"...And then she said that she'd kill me if I said anything to the police."

The officer across from me felt… alarmed? at that. It was something I'd noticed in the aftermath of Sophia's attack - if I focused on the people around me, felt at them with my power, I could get a vague sense of what they were feeling. It wasn't easy. Not only was it vague, but I felt like I was constantly having to interpret things, like I was reading a foreign language and adjusting it to fit my perceptions.

"It was brave of you to call the police despite Miss Hess' threats, Miss Hebert."

I pull my head up from my knees to look at the uniformed woman. After whatever adrenaline I'd had from the fight had died down, I'd wondered what the hell I'd been thinking to taunt Sophia like that. Once the police had arrived and cut me free, the fear had finally set in and I was left clutching my knees to my chest, my body shivering uncontrollably.

"It wasn't brave or anything. I just… I'm just tired of being a victim. She's already almost killed me once. I don't want to give her another chance."

"She's tried to kill you before?"

"Not on purpose I think. Back at the start of January, she filled my locker with - with all sorts of crap and shoved me inside. I wound up in the hospital. The doctors said something about toxic shock."

The officer frowned and wrote something down in her notepad. "Did you bring this to the attention of the police at the time?"

"Yeah, we made a report. I didn't actually see her push me in, so even though I heard her voice, the cops said that there wasn't enough evidence to actually do anything."

There was a spike of concern in the officer, but whatever the reason had been, she didn't indicate it. "Did you recognize the two boys who were with her?"

"No. She called one of them Paul though, and some of their conversation made it sound like they attended Winslow. Oh, and the phone I called you guys on I sort of took off the other guy when he was moving me to tie me up. So maybe you can get something off of that?"

"Alright, we'll be sure to take a look at that. Before I leave, I did want to ask if you had any thoughts as to why she might have assaulted you like this? Any insights on her motives?"

"I… I don't really know. She's spent the last two years of my life doing her best to make me miserable. I'd thought she'd leave me alone once I got out of Winslow, but after the thing at Emma's house-"

"Emma?"

"Oh, uh. Emma Barnes. She's a…" Friend? Tormenter? "Someone I used to know. She and I used to be friends but drifted apart after she started hanging out with Sophia. She's been trying to reconnect since the whole… locker thing."

"And what happened at her house?"

"I was at Emma's house and Sophia showed up. She wanted to talk to Emma, didn't seem to want to take no for an answer when Emma said she was busy with something. Then Sophia saw me and got pissed, accused Emma of ditching her to hang out with me."

"When was this?"

"Monday evening."

"Was there anyone else there besides the three of you?"

"Sure, Emma's Mom was there. I think Sophia probably would have geared up to attack me then if she hadn't been there."

"Okay, we'll be sure to speak to them as well. Now, we've already contacted your Father, so he'll probably be here soon if you're okay waiting?."

I nodded and the officer gave me a small smile before standing up to leave. True to her words, Dad rushed into the room within minutes, immediately sweeping me into his arms. For a brief moment, I felt like everything would be okay. Then I looked up at his face and saw just how tired he looked. Bags hung heavy under his eyes and small wrinkles had formed where there hadn't been any a month ago. Between preparing for the upcoming trial and working overtime to help pay off my medical bills, Dad had been spreading himself thin.

And I'd added to that stress. I'd stupidly let myself get ambushed by Sophia and added to his burden. Worse, I knew that I was going to twist that and use it to my benefit.

I took a deep breath and mumbled into his shoulder. "Hey Dad."

"Hey Taylor." His voice was cracked, strained by everything that was going on. "How are you?"

"Fine. It's just bruises. Nothing that won't heal. Just…" I bit down on my lip. "I thought I was finally free. That I'd left them behind at Winslow. That I'd escaped."

I felt his fingers comb through my hair, a soothing motion in place of words that had failed him. "It'll be okay, Taylor. The police will get whoever did this."

"Just like how everything was going to be okay after I left Winslow behind, right?" I felt my Dad wince and pulled away from him. "Sorry. That… Wasn't really fair of me."

"No, you're right. I just don't know what to do anymore. How do I protect you when you can be attacked just walking home from the library?"

I hunched my shoulders, made myself look smaller. Weaker. "Maybe you can't, Dad." I paused, deliberately allowing the idea to hang there before adding my suggestion. "Do you think any of the Dockworkers could teach me to throw a punch? Or know martial arts or something? Maybe it's time I learned to protect myself instead."

"I… Yeah, I could talk to Kurt and maybe ask around a bit. I'll pick up some pepper spray for you too. I want you to be safe, Taylor."

I nodded miserably. It had been a completely reasonable request. One that made sense given the circumstances. I still felt like shit. I'd purposely done my best to manipulate my Dad into getting me training that would help with my Cape activities. He almost certainly wouldn't be happy knowing what use I'd put the knowledge towards.

In the end though, what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him, and I needed to be better. I wouldn't let myself get beaten down by bullies and thugs like Sophia ever again.

·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·

"Oh God, Taylor, what happened?"

I winced as Victoria ambushed me on my way to the bus. I'd worn a scarf to hide the bruising around my neck, but there wasn't much I could do about my split lip or the swelling in my jaw. I'd been drawing looks all day, but I'd hoped to skip the Lit Club and avoid having to give any actual explanations.

"Um. Nothing really. I just had a bit of an accident over the weekend."

"An accident," she replied flatly. She frowned, her eyes lingering on my scarf, and ConcernWorry then her arm was hooked through mine. "C'mon, I'm taking you to see my sister."

"What? No, it's just bruises, I don't need healing or anything."

"What, do you like being injured?"

"No, it's just…" I brushed a hand through my hair, trying to sort my thoughts out. "I haven't really met your sister yet, and I don't really want it to be because I need healing, you know? I don't want it to seem like I'm only interested in meeting her because of her power or something like that."

"You tend to overthink things, don't you?"

"What?"

Victoria rolled her eyes. "Don't worry about it, I guess. Fine, if you're not going to let my sister heal you, then at the very least, you're going to tell me how you actually got those bruises."

"I told you, it was an accident-"

"Taylor, I punch people enough to know what it looks like. Now come on, you can trust me. Let me help."

I hesitated. I wanted to trust her. I wanted to believe that she was a genuinely good person. She'd been nothing but kind to me so far. But so had Emma, once upon a time, and I'd only known Victoria for a few weeks now, only occasionally seeing her in the Lit Club. I wanted to trust her however.

I examined my feelings.

Yes, her aura was there, encouraging me to like her, to believe in her, but even as I built a wall between it and myself, I still found myself wanting to trust her. I still found myself wanting to believe that a Hero would be better than deliberately obtuse teachers and ineffectual cops.

I took a deep breath. "I.. Um, I was sort of bullied really badly back when I was at Winslow. I finally got a transfer out, but I sort of ran into one of the girls over the weekend, and I guess not being able to push me around every day just means that they're willing to go a lot further when they do get the chance."

"That's screwed up." Victoria paused for a beat before grinning evilly. "Got any names you want me to go after?"

"I didn't become friends with you to take advantage of your powers either, Vicky."

"Sure, sure, but I'm a hero, Taylor. This is something I'd want to do even if I didn't know you. So give me the deets and let me put the fear of Glory Girl into these girls for you."

"Isn't it supposed to be God?"

"God wishes he looked as good as I do."

"Humble too, I see."

"Yep, I'm the best at humility, ask anyone."

Victoria winked and a snort of laughter escaped me. "Fine, but just the one. Otherwise, you'd need to track down half of Winslow."

"I mean, I could, if you'd like…"

"No, as long as they leave me alone, I'm happy to just move on."

"Alright, but I'm at least going to give whatever girl did this to you a hard time. So, name?"

"Sophia Hess. She's the school's star track runner - never got into trouble with the teachers no matter what she did."

"Got it. Glory Girl is on the case." Victoria winked and a flush of pleasure went through me, which I quickly fought back, as her aura strengthened for a brief second. "In the meantime, I've decided that you, me, and Amy are all going to hang out this weekend."

I blinked. "What."

"We are having girl time."

"No, no, I mean how did that follow from what we were talking about?"

"Well, you said you felt awkward asking for favors from Amy, since you hadn't met her yet. So now I'm removing that excuse for you. Also, maybe we can find you something other than a hoodie to wear all the time."

I shrank back. "There's nothing wrong with hoodies."

"Didn't say there was, but variety is of the spice of life and all that. So. Saturday?"

"I don't get a choice in this, do I?"

"Nope."

"Fine." I did my best to sound put out, but I couldn't help the smile that crossed my face. Was this what it was like having actual friends? Having something to look forward to, with none of the twisting feeling in my gut that came from being around Emma.

No, that wasn't true. There was still a part of me that expected this to be some sort of pity project on Victoria's part, that she'd get tired of me in a few weeks. But it was a small thing, a vague premonition rather than the ironclad wariness that Emma inspired. I could handle that. I could take this risk.

"Saturday then. Now, if you'll excuse me, I really need to get going if I'm going to catch the bus."

"Uh."

"What?"

Victoria fidgeted and looked away. "The bus sort of… already left, Taylor."

I turned around and stared at the empty bus stop. Oh. So it had. I slowly took off my glasses and raised my palm to press over my eyes.

"So…" I turn back at the sound of Victoria's voice, taking in her sheepish smile. "How about the Glory Girl Express instead?"

·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·

Being carried by Victoria as she flew over the city had been a strange experience, equal parts exhilarating and embarrassing.

I'd looked up to Alexandria as a kid. Being able to fly like this, to survey the city and feel the wind in my hair, it was like that fantasy had come to life. On the other hand, I wasn't exactly flying under my own power, and being cradled in Victoria's arms felt weirdly intimate.

It wasn't really an experience that I was keen to repeat anytime soon.

The rest of the week passed fairly normal. One of Dad's friends from work, Kurt, volunteered to help show me how to throw a punch. It wasn't anything fancy, mostly just teaching me how to put my body behind the blow to lend it more momentum than just my arm strength could provide. Well, that and the very clear instructions to never punch someone in the mouth, because that's apparently a good way to get some awful infections.

It was decent enough advice for just protecting myself, but I'd probably need to find something more in-depth if I wanted to be effective in taking down actual criminals. Judo, maybe. That was supposed to be all about using leverage and getting people into submission without hurting them too bad, right? Eh, I'd take a look online later.

For now, I was pulling my costume on. It was mostly regular-ish clothes, so it didn't feel too weird, but I definitely wasn't used to the boots or the gloves. Well, that's what tonight was for. I wasn't going to patrol, exactly, but I wanted to get used to moving around in costume.

I slipped the domino mask on before pulling the hood up to hide my hair and glanced in the mirror. I… looked like a cape. An actual hero. A small smile crossed my lips.

Then, I was out the window, climbing my way onto the roof.

It was harder than I'd like to admit. There weren't a whole lot of handholds, and for all that I'd been working out, it'd mostly been my lower body that had been benefiting. Fortunately, things were easier once I was up there.

Brockton Bay was surprisingly friendly to the roof-hopping crowd. Most buildings were either one or two stories at max unless you got Downtown, and they were pretty tightly packed together. Things might be different out in the suburbs, but here at least, the main thing I'd have to worry about is the occasional alleyway running between buildings, or a street dividing my route.

Speaking of which, I was coming up to an alley now. I licked my lips before taking a running jump. I landed on the opposite roof with a victorious grin - and then stumbled as my balance went awry. Between being unused to the boots and landing on a sloped roof, I went sliding down, just barely catching myself before I fell off.

Well, that definitely could have gone better.

Still, I was getting the hang of things. A few more jumps and then I hopped to a light post to slide down to street level. I wish my powers had come with some sort of Mover ability, but… Work with what you've got, I guess. Not that I had very much. I'd slowly been improving, but my powerset was definitely on the weaker end of the spectrum.

Still… Work with what I've got. Even if my ability wasn't much, it was still something. It's fine if I wasn't strong, it just meant I had to be clever instead. And I was getting restless, tired of sitting around. The gangs were filled with thugs like Sophia, people who preyed on the weak and helpless. I wanted to put a stop to that.

I needed to put a stop to that.

This weekend, I decided. I'd go out on my first patrol this weekend.

I shuffled my feet, trying to ward off the lingering cold and ignore the impending sense of doom that had been hovering over me since I'd woken up this morning.

I could do this. It was just shopping with a friend. An actual friend, not… whatever weirdness was going on with Emma. I could do this.

...On the other hand, I hadn't seen Victoria yet. I could go home and call her, give her some sort of plausible sounding excuse and escape all of this. I'm sure I could come up with something, like, maybe I was sick. Or my cat died. What cat, you ask? I meant the neighbor's cat. Obviously.

Yeah, that could work. Sorry, I couldn't meet up, I accidentally killed my neighbor's cat. Wait. Fuck. I groaned and wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans. Yeah, if I was already babbling like this in my own head, then it was probably better to just abort this whole thing. I turned away to walk home and -

"Hey, there she is!"

I heard Victoria's voice over the crowd, cutting off my line of retreat. I sighed and forced a smile onto my face, trapped into the possibility of having fun socializing. Victoria was making her way towards me, pulling another girl behind her. I hesitantly raised a hand to wave at her and she beamed in response.

Not that I didn't already, but now I really felt like shit for trying to escape.

"Hey Taylor! Sorry it took me so long to find you, the Boardwalk's busy today, huh? Oh, this is Amy, by the way."

I let the words wash over me, taking a moment to compare the two sisters. If I was being honest, I wouldn't have guessed that they were sisters if Victoria hadn't told me. Where Victoria was… not bubbly, exactly, but cheerful and bright, blonde and full-figured - the stereotypical cheerleader - Amy was her opposite; small and mousy, dark brown hair and a sour expression that said she didn't want to be here.

"Um. Hi." Wow, I sounded stupid. Say something else. "It's good to finally meet you, Amy. Vicky's said a lot about you."

Amy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure she has. Can we go ahead and get started? I've still got some errands to run before my shift at the hospital tonight."

"Oh." That was… abrupt. "Sure, that's fine."

Victoria glanced at Amy and frowned slightly, but brightened up immediately after. "Right, so I was thinking, maybe some clothes shopping first? We could get Taylor here to try on a few outfits."

I felt a flash of something from Amy, a twisted knot of emotions that I had trouble parsing before it vanished. Whatever it was, she didn't give any outward sign of it, simply shrugging and glancing away. "Sounds good, I guess."

"Great, I know just the place." Victoria grinned and grabbed my hand, pulling me along in her wake the same way that she'd been pulling Amy.

"Wait, I don't get a say in this?"

"Nope, you're my dress-up doll for the day, Taylor. You'll just have to resign yourself to your fate."

"I make a pretty poor doll, all things considered."

"Eh, you'll do just fine." Victoria flashed a smile my way and ushered us into her store of choice. "Okay, the two of you go wait by the changing rooms and I'm going to pick out some stuff."

And so Amy and I were left standing there in awkward silence as Hurricane Victoria swept off to its next destination.

"So…" I glanced over at Amy. "Is she always this… enthusiastic?"

"Nope." Amy pulled out her phone and started flipping through some webpage, apparently doing her best to avoid interacting with me. "I mean, she's always pretty forceful, but she seems to be putting extra effort into whatever this is."

The question of 'Why' came to my tongue, but didn't pass my lips. I knew why. It was because she'd seen some poor girl who'd transferred in, had some sort of freak out, and then showed up a few weeks later covered in bruises.

I took a deep breath. I… should I feel grateful to be someone's pity project? It was more attention than the teachers or students at Winslow had ever given. All the time I was there, I'd wished for someone to help me, and now that I'd escaped, here was Victoria, a hero, finally riding in to protect me.

But I didn't want to be protected. I didn't want to be pitied. Not any more. I wanted to stand on my own feet. To stand as an equal rather than someone to look down on.

I bit down on my lip. It wouldn't help to dwell on it. If I wanted to move past my old weakness, then I had to live it. Tonight would be my first patrol as a Hero. It'd be a start in that direction.

Victoria came back, carrying a pile of clothes in her arms. She wasn't walking, I noticed, her toes trailing just above the ground as she floated her way towards us.

"Alright," she started, setting the pile onto a chair. "Taylor, you start with this, this, and this-" I blinked as a pile of clothes was shoved into my arms. "And Amy, you'll be changing into this."

Amy looked up from the dress that had been shoved at her. "I thought we were just dressing up Taylor."

"Well, that was the plan, but why stop there when I've got you here at my mercy, Ames?"

Amy flushed red and then pushed the dress back towards Victoria. "No. No, no, no. You're not pulling me into this Vicky-" She faltered as Vicky stepped in closer. "I mean, we do this sort of thing all the time, you should focus on Taylor."

"No, we don't. You've been staying holed up either at the hospital or in your room for awhile now. So you're included in today's plans, Ames." Victoria placed her hands on Amy's shoulders, turned her about, and began frog-marching her towards a dressing room. Halfway there, she tilted her head back to look at me. "See you in a few minutes, Taytay, I'm looking forward to how that'll look on you."

I stayed silent for a long moment after the door closed behind the two of them.

"...Taytay?"

·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·

Victoria's unfortunate penchant towards bad nicknames aside, I actually found myself enjoying the afternoon.

I'd thankfully managed to stick mostly to outfits that included pants, even if most of Victoria's selection tended to be a lot tighter on me than I'd prefer. I didn't really have the figure to pull them off, so my legs largely wound up looking like long sticks. It was still better than the one time she tried to sneak a mini-skirt into my pile. I'd refused to cooperate with that particular suggestion and Victoria had stayed away from pushing me towards skirts after that.

Amy and Victoria herself put on much better showings. Victoria obviously had the figure to back up whatever she chose to wear, but even Amy looked a lot better than I expected once Victoria had forced her into some brighter colors. Something about making her less gloomy, I guess.

We hadn't actually ended up purchasing anything. Victoria was in this whole thing for fun, Amy seemed pretty uninterested, and I… Well, I didn't really have much in the way of money left. I had an allowance, but it wasn't much, and my savings were pretty thin at the best of times. With all the hospital and trial stuff going on, and my having just spent most of my savings shopping with Emma, I wasn't going to be buying much of anything anytime soon.

After that, we'd meandered over to a cafe. The same one I'd met Emma at last week, ironically enough. I tried not to think about the parallels.

"So," Victoria led in before sipping at the smoothie she'd ordered. "About the Sophia thing."

I glanced over at Amy, who looked completely unconcerned with the topic. "You told Amy?"

"Only the basics, so she'd know where I was going and stuff. But I haven't been able to find her."

"Uh. I wouldn't think it'd be that hard?"

Victoria shrugged. "You'd think. I tried looking up Hess's in the phone book, but the one family I found was pretty uh… combative when I knocked on the door. And just asking every black girl I see at Winslow if her name is Sophia didn't seem like a smart thing. So uh. I was wondering if you had a photo maybe. Or I could try asking Dean if he has any ideas, if that's okay with you? I mean, it'd mean telling him about all this, but he's usually pretty smart."

Amy let out a snort at Victoria's final comment and I could practically taste the derision coming off of her. Okay, wasn't going to get into that can of worms. "Don't think I have a photo or anything. And…" Was I comfortable with someone else knowing about what I was going through? I wasn't really. I was tired of being a victim, of everyone seeing me as a victim. And how much could Dean really do anyway? "Let me think about it, okay Vicky?"

"Sure, and I'll keep an eye out either way, just let me know what you decide on."

I nodded and we fell into a silence, broken only by the slurping sound of Amy's straw as she drained the last of her drink. I glanced over at her and hesitated a brief second before speaking up. "Thanks for coming today, Amy. I know you didn't really have to, and uh…"

"It's fine. I mean, Vicky kind of wouldn't take no for an answer, but you were more tolerable than most of her fans."

"Amy!"

Amy rolled her eyes at Victoria's scandalized voice. "You can't tell me that half your 'friends' don't qualify, Vicky. You've got a literal Glory Girl fanclub at school."

"Er… That sounds like it would be awkward?"

"You have no idea," Amy said, ignoring how her sister's face was doing an impression of a tomato. "Usually they spend their time ignoring me to fawn over Vicky, which is fine, I guess. The really annoying ones are the ones who think they can score points with Vicky by being nice to her sister."

"I told you it wasn't like that, Amy. Jess was just trying to be friendly-"

"No, she was being patronizing. There's a difference."

"Not to interrupt," I said, interrupting the two of them, "But shouldn't you have your own fanclub, Amy? I mean, you are Panacea."

Victoria let out a laugh and I was rewarded for my question by getting to see Amy blush. I had to admit, after how moody she'd been all morning, the contrast was kind of cute to see.

Her previous sour expression quickly reasserted itself however, as Victoria elbowed her and said, "She totally does, she just refuses to grace them with her presence."

"They're just a bunch of sycophants," Amy mumbled. " I don't want to hang out with someone just because they think I'll heal their family if someone gets sick."

Victoria's grin widened and she slung an arm around Amy's shoulders, hugging the girl into her side as she sing-songed, "Well you're in luck, Amy~"

Why would Victoria be… No, she wouldn't...

"You see, Taytay here-"

"No, don't you dare, Vicky!"

"Taytay here-"

"Shush!"

Victoria broke down cackling and Amy was left shooting bemused glances between the two of us. "I think that might be the first time I've heard you speak above a mumble all morning."

The words weren't hurtful, but they still managed to throw cold water onto the moment, and I found myself shrinking into my hoodie. I forced myself to stop, to put a smile back onto my face. I wouldn't fall back to old habits from Winslow. "Yeah… I guess it's been awhile since I've done anything like this."

"We'll just have to do it again then," Vicky said. "I'll send you a text next time we plan something. Speaking of which, I still haven't gotten your number, Taylor."

Victoria's aura flared - something she had a tendency to do when she was asking for something, I'd noticed. She probably wasn't even aware she was doing it. Still, I instinctively pushed it back. Not just from myself, but containing it around her. It's something I was slowly getting better at doing the more time I spent around Victoria.

I saw Amy look confused for a brief second as the aura started to hit her and then was pushed away. Huh, I guess not even her sister was completely immune. I should probably answer her question though before I get distracted with that bit of info.

"I uh, don't actually have a cell phone."

"Seriously? I thought everyone had one these days."

I shrugged uncomfortably. "My Dad doesn't really like them." Besides, even if I did have one, the Trio would have undoubtedly broken it at some point.

"Huh." Victoria paused before grinning evilly. "Well, I guess that just means you'll have to hang with us at school more often then. That, or I'll have to hunt you down to give you news, but I'll find some way to embarrass you if you make me go through that sort of trouble."

A shiver went down my spine. Yeah, let's avoid that particular scenario. I fervently nodded my agreement.

"Great, glad that's settled. I need to get Amy here to the hospital, so I'll see you Monday, alright?"

I made an agreeing sound and Amy gave a murmured, "See you later," as Victoria pulled her sister into her arms, holding Amy up much as she had me when she'd flown me home the other day.

Then, Victoria was in the air. She turned and waved at me, giving a final, "Until next time, Taytay!" before flying off.

...Seriously, why Taytay?

·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·

I loped along rooftops, looking out over the dark city. I was still getting used to my costume, but this whole thing felt better than I expected it would. I'd never been especially into physical activity, but it still somehow felt like I was made for the cape life.

At least, it felt that way right up until I came to a roof that was higher than the one I was currently on. I took a running jump, desperately grabbing whatever handholds I could manage and hauling myself up to the next platform, grumbling out a series of curses as I did. Honestly, why couldn't city planners be kind enough to make everything nice and flat for heroes to use?

I rolled over onto my back once I got to the top and groaned softly. I'm pretty sure I pulled a muscle. My tricep? I frowned, idly trying to recall the biology homework that I'd spent the afternoon working on, even as I rubbed at my arm. It'd probably be worth going over it again later.

For now however, I pushed myself back to my feet and continued on my way. Tonight was my first patrol. I couldn't just lie around.

Unfortunately, the criminals of the city apparently didn't agree with me. I'd seen a couple of guys wearing gang colors, but they'd just been hanging around and didn't look like they were actually doing anything. I hadn't seen anything that looked like a crime in progress. No robberies, muggings, or even gang shootouts.

I sighed as I came to an intersection and settled on the edge of a roof. With how violent Brockton was, I'd kind of expected to be stopping something more or less every night I went out, but I guess even criminals liked to enjoy their Saturdays.

I idly watched the cars go by, at least until I heard a thumping coming from down the road. I turned my head to spot the source, as it slowly resolved into a convertible with its hood down, music blaring loudly enough to shake the surroundings. Did that count as a crime? The quality of the music and the colorful language it included should probably count as a public disturbance at least, right?

I rolled my eyes. Yeah, that's me. The hero who goes around stopping people who play their music too loud. I turned my attention back to the intersection.

The light turned yellow.

I suddenly had a bad feeling, a sinking pit in my stomach.

I looked back at the convertible. It wasn't slowing down.

The light turned red.

A car began to pull into the intersection. The convertible didn't stop.

I jumped. I grabbed a light post and slid down. The scream of tearing steel and shattered glass hit me before I touched the ground. I couldn't look. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't face this. Taylor Hebert couldn't face this.

I couldn't let myself be Taylor Hebert.

Seeker forced herself forward. The convertible was still in the middle of the intersection, it's front caved in, but the car had spun around and hit a nearby building. My eyes still burned, I still couldn't breathe, but I forced myself to move forward to check on the passenger of the car.

Inside was a woman, her face a bloody mask. The door had broken, something sharp running into her side. For a moment, I saw dark hair and glasses and then I blinked the tears away. She had brown hair and no glasses. There was a carseat in the back, thankfully empty.

I took a deep, shuddering breath. I could do this.

I circled to the passenger side door and pulled it open. The woman's cell phone had fallen under the seat, and I quickly fished it out and dialed emergency services, ignoring the trembling in my hands.

"Nine-one-one operator. What is your emergency?"

I froze, struggled to get the words out. No, I could do this. Focus. "There was a car accident at the corner of Brighton and Edgeworth. The victims look pretty bad off and will need an ambulance."

"Alright, ma'am, help is on the way. Please stay on the line until it arrives."

I licked at my lips and nodded - Stupid. She can't see me. "Yeah, okay. I can do that."

"Could you answer some questions for me while you wait?"

I reached and took the woman's hand in mine. It felt like holding ice. Fuck, I finally had power and it still didn't matter. I couldn't save someone who was hurt right in front of me. I squeezed my eyes shut. "Sure."

"What's your name, ma'am?"

"T-Seeker. It's Seeker."

There was a pause before the operator spoke again. "Are you a parahuman, Seeker?"

"Yes."

"Okay, Seeker. Please do not attempt to move the victims, as it may exacerbate their injuries."

Yeah, that seemed pretty obvious looking at the state she was in. But there had to be something I could do. I couldn't just let her die, not when I was right here next to her.

"-understand, Seeker?"

"Sorry," I muttered. "I'll keep the line open, but I need to set the phone down." I ignored the operator's protest and closed my eyes. There had to be something I could do. I opened myself up. I listened to the universe sing, an orchestra played across uncountable strings. I listened until I found a single string, faintly trembling, until I found a weak heartbeat counting a time against creation.

A thought came to mind. Energy was Energy. If I could affect Kinetic energy, then I could affect other types of energy as well. Even that of a person's life. I could redirect the energy around me into healing this woman.

No, that wouldn't work. Not because it was impossible, but because I didn't have the understanding to make it safe. I didn't know how to change the energy. I didn't know how to make it flow through a person's body. I didn't know how to keep it from exceeding her capacity. Too much was as sure to be deadly as too little.

But I had a safer source to draw on. I could share my own life with the woman. I wouldn't need to worry about making it safe for her that way. My own life force was so insignificant against the limitless ocean around me.

I pulled a thread from myself and connected it to her.

…

…

…

A hand gently shook my shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?"

I blinked, staring up at a blurry face above me. I blinked again and the world slowly came into focus. He was dressed in a paramedic uniform. "Yeah, I'm fine. I made the call in, I was just trying to keep the victim stable."

"Alright, well, we'll need you to move so that we can get to the driver."

I nodded and wobbled my way out of the car, the world spinning around me with every step. I found a lamp post to lean against and watched as the paramedics worked to get the woman free from the car, and-

…

The woman was on a gurney being loaded into the ambulance. A paramedic stopped in front of me. The one from earlier? "Hey, you should come with us and get checked out, you really don't look too good."

I shook my head. This would pass, I just needed to rest for a bit. My eyes shut.

…

…

…

I was in my room. When had I gotten here? I closed the open window behind me and stumbled towards my closet. I yanked at my costume, pulling off piece after piece and just leaving it in a pile before collapsing in my bed.

I slept like the dead.