Chapter 3.1

Saturday, April 16th 2011

Coil ducked under Big Robbie's punch and lashed out with two quick jabs at the man's gut, only for the Teeth veteran to laugh and backhand the stringy man away. All of my capes were assembled in the former VIP lounge overlooking the fighting pits and watching the unfolding spectacle, though only I had opted to put on my costume.

Sans mask, of course — it wasn't like I had much to hide from anyone here.

"Huh, I never would have imagined the scrawny prick could fight," Alec drawled while munching on some popcorn, which he chased with a swig of Reaver's beer.

"Big Robbie's just fucking with him. He could kill him at any moment," Marauder growled.

"I do believe that is the point," Damascian said, rolling her eyes.

"Is it really necessary to have this meeting while watching a bloodsport?" Grue asked. He had also shown up in costume, which really only needed some tasteful bones and red paint to match our aesthetic. Unfortunately, it was looking less and less likely that he would join.

"You should kill him before he defects and sells all our secrets!" Sabertooth demanded.

That won't be necessary. My predecessors disagreed, but I was absolutely not following through on their suggestions, and so they mostly grumbled to themselves.

As we watched, someone threw a baseball bat into the arena, which Coil scrambled on hands and knees to grab before his opponent could. Of course, Big Robbie didn't need the crutch, and he let Coil pick up the weapon in gloved hands. We had allowed him to keep his costume, but we removed the mask portion so there wasn't a risk of him slipping away thanks to a body double. Yes, Regent could spot the real Coil in an instant thanks to his power, but I didn't quite trust him either. Not yet at least.

Fester scoffed at the pitiable display. "Is it any surprise that the man was PRT? He can't fight for shit."

Knockout, however, was less certain. "He has the right reflexes and good form… he's just rusty. He might have had a field position at one point."

I waited until Coil took a swing at Big Robbie, who caught the damn bat in one hand and snapped it over his knee. "Watching this gives you an idea of what happens to those who cross the line. Coil seemed to think himself above the Rules, and if no one else is going to enforce them, then we will. He kidnapped a preteen girl for fuck's sake!"

Chrissie rejoined us at my side, handing me a bottle of mead. "Besides, Grue, I watched you go two rounds with those E88 bastards from Winslow. Thanks for that by the way — and I'm pretty sure you enjoyed beating those racist fucks up just as much as I enjoyed watching it."

"There was no purpose to that fight," Grue said, letting his darkness distort the words.

Michael huffed. "There's always purpose in beating down Nazis, it's an American tradition."

Grue moved to pinch his nose, then seemed to remember his helmet was in the way. "That isn't the point. Fighting for the sake of violence doesn't accomplish anything."

Still, for all of the likely soon-to-be-former leader of the Undersiders' stated distaste, he had still taken the opportunity to show off his skills on Thursday. Though, given his unease, I was starting to suspect that he had not believed me when I said the offer to fight was completely optional.

Alice opened her mouth to object to the point — as did the Butchers, though I didn't relay their comments — but Lisa jumped in to head off the ensuing argument. "You know he's planning to escape, right?"

"I'd be disappointed if he wasn't," I said casually, drinking down the burning sweetness that was my mead and turning my attention back to the fight. "There's a reason everyone has standing orders to kill him on the spot if he so much as looks at them funny. Should he speak to my people, or be somewhere he isn't supposed to be, he dies. Hell, Alec offered to make him choke on his own tongue if he detected him outside the base."

Lisa wasn't having it. "That won't work forever."

I shrugged. "He'll fuck up eventually. These fights are scheduled, if he's late, we kill him, if he stalls, we kill him. We know he has two timelines in the ring right now, and Elliot is here for when he leaves."

"More failsafes never hurt," Stratego noted.

I could tell Lisa was getting frustrated. "You hope he has two in there, you mean."

"Damn this bitch is paranoid… I'm almost impressed." Butcher grumbled.

"Lisa, I'm keeping my swarm on him, I'm fully prepared to stop him if I need to."

The Thinker arched a single eyebrow at me. "You've yet to willingly take a life, are you sure you would be able to pull the trigger?"

"Come on, Taylor, he kidnapped a little girl!" Fester practically yelled. "He hired pedophiles! If there's literally anyone in this city you could kill without remorse, it's him!"

The others agreed with Fester, loudly talking over one another to suggest horrible ways to extract some vengeance on the slimy fuck. I muted the more objectionable half and rounded on the rest mentally, only for Alice to jump in with a comment of her own. "Boss, aren't you a big fan of the Unwritten Rules? Last I checked, kidnapping little girls in civvies is about as bad as it gets."

"That's why he's here instead of in a PRT holding cell," I said with a huff, ignoring the outright cheers in my head. "I'm still thinking about how we're going to punish him appropriately."

"Yeah?" Alice said, shooting me a disbelieving look. "Why not just chop off his head and stick it on a spike outside? Pretty traditional way of dealing with our enemies."

This time, it was nearby Teeth that cheered, calling for me to cut off the head of the snake. Several of them passed half hearted comments about Dinah, too — transparent attempts to goad me into violence. A tiny part of me was glad that they knew why I was so upset.

But… upset enough to kill?

"You could just maim him," Marauder said. "The PRT keeps fingerprints, so you could chop off his hands and mail them to the heroes."

"Such a course of action would certainly impede his escape attempts," Damascian said.

I opened my mouth tell everyone to fuck right off with their horrible ideas, but the words caught in my throat. Dinah's state when we rescued her flashed through my mind, as did the thought of some cape going after Dad. I really needed people to follow the Rules, and know the consequences of breaking them.

"What are we arguing about?" Elliot asked, butting into the conversation and handing Alice a beer.

"The boss is waffling on killing that creepy fuck," she said, gesturing with the bottle over the drop into the arena proper. I had a bee dart out of my hair just as her hand reached full extension, and it stung her right on the wrist. Alice flinched, dropping the bottle into the stands with a surprised yelp and spinning to face me. "What the —"

"I'm deliberating because we can only kill him once," I said, letting the swarm creep into my voice.

Elliot snorted. "You haven't killed anyo—"

I lashed out with my hand faster than he could react, smacking his bottle and sending it careening over the edge. "What, do Lung and Quarrel not count? Do you require another demonstration?"

Quarrel herself spat and hissed in my head, but the others — especially Fester — cheered at the reminder. Outside of my head, reactions were more muted, with the two other capes staring at me with sullen annoyance. Few things reminded me of the Butchers' sheer presence than the way the other Teeth capes just accepted their bosses' mercurial moods.

Normally I enjoyed the lack of surprises due to my numerous powers, but it also meant that I was perfectly aware of Chrissie sneaking up behind me to give me a hug. I still leaned into her slightly when she wrapped her arms around my waist and said, "I'm with the new girl, Tay — just feed him to your bugs and be done with it."

Lisa waved at the embattled ex-gang leader. "Or, I don't know, cripple him and leave him in a cell. I'll admit that watching him fight —" as if on cue, Big Robbie ripped a bottle out of Coil's hand and smashed it across his face "— is satisfying as all hell, but he's probably more useful to you as ornamentation."

"Huh, maybe we can make a proper member of you yet," Chrissie said, looking at the viciousness in Lisa's eyes like she was seeing her for the first time.

"New member of the harem when?" Fester asked with a chuckle.

I don't think she's interested. She hasn't checked out me or Chrissie even once in a way that suggests she might go for that.

"Shit, I think you're right," Alkaline said.

"She's straight? That would be a damn shame," Sabertooth added.

She hasn't checked out beefcake over there either, I've got a feeling she might not be interested at all.

"She's gonna catch hell for that with the way she looks…" Marauder said.

"They can deal then," Fester snapped back. "Nothing wrong with her being straight, gay, bi or none of the above."

"Can we get back on topic?" Grue nearly yelled, turning back towards me and ignoring my other capes. "You want the Undersiders to either join, or work on contract, but can you honestly say you can offer the things we needed? How can the Teeth help me with my sister?"

Lisa rolled her eyes. "I have access to most of Coil's resources. Anything he could do for you, I can do without the strings attached."

"What happens to my sister when my ties to the Teeth are revealed?"

Holy shit, what is up with these people and digging their heels in to find every potential problem that might come of something?

"Remind you of someone?" Pyro chuckled.

"Then just join the heroic bastards instead of us," I ground out. "Lisa can still help you with the custody bullshit, you go to them with a sob story about escaping the Teeth, they give you a way lamer name with their inevitable rebrand, and you move along."

Grue paused, and I wished I could see his face at that moment. "You'd just let me walk away?"

"Don't you fucking dare!" Butcher yelled. "Let him walk without making an example would be a disaster!"

I'm not you, nor any of the others. I lead the Teeth my way.

"This is a mistake," Ironsides said, shaking his metaphorical head.

When I spoke, it was meant for the chorus, as well as Grue. "I keep no slaves, save those already condemned to death in our pits."

"Why should I believe you?" Grue asked, but I could hear his voice waver.

I couldn't help the hard edge that crept into my voice. "Because I actually keep to the terms I agree to meet under, unlike the Protectorate. I didn't lure you into a trap using clever wordplay, I told you right away that this meeting was under Truce terms, and I fucking meant it. Each and every Undersider is free to walk away if they so choose."

"You demonstrate you are superior to the Protectorate at every turn, but still he plans to walk away. Such ignorance," Stratego bemoaned.

You can't convince everyone, which is sad because his power works really well with my own.

"You can go join the pussy ass heroes," Chrissie said, clearly growing irritated with the back and forth. "Just don't get in our way and everything will be… damn, Tay, thesaurus me some shit that means peachy but more refined."

"Copacetic?" I offered.

"Nerd!" half the chorus yelled.

"I have no idea what that means, but that."

I pinched my nose, knowing full well that if I could experience a migraine I'd have one right now.

Grue turned to look at Rachel, who had remained silent through the whole discussion. She and Elliot were playing with her dogs without a care in the world. He then turned towards Alec, who was throwing popcorn into the pits as Coil got sent to the dirt again. Lisa, however, met his eyes, giving him a complicated expression that I didn't bother to try to parse.

There was a moment of silence. "So this is it then? The end of the Undersiders?" Despite the question, I could tell that Grue already knew the answer.

"It doesn't mean we can't stay friends though!" Lisa tried.

"We both know that's a lie, especially if I end up with the Protectorate," Grue said as he turned away. "I hope for your sake that you aren't trading one master for another."

Lisa winced. "Bri— Dammit Grue, not like—"

Hearing with my bugs was far from perfect, the subtle tink of a grenade being primed was unmistakable. Those same bugs burst into action as soon as I realized what I was hearing, swarming the crowd to locate the explosive… only to find it in the hands of a young girl in the stands. Damascian's precog sight showed me the trajectory of the grenade: directly into the arena below.

"Well, it isn't a suicide attack," Chisel added unhelpfully.

"It still makes little —"

"Human Master —"

Just as my brain processed the inexplicable attack the girl screamed, "100% chance you get fucked!"

Then the grenade leapt out of her fingers, and I teleported down into the arena after it. I landed between Big Robbie and Coil, sending both of them sprawling onto their asses. I could feel the grenade tumbling through my increasingly dense swarm, and I hardly needed my powers to realize that it was headed directly for Coil.

I didn't have time for anything fancy, so I threw myself between Big Robbie and the grenade. I barely had time to deploy one of Knockout's shields around my exposed head as extra insurance, while overhead my bugs died as Chrissie summoned her razor fields to help shield the crowd.

It probably said something about what I was becoming that a grenade going off five feet away didn't even make me blink, even as the shrapnel hammered against my shield and tore the silk of my costume.

Then, it was all over aside from the dust settling.

Immediately I set my bugs into motion to assess the damages. Big Robbie had a few cuts and I couldn't imagine the blast doing any favors for his hearing, but the man was alive. Then my bugs made it to Coil… or what was left of him.

His body was shredded. Bits of bloodied pulp were the most identifiable parts of him left, aside from his head, which was somehow intact and unblemished.

His eyes were still moving.

"Well, I guess that answers that question," Sanguine said.

Pyro was chuckling. "Think he's still got his little savescums running and both just ended in death?"

"Well, if he dies and we don't, I think it's safe to assume he's actually dead," Sabertooth pointed out.

Back up in the stands, two of my Teeth had taken the girl into custody, so to speak. The pair each had a gun to her head as they were leading the girl up towards the VIP box. I was almost proud of them for showing the capacity to learn: just a week ago they would have splattered her brains across the pits. Content that things were going about as well as they could be after such an interruption, I picked myself up and reached out.

"Gonna just sit on your ass all day?"

"This isn't how things are done," Big Robbie said as he eyed my offered hand.

"I'm not your typical Butcher. I look out for my own."

The second most senior member of my gang stared at me for a long moment, looking for whatever it was he sought within my unflinching gaze. He must have found it, because he nodded and accepted my hand. Hoisting him up was trivial thanks to my enhanced strength.

Sabertooth whistled. "Damn, I've never seen someone earn his respect that fast before."

"Taylor did take a grenade for him." Fester sounded proud.

"An accomplishment nonetheless; he hated Quarrel," Damascian stated.

"Fuck you too!" Quarrel snarled.

"It was your own damn fault!" Ironsides bellowed.

I gave them a gentle shove to the back of my mind and walked over to what was left of Coil, picking his head up by his slackened jaw. I then targeted one of my bugs and teleported back into the VIP section; only Grue was startled by my arrival. Chrissie, however, had pulled her phone out and was happily taking pictures.

"You better ask her to send you copies, I bet you look badass as fuck right now!" Knockout yelled.

Alkaline nodded in my head. "Then you can forward them to the traitorous bitch along with a You're Next message."

And give her proof she can show the PRT? No thanks.

I walked over to a stunned Lisa and tossed Coil's head at her feet. "Satisfied?"

The Thinker stared at the Bond villain wannabe's remains for a long moment before kicking the head, sending it rolling across the room to the feet of the little grenadier. To my surprise and horror — not that I could show it, the Teeth were already cheering — the girl reached down and picked up the lump of meat and bone, staring into the lifeless eyes.

"You deserved so much worse, but this was the safest choice," Dinah murmured, barely audible to my enhanced senses above Chrissie's laughing. When the girl turned her gaze to me, there was a weight to her eyes that nobody her age should have. "84.627% chance he would have hurt me again if I had done nothing."

"Damn, this girl is hardcore as fuck!" Pyro cheered.

"You just like her because she blew him the fuck up," Fester replied, though I could tell that she was just as pleased with this turn of events.

Even Ironsides was… less annoyed than usual. "To be fair, I think she impressed most of us with her display."

I shrugged, forcing my horror at the situation out into my bugs and sending them skittering in circles. "If anyone had a right to his life, it was you or Tattletale. So what next? You walked into Teeth HQ plotting murder. Did you have a plan beyond explosive vengeance?"

In the silence following my pronouncement, Dinah grinned and dropped another bombshell. "94.713% chance I stay safe if I join the Teeth."

That caught me so off guard that my mouth moved before my brain. "Not with the heroes?"

"Dumbass!" Butcher hissed.

"After your recent discovery —" "You of all people should know better now!" "The PRT is full of shit and you know it."

They were right, of course, but now was really not the time to delve back into that disaster. Yes, yes, mouth worked faster than brain, now shut it.

Dinah scoffed. "21.842% chance I would have been safe with them. And even when they could keep me safe, it was by locking me in a gilded cage."

"Ouch," Sanguine said.

Damascian just nodded slowly. "An unfortunately believable future."

"That's putting it mildly," I agreed softly, then gave Dinah a smile. "Well, the Teeth welcome you with open arms. Did you have a cape name in mind?"

"Come on Toothsayer!" Sabertooth tossed out as a bet.

Butcher dissented immediately. "Nah, a girl like her deserves a badass name, not some Baby Tooth shit."

"Omen," Dinah said firmly. "And I'm keeping Coil's skull as a trophy."

My eye twitched as both the Teeth and their former leaders roared in approval.

"Yeah, she's Teeth material all right," Chrissie cheered. "Come on Omen, let's go claim you a room!"

As Chrissie led Dinah off, it seemed to shock Grue back into motion, and his body language screamed 'fucking terrified.' Still, his voice was admirably level as he declared, "You can keep this crazy, staying a villain isn't worth it."

Marauder chuckled. "He's gonna be pissed when he sees all the crazy in there."

Sanguine nodded in agreement. "Yeah, maybe he and —"

Enough, we aren't dealing with that right now.

"Hey, some of us have bets riding on it!" Alkaline complained.

My swarm moved, cutting off Grue's exit, and he spun around in surprise. "Just remember the Rules. You keep to them and we'll do the same."

His shoulders dropped. "I won't reveal any identities nor confirm whatever suspicions they might have. I'm not suicidal, and I refuse to put my sister in danger."

"Good luck…" Lisa called out, "please take care of yourself."

"You too," Grue said, then he left.

Alec turned over his fourth shot glass and gave Damien a mirthless smile as my nominal second in command wobbled under the effects of the Tinkertech alcohol I'd discovered hidden within Damascian's workshop. The crowd cheered as Alec was declared the winner. It was a true Teeth party after all, new members were to be celebrated. Tonight, that meant that we were throwing a rager the likes of which I had never personally seen.

When I had gone down to change into more normal clothes, I had also swapped out the marinara sauce within my hammerspace for the whisky that was only (barely) legal within Scotland; even the export of it carried a steep penalty.

Talisker Super Reserve was no joke. Normally Sabertooth's regen was enough to keep a Butcher from getting more than tipsy, but this glowing liquid from the bowels of an alcoholic's idea of heaven? It would even get me wasted if I overindulged. Thankfully, whatever Tinker bullshit was in play prevented the onset of alcohol poisoning, because otherwise carrying the bottle into a party would constitute attempted murder.

"Imagine if you could die from it. How surprised would that fucker be to wake up with us in his head?" Sabertooth mused.

Which was why I was sticking to my wine coolers for casual drinking tonight. We had all taken a celebratory shot with the entire cape roster as a welcome to the new members, though Lisa and Rachel were refraining from anything further, despite Chrissie's insistence. Dinah, however… I had to ask Lisa to be the designated 'keep the precog far away from the alcohol' responsible adu— person.

Nobody wanted a drunk precog on the loose, let alone a drunk Dinah — I felt a shiver run through me at the thought. It wasn't helping that Dinah was making full use of her power to determine that we were only giving her non-alcoholic beverages, the cheeky little brat. I could already tell she was going to be an absolute terror, especially if the current game of blackjack was anything to go by.

"This girl is amazing!" Pyro cheered.

Stratego had spent most of the night lamenting about how amazing the girl's power must be. "It is unfortunate she will never be a frontline fighter."

"She could always off XV!" Butcher said happily.

Don't go killing me off just yet you assholes!

Said assholes laughed at me.

"Technically you wouldn't be dead, you'd just join the chorus," Sanguine reminded me.

Sabertooth began chanting. "One of us. One of us!"

Damascian, however, offered a concerning thought. "How sure of that are we? Given the unique nature of Taylor's abilities and how they interact with our own, it is entirely possible that she might stay in control following her inevitable demise."

The entire collective seemed to shiver at that thought, and I looked around for literally anything to distract myself from the reminder of what being the Butcher really meant. I found Damien leaning over the railing, watching whatever fight was happening below, and decided that now was as good of a time to talk to the guy as any.

After all, he was totally shitfaced.

"Hey," I said, walking over to the edge. A dark part of me found it amusing that he reflexively flinched, which was a perfectly natural reaction to any other Butcher finding the impetus to focus their attention on someone. The Butchers snickered, which was less than helpful, and I forced a smile onto my face. "I just want to talk."

"Sure, right," he said, steadying himself on the railing with one hand while sipping his glowing cocktail. "More bullshit rules or whatever? Going to send your fuckin' Thinkers after us for —"

"No," I said, cutting him off. "I realized that I don't really know you or the others, and Yuki's memories aren't a real substitute."

"Oh fuck off," the Butcher in question snarled.

Damien blinked at the use of my predecessor's name, but his face settled back into a scowl almost immediately. "Why do you care? None of the others did, not after inheriting."

I gestured back towards the common room where a number of younger capes were lounging around as the party raged on; Chrissie caught my gaze and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, then laughed when I blushed. "I'm doing a lot of stuff differently," I said quickly, turning away from my girlfriend. "I don't expect you to like everything, but I figured that you would appreciate how our fortunes are improving."

Damien chucked his empty glass into the arena, though the explosion of glass barely phased the two guys fighting below us. "I don't like sitting still!" he spat. "The Teeth roam around so that we don't get caught. Sitting here like ducks is just asking for fucking problems, and if we had to run, it's pretty obvious who you would go back to save. This… this is not how the Teeth work!"

"Has he always been such a whiner?" Chisel mused.

"Go fuck yourself," Quarrel retorted. "He's right. We should have gone back to Boston. Why the hell did you all tell the Tinker to come back anyways?"

As much as I wanted to know the answer to that myself, I was more interested in the fact that Damien was opening up to me, ever so slightly. "I wouldn't leave any of you behind," I said firmly, meeting the cloner's eyes. "The Teeth stick together, as we always have. Yeah, I tried to be a hero for a little while. Do you know why I came back?"

His response couldn't have been more bitter if he had spat out a mouthful of coffee grounds. "Why?"

"Because the Teeth were the only group that would accept me as the Butcher. I've been betrayed too many times in my life to turn around and do that to someone else." To my surprise, Damien flinched back at my tone, but I didn't bother to reign myself in. "We're staying here because we have a real chance to make the Teeth into something much bigger, and all I want is for you guys to stop fucking killing civilians! Is that so goddamn hard?"

A complicated series of expressions flashed over Damien's face during my little rant, settling on something marginally less unpleasant at the end. A clone exploded off of him and darted over to the bar, returning with a glass of something; all the while, he just stared at me like he had never seen me before.

"I'm not going to abandon you guys," I said firmly.

"Again," Marauder grumbled.

Oh fuck you. I never abandoned them! I just didn't immediately go to them. It's not the same thing at all, asshole.

Damien nodded once, turning his attention back to the fight, and I took the dismissal for what it was. Chrissie glomped me as soon as I sat back down on the couch, squirming onto my lap and making herself comfortable. "Lemme guess, he wants to pick up and go back on the road?"

"Something like that," I murmured.

"Don't take it personally," she said, giving me a peck on the cheek. "He complained about that nonstop until Quarrel smacked him hard enough to crack a rib. Dunno why he has such a stick up his ass."

My response was interrupted by Elliot yelling "Fuck!" and slamming his cards down.

Dinah however, was cackling as she pulled the pile of chips towards herself while shouting, "Mine, all mine!"

"Fucking Thinkers," complained one of the lieutenants I didn't know too well. The crowd however was loving it.

"Nah, little Dinah's not using her power for this," Lisa said with the full smugness of someone who was in on a secret. Her grin only grew wider. "She is however —"

"72.473% chance you spend the night in agony if you finish that statement."

"And my lips are sealed," Lisa said, stepping hastily away from the table. She joined Chrissie and I on the couches, though she didn't opt to join in on our little snuggle pile. Chrissie did an admirable job of hiding her disappointment, though I suspected that we would need to have a long discussion on the topic, based on her teasing comments. If Lisa noticed (or cared), it didn't show on her face. "Is it too late for me to back out? Babysitting that girl is going to be the death of me."

"You could always ask her the odds of that happening." Chrissie supplied.

"And contribute to another Thinker's headache? No thank you," Lisa replied with a groan. "Mine get bad enough, so I can only imagine what it's like for a precog as powerful as her."

I winced. "I used to get those, so I can feel some sympathy for you both. Bug senses aren't pleasant to parse."

Lisa stared at me for a moment, her eyes widening as she did. "Pain nullification works on those? Oh, that just isn't fair!"

"Still debating on if it was worth the fourteen voices in my head," I retorted.

"Don't bullshit, you know you love us," Pyro said casually.

"It is amusing how things have progressed for Taylor," Stratego noted. "Her life continues to improve despite inheriting; quite the deviation from the norm."

"Huh."

I thought over how things had changed in my life over the past week. Sure, the PRT ambush had been horrible, but since then? I'd met Chrissie. I was dating Chrissie. The Trio would never bother me again; hell, I practically ran Winslow at this point. The Empire was bloodied, both Coil and the ABB were gone…

The Teeth were improving, ever so slowly. They were less prone to violent outbursts against the undeserving, and my policies on drug sales I had arranged with Todd should reduce overdose risk and keep the worst of it away from schools. (That the Merchants had once tried to deal to literal Kindergartners was sickening.) Hell, what I'd pulled with the Undersiders seemed to have improved most of their own situations as well.

Alec was living it up with our capes, seemingly content to just enjoy himself. Rachel was going to get backing to open a legitimate dog shelter and I was already considering plans to wipe out Hookwolf's detestable dog fighting pits. Lisa no longer had a gun held to her head like a Sword of Damocles.

I wasn't the Hero I always imagined myself as, but I was still doing good things. I would continue to do what I could to make the city a better place, even as the Heroes targeted me for being a villain. Well, they wanted a villain, so I'd be the best villain the Bay had ever seen!

"Someone's deep in thought," Chrissie said softly, nudging me in the side.

"Stratego pointed out how my life is improving since I inherited, and he wasn't wrong."

Chrissie sat up at that. "I would hope so, you met me!"

Lisa's eyes widened. "Damn, Chrissie — you were literally her first reason."

The Butchers laughed when I had to fight down a blush, but Chrissie just gave me a wide grin and batted at my shoulder. "Aww, such a romantic." She thought for a moment, and her smile widened. "You deserve something special for that."

"I do?"

"Hell yes you do!" "Don't fuck this up, Taylor!" "Seriously, how dense are you?"

"Yup." Her grin only grew wider as she got to her feet, pulling me up with her. She guided me across the room, a wide yet nervous grin plastered on her face as she stopped in the middle of the floor. She gestured something at the mook on the sound system, then she leaned in close just as the metal that had been playing cut out. "Dance with me, Tay."

"This is just so adorable and sweet that I could just —" Alkaline gushed.

"Puke?" Marauder spat, but Fester snarled at him.

"Shut up you unromantic fuckstick!"

As I stared at Chrissie like a deer in headlights, the music resumed. A waltz, one that tickled a few of the Butcher's memories.

"Waltz to the Moon!" Pyro exclaimed. "Okay, I'll admit, Chrissie has good tastes."

Chrissie's position shifted, allowing me to take the lead, whispering, "Where you lead, I follow."

I couldn't help but grin as I heeded the memories of the collective to sweep Chrissie across the dance floor, which had been cleared just for us. The moment felt like pure magic as I gazed into her eyes and she into mine. The moment couldn't last long enough, and when the song finally faded she snuggled up close to me in the silence that followed. I couldn't help the warmth and contentment I felt all through me.

Then the heavy metal kicked back on and the floor erupted back into a rave. Chrissie winked at me then broke out into her own take on dancing that left me feeling warm in a very different way.

Pyro nudged at her own memories of her club days and I couldn't help but take the 'fuck it' approach and joined my girlfriend in making a fool of myself for all to see. They didn't matter, all that mattered was her right now.

After a long evening of dancing and more drinking, I was ready to retire to my room and get some sleep. Chrissie was practically dragging me out of the room when my bugs picked up someone frantically climbing the stairs to the VIP box. I briefly considered leaving it to Damien, but he was three lines of coke in and the rest of my capes weren't much better.

"Noooo!" "The universe hates us." "Well, most of us are chaotic evil at best…" "Fucking karma."

Sighing, I freed myself of Chrissie, though she was somewhat less disappointed when I pulled her back to me so I could give her a quick peck on the cheek. "This will be quick," I murmured, and she nodded.

The runner arrived in short order, bending over to catch their breath. Behind him, my bugs could sense three others coming up the stairs: only two were in Teeth colors, but the third was vaguely familiar to me. I needed more bugs, but it would be faster to just let them finish the climb.

"Boss… problem," the runner gasped. "Hero…"

Sabertooth facepalmed. "Oh fucking hell, and they just let them in?"

Quarrel tisked. "Okay, I get it now. We need to drill these fuckers into the ground."

Chrissie didn't miss a beat as her forcefields began to swarm around her, which was impressive when you considered how drunk she was. I moved my bugs away to avoid too many of them from being sliced and diced, positioning them in the dark parts of the hallway to better ambush whomever was dumb enough to attack us here.

However, when I finally got a good look at our intruder, I couldn't help but snort. "Relax, she has an open invite," I declared as Amy Dallon stepped into our VIP loft ahead of her escort.

"Huh, well, I lost that bet," Ironsides grumbled.

"Mwahahahaha!" Fester cackled, having won a fair number of votes out of that.

I had to force down a chuckle of my own at the dumbfounded expression on the hero in question's face. Everyone else had practically frozen in the middle of whatever they had been doing — petting dogs (Elliot and Rachel), doing drugs (Alice and Damien), drawing on Alec's sleeping face (Lisa) — and the abrupt silence brought a sardonic smile to the healer's face.

"Not the reception I was expecting," Amy said acidly.

"Well excuse us, we'll roll out the bloody carpet next time ya bitch," Knockout said.

Something tells me it will be literally bloody.

"How else would we dye it red?" he asked and I mentally facepalmed.

"My apologies," I said, flashing Amy a lazy grin I didn't totally feel. "You can thank our newest member for everyone being on edge. She made an… explosive entrance."

Amy scoffed. "Something tells me that you're being literal."

"Correct," I said with a savage chuckle. "Omen certainly earned her place, that's for sure."

"Hell yeah she did!" Chisel said in a rare display of excitement. "First rate Teeth material if I ever saw one."

"You people are insane," Amy said with the glare I was coming to associate with her.

"She acts like that's a problem," Marauder snickered.

Chrissie dismissed her force fields and laughed. "If we are insane, what does that make you for walking in here willingly?"

Amy muttered something even my bugs failed to pick up then spoke louder. "Why is it that the crazy murder hobos are the fastest growing cape group in the Bay?"

"We're the only gay and minority friendly gang in this shithole of a city?" Chrissie offered.

"Pretty much, though I think four in a single day might be a record," I added.

Amy's entire body twitched at that. "You actually recruited the Undersiders?"

"Not the complete set," Lisa said as she handed Amy an empty shot glass. "But three out of four isn't terrible."

With a touch, I filled the glass with Super Reserve, and Amy gave me an unamused look. "What, was the pizza sauce not cutting it anymore?"

The Butchers burst into laughter in my head, and I did my best to keep my lazy grin steady. "Marinara, technically. I needed more for my mozzarella sticks." The chorus chuckled again when we noticed Lisa's eye twitch at that. She'd bitched about how her power likes to go off on tangents, and used the marinara sauce as an example of how it could do so.

"And who's fault is that again?" Chrissie asked, prompting me to poke her in the side right where I knew she was — "She squeaked!" "Yes!" "Dammit Tay! Tickles, my only weakness."

I hummed even as the chorus fed me ideas. "Only weakness, you say?" I delighted in the flash of panic that crossed her face as I activated my limited precog ability and pressed my attack. Chrissie was swiftly reduced to a hysterical mess on the floor as I sat atop her and attempted to drive her catatonic from laughter.

"Get a room," Lisa said with a roll of her eyes. "Think of the children."

"Like I haven't seen worse," Dinah added, watching as Chrissie cried for mercy. The spectacle didn't hold her attention for long, and soon the Thinker was back at her poker game. "Straight flush! Fuck yeah!"

"There is nothing straight about that flush," Lisa said with a shake of her head. "So what brings the heroic Panacea to our wretched hive of scum and villainy?"

"I'll admit, I'm curious about that too," Stratego mused.

Amy crossed her arms and glared at the assembled Teeth. "Well, it's your lucky day, because I'm not here to arrest all of you."

"So what, did you bring pizza?" one of the unpowered members yelled.

"Pretty sure that's the Wards' job," Lisa replied, and even Amy chuckled with the rest of the Teeth before schooling her expression back to her default glare.

"The only kind of pizza I would bring you assholes is hemlock." Amy glanced around the room once more, her eyes lingering for a moment on Dinah before focusing on me. "Taylor, right? You're in charge of these murderhobos? I want to talk to you… privately."

If Amy realized that she had walked into Teeth HQ, casually name-dropped the Butcher, and then expected me to just follow an outrageously dangerous Striker away from my backup, she certainly wasn't showing it. Oh, she was definitely nervous and wringing her hands, but none of my inherited instincts were triggering on her stance or demeanor.

"Boss, did she just —" Chrissie started, summoning another small storm of force fields.

I quickly waved her down. "No, it's fine. We've met in civvies, remember?" Looking back at Amy, I had to ask, "You didn't tell anyone, right?"

"Like it really matters," Alkaline said.

Amy shook her head, sending her frizzy hair flying. "I'm not sure why I listened to you, but… no, not even Vicky. But you said to drop by if I had questions, and —" Her stubborn façade broke for a moment, revealing an exhausted, lost and confused girl. However, before she could continue, Lisa wormed in next to me with a bottle in one hand and Chrissie in the other.

"Why don't we take this little mixer somewhere less… crazy," the Thinker said.

"You only quit because you were losing!" Dinah yelled, her threat somewhat lessened by the fact that she still sounded like a little girl. Amy did a double take towards the poker table, only to have Lisa dump the bottle in her hands and grab the healer's sweater in the other; I followed the rest of them out into the hallway and down to Chrissie's room.

"If you're taking me somewhere nefarious," Amy started in a threatening tone, but Lisa ruined the moment with a snort.

"Amy, you're the one who waltzed into our lair," Chrissie pointed out. The healer made a displeased noise, but didn't have any more commentary until we reached the door.

Chrissie wasted no time maneuvering me over to her beanbag chair and plopping down onto my lap, except this time she didn't bother with pretense and immediately snuggled up to me. Amy watched with a faint blush that deepened when she saw how Lisa was lounging on the bed, causing the Butchers to cackle with amusement when the healer chose to just stand awkwardly in the middle of the room and glare at us.

"What, not expecting something so normal?" Lisa asked, gesturing around Chrissie's room. "Or that the only gay friendly gang in the city is run by a lesbian teenager?"

"I'm pretty sure we're bisexual," Chisel said.

"I thought you said you were bi?" Amy blurted, then shook her head. "No, wait. That's not what I want to talk about. I want to know just what the hell you're doing here!"

"Here?" I asked.

Amy waved her arms around. "Yeah, here with the Teeth! You're a fucking hero, not some sort of axe-crazy monster, and you could be doing so much good with your power because you're clearly sane, I mean, you saved that girl and you didn't fight the Wards and… and…"

When Amy's little rant died abruptly, the other three of us waited in silence for a long minute to see if she would keep going. Instead, the healer just stared at me with faintly glistening eyes, and so I said, "And they tried to send me to the Birdcage."

The Butchers might have contributed something useful here, but they always became upset when anyone else talked about my heroic career. I muted their enraged ranting almost by reflex.

"I know," Amy spat. "I'm not totally sure they were wrong. I just —"

"It doesn't make sense to you," Lisa said suddenly. "Because the Butcher can't be a good person, right? She can't just be a teenage girl in way over her head, desperately trying to find a way to use her powers responsibly while doing her best to reign in the Teeth, because that would mean that nothing is as simple as you were taught."

"Yes! No! I don't know!" Amy yelled, spinning on the Thinker. When Lisa's response was to stretch provocatively the bed, whatever Amy was going to say next came out in a garbled, blushing mess. "It's — I don't, I mean… Vicky, heroes — stop that!"

Lisa and Chrissie both burst into laughter, with the latter ruffling my hair fondly. "What is it with these sexy Teeth capes seducing perfectly good heroes?"

"This is what I mean! You seriously threw your heroic career away over a pretty face!" Amy continued, gesturing at us. "Now, you're… just sitting there; being cute and cuddling and shit… she's the goddamn Butcher! And you're just —"

Chrissie kissed me, loudly. Amy nearly choked.

"Why don't you sit down," Lisa offered, tugging on Amy's sweater. The healer just let herself get dragged along before limply flopping down onto the bed, only for Lisa to start scratching her back. "The thing that no one ever tells you about villains is that we're just people, too. Some of us have scary powers, some of us were abused by the system, some of us have really god awful parents…"

"Isn't that the truth," Fester spat. "Stupid heroes."

"The indoctrination is strong," Damascian agreed, though her mind was clearly elsewhere.

"Those aren't excuses," Amy said, but there was no heat in her words. On my lap, Chrissie gave me another supportive squeeze. "Why did you go back?"

It was clear that Amy was talking to me. "Because no one else would have trusted me again. Everyone knows that I'm destined to eventually go crazy, and no matter how much good I would have done as a hero, it would never have completely convinced people. My power scared people, and when people get scared, they do dumb things."

"Yeah," Amy said weakly, trailing off.

"For example, I know exactly how your power works," Lisa said, only for Amy to nearly fall over in her attempts to get away from the Thinker. Chrissie made a confused noise but a quick hand on her arm and a murmured "No" kept her quiet while Amy panicked.

"Oh fuck, I don't —" Amy yelled, almost falling off the bed until Lisa grabbed her arm. She froze at the skin contact, allowing Lisa to pull her back up. "You… huh?"

Lisa set Amy back upright and resumed scratching her back. "Look, Panpan, it's pretty obvious that you came over here to confront Taylor, except that you had no actual plan. You're confused about what it means to be a hero, you're happy that the Teeth are fighting the Empire, and you're scared about what the heroes tried to do to Taylor because they were scared of her power."

"How can you touch me, knowing what I could be doing to you?" Amy had tears pooling in the corner of her eyes.

"Because you're like Taylor in a lot of ways — so much power that everyone is rightfully terrified of, but the desire to only use it for good things."

Amy choked out a laugh. "She ate people with her power, are you suggesting I do the same?"

"If the right people get in your way?" Lisa shrugged. "Why not?"

"You can't tell me if the Nine came calling, that you wouldn't turn Jack Slash to goo if given the chance."

Lisa glared at Chrissie for butting in, and I glared right back. "She has a point. Acceptable targets do exist. I didn't cry for Coil, and I won't cry for Kaiser either when I finally have the excuse to put a blade through his heart."

"No one… no one seemed to care that they killed my Aunt Jess," Amy said quietly. "They broke the Rules and nobody lifted a finger in retribution. Is that not enough of an excuse?"

"I told you we should have killed Allfather!" Pyro shouted.

Butcher scoffed. "At least we actually fuck up the Nazis we fight!"

"One could say we're even heroic!" Alkaline cheered.

"Carrying out our sworn duty as Americans," Sabertooth agreed.

Knockout nodded. "Kicking Nazi ass, and chewing bubble gum."

"Tis a slippery slope, punching Nazis," Ironsides said sagely.

Then Marauder cheered. "Good thing we love water slides!"

"Right," Lisa said. "Do you drink? Because I have a story to tell you about your family, and I think that you'll want a drink."

Amy gave me an appraising look, regaining some of her inner fire. "Yeah, I think I'll need it." Lisa handed Amy the bottle, and the healer took a sizable swig before meeting my eyes. "So, which of the Butchers was my mysterious parent that Carol refuses to talk about?"

There was a beat of silence in the room as everything stopped, including all the voices in my head, only for the silence to be broken by Lisa cackling like a lunatic.