Chapter Text
Detitrius bobbed in the flooded streets. The metallic smell of blood washed in with the acrid smell of the waste that plagued Brockton Bay.
She hadn’t been the one to spill blood, but the scent alone made her wish she had. Holding back, having to hide, it was cowardly shit but she understood the necessity. Drawing attention to herself now threatened to send her back to juvie or worse. They never listened to her, not in a way that mattered. At least before all of this, she had her case worker wrapped around her finger. Now, she was under scrutiny for a completely heroic act, with no one in her court.
Her hopes of redemption lay in the palms of Brockton Bay’s resident healer. Panacea.
She had never interacted with Amy Dallon in person before the whole shitshow that had put her city in such disarray. Putting her life in the hands of a stranger set her instincts on edge. Again, that necessity made her grit her teeth and push past it.
From what little she knew of the girl, she knew that Amy avoided combat. Preferring to sit on the sidelines while people died, only saving them when everything was cleared out. She would never tell her she was a coward to her face, of course, that would defeat the purpose of this visit.
Amy didn’t know how to avoid being found, leaving behind telltale signs of her existence in an easy-to-follow trail. Covering that obvious trail had been harder than following her. If anyone else found the healer before Sophia could, it would seal her fate and guarantee she would be sent to jail or always be on the run. So, she did the obvious and made sure no one else would find her.
She leapt down from her perch on the roof of an apartment complex, her cloak billowing out behind her as she shifted to her shadow form. Her body and clothes turned to a dark mist that vanished against the night sky. Everything that told her she was still alive vanished. No heartbeat, no breath in her lungs. Only the pressure of the airflow through her incorporeal form.
Rather than land straight down she activated the runt’s addition to her costume. A simple hand gesture and three of the squishy breathers on her back huffed out their air. In her shadow form, she was light enough for it to send her sailing straight down the street in seconds.
She couldn’t fly, not in the traditional sense, but she managed to stay in the air for an entire minute once. As loathe as she was to admit it, the runt had made something good. It saved her from more injuries than she could count during Leviathan, letting her get to the downed heroes faster than she could have before.
Shadow Stalker landed without noise as she reached the building. She snuck down the side of it, out of the sightlines of the windows.
Without her visor letting her see the electricity in the walls, she had to phase through the doors to make sure she avoided any wires. Having to leave behind the visor sucked, but it beat someone tracking her down using it. The same applied to her phones, both Wards and civilian. They didn’t know about her actual civilian phone. The one they did know about, she kept on her to paint a picture of an ordinary girl going to school and texting her friends. Then she’d leave it behind if she ever needed to do a solo patrol to vent her frustrations with those that held her chains. Paranoid, maybe, but it made sure her business was her business. Either way, she had chosen to leave all three phones behind, just in case.
Sophia glided through the aisles of the ransacked store, avoiding the obvious tripwires and alarms. Panacea had prepared for intruders but not well enough.
She found her sleeping in the store’s office space in a makeshift hammock.
“Panacea. Wake up,” she barked.
The mousy girl stirred, rolling over but not waking.
“Wake up!” Sophia yelled.
Amy bolted upright, blindly swinging out an arm that hit nothing, almost stumbling out of the hammock until she noticed who was there.
“Oh… Shadow Stalker, right?”
“I saved you and you’re not even sure about my name?”
“You shot a crossbow at her, it’s not like we exchanged pleasantries. I haven’t healed you either.”
“I’m not like those prissy bitches, I take care of myself.”
“Great. Come to take me back?” her voice was dry and sarcastic.
She looked worse for wear. Her face was gaunt, her eyes had deep purple bags beneath them, and her brown fizzy hair was tousled from her sleep. Even her clothes had rips and tears in places with hasty stitching to patch them up.
“Sort of. I need you to clear my name. Agree to that and I’ll guide you back.”
“What if I say no?”
“I can force you.”
Amy stared at her, unimpressed by the threat.
“Then I’ll tell them you forced me with a crossbow. People love the healer, they won’t take kindly to you threatening her.”
Shadow Stalker sighed. Loathe as she was to admit it, she had to lead with the carrot here, not the stick.
“Fine,” she spoke through clenched teeth. “What can I do to convince you to come back?”
Amy flopped back into her hammock. “Nothing. I’m not going back.”
“There has to be something. Quid pro quo? Y’know?”
“No offence, but I don’t really care what happens to you.”
Shadow Stalker clenched her fists, her gloves squeaking as she gripped her hands tight. “That’s fine. That’s why I’m offering a trade. Tell me what you want and I’ll do it.”
“I want you to go away.”
“Other than that,” she spoke slowly, making sure her voice was level and even to not give away the simmering rage that bubbled deep within her. She could be cordial for five minutes.
“Well, that’s all I want.”
“I can talk to your family, explain what happened?”
“I don’t want them to know what happened!”
“We can lie. Tell them some bullshit about her getting in your head?”
“I’m not going to lie.”
She bit her tongue, not telling her that she was already lying by omission to them and lying wasn’t worse than making them worry. They’d already posted bounties in return for bringing her back and she’d only been missing for a few days.
“There has to be something. Tell me.”
“You’re not doing yourself any favours by forcing me to tell you.”
“No one’s forcing.” She held up her hands, placating. Shadow Stalker decided to switch tracks, offering outright instead of asking, “Do you need supplies? This place is a dump. I can get you supplies.”
“No, I—” she paused for a moment, licking her lips as she considered it. “Fine. Get me some supplies, pretty much anything. Then, I’ll consider it.”
“Consider it? That’s not–”
“Do you want my help or not?”
Shadow Stalker huffed out a breath. “Fine. I’ll be back tomorrow. Stay here.”
Amy rolled over without another word. Shadow Stalker bit back the insult she wanted to say and then bit back the next five. Before she could think of another she swooped out of the building without a sound.
They met again at noon in the same store. In the daylight Panacea’s defences were a little more impressive. There were traps she hadn’t noticed during the night, ones that would have tripped her up if not for her shadow form.
She dumped the plastic crate full of basic supplies onto the floor, not even bothering to lower it gently.
“Food, water, clothes, first aid stuff, cookware, water filters, hygiene things; you get the idea. Food should last you a week if you don’t gorge yourself. I can get you more later since I won’t need to get you the rest of this crap.”
Amy grabbed the case, hefting it up onto a wooden desk. She pried it open, checking over the contents as if she didn’t believe Shadow Stalker on her word.
“Thanks. Now go away.”
“Really? You can’t even pretend like you’re mulling it over?”
Amy palmed her chin, staring up at the ceiling while making a long ‘hmm’.
“Fuck you,” Shadow Stalker spat. “What else do you want me to do?”
“I want you to leave me alone.”
“I can’t fucking do that. You need to clear my name, you owe me.”
“I owe you? Do you think shooting her with a crossbow bolt fixed my fucking problems? You just made things worse!”
“You don’t let the Thinker talk. I made her shut up. She would have fucked you up even worse than she did if I let her keep talking. Is that what you wanted?”
“Yes! No. Fuck you, you don’t know me. I’m not screwed up just because she spouted some lies at me. She was just saying shit because I fucked with Skitter.”
“Then why’d you run?”
Amy stomped towards her, jabbing a finger at her chest, “I ran because you shot her with a fucking crossbow!”
“How is that your problem? If you stayed I wouldn’t be in this shit. Like you said, everyone loves the healer. They would have listened to what you said. If you told them Eidolon was harassing you they wouldn’t have even questioned it. You’d have teams sweeping through his entire life at your word alone! And you’re trying to tell me you ran because I shot the bitch who was obviously fucking getting to you?”
“She wasn’t getting to me!”
“You were going to lunge at her if I hadn’t stepped in and you know it.”
For a moment they stared at each other in silence, both boiling with anger. Then Panacea took a deep breath and slumped against the wall.
“I wanted to throttle her. I just wish I got to shoot her myself.”
“It was pretty satisfying… Do you want me to kill her?”
“What? No. I want her dead, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not ordering a hit on someone.”
“What do you want, then?”
“You’re insufferable, you know that?”
“Call me whatever you want. I need you to clear my name. No one will believe me on my own. So, insult me, whatever, I don’t care. Just let me take you back.”
“I want you to go away.”
She bit back yet another insult. Holding her tongue wasn’t something new. Talking with Piggot made her bite back more insults than she had now by far.
“Fine. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more stuff.”
Amy groaned but didn’t protest.
Shadow Stalker placed another box of supplies on the carpeted floor. This time it was mostly food and water with only a couple of additions not included in the last crate.
Amy rummaged through it before holding up a red stick from the box, “What do I need flares for?”
“They’re a signal so rescue services know where you are.”
“More like so the Empire knows where I am,” she tossed them aside.
“Empire’s dead with Kaiser. They’re called some Norse bullshit now. Something Chosen? I think. Hookwolf’s leading them. Most of the other nazis scattered to the wind.”
“Then I guess it’s a signal for the ‘Something Chosen’,” she rolled her eyes.
“Use them. Don’t use them. I don’t really care. If you come back with me it won’t matter.”
“Still no.”
Every conversation with her made the rising urge to punch her in the face all the harder to resist. Even deep breaths couldn’t dissipate the desire completely.
“Look, I heard what Tattletale said and who the fuck cares? Your mom’s a bitch, so what? Get yourself emancipated or some shit. And who the fuck cares that some villain was your dad? Fuck him, you’re not him.”
“Oh, yes, let me just emancipate myself from a lawyer who would one-hundred-percent fight it at every turn. And let me just forget that my dad is Marquis and that looking at me reminds Carol of him so she can hate me even more. Great idea.”
“Shit. Your dad’s Marquis?”
“I don’t know. Based on what she was saying, it’s the only one that makes sense.”
“What if she’s lying?”
“Why would she lie?”
Shadow Stalker barked out a laugh. “Are you serious?” she gestured at the cramped office space she was living in, “Look at this place. Look at you! She got you good. Tattletale loves to fuck with people. Of course she’d lie if she knew it would fuck with you.”
Amy hugged herself, sliding further down the wall.
“It makes too much sense to be a lie,” her voice was quiet, resigned.
“All the best lies do. A professional liar is going to be believable or they wouldn’t be a pro.”
“It has to be true. It would explain so much.”
“Your mom can be a bitch for a million different reasons and all Tattletale has to do is point at something that seems plausible and you’ll latch onto it.”
“So what? This is all my fault?”
She held up her hands, “Not what I said. No one would blame you for believing her. That’s her power, she picks at weaknesses and you didn’t need an excuse to hate your mom further… or yourself.”
“I’m just so fucking sick of it.” Amy rested her head against her arms, hiding her face from view.
“Yeah… I can help you leave if you want.”
She shook her head, still nestled in her arms. “I can’t leave Vicky behind.”
“You can still see her and I doubt she’d protest.”
“You don’t know her.”
“Not really, no. But fuck knows you need a break and she most likely knows it.”
“Can you leave?”
“I need–”
“No. Come back tomorrow. We can talk then. I just need some time alone.”
Shadow Stalker sighed. “Alright. You better not run, I’ll find you.”
Amy nodded into her arms.
She wasn’t there the next day.
The office lay deserted with no Amy in sight. None of her supplies remained, not even the wrappers. Her hammock had been torn down leaving only the nails in the walls to show it was ever there.
Shadow Stalker screamed, kicking a hole clean through the wall. She shoved a filing cabinet over and then flipped the desk. None of the mindless destruction helped bleed away her anger.
She had been so close, and now she’d be starting from scratch. Panacea leaving meant she had either ran to get away from her or had decided to go back on her own. Either option put her on the back foot again.
Amy hadn’t been subtle in her escape. She could follow the trail she had made trying to leave the store. But then the path died down. There weren’t any scraps of cloth caught in chainlink fences, or wet footprints leading out of puddles or imprinted in the mud. Why did she tell the girl she’d find her? Maybe then there would be as obvious of a trail as the first time.
She leapt from rooftop to rooftop, checking down each nook and cranny to try to find any sign of the girl. Nothing. Not even a peep.
Instead, she pivoted, checking obvious hiding spots or places she might squirrel down. Nowhere contained the missing healer, just other desperate people down on their luck. There was one last place to check. Her house.
Finding the address wasn’t hard. Slip into a random house, check their yellow pages for one Carol Dallon and then sneak her way through the city. Their neighbourhood remained standing in decent condition for Brockton Bay. Leviathan’s rampage had been only a week ago and there were already obvious repairs to the buildings around here.
Shadow Stalker waited for nightfall. As the darkness of night covered her, she leapt into their back garden to creep up to the kitchen window. Her shadow form hid her in the dark of the night so long as she avoided the light spilling out of the bay windows. Amy Dallon sat drinking coffee at the kitchen table with none of her family around. Before she confronted the girl, she needed to know where the rest of the family where.
She crept around the building, peeking into windows to find them. Before long she saw them gathered together in the living room. Victoria she recognised. They’d patrolled together once and she had met her as a civilian when Emma took her and Madison to a meet and greet. The older woman she could only guess was Carol Dallon. They looked alike, with the same shaped face and blonde hair.
The conversation was lively, carrying slightly through the walls of the building. She couldn’t make it out and didn’t really care either way. So long as they were distracted.
She slipped into the kitchen through the bay windows. Amy sat on a stool by an island counter, running her finger around the edge of a mug.
Shadow Stalker got as close as she could, ready to clasp her hand over Amy’s mouth if she decided to do something stupid like scream.
“Why’d you leave me?” she asked as she became corporeal.
Amy startled, bouncing in place on her stool then whipping her head around to look at her.
“What’re you doing here?” she hissed in a hushed tone.
“We had a deal and you ran.”
“I never made any deals. I don’t want anything to do with you, you’ve ruined everything.”
“I’ve ruined everything?! I fucking saved you and this is the thanks I get?”
“All you’ve done is made me have to explain things I don’t want to explain! My life was fine before you decided to escalate by shooting her!”
“You said you wanted to hit her yourself. If I hadn’t shot her she would have fucked you up even more. There’s no way you’re seriously this delusional!”
“Don’t fucking call me that! Get out of here or I’ll scream.”
Shadow Stalker levelled her loaded crossbow at Amy’s chest. “Scream and you’re dead.”
Amy levelled a bored gaze towards Shadow Stalker.
“Really? You’re already being hunted for shooting a villain. Imagine how much they’ll come down on you for shooting me. Do you really want to do that?”
“I want you to clear my name after I saved your ass.”
“You didn’t save me. Now leave.”
“Are you serious right now?” Shadow Stalker hissed through her teeth, jabbing the crossbow a bit closer.
“Hey, Mom?!” Amy yelled across the house.
Shadow Stalker took a moment to consider if it was a bluff. She knew from Amy’s own mouth that Carol allegedly hated her. Would she even respond?
Footsteps approached the door. Amy grinned with smug satisfaction at her victory. Before the approaching feet could reach the kitchen, she left through the window she came in.
Everything always fell apart. That was the one constant in the universe. Entropy? Is that what they called it? Whether it was food left to rot or a city, a crumbling building or the relationships around them. Without maintenance, everything would eventually return to dust.
She stared out at the broken city. A city that no longer saw her as a hero but one that labelled her a villain. Not officially, of course, that’d be bad PR. But online the rumours were already spreading; Shadow Stalker breaks the Endbringer Truce. They couldn’t be further from the truth. If that whiny little rat had just stuck up for her she wouldn’t still be skulking around amongst the filth.
Living on her own wasn’t hard. The hard part was having to flee at any confrontation instead of proving to those who dared to attack her why they had royally fucked up. She wasn’t stupid, she knew they would be looking for crossbow injuries or the distinctive wounds weapons in her shadow state inflicted.
She didn’t spend the week idle. Shadow Stalker made a profile on everyone she knew and how they would react to her telling them they were lied to. They needed to be able to trust her enough to at least listen, and then they needed to believe her and be willing to tell others. Someone in a position of power would be ideal, but those types of people were less likely to listen to reason and more likely to arrest her on sight to get the information their way.
Armsmaster was indisposed but his lie detector would have proven useful in proving her innocence. Gallant would have been the same but he was gone. Assault might listen to her so long as Battery wasn’t around, but she couldn’t stand the idea of having to rely on Assault of all people.
The pipsqueak—Vista—was out, she’d follow the letter of the law down to a tee, same with Miss Militia and Triumph. Clockblocker might be an option, she’d seen the way he looked at her and might be able to pull some Emma shit to use that in her favour. Kid Win would rather see her arrested than justice, even if it meant he was wrong. The runt would listen to her, just ask about Fufu or some shit and she’d bend over backwards to do whatever she asked. But last Shadow Stalker had heard, she wasn’t with the Wards anymore and probably couldn’t do much besides set up a meeting for her with the actual players.
Which left Dauntless. She remembered he spoke to Emma’s dad after her case hearing. He might be friendly to her like had been at her hearing. He could also leverage his position as head of the Protectorate to clear her name no questions asked. It was probably her best option out of all the shitty options.
All she needed was to set up a meeting with him. She knew what she had to do.
The runt had built up an army.
She’d set up near one of the shittier shelters. They’d cleared the area of debris and were working on about five different projects from what she could tell. A group were stripping down cars under the orders of a white woman wearing a strip of cloth for a mask. She felt like she could place her but wasn’t quite sure who. They were organising everything into plastic boxes for later use.
Another group were cooking food next to a nearby group who were sewing up old clothes. Both were chatting with each other as they worked. A stone-constructed fireplace was burning, billowing out plumes of smoke that fed into a vent of some sort before being deposited out closer to the floor as water. That water flowed down channels that had been dug into a dirt patch with little sprouts growing in it.
There were also people with long poles with spikes attached standing around the edges of the camp. Past them were PRT officers with foam sprayers that patrolled around the edges of the shelter and the camp. What had she done to deserve so many PRT here?
Shadow Stalker spotted the runt amidst all the hustle and bustle. Her armour didn’t glisten like it had when she first joined the Wards. The wear and tear was obvious. She’d clearly washed it down a few times with the long streaks that made it look almost like it had been coated in oil. One of the shoulder pads had been wrapped in black duct tape a few times over. She also noted the lack of Fufu on her back. The only ones left were Dede and Eiei? No, Aiai.
Her right arm was in a sling that had been decorated with sickly sweet stickers and coated in glitter. She noticed the slight limp in her steps. A recent fight?
A woman in armour and a motorbike helmet appeared beside Raccoon Knight, slapping her on the shoulder. There were metal circles welded onto the helmet. Ears? Mouse Protector, she guessed.
This place was too hot, she couldn’t approach her here.
Shadow Stalker waited all day, following the runt as she did whatever she was doing with her army. How did she even manage to amass this many people?
By nightfall most had stopped working, heading back inside the shelter to rest or sleep. A few stuck around to finish their work. The runt waved them goodbye before she walked away from the camp past the PRT officers and down an alleyway. Shadow Stalker followed across the rooftops, making sure to never lose sight of the runt as she casually walked through one of the most dangerous cities in America right now.
After about twenty minutes of walking, Shadow Stalker felt confident no one would be around to see her. She dropped down in the alleyway in front of the runt’s path.
Raccoon Knight drew Dede in a flash, the spearhead folding into itself before disappearing into the box that held the rest of the heads. It pushed out the nozzle head with the motion. The air cannon was the perfect counter to her, had that been intentional?
Shadow Stalker raised her hands to show she meant no harm.
“Hey, runt. I need your help.”