“We’ll trust him,” I told Tristan. “He recommended the protocols to me when he was clear and I wasn’t. I have to believe he’ll abide by them now.”

He nodded, and then he passed me the compass.

Dissolving into a blur, he shifted to become Byron. Lighter armor, in multiple senses of the word. No blood marked his gauntlet.

“Okay?” I asked. “We’re on the same page?”

“Master–stranger,” Byron answered.

We cut across the yard, with Rain using his power to slice through the fence. It looked like posts were now being abandoned because of the chaos at the front gate. Inmates were getting more agitated, and the guards weren’t at nearby towers or posts to tell them to shut it. People were heading to where the fires were, to put them out or put the causes of the fire down.

“Fill us in on Lung, since it looks like he’s our biggest problem,” Byron said.

“Lung is a changer, with powers hooked into the change,” I said.

“Like Cryptid?” Rain asked.

“Different than Cryptid. Lung changes to the same thing every time, slow progression, but a steady ramp-up the longer he’s in a fight. Metal armor, pyrokinesis, enhanced senses, physiology, quickness, added parts. He’s a warlord by temperament, but he was always missing something that let him take his gangs to the next level.”

“He has pyrokinesis?” Byron asked.

I nodded, content to let the scene that we were approaching serve as the more complete answer to Byron’s question. Fires, purple and otherwise, spread out across ground that should have been exhausted of all fuel sources. The heat was being turned up on the admin buildings and the entrance.

Teacher wasn’t the type to sic Lung on Goddess and expect a win. He was the type to sic the combination of a fireproof monster who manipulated fire and a person who set powers on fire on Goddess and expect a win.

Lung was already partially changed as we sighted him. He had enough scales that the officers who shot at him weren’t getting through, and he was big enough that the bullets that did make contact seemed to lack stopping power. Each couple of gunshots was answered by Lung throwing out a rolling wave of flames. The flames would travel a ways, hit one of the lingering purple flames on the ground, and then explode in size by three times. Whole squadrons of officers were sent running.

No Pharmacist to be seen. She was nearby, but it seemed to be the peeking-through-a-window nearby, not standing on the battlefield nearby.

No Blindside, no Kingdom Come.

Plenty of armed Teacher thralls.

Lung used his pyrokinesis, and purple flames swelled, billowing in his direction. The flames would draw close, then the Pharmacist would extinguish the flames closest to the brute of a man and his underlings.

Interplay.

Byron began drawing out blue motes. Rain created his silver scythes.