Amy drummed her fingers on the conference room table, waiting for the heroes to get back. Well, waiting for the local heroes to get back. She cast a furtive look up the table and tensed at the sight of Eidolon, speaking quietly with the deputy director...Renfield? That sounded right. There were others here, she recognized Chevalier at the very least. The locals had been called out not long ago though, should have been back by now.

  Hopefully Lia was okay, she had a habit of getting herself into situations where her invincibility didn't count. Well, at least she was with the other heroes. Miss Militia seemed able to keep her in check well enough, and hopefully that would be enough. The door to the room opened and Amy turned, worry clutching at her heart.

  The heroes were back...and the villains. The members of the Undersiders were led into the room by the locals. All of them looked freshly battered, holding themselves lightly, limping...and Lia wasn't with them. Amy bit her tongue so she didn't blurt out something stupid like 'did you fucking leave her behind' or 'why the fuck are the villains here and she isn't'. The seats were quickly filled and Eidolon began talking tactics.

  Nothing Amy could help with, of course. She was here to make sure everyone had a clean bill of health before jumping into the jaws of whatever the fuck was waiting. Obviously she had her work cut out for her. It didn't look like the heroes had been injured by the Undersiders, or at least not by Skitter going by the lack of bites. When Miss Militia was called on to talk about what happened, Amy's heart sank.

  “Amaranth was kidnapped by Noelle, the threat we are currently facing.” Her tone was grim. “Noelle is still at large, we were forced into a fighting retreat.”

  “What are her abilities?” Eidolon asked without a hint he cared that Lia might be...

  No, she couldn't be dead or Amy wouldn't remember it. That didn't make her feel any better of course, Lia was still held hostage by a monster. No one seemed to be asking how they were going to save her either. Oh god, she said when she died she went back, but how far? Would it be different this time because she was in the clutches of a major threat like that? Fear squirmed in her guts. Would Amy's fix be undone? Guilt gnawed at her stomach; Lia could be dying and Amy was worried about how she'd be affected.

  She had to help, any way she could. If no one cared about Lia but her then...then fuck it, at least Amy cared. If it meant she had to work with the Undersiders, so be it. If she had to break her rules...fuck, Amy prayed to any god listening it wouldn't come to that. If it did though...she tuned back into the meeting.

  “We're not fit to fight,” Tattletale was saying, slurring really. Her tongue? “Noelle did a number on us, as you can see. So unless we get patched up, you're on your own.”

  “Panacea?” Eidolon quested, staring at her.

  “Not my name,” she said, then sighed. “Whatever, I'll fix them, but after I fix up the Protectorate and Wards; perks of not fucking up my life.”

  “Not our fault,” Tattletale retorted. “We need help.”

  “I said I'd fix you,” Amy snapped. “Take it or leave it.”

  “Take it,” Skitter buzzed quietly. Buzzed, like she was a swarm herself. “Can you start?” Her c's needed work.

  “Fine.”

  She rose and joined the group of local heroes. Triumph gave her a triage list, and she headed over to Assault to get started. Some nasty burns and a bad case of radiation poisoning. Amy cursed under her breath and, after getting permission and fixing the burns, went around to every hero in the group. Sure enough, each one had a high enough dose that they'd be dead within a week, plus a similar pattern of burns over their exposed skin.

  “Who were you fighting?” Amy demanded, interrupting some stupid question about Tinker bombs.

  “A clone of Vista,” Triumph replied. “She was able to break things down into dust, radioactive dust according to Tattletale. Everyone was decontaminated but--”

  “Shut up,” she snapped. “I...someone go get some iodine capsules, now. Anyone who was exposed, and I'm assuming that's everyone local--”

  “Miss Militia and the Wards left before the fight,” Assault interjected.

  “Okay everyone except them,” Amy said, rolling her eyes. “I'll start working, but get that iodine.”

  For once, Amy was happy to be treated like a doctor. She didn't get hero work, couldn't really be a good person, but a medic? It grated, but at least she didn't feel listless like she had been lately. She grabbed a hair tie from her pocked and pulled her hair back into a messy ponytail before getting to work.

  The dust in their lungs was a problem, still bombarding them with radiation internally. She could set up their lungs to pump it out eventually, but in the mean time needed something for the radiation. What though, she couldn't just make their bodies eat radiation...could she? 'Be creative'. Amy recalled, maybe from some late-night documentary, fungi that used special cells with melanin to absorb radiation around the nuclear missile silos Scion blew up. It didn't take her long to create similar cells in their lungs, set to die off once there was no more radiation to feed on.

  All in all, it only took twenty minutes for the heroes to be back to good health. At least, as good as they could be with their immune system partially compromised and their DNA still healing. She'd set up their guts to promote flora too, for the next few days, and had done her best to protect the marrow but that was as much as she could do right now.

  “Undersiders,” Amy said, heading to the other side of the table. She looked each of them over. There wasn't one person here she didn't have a reason to personally hate. Well, except...who was the girl in the demon mask? “You.” She pointed.

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  “Oh little old me?” Demon-mask said, putting a hand to her chest. “You shoul--” A rattling rough wracked her frame. “Fuck, okay.” She held out a hand and let Amy take it.

  She had similar burns to the heroes, along with a string of nasty bruises around her neck, and of course radiation damage. Amy healed her without questioning before moving onto the...boy? Girl? Boy, she realized, pressing her fingers to his neck. Dislocated arm, bruised ribs, radiation damage. The arm was old damage too, at least older than the burns judging by how stiff the muscles were. She had him take a breath, then slipped his shoulder back in his socket. A moment later he was done and she moved on.

  Dog girl, Hellhound, Bitch, whoever the fuck was next. She was wary at first, but took Amy's hand after a sharp buzz from Skitter. God the Undersiders were weird. She frowned as she did her usual triage. Bruised ribs, radiation poisoning, and...well, it was technically foreign body intrusion; a complicated way of saying she had shrapnel dug deep into her flesh.

  “What the fuck were you doing before this?” Amy asked, not really expecting an answer.

  “Sorting out our deal with Coil,” Skitter hummed, not turning her head. “We had a disagreement.”

  “What kind of disagreement ends with you getting shelled?” she muttered, working on coaxing the shrapnel out of Bitch's skin. She squirmed and Amy numbed her nerves around the area totally.

  “The kind you shouldn't be asking about,” Tattletale retorted, holding out her hand as Amy finished healing Bitch. She looked at the hand briefly, then turned her head.

  “Skitter,” she said.

  “Fix Tattletale first,” Skitter replied. “I'm fine for now.”

  “Lowest priority for me,” Amy retorted. “I can heal you now and her after, or heal you later and her after. Take your pick.”

  While Skitter was silently mulling it over, a frazzled looking PRT officer burst into the room. He shared a few, hissed words with Miss Militia and Eidolon, then pressed a phone into their hands and beat a hasty retreat. Miss Militia pressed a button on the wall and the wood panelling slid aside to reveal a widescreen TV.

  Amy had seen a lot of ugly sights since being cursed with power. The dishevelled girl, her clothes soaked with gore, would have been somewhere around middling on the list. Then she noticed the hideous growth stretching out behind her. Amy barely managed not to gasp as the girl spoke, a voice too weak for the monster that she was.

  “I'm here, I'm sorry,” she was saying, after apparently missing a question from Miss Militia. “I only called because...I killed her. The space-warper.” Amy hated the fact that she felt relieved. “I'm so bad with the names.”

  “You killed Vista.” Miss Militia sounded shocked. “Why?”

  “Because I could. Because I was hungry, and I'd already used her up.” She shifted and Amy couldn't stifle her gasp.

  Four Vistas, or at least creatures resembling her. Their faces were bony, rigid, twisted into hateful expressions. Their bodies were covered in all sorts of clothes, many practically rags. It did nothing to hide their distorted bodies, the wrong-way limbs, stretched out like taffy. One seemed to be clinging to the monster that made it.

  “Why Vista?” Miss Militia asked.

  “She was alone.” The girl said simply. “Could smell how strong she was, read up online too; the internet was all I had for a long time. Now I have them, or most of them since you murdered one. They're pretty obedient, like giving hugs...I haven't had a lot of physical contact with anyone for a while. It's nice having them around...except the sixth.”

  “Sixth?”

  “Not so obedient, ran off gibbering about killing her family or something.” Miss Militia pointed to the door and the Wards sprinted out. “The other one too, the force-field girl...”

  “Amaranth,” Miss Militia offered. “What about her, is she still alive?”

  “For now,” the girl replied. “She didn't want to be around either, screaming about how it isn't real. I...I didn't make anymore, so I haven't used her up...yet.”

  “Can we negotiate her release?” Miss Militia asked, far too calmly for a monster saying she was going to kill Lia.

  “No...but I can offer you a deal.”

  “And it is?”

  “Kill the Undersiders,” she said simply. “Or hand them to me so I can torture them before I kill them. I don't really care which, but if it's a choice between hurting you and hurting one of them, it's pretty easy to make. I'll trade any hostage for any Undersider, anytime. Once they're dead, I'll take care of every clone I've made then...I don't know, you can just kill me. I don't really care...”

  The girl kept rambling and Amy slowly turned her head towards Skitter. It would be easy, just heal her, then make her compliant. First chance she got, Amy could take her out of the building, find Echidna, and trade one for one. It didn't even take her a second to come up with the plan, just sprang fully formed into her mind.

  “Skitter,” Amy said, shaking her head to clear the monstrous idea before it could take root. “Hand.”

  After a moment, the bug-girl took it. Her glove was perforated enough that Amy didn't even need it taken off. No, not perforated, burned. It wasn't just radiation burns, like everyone else had, these were thermal. She reeked of smoke too, and her lungs had a ton of soot. Belatedly, Amy notice she'd had an emergency tracheotomy, and her throat was nearly swollen shut. No wonder she'd been speaking through her bugs.

  Once she had permission, Amy got to work. Throat, lungs, burns, radiation damage...bug bites? The others had them too, but she'd just figured that was the hazards of being around Skitter. But why would they bite their controller? Well, it didn't really matter right now, though she was definitely curious. A minute later she was done and that left...

  “Tattletale,” Amy said.

  “Finally,” the bitch drawled, reaching out a hand. “Don't do to me what you do to other blondes, okay?” Amy pushed down the pulse of anger and took her hand.

  “Jesus,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “Not that I blame them, but who cut your tongue?”

  “Business disagreement.” It sounded more like 'bithneths dithagreement' but she couldn't really judge. “Fix me?”

  “You're lucky I have rules,” Amy muttered.

  A few minutes later, she was done. Like the others, Tattletale had bug bites, shrapnel wounds, and of course the cut tongue. After fixing the same problem so many times, Amy was almost getting bored with the solutions. She could probably come up with alternatives, if she considered it for a moment, but she really didn't want to.

  The meeting wrapped up not long after the girl's 'deal', which of course the Protectorate wouldn't take. Amy wouldn't either...no matter how much she wanted to. The heroes began filing out, leaving the Undersiders and a group of out-of-town Wards with Amy. They quietly discussed tactics before rising and making their way out.

  “Hey.” Amy caught Skitter's arm on her way past. “I've helped you guys a ton, made you bugs I really shouldn't have, now I'm fixing you up from...whatever fucking criminal shit got you this hurt. You owe me.” Skitter stared at her for a moment.

  “What do you want?” Even with her throat fixed, bugs still augmented her voice.

  “Bring Amaranth back,” she said. “You do that and...and we're square.”

  “Might not be possible,” Tattletale chimed in. “Noelle isn't going to let her go without a fight, or without an exchange. You can guess which one we'd take.”

  “I'm not stupid enough to think you're selfless,” Amy spat. “But you fucking bring her back or...fuck, I don't know, I'll make every god damn bug in Brockton Bay give you a headache.” She could do so much more but...she wouldn't.

  “I'll try,” Skitter offered, pulling away. “That's all I can do.” With that she was gone, leaving Amy alone in the conference room. After a moment, she rose and headed down to the lobby.

  She had to try too.