"I'm kind of concerned that the Empire hasn't done more," Amy said before taking a bite of the basket of fish N chips she had gotten.

We were at the restaurant we had agreed to meet at near two weeks ago. Since then Nova had made a variety of appearances. I had been focusing on breaking down the gang warehouses. Glory Girl had helped me on occasion, in a somewhat amusing turn of events getting us known as the 'Glorious Guild'. Out of the other ideas that had been kicked around, it was probably for the best.

I took a bite of my sandwich and nodded my head in agreement with her. The Empire had hardly done anything recently, and it was more concerning that they haven't.

"Yeah," I said, "Makes me feel like they're planning something." Amy nodded in agreement.

"Definitely, but I'm a little glad. The hospitals have been flooding with people getting injured in gang fights."

"That reminds me," I said, reaching into the satchel I carried with me. The satchel was a great piece of work, it was a rich purple with my mark displayed on the side. Thanks to a few appearances from Lisa and myself, people dying their hair and decorating their faces and possessions with the mark had become popular enough that I didn't even feel the need to cover the mark on my cheek. But the real beauty of the satchel was its ability to become saddle bag if I needed them. Right now it just looked like a really weird purse, but I just needed to peel a small velcro strap to let drape off my back in horse form.

"I want to go to the hospital a test this out." I reached into my bag and pulled out a bottle containing a rich pink liquid and slid it over to her. Right now, the boardwalk was incredibly busy. Far too busy to stop and consider two girls sharing a lunch and passing around a strange drink. I doubted anyone was paying any attention and even if they did, there wasn't anything they could do with it. Probably.

"What is it?" Amy asked curiously, taking it in her hand and looking at it. She wasn't nearly as bitter as when I had run into her the first two times. I had met her a few times after that, when going out patrols with Glory Girl, and she had been in a much better mood in those moments. Never nearly as snappy as she had been the first few times.

It seemed to confirm what I had first thought, she wanted to get rest and get away from the hospital. She just didn't have a justification and leapt on the one I gave her, regardless of how weak it seemed. I was glad.

"A healing potion," I answered with a smug smile. I watched her eyes go wide and her grip on the bottle up until I thought she was going to break it.

"You can make healing potions?" She asked like she couldn't quite believe it.

"Yep."

"Then we got to go test it now," she said loudly, rising from her seat fast.

"But Am-"

"Nope, we're going to the hospital and testing this right now."

"But neither of us can drive. Or have a car."

"Then we'll get a cab."

"But can't we-"

"Nope." She grabbed my wrist and pulled me from my seat. I was a little too caught off guard by this side of Amy that I didn't resist as much as I could. So we were going to the hospital, I guess.

About five minutes later we had fumbled our way into a cab headed for the hospital. Three minutes of awkward silence into that, my cell phone went off.

Lisa, Victoria, and my dad were the only ones to have gotten my cell phone number since Lisa bought it for me. She said she has been able to shave money away from her secret bank accounts, but anything more than what she was pulling from them and it would bring police and hired mercenaries on her head. So she said anyway.

"Hello," I said, answering my phone swiftly.

"Taylor, hi, I got something you might want to know," Lisa spoke hurriedly.

"Um, alright. What's with the rush?"

"Your father is trying to use the stove and I think he might accidentally burn the house down." She said in a tone that made it hard tell if she was joking or not.

"Sounds serious," I said with a nod. "So, have you figured more out about The Four?"

"Yes and no," Lisa answered. "They are either extremely smart or extremely lucky."

"Hows that?" I asked curiously. It wasn't often Lisa's power didn't lean one way or another.

"Well, for one it seems like they aren't related, even though they clearly are," Lisa said. "Each one behaves completely differently, having different leaders. The Pedites are more aggressive, The Doctor are more controlling, The Workers are more economically inclined, and Industry doesn't seem to do much except defend its territory. Each one has completely different and unrelated tactics and gear. Nobody you've interrogated so far has ties with both groups. And if what we have found is true, it seems they only just started working together to fight the larger gangs. By all accounts, they have nothing to do with each other.

"Except we know they do," Lisa then added with a touch of frustration. "Each gang founded on the same night, which was done exceptionally quick for one gang let alone four, and even they way they are named! The Doctors and The Workers have the most in common. Industry is closer to Pedites, which is Latin for Infantry. And the leader's names too are both really similar. Plebeian and Proletariat? Practically the same thing. Civis and Sapien are could be related, civilization and wisdom? Not too much of a stretch.

"But the four don't fully fit together," Lisa practically growled. "If they were intentionally going for a theme they could have done it better, made it all click like a puzzle. Yet they don't. But it is just so obvious that was exactly what they were going for."

"Your power doesn't tell you?" I asked.

"It says they are connected, somehow," Lisa answered wistfully. "But I already have a headache trying to figure out how. There is a load of evidence saying they only became allies after the fact, but it is just unbelievable they weren't in league with each other from the beginning."

"So in other words, you have got anything."

"Ah, that isn't true. I did find one thing."

"Oh?"

"Yes. No one on PHO claims to be part of any of The Four, which is odd in and of itself, but I found at least four accounts that are actually part of one of the gangs, or maybe one for each account. And guess what they have been doing? Spreading the idea that The Four aren't connected they way we think they are."

"Well," I said with a smile, glad we were finally making some head way on them. "Isn't that suspicious?"

"Very," Lisa agreed. "I-ah shit, I got to stop your dad, just wanted to let you know what I've learned. Bye." She hung up before I had a chance to respond.

"My life is so weird sometimes," I said as I turned my phone screen off and slid it back into my satchel. Amy laughed a little.

"You think?" She teased lightly.

"Don't I know it," I said bitterly. "And that isn't even considering what going back to school is going to be like on Monday."

"Oh yeah, you haven't been to school in a couple of weeks have you?" Amy asked.

I sighed. "No, instead I've been hanging out with your sister on and off the last couple of days." I was mindful of the cab driver when I spoke next. "And yet, no matter how much I ask she won't introduce me to Nova." If I was going to sell the whole 'fan of the mighty Nova', I needed to start getting into the habit of praising my horse form while in human form. I had made it a point of hanging around other girls that had decided to get in on the latest fashion trend of dyeing their hair silvery purple and painting my mark on themselves. I noted with mild amusement they all acted the same way, which was pretty much exactly the way I had expected.

It was the men that got in on the trend that had confused me the most. But I wasn't going to touch that. Not a hand. Not with a pole. Not even with my telekinesis. Just, no.

After a minute of silence after that Amy pulled out the bottle I had given her and looked at it again.

"So how did you make this? And can you make more, presuming it works?" She was holding it low enough that the cab driver couldn't see it and wasn't speaking out right. But I could tell the idea excited her because of how she risked bringing it up despite our setting."

"I, uh, put certain plants together with that special ingredient you showed me the first time we met." It took her a moment to realize what I meant by that, but when she did her eye grew wide again.

"Do you have one of the plants with you?" She asked me with the same urgency she had shown when we had been eating not long ago. Once again, I was thrown a little off guard by it. I had met Amy a few times before and she had always been quiet and reserved. But today she was going into bouts of energy because of these potions. If anything, that confused me more. Shouldn't she be more concerned about these replacing her? I mean, if she didn't enjoy doing what she did why would she work herself into the ground healing people.

It took me a moment to remember the fresh plants I kept in my satchel. I reach in for the hard plastic box I kept an assortment of flowers I had picked this morning while I was out. I left the ones in my garden to grow wildly and charged a good handful each night for Lisa to experiment with. She seemed to enjoy it, though I couldn't tell if it was just because she got to use her power or not.

These ones were only a few hours old and just happened to be something I spotted in an empty lot on my way to take a bus to get lunch with Amy. Obviously, I hadn't charged them yet.

Amy took the box and plucked out a buttercup and seemed to study it with her power. She turned it over in her hands once and then looked at me.

"There's nothing different about it." She stated.

"I hadn't used the stuff on it yet," I answered awkwardly.

"Oh," Amy conceded with a frown. She shook her head and held out a hand to me. "Could I…?" She asked a little nervously. Instead of answering, I put my hand in hers.

She paused for a second, looking confused. Then her eyes went wide like as saucers for the third time in the last hour. She turned her head at the buttercup she was holding. It grew a little more vibrant for a moment then began to change. I wasn't sure exactly what was happening until the change stopped.

Just slightly, ever so slightly, the buttercup was more cartoon like. Not like I was, more like bad CGI, where it just looked a little too shiny to be real.

"What did you do?" I asked quietly. Amy pulled her hand away from mine and stared in a daze at the flower.

"I… might have grown some circuitry inside of the flower."

A/N So this has nothing to do with the story, as far as I've planed, but I had a thought that needs answers! What happens when Flechette shots someone Clockblocker has frozen?