“Maybe,” Blindside said. “But he’s at least smart enough to know that if he crosses me he’s going to have to watch his back. You know why he’s going to have to watch his back? Because I’ll be there, walking up to his front, grabbing his dick and balls, and cutting ’em off.”

“Ew,” Lookout said. “Why do that? That sounds gross and awkward to actually do. You’d have to get his pants off. Stab him in the chest if you have to do something.”

“Or be creative,” Damsel said.

“Or be creative, yeah!”

“Or don’t cut and stab people,” I said.

“The whole merry gang,” Blindside said, pacing while talking. “Should I be happy you’re distracting me from the boredom or annoyed?”

“Annoyed,” Tristan said. “Come on. You’re outnumbered, we just fought Lung, plus the Pharmacist, the woman who sets powers on fire. We won.”

“Yeah,” Blindside said. “Here’s the reality. I’ve had my power for a while. I know a lot of the tricks. I’m armed and all of you can’t hide behind one shield. You could win. But you might not. Turn around, leave, I won’t stop you. When we get what we want and we leave, we’ll bring your guys with. Happiest outcome.”

“I can’t lock on,” Monokeros said, from the very back of the group. “You guys are on your own.”

I saw orange motes start to appear in the corner of my eye. My head flicked around as Blindside ran beneath me, toward the group.

“Incoming!” I called out.

I heard Tristan’s, “Fuck!”

Blindside had slipped past the wall Tristan had been making before it had been confirmed. He dismissed the motes, audibly grunting as something crackled.

Voices overlapped. “That itty bitty thing isn’t going to—” “That’s a tas—”

From what I could gather, Blindside had realized their stun gun didn’t work on Capricorn and applied it to Rain instead.

Poor Rain.

Damsel’s power crackled, then flared out, the noise deafening in the close confines of the tunnel. Blindside shrank against one side of the tunnel, which meant I could turn my head to see three-quarters of the scene. Damsel had backed off a bit, and now held her claws out. The distortion of her warped space was being held within the confines of her claws, a roughly spherical shape of what looked like slices of space seen through very tinted glass, Vista’s warped space, slices and curls of total blackness, and crackles of black lightning.

I heard a gun cock.

“Shoot me, and this stuff I’m holding fills the tunnel,” Damsel intoned the words.

“And your team?” Blindside asked.