AN: And that's why I put that disclaimer at the start of this fic. I'm expecting uploads to get more regular, but no hard promises. Also, y'all got lucky by two weeks, as it turns out I didn't have backlog for the fic I thought I had backlog for, which I was originally planning on updating first. Once every two weeks is my upload schedule for the moment, but I hope to improve that sometime in the next few months. As I'm sharing my time between works it'll probably still be a month or two until the next update for this fic, though. On the plus side, it's the one I'm currently prioritizing.

AN: Also, I rewrote the hospital/opening scene. It still develops pretty much the same, but characterization hopefully feels better, and we switch back to Amy's PoV at some point during the conversation to show her motivation for accepting Taylor's suggestion to meet up. The old version of the scene will be archived on SpaceBattles as an Apocrypha threadmark, for those who want to compare.

Recruiting Rune was going to take some effort.

Certainly, I wouldn't be able to talk her around in one go. But at the very least there were some openings, some starting points. Most notably, it seemed part of her motivation for joining the Empire in the first place had been to get back at her overly controlling parents, who had distanced themselves from the Empire, though they did still hold the same bigoted beliefs.

Another component, which I figured might well be vital, was that she didn't fully believe in the Empire propaganda, though she did believe in it enough to consider Emma a 'race traitor' for being friends with Sophia. But that minor bit of uncertainty was a starting point that I could use with my power.

There was also something else I'd noticed. At one point, Emma and I had briefly considered coming up with a Sophia-related sob story; either me seeking protection from the Empire, or her having a falling-out with Sophia. We'd discarded the idea immediately as it made our very thoughts feel dirty, but when my power indicated that faking Empire sympathies would be a relatively easy way to get into Rune's good graces, I realized that it hadn't suggested that angle until we brought it up. My gut feeling was that my power wouldn't give me suggestions I wasn't willing to follow up on.

There was another angle that I was willing to pursue, though, but it was a matter of waiting for the right opportunity.

Right then, my phone buzzed, shaking me out of my thoughts. I quickly checked the message to find that Amy Dallon had confirmed the meetup spot and time, and put it away again. My thoughts drifted back to the Wednesday afternoon when we'd bought the phone and Emma had come clean to her parents. In the end, we'd agreed that I would visit at least once a week to allow them to keep tabs on what Emma was doing outside of their purview, which I didn't particularly mind as we had a lot of sleepovers to catch up on – even if I now spent my nights browsing PHO, drawing, writing or whatever solitary activity I felt like doing instead of sleeping.

"Alright, open up," Emma said, jostling me out of my thoughts once more. "What are you thinking about?"

I shrugged half-heartedly. The two of us were alone at our table in the cafeteria, and in particular with Emma's power there was no way anyone could listen in on us unnoticed, so we could talk freely. "Just… the past week, you know. It's been quite something. And I was thinking about Tammi." That was Rune's civilian name, Emma had told me, and we used it instead of 'Rune' for the sake of added safety.

"My power tells me that you're putting more value on working with her than on working with Sophia," Emma observed. "Which might not be so surprising, if it weren't for the part where you don't actually dislike Sophia as much as I might've expected."

I thought about that.

"You might be right. Do you think there's something about my power that influences it?"

"Maybe," Emma said slowly. "I also get the feeling you're thinking about those two more than anyone else here, so there's probably something related to them being parahumans in the first place."

"Another one for the list of power-related things we don't understand," I said. That list was growing longer and longer, with precious few answers for my liking. The trigger event in the hospital, my strange power set – some nightly research seemed to contradict my previous theory that I might be a grab-bag cape – my intuitive understanding of my own powers, this, and…

"Speaking of," I said, "it still bothers me that Sophia's power pushes her to fighting and violence. It just doesn't feel right. Same with Tammi, to a degree, but at least her power isn't actively geared to avoiding fights. And I'd have to see her again to make sure, but I feel like there was something off when I was talking to Panacea as well, and now that I've felt a few other powers, I suspect it might be the same thing."

"And you said our powers don't do that?" Emma asked.

"No," I replied. "My power just wants me to recruit people, which can cause friction but can also reduce it, and your power just wants you to have a lot of social contact with a lot of people, in particular in a group setting like here at school, and you'd do that anyway so it's just… it sounds a bit weird, but I feel like it's just sitting back and relaxing while watching, you know."

"You keep talking about powers like they're people," Emma said, frowning slightly. "Why is that?"

"I'm not sure myself," I admitted. "It just feels… right, I suppose? I never really thought about where powers came from before this, but I guess they can't just pop up out of nowhere, can they?"

"I suppose—no, wait, back to Tammi."

"What?" I asked.

"Pretty sure she's about to make a move. Three girls, her included, so it doesn't get better than this."

I glanced to the side, where Tammi was still sitting with six other people – including three guys – at another table, chatting just like they had been for the entire lunch break. Emma hadn't even looked their way.

Powers were bullshit.

We went through the plan one more time while I did my very best to not glance in Tammi's direction – even if I did, there was no way I'd be able to beat Emma's power-enhanced social awareness.

It took five minutes before Emma interrupted me mid-sentence. She stood up and I followed her lead as we made our way through the cafeteria. Tammi and two other girls stood up several seconds after us, and they also exchanged a few more words with the others from their group before actually leaving. And in a different direction, at that.

Emma led me through a few corridors, and a minute later, we turned a corner to find Tammi and the Empire sympathizers intimidating a black girl from the year below ours. Here, I took the lead from Emma. The news that we'd reconciled had made it's way through the school, and in particular our year, quite quickly thanks to Emma's popularity, which meant that most people knew about it even if they found it surprising. However, Emma was still the girl that was friends with a black girl, while I was still the girl that got bullied by that black girl. And even though we weren't going to use that in our recruitment attempt, it still meant Tammi would be more receptive to my arguments than to Emma's arguments, even if they were the exact same.

Plus, there was the part where my power assisted me to a degree in conversations like this, while Emma would have to rely on her own social skills. Between the two, my power was superior.

"What are you doing?" I demanded. Was my tone a bit rude? Possibly. But then, I had little patience for bullying, and even less for bigotry.

Tammi – the leader of the trio of blondes according to what Emma had told me while we were preparing – turned to me.

"Making sure this bitch doesn't get any ideas from Hess' behavior, of course," she snappishly responded. "I'd think you of all people would get that. Or did that race traitor over there mess with your brain?"

Technically, yes, as she made me trigger.

"The only one here who's acting like they've been inspired by Hess is you," I pointed out.

"The fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"You're three-on-one harassing a girl who hasn't done anything just because she 'shouldn't get any ideas'. I don't know about you, but that sounds very familiar to me indeed."

"We're protecting people like you," Tammi argued.

I scoffed. "Fat load of protecting you did for me the last year and a half. If you only do it when it's to your advantage, it's not protection, it's opportunism. I can't remember any of you Empire wannabes ever giving a crap about how Sophia treated me, heck, you'd think I'd at least have had to deal with a recruitment attempt or two, but not even that. No, you're just ignoring her and going after girls who wouldn't hurt a fly because that way you can be sure they aren't going to fight back.

"Sophia might be a bitch, but at least she'd punch a Nazi if she saw them bullying someone. I can't say the same thing the other way around."

The black girl tried to sneak out.

"Hey, where are you going?" one of Tammi's goons called out.

"How about you let her leave?" I asked, taking a step towards the goon.

She turned to me with a snarl on her face. "I don't need to take shit from you, locker girl."

I sucked in a breath, barely avoiding a spiral of panic.

"I'd be more careful if I were you, Jennifer," Emma said before I'd even found my balance, and I felt another spike of panic at the familiar venom in her tone before realizing it wasn't aimed at me. "Or else everyone might learn who you've been crushing on. And how they responded when you confessed. And that's before we get into your brother's… proclivities. I sure hope you don't have those tendencies, or you might get yourself into trouble with the law. Then again, I suppose you're already associating with the right people to get into a life of crime anyway? It's just, there's still a difference between muggings and that."

The girl – Jennifer – seemed torn between retaliating or fleeing for a few seconds, but managed to get herself under enough control to turn to Tammi first.

"Let's go. This shit isn't worth it."

She didn't wait for an answer, and Tammi was visibly displeased at that. She turned towards me for one last remark about sticking my nose in other people's business, then followed Jennifer, her other goon right behind her.

Their victim looked at me and Emma for a second, then squeaked out a thanks before slipping away, but I was already focusing entirely on my friend.

Emma had seemed composed while talking to Jennifer, but now she was shaking visibly, and as I stepped up to her, she collapsed into my arms and started crying.

I hugged her close to me and made a few calming noises. "Are you okay, Emma?" I asked, concerned.

"N-no," she responded. "It's just so easy. I… I thought I wasn't going to do that anymore, and one stupid insult like that and I'm flying right off and tearing her down!"

I felt conflicted. I could see why Emma was upset, yet I also thought this was an entirely different situation from how she'd treated me.

"But you did it for someone else, this time," I pointed out.

"It was still far too easy," Emma objected.

"And she's an Empire wannabe."

"I don't want to be like that anymore," Emma said. "It reminds me of how I was to you. It's – it's my fault you were even in there in the first place. And it made you trigger, no one should – no one should ever be reminded of that."

"Shhh, I'm fine," I said. Strangely, I actually felt like being reminded of my trigger affected me less than I'd have expected, although it was still something I tried to avoid thinking about if at all possible – less than expected wasn't a high bar to clear.

"And Emma?"

"Hm?"

"I'll be there, and I'll tell you if you're being a bitch. Promise."

"I was a bitch."

"No, you were defending me against someone who glorifies a life of crime and believes black people are inferior," I objected.

Emma made a noise that I could identify as reluctant agreement thanks to the many years we'd been friends. Some things hadn't changed just because there'd been a rift.

"I'll keep an eye on you, Emma," I said again. "I know you even better now than I did in the past, and I won't let you slide back, because I know just how much you'd hate yourself."

"Thanks," she murmured.

I squeezed the hug before letting go. "We should get ready for class."

She nodded, drying her eyes. "Yeah." She hesitated. "Did it work? With Tammi? Or did I screw that up too?"

"It's going to be… a process," I said. And not one I was looking forward to. "But I think this was an acceptable starting point. I won't say 'good', but at least I don't think we made it worse, and we did establish contact, which is the most important thing right now. It was never going to be a single-conversation thing, I think."

"I guess not."

I gave her a smile. "And now it's time to get our head back into the education game."

She snorted. "I wish it was a game. That'd imply it was fun."

"Learning is fun," I argued playfully.

Friday night marked our first normal sleepover since the summer of 2009, as I went with Emma to her place after school and stayed there for the night. It all felt a little surreal, like a memory of times gone by, of a simpler and happier life.

The simplicity would never return, we both knew that much, but at least we agreed that we were both happier than we'd been since the ABB's attack – or even Mom's accident, in my case.

We'd even tried sharing the bed like we'd always done in the past – also the first time I even tried to sleep after realizing I no longer needed it – but we quickly changed our mind. It was one thing that we'd entered puberty, but what made it worse was that we'd both discovered an interest in girls, but were very clear about not having such an interest in one another.

Which also caused a bit of a strange – but funny – moment, as neither of us had known about the other's realizations, leading to us coming out to each other at the same time.

In the end I'd taken the mattress that we'd prepared on the ground just in case, and I'd confirmed that I could, indeed, sleep if I really wanted to. It felt a little strange to do, however, and I couldn't help but think it was a bit of a waste of time even though it gave the sleepover experience a more authentic feel.

We spent the Saturday morning together doing a variety of things, but as lunchtime approached, I said my good-byes to Emma and left to meet Panacea, after which I'd be going straight home.

I entered the café right on time for our meeting, and quickly noticed Panacea sitting at a table near the window in civilian clothes, in part thanks to my power immediately suggesting that I should try to recruit her.

Which was interesting, because it had taken a few minutes for Tammi to stand out among the Winslow crowd, yet here it was immediate. And while it was Emma who had noticed I was more eager to recruit Tammi than Sophia, I didn't need anyone's help to realize the difference when it came to Panacea.

It wasn't actually a stronger impulse than when I'd just woken up in the hospital last week, but I was more familiar with my powers now, and that made the difference quite clear. And speaking of, I also had a much easier time divining what felt off about her power than I did last week, and it was the same thing as with Sophia and Tammi; an inexplicable push that didn't match up with her abilities at all.

I sat down opposite the healer and we exchanged greetings. Before either of us brought up anything else, a waitress approached and took our orders. Once she was gone, Amy – as I should probably think of her, considering she wasn't in costume – was the first to speak up.

"So, that flying cape that was spotted last Tuesday. I thought you told me you had a Thinker power, but the timing seems rather… suspicious to me."

Despite the words, I got the impression that she was mostly confused, probably trying to figure out whether it could possibly be me even though I'd demonstrated my Thinker power in our previous conversation.

"I do have a Thinker power," I confirmed, speaking quietly so that we wouldn't be overheard. "But I also have a Breaker power, and yes, that was me. I hadn't yet worked out the details back when we last talked."

"That's a weird combination," Amy said with a frown. "You've got a Thinker power that's always working, and a separate Breaker power?"

"I don't get it either," I admitted. "I did some research, and my situation doesn't fit with grab-bag or cluster triggers, nor could I find anything else that might give someone such unrelated powers."

"Can I inspect you?" Amy asked.

I held my hand forward and allowed her to touch it.

"Are you using your power right now?"

"Is there something weird?" I asked. I would prefer not telling her about the part of my power that helped me get people – and in particular parahumans – on my side; I wasn't sure whether she'd react well to that.

"Your corona pollentia is showing activity levels consistent with power usage."

"I do get the impression that my power appreciates this meeting," I said carefully.

"Appreciates?" Amy asked, confused. "What do you mean by that?"

"My, uhm…" I trailed off. "You know, the Unwritten Rules don't make this easy to explain. I've been talking to someone who also has powers, and they were also surprised at this, but I often feel like my power is… alive, in a way, I guess? And has goals."

"Weird. I've never felt anything like that."

"I'm thinking it might be part of my ability to understand powers," I said. "The person I was talking to, for example, has a power that wants them to be socially active, because the power provides a better understanding of social situations. My power wants me to interact with capes, although it doesn't care whether they're actually in their cape identity or not."

Amy frowned. "Your power doesn't give a shit about the Unwritten Rules, does it?"

"It doesn't," I admitted. "But I'm keeping anything I might learn strictly to myself; I don't want to piss off the gangs." Well, myself and Emma. And whoever else might be convenient. In reality, I had to admit to myself, I only cared about the Unwritten Rules in that I didn't want to make enemies by breaking them.

"Smart," Amy nodded. "My power is the same. If I touch someone, I know they're a parahuman. I've healed several people that I suspect are villains, but I am not going to cause a stir about that because there's no way that'll end well for me. Right now there's the unspoken agreement that everyone keeps their hands off of me because healers are so rare, and I'd prefer to keep it that way."

"Anyway, there's also a bunch of powers that just seem weird to me." I leaned closer to Amy, lowering my voice further. "For example, I go to school with Shadow Stalker, and her power constantly pushes her to be aggressive or fight people. And all I can think is, why? It's a Stranger power, it would make much more sense for it to push her to spy on people or infiltrate somewhere."

"That is kind of weird," Amy admitted. "I'll be honest, I don't really like her. But you're right that her attitude doesn't really fit with her power well."

"I don't like her either," I said. "That's neither here nor there though. Thing is, your power is also being weird. First of all, it's incredibly bored with healing, which is something I can understand – there's nothing new there, just fixing human bodies to approximately the same state over and over again. But the thing is, while it'd like any kind of experimentation from your end, such as making minor, benevolent changes to plants or insects or something, it really wants you to go a lot further than that. Make entirely new species, preferably ones that can fight, alter people's minds in your favor, things like that."

Amy shuddered. "I don't even want to think about that."

"I get that," I said honestly. "I don't get why it's trying to push you to those things though. As an aside, I'm really glad you have the self-control you do. But it should be just as happy with the more benevolent experiments. You could help solve world hunger or combat climate change by fixing carbon – that's still a thing even if people don't really care anymore now that the Endbringers are a far more destructive and immediate threat to the human race. Instead it seems as if it's geared to make you do things that others will take offense with."

A silence fell as Amy seemed to be thinking something over. After a dozen seconds or so, she spoke up.

"It feels really weird to talk with a Thinker, you know."

"How come?" I asked.

"It's…" she made a random gesture with her hand. "This stuff, somewhere deep inside I knew most of it already, but I've never really talked about it with anyone, and then someone I don't even really know comes by and just… plucks it out."

"I didn't get too personal, did I?" I asked, worried – although my power seemed to think I was still on the right track.

"No, nothing like that," Amy said. "If anything, you've helped me figure out what's really bothering me. And to know that some of the ideas I have are because my power is pushing me in that way… it scares me, but at least that means it's not me, you know."

I nodded. "I guess it would feel scary if you think it's just your own thoughts guiding you there."

"Trust me, it's horrible," she said. "You've already given me a lot to think about, and we haven't even talked about your hospital trigger yet."

"I've tried to do some research," I said, "but I can't find anything that makes sense. Assuming those lights I saw and sounds I heard were from my powers before the second trigger, it's not a normal second trigger, because I have absolutely nothing like that now. I thought I might be a grab-bag cape – I'd heard that term before – but that seems to be a consequence of a group trigger, and that didn't happen for either of my triggers. And you know what the weirdest thing is?"

"Hm?"

"It's as if my power is agreeing with me that it has a weird power expression, in the same way it's pointing out that your or Shadow Stalker's urges are weird."

"That makes no sense."

"I agree," I said flatly.

"Can I inspect your body a little longer?"

I placed my hand back on the table, allowing Amy to touch me and interpret the information.

"There doesn't seem to be anything weird right now. Your corona pollentia has calmed down a little, although it still seems to be somewhat active. The gemma is normal, I'm not seeing anything that's off. Well, your overall happiness seems to have improved, and you appear less traumatized than I'd expect from such a relatively recent trigger. But neither of those are concerning."

"I made up with a former friend," I said. "I don't really want to go into too much detail about what was going on, but it's made my life a lot more enjoyable than it was previously."

Amy nodded while I thought the rest of her statement over.

"You know," I said, "I already noticed this earlier, but I feel like my trigger impacted me less than I'd have expected, if that makes sense? I still don't really want to think about it, but if you'd have asked me a week ago what I'd expect to feel about it, it'd definitely be worse than what I'm actually feeling. I wonder whether my power is involved there."

"You mean it's somehow influencing your emotions?"

"Kind of, yeah," I said. "My Breaker state actually has an aura that makes friends more hopeful while making enemies doubt themselves – it reminded me a bit of your sister's aura. Maybe it somehow influences me in a similar way."

Amy snorted. "Maybe that's why Vicky is so vain sometimes."

I chuckled. "I have never met her myself but she seems… enthusiastic, let's keep it at that."

It appeared the powers-related part of the conversation was over, but we kept talking for a good while longer before going home. I hadn't expected to talk to the girl for a full hour, but we seemed to get along decently well, and a repeat was on the table as far as I was concerned.

AN: Join my discord server here: discord dot gg slash xKJKNjY