“Okay,” Kenzie said. “Also, I don’t know if this matters, but they noticed what we did when we went after Trial and Error, and people mentioned it in phone calls and whatever when Auzure got Hook and Sink.”

“Online too,” Chris added. “People mentioned it in some villain sub-forums. They aren’t doing anything about it yet. Emails are still coming in about your stunt on the show, mostly negative.”

“Our stunt on the show,” Ashley said.

“Sure,” Chris said. “Still, randoms came after us once, and they might do it again, if the emails we’re getting are right.”

Tristan shook his head. “Another one of those things we can’t do anything about. The question is, was it worth it?”

“The other hero teams are getting a chance to shape the discourse?” I asked.

“Mayday put on a good show, a bit stilted,” Tristan said. “Some ex-Wardens were also out there. Chevalier’s back, Legend and Valkyrie are away doing something important. Narwhal doesn’t do TV, and some of the ex-Guild like Stonewall and more stern, dark Protectorate types like Cinereal aren’t exactly TV types either.”

“Weld’s pretty good at it, but he’s still away,” Sveta said.

Crystal too.

It was sobering, that we had so much going on, and key figures and faces were gone. People close to us.

“But they’re doing okay?” I asked. “I was busy all morning, I’m behind on things.”

“In my expert opinion, they’re doing okay,” Tristan said.

“It’s looking like it might have been worth it,” Sveta added, her voice soft. “Time will tell, but for now it looks like we’re mostly on course.”

I really hoped that was true.

“About your morning—” Tristan started.

I caught the uncharacteristic hesitation, and I heard the change in tone. More serious. Was I wrong that he was changing the topic? Were we going back to it?

“You decided you needed to share stuff you’ve been keeping in your back pocket,” he said.

I nodded.

“It’s good for us to know in case it comes up in conversation. It’s good if we know how we each operate on the battlefield. I’ll match you, I’ve been stuck on something the past week…”

His power.

“…My and Byron’s power are in flux.”

“What does that mean?” I asked. “Changing to a different creation?”

“Nothing that extreme. Hopefully we don’t go that way. It’s just that right now, I’m stronger, Byron is weaker. Which might be to our advantage.”

“You’re stronger?” I asked.

“Right now? Yeah.”

He created a swirl of orange motes. They manifested into a rough cleaver shape, the edge narrow if not quite razor sharp. Dark stone with veins of orange-red running through it.

“May I?” I asked.

“It’s heavy.”

I crossed the room, and I took the oversized cleaver. Dense.

“Can I destroy it?”

“Sure,” he said.