The crowd got out of our way.

We left it behind, and I hoped that even if we hadn’t defused it all, we’d at least raised questions or broken their stride. I hoped the video wouldn’t look as bad as I worried it would.

“He played dirty,” Tristan said. “Bringing up the shit he did.”

“Swansong called him small. He kind of is. He’s using the only tools he has to try to effect change. I remember what it was like, being unpowered in a powered family, how little it felt like anything I did mattered.”

“Pretty generous of you,” Tristan said.

Sveta exited the building, making her way through the crowd and crossing the street.

“I dunno,” I said.

Sveta joined us.

“I think you’re going too easy on him, offering help, bending the knee,” Ashley said.

Rain answered her, “We’re on the same side. We want the same things. It’s a… minor difference, I guess, but an important one.”

“A distinction,” I supplied the word.

“That.”

“What distinction?” Ashley asked.

“He’s anti-parahuman, except, my experience says he wouldn’t call himself that. He’d say something like ‘I’m aware of how dangerous parahumans are’ and he’d have some stats to back it up. Thing is? So are we. We’re very aware of the threat posed. We’re more aware. The dif—distinction is that he’s focused on the overall threat. We’re focused on specific threats, the worst of them.”

Ashley stared into the silvery-white lenses of Rain’s mask.

“It’d be nice to work together or whatever when it comes to dealing with the worst capes. Focus energies,” I said.

“Exactly,” Rain said. “There’s overlap, common interest. We all want certain capes that are abusing their powers, abusing the system, and abusing others gone. Maybe we can loop Gary into that. Get him on board.”

“It’s not that easy to change someone’s mind,” Ashley said.

“I know it’s not, believe me. I’ve dealt with my share of bigots. But I think there’s a chance,” Rain said.

“It’s not simple,” I agreed. I still had anxiety and dark thoughts pushing in at the edges from what had been brought up. I wanted to move, to act, to go punch bad guys, just to keep that stuff at the edges from creeping in enough to matter. Move fast enough and that kind of thinking would have to cling on for dear life.

“It’s complicated,” Rain said. “It’s the kind of complicated I’ve been wrestling with from the beginning.”

“Speaking of complicated,” I said. “Ashley. You’re…”

“You’re backsliding,” Tristan said. “That was bad.”

“I thought I made a good point.”

“You’re backsliding.”

“We’re all backsliding, if you haven’t noticed.”

“I know you,” Sveta jumped in, joining the conversation. “You were on the edge. You could have blasted him.”