The van came to a screeching halt, the doors swinging open with a grind of steel on steel.

Gallant was the first out, Aegis and Clockblocker right on his heels. Vista warped the path before them, spreading out the Wards into a large semi-circle before the bank.

The two troopers in the van stayed in place, but they were ready to jump out at a moment’s notice. His empathic senses were inundated with eagerness, fear, joy, elation, excitement, a cocktail of emotions that were all primed towards fighting. His fellow Wards were ready to take out any villain at a moment’s notice.

“Okay, formation Beta,” Aegis said. “Stay in a line. Browbeat, stay close to Vista, you’re playing bodyguard for her since she’s our VIP.”

There was a twinge of annoyance from the girl, but she nodded and continued warping the street. Soon the back door would lead right to them too.

Brockton Bay Central stood before them, a huge brick building with all the classical features of a place built for the wealthy of a hundred years ago. The steps before the bank were cleared of civilians and those that were around were keeping their distances, though there were plenty of gawkers with cameras out.

“Hostages are our number one priority,” Aegis said.

Shadow Stalker snorted over the line before using her power to jump to the top of a streetlamp. “Always protecting the weaklings,” she muttered over comms.

“That’s our duty as heroes,” Vista said. He could sense the indignity pouring off of Vista in waves. “Not that you’d know anything about that.”

“Your idea of heroics is letting the bad guys leave just because a few nobodies might get hurt,” Shadow Stalker shot back. She sounded heated, but a glance her way and he knew that she was amused more than anything.

“Cut the chatter,” Aegis said. “Someone’s moving.”

The disorganized but excited mess of emotions around him snapped; from one second to the next it went from a nervous maelstrom to a focused beam of laser sharp attention. He could see why.

Capes were coming out of the bank, nearly ten of them. He recognized the Undersiders: Grue, Tattletale, Regent and Hellhound, their profiles still fresh in his mind. The four shuffled off to one side, looking and feeling rather defeated, though Tattletale had a burning core of incensed embarrassment. It was a weird mix, and one he would have loved to study more, but he had other concerns.

Such as the six other capes standing near the entrance of the bank.

“Uh,” Clockblocker said. “Did Console forget to count? Because that’s more than four. A lot more.”

“They’re all little girls, maybe thirteen at most,” Aegis said.

“Hey!” Vista said instantly. “Don’t underestimate them just because they’re young.”

Gallant nodded. “She’s right. Vista’s around that age and I wouldn’t want to fight her, let alone five capes like her. Keep on your guard.”

“I’m calling this in,” Aegis said. “Clock, care to introduce us?”

“Oh yeah, sure, let me be the one tossed to the rabid, bank-robbing girl scouts,” Clockblocker said as he began to move up.

“They’re not nervous or anything,” Gallant said as he read the girls. It wasn’t quite true, the oldest one in the group was a bundle of anxiety, but other than her the rest were all smug or excited or bored.

The pure, unadulterated smugness coming from the girl with the tail and ears was incredible. The feeling intensified when their eyes met for a moment.

“Thanks, Gallant, I really appreciate your ability to reassure me,” Clockblocker said with dripping sarcasm. He took a few steps closer even as half the girls moved down a few steps. The oldest looking one was in the lead, with a small girl in a ninja costume on one side and one in a cat onesie on the other. “Hey there,” Clockblocker called out. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“You mean meeting law enforcement at a bank robbery?” the oldest girl said.

Gallant narrowed his eyes. There was something about her. No, not her, the others around her. The girls all had an emotional response when she spoke.

“It’s a day job,” Clockbloker said with easy joviality. “So, hey, uh, mind surrendering so we can skip the whole fighting thing?” he asked.

The girl blinked. “Uh, actually, we’re done here. I don’t think there will be any fighting.”

“Unless you wanna go down?” the girl with cat ears said. She glared up at the pole where Sophia was standing. “Me and Shadows over there have got unfinished business.”

“You’re the little shit that copied my powers!” Shadow Stalker accused. She brought up her twin crossbows, but didn’t fire or even aim them at anyone. She was angry, but not that much more than usual.

“Cheshire, enough,” the older girl said. She placed a hand on the cat-eared girl’s head and...

Gallant took a small step back. The wash of joy, of pure glee and smugness aimed at the others around her... “Shit, she’s some sort of Master,” he said.

“Dammit,” Aegis said. “Vista, Clock, take her out first!”

There was a confused pause, everyone holding their breath as the street bent and warped to put Clockblocker right in front of the girl. She stumbled back, but he lunged forward with his hand outstretched.

“Big Sis!” screamed a few of the girls.

Clockblocker’s hand touched the girl, and she froze mid-stumble. “Got ya,” he said. He backpedalled and Vista’s power carried him away to a safe distance with practiced smoothness.

Gallant had seen sudden shifts in emotion before, had witnessed people being told that loved ones had passed away, or seen people breaking up in public. He had sensed people like Oni Lee and Hookwolf who were savage killers, ready to rip and tear someone apart just because they could.

Never, in all the time that he had his powers, did he ever feel such an overwhelming and powerful shift from such a large group.

He swallowed.

The girls seethed, drowning in anger so deep, so incensed and vile that it made him sick just to look at it. It was as if their auras had condensed together to form a huge, bloodsoaked skull, gnashing its teeth eagerly with a singular desire.

DEATH.

“K-kisama,” the ninja girl said, her hands trembling. “You, you filth, you gaijin, you... you touched Onee-Sama.”

“Oh shit.”