She walked, Amy following, guards following Amy. Vista didn’t hurry, and the result was to create a good fifteen or twenty foot gap between myself and Amy.

Natalie hurried to catch up to my dad and I.

“You coping?” I asked.

“I should be asking you that.”

“Life as a cape. Before I even had powers, I made myself stay up until I heard my parents come back in. My dad taught me some first aid from pretty early on.”

“I didn’t know you stayed up,” my dad said.

I ignored that, addressing Natalie, “Are you managing though? You’ll be going home, maybe report to people or tell them what Miss Militia’s more or less going to say so she can focus on other things. Then, I imagine, a… stiff drink?”

“I can’t drink when anxious,” she said. “I have a… guy. Kind of but not really a boyfriend. Does that sound awful?”

“No,” I said. “A guy sounds really nice.”

“We’re in a fuzzy territory. It doesn’t matter, you have bigger things to worry about. I’ve got someone to give me a hug when I need it, that’s what matters. I’ll call him once I’m in range for cellular service.”

“Good,” I said.

“I don’t want to sound rude, but… I didn’t expect family to be such a factor. Carol’s… very different.”

“She’s recovering,” my dad said.

“Yeah. I get that.”

A glass-covered, glass-walled tunnel with snowbanks on either side separated buildings.

“I’ve talked to Vista a few times,” Natalie said. Her voice was quieter. “She sounded really unlike herself just now, talking to Amy. Scared.”

“Amy’s not that scary. She’s a good person who’s been through a lot, like most parahumans,” my dad said.

“Vista’s been through a lot. She’s level-headed, she’s smart, she’s experienced—fuck, she’s more experienced than me, I’m pretty sure. And she’s scared. I’m scared.”

“Singular bad experiences, traumas or histories of trauma, and our mental issues can screw up the tools we use to determine if we should fight, fly, or freeze.”

It hurt, hearing that.

“So can love,” I said. I looked at my mom’s back. “And guilt, shame.”

It wasn’t a short walk to the prison. We pulled hoods up and helmets on as we left the warmth of building interiors, the young politician that was showing us the way passing us on to a guy in a guard’s uniform. We walked past groups of people, all dressed more like Luis than any of the other delegates.