"...Uh, right, um... surrender, please?"

About two dozen fearful looks took in the girl standing in the shadow of the monster. She was tall--though her back was hunched over as though trying to make herself small--and clothed in stained jeans and a hoodie that had seen better days. In no way was she intimidating. If anything, the young woman might have inspired pity.

Then she patted the Endbringer on the leg as if it was an obedient puppy.

A few looks were shared, all of them with the same thing: 'you talk to her.'

Finally, in a show of bravery so often associated with heroes, Battery stood up from where she had been pushed by the giantess Fenja and took a small step towards the girl. There were protocols and training for hostage situations. The training didn't cover what to do if you were the hostage. "Can we talk about this? Please?"

Taylor took in the heroine, in her bright blue armour and certain stance, the kind of woman she had looked up to her entire life. "Um, yeah, sure!"

The cape didn't seem to know quite what to do with that response. "Okay, that's good. Look, we're all going to put our weapons down now, alright. No one has to do anything rash."

A few of the Empire capes seemed reluctant to drop their weapons, then the mangled blob of crushed flesh that was Kaiser flopped out of the wall it had been embedded in with a wet splash. Taylor winced, then scratched the back of her head through her hoodie. "Ah, shucks. Sorry about that."

Rune dropped her rocks and Cricket practically threw her scythes down. They were soon followed by the dozen or so bats and chains carried by the Empire thugs and the containment foam launchers the PRT soldiers held.

"See," Battery said, her own hands held at shoulder height. "We're all complying. So, how about we all introduce ourselves?"

"Oh, sure," Taylor said with a quick nod. "Though, uh, I don't have a cape name yet," she said while gripping her right bicep with her left hand. "I guess you can call me Queen Administrator?"

There was an audible gulp from Kid Win, but Battery ignored it. "That's a very... pretty name."

"I thought so too," the newly christened Queen Administrator said. "Um, wasn't there another cape with queen in her name though?"

"You mean the fucking Fairy Queen?" Rune said just loud enough for it to carry. Battery shot her a warning look and Stormtiger grabbed the young cape's shoulder and squeezed.

"That's not the same, so I should be okay, right?" Taylor asked.

Battery nodded. "I can't imagine anyone complaining." Assault snorted, earning himself a death glare from his partner.

"Awesome. I was kind of afraid that it didn't sound very heroic."

"You, you want to be a hero?" Battery said, her voice tinged with the first glimmers of hope.

Taylor nodded. "Yeah. I just learned that I have powers, and I want to use them to help, you know? It, uh, might not be easy though, my powers aren't the nicest."

"That's alright. I'm sure the Protectorate could help you learn how to use your powers. You could join the Wards and we could train you and help you grow into a fine hero." Battery felt a weight lift off her chest. She had participated in a few recruitments before, and had been trained in addressing new capes with an interest in joining the Protectorate. This was familiar ground. In the back of her mind, there was a tiny voice wondering what the bonus was for recruiting a girl who treated an Endbringer like a pet.

"No," Taylor said.

Battery felt the weight returning, only this time it was heavier and a bit angry.

"They might want to hurt..." the young would-be-heroine looked up to her companion. "My friend," she finished rather lamely.

"You mean Leviathan?"

Queen Administrator shook her head violently from side to side, her eyes wide in panic. "No, that's not who he is. Uh... aren't there laws about masks and cape personas?"

Battery nodded slowly, taking in the sudden change in topic. "Yes. There are rules that most capes follow. No unmasking a cape, no attacking them in their civilian identities. You don't have to worry. We won't try to unmask you."

"Right. So you won't try to unmask my friend, uh... Nahtaivel?" she said as though trying to word for the first time. Then she frowned at the bandanna-wearing Endbringer. "Don't you have a better name?"

{Unit-02 Designation: Unit-02 of 20. Local Designation: 'Leviathan,' 'Jormungandr,' 'The Second,' 'The City Killer.'}

"I can't go calling you 'The City Killer,' you'll scare them all," she whispered harshly. Battery, who was near enough to hear, felt the blood draining from her face. Queen Administrator turned to the gathering and nodded decisively. "You can just call him Unit Two of Twenty, but that's a mouthful so just Unit Two, I guess. That's what he calls himself, mostly."

Kid Win started making a high-pitched keening noise until Gallant placed a hand on his shoulder in a show of solidarity.

"I, we," Battery began, then she looked at the Endbringer, taking in the piece of cloth that had slid down to drape around its neck. She fixed a smile on. "S-sure why not? It's a pleasure to meet you, Unit Two... of Twenty. I hope..." she paused, because she wasn't sure exactly what she was hoping for. "Right, anyway. You wanted us to surrender, right? I, I don't want to judge you, but it might not make you look too heroic if you, uh, capture other heroes."

Taylor brightened. "Oh, I didn't mean to do that. No wonder you all look so afraid. No, no, I just wanted you all to stop fighting."

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

"You just wanted us to stop fighting?" Battery said. She didn't dare let hope kindle again.

"Yeah. I was just on my way to back to the camp and I saw you all fighting, and I wanted to help, you know?" She looked at all the villains and thugs, a few of which had started to sneak away only to freeze as she took them in. "Aren't you guys carrying food and supplies and stuff?" She waved towards the convoy.

"Yes, we're bringing food to the camps," Battery explained with a gesture towards the trucks. "Tents and medical equipment too."

"See, that's great. And then the Empire had to try and stop you, and that's just not nice."

Rune, who was a proper teenage girl, knew how to spot an opportunity to shift blame when she saw it. "Kaiser told us to do it!" she said, pointing at the thing that was previously Kaiser.

Taylor winced. "Ah, man, I'm really sorry about that. Levia-- I mean, Unit Two can be pretty protective."

"I forgive you. Please don't kill me," Rune said before Stormtiger had time to clamp a hand over her mouth.

Taylor turned to Battery. "Shouldn't you, I don't know, arrest them or something?"

That seemed to light a fire under the PRT troopers. Talking to weird capes and Endbringers was a bit beyond them, but arresting thugs they knew how to do. With quick, trained efficiency, they rushed over to the Empire thugs and capes and started restraining them while the Wards kept half an eye on the proceedings.

Taylor, meanwhile, was on tippy-toes trying to straighten out Leviathan's bandanna to little success. Battery approached a little more, cautiously eyeing the Endbringer as she did. "So, Queen Administrator, would you follow us to our temporary headquarters? I'm sure we have plenty of questions for you.

The new cape abandoned her task and turned to face Battery. She looked down, unable to meet the eyes of the heroine. "Uh, could I maybe pass by later? I, um, have a few things I want to do."

"I wouldn't dream of imposing. But, um, maybe tell your... friend to stay back? He's a little imposing."

Taylor shrugged. "Sure, but I have to be careful. I'm pretty sure that if he falls out of my range he'll..." She made a vague gesture with her hand. "You know, go back to how he was before. But it's okay, he's really, really good at hiding. You wouldn't think it, with how big he is, but he can move without making any noise when he wants to. Or maybe he can teleport. I'm not sure."

Battery processed that. Then she processed it some more. "Okay."

"Awesome. I guess I'll pass by tomorrow. It was really cool meeting you all. Uh, I'd ask for an autograph, but, well, I've got nothing to sign." She shrugged again, then waved at them. "I should go."

"Are you, are you sure you don't want to join us? We could give you almost anything," Battery said.

"Do you have anything to eat on you?" Taylor asked, her head tilting to the side a little.

"N-not on me, no."

"Well, then. Come on, Levi-- Unit Two, I'm starving."

With that, the girl began walking away, hardly noticing that everyone gave her a wide berth. Leviathan, for his part, stood stock still for a few long seconds, then, with a hardly a single wasted motion or even so much as a whisper of noise, the Endbringer sped towards an empty alleyway, leaving only a blur where he had once stood. To most, it simply looked as though he had disappeared.

"Oh god," Battery said.

***

"So, you never told me that your name was Unit Two of Twenty," Taylor said conversationally to the empty street. She would have worried that people thought she was weird, but her mouth was covered still, so it was alright.

{Unit-02 Second Unit of 20.}

"That makes sense, I guess," she said. Her feet carried her towards the entrance and she had to keep quiet or else the Nation Guard men at the gates would have seen her as quite strange. Pulling down her bandanna and shrugging off her hood, Taylor nodded to the men at the gates and made her way in.

It took all of ten minutes for her to discover the bad news.

"But I was only gone for, like, two hours tops," Taylor said.

The woman across from her wore a frown on her severe face and looked up from a stack of reports to meet Taylor's eyes. "I'm sorry, Miss Herbert--"

"Hebert."

"Yes. But we made a full accounting of the people in this camp while you were... otherwise occupied. We only have so many beds and, with the delay over the arrival of supplies, only so much food." She reached across her field desk and pulled over a pad before she began to write something. "There's a small shelter on Hunter and Fifth. It's run by volunteers but it's clean enough. Ask the young person working there if you can stay. Their rather amenable to helping young folk in distress."

Taylor took the paper with the address on it, then looked back up at the bureaucrat who just went right back to work. Did the woman expect her to just walk all the way over on her own? Sure, Taylor knew that she was probably safe, what with Leviathan and all, but what if she wasn't a cape?

She gave the woman a long stare, a pinch of anger boiling in her chest. It didn't help that she looked a little bit like Blackwell. "Fine." With that, Taylor stood and started to make her way out of the camp.

"Well, maybe the people over there will be friendly," she whispered under her breath. Her stomach growled. "And have something to eat."

***