“I think if I had a chance to get to know her and reassure myself on things, it wouldn’t be so bad. But she’s kind of… distant.”

“Less distant for me, I think, because she’s apparently dating the Protectorate team leader from back when I was in Brockton Bay,” I said.

“Prettty much the same for me,” Weld said.

“Yeah,” Sveta said. She smiled. “I get that.”

“I don’t like her,” Cryptid’s voice was almost a mumble but not quite. It wasn’t until I saw him lower his hand that I realized he’d had his fingers in his mouth—maybe adjusting his braces. “But I think I’m different from you, Svet. I get the vibe that the more we knew about her, the less we’d like her.”

“Well,” Lookout said. “That’s screwed up, but that’s okay, because you’re screwed up.”

Chris scoffed. “Thank you for respecting my opinions.”

“I might respect them if you justified them, except Dragon is cool and there’s no justification for thinking otherwise,” Lookout said.

“No infighting,” Capricorn said.

“Okay,” Lookout said.

“Let’s change the topic. Before Antares and Lookout arrived, we were talking jurisdictions,” Capricorn said. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Remember when you were talking about your rationale for making Cedar Point our focus, Victoria?”

“I remember,” I said. “High villain population, not covered in any existing jurisdictions, it slipped the net. Plus they flaunted their villainous independence from things. That kind of pissed me off.”

“Cedar Point is mostly okay now though,” Lookout said. “I peek in now and again using cameras I set up a good while back.”

“Mostly okay,” Capricorn said. “But there were other places that were up for consideration, and I get the feeling some more have sprung up since.”

“They have,” Weld said.

“Teams have other focuses,” I said. “The gaps are getting wider. It doesn’t help that the portals blew up like they did. A lot of key sites fell apart. Places where a team like Foresight might have headquartered are gone or hard to use. It means crime is up, there’s more distractions, and there’s a lot more places for people like Cheit’s groups to hide without leaving the Megalopolis.”

“What are you thinking?” Capricorn asked. “An agreement? That we all take territory and commit to keeping the streets clean of crime there?”

“No,” I said. “I’m thinking… more comprehensive than that.”

“Comprehensive how?” Weld asked in a voice that was deep, the tone serious to the point of concern.