Step 1.4

I swore I saw something, but it slipped away like a dream.

Rolling onto my side, I felt thankful for my wardrobe of baggy clothes and sweaters. The jewelry display covered the floor around me. Shattered glass slid off of me like water drops as I rose. My thigh burned hot and the hand testing the tender spot came back a lot redder than I remembered.

And my first thought was, I'm going to die.

There's a major artery in the thigh, right? Sure looked like a lot of my blood was on the ground. The figures shambled forward in torn clothes, faces contorted into inhuman features with vacant stares.

The rushing wave of people had dissolved into a chaotic whirl. Someone yelled something about the doors being blocked more than once. I watched in dumbstruck uncertainty, because fear just isn't the right word for what I was feeling. I knew fear well, and it definitely wasn't fear.

One of the zombies grabbed a woman. She screamed, but there wasn't any blood or anything. No, the zombie just grabbed her purse, then 'poofed' it away in a burst of gray dust. Complete with 'poof' sound. The zombie let the lady run away and went after someone else after that.

I managed to pull myself onto the part of the floor not covered in glass, hiding behind a counter while my heart tried to break out of my ribcage. The Sears is on fire. A whole rack of luggage is just burning up. How the hell did that even happen? People are still running around screaming, some seemingly not even noticing the zombies are just robbing them.

"Taylor?"

"Veda?"

I realize I've gotten blood on my phone only after taking it out of my pocket.

"Is something wrong?"

"Uber and Leet are here." My voice is even. Should I sound so calm? "I'm bleeding."

"Searching… Apply pressure—"

Oh right. First aid. The sprinklers burst on right as I'm pressing a hand to my thigh and forcing myself up. The zombies don't seem very interested, so I shuffle my way over a few feet to a shelf of shirts and wrap one around the wound nice and tight. The pain stabbed harder but dulled after I tied the shirt into a knot.

I don't feel lightheaded at least.

I stumbled back, hiding behind the shirts and trying to come up with something. The zombies just ran through the crowd, grabbing and taking. One worked its way over to the jewelry cases, including the one I'd been thrown into, and started poofing things away. A few people got thrown down as their attackers handled them too roughly.

The scream shocked me out of my stupor. Don't even know who it was, or why their voice broke me from my shock when nothing else did.

My entire body heaved. The thundering in my chest was suddenly everywhere, and when did I start breathing so hard? One woman was thrown to the ground and trampled by the crowd. Another started spraying a can into the air and I was bleeding all over the floor—how long did it take to bleed out? One guy tried to fight one of the zombies. His head snapped back before bouncing forward like a rubber band.

Beam saber.

I kept the laser scalpel in one pocket, the hilt and charge pack in the other. Not much battery life—and there's security cameras everywhere and I just assembled a tinker-tech lightsaber in plain sight god damn it.

A new fear gripped my chest.

My face on the news and all over PHO with big banners saying 'cape here.' Staying low to the floor, I settled on a large shirt. I did my hair up in a loose bun and tucked it off to one side, and then tied the shirt as tightly as I could without choking myself.

I look ridiculous. Probably.

"Taylor?"

I sounded a lot less confident than I felt, which wasn't very confident at all.

"I-I'm okay." For the moment. Now what…

The cameras.

"Veda. Can you hack into the mall's security cameras and delete all the footage showing my face?" No. Stupid. The security cameras are probably on a closed circuit—

"Accessing. Connection established."

I stared. "R-Really?"

"There is an open port."

Uber and Leet. Right.

I could see the nearest exit and the literal wall of people pressed up against a shimmering blue field covering the doors. Of course Uber and Leet trapped everyone inside. I never thought Uber and Leet would attack me—or the mall while I was there.

The Empire breaking down the front door and dragging the new tinker away?

That I kind of prepared myself for.

The Merchants grabbing me off the street and sticking a needle in my arm? Dark, but yeah, something I actually thought might happen. Hell, I feared the Protectorate might just show up and arrest me for something.

But Uber and Leet? Those nitwits are the thing that caught me completely off guard?

With a zombie invasion.

I wasn't ready.

Screams echoed in my ears. My body stumbled slowly at first. There was someone on the ground with a twisted leg. People were using 'bludgeoning tools' now. Two guys had bats and another a golf club. They gathered together by the doors, others massing behind them. Many more still ran and scrambled across the store, hiding anywhere they could.

For a moment, I remembered a girl trapped in darkness, begging for help.

I didn't realize I could move so quickly.

A zombie leaned over the counter rather than try to go around it, its hand swiping through the air at two teenagers huddled behind the register. My shoulder hit the zombie hard.

I pulled him off the counter in spite of the pain in my shoulder and threw him back.

The zombie turned quickly, its weight falling onto my chest and pulling me toward the floor. My leg screamed in pain as one foot slid back to keep me upright. A soft 'floosh' followed the sudden burst of pink light. The blade moved smoothly, cutting from hip to shoulder as my arm carried it up and over my head.

My heart seized. The thundering in my chest stopped, and the pain in my thigh went cold. Steam wisped off the blade in my hand, and I swore the body fell in slow motion before hitting the ground.

I killed—a robot?

The zombie visage faded away, revealing a stick figure robot with thin limbs and blocky chest and head. My beam saber cut the body cleanly, one arm twitching on the floor. The hand grabbed at the air, 'poofing' over and over again.

"It's a robot…"

The half-cut torso wiggled back and forth on its shoulders, as if wanting to roll over but not knowing how.

Robot or not, it was kind of freaky.

Shuffling away until my back hit a wall, I found myself standing over the teenagers. Both wore khakis and polo shirts. I stared at them. They stared back, still shaking. The silence dragged out…and kept dragging…

I should say something yeah say something, anything, the doors!

After a quick glance around the room, I pointed the beam saber. "G-Go to the doors! Over there!" They didn't move, probably because I sounded as freaked out as they looked. "Hey! Door's over there!" I stabbed my saber in the right direction. "GO!"

That got them up on their feet.

I watched them go, but lost them in the chaos of everything around me.

This is what a hero does, right? I can do this.

Easier said than done. My heart still raced as I spotted a man with two children. I chased at them, rounding the corner into a shoe section. A good Nike in the back of the head got the zombie robot—zombot—to face me instead. I wheeled to the side, looking at the man and pointing.

"That way!"

The guy nodded and started to move but the zombot abruptly knocked over a display case. The boy with him yelped, and I lunged forward. Swinging my blade down, I cut an arm and a leg from its body. The robot grabbed me as it fell, but another swing severed the grabbing hand from the wrist.

I helped the kid up while his dad looked in the direction I pointed my saber. He nodded, holding a toddler in his arm and taking the boy's hand. I rotated my shoulder just to make sure my arm wasn't poofed away.

I ignored the pain in my leg and kept going. Two women were trapped in the dressing rooms. Another was beating a zombot with her purse, who just needed a little help to see through the tears in her eyes. Then there was the moron. I cut the head off the zombie coming at him, and couldn't understand why he was just standing there till I calmed down enough to notice he was holding his hand up.

"Seriously?! You're filming this?!" He gave me this innocent look. "Go hide somewhere!"

I did feel bad about telling him off, but for the first time in my life I realized all those videos of cape fights on PHO were made by idiots.

I left him and moved on to a family of five trying to fight a zombie off a baby carriage. The sprinklers shut off at some point. The pain in my leg dulled as I went. The ache in my muscles distracted me from the pain. I kept going, swinging left and right. The zombots were slow, and frankly, stupid. Half of them, after not seeing anyone to chase within a few feet, just started stumbling around.

It felt surreal, even after fully intending to go out and fight supervillains. Running around the store and hacking up robot zombies and telling people where to go seemed strange. Fighting them wasn't hard. Damn Uber and Leet. It was almost like a video game.

It felt good.

Another scream. I remembered her. Straight dark brown hair. Yellow sundress. She scrambled across the floor on hands and knees, one of the zombies hunched over her and reaching out. The girl's palm slipped and she hit the ground. The zombie grabbed her leg and pulled, almost getting on top of her before I beheaded it with a swing of my blade.

The zombot began to flail, rising up and giving me a clear strike at its legs. The torso fell to the ground, hands reaching every which way while I pulled the girl up. She was crying, hunched over on her knees and muttering something. "Hey, it's okay. Come on." I pulled her up, and one arm snaked around my waist as she leaned into me.

Finding no other robots coming toward us, I shut off the beam to preserve power. The girl didn't move on her own, but she walked when I did. Odd that the zombots weren't swarming the crowd. One occasionally approached, but the three men with clubs and bats beat it until it stopped moving. Everyone behind them seemed scared but okay.

The golf club guy kind of glared at me as I approached. "Who are you?"

I stopped and stared. "The girl kicking zombot ass?" Why did I just say that? I sound like a lunatic!

"Let her though!" I recognized the man I'd saved in the shoe department. "She's the cape who helped me and my kids!"

Golf club guy snarled but stepped aside. I only heard him say "stain" as I passed him. He spoke in a low voice, one only I'd hear. I almost lost my footing. The word hit me right in the chest like an anvil. I never liked their philosophy, but like Uber and Leet I never considered them as something I'd have to deal with.

Blue Cosmos bigot.

An older woman with a hunch stepped up as I started trying to pull the girl off me. "She"—my voice cracked as the words hit me—"lost her mom." Thinking back, I hadn't seen the woman she was with. The girl whimpered, clinging to me tightly. I glanced back over my shoulder, seeing others running from the zombies and screaming. "Can you take her?"

The old woman nodded and pulled her back into the crowd. I hesitated for a moment. For all I knew I just handed a helpless girl off to a elder pedophile, or a psycho. What else could I do? The girl wouldn't be safe following me around.

"Is that a cape?"

"Who is he?"

I tried to ignore the voices, but my sulking shoulders probably gave me away. Approaching the barrier, I found a solid blue wall just beyond the doors. Outside in the parking lot the first squad cars peeled in, police forming a perimeter and waving at people to come to them. What really interested me though was the drone. A sort of floating orb that hovered just beyond the field.

The projector?

I called on my own power to think of how to build something like that. All I got was a sort of shield that opened up and vented dense particles contained in an electro-magnetic sheath, and some kind of flying attack gun. So, not much help.

Now what…?

A hand tugged at my pant leg. The girl was there, looking up at me with pleading eyes. "My m-mom."

Damn it.

"What's your name?"

"D-Dinah."

"I'll go look for her, okay? You stay here."

"Hey!" Golf club bigot snarled and pointed at the door. "What are you going to do about that?!"

I frowned. The way he sneered at me looked too much like Sophia, and he was an anti-parahuman bigot to boot. "The projector is in the drone on the other side! I'm a tinker"—announce it to the world, why not—"not a magician!"

"So zap it with your lightsaber!"

"Beam saber!" I blame Lucas. "And that"—I pointed at the drone—"almost certainly has a much bigger battery than this." I held out my deactivated saber. "Look, the drone is right there, alright? A cop could probably shoot it and take it out! So just sit tight and I'm gonna go make sure no one else is running from zombots."

I heard someone ask "the hell is a zombot?"

Golf club guy didn't look amused, and a few other faces looked disappointed. I didn't like it, but I couldn't think of anything. Maybe Veda could hack the drone?

I started to reach for my pocket, but remembering the crowd, I stopped.

I closed my eyes and stormed forward, letting my feet carry me away. I slashed the legs off of one zombot as it approached me, and as soon as I was out of sight fished the bloodstained phone from my pocket.

"Ve—"

"Taylor?"

I didn't hear it. My voice stopped completely when I saw the screen.

s:/t taylor?

s:/t are you there?

s:/t should I contact law enforcement?

s:/t …

s:/t …

s:/t …

s:/t connecting UaLS/

I checked back through the log quickly, seeing several pleading messages from 'StarGazer' asking for Uber and Leet to stop their video and leave the mall. The Internet being the Internet, several dozen messages I wish I'd never seen followed. Veda cycled for a few seconds idly, a long time for an AI, until…

s:/t initiating DDOS

s:/t complete

s:/t connecting &

s:/t initiating DDOS

s:/t counter measures detected

s:/t tracing

s:/t redirecting tracers

My eyes widened as I kept reading. It dawned on me far too slowly that in the—how the hell has it only been twelve minutes?—time since Uber and Leet started their show, Veda had escalated to full out digital warfare. It shut down their web page, blocked their stream, launched a denial of service attack against their servers, and sent attempts to track the attacks off into the CUI. It hacked into Leet's PHO account and started spamming moderators with curse-laden rants about the Siberian being an inside job!?

"Holy shit Veda."

"Taylor? Are you well?"

"Y-Yeah I'm fine!" My eyes widened. Reassurance of my safety didn't even slow it down.

s:/t uploading Spring Break Girls 5 to server

s:/t complete

s:/t reporting illicit content to administrator

What the shit has my AI been doing with its free time?! Wait since when can my AI hack accounts, reroute traces, and launch DDoS attacks? It coded all that on its own?

My emotions shifted back and forth for a moment between overwhelming pride and unmitigated terror. I gained a new appreciation for people who feared AI might take over the world. In a mere hour Veda flipped Uber and Leet's entire digital life on its head, running on a bunch of decade old machines with a public high school's Internet connection!

I checked the time again. Only fourteen minutes, more or less? It felt like an eternity. I scrolled back through the log again, until I confirmed that Veda deleted about forty minutes worth of video from the mall's security cameras.

One problem off my back.

"Veda. There are drones blocking the doors. Stopping people from getting out. Can you access them?"

"Searching…"

I found myself a hiding place to wait in, not seeing any people and just a few zombots standing around. It seemed odd to me. Obviously Uber and Leet were just using them as a distraction. They grabbed things and poofed them away, pocket space maybe or a teleporter, while the duo were somewhere else. Why were they just standing around instead of looking—

Veda.

"Did you maybe mess with Leet's servers enough to break his robots?"

"Unknown."

"Well if you did, I'll call it a win."

A shout echoed through the mall, and the sound of rushing feet. Sirens in the distance. "Did it work?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Okay that's good. Good." I slipped my phone into my pocket and rose to my feet. "There was a woman in the Sears with a small girl. Straight brown hair. Yellow sundress. I can't find her. Can you check through the security footage?"

The zombots kept acting weird. Some didn't even respond to me as I approached and cut them apart.

Only a few stragglers needed my help. One with a broken leg I directed two others to help. They helped him up and dragged him back to safety. When I found the last one, a boy whose wheelchair had fallen over, near the entrance to the mall at the front of the store I looked back.

Where is she?

More zombots stood like statues further into the mall, but I didn't see any people. The mall must have two dozen exits at least. When the drones holding the barriers went down everyone probably rushed out. Still, a stone formed in my chest, unpleasantly familiar fears settling back in. I had yet to find anyone dead. Lots of people hurt, some pretty badly. Cuts and bruises. Broken bones. Nothing that looked life-threatening. Knowing that didn't make the pain go away.

"Veda?"

"Searching… Found."

Veda guided me.

"Ma'am." Her eyes opened slowly. "Ma'am can you hear me?" She nodded. "My name is T—Mask. Dinah's safe. I promise. She asked me to find you."

I looked her over. She couldn't talk. She tried, but her face was swollen, part of her cheek seemingly scraped right off the bone. Her clothes were torn and covered in shoe prints. One arm bent the wrong way, and both her legs looked swollen. I didn't see the video, but Veda warned me.

The crowd that separated Dinah and her mom didn't stop until it hit a wall. Dinah's mom got crushed as it scattered, tossed back and forth between people until she hit the ground.

"I-I don't know what to do."

How long until the Protectorate showed up? Emergency Medical services? The zombots were just standing around, but would any EMT's even enter the mall until they were cleared out?

I took her hand and held it.

The wall ahead was a mess. Half-collapsed shelves and a wall of jeans in ten different shades of blue. Who the hell needs that much variety in jeans? A stupid thought given the circumstances, but I really didn't know what to do. My mind thought through a medical bed that regenerated damaged tissue. An injection that did the same thing.

Neither helped her now. I didn't have the tools or the materials.

It's been two months. How was I not ready for this? What am I doing?

The self-pity built up until someone grabbed my shoulder. I spun, beam saber flicking on, and swung.

"Whoa!"

I stumbled back, my eyes recognizing the rust-red armor. The blade narrowly missed his shoulder and my butt smacked into the floor hard. I cut off the beam, staring up at Aegis and the five armored figures behind him.

He held his hands up. "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you, miss…"

"M-Mask?"

"Mask?"

His suit completely covered his body, save for a narrow slit in the helmet. Both brown eyes showed recognition as he waved at the men behind him. Two of them rushed forward, crouching by Dinah's mom and starting to work on her.

"Are you hurt?"

I glanced down at my leg. "I think I'm fine."

Aegis crouched and had me stretch my leg out. One of the armored men joined him, but the other one pointed a giant nozzle at me. Two big tanks rested on his back.

I looked away, not particularly thrilled about having whatever that was pointed at me. "Is Dinah okay?"

"Who?"

Aegis lifted his head. He'd removed the shirt covering my wound at the trooper's direction, and the man proceeded to wrap the gash tightly in gauze and medical tape.

"Dinah? Straight brown hair. Yellow dress." I glanced back. "That's her mom."

The woman hadn't been moved. One of the troopers around her spoke into a radio, telling whoever was on the other side to send in a trauma team and immediate transport to Brockton Bay General Hospital. Panacea's name came up. That gave me a little hope. Panacea could fix Dinah's mom.

"I can find out," Aegis said. "Sure you're okay?"

"She's fine," the trooper, who apparently was a woman, stated. "Laceration didn't nick anything vital. Nasty cut but nothing too serious."

Sure seemed like a lot of blood.

"Still suggest getting her into an ambulance and having it disinfected and stitched." She looked at me. Her full face helmet seemed rather cold. "Can you walk?" He helped me up, and two troopers followed us to the exit and into an ambulance.

The EMT's removed the bandage and rubbed some jelly on my leg. It hurt at first, but then I just felt nothing. The stitches were little more than light pokes. Aegis remained just outside, talking to the woman trooper.

It occurred only then that the PRT and Protectorate now knew I was a cape, that I was probably—no, definitely, since I said it in front of everyone—a tinker, and I had no idea where Dad was.

Losing his mind probably.

I started fidgeting before the EMT finished with my stitches. As soon as he did, and wrapped another bandage over the wound and warned me to keep it clean, I got up and tried to leave the ambulance. "I really need to get home. My D—Mom will worry."

"We need a statement," the trooper said.

"Now?"

"Yes." Aegis glared at the trooper but said nothing.

"I-I really need to—"

"Is this her?"

"Yes sir," Aegis said. "Found her inside with Miss Alcott."

"Hmm."

The blue armored figure stepped around the corner, a trimmed beard visible under his v-shaped visor and a halberd firmly set at his side. It looked exactly like the halberd on his action figure, with the grappling hook attachment and sonic disruptor.

My mind had a thousand ideas. A beam scythe would be amazing and take almost no space at all. His armor, meanwhile, seemed less armored than I expected. A light alloy?

Don't say anything stupid.

"Your armor could use some thruster packs in the back to increase mobility."

Stupid brain.

He stepped into the opening in the back of the ambulance. "I considered it. Power constraints."

"Why not just upgrade the power supply?"

"It's not that easy."

He didn't sound angry. A little stern maybe, but relief washed over me just to see he didn't shout me down or call me an idiot. I don't know that I believed him though. Just build a bigger power supply. I couldn't even tell what powered his armor by looking at it.

"You are a tinker then?" I nodded, drawn out of my tinkering by the slight edge in his voice. "The same one who tried to join the Wards about two months ago?"

I kept my mouth shut, which they all seemed to take as a confirmation. Armsmaster looked at the EMT, a pasty looking guy with a big bald spot on his head. "We need the vehicle for a moment."

The EMT didn't look happy, but he complied and Armsmaster stepped aside before blocking me in again. After letting the EMT walk a few steps away, he asked, "You're still going by Mask?"

Trying to edge around him didn't get me anywhere. "I haven't really thought of anything yet." I'd thought about it, but coming up with a good name was hard when I didn't really have any equipment other than a secret AI and a laser sword.

He chuckled, warmly I guess. "I started early enough plenty of good names were available."

"I guess."

"Are you willing to give a statement at this time?"

I didn't see a choice being offered. No one wrote anything down. Armsmaster's helmet came with a camera.

They didn't get the whole story.

I didn't say a word about Veda, or about my trip to the PRT HQ months before. They already knew that was me, but…all in all what I did say wasn't much. Crowd knocked me into a glass display. Tied off my wound. Fought some zombots. Helped a bunch of people.

Hero stuff.

"Admirable to search for the woman," Armsmaster said. "Though I'd point out the recklessness of doing so before the automatons were dealt with."

Hearing him call me reckless hurt a little. I might be soured on the Protectorate and PRT, but I still looked up to Armsmaster in a way. Can't buck old habits that easily.

"Fortunately, Uber and Leet were captured by then. A few minutes after their stream started someone attacked the host server. Shut down their website. Even hit the machine they were using to make the robots. Was that you?"

Good thing I had a shirt around my face. "No."

"Hmm…" The silence dragged out, and for a moment I thought he would call me on my rather obvious lie.

Say anything! "Is Dinah's mom okay?"

"Miss Alcott is on her way to see Panacea," Armsmaster replied. He seemed distracted for a moment before adding, "She'll be fine so long as there are no complications."

That was a relief at least. I tried to get out again, as I'd tried a few times during the conversation, only for Armsmaster to stay right where he was. I don't think I was imagining it either. Each time he didn't move Aegis shot him a confused gaze.

I frowned. "Um. Am I in trouble?"

"No." He said it so plainly it kind of freaked me out. Like it didn't matter to him one way or the other.

"Can I go now? Please?"

His head moved slightly, like turning his ear to listen to someone. "We hoped to ascertain why you left the PRT building so abruptly. Miss Militia has been understandably concerned. We spoke with Shadow Stalker, but she swore she didn't do anything."

She always does.

What should I say about that? If I told them what Sophia did, they'd probably figure out who I was. What would they do then?

Knowing that the deputy director helped cover the locker up gave me all the answer I needed.

"We don't want to lose a potential Ward because of a misunderstanding."

Armsmaster describing it as a 'misunderstanding' just sealed the deal.

I squared my shoulders in some pathetic attempt to seem larger than I was and looked him in the eye. "I'd like to leave. Now."

He didn't frown, but he clearly wasn't happy either. "I think you should consider joining the Wards. If there is a problem—"

"The problem is that I want to leave and you won't let me."

Armsmaster frowned. "You don't seem to realize your situation."

"I seem to be trapped in an ambulance against my will!"

"You realize that the mall is covered in security cameras. Uber and Leet record their crimes. Cell phones are everywhere. Somewhere you're on video without a mask." Good luck with that…Although I hadn't thought of cell phone footage. "Word will spread that you were here and the gangs' record with the unwritten rules is less than stellar."

Aegis looked a little terrified. "Sir—"

"Don't be stubborn. The Wards program exists to help young capes. That weapon of yours. The photon blade. Did you even consider what it might do if Uber and Leet used hired hands instead of automatons?"

No. Didn't cross my mind, which I regretted the moment he said it. Not that my anger at this sudden talking down subsided with that.

"The Protectorate has resources. Guidance. Tinkers are too important to be wasted on teenage irresponsibility."

He still stood over me. Refusing to move. Aegis had stepped back a bit, the coward. The parallels to Winslow made me sick. A grown adult chastising a trapped girl while her peer steps back and hopes he goes unnoticed.

Same old same old.

I snarled, "You can't keep me here. I haven't done anything wrong, and I'm leaving."

I don't think I intimidated him. No, he just seemed to realize that he wasn't getting anywhere and gave up. Not in a defeated way either. He huffed a little, but stepped aside.

"I highly suggest you reconsider."

I hopped down and instantly regretted it. The pain shooting through my leg as I landed must have gone all the way to my face.

Aegis started to move toward me, but one look and he just shuffled back again.

Armsmaster walked off in the direction of a large armored truck. The PRT's seal marked the side, and standing by it with a frown in her eyes was a familiar figure in green fatigues.

I went the opposite direction.

"Wait. I'm sorry about tha—"

"Not sorry enough to do anything about it," I snapped. I didn't look back to see if he continued to follow me. No one tried to stop me. Cops and armored troopers gave me odd looks and oh my god I just told off Armsmaster am I insane?

I walked faster, wanting to get as far from the crowd as possible to contemplate how monumentally I might have just fucked up.

As soon as I got to the edge of the crowd, I ran. I always figured independents and vigilantes found their way into alleys or something to change into their costumes. Well, maybe that works when you're just a face in the crowd.

When you've got a shirt wrapped around your head and an obvious cut on your leg, everyone kind of stares.

I ran three blocks before managing to slip into some place without anyone watching. The shirt came off—didn't pay for it, crap—and my lungs started pumping air faster than I could breathe.

"I think I need to sit down." I did. It didn't help much.

I didn't think I could be disappointed again. I guess I assumed there was some greater goal in throwing me under the bus. Some big picture idea that, however unjust, served some end. An intent to achieve something 'good.' The system was the problem, I thought. Armsmaster seriously tested that assumption. The entire time he dressed me down he did it in a tone of voice that almost sounded friendly, but was entirely too cold. Like the whole speech was a chore he resented having to put up with.

And I snarled and glared at him!

What shocked me further was that I felt mortified about it.

The thrill of fighting zombots eventually gave way to screams, twisted limbs, and images of Dinah's mom. I found swinging a lightsaber around exciting, while that was happening?

Yeah. Still kind of exciting. Scared me a little. Adrenaline, or am I just that messed up? Excited to finally do something? I shuddered, desperately wanting to think about anything other than my own head space.

Could really use something to tinker on right now.

About the only good thing to come out of the whole incident was—"Uber and Leet got caught." I sat up ramrod straight. "Veda. Uber and Leet got caught. Their servers got attacked. Their escape plan got ruined. They got caught?"

"The Armsmaster said as much."

"And you attacked their servers! You ruined their escape plan. Veda. You caught super villains!"

"I did?"

"Yes!"

My calm returned slowly, but surely. The fight felt completely insignificant. I went to the mall, helped some people, and Veda caught two supervillains. Joke villains sure, but still super! That's why I started, right?

Fears of being screwed up in the head went away. I didn't hurt anyone. Uber and Leet did, and Veda stopped them while I…well, I did what I could.

Stepping out of the ally with more energy, I turned down the street towards the setting sun. I needed to get home. On foot. In the dark. And I needed to think of something to tell Dad.