Sierra didn’t give it a second thought until she heard the shutter sliding open.

Hm?

Skitter’s back?

“Not the front door!”  Sierra called out, but the kids were already out the front door.  She sighed.

Oh.

Whoops. Kinda wanted to keep this building secret.

“They’re afraid of the storm sewer,” Charlotte pointed out.

Ahh. Sierra’s not one to speak when it comes to that.

“I know.  It’s not that big a deal.  I’m going to go out with the next group, just to keep an eye on the delivery process.”

“Okay.  I’ll prep some for you to carry,” Charlotte said.  “Find more tupperware or pots I can put this in?”

Alright, so if things go as planned, we’re probably going out with Sierra and the kids.

Sierra nodded and turned to do as she’d been asked, but the kids were already hopping to the task.  She let them go ahead.  It seemed they were glad for something to occupy themselves with.

People deal with grief in different ways. This is one of them. Child labor or not, allowing them to help like this is kind as long as it’s allowing them to help rather than making them help.

Maybe they recognized how shitty the overall situation was and they wanted to help fix it.

Some of the older ones, maybe.

She suspected she’d find the necessary tupperware faster than the four kids combined, but it wasn’t a big deal.

“Well, well, well.”

…

That doesn’t sound like anyone present, nor like Skitter.

If anything, it sounds like Jack.

Don’t you fucking dare. Just leave the city and doom the world already.

“Have her cut it out?  I don’t want to sound like I’m giving you orders, but I don’t want my little brother shooting people.”

“It’s fine.  Tattletale told us to do whatever you required as far as the boy is concerned.  I will tell Minor, and he will order the others to keep the boy away from weapons.”

Sounds alright.

“Thank you.”

“I will also decide on a punishment for the boy for being rude and hanging up on his sister.  I think we would all like him to learn some respect for his betters.”

I know, right?

She could imagine him looking at Bryce as he said it.

Hehe.

“Nothing too serious?  As punishment goes?”

“Nothing serious.  It will build character.”

‘Course, who knows what “nothing serious” means to Jaw.

“Thank you.  Any word on what Skitter and Tattletale are doing?”

“No.  All I know is that it will be dangerous, and every squad is on high alert.  We are sleeping in shifts, maintaining combat readiness and doubling patrols.

In case the Undertravelers need backup.

I take it they haven’t requested the Coildier support to the Boat Graveyard yet?

We were informed three hours ago that the downtown area is off-limits.  I know Lieutenant Fish was deployed there when the order came down, and he has ceased all communications.”

Alright, I’m pretty sure it hadn’t been three hours since the miasma struck, so it looks like the chronology is linear here.

“All of downtown?”

“Yes.”

Probably worth staying out of a bit beyond that, too.

She hung up and headed for the bathroom to tend to the damage her hands had accumulated over the day’s work.  Disinfectant, antibiotic ointment, bandages.  Every time she thought she’d found the last small scrape, she found another.

I hope there was an unnarrated goodbye here. Otherwise I’d have to question the entire Kiley family’s phone manners.

“It’s a good thing that you’re not being dragged into a firefight.  Especially one with capes.”

“They’ve been teaching me how to fight with a knife, how to throw one, how to use a gun-”

That doesn’t mean you should seek out situations where you have to do it.

“I don’t want you learning that stuff.”

Also that. I didn’t expect her to take kindly to that.

“I have to, in case we get ambushed or something.  And I’m not bad at it.  We could have fought those guys.”

“Did Tattletale tell you that you should fight them?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“No…”

“Like I said, Tattletale isn’t around and hasn’t been for a while.”

“So the answer is no, she didn’t give you the go-ahead.”

So if Lisa did tell Bryce to fight some capes, how would you take that, Sierra?

“No.”

“That’s a good enough reason to back off, then.  I don’t know exactly who she is or what she does, but she knows what she’s doing.  Trust her in that.”

Most of the time, yeah.

Skitter had been gone for roughly as long as Tattletale.

“Is that it?” Bryce asked.

I’m sorry, Sierra, but I have to say it: Bryce is an inconsiderate, ungrateful little fucker.

“I was hoping for more than two words of response.  How’s your hand?”

“Hurts.”

“Here, have a third word.”

“That’s going to happen.  You lost all four fingers.”

“No.  It hurts like my fingers are still there and they’re being crushed.”

That’s called phantom pains, right? The nerves have been cut off at the roots of the fingers, but the brain can’t tell the signals don’t come from further out.

She didn’t know what to say to that.  I’m sorry?  You deserved what you got?

I’m not sure I’d say he deserved it, but he sure as hell didn’t make it so he didn’t deserve it.

If that makes any sense.

“Ask Tattletale about it?”

I think this is a normal result of amputations. I’ve heard of the same thing happening with entire limbs, like leg amputees thinking they can feel toe pains.

Of course, it’s also possible that there’s some parahuman stuff going on, but I doubt it.

“She’s gone.  Has been for more than a day, now.  Jaw said she’s not to be disturbed with phone calls or anything like that.”

Well, that’s gonna sound familiar to Sierra.

Skitter had been gone for roughly as long as Tattletale.

Alright, so she hasn’t been away for that long. Might even be a bit early for Charlotte to be thinking “what if she never comes back”.

According to Charlotte, Skitter had invited a bunch of local villains over and then left shortly after.  They were probably the other eight territory bosses who were working to occupy the city.  That had been over forty-eight hours ago.

Ah, two days. Yeah, sounds about right.