Author's Note: Big thanks to TwoPence for betareading and helping me edit this chapter.

I watched the rock I'd stamped sink into the murky depths of Brockton Bay. Lisa had borrowed her dad's motorboat and driven us to the middle of the harbor. It wouldn't have the firepower of the Atlantic portal, but the water still had a depth of about 400 feet. Sufficient for my purposes I suppose, which was primarily to have a secure location to teleport Bakuda's brain bombs. Naturally I'd done the calculations- basic preparation- and a depth of 400 feet would give my geysers a disappointing strength of only about 180 psi. For reference, water from a fire hose typically had a pressure between 116 and 290 psi.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Asked Lisa, a hand pressed tightly against her stomach. "You can incapacitate without killing."

Had I said that aloud?

"Of course," I lied. That said a fire hose typically had a diameter of a few inches at most, I could make my portals much larger so I wasn't exactly defenseless. And against anyone stupid enough to get too close to me, being teleported to the bottom of the bay would still be a death sentence. Not against Glory Girl though, if she wanted a rematch I'd be helpless.

"None of the capes are going to pick a fight with you when Bakuda's got a hydrogen bomb pressed against all our necks," said Lisa.

"And what about tomorrow?" I asked. "And the day after? I killed a kid on national television and ditched the chance to explain myself. Once Bakuda's handled, I'll be public enemy number one."

I steeled myself.

"Which is why I'm cutting contact with you," I said. "Brian was right. I'm dead. You're not getting dragged down with me."

Lisa sighed. "No."

My chest felt warm, my shoulders relaxed, and an empty exhaustion slipped off my back like droplets in a shower. Everything felt lighter, easier. I'd always thought Odyssius was an idiot, but when confronted with an actual siren song, I finally understood the temptation to steer your ship straight into the rocks for just another moment of that blissful, ignorant peace. "This isn't a discussion. I'm cutting ties. Sorry."

Lisa drove the boat, the only sound was the howling wind and water crashing against the hull. We rocked back and forth against the waves. "Because you're not strong enough to protect me?"

"I'm not," I said, wind and brackish bay water stinging against my skin. "It's just reality. I've made too many enemies. You'll die if you keep hanging around me, and I'm not letting that happen."

"You are powerful," said Lisa. "You're the strongest cape I've ever heard of. Because real strength isn't about superpowers; give a man a fighter jet and a few years to train, and they'd have more combat potential than all but a handful of capes. Yet for all his utility, he wouldn't hold a candle to a parahuman.

"No, real power comes from presence. Can you make people bend to your will? Are you ruthless enough to make people fear you? Are you compassionate enough to make people love you? And are you wise enough, smart enough, to turn their obedience into victory? It's rare, Tay, real rare.

"You can't protect me," said Lisa. "Not alone. Because alone, we are powerless. If you want to change the world, save Brockton Bay even a little, you're going to need help. And people will help you Taylor, people will follow, if you give them the chance. Dozens of surgeons have already volunteered for your cause."

It all sounded good. I desperately wanted to believe her, to keep the one friend I'd made, but I knew bullshit when I heard it. Maybe I could believe I was a decent cape. Maybe. It might even be feasible that I had a knack for combat. But leadership?

A kind liar was still a liar. I liked Lisa too much to listen to her.

"It won't matter," I said sullenly. "It's all futile. Even if we get the bombs out, they'll still die from infection. I'm a cape. Glamorous. I know you want the connection, but there will be other capes. I'm not letting you throw your life away."

Lisa laughed, winced, and clutched her stomach wheezing. The small motorboat bumped against the pier. They secured it and Lisa awkwardly clambered out to call her dad on a nearby payphone. Her smile fell away.

"It's for you," said Lisa, handing me the phone, studying me closely.

"Where the fuck are you?" Tattletale demanded. "Biggest meeting of capes in Brockton Bay history, and you decide to play hooky? You made Grue look like he didn't have control of his team, and I had to search for you when I could've been gotten the dirty little secrets of every cape in the fucking city. Had to track down your little friend to even get in contact with you. Coil is not happy that you skipped out on his meeting, but we both lucked the fuck out. A powerful cape is up for grabs, and as long as we get her on the team all will be forgiven. And in case you haven't realized, it's Panacea. It's fucking Panacea. She used her power to give Glory Girl the hots for her, declared herself a destined villain, and now she's trapezing around the boardwalk feeling sorry for herself. Good fucking luck, asshole!"

I reeled at the bombshell.

"Tattletale," I said softly. "Leave now. If you ever contact the Wilbourns again I will hunt you down, and I will kill you and your entire team. Am I understood? Yes or no."

I heard the low drone of a disconnected dial tone. Tattletale had hung up on me.

Lisa looked stricken.

"Should I kill her on sight?" I asked. Luckily for me, I must've been warming up to Tattletale, because I'd actually thought a stern warning might suffice. Foolish, I know. In the end, I was still far too soft to lead anyone. But if I'd been smarter, she'd have seen through the lie and would have been on guard. If Tattletale didn't want me to find her; I wouldn't. But due to my naive stupidity, I still might be able to kill her.

Lisa shook her head frantically.

"Of course," I said, understanding her hesitation immediately. "She's got a team. They probably know too. I'll play it cool until I've got them near me. No, that won't work. Tattletale can basically read minds. I'll have to make sure that I get Tattletale alone, and then I can take the rest of them out after. Clean up any loose ends. I promise I'll do that for you, Lisa."

"No," said Lisa with a smile, but her trembling betrayed her fear. "That's not what I want. The Undersiders have been good for you. They're your allies. Friends. You need them."

I snorted. "You've got a soft heart Lisa. But they've crossed a line. They've threatened someone close to me. Again. Perhaps the rest of the team can be salvaged, but Tattletale has to die."

"Tattletale isn't that bad," Lisa said. "You even told me that she'd been recruited at gunpoint."

"I was lying," I said. "Tattletale is a bully. She finds where a person is most vulnerable, and uses it to hurt them. You saw what she did to Panacea on the news. She tried to do the same to Glory Girl for no other reason than to prove she could, to prove her own superiority. She's smart though, like Simurgh-lite levels of smart. She can use her powers and superior intellect to say exactly what you want to hear, to get you wrapped around her little finger. Spend too much time around her and she'll have you mastered. If I leave her be, she will take over the city, Lisa."

"Jesus Chriiiiiiist," said Lisa, throwing up her hands, wincing, and pulling them back into her stomach. "While I'm sure she would be flattered that you're actually taking her seriously, I really really think you're overstating her intelligence. I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but Tattletale is not a fucking god. She's got a talent for shit talking, but half the time she's just making shit up and hoping it sticks. Did I say half the time, I mean all the fucking time. When it works, she just plays it cool, pretends that she totally meant for that to happen, but really she doesn't have a fucking clue. How could she? People don't make any fucking sense and never have! If she were that smart, if she could really anticipate your every action, would she really have pulled that stupid stunt or would she have maybe, just maybe, thought of a better fucking way of sharing that Coil had told her to get Panacea? God knows it would've been really, really fucking easy, and there were probably a thousand ways she could have done it that wouldn't have enraged you. I bet she's feeling pretty, pretty dumb right now."

"She can read minds," I said. "She's not just making things up. Short of the Simurgh, she is the most powerful thinker in the entire world."

"Cold reading," said Lisa bitterly. "She's just got good intuition. She's not even the smartest person in the city. With Faultline around, she's probably not even top three."

"Nonsense. Tattletale is an evil mastermind," I said declaratively. "Keenly analytical, every interaction is a carefully orchestrated ploy in her superhuman plot. She's anticipated my every move, considered my every suspicion, and has made it her mission to bend me to her will. Make me think she's on my side, only to betray me in the end. Not that I'm at all necessary to her schemes, I'm just a game to her."

"Or maybe she just wants you to like her," said Lisa.

"Exactly," I said, nodding. "And once she's proven she can get past my defenses, she'll dispose of me."

"Yeah," said Lisa. "That makes total sense Taylor. Betray the single most dangerous cape in the city for… um… Why exactly? Wouldn't that absolutely just get her murdered? Why not just play nice, y'know keep an unbeatable partnership going and ride it out to total domination? Strange how you consider her to have godlike intelligence one moment, and then have her acting like a complete moron the next. Have you considered that maybe she's just a regular person, who made some mistakes when under extreme pressure?"

"No," I said. "I don't think that's it at all."

Lisa just didn't understand.

"I think I know Tattletale better than you do, Lisa," I said firmly, ending the discussion. "But I suppose it doesn't matter. For now, we've got one mission. We've got to find Panacea, and convince her to join us"

Lisa nodded with a smirk. "Neatly taking care of your infection concerns about the surgeries. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go corrupt the city's greatest hero."

We found Panacea in a mall, nibbling lifelessly on a half eaten pretzel on an otherwise empty table in the middle of a busy food court. For the single most powerful cape in Brockton Bay she didn't cut a very imposing figure. She was hunched over in her seat, gaze downcast, looking thoroughly uncomfortable in her own skin.

I wasn't really sure how to do this. As I stood awkwardly- meticulously analyzing every pitch I might have for the potential recruit, weighing their pros and cons like it was a math problem- Lisa casually slid into the seat next to Panacea. Lisa made it look so easy, approaching a stranger. Probably because it was, just not for me. Most people had had more than two friends in their lives; most people knew how to be people. I'd never quite figured out how to be a person- probably why nobody had saved me from the locker, why nobody had ever tried to stop the bullying.

I was happy for them. Really, I was.

Panacea would be a better cape for Lisa. Everything she was looking for. Lisa wanted to follow a powerful parahuman, and Panacea's power was just as unfair and bullshit as Eidolin's. It just hadn't been apparent when she'd been limiting herself, but anyone with half a brain would know it now. If, in a single moment of weakness, she could do something as subtle as change her sister's brain chemistry in such a way as to be attracted to her specifically, it suggested an altogether different power than healing. It suggested she was capable of general biokinesis.

She was Bonesaw if Bonesaw didn't need tools or prep time. Think of all the applications! With her powers, I could solve the city's Bakuda problem in a few minutes. I could defeat all the city's villains in an afternoon. I could change the world to my liking. But I didn't have her S-rank power. My portals would never amount to a fraction of what Panacea could do. Compared to her I was a worm.

I'd used my piddly ass power to murder people, and had become the largest villain this side of Jack Slash. Panacea was essentially a god, had chosen to be a benevolent one, and was the city's most beloved hero. The restraint she'd displayed was admirable, and with Lisa's guidance I truly believed they were capable of changing the world for the better.

God, she would even appeal to Lisa's soft, gentle heart. With what she'd done to her sister, Panacea seemed broken. Lisa would be compelled to fix her, just as she was compelled to fix me. I didn't resent Lisa for that, it made her a good person, it just meant that she'd mistaken her desire to help a person in need with genuine friendship.

I doubted Lisa would abandon me, she was too good a person to pull an Emma on me, but with access to a superior cape distance would grow between us. It seemed inevitable. The kindest person I knew, and the world's greatest healer, they deserved each other.

It was probably for the best. Panacea would have all kinds of people in her ear from now on, she needed a Lisa to keep her head on straight.

"I'm not going to heal you," Panacea snapped, not looking up from her pretzel. "And if you're here for someone else, I'm not going to heal them either. Just leave me alone."

"Oh we're not here for that, we're here to offer you an opportunity. To help you grow, to show you how to…" Lisa shot Panacea with a comfortably familiar vulpine smile. "Break the rules the right way. You're like a priest's daughter, so repressed, finally off to college. Drinking, drugs, fucking around, just doing everything you always wanted without any restraint. Consider us a sorority, a real shitty one, full of party girls. We both know you're never gonna be able to go back, not after your first hit, so why not learn to be a smoooth criminal?"

Panacea turned away from Lisa. "Not interested. Get lost."

"Are you sure you want to be saying that?" Asked Lisa. "I've got intel that I'm like, 80% sure is correct. Donchya wanna hear about your dear parental units one and two? Carrol survived. Mark didn't. Sucks right? That it wasn't the other way around?"

"Shut up," growled Panacea. "I'm not going to join your gang- I don't care what you try to tell me."

"Now, now, now," said Lisa. "That's no good. You've gotta be realistic Amy. Take it from someone who's been there, life on the streets ain't fun. Your hair gets greasy, your skin gets dry, your feet get blisters, clothes get dirty, and for pretty girls like me, just finding a safe place to sleep is hard. Luckily you won't have to worry about that last one. I can offer you a roof, some money, a few capes to watch your back, all for a little bit of healing. And let's be real, you can't go back home. Not after what you did. Not after you crossed a line reserved for the real monsters."

Panacea curled in on herself. I frowned. Lisa didn't really feel… Nice. At all. Which could only mean that I'd misjudged Panacea. Maybe she didn't deserve kindness after all.

"Yeah, we know about what you did to Glory Girl," said Lisa. "You think you're the lowest of the low. You're wrong. You're not there. Not yet."

"Not yet?" Panacea whispered, utterly vulnerable.

"Not yet," said Lisa. "You shouldn't hate yourself for what you did in a moment of desperation. Hate yourself for what you do after. We're going to ask you to do something good. If you don't trust your own judgment, call your bodyguard over, have him verify that you'd be doing a good thing. There's no trick. You're going to let us use you, and then Carrol Dallon is going to give you the opportunity to fix Victoria, and you're going to do it."

Only then did I notice someone in white armor watching us. Clockblocker. I felt my stomach flip. It had been a good thing we'd come unmasked. He'd have never let us approach if he'd known who we… who I really was. Anyone could be observant, it wasn't like Tattletale had a monopoly on being intelligent. I didn't have time to entertain crackpot theories in the middle of a mission.

Panacea scowled. "She'll never let me anywhere near her. If she's even still alive."

"You're going to come up with excuses," said Lisa. "As you did just now. Come up with all kinds of reasons not to do what we ask. And you're going to know that they're all bullshit. You're going to make decisions that you know are the wrong ones. That's the point of no return. Will you let us help you or not?"

"Fuck off," said Panacea.

Lisa shrugged and stood. "Fine. I tried. I gave you an out. Just like Clock did. People like you get a million chances to do the right thing. You deserve everything that's coming to you."

It was frustrating. Lisa was trying so hard to help her, and Panacea refused to even consider her words, even though they were obviously true. Some people just wouldn't listen to reason.

So what do you do then? What was a society to do with people like Panacea, deviants who spat on the compassion of others, who had every opportunity to do the right thing and still chose to do wrong?

I put on Everywhere's mask.

"Join us," I said softly. "Or die. Your choice."

Panacea scrambled across the bench like she'd been shot. Fair. I had shot her earlier today. Of course, some distance would do her no good. If she disobeyed, I would kill her. She was an S-rank threat in infancy. She'd displayed no indications that she had any intentions of changing her ways. Dealing with her now would be easiest.

There was a clatter of steel boots against linoleum, and Clockblocker was by her side in an instant, glaring at me. His voice trembled a little. "I'm done being pushed around by assholes. Done letting serial killers get away with shit. Done being seen as some joke. Worst you can do is kill me, and I promise I'll try and kill you. We're under truce rules right now. Violate it, and you'll have every cape in the city after your head. Even if you beat me, you won't survive the day."

"Join us," I told Panacea again. "Or die. Your choice."

Panacea trembled. "Fi-"

Clockblocker lunged at me. I blasted a geyser under him, big as I could make it. He was flung over me, but his armor mostly protected him when he slammed back down onto the mall's linoleum floor. He was up in a hurry, a few clocks in his armor cracked, screaming civilians running past him, a few confused fish flopping around helplessly next to him. I turned. He wasn't the target.

"Well?" I asked Panacea.

Panacea ran, stumbled over her feet, fell. Answer enough, I suppose. I reached into my sweater, applied a stamp to a tennis ball, and lobbed it at her.

"Fine," Panacea said, clutching herself in a fetal position. The ball bounced past her. "Fine. I'll do what you want. But I'm not going to kill anybody!"

"I'm not asking you to kill anyone," I said, frowning. "Why would you even think that? We've got a way to save the asian refugees that Bakuda implanted, but we need your help."

"Are you fucking serious?" Clockblocker asked, still on guard. "Is this some kind of trick? Why the hell didn't you just say that?"

"Because she would've said no," said Lisa, giving me a thumbs up. "She doesn't give a shit about other people. Just herself. Her own happiness. Her own security. Threatening her was the only way."

"I don't believe that," said Clockblocker. "Amy has given more to the ci-"

"Past good deeds do not excuse past crimes," I said. "If she refuses to reform, then yes, she is a problem. She won't change her environment, she won't get support, she won't make amends. So I'm applying pressure. Maybe it doesn't work, in which case she's too much of a threat to be left alive. Wait much longer, and even the Triumvirate would be helpless against her."

Surprisingly, they all looked at me like I was crazy.

"What," I said. "It's true. You've got the abi-"

"You've got the ability to alter all carbon-based forms of life as you see fit," said Lisa gleefully. "A true biokinetic. Along with a perfect understanding of biomechanics. That's how you heal. It's a small subsection of your power, you could change things just as easily as you could restore. That's what your mastering of Glory Girl represents. You could create an army of mindless slaves. In a few minutes you could create a plague that could wipe out all of humanity! It'd be easy-peasy, like stealing candy from a baby."

Panacea seemed to consider it. She scowled.

"So what?" Asked Clockblocker. "It's not like she'd ever do any of that. Believe it or not, we don't actually have to use our powers to be giant dildos."

He stared at me for support.

"I agree," I said. "Killing everyone brings her no closer to her actual goals, and is a blunt, unimaginative use of her power. Panacea is far more likely to use her power to attain something she actually wants. She'll finish the job she started with Glory Girl, applying more drastic changes until Glory Girl actually loves her."

"Impossible," said Clockblocker. "Even if she wanted to, she couldn't. Victoria won't let her get anywhere near her. Amy can't fly. She's not invincible. Her powers take too long to work to be useful in a fight."

I glanced at Panacea. "You've got Clockblocker right there. Get a hand on him, knock him out, master him like you almost did to Glory Girl. Command him to put Glory Girl on pause. After he does, you make your approach.

Panacea had seemed to grow even angrier.

Clockblocker was regarding me strangely.

"Fine. Something more clean. There's a parahuman named Newter that secretes a powerful hallucinogen out of his skin. Knocks people out on contact. Get a sample, find out how to make some flies resistant to it. Newter is resistant to it, so it's possible. Cover a few flies in the hallucinogen, and then make them attracted to Glor-"

"Shut up," said Panacea. "Shut up! Stop it! Stop giving me ideas!"

"Oh please," I said dismissively. "Like you haven't thought of all this yourself. We've all had these thoughts before, we just… I dunno. Obviously there's a reason that most capes refuse to fully utilize their powers. Right?"

Silence.

Right? Some unspoken code I was violating by using my power effectively. I know for a fact that Panacea, Glory Girl, Aegis, Vista, Clockblocker, and most likely Kid Win had better powers than me. Shadow Stalker was probably on par. Why the hell had they let me kick them around? Was there some law? Tattletale's obviously bullshit unwritten rules? What was I missing?

Why was Oni Lee the only cape I'd fought or heard about who'd actually used his powers with anything approaching basic intelligence?

"I mean, obviously the PRT is holding you back," I said to Clockblocker. "You're one of a handful of capes capable of killing an Endbringer. You know that, that's why you're always acting like an obnoxious jackass, because you know they have to put up with it. That's how you got your name; a power play, testing boundaries."

"Well now I know you're making shit up," said Clockblocker, still playing stupid.

"Vista spreads some invisible wires across the battlefield. Maybe two skyscrapers. Someone acts as bait," I said. "Get it running at you, freeze the strings at just the right time, and you can cut an Endbringer in half."

"There's no way my powers extend out that far," said Clockblocker, almost defensively. "It's not that deep. The PRT isn't about to turn down help, even if I'm a bit of a jackas-"

"No, they do." Lisa considered the possibility. "The problem is that we don't know if the Endbringers have regen or not. After fighting Eidolin for so long, they've got to be pretty adaptable. You'd only get one shot at it. I wouldn't want to waste it on their legs, not even on the opportunity to cut one in half."

"Full restraint then," I said. "Constrict them like the AT-AT's in Star Wars, then blast them as hard as we can."

"Get Rune or Vista to transport the wires across the battlefield," said Lisa. "And then have Miss Militia drop a few hydrogen bombs on their ass. I still don't think it would be enough. You wanna tell me that Eidolin has never hit one of them with anything that hard before?"

"Alright, enough," said Clockblocker. "Miss Militia can't create fucking nukes. This is fanfiction bullshit."

"She can," said Lisa.

"It'd just be a start," I said. "Shadow Stalker can make things phase through walls. Why not have her phase the h-bombs so they detonate inside him?"

"Too heavy," said Lisa. "She isn't capable. You'd have a better bet having Armsmaster and Kid Win work together to make some kind of tinker-tech that could expose the Endbringer, or finding a blaster that can break the Endbringer's defenses."

"So there you go," I said, shrugging. "I'm sure they've got you training together, powers get exponentially more dangerous when allowed to synergize. Afterall, Eidolin gets three, so a set of five or six capes with decent powers should be able to match his output if properly trained and utilized. They've probably got something more elaborate planned, but even if you didn't kill it, you'd be useful against an Endbringer."

"That… That might be plausible," Clockblocker admitted, pretending he hadn't already considered the option. It must've been enough to get him to trust us, because we were finally able to get moving. Lisa led us to the ABB shelter, but Clockblocker had a few more questions for me.

"Why are you doing all this?" Clockblocker demanded. "Why rob a bank? Why nearly kill two of my teammates?"

I explained the plan. All of it, except for Coil.

"Maybe I get where you're coming from," said Clockblocker. "Bakuda sucks. She blew up my fucking school. I don't know who was still there for sports, clubs, detention. Don't know which friends are still alive, which teachers. She blew up our headquarters too. The PRT isn't just the capes, there were a lot of good people in there who she killed. Dunno if I'll ever be able to shoot the shit with Dimitri again, ever get to unload my day on Doctor Yamada. You wanna kill the ABB, good. I do too. But I can't agree with your methods. You could've come up with something better, less cruel. You would've killed two of my friends if Amy hadn't saved them. They're good people. They didn't deserve to die."

And then he shocked me.

"And neither do you. Your plan ends with you dead nine times out of ten, and I really doubt that that's a coincidence. Taking out the villains one-by-one is retarded and will never actually work. It's going to get you killed." Clockblocker steadied himself, gathered his resolve, stared right into my soul. "You're just trying to commit suicide, aren't you?"

… I…

But the truth was that everyone thought about killing themselves sometimes. It wasn't as rare as people liked to pretend. Maybe I'd even idly planned out how to do it, but that wasn't the same as actually doing it. Maybe I'd looked at a rope, thought about what it would be like to wrap it around my neck, and hang myself, but I'd never actually spent any time researching how to tie a noose or how I'd secure it to the ceiling. I doubted the fan in the living room would even be able to hold my weight, and if you didn't break your neck in the fall you were bound to suffer a slow and painful death by asphyxiation. Aspirin I'd probably just throw up. I didn't know how to secure a gun. And I'd never just sit there and let a cape kill me. Besides, killing myself in too-obvious a way would let the Trio know they'd won. I could just picture Emma giving her condolences to my father, with that same smirk she'd given me after the locker. Sickening.

"Life doesn't have to be miserable," said Clockblocker, his gaze flickering to Panacea, then back to me. "You don't have to hurt yourself to help people."

"You're wrong," I said quietly. But I felt I owed him a little more. "You're describing a kind world, but not the one we live in. Bakuda. This isn't the first time she's done something like this. Cornell. She's a tinker. She needs time to prepare. Executing her a month ago would have been easy. Why didn't you?"

Clockblocker shrugged. "You're right. A kill order should have been placed on her a long time ago. I'm not going to defend the prote-"

"Not the Protectorate," I said. "You. You specifically."

"I…" Clockblocker said. "She didn't have a kill order."

"That's not an answer," I said.

"Precedent," said Clockblocker. "Public relations. Retaliation. Tactics. The fact that it'd probably mean starting a war with the villains that would get a lot of innocent people hurt. And if I'm being honest, trying to pick a fight with her would've been suicide when she was flanked by Lung and Oni Lee. Not to mention that even if I somehow take her out I'm a criminal."

"So you did nothing," I said. "And Bakuda took advantage. That's the thing with bullies. We've got this stupid belief that they're cowards. They're not. Assholes, obviously, but not cowards. They don't stop when confronted. They escalate, make things painful, get their friends to join, maybe even threaten you legally. You wanna pretend that psychos don't exist, what happens to the victims?"

I mimed a gun with my index finger, and shot it into the ground.

"She gets a bomb in her brain and a bullet through her skull. Flat lined. Dead. No happy endings here. This is Brockton Bay. This is the Docks," I said. "The truth is, I don't even have a sob story. The girl I killed earlier today, she's got a sob story. But nobody gives a shit- not really- not enough to actually do something about it.

"I don't think you're a coward Clockblocker," I said. "I don't think the PRT is evil. It's following the will of the people. It's following the law. I'm sure all those Asians with bombs in their skulls will be pleased you're so law-abiding and merciful to poor misunderstood Bakuda."

Clockblocker gave a slight nod.

"Taking on a bully is never safe," I said. "You will get hurt. Your friends will get hurt. A lot of innocent people will get hurt. But the question isn't about right and wrong. We both know what's right. The question is whether you can still do what's right even when it's hard. When it's painful. When it might just kill you. I know my answer. Do you know yours?"

"My answer is not to listen to any of your pathetic bullshit," said Panacea rudely, her voice screeching, nagging, and irritating. "You fucking shot me in the foot. You robbed a bank. You don't want to stop bullies; you want to become one. What's the difference between you and Bakuda?"

"I haven't been putting bombs in people's brains," I said, pointing out the obvious.

"Yeah," said Panacea sarcastically, stubbornly refusing to consider anything I'd told her. "A geyser through a brain is so much diff-"

"Is Brockton Bay really that bad?" Asked Clockblocker quietly.

"Let me show you," said Lisa. "The areas of town that for some reason never come up during patrols."

The conversation lapsed, and we silently followed Lisa to a warehouse near the boat graveyards.

Clockblocker's steel boots clinked against the shattered sidewalks that had needed to be repaved a few decades ago. No construction company would ever take a job in the Docks. Any green space was covered with white plastic trash bags that almost looked like half-melted snow. Garbage trunks didn't come to the heart of ABB territory, and many of us didn't have the means to take our trash to the dump. We passed a homeless encampment, with houses built out of discarded cardboard boxes. Strung out men with leathery sun-dried skin lazily watched us pass.

I suppose it'd look bad to someone used to the polished veneer of the boardwalk, but you got used to it. Most of the homeless addicts weren't dangerous, and you learned streets to avoid when you lived in the area. Lisa was purposely gallivanting through the worst the Docks had to offer- places you wouldn't normally visit under any circumstances- knowing that with two uniformed capes at her side she was completely safe.

When we finally arrived at the warehouse, I thought Lisa had been tricked, it certainly didn't look like a gathering. The parking lot was empty, but for a few of Coil's vans, and a few mountains of piled up garbage. If this really was a huge gathering, where was everybody?

Hiding?

Lisa pulled open the doors and revealed a few thousand haggard huddling Asians of all ages. Clothes decades old, hand stitched, eastern in style. Shaved, scarred heads. The ABB. What it looked like without its bullies.

Hushed whispers at my appearance.

"This is a trap," muttered Panacea, taking a step back. "A trick. A ploy. She's evil. Don't listen to her. Don't hear her. She's just trying to manipulate you Amy. Don't fall for it. Don't fall for it. Don't fall for it."

Clockblocker caught her wrist as she started to run.

"What?" She snapped.

"Test them," said Clockblocker calmly. "We can't ignore the truth."

"You're…" Panacea said, her voice rising with every word. "You're on her side, aren't you? They've gotten to you. Corrupted you!"

"Thousands of lives are on the line," said Clockblocker evenly. "Heroes don't run."

"Fuck off!" Panacea said, swiping away his hand. "I never would've been in this position if you hadn't fucked up. If she hadn't shot me. If that bitch Tattletale hadn't made me break my rules. This is all your fault!"

"Y'know, it does get tiring being right all the time," said Lisa. "This is how it starts. A decision you know is the wrong one. Tell me how it feels when you hit rock bottom, I'm curious."

Panacea scowled. "So what? Maybe I am a monster, whatever. I'm not gonna follow the orders of a villain."

Enough talk.

"Very well," I said, applying a stamp to a tennis ball. "You know the consequences of disobedience. Are you prepared?"

Panacea glared at me for a moment, measuring me. I let her. If she really wanted to die, I'd oblige.

"I fucking hate you," Panacea hissed, limping to an elderly asian man and holding out her hand. "Fucking evil bitch, asshole, cunt. Liar."

She placed a hand on his forehead and scowled. "Well? You retards got any surgeons, because my power won't let me cut open skulls. The most efficient way to do this would be to organize roles. Surgeons here, some folks prepping stations here and here, teleporter here…"

Credit where it's due. Amy Dallon may have been an irresponsible, blame-deflecting, whiny little bitch, but when it came to taking point in a medical operation she was top notch. She quickly explained roles and responsibilities needed for a smooth operation. A handful of surgeons nodded. Mostly white and indian, but a few other races as well. Apparently Coil, for all his faults, wasn't a racist.

"Anyone who can speak dual languages, please come forward," said Lisa. "We need translators."

For a moment, the Asians looked at her blankly. Eventually a large young man stepped up.

"I can translate," he said. "Mandarin, Korean, and Japanese. But I get my bomb removed first."

"Children first," I said. "Then the elderly. Then men and women. Your service is appreciated."

"No deal," he said.

"This isn't a negotiation," I said. "If Lisa or Panacea tells you to do something, you do it."

"I'm not afraid of you," said the man.

There always had to be one. Fine. I put a stamp on the warehouse's floor. Opened up a geyser right outside, about three feet wide, arced about three stories. Nothing compared to the Atlantic Portal, but still fairly deadly. I closed up the portal after a few moments.

"Next one's going through-"

The Asians surged forward, panicked. I could hardly blame them, the entire situation was a powder keg, set to explode if Bakuda realized what was happening. And I'd just sent a geyser of water three stories in the air, stupid, idiotic. Why not shout what I was doing to the whole city; that'd be a lot less obvious. The man hadn't been trying to question my authority, he'd just been scared shitless. Did I ever get tired of being a moron? Nah, I lived to fuck everything up.

I'd tried to use fear to create a smooth operation, instead I'd created a mob. Disorganized, frightened, children pushed aside as the mass stampeded for me, as people became animals.

"Me," said a large man, scrambling towards me, knife out. "Get it out of me. Now. Then I leave you alone."

No choice then. I opened up a portal beneath his feet. Let the geyser rip him upwards a dozen feet before he tumbled down, smashing against concrete under an inch-deep puddle. He'd managed to mostly shield his head with his arms; they'd shattered on impact. He didn't move. Blood and murky water from the depths of the Bay mixed together.

Great job Tay. A giant bloody mess, just what you need when you're about to mass produce brain surgery. Well, at least the ABB members had been frightened into submission. They followed our orders without complaint. Lisa and Panacea worked together to get everyone in position. Multiple surgeries running in parallel, while equipment and stations were prepped for the next operation in parallel. As soon as a surgeon exposed a bomb, I teleported it, and Panacea cleaned and closed the wounds with her powers. It took a little while, but eventually everyone fell into their roles, and our operation played out like a symphony. Maybe a dozen bombs a minute. Not enough, we needed to be faster. Faster. Get this done, so I could disarm the biggest bomb, kill Bakuda.

"Tay," said Lisa. She tossed me a riot shield. "Just in case."

ooOoo

Clock couldn't even appreciate the hypnotic sway of Lisa's perfect ass as she led him out of the warehouse. What a shitty day. Get exposed to real evil for the first time, then realize it wasn't even that bad compared to what was out there. The world wasn't shades of gray, it was shades of black.

Not that he'd turn her down of course. A dime was a dime, even on the worst day of his life. But his heart just wouldn't be in it.

"If I had to pick a Ward," said Lisa, winking at him. "But unfortunately for you, and men everywhere, god's gift doesn't swing that way. I've got important business to discuss, from one cape to another."

Damn. Clock strikes out again. Well, at least she was nice about it, her rejection didn't even… Wait what?

"I'm Tattletale," she said, shooting him a vulpine smile. "A key member of the infamous Undersiders!"

Clockblocker scrambled backwards, put his hands over his ears.

Tattletale threw her head to the moonlit sky and cackled. "Now that's more fucking like it! Finally some damn respect! A week ago you wouldn't have even know who I was."

"We had your records on file a week ago," said Clockblocker, flushing. He may have been a bit lazy, but he knew the damn capes of the city.

"Did you now," purred Tattletale. "Then tell me? Who am I? Who are the Undersiders? Really?"

"Small time thieves," said Clockblocker. "Hit-and-run tactics. Played by the rules. Benign."

"Brrr! Wrong!" Said Tattletale, crossing her arms in an x. "Completely incorrect! The correct answer is that I'm Sarah Livsey. As for the Undersiders, you're wrong about them as well."

She pulled his hands off his ears, her bottle green eyes laughing.

"How did we form? Why? These are very, very important questions."

"What does it matter?" Asked Clockblocker. "Why did you unmask in front of me?"

Tattletale smirked. "Finally a halfway decent question. The answer, of course, is because it makes no difference. I'm becoming more trouble than I'm worth, especially since I just became replaceable to my boss. My identity is gonna be leaked soon. I give it a month, tops. Still, I'd prefer that you kept my identity a secret from your organization. If my employer realized his strings are worthless, he'll seek a more permanent solution. So be a good little Clock- don't say anything, don't try and fix anything- just freeze like you always do."

"Who?" Asked Clockblocker, a thousand thoughts whirling in his mind. An implication he didn't want to confront. "Were you threatened into service? You… You can join the Wards. We could always use a thinker, and we'll protect you from the person who's threatening you. Whoever they are, they're not as strong as the PRT."

Tattletale's laughter was full of misery. "Oh Clockblocker, dear Clockblocker, poor simple-minded Clockblocker. So quick and so slow at the same time. Have you not realized it yet? Who you work for? Who we work for? Our master?"

"W-what are you trying to say?"

Tattletale smirked. "That for one night, you and Vista are the most important capes in the world. Feel bad about letting down your team? Congratulations hero, you get to redeem yourself! Bakuda's bomb. I know where it is. I can tell you how to neutralize it. I can help you save Brockton Bay from its greatest villain. But. You'll owe me a favor. One. Do we have a deal?"

"How do I know you're telling me the truth?"

"Oh Clockblocker, dear sweet Clockblocker, I would never lie to you," said Tattletale, crossing her fingers in front of him.

Fuck it.

"Fine," said Clockblocker, taking the first step down the slippery slope. Not like he had a choice.

Tattletale smirked. "Here's where the bomb is, I'm like seventy percent sure…"

And she didn't just tell him where to find the bomb, she told him how he could disarm it. Clockblocker felt like he was falling. Keep Panacea safe. At any cost. Those had been the orders Armsmaster had given him.

He hadn't realized the price. Not something so small as his life. No, the cost was the entirety of Brockton Bay. His mom. His dad. His friends. Everyone.

It was too steep. He'd be leaving Amy with the most dangerous cape he'd ever met, and the single most manipulative. That wasn't even the most fucked up thing about it. What was fucked was that a large part of him was convinced that Amy would be safer with the Undersiders than with New Wave or the PRT.

Were they the Bay's greatest villains? Or the Bay's greatest heroes? He didn't even know anymore.

"Dennis," said Lisa softly. "Don't tell anyone you lost Panacea. Don't tell anyone I helped you. Don't try to examine the infiltration. He's a precog. If anyone asks about us, pretend we're the villains you thought we were before you met us. If things go according to plan, you'll understand why."

Bakuda had blown up his school, Everywhere had almost killed two of his teammates, but Tattletale was the scariest. In a few sentences she'd ripped apart the lies that made his reality.

He ran.

ooOoo

"Umm…" said a young asian man, tattooed, with strong corded arms, and horrible bleach blonde hair which wasted his looks. "We were just wondering what you want us to do? Patrol like usual? Expand? What do you want?"

I wanted him to get out of my face. Not that teleporting bombs was really that hard, but if I was even a moment late I was afraid one of them would go off. I couldn't afford to let myself get side-tracked with a meaningless conversation. That said, their hearts were in the right place.

"Start escorting some of the children home," I said. "Search for any holdouts that might have been skeptical of my motives. Convince them to come here. We want to bring in every member of the ABB. Get everyone freed from Bakuda's influence."

"Yes sir." The man bowed, and led a group of thirty or forty out of the warehouse. Mostly young men wearing red and green. It was almost heartwarming. A few days ago they might have been mistaken for a gang of thugs, now they were out helping people.

"We're not as bad as people make us out to be," said a young prostitute with a caramel complexion. Her good looks were mostly wasted by what she wore. A tube top that left her belly button exposed, her skirt covered maybe a quarter of her thighs, and she had a piercing through her nose. It was sad that creeps like Lung had forced her to dress like that. "I've got nothing against the other races. Whites, Blacks, other Asians. That's how most of us feel, you know? I heard what Bakuda said on the news."

"I won't let her do it," I said, teleporting a bomb out of a forty-something balding man with crooked teeth and a wrinkled decade-old tanktop. "Once I'm done here, I'll disarm her bomb and kill her. Make sure she never does anything like this again. You have my word."

"Good," said the near-naked prostitute. "Good. Fuck Bakuda. I don't care what she said, I've got a good feeling about you."

I didn't know what to say about that, so I just continued working. I noticed that a number of the ABB members were staring at me. When I tried to meet their gaze they looked away. Was I not working quickly enough? Did they blame me for what I'd done to the little girl, to Lung? Or for not killing Bakuda sooner?

It was hard to blame them. I'd had my shot on the night I'd first met Tattletale…

… Tattletale…

Fuck, I'd told her I'd kill her if she went after my dad. Then she'd went after Lisa's. Pushing me, playing mind games. I had to kill her… I had to kill her… Give a bully an inch, and they'd take a mile… But I didn't want to kill her, not anymore.

Something hit me. Someone had thrown something at me. Not too big, not too hard, but definitely solid. I looked down. A wad of twenties held together with a rubber band laid on the floor.

"Payment," said an old woman, with curls of thin silvery hair. "For me, Kenji, and Mika. Thank you. But no gang. No gang. Will go through school, will take respectable positions. No gang. Please. Please."

I frowned. The refugees eyed me warily. I threw the money back at the elderly woman. She flinched. Bowed, groveled.

"Please, please," said the woman at my feet. "Meant no offense, please, please. No gang! No gang!"

… Oh…

She didn't want her grandchildren forced into a gang. So she was paying me… So I didn't force them into a gang.

My gang.

…Okay, so yeah, I'd forgotten that I was a cape. Nobody would follow Taylor Hebert, but apparently they'd follow Everywhere. Especially after Bakuda had told everyone that I was trying to take over the ABB on national television. I knew it had been a trickto turn the public against me, but the ABB didn't. It had backfired; turned the ABB against her. They'd deserted Bakuda to join my ranks.

They thought I'd taken over the ABB.

So… No. And by no, I meant hell no. I was putting my foot down here and now. There was no way I wanted to become some douchebag tyrant. Everywhere was supposed to hunt down and kill all the power-abusing bullshit bullies in Brockton Bay, not replace them. I couldn't lead. I didn't need to lead. Without some superpowered asshole telling girls to fuck strangers and telling guys to push hard drugs, the community would recov-

A double helix of blinding white light cut the warehouse in half.

The elderly woman's torso slid apart, her burning intestines spilling on my feet, cries of misery from her grandchildren. Screams, as the victims I'd been saving stampeded out of the warehouse, as the roof started to collapse on top of us. I opened up a portal on the ground, shot a geyser at the ceiling, kept it from falling on top of us, the torrent of water forcing it to topple in the opposite direction.

"Like animals," said a contemptuous voice from the sky.

A cape descended like an angel, hair and eyes shining like a miniature sun. There were a lot of reasons Tattletale had told me to run on sight if I came across this particular parahuman. She was the premium flying artillery cape in Brockton Bay, and flying artillery would give me problems. My stamps couldn't reach someone in the sky, and with ranged attacks there was no reason for them to venture close to me. Worse was Purity's fighting style. An unfortunate mixture of viciousness and defensiveness. I couldn't bait her into flying close to me like I had with Glory Girl, Purity would keep her distance, but fight to kill. To put it simply, she was my single worst matchup in all of Brockton Bay, someone who I'd run from if I were smart. She also wanted to exterminate the people I'd just sacrificed my career to save.

It was an impossible challenge, but I had no choice. My lips tugged in an unfamiliar, almost uncomfortable way, and I couldn't help but wonder.

Why was I smiling?