I wanted to jump in, deliver a biting line about Hunter, asking if she’d healed her yet. I wanted to attack Amy, to tear her down, get past all of those layers of defenses, with the benefit of the fact that she couldn’t reach me here, and that I didn’t have to look at her. Shout at her, scream at her, point out her flaws in logic, put her on the defensive, and put my metaphorical boot through that defense.

“I’m here. What is it?” I asked.

“Is Mom walking without difficulty? Is the head injury healed?”

“That’s a bit personal,” I said.

“Please? We’re being personal already, talking about reunions and rebirth.”

“She’s strong. You wouldn’t know something’s wrong unless you knew what to look for.”

I saw my mom smile slightly.

“No, Victoria. You said you’d help me. That means being honest,” Amy said, her voice touched by the stress.

Narwhal was working on stuff at the other desk, phone at her ear. I could look up from the screen that was tracking the ongoing call, and I could see the map below the image of the Gibborim Knight. More teams were being deployed, in addition to Chevalier’s.

“There’s a ways to go,” I conceded.

“Exactly, see? I know you have your war wounds, Victoria. I could have healed them on your last visit, if the circumstances had been different. Dad has his head injury. Uncle Mark, Eric, and Sarah all died—”

“I’d rather not talk about them,” Crystal spoke up.

“But listen. What if we don’t have to do that anymore? What if Lab Rat and I brew up the means to tackle the real emergencies and disasters? Villain warlords? Machine Armies? Out of control powers? Rifts in reality? We create something like this. Incredibly strong, durable, and ultimately victimless.”

And we weren’t talking about family anymore. Amy had twisted the conversation back to her agenda.

An aggrieved looking Narwhal patched back into the conversation, “We have zero guarantee that this would be victimless. This has complicated our situation with Dauntless and lives may be lost from that alone. You’re assuming a degree of control over these things that hasn’t been tested or proven, and if you lost control it would clearly be catastrophic. Both for Shin and for the Megalopolis.”

“I’m in control.”

“Even if we assumed one hundred percent—”

“I’ve been working on it with Marquis, and I did pick up some things from associating with Glaistig Uaine and growing up with superheroes.”

“Even if we assumed one hundred percent control, there are other risks. That someone could control you and control them through you.”

“Don’t those risks apply to Dragon? She has her A.I.”

“Dragon has oversight. Her partner, other Wardens. We know her well enough that we could handle such a situation.”