“Amaranth to console,” I said as I paused at the next waypoint. “Arrived at CC-8. No activity to report.”

  “Copy Amaranth,” the gruff voice of the officer manning it replied. “Remain on schedule.”

  “Understood, Amaranth out.”

  “So annoying when they want us to stay somewhere there’s nothing going on,” Vista grumbled, crossing her arms as she leaned against a light pole. “Like we can literally see there aren’t villains or gangsters around.”

  I couldn’t help but agree. So far the patrol had been a wash, though we were only an hour into it. Only an hour left to go too, they’d shortened our patrols and made them more frequent since Skitter’s capture yesterday morning. Reinforcements were being trickled in as well, Crucible and Autumn Rain had joined on as temporary Wards; they’d come with Adamant and Sere. I hadn’t met them yet, but since the HQ was my home I would soon enough.

  At least the city was slowly, so slowly, improving. This morning at our briefing, I’d learned that the Fallen were no longer an issue in the city. During an engagement with New Wave and Haven, the battle I'd seen yesterday on the bus, Valefor had been killed and Eligos injured badly enough to be an easy capure. Not by them, apparently the Undersiders had appeared after and let them know they’d been responsible. The heroes hadn’t been happy, but I wasn’t too broken up about it. Knowing what Skitter had done to Valefor...yeah no, maybe it was better.

  With that fucked up thought in mind, Vista and I continued our patrol. I didn’t like how easy it was to just...feel okay about that. When I thought about what I’d done, about the soldiers and...and Mark, it made my stomach churn. But others... I sighed and shook my head to clear it, though it didn’t help all that much.

  “You okay?” Vista asked as we walked. “Sort of a big sigh, dude.”

  “Just thinking about...villains and stuff.” Close enough. I really didn’t want to dump all that shit about killing on a preteen. “It’s been getting to me.”

  “Me too,” she said. “Like, we’ve been fighting some of the villains, but we’re not going all in. Is that what you mean?”

  “That’s part of it, I guess.” I definitely hadn’t enjoyed the ‘sit and wait’ approach. “Also just like, how many of them there are, with more moving in. Hell the Nazis are still around.”

  “Hookwolf’s gone,” she explained. “They got messed up by the Nine too, they’ve been quiet.”

  “Doesn’t mean they’re gone,” I countered. “They still have some heavy hitters around. Purity, Crusader, Rune, they’re still operating right? The Undersiders are bad, no question, but are they really worse than Nazis?”

  “Sounds like the debate about the ABB again,” Vista muttered.

  “Sorry.” I winced. “Didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”

  “Not bad just…” She sighed. “Okay kind of bad. Hookwolf was the first villain to really mess me up. When they asked us if any of us were okay working with them in an emergency, I kind of...well, you’re not the only one who’s gotten in trouble for being shitty.”

  “Oh god do people think I’m shitty?” I grimaced at the look she gave me. “Okay, okay maybe...maybe I kind of have been.” She let out a snort of laughter.

  “You’re like if Shadow Stalker wasn’t a huge bitch,” Vista said after another block. “Like, you’re pretty intense about stuff, you fight with the heroes when you don’t agree. But you play by the rules, at least mostly, and when you break them it’s usually for a good reason.”

  “I think the PRT and you would disagree about that last point,” I said dryly.

  “Maybe,” she agreed. “But maybe they’re wrong. You’re a precog aren’t you?”

  “Something like that,” I said with a shrug. “If you’re asking ‘would things have gone worse’ if I stuck around...probably.”

  “That’s hard to believe,” she said. “No offense.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “None taken,” I replied, shaking my head. “I have trouble believing it too. But if things had gone worse, well, they’d have gone far worse.” At least for two people.

  “Worse than you getting nominated by Jack?”

  “Yes,” I said after a long, silent minute considering it.

  “You knew that would happen, right?” Vista asked as we walked on. “The nomination I mean, that’s what they said when they briefed us.” I curled my lip.

  “Of course they did,” I said, a little bitter. “Yeah I knew I was getting nominated”

  “Why’d you go on patrol then?”

  “What other option was there?” I asked in reply. “Stay at the headquarters and wait for him to come to me? Or get nailed when I’m in civilians or something? If I’d told everyone, what would have changed? My bet is that a lot more people would have died.” Vista pursed her lips and looked at the ground.

  “You really think so?”

  “I know so.” Because more had the first time.

  “I’m really glad I’m not a precog,” Vista said at last. “No offense.”

  “Don’t worry, it’s not contagious,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood I’d brought down. I sniffed, then faked a sneeze. “At least, I don’t think so.”

  “That was awful,” she groaned. “You’re stealing Clockblocker’s job, making jokes that bad.”

  “He can have it back when the captain’s chair gets uncomfortable,” I said. “You know, I don’t think I’ve heard him crack a joke once since I got here.”

  “Yeah…” Vista said with a frown. “I kind of miss them, honestly. Sort of a way I knew things were going to be okay, you know?”

  “I get it,” I said, patting her shoulder. “They are though. I mean, it’s pretty bad right now, but we’re starting to turn it around right?”

  “I guess.” She clicked her tongue and frowned. “I really wish—”

  A gunshot interrupted her, and both our heads snapped around to where it had come from. A moment later Vista took off, squeezing the road in front of her together. I followed in her wake, trying not to throw up from the weird feeling of going through her modified space. We made good time to the spot two blocks over, finding a couple guys who were either with the Teeth or whatever remained of Fenrir’s Chosen holding guns on some terrified civilians.

  Vista didn’t hesitate, slapping my shoulder and pointing forward. This was an exercise we’d only tried a couple times, but I took a deep breath and started running towards the gangsters. The twisting in my stomach made me hesitate, but when I suddenly went from half a block to half a foot from the bad guys I worked fast.

  Their guns were crushed in their hands, along with a couple fingers. One of them managed to pull a knife and drive it into my gut, but all that earned him was a broken forearm to go with his fingers. The other swore viciously as I kicked out the back of his knee and forced him to the ground. Vista was with me a heartbeat later, cuffing the wounded man who was cradling his arm.

  “You guys okay?” I asked the civilians once both gangsters had been bound and our wagon was on its way.

  “Fine,” the taller of the two, a dark-skinned guy with thick glasses, answered. “Dunno what they were gonna do to us, but it probably would have been bad.”

  “Thanks miss hero,” the younger girl said, hiding behind her brother or father or whoever.

  “You’re welcome,” I said, offering a smile she couldn’t see. “The PRT should be here soon to clean up, can you stick around to give statements? It might help putting these guys away.” They shared a glance, then the taller one nodded.

  With the streets getting better, the van only took a few minutes to show. A small compliment of officers helped me and Vista get the bangers into the back while another spoke to the two kids off to one side. Turned out the bastards were Chosen, which considering the kids made some sick sense. Why they were here in the East End was a question I’d have to pass on to the bosses, considering the south had been theirs before.

  With a rumble, the van drove off and left us to the rest of our patrol. We chatted with the kids for a minute, making sure they had somewhere to go and would get there before curfew, then turned around and started the trip home. I felt a little better, now that we’d actually managed to do something beyond wandering the city aimlessly for two hours.

  “Hey that trick worked,” Vista piped up as we headed back. “I was sort of worried about the timing.”

  “No the timing was perfect,” I replied. “I just wasn’t ready for the stomach-flippy feeling I get when going through your spaces. That’s just a matter of getting used to it I think.”

  “Oh, you get motion sick?”

  “Never have before,” I said, shrugging. “Like I said, I’ll probably get used to it.”

  “Hope so,” she said with a smile. “It was a pretty cool combination.”

  “Yeah it—”

  “Hey! Wait!” We turned and saw the guy we’d helped before running towards us. “There were more of them waiting, please help!” We shared a look, then took off running after him.

  Vista spoke quickly to the PRT as we ran, letting them know we were going after more Chosen. My heart was pounding in my chest, the adrenaline from the last fight hadn’t quite gone away and now I was getting a fresh serving. Hopefully I wouldn’t need more attention from Amy, at least not the medical kind. The guy ducked down an alleyway and we followed him in. He vanished down a branching side street and the ground rumbled. Vista and I whirled as a shadow fell over us, one of Bitch’s monster dogs blocking the exit. Craning my neck, I saw another at the opposite end, and between them…

  “Hey Amaranth,” the bitchiest bitch who’d ever bitched in this utter shithole I called home said bitchily. “Told you you’d pay.”