Victoria’s first thought upon seeing the girl was ‘oh boy, here we go again.’ To be fair, it wasn’t exactly uncommon for her to run into fans that were perhaps a little overenthusiastic.

Then she noticed that the girl who was wearing jeans and a frumpy hoodie was also covered in specks of blood, had mud down the back of her pants and her eyes were just this side of crazy. Unless this was a seriously out-there fashion statement, something was clearly wrong.

She stepped up between her sister and the new crazy, an easy smile stretching across her features even as she tried to look disarming. They were in a busy clothing store, not the best place for a possibly violent confrontation. At least the Boardwalk had guards around. No doubt they’d be around in a minute or two.

The girl was panting, chest heaving until she locked onto Amy. “Panacea,” she said.

“Hey,” Victoria said as she stepped to the side to better cut the girl’s line of sight to her sister. “What am I, a side of beef?” she asked.

“What?” the girl said. She looked at Victoria as if seeing her for the first time, then dismissed her just as easily. Insulting much. “I’m sorry, I need Panacea.”

“I’m sure you do,” Victoria said. “But my sister’s not working right now. If you need help, you should go to Brockton General. It’s only a few blocks away.”

“I, no,” the girl said. She shook her head. “My sister, she was shot. She’s just, just two streets down, please.”

Victoria paused. There was real panic there. She’d seen her share of people freaking out and this looked as genuine as anything else. “Vicky,” Amy said from behind her.

“Yeah, I know,” Victoria said. She wasn’t the one in charge here, but Amy usually deferred to her. If this wasn’t some sort of false alarm... “What happened?”

“We don’t have time for-” the girl winced, paused for a second, then started. “We were walking. We found this girl, she was lost. A van stopped, tried to grab the girl. A guy shot at us. It hit my sister. She’s hurt. Please, Crochet needs help. We can’t go to the hospital.”

“Crochet?” Victoria asked. Was that supposed to be a name?

“That’s my sister’s name.”

“Ah,” Victoria said. So the girl was insane. That made things so much easier to deal with. “How about we go outside, and you can sit down on one of those nice, comfy seats and we can chat for a bit,” Victoria said.

The girl looked confused for a moment, then clarity shot across her features. “You don’t believe me.”

“Hey now, I didn’t say that,” Victoria dismissed. She felt Amy moving to her side, and to be fair, this girl probably didn’t pose a serious threat to Amy with Victoria present. She seemed like she might be on something. Usually junkies weren’t allowed on the Boardwalk, but this one might have gotten past.

“No, I need Panacea, please,” the girl said. She reached out towards Amy, but Victoria was faster. She had her by the wrist before she could so much as touch her sister. “Huh?” the girl said, her attention fixed on where Victoria was holding her. “You’re not a parahuman?”

Victoria raised one well manicured eyebrow and shared a look with her sister. “Maybe,” Amy began, “I should check to see if she’s okay.” She reached out and gingerly touched the girl’s hand, then blinked dumbly.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Thank you!” the girl said as she pulled back. Victoria let her go, surprised by the change in direction and the sudden hope blooming across the girl’s face. She moved right out of the store at a sprint, almost tripping over her own feet.

“She was a cape,” Amy said in her type 2 unimpressed voice, the one for things that were surprising and yet disappointingly failed to make her give a damn.

Victoria felt a shiver run down her back. A few things clicked. “Ah, shit,” she said. “Amy stay here. Watch my bags.” She had time to see Amy’s eyes roll before she was out of the shop and taking to the air.

She didn’t have to climb far to see her target. The girl was obviously a little out of shape if she had only gotten that far in nearly a minute. Swooping down, Victoria executed a perfect backflip and landed on the point of her toes. Thank you, Mouse Protector’s Mouse Protecting Show. There were only so many cool landings out there. The cartoon was inspiration itself. “Hey there,” she said. Her smile was maybe a little predatory now. “Remember me?”

The girl shook her head. “I don’t have time-” she said before trying to step around Victoria.

“Make time,” Victoria said.

The girl looked around, noticing all the people paying attention, then the hands-on-hips pose Victoria was holding an inch above the ground. She ran.

Victoria blinked at the spot the girl had been in. She had expected her to crumble, to give up, to bow before Vicky’s Vickiness. Instead she had darted into an alley between two buildings and was panting even as the tap-tap of her sneakers echoed out behind her.

Shaking her head, Victoria flew after her, over her, and then before her, blocking her path again. This time, there wouldn’t be any escaping. “Okay, enough,” Victoria said. “You’ve got some explaining to do.”

The girl looked around, and for a moment, Victoria thought she might try running back out to the street. For all the good that would do her. Instead, her hands balled into fists. “Please. I need to get to my sister. I can explain things once I get there.”

“I think you can explain things right now,” Victoria said.

The girl looked ready to deck Victoria in the nose, but instead she took a deep breath and calmed down. “I’m a power copier,” she said. “I touched your sister, I can make a clone to heal mine.”

“Pull the other one.”

The girl grit her teeth, frowned, then with a pop and a flash of yellowish light, they were no longer alone in the alleyway.

It had been a while since Victoria had last seen a picture of her sister at age eleven or so, but she would recognize that scowling face anywhere. “Big Sis?” the girl said.

“What.” Victoria stepped closer to the girl, taking in the long white robes at a glance, but focusing on the freckle-covered face, the tiny nose and puffy cheeks that she had grown up with.

“Do you believe me now?” the girl asked as she pulled the small Amy closer. “We need to go, now!”

They were halfway down the alley when Victoria came back to herself with a start. “Hey, wait!”