If you asked Amelia Dallon how she felt on any given day, the answer would be "Old". She felt like she had too much to do and not enough time. She felt overwhelmed by it all. Like she was on a sinking ship and she was the only one who realized it. She went to school like any normal teenage girl, she spent time with… Her sisters friends. During lunch. Then she spent a few hours volunteering at the hospital every day. Not long, maybe two to three hours. Then she'd head home, have dinner with her family, mostly her sister, then she'd go to bed.
Except she spent so much of the day wracked by guilt that she could be doing more to help people. She felt like everyone was expecting her to spend all her time healing people and the weight was crushing her. She had an adoptive mother who was neglectful and cold to her, a clinically depressed father who could barely bring himself to get out of bed and sit in front of the TV all day, and a sister who was far too excitable for her tastes but who she loved anyway. More than she should. Which was another thing for her to fret over.
And when she started to fret so much she couldn't sleep, she'd go back to the hospital. Heal people well into the night or early morning. Because it was the only way to distract herself from the gnawing sense of guilt and loneliness that had built up inside her.
Right now, though, she was focused on something, so these thoughts weren't quite so close to the front of her mind. A woman, Andrea Young, had been beaten nearly to death in a nearby alleyway. There didn't seem to be any reason for it. She still had her wallet, full of money, and nothing else of value was taken. A watch that didn't look very expensive, thin gold necklace, wedding ring, earrings, all of them were still there. The woman hadn't been involved in any crime. The only gang in the city that would employ black people were the Merchants and she wasn't drugged up. No signs of any past drug use at all.
Which meant it was racially motivated. It made sense. They were on the border of Downtown and the south side of the Docks. Empire had a high presence on that border. Probably to try to fortify their territories border with the ABB without looking like they were prepping for war. She didn't know why they tried. Just last week she'd ended up working over time at the hospital because of a fight between the gangs. They were headed toward another gang war and anyone who couldn't see that was blind.
"I'm all done." Amy said, finishing her work on the woman. She'd still be taken to the hospital and they take her testimony to help file the police report. The woman was thanking her, but she didn't really hear her. She'd started to drown those things out. Started resenting her patients.
Her phone rang.
"Hey sis?" Vicky answered before she could speak. That was never a good sign.
"You find him?" Amy asked patiently, hoping she was wrong.
"Yeah, I found him. That's kind of the problem." Vicky always sounded like she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar when she did this.
"You hurt him didn't you?" She asked flatly.
"Yeah. Look I'm sorr—."
"You always do this, Victoria! You really need—."
"I know. Can we talk about this later? I'm on Spayder and Rock, on this little road behind the buildings."
Amy hung up, walking towards her sister. She was moving at a light jog to make it quickly. Hopefully it was something she could actually fix. She eventually rounded a corner and saw a dumpster lying on its side outside an alleyway. She took a deep breath and let it out a more forcefully than was necessary. She turned the corner ready to yell at her sister.
"Again, Victoria?!"
"Use my codename, please." Vicky said. Amy glared at her. Vicky was floating a few inches above the ground, making her seem taller than she really was. She never meant anything by it, like a lot of the conspiracy theorists seemed to think, she just liked flying. Vicky might think highly of herself, but she didn't see herself as grander than life like a lot of the people who loved her did.
"Our identities are public." Amy said.
"It's the principle of the thing."
"You want to talk about principles Glory Girl?" Amy's voice dripped sarcasm, "This is the sixth time you've nearly killed someone! Sixth! You'd be looking at jail time by not if not for me!"
"I can lift an SUV over my head! It's kind of hard to hold back." Vicky argued, floating closer.
"I'm sure Carol would believe that line." Amy scoffed. "I know you better than anyone. If you can't control yourself, the problem isn't here," She poked her sisters bicep, "It's here." She jabbed her finger into her sisters forehead, hard. She didn't blink at the offending digit in her face.
"Can you just fix him?" Vicky pleaded. It wasn't desperate, but the tone of someone who asked and expected it to be done.
"I'm thinking I shouldn't." Amy crossed her arms.
"What?"
"There's consequences, Vicky. I think we should call the paramedics. The hospital should be able to help him fine."
"Hey, that's not funny!" Vicky floated over to her sister. "If he goes to the hospital people will start asking questions."
"I'm aware." Amy's tone was dismissive.
"This isn't just me getting grounded, Ames. I could end up in court, in jail. That doesn't just fuck with me. That fucks with the whole family. It fucks with New Wave and everything we've tried to build. You'd really do that to me? To us?"
Amy looked to the downed man. Her eyes narrowed slightly. She loved her sister. Truly she did. But this was getting out of hand. She was tired of having to clean up her messes just because she couldn't be bothered to learn some self control.
"It's not my fault we're at this point, Vicky. You're the one going to far, doing exactly what people were afraid of when New Wave become a thing. We're not regulated like the Wards or Protectorate. Everyone knows who we are out of costume. We have to be accountable for our actions. That's what New Wave was about in the first place right? The responsible thing for me to do would be to call the paramedics and let you deal with the fall out and hope you learn your lesson."
She was suddenly pulled into a hug. She struggled for a moment, but gave up after long enough. The effort would be wasted.
"This isn't just a team, Ames." Vicky said softly. "We're a family. We're your family."
Amy started to speak, but they heard a voice from above them.
"How manipulative." A warbled voice said. The looked up to see what looked to be a girl in a white shirt and jacket and black pants sitting on the ceiling above them. She appeared at the end of the alley way and they got a look at her eyes. Golden irises and black sclera behind a bone white wolf mask. The eyes were lazy but aware. Like someone who'd spent time in the military and stopped caring but couldn't shake training. She was also tall. She seemed like a college student, if not older.
"It's funny because I was just having a conversation on manipulation earlier today." She said.
"I am not manipulating my sister."
"From what I've seen," A new warbled voice said, "It sure looked like it." Just behind the girl in the wolf mask appeared another in a blank white mask. Same colored eyes, though more nervous looking. She was dressed in a long white dress with black lines across the chest. She was significantly shorter. Possibly high school from her build.
"I won't interfere in whatever family business you have." Wolf mask said. "But I'm interested in what happened to this guy." She tapped the downed Empire goon with her foot.
"It's none of your business." Vicky let her go and floated between her and the new appearances.
"I'm going to guess you threw that dumpster at the guy? That's real irresponsible."
"What's it to you?"
"Eh?" She shrugged. "Nihilus and I were just out on patrol and saw something off. Came to check it out. Didn't expect to meet Glory Girl and Panacea, though."
"It really was a surprise. I didn't think you came out this far." The now named Nihilus said.
"Patrol? You guys are heroes?" Vicky asked.
"Something like that. Just started out." The first one said. "I'm Sacrosanct. I've already told you Nihilus' name."
"Your names sound pretty villainous."
"It happens sometimes." She shrugged. "But we really are trying to help. So, what happened to him?"
"He's Empire. Beat up a woman for no reason other than she was black. I tracked him here, he tried to limp away from me, and I kicked the dumpster, not meaning to hit him."
"Wow." Nihilus said.
"Wow, indeed." Sacrosanct drawled lazily.
"We might be able to get some info out of him."
"What for? There are other people we could ask that probably know more."
"He probably knows enough. And his version might give us an idea of what to expect soon."
"Fair enough" She sighed before turning to Vicky. "Well, I can fix him up. Though you should probably stop kicking large hunks of metal at normals." Sacrosanct said. She snapped her fingers and the dumpster was back down the ally with the trash inside. The Nazi was standing up, looking around confused before being slammed into the wall by Nihilus. Her nails were painted black, Amy noted idly.
"What the fuck is this?" he shouted.
"Hello. Hope you enjoyed your nap." Sacrosanct said.
"Fuck you."
"You aren't my type."
"Bitch."
"We just want to ask some questions." Nihilus said.
"Fuck you too."
"Is that a threat or a promise?"
"What?"
"Hey!" Vicky shouted, drawing all eyes to her. "What the hell just happened?!" She gestured wildly to the ally.
"Don't worry about it. You can help interrogate him if you want. You did catch him after all." Sacrosanct said.
Hearing her speak more, Amy was starting to get a better feel for her personality. At least in her cape ID. She was straightforward and to the point, but not opposed to joking. She came off as lazy, but it was the kind of lazy that commanded power. Nihilus seemed like the playful type, but she'd have to speak more to know for sure.
"You know what? No. You go ahead. He sure wasn't listening to me." Vicky pouted.
"Suit yourself."
"Now, where were we? Oh, right, you said something about a date?" Nihilus asked playfully.
Definitely the playful type.
"Yeah, I was telling you to suck my dick!" The Nazi shouted, trying to struggle from the shorter girls apparently powerful grip.
"Oh, I don't think you want that. I'm a biter." She said, her teeth audibly clicking. The guys eyes went wide and he struggled harder. "So here's the deal, you tell us what we want to know, and I'll let you go."
"Or you can struggle some more and I can show you what your bones look like." Sacrosanct finished.
"You wouldn't—." The man froze as the arm holding onto Nihilus suddenly went limp. "W-what the fuck?" His voice was high and startled.
"You looking for these?" Sacrosanct asked, twirling the mans Ulna and Radius in her hands.
Amy covered her mouth in shock and disgust. She couldn't see Vicky's face, but the girl was obviously shocked considering that she was now firmly planted on the ground. The the mans arm was fixed like nothing happened.
"What the fuck?!" His voice was higher now, the fear having fully kicked in.
"So, you willing to answer?"
"Yeah, please, anything you want, just don't do that again!"
"When you tell us what we want to know." Nihilus said.
"What do you want to know?" He was frantic, panicked. He spoke fast, trying to get through his speech so he could get away.
"What are the Empire planning?"
"With Lung gone, we're moving to take the Docks. Guy named Coil keeps fighting us for territory."
"I'm familiar." Sacrosanct drawled.
"Yeah. So we're going to take the Docks while they're free. It's prime area. Shops already used to paying protection money. We're trying to get in quick to avoid a war. Uber and Leet, the Undersiders, the Merchants, Coil, all the villains in the city are gonna be lookin' for turf there. It could be a war."
"Good boy." Nihilus teased, letting him go.
The man stood still for a few seconds, staring at them, before limping off down the ally. When he turned the corner, Sacrosanct looked at Vicky.
"Why are you just standing there?! Go grab him!"
Vicky seemed to snap back and flew off after the crook. They heard him curse a few seconds later as Vicky grabbed him. The two talked silently for a few seconds before Nihilus turned towards the mouth of the ally and Sacrosanct walked towards Amy.
"I heard a lot of that conversation." She started.
"It's nothing." Amy said defensively.
"Like I said earlier, I'm not going to come between you and your family, but you shouldn't let them manipulate you like that."
"She wasn't manipulating me." Amy snapped, but it was hollow. No real force behind it.
"Whatever you want to call it, she was trying to get you to do something you didn't want to because the consequences of what she did were too much for her. Love your family as much or as little as you think they deserve, but sometimes being harsh is the only way to make things better." She paused, eyes narrowing as she looked to the ground. "Trust me on that, at least." She turned towards her partner. "We're leaving, Nihilus."
Amy blinked and they were gone.
"Where'd they go?" Vicky asked, turning the corner into the ally.
"They just left. Don't know how. Think they might be able to teleport." She said dully.
"Would explain that weird thing with the bones." Vicky shivered. "If she can teleport things in and out of people, I'm glad she seems like she's on our side."
"Let's get home, Vicky."
"Glory Girl."
"Let's just go." Amy rolled her eyes.
Try as she might, Amy couldn't shake the look in Sacrosanct's eyes when she gave her advice. She looked tired. Like she was going through her own family troubles she kept putting off dealing with. She knew her family wasn't the best, but she was glad to have her sister at least. Getting blamed for New Wave catching a case… She didn't want that. But she was tired of cleaning up after her sister because she wouldn't learn restraint. At the end of the day, it was just another problem on for the pile.
AN: Not super happy with this chapter. I'm not too sure why, I'm just not. The thing about Manipulation was kinda coincidental. I reread Glory Girl's interlude for this to get a better idea of Amy's canon personality and felt Vicky was being manipulative and it end ended up in the chapter.