Chapter 2

After a quick word from Legend asking the nurse's station for a private place to talk, a man led us away. I had Legend and Miss Militia flanked on either side, while Clockblocker and Armsmaster followed behind. We walked in silence, which grew heavier the further we got from the chaos of the emergency room.

I must have looked like a prisoner being escorted to a cell. Felt like it too.

We went past a waiting area, up a flight of stairs and down a corridor before the nurse stopped to unlock a door, then stepped aside to let us into an empty examination room. Legend motioned for me to go in first.

I walked to the examination table on the other side of the room. Dark clouds were visible through the large window above it, but I didn't feel any rain through the bugs outside.

Despite the window, the room felt claustrophobic even before I turned around, and the feeling doubled once I heard Armsmaster lock the door behind him. I took a deep breath, settled myself against the table, and sent the bugs under my armor. There was no point in keeping them on my face. That damage was already done.

An impassive mask hid both my relief at the loss of the hundreds of tiny legs crawling on my skin and my apprehension about the immediate future.

The heroes formed a loose half-circle in front of me. Clockblocker was the closest, which didn't exactly fill me with confidence about how they expected this conversation to go. He leaned against the white cabinets on my left, arms crossed.

Legend stood a few steps away from him. I was grateful for his presence, both because of his authority over Armsmaster and because I could be sure at least one person here didn't have a personal grudge against me.

Next to him, Armsmaster blocked my way to the door. I couldn't tell whether it was a coincidence or if he genuinely thought I was dumb enough to go past Legend and make a run for it, but I was inclined to think he wasn't taking chances after our last meeting.

Miss Militia stood on the far right of the group, and while I could see a dark blur of energy shifting around her, her hands remained empty. Trying not to look threatening, presumably, although it would be much more effective if I wasn't already outnumbered and ridiculously overpowered.

Legend broke the silence. "Panacea mentioned that you have a brain injury that's not fully healed. Are you apt to take decisions?"

I thought about it for a second, swallowing to soothe the dryness in my throat. "I… think so?"

He didn't look convinced by my admittedly not very convincing answer, so I elaborated. "I got a concussion a month ago because of Bakuda, but I don't have symptoms anymore, so I thought it was already healed."

He nodded and exchanged a look with Armsmaster before speaking again. "The person who attacked you is Shadow Stalker, a local Ward."

"What?" I blinked a few times, trying to reconcile the words with the gruesome scene staring Hookwolf that my imagination had supplied. I hadn't even considered the possibility that it wouldn't be a villain. Even then, if I made a list of everyone who might have it in for me, she wouldn't have crossed my mind, unlike half the people in this room.

The more I thought about it, the less sense it made.

"Are you sure it was her?"

"Yes," Armsmaster answered in a clipped tone. "Shadow Stalker was being treated near you. She was growing… impatient to be discharged, so a nurse came to get Miss Militia and I to handle the situation. She was gone by the time we got there. We checked the main room, and the nurse checked the blue tags nearby."

"We use colored tags to mark whether someone's identity is on display," Legend added for my benefit, "to keep out everyone but the authorized personnel." He motioned for Armsmaster to continue.

"The nurse found her looking at you and called us in. Shadow Stalker attacked her, then you, then she used her power to go through a window before we could apprehend her. I called in Clockblocker to keep you on pause until Panacea was available. We sent PRT troopers after Shadow Stalker, but they haven't found her yet. She discarded her phone and all equipment with trackers in it. By the time you were stabilized and that the situation was under control, the four of us had seen you unmasked."

Before I could react, Legend raised his hands in a placating gesture. "To address the first matter, we are doing our best to catch her, and you can be assured that her actions will be punished. Blatant violations of the truce are treated with the utmost seriousness, no matter which side it comes from or why."

He paused, giving me an opening to say something. I didn't.

He continued, "That being said, because of her status as a Ward, I would like to understand the situation better, if you are willing to share. This information will not be used against you."

I didn't like the implication.

"Is there a history that we should be aware of?" Legend asked.

The first thing that came to mind was her intervention at the mall and subsequent letter painting me as a violent, riot-starting lunatic who assaulted poor innocent Emma, but that wasn't really something I could mention. Then again, it was a little extreme to think that she would try and murder me solely because she saw me punch a random civilian in the face weeks ago.

"Not really. I don't know why she would do this."

"We were hoping that you could enlighten us on that," Miss Militia insisted, as if I were being deliberately obtuse.

I tried to ignore the flare of annoyance in favor of keeping my voice casual. "Sorry, I got nothing. We've only crossed paths once in costume, and it wasn't a one-on-one fight."

Reminding them of the scene we made during the fundraiser might not be my brightest idea, so I hurried to change the subject. "I saw her one other time when she was doing crowd control at a mall during the curfew a few weeks ago, but I was there as a civilian. That's it. That's the extent of our interactions before today."

Why would she attack me? Armsmaster made it sound like she stumbled in my enclosure by chance on her way out, so she didn't purposely set out to come after me. Not personal then. Something else? Not directed to me specifically? Hm.

"She has a one-sided rivalry going on with Grue though, and she tried to kill him before."

I felt more than saw the shift of surprise in Legend's posture before he shot a look at Armsmaster. Clockblocker shifted his weight and looked away.

"Grue is another member of the Undersiders," Miss Militia tentatively informed Legend.

I continued, "She shot him with a hunting bolt. Wasn't the first time she came after him either." I shrugged. "It could be related."

I wasn't sure if her obsession with Grue ran deep enough to express it by proxy, but it was the closest thing I could see to a motivation. Still, it didn't feel right given the kind of punishment she was risking over this.

Miss Militia exchanged a look with Armsmaster, and I felt him give a barely perceptible nod, presumably a confirmation from his lie detector. He turned his attention back to me.

"Do you have any evidence?" he asked.

"Would you even accept evidence that comes from a villain?" I didn't bother hiding my irritation this time.

He didn't answer.

"She was carrying lethal ammunition today, other than the one she was provided against Leviathan," Legend sternly reminded his colleagues before holding up a small bag to show me its content.

Not that I could see anything beyond the smudge of red against the clear plastic.

"The bolt she used on you had a broadhead tip, typically used for hunting, and designed to inflict maximum damage when it is removed. This is not something that Wards are allowed to carry. It's consistent with what you're describing, and her playing vigilante behind our backs would explain why she had it in the first place. She dropped it on the way out, so we at least have some evidence. For now, let's focus on what happened here."

I tried not to picture the sensation of flesh ripping apart as a barbed arrow was wrenched out of my neck. I wasn't very successful.

Legend took a deep breath before continuing. "If you don't have much of a history in costume, then another possibility is that you know each other as civilians, since she saw you unmasked."

I froze.

"This puts us in a difficult position. Even in a situation like this, we're not legally allowed to reveal a Ward's identity without their consent, their legal guardian's consent, or a court order. This means we cannot confirm or deny any guesses you make. On the other hand, your identity is also at stake. We've seen you unmasked, which is another matter we need to address. There are…"

I wasn't listening anymore. I didn't know many violent teenage girls who would lash out like this if they found out I was a cape.

I could only think of one, really.

The ear Brian had stitched up throbbed with phantom pain as Sophia's words from the bookstore took a whole different meaning.

Legend was still talking. I heard the individual words of a question, but couldn't connect them to their meaning. He looked at me, expecting an answer.

They were all looking at me.

I said nothing.

The crackling of my power was almost unbearable, but it was also the most real thing I could feel.

I was aware of the goose bumps running from between my shoulder blades all the way to the top of my scalp. Of the blood draining from my face, and the shallow intakes of breath that didn't carry enough oxygen. Of my fingers digging into the faux-leather covering of the examination table behind me, my palms crinkling the paper that was spread over it.

At the same time, the feelings were wrong, disconnected, like it wasn't really my body.

Sophia was a Ward, and a number of things made sense now, in the worst possible way.

I had no doubt that the school knew, and an ugly feeling bloomed in my stomach as I reviewed a handful of incidents in this new light.

I could imagine Mr. Gladly rationalizing that since I'd already turned his help down, he was really just respecting my choice instead of not doing his job by walking away while I got bullied right in front of him. The fact that he wouldn't have to jeopardize his Cool Teacher status in front of the Cool Teenage Superhero was just a bonus.

It crossed my mind that he might be amongst the casualties from the shelter. I didn't know how to feel about that.

I could imagine my teachers hesitating to scold their resident superhero, or rationalizing her actions, or giving her more weight in a words-against-words situation on the sole basis that she was one of the so-called good guys.

Someone called out my name. I ignored them.

I could imagine the faculty looking at the accusations I made from that perspective, and labeling me as the troublemaker because it was the easy thing to do.

I thought back to the smug look on Emma's face at the school meeting, before her dad used Shadow Stalker's testimony to blackmail us out of going to the media. The majority of people in that room probably knew who she was and what kind of line it crossed, but still let it happen.

Shouts erupted.

"Skitter. Calm down. Stop."

Stop? I wasn't doing anything.

I could see myself from the outside better than I could process the alien sensations from my body. It took me conscious effort to focus on my own sensory input.

Legend was a foot in front of me, inches above the ground, hands raised in a placating gesture that would also allow him to fire at me if needed. Clockblocker kept himself as far as physically possible while still gripping my shoulder with one hand, waiting for the go-ahead to use his power.

I'd been using mine since the moment Panacea left, and the gathered swarm had responded to my emotions. Streams of bugs were making their way into the room from every opening, from the crack under the door to the electrical outlets and the tiles in the ceiling, converging to join the ones already wreathed around me.

Behind Legend, I could see Miss Militia, armed. The gun was aimed at my head, but her attention was on the window.

Oh.

I twisted my neck to look.

The window was completely blacked out. I couldn't see the individual bugs with my crappy vision, but my power provided me with an order of magnitude for their number.

I dismissed them, and they responded noticeably faster than usual, clearing the outside walls in a matter of seconds. The bugs that were already around me went under my armor, and I sent the rest out of the room.

My range was larger than it had ever been, even earlier today. I never got an answer from Tattletale about why that happened. I wasn't sure what to make of it now.

I wasn't sure what to make of any of this.

Tattletale… I hoped she was okay. The armband had called her as a loss, ambiguous as it was, and I was too emotionally drained to examine what it meant. I directed the bugs back to surveying the building, hoping to find her.

Armsmaster and Miss Militia's combat stances hadn't relaxed the slightest bit with the disappearance of the swarm. Armsmaster had somehow produced a halberd, although it wasn't the one I had used against Leviathan, and his agility would be limited by the missing arm.

Clockblocker's hand was still on my shoulder.

"It's okay," Legend said, and it took me a moment to understand that I wasn't the only one being addressed. Miss Militia's weapon blurred and reappeared by her side. Legend gave a subtle nod for Clockblocker to put his hand away.

I was light-headed from the crackling in my ears, heartbeat sounding in my throat and skin clammy enough to make me shiver. My headspace was dangerously close to what it had been during the school meeting.

I needed to get out of here fast.

"You said I'm not under arrest. Am I being detained?" I asked, speaking slowly to keep my voice from cracking.

"It is preferable that no one leaves until we have a resolution," Legend answered.

"What happens if we don't?"

"We'll try."

I snorted.

"We were prepared to offer you a deal even before this happened, but given the circumstances, the best solution would be for you to join the Wards as a probationary member."

There it was.

"No."

"No? You did good today. You made a difference, and for that, we wanted to give you a chance."

"No," I repeated.

He sighed. "I'm guessing I'm right about you possibly knowing each other as civilians? Like I said before, we can't reveal her identity, but we'll proceed under the assumption that you are right for the sake of this conversation."

Was I right?

I hadn't really considered any other possibility, but then again, no one else fit the part as well as she did.

It couldn't be Emma, since I'd seen her at the same time as Shadow Stalker. It couldn't be Madison, since Shadow Stalker matched me in height, which made her at least six inches taller than Madison. Someone like Julia or one of the more peripheral bullies wouldn't have had this kind of knee-jerk reaction.

Part of me wanted to believe that Sophia wouldn't go this far, but when folding the idea of powers with the way she'd attacked me at the bookstore, it was harder to dismiss. She would take pride in having powers, in seeing concrete proof of her own perceived superiority. A justification to step on everyone else.

Finding out I was a cape too, after everything? That would be a massive blow to her ego. I could imagine her snapping, especially if she knew she was about to be arrested for breaking the truce.

Legend accepted my silence as answer enough, and continued, "This situation is serious. We need the truce. We need everyone to come together against the Endbringers, because that's the only way we stand a chance. Which means that when incidents like this happen, we have to resolve them in a manner that is satisfactory to everyone involved, and make sure that there are no repeats. Otherwise, people stop showing up, and then everyone loses."

I nodded.

"A Ward behaving like this means we have to do an investigation, with or without your cooperation. If you have a history out of costume that's significant enough to escalate like this, we will almost certainly find your civilian identity along the way, even if we're not purposely looking for it. We can't not investigate, even knowing that this will compromise your identity, because we have to hold ourselves accountable and understand how this could have been prevented."

Fuck me, he was right. Finding me would be all too easy, even if I said nothing. My reaction made it undeniably clear that Legend was right about us knowing each other, and any of her friends could point them in my direction.

Once the heroes started questioning Emma, would she realize I was a cape too? The thought of her knowing twisted something ugly in my stomach.

I'd spent months looking forward to going out as a cape, to make a difference in the world. To do something that mattered. It's what kept me going at school, when I had nothing else to look forward to. I'd even fantasized about the bullies finding out, just to see the look on their faces once they realized who they'd been messing with. It was never serious, just wish-fulfillment. It never even crossed my mind that one of them might have powers too.

Now? I wanted nothing less than to be the villain to Sophia's hero.

Would Emma feed them lies to minimize her involvement and to shift as much blame as possible onto me and away from Sophia and herself? Definitely.

Would they believe her? Maybe.

Since there wasn't much evidence one way or the other, it would all come down to words against words, as usual, and she would have her dad backing her up and twisting the law in her favor. I was a villain as far as they were concerned, and they would be more inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to someone on their side.

Armsmaster had a lie detector, but the truth about Sophia's actions would reflect badly on his leadership if it came out, and he wasn't afraid to step on others for the sake of his career.

I had to stop and push the bugs away.

"We need to decide where to go from here," Legend continued. "You don't have to disclose any information, but if there is anything you want to say, now would be a good time."

Again, with the expected confessions. Were they looking to make excuses for her? Assuming that I'd done something bad enough to Sophia that she'd resort to attempted murder? I wasn't sure whether I wanted to laugh or cry at the thought that anyone could paint her as the victim.

Did I want to tell them the truth? Hell no. It had been nerve-wracking enough telling the Undersiders the details of how I got my powers, and they were the closest thing I'd had to friends in years. The experience was too raw, too personal. The thought of baring myself like that here and now was unbearable.

The thought of Armsmaster so much as having an opinion about it was revolting.

Then there was everything else. The day to day, mind-numbingly petty stuff where each individual incident looked insignificant from the outside, but added up. A death by a thousand cuts, spread over a year and a half. I'd been unable to properly explain the impact of it to the school faculty. I'd feel downright ridiculous complaining about the emotional toll of insults and stolen homework and ruined clothes and isolation to people who regularly battled Endbringers.

On the other hand, if I waited for them to find that information by themselves — and they would — I would have no control over the fallout.

Worse, they could tell my dad everything.

My throat constricted at the thought of him finding the truth from the so-called good guys, with a laundry list of my crimes and none of my justifications.

With only one degree of separation, they could find my name before the end of the day if they put their minds to it, and there wasn't anything I could do about it.

Bugs were gathering on the window again, and I had to exert conscious effort to keep them away.

What could I use?

They cared about damage control. Armsmaster cared about his image more than anything else.

Legend wasn't as biased against me. The way he had scolded them about Shadow Stalker's unsanctioned lethal ammo was a good enough indication of how he'd react to the other lines she'd crossed. He was less likely to dismiss my claims than people who knew her personally and had apparently been enabling her for months. His image wasn't directly at stake, and he was Armsmaster's superior.

If the chips were going to fall no matter what, the best was for it to happen in his presence.

"She was on probation." I struggled to keep my voice flat, to prevent any tremor of emotion from bleeding into my words.

"That's… not exactly public knowledge," Miss Militia answered cautiously, more a question about how I knew than a statement.

I shrugged, aiming for casualness and falling a bit short. "It is for Tattletale."

She sighed a little. "Yes. She was arrested for using excessive force as a vigilante and was offered a deal to stay out of jail."

"Are those the same bolts she was using before?"

"Yes," she admitted.

"Do you really believe that she ever actually put them away?"

She didn't answer.

I turned to Armsmaster, crossing my arms in front of me as I leaned back against the examination table. "What measures did you have in place to make sure that she was behaving?"

"That's not relevant, and we're getting away from the subject here." There was an edge to his voice I couldn't quite place. Annoyance? Defensiveness?

It was the small push I needed to take the leap.

"I got my powers because of her, while she was under your supervision, so yeah, I think it's relevant," I spat the words at him.

He stiffened. The others too. I stared him down, biting the inside of my cheeks to keep my expression from shifting. Challenging him to dismiss my claim.

Legend inhaled to say something, then change his mind and let go of the breath.

They would put the pieces together later, that much was inevitable, but I'd be long gone by then if things went right. As long as I put them off balance, I could keep some control over the way this unfolded. I could get away.

"Maybe you don't care about a Ward assaulting civilians as a hobby, or you think it's someone else's problem once the mask comes off, but I don't think the public would see it that way."

One look from Legend cut off whatever Armsmaster was about to say, and Miss Militia took the hint to stay silent. Clockblocker was looking at the floor, very intently not participating in the conversation. Legend pinched the bridge of his nose over his mask, holding his fingers there for long seconds before sighing.

"I'm very sorry that this happened, and I will personally look into it." He sighed again. "Let's talk options."

In the waiting room near the ER, my bugs recognized the strange texture of the air around the last person they'd tagged.

Not air. Darkness.

Grue.

Even though we weren't on good terms right now, I struggled not to make my relief visible. I gathered more bugs on him, and he delicately picked up a spider from his sleeve and brought it close to his mask, whispering a few words I couldn't hear.

I directed bugs to spell out "Can't hear. Tt ok?" on the wall next to him. He read the words and walked away, spider in hand.

"We don't know how long it will take to find her," Legend told me. "And given her rather… visceral reaction here, there's a very real possibility that she might come after you again."

The spider was transferred to someone else's hands, and my relief grew tenfold when I recognized Tattletale. Bugs converged to give me a better sense of the scene. All of the Undersiders were there, more or less intact as far as I could tell. Bitch's presence surprised me. Had she joined the fight later on? She hadn't been there in the beginning. There were no dogs in sight, though.

Tattletale dropped the spider on the arm of her chair amidst a small cluster of bugs, and experimentally tapped out a rhythm.

"You want to use me as bait?" I asked Legend, keeping most of my attention on the Undersiders.

"No, of course not," he replied, sounding surprised by my assumption. "Does she know where you live?"

Tattletale gave up on the Morse code, realizing after the first try that while I had once said it would be a useful skill to have with my bugs, I had never actually learned it. I spelled out "Private talk?" on the floor with an arrow towards a nearby bathroom. She exchanged a few words with the others, then retrieved a pair of crutches from under her chair and wobbled away, one leg out of commission.

"Probably."

Not that I really lived there anymore.

"She could go after your family. She could use them as bait to draw you out of hiding, or take hostages, or kill them. She could out you publicly, or point other enemies in your direction. Or she could lay low long enough for you to let your guard down before doing any of that. There's a lot of ugly scenarios to consider when someone's identity is compromised, and all of those have happened before."

I suppressed a shiver at the thought of my dad becoming collateral damage.

Tattletale locked the bathroom stall, and I gathered bugs on the partition. For lack of a better idea, I formed an alphabet board and instructed her to spell.

Legend paused to assess my reaction, then tentatively said, "When a Ward or Protectorate member's identity is compromised, we put them and their family in protective custody. With your cooperation, we could do the same."

"Define cooperation."

Lime L, Tattletale spelled out, taping one bug from each letter.

Amber A, I answered her.

"We would need to know your identity in order to retrieve your family. It's not a perfect solution, but we do have a responsibility to protect the people she might harm, and your identity is compromised already. This would be an extended truce, in a way, and you would be free to go afterwards, as long as you behaved while in protective custody. Additionally, if you know her well enough to think of places she might go to or people she might contact, it could help bring her in faster."

Need backup? Tattletale asked.

I hesitated. I wanted to see her, but involving her in this conversation felt dangerous, especially given my current standing with the Undersiders and Coil.

No.

"I don't have any reason to trust that you would actually let me go. Armsmaster was looking forward to arresting me, if I recall."

"It wouldn't be the local team, because of the internal investigation and conflict of interest."

He was missing the point, but it wasn't worth arguing.

I can get you out of there easy, said Tattletale.

How much did she know of the current situation? Did she know about Shadow Stalker? Or just that I was being pressured to join the Wards?

No, I'm sorting it out.

"I don't imagine you can take someone to a safehouse without telling them what's going on?"

He contemplated the idea for a second. "No. That would be kidnapping and it's generally frowned upon."

Thought you died, Tattletale wrote after a moment of hesitation.

Same, I answered. I wanted to say more, but I struggled to find the right words.

I sighed.

"Okay. Let's pretend that you actually let me go. How much of a head start do I get? Do you wait until the next time I go out in costume to arrest me, or do you cut the pretense and put my family under surveillance?"

"Like I said, there are no easy solutions. There's very little precedent to draw from in this exact scenario. We'll know your identity either way, and it would be so much easier if you joined the Wards. That way, you wouldn't be penalized for these circumstances, and it would be better in the long run. It would give you a chance to start over."

Everyone okay except dogs.

I winced. Bitch must be a mess.

"I didn't want to join before, and this isn't doing anything to change my mind. I'm not dumb enough to walk myself into a cell either. I don't care if you can find my identity by tomorrow. There's a world of difference between giving it voluntarily and trusting you not to screw me over, and waiting for you to dig it up on your own time while I'm not being detained."

"It won't take that long," Armsmaster cut in, "January third. The incident at Winslow High. That was your trigger event."