I nodded. Worse in daylight. The darkness where the headlights didn’t shine had created a sense that the scene was smaller. It was possible the officers had parked on or over parts of the scene, now that I could see just how far the blood had been scattered.

“I don’t want to insult your teammate or your friends over there, but can these guys handle this? Your tinker is a kid, isn’t she?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “She’s the only one who can operate this camera, though. We talked it over, see if we can’t strike a balance. But she was insistent on doing it. She’s—she wants to help. She’s a hero at heart. Even when it’s not good for her.”

“All of us are insistent,” Anelace said. “And none of us would be here if we were concerned about the sacrifices involved. What about them?”

He indicated the collection of stragglers.

“The Major Malfunctions?”

“Recycler and his teammate too. The hooded woman—she was from the community center attack.”

“Fume Hood has other experience. Low-level, but a good few years of regular activity.”

“Good to know.”

“Major Malfunctions… new. But I know two of the three can handle themselves. Teacher threw an army at us, and they all held their own.”

“Respect.”

“I think it was his B-listers, to be fair. He saved the real soldiers for the prison.”

“If you fought an army, take credit for fighting an army. Give them that credit. What about the eco heroes?”

“Recycler and Retouch are veterans in their own way. I’m less sure about them.”

“Why?”

I frowned, pausing to raise a hand in greeting as the van pulled up at the very edge of the scene. Byron had been driving, with Swansong of all people in the passenger seat. Precipice, Lookout, and Sveta got out of the back, with Precipice carrying the bulky time camera. Byron jogged over to help, switching to Tristan, who said something.

“I haven’t fought alongside them. That’s part of it. The other part is that Recycler and Retouch are from Dryad Project Three. Sponsored,” I said.

I gave Anelace a look.

“I heard of some incidents. I didn’t pay much attention there,” he admitted. “Other focuses, I was new to my powers, and I didn’t have any reason to investigate some group in another state with nothing to do with me.”

“Nah, it’s fine,” I said. “Most of it was covered up. It was a slow motion train wreck. It makes me wonder if I should assume they learned from the team’s mistakes or if they’ve become lasting casualties of them.”

“What kind of train wreck?”

I sighed. I didn’t want to be unfair, but I did want to paint a full picture. “I mean, they’re sponsored, not corporate, so they had someone paying the bills and all they had to do was hero. And they were pretty good at that. The sponsors? They started it off on the entire wrong foot. Way too much promotion and way too much money pushed into a team with self-imposed mission of saving the planet.”