Slowly, quietly, the mob was broken up, the kids sent their separate ways. Kenzie, Darlene, Candy, and after a minute, Chicken Little all gathered in the back of Natalie’s car, with Natalie sitting in the front, hands on the wheel, staring out at nothing in particular.

“You want me to bring your Damsel of Distress into the villain inner circle,” Tattletale commented.

“It’s what I said on the phone. Yeah.”

“Talk me through it.”

“You can work with controlled chaos. Semiramis wants a Little-Midas-like violent subfaction to bounce off against, it’s how she operates, and I know Damsel will like Semiramis’s shtick without them being so similar they’ll threaten each other. Prancer knows her and knows her team, pretty much.”

“She’s a known quantity, sure. But she’s a mess, and she’s petty.”

“She’s looking for direction. You’re looking to expand your collective power base. She captures a share of the villains out there that the rest of you guys don’t. Her being petty is her having aspirations without having a lot of hard-to-meet needs.”

“And what do you get out of this? You get to play kingmaker?”

“I get a villain who could blow a hole in reality off the streets and into a place where she’s being watched and encouraged to be cooperative,” I said. “For right now that’s all that matters.”

“Until this big, scary side project of yours comes through.”

“Maybe,” I said.

“You’re taking my kids and you’re taking my Chicken Little?”

“Lookout seems to think it’ll matter.”

“And she’s… really the one you want to be leaning on, in this specific moment?”

I sighed.

She looked out over the area where the skirmish had been happening. Most of the kids had cleared out.

“This is my mess that boiled over. I’ll babysit your Damsel for one day. After that, I suspect she’ll either lose interest, or we’ll have other distractions. In return, you keep my kids safe, and whatever you end up doing, you don’t point it at me or my people. If you can fuck Teacher front-on with a nail-studded baseball bat while you’re at it, I’d consider it a favor.”

“I’ll look into that,” I said.

“Do I go talk to Damsel now?”

“No,” I said. “You say yes, and I’ll believe you. That should be enough to get her on board. She has details to share for our Teacher-fucking project tonight, but they were conditional on getting some promises. I had to ask you first.”

“Face to face.”

“It helps,” I said, shrugging.

“And you’re meeting her now. You’re meeting everyone now.”

I nodded. I looked back at the car. Kenzie sat in the back, knees drawn up to her chest, a smile on her face. It was not, at the very least, the horribly lonely smile from before. “Talking to Damsel and getting the tech going.”

Tattletale grinned. “Then I’ll come, to keep an eye on the kids in my charge, and to see what kind of glorious, horrible mess you’re about to make.”