“I can’t believe you managed to convince me to go to the mall with everything going on.” I groused as we navigated the crowds.

  Even with an active bombing campaign going on, the mall was still somewhat packed. I mean, I kinda got it. People needed to shop and if going around the city was more dangerous than normal, then getting everything in one stop was the best way to try keeping safe even if they had to put up with some National Guard guys standing in front of the entrances.

  Or maybe because of them.

  “It’s because of everything going on that we need some time to unwind.” Sam countered as she pushed me along.

  “Yeah, besides our last mall trip got cancelled unexpectedly. We need to make up for it!” Alex chimed in.

  “Totally! There was this super cute jacket I had my eye on,” Clover said as she bounced from window display to window display, Gloria excitedly following close behind her. “If it’s still here I’m definitely gonna splurge on it. Maybe get a whole new outfit!”

  Amy, my only comrade against the team of shopping crazed girls, scoffed and rolled her eyes. “You know you can just magic up new clothes, right?”

  “Totally not the same!” Clover immediately denied. “Those disappear once you take them off. I need the real thing to lay out my wardrobe for big events!”

  “Big events like what?”

  “Well there's a cute new guy at one of the smoothie shops. The right outfit might be what scores me a date!”

  “...A date… I take it back, clearly you need to buy clothes instead of using your reality altering magic powers for something that important.” Amy deadpanned which got laughs out of the rest of us.

  “Not even a date!” Gloria said, still laughing. “She wants them for the possibility of a date!”

  Clover shrieked in outraged betrayal. “You’re one to talk! Didn’t you say you wanted something that would catch Eric’s attention?”

  I blinked at that. “Eric? As in Crystal’s little brother Eric?”

  Gloria flushed. “He’s kinda cute, okay?”

  “A girl thinks Eric is cute. It’s official, this is the worst and I’d like today to be over please.” Amy snarked, apparently disgusted at the idea of anyone finding her cousin attractive. “Also someone please keep an eye on Gloria, clearly her brain isn’t working right.”

  “Hey!”

  Gloria’s admission opened her up to another round of teasing, which she immediately tried to redirect at Clover and her latest crush with mixed results.

  I ended up just watching with a small smile on my face.

  Maybe Sam was right. Maybe we did all need a bit of normalcy injected into our lives with everything else going on.

  We didn’t really have a plan for the day, which meant wandering from store to store randomly as things caught our interest…well, it was more what caught my pawns’ interest while me and Amy got dragged along for the ride.

  Funnily enough, despite their words, none of the girls had actually bought anything yet.

  We all ended up trying on almost a dozen different outfits each, but Amy and I weren't exactly looking to expand our wardrobe and everything else was rejected for one reason or another. Not exactly my idea of an exciting afternoon, but it had its fun moments. Some less than fun moments too, considering it was my turn to be used as a living dress up doll.

  “Ooh! Rias, try this one!” I heard Alex call as she held up a jacket from across a clothing rack. It was actually something I could see myself wearing too, unlike some of the weirder options I was sure my Peerage had thrown at me as a joke.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Toss it here.” I motioned instead of doing the smart thing and having one of us just walk around the clothes rack. Because naturally Alex managed to flub the throw just as I sensed someone walking behind me.

  I did my best to catch the jacket before it ended up hitting whoever it was behind me, but they were too close and I was off balance. As I came down from jumping to catch the errant article of clothing, I ended up clipping the taller of what turned out to be two people behind me, bouncing off of him and immediately crashing into what was probably his daughter bringing the both of us to the floor.

  “Dang’it, I am so sorry. Are you okay? Here let me help you up.” I babbled as I scrambled off the girl and offered a hand up. One that was met with a rather blank stare from the younger girl.

  Crap, had I hurt her?

  “Um, you aren’t hurt or anything right? I can call…” I trailed off awkwardly.

  “She has a concussion so she’s a little out of it.” The man I presumed was her father said as he crouched down and helped the girl up. “Come’on Taylor, up you get.” I froze at the name. There was no way, surely…

  ‘Knowing your luck, something like this was inevitable.’ Ddraig unhelpfully chimed in.

  I was saved from my frozen state by the arrival of the rest of my group, led by a frantically apologetic Alex, that gave me enough time to actually look over the people I bumped into.

  Unfortunately for me, while I had very little to go off of, the man I initially bumped into did match Daniel Hebert’s description of tall, skinny, and having balding dark hair. And if it was only that I would have done my best to brush off his appearance and his daughter’s name as a coincidence if I hadn’t seen Skitter just the other day and could compare their height and hair, which were similar enough that I was reasonably sure they were the same person.

  So that meant I had just knocked over Taylor Hebert, teenage supervillain and walking biblical plague.

  Fantastic. Still, nothing I could do about that now except try to make it up to her.

  I dragged my attention back to the man in time to see him waving down Alex’s continuous apology. “Look, it was an accident. I understand, just, maybe be more careful in the future?” He said.

  “We’ll be careful.” I promised. “But can we pay you back somehow as an apology? The food court is still open, we could treat you to dinner?”

  “That’s nice of you but–”

  “No, I insist!” I interrupted before stepping behind them and lightly guiding them the way I wanted to move. “One of you could have gotten hurt, it’s only fair. I’m Rias, by the way. And that is Alex, Sam, and Clover. Gloria is the one hiding behind them and Amy is the one over there trying to pretend she doesn’t know any of us.” I pointed out each member of my Peerage. For some reason as I did so I could feel Taylor tensing up at each introduction.

  Ah crap, she probably recognized me and at least some of the girls out of costume. Something that wasn’t exactly hard considering none of us went to great lengths to hide our faces but to Taylor it must have looked like she and her dad were suddenly being surrounded by supervillains.

  Oh well, I was committed now.

  “Ah, alright, if you all insist… I’m Danny Hebert by the way and this here is Taylor.” Danny introduced them both.

  “Nice to meet you both. Now, the biggest question at the moment, what are you feeling? Chinese? Burgers? Pizza? Feel free to pick whatever.” I said with what I thought was a disarming smile, but Taylor remained as stiff as before even as we walked over to the food court.

  True to my word I stuck with the Heberts as they ordered burgers from some kind of knockoff chain restaurant while the rest of my girls split off to get their own food before we all met back up at a free table. There was a moment of awkward silence that came with having two strangers suddenly added to a group, but thankfully Sam started asking Danny about what he did for work which got him to open up while Taylor seemed content to fade into the background while inhaling her food.

  While Danny talked I took the time to get a good look at who was theoretically the protagonist for the world I had been dropped into and found her to be… a pretty normal teenage girl.

  Between her own negatively biased opinion of herself and fanfiction making her out to be an upcoming supermodel, I already knew the reality of her appearance was going to fall somewhere in between. But it was a little funny to me that the person that would eventually get titles like ‘Warlord of Brockton Bay’ and ‘Queen of Escalation’ was mostly interchangeable with most girls her age. Sure, she was tall for her age, but line her up with nine other girls and that would be the most noticeable thing about her.

  Well, other than the mostly blank stare she had going on right now, but that could easily be because of the concussion she supposedly had at the moment.

  It did peak my interest though. Was what made Taylor the kind of person that could deal with disaster after disaster an inborn trait? Or was it something she forged herself into over time?

  “So Taylor,” I started, making the other girl look at me like she was surprised I was even paying attention to her before taking on a more guarded edge. “I take it you were school shopping?” I nodded at a few of the bags they had been carrying where a new backpack, some notebooks, pens, and other supplies could be seen sticking out. “Have to say, I’m a little surprised schools are still open considering what’s been going on.”

  “Ah, Winslow is far enough away from the bombs that they didn’t think it was worth closing down.” Taylor said quietly. “I think, anyway. I haven't exactly been there for a few days.”

  “Because of the concussion?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m guessing you’re not exactly thrilled to go back either.” I said, knowing full well how Taylor felt about her school. “If I were you I’d rather be spending time on the couch instead of math class.”

  “I guess.”

  I waited for her to say something else, but apparently Taylor was bad at smalltalk.

  ‘The bullied girl bad at smalltalk? How shocking.’ Ddraig commented sarcastically.

  ‘Quiet you.’

  While I was arguing with the voice inside my head there was an announcement over the mall’s PA system. Basically a reminder saying that the mall was closing early, for people to cooperate with the authorities guarding the exits, and to get home by the city-wide curfew.

  “Hey Dad, can we go? Beat the last minute rush?” Taylor asked in a very unsubtle attempt to get away from my group to my disappointment. I wasn’t expecting us to become best friends in a single conversation or anything, but I had been hoping to get her to open up at least a little bit.

  “Ah, sure. If there’s nothing else you need.” Danny said, glancing at the empty wrapper in front of her and moving to grab their bags when Taylor shook her head. “Girls, thank you for treating us even if you didn’t have to. It was a very kind gesture.”

  “It was the least I could do since it was my fault for bumping into you both.” I smiled back. “Have a safe trip home.”

  As the pair walked away I couldn’t help but think that while that wasn’t the best first impression I could have made, it at least wasn’t a negative one. Or at least a completely negative one. Which was important because I eventually wanted the Undersider’s help dealing with their secret boss after the ABB were wrapped up and having Taylor at least a little friendly with my group could be what pushed them to turn on Coil.

  I pushed those plans to the back of my mind.

  First we needed to actually deal with the ABB and there was a raid on a supposed warehouse of theirs in a couple days that we needed to prepare for. As much as I wanted to trust that the Nazis and the bond villain wouldn’t try and screw us over in some way…I didn’t trust them to not try and screw us over.

  Which meant this whole truce I had been forced into was going to be fun…