One of them was tall, somewhat muscular, but what stood out was the storm of fractures around his head, overlapping without connecting to one another. A crown of thorns, fashioned from something that looked like especially precise breaks in glass or deep-etched frost.

The other was smaller, hunched over. She was almost the opposite, the breaks vague, cracking out to reach like a whip, aimed at nothing in particular.

He used the walkie-talkie, “I think our relief just turned up.”

Making my way to you.

Relay and the two individuals reached Crystalclear’s booth at the same time. Crystalclear stepped out, aware of the number of people who were turning to look. He tried to keep an eye on the crowd.

Relay made the introductions. “Crystalclear, this is Big Picture, and this is Ratcatcher.”

“Hello,” Big Picture said. More tight loops of breakage encircled his head rapidfire as he turned it to look at Crystalclear, and the loops bled like purple watercolor paint.

“Hello,” Crystalclear said.

“Hello. We’re the reinforthmenth,” Ratcatcher said, with a heavy lisp.

“You’re new to Foresight?” Big Picture asked.

“I am,” Crystalclear said. “Only positives so far.”

“I thought about joining,” Big Picture said. “I decided it was better to wait until things settled down. For now, I get paid for this, I keep it simple.”

“Yeth. Thimple ith good,” Ratcatcher said.

“I like the costume,” Big Picture said.

Crystalclear touched the tunic portion of his outfit.

It wasn’t anything like he’d worn with the Norfair Neighborhood Heroes. A single shoulderpad, a piece of cloth forming a kind of shawl or mantle as it extended from one corner of the shoulderpad near his heart, over his shoulder, and around to the back corner of the shoulderpad near his shoulder blade. The shoulderpad, the armor at his wrists and the armor around his legs had chunks of crystal, closely matched to the crystal that he naturally produced. Lightweight as armor went, limited to a few pieces that were as decorative as functional, but it was still armor. A band of metal ran along his chin’s edge, and that took some particular getting used to.

“Appreciated,” Crystalclear said. It was odd to reply when he was only aware of the outlines of the outfit. He had seen it in the mirror when he had been getting ready, but that memory felt faint, and he had yet to see how put together he looked with the crystals at the upper half of his face.

“I’m going to go get back to work,” Relay said. “I’ll be in communication.”

Crystalclear returned to his seat. Big Picture stood out in the open, his arms folded.

Ratcatcher joined Crystalclear in the booth, sitting on the counter by the phone.

“What do you do, Crythtalclear?” Ratcatcher asked.

“I see through walls. I can see contraband.”

“I can too,” Ratcatcher said. “I thee thmall thingth, wherever they are.”

“We might be redundant then.”