“Without getting the practice in?” Tristan asked. “Sorry to butt in again, but it takes time to learn how to work with teammates. Some more than others.”

“What you’re wanting to do on the heroism front is hard enough without added complications. It’s a bad, bad climate for heroes to try to get started. That could end up being more distraction than the training is a boon.”

“Imagine how bad the climate would be if nobody new got started,” Tristan said.

“Yeah,” I said. “I won’t deny that. I just—I have serious reservations, but I also recognize I probably won’t be changing any minds. Instead of trying to get you to reverse course or stop, I’m saying maybe change trajectories a bit. Go slow, focus on what needs to be focused on, instead of getting distracted with the many, many side things that go into getting a proper team started.”

“Focusing on keeping Rain safe, as the priority thing?” Sveta asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “I can meet you guys at a coffee shop or somewhere, we can make it a regular thing. I can back you up, I might be able to introduce you to people, and we do what Mrs. Yamada suggested, and take months or a year to get a really good game plan put together.”

“You’re committing to a lot, Victoria,” Mrs. Yamada said. “It won’t conflict with your other plans?”

“I like doing this sort of thing. I’ll find a way to work it in. It gives me an opportunity to stay in touch with Sveta, too.”

I was elbowed, hard, from my left.

“If you think I’m letting you drift away or lose touch now then you need a reality check,” Sveta said.

“Wasn’t planning on it, don’t worry,” I said.

“I don’t like it,” Kenzie said.

It was an abrupt statement, cutting into the dialogue, the serious tone different from the easy back-and-forth.

“We wouldn’t be leaving you out,” Sveta said. “You said you were interested in what Victoria knew about heroes, and you’d be part of the team when we got started.”

“No I wouldn’t,” Kenzie said. “Because you all would be doing what you have to do to help Rain, and I’d be on the sidelines. You said you don’t want to have a kid there in a dangerous situation, so I wouldn’t actually be there when things went down. And if you thought there would be an attack soon you wouldn’t want me hanging around in case I got caught up in it, so you’d all meet and I’d stay home then, too.”

“It could be over in a couple of weeks,” Rain said.