Grue looked much as he ever did, a human shape wreathed in smoky darkness.

He looked much as he ever did, which is to say not much at all.

His skull mask showed through, when he was still like this, but his face was impossible to make out, let alone his facial expressions.

Unfortunate when trying to figure out where you stand with someone.

Even his body language was masked beneath the layer of darkness, when it was billowing around him like it was, making him seem larger.  I thought maybe he had his arms folded, but I couldn’t be sure, and he had his feet planted shoulder width apart.

And his voice has the distortion going for it.

Basically he’s pretty inscrutable at the moment.

Regent looked a little worse for wear.  He was wet, dirty, spattered in blood, and he had a long cut running from the side of his neck to his shoulder, down to his elbow, all neatly stitched up.

I remember the wave in Interlude 8 / 8.3 was mentioned to have incapacitated Regent a bit, though not enough for the armband to go “Regent down, CD-5″.

I hadn’t heard any alerts about him being taken out of action, so I assumed it wasn’t that serious.  That, or it was serious, and my broken armband hadn’t caught the message.

I mean, who knows what happened to him after that wave.

“Skitter,” she went on, “Just to be clear, you would be well advised to keep your mouth shut, until we’ve come to a consensus here.  Or you could get your team in trouble.”

…you mean in general, not just about Sophia Stalker?

“Noted,” I replied.Armsmaster let me stand, but he settled his one hand on my shoulder, held on with an steel grip that left me no illusions about my ability to walk over and join my friends.

I would not want to go up against Armmaster in an arm wrestling contest.

Ex-friends?  I wasn’t sure where we stood.  I hadn’t expected them to come to my defense.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

Sounds like their reaction to “Skitter deceased” might’ve got them thinking.

“I’m at about ninety percent,” Tattletale’s voice informed me.  “You’re the one that gave us a scare.”

Oh phew.

Okay so I know, I know, I said it’d feel a little bit like a cop-out if it turned out “losses” did include those who were “down”, but honestly I’m just really relieved to have her back. Favorite character all the way. 🙂

I sagged in relief.

Same.

“I would ask you to step back and let us handle this,” Miss Militia told him.  “If any of you do decide to stay, and Skitter divulges the confidential information she’s happened upon, you could be just as culpable, face the same restrictions and penalties.”

That seems fair, at least as long as she’s giving them advance warning like this.

Grue replied, “So you want us to leave a teammate in your custody, here?  No.  That’s ridiculous.  I can’t speak for the others, but I’m staying.”

Eyyy, he called her his teammate! 😀

Teammate.  He’d said I was his teammate.

There was a pause.

He did! 😀

“All four of you, then,” Miss Militia replied, sighing, “I expected as much.  I simply thought you should be informed.”

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Also, “four” – sounds like we’ve got the whole gang present, including Rachel, who seemed to be left behind when Taylor was brought in.

“I don’t think you understand what you’re saying,” Legend spoke as if choosing his words carefully.

Is there a third option?

I took a deep breath.  “Is there a third option?” 

Ahahahaha!

There have been cases of “I just said that” but I don’t think it’s ever been this accurate before!

“You do not get to negotiate!” Armsmaster roared.  Heads turned.

Calm down, man.

Feeling a flare of anger, I retorted, “So he gets to yell, but I don’t?”

“We have the authority here!” Armsmaster shouted.

I… don’t actually think he does get to yell. Right, Legend? I feel like this is the kind of thing Armmaster is getting demoted for.

“The only authority you have is the authority people give you.”  It wasn’t me who responded.  The voice was male, familiar.

“Grue!” I called out.

!!

Hi there! Are you supposed to be here?

I… would not be too surprised to see Grue accepting an offer to join the Wards. The Undersiders’ trust in Coil is at a low right now, and becoming a Ward would provide Grue with a more legal, and more stable, way to earn a good salary to use in order to care for Aisha.

“You’re alive,” Grue responded.  “We thought-”

“Is she okay?  Tattletale!?”

Aw, they heard the “Skitter deceased” too. Somehow that ended up slipping my mind.

And when I did think about it?  No.  Not with Sophia there.  No way, no how.  If I stepped on her turf, I suspected one of us would kill the other.  Besides, there wasn’t one thing about joining the Wards that was even remotely redeeming.

How so? Becoming officially a hero isn’t redeeming?

“No?” he sounded surprised.

“Just… no.  I’d sooner go to the Birdcage.”  I was surprised that I actually meant it.

Yeeah. Taylor might’ve had a different tune if she hadn’t just found out who she’d end up working with. Honestly, it’s probably better this way – if she hadn’t, and then went to meet the Wards, she’d get the nasty surprise a bit too late, and possibly have it be mutual.

My contempt for the heroes was growing.  Armsmaster had refused to cooperate with me on any level.  Glory Girl and Panacea hadn’t done anything to earn my respect when I ran into them.  Topping it off, they had a personality like Sophia’s on their team?  I couldn’t even imagine joining them, now.

…fair.

“Well, I suppose I’ll have to keep that in mind.”  When Legend returned his attention to me, his lips were creased in a frown.

‘course, this isn’t exactly helpful for Taylor.

What could I say to defend myself now?  Anything I said would be colored by Armsmaster’s undeserved comment on my personality.

It’s deserved, but only from Armmaster’s perspective.

“Another option would be for you to join the Wards.  We were willing to offer you this when we got around to talking to you, before seeing you on your way.

Called it!

You would be placed under varying degrees of probation based on your past crimes, but you would earn a paycheck, you’d have a career-”

Much like Sophia.

…who is now another reason for Taylor to not take this deal. Based on what we saw in Interlude 3, the Wards are open about their identities. Joining the Wards would not only mean working with Sophia, but also Sophia finding out Taylor’s identity in turn.

With Sophia as a Ward, cape life might be pretty terrible. Taylor’s doing this to escape from the Harpies, after all.

“No.” The word left my mouth before I even thought about it.

Yeah, figured as much.

How honest do you feel like being about your reasons why, Taylor?

I had to keep myself from laughing again.  This shit was too ridiculous.  This was Sophia.  She was five times the villain I was.

Yeah. She does seem to take her hero work seriously, but she’s still a total bitch both in and out of costume.

The only difference between us were the labels that we stuck on ourselves.  I told him, “It was an accident.”

That’s true. No use lying when the truth is the best option anyway.

It didn’t even occur to Taylor that something like this could happen before it did.

“Okay,” Legend told me.

Armsmaster told him, “Skitter here has been building a fairly strong reputation as an adept liar, so be cautious.”

Has she now.

I suppose it makes sense that Armmaster would see it that way, when she didn’t come through on her supposed recon mission, even after she got the last bit of information she said she wanted to get (though Army doesn’t know about that part).

“Oh?”

“She’s fooled my instincts and my hardware on more than one occasion.”

Nice, she’s actually got him thinking that she managed to fool his lie detector.

When I didn’t come up with a response right away, he added, “If the tables were turned, if it was you who had your identity uncovered, you would want us taking the same firm hand, giving you that same respect.”

…would they?

I couldn’t help but chuckle silently for a second there.  The armor of my mask clacked against the countertop as I let my head rest there.  Respect?  For Sophia?

Heh.

Besides, I had suspicions that if the tables were turned, Shadow Stalker wouldn’t be pinned against the counter of the nurse’s station.

Yeah, probably not. The Protectorate are very naturally going to trust the heroes more than the villains, including a former villain on probation as a hero.

Wait, was it former villain or formerly an anti-hero? I don’t remember. My point stands either way.

Taking a deep breath – no use digging myself in deeper – I asked, “You were talking options.  What are they?”

“If you were judged to have used an Endbringer situation to your advantage,

…ironic that they should bring that up right now, given Taylor’s suspicions.

you would meet the most serious penalty we can offer.  Those who violate the Endbringer truce are almost always sent to the Birdcage,” he let that last word hang in the air.

Good to hear they take it seriously, at least.

I shook my head a little, as if it could get my thoughts back on track.  “Nobody explained anything.  You guys were going to arrest me, so I thought I’d leave.”

Ahahaha, I love that casual phrasing. :p

“Hospital personnel aren’t permitted to talk to patients, liability reasons,” Miss Militia told me, echoing what I’d heard earlier.

“Figured as much when the nurse didn’t answer my questions,” I muttered.  No use dragging that nurse-in-training down with me.  She’d been nice.

Yeah, don’t get her in trouble.

“But Panacea did have words with me when she was putting me back together, and-”

“Panacea is a member of New Wave,” Armsmaster spoke, and I got the impression the explanation or excuse was meant more for Legend than it was for me, “She’s not official.”

In other words, “We’re not responsible for this.”

Interesting wording, though. “Not official.” I suppose that’s at least partially because the team is not government-funded.

“She’s the only person who would talk to me!” I raised my voice.

“I would ask you to keep your voice down,” Legend spoke, his voice hard, “There’s very few ways a situation like this can go, with a cape’s civilian identity at stake.

Best not to let anyone overhear what goes on in here.

If you start shouting, specifically shouting what you know, it would severely curtail what options you have left to you.  Understand?”

Yeah.