“Can you give us more information on that?” I asked. “I’ve studied powers in the past.”

“On the day of the final confrontation against the alien, I was pulled away from my world. Many of my lieutenants and parahuman inhabitants of my world were as well. When everything ended, several of my lieutenants slipped from my reach. I’ve found all but one. The craven bitch was one of the five others who got powers when I did.”

“One of your other enemies has mentioned your background, and that you… somehow took the powers from the group,” I said.

“Tattletale? Yes. She’s similar to the woman with the fire. She shows up at very inconvenient times. Sometimes because she’s an unwitting pawn moved by Teacher. Right now she’s busy keeping her area of this mega-city from collapsing. A cursed place, Amy says.”

I flinched at the name. I’d almost been able to pretend she wasn’t here.

“It’s probably because of the fact that she’s busy that Teacher is doing what he’s doing now,” Amy said.

“I want to ask, why are you here, Amy?” Sveta asked.

“Um. I’m kind of uniquely situated to get a lot of this. I knew Teacher, I knew Valkyrie, I’ve talked to Tattletale a few times, I had a sense of what was happening with Gold Morning before some others.”

I folded my arms.

“What I was asking is why are you here?” Sveta said. “In this headquarters.”

“Because I wanted to make sure that everyone is okay.”

“Your being here makes things less okay,” Sveta said. “I’m speaking for your sister here, because I’m sure she’s trying to avoid causing issues.”

My arms still folded, I nodded emphatically, my eyes averted to the ground.

“You’re causing problems,” Sveta said.

“I’m trying to take care of everyone, including the people important to me.”

“Enough of this,” Goddess spoke, her voice sharp.

Sveta shut up. Amy went silent.

“Antares,” Goddess said. “My power testing labs are very good and thorough. I can’t imagine you have any new information for me.”

“Can I ask what her power is? I might not know things that are better than what you learned from your labs, but I keep track of capes, as much as it’s possible, with clandestine groups and cults coming out of the woodwork.”

“A power battery. She has five very minor powers, scraps of powers, but she has the ability to charge one, extending its range out dramatically in a straight line, usable once every long while.”

“And with this power back, you’d extend your range?”

“In a sense,” she said. She made eye contact, and there was something searching in her gaze. “Not straight lines.”

“Including the brainwashing?” Natalie asked.

“Nothing is washed,” Goddess said, her voice hard. “It is aligned.”

Natalie nodded, ducking her head down.