“The people at the gates,” Sveta said. She was working on patching her body where she’d taken bullets. “Powered people.”

“No sweat. We’ve got the Lady in Blue,” Rain said, smiling.

“Yeahhhh,” Crystalclear said, sounding very unsure. “Hey, how are we feeling about that? Because things are looking odd to me here, cracks in places there shouldn’t be cracks.”

His vision.

“We’re feeling master–stranger protocols?” I tried, with a note of hope, wincing a little at the same time.

“I’m not up to date on my protocols,” Crystalclear said.

I sighed.

“Things are screwed up,” Sveta said.

“Okay, it’s not just me then,” Crystalclear said, sounding relieved. I wasn’t sure he’d sound as relieved if he had the full story.

I pulled my phone free. My side hurt like a bitch where I’d been punched. Hit-in-the-organs hurt.

But that hurt was almost welcome. Hurt was part and parcel of wearing the costume, being in that zone of being a cape. It was me not being Victoria, for just a little while.

A different headspace. One of two safe refuges.

And… looking at my phone, I could see that I might need to tap the other—the powers scholar.

Kenzie had surveillance footage, looping between a few isolated clips because the people entering the prison now were destroying the cameras as they came across them, and one of those people was making cameras twist on their mounts to look away.

That would be Blindside. I was pretty sure that another one was Kingdom Come. The same guy I’d seen blow up… he must have reconstituted.

And they had a leader. These squads liked to have a big bad brute in charge, and these guys had picked one I knew well. Hometown brute, already growing in metal scales that punched through tattooed skin.

Fucking Lung. Fuck him.

They weren’t alone.

I showed Tristan and Sveta, before turning the camera around for Crystalclear and Rain to see.

As the focus shifted away, my vision remained on Capricorn. He’d wrapped up ‘cuffing’ the compass-marked threats. His hand was shaking, and he seemed to be trying to settle down. There was still blood on the gauntlet.

“Let’s get moving. We’ve got to get Swansong and whoever Foresight sent to that side.”

“Ah geez,” Crystalclear said.

“We can do this,” Capricorn said, with a courage and conviction that I one hundred percent did not believe rang true, after seeing his hand shake like that. He looked back at the guards that had backed off after hearing about the moles, as if for validation. “We’ve got this.”

Gleaming Interlude 9.y

Byron

“We can do this,” Tristan said. But for Boundless, who was working other venues, Furcate and Steamwheel, the young members of Team Reach stood behind him, silent.