"Why'd you pull us out?" Amy asked incredulously after she had regained her bearings.
I frowned. "They drew their weapons."
Amy gestured to where the portals had been. "Because you opened two slipstream portals right in front of them! The Truce is still on, so they wouldn't have done anything. They thought you were attacking them. And given what I saw of your fight with the Simurgh, it's not that much of a leap in logic."
My frown deepened as information flowed into me. Almost immediately I realized my mistake. Lung had never needed the Endbringer Truce, so that bit of knowledge was never shared. Everyone else I'd subsumed up until Amy had been normal people, not capes, who wouldn't have cared about it nearly as much. A sigh of exasperation left me.
I glanced at my nearly ruined armor. Thankfully the power supply had gone undamaged, as great care was taken to make sure that it was hardened against damage. Two-thirds of the anti-gravity propulsion system, the shields, and the powered exoskeleton had all been crushed by the Simurgh.
"This is what I get for letting Dragon scan me," I grumbled. I'd allowed her to scan my armor in order to draw her curiosity, maybe get her to come to me at a later date in person to study such a tantalizing prize. The scan of my biology, however, was something I did spur of the moment. I'd transmitted a message of sorts, one that would fool her into thinking that her scanner had acted of its own accord. Had I known it would out Amy and Victoria I would have refrained.
They reassured me that it wasn't my fault, in spite of how I felt.
I sent out the mental order for Kenta to withdraw his gang and Emma and Madison to continue sorting through all our assimilated shards. Thankfully Kenta had not started any fights, so we were good on that front. He was disappointed but understood why it had to be done. Emma conveyed worry for me through the gestalt. Madison was apprehensive at us being found out but remained stalwart, nonetheless.
'Now then.' I spoke through my connection to everyone. 'Here is how things will go for the foreseeable future: Kenta and Lee will defend ABB territory with the aid of Victor and Monica, both of whom will wear disguises to pose as different capes. Emma and Madison continue as planned. Unfortunately it seems that Amy and Victoria are due for an extended stay away from home but are otherwise free to roam around as long as they do not get caught.' The orders were transmitted instantaneously and acknowledged almost as fast.
"Taylor, are you there?" Dragon's familiar voice echoed through the warehouse. At first I was startled, wondering how they had found us so fast. Then I realized exactly where the voice was coming from: the Endbringer armbands that Amy and Victoria had forgotten to take off. They shared a glance, then reached up to remove the armbands. Victoria crushed hers and Amy pulled hers off, but before she could trash it I took it from her.
Amy shot me a confused look, which I shut down by simply staring at her.
I held the armband up to my face and pressed the transmit button. "What do you want, Dragon?"
"We want you to talk to us," Came her reply. Well, wasn't that unexpected.
"Talk?" I asked incredulously. "You want to talk with the person who, as Armsmaster so eloquently put it, 'must be a threat because they subverted the ABB instead of going to the Protectorate'?"
"Armsmaster overreacted. Things are hectic because of the fallout from what happened at Canberra and we would like to have a proper discussion," Dragon's tinny voice did its best to keep an even tone, but I heard a voice crack at the beginning of her sentence. Whether that was the method of communication or something else, I didn't know.
Unfortunately, this was looking to be the best option if I wanted to sort out what happened to Amy and Victoria. "Fine, but I choose the meeting spot and time."
"That's more than fair," Dragon replied courteously. I glanced at a window. It was very early in the morning; the sun just barely peeked out over the horizon.
"Five minutes from now, the Boat Graveyard, on the opposite beach from the oil rig." I told her. It was a decent spot: far away from the PRT, open, more than likely abandoned so we would be alone. The armband crumpled in my grasp, leaving her no other option but to accept my location or to not show up, both of which would place me into a position of power.
With that settled, I suited up in my old armor. It was a bit tight due to my increased mass, but nothing I couldn't handle. As I went to open the slipstream portal, I caught Amy and Victoria's pleading stares.
Amy spoke first. "We want the chance to explain ourselves-"
"-to Mom and clear up any misunderstandings," Victoria finished flawlessly. I blinked in confusion. It seemed that they had been growing even closer since being converted, or maybe it was just that Amy had been the one to convert Victoria. Interesting, but odd.
"Alright," I told them. I summoned the portal and we stepped through.
On the other side, Dragon stood with Brandish about fifty feet from where we were. Brandish's face lit up upon seeing her daughters, but when her eyes met mine, a deep scowl formed.
"Okay, let's talk." I told the two heroes as Victoria and Amy moved to stand on either side of me.