There were PRT vans outside of my house.

They were just right there out in the open, sitting in my driveway plain as day and making no attempt to disguise themselves, which was surprising given how deep into Empire territory they were.

'Look who finally decided to show up.' I thought viciously as I observed the vans in the driveway. There were two of them, black vans with three white letters on either side, displaying the acronym of their organization.

I discreetly pulled my hoodie further down over my face, further obscuring my features as I made my way past my old home. In the evening light, I could see vague shapes moving within the dark confines of the house, likely PRT agents that had been sent to investigate what had happened.

As I walked past, I caught a glimpse of dark blue armor glowing softly with LEDs and nearly stopped in surprise. There, crouched down and scanning the floor of my garage with some kind of tinkertech device, stood Armsmaster in all his power armored glory.

I grit my teeth lightly in anger as I caught sight of the Protectorate cape. It was unusual to see a hero out in my neighborhood as the PRT normally didn't patrol this part of the city, often citing that it was too dangerous for them to send capes this far into gang territory.

That of course just meant that the Empire knew that they could do whatever they wanted as long as they were deep enough in their part of the city, leading to all sorts of problems that most of those outside of the territory were completely blind to.

Protection rackets, dogfighting rings, drug trades, all things that were standard in Empire territory. Oh sure, on the surface it wasn't nearly as bad as the ABB's human trafficking or the Merchant's drug empire, but that was just because Kaiser wasn't strong enough to fight off the entire Protectorate by himself like Lung, nor was he nearly as stupid as Skidmark.

No, Kaiser was smart enough to make sure his illicit business were hidden away from the daylight, keeping them confined to warehouses and out of sight, giving off the veneer that he was the 'gentleman' among his fellow gang leaders. A real knight in shining armor compared to the evil dragon or wretched drug lord.

'Yeah right.' I snorted lightly as I continued walking down the street, doing my best to look as inconspicuous as possible with a dark purple hoodie pulled over my face.

Even if the Empire wasn't willing to pedal hard drugs on the street like the Merchants, that didn't mean they were anything more than another gang. In fact, in some ways they were worse. For example, in either the ABB or Merchant's territory they didn't care about your race as long as you kept to the status quo. Oh sure, if you were any kind of asian, you'd be conscripted into the ABB but other than that Lung didn't care about your race.

This deep into Empire territory, if you weren't white, or at least close enough to it to pass as white, you weren't safe no matter where you went. Stores would find discreet ways to make you feel unwelcome, jobs would be nearly impossible to find, hostile glances would be prevalent on the street, that kind of stuff.

And if you lived here and weren't white? Well, you wouldn't live here for long.

If you were lucky, you'd just be run out, maybe have your house set on fire to really make the fact that you weren't wanted stick. If you were unlucky, you and your entire family would disappear quietly in the middle of the night, never to be heard from again.

Before being enrolled at Winslow, I could have counted the number of people in my school who had skin darker than a light tan on two hands and still have fingers to spare. And then my father had taken that deal, and I had gone from a middle school filled with almost nothing but white people to a school like Winslow, where racial discrimination from the faculty was all but nonexistent.

It was all so incredibly jarring when it absolutely shouldn't have been. And I owed it in no small part to the PRT's ineptitude.

Still, as I continued walking toward my destination, I vaguely wondered who exactly had called the PRT in the first place. Given the cape who had been the one responsible for what had happened, along with the allegiances of the people in the neighborhood, the odds of it having been one of my neighbors was extremely low.

While a good portion of the families in the houses around me hadn't exactly sworn their undying loyalty to the Empire, they still wouldn't be willing to rat out one of Kaiser's lieutenants, much less Hookwolf. That was a good way to find you and your entire family on a one way trip to the morgue, express shipping included.

No, most people would have seen Hookwolf breaking into my home and looked the other way, Bystander effect in full play as they did their best not to get involved.

So that begged the question, who the hell called the PRT?

I shook my head, dismissing the thoughts. It didn't matter, I had more important things to worry about. Like a certain blond Empire recruiter.

I felt a ball of anger form in my chest as I remembered our conversation in the classroom just a day ago. The look of desperation in her eyes as she asked me, begged me to come with her and her friends to the mall. I had simply scoffed, believing the desperation had simply been due to her bosses putting more pressure on her to recruit me.

Now, after everything that had happened, I knew better. Christine had known what was going to happen that evening, or at least, had some sort of inkling as to what Hookwolf had planned for my family.

What confused me was why she tried to get me to come with her to the mall if she knew what was going to happen. Was she trying to spare me my parent's fates? And if so, why? Some misguided attempt to pay homage to our former friendship?

"I guess I'm about to find out." I muttered to myself as I stopped outside of a modest two story house. There were no cars in the driveway which was to be expected as from what I could remember, her parents both worked late shifts at Medhall and normally didn't return home until late in the evening.

That suited me just fine as it meant I wouldn't have to talk to them if they caught me. I had always felt weirded out by Christine's mother and father as they had always seemed to have a strong dislike for my own parents. Something I found odd since they had no problem with me.

Them being gone also worked perfectly for me because I could just walk straight up to the side of the house with nobody any the wiser. I placed my hands on the rough brick that made up the outer wall and gave into my power, feeling my body changing to match the sturdy building material.

I took a moment to get used to my new form, clenching and unclenching my hands, feeling the strength now suffusing them. I couldn't help but wonder if my power affected more than just my mind. My body felt more sturdy, more powerful, as if I could jump and easily clear the top of the house in front of me.

"Questions for later." I muttered, shaking my head and once more placing my palms on the wall, my power immediately singing out to me exactly like it had at the Palanquin, asking me to become one with the material in front of me. Whereas before, I had held back my power so as to not anger my hosts, here I held nothing back.

I watched in fascination as my hands began melding with the building, sinking into the brick with a small ripple like a coin dropped into water. My arms were next, then my shoulders, until finally my entire body was immersed into the exterior of the house.

A deep part of my being wanted to spread my powers out, suffuse the entire building with myself until it was well and truly mine. I held myself back however, remembering what had happened at the Palanquin earlier that day.

I had a theory that the further I spread myself through a material, the more my powers affected my emotions. And while I hadn't exactly had a chance to test the theory, it made sense. When I had first gotten my powers, I had spread myself through the water around me so thinly that I had barely been able to feel a thing, my mind just floating from one idea to the next until I shifted forms once more. And that wasn't even getting into what had happened at the Palanquin.

Until I had a further handle on exactly how my powers affected my mind, I'd have to be careful not to go too far when using them. Luckily, it was easier than I expected to keep my presence constrained to just my body as I melded with the walls, making my way through the house as I searched for my target.

I had a good idea of where Christine would be from my previous visits to her home as a child. She'd likely be in her bedroom on the second floor, just to the left of the staircase. Now I just had to get there.

Moving through the walls of the house felt weird, like I was swimming through a pool of maple syrup, viscous and hard to maneuver through. Although, despite the fact that I was currently part of the walls themselves and technically had no way to see outside them, my vision wasn't impaired in the slightest and I was able to see into the darkened interior of the house perfectly fine.

Direction didn't matter, up and down, left and right, forward and backward, they all gave the same amount of resistance as I moved through the brick. My mind whispered that there would be no need for this if I just let my powers loose throughout the house but I silenced it as I reached the room I was searching for.

Christine was sitting on her bed in silence, arms covering her knees as she stared at the wall. She looked haggard, platinum blond hair in disarray as if she had been running her hands through it constantly. Her face was blotchy and mascara ran down her face like she had just gotten done crying and hadn't bothered to clean herself up.

She was wearing a dark red sweater and sweatpants which surprised me slightly. Usually she was the type to wear shorts and a t-shirt even when it was fifty degrees with wind chill outside. The edges of the sleeves of her sweater were covered with dark marks, indicating she had been using them to wipe at her eyes, covering them with the running mascara in the process.

I took another moment to just observe her in silence before making my presence known, emerging from the wall across from her bed with a bevy of ripples. In the back of my mind, I found it odd that I was able to simply move through the plaster and wallpaper as if it wasn't there, but I just shrugged it off as a quirk of my power as Christine shrieked in surprise and terror at my appearance.

As I approached the bed, she continued shrieking and backing toward the headboard, before abruptly stopping as she took a closer look at me.

"V-Valerie!? You're alive!?" She exclaimed in apparent relief, moving to get off the bed as I approached silently, "Thank god! I was worried he got you to-Grrk!"

I interrupted her by grabbing the collar of her sweatshirt and hauling her off of the bed effortlessly. Her feet dangled above the floor as I held her up and slammed her against the wall, sending a painting falling to the floor eliciting a wince of pain from her, "W-what are you-?

"You knew didn't you?" I interrupted through gritted teeth, slight satisfaction cutting through my rage as her face whitened in realization, "You knew what he was planning didn't you!?" I asked, voice filled with rage. Christine's hands clawed at my arms, trying to loosen my iron grip on her collar yet only succeeding in lightly scratching the rough surface of my stone skin.

I pulled her toward me slightly before slamming her back against the wall, plaster cracking slightly from the point of impact and answering my earlier question of whether or not my powers affected my strength, "Answer me dammit!" I screamed in her face, making her flinch.

"I was trying to protect you!" She shouted in terror as I froze in disbelief.

"Protect me!?" I asked incredulously, my fist clenching the collar of her sweatshirt even tighter, "My parents are fucking DEAD Christine! I would have died if I hadn't triggered! If you were trying to protect me, you did a shitty job!"

She shook her head desperately, "I didn't know he was going to kill them! I thought he was just gonna rough them up some! I swear!"

I almost laughed in disbelief at the audacity of this girl, "'Just rough them up!' she says, as if that makes it any better. Goddammit Chris, we were practically family! You used to sleep in my bed more than your own! And you just let them die without so much as a warning!"

She was crying now, salty tears making their way down her face and ruining her makeup even further, "I didn't have a choice!" She hiccuped, "I couldn't say anything, they'd know it was me and come after my family too."

What?

I snarled, pulling her from the cracking plaster wall and throwing her to the floor behind me where she landed with a light grunt of pain. I stalked toward her silently as she scrambled to get up to her feet and I loomed over her even as she stood to her full height, "Explain." I growled.

She swallowed so hard I could hear it before speaking quietly, not meeting my eyes, "I-My cousin. They… they're a higher up in the Empire. I overheard them talking about Hookwolf's plan with someone over the phone while my family was over at their house for dinner."

I clenched my fist, a grinding sound emerging from my closed fingers and startling the girl in front of me, "Who are they?" I asked lowly.

She looked away once more, turning her gaze toward her feet, "I can't say. It's against the Rules." She emphasized the word.

All at once, several things clicked for me. Christine's sudden recruitment into the Empire, her parent's intense dislike for my own, hell, even the fact that her parents always seemed fine with the fact that their daughter had openly joined a gang.

She was related to one of Kaiser's lieutenants.

She had likely been forced to join the gang just as they tried to do to me, only unlike me, she couldn't dare refuse. At least my family wasn't already part of the Empire. Hers, on the other hand, was apparently extremely deep into their ranks.

As I came to terms with my revelations, Christine spoke up again, sobs lightly interspersed throughout her speech, "I'm so so sorry Valerie. I didn't mean for this to happen. I never-"

"Stop." I interrupted her, holding out a hand toward the other girl as I took several calming breaths that did absolutely nothing for me, "Just…just shut up for a minute." I ran my other hand across the rough surface of my hair as my mind whirled.

Our interactions over the years ran through my head, bathed in the light of the recent revelations. The way she was constantly frowning when she believed nobody was looking in her direction, or the way her sycophantic followers always hung a little too close to her. The way she always tried to get me to hang out with her, despite my constant denials…

"Why did you try so hard to get me to come with you to the mall?" I asked suddenly, startling her.

"I-I thought that if you weren't home, Hookwolf would just leave your parents alone. It's you they all want to join, I thought maybe I could convince you to join up temporarily, at least until school was over and you could go to college out of state or something," She brought a hand up to rub her shoulder where she hit the ground and I felt a very light pang of guilt, "I also kind of wanted to hang out again, I know you hate me but I just thought… I don't know what I thought."

I took a deep breath, held it for three seconds, then exhaled through my nose like my middle school counselor had taught me. I did it once, twice, three times. 'Calm, I am calm, like a river, I am calm…' I repeated like a mantra in my head, trying to keep cool.

It didn't work at all.

"FUCK!" I slammed my fist into the wall I had been holding her against knuckles first, punching straight through the plaster and impacting the brick behind it with a loud crack, startling Christine in the process.

I just stood there for a moment, arm elbow deep in the wall and the sound of crumbling plaster hitting the floor ringing in my ears.

"Val…?" Christine spoke softly into the silence.

I pulled my arm out of the hole and looked down at it. Cracks ran down the length of my forearm and my hand hurt like hell, I brought it up to my face and winced as I saw the damage. My hand was covered in cracks and chips and my pinkie was missing, likely lost in the space between the plaster and the wall itself. I really hoped that it would fix itself when I changed materials.

"Oh my god, Valerie!" Christine shouted as she caught sight of my hand, "Are you ok?"

I laughed, and laughed, and laughed, my good hand coming down to rest against my stomach as I gave into the absurdity of it all.

"Okay?" I giggled hysterically, "My parents were murdered, my dog is missing and likely dead as well, I went through the worst experience of my life, and my ex best friend is related to the people responsible and a more than likely victim just like I am so I can't even get revenge. I am so far from okay it isn't even funny."

I slowly calmed down, releasing a large huff of air as I collected myself. I stared down at my ruined hand, clenching my fist and watching as pieces of broken brick fell to the carpeted floor with sad little thuds, "This is all so messed up…" I muttered.

Christine wrung her hands as I calmed down, "I'm so sorry Val. I really am…" She repeated again.

I just sighed, "Yeah, me too." I said, even though I wasn't even sure what I was sorry for. Maybe for punching a hole in her wall in a fit of rage. Yeah, that sounded about right.

There was a moment of silence where we just stared at each other before it was interrupted by the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. We both looked toward the bedroom window in panic to find headlights shining through the curtains from the paved driveway down below.

"You've got to leave!" Christine urged me, grabbing my shoulders and forcing me toward the hole in the wall. She ignored my protests as she urged me forward, "Go, go! If my parents catch you here they'll tell my cousin, you have to leave!"

I hesitated for a moment, looking back toward her to find her grabbing a poster off of the opposite wall and making her way back toward me. She gave me a stern look that was slightly ruined by her puffy red eyes and the mascara still running down her face, "Go we can talk later if you still want more answers."

I stared at her for one more moment before turning and placing my hand on the brick wall and melding with it once more.

I raced through the walls once more, following the exact path I used when I came in and exiting through the side of the house onto the grass outside. Around the house, I could distantly hear the front door open and Christine's parents call out to her from the entrance. Taking that as a sign to leave, I ran over to the sidewalk and melded with it, sinking into the concrete and racing away.


I traveled what felt like several blocks underground before emerging in an empty alley behind a dumpster. I looked around to make sure nobody was watching before deactivating my power, immediately becoming slightly winded as my body turned back to skin and bone once more.

It only took a moment to catch my breath this time, "That was a lot better than last time. I really have to practice with my power." I muttered to myself as I stretched to get rid of the stiffness in my arms.

Speaking of arms…

I looked down at my hand to find it back in one piece, pinky back in place and not a crack to be found. "Neat." I muttered, feeling drained at all that had occurred.

My mind raced with the recent revelations and while a large part of me wanted nothing more than to race back and interrogate Christine even further, an even larger part of me knew that was a horrible idea.

No, it would be best to lay low and go back when her parents were away once more. And if all else failed, I still had her phone number.

And speaking of phones, there was still something I needed to do.

I reached into my pocket and retrieved the phone Faultline had given me, turning it on and making my way to the contacts. I stared at the glowing name for a moment before pressing the dial button and holding the blocky phone up to my ear.

There was a moment where a dial tone rang in my ear before there was a small click and it was quickly replaced with a woman's voice, "You've reached the Palanquin, this is Faultline speaking. Are you calling to purchase our services or ask about our rates?"

"It's Valerie." I spoke and could hear the woman's breath slightly hitch on the other side of the line, "I'm calling to talk about the offer you made me."

There was a pause, "And? What is your answer?" She asked, tone unreadable.

I took a deep breath, looking in the direction of the house I had just come from, before turning away once more. I had already lost basically everything that held me to my previous life, it was time to start a new one.

"I accept. I'll join your crew."

I could hear her grin as she replied, "That's good to hear Valerie. Welcome to the Palanquin, we're happy to have you. We've already got a room prepared for you over at the nightclub whenever you're ready."

A small smile forced its way onto my face at the audacity of my new boss having already prepared a room, as if me joining was a foregone conclusion, "I'll be there in a bit."

"Oh, one more thing." She said before I could hang up the phone, "Have you thought of a cape name? Best to have one thought up before the PRT takes it upon themselves to assign you one."

I nodded at the question even though she couldn't see me and started making my way out of the alley, ignoring the look I received from a guy sitting on a bench nearby, "Yeah, I actually have."

"Well let's hear it." She sounded slightly eager.

"I was thinking…Aspect."


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