A/N: Thanks to TwoPence for betareading and helping me edit this chapter.

ooOoo

Work had halted. The dockworkers had gathered under the Ferry Station's 44 inch cathode ray television to watch a new cape debut. It happened occasionally. Behemoth, Leviathan, Simurgh, and even lesser villains like King or Glaistig Ulaine had all merited a stop in the workday, and none of them had been local. All bad news, but none of them had actually scared him in anything more than in a theoretical sense, they were just too far away. But robbing Brockton Bay Central Bank? That was plenty local.

Danny shouldn't have been here. He should have been with his daughter… Comforting her? Or explaining to her why she shouldn't be cheering on the new villain. Taylor had explained her beliefs to him a few days ago, one cape- one authority- bringing order through violence. He hadn't had the heart to tell her that her arguments were nothing new. She was just describing fascism.

The real horror had been learning how she'd developed her beliefs. The abuses she'd suffered, that bitch Blackwell's inaction, Alan twisting the law into a weapon. He'd failed her. Failed to protect, failed to listen, failed to be there for her. She'd run to her new friend Lisa, and at least still called occasionally. It was probably better than he deserved. He didn't know what he'd do when she returned. How to fix things, how to make things better between them, how to help her.

He could keep working. Keep the lights on, the water running. Make sure Taylor would always have a home to return to. At least he knew how to do that. Even if three workers had left to join the Empire this week, even if the government had blown off every attempt to get the ferries running again, he knew things would eventually get better.

He and Taylor would reunite, they'd get the situation at school settled, she'd reach her potential, the ferries would run again, Brockton Bay would rebound, and the heroes would eventually defeat the villains. It should've been easy. The PRT had the backing of the state, the villains were on their own, and they were assholes. Maybe they'd be able to recruit a few new members, but even an old man like him had heard of Glory Girl, Panacea, and Aegis, and maybe the protectorate couldn't defeat the gangs right now, but he'd talked himself into believing that with enough time, the Wards and New Wave would outlast them. The younger villains like Uber and Leet were jokes in comparison to their youthful heroic counterparts, and any other aspiring villains were so minor he hadn't even heard of them.

Brockton Bay had a bright future ahead of it. Taylor would live in a better city than he had. He'd really believed that. Not anymore.

Glory Girl, Panacea, Kid Win, Gallant, and Vista had been defeated in an instant. A moment of hope when Aegis had rushed her, extinguished with disdainful ease. There one moment, gone the next. How the hell was anyone supposed to fight that? Fight her? Aegis had been nearly cut in half, and Kid Win and Gallant had only been spared by the mercy of the bad guys. They'd fought hard, done their best, but sometimes the good guys lost, sometimes the villains won so convincingly that it was hard to envision a better outcome.

"She's like Mouse Protector's evil twin," said a young dockworker. "Instead of teleporting herself to people, she can banish them. Must have some sort of blaster power too."

The news followed the young cape as she and two of her henchmen shot down a street on a giant four-legged monster of exposed muscle and bone. The news feed split screens, with one following after the villains, and the other with a reporter back in the bank.

"She's got the ability to shoot geysers," said a slightly overweight white man who'd been held hostage, sitting on a bench and pulling a shiny thermal blanket tight around his shoulders. "One girl stood up to her, and she s-shot a geyser through her foot. No panic. N-no hesitation. No remorse. No anger. Said she'd k-kill the next person who disobeyed her. We got in line real quick after that."

The dockworkers were quiet. Not all villains were the same. Some were criminals for purely selfish reasons. They were damaging, but could only harm a city so much. Others were unsatisfied with society, and leveraged their powers to try to change the world to their liking. Based on the evidence, it wasn't clear which of the two the new villain was, but somehow Danny knew in his gut that she wasn't in it for the money.

"The geysers," said the news reporter. "Was there any recharge time? How powerful were they?"

"I don't think there was, no," said the man, rocking back-and-forth. "And they shot straight through the roof. We saw how strong they were against the Wards. She- she just took down Kid Win and Gallant in seconds and handled the rest of them easily. She um… She said she killed Lung."

The news reporter chuckled uneasily. "Of course she did. And it's perfectly understandable that you'd believe her after being held up, but I've got to push back a little on that. Armsmaster has been faithfully serving Brockton Bay for over a decade, and there's no reason we should believe the word of a bankrobber over his."

The man protested. "Are you fucking kidding me? Just look at Glor-"

The newsfeed cut back to the new cape's escape. The one who'd killed Lung. The hostage knew it, Danny knew it, Kurt knew it, the rest of the Dockworkers knew it. She'd defeated Glory Girl the same way she'd defeated Lung. There one moment and then just gone. She could teleport anyone, anywhere, from everywhere. He hoped he was missing something. Some limitations that might make her defeatable.

"It doesn't make any sense," said a dockworker. "The timeline. Why did the monsters run off with the money? Why not teleport it away? Why even open the vault in the first place? Maybe she relies on line-of-sight? Maybe she can only teleport people and not things? And if that's the case, why not just teleport the Wards into the goop in the first place? Why rely on geysers, and risk a kill order?"

"She was stalling," said Kurt slowly. "Waiting for the cameras. Armsmaster took credit for Lung. She wanted to make sure everyone knew it was actually her."

Maybe… Danny thought back to the conversation he'd had with his daughter. How… how ambitious, she'd made the new warlord sound.

"Because it was a trap," said Danny. "Robbing a bank, it's designed to draw attention. Use the Wards to lure in Glory Girl, she was clearly sandbagging against them, and then once her prey arrived, she…"

If it had been a trap designed for Glory Girl, then why keep allowing the newsfeed to chase her?

"She wants the Docks," said Danny, with a dreadful certainty. "She doesn't care about the Wards or New Wave. They're not even on her radar. She's trying to take over the ABB."

And he knew in his gut that she wouldn't be satisfied stopping there. Taylor's words came back to him. Brockton Bay had been so horrible she'd been attracted to fascism. After the locker, after he and the school had failed to stop her abuse, he hadn't had the heart to tell her that a more authoritarian regime wasn't the answer.

After a decade of gang rule, where crime paid, just how many people had been radicalized? How many people would trade their dozens of bullies, for the single biggest and baddest? Somehow, deep in his gut, he knew that his daughter had been right about the new cape. She wasn't like Lung or Kaiser, she wasn't a gangster or a criminal. She was a tyrant.

ooOoo

"Never," Tattletale said, swiveling on Angelica to face me. "Interrupt me like that again; you fucking understand?"

I bit back my first retort. Tattletale's weapons were her words. Psychological assault was the only way she had of defending herself against someone like Glory Girl. It wouldn't be fair to judge her for it. She'd used her powers to save people. She'd probably saved me from a kill order, even if she'd had to act like Emma to do it.

"The news cameras had already arrived." I managed. I had to be fair. I had to be fair. Give her the benefit of the doubt. "My stamp was in place. Our objective had been met before-"

"Before I told Panacea that her mom didn't love her," Tattletale interrupted, rolling her eyes. "As if you would ever notice something that I did not. Yeah I knew it wasn't necessary for the mission. It wasn't gonna endanger our success either, so I really don't see why I should give a fuck."

"Because it was cruel," I said. "You were just hurting them for no reason."

"No reason?" Spat Tattletale. "I live for moments like that! If you hadn't teleported ole' Glory Hole, I could've had her bawling like a little bitch on national television! I could've been more than just your sidekick, I could've been the cape who took down Brockton Bay's golden girl with nothing but words. I could've been a fucking legend. But nooo, you had to go and steal my fucking kill."

Oh. Made sense. Made perfect sense. She'd hurt them for power. For respect. For her own ego. Of course.

"Panacea and Glory Girl are people too," I said evenly. "They aren't props for your amusement."

Regent yawned.

"Yes," said Tattletale. "They're people. Such insight. So?"

"So you don't fucking hurt people for sport," I hissed.

Tattletale snorted. "I don't? Glory Girl hunts down criminals and tortures them for fun. She's got superpowers, beauty, she's rich and popular, she's lived a gilded life and the privileged bitch still has the nerve to judge us. To act like what she's doing is righteous, and she's doing it for any reason other than getting her rocks off. And you cry foul when I knock Prom Queen off her perch? Turnabout is fair play. And Panacea. You put two Wards in comas. I just did what I had to to save them. See Tay, those are what we call rationalizations. That's what you do when you hurt someone.

"Me though? I don't give a shit about most people. If I want to hurt someone, I hurt them, and I don't tell myself that they were evil, or that it was all part of some elaborate plan to try and justify why I'm still a good person. Because I'm not. Maybe that makes me an asshole, but hey, at least I'm not a murderer. At least I'm not so fucking twisted I think becoming a serial killer will prove I'm better than my bullies."

I twitched. Tattletale's words only had power if I let them. She was just trying to hurt me, like Emma did. She was just a bully.

Don't think about her words, don't consider them…

Don't let her get to you.

But what if-

No, don't think about it, don't think about it- but of course she was right, I had killed a man. I'd robbed a bank. I'd hurt three heroes, almost killed two, and I was gonna keep right on killing. I'd considered myself a soldier, trying to take out an enemy general. But what if it was all just a long con I was playing on myself, to rationalize away killing Lu-

She's smarter than you Taylor. She's a thinker. Don't play her games, don't let her in, or you'll lose for sure.

Tattletale sighed. "Don't listen to me Taylor. I was just fucking with you because I was angry. Forgive me?"

I… She was playing me. She had to be. Fucking with me just like Emma would. Her apology was just another game. I'd been a fool to think that I could defend myself against her, that I'd somehow be resistant when she tried to master me, when she manipulated me to her will. It had taken her all of three days to get me into her little team, all the while I was convinced it was my own decision. She was the most dangerous cape in Brockton Bay, my most powerful enemy, an Emma with superpowers.

She also wasn't putting bombs in people's brains.

"We don't have to like each other," I said. "We still need each other to take down Bakuda and the ABB. That's what matters."

"It doesn't have to be like this," said Tattletale. "I've got an idea of how you triggered. Bullying. I'm not like them. If you give me an actual chance, you'll see that I'm not an enemy."

She wasn't an enemy. Not today at least.

"You're right," I said. "You're not like them. You've got powers. You're useful."

After that, no one said much. The only sound was the steady roar of the helicopter that followed us. We reached the Northern Ferry Station. The road was wide. To our left was a mostly empty parking lot, and to our right was a beach, old plastic bags tumbling like tumbleweeds, used heroin needles scattered about like wood chips in an old playground. It had once been beautiful, busy, thriving. Now it was ABB territory.

"Oni Lee's here," Tattletale whispered in my ear. "But Bakuda didn't bite. He's hiding behind the cars. Listen, you need to put a stamp on one of us…"

Tattletale continued to prattle, but I was done talking. She'd made good on her part of our deal, and as far as I was concerned, she could fuck off now. All the evil shit I'd done, I'd done for this opportunity. I couldn't let Oni Lee escape. There were only a few cars by the back of the parking lot. Maybe four hundred feet away. Out of my range. I'd bet my life it wasn't a coincidence. They knew my powers, how to counter them. They had me outnumbered, Oni Lee had a better power, they probably had a plan for how to handle me, and I didn't have the firepower of the Atlantic portal. I didn't care.

I tagged Regent's jacket, and chucked a stamped tennis ball at an old red pickup truck. I teleported off Angelica, tumbled forward in the middle of the parking lot at the same speed as the bouncing ball, and planted my riot shield in the direction of the cars. I could sense the ABB members, could already feel them taking aim, but I wasn't close enough to teleport their guns away. I applied both teleportation stamps to the shield, covered its surface with portals, and huddled behind it.

The machine guns sounded like thunder, I couldn't hear bullets rushing past me like in the movies, just the explosion of the initial gunshot and hot lead slamming against cement. Couldn't tell if it was over, couldn't hear anything, just ringing. Not dead, which was good. Didn't dare peek around the riot shield, expose myself, didn't have to. Teleportation sense showed a couple gangbangers unmoving. Dead from their own bullets spat out back at them. Seven hiding behind the handful of cars near the red truck. Still too far to teleport away their guns. Could try to throw the ball again, but that would leave only one portal on the shield, and the spherical portal on the ball would spray out bullets randomly. No, the cover provided by the dual portals was more important. Good practice for Purity too. Eventually they'd realize what was happening and fan out, so they could fire at me from more directions that I could defend. That's when I would throw the ball, and get a stamp within range to teleport away their guns. Turtle behind the reflector shield until then.

The ABB members screamed like little girls and fled.

Angelica galloped past me, and chewed up one of the smaller gangbangers. The rest scattered, but not until Angelica got another midget. Five left. There was more gunfire, forcing Angelica back. While they were distracted, I got another ball out of my sweater, stamped it, threw it at the enemy, and teleported their guns to the stamp on my riot shield.

Two panicked and ran. Not far. Once they'd left the parking lot, Bakuda detonated the bombs inside of them. The male liquified into a soupy mess. The female distorted like a reflection in a funhouse mirror. Her arms extended, one leg got fat, another shrunk, half her chest shriveled to the size of a pin, the other bloated to ten feet. She didn't scream. She couldn't. Her mouth was the size of a needle, her nostrils the size of beach balls. Somehow, she wasn't dead.

Neither the male nor the female had been older than twelve.

They'd been children. The two remaining children shook behind the cars, lost their composure, and started to cry.

Fuck…

…Fuck…

Bakuda would pay.

I grew cold. I'd been a fool to question the righteousness of my cause. Bakuda had to die. Robbing a bank, nearly slaughtering some wards, a small price to pay if I could kill her even a day quicker.

I heard someone whooping behind me.

"Ho-ly shiiiittttttt," said Regent, laughing. "That kid just fucking melted!"

I gaped at my teammate. Was he even huma- I dove too late. Oni Lee had teleported behind me, and the only reason I didn't have a knife in my back was because he'd stumbled over his feet. He'd already recovered, lunging at me, but I teleported him to the tennis ball a hundred feet away before his knife could sink into my heart.

"He knows," Tattletale barked. An annoying distraction. I did my best to ignore her prattling. I reapplied my stamp to another ball, and chucked it as high and as hard as I could. "Hey, I'm fucking talki-"

Oni Lee behind me again. Lunging. Ready this time. Teleported him to the ball sailing sixty feet in the air. Not so easy when I'm not half dead is it, you arrogant assho- Shit! Oni Lee tried to stab my back again, as his clone splattered against the concrete. Whatever. Teleported him ten feet above the tennis ball, watched him eat shit against the pavement. Tried to ignore a spray of rocks Tattletale had thrown at me. Annoying distraction, and Oni Lee had teleported behind me again, unpinning a grenade. Teleported him and his stupid grenade to the ball.

Fuck.

His clone had thrown the ball back at me, and now Oni Lee and the unpinned grenade were hurdling at me. I dove for my riot shield, reapplied my stamps onto it, and opened up some portals to turn it into a reflector shield. Another Oni Lee appeared behind me, already lunging, knife extended. Tattletale filled him up with bullets as she sprinted to me. The clone vanished in a puff of dust, as the one hurdling at me exploded. My portal shield held up, but the explosion still hurt my ears, and the heat irritated the burns on my back.

Tattletale yanked my shield from me, and spun it so it was facing the roof of a nearby building, just in time to block a barrage of gunfire from the top of said random ass building, and goddam teleporting powers were such fucking bullshit! It was like he was fucking everywhere and it wasn't fucking fair!

"Stamp me," said Tattletale, reloading her handgun, as we weathered the storm of bullets. She glanced at the four automatic rifles I'd teleported from the children. "Get on Angelica and run. Teleport me to you once you're out of sight. It's our best shot at escaping."

"No," I growled. "He dies today."

The barrage stopped and Oni Lee appeared a foot behind me. I teleported near one of the assault rifles, scooped it up, and filled the fucker with lead as Tattletale sprinted back to Regent. Lee vanished in a puff of dust, but his unpinned grenade remained. I teleported it into my hand and chucked it as far from me as I could. I glanced around, tense. But Oni Lee for once wasn't behind me, he'd finally let up on his assau- fuck, what was I doing looking for him with my eyes? I sensed for him with a stamp, found him stabbing Regent in the shoulder. He'd missed the kill? Already pulling out his knife, and next time he wouldn't miss.

Fuck. I lifted the rifle- my aim wasn't that good, couldn't hit Lee without hitting Regent. Shit! Blade thrusting, what to do? Wait, Tattletale had carried my riot shield over to him. He was in range. I squeezed the trigger, teleported over to Regent, the barrel of my gun pressed against Lee's skull. More dust. Another clone.

Tattletale open fired on the cars, jerking her head at my shield. I put both stamps on it, opened up a couple portals, turned it into a reflector shield, handed it off to Tattletale, who slammed it in place just in time to shield us from another bullet barrage.

"Stamp me," said Tattletale. "Close your eyes. Sense for when he takes the bait. Tag him when he tries to stab you. Don't hesitate. Regent will make him miss. Keep your eyes closed. Toss Lee the hot potato on three."

The plan wasn't exactly clear, but I knew she wanted me to stamp him when he was stabbing me. Not to defend when he attacked, but to go for a counter? I didn't dismiss it, crazy as it sounded. Regent could make people twitch and trip with his power, he'd probably saved me from getting stabbed or shot several times already, but wasn't it something that took a lot of concentration? Hadn't he just been stabbed?

"You won't get stabbed." Regent chuckled, grasping his shoulder. He'd also laughed when a child had melted, and Tattletale was an unrepentant bully. I hated them, but what choice did I have? Oni Lee's teleportation was more flexible than mine in close combat; I couldn't take him out alone, that much was clear already. If I wanted to win- to spare more asian kids from getting their brains blown up- I needed to get over myself. I was going to die, wasn't I?

Fuck it, I'd go down fighting. I put a stamp on Tattletale's ridiculous costume and closed my damn eyes. Probably stupid, but what was the worst that could happen? If I didn't change things up I was dead anyways, so I'd just put my trus-

"Later retard," said Tattletale saucily, hopping on Angelica and galloping away. "Good luck with Mister Kamikaze!"

Typical Tattletale, trying to get the enemy off balance. Kept my eyes closed. Needed Lee to go in for the kill, keep his prey from escaping. Only the real one could teleport, so he'd be vulnerable for a quarter-second after using his power. Wait for it… wait for it… wait for it… Now!

I teleported to the larger of the two figures in my stamp sense, and brushed my hand against his bodysuit. Tagged it with a stamp. Heard Tattletale gasp softly. Ignored it. I could sense wherever he went, could feel him as he instantaneously cut through space. Another stamp appeared from nowhere. And another. Right, he cloned everything on him when he teleported, and that included my stamps. Four active, when the most I could control was two. Deactivated stamp on Lee's first clone, then deactivated another, but Lee was teleporting fast. I teleported the clone in front of me ten feet above Regent to keep it from killing me before our plan could mature. Tattletale handed me something. A live grenade, about to explode. The hot potato. Whoever held it when the music stopped, lost. Had to wait. Deactivate stamps. Teleport it at the right moment. Too early and he'd just teleport away, too late and we'd be the ones eating the explosion. Oni Lee must have realized what we were trying to do. He teleported again and again and again. Tried to overwhelm me. Make me lose track. I deactivated stamps as fast as I could, but I was way over my limit. Overwhelming. Too much, too much, too much. Losing track, losing myself in the space between spaces. I could only comprehend one pair of stamps, too many activating, losing sense of sel-

Tattletale squeezed my hand. One.

On three I'd send away the grenade.

I deactivated stamps as quickly as I could. Still too many, still two pairs, hard to tell which was which. Searched harder. Oni Lee cloned himself faster and faster. Forced me to be in three, four, five, places at once. Forcing me to be everywhere, splitting me apart, making me feel like I was vanishing. I allowed more portals. Allowed each to be weakened. Allowed thoughts to be overwhelmed by stimuli.

Another squeeze. Two.

Lost myself in the task. Chase, catch, kill. Concentration. Anticipation. Execution.

Three.

I teleported the grenade to Oni Lee as it exploded. Half his skull was pulverized in an instant by the point blank blast. All but one of my stamps fell away. The one stuck on Oni Lee's mangled corpse. He was the second person I'd killed. Unlike Lung, he'd been prepared for the fight, he'd had counters for my powers, and I'd been forced to use every advantage just to survive. I didn't feel a rush of power or shame, not even a thrill of victory. Because it wasn't a victory. I hadn't won anything. The job wasn't finished. It wouldn't even be finished after I'd killed Bakuda. Not until every single supervillain in Brockton Bay had been killed or scared straight.

Still. It was a step, and not a small one. In a week, I'd brought the ABB to its knees. Not Armsmaster, not Kaiser, me. Puny pathetic Taylor Hebert. Maybe the Trio still thought I was a punchline, but I doubted the rest of Brockton Bay was laughing. Maybe they thought I was a monster, and maybe they weren't wrong, but at least they wouldn't think I was a joke. Not after I'd made Oni Lee's brain rain down on the Docks on national television.

I allowed myself a small smile, opened my eyes, and oh…

Tattletale had a knife buried in her stomach, popping my bubble of smug self-satisfaction. She'd been the one to buy time for me, using herself as bait, not me. I'd been following her plan. She'd used me like a puppet, and good thing too, because it was the only reason Oni Lee hadn't killed all three of us, and I… I didn't understand. She'd been trying to master me. Use me as a tool to bludgeon her enemies. She'd manipulated me, corrupted me, toyed with me more skillfully than Emma ever had.

She'd been stabbed for me. That couldn't have been an act.

But of course it could have. If we hadn't taken down Oni Lee, she'd have been dead too. Her self-sacrifice had been as much to her own benefit as mine. None of the bad things I'd thought about her had changed. Tattle was still a bitch, she was still a bully, still a criminal, but she was also… I don't know… Not heroic, not really, but if an Endbringer showed up at our door, she's the one I'd want guarding my back. She was still an enemy, still someone I'd eventually have to kill, but for the first time I found myself hoping she might change before it came to that. Stupid, I know, people didn't change.

"Mission accomplished," I said stiffly. "Oni Lee is dead. Get on Angelica, go back to the HQ, contact your doctors. I'll take care of things here."

"Coil's doctors," said Tattle weakly, still smiling. "C'mon, don't pretend. I know you're starting to believe me."

"If you keep talking," I grumbled. "You really will bleed out. Now get on Angelica… Bakuda is still out there. Our alliance is still on."

"Can't leave yet," Tattle said, as cheerful as ever. I tried not to hear the obvious pain in her voice. "The children aren't dead yet, but it's something only you can do."

So that's why Tattle sounded so cheerful. Torturing me brought joy to every bully. Still, I'd give her credit, she was right. I couldn't leave, not before I took care of the little girl who'd had the bomb in her brain detonated. She was on the other side of the parking lot, stretched and shrunk into an abomination through a perversion of Vista's power. Every breath a torture, every moment pain. For some reason, she wouldn't die.

There was only one solution. Only one thing I could do to help her. One final mercy. It wasn't something a hero would do. It wasn't something I wanted to do either. I trudged to the little girl, dreading what was necessary, dreading my duty, my responsibility. I scooped up an assault rifle, forcing myself not to slow.

"I can do it," Regent offered, clutching his shoulder. I doubted he'd be able to lift the gun with his wound, but even if he could I wouldn't have accepted.

"No." I looked at the girl. She looked at me. I couldn't see any fear in her brown eyes, any understanding or hatred, just agony. I was responsible for her pain. It had been to save more children from sharing her fate, but if I hadn't lured out the ABB she wouldn't be suffering on the ground.

I couldn't offer an apology. It wouldn't be genuine. I'd had nothing but shitty options, and I still thought I'd picked the best one. The one which would help the most people. Just not her.

"I will kill Bakuda," I promised the girl. I looked into her eyes, tried to give her one last moment of companionship. Then I squeezed the trigger and put a bullet through her brain. Her chest stopped rising and falling, her eyes became dull, blood oozed from the open hole in her forehead, pooling in cracks in the pavement.

I waited for regret to come. Nothing. I'd killed a girl, a small innocent child, and… and it should have meant more.

I wasn't a good person. A good person wouldn't kill a little girl. I had, and it had just been another moment. A part of me was glad. I could be cold. I could do what was necessary. I would never allow this to happen again. Whatever it took.

I pointed my assault rifle at the news chopper and open fired, only releasing the trigger when it retreated. I would have done it sooner, but putting the girl out her misery had taken priority over my image. I'd be receiving a kill order. It didn't really matter. Given my purpose, the villains would take me out far sooner than the heroes.

"You might've done that earlier," said Regent lightly. "I've found that most people are strangely repulsed by the idea of murdering children."

"Didn't matter," rasped Tattle. "The public and heroes don't know about Bakuda. We were all getting kill orders as soon as Bakuda detonated their bombs. Looked like we killed them after they'd given up."

Regent winced. "And I'm the only one on the team with an unknown power. Well fuck. What are we waiting for? Let's skedaddle before the protectorate shows."

"Not yet. Two left." Tattle shot me a vulpine smile, and pointed at the last two ABB members, huddled together behind an old red Hyundai. Two girls. Japanese, Korean maybe. Dark skinned, maybe eleven or twelve, looked like sisters. Both crying and holding each other. Tattletale could fuck right off. I wasn't going to kill them, no matter how she tried to convince me.

"I think you, and you alone, can save them," said Tattletale. "Really save them. You can teleport away the bombs in their head. You're more than a killer Taylor. You can use your power to help people. You can be a hero."

…Bullshit…

Bullshit! She was full of fucking shit! I should've known better than to ever think we could be friends! She was just like Emma. Getting me to let my guard down, figuring out just where to strike to hurt me! Well I wasn't as dumb as she thought. As if I'd ever believe that I could be a hero. As if I was gullible enough to believe that Tattletale could ever give a fuck about anyone other than herself.

"You teleported their guns away," said Tattletale slimily. "Why not their bombs?"

I pretended to play along, put a stamp on my sweater, and advanced on the girls. They crawled backwards, or at least tried too, but stumbled over themselves for some reason. Probably fatigue. Maybe Bakuda's bombs fucked with their nervous system or something.

I reached out with my stamp sense, but didn't notice anything like a bomb. Long story short on my power, my sense worked like sight. Couldn't see inside things. I couldn't teleport things in halves either. I couldn't teleport just someone's leg or their heart, or anything like that. I either teleported their entire body, or nothing. Unfortunately, the bomb in their heads registered to me as part of their body. In other words, I couldn't teleport them. Maybe that had been Tattletale's game. Get me to think I could actually be a hero, then take it away. It hadn't worked. If I knew anything, I knew that my life wouldn't be a happy one. I couldn't save the children.

"Not yet," said Tattletale superiorly. She seemed to enjoy needling me despite having a knife in her gut. "But you were able to teleport away the guns even though they were holding them. Could you teleport the knife that's in me if you wanted?"

I searched with my senses. The knife did register to my powers as separate from Tattletale. I could teleport it. Strange, where was she going with- oh…

…Oh no…

No, no, no…

"So then," Tattletale said sadistically. Stop. Shut up. Shut your damn mouth! "Why can you teleport the knife and guns but not the bombs? Because they are exposed to air, while the bombs are completely surrounded by flesh. You can teleport out the bombs if you expose them."

She smirked at the two girls, and bent down so they were eye level. "My friend can save you from Bakuda, but she's gonna have to cut your head open, kay?"

The girls stopped shaking. Something replaced their fear, and I didn't exactly like the look they were giving me. It made me uncomfortable. Scared me more than Oni Lee's death glare ever had. Fuck, I didn't like it at all.

Points to Tattletale, this was new. Emma had never tortured me like this.

"I…" I said, terror filling me. I started to shake. "I c-can't do this. I d-don't know how. W-we don't even have any knives. I-its imp-p-possible."

"You can get the knives off Oni Lee's body," said Tattletale. "You told me you wanted to make Brockton Bay a little less shitty. Here's your chance. Not by taking down a bad guy, but by actually doing something good."

…Bullshit!

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. How could cutting open a child's skull ever be considered a good thing? Ridiculous. Tattletale was a lying, scheming, conniving little bitch. Smart though. As smart as Emma liked to think she was. She'd tricked me into becoming an Undersider, twisted everything so it seemed like a rational choice, but she wouldn't trick me into this! If this got out, I'd be as big a villain as Nilbog.

"Oh it's getting out," said Tattletale, without her trademark smile, her voice neutral. "Bakuda will make sure of it. Why fight us and the protectorate, when she can turn us against each other? Divide and conquer, it's basic tactics. Everything you've done up until now could be forgiven. Not this. Not ripping open the skulls of children. That's unforgivable. You're gonna be bigger than Nilbog, bigger than Heartbreaker, you're gonna be seen as the next Bonesaw. You'll be considered a monster. There will be no recovering from this Taylor, they will never forgive you. You'll never be able to unmask in front of your dad. Speaking of which…"

I followed her gaze to the end of the parking lot. To a number of Dockworkers who'd wandered out of the ferry station. Dad was in front. Fucking perfect. What next, would Lisa somehow appear from nowhere to be horrified by me too?

"But the people that matter," said Tattletale, "the people you've saved, they'll know the truth. They'll know that when everyone else gave up on them, you ruined your own career to save them. These two children, they'll be alive, and if you do nothing... They're dead. They're dead for sure. So what matters to you Tay?"

I…

"Do you want to be seen as a hero?" Asked Tattletale. "Or do you actually want to be one?"

…Fuck Tattletale. Worse than Emma. A thousand times worse. Manipulating me. Twisting things. This was a trick. It was a trick. It had to be a trick.

"Please," said the older of the two girls. "Please, please, please get it out of me. I can't live like this anymore!"

Fuck! Fucking bullshit. Dammit. Unfair. I shouldn't have to. Hero, villain, good and evil, what about what I wanted? Fucking slicing open people's heads right in front of Dad wasn't my idea of a good time. It wasn't my responsibility. What about when I'd needed help? Nobody had saved me! Nobody had fucking saved me!

…Nobody had saved me…

Nobody had saved me.

Shit.

A part of me, long forgotten, stirred again. My heart hammered, my skin tingled, nausea rolled along my guts. Trepidation. But I couldn't afford to hesitate.

I pulled the girl to me, found stitches indicating where the bomb had been inserted, and sliced open her scalp. Blood splurted on the knife, but I could still see the screws Bakuda had used to keep her skull in place. I cut through two, and pried apart the bone, revealing a third layer of stitching of what looked like a hidden layer of skin. With care, I cut through those as well, peeling it back, until I could sense Bakuda's bomb. I teleported it away as the girl screamed. I didn't blame her. It must've hurt. Having your head ripped open, your brain exposed. Her blood splattered on concrete. I did my best to put everything back the way I found it, although Tattletale would probably have to get one of her surgeons to get everything closed properly. For all my trouble the girl would probably die of infection, I was fairly certain surgery was only supposed to be done in a controlled environment.

I was probably going to hell for this. I repeated the process with the other girl, fighting off my nausea, my terror, my repulsion, forcing myself to action. One wrong move would kill her. One slip of the knife and it was lights out forever. But I didn't mess up, I got the bomb out of her, even as she screamed.

"Thank you," said the two children.

My eyes felt heavy suddenly. My nose felt clogged. I sniffed.

Tattletale smiled, nodded at the dog, and collapsed onto the ground. Right, she had a knife in her belly. She must've been holding on, until the job was through. Torturing me must have been fun. If Regent hadn't been with me I'd have left her to die.

I was shaking. I tried to steady my hand. I couldn't. I'd saved them. I could save more. And if I could, I had to, it was my responsibility, my duty, my purpose.

It was something to live for.

Horror settled in me. Terror. Anger. Tattletale had stolen my invincibility. She'd made me vulnerable. Given me a taste of what it felt like to be human, to feel good, to have something to lose. The strings she'd had on me had just become permanent. If she could force me to cut open a child's head, force me to commit to a life of villainy, and more than anything force me to think that I might actually be worth something, she could force me to do anything.

I felt tears trickling down my cheek. Snot dribbling onto my lips. Couldn't control my breathing. I was crying? She'd made me fucking cry?

I made a promise to myself. Someday, when the time came, when I sunk a knife in Tattletale's heart, I'd remember this day. What she'd forced me to do. What she'd done to me. I'd never forget. I'd never forgive.

ooOoo

It wouldn't be in the news, but Danny knew what he'd seen. She'd cut open the children's heads. Kept them as captives. He'd been right. She was taking over the ABB. Threatening children to do it. He'd inherited his father's anger, and he felt it coming on now. Stupid. He couldn't run out to the parking lot, it'd just get him killed, leave Taylor an orphan.

He'd seen her fight with Oni Lee. It was on another level than the fight with the Wards. A different speed, like comparing an NBA game to a junior high one. That was what it looked like when capes fought without restraint. Powers utilized cleverly, lethally. Each attack deadly, tactical, no pauses, no quips, one lapse in concentration meant death. Either one of them could've leveled the Wards a few times over. Each an army unto themselves. Brave, bloodthirsty, cunning, ruthless, precise. Natural born killers. In the end, she had won, but more than that she'd exposed that the hero's would never win. Most people hesitated. Heroes hesitated. Hell, most villains hesitated. She didn't.

Kurt held his arm, as the dockworkers watched the villains escape on a giant, bone-covered monster.

"She can't get away with this," Danny growled, but let himself be restrained. "If the PRT has any integrity, they'll call in the Triumvirate to take care of her."

"I hope not," said Kurt. "The city needs her."

What?

"Don't look at me like that," said Kurt. "I don't like her, and I'm not in favor of killing children, but… What was she supposed to do? Let them go? Let them go kill somebody else? They fired on her first!"

"They were children," Danny said, looking at Kurt as if he'd never seen him before.

"Enemies," said Kurt. "You were right about the bank. It was to lure out the ABB. And now they're gone. She should get a fucking medal."

"She murdered children!"

"And got the job done," said Kurt. "You saw her take on Oni Lee! You wanna tell me the protectorate could've done any of that? You think they'd have the balls to do what we all knew should've been done a decade ago? Or would they have tried to take him alive, even if that meant letting him escape? When is enough, enough?"

"We have laws for a reason," said Danny. "You sound like a fascist!"

"Maybe I just want somebody to win," said Kurt, throwing up his arms. "And yeah, maybe I think a little authoritarianism is in order. I think we've all learned that some people need consequences to be kept in line. I'm surprised you'd disagree after everything your daughter went through."

"Don't bring her up in this," Danny growled, his face growing red.

"She's dropping out, Danny," said Kurt. Sincere, not taunting, which only made Danny angrier. "Her life is ruined. And the girls responsible get a two week suspension? They're probably talking to each other on the phone, laughing about it. They should be in jail! That's why Brockton Bay is dying, it didn't hit me until you told me what happened, and something your daughter said made everything click. If I were in your shoes… I'd find Kaiser. Join him if he could give me the justice the courts and the school wouldn't. How many times has that story played out?"

"Many," said Danny. "It's not a solution. It would mean stooping to their level. Losing. And each time someone does, it just makes the whole situation worse."

"You're a better man than most," said Kurt. "But tell me. If those three girls thought that the principal was crazy, that she'd kill them if they pulled something like that- would they have even bullied your daughter in the first place?"

"Probably not," said Danny. "But we've developed past that as a society. We've learned that fear is detrimental to higher order thinking. Students lose about 30 IQ points if they don't feel safe."

"Did Taylor feel safe at school?" Asked Kurt. "Do you feel safe in Brockton Bay? Would you feel more or less safe, if the cops and capes could subdue the criminals with lethal force?"

That sounded a lot like a police state. He looked past Kurt. Some agreed with him, some agreed with Kurt, it was about even. A cold dread overtook Danny. It was strange how clearly the new cape had made her recruitment pitch without uttering a single word. She hadn't needed to, instead she'd made her campaign promises through the televised destruction of the ABB.

She had no grand vision, no unifying philosophy, no promise of drugs or women or even money. Her sole promise was death to the bad guys, by any means necessary. She appealed to a lot of decent people, who should've known better. That, more than any of her evil deeds, terrified him in a way that none of the other villains ever had before, because it meant she could actually win.

She could conquer Brockton Bay.

He realized what he needed to do. Something he should've done a long time ago. Sell the house. Move from Brockton Bay. Quit his job, find a new one somewhere else, no matter how menial, no matter how demeaning. Move somewhere small. Somewhere beneath the notice of capes. He needed to protect his daughter, but the threats in the city were too large for him.

He couldn't let his precious Taylor share a city with Everywhere.