Foil ascended to the roof of a three-story building ducking as the cloth-and-knots spider passed over her head. Parian visibly relaxed as soon as Foil was on solid ground again. Past the eyehole of the cracked doll mask, Parian’s eye focused on the spider as it restricted its movements to the visible edge of the building. What little focus wasn’t for the spider was for Foil.

“The funny thing is, you guys got off easy,” Candy said. “For trustable powers.”

“None of us got off easy,” Parian said. “Powers are meant to hurt, cause harm, and foment chaos, according to Tattletale. The things that handed out the powers wanted to put us in situations where we’d have to use them on each other. Even the tamer sets, like Foil’s.”

Shots that could penetrate anything, enhanced accuracy, and enhanced timing.

“Foil’s powers did come with a March attached,” I remarked.

Parian nodded, pausing to look around before returning her focus to the rooftop. “It’s never easy. There’s always complications.”

“Some got off easier than others, though,” Precipice said.

“True. Undeniably true,” Parian said. “But easier still isn’t easy.”

“I like that distinction,” I said.

“If you want easy, you don’t have to look any further than my sister,” Candy said. “I mean it in the most affectionate way possible.”

“So long as it’s coming from a place of sisterly love,” Chastity said, reaching out for Candy’s cheek to pinch it. Candy fended her off.

We were walking at a brisk pace. We’d broken up the groups, and the reasoning for why we’d broken it up had me thinking about my early thoughts in the days of Breakthrough. Wolves, corn, and chickens. A man who needed to take all three things across the river, but the wolves couldn’t be left alone with the chickens and the chickens couldn’t be left with the corn.

We’d had concerns that the Undersiders would act in good faith. Having some of our team in each group meant we could keep an eye on everything. Breakthrough was a six member team, and we had three bases to cover. Two Breakthrough members were assigned to each team.

The Heartbroken were more volatile as more of them were gathered into a single unit. Heartbroken were thus split into three groups, and family dynamics seemed to factor in there. Siblings were separated and kept together, depending.

From there, it was a series of rules and complicating factors. Tattletale was insistent that Chicken Little was grounded and shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy hanging out with his new friend Lookout. That meant Lookout was assigned to another team. Swansong went with Lookout by apparent default, and the feral child Florence went with Swansong. Imp went with Florence, because she was the best at handling her, and initial attempts at negotiating this had met with stubbornness.