Vicky's eyes slowly fluttered open. She moaned, reaching up to run a hand over her face, and looked around with confusion at the inside of the medical tent.
What the…? She thought blearily, rubbing her eyes. Why am I in the medical tent? Did I get injured? She didn't remember anything like that happening, and with her invincibility it was pretty unlikely anyway… though she supposed that it could always possible that Leviathan had moved quickly enough to knock out her shield and then her as well.
Though the fact that she didn't remember that happening probably wasn't a good thing.
Lying back down on the bed she'd been put on, Vicky screwed her eyes shut and thought hard about the situation, trying to figure out exactly what she could remember, which would hopefully lead her to figuring out what had put her into the medical area.
The flying Brute could easily remember being out in the rain, in the middle of that Endbringer battle, and spotting someone injured floating in the water below. She'd dropped down and, after confirming that they were alive- at least for now- she'd lifted them up and made her way back to the medical area as fast as she could without risking hurting the Cape she was now carrying.
She'd dropped them off with some random PRT trooper and quickly headed into the tent itself to check on her sister and see how she was doing, and had quickly seen how much of an impact the small six-tailed fox named Shadow had been having on the Capes inside.
Shadow's area had been sectioned off from Amy's, since her healing power had that strange room requirement, but the little fox had just been coming out and going through a bag set on one side as Vicky had entered, pulling out a strange red and yellow thing and eating it. Amy had slipped into that room for a few minutes, leaving Vicky hovering there slightly surprised that her sister hadn't noticed her, but she'd assumed that was because the girl was in work mode, so she'd just waited until Amy had come out of the room again, leading a number of Capes out as well who quickly left the building to get back into the fight.
Vicky had flown over to have a moment with her sister, making sure she was alright while being thankful that Shadow had backed into her own room to give them their privacy, then-
Brandish deceased, CG-5.
Vicky had frozen hearing that, and she vaguely remembered Amy shrinking back from her and Shadow running back into the room through her shock, before catching the slightly glowing eyes of Inari's healer and feeling the world gently go away…
That bitch. She hissed mentally, clenching her fists. That complete and utter bitch. She used her power on me and knocked me out! How dare she! Without a second thought, Vicky lifted off the bed and flew out of the opening, looking around for her sister and the Cape that had attacked her.
She found both of them in the same place, standing outside of their own medical building- she hadn't even noticed that she'd been set up elsewhere than the main one- and talking to each other in low voices. Amy! Her eyes widened and she dropped in a panic, ignoring the fact that they were just talking and landing right next to them, tearing Shadow from the ground immediately and glaring at her, fear aura on full blast as she floated backwards and upwards a few dozen feet, away from Amy. Stay the hell away from my sister!
"Hey!" Shadow yipped, startled. "What's the big idea?"
"How dare you attack me!" She snapped, glaring harder. In the background, she noticed Amy cowering away, but for the most part all her attention was focused on the brown fox in her hand as she drifted further and further away from her sister. "How dare you attack me with your Master power. How dare you!"
She inhaled, ready to continue her angry rant that was getting up steam, only to let it all out in a gasp as something sharp scraped along the bottom of her hand and arm, the slight stinging pain that followed it making her reflexively drop Shadow and cradle the injured area, looking at it to see a slight cut there.
Suddenly realising what she'd just done, Vicky gasped and whipped her head around, trying to catch sight of Shadow, only to notice the brown fox's fall slowing as yellow light crackled around her. Vicky practically cut her own flight to get to her side, though they were both nearly at the ground- well, building rubble- before she reached her.
"Thanks for that." Shadow said tartly, as she touched down on the remaining brickwork. "Any more angry yelling you want to get out of your system, or should we move along to the part where you try and fight me? I'd rather we skipped that as well, but if we have to, I suppose we can find somewhere it won't draw attention."
"I'm so sorry!" Vicky yelped instead, landing away from the fox as what she'd just done hit her. She'd nearly killed her sister's friend, one of the only one's she'd ever made by herself without needing Vicky to intervene- sure, their bond had formed due to their mutual duties of healing, but it gave Amy someone to share that burden with who understood, and Vicky had nearly killed or at least seriously injured her because she hadn't been thinking. "I didn't- I wasn't-"
"Yeah, I know." Shadow snorted, shaking herself. "You weren't thinking. I'd noticed that." Her tiny claws scraped against the rubble, and Vicky winced slightly as she noticed that she was shaking. "I'm alright, though." The Brute vaguely heard her mumble something about something called Arceus and an uncle who taught her something to do with magnets, but ignored it and stepped forward slightly.
"I'm sorry." She said again. "I just… I wasn't thinking, and I was still too angry about… y'know."
"I'm sorry I put you to sleep without your permission." Shadow replied. "I'm too used to people not really minding when I do it, and I kinda forgot how people here see Masters."
"I'm… not actually too mad about that." Vicky admitted, surprising herself a little. "I mean, I get why you did it, I would've been a problem to everyone if I went after Leviathan like that. Hell, I probably would've gotten myself killed. I'm just… not happy that I missed my chance to get back at that damned thing for what it did."
Shadow bridged the gap between the two of them, resting her paw on Vicky's arm. "Hey, it's not really like you would've been too much help, really. You're a close range fighter, and from what I saw Leviathan's too fast to really be dealt with like that- unless you're Eon, who can just boost himself to be useful, or you have a speedy Mover rating, I guess. So you were better off on search and rescue before then. Just… mourn your mum, yeah? I think she'd appreciate that better than one of her daughters throwing her life away in a futile attempt to get revenge on the monster that killed her in the first place." She paused. "Your mum'd probably rather you were helping to save people that were hurt in this, right?"
"Right. Probably, yeah." Vicky nodded, before a thought hit her and she buried her face in her hands, dislodging Shadow's paw. "Oh god, Mom'd be so mad at what just happened. I could've killed you!"
"Hey, it's all water under the- wait, bad choice of metaphor. Umm… it's all in the past now?" She stumbled, making Vicky snort. "I'm fine, you apologised, and I saw you drop to try and catch me. I might've been ok anyway, even with the fall, or I might've hurt myself and needed healing. I'm a bit more sturdy than most people that could've happened to, so I like to think a mere fifty foot drop wouldn't've been too bad for me. Still, thanks for the apology." She paused again, then glanced behind her at the small figure of Amy in the distance. "Now, mind giving me a lift back down to Amy, please? I've still got some healing to do, and I think she wants to make sure I'm alright. And yell at you." Vicky winced.
"I suppose I really deserve that." She sighed, before crouching down to take Shadow into her arms again, this time carefully cradling her to her chest before she lifted into the air. "Thanks for forgiving me."
"Just don't drop me again, and we're all good." Shadow snarked, making Vicky giggle.
That laugh was quickly frozen in her throat from the glare that Amy gave her- holy crap, I don't think I've ever seen Ames look so mad!- before the healer gently and promptly took Shadow from her arms, holding her for a moment before sighing in relief and putting her down.
"I'm glad you're ok." She said softly, making Shadow bump her nose against her palm in reassurance. She smiled, then turned back to glaring up at Vicky, who landed on the ground next to her. "What the hell was that?! You just come charging in here like some mad bull and drag Shadow away, then you fucking drop her from about fifty feet in the air! What the hell were you thinking, you-!"
"I wasn't." Vicky flinched, cutting her sister off. "I know I wasn't, Ames, and I'm sorry. I was just mad about losing Mom, and Shadow using that Master power to put me to sleep just made her an easier target than Leviathan was. And when I saw her with you, I kinda… panicked. I wasn't thinking about the fact that Shadow's Master power just puts people to sleep, I was just thinking about the fact that she had a Master power and went off on one trying to get her away from you."
"The bit where she dropped me was my own fault, though." Shadow admitted, making Amy look down at her in surprise. "I Scratched her to make her let me go, and didn't think about the fact that I was fifty feet up until I'd already done it. I have some ways to make myself slow down, though not all of them are very good, so I just used one of them, but I didn't really think before I acted. I was a little confused so I went off of instinct."
"Oh."
"Sorry, Ames."
"It's not me you need to be apologising to…"
"She's already apologised to me, Amy." Shadow patted her hand. "Stupid things happened, and could've had bad consequences, but they didn't. Vicky needs to learn to think before she acts, and I need to be more careful about remembering that most people wouldn't react well to being put to sleep without warning by a Cape." She grinned. "Stuff happened, we fixed it, water under the bridge, let's go back to healing?"
"Still a bad turn of phrase, Shadow." Vicky pointed out, making the fox pause before muttering something softly under her breath.
"Dammit. Um, whoops?" She blushed, making Amy and Vicky laugh.
"Right, ignoring that little blunder there…" The healer smiled, crouching slightly to run her hand over Shadow's head plume. "I agree that we should get back to healing. There's still quite a bit to do, even though you cut this fight pretty short."
"She did what?" Vicky butted in, gaping.
"I'll tell you later, Vicky." Amy promised.
"I'll hold you to that." Vicky returned, before floating a few feet off the ground. "I'm gonna go do some more laps of the city, see if there's anything I can do in terms of search and rescue. Go save some lives, sis."
"We will." Amy turned away and walked back into the main building, where there were no doubt more casualties waiting, while Shadow looked up at her.
"Be more careful from now on, ok Glory Girl?"
"I will." She told her. "And by the way, it's Vicky. Amy likes you, and it's the least I can say for forgiving me." Shadow's face lit up.
"Thanks, Vicky. I'll see you later." The vulpine waved before following Amy into the building, while the other Cape flew away to go see where she could help.
That could've been bad. She mused softly as she flew. In any number of ways. I guess I'm lucky that Shadow's got so many weird powers that she keeps pulling out at the drop of a hat, and that she doesn't seem to hold grudges for anything, no matter how severe it is. And that Amy seems to trust her enough to be ok with what she says.
But still… Mom would've murdered me for a stunt like that, especially on a hero who's basically allied with us through working in the hospital with Ames. I'd've been grounded for forever if she'd heard about it.
Frowning heavily, Vicky nodded to herself, her resolve firming.
That's it. I'm going to do my best to be better, for the memory of Mom if nothing else. I've done way too much stupid shit since getting my powers, relying on Ames to bail me out. I'm going to start thinking before I act, and being more careful with my powers. I'm going to be a hero and help get this city back on its feet after this attack, not just because it's my home, but because it'll help others.
Twisting to stare up at the sky for a moment, watching it slowly lighten as the sun rose, she caught sight of a few stars still shining in the sky and smiled.
I'm going to be a hero you could be proud of, Mom. Just you watch.
"Hey Shadow!"
The Vulpix's ears pricked up slightly at the sound of her name being called, and she waited for the Heal Pulse to end before trotting into the next room, looking around for Amy. She was standing over one of the beds on the furthest side of the room, and as she headed over she noticed Assault hovering next to her.
Shadow liked Assault. He was funny, and though they didn't always encounter each other on patrols, or have much time before one of their patrolling partners dragged them away, she always found it amusing to listen to his endless stream of jokes and quips, and even random bits of advice disguised as a joke or a quip. She also found it endlessly amusing how Battery- who was apparently a pretty close partner to him, given how much of a mix their scents were- seemed to have totally given up on trying to reign him in and had just resorted to joining in somewhat.
Right now, though, Assault looked anything but happy. Instead, he was worriedly standing next to the bed, tapping one foot on the ground in a nervous beat, and as Shadow jumped up onto the stool a PRT trooper placed down for her, she realised why.
Battery was resting on the bed, looking like she was peacefully asleep, while Amy had her hand on her cheek. Physically she looked perfectly fine, but the fact that Amy had called her over gave a different story.
"What's up, Amy?" She asked.
"I've managed to heal Battery of her actual injuries, but there's something wrong. I think it might be brain damage of some kind, but I can't heal that and I'm not very good at picking out the differences because of it. I was wondering...?"
"Sure, give me a minute." Sitting down and placing her paw on Battery's arm, she inhaled deeply before howling out a healing Move, letting the pulse go on for almost a minute before halting. Taking her paw from her arm, Shadow fell back slightly, chest heaving, while Amy put her hand back on Battery's cheek again.
"Oh. Now I can see the differences. I guess it helps to see things as they shift… the injuries have healed, I think, but I don't know why she's not woken up." Amy frowned.
"Should I try again?" Shadow asked, gasping.
"I... don't think it'd be a good idea." She replied. "It doesn't look like anything would change, anyway. What did you do?"
"Heal Pulse and Heal Bell, like normal." She said. "Heal Bell normally heals issues like this, though..."
"Then I don't see you trying again being able to do anything." Assault sagged. "Thanks for trying, though."
"No problem, Assault." Shadow smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, she'll wake up when she's ready."
"I hope so…" He said lowly, quiet enough that Shadow nearly missed it even with her hearing. "Thanks, though."
"No problem." Shadow jumped down from the stool, wobbled slightly, then walked slowly around to pat him sympathetically on the leg. "Sorry I couldn't help more."
"It's ok, you did what you could." Assault shrugged, crouching down and placing a hand on her head plume. Amy followed over, putting a hand on her side for a moment, and frowned.
"Maybe you should take a break, Shadow." Amy suggested, sounding concerned. "You look really tired."
"I am a bit." She yawned, sitting down. "My Moves take a lot of energy, and even the different things I've been using to give me back the power to do them don't work very well after a while. The energy needs to be there at least a little to restore it properly, and at this point I'm basically just using the remade energy instead of my own, and that... doesn't work too well." Amy sighed, shaking her head.
"C'mon, Shadow, you should go rest. You've done loads here, and you've really helped me out, lowering the amount of work I'd have to do normally. It's... what, half six? You can afford a break." The healer said, slipping her arm under her, across Shadow's chest. "You can sit at Swarm and Eon's side, and take a nap or something."
"What about you?" Shadow asked, as Amy lifted her up into her arms and Assault took his hand from her head. "You've been working just as much as me, shouldn't you take a rest?"
"Healing with my power doesn't actually tire me out." She said. "So you don't need to worry about me. Besides, there's not really many people left that need healing, so I can finish things off here and go grab something to eat and a nap somewhere, unless more people get brought in from search and rescue."
"I'll hold you to that." Shadow yawned again, waving to Assault as Amy turned and carried her towards the room where Swarm and Eon were being kept. "Seeya, Assault."
"See you, Shadow. Thanks for helping." The red-costumed man seemed down still, making Shadow frown sadly, but she wasn't able to do anything about it before Amy nudged open the door to the private room that the PRT people had apparently set aside for Inari, depositing her on the bed between Swarm and Eon's.
"Get some rest, Shadow." Amy commanded lightly, running her hand over her head. "And I promise I'll get some later as well. Don't worry about me."
"Ok, ok." Shadow grinned tiredly at her, resting her head on her front paws. "I'll see you later, then."
Amy hummed an agreement to her, then dimmed the lights and left the room. Shadow gladly closed her eyes and let herself drift into sleep, relaxing properly for the first time since about half four that morning.
Ethan grimaced as he trailed after the PRT troopers, following them into the small room where Alice was being taken to recover. Behind him, he could hear Panacea giving orders to some of the others, and mentally half-smiled at the thought of the small, mousey healer giving people commands.
He couldn't manage to force that smile onto his face, though, as he looked down at the sleeping form of his wife. The troopers left quietly, leaving him sitting in the silent room holding her hand.
Ethan hoped she'd wake up soon. It had only been a few minutes, but he already missed the sound of her voice as he teased her about things.
Admittedly, if Shadow and Panacea couldn't do anything, then it might be a long time, but he would keep hoping.
Ethan was known for his unending optimism, after all, and it'd do him well here.
Armed with a three hour nap under her scarf, Shadow shook herself out slightly and trotted out of the room, seeing the main healing room that she and Amy had been working in was now empty. It didn't surprise her too much, since she knew that she and Amy had been working hard managing to heal people, but it was still nice to know that they'd apparently managed to heal everyone who'd been found after the battle.
Ignoring her bag, still sitting over on the side and looking untouched- though Shadow could vaguely smell that Amy had been around it, probably closing it up to make sure no-one would mess with it- she made her way straight out of the building, looking around at the empty area.
Splashing through a few puddles on the way out of the mass of hastily set up tents, Shadow looked out over the city of Brockton Bay, frowning sadly at the very visible results of the Endbringer battle that had happened about four hours before.
"Damn." She sighed, huffing through her nose. Most of the damage was down near the beach, where the waves had come in, but the large tidal wave that Leviathan had brought in near the end of the fight had spread the damage through a lot of the rest of the city, knocking down a massive amount of buildings. His retreat had done similarly, Leviathan hurriedly pulling all of the water he'd brought with him back out into the ocean.
Shadow was unfortunately sure that at least a few injured or dead Capes had been taken with him, but it was always possible that they'd been left there from the Endbringer's natural water manipulation abilities.
Scanning across the rest of the city, she made a rough guess as to where Taylor's house was and was glad to see that it looked reasonably unaffected by the attack, and the area where the Den was seemed to be completely safe- which made sense, given that it was a good mile or so into the forest and the damage from the attack had been mostly confined to the area the Endbringer had been in the first place.
Still, Shadow thought, that much damage is... one heck of a sight.
Turning away from the image of the wrecked city, Shadow quietly started walking again, plotting out how Team Inari could possibly attempt to help with the rebuilding- and coming up somewhat short, aside from maybe levitating brickwork out of the way to clear areas faster or put up new buildings- when she noticed a familiar white-and-green costume sitting off on her own.
"Hey, Vista." She said softly, changing course to bring her next to the Cape.
"Oh. Hi, Shadow." The girl replied, smiling slightly. She sounded down too, and after a few seconds of thought Shadow reckoned she had the reason.
"I heard about Shadow Stalker while I was healing." Shadow told her, sitting down and curling her tails around her feet. "I'm sorry."
Vista shrugged. "I don't really mind too much. Stalker was a bit of a bitch, and she never liked me. I think because I'm a kid, so I'm supposed to be 'weak' and need protecting all the time." Her voice had taken on a low, bitter tone, and the Vulpix winced before putting a paw on her hand. "She was still a team mate, though, and I do feel bad for her family, but I can't really say I'll miss her much, I guess."
"Suppose that makes sense." Shadow hummed. "Is the rest of your team ok? And you?" A lot of the group had been brought in just after the attack that had brought Stalker down, but Shadow didn't remember seeing them, so presumably they'd all gone to Amy instead.
"We're all fine. Kid Win's going to need to repair his armour, and Aegis wasn't too happy after that happened, but they're all fine. Amy's really good at what she does."
"She is that, yeah." Shadow grinned. The pair sat in silence for a few minutes, before Shadow perked up, thinking of something that might help the young Ward get over- or at least forget about for a while- what happened. "Hey, how about I tell you a story?"
"A... story?" Vista looked down at her, and Shadow could imagine that there was a raised eyebrow behind her visor. "Why a story?"
"I just figured you might want something else to think about, is all." She shrugged. "And I know a lot of stories. Some my Momma told me when I was a kit, some I've picked up while travelling around with Eon and Inari, and way too many of them are my own ones from stupid situations that we've gotten into."
"...You know what, sure." Vista said, after a moment. "A story would be kinda nice."
"Neat!" Shadow thought for a moment, tapping her paw against the slightly muddy dirt, then nodded to herself. "Ok. One Momma used to tell me was the story of the selfish human. I guess it was kinda supposed to be a cautioning story, but it's not a bad actual story too."
"Weird name."
"Mhm, I guess. Anyway, the story's about a human who one day encountered a Nine... tailed kitsune, like Eon is. The human insulted the Kyuubi, which obviously angered them. The Kyuubi cursed the human, but the human had friendly spirit with them who took the curse on herself to save the human. However, the human didn't care and used the Kyuubi's surprise to run away and save themself, abandoning the spirit. In their anger, the Kyuubi made a prophesy that predicted that one day, the human would be reborn as a spirit as well, and they would bring about the end of the world by upsetting the balance of nature.
"Many years later, the prophecy came to pass, and the human was reborn as a grudge spirit. At the same time, another human was brought into the world as an ocean spirit, in the hopes that they would be able to remove the grudge spirit and rebalance nature again. The ocean spirit was helped by a lightning spirit, and they travelled together to find the Kyuubi from the legend and discover if the legend was true. The grudge spirit was revealed, and the ocean and lightning spirits went to the peak of the world to awaken the Guardian of the Sky, a great green dragon, who then helped to save the world from the meteor that the arrival of the grudge spirit had caused. During this, though, the human that became the ocean spirit ended up lost in the netherworld, until the grudge spirit saved them and dragged their spirit back into the world.
"After this, the grudge spirit apologised to the ocean and lightning spirits for antagonising them while they were travelling, and requests that they escorted him to the Kyuubi so that they could find the guardian spirit they abandoned as a human and apologise to them too. They did so, and the Kyuubi sent them to the guardian spirit. However, the spirit had forgotten everything about their past life before the curse, and didn't remember what the human had done to them. The human that had become the grudge spirit apologised anyway, and the two went their separate ways, never to meet again."
Shadow looked up at the sky, sighing lightly. "For my kind, it's a cautioning tale about the power of our curses. We can do horrible things with them, if we wanted, and we should always try to control ourselves, and not get so angry that we hurt someone. But I know others use it as a warning against annoying the kitsune, and especially the Kyuubi, since they're the main ones who cause curses from pulling on their tails. Kitsune tend to just prank the heck out of people."
"Wow." Vista muttered, after a moment of letting it sink in. "That's... cool." She paused, cocking her head. "Hey, if I pulled on Eon's tail, would I get cursed?"
"Yeah. The curses are kinda controlled by the Kyuubi making it, pulling one tail is less than pulling on all nine, and if you do it while knowing what'll happen it's gonna be more serious than if you didn't, but you could get cursed if you did it to Eon. Pulling on one by accident with Eon and you'll probably just break your favourite mug or something." She grinned a little. "He's pretty relaxed when it comes to things like that."
"It was a very interesting story." Both girls jumped as a new voice broke into the conversation, whirling around to look up at Swarm, standing a number of feet away with her arms crossed over her chest. "And hello, Vista. I didn't realise you were awake, Shadow."
"Hi."
"I woke up a little while ago and decided to come look around." The Vulpix said easily. "What do you need?"
"I found where they've set up a cafeteria, so I started looking to see if I could find you."
"Oh, you want the illusion?" Shadow realised, standing. "Sure, no problem. Are you coming, Vista?"
"I suppose so." The young Cape agreed, following her up. "It's better than sitting out here brooding."
"Most things are." Swarm told her, as she crouched down and offered her arms to Shadow. She allowed herself to be picked up by her team mate, using the higher position to look around more as they began walking towards one of the more crowded buildings. "Though I don't have much of an opportunity to brood about things. Shadow here is way too bouncy for that."
"And Eon wouldn't let you get depressed about anything either." Shadow quipped, making Vista snort.
"Eon does seem like that." She nodded. "Though I think he sometimes seems really serious."
"He has to be, with this one as a second-in-command." Swarm poked Shadow in the side sharply, making her yelp quietly, before leading them into a building.
It was surprisingly empty, but Shadow supposed that, being about four hours after the attack, most of the Capes that had been there would have gone home by now- or, for those in Brockton Bay, they might still be outside and trying to get started sorting things out. Still, there were a few people still around, and as she glanced about she spotted one that she knew.
Swarm clearly did too, since she headed straight over to the table she was sitting at. Vista trailed after them, since none of the other Wards were in the room and apparently she didn't know any of the other Capes there.
"Hey, Aquamarina." Swarm greeted politely, making the blue-wearing Cape look up in surprise. "Mind if the three of us sit here?"
"No, go ahead." She replied after a moment. "No-one else is here, after all."
"Thanks." Swarm gently placed Shadow onto the bench, a smile bleeding through her mask. "I'm pretty sure there's bacon up there, should I get you some?"
"Oh, please." She grinned, ears flicking up. "That'd be great, thank you. Healing was… not conductive to not being hungry?" Swarm chuckled.
"I know, you complain enough about it every time you come back from the hospital." The bug user said. "I think I've gotten more practise cooking in the last few weeks than I have in my entire life." Shadow stuck her tongue out at her, making the Capes snicker. "Mature of you."
"Thanks." Shadow grinned as her team mate walked away, Vista going with her to get food. She tracked them for a moment, then looked back at Aquamarina, who'd gone back to her plate of eggs and sausages with a slightly awkward air. "Hey, I never got to say thank you for earlier on."
"What for?" She blinked, startled, and stared at her.
"For bringing Eon in when he got hurt, for taking me up to the storm, and for helping me find Swarm earlier." Shadow explained. "It was really nice of you to do that, especially since you didn't have to."
"Of course I did." Aquamarina seemed vaguely insulted, her crystal wings shuffling behind her. "I was nearby when Eon was hurt, and you had a way to end the fight, so of course I was going to help you. I couldn't just leave things as they were."
"You didn't have to help with Swarm, though. You were just there, and you could've left to go and do more searching outside, but you took me with you and helped me find her." Shadow pawed slightly at her muzzle, discreetly brushing away the tears that had formed. "I've been avoiding thinking about what might've happened if you hadn't helped, so thank you for that, if nothing else at all."
"You… really, you don't need to thank me for that, either. I couldn't just leave someone to die out there, and you were certain she was alive, so I knew I had to help you." Aquamarina returned, blushing slightly under her mask. "And it was easier for me to help you than for you to go find someone else to take you. You might've lost the scent, and I knew I could get you to where I'd seen her last."
"Still, thank you. I don't think I could've coped if I'd've lost her." Hesitantly, Aquamarina patted her on the paw sitting on the table, then withdrew back into her food as Vista and Swarm arrived.
"Here you go, Shadow." Swarm said, placing the plate in front of her before sitting on her right hand side. Vista somewhat awkwardly took a place on her left, and Shadow looked up at her friend with a smile.
"Thanks, Swarm." The Vulpix replied. "Now, looky here?" The three chuckled at her phrasing as Swarm looked down at her, Shadow frowning as she pictured the illusion she wanted to layer over her head. "Alright, done."
"Nice." Shadow made sure to keep her focus as Swarm lifted up the lower part of her mask to let her eat, and once the girl had started tied off the illusion and lifted her knife and fork with telekinesis to start on the massive amount of bacon and sausages that she'd been given.
"Wow, that's really cool." Vista exclaimed quietly, and Shadow shot a sideways glance to see that she was staring at the illusion, as was Aquamarina. "Weird looking, but cool."
"Is that one of your powers?"
"Yeah, illusions." Shadow explained. "This one's simple, I just stick a field over her head that looks kinda like static. No-one can see her face, and no-one wants to spend a long time staring at her trying to look past it because it's kinda hard to look at."
"I can sure see that." Aquamarina commented, shaking her head and tearing her gaze away. "It's tricky. Impressive, though, for sure."
"Thanks!" Shadow grinned, ignoring the slight strain of holding the illusion there. "Oh, by the way, Aquamarina, this is Vista, she's one of the local Wards. Vista, meet Aquamarina, an independent from Los Angeles. She's the one who helped get Eon and Swarm back to the healing area, and she helped me do the Thunder thing at the end of the fight."
"Nice to meet you." The space-warper offered, holding out her hand. The flier shook it, before Vista looked back to Shadow. "So that lightning bolt was yours, then?"
"Yeah. I got lucky as heck with it, but it's one of the lineage Moves I have from my great aunt. I need something or someone else to do the clouds, that's one thing I've never been able to do no matter how hard I try, and I need to get lucky with the Charging, too. I went positive, and I just got lucky that that was what I needed." Shadow smiled, blushing slightly, hovering her fork in midair. "I didn't know how effective it would be, either."
"It's a good thing it worked, though." Vista commented. "That fight was starting to get a bit worrying."
"It can get a lot worse." A new voice put in. Everyone turned to see Vicky and Amy standing next to the table, plates in hand. "Mind if we join you?"
"Go ahead, Amy." Shadow stated, among the other's nods. "Everyone, this is Amy and Vicky, also known as Panacea and Glory Girl. Amy, Vicky, I guess you know everyone from the Bay, but this is Aquamarina. She helped me with the Thunder." She added, for Vicky's sake.
"Oh, cool." Vicky beamed, waving hello. "You took the lightning bolt?"
"I didn't get hit." Aquamarina demurred. "I don't think it'd be a good idea to take a lightning strike when I fly using my wings. I just took her up into the air so she could use it."
"That's fair. I know my invulnerability can take one, but it's a better idea to avoid them if I can."
"Oh, Amy mentioned something about that." Shadow remembered. "Something about prior experience?" Amy laughed loudly, covering Vicky's groan.
"Yeah, she is. She went out flying in a storm. Turns out, flying high in the air during a thunderstorm is a good way to get hit." Amy told them. "I had to put up with her whinging for weeks afterwards, and she ended up grounded for being irresponsible."
The story caused a large number of other laughs, and the entire thing dissolved into a story session, with the older Capes telling tales of patrols and Swarm chipping in on occasion with things that had happened, and Shadow returning the favour with some stories she'd heard from her parents when she was younger- modified for a different audience, of course.
In the end, Shadow thought, listening to Vista talk about Clockblocker's name announcement, this isn't such a bad way to end an attack after all.
I do not own Pokemon Red/Blue Rescue Team, which is where the original version of the tale of the selfish human comes from.
