I can't focus today. Which makes sense, because if yesterday proved anything, it's that I'm mentally impaired.

Going off half-cocked, agreeing to meet with a group of villains? 'It seemed like a good idea at the time' just didn't cut it. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad iif I'd gotten anything useful out of it, besides a lunch box and two grand in dirty money. Or if I hadn't panicked and run off like I did. Or maybe if I just hadn't gotten curious in the first place. Stupid. So stupid.

And, of course, the classes aren't my only problem. By this point my 'tormentors' have more than caught onto the fact that I've been avoiding them, so they've started doubling down at the times when they know where I'll be. I managed to duck them at lunch again, but I'm not sure how long that luck will last...today is not a day that I'm willing to put up with their…

Oh. Huh. That was a...familiar feeling…

Yes. Because I didn't have enough to worry about today, now I'm going to have to focus past my powers' insistence that I go in that particular direction no time to wait. Another shrine? Why would I be feeling it now? Why would I be feeling it at all? What did I get myself into with this damned Mark? Most importantly, why the fuck did I decide coming back to school was a good idea?

The bell rings. Another class ends. I try not to let the ringing get to me, but the pressure makes it feel like I should be fighting a headache, so it's just disorienting...enough that I almost walk right into the ring of girls outside.

Guess they got tired of chasing me around.

I feel strangely divorced from myself, standing there, surrounded. As they start talking to each other. I suppose they think it's clever, but none of them bother to pretend they're not watching me from the corners of their eyes, just waiting for a reaction. Emma isn't even that discreet.

She probably coached them, because they hit every point. Really driving it home, too...my looks, my hair, my dating prospects. A passing mention of the locker, that's surprising. And then my mother...my mother.

I could call up some rats, and see what they thought then. See if they could still laugh and smile, covered in a swarm of teeth and claws. Or I could just leave, disappear into nothing and leave them all circled around a smudge of ash and wondering what the hell just happened. And then maybe wondering if it was such a good idea to taunt a cape.

It's not worth it. Yes, words hurt, no matter what anyone says. Even when they're barely even registering, I can feel their sting. But getting shot hurt more, and between that mess yesterday and the pressurein my head, this is a passing annoyance more than anything else. When the day's over, I'll go out and be a hero, and they'll go home and do homework.

...you know what? Screw this place.

"Are you done yet?"

Emma smiles. It's a pretty smile. I bet she practices it in the mirror. She used to to do that, trying to get the poses just right. 'I'm gonna be a model'. "Nobody was talking to you, Taylor."

Yeah, this isn't going to end quickly 's fine. I pick out the weakest link in their little circle, brush past them with a little more force than necessary. They're quicker than I thought, because something catches my foot as I take my next step.

I hit the ground.

"Aww, Taylor, are you okay?"

"What a klutz. No wonder she wound up in the hospital…"

I breathe.

And then I pick myself up. I keep walking. Not toward my next class. I head for the front doors, and the second they close behind me, I'm on the school's roof.

I scrub at my eyes as I pull my glasses off, keep breathing, steady, calm, as I retrieve my bag from where I'd hidden it and start to change. I'm not crying. But a few tears are still more than I should give them. My mask wicks the damp away from my cheeks, and I hook a finger through the hole in the front of my sweatshirt. Proof that I've handled worse.

What I'm doing here, this is important. This matters. I'm making a difference, even if it's small. And they couldn't hope to stop me. In the end, all they have are words.

Right now, I've got more important things to worry about.

xxxxxxxxxx

It takes a lot longer to find this one. I think...I was feeling it from further away? I'm not sure. The first time this happened, everything was so hazy, like a dream. This is different; the sensation is insistent, but not as overwhelming. Which is strange, because I would have thought that a more powerful...whatever...wouldn't that cause a stronger reaction?

Something to wonder about later. For now, I need to figure out how to get into the basement level of an office building.

I sit on the roof, eyes closed as I send flies and cockroaches down. Scouting a path to the basement, then finding an open space near the shrine, a place that's out of the way and free of any witnesses. It's...actually not as hard as I would have thought. So I stand, and try to visualize the space I'm feeling through the bugs' limited senses-

-and when I open my eyes, I'm there. Easy.

It's hot down here, and I can hear the...yeah, that's a furnace. Right, have to heat the building somehow. Makes perfect sense. Now, where's the shrine? I must have gotten turned around, because it's not...ah. I weave around support beams and big, square machines that are probably important somehow, spot the shrine stuck awkwardly in a far corner.

I don't hesitate to approach it. And I'm fully cognizant, as I reach out and pick up the Rune that rested at its center.

Just like the other one. An irregular circle, slightly bigger than my palm. Curved, slightly. Thin, too, almost fragile, but the metal fittings its bolted into it give it a deceptive sort of weightiness. And burned into its surface...I didn't have a chance to get a good look, before, but it looks like a compass rose. The kind you'd see on really old maps, set into a series of concentric circles and surrounded by lettering I don't recognize.

I turn it over in my hands...look up, when I realize that I'm not alone.

"Another shrine...this one was hastily assembled, when the last was abandoned." The Outsider drifts in place, darkness gathered around him. "You did well, finding it. Even if the decision wasn't entirely yours. Even if you were...pushed."

I swallow, and adjust my grip on the Rune. The noise is gone, now, and I can't help but cringe as clarity returns. 'Pushed'. I skipped out of school again. And I...after I told Victoria that I'd leave these things alone...

"What are these things? Why do I keep reacting to them, like this?"

"I've already told you what they are." A hint of disapproval, but it's enough to set my teeth on edge. "But the why...the why is something I'm curious about as well." He spreads his arms wide, the disinterested expression not quite meshing with his tone. "I gave you power. I did not decide how that power would manifest. It was always a question. Would you see them in the darkness, no matter the distance. Would you require some tool, in order to find them so readily? Would you simply be left stumbling along, blind to their importance?"

He gestures at the Rune, and I hold it a bit tighter without meaning to. "In the end, it seems...you simply know. When it becomes appropriate...this reaction is intriguing. And unique. That is the purpose of my Mark, but I have been disappointed, in the past."

The Mark. I swallow, another question spilling out before I can think about it. "Is it true that other people can't see it?"

His head tilts, just slightly...and then he's gone, and my eyes ache as they adjust to the dimness of the basement. That...didn't make sense. There hadn't been any light…

Ugh. More questions than answers, and the answers I dohave are useless. I look up at the shrine again, frown as I reach up to yank another little thing of carved bone off the length of twine that it had been hung with, suspended over the center of the shrine. The Outsider had said they were meant to be 'good luck charms'. I don't know if I buy that, but there's definitely something going on with them, so I might as well hold onto it.

I could use a little good luck.

Though, with the way things have been going, it'll probably just bring me more trouble.

No...no, I'm not going to stand in some too-warm basement and be cynical. Not when I could be going home and taking a hot shower and just forgettingabout the last couple of days.

Yeah. That's a good plan.

xxxxxxxxxx

Victoria is pacing outside my front door. I didn't know that people actually paced...no, that's not important. I shake the thought off as I appear in my room, focus on pulling off my mask and sweatshirt. Also, crap, I'm going to have to hide these things. Why don't I keep shoe-boxes? Don't people normally hide this kind of thing in a shoe-box? No, that's probably a bad idea…

I wind up wrapping the Rune in an old shirt and stuffing it in the back of my closet. The charm I stick in the drawer of my desk...a glance at the clock (only four? I thought I'd been out longer…) and then I'm at the front door, working the locks open.

Victoria practically bowls me over when I do get the door open. "Christ, you need a cell-phone. Where the hell have you been?"

"Oh, it's nice to see you too, Victoria. Yes, come right in. How was my day? No worse than usual, you?"

"Are you trying to be funny? Because it's not funny."

I pause, and look at her for a second...she's...really upset. I nudge the door shut again, face her again...yeah. I haven't seen this yet. I mean, I know I've only known her a few days, but still. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

She lets out a strangled laugh. "Oh yeah, something happened. That bitch Tattletale is what happened."

Huh. Regret is just as terrible the next day. "What?"

"The Undersiders and some new guys robbed a bank, they took hostages when the Wards showed up, but Amy was there-"

Wait, "Your sister?" That would explain the agitation, and shit now I've got an extra helping of guilt on top of everything else. "Is she okay?"

"I don't know!" Wow, she's literally pulling at her hair. "She ran off, and none of us can find her!"

She...alright, this isn't helping anything. "Slow down." There's a problem. Obviously. but if I'm going to help I need to actually know what it is. "Take a deep breath, and start from the top."

Victoria stares at me for a second, before taking a shaky breath. "Right...right. So, I get a text, earlier. Amy's in Bay Central, because she insists on managing those stupid donation accounts in person, and the Undersiders had shown up and started threatening people. They had more Capes with them, but I didn't recognize any of them. So then the Wards showed up, because the place is, like, right next to Arcadia, and so then they were takinghostages…"

Her fists clench, and she takes another deep breath. "And the Wards are just waiting, and D...Gallant...keeps trying to wave me off, but it was my sister in there, you know? So I bust in, and take down some guy in a top hat, but then Tattletale has this big monster thing grab Amy, and sticks a gun in her face. And then she started…" She trails off, looks away. "Talking. About stuff. Screwing with Amy's head, trying to get me to back down or something..."

'Maybe convince your high-flying friend not to break us in half...'

Oh, shit. Had she...did she plan that? But how could she have-? No, wait, stupid question. Thinker.

"I met with the Undersiders yesterday."

"...what?"

Talk fast, Taylor. "I got a message, yesterday, from Tattletale. She wanted to meet, and I went." I gesture vaguely in the direction of my room. "Grue wanted to thank me for helping them the other night,, but Tattletale wanted to make some kind of agreement." How had she put it? "Like...a non-aggression pact or something. She said I was making enemies with the gangs, and that I was...I was probably getting on the bad-side of the PRT, too. That I was hurting people…"

"She was screwing with you." Victoria snarls, immediately, and I flinch. "Did you...what the fuck Taylor? What did you say?"

"I didn't say anything." I try not to get defensive. I could be gone before she could reach me. "They gave me some money for helping with Oni-Lee, they talked, and I left. They're villains…" She relaxes...or, at least, she doesn't look like she's about to hit me. "And it wasn't like I could take them down. They had Hellhound with them."

"Of course they did."

"Look, the important thing is, Tattletale specifically mentioned me asking you 'not to break them in half'." Her eyes narrow. "Exactly. And she's definitely some kind of Thinker, right? She knew where I was when she messaged me, and spotted me hiding on a roof three blocks away…"

"She...knew things. Or seemed to, anyway." She picks up where I left off. "Claimed to be 'psychic' or some bullshit, but she knew about…" She trails off, before finishing lamely with, "things."

I'm starting to wonder what the hell has her so unwilling to talk about it. "What 'things'?"

She grits her teeth. "Personal things."

Right. That's...fair. "Do you think she might have planned it like that? That she knew they'd be running into you?"

"I don't know. Maybe?" She turns, brows furrowing...her fists clench again, and for a second I'm seriously concerned for the safety of my house. "That bitch." And then the glare is back on me, and I have to freeze. "And you went to go meet with them! What the hell were you thinking!?"

Don't say 'it seemed like a good idea'. Because that wouldn't help at all. "That I might be able to get something useful out of it." And actually, it may have been useful. "And I did. Kind of. Like confirmation that Tattletale knows alot more than she should. And that they're scared of you."

A long moment, and then she snorts, and turns away. "Well they should be."

Silence. I shift uncomfortably, trying to figure out what to do. "...do you need help looking for Amy? Because I'm not sure how much I could actually offer."

"I…" She glances back at me, then shakes her head, palms her face. "No, shit. Shit. She'll...we checked everywhere we could think of already. She...she's gonna be fine. And she'll...come home, again."

I don't know enough to comment. But even I can tell that she's not entirely convinced of that. "So? How can I help?"

She turns again, looks at me. "...you know what? You can help." She smiles. And it's not a nice expression. "I'm gonna need a hand finding these assholesso I can deal with'em. Personally."

Well...at least it's a goal I can stand behind. I nod, sharply, and offer a smile of my own.

"So when do we start?"

"What, immediately isn't an option?"

...so maybe we should talk through this a bit more. And I should probably start thinking before acting. Because I think I'm noticing a disturbing trend in my recent behavior toward the stupid and reckless.

"Maybe not immediately…"

"Tch. Fine. How about, like, tomorrow. How well can you fake being sick?"

"..."

"What? We might need to get out of school for a few days!"

"...how about we go talk about our plan for tracking down and apprehending a group of dangerous supervillains?"

"Take all the fun out of things, why don't you?"

It's going to be a long week.