Chapter 6
I, Panacea
Part Six: Arguments and Agreements
Amy felt her lips twist in what was almost a smile. "You're not shocked because I'm talking about killing him, are you?" her voice asked. "You're shocked because you didn't think anyone else knew that you want to kill him."
Wait, what? Amy asked, in her own mind. We're going to kill him? Isn't that a bit extreme? Why can't we just capture him and turn him over to the authorities?
Mentally, he sighed. He's too dangerous for that. His power lets him literally have two chances at everything, including escape attempts.
So have him sent straight to the Birdcage, she argued.
Even if he made it there, he would either be dead or running the place inside six months, and I'm betting on 'running the place'. And probably breaking out in another six. The only absolutely safe way to incarcerate him is to put him in solitary and weld the door shut. And never allow him any sort of uncontrolled communication with the outside world. Anything short of that runs risks that I'm just not willing to take.
What frightened her the most wasn't the words he was using. It was the matter-of-fact tone that he took. He meant every single word.
So we're just going to murder him. Her voice was bleak.
Execute. His was firm. Innocents get murdered. Monsters get executed.
"Well, well, well." Tattletale's voice was bright, her expression one of interest. "It looks like there's dissension in the ranks. Seems as though Panacea isn't as thrilled about the idea of killing Coil as our mysterious 'Security' is."
Amy felt her lips compress slightly, just as she felt the spill-over of the annoyance from the presence sharing her head. "Really?" he asked Tattletale, resignation mixing with the annoyance. "You had to bring that up?"
Tattletale grinned, her smile very fox-like. "Hey, you show off, I show off," she replied unrepentantly.
Amy's eyes rolled. "Not the time, and not the place," her voice stated flatly. "Now, can we get down to business? We need to make a plan, and do it fast."
"What's the rush?" asked Regent. "He doesn't know we're coming, so we can take all the time in the world."
"Except that in twenty-four to forty-eight hours, he will have one of the world's most powerful precogs addicted to whatever drugs he's been feeding her, and she'll be desperate for more, so she will answer any questions he has for her. Questions that he'll be carefully formulating to have a very real chance of uncovering whatever plans you are hatching behind the scenes, unless we're very careful about this."
Tattletale grimaced. "And we're going to have to do this before he calls me in for our next chat. Because if you're right … "
She paused expectantly, and Amy heard herself chime in, right on cue, "And we both know that I am."
Tattletale nodded. "Yeah. He will find out. All about this. About you. And about how we're planning to take him down. Take him out." Her voice was grim, her face set.
Reminded of what they were planning, Amy found her mental voice again. I'm still really, really not comfortable with this.
What can I say to convince you that he really does deserve the quickest death we can give him?
If you know me at all, you'll know that I've spent the last three years of my life helping people, saving lives. I can't even imagine helping to kill someone. Much less …
Much less kill them yourself. I got it.
Have you ever killed anyone?
He paused for a long moment. I ... yeah, I killed someone. Special circumstances. Saving the world. He didn't elaborate, although she got the impression there was much more that he could have said.
Not Coil?
No. The last time I was in this situation, we had the PRT and the Wards to call on. Plus Canary. Fuck. How am I gonna help her now?
Who, Canary?
Yeah. Sweet girl, getting railroaded by the system. I -
"Hey, Panacea, Security, whoever you are," called Tattletale. "Don't zone on us now. Any information you've got on Coil and his operation, it would be handy to know."
Amy felt herself sigh. "Right. Information. Real name, Thomas Calvert. He's the leader of a PRT strike squad. He bought his powers a few years back, but had to spend time using them to earn enough money to pay for them before he was able to strike out on his own."
Tattletale was staring at her again. "Wait, back up. Bought his powers? Who from?"
Fuck. Did not mean to let that slip. I'm really not good at this off the cuff shit.
Her hand made a gesture, as if erasing a blackboard. "Not important."
Grue spoke up. "But if -"
Amy's head shook in negation. "Really not important. I am not going to name the people involved, but I will assure you they aren't involved directly with Coil's organisation. We do not want to get on their radar in any way, shape or form." She focused directly on Tattletale's bottle-green eyes. "Do. Not."
Whatever Tattletale saw in her eyes seemed to shake the blonde supervillain slightly. She blinked. "Okay. We'll shelve that. So he bought his powers, and now he's Coil."
"He is," Amy's voice agreed. "He's also head of a company called Fortress Constructions. They build Endbringer shelters."
"I know 'em," Grue commented unexpectedly. "Did some summer work for them, the year before I triggered."
Amy heard Michael mumbling in the back of her mind. Two thousand and eight, or early oh-nine.
Is that important?
Nope. Sorry. I have a habit of fixating on details.
Great. Listen, I'm really not happy with killing -
There's an alternative, but I can almost guarantee you'll be less happy with it.
What's that one? she asked incautiously.
Brain surgery.
I don't do brains, she replied automatically.
But you could if you wanted, he responded. So very easily. Brains are biology, after all.
It's wrong! I could give in to the wrong impulse, make them do, think, whatever I wanted. What if I'm as evil as Carol thinks I am? What if doing it once makes me want to screw with the heads of everyone I meet?
A mental sigh. Wasn't saying you should. But it's an alternative. You could change just one aspect of his personality, so that he uses his powers for good.
Her voice was bitter. And if you decide I should 'fix' another villain, and another? Where do I stop? Where do I draw the line?
His was almost gentle. These are desperate times, kiddo. The world's going to end in two years, or fourteen, depending on whether we manage to stop a psychopath in time. Sometimes, it's not 'where' we draw the line, but 'when'.
Her heart tried to lurch at his words, but she didn't have control over her body at the moment. The end of the world?
Afraid so.
Psychopath? Coil?
No. Jack Slash.
He ends the world?
"Good grief," muttered Tattletale. "Are you two having an argument or making out in there? Is there anything else we need to know?"
His attention swung outward, toward the Undersiders, who were all watching her. "Uh, yeah," she heard herself say. "Fifty mercs, more or less. They have undermounts on their guns, fire a purple laser beam that'll cut steel. Tinker-built. The mercs are well-trained. Also, there's a vault in the lower level that's got a monstrous Case 53 inside. You do not allow her to come into physical contact with you. If you're lucky, she'll eat you alive."
"And if we're unlucky?" Tattletale's voice was hushed.
Amy drew a deep breath. "She holds your body inside hers, and spits out evil twisted clones. Clones that know everything you do, and hate everything and everyone you love. They'll have powers based vaguely on yours, but different. Sometimes more dangerous. These clones are independent, sentient, living creatures from the moment that they're produced, but you have to kill them. Consider them to be Smurfed in the worst possible way."
"You mean 'Simurghed'," Tattletale corrected her.
"Same same," Amy's voice conceded irritably. "You knew what I meant." She looked at the villains in the room. "Her name's Noelle, and she's well on the way to becoming an S-class threat. So we have to figure out what to do with her before we go in there. Before we take down Coil."
Grue raised his hand slightly. "I'm beginning to wonder if we even can."
"You're the fucking Undersiders!" Amy heard her voice rise sharply. "In another reality, you fucking owned this city! You took on the Protectorate, the PRT, the Nine, Dragon, Echidna -"
"Fucking what?" interrupted Regent, his voice amused. "What the fuck's an echidna?"
"A small Australian animal, like a porcupine but not really," Tattletale told him absently. "Echidna … that's this girl Noelle, isn't it?"
Amy felt herself nodding. "It was a codename they gave her. She did a lot of damage, killed a few heroes. One of her clones killed Myrddin. And she really wanted to kill you guys for killing Coil. So any plan we make has got to include a way to neutralise her." She took a step forward. "But what I'm trying to tell you is that you guys have the wherewithal to step up, to take on the big leagues. Before you're done, you totally rearrange the political landscape. One of you kills Alexandria, for fuck's sake."
What?
"What?" blurted Grue.
"What?" echoed Tattletale.
"You're shitting me," Regent declared.
Even Rachel glanced up from where she was sitting with her dogs; up till this point, she had apparently spent very little time paying attention to what was being said.
"Who?" Tattletale asked.
Amy felt her eyes fix on the supervillain's face, and not leave it. "Not important. Plus, special circumstances."
For the longest time, Tattletale stared back at her, then the bottle-green eyes flickered sideways just once, almost too fast to see. She nodded. "Oh."
Amy hadn't quite seen who she'd been looking at; she waited for the villain to reveal what she'd realised, but no word came.
"Oh, indeed," her voice replied. "Now, we can do this. We just have to figure out how."
"Mom?"
Carol put the iron down and looked around. It was probably a good thing that Vicky had interrupted her; she was driving the hot implement over the clothing with a little too much force and vigour, and the chance of causing damage to the delicate fabric was rising all the time.
"Yes, Victoria?" she asked. "Are you feeling better?"
Vicky, still wearing her pyjamas, had stopped at the bottom of the stairs. "Yeah, that nap was just what I needed. The fight at the bank really took it out of me. I wanted to thank Amy for fixing my bug bites. Where is she?"
Carol breathed deeply through her nose, trying to stem the irritation she felt at hearing that name. "Amy," she replied, biting the name off sharply, "has gone out. She did not tell us when she would be back."
Vicky frowned. "Mom, what's the matter? What happened? Is something wrong?" She came forward to put her hands on Carol's shoulders. "Are you angry at Amy?"
Carol gathered her daughter – her real daughter – into her arms. "It's nothing that you need to worry about, Vicky. Everything's fine now."
Vicky hugged her back. "Are you sure? Because you were ironing those clothes like you had a personal grudge against them."
She felt her anger flare up again. "Vicky. Please. Drop it."
Her daughter put her at arm's length again and studied her intently. "Mom, you're starting to worry me."
Carol sighed; the genuine concern in Vicky's voice served to damp down the heat of her irritation. "Okay, come on. Let's sit down. I have something to tell you."
"Next bus should be by in about five minutes," Tattletale – or rather, Lisa – announced, as the bus stop came into view.
"Thanks," Amy told her. "And I appreciate you guys walking me back."
"Still think we could have been faster riding," Rachel growled.
"Some of us have costumed identities," Grue reminded her.
"So we costume up," Alec observed; he was no more a fan of walking than Rachel was.
Grue raised an eyebrow. "Which draws attention. Which we do not need, especially not now."
Taylor stepped up alongside Amy. "I'm really sorry about the knife thing. And the baton thing," she told the older girl in a low voice. "And the black widow thing. I just didn't want anyone getting hurt."
"So you put deadly poisonous spiders on everyone," Amy returned dryly.
She had found the Undersiders, once they had decided to unmask to her, to be surprisingly likeable. Lisa had led the trend, noting that Security knew all their faces and identities anyway; Amy had been surprised to see how much difference the mask and the messy hair made to her appearance. She had already seen Brian's face, while Alec's had higher cheekbones, was more delicate. Rachel almost ignored the whole concept of a secret identity, which kind of made sense, as her real identity was out there anyway, along with her face. But Taylor, the newest member, the bug girl …
Amy had been ready to dislike her. After all, the girl had threatened a couple of dozen innocents with black widow spiders. But there was nothing of the hardened criminal about her. Removing the mask had revealed a reasonably plain face, with large eyes and a wide mouth. Putting on her round-lensed glasses had completed the transformation from supervillain to perfectly normal high-school student.
"I wasn't going to use them to bite anyone," Taylor insisted. "It was just to make sure that no-one tried to be a hero, you know? That sort of thing gets people hurt. We just wanted to get in and out with the money." She still felt bad about it, Amy could see.
"So meanwhile," Amy agreed with a crooked grin, "I tried to be a hero and got hurt."
"I'm sorry," Taylor repeated. "I was never going to hurt you. Things just … got out of hand."
Amy rubbed the sore spot on the side of her head. "Yeah. I suppose you could say that."
"Hey, you made my head ring, too," Taylor reminded her. "You swing a mean fire extinguisher." She paused. "Is Glory Girl all right? After she dislocated Lisa's shoulder, I didn't want to take any chances."
Amy nodded. "Yeah, but she's still a bit shell-shocked. No-one's ever done that to her before." She paused. "Uh, Security says that it's probably a good thing. Now she'll be a bit more careful. She's always been too dependent on her invulnerability."
Reminded of her passenger, she sent an inward query. Are you still there?
Sure. I'm staying out of it for now. Carry on, you're doing fine.
Okay, thanks.
"I have to say," Lisa commented, leaning up against the bus stop, "that it was one hell of a shock to have you show up on our doorstep like that. Did Security tell you to come?"
Amy shook her head as she gratefully sat down. "No, actually. He wanted me to reach out to you, but it was my idea to come here today, now."
"Why did you?" asked Brian bluntly.
Amy didn't answer for a moment. Instead, she watched Rachel with her three dogs; giving them commands both verbal and silent, sending them here and there, retrieving a stick or a ball with absolute precision.
Raising her eyes back to Brian's face, she spoke slowly, consideringly. "He told me about Dinah Alcott, and the situation she was in. I didn't believe him, not at first, not until I had confirmed that the Mayor had a niece, and that she'd been kidnapped. Then I wanted to see what sort of people you really were. I didn't believe him about that either. But that's why I came. So I could see, and decide what to do next."
"You did the right thing," Taylor told her firmly. "We will help her."
Lisa was rubbing her chin. "Not the only reason," she mused. "Something else. Some anger there. A fight. A confrontation."
Oh. Which reminds me.
What? What of?
Tell you later.
Oh, uh, okay?
Amy watched Lisa cautiously. "Do you have to go there?" she asked.
Lisa made a vague gesture. "My power. It feeds me conclusions."
Amy sighed. "Okay then, yes. I confronted my parents about what you said in the bank. About my father. They didn't want to tell me, there was some yelling, so I went out, and came here. Because I wanted something positive to happen today."
Lisa tilted her head. "I never told you who your father was." A pause. "Ah. Security. Does he know about the other thing – oh, yeah, I see he does." A frown creased her face. "How does he feel – ah."
Amy felt her cheeks flaming red. "You can shut up now," she gritted.
Ahem. Ask her how Rex is doing these days.
Amy looked at Lisa's dancing eyes, her mischievous grin. "I just got told to ask you how Rex is doing these days."
And just like that, the light died in Lisa's eyes, the grin fell away. "Low blow," she muttered. "Low fucking blow."
Who's Rex?
Her older brother. Committed suicide. Caused her to trigger.
Christ, you could have told me. I'd never have said it like that.
She was giving you a hard time!
It was all in fun! Jesus!
Amy stood up, opened her arms and hugged Lisa. "Look, I'm sorry," she muttered. "I didn't mean to – he told me to say it, didn't tell me who Rex was."
Just for a moment Lisa leaned into the embrace, then she pulled away. "Hey, don't go getting ideas now, just because I'm blonde," she snarked, the grin returning to her face.
Amy rolled her eyes and jabbed Lisa in the ribs. "Seriously," she growled. "You villains and your sense of humour."
"Help, help, I'm being brutalised by a superhero," Lisa announced in a deadpan voice. Brian started chuckling, followed by Taylor. Alec looked bored; Rachel glanced over, then ignored them thereafter.
The dogs heard the bus first; they turned their heads and one of them barked; Rachel hushed it with a word. It was still a little distance away; Amy turned toward Rachel. "I've been meaning to ask," she commented. "What are your dogs' names?"
Rachel pointed at them each in turn. "Brutus. Judas. Angelica." As they heard their names, their heads came up and their ears twitched.
Amy nodded. "Before I go, if you want, I could check them over."
Rachel glared at her. "What, you think I don't take care of my dogs?"
All I did was offer. What did I do wrong?
Don't be tentative. Be positive. Look her in the eye.
Amy took a deep breath, and forced herself to look the bulkier girl in the eyes. It wasn't easy for her; she naturally tended toward deference. "No, I don't think that," she stated as firmly as she could. "But my power gives me the ability to see if anything, anything at all, is wrong with them. Parasites that have only just lodged. Diseases they've only just caught. Cuts, bruises. I can fix all that. But only if you want me to."
She held the stare as Rachel continued to glare at her. Gradually, a little of the hostility leached out, and Rachel nodded sharply. "Okay." She whistled, and the dogs sat down in front of her in a row.
Amy went to thank her, but found that the words would not come out.
Don't thank her. It doesn't mean anything to her.
Oh. Okay.
Dropping to one knee, she ran her hands over the muzzle and head of the dog called Brutus. He was in good health; there were a couple of old injuries, but they weren't hampering him. She moved to Judas, and found a cut on his pad, which she closed over, and the beginning of an ear infection, which she cleared up. Finally, she went to Angelica. The torn ear was only cosmetic, but the missing eye -
"I can grow her eye back if you want."
Rachel stared down at her. "What?"
"Her eye. I can grow it back."
"Will it work?"
"Yes. It will work." Did the girl think she'd give the dog a non-working eye?
"Good. Do it."
Wow, I see what you mean about not understanding 'thanks'.
She doesn't think 'human'. She thinks 'dog'.
Oh. Okay. I think.
Angelica whimpered and shifted under her hands as the eye began to reform in the socket, but a sharp word from Rachel held the animal still. In seconds, the operation was complete, and the dog was blinking at them from two perfectly normal eyes. She looked somewhat confused for a few moments, but seemed to be adjusting well. Rachel leaned down and snapped her fingers on either side of the dog's head; covering the good eye with her hand, she watched as Angelica tracked her finger with the the regrown one.
She slapped Amy on the shoulder. "It works. Good."
I see what you mean. I feel as though I've just been fed a doggy treat for doing a trick properly.
There was an amused snort. Something like that.
The bus pulled up at the stop, and the doors opened; Amy got up, dusted her knee off and nodded to the Undersiders. "I'll see you guys later then."
Brian nodded back. "See you then. And thanks for stepping up."
Amy shook her head. "Can't let that shit fly."
She turned and climbed on board the bus; to her surprise, Taylor followed.
"What's going on?" asked Amy. "Are you bodyguarding me home?"
Taylor shook her head. "Nope. I need to get home, too."
They found seats down the back, away from everyone else. Amy shook her head. "Somehow, I never thought of supervillains riding the bus. It just doesn't fit the image."
Taylor grinned. "You'll have to excuse me. I'm only new at it."
For some reason, this struck Amy as being very funny.
End of Part Six