I tried to compose my thoughts. “Then they might have intercepted or impersonated the delivery person. They transformed the staff into those things. Bulletproof tough and strong for as long as the effect lasts. They must have felt unwell, called for an ambulance, I’m guessing, and got as far as the ambulance before they started changing. No other reason for them to already be outdoors.”

“Is the ambulance staff okay?” a boy asked. “We saw them but we couldn’t get to them.”

“They were alive inside the rolled vehicle. Light injuries. I evacuated them,” Sveta said.

“Why?” Instructor Harris asked, his eyebrows knit together. “Why are they doing it like this?”

“To show dominance,” I answered. “To achieve their goals, which is to hurt the local law enforcement, and to break in, but the reason they’re doing it this way in particular is that they want to show their power.”

On the topic of dominance, even with the main power out and the only power being provided by an emergency generator, I could see how the cells had been divided into prisoner and Patrol.

Instructor Harris seemed to notice too. He pulled out his keys. No prisoners moved to take him hostage or fight for those same keys. They were very still, if wide-eyed with alarm.

“You might want to stay,” I told him. “This is a waiting game. While you’re in those cells, you’ve got metal bars between you and the attackers. If we can wait out the transformations, things should settle down.”

“Will the front doors hold?” Instructor Harris asked.

I glanced at Rain. Rain shook his head.

“No,” I said.

Harris put key to lock. “Senior students, I’d really appreciate it if you were with me, but I’m not going to make you. Step forward.”

“I’ll help, whatever you need,” a prisoner said. He was a guy with hair down to his shoulder blades and a tapered beard that touched collarbone.

“Sorry,” Harris said. “I don’t know you.”

“You get credit for courage,” I said. “Good man.”

Byron entered the open front area of the station, stepped up onto a desk, and with his arms folded, began to create his motes of light.

“How much property damage can we get away with?” Rain asked.

“Construction is cheap. At the Lyme center, I drew the line at damaging people’s cars—it’s too personal, upsets people, sets them against capes. The power at the center, I uprooted the wiring, but even a threat of a brief blackout is… not as personal?”

“Speaking as someone who’s dealt with having no power for long stretches at a time, it might be more personal than you’re thinking.”