Keagan had grown up in an upper-middle-class home. Both of his parents had worked, his two elder brothers had started their own coding business at the ages of fourteen and fifteen respectively, and he himself had started learning the basics of cybersecurity in high school, earning himself a paid internship the next summer.
They had wanted for nothing. In the extremely rare times where his parent's jobs had suffered and money had become a bit tight, his brothers, and then he himself, had chipped in, buying the groceries, gas for the car, school supplies, anything that they needed. His little sister had been spoiled by all of them, getting the best toys and games, always having food in her belly and a snack nearby, being able to choose to go to Disneyland, Legoland, or Universal Studios theme parks for her birthday.
Keagan had never known hunger, cold, exhaustion, or desperation before he had arrived on Earth Bet. He wouldn't have called himself spoiled, but he knew that he was much more privileged than most people in the world.
After landing in Brockton bay without a penny to his name, and suffering those first couple of weeks, he thought he had a good measure of what suffering was. He thought that he could handle the ugliness that Earth Bet could show him now.
He was so, so wrong.
"Please, my daughter, she's been sick for weeks!"
"We need to eat! We need food, man, not this MRE shit!"
"My friend, she hasn't been able to walk since that jerk-off hit her, please, can you do anything?"
"My sister, she's diabetic, but her meds ran out days ago. Do you have anything that can help her?"
It was just supposed to be a simple mission. Armsmaster had told them about a small town not too far from Brockton that had requested help against a new Villain gang that called the Pantheon, lead by God king, an electrokinetic with decent range and defense and mid-tier Brute Strength.
The fight had been handled easily by him a real thunderbolt made for Zeus easily overpowered the guy. No, the fight had been easy.
It was what Nina discovered, casing the town for any more enemies, that complicated the mission.
Slaves. Because that's what they were. There was no other word for what they were. They wove a horrifying story: Godking had decided that rather than fight dozens of parahumans and heroes in Brockton for a slice of the pie, it would be easier to just take a small, sleepy town far from the action.
With the Protectorate occupied by three powerful parahuman gangs, the gangs always involved in a gang war, and New Wave, the only other hero group, steadfastly staying in the city, he was free to rule them all. The most horrifying part?
Godking and his group had been there for an entire five months. The message that Armsmaster had gotten, and decided to put on the backburner whilst he figured out a way to effectively tase Hookwolf? Somebody had died to get that message sent.
They forced them to fight to the death for their entertainment. They instantly killed anyone that triggered. Godking would arrange giant brawls against him, where they would attack him, and he would easily destroy them. They would force them to create extravagant feasts for them, all whilst making them watch, knowing they were starving. And that was without speaking on their other…carnal appetites.
And with every word he heard, watching emaciated men and women shake in their rags, covered in horrid scars and bruises, he gazed down at the unconscious Villains he'd captured, and he idly wondered if anyone would be terribly disappointed if all they brought back of the Pantheon was ashes.
He also wondered how painful he could make the process. So, before he lost his cool, he transfigured the group into bones, shoved them into a pocket, and turned his attention to the poor townspeople who needed his help more than those…things, needed punishment.
He'd summoned the Deathly Hallows and a cornucopia. With the Elder Wand, he merely had to wave it, and multiple maladies would be erased. He summoned chairs and tables so people could sit, used multiple charms to permanently transfigure nearby debris into clothes, socks, and shoes, easing aches and pains, fixing broken bones, and mending scars, summoning clean water for them to drink.
The cornucopia was steadily pumping out food, starting from apples and quickly escalating to entire roast turkey dinners, meatloaves, fried chicken platters, and giant subs.
He kept working, never complaining, doing his best to make them more comfortable. He forced himself to only focus on helping feed and heal the people as much as possible.
He did this because he felt that if he stopped, he would cry. He'dneverread about something like this in Worm. Intellectually, he knew that Villains would definitely try and take over smaller populations of people if they didn't want to fight multiple gangs, but god, seeing this shit was just…he didn't have the words.
And that worst part was, he couldn't even really blame the Brockton Bay Protectorate for not noticing, because just handling the Bay was an enormous task. Who knows how long it might've taken them to fight off Godking?
He knew that the East North East was a huge area and that the Protectorate couldn't be expected to handle the entire region on their own, not with Lung, Kaiser, and Coil fucking everything up.
Maybe he could blame Cauldron for enacting the Terminus Program, but Brockton Bay probably wasn't the only city going through this, just the most well-known one in Worm.
Whilst he was helping the thousands of people, Nina was fixing the roads, the houses, implanting alarm runes that would alert them to large amounts of the property being damaged, and recording everything as evidence to get the Pantheon sent into the deepest, darkest hole America could send them to.
He knew that she was feeling a similar rage to him, wanting to rip these fools limb from limb, but they had to restrain themselves. They had to present a calm face and gentle smile to the horribly traumatized men, women, and children who needed heroes.
They had to hold in their emotions as they entertained the children with shows of extravagant stories with accompanying illusions to animate them.
They healed and mended and listened and consoled, and it was only sometime past midnight where a majority of the townspeople were asleep when the two of them could slip away for some privacy, leaving a few dozen clones to watch over the townsfolk, almost all of them gathered in the town square.
For a while, the two of them just walked. Keagan didn't want to talk about the injuries he had seen. Nina didn't want to talk about how everyone kept flinching at her glowing eyes. But they had to talk about it.
"They're doing a lot better now," said Keagan, deciding to speak first. "I-I decided to leave the scars, as additional evidence, in case someone says that the video isn't enough. But they're all fed, and I got them medicine and water, and everyone has a bed, and they're all safe."
"I fixed all of the houses, and I added a bunch of extra runes for protection. A lot of silent alarms so we'll know if this ever happens again, a Hirashin mark for quick deployment. I'm even thinking about permanently deploying a couple of clones here."
"...I talked to some of the girls. The other members of the Pantheon…used them, but they were actually careful about protection. But not Godking.
Apparently,hehad about fifteen favorites. And I checked. They're all pregnant."
"Fuck."
"Only one of them wants to keep the child, but they'll be giving it up for adoption. They just don't want to kill a kid."
"...I helped make about twenty-three new graves today. Some of them were old people. A few were adults. A lot of them were teenagers. Eight were kids below the age of ten."
"Fuck."
A minute of silence as they walked through what had been a decimated town only hours ago. But there was still the air of fear that stuck to the place like a cloak.
"I was fifty miles away," Nina said quietly. "I can teleport. I have access to my version of the Speed force. I can run on water. I can fly faster than some fighter jets. It would've taken me ten minutes to get here and stop him and his three-man gang, and that's if I was going at my jogging speed. Ten minutes. And I was playing around in Brockton, thinking I was doing shit."
"You didn't know. I've known you for about two weeks Nina, and I know that if you'd heard of this happening, you would've been here instantly."
Nina was shaking her head before he even stopped talking. "Keagan, don't. I was thinking about impressing Taylor and joining the Undersiders, fighting the gangs, and showing up the PRT by acing this hero thing. And fifty miles away, people were being forced to eat shit and bow at this poser's feet. He's not even an A-ranked threat, Keagan. Fucking Robin could've soloed this guy and his team. And fifty miles away, I thought I was doing something important. I thought I was saving lives. Some hero I am, huh?"
"Nina, you can't do this to yourself. You can't torture yourself this way. We've both read enough comics to know how this starts and how it ends. You'll start overworking yourself, pushing your body and mind to the brink, until you either end up as the Joker or dead from exhaustion. In case you forgot, I landed here three months ago. I'm just as fast as you, and just as strong, and yet I didn't find out about this either. We found out about it, we fought the guy and his group, and we unfucked the town. Now, we just need to keep doing this, over and over, until we cover the whole planet. We fix Earth Bet, no matter what, and we'll fight presumptuous assholes and jackasses likeGodkinguntil they learn to keep their fucking hands to themselves."
"...Keagan?"
"Yeah?"
"Why are you casting the Cruciatus Curse on a bone?"
Keagan blinked as he looked down at his hands. In his right hand, he had the Elder Wand, which was pulsing with an ugly green light. In the other, he held the bone that he was pretty certain was Godking.
"Oh, it's one of the Villains we took down. I think this one is the leader. I transformed them into bones so I wouldn't have to lug them everywhere."
"Do you think he feels that?"
"I'm not sure. Barty Crouch got turned into a bone and got buried instantly afterward, and that's the only time I remember someone being transfigured into an inanimate object. But some theories that I read suggest that they remember everything as a dream."
Still casting the curse, Keagan watched impassively as a small crack appeared on the bone.
"You think he'll remember it?"
"I don't know." I hope so.
"...pass me a bone?"
"...sure."
...
Alexandria looked at the two children because despite their abilities and prowess, that's what they were, children-with a blank face, doing her best to hide the relief inside. She hadn't been sure if her speech would get through to Nina, but she should've never doubted Contessa, because now the three of them were in one of Cauldron's spare rooms in the facilities, about to gain all sorts of information.
"Once again, I can't thank you enough for agreeing to meet with me."
"As we said, we'll be the ones giving the information out, and you can do with it as you see fit,' said Keagan. "You try and force us, master us or trick us into giving you this info, and we're gone, never working with you again. Understood?"
"Understood."
"Alright. First thing on the docket, I can enhance all parahumans, not just Thinkers."
Alexandria felt her breath catch in her throat.
"The reason why certain powers are limited is that the Shards-you guys call them agents-is because of power constraints. They have enough energy to last three hundred years at most, so they do their best to manage that energy until then. If I top them off, however, give them a bit more energy to play with-"
"Then they would give their hosts more power," she breathed out.
"Exactly."
"Now, before you try and ask us to make an army of Triumvirate level capes, there are two things you should know," Keagan said quickly. "Agents can affect a Cape's brain chemistry, as in, influence the way they think.
One example is the Brockton Bay Cape Shadow Stalker.
She was angry before, but her Shard is even more aggressive and vicious than she is, and it leaks over.
Shards want conflict so they can gather data, but their style of thinking is so alien that they will do anything to gain that data, even if it messes up their host's psyche."
"I…see," she said.That piece of information was very alarming, and something she definitely had to look into when she had the time. "And the second?"
"The Enemy? We're not sure how much, but he does monitor the Shards," continued Nina. "if we are assembling a Justice League-type army, then we best start with people who got powers from Eden's corpse, before we move onto the Enemy's. If he sees that his Shards are getting topped up regularly, that might make him want to investigate. We're not exactly sure how blind they are in regards to us."
"Alright, duly noted. And also, Eden?"
"What do you-oh, yeah! The female Entity, we call her Eden."
That was interesting. They had named the female Entity? That suggested familiarity of some sort. Once again, she truly burned to find out just where they got their information from, but Contessa continually said that the Path for forcing the information out of them always lead to the destruction of Cauldron, no two ways about it.
So, in the meantime, they had to resort to waiting for the children to feed them breadcrumbs. It was infuriating, but it was much better than the guesswork that they had been doing, so Alexandria could stomach this easily.
"Now, before we continue, there's a favor we'd like to ask of you," said Keagan, his face turning serious. " Today, we brought in a group of capes called the Pantheon. Nina depowered them, and Armsmaster said it's likely that they'll go to a max security prison for life."
"Okay. What do you want me to do with them?"
"Send them to the Birdcage. I don't care how you do it. Rig the jury, bribe the judge, incite a fucking riot, they go to the Birdcage. And not only do they go to the Birdcage, they either end up next to Lustrum's block, or Marquis's, and the two of them are informed of every single one of their crimes, especially those against women and children."
'And they also know enough about the Birdcage to know who the cell block leaders are. Just great,' Alexandria thought sarcastically. Out loud, she said,
"That…is unprecedented. They've been functionally depowered, and as such, is are normal humans. We only send the worst to the Birdcage or those who will be useful to us in the Final Battle. With them being neither-"
"I am willing to give Cauldron ten of my clones to do as they wish should these terms be met," said Nina quietly. "And I'll place a seal on them so that whatever knowledge they get will not be sent back to me."
And that stopped her little spiel immediately. True, clones of Keagan would be much more preferable, but clones of Nina, disposable walking atomic bombs, at their beck and call? That was much too delicious to pass up.
"Done. But, I only ask this question because you two have never sentenced a man to his death before: Are you truly sure you want them sent to the Birdcage? Because it is very likely they will die that same evening. No matter their crimes, you will be responsible for their death in some way. Max security prison is already a horrible place to be, especially for former capes. Inmates who have been betrayed or injured by parahumans will likely target them, and the sadistic ones will love to be able to demonstrate their superiority over a parahuman. Their suffering in there would be long and unending."
Keagan nodded. "That is true. But there's also the possibility that someone in there might feel pity for them. There's also the chance that someone on the outside might feel that their sentence was too harsh. There's always the chance that their case might be revisited sometime after their imprisonment, and for some reason, they'll be let out on parole. Hell, there's always a chance that some other inmate could trigger, leading to a jailbreak, and they'll just keep their heads down for the rest of their lives. I don't want that. I want them dead, surrounded by monsters, and begging for their lives. Because I'm very sure that the literal hundreds of people that they tortured to death, would want that too."
"Very well. Consider it done. Shall we continue?"
"Yes. Now, we're going to explain how the Final Battle was supposed to go, and we're going to outline the reason why we should not try and work with the Endbringers this time."
"...I'm sorry, could you repeat that last bit?"
...
Hours later, when it was about four in the afternoon, the two Outsiders were deposited into an alleyway near the PRT building, both of them exhausted mentally, but knowing the day wasn't over yet.
"Alright," Keagan said, taking charge instantly. "So, what we're gonna do is personally patrol Brockton for an hour or so, while you send out a bunch of clones to check out the rest of the ENE region. I think about…five clones per town should be fine. Um, you should also check out Ellisburg as discreetly as possible. No need to go in, but just check on the integrity of the wall. After that, we train for a couple of hours in the hyperbolic time chamber, and after that, we do a check over in Boston, to see if the BB Protectorate is done helping out over there, and offer them a ride back. Then we can hopefully crash tonight, and not deal with any bullshit tomorrow. Now, we should check-in and tell Armsmaster we went to go talk to Alexandria."
Nina twitched suddenly, and an uncomfortable look came across her face.
"Uh, Keagan, we've got a little problem."
"Please tell me it's not the Butcher. I'm just gonna turn her to stone if it is."
"Nope, not the Butcher…but you won't like these guys much better."
"Who is it?"
"It's the Underisders…and they're standing outside of Panacea's hospital…armed."
...
Keagan was pissed, and Nina knew he had a good reason to be. Aside from the fact that the Underisiders were putting hundreds of sick people at risk, Nina knew he had…something going on with Panacea. He said it was simple flirting between the two of them, but the fact that Amy, someone who'd been introverted and obsessed with Victoria in canon, was willing to flirt with someone who wasn't Victoria told her that they might be just a bit closer than Keagan was telling her.
"Typical," he grumbled as he changed into Master Chief's signature Halo Armor. "I decide to have nothing to do with the crazy protagonist, and what does she do? She escalates. Lord forbid that Taylor Hebert thinks like a normal person and sends us a fucking message through the PRT. Nooo, why don't we get a couple of machine guns and post up in front of a hospital to gain our attention."
"Wait, what do you mean?"
"Nina, the Undersiders are powerless right now, both literally and figuratively. They also have no fucking reason to rob a hospital. What you did to them isn't something that can be cured by Panacea, and I'm hoping they're not dumb enough to think that. What everyonedoesknow, however, is that you've been in Brockton for a while. It's obvious that they want to talk to you, but rather than send a fucking letter, they decided to get your attention in the absolutely dumbest way possible."
Keagan had a very strong opinion on the Undersiders. Psychopaths and sociopaths were some of the kinder opinions, whilst 'they are the epitome of teenage stupidity,' was one of the harsher ones. In a way, she could sort of see where he came from. Taylor had been the only Undersider to actually care about what happened to Dinah.
Taylor had also thought that breaking into the Mayor's home, almost killing his son with bees, and telling the Mayor that he better not condemn the Bay was a valid negotiation tactic.
Bitch's dogs had mauled several people, and that was after they'd taken over the Bay, not while she'd been on the run.
Regent had been Hijack, and whilst what he'd done there was purely Heartbreaker's fault they should really kill him one of these days, she remembered reading about all the…extra curricular stuff he'd done with Sophia's body, and she remembered how uncomfortable it made her feel, especially now, after dealing with the Pantheon.
Tattletale…the things she'd said to Amy at the back had sort of started her downward spiral into the Red Queen.
True, Victoria shouldn't have even tried talking to the Thinker, but In Ward…Tattletale had been such abitch. Imp was weird, and just a bit scary.
Brian…she didn't really care about Brian, to be honest. He seemed like a decent guy, but he'd also been very ready to beat up Rachel after the villain meeting, weird neuroses or not.
So yeah, she got why he didn't trust the Undersiders. Whilst she had cheered for them, Keagan had noticed how much of an unreliable author that Taylor was, and had always been suspicious of her character. In his mind, Taylor was one of those people you killed first in a fight because giving them too much time to think was a Very Bad Idea.
She liked Taylor. She admired her for the hard choices that she had made, and she knew that the bug Master always tried to do the most moral thing possible…but that was a different Taylor.
Just like the Leviathan fight had shown, this world was different from Canon.
She couldn't rely on what type of person Taylor had been back then. And to be honest…she didn't really know Taylor. She knew her better than most people did, maybe even better than she herself did, but that didn't mean she was her friend.
With a crack, she apparated to the front of the hospital with Keagan in tow.
So, there was good news and bad news. The good news was that they'd arrived early, and that meant there were no civilians, police officers, or PRT members, which meant that this could still be resolved quickly and peacefully.
The bad news was that not only were the Undersiders armed with what she was pretty sure were Tinkertech laser rifles, but both Amy and Victoria were glaring at them, only a few feet away from them, Victoria's body slightly in front of Amy's.
However, more good news happened, because as soon as the Undersiders heard the crack and saw them, they immediately dropped the weapons.
"We surrender!" yelled Tattletale. "The weapons don't even work; they're props we bought online and painted! We just want to talk!"
Keagan snorted underneath his helmet as he gently shoved Nina with his shoulder.
"Told ya," he said, the amusement in his voice barely covering the scorn.
"You said that they'd have machine guns," she reminded him. "Not props."
"Can you blame me, considering the things they've done?"
"Might've done."
"The bank robbery still happened, didn't it? You only stopped the Bakuda bombings, right?"
Nina was silent as they walked towards the group of teens.
"Undersiders, give me ten reasons why I should not just toss you into the darkest cell I can find on the Rig."
"Why ten reasons?" Regent asked, genuinely curious.
"Because I can think of ten reasons why I can bring you all in without hearing a word you say," Keagan said as he summoned the Doom Slayer BFG. "Starting with the fact that two of your team members are wanted for murder, and ending with the fact that you were all working with Coil, your bank robbery allowing him to kidnap the mayor's niece, Dinah Alcott."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait!" said Grue quickly, his hands still raised. "Look, the murder charges are bullshit, and if we could just sit down and talk about them, we could prove it. And as for the Coil thing, we did not know who we were working for. Tattletale was the only one who he talked to, and he recruited her with a gun to her head. We just want to talk!"
"About what?"
"They want their powers back," sneered Victoria, her aura radiating fear. "As if that was even on the table. How the hell did you break out of confinement anyway?"
Tattletale, even in this situation, couldn't resist a smug smirk.
"Well, that's for us to know, and for you to guess, isn't it Glory Hole?"
"You absolute bitch-!"
"It was Imp," Nina said quietly. "She's the only one on your team who has stealth abilities like that."
And just like that, the grin turned to a look of shock and fear.
"How'd you know about Imp?! She's only been active for a week now!"
"Does it really surprise you thatweknow more than most people do?" Keagan asked.
Nina bit her lip as she spoke up again.
"Call Imp…and we'll talk with you."
"Hold up! Are you fucking with me?" Victoria exploded. "You guys took out Leviathan! Are you seriously telling me you can't take down five powerless losers?!"
Nina took a deep breath as she pinched her nose in frustration.
"Takedown, you have a scanner in there, right? Please search the hospital for any female parahumans."
Keagan did so, searching for a long minute, before growling as he pointed the BFG at the Undersiders.
"The elderly patients? Really?"
"We needed insurance that you wouldn't arrest us off the bat," Taylor said quietly. Her voice…sounded normal. Not like the voice of a possible warlord or savior of the Earth.
"Hey, in our defense, they would be the first ones to go either way," Regent said, not bothered in the slightest.
"Look, call off Imp, and I promise you that we'll listen to you without sending you to jail."
"Why are we bothering with this charade?" Keagan demanded. "We both know that either one of us could take her down before she even made a move. I mean, we're the only ones who can even perceive her right now. She'd never see it coming."
"Because I want to talk!" she snapped. "You're right; we overpower them so much that it's embarrassing. So the very least we could do is listen to why they risked their freedom when they knew that as well. People don't just try and poke bears for fun."
"They do if they think they can point the bear at their foes," he said darkly, but he de-summoned the BFG anyway. "Glory Girl, Panacea, we're very sorry for disturbing your day, but we'll take it from here."
"Understood, Takedown," Amy said before Victoria could launch into a rant. "I trust I'll see you tonight?"
Keagan hesitated, then nodded. "Yeah. Tonight for sure."
She gave a small smile at that, one that quickly vanished as she turned to the Undersiders.
"I really hope, for your sake, that you're not just fucking around. I dislike you very much, but I don't particularly want to hear how you needled Takedown into shooting you, because I think all of us know that when it comes to the Undersiders, you sure as hell aren't coming tomefor healing."
And with that little pronouncement, she walked towards the hospital, Glory Girl reluctantly trailing behind her.
Grue winced as he watched them go.
"Damnit, I knew the bank job was gonna bite us in the ass, but I hoped it wouldn't be that bad."
Then turning to the Outsiders, he asked a simple question.
"You guys like burgers?"
...
Fugly Bob's was part shack, part restaurant, and part bar that reminded her of a mom and pop shop. The air smelled of grease, and the owner was very welcoming. Obviously, she ordered three Challengers off the bat. She'd read about them so much; now it was time to see if the burger held up to the legend.
And naturally, the shop had cleared out as soon as people had seen two heroes and six villains walk in. It was a good attitude to have, especially here in Brockton. You never knew when a cape fight was gonna break out.
"Alright! Did everybody order something? Does anyone want dessert or extra fries? Takedown, you haven't ordered anything! Nothing on the menu catching your eye?" asked Tattletale, doing her best to act natural.
Keagan was not having it. "I'm good," he lied through his teeth. Nina knew that he hadn't eaten anything besides a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, and that had been hours ago. "Now talk."
"Okay…we'd really like our powers back," said Grue, nervousness practically clinging to him like smoke. "We have about half a million between all of us."
"Are you insinuating we can be bribed?" Keagan asked coldly.
"No, no, not at all. I-uh, if that doesn't work, we were a pretty decent team overall. If we joined the Protectorate-"
"You'd be split up and sent to various Protectorate bases across the country," Nina finished, feeling just a little bit of amusement. It may have been a bit mean, but it was funny to see the cool, collected Grue floundering so horribly. "Standard procedure for villain groups that join the Protectorate."
"Well, we're out of options."
Rachel punched Alec in the shoulder.
"Ow! What, am I wrong? We don't have nearly enough cash to bribe them, and they obviously don't give a fuck if we join the Wards. I say we just take our cash to the Numberman and have him play stocks for us. We've got enough cash for that."
Nina raised an eyebrow. That was actually a half-decent plan, especially if you considered Numberman's powers. They'd definitely profit from it; obviously, they'd have to get jobs to supplement their income, but they'd all be reasonably comfortable in the long run.
"Regent, shut up," Lisa hissed. "Look, Glyph, Takedown, we understand that as heroes, you shouldn't be seen consorting with us, but we weren't that bad. What we did was basically superpowered Cops and Robbers, simple stuff that Coil had us do. No murder, no maiming, nothing permanent that ever hurt anybody. I admit, our powers are a bit niche, but we can be great heroes if you just gave us the chance. With my superpowered intuition, you'd be aware of threats even before they happened. Regent can harmlessly disarm people. Grue provides decent battlefield coverage. Rachel is all the muscle you'll ever need, and with Skitter here, you'll have the bad guys swarmed in an instant. I know to you, these powers might seem mediocre, but just ask someone like Armsmaster or Miss Militia; our powers would be an asset."
If it had been anyone else, Tattletale's pitch would've worked. Heck, if Nina had come alone, she probably would've given them their powers back purely because of her admiration of their canon selves. Unfortunately for them, Keagan was there.
"So, when Skitter placed poisonous black widows on the necks of defenseless women and children in the bank, we should just assume that she had no intention to harm them?"
Skitter flinched. "I had complete control of my power. Even if I'd forced them to bite, it would've been dry."
"Your power has not been tested and vetted by a trusted PRT power technician. We can't tell if you're lying or not."
Well, they could, but the Undersiders were supposed to be a small-time gang, not people big enough on the ladder for the two Outsiders to know more than the local PRT did on them.
"But I-"
"Moving on from that, what about you putting a knife to the throat most powerful healer in the world? You do realize that Panacea is a national asset, right? There is absolutely no one in the world besides us who can do what she does, and we're combat capes. If you had made a mistake and hurt her, she wouldn't have been able to heal herself. If you had killed her-"
"We were never going to kill anyone!" exploded Skitter, slamming her fists on the table. Tattletale quickly interjected herself into the conversation, clearly seeing how badly this was going.
"Um, I understand that from an outside perspective, that looked very bad, but at the time, we were given the job by Coil, and we had no choice but to complete it at any costs. Of course, we would never hurt Panacea, but we needed Glory Girl to think we were serious."
"Ah, thank you for reminding me; Glory Girl. Now, do you have a good reason for exposing her weakness to dozens of civilains at the bank, some of which may have been gang members?"
That caught Tattletale. "I-well, that was-"
"Not to mention that Hellhound-"
"Bitch," Rachel grunted.
"Hellhound mauled Aegis, whilst Skitter promptly decided to introduce Clockblocker to the horrors of the insect kingdom. Thank you, Skitter, for traumatizing another member of your age group. You must really enjoy making people fear for their lives."
Tattletale's eyes hardened. "Okay, that's a little unfair. I knew they'd be fine, we didn't do anything permanent that day."
"Really? So, what you're saying is that Grue didn't cause thousands in property damage and didn't injure dozens of civilians, paralyzing three?"
Grue started in surprise. "Wait, what?"
"Is that such a surprise to you? Your little smokescreen getaway spread all the way to Downtown at an unprecedented speed.Into active traffic. Oh, and the little surprise fact, that your smoke is capable of shutting down electronics? I'm sure the EMTs appreciated having no fucking idea where to go and who to attend to first."
"You're taking this way out of proportion-" started Tattletale, but Keagan cut her off.
"No, I'm not. If anything, I'm treating you with much more leniency than you six deserve. The only innocent member here is Imp, and she aided you five in threatening a hospital less than thirty minutes ago."
Imp gave a nervous laugh as she rubbed the back of her head.
"You are alldangerous, and I'm not talking about your powers. I'm talking about your attitude. Cops and Robbers? Are you fucking kidding me? You take away someone's agency, you hold multiple people hostage, you threaten innocents with bodily harm, you actually cause bodily harm to several teenagers who wouldn't have had to risk their lives if you didn't decide to play Cops and Robbers,andyou assist in the kidnapping of a minor, working for a man who ended up causing a city wide disaster. And after all this, you ask for your powers back? So you can continue your terror spree?"
And at this point, Nina had had enough.
"Takedown, can I talk to you outside?"
"No. What we should be doing is-!"
She squeezed the shoulder of his armor hard enough to make it creak.
"Takedown. Outside. Now."
Faster than she'd thought he could move, his hand grabbed her wrist, squeezing with enough force to make her bones ache. Internally, her heart began to beat wildly as she prepared for a fight. She really didn't want to fight Keagan, especially not now that he'd gotten more familiar with his gear and her fighting style, but if she had to…
With a deep, calming breath, he released her.
"Fine. Let's talk outside."
...
"Dude, what the fuck? Why are you going apeshit on them?"
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because they're all fucking insane?!" he hissed at her. "We shouldn't even be entertaining this bullshit. The minute they
decided to hold the hospital hostage, even if the weapons weren't real, we should have knocked them out, taken them to the Rig for holding, de-masked them, called their parents, and sent their asses to Juvie."
"Okay, first off, I'm surprised that you of all people are advocating for unmasking, considering you've never shown your face to anyone except me.
And second off, Rachel's a ward of the state, Brian's dad will probably beat the shit out of him before taking Aisha away forever, Danny'll probably have a fucking heart attack, Lisa's parents will just use her for her powers, and Regent's dad is fucking Heartbreaker. You sure you wanna call that dude to pick up his kid?"
"Don't act like I'm a fucking idiot Nina, I can easily think of ways to make sure Alec's father and Lisa's parents never know and still get them incarcerated. Brian's Dad won't be able to touch him while he's in lock up, and Aisha is his daughter, so he gets to decide her life until she's eighteen. Fuck, maybe this whole fiasco will convince the courts that Aisha's mom is a shitty guardian, considering all of this went under her nose."
"Keagan, I genuinely don't understand why you're behaving like this." She'd never seen him this pissed before. "Why are you so dead-set on them going to jail?"
"Becuase this is how it started in Canon.They never faced the consequences for their actions.They hurt and destroyed dozens of people in Canon, and they'reverygood at deluding themselves into thinking they're the good guys.I want nothing to do with them.
Taylor kept fucking whining about Sophia and Emma, but as soon as she got a Sophia and Emma of her own, she sure as hell didn't try and limit their actions! People still got mauled by Rachel's dogs just because they pissed her off, and we both know that at some point, Lisa could've just left the Undersiders without Coil being able to stop her, but she stayed because she wanted to take over his operations, not stop him from the kindness of her heart.
"If this was a different kind of story, Panacea would've offed herself after Lisa threatened her at the bank. Now, I understand that those two aren't angels themselves. I know that Vicky has brutalized gang members, and Amy's been erasing the evidence.
I know about Amy's weird feelings for Victoria, what she did to Vicky, and what she did as the Red Queen. I know that, but at least they were on the right side from the start.
Vicky grew up and started getting serious, and Amy was being pursued by the fucking Slaughterhouse Nine.
I think we can say that she wasn't in her right mind at the time, and her spending time in the BirdCage, surrounded by killers on every side, definitely didn't help her mental state.
Skitter killed Alexandria and Tagg and got off with a slap on the wrist. She deprived humanity of one of the heaviest hitters against the Endbringers, and everyone that died when Alexandria could've saved them was on her head.
When shegave herself up, she went in there and demanded her crew be allowed to operate unimpeded whilst they took over Brockton.
She was the one that got the Endbringers in the Golden Morning fight, and the next thing we know, Simurgh has an Eidolon clone. Her entire existence is a Simurgh plot to kill Scion that barely worked.
"It should tell you something about her that despite spending less than a year with the Undersiders, and spending two years with the Wards, she was way more comfortable going back to work with the rapist, the psychopath, the thug, the potential cult leader, and the sociopath than she did with the people who'd devoted their lives to helping people."
"So what, this is all about your hate-boner for Taylor?"
"No, this is about me not wanting to work with people we know are bad and we know are dangerous and can't be trusted. And don't bother to deny it. I may not know you well, Nina, but I know you well enough to know what you're thinking. You want them to work with us; worse, you want to make them on par with us for the Final Battle."
"Dude, we fucking work with Cauldron! There is literally no lower depth we could reach!"
"You fucking idiot, did you ever read the WOG's? Do you know what this place would've looked like without Cauldron? Because I do, and it was away bigger shithole than we would've been able to deal with. Is Cauldron scum? Fuck yeah! Are they completely and totally willing to do anything to save the multiverse from the alien invaders? Definitely fuck yeah!"
Nina growled as she rubbed her forehead in frustration.
"Look, I know they can be useful. What'll take for you to let me handle this personally?"
Keagan gave a bitter laugh. "You want me to believe they can be anything more than a pain in our side? Show me them being altruistic; let one of them do something that doesn't benefit them in any way, and I'll consider not taking them to jail myself."
"Hey!"
The two of them turned to see Tattletale stomping out of Fugly Bobs, a determined look on her face.
"What now?" Keagan muttered.
"Okay, look. I get it. You think we're irresponsible and dangerous and stupid, and me saying that it was a game really didn't help," she began.
"No, it did not."
"But, that's just me.I'm the asshole in this situation. Skitter? She's a depressed, bullied girl who was going to turn us in when she got info on who our boss was, and I was planning to manipulate her into joining us. Bitch's trigger messed her up on a fundamental level, and she doesn't have control over her dogs, just their growth. Brian's doing all of this so that his sister can have a better life! I mean, it was a really stupid way to go about it, but he's trying! As for Imp and Regent…well, they're assholes, but Regent's dad will literally kill him if he ever finds him, and Imp has a mental condition. I'm the one who you should be pissed at, and I'm fine with that. But my friends…they need help, not punishment! You can keep my shitty powers! I hated them anyway. But those idiots inside, they're utterly lost without their abilities! They keep moping around, and it's like watching a bunch of sad puppies try and pick themselves up! So…there!"
Nina turned to Keagan, a smug smirk on her face.
"Altruistic, you said?"
"Holy shit, did that actually work?" whispered Tattletale.
Keagan merely crossed his arms as he turned away. "Just remember, every Aster that happens from here on out is on your head. They'll be doing that shit on your authority. I want nothing to do with them."
And with those harsh parting words, he left.
"Wait! Did the honesty shit really work?! Holy crap! I thought this was theleastlikely plan to work!"
...
Nina crossed her arms and did her best to look tough.
"You're not off the hook," she said sternly. "Takedown said a lot of things I didn't like, but I do agree with him on one thing; you have to face the repercussions of your actions."
The six teenagers nodded quickly.
"That seems fair."
"Incredibly reasonable."
"I'm all about that accountability, Boss!"
"When's our food getting here?"
"That means that you wil lturn yourselves in. You will be charged with your crimes. You will take the deal to become Probationary Wards. And your parents will be contacted."
"Um, actually, about that…"
Sigh.
"Those of you whose parents are murderers or are actively trying to ruin your life will be dealt with accordingly. Those whom have no parents will be treated as wards of the state. Those who have no such excuses will explain to your parents yourself what was going through your head when you thought putting on a costume to rob people was a good idea."
Grue stiffened and Taylor seemed to shrink into herself, but they both gave short nods as they agreed.
"After that, should your parents agree, you will be going through a very extensive physical education with me. When I deem you physically ready, Takedown will be the one to administer a test of loyalty. Should you pass, then, and only then, will you regain your powers in full. Once you've been registered as probationary Wards, you will be given very restricted versions of your powers. Shortened range, less power, time limits, all of that stuff."
The Undersiders all looked at each other, then nodded as one.
"We're in."
"So, I gotta ask; what possessed you guys to go through all that trouble just to get your powers back? I mean, there was a fifty-fifty chance that you were going to die today, especially if Takedown had been the only one here. I mean, Regent's idea wasn't a bad one. Numberman would've had you set up for life."
"...you've never been powerless, have you?" said Taylor quietly. "I know-knew-girls like you. Girls who had it all, and now your powers just put you on a different level than even parahumans. You don't know what it's like to feel clumsy and small. You don't know what it's like to feel that the world is against you. You don't know what it's like to go home and feel like your walking to a fucking crypt. My power was all I had. Itisall I have. To you, it might be a disgusting thing I should be glad not to have anymore. To me, it was the only thing that made me worth anything."
Nina merely stared at her, not saying a word. But the lights above them began to flicker, the air began to smell of ozone, and her red eyes became slitted pupils. The Undersiders shifted uncomfortably.
"I am going to let that go because you are clearly depressed, and a newbie cape to boot," she said softly. "But let me tell you this. When it comes to
parahumans, the more powerful they are, the more horrible shit they went through. Bug control means you went through some shit. The stuff I can do? I went through hell to get where I am today.Never, ever, make the assumption that my life was all roses before this happened to me."
Suddenly, she relaxed, and the lights went back to normal, her red eyes becoming human pupils again.
"Alright new minions, eat up! After this, you're going to be heroes!"
...
Keagan growled as he paced across the hospital roof.
What the hell was wrong with Nina? Had she learned absolutely nothing from this world?
Did she have some kind of selective memory?
Or were her shonen tendencies more dangerous than he thought?
He didn't like the Undersiders; they were all a particular flavor of fucked up, and he wanted absolutely nothing to do with them.
He had finally accepted that this world was different and that in this one, Khepri was unlikely to happen. What Prime Khepri had gone through ould no longer be replicated here, and that meant there was absolutely no reason for him to even acknowledge her existence.
Taylor's story was sad. However, this morning, he had seen sadder. Taylor could have told the police who pushed her into the locker. She could have told her father. She could've gone to the school board. She could have gone to the media after recording actual evidence, like videos and pictures, rather than just journal entries and anonymous emails. She could have asked Greg, who was the only one willing to socialize with her, for help in getting evidence or being a witness.
She did none of those things and merely decided to weather the storm, thinking it would pass. Then, when she refused to be proactive and reach competent authorities, she decided all officials were bad and decided to fuck up everything just to prove that her way was right.
Those kids, especially Taylor, needed dedicated psychiatric help, not to be put in positions of power. They didn't need to be given power, they needed to be given a reality check and answer for their actions. Maybe he was a hypocrite, considering that he'd first decide to only help out in emergencies, and was never punished for nearly destroying Brockton, but he was trapped here, far from home, forced to fight in a war that wasn't his. He'd say he was already paying for his sins in full.
"Hey," a familiar voice said softly. "Is now a bad time?"
Amy. Right, this was the hospital roof, where she'd come to smoke on her breaks. Back home, he'd always seen Amy as a tragic character; no matter which way her story went. She was someone who just wasn't destined for happiness. And now, he was…well, not a relationship, but it was something.
"Yes…no…I'm not sure," he admitted. "I'd like some company, but I'm scared of blowing up and scaring you. Not literally, of course, but still."
She slowly walked towards him, moving forward until she was right in front of him. Hesitantly, she touched his breastplate, right where his heart would be. He wondered what the significance of the action was.
"I…don't think you're the type of person to lose your temper for no reason, especially not at your friends."
He looked at her through the visor of his helmet. "Friends. Is that what we are?"
She blushed heavily but did her best to keep his gaze. "I…think friends would be a good starting point. But eventually…I think I would want to progress past that."
That was… surprisingly bold of her. He never remembered her being this assertive in Canon. But, then again, AU.
"Don't you think it'd be a little dangerous to be with me, considering who I am?"
She actually snorted at that. 'Don't flatter yourself. Once the news came out that I was as close to perfect healing as it got, I went on several organizations' hit lists. I've been kidnapped, what, nine times now? None of them ever made it out of Brockton, but still, don't think your status is a deterrent. If anything, it's a relief; Iknowthat I won't be putting you in danger, and you can clearly handle yourself."
"...why me? You're Panacea. You could literally pick and choose whoever you wanted, and they'd come kicking down the door. What makes me more attractive than them?"
"...one reason is your biological abilities," she admitted shyly. "I've never met someone who could do the things I could do on a scale you can. Well, the only one who isn't an S-class threat, anyway. I think we could learn a lot from each other, and I think we could help a lot of people by working together. It's a connection between us. The only two healing capes who aren't as crazy as Nilbog and Bonesaw. It feels…nice."
"And the other."
"What you said in Boston," she said as her hand traced the contours of his armor. "About not wanting the hero's life, about being scared of other parahumans, and how some of us are given the power that we don't want? I felt that. I understood it way better than you may ever know. I…I hate healing. I never got the chance to figure out what path I wanted to take. Carol chose this life for me. And I hold myself back so much because I'm always afraid of what might happen if I snap. Maybe if someone better, someone smarter, had my power, they could do much more with it. But it's my burden. If I can't help the world with my abilities, the least I can do is shield them from the horrors it can unleash."
…man, he was so going to regret this.
"Alright, before we decide on anything, we need to acknowledge one thing: I have secrets. That means occasionally, I will have to lie to you about where I've been or what I've been doing. I will try and be as open as I can, but if it's classified, I can't talk about it.
I like you a lot; I think you're attractive, I like your snarkiness, and I know you're smart, something that Ireally appreciate in a partner.
I acknowledge that both you and I have problems, but I would really like this relationship to be long-term. That means that we need totalk, to communicate. If you don't like something I've been doing, tell me about it straight-up.
Don't hide it from me. If I get jealous of some guy you work with at the hospital, then I'll tell you, straight up. Consent is also going to be a really big thing.
I won't touch if you don't want to be touched, and I expect that to go likewise. Heck, in some of my gear, touching me could be deadly.
So we need to have active communication going on between the two of us, and that's before we even become friends, let alone boyfriend and girlfriend."
"...that's it?" Amy asked a tone of bewilderment in her voice. "Just...talking?I've never seen something like that in the relationships I've been able to observe. Are you sure it works?"
"Yes.Now, I'd like to ask you something."
"Um, sure?"
"Are you okay with me revealing my identity to you?"
"Of course I am."
Keagan hesitated as he made to remove his helmet. This…this was serious. He was committing himself to an actual relationship with Amy Dallon, someone who he had just thought of as a story book character. He couldn't act like she wasn't real, that would be insulting to the both of them. There was no going back after this.
He took off his helmet.
"Hi, Amy Dallon. I'm Keagan Michaels."
"It's very nice to meet you, Keagan Michaels. I'm very happy to be your friend."
...
Jack was horribly bored. He'd already skinned and flayed seventeen men already, and it was starting to become dull. Normally, the Nine didn't stay in one part like this too long, but very recently, a very delicious opportunity had made its way to his ears, and now he eagerly waited for it.
If only she could be punctual…
If you wanted to terrorize the masses, you had to do it before they were ready to fight back, not after they had armed themselves. Then again, maybe she liked the challenge. She was a newborn, after all. That was something that he'd have to teach her, that sometimes running away to haunt them again was not a shameful thing. Tactical retreats were especially fun when you left a little surprise for the heroes to defuse before you left.
She was a beautiful specimen, a vision of strength and viciousness that had a strange sort of curiosity about her. She would be his crown gem, his Queen as he endeavored to make the world drown in its blood. Oh, he didn't doubt that he and his Nine would have to go all out; it was very likely that he'd be down by five members before the day was over. But she would be worth every single drop of blood that was shed today.
"Does anyone see her?" he asked for what must've been the fifth time that hour. "Remember, we can't let her catch us off guard."
"Nothing yet Uncle Jack!"
"She's not burning, so I don't see her."
"I don't see any sign of her, Jack."
"Not here."
"..."
"Crawler? What about you?"
Crawler gave a few grunts of exertion over the comms system that Alan had made.
"Busy. Call back later."
Jack frowned. "Busy with what? You and the Siberian killed all the heroes here days ago. What could you possibly-"
Jack felt a twinge in the back of his skull and immediately jumped back, just in time to see Crawler crash into his previous position with enough force to make the ground shake. Crawler's upper half was gone, and it was taking a much longer time to reform than Jack had ever remembered it being.
And only a few yards away, there she stood. His newest Fist of the Nine.
Glowing purple eyes glared at him from the hood of the cloak that obscured her beautiful face. He wondered what she would lie like with a few new scars to compliment her appearance.
"Jack Slash," Anubis said, her voice a monotone. "I've been searching for you."
"And I've been waiting, my dear death goddess," Jack said with an easy grin, the Nine rallying behind him. "I have been waiting for far longer than you can ever know."