Sveta’s landing wasn’t as graceful. I heard the noise as she hauled herself, turned to look, and saw her coming my way. My arm went out and I caught her with it—stopping her from stumbling forward while helping to keep her upright.

She took my hand and gave it a momentary squeeze.

Heroes gathered around us. Fume Hood was present—Tempera wasn’t. Lighter had come, which was nice—it was my first time seeing the low-key vigilante, though we’d talked some by email. He’d been scheduled for a turn at harassing Cedar Point, but things had gone to hell before the scheduled time had come. He’d been enthusiastic about that—and I could assume he’d like the idea of this.

Sometimes a team seemed like too much, but being a solo hero was too lonely. Triggering tended to involve some lack of support structures—that was Parahumans 101, class one, an hour and fifteen minutes into the three hour lecture level stuff. To go from that to being a costumed hero didn’t generally involve gaining more support.

Maybe this would appeal.

Houndstooth was absent, but two of his subordinates were present. I recognized Foxtrot and another member of the Kings of the Hill. Foxtrot’s chatter about the Cedar Point operation had led to Advance Guard jumping in and our involvement being spoiled. Well, I had my suspicions that Scapegoat might have helped matters. The defected healer from Advance Guard was the primary one to blame—but Foxtrot had let some minor things slip.

My parents had been on that list of heroes with green labels. I’d been pretty certain that in an emergency, they’d help. If I asked, even. But they hadn’t answered the call, and they weren’t here. I couldn’t fault them—three out of four of the people we’d reached out to hadn’t.

“You want to handle this?” I asked Capricorn, as we drew nearer.

“Nah. Let me lead in, but this is your idea.”

I nodded.

Twelve capes in all, from various teams. More would have been nice, but we’d reached out at eight-something at night to essentially say we wanted a hand, could they meet us near the mid-Megalopolis point in the next ten minutes? Some had been too far, others had been retired for the evening… these numbers were good, considering.

“Thank you for coming,” Capricorn said. “I’ll recap in case our teammate didn’t spell it out in full when he reached out. Two villains, strong ones, just threatened civilians to get the good guys to back off so they could make a run for it. They’re driving trucks of stolen livestock. The one we caught said they’re working for Prancer, from Cedar Point.”

I started my piece. “We feel the rules need enforcing. They can’t threaten civilians. Help us, and we’ll either owe you one or if you want a longer-term relationship, we can talk about building something.”

Lighter was nodding. Fume Hood looked receptive—but I wasn’t sure if that was her trying to be helpful, putting on a good face.