Author's Note: Thanks to Two Pence for beta reading and helping me edit this chapter.
I hacked. Smoke in the air. Hard to see, hard to breathe. A tangle of humanity- a mass of wreathing arms and legs- pushed me forward, as they surged away from Purity. Then stopped. Despaired. The buildings around us had collapsed, their rubble burning. Burned dark, like it was being fueled by gasoline. This had been a planned, coordinated attack, with an intent to exterminate. We were surrounded by a ring of fire. No way to escape, nowhere to run. Ambushed. We'd been hemmed in, trapped. Trapped. I shuttered.
"Taylor," I heard Lisa cry. "Use your geysers to extinguish the fires. We've got to run. You can't beat Purity."
A beam of searing light cut through the smoke, killing dozens of us in seconds. Fresh blood stained my shoes and sizzled on the hot concrete.
Men, women, elderly and children all cried out in terror and despair. They had put their trust in me, and I'd failed them. Got them killed. No- not yet. Not fucking yet!
I ground my teeth. Glared at Purity. Using her power to be a bully, to hurt people.
Just like Bakuda. Just like Bakuda.
I opened up a portal underneath Purity's glow as big as I could manage. I might have splashed her a little, but Purity was too high to receive much of the blast, and flew away from it in a streak of white light. I opened up another portal. The geyser didn't even get close. Purity stayed up high, refusing to get in my range. She knew my tricks from my televised battles with the Wards and Oni Lee.
Energy gathered in Purity's palms, glowing balls of light shining through the thick smoke. I opened up a geyser under the closest part of the ring of fire, extinguishing the ring in one place, giving us a path to escape.
"Give me your best shot!" I screamed up at her, abandoning the Brockton Bay portal to open up a patchwork of portals on my riot shield, turning it into a reflector shield. Children huddled around me, as a blinding flash of light cut the smoke around us, blasting through concrete, disintegrating anyone in its path. I angled the shield back at its source, and huddled behind it as the blast overtook us. We were surrounded by blinding white light.
The light show stopped. A few children fell away- dismemebered or disemboweled- not quite able to make it to the shield's protection, and Purity's light still shined above us, her glow clearly visible even through all the smoke. Fuck! I ground my teeth as the people around me wailed.
Purity moved in a blur to the opening in the fire. Blocking the exit I'd made, the only escape out of the massive ring of fire.
"Everywhere," Purity said, her voice projected to be heard over the fire. "Are you white? Taylor is a good christian name, but perhaps you're one of those trying to mimic our culture."
Disgusting. Charred children at my feet, a reminder of all the civilians I'd be getting killed if I fought here. Probably couldn't win regardless. Purity would pay, but not now.
"I can disarm Bakuda's bomb," I said, calm as I could manage. Tattletale all over again, forced to work with someone I despised. Although Tattletale was an angel compared to an actual fucking nazi. My molars hurt, I forced myself to unclench my jaw. "But I'm not leaving without them. Let us go, let me save the city, kill Bakuda."
"Bakuda's largest bomb has been neutralized by the Protectorate," said Purity. "But the heroes failed to capture Bakuda. They let themselves get fooled by appearances- pretending that the ABB were civilized left them vulnerable when Bakuda blew up her own followers. The first wave they sent in got taken hostage, and now the PRT is paralyzed- they won't even let the rest of us do what's needed."
"Let us go," I said. "I'll find Bakuda. Kill her. Finish the job."
"Yes," said Purity. "You killed Lung and Oni Lee. A commendable act, ridding the city of monsters and filth, but was it done out of the goodness of your heart, or was it a grab for power? I'll allow you to pass with the children- they're innocent in all this. But you will leave anyone over sixteen with me. Let me end this. Return Brockton Bay to what it was, before they came and brought drugs, prostitution, and barbarism to my home, to the doorstep of my family."
"I'm not letting you kill them," I said.
"These are thieves, rapists, drug dealers," said Purity, contempt dripping from every word. "Terrorists. They tried to blow up the city. They allowed Bakuda to turn them into walking bombs, using their innocent appearance to get in close to the best of us, and turned the best man I ever knew into dust. They're animals. That's who you're protecting."
Perhaps some were. Not all. Probably not most. How many had been forced into it by Lung? By Bakuda? How could a random civilian say no against a bully with super powers? Especially in a city infested with psychos like Purity, who'd slaughter them without ever asking them for their side of the story.
I couldn't just let her kill them. Couldn't leave them at the mercy of any other cape with a grudge. I'd be leaving the best to be slaughtered, and the majority to seek refuge under any parahuman who'd offer them protection. Not good people. They'd be forced to do terrible things. To themselves. To others. I couldn't let that happen. It was my duty. My purpose.
Had to speak the language of Brockton Bay, no matter how much I despised it. Had to make everything clear.
"They're my people," I said. "They're under my protection. You can't have them."
I chucked a rock at Purity. She sliced it apart with one of her nazi beams, and I reflected it back at her with my riot shield. She dodged easily, a streak of white light rising vertically, throwing a laser into the opening in the ring I'd created to ignite it, surrounding us in fire once more.
"Clockblocker," I screamed. "Freeze the fire."
And if he couldn't do that, he could form a bridge over the fires using whatever we had on hand. My screams weren't answered by Clockblocker, but by another barrage of lasers, chunks of concrete the size of basketballs spraying away from the impact. Another dozen dead.
A boy- no older than ten- clutched my hand desperately, hacking from the smoke.
I wondered if he'd just lost his mother, but my musings were cut off by another blast, gravel pelting me, cutting me, but I'd avoided any large bits of shrapnel. My hand jerked. The boy hadn't been so lucky, his left shoulder had been torn from his torso, his innards spilt on what was left of the parking lot.
Men panicked, ran into the fire, burned alive. Their screams didn't sound human. Purity's beams were a mercy compared to the fire.
Where the fuck was Clockblocker? Maybe these people were ABB, maybe we were scum but we didn't deserve this. Maybe he was dead, maybe he refused to help. Didn't matter.
I was on my own. Against my single worst matchup in all of Brockton Bay. Even Tattletale had told me to run if I ever found myself facing Purity. Escape was still possible. I could get a stamp over the ring of fire. I could retreat.
Helical beams of white light cut through the smoke slicing apart men, women, children. Another fifteen dead. No. I couldn't just leave them. Could I teleport them out? No- too slow. Maybe I could put out the fire? Worth a shot.
I stamped a piece of gravel, threw it into the fire. What could I use to smother the fire? Water? No, none around. Dirt? Didn't have any dirt. All I had were chunks of overturned concrete. Teleported them onto the fire. Didn't do shit. What else did I have access to?
Corpses. I teleported the bodies of the dead onto the fire. We'd escape on the backs of the dead. There'd be a certain poetry to it. More blatant symbolism for me to ignore. Never mind. Should've known it wouldn't work. The fire raged, only growing stronger from the casualties I'd fed it.
Panacea stared at me. Terror and hatred in her eyes.
Purity ignited another twenty.
I deserved Panacea's scorn. I'd been trying to put out the fire so we could escape. Run from a bully. Couldn't run. Wouldn't.
Taking on a bully was never easy.
Purity's glow shined like a star, a thousand feet high in the sky. What was I to do? None of my attacks could reach her. With all of us trapped like fish in a barrel, she could rain down her attacks with impunity.
I could win in two ways. One was to get a stamp close to her, and drop a brick on her or something. The other was to get her to shoot one of her beams at me and reflect it back at her. According to Tattletale she was squishy, if you could get close enough to smack her.
I needed a way to get a stamp into the sky. I had a couple tennis balls in my pocket, but I couldn't throw them high enough to even get close to Purity. I had Panacea, but aside from healing the injured, I couldn't think of a way that she could use her powers in this situation. Maybe give one of the kids wings using one of the corpses for biomass? If I could get my stamp on a flier, maybe together we'd be able to get her.
Hmm…
Nah…
Bad plan, Tay, bad plan. Reckless, stupid, the time to try out something new wasn't in the middle of a battle.
But maybe…
Things got hotter, the air got harder to breathe as the fire sucked up all the oxygen.
I dove out of the way of another energy beam, a spray of concrete shrapnel cutting into me. The pavement scalded my palms even through my sweater as I heaved myself up. More of my people dead from her attack.
Fuck it. Time to juggle. I placed a stamp on a tennis ball, another on the ground, chucked ball number one into the sky, and teleported up to it. Caught ball number one, placed a stamp on ball number two, and chucked ball two up even higher. Teleported up to ball two quickly, leaving ball one behind. I replaced the stamp on ball one with one on my sweater, and teleported ball number one below me back into my hand. Repeated the process.
A sketchy kind of flight. If I made a mistake, dropped a ball, or missed a part of the sequence, I'd plummet to my death. But still… Flying. Kinda cool.
Right up until Purity wrapped her head around my stupidity, and just shot one of her beams at me. Kinda what I'd been hoping for anyway. I'd put a couple portals on my sweater as soon as she'd started charging them. That's right, I didn't need a damn riot shield to make a reflector shield, it was just convenient. Eat your helix, ya nazi dumbass. I sucked up her laser in my loose gray sweater and fired that sucker back at her scrawny ass.
Fuck.
The ball of light that was Purity easily glided away from the reflected beam, already charging a couple more beams in her palms. I reached to throw my tennis ball- then realized that I'd lost my balls when I'd opened up the portals onto my sweater. Forgot to secure my balls first, lost them. Stupid Tay, stupid, never lose your balls in a fight- everyone knows that!
Purity aimed her next beam at my face, but I dodged it by turtling into my sweater, weightless and in freefall for a few terrifying seconds.
Fuck! Falling! Falling really fucking fast!
I'd need a replacement for my tennis balls- any two projectiles would do. Golf balls in the future, shoes for now. Tossed an old gray Walmart shoe back into the sky to avoid splattering onto the pavement. Back in flight!
But even with my newfound flight my odds were still poor. I had no way of damaging Purity, no way of getting close to her really. She was a natural flier, and I was just hacking my C-list ability for a crude facsimile of flight. Besides, any moment she'd realize she could just rain down her energy beams onto my henchmen…
Or maybe not… The smoke from the ring of fire had turned dark. Poisonous. The kind of smoke that came from burning plastic. From burning garbage.
My henchmen had manufactured a better environment for me. I allowed myself to drop into the noxious fumes, surrounded myself in darkness, and held my breath. The fumes around me were steaming hot, toxic.
Purity dove after me, willing to dirty herself in Brockton Bay's filth as well.
The battle turned. The sky belonged to her, but I had the advantage in the darkness. The smog hid me, but I didn't even need my stamp sense to know Purity's location; she glowed in the dark like a lighthouse beacon. Her hands charged up, but her beams didn't come close to me, didn't come close to my people. She was just firing blindly.
Good and bad. My main offense was to redirect a beam at her. If she couldn't hit me with one, I couldn't redirect it back at her. Didn't have access to the Atlantic Portal, or even the Brockton Bay Portal, didn't even have access to anything heavy I could throw at her using my stamps as a launching point…
Well… I did actually have one thing to throw at her. Me.
Purity's light was the only thing that penetrated the darkness. I chucked my shoe at her, hard as I could. Teleported to the shoe, and threw the other at her, doubling my speed, again and again, the smoke cutting into my face. Held out my left arm in front of me, braced for impact, and slammed into her.
Felt my shoulder dislocate, arm shatter, organs slam into my ribs as the two of us collided. Painful, but I'd been braced for impact. She'd been blindsided by it. The crash had taken my arm from me, but it had pulverised her ribs and cracked her spine. Sent both of us spinning. Clung onto her for dear life, until she stabilized.
She let out a raspy breath, choked on the fumes, still couldn't see me in the darkness, but could feel me wrapped against her.
I halfway expected her to run. Flee when she realized I wasn't an easy target. She didn't.
She snarled at me, energy collecting in her palms. She shoved it into my side. Stupid. I'd turned my sweater into a portal shield as soon as I'd realized what she was trying to do, and portaled her energy punch through my side and out of my stomach. letting her bury all that energy she'd collected into her own gut.
Hey Purity, stop hitting yourself.
Perhaps it was in bad taste, even if I'd had the good sense to keep my lame one-liners to myself. She was definitely dead. On the other hand, she'd killed dozens of my people, so yeah- I didn't feel a drop of guilt over it.
Her hot blood soaking into my sweater, the two of us fell as she lost control of her flight. Couldn't dismiss the portals on my side and on my belly, not with her arm sticking through both of them. So I pulled her arm out of her gut, out of the portal on my side, and leapt off her corpse as we both plummeted.
How had I planned on landing again…
Um…
Okay, so maybe I hadn't thought that far ahead, but if I could get a stamp on the ground before I touched down, I should be able to cancel out any velocity by teleporting from a stamp I was in freefall with. Exploit how my stamps read relative velocity. That's what I'd done when I went skydiving in the middle of the Atlantic. So, I just needed to get a stamp on a shoe…
Where were my shoes again? Um… Lost them when I'd pulled the nifty redirection trick to kill Purity.
Fuck.
What did I have on me? Sweater, pants, underwear, and mask. I stamped my sweater, flung it at the ground, and zoomed right past it almost immediately. Damn fucking air resistance. No choice then. Stamped my mask, flung it downwards, and teleported back up to my sweater. Clung onto it. Heard my mask shatter onto concrete, and teleported back down to it.
Wow. That shit had actually worked.
Still not dead. Somehow. My henchman were staring at Purity's corpse, her gut still smoking, her body bent and smashed from the fall, her pretty white skin covered in soot and blood. I heard the accusation in their livid silence.
I hadn't killed Purity quickly enough. Sure I'd counted on her being my single worst matchup in Brockton Bay, but that was before I realized she was a complete moron. She'd fallen for every trap, and panicked as soon as the battle started to turn. Who wouldn't expect something like a parahuman realizing they could fly, afterall? In hindsight, she was nothing special. Should've beaten her before she'd had a chance to massacre my people. I'd let too many die while I'd been putzing about like an imbecile.
Probably why they were staring at me now. All that big talk. Claiming them as my people, yet helpless as a nazi jackass slaughtered them with impunity. Yeah, I wouldn't follow me either.
Weak… I was so weak.
Had to be stronger. Couldn't let them see… Had to get up. Got to my feet, made sure I didn't struggle or waiver. Wanted to hop on my feet, or lie back down. Had socks on, but not thick enough to keep my feet from burning on the superheated concrete.
Glanced at my left arm. Bleeding, limp, every movement painful- but not as painful as it should've been, given that it was a mixture of shredded muscles, torn ligaments, and shattered bone. Only one explanation. I'd gone into shock. Annoying- that'd make me act stupid right? Stupider than normal, I mean.
My lungs betrayed me, left me hacking, coughing. Breathed in too much of the toxic gas.
A little girl handed me a cup of water. Why? What was the message? Right, the fire. The fire I hadn't done anything about. So distracted by a C-list cape that I let my people perish in a fucking fire right in front of me. Who the fuck forgets a fire?
My dumbass, apparently. That was why I was being mocked; even by children.
"Goddam Tay," said a familiar voice. "You killed Purity…"
Lisa? No, Tattletale, I recognized her domino mask in the smoke. Funny how similar they sounded. What an odd coincidence… How had Tattletale even gotten-
"Nearest source of water," I said, unable to keep my voice from quivering, betraying weakness. I pushed aside my thoughts, focused on the problem in front of me. Could fly to the Bay, but it'd be quicker if I could tap a nearby reservoir. "Need to get a stamp in the water. Put out the fire. Finish the surgeries. Anyway I can get a stamp into a water main?"
"She's joking right?" That was Panacea. "Even after that?"
Everything falling apart, even my tenuous hold over Panacea failing. Should've done things differently. Should've found a better way. Corpses littered the streets, cut up by Purity's beams, reminders of my failure. All while my fucking feet were fucking sizzling on the stove-top concrete.
Irrelevant. Had to put out the fires. Tattletale not giving any response. Fine. Fly to the bay, steal a car on the way back. Not a fan of grand theft auto, but I'd need to get back as quickly as possible, and I couldn't fly without both stamps. Might take ten minutes. How many of my people would be left in ten minutes?
Didn't matter. Had to act. Grabbed some packed gravel from under a ripped section of road. Stamped one, and flun-
Jets of water put out the fire in front of us. Firefighters?
If you actually thought that, you're probably not from earth bet. No. Of course things wouldn't get better. Only worse. Hookwolf stepped through the rubble. Fully transformed. A shifting mass of blades, hooks, and chained knives. And yeah, he was way more than three times my weight. Couldn't teleport him. Not sure I could really harm him even if I had my Atlantic Portal.
With a little more thought, flying artillery like Purity weren't my biggest weakness. Changers were. Like Hookwolf.
Still, he'd made one mistake. He'd brought some nazi goons with him, armed with full automatics. Firearms within my range. I could teleport the guns to my henchmen, suddenly we're armed and they're not. Of course, I could only do one at a time, and with all of us packed together like sardines… Well…
Panacea? She was our best bet. If she could her hands on Hookwolf, she could beat him. Maybe. Depended on how much time it took her to shut off a brain, and if Hookwolf's metal counted as part of his body. With Hookwolf out of the picture, the goons were beatable. Not easily. We'd take losses, heavy losses, but heavy losses were better than being eradicated.
"Which one of you fuckers is Everywhere," said Hookwolf, shifting blades gleaming reflected orange. "I ain't like that whore, Purity. Got some respect, got a code, never gave a shit about Crusader. Fight me one-on-one, I let your people go. You run though, I'll have my men mow 'em down."
"You familiar with the concept of a deadman's switch, Brad?" Asked Tattletale, sauntering up to Hookwolf like they were best friends. "Yeah, you are."
Hookwolf growled. "Cunt."
Tattletale smirked, slung an arm over his blades, and shuffled him away from us. Whispering into his ear. Some plot. Didn't know what she was saying, but I did see her pull off her domino mask. She put it back on quickly enough, her perfect disguise making it impossible for me to even venture a guess as to her identity. Reckless speculation was dangerous. Besides, whatever she'd said had worked. That was far more important than who she may or may not look like.
Hookwolf shot me a long look. "One month." Then he and his henchmen disappeared into the night.
I let out a breath. Regretted it. Hated myself for my own weakness. Saved again by Tattletale.
I should kill her now. I'd told her if she went after my dad, I'd kill her. Going after Lisa's family was clearly over the line and warranted an execution. If I let her off, broke my word, I'd never be able to control the rest of the Undersiders, the rest of my gang. I had to kill her. But for some reason I couldn't. I was tired. Had too much to do.
Why the fuck couldn't I be better?
The fire roared. Right. Wallow later.
"Let's go," I said, each word sending stabs of pain through my throat. I'd inhaled too many fumes, each breath hurt. "Leave. Check who has a pulse, who doesn't. If you're strong enough, help those who can't walk out of fire. Save who we can. Leave the dead."
I steeled myself. Waiting for someone to disobey. There was always one. Astoundingly, not this time. They jumped into action, followed my orders without question. Must've been real bad, huh?
I walked out of the fire last, after I'd made sure that all of my people had escaped it first. Least I could do, after my failure. The corpses we left to rot. Didn't have time for sentimentality. They were dead. Reduced to nothing more than things, and we couldn't let anything slow us down. Set up camp about a block from the fires.
Tattletale got the surgeons and stations set up again. Ordered appropriate henchmen to go to nearby apartments, loot some tables. I'd try and find a way to repay the victims, but yeah- right now we needed the tables, no question.
We were still missing something. Scalpels, knives, our equipment. We'd left it behind.
"I'll take care of it," I said, putting a stamp by one of the stolen tables.
I steadied myself, limped back into the fire, stepping over all the corpses, everyone I'd failed. The bottom of my feet had burned, painful every time they touched down, a deserved punishment. Used my stamp sense to teleport the equipment back to Coil's surgeons. Coil's.
Not just Tattletale, I was reliant on Coil as well. These were the fine people I'd been forced to ally myself with, in my weakness.
Panacea stared at me, at my left arm, bleeding, hanging uselessly at my side, the tears I couldn't quite hold in. My naked vulnerability. And oh right, my exposed face. She could see me; who I really was. Couldn't have that, not if I wanted her to follow me.
Spotted a white bag of garbage, ripped off a piece of plastic, tore off some slits for my eyes. A makeshift mask.
I put on Everywhere's mask. Couldn't afford to look weak. Couldn't expose any weakness. Funny thing was, the mask was perfect; comfortable. Couldn't think of one more fitting for myself than one made from literal garbage.
"Good," said Panacea. "You fucking shot me! You still ruined my life! And also you're a murderer. You deserve everything that's happened to you!"
"Job's not finished," I said, finding second wind. "We've both got work to do."
Panacea glared at me, but eventually nodded, because whatever else I could say about her, at her core, Amy Dallon desperately wanted to be a hero, desperately wanted to help people. She just didn't have a clue how to do it.
Must really suck.
"Anyone have a car?" I asked, putting a stamp on a nearby rock. Needed to reestablish the portal in the Bay. Didn't have to be deep, but I didn't want to teleport the bombs anywhere in the city.
My henchmen stared at me dully. Because of course they did. Who the fuck would live in the shithole that was the Docks if they could afford a car?
"Fine," I said. "Anyone willing to steal one? Need you to throw this rock as deep in Brockton Bay as you can."
A dozen men and women held up their hands to volunteer.
I glanced at Tattletale. "Who can be trusted?"
Tattletale pointed at a heavy-set man, with a pronounced beer belly. "Dai-Ho will get it done."
"Good," I said. I nodded at Tattletale. "Give him your gun."
"I've actually got my own, sir," said Dai-Ho. If I'd wanted his input, I'd have asked for it.
"Tattletale," I said calmly. "Give him your gun."
Tattletale wordlessly handed Dai-Ho her annoying handgun. The one she'd threatened to kill me with, once-upon-a-time.
I gave Dai-Ho my attention, and tossed him the stamped rock. "I can sense anything near it. You try anything outside mission parameters, and I'll know. Anyone try and mess with you, I'll know that too. They'll be picking a fight with me as well. Understand?"
"I understand sir," said Dai-Ho, bowing and hurried off. I sensed the stamp racing in the general direction of the bay. Good.
After about ten minutes, operations resumed. The surgeons cut open my henchmen's skulls, I teleported their bombs, and Amy sealed up their heads and made sure everything was neat and clean. It was hard to tell how long we worked. In truth it was tedious, boring, but not bad. Because I was where I needed to be. It felt right.
While we worked, I noticed Tattletale interviewing the gang members. Vetting them. I watched her close to make sure she didn't make a run for it or try to get a gun from one of our minions. A bit later, a couple hundred more ABB members returned looking angry. Possibly because the men I'd sent to round up any stragglers were marching them to me at gunpoint.
Good.
I needed henchmen who got the job done- not boy scouts- people's lives were on the line. Expecting everyone to act rationally and intelligently was an idealistic daydream. Force and fear were necessary evils if I wanted to do right by my people. I saw hate in their eyes, didn't matter- compliance was all I asked for, all I'd ever get. A word from Tattletale though, their expressions cleared up, and they bowed to me. Tattletale smirked.
What had she told Coil again?
That I would take over the ABB.
Fucking Tattletale. If that wasn't evidence of her manipulation, I didn't know what was. I had to free myself from her influence.
When the operations were finished, I knew what had to be done.
"Guess who fucking called it?" Tattletale said, shooting me a vulpine smile. "Will I ever get tired of being right? Nah."
"You went after Lisa," I said.
"The girl on the phone?" Asked Tattletale. "I snooped around her house, my power thought you might be there. I wasn't trying to go after your friend- believe it or not. I do try to follow the unwritten rules."
A lie.
"You went after Lisa," I said. "You threatened my dad."
"And you told her about me and mine," said Tattletale. "And more importantly- you told her about our boss. What if she went to the PRT? We'd both be dead."
"Lisa wouldn't do something like that," I said.
"No she wouldn't," said Tattletale. "But I had to investigate her, make sure she was clean, not a plant from you-know-who. Just like I did all our new minions. You have a problem with me vetting new members?"
"This is different," I said. I knew from my stamp sense that Tattletale was defenseless. I was tired, but I could still heave a stamp into the air, teleport Tattletale up to it, let her splatter on the pavement. Maybe spur of the moment, but how much had I regretted passing on the last opportunity I'd had to kill her? Killing a thinker, especially one who could essentially read minds like Tattletale, would always have to be impulsive. Any premeditated plans would be manipulated, doomed to fail upon conception. This was the only way.
"Of course," said Tattletale quickly. "I crossed the line- it was honestly a mistake, one that won't happen again, but we need to keep working together. You're going to need my help dealing with the boss. And.
"I know something about your power that you haven't realized," said Tattletale. "You're not utilizing them to their full capabilities. I can make you stronger."
"Alright," I said. "We can stick together. Because of Bakuda. She has to pay."
Tattletale was right. Painful to admit, but there would be no defeating Coil without her. There was no defeating a thinker without another to neutralize them. Besides, she'd only been vetting Lisa, not threatening her. I also owed her, she'd saved my life twice, probably three times. She'd taken a knife for me against Oni Lee, lit the trash on fire to give me cover against Purity, and talked down Hookwolf. Not to mention the fact that she'd been the one to realize I could actually undo the damage Bakuda had inflicted on my people. Killing Tattletale after all that wouldn't be right. And if she could uncover some hidden aspects of my power, that was just a bonus.
Tattletale winked. "And to take down Bakuda, you need me. I can tell you where she is, easy-peasy. But how you gonna take her down now that she has hostages?"
"Kill them," I said. "We can't let Bakuda get away, terrorize more people, blow up more children."
"Such a tragedy," said Tattletale dramatically. "Collateral damage. If only. If only there was some alternative method, that might allow us to spare our dear hostages..."
"Well," I said. "There is one."
We both turned to one Amy Dallon.
"You shot me in the foot," Panacea said indignantly, bringing up old stuff. Besides, I'd had to do it to lure out Bakuda. I'd done what I thought was right at the time. Maybe not perfect, but there was no point in beating myself up over it.
She scowled at Tattletale. "And you ruined my life, made me… made me break my rules, do that… To my sister! Now you want me to help you? Give me a break! I'd rather see a thousand die, than see psychos like you win!"
Hah! What a load of bullshi-
Tattletale's vulpine smile seemed to have faltered momentarily? Just for a second, she'd… flinched? A moment of guilt, just a brief glimpse into her…
What?
Tattletale felt bad? Tattletale who was worse than Emma, Tattletale who was the most dangerous mastermind in Brockton Bay, Tattletale who had manipulated me like I was a puppet, felt remorse over what she'd done to Panacea? Tattletale who I hated, who I feared more than any other parahuman, that Tattletale? Hadn't she heard the fucking news, she was my nemesis, my opposite. She couldn't be so naive, so soft, coddled… good.
She couldn't be the good one, not when I hadn't fallen for Panacea's guilt trip, not for a second.
I felt something bubbling in my chest, trying to get out- a pressure, larger and larger, until it exploded.
Hehehehe. Poor, innocent Amy Dallon.
Hahahaha. One question.
HAHAHAHA!
Why oh why did you feel so fucking familiar?
"Lies," I said. "You're weak. Impulsive. Evil. You know that. That's why you have a code. Funny how those who understand right and wrong the least have the strongest opinions about it."
"Shut up," said Amy. "You don't know anything about me. I was doing just fine until you two showed up."
"Bullshit," I said. "And you know it."
I held her gaze until she broke it, looked down in shame.
"You were always going to fall," I said. "You couldn't hide from your desires… Your impulses… If you ever used your powers the way you wanted to…
"Don't pretend Tattletale had anything to do with what you've become. You don't understand right and wrong. At all. You never will."
"I know," said Amy softly.
"You wanted so badly to be a hero," I said. "To be a good person. But it's not in you. So you pretended. But it was only a matter of time until you were exposed for what you really are. A monster. You don't know how to be a hero."
Amy blinked away tears.
"You saved fifteen hundred lives today," I said. "And it meant nothing. You felt nothing. Just like when you mind raped Victoria… No, about that you felt something… Regret.
"That she broke free before you were finished."
Amy's silence was admission enough.
"I know your plot. Act contrite. Do some good deeds. Convince everyone you're sorry, that you've changed… But. People don't change. It's all just a game to get your hands on Victoria again, and when you do… You'll make her love you."
"I wouldn't!"
I met her gaze, until she looked away again.
"I'd undo it," Amy whispered. "I would."
"Really?" I asked, slowly turned to Tattletale.
Tattletale shook her head. "A lie."
Amy's defensive walls shattered. She crumpled. Broken. Her character, her beliefs, everything she had believed herself to be had been stripped away.
She was a blank slate. Ready to be molded anew.
"Right and wrong mean nothing to you," I said. "All that matters is that you get what you want. That's just who you are, Amy. Evil. Delusional.
"But most of all, selfish," I said. "Selfish we can use. Selfish we can exploit. Follow my orders. Follow your code. Use your powers as I instruct, save the city, heal Victoria, join us. Here is my promise to you, Amy. One the heroes will never give you. If I see you slipping at all, before you fall, I'll end you, before you turn into what you were always meant to be."
Barely perceptible, less than an eighth of an inch, but it was enough. She nodded. Agreed. I'd done it. I'd corrupted Brockton Bay's greatest hero into villainy. I'd taken all I knew about her, my unique insight into her character, and used it to break her so she was easier to manipulate. I felt no regret over what I'd done. Her power was too great to be wasted. It had to be done to save the city.
Simple necessity.
"What would you have me do?" Asked my newest tool.
