Oh. I thought that might be it after some Googling, but thank you for the follow-up.

Serious question: what does NTR mean in this context? I'm unfamiliar with the expression.

"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."

Click the link, read that, then come back (please)

:D

You are 100% right. And thank you!

"I don't care what time you're from. I don't care which professors I have to look up. You should all be ashamed of yourselves! Get out of here before I report every last one of you!"

By the end of the shouted diatribe, every last one of the forty-seven people in the small, overcrowded Starbucks was staring at the door. Or, more precisely, at the man who'd just burst through the door. A black jumpsuit clung to his thin body underneath several strategically placed pieces of what looked like fiberglass armor, festooned with tiny blinking lights. A heavy-looking helmet covered the top half of his face, several small lights scattered around its otherwise black surface as well.

The manager behind the counter raised his hand, presumably to point the man back out into the parking lot. His words died on his lips, drowned out by nearly everyone in the building simultaneously offering up dozens of varied arguments, running the gamut from "Aw, man", through "No, please don't!", all the way out to "You wouldn't dare!"

Despite the tidal wave of disagreement, the man stood firm, looking more and more like a cross between a grumpy Judge Dredd and a technologically oriented Christmas tree with every passing second. "You can see I brought my locator and removal tools. Get out or, so help me Machina, I will get you out."

One of the men closest to him, a particularly burly fellow in a suit ill-fitted both to him and to the crowd at large, shook his head. "Machina can't save you here, chipslave." He rushed Judge Tannenbaum, only to suddenly... disappear, there was no other word for it. One second a freight train of meat and cheap cotton, and the next barely a wrinkle in the air.

A woman who had been standing nearby, this one wearing a black cocktail dress before 8 AM, spoke up. "But it's today that everything changes! Can't you see? You know wh- " She disappeared as well.

The stunned silence that replaced the end of her word was followed, in turn, by a rush resembling nothing so much as pests fleeing a sudden light. Some people fled toward the back, while others tried to rush the implacable, grimacing bipedal doorstop. None were successful. Before any could leave the common room, a full forty-one of the crowd's members disappeared into thin, if wrinkly, air.

Less than a minute after the initial interruption, the population of the Starbucks had been reduced to seven - Judge Tannenbaum, myself, and the five employees behind the counter. He sighed at us. "Forty-one violators. Ridiculous. Machina be praised and proc mercy. If I could have your attention, citizens?" He raised a hand to his helmet, covering three of the lights. A brilliant flash burst from where his eyes would be; by the time any of us cleared our vision, he was gone.

The employees seemed more affected than me; it was several minutes before any of them came back. I took the time to clear away the half-dozen or so cups from the to-go counter - their owners didn't seem to be coming back any time soon, and I presumed the baristas didn't need that extra confusion in their lives.

The barista nearest me was the first to shake off the light's effects, catching me in the act of picking up the last couple of full coffees. "Hey, you can't take those. They aren't yours."

"Ex-cuse me?" I put as much indignation into my voice as I could muster. It wasn't much, to be fair, but it did cover the quiver.

She raised her hand to point, anger starting to contort her features, but I interrupted her with a very annoyed gesture. "No, thank you. I'd like to speak to your manager, please." She blinked at me, confusion and depression beginning to overtake her features.

The manager who had failed to evict Judge Tannenbaum sighed at her. "Just... just go to my office, please. Now." She blinked once more, tears just starting to form at the corners of her eyes, and then dashed into the back. He turned to me. "Listen, I'm sorry. She's been... erratic lately. Let me make you something fresh."

I held up my hands, cups returned to the to-go space. "Actually, she's why I'm here. Thank you for sending her to the back." I leaned in, drawing him to mirror the gesture. "She's been a patient at my practice for a while, but I'm worried that she might be spiraling faster than I can help her. I'd like to refer her to a specialist - I have his card here." He took the business card from me, comprehension dawning on his face. "Please don't hold it against her. She needs help, not condemnation. Losing her insurance now would be... terrible."

He nodded. "Right. You're right. I'll make sure she talks to this new doctor. And I'll set up a medical leave so she can get herself sorted out."

"Thank you so, so much. We'll get her through this. Could I speak to her again? Let's face it - she probably needs to take the rest of the day off, anyway."

"Yeah. Yeah, I'll send her out. Thanks again, Doctor." As he headed to the back, I pulled a laminated piece of paper from my pocket, tucking it carefully underneath one of the coffee cups, leaving just a tiny bit showing on the far side.

She came out, wiping her eyes. "Bob says my doctor wants to talk to me... but you're not my doctor. What's going on here?"

I had to be quick. The increased suggestibility from Machina's mind-wipes only lasted about ten minutes, and I'd already wasted most of that. "Listen. I don't have much time left. Take the leave of absence. Go see the new doctor. When he gives you the new medicine, take it."

Judge Tannenbaum reappeared in the doorway. "How did you hide from me?"

I gave him the finger without turning around, holding her gaze. "Take the pills. Do the work. You have to be strong. You have to be strong for us." Her eyes widened as I whipped my free hand up, knocking over the cup hiding my note. Time wrinkled unpleasantly around me, and I disappeared, too.

~

I can't believe that jerk knocked over the - he knocked -

Wait. What? Who? I... guess it doesn't matter. I need to clean this up and remake it. He might come back for it.

Wait, what's this? Some kind of note? A date, about six months in the future, with a time listed down to the second. An address... I think it's in that nice neighborhood down the street? All trees and running paths. And an arrow, telling me to flip it over.

> She leaves in the blue car. You won't have much time, so be ready.
> The back door will be unlocked. Go down to the basement.
> It's only six months. You can make it. Be strong for him.
> He loves you more than you know.