It was the night that never seemed to end.

Rescuing people had been easy at first, but even with my array of powers exhaustion began to set in after the first few hours. I didn't have to simply beat multiple gangs fighting each other and the police, but I had to dodge PRT patrols.

Despite what I'd told Armsmaster, the PRT still seemed to consider me an enemy. The only thing that saved me was that I could hear things from a tremendous distance if I chose to let the wind enhance Cricket's already amazing hearing. Being able to sense the PRT agents fear was also helpful; while I couldn't differentiate one person's fear from another, they tended to be less afraid than most of the gang members and they traveled in clumps.

The bombs in people's heads were getting harder and harder to remove as well. I'd considered stealing the skills of a surgeon but hadn't, reasoning that the city needed every surgeon that it could get tonight.

Burning buildings, people trapped in cars, poisonous gasses exploding and killing everyone in an entire building...the horrors I saw seemed endless. The more I saw the angrier I got.

This had to stop, and it wasn't going to happen until Bakuda was ended.

Tattletale had promised to call me the moment she pinpointed her location. It didn't seem to be enough. I'd interrogated some of the victims but no one was able to tell me where the lab they had been implanted in was found. They'd been led there with bags over their heads and led out the same way.

I'd tried giving their time estimates to Tattletale in hope that she'd be able to triangulate the area or something, but she'd told me that people's estimates of time were deeply flawed and couldn't be trusted. She was appreciative of the information though and told me that every bit of new information could make the difference between the city having to go through hell for another several hours or freedom.

I'd even met with her and had been given a tinkertech earpiece and bodycam that she could use to try to get as much as she could in real time. Apparently Coil knew she was working with me, if not why and he approved of her doing this.

There wasn't any point in ruling over a smoldering crater of a city after all. If he was to have a city to rule he needed her shut down as badly as I did.

Having Dad safely out of town was the only thing that let me get through it all. I was able to focus on people instead of worrying that our house was going to be bombed or that the theater was going to catch on fire because an Asian with a bomb in his head wandered too close.

Maybe in a different world this all would have been easier, but I pushed through the exhaustion to do as much as I could.

There were times when I failed, when people were caught up in areas of null time that I realized would have trapped me as easily as someone else. Once I had to tear off my own arm to escape an expanding sphere of null time. Only Cricket's reflexes and the fact that I was expecting it had let me escape.

I wished that my biokinisis was faster, so I could create an arm twenty feet long to use on people. It would have been disturbing, but much safer for me.

As it was I lost count of the times I was genuinely at risk of my life. I couldn't help but wonder what Dad would do if I was trapped in an area of dead time, or pulled into a black hole, or ejected out into the blackness of space through a portal.

Admitting that I was his daughter would only get him murdered by gang members resentful of losing their place in the world. I wasn't even certain the PRT would bother to save him; they certainly didn't seem to do anything from altruism.

It was almost three in the morning, and I was reaching the end of my strength when my luck finally ran out.

The bomb in the kid's head exploded and I was just a tad slower than I had been, probably from exhaustion. Instead of just an arm it got a good portion of my torso, and I was forced to send a piece of metal up to cut me almost in two even as I yanked telekinetically on my armor to pull me out of harm's way.

I felt groggy as I realized that my heart and my lungs were exposed to the open air. Even with Lung's regeneration this was going to take a while, time in which I was going to be vulnerable to anyone coming after me.

Unconsciousness overtook me, and when I awoke I was in the air.

"If you steal my powers we'll both drop to our deaths," the girl in the white gown said. My mind was fuzzy, probably from exhaustion and all the damage I'd taken. I doubted even Lung could have survived being cut in half, but the fear was empowering his regeneration as well as it was everything else.

I wasn't even sure where my body was going to get the mass to regenerate the missing half of my body. It wasn't like I'd had that much excess mass in the first place. I wondered if I was going to regain my body only to look like an emaciated skeleton.

Unfortunately I'd been doing everything I could all night to reduce the fear, and I'd been making a difference.

My head lolled as I stared at her.

She had bags under her eyes and she looked like she hadn't slept in days. I couldn't blame her, considering everything she'd been through. I had to wonder just how much of what Gabriel had told me was true. Was her entire family dead except for Amy or was it all a bluff?

I couldn't see him giving up the buffet that a group of capes with a publicly known house address would be. It would have been easy for him. All he'd have to do was kill one, then take the rest of the family one by one as they returned home, never expecting betrayal from the people that they loved.

"Glory gurl?"

My mouth wouldn't seem to work right and my brain seemed to be misfiring. I had to be in shock. I couldn't even concentrate enough to use my biokinisis to speed my healing.

I wondered whether I'd die if Glory Girl took me too far from the fear which was empowering me, or whether I had healed enough already for it not to matter.

"I wouldn't be doing this, but Amy insisted.," she said. "I've lost almost everything I've ever loved and I can't help but blame you a little bit for it."

Did she know I was the one who had caused her to murder that guy? I wasn't sure how else I'd offended her.

"My sister lied when she said she didn't look at your brain the first time. She lies like that a lot."

Amy Dallon knew then. She'd known all along who I was and she hadn't told the Protectorate. Why?

"Why?" I asked, my voice slurring still.

"She doesn't like people knowing she can do brains. She says it's too much power, that she'd be tempted to go too far." She was silent for a moment. "We've been talking a lot the last couple of days."

"No...why me?"

"She's got a use for you," Glory Girl said. She looked down at me with an expression of contempt. "I'd just as soon drop you, but she says you're our only hope."

I would have said something else, but I blacked out again.

When I woke I felt much better. I felt something touching my arm, and I felt warm and whole. She was touching something else with her other hand; it took me a moment to realize that it was a large dead dog.

I'd heard somewhere that she needed biomass if she was to replace parts. It was a little horrifying to realize that part of me was going to be made of roadkill, but it was better than being an emaciated skeleton for real.

"You didn't come back to see me," Amy said neutrally.

"I didn't think you knew," I said. "And after I got Hookwolf I didn't think you wouldn't."

She was silent for a long moment. "I'm still working on your legs, so don't look down."

I looked down at the stumps of my legs; the toes at the end of the stumps were barely nubs. I tried to whittle them.

"I've got biokinisis," I said. "Not as fast as what you've got and probably not as powerful, but I'm used to disgusting things."

There wasn't much left of the dog; at this point it was mostly skin and fur.

"I'm going to have to use some of your body fat to finish up," she said. "I'm sorry."

I could feel what she was doing now, and it was amazing. The changes had never gone so smoothly and seamlessly for me; it had always been a lot of trial and error and had required real effort. This was flawless and amazing.

The urge to reach out and take her power was almost overwhelming. Maybe if I could take her power some of that understanding could be applied to my own power. I'd love to have the ability to make changes that quickly, with that kind of intuitive understanding.

"You wouldn't want it," she said without looking up. "My power I mean."

I realized that my hand was just an inch from her wrist.

"It's more of a burden than a blessing," she said. "Everyone always wanting something from you, your time never your own. Feeling every germ on everything you touch and you eat...I could tell you things about the restaurants in town that would make you sick."

"I've seen you eating at those places, I said, letting my hand drop.

"I kill all the harmful bacteria in everything I eat, and on what Vicky eats, at least when she bothers to let me."

"Why are you saving me?" I asked. My mind was clearing now, and I still couldn't understand.

"You're the only one who can fight him," she said. She stared off into the distance. "He killed the others one by one and hid them in the back of the house. We didn't realize who he was at first; he was in the shape of Crystal. I knew as soon as I brushed by her though."

She was silent for a long moment. "People have their own unique germs, you know. It comes in a cloud that covers everybody like an aura. It's as unique as a fingerprint. I tried to make him sick, to change him, but something about him reverts the changes almost as quickly as I made them. If Vicky hadn't gotten me out of there..."

I nodded.

"Still," I said. "Why me?"

"You're like him," she said. "Except you don't kill...mostly. You target villains...you were Crystal's friend. Most importantly, there's no one in the Bay that has even remotely the power they need to face him. You are the closest we have to Eidolon."

"I can't find him," I admitted. "I've got the powers from twenty capes, but no thinkers, no precogs or super senses other than hearing. I can smell things because the wind brings them to me, but it doesn't make me any better at identifying scents than a regular person."

"Then you are going to have to travel," she said. "Get allies who can do the thinking for you. If you don't stop him he's going to be the end of it for everyone we care about."

"I don't really know the Wards," I said. "And I think the Protectorate has been trying to shoot me in the head.."

She scowled. "Then do it because he's a serial killing ass. The only reason he doesn't go after normal people is because they don't have anything to offer. What do you think he would have done with Victor's power?"

"He'd be draining everyone in the city who was unusually good at something...even if it was something relatively useless to him like singing."

"He collects powers and he'd collect skills the same way," she said. She finally lifted her hand from my leg, which surprisingly was back to normal although it was unusually thin. Madison would probably start a rumor that I was doing meth or something when I went back to school unless I was careful to fill out.

"What are you and your sister doing?" I asked. I realized that we were in a warehouse which looked to be abandoned. Everything was dusty.

"We're in hiding," she said. "We can't trust anyone until this is done, so we're going on the run."

"You could go to the PRT," I said.

"If he's smart he's there already," she said. "I'd wake up one morning with my head splattered all over the wall...they made me be part of Parian's autopsy so I know exactly what he does to bodies."

"Do you need money?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Vicky looted a couple of stashhouses once she realized what we needed. We couldn't go home; she's pretty sure the PRT is looking for us."

"Where will you go?" I asked.

"Canada," she said. "It's outside the PRT's purview, and Vicki thinks she can get Dragon to take us in."

"If anyone can figure out a way to identify him it would be her," I admitted. "If you talk to her, do you think you could get her to help me?"

"She's fairly loyal to the PRT," Amy said. "We won't tell her who you are until we're sure she'll help you instead of turning you in."

"Thanks for this," I said.

"I've heard what you've been doing for the city," she said. "The radio isn't talking about anything other than the attacks and the responses from you, the PRT and whatever other independent heroes are left."

"Are there any?" I asked. It'd be good to have some allies.

She shook her head. "I don't know."

I realized that my face was back to normal. "Did you do this?"

"Every since I've been using my abilities for more than just healing I've been feeling better," she admitted. "You know it's possible to turn weeds into plants that are edible and even tasty? I've even made breadfruit."

"I've heard of that," I said.

"Not the kind I made," she said. "The bread is good too, although it's frustrating not being able to cook anything."

"Are you guys sure you don't want to stick around? You have friends here, even if you don't have family."

"We'd end up in foster care, or worse with Aunt Marge," Amy said. She shuddered. "Besides, even if you hid us somewhere how would we know that the person coming back was actually you or just someone wearing your face?"

"You aren't old enough to rent hotel rooms or cars," I said. "Or even get a job. And what about your education?"

"If I still had a mother she'd be able to ask those questions," Amy said acidly. "But I don't. We'll figure something out."

Once they got to Dragon they'd be all right, I guess. They were two of the strongest Capes in the Bay, each in their own way. Short of a visit from the Slaughterhouse Nine or Gabriel himself they ought to be all right.

"If I knew where that Bomber was I could have at least avoided all this," I said, gesturing toward my legs.

"You got a call," Amy said. She held up the communicator I had been using to talk to Tattletale. "Whoever is on the other side of the line seems to know approximately where the bomber is."

I snatched the communicator from her.

Struggling to my feet I swayed for a moment as I got used to my new legs. It was odd to think that my original legs were gone forever, trapped in a void of null time somewhere. It was weird that these weren't really my legs at all, although they eventually would be.

"Are you going to be all right?" I asked.

Glory Girl stepped out of the shadows, scowling. I'd been peripherally aware of her, of course but I'd let her think that she was fooling me because she'd been through enough. Her heartbeat had been obvious to Cricket and Stormtiger's senses. She wasn't wearing her blinding white costume now; instead she was wearing a black hoodie. Amy was dressed much the same.

"I can take care of my sister without any help from you."

I nodded shortly and then began changing my form. I was still a little weak from a lack of mass, but there was a lot that had to be done and not much time to do it. I held out my hand for the communicator and Amy handed it and the earpiece to me.

"Good luck," we both said simultaneously.

Turning, I slipped the earpiece into my ear, and said, "Tattletale, are you there?"

I reached the door to the warehouse and looked back, but they were already gone, presumably having slipped out the back. I hoped they had better luck than they'd been having.

I hoped we all did.

"Where have you been?" she asked immediately. Her voice sounded strained."We've got a situation."

Apparently not.