Amy looked down at her perfectly clean black gloves, then shook her head. The break room was nice. They had coffee. And chairs. Amy liked coffee, but it was weird that it worked on her despite hypothetically being poison. Maybe she could run some tests at some point to figure out how that worked. Another thing for the 'do later' box she supposed. Amy sat like that for a weirdly long time.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket, Vicky'd sent her a text. It felt like a rubber band snapped in Amy's head, clearing out the weird headache she'd gotten from healing.
Vic: omw sys
Amy D: vwtfdtm?
Vic: whats that mean?
Amy D: Exactly.
Vic: i'ma pick ya up soon. Meet me on the roof?
Amy D: k
With that, Amy left the break room. The elevator was… eh. She made a mental note to take the stairs next time. Constant little things like that would be helpful in maintaining cardio. She stepped out of the roof access door and into the chill October air. Her robes were more than enough to keep the cold at bay, and the addition of gloves only helped. Brockton Bay almost looked nice from this high up. All the trash and potholes blurred from the distance, just minor smudges from up here.
The sounds of the city cut off as Amy thickened the air. The quiet was nice. She split the bubble into two far smaller ones, one for each ear, like invisible earmuffs. Amy bet she could use these in school, it was just two handfuls of air, she could maintain that for a while. And it would make for good practice.
Up in the sky Amy saw a little dot swooping around the buildings. Vicky flew closer and closer, eventually making her way to the top of North Medical's roof. "Hi Ames, how was the hospital? Did you get to heal anything funny today?" she asked once she was close enough.
Amy saw her mouth move but hadn't realised that she was still deafened until after Vicky had finished talking. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that? I had earmuffs active." Vicky repeated her questions with as much patience as she could. "Hmm, yeah, kinda. There was somebody who cut off one of their fingers when cooking, likely because they were far-sighted, so I reattached the finger and fixed their eyes. Hopefully I'll never see them again." she joked. People loved seeing her in the hospital, but she never liked seeing them there.
Vicky laughed a little. Amy had made that same joke plenty of times before, even if she didn't remember doing so. "Alright, you ready to get going?" she asked, voice full of cheer.
Amy nodded. "Yup!" She floated up to Vicky, and swung her arms around Vicky's neck, before lessening how much lift she was exerting on herself. Vicky caught on to what she was doing, swiftly securing Amy in a princess carry. "Let us make haste, my gallant steed!" Amy cheered as they blasted off towards their house. Amy still needed to change out of her robes.
ƸÏƷ1.3
(Monday evening)
Amy stared at herself in the mirror. She looked nice. Not beautiful or stunning, just nice. Pretty in that slightly above average way that was clearly from subtle effort rather than genetic lottery. Crop tops weren't her thing, but she could definitely pull off a turtleneck sweater and knee length skirt like she had on at the moment.
"Amy, quit being a chicken and show me already!" Vicky requested from outside the changing stall. Amy gave one last twirl in the mirror, before turning around and stepping out of the stall.
Amy grinned shyly. "So? How do I look?" she asked. She needed stockings. Not the shitty thin ones, but the real thick winter socks.
Vicky clapped excitedly. "You look great! We're definitely getting this one." She beamed. Amy went back into the changing room, but Vicky just talked through the curtains. "We should get you some makeup after this! And there's a nail salon here, so we can visit that too!"
Amy rolled her eyes. "We can buy some nail polish, but we are not going to a nail salon. I'd much rather just do my own nails." She didn't have any experience with painting nails, but it was the sort of small scale thing that her power would trivialise. Amy stepped out of the changing room. "Also, I want to get a bunch of wool in bulk so that I can make myself some decent socks. Modern methods are cool and all, but hand weaving several hundred strands at once would be better." Most of the outfits Vicky'd helped her make were pretty good. The discarded ones were put in the store's basket to be reshelved later, while the keepers were bagged and brought to the register.
Amy insisted that she be the one to carry the bags. Vicky had a brute rating, but Amy wanted to get healthier, and that started with small decisions. That explanation caused Vicky to laugh. Amy would have shoved her, but the bags were keeping her hands full, so she just bumped her shoulder into the blonde's ineffectually.
Some basic makeup was bought at another store. Nothing fancy, just some basic foundation, blush, and two different lipsticks of varying intensities. It wouldn't be flashy like some of the stuff Vicky pulled off, but it'd look nice. Amy also acquired two small bottles — flasks? — of nail polish, one white and one red.
As they finished their shopping for the day, somebody in the crowd came up to them. He was a young man, maybe a few years older than the two of them were, average height and build, brown hair. Overall, a very normal looking dude. He asked for Amy's autograph… No, not Vicky's, Amy's autograph. It took Amy a few seconds to recover. Some random person wanted her autograph. It made Amy feel a bloom of pride.
"You know Vicky's, like, right there?" Amy asked uncertainly, indicating to her sister who was mere feet away. He just shrugged, pulled out a photo from his wallet, and then asked Amy to sign it. Apparently his wife had some rare disease that was resistant to everything the doctors had thrown at it. Then, a few months ago, Panacea walked in and cured her. "I don't suppose you have a pen?"
Dude, in fact, did not have a pen. Which caused Amy to think about how to improvise an autograph.
"Alright, gimme your arm," He did so, and Amy skimmed a little bit of blood from his veins, then used her Shaker power to sign the photo with his blood. It was a little strange that blood counted as biomass for her Striker power, but also was usable by her Shaker power once it had left his body. Oh well, the Manton limit had grey areas like that sometimes.
Dude thanked her and went on his way, whilst the Dallon sisters walked out to the edge of the mall. Vicky scooped Amy into her arms — Vicky had such great arms — and they flew back home. The both of them were quite eager to get back. Amy was going to try something new, and Vicky was finally getting to share her passion for nails and makeup with Amy.Greetings 1.4
ƸÏƷ1.4 {Fan Fact; this fic was originally posted in whole arcs, intended to be navigated with the Ctrl+f function.}
(Saturday, October 23rd, 2010)
It had been a week since Amy had first woken up in that hospital bed with amnesia. Monday had set a routine. Wake up, go to school, work in one of the hospitals until four, do something fun, have dinner at home, be productive, and then sleep. She didn't know what to do on weekends yet. She had some guesses as to what she could do, but nothing concrete.
Dad made her pancakes for breakfast, which was very heartwarming. They sat at the table together as they ate. "I was thinking of going out to a few of the animal shelters in town." Amy initiated between one bite and the next.
Mark looked up from his own food. "Oh?"
Amy licked her lips in order to make them slightly less sticky with syrup. "Yeah. Like, I don't usually hit those places, y'know? And I figure it could be a fun thing to do on the weekend." She placed a finger on her chin as she thought about it. "I'd need to call them ahead of time to ask if they're okay with me doing a sweep, though. Hmm." With her free hand, Amy shovelled another bite into her mouth, and fiddled with it using her biokinesis as she chewed. "Still need a squirrel as well," she mumbled, lost in thought.
"So do you need a lift for that?" her dad asked.
Amy shook her head. "Nah, I was going to take the opportunity to practise my movement techniques," She then added, "But I'd be happy if you just want to use it as an opportunity to get out of the house." She smiled at him.
Amy being so enthusiastic still felt strange to Mark. Before the incident… Amy almost seemed as tired as he was some days, but here she was. It wasn't quite Victoria's endless sunshine, yet it still brought him joy to see his adopted daughter so out there. "Yes, I think I'd like that," he agreed. He took care of himself, and did his best to be there for his kids, but it was always just so, so hard. At least the past week had been a good streak. It, like all those before it, would inevitably end eventually, but that only meant that he would do his best while it lasted.
After breakfast Amy called up one of the larger animal shelters in the city, and talked to them about when and how she could help. As it turned out, they had several volunteers that helped a skeleton crew hold the fort on weekends. Thus, she could swing by anytime in the early afternoon. Amy told Dad that the plans were a go, and so they made plans to leave at twelve. They didn't know how fast Amy could cover long distances yet, so this would be something of a test run.
She texted Vicky — who was already out patrolling — her plans, and then spent a couple hours watching old TV shows she'd forgotten about to pass the time. When noon came Amy buckled her boots, put her costume into a backpack, snapped on her gloves, and then braided her hair. Normally she would manage her hair with her Shaker power, but she didn't want to waste the energy on that when she would be pushing herself so hard.
Mark took the car and started driving across town. Meanwhile, Amy bolted after him in a superpowered sprint. Most of the push was coming from her power. Where her legs fought gravity, her power sped her along at 30 miles per hour. Each stride was unnaturally long and floaty, but the use of her legs still reduced the strain on her power considerably. The wind whipped at her face ferociously, only kept at bay by the sunglasses she'd thought to wear. Vicky didn't have to worry about insects flying into her eyes. Amy was not Vicky, Amy was Amy, hence sunglasses.
Once they were out of the suburbs, Amy moved up to the rooftops. It was slower than her suburb sprint, but better than traffic by leaps and bounds. Pun intended. There might soon be word of an unrecognised parahuman Mover doing a bit of intra-city parkour, but Amy wasn't too worried. There were a bunch of stray independents that never got onto the newspapers.
It took 25 minutes for her to land in the parking lot of the animal shelter. She was certainly winded from the experience. Her heart was thundering blood through her ears for the first time in her life. Over the course of her journey she'd made significant improvements on her technique, mostly in optimising when and how to use her muscles in combination with her telekinesis for maximum effect.
Amy took a moment to change out of her black hoodie and into her costume, taking off her sunglasses at the same time. She snapped a selfie with the shelter in the background and sent it as a quick text to her dad.
Amy D: I made it to the place! Looks like you're getting slow old man! ꉂ(òwó)Mwahaha!
He wasn't actually being slow. Even on a Saturday traffic existed in Brockton, and she'd pick a location near downtown because they had less space for the animals to play in, and thus more health issues. Sunlight was an underestimated resource that had far more than just psychological benefits.
Amy waited around for her dad to arrive for another few minutes, playing with some of the overgrown bushes in front of the building. They were the kind with waxy almond shaped leaves that ended in spikes, a hardy plant, low maintenance. The sound of a car entering the parking lot had her turning around, and when her dad stepped out of the car Amy gave him a brief hug.
He patted her head and exchanged a few pleasantries, then they walked into the building. A little bell jingled as they entered, alerting the receptionist to their presence.
"Hello, welcome to-" The receptionist paused slightly when she saw Amy in costume. "Oh, you must be Panacea, and Mr Dallon?" Mark nodded. "Alright, gimme a second to call up someone to show you around." she said. It wasn't everyday one got to see a hero in action, though she'd be stuck on desk duty. Oh! She should ask for their autographs while she had the chance! "Hey, can I get your autographs?" the receptionist asked after she'd called for the manager.
Amy sighed and walked over to sign the sticky note the young woman had given her, then she passed it to Mark for him to sign as well. They weren't big heroes like Armsmaster or Glory Girl, but it was still cool to meet them. Shortly afterwards a slightly older woman entered the lobby.
"Hello, I'm the weekend manager, but you can just call me Sophie." she shook Amy's hand. "You said you wanted to do health checkups on all the animals, right?"
"Yep, I figured we could just walk through your housing kennels and give all of them a handshake as we passed. Depending on how full you guys are it might take some time, but I basically have all day." Amy exposited.
Sophie smiled, and began to lead them through some doors labelled 'Staff Only'. "That works for us. I don't remember the exact number, but we currently have 50-ish dogs, two dozen or so cats, and 15-ish smaller animals. Some of them are less than friendly, so…"
"It's fine. I'm a cape, I'll handle it." As they approached the first kennel, the dog inside made its way over the edge, putting its front paws up onto the metal between them. Amy reached out a hand and laid it atop one of the paws, immediately freezing the dog in place.
Young, suboptimal diet but within acceptable parameters, minor brain damage from years of reckless activity, teeth need touching up, and some scar tissue in the left leg could be removed. Amy flexed her power, forcing everything into her new order, then she let go and moved onto the next dog. And then the next, and the one after that, again, and again. For two whole hours. Dad went to play with the puppies after the first few Amy went through. Most only had little problems, like the first had, but enough had more debilitating or deadly issues that Amy felt the trip worthwhile. Though she opted to not cure the few that were born deaf, as that would cause more pain for the dogs than it'd be worth.
Then she did the cats — who were all in slightly worse condition overall — and after that she checked the small animals. There was a lot of variety there; a few parrots, guinea pigs, hamsters, rats, lizards, and a singular albino squirrel.
Amy'd been wanting a squirrel… She'd get a squirrel from a tree like a normal squirrel hunting person would. No need to take a perfectly good squirrel from some kid that might want it in the future. She did take a second to fix the poor thing's weakness to sun exposure.
Lastly, Amy checked up on all of the display animals, but as expected, all of them were in perfect health. That's why they were displayed in the first place. In the end, Sophie convinced Amy to do a few photos for the shelter to use as promotion on social media. They were all variations of Amy stone faced with different cute animals around her. It was a little goofy, but it'd be good publicity for both the shelter and New Wave.
Dad's favourite of the bunch was one of Amy sitting on his lap, whilst holding a golden retriever that had a parrot on its head, making a four stack of sittings that he thought was cute.
ƸÏƷ1.4
(Friday, October 29th, 2010)
After her shift at the hospital ended, Amy didn't make her way home. Instead, she changed into civilian clothes plus sunglasses, and made her way North via the rooftops. She could've gotten Vicky to fly her, but she'd just be looking at trees for a bit before leaving.
She was visiting a local bonsai nursery there in the city. It was a small hole-in-the-wall place near the heart of Brockton's Japantown. Odds were that it was used for money laundering, though Amy wasn't there because of that. She just wanted to look at the plants for a bit.
It was interesting to see how the internals of the trees were changed in comparison to healthy versions of those trees. To compensate the nursery for letting her poke at their plants for a bit, Amy helped grow a few extra nice trees for them. Bonsai was a lot like jewellery, and Amy could turn coal into diamonds, metaphorically speaking.
On her way home, dashing from one roof top to the next, Amy spotted a welcome sight near the edge of the roof she was running across. A black cat was waking from a nap due to the less than quiet sound of her sprinting. She'd been wanting a small mammal to work with for some time now. Sensing opportunity, Amy diverted course towards the slowly rousing feline. It tried to run, but before it could, Amy managed to get within six feet of it and lift it off the ground with her manipulation field.
Amy smiled at the small mammal, showing her teeth. "Well ain't you a snack. We're going to get up to so much fun together!" she declared to the frozen furball, reaching out a hand to pat its head. His head, she noticed, as her mind's eye was filled with his body structure.
His mind wasn't nearly as fragile as the insects she'd practised on, but Amy was still careful as she removed his stress, fear, and dread. She twisted his emotions around her finger, filling him with contentment in her presence, and altered things — like his habit to randomly scratch stuff up with his claws — in order to make him more house friendly. Once he was a happy cat, Amy scooped him up into her arms, and then continued her way across the rooftops at a speed only slightly slower than before.
"Now what am I going to name you?" she asked herself, looking down at the furry feller as they sped along. Hmm, she wasn't going to let him keep his reproductive capabilities anyways, so why not just remove his gender entirely? It would be interesting experimentation on the nature of gender dysmorphia, and it'd let her name him something silly, like Katie the cat, or Kathy, or Katelin. Wait, no, it should be something Japanese, like… Kazumi. She would name him Kazumi. 和美,と書くと.
Amy had been having a strangely easy time learning additional languages. She was still only a few dozen hours of study in, but she knew some basic essentials already. Korean was definitely the easiest of the major Asian languages they had in town, yet alas, Kazumi was Japanese. Oh well, Jeong-Suk would have been a mouthful to say, so maybe it was for the best.
Knowing that Carol likely wouldn't approve of Amy spontaneously getting a pet, she decided to be sneaky about it. So when Amy got home she opted to go around back and float up to her window, instead of walking through the house with the cat in plain view. Kazumi-kun — for now — was put to sleep under Amy's bed, whilst Amy herself snuck back out the window, so that she could visibly enter the house by the door.
"I'm home!" she announced as she entered. There wasn't any reply. Oh, right, duh. The driveway was empty. Vicky and Dad were both off doing some basketball event thingy, and her mother was doing whatever it was that she spent her weekends on. Amy was yet to find out what that was, but that was mostly from a lack of trying.
Feeling a little silly for sneaking unnecessarily, Amy walked upstairs to her room and spent the rest of the day interneting. There was always more to learn, always one more thing to catch-up on. She would never run out of wiki entries to read.
ƸÏƷ1.4
(Saturday, October 30th, 2010)
Amy was wearing a dress, for once. Specifically, she was wearing a red sundress underneath a leather jacket, because she was going on a date. A double date set up by Vicky. She also had some makeup on, and had done her nails to look like a variety of red and white flags, i.e. Switzerland, Japan, Greenland, Canada, etc.
Amy spotted the mall from a mile away. "Drop me," Amy said when they were close enough. Vicky obliged, letting Amy fall out of her arms. Amy increased her air resistance, allowing her to glide down dramatically next to her sister. Luckily, years of superheroine experience meant that they both had on exercise shorts under their skirts.
They both landed gracefully, and Vicky pulled out her phone to text Dean. "M'kay, they're both here already, loitering near the fountain." she told Amy as they approached the doors. It was a day before Halloween, so there were plenty of people trying to get in some last minute shopping. The white tile clicked under Amy's boots as they navigated through the crowd. A large number of paper streamers decorated the pillars and hung across the ceiling, being a holiday eyesore that made intrusive, arsonous thoughts pop into Amy's head like weeds.
They turned a corner and the fountain became visible. Amy started scanning the area for Dean, whom — unlike her own date — she at least knew the appearance of. Vicky spotted him first, she pointed him out to Amy and they started walking over to where he was chatting with some other boy.
Vicky waved at them to get their attention, and shouted "Hello gentlemen, the ladies of the hour have arrived!" Hm? Did Vicky know who Dean was talking to? Must have been one of his friends that she'd met, and then they bumped into each other whilst Dean was waiting for the two of them. Vicky gave Dean a peck on the cheek, then turned to Amy. "So, introductions! Ames, this is Michael." She gestured to the dude Dean was talking with.
He was average sized, but with an above average physique, and had a mop of short brown hair on top of his head that when paired with his blue eyes gave him a plucky kind of look.
"And Michael, this is my sister Amy." Vicky finished.
Amy shook his hand. "Nice to meetcha," she greeted, then looked around the area again before turning to Vicky. "So you said that both of them were here?" Amy asked.
All three of them turned to stare at her. Vicky frowned. "Um, yeah, Michael," she said awkwardly, nodding her head to gesture towards him.
"What about him?" Amy asked, much to Vicky's confusion.
"He's your date." she clarified.
It took Amy a second to compute that, and when she did her face scrunched up like she'd bitten a lemon. Was this some sort of prank? No, Vicky would joke sometimes but pranks weren't really her thing. Then Amy's face un-scrunched and her eyebrows rose to near her hairline. Oh, Vicky didn't know, somehow. Or maybe it'd changed? But it would make sense as an explanation as to why Amy supposedly hadn't liked these double dates before.
"Okay, it's cute and all, but what's with the faces?" Vicky inquired.
Welp, might as well say it. "Vicky, I'm gay." Poor dude, Michael, she felt kinda bad for him, getting set up on a date that would've been doomed to fail.
Vicky looked at Michael, then to Amy again, going back and forth a few times. Her mouth formed and 'O' as the statement solidified in her mind. Michael looked like he was constipated, and Dean inhaled deeply as he brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose.
"I am so sorry," Vicky apologised immediately, to both Amy and Michael. "I didn't know."
"I see that," Amy snarked, crossing her arms. She then took a moment to mentally uncoil herself, relaxing her posture marginally. "So, y'all wanna go watch a movie or somethin'? I know that Pirates 3 came out several weeks ago, but it might still be in theatres. Pretty sure people are saying it's better than the Aleph version from a couple years back."
They stared at her dumbly for a moment. Dean took the initiative. "Um, sure. Guess we can just be four teenagers hanging out, instead of a date."
"Yeah," Michael agreed. "Sorry you had to come out like this." he said to Amy empathetically.
She shrugged as they began making their way towards the in mall cinema. "Heh, until two minutes ago I thought I was out already, so nothing's really changed from my perspective."
Michael nodded, being well aware of Amy's publicly announced amnesia. Vicky stepped up next to her as they walked. "So… women?" she asked in a poor attempt at smalltalk.
Amy sharply exhaled through her nose in amusement. "Vicky, you have a boyfriend. I'm sure he'd be glad to exposit to you all the reasons someone might be into pretty ladies."
"Expound," Dean corrected incorrectly, both would've been viable.
"Okay nerd," Amy bantered back. He wasn't actually trying to argue grammar, she could tell. She then stage whispered to Michael, "Yikes, get a load of this guy! I bet he's a riot at the parties."
The movie was fun. Lots of swashbuckling and silly pirate talk. It was definitely better than the Aleph one. Completely different plot too, but that wasn't much of a surprise. Pirates of the Caribbean: Through Dark Tides was probably Amy's second favourite of the set, only behind the Aleph version of the first movie in its gobsmackingness.Greetings 1.5
ƸÏƷ1.5
(Late at night, November 9th/10th, 2010)
Oh boy. Hospitals. Everybody loves hospitals, everybody except Amy. She didn't like hospitals. Every day she visited two hospitals, one after school, and another late at night. It was said that her healing was above and beyond what it was before. That Panacea would go to a hospital and rip through her waiting list like a metaphorical chainsaw. And it was true. She did that, again and again, everyday, twice on school days.
Fuuuuuck, she needed coffee, and biscuits, and a hug. Where was Vicky when she needed her? A soft beep notified Amy that her coffee was ready. She poured the kettle out into two separate paper cups, filling both all the way. The break room in Trinity Community Hospital was much like other break rooms Amy had seen. The floors were a lame blue patterned carpet, the walls and ceiling both plain white. Unlike much of the hospital, the break room was not blindingly bright from fluorescent lights, which Amy was thankful for.
There were a few nurses on break with her, but they were less willing to drink coffee so late at night. What time was it again? 1am? Amy flicked her wrist to check her watch. 1:46am, ugh, she still had to get herself home after this, and she had school tomorrow. Amy wished Panacea was less needed, but she was. Every single day someone would die without Panacea, so every single day Amy went out to help where she could.
On a good day Amy could heal 300 people, if the bay had a population of approximately 350,000 that would mean that she could only heal 0.08% of the city per day. It was better than the 0.01% she could do before, but she just knew that it wasn't enough. She was barely making a scratch.
Amy picked up one of the coffees and chugged it down in a single go. The burning would taste like chalk in the morning, but it took her thoughts off of her inevitable failure.
"Damn," It took Amy a second to parse the noise that she'd just heard. Turning around, she saw that it was one of the nurses who'd said it. Amy grabbed her second cup of coffee and sipped it in a more normal manner as she stared at the young woman. "Do you even plan on sleeping tonight?" the nurse asked as Amy tossed her first cup into the trash.
Amy rolled her eyes. "Sleep is for cowards, but yes. I have school in-" She checked her watch again, and did some quick maths. "Three hundred and seventy two minutes."
"So we're all cowards then," the nurse stated, face filled with bemusement. Amy just continued to sip her coffee, as she moved to sit on the old brown couch that the nurse was at. "I'm Kora by the way."
"Amy," she greeted. "You work the night shift here often?"
"Yup, five days a week. We've actually talked before, as in during the past few weeks, not… y'know," Kora said, fumbling slightly. The girl scratched at her cheek absentmindedly.
Amy guessed that made sense. This hospital was on the smaller end of those she frequented, so it was likely she'd exchanged a few words with most of the staff by this point. "Hm, yeah, I've been getting that a lot." she responded.
Kora looked away from Amy, focusing on the small TV in front of the couch. "You know, everybody here really looks up to you. You're an inspiration,"
"No pressure," Amy replied, then finished the last of her coffee. That'd be enough to hold her over until she got back home. Just thinking about it made her sleepy, but she fought the feeling off, she had to get home at the very least. With great force of will, Amy lifted herself from the couch, standing up on rigid legs that wanted nothing more than to be asleep at near 2am on a Wednesday.
It wasn't quite snowing yet, but the air when Amy made her way outside was somewhere in the 40's. Amy didn't have the energy to make her own way home safely, but she knew a bus stop that was only a short walk away. Unfortunately the wait was rather long, and coupled with the length of the ride and the walk home, Amy didn't get home until after 2:30.
That was fine. She'd live, unlike everyone who died that night because she chose to sleep.
Like a fucking coward.
ƸÏƷ1.5
(Sunday afternoon, November 14th, 2010)
Echoes of a piano flitted through Amy's ears, mostly Ghibli music. It was great for Tinkering, really helped get her head into the zone. Normally when one would think of Tinkering they'd picture a dark workshop and a person wearing goggles as they fiddled with some unknowable gizmo. That wasn't what Amy's Tinkering looked like. She was crouched down on the carpeted floor of her bedroom, the lights were on, and the window was open so that she could have fresh air.
Around her there were a few cubes of biomass, they were all a leafy green colour, and their waxy exteriors kept water in and maintenance low. Kazumi was coming along quite nicely. The cat was splayed before her, ribs and skin opened up so that Amy could see her work with her own two eyes. She could alter just fine with only her touch viewer ability thing, but actually Tinkering — coming up with new ideas and inspiration — was easier if she could see her subject with her eyes.
The door to her room was locked, obviously. She didn't want people to just stumble in, teenage girls needed privacy after all. Especially when they were doing personal stuff, like masturbating, or Biotinkering. There were probably other examples, but Amy was too focused on optimising Kazumi-chan's digestive tract to a ridiculous degree to think of any more off the top of her head.
Though, the digestive tract did not exist in a vacuum. At a certain point Amy got everything running so hard and fast that the rest of Kazumi's body couldn't keep up. So, to compensate, Amy had to increase the cat's temperature resistance and regulation to match what the digestive systems were putting off. Then she needed to come up with a better way of storing all the energy that her kitten would be able to strip from her food. If she just used high density fat cells Kazumi would become morbidly obese, and Amy's time working in American hospitals meant that she'd already seen enough obesity for three lifetimes.
It was in the middle of figuring out which high energy compound to use instead of body fat that Amy heard something strange. At first she thought that the dull roar was part of her music, but she paused the music and it didn't stop growing louder. It was mostly coming from her window… because it was a siren. The siren levelled out in volume for a couple of seconds, then went silent.
Amy'd heard that siren only once before, and that was during the monthly siren test that happened every third Saturday of each month.
But today was only the second Sunday of November.
Shit.
There was no build up for the second blast of the siren, it thrummed through the air like a tidal wave, undoubtedly filling all those who heard it with dread. Nonstop was a normal tornado siren, one blast was a test, two was an imminent Endbringer attack, and those who heard three were within the targeted area.
Amy shook herself out of her stupor, and snapped Kazumi-chan's ribcage closed, then tossed her Biotinkering — including the cat — under her bed. Amy could finish her energy storage theorem later. She was a superhero, and the world needed her now more than ever. There was no third blast of the siren as Amy hastily threw on her robes.
A quick check of her phone showed that there was a national-level automated alert. She skimmed through it to find what she was looking for; Auckland, New Zealand, nowhere near here. Loud banging rattled Amy's door. "Ames-!" Vicky shouted from the other side.
"Yeah, I know! Just use your nails!" Amy shouted back as she struggled with her boots. Wait, right, powers. Boots now secured to her feet, Amy went to the door, sliding her gloves onto her hands as she did so. Another twist of precise telekinesis unlocked the door that Vicky'd been struggling with, and she stepped back when Amy opened it. "Okay, I'm ready, where do we go for transportation?"
Amy looked her sister up and down, then realised that Vicky hadn't even started getting ready. So she grabbed her hand and started pulling them both towards Vicky's room. "Um, usually we just fly out to the PRT HQ building downtown, then some teleporter comes to pick-"
"Great. Shut up. Talk later, costume now."
"I'm not going."
That gave Amy pause. "What do you mean you're 'not going'?"
"I'm just flying you to the building, I don't need my costume. Mom only lets you go because you're a healer."
That grated on Amy's nerves, but she was also relieved that Vicky wouldn't be in danger. In just a scant few moments they were both blasting out the front door faster than Amy had ever seen Vicky go before, she did her best to reduce the air friction in front of them, and that had them accelerating even beyond what they were going at before. The ground underneath passed as a blur as the wind roared twice as loud as the siren had a mere minute prior.
Outside the PTR building there were already troopers coordinating for a teleporter's arrival. A perimeter was being formed and cones were laid out. As they landed near the edge of a deliberately empty landing zone, a young girl in a teal costume came running out the door, before vanishing in a bend of spacetime. That must've been one of the Wards, Vista, Brockton Bay's favourite pint-size Shaker. Soon after, the dark robed Shadow Stalker exited the building at a much less rushed pace, followed by Clockblocker in his glossy white armour, and Triumph who had a lion theme going on.
Personally, Amy thought Triumph's costume looked kinda dopey. Vicky waved to them as they approached.
"So… all of you are volunteering, huh?" Amy asked the Wards once they were close enough.
Triumph nodded his head. "No, we are." He pointed at himself and then to Stalker. "And Vista too, but she's currently helping expedite transport from PHQ."
"I'm just here to see them off." Clockblocker clarified.
Amy looked off towards the eastern horizon. "Have any of you done one of these before? I know that I have technically, but, well, I'm sure you've all heard." She was right, they all had, at one point or another, heard the news already. After all, it was the biggest news in months. 'World's Greatest Healer Gets Unexplainable Amnesia!', the headlines had read. Half the country probably knew.
It was a little offensive. Like, Amy was just some teenager, yet all her dirty laundry was so casually aired to the public. That's why she kept Kazumi a secret. She was Amy's secret, only Amy's, nobody else's. Because she couldn't even rely on her own mother to advocate for her privacy.
None of the Wards had attended an Endbringer fight before, so she supposed they were all in the newbie boat together. Speaking of newbies, Shadow Stalker was the newest member of the Wards, and her primary means of offence were two crossbows strapped to her hips. The conversation had gone on without her, but Amy interjected herself through their small talk. "I don't mean this in a demeaning way, but do you plan on fighting Behemoth with those?" she asked, pointing at the less-than-impressive weapons.
Shadow Stalker crossed her arms and glared at Amy. "No, I'm on S&R." she grumbled.
"Oh, oh well." Amy shrugged. Her Tinkering had been interrupted, so she was still feeling the itch. She figured that she could take some metal from the spare tyre on one of the PRT jeeps, concrete from the sidewalk, ooh and rubber of the tyre could be converted into a cable, and then if she used some high gear ratios in combination with a spring cartridge system she could make a real beast of a handheld ballista!
Wait, no, Shadow Stalker said she was on search and rescue. Also, Amy wasn't paying attention to the conversation again. Something about Fugly Bob's? Amy gave herself a mental slap on the cheek. She couldn't just not pay attention to people when they were talking to her, that would just be begging for a communication mishap to happen at the worst possible time. She was a doctor, she had to be better than that. So, Amy shook her head, and focused in on what the others were smalltalking about.
At some point Velocity appeared nearby but didn't intrude on their conversation. Then, after a few minutes, Armsmaster and Miss Militia arrived through a spatial warp in the middle of the road via a pair of high tech motorcycles, with Vista sitting behind Militia on hers.
Armsmaster skidded to a stop next to them and asked, "Is everyone here ready?" He received confirmation from everybody except Glory Girl, who was still in civilian clothes. He tapped the side of his helmet. "Console, we are ready for priority transport at PTR Headquarters." There might be a few independents that would trickle in over the next half hour, but they only got priority teleportation because of Panacea. The rest of the current group were just 'tagalongs', and anyone who came later would need separate transport.
Twenty seconds later, a gust of wind and a flurry of pink petals indicated the arrival of their teleporter. Matte pink armour plates over light grey undersuit had them blending in with their storm. "Windleeph to PRT East-North-East, heading to Auckland for Endbringer assistance?" a masculine voice asked from the centre of the petalnado.
Armsmaster nodded. "Affirmative, we have seven." he confirmed, beginning to walk into the improvised landing zone.
"All right, everybody coming get as close to me as possible! Shoulder to shoulder!" Windleeph called out, prompting the rest of them to follow Armsmaster. Amy and Vicky exchanged one last hug before Amy jogged up to join the group. "READY?" the teleporter shouted as the twirl of petals in the air intensified, obscuring their surroundings more and more. "HOLD ON, AND DO NOT STEP AWAY UNTIL I GIVE THE ALL CLEAR!" he ordered over the sounds of wind and leaves that filled their ears.
Amy's hood was tossed back as her hair was absolutely ruined by the wind. It wouldn't take long to fix, but that didn't change the fact it was whipping around her face like she'd just stuck her head out of a car window. At that point Amy just closed her eyes and waited for the teleport to finish.
"All clear!" she heard the pink knight yell. Amy opened her eyes. The wind wound down, and the environment slowly became more visible. It was fairly similar to the landing zone they'd come from. Circles of cones setup by military looking people, and a similar level of urbanisation. Auckland was the largest city in New Zealand, so they must've been on the outskirts for it to look like Brockton Bay's downtown. Where it was late afternoon back home, here it was early morning.
It was awfully cold for summer, low sixties if she had to guess. Was that just how New Zealand worked, or was this a cold front? She'd heard that Hawaii had perfect weather year-round, but she wasn't sufficiently informed on meteorology to know if that was a near-equator island thing or a Hawaii thing. New Zealand was northeast of Australia, right?
"Clear the pad!" Windleeph ordered, reminding her that she was in an active transport zone. Amy scuttled away, out of the landing circle, and joined the Wards in following Miss Militia like a lost duckling. The ground shook under her feet faintly as they made their way towards one of several information officers, who then pointed them towards the gathering area for volunteer capes.
There were dozens of them, with all sorts of shapes and colours. The most common costume aspect was metallic armour, but even then that was only a third of them. Some had spikes, bright colours, dark colours, warm tones, and cold ones. A few were even maskless, like she was. Oh, she'd forgotten for a second! A quick burst for extra-fine telekinesis fixed her hair, making it much more presentable. Behind her she could hear distant cracks, the sound of bells, and various other assorted noises as more capes were brought to field.
Over the din of conversation a robot voice blared from the speakers at a hastily created stage. "TEE MINUS FIFTEEN MINUTES." It said, referring to the estimated time of Behemoth's arrival. A member of the local UNERF — United Nations Endbringer Response Force, usually said like 'you-nerf' — tugged on Amy's sleeve. "Excuse me ma'am, are you Panacea?" he asked.
"The one and only," she answered.
He nodded. "Then if you'd please follow me," The lightly armoured agent began leading her out of the briefing zone. "NEMA, the local FEMA, already has a staging ground set up a couple blocks away in a nearby hospital." At the edge of the cape zone the agent grabbed an armband from a PRT tent. "This is a device made by Dragon to facilitate communication between capes. The little screen shows your position in a grid, as well as Behemoth's. The left button broadcasts a message that'll be interpreted and then passed on to the other capes who need it,"
Even in between the different areas there were dozens of workers from various organisations visible on the wide street that the pair were walking down.
"But if you don't have a few seconds for the delay then you can speak directly to everyone by saying 'hard override' before your message. Don't do that unless you really have to. The button on the right is a ping that alerts others that you're injured or in severe danger. If you have anything that isn't an emergency use both buttons at once and the interpretation bot plus command will coordinate to help you with whatever it is. It also has a thingy that monitors your vitals, so it'll automatically send out that ping and you might get medical assistance if you're unconscious."
Amy secured the device to her forearm, and then almost walked right into the UNERF agent's back.
"And here we are… Welp that's my job done, good luck!" He patted Amy on the back, and then began going back in the direction they'd come from, blue and grey uniform disappearing into the litany of uniformed peoples buzzing back and forth.
She looked back down at her communicator band. It's screen read: 'State Name'. Amy brought it up, closer to her face, and said clearly, "Panacea," And… nada. Nothing happened. She pressed the left button — the mike button, she figured — and spoke again, which caused her name to pop up, with a green yes on the left and a red no on the right. Amy pressed the left button again, confirming the name.
When she entered the hospital and introduced herself, a senior member of the Red Cross who was acting as manager of this location gave her a quick briefing of the situation in the hospital. Almost all of the normal staff were evacuated, but they had people from NEMA, the Red Cross+Crescent, Doctors Without Borders, and the NZDF filling in wherever they could. It was definitely a skeleton crew, but all the patients that could be moved were or were about to be, so really they were just a bunch of emergency trauma and injury specialists using the hospital's space and supplies. They couldn't run a hospital, but that was fine because they didn't need to. Long term care was shoved by the wayside in favour of keeping people alive right-the-fuck-now.
Amy spent the next several minutes running around the hospital like a headless chicken, barely managing to heal those who couldn't be transported enough to where all of them could. As the last vehicles left the hospital, a voice came from Amy's wrist. "Tee minus four minutes." It'd been counting down since ten, but it wasn't very helpful. Amy could feel Behemoth coming in her bones, literally. The shaking was continuous now. A constant rumble that they could all feel, heralding the arrival of The Herokiller.
ƸÏƷ1.5
Capes were gathered on rooftops by the dozens. Just as many circled above them, elevated by one form of flight or another. Most were actually quite far from ground zero, but those close enough could see the massive vermilion spotlights that were centred on the predicted emergence point. The city around glowed red in a circle seventy metres in radius, as flying drones of all kinds waited.
Then, with one final rumble, Behemoth exploded out of the ground, sending smoke and rubble cascading across the street as an unlucky building collapsed from having a fifty-foot abomination tunnel through its foundation. A beastly roar brought a wave of heat, bathing everything nearby in hellish fire and scolding those farther away.
All at once the assembled capes unleashed their volleys, creating a cacophony even louder than the Endbringer's roar. Lasers of every colour filled the air. Blasts of plasma sailed forth. Hot lead deafened the local wildlife, as the shriek of explosive munitions boomed with all the wrath of their wielders.
Legend, Eidolon, Gunmetal Grey, Lightslinger, Purity, Solaria, Narwhal, Grumman, Oheňkuše, and Dragon — in combination with many lesser Blasters like Miss Militia — all fired as hard and as fast as they could in an opening barrage that would have instantly annihilated nearly anything else. In the backlines Vista did her best to bend space to concentrate fire even harder, acting as a force multiplier for the already awe-inspiring volley of attacks.
Chips of obsidian sprayed off in flakes, cracks formed, Behemoth stumbled backwards letting out a growl of pain. The barrage lost steam after a few seconds. The beast stood. The remaining offensive barely tickled it like a light drizzle. It raised a dark clawed hand, and a sweep of its arm sent lightning arcing across the battlefield, shattering barriers and roasting men and women alive as the Battle of Auckland began.
ƸÏƷ1.5
Doubletap deceased, G-10. Hunyew down, G-10. Cliff Man down, G-10. Urisia Major down, G-10. Viny deceased, G-10. Fire Tree deceased, G-10. Denouncer down, G-10. Black Cat down, G-10. Barbarius deceased, G-10. WinÓfir down, G-10. White Cat deceased, G-10. Carapacitator down, G-10.
Good fuck, that was a lot at once. The big horny bastard had crawled his way out of the ass crack of the Earth not thirty seconds ago, and he was already making a mess for Amy to deal with. A loud *pop* announced the arrival of a teleporter. Amy didn't even get the chance to catch more than a bright platinum costume before a second *pop* had them disappearing again. They'd left a cape on the floor, she was covered in forest green cloth and dark brown leathers, but the entire right side of her costume was torn up. Amy raced over —
Velocity down, G-10.
— She slapped a hand onto the older heroine's shoulder. Bones, fibres, cells, blood vessels, and nerve chains unfurled in Amy's mind's eye, showing itself to her like an origami lotus. Burst capillaries, severe bruising, minor burns, concussion, a cat allergy, and a dozen broken bones. Half of her looked like an unevenly cooked hamburger.
Dancelot down, G-10. Ember Cinder deceased, H-10.
'Shut the fuck up and just work, dammit!' She forced everything back into its proper spot, mending bones, tissue, and shitty genetics, then slammed some adrenaline into the woman's system to wake her up. WinÓfir awoke with a gasp, blinking her eyes at her too bright surroundings.
"Alright, somebody inform her what's what and where's where," Amy ordered, knitting together the redhead's shredded outfit to be slightly less ruined. In the time it took to heal the woman another cape had been rushed through the door by a flyer. Amy marched up to the desperate looking Mover. "Gimme," And snatched the other cape out of his hands.
Heavy electrical burns, dehydrated, heart wasn't beating, brain wasn't firing. Mother fucker. She glared at the flyer for a moment, but refocused on the 70 kilos of former person. The burns were flushed out and healed over, the heart moulded into working order. The brain was more complicated. She had just restored blood flow, so braincells weren't dying anymore. The already dead ones hadn't moved much, thus it wasn't too hard to piece all of them back together. Some were definitely out of alignment, but those connections changed all the time. He'd be fine.
Moon Ship deceased, H-10.
Another burst of adrenaline given out had the barbwire — life gives lemons, and whatnot — themed hero up on his feet again, and Amy shoved the pair out of her hospital. From the chemistry happening in both their heads, she was fairly certain they were a couple, and she did not need that clogging her doorway.
Rubberabbit down, H-10. Hyrulian down, H-10.
Not five seconds later and another teleporter was portaling into her hospital, dragging two capes with her. She panted with her hands on her knees, heaving air through her lungs, until Amy patted her on the back and forcefully stabilised the portal girl's respiration.
Cloudrunner deceased, H-10.
Amy reached down, letting her power course through the two downed capes. For a split second she almost started melting them together, but she shook her head of the strange thought, and pushed everything into the normal non-injured places that they were supposed to be in.
Redline down, H-10.
The redheaded woman whom Amy had just healed walked over to the group. "Hey, can-" Blah blah blah, you Mover, plz move me, etcetera etcetera. Amy didn't care, there were more patients being delivered. Civilians it looked like. Blood dripped onto Amy's floor, she rushed over. Arms weren't meant to bend that way. She shooed away the EMT's, plunged herself into her power, and cured their wounds as a good panacea would.
Tyrant Thunder down, I-10. Cliff Man down, I-10.
She wasn't the only healer out there. There were three recovery points arranged in a triangle around central Auckland, for logistical purposes. But the literal nonstop healing definitely made her feel alone in her endeavour. The staff around her cared for a few moderately injured civilians, yet everyone else was handled by Amy. They'd come in the door, Amy would spend — on average — around twenty seconds fixing them up, then she'd slap them awake and send them back into the field.
Nightcore down, I-11. Witchburn deceased, I-11. Darkwood deceased, I-11. Foxish deceased, I-11.
Oh, there goes another full fucking team of capes, all at once, because why not? Where was her coffee when she needed it? Wait, she was in charge here so couldn't she… Amy pointed at somebody who looked kinda like an intern/assistant of some sort. "Hey you, get me coffee. There's a break room somewhere, find it and make me coffee." And the dude she pointed at gave her an unpracticed salute, before running off to fulfil her order.
Amazing Snowflake down, J-11.
Amy cracked her knuckles, popped her neck, and then got back to work. There would always be just one more that she could reach, one more person to heal, one more life saved.
1.6
ƸÏƷ1.6
(Wednesday, November 17th, 2010)
Fifteen hours. Amy healed for Fifteen straight hours before she collapsed from exhaustion, like a fucking coward.
To one degree or another, she had healed almost two thousand people. Once she'd ran out of parahumans she would work on civilians until there were more parahumans. Once the fighting had stopped there were still plenty that needed to be pulled out of the irradiated rubble, and Amy was one of two capes there that could cure radiation poisoning. Once the S&R was finished there were still hundreds injured during, or because of, the evacuation and revacuation. And there was always just one more patient brought in front of her.
Then, between one life saving touch and the next, Amy blacked out. Blurry vision that had been ignored for so long in favour of her power's 'sight' finally winked out completely. She barely even noticed when her legs failed and her knees hit the floor. One last flex of exhausted will thickened the air between her head and the approaching floor, just in time to save her of any major injury.
Darkness, a calming voice saying wrong things. She clutched at her silk pillow as if holding on would help her.
The next thing Amy remembered was rolling around in an unfamiliar bed. It wasn't a very comfortable bed, taking function over form in a way that had her thinking of the hospital beds that she was by now so well acquainted with. She was so tired. She just wanted a nice bed to go back to sleep in, and something to take her mind off of whatever was currently frying it. Something like Kazumi.
"I wan mh kat," she mumbled angrily into the not fluffy sheets. Amy grabbed the sheets in all her many hands and tore the fibres out of their confines, turning the sheet into a much more fragile, but also more comfy, fluffy blanket. "Mm, th'sh bed'er," she said quietly, snuggling into the fixed covers.
"Ames, are you awake?" a familiar voice cut through the air, smooth like butter and as beautiful as any music Amy had ever heard. She almost got up then and there, so that she could find the source of the pretty voice. But she didn't, sleepiness won out in the end.
"Nyw. Shud ut, I'ma slep," she complained, rolling around to face away from the voice.
Vicky crossed her arms. "Amy, it's Wednesday, I think you've had enough sleep."
Wednesday? Wasn't the obsidian cunt on Sunday? Or was that New Zealand's Monday? Was she still in New Zealand? "Fuck, I lehf ma cat in th' oven." Amy cursed, opening her eyes and looking around the room. "Warez this?"
"Brockton Bay Central Hospital. Are you okay? We, um, don't have a cat, and if we did it certainly wouldn't be in the oven."
That knocked some sense back into Amy. She rubbed her eyes, eroding at the gunk until she remembered that she could just annihilate the rheum and scatter it into the air as dust. "Right, yeah, sorry. I remember… just a weird dream is all." Amy took a moment to yawn, stretching languidly as she did so. "Sow wwhhyiuu- *yawn* why is it Wednesday, last thing I remember it was… I honestly have no idea, but that's just timezones. My point is, well I guess at this point I don't have one, I can put two and two together. Fuck. This can't be healthy for me."
Vicky sighed. "I was really worried about you, Ames. The last time this happened you literally didn't recognise me when you woke up," she growled.
Amy at least had the grace to look ashamed. "I know, I was there, I remember, but I'm fine-"
"You're not fine!" Vicky snapped. "You were unconscious for almost sixty hours! People don't take that long to recover from 'just exhaustion'! We had- had you at home until yesterday, w-we had to move you because you needed food but weren't waking up. I- you- it's not fine," she cried, tears trailing down her perfect face.
"I-" Amy hesitated. "I'm sorry. People needed me, I couldn't just turn them away." She had a duty, a responsibility to be there for as many people as possible, right? They needed Panacea… didn't they? Of course they did. But didn't Vicky need her too? Could she purposefully hurt Vicky like that?
"You could." Vicky declared. She was right. Amy could hurt Vicky like that, or she could choose to not hurt Vicky like that. "All of us draw a line every day, at some point we all stop helping people. It wouldn't kill you to draw that line a little closer."
Amy couldn't meet her sister's eyes. "But it might kill them," she said weakly, willpower already flagging. People died all the time, what was 0.08% really worth? Not Vicky crying. It's such a small number, yet Amy was harming her sister just to make it a tiny bit bigger.
Vicky glared, but it wasn't directed at her. "I don't care about them, I care about you." She sagged back into her chair. "You're my sister, dammit. Stop beating yourself up so much."
The last of Amy's reluctance crumbled. Vicky was right, she needed a better work life balance. " *sigh* Fine, you win. I promise that I'll stop working till I drop," Amy acquiesced.
"Good," the blonde grunted.
"So…" Amy trailed off. "Are we still up for that double date on Friday?" she offered.
Vicky barked out a deprecative laugh, and then wiped the tears off her cheeks, doing her best to force a warm smile. "Yeah, sure."
ƸÏƷ1.6
(Friday, November 19th, 2010)
They went to a different mall this time. There wasn't anything wrong with the previous one, it was just that they had already checked out all the stores there, so they would need to wait a bit for it to change. In a month they could go back and see what had changed.
What didn't change was Amy's outfit. She wasn't going to fix what wasn't broken. She did one final check in the mirror before they headed off. Leather jacket over red sundress, minimalist makeup, black combat boots, and nails painted to look like different red and white flags. Her hair was right on the border between curly and wavy, with just the right volume to be voluptuous without looking overdone. There was always a special type of joy that looking nice brought her. Satisfying her sense of vanity was, well, satisfying.
Vicky opened her door and walked up behind her, squeezing Amy softly in a hug, as she rested her chin atop the brunette's head. "You look great, Ames," she said quietly.
Amy blushed a little at the complement. "Yeah, I know," she whispered back. She did look nice, but Vicky was right there, looking way better. Her sister's ample bosom pressed against her back, reminding her of the juxtaposition between them. Amy, all dressed up pretty like, was kinda cute. Vicky, without even trying, was drop-dead gorgeous 24/7. Maybe having a girlfriend would help boost her confidence. She hoped so, at least.
"So, are you ready to go?" the blonde bombshell asked, snapping Amy out of her moment of envious(?) fugue.
"Yup, I'm ready." she answered.
Vicky gave her one final look over, before nodding. "You're going to be wooing all the ladies," Vicky said, attempting to be supportive, yet falling somewhat flat.
Amy snorted. "Vicky, please. Imagine if I said the same about you and hunky dudes." Victoria took a second to envision that, and then cringed lightly. She didn't want to woo the dudes, she wanted to woo her dude, Dean. And presumably the same would apply to Ames. "You see?"
"I think so? Hmm… You're a strapping young woman, and she'd be lucky to have you?"
Amy smiled. "Yes, that's better. But, like, that sounds like I'm a guy trying to pick up a girl. So just imagine that I'm going on a date with a guy, and then come up with a supportive line for that."
"Um," Vicky rubbed her chin in thought. "You're perfect Ames, I'm sure he'll be head over heels for you by the end of the night."
Amy had to fight off her body's urge to blush more heavily. "Yeah, like that, but it's a girl." Vicky had been trying to be supportive of Amy's gayness since she'd come out, but she wasn't very good at it. Amy thought it might've had something to do with some level of assumed difference between queer people and 'normal' people. Heteronormativity at work, she supposed.
Vicky smirked. "Don't worry, you've got this, it's just a date. But let's hurry up, we're going to be late at this rate, and we can't have you not making a good first impression." Yes, that right there was the level of confidant yet gentle encouragement that Amy was asking for.
Amy glanced down at her watch. "Fuck, right, let's go." she nodded. They exited the house and bolted into the air, Vicky catching her in a princess carry midair like always.
They accelerated from there, one sister providing thrust and the other fine control, as they flew together, each helping the other. The ground blurred, and for a few precious moments the only real thing in Amy's world was Vicky back-lit by the sky. Then they slowed, causing the rest of reality to come back into focus.
Despite it technically being a different mall, it — like all malls — looked at least superficially similar to the previous one they had visited. Bright exterior panels brought a modicum of life to an otherwise plain white concrete canvas. It would look really good with some vines on it, in bloom of course. For the colour. Some tasteful spray paint would work as well, but given the city they were in, Amy doubted that such a thing could remain pristine for long.
Speaking of bright colours, they'd decided on meeting up at the northern entrance of the shopping centre, and Amy could see Dean chatting with a brightly dressed girl on the other side of the mall's glass doors. It was understandable that they were waiting inside, considering the fact that it was in the high forties outside.
In the privacy of her own mind, Amy made sure to send some thankful thoughts in the direction of whatever the source of her powers was, for allowing her to increase the insulation of the air to the point that such weather was tolerable.
The two sisters walked through the doors, and approached the chatting duo. Dean was Dean, Amy'd seen the blond boy a million times by now. Unlike the girl he was talking to. She was wearing bright green clothes of a few different shades, with a warm yellow scarf for the weather. Long curly hair framed an olive skinned face, and… golden eyeshadow. That was a red flag in Amy's mind, but at least the rest of the girl's makeup wasn't overdone, and it kinda matched her scarf, so hopefully the girl wasn't crazy. She was very distinctive looking, so perhaps she went to a different school? As Amy approached the girl, she gave Amy an appraising look up and down, similar to the one Amy had just done.
Amy put on her best friendly smile. "Um, hi, I'm Amy Dallon," she greeted.
"Abigail Fitzgerald," the girl — Abigail — grinned. "I like your hair." she abruptly complimented. It was Amy's most attractive feature, but that was just because it was the only part of her appearance that she had complete control over.
"Oh, u-um, thank you," Amy rubbed the back of her head bashfully. "Though really it doesn't really count, I just use my power to make it look good without having to put in effort like your's clearly took." Amy admitted, completely obvious that she'd just inadvertently complimented Abigail's hair right back. The both of them politely ignored the weird straight couple snogging by the wall.
Abigail raised a singular eyebrow. "How's that work? I thought you were a healer," she inquired curiously.
"Hmm," Amy held out her arm, and then disassembled her jacket, making it float apart at the seams. "I guess you could call it microscale telekinesis. I use it to repair clothes sometimes, but it also lets me shape my hair super precisely." She then reassembled her jacket.
"Cool, that isn't on your wiki page."
"You've read my wiki page?" Amy asked incredulously.
"Uh… yes? Not in, like, a weird way! Just, I was curious, and it was there," Abigail floundered.
Amy shrugged. Vicky was a total cape nerd, so it wasn't too weird. Amy had read every cape in the Bay's wiki page. Honestly, with how much villainy the city had, she'd think they would teach those wiki pages in school or something. "I don't suppose you have a wiki page I could read to get even, do you?"
Abigail shook her head. "Alas, not that I am aware of."
Amy took a deep breath. "Tragedy it is, forsooth. For whencesoever supervenienly ought I espy thy interiority?" There was a moment of silence before the both broke down in a fit of giggling.
"Pffft, hehe, supervenienly-?" *Tfhtfheheha* "Oh my God, you are hilarious-" Abigail teased.
Amy fought off her own laughter enough to interrupt her. "Hey, shut up, you're the one who seriously used 'alas'!"
Abigail waved her arms about comedically. "No, you shut up, it was funny!"
"So was supervenienly!" Amy countered the other girl by flapping her arms with equivalent ferocity.
"What does that even mean?!" Abigail challenged dramatically.
"I don't know!" Amy admitted, despite kinda using it correctly. They both took a moment to catch their breath before chuckling together at their ridiculousness.
Vicky and Dean had broken off from their canoodling to observe the discourse the two of them were making. Once they wound down, Vicky approached her sister. "So, you two seem to be getting along," Both of the dykes blushed. "We were thinking of hitting the arcade, then maybe do some clothes shopping. Winter is coming and all that, y'know."
Amy perked up. "Ooh! I've been wanting to try my hand at making some conductive gloves, if we swing by a hardware store, I could get a little spool of copper to add to a glove mesh for you guys!" she volunteered excitedly. Dean — Aka, the Ward known as Gallant — passively filed that away under 'sounds like something a Tinker would say' in his head, but otherwise did his best to not pry with his Thinker power. Amy, at the very least, wasn't bottling up all her emotions in an overly dangerous way, which was better than he could say about her… what was it now, forty days ago? It felt like longer. Weird.
The arcade was a new experience for Amy. All the games were simple in their controls, but with a depth of mastery that a first time player could see yet not reach, incentivising them to try again and push higher. Dean was surprisingly good at fighting games, whilst Vicky was probably flexing her basketball skills when she challenged Amy to a dance-off. Joke was on her though, because Amy straight up trounced her. Sure the game thought that it was 'almost perfect' vs 'perfect', but mathematically speaking, Vicky was infinitely more of a dancing failure than she was.
When Amy said that joke and Abigail laughed, she could have sworn that there were butterflies in her stomach. To the surprise of the other three, Abigail was a better shot than Dean at the marksmanship games. Dean, the professional hero, dude who fought by blasting people with finger gun lasers that gave them depression, had worse aim than a little girl.
Well, maybe not little, she was about Amy's size, and Amy herself was only moderately below average. But that was besides the point, which was that apparently Dean didn't practise his aim enough. Much to the Dallon sisters' amusement.
Abigail explained that she actually went to a gun range twice per week with her dad, as a combination of self defence and family bonding over a shared sport.
After the arcade Amy showed Abigail her favourite brand of knitted stockings for the holiday season. There were a bunch of cheap sleazebags that sold cheap ones that looked nice, but those were made from shitty materials and mass production weaving that both itched and broke apart at the tiniest snag. After a bunch of interneting, Amy had found one decent brand from Illinois that could match some of her own power woven sets. There was only one store type that carried them in the Brockton Bay area, but luckily that store chain had a small shop hidden near one of the far corners of the mall.
"And if you get thigh highs it lets you wear skorts in winter!" Amy expounded on the virtues of the comfy socks. Vicky just rolled her eyes, uncaring due to her protective forcefield.
"Or you could just wear pants under the skirt?" All three of the girls turned to look at Dean, who clearly did not understand.
"No, Dean, you don't get it. You know what, you two explain it to him. I'ma go get some pants to show him." Vicky said to her boyfriend.
"Yeah," Amy agreed, then turned to Dean. "So, women's fashion doesn't work that way, Dean. It's called a skort not a sk'ant because it's one piece and nobody makes them in a pant length variety. Also you can wear small, thin, exercise shorts under a skirt just fine, but pants- I need a tangent. Yoga pants or other leggings do not protect your legs from the cold, that's why women wear them outside in summer, spring, and fall, but not winter. So I must assume when you say pants that you mean thick, insulating pants. But those aren't fashionable for women because, unlike you, our legs are sexualised, which means that we can't wear pants that lack definition and still look fashionable. Wearing a skirt without having leg definition gives a terrible silhouette. But to have insulating pants you need to not have it be skin tight, because the air between the pant and the leg is more insulating than the material of the pant, and you need to minimise pant to leg contact to minimise conduction. Because winter is fucking cold this far north." Amy took a deep breath. "So in conclusion, it either looks bad, or it doesn't protect from the cold, and that is why we don't wear pants plus skirt in winter. Unless we're your girlfriend specially, because Vicky's powers are bullshit."
"…I think that is the most I've ever heard you say in one go."
"Shut up. I'm a lesbian, flattery will get you nowhere with me, pretty boy." Amy said gruffly, unphased by both his comment and Abigail's snickers.