“No. I’m an expert on these things. Most of us are. He just thinks Rain’s badass. He likes girls. Or he will when he figures out what he’s doing.”

“Oh, ’kay,” Lookout said, quiet. “Rain is badass. He’s one of my favorite people.”

“Is everyone one of your favorite people?”

“Haaa. Not the jerks who did this to my hands. But Rain yes, and my team yes, and Swansong very yes. And Victoria very yes, and you guys very yes.”

“You’re the kind of girl in school has five friends who are all her best friends, huh?”

“Nah,” Lookout said. “I never had school friends. Hey, is it weird that I’m relieved Chicken likes girls?”

Candy moved her mental evaluation of the strangle vs. friendship thing two bits toward ‘strangle’.

“Because Darlene?” she asked, hopefully.

“I guess? Kind of?”

Not a definitive yes. Another three bits toward ‘strangle’.

She’d have to be careful.

“The portal’s open,” Lookout said. Her leg jiggled beneath the covers. “Hey, the portal’s open. That’s a thing! Move, type!”

“Shhh!” a nurse made a noise from the hallway.

“Tyyyype,” Lookout hissed through her teeth, waggling her hands. “Trackball.”

The screen was filling up with more white numbers against an orange-tinted security camera image. Nobody was coming through, despite the fact the portal was open.

“We have weird readings. Powers on the other side, filtered because some powers don’t work through or around portals.”

The camera changed. The mayor’s group was entering the station. Snuff was with them. Tattletale probably had a reason for why he was there and not here.

Tense minutes passed.

Then the message came over the phone.

“It’s Antares, type type type type,” Lookout urged.

“Shhh!” the nurse in the hallway said. She approached until the capes at the door stopped her. “Or I will ask to have your things taken away.”

Candy was focused enough on the typing and hitting the right keys that she didn’t process the words until the exchange was done, and by then, Lookout was having her type in more coordinates.

“Move that slider to the red,” Lookout said.

“Red?” Candy asked. As she did, the sub-screen with the data and a few wacky star shaped symbols changed to be white text on a textured red background. “Why?”

“Because it’s cool,” Lookout whispered. “And because the whip was red, and this is the whip. And…”

She touched a fingerless hand to the screen, smudging it. Below the smudge, a reel of numbers and characters was flying by too fast to read.

“This is it. Phone. Text messages. We need to let Antares know.”

Candy obeyed.

“And this next part is long but important. Okay? Work with me?”

“If it helps,” Candy said.

“It’ll help. It should. I really hope it does…”