I shrugged.  How did I respond to that?  Confess that I wasn’t sleeping?  That I had nowhere to go?  That I was angry enough in general that I’d been asked to leave one shelter, for yelling at someone who hadn’t entirely deserved it?

Sheesh.

Taylor’s most definitely not okay.

Could I even bring any of that up?

Instead, I guessed, “So.  You knew?”

“Yeah,” Lisa replied, bobbing her head in a nod.  “I’m so sorry.”

I was always bobbing back and forth on this but c o n f i r m e d 😀

“You’re apologizing?” I asked, caught by surprise, “I’m the one who planned on screwing you guys over.”

“But you didn’t.  You changed your mind.  Me?  I had an idea of what you were up to, I lied to you, misled you.  Manipulated you.  Kept it all a big secret.  And I’m sorry for that.  Really.”

…I mean, fair, I guess?

What kind of manipulation are we talking here, though? Manipulation into giving up the recon mission like she ended up doing?

“How long did you know?  When I was lying on my cot in the shelter, wondering whether you did know, thinking back to your expression and the things you’ve said in the past, I thought maybe it was when I decided to leave the group over…”  I paused, looked at the people nearby, who might or might not be in earshot.  “…you know.  But no.  You’ve known from the start.”

Yeah, or at least far longer than that. The apology just now doesn’t make sense with Lisa only figuring it out right before the Endbringer alart.

If Taylor hasn’t seen Lisa since the incident at the hospital, this makes for a good opportunity to catch up with the last two weeks on both sides of the divide, since both people have someone to tell about it. That would also explain why Taylor hasn’t narrated about any of it yet, except for her efforts to get to the monument.

“You getting by?” She asked me.

I shrugged, “I’ve got a cot in one of the shelters for people who lost their homes, and I have some of the cash I brought with me, so I have the basics of what I need.

Did you lose your home, or do you just refuse to go back home due to your falling out with Danny?

Not sure if Coil cancelled my bank account or what, but I might have that too.  I’m surviving.”

I mean, Coil doesn’t seem like the type to cut a former employee off from the salary they already received. He’s a villain with some questionable morals, but that doesn’t sound like him.

“I figured you would be.  What I want to know is if you’re okay.”

A whole other question, that.

“They’re names, and this took time,” I said in answer, turning back to the memorial.  “They mean something to someone.”

Yeah… Good way of putting it without giving away that you know who these names belong to.

Or that they were dogs. I don’t think the man would take that well.

“I think you’re right,” a girl said.

The father didn’t respond, just continuing to walk around the memorial.  I waited until the father was gone before I stood, checked to see that most of the people who’d been visiting were off getting their lunches, the rest out of earshot.  I turned to face the girl, sticking my hands in my pockets.

Rachel? Lisa? Someone else we know?

Lisa’d had the sense to dress warmer than me.

Hiya!

I have a feeling Lisa’s going to treat Taylor much like she ever has, unlike the rest of the team. Maybe she’s going to explain that she knew for a while, and why she didn’t tell the others or call Taylor out on it privately.

Her hair was up in two tight buns, just behind her ears, and she wore sunglasses, an oversized sweater and a skirt with tights underneath.  She had a backpack slung over one shoulder.  She smiled lightly, almost sadly.

Sounds like a nice outfit.

If his name was here, it meant he hadn’t made it.  Hadn’t it been a problem with his leg?  How did that kill someone?  It was hard to figure out how I felt about it.  Disappointed?  Sad for him?

I suppose maybe he was caught by the wave, like the overweight guy. Chubster, wasn’t it? Although Chubster wasn’t on the list. Did he make it through the wave after all?

It was hard to figure out how I felt, period.  Not just about the dead.

…I see. Which end of the spectrum are we on here? Lots of conflicting emotions? No emotions, as with depression?

I shivered, and rubbed my arms to warm up.  It was sunny out, but cool air rolled down from the nearby mountains, and the amount of moisture in the air made for a damp cold.

Should have brought something warmer to wear.  I stepped back and out of the way so a pair of parents with a toddler could pass by me.

Surely there’s nothing metaphorical about the weather giving Taylor chills while she’s reading a list of dead people. Nothing at all.

Rubbing my sleeves against my arms, I traveled around to the right, to the far side of the memorial, which faced the city.

Oh, was that the end of the list? I guess they did catch themselves before putting Skitter on there, then.

Impel / Corey Steffons
Iron Falcon / Brent Woodrow
Jotun /
Kaiser / Max Anders
Manpower / Neil Pelham
Mister Eminent /
Oaf / Wesley Scheaffer
Pelter / Stefanie Lamana
Penitent /
Quark / Caroline Ranson
Resolute / Georgia Woo
Saurian / Darlene Beckman

What a conspicuous place for this list quote to end… 😉

Is Taylor going to comment on Kaiser now?

I noted Iron Falcon on the list.

Huh. Not at first, I suppose.

…should I remember the name Brent Woodrow from somewhere? I don’t think so.

A few nights ago, trying and failing to fall asleep, managing a half-sleep where my thoughts drifted, I’d made the connection between the boy I’d helped and the ‘Iron Falcon down’ report I’d heard from the armband.

Ahh, right, that guy!

Well, seems he didn’t make it, then.

The name had maybe stuck with me because I could remember reading about how it was becoming a trend for heroes to go the easy route and stick -hawk or some other bird of prey on the end of their names.  Laserhawk, Flame Falcon, Steel Eagle, and so on.

Hah, nice.

It had become unfashionable, but apparently Iron Falcon had stuck with it.

Sure seems like it.

Are you sure that’s the only reason the name stuck with you, though?

More than half of the city was without power, two thirds had no running water, and even with the rest of the country and the world pitching in, uneven food distribution, health concerns, lack of facilities and rampant looting and crime made for dangerous living.

Yikes.

Buses were leaving every hour with evacuees, but the city was still thick with crowds of people just struggling to get by.  Too many were people who had no relatives or friends to go to, who wouldn’t leave their remaining possessions behind to be taken by unscrupulous thieves.  Captain’s Hill, for now, was a place that was safe, dry and clean.

Yeeeah. Gee, thanks, Leviathan. You made Brockton Bay even more of a shithole than it already was.

I walked around the monument, noting the names.

Escutcheon / Tyrone Venson
Erudite / Mavis Shoff
Fenja / Jessica Biermann

Oh nice, they’re putting up the civilian names too.

I suppose that’s a point against Skitter being on there.

Fierceling /
Frenetic /
Furrow /

That said, there were naturally going to be some people they couldn’t find out for. That would make them being unaware of Skitter’s name a bit less conspicuous, but they’d still have to look into it.

Gallant / Dean Stansfield
Geomancer / Tim Mars
Good Neighbor / Roberto Peets
Hallow /
Herald / Gordon Eckhart
Humble /

The alphabetic listing is well-suited to putting “Skitter /” near the end.

Gallant was dead. Unsettling to think that I’d met him and fought him.   Or, rather, I’d fought against his team in the same skirmish, even if we hadn’t actually paid attention to one another in the fight.  Now he was gone.

Yeah…

I could guess that the ones without names either hadn’t given permission for their names to be released, hadn’t written any will or had reason to keep their names private, protecting teammates.  I circled the monument, walking around to the right.

That, or nobody knew who they were, even after their bodies were unmasked.

Even with the memorial being out of the way, set down in place five days after the attack, it had taken a full week before the worst of the crowds were gone.  Four times, I’d felt compelled to come see it and pay my respects, only to see the press of people and turn back.

I guess that’s to be expected. I’m glad people appreciate the efforts of those who died to save them.

Now I was here, along with a little less than a hundred people, only a small fraction of whom were actually viewing the obelisk.  Others sat on the hill or picnicked.

But of course, things are going to calm down a bit after a while.

So by the sound of it, it’s been at least two weeks or so. Fair enough. Hopefully we’ll learn a bit about what Taylor has been up to in that time besides attempting to visit the obelisk.

As strange and vaguely inappropriate as it seemed, I couldn’t really blame them.  The memorial had been put here, specifically, because the rest of the city had been devastated.

Ah, yeah, I guess there’s not many other places to put it.

Besides, “Captain’s Hill” sounds like a nice picnic location in the first place, just from the name.

In any given area of Brockton Bay, there was flooding, shattered streets, collapsed buildings, septic conditions or ongoing reconstruction.  Often three or four of those things at once.

Lots of stuff to repair after Leviathan’s visit.

Meanwhile Godzilla barely damaged buildings as he passed by them in the movie I watched last night. Though apparently the incarnation I was watching (typically called simply “Zilla”) is vastly inferior to the original Godzilla, who beat him without problem in one of the other movies.

Zilla doesn’t even have the atomic laser breath.

Brockton Bay’s memorial had no statue.  It seemed to be black marble with stainless steel in the core of the monument, so that the etched letters stood out in a metal gleam, even reflecting the sun’s light if the time and viewer’s position was right.

…I wonder if Skitter is on there. I mean, yes, the head of the Protectorate – whether you mean the Protectorate in general or the Protectorate of Brockton Bay – knows she’s alive, but they probably weren’t all that directly involved in the process of getting the list of casualties to the people making the monument. I’m guessing they got the list from the armbands’ system, and it’s very possible that they forgot to say “erase Skitter from the list, her being reported as deceased was an error” before they or their subordinates sent along the list.

The overall shape formed an obelisk, with the corners and base unpolished and rough, only the four sides smoothed and polished.  It was out of the way, placed atop Captain’s Hill, at the base of the mountains to the west of the city.

Captain’s Hill is a good name. I like it.

I wasn’t sure if it was put there to stay or if they intended to move it after reconstruction and city revival efforts.

It would make a lot of sense to put it downtown, next to Lake Heroic, if they’re not filling that in.