Something caught her attention.  A vibration in the road?

Hmm.

Maybe that’s what she’s been stopping to sense for?

Or had she used her power to protect the ground, and sensed some impact as the dogs walked on it?

Which would also work to find Amy.

Either way, she started to chase us.  We could have turned at a right angle, to hopefully throw her off, but both Grue and I knew that if we did, and she continued straight, she’d run straight into Amy.

Well, fuck.

Fast.  She was fast.  Not as much as Battery or Velocity might have been on a good day, but highly mobile.

…maybe the real body isn’t. Like with Genesis, a trigger event involving that kind of thing could result in a power that lets you move around in a separate body with incredible mobility and strength.

Maybe look for wheelchairs and the like?

It is worth noting that Siberian needs to be able to have their real body follow along without it being significantly slower than the Nine overall.

The thought clicked into the blank I was looking to fill.  How was her alter ego getting around?  I’d assumed he was traveling on foot because that was how ninety-percent of the city was getting by.  Very few cars on the road had access to gas and the ability to traverse the broken, flooded streets.  But if there was a range limit to the projection, how was he keeping up with the woman who could ignore air resistance and leap across a city block in a single bound?

Also a really good point! That’s why I’ve suggested trying to get her to the edge of the range, though I’m not sure what it’d accomplish.

With my directions, we looped around the mall and made a beeline for Amy.  Siberian was advancing too, but while she was in the right general area, she didn’t have a means of finding Amy, specifically.  Instead, she leaped from one area to another, pausing for a second or two at a time.

Yeah, gonna be a bit of trial and error here. Hopefully.

What was she doing?

It seems like she might actually have something she expects to be able to detect Amy at a short range, whether it can get past the darkness or not. Maybe something like super-scent?

I swept the area with my power, but I couldn’t find anyone resembling Cherish’s description of Siberian’s real self.

Damn, this is getting kinda suspect. Did Cherish mislead them for some reason?

Or maybe Siberian’s real body has been stowed away in a bug-proof location, anticipating an attack by Skitter somehow?

Was I missing something?  If Cherish had been lying outright, I was under the impression that Lisa would have caught some tell.  There had to be something else to it.

Good point.

Something I could use to identify the man behind the monster.

What was she?  Unstoppable, a deceptively strong, deceptively tough juggernaut of a woman.

And that might be reflected by the other body looking similarly frail but being stronger than one might expect?

And we’re back!