Chapter 4-5

Circus didn't waste time with words. No villainous monologue or banter. She just walked through the door, saw me and a tied-up, unconscious Tattletale, and threw her fireball.

I was fine with that. Didn't feel like talking either.

The fireball harmlessly washed over my shields. Circus's pyrokinesis might be a threat to a normal, but I've taken blasts several blasts from Lung before my shields went down. She wasn't going to hurt me like that. I rushed in and pushed, hoping to seize the initiative and take her down.

Circus flipped and landed perfectly on her feet. Huh. I guess there's a good reason she dresses like a clown.

I ran up to her and threw a left hook. The villain caught my arm, twirled around, and elbowed me in the face, forcing me back. Fuck, she was fast too. Without missing a beat, she grabbed me and shoved her knee in my chest. I used my strength and Circus' temporary imbalance to push her onto the ground, but the girl kicked me of off her.

Circus got back on her feet, snarling. I sized her up, wondering what she's going to do next.

The villain roared angrily and charged. I raised my hands defensively, letting her wear herself down. I've got a brute rating. I could afford to play defense for a while. Then the clown pulled a hammer out of nowhere and started swinging. I dodged the blows. My armor probably wasn't going to take that without my ribs getting turned to paste.

A poorly-aimed blow swung just over my head. I took the opportunity, grabbing Circus' arm and throwing her over my shoulder. The hammer skidded out of reach. Circus pulled out a knife and I was forced to push her away from me. Escalation, huh? Two can play that game.

Circus jumped me. I kicked her in the stomach, mid-air, sending her sprawling. If the crunch was any indication, I probably broke one of her ribs. I pulled out my baton, hoping to convince her to stop fighting me, but I was out of luck. The clown growled and threw a fireball my way before coming at me with her knife. I let my shields take the fireball, grabbed the knife-hand and squeezed. The knife clattered on the floor. The girl backed up, screaming incoherent curses that even I had trouble following.

Most heroes would probably stop right now and try to talk the villain down at this point. I'd pretty much shown her that I was stronger and that she couldn't hope to win. She wasn't a danger to me anymore, unless she decided to burn the bank down with her powers.

I'm not most heroes. I wasn't going to take the chance and with no one around, I could afford to do so and not look bad to the public. I moved in to arrest her, and then the world exploded in lights and sounds.

She had a flash-bang grenade. Fuck.

I staggered and tripped over something. All I could see was a white blur. Fuck. My hearing was shot too. The buzzing in my ears gave me a skull-splitting headache. I felt like my brains were about to explode.

Oh, god, I'm blind, deaf, and stuck in the same room as a villain who may or may not want to kill me. I crawled back and pulled myself up against a wall. Or was it a desk? I couldn't tell, my senses were still scrambled. I raised my arms defensively, waiting for Circus' attack, but it never came.

By the time my eyes started seeing colors again, the villain was gone.

Thankfully, my vision recovered rapidly. I looked around. The hammer and the knife were still here. So was Tattletale, still cuffed to the desk, unconscious. I tried reaching out with my power, but hearing was difficult. The ringing in my ears made it hard to pick up anything beyond this room. It was frustrating, not having my super-sense, even if it's only temporarily. Made me wonder how I managed before my trigger.

I looked through the window. The street was covered in a receding sea of darkness. The Wards were bloodied, but on the whole, they seemed fine. Aegis got the worst of it by far. He was covered in wounds and gashes, but still moving. Clockblocker tried to help him up, but the boss shooed him away before walking on his own and helping the hostages. Miracle of regeneration, I guess. Kid Win's suit was beaten up pretty badly, but the boy himself was still standing, fiddling with a massive, tripod-mounted cannon of some sort. I didn't see Gallant or Vista, but I'm sure they're okay too. Physically, at least. The others wouldn't be this calm if they weren't.

The Undersiders, though, they'd vanished. I called Aegis. "Hey boss."

"Banshee? You alright?"

"I'm fine, Aegis." Apart from the massive headache and the fact that my hearing's practically gone. "I got Tattletale. Circus jumped me, but she got away before I could take her in. Probably need an icepack for my head too. Superhearing and flash-bang grenades do not mix."

"Understood. Good job. Come down with Tattletale and we'll clean up this mess."

"What about the rest of them?"

"The Undersiders? Gone. At least the hostages are fine. Oh, and we recovered most of the money." For some reason, Aegis didn't seem happy.

"That's a win, right?"

"Depends on what the media thinks. We got beaten up pretty bad and the other four got away."

Guess we're really slaves to PR, huh? Irritating, but part of the job. "Understood. I'm coming down."

Looking at the Undersider at my feet, I thought it was a win. Tattletale was slowly coming to. I gently slapped her on the face a few times to wake her up.

"Ah, crap." She said, groggily. "They're gone, aren't they?"

"No honor among thieves, I guess."

The girl just shrugged. "Occupational hazard. We knew that going in."

"Fair enough. Tattletale, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." I said, reciting her rights. The villain groaned. "You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you. Do you understand these rights as I read them to you?" It sounded awkwardly mechanical, but I guess that was fine for now.

"Really, rookie?"

Rookie. Wasn't sure if I should be annoyed by that. "One: It's Banshee. Two: if you get acquitted because I didn't read your rights properly, Armsmaster's gonna kill me. Besides, I'll look stupid if I mess up my first arrest."

"You know getting out on some technicality is rare, right? I kind of, you know, tried to rob a bank."

I supposed it made sense. It's not like there weren't any witnesses to Tattletale's crimes. Still, I'd like to do this one by the book, just to be safe. I'll probably find out later which rules I have to stick to and which ones I can ditch for the sake of expediency. "Better not risk it. Get going."

"Fine…"

I force-marched her downstairs, running into Aegis along the way. "Good catch, rookie." He said. I couldn't get angry with him though. Not while I was too distracted by the giant hole in his body.

"You okay, boss?"

"Hmm? Oh, it's just a flesh-wound. I've had worse." His breathing sounded like a mess. I could only imagine what the internal damage must look like. He probably shouldn't be talking. Or moving. Or living, for that matter. If I were his boss, I'd tell him to get some rest, even if he did regenerate from pretty much anything. Then again, that would hurt his image. He was supposed to be invincible, after all.

I tweaked with my power a bit. "Tattletale can't hear us now. Seriously, boss, you look like you tried to hug a lawn mower."

Aegis laughed. It sounded really uncomfortable. "Getting the shit kicked out of me is my job. I'm fine." Almost as an afterthought, he added: "I appreciate the thought, though."

"Okay…" I shook my head and forced myself to focus, as much as my headache allowed it. "So, what happens now?"

Aegis shrugged. "We take care of the hostages first, get their statements. The others got that covered, though, so that's not a problem. We should go hand Tattletale over to the PRT. After that…Well, we go back and get yelled at by Piggot. Fun times."

"Seriously? We got one of them, we even managed to get the money."

"It's Piggot. She always finds something to yell about. That's probably going to be on me, though. Don't worry about it. You did good today, Banshee."

"Thanks." Headache or no, I felt myself smile.

"Oh, and just a heads-up, the press is outside in force."

And just like that, my good mood vanishes into dust and gets trodden on my an Endbringer. "Oh, great. I can't make a run for it, can I?"

The boss grinned. Oh, boy. "Nope. Someone already saw you looking out the window, asked me who you were. Look at it this way, though: it'll be the best debut ever."

I suppose he wasn't entirely wrong. What better debut than to bring a supervillain into custody on camera. Still, the thought of having all those people gawk at me was terrifying. I could already imagine them mobbing me while shoving microphones into my face, asking questions faster than I could answer them. I'd rather have a rematch with Lung than that.

Fighting, I could deal.

Talking, though…

"No interviews." I said, adamantly. "I'm not ready for that. They can take my picture, but I'm sure as hell not answering any questions."

"You won't have to yet. Sure, there'll be a press conference one day and you'll have to pay the piper eventually, but not before the PR department prepared you for it. Trust me, nobody likes talking to the press. You worry too much. C'mon. Let's get Tattletale out of our hair. We'll finish up and go home."

I nodded and moved out into the street, trying desperately to remain steady as dozens of eyes bored into me. The nods I got from my teammates were fine, but the stares from everyone else sent a shiver along my spine. By now, my hearing was coming back and I carefully reached out to the crowd. Nothing more than various versions of 'Who the fuck is that?'. Hardly the worst reaction I've gotten. At least it was broad daylight. If it'd been dark, the reactions would have been much worse.

At least Aegis was right next to me, smiling. I could at least pretend that I wasn't the center of attention.

Tattletale shook her head. "Something wrong?" I asked.

"Just trying to cover my face. I'd like to keep at least some part of my secret identity intact and you'd be amazed what a few strands of loose hair does to facial recognition software."

"Isn't that against the unwritten rules, or something?"

"Can't be too careful. Not everyone's got a nice suit like yours."

I was kind of glad she didn't see my grin. Her power hadn't told her that I wasn't wearing a suit. Or anything at all, for that matter. Great, now I'm feeling naked. In front of an entire crowd. Christ, this is horrible. How do the Wards handle it?

I kept my back straight, trying to emit an aura of calm that I wasn't feeling at all. "Just focus on the PRT guys." Aegis muttered softly. Was I really that easy to read? "Don't think about the crowds. Pretend they don't exist."

Good advice, I suppose. Aegis and I picked up the pace. I guess he wanted to be out of here as much as I did. Just had to stay calm for a little while longer.

It probably said something about me, that I'm more terrified by civilians than actual supervillains.

We handed Tattletale over to the PRT officers, who promptly pushed her into a van and covered her in containment foam. Then, we waited for the others to arrive. When they did, I could see how badly they were wounded.

Clockblocker's costume was burnt all over, though the boy himself seemed mostly fine, a few nasty burns notwithstanding. The damage to Kid Win's suit looked superficial, but from the way the servos sounded, I got the impression that he'd be spending a lot of time fixing it anyway. Gallant, Vista, and Browbeat had a few bruises and rips in their costumes, but looked mostly fine. Even Vista. I'd have thought she'd be a little more shocked by the giant, skinless, mutant dogs that tried to eat her. Maybe she was used to it or she'd seen a lot worse over the years.

Isn't that a terrifying thought…

Aegis nodded and we all piled into a van. As we drove back home, I had to admit that my good mood was ebbing away fast. Sure, we stopped the robbery and caught one of the villains, but the Wards were beaten up badly too. I couldn't help but wonder if I could have done something better. Probably not. We did what we could and if I'd been down there in the street too, they'd all have gotten away. It was stupid to think otherwise, but I couldn't help myself. I just didn't like seeing my new friends get hurt. I suppose that's a good thing, in the end.