I was reminded of the Siberian, seeing her, what with the long pale hair across her face, the natural arrogance, and the dangerous look in her eyes. I didn’t see it in the Ashley that was hugging Lookout right now.

“You’re getting our emails, right?” Capricorn asked.

“Yes,” Rain said. “Thanks to your testimony. Until we fuck up, we get some slack. You guys had ideas for a new team direction.”

“Yeah,” I said. “We didn’t want to decide on anything definite without consulting you guys.”

“I have questions, yeah,” Rain said. “Like what does Capricorn Blue think?”

“He’s not protesting as hard as you might think,” Capricorn said. “We need to do something.”

“It’s bad. The war,” Sveta said. “It’s not one with battlefields, and we’re not organized enough to win a war of information.”

“I like it,” Ashley said. “The thing about the group that never made sense was the insistence that Capricorn was a leader.”

“Hey.”

“But,” she said. “We have three leaders. Different styles. Different focuses. It fits for a group that’s steering other teams to better places where the old didn’t fit us.”

“We’re not taking over anything,” I said.

She snorted.

“No, really.”

“Capes take over. We take power because we have power. Just as those with money have a natural ability and desire to earn money. The healthy are inclined to stay healthy.”

“Capes are unhealthy by definition,” Cryptid said.

“There’s room to maneuver in there,” Capricorn said. “Listen, Rain, Ash, are you two talking? How easy is communication? What other channels do you have open? People here you talk to?”

“I can do bi-weekly maintenance on Ashley’s hands, we get internet, some freedom of movement, some access to tools.”

“More of a benefit to Rain than to me. But it’s nice to be able to talk to him, at least,” Ashley said.

“Some people talk to housemates by standing on the balcony,” Rain said.

“My roommate is fine. Exceptionally beautiful and graceful,” Ashley said. “Good genes, I think. Clever. Quick to learn. Witty, even.”

“That joke is wearing thin,” Sveta said.

“I’m not joking,” Ashley replied.

“I think it’s a perfect assessment,” Lookout said. “I like our version better though. The hair looks amazing.”

“She’s fine. There’s a lot to catch up on. The others in the house—not good people. A big Asian woman who won’t tell me her cape name. She stonewalls me. Another woman who only whimpers and cries. She panicked months before we arrived. Tried to take off her ankle bracelet. Now she has a bracelet on the one ankle she has left. The last is a child killer.”

“What?” Sveta asked. “That’s a thing?”

“She went by Unicorn, but it was an inherited name. So she’s Unicorn the fifth or something.”

“Unicorn four,” I said.