One More Trigger Pt 28 (Patreon)

Part Twenty-Eight: A New Challenge

[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]

Monday, April 25, 2011
Danny

"Bonesaw aside," Danny stated, "there remains the other problem. Ladybug and Sparx. Specifically, their lack of powers." He looked at the two girls who'd been sisters in all but name for more than ten years, then at Panacea. "You said you had an idea for fixing it."

"I did and I do," Amy said. "I'm just going to need a sample of the stuff she used to take away your powers." She looked around at the wreckage of the spider-bots. "... which isn't here," she said, sounding slightly irritated. "I'm not going to tell you how to do your jobs, but cracking these skittering little assholes open with shotguns then dousing them with water is not the best way to preserve any prions they might be carrying. Just saying."

"Upstairs," Danny said, his mind reaching back to the turkey shoot they'd had in the roof access stairwell. "We blew apart a dozen or more of the suckers. Some of them got inside the door to the roof access. No sprinklers, very little air movement."

Panacea smiled. "Perfect. You've got this under control?"

Danny nodded. "We're going to make a strategic withdrawal so the PRT doesn't have too many headaches to worry about. See you at home?"

Taylor stepped over to him as Amy headed off down the corridor. "See you at home, Dad," she said softly, then gave him a hug. "Don't worry. Amy knows what she's doing."

"You'll excuse me if I worry anyway," Danny replied firmly. "It's my right and privilege as a father." He gathered in Alan and Rob by eye. "Let's go, guys."

"I'll walk you guys out," Vista decided. "It'll save a whole heap of trouble if the PRT doesn't end up detaining you on suspicion." She frowned. "And I wouldn't be totally surprised if I found out that we have information leaks. Which, given the number of people this team has handled pretty roughly, might just put targets on your backs. Which nobody wants."

"I'm about ninety-five percent sure I could name some leakers if you gave me access to your secure employee files, including their financial records," Lisa offered cheerfully. From the smirk on her face, she didn't expect the offer to be taken seriously. However, Danny didn't think she was totally joking.

Vista snorted. "Yeah, I do that, and about three seconds later the Director kicks me to the curb. No thanks; I like being in the Wards." Humour glinted in her eye. "Not that they'll be totally pleased with me, once I get back to them with my new training ideas." She turned to the three adults. "If you'll come with me, gentlemen?"

Taylor

Taylor watched them leave, then turned to Lisa. "So, you think Amy's got a chance at fixing our powers?" Reflexively, she once more reached for her bugs, but they just weren't there. The lack was … disconcerting, not unlike being deprived of one of her senses. Which, in a very real way, it was. Her bugs hadn't been the best at giving her visual or audible information, but they were second to none at scouting out remote areas and telling her exactly what was in them.

Emma, on the other hand, kept glancing up toward her hairline and grimacing very slightly. Nobody but Taylor and probably Lisa would even have been able to tell, but Lisa was stupidly perceptive for stuff like that, and Taylor had known Emma since forever.

With a side-glance at Emma, Lisa gave Taylor a very slight nod. Yeah, she's feeling weird too. "She definitely thinks so. I mean, I'm not the Tinker Bonesaw is, and I've only got a moderate handle on Amy's powers, but I think she can do it."

Moderate, hah. Taylor would've bet a large amount of money that Lisa had a better understanding of Amy's powers than anyone except Amy herself, and even Amy wasn't a guarantee. Heading over to Emma, Taylor put her arm around her best friend's shoulders and pulled her in close for a one-armed hug. "Hey, you hear that?" she asked. "If Lisa and Amy both think there's a good chance of this working, it's pretty well a given, yeah?"

"Yeah, I heard." Emma gave her a wan smile, then snaked her arm around Taylor and squeezed her in return. "It just feels weird, you know? I've had these powers for ages now, and it feels like I've just lost a limb."

Taylor nodded sympathetically. "I know what you mean. For me it's a whole sense, like I just went deaf or blind or something." She leaned her head against Emma's. "That was the scariest thing for me. Not wondering if you were gonna save me, but the possibility of never being part of the team again."

A pair of arms encircled them both from behind. "Well, I have faith in Amy," Lisa said firmly. "If anyone can fix this, she can. And if it can be fixed without messing with your brains, she can do that, too."

It was weird that Taylor trusted Lisa implicitly in this. The girl had been a member of a villain team not so long ago, after all. Of course, they had helped capture her asshole boss and bring her around to the side of light. Or rather, she'd defected to the side of light and they'd aided and abetted her efforts. This hadn't earned them any brownie points from Director Piggot, but Vista seemed to get along with the girl, so there was that.

Interestingly enough, the team member Lisa got along best with was Amy. Taylor and Emma had reached an unspoken accord to watch the pair in case Lisa upset the healer in any way, but the ex-villain seemed to be genuinely supportive of Amy's emotional needs. Amy was definitely more confident these days, anyway. Though perhaps some of that was due to the training sessions the Dad Brigade still put the team through on a regular occasion.

"Oh, God, never mention those again," Lisa groaned. "I'm still sore from the last time Mr Clements peppered my butt with those paintballs."

Taylor looked at her sharply. "I never said a word," she pointed out. "How did you know what I was thinking?" Then she shook her head as Lisa began to grin. "Okay, never mind. My bad. Do you mind not doing that? It's very disconcerting."

"But it's funny as hell when I do it to the bad guys," Lisa reminded her. "And I don't recall you complaining when I figured out what Jack Slash was up to, and that Burnscar was going to be with him."

"Figured out, hah," Emma retorted. "I know what you did there. You're good, but not even you can read the future. You called Dinah Alcott, and she told you what to expect." She smirked as Lisa stuck her tongue out at her.

"So that's how you did it," Madison said in tones of enlightenment. "I was wondering." Giving Lisa a mock glare, she wrinkled her nose at the blonde. "And here I thought you'd pulled off some bullshit stunt of power-trickery."

"It was a bullshit stunt of power-trickery," Lisa protested. "My power told me that she'd be able to help us, and it even filled me in on the questions I needed to ask. She's got a limited number of answers per day she can give, you know."

"Huh," mused Taylor. "It was pretty cool, I guess." She looked around as Vista stepped back into the room. "Everything good?"

"They're away safely," Vista confirmed. "PRT will be here in just a minute." The sound of running shoes scuffing on stairs echoed down the corridor. "And that would be Amy."

"Oh, good," Emma said with evident relief. "I really don't want the PRT to see me like this."

"You just like to freak them out with your tentacle hair monster impression," Lisa deadpanned, startling a snort of amusement from Emma.

"Mayybe?" the redhead replied, but she was obviously a little more relaxed about the whole thing. Taylor chalked another win up to the ex-villain's perceptiveness.

"Yeah, well, that's why I went with the theme I did for my costume," Taylor said. "I'd be way too scary if I wore something that made me look all dark and brooding."

"Yes, yes, you would," agreed Vista, a grin lurking on her face. "You're scary enough as you are. Trust me, you don't need the help."

Taylor was still searching for a proper response to that when Amy rejoined them. "Oh, hey," Emma greeted the biokinetic. "How'd it go?"

"Not great," Amy said, her expression downcast. "I found enough prions to fix one of you, but not both." She grimaced. "Sorry."

Without hesitation, Taylor pointed at Emma. "Her," she said. With a certain sense of bemusement, she realised that Emma was pointing back in her direction, and had said exactly the same thing. It hurt to do it—knowing she could get her powers back, but only at the expense of Emma's powers—but she opened her mouth to insist that Emma be the one to receive the treatment.

Only for Amy's face to contort and break into a broad grin. "I'm kidding," she said. "Wow, geez. Do you two need to get a room or something?"

The sense of shock that washed through Taylor's chest and stomach had an almost physical impact to it. Her face tingled with the relief that followed hard on its heels. "What the … Amy, you … you …" She stared at Lisa accusingly. "You knew! Why didn't you tell us she was pulling our legs?"

Lisa smirked. "Because it was funny," she said, obviously holding back laughter. "The looks on your faces when she pulled the reveal … that was classic."

"Asshole." Taylor rolled her eyes, then turned to Amy. "Maybe you're the one who needs glasses. Emma and me are like sisters, and that's it."

Amy's reply was cut short by the sounds of boots coming along the corridor. Shedding the humour as if it had never happened, she cleared her throat and stepped toward Taylor and Emma. Licking her finger, she held it out. "The cure's in my saliva," she said quietly.

Before she could think too hard about what she was doing, Taylor swiped her finger across Amy's and put it in her mouth. A moment later, Emma did the same. "You're sure this'll work …" began Emma, then stopped. "Whoa …" she breathed, as her hair began to grow out again.

Whoa indeed. Taylor felt an unfolding in her brain as the presence of the bugs began to impinge on her sensorium once more. First one, then ten, then a thousand, then all of the millions and millions of bugs of all kinds in Brockton Bay. Every single one of them was within her purview, under her control. Those created or enhanced by Amy had a certain spark to them, but the rest were just as clear to her.

She wiped the growing smile off of her face as Vista returned. Her bugs had already warned her that the younger girl wasn't alone, and from the messages her bugs were sending back, it wasn't hard to tell who was there. A moment later, Armsmaster stepped around the corner, followed by several PRT troopers. The troopers were all armed with both containment foam sprayers and rifles. Taylor's bugs confirmed her suspicion that there were a lot more troopers, and people who seemed to be in costume rather than ordinary clothes or uniforms around the perimeter of the school.

"Hi, Armsmaster," Emma greeted the local head of the Protectorate. "Jack Slash and Burnscar didn't give us a real choice, so they died. Bonesaw, we managed to take alive. They're all yours."

"Sparx," the armoured hero noted, giving her a polite nod. "Ladybug. Aerodyne. Panacea. Athena. You're all well?"

Taylor shrugged. "I had a knife at my throat for a bit, but …" She trailed off as Armsmaster stopped paying attention to her. Going over to the bodies, he used the tip of his halberd to move the remains of Jack Slash's shirt aside from their ruined faces. When he looked back at her, his lips were compressed tightly together. "What?" she asked.

"What did this?" asked Armsmaster, his voice somewhat harder. He leaned closer, examining the wrecked eyesocket and the shotgun wounds Danny had left in the serial killer's chest and stomach. The Dad Brigade had of course policed up their spent shells while she and the others had been collecting Mannequin. It was just another way to keep the PRT guessing. "This is not indicative of any of your powers. In fact, I would strongly suspect that he's been shot multiple times at close range. Twelve-gauge shotgun, double-ought buck."

Emma leaned against the wall, crossing one leg over the other and folding her arms loosely. At this extremely obvious silent message—I'm not telling you shit—Taylor hid a smile. "Well, you're the expert in firearms. I've never owned one in my life." Which was absolutely true. Her father owned the shotgun, not Emma.

Armsmaster's expression tightened a little more as he turned to Taylor. "Ladybug, who shot Jack Slash and Burnscar?"

Taylor shrugged. "Does it matter? They're dead." She indicated the still-bound Greg Veder. "Instead of talking about the patently obvious, how about you deal with this moron? He's the one who decided to sneak back into the school, and damn near upset the whole operation."

"Yes, Vista told us about him. In some detail." From the tone of Armsmaster's voice, Vista had been particularly insistent that they do something about Greg. The armoured cape turned to look down at the unconscious teen. "What did you do to him?"

"Nothing." Taylor thought about shrugging again, but decided against it. "I think he fainted when he realised how badly he screwed up." She took a step forward. "Because of him, I was captured and held hostage by Jack Slash. If we hadn't had a contingency plan for just this possibility, things may have turned out very badly for everyone involved." She stared directly into the opaque visor. "I'm told there are laws on the books for people who interfere in operations like this. I expect the PRT to prosecute him to the full extent of the law, if only because a Ward was involved and thereby placed in danger."

As she spoke, he'd been opening his mouth, but shut it again at the mention of Vista. After a moment, he nodded. "I'll brief the Director accordingly."

"Brief me about what?" Director Piggot limped into sight, followed by several PRT troopers. "Hello, Sparx, Ladybug, Aerodyne." A general nod in the direction of Lisa and Amy was the remainder of her greeting.

"Director Piggot, you agreed to stay back out of the school." Armsmaster's voice was neutral, though Taylor thought she picked up a reproving tone.

"Until it was cleared," she retorted. "It's been cleared. Between the Samaritans, you, Velocity and our own troops, this school is as secure as anything can get." She looked dispassionately down at Greg. "This is the idiot who ran into a combat zone and put people in danger?"

Emma straightened up from the wall and stepped forward. "That's him. We were just telling Armsmaster that he could've gotten Ladybug, or even everyone on the team, killed. Can we count on the PRT to see him prosecuted, or are we going to have to do it ourselves?"

Piggot shook her head, a scowl twisting her face. "This sort of thing gets troopers killed. The PRT holds a low opinion of it. Mine is even lower. Do you know his name?"

"Veder, ma'am," Taylor supplied. "Greg Veder. He's a student here at Winslow."

"Very well." Piggot turned to one of the troopers. "Benchwell, take the young man into custody. Have someone consult with Legal to determine the charges that will be brought against him. In the meantime, untie him and give him any medical attention that he needs." She shot a sharp glance toward Amy. "I assume he's been checked over. Why is he unconscious?"

"He's fully healthy, apart from apparently lacking anything resembling common sense," Amy replied snarkily. "He just fainted a few minutes ago when he realised how angry we were with him."

"He's waking up now," Lisa interjected. "It was only a minor shock to the system, after all." She gave the Director a cheeky grin. "If you want to have the fun of giving him the good news, feel free."

As Benchwell knelt down behind Greg and began to free his hands, the teen opened his eyes and looked around. "Oh, God," he groaned. "Where am I? What's going on?"

For a moment, Taylor thought the Director was going to stay back out of the way, but the heavy-set woman stepped forward. "Mr Veder," she said bluntly. "You're in the custody of the PRT until we can contact your next of kin and inform them of the charges that we will be laying against you."

"Charges?" Greg's voice was faint. "What charges?"

"Criminal charges accruing from your deliberate interference in a sanctioned cape operation against an S-class threat." Piggot's voice was flat. "Interference that led to the endangerment of a Protectorate-affiliated team, as well as a Ward liaison to that team. Both are serious crimes."

With another groan, Greg's eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped to the floor once more. Amy crossed the distance between them and knelt beside him. "He's fine," she reported after laying a couple of fingers on his neck. "He's just feeling a little fragile right now, is all."

"Good." Piggot turned away from Greg, apparently dismissing him from her mind. Next, she bore down on Bonesaw, who was being covered by two troopers with rifles, despite being both unconscious and bound. "Why is she still alive?"

Well, that's definitely to the point. "I, uh, I was able to take her down nonlethally," Madison said. "We don't actually like killing."

"Which I suppose is a relief when it comes to a team as effective as yours." For all the emotion in Piggot's voice, she may as well have been talking about the weather. "PRT regulations forbid the execution of a helpless prisoner, save under carefully monitored conditions. We've got to keep their rights in mind, after all." Her mouth twisted in distaste.

Taylor got the message loud and clear; it would've made things a lot smoother if they'd just done the deed before the PRT showed up. "Actually …" she ventured. "We talked about that. Is there any chance she can be rehabilitated?"

Armsmaster, Director Piggot and all the PRT troopers turned their heads to stare at her incredulously. Of course, the Director's face was the only one she could see the expression on, but it was incredulous enough to make up for the ones she couldn't see. Piggot spoke for them all. "You can not be serious."

"Actually, she is," Amy said, stepping forward. "I've seen the mess that's been made of Bonesaw's brain. She's got a case of Stockholm Syndrome that should really make the record books. From what we could tell, Jack Slash was a low-level Master who could literally force people to subscribe to his point of view, and to take it on as their own. Whether this Master effect will wear off after his death … that part I don't know." She gave the Director an appealing look. "But if it does, if it's possible to bring her back from wherever she is now, she'd make an amazing surgeon who could probably save as many—"

"If you're about to say 'lives', let me stop you right there." Piggot leaned forward slightly. "I'll make myself perfectly clear. There is no way on God's green Earth I'm ever going authorise that girl to perform so much as an ear piercing on a living human being. No matter how much therapy she undergoes."

"But if she was Mastered—" began Taylor.

"Child psychopath or Master victim, it doesn't really matter." The Director chopped the air with her hand. "The fact remains that she's insanely dangerous, even within solitary confinement. We literally can't ever trust her again, no matter how many people declare her sane. If she's like a Simurgh victim, and the way you're describing seems to denote several similarities, the safest thing in the world is to presume that she's a ticking time bomb and never, ever give her a chance to go off where she can hurt someone." She raised her chin. "On the other hand, you have my profound gratitude for destroying the Nine once and for all. We'll be contacting you very soon through Vista regarding the bounties. I understand you've got a bank account set up for such monies to be paid into?"

"We do," confirmed Emma. As they spoke, photos had been taken of the bodies. Body-bags were unrolled and the corpses were zipped into them. The bags seemed to be more robust than the norm, but she supposed that bodies with dangerous properties were the PRT's stock in trade. Bonesaw was also bundled into such a bag which had been half-filled with containment foam, then a sprayer nozzle was inserted and the bag was filled all the way before it was sealed. "So what are you going to do with them?" She indicated Bonesaw and Mannequin's disabled carapace.

Piggot's expression was sour. "Normally I wouldn't discuss this beforehand, but we owe you a debt of gratitude for capturing them twice, when nobody else has even succeeded in doing so once. To be honest, I don't recall the last time we had people with kill orders get captured, escape custody, then be recaptured without dying in the process. I'm going to have to consult on this one, but I think the consensus will be execution for the both of them, as soon as we can schedule it. Perhaps the Birdcage for Bonesaw, but I doubt it."

"Right." Emma nodded. "Well, you seem to have this all under control. Has Vista warned you about the prion danger?"

"She has," Armsmaster confirmed. "We have troops sanitising all of the spider-bot remains as we speak."

"Uh, just so you know?" Lisa raised a finger. "The temptation to analyse the stuff and try to use it to make more would be pretty strong. After all, being able to negate the powers of any capes you decide don't deserve them? Yeah, that sounds like a dream come true, but it's probably not a good idea, because we know you've got access to it." She grinned her fox-like grin. "We will be keeping an eye on you."

Piggot's lips thinned. "Noted."

Taylor got the impression she was irritated at more than just being spoken to so chidingly. Shit, she really intended to try to reproduce that stuff. Good call, Lisa. "So what happens now?"

"There's still the matter of your rewards and the Veder matter to deal with," the Director stated. "Come in to the PRT building at any time, and I'll make sure there's someone available to take your statements and deal with the banking information." She checked her watch. "I've got many demands on my time, so I can't stay long." Something resembling a smile crossed her face; Taylor got the impression they didn't happen often. "For now, good work. You've done the city a great service today." Turning, she limped toward the exit.

Armsmaster lingered. "I'd still like to know who shot Burnscar and Jack Slash. You understand, they wouldn't be in trouble. Are you hiring minions now?"

Madison snorted, which didn't surprise Taylor. The look on her dad's face—on any of their faces—on being described as a 'minion' would be … impressive. "As if," she said dismissively. "No minions involved here."

For just a moment, Armsmaster looked as though he was going to pursue the matter, but then he shook his head. "Have it your way," he said, sounding less than thrilled. "You'll see your own way out?"

"Count on it," Emma assured him.

They watched him stride away down the corridor, halberd now racked on his back. While there were still PRT troopers moving around, the six of them were temporarily left alone. Emma tilted her head toward the exit. "Come on, let's go."

Madison

Outside the building, the PRT had set up a cordon. Obviously forewarned, the troopers waved them through. Nobody was close enough to overhear as they walked away from the school, but Madison put up a privacy shield anyway. The words that were burning to be said escaped her as soon as she had it up and running. "Wow, holy shit. Ungrateful much?"

"Actually, not really," mused Vista, giving Madison a quick side-hug. "Piggot's always been a cast-iron hardass, and Armsmaster's extremely … focused." She shrugged. "I thought it went really well, actually."

"You realise they're almost certainly going to execute Bonesaw," Amy pointed out. "Mannequin too, but he was a villain before he met Jack Slash. I'm pretty sure Bonesaw wasn't. I mean, aren't second chances supposed to be a thing?"

Emma cleared her throat, looking uncomfortable. "When we first captured Bonesaw, I had a chat with her and she floated that exact same idea to me. I'm not quite sure what to think about it. On the one hand, she is by definition an absolutely top-notch surgeon. The trouble is, she's also got a long record of using those surgical skills to maim and kill people just for laughs."

"Or rather, for Jack Slash's laughs," Amy interjected. "He was the influence behind the Nine for over twenty years. Now that he's dead and gone, she should be able to get out from under his shadow." She looked at each of them in turn. "I can't affect brains, but I can tell from someone's thought patterns how they're likely to act. If Bonesaw was made safe and went through therapy, I'd be able to tell if she was still interested in Frankensteining people."

"Oh, I believe you," Lisa said, hanging her arm around Amy's shoulders. "That would totally work, except for one tiny problem. They'd be willing to accept all the healing off of you but no matter what you told them, they'd refuse to accept your word on Bonesaw. And you know, to be fair, she has maimed or killed enough people to fill a small town. It's asking a lot for people to ignore all of that, you know?"

Emma nodded. "And I have to admit, I can understand that point of view. Letting Bonesaw operate on you deliberately …" She shuddered. "Nope. Just nope."

"I know," muttered Amy. "It just sucks, is all. Before I met you guys, I was …" She trailed off. "Never mind."

"You were what?" asked Lisa. "You know the rules we set. If you start saying something, you're expected to finish it. That way, nothing stays bottled up."

"Yeah, yeah." Amy sighed. "Before I met you guys, I was scared I was going to go down the villain path sooner or later. Because I'm pretty sure my dad was a villain, and I'm trying to be a proper hero, but I was getting to the point where I was tempted to screw up healing people just so they didn't expect so much from me in the future." She glanced at the other members of the team, as if expecting them to reject her for the admission. "I don't feel like that now, of course. But I did then."

"Hey, it's okay," Emma encouraged her. "You're a valued member of the team, and we're never going to tell you what you can and can't do."

"And I appreciate it," Amy said with a wan smile. "Lisa's been helping me so much, too. Anyway, I feel like I was given a second chance. I was going down a dark path, and you guys pulled me back before anything bad actually happened. The way I see it, Bonesaw got dragged down that path by Jack Slash. Doesn't she deserve a second chance too?"

"There's something else," Madison said, surprising herself. "Something you're not telling us. There's any number of people out there every day who'd benefit from a second chance. Most of them aren't looking at execution or the Birdcage. Why are you focusing on her in particular?"

Lisa grinned at her. "Nicely spotted. I wasn't going to say anything, but it's up to Amy if she wants to."

From the look on Amy's face, she didn't want to. Which wasn't altogether surprising. As far as Madison could tell, the biokinetic was an intensely private person. Lisa had begun the work of getting her to open up and share, but there was a long way to go as yet before she was as chatty as, say, Taylor. Though that prank she played on them earlier is definitely a good sign.

The silence hung on for a long moment, then Amy nodded. "Okay, fine," she grumbled, though Madison got the impression she was glad to have the excuse to vent. "You all suck. I want to give Bonesaw a second chance so I can maybe take a total holiday from healing for a bit. Walk away from it altogether without feeling guilty. There's not much I can do that she can't, after all."

Emma blinked. "Well, I wasn't actually expecting that," she admitted. "To become a productive member of society, sure. But not to actually take over what you do, not something I anticipated."

"Yeah, well, I was half-expecting her to ask us to offer Bonesaw a place on the team," Taylor revealed. She chuckled and shrugged sheepishly as everyone stared at her. "Hey, so I got it wrong. Before you take me out the back and shoot me for even thinking it, we've already let one villain into the team so far."

"Ex-villlain," Lisa corrected Taylor, mock-primly. "Those days are far behind me."

Amy elbowed her gently in the ribs. "All of a week and a half behind you, you mean," she said with a grin. "You make it sound like you just collected your twelve-months-without-crime pin or something."

Madison chuckled at the idea. "Do you think people would go for a Villain's Anonymous?" she said to Amy. "Where they sit around and talk about the crimes they've managed to avoid committing?"

Emma burst out laughing. "Mein namen ist Kaiser," she proclaimed in a horrific mangling of a German accent, holding one finger under her nose, and the other hand up in a straight-armed salute. "I am ein supervillain, undt I am also ein Nazi asshole."

"I'm sorry, Kaiser," Taylor said with a giggle of her own. "Nazi Assholes Anonymous is down the hall."

"Look for … the door … with the … swastika on it," gasped Vista, before she leaned against Madison, helpless with laughter.

Madison grinned broadly, though she managed to avoid laughing. "You guys are idiots," she said fondly.

"Nope," Lisa snarked. "We're Samaritans. Says so, right on the tin."

Meeting Amy's eyes over Vista's shoulder, Madison shared a wry glance with her. In unison, they rolled their eyes. For some reason, this made Lisa burst out laughing as well.

Half an Hour Later
Barnes Household
Taylor

"Well, that was a thing." Taylor, now bereft of her costume, lounged back in a comfortable armchair. Emma perched on the arm of the same chair, while Amy and Lisa shared one of the two sofas and Madison sat on the arm of Missy's chair. She didn't want to move, ever again. The weariness she felt was entirely psychological, she knew; since they'd gotten back, Amy had checked them over again. But despite what she knew intellectually, she was still mentally exhausted. Losing one's powers and then regaining them tended to take it out of a person, she guessed. Which led her thoughts to the other person who had lost powers. "How you doing there, Ems?"

"Absolutely shattered," Emma replied. "All I want to do is take a nice long hot shower then fall into bed for about two days."

"Yeah, you and me both," Taylor agreed, holding up her hand. Emma's warm fingers closed around it and they shared a companionable squeeze. It was good to be home, for a given definition of 'home', with all her friends. Alive and well, when it could've easily gone the other way.

"And that's gonna happen just as soon as we finish the debrief," Danny said. He'd changed out of the wet clothing as they all had, but he still had a slightly ragged look around the eyes. Killing someone in cold blood, Taylor decided, couldn't be easy. Beside him, Alan Barnes shared the same look, while Rod Clements had a subdued air.

"Correct." Alan Barnes pulled up a kitchen chair and sat down on it. "So, where did we go wrong?" It was an old formula, but it helped get their minds into the right attitude.

This one, Taylor decided, was on her. "I fucked up," she said tiredly. "They called Emma, and she asked me if there were any students left in the school. I checked classrooms, corridors and bathrooms, but I didn't check things like roof spaces and storage closets." Letting her head drop back against the chair, she closed her eyes. "Even though I know the locks around Winslow are for crap."

"How much extra time would it have taken to search all that extra area?" asked Rod Clements practically.

Taylor considered the question, visualising the interior spaces of Winslow. "Maybe another five minutes," she conceded. "Ten at the outside."

"Why so long?" asked Danny. "Surely they aren't that big, compared to the rest of the school."

"They aren't," Taylor agreed. "But unlike a corridor, where a single bug can look down the entire length and see that there's no movement, every storage closet needs to have one or two bugs wriggle in past the door and then scout it out. And there are a lot of storage closets."

"Makes sense," said Alan Barnes. "Is there anything else you should've done differently?"

"Not swung so close to the wall when I took the corner," Taylor said immediately. "Of course, Greg probably would've been captured anyway, so this goes back to the fact that I should've located him from the beginning. And if I'd had my radio in my hand, I might've been able to keep hold of it when I fell over. Also, I stood on Greg's arm and twisted my ankle, so that didn't help either."

"All of this is starting to sound like shit happening," Rod Clements remarked. "Apart from not locating Greg when they reported him missing, I'm not hearing anything that sounds like a failure of judgement. And just looking in the places where he shouldn't have been might've cut too much into our time anyway." He looked at the other five girls. "Anyone else got anything?"

Tentatively, Emma raised her hand. "I didn't disable Jack Slash on the first hit?" she ventured.

Danny fielded that one. "I would've been pleased and surprised if you had, but we were on the way. At worst, you were a distraction, and that you pulled off in spades."

"All right, then," Alan Barnes noted. "How about what we did right?"

Madison put her arm around Missy and squeezed her tight. "Missy here pulled off the fire-sprinkler thing perfectly. Nobody saw me start to asphyxiate Bonesaw, and the sprinklers gave me cover to pull most of the oxygen from around Burnscar, so the water was able to keep her fire down."

Missy blushed and ducked her head at the round of approving glances she got. "I was just doing my bit," she said. "Emma and Taylor were amazing. Taylor was kicking Burnscar's ass, and Emma was touching up Jack Slash pretty well too."

"And, of course, Madison locked Bonesaw and Burnscar down like a boss," Taylor added with a grin. "I was wondering why she wasn't able to make more fire, even with the water."

"And let's not forget the Dad Brigade," Lisa put in cheerfully. "Providing artillery support at just the right moment. Twice, even. Also, Amy provided awesome after-action care, sorting out Taylor's and Emma's powers." She ruffled Amy's hair fondly. "That's something none of the rest of us could've done."

Amy ducked her head and blushed. "Just doing my job," she mumbled, but she sounded pleased all the same.

"And doing it damn well," Emma noted. "Then there was the way Missy solo'd Mannequin without getting out of breath. That was pretty impressive, too." She tilted her head. "How's that going with you not there to keep his arms and legs shrunk, anyway?"

Missy shrugged. "They had bolt-cutters out in the transports. So I pulled the arms and legs out, and they snipped the chain links. Right now, he's bolted into the most high-tech baby's cradle you ever saw, inside a Faraday cage, just in case."

"Cool." Madison turned to Lisa. "Just saying, you did pretty damn good with the early stages, too. Your power kept us coordinated, and you managed to get the information who, where and when. So don't feel too left out."

"Oh, I don't feel left out," Lisa said brightly. "In case you hadn't noticed, me and Amy aren't exactly combat types. We're force multipliers. We take the force you can apply, and we help you make it more devastating." She leaned back in the sofa with a broad grin. "It's so damn satisfying to watch you guys work together so effectively, and to know I'm a part of it. No second-guessing, no backbiting, and no Coil waiting to pop me in the back of the head if I don't perform as expected." She ran her hands through her hair, leaving it even messier than it had been before. "And oh god, not having to worry about what stunts Regent and Bitch were going to pull on any given day."

"Which reminds me," Madison said to Missy. "Any word on how Coil's doing?"

Missy shrugged. "Even if I knew, I probably wouldn't be allowed to talk to you about it. Unless he escapes, of course. Then they'd tell me. I hope."

"Yeah, let's not go there," Amy said with a shudder. "I mean, I know he'd had time to prepare the last time we encountered him, but if what Lisa says about his power is true, he could still be nasty one-on-one." She paused. "And on a totally different subject, can we address the elephant in the room?"

Danny blinked, obviously unsure of what she was referring to. "I suppose. What is it?"

Emma shook her head, but Amy was already talking. "Bonesaw. Remember how I saw the state of her brain when I was working on her?" She leaned forward, talking faster, as the expressions on everyone's faces changed. "No, hear me out. She's hurting. She's been forced into the mold she's in by Jack Slash. I've got experience at being affected over time by other peoples' powers, and I can tell you that breaking free of it, even a little bit, is the greatest relief in the world."

Rod Clements frowned. "Okay, but even assuming you're reading the situation totally correctly …"

"She is," Lisa said. "My power agrees with hers, absolutely."

"Okay, granted." Rod paused to collect his thoughts, then went on. "Assuming that … well, we've got to deal with the Director to release her into our custody, and I'm pretty sure we shot our bolt with that, bringing Lisa into the team."

"Maybe not," Alan Barnes said thoughtfully. "Lisa has definitely proven herself to be a valuable member of the team. And she was directly instrumental in figuring out what was going on with the Nine, both times. If I can pitch that just right to Piggot, maybe I can make a case that we're good at rehabilitating criminal capes."

"Dad, what?" Emma stared at him. "Do you even hear what you're saying? That's Bonesaw! She's a murderer! Amy raised the idea with Director Piggot after you left, and got shot down hard!"

Taylor raised her hand. "Don't think I'm fully on board with this idea, because I'm still on the fence about it, but I'm pretty sure the Director doesn't really understand how good Amy and Lisa are at what they do. If they think Bonesaw can be brought around to the side of good … I think maybe it can actually work."

"There's another problem on top of all that," Danny noted. "Even if she were mostly converted to the side of good and light—and before anyone jumps down my throat from either side, let me continue," he added hastily, as both Emma and Amy opened their mouths at the same time. He waited until they subsided, then went on. "I'm aware that people can be rehabilitated. It's a long, tough process. Even if they're fully willing—which is the only way it'll ever work, really—there's always the chance of backsliding, and there's almost always some remnant of the old behaviour left behind. However, the point I was about to make is that I'd be astonished if any member of the public would be okay with the Samaritans taking on Bonesaw as a member."

Amy nodded slowly. "That's a good point. But what if she didn't look like Bonesaw? She could be a brunette, or a redhead. Her facial features wouldn't even be a challenge."

"And what if we didn't even let her use her powers to begin with?" suggested Lisa. "Amy, I'm pretty sure you can recreate the original prions she used, yeah? Dose her with them, and we work at bringing her around without the danger of her building a city-killer in the basement. Once me, Amy and Dinah are in agreement that she's not gonna go apocalypse on us, then we give her her powers back."

"Huh," mused Rod Clements. "That … could actually work." He looked at Amy. "And you can do this? I mean, it doesn't need you to affect her brain?"

"Not directly," she assured him. "Prions can enter the bloodstream anywhere. What they do once they get to the brain is up to them."

" … um, did I just hear right?" Missy raised her eyebrows slightly. "Amy, are you saying you have a way to shut peoples' powers down permanently now?"

Amy sighed. "It's complicated, but the short answer is 'effectively, yes'. But I can already shut people down at a touch. The prions don't actually alter things very much."

"When she's right, she's right," added Lisa cheerfully. Her grin morphed into a more serious expression as she went on. "Okay, do we have any other objections to the idea of making Bonesaw into a good guy?"

"Before anyone says anything," Alan Barnes noted, "we're not going to go forward with this if everyone isn't in agreement. This sort of thing is far too volatile to not have everyone on the same page. Anyone not getting that?" He looked around the room. "Okay, good. Now, as I understand it, we're not talking about actively recruiting Bonesaw—which is something I never thought I'd be thinking about in any serious sense—but rather just turning her into someone who's got a reasonable chance of atoning for her many sins, and seeing what goes from there." His eyes fell on Amy and Lisa. "Is that about right?"

Amy nodded. Lisa grinned. "Yup."

"Well then." Alan took a deep breath. "Objections?"

"Yeah." Emma was already on her feet. Her hair was spread out in a halo around her, sparks crackling from one tendril-tip to another. "I'm not even sure how we can be considering this. Bonesaw is a murderer. She's done horrific things. Giving her a chance to escape her punishment is … well, wrong."

Amy opened her mouth to speak, but Lisa waved her to silence and stood up. "I'd like to address those points, your honour." Her cheeky grin belied her words.

Alan gave an indulgent wave. "Proceed."

With a snicker, Lisa kept talking. "Okay, first things first. It's been pretty well established in courts of law that an individual isn't responsible for any actions taken under the influence of a Master."

"Well, yeah," conceded Emma. "But … do we know Jack Slash was a Master?"

"Yeah," Lisa responded immediately. "Best proof? He didn't get murdered in his sleep by the couple dozen stone killers he gathered around him over the last twenty-something years. I think it was some kind of subtle influence thing that made capes act the way he wanted. And maybe he got ideas about how they were going to act around him, as well. So a terrified six-year-old, with exactly one chance of surviving in a team of utter psychopaths? She would've been putty in his hands. First few times, she would've been following orders. After that? She'd learn to enjoy it. What little kid doesn't enjoy breaking things? Even if those things turn out to be people?"

Emma grimaced. "Well, yeah, but …" She shook her head. "Okay, I'll accept he was a Master. I still don't think she should be totally excused for what she's done, but yeah, that's a thing. What's your other point?"

Graciously, Lisa inclined her head. "My other point is that murderers are people, too. Anyone who's been in a warzone may well have killed someone. Three of you guys have killed. Two of the Undersiders are wanted for murder. I think the charges are bogus, but Regent actually killed someone on the orders of a Master. The fact he doesn't do that these days … well, that should mean something. Especially since that particular Master is a lot stronger than Jack was."

"Really?" asked Danny. "Who?"

Lisa waved the question off. "Not important. Maybe later. Anyway, the act of killing doesn't physically change you. Mentally and emotionally, it can take a toll, yes." She gave Danny, Alan and Emma a sympathetic look. "I've never been there myself but I've seen what it does to people who have." She leaned forward. "Now, answer me this. When she finally shakes off the last of Jack Slash's influence and realises just how much of a monster he made her into … would you prefer that she be alone to deal with it, or have help? Or more to the point, how much help do you think the PRT will be giving her?"

Rod Clements grimaced. "Son of a bitch."

Emma was silent. Taylor, craning her neck around, could see that her best friend's expression was conflicted. "You okay there?" she asked.

"No." Emma punctuated the word by shaking her head, her spread hair-tendrils swaying back and forth with the motion. "I mean, I know beyond any doubt that letting Bonesaw near us again is likely to be disastrous. And that's even if the Director lets us have her. Which, if she has any sense, she won't. But you're making too much sense. It's twisting my head around. I can't decide what I want."

"Yeah, well, they do say 'never let the Thinker talk'," Madison agreed sympathetically. "I mean, personally I think she's making a good case. But it's your call. If you say no, it's no."

Emma's head turned sharply. "Call!" She pointed at Lisa. "Call Dinah. Ask her two questions. One: is the Director even likely to give us custody? And two: what's the fallout going to be like if she does?"

"Ooh, nice one." Lisa grinned and pulled out her phone. "I should've thought of this earlier."

"I doubt it," Amy said dryly. "I've noticed that you never take a chance on anything that's not something you can predict. For a risk-taker, you're very conservative."

Lisa stuck her tongue out at the biokinetic, then dialled the number. "Hey, yeah, it's me," she said briskly, tapping the phone to put it on speaker.

"Hello, Athena," a young girl replied blandly. "Yes, it's nice to hear from you, too. Why, I've been lovely, thank you for asking. How have you been?"

Lisa sighed, pointedly ignoring Taylor's chuckle. "I'm fine, but we've got a problem we need to resolve. Two questions, to be specific. What are the chances of the Director giving us custody of Bonesaw if we take her powers away for the duration, and what are the chances of something drastically going wrong if we do take her and try to rehabilitate her?"

"In the case of taking Bonesaw minus her powers, you have a sixty-two point nine four three percent chance of convincing the Director to hand her over," Dinah said promptly. "There's a four point seven one six one percent chance of her returning to her criminal habits once her powers are returned to her. And to answer the question you didn't ask, there's a fifty-one point six five four percent chance of two or more of your team dying in the next two months if you don't do this."

Lisa blinked, as though not even she had expected those numbers. "Well. Wow. Uh, thanks, Dinah."

"Not a problem. I was actually hoping you were joking about Bonesaw. I really don't think I want to know. Good night." Without further ado, the call cut off.

Danny clapped his hands together softly. "Well, then. I think that's all the information in, and all the arguments made, including some unexpected information from Dinah. I think we should sleep on it, then get back together tomorrow morning and make our final decision."

"Good idea," agreed Alan Barnes. "I'll be staying up for a while, to go over the books and see if there's any other levers I can use to get Director Piggot to let her go into our custody, if the vote goes that way."

"Don't you mean our custody, Mr Barnes?" asked Taylor. "I mean, we're the Samaritans. Your faces aren't known to the PRT."

Just for a moment, Danny's eyes met Alan's, then he turned back to Taylor. "I'm pretty sure that she'd be happier releasing Bonesaw into the custody of a bunch of adults rather than teens. No matter how good those teens are at taking down villains."

"He's right," Alan agreed. "We'll be masked, of course." He rubbed his hands together, something he only usually did before commencing a difficult case. "We're going to have to bring our A-game to this one."

"We haven't had our final show of hands," Danny reminded him. "Tomorrow morning, back here?"

"First thing," agreed Alan. "Okay, that's settled. Any other business before we crash for the night?"

"Yeah," Emma piped up. "What about that Case 53 girl, Noelle? What's happened with her? Did they ever get you to heal her, Amy?"

Before Amy could speak, Lisa shook her head. "I found notes," she said. "They boiled down to 'do not let Panacea anywhere near her'."

"Huh," Amy said. "So that's why nobody contacted me about it."

"Well, I don't know anything official," Missy said carefully. "But … well, there's a grapevine, and my power does let me listen in on conversations sometimes if I'm careful, so I hear things. This doesn't go outside this room, okay?"

Danny looked from side to side. "I'm pretty sure nobody's going to say anything." Not entirely by accident, as far as Taylor could tell, his gaze ended up on Lisa. "Are they?"

She had the grace to blush. "Nope, not a word," she said, then wrinkled her nose. "Spoilsport."

"Doubtless," Danny agreed blandly. "Missy?"

Missy leaned forward on the sofa and lowered her voice slightly. "Well, you know how they were going to execute the Nine before the escape? What they had planned for Crawler was pretty thorough. Since they haven't managed to recapture him yet, and Noelle has actually requested execution, they're using that for her."

"Requested." Alan Barnes' voice was flat. "You're serious."

"Deadly." Missy nodded. "She's apparently responsible for dozens of deaths, but it's all her powers going crazy on her. Apparently, she's attempted suicide more than once. With the PRT's assistance, she can make it stick."

"How are the rest of the Travellers taking it?" asked Taylor. "I can't see them being thrilled about it."

Missy shrugged. "I have no idea. Nobody was talking about it."

"Hey," Amy said to Lisa. "You okay?"

" … kinda," Lisa replied, her voice quiet. "I don't like talk about suicide. It was … " She trailed off, her arms wrapped around herself.

"Hey, you know our rules," Amy chided her gently. "We don't stop talking about stuff halfway."

Lisa tried to give her a stern glare. "You suck, you know that?"

"As Mr Hebert says, doubtless." Amy grinned. "Stop trying to change the subject."

"Fine." Lisa sighed. "It was my brother. His name was Rex …"

A Remote Granite Massif
Noelle Meinhardt

It was cold down here, but at least they'd given her a proper jacket to wear. No expense spared for the condemned woman. They'd also gotten her other request right; a Big Mac, heavy on the pickles, and a chocolate shake. She hadn't had a good shake in months. Her lower body had ingested several cow carcasses and seemed sated for the moment.

The granite walls rose on all sides of her. Far above, where the shaft ended and the sky began, she thought the deep blue was beginning to darken. In each of the four corners of the chamber into which she'd been lowered, a metal cylinder crouched. She'd half-expected a baleful red LED countdown, but nothing of the sort was showing. For all she knew, they were fancy garbage disposals.

Attached to the rough-hewn wall itself was a large plasma-screen TV screen. At the moment, it was playing soft pastoral music, with a sequence of landscapes providing a gorgeous background. This was actually quite pleasant to listen to.

Abruptly, the screen flickered, the picture changing to a severe-looking woman with Hispanic looks. "Good evening," she said. "I'm not aware if you know me, but I am Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown of the Parahuman Response Teams. Your name is Noelle Meinhardt, correct?"

"Yes, that's correct," Noelle said. "I've seen you on TV. Is it time?"

"Almost," the Chief Director said gently. "Your friends have requested the chance to say goodbye, and I see no reason not to grant it. Is this acceptable to you?"

For a long moment, she almost decided to say no. It had been hard enough to make the decision to do this in the first place. But if I do it this way, it's not fair on them. With a sigh, she nodded. "Okay."

Director Costa-Brown didn't make any signal that Noelle saw, but the TV signal changed again, the image of the Hispanic woman retreating to the upper left corner. The rest of it became a picture of the other Travellers, wearing PRT prison gear. Well, almost all of them. She frowned. "Where's Krouse?"

Mars grimaced. "He said something about 'not a fucking hope in hell' and went off to sulk in his quarters or something. Told us we were all ghouls for doing this." She looked better than when they'd first been captured, though she didn't look happy, for obvious reasons.

"Hey." That was Jess, waving from her wheelchair. It looked like the PRT had given her back the one from Coil's lair. "They treating you all right? I mean, apart from … you know."

"Oh yeah." Mustering a smile, Noelle tugged at the lapels of the jacket she wore, to show it off. "Check it out. I'm properly warm for the first time in forever. And yeah, this is what I want. Nothing else has worked, so … yeah."

"Nice jacket." Luke gave her a thumbs up. "Anything you want me to tell jerkface when he finally pulls his head out of his ass?"

Noelle thought about that. "I guess …" She paused, then went on. "I was going to say to tell him that he was an ass for not wanting to talk to me, but I really can't blame him for this. So tell him that I'm happy with my decision. This is my right, and it's really the only option I've got left." She scanned the faces of her friends, and picked out the only one who hadn't spoken yet. "Oliver? You okay?"

Hunching his shoulders, Oliver looked at the floor. "No," he said, then turned his face toward the camera. "You're my friend. Everyone's standing around pretending to be happy, but I don't want you to die." Tears were standing in his eyes.

Noelle bit her lip. "I'm sorry it had to be this way," she said softly. "But I couldn't let anyone else be hurt. I couldn't let you guys be hurt any more because of me. I'm not just a burden on you. I'm a burden that eats people. Well, I'm done. It's over. I want you to remember me, but not as a monster. Remember me as someone who paid the ultimate price to kill the monster."

In the corner of the screen, the Chief Director cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, but that's all the time we have. Noelle Meinhardt, by the power invested in me as the Chief Director of the Parahuman Response Teams, as per the Kill Order requested by yourself and approved by an appropriately convened quorum of judiciaries, I hereby—"

"No!" The call came from above. Noelle, startled for the first time since she'd been placed in the shaft, looked up. There was a thin scream, then a human form plummeted to the floor of the shaft, smashing into the granite with horrific force.

Noelle stared at the mangled form. Was that—did Krouse just—

And then the corpse vanished, and Krouse was standing there, wearing the same PRT gear as the others had. Distantly, she heard alarms begin to wail, echoing down the length of the shaft. He turned, saw Noelle, and ran toward her. "Come on!" he shouted. "Let's get out of here!"

"What?" she asked. "No! Krouse, you get out of here! I chose this! This is what I want!"

Ignoring her words, he dodged past a half-hearted snap by one of her monster heads, and scrambled up on to her broad body. She told her power not to absorb him, and it didn't. "No, they've turned your head around," he insisted. "You can dig through granite, I know you can. Or you can climb up this shaft. But you don't have to just stand around waiting to die!"

She took his hands as he came up to her. It felt weird, to be only waist-high to him. "I love you too," she said softly, answering the words he hadn't used. "But there's no good way out of this. This way, you and the others can go on with your lives, and I don't endanger anyone any more, ever again." She pulled him down to a kneeling position, and kissed him. The tears on his face and hers made the kiss salty, but she didn't care. "Don't you see? Every day that I go on, I deprive you of being able to live your life to the full."

His arms went around her, and he kissed her in return. "I can't go on," he said brokenly. "You are my life. If I can't be with you, I don't want to go on." Putting his face next to hers, he whispered, "Please. Escape with me. We can be together."

The insidious temptation tugged at her, but she shook her head. "No. I've made up my mind." Holding him tightly, she kissed him again. "It really sucks, you know? If I had my choice for powers, I would've picked being able to fly."

"Yeah, well." His eyes were sad. "We don't always get what we want."

"Well, this is what I want." Letting him go, she gave him a gentle shove. "Go on. Get out of here."

He shook his head. "Sorry. Killed a man getting down here. Burned my bridges either way. So we're together to the end of the line."

The realisation that he was going to die as well should have torn her heart in two, but instead she felt a bittersweet relief that she didn't have to spend her last moment alone. "To the end of the line, then," she whispered, and pulled him in for another kiss. This time, behind his back, she gave a thumbs-up to the camera.

As their lips melded together, the bombs went off. Her enhanced physique withstood the damage for a split second, and in that time …

… she soared.

Taylor

"Is she gonna be okay?" asked Taylor.

"Yeah," Amy said, holding Lisa close to her. The blonde ex-villain's eyes were closed, but the tracks of tears were still visible on her face. "She hasn't talked this out with anyone for ages, but she's feeling better about herself now." She gave Taylor a wan smile. "You gonna be heading home now?"

"Taylor can stay if she wants," Danny answered for her. "Me, I'm going to go home and get plastered. And maybe tomorrow, I won't remember pulling the trigger quite so vividly."

"I can understand that," Rod Clements agreed. "We'll catch up with you guys back here in the morning for the show of hands. See you then."

"See you then," Taylor agreed, getting up from the chair and giving Madison a hug. "We did real good today, didn't we?"

"Yeah." Madison accepted the hug, then gave one to Emma as well. "That's what the Samaritans are all about."

"Damn right." Taylor held up her hand, and the other two gave her a three-way high-five. "Here's to heroism."

"Here's to kicking ass and righting wrongs," added Emma with a grin.

"Hell yes," Missy said. "Can I get a lift with you and Madison, Mr Clements?"

"Sure thing," Rod told her. "You know we've always got a spare bed for you."

After another round of hugs, Taylor watched her father head out the door with the other three. Realising how tired she was, she stretched and yawned. But first, other priorities took precedence. "Shower time," she decided.

"I'll get the towels and the robes," Emma agreed. She nodded to Amy and Lisa. "When you're ready, I'll have more laid out for you."

"Thanks," Amy said. "We'll be along in a moment."

Taylor followed Emma toward the bathroom. It was quiet right now, time for rest and reflection. Tomorrow would almost certainly bring more challenges; they had to make their final decision about Bonesaw, after all.

Tomorrow, everything would be happening. But tomorrow was another day.

 Part 29