“Yeah.”

“Then tell me what to do.”  She didn’t meet my eyes.  “I don’t know anymore.  I’ve spent so long helping others, and I’m so scared, I feel numb.  My brain isn’t working.  Can’t think straight.  I-  I just don’t know anymore.  I’m not making any promises, I won’t fight, won’t face the Nine, don’t want to talk to Tattletale, but…” she trailed off, unable to finish her thought.

I’ve been having the thought “what if Amy became an Undersider” churning in the back of my head for some time now. I’ve fucked up in not mentioning it before now, but that’s beside the point. The point is that this is pretty damn close to that coming true, especially if it becomes a long-term thing.

And I’m so here for it.

I swallowed.  I couldn’t even manage with myself, and now she wanted me to guide her?

Heh.

Relatable, honestly.

“Okay,” I said.  My mind was going a mile a minute.  She was one of the most powerful parahumans native to Brockton Bay.  How was I supposed to use her?

First of all, fix your leg. You seem to be walking around fine for now, but I can’t imagine it didn’t take some damage that could come back to haunt you soon enough, when you have to run from some threat.

But seriously, it’s going to be incredibly good to have a healer around.

One idea crossed my mind, and I hated myself for thinking it, for the stark fear I felt at the thought.  “Okay.  I won’t ask you to face the Nine.  But you can give us the ability to go after them, to fight them.

Are you talking about something like what Bonesaw’s done to the squishies among the Nine, having the girl with biological mastery give you protections?

There’s this part of the brain that Bonesaw called the… Corona something.  Corona potential?  Can you access mine?

Ah shit, she’s asking Amy to mess with her brain. That won’t go over well considering how that ended last time.

Tweak my power, give me more range?  As much as you can.”

Seriously, though, this is a pretty awesome idea.

She spoke at a low enough volume that I doubted the words were reaching the others.  “I’ve had nightmares about her.  Not saying I take back how I shouted at her, but she brought up shit, and the fact that Victoria heard it, I couldn’t shake it.

Yeah, some of the stuff she threatened to reveal has turned out quite… housebreaking.

It affected the way I thought, the way I acted.  Victoria knew something was up, she respected my privacy, but she had suspicions.  If Tattletale hadn’t said anything, I could have dealt with Bonesaw coming to my house and fucking with me, getting me to break my code.  Or Bonesaw might not have come at all.  I don’t know.  Victoria would have listened to me, maybe.  Given me the benefit of the doubt.”

I don’t think that last thing would’ve happened. Victoria is a fairly rash person, and nothing about her behavior suggests to me that she would’ve reacted better if she hadn’t heard what Lisa said and seen Amy act differently because of it. If anything, I think she’d react worse, being totally unprepared for it.

“We didn’t expect you to be at the bank.  We were cornered, Tattletale used the power she was given to get us out of that spot.  I’m sorry it happened.”

I appreciate the honesty on both sides here. These two are connecting.

I actually don’t think Amy would admit what she just said to anyone except Taylor (and maybe Victoria, after a hypothetical reconciliation) at this point.

“She didn’t plan that.  It might have started that way, but she wasn’t the cause of everything that followed,” I said.  I wondered if I was trying to convince myself.

Exactly.

There’s a pretty sizable disconnect.

Amy glared down at the ground.  A quick glance showed that Grue, Trickster and Sundancer were all trying to avoid engaging in this conversation.

Hah!

I like that that’s being addressed, honestly. The reader isn’t left to think “why are only the two of them talking”, and the answer honestly makes for a funny mental image of the boys and Sunny awkwardly looking everywhere but at the two of them, striking the most clearly uninvolved poses they can manage.

I got the small kit from my utility compartment and approached her.  She kept still while I got out the disinfectant, bandages and tape and covered the fingers Siberian had shortened by one segment.

“How can you even be teammates with her?”  Amy asked me.  “Are you friends?”

I would go so far as to say best friends.

It might have something to do with not having been on her bad side before.

“We are.”

“Everything that happened to me, it’s like it all snowballed out from the moment you assholes robbed the bank.”

What? How?

There were absolutely things that snowballed from that (including Taylor being outed as a mole in the Undersiders, in part because of Amy), but I see no connection between that – or anything else the Undersiders did – and everything later that negatively affected Amy. At least no connection that Amy should know about.

Is it the whole villainous father deal? As far as I remember, she already knew about the “villainous” part, though, just not which villain.

Me too.  I’d met and ultimately joined the Undersiders because of Tattletale, and everything had followed from that.

That’s true, though. She may not have been on Tattletale’s bad side, but she has been manipulated by her in ways that are fundamental to her story.

“It was one of the reasons,” Tattletale started, “Skitter-”

“Shut up!”  The words were a screech as they came out of Amy’s mouth.

Seriously, Lisa, I think you’re better off just listening to her. Maybe you can ask Taylor to ask Amy whatever it was, when Amy isn’t paying attention to the two of you.

Tattletale turned a hundred and eighty degrees, so her back was to Amy, and looked in the direction of Grue and I.  “I’m done.  No point, fuck it.  I’m going to try calling the others again while you handle this.”

I like this trait of Lisa’s, the consistent indignation when people refuse to listen to her.

There were a few long seconds of tension as we all stood there, Tattletale a short distance away, phone to her ear.

I decided to break the silence.  “How are your fingers?  You’re using your power to keep the bleeding down?”

She ca– oh, right, the microbe thing.

Amy glanced at her hand, and a dark look crossed her face.  “Yeah.”

Didn’t want them to figure that out, did you?

“I’ve got bandages, if you want them.  Only the most basic first aid supplies, but maybe they’ll help?”

“Okay.”

Thank you, Amy, for not refusing the help. You’re not in a position to be doing that kind of thing right now, and they did save your life at their own risk, regardless of why they did it.

Tattletale turned her head, “Hey, Amy, listen.  Can I ask you a quest-”

Not now, Lisa.

Also, maybe not you. You’re the one here Amy likes the very least.

“Don’t,” Amy snapped, shifting gears from self-pity to fury in a heartbeat.  “Don’t talk to me.  Don’t even look at me, you bitch.”

Yeah, this is not a surprising reaction.

“This is important.”

“What part of what I just said did you not understand!?”

“You’d think we didn’t just save your life,” Trickster said, folding his arms.

I mean, true. I’d be pointing that out myself if she were snapping like this at anyone other than Tattletale.

“You did it to delay Siberian.  Or so she said,” Amy replied, glancing at Tattletale.

I mean, that was one of the reasons. Another one of them was “save Amy”.

“My fingers,” she moaned, as she looked at her hand.  “I ran as fast as I could, but it wasn’t fast enough.  She kept catching me.”

Hey, at least you’re lucky she was playing with her food.

“I know.  There was nothing you could have done,” I said.

“It’s not right,” Amy shook her head.  She was still backing away. “This isn’t the way things should be.  Superpowers and Endbringers and things like Siberian… it’s so fucked up.  We- there should be a way to fight back, but there isn’t, so much of the time.”

Hey, you know how I’ve talked about Amy and Taylor being similar in some ways?

This brings me back to 8.8, even though that was more specifically about the hero/villain distinction being a bit grayer than it should be.

“There is,” I said.  “It’s hard to find, but there’s always a way.”

This might be the most optimistic line we’ve ever heard from Taylor’s mouth.

But it’s not out of character in the slightest, because this is exactly what she’s been trying to do. She has practiced what she’s preaching, against overwhelming odds.

Taylor fights for hope.