The city, lit up by icons. Each icon had a brief bit of text, describing the situation and the report.

Incidents all over. Nine ongoing situations that didn’t have a team working on them, where the things were was bad enough the police didn’t have them under control, or where capes were involved, or both.

The city was on fire, metaphorically speaking, and we didn’t have what it took to put it out. When Kenzie had put the application together, she hadn’t seemed to expect that things would get this bad, because a lot of the text was unreadable or offscreen. Too much at once.

This time, when Sveta pushed my hand and my phone down, I let her.

“We need a break,” she said. “You need one.”

“I wanted to procrastinate,” I said. “I told myself that we’d wait until Swansong and Lookout are out of the hospital. Then Lookout ended up having to stay the extra day.”

“She’s out tonight.”

“I know. But… I had something to bring up and talk to the group about, and I needed time to digest it.”

“The files from Jeanne Wynn. You went to see Dragon, you got the files, and you found out something.”

“Mostly right,” I said. I gave the phone a shake, bringing it to her attention, the map still glowing with its bright yellow icons on a purple cityscape. “This seemed easier. A relative distraction from that something.”

Blinding 11.2

Rain and I worked together to remove Sveta’s rigging. One attachment to her suit served as a mounting for two arms; she had the larger arm with the feminine hand on the end, and another ‘arm’ with an elbow joint that had the fragment of mask, like a small shield that could pull close to the face or move away.

There was a single second of danger where her tendrils were capable of reaching out into the world, but Sveta was concentrating and the situation was calm. The metal of her suit’s arm and chest pulled together, and she stood straighter.

The weight of it, as odd as it was, wasn’t a concern to her. The balance issue, however, was apparently a hassle.

The headquarters felt dark, even with all of the lights on and monitors glowing. It might have had to do with the weather outside and the late hour, and it might have had to do with the fact that I was bracing myself to deliver hard news.

I’d ridden with the others in an effort to stay connected and keep a thumb on the pulse of the group. Going from a dark car with only the light of headlights on the road ahead of us to our headquarters, where the light felt insufficient left me feeling like I was underwater and the surface was a ways off. The world beyond the headquarters and car gave me an ominous vibe.

“I don’t know how long it’s going to be before I have another good tinkering day,” Rain said. “I can try taking notes, if you have immediate feedback.”