15

I was far out of my comfort zone. It's funny, that after spending weeks fighting gangs it was sitting in this conference room that made me the most uncomfortable.

Carol Dallon, Panacea, myself, and Cheshire sat at one end of the table. On the other side were the CEOs and their lawyers of the five pharmaceutical companies that had been struggling to grow. Jacob Wins, Steven Claps, Survoy Micealis, Joice Day, Lucas Stevens. Cheshire had picked them because of apparent long stand rivalries between the five of them should leave them to keep the prices down if this deal went through. But that didn't stop each of the five drafting contracts that would have put us at a disadvantage. Of course, that just meant Cheshire tore them apart with her basic knowledge, which was then supplemented with Carol Dallon's legal knowledge. Thus increasing Cheshire's ability to tear them apart.

Amy and I sat awkwardly and silently by ourselves. The systematic destruction of the original contract and the following reconstruction as Carol and Cheshire worked off each other without even the slightest bit of planning before hand. And all this because Amy found out that the magic circuits reproduced with the plants.

And now, we are looking at the mass production of healing potions.

"And let's not forget that you could give us fifty percent in royalties on these healing potions, selling them at two bucks a pop, and you would still be turning enough profits to make every other person in the world drool," Cheshire said.

"You could retire in a year if you wanted to," Carol agreed. "So, us asking for ten percent royalties is extremely generous. So generous in fact, that these other stipulations here and here…"

I tuned out as she delved into complicated lawyer babbled that only the CEO's lawyers and Cheshire seemed to follow. I should have felt more excited because honestly, this would set me for life. We are talking about the mass production of healing potions. Even in a normal world, the need for instant heals like this would be incredible. Throw in Endbringers, capes, and all manner of other things and this was incredibly revolutionary. No, that was an understatement. This was literally world changing.

It was one thing to toss a small pebble that casts wide ripples, but we were essentially tossing a boulder into the pond that was world economics.

"You've been more than fair," one of the CEOs, Lucas I think, stated in the lull between Carol and Cheshire. "But I'm a little more interested in the side effects of such a concoction. Whatever you put in these plants that makes them work they way they do, that has to have side effects."

Eyes turned toward Panacea as they waited for a response. She swallowed nervously and spoke slowly.

"Well, there is a small downside." She paused and collected her thoughts a moment, taking a deep breath. When she spoke next it was much calmer. "It isn't a cure all. The theme seems to be that it returns a person's body to a normal state. These elixirs," we had decided 'elixir' sounded better than potion, "only return a person to what is normal. Meaning anything genetic won't be fixed. Any reconstructive or plastic surgery will get reversed to its original form. Implants will get shoved out of the way, tattoos will get erased. It doesn't do anything to stop old age and conditions because of it." Panacea paused and thought about it.

"I haven't tried on amputees, but if I had to guess their limb loss will become part of what is 'normal' for people like the old age is. In addition, shrapnel will need to be removed before a person takes an elixir."

That caused the lot of them to break out into the legal babble that left Panacea and I confused. I wanted nothing more to be literally anywhere else right now. Glory Girl and I could rip several gang warehouses apart in the time it would take for this meeting to get over.

But I couldn't. Panacea and I made these and now we had to be present at a meeting that would actually change the world. But for something with so much impact, it seemed so mundane. The balance of the world at large, reduced to a single meeting where the details were hammered out over a very long boring process.

I let my eye's glaze over as people talked around me for the next two hours. Contracts were redrafted several times. I was asked a grand total of three questions just to clarify things and to ask how much publicity I wanted for this. Past that, I just sat there and suffered for the next three hours.

***

The world was going to blow up in a few weeks. At the end of the arrangements, it was decided that the CEOs would make a joint announcement a few weeks before the elixirs went on the market. And then, everything would change.

Maybe I was being a little over dramatic. But honestly, this seemed far too normal for such a massive change. Panacea would produce each company a thousand seeds of each plant needed, but once they were in the company's hands it was up to them to grow them. It would take months to get the operation in full swing. And even then it would take many more months to get massive farming set ups going. But slowly and surely, there was going to be an ever increasing flow of healing potions coming out of Brockton Bay and Boston, the two cities the companies we had partnered with were based in.

I sighed and tried to push it out of my mind. Ever since Panacea had discovered that magic circuits reproduced with the plants my head has been spinning trying to figure it out. Lisa wasn't much of a help either. The question wasn't even why they did that, but how. When the magic circuits were part of me it was easy to simply say my power created the magic. But once Panacea put the circuits in the plants they produced their own magic. Granted, it wasn't near anything I could do and they didn't have any way of using it. In fact, the only thing the magic did to the plants increased their resilience, remove their biological clock, and give them the properties needed to be the potions. But the question remains, where is the magic coming from?

As important of a question it was, it only led to more questions we simply couldn't answer. Which was particularly annoying considering I was friends with someone whose power was knowing things.

Letting out a sigh, I pushed the thoughts out of my mind and tried to prepare myself as I stepped off the bus and headed towards Winslow this Monday morning. Lisa right behind me.

***

Dad had insisted she go to school, and not even Lisa was able to convince him otherwise. Lisa had argued that she could test for her GED, but Dad insisted she get a high school diploma if she could and that was it. Any arguments got nowhere. Which led to me standing outside the front doors of Winslow, trying to convince myself to go inside, with Lisa standing next to me.

"Come on, I'm sure it won't be that bad," Lisa said, giving me a gentle prod forward.

"Oh yes it will," I muttered as I walked forward, adjusting the satchel that had replaced my backpack. Lisa rolled her eyes at me as we went inside.

Lisa picked up her schedule from the office as we passed it. The secretary gave me an odd look from behind the desk but didn't say anything. Lisa thanked her with a smile and turned back to me. She handed the schedule to me without even looking at and pushing past me.

I followed her out as I opened up the paper and took a look. Unfortunately, she didn't have computer class with me, which I suppose was too much to hope for. But after that we shared classes, which should have been a relief. But instead, it caused a rising feeling of anxiety in my chest.

Lisa walked up with me to Knott's computer class. How did she wear that smile everywhere so easily? Honestly, this was still high school. Shouldn't she be at least a little put off at the idea of going to classes?

"Taylor," Lisa suddenly said. "Relax. You're so stiff it looks like you're about to snap in half." Immediately I forced myself to loosen up, relaxing my shoulders and going into a slouch. Not for the first time, I was glad I had chosen to go with a T-shirt and jeans instead of skirt Lisa had recommended when picking out clothing. It wasn't as concealing as what I used to wear, but it wasn't too attention getting. My hair and mark did that well enough.

Eyes watched us as I walked up to the crowd outside the class door. On the other end of the hall, I could see Sophia standing around with some other girls from the track team staring daggers into me. I haven't even been here for a full fifteen minutes and Sophia had already found a reason to be angry with me.

"I'll catch you later Taylor," Lisa told me with a wink. "Don't get too distracted." I swallowed as she turned away and disappeared around the corner. The one person in this whole school who was on my side.

I took a deep breath and faced the door of the class. It was an easy course and had a mixed class. Some people there had taken her class three times and were part of the advance class while I was with everyone else. Because of the old laptop my mother made sure I had I probably knew more than most of the other students in the same group as me. I might be able to test out, but until then I was stuck with the slow learners. But that was okay, I didn't need this class to challenge me. Quite the opposite. I need this to be the one class where I could relax.

When Mrs. Knott arrived to unlock the door, I saw Sophia walking towards me. The crowd of students was too thick for me to push my way into to avoid her, and moving out of the way would only cause her to pursue me and the end result would be worse. I moved my satchel to the other side so she couldn't grab it or use it to knock me off balance when she walked past. The bag was almost sixty pounds with all the stuff I've been putting inside of it, heavy for someone who's body hadn't be changed like mine but it could still put me off balance easily. My first instinct was to brace myself against her, but she would take it as a challenge. I forced myself to prepare like I didn't know she was coming, not making eye contact with her.

I was surprised when she bumped roughly into my shoulder. Not because she did it, she had done it plenty of times before, but because she grabbed my arm and pulled me closer to whisper something in my ear.

"Be careful who you idolize, Herbert." She roughly shoved me back into the thinning crowd of classmates, causing me to stumble into someone. When I managed to regain my balance she was walking away, her track friends following closely behind her.

Shaking my head and quickly apologizing to the kid I bumped into, I shuffled into the classroom behind the last few students. I would be more confused over what she meant, but at the same time it wasn't hard to imagine someone like Sophia taking a personal offense to something as cute and cartoon as Nova. There wasn't anything I could do about that.

Sitting down at my computer stall I saw Mrs. Knott had pre-emptively dropped a list of all the lessons I had missed. Being part of the slightly less advanced students she didn't give out nearly as many assignments, which was less I had to catch up, and most of these lessons I already knew about. What I didn't know amounted to fifteen minutes of online videos she had linked me to. They weren't anything interesting.

Without much else to do and completely uninterested in what Mrs. Knott was currently saying, I opened up a new tab and started browsing the PHO. Particularly, articles about me.

It was more or less the same. A few new fan thread, the discussion and theory thread was buzzing, and I even found the thread Glenn had mentioned before. It was actually full of a lot of surprising skilled drawings of Nova fighting…. Well, everything. There was one that showed me standing taller than the Simurgh as I pummeled her with meteors. Another showed me blasting Sleeper bubble with my magic. Apparently, it was making more progress than the other energy based weapons had. Some art wasn't as talented as the others, but most of it was pretty good. It surprised me.

Looking a little deeper I found that other heroes had similar threads that had long since gone dormant. Glory Girl and Vista both had one. Some other female heroes with themes of being cute or beautiful all had some. Alexandria had one, but it wasn't as long as others due to the fact that while she was cool, she wasn't nearly as cute as Vista. And in the end, it seemed like that was the main motivating factor for these artists.

Suddenly, an alert popped up on the site that read 'Breaking News'. Looking around to make sure no one was watching and double checking to make sure the computer volume was off, I clicked the alert for the news site it was linked to.

My first reaction was for my mouth to fall open slightly in shock. My second reaction was to clench my teeth together and grip the mouse tight enough that I thought it would break.

On the screen was footage of the PRT building getting surrounded in a forest of blades as Hookwolf burst out of one side of the building. Armsmaster approached him, wielding his halberd, only for a beam of fire shot out of the hand of Viktor to rip up the ground between them. More blade sprouted up out of the ground to surround Armsmaster, trapping him in a cage. Vista suddenly appeared with Miss Militia and Kid Win standing next to her. The latter two fired a single shot of the weapons they were holding, a rocket launcher and some sort of laser weapon, before the three of them took a step back into distorted space and moved safely out of range before another blast of fire came from Viktor.

I took a deep breath and let it out with a frustrated sigh. Hookwolf was breaking out of prison, and I was stuck in school.

I was still more than annoyed with the fact something was going down and I couldn't be a part of it three hours later when I was heading to lunch. I was sure Glory Girl had taken off the moment she heard. But I was stuck here, deciding where I was going to eat my sack lunch today.

Recently I had taken to eating anywhere that wasn't the lunch room. The roof, an empty classroom, anywhere it would take them time to find me. At first it had worked, but then they started looking for me and once they found me we were alone and I was cornered. But that was the trade off, I could get about fifteen minutes of private time to eat and think but then I had to face whatever they had in store for me in the privacy of an empty room.

However, this time when I was peeking through a window of a classroom to check to see if it was empty I felt someone grab my hand. I turned my head and saw Lisa grinning at me.

"None of that now." She said told me, pulling me in the direction of the cafeteria. "We're going to sit here, and if they come to bother you we'll tell them to fuck off. Not that hard."

"Um," I fumbled for words. "How long have you know about, um, that?"

"Eh, I figured it out while you were looking in the window," Lisa said nonchalantly. "You had to be hiding from someone, which really only left one good reason why you would be hiding from someone."

Lisa forced me to sit down at a round table in the far corner of the cafeteria while most people were still up getting their state-paid lunches. More than a few eyes followed us, but I wasn't sure if that was because of the way I currently looked or by the sheer fact someone was willingly hanging out with me. Sadly, that last one was probably more likely given my situation.

The trio must have taken some time looking for me in my usual haunts because it took them ten minutes for them to find me. I idly noted the trio wasn't even a trio today, just Emma and Sophia. I wondered where Madison was.

After spotting me and Lisa over in the corner they spent another minute walking around and picking up some followers. It was almost amusing watching them go to each cluster of girls in the cafeteria and come away with more each time. As they moved, I watched them carefully with my eyes, never turning my head. My anxiety faded into a more grim acceptance. This was going to happen, I just had to live through yet another ruined lunch.

Lisa's eyes darted between me and the ever growing group. Slowly, her lips curled into her trademark grin.

I managed to scarf down the last remnants of my meal before they finally made their way over to me. They all encircled the table in a group that was far too large to be a normal gathering of girls. I was sure it was drawing all sorts of attention while simultaneously blocking everyone's sight of me.

It was Emma who started.

"Well, we all knew you were fat Taylor but spending good money we both know you don't have a lot of on lipo? That's a new low for you. Are you-"

"Even if that were true," Lisa interrupted loudly, throwing her off guard. "Does it really mean anything coming out of the mouth of some girl who is chewing gum to hide the smell of her breath after throwing up her lunch to look thin." Emma paled a little as a few looks were thrown her way.

I hadn't tried anything like that since it proved ineffective at the very beginning of the bullying camping. But Lisa knew things I didn't, knew exactly what these girls were hiding. Slowly, a smile of my own spread across my face as I felt a little more hopeful.

Sophia decided to come in for Emma's rescue. "So little frog Hebert has found herself a 'friend'," Sophia said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. "Is that your plan here? Be her friend and defend her instead of letting her defend herself?"

"About sums it up," Lisa said with a nod. "I think it is a pretty great plan, all in all."

"Why though?" Some other girl jumped in.

"Yeah, Taylor is soooo ugly," another one added.

"You would do much better on your own," Sophia stated.

"Or with us," Emma suggested, managing to pull herself back together enough to rejoin the conversation.

Lisa snorted at them. "Like you guys are worth hanging out with. Half of you have a different boyfriend each month for no reason other than being able to say you're in a relationship. And the other half are a bunch of tag along trying to get popular in high school as if how people view you here actually matters."

The girls erupted in a mass of angry chatter and insults after that. Lisa looked a little too pleased with herself before taking a bite of her sandwich. As she did so Sophia reached forward to grab it from her when Lisa moved it out of the way at the last second and shot her a smile.

"I wouldn't touch anything of mine," Lisa said without changing her smile once.

"Oh yeah," Sophia questioned dangerously. "And why's that."

"Because someone particular people might get word of your particular talents," Lisa said casually, going in for another bite of her sandwich. This time, Sophia didn't try and take it.

"Hmm, you're looking a little nervous there," Lisa pointed out. I didn't see it, all I saw was that she was incredibly p-p-angry. "I guess you really don't want those people to know what you've done? Who you are?"

Sophia drew back and scowled at her deeply. Lisa's grin widened.

"Oh, you must have done some bad things." I watched Lisa curiously as she continued to chip away at her. I didn't fully understand what she was getting at that was making Sophia so angry, but it was working. Maybe a little too well. "Perhaps, even some illegal acts? Maybe hurt a few people?"

"Stop it," Sophia finally said through clenched teeth.

"Only if you do. Turn around, walk away, don't come back. Let Taylor and I eat our lunch in peace or you know who learns you know what."

Sophia drew a deep breath but didn't say anything. She glared at Lisa and turned around on her heels.

"Come on Emma," was the last thing she got out before leaving out table. About a third of the girls detached away from the group to follow her, the others stood around looking unsure of themselves. A few glanced at two or three people in particular. Next in line, I guessed, in the hierarchy of social supremacy. The trio on top, these girls after that.

Lisa sighed and pointed at each of them in turn as she spoke. "You're boyfriend is cheating on you… again. You steal your mother's makeup because you can't afford your own. You cut yourself on a regular basis. And you've been checking out my ass. That'll be all, have a nice day."

The remaining girls broke apart after that in a flutter of embarrassed and ashamed faces along with a never ending stream of giggling girls saying 'omg' repeatedly.

"Holy crap," I said as soon as they were gone, turning to Lisa. She was taking some very smug bites out of her sandwich. "What was that?"

Lisa chuckled and said, "Taylor, there is nothing more emotionally unstable than a popular teenage girl. Honestly, almost everyone there was so shallow that the things I picked out about them were the only thing to know about them. Except the one checking out my ass, she is just really confused right now. About herself, not my ass."

"And what about that thing with Sophia?" I demanded. "I've never seen her so angry."

"Oh, that?" Lisa asked dismissively. "She is the crossbow vigilante."

"...."

Lisa rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, no one is listening! And besides, every girl there thought I was either talking about drugs or prostitution. And now, you can blackmail her into not being a total psycho bitch."

"I honestly don't know how to respond to this." It was true. What Lisa did was so unimaginably ridiculous I didn't even know where to begin. First, she just alerted a very dangerous vigilant, boarding villain, that she knew who she really was. Which, by extension lead to me knowing. She also put on a massive display of her power, although it was more questionable if that was actually going to come back and bite her at all because of its nature. Then that was all just on a local level, the much larger repercussion of unmasking a cape would tremendous if this ever got out.

But on the other hoof, it was really nice to know I wouldn't be bullied anymore. So maybe it would all be worth it.

"Then don't say anything," Lisa stated with a grin. "I got a few more observations in me before I get a headache and I've been hearing tons of chatter about Hookwolf breaking out. Want to ask around the school and see what else we can find?"

Lisa put on another smile that made me roll my eyes. With a sigh, I opened my mouth and said,

"I guess we could-"

"Students," the school intercom suddenly interrupted. "A city wide cape battle is occurring. The school has been deemed unsafe. Wards are here to ensure your safety as you evacuate the building. If your home is in walking distance please run there and do not leave, for your own safety. If not, a Ward will escort you all to the nearest Endbringer bunker. Please proceed to-"

Friendship bond broken.

I suddenly felt like I was stabbed in the gut with a rusty knife.

Unacceptable

I doubled over and gasped in pain. I felt power flooding my body and I suddenly knew something had happened. I didn't know what or to who, but something happened and I need to get out there and help them.

I looked back up and saw Lisa staring around with wide eyes as people clamored for the doors. She looked back at me and grabbed my left hand tightly.

"Taylor, you're turning white," Lisa said harshly. I swallowed and made sure to repress the change before it could take hold. Lisa pulled me from my seat and pushed me in the direction of the girl's bathroom.

"So glad I snuck my suit into your bags," Lisa muttered.

I flew through the air, Cheshire on my back. It was the first time I had carried someone and it was only because I had suddenly grown.

I didn't know what it was, but something was gone. Like a connection I had established was suddenly and violently broken and it made me angry even though I didn't have a reason. My magic was felt like it was thundering through my veins, nearly explosive in its need to be used. Something was affecting me, making me stronger, angrier, and larger.

The thought should have scared me, but it didn't. I was too focused on moving forward.

I was flying over the city, looking down in an attempt to spot something. Hookwolf had broken free which probably meant that The Empire was pushing back against the ABB. My thoughts moved to Rune and whether or not they broke her out but I thought against it. Rune had been moved to a completely different prison cell. The Empire wouldn't have know that.

"Nova," Cheshire said into my ear, yelling over the wind pummeled us. "North end of downtown, go there."

I nodded silently and began my descent, stretching my wings out to go into a half glide, half dive.

The first thing I saw was Glory Girl floating upwards to meet me. Her normal cheerful grin was gone. The second thing I saw was a massive statue made of malformed metal that looked like it had been in the process of melting standing about twenty feet from a massive hole in the middle of the street. It didn't have a discernable form with the metal being too twisted to properly make it out. The statue was surrounded by dozens of PRT officers and a few Protectorate members. Dauntless, Triumphant, and Armsmaster.

"Glory Girl?" I asked on approach, flapping my wing to hover in midair better. I was vaguely aware of Cheshire shifting on my back and grabbing fist-fulls of my fur so she didn't fall off.

"What's going on?"

"Hookwolf got torched," Glory Girl responded grimly.

"What?" I asked.

"Oh, shit," Cheshire said.

"Come on," Glory Girl said while shaking her head. "You've got to see this."

She led the way back down to the ground and touched down just in front of the metal statue. Now that I was closer, I could see the resemblance to Hookwolf. It was on all fours except for one limb that was reaching forward, what had previously been claws melting into finger like appendages. The locations where the eyes would have been was completely covered with now cooled metal. The only opening in the statues was the mouth, where powerful jaws were hanging open in a nonexistent roar. There were strands of cooled metal stretching between the upper and lower jaw where they had previously melted together.

"What the heck happened?" I found myself asking without thinking about it first.

"We're still trying to figure that out," Armsmaster said as he approached. His eyes lingered on Cheshire, still mounted on my back. "An analysis of the scene shows that somehow Hookwolf was dropping into this hole," Armsmaster gestured with a hand at the hole in the ground behind us, "which was filled with some unknown liquid accelerant. The accelerant, being particularly vicious, trapped Hookwolf inside for a few moments just before several dozen flame throwers and napalm jets sprayed him. Igniting the accelerant and starting the process that would end up melting Hookwolf's changer body around him."

Cheshire slid off my back and walked over to the hole as Armsmaster spoke. She knelt down and looked inside for a few second before turning around and looking at Hookwolf. A dark look passed over her face.

"The Workers did this," she stated.

"How do you know?" Armsmaster asked seriously.

"Her power," I answered as I turned my whole body to face Cheshire. The surrounding PRT officers were staring at me and her now. "She basically has a Thinker power based on deduction, letting her know things like that." While it wasn't completely true, it got the point across and protected her real power if for some reason she wanted to keep it a secret.

"We still can't just take what you say at face value," Armsmaster said with a frown. "If you came to the PRT building to get vetted we can start the process."

"No need," Cheshire said with a wave of her hand. "There is more going on here. For instance, this hole? It's been here for months. Those bits of twisted metal you there at the bottom? Those were structural supports meant to collapse from a remote trigger somewhere else. And it wasn't just a few dozen flame throwers and napalm jets, it was almost fifty."

"Jesus," Glory Girl said with a sharp breath. "How does someone even do something like that without getting noticed."

Armsmaster fell silent and Cheshire began studying him silently.

"There's more." Cheshire realized after a few seconds had passed. "Hookwolf wasn't the only one to be killed today, was he?"

"I think that is enough said in this location," Dauntless said, walking up to them. "Director Piggot has called every hero in the city, independent and otherwise, to the PRT building for a debriefing. We can continue this conversation there.

"I think that is for the best," Armsmaster said as he took steps towards the PRT vans. "We'll meet there and compare notes."

Dauntless nodded in agreement and turn on his heels, going the other way.

"Um?" Glory Girl asked with a hint of confusion. "What was that?"

"Nothing good," Cheshire responded bitterly. She walked back over to me and moved to climb on my back. I knelt down to assist her. "I've got a few theories, but we're going to want to go to this meeting before you hear them."

"Oh that doesn't sound ominous at all," I said dryly.

"Trust me, you don't know the half of it."

"You are really giving me the creeps, you know that?" Glory Girl asked as she raised up into the air. I appreciated her wanting to make light of this situation, but if my feeling of loss from before wasn't enough to show something was wrong here then this certainly was. I took off the ground with a jump, soaring up as fast as I dared with Cheshire on my back before turning to heading towards the PRT building.

***

PRT officers were out to greet us the moment we landed, Glory Girl not far behind us. Cheshire slid off my back the moment we were on the ground. An officer walked out to meet with us, flanked by two more with foam sprayers on their back.

"This way Nova," he told me. "Who is your tag along?" I glanced at Cheshire, who answered for me.

"A previously anonymous partner. Cheshire, you can call me." The man nodded and turned away to lead us inside.

Getting in was much the same, although now I noticed I was as tall as most people's shoulders. Yet, despite that, no one was looking me in the eye.

We were led to the Tinker elevator and stepped silently inside with the three PRT officers that had greeted us. Nothing was said. Silence filled the small compartment as not even Cheshire thought of something to point out.

The doors open and we were led down a hallway I had not yet encountered. They brought us to a conference room and we let ourselves inside to see every hero in the city gathered.

All of New Wave was here minus Panacea who was probably out healing people, independents that have been doing some off and on work the last couple of months, the Wards, and at least half of the Protectorate. I assumed the rest were out running damage control.

"Nova, glad you finally made it." The voice belonged to Director Piggot, who was standing at the head of the table, addressing the rest of the room. I scowled but didn't say anything, just nodded. A lot of people were staring at me and Cheshire, but I didn't care. I still couldn't shake the feeling something had happened and I needed to know.

"Is there anyone else?" Piggot asked Armsmaster, who was standing by her side.

"Only some obscure independents that might not have gotten the message. We are ready to begin."

"Good," Piggot said with a curt nod. She glanced at everyone around the room sourly and started to speak.

"We will go over this in the order that it occurred," Piggot stated. "Three hours ago, Hookwolf was sprung free from his cell. Because of the increased gang activity, Vista and Kid Win were pulled from school to be on call and were subsequently there to assist Miss Militia and Armsmaster as they attempted to stop them. However, during the Empire's escape, an unknown sniper took out Krieg before his power could be used to save him. So far, there is no information on the sniper.

"Then, about thirty minutes later our camera feed shut off and when it came back on, everyone in our normal prisoner cells were set loose and Rune had been shot in the head." Piggot's expression didn't change as she said it, making me chest clench up in anger. I opened my mouth to say something, but Piggot pressed on before I could.

"And finally, we have Hookwolf. Subject to extreme heats so fast that his outer form melted around him. All three scenarios, we have no idea who is responsible. But what we do know," Piggot held up a finger. "They have someone with enough skill to fire a sniper rifle from far enough away they were able to escape before we track them down. They have the resources to dig massive pits in the middle of the street without getting noticed. And they have the ability to get inside of our building, turn off our cameras, and execute a prisoner."

"Coil would seem like the most likely," Armsmaster said. "He has been known for using ex-military mercenaries before."

"Stop," I demanded, slamming my hoof into the table. The room fell silent and look at me.

"Stop what, precisely, Nova?" Piggot asked me sourly.

"Pretending like you can avoid the subject by moving past it as fast as you can," I responded bitterly, throwing her a dirty look. "How was Rune killed? It was your job to protect her." I stated, removing my hoof from the table and placing it on the floor in an angry gesture.

"It was our job to arrest her," Piggot countered. "When you cons-"

"No!" I shouted at her, causing everyone to take a step back as my voice took an odd inflection that made it sound more powerful. "She wanted to become a Ward! She wanted to be one of you!" I pointed a hoof at all the heroes lined up. "But she was in the prison cell because you couldn't give her a chance, because it would hurt your precious PR too much. Her death is on your stupid prejudices! And now we don't even have a clue who is responsible!

I hadn't thought half of the things I said until I said them, but once I had, I knew I was right. Rune had been locked away for two weeks with the hope that these people would make her a hero, and now she was dead because of it. Because they took one look at her and said 'Nazi'.

I turned around started walking out the door. Cheshire who had been unusually quiet, walking right behind me.

"Nova!" I heard a familiar voice calling. I turned and saw Miss Militia striding forward after me. "I'm sorry about Rune," she said sincerely, "But we aren't going to find who is responsible any easier without your help. Whoever these people are, they're dangerous."

"They are," I said honestly. "But I think it is obvious that Director Piggot doesn't care about Rune and never has. And I'm going to find who killed her, and I can't do that here."

***