The appearance of Alexandria and her team almost threw me in a panic before I quickly collected myself.

This wasn't bad, I told myself, quite the contrary it was very good. I was looking for more capes, and conveniently they came to me instead.

And Dragon wasn't here.

I hadn't wanted to try to grab any heroes since I hadn't had any real muscle, and attacking their home base would have been a bad idea given how they were already alerted to me. Still, it was another story if they came to me, and from the looks of it, it was just the capes. No PRT goons with that annoying containment foam. I knew from Stormtiger's memories it had a distinct odor he was well aware of.

I felt my Taylor body get lifted off my feet and flung. Using Vista, I quickly curved myself to land right back in place after a moment of extreme vertigo. I heard a woman's voice give a sharp curse, and soon spotted two capes come into view. One the female in question with a full body uniform made out of some drab grey uniform, while the other a male in a full body armor which was made out of some shiny, reflective material.

I swiftly spotted three more capes, two on the rooftops near Alexandria, the other popping out of another of the alley openings. I immediately recognized two of them. Miss Militia and Dauntless were both on the rooftop together.

Time for round two, I guess.

The solo cape was female with another drab uniform, but two odd contraptions strapped to her shoulders. There was at least two more parahumans about besides, and I was already at a disadvantage. All of these capes looked to have ranged abilities besides Alexandria, and even she could just keep throwing crap at me. Whoever the mystery capes still in hiding were, they were probably going to pop up at the most inopportune time to screw me over. I smiled. My Taylor would have hated this, the current Taylor was still in mild shock.

I loved it.

I had everyone step over to the shattered rooftop piece, dragging Taylor along me with. Stormtiger picked up some rubble and used his aerokinesis ability to throw the chunks of rock in one explosive blast after the other, first targeting the cursing female cape, then switching to everyone in sight besides Alexandria.

The reflective cape created some sort of shiny shield in front of the telekinetic that deflected the projectile, Dauntless covered for Miss Militia, and the lone female cape just plucked the rock out of the air like it was a feather.

They promptly returned fire.

I flinched as I managed to deflect some sort of bright material, rubber bullets, returned rubble, new rubble curtsey of Alexandria, and did another nauseating body loop all with Vista's ability and immediately decided I wasn't going to do that again. Three concurrent spatial warps was Vista's soft limit before things started going south. It was possible, but the pain shooting through her skull indicated that it wasn't a good idea.

Maybe when she's older.

Hookwolf quickly jumped in front of the bright object this time, and both deflecting Alexandria and Miss Militia's assault. When the solo cape, who I believe I will call Rockblocker because her ability to no-sell my projectiles was starting to get on my nerves, shot back both my rubble and a steel ball I decided to play Missile Command by having Stormtiger intercept them mid-flight with shots of his own.

This was too simplistic.

They were either waiting for me to screw, were waiting for their allies to get the drop on me, or were stalling for time for more reinforcements. None of those were particularly good for me, so I quickly decided I needed to switch things up.

The main reason why I hadn't just jumped at one of the opposing capes in the first place was I'd needed to see if any other heroes were going to immediately pop in. If Dauntless and Miss Militia were present, there was no way that Armsmaster would be left behind unless he was held under Master protocols. His pride wouldn't have been able to stand it otherwise, and even then he would probably be brooding deeply and nursing his sore ego. Given that the arrogant chump hadn't shown, I could only conclude he'd been left behind along with the other heroes I'd briefly nabbed. There was one other hero in Brockton Bay that I knew of that hadn't shown yet, though.

And it was time to lure him out.

I had Vista create two warps, gave Shadow Stalker a specific command, and then quickly had everyone else jump towards the hero duo on the street with me. With Vista's power, they were literally within my reach on the second step. As expected, they both disappeared in a flash as Velocity pulled them out of my reach.

With Vista's power, I quickly made another two warps, one near the back of my group, and the other near Rockblocker, just as Shadow Stalker grabbed her from behind. She had some sort of control of kinetic force, but the main question I had was whether or not it was a conscious action or a reactive ability.

I smiled as Rockblocker stumbled forward, not much but enough to go twenty feet forward and meet us halfway back near my ammunition pile.

"Oh shi—" As soon as I grabbed Rockblocker—Cradle—I realized how well prepared they were. Alexandria had prepped about a dozen plans depending on how they engaged us, but the main goal of any of them was to get Vista away as she was my main method of defense and escape.

The blast of concussive force that Cradle had built up as soon as she saw me jumping for Karnac and Lightshow knocked me out of my administration range, if just barely, but it was enough for Strider—why the hell was Strider even here, he's not even on Alexandria's team—to pop in, and pop out with me in his arms.

"Hey there, little missy, don't panic too much." He shouted over my screaming—I was screaming?

Why was I screaming?

I immediately widened the area between Strider's arms and dropped into a roll that took me twenty feet away from the teleporter—not that that meant a lot. Doesn't matter, I had to get back. This had so many different ways of going sideways if I didn't have my Vista ab—Oh.

Vista.

Vista.

I was Vista. Missy Biron. Eleven—and a half!—years old, one of the youngest wards around.

"Uhh…" I blinked, a feeling chill go down my spine. I was Vista. "I am Vista."

"That you are, little missy." Strider popped up beside me, looking at me with a frown. "How are you feeling? Most of the others ended up needing to be sedated since they wouldn't stop screaming."

Others? Right. The Queen Administrator had taken a lot of others, hadn't she—it?—didn't quite realize the effects of her powers.

So that's why they were screaming.

"I'm… feeling fine?" I was, actually. After a few moments of steadying myself, my own memories were beginning to reassert themselves, and… and…

I bit my lip.

"Okay, then if you're feeling up to it, I'll be taking you back to headquarters." Strider offered his hand to me, mostly in a symbolic gesture. I don't remember that well, but his teleporting skills didn't seem to be touch based in the Leviathan fight so…

So…

"Um, is it alright if just go help in the fight with Queen instead?" The words tumbled out of my mouth in a rush, causing blood to surge to my cheeks. But no, he couldn't do that, could he, he's—

"I'm afraid that's not possible, Vista. We need to keep you out of the cape's hands. Queen, you said her name was? Fits." Right, right, because I'm her main method of defense and escape, and if I wasn't there, they'd be able to pin me—I mean her—down, and once they've done that they can start whittling her down, both with the enclosed environment, and, and…

I couldn't. I couldn't think.

It should have been so easy to think of what they were going to do to Queen, not only because I glimpsed into their plans, but because it was so easy for Queen to follow along with the logic—it was just so simple.

Or, it was for Queen—for Taylor.

But not for me, not for Vista.

I'm not stupid.

I'm not stupid, I thought to myself. But it really felt like it. It felt like it when one moment I had the world at my fingertips, both figuratively and literally in some cases, and then… I didn't.

"You okay?" Strider brought my attention back, his voice full of concern.

"M-my tummy hurts." I lied. "Could we wait a little bit before going back?"

"…Alright, we can do that." Strider scratched his head, letting out a small sigh.

He was nice, even if he looked a bit put out from my childish exclamation. I would have felt bad if I wasn't busy trying to stop a panic attack.

I'm not stupid.

But if I wasn't stupid, why was it so damn hard to think? Why couldn't I figure out basic tactics? Why couldn't I use my powers right? Just a few minutes ago I had enough control to easily curve bullets back perfectly into their chambers, and simultaneously defend from three different attacks at once, yet it had been an effort just to widen the area between Strider's arms and immediately roll twenty feet.

And things were just getting worse. I had been able to remember, with perfectly clarity, the events of the Leviathan attack on Brockton Bay, but now it was slipping away to only a vague notion that he's going to attack… sometime, next year? I don't even remember the date.

I'm not stupid, damn it.

I grit my teeth. Frustrating, it was so damn frustrating. I felt tears sting my eyes. God damn it, I'm not going to cry. I'm not!

It just all felt so petty. I remembered swooning over Gallant a hundred times better than anything really important, even now I felt my heartbeat speed up from thinking about him and it was just so dumb.

I wanted to do something, something that'd actually mean something, not fumble all over and make myself look even dumber than I felt.

I just felt so worthless, so damn insignificant.

We're s-so very small, in the end.

I gasped. A tingle ran through my spine as I dimly, ever so slightly, remembered a vision of stars.

And I knew what I was going to do.

It was absolutely insane, but that was okay. It'd actually mean something.

I blinked away my tears, looking around quickly. Strider was keeping a close eye on me, but I used the excuse of wiping away my tears to turn around and get a good look at where I was. Thankfully, I was familiar with the area from a few patrols I'd been brought along with, which I'd only been able to go on with because I'd begged, and a Protectorate member was along with as well. It was just a couple of blocks away from the current battle—but first I needed to incapacitate Strider, or something.

Easier said than done.

I'm sure Queen would have had a hundred different ways of being able to do it, but I had to wrack my brain for just one.

"I'm sorry." I mumbled, to which Strider blinked for a second and started leaning down towards me before I warped space and kicked him as hard as I could in his crotch. I felt a ball in my stomach tighten in guilt as he screamed in pain and dropped to his side, clutching the area I'd hit.

I took a moment to debate whether I should try to bring him to Queen or not, as he rolled from side to side, still screaming, before deciding against it. I didn't have the strength to do more than pull him inch by inch, which would slow me down significantly, and more than likely give him time to recover and just teleport us to away.

So I ran. I tried as hard as I could and still only managed twenty-five feet a step, but instead of feeling frustrated, I felt secure. This was the right choice. Yes, I was giving up on shy little Missy, but that's because I was running straight towards a spectacular new Vista. I wasn't going to be just the girl who sat at the com station, or came along on patrol like a leech.

I was going to be a part of something vast—something as big and bright as the stars in the sky.

I heard the crash of rock and thundering bangs of gun shots as I neared the battle, which had spilled into the street outside the alley. A few of the surrounding, dilapidated buildings had been reduced to rubble from the fighting, and Miss Militia and Dauntless had been forced off the rooftops. I saw Stormtiger on the ground, being dragged by Shadow Stalker as Cradle jumped to and fro, spinning while deflecting bullets and shooting rocks to her former allies like some sort of crazed ballerina.

All of them saw me as I literally leapt the last step into the very middle of Queen's group.

"I'm back," I said with a smile as Queen eagerly grasped me with her administration once more.