“I’m trusting you on this. I’m going to be pretty stung if you didn’t have good reasons.”

I nodded.

“What is it?” she asked.

That brought us to the ‘I’ of the S.P.I.N.E., this time around.

“He lied to us,” Tristan said.

My breath caught in my throat. “Hold up.”

“What did he lie about?” Kenzie asked.

“Everything except his first name, apparently,” Tristan said. “Everything.”

“Tristan,” I said. “Hold up, okay? Stop.”

He looked like he was going to say something, then stopped. He put the bowl down hard, chopsticks laid on top. Only about half was eaten.

“Sure,” he said.

“Everything?” Rain asked.

I opened my mouth to try to formulate a reply, then closed it and nodded instead. No way to sum it up.

“Why?” Sveta asked.

“Because he wanted to keep it a secret that he’s a villain with a lot of enemies.”

“A lot?” Kenzie asked.

“He was in the Birdcage,” Ashley said.

“What did he do?” Sveta asked. “What was so bad that he couldn’t use his old identity, when Bonesaw was walking around free?”

“Semi-free,” Ashley said.

“My point stands. Valkyrie used to be a dangerous villain,” Sveta said. She looked at me, and the statement that didn’t follow was telling.

“My sister, too. She was dangerous,” I said.

“What did he do?” Sveta asked.

“Can I ask that we gloss over that? We can get into the details tomorrow, after we’ve absorbed the basic info tonight.”

“You know where he is right now, don’t you? How pressing this is? He’s on an island in Earth Shin, near their equivalent of New Zealand, with other parahumans and people. I’m really sorry to bring this up, but your sister and her dad, they’re on an island nearby, they’re having all parahumans come to them. They’re negotiating with governments. That’s a lot of people potentially under his thumb. If he’s dangerous—”

“He’s Chris,” Kenzie said. She looked to me for her validation, which broke my heart a little. The smile on her face broke it a bit more; she wore an expression which would read to others like she thought this whole thing was a joke.

“Except he isn’t,” Rain said. “He has a history? Who is he?”

“He’s Lab Rat,” I said.

I could see everything go out of Sveta, as she heard that. I saw Kenzie’s eyes widen just a bit—she recognized the name.

Rain, by contrast, seemed baffled.

“He’s a tinker?” Kenzie asked. She laughed, a smile creeping across her face. “That’s hilarious.”

“Who the hell is Lab Rat?” Rain asked. “Keep in mind, I spent half my life in places without radio and television. He went to the Birdcage, so it sounds bad, he’s a tinker, so that’s a lot of options for bad, but that’s all I’ve got.”