A/N: Thanks to Two Pence for betareading this chapter and pointing out some of the flaws in the original draft. I also want to make a note that Broadcast works differently in this fic. JS can be beaten by another parahuman, but in return he gets a different secondary effect that is almost as broken. I'm not entirely satisfied with this one, but I feel like it's better to just release it and move on.
ooOoo
"Underneath it all, underneath the mask, just who are you?" Asked Jack Slash. A young girl with blonde pigtails carted out Uncle Neil in a computer chair. Every muscle limp, expression slack-jawed, but his eyes were alert. Paralyzed but able to think. Like Mom had been. That night. "Victoria Pelham, by the invitation of an old friend, you have been nominated into my Slaughterhouse."
Crystal and Eric were kneeling by the oven. A girl wearing a cloak of glittering green and black had a hand on both their shoulders. Glaistig Uaine. Eidolon's equal. She could kill with a touch. Maybe against Bonesaw, maybe against Jack Slash there was a chance. But Glaistig Uaine was as far above her as she was above the skinheads she routinely roughed up. She couldn't fight them. She couldn't win.
She had to negotiate. Stall for time. They were in the Protectorate Headquarters. Eventually another cape would come. Another cape had to come. And then maybe…
"To be accepted you must pass a series of tests," said Jack Slash, gently caressing the edge of his knife with a scarred ring finger. "One from each member. For my test, I want you to make a simple choice. Option one: kill your father. Do this, and my Faerie Queen allows your siblings to go free. No tricks, for the duration of our stay, I will personally guarantee their safety. Option two: do nothing, and allow my Faerie Queen to collect your sweet siblings. So Victoria Pelham, just who are you? A hero? A villain?"
His hand left his knife, and he met her glare with a smile. "Or a coward?"
A coward? Maybe. Fear made her tremble. She couldn't do it. Couldn't beat them. Had to stall, and hope and pray that someone just…
Eidolon wasn't walking through that door.
She didn't know how to handle it. Hopelessness. Weakness. She couldn't force her way out of this one. Had to play by their rules. Had to make a choice. The hard choice. And there was really only one option. Only one option. No choice at all. Victoria Dallon steeled herself.
She looked into her Uncle's eyes. No fear, no anger, only acceptance, love. Kill me, not my children.
"Who am I?" Glory Girl raised her fist, as her fear slid off her, as her path forward became clear. "I'm a fucking superhero!"
And that meant doing the right thing. Even when it was hard. Even when the situation was hopeless. Even when it seemed stupid. That's why Mom and Dad had taken off their masks, and she was damn proud of them! She was going to save everyone! That was her truth!
She hurdled at Glaistig Uaine with all the speed she could muster.
She was a hero! She was Glory Girl! She was a fucking hero!
A shadow jumped out of Glaistig Uaine's cloak. A child. A private school uniform. Neatly parted hair. Flickering monochrome. Right in front of her. Ready for her. She tried to stop. Turn. Couldn't. Fuck.
She felt a sharp pressure on her neck, clotheslining her like a trip wire, making her tumble. A slash through her cheeks slowed her, and she face planted into concrete, skittered helplessly to Uaine's feet. Cheeks ripped open, half of her face grated off by concrete. Pain. Opened eyes. Red puddle. Expanding.
Had she somehow done it? Gotten Uaine? No, the blood was her own. Hurt so much! Fight through it. Had to fight. Get on her feet. Be a hero. Beat the bad guys. Couldn't feel her legs, only pain. Just pain. It hurt! Had to beat them, but it hurt so much. Just let it end. Let her rest. No. No, not yet. She flopped. Still couldn't stand. Couldn't make legs work. Gleeful laughter echoed through the room.
"Hell of an answer!" Said Jack Slash. "I get it now! What my Siberian saw in you! An animal. A beast of instinct, incapable of even basic reasoning. Victoria Pelham, you have passed your first test."
Two thuds pierced the room like a judge's gavel. Neil and Crystal lay on the ground, eyes dull and unseeing. Bodies blurry. Eyes stung. Hazy shadows rose from their corpses.
Why? Why was this happening? Her mom, her dad, her boyfriend, her aunt, her cousins. Everyone she loved was dying. Tears and blood grew in a pool next to her. The pain was starting to fade though. Her thoughts grew simple, unfocused. Coldness, darkness. She wouldn't have to suffer much longer. "Why?"
Fresh pain entered her, shocked things back into focus, as Jack Slash opened up her back with his knife.
"So I could cut through the facade, the bullshit, and reveal the human underneath," said Jack Slash, idly cutting off her right thumb. "The consequences of your actions are unimportant, what matters is that you are the one dictating terms. That is your truth Victoria, who you truly are. The only question is whether you have the courage to accept it."
She heard a pair of retreating footsteps. A needle stabbed into her neck, and her powers receded. She could almost feel her forcefields, but they were just barely beyond her, just barely out of reach. Her muscles relaxed, and she lost control of them as well.
"Oh isn't this exciting," said Bonesaw, the whine of an electric saw filling the room. "You, me, and Amelia are all gonna be like sisters! I'm going to help you out all I can! Don't worry, I'm gonna fix you up, make you even better! Sis, I promise you're gonna be my most beautiful piece of art yet!"
If Victoria had the strength to open her mouth, she would have been screaming.
ooOoo
"Sarah Livsey," said Jack Slash, gently pushing on Tattletale's domino mask with the tip of his knife. "You're going to end the world for me."
How? Why Tattletale? Expose a secret, a mask. What lie could be so big it could end the world? The Endbringers? The Triumvirate? The Protectorate? Or the very nature of capes themselves- the fact that we seemed to have an instinct to use our powers for violence? Questions. Speculation. Counter strategies. All assigned probabilities. Ordered.
The apocalypse comforted me… Pushed back my fear. When Jack Slash said he was going to end the world, I believed him. Short of the Endbringers, the Slaughterhouse were the most feared parahumans on the planet. They had taken on the Triumvirate and won. Countless heroes and villains had come against them and fallen at their feet. Despite everything, I felt the edges of my mouth tilt upwards uncomfortably.
Jack and his band of unrepentant serial killers had made the mistake of coming to Brockton Bay. I'd made a promise when I'd melted Bakuda afterall. Nobody would respect me if I didn't follow through on my threats.
I was going to kill them.
Panacea shivered by the nazi carcasses. Looked ready to bolt. I met her eyes, and slid my fingers against my throat. If she was stupid enough to show her back to Jack Slash, he'd kill her, and I needed my healer intact. It seemed to reassure Panacea a little.
"Noelle deserves to rest," said Tattletale, looking past Jack right at Glaistig Uaine. "Kill her if you can. But don't bring her back."
"Now, now, that's unbecoming of my successor," said Jack lightly, wagging his knife back and forth. "We're the team of miracles! Tell you what. Let's make it a game. I'll loan you my Bonesaw and Faerie Queen for the duration of your splendid operation. With Miss Laviere here, you'll have access to all the shards you'll need to perform your miracle. Find a way to make the Shattered Division whole, and I'll leave without a fight. No games, no tricks, I'll leave Brockton Bay without harming another soul. However. If you fail, our favorite bulimic gets to feast on Amelia."
The path to victory was obvious. Just agree. It would give us time and it would split up Uaine and Bonesaw from the rest of the Slaughterhouse. The odds tilted in our favor if we could keep Glaistig Uaine and the Siberian apart, and focus all our forces on crushing one of them.
"And no cheating," said a child-like voice from the PA System. "A game is no fun if you don't play fair. Mannequin will turn your water supply into a bunch of different toxic gasses that'll kill most of the people in the city. Thousands would die."
"Hundreds of thousands, don't sell Mannequin short," said Jack glibly. "So if you were to say, attack my Faerie Queen, or simply kill the Shattered Division, that would be a violation of our agreement. In retaliation, we would release the gas across Brockton Bay. Hundreds of thousands would perish. So my dear sweet Negotiator, do you agree to our conditions?"
He was just another Bakuda. Hiding behind the lives of the innocent. But the path remained clear: Agree, betray, and eat the consequences. If Bonesaw could make plagues of that magnitude, humanity wouldn't be safe unless she was eliminated. Of course, it would do little good if Glaistig Uaine could just resurrect her, so Uaine would need to be dealt with first. Once those two were dealt with, we'd find a way to deal with the plague. What we couldn't do was allow Jack to dictate terms. In the end, he was just another bully. Give an inch, and he'd take a mile.
"... No," said Tattletale weakly. "No."
Not what I'd have done but a decision I could live with. At least she wasn't playing his game.
"So there's no hope," said Jack, delicately caressing the edge of his knife. "Disappointing. You should reconsider. Not just for yourself, my Slaughterhouse needs restrictions and rules to guide us to our best work."
"The worst you can do is kill us," said Tattletale. "I'm not helping you end the world."
"It's possible you could win," said Jack, wearing a familiar expression. I'd seen it on Emma, whenever she knew she had me. He was toying with us. Trapping us. Every word sinking us deeper. "I'm giving you a chance. A game is boring if you know you're going to win. Heal Noelle, and everyone's happy. No tricks. I leave. My team leaves. We don't hurt anyone from Brockton Bay ever again. All you have to do is undo the work of the Simurgh, and save an innocent girl."
"It's impossible," said Tattletale. "She's broken in a way that can't be fixed, and an army of evil Panaceas could end the world. I'm not gonna be a part of that."
"Alright, but I did warn you." Jack smirked. "My dear Bonesaw. Did you get all that?"
"Can't be fixed, can't be fixed, can't be fixed," looped Tattletale's voice over the PA system. They'd bugged the place. Recorded the entire conversation. So he'd wanted something to enrage Noelle? Was she sick? A Case 53? Some kind of Trump? A potential Nilbog, or something even worse? Whatever the specifics, Jack and Tattletale had both agreed that she'd be a centerpiece in ending the world. It didn't seem to fit, seemed too small, but the path forward was clear. Whatever Jack wanted- deny him.
I put a stinger through the nearest speaker. Predictably, the recording kept right on playing.
Laserdream's ghost shot a crimson beam through the window, and flew out of the opening carrying Glaistig Uaine. Shielder's ghost picked up Jack, and followed after his sister's killer.
I tried to put some stingers in the ghost, but they bounced off crimson force fields.
"And Sarah," yelled Jack, reaching into his second burlap sack. "The rules of your first test are simple. Survive! She'll give you two mulligans!"
The Siberian pounced on her, mauled her. Grue tried to tackle. The Siberian flicked him aside. He sailed into a wall. Crunched into it as the Siberian chewed through one of Tattletale's fingers. That was one. We got two more.
I shot stingers into the Siberian's eyes. They bounced off harmlessly.
"That's not gonna work," said Bonesaw through the PA System. "But don't give up! Keep on trying! There's a way out of this, you just have to find it! I believe in you!"
Was Siberian's whole body invulnerable? Or just the outside? As much as it was gonna suck for Tattletale, our best bet was to let her get captured again, and send a stinger down the Siberian's throat while she was munching on another one of Tattletale's fingers. And the Siberian was invisible to my stamp sense, so I'd have to rely on my accuracy.
No. Bad plan. Better plan would be to teleport the stinger onto Tattletale's finger right before the Siberian bit down.
The Siberian slid off Tattletale, and made a shooing motion. Tattletale stumbled to her feet and ran, and Grue covered the Siberian in a bubble of darkness. Didn't work. The Siberian leapt at Grue, shattering the concrete underneath her. Grue dove out of the way, but the Siberian reached out a claw, and sliced through his forearm with a fingernail. She went right through the concrete wall, sending chunks of concrete flying.
"She did that on purpose," said Tattletale, her hand already bandaged with lavender fabric. "She could've made it invincible and bounced off it, but she wants you to run. She enjoys the chase."
"Why are you still here?" Regent asked.
"Your powers working on her?" I asked him.
"No," said Regent. "Yours?"
"Nope."
"Well fuck," said Regent.
Four exits. Elevator down the hall? We'd be dead if we trapped ourselves in a metal box, but we could force it open and escape through the shaft. Stairs? Bad. Too slow. The Siberian could outrun us. Out the window like Jack? Not unless one of us sprouted wings. The hole the Siberian had opened in the floor? Might be useful for losing her, but it was a big drop.
"Guys," said Grue, his arm bloody and limp at his side. "Run."
Panacea was already sprinting. Towards a dead end. I teleported the broad side of a stinger into her neck to get her moving in the right direction.
"Elevator," I said. "Down the shaft."
We sprinted down the hall, forcing our way through the bloody husks of the Empire.
The Siberian burst out from the floor, right in front of us. She grabbed me. Grip like iron. Slick flesh slid across my forearm. Detached. I pulled away, as the Siberian threw Panacea's meat shield into her mouth. I teleported two ricin filled stingers into the back of her throat. Nothing. Ineffective.
"She's fully invulnerable," said Tattletale. "Only all-or-nothing attacks can hurt her."
She told me that now?
Grue was more useful. Covered us in darkness, and we sprinted away. In the opposite direction we needed to go. Into a deadend. We'd be trapped when we got there. Didn't seem relevant. It bought us a few more seconds. Just a few more. Maybe…
The Siberian bounded through the darkness, and tackled Regent. His flesh shield wriggled in her grasp, but couldn't break him free. She bit at his neck, but a tentacle slung her into a wall, and curled around her. Then another, and another, wriggling muscles and oozing blood. Panacea's hand was wrist deep in the nazi carcasses, manipulating them, transforming them.
"OH! MY! GOSH!" Said Bonesaw. "Good golly! What a beautiful move! That's why you're the best nomination ever, Amelia! We are gonna have so much fun together!"
Hadn't realized Panacea's power could be so sudden. Did the tentacles count as contact? If they did, Panacea could kill anyone she made contact with as long as she held on long enough. She was possibly the strongest striker in the entire world. If anyone could kill the Siberian it was her, right now… Um…
"Panacea," I said. "Kill her."
"Can't," grunted Panacea.
The Siberian was invisible to Panacea's power too? What the hell was she?
"A hologram maybe," said Tattletale, rubbing her chin, as the Siberian thrashed, and ripped through flesh like it was wet newspaper. "A ghost? She's kind of like Glaistig Uaine's shadows, but not. Amy dear, be a pal and stop trying to fuck Siberian with hentai tentacles. Turn them into a high viscosity liquid and get her trapped in muck."
"Oh my god, do you ever shut up?" Snapped Panacea. She wrapped the Siberian in more tentacles, but she was running out of bodies to work with. We needed to pivot.
I teleported Regent's taser into my hands. Shot it at the Siberian. Maybe she was weak to electricity? No. Nothing. Right, completely invulnerable. Stupid.
"Gosh darn it," said Bonesaw. "What the heck was that, Everywhere? That was really, really not very smart! You guys can do so much better! There are at least two ways you can get out of the situation, if you'd just take a deep breath, count to three, and think really, really, hard!"
"Would you be so kind as to share them?" Asked Regent. "Please, I'll give you some candy. Any kind you like."
"Candy?" Asked Bonesaw hopefully. She almost sounded tempted for a second. "No, no. Breaking the rules is bad!"
"Well shit," said Regent. "Worth a shot."
"Hey, no swearing!"
"Panacea," I said. "Cover us in corpses. Create some clones. Then we all break for the elevator."
Panacea nodded. What remained of the swastika-shaped carcasses writhed together into a fleshy orb, flattened against the ground like a puddle, and tendrils wrapped around us. Couldn't see, couldn't hear. But I could sense. More tendrils emerged from the creature, shaped like caricatures of a person. Decoys. Clones. We rushed forward, down the hall. Couldn't sense the Siberian, but I could sense everything else. The tentacles entrapping her were shredded, she was free.
One of the tendrils was ripped off the main body, torn in half, but it was just a decoy. The Siberian ripped through three more. All empty. We made it past her. To the elevator shaft.
The flesh shields receded. I tried to force the elevator doors open. Couldn't. Tried again. Still couldn't. Grue tried, failed. Not even Panacea's tentacles could pry them open.
The Siberian leisurely advanced, a broad smile on her face.
"Oh heck," said Bonesaw. "That was so cool! I really, really wish I could reward you for that. But Jack told me not to let you guys leave that way, I'm really sorry!"
Grue covered us in darkness as the Siberian leapt. I used my stamp sense to sprint down the hallway. Pointless. I didn't have a plan. Needed more time. There had to be a path, unless Bonesaw was just trying to give us false hope. Possible, but I doubted it. There was a way out. If Jack wanted to kill us, he'd have stayed to gloat. He wanted us to escape. The second most likely option was that he wanted us to sell out Tattletale. Sacrifice her to the Siberian. Prove that I was no better than the Principal Blackwells, the Mayor Christeners of the world. When a situation got tough, I'd sell out those underneath me to save my own skin. That I wouldn't fight when the fighting was hard.
No.
There was something I was missing. I checked my stamp in the Protectorate. All I had for offense was stingers. If the lethal ones hadn't worked, the paralysis ones wouldn't either. The Siberian seemed unbeatable, insurmountable. She seemed more like a force of nature than a cape I could fight. She'd killed Hero, taken Alexandria's eye, and shattered the golden age of the Triumvirate. She held as much responsibility for the formation of the Protectorate as the Simurgh taking control of the nuclear launch codes. Couldn't allow her reputation to defeat us though. If she could beat the Triumvirate, we could beat her. What were her weaknesses? She couldn't fly. The hole in the window? Maybe.
Inspiration flashed. Something Regent had said earlier- he'd offered Bonesaw candy. Flippant. Almost a joke. She'd been tempted. For all that she was a murderous psychopath, she was still a child. Where was I going with this? Maybe we could tempt the Siberian with nazi corpses, the way a mailman might try to lose a dog with treats? Stupid. It was stupid- but closer.
I grabbed Panacea, and hauled her kicking and screaming back to Tattletale.
The Siberian's lips were coated in blood, munching on Tattletale's thumb in small little bites, eating it right off her hand. She rolled off Tattletale, allowed us to collect her, and gave us a shooing motion with a black and white hand. Toying with her. Having fun. She didn't make any move to chase us, just watched us out of the corner of her eye as she licked blood off herself.
"Heal her fingers," I said to Panacea. "Bring them back."
Panacea got to work, pale and trembling. Scared and terrified. She really needed to get over her nerves.
"Grue," I said. "Your darkness. Make bubbles. Cover us in some, leave some empty. Have her chase shadow clones."
Grue's darkness gave us cover.
I continued. "Panacea, once you're done with Tattletale, stretch out the rest of the nazi's flesh into a thin membrane. We're going to jump out the window and use it as a parachute."
"I can do that," Panacea squeaked, little nubs growing from Tattletale's hand. "But it'll take me about ten minutes."
"Considering she just took us out twice in five minutes," said Regent. "Bonesaw, what if I offered you ten pieces of candy? Candy for life?"
"I've had just about enough of you," said Bonesaw. "Cheating is bad! The answer is no, and if you try to turn me naughty again I'm going to have Siberian eat you."
"Nazi parachute it is," said Regent. "I say we go hide in a corner. Grue's good for this job, and I have a feeling they're going to spare Panacea, but the two of us are dead weight."
He was right. It would be tempting to think this was some game Jack was playing against me. It wasn't. I'd had enough experience with bullies to recognize it: Tattletale was his target, not me. He didn't give a shit if I sacrificed my morals or not. If I just offered Tattletale to the Siberian she'd kill us as soon as she was through with Tattletale.
So yes, somehow the parachute idea really was the best we could come up with.
"It's not the answer we're looking for," said Bonesaw. "But hide-and-seek is really fun! Maybe it'll even work. You've got big sis on your side so anything is possible! I'm going to reward you for making things so fun. Siberian, turn around! No peeking until I count to thirty. One. Two. Three…"
We stood on the conference desk, pushed open one of the rectangular tiles and crawled on top of the false ceiling. Grue left several darkness body doubles below, inside closets, under desks, behind doors- locations a child might hide, all to give us precious seconds.
Tattletale levered one of the tiles open so she could peek at what was happening below, scout the enemy for potential weaknesses. I did the same.
I could almost hear Regent and Panacea's 'seriously' behind Grue's cloak of darkness, but we needed the information. We'd have to beat Siberian eventually.
Offensively, she was nothing special. A powerful brute to be sure, but it was her defense that made her a threat. Her invulnerability allowed her to ignore suppressive fire, so she could attack, attack, attack. Tattletale had said that only all-or-nothing attacks could hurt her. Could Clockblocker freeze her, or would she be as invisible to his powers as she was to mine? Why was she invisible? Couldn't have been a forcefield or I'd be able to teleport her just like I'd been able to teleport Glory Girl. Something else then? And she was able to transfer her invincibility to something else, but it must have been a conscious decision as she'd been able to bite through Tattletale's fingers just fine. Could we trick her somehow, into making herself vulnerable? No. Probably not. Why would she ever need to make herself vulnerable?
"That's right," said Bonesaw. "Over there, above the closet."
The Siberian reduced it to sawdust in seconds. She scowled when her slashes passed right through Grue's shadow double.
"Too bad, so sad," said Bonesaw. "Don't give up and try again!"
The Siberian glowered at the speaker.
"It's your fault for listening to me," sang Bonesaw gleefully. "Against the rules! Against the rules!"
The Siberian sniffed the air, and a spray of water from an overhead sprinkler drenched her.
"No cheating," said Bonesaw. "Smelling them isn't fair! It ruins the game!"
The Siberian leapt, and burst through the ceiling. Fuck. Scrambled to my feet. Just fell through the ceiling instead. Good enough. Sprinting again. Maybe if I jumped out the window, I could use my stingers as climbing hooks.
"Hey! HEY! Stop it, Siberian! You're cheating, you're cheating!" She'd tackled Tattletale through the ceiling, wrestled her to the ground.
I made my way to the two of them, tried to act natural, not too panicked. Sure enough, the Siberian bit off Tattletale's index finger and rolled off her, let me collect her.
The Siberian couldn't count. That's why she'd been biting off Tattletale's fingers. To keep track.
"Serves you right," said Bonesaw. "Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater. I'm giving you guys one extra turn, because Siberian cheated on the last one. Now Siberian. Back in the corner. Amelia, I'm going to let you collect the rest of them, and then count to sixty. I'm giving you some extra time because somebody cheated last time."
The Siberian slunk back into the corner and turned her back to us. I wasn't going to argue. We'd be given a headstart, I'd make it matter. I peeled off a penny-sized chunk of Panacea's armor, teleported it to PRT headquarters, and then onto the small of the Siberian's back, the part that you could never scratch no matter how hard you tried. It latched on like it was designed to, and I could use the floating bit of flesh as a way of tracking her. It'd die in minutes, but that was all we needed.
Grue and my teammates dropped down through the ceiling, and I shepherded them to the stairs. Tattletale wrapped her fingers as we ran. She understood. Couldn't afford to distract Panacea. Every second was precious. As we ran I pulled out fistfuls of hair, smeared them in Tattletale's blood, teleported them all over the battlefield. It would mask our scent. Hopefully.
The Siberian was on the move. Straight to the stairs. She didn't run down them, she dove down through them. Catching up fast, we'd only made it down four flights, and the Siberian was plummeting like a stone. I pointed at Grue. He covered us in darkness, and we didn't break stride. I took a risk, teleported a fire extinguisher from Coil's office, and flung it haphazardly into a wall in the middle of the floor two above us. Not exactly subtle, but the PRT only had about a million cameras in their headquarters, so how likely was it that they'd notice one vanishing fire extinguisher anyway? It wasn't like public enemy number one was a known teleporter or anything. Actually, with the Slaughterhouse around, they might actually overlook it. We'd have to contact Clockblocker, and hopefully have him replace the extinguisher before Coil noticed it was missing. Worth it. The Siberian flung after the extinguisher. She wasted precious seconds chasing it down, which gave us time to spill into the closest floor.
Grue covered us in a shell. "How much longer?"
"Five minutes," said Panacea.
The Siberian dove back into the stairway. She exited three floors below us. I checked the stairway with my stampsense. Broken. Unusable. The Siberian had shattered them. Couldn't climb back up and couldn't climb back down. We were stuck on the level we were at. The Siberian was methodically destroying each floor below us, then hopping up to the next one. She was an experienced killer, even if she couldn't be bothered to count to three.
"Parachute is good enough, create some tentacles," I said. "Like you did when you grabbed the Siberian. Even if we're falling fast, we can use them to mitigate some of the impact."
"Five minutes," grunted Panacea. "Tentacles won't work. No more requests."
"Create more darkness decoys," I said to Grue. "Hide us in one."
I'd done a better job masking our scent this time. Hopefully that would make the doubles more effective. We huddled next to a window. As soon as Panacea could, we were breaking it, and dipping the hell out of here.
The Siberian had finished destroying her level, and jumped to the one below us, and either she jumped back to the floor below or the piece of flesh I'd tagged her with had fallen off her. Couldn't see her, couldn't sense her directly, but I sure as hell could feel the building being torn apart.
"Shit," said Grue. "She's on our level. Still can't sense us, but we need to go. Panacea, break the window with a tentacle and we take our chances with the parachute."
Panacea flicked him off. "Not finished. Stop talking, and it'll be done faster."
"Break the fucking window," said Grue, shaking her. "Fucking listen!"
"You're not Everywhere." Panacea shoved him off her. "So fuck off."
We didn't have time for this. "Follow Gr-"
A striped hand ripped her from him, sent her skittering halfway across the room. tearing our fleshy parachute. Had to get her back… Somehow. Repair it. Dive.
"Hey now," said Bonesaw nervously, setting sprinklers on the striped woman as she advanced on Panacea. "Amelia is my nominee. Don't touch her until I've had my turn."
The Siberian grinned at the camera, and shook her head.
"...Please," said Bonesaw.
Panacea wasn't moving. Unconscious. Fuck… Fuck. Maybe we could pinch the parachute,
The Siberian raised a clawed arm high. Fuck. I stamped a piece of my flesh shield and flung it at Panacea.
A dark streak tackled the Siberian through a wall. A rush of fury. Not my own. But the Siberian was quick to recover, her feet tearing into pavement, then making the concrete invincible and using her footholds as leverage. She stopped on a dime, crushing Victoria's shields, and flung her through a pillar. Victoria tried to stumble to her feet, but failed pathetically. She was in pretty good shape considering she should've been killed on impact. Bonesaw had made her hardier, in addition to some other changes. Gone was the beautiful A-list cape with model good looks, now she had some scars. She looked like a humanoid spider, four extra arms grafted onto her back, her cheeks removed so her teeth were fully exposed like fangs.
"Thanks for the save," I said stiffly. "I'm still not giving Panacea back."
"For the love of god, Tay-"
"It's fine," said Victoria, somehow able to talk despite her lack of cheeks. "Still hate you too, but we've got bigger problems. Truce?"
"Truce," said Tattletale, Regent, and Grue before I could say anything. Making the decision for me. Fucking bullshit.
"Yeah," I mumbled. "Truce."
I'd have agreed even without the rest of my team strongarming me into it. I knew Vicky. She was the closest thing I had to a friend at Winslow. She was a tad naive, just as spoiled as Tattletale had always claimed, but if any 'hero' was capable of good it was her. But working together with a 'hero' still felt like losing.
"Get Ames over here," said Victoria. "Might not be able to walk, but I can fly us out."
"Sorry sis, but I can't allow that," said Bonesaw. "Jack told me to turn off your powers if you tried to fly them out."
And there it was. This whole test had been a farce. An attempt to get me to do what he wanted, and think it was my idea. But after going to Mrs Knott I'd realized that it was never a good idea to go to a teacher.
There was a convergence around my stamp in the Protectorate. A gathering of capes. Among them was a figure I recognized, the only cape I'd ever idolized. Alexandria. Not a coincidence. A red flag.
See, whatever my grades might tell you, I'm not actually stupid. I could've teleported us to the Protectorate whenever I wanted. But… Something had stopped me. A suspicion.
What if that was exactly what Jack wanted?
It seemed stupid. Why not warn the Protectorate? Why not get help from Alexandria? Maybe even Eidolon? There was nothing concrete, but… It would be playing into Jack's hands, I was sure of it. Teleporting into the Protectorate meant conceding in my war against them, in my war against Coil.
If I wanted to save the world, I had to destroy the Protectorate. They were a false promise, a false light, a false path. Join, call yourself a hero, feel good about yourself, fix nothing. The most damning thing about them wasn't how they'd let Brockton Bay decay into a hellscape, it was how they dealt with the Simurgh. Just let her dictate terms. Give up without a fight. Pathetic. They'd never win.
No. I wouldn't do it. Wouldn't let him beat me.
Bonesaw had said there were two ways Jack had designed for us to escape. One was teleporting to the Protectorate. The other was death. Both those meant losses. I'd find a third way. Beat him.
The Siberian closed in on us. I bunched up the parachute. Had to get out of here. Took a step to Panacea.
Regent stepped in front of me. What the hell was he doing?
"Regent," I said. I raised my voice, stamped my lycra suit. "Regent!"
"Hey shitcrumb!" Regent hollered, stepping up to the Siberian. "Easy-"
I teleported him away before the dumbass got himself killed.
Fuck.
Fuck…
No going back now.
I teleported Vicky, Grue, and Tattletale to the Protectorate. I tore off a chunk of my flesh shield, stamped it, tossed it over the Siberian and next to Panacea. Teleported her out as well. Just me and the Slaughterhouse.
"Finally," Bonesaw complained. "You really made me worry, you know that, Everywhere? If you'd just been good, big sis wouldn't have been put in so much risk!"
"It's Squirter" I said coldly, furious at myself, at them. Let them call me that stupid name, I'd make them fear it. "This isn't over."
And then I teleported away as well, running from the bully, my chances of ever saving the world vanishing at the same time I did.