Maybe the insatiable curiosity was Flechette’s. Maybe the poor girl was enduring her first few months with the PRT, being expected to learn these things, and it was being raised as a talent or inclination, discarded because Flechette had other priorities.

They got each other’s scraps. They were stabilizing over time, but now and again, things would get passed over. If Homer hadn’t pointed it out, then she might never know.

“This is a heavy one,” Jan said.

“Heavy how?” March asked.

“Six people. They triggered like you did. All together.”

“Six?”

Jan nodded.

Six. When Jan and March reached the town, there were three.

Three at a table in a shitty pub, four looking worn out, scared.

“I’m Tori,” one member of the group introduced herself.

“Jan. This is March, my bodyg—”

“Can you help?” the plea from a man, who was prematurely balding, and who had veins at his forehead, not from stress, or maybe only partially from stress, but because that was the way his forehead looked. He didn’t seem superhero-ish. “Please.”

“I can try,” Jan said. “March is a cluster too. We’ve been researching things, and new information is coming out every month or two.”

“Do you have a carousel?” another member of the four-person group asked. A woman, brunette.

“A what?”

“A carousel. It’s what we termed it. Silly of me to think you’d know what I meant. Any game? A gimmick? A way the power passes power around?”

“I’ve picked up some skills, I think. And addictions.”

That only got her a head-shake in response.

“Start from the beginning,” Jan said.

“Did you hear about the quarantine at White Rock?”

Jan nodded.

“Do you know the reason why they quarantined White Rock?” Tori asked.

“Yes,” Jan said.

“No,” March said. “Quarantine?”

“Someone dug a hole,” the other woman in the group said. “I’m Megan, by the way.”

“Hi Megan.”

“They made a hole between worlds. And… some people here started using it. A few years back.”

“Me,” Tori said. “Jace.”

The guy raised a hand.

“Smuggling. Passing information. Scientific research. Music. There’s so many ways to profit, with a link like that.”

“Of course,” Jan said. “Something went wrong.”

Megan nodded. “People started getting sick. We thought we took precautions, but…”

“I lost someone, several someones,” Jace said. “They traced things back, connected it to the suspicious material, the fake IDs we made to push stuff out into the right channels… they shut down the boundary.”

“The wrong people got stuck on the wrong sides,” Tori said. “I got stuck here.”

“What was the inciting event? You all triggered at once?”

“No,” Tori said.

“That’s the way it works. Multiple triggers within a minute of each other.”

“Days,” Megan said. “Days.”

“The portal,” March murmured. As heads turned her way, she said, “The portal? If there’s a lot of energy or interference, or connections or… whatever. We talk about powers passing stuff between people, but maybe they need to draw energy from somewhere to do that.”