“Less a thing if you’re working with tinkertech. It’s part of why mechs are doable. Double sounds like an okay starting point, though. How do you want to sketch this out?”

“What if we start really broad-stroke, and do this?”

“That’s calligraphy broad-stroke. Really broad-stroke.”

“For the shape. See? Top-heavy, hourglass…”

Ashley talking to Kenzie in a quiet voice.

“They went into my room. They went through my things. Some were tinker things, but I don’t think they realized.”

“Off with their heads.”

“I wish I could take their heads off. I don’t usually get mad, but I had a nice house and a nice workshop, and now I have to be there, and the people who should be protecting my things when I’m not there aren’t.”

“If you can’t take their heads, why not scare them?”

“Ashley,” I used a warning tone.

They seemed to leave it at that.

In the distance, past a light but constant snowfall that was stirred into violent flurries by the existence of nearby portals, I could see the skyline of the New Brockton area of the city. Intervening buildings spoiled the view a bit, as did the mountain range to the west of the area.

“Didn’t you tell Tristan that you thought the Undersiders would win in a fight?”

“In a fight?” I asked. “I don’t know. I don’t think it ever comes straight down to a fight, though. There’s other stuff. Information, misinformation, money, resources, having reinforcements, and protecting yourself. Those are the things that decide a fight before it even happens, or that cause horrible, long-term damage to you or places you care about, in a win-the-fight, lose-the-war way.”

“Things our team isn’t great at,” Byron said.

“They’re better than us at it, but they were at this for six years. It’s where they specialize and it’s where they’ve been developing their skills and abilities since Kenzie was half the age she is now. Robbing casinos, stealing tech patents to ransom back, robbing stores and flying under the radar the entire time. Then they recruited a new member to kidnap that thinker I mentioned before, and sparked off two wars with parahuman gangs while using her, another local crime-boss thinker, and Tattletale to get enough of an edge and come out consistently ahead. Some people think the Endbringer attack was because of all that conflict.”

“Jesus,” Byron said.

“That’s pretty darn close to what Weld described,” Sveta said, behind me.

“In fairness, we did compare notes and sit in on some of the same meetings,” I said.

“Fair,” Sveta said.