Mercifully, Miss Militia took my panicked, barely coherent explanation at face value. Did I know exactly what was coming? Not in the slightest, beyond there was a big fight and boy did it go poorly. I knew the heroes and villains put on a truce to deal with her and I vaguely remembered the idea that I had tried against Leviathan a couple times. Not useful, but I could at least tell her to tell everyone to not get eaten.

  It took a little over an hour for everyone to arrive at the headquarters, everyone local anyway. A number of calls had come in while we were waiting, reports of awful howls and quake-like rumbling. She wasn't far, somewhere in the downtown still. Well, so we hoped. I'd been told to sit tight in the back of a van, and Miss Militia sat across from me, staring.

  “I told you everything,” I spoke into the silence. “I did.”

  “You did,” she agreed.

  “I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Coil it...” I took a deep breath. “You remember he kidnapped Dinah Alcott right? A precog, like me.”

  “He wouldn't have dared.”

  “Wouldn't he?” I countered. “Man faked his own death and took over the PRT, he dared plenty. Too much, this time.”

  “Still he--”

  “I'm sorry,” I snapped. “I don't know how many more times I have to say it. Can we just...focus on the problem at hand?”

  “Problem?” Clockblocker asked as he opened the door. “Another one?”

  “What's the matter?” Miss Militia demanded.

  “Vista isn't here,” he replied tensely. “Not answering her cell either, but it's ringing. Not answering her home phone either.” A chill went up my spine.

  “Where were the Undersiders last reported?” she asked, pulling out her phone and tapping the screen.

  “It's not them, it's Noelle,” I cut in. “Remember when I told you to not get eaten? She spits out evil clones, it's fucked up. There's...a pretty good chance she got found.”

  “Evil clones?” Clockblocker looked between me and Miss Militia. “Okay I must have missed that part of the briefing, but ma'am, what do we do now?” She took a deep breath, in through her nose, then sighed.

  “Wait for a call,” Miss Militia replied. “New Wave said they would only join if absolutely necessary, given their casualties. We've sent out the call for further reinforcements, but there aren't enough teleporters for them to assemble quickly. We don't have the flyers needed to scout so...unfortunately, we must be reactive, unless Amaranth remembers something else.” I just shook my head.

  As it turned out, we didn't wait long for a call to come in. A frantic woman, babbling about a monster that took out the side of her fourth floor apartment. The others piled in the van and we took off with a roar from the engine. Within minutes, we'd arrived and began securing the area. The entire facade of the building had been taken off, exposing a number of run-down apartments to the night air. More vans pulled up and the other heroes joined us.

  Jesus god...I could not be stupid about this. Frankly I'd rather have sat it out entirely, let the heroes and villains work like they had in the story. That wasn't viable for a bunch of reasons. The PRT wouldn't let me sit this out, no way in hell. Besides that...could I really just stand by and let a bunch of people get hurt? Easily, I'd literally just have to sit on my hands. Would I do it though?

  “Undersiders,” I heard Miss Militia bark, then the metallic racking of a bolt. “Coming to inspect the mess you made?”

  “We had nothing to do with this.” I turned and saw...well it had to be Skitter, but she looked more bug than human. “Not directly.”

  “Not directly,” Miss Militia repeated.

  I looked over the Undersiders and frowned. They looked...different. Rachel and Tattletale were both wearing cloth masks over the bottom of their faces, and Tattletale's costume had a number of conspicuous holes. It might have just been the swarm, but Skitter seemed to be hunched over, like she was in serious pain. Imp and Regent were leaning on each other, and I saw stains on the latter's white shirt. Grue was entirely absent.

  “You guys took out Calvert?” I asked, ignoring the way everyone turned to look at me. “It's fine, Miss Militia knows, I know.”

  “Calvert was Coil,” Skitter explained, though her c's needed some work. Speaking through bugs must have been a bitch. “Tried to kill us. Didn't work.”

  “You'll get the Order of Lenin for this,” I quipped, then sighed. “Seriously, thank you.”

  “You're thanking them for killing our director?” Clockblocker asked. He sounded pissed.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I'm thanking them for letting me avoid what happened to Dinah Alcott,” I retorted, making him flinch. “And for letting me get a warning out before they decided to reach out. You would have reached out, right?”

  “Of course,” Skitter said.

  “You called in backup, right?” Tattletale spoke up, her voice sounding...off. Slurred, like she was having trouble with her lips. “You're going to need more, every cape you can get, the Endbringer list, everyone.”

  “They're coming,” Miss Militia replied tersely. “The situation has already been verified by our Thinker teams; Chevalier is on his way with a strike team as we speak, and more capes are volunteering every moment.”

  “Not the Triumvirate though?” I asked, getting a look. “Sorry just...dunno, thought they would come for this.”

  “They need to,” Tattletale said, letting out a rattling cough. “This is big big, S-class, or damn close.” There was a sharp, collective gasp behind me.

  “Bullshit,” Triumph snapped.

  “There are six S-class threats,” Miss Militia said slowly as she lowered her rifle. “The Endbringers are three, the Nine together are another. You're saying she's on par with them?”

  “She's a nascent Endbringer,” Skitter explained.

  “She's not,” I corrected. “But that doesn't matter. Much as I hate to say it ma'am, Tattletale's right.”

  “Fuck me,” I heard Weld whisper. “This isn't just a mindgame, is it?”

  “Nope,” Tattletale replied, her eyes locked on me. “And she already has someone, but you know that don't you? Doesn't matter, Coil's precog says she won't be causing any major damage til dawn, so we have a couple hours at least.”

  “Couple hours to find her and stop her before she does,” I said, popping my knuckles. “We should get moving as soon as the first of our backup arrives. The longer we wait, the better chance she finds someone worse to eat.”

  “The Protectorate and Wards teams are accounted for,” Miss Militia countered. “The Undersiders are here, though I wonder about Grue...”

  “Grue's dealing with something else.” Skitter's swarm managed to sound pissed despite the lack of inflection. “We're accounted for.”

  “You're missing someone else,” Tattletale said, sing-song. “Where're your little lovebirds Parian and Flechette?”

  “Flechette is escorting Parian to our headquarters,” Miss Militia said evenly.

  “Then great, all accounted for.” I clapped my hands together. “Now can we go deal with the baby not-Endbringer or are we going to stand around all night bitching?”

  “Back off, Amaranth,” Clockblocker said in a low voice. “Pushing it.”

  “We wait for our reinforcements,” Miss Militia said, casting a sidelong glare at me. “And given the situation and the...verification, I believe a tentative truce could be agreed to. Considering your past behaviour under them though, we'll need something else: a hostage.” I rolled my eyes.

  While they negotiated, I looked again at the Undersiders. What the hell happened to them? I couldn't just ask, not with everyone right here. It was hard to see in the dark, but Rachel's coat looked like it had a few darker spots like burns, along with holes like Tattletale's costume. That didn't make sense to me. I didn't quite remember how things went of course, but I was fairly sure Skitter was the only one that got set on fire. Had Coil tried to do a clean sweep, wipe them all out?

  Tattletale caught me staring and, even though her face was covered, I knew she was grinning. Her hair was a mess, braid half-down. All of them, really, looked like they'd been through hell. It was a little worrying, but ultimately not my problem. If they were too injured to get away from Noelle...no, it really was my problem.

  “Weld, Clockblocker, Kid Win, with me,” Miss Militia snapped, drawing my attention. It seemed negotiations were finished. They clambered into the back of a van after Skitter, our chosen hostage apparently. The doors shut, and with the roar of the van's engine, they were gone.

  “Alright, everyone else, we'll divide you between the remaining vans,” Assault called out once they were gone. “Hellhound, shrink your dogs so we can transport them.”

  “Doesn't work like that,” she growled, sounding pained. “Give 'em a fucking minute.” He grunted in reply.

  “Perimeter, ten meters!” he barked. I headed a ways up the road to keep watch.

  This was kind of a shitshow, between the hostage-taking and the way we were retreating instead of trying to catch Echidna out before she got too dangerous. We had everyone we needed, at least if we could find Sundancer and convince her that there really wasn't such a thing as overkill and also Echidna doesn't count.

  I forced myself to take a deep breath. It was fine, the PRT was being cautious after having so many disasters stringing them out. They wanted more bodies, which was maybe a mistake against Noelle specifically but made sense considering their experience with the Endbringers. And hey, maybe with the extra warning they could get someone else who'd totally annihilate her. And if wishes were fishes...

  A shimmer just up the street caught my eye. I peered through the darkness at the mouth of the alley, taking a step closer. The streets here still had a low level of water, but even the sidewalk was tall enough to be out of it. It was a puddle, but as I watched I saw it slowly expanding. It caught a flicker of light and my eyes widened.

  “Blood in an alley, three meters, gonna check it out,” I said, pressing my finger against my radio earbud.

  “Weld, back her up,” Assualt came back a second later.

  I heard an affirmative and saw him trailing behind me as I cautiously approached the alley. I didn't call out, didn't want to give myself away to whoever was bleeding...just in case. I poked my head around the alley, squinting into the near-pitch black gloom. It was a dead end, making it even harder to see anything, but there was a little bundle of rags that seemed to be shivering. I frowned and knelt next to them, reaching out a hand.

  “Hey, are you hu--” My voice caught in my throat as they turned their head to face me.

  A hideous, twisted version of Vista stared back.

  “Weld get back, it's--”

  My shout was cut off by a scream, torn from my throat as something further in the alley grabbed me and yanked me deeper. It was like a thousand hot, disgustingly wet hands pulling me in, surrounding me in heat and humidity. I head a dull rumbling, overwhelmed by a tremendous, bone-shaking heartbeat that made my teeth ache. A touch made me flinch, and I screamed as something burned against my arm. My breath came quick and panicked, but I couldn't get enough oxygen into my lungs. My vision flickered and I let out a low moan, the most I could manage as the thundering 'lub-lub' of Echidna's heart dragged me under.