Promise does not reply.

She does enlist Pyrrhic to accompany her to serve as an invisible kid-catching backup, and Plague to hang back a block away for fast healing if Promise doesn't flawlessly finesse the entire engagement, and Piranha as Plague's bodyguard. She has plenty of time to make sure they have good orders and permissions.

Are there any heroes who'd make good backup, as long as she's been informed that bringing them doesn't constitute (in some esoteric Jack sense) cheating? ...Most of the local heroes old enough to sidestep parental consent quandaries died when Leviathan came through. She could ask Assault, who's probably favorably disposed; but he's not specialized particularly usefully for the purpose. She doesn't know the out-of-towners, except Alexandria, who also doesn't seem like she'd be that much of an asset against (among others) one of the only forces who can injure her.

Promise reviews available video of surviving S9 members, thoughtfully considers what she has already observed of them - it's not there yet but if she can just keep him talking for a little longer -

She receives her self-destructs in the mail. She tucks one under the skin of her throat and heals the incision, and stashes the other two in the tree where she'll reappear to be shaken awake by Yellow if she has to use it. She makes sure she can turn it on and off as Sarkany described.

She sleeps, she eats breakfast, she turns Pyrrhic invisible and finds a good place to put Plague and Piranha, she shows up an hour early invisible and inaudible herself in case she can jump the gun usefully.

Jack makes his entrance half an hour early, smiling. He jumps up the side of the building; it's a lot easier to be spring-heeled when holding hands with the Siberian. (The person holding her other hand is much less happy about it.)

He looks around, sees the empty roof, and speaks. "Hello. If you'd be so kind as to show yourself, there's no reason we can't get started early."

Promise sighs. No reason to make the poor mortal wait, and she didn't find a cache of hostages she wants the extra thirty minutes to evacuate, or anything. He's not looking in her direction, so maybe he's just guessing, but making him look slightly silly to one ally and one terrified victim for doing so would be pointless.

She hovers behind the party, arms folded, and appears.

"The Siberian is holding hands with him." Promise indicates Liam.

As an afterthought, she tries to slightly grow a little bit of Liam's hair longer, on the opposite side of his head from the one the Siberian's watching.

A little bit of Liam's hair grows slightly longer.

"Really? You're that opposed to acceptable losses? In that case you'll love the test I've got in mind for if you don't earn an exemption."

"No, not at all. Everything would be technically self-defense, if that makes it easier.
But I assume you'd rather avoid it? All you have to do is tell this adorable child to step off the roof, after canceling whatever or whoever you've set up to catch him of course."

"Well. Lucky for both of us that's so easy to test, then. Here, watch this." He flicks a knife toward her face. She doesn't get cut, but the air acts as if a knife had physically moved through the space in front of her. In what would be the blink of an eye if not for her force field rendering blinking unnecessary, a grip appears around her right arm and drags her to Jack and Liam.
"Hit her," Jack tells his other hostage.

The Siberian does not bother about Promise's comfort while holding her still.

Okay, she's not going to be able to argue her way out of this.

Names, names. Siberian more usefully than Jack, but she checks both. Ni. Paige, pay, age -

The kid isn't exactly happy about the situation either, but after some prodding from Jack he does weakly slap her Siberian-free arm.

"See? That wasn't so hard. Now you have, oh, ten seconds before I start motivating the both of you."

She should have brute forced these names sooner, she probably wouldn't accidentally think of that many other people - rin, ke, ri, in, ink, ke -

"You're not going to tell me what happens if I don't send him off the roof? Just in case I underestimated you?"

"Well no, that would be telling."

"...three, two one..." And both hostages are bleeding from their respective shoulders. The boy screams.

Promise heals both injuries, hissing. How sure is Jack that Liam was trying to hurt her -? "Jump off the roof," she totally fails to enforce.

(and, ers, an, de, der, ders, er, ers)

This time the knife wound doesn't hurt at all. She's being stabbed by a child instead of a villain who will never be a supervillain, and it's a child who can't hurt her.

Jack laughs, apparently his newly armed hostage ineffectually stabbed him first. "Do you really want to prolong this part?"

Yes, she actually kind of does want to prol-

(li, am)

"If he jumps you'll stop?"

That last word is very important. It'll tell her what she needs to do with the Siberian next.

While he's saying that, Promise figures out where the Siberian's face is. She's not physically intimidating and isn't being held like she is, and the Siberian can't grab her hand too hard and doesn't know it yet -

She moves her hand through the air in the Siberian's line of sight, trailing fairy lights. Listen.

"StopletusgokillJack," she exhales.

"Don't hurt Liam," Promise adds to the Siberian urgently. Her forcefield holds. She likes her forcefield.

The knife is simpler than Jack is. Can she just - unsharpen it - simple sorcerous reshaping -