The world shifted.

One moment she was stumbling back, Clockblocker of the Wards trying to tackle her. The next her foot landed behind her and she took two steps, her balance regained as if nothing had happened.

But things had, in fact, happened.

The first thing she noticed, the thing that was impossible not to notice, was... the sirens. Not Endbringer sirens, thank Scion, but car alarms and police sirens and the distinct sirens of PRT vehicles, all competing to be the noisiest thing on the street.

Then the stench hit her. Burning rubber, spent gunpowder... blood.

“What’s going on?” she said as she looked at the post-apocalyptic scene around her.

She didn’t have time to take much in.

“Onee-sama!” Pop was before her, arms wrapped around her waist and pulling her close in a vice-like hug. “Onee-sama, Onee-sama,” she repeated, each repetition harder to hear than the last. Her voice was broken by ugly, wracking sobs, her face lined with tears and puffy eyes and a leaky nose that all looked up to her with so much desperation.

“Pop?” she asked as she pulled the girl in closer for a hug. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“I failed,” Pop wailed. “I’m sorry, Onee-sama. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, hey, shush, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Taylor said.

It was not okay.

“Your sisters?” she asked. She was almost afraid to do so. What if Pop was like this because they had... had been hurt, or worse?

“Hey Big Sis,” Tattletail said. She sounded... contrite. “Uh, everyone’s okay. ‘Cept Pop. But she’ll get over it with enough hugs and stuff. You were out for nearly a whole minute.”

Taylor stood up. She wrapped one arm under Pop’s backside and another over the middle of her back so that she could carry her up. It was a little awkward, Pop being just a bit too old for it, but the way her little sister buried her crying face into the nook of Taylor’s neck said that she needed the close contact right then.

She did a quick count. Cheshire seemed fine. Her onesie was a bit dusty, but no worse for wear. She also had a crossbow she was petting fondly. Something to correct later.

Crochet was beaming at her, completely pristine, though that couldn’t be said of her two plushies who looked to have taken a beating.

Tattletail was trying to hide a gun behind her trench-coat until she noticed Taylor watching. She smiled sheepishly and flicked it aside. “Oops?”

And finally, Remedy was...

“What the hell?” Taylor asked.

Her little Remedy was standing between two xenomorphs, the skeletal, bony monsters twitching slightly, eyeless heads turning this way and that. “Ah, I can explain?” Remedy tried.

“I sure hope you can,” Taylor growled. She looked past her sisters, reassured for now that they were safe. “I sure hope you can,” she repeated as she looked past the circle of sisters who were all inching closer. “Fine, group hug?”

While she was busy being squished from every direction, Taylor took in the world around them.

This was going to be hard to explain.

The first thing she noticed were the two pancaked police cars off to one side and the sideways PRT van absolutely covered in white foam, a few arms and legs sticking out of the white gunk including one costumed backside.

Shadow Stalker was folded in half over a lamppost. Vista was laying on her back, her helmet visor cracked. Aegis was…. Well, one arm was not too far away, and there was a leg buried in the window of a shop across the street. His torso and head were doing a good job of painting the sidewalk red as he pulled himself along by his one functional limb like Anakin crawling out of lava, but bloodier.

Clockblocker was buried under a pile of cloth frozen a foot above the ground, a thousand ribbons tied all around him. His hands were still held out defensively in front of his face, as if warding off an attack.

Kid Win and Gallant were sitting next to each other a little ways down, backs against the wall of a jewelry store and Gallant’s arm around Kid Win’s back. The Tinker was crying over a board that was snapped in half at the middle.

“Okay girls, hugs are over for now,” Taylor said to a chorus of awws. She placed Pop down carefully and gave her another squeeze. “I’m not angry at you, Pop,” she said.

“But you’re disappointed and that’s worse,” the girl blubbered.

“No,” Taylor said with some force. “I’m no such thing. I love you, I love you so much that I would overlook any number of tiny mistakes you made. And this wasn’t one of them, okay?”

Pop nodded, but wasn’t meeting her eyes.

“Pop, who loves you the most?” Taylor asked the girl.

“Onee-sama does?” Pop asked.

Taylor grabbed her in another hug. “That’s right. Your Onee-sama loves you so much you can’t even begin to imagine, okay?”

“Okay, Onee-sama,” Pop said. Some of the tension in her shoulders had bled away.

“I need to talk to Aegis, I think,” Taylor said. “Remedy, look after Pop for a moment, okay? Be nice. Tattletail... yeah, come with me. Cheshire, you too. Crochet, guard your sisters while Remedy makes sure Pop isn’t hurt.”

“‘Kay Big Sis.”

“Of course Big Sis.”

She moved over to Aegis, aware for the first time that beyond the circle of destruction her sisters had wrought there were a lot of civilians with cameras out, taking pictures and filming the carnage. This was going to be all over the news if the PRT didn’t suppress it.

“Hey,” she told the mangled superhero by her feet. “Are you, uh, okay?”

Aegis flipped himself over and looked up at her. It sent a spray of arterial blood splashing past her, but none came close to her. “I’ve been better,” he said. “Ah, is this the part where the villain gloats?”

“I’m a superhero, actually,” she said. “Ah, so are my sisters.”

He blinked at her. “Oh?” he asked.

“Yeah.” She gestured at him. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’ve had... not worse, but close. I’ll live?”

“Cool,” Taylor said. “Uh, this is a bit awkward.”

“A bit,” Aegis agreed.

“The Undersiders got away,” Tattletail piped up. “Personally, I’d say that the Wards are to blame for that.”

Taylor sighed. “Wonderful. So, uh, we’ll stop by the PRT eventually. Explain our side of things. Do you think that would be okay, or will we be attacked on sight?”

“You should be fine?” Aegis said.

“Need to get the media on our side first,” Tattletail said. “But yeah, we’ll be fine as long as everyone’s honest.”

“Great,” Taylor said. “Uh, see you later, I guess.”

“Right, later.” Aegis waved his one hand at her.

She nodded and moved past him. “We should, uh, head out.”