Intervention 2.2
- Location
- US
For the second time in as many days, I had an entire roomful of heroes staring at me in complete shock.
You know, before all this happened I would have tried to crawl under the table and die. Now it just seems normal.
Panacea, for her part, had turned white as bone and looked about ready to throw up. Flashbang
Depression. Exacerbated by powers. Master Influence.
was the only one showing real concern, along with shock. Brandish
PTSD. Paranoid Personality Disorder. Both Exacerbated by Powers. Master Influence.
Was just scowling at me, like I'd just personally and vividly insulted her instead of exclaiming my surprise that her daughter hadn't killed herself yet. Glory Girl's mouth was open in surprise, and I thought I could see some rage-yup, that was rage, creeping into her expression.
I started before anyone could recover. "I'm...sorry about that outburst" I apologized and took a calming breath. "Call me Sanity. I triggered earlier this week, and joined the Wards yesterday, though I don't have a costume yet. I'm here because of something I noticed with my power." I glanced over at Gallant sitting stoically beside me. I supposed he wasn't surprised at my exclamation, given his power. He motioned for me to go on.
I cleared my throat and put on my serious face. "There are two pieces of my power relevant to this situation. I can see psychological disorders, and I have a Striker power that cures them. Not too unlike Panacea, actually." I smiled over at the clearly mortified healer. She blanched whiter at that.
Odd. Our powers really are similar.
Mark Dallon had latched on to something I'd said. "Cures...disorders?" He asked. His voice was filled with hope and uncertainty.
I replied with care. "Yes. Do you want me to deal with your depression?"
His eyes widened and he uncertainly stood. He seemed to steady himself with his hands, as if his legs were about to give out. He walked around the table and placed his hand on mine. The faces of the other three Dallons snapped to his motion, and Carol rapidly tried to extricate herself from her chair.
Tears began to leak from Mark Dallon's closed eyes. Carol heavily sat back down.
Mark whispered, "Thank you. I never...I never thought I'd be rid of it. It's..." the rest was broken in a wave of tears.
His eyes snapped open, and he ran to the other side of the table and fondly embraced his two daughters. "It's over, kids. I'm free!", he managed tearfully. "I'm so sorry about all the things I missed, on my bad days. I don't know if I can ever make it up to you. I hope you can both forgive me." The Dallon sisters just looked back at me in shock while their father cried on their shoulders.
A few minutes passed like that. Carol didn't stop scowling at me, Vicky and Amy eventually started to console their father, and Mark kept his daughters in a bear hug.
Gallant saved me from having to interrupt. "Umm, we're here for an important reason," he said, as much to the air as anything else.
Carol cleared her throat loudly, and her husband disengaged from his daughters and sat down.
Once the commotion died down, I smiled caringly. I was glad to be able to help Mark, of course, but we were here for more important reasons. "You're welcome, Flashbang. Now, for the topic at hand." I paused and put on my serious face again. "When I saw Gallant for the first time yesterday, he was actually the most stable parahuman I'd ever laid eyes on, but...well, there's no good way to put this. He had a Master influence on him." I rounded on Vicky and frowned lightly. "Glory Girl, your Master aura doesn't wear off. I'm seeing the same influence in the rest of your family as I saw in your boyfriend. It causes permanent behavioral changes which my power can detect."
At that, Carol and Vicky both stood in shock. "You can never prove that my daughter did that!" / "But Ames has built up tolerance to it!", The two women were respectively enraged and panicked.
I sliced the air with my hand. Both glared at me, and I interrupted them, "Brandish, this is not a court of law. I only need to prove myself to your family. Given how Flashbang reacted", I nodded meaningfully at Mark, who was still smiling with tears streaming down his face, "I think I already have." I smiled at him.
Mark interrupted, "My friends call me Mark, Sanity." His smile was clearly unpracticed, but genuine.
I smiled back and rounded on Vicky. "Glory Girl, Panacea has not developed an immunity to it, her altered behavior just became normal. When you met us outside, Gallant immediately registered to my power as having a Master influence again. This suggests that either your aura permanently changes the behavior of anyone who enters it even once, or that people with long histories of exposure to it will snap back right under its influence even after I've cured them." I stared severely at her, willing her to understand. Her look of panic had slowly transformed into one of horror during my speech.
Gallant spoke up drily, "Speaking of which, Vicky, we need to talk."
That did it for her. Glory Girl reeled back, knocking her chair over and hovering in midair, seemingly forgetting that gravity was a convention humans usually adhered to. Everyone in the room flinched away from her, except me.
Yup, her aura does nothing to me.
She was now hovering, curled into a ball near the ceiling, and slowly rotating. "No. NO! That isn't TRUE!" Her voice was filled with grief and self-loathing.
Caring time.
"Glory Girl, you had no idea. I can't blame you for something you didn't know about. I don't think anyone else can either. Because I exist now, nothing you've done is unfixable. Everything is going to be fine just as soon as I lay a hand on your family and the rest of New Wave." I injected calm I didn't feel into my voice. After all, this girl could splat me on a wall faster than I could blink.
She continued her slow spin near the ceiling, but remained silent save for her hyperventilation.
Gallant stood, a corona of pink energy coalescing around his hand. He pointed his finger at his girlfriend and it leapt off his hand and into the devastated hero. She visibly calmed, uncurling from her ball, though she was still levitating.
The room was silent for a few moments.
I took that opportunity to turn towards Amy. "Panacea," I began haltingly, "I thought I'd seen the most broken person possible yesterday, but I was wrong. Let me help you. I don't know how you got all of those issues, but if you take my hand they will be gone."
She slowly looked into my eyes, tears shining on her cheeks, and held out her hand. I grasped it.
Her eyes filled with radiant joy, and a wide smile filled her face. Then, she suddenly seemed to realize something, her eyes lit up with shame, and she sprinted, crying, from the room. I heard her trip once as she raced up the stairs.
What?
I turned with concern towards Gallant. "I need to handle this, can you hold the fort here?"
He just nodded, and I sprinted after the healer. I followed her sobs to an upstairs bedroom door and quietly opened it.
Inside, Panacea was sitting cross-legged on the floor, hyperventilating, her face in her hands. Her hair was covering her face, and she was visibly shaking.
I carefully closed the door and sat down in front of her, frowning. "Panacea, what happened? I'm not seeing any of your problems any more, but you acted like there was something to be ashamed of.", I said with concern.
Panacea kept shaking, then quietly answered, "You didn't fix it all." She burst into tears.
I looked back over her. Nope, nothing. I responded with more concern, "I'm pretty sure I did. What's wrong? Maybe you just need to talk about it. No matter what it is, I won't judge you for it. I might be physically incapable of doing so, actually, I haven't checked."
Her sobbing slowly quieted, then she answered deadly, "I'm a lesbian."
What? "Panacea, that's not a problem! Legend answered that decisively years ago!", I replied with confusion.
Panacea looked up, shame etched in her features, "No, no it's not that. I'm a lesbian, and I'm in love with-", her voice caught, clearly having trouble, "My sister." She cast her face down again.
I couldn't help it. I started laughing.
Panacea looked up in offended shock, stunned into silence. I started laughing so hard I rolled on the floor.
"Amy, I can call you that, right?", she nodded, still unable to speak, "Amy, I'm pretty sure that means that nothing at all is wrong with you!"
Amy finally managed to recover, a look of disgust on her face, "But, but that's just-", I interrupted her, grinning through the laughter.
"Amy, literally every straight guy wants to do your sister. Literally every lesbian and bi person wants to do your sister. I'm straight, but there's probably a circumstance where I would do your sister. There are some gay guys who might be curious enough to do your sister. I would be shocked if more than 30% of Earth's population would refuse to do your sister, given the chance." I caught my breath, just barely holding back the laughter, and continued, "Why do you think that you should be exempt just because you grew up with her?"
She looked at me in confusion. When nothing seemed to click for her, I continued, putting on a more serious tone. "Look, Amy. My power doesn't tell me exactly what Vicky's Master aura does to you, but I can take a guess based on how Gallant reacted when I removed it.", I took a breath, and Amy's head cocked to the side in curiosity. "I'm pretty sure it makes people love her. It would fit with her narcissism that I'm sure you've noticed by now. My power doesn't consider being physically attracted to attractive people a problem, but it fixed the Master influence. You might not have been attracted to anyone else before, but I would bet you are now."
Amy looked down, clearly deep in thought. I realized that I had to press her on something else, for her own safety. I put on the concerned face again, "Amy,", I started, "I also noticed that you were really, really afraid of your power. Why is that? Your power is even more heroic than mine!"
Amy froze, terror evident in every joint of her body. I'd clearly hit a nerve.
She didn't look up as she whispered, "There are no healing powers, Sanity."
It was my turn to be confused, "I'm pretty sure your power proves that untrue..?"
Her conviction left me uncertain. She waited for a bit before continuing, "My power isn't a healing power. I'm.. I'm a biokinetic. Total control over every living thing I am touching. I can make them do anything. Be anything.", She looked up, and her face was a mask of barely - repressed horror. "I am always one bad day away from making Nilbog look compassionate. Always.", one more tear rode down her face.
It was my turn to be shocked speechless.
The room was silent for a few minutes. Eventually, I was able to respond. "You know, Amy, I now have a lot of respect for you." I announced seriously.
That clearly hadn't been what she was expecting. "Why!?" she responded in shock, "I just told you that I'm one step away from being worse than fucking Bonesaw!" She'd started breathing quickly again.
I smiled with care, "Yeah, but the important thing is you aren't. I saw into your soul, Amy, or as close as one can without resorting to hypothetical phenomena. I thought I'd made my record for most broken person I'd ever see in my career yesterday, but you blew her out of the water. The fact that you have a power which could quite literally kill every single person on the planet and didn't do it is testament to remarkable strength and resilience on your part. I can't not respect that."
With that, Amy Dallon gave me the first genuine smile I'd ever seen on her. I smiled back. "Come on.", I beckoned and stood, "Let's go fix the rest of your family."
We strode towards the stairs. Amy reached for my hand halfway there, and I looked back. She'd stopped walking, and her eyes were blissfully closed. Eventually, she opened them. I looked at her quizzically, and then a strange rippling traveled through my body.
She had on an enigmatic smile. "You had a gene with a high likelihood of causing pancreatic cancer at some point in the future. I fixed it."
My eyebrows shot into my hairline. "Uhh, wow. Thanks! I don't know what to say."
She just shook her head, smiling all the way, "No thanks necessary. What you've done for me, and-", she paused, in thought, then smiled and continued, "and dad, is enough. I couldn't possibly repay you for all the good you've already done for my family." Her eyes lit up even more as she said 'my family.'
We walked towards the stairs as she continued. "You know, that's the first time I've ever changed someone's genetic code when it wasn't actively killing them. It felt...good."
I glanced back at her in curiosity. She was looking at the ceiling contemplatively, "I have.. had, I suppose, a code. A set of rules I followed with my power. It's why I didn't fix Mark. Dad. Before. I didn't want to change brains." She looked into my eyes and smiled beatifically, "But you can only change brains. I could see that much in your Gemma, and what you did to dad. If you could make me feel better than I have in years, and make dad actually act the part for the first time in ever, only by changing our brains, I see no reason to hold on to that." She grinned and cracked her knuckles. "I'm gonna do some experimenting with my power later. Wanna join?" Her eyes were filled with mischievous glee.
I cracked a grin as well. "Definitely!"
We both walked back down the stairs to find the entire room staring in my direction again. Gallant had moved to sit next to Glory Girl, who had calmed down and managed to remember that gravity was a thing that existed for us mere mortals, and was sitting back in her chair as well. Carol glared daggers at me, and Mark just smiled and beckoned us over. I smiled at Mark, and Amy and I sat down on the opposite end of the table from the rest of the Dallons. I looked over at Glory Girl in worry. "Glory Girl, I know this has been a shock, and I apologize for that. Do you want me to fix you up?" I asked matter-of-factly.
She seemed taken aback, but reacted with surprise rather than anger, "I wasn't aware I had anything that needed fixing." she responded with confusion.
Gallant guffawed, and I looked slightly down, smiling. "You have two issues, one of which really should be fixed before you do any more heroing. Do you want to know what they are?"
Glory Girl nodded mutely. I nodded in response, leaned back in my chair, and answered seriously, "The first issue is anger management. You ever punched someone a little too hard, maybe gotten into a fight with Gallant you regretted later?"
She blanched, then nodded and held out her hand. "I don't need to know what the other issue is. I, I don't want to do that any more. I don't want to need Amy to help. Fix it!" Her eyes were wide.
Well that makes things easier.
I nodded and tapped her on the palm. She shivered, then looked introspective for a moment, before looking back up at me, eyes wide. "Actually, what was that second issue?" She almost sounded panicked.
I grinned, almost chuckled, and replied, "Narcissism. Congratulations, Glory Girl, you now think other people can be just as awesome as you. Maybe this will help you keep that Master aura that manipulated everyone you love down, hmm?"
Her mouth opened wide, but she didn't say anything. She looked downcast.
I turned to Brandish, keeping my face serious. "Brandish, I'm going to say this outright. You are paranoid. Really, ridiculously paranoid. I don't know where it came from, and I'm not really sure I need to, but I can fix that for you. Given the nature of the problem, I know this is a difficult question. Understand, though, that you are being manipulated by your daughter's power, and that the only way to remove that manipulation is with my help." I ended with a frown.
Carol's scowl became a visage of rage. "You come to MY house. You change MY family.", she briefly flashed over to her Changer state before settling down. "Just. Just get out." She closed her eyes in resignation.
I nodded grimly. "Alright then. It was nice meeting you all." I smiled at the three Dallons who didn't despise me. Gallant stood, and we left the Dallon house in silence.
As we left, Amy burst out the door. She looked vaguely worried. "Sorry", she caught her breath, "I had to get out of there. Carol's just toxic when she doesn't get her way."
I smiled and motioned her over with my head. "We were going to head over to the Pelhams' to fix them up. Want to join?"
She grinned. "Sure. After that, let's have some fun!"
You know, before all this happened I would have tried to crawl under the table and die. Now it just seems normal.
Panacea, for her part, had turned white as bone and looked about ready to throw up. Flashbang
Depression. Exacerbated by powers. Master Influence.
was the only one showing real concern, along with shock. Brandish
PTSD. Paranoid Personality Disorder. Both Exacerbated by Powers. Master Influence.
Was just scowling at me, like I'd just personally and vividly insulted her instead of exclaiming my surprise that her daughter hadn't killed herself yet. Glory Girl's mouth was open in surprise, and I thought I could see some rage-yup, that was rage, creeping into her expression.
I started before anyone could recover. "I'm...sorry about that outburst" I apologized and took a calming breath. "Call me Sanity. I triggered earlier this week, and joined the Wards yesterday, though I don't have a costume yet. I'm here because of something I noticed with my power." I glanced over at Gallant sitting stoically beside me. I supposed he wasn't surprised at my exclamation, given his power. He motioned for me to go on.
I cleared my throat and put on my serious face. "There are two pieces of my power relevant to this situation. I can see psychological disorders, and I have a Striker power that cures them. Not too unlike Panacea, actually." I smiled over at the clearly mortified healer. She blanched whiter at that.
Odd. Our powers really are similar.
Mark Dallon had latched on to something I'd said. "Cures...disorders?" He asked. His voice was filled with hope and uncertainty.
I replied with care. "Yes. Do you want me to deal with your depression?"
His eyes widened and he uncertainly stood. He seemed to steady himself with his hands, as if his legs were about to give out. He walked around the table and placed his hand on mine. The faces of the other three Dallons snapped to his motion, and Carol rapidly tried to extricate herself from her chair.
Tears began to leak from Mark Dallon's closed eyes. Carol heavily sat back down.
Mark whispered, "Thank you. I never...I never thought I'd be rid of it. It's..." the rest was broken in a wave of tears.
His eyes snapped open, and he ran to the other side of the table and fondly embraced his two daughters. "It's over, kids. I'm free!", he managed tearfully. "I'm so sorry about all the things I missed, on my bad days. I don't know if I can ever make it up to you. I hope you can both forgive me." The Dallon sisters just looked back at me in shock while their father cried on their shoulders.
A few minutes passed like that. Carol didn't stop scowling at me, Vicky and Amy eventually started to console their father, and Mark kept his daughters in a bear hug.
Gallant saved me from having to interrupt. "Umm, we're here for an important reason," he said, as much to the air as anything else.
Carol cleared her throat loudly, and her husband disengaged from his daughters and sat down.
Once the commotion died down, I smiled caringly. I was glad to be able to help Mark, of course, but we were here for more important reasons. "You're welcome, Flashbang. Now, for the topic at hand." I paused and put on my serious face again. "When I saw Gallant for the first time yesterday, he was actually the most stable parahuman I'd ever laid eyes on, but...well, there's no good way to put this. He had a Master influence on him." I rounded on Vicky and frowned lightly. "Glory Girl, your Master aura doesn't wear off. I'm seeing the same influence in the rest of your family as I saw in your boyfriend. It causes permanent behavioral changes which my power can detect."
At that, Carol and Vicky both stood in shock. "You can never prove that my daughter did that!" / "But Ames has built up tolerance to it!", The two women were respectively enraged and panicked.
I sliced the air with my hand. Both glared at me, and I interrupted them, "Brandish, this is not a court of law. I only need to prove myself to your family. Given how Flashbang reacted", I nodded meaningfully at Mark, who was still smiling with tears streaming down his face, "I think I already have." I smiled at him.
Mark interrupted, "My friends call me Mark, Sanity." His smile was clearly unpracticed, but genuine.
I smiled back and rounded on Vicky. "Glory Girl, Panacea has not developed an immunity to it, her altered behavior just became normal. When you met us outside, Gallant immediately registered to my power as having a Master influence again. This suggests that either your aura permanently changes the behavior of anyone who enters it even once, or that people with long histories of exposure to it will snap back right under its influence even after I've cured them." I stared severely at her, willing her to understand. Her look of panic had slowly transformed into one of horror during my speech.
Gallant spoke up drily, "Speaking of which, Vicky, we need to talk."
That did it for her. Glory Girl reeled back, knocking her chair over and hovering in midair, seemingly forgetting that gravity was a convention humans usually adhered to. Everyone in the room flinched away from her, except me.
Yup, her aura does nothing to me.
She was now hovering, curled into a ball near the ceiling, and slowly rotating. "No. NO! That isn't TRUE!" Her voice was filled with grief and self-loathing.
Caring time.
"Glory Girl, you had no idea. I can't blame you for something you didn't know about. I don't think anyone else can either. Because I exist now, nothing you've done is unfixable. Everything is going to be fine just as soon as I lay a hand on your family and the rest of New Wave." I injected calm I didn't feel into my voice. After all, this girl could splat me on a wall faster than I could blink.
She continued her slow spin near the ceiling, but remained silent save for her hyperventilation.
Gallant stood, a corona of pink energy coalescing around his hand. He pointed his finger at his girlfriend and it leapt off his hand and into the devastated hero. She visibly calmed, uncurling from her ball, though she was still levitating.
The room was silent for a few moments.
I took that opportunity to turn towards Amy. "Panacea," I began haltingly, "I thought I'd seen the most broken person possible yesterday, but I was wrong. Let me help you. I don't know how you got all of those issues, but if you take my hand they will be gone."
She slowly looked into my eyes, tears shining on her cheeks, and held out her hand. I grasped it.
Her eyes filled with radiant joy, and a wide smile filled her face. Then, she suddenly seemed to realize something, her eyes lit up with shame, and she sprinted, crying, from the room. I heard her trip once as she raced up the stairs.
What?
I turned with concern towards Gallant. "I need to handle this, can you hold the fort here?"
He just nodded, and I sprinted after the healer. I followed her sobs to an upstairs bedroom door and quietly opened it.
Inside, Panacea was sitting cross-legged on the floor, hyperventilating, her face in her hands. Her hair was covering her face, and she was visibly shaking.
I carefully closed the door and sat down in front of her, frowning. "Panacea, what happened? I'm not seeing any of your problems any more, but you acted like there was something to be ashamed of.", I said with concern.
Panacea kept shaking, then quietly answered, "You didn't fix it all." She burst into tears.
I looked back over her. Nope, nothing. I responded with more concern, "I'm pretty sure I did. What's wrong? Maybe you just need to talk about it. No matter what it is, I won't judge you for it. I might be physically incapable of doing so, actually, I haven't checked."
Her sobbing slowly quieted, then she answered deadly, "I'm a lesbian."
What? "Panacea, that's not a problem! Legend answered that decisively years ago!", I replied with confusion.
Panacea looked up, shame etched in her features, "No, no it's not that. I'm a lesbian, and I'm in love with-", her voice caught, clearly having trouble, "My sister." She cast her face down again.
I couldn't help it. I started laughing.
Panacea looked up in offended shock, stunned into silence. I started laughing so hard I rolled on the floor.
"Amy, I can call you that, right?", she nodded, still unable to speak, "Amy, I'm pretty sure that means that nothing at all is wrong with you!"
Amy finally managed to recover, a look of disgust on her face, "But, but that's just-", I interrupted her, grinning through the laughter.
"Amy, literally every straight guy wants to do your sister. Literally every lesbian and bi person wants to do your sister. I'm straight, but there's probably a circumstance where I would do your sister. There are some gay guys who might be curious enough to do your sister. I would be shocked if more than 30% of Earth's population would refuse to do your sister, given the chance." I caught my breath, just barely holding back the laughter, and continued, "Why do you think that you should be exempt just because you grew up with her?"
She looked at me in confusion. When nothing seemed to click for her, I continued, putting on a more serious tone. "Look, Amy. My power doesn't tell me exactly what Vicky's Master aura does to you, but I can take a guess based on how Gallant reacted when I removed it.", I took a breath, and Amy's head cocked to the side in curiosity. "I'm pretty sure it makes people love her. It would fit with her narcissism that I'm sure you've noticed by now. My power doesn't consider being physically attracted to attractive people a problem, but it fixed the Master influence. You might not have been attracted to anyone else before, but I would bet you are now."
Amy looked down, clearly deep in thought. I realized that I had to press her on something else, for her own safety. I put on the concerned face again, "Amy,", I started, "I also noticed that you were really, really afraid of your power. Why is that? Your power is even more heroic than mine!"
Amy froze, terror evident in every joint of her body. I'd clearly hit a nerve.
She didn't look up as she whispered, "There are no healing powers, Sanity."
It was my turn to be confused, "I'm pretty sure your power proves that untrue..?"
Her conviction left me uncertain. She waited for a bit before continuing, "My power isn't a healing power. I'm.. I'm a biokinetic. Total control over every living thing I am touching. I can make them do anything. Be anything.", She looked up, and her face was a mask of barely - repressed horror. "I am always one bad day away from making Nilbog look compassionate. Always.", one more tear rode down her face.
It was my turn to be shocked speechless.
----
The room was silent for a few minutes. Eventually, I was able to respond. "You know, Amy, I now have a lot of respect for you." I announced seriously.
That clearly hadn't been what she was expecting. "Why!?" she responded in shock, "I just told you that I'm one step away from being worse than fucking Bonesaw!" She'd started breathing quickly again.
I smiled with care, "Yeah, but the important thing is you aren't. I saw into your soul, Amy, or as close as one can without resorting to hypothetical phenomena. I thought I'd made my record for most broken person I'd ever see in my career yesterday, but you blew her out of the water. The fact that you have a power which could quite literally kill every single person on the planet and didn't do it is testament to remarkable strength and resilience on your part. I can't not respect that."
With that, Amy Dallon gave me the first genuine smile I'd ever seen on her. I smiled back. "Come on.", I beckoned and stood, "Let's go fix the rest of your family."
----
We strode towards the stairs. Amy reached for my hand halfway there, and I looked back. She'd stopped walking, and her eyes were blissfully closed. Eventually, she opened them. I looked at her quizzically, and then a strange rippling traveled through my body.
She had on an enigmatic smile. "You had a gene with a high likelihood of causing pancreatic cancer at some point in the future. I fixed it."
My eyebrows shot into my hairline. "Uhh, wow. Thanks! I don't know what to say."
She just shook her head, smiling all the way, "No thanks necessary. What you've done for me, and-", she paused, in thought, then smiled and continued, "and dad, is enough. I couldn't possibly repay you for all the good you've already done for my family." Her eyes lit up even more as she said 'my family.'
We walked towards the stairs as she continued. "You know, that's the first time I've ever changed someone's genetic code when it wasn't actively killing them. It felt...good."
I glanced back at her in curiosity. She was looking at the ceiling contemplatively, "I have.. had, I suppose, a code. A set of rules I followed with my power. It's why I didn't fix Mark. Dad. Before. I didn't want to change brains." She looked into my eyes and smiled beatifically, "But you can only change brains. I could see that much in your Gemma, and what you did to dad. If you could make me feel better than I have in years, and make dad actually act the part for the first time in ever, only by changing our brains, I see no reason to hold on to that." She grinned and cracked her knuckles. "I'm gonna do some experimenting with my power later. Wanna join?" Her eyes were filled with mischievous glee.
I cracked a grin as well. "Definitely!"
----
We both walked back down the stairs to find the entire room staring in my direction again. Gallant had moved to sit next to Glory Girl, who had calmed down and managed to remember that gravity was a thing that existed for us mere mortals, and was sitting back in her chair as well. Carol glared daggers at me, and Mark just smiled and beckoned us over. I smiled at Mark, and Amy and I sat down on the opposite end of the table from the rest of the Dallons. I looked over at Glory Girl in worry. "Glory Girl, I know this has been a shock, and I apologize for that. Do you want me to fix you up?" I asked matter-of-factly.
She seemed taken aback, but reacted with surprise rather than anger, "I wasn't aware I had anything that needed fixing." she responded with confusion.
Gallant guffawed, and I looked slightly down, smiling. "You have two issues, one of which really should be fixed before you do any more heroing. Do you want to know what they are?"
Glory Girl nodded mutely. I nodded in response, leaned back in my chair, and answered seriously, "The first issue is anger management. You ever punched someone a little too hard, maybe gotten into a fight with Gallant you regretted later?"
She blanched, then nodded and held out her hand. "I don't need to know what the other issue is. I, I don't want to do that any more. I don't want to need Amy to help. Fix it!" Her eyes were wide.
Well that makes things easier.
I nodded and tapped her on the palm. She shivered, then looked introspective for a moment, before looking back up at me, eyes wide. "Actually, what was that second issue?" She almost sounded panicked.
I grinned, almost chuckled, and replied, "Narcissism. Congratulations, Glory Girl, you now think other people can be just as awesome as you. Maybe this will help you keep that Master aura that manipulated everyone you love down, hmm?"
Her mouth opened wide, but she didn't say anything. She looked downcast.
I turned to Brandish, keeping my face serious. "Brandish, I'm going to say this outright. You are paranoid. Really, ridiculously paranoid. I don't know where it came from, and I'm not really sure I need to, but I can fix that for you. Given the nature of the problem, I know this is a difficult question. Understand, though, that you are being manipulated by your daughter's power, and that the only way to remove that manipulation is with my help." I ended with a frown.
Carol's scowl became a visage of rage. "You come to MY house. You change MY family.", she briefly flashed over to her Changer state before settling down. "Just. Just get out." She closed her eyes in resignation.
I nodded grimly. "Alright then. It was nice meeting you all." I smiled at the three Dallons who didn't despise me. Gallant stood, and we left the Dallon house in silence.
----
As we left, Amy burst out the door. She looked vaguely worried. "Sorry", she caught her breath, "I had to get out of there. Carol's just toxic when she doesn't get her way."
I smiled and motioned her over with my head. "We were going to head over to the Pelhams' to fix them up. Want to join?"
She grinned. "Sure. After that, let's have some fun!"
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