Chapter Eight
"I don't fucking believe it," Armsmaster said. The Director shot him a look. "Yeah, I swore. Get over it." Almost an hour had passed since the two figures stood outside the Protectorate headquarters in Brockton Bay. The woman and young girl standing in front of the crowd had seemingly done the impossible. The live feed from NASA had shown three enormous eruptions of light on the planet Venus, followed by the destruction of much of the thick clouded atmosphere. What he couldn't believe was that this woman stood here at all. Every file they had showed that she was dead. Alexandria and Eidolon had personally spoken of that day. He'd stood on the beach and watched as the news feed from Dragon had read out the bad news. Still, impossible things happened with some regularity anymore.
"It doesn't make sense," a P.R.T. officer said, watching as the crowd gathered.
News camera crews gathered. Annette and Taylor had spoken to several P.R.T. and government officials. The microphones gathered. The mother nodded to the daughter, and she stepped forward.
"My name is Taylor," she said, introducing herself. "My father was the hero known to the world as Hancock. My mother and I are trying to fill the shoes he left open." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "My mother and father died during a battle with the Simurgh and Behemoth. I don't know how she came back to me, but rest assured, her return gave us the opportunity to right a huge problem."
The crowd went silent for a moment. Annette stepped beside her daughter and leaned into the microphone for effect. "The Endbringers," she stated, "are dead. We killed them."
The sound that followed boomed so loud over the area that Armsmaster covered his ears. The news crews frantically waved at their coworkers in the vans to send it over the air as quickly as possible. The mother and daughter stepped back from the microphones for a moment. "Mom, what do you want to do next?" Taylor asked.
"Leave them asking questions," she advised. "We've got a lot of catching up to do. And we also have to take out the Slaughterhouse Nine."
That last one caught Taylor's attention. "What?" She shouted in a whisper.
"Tell you all about it after I catch your father up to speed," Annette replied. "Right now, just give them a quote."
Taylor shrugged. "Alright."
The two approached the eager news media. "Team Hancock," they said in unison, "is back in business!" They took off, leaving the crews shouting questions and the bystanders cheering and celebrating.
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Topic: ENDBRINGERS ARE GONE.
In: Boards ►News ► Events ► Endbringers Defeated
Bagrat(Veteran Member)(The Guy in the Know)
GEE SUS. WHERE DO I BEGIN?
Hancock's wife is back. FROM THE DEAD. Mom and daughter fight AND KILL THE ENDBRINGERS. What could I possibly add? The Endbringers are defeated. The fight took place on the planet Venus. The explosions that killed the monsters could be seen from Earth.
VideoSkunky(Veteran Member)
I don't.
I just don't.
DancingBabii(Veteran Member)(Confirmed PRT)
I swear to Christ I've never been so happy to be given a mountain of paperwork to fill out.
FluoridatedWaiter29(Veteran Member)
I was watching the tv and they interrupted Sailor Moon to tell us that the Endbringers were defeated. On VENUS no less. I was so excited I accidentally crapped my pants.
ConjunctionJunction(Veteran Member)(Cape son)
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG
FlipperyWhenWet(New Member)
Tell us how you really feel.
GirlzWithGuitarz(New Member)(Cape daughter)
I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS REAL OMFG
RunnerGunner91(Veteran Member)
Let's talk for a moment about the fact that these two might be more powerful than Scion. I mean, they killed ALL THREE IN ONE FIGHT.
WHAT.
WilliamFatner(New Member)
I was thinking the same freaking thing OMG.
I can imagine the conversation. "Hey, dear, how's things going? Oh, not much, I just CAME BACK FROM THE FREAKING DEAD AND KILLED THE ENDBRINGERS."
Bagrat(Veteran Member)(The Guy in the Know)
All I know is that the versus debaters are LOSING THEIR F$%&*^# MINDS. I mean, they flew from Earth to VENUS in, what, less than an hour? Isn't THAT what the footage shows? Let's be REALLY conservative and say it took a full hour. Speed of Light in a vacuum, according to Google, is 1.079 x 10^9 kilometers per hour. The distance to Venus is 261 million km. I did the math. My calculator says it's 24 PERCENT THE SPEED OF LIGHT. And that's assuming it took a full hour. Any time less than that and the number goes up. And honestly? We haven't even taken into consideration that they might not have strained completely. I mean, the news reporting the Endbringer attack to the report of the explosions wasn't that long.
So, this is huge. HOLY CHRIST ON A CRACKER. I'll get back to y'all when I can pull my jaw off the ground.
Annette and Taylor made it back to the house before the news crews could get there. Danny stood on the porch propped against the door so as not to fall over. He approached his wife, barely able to contain himself.
"I…" he uttered. Water poured from his eyes and he almost collapsed forward into an embrace.
"Oh, hey!" Annette exclaimed, catching her husband, whose arms wrapped around her, weakly at first, then rigidly. "I missed you too, love."
"Y…you…you're alive…" Danny managed to say, his legs wobbly. His voice cracked several times. Taylor hugged them both. "Oh, my God, I couldn't believe it. I thought I was hallucinating."
"I hate to break up this moment," Taylor said, "but the news is going to be here in like ten minutes. Let's go to the cabin."
"That's a great idea!" Annette said. Danny took the hint and went in and grabbed his helmet and jacket. They locked up the house just as Taylor saw news vans heading up their street. They took off and a few minutes later, arrived at their other residence. Annette got the generator, the solar panels and the heater working. The lights went on and they locked the door behind them and shut the blinds.
Seated next to each other on the couch, they embraced as they waited for the heat to catch up. "I can't believe this is real," Danny said. He wiped his eyes.
"It's a hell of a story," Annette said.
"You won't believe what happened," Taylor said, "while you were gone."
"Oh, believe me," Annette replied, "I'm looking forward to hearing it.
Danny looked at his daughter. "Honey, do you mind if mom says her part first?" He looked at his wife. "You're in a hurry?"
"Yeah," Annette began, "Taylor and I have to deal with some enemies after I'm done. But let me get started. I'm sure I can fit this whole story in time."
"You will have to be fully immersed in our ways, Vo'lai." The being said, shifting into a humanoid shape.
Annette nodded. "I understand," she agreed.
The room changed around her, and the other spirits fled. She found herself in a blank slate of a room, with grayish, smooth textured walls and no features whatsoever. A light seemed to illuminate the room from nowhere in particular. The figure waved its arms and made the room change into a kaleidoscope of colors passing all around and through each other. "Prior to the origin of your universe," the being explained, "we existed in a dimension free of complication. We were nowhere, and everywhere, because there was nothing except our existence." The scene changed to an early universe, opaque with a brilliant light existing everywhere in space at once. "Until your universe was approximately three hundred thousand Earth years old, energy existed at such a high state that no atoms could form. The entire universe was light." He waved his arms. The light disappeared and blackness reigned. "When the universe cooled to the point that matter could form, we became interested in it."
"Wow," she said, watching as portals opened and the multi-colored blobs floated into the universe through portals. "So, you've existed for a long time."
"For billions of your Earth years, in fact," he corrected. "We discovered our ability to alter this reality to our benefit to be of utmost use. Rather than implement our ideas of what should exist, we waited for the universe to provide us tools to work with." He showed her images of planets forming, with all manner of bizarre arrangements of inorganic matter on it. "When we arrived on worlds where there were all kinds of wonderful things to play with, we engrossed ourselves in creative means for millions of years." He showed a wide variety of scenes; she saw everything from black holes to planets that rained glass. "However, life provided us with the most unique experiences imaginable."
The scene changed to show planets with dozens of species, and the colorful beings would take on shapes like the life forms, and imitate their life patterns. She saw them mimic creatures so familiar she'd have sworn panspermia was true, and also lifeforms so strange, she couldn't imagine they would be called animals. "That's amazing," she thought out loud.
"Not only," he replied, "but we would occasionally alter the properties of a few members of a certain species just to see how the reaction would be. Needless to say, we often got ourselves a little carried away."
A bizarre planet came into view. Annette looked at it strangely. Something about it felt wrong. Upon closer inspection, her jaw almost dropped. "What in the fuck," she uttered.
"Certain," the being responded. They zoomed in on absolutely enormous beings of such inhuman biological arrangement as to resemble acid trip horrors. "These things, what the humans refer to as 'Entities,' originated here." The scene changed to hundreds of the colorful godlike beings descending on the planet, invisible to the inhabitants. "We arrived, drawn to these Entities by their enormous intellect." He zoomed in on various members of the species. "Unlike most of the primitive, early universe life, these things were not only sentient but sapient, capable of complex and abstract thinking."
He looked at her. She nodded. "At last the universe could ponder its own existence," she replied.
"Certain." He showed a fast-forward of the history of the planet. "We gave various members of them an incredible array of powers. We would get great enjoyment out of competing with each other to imagine the most unique power possible to encapsulate in these things called 'shards' and bestow them upon individuals." The conflicts started at a minor level and escalated from there. "From life, we saw the struggle that had inevitably transpired, but it was these things that truly taught us the nature of thoughtful conflict." The wars that emerged ravaged the planet and rendered most life on the surface extinct.
"I don't get it," Annette replied. "Why didn't you just intervene directly and stop the fighting?"
"It must seem monstrous and terrible to a human mind," he answered, "but in as many cases as possible, we do not interfere once a being has decided to utilize the power we have given them." The next scene showed the various entities ejecting themselves into space in various directions until they crashed into planets. When they did, they bestowed their powers upon the life forms, stirred up conflict, and learned from the results. Then they destroyed each version of the planet, and moved on. "They decided to take our method of travelling from planet to planet and learning, and add their own twist to it." The scene changed to two specific Entities. "We have never been much concerned about the end of this universe. We are unlikely to be affected by its death. These beings, however, will not survive the ultimate fate of this universe. So, they endeavored to prevent the ultimate fate of the universe."
"Can such a thing be done?" Annette asked. "Is it even possible?"
The being considered. "Not quite known," he said. "At this point, at least." The next thing Annette saw was the Entity known as Eden crashing into an alternate Earth, and her death. Her partner remained unaware of this event. Her jaw almost dropped when she saw the Entity's partner.
"Scion," she uttered.
"Certain," the being said. "The cycle they began is permanently broken."
Horror struck Annette. "So, what happens now?"
The scene disappeared, and she found herself back in the uninteresting room with the being again. "We train you in the power we have given you," he said, "and you return to Earth to serve the human race against a being that, in all likelihood, will turn violent against his unwilling host planet."
Annette found her emotions conflicted. "I thought he was weird," she admitted, "but, my partner and I were weird too, so I didn't think anything of it." She looked at the being. "Can I defeat him?"
"You? Uncertain," he admitted. "With your daughter, it is certainly possible."
She drew herself into a more serious posture. "I'm ready."
They performed a lot of mental exercises. Different beings would replace the familiar trainer, and some of them had radically different humanoid features. They allowed their student to sleep as she would when she was on Earth so as to ready herself to return. Since she didn't have to eat or bathe here, however, she trained whenever she wasn't sleeping. Among the litany of things she learned was how to control her power, how to tap into each of the various elements, and how to develop an individual element to its utmost. The elements themselves, were not actually literal; Earth, for example, was an abstraction of the physical application of force and the resistance to the same. Fire and lightning represented rearrangement of matter in destructive and creative fashion, in various forms. Wind, or sky, represented movement, and such things. Each of these were an enormous blanket that covered millions of different possible applications. The uses that humans granted these powers found were but a fraction. Most people of her kind simply focused on their durability, strength, and flight. In all the thousands of years they'd lived, they hadn't even scratched the surface of what they could actually do.
Annette learned how to focus effects from one element onto the world around her. Being able to utilize the enhanced strength of Earth with the destructive power of Fire would prove useful in combat. She learned about the aspects of physics her power worked around and how to switch back and forth for greater effect. Finally, she learned how to overcome the thoughts that humans had that hindered how godlike beings fought.
The time came when she woke up in her own body again and she had to fight against Pretender in her own mind space. She didn't like the thought of having one of those shards in her, nor the thought that she basically murdered a man. Still, she had her daughter back, and that was one of the things Contessa's power gave her, so using Pretender's shard proved useful after all.
Danny couldn't believe what he'd just heard, even though he knew it had to be true. "My god," he uttered. "How'd you stay sane through it all?"
Annette wiped a tear from his eye. "The stuff I was having to deal with," she explained, "was nothing compared to knowing how long it would be before I could see you again."
Taylor embraced her mother. "You had to deal with Cauldron," she uttered. "I don't know if I could've handled it."
"Honey," she told her daughter, "what you are is the best of us. None of those others could do what you're going to do when you're ready."
"Right now, can I just celebrate having you back?" Taylor said.
Annette looked at the clock. "We'll have plenty of time to celebrate," she explained, "once we do something first."
"Is this what you saw when you possessed Contessa?" Taylor asked.
"Yes," Annette explained. "After I figured out how her power worked, I got around to asking lots of questions. My power affected how her power worked, making it more effective, so the more I learned, the more I knew I had to use what I had."
Danny put two and two together. "Because you knew you wouldn't have access to it forever," he said.
"That's right," she said. "So I had to memorize a bunch of different scenarios, and even with my bear trap memory, it was difficult to keep it straight."
Taylor's expression focused. "You mentioned the Slaughterhouse Nine," she said.
"Contessa couldn't use her power to affect the Nine because it conflicts with Jack Slash in some way," Annette explained. "I figured that out once I started looking at her data. But somehow, my power changes that. If we want to put an end to their carnage, we have one shot at this. They think they're hidden, but I was able to determine exactly where they're hidden."
Taylor clenched her fists. "Let's go," she declared. "Don't try to leave me behind."
"On the contrary," Annette said. "You're the key to all of this."
Somewhere, a radio picked up a broadcast. Nine distinct figures stood around the small object. The hunting shed's owner, sliced cleanly to pieces and lying in the corner, paid no attention as Bonesaw examined him. "The Endbringers are dead," a young woman's voice came over the speakers. "We killed them." The next voice came from a radio news anchor commenting on the nature of the return of the Hancock's earlier that day.
"It seems the gods walk the Earth again," Jack Slash said. A grin drew itself onto his face. "We've got our biggest challenge back."
Bonesaw looked up and appeared positively ecstatic. "Oh, goody!" she yelled. "I've never inspected a literal god before!"
Jack looked between Siberian and Bonesaw. "You might just get your chance."
"Not going to happen," a voice said from behind them.
All of the Slaughterhouse Nine turned around. Before any of them had a chance to register what they were looking at, the two figures vanished from where they were, and Shatterbird felt a wind in the room. She turned to her left, and Jack had vanished. There was a hole in the wall of the shed.
"So, you bastards found me!" is what Jack wanted to say, but the two women had their hands so tightly on his throat, all he managed was a raspy shout. In a way, he had to smile, even though he was rocketing towards the upper atmosphere at supersonic speeds. He wanted to fight a truly vicious opponent, and by God, he'd gotten his wish. He pulled the knives out of his front pants pockets and began carving away at flesh. Well, he tried, and it was the thought that mattered. His blades' edge extended in all sorts of directions, and slashed against hair, eyes, arms, reducing clothing to ribbons.
"He keeps getting that in my eye," Taylor said. "It's making me mad." She reached out her hand that wasn't holding his throat and caught his right arm, squeezing. His bones appeared to be reinforced, but given enough pressure, even that broke.
"You're right," Annette agreed. "Let's take care of that." She did the same and disabled his other hand. A moment later, they passed above the ionosphere, and the man's oxygen got sucked out of his lungs. He would have frozen to death in seconds, and asphyxiated even if that hadn't happened, but they waited a full ten minutes in near vacuum conditions to make sure. They deposited his corpse in a safe location thirty miles from the compound.
"If Siberian is here," Annette said, as they flew back to their targets, "that means the one projecting her is nearby. Take him out!"
"What?" Taylor asked.
"I'll explain later."
Taylor took off to solve the Siberian problem. Annette arrived at the compound just as the Nine had taken up battle positions outside.
Mannequin did not hesitate. He charged, remarkable speed behind his limbs as he struck out with blades extending from various limbs. She dodged a right arm strike only to realize it was a feint. His other arm rocketed towards her torso, four blades extending as it aimed for flesh. She grabbed each limb and tore it free from the torso. His powerful mechanical legs propelled him forward, and she pointed each limb inward and jammed them through the body, impaling him. A thrust kick cracked the body in two and smashed it into the hut. Siberian and Crawler attacked next, the enormous body of the mutated Crawler moving with surprising speed. Siberian arrived first, defending against Annette's blows with near effortless ease.
Crawler lashed out with one of his front legs, smashing her backwards with brute force. Siberian closed the gap and went for the throat. Annette grasped the wrists and pushed back, finding no success. The striped woman moved forward, meeting her foe's hands in a test of strength. Annette pushed back with flight, the striped feet digging trenches as they dug in. She's not fighting back with normal power, Annette thought. She ramped up her strength, curling back the fingers of her foe. Crawler ambled forward. Shift direction in a fight, she thought, seeing this.
A spin of the foot allowed Annette to pivot, moving Siberian's considerable momentum behind her. Now the irresistible force was moving backwards. She spun around, using rotational momentum to her advantage. This allowed her to use Siberian as a batter used a bat. The impact launched the monster, the ground quaking as his multi-ton body flattened about ten meters of trees, and almost caught Shatterbird if she hadn't dodged in time.
Her attention had been on Crawler too long. Siberian righted herself almost immediately and clamped two hands on Annette's throat. The monstrous woman dug in. Despite being indestructible, she felt pain as the striped fingers squeezed. Shit, she really is a physics breaker, she thought, pulling back the arms as best she could.
No good, she noticed; this creature didn't require effort. Annette summoned as much of the Gift of Earth she could muster. With supreme effort, she pulled the hands away from her throat. The striped woman's yellowish eyes stared in near amazement at the successful resistance. She slammed the monster with a headbutt. Siberian's head recoiled, but she righted herself at once. Saw-like teeth snapped at the woman's nose. She drew back and delivered a stronger headbutt. The monster's grin returned the moment she recovered.
"Son of a BITCH!"
With a shout, Annette delivered a headbutt that would have put a crater on the moon visible from Earth. The shockwave hit Shatterbird, who had recovered just in time to be splattered across a twenty-meter arc. Bonesaw, who'd been watching the battle from farther away, got launched and would be later found by the P.R.T., coughing up blood with most of her bones either shattered or broken. Crawler lost a significant amount of body mass. A circle of forest five miles in diameter had been flattened. Some of the members of the Nine would never be positively identified and would simply be assumed dead when they never showed up again. The downed trees and vegetation shifted as the monster emerged. She took two steps forward, and Annette threw up her fists, ready for a fight.
Then Siberian vanished into thin air.
Annette stepped forward, then sat on a log. "Fuck," she muttered. A pile of trees exploded as Crawler emerged, roaring and stomping forward.
A bright streaking fireball impacted him and exploded him into pieces. Taylor did not hesitate to start burning flesh into ash. He regenerated ridiculously fast, limbs growing back and slamming into the two women. Annette and Taylor carved away at the body, tearing piles of flesh faster and faster. The core drew ever closer.
"Mother…"
"FUCKER!"
They swore. Annette's blow splattered a lot of the flesh, and the core became exposed. Taylor took it in her hand and burnt it to ash with a superheated fist. The remaining flesh collapsed around them.
They sat on a bit of rubble. They shared a laugh. "I guess I wasn't the only one who picked up some of Hancock's foul language," Annette said.
Taylor wiped her hands on some leaves. She slowed her breathing and let herself relax. Fighting with her mother was something she hadn't had much of. She smiled at the thought. Even given the nasty nature of the villains, she wouldn't have passed up this experience for anything.
"You can call him 'my father,' I don't mind," Taylor said. "I can give the two of them the title."
Annette smiled. "Alright," she said. God, this was nice, she thought. Nasty thieves and murders aside, the chance to stand on a battlefield with her daughter gave her such a good feeling. How long had Taylor fought alone, not having a chance to share in her mother's knowledge? The thought of the future, even given the nature of their objective, made her optimistic.
"This is a weird question," Taylor asked, "but why did you and my father wait so long to have a child? I'm not complaining, I just wondered."
The older woman let out a deep breath. "Honestly? I don't know," she said. "For the longest time, there were just normal humans and us. We were the last. We stayed apart so that we wouldn't die. I guess we figured," she shrugged, "you know, 'what the hell? We've got tomorrow. We've always got tomorrow.' Then, golden man shows up. Suddenly, people are getting weird powers, and these monsters start showing up and wrecking things." She chuckled. "We never even discussed it, but honestly, I think just this weird stuff happening all of a sudden made us think, we need to have a child so we don't just wait around forever and never make something more than just ourselves."
"Well, thank you," Taylor said.
"Anyway, let's get back to business," Annette said.
After the breather, they returned to Jack's corpse. Annette grabbed the body. "Door," she said.
They stood there for several long moments, the sound of the wind their only companion. Annette held the corpse up. "Stop acting like children! You know what I'm carrying! Door!"
A portal opened. Contessa and Eidolon stepped out. Doctor Mother stood behind them, through the portal, at least a quarter mile back. "So," Contessa said. "You took out one of our biggest problems."
"How do you like the upgrade?" Annette asked.
"Heh." Contessa shook her head. A devious smile appeared. "I don't really grasp what transpired when you controlled me, but, thank you. Your power has affected my shard, making my power much more…" she considered the best word. "…cooperative." Eidolon took Jack Slash's corpse from the two, and handed it to workers through the portal.
"Killing the Nine earns you this meeting," Eidolon said. "So what do you want?"
"I'm more than willing to put the differences between us aside," Taylor began, "as long as you agree to stop attempting to exploit my family."
Contessa relayed this to Doctor Mother and she nodded. "Seems reasonable," Contessa replied. "Anything else?"
"From now on," Taylor continued, "if we are missing something, you provide us the details. If we're to keep this world safe, this cloak and dagger crap can't continue. Any information we're missing, any details we need to know, you give it to us."
"Fine," Eidolon answered. After answering, he turned to Doctor Mother for the OK and she gave it.
"Finally," Annette added, "when this is all over, I expect a full disclosure of your actions."
Contessa shrugged. "Why not? Once the world is safe, Cauldron won't be needed anymore."
"That's enough," Doctor Mother exclaimed. "Our business is done." Contessa and Eidolon stepped through the portal and it closed. Taylor turned to her mother.
"So, what now?" she asked.
Annette smiled. "We get back to the business of catching up," she replied.
They embraced. "I just…I just can't believe you're really back!" Taylor shouted, taking off after they held.
"There's a lot of work for us to do," Annette reminded. "Let's get back to your father and then, we've got work to do, but not right now."
About twenty minutes later, the two of them had acquired food and were eating at the Cabin. "Hey! You're back…" he trailed off.
Taylor set the food down on the table. "What?"
Danny blinked. "You're wearing different clothes than before!"
Annette rolled her eyes. "Got ruined in the fight," she said. "No problem."
Danny sat opposite Taylor with his burger and fries. "You must've had a hell of a time," Taylor said. "Coming back from the other world, fighting the Yàngbǎn, and all that."
"Like the Grateful Dead used to say," she quipped, "What a long, strange trip it's been."
"I've kept the fort up with you gone," Danny said. "As much as I can. Taylor's been making quite a name for herself."
"Working with the Protectorate," Annette chimed in, "busting a prostitution ring, taking down one of the major crime bosses of Brockton Bay."
"And the Empire is almost done," Taylor said. "Beat the crap out of Hookwolf and that was entertaining."
Annette took a drink. "I hate Brockton Bay Nazis."
They laughed.
Danny set down his food and drink, held his wife, and just wept for a few more minutes.
Taylor held them both. "I'm sorry I'm so weepy," Danny said. "I just can't believe it."
His wife, whose funeral he'd attended, touched her cheek to his. "I'm here again," she said. "I'm not going anywhere."
"Mom," Taylor said, "I'm glad you're back. I love you so much."
"You and me both," She replied. "You two are the world to me."
They spent the next few minutes just holding each other in embrace. Afterward, they packed up their supplies and Taylor put the tarps over the solar panels and shut the generator off. They flew back to the house, where, thankfully, the news crews had left. Danny opened the front door and Taylor set the helmet on the stand inside by the front door.
"Excuse me," a teenage, female voice said.
They spun around to face the person. Taylor recognized her at once. It was Tattletale in civilian clothes. The face next to her was a bigger surprise. "Dinah Alcott?" Taylor asked.
The mousey young niece of Mayor Alcott regarded the girl next to her and the three in front of her sheepishly. She looked like she'd been up for a week. Her hair had been hastily combed into place. Someone had picked out the clothes for her to wear last minute; Taylor just somehow knew. Annette saw her daughter recognize these two and deferred judgment.
"How can we help you?" Annette said.
"We wouldn't be here," Tattletale began, "I swear. Unless it was important. I know you don't exactly think of my team as 'good' people."
Taylor pointed to Dinah with a glance. "She wouldn't be with you unless it was important," she thought out loud. "We're listening."
"We got here as soon as we could," Dinah said. "There's a huge probability that time is broken."
Annette and Taylor blinked at the same time. "Excuse me, what?"