“God damn, where’d you get all this?” Joy asked as she leafed through the folder I’d put together on the Varangians.

  “I’ve been doing my homework,” I said simply.

  And homework I’d had to do. Tattletale followed through on her promise to give me everything, which wound up being hundreds of pages worth of info. I’d sorted through and brought barely a quarter of what was relevant to our work right now, focusing on one of the two gangs we were going to take down.

  I was a little shocked at how easily it had gone down though. Tattletale hadn’t been lying, as soon as she’d been paid, I had the info. It was almost too easy, and there was some part in the back of my mind that was screaming it had to be a set up. But no one had busted me for buying something off the Undersiders yet so…

  “This is uh, kind of a lot isn’t it?” Joy said. “Maybe we should wait til Laffy gets home, she could help—”

  “We need to handle this ourselves,” I cut her off. “As much as we can at least. Lafayette won’t be out on the streets with us, we’re going to need to call the shots on our own. If we come up with our own plan, we might be able to adjust it easier.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” she said, sounding a little nervous. “Um, okay, where do we start?”

  “I think we need to scout a couple places,” I replied, sifting through the papers on the coffee table until I found a list of addresses. “These couple marked ‘S’? Meeting places, probably the best places to hit if we time it right. Triangles are drop points for drug distribution.”

  “Lot of those,” Joy commented.

  “Main source of income, I guess,” I replied, shrugging. “If it’s got a cross beside it, it’s been hit already by either heroes, cops, or other villains. Varangians have ten or more full timers and mostly do drugs. Blood Wolf is smaller but more violent; figure we should take them out first, then take down the Varangians.”

  “Okay, that makes sense,” she said with a nod. “You said they’re...more violent?”

  “Muggings and robberies are apparently their trade,” I said. “And they’ve got a lot of guns. Yeah, I know, don’t worry; I’ll be out front taking all the bullets. As long as you poke out of cover to drop them, we’ll be fine.”

  “Alright,” Joy said, a little shaky. “So, how do we do this?”

  “You know when you said ‘scout’, I was picturing something more...I don’t know, tactical?” Joy said quietly as we sat on a bench, sipping coffees.

  “You mean in costume?” I asked.

  “Sort of,” she said, looking up and down the street nervously. “Like, couldn’t anyone see us?”

  “Yup,” I replied. “And what are they going to see?”

  “Two girls drinking coffee and acting suspicious?”

  “As opposed to two obvious capes?”

  “Okay, fair.”

  We were half a block down from what Tattletale’s notes had described as a ‘wolf den’, the main haunt of Blood Wolf. It was further into the Docks than I had expected, but that was what my own research had led me to believe. Apparently the Undersiders had their hands full tangling in the South End, which had given Blood Wolf the leeway to slip in relatively unopposed.

  I tried not to think of how pleased Tattletale would be we were securing her territory first. Had to focus on the real reason I picked them: their history. Originally bikers, and nasty ones at that, since settling here shortly after Echidna’s attack they’d been one of the more active components of Wotan’s Wolves.

  The rumbling of engines made me glance up the street, where a pair of big motorbikes were rolling towards the address we were watching. They parked on the street outside, and a pair of burly men got off. Their leather jackets, in much worse condition than mine, were festooned with all sorts of patches. The main one one the back was a snarling wolf, blood dripping from its fangs, and a red swastika carved into its forehead.

  Despite myself, I checked the knife hidden in my coat. They were going inside, no danger to us, but I was still keyed up. Glancing over, I could see Joy was just as tense. I took a deep breath and gently elbowed her, offering a tense grin when she looked at me. She looked grim, but seemed to settle back against the bench.

  Another bike came by ten minutes later, then two more after another few. All of them parked at or around the building we were watching, a rundown duplex with a half-rotted roof. I almost wished we’d brought our costumes, more than half the gang had come to whatever this meeting was about. If we hit them, they’d never see it coming, but I had to reassure myself they wouldn’t anyway. After all, they didn’t know we were coming.

  A car pulled up and stopped across the street from the house. After a minute, two guys got out and went to the trunk. When they pulled out a pair of rifles, I grabbed Joy’s arm to stop her from reacting too badly. Gunfire erupted as they dumped a magazine each into the Blood Wolf complex, then jumped back in their car as a few gangsters popped out of the house and shot back as they peeled out down the road.

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  “Trouble in paradise,” I muttered, pulling out my phone and quickly dialing the police.

  “Can’t we go after them?” Joy hissed as the gunfire died down.

  “Let the cops deal,” I said, shaking my head. “Shit, I didn’t know it was kicking off like this.” And Tattletale hadn’t let anything slip. I’d have some choice words for her, if I saw her again.

  It took nearly ten minutes for the police to finally arrive, insane considering a shooting just happened in broad daylight. It didn’t seem there were any casualties, since no ambulance ever showed, so our intervention had never been needed. They came over and spoke with us briefly, and I gave them a run down of what happened. Once they were gone, I decided we’d had enough excitement and called it a day.

  “That was crazy,” Joy said as we rode the bus home. “That’s not normal, right?”

  “I’m the wrong person to ask,” I said, speaking quietly. “Seems we aren’t the only ones fighting them, might make things easier, might make it more complicated.”

  “More complicated? How?”

  “If they’re jumpier, they might not meet as often,” I explained. “Might change habits, meeting places, that stuff. We’ll have to move fast.”

  “Okay,” she said, nodding. “So what, hit them next time?”

  “Stake it out on nights,” I said. “When they gather like this again, then we hit them. We’re going out tonight.”

  “What?” Joy said, sounding surprised. “Shouldn’t we like, prepare?”

  “We’re as ready as we can be,” I replied. “Don’t worry, we’ve fought worse than some bikers.”

  “I mean, you have,” she said shakily.

  “You handled yourself fine last time,” I assured her. “Really, we can do this. We’ll be careful, I’ll make sure to have someone on-call just in case.”

  “Someone...who?” she asked.

  “I know a healer,” I answered, lowering my voice even more. “So even worst case, we should be okay.”

  “Oh, shit, who is it?” Joy said.

  “Let’s hope you don’t have to find out,” I said as the bus pulled up to my stop. “See you tonight Joy.”

  “Yeah,” she said, offering a nervous smile. “See you.”

  I got off the bus and headed towards my apartment. As I rode the elevator up, I looked at my hands, shaking slightly. I took a deep breath, held it, let it out slowly. It didn’t quite settle me, so I continued as I headed into the apartment and kicked off my shoes.

  “Welcome home,” Amy called from the living room. “Have a good time?”

  “Something like that,” I said dryly as I plopped next to her on the couch. She muted the TV and gave me a look of concern. “We’re okay, just the place we were staking out got shot up.”

  “Holy shit,” she said, eyes widening.

  “We weren’t that close,” I said, taking her hand. “But we’re going out tonight to try and take them down before they either scatter or retaliate and hurt more people.”

  “I...but won’t they be expecting it?”

  “They won’t be expecting capes,” I said. “Um, can you stay up tonight? We’re going to be careful, but…”

  “Sure,” Amy agreed, squeezing my hand. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “Thanks,” I sighed, leaning against her. “You’re the best.” We sat there quietly for a few minutes, just enjoying being close.

  “So...how did you find all this out?” she asked hesitantly. I felt my stomach flip. “I mean, I saw what you were sorting through yesterday, it seemed like a lot. I thought you said Lafayette wasn’t going to help you.”

  “Um.” I swallowed hard. “Promise you won’t get mad?” She narrowed her eyes.

  “Absolutely not,” she said, with iron in her voice.

  “Okay.” I took a shaky breath and shut my eyes. There was no lying, even if I wanted to; she had my hand in a vice grip. “It’s um, I got it from Tattletale.” I held my breath, every muscle in my body tensing.

  “Of course,” Amy said, her tone as bitter as arsenic. “Why wouldn’t you be working with her again?”

  “I’m not working with her,” I countered. “It’s only me and Nadir going out there.”

  “Then how did you get it?” she snapped.

  “Bought it.”

  “Lia.”

  “I didn’t have another option,” I hurriedly explained. “I was in the middle of studying for midterms, the Protectorate wasn’t interested in helping, and we just weren’t doing anything by running around the streets at night.”

  “And you’re funding the fucking villains to try,” Amy spat. “What do you think she’s going to do with that money, huh? Or the territory you’re going to free up for her to walk into?”

  “They would do this themselves eventually,” I retorted. “And in the mean time, the Nazis would be terrorizing everyone around them. At least this way whatever they have stored there is going to the police instead of the Undersiders. Drugs, guns, maybe even money.”

  “You’re making excuses,” she accused.

  “I’m not,” I said plaintively. “I just want you to know why I’m doing this, and that I’m not planning on doing it again. I want to be able to do this myself I just...I can’t, not yet.” She pulled her hand away and I shrunk back, gaze fixed on the floor. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s...no, it’s not fine but…” Amy huffed. “Look at me Lia.” I did and winced at the sight of tears in her eyes. “She ruined my life, my family.”

  “I know,” I whimpered. “I just...I’m sorry.”

  “Well at least you are,” she said, looking aside and knitting her brow. “I...I’ll still help you tonight, I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “I’m only doing this because the Nazis are worse than them, you know that right?”

  “And what happens when they’re gone?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If you get your way,” she said flatly. “And somehow all the Nazis in Brockton Bay get thrown in prison or leave, what then?”

  “I...go after other villains?” I answered hesitantly. “Sorry I just...what else would I do?”

  “I don’t know,” she sighed. “And that kind of scares me.”

  “I’m going to keep being a hero,” I added, shuffling over on the couch until there was just an inch between us. “I promise Amy, that’s what I want to do I…you know what’s coming. I want to be the kind of hero who can stop it.” She looked at me and took a shuddering breath.

  “Okay,” Amy whispered, her hand finding mine again. “Would you at least try working with the heroes next time?”

  “That’s...kind of up to them,” I hedged. “But I can ask at least? Miss Militia gave me a maybe so, I don’t know.”

  “I know you’re trying,” she said after a moment, squeezing my hand tight. “I’m just afraid that isn’t enough, that...that you’re going to do something like I did, something unforgivable.”

  “I hope not,” I said, frowning. “But I am trying, I...I’m still telling you about this stuff okay? That’s what we agreed on.”

  “And that you wouldn’t work with Tattletale,” Amy retorted glumly.

  “I’m really not,” I pleaded. “Amy I talked to her for like, ten minutes. If I see her on patrol tonight, I’ll slap her for you, okay?” I smiled as she snorted, shaking her head.

  “I’ll hold you to that,” she said, taking a deep breath and running her fingers through her hair. “Okay, run me through what you’re planning on tonight.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked. “I know this isn’t your thing.”

  “I need to make sure you’re not being stupid,” she said gravely. “So, tell me how it’s going to go.”