{A gathering of hatchlings in a nesting colony, tended to by different adult birds.}

(•͈⌔•͈ ﾂ

Mimi walked on one side, I limped along on the other, Elle between us, one hand in each of ours.

The laundry room was adjacent to a shower room. With a bit of squinting, I recognized the same shower room from Elle's world of barbed wire and rusty concrete. The floors and walls were tiles now, a bland pale teal, instead of naked concrete, but the looming observatory windows remained, staring down on the bathers with mirrored glass.

There were a few fixtures still intact, but holes where others had been.

"What is this place?" I asked.

"The old asylum." Mimi replied, and then looked a little uncomfortable, "It's... Um, the parts of the hospital that used to be there, before Alchemilla was used for parahumans. Some of it's still used? Um, I used to come down here sometimes, when Elle was new. She used to turn the whole place into a castle, or a beach..." Mimi smiled faintly, wistfully.

I directed a glance at Elle. She also had a little smile. Good memories, then.

We moved on.

The floors were mostly rubber here. I was beginning to suspect it had been patient housing. It fit with the presence of the shower room. Lots of rooms lined the hall, with little windows and numbers over them. It was clean, but clearly hadn't seen regular use in some time. The lights were all out, except for emergency lighting, and there was a bit of dust. Not like it was abandoned, but like it got swept once every other week, or something.

Here and there were clearer signs of lack of regular habitation- a missing tile in the floor with dust caught in the missing space. A hole in the wall that hadn't been patched. A bit of extra dust gathered and left in the corners. We crossed an intersection of halls, and one end was roped off with spools of yellow hazard tape. Then we were at a bank of elevators. Mimi ignored the elevators completely and went right for the stairs. Small surprise, the button panel was torn out. I wondered if that was why Mimi and Elle stopped coming down here, or if it was something else...

We started up the stairs, but after two flights I had to take a break, my arm throbbing and white spots danceing before my eyes. Elle sank to the floor the moment I let go of her hand, and just sat there staring into space. Mimi hugged her arms to herself and tried to avoid looking at me. I leaned lightly against the wall, with my sleeve stuffed in my mouth while I tried not to cry. I still whimpered a little into my sleeve. Be the brave girl. Be the hero. Heroes don't cry. Heroes don't cry.

"Why'd you stop coming?" I managed, trying to get my breathing under control.

Mimi looked away, running her hands up and down her arms, "I lost my temper." she said.

That could mean a lot of things, but I think I guessed what she intended. I looked at Elle, but she was blank, staring at the wall. "You used your power?"

"It...I..." Mimi stuttered, tucked her hair behind an ear, nervous, before speaking, "I wanted to escape."

I blinked. "Escape?"

"I... I could see the sky," Mimi said, "I could have made it, I can fly... Sort of. I could have done it. I wanted Elle to come with me." Like a switch was thrown, Mimi was shouting, "But... But she wanted to stay here! Stay here even though she hates it! And the Doctors are assholes! And she hates it!"

Mimi's head snapped up. Her eyes glowed, and smoke rose from her feet, scorching sooty marks on the stairwell.

And just as suddenly, her anger was gone, and she was tearful, "And, and then I- I burned Elle. And she threw me out." Mimi hung her head, "Oh god, I'm sorry Elle."

I glanced at Elle's missing sleeve and the welt on her wrist. The angry red burn, the blisters rising. The shape of a hand print scorched there.

"I burned you too, Taylor. I'm so sorry." Mimi was rocking in place, and my power pinged a warning, danger-

-Guilt, self-hate, sorrow- emotions building to peaks and lows. Retreats from emotions through power. Escapism, evasion, retreat from reality. Emotions building to peaks and lows-

-Derail-

I acted on impulse.

"Mimi," I said, paused, considered what to say, "Mimi... We're all here for a reason. That means me too. That was an accident, I'm not holding it against you."

I smiled for her. Mimi stared at me, then blinked rapidly and looked away.

My arm was agonizing and numb in turns, but we needed to move. I stepped towards Elle, and was surprised to find her looking at me. "Ready?" I asked, and held out my hand.

She reached out and took mine after a moment, and I felt the connection-

-Distrust, frustration. Wary. Curiosity-

I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile.

Mimi took her other hand and we started climbing again. Up two flights, the stairs ended. "This one..." Mimi said.

I could hear another alarm sounding in the distance.

A push bar door opened into something that felt more like Alchemilla to me, but less welcoming. The carpets were gone, the floors were entirely white utility rubber, and the walls were all sterile white, even the ceiling tiles were grey. This was a hospital not even attempting to be welcoming. A camera was directed at the door as we entered, and it felt a little like walking into a spotlight- walking into the line of sight. It left me vaguely nervous, but I could only hope that there was someone on the other side in a position to help us.

Still just that distant blare of the alarm, no other sound but our footsteps. No other voices, no other sounds. It was eerie.

There was only one door in this hall, a single solid metal affair with heavy plating. Out of curiosity, I stopped and touched it as we passed and my power hinted at its thickness and strength. A pair of keycard slots flanked it on either side.

"Um." Mimi cleared her throat, trying to fill the silence, "This is high security, special containment. They keep the patients spread out here. Because they can't mingle freely, there's bigger cells." she paused, "There's armored gates between sections, but I'm pretty sure Elle can take care of them..."

"Do patients move from special containment to the regular sections of the hospital often?"

"No, I... I don't think so." Mimi frowned, "I can move around a lot because I'm... I'm dangerous, but my power can be contained easily."

She gave me what was probably intended as a reassuring smile, but mostly looked afraid and sickly.

"Which doctors do you have?" I asked, "Who are your therapists?"

"The doctors..." Mimi frowned again, "The only good thing that ever came from the doctors was Elle. We were in the same group for power testing, and we got to hang out. The doctors don't know how to help us."

"They don't?" I thought about Doctor Yamada, Doctor Selmy, and how much talking to them helped me, "Why do you think that?"

Mimi's eyes flashed, "They just want to prod us and stick us with needles and write it all down! They never help us!"

Her eyes glowed a moment, and for just a flicker flames appeared, running down her arms- and gone almost as quickly as they appeared, Mimi's eyes darting to Elle. Elle made a soft sound, in pain; and Mimi let go of Elle's hand like she was the one burned.

"Sorry." Mimi looked away, hugging her arms to herself again.

I watched her in silence.

-self-hate, misery, hates hurting others, afraid, hurts others often by accident, afraid of hurting others, has killed before-

I clamped down on the voice, hard. We were all here for a reason. Me too. I remembered Doctor Selmy's story about Feral. We were all here for the same reason, we were all here to get better.

Who was in Mimi's corner?

I felt my spine straighten. Well, if no-one else was going to be, I'd have to do. It was the heroic thing to do.

"My therapists have helped me a lot." I said, slowly, focusing on my power's input, concentrating so I didn't mess this up. I suddenly felt very self conscious. "Doctor Selmy wanted me to make friends, and... I think I have."

"Oh..." Mimi said, "That's nice..." She said, bitterly.

-envy, resentment, sorrow. Envies my connections, friendships. Does not count herself as one-

"Would you mind if I asked to share a meal schedule? So we can talk more?"

Mimi stopped and turned to me, her eyes wide and shocked, "W-why?"

"Well, you're my friend, right?" I swallowed back nerves, "You were sitting all alone. I-I think you need someone to be there you can talk to."

Mimi stared at me, her eyes watering, "I, I... Yes. I'd... I'd like that."

We started walking again. The hallway forked and Mimi turned left; I followed her, tugging Elle behind. Another flight of stairs and another bank of elevators. These ones had an intact panel of buttons, but Mimi ignored them again, and I trailed after her. Come to think of it, what would happen if Elle got in an elevator? I could sense her power right now, radiating outwards through, and in, the walls, and the floors and ceiling... What would happen if that connection was interrupted in some way? Would an elevator disrupt her power?

The inside of an elevator was probably not the best place to test that, I decided, heading after Mimi.

Ow, those burns still hurt. I turned inwards, trying to distract myself, concentrating on those motes of familiarity drifting in the distance. Heather, Nick, Doctor Yamada.

All of them felt so far away and distant, but the interference from Elle's world was almost entirely gone now. I didn't know if that was because I was outside her world, or if it was because I was holdng her hand, growing immune to the effect...

My thoughts were interrupted by Mimi. She started talking, very quietly, her voice rough and thick. "Usually, when I burn someone, they, they never want anything to do with me any more."

"That's why you don't use your powers?" I asked, trying to break the silence, "Right?"

She shrugged one shoulder, "The... The doctors say using my power, it adjusts, um, chemicals in my brain. It fucks up my emotions. If I use my power then it gets harder to stop. Until I can't stop using it."

I thought about that. That matched what my power had hinted at. For some powers maybe it wouldn't matter, but for a pyrokinetic... Fuck, that was terrible. But what did I say to that?

"Just being near flame is enough to start it." Mimi murmured, "If I use my power, then I stop caring. I start hurting people. I stop caring about them, and I hurt them, and I just can't care."

Mimi looked over at me, and there were tears in her eyes, but they were glowing a little too now. Green with a candle-spot of orange. She covered her face in her hands, "I-I just want to stay that way. Sometimes. It's easier."

"I..." What did I say to that? What was there to say to that? Sorry your superpowers suck? I was still formulating a response when I felt an impression from Elle, emotions, all frustration and indignation spilling over.

"You... hiding from it... afraid." she said. Mimi stopped, looking at Elle, "You want an e-excuse. To say... It wasn't you."

Accusing.

It was strange, looking at Elle and Mimi, knowing what Mimi could do. Elle was barely able to talk, and swayed where she held my hand. But Mimi was the one looking away, hugging her arms and hunching her shoulders.

"I know." Mimi murmured, eyes downcast, "I'm sorry."

I looked at the two of them. And suddenly, I saw a parody of me and Emma.

And it was so sad, because I could see that they really were friends. They were friends, but it was like everything that made friends friends was turned in on itself. Mimi was dangerous; I liked her, and she didn't mean to be, but she was. Elle couldn't control Mimi, couldn't protect herself from Mimi. But Mimi couldn't protect herself from Mimi either, not alone.

"Stop it, both of you."

Mimi blinked and looked up at me, and even Elle turned and looked. I winced from my own outburst, my shoulder throbbed and black danced in the corner of my eyes again. I felt light headed.

"I... I see where all this is coming from. I do." I said. I bit my lip and looked at Elle, "I got burned too."

I glanced at Mimi and hesitated, "I can't imagine what having your power would be like." I said, "But I do know what it's like for me. I know I was really afraid, and lonely. I kind of saw that in you too. Both of you."

Mimi and Elle both stared at me, and I felt exposed and shy. I wanted to look away and disappear, "I-I know what it's like to be all alone here."

The moment felt awkward. I glanced at Elle. A strange blend of emotions welling in our shared connection. An unfocused sense of betrayal, pain from her burns, a kind of childish petulance, anger, fear, frustration. There was a lot of frustration.

"Elle," I said, "I was burned too."

I took a deep breath, "But we're all going to get somewhere safe, get our burns looked at. And we're going to do it together, okay? We can work together, and we can do this together." I leaned against the wall, spent, resting and breathing hard, my arm hurt so much. "We have to, none of us can do it alone."

(•͈⌔•͈ ﾂ

When I could walk again, we tackled the stairs.

At the top of the stairs was a door, but it was more like a vault. It had the two key card slots from before, a camera trained on it, a little sprinkler-thing, a pressure plate you had to step on to go through, and touching it, I guessed it had to be half a foot thick. At least. That was A Door.

Mimi ignored it entirely, walked to the wall beside it and carefully measured out two arm-spans. "Right here."

Elle let go of my hand and walked to the wall. She stood there a moment... that stretched on, and kept stretching. I could feel her doing something, but nothing was happening...

"Give her a minute." Mimi said, staring at Elle intently.

After several more minutes, Elle turned and looked at us, and it was like when I startled her- a fast-forward of wire and rust running down the walls. The lights dimmed, flickered. Suddenly, we were in her nightmare again, and there was a hole in the wall beside a door of rusted metal plates and bars. It was dark, and the stairwell echoed.

The hole set the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. I took Elle's hand, and after a moment Mimi took her other, and Elle let her.

Inside was quiet, water dripped and echoed, but it was usually lost in the sound of us walking, splashing through the water. The water was ankle deep, tepid, murky and brown, and flowed through the hole out onto the landing, dripping into the stairwell- now a pit lined with rusty spikes that reminded me of teeth. The stairs were gone.

I leaned out a little over it, looking down the long fall and wondered if that was Elle's power filling in her hopelessness, her inability to escape. I could hear Mimi fidget behind me, and it was dangerous- the railing was gone now, all that remained was a series of jagged spikes of twisted metal where the railing had been. They were the opposite of safe, and that was a long fall.

"All right, I'm good." I said, "Lead on, Mimi."

Through the hole, I immediately noticed it was darker than the nightmare asylum had been. There were lights, but the ceiling was higher, and they got lost in the pipes and chains, and the draping bundles of barbed wire.

Was Elle's world still changing? Or was that a reflection of the place, were the ceilings just really high here? Was it that Elle's mood had darkened? I stared up at a lonely lightbulb hanging on a wire, swinging gently in the wind, throwing confused shadows crawling over the walls and water. We passed an intersection, two long hallways full of murk. Our footsteps echoed.

A few minutes passed. It was a straight shot to the next stairwell, but gave me enough time to think all the same. It was a little strange that the stairs and elevators weren't laid out together one level to the next, and I asked why they weren't.

"It's a security measure." Mimi said, "If we had security clearance we could take the elevators all the way up, but the stairs alternate, to reduce access points."

I blinked, "That doesn't sound very safe, what if there's a fire?"

Mimi blinked at me, at the concrete nightmare walls studded with rusty wire and nails, then back, "I think they had other things to worry about." She said, "These aren't the public wings. Special containment patients don't, um, mingle as freely."

"Huh." I said. Thought about that, "Are all the walls reinforced here?" the doors certainly looked like bank vaults...

"Every wing is reinforced." Mimi said, "All the utilities and access go through hubs, the rest is, uh, there's like a shell..." She struggled a moment, "The walls are armored."

I haden't noticed that. I tilted my head, frowning, "How do you know so much?"

Mimi shrugged, "I've been here four years..." And she'd been talking about escaping with Elle earlier, I remembered... Hmm.

We walked on, and then I stopped. Mimi stopped too, and Elle stopped between us. The hallway was dark now, completely black. The last flickering lightbulb had been left far behind, and now I could barely see Mimi. Elle was a faint, pale suggestion of a ghost in the dark. Ahead was solid black, no light at all.

"Mimi can you give us some light?"

Mimi opened her mouth, then stopped, whipping around to stare at me, "What? No! I-I can't!"

I paused, "Well, is there another way around?"

"Um, we can look..." Mimi said. She didn't sound very confident.

We backtracked, sloshing through the water to the previous intersection. But that proved a dead end. One hallway lead to a pair of double doors piled with bloody gurneys and rusted wheelchairs and other furniture packed so densely in a jumble that untangling them was impossible. The other was a dead end, with several of the armored doors, one of which was ominously ajar, forced open from the inside.

"We could go back and see if we can move the chairs..." I suggested.

We went back to the blocked door. Mimi and I gave up after ten minutes of work freed only a single wheelchair.

If I'd had both arms maybe I would have been able to help more, maybe puzzle through the mess, Thinking like a Thinker thinks. I glared at the pile and again tried to decipher where Labyrinth began and the real world ended. Why would there be a pile of chairs and junk stuffed in a door though? That had to be Elle's power...

While my back had been turned and I had been lost in thought, Elle had appropriated the wheelchair, and was now seated, starring ahead.

Mimi pushed the wheelchair- which mostly worked, one wheel was a little crooked and hitched a bit as it rolled through the water. But as we approached the darkened hallway a shiver of apprehension ran down my back. Elle rolled up to the dark, Mimi pushing and me following into the dark, we kept going, until Mimi faded away, and then Elle disappeared, and then it was true black.

After a moment, I couldn't take the quiet.

"I'm getting goosebumps." I said. I was, there was a chill down my back. I felt anxious...

"Y-yeah." Mimi said, a little to the right and ahead of me. The only other sound was the creak of Elle's wheelchair and the splashes from our feet.

I glanced back behind us. In the distance I could only just see a glimmer of light.

"How much further?" I asked.

It echoed.

"Just to the end of the hall, then we go right." Mimi said.

The squeak of the wheel and the slosh of our feet.

There was something wrong. That feeling was growing. I couldn't put it in words. It was that same itching on the back of my neck, the same feeling of being watched. Of that muted danger, unfocused.

It made my breath quicken, my palms sweat. The smell of copper filled my nose, my mouth. Benny in my arms, struggling to breathe...

I listened to the echoes, pushing with my power. But there was nothing, nothing but the sound of water and the gentle breeze.

Sound. Sound was all around me, what could I hear?

I concentrated on the sound of our feet and the wheels. Everything echoed, bouncing the sound around until it was a confused mess without a source or direction, but I bent my power to it. It was like reading Lizard Prince, like climbing the rocks. A sense of the shape of the hallway intruded, then the concrete, the pipes. Distances, the two girls in front of me, their familiarity fixing them as points of reference. Slowly, the cacophony settled and smoothed out into order. The blanks gradually replaced with a sense of space, my place in it, of others inside that space.

It was heady, giddy. A little frightening. Like looking down at myself, Mimi, and Elle and seeing how small we truly were. Then something else made my neck prickle. I counted one set of wheels, and three sets of feet.

Someone was following us.

I had not tried using my power this way before, and my perception of the space in three dimensions was inexact, and sometimes confused, but I had the impression that whatever was following us was... was tall and heavy. My mouth went dry. Huge. I could hear deep breathing now, and the heft of its footfalls much heavier than ours. It was trying to be quiet, but its size meant it made a lot more noise then us.

The sense of danger was still there in the backgound low, nebulous. Like the intent was there, but not decided. Like when Elephant had been violent, but not provoked.

My throat clenched. It was growing nearer.

"Mimi, stop."

"Huh?" The squeak of the wheels ended. A pause, "Taylor?"

My throat was tight. But the shape, the third set of footfalls, it was still far away, out behind us. Still moving.

"Hello?" I called. My voice sounded painfully weak, and frightened. I hated it immeadiately.

The shape following us paused, briefly, and silently resumed walking towards us.

"Hello? Who's there?"

My power sharpened, that sense of danger. Not immediate and wild, like it had been for Elephant, but all-encompassing. Inexorably growing nearer. Something cold ran down my back. Not a premonition from my power this time. Something primal and small, it made my palms sweat and my hair stand on end, afraid.

Thump. It was getting louder. Metal scraped on concrete. Something rattled faintly.

"Mimi." I whispered, "Mimi, we need a light."

"Um." I could hear the fear in her voice too, she hesitated.

"Please."

A pause, and an orange glow flickered into existence. Mimi, a flame dancing in one hand, eyes glowing orange.

I blinked, my eyes adjusting to the light even as I craned my head to look back the way we had come. And then, several things happened at once.

The vague sense of danger sharpened, grew painful. Like a knife flashing out, drawn. Chains rattled. The thing following us broke into a loping run.

And in the same moment, it started to fade. Everything, all at once, like numbness, and I froze up.

Elle and Mimi's presence dwindled to nothing, so suddenly that I almost tripped. It wasn't just them, though. My hyper-awareness of the corridor around me narrowed, then collapsed. The echoes became confused and jumbled where before they all had a source I could name. It was darker, or the darkness hindered me more. The pain in my arm flared, and my limbs felt both lighter and heavier in the wake of something immaterial, something beyond and more than my awareness, passing.

It felt strange. Like it was suddenly quiet, so quiet my ears ought to have been ringing. Like I was numb, from head to toe. Like I was colorblind. Like I was naked in front of a room full of strangers. And so much more- I was so much less. I felt like a stranger in my own skin.

And yet, none of those were true.

Mimi, her fire flickered, guttered out and died.

"What-" Mimi murmured, her eyes weren't glowing any more either.

The sound of running feet was growing louder, so loud in the confines of the concrete. I heard a shout from Mimi.

Suddenly the footfalls stopped, and I had an instant of confusion, wondering why he had stopped running- the floor shook with the impact as something enormous landed. An arm as thick as my waist grabbed at me, whistling overhead the motion sent me to the floor, limp with pain.

I think the dark actually saved my life, because while I lay there, half unconscious with pain, the huge thing fumbled around and missed me helpless at its feet.

An errant foot kicked me and I screamed, then started crawling. I was back in the alley, back with the copper and the blood.

And I was in the hospital, with blood running down my fingers as a wide, wide eye stared up at me in sudden surprise. But desperation fueled me now, and pain lent a raw edge to my breathing. Anger welled up in me, and I crawled hand over hand along the ground- I hoped in the same direction as Mimi and Elle had been. I found a wide wheel- Elle's chair, knocked over. No Elle though.

My questing hand met fabric and I grabbed it without thinking. The fabric belonged to a pants leg, and the leg immediately drew back and kicked me in the face.

"Mimi!" I gasped.

She stopped kicking me, "Taylor, right here!" The voice was unfamiliar, and the hand that found mine small.

"Elle?"

Another hand grabbed me, pulled me upright, a larger hand. Two pairs of hands, two people slung my arms over their shoulders and we ran, stumbling and reeling through the dark, the huge thing crashing behind us.

It was like a nightmare made real. Every breath was haggard, every step was agony, and the sound of our pursuer seemed to come from every direction. Mimi was on my right, and had to have one hand on the wall, because suddenly we swung to the right instead of continuing on and crashing face first into the wall. As it was, we skidded and crushed up against the wall in a tangle; but Mimi was pulling me up a moment later, and Elle was dragged along as well. Elle lagged a little, we had both crushed her against the wall. She picked up the pace when a heavy crash impacted behind us. The thing chasing us had not turned as quickly as we had.

My sides were heaving, I couldn't see in the dark, and I could barely stand. Every breath hurt, but we continued our headlong charge. The dark was so complete that even with one hand on the wall, Mimi couldn't keep us from running headlong into the door ourselves at the end- and if it had been any other kind of door, we would probably have died there in the dark, the thing catching up to us while we fumbled. But luck was on our side, it was a pushbar.

When we hit, the pain in my shoulder was even more intense, but the adrenaline kept me awake. Or maybe I did black out for a moment, and lost that moment in the dark.

The next thing I knew, there was a crack of light, and Mimi framed against it, trying to drag Elle and me through. I think Elle was dazed, she slumped, sluggish. I struggled to my feet and pulled too, and we stumbled through together.

As the door swung closed behind us, I heard an ominous Thump.

Elle legs failed to carry her, and she sank to the ground, Mimi dipping with her sudden weight.

"Come on." I said.

Thump.

"Get up, come on!" I only had one hand to work with, but I seized Elle's shoulder and shook her, and then grabbed Mimi's hand.

Thump.

"Mimi, come on!"

Mimi righted herself, and we ran. We were half blinded by the sudden light, I was dimly aware of turning- to the left this time, and the sound of the door slamming open somewhere behind us, but the sound was barely audible over a blaring alarm. I had tunnel vision. Doors and walls and everything else; all of it passed, all of it a blur, all of it so clear.

One of the doors crashed open, and out lumbered another monster, and we paused in our run, staring at it.

It wasn't a faceless and unseen horror in the dark, but it would be easier to describe it if it looked less human. All the parts were there, but it was twisted, wrong. Its arms and chest and legs were masses of muscle and sinews, like a gorilla, or some twisted caricature of a bodybuilder, deformed and in silhouette. But it was all uneven- sagged or bulging to one side with a massive protrusion of muscle. Its face was eerily featureless, with a flat nose and cheekbones, almost no ears, and tiny, glittering eyes.

It looked at us a moment and gave an open-mouthed rasping snarl, stepping towards us with both arms raised even as the Thumping footsteps grew louder behind us.

I stepped, unthinking, in the opposite direction of the monster's grasping hands, dragging Mimi and Elle in a chain behind me. I got lucky again, and my step turned into a run down another fork. I didn't look when a crash followed by a roar shook the floor behind us.

We kept running, turning down forks, until another pair of doors filled my vision and we pushed them open, and we were done.

I stopped, holding my side, spots swimming in my eyes, trying to remain upright. Elle sank to the floor. Mimi leaned against the door, her hands on her knees. We all listened for the sound of Thumping footsteps, for the thing behind us, but there was nothing and the other two girls panting beside me.

"Taylor, are you all right?" Mimi wheezed.

"I'm... Yeah, I'm okay." I gasped, "Are your powers gone too?"

"Yes," Mimi said, "They're gone."

"Elle, you too?"

Elle... Elle was still sitting on the floor, looking around, eyes bright and aware. Hands fisted, arms drawn to her chest, nervous; but entirely in command of herself, "Y-yeah."

The world through the door was different and for a moment I felt lost.

Here the nightmare was gone, iron bars were exchanged for doors, and rust and oil for pristine paint and wood panneling, ceiling tiles, and lights. The floor was carpet under my feet. I stood frozen, we were in a kind of open foyer dominated by an unmanned reception desk. There were doors with names on them, doctors; it was an administrative block, I guessed. A fork of two hallways lead deeper in, further away from the stairs.

I stared a moment, transfixed, before I came back to myself, and the other two girls panting beside me.

"What's going on?" Parahumans couldn't just lose their powers, did they? They just... they didn't! "What was that... That thing?"

"I don't know." Mimi admitted.

She looked lost, harried, looked tired, hair plastered to her face and neck with fear and sweat. I had been hoping she'd know, that she'd know what to do about him... It... Whatever it was. Even as I wondered, it was like a curtain was lifted, I could feel my power again, faintly, and growing stronger. Mimi gasped too, and a flicker of a glow illuminated her eyes. Elle groaned on the floor.

Okay, so our powers were back. Was he a power canceler parahuman of some kind? Another power? Was it an effect connected to how close we were to him, or a more exotic aspect?

But even as my sixth sense crowded back in, I could feel that sensation, that feeling of being hunted. Of a malevolent awareness catching sight of me. I was still reeling, but I thought I understood what it meant. And as it focused sharply on us, I realized what was happening.

"He has a Thinker power, he's going to come back, he knows we're here." I gasped, "Come on, we gotta move."

(•͈⌔•͈ ﾂ

The world through the door was different, now that I had a chance to see it, to actually look at it.

Desks blocked a door here, there a chair lay on its side, knocked to the floor. Glass littered the floor were it had been broken and a door forced open. Offices were barricaded and the doors were broken, or the windows were smashed. And there, a bloody smear where someone had opened a door, more hand prints on the wall. A room full of computers with no lights on filled an ominous backdrop on one side. The tantalizing light of a green Exit sign glimmered behind the grate of a closed security shutter. We couldn't get to the stairs. Not that way.

It was so quiet, just my blood in my ears.

I hesitated, then walked to the receptionist's desk- I thought, maybe there was a map we could use... There was a surprise waiting for me when I looked over the top of the counter.

The receptionist had been a man of average height and build. Also, his head was missing. He lay in a pool of his own blood, arms thrown back, tangled in his chair.

"Oh- oh my-" I stumbled back, my stomach doing cartwheels and flips, "Fuck! Fuck."

Mimi heard me, and saw too. I don't think Elle did. I didn't see her face, I was too busy getting my breathing back under control.

"W-where are we?" I gasped, "Mimi?"

"Doctor's offices." she replied, also shaken, "Secure ward's Dispensary is right around the corner."

I didn't trust myself to reply immediately; and when I didn't, Elle spoke, her voice very soft, "Is... Is it still after us?"

My breathing was still giving me trouble, "I..."

A cheery chime sounded overhead-

"Attention all staff. Attention all staff. Faculty status: One. Repeat, One. Situation code: Clear skies, Lavender. Wide ranging Shaker effect has dissipated. A joint relief force has arrived. Remain where you are and await rescue."

"Repeat: help is on the way. Remain where you are. Help is on the way."

Help was on the way. That. That was good. Elle's world was gone, help could get in now, more heroes were arriving to help. My mind turned over sluggishly. The pain was still there, but also so far away. It couldn't paralyze me. Mimi and Elle were my friends, and saving friends was what heroes did. I wasn't going to let my friends die. I'd look after them.

I would... what would I do? I was tired, and I hurt...

The Dispensary... The Dispensary would have drugs. Drugs needed to be secured. It would have security. Locks. Thick doors. Somewhere we could hide. Cameras? Maybe someone would be able to see us, to find us there. I breathed a moment, "Is the Dispensary that way?" I pointed down the right-hand hall.

"Yes." Mimi said.

My extra awareness was already diminishing, and Mimi's eyes were fading.

Heavy footprints trailed from the pool of blood around the receptionist's body, winding back through the foyer and back into the offices. It didn't escape me that we were following the trail of blood.