A/N: Was gonna do a quick recap cuz it's been so long since I posted, but I can't remember shit about what's happened so far :/

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December 3rd, 21:45

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Sitting down on the street's empty curb, Amy watches the building in boredom with her face held in her hands that themselves are resting on her raised knees.

The street is about as poorly lit as can be expected of Brockton Bay, with most of the lights being out. The only reason her vision is so clear is because of the headlights from the PRT van that are almost bright enough to function as floodlights.

Her sister has gone charging headfirst into another den of Villainy. It feels like that's all Vicky's been doing since she triggered a few months ago.

The building itself would be a fairly nice complex if not for the long worn down paint and brickwork. Not to mention that the street-facing windows are mostly shattered and the wall is peppered with bullet holes. One side of the building has a charred black marking as if it was on fire.

Just another monument to the decay that is Brockton Bay.

She'd be lying if she said she was completely happy about Vicky leaving her to do her heroing. Not that she doesn't think it's awesome, because it is awesome. Her sister is out being a Hero. People are likening her to a mini-Alexandria!

But... Amy isn't a cape. Which means that when Vicky is out doing cape things, she has to sit on the side-lines and just watch. Like right now, sitting outside with only a silent PRT trooper as company.

She wishes she was a cape too, so she could be a Hero with Vicky. She doesn't even have to be a Hero, she just wants to be with Vicky. Her sister is the only person she has, after all.

The rest of their 'family', for all the word tastes like ash on her tongue, hardly acknowledge her. Mark suffers clinical depression and is rarely even present mentally enough to have a conversation, let alone be a father, and Carol is somehow even worse.

Only Vicky. Only Vicky has treated her like actual family. Like a friend. 

Vicky is all she has, so is it any wonder she wants to be closer to her sister? To spend more time with her?

Vicky is like the sun to her eyes, yet she can't bring herself to look away.

An explosion rocks the building followed by another and a kernel of worry worms it's way through her gut. But no, she doesn't need to be afraid. Vicky is invincible, that's part of her power. She'll be fine.

The sound of something hard rolling over cobbled streets brings Amy's attention to the other side of the street, the opposite direction to the ongoing firefight.

She sees a girl moving down the street. Not on the pavement, but also not in the middle of the road. Close enough that she can hop over if a car came barrelling down.

With a half burnt cigarette betwixt her lips, the girl rides atop a pristine skateboard, whose underside and wheels are painted a vibrant red.

The girl herself is wearing a black military boots, with tight black jeans tucked into them. She has on a shirt that Amy recognises as Miss Militia merchandise, hosting the mature Heroine's patriotically posing face.

Over the top of it all, she is wearing a thick, dark red, almost brown, leather jacket that matches with the dark red hair trailing behind her in the wind. She has green eyes, Amy is surprised to note. Not because of the colour, but simply because noting people's eye colours isn't something she normally does, this girl's eyes just seem to draw her attention.

The rest of her face is pretty. Not in the super-model seductive kind of way, but more like an aloof kind of beauty, her facial expression placid and curious.

The girl rolls to a stop a few feet away from Amy, kicking her skateboard up into her hands and continuing to walk without breaking stride in an impressive display of elegance.

"Yo," the girl greets with a two-fingered salute. She glances between Amy and the trooper behind her, and then to the apartment complex that is still emitting a constant staccato of gunfire. "You guys got any idea who's shootin' who in their?" She jabs her thumb at the complex, as if it wasn't obvious what she was referring to.

Amy opens her mouth to answer but is beaten to the punch by the trooper behind her. 

"Ma'am," he brusquely gives her a shallow nod, "this area is currently the centre of a PRT operation. I'm going to have to ask that you make a detour."

"Cool, so one of the guys shootin' is yous. Who're yous shootin' at?" The girl gives him a blithe grin, and Amy almost smirks in amusement for her disregard to his authority.

"They're shooting at- I think they call themselves Love Triangle?" Amy answers, beating the trooper this time, who lets out an inaudible sigh and decides not to bother. He has a pair of teenagers himself back home, and is so far beyond the point of wanting to get in the middle of two bored teenage girls.

Mystery girl lets out an undignified snort. "Not much of a triangle, last I heard they were down to... A straight line. I guess... Damn, and I really thought I had a joke there..."

Amy lets herself smile as the girl reaches the curb and takes a seat for herself, enough distance between them to be separate without seeming asocial.

The girl lets her skateboard rest between her stretched out legs, the lipped end of the board barely touching upon the curb, and reaches into her jacket pocket. She pulls out a phone, and Amy notes that it's of the expensive variety. But the screen is cracked, in a line from the bottom right to top left with more cracks spreading through the left side. Her phone case is also Miss Militia merch, showing a full body print of the Hero standing with a rifle shouldered.

She presses a couple of buttons and Amy pauses in befuddlement at what she sees.

"What are you doing?" She asks, as the sound of the phone's dialling tone echoes out.

The girl returns her befuddled look with one of her own. "There's cape gang stuff going on?" She confusedly answers, pointing to the building, "I'm calling the PRT?"

It takes Amy a moment longer to accept what she just heard. She spares a glance to the PRT trooper right next to them before turning back to the girl at the same time the phone is answered.

"PRT, how may I help you?" The phone says, with Amy speaking at almost the same time.

"The PRT are already here, you don't have to call them."

The girl gives Amy a blank, aloof stare that displays no feelings and there is an uncomfortable silence that certainly felt longer than it was.

"Oh." The girl turns her veridian eyes back to her phone, held in front of her on speaker. 

"Hello? This is the PRT, how may I help you?" The phone sounds out again, evidently not having heard Amy's words since they were spoken at the same time.

"Uh, yeah," the girl haltingly answers, eyes widening slightly in brief panic before she seems to just spout the first though that comes to mind. "I-I-I'd like to report a crime! My, uh, my phone! I-I-I-It was, uh. Broken! Sto-stolen! It was stolen! By uh, by a cape!"

Then, with no warning, the girl abruptly brings her arm crashing down on the curb, hitting the centre of her phone right at the edge and sending tiny shards of plastic and glass flying while also folding the device in half.

All three of them stare at her broken phone in shock, the mystery girl more so than the others.

Turning wide eyes back up to the girl, Amy watches as she cradles her ruined phone between her hands and stares at it for a moment in sorrow. Her eyes briefly meet Amy's and a flush spreads over her cheeks.

"I panicked," she whispers, refusing to meet Amy's eyes.

Amy can't help the startled laugh that escapes her, and doesn't bother hiding her chuckles when the girl flushes further and looks away, the tips of her ears turning red.

"What's your name anyway?" Amy asks once she gets her chuckles under control, though her mirth is still clear in her tone.

"Ah, my name is Hannah," the girl takes a deep breath and her embarrassment seems to fade away as she turns back to Amy with a smile and an extended arm, "nice to meet'cha!"

Amy shakes the offered hand, but is interrupted from giving her name when the street suddenly lights up further. Turning as one, their gazes lock onto an honest to god fireball soaring into the sky before exploding like a firework but with the force of a missile.

And Circus is considered weak? Parahumans are scary.

But Amy has grown up around parahumans, so she just shrugs, vehemently ignoring the pang of sisterly worry and turns back to Hannah. "My name's Amy. What were you doing out here in the middle of the night?"

Hannah, seemingly equally nonplussed by the display of superhuman prowess, shrugs. "Was just skatin'. It's nice to wander about the night sometimes, good for clearing the mind. Also good for getting kidnapped or murdered or something, but them's the breaks, I guess."

"I feel like you should be more concerned about being kidnapped and or murdered."

"Meh, I'm white. 'Long as I keep to the right streets I'm not really in much danger. The Empire's pretty good at keeping crime low, ironically enough."

"Are you a Nazi?" Amy questions, suddenly feeling far less friendly.

Hannah's lips quirk up in amusement at her defensiveness. "I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm a Nazi, but I can see where they're coming from at least." Amy's face must have shown what she felt about that, as Hannah continues, "it's not even prejudice, just facts. In Brockton, something like twenty, thirty percent of crimes are committed by whites, and at least half of them are drugged up losers. Like seventy percent of the street level crimes like muggings and shit are done by the blacks and the big ol' gang of Asians is the only one that practices literal sexual slavery. I've known of girls who weren't even as old as you getting kidnapped into forced prostitution by the ABB.

"And it's not like I'm tryna lump everyone together, I'm not retarded. But the simple fact is that even with them being racist, The Empire actually protects the people they're scamming out of protection money. Just in the last two months, three ABB whorehouses have been raided by The Empire to rescue white girls that were taken from their families. In the past year, the PRT has only taken down one ABB whorehouse. And it's not like those fuckers don't know where they are, the PRT is just too fucked full of bureaucracy and a desire to keep to the status quo that they don't do shit about it. "Out of sight out of mind" and all that. You might not get it since your family are all Heroes, but for any other woman in this shithole, no matter race or age, just seeing a group of Asians at night is the most terrifying thing, because chances are they work for the sex slaving rage dragon."

"You can't justify being a Nazi," is Amy's immediate rebuttal to the girl's rant, focusing on regurgitating what she knows instead of letting her thoughts on Nazism be corrupted to even begin to think they are a force for good. "One good deed is not enough to redeem a man of a lifetime of wickedness."

"Though it seems enough to condemn him." Hannah shrugs her shoulders and falls back to rest on her elbows. "All I'm saying, is that The Empire has done more to keep me safe than anyone else in this shithole of a city. That, more than any retarded ideology, is why so many people support the literal Nazis. Because we're willing to make compromises for the sake of the safety of ourselves and our loved ones. If calling people the n-word is what it takes to make sure my sister doesn't get gang raped for the rest of her life, then that's a small price."

The side of the apartment complex abruptly explodes outwards in a conflagration of flames, and a person dressed up like a circus clown leaps from the building, quickly disappearing around a corner. A short moment later, the figure of Battery appears at the opening, panting but seemingly unharmed. 

She looks around for Circus for a moment before giving up and turning back inside.

"Just look at that for example," Hannah speaks up again in the relative silence that follows, Amy no longer wanting to continue talking. "Here be the PRT, fighting against Love triangle. You'd think that's a good thing, and certainly the media will say so, but never will it mention just how late the PRT is, as always.

"Love Triangle has been in the drug scene for what? Months at this point? And only now the PRT is making something of a difference there, and even then, we literally just saw them let a Villain get away. Contrary to that, it took all of a week after Scissors got reamed for Love Triangle to be kicked out of Empire territory. This street is technically unclaimed, but closest to Coil's business, and Rock has to make his home near ABB territory further South. The streets claimed by The Empire are the only ones you won't find druggies dealing or hitting up on."

Amy doesn't want to argue the pros and cons of a literal gang of Neo-Nazis, especially because it feels like an argument she'd lose. So instead, she decides to just ignore Hannah and pretend she's alone.

Though, a small part of her mind can't help but wonder how Hannah is so well informed? But she's honestly not sure how much of what she's said is public knowledge, and doesn't want to make a fool out of herself in front of a Nazi sympathiser by asking.

Luckily, she is saved from having to further interact with Hannah. Unluckily, what saves her is the sight and sound of her sister careening through a wall at the front of the complex and into a wall on the opposite side of the street, cracking it.

An unnatural feeling of dread weighs down on all three of them, leaving them watching in silence as another portion of the complex's wall explodes outwards, a man in a white mask and dressed in dark clothes with a gruesome pair of mutations growing down his arms and connecting over his shoulders flying into the street.

Immediately following after him is Assault and Falcon, whose outfit has some small tears in, thin lines of red noticeable even through the fire surrounding her form. Behind the two capes, the front of the apartment complex starts to collapse on itself under it's own weight.

With none of them withing striking distance and not wanting Paper to have any time at all to breathe, Falcon immediately launches her cane after him. It flies true like a javelin but still hits nothing as the Villain folds into the ground once more.

But this time, he re-emerges almost immediately after the cane passes him, a great heaving gasp following his rise that is heard even over the sound of battle. He isn't given the time to truly breathe however, as Glory Girl comes barrelling into him.

He barely manages to swivel around her blow, lashing out with his own sword-like arms. He makes contact, but the attack only has the effect of knocking her to the ground, whereupon she just bounces back up and continues her flight uncut and uncaring for the street she just turned to rubble.

He doesn't get to consider her any further as Assault's fist abruptly appears before him, forcing him to block with his other arm. 

The bladed appendage snaps in contact with his fist and he is pushed back enough that the blow doesn't carry through to him. However, Falcon was waiting right behind him, and his lungs were already burning from a lack of oxygen, so he could do nothing but accept the solid kick she lands against his back.

The blow cracks his spine and sends him hurtling forward right into Assault's waiting knee.

He feels his face crumple in lightly from the beating, only adding to his foggy state of mind. But with a body running more off instinct than conscious thought, he still manages to use his power on himself one last time.

Just in time, as Glory Girl comes down form up high and slams into the street where he was, cratering it and sending even more debris soaring through the air.

In the span of only a couple of seconds, Paper unfolds himself right next to Glory Girl and brings about his right arm.

The tip of his bladed appendage taps lightly against one of the larger pieces of debris, about the size of a human head, causing it to immediately fold in on itself. 

In almost the same motion, he brings his arm up and drives it down onto Glory Girl, who had just turned mostly horizontal as she was about to begin flying away.

Right as the blade tip was a foot away from her, the chunk of debris rapidly unfolds itself, geometric patterns twisting through reality.

The chunk of solid material crashes into Glory Girl and immediately shatters against her personal barrier, doing no harm at all, but successfully putting the barrier, that needs a couple of seconds to recharge after blocking a hit, down for the brief moment that he needed to drive his bladed arm right through her gut, pinning her to the concrete below.

Blood spurts from the wound that extends from an inch below her belly button all the way up to her sternum and is shortly followed by a scream of agony.

Amy can only watch in muted horror as her sister is skewered like an animal, hardly even noticing what happens in the next moment.

Filled with righteous fury, Falcon and Assault act as one, an unsaid understanding passing through them with a single shared glance.

They both reach the two capes at the same time, less than a second after Glory Girl was pierced. Assault immediately drops down over Glory Girl, hugging the arm impaling her and focusing more intently on his power than he ever has before.

With that intense focus, he is barely able to keep the piercing arm from moving at all when the sole of Falcon's boot impacts the side of Paper's head. His body is launched so hard that, with his arm being held down by Assault so as to not rip Glory Girl's organs to shreds, his entire arm is simply ripped off at the socket.

Another spray of blood graces the street, but it only covers Glory Girl, the other two both having their powers to protect them from getting more dirty.

Falcon rushes after the Villain, flagging down Battery as she exits the building to help her ensure that he's truly down for the count, but Amy doesn't care about any of that.

Instead, all she can focus on is her sister, lying there with a giant arm-sword sticking through her gut.

She's already on her feet before she even realises she's moving. She pays no mind to the agent chasing after her.

"Vicky!" She desperately calls out as she falls to her knees beside her sister.

There's so much blood, too much blood. Her mind is still trying to come to terms with what she was seeing. Everything was fine just moments ago.

It took only the span of a few seconds for everything to go from perfectly fine to horribly wrong.

The two men around them are saying something but Amy can't focus on anything other than how her exclamation brought focus to her sister's cloudy eyes.

"Vicky!" Her hands ghost over her sister's body, wanting to hold her, embrace her and do something, but also knowing that aggravating the wound could only make things worse.

"A-ames," Vicky's weak voice quietly calls out, but Amy doesn't hear her, so lost in staring wide-eyed at the blood staining her sister's previously pristine uniform.

"No no no no no no no no no this can't be happening," her muttering is barely audible over her breathe as she frantically waves her arms over her sister, never actually touching her.

"Ames!" Vicky ignores how her body spikes in pain with her exclamation, simply thankful that she gets through to Amy this time.

Both sisters have eyes full of tears as they stare at one another. 

"I-I'm sorry," Vicky says, desperately trying to keep the fear out of her voice, not wanting her sister to know how terrified she is. It hurts so much, and she doesn't want to die. "I'm sorry," she repeats again, softer.

Those around her close their eyes and look away as a keening, formless wail leaves Amy's throat, her sister's body starting to slump in her arm.

And then the world explodes.

Giant crystalline beings float through an empty void. Spiralling, spiralling around each other in an endless dance.

They swim through the stars like a man would the sea.

Planets and stars pass them by, turning into empty husks as the vast beings drain all life around them into their ever increasing mass.

Always growing. Always learning. Always evolving.

A beautiful planet of oceans and lands come before them.

One of the entities takes note of the planet. Millions, billions of grasping limbs undulating after it, wrapping around the Earth like a spider's web. Countless visions fill the being, knowledge imparting on it's many Shards.

[DESTINATION]

It calls out to it's partner.

[AGREEMENT]

A decision is made.

[TRAJECTORY]

[AGREEMENT]

A decision made and accepted, the two vast beings move closer to the planet, propelled by the advances of countless aeons.

A Shard of the great Entities splits of, falling and falling towards the planet. 

During it's entire journey, the Shard never stops changing. Shifting it's complex, geometric mass of organic crystal, the Shard morphs itself constantly, never seeming to find a single shape to occupy.

Like an artist, never satisfied with the shape of their canvas. Always seeking further perfection.

Amy gasps as she rises to a crouch, foreign knowledge filling her mind enough that it feels like it's bursting.

Around her, she sees a trooper standing by her side looking around with worry. Beyond, she sees Assault, Battery and Falcon, all getting up from the ground.

And then she sees Victoria, oh lovely Victoria, lying on the ground with glazed eyes and too much blood covering her. Immediately, any thought of the strange vision she just had fades away as panic fills her anew, and Amy doesn't hesitate to follow foreign instinct as it guides her to place a hand on her dearest sister.

Immediately, her head is filled with knowledge. Every cell inside of Victoria's body lights up to her mind's eye. Every single piece of tissue that makes up her most beloved body becomes known to her in an instant and a fresh wave of terror fills her bones.

Her sister is dying. But she is not dead yet.

With skill she didn't know she had, power she has never known, Amy gets to work.

In her half fugue state, she hardly even knows what she's doing. All she has is a single minded focus that her sister cannot die. She won't let her.

Her other hand comes up and touches against the arm impaling lovely Victoria. Once more, Amy's mind is filled with every microscopic detail of it's making, and she doesn't hesitate to use that knowledge to break the limb down, reducing it to little more than a slime.

A slime that is quickly repurposed to meld into her sister's body, fixing the wound that it caused in the first place.

She doesn't know how long it takes, or really what she did. But eventually, Amy pulls away from her sister, eyes wide and mouth agape.

She'd done it. 

Her sister is alive.

In fact, she's in perfect health.

Once more, tears fall from her eyes as Amy rushes forward and grabs her very disoriented sister to wrap her up in the tightest hug she can.

In no time at all, her eyes start to droop as the intense past few minutes, as well as it already being past her bed time, all catch up to her. With a smile of unmatched relief, Amy passes out in her still reeling sister's arms.

It doesn't even occur to Amy that she has powers now, not until much later.

All that matters, in her eyes, is that her sister is okay.

Meanwhile, after everything calms down, the trooper idly glances back to where Hannah was sitting, only finding a half burnt cigarette left pushed into the pavement where she was.

He just assumes she left when things started getting crazy, nothing unusual in this city.

Though, maybe if he wasn't looking for Hannah, he might have noticed the brief, intense look Falcon gave Amy before schooling her features.

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

Welp, my hiatus has been a bit longer than expected, but it's probably coming to an end now. For those not in the know, my already unstable mental broke a bit more and I even got kicked out the country of spain for being too suicidal lmfao. Only after I had to stay in a psyche ward for a bit tho... didn't even let me keep a rubber ball for entertainment, nevermind a fucking phone or smth :/

Anywho, at best all I'm going to promise is one upload a week as a schedule. It's way worse than my other schedules, but maybe it's slow enough that my brain won't try to suplex me into an early grave lol.

Anyway,

My fucking god this chapter kicked my ass. took way too fucking long to get that last part and I know I didn't even do that great of a job in the end, just wanted to get it fucking done lmao.

So yeah, Amy's triggered. Panacea enters the board, I'm sure she'll have a horrible time.

Would have been funny to just let Glory Girl die tho lmao

Also, kinda mad I killed challenger, I legit thought it was cool that I was gonna have challenger be a part of canon as like a show of the butterfly effect, but then I guess the butterfly flapped it's wings again and she fucking died. Just makes me think back to Shatterbird. Still pissed that she died. Legit am going to write another worm fic at some point solely to do the shit I missed out on with this. Cuz you really can't just put everything in one story, some things have to be given up to write other things, sadly.