Puppet Mastery: the ability to control humanoid figures.

{tw: description of nightmares, mild PTSD moments, grotesque descriptions of wounds}

Josh has been tired lately.

Well, that's not surprising to hear. Between the heavy workload at school, training for the final fight with Alley Cat, and the occasional night patrol, he and Tiana have fallen back into their old routine, before everything went to shit.

It was okay for the longest time, because they assumed it was normal. Tiana is almost how she was before, but there's something off. Whenever their conversation dies and they run out of things to talk about, her eyes lower and she gets this pained expression, like she's remembering something... horrible.

He knows what she thinks about, but he can't do anything to help her and that building guilt eats him away. When he closes his eyes, all he sees is Tiana's torn being hanging limply from his hands, her shoulders an open wound with exposed muscles and spilling fat, back caked with blood.

They've both got issues, and they are both too stubborn to talk about it.

Ashley Frangipane disappeared after their collective mind meld. That gave the hero crew dead ends and more wait time, scared that Alley Cat will attack at any moment and they won't know.

School ended in May, and now that they have more time to relax, their constant tired stage only seems to get worse. Their parents noticed but with their hours getting longer, they weren't around long enough for it to be concerning to them.

Tiana passes out during the first week of June, and Josh near the end of that same month. That, combined with Tyler's fainting spells and their nightmares they can't remember causes some red flags for Hayley. They don't completely trust her yet, but Josh tells her about what's been going on for the past few months.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me this sooner?" She all but shouts when he does, going straight into panic mode. Hayley starts pacing.

"We just thought we were pushing ourselves too hard," Tiana scoffs, not helping the situation at all. "It wasn't that big of a deal at the time, until the nightmares."

"None of us have been able to remember them, so we just assumed it was PTSD or something," Josh says.

"Yeah, even I'm having them," Tyler adds.

Hayley switches her glare between the three teens, sputtering in disbelief. "You guys are idiots. That's Alley Cat's doing! He's getting in your heads."

"But he can't do that, I've got all of his superpowers written down," Josh argues.

"But his evil sidekick does. Frangipane."

"She has powers?" Tiana tilts her head at this new development.

"That's my current theory. A new villain showed up at the same time Ashley went gone, girl. She's like a strong manipulative doll girl. I've only ever seen her on the south side until- guess when- today."

"Oops." Tyler and Josh look at each other and smile softly.

"Yeah, oops. Since the original Ashley was supposed to be dead at the scene, but she somehow survived unscathed, that leaves one possibility," Hayley explains. "And I always had a suspicion that Alley Cat brought her back with the stone."

"I thought it only worked for him," Josh says. "No, that's not right. Urie's theory journal, he said that the stone had enough juice for two uses. Two sides, two chances."

Hayley nods. "That's right. If she's alive and if she was revived with either half of the stones, that means she has a direct mental link with you three fucking ding dongs."

Tyler raises an eyebrow. "Did you just call us ding dongs?"

"So, what kind of powers could she have?" Tiana asks. "Is it like mind fuckery? Can she talk through and manipulate puppets like Jeff Dunham?"

"No, Tatiana. She doesn't. Ashley wears down her victims physically, then mentally, until she gets control of their bodies."

Tiana and Josh exchange freaked out looks.

"Not what I expected," she says.

"Yeah, that's a no for me." Josh nods in agreement.

"If you want to bail now, I understand," Hayley says softly, directing her gaze at him and Tiana. "Ty and I can do this on our own."

Tiana grins slyly. "And let you two have all the fun? No way, Jose. We're in."

Tyler glances over at Josh, sending him a look that says 'are you sure you want to do this?'

"You can't have two heroes without your sidekicks."

Hayley shakes her head. "You two are seriously a major pain in my ass. We need a game plan to find Ashley and have her lead us to Alley Cat."

"Woah, woah, already?" Josh squeals. "I mean, we've only been training for a couple of months, are you sure we're prepared for this?"

She sighs, eyes scrunching up sadly. "You can't completely prepare for something like this, believe me. All the scenario mapping and battle training is just a nudge in the right direction. But if we don't act now, he'll kill you all, or make you kill each other."

"Okay. So, how do we find her?" Tiana asks.

"Easy. Lucid dreaming."