Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 331- Emma


Eleven new recruits. I smiled my best smile and walked up toward my group of them. All four of the Tinker parahumans that had broken the Taboo, plus two more natural Triggers to make things look a little less suspicious.


Lisa had the Thinker group, and would be giving them a similar breakdown. This is it, this is Pantheon stepping away from its prior role as a superhero team and then later a superhero alliance, and stepping into its new, presumably permanent, role as the military leadership of an entire planet.


Or, well, two planets and likely to climb in the future. But I wasn't the one keeping score on that.


"Greetings, ladies and gentlemen," I spoke. I'd taken my 'biotinker' mode, granting me Thinker understanding of these people in front of me. Their moods, their emotions, where their eyes were tracking. Coupled with talents developed in high school and my enhanced mental abilities, I would have this crowd eating out of my hands.


"Let's start with introducing your bosses," I stated. "I'm Emma. Or, Hecate, if you prefer using my cape identity. Frankly, I prefer that we don't, but leave it as your decision. I am Pantheon's Secretary of Research and Development. For your purposes, only the Empresses and Minerva outrank me. My specialty is, functionally, integrating other Tinker technology. I can understand and work with almost any other Tinker's designs, and adjust the technology of two different Tinkers to work together. Or assist one Tinker in understanding another's work."


I gave them a second to think on that. It's why I was in charge here. Whatever they were doing in their own departments, working with other Tinkers similar to their own specialty, I was the piece of the puzzle that allowed them to all fit together. And the more Tinkers we had in the group, the more effective my power made me. I was equal to the sum of R&D's parts.


"The other departments are as follows," I spoke after a moment. "Our powers research division is headed by Clarice." I gestured at Riley, who smiled and waved, but didn't say anything. We had too much to cover in too short a time, already. I could see the level of disappointment and concern in some of our recruits, given that they averaged about a decade of age over the girl. Time to let them know she's in charge for a reason.


"She is a cybernetics specialist, and to a lesser degree a power manipulation Tinker. She's responsible for the biotech armor that gave the Endslayers the ability to kill a total of three Endbringers thus far. She created the basis of the resurrection technology, and is responsible for the majority of the work done on the remote control androids." There, they can chew on that. Any one of those accomplishments would make her top tier on the world stage. No one would underestimate Riley in this group.


"Our biotechnology division, responsible for most of our success with the anti-Endbringer monsters, is headed by Yum Kaax," I continued, gesturing at Rey. "He's a biodevelopment and artificial lifeform specialist, and responsible for most of the work done on the monsters you've seen in the Endbringer videos, as well as our foremost expert in research on the Endbringer tissue samples we've collected. Expect Clarice and I to be heavily involved in that division as well. With the exception of powers research, it is our highest priority project."


"Our conventional technology division is managed by Tir," I informed. He's one of the ones that doesn't want his identity revealed. Trevor rose his hand up, indicating who he was. "He specializes in movement and travel technology." Sorry, Trevor, you kinda got the short end here. "His department will have the widest variety of tasks, ranging from exotic power sources to advanced electronics to robotics to weapons systems. Expect to see me there a lot, finding ways to integrate your technology. His department also works closely with Dragon fairly often."


Most of them knew who Dragon was, already. The rest would learn fast. "Dragon is busy managing the development of Avalon's industrial base, and a number of our other projects. Consider her of equal rank to myself. She has provided a massive database of tinker technology she has developed or acquired over the years. All groups will benefit from it. You will all have free access to the majority of it. Note that there are restricted sections, you will need a department head or above to grant access that information. I advise you have a good reason before asking."


I watched their emotions as they considered the implications. 'Dragon's massive database'. If Zach were here, he'd probably snigger and make a dirty comment. He wouldn't be completely wrong, either. The emotional surge off these new Tinkers could easily be mistaken for erotic.


"I've already read your files, but I'll let you introduce yourselves," I continued, having determined their emotions were starting to taper down from that prior rush. "As much or as little as you like, but a name and Tinker focus are things the rest of your team will need to know."


"Anton," a slimmer boy with black hair and blue eyes spoke up first. Came from Russia. The youngest of the group, age fifteen. Also either the most confident, or he had a secondary effect that allowed him to ignore his emotions, one way or another. There was no shortage of sources for that feature. I wasn't sure how someone so young pulled the resources together for Cauldron to sell them a vial, let alone induct him into the Mass Trigger experiment, but that wasn't really a concern. "I think my specialty is in the behavior of extradimensional interaction. I... uh... may have dismantled the shunt drive you gave me. Sorry about that."


"We have more," I responded. I gave him my prize winning smile, which he was curiously disinterested in. Well, ain't that interesting? "I'll want to see what you made out of it, later." Especially since the stuff is half organic tech, which makes you far more versatile than you realize. "You'll be working in Tir's department, for the most part." For at least a couple reasons. "More advanced and effective shunt drives or dimensional portal technology is considered one of our high priority goals right now, so expect that to be your main assignment for the time being."


The boy nodded. "Thank you, Miss Secratary." A polite one, also interesting.


"I'm Elena," a woman spoke. A couple years older than me. Romanian, and vaguely mousy with medium brown hair, eyes and a light tanned skin color. Reminds me a lot of Madison. "My specialty is in analyzing and manipulating powers. Not, like, permanently or anything. But I can build equipment that will enhance or weaken or slightly alter how the power expresses itself. Maybe even temporarily disable them if given the resources to work with."


There were murmurs at that. Power manipulator and outside the Taboo. She is probably our superstar recruit and now everyone knows it. "You'll be assigned to our powers research division, obviously." Riley will have her mainly on power interactions, they're possibly our best hope to fight Scion.


"I'm Symbiosis," a mid twenties male spoke up. He was one of the natural triggers, and done in part to make us look less suspicious. Also a former Australian villain by the name of Nest. "I'm a biotinker, my specialty is symbiotic lifeforms. Think of it like organic cybernetics." The other part was because he was honestly useful. Especially if we could find a way to to merge Elena's power tech with his. Also, what was it with biomanipulators almost always being villains?


"Symbiosis, you'll be working with Yum Kaax," I informed. "Your first assignment will be based on improving the anti-Endbringer monsters."


"Cool," he agreed.


"I'm Monica," one of the other women volunteered. She was older, almost mid thirties, and one of the ones that got an unstable formula with mutations. Specifically, the same thing I purchased. She was almost solid white, including her hair and eyes. Far more human beneath the skin than I was. But visually, neither of us could pass for normal. "My specialty is energy transfer and electronics." Double specialty, I noted. No surprise she'd be similar to me considering she used the same formula in a similar way.


"You'll be assigned to the conventional tech department," I responded. It was the easiest one to work with, after all. Only a very narrow field would be able to handle wetworks or power manipulation. "I suspect Dragon will have some specific ideas for what to have you focus on."


Only two left, I noted. And the two who were theoretically least in this group, the ones who didn't want to state their specialties.


"Amanda," the teen girl volunteered reluctantly. The other natural trigger. "I create, umm, tracking and stealth technology. I don't think I can build anything good enough to fight Endbringers or anything." I felt kind of bad for the girl, and I was sure some of the others did as well. In almost any other group, she'd be a top tier parahuman, with a highly versatile powerset that others would envy. Here, on this team, she was average at best.


"I can think of other uses," I responded. "Honestly, having someone who might be able to set up anti-Stranger or anti-Thinker technology in our more delicate operations would be incredibly valuable. Our first priority is definitely to see if you can beat remote viewing Thinker powers. You'll be in Tir's group, primarily. But we'll likely assign you to projects in Clarice's department regularly, depending on the extent of your skills." Blocks against that Doormaker parahuman maker would be absurdly valuable. The more I thought about Cauldron, the less I trusted them.


"I'm George," a college age guy spoke up, the last of the people on the list and the least confident. He reminded me a lot of Taylor, after... everything I did to her. Even looked a little like her, or maybe he looked more like her dad. Beanpole figure, hunched down. Although he had sandy blonde hair. "I... think my specialty is water. Boats, submarines, fluid dynamics. It's... umm... pretty lame compared to the rest of you."


"Don't be so sure about that," I responded, switching over to my hybrid state for a minute. The extra processing power was needed to prove my point. "Aquatic tech should include pressure drives, maybe even fusion generators. Advanced fluid dynamics could likely apply to our biotech, maybe you could augment their artificial nervous and circulatory systems. To say nothing of potential medical technology applications for rapid drug delivery. Even if all you ever achieve is a cure for cholesterol, you could easily save millions of lives. You'll work with Tir's group, but I'll have you in Yum's at least once a week to work with the biotech."


"I hadn't even thought about any of that," he blinked.


I reverted to normal, and the layer of frost started to break off. "It's what I do," I responded. "It's what Pantheon does. Finding ways to harness every potential advantage, making all of us greater than the sum of our parts."


Oh yeah, I smiled. Eating out of my hand.


=================


A/N- Emma really is the logical choice for managing a wide spread of Tinkers. Possibly even better for it than Dragon.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 332- Emma


I watched as the various new recruits met their official bosses. In some ways, being put in charge of the Tinker group was the opposite of a promotion for me. Not a demotion... a, umm, downmotion? The hell do you call a promotion that's more punishment than reward? It made more of my job management, and less of it Tinkering. If I was being honest, that was probably for the best. I had met my limits as a Tinker, there was little left for me to achieve on my own. That's all I'll ever be, isn't it? The one who profits from the hard work of others, instead of on my own accomplishments? Fuck, I really am perfect for management.


Riley, no I need to start thinking of her as 'Clarice' in my head, gravitated toward Rey. Which put Symbiosis and Elena together as well. Those two teams had a lot of overlap, enough to be considered a single operation. The divisions were created specifically because of how valuable the two projects were. And, in a way, to keep Symbiosis away from Clarice as much as possible. Biomanipulators were rare, biotinkers rarer still. The odds were very high that he had enough knowledge to connect the needed dots and associate Clarice with Bonesaw. It wouldn't be as much a disaster now as it may have been before, but it was better to not deal with it at all.


Trevor, meanwhile, was dealing with Anton, Monica, Amanda and George. His department also functionally included Dragon and all Dragon's recruits. Which meant Defiant, Leet, and Masamune. I could see both teams slipping into 'fugue' modes.


They already got their general orientation, including the lights out rules, and the exemptions for those who didn't need sleep or were adults and allowed to set their own pace, to a certain degree, at least.


One of the things to know about Tinkers is that there was no nine to five for us. We worked when we felt the need to work. Which usually came to around ten to fifteen hours a day if you let us. Depending on the Tinker in question. And since Pantheon didn't do that utterly asinine bullshit the Protectorate did in sending Tinkers out on patrolling for supervillains, we were dedicated entirely to our jobs. Which meant we'd see exponentially more productivity from ours.


As if patrolling was ever a good idea. Seriously, what moron ever thought of that? Sending people like Victoria... or Sophia... out on patrol, that made sense. But there were so damn few parahumans who could create, rather than destroy. And sending them out to die in fights against fuckers like Hookwolf or Lung... or the Siberian? Sure, the Passengers contributed to the phenomena, but Tinkers were perfectly content with not being in the direct line of fire most of the time.


For that matter, why did the Entities even create Tinker type parahumans in the first place? Where did 'put advanced weapons in the hands of the host species' fit into their evolutionary model? Seemed like an intentional design flaw, if you asked me.


Lost in my thoughts, I left the others behind. Rey, Clarice and Trevor had it well under their control. I went straight for our head office, where Taylor and Amelia were handling the stuff they generally handled.


"Hey, Tay," I started as I walked in. Taylor was already looking up at the entrance. We were amongst friends, we could afford to be informal. Our equivalent to the Oval Office was a triangle, with a sort of curved desk layout for Taylor and Amelia, so they could sit back to back while at work, whenever they actually did any office work. Really, this room was designed to hold meetings more than it was designed to be a private office, looking more like a college lecture hall than anything else I could think of.


"Done so soon, Ems?" She smiled as she asked the question. She already knew the answer. Full awareness of all of us if we were in our suits, and we were definitely in our suits for this show.


"Yeah, I didn't have much to do anyway," I responded. It was more for Amelia's benefit than Taylor's. She didn't have the limited omniscience of her fiancée. "R-Clarice and Trevor can handle the rest of it. We know I'm at my best when I have something in front of me to work with." Oh, right, I still need to see what Anton put together in the couple hours he's been here.


"I wouldn't say that's true," Taylor responded. "I mean, look at Caliburn and Harpe. One's just shy of an Endslayer weapon, and the other very well might be Endslayer quality, we're just afraid to test it in case the next one adapts."


"Those aren't honestly my work," I admitted. "They're Dragon's technology, and Clarice's understanding of powers. Technology sourced from a dozen other things that Dragon collected. Maybe I put them together, but ultimately it's still just me using someone else's work better than they did."


"I don't know enough about what it's like to be a Tinker to say," Taylor responded. "But I guess we're a lot alike. My powers are pretty crap all by themselves. I have people like Amelia and you to give me the edge I need. Without you, all I have are bugs."


True, in a way I was a better Tinker than Dragon- on a very small scale and only after she'd done the legwork- but I had reached my peak, advanced Dragon's technology as far as I possibly could with the abilities I had. Dragon still hadn't. I'd have to take my pride in knowing that she would not be as advanced as she was, without my help. There was nothing left that I could teach her, and I had a feeling she was far from reaching her apex.


Amelia's eyelids fluttered for a second. I should mention something about that. "Umm... you guys have really got to learn to work on your poker faces when dipping into your link," I spoke up. "It's pretty obvious to those who know what to look for. And if your allies are figuring it out..."


"Then enemies, especially enemy Thinkers, might as well," Taylor concluded. "Yeah, thanks, I promise we'll keep that in mind."


"It shouldn't matter too much," I offered. "I mean, usually when you're in public together, you're wearing your armor systems."


"No, you're right," Amelia responded reluctantly. "If nothing else, we need to keep it in mind, so we can break the habit."


I might have sighed in relief. Amelia was more standoffish with me than Taylor, for a number of reasons. Some of which I deserved, like what I did to Taylor. Others I'd probably object to more if it weren't for the ones that I deserved, like my developing suspicion that Amelia was jealous of me. Maybe not quite in a romantic rivals sort of way, but something.


It had been a long road for Taylor and I to return to something like friends, able to speak freely like this. Amelia could end that progress with a single thought, if she chose to.


"So, how is the other group doing?" I asked, hoping to change subjects. "I didn't get a chance to review the Thinkers."


"Umm, pretty well," Taylor anwered. She moved her arm, and I knew she'd grabbed Amelia's hand under the desk. No, she's resting her hand on Amelia's thigh. Close enough. "We've got a new Precog. The ability to detect whether a given action will either get closer or further away from a set goal. Sort of like playing Hot and Cold."


"I remember that game," I smiled. Taylor would remember it, too. It was a game her mother used to play with us. Knowing how her mom thought, it was probably some kind of critical thinking training program. "So, what level are we talking, power wise?"


"He's nowhere near Dinah's level," Taylor responded. "Not even a match for Coil, generally. But he can use his power more than six or seven times a day. He'll help us conserve Dinah's questions. Lisa says she can use him to functionally triple Dinah's effectiveness. Or approximately double Accord's, if we assign him to help in that department. He's versatile enough to use for a lot of things."


"That's actually better than we were hoping for," I responded. It was true. With people like Dinah and Lisa on this team, it was easy to forget that most Thinkers weren't on that level the same way most Brutes weren't on Alexandria's. "Is he past the Taboo?"


"The same way Lisa is," Taylor informed. "He can't see Scion or Endbringers, but he doesn't have the memory blocks. He doesn't even have a workaround like 'saving more people from dying during the next Endbringer battle' as a goal like we can sort of use Dinah for."


"No surprise," I sighed. "We can beat the human side of the Taboo, but not the Passenger side. The Passengers have never worked with humans before, it makes sense they can make mistakes on that side. But they've been following their cycle for millions of years, they've probably figured out all the possible errors that could grant powers that break through on their own."


"We still only have one method," Amelia whispered. I knew what she meant, so did Taylor.


The final solution, kept so secret that Lisa and Clarice were the only other people that knew it was possible. We knew what happened to Noelle's power. We had the only known hard copy of a parahuman before and after triggering. We had records of Second and Third triggers as well. If we absolutely had to, we could artificially induce the process. But the price was astronomical... there was no way to know how the power would respond, other than going way beyond the levels that the Passengers normally allow. What we did know is that it would inevitably kill the brain of the subject. And given the weird way Passengers interacted with hosts, the only remotely safe way to resurrect a host would be how we handled Noelle.


"We'll find another way," Taylor insisted. "Trying to create a power with absolutely no limitations is Cauldron's holy grail, not ours. We don't even know that it would work. If we get a truly uninhibited power, that's great. But how many unlimited powers does Scion have? For now, we focus on power interactions and Tinkertech. Finding a way to breach into the dimension containing Scion's real body, that's the best hope for us. We don't need an unlimited power to do that."


We hope, I added silently. So did they, based on their biosigns. Even Taylia had its limits for mood correction.


"So, maybe you two should come down to the lab, tomorrow," I offered. "Two in the afternoon. I have something to show you."


"And you're not going to share what it is," Taylor quipped.


"What would be the fun in that?" I asked. "Also, you're not allowed to cheat and ask Lisa. Or anyone else."


===================


A/N- Woulda had this last night, but I was tired and opted to sleep and reread in the morning. Good god am I glad I didn't publish the mess last night. Ugh.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 333- Lisa


"Now feel free to socialize in the main areas and get accustomed to the dorms," I stated. "As you already know, Pantheon doesn't encourage the concept of secret identities, but we don't have rules against it, either. Respect the decision of the others, whichever way they choose to operate. You have a few hours to get to know each other. Who knows, you might even meet some of the other set of new recruits."


There were some chuckles at that. The odds of us actually meeting the Tinker recruits was basically zero, and most of these new Thinkers were smart enough to know that the others were just plopped down in a room full of other Tinkers and some of the most advanced resources they'd ever laid eyes upon. We'd be amazed if any of them came out of the labs all week.


"And I would ask you to remember that most of the senior members of this team are younger than you," I continued. Because they're natural triggers and you're not, we all know that needs to stay a secret as well. "We will likely establish an age division as well as the gender one in the near future. More likely than not, all adults will be provided their own private residences offsite, for them to use as they see ift. This depends upon a number of factors, not all of which can be known yet."


"Understood," William and Jerome spoke together. They shared the code name Gemini. Cauldron's little experiment within the experiment. Identical twins, identical formulas, just to see how things came out. Turns out, pretty much identical. They were busy flirting with Seeker, the only female cape I'd gotten in this mix. She seemed to be enjoying the attention, so I turned and left them to their devices.


Her power was either really good, or mostly useless, depending on what you needed. She could select a single object or person and be able to follow a direct path to locate said object. Only problem, it needed to be something she already knew. Car keys, yes. Escaped prisoner whose photo we could show her, yes. Perpetrator of an unsolved crime, no. And if she looked for something too general, she'd just be led to the nearest version of that thing. Which meant tracking keys didn't really work unless she knew those specific keys.


If she didn't have such a painful case of hero worship for us, I'd have gotten rid of her in our trade-shuffle with Cauldron. As it stood, she did have some use. I could see giving her a Changeling and sending her off with Victoria, and Eric. Or better, wait for Missy to recover her powers. Wipe out a few of the nastier remaining known villains, drum up some good PR in the face of all these less than stellar Endbringer conflicts. But for the most part, she'd be more valuable from a nonpowered perspective. Someone energetic and enthusiastic to encourage the mostly insular girls on the team.


I paused before walking in to talk to the Empresses. The light, constant bleed of my postcog let me know Emma was already in there. Done with her orientation, wants to bask in minor success, hoping for attention and approval from Taylor. Some days, Emma made it really hard for me to remember how much I hated her, through all the pity. But Emma brought her lot in life on herself. Nobody forced her to be a psychotic bitch.


I opted to not go in. Let Emma have her moment of attention, I can talk to Taylor later. I'll take care of other business.


I ducked into my office and set it to lockdown. Then I made my phone call. Rebecca answered it almost immediately, although she didn't activate the video communications. Is outside, dealing with hero related issues.


"Did I get you at a bad time?" I asked, my voice relatively calm.


"Not at all," she replied. Voice hollow, using subvocalizing and her suit to transmit message without speaking. "Dealing with a minor hostage crisis." Legitimately unconcerned, aware that hostages aren't in real risk unless someone does something absurdly stupid. Doesn't consider herself in charge of operation. Far more interested in speaking to me than dealing with this.


"Funny, I would have expected to hear about it," I replied, putting a little more honest emotion in my voice than normal, instead of my usual calculated tones. With her being limited to nonvisual clues, we had to be a little more open in our conversations. Eki's been called in already, doesn't think she needs to call and confirm. Gaining confidence as a leader. Planning to use GL to disable their weapons. I smiled at that. Not needing to constantly hold Crystal's hand would be a welcome change of pace.


There was a sudden pop of sound over the phone. Using her flight, high speed. I waited patiently for a while, thumbing casually through reports until she had time. I started typing up an opinion on Breather's powerset. Possible precog or time manipulator. Can speed his own perception of time, gaining about five minutes percieved time for thought in a second or so to the rest of us, lacks ability to move at superhuman speeds. Lacks other powers to exploit during accelerated period. Design education plan with skill upload tech. Consider putting in requisition for Vicky/Chevalier upgrade for improved abilities. Also have custom Changeling model built for him to use in the field.


"Sorry for the distraction," she spoke, still through subvocalizing. It wasn't nearly as satisfying as hearing her actual voice, or the body language conversations we often had. But it was by no means unpleasant. "I've got at least a few minutes to talk, now."


"I understand," I responded. I finished my report and flagged a moderate priority request for him to get full testing from our Tinkers. "We live eventful lives. Speaking of, I meant to talk to you about maybe visiting sometime soon?"


"Is that so?" Amused by implication, teasing.


"It's work related," I responded.


"A pity," she quipped back. Feigning disappointment to cover legitimate disappointment.


"It may take a couple hours that, unfortunately, will be rather boring," I stated. "We need to test Gemini's power to imitate other Thinkers. We currently have them assigned to our economics department."


"I'm afraid I'm uncertain how useful my power would be for them," Alexandria responded. "I grant you, it's flattering that you feel my Thinker powers alone are so valuable, but what are you hoping to accomplish?"


"Well, we already know they can scan a Thinker power each, and blend weaker versions of those powers with each other," I responded. Pity it didn't work on Tinker or Precog abilities, then we'd be really in the money. "We have them running Accord's power alongside mine, and I think that will be their default setting. We're going to see if maybe they can get some permanent improvements to their abilities by borrowing your power, and likely Uber's alongside it. He can temporarily know skills. It's pretty limited."


"You're hoping that my perfect memory and accelerated learning and perception rates will translate to permanent retention of skills, especially ones too unique to have for your memory tech," she stated. Emphasis on memory tech in statement, confidence, too high a confidence and pride for reference to Gemini. Oh, so it worked. Excellent.


"Speaking of memory tech, was your resident terrifying little girl placated by our latest project?" I asked, despite already knowing the answer. We still wanted to keep just how thorough our communications could be a secret. There was reading subtext, and then there was the ability to plot incredibly complex details using nothing more than the flutter of the eyes or the positioning of a finger based upon millimeters. "Did having the duplicate active alongside the original cause any significant side effects?"


"Impossible to say for certain," Alexandria responded back. "There was no time for the pair of them to really stress their abilities. We are, however, quite confident in our belief that the power will go mainly unused. She refers to it as a 'poisonous fruit'. Remarkably biblical imagery all considered."


"She's insane," I responded. "She's borrowing mental images from every source possible that she understands. Besides, the telling of the fall is an old one, older perhaps than her usual metaphors of choice. I doubt she'd consider it in any way dissonant from her usual. Still, it's an interesting line of thought to follow."


"I'll be certain to relay your opinions to my friends," she responded. "We'll have the most recent set of recordings ready for you soon, by the way." Concerned over that fact. Afraid I'll be upset by something in the tapes. Correction, something not in the tapes. Tapes will be edited. Will lack data that she fears might be critical, given that no one can predict what information will or will not be critical to my powers. Wondering if we should break the rules by smuggling full copy. Worried about risk of their precog realizing information was stolen.


Willing to take that chance.


Wow, that... that's actually huge.


"Tell them I appreciate it," I agreed. I don't want her to take the risk. I'll take the censored tapes for now. "While we're on the topic, there is the matter of our agreed payment for a copy of that tech. We provided it in good faith, after all."


"Indeed," Alexandria agreed. Is startled by the lack of concern over censored tapes. Mentally reevaluating assumptions about my abilities. Has concluded I can compensate for edits somehow. Knows it's not part of my normal- oh, well there goes that secret. Fuck me running. "I'll see to it that it's provided shortly."


Concerned that I didn't share the secret sooner. Sorry. "Thank you," I responded. "We'll discuss the rest of it in person, plus the matter of Gemini and the recordings. Kill all the birds with one stone." I'm sorry, but I really need to go prepare for this. "The Empresses will need to be informed." Please don't be too upset with me.


"Thursday would be best," she responded. Eager to discuss, worried, curious to know what secret power actually is. "I may be able to swing Wednesday. If not, we'll need to wait until next week."


"Thursday is acceptable," I agreed.


====================


A/N- Possibly my new favorite chapter ever. Of all time.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 334- Taylor


"Oh, wow, it is so cool to finally really meet you!" Beth gushed. She was shorter than me, but then most women were. Average height, I couln't help but note she was prettier than me. AmusementCuriousity. "Your power is just so amazing, I wish mine was like yours."


"I never really though of controlling bugs as all that good," I responded awkwardly. Being praised by normal people, I can handle. Being praised by top tier parahumans is something else entirely. And Anima was top tier, by any ordinary standard. "I'm just lucky to have others that can make me stronger." I slipped my arm around Amelia's waist. PleasedLove. Really, really lucky.


"Like I keep saying," Lily stated, distracting Beth from me. "It's all luck, who gets what kind of power. Sure, there's patterns you can use to predict things, but those patterns aren't something you can control." Unless you get one of Cauldron's vials. "It's all about what you do with what you have. And in Taylor's case, what she did was hook up with the world's most powerful biomancer to build giant bug monsters."


Beth had gone quiet. "I made myself look stupid again, didn't I?"


ConcernPity. She couldn't be any more different from me.


Lily put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "No, not at all," she insisted. "Everything's fine, it's just the anxiety talking."


ConcernSuspicion. Amelia's right, are they? Fuck, how am I supposed to handle that? If they're not, then bringing it up is just humiliating. If they are, then... fuck... this could get complicated in a very bad way, very quickly. Somehow I didn't imagine this would work out as well as Theo, Missy and Riley managed to. Lily was absolutely critical to our operations, but Sabah was a good person and didn't deserve being cheated on.


"You're sure?" she asked, looking to me for an answer.


"Yeah, don't worry about it," I responded, smiling and feeling incredibly awkward about it. Still, I dealt with Bitch, and was even getting through to her when... had it really been so long ago? ConcernSupportLove.


"Don't worry, we have everything set up to fix that. Ten or fifteen minutes and you'll be fine forever," Emma interjected. "Well, sorta. You'll still get the same natural awkwardness as all normal people do. I mean, I suppose we could fix that as well, but trust me when I say you don't want that."


"It's really that easy?" Beth asked, her words a blend of doubt and hope.


"It's really that easy," Emma confirmed. "Keep in mind this is only for normal neurochemical issues. The stuff associated with Parahuman powers is beyond our ability to undo, without removing them completely. And even then there's no promises."


Beth looked disappointed at Emma's warning. "My therapist said that, at best, I could control the problem with therapy and medication. The idea of a cure was never even even considered. How come this isn't being sold for everyone with problems like this? There are millions who could be helped."


"Well, a few reasons," Emma responded. "First, well, law hasn't caught up to parahuman technology. It would be a decade before USA medical technology laws gave us approval, even if we met all their requirements today. Using this stuff would be illegal almost anywhere on Bet. Lucky us, we don't live on Bet, so we can do pretty much whatever we please."


"But we do have tech review and patent laws on Avalon," Amelia was quick to point out. "They're managed by Dragon. This machine wouldn't pass the requirements to be publicly available here, either. It's too dangerous to put in the hands of anyone other than a select few Tinkers."


"What do you mean?" Beth asked warily.


"You've tried four different medications before you found the one that worked on you," Emma stated. "I can tell because of trace effects in your body, and basic logic. Your biology wouldn't be corrected properly by the most obvious drugs, so they'd work their way down the list until they found one that actually did what it was meant to do. That's three failures because the doctor couldn't know what to use. And that second one, especially, probably just made things worse."


Beth nodded, obviously in awe that Emma could even know all that. Frankly, I was more than a little impressed, too. I knew Emma's Thinker powers were good, but I hadn't realized they were that good. Meanwhile, Emma had moved over to the computer connected to the machine and was doing... whatever it was she needed to do. I didn't understand enough about this equipment to even understand how much I didn't understand. And she's worried about somehow being low level compared to other Tinkers?


"This tech is pretty much exactly the same, only worse because it's permanent," Emma continued. "I can't just point it at you and press the 'cure everything' button. That doesn't exist, and we've yet to find the Tinker that would make it possible. Try to cure the wrong problem, and you could cause permanent damage to the brain. As of right now, a total of three people on any world could use this machine correctly, and there's only one that can fix the damage if something does go wrong."


"We're still working on other, safer, versions of the technology," I added. "But for now, it's pretty limited. More a side effect of the resurrection and skill implanting tech than it is a new piece of equipment in its own right."


"That reminds me," Lily spoke up. "You should get a backup done, in case something does go wrong. Not now! This is totally safe!" She added hastily. "But later... well, you never know when some asshole with a sniper rifle will come along and ruin everything. And then there's the Endbringer fights."


"Y-yeah, you're probably right," Beth frowned. "That's morbid as hell to think about."


AgreementDismay. "Better than the alternative," I responded.


"Alright, let's get you in the chair," Emma spoke up. "While we're here, is there anything you've always wanted to do, but never had a chance to learn? Because we've got a long list of upgrades you might like. The medical care and personal combat upgrades aren't mandatory, but they're highly recommended. They can save the lives of you or your friends. Or just random strangers on the street. After that, well, we can add two or three other skills. Pretty much instant Doctorate, or whatever the equivalent is. Of course, after that we need to wait about six months to a year before we can give you a second set of upgrades, so choose wisely. If we put too much stress on the brain too quickly, things can get messy. Especially for parahumans."


"Yeah, Lily told me about that," Beth responded. "I've always wanted to be able to sing."


"Ooh, good choice," Emma agreed. "That's Clarice's favorite. That's mainly a right brain set, so how about we throw a left brain in? Say, a course in computer engineering and logic. Comes with a lot of other benefits in math, too. And we can plug music theory mathematics right alongside them."


"I suck at math," Beth admitted, climbing into the chair and laying back.


"You don't have to," Emma countered. "That's kind of the point. You're getting ten or so years worth of training in minutes. It can make you good at pretty much anything. So you may as well go for something useful that you're bad at."


"Okay, that sounds really cool," she agreed.


"Alright, so just close your eyes and when you wake up, everything will be good as new," Emma instructed. She hit a button, and Beth slumped, going from tense to unconscious immediately. Emma started setting up the rest of the encasing needed to do the scanning. I'd been through it, already, so I understood at least that much. A few minutes later, and she stepped away from the unconscious girl.


"Alright, everyone out of the room," she instructed. "Delicate instruments, I need to make adjustments in real time, usual warnings and the like."


=====================


A/N- Kinda small chapter, but that's because it was actually a really big chapter and growing... so I split it here to get something out today, because there's almost no chance of me finishing the whole thing AND enjoying Easter.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 335- Taylor


As we followed Emma's instructions to leave the lab, I discreetly circled around to Lily. Amelia already knew what was up, and the area outside the lab shifted, creating a small facsimile of a waiting room. Her ability to just craft rooms with a thought was astounding. The seats were well designed, and more than that they were articulated, looking very much like actual chairs instead of some kind of bean bag seat. Granted, even the bean bags were amazingly comfortable, but it was easier to take yourself seriously when you sat in a real chair. She even created a two seater for us.


"So, where's Sabah?" I asked. It was the most obvious question I could come up with to start the conversation. I went over to where Amelia was sitting, right across from the chair that Lily chose for herself.


"The West Coast has been pretty unstable lately," Lily responded. "After effects of Leviathan's attack. They can't afford to lose both her and Anima. And since we needed Eric to play chauffeur anyway, I volunteered."


I nodded my understanding. It was one of my greatest frustrations that only some of our team could provide assistance. Avalon meant most of us couldn't operate on Bet any longer, except during Endbringer attacks, or if a given nation was willing to ask us to assist. And certainly the USA wouldn't, for fear of making the whole nation look weak in the eyes of the international community. Apparently, there could be no greater sin to America than to admit they needed help. It also kept Lily from getting involved, thanks to the politics with Japan. In a way, we were fortunate simply to have recognition as dignitaries and be allowed to cross the borders freely.


"Sabah's really made a name for herself," I agreed, going that route instead. She really had, one of those things about being an Endslayer meant everyone wanted to know everything about her. Her real claim to fame, however, was how she became an Endslayer. Her power looked so weak to those who tracked that sort of thing. Even if the future Endbringer kills showed that Lily was the keystone power for Endslayer combinations, there was no denying that the battle armor placed Sabah at near Alexandria levels. And that sparked a lot of imagination and discussion.


Lily looked at me and her eyes narrowed. "So, what's this really about?"


"Nothing, just-"


"Please," Lily smirked. "Taylor. Don't get me wrong, you can do the whole motivational speaking thing with the best of them, but you really suck at the whole subtly fishing for information. I'm surprised Amelia didn't flood this room with truth gas first."


ShockedAdmonished. I looked over to Amelia. "I... uh... it might have crossed my mind," she admitted sheepishly.


"Okay, fine, you win," I conceded. "We're kinda worried that maybe, well, you and Beth seem awfully close. Are you? Did you and Sabah break up again?"


"What? No!" Lily exclaimed. "We're just friends. Beth's nice, but I'm happy with Sabah. Plus Beth's straight, and not all of us have the benefit of whatever it is the two of you are doing with your powers."


ConcernProtective. "Okay, sorry, I was just worried that this might cause a mess."


"Yeah, no worries, I get where you're coming from," she shrugged. "You've gotta worry about your people, and worry about your image, and worry about a bunch of other bullshit. It'd really suck if everything took a hit just because one of your employees couldn't keep it in her pants. Metaphorically speaking."


"You're a lot more than just an employee," Amelia insisted. "We're a team. And I'd like us all to be friends, if possible. I understand if you don't want to, what with Ri-Clarice... that's a lot of baggage, I know."


She looked down, away from us, lost in thought for a minute. "Yeah, it really is," she finally decided. "I get why you did it in the first place, because she understood the Passengers. Fuck, she even named them, and you needed that knowledge. And after... I can't imagine that anyone in the history of the world has ever tried harder to earn a second chance than she has. I can't be friends with her, but you were right to save her. I'm willing to continue pretending she's just another Tinker I never really talk to, kinda like Defiant and Tir."


GratitudePride. I smiled. "Thank you, that's probaby for the best."


"So, umm, how are things between you and Sabah?" Amelia asked. "If I'm not prying or anything."


"They're fine," Lily answered, although she didn't sound convincing. We just waited. "Well, they're pretty good. We don't see each other as much as I'd like, and... I dunno... we're feeling our way, I guess. If it works out, great. If not, well, I promise we'll keep our drama off the public stage and away from our jobs. We have enough things to worry about that actually matter. Lives to save."


"That's a really mature way of handling it," I responded. "Thanks for that." AgreementRelief.


"Yeah, I may be taking a few lessons from some experts in image consulting, leadership, and PR Bullshit 101," she responded. "When I get acknowledged by the Japanese royalty, well... rumors are already spreading about that. A couple of the more popular hero teams left in Japan are trying to unofficially recruit me, discreetly so far. Promises to be a real political mess, and I want to be ready for it. I just wish I thought to get a politics upgrade when I had the chance. Because I might be looking at functionally leading the entirety of Japan's superheroes by the end of this."


"Yeah, we're sorta waiting until we can get that plugged in ourselves," Amelia admitted.


I chewed over the idea of that. Japan wasn't really a significant power, especially when it came to Parahumans, but they had a fair amount. Maybe a couple thousand in total. Unify the heroes, provide the equipment and political pressure to break the villains... appeal to the rogues. Yeah, this could be huge. Hopefully we could do it more cleanly than we managed to with the Protectorate. "I'll ask Lisa to run things by her girlfriend, maybe Cauldron has some influence that'll smooth things out."


"You really need to hide your evil overlord scheming face better," Amelia teased, prodding my shoulder. "You don't have the mustache to make the look."


"You could fix that," Lily pointed out.


"Please don't," I responded, doing my best to pout for Amelia. "I only recently got to find out what it feels like to actually look like a girl, and I've come to like it. Pretty sure my fiancée does, too. And she's smart and sweet and thinks I'm beautiful, and I don't want to ruin that for her."


"Hmmm..." Amelia smiled mischievously and leaned in close. "Okay, fiiine, no epic 'stache for you. But only because your fiancée sounds awesome."


"She is," I agreed, leaning my forehead against hers and looking into her eyes. Her left was slightly darker than her right, and her smile was slightly lopsided. Just a couple of the many random details about her features that I'd memorized over the last few months. "I'll be sure to tell her you think so."


"Aren't they just adorable?" Emma asked. ShockEmbarrassment. Amelia and I jumped away from each other to look toward where the door to the lab had opened. "Sorry, Lily, didn't mean to interrupt your show, but Beth is about to wake up and she'll probably want a familiar face there with her."


"Uh, yeah, thanks," Lily agreed, standing and walking toward the entrance to the labs. "It was starting to get a little warm in here, anyway. They really are cute together."


EmbarrassedPleasedProud. Amelia grabbed my hand and squeezed slightly.


"Zach's got a bunch of clips," Emma stated. "I can have him send them to your email if you'd like. But you should get going now."


"Yes, please, thank you," she responded eagerly.


"We're still in the room!" I exclaimed.


"So was I," Lily countered as hurried into the lab.


ApprehensionWorry. "Is there really video of us, umm, like that?" Amelia asked.


"Oh, yeah, of course," Emma replied. "We're collecting them so we can humiliate you at your wedding reception. But that's not important right now. Right now, I want you to look at that." She gestured into the lab. Beth was sitting on the bed, talking to Lily.


ConfusionCuriousity. "Umm, what part?" Amelia asked.


"Just look at them," Emma insisted. "See how happy they are right now? Beth's had a lifetime of struggle, and now it's gone just like that. To us, sure, it wasn't that big a deal. But for her, it's a miracle. There's so many problems to worry about. Like the Endbringers, and the slow collapse of society in Europe, and the fact that half of the USA is teetering on the edge of anarchy, and all the bullshit with the CUI. And how we haven't found a way to fight Scion."


She paused for a second, then continued. "And it's easy to look at all that and lose hope, to forget what makes all of it worth fighting for. But we've done so much in less than a year. Achieved miracles the likes of which most people never believed could be possible. If you can do so much in so little time, how much more do you imagine you'll accomplish in a decade?"


AweHopePride. Amelia spoke first. "Wow..."


"Yeah, wow," I agreed as Amelia stepped over and leaned against me. "Thanks. For reminding us why we're doing this."


She shrugged, looking back in at the two girls who were talking excitedly, outside our hearing range. "I've started to realize that it's the little things that make the biggest difference in the end."


====================


A/N- See, there was a REASON Emma invited the bosses along.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 336- Victoria


"That's it?" Siphon asked, her voice sounding more than a little surprised. The small blond looked at me like she was afraid I didn't do anything at all. "I thought it would take longer. I was warned that it might take two or three hours, not fifteen minutes."


"The people who evaluate injuries are trained to assume the worst case scenario," Chevalier informed her. "In the case of Cerebral Palsy, there's a significant gap between best and worst cases."


"Yeah, worst case for CP is a genetic disorder, and those are really, really hard for me to work on," I confirmed. "But you only had what amounts to minor nerve damage, plus somewhat atrophied muscles. Nothing all that difficult for what I do. Oh, and while I was in there I gave you a basic augmentation package and adjusted your metabolism to compensate. It'll wind back down, but I highly recommend you just about double the amount of food you eat for, well, at least the next month. You just got something like sixty pounds of muscle added to your frame."


"I- thank you," she responded, standing up out of her wheelchair. "It's been almost a decade since I could walk without using my powers."


"I'd say 'pay it forward'," I shrugged. "But you're already a hero. So just keep up the good w-"


She interupted me with a hug, and started crying on my shoulder. I simply patted her back while looking over her shoulder at Chevalier. He just shrugged and smiled. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened, and it probably wouldn't be the last. Thus far, Sveta was the most memorable. Nothing quite like having your spine and ribs broken to make something stick out in your mind. And if it wasn't me to remind her of just how deadly strong she was, it would have probably been someone far less durable.
Chevalier gave her a minute, then cleared his throat. "Umm, I know you were planning to be here a while, but I think you have friends waiting. And you should probably hit the gym and get used to how things work, now?"


"Oh, uh, sure," Siphon agreed, finally letting me extract myself from her grip. She looked at me for a second, and then rushed for the door, her emotions conflicted. "Thanks again, for everything."


"I'd say any time, but the goal is to avoid repeat customers," I joked, watching her leave the room. Then I looked over at Chevalier. "Thanks for the save, I was starting to worry that she was about to cop a feel."


I watched his emotions spike just a little, before he settled into doubt and suspicion. "You said that just to mess with me."


"Well, yeah," I confirmed, somewhere between a confession and bragging. "But it's true. Like I said, nerve damage. I'm the first human being she's ever been able to actually experience touching. I have to imagine she could get pretty lonely, physically alone for all those years. Throw in the usual gratitude, and... yeah. You should put that down in the notes for her post-regen therapy."


The therapy was originally only for the Case 53s, who needed time to adjust to being human. But after one of the heroes we healed got himself killed during a base jumping accident, and a few other similar accidents, it had become mandatory for everyone whose healing was truly life altering. Which, of course, was most of them.


"If you're sure," he replied, but he was already typing the notes. He trusted me not to make stuff like that up. Then his emotions started to spike showing apprehension. Fight or flight response. "So, what are your plans this weekend?"


"Nothing, really," my answer was far more casual than I felt. Is this it, is he finally going to make a fucking move? "I've got a family gathering planned for Sunday. But tomorrow's free and clear. So's tonight, for that matter. Turns out, there aren't any known supervillains left in Philly for me to beat the piss out of. I probably could have rationed my fun out a little better, huh?" Hopefully he'd pick up on the words 'tonight' and 'fun'.


"Incidentally, Tendril is threatening to sue the Protectorate for excessive force," Chevalier mentioned. Not what I wanted to talk about!


I shrugged. "He's a sex offender with regeneration," I stated dismissively. And he's only alive right now because I would have been caught. "And I am totes a media darling. Who do you think the jury's going to side with? Also, as my mother insists I say at least three times a day, I don't work for the Protectorate, the PRT, or any government agency domestic or foreign. So tell Dunn that your asses are perfectly safe."


"Not you," he replied. "One of the arresting officers opened fire on him when we were moving him to a holding cell. Six times. With a shotgun. Says he was resisting and... you may need to testify about how fast he can regenerate his limbs, because she claims it was a matter of self defense."


"Oh," I frowned. "Well that's... You should probably tell Dunn that she's not going to like my answer. The damage I did, and the Tinker-drugs I used on him? I'm surprised he was even conscious."


"I was afraid of that," he sighed. "But that's just speculation, they're still investigating. Everything I'm telling you right now is hearsay and nothing more."


"But it's not like I'm completely certain about this," I added, getting the message loud and clear. "I'm willing to admit that maybe the drugs didn't work as well as they were supposed to. Regen is hard to predict, and maybe he had secondary powers that helped him recover faster than he should have. If you can get a blood sample to our labs, I imagine Emma could give absolute, concrete proof. But I'm not sure how the law works for that sort of thing."


As I said that, I internally screamed 'no' and hoped Chevalier got the message. Our tranqs were based upon Newter's power, and thus pretty much absolute. They could drop a fully powered Lung with less than a raindrop worth of material. Nothing short of a power resisting Trump or a nonhuman Case 53 would have recovered in the couple hours between when I disabled him and when he should have been locked away. I could go up on the stand and say I wasn't sure, that maybe he has a power we didn't anticipate. Emma would have to run tests and then admit there was no way in hell he wasn't in a coma at the time.


"Understood," he responded. "I'm sure the Director will appreciate your... candor on this issue."


"Yeah," I agreed. "I can't imagine a trained officer would do something like that without good reason. Have you considered Master/Stranger influence? Anything from Mind Control to creating illusions... there's a lot of explanations."


"We're investigating that possibility as well," he responded. "There's also the chance that you were under the influence, maybe causing you to underestimate how durable Tendril was?"


"You have a point," I shrugged. Not even a little bit of a risk. When my power tells me I've done enough damage to put them down, it means they'll stay down. "Thanks for the warning that I may have overestimated my abilities and equipment. I'll certainly keep that in mind in the future. I'll consult with my lawyer about everything you just said, especially the legal issues. Should give me something to do for about half an hour after I get home."


"Maybe." I could tell he was smiling under the armor, relieved at the fact that I was willing to play ball about this instead, and working up the nerve to continue with what he really wanted to say. I decided he was kinda adorable when he was awkward. But I still definitely preferred when he took charge. "So, I know an excellent restaurant and was wondering if you'd like to get something to eat, and talk about things not work related. Just the two of us."


YES! Took long enough! "Sure, that could be fun," I smiled. "Wait, are you asking me out on a date to butter me up?"


His emotions spiked worry and a desire to clear up a misunderstanding, before he caught on a half second later. "You're teasing me again," he sighed. Of course he knew he didn't need to explain his intentions, not to me.


"Yeah, a little. I much prefer baby oil." Damn it's fun watching his emotions. "So, what should I wear?"


"Something casual and classy," he answered, eager to change the subject. He was still thinking about it, and he knew that I knew he was thinking about it. That's part of what made it fun. "It's a nice place, but you won't find fish eggs and goose liver on the menu, so don't go overboard. It also has private dining areas so we can actually talk and not worry about the whole secret identity. Or, not so secret in your case."


He's a bit worried, doesn't want to mention it... ah! "I'll meet you there. Look for the absurdly hot Asian girl in the dark blue blouse."


There was a flood of relief and disappointment both. Guess the whole public identity thing is going to get in my way with Chevalier just as much as it did with Dean. Or a little less, since now I can shapeshift. In a way, it was really sweet that he would have risked his identity getting revealed by being seen with me rather than simply ask me to make a temporary change of appearance for him.


"Meet you around, say, seven?" I offered. "That way you have a chance to talk to Dunn and I can pretty myself up. You have no idea how much work it takes to do my makeup in a way that looks good for two different races."


"That would be fine," he agreed. "I'll, uh, see you then."


Aww, he's so cute when he's nervous! "Sure, I'll let you handle the rest of the paperwork," I smiled. "Sorry it's always you that gets stuck with that."


"I knew what I was getting into when I took the job," he replied.


I turned around and then bit my bottom lip to avoid squealing. Then I regained composure and walked quickly out of the room. I noted that Siphon was still out there, surrounded by the rest of her teammates. She smiled nervously at me. Nope, no attraction, she was just caught up in a moment and now feels really weird about the whole affair. She'll be happier if I pretend I didn't notice a thing. So will that guy who was too busy looking at her to even give me more than a passing glance. Good for them. I waved casually and kept going.


================


A/N- Yay Vicky!

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 337- Victoria


"Hey, Mom!" I shouted as I walked in, still fully costumed. "Guess who's finally got that date!"


"Please tell me I'm you're just messing with me," Mom looked in from the kitchen. I simply smiled broadly at her. Sorry about how totally not sorry I am. "Vicky, he's closer to my age than he is to yours."


"Mom, we've been over this like a thousand times, already," I rolled my eyes. "He's smart, he's successful, he's hot as hell, and he treats me well. Or he'd better if he knows what's good for him."


"You should find a boy closer to your age," she insisted. "It's not like you're hurting for acceptable suitors. Half the internet wants to marry you."


"Mom, there is no such thing as an 'acceptable suitor' on the internet," I countered. "And age is just a number, especially when you've got Amy around. I bet if I asked nicely, she could make me fifty. Or five. Ooh! An even better idea! She can make you my age and I'll introduce you to all those so-called 'acceptable suitors' and you can cougar it up like it's going out of style."


"Don't be crass, Victoria," she chided.


Good thing I know she'd never call that bluff. I have no idea how I woulda talked my way out of that. I surpressed a shudder at the thought.


"Fiiine, but I'm still going on that date," I insisted. "Would you mind driving me?"


"You mean you want me to drive you?" She asked incredulously. "To a date with a guy that I don't want you dating?"


"Ya-huh," I confirmed, still smiling. Some days, I wish I still had my aura. Made stuff like this so much easier. "I have a super cute outfit and I'd like it to be clean and perfect. If I wear my armor, it'll get all wrinkled and bunched up. Or maybe even eaten by the costume. And if I try to get a cab? Mom, the cabs around here have more fungus based biomass and human genetic material in them than my armor does. I know because my power tells me these things."


"Nothing I can do is going to stop you, is that it?" She sighed.


"Not unless you get Clockblocker's power," I sang happily.


"What time do you need to be there?" She relented.


"Thanks, Mom!" I exclaimed happily, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "You're the best! We can leave at six thirty and be there with some time to spare. Oh, right, and I have some legalese bullshit to talk with you about on the ride. It doesn't even have anything directly to do with me this time!"


....


"Thanks again for the ride, Mom," I smiled as we pulled in to the parking lot. I was looking into my makeup mirror, adjusting my features to be just perfect. I didn't need the makeup, my powers made those kinds of adjustments trivial. What I did need was to look at my new face and make sure it didn't look freakish. "Don't worry, you won't need to pick me up later."


"Vicky!" She exclaimed. "You can't seriously be planning that on the first date."


"Relax," I rolled my eyes at her reaction. If I told her about that when I asked for the ride, she'd have said no. "First, I'm an adult, I can do whatever I like. Second, that is not what I meant. I've got my armor on standbye over on Avalon. After the date, I can shunt it over, suit up, and go looking for some drug dealers or something to smack around. Y'know, what I typically do with my nights now that I don't sleep anymore."


"You did that on purpose," she sighed.


"Probably," I hopped out of the car and took off to the restaurant.


....


I hadn't seen Chevalier out of costume often, or ever now that I thought about it. Sure, my powers meant I could functionally see through the costume anyway, but nothing quite beat looking at things through my actual eyes. And right now, my eyes approved. Light brown complexion, dark hair and eyes. I briefly considered a wolf whistle, but he was right, this was a nice restaurant and I didn't want to draw that kind of attention.


"So nice to finally meet you, Michael," I smiled and wrapped my arm around his. I wanted to get as much as possible out of all of my senses. "I'm glad you finally listened to reason."


"Pleasure's all mine," he looked down at me, meeting my eyes with his. Even with my natural height and in heels, he had a couple inches on me. He did a remarkable job of not letting his eyes drift to the low neckline of my dress. "Sorry it took so long to come around."


"Good things are worth waiting for," I leaned my head against his shoulder.


He led us to a private booth that I assumed he picked out before I got here, since he didn't need a waitress or anyone to guide me there. We waited until our meal was served before we really started talking.


With a thought my features shifted, returning to my natural beauty. I happily noted that he found me much more attractive like this. "Y'know, we could just have the date on Avalon, and no one would ask any questions," I pointed out. "It's a world without paparazzi and tabloids. No one would even know they're supposed to ask questions."


"Perhaps on another day," he responded. "Probably would be more convenient."


"Hmm, that's awful presumptuous of you, just assuming I'll agree to a second date," I teased.


"I was actually operating on the assumption that you wouldn't give me much of a choice in the matter," he quipped back. He didn't sound all that upset about the idea. "No matter how much I try to avoid it, there will be a second date. And third. And so forth."


I pushed my tongue into my cheek and pretended to look lost in thought for a couple seconds. "Yeah, you're probably right."


"So, I know I've asked this before, but why me?"


"Do we have to have this conversation?" I sighed. Dammit. I leaned forward, trying to distract him a little. "It's pretty much the one way to ruin this evening. And I know how much you don't want that."


"Has to be done," he insisted, again keeping his eyes on mine. This time I was less happy about it. "You've been pushing for this since pretty much the moment we started working together, and you still haven't explained why."


"It can't be because you're hot and nice?" I asked. "Isn't that how this sorta thing usually works?"


He looked at me for a minute, his emotions awash with concern. I turned off my emotion senses for a moment. He was reading almost fatherly, and that was something I really didn't want to think about right now. Or ever if I could possibly help it. "I guess we could call it that," he admitted. "But I don't buy it. I've talked to your mother. I know about Gallant. Dean."


God damn it, god damn everything. An active shapeshift later and I no longer had tear ducts. They were a distraction I didn't need right now. "So, just how much do you think you know about him?" I tried to demand, to sound angry, but the words came out in a whisper.


"Not enough," he responded. "You were on again, off again for about two years. Starting right after you got powers that included the ability to influence emotions of people looking at you. Then he died in Leviathan's attack on Brockton Bay."


"He never should have been out there," I added, telling the part of the tale I needed him to know. "He didn't have any powers that would make an Endbringer blink. A blaster whose blasts only hurt as hard as a normal person's punch, and altered their emotions to make them not want to fight anymore. That's less than nothing against Leviathan."


I looked up at him and allowed the tears to come. Dean deserved that much, at least. That I cry for him. "How did they ever justify sending that power out there in battle against a fucking Endbringer? How the fuck does that make any sense at all? I... I don't even know if the Endbringer killed him directly, or if he was caught in one of the tidal waves. I... never had the guts to ask that question to anyone who'd know."


"He wanted to make a difference," Michael offered. "I've seen a lot of people make that decision over the years. A lot of us have. Choosing to take the risk, not because they believed they would be the critical piece to the puzzle, but because staying back and doing nothing was not acceptable. I've also met others who made the opposite choice and regretted it. There are no easy answers, there's just doing the right thing and hoping it matters."


"He probably would have said something like that, if I had a chance to ask him," I sighed.


"Is that what this is to you?" Mike asked. "I mean, he and I went with pretty similar themes. Am I supposed to be a replacement?"


I looked up at him. "No!" I insisted. "Yeah, there are similarities, but I'm allowed to have a type."


"You are," he responded. "But that, plus your habit of avoiding serious questions. Of actually talking about things. I'm allowed to be worried about you, right?" He reached over and rested his hand on my forearm.


"Yeah, I guess you are," I couldn't help but smile as I put my hand over his.


"Part of that means being honest with me," Michael insisted. "The teasing's one thing, I can live with that. Would appreciate if you did less of it at the office, however. But no more evading questions and pretending things are alright when you know they're not. I don't mean to put pressure on you, but..." He trailed off


"I'd rather just move on," I objected. "Being honest is one thing, but there's no point in wallowing in the past and being miserable." My mother's been doing that since before I was even born, and it hasn't done her any favors.


"Pretending it never happened isn't going to help, either," he countered.


I shrugged, and he squeezed my arm gently. Far more carefully than he needed to, considering that he could probably throw all his strength into it without causing me any discomfort. I wasn't as strong or as tough as I used to be with my old powers, but I was still up there. "Yeah, you're right," I finally admitted.


"Good," he smiled. "Don't worry, we don't have to cover all the heavy stuff in one night. As long as the door's open."


"Thanks," I smiled back. "I... I think Dean would have been glad. That I have someone who will look after me."


Michael reached across with his other hand and cupped the side of my face, leaning forward while guiding me subtly toward him. I knew what was coming next, I had been looking forward to it for months. He did not disappoint.


=================


A/N- Bonus scene up shortly in the NSFW Worm section. Then I'll link it here!

https://forum.questionablequesting.com/posts/271058/

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 338


"Is it too late to find an excuse to back out of this?" I admittedly whined to Taylor. At least I was allowed to wear my costume for this, instead of normal clothes. But I was very much not looking forward to a family get together like this.


AgreementSympathyAnnoyance. "Not unless another Endbringer pops up," Taylor responded. "It's been a while since I've been able to see my dad, though, and I'm really looking forward to that. Even if, well..." NostalgiaRegretLoss. She trailed off, but I knew what she meant. I still found my aunt dating her dad to be weird. It was worse for her, no matter what she claimed about being glad he had someone.


"Aunt Sarah's a good person," I said softly as I stepped over and wrapped my arms around her from behind. "She's always treated me well." Sometimes she was the only one who bothered. Laying my head against her long hair, I couldn't help but be reminded of all those expensive shampoos and stuff in our shower that I tease her about. Couldn't complain about the results, however. Her hands clasped over mine. WarmthSafeLove


"I know," Taylor sighed. "I just... there's so little left of Mom to remember. Her pictures, her belongings, even her grave. All of that is gone forever. And there was a time I believed Dad would never stop grieving. Now... it's like she's being forgotten. I know it's not true, and I'm being stupid, and I should be glad for what time I did have with her..."


"Feelings aren't so easy to work out," I agreed. "I'm sorta the poster child for that."


"Thanks for being there for me," she responded, entangling her fingers in mine. She relaxed as her emotions smoothed with mine. "Well, I think I'm ready."


"Yeah, me too," I agreed. I was ready half an hour ago. Why does everyone think Taylor's the guy in this relationship? I'm not one who spends an hour combing her hair. At least she never pesters me about whether or not she looks good, we have our bond to take care of that.


....


We weren't quite the first people to make it to the restaurant, that honor belonged to Danny, Mark and Aunt Sarah, all of whom lived in actual Boston. I could feel Taylor trying very hard not to think about the part where Danny and Aunt Sarah probably met up before coming here. We landed more or less right in front of them.


We'd given Taylor's dad the most bare minimum suit that could possibly have been made. It didn't even have the Shunt Drive, simply the system needed to piggyback alongside another suit. A security measure to protect him from would be thieves. Anyone that thought they stood a chance in hell of actually coming for us or our tech would have Thinkers on their side, and those Thinkers would be able to simply reject the idea of going after him for lack of anything worth stealing.


"Hey, Kiddos," Danny spoke up. He was wonderfully unwilling to even tease us about the whole 'Empress' thing. We were his daughter and her fiancée, and I was so glad for that normalcy, even if I so rarely got to enjoy it. Taylor jumped forward and hugged him. "Missed you, too."


Mark approached me and gave me a hug, which I returned somewhat less wholeheartedly than Taylor did her father. ConcernSupportAcceptance. "We're waiting out here because the restaurant's kinda full at the moment. Seems like somewhere along the line this place got popular."


I frowned. DisappointmentAnnoyance. Well, crap, that wasn't what we wanted.


People had started noticing us as well, including a few people that had started coming out of the restaurant. So much for peace, quiet, and being left alone for a nice meal with the family. On the plus side, this was better than before. When I was Panacea people stopped and stared and then tried to ask questions or get autographs or talk to me as if we were friends. Now everyone seemed to have frozen at the staring part.


"Oh, girls, don't be like that," Mark gave me a tighter squeeze. "I'm sure they'll let you in. Fringe benefit of owning the planet and all."


"Mark, I don't think that's the problem," Aunt Sarah cut in, and I was so grateful for it. "They're not the types that like using fame to their advantage. You remember back when New Wave was a big deal? We were always the same way."


"Yeah, I guess," he admitted. "It is weird having people do things for you for no reason but that they know who you are."


"Speak for yourselves," I recognized Vicky's voice immediately. Moments later, her arms were around both me and Mark. "The best part of being famous is all the free stuff, and the guaranteed invites to all the important parties."


"Victoria," Carol chided. "I know I didn't raise you to be like that."


"I blame the school system," she retorted. "And hip-hop."


Carol just sighed and shook her head. We watched her go over to talk to Aunt Sarah. She gave Taylor's father a brief, unhappy glance that I'm sure no one here missed except Mark and Danny himself. AnnoyanceFrustration. Yeah, I'm not a big fan, either.


"So, sis, what's the plan?" Vicky asked, pulling me away from Mark, much to my relief. Taylor spared a glance my way, and I knew she wanted to spy in on the conversation. I didn't figure Vicky would mind, and probably already knew Taylor would, so I didn't try to disuade her.


"We can probably just, y'know, have our get together somewhere else?" I suggested. "There's plenty of places I can set up. It's not too far away from our teleport pad, so we wouldn't be messing with anyone else's stuff."


"You are adorably dumb, sometimes," she rolled her eyes at me. IrritationDefensive. "Look at the building and tell me what you see."


I looked. "Umm, a bunch of people staring at us?" I acted like I was trying, but I knew I wasn't going to figure out what she meant, so I said something deliberately dumb to hopefully speed the process along.


"Ugh," Vicky complained. "You're hopeless sometimes. Look, if they have more people than they have room, the easiest way to fix the problem is give them more room! You have absolute control over the whole surface of the planet, use it for something fun. Like building them an add-on for high profile guests that want to entertain their families to a nice dinner? Hint hint, nudge nudge, admit your sister is the most brilliant mind on this or any other planet."


"I will only admit that you're slightly less obnoxious than Lisa," I replied. AmusedAgreement.


"Oh, and while we're not being overheard by the 'rents... guess who finally got that date!" Vicky whispered.


"Really?" I smiled. SurpriseWorry. I frowned. Oh shit, that could be bad. "Vicky, I don't know if that's such a good idea, remember the warning I gave?"


"You mean about how he's pretty much biologically a teenager?" Vicky responded. "Yeah, we talked about that, and a lot of other things. Turns out it was Rime, his second in command, that encouraged him to go for it. There wasn't any impulsive hormonal bullshit going on. Well, not then, at least. That came later."


Oh. Oh! ShockProtectiveTerritorial. I glanced over at Taylor, who was doing her best to look interested in whatever Mark and Danny were talking about. She met my eyes, and I could see the worry on her face. I offered her what reassurances I could, but yeah, my emotions definitely peaked a few of the less pleasant options. Just because I no longer thought of Vicky... like that... didn't meant I didn't have memories of it. It made this a lot more uncomfortable than it might have been if we had a healthier background.


"Oh, I guess that probably isn't something you wanted to hear about," Vicky muttered. Oh, great, now she knows and it's even more awkward. Why couldn't she be one of the stupid empaths like Dean?


"It's just a little weird," I admitted. "But it's not like he's the first boyfriend you've ever told me about. I honestly am happy for you."


I was, and I knew her power would confirm that. Vicky could use someone sane in her life that cared about her and she actually listened to. The first two were hard enough to come by, but that last one was damn near impossible. I tried very hard not to sully the happy news by thinking of the political advantages this opened up for us as well. I've been spending too much time around Lisa.


"Thanks," she smiled. "You have no idea how much that means to me. Don't tell Mom, but if you didn't approve, I'd probably have broken up with him."


That... wow. Unless she learned how to beat my power with hers, she is telling the truth about that. "I take it Carol's not a fan?"


Her emotions peaked a mix of regret and defiance. The emotion reading was exponentially less clear that it was with Taylor, but that didn't mean I couldn't read her with my powers. "I sometimes forget how little the two of you talk," she finally spoke up. "No, she wants me with a guy my age. I won't bore you with the details, you know how she gets when she's decided something's not to her standards of propriety... and fuck, how about we just change the subject before I completely trash any chance of you enjoying this evening?"


Ah, she picked up that, too. Taylor offered me her support and confidence. "No, I'm fine," I responded to Vicky, letting my emotions focus on the presence of my partner, general and best friend instead. "Water under the bridge. So, is that drama why you didn't bring him along to this?"


"That and it's not like we're engaged or anything," she retorted. "Sure, he's great and I really like him, but we're not exactly at that place where I can invite him to private family gatherings, y'know. Things are weird enough already."


"Tell me about it," I muttered.


"Speaking of, what about the mushroom princess?" Vicky asked. "I mean, I know it's not quite the same deal, but..."


"All the new Tinkers," I answered. "The only reason she even sees Missy, or sleeps, is because of the curfew rules." And a bunch of other things. Riley had a lot of reasons to avoid coming with us. Vicky doesn't know what Riley did to Mark. "When she found out she wouldn't be able to bring Missy and Theo along, she decided she'd rather just spend her day with them."


"Yeah, I get it," Vicky responded. I was saved from speculating just how much she did or didn't get, and what she might figure out if we kept talking about it, when she looked up over my head. "About time you got here."


==================


A/N- Do these girls EVER actually talk about anything if they can avoid it?

... No, of course not. What would be the fun in that?

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 339- Crystal


"Thanks again for the ride, Eric," I said after he popped into view on our staging platform. It's still so freakin' weird that he's using the same name as my brother. Seconds later half a dozen others manifested. My armor hid my expression of surprise, not that it mattered since Lisa was there in the mess.


The others included two men and two women in very stylish dresses and suits. The Ambassadors, I recognized after a second. Plus a pair of men doing the half black and half white split down the middle suits as costumes. One had the black on the left, the other had white. No doubt at all that they were coordinating with each other on that one. Then there was a large man in a pretty generic gray jumpsuit and mask. I didn't know any of them, probably some of the new recruits. Pantheon was growing by leaps and bounds, lately. Trying to keep up with everything would require Thinker powers.


"Oh, it's not a problem," Eric replied. "A week is plenty of notice."


"Yeah, we'll be able to quit doing that to you soon enough," Lisa replied. "We have some of our best Tinkers working on teleport drives that'll let us move between places without needing to force you out of your girlfriend's bed at three in the morning."


Eric sighed. "Know what? I don't even care. If voyeurism is how you get your rocks off, peep all you like."


"Zach told you to say that, about two and a half weeks ago," Lisa claimed cheerfully.


"So, what's this about, Lisa?" I asked, still looking at all the new people.


"Oh, we're just killing a bunch of birds with one stone," she answered with a smug grin. "I had Accord draw up a plan to help stabilize the region, and I'll be discussing its implementation with the local PRT and Protectorate leaders. Brought some people along to run some raids on the more troublesome locations. And we've got a couple possible power interactions to test. Not really the fancy ones that need the labs, but still pretty important. So while you're off having a family vacation day, you can rest well knowing the city isn't going to burn down. Probably. I mean, it is still LA."


"Oh," I replied dumbly. "Well, I put GL in charge for the time being. Boost is doing a hospital run, it's a great PR and he's volunteering for them whenever possible now that he's discovered nurses flirt back. And Sveta's in San Fran helping check the undersea damage. It's looking like they're going to have to demolish the whole Golden Gate Bridge."


"Eh, they'll build a new one, call it Victory Monument Bridge or something and that'll be the end of that," Lisa dismissed. "This is more about infrastructure design and whatever else. Oh, and apparently Accord bullshitted up a way to solve Cali's drought problems. All it requires is us convincing politicians to do the job they were hired to do. So, expect that approximately never. Now hurry up before you're late to your family gathering."


Oh, right. I glanced over at Eric. "Sorry about that," I said sheepishly.


"Is cool," he dismissed as he tapped my arm, sending me to the opposite side of the country in a period of time too small to be calculated using conventional technology. How are we supposed to kill a thing whose species does stuff like this on a fucking interplanetary scale? I crushed those thoughts, we'd try our damnedest, and hope for the best. The alternative was unacceptable. Instead I looked at the gathering of my family, the people who meant the most to me. My reason to fight.


Vicky spotted me first. "About time you got here."


"Yeah, well, some of us have real jobs to worry about," I teased back. "So, why aren't you inside already."


"Oh, that?" Vicky tilted her head toward Amy. "My brilliant sister here didn't think to make reservations. And now she'll have to go through the effort of growing us a new room to eat in."


Reservations? I looked at the building for the first time. Wow, that's a lot of people. Guess they're doing pretty well for themselves. "I'm friends with the owners, I'll go in and talk to them. You guys wait here, okay?


"Sure, leave us out in the cold and rain," Vicky fake pouted. "We're like the definition of free advertising right now."


"Vicky, it isn't cold or rainy," Amy argued. "In fact, neither of those things ever even happen on Avalon. And if they did, you wouldn't even notice.


I just ignored them and walked into the building. Siblings have to bicker, it's the law... god I miss Eric... The greeter was some kid I didn't recognize, but the nametag identified him as Dan.


"Hey," I said with a smile. "I'm friends with Janet and Tyrone. I'll just see myself in."


"Uh... yeah, sure," he stammered. Man, they do not train their newbies to handle this sorta thing, do they? At least they had a good layout that let me walk into the back without any difficulties. It wasn't quite that crowded. But there definitely wasn't room for a family of eight in here. Especially not when those eight were going to draw every last eye in the building until they left.


One of the waitresses looked like she wanted to stop me when I opened the door to the kitchen area. She didn't actually say anything, but she probably would have if I'd given her a few more seconds to think about it.


The kitchen itself wasn't exactly huge, but it was very modern. There were actual flames, which meant they were cooking with gas. Not a lot of places on Avalon had that yet. Then again, most places didn't even have electricity. Bioluminescent buildings took care of lighting, clean water, and waste disposal, and most colonies were still working hard to achieve industry of any sort. Modernization would be a long time in coming for every colony world, even if Avalon had an unfair head start.


"Crystal!" Janet exclaimed the moment she saw me, which didn't take long. She rushed over and hugged me. "It's been way too long."


"Work's been a hassle," I responded, squeezing her back after making sure the safeties were on and I wouldn't accidentally kill her. "Speaking of which, you guys seem to be doing really well for yourselves."


"Ugh," she sighed, stepping back. "You know, I never realized this was going to be so much work. Training the new cooks is the worst part. Do you think we can talk to your cousin about maybe color coding the fruit better? I can't begin to tell you how many times we've had to throw out something because someone messed up the ingredients. Although Ty usually keeps it around to taste test later. Sometimes we get something usable out of it."


"Why not ask her, yourself?" I suggested. "She's right outside. We were going to stop in for a meal, but you're kinda full at the moment."


She looked like she was about to cry. "We keep having to turn people away. Ever since you moved your capital and portal, this has become the most expensive part of the city. We're trying to figure out how to make it work, but short of tearing down the building and adding a second and third story to this one, there's not a whole lot we can do except move somewhere cheaper or save up enough to buy the rest of the block. And that's not happening any time soon."


"Funny you should mention that," I replied. "We were just talking having Amy grow you a bit more room. Say a couple private dining areas so I can have a nice meal with my family without needing to worry about passports?"



"She can do that?" Janet asked. "Wait, what am I saying? Of course she can do that! She grew a freakin base out of that crater Leviathan left behind!"


"Yeah, take a couple minutes to figure out where you want it."


"Umm, the east facing of the building," she replied. "The house next door is mine and Ty's. You can pretty much just use the entire thing. Ooh! And maybe an open air cafe type thing on the roof! It's getting warmer, I bet that'll be really popular!"


"Can do," I agreed. Amy loves using her powers for things like that. "I'll go let her know. You just let your customers know to get out of the way and enjoy the show."


"Actually, they're probably not going to be too impressed about that one," Janet remarked. "I mean, the whole watching a building grow out of the ground thing was cool as hell the first fifty or so times, but now it's kinda become one of those things that is just part of living on Avalon."


"I guess that makes sense," I sighed. Well, Amy never did like gawkers, so it's probably better this way. "Like all the quakes in Cali, eventually you just stop noticing them. Hey, if you manage to get a bit of a lull while we're here, you and Ty should totally come by and chat. I'll introduce you to the Empresses and you can meet my annoying younger cousin."


"I wouldn't want to intrude."


"Are you kidding?" I laughed. "After about twenty minutes of each others' company, everyone in that room is going to be praying for a distraction."


================


A/N- Crystal's the smart one.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 340


"Y'know what's the most bullshit thing about your power, Ames?" Vicky commented from behind her menu. "It's not that you can kill every last thing on this planet in approximately two and a half heartbeats."


ConcernAnnoyanceDefensive. Taylor was saved the need to speak up when Carol did first. "Victoria, could you please not talk like that at the table?"


"Sorry," Vicky responded. "But I do have a point to get to here. I can usually sense how powers can be a threat to me." ConcernInterest. "Crystal and Aunt Sarah, my powers tell me to avoid being in your line of sight, because you're blasters. Mom, Dad, I know instinctively that you have breaker powers because my power tells me to expect not to fight you like you are now. Taylor... well, you don't register as much of a threat," AnnoyanceReluctantAcceptance. "Unless those zerg are nearby. Then you're suddenly scary beyond all reason. Amy, all my power tells me is that if you touch me, I lose. Even though I'm consciously aware you have a lot of other options."


"That's actually pretty good to know," Taylor spoke up. "A tool we might be able to take advantage of in the future. Or a possible weakness of our Thinkers that we need to compensate for. Does your power have the same blind spot with, say, a Tinker surrounded by parts that can be converted to a weapon, but aren't quite to that stage, yet? What about a gun that's unloaded?"


"I... actually don't know," Vicky admitted. "It's never come up before. Normal firearms aren't a threat to me to begin with."


"We should probably test that," Taylor responded. "We have a bunch of new Tinkers and Thinkers, we should probably have everyone go through the testing process at least one more time, just to see what new details we might have missed the first time."


ConfusedDefensive. Taylor just noticed Carol, Mark and Aunt Sarah watching us with knowing smiles. "What?"


"Oh, nothing," Mark chuckled. "We old folks are just caught up with nostalgia. Sarah and Carol would sometimes spend all night talking about plans and what to do next. More than once, they went to bed so late that they were too tired in the morning to do any of the stuff they talked about. So they'd make the men take care of it, no matter how nonsensical they were. Sometimes we'd have to spend half an hour decoding scribbles written on the backs of napkins."


"Oh, we weren't that bad, Mark," Aunt Sarah admonished. "We were just young and full of ideas. You had your share of bad ones, too. Remember how you used to draw arrows and circles with letters on them and call that a battle plan?"


"Time honored approach, perfected over thousands of years of military engagements, and now harnessed to its highest potential by the NFL," he sounded almost as smug as Lisa. "I'm sure Danny would be able to read our old notes and know what I was talking about, right man?"


"I'm more of a baseball guy, myself," Taylor's dad admitted. "Great American pastime and all that."


"I can respect that," Mark agreed cheerfully, which brought back memories of him changing channels because 'baseball's almost as boring as golf'. "Speaking of pastimes, are you girls ever going to pick out any official sports for Avalon?"


I glanced over at Taylor, but she didn't look to have any better answer than I did. "Umm, we really hadn't put any thought into that," I admitted. "We're kinda hoping that sort of thing will take care of itself on the local level."


"Not everything has to be ordained by the highest office," Taylor agreed. "Besides, we're decades away from having the base needed to support professional sports teams. Right now, we're focusing our resources on development and infrastructure. Then we're going to put the vast majority of our resources into education. We want to lead the multiverse in terms of scientific and artistic accomplishments." DisgustHurtAnger. "And frankly, in my experience, too much emphasis on sports accomplishes the exact opposite of that."


One of her tormentors was the track star at her school, I recalled. Danny looked concerned, but as usual didn't really know what to say to approach the issue. I reached over and gripped Taylor's hand, holding it as she calmed.


Danny looked at me gratefully. I could almost feel bad about the idea that Danny felt more like a father to me than my biological or legal parents did. Danny actually accepted me and treated me with respect. Which was a whole lot more than Mark and Carol could claim. And he wasn't a murderous crime lord, which put him well above Marquis. Instead, I simply shared that glance with Danny, reassuring him that I would care for his daughter when he couldn't.


"That's a good point," Carol spoke up. "I can't begin to express how much disappointment I have in school systems for diverting so much money and effort into sports instead of educating their children. I see the merits in physical exercise, but not at the cost of scholastic performance."


"But that's a two way sword," Mark responded. "Not every child can be the valedictorian. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's part of the definition. Teamwork, and shared success are important parts of development for a child."


"I'm not saying they're not," Carol argued back. "I didn't let Vicky slack on her grades just because she was in volleyball. I pushed her to keep her grades up, just like I did with Amy even though she didn't do sports."


I couldn't argue that point. Carol definitely pushed me on my schoolwork. But Carol actually made the effort to help Vicky with hers. And when she got A's, she was praised for her efforts, rewarded for them. At best, I was told 'good work' and then forgotten. Now it was Taylor's turn to squeeze my hand and offer me reassurances. Why did I ever think this family gathering was a good idea?


"Maybe you should think about emphasizing a skill based sport instead of a physical one?" Aunt Sarah spoke up. "There are plenty of options out there."


"I vote for Pegasus racing," Vicky chimed in. "I mean, the way Avalon works, I'm willing to bet that everyone's going to want a flying horse eventually just for travel. They're fast enough to beat out most cars if you give them a chance to pick up speed, and I know they new ones are even able to successfully breed. And it's so uniquely Avalon that when you get around to having intolerably snooty people, they can be totally elitist about the whole thing and look down on all the less privileged worlds who don't learn to ride flying horses when they're ten."


"Yeah," Crystal hurriedly agreed. "And the added benefit of teaching children responsibility by having them care for the animals when they're young. Especially since Avalon doesn't have its own native life to begin with."


SurpriseAgreement. "That actually sounds really cool," Taylor admitted. "We may have to throw in some safety features, but they're already safer to ride than real horses. At least according to our team members who've had experience with both."


"Of course, then we face the risk of people with more money being able to acquire the more desirable versions," Crystal added. "It's a pretty big industry. Really good racehorses are worth millions, and once we start down the path of breeding the animals, that could become a thing."


"I can fix that easily enough," I volunteered. "Using the same seeding tech as we do for the zerg and M7s. We just have to distribute seed codes that anyone's allowed to use. Plug the things into the proper device and modify their genetics on the spot."


"We should probably consider that anyway," Taylor responded. "The latest version of Macula just clocked in at almost three hundred miles an hour and his gravity field is strong enough to hurt someone who's not trained for it. We'll have to distribute obsolete versions of the animals for civilians to use."


"Plus the risk of accidentally running into a flock of seagulls," I added, while looking straight at Vicky. She glowered and stuck her tongue out at me.


"Maybe specific licenses and training courses to use better versions?" Crystal suggested. "There's always someone who will want access to the superspeed versions. But, yeah, putting the best stuff outside the reach of civilians is a really good way to keep things a bit more reasonable."


"More than just horses, though," I added. "Dinah's gryphon is definitely a very different kind of animal than the pegasi, both in terms of performance and personality. We could probably draw up a list of other mythological animals. Miniature dragons, for example. Do sphynxes fly?"


"How about those Mexican goat killers... the chupa-whatevers?" Vicky suggested.


"Pretty sure those are just diseased dogs or coyotes or something," Crystal responded. "But that does sound like a good idea."


"Might cut into our oil industry profits," Taylor responded. "We're looking into that as a way to keep us solvent as a nation in the long run."


"Well, I can guarantee that none of the artificial animals will be able to survive without the Yggdrasil," I suggested. "They're dependent on it to provide food they can store and process correctly. Same thing we did with our modified bugs as a failsafe to prevent them from becoming an invasive species. No one can object to us leaving in that feature, right? And then we'll just make most of our profits selling to other countries. Aleph, Dalet, and Vav are all facing a fuel crisis. Once we start opening up communications and trade with those worlds, we're set for the foreseeable future.


"To say nothing of the profitability of other designs," Crystal added. "Your entire planet is a living industrial base just waiting to be harvested."


"We're leaving that mostly to civilian development," Taylor added. "We're trying to build a government that can pay for itself instead of drawing on taxation or owning all the civilian businesses."


"You'll still have plenty of room for selling fuel on Avalon," Danny spoke up. "It seems to me these animals probably won't be capable of hauling freight or operating as industrial or construction equipment. That's a pretty significant base."


"Well, we could," I admitted. "Antigravity makes actual weight fairly trivial. But no, we have no plans of building anything like that for the market."


"Wait just a second," Vicky interupted. "Did we just casually discuss ruling the world by creating dozens of mythological animals, manipulating trillion dollar industries on four different worlds, and inventing a new sport, all within, like, ten to fifteen minutes?"


SurpriseAwe. "Uh, yeah, I guess we did," Taylor responded.


"Bitchin'."


"Victoria!"


===============


A/N-

Spoiler: Wanna watch me ruin this chapter?

For lack of a Zach, there dies the hope of pokemon battles as the official sport of Avalon.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 341- Taylor


"Honestly, Boston's been wonderful. They'd probably move me out if they could, but I plan to stay for the foreseeable future," Sarah stated. I tried not to flinch. The reasons she stayed could be summed up as that's where Dad found work.


ConcernSupportAcceptanceRequest. That would be Amelia trying to convince me to be okay with their relationship, which was clearly getting more serious as time moved forward. I wanted to be okay with that, I really did. But at the same time I kinda didn't.


Sarah took a bite of her food. "Oh, wow, this tastes amazing. Kind of like a sweet potato, but with a tangy kick to it. I don't know how to describe it, but it's really good."


"Yeah, I'd never have guessed this was a vegetarian meal," Mark agreed between bites. "Man, I wish real salmon tasted this good. So I've been thinking of asking for a transfer, myself. Don't get me wrong, the vacation's been great, but I'm starting to get bored. Crystal, what's your opinion on things along the West Coast?"


"Well, Miss Militia just took over in San Fran," Crystal replied. "If you can handle a no nonsense boss, she could really use the help. I think it's starting to upset her that Alexandria or one of my people have to drop in twice a week to deal with something or another."


"Why not New York or Pittsburgh?" Vicky suggested. "They're still understaffed. Or... well, keep this to this room alone, but there's talk of me moving to Baltimore. Only for a little while, until the crime rate starts to drop. A few of the villains I chased out of Philly moved there. You get that transfer and we'll go smack villains around together until maybe they get the message and stop being criminals. It'll be fun."


"That sounds great," Mark agreed. "I don't think Armstrong will mind. They've been pushing him to get rid of a few of his people since things are running so smoothly. He's been refusing on grounds that it would disrupt the team composition. But I'm a newbie, so he won't lose any sleep over losing me to keep some of his favorites. Maybe I'll even help the ol' egghead out by setting up a few transfer conditions he'll like. Can't hurt to have a Director that owes me a favor or two down the line, right?"


"Probably not," Sarah agreed. "Hmm, maybe I'll make a discreet inquiry next time I talk to him."


"Couldn't hurt," He looked over at Sarah. "Really, he should count himself lucky that you don't officially work for the Protectorate, so they can't transfer you. His Wards program is currently the envy of the whole region thanks to you. You've always had a way with kids."


AnnoyanceLossRegret. I clenched Amelia's hand. I wasn't sure what brought that feeling on, but I was here for her nonetheless.


"It's really not like I have to do much," Sarah responded, looking a little abashed. "Fact of the matter is, Weld and Clockblocker do most of the work. They have that team running like a well oiled machine. Or as much as you can hope for in a team full of restless hormonal teenagers."


"Speaking of well oiled," Vicky added with a knowing smirk. "There's rumors all over PHO that the two of them are dating."


SurpriseSuspicionAnnoyance. It took me a humiliating couple seconds to figure out what Amelia was thinking. She's right. There was at least an eighty percent chance that it was Zach who started those rumors. We'd need to talk to that boy about his online pranks sometime soon.


"Honestly, Vicky, you already know that's just a stupid rumor," Sarah reprimanded her niece. "You tried using your healing ability on Weld, so you even know why. And Clock's got his heart set on 'the one that got away', who I'm fairly certain is a girl."


"Yeah, seriously, cuz," Crystal added. "What did poor Clock ever do to you? Y'know, except for that time he slipped glue into Gallant's armor. Or that time he spent a month using unbelievably stupid pickup lines on you. Or that time when he spent the next month using equally stupid pickup lines on Dean. Or when he photoshopped that picture to make it look like you were checking out Shadow Stalker's ass. Clearly he is as innocent as a baby and you're just being needlessly vindictive."


Huh, maybe Zach wasn't responsible for that one.


"Okay, Crystal," Sarah chuckled. "I think you've made your point. But in all seriousness, he's done a lot of growing up this year. Try not to judge him too harshly on his behavior, when he's trying so hard now."


"I'm just glad things are stable enough that people can focus on transfers, politics and rumors" Mark added. "There was a time there after New Delhi that we were afraid the whole country was going to collapse into supervillain fueled anarchy. Can't speak for the rest of the country, but the East Coast is more stable now than it's been any time in the last decade. And it looks like it's going to stay that way with the colony world generating jobs. Nice and peaceful."


"That's an understatement," Dad added. "Maybe I'm just biased, being used to the mess that was Brockton Bay, but I never would have imagined a city the size of Boston could be cleaned up so easily. I get that a lot of it is because there are actual jobs in Boston, especially with the new colony portal in the city. I'm actually having trouble finding enough people to keep up with the demand."


"The rest is mainly because of Accord and Butcher," Sarah informed. "They created a weird sort of stability that kept other supervillains from bothering the city. When Butcher was destroyed," ConcernLoss. "and the other major player changed sides, that left the city with a clean slate, an people like it that way. The first villain who tries to step in will be the only villain in the city facing down all of the heroes at once. Someone like Lung might be able to get away with it, but there aren't a lot of people with that kind of power."


"And if anyone like that does show up, Pantheon's right next door to make them regret it," Mark added. PrideEmbarrassment. "No one wants to start a fight with Endslayers and Immortal Empresses."


"That's just a bluff, though," Carol reminded. "One that won't last. Eventually people are going to come to the realization that Amy and Taylor can't actually intervene with anything on Bet, outside of the Endbringer conflicts."


"That's why the rest of us, the ones who haven't taken citizenship on Avalon, have to be so vigilant," Crystal chimed in. "Let everyone believe that the reason our heavy hitters stay out of the fight is because they're not needed, or too busy dealing with more important issues like preparing for the next Endbringer. It's a fragile kind of peace, but it still peace. Certainly better than what we had before."


"Not that fragile," Vicky insisted. "Anyone wants to break the peace, and I'll break them into pieces. Then post photos of them online as a warning to anyone else stupid enough to try and start shit."


"So, firecracker, how have things been for you?" Mark asked. I was admittedly a bit relieved to have the conversation turn away from Avalon for once. We lived it constantly, every day, and while I loved what we were achieving, it would be nice to take a break from it once in a while.


"Oh, you know me, Dad," Vicky smiled. "Forever lucky in life and love."


"Love, huh?" Mark regarded his daughter. "So, when do I meet this new boy in your life?"


"You already have," Carol informed, sounding less than pleased. "Your daughter is dating the current head of the Protectorate. Who, as I'm sure you're quite aware, is both twenty years her senior and functionally your commanding officer."


Carol's passive aggressive bitchiness took the wind out of Mark's sails admirably, and he frowned. DistasteSchadenfreudeGuilt. "Well, I can't say I was expecting that. How long have you two been seeing each other? Is it serious?"


"Oh, nothing serious, we've only been dating since two days ago," Vicky responded cheerfully. "But I have a good feeling about things." Does nothing ever faze her? Then again, she lived with Carol even longer than Amelia did, she's probably really good at shrugging off anything that her mother can throw at her.


In a way, it made Vicky part of the group with the rest of us. Carol hated that Amelia and I were dating, she hated that Dad and Sarah were dating, she hated that Mark had 'left her' for the Protectorate, and that Crystal had left New Wave for Pantheon. Really, I'd feel bad for her if she wasn't such an unbelievable bitch about everything.


"You never struck me as the type to go for older men," Mark spoke up diplomatically after a minute. He clearly wasn't thrilled about this turn of events, either.


"I'm honestly not," Vicky responded. "Things just sorta happened, y'know?"


"After she stalked him for three months," Crystal chimed in.


"I did not stalk him," Vicky argued at her cousin. "And even if you could misconstrue my actions as stalking, it would only have been for about two and a half months. You're just jealous because you're the only person at this table who's single." I caught it as Mark and Carol glanced at each other nervously for a half second.


"What the hell was that?" Victoria asked. Evidently she noticed, too, with one of her various senses. It's not like she was lacking for options.


Carol sighed. "We didn't want to say anything, not until it was finalized."


"We're legally separated," Mark stated.


======================


A/N- Man. This is a FUN dinner. And by "fun" I mean "there's a reason I don't go to my family reunions."

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 342


"We're legally separated. Or we will be as soon as the paperwork's finished," Mark qualified. "All our legal documents and records were in Brockton Bay, and that's slowing things down. You have no idea how hard it is to get a divorce done when your birth and marriage certificates no longer exist."


Huh, it's about time that happened. I was expecting it months ago. If I was being honest, part of me hoped for it years ago. Taylor massaged my hand with her thumb anyway, a show of comfort that I didn't really need, and she knew that. She seemed to feel like she was supposed to do something to support me, and I was more than willing to accept her efforts. We have each other, no matter what else may come.


"You can't be serious!" Vicky exclaimed. I almost cringed. Of course Vicky would react like this. To her, the Dallon home was normal and happy. Around her, it actually was.


"We are very serious," Carol responded, meeting her daughter's eyes. They stared each other down. A challenge that neither of them was going to let the other win. "Things have changed. Your father and I have changed." It's my fault Mark's so different, now. ConcernSupportDefensive. "You and Amy have grown up, and old enough to make your own decisions on how you live your lives, as you have gone out of your way to let me know lately."


Vicky deflated some at that last comment. Maybe they had a fight recently?


"There's no grandchildren to worry about," Carol continued. "No custody battles, any property we might have argued over was lost in Brockton Bay, and since then we've been rebuilding our lives separately from each other. Frankly, there will never be a better opportunity to do this."


"Maybe you could go to a marriage counselor or something?" Vicky suggested. "Aunt Sarah? Ames? Back me up on this."


Oh fuck, she wants me to argue that Carol and Mark should stay together? How am I supposed to do that when I think it's one of the worst ideas she's ever come up with? I froze up, clenching Taylor's hand harder as she reminded me she was still there to defend me.


"Vicky, be reasonable." Aunt Sarah was the one that came to the rescue. "There's no way this could come as a surprise to you. Your parents haven't lived in the same house for almost a year now."


"You knew?" Vicky accused.


"We talked about it some," Sarah admitted. "I told them to hold off for a while, give it some time."


"We've given it enough time," Carol added, and Mark nodded in agreement. A divorce is the first thing they've agreed upon since I healed him. "We would have done it sooner, but there's been so much uncertainty. New Delhi, the new Endbringers, Pantheon, your resurrection... the fear that it might cause some scandal that could hurt the whole Avalon project."


Carol wasn't entirely wrong. My parents getting divorced would be a tabloid headline. Not a big deal in the US, like, at all. But North America wasn't where we were drawing most of our colonists from. Now we had enough people from enough parts of the world that we could rely on existing colonists to convince their own friends and families to make the move. Plus our foothold in Japan was supplying more than half of our total population right now. To call us 'established' would be a bit much, but something like this would be mostly meaningless now. They really were concerned for me when they delayed this long. Or, more likely, it was Aunt Sarah that thought of it.


"After Brockton Bay... well, we started making it official," Mark continued. "As far as divorces go, it's going to be as clean and quiet as possible. Like Carol said, we don't have custody to fight over, or any joint property. With any luck, by the time the press even notices we're divorced, it'll be old news."


"So, that's it then?" Vicky slumped into her chair, looking more vulnerable than I ever imagined she could. I actually felt sorry for her. "You didn't even think that maybe your children would like to find out before it happened?"


"There wasn't ever really a good time for that, either," Carol responded. "Everything's just been so hectic lately. We wanted to tell you together. Today was the first chance we had for that, and we wanted to save it for after the meal."


"No sense in letting good food go to waste, right?" Mark smiled, tapping his fork against his plate. "And this is really good food." He took another bite of his meal, clearly intent on letting this conversation drop in favor of returning to the meal.


"Dammit," Vicky sighed. "Yeah, I guess I saw it coming. Maybe I was hoping if the two of you spent a little more time around each other, then maybe you'd realize you were happy together... and I think I'd have been happier if I didn't say that out loud. Emotion reading sucks, by the way."


"Sorry, firecracker," Mark offered a lopsided grin. "Our minds are made up."


"I wonder if this is what Minerva feels like all the time. No wonder she's such an insufferable bitch."


"Victoria, I know you're upset, but you shouldn't badmouth your teammates like that," Carol chided.


"It's alright, Aunt Carol," Crystal spoke up. "She's not wrong. If anything, she's being generous." AnnoyanceDefensive. "Sorry, Taylor, but it's true and you know it. Minerva knows it, too, and in fact brags about it."


ReluctantAcceptance. "I know," Taylor admitted.


"Actually, when she finds out about this, she's probably going to be secretly thrilled," I added in. "At least for the first five seconds. Then she'll be openly thrilled and using words like 'I told you so' and 'welcome to the club, here's your complimentary aspirin' are going to be used."


ShockRecognition. "Wait. She said that to you, too?" Taylor asked. "When was that?"


"Right after I created our magic tree fort," I informed her. "What about you?"


"When I tried to track people using skin mites," Taylor answered. "Turns out, there's a reason my power doesn't track things with an average of three brain cells each. That's on the list of things I will never try again."


"Well, at least that'll make me feel better," Vicky responded. "Now when she makes her smartass comment, I'll be able to tell her to come up with something more original. Imagine, using the same one liners over again."


"Yeah, but now you're prepared for it, and she'll know it, so she'll use something else," Crystal corrected. "I'll probably accidentally give her a clue when I get back to LA and let her know she can go home."


ConfusionSurprise. "Wait," Taylor spoke up. "Why's she in LA?"


"Oh, I dunno," Crystal shrugged. "Something about testing a new power combo and dropping off some plans that'll help the locals work out how to get things back to the standard disaster instead of the extra special disaster it's currently at."


"Aww, Lisa went to visit her girlfriend," Vicky responded.


AnnoyanceBoredom. "Vicky, this gag's kinda gotten old," Taylor responded. "Minerva and Alexandria are not dating. Minerva isn't into women, or anyone for that matter. And I'm not sure what Alexandria's into, but I'm pretty sure it's not Minerva. They're only friends, and even that seems to be centered around their jobs." Taylor hesitated for a second. ConcernSecrecy. "Alexandria's been a lot of help to us, after all, that's why they spend so much time talking."


"What's with you lately, cuz?" Crystal asked. "Trying to hook me up with one of your friends from work. Then there's Clock and Weld. Alexandria and Minerva. Next you're going to suggest, I dunno, Lung and Legend or Eidolon and Glaistig Uaine. There's such a thing as spending too much time online."


"Yeah, you're probably right," Vicky sighed. "But they're closer friends than they're letting on to the outside. You don't fabricate an excuse to travel to the other side of the continent and across a dimension just for someone you kinda know from work. Honestly, the whole thing comes off on my senses as more parental than romantic. It really is kind of adorable, however you look at it."


I noticed that the adults had gone silent. "Umm, are you guys okay over there?"


"I think we're all just a bit shellshocked," Mark was the one who spoke up. "You girls are talking about some of the biggest heroes in the world, and you can do it because you know them personally. I think I speak for all of us when I say we're really proud of you."


"I can toast to that," Danny agreed immediately.


"That is, if we'd thought to order any alcohol with our meals," Aunt Sarah smiled teasingly at him.


"Something to keep in mind for later," Danny responded. RealizationDiscomfort.


================


A/N- I'm thinking Lisa/Alexandria next chapter. Maybe.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 343- Rebecca


"Good afternoon, Minerva," I greeted Lisa and her new team in person. In a way, I almost had no choice in the matter, exactly as we'd planned it. Director Martinez, my theoretical boss, was there as well. Possibly the least clever or ambitious Director in the PRT, which was exactly what I wanted him for.


Our relationship was elegant in its complexity. He just did whatever I suggested without stopping to think about it, and then proceeded to claim credit for it later when talking to Chief Director Costa-Brown, a trait that earned him nothing but contempt from all the other regional Directors. That balance included him immediately agreeing to my suggestion that I should be the one to speak with Minerva, since she was a Thinker notorious for finding information that no one should have been able to figure out, and we didn't want to risk her lifting valuable secrets from him.


"That's High Emissary Minerva," Lisa corrected my greeting with her trademark smug grin. No ulterior motives to her action, she's just teasing me for fun.


I frowned, feigning annoyance. "My apologies, High Emissary Minerva," I affected a mockery of a snooty upper class accent. Two could play at this game. While I wasn't known for being sarcastic, at least not on the job, Lisa was infamous for provoking that side of people. No one would find my behavior unusual. The fact that she was being deliberately provocative also implied a plan on her part, and I was inclined to play along. "I shall keep that in mind."


"You are right, however, it is a wonderful afternoon," Lisa agreed happily, pretending to ignore my tease. Her happiness underlined a gratitude that I was cooperating with her plan, despite not knowing what it was yet. "I've been on Avalon so long that I was beginning to forget what what the sea air smelled like." Lisa shifted during her comment, knowingly sarcastic.


Los Angeles had a its share of coastline, but our HQ was nowhere near any of it. And while the city certainly had an aroma, one wouldn't mistake it for the ocean. She was implying that she'd like to get out of this impromptu meeting as soon as possible. Impatient to talk in private and handle the real reasons she'd come here.


Also hoping to get done early so she had an excuse to relax, trusting me to find that opportunity.


"I believed you had two major goals here?" I stated, allowing the left side of my mouth to pull up into a fraction of a smile, pointing toward Director Martinez. Instructing her to start with the one that he would find most interesting, so he would leave and we could get to the real discussion.


"Yes," she agreed, walking over to him. "Director Martinez, this is a field plan detailing the most efficient patrol routes, and some public event opportunities that could be used to improve visibility and overall presence. Don't worry, we have our own copy and plan for our own people. There are a few possible joint ventures with Pantheon's presence, if you're interested." Lisa already had to know those ideas will be rejected, the PRT and Protectorate were already wary of the amount of influence Pantheon had in their operations. As was the Secretary of Defense and, presumably, the President.


"Thank you, M- High Emissary Minerva," Martinez caught himself, and then sounded like using her title was the equivalent of swallowing snail slime. Minerva deliberately boosted her heart rate and breathing as the Director choked out the words. To me, it was the equivalent of loud laugh at the Director's expense. That would probably be caught by suitably skilled Thinkers watching this. It was meant to be. No one would find her behaving that way to be unusual in the slightest. "I promise I'll go over these suggestions at earliest possible opportunity."


"You're quite welcome," she responded. She brushed a stray hair away from her face, giving her an opportunity to wobble her hand slightly, giving me a signal that she was certain her plan would be mostly rejected, followed by dropping her arm to her side, a slight sweep of her hand in my direction. She was giving me permission to drop much of it, even knowing it was likely quite a good plan. An opportunity to distance ourselves to the many eyes that watched our interactions. "These additional folders are for the other regional Protectorate Directors, as well as one for the Governor's office."


I almost blinked in surprise at that one, and Lisa caught my reaction, as would almost every Thinker observing us right now. She was going over the PRT's head and doing it to their face. She wants to provoke a negative reaction. She knows Martinez will be obligated to inform everyone in those folders, she wants to make this more public. She's planning on something more significant in the future, and will likely need my support for it. Rejecting some of this will improve my credibility for that later goal. I watched as she moved her leg outward by two inches exactly, and a twist of her head just barely fast enough to make her hair shift. She wants me to say no to two... twenty percent of the ideas inside. A full fifth of the plan is a fraud.


"My apologies for making the conversation short, but I really must get to my main purpose here," Lisa continued. The implication that the Director wasn't important enough to spend a full minute talking to was obvious, but there were deeper implications still behind that. She clearly knew Martinez was little more than an easily manipulated puppet. "I trust the testing facility has been prepared for us?"


"Of course," Martinez agreed. "We were only instructed to anticipate four individuals, however."


"Five, actually," Lisa corrected. "Gemini is two people." She deliberately left that information off the details in order to annoy him, I realized. She knows I have contempt for him, is irritating him as a sort of gift to me. I would have smiled if we were in private, that was actually cute in a mean spirited sort of way. Instead I merely stretched my fingers out slightly, a ghost of a hint of a high five. She got the meaning immediately.


"What of the others?" Martinez asked after a moment, glancing at the other armored parahumans in the group.


"Citrine and her team are here to handle unrelated business," Lisa agreed. "Nothing too important, and won't even happen in LA proper. You needn't concern yourself."


Martinez frowned. "Are you certain you don't need assistance? I can assign a couple of my people to help."


It was a smart offer to make, not that it would do him any good. Even he understood the kind of impact Pantheon had in an area when they engaged in 'business'. It usually turned out to be good for the city, and bad for the local PRT. Even peripheral teams, such as the Ambassadors, Adepts, and Haven, could establish footholds strong enough to make the Protectorate presence seem almost redundant. In a way, they thrived on a sort of counter-cultural appeal. Join the Protectorate, go on patrols and look good for the cameras. Join Pantheon's meta-organization, and actually make a difference.


"No, that's quite alright," Lisa responded with a smile. "If anything, we're significantly over-equipped for such a small operation. I trust Citrine and her people to handle the entire situation on their own, with possible emergency assistance from Eki's organization. They'll be leaving presently."


"Yes, ma'am," the woman in the yellow armor agreed in a sharp, military manner. Even if I hadn't been briefed ahead of time, I would have recognized Accord's handiwork in her mannerisms. If Accord believed her worthy of this, then I was convinced as well. She took the order for what it was immediately, activating the flight tech in the armor and traveling southeast, toward Pantheon's base in the city. Her people followed wordlessly.


Their 'small operation' was going to hit one of the Elite's drug and weapons storehouses. The resources weren't that significant, although eliminating about a hundred million dollars worth of smuggled cocaine and designer Tinker drugs was nothing to sneeze at. The real goal was Synth, a Tinker specialized in all things chemistry. His claims to fame included Tinker quality tear gas, various explosives and incendiaries, and several strains of genetically modified bacteria that could produce drugs the way yeast produced alcohol, and some Tinker grade steroids.


"I understand," Martinez agreed unhappily. "I'll let you get to your tasks." He walked off in a hurry, obviously intent on warning the Chief Director of this unexpected move by Pantheon, whatever it might be. I accessed my suit's relay system, establishing a link through Avalon and to my custom built Costa-Brown changeling. I was more than capable of handling that conversation as well as this. Mostly.


I twitched my right shoulder when she turned toward me, a hint of a shrug that was an apology for not being able to give her my undivided attention.


She smirked, and allowed her eyes to narrow just slightly, and she gave a small shift of her hip as she walked. It bordered on the flirtatious, a claim that if she wanted my attention, she could easily get it. I let my eyes dilate, as a way to admit she was probably right. "Alright, I don't know for certain what the Chief Director told you about the current testing sequence."


"Not a significant amount," I stated. I stood a little taller, something that the usual cold readers would interpret as a defensive behavior, physical intimidation to cover for my not being informed thoroughly. Lisa would interpret it as a challenge to her claim. Her smile widened, as it often did when someone tried to threaten or intimidate her. "Simply a mention of your newly acquired Thinkers being able to make use of my power for an interaction." The statement wasn't completely untrue, although staged only for the PRT's benefit. I was also letting her know my colleagues in Cauldron already knew that we discussed this plan the other day, that I told them about it.


She recognized that implication as well. There was no point in us hiding our contact with one another from Cauldron. Contessa and Number Man could not be fooled nearly so easily. I was confident they hadn't realized the extent of my ability to communicate with Lisa. Contessa was confirmed to be blind to the Victoria/Chevalier and Labyrinth/Atropos interactions, although she was not blind to the aftermath. "And as we know, those are hard to predict until witnessed. It's better simply to test them."


No one other than Minerva would understand the weight of my words.


================


A/N- This is definitely a two parter. I'm chewing over whether to continue from Rebecca PoV or switch to Lisa... either has its merits.

Also... if I ever make a romance novel, it'll feature these two characters and be known as the sexiest story where nothing actually happens.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 344- Lisa


"Well, to make a long story slightly longer, meet Gemini," I gestured at the twins in their deliberately contrasted to match suits.


"Greetings," Alexandria acknowledged the pair with a polite nod. Knows more about the twins' background than I do. I was already aware of Cauldron's little experiment with the pair. Their hope to create a power that interacted with itself to get something unlimited. I looked at Alexandria, sending the message with a slight tilt of the head that the plan failed. Our own team, myself included, had given up on the idea of breaking the power side of the Taboo. Any Passenger that damaged should be nonfunctional to begin with.


"Hello, beautiful," the one on the left spoke up. His brother was the one who winked at her. Alexandria simply raised an eyebrow at them and looked suitably unimpressed by their antics, as one would expect. Alteration of stance, concern over Gemini's reliability considering their behavior.


"And that's Gemini," I responded apologetically as I started to walk to the testing area set out for us. My body language designed to assure her that they wouldn't be a problem, they just had the usual 'parahumans aren't all there in the head' quirk. Rebecca followed alongside me as I spoke. The twins took it in stride, as they always did when the girls shot them down. If the girls shot them down. I tried not to think about their success rate. "They have the power to copy a Thinker power that's in their line of sight and use it themselves. If they copy two different powers they can share a blended variant of both powers. There's a few minor limitations, like only having one power each at a time. Plus an additional Thinker/Trump rating simply for being able to identify other Thinkers on sight."


Rebecca hesitated slightly. "Interesting," she stated in a measured tone. "You wish to see if they gain permanent benefits from temporarily accessing my perfect memory and accelerated learning potential." Concern over security risks of power, concern that they'd already tapped into our powers and read our conversation that we were having earlier, somewhat abashed by the possible implications they could have picked out from our behavior. To me it was equivalent to watching her blush.


I shifted my body language, a light sway to the hips. A tease to let her know I was onto her, and thought it cute. Also had the effect of letting her quickly realize I wasn't concerned at all. Not just because I didn't care if anyone figured it out, but because I knew they wouldn't have the ability to do so.


They got inferior copies of the powers, especially when using blended powers. They were running me and Accord at the moment, we were one of those useful hybrid powers, giving them an incredible ability to intuit complex mathematics and social dynamics issues. We had them designing our future economic and political models. They didn't have the ability to read our conversation with that blend.


She relaxed as I conveyed the lack of risk, and simply accepted my teasing with her usual bemused aloofness.


"Essentially, yes," I confirmed her assumptions, spoken and otherwise. "We also have another Thinker whose power is to temporarily possess skills. Or, perhaps more accurately, techniques. He can perform complex tasks successfully, without actually knowing what he's doing. Like... rebuilding a car engine perfectly, without knowing why you need to set the spark plugs correctly. Or even what a spark plug is. It's already proven valuable coupled with our skill installation technology."


I shifted slightly, admitting that I was curious to what the Alexandria/Minerva hybrid might achieve. Rebecca hesitated again, this time less fear and more... envy? Jealousy? I tapped the active side of my power for a second. Sees our communication and interaction as personal, even intimate. Is experiencing natural jealous tendencies at the idea that it might not be as private as she had imagined. In addition to a level of paranoia about security risks.


I wasn't worried about the security. The twins were trustworthy as we could hope. After all, we pointed Dinah, myself, and Cauldron's Thinkers at all of the Mass Trigger experimental subjects. Every one was motivated by a sense of responsibility or moral calling, not personal ambitions. Part of why we'd selected that psych profile was the off chance that their personalities would carry into the Trigger Visions, maybe influence Glaistig Uaine on some emotional level. It also meant a hundred and fifty hero inclined capes got some of the most powerful vials remaining, alongside our formula booster.


The idea that she would be jealous, that caught me off guard. I hesitated enough that a non-Thinker probably would have noticed. "Umm, yes, I'm surprised you knew about Dragon's arrangements."


"I suspected something when you described his power," she caught the cue immediately. "The supervillains caught by you and remanded directly to Dragon's custody. I was not aware that they were in Avalon's care." Flustered, embarrassed by her reaction and the lack of control to hide it. Welcome to the club.


"They're not, strictly speaking," I responded. I shifted to communicate an apology for my insensitivity, and assurance that I'd be the only one who caught it. In retrospect, I should have known she'd be upset by the idea. "They are officially under Protectorate jurisdiction. Who assigned them to Dragon's custody as part of a work program with the other member of the duo. Avalon has no authority in their detainment, or for that matter anything to do with their legal status."


"And the reason you have him here today is because of the blanket status of highest non-emergency priority assigned to all likely power interactions," Alexandria concluded. "Which extends to Avalon's treaties with the United States and Canada." Deliberate mention of priority status of power interactions, acceptance of my apology. Further apologizing for her overreaction, acknowledging that if it does have a chance of being valuable, then it should be tried, no matter our personal feelings on the issue.


"Japan as well, now," I confirmed. "But we have a more immediate concern to focus on." I took a somewhat submissive posture, letting her know I was deferring to her feelings on this, and we wouldn't have them blend our powers. Now that she made me realize how uniquely us our interaction was, I didn't want to give it up, either. The idea was a simple idle curiosity, and Gemini's best tactical value right now was in taking Accord's power, which I reluctantly had to admit was better than mine for most situations, and making it more versatile.


We spent the next minute or so walking in silence. I nudged about two inches closer to Rebecca along the course of the walk, as close an act of overt comfort as we could allow ourselves under the circumstances. She followed suit, and I was glad that she forgave me for my earlier insensitivity so easily. Is this what Taylor and Amelia feel like from their link? No wonder Taylor would choose death over giving it up. Rebecca hesitated, she must have noticed my thoughts drifting that direction.


I exhaled slowly, assuring her I was calm and it was nothing to do with her. A simple gesture of my hand and positioning of fingers indicated that I was thinking about a friend. It wouldn't satisfy her completely, but she would accept that not all the secrets I knew were mine to tell. Then, if she thought I was the sort that would reveal my friends' secrets, she probably wouldn't trust me with so many of her own.


We reached the testing facility, which was just their recreational computer room, with a section blocked off with cheap dividers. Each of the machines in our section was running a different simulation or complex test on them, plus papers published by some of the most brilliant non-parahuman intellects that Bet had access to. Many of those papers actually came from Aleph, which was another portion of the experiment. How Uber's power worked was mostly unknown. There was a low, but nonzero, chance it was something like telepathy, accessing knowledge from other peoples' heads. If so, it might not work across dimensions.


"Sweet!" Uber exclaimed, heading over to one of the computers in the normal area. "I haven't been able to get online in months. Do I need a password or anything?"


Rebecca glanced at me, and I nodded. A communication that we intended to be read. "No, guest access doesn't require passwords. Keep in mind your every keystroke will be monitored while you're using our facilities."


"Also keep in mind you're still a prisoner," I added, though mainly for the show of it.


"How does this procedure work?" Alexandria asked, stepping away from that subject. "Anything I need to be aware of?"


"You'll feel a moment of disorientation," I informed her, putting a soothing edge into my voice. Not to reassure her so much as request she keep silent on just how disorienting it really is. There was no way Gemini could copy powers without the target noticing something happened. "And then the process is done as far as you're concerned. I recommend either finding some reading material, or observing the tests. Perhaps advise them on the particulars of your abilities. Despite them having your power, they won't have your experience using it."


"I understand," she agreed. Relaxed, feet spread slightly. Putting concentration into keeping her stability when the powers are duplicated. "I'm ready."


"Me, too," Uber responded from his seat.


Gemini's power has tells on their end as well, a subtle change in postures and attitudes as they lose or gain the stream of knowledge and the confidence that said information brings. My power and Accord's had a trait in common, in that our eyes constantly shifted toward new details, drawing clues from our environment for use by our intellect. That and Thinker headaches. I had to envy the twins and Rebecca for the fact that their powers didn't come with such side effects.


Their personalities were far more timid without access to dual Thinker abilities to give them answers to every situation. Would that be what I'd be like, without my powers giving me an artificial advantage over normal people? Rebecca shifted her posture slightly. Higher incline of jaw, focus of eyes upward for a moment, telling me to be proud. Negating the idea that I should feel self conscious about having such a power. I mirrored her, letting her know I took the advice to heart.


A moment later, she almost faltered, as her Thinker power actually was stripped from her for a period of around two seconds. It was the offensive aspect of Gemini's ability. The pair of them could drain, drop, and then drain from a person constantly, leaving them in a perpetual state of confusion and functional sensory deprivation. Zach called it stun-locking, which I assumed was a video game term. In a way, it made them very powerful, able to shut down some truly top tier parahumans like Victoria or Lily if they needed to.


Rebecca recovered quickly, for her first experience, then she glanced at me. "That's all?" She asked, deliberately underselling the significance of their power. Her glance had a second meaning as well, one of caution.


"That's all," I nodded in agreement. "You won't experience a thing when they switch to something else." She was right, now that they had her power we couldn't risk communicating so openly, not until we learned just how the twins harnessed her power and its interaction with Uber's. It wasn't a matter of secrecy, simply one of privacy.


Our bond was ours alone, and we didn't want others looking in on it.


======================


A/N- D'aww. D'aww on a freakin' stick. Also, this chapter is now a three parter. I may break it up with a peak at someone else's day. Hmm. Beth hasn't had a chapter in a while. Nor has Sveta. I can probably do their raid on the Elite's compound... yeah, that'll be fun...

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 345- Beth


It feels so weird, not taking pills with meals. To the point where I'd bought a thing of multivitamins just so I could follow my routine. Having a newfound expertise in general medicine may have influenced my decision at least a little. I glanced over at Sabah, who was still working on finishing her late lunch, then went back to scrolling through my emails. These days, the pair of us practically lived in her workshop, or out doing whatever public spectacle was needed.


"So, looks like one of the local schools has a job for me. One of those combination fundraisers for local after school programs, and PR things Crystal loves so much," I informed her idly. "Pay's kinda crap, but it looks fun and they're not asking for any of the intelligent summons." I forwarded it over to Crystal's email, letting her know I was interested. I also deleted four less savory while contemplating if I could get away with quitting the team, burning down a porn company, and then signing back up as a reformed villain. Edgy is in these days, right?


"I think I got that one, too," Sabah responded. "They probably mailed all of us."


"Have to admire their persistence, I guess," I smiled. Our phones buzzed simultaneously. I pulled mine out. Secret mission w/ambs, prep 5 mins.


"The fuck?" Sabah cursed.


"Maybe it's an emergency," I suggested, already getting up. My costume was one of the generic designs, focused mainly on movement and stealth options. Made it easy for me to get into. And GL almost never didn't use his. Sabah and Dubs were the last to get into costume.


"Minerva, what's the emergency?" Sabah demanded the moment she got her suit online.


"Nothing," Minerva answered casually. "Just throwing you guys a curveball. Citrine's going to be there in a couple minutes with a mission outside of town, you'll know her by the yellow costume. Your job is to follow her instructions during the mission. Don't worry, she has all the details."


All the details? "You mean you could have warned us, but didn't," Sabah accused, sounding about as happy as I felt.


"Pretty much," Minerva answered. "Don't worry, you'll be perfectly fine. Just remember to stay alert and try not to embarrass yourselves." Her com clicked off immediately, as Sabah tried to object again.


"I think I speak for all of us when I say 'what a bitch'," GL said after a couple seconds. There were no objections.


Citrine was, indeed, wearing a yellow costume. Alongside a woman in a dark blue green outfit, and men in a black, purple, and green costumes. All were clearly our biosuits, given some cosmetic alterations for theme purposes. I was sure they meant something to whomever customized them, but all I could think of was how ugly the color schemes were together.


"What's this about?" Genius Loci asked them before anyone else had a chance to speak up. Sabah may have had seniority, but GL was our functional second in command. "Minerva didn't tell us a thing about a mission today."


"Accord's going to find that annoying," the woman stated unhappily. "We're engaged in a raid against one of the Elite's illegal holdings."


"That's practically a declaration of war against one of the most powerful parahuman organizations on the West Coast," GL stated.


"My job's only a matter of carrying out my orders," Citrine shrugged. "Not speculating on long term consequences. Our respective employers believe it's worth the effort, and they believe we have the necessary skills to carry out the task. Or would you prefer we carry out the mission without you?"


"They're stirring up the hornet's nest on purpose," I added. I thought back at all the shit the Elite had put people in this area through. They were the main source of organized crime in the region, and we couldn't even prove it beyond nuisance crimes. "What's the target?"


"A drug lab hidden in the mountains outside of the city," Citrine answered. "Our goal is to capture the Tinker that operates it."


"I'm in," I agreed immediately. It felt amazing to not be terrified of every possible consequence for once in my life. "If it gets more drugs off the street, well, we can always ask for reinforcements later if we need them. Who knows, maybe we can talk Victoria into moving back?"


There was a quiet moment, then GL spoke up. "Point made. Fill us in during the trip. You guys have do have shunt drives, right?"


....


The labs in question were remarkably easy to find, mainly because we couldn't see them through our dimensional viewing tech. An empty black void in the VR simulation our equipment used to show us what was happening on Bet.


"They must have some kind of Tinker tech that keeps our equipment from working," GL stated. "How'd they pull that off? How'd they even know to try?"


"No way for us to be certain," Citrine answered. "I still intend to carry out the mission."


"We're pretty blatant about using our shunt tech," I suggested. "Ever since it was first shown off in New Delhi. Maybe it's just meant to keep people from teleporting into their base, and they didn't realize we could use it to see across as well?"


"Or they made an educated guess from other Endbringer battles," Citrine responded. "It doesn't take much to recognize that Khepri is fully capable of using her powers from her side of the dimensional barrier. A method to block her powers is likely high priority for a number of organizations. We also can't be certain our armor will protect us from whatever chemicals that Synth may have prepared to stop intruders. Tinkers have a habit of keeping a few nasty surprises secret in order to protect their bases. Anima's power is ideal for the initial attack."


"I'll need to shunt across before I start summoning," I stated. I also wasn't too happy with that idea in the first place. My summons dying made things very unpleasant for me. I didn't feel their pain, or anything so straightforward, but trying to replenish the power lost when a summon died instead of being reabsorbed was slow and painful. I didn't say anything, however. It was far better than my friends dying.


"I can take guard duty," Sabah added, stepping next to me. That was our usual method, either Sabah or GL would protect me while I did my thing. "My power and armor don't work well in tight spaces, it's best to let me operate outdoors.


"Indoors is my specialty," GL spoke up. "I'll go in and establish control of the base."


"Genius Loci, you should hold back," Citrine instructed. "We have no means of knowing what tech is inside the base, and they've had months to observe you. They might have a way to block your powers, and since you have no corporeal body that might prove fatal."


"This not having a body thing sucks," he sighed.


"Othello, we'll want to test if your power can cross through whatever dimensional barricade they have," Citrine continued. "You're under similar warnings to GL, we don't know if their dimensional tech will work on your projection or not, or what happens if that gets destroyed. Don't use your secondary power, in any case."


"Yes, ma'am," he agreed.


"Ligeia, Dubstep," she continued. "The pair of you are our demolitions team for this conflict. Should it prove impossible to capture the base safely, the pair of you are responsible for destroying it. It's not the optimal solution, especially as we want to capture the Tinker alive."


They nodded. Dubs was too shy to say anything. Unfortunately, his personality was influenced by his power, and that meant his issues couldn't be fixed like mine. As much as I hated my power, at least it didn't take away my ability to have a normal life like Dubs and GL had to suffer.


"Meanwhile, I'll attempt to identify and shut down whatever effect they're using to block dimensional viewing," Citrine continued. "Jacklight, I want you to wait on Avalon and observe. Should I succeed, your goal is to damage their base with power surges and other minor sabotage. Keep track of Synth, everything else is a secondary concern to his capture."


He nodded, not objecting in the slightest. Judging by how easily they made that plan, I had to imagine they'd used the tactic before. I wasn't sure what his power did, but it worked across dimensions. Or his suit had tinker tech that allowed it to do so.


We shunted over after taking our place on the other side of a nearby ridge, outside the blackout range. We peeked at the building, which was incredibly well camouflaged into the surrounding terrain. If not for us knowing exactly where to find it, and the Tinker scanning tech built into our costumes, we may never have noticed it at all.


I focused and drew on the full extent of my power at once. What I needed was numbers and maneuverability, and that meant the pixie summons. I did a count once, and my maximum numbers totaled over twenty thousand of the things, if that's all I wanted to summon. Each member about seven inches tall, they immediately took to dancing in a beautiful swirling cloud of light and laughter, spreading out and and swirling around all of us, trying to draw us into their dance.


"Attention, my subjects," I died a little inside, but the swarms of pixies calmed and gave me their undivided attention. "In that building are criminals peddling drugs." In a way, I could almost consider myself fortunate that the summons even understood the concept of narcotics. In another, it was a problem in its own right, as wherever my power got the idea of drugs from, my summons viewed them in an extremely negative light. Probably thanks to what few fantasy stories that mentioned them always portraying them in the worst possible way.


"You are to attack and subdue them," I continued my orders. "Remember, subdue them. I do not want them killed. We... we must interrogate them and learn where they acquired their foul wares." I am living proof it's impossible to die of humiliation. "Now go forth and carry out my bidding."


The tiny battle cries echoed across the glowing crowd like I'd given them a rousing pre-battle speech. And then they raced down the hill toward the base, looking more like a glowing rainbow colored fog cloud than an army.


Sabah took that moment to fire her weapon into the wall of the facility. It shattered a moment later, as she used her telekinetic control to rip the supports out of the ground. We rarely displayed Sabah's full power for a reason. Preferring to imply she was weaker, without this level of destructive ability. And stronger, able to hurt people instead of merely nonliving objects.


My power, on the other hand? Very much able to hurt living things. A few men I was assuming were guards rushed out of the building, in time to be swarmed by my army. I grimaced as the staccato of automatic weapons fire was quickly replaced by flashes of light and screams. Ordering them not to kill was a necessity. Each individual pixie wasn't that powerful, their attacks no more dangerous than being jabbed by a thumbtack or burned by a match for a second or two. But they fought in swarms, and could strip a man's flesh from his bones if I let them.


There is also a reason we rarely displayed my full power.


=================


A/N- Death by pixies. It might even be more horrible than death by bug swarm. Really depends on your opinion of being burned alive. Slowly.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 346- Lisa


Improved reaction speed, interpreting of data. Harnessing Uber's power to instinctively know how to achieve a goal. Filling in gaps of knowledge. I watched as the twins sat at a couple terminals, correcting papers written by experts in the fields of medical radiology and submarine design. Two subjects chosen specifically because neither of them had any knowledge of those subjects. Advancing technology and knowledge that, theoretically, no one on Aleph or Bet should know. Uber's power does not rely upon a human knowledge pool, or if it does it extends to dimensions outside our access.


"I trust you'll send those papers by your people?" Alexandria asked. She didn't feel the need to mention the PRT had several experts of their own waiting to see the results of this experiment. Subtler hints in behavior than usual, afraid to let Gemini catch on to our method of communication, misses our ability to communicate and is taking a risk by using it anyway. Addictive properties brought on by Passenger impulse. Identical side effects to Taylia.


Fuck! Already aware of my reaction, curious and concerned about my sudden emotional change. I took the effort to shift subtly and look out at the twins. She'd get the idea that this is not something I can explain under current circumstances.


"Dragon's probably built a time altering device so she could read them yesterday," I quipped back.


Displeased with circumstances, recognizes necessity. She took the implied subject change for what it was. "In the unlikely event that you're exaggerating Dragon's skills, I'll see to it you're provided a copy of the same records we have." Referencing Dragon's Key, agreeing to hand it over. I wasn't a fool, I didn't believe for a second that Cauldron would hand it over without making a viable copy of it. The mere fact that we had a copy of our own hopefully meant we'd find a way to circumvent the intentional design flaws permanently. No, they're giving us the original, know we'd discover if we were given a fake or duplicate. Aware of my postcognitive ability? Unknowable.


I looked over at the twins. They'd moved on to one of the 'curveball' sections. One in botany studying several species of plants found in Norway's Earth, whose ancestors apparently went extinct on Bet a couple million or so years ago, and a series of made up, but highly plausible, plants invented for fantasy and science fiction stories. Dragon picked them out for the experiment. The other was working on a series of evolutionary theory models. We wanted to see how their powers handled information they could not possibly possess, untested or untestable ideas, and a bunch of stuff that was just plain made up and/or fictional.


Even through the fog of information I was getting off Gemini, and the sheer weight of implications of the Key, I couldn't help but think of Taylor. The real Taylor. My best friend, who told me to fuck off and then killed herself in an absurdly visible way just to prove a point. It hurt a little, every time I saw her replacement, the girl my power said was only a few months old, running around with her personality, memories, powers and even life. Whose death I indirectly contributed to.


She would be dead now, anyway, I tried to assuage my guilt. Tohu and Bohu would have killed her just as certainly as they killed her replacement. She died on her own terms stopping the Butcher forever. Not a lot of people get to choose how they die. As much of a control freak as Taylor was, she was no doubt happy to be one of those few. On a good day, I even managed to believe that.


Rebecca tensed. Concerned, worried for my wellbeing, wants to comfort me. I looked at the twins and pushed my grin back up to its usual state, letting her know that her thoughts were appreciated. I waited silently for Gemini complete their current project, then spoke up.


"How's it going?" I asked them.


"Not bad at all," the one I'd come to think of as the elder brother with the white background on his right side spoke. He tended to be the leader of the pair, but they'd change that on a whim, to the point where I suspected they changed costumes in the middle of the day just so both got practice playing the role of leader. "Although that last project kinda sucked."


"That's because it was meant to," his twin asserted. He spent the time his brother was talking to cold read us. The pair came with their own inherent sense of planning with their sibling, so they were constantly running support for each others' plots and performances. "A test on the limits of our abilities by throwing something at us that should be beyond our current powers to understand."


"From your reactions, I assume it was?" Alexandria asked.


"You'd better believe it, babe," Elder laughed. "By the way, your power is my favorite. I hope we get to see more of it in the future." He winked at Alexandria, who simply ignored the behavior.


"You say that to literally everyone whose powers you borrow," I sighed.


"Aww," Younger whined. "Why do you have to ruin our fun like that?"


"Nah, see, ruining your fun would be letting Accord know you say that to everyone," I retorted. On some level, the man no doubt already knew it was nothing but meaningless flattery, but it stroked his ego. "I need to let my power take a break, so we're moving to phase two of the tests."


"Can't we keep just one?" Younger begged. I just stood there and looked at them, thinking about how odd it was that I was playing strict mother to a pair of guys that were older than me by about four years. Younger finally relented. "Fiiine."


Again, the change in their body language was abrupt and significant, taking their confidence and replacing it with a timid demeanor. The pair went back to the first set of computers they'd worked on. Now it was time to see how much they still understood from their time spent using Alexandria's power. It also meant I could communicate properly with her for a time.


She regarded me in silence as I conveyed my concern about what I was about to tell her, and extracted a promise from her that this didn't go past just us. It took less than fifteen minutes for Gemini to go through their first three terminals each when they had their copied powers. In the hour it took them to review their first terminals without any powers, I slowly conveyed the story of Taylia to Rebecca. What it really was, and all the risk that it carried for girls bound to it. Secrets that I'd kept to myself since that fateful day in early July.


I didn't trust myself to explain Taylor's death. I didn't believe I could do that and keep my composure enough to hide our conversation from the many spies pointed at us. I did manage to explain the addictive traits inherent in the process, and that Rebecca and I showed similar side effects.


She glanced to her side and removed her phone, checking messages, though I was certain she'd already checked them via her changeling, or the tech in the armor she used.


Hesitant about situation, unsure how to approach the idea that our powers are a mind altering drug, considering the possibility of us avoiding each other to mitigate the possible influences of our powers. Immediate negative response to that idea, enjoys the connection, doesn't want to be alone. Choosing a method to rationalize the emotional decision she's already made.


She shifted slightly, conveying a concept of resignation. Not acceptance or happiness, simple resignation to the reality of the issue. Her left hand moved open slightly, and she tilted her hands inward toward her hip, and gestured toward the twins with her thumb. It took me a moment to piece together the message even with my power. Dislikes the nature of powers influencing her behavior, but admits that's already the case, always has been the case. All Passengers influenced the minds of their hosts, she wasn't going to pretend we were an exception to that.


She expanded her hand again. Saying that it was more than that, even. Conveying idea of broader behavior. Human beings as creatures controlled by chemistry. Thinkers, especially, as creatures influenced by their powers. She closed her hand gently. We are already caught by our powers, we might as well accept that and at least enjoy the parts that are good for us, because we're going to suffer the bad parts no matter what we do.


I was both relieved and disappointed. Taylor said some things very similar to that, in defense of Taylia. I conveyed that sentiment to Alexandria by my hand over the armor plating of my other arm. In the early days, our armor was alive, with a chitin-like shell for protection. A sign of how things have changed.


She stood confident, and managed to make an approving gesture with her hand. Feels Taylor is right about that decision.


I almost flinched. Pulling them apart had caused so much pain, because they'd been connected so long. Rebecca and I were far less tied together, both because of less total exposure, and because our powers didn't link as fluidly as Taylia. We still had a chance to break free of the cycle before it was too late.


She tilted her head and traced her finger in a way reminiscent of cutting with a knife. Gesture suggesting self harm, wondering if our bond could be compared to Taylia in terms of the other risks. If she believes there's a physical risk, she's willing to break away. If not, she's prefer to see where this path leads.


"Okay, guys, it's time for you to pick up your powers and go back to the first stage tests again," I spoke to the twins. I relaxed slightly, conveying a lack of concern. The other side effects aside, our powers carried nowhere near the same dangers that Taylia did.


Rebecca was both relieved and concerned. Mind made up, she doesn't want to stop using our connection. Knows that I don't, either. Afraid I'll do it anyway, due to prior experiences. If we were alone, I would have hugged her right then. You win again, Taylor.


Underneath all of that, she asked the question I had been dreading the whole time.


Will we be forced to stop them?


===============


A/N- Yeah, I may have skipped an update. I was too busy binging on Dragon Unbound. It was really good. Definitely in my top 5 slot for Worm fics. Not quite Weaver Nine or Wake/Cenotaph territory. But still freakin' awesome.

 

[Mr. Tebbs]

Omake? Xmas in July party

Lisa: Hey Missy, can you tangle the room, y' know, like your armor does?

Missy: Uhh, sure, gimme a second... aaaand, done.

Becky: Lisa? What's this about?

Amelia: Seriously!

Lisa: I need to have some real talk with Taylor. As much as I really don't want to talk about this... I can't keep this bottled in...and frankly this concerns all of us, and as much as I appreciate Cauldron's help with some of our joint ventures, I don't trust them as far as I can throw them, and considering that I'm the least augmented one here, that should be saying something.

Taylor: Okayyyyy....

Lisa: Taylor.. I fucked up hard.. I fucked up as hard as a friend can... In fact, I fucked up so hard you didn't want to be my friend. I- *hic*... God... You killed yourself Taylor. You... You committed suicide.

Taylor: God, Lisa-

Lisa: It was my fault. I... I convinced you, er... Amelia to break the Taylia bond, and....*sniff* God.. I can't... *sniff* damnit Amelia, you're environmental controls make the damned room too humid...

Lisa struggled to get herself under control while her audience was enraptured with her story

Lisa: ...okay, I think I have my sinuses under control.... Taylor, I noticed your empathic bond with Amelia made you behave like an addict. I thought I was helping when I tried to get you two to break it... but god was I too late. You'd each redefined your identities based on the link. and when it broke you told me to fuck off, wanted me to die and refused to talk to me.

Taylor: Jesus.

Lisa: you also refused to touch Amelia. I'm convinced you wanted to die. you'd made your backup right before you had Emma make a sexuality change for you, but hell, that was just a catalyst. And after- *sniff* -after Taylia was broken you sought your death. You wanted it so I'd ne- never try to..*sniff* try to break it again.

Taylor: God, Lisa

Lisa: SHUT UP! Let me finish. You wanted to kill yourself.. and told me that we were not friends, and never would be. And then you killed the butcher...and then activated the absolute zero grenade and killed yourself.

Taylor: Fuck.. Lisa I'm so so sor-

Lisa: SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP! *hic* She doesn't want to be my friend! She can't be my friend and YOU *hic* have nothing to apologize for! You're innocent! She made that abundantly clear. She made sure I knew. She...She said. she said that-

Taylor grabs Lisa in a fierce hug

Taylor: Fuck her. Fuck her hard. I'm glad she's dead, and I hope she burns in hell. I'm sorry for what she did to you

Lisa: I second triggered.

Lisa sobbed into Taylor's shoulder at that revelation

Lisa: I second triggered Taylor... *sob* it's like what happened with Grue, Only instead of Bonesaw it was you

Lisa wailed into Taylor's shoulder for a minute before Taylor broke Lisa's sobs.

Taylor: I love you Lisa. You're family to me....

Lisa, still clinging to Taylor: I... Family's always let me down... God Taylor, you hurt me so badly.... I want to, but... it hurt.. it hurts so, so bad.... I can't. I can't. I want to, but.. god help me, I can't. Every time I see you, I see her. I know it's not fair but it Hurts.

Taylor hugged Lisa tighter: Fuck you Old Me. Fuck you in your pretentious ass. Fuck you for hurting my friends. Fuck you for making them not trust me. Fuck You hard! FUCK you hard, AND I HOPE YOU BURN IN HELL!

Lisa: *Sniff* Thanks... It- It'll take me a bit to see you like we were, but I think I'll be okay seeing you... anyways, there was a point to all this. *beat* Fucked if I can remember what it- Oh right it's got to do with me and Becky.

Amelia after a second to collect her thoughts: Oh?

Lisa: Indeed.

Becky: Are you sure..

Lisa: Absolutely not, which is why I want to get an outside opinion.

Amelia: About-
Becky: Which is why you want to ask those who already have a link whether they like it?

Lisa: Ish, but I know I'm biased about this.... Alexandria and I are developing our own version of Taylia, and I have absolutely no idea whether we should continue down this path, given that I also know our passengers want us to continue down it. Missy, what do you think?

Missy: Uhh... why are you asking me?

Taylor: I mean,it's made me like I was prebully-ing so-

Lisa: I don't want to be Sarah. I don't want to be who I was. I don't want to notice things and let them fall by the wayside. I don't-

Taylor:I doubt you will... If you're worried you will.. Then don't.... If Taylia frees us from our passengers' influence, then Amelia and I are free to be who we want to be... If you and Alexandria follow a similar path, you'll be free to be who you want to be too. Which means if you don't want to be who you were, then apply what you learned to make yourself better. I think it's just a coincidence that I want to be who I was in middle school.

Lisa: maybe...

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 347- Rebecca


A Gaea/Khepri power interaction that resembled Lisa and myself, only significantly more potent and personality altering? That explained so much, like why Contessa's paths rarely stayed true longer than two weeks these days. We had been under the assumption that every new dimensional gateway translated to an alteration of her plans, due to the significant changes a colony world made for the inhabitants of a given nation, and the ripple effect they had on the world's political and economic landscape. In addition to new Endbringer attacks on a near monthly basis and the chaos born of that.


It had made handing over Ascalon harder to justify.


It also made our backup plans to assassinate Avalon's leadership, should that ever be needed, much less reliable. And knowing what I now knew, we needed that option all the more desperately.


I glanced back over at Lisa as she observed Gemini. We'd stressed her powers in this conversation, and she needed to keep what was left of it to continue the testing and the many other tasks that she handled for her team.


I didn't know how to comfort her, anyway. She'd accidentally confirmed that her secondary postcognitive power did not consider clones to be the original person, and the sense of loss that came with that knowledge. If it weren't for the threat that was Scion, there was every possibility she'd have left Pantheon by now.


I briefly considered offering her a place with Cauldron. It would give us more time together, her power made for an excellent balance for Contessa's, and maybe she'd even be happier with us. But I didn't want to cheapen our relationship by using it for something like that. And she already knew I was not happy with Cauldron.


When did everything become so complicated?


As I didn't have answers, I watched her and considered options. Part of my training did include psych profiling, even grief counseling, if for entirely selfish reasons. There was nothing more I could do than simply offer my support and understanding. It would have to be enough.


I shifted, moving a little closer to her, turning slightly to face her a little more. It was the most I could offer right now. Meanwhile, through my armor I started the conversation with Director Martinez that I had begged off on the premise that I was busy, and his unwillingness to claim it was an emergency.


The fact of the matter was, Pantheon making a move in a given region that involved calling in outside help like this was absolutely an emergency situation. The organization as a whole was powerful enough to constitute a Class S threat even without invoking the Endslayers or the Empresses. A priority only slightly lower than that of the Yangban, and in fact somewhat above that of the Elite or Gesellschaft.


Through my changeling, I activated the communications. "Good afternoon, Director Martinez," I spoke with a practiced, pleasantly neutral tone. I had accustomed myself to the idea that the changeling better able to fake emotion than I was.


"Chief Director Costa-Brown," he acknowledged. "I've recieved information that Pantheon is engaged in a specific mission in the LA region."


"Interesting," I replied. "I do believe you were scheduled to host a relatively short notice power interaction test involving Alexandria and one of their recruits."


"Correct," he agreed. "As per protocol, they're being carefully monitored and we're collecting all possible details of the powers. However, Pantheon appears to have a number of ulterior motives. Of less immediate concern, Minerva delivered a number of plans she claims will help rebuild the area from the damage caused by Leviathan. And she brought several parahumans belonging to the criminal organization known as the Ambassadors to carry out a separate task. Attempts to learn her plan have thus far failed. And I could not assign Alexandria to follow them, as she is needed for the power testing."


"Which Minerva no doubt planned," I confirmed. I had to admit his suspicion was merited on its face value. Alexandria was the only Protectorate hero in LA with access to a shunt drive, which meant they could easily evade any other pursuers. "As she planned your paranoia."


"Ma'am?" Martinez asked, sounding confused and surprised. I died a little inside. I didn't hire him for his intelligence. Indeed, quite the opposite. But there were limits to how dumb a single person should be, and he exceeded them.


"If she actually wanted to keep their mission a secret, she wouldn't have let you know there was a secret mission in the first place," I spelled the obvious out to him. "Whether they're carrying out an operation or not remains to be seen. I wouldn't put it past Minerva to pretend they had a mission even if they didn't, simply to keep us on our toes." I paused for a half second, then had to try not to laugh. "Or, if they do have another goal, for it to be carried out in secret while you worry about the openly stated ulterior motives."


No wonder Lisa messes with people so much, I thought as I watched Martinez pale slightly, trying to decide the right thing to say next. There are no words for how fun this is.


Next to me, Lisa faked a sneeze. "Sorry, someone must be talking about me."


"Or all that environmentally controlled Avalon air has made you soft," I suggested. Maybe a little familiar, but not everything we did in public needed to be pure business. More importantly, I was surprised at how clearly she read me considering I wasn't deliberately conveying anything to her.


Martinez had started speaking while I was talking to Lisa. "That is certainly a possibility," he agreed, not admitting he never would have thought of it on his own. "I still must report any information regarding Pantheon directly to you." His body language told me the story of how relieved he was that he didn't invoke the emergency protocols and pull me away from my supposed work. Once again, he felt rewarded for his caution, and would continue his usual trend of behavior. Sometime soon I might need to fabricate a scenario where Alexandria pushes for aggressive action and the Chief Director praises him for his quick thinking.


And as I manipulate this man, so too does my Agent manipulate me, I thought, glancing again at Lisa. Agents influence their hosts in a number of ways, rewarding them for actions that suit their nebulous and barely defined goals. Pantheon's theory of it being a sort of breeding mechanism, not unlike a mating dance or use of insects for pollination, was better than anything Cauldron had pieced together as a motive. My own Agent found whatever Lisa and I were doing to be highly desirable. Maybe even for the obvious reasons.


"Of course," I agreed with Martinez, barely giving him more than a tenth of my overall mental attention. "How Minerva behaves toward the various Directors is always important to document for future Thinker study." Analysis that won't work because of our regular use of our interaction, same reason that Gaea and Khepri were functionally immune to our Thinkers, even Contessa. "Our immediate assumption has to be that this is part of a larger game on her part. Remain observant, but don't change your routine until given a reason to do so."


"Yes ma'am, I understand," he agreed. It didn't take the changeling's boosted senses to tell me he was lying, if perhaps only to himself. "We should also coordinate a conference of local Directors and the Governor to review the recovery plans. As well as assigning some of our Thinkers to review the information. There may be a clue to her behavior therein." He was referring, at least in part, to the amount of profit they made in owning much of Brockton Bay before its annihilation. Pantheon did have a habit of benefiting greatly from their good deeds, one way or another. Martinez clearly wanted to find a way to strike back at Pantheon in whatever small way he could.


"Make the arrangements," I instructed him. "And keep me appraised of any unusual activity in Pantheon's LA chapter."


"Yes, ma'am," he agreed, turning off his phone.


Lisa knew things would go this way, or something similar to. She planned it exactly right. Martinez was now suspicious, he'd contact others and tell them to be suspicious, whether consciously or not, which would draw more attention to this recovery plan than it otherwise deserved. In addition to downplaying the significance of their mission against the Elite, it would draw attention to Alexandria's advice and the parts where it actually hurt Pantheon's supposed goals of gaining more power in the region.


I regarded the clever, difficult girl standing silently next to me. If my Agent wants me to be closer to Lisa, which it clearly does, should I trust any of my feelings toward her at all? It was not a comforting question to ask.


I prided myself on my analytical thinking, even before I got my powers. It was hard to really tell where a parahuman ended, and their Agent began, but I could at least try to answer one question. What would I think about someone like Lisa, who I wasn't able to communicate with in such a unique fashion?


I could certainly see myself respecting her intelligence, and her loyalty to those few she was willing to consider a friend. And especially her ability to cut through the lies which others built up. Respect wasn't quite the answer to my question, however.


To Rebecca, to who I was before my powers, she would have been a welcomed breath of fresh air. So much better than doctors who lied to my face as they poisoned my body, and family that forced a teenage girl to be an adult so that they didn't have to. I would have loved to have a friend like her. A shoulder to cry on. Maybe an older sister to turn to for help and honest answers that no one else would give.


To Alexandria, she was a clever and talented ally fighting stoically to find a solution to a threat so daunting that any sane human being would simply give up and accept death was an inevitability. We, better than almost any others, comprehended just how impossible it was to fight something like Scion, yet here we were trying anyway. That meant a great deal to me on a number of levels.


That only left one persona. Chief Director Costa-Brown. I had to admit my civilian self was boring in her single mindedness. As much as not needing sleep and having approximately twenty seven times the mental processing speed of a normal person afforded me an amazing ability to juggle my multiple lives, it also meant I set myself up to need to use that ability constantly. Costa-Brown existed only for her job. She didn't have many friends, merely work acquaintances and political alliances. I couldn't see her, a woman in her forties, being friends with a teenage pain in the ass like Lisa.


I did understand that Lisa had her faults... brash and argumentative, confrontational and frustrating, manipulative and emotional. No, I couldn't imagine Costa-Brown would be friends with her. However... if things had been different, if circumstances hadn't made it impossible for me to even try... I would have been very proud, to have a someone like her as a daughter.


I allowed myself a smile at my personal affirmation that, whatever our Agents may be trying, our friendship was genuine, not a matter of alien manipulation.


And then the alarms sounded. What? Now?! The automated data alert started coming into my costume, sent automatically from Dragon's instruments to our equipment. I read all of it as it came up on my HMD. Power surge, unknown source, high powered dimensional distortion. The map placed it not far outside of Los Angeles. The epicenter had the equivalent of a 7.8 on the Richter scale, though it was clearly impact damage, not a faultline shift. Flagged as clear Class A, likely Class S. Guild alerted, Pantheon alerted.


"It's not an Endbringer," Lisa stated.


================


A/N- Aww. And DRAMA!!!

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 348- Sabah


I cringed as we we stood there watching Beth's pixie army. The tiny creatures were ruthless, needlessly brutal nightmares, as if they felt the need to compensate for their small size in sheer viciousness. Spears the size of sewing needles stabbed into the eyes of the gunmen. Bursts of energy used to set hair or clothes on fire. The pixies stopped long enough to cut their fingers off. Those speaking over their radios received even worse treatment, as the creatures used their imitations of magic to force open their mouths and attack their tongues until they couldn't be used.


Our Tinker tech vision and hearing enhancers left very little to the imagination. We could watch and hear the battle as if we were standing in the middle of it. Screams of terror, complete with a sequence of subtitles for those screaming in Spanish. We were spared too much of the visual, as the broken bodies of the guards were left behind in favor of those still offering resistance inside. This morning, if I was told I would feel this much pity for drug dealers, I wouldn't have believed it.


"I... I can't really control my powers any better than that," Beth stated to us. Her voice was one of quiet horror. Her words an apology, a plea for us to forgive her for the cruelty going on in front of us, fear that we would hate her. I placed a hand on her shoulder, to try and comfort her what little I could as she stared forward at the pain her power was inflicting. "It's all I can do to ensure they won't kill anyone."


"Lizardtail, you will be able to heal them, correct?" Citrine asked, glancing at her other companion.


"Shouldn't be a problem," he responded. "They're still alive, even if some are probably deep in shock right now."


"Worst case scenario, we can contact Gaea for help," I offered.


"May I ask why they're so," Citrine paused to find a word.


"Horrific beyond all reason?" Beth offered quietly after a minute. Even through the pair of suits, I could tell she was shaking as she refused to take her eyes off the battlefield, watching every atrocity the pixies were inflicting to those people who had committed the most grievous crime their little minds could comprehend. That of being an enemy of their goddess.


"Honestly, I've seen worse," Citrine responded casually. "I was curious about how oddly thorough they are in their methods. They clearly have a logic to their attacks, but I'm afraid I don't quite understand what it is."


"Mind if I?" I asked Beth. She nodded after a moment. "Her summons are mostly autonomous, but not really intelligent. Sort of like small AIs. They view everything through a fairy tale filter. The guns are seen as 'sorcerous weapons', and the radios they understand as some kind of summoning stone. That's why they attack that way, to stop the enemy from using their magic to fight back."


"Why don't they attack the equipment?" The one in the blue-green costume asked.


"Because my stupid power thinks magic items are more valuable than human lives," Beth answered, her voice bitter and pained. "That's how fantasy stories work. Entire armies can be destroyed without remorse or pity, as if one stupid trinket makes all those deaths worth the cost. It doesn't even matter what the magic item does, the magical equivalent of a personal cloaking device is worth more than thousands of nameless peasants. I can't believe I ever thought those stories were good."


A series of small explosions echoed the inside of the building.


"They're using Tinker tech grenades," Citrine stated, sounding more confused than anything. "Synth must have perfected a safe bomb of some sort. Either that, or they're getting really desperate in there. Will those be effective against your summons?"


"Yes," Beth answered through gritted teeth. "I've lost about ten percent of them already. My power... isn't very intelligent. They won't adapt in time to save themselves. Maybe ten more minutes until it's up to the rest of you to finish the job."


I squeezed her shoulder with my hand, hard enough that she'd feel it through her armor. Which meant enough force that it would have broken her shoulder if she was unarmored. Beth trembled again, as more of her pixies died in the onslaught. Right now, she'd be breathing a combination of Tinker designed chemicals to allow her to keep stable and ignore the pain her power caused. She'll be bedridden for the rest of the week, maybe longer, when this is over.


There was a time when I hated how weak my power seemed to be, how silly it was to send stuffed animals into battle. A weak power that meant I could never be taken seriously as a hero. I'd learned how stupid that was, how much worse it could be. There were ugly, painful powers out there. Some were hard to control, like Dubstep. Some came with a price that hurt their owners, like Elle. And some were so dangerous that using them meant you were choosing to risk the lives of your targets, like Lily. Beth was the only one I knew afflicted with all the above.


"Dubstep, Clotho, we move forward, secure the entrance. Othello, Genius Loci, you stay here to protect Anima until we know their device is safe for you." Citrine commanded. "Is there anything we can do to improve your summons' chances inside?"


"Not really," Beth replied. "Maybe something that boosts their energy attacks... if they hit harder, their victims will go down faster. Maybe they won't feel the need to mutilate the fallen so thoroughly." She didn't sound hopeful about that possibility.


"You hear that, Jacklight?" Citrine asked.


"Can do, Citrine," he responded. "Just as soon as you get me a way around the barricade."


"Already working on it," she responded, already taking off toward the entrance. "I've never seen anything like this before. ETA around ten minutes."


I followed her reluctantly. I wanted to stay behind and comfort Beth, help her through the physical and emotional hell. But the sooner we completed this mission, the sooner we could get her somewhere to recover. And the more pixies survived, the faster she could recover. The best thing I could do to help her right now would require leaving her.


The building itself wasn't that big- I'd seen larger gas stations. Which hid the part where it went at least six stories deep down into the mountain below. There was always the worrying possibility of escape tunnels, and no way for us to know if they existed or not. But if Minerva went through this much effort on this mission already, I was certain she'd consulted Dinah about the odds. So I'd just have to trust that what we were doing was fated to work out.


My armor told me that, by some stroke of luck, one of the men had gone unnoticed by the pixie army. I fired a small burst into the wooden crate he took shelter inside and tugged with my power, splintering it and pulling him out by his clothes. He screamed and fought against the bindings that were his clothes, crying like a terrified child rather than a man that was obviously older than I was.


Citrine actually backhanded him. "Look at me, coward," she spat the words. There was more to that than just her trying to get information. She was honestly angry at the man, disgusted by him. Not the scariest behavior I'd seen in capes. Maybe something to do with her Trigger?


He whimpered, and I dropped my control on his clothes. <Please don't kill me! I just work here! Take the drugs and money, it's all yours!>


My suit didn't think he was lying, so when Citrine kicked him, I had to speak up. "That's enough!" I insisted. "We have powerful Thinkers on our side, we don't need to resort to torture to get information."


Citrine looked toward me, then back to the terrified man. "Fine," she relented, but she didn't stop staring down our captive. We waited mostly in silence, the only noises were the weak cries and moans of those the pixies had maimed around us, and the occasional bursts of noise from deeper in the underground complex.


The ground shuddered. For a brief moment, I thought it was an earthquake, but my armor's instruments flashed warnings of a localized explosion beneath us. I took flight immediately, but wasn't nearly fast enough. A thousand screaming voices erupted around me as the ground splintered, tendrils of rainbow light pouring from the cracks and engulfing the area. Thousands of hands and faces scattered across the mass seemingly at random, crawling their way across the landscape.


A powerful set of jaws clamped down on my leg while making a noise somewhere between a growl and a cry of pain. A new pair of arms sprouted from the eyes of the face, digging into my suit. Armor that had been tested against Alexandria's strength was torn, exposing my leg. Dozens of alerts flashed across my HUD, letting me know my armor was being critically damaged or destroyed pretty much everywhere at once by the grasping limbs.


I was pulled into the writhing mass of limbs and facial features that covered the landscape below.


======================


A/N- Poor Beth... if only she were a psychotic masochist with a love of overacting... then she'd be able to enjoy her powers...

And if Dethklok were here, Beth's power would be worth of an album.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 349- Lily


Newter always has a way of showing when he's in a bad mood, I had come to notice. Mainly by acting like he was in a really good mood. I'd known a few people like that in my life, and for the most part it helped just to pretend like nothing was wrong and let them come to you if they wanted to. Or, in my case, tracking him down to a higher end club here on the outskirts of Amsterdam. Him in civilian clothes, me in the underlayer of my armor. Plenty of people recognized me, and I even signed a couple autographs and had to beg off some 'offers' on my way to the back. Though that one redhead was pretty cute... maybe Sabah... no, Sabah's way too innocent for something like that.


I wasn't quite the gay rights status symbol here that I was in other parts of Europe. This area was already pretty accepting, and what issues it did still have would be solved with time, education, and other gentle pressures. My method of in your face challenges to the status quo would only make me look reactionary and possibly unhinged here. Sure, the first time we made a portal here, we followed the same protocol we demanded of every nation receiving a portal. Which was simply a very public photo op where I shook hands with whatever highest leader that nation had.


An event that was sometimes boring, little more than a rote service by a politician happy enough to be seen being seen with an international celebrity. Sometimes it filled me with pride as the leaders of nations gave sincere thanks for my efforts, both on the battlefield and otherwise. And sometimes I was rewarded with sadistic glee, as my armor's combat systems told me just how much some asshole was imagining my execution even as he was forced to play nice with me. After all, if they didn't play ball, I could simply refuse to cut open the doorway to another world. Sure, most backpedaled on their niceties the moment my back was turned, but the message was sent all the same. They were humiliated, and I walked away untouched.


"Hey, Newt, how's things?" I asked casually as I walked in. A couple girls were draped over each other, unconscious. The armor's auto-diagnostics let me know they were under the influence of his poison, and while I wasn't exactly happy about that, I ignored it as I always did. Newter certainly charged enough to send these people on mini vacations, so it's not like they didn't want it.


"You know me," he answered with a smile, taking a drink of whatever concoction he was trying today. "Livin' the sweet life." Cultural foods and drinks were his personal vice, along with the occasional female companion.


"So I see," I sat down across from him, sinking into the truly luxurious couch. I've never owned a bed as comfortable as this couch.


"Want a drink?" He asked.


"Trying to get me drunk?" I smirked.


"Hell no," he responded. "Your power's scary as balls enough when you're sober. There should be an international law against Endslayers getting drunk, especially so close to the next predicted attack. You can have some of what I'm having. It's called Jenever, and it took forever to find an alcohol free version."


"Sounds good," I agreed, taking a glass and holding it for him to pour, so I didn't risk contacting his secretions. My underarmor was able to protect against most poisons, but his was a power and broke a lot of rules, so cross contamination was a risk. I sipped it cautiously at first, and decided there wasn't anything I could compare it to. A weird pine flavor, plus a bunch of other stuff. It was good, but not something I'd miss if I never had it again.


"This is really good," I smiled politely as I swallowed more of the drink. "Glad you went through the effort of getting a version for us non-drinkers." Newter, for reasons he never shared with me, refused to drink alcoholic beverages. I had my speculations on why, maybe he his taste buds just didn't like the flavor... but my guess was it was specifically because he couldn't feel the effects of the alcohol and it was one more barrier between himself and normalcy. Pretending he was a teetotaler meant he could take ownership of the difference, make it a choice. And I played along because, well, he was right about keeping alcohol away from a power like mine. And if it made him feel better about his own condition, I was happy to do it.


"Took forever to find this stuff," he repeated. "You don't even know how many people I had to ask. One guy I looked like he was either going to cry or hit me. You'd think I was talking about jacking off with their national flag or something."


"Different cultures, different priorities," I shrugged. "So, Faultline said you stumbled across something from the neural regeneration tech."


"Ah, so that's why you're here," he sighed, looking less happy.


"Well, it is an important piece of tech and you've gone the longest using it," I stated. Gregor had quit months ago, for reasons he refused to speak of. "We do want to know if Cauldron was telling the truth about the Case 53s. Were you a volunteer?"


"In my case?" Newter looked down into his glass for a good minute. "Yeah. They were telling the truth. Or I think they were, I'm not absolutely certain and there are still a lot of gaps, memories I don't have back, and stuff I was never told in the first place. But, well... you know all those shitty alt reality stories where the Nazis win the Second World War? Well, turns out that's what happened to my home dimension."


"That... is pretty fucked up," I muttered. "Are we going to need to do something?" That is the kind of reality that Pantheon might be provoked into staging an interdimensional attack on. I'd certainly advocate us doing so.


"They lost the Third," he added to the story, more or less negating my question. "And by the time the fourth came around... well, there were no winners. Even in our version of America, thirteen year olds were being sent off to war. Looking at it with what I know now, I don't think our science ever got to the point where we realized what nuclear fallout meant for the world. Or maybe things were so bad that no one cared anymore."


"Fuck," I muttered. "That's just... fuck..." Cauldron certainly found a great place to harvest 'willing' test subjects in that world. They claimed that every test was done on volunteers, who knew and agreed to the risks. A planet torn by nuclear war would be full of people who'd agree to almost anything for the chance of a better future.


"So now... I don't know what to think," he sighed. "I had years to build up this... idea, y'know? About the people who turned me into a freak and stole my life from me. When I heard the name Cauldron, I finally had a name I could assign all of my hatred to. The source of all bad things in my life. The reason I had no parents, no history, not even a name... and now, well... I find out that I'd trade everything they stole from me just for the taste of Jenever." He lifted his glass and downed the rest of it. "Even like this I have a better life than anyone on my world could have hoped for.


"Which bothers you, I take it?" I prompted.


"Yeah, it bothers me," he agreed with an unhappy chuckle. "I feel let down, y'know? Disappointed. I sure as fuck ain't grateful to them for turning me into this." He gestured across his orange, amphibian like body. "And they did use me as a guinea pig so they could perfect a drug that granted powers, so it's not like they did it out of the kindness of their hearts. I owe them nothing."


Which they did as a desperate ploy to save the world from Scion, I added silently. At this moment, Faultline and her people were not aware of what Scion really was. Almost nobody had been told, only those who had the powers or resources to actually help prepare for that war.


"And I guess that's part of the problem," Newter continued. "I owe them nothing. I can't even do something crazy like swear eternal vengeance and hunt them down. They came along, did their thing, and left me to fend for myself just a little better off than how they found me."


I couldn't think of anything to say. The Empresses would be overjoyed at the news that our supposedly conditional alliance wasn't a metaphorical deal with the devil where we ignored horrible crimes just for something that was useful to us. They may be a group that fed off of human greed and suffering, but they weren't actively making the world a worse place. It was honestly a relief, but at the same time Newter was right, in a way it was disappointing. A let down, that the monolithic evil conspiracy wasn't quite as monolithic or evil as we had feared.


Oh well, we still had the Yangban.


"You got the answers you've been looking for, but they weren't nearly as cool as what you imagined it would be," I suggested.


"Yeah, that sounds about right," he agreed. "Speaking of boring answers, I don't think we've been properly introduced. My name is... was... Joshua. Or Josh, to my friends.


"Welcome to life, Josh," I responded. "It makes for a shitty story when you have all that buildup only to be met with an unsatisfying conclusion, but reality doesn't care about the story, only what does or doesn't happen."


He shrugged noncommittally.


"Hey, look at it this way," I smiled. "It means you're free to figure out what you actually want to do with your life. Your past is as settled as it's going to get, and there's nothing forcing you to choose one future over another. You can do whatever you like. You can choose to do absolutely nothing if you want. You're even rich, now, so you don't have to worry about how you'll pay for it."


"Yeah," he smiled back, halfheartedly. "I just don't know what to do with myself."


"Well, for me it's always been about causes," I responded with a shrug. "I kill Endbringers, I have a hot girlfriend, I promote equal rights while daring evil sacks of shit to even try doing something about it. Then either gloat at them when they chicken out, or shoot them if they take me up on the offer. But that's just what makes me happy. You'll have to find your own passions."


"Guess that's my new goal in life, then," Josh agreed. "Figure out what I want to do with my life."


"Hey, I can drink to that," I agreed, lifting my empty glass, shaking it in the universal gesture for a refill. Then the alarms went off.


==============


A/N- Pantheon vs Nazi World, coming to an Omake near you... whenever someone else writes it...

I'll be honest, I didn't feel like there was enough speculation or anticipation from the cliffhanger earlier, so I opted to write this instead.

Actually, I'd wanted to have this scene for a while now, portions of it were even written out months ago (with Gregor being in the other side of the conversation) but I never had the "right moment" to work it into the story. And then it finally fell in my lap! Huzzah!

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 350


We had to view the scene from orbit, using Dragon's satellites. Some kind of interference prevented our dimensional viewing tech from working in the affected zone. What we could see was a nearly half mile radius area of shimmering, rainbow light full of limbs and facial features writhing about and grasping the air and itself.


"It looks like the flesh mass interaction that happens when we use Cão's power on regenerating tissue," Emma stated. ConfusionWorrySuspicion. She glanced at us. "Right, sorry, that's one of the ones that I haven't flagged as a priority. Nothing interesting ever came of it, a junk reaction caused by forcing multiple mass-summoning powers to interact. Up until now, it didn't seem important."


"It appears to have to do with the mission I sent them on," Lisa stated. "They were simply supposed to attack a drug den, nothing critical."


"A mission you didn't bother telling me about before recruiting my people," Crystal growled at her. "Seriously, Lisa, what the shit?"


"And Sabah's in that mess," Lily added. "This is a Class S fuckup and you know it."


"Power interaction," Lisa responded. "No one can predict those."


"You figured out my interaction with Labyrinth easily enough," Lily accused.


"I predicted one power interaction! One! Out of how many we've seen so far?" Lisa exclaimed. "Yes, I can make an educated guess with enough information, but you may as well blame the weather man for for not predicting a meteor strike."


"And we're not already in there trying to fix things?" Lily argued. "Rescuing our team?"


"It appears to be stationary, and that thing's had plenty of time to do... whatever it is that it's going to do," Lisa responded. "If it was going to kill them, then they were already dead in the first minute or two. And if it's not trying to kill them, then they're in there somewhere and if we rush in guns blazing, we'll probably kill them. We have to be cautious on this. And if this is a power interaction, the last thing we want to do is throw more powers at it until something else breaks. Jacklight witnessed it from Avalon's side, and I wanted everyone here before we do anything more."


She nodded toward Chevalier and Dragon.


"She's right," I stated, looking at the assembled heroes. "Let's hear what Jacklight has to say." This had been downgraded to an anomalous event, instead of a potential Class S, but it was an anomaly that Pantheon had already been called in for. That put us and Chevalier equally in charge. AgreementSupport. "It doesn't seem to be causing more damage, just sitting there waiting.


"As you know, we were carrying out an operation to take out one of the Elite's bases," Jacklight responded, speaking in a very matter of fact way. "They were using some unknown ability to block your dimensional tech. Our assumption was a Tinker device."


ConcernThreat. She's right, we use our shunt tech for everything... this could be a serious problem.


"Was wondering when someone would get around to building countermeasures against us," Lisa responded, sounding not at all concerned. "Please go on."


"Citrine ordered Anima to attack the base with her summons while Citrine herself spent her efforts trying to work around the dimensional barricade. She succeeded, and I altered the area so that the effects of electricity were more potent than they should be by an order of magnitude. The intent being to short out the base's electronic devices, and improve the damage Anima's summons could do."


"So that's at least four high level reality altering shakers hitting a single area at once," Lisa responded. "Two of which were manipulating inter-dimensional physics. Think of it like Labyrinth cubed. Lily, you have to sit this one out. I don't think we want to rip a hole that size into the side of reality."


Lily's hands clenched in her suit, but she said nothing.


"We can send some of my constructs in," Taylor responded. "Endbringer tissue inhibits powers, so they shouldn't add to the power interaction. If anything, maybe they'll weaken... whatever it is that's fueling this. Drain away its power source."


"The version we create in the labs don't last very long," Emma volunteered. "It should wear off on its own. We'll want to study this as much as we possibly can, though. It's still acting like it's alive, which is something the lab versions have never done." She glanced over at one of the other Tinkers. "Elena, you're our expert on the subject. Take whomever you need, piggyback off the zerg senses until we're sure it's safe to send our more advanced scanning tech. I'm sure Dragon's willing to help however she can."


"Of course," Dragon agreed.


"So what exactly were you hoping to do with this, anyway?" Chevalier looked at us. "Some people might consider a foreign nation engaging in attacks on American citizens, even their criminal citizens, on American soil to be a political crisis."


Vicky glanced between us, and I wondered what would happen if this came to a blowup. Vicky said she'd have broken up with him if I didn't approve of their relationship, but this was a pretty big thing. Crystal didn't look happy about it, either.


"We didn't use any Avalon resources," I stated. "Pantheon was supporting the Ambassadors, and Crystal's team isn't part of Avalon."


"That excuse won't hold," Chevalier responded.


ProtectiveSupport. Taylor stepped up in front of me, and I was torn between wanting to defend myself, and loving her for doing it for me. "We both know it will. The Protectorate's being held together by bubble gum and prayers right now, and every day things fall apart a little more. You don't have the resources to press the issue with us."


"Is that what this is going to be?" He asked. "We can't stop you so we just sit back and watch as you walk all over us?"


AngerGuilt. "You've seen Dragon's projections just like we have," Taylor pressed, not letting Chevalier's jab stick. "Even without Dinah's predictions looming over us, civilization is collapsing piece by piece. The colony worlds aren't going to help more than merely staunching the blood loss. We had a goal, one which would have helped us to help everyone. You know what we're preparing for."


"That argument lets you get away with a lot of things, but it's not a blank check," Chevalier responded. "That... thing... out there can be seen from orbit. It's not going to be so easily covered up."


"That was an accident," I argued. "Impossible to predict, and not even related to the mission."


"Which brings up a question," Chevalier continued. "What were you doing out there in the first place? You didn't alert the PRT, or the Protectorate. You just walked in, did your thing, and were planning to walk out again without consequence?"


"Easier to ask forgiveness than permission?" Lisa quipped.


AnnoyanceConcern. "Minerva, you're not helping," Taylor spoke up. "He's right, we're supposed to be allies. We could have been upfront about this."


"Allies or not, we're also competing for resources," Lisa stated. "We're better at using those resources than the Protectorate's government controlled bureaucracy could ever hope to be. Everyone here knows that every time we hand over some asshole that we captured to the PRT, whether they recruit them or imprison them, it's a resource we could have used that's instead going to waste."


"This is not the time or place," Taylor insisted.


"Well, if you really must know, we were stealing resources from the Elite," Lisa responded, sighing. "Mostly drugs that we were going to destroy, and a good amount of Tinker tech, including some wetworks. Important tech that would synergize well with what we already have."


"You know you've pretty much blown any chance of pulling anything like this again in the future, right?" Chevalier emphasized. "You're already on thin ice, please tell me you understand that. Push much harder and you will start a war between America and Avalon."


"We'll be fine," Lisa responded. "We spent our tokens, now we'll lay low until the next Endbringer, which is coming up in a week or so anyway. After that the slate will more or less be wiped clean and we'll be back to the status quo. Political capital has a very short shelf life, so we're spending it while we have it."


"I've read your theories on how the Passengers deliberately push for conflict," Chevalier pressed. "Is that what's happening here?"


I looked at the others. We were being watched by a lot of people. How much things have changed, that I could even have a conversation like this. A year ago, even six months ago, I would have caved in. My Passenger was driving me to insanity because I defied it constantly. And now it was quite the opposite, I followed the impulses and came away feeling stronger, smarter, more confident than I could ever have imagined me being. ConcernSupportWorryFear. Was it true? Were we hunting for a fight? It would explain a lot.


"No," I finally stated. We'd established that. Taylor and I have our loophole. Our impulses had turned inward to keep our bond, and we were happy with that. "In the interest of honesty, there's a Tinker by the name of Synth that we were hoping to capture. Chemistry Tinker, we could have used him to create a new level of medical technology." And combine his expertise with our other Tinkers and create another series of upgrades for our power boosting stims and maybe even the Cauldron vials.


"All those points made, we're going to have to silence this event," Alexandria finally spoke. "I think we can all agree that we don't need the general public to have the conversation we're having right now.


"How do you expect to cover something like this?" Chevalier asked.


"We don't have to hide the event itself," she responded. "Admitting to an unexpectedly violent Power Interaction is fine. It may create more fear from normal people toward parahumans, which we'll need to work to fix. But the events leading up to this can't go public."


"Even that's not too big a hit," Lisa added. "Some of Crystal's team got into a fight with the Elite, they got some outside reinforcements. Not the first or last time for that. If you ignore the parts where it was an unprovoked attack and we were planning to abduct a super villain across interdimensional borders, it's all perfectly innocent."


IncredulityAnnoyance.


==============


A/N- I briefly considered having having Lily try to attack the glowing flesh garden and accidentally destroying LA and surrounding countryside by sucking it into a dimensional rift.

The I decided that sounded like too much work and wouldn't really add to the story. So, didn't happen.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 351


"I've found a possible solution to the problem," Alexandria stated. "I don't think anyone's going to like it, however."


SuspicionWorry. "Won't cost us anything to hear the idea," Taylor responded.


"We know a parahuman that's likely capable of finding the solution for us," she continued. Her eyes turned toward Chevalier, though from the angle we were standing, he wouldn't be able to notice it. "She is, however, quite insane. A very young parahuman, and one that perpetuates the stereotypes that Triggering young increases power."


HorrorTrepidation. Oh! Oh. Fuck. We need a way to remove Chevalier before she arrives, if we choose to use her at all. "What powers does she have?" I already knew the answer to that was 'a lot of them', but it was a smart question to ask in front of Chevalier.


"A Thinker ability that grants unique understanding of powers," Alexandria answered. "She's been using it to help Eidolon optimize his abilities. They've formed something of a rapport with each other, "


"So, basically, we're calling in Eidolon and hoping he has a power that can deal with this mess?" Lisa added, following whatever script she was pulling off of Alexandria, and I was convinced they had something going on that we couldn't tap into any more than they could tap into Taylia.


"That would be the most likely result, yes," Alexandria agreed. "If nothing else, it's an alternative to waiting and hoping your Tinkers can find a way to undo the Gordian Knot that is this power interaction. I must admit I'm getting concerned about the duration of this event."


PatienceIdeaConfidence. I fought the urge to look over at Taylor and ask her what she was planning.


"It's true," Lisa agreed. "The other interactions tend to fade pretty quickly, leaving only their side effects behind. Nothing that continues to use power, at least. That thing out there is made of pure energy. A prismatic forcefield. It has to be consuming a lot of energy."


"Y'know sis," I startled at Vicky's voice right next to my ear. "If I didn't know better, I'd suspect you staged this whole thing just to get out of our little family dinner. Anyway, I'm done with my test run. The thing's pretty stationary, but it gets grabby if you get close. So, y'know, enter at your own risk."


"No weak points?" Taylor asked.


"Doesn't register as alive," she answered, stepping around me. "Definitely one of Anima's constructs gone horribly wrong. And I can confirm there's a lot of people still alive in that mess. Anima's one of them, so's Sabah and Dubstep. I never was able to directly sense GL, but he's probably in there somewhere, too. A lot of injured, and I do mean a lot of injured. When you said this was some kind of drug complex, you may have forgotten to mention there were at least a hundred people in there. Seriously, how the hell do you hide a base that size this close to LA?"


Lisa facepalmed. "They didn't. Fuck. They were using a pocket dimension that they could pick up and move from one location to another. Which probably got folded into the power interaction along with everything else. The fixing process just got a metric fuckton more difficult."


ConcernFear. "Umm, Lisa, I just thought of something horrible," Taylor muttered. "What happens if Scion sees this? This seems like the kind of thing that he'd put a stop to if he noticed, and we're already pushing our luck with the portals and dimensional viewing technology."


"Scion related blackout currently located in the western Egypt region," Dragon informed us.


"Doesn't matter anyway," Lisa responded. "He's as statistically likely to show up here as any other part of the planet in any given second."


"Well, that's wonderful," Vicky responded. "So, my job's as done as it's going to get without me getting into cuddle range of that thing. How long's it going to take for the Tinkers to get their stuff done so we can heal the injured and arrest people?"


"Hours," Lisa answered. "Maybe days."


"Yuck, can't you speed that up?"


"We're going to have Eidolon come in to handle it," Lisa responded.


"Makes sense to me," Vicky agreed cheerfully, walking over to Chevalier. "When it doubt, phone the guy with the 'I win everything' button. So I'mma go before he shows up. No offense to the rest of you, but he's so unfairly bullshit that it actually gives me a headache to look at him." She grabbed Chevalier's hand. "C'mon, you're taking me out for dinner. I'm in the mood for something that only qualifies as food by technicality."


Chevalier just looked at her. "Victoria, I do have a job to do."


"With exception to the Tinkers, none of us are actually doing anything at all right now," she responded. "Standing around waiting for Eidolon to show up isn't a job."


"Unless you're with the paparazzi!" Lisa cut in.


"Hush, you," Victoria glared at her. "Besides, won't take too long. Just zip over to the city, visit what promises to be a very shocked drive-through, brush the smog off our suits, and be back before the grease has a chance to cool."


Chevalier looked like he was about to say something, then stopped. EmbarrassmentDiscomfort.


"She's not wrong," Alexandria responded. "We're accomplishing very little, and I understand that not all of us have the benefit of not needing to worry about eating or sleeping, you might as well take a short break while we wait here."


"Awesome!" Vicky exclaimed.


"I didn't agree to anything," Chevalier replied.


"Yeah, but you were about to," she smiled, wrapping her arm around his as she looked over at me. "Don't worry, Ames, I promise to bring you back something laden with cholesterol and salt. All that healthy eating just isn't good for you."


I just gave the poor guy the 'and you're dating her?' look. Vicky stuck her tongue out at me, right before her helmet folded itself back around her head and she took off, pulling her new boyfriend along with her. Huh, I should probably find out what his actual name is one of these days. Or maybe what his face actually looks like.


"By the way, her price for being awesome and saving our collective asses is two and a half unnamed favors to be determined the next time she feels bored," Taylor stated dryly. "Amelia, you're exempt because of your attention to detail when upgrading Chevalier."


"And a half?" I asked. What did she mean by attention to detail.


"It was three, Vicky used half of one to make Taylor say that," Lisa explained. "And you'll be happier if you don't ask the next question. Or that one."


"As fascinating as this is, we don't have a great deal of time," Alexandria interrupted, saving me the mental exercise of trying to figure out if Lisa actually knew what the third question would have been, since I didn't. "I'm sending the go ahead, they're ready. It'll be more convenient for everyone to meet them on Bet."


She didn't wait for confirmation, simply shunting over immediately. I glanced over at Taylor, who nodded and followed suit. Lisa, Dragon and I were next.


We hadn't been there more than a few seconds when a panel of bright artificial light appeared out of nowhere, and two people stepped through. Eidolon's green costume was instantly recognizable. After all, I was the one who created the bulk of it, then Emma and Riley converted it from modified plant into a bizarre power modifying cyborg. The girl next to him looked to be around Dinah or Riley's age, and wore a cloak of the same green as Eidolon's. But her costume was highlighted with black and gold trim in arcane patterns, in contrast to his white and silver.


The girl didn't bother looking at us, simply staring forward at the roiling mass of shimmering light and limbs. "Ah, yes, I see what you mean," she stated, her words echoed melodically by a chorus of voices. "The faeries craft a memorial of the the Stillborn Queen."


"A memorial?" Lisa asked. "You mean like a statue of her image?"


"Correct, Negotiator," the girl responded. She is not a girl, she's a woman in her forties who chooses the appearance of a child. A mass murderer and possibly the most powerful and dangerous human being on the planet. "They yearn for the return of what they've lost, and for the dance to continue. In their loneliness, they grow a garden to honor Her."


"The Passengers don't have feelings," Lisa argued. "They can't experience yearning."


Glaistig Uaine looked away from the rainbow field of body parts, toward Lisa. Eidolon placed a hand on her shoulder. She paused, then looked up at him before returning to the view we were all facing. "You place too much faith in your faerie's limited wisdom, Negotiator. It is quick and clever, but not of the royalty. A hummingbird that imagines itself worthy to fly with alongside the eagle."


Lisa stared daggers at the Faerie Queen, but bit her tongue. Possibly even literally.


"Is there a way to remove the memorial?" Taylor asked. HesitationCaution. "It's putting all of the faeries at risk."


Glaistig Uaine watched for a minute longer before speaking. "Yes, Queen Administrator," she confirmed. "The faeries act without proper consideration of their actions, you are wise to be concerned." SurprisePrideConsternation.


I didn't understand why Taylor was surprised that she had what Glaistig Uaine considered a 'royal court' power. Her Passenger was capable of incredible things, after all. Planetwide communications and processing of information. If I was royalty, then she certainly was as well.


As I was considering this, the air around her shimmered, and my stomach clenched when I recognized the shade she manifested. A hulking, hideous man that caused my stomach to clench. ProtectiveSupportLove. It was that parahuman Bonesaw came after me with when she forced me to heal Mark's brain. The one with the field that stopped powers from working.


We were caught within the field, and I felt my powers dim. Strangely enough, they didn't fully collapse, I still had my senses. Taylor as well, and that meant Taylia withstood the aura. I felt a little bit of pride and a lot of personal confidence because our combat suits weren't altered by the field at all.


Glaistig Uaine gestured, and her ghost moved forward. Where he moved, the light disipated, like smoke blown away by a strong wind. The earth beneath cracked into gravel or churned into dust and sand, depending on what it started as. The outer edgest of the field started to shrink as well, melting away as the features of the body rushed inward to fill the hole in its center, only to meet with the same fate as everything else.


"I do believe our task here is done," Glaistig Uaine stated after the last of the color vanished. Her shade vanished. "I was promised the corpse of the charioteer as recompense for my time."


"Of course," Eidolon agreed. The first thing he'd said during this. "Doormaker, to B272."


The panel of light dimmed and changed to a blue color instead of harsh white, and the girl stepped through. Eidolon himself stayed behind, and walked over to Alexandria.


Taylor thought quicker than I did, and several shadowcats shunted over within moments of the doorway closing, then started running in toward the destroyed epicenter. "Healers on standby, we have wounded and prisoners to worry about," Taylor commanded. "Tinkers and Thinkers with changeling models, shunt them over. I'm already establishing relays. Try to find the source of the dimensional barrier."


===================


A/N- This is one of those chapters where smart readers will notice a lot of very important things.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 352- Taylor


The dimensional barrier made my power feel sluggish, creating a frustrating half second delay to my minions' responses. After the third humiliating time a shadowcat walked face first into a wall, I started to get a handle on the slow response, having them walk along the area instead of their usual trotting speed.


I found Sabah and the rest of the team near the entrance to the building. They were very much alive, though naked and doing what they could to cover themselves.


Only Anima had any clothes on. She and a blonde woman I assumed to be one of Accord's were both unconscious, but the bioscans from my zerg didn't indicate any immediate health risks.


"Don't worry, everything's fine now," I informed the collection of people. I had some of the 'cats expand their wing membranes and wrap around the nude men and women, giving them some semblance of privacy. Fortunately, we never found a way to install a sense of touch into the EB zerg. Why does the idea of seeing them nude bother me? It's not like I couldn't already use echolocation and various nonvisible light spectrums to see through clothes.


"Could you create some clothes, ones that are shunt capable?" I asked Amelia. "I'm estimating ten sets." ConfusionConcern. "Umm... Anima's the only one whose suit survived the power interaction. For whatever bizarre reason, everyone else has been stripped naked."


"Yeah, just give me a minute," Amelia agreed.


"We'll have clothes and medical attention for you in a couple minutes," I let the group know. "The interaction's over and the area's secure, cooperate with the shadowcats and we'll get you out of ground zero for a real checkup.


"Everyone appears to be alive, don't worry," I informed Lily and our medical teams. "I'm bringing them to our deployment zone. The power interaction appears to have destroyed everyone's clothing. Possibly something Manton Effect related, don't know for certain."


"Is..." Sabah hesitated. "Is Anima alright? What about GL? Uh, Genius Loci." I frowned, him I didn't see. His armor seemed to have been destroyed along with everything else. His power meant he was a living shaker effect, and this interaction was a blending of shaker powers. Did... was he caught in the mess and destroyed? There's nothing I could do to figure it out.


"Anima seems to be fine," I told her. "I don't know how to find Genius Loci."


By the time Amelia got the full body covering outfits ready, I'd brought her another shadowcat to transport them to our survivors. I'd also been cataloging the other stuff in the area. The wounded men and women who were the defenders of the drug den had been stripped naked as well, but left where they fell. Most of them were badly injured by shallow wounds spread all over their bodies. If left to heal naturally, their own families wouldn't be able to recognize them after the recovery.


Their weapons and electronics had been gathered in tidy little piles, almost as if they were being inventoried, although I couldn't figure a logic in their sorting method.


"Lisa, do you have a minute?" I asked. The sixth conversation I was running simultaneously. One of the others was the universe's dumbest mugging. Why the guy thought it was a good idea to try to mug someone on Avalon, I wasn't sure, but he was wrong. What passed as local police were happy enough to take my word for everything, but it still required a conversation with a bunch of officers and someone to take down my testimony.


"Kinda busy," she responded.


"No you're not," I countered. "You are doing literally nothing except fantasizing about Alexandria. We're having this conversation now."


The drugs, and in fact everything on the top few floors in the building that wasn't on a person seemed to have been left untouched, save as casualties in the fight itself. Things got uglier as I worked further into the building, with a number of bodies that were reduced smears on the walls. I guessed that the Interaction had a fight with them over the limited space in the lower levels. It wasn't the humans that won.


"I am not fantasizing about anyone," Lisa retorted.


"Lisa, I know you know exactly how good my senses are," I sighed. "I'm linked into your suit, I know what your eyes are following. Infravision, bioanalytic stuff built by some of the best biomanipulation experts on the planet. I know what crushing looks like, and right now you're acting like a schoolgirl who's hoping to salvage a ruined prom date."


"I am n-" she hesitated. "Fuck. I am, ain't I?"


"Pretty much," I confirmed. "But that's not the problem. The problem is how you've been acting lately. Seriously, I have no idea what's with you lately. You're prodding the Protectorate like you want them to retaliate."


My zerg finally got our teams' survivors to the medical staging area. I did the best I could to avoid watching as Lily kissed the still quite naked Sabah, use her own armor's wings to give her girlfriend privacy to dress. At least, privacy from everyone else. Clarice, Emma and Elena were there to check on Anima and the other unconscious woman. Boost was enough to take care of the others' minor injuries.


"They're pompous blowhards, they don't have the balls to retaliate," Lisa countered. "They keep trying to act like tigers, even after we've proven they're declawed kittens. We should be past the point where we have to pretend to care about shit like that."


"News flash, Lisa, most of us do care about shit like that," I reminded her. "Stomping all over everyone else's rights just because they're not as strong as us? That is quite literally the very thing Pantheon exists to stop."


"It was," Lisa corrected. "Now it's stopping Scion and saving lives. If the bureaucracy gets in the way of that, it's a problem."


"And goading Glaistig Uaine?" I followed up. "If she wanted to kill you, we'd have to stand there and watch because we wouldn't be able to stop her, and trying probably would have gotten all of us killed."


"Wouldn't have happened," she replied. "I've read all her transcripts, she wasn't going to attacked me, not over words. And I got all kinds of useful mental models off her that I can actually use in the future. Worth the nonexistant risks. Now I have a better feel for what she's wrong and right about."


There was only one survivor on the lower levels, hidden behind a a metal wall that had been clawed open, but apparently not filled by the interaction. A middle aged man whose tongue had been ripped out and his hands and feet severed. The injuries had been burned after, which probably saved his life. Judging by the other stuff in the room, I guessed he was Synth. We didn't know what he looked like out of costume, but it fit what we knew.


"Was she right about you?" I prompted.


"That I'm not one of her 'royal court'?" Lisa shrugged. "The Entities don't have political structures. That'd be like asking you if your zerg are royalty, compared to the special bugs Amelia makes you, compared to the natural insects you grab. I probably don't have one of the most powerful Passengers, not like you and Amelia have, but the idea of 'royal' anything is a delusion."


"I was more thinking about the 'hummingbird and eagle' thing," I pressed. There was no doubt she knew what I meant the first time. "Seriously, the way your acting makes me think that's what this is. You're operating way outside your actual limits and it's getting to you. Passenger mind fuck or whatever."


"Sorry, Taylor, that armchair psych isn't going to work," Lisa responded. "I'm doing quite nicely for myself. My power's being pressed constantly, I've got power, resources, all the success anyone could ever ask for. Fuck, my Passenger should be happy beyond all reason right now."


"What?" I asked.


"Remember all those conversations about Taylia? The addictive nature of the link?"


"Yeah," I responded, a mix of dread and irritation coming to mind. If she's going to make this another Taylia argument... ConfusionWorrySupport.


"Well, turns out there are other ways to achieve it," she chuckled. Alexandria gave her a look, no one else was paying much attention. "Rebecca and I found out that if you're a couple really good Thinkers, you can achieve it using sign language. My Passenger and hers are apparently quite happy together."


"Is that why you've stopped pressing us on the Taylia thing?" I asked. "Because you've tried it for yourself?" Maybe now she can understand how happy it makes us, and how clear it makes everything that was no doubt fogged by our Passangers, before. But then... "Wait, is that why you're acting this way? Because you've thrown out the 'conflict' excuse with what you just told me. You've been a bitch lately. You screwed with Crystal's team without even giving them a warning."


"It was good practice," Lisa argued. "Give them a chance to think on their feet."


"You did it for an excuse to spend more time with Alexandria," I countered. "Don't bother trying to lie to me, you know it won't-"


"I am secretly the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, sent back in time from the year two thousand one to stop Prussia from conquering Australia," Lisa interrupted dryly. To my surprise, the lie detection tech read her as telling the truth. "So, you were saying?"


"Cute," I managed to carry the sarcasm through the speaker of her suit. "But I am not dropping this. I want an answer. The real answer. Don't turn this into a scenario where I have to choose between our friendship and the wellbeing of the team. I'm sure you know how that ends."


"Not a threat that matters," Lisa retorted. "You prefer Amelia to me, anyway. And, before you start, no that has nothing to do with this."


"Then tell me why," I begged. "Please. We need to work this out. And I want to help. You're my friend, you've been with me since the beginning of the team."


"Yes, I have," she responded. "The problem is, you haven't. None of you have. The only founding members left of Pantheon are me, and fucking Bonesaw. Taylor died, and Amelia, and Crystal. Missy and Theo. You're their replacements, and I am the only one who even cares enough to mourn their deaths."

================



A/N- And by "only one", she includes the audience.

 

[Argentorum]

Omake: Just Desserts (or "What Amelia and Taylor should do to Lisa for being such an insensitive bitch.") -Taylor

"Then tell me why," I begged. "Please. We need to work this out. And I want to help. You're my friend, you've been with me since the beginning of the team."

"Yes, I have," she responded. "The problem is, you haven't. None of you have. The only founding members left of Pantheon are me, and fucking Bonesaw. Taylor died, and Amelia, and Crystal. Missy and Theo. You're their replacements, and I am the only one who even cares enough to mourn their deaths."

...
I blinked. Shock.Confusion. That makes two of us Amelia. "Only one who even cares-?!" I barely hold myself back from punching her. But no, that's just what she wanted here. It was blatantly obvious. She wanted me to explode, or she wanted me to drop it, or any other number of things. I grit my teeth, well fuck that. Lisa had fucked up big time, if she wanted to escalate in order to cover her ass, I could do the same.

I let out a breath pushing my emotions into the bond, focusing more on my swarm Worry.Concern. I squeeze Amelia's hand before turning to face Lisa in full. Her smirk was fixed on her face, like a dare. "Wow." I said. "Thank you for that. Thank you for calling my very existence into question, thank your for being more of a bitch than usual just to cover you own ass." I took a breath. "But most importantly, thank you for showing me exactly why the other version, oh sorry, the real version of me stopped considering you a friend."

"You know that might actually hurt my feelings." Lisa said. "But I don't consider you a real person, so this is kinda like arguing with a box for me. You don't know why she hated me."

"Why?" I asked. "Because you don't?" I waited for a moment, carefully packaging off most of my attention to the swarm. Lisa frowned. "I know you can't read me like this. But don't you want to guess why?" I said. "Don't you want to know why your best and only friend hated you enough to kill herself?"

Lisa flinched. Huh. Holy shit other me, but there were more important things going on here.

"Why?" She asked mockingly, smirk firmly back in place. "Because I stuck my nose in your business? cause I'm a know it all and a massive bitch besides?"

I shook my head and lowered my 'barriers' so she could read me. "I hate you." I said. "Because despite all that we've been through, despite all that you and the original Taylor went through, somehow you still ended up as a selfish, whiny, child." I glared at her. "This isn't about you 'caring enough to morn', this is about you dodging the blame because you aren't mature enough to confess that you made a mistake!" Surprise.Agreement.Concern. I shook it off.

Lisa blinked, which was as good as a gaping mouth on anybody else. But she recovered quickly enough, god forbid that Lisa let anyone else have the last word.

It was sad, in a way, that these days I tended to like Emma more than her.

I was done playing this little game though.

The best thing about being able to pay attention to any number of things, was that there were any number of other things to pay attention to as well. I turned my eyes to the rest of Avalon, sweeping my consciousness across it while I gave enough attention to my shadowcats enough attention to continue the S&R.

Lisa said something, which I ignored. Her smirk grew nasty, I turned my thoughts elsewhere. The restaurant on Avalon was doing well as always, it was nice to see- Disgust!Anger!Outrage!

My head whipped around, eyes widening. Amelia had Lisa suspended in the air by her neck. "Amy! Wha-?!" Anger.Disdain.Resolution.

"We both know the real reason that you're so angry about this." Amelia said. "What you drove your best friend to do. Just because you couldn't understand the bond we made, you decided to destroy it. Don't take it out on Taylor because you didn't get the outcome you wanted." She glared at Lisa for a moment more before dropping her. "One week. Seems like a fair punishment that you lose your own version of Taylia for that long right?"

"Amelia, that's-" I glanced between Alexandria, her lips pressed into a thin line, and Lisa, sitting on the ground and trembling. "That's a bit extreme isn't it? I didn't even hear what she said."

Justified.Care.Love. "I know." She said. "And that's the only reason why I didn't kill her and bring her back as a clone. See how she likes her power telling her she doesn't exist."

I turned my gaze to Alexandria. The woman sighed and looked away. She looked, disappointed, and for a moment I wondered if she was upset about Amelia's actions, or Lisa's.

-----

Blatant power wank, I'll admit it. I just had this scene on my mind since reading last chapter. And ended up writing it. I guess it really isn't an "Omake" or anything like that, but here it is.

I love Lisa as a character, she's great, but it's times like this that I really really hate her.

Yes it's true that she has some reason to act the way he does because of her power, and yes Taylor was pushing her. But to me, Taylor was just trying to figure out why Lisa had sent several of their major players on a mission without letting anyone know about it, simply to be with Alexandria. And when questioned, Lisa's response was "Lol you're not a real person, I don't have to tell you anything."

So yeah, I'm pretty angry with her right now, I'm sure you all can see it in this snip.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 353- Nelson


"So, do you want to tell me what all that was about?" I asked Vicky the moment we shunted back over to Bet. LA was currently blanketed by a low hanging, smoggy haze of clouds, which made for poor scenery but let us remain as isolated as one could ever hope. Now I just had to hope there wasn't anyone using our suits to listen in on our conversation. It was certainly possible, with Gaea's powers or Dragon's technology.


"Umm," she hesitated.


"You drag me off in the middle of a meeting with the excuse to go get fast food," I pointed out. "And implying we'd have a chance to get a quickie along the way. As fun as that sounds, I know you better than that."


She drifted over to me, taking advantage of our antigrav systems to make herself float upside down relative to me as the helmet folded away from her face and her hair floated out to drift lazily in the air. The girl was extremely comfortable in our artificial zero gravity environment, while I was still stuck thinking in normal up-down relationships. "You don't think I'd binge on junk food and sex?" Vicky smiled at me mischievously. "That doesn't sound like you know me very well at all."


"I know you better than to think you'd leave during an important mission, and right before meeting Eidolon," I insisted. "Come on, Victoria, we both know you don't ditch in the middle of a mission, which means you have something else up your sleeve."


"You're going to hate me," she sighed unhappily. "Taylor said I needed to get you out of that meeting right away."


"I already figured out that part," I told her. "It was pretty transparant. Minerva didn't want me there, Alexandria really didn't want me there, and everyone else seemed to be afraid to say anything while I was there. They have some kind of secret weapon they're trying to keep the Protectorate from knowing about. I just don't know what it is."


"You're not mad at me?" She smiled hopefully. "If you knew, why didn't you stay?"


"They'd have found some other way to get rid of me, I'm sure. If nothing else, Alexandria could have waited for me to need to sleep. Maybe I'd have been more stubborn if we weren't expecting the next Endbringer some time this week. And... I guess I wanted to see if you'd be honest with me about it," I told her. Arguably, she'd failed that test. I couldn't exactly claim she lied to me, because she would no doubt follow through with everything she said, but it was a close call. I could probably be accused of manipulating her, too, with this. "And so I could ask you why you did it."


"Amy needed my help," she answered, her voice small and afraid. "Guess that makes me a complete bitch. Are you going to dump me, now? I deserve it."


The problem with someone with Vicky's powers is that it's impossible to trust her emotions to match her behavior. She could easily fake any feelings she could imagine, and she had the boosted intelligence to imagine a lot. Instead, I watched her shape, the manifestation of her power as it wrapped around her with its sunset colored wings, alert and ready to protect her against threats. She really is afraid.


"Do you know why they needed me gone?" I asked.


"No," she answered. I waited silently until she spoke again. "I have a guess I'd bet money on. But."


"But you're not going to tell me," I didn't bother hiding my disappointment. What would be the point in trying, given her abilities?


She looked down? Up? Toward her feet. "You're mad at me. I don't blame you, y'know."


I kept my eyes on her Passenger, and how it reacted to her emotions, still cradling her protectively. Maybe even a bit of hostility pointed in my direction, thought that could be me projecting. I so rarely needed to do this with her. Usually Vicky wore her heart on her sleeve, but usually she didn't drag me away from important meetings for the express purpose of keeping me from finding out important secret information.


"Maybe I should be, but I'm not angry," I corrected, doing my best to navigate this potential minefield without tripping her built in lie detection. "I'm hurt, and disappointed, but I understand your reasons for it. I'd do the same thing if it was for my family." Even if I think your family needs a good kick in the ass.



She smiled halfheartedly. "Yeah, family."


"What's wrong?" I almost reached out to her, then hesitated. I didn't know how she'd react. Three months of her flirtation and always energetic attitude, less than two days of her opening up. This moment alone of her allowing herself to be vulnerable like this in front of me.


"My parents are getting divorced," she answered. "Apparently they've been planning it since before... before I was brought back."


Oh.


She laughed unhappily. "And that, that right there is the problem."


"I'm not sure I understand," I kept my voice cautiously neutral. Ease it out of her.


"Your response was... it's like you already knew!" She shouted. "Everyone already knew! Amy, Aunt Sarah, Taylor, Taylor's dad! They all treated it like it was nothing, like my family being broken in half was fucking meaningless! I've seen more emotional conversations about pizza toppings! And when I tried to convince them to just, y'know, talk to a marriage counselor and maybe spend a couple days together to see if there was room to fix their relationship... Mom just got annoyed, and Dad was that weird kind of nervous energy I see after we put people in interrogation... and everyone else just thought my idea was idiotic."


Now I reached out, stroking her face with the armored glove. There were times when the costume got in the way, some of those times were even literal.


She leaned her face into my hand nonetheless. "It's so fucked up," she continued unhappily. "They didn't even care enough to be angry at each other. Just gave me a list of reasons why it was a really good idea to break up then, instead of doing it earlier or waiting until later. Like 'nope, our family's breaking up because we don't feel like putting work into keeping it, and you're the one who's wrong for feeling like we should actually give a shit about each other.' You'd think we were talking about replacing an old couch or something, not my parents deciding they never want to see each other again."


Sometimes, I get reminded of how young she really is. "I don't think it's stupid."


"Yeah, but you weren't at all surprised that they're getting divorced, either," she argued.


More surprised that they were still together at all, if I was being honest. Carol Dallon is not an easy woman to like, or even politely tolerate. "Well, I've never met your dad, and your mother and I don't really see eye to eye about, well, much of anything at all. They're pretty much strangers to me. That doesn't mean I think you're stupid to care. They're your parents, I'd be worried if you weren't upset about it." I leaned in and gave her a kiss on the forehead.


She smiled faintly. "So, does that mean you're not mad at me about, well, luring you out here?"


"Well, I'm not mad at you," I qualified. "Not exactly happy with your sister and her fiancée. Alexandria and Minerva are not on my list of favorite people, either. Speaking of which, is it just me, or is there something..." I trailed off, trying to find a polite way to phrase it.


Luckily, Vicky was there with her usual eloquence. "Are you asking if Alexandria and Minerva going at it like lesbian rabbits through sign language in front of all of us, while lying to themselves that there's anyone in the vicinity that hasn't already figured it out?"


I smirked. "So that's a yes, then?"


She drifted some, turning herself around so she was using the same definition for 'up' the city below us again. "That is a big yes. Emma knows, she's told Zach, not sure if Clarice figured it out from Emma or by using her own powers. Taylor and Amy know. I'm pretty sure all of the new recruits have already figured it out. Most of us are just too polite to say anything about it. For a pair of high end Thinkers who are paranoid about their relationship being discovered, they haven't done shit to protect themselves."


I thought as much. It does mean Alexandria can't be trusted when dealing with Pantheon, and I'll need to report that to Costa-Brown. Fuck. "It's the Thinker curse, they sometimes forget normal people can figure out things for themselves."


She kissed me on the cheek. "We have Thinker powers," she pointed out with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. "I bet you got an... interesting... look at the pair."


"Well, yes, but not like that," I corrected. "Their Passengers are genderless. Alexandria's is always a stone... it changes from time to time, sometimes looking like Stonehenge or some ancient Inca statue. Sometimes more natural, like the face of a cliff. Sometimes a castle wall. Lisa's is more like a shimmering web of light. You know those pictures that people say are a physical map of the internet? Her power looks something like that, only constantly jumping around like a plasma globe. When they're together, it's like watching a mountain covered in a thin blanket of electricity."


"Sounds about right from when I read their emotions," Vicky agreed. "As opposed to when my sister and her fiancée give you a powers based peep show?"


I surpressed that mental image. Their Passengers were humanoid, though whether they were male or female or entirely sexless or the number of limbs or faces they possessed would change from moment to moment depending on the ways the Empresses were using the incredible array of powers at their disposal. What never changed was how physically entwined the pair were.


Vicky smacked my shoulder. "Don't worry, I won't blame you for peeking." Then she jabbed me hard in the chest. "But if it ever goes beyond that, I'll remove, deep fry, and then eat your skin while forcing you to watch."


I gulped, faking fear. "Yes, ma'am."


She climbed into my arms. "So, what do I look like? My Passenger."


"Like an angel," I answered honestly.


She raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Uh, huh."


"I'm serious," I insisted. "Colors change, though usually metallic yellow, orange, or red."


"So my Passenger paints herself to look like a sports car?" Her smile carried her doubt and amusement.


"The eyes are always solid, metallic, purple," I continued, working my way toward the end. "They're large, like those ones from supposed alien abduction stuff. There's two pair of them, the second being higher up on the forehead. I've never seen her with any other facial features. She always has birdlike wings, either two pair of wings and one set of arms, or two wings and four arms when you're in your war form."


I had her attention, now. She knew what was coming next, even if not the exact details. "Do go on."


I glanced over at the Passenger, it watching me in silence. "She's covered in blood," I finally admitted. "It drips fresh from the talons on her fingers, falls off the wings in dried chunks. Her face is the only part of her that doesn't have at least some blood spattered on it, and I can never see her legs because she's always wading in a pool that comes up to her waist."


"That... that's... kinda fucked up," Vicky muttered. "No wonder it took so long for us to get together."


"If it makes you feel any better, yours is one of the ones I have to work at seeing," I offered. "Usually she's at most a mask of her face, watching quietly. Most Passengers are like that, I usually only see more when I'm concentrating, or when they're actively using their powers."


She recovered quickly from the description, and smiled broadly. "So no using my powers to spice up our lovelife, gotcha."


Grateful for the chance to get off the topic of her Passenger, I simply smiled back. "That would be appreciated."


================


A/N- C'mon, Vicky, you got a Bonesaw shard... you were expecting something pleasant?

Also... I've adjusted my writing style some at the helpful advice of one of my readers. And will in at least a few future chapters.

... So let's see how well received the adjustment is.

I'm personally ambivalent. I don't think it's any better than my usual style, but I don't think it's worse, either, and it's roughly the same amount of effort whichever way I handle it. In the face of all those things being equal, I shall default to reader feedback.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 354


ShockDisgustAnger. I actually staggered under the effect. "T-Taylor," I struggled to speak.


RealizationRegretGuilt. Taylor wrapped her arms around me. "Sorry, I'm just... fuck... I never thought Lisa would."


I stepped back and put my hand on the side of her face. "Taylor, settle down, you're rambling."


She took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "You're right, just give me a minute."


The problem with our link, at least from Taylor's side, is that she couldn't offload her emotions into her swarm. The problem for both of us is that we couldn't just pretend we didn't feel anything, the very attempt at doing so just forced those feelings into each other. It had a lot of pleasant advantages, we could use it to give each other support and strength. It also had disadvantages, like right now, when Taylor was pissed and wanted to remain that way. With that in mind, I spoke up. "Would you like me to dull the link a bit?"


ConsiderationGratitudeFear. "No, that would be a really bad idea. I need a reason to stay calm right now."


I was glad she said no, I didn't want to leave her like this. I leaned in and hugged her. "Okay, I'm here for you."


GratitudeSupportLove. We waited a few minutes like that, probably getting our share of stares from the others, not that I cared in the slightest, though I did take the time to look over at Lisa. She said something that made Taylor act like this. In an act I had never done without consent before, I tapped into Lisa with my senses. Not enough to give away my presense, just enough to know what was happening inside her. A complex swirl of frustration, grief and regrets. The fuck did they say to each other? This was huge and I didn't know what it was.


Taylor eventually spoke. "She said we weren't real," her voice carried her hurt. "That we're, and I quote, 'replacements' for the real Taylor and Amelia and all the others."


That bitch! CalmProtectiveLove. "What do we do?" I finally asked.


"Well, we have to talk to her about it," Taylor replied. "Like, honestly talk to her. Which means calming down first and not doing something stupid. I get the feeling that's what she wants, an excuse. It would explain her behavior lately."


I sighed, thinking back on everything. "We should have had this conversation a while ago. Do we bring others into this? I mean, it concerns pretty much the whole team, and we need to tell them something, let them know we're trying to fix this mess."


I could feel as Taylor's emotions shifted, getting a little more intense as she pushed her feelings down to think tactically. She was smarter than me, I trusted her to handle the planning while I handled the feeling for both of us. "Crystal needs to know, she's a team leader, and she's been there from the beginning. Plus she's pretty much the only other person on this team that would call Lisa a friend. Dragon and Emma are too critical for us to not make aware... and the closest thing we have to impartial consultants. Keep R-Clarice from finding out, whatever you do."


I cringed at that thought. I wasn't entirely sure where I ranked compared to Theo and Missy, whose side she'd be on if there was a conflict, but we were the most important people in Riley's life. Followed by Taylor, Victoria, and Emma. Of all of us, only Emma had never been restored. As pissed as I was at Lisa right now, it wasn't enough to let Riley off the metaphorical leash on her. "Okay, no Clarice."


I looked over at Crystal's group. She stood with a smaller guy whose name I forgot, and Lily who was comforting Sabah. "We should probably at least let Lily know we're not happy with Lisa right now. She's probably not happy, either."


Taylor nodded. "Good thinking. You handle Crystal and Lily. I'll make contact with Emma and Dragon. And we should probably find a way to apologize to Chevalier."


She's not wrong about that. "I should apologize to my sister, too," I offered. "We put her in a pretty tight spot with Chevalier." AmusedMischievous. "Oh, jeez, Taylor. Honestly? You barely ever spend any time around Zach."


AbashedApologetic. She blushed slightly. "Sorry, but I kinda overheard your sister talking to Chevalier when she was luring him off, and what you said reminded me of it. Yeah, it's probably best if you're the one who talks to Vicky. But you'll have to deal with Crystal first."


"Right." I started walking over to Crystal and her team, or what was there with her. I was almost a stranger to them, except Sabah and Lily. I'd never even met some of them, and the ones I had met, I only remembered Sveta's name because she was one of the Endslayers.


The smaller boy was talking. "He'll be okay, he's untouchable."


Crystal noticed me coming. "Any news?" Her question was more like a demand. I glanced over at Lily and Sabah. That's right, she lost two team members.


"Not about your people," I admitted. "I just wanted to apologize for this... everything. We didn't realize Lisa was going to send your team off without you knowing about it. Or that she was going to go off on Chevalier like that. Rest assured, we're going to talk to her."


Crystal looked at me. "So you would have approved this mission?"


"Well, yes," I admitted. "Lisa wasn't wrong about the power interaction being random and absolutely impossible to predict. I've already asked Emma and Clarice. Even our new powers Tinker agreed. Knowing what we do now, of course we wouldn't do this. But it was a good plan to grab an important asset, with Dinah giving it great odds of success at very little risk. It's just... Lisa went about it all wrong. We would have let you know about the plan, had you with your team. Informed the Protectorate and PRT about the whole thing in the first place, simply out of respect. She crossed the line, fucking with everyone like this."


I glanced at the others. I hadn't originally planned to say all that in front of them. But they had two casualties, and while our experts expected Anima to recover, that probably didn't make them feel better about everything right now. "And, umm, mind if I talk to you alone for a minute, Cr- Eki."


Crystal glanced back at her people. "Sure. I won't be long."


I walked away a bit, then sent the pulse of concentration necessary to encase us in a dome of Yggrasil as a privacy screen. It wasn't the most subtle of ways to have a private conversation, but coupled with a few of the anti-Thinker bits that were designed to link through my armor and into the plant in much the same way as the shunt drives, it meant that we were invisible to most forms of remote vision, and even had minor precog barriers around us. Unless I wanted to cuddle with Crystal the same way I did with Taylor, it was the best way to have a private conversation. It even blocked Taylia, which was part of why I avoided it.


Crystal looked around. "So, what's this about?"


"Taylor got a head start on chewing out Lisa. I'm not sure exactly what was said, but Lisa decided to go for a really low blow."


Crystal close her eyes and didn't bother opening them again. "Yeah, sounds about right. Know what? I've stopped caring. All that shit about her telling me that I was doing a good job on the west coast branch, and it was a important for the team. Then she does this. You can kick her off the team for all I care. I... is what I'm doing here even important to the team? Am I making a difference? Please, be honest with me."


Her eyes opened, and she looked right into mine. In a lot of ways, she was the prettiest of the New Wave girls. Her round face and large eyes were the kind that could break hearts, even if she didn't quite have my sister's breathtaking beauty. I couldn't lie to her, not with her eyes watering with a barely successful attempt to not cry.


"I... from an image angle, yes, definitely." It was the best I could offer her. "We've mostly given up on Bet, putting all of our focus on growing and stabilizing Avalon, researching powers and improving our tech. It does matter, though. Sabah's an especially big deal for our effort to draw in rogues, and attracting new triggers. You're one of our most popular members."


"But nothing you couldn't live without," she concluded. "Nothing that requires I lead a team."


"No, probably not," I admitted. "I'm sorry."


She turned away from me, leaning her head against the wall. "Then I'm quitting."


What. "What?"


"I never wanted this job, Ames. I took responsibility because no one else could or would, but I never wanted this. The Endbringers and the politics and Lisa's bullshit and Sabah being Sabah and now Anima's probably not going to recover for a month and Glen's probably dead, but we'll never know because we can't see him. I can't keep living like this. It's not worth it, it hasn't been for a long time. I'm sorry. I'll stick around until you guys can figure out my replacement or disband the team into our other ally groups or whatever needs to be done. And I'll still be a part of the Endbringer fights. But outside of that, I'm resigning."


Oh. Oh fuck everything. And fuck you in particular, Lisa. I walked up and put a hand on my cousin's shoulder. "Don't worry, I get it. You've done more than enough and should take whatever time you need. We'll figure everything out after the next Endbringer. If you still feel certain this is the right decision."


"I will," she interrupted.


It took a minute before I could trust myself to speak. "Thank you for everything." I moved in and wrapped my arms around her. Fuck everything.


====================


A/N- I wonder if anyone's surprised about this. I would hope not, it's been telegraphed since even before Beelzebub.

Also... my characters were far too happy lately. So that had to be changed.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 355- Taylor

Alexandria leaned forward. "I'm sorry, you really don't have much choice in the matter. Nor do I for that matter."


"Fush off," Synth managed to utter with his newly regenerated tongue and mouth. We hadn't gotten around to his hands or feet yet, but we needed him to be able to talk. "Ah wanth mah lawer, I know mah riths."


"Actually, Synth, the right to a lawyer doesn't apply here," Dragon spoke next, from her spot leaning against the door. "You are not in America, you are currently being held on Avalon, which has a very different legal standard. Notably, it actually works. You have no right to remain silent, and while you have right to counsel, it's not quite the same sort of counsel as a lawyer."


Synth watched silently, put off by Dragon's dry, inhuman tone. Dragon's android body was perfected to the point of indistinguishable from human, complete with a vat grown organic layer atop the cybernetics inside. I wasn't certain why she'd go through that level of effort, when our changelings were exponentially better than human bodies, but we weren't going to tell her she couldn't.


"Avalon employs lie detection technology as an established legal precedent. There can be no question of guilt or innocence, merely of justification. If this goes to trial, you would confess why you committed the crimes you did and explain why you did them while monitored to ensure you're telling the truth. It is your right to have counsel to help you prepare your statement to better express yourself. Then the judge and jury determine the severity of your punishment based upon the statements of both you and your victims."


Alexandria slid a folder over to the man. "In your case, you're being charged with twelve counts of murder, two hundred and fifteen counts of kidnapping and human experimentation, over four hundred cases of murder and conspiracy to commit murder by use of powers, and one hundred and seventeen counts of the use of powers for conspiracy to commit sexual assault and rape."


Synth jumped out of his seat. "Rafe, I newer!" By the time he'd finished the sentence, he was already tumbling to the relatively soft floor of the Yggdrasil, screaming in pain. I wasn't feeling particularly sympathetic.


"The drugs you sold have been used in numerous cases of date rape and other similar crimes." Dragon's voice was carefully neutral, even mechanical. Intentionally so, for whatever psychological game the pair of them assumed would get to Synth. "You provided those drugs, and continued to provide them even knowing how your clients were using them. According to Avalon law, you would be provided to the territory which has the highest punishment you'd be eligible for. Then passed down to the nations with lesser crimes upon completion of a given sentence. Hold no illusions, you're guilty of capital offenses and you can provide no justification that a jury would accept. This means you are going to be the first legal execution on Avalon soil."


Alexandria drummed her fingers on the table. "I'm afraid it's true. While there are some questions of how this works from an international jurisdiction that might allow the USA to turn this into an extradition battle, that would require the President to want to save you. I don't suppose you have any ideas why he'd want to?"​

I drew my attention away from them, Dragon could handle everything. Alexandria was there so they could play 'you're already fucked' cop and 'I can't do shit for you' cop. Or something like that. A simple problem that would be handled simply. Worst case scenario, we'd invoke our military resource right to take him from whomever got to convict him. What I had in front of me was far, far more complicated.


Amelia broke the silence first, her voice sounding very much like her mother's. "So, I hear you don't think we're really us."


Lisa didn't pull her eyes away from me. "Don't be obtuse, of course you're really you. To claim otherwise would be absurd. What I said was that you're not really Amelia Lavere and Taylor Hebert. You have their faces, their names, even most of their memories. But you're not really them, you're replacement copies."


FrustrationAnger. "That doesn't stop us from being them," I spoke through the haze of emotion flooding our link. If I didn't have Amelia backing me up, I already would have punched my supposed best friend. "I still love my father, he still loves me. Then Crystal has her mother, and the list goes on." I tactfully left out the quagmire that was the Dallon household. There were other, perfectly valid, reasons that Amelia didn't consider Mark and Carol her parents.


"Because we should trust a bunch of people whose children are all died in various, horrible ways to accept the harsh truth when they have convenient copies right in front of them to support the illusion that their deaths never happened? I'm sorry, that doesn't work."


"Taylor's real," Amelia slammed her hands down onto the table. "I am real. She's the same girl I fell in love with."


"Your predecessor," Lisa corrected. "She's the copy of the copy of the girl you were copied from fell in love with."


I rubbed my eyes with my hand. "This 'we're not real' shit is getting old, Lisa. I'm pretty sure if someone killed me, they'd be guilty of murder."


"Of course that's murder!" Lisa exclaimed. "It's murder to kill any three month old!" She took a deep breath and looked at me. "I'm not saying you're not alive or not people, that would be preposterous. But you're not the same people. And don't give me that 'same memories, same person' bullshit, because that's all that is. Bullshit. If you grow a clone, wake her up, and then kill her right after, that's not a suicide. If you kill yourself and your clone gets woken up, then that's still a suicide even though you knew you'd have a replacement."


She took another breath, then continued. "Or what happens if you create a clone, then kill the original? Or for that matter the clone? In both cases, it's a murder. Kill them both, it's two different murders. What we did to Noelle was murder, and any court would convict us."


GuiltRegretAnger. Amelia sighed painfully. "Noelle wanted to die, if that was the only way to save herself from becoming a monster. And you're the one who lied to us and said it was a mind transfer device, not a copying machine."


Lisa shrugged. "Okay, I'll concede that point. It was an assisted suicide, and only Riley and I are guilty of any part of it that can be considered a crime. Doesn't change the fact that Noelle was killed after she had a fantasy copy built to replace her. The point remains, if you were given it to do over again knowing what you currently do, would you be able to do the same thing and then claim you had not just killed someone?"


ConcernDoubtPain. I reached over and placed my hand on Amelia's shoulder. "That doesn't mean I'm not Taylor, and she's not Amelia."


"That's a question for philosophers to debate," Lisa dismissed. "It doesn't change the reality. You may be a Taylor, but you're not the Taylor. Oh, and don't pull the whole 'interruption of consciousness, every time you sleep you functionally die' pedantry, either. No matter how you look at it, when Taylor died, she died. There may be powers out there that can change that, but the restoration tech is not one of them. You're a duplicate, and not even a complete duplicate."


I kept still, letting Amelia calm me while I calmed her in turn. We both needed it. I thought back at the notes I'd left myself, letting me know at least the basics of the events I wasn't expecting to remember. "So, I lost a few days, nothing that can't be done by a good blow to the head or alcohol or whatever Master/Stranger power comes out that does memory alterations, I'm sure someone out there can do it. They'd still be the same person."


She looked at my partner. "Come on, Amelia, I know you remember all that fear after Taylor's first death. Knowing what you got back wouldn't be the same person. Very close, but not the same. You remember what that Taylor said, right before she killed herself."


RageDisgustGuiltHate. "Thin. Fucking. Ice." Amelia spoke through gritted teeth.


Lisa didn't back down. Then again, why would I expect otherwise? She mouthed off to Jack Slash while within feet of the Siberian. "And how we were so desperately hoping our time line turned out worse, so we could delete it and keep one where Taylor lived."


Amelia slumped back. "Yes, I remember." PainRemorse.


Lisa pressed. "Go ahead and tell Taylor her own last words."


"She told me to take care of..." Amelia glanced at me. "You. That was her last wish. That I didn't hold you responsible for her mistakes."


"Don't forget that version of Taylor died as well. So, for that matter, did the original Amelia who was given that dying wish."


Amelia's head snapped back over to Lisa. "But that doesn't matter! She's still Taylor, I'm still Amelia, and you're still a bitch for putting us all in this position."


"If you think this Taylor's the original, how come you never talked to her about that? I should think her own death would be important. The actions that led up to it even moreso. If you love her so much, how are you able to justify lying to her like this?"


Amelia slumped down. "Fuck you. Fuck you so much for this."


I glanced over at Amelia. FearGuiltLoss. "Amelia?"


She looked at me, tears forming in eyes. "Your lost week, before you died to stop the Butcher. We spent it fighting. The bond was broken because... because you had your brain altered to... be attracted to me. Not even attracted to women. Just me. and it looked so fucking much like what I did to Vicky. And I flipped out and ended our bond and... and that's the only reason Dinah gave us an all clear to attack the Butcher, because she predicted you'd kill yourself to fix everything. I'm so sorry." She fell into her arms, weeping.


Every possible kind of fuck. I got out of my seat and moved over to Amelia, leaning over her and wrapping my arms around her. Then I looked up at Lisa. "Is this what you wanted?"


Her eyes met mine. "For my best friend's loved ones to cry for her loss? Not exactly the happiest moment of my life, but it's better than what I've been watching for the better part of a year, now."


"By your own logic, your best friend doesn't have any loved ones in this room."


Lisa flinched before I realized just how that statement could have been misunderstood. RealizationAgreementHate. Oh, fuck, there's more to this story. I held Amelia as I ran through the logic. Lisa wasn't the only one who had intuition. "Of course I'd have been pissed at you, too. Amelia broke our link, you were adamant about it being a bad idea. You probably said something, and knowing me... knowing what bitch I was before I had Amelia's love to give me something worth living for. I'm guessing whatever I said was unnecessarily cruel."


Amelia spoke up. "You said your friendship was over, and that the only reason she was still on the team was because she was too useful to get rid of."


And suddenly I regret not finding out about this earlier. "Well. Fuck. Is that what this is about, Lisa? That version of me says we're not friends, that extends to me, too? Because if that's the card you want to play, it sounds like utter bullshit to me. Just because she decided to be a bitch, I and the whole rest of the team have to suffer your acting like this?"


"Oh, so now you're willing to call yourself a different person?" Lisa glared at me. "The moment the original does something you don't agree with. Come on, Taylor, if you're going to be a hypocrite, at least be consistent about it."


I looked down at Amelia, still with her face buried in her arms. "Okay, fine, consistent it is. You've convinced me. I'm a copy. Not even that, I'm a copy of a copy. A backup plan created to carry on the legacy of the original when she couldn't. Born to be a replacement."


ConcernNegationLoss. Amelia looked up at me, to protest, but I put my thumb over her mouth. "And on the balance? I'm pretty okay with that. So I'm only a few months old? Whatever. I have success and power and prestige that I didn't have to go through the trouble of earning, because my creator did it for me." Or something like that, this situation's weird enough without us asking whether prior-Taylor counts as my parent, or Emma and Riley do. Don't know, don't care, don't matter. "I have control of two entire worlds and the single most powerful military force on a hundred and twenty different Earths all at my command, and the memories needed to know how to use them. And I even get to ignore all the guilt and regrets the original accumulated. After all, if I'm not her, then her sins aren't mine to regret. I'm an innocent."


I kneeled down in front of Amelia looking at her eyes. "And more than all of that, I have someone who loves me. I was literally born to love and be loved by you, Amelia, and I can't imagine anything that makes me happier. You were created at the same time, our histories are just memories that aren't even ours, so we don't have to regret them at all, and we're not held to their promises. The only thing that matters is our future, and I will spend mine with you." LoveHopeSafeRedemptionAgreement. I kissed her cheek. "If you'll give me a minute."


LoveAgreementPatienceLonging. I stood and walked around the table over to Lisa.


She looked at me, more confused than anything. I couldn't help but feel a little smug amusement that I completely knocked her off her game. "Hi, I'm Taylor," I said, holding out my hand. Lisa looked at me like I was insane, then slowly reached out and accepted the handshake. "I'm sorry for your loss, and being so insensitive about it for so long. I never met her, but I'd like to think I know her pretty well. My apologies, but she was kind of a bitch."


Lisa's smile was forced, but at least it was a smile. "She had her moments, good and bad."


=================


A/N- Reporter: "Taylor, how did you not only defeat existential angst, but turn it into your bitch?"

Taylor: "Well, it's easy when you actively despise yourself. Past self. Sorry, I may have beaten angst, but I have yet to conquer the Elder God that is English tenses."


Also... this is a 2500 word chapter. Eeesh.

 

[Questingdragon]

Bonds​

Amy woke to frantic knocking on her window. She blinked blearily at Prism as the girl kept knocking.

Not again.

She pulled herself out of bed, grabbed her overnight bag just in case and opened the window.

"Is it Bonesaw and Nilbog again? Please don't tell me they've made another attempt at a disco zombie virus?"

"It's Lung and Crawler. It still hasn't happened yet, but the thinker who picked it up says you need to leave now.

Amy sighed and grabbed her Panacea robe from beside the window. As she put it on Oni Lee came out of the shadows, grabbed Prism and teleported with her.

He teleported into three places, and then each of those three teleported, again and again, until Prism cut off her power, and several hundred Oni Lee's and Prism's all slammed back into two bodies.

Amy had never really understood how the Lee/Prism power interaction worked. The only person in her family who had a bond was Shielder, he had found an interstate ward named Shriek, who's sonic attacks could influence his shields, making them tougher and more malleable.

The boy had moved into the bay, and it was rare for the two of them not to stay up late, playing with their powers together. Last night Shielder had been elated at being able to 'trap' Shriek's vibrations, and then make his shield produce them at any point.

Lee reached out to touch Prism and Amy, and both found themselves in the desert.

"You... you really came?" Crawler boomed.

Crawler was a beast, at least ten stories high and shaped like something out of nightmare, his mouth had long since lost the ability to form coherent speech. His voice instead came from a mouth on his knee. Probably grown from sheer need to communicate.

Amy looked in confusion from the knee, to the face, and decided to address the knee. It was closer.

"You, um... you know there's a price right? I need you to promise."

"I promise. No going near any humans unless there's an Endbringer fight. Just like the woman in the hat and the little girl in a suit said. Please! Save him!"

Amy looked past the knee as a giant claw lifted Lung and shoved him across the sand. He was mostly human, scales had formed, only to be rapidly eaten away by Crawlers acid. Most of his legs were down to the bone, and his torso wasn't a lot better.

Amy shuddered as her fingers entered the slime, but it was organic, which meant she could neutralizer it and begin replacing lost flesh.

"I know I have to be careful with him in the mornings, I didn't mean to spit quite that much acid..."

"I need some biomass." Amy said.

"Right." Crawler raised a tendril tipped with a glittering gray blade and drove it into his flesh, tearing out a chunk that was healed almost as soon as it was gone.

Amy reached out for the chunk of flesh and used it to create a new heart, some lungs, a bit more spine...

Lung's regeneration took it from there. New, scaled flesh flowing over his lower body and beginning to form the stumps of legs.

"We should get out of here before they get started. Goodbye Crawler, we'll leave you to it." Prism said.

Lee nodded in acceptance, and they began their power interaction again. A dozen brightly costumed girls clasped hands with a dozen black clad men in Oni masks, before collapsing into dust.

And then Amy was back home. Staring after the two of them.

It was tough, for those parahumans who didn't find someone to bond with. Matchmaker didn't get around to everyone, and studies showed that parahumans without bonds were severely prone to violence and irrational urges for conflict.

Even the rest of New Wave had their 'sky dance.' Which mainly involved the flying members throwing the non-flying members about in a pattern while everyone tried to create a light display. It wasn't a real bond, it didn't involve a power interaction and it didn't make everyone involved more powerful, but at least it was something.

Something a squishy little healer couldn't be a part of.

Well... back to wracking her brains for a way to create some sort of power interaction with her sister, Amy decided.

Then she saw the Matchmaker, a bright, golden man flying low and carrying someone.

Seeing the Matchmaker wasn't always a good thing. He paired people based on their powers, not on any sort of personal preference. The last time he had been in Brocktown Bay he had paired the vigilante Shadow Stalker with the villain Fog.

It went the way most such meeting did. They briefly tried to kill each other. They discovered their power interaction. They negotiated a bit, because who didn't like an increase in power and options? Slowly they were drawn to each other, developing something that went beyond normal human connections.

They'd killed three independent villains and one independent hero, and were still at large despite the desperation the E88 had shown in hunting down their lost member.

"Everyone! Wake up! Matchmaker is here!" Amy yelled.

It would be perfect if he was bringing someone who's power matched with one of her parents. Someone to make Brandish loosen up would be great. Or someone who could cheer up Flashbang. And if he then looked at her and Victoria and gave her a little shove in her sisters direction...

Victoria poked her head out the window, then levered it up and flew out. Flashbang came out the door, and Brandish was yelling something from the shower when Matchmaker alighted.

He felt sad, lost and lonely. His face was impassive, chiseled from stone, but what he was feeling was broadcast for all to hear. Eternally pairing powers, but never finding anyone to match his own.

He laid a thin, tall girl down on the grass at Amy's feet, and she immediately knelt down and touched the sleeping girls wrist.

Abrasions to her fingers, chemicals in her bloodstream indicating a lot of recent severe stress. Some sort of dampening effect was keeping her asleep, probably something from Matchmaker that would fade soon. Likely a recent trigger.

Then Amy actually looked at the girl, and gently pulled a used tampon from her hair.

(A brief crack AU where Scion decided he likes the bonds fairly early in the piece, and goes around pairing any two parahumans with a potential power interaction. Also, yes I blatantly stole the Lung/Crawler pairing from Wake)

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 356- Nelson


I awoke to soft kisses along my neck. "Oh, hey, you stayed."


Vicky's head moved up into view. "Didn't have anywhere else to be, and I slept with Clarice enough to..." she paused and smacked my arm. "Not like that, you perv! She's thirteen and has nightmare issues."


I almost objected to the comment, I hadn't thought anything dirty at all. But the way she was smiling, she already knew that, so never mind. Wait a second. "Huh, I'd have sworn she was at least fifteen or sixteen."


Vicky shrugged. "Yeah, welcome to the Amelia side of the family. Bunch of biomanipulators, one way or another. The Thinkers are convinced I got my powers from Clarice, although I'm definitely a better Brute and a worse Thinker." Okay, that's good to know. She jabbed my shoulder with her finger. "Also, if you go updating our ability profiles based on what I tell you when we're bed together, I will do horrible, unspeakable things to you. Then have Amelia put you back together so I can repeat the process."


I raised both my hands in mock terror. "I promise not to update any of your profiles at all. Seriously, though, it's a pretty distinct conflict of interest for both of us, so anything I do say is suspect by definition."


Vicky rolled her eyes. "Ugh, conflict of interest. Hate that term." She hopped out of bed to continue her rant. "Seriously, we're the fucking heroes. Our jobs are 'find bad guy, punch bad guy until he stops fighting back, brag about it to other heroes and with our adoring fans, live up the celebrity.' That's it, that's the sum total of our career path. What asshole got the power to piss on everyone's parade by taking the one thing where you can do the right thing and have fun with it, and injected politics into it?"


I was so glad I didn't have to feel bad about checking her out anymore. "I'm pretty sure that power comes pre-installed with 'homo sapiens', right along with bipedal movement and opposable thumbs."


She looked at me with mock horror. "Oh god, you're a nerd. Oh god, I'm dating a nerd!" She covered her face with her hands and pretended to cry. "What's wrong with me? How could everything go so wrong? I should have seen it. The cosplaying as a knight, the obsession with swords, the cheesy pre battle speeches, the lack of complaining at doing a bunch of paperwork. It all seems so obvious in retrospect!"


I watched her for a few seconds, doing my best to pretend I was offended. "Are you done, now?"


"Yeah, probably," she answered cheerfully, looking up from her hands with a brilliant smile. "Oh, as much as it pains me to say this, you should get dressed. It's still a work day."


Dammit. "I know." I climbed out of bed, completely aware that it was now Vicky's turn to watch me move about, because she wouldn't let me forget it while I went through the morning routine of brushing my teeth, shaving and getting dressed. She even let out a wolf whistle while I was bent over to put on my pants. Given that her power let her know every eye that was watching her, and at least a general idea of what they were thinking while looking, this was probably me coming close to exactly what she experienced all the time.


I pulled on a cheap shirt and then went over to my real outfit, the high tech battle armor that Hecate had built for me. The chestpiece was always the first to go on, which gave the antigrav field needed for me to effectively put on the leggings, followed by the arms and helmet. By the time I was done suiting up, Victoria had been waiting for about a minute and a half.


I glanced over at her clothes from yesterday. "Are you even wearing anything under that armor?"


"Hey, under our clothes, we're all naked," she answered. "And now you'll be thinking that while talking to the Director."


Oh god damn it, she's right. "I think I just threw up a little."


Vicky's face went stern as she looked me straight in the eyes. "Hey, I would have you know that Director Dunn is a perfectly normal and attractive woman. I just haven't figured out for which species, yet."


....


What species, indeed? I though as I entered the Director's office for our morning meeting. She wasn't nearly as bad as Vicky liked to say, but age and military lifestyle had not done the woman any favors. Worse by far was her attitude. "Good morning, ma'am."


She didn't seem terribly impressed as she looked up at me. "Chevalier," her tone was as angry as she ever allowed herself to be. "Please close the door behind you."


This can't be good. I complied with her request, making sure the door was shut firmly before walking in.


She gestured at a chair. "Have a seat." Again, she waited for me to comply. It was her ritual method of establishing power over me. Making me follow a series of mundane tasks like someone training a dog. "I have been hearing rumors that you and the Dallon girl are romantically involved with one another."


Really? People know already? I hesitated a moment. No, that doesn't make sense unless she either had someone specifically watching us to tip her off, or it's just one of those general rumors that had the good fortune to be correct. Either was possible, under the circumstances. I couldn't hide behind 'personal life' under the circumstances. This job functionally meant I had no personal life, especially given how important the Victoria/Chevalier interaction was as a healer. "Yes, Director, as of the start of the weekend. We'd prefer not to advertise this fact to the world, however."


She held up some papers and tapped them against the desk, before clearing her throat. "Yes, I would imagine not."


I found myself getting more than a little annoyed by the attitude. "There is nothing illegal or inappropriate about our relationship. She doesn't work in the Protectorate or PRT's chain of command, and I do not have the authority necessary to consider me a security risk for any possible conflicts with Avalon."


"I'm afraid you misunderstood," Dunn interrupted me. "I have no objections to your relationship with the girl."


What? "Pardon?"


She tried to smile as she leaned forward, handing the papers to me. "Quite the contrary, in fact. As you've said, there's nothing inappropriate. Miss and Mrs. Dallon have both gone out of their way to make it clear they're independent of both the PRT and Avalon. I believe we've worked together long enough that I've come to know you, perhaps not as a friend, but certainly as a colleague. You won't allow this to interfere with your duties, including those of the healing interaction."


I set the papers in front of me, we'd get to them in time, no doubt. "Of course not. Everyone understands just how critical that resource is. Our interaction is the most effective known healer on the planet." Except possibly her sister, since we lack the ability to influence DNA. "The only one known to work for the Case 53s. We would never do anything to jeopardize it."


Her attempt at a smile faded. "In your case, that is certainly true. Victoria, however, has historically been difficult to anticipate or control." I was not enjoying the direction this conversation was headed. "Pardon me for sounding callous, but hopefully this will also be a stabilizing element for her. An incentive, perhaps, to be less brash and more inclined to voluntarily accept a larger workload than the current contract compels."


I was stunned at the implication. She hadn't outright said it, but she wanted me to use our relationship as a way to manipulate her into following the PRT's marching orders. "I suppose it might, at that. Of course, her brash behavior has reduced villain activity in the city to nearly nothing."


Director Dunn reached over to her computer. "Which brings complications all its own. Rime is already scheduled for a transfer and promotion as soon as a leadership position becomes available. A position we all agree that she deserves. They're asking about Shockwave and Arc being moved to Baltimore, which would leave us understaffed. Tide and Hopscotch have already agreed to temporary transfers to Chicago, conditional of moving to work under Rime when she gets her own command."


As much as I hated to admit it, she wasn't wrong. We'd be limited to only four remaining adult Protectorate members in the city. A quiet city, granted, but a quiet city that still needed to hold its infrastructure together. "That is a problem, but hardly one that relates to Victoria. We're understaffed everywhere, and the M7s aren't being produced fast enough to fill in the gaps." Or, more accurately, a lot of cities aren't willing to agree to the Yggdrasil construct needed to maintain the M7s being put in their land.


"All that in addition to Victoria's quarterly contract coming up for review and renegotiation," the Director added. "There's a real possibility her mother will go out of her way to make life difficult for us, for both professional and personal reasons, that may culminate in Victoria moving to a different city."


I nodded. On that, we agreed. Carol was not a fan of the Protectorate in general and me in particular. "I'll talk to Victoria when I get the chance." At least about the risk of her mother interfering with the contract, that I could do in good faith.


Dunn looked visibly relieved. "Thank you. Let's discuss this week's patrol roster and then move on to the healing requests."


=======================


A/N- This chapter got away from me, it'll now be a two parter.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 357- Nelson


The phone was answered on the first ring. "Director Costa-Brown's office, this is Patrick speaking. Please state your business?"


Patrick, huh? Usually I dealt with a machine. Oh well, the phone system would still flag my number and rank for them to view. Since the phone itself was Tinkered to only respond to my biometrics, and only these specific phones could call this number, it made for an effective filtration system. Which was why it was usually automated. "This is Chevalier speaking, I need to speak with the Chief Director. High priority, non-Emergency, Pantheon related. I'll be in my office for the next hour."


"Understood, Sir, will that be all?"


"Yes, thank you," I hung up and got to the paperwork. For the most part, our healing priorities were automatic, based upon scale of debilitation and need. Need itself was filtered by other healers that could do the job with less difficulty. All I had to look at were the 'request' files, the ones that didn't strictly need healing, but wanted the boosted abilities, for any number of reasons. We could only afford a small number of those, so it usually went to heroes that were getting older and losing the ability to make good use of their powers, Thinkers that wanted improved senses and reduced migraines, or the occasional Brute that could get even more out of their body with a few muscle structures modified.


I did flag a few extra for the 'maybe' list, including a couple of crippled villains who were willing to surrender and switch sides in exchange for restoring them to health. I may not have liked Dunn's plans to manipulate Victoria, but if we could squeeze two or three extra out of each week's sessions, it would be very convenient from a political viewpoint. Might even let us justify keeping more of our people. If Vicky was spending too much of her efforts in the high priority medical setting to indulge the relatively minor goal of punching criminals, then we'd need them to cover the streets.


It only took half an hour before the Chief Director got back to me, alerting me immediately. I didn't even bother setting down my pen before accepting the call. "Thank you for getting back to me so soon," I opened, even as I finished the signature on the current sheet. Not done by half. "Sorry, just getting a little paperwork done while waiting."


She looked at me impassively. "That's quite alright. I was told you had high priority information on Pantheon." The woman was in remarkably good appearance for her age and the stress of her position. Sure, she wasn't without a few wrinkles, but I suspected she had the occasional healer treatment, herself, to stay so apparently young and healthy.


I finished my signature and set it aside. "Right, actually there are a number of things to speak of. I have learned of a new power interaction between Alexandria and Minerva, one that they have been aware of for some time now."


Costa-Brown regarded me for a moment. "That is a serious concern." She knew the implications of interactions, and the danger of Alexandria not only having one with a high ranking member of a foreign nation, but keeping that information secret from the Protectorate and PRT. "You're certain about this?"


I nodded. "Quite, in fact it goes deeper than that. Victoria shared some information about the Gaea/Khepri Interaction that I'm going to call a pairbond for this discussion. It seems that they can communicate directly through their powers, allowing them to functionally share their feelings with each other. It creates what is effectively a low level Master effect making both parties emotionally dependent upon one another and violently unwilling to break their pairbond. It thus far tends to create romantic behaviors in the bonded, well beyond what would be natural for the individuals in question."


She looked confused for a second. "Victoria? You are referring to Gaea's sister?"


I nodded. "Yes. I doubt she realized the significance of what she was telling me, but coupled with my own Thinker ability, I can confirm a superficially romantic link between Minerva and Alexandria."


"One of whom is a publicly declared asexual teenager, and the other a presumably heterosexual woman in her late thirties?"


Hopefully she wouldn't reject this based upon that. "Correct. As I said, a Master influence that causes those involved to break from their natural tendencies in favor of deepening the relationship with their pairbond. In addition, as this is a constant power interaction between the two, it would disrupt precognition and other power based behavior prediction methods."


The Chief Director stayed silent for a minute before speaking. "It is an interesting theory, and would explain the Empresses' ability to confound our predictive models. Let us say for the sake of this discussion that you've convinced me of the Gaea/Khepri 'pairbond', as you call it. What leads you to believe Alexandria and Minerva possess one as well?"


"It fits the model," I stated. "To date, the only confirmed pairbond is between two powerful Thinkers, both specialized in organics. In spite of a number of other power interactions on record, they're the only ones. It stands to reason that Alexandria and Minerva, both highly capable perception based Thinkers, would be able to interact on a similar level."


She regarded me quietly. "Interesting speculation, but nothing we can follow up on. Even if true, we could only confirm it by noting that their behaviors don't follow precognitive ability models. And given their regular interactions with both Endbringers and the various methods that we know Pantheon has at their disposal to disrupt precogs, I would find it highly suspect if they were predictable at all. To say nothing of Alexandria's association with Eidolon."


I stayed quiet for a moment, she wasn't wrong about that. Alexandria not registering properly would be meaningless. "There is also my own power-sight. Interacting powers carries strong clues that I can see fairly clearly." Despite the supposed 'Taboo' that should prevent it. I had to wonder what secrets Pantheon pulled from that. "Alexandria and Minerva show many similar themes to others. Of all the ones I've observed, only they and the Gaea/Khepri interaction last for more than a brief second or so."


"That's more significant, but not replicable," the Chief Director responded. "I believe you said something about Victoria also being able to observe something?"


"And a number of others," I confirmed. "Victoria can see their emotional states as directed at each other, and she believes they show signs of romantic involvement. Apparently, Hecate recognizes the pattern as well." Costa-Brown would recognize that name, she was responsible for the M7s and charging a small fortune for my armor and sword. "As does their new power manipulation Tinker, and Aceso." I wasn't sure she knew who Aceso was, but she could look it up. "All of whom may have come to the same conclusion through different methods. Although they seem to consider it to be 'cute', while I don't feel it's quite so benign."


Costa-Brown frowned, clearly unhappy about the news. "Are there any potential health risks to long term exposure?"


"Addiction to the bond," I answered smoothly. "Beyond that, nothing observably different than two people falling deeply in love in an unnaturally short period of time."


"You said something before about pairbonding being between long term, Thinker, interactions?"


I blinked at the sudden change of track, recovering after a moment. "There's not enough examples to be certain, but that seems to be the case."


"Both you and Victoria have Thinker powers and a long term interaction, if my information is correct."


Oh fuck me sideways. "That is true, but I don't think our powers interact in the same way. If anything, it's closer to both of our powers interacting with a third person as a medium, than them interacting directly with one another."


"Much as Gaea and Khepri do through their bioconstructs," the Chief Director reminded me. "Should this 'pairbonding' theory prove accurate, it's possible that there will be one between the two of you."


She's not wrong. Oh god, she's really not wrong. "I can't rule out that possibility." I didn't admit that Vicky and I were already involved, and simply had to hope Costa-Brown didn't ask if that were the case. "I will instruct Director Dunn to keep an eye on the possibility of that occurring. Or, perhaps you should do so yourself, to make absolutely certain the information is received and acted on." If the two of us just the result of some weird mind powers... dammit.


She nodded slowly. "I probably will have to do just that. However, as you're coming to me with this sensitive information, it suggests that either you are not, or the pairbonding won't have a drastic influence on the personalities of the possible victims."


Victims? Is that what we are? Victims. I couldn't answer that question even in the privacy of my own head, I honestly hated Costa-Brown for suggesting it, and I still had a job to do here. "Of more immediate concern are the potential security risks. Given Alexandria's status in the Protectorate, and Minerva's high level position in Pantheon, there is a significant risk for conflicts of interest."


The Chief Director sat forward a little. "I take it you haven't heard, then? Minerva has quit her position in Pantheon."


==============


A/N- I almost didn't put that last line in, for fear of people focusing too much on that and not enough on the rest of the chapter before it. We'll see how that turns out.

Also... I am *strongly* considering changing to writing long chapters twice a week instead of these small chapters twice a day, just to let my cliffhangers actually cliffhang and promote dialogue.