He’d grown. He’d shucked off his clothes and he’d donned what looked like an oversized pair of shorts in a coarse cloth. They had to have taken up most of the bag’s space. He was twelve feet tall, with skewed proportions. Large legs, large around the middle, large hands, all with coarse hair. His shoulders seemed somewhat narrow, his neck long, his head only a little larger than normal, with faintly pronounced tusks. His hair, wild before, was just a bit longer than it had been.

“He chose one of the more pleasant looking forms,” Kenzie said, cheerful. She grabbed her stuff.

How in the fuck was I supposed to make someone like Chris marketable? How was I supposed to wrangle Ashley or handle Tristan’s issue?

“Twenty minutes,” Tristan said. “Then he changes back. We should hurry.”

Capture the flag. Right. A part of me wished I hadn’t brought it up. I could have left things at this, with powers explained and demonstrated in brief, and then I could have taken a few days to think.

I needed a few days to think, so feelings wouldn’t be hurt, damage wouldn’t be done.

I didn’t have it. I’d lose too much stock with these guys if I changed my mind. Chris and Ashley especially.

“Who wants to be team leaders?” I asked.

Tristan raised one hand. Ashley raised another.

“Ashley, you want to pick first?” I asked.

“Kenzie.”

“Woo!” Kenzie cheered.

“Sveta,” Tristan said. “You’d be my second pick, after Rain. Weld fan club.”

“Chris,” Ashley said. She pulled on her mask. It was v-shaped, covering the nose, ears, and eyes, leaving just a hint of her eyebrows visible above.

“You guys set up over there, opposite side of the hill, then,” I said. Ashley and the two youngest members of the team.

“You’re filling in for Rain?” Tristan asked me.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m mostly interested in seeing how you guys operate, so I’ll mostly stick to playing defense and keeping an eye on things.”

“Alright. I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” he said.

I wasn’t so sure. I could see the way he set his jaw, before he pulled his horned helmet on. I had an idea of his disposition already. I could see the look of Ashley’s eyes behind her mask, too. She wanted to be leader, by the looks of things, and that meant she had something to prove. I saw Chris as the giant, properly smiling for the first time since I’d met him, as he looked back over one shoulder, lumbering away. It made me more concerned, rather than less.

Sveta took my hand, squeezing it. Off to the side, Tristan was drawing something out of motes of light, ten feet tall and twenty feet wide. A wall.