There were too many Welds, Crystals, Vistas and Major Malfunctions out there. Too many Jaspers, Gilpatricks, Yamadas, Natalies, and Darnalls.

A droplet of red, blood red fingers.

I pushed the image out of my head. There was a desperate edge to my thoughts as I forced myself back on track. Into that well-trodden mindset.

The head office of the prison and many of the administration buildings were toward the south end of the complex, with the yard situated at the middle-south, minimizing travel time from any of the cell block apartments. Those in the higher security cells to the north had to walk further, but I had to imagine they didn’t get yard time or they got less. Either way, we had two options, only one of which was a good option. The bad option was to head south, loop around the bottom, and make our way to the women’s half of the prison. That route put us closer to the prison entrance, where Lung currently was.

We would have to deal with that, with him, but not now. I was happy procrastinating on that particular encounter.

“Rain!” I heard the voice. It was higher, but it was from the guy’s side of the prison. “Crystalclear.”

The voice came from one of the apartment buildings near Rain’s. I flew up for a better view, and saw the man at the window. He was heavy, with the kind of double chin that hung over his collarbone. He had wiry stubble, and there wasn’t much helping to distinguish the end of the facial hair and the start of body hair. His hair was short and uneven, and it was greasy, which made the uneven spikes that much more noticeable.

Most notable was his mouth. He looked like he had chewed on an ink packet. His teeth were yellow-white, but the spaces between them, the lines around his mouth and his tongue were all black.

Coalbelcher.

“…and a villainess? Heroine?”

“Heroine.”

He gave me an up-down look that made my skin crawl. Still staring at me, he called down. “How are you out, boys? What’s this commotion about? I’m offended you interrupted my motherfucking meal, and I’m more offended you’re running around with two legs.”

“Special dispensation, since we used to be heroes,” Rain said. “Two masters are fighting over who gets to take over the prison, deactivate the ankle bombs and recruit everyone inside.”

“Yeah? Are we hoping they win?”

“One of them, maybe,” Rain said.

“Neither of them,” Crystalclear said, loud enough to be heard from the second floor. At a more regular volume, he said, “I think your judgment isn’t that good right now, Rain.”

“Neither,” I echoed Crystalclear, not sure I sounded like I believed it.

Crystalclear moved his arm, pointing, and Coalbelcher leaned over the railing to see him better. While the prison boss wasn’t looking, I gave Crystalclear a slight nod.