The movement that defined every inch of her slowed, then creaked to a halt. Waves and loops became hard crags, with faint sounds like stones scraping against one another. Instead of the pages or wings of her face unfolding, they began folding like origami or a glacier, a construction forming around her head, first around the eyes, telescoping, then moving away from the eyes to the ears, with a kind of conscious focus.

“Yeah, that’s breaker,” I said. To Finale, I said, “Breakers are one of the labels we use for people with powers. She changes to this special mode this to use her powers, or to use them at their best. Breakers will often want to be careful what costumes they pick, because it becomes a part of the form they take. It looks like Caryatid realized that.”

Finale nodded.

“Breakers are complicated, so a lot of people got confused online. That’s what I was talking about earlier,” I said. “Even the people who came up with the system got a bit confused at first. The important thing is that Caryatid seems to have figured it out.”

“Cary’s smart like that,” Finale said. She walked over to Caryatid, stepping on a rigid crag of dress hem to get close enough to give her teammate a one-armed hug.

Caryatid’s arm moved very slowly, deliberately, with a break in the rigidity and a resumption of motion that rippled out to the rest of her, based on how much she moved her arm.

“If you’re confused about any of it, I’ll explain after,” Withdrawal said, again, his voice muffled slightly by his mask.

“I think I got it,” Finale said, with a smile. She gave Caryatid another hug before hopping down. Behind her, her teammate resumed a more mortal form, everything about her relaxing and transitioning to its regular variant.

I was secretly glad that my lesson had gotten across okay. I would’ve felt a bit put out as a power geek if my best attempt at a simple, clear explanation had fallen flat.

I thought for a second, then said, “One person doing surveillance might be tough. Do you need to sleep or eat while in that state? Any long-term consequences?”

“I don’t need to eat like that. I’ve never tried to stay up all night,” Caryatid’s voice had a note of surprise and idle interest, like it had never occurred to her.

I wasn’t sure how it had never occurred to her in six years, but this team seemed to have its own wavelength. That was fine—we’d have to adapt to wavelengths.

“If you do, be careful,” I said. “Go easy on yourself, test the waters carefully. Sleep is important, and replacing your sleep with your power could leave you feeling mentally off.”

“I will,” she replied. “Thank you for the warning.”