Byron went on. “Started her own team, talked it up, but it never seemed to get off the ground. Too many kids went missing, but they still didn’t zero in on her. The masks, the secret identities, they make it so the kids cover up her tracks for her, making it harder to draw the connection.”

“Families too,” Rain said. “Uhm, Jessica said something about this to me at one point. That people with powers tend to have worse relationships with their family.”

“If they had good support systems, they’d be less likely to trigger,” I said.

“Yeah,” Byron said. “Exactly. They didn’t catch her until the second kid who left a message with people letting them know she was interviewing with a team. They brought a different thinker for the interview with her, second time around. The first one was an inquisitor type, sensed wrongs, guilt, saw memories that haunted people, used them or summoned them.”

“Summoned,” I said. “And she had nothing to summon.”

“Ah, you know the story then. I was wondering if it was just the talk shared between the corporate teams,” Byron said.

“No. It was the talk in general. Among capes, at least.”

A horror story among capes.

Byron nodded.

Monokeros smiled. It was the kind of smile that was practiced, then reused so many times it looked natural. A model’s smile. The smile of a hero who lived off of their brand, like the corporate and sponsored heroes, and maybe the small family teams with an up-and-coming generation of youths.

“She reminds me of—of someone,” Byron said. “Not all the time, but there—”

A crash interrupted him, and with that crash, a dozen powers nearby flared into effect. I was already in the air, flying up to where I could activate the Wretch without annihilating two of my teammates.

It was Goddess. With her power, she was tearing a building to the ground.

Once people realized it was her, they relaxed. I took their cue, floating back down to the ground and my two teammates.

“What’s she doing?” Byron murmured.

With the disorientation of the fight and the change in the landscape around us, it took me a second to place where we were, and what that building might’ve been. It was one of the prison buildings, but not an apartment, and given the proximity to the yard, equal access from both sides…

“The cafeteria. With all of the anti-Goddess meds in it,” Rain said. “That’s a bit of a relief. Simplifies things.”

I nodded, silent.

Better.

Goddess turned her head around until she found our group. She beckoned.

As glad as I was to stay put, I was glad to be moving. We had an objective.

While Rain and Byron walked, me floating just ahead of the pair, Goddess turned, beckoning to others. To Lookout and Monokeros. Then to Damsel, to Ashley’s ‘sister’.