Victoria wasn't in a good mood. But then, nobody else was either, so she didn't see the point in trying to fake it. Even if it was...kind of pathetic, moping up in her room. No phone. No computer. Because she was on 'lockdown' until her parents got home.

Her mom had grounded her. While some crazy Tinker was setting off bombs all over the city, her scumbag boss had gotten out of PRT custody. Lung was out on the street again, the ABB were probably parading around like they owned the place, and she was grounded. It was ridiculous. Her whole family was out there, pitching in, putting themselves in danger…

And she was sitting in her room, and trying to distract herself with an old magazine.

It wasn't working.

And it was just...it was so stupid. Because if she hadn't been out with Taylor last night, New Wave wouldn't have been the first ones out taking care of things. They would have been...sleeping, is what. Might not have even heard anything until the next morning. And what good would any of them have been, then?

About as much good as she was right now.

She let out a disgusted huff, tossed the magazine aside, and rolled off her bed. If she wasn't going to be doing anything, she might as well not do anything on a full stomach.

It was too quiet in the house. It was always quiet, and it wasn't usually a problem, but with nobody home it was worse. She wound up turning on the TV on her way through the living room, just to have a little noise while she fixed her food.

Stupid. It made her feel like a little kid.

She wasn't a little kid. She had super powers. She'd fought thugs and villains without any trouble, and her mom was fine with that. She'd snuck out before, and had never gotten more than a talking to. But when her breaking the rules was so obviously helpful for once, her mom flew off the handle. Because, what, she'd had a close call with a bomb? She was invulnerable.

Taylor had been the one freaking out about it. She wasn't a brute, so she would have been the one to get hurt. Or killed. If she hadn't gotten jumpy, teleported them out…

Oh, she didn't want to think about what would have happened, then.

So of course, she spent about five minutes thinking about it. Taylor, being dead. Having to tell people about it...jeeze. Her dad had been really nice, and he had no idea. She couldn't even imagine having to break that sort of news…

The front door opened, and she shook herself out of her thoughts, realized that she'd already fixed her food, and grabbed the plate to take with her. If it was just mom or dad she could probably…

"...Amy."

It was Amy. She was back. Oh, thank god she was back.

"Hey, Vicky."

It took a serious effort not to drop the stupid plate, then and there; instead, she flew it over to the coffee table (breaking about six house rules in the process) before darting back over to hug her sister.

"Oof! Hey, watch it…"

"No way. You deserve a super-hug after what you did." What she did...running away. The thought turned relief into anger, and she settled back on her feet to step back. "What the hell were you thinking!? I've been...we werefreaking out, Ames! You were just...when you didn't come home...and freaking Bakuda! You could've been-"

"Vicky."

She stopped. Swallowed down the anger (worry) with a bit of effort...and actually took a look at her sister. "Christ, you look like shit."

Amy's serious expression broke, for a second, and she felt like things were going to be good. She was smiling and she was home and it'd be fine…

"I've been at the hospital since this morning." That tiny smile went away, and Victoria felt the frustration return. "Because of the bombs, the power outages...there are a lot of people hurt."

"There always are...Jeeze, Amy, you couldn't even...you couldn't take a break after-" A pause, and she cringed. "After the bank?"

"No." Amy sighed, and shook her head, and just looked...tired. People their age weren't supposed to look tired like that. "I did. But with all this stuff...I can't just leave it. People need me there."

"Yeah, well there's people here that need you."

She flinched, and Victoria almost kicked herself for that. "...I just came back for some things."

That...took a few seconds to process. And then she felt her stomach twist. "What?"

"..." Amy sighed, rubbed at her face. "I'm going to be staying somewhere else, for a little while. Just until I can get my head on straight-"

"You can't leave again!" She couldn't, everybody had been freaking out the first time, and now she was back..."C'mon, Ames, this is stupid, why don't you just...I don't care, you know. You're my sister…"

"Except I'm not, am I?"

Dammit. Dammit. "That's bullshit and you know it! Just because some manipulative bitch supervillain spouts off some crap about...that doesn't change anything! She was probably lying, anyway! She was threatening you with a gun…"

"Vicky, can you please tone it down?"

"What-oh...shit." She'd been shouting at her. That...that wasn't cool. "I'm sorry. Sorry, I'm just...all this crap, and then I got grounded because I was out last night trying to find the Undersiders, and then Taylor almost died againfrom one of Bakuda's bombs-"

"I get it." Amy bit out. "It's been a crazy couple of days...which is part of why I need to work things out."

"But…"

"It's not like I'm moving out of the city. I'm not even moving. It's just going to be a few days. A week at most." She smiled, but it didn't look good. That, if anything, only made Victoria feel worse. "It's not a big deal."

It wasa big deal. Because it wasn't just Amy visiting a friend, or being out at the hospital on one of the days she was supposed to take off. She was...avoiding them. And all because some jumped-up Thinker had decided to screw with her head? It was...that wasn't right…

But Amy was so tired, and if she was upset enough to run away like she had, then...then she deserved some space. The chance to work through things...right? "Just a week?"

"I promise."

A week. "Can you at least...at least tell me where you're staying?"

She sighed, and nodded. "One of the nurses at the Hospital. I...told her that I needed a place to stay for a little while." Another tiny smile. "She's letting me sleep on her couch."

That...that was good. A little weird, but Amy had built up a lot of goodwill over there. So maybe it made sense. "Okay." She wasn't on the street, or hanging around with some stranger or anything. A nurse. Nurses were usually okay people, right? "Are you gonna stay for a little while, at least? I just made some lunch. Could whip you something up, huh?"

"I've, uh…" That didn't sound like a yes. "My cab is waiting outside...I was really just gonna grab a couple of things. Didn't think anybody was going to be home."

Right. Because she was...avoiding her family. Right.

"Sorry...I…" A cab. God, she could have asked. Victoria would have flown her home and back again. She had to know that. "I won't distract you, then."

"...thanks, Vicky."

Amy disappeared upstairs. Victoria moved over to the couch, and sat down to poke at her food. It didn't seem particularly appetizing.

She turned the TV up, so that she couldn't hear the footsteps above her. When she realized that she was 'watching' another news report about the bombings, she almost shattered the remote turning it off again. Then the quiet was back, except for Amy moving around her room. Probably packing things into that godawful pink-and-white backpack she still hadn't gotten rid of…

And back down the stairs. She'd be out the door in a second…Victoria nearly panicked, for a moment.

"I don't care, you know."

The footsteps stopped, and she turned around to see Amy, standing there. With that backpack. She almost smiled, at that, but couldn't bring herself to actually go through with it.

"Even if that bitch was telling the truth, I don't care." She'd been thinking about this one, so it wasn't hard to reach a decision. Not with Amy walking out the door. "You're not his daughter...you're my sister."

It got quiet. She sat there, and bit her lip, and waiting for...something. Anything.

"...I'll see you at school. Okay, Vicky?"

Still leaving. That...that was fine. "Yeah. 'Course."

The door opened, and shut, and Victoria stared down at her plate.

xxxxxxxxxx

It took four days before Aunt Sarah could convince her mom to let her out after school, again. Four days, and she was sending what had to be text number twelve to Taylor's crappy little pre-paid phone.

It took her four days to bother typing out four words. 'I'll see you there.'

'There' being the place Victoria had just asked her to. Of course that was the one that she replied to. No, she couldn't have bothered to say she was alright, or that yes, she knew that Bakuda was still a nutjob, or maybe 'Oh man, your sister came back for five minutes and then left again that sucks'...

Nope. Just...I'll see you there.

She sure as hell was going to see her there.

In fact, Victoria arrived a good ten minutes earlier than she'd intended to, not even bothering to stop and grab her costume from home. And she stood there, waiting. And waiting.

Until, finally, that soft whuff of Taylor's teleportation sounded from behind her, and she could turn to chastise her properly…

"...God dammit." What the hell was going on, lately? Had the whole world just gone crazy? Why the hell did everyone…"What the hell happened to you?"

Taylor hadn't bothered with her 'mask', so it was easy to see the dark circles under her eyes, see just how pale and scraggly she was. And judging from the way it took her so long to answer the question, "I haven't slept."

Yep. "Seems to be a lot of that going around." Taylor just looked confused, but she didn't feel like explaining at the moment. "Is it the Bakuda thing? Dammit, I knew I should have talked to mom about that. I can't believe she just sent you home. I can't believe she grounded me, you need to talk through that crap-"

What is that?

Is that…no. No, she fucking didn't.

It took a...serious effort not to reach out and haul her off her feet by her collar. Considering how scrawny she was, it wouldn't even be that hard. "What the hell, Taylor? You...did you take that out of our garbage?"

"No." Taylor just stared, and held out the creepy bone-thing that Victoria knew she'd thrown away. "I found another one. At another shrine...looking thing." That...there were more of those? "The day you showed up at my house again. I'd started...feeling it, during school, and I had to skip out of the last few periods to go find it…"

"You had to!?" Victoria was reallytrying to keep her voice down, but her newest (and at this point most irritating) friend was making it very difficult. "Are you kidding me? You promised me that…" No, this wasn't happening. "Give it to me."

The way she clutched the thing closer was ringing all kinds of warning bells in Victoria's head...

"This thing is the only reason we're not both dead."

...what? "The hell does that mean?"

Taylor shifted, and swallowed, and something was so obviouslywrong that she almost just took the damn thing off of her while she was distracted. "Just before the bomb, I had a...a vision. Just a few seconds. But I saw it go off. And…and it hurt. It hurt, and I heard screaming, and then we were walking right into it again."

A...vision? She remembered, definitely, how everything had been fine...and then Taylor had freaked, and teleported them away. Victoria had thought that maybe she'd just...heard the bomb ticking or something. Saw it, maybe. Well...apparently she had seen it. "You're a precog?"

"No." She shook her head, and lifted the bone-thing. "This was pulling on my power...this thing gave me just enough warning to save both of our lives."

No way. "I am so not buying that." Taylor opened her mouth, but Victoria didn't let her get started. "No, I saw you that night we fought Oni Lee. You were completely blanked out. If it is messing with your powers, that's even more reason to get rid of it…"

"But it works." A quiet hiss. "I tested it again, last night...some guy with a gun." She rubbed at her chest, fingers digging in after a second. "And it...it worked."

...she'd let some idiot shoot her!?

"Are you...are you fucking crazy?"

"It...seemed like a good idea at the time."

Oh God. She was crazy. "That's...I don't...I can't even. What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing's wrong with me! But I had to know it wasn't just a one time thing…"

"And if it had been, you'd be dead!"

Silence. Victoria glared, but Taylor didn't back down. That was...that was different.

"I'm keeping it."

"You're not."

"Yes, I am." And she sounded so certain. "I can't shrug off bullets. And I...I can't be a hero, if I'm dead. So I'm keeping this thing, and if any more turn up, I'm going to see if they're useful, too. And if you don't like that, then...I guess we just won't be able to work together."

That...that was crazy. It was…

Victoria...really didn't want that to happen. Patrolling solo was bullshit. And Taylor was...she was a complete moron, obviously, but…

"You are...really going to make this a thing." And she knew she was going to go along with it, too. "Dammit...fine. Fine, you win. Keep the creepy Trump-trinket. But when whoever made that thing comes along and turns you into their meat-puppet, I reserve the right to punch you in the face until you stop moving."

"...that seems fair."

"You're damn right it does." God. "And you're going to tellme if you find any more. Because that's...this is just messed up. You realize that, right? Someone is making those things."

"Yeah...I get it." She didn't sound like she did. "I'll let you know."

"Awesome." Great. Victoria sighed, and rubbed at her face...had a terrible vision of herself, in the near future. Pale and drawn, eyes red from crying and lack of sleep.

Nope. Nope. "You and I are going to go get suited up. Then we are going to go out and have a good time. You aren't going to argue, because you are out of passes from me." She didn't wait for a response, already lifting into the air. "Back here, half an hour, no excuses!"

Because at this point she didn't care if she had to barge into her house and drag her out by the back of that ratty sweatshirt. They were going to go blow off steam, and relax, and everything would be fine.

It would be fine…

xxxxxxxxxx

School was a chore, but it was important to show the colors, to smile and wave and be friendly. Get good grades, go the extra mile when she could, maybe sign the occasional autograph (if there was a new student or five). It left her days pretty busy.

So when Taylor text her at lunch, asking her to call, she honestly debated it. But it wasout of character. And given what they'd talked about just a couple days before…

She excused herself from her table, kissed Dean on the cheek just to watch him be flustered for a second, and slipped off to make the call.

"Glory Girl." Okay. Taylor must have been in costume...that fit. "I found another shrine."

Of course she had. Couldn't even go a week without something happening. "Alright...so you're taking the stuff?"

"I...maybe." A pause. "I think you need to see this."

That...hadn't been what she meant, when she told Taylor to tell her about the things. "It's just a...thing, isn't it? Why do I need to see it?"

"Because this place is different." A pause. "Your phone has a camera, right?"

"...yyyeaaah?"

"Okay. Um...bring that too. Soon."

"What-" And she hung up. She hung up.

Heroes weren't supposed to...well, she'd skipped school the other day. They weren't supposed to cut class.

Oh, this was going to come back to bite her.

She shot of a text to Dean to cover for her, then headed for the nearest exit. By the time she got in the air, she'd gotten another message from Taylor with the address she was looking for.

It wouldn't be a long flight.