A glimpse of something profound had happened when the boy went unconscious. Tattletale had collapsed, but I'd had the strange sensation of both being in the room and somewhere else. I'd let the boy drop because I wasn't sure what was going on.

I knew him from school and he'd never lifted a finger to help me. He'd never gone out of his way to harm me either, but kidnapping and attempted torture put him beyond simple schoolyard bullying. He deserved whatever he got, although I had an uneasy feeling that I'd just given him the worst day ever.

All I had to do was touch him again and I'd know.

As he was waking up, a man and a woman appeared in the doorway. They were wearing costumes that I didn't recognize, and I'd thought I'd researched all the Capes in Brockton Bay.

"Don't play with the prey, monster. Eliminate it," the man said.

I didn't detect any fear from either of them, which meant that they were either very confident of their powers or they were sociopaths. From the way they were acting they were both.

"Night and Fog," I heard Tattletale murmur under her breath. Cricket's enhanced hearing was really very useful. "Coil keeps us updated about all their new recruits. He becomes a poisonous fog that can eat away at your insides. She becomes a powerful monster whenever anyone doesn't have eyes on her. She can't control it."

I froze.

That meant that I couldn't take her power, not if I wanted to keep a normal life. His power might be complicated. Could I take his power if he wasn't solid enough to touch? What if I took his powers when he was already in my lungs? Would I explode when he returned to normal?

Whatever happened, I needed to get the fight away from the hostages. These two didn't look like they cared about what happened to norms.

I slipped into the mirror universe as the man was surging forward, turning into a thick mist that blocked my view of the woman. So that was their plan; as long as I couldn't see her she'd be some sort of monster, presumably one that was very dangerous.

Cricket's speed was going to be very useful to me; I leaped across the intervening distance in the mirror universe and I turned.

I caught a glimpse of something horrific before the woman reformed. My chains lashed out and caught her around the throat and I began to drag her back toward me.

The fog was faster than I would have thought, and a moment later my chains were in pieces as the woman was enveloped and took her other form.

She was fast; even faster than Cricket. By the time I was ready to react she'd already crossed the intervening distance, outpacing her partner who wasn't nearly as fast.

I grabbed for her, but she threw something and there was a flash of light leaving me blinded.

Suddenly I was in tremendous pain. It was like when I'd been fighting Hookwolf but even worse.

I jumped universes, leaving her behind. Whatever she turned into was massively powerful and massively dangerous.

Setting my body to healing at an accelerated rate, I found myself regretting not having replaced my flying harness.

Stealing her power would be the easiest way to deal with her, but I'd be trapped as whatever she became for the rest of my life. The only power that I had that would likely be at all effective were my flames and I'd promised Dad that I wouldn't burn people to death anymore.

Dad would tell me to simply walk away. I could already turn into something like a mist and I didn't want her power. It would mean leaving Tattletale behind, but they hadn't threatened any of the hostages. It went against the grain and it felt a little like a defeat, but it was probably the smartest course.

I returned to the restaurant, limping a little. I could appear and steal Tattletale away, but that would out her, and there was a chance that she was on the video that had been uploaded online.

There was a mirror on one wall; I became quiet and allowed the mirror to shimmer so I could hear what was being said.

"We will execute one hostage every minute until you reappear," the woman was saying coolly.

A man was having seizures on the floor while the other hostages screamed. The male cape had turned his arm to mist and was shoving it down the hostages throat. He was killing him from the inside.

Before I could do anything, the frantic movement of the hostage went suddenly, horribly still.

The man allowed his arm to reform, looking calmly down at his cooling victim.

"Who's next?"

Moving behind them, I could tell that I was unlikely to touch them before they could react, even with Cricket's speed. The woman I could touch as her head was largely uncovered except for a domino mask, but the man had a mask and a hood and I was planning to attack them from behind.

If I could get them away from the hostages the whole thing would be easier.

The world slowed as I stepped over to the place where they were. I touched both of them on the shoulder and I shifted us to the mirror universe.

Before either of them could react I was back in the other universe.

I turned to the hostages and said "GET OUT."

They screamed, but it didn't take them much prompting to clear the room. I noticed that the boy from school was already gone. I'd have to find him later and make it clear that his extracurricular activities were not appreciated.

Tattletale stared at me with an inscrutable expression as she passed by me. A moment later I heard the sounds of engines starting as they all raced to get away from the crazy Capes as they could.

Turning to the mirror I allowed myself to watch as the two capes looked around, obviously startled that the hostages were all gone.

"I didn't know he was a mass teleporter," the woman murmured.

I hadn't had reason to warp the mirror universe and so unless they noticed that certain things were backward they wouldn't even know they had moved.

The last thing I needed was for the Empire to learn about my bolt hole. I frowned and concentrated and a moment later my invisible counterpart formed in the room. It was the same as the ones that the clones had used to harry the Travelers in the other world.

They weren't that powerful, but they were insubstantial and could affect others without being hurt. This way I could hurt both of them while my own body continued to heal.

I looked down at my hand; metal sprang from it to form long claws. I closed my eyes and watched through the eyes of the thing I had created.

A moment later I lashed out. The woman cried out as blood fountained from her thigh. I hadn't meant to injure her that badly; the claws were new.

The man immediately turned to fog, obscuring my view and a moment later he returned to normal.

She stood entirely healed.

So turning into the thing healed her. Suddenly taking her power seemed much more attractive. With that kind of healing I'd be immensely powerful. All I'd have to do was get out of sight of my enemies and I'd be restored.

The man probably wasn't so resilient. I launched an attack on him, scraping invisible claws across his chest but not trying to penetrate anything vital. If I could get him to bleed enough he might go unconscious.

He shifted to fog and a moment later a thing came out of the darkness. Apparently being watched secondhand wasn't enough to trap her in her normal form.

My desire for her power suddenly died as I saw exactly what she turned into. It looked a little like an ink blot, if the inkblot had numerous insectile legs sticking out of it with claws everywhere. It was fast; even faster than Cricket and it was on my invisible avatar before I could even react.

I tried to fight it, but it was like fighting a hurricane. Nothing I slashed at made a single dent, but fortunately nothing the creature did penetrated my avatars intangibility.

We were at an impasse. Nothing I did affected them and nothing they did affected me. We could do this all day long and nothing would come of it.

I wanted the man's power, but getting it would be difficult while he was in his fog form. The woman's power was worthless to me. My best bet was to simply leave and drop the mirror universe when I was far away.

Hopefully they wouldn't find Taylor Hebert's clothes in the mirror bathroom.

I cursed to myself.

"Vengeance...this is the PRT. We have you surrounded. You have one chance to surrender or we will use lethal force."

I cursed to myself. With Night and Fog in the other universe my usual means of escape were cut off. I could see outside and there was a shimmering.

Vista had probably done some sort of trickery with space which would be entirely to my detriment. Clockblocker might be waiting for me, and assuming he could touch me before I could take his power I'd wake up with Miss Militia's gun to my head.

I dove for the bathroom as tinkertech bullets began to riddle the restaurant. Reaching the bathroom I switched to the mirror universe and I then went shadow form diving through the wall.

The nice thing about the mirror universe was that without electricity every wall was easily breached with Sophia's power. Her weakness to electricity in the real world was really crippling since it meant that most walls were beyond her power. What was the point in only being able to phase through walls and floors and windows?

All I had to do was get beyond the range of the PRT's cordon and then I could leave the two Empire capes to stew, trapped here until I was ready to release them.

I returned to normal form and I started to run, only to fall flat on my face as something started to grind away at my back.

It held me down and then something entered my nose and mouth and then I was in an entirely different kind of pain. The worst part of it was that I could sense exactly the kind of damage it was doing as his tendrils extended deeper and deeper into my lungs.

The tiny balloon like sacs in my lungs were dying rapidly. Without those I'd be dead in a matter of minutes despite the changes that I'd made to my physiology.

I tried to shift into shadow form, but that made it even worse as he dispersed throughout my system. My whole body turned into pain and I returned to solid.

I'd shifted positions though, and I could see the woman now. Metal burst from under my skin involuntarily as I struggled to breathe. I lashed out with an arm that was covered with blades and claws that were whirling like saws.

Blood sprayed everywhere. There was some reason that I should have been bothered by this, but the struggle for breath occupied every thought I had.

Biokinisis wasn't fast enough to heal the damage he was causing. Telekinisis couldn't affect him. I should have gone after Stormtiger; that would have been the perfect counter to this.

There was only one power I had that might have any effect at all.

I let my fire flare, burning hotter than I'd ever let it burn, and as I did I took a deep, impossible breathe that gave me no oxygen. What I inhaled instead was liquid fire.

He pulled out of me quickly, screaming as he reformed with part of his body burned. I lashed out, gutting him with my blades and as he fell I allowed my hand to return to normal. I pulled, and his power was mine.

Blood filled his mouth and I stared at him and his wife impassionately.

All I had to do to save her was to look away, but that would mean going through all of this all over again. She and her partner had murdered a man right in front of me, and they hadn't blinked an eye.

Despite the fact that they were dying they felt very little fear. It was almost as though they were as inhuman on the inside as the woman was on the outside.

My chest felt like a vice had constricted it; the damage he'd done would have been permanent to anyone else. As it was I barely had enough oxygen to stay conscious.

Graying at the edges, my vision flickered, but I held stubbornly to consciousness. If I looked away the woman would be back to normal and I'd be dead shortly after.

I could hear their heartbeats and bodily processes slowing. Dying took a lot longer than I thought it would; excruciatingly long.

There was still time; I didn't have to become a murderer.

The man was depowered, which meant that he was no more dangerous now than any other Nazi. He'd likely end up in a regular jail. His buddies might or might not spring him, depending on how useful they thought he might be.

The woman though...she was too much of a threat alive.

I could see her reaching weakly for one of the flash grenades on her belt. If she could get out of my sight even for a minute it would all be over.

Weakness filled me, leaving me unable to even stand up, much less go back to fighting.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a ball bearing. It was a relic of my time as Charon that I rarely used but kept for emergencies like these.

My fingers moved in a familiar pattern, and a moment later the ball bearing was flying.

A hole appeared in her forehead and she fell back. I wasn't sure how long her power would last even with brain damage; most gunshots to the head weren't immediately fatal even if they were incapacitating,

I pulled the bullet out of her head leaving another wound. I stared at her even as I saw him trying to crawl toward me. He was badly burned and now without his powers he had to be in intense pain but he was trying to come for me.

Whether he meant to try to fight me still or was intending to block my vision, I couldn't allow it. I sent the ball bearing soaring through the back of his head.

He stopped and slumped to the ground. He wasn't dead yet either, but he wouldn't be coming after me any more.

I struggled to stay conscious until I heard their last heartbeat, and then I passed out.

There was no way of knowing how long I was out; the sky in the mirror world reflected the moment it was made and did not advance normally unless I willed it to. On its own the faux sun had simply hung in the sky motionless and unyielding.

My breathing wasn't any better. I was struggling for every breath, and I was starting to wonder if it might be easier to grow new lungs.

Shifting into my shadow state made things easier; apparently wounds in one form didn't carry over to the other. I made my way back to the restaurant bathroom and I returned to my normal form. I shifted again, letting the ruined tatters of my motorcycle leathers drop to the floor.

At the rate I was going I was going to have to buy them in bulk, in which case I'd need a lot more money.

I began the slow, painful process of getting my clothes back on. Without the ability to breathe everything was difficult.

Grabbing the leathers and shoving them into the backpack I'd kept the motorcycle leathers in before I'd stepped into the restaurant the first time, I staggered outside into the main restaurant. I crawled on top of one of the tables and I let my fingers wander over its surface. I hadn't used the power like Rune originally had in a long time, but I didn't see that I had much of a choice now.

Focusing enough to make not only myself but the whole table insubstantial was painful. I then lifted it with Rune's power and a moment later I was flying along the surface of the street.

I waited until I reached the edge of the mirror realm and then I let myself and the table drop into the real world.

There was smoke and fires in the distance; I created another mirror universe before anyone could see me and I slipped into it.

I wasn't sure what was going on, but I wasn't in any shape to fix it. Until I either repaired my lungs or grew new ones I wouldn't be doing anything.

The thought that Panacea could fix this in no time at all occurred to me, along with the thought that it was a good reason not to take her power. After all, if I did I couldn't use it on myself.

I reached the movie theater two created universes later. I shadowed through the wall and flew upward until I reached the space I'd made for myself and Dad for times exactly like this.

Letting the mirror world fade from around me, I saw Dad huddled over the tiny portable television we'd bought. It was battery powered since we hadn't yet managed to steal electricity. He had an earphone in his ear; playing a loud electronic was just asking for someone to overhear us and come investigate.

I felt off the table with a crash.

He whirled and rushed over to me, the earphone yanking out of his ear.

I stared up at him gasping for breath. The moment that I'd let the first mirror universe vanish the corpses of Night and Fog would have appeared in the real world.

It hadn't been something I'd done in the heat of anger. I'd chosen to kill them because I'd decided that they were too dangerous to be left alive. I'd been judge, jury and executioner.

Right now all I saw was concern on Dad's face, but I was dreading the expression he'd have if he knew what I had done.

Yet there was a deep, dark, cold part of me that would do the exact same thing again. They'd been killers who had murdered a man for no other reason than convenience. Did it make me as bad as them to do the same and for almost the same reason?

I was changing, and it worried me a little.

For the moment though all I could do was heal.