Ashley sighed. “I’ve already agreed. I’ll join you. I’ll defend you from your cluster. In exchange I learn about heroes, I get information about the cape scene, and I may get training. If it fails, I’ll go back to what I know and enjoy. You’ll have your chance to convince me that being a hero is great. I doubt you’ll succeed. Most heroes I’ve met have been imbeciles and nuisances.”

“Okay,” I said. I put a hand to my forehead, closing my eyes. Capes were so damn weird sometimes.

“You said it was better than the alternative, before everyone arrived,” Kenzie said. “Being a hero.”

“I did,” I said. I might be regretting saying that now. The fact that Kenzie paid attention to what I’d said and was quick enough to bring out the salient points was good, objectively, but it was kind of a pain here. I could see where some of Mrs. Yamada’s worries were rooted, here. “You have a strong drive to learn, then, Ashley?”

“What I want hasn’t changed. I want to be on top. I want to destroy my enemies and give potential enemies a reason to fear me. I’m going to do it right this time.”

This time. There were four different things I wanted to reply to there, and I settled on the easy one. “Reports were that you died.”

“I did,” she said. “Now I’m back. My power isn’t holding me back anymore.”

“You get sparky sometimes,” Kenzie said.

“So long as my hands are maintained, I’m fine. I have contacts. I’m eating well, I’m sleeping, I’m studying and I’m training. I’ll do it right this time. I won’t die this time.”

“Alright,” I said. “That pretty much sums up what I’m trying to say here. You guys have your reasons. I can’t show you a spreadsheet or make a list that meets your needs because your needs are diverse. It’s not about hard stats like dollars and viewership.”

“It’s about dollars for me,” Tristan said.

“Right. I’ll note you do have a very different idea than I do about how much money there may be,” I said.

“Kind of,” Tristan said. “I don’t know if it’s that different.”

The thing I wanted to say that I couldn’t without offending people was that a lot of them were coming at things from an irrational or emotional perspective, from their self, and not from logic. To challenge Sveta’s approach on this was to challenge the woman she wanted to be. Challenging Rain meant putting his mortality at risk. Damsel was too volatile to push too hard, she had her motivations, and I couldn’t imagine scaring her off would do any good to anyone. The team would go forward without her, dejected and possibly upset with me or with Mrs. Yamada for inviting me.