Kenta's oblivious statement seemed to break whatever hold my emotions had over me. I immediately cut myself off from the local gestalt and let my anger bleed away slowly. I felt the Mind's comforting presence wash over me.
It told me that I'd experienced one of the downsides of the localized gestalt I was building: that mine and the Dallon sister's emotions had formed a positive feedback loop. Amy and Victoria's anger had fed mine, which in turn fed into theirs ad infinitum. The Mind said that it would have stopped me before I'd done something regrettable, but even still I felt bad for having used such a contemptible power on someone. It seemed that Amy and Victoria had realized it too, because they had pensive looks on their faces.
Though Thinkers are dangerous with their ability to pull information out of thin air, as the unconscious girl so aptly demonstrated.
I picked up the unconscious cape and placed her on the couch. "Um, Amy, could you wake her up? I don't really know how to use Shaper on other people yet." She wordlessly complied and placed her hand on the mystery cape's own.
Not even a moment later, the girl's eyes fluttered open. Her eyes flicked from me, to Amy, then back to me. "You know, if you wanna do the whole 'good cop bad cop' routine, then one of you has to actually be the good cop." She grumbled sarcastically. "Hi, I'm Lisa by the way. Not that you bothered to ask me."
"I'm Taylor. And I'm sorry." I told her while averting my eyes. "The last couple of days have been… strenuous to say the least."
"I'm guessing that you were at the Endbringer fight today?" She glanced at her wristwatch. "Or yesterday, I guess."
"She killed the Simurgh." Victoria boasted. I thought about keeping her quiet, but it was likely to be all over the news by tomorrow, if it wasn't already.
Lisa froze, staring at me wide eyed. "You killed her?" She shrieked. "How? I thought they were supposed to be too tough to kill for anything short of Scion."
"I doubt even Scion can withstand or escape the event horizon of a black hole." I said with as deadpan a tone as I could muster.
"You- you're serious." She leaned back on the couch, dumbstruck at the notion that one of the Endbringers was dead. "How does that qualify as a bad day? Shouldn't the Protectorate be showering you with praise?"
My expression soured. "My father thought that going to the PRT and spilling all the secrets I told him in confidence was a better idea than trusting me. He thinks that my powers are controlling me."
"Carol, our mother," Amy gestured between herself and Victoria "disowned me. I told her that I'd figured out how to fix our father's depression and she… well…" Amy's hands clenched into fists and Victoria placed a comforting arm around her shoulders.
"So yeah, shitty days all around." Victoria finished for her sister.
"Can I join the Shitty Day Club?" Lisa asked, a grin on her face. "I'd say being kidnapped and tortured qualifies as 'shitty'."
In spite of the morbid discussion, I felt a smile appear on my face. "Sorry again."
Without warning, Lisa gasped sharply and I felt… something appear. It wasn't like sensing a member of the gestalt. It was different. There was a definite energy and- I inhaled as I realized that I was sensing a shard. I was sensing this girl's shard. I could sense shards. "My power just came back on." The girl whispered softly. Her eyes moved to me. "Still can't read you, though." Her gaze shifted to Victoria, then Amy. "Either of you." And finally to Kenta and Monica who had taken to ignoring the four of us in favor of watching television. "Any of you…" She trailed off. "Is my power Manton limited now or something?" The worried expression on her face told me that this was a bad thing.
"I think it has more to do with what we are than your power." I told her. Given that I planned to bring her into the gestalt, I felt it was safe to do so.
"What you are," She repeated. "What are you, then?"
I thought for a moment. Outright telling her would more than likely not inure her to the idea. Showing her was slightly better, but her inability to use her power on us was a hindrance. I stiffened when I felt the Mind's presence inside my head, something that Lisa picked up on.
"What was that?" Lisa asked with a worried tone.
"Given the… complexity that would entail a verbal explanation, we decided that a practical one would be better." On the word 'better' an infection form skittered out of the sleeve of my shirt and perched on my shoulder. "Can your power analyze this?" Her eyes widened in alarm and she instinctively leaned away from me.
"Um," Lisa reluctantly focused her eyes on the pod, but otherwise didn't move. "Kind of? All I'm getting are vague impressions. A feeling of… incompleteness? Emptiness?"
I looked at Amy. 'Can I show her your conversion?' Amy returned a feeling of agreement and I moved to sit next to Lisa.
"What was that? You two were talking? Telepathically?" Lisa asked incredulously.
I extended my hand towards her. Lisa warily eyed the infection form on the opposite shoulder. "Take my hand and everything will make sense." I could practically sense how overwhelmed and trepid Lisa was at the prospect of touching me. In spite of this her intrigue won out and she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and grasped my hand.
The physical contact wasn't strictly necessary, but it helped satisfy my need for Lisa giving her consent. With an almost physical jolt of electricity, our minds connected. The memory transfer was near instantaneous for me, but I'm sure that for Lisa it felt like hours. The pressure that she gripped my hand with was surprising, considering she wasn't a Brute. About five seconds later, she slumped back onto the couch, having fallen unconscious once more.
"I think we'd better give her time to recover." I announced and let go of her hand. "The process of sharing thoughts like that is draining if your body isn't used to it."
I suddenly felt a tugging on my mind. Kenta was beckoning me over to him. On the TV was a news report. On me.
"-right. The Simurgh has been confirmed to be dead by Protectorate forces on site in Canberra. Credit for slaying the Endbringer goes to a local hero who the Protectorate said wishes to remain anonymous to avoid harassment."
"What the fuck?" I said aloud, and my feelings were reaffirmed by everyone else here.
"At least they called you a hero," Victoria added a moment before the newscaster started speaking again.
"I have to say David, when I woke up this morning I was not expecting to hear that an Endbringer had bee-"
My fist went through the TV, denting the metal wall that it was hung from. I tore it free and hurled it into the opposite wall forty feet away. Rage flowed through my veins.
"That was my TV," Kenta growled with displeasure. I turned to him, an incredulous look on my face. A moment later, it bled away to a smile.
"Don't worry, Kenta. In a week we'll own every single TV in the city. It's time to accelerate our plans. If the Protectorate wants to sweep me under the rug, I'll just pull it out from under them."