Amy landed at the doorstep to her house with soft footsteps. Home felt warmer now. Whereas before it was a place she wouldn't belong, Amy had a newfound resolve to try and make it more her own. Victoria stepped next to her, "you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah," Amy said honestly. "I'm gonna take a shower. Maybe um… Maybe later we can talk with mom and dad about what Tattletale was saying."

"It doesn't matter who he is, you know that right? You're still my sister no matter."

"I know, but uh… It can be a cloud sometimes. Maybe knowing the truth can give me some… Closure? Acceptance? I don't know. But the Losers were right, when you keep dark truths like that in the periphery, anyone can come along and take complete advantage of it. Pull it like puppet strings. I don't… Wanna be caught like that again. I think it might be best to find out who my real dad actually is."

Victoria answered, "go take a shower. Drink some tea, sleep on it. And then tomorrow if you still feel that way, let's bring it up with mom and dad so we can put this whole thing behind us."

Amy nodded. She was still shaken by the whole ordeal, and letting things sit would help give clarity for any drastic decisions she might make moving forward. Her phone rang. "L-O-S-E-R-S- L-O-S-E-R-S"

It was her ringtone specific for Loser calls. She hadn't designed it that way, but Leet hacked the phone so that whenever they called, the same ringtone would always pop up. She dreadfully answered the phone, "What?"

"Rush is dying," Spitfire yelled with heavy breaths. "We need brain surgery, now!"

Amy's eyes widened. Even though she knew she was capable, she didn't want to open up a can of worms she couldn't put back in. "I can't-"

"Don't give me that crap!" Spitfire said in the harshest tone she could muster. "You're able to create bio nightmares that make Freddy Kruger freak out! You could cure every disease known to man if you wanted to! Its time you stop pretending to be weak, and start actually using what's inside of you!"

Amy fell quiet. 'Do they know what I can really do?' She guessed that they did, it was often more practical to believe the Losers had an endless amount of dirt on everyone. In a hardened tone, Amy replied, "let me rephrase that. I won't do it because I can't, I won't do it because I won't. I'd let each of you die, before I ever broke that rule."

Spitfire backed away from her communicator. Amelia had always come off like a former reflection of herself. The insecure girl who didn't know her place in the world. The Losers took advantage of that relentlessly. Not just for exploitation, but also to get closer to her. To prove to her, that weakness was a weakness, never a strength.

In a calmer tone Spitfire said, "Amy… My friend will die."

"I know," Amy answered in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Amy," she said with a muffled throat, "I don't have anyone else. We can heal the flesh wounds, but if we try fixing her now, she'll be a vegetable. Rush wouldn't want that. She'd rather die before that happened. If you can't fix her head… She's gone."

"I know," Amy said tightening her grip.

"Think about Vivan. He can't live without her." After a minute of her silence, Spitfire went back to yelling, "everything she's been doing up to now has been for us! She saved me, saved you, saved Sabrina, saved Uber and Leet, the Mouseketeers and countless other people in this city by pretending to be villains! They love every breathing person in Brockton Bay, a megaton more than anyone else! She did it out of blind love, and you're really gonna let that die, for nothing!?"

Amy waited for a moment, and then answered, "yeah, I am. At the end of the day, we all knew she was never going to last long."

Spitfire hung up. A heavy breathe left Amy's chest, with a heartbeat thumping sporadically from the call. She dropped against to the front door and sat on the porch steps.

"What happened?" Victoria asked.

"I don't…" She was clutching her head. Without realizing it, water dripped from her eyes towards her chin. "I don't know. But why does it feel like I'm the shittiest person on the planet?"

XXX

Uber and Leet reached the sewage system of the beneath the city bank. Uber asked, "names Cortana, I need names."

Marvin replied, "it's everyone's fault. The mayor trying to prove he can do something, Dragon testing out her suits, Buzzkill trying to be a hero." Marvin let out a long, exasperated sigh. "But worst of all, us. We kept pushing their limits. You're not D-tier villains anymore. It all lead up to this."

"For fuck's sake," Leet shouted. "He said names. Give him one fucking name for who should pay for this!"

Uber added, "I don't' need a goddamn lecture. Name me the people who wanted this most!"

Cortana replied, "Armsmaster and Shadow Stalker. Armsmaster has Dragon under his control, and supported her negligence. Shadow Stalker specifically wants to kill each and every one of you."

Leet hissed, "figured it would be them. Start the override process."

"Already have," Cortana answered. "I'm just waiting for Spitfire to reach the jamming tower. As for Shadow Stalker, she's already leaving the scene as quickly as possible. But its best you ignore her, Light has her trail covered."

XXX

The holographic red bar rose sharply while the green bar dropped almost completely. With a sharp rise in viewers, the stream quickly became their most disliked video on the website. The drone relayed the information flawlessly, making it clear that the audience demanded for Shadow Stalker's death.

Light looked up towards the Dragon craft, "if God doesn't roll with dice, why do we have DnD?"

What was supposed to be an ongoing joke, turned into a failsafe program for all of Leet's inventions. In truth, he wasn't sure if the catchphrase would work, but as the machine's eyes became dim, any aggression it showed a minute ago evaporated into cyber space.

Light pointed to his neck and said to Lyft, "get these off."

Lyft shook her head, "I'm not letting you kill her."

Tattletale tapped his shoulder and said, "those were designed to die with table salt. Panacea likes to have her fail safes. Go to the breakroom and poor salt shakers around your shirt, then you'll be good to go."

She handed him her side arm.

"Tattletale!" Lyft shouted. Light didn't hesitate and left from view. Lyft wanted to go after him, but also didn't want to leave Aryana's side. After Vivan finished dissolving the slimes away from his skin, he morphed out into a ball of energy and followed along Shadow Stalker's path.

Lyft looked over at the drone. It showed a holo display of Light racing closer towards Shadow Stalker. Lyft said to Tattletale, "he's not a killer, he's just pissed. You don't enable that!"

Tattletale said, "look around you nazi. The old rules don't apply. Fact of the matter is, Vivan will shut down if he's forced to see this."

She pointed down to Aryana. So much of her blood covered the ground. Her head weighted back like a bowling ball, the arrow stuck through her mouth to the back of her skull. Lyft didn't want to witness it, but the most she could do was pray that Leet had some secret tool that could fix everything again.

But Vivan killing someone? That's not something that could be fixed.

XXX

Vivan couldn't see anything as his limbs moved heavily. The world around him was bleak. Color was disappearing, and he brushed passed all of it as Shadow Stalker's trail laid in front of him. Her streak of smoke was purple. He could see her from a distance. He didn't know what he was going to do, but he only knew that he wanted to make her feel like prey.

Shadow Stalker turned around to throw smoke bombs in his direction. He ran right through them, undeterred by the lack of sight. "Shit," Shadow Stalker guessed that he was using a tinker tool to follow her.

Shadow Stalker had several caches of weapons dispersed around the city. There were plenty of places to get new arrows to put him in his place. Shadow Stalker taunted, "lemme guess, you used to fuck your sister and now you're gonna miss that?"

Light lifted his hand in her direction. He fired a bolt of light through her left calf. "Fuck," Shadow Stalker tussled over the roof of a building.

Light stopped in place. Upon raising his finger again, Shadow Stalker said to him, "you don't have the balls."

Light could barely hear her. The glove from his right hand was gone, removing any limitations his tinker gloves gave him. All while revealing the Simurgh tattoo he'd copied off from his sister.

The sight of it suddenly entranced him. It gave him pause, enough pause for Shadow Stalker to return to running. Light waited another minute before he returned to chasing after her.

XXX

Leet pulled Uber from the sewage door. The two of them glanced over at Armsamster. "You have no idea how long I've wanted this," Leet said rolling his shoulder. "God you've pissed me off so much. What I've always wanted is finally right in front of me. An excuse. A fucking excuse to finally give you a taste of your own shit stained medicine."

Armsmaster unsheathed his halberd and directed it towards the two of them. "I want you to know, I've never once made the mistake in underestimating you."

"I know, but it's not me you should worry about." Leet stepped back and pointed a thumb towards Uber. "It's him you outta be scared of. The best way to piss off a man is by hurting his girlfriend."

Uber's biosuit morphed into a complete black mold, covering his body with tar. The black goop turned his right arm into a scythe, with his left arm shifting into a swamp-colored hardened shield. He said, "I know how your Halberd works, you're not going to land a blow on me."

"We'll see."

Another dragon vehicle unsheathed itself from its cloaking. Armsmaster raised his arm and ordered, "Dragon, would you kindly apprehend Leet while leaving Uber to me."

"Roger," Dragon said.

Looking up, Leet said, "huh."

"Leet," Dragon said over its intercom. "I'm sorry it came to this, but I can't let you walk free anymore."

"Cute. Too bad God doesn't roll dice, otherwise the universe would make sense."

The dragon flight system froze in place. Its glowing lights went dark as it hovered quietly in the space above them. Armsmaster stared up in shock before realizing what had happened. "What did you-"

"Who do you think cracked her limitations?" Leet said with a bored look on his face. "We're both tinkers, and we're both paranoid as fuck. Why the hell would I let an AI, one I didn't create, walk free? Dragon, would you kindly shut down Armsmaster's fucking suit."

The numbers beneath Armsmaster's visors became dark. He could still see and move through his mechanized systems, but his connection to his vital data was completely severed. Uber said, "lemme guess, not so hot in a fair fight?"

"You'd be surprised," he rebutted. His halberd still functioned on its own. His suit was always an enhancement rather than a replacement for his skill.

Leet could see the former Mouseketeers watching. Before turning to head towards the bank, Leet ordered, "Dragon, would you kindly make sure those three can't walk anymore?"

Dragon's lights flickered back on. It turned its nose towards the teenagers, and readied to charge towards all of them. Golem slammed his hands to the pavement and morphed a dozen golems up to stop the machine's attack. Browbeat stepped forward, confident his shield could take the blunt of a mechanized dragon. Browbeat called out, "Buzzkill, go find Light! You're the only one he'll listen to!"

Buzzkill nodded and sprinted away. Except not really. She swallowed hard, tears streaming around her goggles as she guessed towards where Light was headed.

XXX

Leet stepped through the bank entrance. Lyft held Rush quietly. Her tone was a kind whisper, "thank you, so much for saving me. I'd have never become better if it weren't for you."

Leet kneeled down and put his hand over her chest. "Spitfire knocked out the jamming towers. I can take her to base now."

"But-"

"She'll be fine. I promise." He picked her up in his arms, "and thanks Sabrina. You really are a good person."

With that, Cortana's beam zapped them all away.

XXX

Leet pulled Rush out of the CAT scanner. Her flesh was completely normal, but internally she was a mess. He put her on the operating table and prepared his scalpel.

"What are you doing?" Clank said, waking up at the edge of the room.

"Oh my God, not you."

Clank looked over at Aryana's corpse. She was laying back like she was asleep, completely untouched by any damage. Clank said, "Aryana specifically requested-"

"I know that Clank. She has a fucking tattoo on her chest that says 'don't make me a zombie.' I know what's best for her."

"You know what's best?"

Leet rolled his eyes. Clank's eyes lit up and the sound of a camera roll projection escaped from his ears. An image plastered across the wall with a vintage 50's noir film filter. It was an image of Aryana sitting on his work desk, while Leet worked on a mechanical eye in front of her.

Aryana spoke.

"Okay, so if I'm a zombie, I need you to either A, keep me on a leash like a loyal mutt, or B, death by bludgeon."

"Why bludgeon? That's so… Messy."

Rush shrugged her shoulders. "Look, the way I see it, if you can't put use to my corpse, you might as well get rid of it. And unless you have a necro fetish, I'm better off dead than half-dead."

"Huh, I'd probably find a cure. Zombie movies never go that angle enough."

"Sure, but we're assuming there is no cure. That's what I hate about these zombie scenarios, why can't people just take one for the team? If you're bitten, you're a health hazard to everyone around you. You might as well do the world a favor and off yourself."

"Eh," Leet scratched his head with the scalpel, "I'm a wrecking ball everywhere I go. So I don't subscribe to that."

"I do," Rush floated towards the ceiling and laid herself back as though gravity was gracefully pulling her upward. "So like, the thing about death is, no one wants to die. But I honestly don't feel that way. My life is just a speck inside an ocean of specks, so I'm not going to kick and scream when my time is almost up. I'd rather leave this world in a banger, instead of a whimper."

"Banger?"

"Sure, why not? Shot to the head, preferably with thousands of adoring fans cheering my name in hate. Better to die infamous than to keep on living in misery."

"That's school shooter talk, you know."

"Eh, I'm a bad guy, you can't tell me that's not my brand."

"Still," Leet looked towards the ceiling. "There's a big difference between having a death wish and accepting death. You talk a lot about how you wanna go out, but it's starting to sound less cool and more…"

Aryana closed her eyes, "sad?"

"A cry for help."

"We're villains Leet, I think it's okay to address this moving forward. I just wanna be as obvious as the sun; when I die, don't get upset. Because as things are, I'm happiest I've ever been. And if things end prematurely, it'll have ended during a highlight of my life. And that's something most people never get."

Clank fast forwarded the clip further. He pressed play.

"Life should be measured by its entirety, not its end. And spending time as a vegetable muddles up the entirety of the life. I wouldn't want to waste a single day being remembered as a paraplegic, when I can be remembered for everything else instead."

"Clank!" Leet yelled, "shut it off!"

"Let her die," Clank said loudly. "Your powers fail the more you repeat projects. You've already failed three surgeries in other regards, this will only end poorly for her. Let her die in peace."

"No!" Leet ran to tackle Clank. He jumped away quickly to latch onto the ceiling lamp.

Clank said, "I'm designed to give you perspective to protect you from tunnel vision. This is the most tunnel vision I've ever seen from you."

"God fucking damnit!" He slammed his fist against the wall. "Clank, if God is omnipotent, can he break the rules of arithmetic to make omnipotence impossible?"

Clank's eyes glowed bright, and became dim before falling limp onto the floor.

Leet was finally alone. He looked over to Aryana laying on the table. He stepped forward with his scalpels at hand. They were shaking.

"Hands," his voice cracked with water running down his cheeks, "please don't fail me this time."

He blindly sliced forward, ignorant to what his hands were doing.