“We get to the terminal for the bombs, and we end this,” I said, keeping my voice low. “We sound off an alert for every ankle bracelet, and they’ll notice. Neither Goddess nor Teacher want to lose the prisoners. We can put an end to this fighting and make the prisoners stay put.”

“Some of the prisoners,” Monokeros said. “Some are leaving with Goddess. No negotiation.”

“Sure,” I said. I met Monokeros’s cold eyes, and I felt my skin crawl.

“I missed out on the Tweens Between,” Monokeros said, wistfully. “I liked them, from what little I saw of them. They had moxie.”

“Oh hey! Another fan! Moxie is a great way of—” Lookout said. She stopped working for a second, looking up. “No, wait, hey. That’s awful, haha! No!”

“Work,” Rain said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “Tress and Swansong are counting on you.”

“Right.”

She was a kid, in the end. She was, as much as any of us, trying to wrestle with conflicting feelings, with tension.

I wrestled with my own feelings, trying to anticipate what came next, without letting my thoughts get muddled by the blood-and-bodily-fluid streaked elephant that was occupying one large segment of my thoughts.

For a moment, it was all I could do to just keep my equilibrium, stay calm, and try not to think.

One hundred and ten percent. It’s not about being the Warrior Monk. It’s about being all of it, getting to where every part of me functions and functions well.

“Got it,” Lookout said. She held up the disc, and lines sprung out, painting a fuzzy rectangle on dirt and grass.

Something struck with a sound like cymbals as large as a building, loud enough that every single one of us bent over, hands at or near our ears, wincing in pain.

“That’s Advance Guard,” Kenzie said, barely audible as my ears rang.

The heroes at the portal. If they were coming in, that was because the people they were trying to stall had gotten through, and the heroes were following after.

If the heroes were following after… Then Goddess had yet another massive advantage. Teacher might be losing this, and if he thought he was losing while he had control of the ankle bombs…

“Damsel, Rain, can you use your powers? Get us through the ground.”

“I’ll do what I can,” Rain said. “But I sever, I don’t really dig.”

“Whatever you can do,” I said. I looked over at Damsel.

“Only because you were good to my sister,” Damsel said. “What’s a little dirt on an outfit this hideous?”

“I’ll buy you something,” I said. The noise of her power tearing into the earth seemed like it drowned out the end of my statement. I raised my voice a bit, “I think I know someone who knows the kind of clothes you like!”

I saw a smile on her face before she started swiping out, tearing into the ground and creating a ditch in a matter of a single blast. People backed away as she widened it into a hole.