I pushed out with my aura again, but I kept it subtle. Barely noticeable, like Rain’s often was. I began feeding it to Imp, with Damsel as an incidental target.

“Now.”

I picked up the computer, stepped over to the open window, and flew down. I planted the computer case on a stack of firewood.

“If you have any freaky porn that you’re embarrassed about, I promise I’ll only make a little bit of fun of you over it,” Imp said, from the window. “I’ll only share your browser history with a thousand people tops.”

She beckoned, and I flew over.

⊙

I was flying, and I had someone in my arms.

The nose of the gun jabbed into the soft flesh beneath my jaw, forcing my chin up.

I was still tempted to drop her. Instead, aware I was outputting a bit of my aura, I slowly ramped it up. If I could do the ‘boiling a frog’ trick…

“Down by the red cloth. I know it’s hard to see in the dark, but do your best.”

There was a red cloth tied to a post. I flew to it.

She hopped down the last ten or so feet to the snow. I chose that opportunity to push out harder with my aura.

“This was fun,” she said. “We should never ever do it again, understand? If someone slips you information that’s supposed to be ours, you hand it straight back over, or you’ll run into problems like your house burning down and you not being all the way sure why.”

“The feathers. You need to give them back.”

“No I do not. The feathers were a gift from a member of our team to a member of yours. They don’t need to hang out any longer. Normally I would encourage friendships, but I’ve read the horror stories, and it’ll just get messy when we’re all on opposite sides. Trust me, I did that back in Brockton Bay for a bit. Kid hero and me, bit of romance? Got awkward when it ended.”

“Really. Who?”

“Not kissing, not telling. Instead, I am…” she drew a flare gun out of her pocket, and with pistol in her right hand and flare gun in her left, kept the former trained on me and the latter aimed at the window.

⊙

“…delivering my coup de grace,” she said, sounding tired. Her flare gun was in her right hand. “And I’ll do it on my first try, like a badass.”

“Damsel is up there. It’s not badass to kill people. That’s complete and utter failure for anyone civilized.”

“She’s not up there, not anymore,” Imp said, sounding even more tired. “She’s at the side, trying to flank me. Still.”

Imp indicated a corner of the building, about forty feet away.

I ramped up my aura.

“Stop,” she said.