I, Panacea Pt 14 (Patreon)

What do we do?

We say nothing. Lie detector, remember. Also, less chance of incriminating ourselves.

Vicky, it seemed, had less in the way of restraint. “What, seriously?”

“Seriously.” Armsmaster's voice was hard. “We have footage of you associating with known criminals and not attempting to arrest them.”

Oh shit, this could be bad. Amy felt herself beginning to hyperventilate, but then her breathing smoothed out again; she realised a moment later that he was doing it, helping to calm her down.

Mm, I don't know. He's not actually attempting to arrest us. So it might not be as cut and dried as he's making out. His tone was almost detached.

“Jeez,” Vicky retorted at the same time. “It's almost as if heroes never team up with villains ever, in any way.”

Where would they get footage of us with the Undersiders?

His reply was interrupted by Carol Dallon, who had joined them on the pavement. “Vicky, not another word. Armsmaster, are you accusing my daughter of a crime without presenting proof? Are you interrogating her about that alleged crime without reading her her rights? What's she supposed to have done, and what proof do you have?”

Yay, and she's defending Vicky and not me.

With luck, any defence that covers Vicky will cover you too. You might want to mention the lie detector.

Armsmaster seemed about to say something, when Amy cleared her throat. “Uh … Carol, Vicky? Just so you know?”

Carol ignored Amy, but Vicky turned to her. “What is it, Ames?”

Amy nodded toward Armsmaster. “He's got a lie detector in his helmet.”

Carol's head came up, and her glare at Armsmaster notched up a few levels. “Is that true? Are you subjecting my daughter to an illegal lie detector test?”

“It's an invaluable tool for -” He cut himself off.

Brandish pounced. “Interrogating criminals? Is that what you were going to say? Do you consider my daughter to be a common criminal, to be interrogated with no regard for the law? For her rights? For the right to not self-incriminate?”

“Mrs Dallon,” Armsmaster stated, “there has been a murder committed. Your daughters were present when it happened. This is a fact.”

“That may well be,” Carol responded. “But if and when my daughter is questioned about this matter, I will be present, and you will not be. If you do attempt to sit in on the questioning, I will require independent verification to ensure that any lie-detection apparatus in your helmet has been disabled. Do I make myself absolutely clear?”

Wow, she's really going at him hard.

Do you blame her? Vicky's under threat. But he should agree. It won't cost him anything.

Why is that?

Because he can get almost the same reading from watching a recording.

Oh. Wow. His lie detector's that good?

Repeat after me: bullshit Tinker based technology is bullshit. Did you know his halberd teleports back to him if he loses it?

I … did not know that. Okay, you've convinced me.

But don't relax quite yet. She might have him on the run ...

He paused as they watched Armsmaster swing his leg over his motorcycle; it started with a deep-throated rumble. Smoothly, it moved off down the road.

Damn, I never get tired of watching that thing.

You were saying about having him on the run?

Yeah. Now that he's gone – you're next.

What?

She looked back at Carol, who was indeed glaring at her. "Vicky. Amy. Inside, now."

"But, Mom -" began Vicky.

Are you going to stay or go? Last chance to bail out before the interrogation.

"Don't you 'but Mom' me, young lady! Get inside this instant, both of you."

I – Amy wavered for a long moment, but the old habits of obedience were too strong. Crap. I'll stay. It would be unfair on Vicky to bail on her now.

Then get inside now, before she has to tell you a third time.

There was more than the hint of a parental tone to his voice; either he was a father, she guessed, or he'd associated with teenagers more than once. She didn't argue, trotting up the path to the house with Vicky not far behind her.

Carol followed on, closing the front door with a certain level of finality. She pointed at the sofa. “Sit. Both of you.”

Vicky glanced at Amy, who saw the seeds of concern in that look.

Wow, if Vicky is worried … maybe I should've gone.

I think Vicky's got much the same idea. Still think you don't need another place to stay?

Urgh. Maybe.

But yeah, you might be right. Let's see how this turns out.

<><>

Carol was pacing back and forth, glancing from Vicky to Amy and back again; she wasn't quite tearing her hair out by the roots, but Amy wondered if she wasn't far off it. Abruptly, she stopped, and put her hands on her hips. “How could you be so stupid?”

Amy wasn't sure if Carol was addressing her or not, but she felt her mouth open anyway, to defend herself, to offer an explanation.

Uh uh. That was a general question. She's throwing guilt at you, in the hopes that you'll confess all.

It's working. I feel guilty already.

Well, don't. We did a good job tonight.

And got Coil killed.

“Uh, what do you mean, Mom?” asked Vicky.

That's not on you. Taylor made the choice, and I think it was the correct one.

You can't be serious.

Carol glared at Vicky. “You tell me. You let Amy talk you into a midnight excursion, out of costume, and before you're even done, I have Armsmaster on my front doorstep, enquiring into your whereabouts.”

Well, you tell me. If someone you have at your mercy is threatening your life and those of your loved ones, do you trust that he's changed his mind by the time he's in a position to do just that, or do you end the threat first?

I – I could've checked -

Vicky set her jaw stubbornly. “It was for a good cause, Mom. It was something that we had to do, and we succeeded.”

And what would you have done if you'd found the unshakeable intent to do what he said he was going to do?

I … I'm not sure.

“A good cause?” Carol shook her head. “I don't think you realise how much trouble you're in, young lady. Armsmaster is angry – very angry – about what's happened. He hasn't filled me in on exactly what's happened -” She didn't seem at all pleased about that. “- but he's talking aiding and abetting, and accessory to murder. Plus other potential charges. What you've done is obviously very serious. We've got to get ahead of it, and to do that, you've got to tell me exactly what happened.”

Amy turned her attention back to Mike's voice. Suppose the threat wasn't toward Taylor and her dad – who's a pretty nice guy, and damned honest, for someone in city politics – but toward Vicky and you? Would you have stood by and let him threaten you? Accepted that he wasn't going to follow through? Or made sure of it?

I couldn't just kill him … Her thought trailed off, because she wasn't so sure that she wouldn't kill to save Vicky's life. The realisation brought her up short.

“Mom, it's not so simple as that.” Vicky's voice was earnest. “This is important. I can't go telling just anyone.” She glanced toward Amy.

As I see it, you have three options in that scenario. First, turn him over to the authorities and hope to God they don't chuck him in a revolving-door jail. Second, alter his brain so he can't ever think that way about you and yours. Third, kill him. He paused. Let me know if I've missed any.

“Don't look at her,” snapped Carol. “She's the one who got you into this mess in the first place!”

I don't know. I've never thought of killing with my powers before, not seriously. I've never had to go there. And I've always avoided working with brains … well, because.

Well, at some point, you're going to have to decide whether or not changing someone's mind is worse than killing them. Your choice. Anyway. This argument's getting interesting.

“Don't blame Amy for this,” Vicky snapped right back. “It's bigger than both of us!”

“Why shouldn't I blame Amy?” Carol wanted to know. She turned to face Amy. “I want to know what's going on, and why you dragged Vicky into this!”

Well, at least she didn't say 'my daughter'.

Shush.

Amy cleared her throat. “We were doing something really important.”

That's probably not going to be enough.

By Carol's expression, he was correct. “You're going to have to do a hell of a lot better than that, young lady, or -”

“Or what?” retorted Amy, stung. “You'll ground me? Fine. It'll be up to you to explain why Panacea's not out and about any more.”

Carol rallied quickly. “You'll still be coming out as part of the team,” she stated. “But when we're not patrolling -”

“Hah, no,” Amy told her. “You don't get to pick and choose.” She felt her resentment rising, and she rode it, let it give her words strength. “Either I'm part of this team, part of this family, or I'm not. Either I'm trusted or I'm not. Either you give me a fair hearing, or you don't. But you don't get to decide that I'm subject to your authority without giving me a fair deal. Not any more.”

Holy shit, where did that come from?

It's what you've been telling me … isn't it?

Uh, yeah, but … wow. That was as awesome as the mouthful you gave them this afternoon.

Before Amy could reply, Carol broke herself out of the stunned state that Amy's defiance had apparently put her into. “You're a child. You don't get to dictate -”

“I'm sixteen,” Amy told her. “I had my birthday last year, if you hadn't noticed. I can leave home now. I could join the Wards. They'd fall all over themselves to accept me. And can you imagine the newspaper headlines? 'Panacea rejects New Wave'. How would the team look then?”

Carol's face twisted. It seemed that she could imagine it all too well. “We could tell them the truth about how you're the child of a supervillain -”

“Who you attacked in his own home, and abducted his child to raise as your own? That'll go down well.”

Carol's mouth fell open; Vicky's didn't, but she came close. “That's not how it was -” began the older woman.

“Actually, yeah, it more or less is,” Amy went on relentlessly. “I could give a tearful interview where I reveal how you've barely ever treated me the same as Vicky … believe me, I've got a lot of ammunition here.”

“You'd destroy the team,” Carol protested. “Do you want to do that? To Mark? To Sarah and Neil? To Eric and Crystal? To Vicky?”

Amy shook her head. “It's not me who'd destroy the team. You've already done everything that's needed to do that. All I'd do would be showing people the truth about New Wave.”

“Ames -” began Vicky, putting her hand on her sister's arm.

“What?” Amy looked at her. “It's true. You know it's true.”

“Yeah … but do we need to bring the team down over it?”

“No, we don't.” Amy shook her head. “But I'm not going to let Carol get away with dictating my life, either. Not any more. Especially not about this.”

“But the criminal charges -”

“Aren't going to stick.” Amy grinned at her sister. “Or did you forget who we spoke to, tonight?”

“Oh. Right.” Vicky's face cleared. “But surely even she can't make something like that go away." A pause. "Can she?"

Inside her mind, Amy echoed the question. Can she?

Yes, actually she can.

Really?

Let's just say, Alexandria's secret identity has serious throw weight.

Oh. Okay.

“She can.” Amy's voice was firm.

“Okay, what the hell are you two talking about?” demanded Carol. “Who did you speak to? What do you mean, the charges aren't going to stick?”

“I mean that the charges aren't going to stick,” Amy enunciated carefully. “And where we went and who we spoke to is absolutely none of your business, unless you're ready to accept that we know what we're talking about.”

Carol's expression darkened, but Vicky intervened hastily. “Mom, look. Amy's right. There's a whole lot more going on than you know about, and if you keep prying, you're going to find out more than you wanted to know.”

“You're taking her side?” Carol sounded as though she couldn't believe it.

“Hell yes, I'm taking her side.” Vicky indicated Amy. “Tonight, I saw just how awesome my sister can be. I kind of like it. Plus, I got to team up with people I never thought I'd team up with, which was also several kinds of cool.”

“I'm presuming that's the 'aiding and abetting' that Armsmaster was talking about.” Carol's voice was still chilly.

"Mom, look." Vicky's voice was impatient. "A girl was kidnapped. The bank robbery was a cover. We went and rescued her."

Carol looked dubious. "What girl? What's her name?"

"Dinah Alcott," Amy supplied. "She's Mayor Christner's niece."

"I know of her." Carol frowned. "She was kidnapped?"

"Ring her folks and find out," Vicky suggested. "We spoke to her dad. He knows we were there."

"So why didn't you just tell us?" demanded Carol. "New Wave would have pitched in."

Amy blinked as both Carol and Vicky looked at her. Actually, that's a good question. Why didn't we?

Two reasons. First reason was, I wanted the Undersiders involved, and you can't deny that they did a good job.

Well, granted, but what's the second reason?

He told her; she repeated it to Carol. "Because at best, you would have questioned me at every step of the way. Worse, you might have pushed me aside and taken charge, and gotten people hurt. At the very worst, you would have simply refused to even try, and kept me from doing it as well."

"Mom wouldn't have done that," Vicky stated. "Would you, Mom?" She looked at her mother; Carol stared back, jaw set. "You wouldn't ... would you?"

The damning silence stretched on, then Carol spoke; her tone was grudging. “Not necessarily.”

Which is yes, she would've, but she's not going to admit it.

Amy's mental voice was very dry. I got that, thanks.

Vicky had also apparently gotten it. “Mom!” Her voice was full of pain.

“It's over,” Carol's voice was curt. “We'll never know now. What I want to know is, what about this accessory to murder business? Who got murdered, and why in God's name did you allow it to happen?”

May as well tell her.

“Coil,” Amy stated flatly. “He was the one who had the bank robbed, and Dinah kidnapped. We took his base, and took him prisoner. He was … executed, by one of the villains.”

“A helpless prisoner?” snapped Carol. “Murdered? Why did you even let this happen?”

“We didn't know it was going to happen!” Vicky retorted. “Ames was saving R- saving one of the villains, and we heard the shot. To be honest, we though it was someone else who got shot.”

“Who?”

Amy shook her head hastily. “No, that's something that we're not going to talk about. But Coil was an idiot. He was talking, making false promises, with a precog in the room. He as good as threatened to have one of the villains killed. Maybe more than one.”

More forgiving of the impulse now, huh?

Well, you've helped me understand it a little more, I'll admit.

Carol frowned. “You don't kill helpless prisoners. It's just not done.”

“He wasn't helpless.” Amy spoke as firmly as he knew how. “Coil had powers. He was a precog, very specialised. He could take two timelines and pick the best one.”

“Which puzzles me,” Vicky noted. “If he could pick between timelines – what happened on the other one that made him pick this one?”

Amy shrugged. “Pretty sure we'll never know. Maybe it was going to happen in both timelines.”

“Surely he wouldn't be so stupid as to bait them in both timelines,” Vicky protested.

That's a good point, actually. Any idea what happened?

Buggered if I know. Though he was probably trying to angle for freedom, making promises. Maybe he made the wrong promise on the other timeline and one of the others popped him.

Yeah, probably.

“So who killed him?” asked Carol practically.

Amy saw Vicky glancing at her, and shrugged elaborately. “Didn't see it happen.”

Vicky took the cue. “No, nor did I.”

Oh, thank you God. That could have been awkward. Especially for Taylor. Skitter doesn't need a murder charge over her head right now. Or even one for justifiable homicide.

Carol folded her arms. “I refuse to believe that neither of you has any idea of who did it.”

“Mom, you're a lawyer,” Vicky pointed out. “We could say who we thought was the one who did it. But as we didn't witness the actual shooting … “ She trailed off meaningfully.

“Why are you protecting this villain?” her mother demanded.

“Because I think it was justified,” Amy snapped. “If you had a villain down and at your mercy, and he was vowing to come back and murder Mark and Vicky, and you knew you wouldn't see him coming, how would you handle it?”

Hang on, I think I've heard this line of reasoning before somewhere. Wait a minute, it'll come to me … The impression of a sly grin illuminated his thoughts.

Shush, you. But she was grinning back.

Carol gritted her teeth. “Murder is never an appropriate answer.”

“So tell me what is,” Amy shot back. “In that case, what's an appropriate answer? One that'll let you sleep at night?”

The look she got from Carol was one of pure dislike. “Sometimes there is no right answer.”

“I don't know,” mused Vicky. “Coil's not going to be a problem for anyone after tonight, yeah?”

Carol rounded on her. “That was insensitive and inappropriate.” She drew a deep breath, apparently trying to rein in her temper, with indifferent results. “Fine. Get to bed, the both of you. And I expect you to be up in time for school tomorrow.”

Amy raised her chin. “Am I still grounded?”

“We'll talk about that later. Bed. Now.”

Much later, if I'm any judge.

She suppressed an inappropriate giggle. Shush, you.

<><>

Amy came out of the bathroom towelling her hair – Carol had unbent enough to allow each of them to have a quick shower, during which time Amy had learned some more lyrics of one of the songs Mike had memorised – to find Vicky waiting for her.

“So what's going to happen now?” asked her sister, in an undertone; their parents' bedroom door was closed, but there was still a line of light under it.

“I have no idea,” Amy replied. “They might kick me out. I might move out. I might join the Wards. I think I'll be sleeping on it.”

“If they kick you out, I'm coming too,” declared Vicky.

Amy frowned. “No. Stay, please.” Vicky opened her mouth to protest, but Amy raised a hand. “I'd love you to come along, you know I would. But if you come with me, Carol will come after me twice as hard. If I'm gone, then I'm just gone. And we can keep in touch. Right?”

“Right.” Vicky grimaced, displeased. “It'll be totally unfair if she does kick you out.”

“Yeah,” Amy commented dryly. “And my life's been totally fair up till now.”

Vicky snorted, but did not dispute that. “Night, Ames.” She held out her arms for a hug.

“Night, Vicky.” Amy hugged her; the voice in her head kept a diplomatic silence.

She went to her room and climbed into bed – back into bed, her memory reminded her – revelling in the warmth, the comfort, the cessation of effort.

It's been a big night.

Pretty big, yeah. A pause. You want to talk about anything?

No, thanks. I'd just like to sleep, please.

Yeah, no problem. Night, roomie.

A sliver of amusement tinged her return thought. Night, Michael.

It didn't take her long to get to sleep at all.

<><>

Friday Morning

“Are you sure this is all the data that you were able to get out of the base security system?”

Armsmaster nodded in reply to Piggot's query. “Yes, ma'am.”

Frowning, she tapped in a command, and her desk computer began to replay the footage of the area around where Coil had been murdered. At first the playback was flawless, but then strange blips and jumps started creeping in. A camera pointing from one angle caught Panacea and Glory Girl and the Undersiders, looking off-screen, but the camera covering that angle showed nothing but static.

The picture loss became more pronounced, until it was rapid jumps, until it finally cleared, to show Coil slumped in the chair, a red stain on the white snake showing that he had been shot. She ran it back and forth a few times, but nothing eventuated.

“So Glory Girl, Panacea and the Undersiders hit Coil's base last night,” she growled in frustration. “Something was in that vault on the lower level, that left behind a pile of some organic slurry or other. Someone, possibly Glory Girl, hit Commander Calvert's house, possibly abducting him, dressing him in Coil's costume, and bringing him to the base during one of the security footage blips before someone shoots him.”

Armsmaster's lips pursed thoughtfully. “Director … I might be out of order … “

She looked up at him. “Spill it.”

“How well did you know Commander Calvert?”

“Not well.” She shook her head. “I didn't like the man. Altogether too self-serving for me.”

“Self-serving enough to be Coil?”

She paused for a very long moment. Her initial estimation of Ridiculous! died before her mouth even had the chance to form the word. “He hadn't triggered when I first met him … “ After Ellisburg, she didn't tell him; Armsmaster still wasn't cleared for that particular debacle. “But it's possible that he could have triggered since. He certainly would have welcomed it.”

“Should we investigate the possibility?” Do you think it's possible enough to check out?

“Definitely,” she decided without hesitation. It was starting to sound more and more plausible in her own mind. If it's true, there'll be egg on the faces of everyone who vetted him. Including mine; I let him back into the strike squads.

“Okay, so if Calvert was Coil, does this change what happened?”

She shook her head. “Not by much. Not by nearly enough. He was still murdered. By a low-calibre bullet, they say. Pistol, not rifle. And it's either Panacea, Glory Girl or one of the Undersiders who squeezed the trigger.”

“Unlikely to be Panacea or Glory Girl,” he decided. “Two of the Undersiders already have outstanding murder charges.”

“Nothing to do with guns,” she pointed out. “Tattletale carries a pistol. I'm waiting on the ballistic report; we can match with the slug we got from the bank.”

“Still won't prove she did it,” Armsmaster pointed out. “Anyone could have handled that pistol during the camera blackouts.”

She made a frustrated noise of agreement. “Did you get anywhere with the Dallons, last night?”

“No.” His voice was almost as frustrated. “I spoke to Brandish; she told me that Flashbang had declined to get up. She also made it clear that she would stand by the girls if it came to any sort of legal proceedings. I got a little information out of them, but not much.”

“If we end up prosecuting them, it would be huge,” Piggot mused. “It would be publicised, maybe nationwide. Crazies crawling out of the woodwork all over.”

“Are you saying we shouldn't follow it up, ma'am?” asked Armsmaster dubiously.

“No.” Her voice was firm. “I'm going to boot this up the chain. I'll send all the evidence we have, footage, the lot, to Chief Director Costa-Brown. She can look it over and advise me on how we're going to play this; quiet or loud.”

“Good idea.” He fell silent then, as she began the work of doing just that; dropping the various files into one folder. It took less time than she would have imagined. For a moment, she hesitated on clicking the Send button; the action, she knew, could not be taken back. For better or for worse, it would inform Rebecca Costa-Brown of exactly what had happened.

With the feeling of someone stepping off of a cliff, she clicked the button. The computer displayed its 'operating' icon for a moment or two, then declared that the message had been sent.

“Well, that's that,” Piggot decided. “I'll keep you in the loop about what we're going to do about this, of course.”

Armsmaster nodded. “Thank you, ma'am.”

He let himself out, and she allowed herself to be enfolded by the day-to-day minutiae of her job. Many things, big and small, demanded her attention; not all of these were as attention-arresting as a dead crime lord in the middle of his own base, but they all had to be dealt with.

And then her phone rang; picking it up, she stated, “Piggot.”

“Emily, this is Chief Director Costa-Brown.”

Unconsciously, she straightened in her seat. “Uh, Director. Did you get my email?”

“Yes, I did. I'm calling about that now.”

“I only expected an email. What did you want me to do?”

“Nothing.”

“ … what?”

“Leave Panacea and Glory Girl out of it.”

“But … at the very least, they're witnesses -”

“No. They are not. You can investigate, collect the evidence, but do not involve those two.”

She drew a deep breath. “Yes, ma'am.”

“Good.” The call ended; there was a faint dial tone in her ear.

Carefully placing the phone down, she sat staring at it for several minutes.

Now what the hell was that all about?

Misgivings or no, she had her orders; she set to work carrying them out.

One of these days, I'll have my answers, she promised herself. Just not today. 

Part 15