The week seemed to pass by faster then I could have imagined, between getting adjusted to a new school and a new team it barely felt like I had any time to myself, which honestly given my continual nightmares from both Heartbreaker's compound and the Third Cause I was glad for. My testing for Arcadia had ensured that I got a decent spot in my most comfortable subjects, but would require tutoring in a few spots to catch up to where I needed to be for the more advanced classes that the school offered.

But the opportunity to get into better classes was wholly overtaken by the group I had more or less been thrown into once I found out that I shared a lunch period with Vicky. At the very least Dean and Edgar were familiar, and everyone else was nice enough that it didn't feel entirely awkward.

I had to admit that not hiding away for the entire lunch break to try and avoid the Trio was a pleasant experience, but the changeover from the food provided by the Dollhouse to the better than average cafeteria food that Arcadia had was going to be a change that took some getting used to.

My nightly activities had picked up just the same as well, after my night patrol with Rachel I had used the next night to see what Regent could do, and the boy hadn't disappointed. He had gotten information from Lisa about a ABB controlled bar where members would launder money and stolen goods and cause a small riot through clever applications of his power and a few of the more drunk members. We had walked out with the contents of the safe in the chaos and left after causing a fire that had directed emergency services to come to the location due to our anonymously placed tip.

What the fire hadn't destroyed had been enough to close the bar up and put away a few of the remaining high ranking members of the gang. Without their parahumans bolstering them the ABB was going to die off sooner rather than later, but as Regent had said when we walked away 'nothing wrong with shoveling more dirt.'

I didn't have as firm a grasp on Regent as I had gotten from Rachel and Lisa, but he appeared comfortable keeping things largely professional and didn't really care about the switch from villain to hero. Which was fine by me, I would have liked each of the Undersiders to happily turn over a new leaf but I would take them doing good for a paycheck just as easily.

The only Undersider that I hadn't had a chance to spend time with was Grue, but he had been busy making use of the resources that my money had helped open up to secure a place for his sister outside of his current life. Still It wasn't fair to simply write it off as him being a good fit for the teams new activities just because he had a desire to protect his sister, so I had been firm that I needed to patrol with him at least once during the week before I was comfortable building a roadmap for how I would go about fixing the Bay's crime problem.

We hashed out a plan for the weekend and had left it at that, through I heard from Lisa he had been taken his new job seriously, bringing the fear of god into a variety of muggers and aimless gang members that had would have probably caught the attention of the authorities, if they bothered listening to the people they were dragging in of course.

With the slow dissolution of the ABB and the Empire 88's slow death without any clear leader the only remaining power that still had its base were the Merchants, but they were acting as normal, spreading their poison and acting at a pace that would make a snail blush. But just because they hadn't moved didn't mean they weren't a problem, and beyond those three there were technically two other powers that had stayed mostly quiet.

Faultline and Coil, the two superpowers who technically hadn't lost anything in the recent fighting. Faultline was of a more mercenary mindset, but I somehow had my doubts that any amount of money that the individual groups could put together at the moment would have her try and gain a direct confrontation. So long as her crew remained in their area and kept their heads down I was willing to eventually negotiate with them to either turn themselves over or face my full attention.

I took a deep breath after that thought, putting a hand to my head and trying to remind myself that despite my power I couldn't get too overconfident. I didn't have Stetson watching my back on missions anymore, and while the Dollhouse had allowed me to pull nothing but wins out of my pocket as of late that didn't make me invincible. At least not yet.

But regardless they weren't exactly dealing drugs or causing race riots so I didn't feel like they didn't require my focus for now.

Coil on the other hand was more worrisome, Lisa had expected more direct retaliation even with my protection over the members, but just this week she had received an email saying that their services were no longer needed. It was one of the first times I could remember Lisa being genuinely thrown off by something since her first steps into the Dollhouse itself, and honestly I didn't think I could blame her.

Every scrap of information she had given me about Coil had painted him as a vicious mastermind, not a manager that wrote out 'sorry we have to let you go' emails to former employees.

Still he didn't exactly have an active presence or goons around the city that I could beat up for information like the other gangs had, so until he slipped up or Lisa could dig up more information I felt a bit lost at sea when it came to him. His time would come but until then I would focus on other tasks.

"Taylor, I'm ready to go!" Riley's voice rang out through the halls of the Dollhouse as she came into the foyer wearing a cute jumper and with her blonde hair tied in pigtails. Honestly if I didn't know she was an extremely dangerous biotinker it would have been impossible to tell.

Still we had to be careful, Bonesaw might have disappeared along with the Slaughterhouse 9 but that didn't mean people wouldn't be on the lookout. Through considering we were going to a park in one of the nicer neighborhoods I didn't think anyones first reaction would be 'that girl running around with a kite is a mass murdering psycho'.

"Are you sure you're ready?" I didn't want to put doubt into her mind, but Riley had been nervous about stepping foot in public ever since Stetson had taken her in, worried that she would do something to hurt someone.

"Yup," she put on a brave face and gave her best smile. "It's going to be a lot of fun!"

I had nothing further to say about that, simply walking over to take her hand and willed the Dollhouse to place us down near the park. Given that it was a fairly upscale neighborhood and we had decided to go on a weekend, the park should have been full to bursting with kids trying to enjoy one of the few nice days the city got.

Instead the park was almost fully empty except for a few younger kids being carefully watched by their parents. Of course the reason was obvious enough, Amy's kidnapping had sent a shock through the Bay that the operations of the ABB and Empire hadn't managed in all of their operations.

Everyone knew Panacea, or knew someone healed by her at least. If she could be snatched up then how could they believe their own kids would be safe even in the nicer parts of the city? Throughout the week heroes both directly tied to the PRT and solo acts had flooded the city to help with the search effort, and even a number of rogues had appeared either to help or were hunting after the reward being offered for her safe return.

It had made things slightly quieter in the long run, the Empire had been silent as a tomb and the ABB were smart enough to keep their heads down. The biggest parahuman related event was Mouse Protector taking out Circus, which at least had been good for a laugh when I had read up on it.

Still it was making coordinating with the rest of the Undersiders more difficult, even with Heartbreaker under my cap I didn't have enough clout to try and change public perception against the vastly more powerful PR that the PRT had available. I had promised to keep them safe and they had promised to work for me, if I couldn't keep even that then I wasn't ready to be on my own.

Regardless of that I told Riley to have fun and found myself a bench to sit on, leaning back and feeling the lack of sleep catch up to me in a rush. But falling asleep on a park bench wasn't ideal, especially if Riley needed me or we needed to make a quick exit.

"Dollhouse, give me information on Infinite Circus."

Ever since I had learned about Third Cause I had been avoiding looking into the other names on Stetson's list of names to run away from, shaken to my core by the creature the Dollhouse had described. But it wasn't something I could avoid forever.

Infinite Circus/Vere Moores/Cloth

Real Breaker Rank: 2

A corrupter class entity linked to the Church of Entropy. The entity controls over a million individual bodies all containing the personality of Vere Moores, also known as Cloth the Ringmistress of the Infinite Circus.

My vision blurred for a moment as the Dollhouse provided me with a visual of a woman with deeply tanned skin and wild multicolored hair that hung down to her back. She was wearing a dress made of various bits of cloth that had been stitched together, but the thing that struck me the most were her eyes. They didn't seem to have any color and were cold in a way I couldn't put into words. The main body of the Third Cause had contained an eye that held multitudes, and this woman seemed the exact opposite, as if there was nothing behind her eyes at all.

This entity has the ability to overwrite any subject with a copy of its own mind, completely overwriting and absorbing the skills, abilities, experiences, and memories of its victims. Afterward the body will slowly reshape itself over a period of weeks or months into the appearance of the entity preferred form. From this point on it can share all abilities and memories of its new body with any other that it has absorbed, creating various copies of itself with a wide variety of skills and abilities.

It struck me for a moment how similar this…thing…seemed to be with the Third Cause, both taking hosts in order to act as agents via infection. But it somehow bothered me a bit more, the Third Cause was absolutely alien in its true form, but this creature seemed much more human, even having a human form that it either preferred or simply was forced to take.

Before I could think any more about that a memory began to play for me just as it had last time.

"Honestly I don't really think that I'm doing anything wrong," Cloth moved through the remains of a burned remains of a city, stepping over skeletal remains of its former inhabitants as she did. "Third Cause will tell you that all creatures seek pleasure, the Family thinks that people seek purpose. They're both wrong but I can get why they think that way. What people actually want is simple, they want to be remembered."

The look in Cloth's eyes was even more disturbing then the unmoving picture the Dollhouse had provided, even as her voice spoke in an almost happy tone the eyes remained just as dead as ever. "They want to be remembered, and then they want to die. I provide both services. I take everything they are and remember every last bit of it, and then I grant them death with the knowledge that they will never be forgotten." with a wave of a hand more and more copies of Cloth began to appear, an entire legion pulled from thin air. "Within our infinite circus, all things are recorded forever. And soon, you will be as well."

A chill exploded through my body at those words, and when I felt a hand touch my shoulder I'm not ashamed to admit that I let out a slightly undignified noise and nearly fell off the bench. After a moment's panic I entered into response mode, ready to call up a doll before I recognized the person.

"Sorry for scaring you like that, didn't realize how far gone you were." Dean put up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Mind if I grab a seat?"

It took a moment for my heart rate to reach a normal rhythm again but I still gestured for him to grab a seat. "What are you doing here?" I asked, mildly confused, to see Vicky's boyfriend.

"Doing a favor for a friend by taking his cousin to the park while he deals with some work stuff," he gestured out at the park. "Apparently she has been having a rough time at school and at home. Friend made some promises to take her out and I had the day off so it just kind of worked out."

I was a bit struck by just how nice of a gesture that was, then again Dean seemed like the kind of person to give the shirt off his back to help someone so it wasn't totally surprising. "That's really nice of you."

He waved it off before turning toward me. "What about you, somehow I doubt you came all the way to one of the nicest parks in the city just to zone out on a park bench."

My mind blanked for a moment as I tried to summon up a convincing enough story to explain my relationship to Riley that wouldn't be easy to poke a hole into. "Kinda the same thing? Watching someone elses kid so they could come play.`` Thankfully the current climate of the city wouldn't lead to questions in that regard.

"Small world," Dean shrugged it off and laid back, looking almost as exhausted as I did but hid it a bit better. "So actually I've been meaning to talk with you, couldn't really find a good time with it being your first day in school and everything else going on."

"What's up?" Other than the day he had come to drop off my stuff from the mall, we had only really shared basic pleasantries and typically stuff about shared course work.

"How do you feel about dating?" Dean's voice seemed a bit serious, and I had to admit to being thrown a bit off guard.

"I, sorry, what?" I could feel my face going a bright shade of red as I put my hands up. "Dean I'm flattered but Vicky is my best friend and-"

What he said seemed to click in his mind and Dean quickly panicked and cut me off. "Oh my god, sorry no I meant, not me it's just," he put a hand to his face and sighed. "Man I suck at this. I'm not asking for me, Edgar had a lot of fun talking with you last Sunday and wanted to ask you out, but he isn't exactly great with people and wanted me to, I don't help?" Dean still seemed to be a bit thrown off by the misunderstanding.

I let out a sigh of relief at the dodged awkwardness of what I had thought and put my mind toward the actual reason for the question. It had been a long time since I had even entertained the idea of liking a boy, either because of my appearance or the Trio doing something in the background. Days of working my body to the bone under the tutelage of Karate Master and Stetson had done wonders for my body positivity. Reframing things like 'my arms are too long' into 'I have reach for when I need to punch someone in the face' was a rather effective strategy.

"I think…I'd want for him to ask me himself," I didn't really know what to say, but at the very least I didn't think I could actually make a decision unless it was in front of me. It was just the way that I was better able to handle things in the moment instead of trying to plan everything out in a hundred steps. That's why I left most of the planning to Lisa and focused on the here and now.

"That's fair, but just be easy on him either way. He isn't the best with people sometimes but he is a good guy at heart, a massive softy despite being built like a linebacker." Dean seemed to relax a bit, taking my answer in stride.

"You must be good friends." I couldn't help but smile at Dean's attitude, maybe he tripped over himself at times but I could tell he was only trying to help.

"We're part of the same after school program, that's all." Dean laughed it off.

We spent some time talking about school, other people, and finally the topic of Amy came up as it inevitably had too. "I just wish there was more I could do, Vicky is taking it hard and people around the city are more terrified now then when the gangs were at their most active."

He wasn't wrong, the news hardly went a day without talking about Amy, and even people that were in perfect health or wouldn't have even gone to the same hospital that she worked out of were afraid to break a bone. And of course everyone worried about the next Endbringer attack and the results of losing one of the best healers around.

Before we could get any further in the conversation I noticed Riley running over with another girl in tow, both of them looking exhausted but wearing bright smiles on their faces. "Hey, did you have fun?" I stood up and put a hand on Riley's head, glad to see the young girl with a genuine smile on her face.

"Yeah, I even made a new friend," Riley smiled at the other young girl, who had gone over to Dean and was whispering something to him that made the smile freeze on his face.

"Ah, okay," Dean turned and did his best to put on a collected look. "Looks like we have to get going, but this was fun."

"Yeah," I could tell something was wrong but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Still I could ask Riley about it later and take things from there. "Good seeing you Dean."

"Thanks for playing with me Dinah!" Riley waved her new friend off and I turned to walk us a safe distance away before bringing us back to the Dollhouse, turning to her for a moment. "What was that about?"

"Hm?" Riley tilted her head to the side before realizing what I was talking about. "Oh Dinah triggered but her family was being dumb and didn't even recognize it, so I helped her out with some stress headaches and told her to ask for help."

I simply gave the young girl a blank stare for a moment before letting out a slow breath to push back the sudden rush of information that she had just thrown my way. It was somehow just my luck that the one day I decided to take Riley out she would run into a parahuman her same age who happened to know someone I went to school with.

Still she had done her best to reach out and help another person, and at the very least I was proud of her for that. "Why don't we get some hot chocolate and watch some movies for the rest of the day?"

Riley beamed and practically sprinted toward the recreation room as I followed behind her. Tonight I would go on my first patrol with Grue and act as a hero. But for right now I figured it was enough to just spend some time with Riley and try and forget about my troubles.