Chapter 4-2

I ran past my locker and got my things. Let's see: Utility belt, check. Cuffs, check. Pepper spray, check. Taser and baton, check. Rope, check. Phone, check. Earpiece, I'll put that in after my armor's done. Well, guess that's everything. At least, I hope it is. Can't think of anything else I might need.

"Got your stuff?" Faulks asked.

"Yes, sir. I'm ready to go."

"Good. We'll be leaving in a separate van so we can pick up Vista on the way."

That made sense, I guess. Vista still went to middle school so she wouldn't be going to Arcadia. "Okay."

We got into the van and Faulks sped away like a maniac, sirens blaring. Very annoying. I knew we were in a hurry, but would it have killed him to drive normally? It's not like I've done this in a speeding car before! Ugh. I'll chew him out later. Right now, I needed to change.

Putting on my armor in a moving vehicle was an interesting experience, to say the least. Being knocked around every time Faulks made another insane turn that nearly got us both killed while being flayed alive wasn't pleasant. Then again, being flayed alive never was, I guess. At least I wasn't sprawling on the floor screaming anymore.

Five minutes later, the pain faded and I managed to clear my head again. I also found myself eye-to-eye with a very shocked looking Vista.

Oh.

Oh, boy.

Now that I think about it, I've never taped myself changing. I've seen the result, but never the process itself. If it looked as horrible as it felt like…

Yeah…

Should I give her a hug? That might actually scare her even more.

"Banshee, Vista, do you copy?" The earpiece in my pocket said. It was Aegis.

"Sorry, just busy changing. Had to focus."

"Fair enough. Is Vista there too?."

Before I could reply, she said: "I just saw Banshee's face melt off…"

The line fell silent for a while. Guess it really did look as horrible as it felt. I'll need to get Vista some ice cream when this is over. Or a shrink. Or both.

"Right… Are you all ready to go?"

To her credit, Vista recovered quickly. "Yes, yes, of course. Just, wasn't ready for that."

"Sorry." I added, apologetically. Vista nonchalantly waved it away. Looks like she was fine, or at least she pretended like she was.

"Well, then." Aegis said, going back to business. "From what we can tell here, things are pretty bad. The Undersiders have taken the people inside the bank hostage so we can't charge in blindly. We need more intel. Banshee, that's your job. Get off the car maybe a block away and climb onto the roof. Would you be able to listen in from there? I don't know what the range on your power is."

"Unless Brockton Bay Central has a really deep basement, I should have enough range to do that, boss."

"It doesn't, so that's good. The Undersiders, what do you know about them?"

I cringed a little. I didn't really want to admit that I've had a meeting with a villain gang, but I can't exactly withhold that sort of information from my teammates. "Just names and costumes. We, uh, we sort of met…"

"Really? How did that happen?" Aegis sounded surprised. Not angry or concerned, just surprised.

"I went after Lung because he was going to murder children. Turns out that they were the children he was going to murder. They thought I was a villain too and offered me a ride on their giant dog-things afterwards." I lowered my head, preparing for some sort of judgment from him. To my surprise, it never came.

"That's rough. Guess that happens from time to time. I don't suppose they told you anything about their powers, right? Something that could help us?" It's like he didn't even care. As if me meeting a villain in my short career as a vigilante didn't matter at all. Probably the best answer he could have given, as far as I was concerned.

I thought about my meeting with the gang for a moment. While they didn't say anything directly, they might have dropped clues without realizing it. "Umm, Bitch is the one who brings the dogs. Tattletale is some sort of Thinker. She knew I had sound based powers and that Armsmaster was coming. There's also Regent and Grue, but I don't know anything special about them."

"Good job. It's pretty close to what the files have to say on them. Bitch, or Hellhound as we're going to call her, can turn normal dogs into giant monsters. She's wanted for murder and half the reason I'm bringing all of you. Next is the other half: Regent, who's some kind of Master and a murder suspect too. Grue creates shadows of some kind, but he's just a small-time crook as far as we know. We don't have much on Tattletale, but in case Banshee's right, assume she's a mid-to-high rated Thinker, just to be safe. It'd explain how they've pulled off their other heists so easily. Anyway, the group were just a bunch or relative nobodies until today." I was actually kind of disappointed. I knew the Undersiders were villains, but I still hoped that they were decent people. If at least two of them have a murder on their conscience, I could only assume that I was wrong.

"Guess they're trying to move up in life. Clockblocker added. "They're probably doing this for the rep. It's not like any sane bank in Brockton Bay has enough money in the vault to make it worthwhile."

"Probably." Aegis said. "Let's worry about the why later. Our first priority is making sure the hostages are safe. The Undersiders don't have heavy hitters aside from Hellhound's dogs, so if we can take those out of commission, we'll be set. Clockblocker and I are going to switch costumes. Hopefully, Hellhound will go for the other 'me' and we'll be able to freeze the dogs."

"And if they don't, I'll end up as dog food." Clockblocker replied. I could hear the fear in the poor guy's voice. "Just what I always wanted."

"Well, then you'll finally know what I go through every single day. When we get the dogs, we'll…Oh, crap. Guys, we have a problem. Glory Girl just landed on the roof."

Glory Girl, AKA Victoria Dallon. A member of the New Wave hero group and one of the city's strongest capes, if I'm not mistaken. Flight, super strength, and some kind of emotional aura that can inspire her allies and terrify her enemies. "Umm, I'm probably saying something really stupid but how's that a bad thing? Isn't she on our side?"

Aegis chuckled. "Oh, she is. It's just that she's notoriously headstrong and has…issues with following orders."

"I know she can be a little enthusiastic, but that's just exaggerating." Gallant said. Then again, Glory Girl was his girlfriend. I'm not entirely sure if he's unbiased enough to make that decision.

"What Gallant means is that she's the patron saint of collateral damage." Clockblocker explained. "She catches bad guys, sure, but not without breaking something, or someone, in the process. Classic example of a loose cannon." I could all but hear the death glare Gallant sent the boy. Part of me wished that I could see it.

"She shouldn't even be here." Aegis complained. "The bank is a stone's throw away from Arcadia. It's our jurisdiction."

That must have hit a nerve with Gallant. "Tell me you're not going to turn an ally away because of some pissing contest!"

"If she causes damage, it'll be on our heads, Gallant. Our mission, our responsibility. Hostage situations are delicate and I don't want her screwing things up and getting someone killed."

This is getting us nowhere. "You know what, guys, I think we should just ask her what she's doing here. I'm heading for the roof anyway."

Aegis sighed. "Yeah, go do that. Give her your earpiece and maybe I can keep her from doing something stupid."

The van pulled over and I jumped out into the rain. Not that the weather inconvenienced me much anyway. The bank wasn't a very tall building. Good, that makes it easier to climb. Or rather, easier to wall-run over. What I did couldn't be described as climbing anymore. I sped towards the wall, jumped onto it, and somehow kept going in defiance of gravity and the laws of motions. When I got to the top, I grabbed the ledge and pulled myself onto the roof.

God, I really love my power.

I slowly walked over to the heroine, hands in the air. She probably didn't know who I was and I didn't want to be mistaken for a villain again. Unlike me, Glory Girl looked like a superhero: tall, perfectly styled blond hair even with this weather, white-and-gold costume with a cape…In short, she was little miss perfect and an example for each and every single one of us.

"Who the hell are you?" And poof goes another illusion of mine. When will people stop disappointing me? Funny how I'd always pegged her as being nice from the way the media portrayed her. After all, she was Alexandria junior. She had the looks, the glamour, everything. Shouldn't she be above things like swearing in public or snarling against other capes?

"Banshee. I'm with the Wards."

"Never heard of you."

"Figures, I joined two days ago."

Glory Girl looked at me inquisitively. I felt a…something. The emotion aura thing? "Prove it." I took my earpiece from my belt and gave it to her. "Hello?"

"Hi, it's Aegis. Thanks for not throwing my teammate off the roof."

"You really think I'm going to deck her just because she kind of looks like a villain?" I had to suppress a frown. I shouldn't be surprised anymore, but it still hurts a little every time someone says it.

"Do you really want me to answer that question? Anyway, what are you doing here?"

"Amy's in that bank." Glory Girl must have been talking about her sister, Amy Dallon. Also known as Panacea, the girl who can heal pretty much anything with a touch. If she was held hostage in there…

This changes everything. Panacea heals dozens of people every day. We had to get her back safely. As callous and unheroic as it is to say, she's probably the most valuable person in that bank. If Panacea dies or is somehow incapacitated, it could cost us hundreds of lives every month. I couldn't let that happen.

"That…is a problem." Aegis said. Understatement of the century. "We'll get her back, Glory Girl. Just let us do our jobs and…"

"Fuck that! I am not sitting this one out!" Glory Girl snapped. I felt a sudden irrational desire to hide. Probably her fear aura again. This was getting annoying.

"Victoria…" Gallant said, trying, and failing, to calm her down.

"My sister is in there with those freaks. I will get her back."

I could only sigh. I suppose I should be thankful that she's decided to wait for us as opposed to charging in immediately. Still, that wasn't good enough. While it was perfectly understandable that Glory Girl would want to jump in and save the day, even she must have realized by now that she wasn't in the right frame of mind for this sort of thing. People's lives were at stake and we couldn't afford to get careless.

"Glory Girl, you're angry and scared for Panacea. I get that." I said, knowing full well that I'd soon be on the receiving end of her aura. "But please, we've got this. If you jump in there like this, someone could get hurt."

"Amy can fix them." Hmm. If I were Panacea, I'd be feeling a little taken for granted, right about now.

"And if someone dies because you punched them too hard? Or if Panacea herself gets hurt? She can't fix her own body, can she?" By now, her aura was focused almost entirely on me. Just thinking was getting difficult. It took every ounce of my willpower not to freeze up in terror.

Good God, I'm more afraid of my allies than I am of the villains.

Thankfully, Gallant started talking before I broke down. "Let's work out an arrangement. Vicky, when we go in, you protect Amy and the hostages. Leave the villains to us."

"Gallant!" Aegis warned.

"I know her, Aegis. She's not going away. Not so long as her sister is in danger. We're better off working with her than having her run off on her own."

Aegis sighed before saying: "Fine. We'll talk about this later. Banshee, do your thing. Clockblocker, time to play the leader."

"Hurray…" Clockblocker muttered. Considering that we were essentially using him as bait, I think he deserves to be annoyed. "Wards! Spread out!" He yelled. Not as confident as the real Aegis, but close enough. Or so I hoped. The Undersiders had a suspected Thinker. If she could figure out what we were doing, things would get ugly.

But that was for Aegis to worry about. I'm sure he had a contingency plan in case Hellhound didn't take the bait. Me, I had my own part to play. I walked out of Glory Girl's aura and started listening in.