"There you are, you bastard!"

What? Oh no. No, no, no, no. Please, no. Not now. Not today. I ducked my head, pulling the hood of my sweater further over my face as though that could somehow hide me better. Running would be too suspicious, but I couldn't keep my pace from accelerating just a bit.

"Oh, no. You aren't getting away from the mighty Windlass that easily. Did you think you could just wander around here and get away with it? Mere blocks away from the scene of your greatest crime?"

Um... several miles, actually... Now I was running, entirely without permission from my conscious mind. "I don't know you! I don't know what you're talking about! Please, somebody, call the police!"

She laughed, a rather cruel sound for someone who'd been styling themselves a "heroine" in front of every available camera for months now. "No. Don't bother, citizens. Jail's too good for this monster. Besides, he's supposed to be in maximum security prison right now. A prison for the worst supervillains walking this earth... those the League foolishly spare. As though rehabilitation is somehow possible for monsters like this one."

"I'm on a work release rehab program. I'm doing well. Please leave me alone. I'm not doing anything wrong."

"Shut up, monster. I don't want to hear any more of your lies. Not when you're obviously carrying the spoils of your latest crime spree."

Please please please oh God no don't grab the bag don't grab the bag Let her try to take it away. No, no. You can't be here. Not now. I'm only a couple of days out from my last dose, I've got it right here in my bag, please go away! Never. We're a part of you, remember? Even when you drug us to sleep.

The last traces of her heroic posturing dropped out of her voice, replaced with anger bordering on hate. "Give me that. Let's see what you've stolen from this city's honest citizens this time."

"What are you talking about? I'm not a thief. I've never been a thief. This is my job. Look, I have a license - "

Her grasping hand crashed against my rapidly weakening shields. A wicked grin crossed her face. "I knew it. I knew you were still using those horrific powers, monster. You're going to pay for that lie." She leaned in, fist rising, and laughed. "Dearly."

I raised the hand not clutching the precious bag to my chest, as though an open palm of surrender would stop this crazy bitch. My teeth chattered as I stammered stupidly, the only words I could bring to mind similarly useless. "Please, I can't lose this - "

Her fist smashed into my shields. They took the blow well enough, but I went careening across the street, through a car, and into - literally, leaving a me-shaped crater - a cement wall. The bag flew out of my hands somewhere along the destructive trajectory, left far enough behind that I couldn't even see where it had landed. I hadn't even managed to lever myself out of the wall when a shadow fell over me. I managed to look up in time to see the front half of the car I'd destroyed with my back hurtling toward me. Desperately, I collected the tattered shreds of my shields - all that remained of the half-dozen mood stabilizers and anti-psychotics I'd missed two doses of - in front of me, and hoped the room behind was empty. There was a scream before the impact, and I wasn't sure if it was me.

And then, in the pain, in the dark, they were there. All of them. As vibrant as they'd ever been, a few even more so. Anger, all red spikes and fangs. Fear, yellow, small, craven and cowering. Depression, a lumbering beast of blue and black. Envy, bilious green, more grasping talons than anything else. Hatred, clad in rusted armor, his blade dripping steaming acid. Behind them, I could just make out the two sets of twins. Pride and Courage, in shining gold and dented steel armor. Their shields guarded the huddling Hope and Joy, nearly invisible in the distant recesses of my fractured mind.

Anger spoke first, his voice a hiltless blade in my grip, as loud as it had been through the drugs earlier. "She won't stop. She'll never stop. Not until she kills us. And that's not happening. Not today. Not ever. And certainly not by an idiotic bitch like this one." Hatred laughed in agreement, his voice as corrosive as the trail of his blade.

Depression's breath was an icy, bone-chilling wind. "Gonna happen someday. Today's as good as any. Let her finish it already. Not like we deserve any better."

Anger growled at him. "Coward. Wait. Fear, back me up here, she needs to die before she kills us all, right?"

Fear chittered in response. "Uh - I - uh - that is - I need to go, um, check on something real quick, okay?" His skittering gait carried him well out of Anger's reach.

Depression laughed. "He's out. He's all the proof she needs. When she sees him, we're done for. Finally."

Envy's voice was, as usual, an earsplitting whine. "Aww! Why can't I get out sometimes?*

Pride's shield came sailing out of the darkness, crashing against the side of Envy's head before returning to his grip. "Shut up."

Anger's growl silenced them all. "She's going to kill us! And you're still bickering! All of you shut the fuck up!" He turned to my observer's gaze. "Let us out, or we're all going to die."

I shook my metaphorical head at him. "No. I'd rather die than prove her right." Depression laughed, growing visibly stronger.

Anger's growl became a roar. "I don't care abut the civilians! I'll leave them alone, they're meaningless, just let me kill her before she wins!"

My response was drowned out by Fear's screams. They were audible well before he was visible; when he arrived, though, he was taller than any of the others. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, IknewitIknewitI - "

Anger finally cut through the din. "Knew what?!"

"We're on 31st, at Oakwood."

"So?"

"She knocked us into the fucking day care!"

For one stunned moment, every last one of them was silent. Then Anger and Hatred shot up, and up, and up, joining Fear at heights I'd never even imagined.

My voice was flat, and yet it dripped with Hatred's acid, it cut with Anger's blade, it shook in Fear's grip. "That tears it. All of you, out. Courage, Hope, find the kids and get them out of there. Envy, go with them, see if you can beat their total." Envy snickered, and then ducked as Anger swiped at him. "Pride, get the civilians back. No and I mean not one noncombatant casualty. We're better than that. Time to prove it." Pride saluted, growing a head taller as he did so. "Anger, Hatred, Fear. Get out there. Break her, pin her, incapacitate, but do not kill her." They sneered at me, until they saw my grin. "Not yet. Depression, as always, you're with me. And Joy... I need you to try and stand up for me, okay? Just... give me that, at least."