Waving as she spotted a familiar face, Missy watched Amy wave back, then say something to her sister, both the older girls then walking over and entering the burger place she was in. Sitting at a window table Missy had been enjoying her Saturday morning without any specific responsibilities. The weather was really sunny, a nice change from the solid two days of rain earlier in the week, and quite warm for early March, her parents were being oddly reasonable at the moment, which seemed to suggest their therapy was actually working, and she herself was also benefiting from her sessions with the therapist. Overall she was in a good mood and feeling more at peace with herself than she had done since some time before the Hookwolf Incident.

Not something she'd ever forget for many reasons, but the outcome had been surprisingly positive. Not only was the city down a murderous Nazi, which was only ever going to be a good thing in her opinion, but she'd had quite a few of the PRT troopers comment in passing that she'd proven that she was definitely more than capable of taking on an opponent few would have fared so well against. At least of two of these times in the hearing of Sophia, she was almost certain quite deliberately, which had made the older Ward look incredibly irritated and storm off muttering to herself. Something Missy found absolutely hilarious, and by the looks on the faces of the people who'd also been present, including the Deputy Director, that feeling was shared by others. Not that anyone would be so crass as to laugh or anything, but there had been distinct smirks in a few cases…

So yeah, she had reasons to be fairly cheerful at the moment. Even the Director had merely given her a look for a few seconds when she'd gone in that Monday after being discharged from hospital, a look that conveyed quite a few things, some of which Missy wasn't entirely sure she understood, then just got on with the meeting. Apparently that incredibly weird… whatever the fuck it had been… with Amy and the Director at the hospital really had been the end of that particular issue.

Though she had a very good idea that if she fucked up again, things would be quite different… And had no intention at all of doing so. She was young, she wasn't an idiot. Despite what some might claim after her in-hindsight very ill-advised wish to get some real action. Having succeeded beyond her wildest nightmares, she had no wish whatsoever to repeat the feat. There might not be a helpfully friendly horror bug nearby, after all.

Wondering where the hornet had gone, since there had been no verifiable sightings of it to her knowledge since that night, although there were a lot of rumors on PHO which was par for the course where odd things were concerned, she slid to the side on the bench seat as Amy approached, the brunette girl smiling and taking the unspoken invitation to sit there. Vicky sat opposite them and grinned at Missy.

"How are you today? All over your minor illness?"

"Yep. Nothing at all wrong with me now, other than being hungry," Missy replied happily, picking up her burger and taking a big bite from it. Chewing, she swallowed, then added, "I only just got here and I'm starving."

"I kind of worked that out," Vicky giggled. "That thing is nearly as big as you are." Missy took another bite, then put the burger down and reached for some fries.

"It's really good," she confided. "I haven't had a good burger for… well, probably about two weeks."

Vicky looked over at the menu board behind the counter in a speculative manner. "I didn't have much breakfast," she pondered out loud, making Amy sigh slightly. "Ames? Want anything?"

"Oh, why not," Amy replied after following her gaze. "The third pounder cheeseburger with bacon, and a banana milkshake."

"You know that they nearly stopped making the third pounder burgers because people thought it was smaller than a quarter pounder?" Missy commented with a somewhat baffled expression, both girls looking at her. "Because three is smaller than four, apparently. People are… not bright sometimes."

"Yeah, I read about that and couldn't stop laughing for about ten minutes," Vicky snorted. "But then I've met people and they're idiots."

"Indeed they are," Amy nodded wisely. "People are the worst. I try to avoid them." Her voice was entirely deadpan but her eyes were twinkling.

"Probably for the best," Missy agreed soberly. "Down with people."

"A position we can all get behind!" Vicky giggled again, then jumped to her feet. "Back in a bit."

"Watch out for the people! I think there are some over there." Missy called as the blonde left, before she started laughing as well. Amy leaned back in the seat and looked at her with a small smile on her face.

"You seem in a good mood," her friend observed, seeming pleased. "No lingering problems?"

Picking up her drink with one hand, Missy held out the other without a word, Amy touching it with two fingers. After a moment she nodded. "Excellent. Right where you should be. And the therapy?"

"Is helping, yes. More than I'd ever have expected," Missy replied having swallowed a mouthful of soda. "Thank you so much for setting all that up. I owe you a massive favor just for that, never mind everything else." Her voice was low enough that no one past their table could overhear, even absent the noise from the other customers, but Amy had no trouble.

"No, you don't owe me anything, Missy," Amy replied in a similarly low voice. "Helping a friend doesn't come with strings attached. I'm just happy it has helped. She knows her stuff."

"Yeah, she does, definitely."

Missy sipped her soda again, then offered Amy the fries, which the other girl accepted a few of with a nod of thanks. They sat in companionable silence for a couple of minutes, until Missy glanced at the older girl, to see her looking towards the doors where more people had entered. Her attention was apparently on a tall leggy brunette with long either black or as near as makes no difference curly hair halfway down her back, accompanied by a substantially shorter girl who looked like she was of Asian heritage. The taller girl was wearing a nice jacket, black jeans, what looked like work boots more than anything else although they fitted the style well, and round glasses on her face. Her friend was dressed in what appeared to be rather more expensive clothes but in a subdued style, her own hair straight and down to her shoulders.

Both were talking and laughing together, clearly friends, and took their place in the queue a few people behind where Vicky had nearly reached the counter. Missy studied the pair, wondering why Amy was looking at them with a slightly quizzical expression. "Friends of yours?" she asked, leaning closer to be heard over the background noise.

With a slight jolt Amy seemed to realize she was staring and turned her head to look at Missy, appearing mildly embarrassed. "No, but I could swear I know that tall girl from somewhere, and it was bothering me. I can't remember quite…" She trailed off, sneaking a glance at the girl again, who was pointing to something on the menu while talking to her friend. "Damn it, I know I've seen her before. I hate it when I recognize a face and can't put a name to it."

"She's really tall," Missy commented with mild awe. The girl couldn't have been more than sixteen but she wasn't far off six feet in height, well over a foot more than Missy herself was. And while she was very slender, it was obviously a wiry sort of slender, with hidden strength, not just skinny and emaciated. Missy had seen enough of the female PRT troopers in the gym to recognize the signs of someone who was much stronger than appearances would suggest. Perhaps she was a runner or swimmer? It was that sort of effect.

The girl glanced around the restaurant and happened to look directly at them for a moment, then her eyes moved on, but Amy suddenly nodded. "Aha. I know. I have seen her before. At the hospital. She was…" Her friend stopped talking for a moment, her triumphant expression turning into a somewhat embarrassed one as she looked at Missy who raised her eyebrows. "Um… Medical privacy. Let's just say I helped her and leave it there. It wasn't nice."

"Accident?"

"Not quite, but let's go with that. She wasn't nearly as healthy looking though. That's why I didn't figure it out immediately. Looks like she's recovered well. Good. No one deserved to go through what she did."

Missy was very curious by this point, sneaking another look at the tall girl, but knew Amy would never violate her patient's privacy with any real information. Certainly going on how the girl appeared she was as healthy as a horse now. Not surprising considering how good Amy was.

She noticed Vicky was coming back with a tray, weaving her way adroitly through the crowd, which seemed fairly enthusiastic all in all. The nice weather and the first real hint of proper spring had brought a lot of people out, and the boardwalk was thronged with tourists, many of whom seemed to have expanded out from that area to this slightly more distant one.

The lack of Hookwolf, and the way that the E88 seemed to have decided to walk very carefully at the moment presumably as a result of what happened, probably helped that sort of thing she assumed. Along with how Lung's lot had been oddly quiet too recently. No one seemed to have a clue why and she knew it was worrying the PRT quite a lot, because the last time the rage dragon had gone dark for a while things got far too exciting when he finally emerged and started throwing his weight around. Hopefully the quiet at the moment wasn't the sort that immediately preceded a storm…

In all honestly she'd prefer a time of quiet and relative peace for the foreseeable future, if the fates would be so kind. She'd had more than enough of excitement from a Parahuman standpoint recently.

It might also have something to do with the shitshow surrounding Coil's death, she mused, watching Vicky put the tray down then hand her sister her order before sitting and unwrapping her own burger. The Director was definitely in a bit of a mood as a result of everything surrounding that little chaotic gift to the city, apparently torn between being darkly pleased the idiot was dead, highly amused at how he died, very annoyed at how the city administration had managed to sideline her organization with the cooperation of both the Governor's office and the FBI, and just irritated in general at all the extra work involved in clearing up the mess. It was probably a good thing the Empire was keeping their heads down because in the mindset Director Piggot was emitting like an aura she'd probably personally and gleefully shoot Kaiser in the balls with the biggest gun she could lay hands on if things kicked off.

She was in that sort of a mood. Perhaps he realized that.

No one wanted to get in the way of the Director when she was stomping around like she'd been sent to kill Scion. Not even a super-villain.

Missy was rather impressed with the sheer air of malevolence the older woman could radiate and profoundly glad it wasn't aimed at her. She'd rather face Hookwolf again…

"Wow, this is really good," Vicky commented having taken a bite out of her burger. "Even better than Fugly's."

"Yeah, it's pretty decent," Amy agreed, after swallowing. "I was hungrier than I thought I was."

"Salt and grease does tend to make you think that," her sister laughed. The tall girl and her shorter friend walked past carrying trays and sat down a few tables away, Missy noticed as she looked up. Amy followed them with her eyes, which her sister picked up on. "You know them, Ames?" Vicky asked curiously, looking in that direction too for a moment.

"Only in passing. Case at the hospital a couple of months ago," Amy replied, sticking her straw into her soda and taking a long drag on it. "It took me a moment to place her face. Don't know her other than that, but it was bugging me."

"Oh. OK. Wow, she's got legs for days." Vicky grinned as Amy chuckled. "Unlike some short people not that far away."

"Hey!" Both Amy and Missy exclaimed indignantly then exchanged a look and started giggling. Vicky shook her head with a chuckle.

"Got two at the same time. Go, me."

"You in a cheerful mood is annoying," Amy grumbled, although Missy could tell she was also quite cheerful. She just had a reputation to maintain, the younger girl thought with a small smile to herself. Panacea was dark and snarky, everyone knew that. Happy and snarky Amy Dallon wasn't nearly as well known.

The snark was a constant, regardless of mood, though.

She was pleased to see that the visible tiredness her friend had shown the first time Missy had broken down in her arms in the hospital after that awful night seemed to have faded appreciably. It looked like therapy was helping Amy as much as it was her, which was only good. Missy worried about Amy sometimes. She'd looked ready to drop more than once during her visits, and the girl didn't want to see that happen.

But it appeared that this possibility was receding which could only be good.

"Hey, you know that Laotsunn guy on PHO?" Vicky commented a bit later during which all three of them made serious inroads into their meals. Missy looked back at her from where she'd been watching the people wandering around outside, Amy also turning to her sister.

"The guy who practically drank himself to death live on the forum?" Amy queried, raising an eyebrow. "Which is a good trick, to be honest."

"Yeah, that guy. He didn't post again for four days and when he came back he claimed to have the worst hangover in the world. Considering how many typos he made I could believe it," Vicky giggled. "But anyway, he posted again on the HOUS thread… I think about two, maybe three days ago? Before all the rain, definitely." She thought for a second then nodded as the other two waited. "Yeah, it was Monday night, I think. Or was it Sunday? Might have been Sat…"

"Get on with it, Vicky. The exact date isn't important," Amy sighed fondly. Missy grinned at the tone, sensing that these two often had this sort of mild argument. Vicky stuck her tongue out at her sister for a second, then laughed.

"Anyway… He posted a while back and he claimed the HOUS lived underground. And get this." She leaned over the table, the other two leaning in as well. "He said there were two of them. Then he got really drunk again as far as I could tell. That guy has a problem."

"Two HOUSs?" Amy blinked a few times. "Did he have proof?"

"Nope. Not a thing, just a bit of a terrified rant about how they came from beneath, and even if they were polite he didn't want anything to do with them. Then he told this long rambling story about some village in Japan that had an AGH problem and vanished overnight, got angry with Void Cowboy when that idiot claimed it was a plot by the lizards he's always going on about, told him he should be very grateful he didn't have time to come and find him, told one of the mods to fuck himself when he got asked to be civil, and then ate a three day threadban. Cowboy said something stupid and got five days, of course, but you know that guy…" She shrugged as the other pair nodded in sync. Everyone on PHO knew about Void Cowboy and his endless conspiracy theories, only exceeded by his almost impressive ability to generally say the exact wrong thing at the exact wrong time then act confused that anyone found it irritating.

Very odd guy, Void Cowboy, Missy thought with a shake of her head. Even on the internet he stood out as a bit weird.

"I think he was already pretty drunk when he started posting," Vicky continued with a sort of a confused smile on her face. "Some of the things he said were off the wall even for PHO. Claimed you could hear the humming coming from underground if you were really really quiet. Of course everyone told him photos or it didn't happen, which didn't help. Poor guy. I think he's got issues."

"Alcohol abuse does bad things to you," Amy remarked. "He'd better cut down on the drinking or he's going to regret it."

"Think he was telling the truth?" Missy asked curiously. She made a mental note to find the point in the now-huge thread covering the giant hornet, which she'd lost track of since there were so many people posting so many bizarre theories on it she'd found it hard to keep up.

"I have no real idea," the older blonde replied, turning to look directly at her. "I guess it might be true? Weird shit happens a lot more than you'd think, especially around here."

"I can pretty much guarantee there isn't a huge HOUS hive under the city," Amy put in with a somewhat fascinated but also skeptical expression. Both the others looked at her, waiting for her to continue, which she did after taking another bite of her burger and swallowing. "Hornets, especially that species, are carnivorous. Normal AGHs eat bees, for example, as well as anything else they can catch. Something big enough to lift Vista is big enough to probably eat Vista." She grinned as they exchanged worried looks, Missy herself feeling somewhat concerned now. "If there were even hundreds of them lurking down below the streets, there wouldn't be a dog, cat, or raccoon left in the city, and we'd possibly be wondering why so many people were vanishing… One I can believe, two is… maybe possible? I don't know, since we have no idea where it came from in the first place or where it went. But hundreds? Or even dozens? Nah. What would they eat?"

"Yeah, that's a good point," her sister agreed, as Missy nodded slowly. It made sense. "Mind you, I looked it up and they do nest underground in their native habitat. Or at least the normal ones do. So that part kind of checks out."

Leaning closer, Missy suggested with a small and somewhat evil grin, "Perhaps they haven't built the nest yet. They're just getting started."

Amy and Vicky stared at her, then each other.

In a low intense voice, Missy continued, "Maybe we'll be wondering where all the dogs and cats went in a couple of months. And raccoons. And pigeons. And other dumb animals. Like Nazis. Or Merchants." She grinned more widely and Amy started laughing, while Vicky, who had been looking somewhat nervously thoughtful, sighed heavily.

"Stop trying to scare me, Missy. One HOUS is more than enough."

Laughing, the younger girl finished her last few fries, then leaned back and grinned again. "Had you going for a moment though."

"Thanks so much for the nightmares," Vicky grumbled. "At least it's not giant spiders. I'm not sure I could handle even the thought of that."

Amy looked rather amused, glancing at Missy, then the pair of them started listing various arthropods that a giant version of might be an interesting alternative to a hornet, in an attempt to make Vicky look even more horrified. It kept them amused for quite some time, even though it became clear pretty rapidly that Vicky was only playing along because she also thought it was funny.

Missy was finding today to be well worth the effort and was very happy she'd made a friend in Amy Dallon and her sister too for that matter.

Although she was still wondering where the HOUS had vanished to so thoroughly. And whether there really was another one. Probably not, PHO was full of idiots who made stuff up, but you never knew.

Perhaps she'd find out at some point. If nothing else she wanted to thank the hornet properly.

Trying not to laugh or show any signs of how funny the conversation a few tables away was, Taylor finished her burger then ate the last couple of fries. "This was a good idea, Lucy," she said, feeling very satisfied. The half-Chinese girl was definitely a friend now, and they'd met again at Mike's shop earlier that morning when Taylor had gone in after another trip to the library. During which she'd been watching what was going on in Coil's former lair with interest. Apparently the BBPD teams had finished digging out all the explosives, and between them, the FBI, the PRT, and several other agencies, had basically strip-mined the entire place looking for evidence. From the conversations she'd monitored a lot of people in all sorts of places had been implicated in far more crimes than seemed plausible, and it also tied into the whole thing with Brockton General. Whether Calvert had been behind that, or merely taken advantage of it, she didn't know, but he'd certainly been involved in it up to his eyebrows.

It was funny, she thought, how connected all the various problems in the city and even the state seemed to be. A huge number of them ultimately seemed to lead back to a surprisingly small number of people, who had an influence far beyond the obvious. Often a malicious one, annoyingly. But that did seem to be how this sort of thing functioned. Her dad agreed when she'd mentioned her thoughts and discoveries and pointed out that people with power tended almost invariably to use it to make their own lives better, for whatever value of the word they had, at the expense of everyone who didn't have power. It was vanishingly rare for those with power to use it unselfishly, which was obvious if you merely looked around at the homeless, the addicts, the people who barely scraped by, then compared it with people up on Lord's Hill, like the Anders of the world.

He wasn't keen on people like that. Leaving aside him feeling that Max Anders was a slimy bastard to begin with, along with so many of his peers. Many of whom seemed to be steadily finding out that when the pigeons came home to roost, they brought significant misfortune with them…

Unfortunately, he'd also added with a sigh, the people with vast fortunes somehow often seemed to be able to pull victory from the jaws of defeat at the last moment, never quite suffering the consequences they so richly deserved. He wasn't at all convinced that the really well off people implicated in the various scandals would truly face repercussions that would put a stop to their actions for good. At best, many of them would just have a momentary setback then happily go on causing others to pay the price. It was, as he put it, how the world worked. It wasn't fair, but that was life.

It wasn't the first time she'd heard much the same from him, or her mother either. Her parents had discussed the problems with society quite freely, from well before she was old enough to really make any sense of it, and answered a lot of questions she'd come up with over the years in ways that she could understand. Taylor was under no illusions as to how the powerful gained and held their power. A quite different sort of power than those granted to Parahumans, and in many ways more subtle and pernicious.

Her mom had made that point at length more than once, she thought with a small smile. Between her mom being something of a committed feminist, and her dad being very much a union man, it was a wonder she wasn't out there trying to take down the System…

But she worked in more subtle ways, she pondered, feeling amused. So subtle she didn't realize she was doing anything, in fact! Merely by being abused for eighteen months and betrayed by her best friend she'd triggered a massive legal shakeup that was state-wide now, and would take down at least some of the problems plaguing society. Now that was subtle.

Taylor was having trouble not giggling at this point from her own thoughts.

And accidentally offing Coil had only added to the chaos, in ways she hadn't expected and probably wouldn't discover for months if ever. Apparently she had some impressive skills at interfering with the plans of the powerful and dark forces behind the scenes without even knowing it. It made her wonder what she could do if she actually tried.

She wasn't actually planning on pulling on the political strings of the city, though. It had been a complete accident in both cases. Taylor had way more than enough things to work on with her own projects and her schooling to bother with poking her nose into things she didn't understand and had very little real interest in at this point in her life, although that said she did have a few ideas that came out of her joint actions with Tattletale one memorable day a little while ago. It would take a lot of thought and waiting for the right moment, though, so it was on the back burner for now.

"You look like you're having deep thoughts, Taylor," Lucy commented, grinning at her.

"Very deep. Far below the surface, these thoughts are," Taylor replied, smiling back. "Absolutely subterranean in fact. No light, no sound, just dark depths."

"Very poetic."

"I try." Taylor buffed her fingernails on her shirt, then examined them as Lucy giggled. "I am, of course, excellent at such things."

"As would be expected of an adventurer so experienced as yourself, Miss Hebert."

"Why, thank you, Miss Cheung. A great compliment from a similarly experienced adventurer. We should collaborate on another mission against the forces of darkness and ineptitude soon, so we can prove to all just how far above the commonplace rabble we are." Taylor put on a supercilious expression, which was matched by Lucy, who nodded thoughtfully.

"You may have a point, indeed. It has been some time since we last soundly thrashed an unworthy opponent. One would not wish one's skills to deteriorate through lack of practice, would one?"

"No, one would most definitely not. Soundly reasoned, my most valued colleague, soundly reasoned."

They met each other's eyes and neither could keep up the silliness for any longer. Lucy broke first, then Taylor followed, both collapsing in laughter. "Oh, god, speaking like a Victorian novel is harder than you'd think," Lucy gasped as she lay back in the chair heaving with hilarity. "Why do we keep doing this?"

"It's funny as hell?" Taylor suggested, wiping her eye and grinning widely.

"Good point." Still giggling intermittently, Lucy sat up again and reached for her soda, looking disappointed when she picked it up to find it was nearly empty. Finishing it off, she put the empty cup down again and shook her head. "I'm glad I met you, Taylor. You're a lot of fun."

"Yeah, same here," Taylor agreed. "I needed a friend after what happened at Winslow."

The other girl looked at her for a few seconds. "You've never really said exactly what that was," she began, rather cautiously. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really," Taylor admitted with a wince. "But… friends share things, right?" She remembered how that had bitten her before with Emma and wondered at her own words even as she said them. On the other hand Lucy was not Emma, and maybe her dad was right. Perhaps she did need some form of peer socialization. At least human peers. She had lots and lots and lots of much smaller peers, inside the mile and a half diameter sphere she was currently monitoring with part of her mind.

Another mugger, nearly half a mile away, found himself sneezing uncontrollably as a small fly went right up his left nostril and buzzed vigorously. His putative victim walked on without even noticing while the man pawed at his face…

That was nearly two dozen small crimes averted just while she'd been wandering around with Lucy, she thought with inner glee and considerable satisfaction. It was the little victories that really counted, and she was pretty sure that a lot of people were going to have a much better day thanks to random accidental insect encounters of the much too close kind. Not the criminals, of course, but they knew what they were doing, and had presumably accepted the risk. Probably not while thinking that a spider might end up somewhere ticklish, though.

That guy did a remarkably good break-dance routine as he frantically flopped around trying to reach the bit of the back it's the hardest to reach. So good he had half a dozen pedestrians gathered around watching and rating his performance out of ten.

Feeling both that she was doing something useful with her powers that didn't involve major property damage, and that if she was going to take a risk on making a real friend again, Lucy was a good place to start, Taylor sighed a little. "I had a friend. Emma. We knew each other from the time we were babies," she started, staring at the table and speaking in a low monotone, while suppressing the emotions that flared a little with a combination of absolutely iron will and the support of millions of arthropods all around her, somehow finding that all those tiny lives helped absorb what would have been hard to deal with otherwise. She'd been doing her damnedest not to think about Winslow or the three banes of her life ever since she escaped the fucking place, and on the whole had done in her view a very good job of that. Her power, which she could feel watching with both interest and a sort of alien mild concern, had helped immeasurably, but a lot of it was down to knowing she would never have to put up with such an event again.

And knowing that if someone tried to force that sort of crap on her, she now had so many ways to push back much, much harder than anyone would expect.

She spoke quietly for nearly twenty minutes, concisely reciting the whole tale ending up with her in hospital, although obviously she didn't mention the whole powers thing. Taylor wasn't certain she was going to be telling anyone other than her dad about that any time soon, if ever, and while she liked Lucy a lot she didn't know her well enough yet to risk her real secrets. Halfway through she made a brief trip to get more soda, as her mouth was going dry, and got one for Lucy too.

Her friend was staring at her in complete horror when she finished. "Oh, my god, Taylor. That's… horrible."

"It sure wasn't fun," Taylor agreed, still looking at the table and toying with her now-empty drink cup. Lucy got up and came around to her side, then hugged her. "Thanks," she added almost in a whisper. Despite her deliberate emotional control, retelling the whole thing to someone like that had been hard. Possibly it would be easier if she had to do it again, possibly not, but she hadn't enjoyed it at all.

"Those absolute… bitches," Lucy growled, sitting next to her this time once she released the taller girl. "Why would anyone do that to anyone? What did they get out of it?"

Shrugging, Taylor shook her head. "I have absolutely no idea even now," she admitted helplessly. "I spent more than a year trying to work it out, trying to figure out what set Emma off, why Sophia was so ready to basically torture me… Madison was easier to understand, she's a born follower who just clung onto whoever was the top dog for status or whatever, but the other two… I honestly don't know. Sophia was, is, a bully. I mean, I knew that almost immediately. She did horrible things to other people too, I know that, but she reserved the most attention for me for some fucked up reason. But even in those terms, what she did was way past bullying and well into assault or even attempted murder. As for Emma…"

The girl sighed, propping her head on one hand and drawing little frowny faces on the table in the water left over from the condensation on their sodas with her finger. "I trusted her with my life. She was family to me, and I thought I was to her. Then one day she just… changed. I came home from summer camp after Mom died and it was like she'd been replaced with a stranger. I even wondered if it was some sort of Master thing but why would any villain do something so completely… trivial? Neither of us was anyone special. I finally decided she'd had a mental breakdown or something like that and the girl I knew basically died while I was away." Raising her eyes she looked sideways at the sympathetic gaze from Lucy, who was listening intently.

"I'll probably never find out why she changed, but I came to terms with that quite a while ago. And since Winslow's closed, probably for good, I doubt I'll ever have to deal with any of them again. At least at school. I suppose I might bump into them in the street but as far as I'm concerned they're strangers to me now."

"And the school did nothing to stop this?" Lucy looked like she couldn't believe what she'd heard.

With a dark chuckle, Taylor shook her head. "If anything they were complicit in a lot of it. Sure never took me seriously when I complained, so in the end I gave up. No proof, they said. I mean, I had a lot of evidence, emails on the school computer system, notes I made at the time, that sort of thing. I should probably have gone to the cops or something and just bypassed the school completely but looking back I was so depressed I could barely function. Which isn't surprising, all things considered. If the hospital administration hadn't decided they'd had enough for all I know I'd be back there with them trying even harder to kill me. They might have succeeded the next time." She shrugged again as Lucy looked stunned, then furious.

"Dad and I were talking about suing them after I got out of hospital, but the hospital jumping in with much heavier boots than we could come up with kind of bypassed that. And considering how much shit has come to light since, the people at Winslow are completely fucked. Can't say I'll ever find that anything other than funny as hell. Especially as it was their fault I ended up in hospital to begin with since they couldn't do their jobs right, and because of that all this happened. If they'd just been slightly less evil and incompetent they'd probably still be getting away with whatever it was they were doing." She smiled slightly. "I got more revenge than I thought I'd ever manage, completely accidentally."

Lucy laughed for a moment. "Yeah, guess you did. Not on those three little shits though."

"No, but you can't have everything. I won't have to go to school with any of them again which is a reward of it's own, though. Right now I still don't know if I'll actually end up back at high school at all, and the home schooling thing is working out well, so I'm not missing much."

"Having friends around?" Lucy suggested with a small smile.

"That… is a point my dad made, yeah," she conceded. "But right now I've only really got one friend and I see her pretty regularly so it's not bad."

"Oh? Who is she? Do I know her?" Lucy raised one eyebrow quizzically, making Taylor grin.

"You'd like her. She's nuts about lizards."

"Ah. A girl of good taste."

"Insects are better."

"Ah. A girl of poor taste. And incorrect opinions."

Taylor snickered a little at the dry tone, making Lucy look amused. "Arthropods forever!" she insisted.

"Lizards rule!"

"We should get some t shirts made. I want a spider on mine. You can have a lizard if you want. We've got the slogans already, the images should be easy after that."

Putting her arm around Taylor's shoulders, Lucy giggled. "All adventurers should have suitable slogans. I approve."

"Well, of course you do, I would hardly allow someone who did not approve of my glorious wit to remain in my company, would I?" Taylor put a hand on her chest and sniffed. "I, my dear compatriot, have standards."

Both of them laughed, Taylor feeling much more cheerful and almost lighter after having unburdened herself to the girl she felt really was becoming a good friend, and Lucy seemed happy that Taylor was happier.

Of course, the good mood was always destined to be ruined, she thought a moment later as a presence she'd been tracking and hoping would avoid this area started heading more or less straight towards the burger place.

Fucking Sophia Hess. Why did she have to be hungry right now? And why here?

The girl had entered her Zone of Arthropod Observation a few minutes ago, from the direction of the PRT building which was about a quarter of a mile further away than her power currently reached. She wasn't in costume, presumably either on the way home or off duty for some other reason, but Taylor had instantly picked up on her the second she crossed the border of the ZAO. Her power was so natural to her these days it would be hard to not notice something like the person who was probably the closest thing to an actual enemy she had, or ever wanted, even three quarters of a mile away.

Wondering if she should quickly make excuses for why they had to leave, after a second's thought Taylor decided that hell no, she wasn't going to get chased away by the bitch. That was way too reminiscent of Winslow, and she was completely done with allowing that period of her life to dictate her actions. She had every right to sit here with a friend and if Sophia did start anything she was quite prepared to break her nose for her regardless of the fallout. Her dad would probably sigh a lot, but she also felt he'd not really be all that surprised or upset.

His own life had involved more than a few times when someone had to be physically remonstrated with after all, she knew that full well. As had her mom's on occasion, due to her old hobby before they married. From what her dad said, in fact, her mom had punched more people in the face during various street excitements than he had in bar fights. It was apparently something he found rather impressive and Taylor had a sneaking suspicion, attractive about her mom. Not that she was going there, of course. Some things were best not thought about…

And perhaps Sophia wasn't even… no. Damn it. She'd altered course slightly two hundred feet away and was on a direct heading for the door. Glancing to the side Taylor spotted a face with her own eyes rather than through insect senses, one far too familiar to her, walking rapidly in the direction of the burger restaurant.

It didn't look like Sophia had spotted her in return, and she looked away again in a casual manner. An awful lot of bugs were still monitoring the incoming girl though. And a couple of dozen fruit flies were now concealed on her person, mapping her limbs and body position to an accuracy that was, when Taylor consciously thought about it, kind of impressive. It was like a wire-frame motion capture model straight out of the videos she'd watched online in her mind, although at the same time completely different in a way she'd have found almost impossible to properly explain. The words just didn't really exist for what she sensed these days.

Shoving the door open Sophia stomped in, muttering under her breath when she nearly ran into an older boy who was leaving with a couple of friends. All three of them gave her odd looks before exiting, but she ignored them completely as she headed for the counter. Swearing quietly at the length of the queue, she waited at the back of the line with ill grace. Apparently she was in a fouler mood than the last time Taylor had the misfortune to encounter her. Considering that time was when the little shit pushed her into her own locker…

She had to force her emotions down very hard indeed for a moment. Her inner hornet was buzzing angrily, and on the back of her neck under her hair, inside her hood, she was hyper-aware of Vespa just sitting there. She wondered for a brief couple of seconds just how potent the much-enlarged hornet's venom was now… It wasn't something she'd thought to test yet.

Probably not the hell brew she had in her super-hornet form, but she was pretty sure it was a lot worse than it had been. And the amount available was a substantially larger too.

Firmly pushing the momentary happy thought of a valid test target away, she just kept talking quietly to Lucy about their plans for the next hour or so, while simultaneously watching Sophia grumble viciously to herself, everyone else in the burger place go about their business, and many thousands of other people throughout most of the commercial core of the city as they lived their lives. Absently interfering with two more muggers, a snatch and grab thief in a perfume store on the next block, an attempted carjacking two streets over, and someone who seemed to have vile intentions towards a young woman in her mid-twenties who had just left a restaurant, she waited.

It was possible nothing would happen.

On the other hand it was Sophia Hess, and she was in a shitty mood even for her, so what were the odds of that?

Based purely on her experience, low at best.

And such proved, inevitably, to be the case not five minutes later.

Hearing Missy sigh heavily from next to her, Amy looked at the younger girl, who was peering at the people waiting at the counter, then followed her eyes. The number of people in the burger joint had increased considerably in the last few minutes, two separate groups of teenagers with half a dozen in each group having come in one after the other in quick succession, all in good moods and very talkative. As a result the background noise level had increased quite a lot, but everyone seemed to be taking the longer wait for service in good spirits. She recognized a few faces from Arcadia, two girls she vaguely knew, one boy she thought was on the football team, and another who she'd seen in the library several times but never done more than exchange nods with.

Missy, however, wasn't looking at any of them. She was watching a black girl a year or so younger than Amy, who had a ferocious scowl on her face and radiated impatient annoyance like a nearly visible cloud of bad tempered shadow. Appropriate, considering who she was.

"Oh, hell," Missy said, barely audible over the chatter. "And it was such a nice day up until now."

Vicky overheard this, looking puzzled, then craning her neck to look over her shoulder. Her eyes searched the crowd before fixing on the obviously angrier-than-usual Sophia Hess. "Oh," the blonde said in recognition, turning back to face them. "Her."

"Yeah. Her."

All three knew Sophia and what she was like. Amy had healed the bitch more times than she cared to recall, usually following some incident where Sophia got in over her head, assumed she was that little bit better than she actually was, and didn't duck fast enough. She'd learned her true identity only a month after gaining her own powers, having been called in by the PRT to heal their newest Ward who had just done something spectacularly idiotic. A pattern than had continued despite Director Piggot, according to her own sources in the organization, reading Sophia the riot act several times. She'd heard both from the other Wards and from a number of PRT troopers she knew that the girl was neither liked nor respected, although all of them admitted that if she followed orders she was actually very effective. Unfortunately she had a distinct habit of just flat out ignoring orders she didn't agree with and nothing the Director did seemed able to change that.

Amy had no idea why the girl was still a Ward for that matter. You'd have thought that the number of incidents she'd been involved in where innocents got caught in the crossfire, or where she blatantly didn't do either what she'd been told to or did do what she'd been told not to would have meant she'd have ended up somewhere where her proclivities could be curbed. Considering the rumors going around that she'd been at least indirectly responsible for two deaths, and multiple serious injuries, before she became a Ward in the first place, and a number of the latter since while running around off the books, Amy found the whole thing very strange.

Missy had done one stupid thing from, in a sense, good intentions, nearly died as a result, and got a personal visit from the Director who had in her own way expressed a fervent desire that such a thing not happen again. She'd gotten away with it, but Amy was certain that repeat offenses would quickly result in Bad Things. Missy knew it too, and was more than smart enough to not slip again. Sophia on the other hand; she kept doing worse, repeatedly, somehow didn't end up absolutely screwed as a result, and in Amy's opinion was not as smart as Missy was. Not to mention was extremely aggressive and combative to put it mildly.
Neither Dallon sister liked Sophia Hess, it was fair to say. Vicky had also learned her identity shortly after Amy did through pure accidental circumstances, and had a very low opinion of both Ward and civilian IDs. Sophia herself returned the contempt with ease, both of them having gotten into more than one insult-hurling argument in the past. Started by Sophia, of course, who seemed unable to let any opportunity to get a dig in go regardless of how wise that would be.

If she'd attended Arcadia, Amy suspected wryly, there would have been trouble. Luckily she didn't, having been at Winslow to the best of her knowledge, and now presumably home-schooled like the rest of the students from there did while the administration dealt with the still-ongoing fallout of the whole mess. Or possibly the PRT was arranging schooling themselves? She neither knew nor particularly cared where Sophia was concerned.

She was somewhat concerned about how tense Missy had become at the sight of the older Ward, though. "Maybe she won't see you," she commented in a low voice as her friend kept her eyes on Sophia but didn't look directly at her, as if she was worried Hess would feel the gaze.

"Hah. I should be so lucky," Missy grumbled. "She's been absolutely awful since Winslow closed, even for her. Sometimes I wish…" She trailed off, her right hand clenching into a fist, before relaxing slowly. Worried, Amy and Vicky exchanged glances. The latter pushed the huge bag of fries she'd acquired a few minutes ago forward. All three of them had spent the last half hour talking and decided they were hungry again, as a result having sent the blonde for more food and drinks.

"Have some fries and don't think about the crazy girl," Vicky advised with a small smile. "Don't let her get to you."

"Easy for you to say, you don't see her nearly every day."

"Good thing too or I'd have unscrewed her head for her by now," Vicky replied cheerfully, winking at Missy, who couldn't help giggling at the comment. She took a handful of fries and started grazing on them, Amy and Vicky doing the same. None of them directly looked at Sophia lest their souls get sucked out of their bodies by the air of suppressed anger and frustration, but they kept her in their peripheral vision like one would an angry wasp.

Deliberately changing the subject, Missy forced cheer into her voice and started discussing a TV show that was currently getting good ratings. Relieved that her friend wasn't falling into the trap of worrying about her annoying co-worker, Amy exchanged a look with Vicky, who smiled a little at her, before pointing out a plot hole which made Missy pause, think, and rebut it. Enjoying herself thoroughly and glad she'd agreed to this morning out, Amy just listened with a smile.

The sound of a familiar voice arguing in the queue made all three of them pause and look over a couple of minutes later. "Will you please stop pushing?" a young man complained from just in front of Sophia, who was glowering at him. "They're going as fast as they can, they're absolutely slammed. Complaining about it and shoving me won't get you a burger faster."

"Just shut up and get on with it," Sophia snarled, pointing to the gap between him and the next person in the line they were in, one of three for each of the tills. "He moved, you move too, that's how it works."

"I was going to until you shoved me and started arguing!" the young man, who was probably about nineteen, said with a certain amount of irritation. He took a very obvious step forward, closing the gap. "There. Satisfied?" His voice wasn't lacking sarcasm either, making Amy grin a little. "Or would you like me to climb on his shoulders so you can get two feet closer?"

Sophia's face darkened even through her skin tone, and he smirked at her. "Oh, look, there's a gap right here. You should move up."

"Don't get clever with me," she growled as she moved forward. Her mood, which had been bad when she came in, looked even worse now, and when he shrugged and turned away dismissively, Amy could see she restrained the urge to hit him. One hand rose just a little before she caught herself. But her expression was furious.

The line moved again as she watched, the one beside it moving more as three people in a group got their orders all at once, and Sophia noticed. Apparently deciding she wanted the shorter queue, she took a step sideways, then audibly snarled when the boy in front of her did the same thing about a second faster, leading to her standing behind him again. He didn't look at her but Amy could tell from the set of his shoulders that he was suppressing a laugh, and several people around them who had been watching with amusement didn't bother with the suppression at all. This didn't improve Sophia's outlook even a little, but there didn't seem to be much she could do except mutter under her breath. Which she had been doing all along so no change there…

Amy shook her head a little. "She's very impatient," she commented calmly, turning her head to see Missy also watching and looking like she was trying not to laugh out loud.

"A bit, yeah," Missy replied in the same tone, making Vicky grin. "Perhaps one day she'll grow up enough to change."

A shout of rage made them look back to see the original line had shortened by two people at once, and again Sophia had decided to change position, yet again being a fraction too slow. "You bastard!" she yelled at the young man, who was grinning at her over his shoulder. Amy shook her head. Yeah, he was kind of provoking Hess, but she'd started it, and was exactly the sort of individual who tended to bring out the worst in people. If only in self defense.

"You snooze, you lose," he replied with a smirk. "Oh, look, that one's shorter now." He nodded at the third line, Sophia turning her head to see it was now the shortest, only immediately then seeing half a dozen other people who'd just entered join it even as she started to head that way. They all looked somewhat puzzled when a number of those who'd been watching the entertainment started laughing. Sophia, on the other hand, nearly went purple.

"You…" Her hand came up, curled into a fist, while the guy in front of her watched, visibly tensed and ready to defend himself. As he was over six feet tall and looked like a football player, Amy had a pretty good idea that without using her powers Sophia might not like the result she got if she did take a swing. Apparently she realized this and after breathing heavily for a few seconds, deliberately lowered her hand, forced it out of a fist, and put it into her pocket. "I don't like you," she said more quietly, barely audible to Amy and the others over the background noise.

"I think I can handle the disappointment," he replied, chuckling, before turning back to the front. As two more people moved off, he took another couple of steps, reaching the counter, then placed his order. By the looks of it going as slowly as possible just to annoy the girl behind him. Sophia fumed but said nothing.

Amy and her sister and friend exchanged glances, all of them finding the whole thing funnier than it should be, because of who it was happening to. "Am I a bad person for finding that hilarious?" Vicky queried with a smile. Missy giggled and shook her head.

"It was hilarious because it was hilarious, and fuck Sophia anyway," the younger girl replied, keeping her voice down. "She looks like she wants to kill someone."

"Does she ever not look like that?" Amy asked dryly.

"Only after she's killed someone," Vicky put in with a tiny dark grin, making both the others laugh again. It was possibly even true which made it all the funnier in a very black manner, Amy mused. Glancing over to the counter she saw Sophia had finally reached the till and was ordering her food in the tone of voice of someone who would prefer to shout than talk. She was still visibly furious and kept shooting the older boy evil glances as he walked away chuckling to himself and passed them, sitting down with some friends who were all giggling as well having watched the little drama play out.

Missy hunched down in her seat as Sophia's gaze passed over them but she didn't appear to notice either the younger girl or the Dallons. Waiting impatiently for her order to be filled, Sophia snatched the tray from the girl behind the counter, turned away without a word of thanks, and stomped off. As she passed Amy and the other two she looked behind them at the boy who'd defied her will with a deeply aggrieved expression, muttering, "I hope you choke on that burger you fucker."

"What a bitch," Missy said very quietly, so quietly it was almost inaudible. Even as Amy and Vicky nodded agreement, it turned out that Sophia had remarkably good hearing, because she stopped dead in her tracks about three steps past them, turned, and opened her mouth, her expression furious.

"What did you fucking say to me?" she demanded before she'd even finished turning, then froze when she saw who was at the table. "You." Her eyes fixed on Missy, who sat up defiantly and glared back.

"Yeah. Me. How's it hanging, Sophia? Enjoying the nice day?" Missy waved at the window sarcastically. "Having fun, meeting friends, all that sort of thing?"

Sophia ground her teeth together and looked like she was debating dropping the tray and lunging at Missy, but Vicky cracking her knuckles loudly enough to make people nearby flinch and look around at the sound seemed to make her reconsider. "None of your fucking business, squirt. Keep your opinions to yourself before someone hurts you." It was quite clear who 'someone' might be, Amy thought with irritation. She knew that Missy and Sophia really didn't get along at all well, from things Missy herself had told her never mind other comments from her co-workers, but by the looks of it the dislike went a lot deeper than just dislike.

Taking a breath, Sophia turned away. "Little assholes like you should know when to be quiet," she muttered, making Missy growl, and Amy put a hand on her arm in support and also to stop her jumping to her feet. She could see how both got under the other's skin and it wouldn't take much to have this turn nasty, in her opinion. Best to avoid that.

"Let it drop," she advised, leaning close enough that her lips were only inches from Missy's ear "She's not worth it."

The younger girl nodded, but still didn't look happy. They watched Sophia move on, looking for a free table, then spotting one on the other side of the tall girl and her Asian friend who'd come in earlier and had been talking quietly at their own table ever since, having long since finished their food and a little earlier gotten more soda, which was also now gone. As she headed towards it, she apparently only then noticed the pair, neither of whom were looking at her. Again she stopped dead, this time a nasty smile forming on her lips and making Amy concerned, and wonder why. There was the vaguest suspicion forming at the back of her mind, for no reason she could put a finger on…

"Hebert? Huh. I thought you were dead," Sophia said in a jeering sort of way, sounding like she was much happier suddenly. She moved closer and looked down at the tall girl. "Kind of hoped for that, actually. Considering how fucked up you were when they took you away… Emma said she'd heard you didn't make it. The smell was a lot better after they cleaned out your locker. God knows what sort of crap you kept in it."

She was talking more than loudly enough for people nearby to hear, and several heads turned to watch and listen. Apparently either not noticing, not caring, or both, Sophia lifted a foot and deliberately kicked the tall girl's leg, making her chair shift. Amy watched in disbelief, as this was so blatant it was ridiculous. "Guess she got it wrong. I'll be sure to tell her you're still around stinking up the place. Maybe she'll come and visit. I might do the same. I've been pretty bored since Winslow got closed down. Putting you in your place was one of the highlights of the day."

The level of conversation in the restaurant was dropping as more and more people stopped talking and turned to see what the hell was going on. Sophia's voice, full of cruel amusement to a level that Amy was thinking seemed to fit a positively psychopathic outlook, was easily audible to everyone now. She was so focused on the other girl she paid no attention at all to the audience she was gaining. Amazingly, her target seemed to be icy calm and not reacting at all to the abuse, which from the sound of it wasn't a one-off thing. That little suspicion at the back of Amy's mind was growing.

Taylor, that was it. Taylor Hebert. She remembered the name now.

Sophia half-kicked, half pushed the other girl again, apparently trying to provoke a reaction. Taylor didn't move a muscle until her companion, who had been watching with a look of shock that had turned into anger, started to get up. Then she snapped out a hand and put it on her friend's shoulder, shaking her head once as the other girl looked at her. Her friend settled back again but she looked extremely angry.

"What do you want, Sophia?" Taylor asked in a voice that was eerily and completely calm.

"I want prey like you not to exist, Hebert," Sophia hissed, putting her tray down on their table then leaned forward over it, her hands on either side and her face far too close to the other girl's. "You were a pain in my ass for nearly two years."

"I was a pain in your ass?" Taylor echoed, somehow emphasizing the words without raising her voice or changing the tone at all, which was an impressive trick. She was still staring straight ahead and not moving. "I seem to recall it was you, Emma, and Madison who spend eighteen solid months making my life hell. How is that being a pain in your ass? Did you sprain it shoving me into my own locker once you filled it with toxic waste?"

Oh, shit. That set off alarm bells in Amy's mind, as she recalled exactly what the girl had been like when she'd been admitted to the hospital. By the time she had been called in to heal her, she'd been cleaned up, but the staff had mentioned something about confinement in a small space and infection hazards. She hadn't got the details at the time as in some ways it wasn't relevant and considering how tired she'd been, she hadn't followed up on it. But what had just been said did shed some light on just why the hospital administration had taken the whole thing so seriously, especially as it was yet another example of a pattern they'd seen far too much of out of Winslow for several years. So called 'pranks' and 'hazing' had caused more injuries than flat-out gang related incidents, of which there had also been a statistically implausible number. Winslow had about ten times the rate of that sort of thing than all three other high schools in Brockton Bay combined, she knew that for a fact.

Although she was pretty damned sure from what she recalled of the incident in question, and from what she'd just heard, that it hadn't been any form of prank in this case. It was at least assault, if not something much more serious. And the way Sophia looked almost triumphant at the Hebert girl's words made it very obvious that she wasn't denying the accusation.

"What, you didn't enjoy that?" Sophia said with a twisted grin. "We did. Hoped you'd finally get the message too."

Very slowly and evenly, as if it was on a motor, Taylor's head turned to fix her gaze on Sophia's. "The message?"

"You are scum," Sophia said, leaning close. "You are beneath contempt. People like you are not worthy to be around people like me. Or Emma. Survivors, not prey like you." She lifted her hand and jabbed at Taylor's face with her index finger, looking almost like she was about to hit her. Amy blinked in shock when the girl next to Taylor grabbed the finger so fast her own hand was just a blur and yanked sideways hard, causing Sophia, taken entirely unawares, to lose her balance and fall flat on the table, squashing her meal under her. She yelped in shock as she slammed onto the surface and in one smooth move Taylor stood, spun sideways on one foot, and managed to avoid the spatter.

It took mere moments and was so neatly done it was like it was rehearsed. By the time anyone could react both Taylor and her friend were standing, and Sophia was swearing violently while pushing herself back up, food and soda dripping down her front. Missy snickered, her eyes wide with both mirth and awe, while Vicky was grinning widely. As were quite a few other people who'd witnessed the whole thing, including the manager of the restaurant who'd been on his way over to intervene and was now watching with a weird kind of smile half-hidden under an air of please don't smash up the place. He had a phone in his hand, but wasn't paying any attention to it at the moment.

"You fucking little ABB shit!" Sophia howled after a stunned moment of staring down at herself. She lunged at the other girl who was several inches shorter than her, but to Amy's eyes moved like someone with some serious martial arts knowledge when she sidestepped the incoming furious Hess. Sliding across the table in a shower of food and trays, Sophia vanished off the far side while Taylor and her friend adroitly avoided everything and ended up standing next to the table on opposite sides. The crash of Sophia landing on the floor and vanishing under a chair echoed through the now completely silent burger place as everyone gaped in either shock or interest, and Amy could see a few phones out videoing the whole thing. She sighed faintly. This was going to get complicated when the Director, who she knew was nowhere near Sophia's biggest fan, saw it.

"I'm sorry about the mess, sir," Taylor said to the manager, taking a few steps away from the table and turning to him, while a stream of invective rose from the floor under the next one where Sophia was untangling herself. Amy wondered if she was sufficiently stupid to out herself by using her power, and whether they should intervene. She glanced at her sister, who shrugged, and Missy, who did the same, while looking both fascinated and highly amused in a rather malicious manner.

"She started it, miss, I saw that much," he replied, shaking his head. His eyes widened a moment later and he ducked, shouting, "Jesus!"

Sophia had rolled to her feet, showing she was also pretty athletic, as one would expect from a Ward, not that anyone here other than Amy and her sister and friend should know that, grabbed a chair, and flung it as hard as she could at Taylor's head from behind. Amy, and everyone else, looked on in amazement as the girl half-turned at the man's shout and neatly grabbed one leg of the chair in her hand, stopping it mid-flight, before giving Sophia a look of contempt.

"Fuck me, that was smooth," Vicky commented in admiration.

"I'm going to fuck you up, Hebert," Sophia snarled, snatching up the nearest tray and hefting it like she wished it was a knife. "You and your little Asian friend."

"Hey."

Everyone watched as the Asian girl, who had been standing watching and wore an expression of serious displeasure with Sophia, reached out and tapped her on the shoulder. Sophia turned her head.

Then spun in a complete circle and dropped to the ground again as the girl did the most impressive high kick from a standing position Amy had ever seen outside a movie, her right foot catching Sophia on the point of the chin and imparting enough force that Amy seriously wondered for a moment if she'd just watched Hess get her neck snapped for her. "Don't hurt my friends, and don't say I'm anything to do with the fucking ABB you complete bitch," she snapped at the groaning figure on the ground, who was apparently still alive although not happy about it.

"Holy shit," Missy breathed. "Who is that?"

"Someone who definitely knows martial arts," Vicky replied, not taking her eyes away from the drama. "Kung fu for sure, probably something else too." Amy's sister was quite the aficionado of martial arts movies and while not being a martial artist herself, not really needing it with her powers, knew enough that she was probably correct, Amy thought with a glance at her. Returning her attention to the more interesting part of the room, she was in time to see Sophia struggling to get to her feet. Both the girls she'd had a go at were standing at a safe distance, the manager and everyone else clearly not sure what the hell was going on and what they should do about it, although he looked like he was now on the verge of calling the cops.

"You… little… cunt," Sophia grunted, breathing heavily and heaving herself up using the table next to her as an aid. "I'm going… to… kill… you." She touched her chin, winced, and spat blood to the side, which splattered on another table and made the two girls sitting at it exclaim in disgust and leap out of the way. "No one does that to me."

Apparently her jaw wasn't broken, Amy mused as she watched, although she was pretty certain even from here that the other girl had probably got several teeth loosened and definitely had bitten her tongue severely, based on how her words were somewhat distorted. The blood leaking down one side of her face tended to support the diagnosis.

"I just did you psycho," Taylor's friend retorted. "I'll do it again if you don't go away."

In reply Sophia put her hand in her pocket and when it emerged again it had a switchblade in it, which clicked and sprouted several inches of razor sharp steel. Sophia had apparently both entirely lost her mind from anger and totally forgotten the witnesses all of whom stared in shock. Everyone nearby scrambled over the tables to get out of range of the crazy girl.

"You won't get the chance, bitch," Sophia snarled, lunging at the girl, who danced out of the way with ease. As she came within arm's length of Taylor, Amy saw the tall girl roll her eyes, reach out with one hand, grab Sophia's outstretched wrist, then completely deliberately and almost casually slam the palm of her other hand directly into her elbow with enough force that it promptly bent the wrong way. The whole sequence was over in no more than a second or so.

The wet crunch of Sophia's elbow sustaining a compound fracture made every single person in the entire place wince. Except Amy, who just sighed, although partly in admiration over how accurately the blow had been delivered, Taylor who still looked as calm as if she was reading a book, and her friend who grinned after a surprised moment.

And of course Sophia, who froze in total shock and disbelief, then as Taylor let go and stepped back, collapsed with a shriek of agony.

"I think you'd better call the cops now, sir," Taylor said to the manager as she kicked the switchblade out of reach of the writhing Sophia, who was making quite a scene as she clutched at herself and screamed in pain, sweating visibly. Blood from her mouth was going all over the place, which just added to the overall effect. The knife skittered away under a table, the guy sitting at that one lifting his feet out of the way rapidly.

He nodded a little numbly and hastily dialed, while Taylor and her friend moved out of the way and stood watching. The witnesses kept looking between Sophia, them, and each other, hardly anyone appearing to know what had happened and what they should do. Amy could see that the cops were going to have plenty of evidence to prove the sequence of events though, based on the number of phones that were out and recording.

"She's going to pop a gasket for sure," Missy commented almost happily, very quietly and for Amy and her sister's ears alone. Clearly referring to Director Piggot, and Amy was certain she was entirely correct. She nodded soberly, wondering if she should fix Sophia, or allow her own considerable dislike for the girl to overrule her usual instincts.

"That was cold as fuck," Vicky said in admiration, examining the Hebert girl with interest. "No emotion, just crunch. I wouldn't want her angry at me."

"Was she even angry?" Missy asked, glancing at Amy's sister. "She looked more like she was bored of the entire thing."

"I have a feeling this isn't the first time Sophia's met her," Amy remarked.

"No. You think?" Vicky's sarcasm was worth of Amy herself, making her grin.

"I mean I have a pretty good idea that their history is probably why that Taylor girl ended up in hospital. What we heard more or less confirmed that. So…" She shrugged. "I think Sophia is going to have some awkward questions to answer, and Miss Hebert over there is fully justified in being a little… enthusiastic… in her response."

"Well, Sophia did pull a knife on her friend," Missy pointed out, her eyes still wide and her voice expression a certain amount of disbelief. Amy shared it, she'd never have expected Sophia to be so far gone in rage to do something like that in public with so many witnesses. In private, on one of her little away missions? Yeah, that tracked with rumors she'd heard, but this was… really fucking stupid.

"After her friend kicked her ass like something out of one of those old Jackie Chan movies," Vicky giggled. "That was amazing."

"I thought the chair catch was as good," Amy commented. "It looked like she'd practiced a dozen times it was so smooth."

"Good reflexes and she obviously works out." Vicky nodded at her own suggestion. "That elbow snap though… fucking brutal."

"Serves the bitch right," Missy grumbled. "About time she found out that actions have consequences…"

The other two nodded agreement. After a moment, Amy sighed. "Fuck it, that noise is getting irritating," she said with irritation. "I guess I'd better do something about it." She stood up as her sister and friend watched.

"Can't you leave her a little longer?" Missy requested with a tiny evil grin. "Just to make sure the lesson sticks."

Amy grinned back, but shook her head. "I'd be derelict in my healer duty if I didn't take her pain away, unfortunately."

"Aww. You're going to heal her elbow?" Missy looked disappointed in a somewhat bloodthirsty manner.

"I didn't say that, did I?" Amy winked at her, then walked over to where the manager was just finishing up on the phone to the cops. "Hi. I'm Panacea," she said to the man who looked at her quizzically. "I thought I should probably do something about that." She pointed down at the whimpering Sophia.

"Help yourself," he replied with a sigh. "And it was going so well today. We haven't had a fight in here for over a month and this stupid little idiot decided to pick on someone she couldn't handle… God, teenagers are a pain in the ass sometimes." He grumbled to himself, stepping back to watch and getting out of her way.

Inwardly amused yet outwardly remaining professional, Amy knelt down next to the writhing Sophia who fixed tear-filled eyes on her. "Good morning, Miss. I'm Panacea. Do I have your permission to…"

"Just fucking fix me you cow so I can kick their asses," Sophia snarled through her pain and gritted teeth, holding her elbow with her other hand.

"From where I was sitting they're not the ones who have to worry about their asses getting kicked," Amy replied evenly, her voice low. "And considering I'm the one about to heal you, perhaps being polite might be an idea. Just saying."

"Shut the fuck up and heal me, bitch," Sophia grated, bloody mouth fixed in a grimace.

Amy looked at her for some seconds. Then she reached out and touched her neck with two fingers. Sophia promptly went limp and lost interest in the situation. "I'm a bitch, but you sure don't get to tell me that to my face," Amy informed the unconscious girl with a very sharp grin. "So shut up."

Mindful of the witnesses, she didn't add anything else, but just checked Sophia's damage. Her elbow was a mess, for sure, having a fairly impressive displaced fracture that without her ability would need surgery to correct. She also had seven loose teeth, two on the top and the rest on the bottom, a nasty laceration to her tongue and another on the inside of her cheek, and a hairline fracture of the mandible in two places. The Asian girl had a pretty good kick, she thought with mild admiration. A little more power and Sophia probably wouldn't have got up again. She wondered if the other girl knew that and had pulled her blow, or just wasn't quite strong enough to kick Sophia's head off.

From what she'd seen, she bet on the first. The girl seemed to know her stuff and clearly was no novice.

Debating with herself for a few seconds, she healed the mandibular fractures, the lacerations, and the teeth, and after a moment, fixed the worst of the elbow damage. But she didn't fully heal it. The remaining damage would heal up naturally given a couple of months but Sophia wouldn't be using that arm for some time.

In her view, that was good enough in this case. Sophia would have to learn, as Missy had commented, that actions had consequences. Perhaps six to eight weeks in a sling would drive the lesson home…

Probably not, this was Sophia Hess, someone Amy had never thought was all that quick on the uptake, but you never knew. As far as she was concerned, she'd done all she was prepared to do. Turning the other girl back on but not doing anything about the headache she was undoubtedly feeling from the kick in the face, because that was a brain thing and she didn't do brains, everyone knew that, she stood up again. Sophia opened her eyes, blinked a few times, then focused on her face. "There you go."

Sitting up, Sophia moved her right arm then froze, her face paling. "FUCK!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, grabbing at her elbow. "It's still broken!"

"Is it?" Amy looked surprised. "How odd. Possibly I made a mistake because someone was so rude to me. It happens."

Carol was going to yell at her, she knew that full well, but the expression on Sophia's face was more that worth it…

"Fix me properly you cunt!"

"Oh, look at the time. Can't hang around chatting all day. Places to be, people to heal, you know how it goes. Don't put to much strain on that arm and I'm sure it'll heal right up good as new. Eventually." Amy smirked darkly at Sophia, who gaped at her, then narrowed her eyes in rage. Turning to the manager who was watching while looking like he didn't want to laugh but was perilously close to that, she nodded. "Sorry to get in the way."

"Oh, no problem at all, Panacea," he assured her. "Thank you for helping out."

"My pleasure."

With one last look at Sophia who was sitting on the floor, covered in food and blood, with an expression of totally impotent rage spread over her face, she turned away. "Get back here and fix me, Dallon!" Sophia yelled in fury.

Amy completely ignored both her and the various cameras pointed her way, although she nodded when the boy who'd been in front of Sophia in the line at the beginning gave her a respectful grin and a thumb's up. He and his friends looked impressed and just a tiny bit scared. Exactly as they should, she thought.

Sitting down next to Missy, she smiled at the look on her friend's face. "Even I have off days," she commented idly. "No one's perfect."

"Of course not. No one could expect you to always fix everything," Missy replied calmly although her eyes were sparkling.

"Mom is going to explode," Vicky said in a low but amused voice, leaning over the table. Amy shrugged.

"Nothing new there, and no one can demand I use my powers. I mean, they can, but they're my powers, so I can tell them no. I think it might be time for me to explain that to her."

Her sister winced a little, but after a moment nodded. "Yeah, maybe it is."

Missy looked between them but didn't seem to want to ask the questions she clearly had. As she was about to say something else, sirens became audible, making everyone turn to look out the windows. Two BBPD cruisers and a BBFD EMT unit were approaching down the street, shortly pulling up outside and making the pedestrians watch, a small crowd gathering. Moments later four cops and and the paramedics came in, the manager meeting them at the door and pointing at Sophia who was still swearing to herself and looking ready to murder the two girls who had put her down so effectively. He then indicated those two as well, spending a few moments explaining, while the cops nodded and one took notes.

Once he'd finished, the whole group approached, the two paramedics moving past to kneel next to Sophia. Amy recognized both of them as she'd met pretty much all the various medical emergency people in the city at one point or another in the last year or so. Sophia wasn't being particularly cooperative, of course, but they persisted and shortly were engaged in splinting her arm.

Two of the cops went to talk to Hebert and her friend, the other two began moving around taking witness statements. They seemed to be being shown a lot of videos too, Amy noticed, lots of the teenagers in the place apparently eager to show off what they'd captured on their phones. There certainly wasn't going to be any doubt of the sequence of events, that much was for sure. She watched with the other two for a moment, then looked at Vicky and Missy. Her sister met her eyes then by mutual agreement both got up and walked over to where the two cops were being told what had happened from both Taylor's and her friend's viewpoint.

She and Vicky listened as the tall girl concisely explained, without any variations from what Amy had seen as far as she could tell, exactly what had led to Sophia being on the floor with a broken arm. Taylor pointed at the table the knife had gone under, prompting one of the cops to go over, bend down, then come back up holding the switchblade in between gloved fingers.

"Checks out," he called back. "Right where she said it was."

Coming back he was examining the knife, before he put it on a nearby table and took a couple of photos. After that it went into an evidence bag which he sealed and signed. Sophia watched this past the paramedic putting a sling on her with a look of sudden realization that she might just be in severe trouble, a look verging on panic. Amy wondered if she'd be stupid enough to try to escape, and turned to look at Missy, who was already on her phone, her eyes also on Sophia. She had a fairly good idea who she was calling.

Oh, yes. Sophia was in serious shit. Entirely due to her own actions.

It would be funny if it wasn't so incredibly stupid.

As Taylor finished explaining, Amy stepped forward. "Excuse me?" she said, causing both cops to look at her, then almost as one do a double-take and exchange glances. "I'm…"

"Panacea," the older of the pair said before she did. "We know who you are." He chuckled as she smiled a little. "You saved my brother's leg two months ago. Thanks for that, while I think about it."

"You're welcome," she replied. "I just wanted to say that my sister and I, and a friend, saw the entire thing. What Miss Hebert just told you is completely correct. From what we saw, she and her friend both acted in self defense."

The cops exchanged another glance, the one with the notebook writing in it some more. "That backs up what Miss Hebert and Miss Cheung claim, and what the manager said," the first one replied. "You healed the suspect?"

"Mostly," Amy replied. She looked at Sophia who glared back defiantly. "She wasn't very cooperative or friendly and for some reason I found myself unable to fully heal her. Very odd, but it happens sometimes." When she looked back both cops were almost grinning. She shrugged lightly. "Even powers aren't perfect, after all."

"So I understand," the first cop replied calmly. "How unfortunate for her."

"Yeah. Probably got at least two months of healing the hard way to do," Amy agreed mildly. The corner of his mouth twitched a little. Taylor and her friend were watching her with a sort of dry amusement.

It took another twenty minutes for the cops to finish up, but eventually Sophia was led off handcuffed to one of them by her good arm, still wearing the furious expression that had been a constant since she'd arrived, and having given both Taylor and her friend a dark glance that promised horrible things. Amy suspected that once the Director laid hands on her she'd be much too busy to seek revenge, and had a sneaking idea that if she did, she might well find out that neither was an easy target. Armsmaster probably had some method to contain her so it was likely she'd find herself in PRT custody eventually. Whether this marked the end of her Ward career Amy didn't know but she'd be highly surprised if it didn't. And very disappointed.

"All right," the original cop she'd spoken to said to Taylor and the other girl, handing them each a document. "A copy of the incident report for you both. From all the evidence this was, as Panacea said, a simple case of self defense, so it's unlikely that either of you will have any trouble coming your way. But make sure your parents get that, and have them call if they have questions." He looked at them as both nodded. "Try to stay out of trouble, yeah? And good work."

"Thanks," Taylor's friend, who Amy had to find out the name of because even in her head calling her 'Taylor's friend' was starting to sound odd, replied. He saluted them both with a finger to his brow then turned and walked off, his partner following carrying the knife in its bag. The restaurant had at least partly emptied out as most of the people present during the scuffle had left by now, and the manager and two of the staff were mopping the floor and setting all the tables and chairs to rights.

"Thank you for stepping forward like that," Taylor said, looking at Amy. "I think it helped."

"No problem. I know her, and like I said I saw the whole thing. So did my sister," Amy replied, indicating Vicky who was leaning on a table next to her. "She's a bitch, but I never thought she'd be stupid enough to pull a knife on someone like that."

Taylor sighed. "I've known her for nearly two years and honestly? That bit didn't actually surprise me all that much. She's not exactly stupid but she's severely fucked up in the head and really doesn't think things through very well."

Vicky snorted. "Yeah, you might put it like that. Crazy bitch was always going to end up doing something that ended badly. Mind you, I never thought she'd pick the middle of a burger place to throw down on someone for no reason other than being her." She grinned at Taylor and the other girl. "That was really impressive to watch. You know martial arts?" She looked inquisitively at the Asian girl, who nodded, smiling. Amy was sure she went to Arcadia but she wasn't someone she knew at all or shared any classes with, even though she vaguely recognized her from the cafeteria.

"I've been learning since I was very young," the girl replied. "I've won a few awards in tournaments, nothing special, but I do practice a lot."

"That kick was amazing."

"Thanks. My instructor always said I was unusually flexible." The girl held out her hand. "Lucy Cheung." Vicky shook it. "This is my friend Taylor Hebert. Winslow survivor, so be nice." She laughed as Taylor sighed a little, although while wearing a smile.

"Cheung… Hang on. I recognize that name. Aren't you the one with the iguana?" Vicky queried after looking thoughtful, making Amy remember where she'd heard the name too. Lucy put her hand on her face and groaned while Taylor started giggling.

"Yes. That's me. The lizard girl," Lucy sighed, making Taylor giggle more, and Vicky grin. "Does everyone know about that?"

"Yep. Trust me, it's everyone." Vicky looked highly amused. "Word gets around."

"And you are rather proud of him, you have to admit, Lucy," Taylor added, smiling. Lucy looked at her friend, then shrugged.

"Yeah, fair enough. I guess you've got a point. Mind you, your the one with the scorpion."

"Hey, leave Impy alone, she did nothing to you," Taylor protested while Amy exchanged a glance with Vicky.

"Impy?" Amy asked, confused.

"Her Emperor scorpion. She has a weird taste in pets," Lucy replied.

"Says the lizard girl."

"Hey, lizards are cool! And cute!"

"They're fun, sure, but they don't have enough legs."

"You're very strange."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"The word 'hundred' comes from the old Norse word 'hundrath' which actually means a hundred and twenty."

Amy, Vicky, and Taylor stared at Lucy. "I… did not know that," the latter finally admitted, making Lucy grin triumphantly.

"Task complete."

Leaning closer to Amy, Vicky said, not taking her eyes from either of the other two, "I think they're both very strange."

Amy started laughing helplessly, and somehow during her recovery, all four of them joined Missy at her table, where she started asking a lot of questions. During this, a story emerged that had both Dallon sisters and Missy simultaneously deciding that the Director needed to know what they'd learned…

By the time Lucy and Taylor left, waving at the remaining three, Amy at least was feeling that someone needed to do something about the problem presented by Sophia Hess.

And also feeling that restraining herself to only breaking Sophia's elbow and not her head was a level of self control Amy wasn't sure she'd have managed under the circumstances.

She watched the two girls walk away through the window, shook her head slightly, and turned to the other two. "I think we should probably pay a visit to the PRT building," she said in a very low voice, leaning close. "Because she needs to know what we just heard." Both the others nodded agreement.

Emily watched her door close behind the Dallon sisters and Missy Biron, before looking down at the notebook on her desk. She tapped her pen on it thoughtfully, then turned to her computer and quickly brought up a report on the screen. Reading the first page, she made a couple more notes. Finally she picked up her phone.

"I don't care how you do it, bring me Sophia Hess," she said when the other end answered. "As soon as possible, please. And track down her case worker. We need to talk. Now." Tapping the hang up icon, she carefully put the phone on the desk next to her notebook with deliberate calm and leaned back in her chair, pondering all the different ways she had to express her disappointment and make it stick.

When she finally got to bed that night, Taylor reflected on the way the day hadn't gone how she'd expected in some key aspects. It had been fun meeting with Lucy, and opening up to her about her time at Winslow felt like it was the right decision. The whole thing with Sophia was far less enjoyable, although she couldn't suppress a certain satisfaction with how much better it had made her feel to break the bitch's elbow like that. She wondered if that made her a bad person, but her dad, having listened to the whole story and read the police document, in the end had only sighed faintly and told her that in her place he'd have snapped the little shit's neck. Taylor wasn't certain he didn't mean it, and wasn't going to ask.

But he hadn't been angry, which was good. In fact he'd hugged her then they'd bought Chinese food and spent some time talking about quite a few things, both of them finding the evening a rewarding one. Their relationship was definitely healing up well. She'd intended to do more experimentation today but in the end had not managed to get around to that, deciding to put it off until the next day. Today had been enough for her and she wasn't in the right mood to really get into playing with powers as much fun as that was.

Meeting Amy and Vicky Dallon like that had also been interesting, as was talking to Vista's civilian alter-ego. Missy seemed like a nice and intelligent girl, and Taylor had been pleased to see she appeared to have recovered from her ordeal well.

She'd recognized the younger girl the moment she'd come into range, of course, well before they'd reached the burger place. The senses of all the insects near Missy had made that inevitable. But she wasn't going to mention it to anyone, as it wasn't really any of her business, just like all the other things she was constantly sensing all around her. Even now she had literally thousands of people in her awareness, going about their lives in complete ignorance of the fact that she could watch each one of them, their pets, their houses, and everything else inside her range, all at the same time to any level of detail she could be bothered to work with. As the spring flowered the resolution of her senses just kept getting higher too. Already the ant colonies were stirring into life, expanding her power's range down further and adding vast quantities of little helpers to it, while wasp nests were starting to become more active everywhere. The year was turning very mild faster than usual and the end result was very much to her benefit.

She had some ideas about how to capitalize on the underground tunnels that she'd been mapping that would make the seasons much less of an issue as time moved on, but that would take some careful planning to end up where she thought she could take it. And before she could really even start she still had some fundamental work to do, in a number of areas she was building up to. Quite a lot of that would probably happen very soon though, if her current round of experiments worked how she expected it probably would from the initial efforts.

So even leaving the schoolwork, which she was well ahead on, out of the equation she had plenty to keep her busy going forward. And a friendship to cultivate too. Lucy was fun and they did seem to keep getting into interesting situations, through no fault of their own.

She fell asleep wondering if her friend was interested in urban exploration.