Amy

"Owe."

The sunlight hurt as it hit my eyes.

"That was not a wise decision."

The voice was deep and metallic, I knew it instantly.

"Hey teach, how's it going?"

He loomed over me, his screen was a swirl of colours. Is he angry, no not angry, concerned. I think it's hard to read an Endbringer's mood. The only person who really could do that was June, or Juno when she was trying to get a toy.

"Not good, Juno's in trouble for saying mean things to a little girl."

"Oh, I'm sure it's a mistake."

He sighed.

"No it isn't, I had no problem going to Saint Johns and forcing her to apologize to the girl. Juno needs to know that it isn't ok to pick on less popular students. Bullying is not acceptable, I've seen where that path leads."

He sounded tired.

"Then my best student gets teleported to me early in the morning."

"How bad was it?"

He shrugged.

"Broken arm, a bullet in your left lung, some brain damage from the concussion and you broke the bones in one of your fingers when you were punching people, that doesn't include the blood loss. You came very close to bleeding out. That said, you're doing better then some of your friends."

"Huh?"

He motioned out the door.

"The bug using cape Skitter essentially choked the Wards until they passed out, bugs... well, everywhere. Your sister is in another room with Juno, I think Kid Win is tinkering with Justin."

"How is the Wards treating him."

Woody shrugged.

"Well enough, it's been 3 years, he's asked about going to an Endbringer battle to fight his aunts and uncles."

"And?"

"It's not going to happen, I recognize this to be what humans call hypocracy, but to me he will always be my baby. Anyway, he's currently helping Win figure out how to make his hoverboard more durable, and I managed to inform him about his specialty."

"Oh thanks."

"But before that, please tell me what you were thinking when you took on 5 parahumans alone without your equipment."

"If I moved fast enough I could had dropped them all."

He slumped.

"Not a good response?"

"That could have worked if you had gone for a quick knock out blow, it wouldn't be easy but it could have happened. Why didn't you try that?"

I closed my eyes.

"I wasn't prepared for a fight, mentally or otherwise, I just charged them to take them out as best I could. The idea was this would give the civilians time to flee."

"That... is partially true, what about the rest?"

"I... ugh was angry and they were there."

He tilted his head, he looked... disappointed.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not going to judge you, considering my past I don't have much room for that but please try to use better judgement in the future. You're my student and I want the best for you."

He got up and offered a hand. I got out of bed, clothing was waiting for me, my old costume.

"So who got me to Seattle?"

"Gingersnap, british cape, long range Mover, used to be a case 53, favors were called in."

"Oh, so..."

"She's still here, she wants to talk to you eventually but then again the kids miss you, so you're doing that first."

He left the room and I got dressed, When I got out in one of my old costumes I saw... goddamn it.

"Dennis."

He was silent, he looked away.

"Amy... um... yeah so um that time we, um..."

"It was after an Endbringer fight, we got emotional and we kissed, it was nothing."

"Right right..."

We didn't look at each other.

"Though we could you know, um try it you know make it..."

I shook my head.

"Three hours of your puns and I'd be crawling up the walls, two hours of me talking about work and you would fall asleep."

He nodded his head.

"Probably."

"So forget it?"

"Yeah forget it, so um Ironwood's kid triggered, um..."

I rolled my eyes.

"Juno got angry and broke all of his toys."

"Oh sorry, second gen trigger right?"

I shrugged as he tried to think of something to say.

"So um Juno."

"She's ok, but she wants attention and doesn't care if it's good or bad. They're working on it."

"You sure it's not an-"

"It's not an Endbringer thing, Justin's ok, a little withdrawn but ok."

We walked to the children's room.

"So Justins a Tinker?"

"Yeah, his speciality is redundancy, or making tinkertech that's hard to break or lastes."

He took in some air and looked nervous.

"But Armsmaster would love him."

I chuckled.

"What is it?"

"Their specialties drive each other up the wall, Armsmaster's stuff is very efficient but hard to maintain, Cold Iron or Justin's stuff isn't efficient, but it's built to last. Durability vs efficiency."

"Oh."

"This stuff won't last a week."

The voice sounded tired, and Justin.

"But Armsmaster."

"Ugh, so much can go wrong, yes the power output's good but if you cycle this, this and this down it would last so much longer, and the materials too fragile."

"Oh hey guys."