-PatB-

(cat /dev/random ended up with, for the last digits, 2c, which is an even number, so Skitter won. Poor girl. Poor Director Tagg, too)

I'm staring at the radio, then put my head in my hands, "What the frilly heck," I quote Willow.

"Mayor Christner endorsed you this morning," Lisa says, "Just before lunch. Made a speech on the radio about wanting to work with you on a smooth transition."

"I agreed to run because I couldn't win, and it'd be funny."

"Well, you won."

Amy pokes me, "And it's even more funny. You promised nothing, made no claims, other than that you'd continue doing what you've been doing. I guess that was good enough for most of them."

"What about the villain thing?"

"What about it? They can't prove much, and Marion Barry got reelected after serving time for smoking crack. So long as you look after the city," Lisa shrugs, "And don't kill anyone you can avoid, I think it'll be neat."

I just stare at Lisa a while, and Amy asks the question, "Neat?"

"I've taken Coil's assets, and you now have the legitimate side. I think we can do more with this city than anyone has managed in decades."

"Parian's downstairs," I tell them, masking up as I start down the stairs.

Amy and Lisa follow.

Sierra rolls up the shutters.

"Congratulations," Parian greets me at my door.

Flechette is with her, hands away from her weapons, "There is good news and bad."

"Bad first," Lisa answers.

"Jack and Bonesaw raided Blasto's lab, stole samples from dead members of the Nine, and Blasto, and are in the wind again."

"The good?"

"The Siberian is gone. Dragon killed her. Three other members of the Nine bought it, too."

"Fuck," Pinky cusses, "No balance there at all. I need a genetic sample from Jack and Bonesaw, but even if I had them, I couldn't cover enough ground fast enough."

"What?" Flechette asks, jerking to look at her.

"I can make anti-Nine weapons, but I need a sample if I don't want them rampaging about and killing random people, and even then it'll take days to cover the state."

"Blasto's in Boston," Lisa says.

"Even worse."

"I found out a couple hours ago, and it happened last night."

"Well, we may have found how Jack Slash is going to end the world. With Blasto and those samples, they are going to be back, sooner or later, with an army of clones," Pinky sighs, gestures the pair inside.

"Put the kettle on," I tell Sierra. "Would you like some tea?" I ask our guests.

Parian sighs, "Please," and takes her mask off, setting it on the table while she takes a seat.

"Sabah," Flechette says, softly, imploring.

Parian turns her pretty cafe-au-lait face to Flechette, "The world is going to end in two years, unless we stop it," she sounds tired already.

Lisa returns from closing the shutter, unties her domino mask, drops it on the table, "Lisa."

A twitch of my power, and my mask flows back under my shirt, joining the rest of my armor, "Taylor," I take a seat opposite Parian, Sabah.

Pinky's mask vanishes down her collar, "Amy," and she climbs into my lap, facing our guests.

Lisa takes a seat next to us.

Flechette looks back and forth, then sighs, dropping heavily into a chair. Sabah reaches out, gives her hand a squeeze. Flechette squeezes back, takes a deep breath, and pulls her mask off. She sets it on the table, looks at it for a long moment, "Lily," she finally says, looking up at us.

She's a very pretty asian girl.

"Taylor didn't volunteer me, because she hadn't asked, but if you have people who need repairs after the Nine, let me know, and we can work something out," Amy tells Sabah.

Flechette, Lily, blinks, "Amy Dallon?"

"Amy Lavere. Carol kicked me out a few, oh, it's been more than a week, now."

"Panacea."

"I go by Pinky for my cape name now."

"Pinky," Lily says dubiously.

Lisa decides to sing the answer, "They're Pinky and the Brain, Pinky and the Brain, One is a genius, the other's insane." She doesn't sing well, but she is enthusiastic.

"Really," Lily's even more dubious now.

"Rebranding as a biotinker rather than a healer. Acknowledging that I'm a little crazy should help keep me from raising unfortunate expectations."

"Such as?"

"Merchantability or suitability for any particular purpose," I can tell Amy's smiling, even with her looking away from me.

Lily nods.

"A couple of my people need much more work than the money I got from you can provide. If they come back, would you be willing to heal them for their share of that money?" Sabah asks.

"How many people?"

"Six."

"Bonesaw really makes a mess of people. Bring them by, I'll have a look. It shouldn't cost too much," she reaches across the table, palm up, "Sabah?"

Sabah looks at me, then places her hand in Amy's.

Amy nods, lets go of her, reaches towards "Lily?"

Lily glances at Sabah, "What did you do?"

"Repaired malnutrition damage, improved symmetry a bit, filled her fat soluble vitamin stores."

Lily takes Amy's hand.

"What do you get out of this?'

"Reassurance that I didn't fuck up when I weaponized this."

"What did you do?"

"Viral agent to do what I just did to you."

"And you need reassurance?"

"Because I released it a couple days ago, and I'm 95% sure I'm infected with it."

I clench my arms about Amy's waist.

Lily gives Amy's hand a squeeze, and lets go, "Thank you."

"Thank you, Amy," Sabah says.

"You're welcome."

Sierra sets the hot kettle on a trivet on the table, then brings cups and the tray of different tea bags.

"Should I head out for the night?"

"If you want. We can lock up."

"I'll be back at seven."

"See you in the morning."

Sierra heads out the basement entrance, and I choose an Earl Grey teabag, a blue cup, and set it to steep.

"Eat some seaweed," Amy says, passing Lisa a packet of toasted seaweed snacks, "I can't tell what's broken as designed and what is mineral deficiency yet," she opens a packet for herself, offers me a sheet, takes the second, and gestures towards the tray, "Help yourself, most Americans are mineral deficient, too."

"So, is that all you did?"Sabah asks, picking up some seaweed to go with her tea.

"Also improved mechanisms for preventing sugar poisoning."

"Sugar poisoning?"

"Yeah, obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome. Civilized humans don't get enough vitamins and eat too much carbohydrate," Amy shrugs, "I fix that, and 90% of our healthcare costs go away. 95% of the healing I've been doing these last few years, too."

"And people starving in Africa?"

"If you're at 25% body fat, you're not starving. You may not be doing well, but you're not starving."

"And the people who are insulin resistant but not fat?" Sabah asks.

"Carbs taste bad until their resting insulin goes back to normal."

"Oh. And it isn't going to mutate on you?"

"I ECC'd the fuck out of it, so it should take a while."

"Morris worm?" Lisa asks.

"ECC?" Lily asked at about the same time.

"ECC is error correcting code, redundancy to prevent data change. Eyeball genes are full of it, for example," Amy tells Lily, then turns to Lisa, "Morris worm?"

"The great worm? Self replicating patch that didn't check for other running copies of itself? Broke the Internet in the '80s?"

"Yeah, it prevents reinfection with itself. The people I modded by hand are immune, also."

"Eggs?" Sabah asks, "I assume sperm will begin to be produced with the modifications."

"That was a little tricky," Amy nods, "But I made it a dominant trait, which should work around that for the current generation. I can change your eggs, but I haven't figured out a safe way to change gametes without personal attention."

"Did you change them?" Lily asks.

"No."

Lily glances at Sabah, sits back in her chair, "Does it cross the placenta?"

Amy cocks her head, thinking, "Maybe? If the mother's infected while pregnant," she shrugs, "It'll be safe for mother and child either way. It'll depend on how leaky her placenta is."

"How leaky?"

"Some people make placentas that filter really well, others leak all sorts of things, including entire cells. That's part of how mothers develop antibodies against later children."

"What?" Lily asks.

"Rhogam?"

Blank look.

"Rh blood factors, people have them — positive blood types, or they don't — negative blood types. Exposure to Rh positive blood can cause Rh negative people to develop antibodies towards Rh positive blood."

"Oh," Lily says, "Antibodies, immune response, miscarriage."

"Or non-fatal attacks on fetal blood, leading to other mild to severe issues."

"Severe?"

"Brain damage and permanently disfiguring injuries."

"Ow."

"Rhogam is Rh sensitive immune globulins, so it helps keep from sensitizing, by attacking the leaked Rh positive blood before a native immune response occurs."

"Is there anything else to be done?"

"With conventional medicine? Pretty much no."

"But you can."

"Because powers are bullshit."

"Awesome. Story-breakingly awesome," I correct her.

"You're biased because I got you a threesome with a redhead and a hot blonde."

Lisa preens a bit.

"A really hot redhead and a blonde," I agree, "But that doesn't make me wrong."

"Wait, what?" Lily asks, "I thought you liked boys."

I give her a quizzical look from around Amy, "When did you ever? And I though I was being rather obvious, anyway," I give Amy another squeeze.

"It was just a feeling, from the way you looked at a couple people. And I though you were just being friendly."

"Huh," I lean forward, prop my chin on Amy's shoulder, "I think I'm kinda bi, boys are muscly, girls are a lot more cuddly. Boys tell me they think of me as a sister and girls shoved me into a locker full of used hygiene products."

Lisa drops a hand on my thigh and gives it a pat.

"Not these two," I go silent a while, I don't want to tell anyone, but I already told Amy, Lisa's probably figured it out, neither of these two will share it around. Probably, my eyes drift over Sabah's, Lily's. A deep breath, out, "Shadow Stalker turned my best friend, the summer before high school, and they picked up a third, and proceeded to bully the hell out of me from then until this spring. Barely stopping Lung did a lot for my perspective, so."

"You carved out his eyes," Lily says, squeamish.

"The second time. The first time I stung him so much his balls rotted off. They grew back, but I think that made him a little mad."

Sabah actually laughs, "You think?"

I give her a big smile, "Yeah, it seems likely."

"She saved me from a bad time that night," Lisa outs herself.

Lily's eyes widen a moment, then she nods, "Tattletale?"

"In the flesh."

"On the local scale," Sabah asks, "What are we doing now that we've, you've, gotten rid of the other villains and been elected Mayor, what are we going to do?"

"Clear out the boat graveyard, dredge the bay, rebuild, Kill Leviathan or use him to make a giant robot-"

Amy twists around in my lap, laces both hands into my hair, and proceeds to kiss me for several very nice minutes.

We break the kiss, Amy's gasping and breathing hard, Lisa's watching us, fascinated, lustful, and a bit jealous if I'm reading her right, Lily's carefully not watching, and Sabah looks away, cheeks red, when she notices me looking. I look back at Amy, who still has her eyes closed, a smile tilting them up, "I guess you like that idea?"

"Yes," she husks. My belly clenches at the sound.

Lisa's tiny whine seems to indicate a similar effect.

"And make the city safer and cheaper to live in."

"And on the other side?"

"Find Bitch a place where she can run her dogs, legalize the prostitutes and get rid of the pimps, fix the drug problem, normalize the gambling so it's sustainable once we legalize it, because I can get that through the city council."

"What do you mean by fix the drug problem?"

"Pure food and drug act, basically. I think, so long as one knows what one's getting, one should be able to poison oneself with whatever one wants. Legalize and tax, and drugs will be cheap enough that either users will be able to sustain their habits and a life, or they'll OD and die, or they'll end up in treatment because they can't handle their drug of choice."

"Isn't that a little harsh?"

"Isn't that what we have now, with more profits for criminals and lives ruined by busting users?"

Lily looks down at her hands, "I guess so."

"And more people poisoned because what they took wasn't what they thought they bought," Amy adds, turning around in my lap, "Every week I've got some poor idiot who wanted some X and got god knows what instead."

"Hmm," I sigh, "Don't want to do protection rackets, but we could run private security anyway. Don't think there's going to . . . Pit fights, and other sports betting. Roller derby, boxing, pro-style wrestling, other violent sports that people like playing as well as betting on, we should be able to make a profit off that. We don't even need to compete with the internet for another week or so."

Amy starts laughing, "If you told me last month I wouldn't mind being without internet access for two weeks," she shakes her head. "We could empty all the bank vaults."

"Too late," Lisa says, "They shipped most of the cash out right after Leviathan. Insurance reasons."

*Chk* Amy makes a disappointed noise with her cheek, "There goes that idea," she leans back against me, "Make a giant sponge to filter gold and other metals out of seawater, and blow the silt out of the bay?"

"Make a bush that grows flawless, 40-carat diamonds, in whatever color the customer wants?" Lisa offers.

"Bai bai global warming!" Amy laughs, "Unless De Beers has us whacked for destroying their cartel."

"Why limit it to diamonds? Make a bush that grows gemstone fruit, like in the Arabian Nights, and sell the bushes."

Amy starts cackling, "Sterilize the explosive potato plants, and sell baby plants."

"Explosive potato?"

"About two years ago, I spent a couple weeks researching explosives, made potatoes that are full of RDX instead of starches, and peanut plants that grow blasting caps. Almost blew my fingers off, even worse, I almost got caught." I hug her tighter.

Lily stares.

"It was a Harry Potter joke," Amy says, "Well, other than it really happened. "We could be killed, or even worse, expelled!" you know?"

"Whoosh," I say, and wave my hand over my head. I lean forward, grab my teacup, and sit back, take a sip. Amy squirms, so I loosen my grip enough that she can get her cup.

"Hmmph," Amy more says than huffs.

Once we finish our tea I walk Flechette and Parian to the door, thank them for bringing the news, as bad as it is, and say that we hope we'll see them soon.

I watch them walk off a moment, then look at Lisa.

"Can I stay?" Amy nods behind her.

"I guess so," I close the shutters, then lock the door, "What's up?"

"Probably psychosomatic, but I was sick to my stomach this morning."

"Probably," Amy agrees, brushing her hand up Lisa's neck into her hair, "She's implanting, and dividing normally. As healthy as she can be at this stage."

"That's good. How are you doing?"

"Can't mess with my own biology, and any little blastocyst in my tummy counts as me."

"Can't you use a tool?"

"It's too early even for a blood test," Amy sighs.

"You can make a giant robot, but not a baby-scanner?"

Amy cocks her head, bites her lip, slumps her head onto her hand for a moment, breathing. After a bit she shakes her head, "Not safely. I'll have to keep thinking about it."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," Lisa tells her, with a step and a grab and a spin, Amy's feet off the ground.

Amy's laughing and batting gently at Lisa, so I think she's OK with it.

Lisa sets Amy down, "And my lair is really lonely by myself. I was hoping to invite myself to a threesome with a pair of stupidly-hot girls?"

Amy pulls back a bit, looks at me. I give her a twitch of my lips and a tiny shrug.

She cocks her head and raises an eyebrow, the corners of her mouth twitching down.

"If you don't want to, we won't."

"That's not what I meant!" Amy says, exasperated, "Do you want to?"

"It would make Lisa happy, which I'd like. Other than that," I shrug again, "Having sex with you is amazing, having someone to cuddle at night is awesome, if having Lisa over puts that at risk, makes you uncomfortable, jealous, whatever, tell me, and we'll fix her her own bed."

Lisa's shrinking, head drooping, shoulders slumping, which makes my chest clench a bit.

"I don't want to make you unhappy," Amy says.

I take two steps back, slump against the wall, and bonk the back of my head into it gently, *thock* "You being happy really helps me be happy," I contemplate what I just said, try again, "I like making you happy, doing things that bring you joy. Having sex with you and Lisa would be nice. Having sex with just you would be nice, too, and I wouldn't feel deprived or put upon either way."

"Then why did you give me such a grumpy look about it?"

"That was a bit of a shrug and a bit of a smile, which I meant to mean "Whatever you want is fine.""

"I was trying for "I have no idea what you want, could you tell me?""

"It looked like, "Are you really saying that?""

"Not what I was trying to say," Amy turns to Lisa, "It might take a bit to restore the mood, but if you're still interested, we are too."

Amy and I each take one of Lisa's hands, and we climb the stairs together. The mood is quite recovered by the time we're all naked.

-PatB-

A/N: And this is a really long scene. But Amy wanted to talk a lot, so . . .

A guest review called Amy's rant off putting and compared it to juice diets . . .

On the one hand, we only have anecdotes and literature reviews: google "zero carb zen cancer" for anecdotes, and "PMC3267662" for the literature review. And the fact that fruit flies develop tumors when you feed them too much sugar.

On the other hand, we're unlikely to get data, because there's no money in it, and compliance rates suck for all diets.

On the gripping hand, this is a fanfic, so Amy's right in the story, due to story-breaking understanding of biology, chemistry, and engineering . . . (Atlas, anyone?)