2/17/11 - Afternoon

Amy, her forehead set on the table, was very, very conflicted right now.

She wanted to be happy. Victoria and she were in Leblanc, a cafe near the PHQ. Despite opening in the past month, they were touted as one of the best cafes in Brockton Bay. They gathered people in all walks of life, from the regular old Joe, the elderly in the area, to even the PRT themselves. She, on the other hand, was currently spending time with her sister, alone, without Victoria's boyfriend. And, for the first time ever, every hospital in Brockton Bay wasn't flooded with patients.

On the other, someone's been sneaking around the hospitals to heal the patients. Not just one or two, but all hospitals. And it wasn't just one or two patients being healed; every person in the building was healed, even the staff. However, the main issue was that no one remembered this event. Every person only recalled feeling safe and happy. The first time it happened, the PRT cordoned off the hospital, and every person went through Master/Stranger protocols. When they were cleared, the PRT called for Amy to make sure they were healed properly, and it wasn't just a biotinker fucking people on the inside.

The people weren't fucked up at all. They were fully healed. Maybe not to the same level Amy knew she could do, but they were definitely perfectly healthy now.

The worst part of it all, they healed the brain, too. Patients in coma were healed, too. She could tell their brains were fine. Nothing was wrong with them anymore.

And on top of all that, something weird has been happening with the gangs...

She wanted to groan in frustration. And now, she wasn't healing and currently under the constant surveillance of one Glory Girl.

Hmmm... Maybe this wasn't so bad.

"Another cup, Ms. Amy?" a voice asked beside her. "Though, after hearing that groan, perhaps caffeine isn't the best for you?"

Damn, she did groan.

"Pour me another, Ren."

She heard coffee pour down on her mug. "How silly of me to question you. And you, Ms. Victoria? Would you like another donut?"

"Pass me another one, please!" Victoria said in front of Amy.

Amy glanced at Ren, the owner of Leblanc. Black hair, gray eyes framed with black square glasses, and a kind smile. How did someone like him become the owner of an entire cafe?

"Sizing him up, Amy?" Victoria stage whispered.

"No..."

"Are you interested? I never did try to hook you up with the quiet ones, always the jocks..." Victoria muttered.

"I'm not, Vicky!" No, she was not doing this again. Not another set up for a double date.

"Thank you for the vote of confidence, Ms. Victoria," Ren said with a chuckle, "but I must decline. My shop finally managed to get its foot off, and I'd like to strike while the iron is hot, as they say."

"C'mon! You can close for a day, right? Please?" Victoria said as she fluttered her eyes at him. Aaah, so pretty...

Ren, on the other hand, merely laughed. "Come on, Ms. Amy is the greatest healer in the world, and what do I have? A dinghy cafe? The prospects of a high school dropout aren't exactly amazing, you know."

"Oh wow, planning for the future already?"

"Again Vicky: I said no."

Vicky whined in front of her as the entrance bell chimed.

"Ah, Ms. Lisa, good afternoon," Ren greeted. "I'll have your order in just a moment."

"Thanks, Ren! I know how much you hated doing this order, but you're a lifesaver!"

Laying it on thick, isn't she?

Amy glanced at the new customer. Blonde hair in a bun but still had bangs on the sides of her face, and freckles peppered Lisa's face.

Hmm... Amy didn't recognize her, but Lisa noticed her staring, and she smiled back.

"Oh, is something wrong, Panacea?"

She shook her head before facing back to her table. "No, not at all."

Lisa hummed. "Please don't use Ren as a sacrifice. I need his magic juice, you know."

Amy whipped her head at Lisa. "I wasn't even-! Also, phrasing!"

"Please say coffee, Ms. Lisa," Ren groused at the counter. "Also, don't rile up my customers. Not everyone is...used to you."

Lisa skipped to the counter with a smile. "Aw, are you jealous? Don't worry, I'll start talking like that only to you!"

"It would be better if you didn't do that from the start," Ren fired back before presenting a box with cups, stirrers, sugar, and cream packets. "Coffee box for fifteen dollars."

"How bad did you feel when making this?" Lisa asked with a foxy smile, like she knew the answer and wanted him to say it, as she handed him cash.

"Hated every second of it. Know that the coffee in this box won't be as good fresh, never mind an hour later," Ren replied, smiling back an annoyed smile of his own while receiving her payment.

"You're the best!"

Lisa finally left the cafe with a wave.

"Here's your donut, Ms. Victoria. Would you like more coffee?"

"Yes, please. Also, I didn't think you did coffee boxes like with Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts."

"I don't, at least before," Ren said with a sigh. "But, ever since the PRT visited, they've been wanting more and more until Assault basically pitched me the idea of a coffee box."

"You didn't say no?" Amy asked.

"Business is business, and I need the money," Ren answered with a shrug. "Ever since I started selling the item, I've gotten busier and busier. I also started getting orders for Med Hall, you know?"

"So that's why you said you wanted to strike while the iron was hot..." Amy muttered.

"Exactly. I even managed to find a budget for a part-time worker," Ren said excitedly.

"But didn't you say you hated making the item?" Amy asked.

Ren nodded. "And I do. However, it's getting so much revenue that I can't exactly say no."

"Do you plan on franchising?" Victoria asked. "Branch out and all that."

Ren chuckled. "That is where I put my foot down. I'd sacrifice quality, and I can't keep an eye on other branches while manning this one."

"But aren't you sacrificing quality for the coffee box?" Amy asked

Ren hummed. "I can at least keep an eye on a part-timer brewing the coffee for a coffee box. I'll also be around to help out, if anything. Plus, I don't want to go out into a gang's territory."

Victoria grit her teeth. "Right... The Empire would destroy your store while the ABB will just extort it for money."

Right, a Japanese-owned coffee store with a French name. That wouldn't go well with the white supremacists, and the ABB's protection racket is their modus operandi. Despite the gangs' weakening, a civilian still wouldn't want to face any level of gang violence.

Ren nodded. "Indeed. At least this location is near the PRT, where I'm relatively safe."

A shadow fell over the table, and Amy looked at the direction where it came from. Something was falling from the sky. Scratch that, multiple things were falling from the sky.

"What the hell?"

The bell chimed again, and another girl entered the store. She has wavy, brown hair and large eyes. Just like Ren, she wore square glasses.

"Hey Taylor, welcome. You can grab an apron in-" Ren greeted before noticing what was happening outside. "What's going on outside?"

"Ren, cards were falling from the sky!" Taylor, who Amy assumed was the part-timer, shouted. She held up a bright red card. Scratch that, black and bright red card. "I was on my way here, and I managed to snatch this one!"

Ren went over the card with a critical eye after taking it from Taylor. "Is this one of those calling cards?" he asked.

"I'm positive."

Ren presented the card to Victoria and Amy. "You two are the capes among us. What's your take on this?"

Amy took the card from him, and Victoria floated next to her.

"'Sir Kaiser, the great sinner of pride. Your mistaken vanity has led you to terrorize people of different walks of life, so long as they don't appear the same as you. Not only that, you don't truly care about the words you spout, seeing the very people you lead as nothing but tools. Your tyranny ends today. Thus, I have decided to make you confess all your crimes with your own mouth. From, the Phantom Thief, Joker,'" Amy read out. "Corny ass..."

"It's the wordiest I've seen," Victoria said. "Usually, it's just, 'I know what you did, and you will confess your crimes with your own mouth.' Joker even calls Kaiser a great sinner."

"This is definitely targeting Kaiser," Amy concluded as she kept inspecting the card. "It mentions terrorizing people, which is probably the Empire 88, but seeing them as tools? That's new."

"I've never even heard about that," Victoria said before turning to Taylor. "You mentioned this was falling from the sky? Can you be more specific?"

"Huh?" Taylor looked up from her phone. "Oh. I don't think I can be any more specific? I was just making my way here, then a card fell on top of my head. I looked up, and there were a bunch of cards just falling from the sky," she replied before going back to her phone. "It's starting to make rounds in the PHO. Cards fell on the Boardwalk and the Docks, too. Wait, it's falling in Downtown, too. Oh shit..."

"What's wrong?" Victoria asked as she floated over to Taylor's side.

"The Empire's starting to move. We might have a war..." Taylor muttered in horror.