Eating at the PRT cafeteria was a rather interesting experience. It was a similar setup to what you would expect at a large corporate workplace. A few cooks sat behind the counter, making simple things, like sandwiches on demand, with more complex things coming from large batches that were premade. It was surprisingly mundane and cut an incredibly harsh contrast as we stood there, in costume, waiting in line behind a few PRT agents.
At one point, Armsmaster arrived, took a plate of food that had been put out on the counter, put down precisely fifteen dollars, and left without saying a word. Nobody commented that he had bypassed the line, though I could feel Crow holding herself back.
When the surreal moment was over, we made our way to a table and sat down. Thankfully, eating in public was no longer a problem for me, as I had taken the time to modify my mask, allowing me to eat through it. Crow, on the other hand, had somehow figured out a way to do the same, entirely without my input.
I really needed to talk to her about her cloak. Between the wings she had created to glide down from Rune's platform and being able to eat through it without uncovering her face, something had definitely changed. I resisted the urge to bring it up right then and there, since the answer was likely something I wouldn't want to share.
We ate in silence for a few minutes, picking at our food, before Miss Militia broke it. It was clear she was trying to fill the silence., asking the first question she could think of.
"So, how did taking down those four go?" Miss Militia asked. "Crusader alone tends to make things difficult."
"Thankfully, we are a bit of a poor matchup for them," I explained with a shrug. "Between my durability, strength, and lightning, I counter Krieg pretty well since I can take his hits and bypass his kinetic defense. Rune can only hit what she can see, and she definitely didn't see Crow coming. On top of that, Stormtiger isn't deadly enough to hurt my golems, and they overwhelmed him pretty easily. That just left Flashbang and Glory Girl to take down Crusader. I helped them a bit with some blaster support, but they could have handled it, I'm sure."
"I'm sure Flashbang is a seasoned hero, and Glory Girl has some serious potential," Miss Militia commented. "It is really good seeing New Wave helping out and growing. They had all but disappeared from her work in the last few years. Only Glory Girl and Panacea were making serious consistent appearances, and one of them never left the hospital."
"I'm glad I could help get them in gear, though we could hardly take the credit for them stepping up," I said with a shrug. "Once certain… Issues were addressed, they all leaped into action, eager to get back to work."
"It's hard not to get excited about it, Arc, when you start handing out stuff like the gear you gave them," Crow pointed out, poking me in the side. "I mean hell, half the reason I had the courage to suddenly start going out and doing this hero stuff is because of what you made me"
"You were doing your best to help where you could," I said with a shrug, noting her intentional vagueness about what I had made for her. "I'm just glad to have you along for the ride."
She slapped my shoulder and focused on her food for a moment, and I did as well. I caught Miss Militia giving us a bit of a look, but I ignored it.
After that, our conversations stayed light for most of the meal, the silence of before never quite returning. When we were all finished, we returned to the same conference room as before. It was empty, but as we sat, Director Piggot walked in. She was a little flushed, looking tired, but determined. She sat down roughly before fixing me with a look.
"Alright, I got the Director of the Baltimore branch, Director Pulta, to agree to the exchange," She promptly explained. "Is that on your list?"
"Yeah, I can get there," I responded, running the location through my mental of possible landing spots. "How did you convince them?"
"One of their more recent cape criminals was a pyrokinetic that does not discriminate targets. They only just put him away for good, sending him off to the Birdcage, but a lot of their people have burns and burn scars," She explained. "She jumped rather eagerly at the chance to get them healed."
"I can do that, any scar that's younger than a few months I can usually get rid of completely, but anything older than that and all I can get it to fade, how much depends on the age... " I explained before trailing off for a moment to consider the problem. "Actually… If you give me an hour or so, I could come up with something to specifically treat scars. That should make it easier."
"... What would you need?" Piggot asked.
"An hour, a notebook, a calculator, and a room with no cameras."
"... Fine, it will take that long to get everything prepared any way," She admitted, shrugging her shoulders. "Miss Militia, take them to one of the cleared spaces."
"Will do."
Crow and I were led to a small, simple room with a table and two chairs. Apparently, it was a place for people, not necessarily criminals, who needed to meet with their lawyers, which the PRT was definitely not allowed to record or listen in on. I ended up having Alya double-check that there weren't any cameras before settling to work. Once I was settled, I spent just under an hour designing the scar-mending spell. I ended up using my knowledge of healing and my spell crafting knowledge in order to keep the spell as simple as possible, wanting to lower the energy requirements and speed up the process.
By the time I was done, Miss Militia was ready to escort me down to the PRT headquarters holding cells. When we arrived, Assault and Battery were also there, as was Dauntless. Director Piggot was also there, though she was behind a thick observation window, which overlooked the cells.
"Let me guess… Armsmaster and Velocity are too busy testing my gifts to come?" I said with a smirk, holding back a chuckle when Piggot gave me a look that spoke of suffering should I continue. "Oops."
I peeked into the cells, which were clearly designed to stop a variety of powers, the most obvious of which being brutes. All four of the cape criminals were still unconscious, but now each of them was heavily restrained.
"Alright, I assume you want me to do this one at a time?" I asked, looking back at the Director, who nodded.
"That would be preferred. The Baltimore PRT should be waiting for you on the other side."
"Right… Let's start with…. Rune? She needs prep time to really be effective, right?" I asked, looking back around at the heroes.
"As far as we are aware, she must attune to an object through touch," Miss Militia answered. "But I would agree either way."
"Great. Well... open the gates," I said, gesturing to the cell doors, stepping inside when they did.
Quietly, though there was no real worry of her waking up, my knock-out spell would last at least another hour or so, I pulled out my spell tome and began to chant the teleportation spell. Just before it was complete, I reached out with my free hand and grabbed one of the restraints attached to the young villain. In a flash and slorp, we were standing on a vaguely familiar roof with an occupied helicopter pad behind us. Surrounding us were several capes I didn't recognize, as well as various PRT agents. Rune, who had been lying on the bed, fell to the ground, forehead first.
"Oooh, okay, note to self, lay them on the ground first," I muttered with a wince before scanning her to double-check she wasn't concussed, before gesturing to her. "She is all yours, Director Pulta."
A black hair, bespeckled woman, maybe forty years old, standing behind a pair of PRT agents wielding riot shields, nodded before giving the order to take the prisoner away. A short conversation later, I teleported back to Bay, right back into Rune's old cell.
"Mission accomplished," I said, giving Miss Militia a thumbs up. "Let's get the rest of these bastards out of your hair."
I bounced back and forth between the Bay and Baltimore until all but Krieg was gone. For that last teleport, I brought Crow with me, as she had no intention of letting me hang around Baltimore PRT by myself.
Once Krieg had been taken away, I was led to a large open meeting room, which was full of people, with one corner set up with a temporary wall for privacy, and two chairs. As I stood at the room's doors, looking out at the gathered crowd, I could see just how many people had been victims to this now-imprisoned villain. When I saw a Ward, no more than fourteen, I finally snapped. I grabbed the closest hero by the arm, pulling him close.
"I'm going to get started here, but I have an important job for you and your boss. I want the PRT to find every single one of this fuckers civilian victims," I said, working hard to rain my frustration and anger in. "Anyone still in pain, with large surface burns, with scarring on their faces or whose life is impacted by the burns, and every single child."
"That's... going to be a large amount of people... and-"
"The PRT can run with it, tell the public that it was all their doing, and make it into a PR win. I don't care," I explained, the hero now looking a little nervous. "I don't care if it takes all fucking week. I am not leaving this city until that fuckers victims are healed enough that they can forget his name."
The hero's eyes went wide, and he nodded rapidly, before rushing off. Several people must have overheard me, as whispering passed through the crowd. I ignored them and settled into my spot. The staff started with those who were still suffering from burns, and then when I had finished all of them, they moved on to those with the most determinantal and extreme scarring.
Two hours in, we took a break. While Crow and I sat together alone in a break room, Alya shocked me with a spark. I flinched and rubbed the back of my neck, resisting the urge to curse at her.
"Are you being dense on purpose? Who is with you right now?" She whispered as softly as she could into my ear. "On a mission to heal burn victims?"
It took me a solid thirty seconds to connect her words, and when I did, I slammed my head onto the table, leaving a dent on the wooden surface.
"Crow, I am so sorry," I said without pulling my head up. "I just got attached to the solution of our problem, I didn't even… Fuck I'm an idiot. Do you want me to take you home? I can't believe I-"
"Hey, I already told you, I didn't want to go home," she repeated, shaking her head. "I'm fine. I wasn't going to make you go alone."
I lifted my head to look at her. Now that I didn't have my head up my own ass, I could see she was agitated. She kept rubbing her arm, where I knew her burn scars were particularly bad, and I could see she was fidgeting and shifting in her seat, sitting like a coiled spring ready to explode.
"Crow…"
"I'm… Okay, I'm not fine," She admitted when I gave her a look. "But I'm okay enough. And there is no way I am leaving you alone. End of the discussion, we can talk about it when we get back."
I reached out and put my hand on her shoulder, giving her a gentle squeeze. I could almost feel her determination, and a large part of me knew she wouldn't be very happy if I pushed her to leave anymore.
"Okay, thank you for staying with me," I said quietly.
As we finished our break, I flagged down one of the PRT workers and requested they turn the lights down significantly, knowing that Crow would feel substantially better in the dark. As we continued, sitting down and healing person after person, she ended up fading into the darkness, though she remained close by. If the PRT cared that she had vanished, they didn't mention it.
Once we were finished with the affected members of the PRT. They drove us to the local hospital, where hundreds of people were now waiting for us. Apparently, the bastard pyrokinetic would specifically keep his flames under control enough to keep his death count low, but his casualty rate high.
How this fucker actually made it to the Birdcage and didn't have an accident falling up the stairs a few dozen times was mind-boggling.
We quickly worked our way through the civilian crowd, healing adults, kids, and everyone in between. I ended up giving Crow and myself a boost to stay awake, as the sun had long set by the time we finally finished. By then, the hospital was filled with teary-eyed people, quite a few of whom had new leases on life. I got quite a few hugs and sobbing "thank yous" as we worked.
Of course, that was nothing compared to what happened as we left, as both doctors and patients stood and gave us a standing ovation, standing along both sides of the halls as we walked. It was touching, and I really appreciated the sentiment, but it was a whole lot, not just for me but for the increasingly emotionally agitated Crow.
After shaking hands with the hospital director, I informed the PRT agents waiting for us that we would not be returning to their headquarters before promptly teleporting us directly back to the forest. We had barely landed on the ritual platform when Crow's cloak pulled back, revealing a tired and emotionally drained-looking Olivia. Rather than immediately push her into talking, I simply pulled off my mask and pulled her into a hug.
"I am so sorry I put you through that," I said, holding her close. "I should have told Piggot to find a different option or… something else."
"Oh, please!" She said, jabbing at my stomach, though she didn't pull away. "Like I would let you do that. Besides, I couldn't let you take that away from those people. You saved a lot of people from a lot of issues today."
I nodded, pulling back, desperately wanting to ask if I could heal her scars as well, but holding back. She had seen me do it a few hundred times today, she didn't need a reminder. If she wanted me to do it, she would tell me.
Instead, we headed into the common area to sit down. Smokey and Piper were waiting for us. As we unwound, the two guardians filled us in on how the day went for them and the other guardians before leaving to continue their duties. Eventually, an hour or so later, Olivia headed off to bed, leaving me alone with Alya.
"I can't believe I didn't see that coming," I said, sitting at the edge of one of the lounge seats, my head in my hand. "I mean, she might have still pushed to go with me… but the fact that it didn't occur to me until you pointed it out… unacceptable ."
Alya floated down and put her hands on my shoulders, giving me a light squeeze.
"Don't be too hard on yourself. Most of the time you spend with her, she is completely covered," She pointed out, not quite getting the problem. "Not to mention, you stopped thinking about her as the burned person soon after you met. I'd say that's a good sign, not a bad one."
"Not when it means I forget about her trauma and drag her into something like that," I responded, letting out a big breath. "Well, there isn't anything I can do now. I'm... gonna try and get some sleep too."
I stood from my spot and headed to my room, trying my best to get at least a few hours of sleep.