What Amy needed more than anything at this very moment was a cup of goddamn coffee.
She had to pull an almost-all-nighter because the Merchants decided to pick a fight with the Empire the night before, which resulted in a lot of innocent people caught in the crossfire that Amy had to heal. Then she thought that today was going to be a quiet, uneventful day at school, but then the Undersiders decided to rob the Central Bank just as she was withdrawing some cash.
Because of those two things, Vicky forced her to go to sleep early, but just as she was starting to drift off Amy was rudely woken up by Carol about an important 'all hands on deck' meeting with the Protectorate, Wards, and New Wave. Her adoptive father was sitting to her right, head leaning down and arms crossed, drifting off into a light sleep. Her adoptive mother was sitting two seats away from her left, as Victoria had gotten up to go to the bathroom.
To her father's right were the Pelhams, also waiting patiently for the meeting to begin. Shielder was playing something on his portable console, and Laserdream was tapping away at her phone.
So, here she was, sitting down in one of the big meeting rooms in the PRT building, waiting for the rest of the Protectorate members to arrive along with the Director.
A team, and a family, she never felt she belonged to. The Dallons and Pelhams were tall, hair colour varying between dusty light-brown and blonde, and had a mixture of green and blue eyes. Amy was short, chubby, and had a mop of curly brown hair and freckles covering most of skin. New Wave specialised in forcefields; using light to create weapons, explosives, lasers and shields while Amy had the ability to manipulate biology at its fundamental level-
Heal. She was capable of healing and nothing else.
It always stung a little, whenever she was dragged along for New Wave's monthly training, on the outskirts of town, seeing the rest of her team actually train and spar with each other while Amy just sat on the sidelines.
An outsider, Carol always reminded her. Not something her adoptive mother ever spoke out loud, but with her cold, unwelcoming eyes, always judging Amy for not reaching some standard she tried so desperately to reach.
With a mental shake of her head, Amy discarded that line of thinking. Thinking about what Carol thought of her always put her in a depressed mood, so she moved onto reflecting on the odd things that happened this week while waiting for the meeting to start.
First was the weird girl, Taylor, who was transferring from Winslow to Arcadia. Tall and willowy with an awful fashion sense and a blank expression… and who her sister was pushing extremely hard for Amy to be friends with in an attempt to broaden her social circle. She originally planned on doing the thing whenever Vicky tried getting her friends; where she deliberately acts bitchy, pushes them away, and then ghosts them. But Taylor was a bullying victim, and Amy was a lot of things, but she wasn't that heartless to do it to the new girl.
And also Taylor texted her to see if she was ok when news broke that the Undersiders robbed the Central Bank, so maybe Amy would give her a chance.
Maybe.
The doors quietly opened, and Victoria, wearing her Glory Girl costume, slipped through. She waved at the Wards sitting on the other side of the room, and sat down at the table next to Amy.
"Here, I got you something. I know you don't like this stuff, but the cafe was closed so I had to make due with what was in the vending machines." Her sister whispered, handing her a Legend-branded energy drink. She didn't like those types of drinks, far too sweet for her tastes, but it was better than nothing.
"Thank you." Amy muttered back, opened it with a satisfying clink, and took a couple of heavy gulps. It tasted like blueberries dipped in battery acid.
That was one of the other odd things about this week; Victoria had been acting… strangely. She broke up with Dean, which took her by surprise considering how madly in love they were with each other and they had broken up before, but that only after a few weeks of them arguing with each other over stupid couple stuff. Dean was a good guy, and Amy had to hesitantly admit he was a good match for her sister. Although she hated him because of how much she wanted to be in his position
Vicky also hadn't accidently used her aura a single time since Sunday, and when all the Wards were arguing with each other and her sister used her aura on them, Amy could've sworn it wasn't fear or awe that she felt, despite the distance and her resistance to it.
It was calm.
She didn't want to bring it up, though. If Vicky wanted to know she would've told her about the change.
"Panacea," Brandish said, staring at her judgmentally, "Stop drinking that. This is an important meeting, and we need to look professional. It's not a good look for a hero to be seen drinking… something like that. Besides, as you should know, they're also incredibly very unhealthy for you."
Amy glanced around, unsure of how to respond. What should she do with the mostly filled can? Throw it out, leave it under the table?
Victoria spoke up, "Lay off her, Mum-"
"Brandish. We're in costume."
"Lay off her, Brandish. No one here is going to care that she's drinking an energy drink, because there's more important things to be focussing on. Would you be saying the same thing if she was drinking coffee?"
Amy glanced to look at her sister, who was genuinely glaring at their mother. That was the other odd thing about this week. Victoria had been a lot more… defensive of her, especially around Carol. She was completely prepared to get a massive lecture from her adoptive mother about how she acted during the bank robbery, but Victoria defended that she didn't do anything wrong.
"Glory Girl-" Carol hissed.
"Dear, I think Glory Girl has a point." Flashbang interjected, trying to de-escalate, "No one is going to think less of us as a team if Panacea is drinking something like that. It's, uh, a little overblown."
Brandish glanced at her husband, "Overblown?"
"Just a little bit."
Carol stared at him for a moment, and then looked away without a word.
Her father leaned down and whispered to her, "I know your mother can be a bit difficult sometimes, but I just want you to know we're both very proud of you, and what you did earlier today. It took a lot of courage to do what you did."
"Thanks, Dad." Amy whispered back. She believed that he was genuinely proud of her, but couldn't say the same for her mother.
She took another couple of sips, starting to feel the slight buzz from the ridiculous amount of caffeine just as Armsmaster, Miss Militia and the Director had entered the meeting room. The two heroes stood at the room, a massive screen behind them while Piggot sat down at a desk in front of them.
"Thank you for being patient with us, as well as coming here on such short notice." Armsmaster stated, "Two hours ago, we'd received a message that the tinker of the Azn Bad Boys, Bakuda, had planted bombs around the city, targeting important infrastructure. I personally went to check on one of the locations, a bridge connecting Brockton Bay to Boston, that the message said was 'definitely there', quote."
The screen behind him turned on, and a 3d model of a woman's head appeared. There was one cape Amy knew that used CGI models to communicate.
Dragon.
She picked up where Armsmaster left off. "And after some searching, Armsmaster did find an explosive, hidden underneath the bridge itself. He immediately contacted me, and we were successful in defusing it. This means that the message that we received was telling the truth, and we can safely assume that there are explosives placed all over the city, created by a tinker that specialises in creating them."
"What do we need to do, then?" Brandish asked, curtly.
"After this meeting finishes, we'll be announcing a complete lockdown of the city until further notice, while we focus on both finding and defusing the explosives. That will be the responsibility of New Wave, the Wards, and most of the Protectorate members, while a team handpicked by Armsmaster and I will find Bakuda and arrest her."
"How do you know the message isn't a distraction, or a trap of some kind?" Manpower, her uncle, asked. Amy wasn't particularly close to him, much like the other Pelhams, but he was nice enough.
Dragon shook her head, "It's a 5.37% chance that Bakuda, or someone connected to her, made that note. Bakuda is the type of villain that cares deeply about spectacle and being recognised for it, so this type of trickery goes against her established modus operandi. My current theory is that a mole for another gang leaked her plans to us, or a thinker gathered the information themselves."
Amy didn't care about the intricacies of cape politics, because at the end of the day her job was to heal, regardless of the how's or why's.
"So, with the basics out of the way-" Armsmaster continued, but was interrupted by the repeated beeping of a phone's ringtone. He grunted, stepped off to the side, and touched the side of his helmet with his index finger.
"Armsmaster speaking. This better be important."
There was a pause as his frown morphed into a scowl.
"You what? How did you even get this number?"
Another pause, "No, you can't just make dema-"
Piggot spoke up, "Armsmaster, whoever you're talking to can wait. It's rude for you to answer a phone call during a meeting like this."
He raised finger at her in a 'wait' motion, and then spat out, "Fine, I'll put you on speaker."
The veteran hero tapped on the little screen on his wrist, and a loud, mocking voice rang out.
"Heyo, heroes! This is Tattletale. I'm here to make a deal."
The room was immediately filled with people yelling out, trying to speak over the top of each other, or whispering to the person next to them. Amy turned to her sister, who had an odd look of concern on her face.
Armsmaster raised his hands, and the room quietened.
"What kind of deal are you wanting to make, Tattletale?" Dragon asked, in her odd Newfoundland accent.
"Holy shit, is that Dragon? Is the situation is that awful? Nevermind, don't answer that, of course it is. Anyway, is Panacea in the room?" The villain quickly asked, almost like she was out of breath.
"I'm not going to answer-" Armsmaster answered.
"Oh, cool, she is. Wonderful." She said, interrupting him, "So here's the deal, boys, girls and others: we'll hand you a currently unconscious Bakuda, some of her bombs for you to analyse, a thumbdrive full of shit I stole from her workshop and in return, you get Panacea to heal Khepri. Fair?"
The room was filled with more yelling again, and Amy tried to curl into herself. Why would they need her? What happened to Khepri?
"Quiet, please." Armsmaster hushed, and then looked down at his screen, "Explain. Why do you have Bakuda with you? Why do you need Panacea?"
"She doesn't have much time, so I'll be brief." Tattletale said, and Amy could hear wind rushing in the background, "When Khepri joined the Undersiders, we knew that one of the other gangs would target us, in one way or another. I did a little digging around, and found out that Bakuda was planning on kidnapping Bitch, stealing the money we got from the bank, and killing us to prove that she's better than Lung, because she's insane like that. Oh, yeah, she also planned on blowing up the city, so that note that you got a couple of hours ago? That was from me. You're welcome."
"As I suspected." Dragon said, "Thank you, Tattletale. You've saved a-"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Save the praises for later. We don't have much time."
Dragon looked genuinely puzzled, "...I understand. Please, continue."
We came up with a plan to strike first. Khepri walked around ABB territory, found Bakuda, and acted as bait to lure her out of her workshop and so we could take her by surprise. Though Bakuda made a bomb specifically for Khepri that seriously fucked her up. Like, she has," She paused, "Two hours max before she actually dies type of fucked up."
"Only if you submit yourselves into PRT custody, and return the money you stole from Brockton Bay Central Bank and the Ruby Dreams Casino." The bitch of a director said. "Then I will allow your teammate to be healed."
Amy glared at her, both for yelling at her earlier for 'assisting and following orders from a villain' and how no one has even asked if she wanted to heal Khepri or not. Amy was the only one who could, after all.
"... You're seriously playing hardball with me, Piggy? Fine. Have it your way." Tattletale hissed, "First off, you're only doing this because you got so embarrassed that a villain that came out of nowhere has done more work against the ABB than you have in years. And that fumble during our heist? That was all your fault and now you're in hot water with your superiors because of it, so I suggest you stay out of this before you dig that hole you're in even deeper."
"You can't just-"
"I can and I will. Don't push me, Piggy."
The Director growled, "I will not allow a no-name villain to strong-arm me into saving your 'friend's' life. You're both villains, and the PRT has no obligation to help you unless you submit yourselves into custody."
"God, you really aren't helping." Tattletale said, "Oi, New Wave, is there any way we can broker a deal here, just between us, since Piggy is being obnoxiously stubborn?"
Her parents, aunt and uncle glanced at each other, silently communicating with each other. The four of them then nodded once, and her adoptive mother spoke up.
"We will only make a deal with you if we have the Director and Armsamster's permission to do so. Plenty of other villains have threatened us for Panacea's healing, and you certainly won't be the last."
Amy wanted to glare at Brandish, but she couldn't do that without risking another lecture, so she glared at the can in front of her, at Legend's dumb beaming smile instead. That's all she was to her supposed team and family; a service to be bought and sold, without any of her own input.
There then was a loud sigh emanating from the screen on Armsmaster's wrist.
"This was such an easy deal. We hand you Bakuda, you get to stop her from blowing up the city, and you let Panacea heal my teammate, but I suppose we'll just have to do this the hard way, huh?" Tattletale breathed in, and spoke, "Bakuda has a deadman's switch on her heart. If it stops beating, every single bomb she has will go off simultaneously. So if you don't get Panacea to heal Khepri, I'll slash her throat, capiche?"
The room was dead silent and tense enough you could cut it.
"...Are you seriously threatening the entire city just for your teammate?" Miss Militia asked, eyes narrowed as she started at Armsmaster's screen.
"Because I don't want her to fucking die, dumbass. Especially because the entire reason Bakuda was stopped was because Khepri put herself in life threatening danger to stop her."
Another tense couple of tense seconds passed, then Armsmaster spoke, "Where do you want to negotiate this in person? We aren't going to get anywhere arguing over the phone."
"In the foyer of the PRT building, because we're already here." Tattletale answered, and then hung up.
Armsmaster turned around and looked out of the reinforced windows, and then quickly turned back around, "The Undersiders have just arrived riding on Hellhound's dogs. Miss Militia, Brandish, Flashbang, Panacea and Glory Girl, follow me to the foyer. The rest of you stay here. The situation is too volatile."
"Why do you need us in particular?" Her father asked.
"You and Brandish are Panacea's legal guardians. Since this entire situation hinges on her, it would be prudent for you to be present during the negotiation. I understand that I can't order you directly because of your status as independents, but we don't have the time to argue, not with the city being at stake like this."
Her parents glanced at each other, and Flashbang nodded, "We agree that we don't have much time, so we'll be under your command for the time being."
"Thank you for your understanding, New Wave."
It was at this point the Emily fucking Piggot, the director of the PRT's east-northeast branch, got up from her seat, and spoke, "You don't have authority here, Armsmaster, not without my explicit permission to order people around. We aren't going to negotiate anything with them, because they're vill-"
"I'm invoking article one-three-nine." The tinker replied, coolly. "This is an extremely delicate situation, and you've been too antagonistic towards the Undersiders, enough to jeopardise the chance of a peaceful resolution."
Judging from the look on her adoptive mother's face, Amy knew that whatever thing Armsmaster said was a pretty big deal.
She leaned over to her sister and asked quietly, "What does article one-three-nine mean?"
"The leader of the Protectorate can supersede any orders from Directors given that there's enough reason for it, off the top of my head," She explained in a hushed whisper, "Since it goes against the entire point of the PRT, there's a massive investigation afterwards to find out if it's valid or not. If it isn't, Armsmaster could be disbarred from the Protectorate entirely."
"Fine. But I'm going too, and I know you can't stop me from doing that." Piggot hissed, and angrily walked out of the room.
"I will be coming too, in the form of one of my smaller drones," Dragon declared, "Just to monitor the situation, and to defuse any of Bakuda's weaponry."
Armsmaster nodded at her, and the large monitor turned off. He and Miss Militia then headed out of the room, and Amy took a few chugs of her energy drink before getting up and following them. She was half nervous and half annoyed at this entire situation. The safety of the entire city was at stake, but no one had even stopped to ask her what she wanted, or what she thought, despite being the only one capable of healing Khepri.
As the lift doors opened, Amy stuffed herself into a corner, arms crossed together. Victoria stood next to her, and gave her a reassuring smile. Her wonderful, caring sister; the only person in her life that genuinely cared about her, and how much Amy wanted to kiss her, hug her, touch her, fu-
Amy pinched the skin on her arm, hard enough to draw blood, as she smiled back at her sister. She could hate herself later, not when the safety of Brockton was at stake.
The lift doors reopened, and everyone stepped out, Amy and her sister trailing behind them. As they entered the foyer, she peered through the gaps of the heroes in front of her. The Undersiders were gathered inside the doorway, three of Hellhound's massive beasts behind them. Tattletale was front and centre, and had a mocking grin on her face, while Regent was sitting crouching down, holding a large combat knife to an unconscious Bakuda's exposed throat. Hellhound was towards the back, holding chains that wrapped around her monster's necks, and Grue was standing next to Tattletale, holding a bloodied Khepri in a princess carry.
Oddly enough, there was an Asian boy wearing a dirty Immaculata uniform standing nervously to the side, and half of his hair was shaved off.
"Good. You're here," Tattletale smirked, "Now, Panacea, get over here and-"
Armsmaster interrupted her, "Hold on. Why do you have a hostage with you?"
"I-I'm not a hostage, s-sir. I came here willingly."
Amy could hear a whirring sound, and one of Dragon's drones came flying out of a different hallway. It was roughly the size of a housecat, and was shaped like its creator's namesake, with rotary blades embedded in its wings, and landed on the reception's desk.
"What's your name?" She asked, gently.
"Park Jihoo, m-ma'am."
"You're safe now, and you won't be arrested, nor are you in trouble for anything. But, if you can, could you please tell us why you're here, and what happened to you?" Dragon said, as reassuring as she could, "I've searched your school's database, and it says that you dropped out on Wednesday, but something tells me that you didn't do that willingly."
He nodded, looking a little bit more relieved, "When I moved here with my family a month ago, my dad was forced to join the Az Bad Boys, and when I started at Immaculata, the gang members there forced me to join up, too. Said they would hurt my family if I didn't."
"And you won't be punished for that. The law is well aware that some gangs have forced conscriptions, so anything you may have done wouldn't be used against you." Miss Militia said, who had her hands together behind her back, holding a combat knife.
Park Jihoo took a deep breath, and continued, "So when Lung was captured the other day, Bakuda took charge of the gang. But from what I heard a lot of the higher ranking members didn't like or respect her, so in order to enforce her rule, s-she-"
His voice was cracking, and he continued, "She started operating on people. Opening up their skulls and putting bombs on their brains. A-And she did it with anyone she could get her hands on. Students, like me, children, grandparents, mothers and fathers, and the real, die-hard gangsters. No one was spared."
Park Jihoo then bowed, showing off the middle of his head, and Amy could see stitching in the shaved part of his hair. She could easily tell from where she was standing that the wound was infected, and the stitching was awfully done. Like whoever did it half-assed it.
"B-Bakuda was going to force all of us to be her soldiers in whatever crazy war she was planning on fighting," He said, standing back up with his eyes welling up with tears, and then pointed at the Undersiders, "A-And it was Khepri who saved us by tricking her, s-so please, save her."
Miss Militia strolled forwards and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, and led him away from the foyer into one of the other hallways.
"So, now I can explain our side of the story," Tattletale said, smugly grinning like she was in complete control of the situation, "Our plan was that Khepri would find and approach Bakuda, and lie about how scary and intelligent she was, enough to let her guard down. We didn't know about the whole 'putting bombs into people's heads' thing until Khepri found her, or that she'd made an entire bomb specifically to mess with Khepri."
"Though you did know about her plan to blow up the city?" Armsmaster asked.
"Figuring out what she was planning was easy. I did know she was doing something with the ABB's members, but I couldn't find out anything specific. So can you heal Khepri now, because if you don't remember she's literally dying?"
It was at this point that Amy stopped paying attention to the heroes arguing with Tattletale. Her job was to heal, after all, so she just needed to wait until Armsmaster gave her go-ahead. It was all she was good for, anyway. Just a walking machine that dispenses healing like a vending machine dispenses chocolate and soft drink.
Even Victoria, beautiful and perfect as she is, wasn't immune to the sheer convenience of Amy's power, ringing her up whenever she punched a skinhead a little too hard and needed her to cover it up. Not to say that the skinheads didn't deserve it, though.
"Amy," Victoria whispered, interrupting her thoughts, "What do you think about her?"
"What do you mean?" She whispered back.
"About Khepri. Do you think she deserves to be healed?"
Amy fidgeted in place, "I have to wait for permission first. Mum might get angry if I disobey."
"Don't worry about that. What I'm asking is if you think she deserves to be healed. Not Mum, not Piggot, not Armsmaster. You."
Amy looked at the Undersiders, who were looking more and more desperate as the conversation continued, especially Tattletale. On the one hand, Khepri was a villain. Villains constantly hurt, destroy, lie, cheat and steal. Villains did not compromise.
But she did keep her word and didn't hurt her in the alleyway, and saved Vista when the logical decision was to use her as a distraction to run. And then she risked her life to take down Bakuda, to the point she was actually dying for it. Maybe she didn't do it completely altruistically, but she did prevent the tinker from blowing up the city, and saved innocent people from dying to what Amy assumed to be a gruesome death from an explosive inserted into their skulls.
And maybe Amy was feeling just a little spiteful.
"No, I don't think she deserves to die." She replied, resolute.
Victoria smiled at her, proudly, and Amy had to take a couple of deep breaths to stop herself from blushing.
"If you were to go over and heal Khepri, right now, regardless if you have permission or not, I'll back you up." Her sister said. "It's your choice, not theirs."
With her head held high and with a confidence she rarely felt, she shuffled her way to the front, Victoria just behind her.
"Panacea, Glory Girl, get back here. That's an order." Her mother half whispered, half hissed.
Amy ignored her, and continued walking forwards until she was right in front of the Undersiders. Grue, tall and intimidating, with his darkness wrapped around him like tendrils. Regent, who was possibly Hijack, one of Heartbreaker's sons. Hellhound, or Bitch, as she called herself, a dangerous, unpredictable individual who's been a wanted criminal since she was a child. Tattletale, a mysterious, mocking girl with a power no one had yet pinned down. Lastly, Khepri, a mysterious cape who showed up out of nowhere and defeated one of the most dangerous villains in the city, and with the capture of Bakuda, had managed to take down one of Brockton's gangs within a single week.
And Amy wasn't scared of them, because she knew that they needed her.
So, she turned around and faced the other heroes and spoke, "Not once did anyone here actually ask me what I thought, or asked for my input, despite me being the only one capable of healing her. Like I'm some sort of machine that dispenses healing and not a person."
"Panacea-" Armsmaster said, but Amy cut him off.
"Since you can't seem to reach an agreement, I'm making the decision for you. Because I'm not letting someone die right in front of me when I'm fully capable of saving them." She spat out.
Armsmaster, Dragon, and her mother all yelled out to her, but her sister stepped forward and yelled back at them. Amy turned back around and tuned them out; there were more important things to be focusing on.
"Let her down on the floor. Gently." She pointed to Grue, who knelt on one knee and placed Khepri onto the polished marble.
As Amy sat down cross-legged, Victoria turned around to face the villains.
Tattletale mockingly smirked at her sister, "Nice of you to finally do something productive, Glory Hole. Maybe you'll-"
Victoria crossed her arms and smirked back, "Shut up, Tattletale."
"-actually be able to he-" The thinker continued, but interrupted herself with a violent series of coughs.
"Wha-What the fuck?" Tattletale gasped out, staring incredulously at her sister, "No, no, fuck this. I'm ignoring that, and I'm ignoring you."
"Whatever could be the problem, Tattletale?" Victoria said, grinning like she won something over the villain.
Amy ignored the two and looked at the unconscious girl's body, trying to find an easy way to make skin-to-skin contact, but the oddly textured bodysuit she was wearing made it difficult to find any exposed patches of skin. Spider silk, her power whispered to her.
"Here." Grue said, voice deep and almost echoey, as he leaned over and ripped off Khepri's glove, "Don't worry about it. She can fix it up later."
Amy nodded, and then grasped the unconscious cape's hand with her own, surprisingly soft for how boney it was, and information flooded her mind. She hissed and almost recoiled away when she understood the sheer amount of injuries her power informed her of.
Tattletale wasn't lying when she said Khepri was dying.
"Amy, what's wrong? What happened to her?" Victoria asked, alarmed.
"A lot. Got kicked and stomped on by Bakuda a couple of times, as well as hit by a bomb that did something I haven't fully worked out yet." Tattletale said, "Messed with her connection to her bugs, and a whole bunch of other nasty stuff."
"I-I don't even know where to begin," Amy replied, "Broken ribs, a punctured lung, a stab wound on her left hand, a fully broken forearm, a broken nose, parts of her spine have been fractured, and her entire nervous system is inflamed."
"Wait, her nervous system is fucked? Why would-" Tattletale paused, "Ah, of course. I was so stupid for not picking it up earlier. Bakuda made two bombs and combined them; one messed up with her senses, while the was made to inflict pain by fucking up her nerves."
"What about her brain? Is there anything wrong with it?" Her sister asked, crouching down next to her.
"Nothing that's long term. A concussion, at the most. Although, uh, what are those thingies called again?" Amy knew what they were, but their names slipped her mind, "The things inside our brains that are related to powers?"
"The corona pollentia?"
Amy snapped her fingers with her free hand, "That's the one. I'm looking at Khepri's, and it's hard to describe, but it's… different? Not injured or anything, just that it's different compared to other capes I've healed. I'm not sure if it's always been like that for her, or Bakuda's bomb did something to it."
".... Huh, that is really weird. Can you describe it further?" Her sister stated. Of course she would be into something like this, cape geek that she is.
"I-It's really hard to put into words. It's more… open? Active?"
Tattletale shook her head impatiently, "We can worry about it later after she's healed. The question is if you can heal her or not, Panacea."
"I can, but I'm going to need a lot of biomass to do it because Khepri doesn't have enough body fat on her to do it." She responded, "Because I need to keep her alive as I'm healing her. I can keep her heart beating or her lungs breathing by myself, because the damage to her nervous system is mucking up the rest of her body."
"Biomass?" Grue asked.
"It's how my power works. I can take something in a person's body and convert it into something else, usually body fat because it's the least necessary part. A-And I can only use it to heal, nothing else." Amy lied, hoping that no one would put two and two together.
"Take some of mine, then." He said, and was about to take off his motorbike glove when she cut him off.
"No, I can't because I'm going to need a lot of biomass. You wouldn't have enough body fat for it." She explained.
Tattletale hummed and looked behind them, "What about one of Bitch's dogs, then?"
Hellhound glared at the thinker from behind her cheap, dollar store dog mask, "What about them?"
She sighed, and pointed at Amy, "She needs a lot of stuff to heal Khepri. Your dogs have a lot of stuff on them that she can use to heal her, and it probably won't hurt them."
"The fuck do you mean by probably?"
"I don't know how your power fundamentally works-"
"Fuck off, you fucking know it-"
Grue curled his hands into fists as he stood up and faced the two, "Guys, stop fighting. It's not the fucking time for it."
Tattletale rolled her eyes and shrugged, while Hellhound just grunted in response and looked away. It did give Amy an idea, though.
"I can touch one of your dogs, Hellhound, and I'll be able to check if I can take material without hurting them." She explained, and the wanted criminal turned to look at her.
"Bitch."
"What?"
"It's Bitch, not that fuckin' pussy name."
"I, uh, um," Amy nervously glanced at her sister, who gave her a single nod, "Can I touch one of your dogs to make sure, Bitch?"
Hellh- no, Bitch, Amy reminded herself, glared at her for a few tense moments, and then turned her head behind her and whistled, tugging on one of the chains she was holding.
The largest and most monstrous of the three stepped forward, barely fitting through the already large entryway of the PRT's reception area. It was covered in scales, leathery muscle, and rough patches of fur. Bones jutted out from its sides and back, with no pattern to where they grew from. It stopped just in front of Khepri, and Bitch whistled again. The beast then slowly laid down, tucked one massive paw underneath itself and reached out the other one next to Khepri's head and Amy's side. Bitch patted its side, and the dog laid down its massive, bulging head.
"This is Brutus. He's the best trained one." She said, and turned to glare at Amy, "Don't hurt him, or I'll hurt you."
Amy nodded, and reached over and touched Brutus' paw, and information flooded her mind once again. In the middle of all the bones, hardened muscles and scales was an ordinary dog. A nervous system connected him to the flesh, muscle, eyes, and mouth. He couldn't feel any pain, but was still able to see, hear, touch and smell. There was only one way she could describe it.
"It's a meat mech. A mech made of meat." Amy explained, and everyone looked at her like she'd grown another head. "Like, instead of metal and hydraulics and that sort of stuff, it's biological. Which means I can use some of that muscle and bone to heal Khepri without hurting him."
There was almost a collective sigh of relief from the Undersiders, as well as the other heroes behind her who she'd forgotten were there. Victoria had looked at her for a split second with an unrecognisable expression, and then gave her a brief, hesitant nod. Amy then got started on converting some of Brutus' powered-up muscles into biomass, and turned that biomass into materials to heal Khepri.
"Hey, it's cool and all that Kheps isn't going to die, but can I finally let go of this bitch?" Regent complained, speaking up for the first time, "My arms are hurting."
"Yes, you big baby, you can let her go," Tattletale said to him, and he let the bomber drop to the floor with a thud, then limped over to his team, clutching his right arm. She then turned to the heroes and continued, "You can take her into your custody now, even though we technically didn't shake on it. Fair's fair, now that my teammate isn't going to die."
Armsmaster stepped forward, "How injured is she?"
"Oh, she'll be fine. A broken rib or two at most, and some trembling from being tased a couple of times. Hardly anything life threatening."
He then walked over to the unconscious tinker, and crouched down, "Did she have any explosives on her?"
"And I just gotta ask, because it's confusing me," Victoria said, then pointed at Bakuda's foot, "Why is one of her boots missing?"
Tattletale gestured at something with her head, and Grue went over to one of Bitch's other dogs, and removed some chains that were wrapped around a medium-sized container, then handed it to Victoria. Her sister took one look inside it, raised both of her eyebrows, and then gave it to Armsmaster without a word. The tinker then walked into one of the 'approved personnel only' hallways, murmuring something to Amy's parents and the Director on his way past. Miss Militia had returned, only to pick up the unconscious Bakuda and disappear back into the same hallway.
"That box contains the bombs and grenades she had on her person, a thumb drive full of delicious information that I stole from her computer, and in those two plastic zip-locks are her detonators." Tattletale smugly explained, "And to answer your question, Glory Hole-"
"Stop calling me that."
"-Her helmet acts as a targeting system, and the detonators are toe rings. So all she needed to do was look at one of her bombs, connect the rings together, and boom. Also, no."
Victoria rolled her eyes, and the Dragon drone started hovering next to her.
"Regardless of your affiliations, Undersiders, I still have to thank you for-" Dragon said, but was cut off by Tattletale dismissively waving her hand at the drone.
"As I said, don't thank us. We didn't do this out of the goodness of our hearts, or because we wanted to protect innocent people or whatever other heroic bullshit, we did it because Bakuda was literally going to kill us. Everything else was incidental to that."
"Yes, that may be true, but you incidentally managed to save most of Brockton and its populace from harm. Regardless of your intentions, I believe that you still deserve some thanks for doing that."
Tattletale let out a single bark of laughter, "I don't care about your thanks unless it's on a handwritten note attached to a bag full of money and blackmail material. Save your thanks for good people, because we definitely aren't."
Amy looked over her work. Broken bones were put back together, including the fracture Khepri got earlier that day. The injuries to her spine were properly healed, as was her nervous system and the effects it had on her body, and quite luckily her brain was somehow undamaged in her fight with Bakuda.
"I'm done." She said, looking up at the Undersiders, "She'll need to stay in bed for the next day or so, as she won't be able to move much from her body 'recalibrating' itself. And absolutely no physical exertion for two to three days, too. No jogging, no working out, no lifting heavy objects."
Grue leaned in closer, and whispered threateningly, "What about her identity?"
Amy put her hands up defensively, "When I heal any cape I don't focus on what their physical features are unless I need to heal it. I don't know what Khepri even looks like, Doctor-patient confidentiality and all that."
"She's telling the truth, Grue." Tattletale added, scrutinising her while she smiled, a smile that didn't reach to her bottle-green eyes. It made Amy involuntary shiver.
Grue glanced at his teammate for a second, crouched down and picked up the unconscious Khepri, then placed her on top of Brutus, who had visibly shrunk, but only by a little. The rest of the Undersiders had started mounting the dogs as well, and Amy had pushed herself into standing, her legs numb from sitting down.
She… felt good about what she did, despite Khepri being a villain, and despite the fact that she robbed a bank half a day earlier. Maybe Victoria was right about going to medical school—that Amy needed to act more like a proper medical professional and not a cape.
And with that, the Undersiders left without a word.
She and her sister turned around to face their parents, who had begun walking over to them once the villains left. Her adoptive father then did something she never expected him to do:
He wrapped Amy in a tight hug, something he only did when she was younger. The cologne he was wearing reminded her of the days when she was a kid, and thought she belonged in the Dallon family. She stiffened, caught off guard, and then slowly returned the hug.
He broke off the hug, and awkwardly patted her shoulder.
"We're both proud of what you did here. We were too busy trying to bargain with the Undersiders that we lost sight of some things, and you took initiative and made the decision." He then unsubtly turned to her adoptive mother, "Right?"
"...Yes. And you were correct about how it was unfair that you weren't asked anything despite your power, being 'treated as a commodity', as you put it. So, moving forward, I and the rest of the team will endeavour to ask for your thoughts whenever a situation like this happens again." Her mother responded.
"I, uh, ok? Thank you?" Amy said. She didn't know how to react to Carol actually acknowledging that she did something wrong, because Carol Dallon never admitted she was wrong, especially to and about her.
Victoria nodded repeatedly and twirled her hand in a circular motion, "And?"
"Excuse me?" Carol said, turning to glare at her sister.
"I have to point out that neither of you have actually apologised to her? You said that you aren't going to treat Amy like an object, but you haven't said that you're sorry for doing that in the first place?"
"Glory Girl, now's not the-" Carol harshly whispered, but cut herself off and then regained her composure, "Now is not the time, nor the place, for this discussion. It can wait until we get home."
"Y-Yeah, it's ok," Amy quietly said, curling into herself, "Y-You don't have to say sorry or anything. I-It's fine."
Amy had realised from an early age that it was easier to just accept any wrongdoing and never talk back when Carol was like this. Doing anything else just led to more lecturing.
"Dear," Mark whispered, realising the rising tension, "I think Victoria is right."
He let out a small sigh, turning to Amy with genuine guilt in his eyes, then grabbed her hands into his and whispered, "I'm sorry that we treated you in such a way that made you feel like a bargaining chip and not a person. It's a failure both as a hero and as your father, and I promise that I'll be better in the future, ok?"
"I-I forgive you?" Amy replied, not knowing how to respond, feeling both embarrassed and relieved.
Her father then wrapped her in another tight hug, "You always mean more to us as Amy than as Panacea. Remember that."
From the corner of her eye, she could see Vicky glaring at their mother, who was looking uncharacteristically embarrassed.
"I… apologise too, for treating you that way, Amy. I will… try to be more thoughtful in the future." She said.
It came as a shock to Amy that her adoptive mother was even capable of apologising, and here she was apologising to her for something she did wrong. Maybe, just maybe, Carol didn't actually hate her and maybe she actually wanted Amy as a daughter-
Amy shook her head, clearing away her thoughts. She couldn't get her hopes up based on a single apology that Carol was pressured to make. Just as she stepped away from the hug with Mark, Armsmaster had returned, and was walking towards them.
"I don't want to interrupt this… moment you're having," He spoke, "But I need to ask for your assistance with something, Panacea. I know the last twenty-four hours have been rough for you, but I promise it won't take too long."
She stepped away from her family and stood in front of the tinker, "What do you need my help with?"
"I've scanned Bakuda multiple times to find out about the deadman's switch Tattletale threatened us with, but I've not been able to find anything metallic within her. So as a precaution, I'd like for you to confirm it for me, since your power should tell you if she's made any modifications on herself."
"I can do that. Anything else?"
"The other thing is assisting Dragon and I with helping Park Jihoo. I know you can't do anything with brains, but your power can help us understand the best way to remove his implant."
Amy turned to look at her sister, who gave her a single nod.
"So long as Glory Girl comes with me."
"That's acceptable." He said, then turned to her parents, "What about you, Brandish and Flashbang?"
"We'll both go back upstairs and explain what happened to the rest of our team, while we wait for Panacea to finish helping you." Her mother replied, curtly, "Do you need New Wave assistance for anything else?"
"Not at this stage, no. It'll take most of the night for Dragon and I to develop a way to safely search and defuse any of Bakuda's remaining explosives, so there's not much that can be done as of now. There'll be more concrete plans tomorrow once the lockdown goes into effect. A temporary hospital will need to be set up, most likely."
Carol nodded in understanding, "Of course. New Wave is always happy to assist."
With that, Armsmaster headed into one of the lifts, with Amy and Victoria following close behind him. After the doors closed, he spoke up again.
"The other reason why I need you to check Bakuda is because I have no doubt of Regent's true identity."
"You've confirmed that he's Hijack, then?" Her sister said.
"Regent's power matches up with reports on Hijack. Same voice and height. Brockton is relatively close to the Canadian border, so it's possible that he left Hearthbreaker's territory and crossed the border with fake identification."
A shiver went down Amy's spine. Heartbreaker was one of the most well known monsters lurking in North America. There was a news report a couple of years back when a woman was found wandering around in the Canadian wilderness, in a state of hysteria from being 'rejected' from his harem.
"What does Hijack do again?" Amy asked, "I know that he controls people, but I don't know how."
"He's able to control people's nerves. At range, it's weak, which is why he's restricted to sudden, jerky movements. But with enough time, he can fully control his victim's body, and they've completely trapped as he forces them to do anything he wants them to." Armsmaster explained.
"He's a rapist." Victoria hissed out with a surprising amount of vitriol. "Takes people's autonomy and control away and does whatever he pleases with them."
Well, it wasn't actually that surprising, since it sounded like Hijack was at least as bad as most of the street-level criminals her sister already hated so much.
Armsmaster nodded, "I'm concerned he's able to control Bakuda, because we don't know how long it takes for him to be able to fully manipulate someone's entire nervous system."
"Despite that, I don't think he's able to do that, or the Undersiders planned around it, sir." Vicky said, regaining her composure.
"Explain." Armsmaster replied, as the lift's doors opened and the three of them walked out into the same hallway Amy went through when she had to heal Lung the other day, giving her some déjà vu.
"I noticed that Regent's arm was constantly trembling while he held a knife to Bakuda's throat, so it's a theoretical possible that he pushed past his power's limitations from trying to control too many people at once, like a group of scared, desperate people who had to obey the orders of a madwoman." Her sister explained, "And even if he was able to control her, she'd be useless because she wouldn't have any access to any tools or materials."
"And, well, I don't want to defend him or anything, but if my dad was a egomaniacal villain like Heartbreaker, I'd run away and change my name, too." Amy added. Victoria shot her an odd look, and she nervously adjusted her scarf and hood, "J-Just saying. Maybe Regent's trying to hide from him?"
Armsmaster hummed as he opened one of the doors with a code, and Victoria continued, "Timewise doesn't make much sense either, because we do know it takes time for Hijack to be able to control someone, and they were focusing on getting Khepri out of danger."
"Good points," He said as he quickly typed something, and gestured at the unconscious Bakuda, "Panacea, if you could."
Amy looked at the woman lying down on the hospital bed. She still had her armour on and her helmet had been removed, though her face was covered by a cloth that had a slit around her nose.
She reached out and touched her neck, and Bakuda's information blossomed in her mind.
"She has light bruises that are lined in two semi-circles, one from her right shoulder to her left flank, and the other from her right knee to left ankle. The nerves and skin around the back of her neck are damaged, most likely from electrocution."
"Regent's sceptre has a taser in it, and one of Hellhound's dogs was carrying her in its mouth when they arrived." Armsmaster said, "Which means she must have some innate ability to train them, since she mentioned that the one you used to heal Khepri was the 'best trained one.'"
"Maybe that explains her aggression? Her power made it easier to understand canines, but made it harder for her to understand people." Victoria added.
"It's possible. I'll add that to her file. " He said, typing away on his screen, "Continue, please."
"There's definitely nothing foreign inside her body. No metal, plastic, or anything artificial. The nerves in her hands and arms are very slightly damaged, but other than the back of the neck, there's no damage elsewhere. Oh, and there's an absurd amount of caffeine in her system, but I'm guessing that's not relevant."
There was a brief pause as Armsmaster stopped typing, "So Tattletale was bluffing, then."
"Out of desperation, probably." Her sister said, "It's good to know that we don't have to worry about it now."
"Mhm. That's it for Bakuda, Panacea. You don't need to heal her, because her injuries can be easily treated via normal means."
Amy thought about it for a second. Sure, the ABB cape wasn't that injured, but it would only take a second to heal her. She knew that Bakuda didn't really deserve to be healed, but wouldn't that be petty since the tinker was already going to be punished? Did Amy deserve to make that choice to begin with, despite that she got angry about not having a choice? Would it make her a hypocrite?
Amy shook her head. That was a moral quandary she could worry about later, as she took a second to heal Bakuda's minor wounds.
"Already done. I didn't flush out the tranquilisers in her bloodstream, so she'll still wake up in a couple of hours."
"Good. With that, we're doing here," He said, and walked towards the door, and her sister turned to her.
"That was a good decision to make, Amy."
"Huh?"
Victoria pointed at Amy's face, "You frown and furrow your eyebrows in a particular way when you're worried about something, so I'm guessing you were thinking about the ethics and morals about healing her, right?"
Oh, of course Vicky would see through me like that, she thought.
"Y-Yeah, because on the one hand she isn't that injured, but on the other she's an awful person, and I didn't know if I should've healed her or not. Would I be getting too up myself if I didn't because it was some form of petty punishment?" Amy explained, "So I just decided to heal her anyway, and worry about it later."
Victoria looked at her for a second, like she was staring through Amy rather than at her, but then smiled. "If you're worried about that sort of thing, we can discuss it together later. Obviously not tonight, though, just at some point."
"I-I think that would help, yeah."
Her sister nodded, then they both left the room, Armsmaster patiently waiting outside. Without a word, he started walking down the hall, gesturing for them to follow. After passing multiple rooms in silence, he opened another door, and Amy saw the Immaculata student sitting down on the same type of hospital bed, talking with Miss Militia with a worried look on his face. There were a couple of empty bottles of water laying next to him.
Miss Militia turned to face them, "Good. You're here. How's…?"
Armsmaster shook his head. "Clear. Tattletale was bluffing."
The heroine looked relieved at that, and then turned back to the student, "Now that things have calmed down, we're going to find out how to help you and your family, ok?"
"I-I know you," He stuttered out, "You're Panacea. You healed my mum when she broke her leg. T-Thank you, for that."
She nodded at him. Whenever she healed people at the hospitals, it all merged into a blur. Couldn't even remember how many broken bones she's healed this week alone.
"Although she can't heal brains, her power can tell us how best to remove what Bakuda did to you," Armsmaster explained to him, "And from that, we can create a process to remove them as safely as possible, and in a large enough scale to help everyone that's been affected."
"O-Oh, ok. I'd b-be more than happy to help, then." Park Jihoo said, and then looked at Amy, "What d-do I need to do?"
She walked closer to him, and then reached out her hand, "Give me your hand, please. And the only thing I'm going to be doing is looking at your biology, so I'm not going to change anything. If I do change anything, I will ask for your consent first."
He nodded weakly, and she grasped his hand like she was giving him a handshake. Holding someone's hand was an intimate thing, but Amy was far past the stage of it being awkward, because touching someone's hand was the most practical way for her to heal someone.
He was dehydrated and malnutritious, and hadn't been able to wash himself in several days. She analysed his head, and realised just how much Bakuda didn't care about the 'surgery' she inflicted on him. The scalp was cut off and then lazily stapled back on, as was a part of the skull, and was showing the signs of a major infection. She looked through his brain and found nothing, but on the skull…
"Good news." Amy announced, "Bakuda stapled the bomb on the inside of the skull, not on the brain itself, which means I can technically heal it."
"Technically?" Miss Militia asked.
"When there's a non-biological object inside someone, my power considers it a foreign object, so I can 'open' it, and allow it to be extracted without hurting or injuring them-"
Healing, healing, healing, not manipulation
"-And you've got the start of an infection where she removed part of your scalp, so I can heal that up for you. Plus, I can make it so that you won't feel as awful, if you want."
"I-I'd like to be healed, please. But can you remove it? I-I'm really sick of being scared that it's going to blow up."
Miss Militia gently patted him on the back, scrunching her eyes so it looked like she was smiling underneath her mask, "Hey, it's going to be alright, ok? Armsmaster and Dragon have taken a look at it, and they both said that you're not in any danger."
"O-Ok."
Amy met his eyes and smiled, and tried her best to put on her 'reassuring doctor' voice, "We can't remove the implant right now because this room hasn't been properly sterilised, and the brain is a very vulnerable organ. But I'm sure the PRT will set something up so we can help you, and everyone else that Bakuda hurt."
He nodded, and she continued, "Alright, I'm going to heal you now. It might tingle a bit, but it won't hurt, I promise."
He nodded, and she healed him. The effect was almost instantaneous, as the results of her healing usually were. The back of his head was cleared of infection, and the scalp was knitted back together, not even leaving a scar, and his skin returned to a much healthier shade.
He took a few deep breaths, and then started sobbing. Armsmaster had silently gestured to Amy and Victoria, and they left the room to give him some privacy, while Miss Militia stayed behind to comfort him.
"Thank you for your help, Panacea," He said, as he closed the door behind him, "That's all I needed you for. You're free to go home and rest, now."
Amy shrugged, her exhaustion finally catching up to her. "It's fine. I'm assuming the hospital for the victims is going to be set up tomorrow?"
"If everything goes to plan, then yes."
"Tha-aaah" She yawned, "Thank god, because I really didn't want to have to do another all-nighter."
"I wouldn't ask you to, especially because of everything that's happened today. Burnout is a very common and very real problem among heroes, so it's important to take breaks to avoid that." He said, and then turned around to leave, "You should be able to get back to your team from here, and I need to get to my lab because I have a long night and a lot of work ahead of me."
And with that, Armsmaster left the two of them alone in the hallway.
"Even if you had to stay behind to heal, I'd just force you to go home and sleep anyway," Victoria said as they walked towards the lifts, "Doing multiple night shifts isn't good for you, Amy."
"But people need my help." She mumbled, and curled into herself. "People always need my help."
"You can't help anyone if you end up collapsing from exhaustion because you weren't taking proper care of yourself."
"But-"
"No buts. If the hospitals struggle without your help, it's because they need more funding, more doctors, more resources. You aren't a replacement for a faulty system, you're a person."
"I-, fine." Amy grumbled, "I'll think about limiting my hours then, since you're being so pushy about it."
Her sister smiled, "It's a start."
As they both entered the lift, Amy felt her phone vibrate. She took it out of coat's pocket and turned it on.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: Let's just call this a debt. Keep it a secret or it's off. -TT
The next text was a phone number.
Amy slid her phone back into her pocket without a saying word.
In general though, being limited to instant effects in bomb form is its own limitation though, and a fairly substantial one potentially. I'd have to look back through some of her bombs to validate, but at a minimum, I seem to remember bombs based upon Vista as well, which she shouldn't have ever had a chance to study. Her running across a gray boy pocket probably isn't super high chance either, though possible if he was with the Slaughterhouse Nine when they clashed with Marquis. It certainly wasn't mentioned though.
