In Which Taylor Negotiates a Trade With a Very Good Girl

The Simurgh, Ziz, the Hopekiller. An ethereal beauty whose false humanity was barely concealed by feather and wing. When she first sang it inspired humanity to look up to her, the angel made real. Then her song twisted, taking with it the sanity of her listeners.

For nine years, The Simurgh flew, and with her travels came destruction and madness. She was feared the world over. The Endbringer with the fewest volunteer capes and the least casualties, at least at first.

Her appearance was the harbinger of the end for any city. Friends turned on friends at at the sound of her voice. More than one hero had been put down like a rabid dog for listening for too long, more than one city had been walled off and forsaken.

Taylor looked up at the Endbringer, eyes squinting to take her in. "Are you naked?"

The Simurgh turned her face away. [Not Naked. Feathers.]

"Feathers don't count as clothes!" Taylor shouted up at the Endbringer.

The street was quiet for a moment, the wall of onrushing glass paused, the cars swerving all over coming to a stop while the panicked drivers within stared at the two Endbringers on the road. The only sound was the tinkling of glass and the drip-drip of liquids coming out of the van The Simurgh was still standing on.

"Hey, Taylor," Rune said. "Could you, I dunno, get me to a hospital, or something?"

"Oh, skittles!" Taylor said. She looked between Leviathan and Rune, then up to The Simurgh. "Uh, hey, do you happen to know where Panacea is?"

[Affirmative.]

"Could you tell me?"

[Affirmative.]

Taylor huffed. "Where is she?"

[Amused. Hospital. East.]

"You hear that?" the asked Levithan.

{Unit-02 on same communication band as Unit-03 and Host-Queen_Administrator.}

"Awesome, then let's go." Taylor pointed off towards what she hoped was East. Rune looked drowsy, and had stopped grimacing in favour of staring off into the sky and blinking slowly. That was probably not a good thing.

Leviathan started running again, long lopping steps that brought him to the side of a building which he vaulted onto and climbed with one hand, his newly-reformed claws digging into cement to drag him up.

Taylor knew that she had to do something about the Simurgh, but Rune was hurt now, and she needed helping first. She just hoped that the Simurgh wasn't going to be upset with her.

"Where do you think you're going?" a girl asked from above them. Taylor looked up to see Shatterbird, wrapped in layers of glass with sword-like pillars floating behind her and flashing with every colour in the rainbow. "Jack told me that I had to test you, which means you'll need to get by me first."

"Uh," Taylor said.

Shatterbird grinned, then took a deep breath and sang. Her voice was like liquid crystal, sending glass spiralling around her in a double helix the size of a semi-trailer. Every window for a mile around them cracked and exploded, adding glass to her pillar.

The Simurgh rose up behind Taylor and Leviathan, took one look at Shatterbird, then screamed right back.

If Shatterbird's song was pure, like crystal chiming in the wind, then the Simurgh's was like a crystalline foghorn on a boat about to ram into shore.

A wave tore through the air, shifting back all the glass spiralling around and tearing past the top of the city like a tiny tornado that had every tree in a mile wide cone bowing down and every building creaking under the strain. Shatterbird, who was in the middle of it all, disappeared in a puff of glass dust and blood.

[Smug. Path cleared,] The Simurgh said. Her wings all quirked upwards and she folded her arms across her chest, legs in a wide, victorious stance.

"Thanks!" Taylor said before tapping on Leviathan's shoulder. "C'mon, you get us there and I'll call ahead to make sure Panacea knows we're coming." That said, Taylor stretched around and rummaged in her pocket until she found her phone and glared at the screen until she found Dragon on her very short list of contacts.

>>Queen_Administrator: Hey, Dragon. Unit Two and I are heading over to the hospital where Panacea's staying.

>>Dragon: Queen Administrator! How are you? Are you okay? How badly are you injured?

>>Queen_Administrator: I'm not injured at all, but one of my friends got hurt. She was with me at our picnic when that Jack guy showed up.

>>Dragon: I'm calling ahead to the hospital, but I can't get through. Do you want directions to the PRT HQ, they can have a medical team ready on site in less then two minutes.

>>Queen_Administrator: Nah, my source tells me that Panacea's at the hospital. Maybe they're just busy?

>>Queen_Administrator: Oh, also, the Siberian is dead.

>>Queen_Administrator: Maybe Shatterbird too.

>>Queen_Administrator: But it's not my fault I swear! The Simurgh did it.

>>Queen_Administrator: Anyway, see you later! I'll call when I'm not so busy.

>>Dragon: No, wait! What did you mean about The Simurgh?

>>Dragon: The Siberian's dead?

>>Dragon: You're going to hang up again, aren't you?

Taylor slid her phone into a pocket and looked around. They were making good time by hopping from rooftop to rooftop. Brockton General stood out of the cityscape, one of the bigger buildings in that part of town. She wondered if she'd need to pay parking fare for Leviathan.

The Endbringer crashed in front of the emergency room doors and lowered himself to the ground. Taylor jumped off, then rushed over and helped lower Rune to the ground. When she searched around them, it was to find the entire parking lot empty. No one was racing out to help which was really quite rude.

Frowning, Taylor grab onto Rune, sliding an arm under the girl's. "Can you still stand?" she asked.

"Mmhmm," Cass said. She managed to stay on her feet but was still bleeding and Taylor figured that she wouldn't be going far on her own.

"Unit Two, make yourself scarce, but if anyone tries anything bad, stop them, okay?"

{Affirmative. Additional Directive: Protect location.}

Pulling Cass alongside her, Taylor slipped into the hospital's ER only to find everyone in the room staring at nothing. The only noise was the ventilation and a TV in the corner of the waiting area where there was a warning from the PRT about the Slaughterhouse Nine being in town.

{Host-Queen_Administrator entering area affected by pathogen created by Host-Biological_Enhancer.}

"Can you do something about it?" she asked.

{Affirmative. Preparing genocide protocols.}

"What? No! You can't solve every problem by killing it. Can you, I dunno, clean the air?" She gestured with her free hand, hoping that her random waving was read as 'made the bad stuff go away' and not 'kill things.'

{Preparing localized Hydrokinetic sweep. Unit-02 advises Host-Queen_Administrator wait until sweep is complete before proceeding.}

Taylor stopped in the threshold of the hospital waiting room, knowing better than to step inside when her Endbringer told her not to. The building rumbled, every pipe and vent shaking for a few moments. A water dispense near the entrance blew apart, firing a jet of water into the room that immediately broke apart into a cloud of steam that scoured the room. All Taylor felt was a mildly humid brush across her face while a wall of steam rushed by her.

When it passed, she sniffed the now very-clean air and nodded. "Thanks!" Stepping in with Rune by her side, Taylor beelined towards the reception desk. "Hey, Unit Two, can you do anything about all these folks? They seem a little sick."

{Unit-02 can remove pathogen by force using hydrokinesis.Unit-02 is unable to return local lifeforms to previous state without damaging cerebral processes. Proceed?}

"Hrm, no, we'll see if Panacea can help them first, yeah?" she said just before stopping before the reception desk. "Hi," she said to the glassy-eyed woman behind the counter. "Do you know where Panacea is?"

"We're not supposed to move," the woman whispered, her eyes fixed somewhere four inches over Taylor's right shoulder.

"Um, okay. But can you tell me where Panacea is?"

"Seventh floor."

"Thank you, miss reception lady." Holding her friend close, Taylor walked to the elevator and pressed the button for the seventh floor. A minute later the elevator pinged and the doors opened to reveal a corridor empty save for a few foldable wheelchairs, some beds and other bits and bobs that she couldn't identify beyond 'hospital stuff.'

An idea struck her and she moved to one side and spent a precious minute unfolding one of the wheelchairs before lowering Rune into it. "That'll be faster," she said as she installed herself behind and started pushing. "Now, if I was a Panacea, where would I be?"

She was growing a little anxious when she heard someone talking from deeper in the corridor. Seeing as most people she crossed were just standing around unmoving, she figured that following the noise was her best bet.

"Now now, Amy, think about it, we could be the best of best buddies!" A young, girly voice said. "I do the big things, and you fix them up all pretty. We both work with meat, I thought you'd appreciate my handiwork."

"Meat? My sister is not meat!" someone screamed.

Taylor slowed to a stop next to an open door, the voices were coming from within. She stepped away from Rune and knocked twice. "Um, sorry, am I bothering? I'm looking for Panacea."

There were four people in the room. A girl in a canary-yellow dress, wearing an apron and wringing her hands. When she turned her blonde ringlets followed the motion and bounced around her heart-shaped face. Behind her, leaning against the farthest wall right next to the room's only window was a tall, tan-skinned man. His clothes were worn but clean, all save for the massive hatchet leaning on the ground next to him which was grimey with dried blood.

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The other two Taylor recognized. Glory Girl was sitting on a bed, a smile on her lips as she stared at the far end of the room while Amy Dallon, Panacea, was standing between her sister and the little girl.

Squirming under the attention, Taylor swallowed. "Uh, I don't want to interrupt, but my friend's hurt real bad."

The little girl smiled wide then tilted her head to one side. "Hey, Mister Slash was supposed to talk to you. You're the Endbringer girl, right?"

"Yup. And I did talk to him, but he was rude and he hurt my friend so I left." Taylor frowned at her. "Are you part of his group?"

"Yes! I'm Bonesaw, and the big guy over there's Hatchet Face. Is Leviathan with you? I really, really want to see if I can make him better!" She bounced on her toes and clapped her hands.

"No, he's waiting outside. Sorry. Also, I'm not very happy with your group," Taylor said. She wagged a finger at Bonesaw whose eyes widened. "You interrupted my picnic."

"Oh gosh darn, I'm so sorry. But we could always have another picnic. And it's raining anyway. Maybe tomorrow? It's supposed to be nice and sunny."

Taylor shrugged. "I don't know. We'll see." That being said, she turned to Panacea who was staring very hard. "So, could you help my friend? She's right here."

"How are you still moving?" Panacea asked.

"Uh," Taylor replied. "You mean, my body? The normal way, I guess." She moved her arms and legs-looking for a moment like an drunken extra in a Michael Jackson music video--just to see if her limbs still worked. They did.

"I... I can't help your friend... no, nevermind that! Don't you know who she is?" Panacea said, pointing right at Bonesaw's face.

"Uh, Bonesaw?" Taylor said. "She just introduced herself." Bonesaw pressed a hand over her mouth and stifled a giggle. "Is she why you can't help my friend?"

"Yes!" Panacea shouted. "I, my sister's hurt, I can't just leave her here," she said, pointing at the very quiet Glory Girl who was still just staring and smiling.

"I can watch over her, if you want," Taylor offered. Panacea's face twisted and a few tears slid down her cheeks. Taylor was immediately on high alert. She could understand feeling bad about her sister being hurt, but she was Panacea, she could fix things. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" Panacea said, choking back a sob that turned into a bark of laughter. "What's wrong is, that... that bitch!" She pointed at Bonesaw.

"Language!" Both Taylor and Bonesaw said at the same time.

Panacea went on as if she hadn't heard either. "She fucked with Vicky's head, turned her into a vegetable. I, I can't do brains." The girl started shivering, her arms wrapped around her chest to keep it all in but she couldn't stop herself from shaking.

"Oh," Taylor said. She turned to Bonesaw. "Did you really do that?"

"I wanted Panacea to become my sister, but that'll never happen if she doesn't work past her limits." Bonesaw pouted. "She's always going on about not doing brains, but she's obviously able to, she's just afraid."

"Limits are there for a reason, Bonesaw. Sometimes they're important," Taylor advised.

The man in the corner grunted, then stood a little taller. "Gotta go," he said, making a motion towards the wall over the bed where a clock sat.

"Oh, huckleberries," Bonesaw said. "Can't we just take them all with us?"

"How about a trade!" Taylor said before anyone could really move. "Panacea, you fix my friend up, Bonesaw, you undo what you did to Panacea's sister, and uh, I'll invite you to my next picnic?"

Bonesaw seemed to consider this for a moment, but Panacea jumped in first. "There's no way in hell that I'm letting her touch Vicky!"

Taylor's shoulders slumped. So much for that idea.

Hatchet Face grunted. "Just take 'em both," he said before picking up his hatchet and taking a step towards Taylor.

The wall right next to the window exploded outwards. Everyone flinched and turned towards the hole in time to see a white arm shoot into the room. Delicate fingers wrapped around Hatchet Face's head and pulled back.

Thanks to the hole in the wall and the window right next to it, they all got to see the man be throw hard enough that he disappeared into the cloudy sky far, far away.

The Simurgh turned back towards the room and stared at Taylor. [Blasted Away. Speed increasing to 299 792 458 meters per second.]

"Oh, really?" she squeaked.

The Simurgh nodded solemnly. Behind her, Hatchet Face disappeared with a twinkle of starlight where a convenient hole in the cloud cover appeared.

{Unit-02 was advised by Unit-03 to not interfere to eliminate threat posed by Host-Shard_Neutraliser in order to allow Unit-03 to act as part of the 'Acquire Friends' Sub-Directive.}

[Annoyance. Previous Communication Counter to Objective]

"Um, well, thanks," Taylor said.

Panacea, meanwhile, had backed up and was hugging Glory Girl close, her eyes as wide as they would go as she stared at the Endbringer floating outside. "You, you control her too?"

"Hrm?" Taylor asked. "Oh, no, I don't. She just showed up today." That didn't seem to reassure the healer much. "But she's been friendly so far. Maybe she can help your sister? I think she's pretty good with mental things." Panacea went very white at that.

Bonesaw was quicker in getting over her shock than Panacea. "Oh boy, Jack's going to be really mad that I misplaced Hatchet Face."

Taylor ignored the last remark. "Hey, could you help us, Miss Simurgh? I'm trying to get Bonesaw to fix Glory Girl and get Panacea to help Rune." Panacea's attention snapped back to her and she glared.

[Inquisitive. Host-Queen_Administrator willing to Accept Trade?]

"Um, depends on what you're willing to trade."

[Hopeful. Overwrite Primary Directive.]

Taylor nodded slowly. "I can do that. And in exchange for me helping you, you'll help them help me?"

The Simurgh nodded, then turned to stare very hard at Bonesaw. [Warning. Host-Biological_Enhancer is a 'Bad Girl.']

"Um, why's she looking at me like that?" Bonesaw asked.

Taylor shrugged. "She just said that you're a bad girl. Don't know why though. Did you do anything bad lately?"

Bonesaw's hands trembled and she shook her head violently from side to side, her hair bobbing all over as she did. "N-no, I'm a good girl."

"Well, you did hurt Glory Girl, and I guess you did that whole pathogen thing all over the hospital. That wasn't very nice," Taylor chidded.

Bonesaw moved her mouth like a fish out of water. She sniffed and when she next spoke she sounded rather watery. "I can fix it," she muttered. "But Mister Slash will be angry with me."

"If he made you do something bad, then you shouldn't listen to him," Taylor argued. "Hurting people is usually pretty bad, unless they did something to deserve it. You should apologize and try to make it better. That's what I do when my friends hurt people by accident."

Bonesaw nodded, her face mostly hidden by her hair, but Taylor could still see the way her lips quivered. Taking pity on the girl, Taylor walked up to her and slowly wrapped her in a hug. She wasn't used to touching people much, but it felt like the right thing to do. "I can fix them," Bonesaw mumbled into Taylor's chest.

"Good! Now, how about you do that, and I'll talk to Miss Panacea here for a bit, okay?"

The girl nodded. "It's pretty easy. I made a counter-agent, I just need to disperse it through the hospital." She pulled a vial from a pocket in her apron and gestured with it, the brownish liquid within sloshing around. "Um, when I'm done with that, would it be okay if we still had a picnic?"

"I don't know," Taylor said. "It might still rain tomorrow."

[Informative. No rain.]

"Or maybe it won't," Taylor corrected. "Yeah, sure, why not. Tomorrow afternoon at the same park I met Mister Jack, but this time he'd better not try anything, okay?"

"Okay, thanks Miss Queen Administrator!" Bonesaw said, some of her good cheer returning. With an expert twirl, she aim the vial towards Glory Girl and Panacea and did something that had a mist shoot out of the vial and towards the heroine. "See you all later!"

Taylor watched her leave, then turned back to Panacea. "So, uh, about my friend?" she asked, a hand pressed against the back of her head.

***

Twenty minutes later, a very confused Amy Dallon sat on the bed her sister was sleeping on. She supposed that now was a good time to panic, or maybe it was too late for that?

The girl, Queen Administrator had gone as soon as Amy had healed her friend. It didn't even take much to convince her to leave Rune in one of the nearby rooms to recuperate in peace. It probably helped that the ex-Empire cape really did need some sleep and a few heavy meals.

Amy reached out, fingers intertwining with her sister's. Vicky was safe, she was better now, the little things messing with her mind had dissolved into a harmless slurry of proteins and nutrients. The same had happened to everyone else she'd seen so far, though most of them had had less contact with the pathogen than Vicky.

Everything was safe, everything was better.

She could almost believe it.

She didn't know how the PRT would react once she told them everything that had happened. The Slaughterhouse Nine showing up to recruit her, Bonesaw calling her a sister, Queen Administrator being so friendly with someone wanted dead by most of the country... the Simurgh showing up, apparently not controlled by Queen Administrator.

They were going to be asked a lot of questions. Leaning back, Amy let her head thump onto the pillow next to Vicky. One question remained for her to ask herself, though. Was she going to show up at the picnic she'd been invited to or not?

***