Interlude 11: Amy
Amy was feeling conflicted. Heck, she was feeling conflicted about what she should have been conflicted about. On one hand, there was the issue of her mother. She had never really liked her own mother. It was a relief not having the woman's judgemental glare on her each day. On the other hand, having her mother being taken by Bonesaw was a fate she wouldn't have wished upon her own enemies.
Speaking of Bonesaw, Amy wanted her dead. But she wasn't a killer. She was a healer. The only reason she was on this mission at all was to neutralize some super-diseases. She wasn't supposed to be able to kill things. Yet it was so simple. It would have solved so many problems. But as soon as she did that, people would see her as just as dangerous as Bonesaw herself. She wanted to be a hero, and wasn't preventing thousands of deaths just as good as saving a thousand lives?
Speaking of heroism, there was Eunoia. Or Taylor. Abyssal. She'd never admitted it, but she was actually quite thankful for their newest teammate. Jealous, even. Even though she was still the star healer of New Wave, Eunoia really had taken a load off. The two of them working together could easily clear an Emergency Room to the point where nurses were standing around with nothing to do. By herself, it only happened on a slow day. With Eunoia, it was almost every day. The hospital administrators and some of the nurses were actually asking them to heal less sometimes so they could keep their jobs, and the hospital could make more money.
Amy used to feel like she wasn't heroic enough, unable to save enough lives. That position was a little weaker when people were telling her she was healing too much and they'd lose their jobs and livelihoods. It was almost world-shattering, the idea that she didn't need to heal more. And people would be happier if she didn't.
But what changed her even more was Taylor's power. Panacea chose not to do brains on purpose. She didn't want to be responsible for permanently altering someone's personality, whether it be by accident or not. She could have been accused of being a Master, like the Birdcaged villain Teacher. She knew her father had been a villain, though she didn't know who it was exactly. But if she just stayed away from that whole mess, there would be no accusations of Mastering.
Eunoia, though? She just dove headfirst into it. Panacea even knew that wasn't her primary power, but she just went in and did it anyway. At first, she had been ready for a serious reckoning, a good reason come down hard on Eunoia and justify her own reservations.
It never happened.
Eunoia did it. She successfully worked on brains, every day, and nobody accused her of being a villain. And it wasn't just healing that Eunoia had forced her to rethink. It was everything else.
When Eunoia – no, Taylor – revealed to her that, this whole time, she had also been controlling Abyssal, it blew her mind. That one cape had been an unstoppable thorn in all the villains' sides. Everyone below Lung's level was being taken down by him, and Brockton Bay was being visibly cleaned up. It was Taylor, who had been working beside her at the hospital this entire time?
Amy knew her power could have done that. She'd seen how much Abyssal had managed to clean up the streets. She could have been doing that the entire time. For years she had simply healed people, but no matter how much healing she did there was always more gang violence. Taylor had been the same as her, except she just hadn't held back as much as she had. And she had done a whole lot of good for it.
Could she do the same? Should she have done the same?
It was only after talking to Dragon that pushed her to the next step. A tiny little baby step. Experimenting with breed of hardy, nutritious crop. She literally had the power to solve world hunger. Why hadn't she done this before? She did it in private – well, forgetting the fact that Taylor could see everything all the time. But she figured there was some mutually-assured destruction if Taylor revealed her secret.
Instead, there was absolutely no threat from the girl at all. She kept her secret. She earnestly encouraged her. She was… as hesitant as Amy was to admit, a real friend. And she wasn't even competing for Vicky's affections. She was too awkward for that.
And all that led to her most current and pressing conflict.
Taylor had used Abyssal to fight The Siberian. She gave them enough warning and distraction to get away. The Siberian had been known to disappear and teleport, which she had done several times during the chase. But on the very last time, The Siberian had every nearly managed to kill her and Vicky. The last thing Amy remembered seeing was the Siberian leaping through the air, ready to claw through Vicky's back. She could see over Vicky's shoulder and looked straight into the Siberian's bloodthirsty eyes.
Then the Siberian had disappeared, and nobody saw her again.
That wasn't always a good sign. The Siberian enjoyed the hunt. Some suggested she could actually smell fear, and enjoyed letting people think they got away only to catch them later. But Amy knew that Taylor would have continued fighting her if she could.
Abyssal hadn't shown up again. Taylor hadn't given them any update. Nobody knew what was happening. Amy wasn't sure what to feel. Relief that the Siberian was gone? Nobody had ever managed to kill the Siberian, not even the old Triumvirate. But the most likely scenario was that the Siberian had found Taylor and was killing her. Maybe that was why Taylor had gone silent. That was why Abyssal hadn't come back. Maybe she should be more scared than ever.
"Miss Militia, report!" A loud shout shook Amy out of her introspection. She recognized the man. Tagg. She was surprised to see that the idiot was still alive. He was flanked by several PRT troops, who were holding very lethal guns rather than foam sprayers and other equipment. Several more capes followed behind him. Panacea recognized a few, including Othala, Parian, Leet, Parian… it looked like he had rounded up as many capes as he could from the Brockton Bay area as he could manage. None of them looked happy to be there.
Of all people, Miss Militia didn't seem to have a problem with him. She walked to the front and saluted him. "Sir! We've established a defensive line at the General Hospital. Shatterbird attempted to ambush us but has been taken down, but the building took too much damage and is no longer structurally sound. We were scouting out the Children's Hospital as a potential new gathering site, but we encountered Bonesaw and the Siberian."
"Then we're moving out. PRT protocol against the Siberian is to evacuate," Tagg said.
"Sir… what about the survivors?" Miss Militia asked.
"We can't risk heading deeper in, not without reinforcements. We're regrouping in Concord. Sillman, message the others." The PRT trooper pulled out a simple device that looked like it could have been a century old and started tapping out Morse code on it.
Lady Photon flew in front of Miss Militia. "Wait. My son and daughter are still back there. We're not going without them."
"Don't forget Eunoia, and the Wards, too," Manpower pointed out.
"We have neither the time nor the firepower for that," Tagg said. "The Nine now have a power-cloning Trump. I recommend mentally preparing for the fact that your children are lost, and if you do see them, they are likely clones that will try to kill you."
"You can't be certain of that. I can't accept it. We're going back for them."
"You're disobeying my orders?" Tagg challenged her.
"I don't work for you," Lady Photon said.
"You're either with us, or against us. You're already treading on thin ice. If you go in there, the next time I see you I'll have to assume you're a clone belonging to Echidna. You'd better assume any of your own children that you see are, as well."
"Echidna?"
A loud rumbling and crunch of crushed metal was heard in the distance. An absolute monstrosity of a cape that put other Case 53s to shame came into view.
"Speak of the devil…" Tagg said. "Everyone, retreat!"
"WHERE'S THE HEALER? WHERE IS SHE?"
The mention of healer made Panacea snap to attention. As the monstrosity grew in her field of vision, the only thing she could think about was I can't heal that.
"YOU!" the small girl's eyes at the top of the fleshy mass locked onto her. Funnily enough, Panacea saw Taylor of all people riding beside her with a hand on her shoulder.
Panacea looked more closely. No, that wasn't Taylor. She had some odd deformities, especially along the face. Not injuries. Probably a clone of some kind? And she wasn't wearing her Eunoia costume.
A copy of Abyssal kept on forming, then breaking apart, and forming again, over and over. It was like she didn't have control over her own power or something.
None of them could run away fast enough, but Glory Girl bravely placed herself in between the monster and Panacea.
"Get away from my sis!" Glory Girl shouted.
Panacea barely blinked before she suddenly found herself off-balance and merely steps away from the monster. She stumbled backwards, trying to reorient herself and saw that one of the clones was now standing right behind her family. Her aunt only saw her. In fact, most people were keeping their eyes forward and not watching their backs. She tried to shout and warn them, but the monster cape was suddenly looming over her.
"FIX ME!"
"I can't do case 53's," Panacea said meekly. The words came out of her mouth mindlessly, because she really couldn't think of what else to say when confronted with something that looked like it had mouths in place of sweat glands. Mouths of all shapes and sizes filled her vision, and even her instincts shut down. She didn't know which way to run.
"Bullshit, you can't," Taylor – no, the fake, cloned Taylor said from above. "I bet you could turn Crawler into a puddle of goo if you wanted. You just don't. Because you're too busy feeling sorry for yourself."
"What the fuck do you know?" Panacea shouted at the clone.
"I know everything Taylor knows. And I know you've been holding back, little miss Biotinker. You just let everyone die because of the praise you get when you save a tiny percentage of them. You're just an attention whore."
"No! I'm not! That's not me!" Panacea shouted back. Her legs felt like jelly, and she couldn't even crawl away. She wasn't sure if it was the threat of imminent death or the regret of deliberately holding back her own potential. The monster, with the clone-Taylor on its shoulder, loomed over her.
And then, suddenly, her sister was there. She punched the massive monster harder than she'd ever seen her hit. Her beautiful, valiant sister. Her knight in shining, glorious force-field armour.
But even though her sister could bench-press trucks, the punch wasn't as effective as she had hoped. Sure, the monster was knocked several feet back away from her, but it hadn't been knocked down. Most of the flesh seemed to be mostly muscle, absorbing and flexing against the impact. Glory Girl's follow-up strikes didn't have the advantage of a flying start, and weren't nearly as strong.
Panacea was blinded temporarily by a massive barrage by her aunt while her uncle ran in, picked her up, and carried her away. When her vision returned, she could see that the clone-cape that she had been originally swapped with had been shot dead, body riddled with bullets. Two of the PRT troopers were reloading their guns. Miss Militia was holding a taser, formed by her power, uselessly as she looked at the dead body. Tagg was looking at her disapprovingly.
"Miss Militia, consider the situation. We have neither the equipment nor manpower to hold any captured capes. When I say lethal force is authorized, I expect lethal force," Tagg said.
Glory Girl was struggling. She was still fighting the monster, while the clones had stepped away to give them room. The clone-Taylor, though, she was yelling something at Glory Girl. Panacea couldn't hear it properly, but it was enough to distract her sister. She could see her take a hit hard enough for her forcefield to flicker, right as the monster was sending a huge tentacle-mouth from the opposite side.
The mouth was able to clamp down on both legs at the same time, dragging her into the monster. The other mouths began piling on as the monster's body shifted, burying Glory Girl behind a wall of flesh and teeth.
"Miss Newland," Tagg said, turning to Sundancer. "You will cover our retreat this time."
"I… I can't! Noelle is… they're my friends!"
Tagg pulled out a handgun and pointed it straight at her head. All the other PRT troops followed suit. "Did I hear you correctly, Miss Newland? Are you saying you're in league with the Slaughterhouse Nine?"
"You're asking me to kill my friends!" she shouted back angrily. Her hands started forming a fireball, except she was pointing it at Tagg, not the monster cape.
A gunshot rang out. Sundancer's head jerked to the side and she collapsed to the ground, blood rapidly spreading.
Tagg looked down at her dispassionately. "Like I said before. You're either with us, or against us," Tagg said. "Miss Newland has been executed by standing Kill Order for allying herself with the Slaughterhouse Nine. Miss Militia. Finish the job. I expect you have something in your arsenal capable of slowing that thing down."
Miss Militia suddenly looked a lot less friendly with her director, but she did as she was told. "Yes, sir. Be aware that I will be filing an official grievance when this is over." Her power formed some kind of bazooka. Panacea didn't know that much about weapons, but it looked like the type of thing made to blow up tanks.
Panacea jumped up. "Wait! Vicky's still trapped in there!"
"Panacea. Don't tell me you're having doubts as well?" Tagg sneered at her.
"No! But my sister is still…"
"All the more reason to kill it quickly. From our previous encounter, we have less than thirty seconds before she creates a clone of Glory Girl. And an Alexandria Package is the last thing I want to deal with right now," Tagg said. "Miss Militia, fire."
Panacea's breath hitched as the rocket went off, taking a high arc and slamming down on the monster from above. She took the hit, but even with the massive blast, she only looked angry.
"Again," Tagg said.
Miss Militia launched another rocket. This one slammed onto Noelle. She still withstood the blast, though she was now bloody and angry.
"Keep going. Everyone else, fire everything you have at her while retreating."
Panacea didn't move, fighting off everyone who was trying to pull her away. "Vicky! Vicky's still trapped in there! If we can get her out, I can still heal her!" she cried out desperately.
Suddenly, someone else disappeared, and a naked but deformed version of Vicky was suddenly standing in front of her. "You called?" she said, grinning. People couldn't react in time. Everyone still had their weapons and powers focused on Noelle, who had entire chunks blasted away from her body yet was still alive and shrieking. The evil-Vicky clone managed to punch and kick a few people close by, instantly breaking Miss Militia's ribs, snapping Tagg's spine, breaking Lady Photon's hip with a single strike each. Their bodies went crashing into others, sending everybody toppling in every direction like bowling pins.
She then grabbed Amy in a chokehold and rose into the air. "All of you, give up or the healer gets it," she said.
"Eliminate both of them! We can't let the Nine gain another Biotinker!" Tagg rasped out, coughing up some blood while he talked. Even though many people were down on the ground from the clone-Vicky's surprise attack, most were still conscious and some were recovering. Multiple guns and other powers were directed on her, and she suddenly needed to fly away and dodge. There were too many for her to simply tank. Despite her threat earlier, she actually shielded Amy from the bullets and other lethal attacks as she escaped.
She flew over to Noelle, with Amy still in hand. "Hey. I got her for you –"
A high-pitched whistling sound made her look up. Clone-Vicky dodged a massive barrage of missiles, all of which were aimed squarely at Noelle. A large, dragon-like jet flew from high above. It curved around and it rained down another cluster of missiles.
Clone-Vicky swore and flew away, under the cover of several buildings before the missiles landed. They kept on flying, low to the ground, often times flying through broken windows and taking a confusing and convoluted path until the sounds of battle were far away. When they finally stopped in a dark and empty building, clone-Vicky threw Amy to the ground.
Amy couldn't think her day could be any worse. Vicky must be dead by now. No way she could survive being suffocated inside that monster, much less the missile strikes. Of all the people in the world. Her sister. Victoria. She had taken for granted her sister's invulnerability, and never truly dreamed that she would actually die. And not right in front of her eyes.
"I hate you so much." The words stung so much more when they came from something wearing Vicky's face. She grabbed Amy by the neck and lifted her up. Even worse, Amy could feel through her power that the clone-Vicky was sincere. She was feeling utter disgust.
"You're so fucking useless, you know that? I brought you out all the time to find you a boyfriend, but all you do is complain and mope. Everyone already loves you, but that's still not good enough. You just wanted my boyfriend, didn't you? You just want what's mine! But as soon as I dumped him, you stop being interested."
Amy clawed uselessly at clone-Vicky's wrists. She was crying openly. In between her gasps for breath, she sobbed, choking out what few words clone-Vicky's allowed her to. "No... I... I love... I wanted... you…"
The clone-Vicky stared at her, and laughed. "You sick fuck! Me… what you wanted to fuck me this whole time? God, you incestuous little shit. How many times have we changed into our costumes together? Did you get off on it each time? How many times did you sneak into my bedroom to fondle me at night while I was asleep?"
She let go of Amy's throat and held her up by the wrists. "Does it turn you on, seeing me right now? All naked, right in front of you, all yours for the taking? Oh, wait, I don't have Vicky's perfect body. Why don't you give me a boob job like you did for her? Shape me to your liking? Is that why you were always so willing to give her little touch-ups? She was just your very own life-size Barbie doll, wasn't she?"
Amy didn't know what to say. Maybe the clone was getting to her. Maybe the clone was even right. It was everything she had feared. Every so often, she had imagined coming out to Victoria. Admitting her feelings. She had dreamed that, like a beautiful, loving sister, she might accept it, laugh about it. In her wildest dreams, Victoria had even accepted her feelings and reciprocated.
And in her nightmares, she had done exactly this. Rejected her. Laughed at her her. Hated her.
"What's the matter, Amy? Cat got your tongue? Pussy got your tongue?" Clone-Vicky sneered at her. She pushed Amy's head down below her hips. "What, not good enough for you? I know I'm not as pretty as the original, but you can fix that, can't you?"
She was right, Amy knew. This wasn't the original Victoria. The real Victoria was dead. All she wanted was her sister back. And there was a perfect template right here…