“Dar? Do you want one?” he asked.

She seemed startled. When she didn’t immediately formulate a reply, Candy threw something at her.

“Yes,” Darlene said, glaring again at Candy.

“I’ll put it together tomorrow. You can tell me what you want, even.”

She nodded.

Candy threw more things at Darlene. Darlene, at least, wasn’t blowing up or getting aggressive. She even seemed happy, now.

And, just as important, Kenzie looked okay. Not smiling, but he couldn’t blame her.

From the hallway, Roman gave him a thumbs up. He wasn’t entirely sure why.

But this was the kind of thing they needed. Alliances, solidifying ties. When people were hurt, they needed to be taken care of. He’d learned that sort of thing from Charlotte and Forrest, from Sierra, and from people who had passed more quickly through his life. Taylor had only been around for a short while, but she had made an impact too.

“Thank you,” Precipice said, as Aiden left the room and entered the hallway. “The others who know her best are preoccupied right now.”

Aiden shrugged.

“It’s been a day since the villain meeting. Roman was saying Tattletale hasn’t come around at all?”

Aiden shook his head. “No.”

“We could really use help.”

“I know,” Aiden said. He held his tongue instead of talking any more on the subject. He did want to talk about it, and things had sidetracked a little. There would be time later. Maybe with Kenzie. Maybe with Heartbroken.

“I only caught some of it,” Precipice said. “Couldn’t help but eavesdrop while we were making sure nobody else heard.”

Aiden shrugged. Maybe something to be more careful of. He’d spent the last four years around with villains who all knew each other. He hadn’t had to be very careful about his own business or secret identity.

“The plan is to do nice things and minimize the regrets you have?” Precipice asked. “I have a teammate that’s talked about that. I wish I’d had the mentality.”

“Kind of? Sort of. That’s not the main goal.”

“What’s the main goal?” Roman asked.

“Getting everyone working together,” Aiden said.

⊙

He liked to think of using his power like a general might have a soldier set a standard down on the battlefield. The standard could be adjusted and moved around for different sorts of orders.

Attack, go, circle, search. He was slowly figuring out what kinds of feelings could be pushed out and set to an area or target.

Push out, choose an area, connect… search. Adjust the size of the area to be searched…

The flag was planted. All birds within a large, large radius around him started flying toward the destination, a diffuse cloud. Another flag closer to him kept Chicken Large roosted on a nearby tree.