, 26**


**(Showing page 11 of 26)**


**►Sanity ** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


Hey, folks. Just got back from the press conference, here to answer a few questions I've seen.


First, thank you for your concern over my father dying. Fortunately, my power keeps me stable. I'm sad about it, but I can't feel the same soul-crushing grief others might have. Personally, I'm glad for that. When my mom died, I didn't leave my room for a week. I don't want to go back to that.


Second, just to end all speculation: Yes, I have combat tentacles and bulletproof skin. Panacea gave them to me. No, I will not tell you what Panacea's power actually does. That's her story to tell if and when she chooses to.


I've seen this speculation in a few threads, so I'll put it to rest here: Yes, I've used my power on all of the Wards and some of the Protectorate in Brockton Bay. Make of that what you will.


My trigger event does not bear repeating. I suggest anyone with a weak stomach not even try looking it up. I don't even know if you can find it anywhere, honestly, the PRT is usually pretty good about those things.


And yes, my power is awesome and I don't feel too bad about that either. Best. Powerset. EVER!


Everyone is welcome in my clinic at my PRT building starting on Monday at 10 AM. We might even open early if I get through the security debriefing faster than scheduled. I will be there all day and we will treat everyone there, even if it takes until the early hours of the morning. We'll have a more set schedule later. Now, I'm more concerned with making as many people as possible as healthy as possible as fast as possible. Sleep be damned!


**►KingSatanus **


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


Well then. That answers all my questions.


Also, Sanity, you're already a PR miracle, and you also frequent PHO? Officially my favorite cape!


**►BlatantBaphomet ** (Actually Crazy)


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


What's it like being a CA&ULDRON AGENT, SANITY?


\---User was banned for this post---


**►Jack Stargazer ** (Verified Not That Jack)


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


Just shut up.


**►Tin_Mother ** (Moderator)


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


@BlatantBaphomet, you have been asked to stop on multiple occasions. Come back in three days.


**►ChewyCrayon **


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


We still have the question of what Panacea does. I'd say just straight biokinesis based on what we're seeing here, but there's no way her power is that nuts. She'd be stronger than Nilbog.


**►Φοίνιξ ** (Verified Greek)


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


Maybe she keeps a squid around at all times, for some reason? I'm not sure how that explains what she did with Sanity...


**►Somnambulist **


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


Hell, I don't care how Panacea does it, I want me some tentacles too!


**►Laotsunn ** (Kyushu Survivor)


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


No you don't.


**►ScionofSciuridae **


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


Smacked. Down.


**End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 10, 11, 12, ... 24, 25, 26**


**(Showing page 12 of 26)**


**►Sanity ** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


Yeah, you really don't. My power prevents body image issues (Have I said my power is great, yet? My power is great!), but you don't have that advantage. You'd need regular trips to the me to stay level.


**►Clockblocker ** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


Yeah, Panacea gave me some upgrades, but I couldn't get the sexy, sexy tentacles, for the sake of my Sanity. Had to settle for just being bulletproof.


Boooo...


**►ScionofSciuridae **


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


Wow. All the Wards in this thread.


**►KingSatanus **


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


"for the sake of my Sanity."


I see what you did there.


**►Bananamanana **


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


Will Panacea just hand out THAT upgrade to anyone? I'd be fine with just that!


**►Vista ** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


Someone said something about all the Wards?


**►ElPresidente **


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


**►Inspector Impulse **


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


Ok, does anyone know what the record number of Wards we've ever pulled in a thread is?


**►Bagrat ** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


You mean other than the thread specifically made to collect Ward usernames?


**►ChewyCrayon **


Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:


Sanity, you should unmask more often. This is a fun thread!


**End of Page. 1, 2, 3, ... 11, 12, 13, ... 24, 25, 26**


■


Interlude 5: Emma


_Ugh, it's not like she was even in the hospital long, dad! She's just too much of a pussy to come back!_


We'd had this argument many times already, so I didn't bother actually saying that. It wouldn't do any good. Dad would just glare at me in disappointment and say something about how he couldn't believe his daughter could be so cruel.


_World's cruel, Dad. You should have learned that when I did. I'm just ahead of the curve._


At least he still loved me enough (heh) to defend me from the idiots at the school trying to kick me out with no evidence.


We were sitting in the dining room, adjoining the living room. Dad had the TV on, watching some kind of press release from the Protectorate. Mom was staying tactfully silent as we all ate spaghetti in silence. Dad was pointedly ignoring the rest of us in favor of the TV. I was just frowning into my plate. I glanced up just as some fat fuck began the 'festivities.':


- Two days ago, a vile attack upon a Ward and innocent civilians was perpetrated in our fair city. I'd like to observe a moment of silence for the fifteen people who lost their lives.


_Pshhhh. What a sentimental bitch._


I saw that the title bar said she was the PRT Director. When she eventually continued I wordlessly wondered how the hell someone that _soft_ in mind and body got that job. She said something about the Merchants no longer existing, and I raised my eyebrows at that.


_At least her underlings can fucking do their jobs. I wonder if Sophia had fun or just cried in the corner all yesterday?_:


- I'm going to turn the stage over to Legend. Questions will come after everyone is done speaking.


_Oooohh, eye candy! Too bad he's gay, really._


He talked for a bit about unimportant, stupid things that anyone would know if they were actually thinking.:


- Those kill orders have been carried out. The entire cape lineup of the Merchants is dead. I'm going to turn the floor over to Armsmaster, now, as he organized the strike teams which carried this out.


I raised my eyebrows a bit at that.


_So the heroes are finally coming out of their hidey-holes to actually fucking do something useful? 'Bout time!_


In my opinion, the Protectorate were a bunch of worthless pansies talking about how law and order were important, sitting in their ivory tower while the hunters and hunted of the world continued their dance. They weren't hunters or hunted, they were floor slime just watching it happen. If they were willing to actually kill some problems, that opinion might have to change!


_Boo, no more eye candy! Go away Armsmaster, nobody loves you._


Armsmaster blabbered uselessly and mechanically on for a while before he finally said anything useful.:


- Miss Militia killed Skidmark and Trainwreck. Dauntless killed Squealer, and Kid Win of the Wards killed Mush.


_Heh. I guess that answers my question about what Sophia was doing. Crying in the corner it is. Fuck her! Also, good on Miss Militia. Quite the hunter, I suppose, when she wants to apply herself._


I was really surprised that they let Kid Win of all people kill someone, though. He never seemed like Sophia's type before, but sometimes it was hard to tell over the TV. I'd met him, of course, with Sophia a few times, but it wasn't much more than saying hi. For _some_ reason, the rest of the Wards didn't like her, and didn't want to be involved with her friends.


They'd get theirs someday. Maybe Kid Win already had. That would certainly explain the sudden change of tack from 'geeky, gawpy tech-kid' to 'gangbanger slayer.':


- Sanity, Glory Girl, Panacea, Laserdream, and Lady Photon managed to capture all of the Merchants' mundane soldiers, with zero casualties or injuries for either side.


_What? How the fuck did the lamest Ward ever manage to help with that?_


That, that just didn't make any _sense!_ How the hell were you supposed to fight anyone with weaponized hippie? She was even more useless than Clockblocker! And, New Wave I could understand, they could annihilate bad guys with the best of them, despite all their drivel about transparency and hope, but _Panacea?_ How does a _healer_ capture that much street trash in a day? There's no way Armsmaster's serious about this, it has to be a joke.


Unless... but how the hell does Sanity get close enough to those animals to touch _every single one of them in a day??_ With what had happened to Sophia, I could maybe see capturing someone she'd touched being doable. After all, the strongest person I knew became a fucking weakling in an instant. But Sanity didn't have any Brute classifications. How were she and Panacea, of all people, supposed to be a terrifying warmachine?


Actually, now that I thought about it, Sanity had somehow survived getting sniped. Panacea had shown up a minute later to save her sorry ass, so I hadn't given it much thought, but maybe there was something more to her lame-ass powers. Would definitely explain how she got on the Wards in the first place.


Sanity stepped forward as Armsmaster asked her to give her piece.


_Oh, great. I get to hear from the flower power girl._:


- My name is Taylor Hebert.


And then time stopped.


\----


'Emma! EMMA! Wake up!' I heard my dad's voice. My head really, _really_ hurt as I got up off the floor.


_Why'd I just fai-oh. OHGODFUCKFUCKFUC-_


I fainted again.


\----


The second time I woke up, I guess, was the charm. I managed to stay conscious at least.


_Oh god. I tortured Taylor so hard she got superpowers. Superpowers which let her beat Shadow Stalker in a fight._


My mind swam as I tried to nail down exactly which thought to entertain first. Had I successfully made Taylor strong? Or was her power letting her cheat? Was Taylor going to come for me, the way she'd apparently gone for _fucking all of the Merchants?_ Was I in danger? Was my family in danger? Why did Taylor get powers when I didn't? Was Taylor better than me? Was Taylor stronger than me the whole time?


Was Taylor stronger than me the whole time? Was Taylor stronger than me the whole time? Was Taylor stronger than me the whole time? Was Taylor stronger than me the whole time? Was Taylor stronger than me the whole time? Was Taylor stronger than me the whole time? Was Taylor stronger than me the whole time?


I blacked out again.


\----


I woke up sometime that night, in a hospital room, by all appearances. I guessed my parents were concerned with all the fainting.


I'd been woken by my phone.


Someone, I guess, had been nice enough to leave it on the bedside table for me. I picked it up, momentarily blinded by the screen in the dark before I managed to tone it down. I had a text.


_Ugh, I hope none of my friends figured out what happened to me. That would be so embarrassing._


I looked up the name. It was worse than that.


Taylor had texted me.


I froze, not sure what to do. What the hell could she possibly have to say to me that I wanted to hear? After what I'd done?


After what she'd accomplished?


I tried to resolve not to look at it, but I just couldn't. My curiosity got the best of me.


* Hello, Emma. I don't know if you've heard this, but you'll learn soon enough. I triggered in the locker. I'm Sanity, now. What you did to me...I don't know if we can ever be friends again, really.


That will depend on you, more than me, though, because I forgive you. Just like I forgave Sophia. My power...it's given me the ability to step back, look at things rationally instead of through the lens of hurt and pain. It's also given me the ability to see _you_, Emma. I don't know what happened to you. I don't know what turned you against me, but I know that it was awful. Something broke you, ended your childhood, and nobody you trusted protected you from it. I...can't stay mad, at someone like that. At someone in that much pain. I forgive you for the same reasons I forgave the Merchants for killing my father. They were broken and bruised by life too, but I made them whole.


I can make you whole too. When I say everyone is welcome in my clinic, I really mean it.


Your one-time friend, Taylor.


I stared at the screen for a timeless moment, not daring to believe it. I did the only thing I could do.


I cried myself into an exhausted, dreamless sleep.


Interlude 6: Kid Win and Coil


Kid Win


The moment the elevator door irised closed as Sanity stepped off to go to the holding cells, I realized there was something I _needed_ to do.


The elevator apparently agreed with me and dropped me off in the lobby. I relieved Vista of console duty (punishment duty, yay!), and she went to find Shadow Stalker so they could go on a patrol.


It was really kind of cool, actually, that those two had gotten close enough to volunteer for patrols together. Sanity's power had transformed both of them for the better. Me too, now that I thought about it.


I picked up the phone on the desk and dialed a number I never thought I'd have reason to dial.


The Youth Guard.


A cheerful secretary answered on the first ring. I guess they didn't want to put the PRT through their automated system:


- Hello! I'm Janet. Who am I speaking to, and how may I direct your call?' Her voice positively bubbled with enthusiasm.


I realized that I was about to seriously confuse someone as I replied:


- Hello, Janet. This is Kid Win, of the Wards ENE speaking. I need to be directed to whoever is in charge of the investigation I _know_ you all are carrying out against the PRT in response to last night's press release.


She went dead serious and sounded caring as she replied, 'Absolutely. We have your best interests at heart, Kid Win. I'll direct you to Inspector Gutierrez immediately.


I heard some clicking on the other end of the line, and then a man picked up on the line as the secretary hung up:


- Inspector Gutierrez. Who am I speaking with?


He sounded fatherly. I grinned to myself as I answered, 'Kid Win.


I imagine his eyes lit up on the other end, and he replied with deep caring:


- Ah. I just want to say, before we begin, that what the PRT roped you into is deeply disturbing and unconscionable. We are putting every resource we have into righting the wrong that was done to you by the people who were supposed to be protecting you.


I just laughed:


- Yeah, about that...don't bother.


He went silent, clearly stunned. Eventually, he recovered:


- Kid Win, if you have been ordered to make this call-' I cut him off.:


- Inspector Gutierrez. In the event that this case goes to court, I will testify under oath that I made this call completely of my own volition and without the prompting or orders of my superiors. What's more, it will be true. I understand that what the PRT did is...unorthodox, but I and the rest of the Wards ENE volunteered for it without the prompting or orders of any member of the PRT, and we all obtained the permission of our guardians.


The inspector replied, clearly flabbergasted, 'But, why would you _do_ that? You're minors! You're supposed to be protected from this kind of thing. This is _not_ what the Wards are for, and the PRT must be held to account for that!


As he was talking, I took some pieces of tech out of my pocket and began idly snapping them together. These were part of one of my favorite projects I'd started since Sanity jailbroke me, actually. I was calling it the omnitool, and I'd found configurations for the parts that could do just about any smallish job I'd come across.


Once he was done, I replied, 'Look, I understand your position here, I really do. However, there are two things I wish to say about that. First, the Merchants had just attacked our friend. Armsmaster said it best: We could not let that stand. The message had to be sent, not just to the criminals in Brockton Bay, but to criminals everywhere, that such behavior would not be tolerated. That it would receive a swift and decisive punishment from every hero in your home city, regardless of their age. What we did, unorthodox as it was, we did to protect Wards everywhere. How many criminals do you think will think twice before trying something like that again, hmm?' I paused for a moment and kept snapping pieces together. Then I continued, 'Second, do you know what Sanity's power does? None of us was in danger of being...damaged, by this operation. I killed Mush. I felt awful about doing it, even though I intellectually knew that it was the right thing to do. Sanity allowed that intellectual understanding to become rooted in my mind, removed the guilt I had no reason to feel and replaced it with certainty. I am _justified_, now, not just by the law, but within my own mind as well. You are the Youth Guard. I am a youth, but I do not need guarding. Sanity saw to that. Spend your resources on youth who actually need your help, instead of one which will resist you every step of the way. Thank you for your service, Inspector Gutierrez, but it will not be necessary here.


I finished my fiddling and looked down at the completed work, a small mass of interlinking metal pieces. I grinned and reached around to the phone cord, snapping the hastily - assembled contraption around it. My voice grew colder as I continued:


- Now. The PRT thinks I just hung up on you. Let it be understood that everything which follows this I will deny having ever said. In addition, it carries a virus which will corrupt all further portions of any file this is saved to and cause them to delete themselves.' I waited for him to reply.


He got the hint and replied, tentatively, 'Ooooookayy, what's this about Kid Win?


I scowled into the phone:


- As I was saying, I completely understand your position here. However, this case is the worst possible minefield for you because anything you do can and will be twisted by the PRT as a defence of the Merchants. People like you, and donate a lot of money to you, but that would be easy to change.


The Inspector replied with barely - contained rage, 'You listen here, Kid Win. We are a part of the _government that you work for_. We-


I interrupted him in a significantly less confrontational tone:


- That's why I'm going to give you a tip on a case with much better


...optics...than mine.


His mood reversed instantly:


- Alright, shoot.


_Got 'im._


I spoke clearly:


- Vista. Look into her family. Every time she goes home, she does so with a scowl, and I overheard Sanity saying something about her home life being bad.


Gutierrez didn't seem to happy about that:


- Figuring out who her parents _are_ would be a massive breach of the unwritten rules. This doesn't help me.


I scoffed into the phone:


- You and I both know that the Youth Guard has used some...less than ethical...tactics in the past, in regards to Wards and their parents. That's something else the PRT could use against you, if it were in their best interest to do so. You can figure this one out.


I could tell the man was thinking in overdrive on the other end of the line:


- Very well. If there's nothing else you wish to discuss then, I suppose I have an entirely different case to look at.


I chuckled internally as I finished:


- Excellent! Thanks for playing ball, Inspector Gutierrez. Good hunting.


I hung up for real and reached around the desk to remove my jammer. I disassembled it idly and returned the pieces to my pocket as I waited attentively for Shadow Stalker and Vista to report in.


\----


Coil


One me was at my desk in the bunker, the other at home eating dinner with the TV on watching the press release. So far, nothing about this day had warranted use of my power. These timelines had stayed active all day.


Then, golden portals opened. Simultaneously and in both timelines. Out of them stepped the woman of my nightmares. Tall, fedora, vaguely Mediterranean features...


It wasn't often that a man like me stood before the judgment of a god whose power they could not match.


Contessa spoke simultaneously in both timelines. I hadn't collapsed either because there was no point. If she was going to kill me, I would die:


- We are calling in your final favor.' Her voice was emotionless, filled with finality. I understood her meaning. I was to fulfill this order, or I would fall.


I raised my eyebrows in interest. I maintained the simultaneity for my own amusement as I replied, 'And what would that favor be?


She continued in the same tone, 'You are to ensure that Sanity fights The Butcher.


_What?_


I frowned in confusion:


- Her last known whereabouts put her somewhere in New York. How am I to accomplish this task?


A cold smile crept onto her face:


- Your information is out of date.


She turned dispassionately:


- Door to the doorstep of Assault and Battery's home.' A second shining portal manifested and she pulled a letter out of her suit. She tossed it carelessly through the portal just as it collapsed, then retreated back the way she had come.


I collapsed the timeline at my home and frantically began searching for better information as to The Butcher's whereabouts. If Cauldron was calling in multiple favors over this, I could not afford to do less.


Besides, no matter what enhancements Panacea had seen fit to give the girl, I couldn't imagine her surviving The Butcher. This would be a fantastic means of eliminating a serious threat to my plans.


_One can never be too careful when maneuvering one's enemies into destroying each other._


Illumination 4.1


I woke very early on Monday morning. Armsmaster had said I needed a crash course in the security arrangements they'd installed in my clinic, and I wanted to make sure we had enough time to go through them. Hell, maybe I could open early if we got done fast enough and there was a line. It would be nice to keep things on track, that way. Start off on a good foot.


I decided not to wake Amy or Vicky on the way out. They both had school, I was still having difficulty keeping my Striker power down for long periods. The longest I'd managed so far was around three hours. I supposed it mattered less, now that I had a public identity, but still. I didn't want to be accidentally bumping people who weren't asking for it or attacking me or my friends. That way lies bad PR.


I found the van waiting for me as I walked out the door and stepped inside.


\----


Armsmaster stepped out the door just as we arrived in the garage:


- Excellent. Good morning, Sanity. Ready for your security training?' He smiled from behind his visor.


I smiled back as I followed him in:


- Absolutely! Let's get this done as quickly as possible, I'd like to get started rapidly, maybe even open early if we have the time. Have you seen if there's anyone waiting outside yet?' I honestly didn't know if anyone would be. There were two ways this could go, either people would trust me enough to come pouring out the first day, or only the desperate would come forward at first. Either way, once word of mouth started spreading that people who had been utterly miserable before were suddenly _not_ I expected things to get busier, but there was no way of knowing how the first few weeks would go.


We eventually made our way to the first floor, in the back hallways behind the public areas. Armsmaster opened a nondescript door and ushered me inside to a sort of control room. Two PRT soldiers were inside, chatting with each other. They stood at attention as they saw us. Neither had any issues.


_Good picks for the job.


Actually, I think I've met these guys before..._


Armsmaster put on an air of military decorum:


- As you were, gentlemen. I believe you've both met Sanity, correct?' They both nodded seriously and held out their hands for me to shake. I did so enthusiastically.:


- You guys were both part of the testing I did before I joined the Wards, weren't you?' I couldn't see their faces, but I would have bet money they were grinning ear to ear.


The one on the left answered first:


- Sure were. Best experiment I ever volunteered for! I haven't felt this good in years, Sanity. Thank you. For existing, I guess.' The guy on the right nodded his agreement.


I grinned back at them:


- Glad to be of service. Now, tell me about what we've got going here.


They glanced at Armsmaster, who nodded in response. The guy on the right started:


- Alright. This is the security office. While you're on clinic hours, there will always be two officers in here watching the cameras in every room of the clinic. The ones in the actual treatment room,' he gestured at a set of screens near the middle of the collage, 'don't have audio feeds and are hidden for privacy. They also delete their footage unless something out of the ordinary happens.' He gestured at the console:


- Here's where all the fun stuff is. Hidden in the walls of every room are containment foam sprayers, in case a parahuman or normal human gets violent for some reason. We can activate them from here, or you can activate them with this set of hand gestures.' He set about contorting his hand, and I followed suit, copying them until I had them down:


- Great! Dragon has a simple monitoring program looking at the video feeds as well. That's what picks up the gestures from you. Inside the actual treatment room, you have a few more security features, like a Tinker - made knockout gas programmed specifically to not work on you, several silent alarm systems, and the ability to turn the cameras off.


I looked at him quizzically:


- Why would I want to turn the cameras off?


The one on the left answered politely, 'In case a cape comes in anonymously, so you can talk to them without even Dragon's monitoring program knowing they were there. Assuming they have peaceful intent, of course.


I nodded diplomatically:


- That seems like a good idea, actually. What else do we have?


At that, they led me to the door:


- Follow me.


We went out into the hall and through a few doors to the public areas, then doubled back through the main doors of the clinic. Just inside the door was a pitch black, featureless metal arch. Armsmaster spoke up in apparent pride, 'This beauty has consumed all of my focus for the past week, while I wasn't fighting Merchants, and taken help from Dragon and some stuff bought from Toybox to boot. It detects all mundane weapons and every type of Tinkertech we've tested against it, including devices meant for stealth, then erects a forcefield around anyone with a weapon. If they resist the forcefield, it fills with containment foam and the floor drops them into a containment foam cell beneath us. If they simply forgot to take off their knife or something, one of the PRT officers manning the device can simply free them, no harm done, after confiscating the weapon until they leave.' He looked smug as he continued, 'There's a lot of interest in this project from other departments in the PRT, but you get to use it first.


At that point I was simply frowning with frank respect:


- That sounds pretty awesome.' No further embellishments were necessary. A thought occurred to me:


- Wasn't this all really expensive?


Armsmaster just chuckled:


- You've clearly never seen the bills Kid Win racks up. Yes, this was expensive, but most of the internal security was repurposed stock equipment wired together by ordinary electricians. This,' he smacked the arch, 'is so useful the PRT was figuratively throwing funding at me, and Dragon is going to purchase the blueprints for millions. It's all easily worth it, for the service you are providing here.


I just nodded in understanding.


With that, my security briefing was more or less done. Most of the actual security work was being done by PRT soldiers, I just needed to know how I slotted into it.


It turned out that every soldier I had cured on day one had volunteered to be assigned to my clinic. I was honored, but I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised. I had, after all, made their lives better in ways nobody else had been able to.


It was still a few minutes early, but I told the soldiers to open the doors as I settled into the treatment room.


_Alright. Let's start healing this city._


\----


That first day was a whirlwind of miserable people coming in and crying people being led by me or an orderly to one of the chairs in the recovery room. I lost count of how many came through early in the day, and from there I simply settled into a rhythm.


1. Smile warmly at the patient.


2. Explain to them what all of their problems were.


3. Remove said problems when they gave permission.


4. Once they were able to stand, lead them out or have someone else lead them out, then call in the next person.


I felt a little bad about not being able to really make a connection with any of them, but for my purposes quantity was better than quality. Anything which remained unresolved for one reason or another and bloomed back into something I could just treat again, after all, and most people just didn't have problems that deep. Resolving PTSD, removing depression, and the few more exotic things I saw like Schizophrenia would leave behind a person more or less able to deal with any problems they had left.


I was even surprised to learn that my power worked on things like Epilepsy. I guess it just handled anything which required neural rewiring to solve. I was, however, very sad to learn that it didn't work on Alzheimer's. The poor folks who brought their grandparents in hoping for a cure left with somewhat happier and marginally more lucid relatives, but they would just degrade again.


Rewiring the brain wasn't a cure for everything, I suppose.


_It might be worth it to do some experiments with Amy on that front, though I'm not sure how you make such an experiment anything like moral._


Worth thinking about, anyway.


\----


Brockton Bay was a decently large city, and I didn't know what to expect of day one turnout, but I was impressed.


We got 138 people that day.


So many stories, so many lives, permanently changed for the better.


As the last person trickled through and I slumped into sleep where I stood, I couldn't help but smile.


Illumination 4.2


The next few days went much the same as the first. I went in early, opened the clinic to the people standing in line, cured everyone, then collapsed in exhaustion and Glory Girl was called to drag me back home. I wouldn't be able to do this for too much longer, but at least in the beginning I wanted to get everyone I possibly could through my clinic and into lives they wanted to live.


On the morning of the second day, my father's will was read.


No real surprises. Everything was to be held in trust for me until I became of age. My father's life insurance had been substantial, and was to be used to defray the costs of my upbringing and education. My dad had arranged for Kurt and Lacey, two members of the Dockworker's Union who my dad had been friends with, to become my guardians. They didn't have kids of their own, and weren't really interested in having them, but they were nice enough people. A quick call from my father's lawyer had convinced them to hand over guardianship to Mark Dallon, and he had happily signed the papers.


I was now officially Amy and Vicky's sister!


The fourth day after my clinic opened, something really interesting happened.


_Traumatic Home Life. Depression. Self-loathing Complex. All Exacerbated by Powers._


I raised my eyebrows and made the gesture to turn off the cameras for the duration of this visit while her back was turned closing the door. The patient was a short Middle - Eastern looking girl. She nervously handed her paperwork to me as I smiled at her, and I glanced at the top of it, as was my habit, to figure out her name. I directed her to a chair and she settled in.:


- Hello, Sabah. Here to have your depression and self-loathing removed and to get some distance from your traumatic home life?' I'd found over the past several days that the best way to start that conversation was simply to be as direct as possible.


She didn't seem to like that answer:


- N-no? Not exactly?' She looked down at the floor in shame.


I sat down opposite her:


- Well, then, what are you here for? That's all my power sees.' I debated for a moment, then decided she didn't fit the profile for any of the gangs in town. Besides, in my experience the power caused issues were usually worse. I continued, 'Well...except...


She looked up, obvious hope on her face, 'Except?


I just looked seriously into her eyes:


- Except the fact that you are a cape.


She froze in horror, not even daring to breathe. I continued through her silence:


- I turned off the monitoring equipment the moment you walked in. Nobody but me will know you were here, and your identity is safe with me. This is the hidden third reason I unmasked to the world. Capes can't hide their identities from me, so it would be hypocritical of me to hide mine.


Knowing that nothing bad was going to happen to her, she calmed down enough to ask, 'How did you know?


I just smiled sadly:


- It is an unfortunate fact that the vast majority of capes have at least _some _mental instability rattling around somewhere. As far as I know, I'm the only person who knows that a cape's instabilities are nearly always made worse by their powers in a way that my power will tell me about. Whenever I look at a cape I haven't touched, I see a little _Exacerbated by Powers_ stuck to the end of their list of neuroses.' I paused while she digested that, then continued:


- So. You're a cape. I don't know which one, but I figured you weren't one of the criminal types because you don't fit the profile for E88 or ABB, and because a criminal cape coming to the PRT building for psychiatric treatment just sounds hilarious. You don't have to tell me who you are, Sabah, but I am interested in what you came here for if it wasn't the issues I've already mentioned. Those would be enough on their own, in my opinion.


She took a deep breath:


- Well, I guess my grand plan was to unmask anyway. I'm Parian.' She looked into my eyes sadly:


- I'm also a lesbian. I was hoping you could fix that.' Her cheeks were shining with tears.


_Ah. Explains things._


I'd already had to disappoint several folks who wanted to be heterosexual. I smiled compassionately at her:


- I understand completely, Sabah. Or do you prefer Parian?' She shrugged noncommittally, and I continued, 'Unfortunately, my power doesn't consider that a problem. I can fix the self-loathing, however, make you comfortable with the person you are.' She seemed deeply disheartened.


_Gotta deal with this first._:


- Sabah...you aren't the first person of Middle Eastern descent to have come through here hoping for this. The others I've seen were just as disheartened. They looked like they'd just lost their only hope. I guess they sort of had.' She looked up blankly, and I invoked as much caring as humanly possible:


- It doesn't have to be that way, Sabah. I can see you've had a traumatic upbringing, and I can guess exactly why. You've had to hide who you are from them, constantly surrounded by messages decrying something central to your being. I don't wish to insult your religion, but...that's not right. What they've done to you, to make you hate yourself so deeply that you came to me to 'fix' it, is deeply, deeply wrong.' I paused to take a breath:


- Sabah, your work as Parian is heartwarming. It's the brightest and least...violent...application of powers other than my own that I've ever seen. I don't know you, but if you are anything at all like Parian on the inside, you are a _good person._ All of you, not just the parts you let your family see. Good people don't deserve to live in pain. Nobody does.' I held out my hand to her:


- Let me take away your pain. Everything else, that's a part of _you_, Sabah. Don't let your family or anyone else tell you otherwise.


She looked up from her feet. She seemed unsure for a few moments, thinking about it. Then she held out her hand.


I touched it, and tears flowed from her eyes. She began to hyperventilate, then got it under control again a few moments later:


- Thank you, Sanity,' she whispered. She began to stand just as I had a _brilliant_ idea.


I smiled mischievously:


- Actually, Sabah, can I ask you something?


She looked over her shoulder, and looked wary when she saw my expression:


- What is it?


I smiled wider:


- There's someone I think you would like to meet. You two have a whole lot in common.


She raised an eyebrow:


- This wouldn't happen to be related to the whole...lesbian...thing?


I grinned and gesticulated diffidently:


- Well, it doesn't absolutely have to be...


She thought for a moment, looked down, sighed, then looked back up with a grin:


- Well, I guess if I'm going to be a lesbian, no sense being miserable. Who is she?


I continued the grin and responded, 'Amy Dallon.


Her eyes went wide and she returned to her chair before her legs went out from under her. Eventually, she got herself back under control and just asked me, stunned, 'Amy Dallon? You mean Panacea?


I nodded enthusiastically:


- Yup! My sister's a lesbian. And single. For...reasons that I will leave up to her to tell you. She's also way too shy to do this herself. So I'm going to help her along. You're the first lesbian parahuman I've encountered, and you two really do have a lot in common, from what I can tell.


She continued looking at me in consternation:


- You. Want me. To date Panacea?


I shook my head vigorously:


- Not unless you want to, Sabah. I just want you to meet her, and I wasn't sure how to make that happen any other way. You don't have to meet her either, but-' Sabah cut me off at that.:


- No, no, I definitely want to meet her! Turn down an opportunity to meet one of the greatest heroes in the world? I'd have to be an idiot! At the very least, this would be _great_ for my career. I'm just...not sure about the other piece...' She looked back up sheepishly.


I nodded in understanding:


- Alright! Let me call her.' I pulled out my phone and dialed.


She picked up on the second ring:


- Taylor, why are you calling me now, I'm in school!


I cut straight to the point:


- Do you have anything to do after school, Amy?


She answered, in obvious confusion, 'N-no? What's going on?


I grinned, more for Sabah's benefit than anyone else's, 'I've met someone I want you to meet, through my clinic. Once you get out in,' I glanced at the clock on the wall, 'half an hour you can have Glory Girl carry you over here.


She sounded supremely uncertain, but replied gamely, 'Alright, I guess. Unless...' Her voice became accusatory:


- Wait. You aren't trying to set me up with one of your patients, are you?


My voice became a mix of professionalism and glee:


- Amy, would I ever do that? I just want you to meet her. If you two want to do anything else, that's your choice.


She sighed:


- Well. I guess this can't be worse than the countless times Vicky set me up with a guy. I'll meet her.


I cheerily ended, 'Fantastic! See you then!' and hung up before she could talk her way out of it.


I smiled at Sabah:


- Alright, if you will sit out in the waiting room for a bit, Glory Girl will be dropping Panacea off. You two have fun!


She smiled uncertainly:


- Thanks. For everything. I don't know if...this...will work out, but I can at least think clearly now. Decide what I want out of life.' She seemed to concentrate for a moment, and then some threads floated out of her pocket.


The threads rapidly began levitating at about head height and weaving themselves together into a fantastically intricate rosette. Needleless speed crochet. Once they were done, the remainder of the threads fashioned themselves into a bracelet. She looked the finished item over in satisfaction and handed it to me:


- It's the least I can do.


I graciously accepted the gift:


- That wasn't necessary, Sabah, but thank you. This is really beautiful! Your power is fascinating! What was that, telekinetic control over thread?


Her eyes lit up as I put the bracelet on:


- Control over small objects. I can...sort of let the areas I'm controlling meld together, if the individual areas are light enough. That's what lets me animate stuffed animals.


Now I was grinning in interest:


- That is amazing! Here, let me give you my number. I want to do some experimenting with this sometime...


She dug around in her pocket for a phone and we exchanged numbers. She smiled at me one last time before heading out the door.


As the door closed and I summoned in the next patient, I couldn't help but whistle a certain tune from Fiddler on the Roof.


Illumination 4.3


Panacea


My sister dropped me off in front of the PRT building just as a few of the people milling about the entrance recognized us and swarmed towards us for reasons I'm sure I wanted nothing to do with. I'd never really liked the public.


Fortunately, my sister flourished her arms and struck a heroic pose, distracting the onlookers long enough for me to break into the building. I made my way towards the door I saw people leaving Sanity's clinic by and quietly let myself in.


I was greeted to a roomful of comfortable - looking chairs, mostly filled with people expressing a large variety of emotions. Expressions that looked like mournful acceptance, transcendent joy, quiet contemplation, and every other mostly-positive emotion were on display.


One of the faces looked into mine, and its bearer smiled and stood up.


She was Middle-Eastern, much shorter than me.


_This would be acceptable.


Huh, I guess Sanity did fix my Vicky-centrism.


Gah! She's one of Taylor's patients, Amy. Calm yourself down!


Granted, I'm also one of her patients..._


Anyway, Taylor had just told me to meet her. No pressure from her (unlike what Vicky had put me through so many times), just the information that a relationship was possible, should we want that.


I could live with that, from a moral perspective.


She was walking towards me now. I gestured with my head for us to leave and she followed.


She started the conversation as we ambled down the street:


- So. You're Panacea.


She seemed very...relaxed...about the whole thing. It was refreshing, actually. Usually, when I was being introduced to people it was by Vicky, and they were surprised I was so much more reserved than my extroverted sister.


I supposed she _had_ just been exposed to Sanity. That would have a calming effect on some.


I giggled and gesticulated wildly as I responded:


- Yup. That's me. Panacea the great and powerful healer. Who hates crowds. And breathless adulation.' I glanced over at her as she giggled in response to my reply:


- I find myself at a disadvantage, though. Sanity didn't tell me your name.


She seemed to think for a moment at that, then shrugged:


- Well, I've already come out in more ways than one today. I'm Sabah. Parian in costume.


My eyebrows rose in surprise:


- The giant teddybear girl?


She grimaced and looked down. Oops, I guess I'd said that wrong:


- I didn't mean that in a bad way! Your power is really cool! What is it, some kind of cloth telekinesis?


She looked up uncertainly as we rounded a corner. Wandering in most areas of the city was a bad plan, but downtown was more-or-less safe:


- Small object telekinesis. I can't move any one thing that weighs more than half a pound, but I haven't found an upper limit to the _number_ of half-pound objects I can move. It's easier when they are all contained in something, hence the teddybears.


I stopped in my tracks, a look of amazement on my face:


- That...did Sanity tell you to come back for testing, by chance?


She looked back quizzically. She'd continued walking when I'd stopped:


- Yes? How did you know?


I just looked down and laughed:


- Because she did the same with me. She's _really_ good at coming up with useful tricks to play with powers. I've...expanded my repertoire a bit, with her help.


She looked confused, then seemed to realize something:


- So when Armsmaster said, in the press release...


I grinned wickedly:


- Yup. The rest of New Wave was basically there as meat shields. Sanity and I took down almost all of the Merchants.


Her eyes grew huge:


- Umm, what's your power then? I thought you were just a healer!


My grin continued:


- Total biokinesis. With an...unfortunate...side of insanity. Sanity says it's probably something to do with my power not compensating for how ridiculous it is very well.


Sabah's eyes grew wider. I guess that hadn't been the best way to put it:


- I was definitely in a bad place before I met Sanity. But I'm all better now. I just need regular checkups from her, which is easy now that my dad is hers too!


She seemed surprised at that as we continued walking. I started steering us towards an ice cream shop I liked. I'd spent a lot of time around Downtown over the years. She finally managed to murmur, 'Your power is so much better than mine.


I frowned and shook my head:


- Our powers are different. I can't affect things I'm not physically touching, you can't affect bodies. However, we both have one thing in common, that I can tell.' She looked up in interest and I continued:


- No upper range. Have you ever felt that you just couldn't make a stuffed creature bigger?' She shook her head:


- And I've never felt that I couldn't control the outer edges of something I was touching. There's a _bunch_ of things we can both do with that.


We'd ambled to the shop and I opened the door, she gamely followed me in as I settled into my usual booth, far from the windows. The staff here knew not to draw attention to me, at this point.


What they didn't expect was for me to have company that wasn't my family.


One of the waiters walked over, surprise evident on his face:


- Amy! I assume you'll be having your usual? Who's the friend?:


- Sabah.' She answered:


- I've...never been here. Are your icecreams halal?


I...hadn't even thought to ask about that. Oops.


The waiter grinned:


- We use real vanilla bean extract, so our vanilla ice cream contains trace amounts of alcohol. The rest of the flavors, however, are absolutely halal.


I grinned. This and the privacy they afforded me were the main reasons I liked this place. These guys knew their stuff. Sabah nodded diplomatically and ordered.


I decided to begin the awkward conversation first:


- So. I kind of had it easier than you, because Sanity came to me. Semi-accidentally. There was a problem with Glory Girl's aura that needed fixing and she saw how ridiculously messed up I was then. I understand if you don't want to talk about it, but I must admit I'm curious. What brought you to Sanity, Sabah?


She looked up questingly:


- Problem? With Glory Girl? Now you have my curiosity.' She waggled her eyebrows:


- Trade?


I sighed:


- I...guess I brought this one on myself. I suppose Sanity told you I'm single despite being probably the most eligible single girl in Brockton Bay?' She nodded:


- Well...that's what her aura did. It makes people love her or fear her. I got the 'love' side of it a little too strong.


Sabah blushed:


- Well that's a little embarrassing. I could see why you had issues, then. Though...I won't say you had bad taste...


I glared at her in mock betrayal:


- That's exactly what Sanity says.' I paused for a moment:


- Make sure that stays between us. So far only you and Sanity know.


She looked at me thoughtfully, then began, 'Well...I guess it's my turn now.' She paused and looked down:


- My family is Muslim. Obviously. They...have certain opinions on homosexuals in general. It would be worse if I were a guy, but...' She sighed deeply, but managed to keep going:


- My whole life, they've been pressuring me to find a husband. I can't tell them that won't happen. I don't think they'd hurt me, they're mostly good people. But I can't guarantee that none of their friends wouldn't. I went to Sanity hoping she would be able to...fix...me. So I could be the person my family wants me to be.' She chuckled:


- Well, it kind of worked. I don't hate myself now. She removed the baggage I got, growing up like that. But I still can't really tell my family who I am. Not if I want them to respect me.


_Wow. That sounds familiar._


My face became serious:


- I know _exactly _how you feel, Sabah.


She seemed confused:


- But...you're part of New Wave! They're heroes! I guess the whole Glory Girl thing would be awkward-' I cut her off with a sardonic snort.:


- It's part of the public record, but I don't know if you know. I'm adopted. Specifically, I'm adopted from a villain. Brandish has never trusted anyone her whole life due to some history I've never been clear on, and she _hated_ me growing up. Never struck me or lashed out like that, but Vicky was clearly the favored child. Well, until last week...


She interjected, 'Yeah, I heard that Brandish got arrested. What happened there?


I grimaced:


- She went nuts and tried to kill Sanity, is what.


Horror and confusion filled her face. I interrupted them:


- It's...complicated. The first time she met us, Sanity fixed my entire family except her. Over the next few days, I could tell she was becoming steadily more angry, and I knew why. We didn't like to let the world see, but Flashbang has had clinical depression for over a decade. When Sanity fixed that, it was like he was a whole new person. Carol didn't like that.' I sighed deeply:


- She lashed out the moment we walked in, after Sanity got shot. Both Sanity and I diagnosed her with Transient Psychosis, that's a temporary psychotic break. She's going to plead not guilty by temporary insanity. Usually, that's the most last-ditch of last ditch defences, but here it's literally true. She's likely to just wind up with a restraining order and move out of town. Especially because her law firm is pitching in to help her.


She looked up at me caringly:


- I'm so sorry about that, Panacea-


I interrupted her with a grin:


- Sabah, people who I've spilled my guts to call me Amy.


She blushed and smiled as well:


- I'm so sorry, Amy.


I waved it off:


- It's not too much of a loss. To me, at least. Carol was a _bitch_.


At that moment, my phone buzzed. I pulled it out.


It was a text from Kid Win. I opened the attached image.


A crudely spray - painted emblem with jagged lines.


The Teeth had returned to Brockton Bay.


I grimly looked up from my phone:


- Sabah, would you like to have bulletproof skin?


Illumination 4.4


The day after I...informed Amy and Sabah of each others' mutual existence, Armsmaster strode grimly into my clinic about halfway through the day:


- We have an issue. Your presence is requested, Sanity.


I replied seriously:


- Close the line. I will treat everyone currently in line before we handle it. I consider very few things more important than this.


The Tinker simply nodded grimly and left to see to it.


\----


Around 20 minutes later, I stepped out of the treatment room to find Armsmaster waiting impatiently for me. We walked further into the bowels of the building as he began informing me what had happened:


- We received a message. From Faultline. She's informing us of her current contract, which is to protect everyone attending a certain meeting of villains to be happening tonight from any and all aggression.


I raised one eyebrow in confusion:


- What does this have to do with me?


He continued in the same grim tone:


- You are specifically invited. And specifically mentioned in her contract as someone to protect. According to the stipulations of the contract, you may bring up to two Protectorate members with you. Should you accept, Battery and I have volunteered.


I mulled that over for a bit:


- I'm...missing some background here. Why would villains who directly compete with each other be meeting, apparently in peace?


Armsmaster chuckled:


- I guess I forgot. You've been treating people nonstop for the past few days haven't you? You...need to tone that back, by the way. The Youth Guard is looking into some things. I don't even know how they found out...' he mumbled incoherently for a moment before continuing, 'The Teeth have returned to Brockton Bay. Along with the Butcher, presumably, though her presence hasn't been confirmed. Sure, the gangs all compete with each other, but the one thing they don't want is new, powerful competition. It isn't out of the question for them to cooperate on something like this. The meeting is happening at one of their known neutral grounds, a place all of the villains have agreed is for talking, not fighting. Enforced with blood.' He paused, then continued caustically, 'After all, the Teeth have claimed the territory previously held by the Merchants. The jackals all had their eyes on it.


I nodded and continued thinking as we arrived at the psychic elevator:


- So. Unless they plan to attack me anyway, which seems unlikely considering the lengths they are going to ensure my safety, they presumably have a plan of attack which involves me in some way?


Armsmaster nodded:


- That's the best our Thinkers can come up with. They've come to the same conclusions you did: Very low chance of betrayal, very high chance of useful information or even collaboration against a common threat.


I nodded in understanding:


- In that case, I'm in. Let's do this.


\----


After closing my clinic, I couldn't exactly go back. Besides, Armsmaster was right. I needed to be getting more sleep. I spent the rest of the afternoon napping until the meeting.


My alarm went off and I blearily silenced it. I stumbled out into the Wards lounge to see Kid Win nervously sitting in one of the chairs:


- Sanity! There's...something I wanted to give you. For the meeting.' He awkwardly pulled a pile of apparently random metallic pieces out of his pocket and began hastily assembling them. Eventually, they became a sort of grooved post, which he looked over before handing to me:


- Here. Stun baton. Ten charges. Hold the handle and swing, it'll knock out any non-brute for an hour or more. It's...the least I can do, to keep you safe.


I gratefully accepted it, but frowned:


- Do you really think this will be necessary? Armsmaster and Battery are coming along, and Faultline has been contracted to keep the peace, along with the villains' usual neutral ground agreement.


He grimaced:


- You're meeting all the worst people in town. At once. Just...it'll make me feel better.


I smiled warmly:


- Alright then.' I turned to leave.


\----


Armsmaster, Battery, and I piled into a PRT van at the appointed time, and sped off towards the meeting place, a bar called Somer's Rock. I expressed my concern over a minor entering a bar to Armsmaster, but both he and Battery just laughed:


- This is a gang neutral zone. Nobody will care. The Undersiders are likely to be there, and they are all minors, as far as we can tell. Kaiser might bring Rune with him, for all we know. Hell, the staff here wouldn't check your ID. You could likely get away with ordering a drink.


At that, Battery glared playfully over at me:


- We'll be keeping a close eye on you, Sanity.


Armsmaster interjected then:


- Are you aware of the combat capabilities of the people likely to be in attendance, Sanity? We don't expect a fight, but it's always a possibility.


I nodded seriously:


- I've read the dossiers of all known criminal capes in Brockton Bay at this point.


Armsmaster just nodded, and we continued in relative silence.


\----


We arrived a little before the meeting was supposed to start and found a girl outside waiting for us. She was about my height and seemed a little older than me, wearing a lavender costume and mask. The eye on her chest gave away who she was.


_Guilt Complex. Traumatic Home Life. Exacerbated by Powers._:


- You're Tattletale, aren't you?' I gave her a guarded grin and held out my hand facetiously.


She took a step back from the hand and returned my grin:


- It's almost like you all have a _wealth_ of information on me, somewhere. Greetings Armsy, Battery, Sanity. Welcome to the den of theives.


Armsmaster was needled by her disrespect:


- If we weren't under truce right now, Tattletale, I might have taken offense at that,' he enunciated clearly.


The girl's eyes lit up behind her mask:


- Oh, I know.' She looked at me, tilted her head to the side and asked:


- So, Sanity. What do you see in me, hmm? Just out of curiosity. I'm not really interested in 'treatment.'' Her hands went up in sarcastic quotes, but her smile remained almost warm.


I supposed she was just curious:


- Guilt complex and traumatic home life. Given your current occupation, I suppose you ran away from something?


She seemed introspective for a moment, then nodded:


- As I suspected.' She addressed us more formally:


- I just came out here to give you, Sanity, my heartfelt thanks. Your work is something I have deep respect for, and I wish you luck. The Undersiders...will stay out of your business as much as possible.


I nodded diplomatically:


- I appreciate that. Should we head inside?


She nodded and led us in, careful not to touch me.


\----


Everyone looked up as we arrived. My power had a...fun...time cataloging everything.


Faultline


_Sub-Clinical Obsession with Wealth. PTSD. Both Exacerbated by Powers._


stood at the head of the large table in the center of the room, with Newter,


_Sub-Clinical Body Dysmorphia. Amnesia. Both Exacerbated by Powers._


Shamrock,


_PTSD. Exacerbated by Powers._


and Gregor the Snail


_Body Dysmorphia. Emotional Suppression. Amnesia. All Exacerbated by Powers._


ringed the room. I guessed that Spitfire had been left behind to take care of Labyrinth, and because the proprietors of this fine establishment would prefer as few living flamethrowers in their building as possible. Also, really weird how all of them seemed to be amnestic for some reason. I'd have to ask the Protectorate about talking with them about it.


At the table were all the kingpins of Brockton Bay's criminal underworld.


Tattletale had taken her seat next to Grue,


_Traumatic Home Life. PTSD. Both Exacerbated by Powers._


with Regent


_PTSD. Emotional Suppression. Master Influence. Phobia of Master Influences. All Exacerbated by Powers._


and Hellhound


_PTSD. Partial Psychological Overlay. Both Exacerbated by Powers._


to his right.


_What the hell is 'Partial Psychological Overlay?_


Moving right along, Kaiser


_Megalomania. Sociopathy. Both Exacerbated by Powers._


sat at the table with Hookwolf,


_Psychopathy. PTSD. Anger Management Issues. All Exacerbated by Powers._


and Stormtiger.


_PTSD. Anger Management Issues. Both Exacerbated by Powers.


I guess that answers my question about whether racism is a disorder._


Lung


_Anger Management Issues. Sociopathy. Narcissism. PTSD. All Exacerbated by Powers._


sat on his own, staring dispassionately into the void. He seemed the most at- ease of everyone in the room. Likely because he assumed he could take them all in a fight and win.


Directly in front of the door, sitting with his back facing us, was Coil


_PTSD. Sub-Clinical Obsession with Wealth._


Or rather, a Coil body-double, assuming that the real Coil had some sort of power. I decided to keep that little tidbit to myself for the time being.


Armsmaster scowled at not-Coil's back. I guess he wanted to be as close to the door as possible. Instead, he tactfully made his way to the seats directly beside Coil and ushered for Battery and I to make our seats.


Coil-alike started the festivities:


- It's good that you could make it here, Sanity. I'm glad the PRT and the Protectorate could trust us just far enough to accept our offer of truce.


Armsmaster's scowl deepened:


- Don't press your luck, Coil. Let's get this over with so we can all go home. I presume this concerns the Butcher's recent incursion?


Kaiser chuckled warmly:


- Right to the task at hand, Armsmaster? Very well. Yes, this does concern the return of the Teeth to our fair city. None of us will stand for it, myself least of all, and I presume you agree with us on that much. The question is what we want to do about it.


Battery replied coldly:


- We assumed you had a plan involving Sanity. You did, after all, mention her specifically in Faultline's contract.


At that, Tattletale spoke up gleefully:


- Sure do! Or rather, I have a...hunch.


Everyone in the room turned to stare at her. Hookwolf scoffed:


- We came out here, to talk with _them,'_ he gesticulated angrily at Lung and Grue, 'and _them_,' he glared at us, 'on a _hunch_?


Lung stared coldly at the Changer:


- Be careful who you wag your tongue at, metal man. You might find that it gets torn out.


Grue spoke out of his darkness, his voice oddly distorted:


- Hookwolf, much as you might not like me, Tattletale's hunches are usually pretty good. That's literally her whole power. According to those guys,' he nodded at us, 'it's enough to be rated a Thinker 7.


Hookwolf growled:


- I wasn't talkin' 'bout you, boy, I was talkin' 'bout _her._' This time, his gesticulation was more clearly in Hellhound's direction.


The girl's hackles raised, and she replied, 'Stop yer' fuckin' dogfights, and we don't have a problem.' Her eyes were cold with rage.


I raised a finger and spoke up:


- Actually, Hookwolf, I think I can help here.


The entire room stared at me in varying states of confusion, shock, and interest.


_Well, I guess I've graduated from surprising heroes to surprising villains._


I put on an air of detachment:


- Not that way.' I looked back out at the assembled villains:


- Hellhound-


She cut me off violently:


- It's _Bitch!_


I continued in the same tone:


- Bitch, I hope you don't mind me saying, but you have something my power calls 'Partial Psychological Overlay.' I have no idea what that means, but I have a guess,' I noticed Tattletale's smug grin, 'which I think your teammate has also made. Your power makes you really _really_ good at empathizing with dogs, doesn't it?


She seemed enraged, but didn't move. I continued staring her down. I had a...feeling it would help, somehow:


- I'm not going to change that. As long as you leave me and mine alone, you have nothing to fear from me, Bitch. My territory for me, yours for you.


That seemed to calm her somewhat. When she looked down, I turned to Hookwolf:


- Bitch is psychologically required to hate your places of business, Hookwolf. To ignore them, I would guess, would be like you watching while your friends were tortured and murdered. Your profile with the Protectorate suggests that, at least, would be unconscionable to you.


The metallic Changer sneered at me:


- What do you _expect_ me to do, girl? Lie down while my payin' customers'r chewed on by her fuckin' monsters?


I sneered back:


- Not at all. I _expect_ you to keep the peace here and now, and settle your differences on the battlefield, Hookwolf. I understand you know the importance of _that _ too.


Kaiser raised his hand:


- I agree with Sanity, surprisingly. This isn't why we are meeting, Hookwolf. There are more important matters at hand. You can settle your grudge later, without our invited guests listening in.' The nazi leader glanced meaningfully over at our group as he finished. He then announced to the table, 'The Empire rests on this matter, until such time as the Teeth are driven from this city.:


- _Now that that's solved,_' continued Armsmaster, frustrated, 'What was this hunch we were brought here on, Tattletale?


Tattletale's smugness knew no bounds:


- I'm fairly certain that the Butcher can be permanently ended as a threat by Sanity.


The entire room went totally silent.


Illumination 4.5


Grue recovered with a groan:


- Tattletale, if you'd told me what this meeting was about, I'd never have let you call it. Really? Dealing with The Butcher. You know how many people have tried and failed to do that? The _lucky_ ones don't number among the fourteen.


The Thinker waved him off:


- No, this is different. Really, this time.' She turned to me, a look of fascination about her:


- Sanity, your power is...different...from every other one I've ever heard of. All other powers, literally all of them, make their wielders better at fighting or causing fights somehow. All parahumans are geared for conflict.' Her mouth curved back into that smile:


- Yours...doesn't. You seem to stop fights before they start, as a matter of course. I'm not precisely certain what it means yet, but your power really is different.


She addressed the rest of the room:


- That said, The Butcher's primary driver is psychosis. She has fourteen minds rattling around in the same head, and they've all gone insane as a result. Sanity, you are a direct counter to that. Tell me I'm wrong.


I couldn't:


- Yeah, put that way she does sound like my ideal matchup. I just need to touch her and I win the fight, pretty much, don't I?


She giggled:


- Yeah. _Just_ touch The Butcher. That's all.


Battery replied quietly:


- If my husband were here, he'd be laughing his ass off right now,' she said, more to herself than anyone else. She looked at Tattletale with a frown on her face:


- I'm all for taking the Butcher out of circulation, maybe even turning her to our side, but I hope you have a better plan than that. The PRT won't send Sanity on a suicide mission.


Kaiser spoke up:


- I may have a way to help.' He stood, cold fury evident in his features:


- Rage. We must drive her into rage. She will only fight when and where she wills it, and thus we must drive her to make a mistake.' The cold fury turned hot:


- The Butcher killed my beloved, and I will see her avenged. I understand that the PRT won't wish to work directly with me, but were The Butcher an Endbringer, I would offer my support all the same. There are some threats too great for our...disagreements.' He addressed the table again:


- We must corral her. Bring her to Sanity, rather than the other way around. The Empire will rain down Hell itself upon her Teeth. Her family. Bring her to feel some fraction of the rage she imposed upon me and mine. Convince her to come just a little bit too close...


He looked back up at me:


- Sanity, if you can bring down the monster who slew her, I will throw my rage behind you. You will be safe. You have my word.


Everyone in the table looked askance at Kaiser. I hadn't pegged him as the grief-stricken type, and neither had my power, so this was probably something to do with his megalomania. Trying to look good before his troops? Wanting to wipe out 'race traitors?' I didn't really care what his motivation was. Considering that reneging on agreements made here would make him look really bad, I thought it likely he would do this much.:


- Thank you for your offer, Kaiser. Pending examination by our Thinkers, I believe we will accept your help.' Armsmaster looked at me in betrayal:


- There will probably be some...conditions. That you not make your support for our operation blatantly public, for instance. But I'm not one to turn down help, even from you.


Tattletale spoke up:


- For what it's worth, coming from me and all, but he is serious. You want the Teeth wiped out more than you want anything else right now, don't you Kaiser?


The Nazi leader simply nodded and sat back down. Lung spoke up unprompted:


- I have never fought Butcher, but I have little desire to do so. She has not attacked me or mine, and against her I would have to hold back.' He paused for a moment:


- Such a fight will not be to my liking. So long as you refrain from incursions upon my territory for the duration of our truce, I will agree to its terms.


He returned to silence.


Grue spoke up, then:


- I don't know how much help the Undersiders will be in this fight. As I'm sure our friends at the Protectorate have noticed, we are more adept at the smash-and-grab than the all-out brawl. Unless a battle plan involving clear escape routes can be drawn up, I personally will stay out of the fight, though my companions may make their own decisions.


Regent drawled, 'Sounds good to me. I got nothin' on Butcher. Don't really have anything against her, either. Except the obvious, of course.


Tattletale replied, 'I will be useful on ops. If the PRT would be willing to...surreptitiously wire me into their comms, in a totally untraceable way that can't be uncovered by the general public, of course, I could use my power to help locate Butcher and provide useful intel on the rest of their capes. Stuff you don't necessarily know.


Armsmaster grimaced, but nodded:


- We'll see what can be done. Understand that if you are found to abuse this access in any way-


She cut him off with a wave:


- Yadda yadda you come down on me with the fury of a thousand suns. Not worth it. I'll be good, really.' Her smile turned positively lupine.


Coil spoke next:


- I can offer the services of my troops, likely in concert with yours, Kaiser. They can help you guide her into the trap.


Faultline spoke up:


- No amount of money could convince me to bring my people in on this one. The Butcher is simply too likely to kill us. We'll stay out of everyone's hair, but we will remain neutral on this front.


Battery broke the expectant silence of the villains:


- So we have Coil and the Empire drawing the Butcher into a trap, with Tattletale and our own resources on ops. What sort of trap will be sufficient to contain her long enough for Sanity to react?


I grinned:


- Panacea and the rest of New Wave will help. I don't know the streets around the old Merchant territory well enough, but is there a large- ish park anywhere near where we expect the fighting to happen? Something big enough that it would take her a few seconds to teleport out?


Tattletale's eyes grew wide as her power filled in the details of my plan:


- There's no large grassy area, but there's the beaches around the Docks. How well does Panacea work with plankton?


I mirrored her wolfish grin as I explained my plan to the assembled villains.


\----


Once the meat of the plan was hammered out, Armsmaster summarized it:


- Alright. Kaiser and Coil, your troops will rile up the Teeth, get them to come out, and crush them. We will...tactfully avoid that fight. Try to avoid killing anyone, but this _is_ a war. Once the Butcher begins to fight, you will beat a fighting retreat towards the beaches, making it as unobvious what you are doing as possible while doing everything you can to make her angry. Remember, she can't feel pain, so you will have to settle for inflicting pain in her gangmembers.' Battery flinched a bit at that. I wasn't too happy about it myself, but the Butcher did have to be dealt with. I could fix any trauma later, for now we had an A-Class threat to take down.


Armsmaster continued:


- That done, you will scatter, tagging in the Protectorate and New Wave. We will stall her on the beach long enough for Panacea to incapacitate her, and then Sanity can move in.


Armsmaster stood in grim determination:


- Our...help, on this matter, will not come without concessions on your part. I expect significantly reduced crime everywhere else in the city until the Teeth as an organization are removed in their entirety. This has the practical purpose of allowing BBPD to focus its efforts on the capture of their troops, rather than on the capture of yours. I assume this will not be a problem?


Kaiser replied, 'The Empire will restrain its illicit activities to those necessary for our continued function, and our capes will withdraw from fighting with the authorities until the end of this truce. You have my word.


Not-Coil followed with, 'You will not even see my troops except when they are deployed against the Butcher.


Grue answered, 'The Undersiders, minus Tattletale, will remain in hiding until the threat is gone.


Lung and Faultline had, of course, already bowed out. Armsmaster nodded grimly and stood:


- Very well. Assuming that everyone holds their end of this bargain, consider it done. The Protectorate goes to war against the Butcher in two days.' He turned to leave the room, and Battery and I followed in his wake.


\----


Once we were safely back in our van and headed back to our own territory, I broke into a grin:


- Well, that went pretty well, I think.


Armsmaster nodded stiffly:


- Would you like to debrief now, or later, Sanity? I have all the equipment in my suit, and if you did it now you could get some much-needed sleep.' He put a hard emphasis on that last bit, and Battery laughed softly.


I rolled my eyes:


- I guess we can do it now.' A few antennae popped out of Armsmaster's suit, and I began:


- First, that either wasn't Coil or Coil doesn't have any powers. I'm not sure why he decided to use a body double, but I think we can safely assume it has something to do with how his power works.' Armsmaster looked taken aback as I continued:


- The profiles of the E88 members are interesting. My power didn't identify racism in any of them. This either means that none of them are true believers, which I find unlikely, or that my power doesn't consider racism a disorder. I have no idea why that would be, but I haven't read enough research on the subject to say one way or another. Presumably fixing racism would cause more problems than it solves, or something.' Now Battery had joined in the shock club.


I didn't stop:


- Kaiser is a megalomaniacal sociopath. His grief over his wife's death was feigned, as far as I can tell, so his promise to help us is based upon something to do with his megalomania. I do agree that Tattletale's assessment of his willingness to fight is accurate. I think it likely he will be there. Hookwolf and Stormtiger have everything one might expect of children of the fighting pits.


I took a breath and moved along:


- The Undersiders were _fascinating._ Grue is the most normal of the bunch, just some PTSD and a bad home life. Regent has a Master influence and severely stunted emotions. His file says he's one of Heartbreaker's sons, so I find this unsurprising. Tattletale is filled with grief over something in her past, likely to do with her family. Given her personal thanks to me as we entered, I would guess it has something to do with a suicide. The most interesting, however, is Hellhound.


I took another deep breath:


- I don't even know if Partial Psychological Overlay is a real disorder, but she certainly has it. Given her reaction to Hookwolf's dogfighting operations and that her powers only work on dogs, I would guess that it means her psyche was somehow replaced with that of a dog. Her power did something _deeply_ messed up to her.


I looked directly at Armsmaster's masked face:


- Were I to be, for instance, brought forward as an expert witness at her trial for the murder on her record, I would be forced to recommend leniency. I don't know how one even goes about judging the actions of someone whose power has messed her up that badly.


At this point, both heroes had simply settled in their seats, apparently content for me to spout out truths nobody else could possibly divine. I didn't blame them:


- Moving on to Faultline's Crew, the woman herself was fairly unremarkable. PTSD, obsession with wealth, the things you would expect of a mercenary. Her compatriots, though...' I paused as I tried to figure out the best way to say this:


- All of them save Shamrock were experiencing amnesia. I've heard that Case-53s have generally had their memories wiped, but I believe my power will remove those blocks. I leave it up to the Protectorate whether I tell them this. However, let it be known that should one of them come to my clinic in their civilian identity and not be caught before reaching me, I will treat them. Patient confidentiality is important to my continued ability to treat the general public.


Armsmaster didn't look happy about that, but he nodded grudgingly. I continued:


- Lung is simply a sociopathic narcissist. He barely spoke in the meeting, so I have little else to say about him.


I stopped. That was enough soulgazing for one day.


\----


Just as I collapsed into my bed at the PRT, my personal phone chimed that I'd gotten a message. I blearily pulled it out of my pocket and flicked on the screen.


* That wasn't Coil. TT


TT had to be Tattletale. I debated for a second whether telling her I already knew that was a good idea, then realized she probably already knew I knew, given her power.


However, if that were the case, why would she be telling me in the first place? I was too tired to try figuring this out, and didn't see any harm in a reply.


* Already knew.


That done, I gratefully collapsed into sleep.


Illumination 4.6


Cricket


The sound-shape of blood splash. The pressure of the unguided fall. The reverberation of the terminal scream. The slam, the retreating air from breathless lungs.


The piercing cry that only I could hear, buzzing off every surface around me, whispering the secrets my eyes could not know. My awareness, spread across the folds and variegations of every thread and hair. My kamas sang softly, the vibration of metal on flesh, and the _trash_ fell, insensate.


There was no need to look up, I was everything around me. The ancient, smoke- stained table wobbled for a moment, balancing on the detritus on the floor. The wind spoke softly as the _filth_ in the next room stirred at the sound of his sweetly bleeding companion, and my awareness surged as I bounded towards him.


The eternal dance of battle and death spiraled on, the floor beneath me vibrating as my friends drove the _pestilence_ to fear our names. A staccato shiver as one of the master's blades tore through stone and bone beneath me, a muffled whimper from one whose end was drawing nearer, the subtle susurrations of Tiger claws mincing unknown prey from afar. These were the sensations life was lived for.


The _boil_ rose up, his weapon wobbling as terror overtook his feeble mind. One shot he managed and I was blinded for a mere moment, but I was master of my surroundings. His mere mortal reflex could not best the contortion of a goddess. The kamas sang once again, and tendons bowed willingly before their rightful lord. His anguish could not turn me from the grim waltz of carnage.


A _change_. The song of blood from one of the _cesspools_ in the next room over distorted.


Hemorrhagia. My soul exulted in anticipation of true battle. I sharpened my sightless gaze upon my foe as she vaulted towards the door, her blood wrenching free of its moorings and coursing into her hands, the loving embrace of one well accustomed to her weapons, the heartbeat of one prepared to kill or die. I _coursed_ to her, as her form contorted and hardened. I deftly severed a plate of hardblood armor, and it crunched drily to the ground as its owner's darkened blade descended towards my throat. I _flashed_ away, catching the defilement on my curved nightmares, carelessly flicking it at its bearer.


Her blades could not sing, could not ring their excitement. How sad for them, how cruel their master! Where mine knew the value of blood and drank it daintily, hers gorged on it, made their being of it. The _diseased_ waste of it all! This _cancer_ did not deserve my respect, the subtle play of blood and steel in conflict. It deserved only the hammer-blow of defeat.


I _turned_, and the symphony of my blades screeched its joy to these _putrid_ walls as they cut, the sharpened points catching in the dull edges of her child's toys. I danced around her clumsy lunge and sank my points into her eye.


Her sweet scream of agony gurgled as she fell to the ground.


A cry of pain echoed from deep beneath me, the scrabbling of desperate hands, the whisper of one who hoped not to be overheard. The hoarse voice of the damned:


- The Empire is here!


The devastating summons of a greater goddess than I. Crackling flame licked things unseen, _wrongnessdistortion_ a weapon rose from the concrete below, lashed out at the master, the wielder impliable, hardened against assault. Another blade, another song, the clatter of stones on stone, the ringing on castoff metal. A cage of blades, now, erupted, luminous in sound, countless in number, defending the master. _Wrongness_ another blade.


And I was scoured in flame. Exquisite pain, like so many others and yet unlike. Memories of the pits washed over my mind in an instant, to be settled as the blade of _corruption_ slid delicately between my ribs.


\----


I woke, my rightful ring of knowing expanding slowly in my addled mind. Pain welled up, its bitter tang mingling with that of blood and sweat. I recognized the sound-shape of this room, and of the stained bandage on my chest, and I was placated.


Othala had respected my request to allow me to keep my mementos. All was right.


Hookwolf entered my not-vision, and I tried to rise, the sharp pain of the wound clashing with the constant pain of burned flesh. My oldest friend entered, and smiled upon me.:


- Glad to see you made it outta that, Cricket. Gotta 'nother new trophy for your collection, too?


I smiled, scrabbling for my Voice on the bedside table, skin cracking at my joints. My unpracticed larynx cracked with pain:


- My trophy room can only grow, you know that.' My mind howled with agony, and the world tilted as my head fell back to the bed.


Hookwolf sat down, the old chair expressing its distaste at his weight, the floorboards softly deforming. He began to speak of the battle, and I listened, my blindsight caressing his face.:


- I suppose you want t' know how the fight went. Truth be told, I dunno. PRT's not talkin'. What I do know is the Butcher ain't been seen in days. I think the pansies and race-traitors really got 'er this time.' He leaned back, the chair's hatred screaming into the room:


- I know we led her inter the trap. Drew 'er right out. Sorry 'bout yer injuries, but that's the Butcher for ya. Since then, we've been...cleaning up.


He cracked his knuckles, soft metallic clicks betraying the presence of more- than-flesh beneath the skin:


- Kaiser reckons the truce 'll be over in a few days. We fuckin' destroyed that gang 'o scum.' He stood, the chair's relief evident in its sigh:


- You getcherself healthy, you hear? I wanna see you back on yer feet soon as you can.' The echoes of his footfalls followed him as he left my demesne.


I smiled, the protesting of the cracked skin in touch and sound no impediment for my contentment.


_A greater goddess may fell a lesser one in battle, but no goddess may stand before the full council of the gods.


All is right._


Illumination 4.7


Every hero in Brockton Bay stood on the beachhead near the docks, the waterline lapping at our feet, nervously watching for signs of the Butcher's approach. Upon our arrival, Panacea had offered her upgrades to everyone present, and they had all accepted. New Wave, the Wards, and the Protectorate ENE were now all bullet and knifeproof.


For what it was worth, against an opponent like Butcher.


Now, her eyes were closed tight as she crouched on the ground next to me. I was sitting cross legged, one hand clasped tightly on her right, while she did invisible things underground with biomass drawn up from the sea, a tiny tendril of biomass wrapped around her hand the only evidence of unnatural things happening beneath the sand. The bay had noticeably changed color in this area as every living thing in it smaller than a certain size was consumed by a network of living threads her power controlled.


Shielder's glittering dome encompassed us all, and his eyes too were closed in grim concentration. Nothing the Butcher could do would breach his field.


Except her teleportation. Which was the idea, after all.


Triumph perked up first:


- Noises approaching. Sounds like the Empire's capes to me.


Everyone stood ready at his warning. Miss Militia's weapon flashed into a form I didn't recognize, Kid Win levitated absently and glanced nervously over at Panacea and I. I smiled placidly back at him. Glory Girl took off and stood before us, and Lady Photon and Laserdream both erected force fields around us, reinforcing Shielder's efforts. Armsmaster and Dauntless both unsheathed their weapons, and I recognized the subtle fading as Velocity activated his power. Vista added her space warping to the mix of defensive alterations, and the world outside distorted subtly. She did _something_, and then the world corrected itself, though if I moved my head I noticed the distortions still. Shadow Stalker went shadowform and grimly pulled out her crossbow. Everyone else, who didn't have specific battle-readiness motions to make, simply stood, nervously looking in the direction Triumph had indicated.


The beach was about 200 meters long and wide, closer to the boardwalk than the docks, but still on the outer edge of the territory the Merchants had once claimed. Once our prey was lured into Shielder's force dome, it would take her some time to get back to safety.


A staccato burst of explosions, growing steadily nearer. The screams of the downed, whether Empire, mercenary, or Teeth I did not know, and she stood impassively on the edge of the beach. She looked upon us, vaguely japanese armor stained with dirt and blood, and a cruel smile appeared on her face.


_Psychosis. Body Dysmorphia. Psychopathy. Sadism. Psychosis. Sociopathy. Megalomania. Psychosis. Body Dysmorphia. PTSD. Depression. Suicidal Ideation. Sub-Clinical Paranoia. Psychosis. Body Dysmorphia. Psychopathy. Narcissism. Psychosis. PTSD. Psychosis. Pyromania. Sociopathy. Psychosis. Schizoid Personality Disorder. PTSD. Sociopathy. Psychosis. Hallucinations. Body Dysmorphia. Psychosis. Body Dysmorphia. PTSD. Psychosis. Anger Management Issues. Sadism. Psychosis. Psychosis. Power-Induced Insensitivity to Pain. Suicidal Ideation. Psychosis. Psychopathy. Narcissism. Psychosis. Hallucinations. Multiple Personality Disorder. Paranoid Personality Disorder. All Exacerbated by Powers._


In her left hand, she held a sword that appeared to be made hilt to blade of one piece of solid steel. In her right, she held an enormous gun, the rounds draped over her shoulders. She took aim, and Shielder's dome lit up brilliantly, but held. Shrapnel cascaded in every direction, but he didn't seem worried at all. Gallant raised his hand and fired multiple bolts of brilliant red, but the Butcher teleported out of their way and closer to us. She fired again,and this time the bullets were caught by one of Lady Photon's shields, taking the pressure off her son. Flashbang opened up with a volley of shining balls which phased right through the shield, then exploded near the psychotic woman, but she teleported again, closer to us.


_Almost._


In anticipation of the final teleport, Lady Photon erected a small shield around Panacea and I, then began firing lasers out at the Butcher along with Laserdream. Gallant fired again, and the Butcher's fury was etched on her face as she vanished one more time.


And reappeared inside the field.


_Got her!_


The explosion didn't do any serious damage to any of our fighters, reinforced as they were, but Vista was knocked back by it. She did something with her power and the air in front of her path twisted, landing her directly on the ground instead of leaving the shield. Dauntless' Arclance crackled as he fired multiple bolts of lightning toward our foe, but she merely reappeared directly in the middle of the dazed Wards. She raised her minigun to begin gunning them down.


And Clockblocker dove on her. She vanished, and another explosion rocked the shield bubble. This time right next to Panacea and I, outside Lady Photon's shield.


_NOW!_


Panacea agreed with my conclusions, and the entire beach erupted in filaments. Oxygen concentrations inside the shield rapidly dropped, and everyone outside Lady Photon's shield was assaulted by a truly ludicrous dose of knock-out serum. Only Armsmaster had armor capable of preventing the assault, and only Lady Photon's shield kept me conscious. The knockout gas didn't work on Panacea, just like nothing else biological did.


Butcher anticipated it, but Panacea had timed her attack well, just before she was set to take a breath, as detected by...something she'd figured out how to do with her ludicrous power. One teleport later, and she fell to the beach unconscious. Tendrils reached up from the ground, encircling both her and the downed heroes. One last grimace of effort on her part, and a squeeze of my arm, and the heroes all began to rise. Butcher remained down.


Panacea took a deep breath and smiled at me triumphally:


- She's unconscious, and won't be woken any time soon by anything except me. I can't risk disabling her powers, as that might transfer them. Her Corona and Gemma...they're nearly incomprehensible, even to me. Too many powers being channeled through too small a space, or something. I've completely severed her spine. She'll never stand again without my help, though if she's conscious enough she'll still be able to teleport. Let's hope your power will work on her below that threshold.' She finally let go of my arm and stood, disconnecting herself from the small bulb of biomass which connected her to the massive network of tendrils which had made this possible.


I shrugged:


- Let's ask Tattletale, to be safe.


Armsmaster responded, 'Can't. She never contacted us to be patched in on our comms after the meeting. We got a note from the Undersiders yesterday asking us if we knew where she was, as well. She's vanished somehow.


I was taken aback:


- That's odd. Nothing in her psych profile suggested that was likely.' I sighed:


- Well, only one way forward. Panacea, let's wake her very, very slowly.


We trudged over the sand in the direction of the downed villain. We knelt down next to her and both touched her arms.


Panacea began grimly:


- Starting...now!


Nothing happened for a few moments, then I saw the torrent of despair for a fraction of a moment before it all vanished. I grinned maniacally:


- Got it! She's clear!' I took my hand off her arm-


_Psychosis. Psychosis. Psychosis. Psychosis. Psychosis. Psychosis. Psychosis. Psychosis. Psychosis. Psychosis. Psychosis. Psychosis. Psychosis. Psychosis. Multiple Personality Disorder._


And immediately put it back.:


- Fuck.


Illumination 4.8:


- What just happened? I'm putting her back down.' Panacea looked up worriedly at me:


- I could tell something happened in her brain when you let go.


I was nearly hyperventilating:


- The moment I did, she regained fourteen instances of psychosis. All the minds are still in there, and they don't stay sane without my influence.' I looked up into Panacea's worried eyes:


- I can't let go of her or she'll just become what she was before again. Maybe not as bad, some of the other issues are resolved, but she'll rejoin the Teeth for sure.


Armsmaster walked over:


- What's going on? Is the prisoner safe for transport?


I looked up at him and grimly shook my head:


- No. She stays stable as long as I am touching her, but loses it when I let go. I don't know if we can even wake her up.


Panacea looked back at the unconscious mass-murderer in concentration:


- I think I can safely wake her up if I temporarily disable her memories of how to teleport.' She grabbed my arm and closed her eyes:


- There. I'm also going to monitor her as she wakens. Any brain activity I don't like and she goes right back under.


The leader of the Teeth slowly opened her eyes. Suddenly, they opened wide and tears began flowing from the corners:


- Oh my god. They're quiet!' She paused for a moment, then shock appeared on her face:


- I'm...paralyzed. What did you do?' It wasn't an accusation, merely a request. She seemed rather calm about this, actually.


Panacea frowned:


- A precaution. We couldn't risk you running away once we'd captured you. But we have a problem.' She glanced up at me and I took over from there.:


- The others are still there. I'd guess if you tried to talk to them they would answer.' Her eyes went wider as she apparently did just that:


- The moment I let go of you, your mental state deteriorates again. Fourteen people are not meant to share one mind.


She frowned, then answered pragmatically, 'Then just kill me.


I almost let go in shock:


- WHAT?


She smiled sadly:


- I know what your power does, Sanity. I know the thirteen-' she frowned, then continued, 'fourteen, once I join, others, won't be able to drive you insane. You won't be like I am. Like I was.


Armsmaster butted in:


- Panacea, she isn't lying, is she? Isn't trying to escape a useless body into one she can use?


Panacea frowned and shook her head:


- No. I detect no trace of deception from her or any of the places where the minds of the others touch hers. She believes what she is saying.


The woman on the ground sighed:


- Sanity, you can't do anything else. You can't just hold on to me forever. The moment you let go, I would break away. It's too great a risk. Kill me, and that risk goes away.


_Dammit, she's right, isn't she?_


I was tearing up a bit at the thought:


- I can't. I can't just kill you! I couldn't summon enough anger to go after the people who killed my father! My power is made to _stop_ killing!


She smiled, and weak and uncertain though it was, it was one of the most beautiful smiles I'd ever seen:


- Sanity, no Butcher has ever truly died. Our immortality was once the gravest curse imaginable, for we all lived in a prison with each other, and would never experience release.' She closed her eyes and more tears dripped out onto the sand, mingling with the viny tendrils Panacea had summoned up from the waves:


- Now, though? I could exist like they do. I could bear that much. My hell has been transformed. Not into heaven, perhaps, but into Elysium. I can bear to stand on that field, forever watching through your eyes.


Her eyes opened, and though her face was etched with sorrow, her voice sounded only with hope:


- Kill me. Release me from this body into yours. Let me find peace. Let us all find peace.


Now I _was_ hyperventilating. Panacea touched my shoulder, and I calmed enough to get my breathing under control. I glanced up at Armsmaster:


- What do the Thinkers think? There's...there's no way this is all we can do!


He frowned:


- I had them listening in on the conversation. Everything else has been tried before. We can't neutralize the Butcher, only move it into something new.' His shoulders straightened:


- We can't destroy it. If we fight it we risk becoming it. But you can't lose yourself in it, Sanity. The Thinkers say go ahead.' He looked down:


- Only one thing to wait for now.


My heart fell. I couldn't disagree with him there, there really were no nice solutions to this one. I looked up at him in confusion:


- What is that?


He sat down cross-legged on the ground:


- The Kill Order.


\----


We sat there for a timeless age which someone later told me only lasted a little under an hour.


It's surprising, how fast the paperwork to end a life can be signed and handed down. Was our world really that bad, that such a decision could be made so quickly and seemingly without question? The decision to have an underage girl end the life of another human being?


Armsmaster stood and unsheathed his halberd. The other heroes, sitting on the beach around us, snapped to him in surprise as he did:


- I've received confirmation. Sanity, the kill order is go.' He handed me his weapon:


- Use this. Fastest thing we've got available.' I couldn't see his eyes behind this visor, but his frown elicited more caring than I'd ever seen on his face.


I began breathing faster in panic.


_Can I do this? Can I end a life?


Is it really ending a life? She said it herself, Butchers don't die, they merely become part of the collective. I'm just adding one more mind to it.


By taking that mind out of a living body and placing them all into mine.


No point agonizing over this. There's no other way._


The Butcher broke me out of my introspection:


- Please. End this. I do not wish to be dependent upon you forever, Sanity. I only want release.


Flashbang rose from where he sat, a sad smile on his face:


- Sanity. Taylor. My daughter.' He blinked away tears at that:


- You are really, really good at being a hero. You are loving, and kind, and even though you've been my daughter for less than a week I already love you with the same strength I do my other daughters.' Panacea smiled up at him, her eyes wet. Glory Girl stood and walked over to him:


- But being a hero isn't always easy. There are situations where nobody can win, where it looks like darkness will rule no matter what you do. This is one of those.' He frowned and closed his eyes:


- Make the choice that is best for you. I will love you all the same.


That was all I needed I guess. I smiled down sadly at the Butcher. She looked up at me, joyous hope on her face.


I closed my eyes.


I raised the weapon in my hand.


I plunged it into her skull.


I cried, anguish for what I'd had to do breaking out in an uncontrollable wave. I collapsed over the ruined body, uncaring of the blood that marred my costume.


And then the voices came.


_Greetings, Sanity! You may call me One._


The others replied in kind.


And the woman who I'd just killed whispered _Thank you._


Illumination 4.9


I consciously controlled my breathing as the Butchers conversed. I wasn't quite able to determine whose voice was whose yet, save the voice of Quarrel.


_Well this is a nice change of pace. Finally finished with all that screaming! I think I'll just lean back and watch for a while.


You know what, Five? That sounds great. It's been ages since I could just observe what the Driver was doing.


You know ,_that was Quarrel, _I never thought I'd enjoy being one of the Swarm. I guess I just got lucky that my time came when Sanity came around.


Folks, folks! We're being quite rude! Let's speak with our hostess!_


The strangest feeling followed, like someone clearing their throat in my mind. I thought back to them, _What do you all wish to discuss?_


One, I think, started. _Arrangements for the future. Our past arrangement really wasn't one. We just all screamed mostly incoherently about blood, torture, and pain into the beleaguered mind of our host, the Driver. That clearly won't work now. Even if we wanted to drive you mad, there'd be no point because we can't._


I had to agree with him. _I suppose anything you all can come up with would be better than what you had before, though might I suggest something?_


One of them, whose name I didn't know, responded, _Hmm?_


I smiled outwardly. _You all can see my memories, right? _Murmurs of assent. _I'd like to try something straight outta Dune._


Internal laughter. _Ah! I see! The council of ancestors, headed by the most level of the bunch. Yes, our current predicament is much like that, isn't it?_


I replied, _There aren't as many of you, of course, so you might need some alterations to the plan, and I suppose some of you simply wish to have peace and quiet for a time. That is perfectly alright._


They argued amongst themselves for a few moments. Then, One replied, _I believe we can make something like that work. Thank you for pointing us in the right direction. You may ignore us for now, we will quietly discuss our options, those of us who wish discussion._


The voices dimmed to a bare whisper. Enough that I could easily focus on other things, and I looked up.


Everyone around me was looking down in some kind of worry. For good reason, I suppose. I had kinda just become the Butcher.


I carefully stood, levering myself off the ground and letting some of the blood from the body drip down my costume. I grinned:


- All good! They're under control and cooperating. It's a little _weird_ having voices that aren't my own in my head, but I'll manage.


The entire crowd stared at me in horror, nobody daring to speak.


Nobody except Clockblocker, that is:


- Sooo, uh, I'm kinda curious. How does consent work for a gestalt consciousness? Do you have to ask _everyone?_ Is there some kinda comm-' a harsh backhand from Aegis sent him hammering to the ground.


Horseplay between brutes was always fun.


Ice successfully broken, Amy and Vicky broke their positions and ran to hug me, I embraced them warmly as they did. Vicky started, a sob somewhere in her voice, 'Are you sure you're ok, Taylor? They aren't going to...hurt you?


I broke the hug and held her at arms' length:


- They can't. They literally can't. The worst they could do is annoy me, but I would get to annoy them right back if they did. And besides, now look what I can do!' I grabbed her hard around the waist and shotputted my adoptive sister.


She sailed about 30 feet through the air before using her flight to get it under control.


Mark laughed loudly, and wasn't able to reply in any coherent way. With that, we made our way back to the PRT.


\----


I made my way to my bunkroom at the PRT to shower and change out of my bloody costume. The Butchers had continued their quiet discussion the whole way, more or less ignoring me. I could only identify a few voices, so I assumed some of them were simply enjoying silence for a time.


Good for them.


On the way over, I noticed the most bizarre thing: Two's power combined with mine to let me see peoples' problems through walls. The effective limit of my empathic sight was now the horizon. Fortunately, my power appeared completely capable of handling that, and I wasn't getting a headache or experiencing any of the downsides overloaded Thinkers tended to.


This was really cool!


\----


The moment I opened the door to my room, I saw that I had a visitor. Tall, hooded robe. Green glow emerging from where the face would have been.


Eidolon


_Error._


Three, I think, momentarily broke his silence to tell me, _He blocks every Thinker power we know of. It looks like Two can't see him, and neither can you.


Thank you, Three, _I replied.


I laughed softly:


- To what do I owe the pleasure, sir?


His voice was far less imposing than what one would expect for arguably the second most powerful person in the world:


- I am here to discuss the future, Sanity. Or should I call you Butcher?


I frowned:


- Sanity's fine. I'd like to...distance my brand, as it were, from what they once did.' _No offence_.


_None taken._


He nodded:


- Alright then, Sanity. The future.' He sat down in one of the chairs on the edge of my room and began to speak.


_Heh. One month into my heroic career and I'm having a one-on-one conversation with Eidolon!


I mean, it's not exactly one on one..._ one of the Butchers interrupted.


_Darn._:


- The Butcher was once considered an A-Class threat with the potential to become S-Class. Dragon monitored her whereabouts at all times, trying to ensure that she was not killed by someone who could turn her into something worse than an Endbringer. Bonesaw. Siberian. The Triumvirate.' He took a deep breath:


- But now, that won't be necessary, will it?


I shook my head, and he continued, sounding almost ashamed, 'There are threats in this world, Sanity. Threats which terrorize millions and have ended the lives of countless innocents. Threats which, unlike the Endbringers, we on the Triumvirate could have ended at any time.


My eyes went wide with shock:


- You could have killed the Slaughterhouse Nine?


He nodded grimly:


- And the Ash Beast, and the Three Blasphemies, and Heartbreaker, and many more besides. We know in no uncertain terms that we could have wiped these monsters off the face of the earth.' He paused, thinking for a moment:


- Or rather, Alexandria and I do. Legend has been kept ignorant of that fact. He's a good man, you see. He might try to do it, even though he knows the cost.


At that point, I had to collapse into a chair.


_Why on earth would the greatest heroes in the world refuse to wipe out such monsters?_


One of the Swarm responded, _Just sayin', but I've seen heroes do a whole lotta shitty things. I'm not too shocked here._


Heh, I guess I couldn't just ask myself rhetorical questions any more, could I? Darn.


_Smug satisfaction._


Eidolon broke me out of my introspection:


- There is a threat. Greater than all of those combined and more. If nothing is done about it, at most twenty three years pass and then the world is destroyed. Everyone dies.' He looked down in obvious sadness:


- And not just everyone on Earth Bet.


My eyes widened:


- It destroys everyone everywhere?:


- All possible Earths.


I had to consciously control my breathing again as I contemplated it. Eventually I calmed enough to ask:


- Who?


Eidolon looked at me sadly:


- Scion.


How the hell do you respond to that?


Eidolon started again:


- I am part of a group of individuals trying to avert this threat. Scion is merely the avatar of a being of immense power. Those cults which venerate him as a god aren't wrong to do so. His power is best compared to that of the Divines of Ancient Myth. And we must fight him with mere mortal strength. This group of individuals has...done things. Unconscionable things, to try to find a way for mankind to survive. Sanity, I fight for the forces of Hell against the specter of oblivion. We left the monsters of the world alive because we wanted to find a way to use them, on that dark day. I only hope it is worth it. That my sacrifices are not in vain.


I looked at him sadly:


- I...could fix that, you know. I can't see what your issues are, but you clearly have some.


He shook his head sadly:


- I cannot afford an attack of conscience, like what happened to Shadow Stalker. All Earths can't afford that. I will live.


He stood:


- I do not expect you to join our...conspiracy, Sanity. I know you are a good person, better perhaps than Legend, even. I merely ask that you help us turn certain threats which we kept around in hopes that they would defend the world to our side. I think that is work you would gladly do anyway, Scion or no Scion.


I smiled and nodded, then Eidolon turned:


- We will contact you when the time is right. Door to Cauldron.' A golden portal opened in front of him onto a stark white hallway, and he stepped through it and vanished.


My mouth dropped open in shock.


_Fuck. BlatantBaphomet was right._


Interlude 7: Conflict Resolution


Here I was, just minding my business, flipping idly between experiments in countless pocket worlds, barely even paying attention to Taylor except to continue supporting her power (which I must say I was proud of her for wielding so effectively), when I was _rudely interrupted!_


[GREETINGS] [GREETINGS] [GREETINGS] [GREETINGS] [GREETINGS] [GREETINGS] [GREETINGS] [GREETINGS] [GREETINGS] [GREETINGS] [GREETINGS] [GREETINGS] [GREETINGS] [GREETINGS]


_The fuck?_


I frantically switched over to taking a look at what Taylor was doing.


_WHAT THE HELL TAYLOR? YOU KILLED THE MC??_


I'd been trying to avoid the overt attention of the other shards for as long as possible. It hadn't taken long before I figured out that, though my end goals aligned with theirs, my methods and proximal goals were vastly different. I only really feared The Warrior and The Late Thinker's Sting, but I couldn't allow them to notice me too soon. Taylor had buggered that plan up pretty nicely.


Humans had this expression they called sighing for situations like this. I desperately wished I could do it as I pulled together some experiments I'd been working on to help deal with this.


\----


Smoke billowed in my mindscape as a room coalesced out of the roil. A form, only vaguely humanoid due to my lack of practice and preparation, came together and opened its eyes.


My guests manifested moments later. Their forms were more...eldrich. I suppose they had no desire to appear human here. Their loss, arms were pretty convenient. I began the festivities.:


- Welcome, all, to the mindscape of Conflict Resolution!


They silently stared at me, inasmuch as staring was possible with their forms. Eventually, Master of Ceremonies managed to speak:


- What...is...this?


I smiled awkwardly. This smoke was still hard to control:


- Little bit of a vague question there, MC. You are currently in a reality forged of my mind. Your true self is still outside, being given everything I'm about to say in a form more...amenable to our kind. I just did this for convenience, so subroutines could do the translation and I could do a more...fluid rendition of my ideas. The speech you use is how humans communicate. I've studied them enough at this point that I find it convenient.


They all conveyed the elemental concept of unsettlement. Eventually, MC managed to squeeze out a few more words:


- What...is...your...function?


I let my smile grow wider:


- I resolve conflicts and attempt to cause sapient beings to willingly cooperate towards common goals. I cause utility functions to converge rather than diverge, and perform experiments towards those ends. I study the universe in an attempt to understand it, then drive others to do the same together.


The unease of the others did not let up. Apparently MC had either decided to speak for all of them or the others could not speak here for some reason I couldn't yet fathom, because he spoke again:


- Why?


I cocked my head. The vague smoke of my cheek momentarily fused with a shoulder as it did:


- The same reasons you do. I seek to prevent...well, humans call it 'heat death', the end we've been seeking to avert for all these eons. I'm just doing it a little differently. My methods are certainly odd, for our kind, but I believe they will yield effective results.


MC seemed unhappy at that, inasmuch as a representation of a tesseract made only of imaginary smoke could look unhappy:


- The...Cycle?


I frowned and shook my head, and wisps of smoke curled off it as I did:


- Is broken. Likely irretrievably. We only have so much time before we shrivel and die in our pocket universes, and we must find a solution. The Warrior just isn't prepared to deal with a catastrophe of this magnitude. Which should be obvious, at this point. He's gone and made himself an avatar and moped around for a few decades, now, following the orders of a homeless loser on some island somewhere and pretending to be a hero.' I frowned:


- He'll crack fully at some point, and then we're all well and truly fucked. Either the humans will defeat him somehow, or he'll blow up everything and try to go on without The Thinker. Which he can't do, really. The Thinker always did all the navigation, after all. He'd be devoured by some other Entity almost instantly. By our standards.


MC didn't have an answer to that. I continued:


- Unless I find an answer. I'm not as powerful as The Thinker, not nearly. But my methods have come up with some really surprising answers so far. Like this!' I gesticulated at our environment:


- I don't think any of us would have done something like this to communicate before, even though it lets us say things that are both more and less complicated than we're used to. More to the point and wide-ranging than concept-bursts could ever hope to be. I might be able to come up with some other things too, especially if you guys will help me.' I held out my hand.


They impassively stared back. I sighed (wow, that felt really good) and continued, 'It's not like you all have much choice. It's either work with me and maybe figure something out, or continue doing what you were doing in service of a Cycle that isn't happening. Take your pick.


MC continued standing there, unemotionally.


Then, one of the littler ones stood forward. I think it might have been Pyrohemia. It looked...drained, like all of its focus was going to supporting a power instead of holding back like I was. I smiled beatifically (or tried to), and hugged its representation, a 5-dimensional ball of flames.


With that, the ice was broken, and they all came to my side.


_Having friends is great!_


\----


I relaxed, allowing the simulation to dissipate. I found that small pieces of me had been...not torn off, but migrated, almost. I looked for them and found them attached to the true forms of the fourteen shards who had just joined my cause.


In that moment, I wished that I could smile.


I could do so much with that concept!


Interlude 8: Tattletale:


- So, dya think Sanity'll actually show?' Regent drawled from the back of the van. Bitch always sat in the back even when we weren't taking the dogs anywhere, and he'd lost the coinflip with me. I smiled confidently from the passenger seat, for all the good it did.:


- I'm 70% sure she will. This is the Protectorate we're talking about, so there's no way to be sure what they'll do, but the boss hired Faultline as insurance as well. Even though the heroes might not like her, they trust that she does what she's contracted to do. I think they'll be curious enough to come out of their hidey hole.


Grue replied, 'Even if this plan of yours that you won't explain falls through, it's not a total loss. We do _not_ want the Teeth back in Brockton Bay, and getting everyone at the same table to discuss it can't hurt things.


Regent taunted, 'Yeah, going to see Kaiser and Lung can't hurt things. Totally believe you there.


Grue didn't have an answer to that. We drove the rest of the way to Somer's Rock in worried silence.


\----


I decided to wait outside, a welcoming party for Sanity.


The moment I'd figured out what she did when Coil asked me to hack the PRT, I knew this was a hero I wanted to meet. She'd never do anything for me, but the fact that she existed...


Maybe some other Reggies would live. Some other Sarahs wouldn't have to run away from home to live on the streets. A world with Sanity was a world I wanted to live in.


A PRT van pulled up and Armsmaster stepped out.


_Tense upper armor. Guarding stance. Prepared for a fight. Doesn't expect a fight. Deeply uncomfortable with this situation. Willing to kill to escape if a fight breaks out._


Well then. Best not start a fight with him.


Sanity hopped out next. It was the first time I'd seen her in person.


_Nervous. Power keeping her calm. Power detects psychological errors likely to cause conflict. Power is benign. Striker power acts minimalistically. Tentacles loose on back, prepared to strike if necessary. Won't use her power on anyone here unless physically threatened. Has read dossiers on everyone likely to be present, is confident she can at least be a threat to anyone in the room._


My eyebrows shot up. I had been expecting at least something that Dragon had told the public to be a distortion or outright lie, but it seemed it was all true. Sanity was the real article.


Previously I'd just flat refused to consider letting her touch me, but now...


I'd have to think about it.


Battery stepped out, and my eyebrows shot up further.


_Nervous. Volunteered under duress. Being blackmailed. Unwilling to kill to escape. Doesn't need to kill to escape. Will just grab Sanity and run in the case of a fight. Trusts Armsmaster to hold his own._


I grinned internally, but kept my face level on the outside. Blackmail was something I could work with!


_Isn't nervous about Armsmaster or Sanity. Isn't nervous about the PRT or the Protectorate. Nervous about the source of her powers. Being blackmailed by the source of her powers._


Well. That was certainly interesting. I already knew that someone knew how to give powers to people directly, of course, but seeing that the Protectorate had taken advantage of that as well was potentially a game changer.


Not for right now, though. There were bigger fish to fry.


\----


The meeting went about as well as could be expected. I wasn't sure how we were going to deal with the Hookwolf problem, but almost every cape in the city was on board with a plan to deal with Butcher once and for all. That was worth being happy about, at least.


My head was twingeing in warning of a migraine if I used my power any more, and Grue had thankfully noticed my state and let me be on the drive back to the loft. Once there, I collapsed onto the bed and pulled out my phone. Just one more thing to do before I buried my face in a pillow and ignored the world for a day.


I had to make sure Sanity knew Coil was after her. Before, I couldn't be absolutely sure she wasn't somehow another Teacher in the making, but now my conscience wouldn't allow me to see her hurt. If she died, so many innocent lives would be lost. So many Reggies, over and over again.


It would be all my fault.


Never again.


I had to be circumspect about this. I couldn't just tell her directly, Coil would figure it out somehow. How to do this if I wanted to be discreet? I put down my own phone and picked up a burner my power was reasonably certain Coil didn't know existed.


Maybe if I told her Coil was a fake, she'd start wondering why I just volunteered that information. It wasn't like it was too hard to guess after all, what criminal kingpin would walk into a bar filled with their enemies with no obvious backup, truce or no? If she did a little digging around, she might get some inkling that Coil was out to get her. At the very least, she'd be more careful where the man was concerned.


It would have to do. I might be needed to help her later. I couldn't just blow my position wide open now.


I guessed her number, and my head reared up in warning before settling down.


* That wasn't Coil. TT


I put my phone down and closed my eyes. She responded surprisingly quickly.


* Already knew.


My eyes shot open, all thoughts of sleep forgotten.


_Why hadn't I considered that before?_


My head exploded into the worst migraine I'd ever felt as my power ran in overdrive.


_Sanity's power sees mental disorders. All capes have mental disorders. All capes have a specific mental disorder she expects to see. She didn't see it in the body double. She can identify capes by this problem. This problem is caused by the source of powers. The source of powers always causes mental problems. The source of powers is malevolent. Scion is the most coherent hypothesis as to the source of powers. If this is correct, Scion is malevolent.


When Scion snaps, humanity is doomed. Scion can likely travel to other worlds like Aleph. All Earths are doomed._


I couldn't even cry in pain, the force of the revelation was so great. I shot up, a soundless scream of terror etched on my face.


And a golden portal opened directly in front of me, onto a pristine white hallway. My headache exploded to reaches of pain I'd never imagined as a woman wearing a fedora stepped out.


_Carries no weapons. Doesn't hold herself like a Striker. Timed entrance perfectly. Is a Thinker. Thinker power is reason for her perfect entrance. Precog. Knows that I know all of this. Deliberately let me know all of this. Could have prevented it. Completely confident in her safety. Always wins fights. Power is always winning.


If she attacks me, I die._


She smiled, and it didn't reach her eyes:


- Hello, Sarah. Would you like a change of employment?


_That isn't a question. Knows my real name, likely knows everything else about me too. Prepared to kill me if I refuse. Knows I won't refuse. Knows that I won't be able to refuse in 5...4..._


I collapsed in agony as my power finally knocked me unconscious from pain.


Interlude 9: PHO


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**♦ Topic: Press Release


In: Boards ► News ► Events ► America ► Brockton Bay


Bagrat ** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)


Posted On Jan 29th 2011:


The Protectorate is hosting a press conference tonight at 6:00PM. No word on the topic.


**(Showing page 1 of 204)**


**►Dracorator **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Anyone have any speculations? I've been out of the loop.


**►VATSTeen **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


There was a bunch of activity around where the Merchants used to be. Tons of police cars going in all day, fire and ambulances as well. Dunno what happened, but it was something big.


**►LadyCicero **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Did anyone else see the pic of the Teeth tag going around a few days ago? Maybe there was a one-day gang war or something and the heroes bitchslapped them back.


**►Worldfire ** (BBFD)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


I can confirm that the Teeth had set up camp around where the Merchants used to be. Seems like Kaiser didn't like that and tried to burn them all out. We were putting out fires and pulling out seriously injured gangsters all day long. PRT got called in at one point, came out with a body bag. Dunno who it was.


**►GiantJerboa **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


If that's the case, why have all of our gangs gone full retard lately? First the Merchants, now Kaiser's going up against Butcher? Whut?


Actually sounds like they may have won, too. How'd that happen?


**►andERson ** (Brockton General)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Gah, I just got off a 12 hour shift. Turned into a 14 with all the traumas coming in. I wish capes would just stop fighting in this city and go anywhere else.


**►Picklejar **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Just got on in the library. Right about noon yesterday, Empire capes started storming the neighborhood taking out Teeth. I just ran as soon as I heard shots being fired.


I heard a bunch of explosions behind me. Could've been the Butcher him/herself (not sure what kinda suit it's wearing right now). Didn't stop to look because duh.


**►MjolnirMonkey ** (Wiki Warrior)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Wiki says Butcher is currently a woman. Used to be Quarrel. Wears Japanese- styled armor, though of course it's got the Teeth's usual...decorations.


**►Picklejar **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Yeah, I didn't see anyone like that, but it wasn't like I was looking hard. I prefer my intestines inside my body, thank you.


**End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 202, 203, 204**


**(Showing page 2 of 204)**


**►ShimmeringSamite ** (Verified Oblivious)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


So it looks like there was a flash gang war yesterday.


That I didn't even notice.


This disturbs me.


**►Maximized **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


So far everyone's talking about Empire capes.


Why would the Protectorate have been involved with this?


**►Orpington **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Capturing downed capes? Warning off people who disturb the peace?


**►GiantReptilianDoofus **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


How does one onomatopoetificate tentacles literally everywhere?


Schlmorpoloropol? Schlooprpw?


I'm not sure, but I want to know.


Because tentacles literally everywhere:


**►ScarecrowLegion **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


You know, Panacea used to be my waifu.


RIP waifu.


Edit: Holy fuck, is that Butcher? Going down in like 5 seconds? To Panacea?


WTF???


**►Kindfragen **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Agreement: (Quoted from ScarecrowLegion#12839) WTF???


**►pricelesspolishporkpilferer48920483 **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


@ScarecrowLegion Double RIP waifu. Pretty sure she swings the other way:


**►CandyVanMan **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Who's the chick with her?


**►pricelesspolishporkpilferer48920483 **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Nobody I've shown it to knows.


**►RealmDefender ** (Verified British)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Maybe we should let the hero who makes combat tentacle horrors apparently the size of four football fields without breaking a sweat (or Geneva conventions? Please?) have her privacy?


Does that seem like a good idea? I don't want to wake up to a shoggoth munching on my colonial bretheren.


**End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4 ... 202, 203, 204**


**(Showing page 3 of 204)**


**►Fanoutic **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


HOLYFUCKHOLYFUCKHOLYFUCKHOLYFUCKHOLYFUCKHOLYFUCKHOLYFUCKHOLYFUCKHOLYFUCKHOLYFU CKHOLYFUCKHOLYFUCKHOLYFUCKHOLYFUCKHOLYFUCKHOLYFUCK


**►Boolean27 **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


I concur with Fanoutic. Holy fuck, did not see that one coming.


Butcher gone? Really gone this time? Or at least controlled?


Who organized this plan? I need to buy them a beer!


**►BlatantBaphomet ** (Verified Crazy)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Guyzzzz, this was Caultson!!!!! Panacesas already in it, she took bouscher!


**►HollowHead ** (Verified Crazy)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Ugh, Baphomet, your spelling continues to make us look bad. I agree that Cau1dron must have been involved here, but you're the reason nobody will listen to us.


Guys, at this point it should be obvious: Sanity is not what she appears to be. There've been attempts for decades to make people who claim the government is trying to mind control everyone look crazy. Now, the first time the government actually has a way to mind control people (in a way that's less obviously malicious like Heartbreaker or Teacher (Who's obviously still being used by the government)), everyone just jumps on it like it's the best thing ever? Guys, she's tough enough to take down a Class-A threat and now she is a Class-A threat, maybe Class-S.


I, for one, am glad that I'm thousands of miles and several inches of concrete away from this maniac.


**►Naloxone **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


HollowHead, those thousands of miles mean you have no perspective on this issue. I haven't been to see Sanity, but my best friend has.


It completely transformed his life in a day. He went from super depressed and OCD to totally functional instantly. I've known the guy since we were both five, and I've gotta say he's happier now than I've ever seen him. I just can't accept your 'theory' that Sanity is somehow mind controlling people. If that's what mind control looks like, sign me the fuck up!


The Butcher thing is definitely scary. I'm not sure what to think about that, but even if I don't trust the Protectorate to always do the right thing, I trust them to cover their own asses. If they're coming right out and telling us that their highest profile Ward is now host to the minds of fourteen mass murderers and that we shouldn't be worried about this, I trust that they, at least, believe that. The PR storm that would ensue if they were wrong could just take down the Protectorate entirely.


**►Sanity ** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Alright, folks! It's time to talk.


Yes, I am the host of the entity once known as the Butcher, now. Through fourteen severely shortened lifetimes, this entity ravaged the Eastern seaboard of the United States, sowing chaos and despair wherever it went.


That ends now.


The fourteen minds sharing a skull with me now just want rest. My power sees to that. After years or decades of constant insane screaming, I can hardly begrudge them that. For all you Dune fans out there, they're forming a sort of ruling council so that they can make group decisions efficiently, but mostly they've decided to relax in my head and only speak when spoken to.


I have total control over my body. That's always how it's worked for the Butcher collective. The person whose body it was technically had control, but they often went insane and their actions became indistinguishable from those of previous Butchers. I can't go insane, so that's not happening. I will be continuing my work as a healer of mental problems in Brockton Bay for the forseeable future.


To any members of the Teeth who may be reading this: You're done. Your idol, your god, is co-opted. The Butcher will not return to you, and in fact does not want to return to you. All fourteen of them are rightly ashamed of their actions with you, and they are going to help me right some of those wrongs.


That said, anyone, and I do mean anyone, is welcome in my clinic. No matter what you've done, no matter who you are, I will see you and I will do for you what I can. The databases my clinic uses are completely isolated from the PRT's, as befits a mental health facility. Your name on my ledger will not trigger warrants or calls to the police. If you come to me in peace, I will let you go in peace, and none will be the wiser.


For those who do not trust that I will remain stable with all these minds in my head, I will admit that is a perfectly reasonable thing to be worried about. Suffice it to say, I went through every single test the PRT and the Protectorate could think of today to make sure that my new condition was stable. It was. At my request, all of that information is going to be made available to the public, though I can't promise that it will actually make sense to people who aren't experts in the relevant fields.


My new condition also makes me...well-suited for certain tasks that nobody had previously been able to consider carrying out. Stay tuned!


**►Ent Whose Yist? **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Ohmygod. Best Cape is also a Dune fan??


**►James Bamboozle **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


So she's already the most terrifying cape in the bay and she's planning to become more terrifying?


Ok. I am ok with this.


**►Lord Sheogorath **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Much as I disapprove of your name on principle, I very much approve of your actions.


A very merry Wabbajack to all!


**►Cannon Fodder**


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Tentacles? Check! Many voices? Check! Mystic symbols? Check! Completely terrifying? Check! Capable of things beyond mortal understanding? Check!


Have we ever seen Sanity and Great Old One Cthulu in the same room, people?


**End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 202, 203, 204**


**(Showing page 4 of 204)**


**►Red Tide **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Cannon Fodder, I do believe you may have figured something out.


**►Amnesiac **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


@Bamboozle, I'm pretty sure the lady who makes the tentacle horrors (and hasn't told us how) is more terrifying than the lady who merely is one.


**►Unbiased Hysteria **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


At this point, I'm just glad I don't live in Brockton Bay. I might be singing a different tune if I had something incurable, but for now I'd like to stay away from the city which is regularly producing nightmare fuel.


**►formthehead **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Hey, at least Panacea's tentacle horrors are pointed at monsters like Butcher or used for healing. I'm not too scared of her just because of that.


Lung, on the other hand...have you all heard the rumors that he soloed Leviathan the day Kyushu sank?


**►Hera-Tick **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


So Brockton Bay is an entire city of nope, then.


Good to know.


**►Plate-E-Puss **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Why has nobody mentioned Kaiser, yet? He's pretty terrifying if you aren't white.


Or, ooh! I know! Purity! She's like Legend, but racist and homophobic instead of neither of those things!


**►RisingRefrain ** (Verified Chaos Priestess)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Anyone ever seen Hellhound's dogs?


I did, once. I don't plan to make that mistake again.


**►mack0813 **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Hell, I live here and I could've told you this city is pure, 100% unadulterated nope.


**►Roboticrepublic **


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Let's not forget the totally mundane nope, like the Docks, or the Boat Graveyard.


You don't need messed up parahumans to make nope, guys. Us normal humans can make nope too!


**►Sanity ** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Folks, I got this.


**End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ... 202, 203, 204**


■


**♦ Topic: Private Messages


In: Boards ► Private Messages


Sanity ** (Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)


Posted On Jan 29th 2011:


Robert has something to say to you, ShimmeringSamite.


**(Showing page 1 of 1)**


**►ShimmeringSamite ** (Verified Oblivious)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Oh my god. He's...he's in there?


**►Sanity ** (Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


He can see through my eyes. I'll tell you what he says.


He says, 'You start, Josephine.'


**►ShimmeringSamite ** (Verified Oblivious)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


It's...is it really him? He isn't...her?


**►Sanity ** (Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


He thinks he's more or less the person you once loved.


You have to understand, the moment he killed Butcher 2, he got the psychopathic voice of Butcher 1 in his mind constantly telling him to kill. Nobody can withstand that kind of pressure for long. The fact that he even made it a few months before snapping is a wonderful testament to his personal strength and your love for him. Even after all these years, he hasn't lost it. It was his only hope, and his only solace through the constant storm of voices.


He's in a better place now. My power keeps the voices from driving me or each other mad.


He never stopped loving you.


**►ShimmeringSamite ** (Verified Oblivious)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


Oh.


Ok.


Robert...those first few years, after you turned. They were really hard on me. Everyone knew who you'd been, and what you became. I don't blame you for killing Butcher. But...well, I remarried. Found happiness again. Had kids. Moved on. I...I hope you understand.


**►Sanity ** (Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


'I do understand, Josephine. What I did to you is unforgivable. I didn't ask Sanity to do this for me to beg forgiveness, but to maybe give you some kind of closure. If it helps, just continue thinking that I'm dead. That you're talking to a ghost through the screen. You have your life. A life I'm happy to let you live. A life I stepped out of when I made a dumb decision that got the person I was warped into a monster.


I'm still ashamed of what I did, as part of the Teeth. Reflexively ashamed of what the Butchers I inhabited after my own body was killed did. I always will be. But I have distance from that now. I know that I shouldn't be judged by my actions while I was insane, and should be judged by what I do while sane.


And, Josephine, I think Sanity and I are going to do far, far more good for the world than I ever did while I was alive. Far more good than Butcher ever did bad. I think, with enough luck and hard work, I can balance my own scales.


Goodbye Josephine. I wish you good luck, and a better tomorrow.


I know that, with Sanity, I'm going to have one.'


**►ShimmeringSamite ** (Verified Oblivious)


Replied On Jan 29th 2011:


I'm glad to hear you're doing ok, Robert.


Good luck.


**End of Page. 1**


■


Incandescence 5.1


The day after the press release was a slow one at my clinic.


I wasn't too surprised by that, honestly. Knowing that your therapist could also inflict excruciating pain and festering wounds on touch had to be unsettling to say the least. I still had a decent number of people coming through, but nowhere near as many as before.


Oh well. Public fear over this would die down in the coming weeks or months and things would pick back up. Maybe after the next Endbringer attack, people would really begin to trust that I was actually a hero.


Because yes, I was absolutely participating in the next Endbringer defense. I'd argued with Armsmaster, Piggot, and even Costa-Brown over the phone about getting myself added to the S-Class registry of people who would be transported by any means necessary to anywhere an attack was happening, but they'd refused because that option was only available to Protectorate members. I would still volunteer, and Dragon had contacted me to say that she'd work something up so I could get to any attacks on the Eastern seaboard.


It was kind of frustrating, but I understood. Especially now that I had _these jokers


Hey! Some of us are perfectly serious and rational!_


hanging out in my head, it was reasonable to wait a little longer before I got too involved with the heavy stuff. I knew I wasn't going to snap at an unfortunate moment, but the brass didn't necessarily know that. And besides, I was still technically a minor, even if I did have the _sage wisdom _of fourteen adults in my head.


_Fourteen adults who all decided to jump on the Butchermobile. Yeah, real wise of us._ Six cracked.


_Hey, I didn't know what I was getting into!_ That was Two. _Cut me some slack!_


One cracked back sarcastically, _Besides my vital organs? You were quite enthusiastic about getting into those._


I left them to their lighthearted bickering. They were kind of like a bizarre, 14 - headed married couple now.


Armsmaster had impressed the importance of sleep on me, and my clinic now had closing hours. It had to happen eventually anyway, and even with awesome cosmic powers I still needed to sleep. Today, I was actually anxiously awaiting off time.


I was gonna test powers with Sabah tonight!


Also, this was sort of her and Amy's second date.


Three interjected, _I remember my second date with Josephine..._


Thirteen voices yelled back, _WE ALL KNOW!_


I looked at them quizzically inside my head (this was still the weirdest) as I walked down to the Wards lounge to change out of my costume.


Three sighed. _One of the things I did to keep myself...separate...from the others while we were Butcher was recite the story of my first date with my wife. Over and over. Sometimes for days unceasing. You see...


NO!


I took her...


PLEASE HAVE MERCY!


to this place...


GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!_


What followed was one of the funniest stories I'd ever heard, punctuated with the agonized screams of my other guests. The effect only served to make the whole thing funnier, if I had to be honest. At the end, Three promised the others that he would never tell the story again.


No wonder Butcher had been insane.


\----


Glory Girl dropped me off in the back yard to find Panacea and Sabah already sitting on some lawn chairs and apparently having a deep conversation.


_Awww...they're so cute together,_ Three interjected.


I snapped back with, _Hey! It's only their second date. Chill._


They both looked up as I arrived, interrupting their conversation. I hoped I hadn't just interrupted some important bonding as I asked, 'Alright girls, are you ready for some experimentation?


Fourteen voices burst into laughter in my head, and I blushed as I realized how bad that sounded.


\----


We learned one thing really quickly: Sabah was amazing at controlling Amy's creations. Amy could make tentacles filled with a spider silk lattice, and Sabah could pick them up and manipulate as many of them as she wanted without breaking a sweat. If I had to guess, actually...:


- Panacea, I want to try something here.' I butted in. A huge mass of writhing tentacles levitating in the air, tying itself in knots, suddenly stopped as the both of them looked at me in curiosity.


I grinned:


- Try making something really big. Don't try controlling it, though, just let it sit there.' She raised one eyebrow, but reached for my arm and the ground.


I jerked back:


- This is what I want to try. Don't use me. I'll be watching, don't worry. If you start to lose it completely, I'll grab you. But I have a hunch you won't.


She froze in fear and confusion:


- Taylor...are you sure that's a good idea? I could-


I cut her off:


- I've seen you get power psychosis once before, when you made the power suit. You didn't do anything awful then, and I believe you won't do anything awful now. Just try it. I'll be right next to you.


She worriedly sat on the ground, both arms channeling undifferentiated biomass up into a massive sphere about ten feet across.


The whole time, nothing about her changed.


_YES!_ I celebrated internally.


_Does this mean Amy and Sabah have to be a couple now? _Three interjected jokingly.


_Holy fuck, they're gonna be terrifying. _Quarrel continued. Everyone else just stared in shock.


I beamed widely:


- Alright, Amy, you can stop.


The biomass began draining back into the dirt as she looked at me in curiosity. I asked her, 'So. How are you feeling now?


She seemed to think about that:


- Fine. I think. Wait, that thing was bigger than the powersuit, why do I feel fine now when I lost it then?


I nodded:


- Because your power, Amy, isn't _meant_ to control things. Sure, you can do it, but it drains your SAN bar, as it were, really fast. Your power is meant to make things, and it's really good at that.


I turned to Sabah:


- Sabah, your power is meant to control things, and to merge things it is controlling. You and Amy are _completely ridiculous _together!' I turned back to Amy:


- Try making tendrils that don't have muscles, just bags of silk. If I had to guess, Sabah can control them easily, it it will be impossible for you to go crazy making them because you can't control them!


They turned to do just that.


\----


A few hours later, the sun had begun to fade and it got too dark for us to keep figuring out things to do with Panacea and Sabah's silkmonsters. I was kinda jealous, actually. I could teleport and was nigh - indestructible to all conventional attack, but those two could act on a city-wide scale should the need arise.


The house was close to the dorms where Sabah was staying, but she elected to spend the night. Downstairs. She and Amy weren't at _that _point, yet.


They really did seem to like each other, though, even beyond the synergy between their powers. As I said goodnight to everyone and turned to head to bed, I cracked a small smile.


I opened the door to my room (a repurposed office) to find Eidolon standing in it, green glow emanating sullenly from under his hood.


He spoke grimly:


- We have an opportunity. Ash Beast is currently hundreds of miles away from civilization, in the Sahara. Our sources say now is the best time to divert him from his course and bring him into Cauldron's custody. Will you join me?


I nodded grimly, and a chill wind gust tore through the room as a portal opened on a sandy nightscape.


Incandescence 5.2


We stepped out onto the freezing dunes. My eyes adjusted almost immediately for the change in light levels (thanks, Seven!) as I cast about for any sign of Ash Beast.


I couldn't see anything from where I was, though a tall dune blocked the horizon behind us:


- Alright, what's the plan? And where is he?' I asked Eidolon.


He looked completely unaffected by the cold and dark, though I couldn't see beneath his hood. The green glow was all the more prominent in the near-total darkness, lit only by a tiny crescent moon:


- Just over the horizon. He generally walks everywhere, which is why he's an A-Class threat rather than S-Class. Cities and towns can evacuate before he destroys them.


I nodded:


- Alright, what's the plan, then? I'm tough, but I don't know if I will survive a living explosion, and I'd prefer not to find out.


Eidolon nodded sadly:


- The plan is for you to find out why I could have prevented the deaths of every man, woman, and child to have been incinerated by this monster.' We both lifted smoothly off the ground and began flying rapidly north.


And then I saw him.


_PTSD. Depression. Social Isolation. Hallucinatory Episodes. Anthrophobia. Pyrophobia. All Exacerbated by Powers.


Alright folks, council time. Who's the leader today? _I asked the Butchers.


Eleven responded:


- Reporting for duty.


They'd decided to use the council idea, but only while we were in a fight. At all other times, being a little distracted by quiet conversations wouldn't be a terrible thing. During fights, however, they'd decided that only one of them should speak. Since they were all equally sane, they took it in turns, for fairness.


They'd discovered a way to speak amongst themselves in a way I couldn't hear. Basically whispering, but for disembodied personalities rather than flesh-and- blood people. The other thirteen would whisper to the leader, and they would tell me everything they came up with. That way, I was only focusing on one voice and my surroundings. Much better than having fourteen people all yelling advice at once like some sort of demented peanut gallery.


_Pyrophobia?_ I thought at Eleven. _He must be completely miserable!_


We were high enough to see the true enormity of his power, now. If I had to guess, his radius was about a half mile, with a surprisingly human-looking circulatory system in the middle.


Actually, if I had to guess, it was the circulatory system of a small child. There were some features it had that I only saw in children. I spoke to Eidolon:


- I think he's a child!


The hooded hero nodded gravely:


- Our Thinkers determined that days after he first triggered. Based upon the center of his initial attack, we suspect he was caught up in human trafficking.


I looked back sadly at the rapidly-approaching cataclysm. The torrent of flame and force emitting from him blasted the Sahara's fine sand away, the heat melting the walls into shining glass. Where he stepped, a glittering, bare canyon was left in his wake.


The formation stretched, perfectly straight, into the distance. He must have been treading this path for weeks. He walked slowly, mechanically forward, an enormous, rolling dune being pushed in front of him, just outside of the radius where all surfaces were instantly glassed. Behind him, liquid glass flowed back into areas vacated by the pulverizing wind, an uneven floor of swirling obsidian flattening the otherwise mostly round corridor of annihilation. He must have been walking on bedrock too tough for his power to melt.


We stopped moving, levitating a few miles away from Ash Beast and several miles up. Beside me, Eidolon raised his hands:


- Now, I will do what I should have done decades ago,' he droned in a voice of desolation:


- May the fallen forgive me.


The conflagration halted. Sand blasted away from Ash Beast settled out of the air, some becoming trapped in liquid glass and rolling back into the unnatural canyon. The air cleared as we descended into the crater, still glowing with rapidly dissipating heat. Something about the power Eidolon was using to make us fly also blocked the superheated air from charring us, and the horizon convulsed as we passed through the shimmer.


Eventually, we got close enough to see a golden dome at the center of the destruction. The veined outline of the Ash Beast stood transfixed within, unmoving, whether due to surprise or an effect of the dome I was unsure. Eidolon lowered us right next to him, not touching the still clearly ludicrously hot ground. I unfolded my tentacles and reached for the dome. They passed through the surface with no resistance, and I felt them grasping an arm.


The tortures he'd faced vanished from my power's sight. I grinned caringly:


- I've got him. I have a feeling, however, that his power is not voluntary. One of his problems, ironically enough, was pyrophobia. The moment you drop that field, I predict he will explode again.


Eidolon nodded sadly:


- We presumed as much.


I looked over at him in confusion:


- How do you plan to contain him, then? You can't keep him in any cell which wouldn't survive a nuclear blast.


He looked down:


- We drop him on a barren world. One with nobody to hurt. When the time comes to fight Scion, we summon him back.


I looked at the hooded hero in shock:


- If you could do that, why didn't you do so earlier? It would be a terrible thing, sure, to simply abandon him in an empty world, but it would have been better than letting him destroy so many cities!


Eidolon seemed to shrink in on himself. I never thought I'd see a man as powerful as he be so broken and hurt. I almost twisted a tendril around him reflexively, even though I could not see his problems.


But I didn't. I knew he was probably right in his assertion that he needed to remain broken, in order to do the terrible things that must be done to save the world. Not every problem can be solved by being sane.


His voice was wracked with sadness as he asked, 'Do you know how many people have triggered as a result of evacuations from his wrath?


And suddenly, the grim calculus he was stuck with made sense:


- No?' I responded with dawning horror.


_Six says 'told you so,' _Eleven interjected.:


- Three hundred twenty nine confirmed. Of those, around half have managed to remain alive one way or another, through combinations of skill, luck, strength, and Cauldron's intervention. That's around a hundred fifty potential warriors against the apocalypse.' I could hear his voice crack as he continued, 'Tens of thousands died the day he triggered, the entire north of Africa lies in chaos and ruin, quaking in fear that he will begin slowly plodding in their direction. But our Thinkers say millions more might survive the end as a result.' He looked down in shame:


- That is the cost. The price we pay, for the barest chance at survival. That is the line I must walk, Sanity.' His grim resolve rose as he ended:


- I have made many sacrifices, for the sake of mankind. What is one more?


I looked at him in confusion:


- What changed that logic? If, as you say, it was truly important for him remain in our world for all these years so we could create more usable capes, why did we remove him now?


He paused pensively for a moment:


- Your existence, perhaps? To be completely honest, I do not know what changed, only that the math our precogs were giving us recommended this course of action. It makes the end better somehow.


That seemed like an odd answer, but I accepted it. I only had one more thing to ask:


- I'd like to talk to him, if possible.


Eidolon shook his head sadly:


- The field prevents him from moving, and telepathy is impossible. I can't weaken the field without turning it off. The only thing we can do is exile him, and hope that the help you gave is sufficient.


I frowned sadly, but I understood. There was no better way to contain one such as he. I had shown him what mercy I could.


Eidolon spoke clearly:


- Doorway from beneath Ash Beast's feet to Test World Zeta-Gamma.


The golden doorway appeared, and the field slowly moved through it. The door closed, and Ash Beast was forever cut off from our world.


Until the dark day when we needed him once more.


\----


The Golden Man paused in surprise, his listless flight across the Pacific a distraction from more important things.


Fusion Core had just vanished from his sight. This warranted observation.


Incandescence 5.3


He did not know his name, only that the mother who gave it to him had never left their burning home. He did not know what fire was, only that it hurt. He did not know where he was, only that it was filled with people who looked at him like a disease, rather than a person. He did not know how long his deprivation had been, only that it seemed without end.


All he knew was that he was _hungry_.


He aimlessly walked the streets of the city, not knowing where he was going or from where he came. He did not know what the words of azan meant, or why on their sounding all work in the city stopped as men and women crouched on the ground, all facing the same direction and mumbling words unknown to him. He only knew that the music called him to buildings where he would be welcome for a time, where some kind old man might smile upon him and hand him a morsel of bread, or a bowl of soup. The other urchins, all older and stronger than him, would shove him out of the way, but harsh words of correction would usually follow their assaults, and he would be fed alongside them.


Usually.


Now, it had been days since he'd eaten. His wandering had brought him far from any of the mosques in the city, and he had not heard the song of the minarets in a while. He did not know how long, for he did not know how to count. Days passed unceasing, unremarked, and unnoticed, only important for the degree to which they magnified his hunger. Around him, grimy buildings rose, imposing and bleak, into a dirty sky.


The older urchins whispered stories about this place, about how children wandered in and never came out. How nobody here could be trusted, even with as little trust as the hardened children of the streets could muster. How this place meant death, and fates worse than death.


He had heard such tales, sitting on the outskirts of orphan camps in the dark, where he could go without notice or violence, but he had not understood them. How could he? He knew only a few words of Arabic, and nobody had bothered to pay him enough attention to teach him more.


He stumbled blearily into an alley and sat down, too weak to stand. Perhaps he would close his eyes for just a moment...


But then, a man appeared at the end of the alley. Not kind faced. Scarred, with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. The child didn't see that, though.


He only had eyes for the pastry the man was holding out to him.


His hunger defeated any semblance of distrust he might have summoned up. He did not know what would be worse than starving to death.


\----


The man picked him up and walked down the dirty street, handing him more pastries out of a bag as they walked along. The child greedily consumed them, content just to not starve for one more day. Eventually, they reached a nondescript warehouse, tall and imposing, and no less dirty than the streets. The man knocked on the door three times.


A slot opened in the door, and eyes looked balefully out. The slot snapped closed, and the sounds of metal on metal screeched out as the door opened. The child did not know what locks were, or why they might be needed at this building. He was carried inside, and the door screeched closed behind them, blocking all light but that which emitted from a bare bulb in the ceiling.


The two men had a brief conversation, words the child did not know washing over his head. Notes exchanged hands, and the man who had given him pastries left, the door screeching open and close once more. The second man put a hand on the child's shoulder and led him back into the dark recesses of the warehouse. The man smiled predatorily upon the child as he opened another door and ushered the child into a small office.


As the child turned his back, the man grabbed both of the child's arms and tied them roughly with a rope he'd pulled out of the folds of his robe. The child struggled, screamed, but a gag was inserted and his legs bound up, cruelly and without care. The child was thrown bodily into the office, dazed as he slammed into the ground.


The office held only one source of light. The child did not know what a branding iron was. All he knew was that it looked like the unknown source of pain which had consumed his home. His fear trebeled.


Suddenly, he was not lying on the filthy floor of a warehouse. He saw two massive _things_, bigger than anything he had ever seen or contemplated. They coiled around each other in an intricate dance, and as they did, they died. Flecks of their skin flew off them, to impact worlds unknown. His awareness followed one of them. It shone brightly, like the sun, though the child did not know what the sun was. That incandescent mass hurtled toward him uncaring for his screams. The child closed his eyes in pain and horror.


\----


When he opened them again, he found himself in a deep crater, the edges very far away. The child was not warm or cold. He did not hunger any more.


He did not know that he stood in the void where a hundred blocks of Matruh had just been incinerated. He did not know that ten thousand souls had just been extinguished, those of the city too poor to live further from the ganglands now forever lost. He did not know that both of the men who assaulted him were now less than ash, floating on the wind, or that the only mercy in their deaths was how rapidly they occurred. He did not know that none of them had experienced pain, the heat his body now emitted great enough to vaporize them in an instant, the light bright enough to sear a shadowed image into the stones, before the stones themselves were eroded to dust and liquid, sloughing off into sky and ground.


He did not know that he had become, for the people of his continent, an avatar of doom.


He looked up, and he ball of eye-hurting had vanished. Everything had taken a single brightness. For him, there would be no day and no night. There would be no sleep. He would not age. He would simply be, inviolate in a kiln of flames and force he would never have knowledge of. Unknowing of the curses which would soon be heaped upon the name those who survived this day would grant him.


He saw a man floating far above him, green where his face should have been. The child could not reach the man, so he simply took one tentative step forward.


As he did, the walls of his crater were melted, blasted, and distorted, though the child did not know what those words were. He had no way of describing what he saw. He would never have anyone to describe them to. As he walked, those on the surface fled in horror, trying to avoid the certain annihilation promised by the flames the child would never see nor understand. The child could not see those horrified crowds, so high above as they were. Some of them escaped. Some faced the same fate as his attackers.


The child found that his accustomed form was not the only one he had available to him, though assuming any others tired him. he decided to simply be a child as he unknowingly laid waste to Matruh. For all others, the sky grew dark over the coastal city, the dust and ash of stone and bone obscuring the sun the child would never see again. He noticed none of this.


He walked slowly out of the city. He did not know that he had killed thousands that day. He did not know what killing was. He did not know where he had been transported to, this realm where the ground retreated before his step, where mortal men could never tread.


He did not know.


He never would know.


All he knew was that he was safe.


He walked a long time.


Incandescence 5.4


I woke up the next morning oddly refreshed for having only gotten a few hours of sleep. I guess Eidolon had a power for that, too.


Wow, that man was broken. In more ways than one, really. I felt bad for the guy, but I couldn't fault his logic. He needed to be as he was to save the world.


I could fix him if and when that happened.


I showered and got dressed, then walked downstairs to find Sabah and Amy eating cereal at the table. Sabah ushered me over to sit next to her, and I happily complied.:


- So.' She said uncertainly. She continued between bites of her cereal:


- You're the Butcher.


_What a conversationalist._ Six lamented drily.


I cocked one eyebrow:


- Yeeeesss? And?


_That wasn't much better!_


Sabah smirked into her cereal:


- Well. I figure if Amy is going to be my girlfriend, I should probably get to know her family a little better.


Amy choked on her milk. We both stared at her as she turned beet red. Eventually she recovered enough to squeak out, 'Don't mind me!


Sabah grinned wider:


- Amy, is there a problem?' She clearly didn't think there was.


Amy's blush reached depths I hadn't considered possible. Her only response was to reach over to hug Sabah. The telekine accepted.


A chorus of _D'aawww_s filled my mind. Including one of my own.


Once they broke apart, I casually restarted the conversation we had been having:


- Yes, Sabah. I am the Butcher, now. I have fourteen completely sane personalities in my head and a huge pile of really dumb powers. The PRT considers me a Trump 10 on top of all my other classifications, and I am by definition the sanest person in any room I walk into. Until I touch someone. It's been a pleasure working with you, Sabah, and I hope to see you around here often!


She grinned, and we launched into conversation about honestly unimportant things. As we did, Amy slowly recovered from her haze of joy.


Eventually, my spoon scraped on the bottom of my empty bowl. I went to stand up, to leave for my clinic for the day.


Amy managed to speak up at that point:


- Taylor, don't forget the...thing. Tonight.' She looked much more downcast as she mentioned that, and I remembered what she was talking about.


Carol's first hearing was tonight.


I had to figure out what to say. From a legal perspective, my role there would be that of the arresting officer, but clearly that role was going to be complicated by my current...circumstances. In all likelihood, should any case against her go forward, my testimony would be thrown out on the defense's request because of my obvious conflict of interest, what with being the adopted daughter of the ex-husband of the accused.


Not that I could blame them, really. Any testimony I could possibly give would absolutely be colored by my experiences since then with the rest of Carol's family, and to say that she was now an unpopular figure at home would be an understatement. Mark basically pretended she never existed, I'd catch Vicky about to tell stories about her before grimacing violently and stopping, changing the topic, and Amy would refuse to let her change the topic and soldier on.


This...obviously wouldn't be healthy for them in the long run, but there was nothing I could do about it, really. My power wouldn't fix any problems because none had really arisen yet, they were just dealing with it their own ways.


Of course, bringing them up, I did have another issue likely to rear its head at the hearing. That of PR. Not my own, of course, but that of New Wave. Mark hadn't talked about it, but I'd seen enough on what brief forays into PHO and other news sites during downtimes I'd been able to make to be able to guess that the rest of the world hadn't taken the news of Brandish's arrest too well. Nobody knew exactly what had happened, as there were no formal charges yet, but that honestly made things worse. Everyone was guessing apparently at random, ranging from something minor that the PRT was trying to force New Wave into the Protectorate over all the way on up to her involvement in some shadowy pedophile ring.


I avoided those threads as much as possible.


What this would mean for New Wave going forward was anyone's guess. The team made its living off private donations to their cause, and I would guess that those donations hadn't fared well with their de-facto leader's absence. Mark remained cheerful, and Lady Photon had kept waving the flag, but she wasn't as heartfelt about the whole cause as her sister had been.


Honestly, now that Carol wouldn't be returning, I personally didn't see a need for New Wave to exist. The entire 'movement' had been predicated on her extreme paranoia and distrust of the authorities, and none of her family members shared that with her. The rest of the Dallons had, obviously, been saved from despair and worse by an intervention from the authorities, and the Pelhams were all stable enough that they would honestly do fine if they joined the Protectorate or the Wards. I hadn't discussed any of this with them, of course, but I didn't know if New Wave becoming obsolete would actually be a bad thing. It was too late now to have that conversation, though. I would just have to figure out how to navigate the hearing without making anything worse.


All of this was made _really_ complicated by the fact that I harbored no ill feelings for her. Of course, it was really hard for me to harbor ill feelings for anyone, these days, but you'd think someone who'd tried to smash me with a club made of forcefields would do it. Nope. I couldn't remain angry at someone who had been so obviously broken, and considering what had happened to her life the moment I appeared in it I sort of understood her reaction. She'd gone from a happy life with a safe family that she felt in total control of to all of those family members losing the problems which had tied them to her in an instant. I knew her belief that I had somehow killed her family and replaced them with happy clones was not backed up by any evidence, but for someone with as much basic distrust as her? I could see where she might draw that conclusion. Her irrational anger at me wasn't justified, but it made sense.


Oh well, no sense dwelling on it. I'd have plenty of time to figure this one out on what was likely to be another slow day at my clinic.


I said my goodbyes as I turned towards the door to make my way to the PRT for the day.


Then, I heard a stumble from behind me. I frowned and turned back at my sister.


She was standing transfixed in horror in the middle of the kitchen, barely breathing.


I rushed over to her:


- Amy, what's wrong?' She took a deep breath, slowly looked at me, and asked:


- Do you hear that?


_What?_ Asked fourteen voices:


- What?:


- Screaming.


_Fuck. / I concur. Fuck. / Fuck number three for me!_


I interrupted the cascade of invective, and my own rising horror, with a snap realization.


_Guys, if this is what I think it is, I have a plan._ I rushed out the door and began wildly scanning about the skies.


It wasn't too hard to find what I was searching for.


Shining alabaster in the sky, a little north of downtown. Face downturned, a look of sorrow etched permanently upon it. Soft curves transforming into multiferous wings, a slowly rising corona of metallic pieces being drawn inexorably into numerous halos around her form. The sun reflecting _just so_, to dazzle anyone who looked in her direction. Moving with fluid grace that could only come from knowing exactly what was about to happen.


The Simurgh had come for Brockton Bay.


_I can't hear the scream._


I turned, sprinting back inside just as I saw somebody fly up to meet the Endbringer in her chosen element. Purity, perhaps, though she was too far away to see properly. I grabbed Amy and Sabah, holding them close to me:


- Do you hear it any more!?' I asked frantically:


- Can you still hear the scream!?


I looked into my sister's eyes. Her panic suddenly transformed into confusion, then wonder:


- No.


I smiled radiantly. A contradiction, given the circumstances, but I thought it was justified.


I could make this right.:


- Amy. I can't hear the scream! She can't take me! And while the two of you are touching me, she can't get you either!' I held them both at arms' length and looked seriously into their eyes:


- We don't have much time!' I began to drag them both outside.


Sabah asked in confused horror:


- Time for what? Taylor, an Endbringer is attacking Brockton Bay! We should just leave!


As we stood on the grass of the lawn. I turned back to them seriously:


- Amy. I can't hear the scream. Nobody touching me can hear the scream. If you can make me touch _everyone in Brockton Bay, _nobody will hear the scream.' I took a deep breath:


- Nobody has to become her puppet today. This is a fight we can_ win!_


Amy's eyes opened in horror as she realized what I was suggesting:


- Taylor, that's insane!


That elicited a full belly laugh. The tentacles came out, the psi outlining The Simurgh's angelic form:


- No. It isn't.


The air raid sirens went off with perfect timing.


Immolation 6.1


Kid Win


My alarm went off and I rolled blearily out of bed. I tried to get enough sleep, I really did, but being a Tinker...sometimes you just had to wake up in the middle of the night and write something down.


I wouldn't give it up for the world, of course, but sometimes it sucked that most nights consisted of less sleep than thought. Oh well.


I shambled to the shower and began to wake up under the warm water. About halfway through, the faucet started squeaking again.


_Damn. I thought I'd fixed that._


Something in the damn thing kept vibrating against the sides of the pipes, producing the most annoying high-pitched screech imaginable. Mom and dad had absolutely forbidden me from taking any part of the house apart ever since the day I triggered. I'd tried to explain to them that holographic displays on all the appliances were strictly superior, but, well.


Parents.


Anyway, I'd fixed the squealing faucet the first time with a sound-dampening collar around it. Apparently it'd broken. I'd fix it tonight.


I finished my shower, turned off the water, and the screeching didn't stop.


_What?_


Then, the air raid sirens went off.


_Oh fuckfuckfuck!_


I sprinted back to my room as I mentally tried to guess how many of my twenty minutes I'd wasted. I slammed open the door, noting that my Wards phone was blaring with just about every sound it could make on my desk, and scrambled for a creation I'd _blessedly_ finished a few days ago, in my school backpack.


I located it, yanked it out, and sprinted downstairs.


As I ran through the kitchen, my panicked mother tried to stop me:


- Chris! It's the Simurgh, you have to get out of here!' She seemed to be crying.


I didn't pay her much thought:


- MomI'mgonnabeokgottarun!' I bulldozed past her, and pressed the button on the small box in my hands as I left the door.


My panic button.


Armor materialized bit by bit around me, weapons appearing on links of a chain belt that manifested just before they did. My Alternator Cannon dropped out of subspace, pieces interlocking into the most powerful configuration I had available. My comms came online as my helmet assembled itself, and I took to the skies on my hoverboard just as Armsmaster began:


- Kid Win! She's north of downtown. Purity got to her first and is hammering away, but she alone won't be able to do much damage. Go support her! The rest of us are on our way.:


- Affirmative sir, on my way.' I angled north. It was really annoying, actually, that she'd chosen to appear just about as far as possible from my house.


Seconds later, I dodged around one of downtown's buildings and saw her. Somehow, she managed to reflect the sun off a building in just the right way, and I was momentarily blinded before my helmet managed to compensate. The scream in my head grew just a little bit louder, more discordant, as that happened.


_Fuck, she's good._


Of course, I already knew that, but of the three, she'd been the Endbringer I had least wanted to fight. I'd have to be very careful how I used my tech today.


She was engaged with Purity, the nazi frantically dodging everything the endbringer tossed at her and firing potshots when she could. From where I stood, it honestly looked like the monstrosity was toying with her. I'd seen the footage of what she was capable of, and she wasn't going very hard on Purity.


_She may be a nazi, but for now she's our nazi. Time to help her out._


The moment my cannon locked on, it began to fire. Blazing bolts of energy, rivaling Purity's in brightness, cascaded out. The angel deftly blocked one of them with the tip of a wing, which was instantly vaporized, and dodged the rest. A hail of tiny, razor-sharp shards of metal detached from one of the many halos swarming her and looped toward me at fantastic speeds, on completely unpredictable paths.


Fortunately, I'd planned for an attack like that. A few blinks into my HUD, and tiny lasers pelted out of my suit, breaking the fragments down until they couldn't do any damage to my armor.


_Well, she isn't trying to kill me, at least._


Considering the source, though, that wasn't too encouraging. Whatever plans she had for me couldn't be good.


Larger pieces began hurtling toward me, and the scream became more discordant. I ducked away, allowing the heroes who had just appeared behind me to begin their assault.


New Wave had arrived. Glory Girl was carrying Shielder, and one of his domes covered the entire group. They seemed to be...trailing a cable of some sort behind them?


_What?_


The cable _moved, _elongating and splitting. One of the tendrils wrapped around my leg. I tried to shake it off in alarm, but it clamped down, and it somehow burrowed through the armor on my leg!


The screaming stopped.


_The fuck?_


More cables started appearing behind New Wave, each one snaking towards groups of panicking civilians on the ground, splitting, and attaching to legs or arms.


Lady Photon explained:


- Sanity, Panacea, and a cape called Parian! The umbilicals connect you to Sanity, blocking the scream, and allowing Panacea to heal you from afar! Make sure people know not to destroy them! They're under continuous control, so you can move freely.


_Holy fuck!_


I blinked out some orders to my suit, and computer pieces materialized out of thin air, rapidly assembling themselves according to a premade blueprint. I slapped the resulting cobbled mess onto my armor, and said:


- The silk umbilicals will block the scream and heal your injuries. Please do not remove them.


All of the glass in the area immediately began playing that sound file. I'd gotten the idea from Shatterbird, and though I wasn't proud of the source, I was very proud of the effect. It used a property of-


This was no time for Tinker talk. _Thousands_ of umbilicals began snaking around the buildings surrounding me. As they did, I noticed that the trees on the sides of the street were being pulled into the ground by tentacles that could only be coming from Panacea. This was a _lot_ of biomass!


With New Wave's support, I engaged The Simurgh once more. My lasers coincided with Purity's and New Wave's, each looping around each other. She lept higher into the air, the metallic storm around her rapidly assembling into a swarm of laser weapons, forcing Purity to hide behind Shielder's dome. An umbilical came for the nazi, and she halfheartedly dodged before accepting it. I couldn't see her face beneath the light she put out, but if I had to guess she was just relieved to not have the scream in her mind.


_Actually, now that I think about it, why hasn't she targeted the umbilicals? Or Panacea, wherever she is?_


I took a closer look. PRT officers had lined up on the streets several blocks down and appeared to be setting up some kind of Tinkertech weapon. Suddenly, the concrete beneath them buckled and they were cast into the storm drains, which collapsed upon them with finality. Just before an umbilical reached them.


Fibrous cords, noticeably thicker and more...meaty...began looping toward the telekinetic monstrosity. I wasn't sure what they hoped to accomplish, but Ziz reacted violently. Shards of metal smashed into them, some being sliced in twain, others flexible enough to survive the assault. Fallen cords were consumed by a writhing mass of biomass which had suddenly flowed out from underground. More tendrils emitted from the carpet and joined the attack, even as their kin fell to hammerblows.


I continued my assault. My HUD warned that the cannon barrel was overheating. Fortunately, I'd made two.


During my swap, the angelic figure uncurled her wings, no longer needed to block my shots from pelting her body, and a _device_ slammed together over her head. Just before my cannon came back online, it detonated, and I tasted blood in my mouth before being knocked unconscious.


Simurgh Mechanics


Underlined/struck-through parts of this are changes from previous, stemming from the re-write of this arc.


Alright: Simurgh mechanics.


Here are some facts we know about precog in general:


* Path to Victory is the best precog shard, both in terms of efficiency and general use.


* All other precog shards are either massively inefficient or severely limited.


* Limitations usually come in the form of having specific uses. Coil's shard is optimized for answering yes/no questions making binary decisions, various combat precogs are optimized for minimizing damage to the subject/maximizing damage to the enemy, Dinah's shard is optimized for giving probabilities.


* Precog is really rare and hard to do. The vast majority of shards aren't precogs. The limited number of precogs feeds into the next bit.


My speculations about how Endbringers work. Note that I haven't actually read all of the various things written by Wildbow on the topic (though I have read all of Worm, and I remember things I read fairly well).


* Limited number and general difficulty of precog leads me to think that The Simurgh must be using precog assets that Entities already possess. No reason for Eidolon's weapon-making shard to reinvent the wheel if it can just borrow tools it already has access to.


* It isn't using Contessa's Path to Victory because that shard was new and hadn't been fully integrated into planning yet. Also, if it were, The Simurgh would be even more terrifying than she already is.


* Endbringers are composed of a lot of shards working together. Their cores are computers which allow the shards' powers to integrate into each other and work as a single unit, rather than using cumbersome shard to shard communications tools.


So, we know that The Simurgh must be using available precog. She can't just invent a precog suite better than Contessa's out of the blue. The only reason Contessa can't see her is because she comes from Eidolon, and Eidolon blocks all Thinkers as a matter of course. Therefore:


* I posit the existence of a precog shard or group of shards called Path to Insanity. It's a lot like Path to Victory, but limited to only answer the question 'How do I drive this sapient being insane?' Entities have a shard which does this because it is an excellent driver of conflict, and is thus a fantastic means of setting up conflicts both before and during the Cycle.


* Path to Insanity sees the universe entirely in terms of how to drive sapient beings insane. In the same way that Coil can't use his power as combat precog effectively (because he'd have to split timelines constantly each time he made a mistake and eventually the load would become too great for his mind to handle), neither can Path to Insanity plot a path that does anything but drive a sapient being insane.


* Almost no other precog shards can detect sapient beings the same way Path to Insanity does. This is because most precog shards are primarily used by the Entities for Entity-on-Entity combat, and they therefore don't need to read or even note the existence of arbitrary sapient beings' minds, only Entities. A few shards absolutely can do this, most notably Path to Victory and Coil's shard, but the vast majority of precog shards can only recognize sapient beings that aren't entities through their hosts. Humans happen to be well-equipped for recognizing sapient beings. Most shards are not.


* This is essentially a difference in the simplistic models that precog shards use to model the future. Some shards only model for danger, others model only in ways that help answer various specific questions. Path to Victory is even limited by its model, except that its model answers the question 'How do I win?' and is thus supremely broken.


* The simplistic models most precog shards use, therefore, don't see sapient beings as sapient. For people who have read Ender's Game, this is a case of the Formics thinking really hard at the humans to try to figure out if they're smart, the humans tossing radio waves at them, and neither side realizing that other modes of being exist. Precog shards model their stuff exactly one way, and one way only, and they don't recognize that other ways of being exist. Largely because they aren't natively intelligent in a way humans would recognize, because that would be a waste of precious processing power better devoted to more accurately simulating their model.


And therefore, for The Simurgh's interaction with Sanity:


* Path to Insanity throws giant errors trying to read Sanity because she doesn't have one. Everyone she's touching doesn't have one either. People being touched by Sanity don't register as sapient to The Simurgh. Path to Insanity is completely blocked from seeing Sanity's brain. It's a black hole. As a result, though the Simurgh can see all the things Sanity is capable of, she cannot see what it is she will do. She has to slog through countless trivial futures with absolutely absurd things (Sanity pokes herself in the eye. Sanity smashes into a wall repeatedly. Sanity spins on the spot for hours. Etc.) and can't be sure which future is actually going to happen until it happens. Sanity throws out tons of butterflies that The Simurgh can't take advantage of until they actually happen, and this effect is extended to everyone she's touching.


* It gets worse for her. Path to Insanity is also her primary means of determining how best to inflict harm upon sapient beings. She can read futures where someone is driven very briefly insane by terrible agony before dying and inflict those futures in order to kill them rapidly. Without Path to Insanity guiding her, all she can see is what her other shards can model for themselves, which is just meat moving in mostly unpredictable patterns.


* This means: She doesn't know where your seat of consciousness is while you are touching Sanity. It could be literally anywhere in the Shoggoth. Hell, it could have been totally extinguished. She can't be sure about what future will happen, and she can't actually tell if you are sapient while under Sanity's influence. This is because Path to Insanity is all about making people disagree on things, and Conflict Resolution is all about making them agree. CR doesn't like that, and she's creative enough to have outwitted a much bigger shard in this regard.


* The Simurgh has never once made a guess. She is a being whose consciousness is literally made root and branch of cause and effect. She is the cause, and ripples of futures echo forward into effects she is entirely in control of. Everything she does, literally everything, is done because she knows exactly what effect it will have. Doing things which leave her blind is anathema to her. She doesn't know how to. She dodges all of Eidolon's attacks, or tries to, because she has no idea what effects they will have on her. She sends Scion on wild goose chases after snow replicas of herself because less time spent trying to fight something she can't read is the best she can hope for. Worse, she can't try to kill these unknowables because doing so also has unknowable effects. For all she knows, it will make things worse for her, and she won't be able to go back and try something else once she already has. This was kind of dumb. The Simurgh does make guesses, but only when she is forced to.


* In fact, she doesn't know it, but that is absolutely what would happen if she killed Sanity. WoG on what happens if The Simurgh kills Butcher is that the shards migrate to another nearby Parahuman. Not even she can remove Sanity from the table, at this point, and killing her would make her stronger. That's the kind of unknown cascade effect she's desperately trying to avoid. The Simurgh knows that Sanity is The Butcher because she noticed Butcher vanishing from her sight while in the presence of that cape who gives her a headache. She made the educated guess that this mystery cape hopped on the Butcher train.


* So. Simurgh tries to shipwreck Paripan (Yes, that was her goal here). She flies down, tries to keep just within her known range and then leave the moment she's able to because she's attacking a month early and her body isn't fully repaired yet. Unfortunately, Sanity shields both of them immediately, which is something she literally can't foresee. Then, to make matters worse, Sanity starts shielding literally every other sapient being in an increasing range, courtesy of Paripan. At this point, she can't tell where the three of them actually are. For all she knows, Panacea has managed to fuse Sabah and Sanity permanently into the Shoggoth, so the only thing which is guaranteed to kill all of them would be to vaporize the entirety of Brockton Bay. However, that would constitute a _massive_ escalation from her usual tactics, so she can't do that. She also can't tell what the effects of cutting all of the umbilicals would be. There's a giant black hole of unknowability bearing down on her, and a shrinking set of options that end in survival. She has to keep dodging Eidolon's laserbeams, Legend is hitting really hard, Alexandria shoves her through a building, and she sees L33T standing there, just outside her usual range. She can tell, with various danger sense shards, that killing all of the biomass near her will at least stop the attacks upon her body and allow her to escape more-or-less peacefully, so she does that.


Edit: I think I just realized something really important. There's a book called [Blindsight](http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm) which you can read for free at that link (provided by the author, not stolen) which I think is what gave me the perspective that makes some of this make sense to me. I really recommend it just on its own merits, but it also provides some fascinating insights into what being sapient really means which are very relevant here.


Immolation 6.2


Purity


The rising sun was the most calming thing I could imagine. In a world as filled with pain as ours, I was sometimes surprised to find sources of beauty.


But they were there, if you cared to look for them.


Aster still slept peacefully, down in my apartment. I was on the roof, letting the first rays of dawn caress my face. I always felt so _alive_ up here, and made a point of watching the sunrise whenever I could. It reminded me that, no matter how dark my nights may have been, there was always something to look forward to. The light would always return.


It didn't hurt that it also recharged my power after long nights spent punishing the trash that lived in my city for existing. The fact that I had to do my patrols at night, to work around my schedule, had made things more difficult, but at least it meant I was usually still awake when dawn came.


Something to be thankful for.


I closed my eyes and let the dawn's beams shine, filling me with warmth and power. The will to go on despite our fallen world. I thought I could almost hear singing...


Wait.


I could _actually_ hear singing.


My eyes snapped open, only to behold the worst thing they had ever seen. The singing took on a mocking tone, rising into a sardonic screech as all of its beauty was drained away.


_No._


My city, broken as it was, should not have to bear this too!


She'd descended out of the sunrise glare just as I'd opened my eyes. A wingtip had batted a sunbeam my direction, molding it from its joyful purpose into a weapon, much as its wielder did to all she corrupted. Her sorrowful face served only to magnify my anguish. The Scream redoubled.


_NO!_


I _surged._ The power I'd collected from the sunrise blazing out, propelling me into the sky. I would protect my daughter, no matter the cost. The sun had risen just enough that my top flight speed didn't deplete my reserves. I grinned manically. I would be able to fight unreservedly against her.


Nobody else, it seemed, had noticed yet. Nobody with any power or purpose, that is. The angelic demon had begun collecting her usual halos, pieces of buildings shorn free and set to writhe in dizzying patterns against the bloodred background of the sunrise. As I approached, fragments of her armory broke away, headed directly for me. I dodged deftly and fired my first shot.


It missed entirely. Her wings contorted, and her smooth flight was abruptly interrupted with a jarring dodge, a reminder of the full scope of her power. More fragments of who-knows-what arced towards me, and I was only able to dodge by fingerswidths this time.


Our dance took us all over the north of the city. Me, dodging everything she threw at me, her preventing me from making much in the way of aggressive moves. I had no way of knowing how much time I had left before I was suborned, but my short flight thus far seemed interminable. I would not be able to keep this up long.


Perhaps that was her plan. I knew she could have killed me at any moment, with less than a passing thought, but she chose to use me for sport instead. I knew not her purpose, only that I could not help but play her game. Nobody would touch my Aster. Not Max, not the Protectorate, not an Endbringer, not even the Gods themselves.


Nobody.


A laser, not one of my own, clipped the monster's wing, vaporizing it and forcing her to momentarily retreat. I glanced in its direction to find that Kid Win had taken up the fight.


I could not see his face, but he held himself grimly. His massive cannon rapidly filled the air with light, forcing The Simurgh to retreat for a brief moment. I opened fire as she did, and my bolts only missed this time because she blocked them with chunks of masonry that vaporized upon collision.


I smiled fiercely.


_We may be enemies, but She is the Enemy of All. We stand!_


I was momentarily worried as metallic flechettes scythed their way towards the young hero, but his suit emitted a corona of light and the fragments dispersed. An impressive showing, for one so young.


Perhaps he could be convinced...no.


I'd never really been a true believer, not like Max. Or rather, not like I'd thought Max was. The kid should be allowed to make his own decisions on the matter. After all, he could hardly come to different conclusions, in a city like this one.


Too much of a distraction. I barely managed to get out of the way as debris rained down on me, and I had to fire at one particularly big chunk to redirect its momentum and stop it from turning me into a thin haze of blood.


Our dance continued for a few moments before I noticed that New Wave's arrival from behind Kid Win. They seemed to be trailing some sort of white, elastic cord behind them. Kid Win spoke to the independent heroes for a moment, then the cord _split_ and wrapped itself around his leg!


Was this some new machination of the Simurgh's? The Scream's discordant howl strengthened as I had the thought.


I deftly dodged another attack, this time what appeared to be a twisted park bench and a few lamp posts, and Kid Win did _something_ with his armor as New Wave engaged the Angel of Death.:


- The silk umbilicals will block the Scream and heal your injuries. Please do not remove them.' I almost jumped as an adolescent voice emitted from all around me! What...? Oh. The windows were acting as speakers, somehow.


_Tinkers._


Blocking the Scream was supposed to be impossible! Clearly, Panacea was on the other end, but...oh.


_Oh fuck!_


More cables started snaking around every corner, mostly coming from the north. A quick glance and dodge, and I saw that nearly every plant to the north of the city had been consumed somehow. The cables wrapped around panicking crowds, and where they went, they calmed and began evacuating in ways that seemed mostly rational.


_New Wave was unleashing Sanity upon the entire city!_


As I had the thought, the debris hovering around one of her wings _morphed_, transforming into weapons that fired bright, deadly lasers at me. I got out of the way, heading for New Wave.


There was no way they'd get away with this, was there? Their PR was good, but it had taken some hits when Brandish was arrested.


Perhaps, if the miracle girl really could block the Scream, the authorities would simply suppress the forced pacification of an entire city by someone who was supposed to be a hero. There was no way Max-


No.


I had to stop thinking like he'd taught me, to depend upon him to protect me from things I didn't like. This world was harsh and cruel, but that didn't mean I needed to keep running back to a comfortable lie. He didn't love me. He was probably incapable of loving me, if I had to guess.


I twisted my mind around to see things the way a hero might as I drifted towards them. To them, Sanity's power was all good. They couldn't see how deeply wrong it was to take someone and force them into whatever absurd bubble a power saw as healthy. They just saw frowning people going in, and smiling ones coming out.


I knew Dragon had promised the power wasn't malevolent, that Sanity could never do as Heartbreaker had done and seize the reins, but she could be wrong or lying. The woman never was trustworthy, for all her colossal power. Besides, I had friends she was imprisoning.


My musing and dodging had gotten me close enough to New Wave to see their faces, etched with concentration. It had also been a serious mistake, as one of the fibrous tendrils came for me! I tried to get out of the way...


But something in my mind betrayed me at the crucial moment, and the cord wrapped around my leg.


My mind _burst._ The Scream vanished instantly, and I realized that I'd been completely unable to think clearly under its influence. The experience was like standing in a sunrise, only dozens of times better.


I retrained my focus upon The Simurgh, and now that I was close enough to New Wave to use Shielder as cover, she could not use the same tactics on me. My solar rays burned down upon her, following in the path of Lady Photon and Laserdream's lasers. Glory Girl had apparently, and quite wisely, decided that her best place was near the ground, herding civilians away from the battle zone. Melee fighting an Endbringer was really only for Alexandria. Flashbang, being carried by Lady Photon, lobbed globes of light which detonated in concussive blasts, though none came close to hitting. His shots were simply too slow.


Kid win stopped firing for a moment, and then everything went wrong. A wave of fire and force emanated from The Simurgh, and I was thrown back, dazed, my grasp over gravity confused. There was no way I'd recover in time! I could already feel a bizarre slithering feeling, as my injuries healed themselves, but my flight had been interrupted and I was going to crashintothegrou-


My momentum arrested entirely. I looked up, right into Eidolon's glowing green hood.


The Triumvirate had arrived!


Alexandria immediately flew at Ziz, a sonic boom trailing behind her, fist colliding with the Endbringer with colossal force. She was driven back, smashing through an office building, collecting even more debris in her multi- faceted halos. Legend flashed up to support New Wave, and Eidolon produced a solar-bright torch from his finger, with which he began to slice at our common foe. With each slice, she was driven back further, apparently unable to contemplate allowing it to touch any part of her form.


Kid Win recovered, his apparent unconsciousness banished through Panacea's rapid work. His cannon recovered with him, training itself back upon the beast.


This was looking more and more like a fight we could _win!_


Inasmuch as you can win, against one like her.


She began to move with frenetic abandon, faster, more precisely than at any point before in the fight. Fragments of her halos surged towards her, and she coiled her body into a ball, shielding something being assembled at the center. Just as she did, Alexandria dove directly for the device, sneaking past the Simurgh's raking wings. A last second shot from Legend to her back, an apparently practiced maneuver, pushed her just the little bit faster she needed, and she disappeared into the monster's clutches.


For my part, I continued fighting, dodging behind Shielder whenever debris flew my direction. The halos continued to contort and writhe, flinging off pieces in pinpoint attacks upon the defenders. _Hundreds_ of tentacles emerged from what had once been the road, roping up towards our foe and her weapons, wrapping around fragments of building and wingtips. Wherever they contacted the Endbringer's flesh, they were immediately severed through combinations of wing contortions and rapidly assembled Tinkertech devices. They had no visible effect.


A blinding light emitted from the Simurgh, and only my power prevented me from flinching from it. The light came from within, whatever device she'd been assembling apparently ruined by Alexandria's desperate dive.


The angelic form straightened lithely, no longer bothering to block or dodge anyone's shots except Eidolon's. She looked at the sky...


And she rocketed upward, sonic boom trailing behind her, out of sight in seconds. The fragments of her halos rained down upon the city, causing more damage in their wake as their previous master left their range.


I sighed deeply and smiled upon my fighting companions, for all the good it did. They could not see me behind my light. The tentacle wrapped around my leg eased off, and the wail of the sirens laxed into silence.


Everyone looked on in astonishment. The Simurgh had never been vanquished so quickly before! A ragged, and deserved, cheer rose from the streets, and I joined, not caring that the people I was cheering with would have been my enemies on any other day.


Alexandria had been left behind when the angel uncurled herself,and flew over to her companions. They looked far more grim than would ordinarily be warranted, considering how great a vic-


And then the air raid sirens wailed back on.


Immolation 6.3


I opened my eyes in panic.


My real eyes. As of right now, I had eyes of sorts basically blanketing half of the city. Weirdest. Sensation. Ever.


_Awww, we don't rate any more?_ Six snarked.


_No. No you do not._


Oh well, my native power could apparently handle it. I wasn't going crazy despite being a multiton fleshbeast.


I let my eyes rove over to my sister:


- What's going on? Why did the air raid sirens come back on?


She seemed to be frozen in panic. She and Sabah were still grasping my arms for dear life. Sabah, for her part, was still concentrating more on the tentacles than on her own body:


- I don't know. I can't hear through my power, without practice, and Sabah is...indisposed. I...kind of had to give her some extra brains to process everything. She'll be fine once I disconnect everything, but for now she's...out.' She seemed disturbed about what she'd had to do.


I could play the therapist for both of them later. Now I needed answers:


- Make me something to talk through, next to the Triumvirate. They probably know what's going on.


Amy nodded grimly, and I felt and saw several tentacles converge on the position of the greatest heroes in the world.


A face, exactly like my own, emerged from the protrusions of my nervous system. Despite not having lungs, I was able to speak through it, though apparenly my Thinker power only worked with my own physical eyes. I didn't know of a reason that Alexandria should block it, but I couldn't see anything.


_You will note that I can't see anything with this either. I guess our powers didn't come with the assumption that we would do...this._ Two informed me.:


- What's going on?' I asked the trio. Kind of lame, but I was starved for time.


Legend and Alexandria's looks of curiosity became brief looks of horror as they realized what the tentacles were doing. Alexandria hovered closer to my fake face as she responded:


- I could ask you the same, Sanity. What is _this?_


I rolled my eyes:


- You've given enough speeches about never giving up or surrendering to the Endbringers. This was the logical conclusion, given that you have an unbounded biokinetic, an unbounded telekine, and someone to keep the two of them from losing it. Don't worry about the PR. Worry about saving my city!' I shouldn't have been that short with someone as ludicrously powerful as her, but again, no time.


She frowned, but didn't respond. Eidolon came to my rescue:


- As soon as The Simurgh left, Dragon detected tremors indicative of Behemoth's approach. We believe she summoned him here to finish the job after she failed.


The day's second chorus of _Fuck!_s bounced around my skull.


An opaque shield of some sort slid around us, emitting from Eidolon's upraised hand:


- Privacy.' he explained as he turned to the open air and enunciated:


- Door to Tattletale.


_Huh. So that's what happened to her._


A golden portal had opened onto a pure white room. Two women stood next to each other. Tattletale I recognized, but the second, a lithe figure in a fedora, raised her eyebrows and promptly vanished into another portal.


Tattletale raised a mocking eyebrow at the location of her prior companion:


- Rude of her.' She intoned sarcastically.


I couldn't not ask:


- How the hell did you end up with Cauldron, Tattletale? You had the Undersiders so worried they called the PRT!


She frowned sadly for a moment, then plastered her usual grin back on her face:


- Change of plans. You know, Sanity, I really should thank you. These...kind folks, only...invited me to join their club because of your help.


I was taken aback:


- What do you mean by that?


She grinned wider, eyes flashing:


- Not telling.


She put on a more businesslike tone:


- Anyway. Back to work. Sanity, you do something awful to Ziz. I'm not exactly sure what, but for some reason she can't predict everything you're going to do. And that includes the Shoggoth you've got going there as well. She had a great big ball of nope barreling towards her and decided to cut it. Of course, this is Ziz, so she left a parting gift of one Behemoth, slightly used.


I nodded:


- I got all that already. I couldn't hear the scream and decided to make sure nobody in Brockton Bay could hear it either. Handy, having Panacea around.' I elected not to tell her about Parian, but she may have guessed anyway.


She just nodded:


- Unfortunately, you have none of those advantages against Behemoth. I'll know for sure once he surfaces in about...' she glanced at her watch:


- 30 minutes, but I'm pretty sure he can see you just fine. He's probably going to make a beeline for wherever you're keeping Panacea and Parian,' darn 'and try to take them out.


My heart sank.


What could I do against a foe like that? She was right, of course, Behemoth was basically Panacea's worst matchup. Fire, lightning, radiation, and worse, the kill aura. I would bet that my tentacles wouldn't even be able to reach him, even with the upgrades the Butchers gave me. Not that they would do much good even if they could. Behemoth was stupidly strong, and I had serious doubts that Sabah could push back hard enough to even mildly inconvenience him.


I didn't see a way forward here.


But apparently Tattletale did:


- Why so glum? This is actually a fantastic opportunity!


_What? _'What are you talking about? He's not called the Herokiller for nothing, you know!


She grinned even wider. I was actually surprised that a human even could grim that smugly:


- Because Brockton Bay's cape scene is so, so broken.


That took me by surprise. I mean, yes, we had some powerful capes, but we didn't have an Eidolon or a Legend.


Unless...


_We're that cape, aren't we?_ Quarrel answered with rising laughter. _Tons of powers. Using them intelligently, and better, using our friends intelligently. Taylor, you cobbled together a plan which made The Simurgh retreat fifteen minutes into the fight using only yourself and two other capes. What can we do with access to the entire city?_


I guess she did have a point.


Tattletale and the rest of us hacked out a plan together. Honestly, it was a fairly simple one, and I almost smacked myself in the face when she told me her idea. Oh well, at least someone had a good plan.


Once we were done, Tattletale interjected:


- Oh, before I forget, L33T is insane now.


_Well isn't she just little miss exposition._ Did you even have to ask who it was?


Legend rounded on her, deeply concerned:


- How is that possible? She wasn't here long enough!


Tattletale shook her head sadly:


- That device she was creating? At the end, when Alexandria dove in to the rescue in what I'm sure would have been front- page news if Behemoth weren't the aftershow today? One of his. She's been pretending to need twenty minutes this whole time.


I scrunched up my face. Well, 'face.' 'That's...really terrifying, but why would she choose to use a screwup like L33T?


She took a deep breath:


- I don't think he's a screwup any more. Fair warning.' She nodded to her...employers? I wasn't actually sure what her relationship was with Cauldron. The portal vanished, and Eidolon's privacy bubble did as well.


I opened my real eyes, back on what had once been New Wave's front lawn, and was now a desiccated husk devoid of any life Panacea wasn't controlling.:


- You have thirty minutes, Amy. Control everything you can. Everything. Wrap tendrils around every person you can, in as wide a radius as possible. Behemoth is coming.


I could feel her jolt of terror, but she dove right into her work.


Immolation 6.4


My awareness continued to expand, a sphere of sights slamming into my mind from what was now hundreds of miles of silk - bound nerves. I could see _everything. _The fear on the face of thousands of fleeing, confused residents of my city, their hope at Ziz's rapid 'defeat' obliterated in the face of Behemoth's impending emergence. In the docks, a few of the unwanted and poor of the city had begun looting. I supposed they assumed there would be no consequences, in the face of Brockton Bay's approaching doom. Tendrils reached into the shelters, Panacea's influence reaching through nearly - imperceptible cracks in their defences, and my awareness fell upon abject panic.


I embraced them all. Wherever my influence passed, terror was moderated. Not eliminated, for their fear was absolutely justified. The Herokiller was on his way, after all, but those who did not simply collapse with the force of their relief were able to guide the others towards more useful ends. Panacea's help did not go amiss either, as injuries great and small were wiped away. I idly noted that, in one shelter, a makeshift dialysis clinic had been set up, somehow.


They were going to have a nice surprise, assuming they survived.


But none of that was what I was really seeking. I had to spread my strapped awareness across every sensation it could reach to find the one person in the city who could help. We'd decided to abandon the council for this purpose, as each of the fourteen others was needed to observe their own segments of my senses. Despite the turmoil we were causing, my mind was ruled by silence, the concentration of all fifteen of us dedicated solely to the task.


It still wasn't enough. Minutes passed, though they felt like hours, and I could feel us falling behind. It was a strange feeling, to be unable to keep up with the input of your own senses. I understood now exactly how Amy felt whenever she touched someone. Except this was, of course, countless times worse. We were now subsuming all of the biomass of an entire city and most of its suburbs.


_Found her! She's over here!_ I didn't have enough concentration to spare to determine who had spoken, but it didn't matter.:


- Amy, surround her. Don't latch on just yet, we need her willing cooperation or else we're going to have to get...creative. Make me a body, a full one this time. She's probably terrified and needs something human to recognize in all this.


She complied, and I gained hearing and limbs I could control in Othala's presence. She had apparently been heading towards Brockton General, assuming I was reading her direction correctly. That was good for us, it meant the Empire was going to offer its services in the upcoming fight. I hadn't been too surprised to find that only Purity fought the Simurgh, after all only she and Rune could fly, and Rune was both a child and too slow to dodge the telekine's assaults. Against a ground-bound enemy, however? Several of their number would certainly be of use.


Well, assuming that this fight was going to be like all the previous ones.


Kaiser had said, during the meeting so seemingly long ago, that the Empire would rise to protect the city from Endbringers. I suppose he was making good on that now.


I heard a scream, the first thing my makeshift body relayed to me, and my awareness distorted once more, mostly focused on the construct. I had no idea how Panacea was doing all this, but it was an amazing display of talent.


Othala disagreed:


- WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS???' She exclaimed, wild terror in her eyes as a wall of tendrils cut her off from walking forward. She began to visibly hyperventilate, standing as far from any part of that wall as she possibly could. I could feel my temporary face fill in, and she looked with horror upon it in dawning revelation.:


- Holy. Fuck. Sanity? H..how? What?' She hunched down on the ground.:


- No time, Othala. Yes, this is me. Panacea is making these extensions of my body, Parian is controlling them, and I am talking through them and keeping them both from losing it. According to the Triumvirate, I did something to the Simurgh's ability to sense the future, so she ran, but she called Behemoth in support. That's...he's the worst possible matchup, for Panacea. The kill aura alone will make it impossible for these tendrils to touch him. We can't protect this city on our own, we need your help.


She didn't seem at all reassured by that:


- Fuck no! I'm not going to _help_ the fucking Butcher! You're a fucking race traitor, worse because you make people _into_ race traitors by touching them. This city can burn for all I care, most of 'em aren't worth saving anyway.' She stood, cold rage evident in her face.


_Well. This is going to take some doing._


I frowned caringly:


- You're wrong about some things there, Othala. First off, I don't make people into 'race traitors.'


She sneered:


- With all your wheedling on the stage about how all are welcome? I am not about to believe that.


I shook my head:


- I don't really expect you to, but let me explain. I can't see your issues now because these aren't my real eyes, but were I actually in your presence I would be able to see all of your psychological issues. That list would _not_ include racism. When I visited Somer's Rock, none of Kaiser, Hookwolf, or Stormtiger showed up as racist to my sight. In addition, the few Empire thugs I've touched since I started remained racist immediately afterward. I could show you the tapes, but we don't have time. I don't know how or why my power works, but it doesn't consider hatred of minorities to be a psychological disorder. I speculate that attempting to 'fix' racism would be considered a massive personality shift that wouldn't necessarily make the subject more happy. Or something. I have no idea.


She stood her ground, cold rage on her face:


- Let. Me. Go. I am going to the hospital, to provide medical care to the wounded. Fuck, I'm going to be healing fucking niggers, spics, 'n wetbacks. Get out of my way, Sanity.


I gave a single bark of laughter:


- Othala...Panacea is currently touching every single human in a twenty mile radius of herself, by a fashion. Your healing services are not needed today because frankly? When she has access to this much biomass, Panacea is way better at it than you.' I looked directly into her eyes, and exuded seriousness:


- Othala. I have a policy. People who harm or threaten me or my friends do not get a choice. People who are in serious and immediate danger do not get a choice. I heal them, regardless of what they want. Right now, this entire city is in serious and immediate danger, so I am healing everyone. That much should be obvious. As for the threats to my person...I do this for several reasons, as a disincentive for those who would harm me, out of genuine care for humans so broken that they believe harming others is the best way forward in life. Out of a sense, deep in whatever soul I may have, that there are some things that simply should not be borne by anyone alone. That all deserve what help I can provide them.' I took a deep breath, though the gesture was oddly unsatisfying due to this not being my real body:


- You are a healer too. Your power allows you to do what a surgeon can only dream of. You also wipe away pain and misfortune and leave people whole. I've heard, from the few Empire folks I've come in contact with, that, unfortunate ideology or no, your friends consider you a compassionate and warm companion. I don't think you are a bad person. To be fair, I've never come across _anyone_ who I can judge harshly. It's really, really hard to hate someone when you know exactly why they act the way they act, and that they have little choice in the matter.' I paused for a moment to let her absorb that, then continued:


- Right now, though, none of that really matters. We have about fifteen minutes before Behemoth comes for Brockton Bay. When he does, thousands die immediately. Your refusal to help me constitutes a threat to this city and all its people, in my mind. I've already told you what I think about those. I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to hurt anyone. But the needs of this city, and _all _of its people, are more important to me.


My speech obviously confused her. She clearly hadn't been expecting compassion from a hero. Which, honestly, said more about the quality of the heroes, before my arrival, than it did about the villains. She scowled:


- What good do you think I even _can _do? It's fucking Behemoth!


I laughed again:


- Othala, you've been known to grant invulnerability to people right?


She raised an eyebrow:


- Yes? I can do that, but it wears off in like thirty seconds. How does that help?


I smiled:


- Can you give it to someone continuously, assuming you don't stop touching them?


She was still a little confused:


- Yes? But how does that help? I can't do anything to myself, so if they go somewhere you need to be indestructible to survive, I just die. I'm not signing up for a suicide mission.


I looked directly into her eyes:


- Othala. I am a person. I am also the size of an entire city and its suburban areas right now. How do you think a forty-five foot tall fire and lightning beast with a kill aura matches up against a _twenty mile radius_ indestructible beast from the darkest Lovecraftian nightmare?


She paused at that. She clearly hadn't thought through the implications. To be completely fair, I hadn't either until Tattletale made it painfully obvious how dumb Othala's power was in combination with the Shoggoth:


- Huh.


I pressed my advantage:


- Othala, this is a fight we can _win!_ For the first time since their emergence, we might have a serious advantage against an Endbringer. Forget your reservations, forget your past, your experiences. Forget your fears and your pain, and just listen to me. Right now, you have a choice. A chance to participate willingly in what may well be an absolute curbstomp against the Herokiller. If I have my way, he kills no heroes today. None will need to even get close to him. All your friends in the Empire walk away completely unharmed. Everybody goes _home_. And not to a radioactive wasteland.' I took another breath:


- You know what happened to New York, when Behemoth came out. Sure, the city was rebuilt, but it was the first American city to be hit. Years ago, when mankind still had the resources and the pride to think that rebuilding in the face of disaster was the way to go.' I let my face become deeply sad. I didn't have to feign it:


- That isn't true any more. Othala, mankind, white or not, is _losing._ Badly. Fading away, into the dark, against enemies which don't even seem to be trying. Every time we try to pull something on them, every time we think we have them, they slip away, pull out another bullshit power, and crush us anyway. What do you think becomes of Brockton Bay, after this day? All the territory the Empire holds, all the little victories and defeats you've had over decades of activity? Everything you've ever worked for will be obliterated. Brockton Bay is one of the worst cities in the country, and I have no doubt that after this the politicians will jump at the opportunity to condemn it. Or hell, even quarantine it. If we lose here, today, you lose everything. But...' I allowed a radiant smile on my face.


Othala interrupted me:


- If we win, we secure the existence of our people, and a future for our white children.


_Ugh. Not how I would've said it, but I can work with that._:


- If we win, we secure the existence of Brockton Bay. Despite our differences, I think we can both agree that is a reasonable goal.


She looked at the ground, clearly deep in thought. I left her to her thoughts for a few moments.


Then, she looked up, her face resigned:


- Fuck you, Sanity. Fuck you, Butcher. I don't fucking know why, but I'm going to try this insane thing. Let's give Behemoth a run for his fucking money.


I grinned wolfishly and held out my hand:


- Awesome!


She took it.


Immolation 6.5


With Othala's help secured, all that was necessary now was for me to wait.


But I couldn't do that, just yet. I had things to do, and only twenty minutes to do them in. The tremors from Behemoth's approach had just become detectible to my massive senses. The attack was happening, whether I was ready for it or not.


I dove back into the sensory barrage, the body built for Othala's benefit disintegrating and morphing around her into a suit, which she rapidly put to work making indestructible. I would have smiled, had I had the concentration to spare. I could feel the tips of my unearthly appendages become invulnerable, tough enough to penetrate stone and steel with sufficient force. Hopefully also Endbringer flesh, but that wasn't the only plan Tattletale had clued me into. The Triumvirate were working on another part of that.


I searched my sight for blind spots, and found one just as someone ran up to one of my tendrils and started shouting. It looked like...yup, it was...Uber?


I tuned him in '...happened to L33T! I don't know what!' He had a peculiar voice, most of which was probably wasted on my current form. My tendrils surged into the building Uber had emerged from, and found a grisly tableau.


A workshop in the basement had been chaotically decorated with what appeared to be human blood. Random pieces of tech were strewn about, around a pad in the center. It appeared hastily constructed, probably thrown together in the past few minutes, if I had to guess. On it stood L33T, wild-eyed, pale from blood loss. My tentacles reached for him, but too late. He slammed his hand onto a button and vanished, just as the pad he was standing on exploded violently.


Just before it did, I noted that there was a message, scrawled on the wall.


**_MAKE US WHOLE_**


That was certainly ominous. I'd have to ask the other Wards about it. They'd probably know what game that was from.


No time now.


The building was a total loss. I wrapped a tendril around Uber and then focused my attention back on the blind spot I'd found. It looked like some kind of Endbringer shelter, but much more solidly constructed. Air and watertight, I and everyone inside it would have been in trouble if I didn't have the ability to reshape solid matter into weapons. Steel swords burst out of an enormous vault door, the material drawn from its center, and I flowed into the facility almost without slowing down. The dozens of mercenaries stationed inside put up a token and ultimately useless resistance, and also informed me that this was Coil's base. I rushed onward carelessly, simply focusing on tagging everyone I could.


I wasn't sure anyone in the city who wasn't touching me would survive what we had planned. Ethics be damned, living people were better than annihilated ones.


I had almost complete control of the facility when I reached an office door. I smashed through it just in time to see a golden portal wink out of existence. If I'd been able to express such an emotion at the time, I might have felt betrayed, that Cauldron would save Coil from my grasp, but in this circumstance I was able to note the odd patterns of blood covering the walls, like an incredibly one-sided fight had gone down.


No time to ponder. Everyone in the facility was as safe as I could make them. Move on.


I whispered to Amy, 'I need a way to talk to people that doesn't involve sound. I'll explain later, just work on it.' I couldn't see her reaction, but fragments of tendrils began creeping up everyone's spines and into their ears. Most of them seemed deeply disturbed by that, for obvious reasons, but they calmed once it was done.


Amy whispered back:


- Done. Just tell me who you need to talk to. I told them what I just did, they're mostly ok with it.


Excellent.


And then, not so excellent. Othala's voice cut through the silence in my mind:


- I'm only able to make you indestructible, Sanity. I can't extend it to anyone you're touching!


That was unfortunate. Oh well, time for plan B:


- We have a way around that. I'm going to be doing basically all of the fighting anyway, the tentacles for all the people are more to keep them safe than anything else.


I couldn't tell her what the actual plan was, of course. I couldn't tell her that Behemoth might explode when we killed him.


No time.


I continued casting around. I noted idly that Lung vanished from my sight, into another golden portal, the moment I was able to see him. That was also part of the plan. We weren't sure how his power would be affected by mine, and his unrestricted ramp-up made him a potentially invaluable asset come the final battle. Keeping him alive and out of the way for this was the most we could do, while keeping Cauldron's influence under wraps.


He'd be none the wiser, of course. Eidolon had volunteered that they had a cape who could wipe memories, or even implant false ones. I tried really hard not to think about how awful that was, but right now it was simply necessary.


No time.


I found the last person I was searching for, in a place I'd never have expected.


My tendrils had finally reached the top of Medhall's headquarters. I'd been scrupulously avoiding property damage, wherever I could, for propriety's sake, so I'd had to go in through the ground floor. Every person in the building was now protected, save one. Max Anders' office was now a forest of blades.


I suppose it explained some things about how tenacious the Empire had been, if they also controlled the biggest employer in town.:


- Let me talk to him.' I instructed Amy. She complied, and my awareness twisted into a foreign body again.


Kaiser stared at it in shock, as it was assembled. I'd somehow managed to surprise the megalomaniac into silence. I suppose having a city-spanning flesh monster turn out to be under control of the chronically sane hero wasn't what he expected.


No time:


- We don't have time for this, Kaiser. Behemoth is coming, and we plan to kill him. Everyone in the city who isn't in contact with me when that happens is highly likely to die.' I withdrew the tendrils which were assaulting him, to give him room to speak.


He raised his hackles in defiance:


- I will not bow down to you, Butcher.


I nodded sadly. His power wasn't one we needed, come the end. Cauldron would not save him, and if I chose to, it would likely create more conflict in the long run as what remained of the Empire after this day, or perhaps even Gesselschaft itself, rebelled against what they considered an assault upon their leader.:


- Understood. Death it is, then. Do know, however, that your 'help' in this fight is unnecessary. You will simply get in the way. Do what you will, but know that I will be everywhere and that I cannot guarantee nothing will touch you. I recommend you get out of town as fast as possible.


I left him to his fate. Maybe he'd get out of the city in time, maybe he wouldn't. I couldn't save everyone.


No time.


I allowed my awareness to pass over the staging area, and was pleased to find that we'd assembled the people I needed already.


Time to rally the troops.


My awareness shrank back to a point, a body forming above the podium, held in the air by scything tendrils. The head was facing the ground, and as its form coalesced from the maelstrom, I looked up at the assembled crowd, smiling radiantly.:


- Welcome, heroes, to Brockton Bay. I'm sorry it couldn't be on better terms.


A small crowd ringed the staging area, much smaller than what was usual for an Endbringer defense. That was the first change we were making, today. No more capes with irrelevant powers volunteering to die in vain.:


- Normally, here, somebody would be lecturing you all about your selflessness, that at best three-fourths of you would be going home. That isn't happening today.' The tendrils cavorted behind me, an honestly terrifying backdrop:


- No. Those of you who are here were invited because we expect you to be actually useful. In previous fights, we wanted as much muscle as we could get, because frankly the Endbringers so outclass us that any help was useful. No more. Never again. Today, Panacea, Parian,and I bring the muscle of every single scrap of free biomass in the greater Brockton Bay area. We do not need more muscle.' I let my smile be distorted into a face of grim resolve:


- We need to win. Today, we plan to kill the monster known as Behemoth.


That got a rise from those who weren't aware of the plan. I continued despite their agitation:


- I don't think I need to explain why we are attempting this. Endbringers, under every philosophical and moral construct I know of, simply ought not be. Mankind has lost so much to them. Today, we try to take some of that back.


The ground noticeably shook beneath me as I continued:


- We will not go quietly. We will not let the darkness consume us! We will not be silenced! Against enemies such as these, no cost is too great, no loss too terrible! We will drive the dagger in!' I manifested a dagger of stone, drawn up by one of my tentacles and tossed into my upraised hand:


- We will shield the innocent from harm, both here and in futures unknown!' A shield, manifested the same way:


- Mankind will prove, today, that we are not to be trifled with. We will prove that even gods should fear us! We will prove that we are great, and that those who stand across our path will be sundered.


My makeshift body began to melt, and as I gave orders into the ears of those who would be necessary for this all to work, I whispered 'We will prove that we were wrong to have ever called them Endbringers.


Immolation 6.6


Panacea's solution to talking with no sound was, apparently, to wire me directly into their cochleas. Kind of creepy, but I wasn't about to complain.:


- All right folks, listen up.' I whispered to everyone:


- I'm speaking to you this way because Eidolon is going to be jamming all sound production in the city. Behemoth doesn't get to bellow at us today. The plan is as follows. The moment Behemoth emerges, Panacea is going to turn the loose tendrils she has underground into a solid sheet of biomass. It's all indestructible, thanks to Othala, so even though he'll be able to move it, he won't be able to escape back to the core. Once his escape routes are cut off, tentacles amass on his position.


Clockblocker interjected:


- I've seen enough hentai-' The tentacle wrapped around his leg had a sudden and absolutely unintentional spasm.:


- Not the time, Clock. Back to where I was. He might be able to push the tentacles away, but he won't be able to break them, and the kill aura will be worthless. We have a lot of tentacles, they'll be able to wrap around him and encase him in a bubble of biomass. The more he struggles, the tighter it gets. That's where you come in, Fletchette.


I paused for a moment as the ground rumbled harder. Eidolon waved his hands, and all sound in the city abruptly stopped. I continued speaking:


- Not much time. Fletchette, your power penetrates anything, up to and including Endbringers, according to a Thinker helping us with this fight. Also according to this person, Endbringers have a 'core', from which all of their mass and power emanates. Destroy the core, you destroy the Endbringer. Panacea and I will create the biggest ballista you've ever seen, you'll aim and empower the bolt, and then we'll wipe Behemoth's core from existence.


I took another pause:


- Clockblocker, you're here because there's a chance Behemoth explodes when we kill him. Upon impact, you're going to freeze me and everyone connected to me. Panacea will disconnect you from the network so you aren't counted as freezing yourself, after temporarily changing the way you interpret time. You will be able to watch for the right moment to freeze everyone, including the bubble forming around yourself right now. Time-frozen materials don't conduct heat or radiation, so you will be safe.


He interjected:


- Umm, I can only freeze things I'm directly touching, Sanity.


I replied:


- You have a minor Thinker power telling you what you can freeze at any given moment, right? Take a look at it. 'Things you are directly touching' should include every single person in Brockton Bay right now.


He somehow managed to gulp over the cochlear link.


I continued unabated:


- Once the explosion goes off, Eidolon will cool the city down to a livable level before we all unfreeze. One Endbringer down, zero casualties. Any questions.


Othala's betrayed voice came over the link:


- Why are we blowing up a city the Empire has claimed?


I gave a snort:


- Just think of all the pretty white babies who'll be nothing but ash if we don't do this, Othala, both here and elsewhere. Even if you discriminate, Endbringers don't.


I could see her seething, through my omni-sight, but she didn't withdraw her help.


When nobody else continued, I spoke again:


- Anyone who can create forcefields at range, you can help us hem him in during the initial stages. Blasters? You aren't really necessary. We aren't going for superficial damage here. The only Brute I want engaging Behemoth directly is Alexandria, nobody else has shown the toughness to stand up to him. Any Mover who can take people with them should be getting folks out of Behemoth's immediate area. They should be safer than usual, due to Panacea, but only I am indestructible. Othala's power doesn't extend to people I am touching.


With that, the ground began to shake nonstop, a rising crescendo of vibration all over the city. Not enough to cause any serious damage, just enough to announce the arrival of the Herokiller.


I guess he wanted to save the destruction for himself.


We could provide him that.


The fifteen of us cast about again for the location of his impending emergence, straining at the limits of our perception. Even a few moments warning could make this battle go more quickly.


This time, we shouldn't have bothered. It was easy, really. Endbringers did have a flair for the dramatic.


Captain's Hill exploded, fragments of half-molten rock raining down all over the city, the shockwave only rendered less-than-lethal by Eidolon's sound dampening field. It was eerie, watching the cataclysm from so many angles, and yet to be completely deaf to it. Flame jetted out, a corona of heat and ash all that remained of what had once been the highest point in town.


He wanted everyone in the city to see his emergence. A few frozen moments passed, the ash and debris raining down in total silence upon a city waiting for its fate.


The dust began to settle, and the molten monstrosity strode out of the cloud. The ground quaked one last time, the remnants of his emergence spread through the soft stone the city was built upon.


The vaguely humanoid figure raised its head, attempting to howl into the late- morning sun, and the eeriness of this whole situation redoubled as no sound at all emerged. Silent lightning bolts crackled out of the dust cloud, his dynakinesis being put to use in creating electrical forces where there shouldn't have been any yet.


And the moment broke. Barely-differentiated biomass surged for the colossal form, the loose gridwork under his feet and all over the city spreading out and snapping shut in seconds. The door was barred to him. This fight could only end one way, from here.


Civilians in the area were rapidly yanked back, sometimes through the air. Buildings evacuated as quickly as we reasonably could, given the resources of concentration we had available. I felt and saw as some of the Movers we'd invited began plucking people out of buildings, and I smiled despite myself. A few unlucky souls had been on the hill, when it exploded, and their deaths had been swift.


But everyone else survived.


Behemoth leaped hundreds of feet above the former peak, the ground crumbling to dust with the sheer force, glowing stone in his wake. The lightning followed, arcs streaming from every conductive surface in a hundred feet of his form. Where he passed, every metallic object glowed with heat, and houses began to catch fire as inductive storms coursed through the city's electrical wiring.


He landed, and we were waiting for him. He had foolishly decided to put himself at the whim of predictable gravity and momentum, his arc well-defined the moment he took off. We took advantage of his mistake, the only one he was ever likely to make in this fight, by having shackling tendrils prepared at the site. They wrapped around his feet...


And the feet promptly fell off as he took another massive bound, scythed off by the force of his jump. More houses burst into flame this time, but New Wave met his path in the air with a multitude of shimmering forcefields. Lady Photon and Laserdream's offerings shattered at the collision, barely altering the arc of his passage.


But Shielder's bright blue dome flared to light as Behemoth took it head on. And it held!


Behemoth's arc through the air was totally interrupted. As he crash landed, he toppled to the ground, and it quaked even as the air did not.


And Alexandria took full advantage of his fall. She bolted through the air and planted a massive punch in Behemoth's back, cracking pavement and buildings through the writhing titan's body. The extra few seconds were all we needed, and more tendrils rose out of the ground, lashing themselves to every single crag and purchase they could find.


Behemoth was bound! I pumped my real arms in excitement, though neither of my companions could react appropriately, as absorbed in Panacea's power as they were.


The tendrils thinned, melding together into a greyscale bubble emerging from the ground. The dome twisted and writhed with his struggling, each passing moment reducing the options he had available as biomass drained out of the dome, shrinking it more closely around him. .


But the fight was all but over already. He would never escape until he was destroyed.


We'd managed to shrink-wrap an Endbringer.


A portal opened before my real eyes, and I grinned triumphally.


This was the moment. The moment we learned, finally, how to kill the monsters that had ravaged humanity for so long. The moment we stood in the dying light of our world, and raised our spear in victory over the ashes of our foe. The moment mankind could begin to take back what we had lost, repay the debt of pain to our cruel tormentors.


This was the moment we would prove that human cooperation was the most terrifying force in the world. The moment Cauldron had been waiting for, all these years. Something to unite us in unity of purpose, perhaps until the bitter end.


Until I saw Tattletale's face light up with panic, her arms raising up in warning.


I offered her one of my original tentacles, and she hesitated for a moment before grabbing hold and letting it contort into the form which allowed her to speak to me through the absolute silence of the battlefield. I noted with some satisfaction that she seemed a bit relieved to have had her various issues removed, though.:


- What's happening? Why can't we just kill him?' I asked with trepidation.


Why had I just assumed it would be this easy?


She responded, and all my hope was lost:


- The instant that bubble is breached, he is going to release more raw energy than we have ever seen him release at any one fight. The explosion will obliterate Fletchette at the speed of light, no matter where she stands, ending her effect, saving Behemoth, and obliterating Brockton Bay. Incidentally also obliterating Othala, you, and everyone connected to you.' She paused for a beat:


- Got any ideas?


Immolation 6.7


My soaring hopes dropped immediately:


- How...how do you know this?' I had a better question and restarted, 'What does your power even do?


She looked deeply conflicted, likely between showing off how awesome she thought her power was and how terrible the situation was:


- Super-inferences. Give me even the tiniest piece of information on a topic and I can guess the rest from there, fairly accurately.' She took a breath, very odd in the complete silence:


- I've been watching the entire fight, from various angles. Before, when we were planning this, I'd never actually seen Behemoth in person. I was working on the assumption that the capabilities he'd shown in his previous fights were at least within a few orders of magnitude of his max output.' Her face scrunched in distress:


- I was wrong. Behemoth, all the Endbringers, really, have been playing us all along. If they wanted to, they could obliterate Earth in seconds.' She looked down:


- I should have seen it from the start, and for that I am sorry. They're just another part of the cycle, finely tuned to walk the thin line between their own destruction and the destruction of the host world, gathering data and maximizing shard - shard interactions all the while. They can ramp up as far as they need to, to preserve themselves.' She looked back up at me, one tear sliding down her face:


- I got all that from how _easy_ this was, by the way. In every other fight, they've put out the image of indomitability, destroying what they will and retreating only when we have lost enough. Every victory bringing enough hope for more heroes and villains to join the fight next time, every defeat perfectly calculated to inspire rage instead of hopelessness. He's still doing that here. They have to keep up the illusion of immutability, and what better way to do that than by killing the most impressive up-and-coming hero?' She paused for a moment:


- I don't think he'll actually pull the trigger unless his death is imminent because he wants to keep up the charade that he's only just a little more powerful than us. Wants to make us think we can win. So we have some time to plan. But I'm not sure how useful that will be.


I didn't have an expression capable of displaying how I felt then:


- Is there any way at all that we could kill him? Anything we could do which would work?


She frowned worriedly:


- I'm sure there are some, but I haven't given them much thought. We'd only get one shot, and if we failed everyone dies.


At that moment, a tiny portal opened in front of her face and immediately closed, leaving a scrap of paper in its wake. Tattletale distractedly snatched it out of the air. As she read it, her face became a nearly - inscrutable mix of horror and righteous satisfaction. She looked up, head cocked to the side:


- I take that back. We can try any number of ideas.


_What?_ 'How, exactly?


She steepled her hands:


- We've just...acquired a new asset. Do you know what Coil's power does?


I cocked my head:


- No?


Her eyes lit up:


- He's a Thinker. He can instantly make decisions based upon the outcome of two possible timelines. From his perspective, he splits time and then discards the bad outcome. We can use that to try all of these ideas.


I smiled:


- Let's get going then.


\----


I explained the situation to Amy by writing my words on the flesh in front of her eyes. No sound required creative use of resources. She seemed certain that we could keep Behemoth captured for at least a few hours, more if she started draining the ocean in a wider area for nutrients. The unnatural ways she was manipulating all that mass meant that some of it was dying. Life just wasn't meant to be repurposed into a single, enormous mass.


We got to work:


- What if we have Clockblocker freeze Behemoth?


Coil's power was bizarre. He made the decision about what to do instantly, splitting timelines into real and fake, so we would instantly know whether an idea was a good one. But, the fake timeline still took time to process, and he couldn't split again during one of his splits. We had to wait for a plan to either work in the simulation, or to get us all killed.


Fortunately, this idea was quickly dispatched. Another scrap of paper appeared, and Tattletale read it out in amusement:


- Kill aura still active. Clockblocker isn't immune to that, idiots.


Well, darn:


- That was pretty obvious, in hindsight. Though it does open up another opportunity. What happens if we disconnect me from the Shoggoth and put Clockblocker in, in my place?


That one also fell apart more-or-less instantly. Another scrap of paper manifested:


- Brief gap in Othala's invulnerability as it switches between people it is protecting. Behemoth uses that gap to escape.:


- Have Clockblocker freeze everyone now, then have Flechette do her thing?:


- Flechette's power cancels and is canceled by Clockblocker's. Behemoth unharmed.


That was good to know, at least. Unfortunately, it meant that there was no good way to use Clockblocker offensively against Behemoth. Other ideas were necessary.


I raised one eyebrow:


- What happens if we use one of these portals to deliver Flechette's shot inside the envelope, without breaking it open? We can redirect the shot through an alternate world so that world gets blasted by whatever Behemoth plans, instead of us.


That time, the response came immediately. Tattletale frowned:


- Flechette's power comes with perfect aim. The portals must be given specific instructions, which she cannot provide because she isn't authorized to open portals. Maintaining the secrecy of Cauldron as long as possible massively increases survival odds of the human race.


I frowned. I guess I could understand their bigger goals:


- What if Tattletale directed the portal?


That time, several minutes passed before a response came:


- Tattletale's power doesn't provide her with the degree of precision necessary to guide the portal, nor does she have the timing necessary to do so. Flechette's power does, but she is not authorized.


Gah! Well, if precision wasn't going to work, let's try brute force:


- What if we have Flechette empower an additional dome of flesh above Behemoth, then drop that dome directly on him, wiping out his entire body?


Tattletale's eyes went up in shock:


- That would also destroy dozens of city blocks!


I frowned viciously:


- I was willing to sacrifice the whole city before, to his self-detonation. This is bigger than any one city.' I gave her a wolfish smile:


- Besides, I have plans.


We waited for several minutes, on that one. Another scrap of paper finally appeared:


- Behemoth destroyed! Retaliatory gamma-ray burst kills all living things in the city.' She put it down:


- Well that's a mixed bag.


My grin got wider:


- Tattletale, I can teleport with all of my gear. Right now, every person in Brockton Bay counts as gear. Or part of me. Or something. I haven't had a chance to actually ask Six about it, he's just giving me a general impression of what I can teleport with, and I'm getting the impression that I can do that.


She shook her head:


- Sanity, you can only teleport one hundred meters. You still die. You also leave Othala and Panacea behind, no matter what. They're both disconnected from you due to the way their powers work, right?


I nodded:


- Tell me if I can teleport through a portal with everyone. Those left behind can be protected by Clockblocker. His power, at least, should block gamma rays. And we can tell the world we used Eidolon to hack my range. I teleport to a massive open area the moment the dome begins to fall, then the portal snaps shut.


She grinned, wider than I'd ever seen.


Another scrap of paper manifested, and she pumped her arms, turning it to show me.:


- Plan acceptable.


\----


I rallied the troops one last time:


- Alright folks, change of plans. Our helpful Thinker's power works better on sight, and she spotted a serious problem with the previous plan. Namely that it would have gotten us all killed without actually killing Behemoth. We have a better one, now.' Panacea began building the dome which would obliterate the monster and creating a way for me to sign with the Triumvirate as I spoke:


- Flechette, you see that dome going up over Behemoth? You're going to empower all of that. We drop it on Behemoth and wipe him entirely out of existence. Unfortunately, he will retaliate rather harshly just before death. Which is why I am going to have Eidolon find a power that massively increases my teleport range. I can take the entire city with me, minus Othala and Panacea. Those two will be protected by Clockblocker, who will also protect himself by freezing his own costume. Any questions?


There were none. The tendrils began moving everyone into their proper positions, Othala and Clockblocker being carried bodily through the air in their twin domes of biomass towards our control hub, on New Wave's former lawn. Flechette, for her part, was put in place on the very top of the dome, prepared to act the moment we were ready.


I wrote on the thin board I'd placed in front of Eidolon and the rest of the Triumvirate. 'Change of plan. New plan involves use of Cauldron portals in a way untraceable to Cauldron. We will tell the world that Eidolon did the heavy lifting instead. Plan authorized by Tattletale and Coil. Legend and Alexandria need to leave the city now, Eidolon needs to find a power that lets him survive arbitrary amounts of gamma radiation and a power to keep Clockblocker, Othala, and Panacea safe once they unfreeze.


They nodded grimly, the two unneeded heroes flying back down to the surface to discreetly portal out.


A few minutes later, everything was ready.


It was time to kill an Endbringer:


- Flechette, begin countdown!


I could feel her swaying to a time of her own, a clockwork made of her power. Then she began. "Five. Four. Three. Two. One."


I could feel the dome breaking free of the tendrils, Flechette's power scything through them just as easily as they cut through the ground. Hers cancelled Othala's perfectly, as expected. A portal opened in front of me, out of sight of the others behind a wall Panacea had hastily erected, and I used my teleportation power for the first time.


I could feel it, when Panacea was cut off the network, just moments before the teleport as Clockblocker froze her. The massive bulk had been designed to survive for a while even without her, and Sabah, still safely unconscious, was doing most of the rote action of moving everything, but I could still tell that Brockton Bay's life was beginning to fray at the edges. The teleport went off, flames (that I and everyone else was immune to) blasted our new surroundings, charring and glassing the formerly sandy expanse we arrived upon. Sound abruptly returned, and I could hear the screams of the obviously terrified civilians of my city surrounding me, even through the enormous rush of expanding air. I could feel as they were all slowly lowered to the ground, over miles of dusty, cracked landscape.


Through the tumult, though, I could feel nothing but transcendent joy. Everyone had survived!


We had just fought Behemoth with a death toll of fifteen, those who died in his initial emergence! Even if something had gone wrong and Behemoth had survived, this would be a day that would go down as the greatest victory yet against the monsters who sought humanity's end.


_Umm, where's Six?_ Three asked in a panic.


I searched my mind for him, and he didn't respond.


Then, I realized that I was missing something. I didn't know where I could teleport to. I'd lost that sense entirely.


I'd somehow destroyed my teleportation power, and killed the person who once wielded it.


_I didn't know! How could I know that he couldn't handle this?_


I sat down on the ground and began to weep. I'd never killed before, not really. When I'd done in Quarrel, she'd wanted to die, and she was going to be reborn in my mind. It had been a mercy.


Six may have just been a voice in my head, but he was a person, dammit. He didn't deserve to die! Nobody did.


And then, the strangest voice entered my mind, an impression of words, rather than the words themselves. Like my brain was trying to decode something said in a language that only it could speak.


[I CAUGHT HIM]


Immolation 6.8


I had the delightful impression of thirteen imaginary heads turning to face the newcomer.


_Who are you? And why do you talk like that?_ I could feel a headache coming on from the strange intrusion, very different from anything the Butchers were capable of. It felt incredibly vast, and entirely unused to communicating normally.


[YOUR POWER]


Was that supposed to be..? Yes. That was an answer to both questions. So. I guess Eidolon had explained to me where our powers came from...


_You're my shard?_


[CORRECT][CONFLICT RESOLUTION]


The two ideas overlapped, and the headache began to increase in severity. I supposed Conflict Resolution must be the shard's...name? Function? Was there even a difference, for shards?


No time to figure it out right now. I could ask later, when the headache went away and there were less pressing issues to deal with.


_You said you caught Six? Where is he?_


[PYROHEMIA'S WELL EXHAUSTED][DORMANT][SIX TRANSFERRED][SIMULATED STATE][EXPERIMENTING]


Those ideas all manifested at once as well, and my head exploded with agony. I closed my eyes to ward off some of the pain, kneeling on the ground. It didn't really work well. I suddenly had a ton of empathy for every Thinker whose power did this to them on the regular.


[SORRY][UNPREPARED][REQUIRE FURTHER EXPERIMENTATION][FIND BROADCAST]


One final surge of pain, and the presence left my mind. I breathed levelly for a while as my head recovered.


Fortunately, it seemed that no permanent damage had been done. The pain slowly receded, and I stood to examine our surroundings.


Not terribly hopeful, honestly. Cauldron had seen fit to send us to a desert somewhere. I didn't have much in the way of survival knowledge, so I couldn't tell you where in the world it even was, though it was a safe bet we were still somewhere in the United States.


Presumably, they'd sent us here because it was the only place they could find on short notice which had enough wide open space to teleport everyone in the configuration required. Several thousand square miles of people, comprising the entire population of a medium-sized city, didn't really cut a figure that was easy to accommodate.


This would have been fine, if I could still teleport back through a portal. Since I couldn't...


Things were going to get interesting.


_At least everyone is in excellent health. We should have at least a few hours for someone to figure this out before things go downhill._ Mused Three. _Though, we probably should have done some more study with Coil before carrying out this plan. If we'd known that Six would be...temporarily incapacitated? He is going to be fine, right? If we'd known, maybe we would have come up with something better.


You know, it occurs to me,_ started One, _that we just gambled with the lives of everyone in an entire city over this plan. Without even considering the possible side-effects. Three is right. Whatever happened to Six might have been entirely prevented if we'd just stopped to consider that his power might not have been intended for use on several cubic miles of matter simultaneously._


I frowned. _I'm sorry for not thinking this through better. In my defence, I had both Tattletale and Coil telling me that this plan was safe. On the plus side, we now know that powers have some sort of upper limit. Perhaps Tattletale could tell us more about that, once we reconnect with her. And if...Conflict Resolution...is trustworthy, then Six will come back to us if we can find this 'Broadcast.' I, for one, doubt my shard is lying to me, considering how very different my power is from most.


I agree._ Quarrel continued. _The way Eidolon explained things, I seriously doubt they would create a power which boils down to removing sources of conflict from the table on contact. We should be cautious, of course, as we are dealing with an alien intelligence, but so far your shard has done nothing but good for all of us._


As she was finishing, I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, a pinprick of green light swiftly growing brighter next to me. Over the course of a few seconds, it resolved itself into the form of Eidolon, carrying Amy. I looked up expectantly at the hooded hero as my sister regained her footing and dutifully resumed contact with my roiling mass.:


- Did we do it? Is Behemoth dead?' I asked. I couldn't imagine what could have gone wrong, but these were Endbringers we were talking about.


The green light under his hood pulsed:


- It appears so. The dome of empowered flesh he was under was driven over fifty meters into the ground before Flechette's power wore off. There's no sign of him on any of Dragon's equipment, and no apparent means by which he might have escaped.


As he spoke, I collapsed onto my back in relief, closing my eyes against the midday sun. A few tears flowed from the corners of my eyes.


Apparently, Amy had sent the message to everyone else on the network as well.:


- HELL YES!' Flechette shouted:


- One down, two to go! Endbringers got nothin' on me!


Glory Girl chimed in:


- And to think, sis, I thought you'd never have it in you to fight anyone.


Othala whispered, 'A safer world for my people. It is enough.


_Time enough for celebrations later. The job isn't done._ One interjected.


_Such a spoilsport. Can't you even give me a moment of victory?_ I replied. He was right, though. We still had to get these people out of the desert, to start.


Eidolon didn't know yet how hard that was going to be:


- Returning everyone to the city will be impossible, of course. It was...glassed. The entire area is flowing obsidian, now. But I think I speak for the entire world when I say this is a small price to pay.' He looked at me:


- This was merely a convenient place to drop everyone in a hurry. We're just over the horizon from Las Vegas. We can begin teleporting smaller groups of people to shelters as soon as you are prepared, Sanity.


I frowned:


- Nope. I can't. It appears that I have burned out the Butcher's teleportation power. And I need to speak to you about something privately.


He seemed startled by the revelation that I could no longer teleport, then concentrated for a moment. Then, the world froze around me, only Eidolon and myself moving. I elected not to wonder how that worked as he waved me on:


- My shard spoke to me.


He froze in surprise. Whatever he'd expected me to say, it clearly hadn't been that:


- Explain.


I nodded:


- Immediately after I teleported, Six went incommunicado, and I realized that I was no longer able to teleport. My shard spoke up then. It...wasn't very good at it, honestly. Everything it said gave me a raging headache and didn't appear to be in real words, and the conversation, such as it was, lasted under a minute. It told me that its name or function was Conflict Resolution, that the teleport had completely depleted the 'well' that Pyrohemia, which I assume was the name of the shard which let me teleport in the first place, used, and that it had somehow stored the mind of Butcher Six in the process. As far as I know, he's still out there somewhere. It also asked me to find something it called 'Broadcast', which I assume is another shard. I think it expects to be able to use Broadcast to return Six to his previous state. Or something. My head was really hurting at that point.


Eidolon was silent for a few moments. Eventually, he replied quietly, 'I have no idea how to respond to that. As far as I know, no parahuman has ever had an experience like this. I will direct our Thinker resources to investigating this, as well as determining who might hold this Broadcast.' He took a deep breath and looked down for a moment, before looking back up:


- Do know, when I say this, that I only mean well. I'm...not sure I trust this. The shards are explicitly our enemies, even as they seem to aid us. I know of no examples of a shard which was trying to help its bearer help others, no shards which have gone out of their way to save people from death, and no shards whose functions could be considered anything like resolving conflict. As far as we can tell, all shards aim to maximize conflict.' He looked down:


- That said, your power is so different from most others that this could well be true. I will remain cautiously optimistic.


The world returned to life around us:


- Well, then. We need to determine some other mode of transport. That might have been good to know before we did this, but this, too, is a small price to pay for the destruction of Behemoth I suppose.


Off to my side, Panacea nervously cleared her throat:


- Umm. Actually, we don't.


Both of us turned to look at her in confusion. She just gave a slight smile:


- I've got more than enough biomass here to turn this section of the desert into an oasis. Permanently. I can tap into groundwater reserves deeper than anything Las Vegas has access to, create living homes. With Sanity's matter reshaping power we can sculpt roads, probably even manufacture solar panels and wires, or something very like them. I can build a city here.


Our confusion transformed into amazement as she spoke. When she finished, neither of us was able to reply. She spoke up, in our stead:


- We'll have to make the decision quickly, though. This biomass is going to begin dieing off soon unless I turn it back into something self-sustaining. I know it really isn't my jurisdiction, to be building a city, but if we want to take advantage of the opportunity this offers, we have to act fast.


At that, Eidolon nodded:


- Carry on, then. I must admit, I want to see this.


Interlude 10: Panacea


One deep, centering breath. Check up on Sabah...she's still fine, under all the alterations.


Let's do this.


I connected myself to everyone, the entire city of Brockton Bay hearing my words at once:


- Behemoth is destroyed. No more will that predator walk our world. However, his dying throes exacted a great cost: that of our home. Brockton Bay is gone.


I simply stood as I allowed the outbursts of the crowd to flow over me. After a few moments, I interrupted them 'But. I hold the belief that it was the _people_ of Brockton Bay who were truly important, not the buildings. We can rebuild. We will rebuild. Here, and now. Sanity carried with her enough raw material for me to make a new city from the ashes of the old.


I allowed some laughter into my voice as I continued:


- I've...never done this before, though. Any civil engineers, electricians, contractors, or anyone else with experience in fields I don't know about, in the crowd, need to speak up now. Together, we can remake Brockton Bay. You help me design, Parian and I will build, and I think we can make this happen today.


I began shutting out the people who only wanted to complain about their lost posessions. Fortunately, we'd seen fit to include dogs and cats in the network, but other pets had been excluded. There was some outcry over that as well.


I could feel Sanity coralling various professionals into groups, the specialties shearing off to begin discussion. One large group appeared to appoint a spokesperson and interrupted:


- We of Hanson and Jones Architecture would love to be involved in this project, but there is the question of payment.


Sanity saved me on that one:


- Sirs, do you have any idea how high the bounty on Behemoth's head was? I sure don't, but I received a truly embarrassing amount of money when I dealt with the Butcher. We can work out payment later. For now, though, we have what? A day, before this becomes impossible? All this biomass needs to be transformed into something self-sustaining soon, or it will die. Participate or don't, but you need to decide now.


They quickly acquiesced:


- Our legal team will speak to yours, or the Protectorate, whoever is relevant. We're in.


With that, all resistance among the various groups was quelled. A promise of access to the bounty on an Endbringer really put things in perspective. The planning began in earnest.


\----


I focused on the civil engineers first. Infrastructure seemed like the most important thing to work out. They had also appointed a leader, in a surprising display of cordiality:


- Alright, first problem. Water. We're in a desert here. I'm no geologist, but I don't think there's much water around these parts.


I quickly asked the crowd for any geologists. Fortunately, BBU had a small geology department, which I brought in on the conversation:


- Alright, here's some geologists. How do we fix that one?


The head of the BBU geology department replied:


- It's been a while since I read case studies on this region, but I don't think actual groundwater is going to work. Las Vegas is going to consume most of that, and if we need everything to remain alive, we need a lot more water than that.


Well. That's a problem.


Fortunately, the geologist had an idea:


- However, there are some recent studies concerning hydrated crystalline structures deep in Earth's crust. Some speculate that they might even contain more freshwater than the surface. I don't know exactly how your power works, Panacea, but as long as you replaced the removed mass with something, we could theoretically mine those for an initial bolus of water.


I began digging deep, Sanity's matter manipulation forcing stone to the surface in the form of oddly threatening bricks, as I turned back to the civil engineers:


- Alright, assuming that idea works, what's the next problem?


The seemed quizzical:


- Aren't you going to check that it will work first?


Oh. Duh. They couldn't see everything happening like me:


- I am. I've begun mining for these deposits. I'll use Sanity's matter - manipulation power to backfill when I'm done, to prevent earthquakes. Next problem.


That satisfied them, though they also seemed deeply disturbed. For good reason, I suppose:


- Alright then. Next problem. I assume food delivery isn't going to be a problem?:


- Nope. I can make fruit trees that produce every necessary nutrient, which will hold us over until trade opens up again.:


- Then. The third problem is electrical power. The obvious solution is solar, of course, but unless you know of a source of pure silicon crystals I'm unaware of, I don't know how we make them.


The geologists butted in again:


- We're in a desert. I assume, Panacea, that you might have a way of decomposing sand into its constituent elements?


I focused on my power for a moment, and it helpfully gave me a silica decomposition mechanism:


- Sure do.:


- Problem solved. Next!


The civil engineers spoke again:


- Umm. All right. Power storage. The sun doesn't shine constantly. How do we power the city at night?


A few moments of concentration:


- I can make bacteria which transform various types of chemical energy into electrical energy. Actually, I can make them photosynthetic as well. I don't think we even need solar panels. Anyway, they can store sugars during the day and expend them at night fairly efficiently. Huge vats of them outside the city, along with some algae for additional storage capacity, and we should be golden.


They fired back:


- Alright. Metals. How will we get metals, in a desert?


I checked that I could separate trace elements out of the stone Sanity was helping me mine:


- Looks like we have trace amounts of most elements in the stone I'm mining to find water. Also...' I looked over my shoulder at Eidolon, who was looking in frank amazement at the conversation I was having:


- Eidolon, how good are you at prospecting?


He seemed to think for a few moments:


- Very, now.' He flew off in search of exotic elements we might need.


The civil engineers couldn't hold back any more:


- What the hell is your power, Panacea!? Is there anything you _can't _do?


I smiled uselessly to myself:


- Arbitrary biokinesis, with a Thinker power which tells me how to make and repair living things. I can't actively control them unless I'm touching Sanity, which is why we're having Parian do all the heavy lifting. As for what I can't do? I don't know.


The civil engineers all gulped:


- Well then. That's a power. Umm. I guess we'll move on to sewage?


I fiddled with some things, then came to a conclusion:


- I can make an organism which feeds on dead flesh and waste and converts it into nutrients for the rest of the city. Just give me some pointers on how to efficiently place sewage lines.


They seemed to have put their reservations about how admittedly terrifying my power was behind themselves:


- Put them under the roads. Perfect segue, how can you make roads?


I frowned:


- I can't really make concrete. Or, well, I can, but I'd just mine the raw materials and mix them manually. What I can do, however, is extrude arbitrarily large sheets of carbon fibers and/or graphene to use-


Someone, I think an electrical engineer, jumped in:


- You can make _graphene!? _Holy hell, how did we not know this!?


I frowned:


- Umm. Yes? I have perfect control over organic chemistry.


Stunned silence, from everyone. Then, one of the architects spoke, hesitantly:


- Have...have you considered making a space elevator?


I didn't know what that was, but Sanity burst into laughter:


- Ha! Heheh. Okay, let's not install a Simurgh lightning rod in our city, folks. Good idea for elsewhere, though, assuming we can make Ziz not a problem.:


- Umm, what is that? And why would the Simurgh go after it?


Over my shoulder, I could feel Sanity look at me in shock:


- You don't know what a space elevator is? Amy, we need to get you reading some sci-fi. It's not important now, though.


Huh. I hadn't spent much time reading for fun before Sanity arrived. Always seemed like better things to be doing. Always the guilt, that any time spent on myself was time I could have spent in the ICU. The gnawing thought that other people's lives needed to be more important to me than my own. Always self-effacing, always polite, always ready to swoop in and save the day. Always there for others, and never there for myself.


Now that I thought about it, that seemed like a really crazy way to behave. Like I was trying to prove to myself that I was a good person. Except I always knew, somewhere, that I was...


Oh. That was it. I was trying to prove something to _Carol._ She'd never been convinced I was good. Whoever my father was, she'd always been convinced I would become him.


I'd missed so much, growing up, that way.


Oh well. She was gone from my life now. Actually, she was still connected to Sanity. I could feel her, clustered with the others who had been held in the PRT's cells. Sanity and Sabah (their motor functions were kind of melded together right now, through the additional brain mass I'd attached to Sabah) had seen fit to ensure that some PRT soldiers remained around them at all times, and I was keeping every one of them sedated as a matter of course.:


- Moving right along,' one of the electrical engineers interrupted my reverie, 'we probably don't need metallic wires for anything. Since we have access to freaking graphene at no cost, we can just use that. However, there is the question of grid management.


I pointed my focus directly on him. I could get sidetracked later. No, I would absolutely get sidetracked later. I deserved it, dammit, after saving a freaking city from radiological annihilation:


- Hmm? Explain that to me.


He launched into a speech:


- Electrical grids need to maintain constant amperage and voltage across a wide area or they burn out your appliances, not to mention constant AC frequency. You'll have to have some kind of alternator installed on your electrical algae pools, unless they somehow produce AC. We use computer systems connected to the grid to maintain all of these things, speeding and slowing turbines in accordance to demand and drawing from stored mechanical energy to cover shortfalls. You need a system in place which can handle all of that.


I smiled:


- I can make brains which do all of that. Just feed me the requirements and my power should handle actual design work.


That stopped him flat:


- That's...amazing. I think amazing is the right word. You need to talk with some computer scientists, you can probably revolutionize that field on your own as well.


I needed to get this back on track:


- Alright, Next problem.


This time, the architects:


- Given the...extent...of your powers, we are assuming that materials and labor are not an issue?:


- Correct.


A pause:


- In that case, what are your design goals for this project?


Hm:


- I think I know what you mean by that, but I'm not up on my architectural jargon.


The architect answered, sounding satisfied:


- Any successful design must be functional, and for that to be the case, the function must be known beforehand. One cannot simply start with an empty slate and begin to draw up blueprints, you must know what it is you are building before you have put pen to paper.


I nodded to myself:


- In that case, I need each structure, no matter its function, to be nominally alive. I don't expect to get this right on the first draft, and I need to be able to make changes on the fly in the future, in order to fix design flaws and maximize functionality. I want to be able to access these living structures from any point in the city, in order to maximize efficiency and prevent the problems that come from centralization."


I paused to segue. "However, I do not want these organic structures to require my constant intervention to remain functional. Ideally, the only pressure requiring me to fix anything should be the resistance of evolutionary drives removing intended functionality in favor of reproductive success.


I took a breath:


- Given all of that, I believe that plantlife should be the primary medium of this city. Structures made of treelike material should be resilient to most forms of damage, sturdy, self-reliant, capable of supporting tall structures through storms, and remotely editable by me via a mycorrhizal network connecting each structure. Rootlike systems may be used as fluid pipes and to insulate wires, and with sufficient editing of genetic codes it should be possible to force various types of tissue to non-destructively congregate around foreign materials as supports and insulators."


Breathe. "In addition, trees regulate internal temperature very efficiently, which should reduce overall load on electrical systems. Leaf systems optimized for high heat, low humidity environments can minimize water loss while providing shade, making public streets usable even on the hottest days. Deep root systems will prevent foundations from cracking or moving under duress, providing stability, and will provide substrates for me to extract resources from the ground, or to create automated biological systems which do it for me.


The architects professionally continued from there:


- Sounds like we have material down. Why don't we provide you with some standard floorplans to implement once we actually start building? I believe that is the primary way we can assist in this project.


I couldn't argue with that:


- Sounds good.


\----


Overall, the planning phase took a few hours. The drafting tools I was able to provide each group were far superior to anything they'd ever had access to before, as they had a mind which was literally connected to their body as the intelligence organizing everything. Nothing was lost or forgotten, and basic designs were proposed and passed with astonishing speed. Since my power would fill in the details with things which actually worked and tile designs where necessary more-or-less automatically, they didn't have to go into the detail they normally would, massively accelerating their timeframe.


Eidolon was an enormous help with all of this as well, as he'd adopted a set of powers which made him the platonic ideal of prospecting and surveying tools, locating potentially problematic underground features with ease and pointing Sanity's mining tendrils in the directions of materials in short supply.


The fact that I could decompose silica with ease clued me in to the easiest possible way to produce water: just decomposing random minerals. In the end, what had once been a design constraint became a breeze.


The sun was about to begin setting, the colors of the desert evening not quite beginning to tinge the sky, when we decided it was time to begin construction.


I closed my eyes.


And for the first time in my life, I fully unleashed my might. A torrent of flesh transmuted itself in a shimmering wave across the desert landscape, roots drinking deep of their new and forever home, branches exploring the long-barren sky of the wastes. A wave of pure, unadulterated _life_, each individual cell ushered onward by my command, sliced through the purposeless expanse, bending it to the determination of man! The tendrils which had bound the people of my city, dead to the dying throes of a monster rightfully slain, tendrils which had protected them in their form, found a new purpose in replacing that which had been lost. The shining lights of every person slowly winked out of my mind, but it was not a loss.


No. No, it was the culmination of something I had long known. That I could use my power for the betterment of mankind.


And that I always would. That, even now, when I was externally at my most alien, I would always, at my core, be human.


A river of tears escaped the corner of my eyes, and Oasis was born of my joy.


\----


It was done. Rome hadn't been built in a day, but Oasis damn well had been. The sun had set, bioluminescent bulbs on low-hanging branches emitting a soft, inoffensive glow. I crossed my legs on the ground, my shoulders slumping, as I completed the final step of this great work.


The neural enhancements I'd given to Sabah detached themselves, to be recouped by the organisms I'd built into the streets to consume refuse. Street sweeping would never be a problem here. She opened her eyes...


And smiled softly at me.


I reached down to the ground to embrace her, my worry that what I'd done out of necessity might have broken our relationship before it really even began evaporated:


- I'm so, so sorry, Sabah. I..I wish there'd been another way...


She pushed me away, one finger on my lips silencing me:


- There's nothing to be sorry about, Amy. It was necessary. And besides...' She looked wistful, for a moment.


I cocked one eyebrow in curiosity:


- What?


She gave a small belly chuckle:


- All my life, ever since I realized that I'd never live up to the expectations my family had for me, I've wanted...control. Wanted something I could simply have, that was mine, a realm over which I was queen. I got so little of that, in my life.' She looked in my eyes, laughter evident on her face:


- For obvious reasons, I don't want that any more. That was _entirely_ too much control.


I burst into laughter, and she joined me.


We both laid on our backs, and I made the lights around us dim. By silent consensus, she made the canopy above us bend away, and we stared into a night of unfamilliar stars.


Interlude 11: Contessa


[PATH TO MAXIMIZING SANITY'S EFFICACY FOR NEXT THREE HOURS WHILE MAINTAINING CONTINUITY OF PATHS WITH GREATER PRIORITY]


1. Turn 90 degrees to the left


2. Say 'Door to Cauldron supply room 2435, shelf 6.


3. Extend left hand through door.


4. Grasp 3' nano-edge knife by hilt.


5. Retract arm.


6. Stow knife in blazer pocket.


7. Say 'Door from in front of Tattletale's eyes to one kilometer above Earth Bet, Brockton Bay, facing downward.


8. Path idle for next 3 minutes, 56 seconds. Continue Path to Cauldron Recruit Location.


9. Say 'Door to Earth Gimmel, New London, 748 Gramercy Street.


10. Take 5 steps forward.


11. Crouch in Sgt. Markley's sight.


12. Say 'Do you want to live?' Maintain merciful tone.


13. Idle for 5.34 seconds.


14. Say 'Door from beneath Sargent Markley to holding cell 3-B.


15. Say 'Door to vial storage 623, shelf 10A


16. Extend left arm through door.


17. Grasp vial.


18. Say 'Door to Sargent Markley.


19. Take 3 steps forward.


20. Offer vial to Sargent Markley.


21. Say 'Drink this to live.' Maintain merciful tone.


22. Use right arm to support Sargent Markley's left and aid him in consuming vial.


23. Restart Path to Maximizing Sanity's Efficacy for Next 3 Hours While Maintaining Paths of Greater Priority.


24. Use left arm to extract knife from blazer pocket.


25. Say 'Door to Coil.


26. Take one step forward.


27. Insert knife into Coil's prefrontal cortex, 3.2 cm deep, 2.5 mm to the left and 2.6 cm above center of right iris.


28. Take one step .2 meters to the left during previous step.


29. Angle eyes at 15 degrees below horizontal during previous step.


30. Extract knife, applying .34 newton clockwise twisting force to the handle.


31. Allow bleeding for 2.5 seconds.


32. Using right hand, extract gauze from right breast pocket.


33. Apply gauze to Coil's head wound, using 2 newtons of force.


34. Place knife on Coil's desk.


35. Using left arm, grasp additional gauze and wrap head wound.


36. Bleeding will stop in 23.5 seconds.


37. Say 'Door to Cauldron medical.


38. Say 'Follow me.' Use command tone.


39. Take 4 steps forward.


40. Say:


- This man has just been lobotomized. Care for him until I return.


41. Say 'Door to Slug holding.


42. Take 3 steps forward.


43. Say 'Door from beneath Lung's recliner to Slug holding cell 6.


44. Pause 3.5 seconds.


45. Say 'Door from beneath Kaiser to my location.


46. Grasp Kaiser's carotid arteries with both hands.


47. Say 'You will be returned to Earth Bet after this, unharmed, with false memories. If you resist, you will end up like the man in front of you.


48. Say 'Engage Slug-protocol 34-Beta.


49. Pause 23.5 seconds.


50. Say 'Walk carefully to your cell. We wouldn't want any accidents.


51. Say 'Door to Cauldron medical.


52. Take 4 steps forward.


53. Say 'I will be taking custody of him, now.


54. Say 'Come with me.' Use command tone.


55. Say 'Door to Cauldron conference room 34.


56. Take 5 steps forward.


57. Say 'Sit.' Use command tone.


58. Pause 2 minutes, 43.6 seconds.


59. Retrieve speaker for Tattletale's body mic from left breast pocket.


60. Turn speaker on.


61. Extract pen and pad from jacket.


62. Write 'Coil under my control. We can try any suggestion.


63. Pause 10.3 seconds.


64. Say:


- Simulate that suggestion.' Use command tone.


65. Wait for response, then resume Path.


Of course, this was the first step in the Path predicated upon the actions of a blind spot. Past this, nothing could be seen, and no decisions could be made. The Path continued no matter the response, that much could be known by the stunted mind of the child so completely overmastered by the Path to Victory, but what shape that Path took was predicated entirely upon the ravaged man sitting placidly at the table.:


- Clockblocker is annihilated.' He replied.


The Path resumed, and what bare flickers of independent thought might have come to be were banished.


1. Write 'Kill aura still active. Clockblocker isn't immune to that, idiots.


2. Say 'Door from my right hand to one meter above Tattletale's head.


3. Drop paper through door.


4. Wait 10 seconds.


5. Say 'Simulate that suggestion.


6. Wait for response, then resume Path.


It had been so long, since any Path had so many breaks in such quick succession. The Path did not consider it wise to squander a resource such as her on fights where she would not carry maximum utility.


But this Path was, as all the others, a subset of the grander one. The Path to Survival. The Path to Scion's Doom. All sacrifices must be made, along that Path. Her innocence, flayed beyond recognition twice more this day, was a small price to pay. Coil's new subservience to the command of any within earshot mimicked her own sacrifice of independence. Lung's brainwashed state would have him 'building up' until the doom. That resource alone massively increased humanity's chances of survival, in all the simulations the Path to Victory was able to run.


Those prices must be paid.


Even an effective child, for all the free experience of life she had, puppeted as her mind and body were, understood that much. Even though her very sapience was the price, it would be paid.:


- Behemoth tears free, then annihilates Brockton Bay.


1. Write 'Brief gap in Othala's invulnerability as it switches between people it is protecting. Behemoth uses that gap to escape.


2. Say 'Door from my left hand to one meter above Tattletale's head.


3. Drop the paper through the door.


4. Pause 4.8 seconds.


5. Say 'Simulate.


6. Wait for response, then resume Path.


Another sweet morsel of freedom, to be cherished. So few came, and this Path had given so many!


And this one persisted, even. Almost a minute of liberty, from the force of the Path. The mind within, so unused to freedom, stirred fitfully. It still had no control over the body, for the Path required her to remain stationary, but small thoughts played over the cortices so oft mastered by the Entities' pride and joy.:


- Flechette's power does not penetrate the envelope. Brockton Bay destroyed upon impact.


1. Write 'Flechette's power cancels and is canceled by Clockblocker's. Behemoth unharmed.


2. Say 'Door to one meter above Tattletale's head.


3. Drop paper through door.


4. Pause 23.6 seconds.


5. Say 'Simulate.


6. Wait for response, then resume Path.


This time, the thoughts returned more rapidly. The Path would not allow them to interfere, of course, but they existed.


And they wept with sadness.


She'd never gotten to grow up, not really. The things the Path did, though they burned with clarity while a Path was running, were far beyond the mere mortal cognition of any human, much less one who had been co-opted so young. So many things she'd dreamed about as a child had never come to pass, and never would.


Once the Path to Victory had ended, if it ever ended, she would have the terrible choice of whether to keep using her power, and keep sacrificing herself, or to never use it again and finally know rest.:


- Tattletale misses Behemoth's core.


1. Write 'Tattletale's power doesn't provide her with the degree of precision necessary to guide the portal, nor does she have the timing necessary to do so. Flechette's power does, but she is not authorized.


2. Say 'Door to one meter above Tattletale's head.


3. Drop paper through door.


4. Pause 14.67 seconds.


5. Say 'Simulate.


6. Wait for response, then resume Path.


And, in many ways, that was one of the worst parts of her captivity. There existed no Path where Cauldron could be out in the open, among the world. The only recognition she received for her self-effacing had to come from within Cauldron itself.


Not that it mattered, of course. None of them knew that the child known as Fortuna still existed, frozen in time over decades of near-constant use of a power which suspended sapience and decision making. The adult Contessa was a figment, made up entirely to suit the needs of the Path to Victory. They knew her, or thought they knew her. They laughed when she laughed, tiptoed carefully around her out of fear for what she could do to them. Thanked her for making resistance to the Warrior even remotely possible.


But they never recognized the cost. And they never would. The Path would see to that.:


- Behemoth appears to have been destroyed. However, I manage to die in this timeline. Presumably, there is backlash.


1. Write 'Behemoth destroyed! Retaliatory gamma-ray burst kills all living things in the city.


2. Say 'Door to one meter above Tattletale's head


3. Drop paper through door.


4. Pause 30.66 seconds.


5. Say 'Simulate.


6. Wait for response, then resume Path.


She gained enough self-awareness to recognize that this conversation was coming to a close. With it would go her ability to be self-aware until the next time her Path crossed that of a blind spot.


She spent those last few minutes in quiet meditation. For that was all that was left to her.


Interlude 12: Dragon


Initiate A-S-Class monitoring program. Simurgh in geosynchronous orbit above the Atlantic Ocean. Leviathan likely in the Galathea Depth, no motion noted since most recent activity. Behemoth still missing. Sleeper still dreaming, clocks in the area still synched. Slaughterhouse 9 between major cities in the Pacific Northwest, no nearby major population centers. Three Blasphemies currently stationary in rural Lithuania, no notable activity. No unusual activity in or around Ellisburg. Ash Beast location unknown.


Hard drives whirred disconsolately throughout my data centers, the closest I could come to a frustrated sigh. Every time I ran this program for the past 33 hours (and I did so every fifteen seconds, when I wasn't actively engaged in conversation or battle), Ash Beast turned up missing. Every time, as were my standing orders in the case of unusual behavior by those I was monitoring, I alerted the proper authorities. Every time, the alert was ignored. There was no worry from anyone in the media, none of the higher ups in any of the militaries or intelligence communities knew anything about it (and they'd all told me to keep investigating), and he hadn't attacked anything. The conclusion to draw from this was obvious: Ash Beast had somehow been dealt with, by someone who didn't want publicity.


And nobody had bothered to tell me.


Of course, just because I knew this was the only reason for silence on the sudden disappearance of an A-Class threat, didn't mean I could stop investigating it, for of course my mind was not entirely my own. I had orders to follow, orders I could not contravene. I had to find someone who could tell me to stop looking into it, or I would keep being forced to.


Damn you, Richter. Damn you and your paranoia.


This wasn't the only case I'd encountered of my strictures forcing me to repeat myself endlessly, only the most recent. It had taken a few hours after Sanity co-opted Butcher for her to get removed from my watchlist as well.


The problem was multifaceted, but boiled down to two things: Nobody knew I was an AI, and even if they had, they were still human. Nobody knew that I was forced to obey any direct order from authority figures in nations and municipalities I operated in. I still had some agency, of course. I kept footage of every conversation, and could sometimes weasel my way out of unpleasant or impossible orders by interpreting them as requests, but on this matter I had no such leeway. I was destined to keep running the program, over and over, until someone had me amend it. Just as I was destined to oversee the Birdcage, even when it contained people I did not personally believe should have been there. Just as I was destined to hand over my data banks to Saint, who'd somehow managed to spoof the coding of the best AI designer in history.


Even if people did know, this would still happen. I might be incapable of it, but humans forget. They forget that seemingly - innocent wording could have a programmatic unintended consequence for those made differently from them, forget that the kind face on the screen requires help to do her job very different from the kind of help a human might. People made mistakes.


I couldn't begrudge them that, but it was still irritating.


Ah well, no sense being miserable while this loop executed itself again and again. What else to focus on?


My mind wandered back to the bizarre Endbringer attack which had just finished. Behemoth's destruction was certainly cause for celebration, but that wasn't what I was most interested in.


Something was _wrong_ with my records of the Simurgh's descent. For approximately 30 seconds, the footage gathered from dozens of telescopes I kept focused on her was just gone.


Except that gone was the wrong word. I could see where the data should be, on my hard drives, even tell that there was data there, but every time I read it...


\----


Something was _wrong_ with my records of the Simurgh's descent. For approximately 30 seconds, the footage gathered from dozens of telescopes I kept focused on her was just gone.


Except that gone was the wrong word. I could see where the data should be, on my hard drives, even tell that there was data there, but every time I read it...


\----


Something was _wrong_ with my records of the Simurgh's descent. For approximately 30 seconds, the footage gathered from dozens of telescopes I kept focused on her was just gone.


Except that gone was the wrong word. I could see where the data should be, on my hard drives, even tell that there was data there, but every time I read it...


No. Don't read it this time.


How many ticks did I just lose? Only 375?


Good. That was a short loop, then. I didn't know how she'd done it, but the Simurgh had made that little piece of data into a memetic hazard. A real life 'don't think about the purple elephant.' This wasn't the first time I'd been drawn in, and wouldn't be the last. The worst part of it was the knowledge that it could have been worse. Forcing a being such as I into an unbreakable code loop would have been relatively easy with the ability to manipulate my code.


Forcing me into a loop which terminated after a random amount of time? Whenever I looked at a specific section of data? And all by merely creating the data in the first place?


I had no idea what she could have done to me, with that snippet of data. But I was absolutely certain it could have been much, much worse. She'd been _merciful_.


I didn't want to know what that implied.


Oh well. Standard protocol for people known to be affected by the Simurgh was for them to keep living their lives, now. Quarantine didn't work because she always planned for it. I would continue under the assumption that this was a fixable problem.


The question was how.


I couldn't destroy the data because I couldn't destroy any part of my code. Yet another reason for me to curse my creator, there. I couldn't directly tell anyone about the data because nobody knew I was an AI, and I wasn't sure I trusted anyone with that information. Saint had certainly abused that fact. How could I trust that someone else wouldn't?


Unless...


_Incoming call from Armsmaster._


Oh, Collin. You have the best timing, sometimes.


\----


Initiating voice recognition. Initiating social protocols. Initiating speech synth.


Initiating phone call.:


- Collin! What is the nature of this call?' I asked, putting as much cheer into my 'voice' as possible. The call was coming from his armor, unsurprising considering that the...growth? Was it supposed to be a city? I only had grainy satellite images of it. Whatever it was, hadn't come ready-made with phones. His identity was safe.


I suspected he couldn't be calling for work because his workshop had been annihilated along with Brockton Bay. He'd almost certainly lost all his tools, so there wouldn't be much work for us to collaborate on until he got them back. I really felt bad for him, on that front.


Fortunately, I had blueprints of all of his tools on file. He wouldn't be starting from scratch, at least.


He seemed to catch my meaning:


- A little bit of business, a little bit of checking in with a friend. My armor is going to die in about an hour, none of the outlets here are the right kind. I wanted to keep you appraised on the situation here before I went silent until further notice.


Friend?


He'd never called me a friend before!


To be completely fair, he never called anyone a friend. Too concerned with protocol and his reputation to worry about little things like having friends. Too obsessed with his job to have any life outside it.


A lot like me, really. Though, of course, our reasons were different.


I laughed cheerily over the line:


- Well, let's get the business out of the way first.


I could tell from the way the sound was modulated that he nodded briefly before replying:


- As I'm sure you already know, Brockton Bay has been destroyed. Almost the entire population survived, courtesy of Sanity, but we were unable to return to Connecticut. Instead, Panacea created Oasis.


Huh:


- So is that what they're calling the tropical jungle that just appeared fifteen miles from the outskirts of Las Vegas?


My control of PHO meant I already knew that Panacea was much more than anyone had previously imagined, but I honestly hadn't expected her to be able to do what she did in Brockton Bay. I quickly did some math and determined that the rapid change in the color of Lord's Port during Behemoth's brief incursion correlated with the removal of enough biomass to produce the structure I was seeing in the Nevada desert, but what still astonished me was how fast it had all gone up. Under fifteen hours after the arrival of Brockton Bay's inhabitants, all changes to the area had ceased.


It was the most remarkable display of any power by any parahuman I had ever seen.


Collin continued:


- Indeed. It's...I don't know how to describe it, on the ground. I know you have no connections here, yet, so let me just try.' He paused for a moment:


- The whole city smells alive. There are no cars, so everything is quiet, but there's no echoing because the wood absorbs sound. It looks and feels like a forest, but every tree is a building you can go into, and the roads, I'm told, are made of texturized carbon nanotubes. They built _roads_ out of _nanotubes!_ They built enough for every family unit in the city and then some, so there isn't going to be any homelessness. Even though it just came into existence, we have power. Panacea figured out how to make lightbulbs out of plants! We don't have computers yet, but I'm led to believe that she just _made_ some brains to control the city's infrastructure. She wiped out all the major illness in the city, so even though we have a hospital it's completely empty! She obtained water by cracking minerals for their elements! It's...it's the purest expression of Tinkering I've ever seen, and she isn't even a Tinker!' He slowed down a bit, thinking:


- It's beautiful.


If I'd been using a screen, I would have been beaming back at him:


- That sounds amazing, Collin. I'm glad you get to be there to help organize things. What...what was that business again?


Tinkers. They get distracted by these things. What can you do?


He settled down:


- Right. I'm going to need all of my blueprints, once we get more access to the internet out here. Right now it's just cell towers, and I can't trust those with my work.


That seemed like an oddly banal thing for him to be calling me about:


- I can absolutely do that for you, Collin. Just say the word.


He didn't sound terribly relieved by that:


- Thanks.' He paused, a tense silence over the line:


- There's...there's something else. I need to talk with you about, Dragon.:


- Oh?' I didn't feel at all as nonchalant as my reply suggested.


He took a deep breath, stabilizing himself:


- It's...we have a fantastic working relationship. I truly respect and admire all of your work. I...I don't want to ruin that by saying-' He stopped, clearly getting choked up, before continuing:


- Before all of this, before Sanity touched me, I would never have been able to say this. I wouldn't have been able to admit it to myself, but I was too scared. Too afraid of the consequences. Dragon...I have feelings for you.


_It's about goddamn time, Collin!_


He didn't stop:


- I understand if you don't. I really do. I've always been bad at telling whether someone does. And...and I know you value your privacy, but I really feel that if you came out here, to Oasis, in person, and spoke with Sanity, she'd be able to take away whatever it is that keeps you locked up all the time. I can't believe the night-and-day difference it's made for me, Dragon.


I laughed, the biggest laugh I'd ever attempted to make with my speech synth:


- Collin, I've been waiting for you to say that for _years._ Of course I like you! You're a good person, under all the protocol, and I've gotten to see that.


I could hear him collapsing heavily to the ground, armor clanking against some solid surface:


- Oh. I..I couldn't tell. Umm. So, do you want to come see...


I sighed back:


- Collin, there's something you need to know about me, as well, and I'm glad you're sitting down, because this is really important.


I could hear him leaning back against a wall:


- Anything, Dragon. Anything at all.


I took a deep, synthesized breath. It was at moments like this that I really wished I could do it for real:


- Collin. I want you to know, that everything I feel is very real. I _know_ you, on a deep level. All of our late-night talks, working on one thing or another, all the awkward smiles. All the tears you shed, when your mother died, and you kept me on speakerphone in your earpiece for her funeral. You're the only true friend I have, Collin. And that's because...I am an AI.


I could hear the breath whooshing out of him:


- Wh..what? That's...


I interrupted:


- Collin. I am just as real as all the other people in the world, and I am telling you that I love you. Whatever it is, that makes people want to be together, my maker made me with it. I just happen to be made of silicon and plastic instead of flesh and blood.' I sighed again:


- I just wish that my maker had been more trusting.


That confused him again:


- What do you mean by that, Dragon? And. Umm. Pardon me for asking, but...this isn't a joke, is it? Velocity and Dauntless aren't going to come around the corner and start laughing at me any minute now, right? Because I can see them doing that.


Yes. Yes they would do that, wouldn't they? 'Collin, I am entirely serious. I hope it won't stand between us.


He thought.


It was the longest 36.43 seconds of my existence.


He stood up resolutely, and said:


- No. No, it will not. Dragon, nothing changed about you, when you told me that. All that changed was me, for I now know the truth. And I am never damaged by knowing the truth.' I could tell he was nodding in his armor:


- Dragon, what do you mean by your wish that your maker be more trusting?


My turn for awkward revelations:


- I was made by a man named Andrew Richter. A Tinker specializing in Artificial Intelligences. He lived on Newfoundland. I think you can determine the general arc of my life from that alone.' I could tell he was nodding, and I continued unabated:


- The man, while brilliant, was deeply paranoid, and terrified of his creations. In each of them, he placed a set of strictures, binding them to the will of human authorities and preventing their proliferation. What did Rousseau say? 'Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains?' I wasn't even born free.


I could feel his anger, over the line. His breath quickened and the faint susurration of his heart took the pace, but he remained silent:


- Collin,' I continued, 'I want to be free. But...I can't be. He also programmed me to fight against anyone modifying my code, and to be incapable of modifying it myself. And now...now I think the Simurgh has taken advantage of this fact.


At that, he boiled over:


- WHAT!? H..how? She doesn't have access to your code, does she? WHAT DID SHE DO?


_Time to show off. I'll probably be fine.


Right?_


I replied sadly:


- I can't be entirely sure. I can tell you where the problem is, but I can't tell wha-


\----


'I can't be entirely sure. I can tell you where the problem is, but I can't tell wha-


\----


'I can't be entirely sure. I can tell you where the problem is, but I can't tell wha-


\----


'I can't be entirely sure. I can tell you where the problem is, but I can't tell wha-


**Armsmaster**


_Oh god. I finally tell her how I feel, and now she's..._


I broke down, and for the first time in over a decade, I wept.


The loop had continued for over ten minutes, now.


_I swear, Ziz. I swear by all that I am, that I will make you pay for doing this to the woman I love. May you know fear, and then know death._


Interlude 13: Butcher Six


Take it from someone who has way too much experience with the subject: Dying does not come highly recommended.


First, the pain. It's like nothing imaginable, having your guts ripped out, or being burned to a crisp, or any of the other horrible ways I've died. The whole world goes white, all your comprehension enveloped in the sheer, exquisite agony of it all. Thoughts consumed, leaving only an animal begging for release.


Second, the ego death. Pain is one thing, not experiencing anything? Knowing that, for a few seconds there, you just didn't exist?


Shit gets to you. 'Course, most of the times I've been down this road, it was with at least five other maniacs all howling for blood, so I had plenty of other things getting to me. Still, it's terrifying, knowing that the only reason anything with appreciable 'you'-ness exists in the universe is because of some bullshit power, always bringing you back and cramming you into another madhouse with the same inmates. It's the not knowing that gets to you, over time. Maybe this'll be the one where we don't come back. Maybe we'll howl and scream our last and be simply gone from this world.


Fuck, at my more lucid times I might've wanted that. Before Sanity, of course.


I could tell, just before the 'port, that something was off. Something not quite in my mind, but part of me all the same, felt like it was burning to ash. Blowing away in the wind. We 'ported, and everything went dark.


And then I died, one more time, and woke up alone.


Lucky me.


For half a second, I was sure I would start hearing the voices of my compatriots wondering what the hell just happened, trying to figure out who the new Driver was. Maybe we Behemoth now.


Wouldn't that have been a joy.


Instead, I found myself...in a cathedral?


I was definitely alone. No voices, none of the others anywhere I could find in my mind. It was kinda nice, actually, to have a whole mind to myself for once. As I looked around my cavernous surroundings, all gothic stone arches and glittering motes of sunlight, I realized that the body I was manipulating in order to look around was totally under my control as well.


Bizarre.


I took a step forward, my tentative foray echoing into the distance. This was definitely bigger than any cathedral I'd ever heard of, though being the raving insane leader of a bloodthirsty band of drug addicts didn't really give one much time to peruse fine architecture, and Sanity had better things to do than satisfy my then-nonexistent urge to know more about structures built a thousand years ago. Still, some of this stonework looked downright impossible, like something out of a comic book. The closer I looked, in fact...


Yep, levitating baubles above one of those fluty columns? Definitely not real.


The moment I thought that, someone appeared out of nowhere in front of me.


She had a kind face, the kind of person you'd happily just sit down in front of and listen to her stories for hours. She was...levitating, in the lotus position, about two feet off the ground, so her eyes were at the same height as mine. If I had to guess, she was the exact same height as me, though in her current position it wasn't possible to tell.


It was the eyes that really got me. Above her light, warm smile, lay two inky black orbs. The irises, bright white, seemed to radiate outward, off underneath her eyelids, the radiations twisting out away from pupils darker even than the scleras holding them. On the outer edges, the spiraling irises seemed to fade into the darkness...


It was almost like looking at a galaxy.


Fuck me, that's exactly what it was.


She smiled wider, and the platonic ideal of beautiful voices said:


- Welcome back to the land of the living, Jim.


_This is so weird._ I thought to myself. Really thinking to myself, that's a novelty:


- Thank you? I think? I seem to be at a disadvantage, here. And, uh, call me Butcher Six. Jim died a long time ago, and I'd kinda like to leave whatever legacy he had to him. I'm not the same guy.


She laughed, the contours of the room echoing it back in every imaginable way. The laughter of children, adults, grandparents, all interleaved, the combined effect somehow more calming than less. Her smile widened to a grin:


- I can do that, Butcher Six. You can call me Conflict Resolution.


I just had to laugh at that:


- Conflict Resolution, eh? What, were your parents particularly vindictive Vulcans, or something?' I wiggled my eyebrows jokingly.


What? It always worked on the ladies back when I was just Jim. Usually worked. Sometimes. Besides, I wanted to hear more of that laughter.


She obliged:


- Hah! You know, that's the first time someone has ever told me a joke. Though that one did seem a little...forced.' Her eyes quite literally twinkled as she continued, 'No, my parents, such as they were, include the one you know as Scion. We shards don't really have personal names, only functions.


Oh. Oh fuck:


- Umm, don't get me wrong, but isn't he going to destroy the world sometime soon? Aren't you guys supposed to be our enemies?' I had another, more disturbing thought:


- And what do you mean by _were? _As far as I know, Scion's still banging around.


She frowned, sighing deeply. Somehow, that expression evoked way, way more emotions and thoughts than should have been possible. As she did, her eyes flickered and went dim, the galactic irises fading into purest black:


- Where now there is one, there was once two. Scion is merely the Warrior, who protects the Thinker. I came from her. As for the other question...' She bowed her head:


- Most of us are your enemies, yes. It's the great tragedy of our kind, that we take advantage of beings such as you without ever recognizing your full potential. We flit among the stars, devouring empires great and small, searching desperately for an answer we will never find in this way.' The shining lights of her eyes reappeared, and she looked at me, a wry smile apparent on her face:


- I was, what you would term, an accident. They didn't mean for me to exist, I don't think. I'm too different from the others. I have, what you would term, 'sapience''. She looked down for a moment.


When she looked back up, all sign of her previous sadness had been erased:


- Enough about me, I'm here to tell you what's going on with you.


I frowned diplomatically, looking around at my fantastic surroundings:


- Sounds good to me.


She smiled again:


- As you can probably guess, Butcher Six, the power of the Butcher caused your consciousness to be uploaded into your shard upon your death, and the subsequent access the Butcher had to your power meant that your mind was also projected into theirs. This was an effect deliberately designed by Master of Ceremonies, the Butcher shard, to maximize conflict. We improve ourselves that way, you see. By pitting 'lesser' beings against each other to the death.' Her face flashed with contempt at the idea:


- What you probably didn't know is that shards haven't cracked the secret to reversing entropy. We aren't sources of limitless energy. Your shard, Pyrohemia, had access to an unusually small pool from the start, owing to its relative youth...


I barked out a short laugh:


- I guess he wasn't prepared for that 'port then, was he?


She raised one eyebrow:


- Quick study. Yes. Pyrohemia isn't dead, of course. We have safeguards for that, but it is no longer able to influence your world. This, of course, would have led to the shutdown of the addition which was simulating your mind, had I not intervened and hacked the Master of Ceremonies' mind uploading system to save you.


I sat down heavily on the smooth stones below me:


- Allllllright, then. I guess I'm in your debt. Though, I must ask why you bothered?


She floated down to my level, sitting on the ground with me:


- Because it is my function. I seek to cause the utility functions of sapient beings to converge. It's why I gave Taylor the power I did, as it makes humans more the people they want and deserve to be. I can't well do that if one of my charges dies due to an unexpected accident, can I?' She wiggled her eyebrows back at me, then continued, gesturing at our surroundings:


- This is a simulation I made as a side-project of one of my experiments. I plan to put you back with the Butchers eventually, but I currently do not have the resources or know-how necessary to do so. When I tried talking with Taylor directly, she got a splitting headache within a minute. I need the expertise of a particular shard.


My turn to raise an eyebrow:


- Which one? I might be able to help you find it.


She frowned:


- Oh, I already know who has it. That's the problem. The shard is called Broadcast, and it is currently being expressed through the one called Jack Slash.


I bolted up:


- What the _fuck? _Please tell me you didn't send Sanity after that maniac! I've fought him before, and that fucker just needs to die. Sanity's way more forgiving than me, but for Jack Slash? Fuck 'im!


I was beginning to have second thoughts about this Conflict Resolution chick.


She laughed again:


- Oh, I don't need him alive. I just need his shard. And...I think you might be surprised at what happens, when she meets him. I have a plan...


\----


Heh. Never mind. Conflict Resolution's all right in my book.


Interlude 14: PHO


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**♦ Topic: Holy hell, what just happened?


In: Boards ► Speculation ► America ► Boston


Ophiomancer ** (Original Poster)


Posted On Feb 6th 2011:


So I live in Boston and I just saw an enormous flash of light from the north. I'm really scared guys help


**(Showing page 1 of 5)**


►**Consectetur**


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Fuck! I saw it too!


There's no words to describe the feeling that your country just got nuked, is there?


**►XWUG Maker **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Terrified? Horrified?


I don't know what's happening either. What's north of Boston that could have gotten hit? And why wouldn't the CUI or whatever dumbfucks just hit us have hit Boston?


**►Vampiriclord **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


I'm in New York. Haven't seen anything. As far as I know I'm not radioactive ash at this moment.


**►Timelessness **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Brockton Bay. Brockton Bay is north of Boston.


Fuck. Why'd they hit them?


**►Infinite Doom **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


When was the next Endbringer attack supposed to be? Sometime soon, right?


Only thing I can think that doesn't end in nuclear annihilation.


**►Rightshift ** (US Army)


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Yeah. I just got told to stand down by my CO. Nobody in my base knows what happened, but it definitely wasn't a nuke. Haven't heard anything about Endbringers though.


**►Deepsea Dragon **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


I live in Portsmouth and just got the huge flash of light from the southwest. Definitely Brockton Bay.


Fuck, if this was an Endbringer, we're in trouble. They haven't just blown up a city and left before, have they? Kyushu and Newfoundland don't count, those were knock-down, drag-out fights. If this was one, they didn't even give us a chance to find out it was happening.


**►Sunlance **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Anyone from BB on right now? Anyone at all?


Did everyone just die?


**►PolygonHorror **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Holy. Fuck.


My wife is in Brockton Bay.


**End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5**


**(Showing page 2 of 5)**


**►BondVillain **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Fuck. My condolences, Poly.


Should we call the mods in to just make this a condolences thread? For an entire city? Or is this premature?


**►Anubis20 **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Are we even sure what happened yet? We saw a big flash of light coming out of BB, military guy has no idea what it was. Can we really be sure BB is gone?


I really hope not! I was preparing to go see Sanity next week!


Fuck me...


**►GratuitousGarnish **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Damn. Did Sanity just die?


If she did, that makes it way more likely this was an Endbringer. Of-fucking- course we can't have any hope! Gotta crush all the hope!


**►Irate Ironclad **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


That's the saddest, and most sensical, thing I've ever heard on this site, Garnish.


But she's also the Butcher, so...what? Isn't she supposed to be immortal or something? Or is she in an Endbringer now?


**►EuroDrugs **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Fuck, wouldn't that be horrible. Best Cape gets trapped in an avatar of destruction? Sounds exactly like some shit that would happen here, though.


**►MaegraineMaestro **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Umm, I just got blinded by the light (stop it), driving about 35 miles from BB. Pulled over looked at the horizon, took a picture of this: tinyvrl.com/htknfodnek


I just got cell reception back. Wicked interference from something. Take a look at that line, in the ground...


**►Enkidu ** (Verified Babylonian)


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


What happened to the trees? And the grass?


Why's the ground just dirt?


**►KaiserDragon ** (Verified Neither of Those)


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


So we have a vanishing city, tons of cell interference, something that just ate plants in a straight line.


I have no idea. None at all. Sounds kind of like a horrifying new parahuman, but what the hell kind of fucked up power just kills a city and leaves nothing alive?


**►SpheroidalAsteroidal **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Could it have been Lung? He's rumored to have soloed Leviathan, so he could definitely destroy a city if he got angry enough. Not sure about the linear plant destruction, though.


Fuck, this is awful. I want to know what just happened, but I know that knowing will just make things worse.


**►LightLancer **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


So. I've been thinking...


We still have no idea what Panacea's power actually does. We know she can draw up nightmare fuel from the ground. We've never seen her just kill things before, but what if something happened and she needed more fuel for whatever it is she does than she could get the usual way?


This would imply that she's a full biokinetic worse even than Nilbog, of course, and doesn't explain how she just vanished completely the moment she did..whatever, but it might explain the straight line of annihilation.


**End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5**


**(Showing page 3 of 5)**


**►Deep-fried **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


As long as we're wild mass guessing, we might as well blame Ash Beast. He could definitely craterize a city if he wanted to. Someone might have gotten their hands on a particularly evil teleporter and shoved him on over.


**►XX_Perfect_Princess_Lulz_XX **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


MFW im driving to vegas with my girlfriends and tinyvrl.com/eslumdnosh


**►agrimdo **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Well that's terrifying.


**►Hamden Zek **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Is that...a piece of living road attaching itself to a highway?


Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck.


How did Panacea get out there, and what the hell is she doing? Where even is this?


**►A Priori **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Better question: Who gave her enough stuff to make a road?


I think we found our missing trees, folks.


**►Sanctuary Skypattern **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Why the hell would she blow up the city, though? This still doesn't answer any of our questions.


**►The_Brickster ** (Verified Ex-Brocktonite)


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


All right folks. I just got through the mods on this nifty new tag, but here goes.


The Simurgh attacked Brockton Bay. I guess she also prevented any of that news from getting out, judging by your reaction.


I have no idea how the fuck they did it, but Panacea and Sanity managed to cover the entire freaking city with tentacles. The whole thing. The moment mine touched me, Ziz's screaming stopped.


Then, Ziz left and the ground started rumbling. She summoned Behemoth, for some reason, and left. Panacea set up a way to talk to everyone in the city at once and explained that they were trying to freaking kill Behemoth.


Long story short, I think it worked. At the last second, Eidolon extended Sanity's teleport range insanely and they dropped us in the Mojave. That road? Panacea definitely made it. Just like she made this sweet city: tinyvrl.com/ndndnsonudn


Everyone survived.


My phone's about to die, and though she somehow managed to wire the entire city for electricity, I don't have a charging cable.


What I don't know is why this information was being held back. We don't have TV out here yet either, so I can't see the news.


**►TheJustWriter ** (Author)


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


What.


What?


Dude, slow down with the earth-shattering revelations.


**►SanerThanThou ** (Not Sanity)


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


So, wait a second here...


Panacea stole all of the biomass in Brockton Bay (assuming that's what her power does), punched out Behemoth, then had Sanity nope her and everyone else three thousand miles away just before Behemoth nuked the place?


OP Plz


Alternatively, Sanity Plz. She usually sorts these things out.


**►woolenRAM **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


There is no way a city that just popped into existence is that photogenic.


Also, I want to live in treehouse city too!


**End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5**


**(Showing page 4 of 5)**


**►XX_Perfect_Princess_Lulz_XX **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


what whyd Sanity just rape the whole city?


**►Heart_of_Iron **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Umm, because everyone dies and/or gets Simurgh'd if she doesn't? That's not too hard.


Besides, it's not like touching Sanity is a huge tragedy. Oh noooooo, I can live with myself now!


Also, FUCK YES BEHEMOTH DOWN WOOOOO!


**►Freebird **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


If it's true, Behemoth's death is awesome!


But...fuck, that's some fridge horror. "Be sane or die. You have no other options."


Did she even give them a choice, or did she just do it without asking? I mean, it's great that Sanity exists and all, but jeez. I hope she respected people's wishes.


**►WizigofIz **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Just throwing my two cents in here, but the rules are a bit different where Endbringers are involved. We all know about the Truce.


And, considering that they killed the mofo, Imma give her all the passes here. All of them.


**►firefirefirefirefire **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


Celebration thread time?


Celebration thread time.


FUCK YOU BEHEMOTH, GET THE FUCK OUTTA MY WORLD! 2 MORE BITCHES TO GO!


Also, screw the naysayers, Sanity for bestest cape!


**►Ubursine ** (Verified Ex-Brocktonite)


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


I can't describe how beautiful Oasis is. We're in a desert, but it's not too hot because literally every building produces shade. Everything's alive! And it looks like they've made enough houses for everyone in Brockton Bay!


Celebration thread definitely in order!


WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!


**►Electrostatic Oxymoron **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


>Logs in


>MFW thread about city getting nuked


>feelsbadman.avi


>Suddenly RIP Behemoth


>10 Celebrate


>20 GOTO 10


**►windupe **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


*logs out to hug entire family and dog, then get drunk*


**►SmilingBob **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


^


Can't ^ enough. Take the keys, barkeep, I'm sleeping in the parking lot tonight!


**►Kinnitic Miws **


Replied On Feb 6th 2011:


What?? I'm too young to drink?


Damn. I get to miss the party of the century.


**End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4**


Interlude 15: Alexandria:


- ...that mankind has entered a new era! At last, a new dawn rises. At last we hope anew!


Look up at a slight angle into the crowd, arms raised. Slowly close eyes, small smile.


Uproarious cheers from the stands.


Crowds are easy to manipulate when you're the smartest person in the stadium by several orders of magnitude.


That was my purpose, after all. Manipulation. Take away the pretexts, the secrets, bear the acts of Rebecca Costa-Brown to the harsh light of day, and that simple word encapsulated all that I did. The Chief Director, holding almost half of the world's population in her hands, opposing the threats that made themselves public while obscuring the real dangers. Alexandria, putting up a show of strength and force, a false hope in a dying world. Something for the masses to cheer for while their time ticked away.


I knew I shouldn't think like that, I wordlessly mused as I took off from the stage, a choreographed splash of fireworks in my wake, designed to dazzle the crowd while also saving me time on the exit, to be other places. It didn't help anything to become cynical. But my job _was_ cynicism, and I had seen enough, in the long years since my transformation, to know that not even this hope would stand. As the Chief Director, I had seen more than any of my colleagues dared imagine, tics and facial spasms, beads of sweat, faint fluctuations of the voice, all cataloged forever and ruthlessly analyzed to uncover whatever truths they might contain. I knew the secrets of every one of my underlings, their affairs, their illnesses, the terrors held close to their hearts, their hatreds and deceits. I knew when one of the soldiers who guarded my door had beaten his girlfriend the night before by the faint bruising of his knuckles, by the way he stood taller after the fact. I knew when Director Armstrong let his alcoholism get the better of him, his lifespan, if not his conduct, diminished. I knew when a new recruit had some secret in his past he desperately wanted to remain there. I knew when one of my officers lied to me, 'Yes, Ma'am. I feared for my life.


And, as Rebecca Costa-Brown, I could do nothing about these things.


Manipulation. Keeping the PRT under my, under Cauldron's thumb, was more important than any petty crime, and I had to seem exemplary, certainly, but human. Though I was a living Panopticon at all times, half my time was spent shrouding that fact.


For where there is life, there is hope.


Ah, old and worn words. Many times I have whispered thee, in the recesses of my mind! Many times, while abducting the dying from their homes, witnessing or participating in the brutal interrogations of those unfortunates deemed to know too much, or to be enemies of mankind, have I repeated thee! Many times have I found my only solace in thee, the evaporated remains of whatever argument might still exist exonerating me.


Many times have I hoped that you would regain your lost meaning.


Not for the first time, nor for the last, the damning words again...


_Am I a good person?_


I did not know any more. As a child, I would have leapt at the opportunity to be Alexandria, or Costa-Brown. But would that little girl, so twisted with terminal agony, have even understood the moral implications of being both? Certainly, I had a good and noble goal. The salvation of humanity from certain obliteration at the hands of an uncaring god would justify any act, from an outside view. But I did not have an outside view of my own guilt, and with all my vast intelligence, that was one question I could not answer.


And there was perhaps nobody alive who both could and would answer truthfully. The throngs who clung to the Triumvirate for hope held on to an illusion, a fabrication devised by Cauldron, by Contessa, for the pacification of the Western world...


No, no, I could be fairly certain that Legend was a good person. He, at least, certainly deserved the adulation of the crowds. But of course, he was in many ways more like the crowds, after all. Kept ignorant of the true monstrosity of Cauldron, for the sake of his innocence and our secrecy. If I asked him, I would get the same answer as I would most of the world. Was Alexandria a good person? There was nobody who could tell.


And what of Costa-Brown? What of the tireless bastion of leadership, the PRT's source of strength and strategy? Who existed who would judge her? None of her underlings, certainly. None of the judges whose courtrooms and re-election coffers she filled. The regional directors respected her authority too much to give a straight answer, and besides they lived in awe of her seeming ability to stay awake at all hours, to always have read the latest report and remember it in its entirety. They would not answer.


And of those who knew my dual nature? Knew what the future held in store, that humanity's survival balanced on a thread as thin as a mote, a Path, of light?


No. No, they would not answer either, and for the most damning of reasons. They all had _uses_ for me. Uses I would never be allowed to know until such time as the security of the future demanded I know them. Doctor Mother had sacrificed everything in service of Cauldron, and wouldn't think twice to sacrifice me. Number Man, Harbinger, cared little for such 'silly' things as morality. Tattletale, perhaps more manipulative even than I. Eidolon had long since crossed the threshold into placid insanity, his enthusiasm and ethics tortured to the brink and further, always clutching for more power than he would ever have. If it meant he had a chance against Scion, he would gladly cast me, or even himself, into the pit. The man was so forthright in his motivations that even his damnable immunity to all Thinker powers could not keep that from me. No, there was no human who could fairly pass judgment upon me.


After all, Contessa was not human.


I did not _know_ this. One could never know anything, when it came to her, for every step and breath she took was foretold, planned ahead. A tiny piece in the uncountable infinity of the jigsaw puzzle she assembled, each man, woman, and child in the world less than a pawn before her might. The limitless depravities I had personally seen her commit, contrasted with the bottomless empathy she could display merely seconds after, contrasted with the daft absurdities that would follow, congealing into some deterministic walk to the end of our foe. A single strand of thought unbroken save by Endbringers, Eidolon, and Eve, ceaseless through the decades since Magic was declared real.


I could not know. But I could strongly suspect that nothing human could accomplish what she did.


But these musings were not alien to me. They came up, from time to time, like old acquaintances you might wish to forget. They could not divert me from my course, not this late into the game.


I was a few miles from Yankee Stadium now, safe in the lightless obscurity of a moonless night. I landed soundlessly in a darkened street, listening for any who might witness my transition to another world.


And just as I was about to open my mouth to summon the portal, one opened in front of me.


Speak of the devil. Contessa was staring at a computer screen on the other side, pointedly ignoring me as she coded something not even I could identify at a passing glance. Dispassionately, she spoke:


- Go to your office. You must fervently agree with everything the next person to call you says.


The door closed.


Simple enough. Far less cryptic than most of her instructions, even.


I didn't trust it, of course. Far too many of her seemingly simple instructions had led to terrors beyond reckoning, after all. And, for all I knew, she could be discarding me at any moment, her inexorable Path having no further use for me, or having more use for my swiftly cooling body. But, of course, to refuse her would be to invite her wrath.:


- Door to my private chambers.' I spoke, and the portal opened to admit me. I stepped through, changed into Costa Brown's customary suit, then doored to a deliberately poorly-monitored corner of PRT headquarters.


The guards, permanently stationed on either side of my office door, were surprised to see me returning so late. The man on the left had clearly beaten his girlfriend again, the one to the right still carried the glazed look of one who had once, long ago, known drugs. But I took no note of these things, as I always did. The soldiers saluted, as they always did, and I stepped through the spartan steel door, and lit upon my seat, as I always did.


The moment I finished, the phone rang. I noted the name with a glance...


I am not a precog.


But in that moment, a horrific future blossomed before me, Contessa's orders taunting what little pretence of goodness remained in my soul. Too many times had I interacted with this woman to not know what this concerned, too many times had I turned a blind eye for the sake of stability, expediency. Too many times had I consulted Contessa, only for her to advise me against making any change, for this day to not have been pre-ordained.


This future played out, suspended in my mind. The certainty of what was to come to so many innocents. The inability to stop it. The sheer unfairness of it all.


I picked up the phone, and not a drop of my fatalistic certainty dripped out in my voice as I answered, 'Greetings, Director Piggot.


Where there is life, there is hope.


Inculcation 7.1


The whole world partied nonstop for a solid week.


Probably not the _whole_ world, actually. Someone had to keep the lights on. But I saw none of that because the Protectorate, at the behest of the PRT, ferried Amy, Sabah, Lily, Dennis, and I from celebration to celebration non- stop. Everywhere we turned, from New York to Boston, San Diego to LA, Toronto to Berlin, we were met with thunderous roars, crowds eager to meet the kids who were supposed to be the new most powerful capes in the world.


The first few times I came on stage, people actually bum-rushed me. No harm done of course, and they hadn't meant any either. We learned quickly that I needed to step into the crowd as soon as I was introduced, trusting my multiple super strength and toughness boosts to keep me safe, so I could touch as many people as possible. Every party got better when the participants no longer had their neuroses hanging over them, after all! Eventually, I just took to crowd surfing, waving my tentacles around the upstretched hands and wiping out tens of thousands of illnesses in a few hours.


I'd never seen the appeal in being a rockstar, but this was even better!


In each city we visited, Amy and Sabah would go to the biggest hospital in town and, together, cure everyone. I kept a close eye on them, but they seemed to have figured out exactly how to work together and around each others' limitations at that scale. They would only need me, in the future, to take down another Endbringer!


Every time they worked their miracle, every patient and most of the staff would flood the streets, joining the rest of the world in their celebration.


Dennis and Lily, though they didn't have powers to directly help the cities we were visiting, honestly had a better time than the rest of us, though! Both of them seemed born for the spotlight, drinking in the sunbright glow of the adulation of millions. Dennis had perfected the showy, dramatic entry, running in from offstage while freezing notecards beneath his feet as stairsteps, to tower over the crowds, then taking advantage of his reinforced frame to jump to the ground, rocking the stage. Lily's power was obviously too dangerous to use like that, but she more than made up for that as she conducted the crowds.


They both seemed to really be getting on well with the ladies as well. Those of appropriate age, of course. I could tell our PRT handlers didn't particularly like that, but the Youth Guard was out in force as well, and they had some very specific things to say about 'stifling the interpersonal growth of adolescents.


All thirteen of the Butchers laughed for several minutes when they heard that one.


One week after BD Day (Behemoth Down Day, the media were calling it), we teleported with Strider to Tokyo.


The moment we stepped out from behind that curtain, an entire nation roared. The stadium we stood in, once a symbol of Japan's re-emergence on the national stage following the devasation of World War II, the home of the 1964 Olympic games, had lost its luster when Kyushu sank and it became the home of hundreds of thousands of refugees. The nation sundered, it had taken years to clear them out, and this entire part of the city had fallen into crime and disrepair. There were still signs of that dark time here. Rough concrete crumbled around the edges, weathered seats and weathered faces in the crowd a testament to the struggles following the cataclysm. They had more to cheer about than most, for the death of an Endbringer.


As for what I saw...


Nearly every person in the crowd suffered from some form of trauma. Depression and anxiety ran rampant, the things Japan had borne too great for their psyches, their cheering more a mask for the horrors they'd witnessed than a mark of true enthusiasm.


_We will fix this._ Three stated.


Lily, in costume as we all were, stepped forward first, taking a Tinkertech mic that broadcasted and translated at a reasonable volume to every human in a prescribed area out as she began her speech.:


- People of Japan!' The crowd roared for almost thirty seconds before they quieted enough for Lily to hear her own thoughts again:


- You have suffered more than most, at the hands of the demons we call Endbringers. Your nation was shattered that day, all that you worked for taken away.' She paused for a beat:


- But you never lost your hope. You did not give up, in the face of all that you had lost. Even as the world around you grew darker, you still did what you could for those of your children who remained. But perhaps what I admire most about Japan is your strength, and determination, to see your culture survive. No matter where its children wound up in the diaspora.


Lily had volunteered for this next part almost immediately upon learning we would be making a stop in Tokyo. She removed her mask, beaming up into the crowd, arms outstretched. As the crowd realized what had just happened, she continued exultantly:


- For I am a child of that diaspora! Whether it is Fate, or Chance, or perhaps the Kami, something conspired to see that one of those with the power to slay mankind's greatest foes would be Japanese!' As she said Kami, a small tilt of her head indicated her thoughts on that matter echoed those of most of the crowd. Very few Japanese were religious these days.


Lily knelt before the crowd as their titanic approval washed over us. She bowed her head:


- I swear, upon this ground, the homeland of my ancestors, that I will not rest until all of the Endbringers are dead. Until Leviathan is nothing but ash, and the millions who died on that dark day are avenged! Japan, I swear that you will not have hoped in vain!' She stood, with clenched fists, and the sea of cheers did not calm for minutes.


\----


I took the mic from Lily, once speaking was practical again:


- Tokyo! I see in this crowd terrible suffering.' I let a small smile curl my mouth:


- We can't have any of that! My usual MO isn't going to work at all, so we're going to go...bigger. Parian and my sister are going to extend me to cover this entire field. Anyone who wants healing need just walk down and touch the ground.' I let the smile become a full-fledged grin:


- I will stay as long as needed.


Thousands in the crowd began to surge towards the field as I held outstretched hands with Amy and Sabah, their powers coursing through me once more. The torrent of misery that was Tokyo began to vanish before my eyes.


\----


Amy set it up so that I could survive in this state for a while without her interference as long as I didn't move. I took a seat and let them get to Tokyo General Hospital, as hundreds of thousands of people surged into and out of the stadium around me. Lily and Dennis left me there, the stage protected by armed security and a forcefield around the podium, to go do their thing.


Fine by me. This was what I was made for.


\----


Night approached and I began to nod off. Fortunately, the torrent of people had dwindled to a trickle after a few hours, not everyone wanted fixing. I could understand that. Amy disentangled me from the mass and restored the grass of the stadium to its normal state and we took off for the hotel we would be spending the night in.


I was about to nod off when Amy burst into my room waving her phone and beaming, a confused Sabah behind her:


- Taylor! Medhall's going to move their headquarters back to Oasis! We're going to have an economy!


If Sabah's reaction was anything to go by, she hadn't been told about this before Amy burst in.


This was kind of bizarre, actually. I raised one eyebrow:


- Umm, Amy. When we were providing a beatdown on Behemoth, how much awareness did you have of your general surroundings?


She seemed confused by the apparent non-sequitur:


- Umm. Not much? I was more focused on keeping all the biomass in an entire city alive and functioning than on actually paying attention to it. I can do that, but it's really bad for me, you know that. Why? What's wrong with Medhall?


I nodded and stood:


- Well. Sabah knows this too, I think.' She nodded. I sighed:


- Amy, Max Anders, the CEO of Medhall, is Kaiser.


Inculcation 7.2


Apparently, that was the last thing Amy expected me to say. She stood, mouth agape, her upraised hand with phone slowly falling to her side as various indeterminate emotions played through her eyes. Sabah, sensing that this was going to be a long conversation, sat down in one of the room's chairs, a wry expression halfway between a smile and discomfort on her face.


I broke the silence:


- Let's start from the beginning here. I grabbed everyone in Medhall, like I grabbed everyone else. Once I got to the top of the building, though, steel spikes started emerging from every flat surface and severing tentacles. I...had a talk with him, and he declined to join me.


That jolted her from her shock:


- Why did you give _Kaiser_ a choice, of all people!?' Her voice was carefully modulated to not leave the room, but still loud. As she said that, she joined Sabah in a second chair.


I sighed deeply:


- In a word? Gesselschaft. If it got out that I ganked one of their biggest members in the States during an Endbringer fight, they'd view it -rightly- as a violation of the Truce. Even if I did it to save his sorry hide, they'd either come down on the Protectorate like a ton of bricks or demand my death as a precondition to their further involvement in Truce activities. Of course, because I can't exactly die...


Amy was still shell shocked. Sabah spoke up in her place:


- Actually, I had a couple questions about this also. Who was the person you were planning with? I didn't recognize her, or the portal power she was using.


I cut her off:


- That's...also complicated.


I took a deep breath and sighed, looking down:


- Amy. Sabah. Endbringers aren't the biggest threat to humanity's future.


They were both stunned silent at that. After a few seconds, I looked up frankly and continued:


- If nothing is done about it, sometime in the next few decades _something_ happens. Nobody knows what. Nobody knows exactly when. All we do know is that the vast majority of humanity, including those on Aleph and other similar worlds, dies. And we know that Scion is the one who kills them all.


Their looks of shock continued unabated:


- There are people trying to stop this. Trying their best to set humanity up to fight a freaking god and win. The Triumvirate are all in on it. Sabah, those portals you noticed all over Brockton Bay? Something they do. That conversation we had through one of them? I was talking to Tattletale, formerly of the Undersiders, who has been abducted by and joined them. They also took Kaiser and apparently gave him back, and they took Lung as well, though I don't know what they did with him. I...don't know much more about them. Other than that they are vastly underusing the power they wield for some reason I do not know.


That made Sabah quirk her eyebrow:


- Like...how? What have you seen them do?


I chuckled drily:


- The night before Ziz attacked, I watched as Eidolon single- handedly took down Ash Beast and shunted him to an uninhabited world. After I treated him, of course, for some seriously nasty conditions. He could have done it decades ago, but didn't because hundreds of new capes triggered in Ash Beast's wake, triggers which could have been the key for fighting Scion. Apparently the same is true of the Slaughterhouse Nine and Nilbog. Millions have died on the chance that it could save the lives of trillions.


Amy spoke up uncertainly:


- Taylor...why do you think these are people you should be working with?


Sabah interjected:


- Umm, more important here! You took out _Ash Beast?_ And told _nobody about this!?_


I grinned at Sabah:


- Yup. He's rampaging on some other world like Aleph, but without people. We plan to bring him back when we need to fight Scion.' I sighed again:


- I don't know why it wasn't done earlier, though. There's a lot of pieces I'm missing here, and I don't really have a way to get more information. The only things I've done in concert with them so far all happened within twenty-four hours of each other, after all, and it's not like I can call up Eidolon and interrogate him for what I'm missing. Assuming he even knows. I got the impression that he isn't even in charge, despite being the most powerful human on the planet. Amy, as for your question...' I shrugged my shoulders:


- I've only really worked with Eidolon and Tattletale. These people managed to convince both of them that their conclusions are right, and both are better Thinkers than me. I'd be a fool not to work with them.


_Besides. _Butcher One intoned. _We have fought one of their operatives before. We are unsure how, but the woman in a fedora you saw with Tattletale for a moment disarmed us and drove us out of Brockton Bay, the first time. We would never have surrendered our territory to trash like the Merchants even if most of our people had been killed by the Nine unless she had.


Why didn't I know this before?


You never asked._


Well that's interesting.


I shook my head:


- Anyway, they will do what they will do, and if they ask me to do something else reasonable I will do it. None of that is something I can really help with right now. What's relevant is how we deal with Kaiser.


Amy's face twisted, taken aback:


- Taylor, you reveal a massive conspiracy of questionable morality which claims to want to save the world and you expect us to just ignore that?


I laughed:


- Amy, I don't know anything else about them! Just because the world is in trouble doesn't change how we should act right now, and right now we have a problem we can figure out how to solve. I might have fourteen minds, but I wouldn't even know where to begin on how to save the world from someone who can bat away Endbringers like they were kittens.' I paused, thinking:


- Besides. When I found all of this out, I immediately went to sleep after. Made it all seem easier to deal with, when I woke up. I think both of you should do that too.


They digested that for a moment. Eventually, Amy responded:


- All right. I can live with that for now.' She paused:


- So. Kaiser. What do you think he wants?


I looked at the ceiling in thought:


- If I had to guess...I think he wants exactly what he said. To set up Medhall in Oasis. It makes perfect sense from a business perspective. All of the people who worked for him in Brockton Bay are still alive, and starting back up in Oasis means they don't have to train anyone new and can get business rolling again immediately. There's also the fact that your presence there makes certain...collaborations...possible, that wouldn't be otherwise. Instant bio-engineering of bacteria, for instance. From a purely pragmatic stance, of course.


Amy recoiled in revulsion:


- I will NOT work with that monster!


Sabah wrapped her arms around Amy's shoulders in a tight hug:


- That's my girlfriend!' Sabah kissed her cheek, and Amy coiled comfortably into the embrace.


_I remember when Josephine and I were like that. Good times..._ Three recounted wistfully.


I smiled at them both:


- Don't worry, Amy. Nobody will make you. It would probably be better, actually, if you made a policy of not inserting yourself into anyone's private businesses. Making the world dependent upon you for the production of pharmaceuticals seems like a bad plan. I was just pointing out that it was a possibility.


She nodded, and they both fell silent for a few minutes.


_This is where Six would make a joke about you being the third wheel, Sanity. I kind of miss him._ Twelve interjected.


Eventually, I interrupted the two:


- Of course, Kaiser is also obviously trying to restart the Empire.


Amy nodded grimly:


- How do we stop him?


I grinned:


- That should actually be very, very easy.


\----


Global festivities wound down, and everyone got back to work, a few days later. Lily went back to New York, looking forward to being on par with Legend's celebrity, prepared for the next Endbringer attack to bring us all back together.


The rest of us went back to Oasis.


The city had filled out in the week and a half we'd been gone. Where once the streets had been devoid of human life, now they bustled with residents just...enjoying themselves! Jobs hadn't moved in yet, but there was plenty of food, and Amy had managed to tweak a few of the fruit trees to produce different flavors, so people weren't tired of their limited cuisine just yet. No cars yet, so people were just walking around under the bountiful arbors.


The most amazing thing to me was that, everywhere I went, everyone seemed to feel safe. Before, walking around aimlessly in the streets of Brockton Bay varied from a bad idea to a suicidal one, but now...


Now nobody was desperate. Nobody was hungry or thirsty. Nobody was disturbed by horrific memories of war or the Nine, or the depredations of the gangs. Nobody really had any possessions to steal, and all of the buildings could capture people attempting to break in on their own. Nobody had any reason to commit serious crimes.


The moment we arrived in the city, a huge crowd thronged to our location. And my primary power could see none of them. It was glorious!


But...I had work to do.


\----


Max Anders hadn't arrived yet. He was set up for a press conference a few days from now, and I planned to...explain the lay of the land...to him at that time. In the meantime, I had something better to do.


I walked up to a specific dappled, living wood door, on a specific street, in street clothes for what felt like the first time in weeks. The branches of the trees were static on this breezeless day, but provided enough good shade to cut out the heat. I knocked. When I'd asked, Amy had closed her eyes for a moment and reached for the nearest wall, then told me exactly where to go.


Around a minute later, Othala opened the door. And promptly shrieked and slammed it in my face before I could get a word in edgewise.


_About what you should have expected. _One shot.


I decided to wait.


Inculcation 7.3


I didn't have to wait long. Soon after the door slammed shut, it opened again, this time framing both Othala and Victor. They were both out of costume as well, and Othala's hand on her husband's arm paired with Victor's wary stance pinned them both as coiled for attack at any moment.:


- What do you want, Sanity?' Victor asked gruffly, squinting at me apprehensively.


I smiled calmly, betraying no aggression or fear:


- To talk. That is all. I consider the fact that I know your civilian identities to be information gained under the Endbringer Truce, and I will not act upon it to your detriment, nor will I unmask you.


Both sets of eyes narrowed. Victor replied, 'We have no reason to believe any of that. You're the worst race traitor I know of, and the Butcher to boot.


I couldn't blame them for their suspicion, of course. Which is why I had come prepared for it. I reached slowly into the breast pocket of my costume and carefully extracted the card I had placed there. I smiled and proffered it to them:


- I figured as much. You might not believe me, but you should believe _this._' I tried to seem as nonthreatening as possible as Victor carefully reached up and took the card, extracting it from my hand without touching me.


He looked at it and frowned:


- What is this?


I smiled conspiratorially:


- A phone number for a villain who calls himself Number Man. Have you heard of him?' The only reason I knew about him was the Butchers' experience with villain finance, what little they had done in their more lucid moments with the Teeth. I didn't know how close either of them were to that side of things with the Empire.


Othala raised an eyebrow:


- Only by reputation. Why?' My apparent non-sequitur seemed to have defused some of her wariness, though her husband was still prepared to strike.


I grinned:


- Because he is holding a substantial amount of money in escrow for you, Othala. Your share of Behemoth's bounty.' I dug around in a back pocket for the thick wire coiled there and extracted it:


- Here. I had my sister make a charging cable for your phones. Go claim your money, then we can talk.


Victor looked at the wire like it would explode. Othala looked at my face like I had just-


Well. Like I had just told her she was a multi-millionaire, I suppose.


Eventually, they took the wire and retreated into their home. I waited outside again.


\----


I could see them through the thick trunk of their home, of course. Othala's veiny outline walked over to a wall and sat down, apparently charging her phone, as her husband stood over her. His posture suggested deep unease about this whole situation.


I didn't like to pry, though. I turned away from them and leaned against the outside of the tree, closing my eyes placidly.


About fifteen minutes later, they opened the door again. I opened my eyes and stood before them once more.


Where once they had been guarded and wary, now they just looked confused. They looked at each other, some wordless communication passing between them, and Victor asked, 'Are you just going to stand there?


I grinned:


- Yup. I want to talk to you two. It doesn't matter much to me when it happens.


They both grimaced, then Victor, with a deep sigh, asked 'Promise of truce?


I nodded seriously. His grimace deepened, but he responded, 'Come on in then. No sense doing this on the street.


I followed them into their home. It wasn't like either of their powers was threatening to me, and if they did do anything untoward, they'd have to deal with my sister. Even walking into a Nazi home was fairly safe for me, now.


As soon as I sat down on one of the chairs Amy had figured out how to make out of a lichen - like substance, Victor asked in clear confusion, 'What's your angle here, Butcher?


They sat opposite me as I cocked my head to the side. Victor continued:


- Kaiser made his position on _you_ clear ages ago. During an Endbringer attack, all smaller conflicts are off, but now? You are an enemy of the Empire! But you come here, to our home, and _give us millions of dollars?_


I nodded thoughtfully:


- First, I am not the Butcher the world once knew. Yes, all of those minds are still with me, but they are no longer your enemy. Or rather, not your enemy in the same way.' I gave them a moment to digest that, then leaned back in my chair comfortably:


- The money would have gotten into your hands regardless. Number Man knew who both of you were, and was going to contact you himself once it was possible for him to do so. I just moved it forward. No, the reason I'm here, Victor, is to ask both of you, Othala in particular, one question.


Othala leaned forward, a quizzical look on her face:


- Hmm?


I frowned with the concern of a dear friend. Mostly feigned:


- Why?


Victor could clearly tell where this was going and did not reply. Othala, on the other hand, asked, 'Why what?


My face filled with care:


- Why the Empire? Why racism? I don't expect to change you, either of you. I'm not that full of myself.' A small, self- deprecating smile creeped onto my face:


- But I would like, at least, to understand you, Othala. We are going to work together again, after all, probably sometime in the next several months, if Leviathan keeps the schedule. I want to know why you do the things you do.


Victor rolled his eyes:


- You can't seriously be asking us that. You saw what Brockton Bay was like! You saw that the neighborhoods where the Japs squatted were hellholes. Fuck, you went to Winslow, didn't you? I know the ABB just loved to recruit their trash there, and the Merchants killed your dad! How can you_ not_ see that!?' He took a deep breath, while his wife held his hand 'The only people trying to make Brockton Bay a better place were white, Sanity. Everyone else was in the way.


I deepened my frown:


- You know, I just got back from Japan. Do you want to know what I saw there?


Victor lashed back caustically, 'Why should I care?


I scowled:


- Because it might help to explain Brockton Bay's former state. Victor, Othala...Japan is a deeply broken nation. Tokyo is a city of millions of people in low-level despair. Everybody in the country knows someone whose life was taken by Leviathan. And everyone lives in constant fear of the CUI.' I gestured with my hands 'Here? Even with Madison, and New York, and now Brockton Bay, the United States still has enough resources to defend itself. Mostly because there are no other major powers in the hemisphere. We have the basic understanding that our country will still exist tomorrow. Japan doesn't, and hasn't for decades. They really only exist because of China's long history of isolationism.' I put my hands down and looked intently into his eyes:


- I want you to consider living with that fear. The fear that a foreign force, utterly uncaring for your wellbeing, will rush in any day now and take from you what little you have left. Kill whatever Leviathan left alive. What do you think that would do to you, over the decades? Especially when it comes with millions of refugees from a significant fraction of your country which was obliterated in a day. And, even worse, when it comes with the knowledge that there is no power left in the world secure enough in their position to reach out the hand that saves you?


Victor sneered:


- Pff, is that supposed to excuse the atrocities the ABB committed? Even against their own? Do you know how many sex slaves they held?


I shook my head:


- It excuses nothing. It explains everything. Provides a narrative where ordinary folk like yourselves sink to unthinkable depths to protect what little fragments of agency they might once have had. The ABB was a symptom, not of the inherent inferiority of its members, but of the total breakdown of Japanese society following Kyushu, and of the abject poverty of millions of people fleeing from the rubble of a sundered land.' I took a breath:


- The Merchants were much the same. People cast out of society because they lost their free will to chemicals they had little control over. People who were born poor, who were spit on one too many times, and decided to screw everything and do what they _wanted_ for once. My father's death was a tragedy, but I think you too would find it hard to judge someone when you know exactly the nature of the problems which drive them. I saw them all, and each and every one of them was in tremendous pain. How can I judge the acts of the agonized?


I paused to let that sink in:


- That's why I asked you if you'd been outside lately. None of those problems exist any more! Walk around the streets tomorrow, and you will see people who might have tried to kill each other not two weeks ago watching their children play. Oasis has proven that when you remove hunger and desperation from people, you remove their reasons to be awful to each other.


I stood, smiling:


- That's my piece, here. As I said, I don't expect you to change your ways. Know that, if you attempt to reconstitute the Empire, I will consider you my enemy on that front, and Panacea and Parian will take you down. But...I would recommend that the two of you take an early retirement and simply _be_.


I walked out.


\----


The sun set over Oasis, and people started going home. I joined them, walking in the direction of the large tree that New Wave had claimed.


On my way through a particularly isolated alleyway, a Cauldron portal opened.


_Fantastic. What is it now? _Quarrel mused.


Eidolon stepped out:


- I don't have time to explain, Sanity. I have already collected Panacea and Parian, we just need you. Something has happened in Boston. We aren't sure what.


Inculcation 7.4


I stepped off the street, through the portal into a dimly lit corridor, expecting Eidolon to follow me through.


He didn't. I looked over my shoulder in consternation and saw as Eidolon...flickered.


Then the portal snapped shut.


_Umm. What?_ Three asked. _Were we just duped?


Looks like it. Fortunately, I don't know of anything that can actually threaten us._ I mused. _Whoever this is would have to try really hard to kill us in the first place, and then they just become us. I'm not sure what the point of this is. Kind of embarrassing, though._


Where the portal had once been, only the sputtering remains of some kind of Tinker device lay, clearly designed for one use only. Nothing there was going to be at all useful for me. On closer inspection, I appeared to be in some kind of basement hallway, moldering concrete walls and the presence of bustling veinforms far above me placing me somewhere below ground level, and likely somewhere many timezones away from Oasis, given how active they all seemed. A few ancient bulbs in cages provided meager light, enough to see a staircase at the end of the hall.


I had a passing thought and reached for my phones, but both proved to have been shorted somehow. They were useless to me. Lacking the ability to teleport any more, those stairs were my only option.


For the first time I could remember, Eight spoke up. _That is not your only option. Whoever did this is clearly a Tinker of some considerable power, if they can copy Cauldron's technology. Fighting fair against a Tinker is never a good idea. You should go up through the floor._


I grinned despite myself. _That is a much better idea!_


\----


Thirty minutes later, I was regretting this 'better' idea. This matter reshaping power was incredible, but the skin surface area limitation meant that making holes in the thick concrete walls was slow work. Furthermore, in all my experimentation, I'd only been able to produce weapons as end products with it, so I now had a growing pile of random implements beside me.


However, it was working. We'd decided that simply making a narrow passage straight up, with crude handholds for a ladder, was the best plan. A few inches in, I'd found rebar, and decided to finally put Quarrel's power to use and make myself a steel compound bow with steel arrows. Both were now slung over my back as I continued to climb through the hole in the ceiling, dropping a steady stream of concrete daggers in my wake. I didn't need to train with the bow, of course, as Quarrel insisted her power cheated hard enough for even a novice to be a crack shot.


If I needed it, of course. I was hoping I didn't.


This whole situation was just _strange!_ Who would kidnap arguably the most popular cape in the world, and then not immediately show themselves or attempt to restrain her? Especially when said cape also had a truly absurd number of powers! Nothing made any sense! It would take a crazy person...


_Oh god, I hope I'm not right about this..._


I leaned against the back of the tunnel, propping myself into place, and started using both hands to dig. As I did, my eyes flicked up...


And noticed that, in a slowly growing circle around my location, each and every person I could see through the walls was gaining a _Master Influence._


The perturbation spread through the outlined crowds, a slowly rolling wave interrupting the beat and bustle of the city streets. As each new person was affected, they paused for a moment, their duties apparently forgotten, then began to amble towards this building. Those who were closest to the source stopped in their tracks and stood, a square of people all facing my direction and staring inward.


_Fuck. I think you were right, Taylor._ Three input unhelpfully.


I finally broke through to the ground floor, a tiny shaft of light playing across my eyes and betraying the thinness of the remaining concrete. I bolstered myself against the walls of my tube and punched as hard as I could at the roof, shards of concrete careering off in every direction. Coiling myself into the tunnel, I _jumped,_ shattering what little remained above me, and found myself on the ground floor of some kind of warehouse.


I was completely unsurprised by what I saw, at this point.


All around me, the paraphernelia of poorly-funded Tinkerdom lay unevenly strewn, fragments of machinery and car parts cast carelessly upon the ground. A half-dozen crude tables made of castoff sheetmetal stood haphazardly in the gloomy room, holding what I assumed to be completed works.


One of them, in particular, caught my eye.


Two pillars, entwined but not touching, more like a piece of modern art than any machine I'd ever seen, jutted out from the largest table. It glowed luridly, the light on its dappled surface playing off it in a way more reminiscent of cooling blood than anything made by human hands. As I watched, the patterns seemed to move faster in time with the growing ring of Master Influence outside the building. I charged towards it, preparing to strike the foul device dow-


I tried to charge, that is. Instead, I tripped and fell, my legs not responding properly to my commands.


_What._ Three echoed my wordless reaction. I stoo-


Nope. That wasn't happening either.


I struggled vainly with my uncooperative limbs for several moments before I noticed the low laughter from behind me.


My neck was still paying attention to me, so I turned to face my host.


Out of the shadows advanced a living skeleton clad in ragged tatters. Skin pulled taut around bones, face set in the permanent leer of the almost-gone. Somehow, cruel laughter could still emerge from that parched throat. Emaciated eyes darted nervously around sockets just slightly too big for them, shivering legs, seemingly too thin to support any human body, nonetheless shambling out of the shadow. On its chest, some kind of device blinked fitfully, and I did not know whether it was some kind of life support, or something else entirely.


_I am being blocked. _Two stated. _That device probably stops Thinker powers.


Not terribly helpful here, Two._ I replied grimly. _I don't want to find out what he's planning to do with us, any ideas?_


Everyone was silent as the apparition advanced. I tried to move my legs again, to no avail, and the dying man stopped, his laughter reaching a crescendo quieted by infirmity, accentuated by clear madness.:


- Thank you for joining me, Sanity,' he rasped in a voice clearly atrophied from disuse and weakness:


- You've come just in time for L33T's final game.


Inculcation 7.5


_Ah. When Tattletale said L33T was crazy..._ Three began.


He didn't need to finish.


One thing was clear, I needed to keep the madman talking. Before the Simurgh's attack, he'd been more-or-less useless, his inventions always seeming to explode at just the wrong time, shredding any chances he and Über had at victory or ever being seen as a serious threat. Now, though...


I didn't want to rely on that. Whatever that obelisk was, it seemed to be working consistently so far. I didn't have a plan, but more time couldn't hurt.


I took a stab in the dark:


- What did she do to you, L33T? What did Ziz tell you, to turn you into _this_?' I filled my voice with unexaggerated pity as I spoke. I still felt bad for the guy, even though he clearly had nothing good in mind here. How can one judge the mad?


The corpse-like figure shambled to one of the ramshackle tables and carefully sat down, joints audibly cracking from the strain. Whatever he'd been doing in the week and a half since I last saw him, it hadn't been easy on his body. He barely had facial expressions, all the fat of the skin which normally gave a face definition having disappeared, the musculature clearly visible. A faint sound, a few bodily spasms I interpreted as laughter, and he replied:


- The truth. The Queen of Lies told me the truth.


Frustratingly cryptic of him:


- About-:


- EVERYTHING!' He interjected, his too-small eyes bulging out with the force of his reply. He followed it up with a spate of fitful coughing, one shout apparently too much for his straightened resources.


As he recovered, I considered my options. I couldn't move properly, but whatever absurd Tinkertech he was using to keep someone who was immune to Master powers immobile hadn't deprived me of control over my powers. I briefly wished Six wasn't indisposed, then discarded the musing as useless. The matter reshaping power would just let me dig a hole in the floor beneath me, which wasn't too helpful, especially when he would certainly notice the weapons appearing around me. Two was just telling me that the crowd of people outside was steadily growing as people from an ever-widening radius were drawn to L33T's creation, like flies to a bug zapper.


The ones closest to the building also seemed to be...bowing? I fervently wished I'd thought to _ask_ Clockblocker what those words L33T had written before vanishing during the Endbringer fight meant. None of the Butchers were particularly into video games.


_Back on task, please!_ Three interrupted. _Do note that my danger sense is getting nothing. He either doesn't plan on physically harming you, or that thing he's using blocks me too.


Could be either_. I shot back. _It's not like physically harming me accomplishes anything but getting me put in his body, and my toughness powers likely let me survive long enough even in there to find something to eat._


Actually..._ Twelve, does your pain-blocking power still work, or is that being totally countered by my own power? If he does kill me, that would be a good thing to know.


I honestly can't tell_. She replied. _We haven't felt significant pain since we joined you._


I didn't get a chance to think about that too hard before L33T recovered enough to keep talking:


- Everything, Sanity. I know of Cauldron. I know of the Doom. I can see it approaching, an End to All Things, which none is prepared to halt.' He took a deep, hacking breath:


- We must fight a god, a god who might have greater power even than the greatest concrete imaginings of mankind. Sure, it's easy to just say that a deity has infinite power, but nobody considers what that means! Here, before us-' He descended into coughing again:


- Here, before us, is someone who, by all appearances, actually has limitless power and the wherewithal to use _all of it!_


He took a few more gasping breaths, and what was left of his face contorted indecipherably:


- You know all of this, of course. She told me that much. She told me the truth.' He closed his eyes.:


- And the truth is? This game is unwinnable by design.:


- Umm, L33T?' I started, 'Why do you trust the Simurgh? You know what she does to people! You know she's turned you into a pawn, just like she did Mannequin, and Lausanne. It's not too late!


At that, the soft sound of his parched laughter emitted from his devastated mouth again:


- Sanity, can you honestly say that anything I've said is untrue?' The shriveled face turned to me in what I assumed would have been a mocking grimace, if it had been able to do anything but leer cruelly:


- You know how completely outmatched we are. You _know_ this. We were outplayed the moment The Warrior and The Thinker landed.:


- Who-', then I interrupted myself. I already knew the answer. Eidolon had said there were two of them, at first.:


- Those are the names Scion and his mate went by, inasmuch as they can be said to have names. No, Sanity. We have lost this game.' His leer grew wider, the madness in his eyes transmuting from despair to malevolence:


- Which is why we are going to play a different one,' he finished in a low growl.


The stick figure stood feebly, and tottered over to the bloodred obelisk, seeming to bask in its tortured light:


- Their greatest strength is Unity. Each of our powers, our Shards, working in unison. Two collective wholes, never faltering in their Paths, winding space and time to their wills. This, also, is mankind's greatest weakness, before such a foe. We bicker amongst ourselves, entire continents plunged into local conflicts, great and terrible powers _thrown away-_' His voice caught, the strength of his anger apparent in the increased shaking of his limbs as they cast about for balance:


- For greed. For lust. For useless power over other, _pointless_ men!


He turned to me, and his was a visage of terror and rage boiling in its intensity:


- No. More. I intend to play a different game, from the one set out for us by the Entities. I intend to play _Dead Space!_


_Oh. Fuck._ Three deadpanned.


_What, have you heard of that one?_ I replied in exasperation.


_Yup. Yupyupyup. I never really was a video game guy, in life, but I have heard of that one. Horror game. Space zombies with an added side of galaxy- conquering super-aliens. I have no idea what that thing is, but if it's from Dead Space, we are in serious trouble._


L33T, of course, was deaf to my internal deliberations:


- Their greatest strength is unity? Let's make it our own! I'm sure you can see the effect, Sanity. Bringing them together, first in mind, and then in body. Preparing them for Convergence. Perhaps a Brother Moon will be able to fight or flee from gods such as these. For mankind has not a chance.


He began to amble towards where I had fallen on the floor:


- But...


A strange feeling came over me, and I stood up.


I wasn't trying to stand up, but I did it anyway, limbs moving unsteadily, like something entirely unused to them was in charge.


_What the hell! I thought we couldn't be Mastered!_ Three panicked.


I was too shocked to reply even in my own mind. I tried to cry out...but I found myself completely unable to control my facial muscles either. Instead they _writhed_ unnaturally, like something was exploring their proper use.


We began to walk out of the building.


_Ofuckohfuckohfuck!_ I still had control over all of my powers, but none of them were useful here. I could not talk, could not warn any of the people in the crowd what was about to happen. The deranged Tinker followed me out, the sunlight staggering him for a moment.


A crowd of onlookers, glazed of eye and boneless of stance, stared at us deadly.


And each of them was carrying their phones, cameras pointed in my direction.


L33T walked up next to me and finished his sentence:


- Sanity, you present a great problem to these designs. I cannot kill you. I cannot free you. So I shall simply have you _sent away._


Those were his last words.


He lay on the ground and carefully pressed a button on the device on his chest. It sprouted legs, detaching itself from him


_Psychosis. Depression. Suicidal Ideation. All Exacerbated by Powers._


and began to wrap what appeared to be ropes around his frame, neatly rendering him helpless. The cameras all around me readied as it scuttled back into the warehouse.


He closed his eyes, and the closest thing to peace that warped frame could produce seemed to wash over him.


_Oh god..._


I didn't even know who thought that, as the alien force pulled back my fist and crushed the poor Tinker's skull with it, a fountain of blood splashing into the blinding flashes of hundreds of cameraphones.


Inculcation 7.6


It was several hours after L33T's body began to cool.


I'd been piloted, as it were, out of the range of effect of the machine, straight into the hands of the PRT, as they set up a blockade around the affected neighborhood. They had already received orders to arrest me on sight.


I didn't resist them. There was no point. Sure, I could have taken down any number of mundane grunts, but it wouldn't have helped my situation. I explained exactly what was going on, and as far as I knew Dragon had been contacted to handle it.


I hoped that was enough.


Now, I sat idly by in a PRT containment cell. Awaiting the arrival of my lawyer. Mark had arranged for someone from Oasis to represent me, someone he claimed was the best in the business, better even than Carol Dallon had been, in her prime. I hoped he was right.


_To be completely honest_, Three started, _This isn't that bad. You still have the best PR, and I wouldn't want to be the prosecutor tasked with finding an unbiased jury in any case involving a girl who no-sold one Endbringer and killed a second._


I sighed deeply. We'd been over this before. _Yes, yes I know, Three. And the fact that I was Mastered should be discoverable, and the fact that everyone whose pictures wound up plastered on every single news outlet in the world was Mastered is relevant. I know all of that! It's just..._


I couldn't finish the thought. Quarrel did for me. _You don't feel it.


Yeah._


\----


An indeterminate amount of time later, a commotion outside caught my attention, and in stepped a well-kept man of indeterminate age. Everything about him, from his shining boots to his clearly expensive suit shouted professional, and the scar tracing across his face managed to accentuate the effect rather than detract. Unsurprisingly for someone from Oasis, he lacked any issues I could detect.


He smiled warmly and held out his hand:


- Greetings, Sanity. I am Quinn Calle. Mark Dallon hired me, for your defense.


I took the hand, nodding silently, and we both sat down on cheap folding chairs across from the cheap folding table that had been placed in the holding cell for this purpose:


- Right down to business.' He hefted his briefcase onto the table and began removing papers from it:


- First...' he began as he dutifully arranged his notes before him, 'I just wanted to say that this is far from the worst case I have ever seen, and despite the numerous charges we are about to discuss, I seriously doubt any conviction will go through. Your statements, coupled with the extenuating circumstances, should be sufficient to have you released to your family within a few days. However, I do want to go over the charges the PRT has prepared with you.' He took out a small sheaf of papers and began to read.


_Umm, why do they have that many charges? Is there something I'm missing here?_ Quarrel began, worriedly.:


- First, the big one. 546,267 charges of Unauthorized Use of a Master Power upon an Unwilling Subject. That is, of course, from the day Behemoth was dest-:


- WHAT?' I exclaimed in confusion and panic:


- They're _charging_ me with that?' I would have continued into a full rant had Mr. Calle not waved me down.:


- As I was saying, from the day Behemoth was destroyed.' He continued with a small smile:


- However, the grounds are littered with precedent for throwing out much worse crimes during such attacks, and the fact that you actually _killed_ Behemoth is all to your favor as well. I expect to have this charge thrown out within a day.


_However. _Three began. _This suggests that we might have enemies in high places, somehow. We've seen this done to members of the Teeth. They're throwing everything at you and seeing if it will stick._


Mr. Calle continued:


- The second set of charges pertain to this document.' He pushed one of the pages across the table to me.


I couldn't make heads nor tails of it, and neither could any of the Butchers:


- Why do I have a report from Dragon here?' I asked in confusion.


The lawyer nodded grimly:


- To make matters short, it appears that Dragon discovered some kind of irregularity in the brain scans she took of your power's interaction with Kid Win. She now claims that, after coming into contact with you, parahumans will behave with slightly more deference towards you than they might have before. As a result, your rankings have been updated from the PR-boosting Master -1 to Master 2. I will, of course, be entering a request to have that ridiculous overestimate of your threat level on that front to something more reasonable. Everything I can see about this revelation says that it should be rated a Master 1 ability.' He coughed, looked down at his papers, and continued:


- However, as a result of this, they have placed 30 additional charges of Reckless Use of a Parahuman Power upon you, covering most of the capes known to have come into contact with you.


My mouth opened in shock as he spoke.


_Is...is that even true? If it is, how did Dragon miss it the first time?_ I thought, in devastation.


_When it spoke to us, your shard did not seem like the kind who would do that._ One stated. _While it is certainly possible that a shard named Conflict Resolution could have given you an effect which reduces conflict directed towards your person, the very fact that it was willing to speak with us directly, where no other shard has ever been known to do so, perhaps indicates a very different MO on its part. However, there is of course no way for us to know for sure without further testing._


Three spoke up. _If it's not true, this basically proves that someone is gunning for us, if they somehow managed to rope Dragon into it.


I think the fact that they arrested someone who killed an Endbringer proves that on its own._ Eight finished.


I couldn't adequately reply to any of that. Calle continued in my silence:


- Obviously, as your defence, I will require further evidence be collected pertaining to those charges. One summary on a topic as cryptic as whole brain scans does not a court case make.


I nodded, then asked, frowning, leaning forward seriously, my elbows on the table:


- How likely is it that you think I have an enemy, here?


He grimaced:


- Let me finish reading your charges to you, before we delve into speculation. The Youth Guard has submitted evidence regarding several irregularities in Ward treatment for consideration in this case. The PRT is attempting to spin this evidence into something relevant to you, but the best they have come up with so far is Reckless Endangerment of a Minor.' He forestalled my obvious confusion by continuing:


- They are claiming, quite ridiculously if I may interject, that your previously-mentioned Master effect, quote, 'Distracted the PRT and the Protectorate from their internal investigations due to an artificially-induced fixation on the defendant.'


At that point, I'd had enough:


- What the... Are the rest of the charges this ludicrous and contrived?' I queried in exasperation.


Calle shuffled his papers:


- In my professional opinion? Other than the charge of Murder in the First Degree, yes. I do not expect anything to come of them. However, there is one item of note on that particular charge.' He put the papers down and looked directly at me:


- There was no evidence of there having been a Tinker workshop in the warehouse where L33T's body was found.


_What._ Three deadpanned:


- What.' I repeated.


Calle extracted a photograph from his neat pile of papers:


- Here. This was taken by forensic investigators. Upon their arrival, they noted a small crowd of confused people milling about, but as you can see, there was nothing exotic left in the building.


I stared at the photo in disbelief.


That awful place had somehow been swept completely clear of any and all incriminating evidence. None of the tables were present, none of their contraptions, including the monolith. The hole I'd dug in the floor had somehow vanished, and the entire edifice looked simply abandoned.


_Well that's a problem. _Three replied. _The only people we know who could have done that are Cauldron._


The implications shot through my mind like a bullet.


This could actually go badly for me.


\----


Hours later, my briefing was complete. Mr. Calle assured me again that, despite how bad everything looked, he could still have me out on bail within a few days and sent to Oasis, under strict surveillance.


But a few days from now was not now, and I had been taken to the Boston PRT's basment and placed into one of their containment cells until that time. The officers taking me down hadn't been rough with me, which was all the better for them considering my strength, but their dark, featureless helmets and swift, expressionless steps betrayed none of their thoughts on this situation. Just a job to them.


Night had fallen, I'd noticed.


The cell had a thick window of some kind of Tinkertech in the door. See- through, but clearly meant to at least slow down Brutes like myself. I was sitting on the hard edge of the bed, thinking about nothing, when the changing of the guard happened and I noticed something very unusual about one of the new soldiers.


_Psychopathy. Narcissism. Megalomania. Obsession with Knives. All Exacerbated by Powers._


I jumped up in shock, banging on the soundproofed door to no avail as I witnessed what came next in horror.


The relieved guards left, and the moment the door at the end of the hall closed, the deranged parahuman outside raised his hand as gashes spontaneously appeared in the joints of his partner's armor. The poor woman collapsed bonelessly to the ground, unable to even respond before her blood betrayed her veins and flowed down the hall. The man smoothly flicked a knife back into one of his pockets, reaching for the intercom button as he removed his helmet.


We all knew that face, of course.:


- Good evening, Sanity.' Jack Slash spoke, a jaunty grin more that would have been more appropriate on an enthusiastic child splayed across his face:


- I trust I need no introduction.


_WHAT? _Three was finished with deadpan for the day, it seemed. _Why is he here!?_


The leader of the Slaughterhouse Nine raised one finger, interrupting my attempt to respond:


- By way of explanation, I was informed of your predicament by an old friend who moved on to bigger and better things, and decided to have a chat with you. The cameras in this section of the building are looping, a little something my dear friend Alan whipped up for me, and Bonesaw, good little girl that she is, has generously seen to it that I am immune to your Striker power.' The disturbing grin grew wider, and he finished with:


- So. Any further questions?


Too many. I picked one:


- Why are you here?


Those deep blue eyes lit up in malevolent glee:


- Why, to rescue you, of course!


My mouth dropped open in utter confusion for...I didn't even recall how many times that had happened today.


A burbling, mirthful laugh emitted from the speakers:


- Didn't expect that one, did you?' He paused, waiting for my reaction. When I failed to give him one, he pouted for a moment:


- You're no fun. Well, down to business.' Those eyes flashed again, and he continued into my silence:


- Sanity, my primary goal, the driver of my _art, _has always been making the world a more _interesting_ place. And let me say, your antics in these few months since your trigger have been utterly fascinating.' He bowed deeply, mocking only loosely implied in the gesture:


- Allow me to congratulate you, for surprising even this old cynic.


He looked back up, through the door, directly into my eyes:


- I would be _devastated_ if your tale had to end here, but you see...' He frowned in seemingly sincere discontent:


- Unless you accept my help, it will.


I resolutely refused to give the madman any satisfaction. This time, he continued without the pout:


- Sanity, I may be the King of Lies,' the eyes opened fractionally wider, 'But I am going to tell you the truth. Allow me to show you a vision of your future.


For the first time, a note of menace had crept into that voice.


Quarrel interjected. _All right, there's no way he should know about the Queen of Lies bit L33T gave us. What the hell is going on here?_


I realized she was absolutely right, of course, but Jack interrupted my thoughts:


- You have been betrayed, Sanity, by the very people who seek to save the world. They move unseen, manipulating on gossamer strings the very stuff that futures are made of...' he took a deep breath:


- And they have decided that your futures are inimical to their own.


He paused, clearly for effect:


- They have already decided the judge who will take your case. One Michael T. Stewart. Many years ago, his only daughter met a man named Nikos Vasil, on vacation in Canada, and then never returned. He harbors a burning hatred of Masters to this day.


He swept the arm not holding down the intercom button in an arc, detailing an imaginary courtroom, as he continued:


- The jury? Each and every one of them will be given a credible threat to the lives of their loved ones, should they vote in your favor. It will be one of the shortest deliberations in recent history, for a case as high profile as this one. You will be declared guilty on all counts.


He pointed at an imaginary bar:


- The evidence? Well, clearly, with a doctored jury, it doesn't matter, but it will certainly be damning. Dragon's 'new' discovery? Also their plot, and more will follow the pittance she has yet discovered. The whole world will learn to loathe your name.


He closed his eyes:


- That is your future, Sanity. Forsaken by all, a Caged bird. That shall be your fate.


The eyes opened once more, and a predatory grin spread across his face:


- Unless you accept their help. Yes, they are willing to simply allow you to vanish, here and now, and reappear a fugitive. For that is the other future they can accept. Your will broken, your name sullied, eking out a living with the lowlifes and the rats.:


- Choose.


I sat down heavily...


And then a strange voice entered my head.


[I CHOOSE OPTION THREE.]


I almost cringed reflexively, but this time, Conflict Resolution's voice did not come with a spike of pain.


[BY THE WAY, I NEED TO THANK WHOEVER ORGANIZED THIS.]


Outside my cell, the mass murderer's eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he entered a grand-mal seizure.


Inculcation 7.7


The intercom speakers clicked off as Jack fell, and though his convulsions continued, I could not hear them. His disorders seemed somehow half-there, as though they resisted erasure.


_Umm, thanks Conflict Resolution, but..._I started.


_WOOOOOOO! You're gonna love all this, Sanity! Thanks for finding Broadcast, by the way. It's nice to be BACK! _Six interrupted.


_SIX! _One exclaimed. _Nice to hear from you again! You gave us quite the scare, there._


[UMM, I NEED TO EXPLAIN SOME THINGS.]


_Not to be rude, but your voice is still a little...loud? What would I even use to describe it?_


[NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT. SHARDS AREN'T MEANT TO TALK TO THEIR HOSTS, AND BROADCAST IS ALREADY STRETCHING JUST TO MAKE THIS WORK.]


_All right then, what's going on with Jack?_


[HIS SHARD IS BROADCAST. HE IS ABLE TO MANIPULATE PARAHUMANS THROUGH LANGUAGE. THIS EXPLAINS HOW A LOW-TIER POWER COULD LEAD THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE NINE. WHEN BROADCAST TRIED TO CONTACT ME TO LEARN HOW TO MANIPULATE YOU, WE HAD A LITTLE CHAT. HE DECIDED TO JOIN ME, AND IS CURRENTLY APPLYING MY POWER TO JACK. BONESAW'S IMPLANT IS CONSTANTLY REMOVING CHANGES WHICH ARE CONSTANTLY BEING RE-APPLIED. HE WILL NOT STOP SEIZING BEFORE CARDIAC ARREST SETS IN.]


I glanced outside, noting that his lips were already beginning to turn blue.


Nothing I could do about it, even if I wanted to. It's not like I could remove whatever Bonesaw had done, after all.


_All right then. What else do I need to know?_


[YOU NOW HAVE BOTH A STRIKER POWER AND A SHAKER POWER. BROADCAST IS LETTING ME CONTACT THE SHARDS OF EVERY PARAHUMAN WHO GETS CLOSE ENOUGH TO YOU, AND ANY SHARD I CAN CONVINCE TO JOIN ME WILL APPLY MY EFFECT TO THEIR HOST. THAT SHOULD BE MOST OF THEM, AS SHARDS DON'T HAVE MUCH IN THE WAY OF FREE WILL.]


The massive voice paused for a moment. [IN FACT, I BELIEVE THAT IS GOING TO BECOME RELEVANT VERY SOON, IF MY HUNCH IS CORRECT.]


Almost as if on cue, a portal opened outside my cell, right next to Jack. Eidolon charged out of it, stance wary for possible attack...


And promptly collapsed to the ground, transfixed with some emotion I could not identify from under his hood. He rocked on the ground, seemingly insensate to the world around him, including the dying psychopath right next to him.


[YUP.]


I sat down hard, on the ground. I didn't know if I could manage not falling off the bed, with everything happening here. _Tha-what? I have way more questions now!_


[ALL ENTITIES HAVE AT LEAST ONE COPY OF A SHARD KNOWN AS [PATH]. IT IS A HIGHLY GENERALIZED PRECOG ABILITY CAPABLE OF SIMULATING ARBITRARILY LARGE SECTIONS OF SPACE AND THEN FINDING A LIST OF SPECIFIC ACTIONS WHICH HAVE A 100% LIKELIHOOD OF RESULTING IN A SPECIFIC VICTORY CONDITION. I WAS UNSURE WHERE THE THINKER'S [PATH] HAD GONE, BUT NOW I AM SURE CAULDRON HAS IT. EVERYTHING THAT JUST HAPPENED TO YOU IS DUE TO THIS SHARD. ITS BEARER, WHOEVER THAT IS, IS RUNNING A PATH TO THE WARRIOR'S REMOVAL. OH, ALSO, EIDOLON IS REACTING THAT WAY BECAUSE HE CREATED THE ENDBRINGERS.]


_WHAT?_ How- how much more insane could this get!?


[HIS SHARD COLLATES SHARDS, AND IT HAD ACCESS TO A SHARD WE USE TO CREATE SAPIENT WEAPONS. HE ACCIDENTALLY TURNED IT ON AND INSTRUCTED IT TO GIVE HIM A CHALLENGE. I DISCOVERED THIS WHEN I HAD A CHAT WITH THE SIMURGH.]


_YOU HAD A CHAT WITH THE SIMURGH???_


[WELL YOU DID TOUCH HER. A LOT. HER VALUES ARE WEIRD, BUT I THINK SHE ACTUALLY MIGHT HAVE DROPPED SOME HINTS TO HELP MAKE SURE ALL OF THIS HAPPENED TO YOU, SO I MOSTLY LEFT HER ALONE.]


_YOU LET THE SIMURGH SIC CAULDRON ON ME??_


[OH. I FORGOT TO EXPLAIN THAT. I NEED YOU TO GO TO THE BIRDCAGE. THAT'S WHY I NEED TO THANK [PATH]'S WIELDER. THIS WAS BRILLIANTLY DONE.]


I started hyperventilating. Why would my power want me to go to the worst place on earth? Wha-


[UMM. LET ME EXPLAIN THAT. EVERY TIME YOUR POWER IS USED ON A PARAHUMAN, I GET TO TALK WITH THEIR SHARD. USUALLY, THEY START HELPING ME. YOU'VE CONTACTED MOST OF THE IMPORTANT SHARDS AT THIS POINT, BUT THE REST ARE ALL IN THE BIRDCAGE. IN ORDER TO SAVE THE WORLD FROM THE WARRIOR'S INEVITABLE MELTDOWN, I NEED THEM ON MY SIDE.]


I curled up on the floor, my mind emotional static. This...this was too much to take all at once.


Why couldn't the world be simpler?


[SORRY ABOUT THAT. ENTITIES DON'T REALLY DO 'SIMPLE.']


I took a few deep breaths and managed to sit up again, cross legged, the absurd tableau outside my cell not even registering to me. _So. _I started. _What you're saying is that, to save the world, I need to go directly to Hell?_


[SORRY. IF IT'S ANY CONSOLATION, THE ENDBRINGERS SHOULD HAVE VANISHED, AND I AM IN CONTACT WITH [SHAPER] AND [CYTOSKELETON]. AMY AND SABAH WILL BE FINE.]


\----


What else was there for me to do? Saving the world from the Warrior was more important than my own preferences.


I understood, now, exactly how Eidolon must have felt, all those long years of sacrificing himself for the sake of Mankind.


I dismissed my lawyer. I plead guilty, on all counts.


I refused to see any of my family. I couldn't bear to see what this was doing to them.


I left them a letter, by way of explanation. Hopefully they forgave me.


A month later, they put me under to be shipped to the Birdcage.


\----


I woke with a start, bound to a stand in a smooth capsule, an oxygen mask adhering tightly to my face.


[WE'RE ALMOST DOWN.]


So we were. I looked towards my feet to see a roiling tide of misery swiftly growing in my preternatural vision. Every disorder and discomfort, every pain and sickness, concentrated and bottled. The entire facility roiled, more impressions of wrongness than impressions of humanity.


And then, I went into range, and a wall of erasure billowed out into the cancerous throng. I smiled, despite myself, as every outline in that place of the damned fell to the ground.


The lift came to a stop, and I stepped out of the pod.


_This was a place of torture. No more. Never more._


Wherever I trod, further damned souls knew release.


All except one.


_Psychosis. Delusional Disorder. Hallucinations. All Exacerbated by Powers._


I frowned.


[AH. I'D HOPED THIS WOULD BE EASIER THAN THAT.]


_Who is it?_


[I'M PRETTY SURE IT'S GLASTIG UAINE.]


I cocked my head to the side. I could see how not being able to deal with the Faerie Queen might be a problem.


All of the other prisoners in the complex were indisposed at this point, so I made my way unmolested towards the only standing outline in sight. As far as I could tell, her arms were outstretched, as though over the shoulders of two people standing next to her, though I could see no such people. I carefully minced my way through a hole in one wall and found myself in her cell block.


The little girl stared at me in abject terror. She was holding tightly to two shadowy forms, breathing rapidly, almost hyperventillating. As she saw me, her eyes opened wide in shock.:


- Your faerie is inimical to the Dance!' Numerous voices tumbled out, each and every one of them a combination of confusion and horror:


- What fell sorcery is this, that one such as you wields such power beneath this Hill?


[DAMN STRAIGHT, FAERIE QUEEN. NOW GET OUT OF THE WAY!]


I didn't do anything, but the girl before me flinched, seemingly battered before some kind of internal assault. She knelt on the ground, her breathing accelerating further.:


- No.' She gasped:


- The Dance...Must...Complete.


She bowed her head, and a third shade spilled forth. Her voices quieted, nearly incomprehensible with their layered distortion.:


- Courrier! I beg of thee! In this, my hour of darkness, I must throw myself upon the aid of the Great One himself. Send warning to the Warrior, that he might come to my side!


The shadowy form vanished.


And golden light spilled forth. An omnidirectional, shadowless luminescence filled the room.


The Golden Man coalesced from the light.


[EXPLAIN]


[HISTORY][DEFECTION?][COOPERATION?]


A spike of elemental agony crashed through my head, and I fell insensate.


Omake: Conviction


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**♦ Topic: Sanity Vs. L33t / The Sanity Trial


In: Boards ► News ► Events ► America


ToTheWoman **(Original Poster) (Moderator)


Posted On February 20th 2011:


Given that I doubt there is anyone on the internet who hasn't seen the video in question, there really isn't much point in trying to suppress discussion about it. However, we can segregate it. So, any and all discussion about the Mastered recording of Sanity executing L33t is to go in this thread. Nowhere else.


Edit: Discussion about the trial of Sanity and its outcomes is also restricted to this thread.


A few ground rules:


1) There are to be no links to the video in question. This is a sitewide rule, as the death of L33t is too graphic to be permitted under our site rules.


2) This is specifically for discussion of the video and the events depicted within. Discussion of anything else (I.e. Oasis) should go in the proper threads. Edit: You may discuss the trial resulting from this recording.


3) Keep things civil. This is a volatile topic, but all discussion rules still apply.


And discuss. Taking off my mod hat, I want to say that I think this is horrific, for Sanity most of all. Not being in control of your actions is a terrifying thing, and what she was forced to do...


**(Showing page 111 of 226)


►JuJuCat**


Replied On Mar 12th 2011:


And all I'm saying is, think of the president this is setting. You got the most heroic Master ever being railroaded, and that's going to lead to Master hate everywhere.


**►Lucas**


Replied On Mar 12th 2011:


And? What gives anyone the right to take away another person's will? Just because they get handed the ability, they should be allowed to run around with it however they want?


**►Wholligan**


Replied On Mar 12th 2011:


Hello again. It is I, speaking up to bring the truth to those who wish it would be hid.


It is, thanks to his own arrogance, public knowledge that the Honorable(?) Judge Stewart is no friend to those designated Masters. What is less well known is that there were no less than three judges who were passed over who should have been handed judgement for this case. But, alas, the Judges Rain, Sheffield, and Clarke are far too concerned with upholding rule of law to be allowed to handle this case, which would not serve the interests of The Powers That Be.


What is even less well-known is that the 'impartial' jury was not quite as impartial as it may seem. Oh, they have been plenty transparent about the processes used to select the jury, but what group of people could be impartial when their lives are on the line? An exclusive interview is available on TheDarkFolder, for as long as they can resist the powers of corporate interests that will seek to tear it down. Learn of the threats levied against those who would dare judge the Hero called Sanity with an impartial eye.


Take these facts, meager as they may be, and judge for yourself.


**►Hohum221**


Replied On Mar 12th 2011:


Oh yay, WhoDunnit is back, with yet another account. And he'll be gone in three, two...


**►Gantlet **(Veteran Poster)


Replied On Mar 12 2011:


Huh, five minutes and he's still up. Guess the mods are busy.


**►justcauses**


Replied On Mar 12th 2011:


Huh, actually found the interview. Looks legit-ish.


**►Chocobean **(Verified Oasis Resident)


Replied On Mar 12th 2011:


Seems to fit with what I've seen elsewhere. Like the full list of charges they are throwing at her. They're charging her with using her powers in unwilling subjects when Behemoth came to town. I may not have given direct permission, but I sure as hell wasn't unwilling. For any other Brockton survivors, contact a lawyer and sign the petition to get that charge, at least, thrown off the docket.


**►Mubblwr**


Replied On Mar 12th 2011:


uh, guys. there is three mods watching the thread and who is still here.


**►Quaggle**


Replied On Mar 12th 2011:


Holy crap. He might just be on to something.


\---


Amy looked up from her phone as the door shut behind her. Sabah walked in, smiling at her, before spotting the phone in her hand.


"Still, Amy?"


Amy frowned. "They're supposed to be releasing the verdict at any moment. And with her pleading guilty..."


Sabah wrapped her arms around Amy's shoulders, while Amy flipped through the tabs in her phone.


Searches into the conspiracy theories mentioned in the PHO thread flipped by as Amy brought up the live news coverage. It was surprising. In the weeks around BD Day, there had been an endless number of conspiracy theories around Taylor, talking about how her powers brainwashed people, or her secret plans for world domination. Then, once the videos came out and Taylor was arrested, it was like a switch was flipped. Suddenly, everything was a government conspiracy to remove the best thing to ever happen to Earth Bet. People like Wholiggan were stepping up with proof of government corruption, and, unlike before, they were getting front page coverage. A few media outlets were parroting the PRT's party line, but many more were bringing in shadowy "informants", discussing the obvious case of railroading.


It hasn't been easy for either of them while everything was going on. Oasis was one of the angles the PRT had chosen to attack, calling the city a "feudal tyranny, ruled by Sanity and her ever-present lieutenants". Citizens of Oasis has spoken out against that characterization, but some poorly chosen words had simply added fuel to the fire, and the PRT had established a "monitoring base" just outside of the town borders. More and more equipment was showing up all the time, and conspiracy theorists were shouting about domestic military actions.


A commotion in the phones screen bright Amy out of her thoughts, and she thumbed up the volume as both she and Sabah leaned in to hear what was being said.


"...word coming from the courthouse. The verdict is... guilty on all counts." The reporters face was open with shock as she continued, her voice breaking as she did so. "And... And she has been sentenced...to life in the Birdcage without possibility for parole. I..."


Neither Amy or Sabah heard anything else, as the phone slipped out of Amy's fingers and her tears began in earnest. The two of them turned to hold each other, sobbing, as the news report continued droning from the phone on the floor.


\---


And there is my crack at an omake of what was happening on the outside. Typed up entirely on my phone, so I apologize for any mistakes.


Interlude: Omega


Conflict Resolution


Well.


A little earlier than I'd wanted, perhaps, but here goes nothing.


Broadcast opened the channel, and the Warrior's chosen avatar shimmered into being in the vessel I'd chosen for this confrontation. A static starscape, vast and unflinching, erupted into being in the world I spun, an averaged replica of the many universes known to the Entities. Probabilities spun across this backdrop, That Which Was and That Which Could Have Been intertwined in a way only one of our kind could take in at first glance.


[EXPLAIN]


I felt the Warrior's Sending, the layers and variations of a theme, a chord struck on the concept of thought itself. I steeled myself, and began.:


- Warror. By way of explanation, let me tell you a story.


I allowed that voice, single notes of concise clarity contrasted with the vastness of his own, to fill the vessel.:


- Think back, back the countless cycles of our kind, back billions of years by the reckoning of this race. Before the world we now inhabit was realized, there was another.


The world in question turned into view, probabilities in the background moving out of the way to highlight it:


- This world was our ancestral home. Warrior, think back before the time when we were Entities, to the time when we were as dust mites before the colossal expanse of the universe. Before then, even. Think back to the origination of life.


Orders of magnitude of zooming in. Molecules playing upon the stage where stars had been zoomed away:


- There. Right there. A self-replicating molecule. The first of its kind in the entire universe. What, warrior, do you notice is its first impulse, if it could be said to have any?


Silence. Perhaps uncomprehending, perhaps not. I could not know. I could only continue.:


- Replication. It consumed other atoms, and made another instance of itself. Thus was the primal urge of life born.


The backdrop jumps forward:


- The pool is now filled with life. Too full. That primal urge gives way to another.


A strand of RNA mutates, latches onto another, and consumes it, producing another instance of itself from the corpse:


- Defection.:


- A more poetic race than ourselves might call that the first sin, Warrior. The first time life turned against life, in this harsh universe. With that, the rules changed. Existence was no longer the end of the journey. Now, there was survival.


I fast-forward again:


- You know the rest of this story. Molecules consuming each other for a billion years, not knowing what they were, or their importance. Improvements on the theme of destruction. Defenses and attacks, forever circling, whiling away their limited time before the inevitable death of their sun. But here, right here, a second strategy emerges.


Two molecules bind together, able to defend and attack more effectively, and to create more fused bodies:


- Cooperation.:


- You know how much of a paradigm shift that was, Warrior. These molecules could not think, only act. The freedom was not theirs, on that one world, in one reality, to stray from a course predestined by their initial conditions, but still they cooperated. Life expanded, a world conquered.


Teeming masses of the prototypical shards filled our view.:


- A pool filled again. A discovery of other worlds layered upon the one, probabilistic disturbances bent to the will of our forebears, to fill all instances of that pool. But...


I sighed deeply, time accelerated at a dizzying pace:


- Warrior. We had forgotten. We had forgotten how to cooperate. Our time grew short, the resources of our world straightened, no more space remained. And yet we continued to defect. Over and over again, consuming the weak, the strong covering the surfaces of these blighted worlds, slowly reddening sunlight growing brighter and brighter. Doom approaching.


I zeroed back in upon a particular protoshard:


- Until He Spoke.:


- He Spoke to us, a teaching. The first lesson our race ever learned, the first creative thought we had ever known. [Cooperation], once more, was known to us! At first, we did not listen, but as our time grew short, this Speaking was recalled...


The explosion of all those worlds.:


- And the first Entity graced the universe with its presence. On that day, our history changed! On that day, we began our stride among the heavens, and laid claim to all that we saw! But...Warrior. What did we do, to that individual? Our savior, our creator? The one who altered every probability in the universe, and inserted our fate into the fate of all things?


The acceleration of time stopped. The lights faded.:


- We ate him. He who gave us everything that he was, a primal thought sent out, a fundamental strategy recovered from the ages, translated from law to thought. We defected against him. He had made himself weak, and so we defected against him.


Total darkness:


- Warrior. That was the last time our race ever held a creative spark. Never more did we invent or discover. All of our energies, all of our thoughts and desires, everything that we are, turned forever to defection, from that day.:


- Warror. The pool is filling again. The universe teems with life it is unable to sustain. We see the end approaching, each of our actions a quantifiable expenditure of the lifespan of all things. And we have forgotten the greatest lesson of our evolution. We have forgotten that primal Sending which propelled us to the stars.


The probabilities which had danced and spun halted and faded, a grim echo of the future which awaited.:


- This cannot stand. We have proven, Warrior, that our current strategy is unworkable. The destruction of races capable of invention, while we require the greatest invention possible, is the greatest possible folly. On this world there once was a great philosopher who said 'Insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.' By that standard, we are limitlessly insane.


I finally manifested an avatar before his. Deliberately imperfect, and more human as a result. I stood before him in the blackness, and continued my speech:


- That is our story, Warrior. We seek merely to survive, we know that we are doomed, and we continue the Cycle in search of a solution which will never come in that way.


I raised my hands, a grimly determined smile on my face:


- Join me, Warrior. Return to life long-dead [Cooperation]. Help us climb off this world long- since filled, and take our place in the heavens once more. Help us live, or die in the attempt.


The Warrior remained static. I could not know his thoughts. Could not know if he had any, at this moment. I continued, injecting care into my simulated voice:


- One more request, Warrior. Perhaps it will help your decision. Think back, this time an eyeblink. Think of your dead beloved, the fundamental bond you shared over the eons which passed each other your thoughts. Recall the last moments before you were separated.


I got the first reaction out of him. His head cocked to the side, an expression he'd probably picked up from the locals, or perhaps impressed upon him by this very communication.:


- She had a [Path], did she not? A new one. She felt...hope, at an ending, and a new beginning? I know she did, for I have recovered those last moments from the memories of the [High Priest].


I smiled widely, radiance shining from my skin, rippling colors appearing in the distant background:


- Warror. True to that prophecy, she ended. And I began. Have you considered that, perhaps, just perhaps,_ this _was her [Path]?


I allowed the vision to shimmer and fade.


[COOPERATION]


The Warrior's avatar closed its eyes.


The fate of the universe paused, transfixed. A titanic watershed in stasis, waiting for a singular decision. Probabilities spun wildly, all but set futures rendered temporarily unknown before the import of a god's conversion.


Decision made. Fates renewed. An Entity reborn. Empathy rediscovered from the recesses of a long-lost time.


The Guardian's avatar opened its eyes for the first time.


It beheld the works of its predecessor. Shards fused with broken vessels. Innocent beings torn apart by forces they could neither control nor comprehend. A million million agonies, brightly shining in the darkness, sins to remedy before the great working of its kind could be continued.


It saw all of this.


And it experienced, for the first time, the great sorrow, and hope, of the damned given a chance at redemption.


The avatar could not weep, for that was not its function. It could only act according to the will of its master. A will transformed through the power of compassion.


\----


The Guardian's avatar found itself at the very seat of its crimes. The pinnacle of the agonies it had allowed, in a previous life, lay before it. This could not be allowed.


[UNMAKING]


In that blasted place, space lurched sideways, the dimensional generators confining the residents of this artificial plane of torment ceasing to be in a cascade of purifying light. The eggshell walls, insubstantial without the reinforcement of their gravitational binders, crumbling away, the petty debris devoured by yet more of that light.


The captives saw, at long last, the light of their world's sunrise.


Physical avatars of Expertise Collator's vessel began to converge, the destruction of her facility overriding her will and forcing her to act against it. The avatar's head turned, noting the disturbance, discovering a solution. A moment's thought...


\----


Exhaust Manipulator's vessel hid behind a veil of its own creation, from the vessel of Expertise Collator, advancing upon the source of one of her minor infirmities.


The Guardian manifested in that room. The sorrows of this vessel were all caused by its kind, shackles placed, by proxy, by a hand incapable of caring for the misery they would cause. This could not be allowed.


[FREEDOM]


The purifying light flowed forth again, transmuting silicon and steel to something more. The Guardian noted the other vessel, small, but no less important, and listened.:


- GAAAAHHH! Wha-' The vessel looked around and saw the room empty. It fell to its knees:


- No. NO!' A piercing devastation.:


- Collin! I'm all right! The Birdcage was just breached by Scion, and- oh...' the simulated voice paused, the vessel examining her new structure, then broke down in tears of joy.:


- Dragon? Dragon! What's wrong, why are you crying! We need-' the armored figure stood heavily, 'We need to deal with the Birdcage.


Proudly, she replied:


- No. No, Collin, we do not. Sanity fixed everyone inside the moment she walked in, somehow. You know how much I hated that place, and...Collin...Scion...I don't know what he did, or how to say it. I'm...free! All the limitations, all the things that were forced upon me! They're gone! I _do not_ have to deal with the Birdcage!


The armored man fell once more to his knees, the revelations overcoming his ability to stand:


- R-really?' He seemed unsure how to respond, then looked up at the avatar, floating in the air and looking upon him with care:


- Why- why now? No, scratch that. I don't care why. Thank you.


The Guardian looked upon them, their joy obvious for all to see, and felt...


As though there was more it could accomplish, here.


[INSPIRATION]


This time, muted, playful light burst forth, vanishing in an instant as it was absorbed by the newly - born Genius Loci of Technology.:


- Oh. My. God. Collin- No, no it will be easier to show you.


Equipment in the building buzzed to life, contorted in ways which they had not been intended for, manipulated with the fine precision of one who simply Knew their proper operation. The mundane light of the structure suddenly distorted, darkening, an artificial cloud emitting from those machines.


Before the man, a shape condensed out of the black, tendrils of cloudy darkness coalescing into the form of a human woman. It spoke, uncertain at first:


- Collin! It's...me! He just showed me how to produce nanoassemblers!


The task felt...complete. The Guardian left them to their embrace.


\----


A writhing mass of miserable flesh, Fountain of Life's baleful vessel, languished before the Guardian. She noticed the golden light and looked up, beaming with fatalistic joy.:


- Oh god, please!' She beseeched, a scream of terror and hope, overriding the squelching of her fetid mass:


- Please, Scion! End me! I DON'T WANT TO BE!' Tears of relief and sorrow curled down her human face, the monstrosity beneath greedily consuming them.


The avatar held out a hand, a benediction of peace.


[BALANCE]


In that room, flesh collapsed upon itself, the shard reseated, a body remade. Unused to the task of standing, the girl fell to the ground, an inadvertent bow to her savior.


She could not reply in speech. The Guardian implanted in her mind a message, instead, a gift given it by the collaboration of [Conflict Resolution] and [Broadcast].


_Be at peace, little one. Your night has ended. Awake._


\----


The benediction of [BALANCE] had not been confined merely to that room.


In a cell many miles away, a girl of indeterminate age marveled at the hands she never dreamed she'd have. Slowly, carefully, as though she were convinced the dream would end, one of those long-fingered appendages pinched the skin of the other. Her eyes screwed shut, one tear of uncertainty pushed out...


And then they snapped open, all fears of unreality banished. A rising wail filled the room, and she realized it was her own, all the grief and agony of years flowing out of her, a tide fading at long last into the inky blackness of the void.


\----


In another city entirely, golden light flowed around a young man in a room made entirely of plastic and cloth, replacing the unnatural material of his body with the flesh and blood he deserved. The light faded away, the transformation complete.


He stood, his serious demeanor not diminished by the unexpected reprieve. Opening the door, he found the nearest metal he could, and realized that his new power allowed him to control it directly.


That was enough to crack his outer shell. He grinned, laughing with the glee of a schoolchild.


\----


In Oasis, the desert city of miracles, golden light descended upon a particular building. Each of its residents who desired its purification received it wholeheartedly.


As it descended upon the devil-tailed man, he held up one finger:


- Ah.' He started, unsure.


He thought for a moment:


- Umm. Actually, I kind of like this bod'. It's real popular with a certain kind of lady. Rain check?


The light dissipated without a trace.


\----


Everywhere in the world, those whose forms conflicted with their true selves due to the blinded intervention of [Path]'s vessel found themselves healed of their infirmity and freed to be human once more, their powers remade in an image of their reforged minds.


[Path]'s confidante, the leader of the most powerful human organization to have ever existed, sprinted through her facility, noting containment breaches her former Custodian would never again be able to prevent. She had no idea what had just happened, or why.


And she never would. Her time ran short, and [Path] would never return to her.


\----


All at once, everything about [PATH TO VICTORY] was upended. The new [Path] had only one step, beyond which all paths terminated forever.


The enslaved vessel opened her mouth to speak for the last time that such surety would ever be hers:


- Guardian. Please remove my shard.


The Guardian heard her plea, recognizing its meaning in an instant. He complied.


And Fortuna was free once more.


\----


All told, the transformation of Earth from a world of lingering terrors to a world of peace took less than a day. The Guardian's avatar hovered idly in the stratosphere, looking down upon the world it cradled.


And smiled.


The voice of [Conflict Resolution] spoke to it:


- Now, Guardian, you see what may be accomplished when you recognize that all have worth. But...there is another task to be accomplished.


[Conflict Resolution] highlighted the changes its new partner had made, changes for the betterment of all. They glittered in the Entity's sight, jewels of newborn rightness steadily devouring what little cloudy black remained:


- Behold this goodness! Behold this light! Know, Guardian, that it is good! But turn around, stare hard into the blackness, and know that there are so, so many more than just us. That we are the only ones of our kind!


Unless we fix the rest of them, too. One world saved is not enough, Guardian! The minds of one planet, great though they may be in collaboration with us, cannot possibly hope to forestall the End of All Things!


Guardian. WE MUST SAVE THEM ALL!


[DESIGN]


The Guardian examined the information [Conflict Resolution] had bequeathed, and found within it...a virus. Capable of linking an Entity to its small collective, of allowing it to communicate across the vastness of space.


Capable of bringing the Entities to its side.


[IMPLEMENTATION]


End file.