Except we’d hit a snare. The idea had been that if we had any fights, any victories would mean we could fold in on and flank the enemies to either side of us. And as far as I could tell, none of our teams were winning their fights or moving on to the step two.

Needles grew out in clumps, clusters, and bouquets, and then more needles and clumps grew out of the clumps.

“Don’t get pricked!” some kid shouted. One of our Mortari capes. “My analysis says they’re drugged and diseased!”

Withdrawal yelped as he avoided a sudden emergence of syringes. I crashed into the needles with the Wretch, shielding my face with my arms. Withdrawal already had his mask, so he didn’t need to worry about the spray.

“Help,” Caryatid said, voice quiet. The needles had cut her off while she wasn’t moving, and now grew in thicker, until they came at her from every direction, all stopping millimeters away from her face, neck, arms, chest, belly, and thighs. She had gone human to talk, her back straight, arms at her sides, wearing the long, slim black dress with the yellow-orange poofs at the wrists and feet. She resumed her breaker form, the poofs and her head becoming something more fractal.

For the time being, I couldn’t do a lot. The broken glass and shattered plastic of syringes pressed in even though I’d broken them, edges reaching for me. I backed off, hemmed in.

The geography of this particular stretch of hallways was an H turned ninety degrees, and I was in the lower intersection, Caryatid to my right. Withdrawal was up ahead and around the corner to the left, periodically visible through the thicker pipes.

“Terminal, incurable, long term diseases,” our unhelpful helper volunteered. “Addictive substances!”

“Got it! Go help someone else, or get somewhere safe!”

It’s scaring our Major Malfunctions, I thought. They’re kids who did nothing for years, then jumped into the deep end of the pool. And that’s partially my fault for bringing them onboard like I did.

Withdrawal, skinny, wearing a skintight suit, a mask, and the limb-extending agility frame, had only the shields he’d kept for defense, the syringe he carried for offense. But the shields required energy and the syringe made a shitty club, especially when needles erupted from the wall to hem in how much he could swing the syringe at the stuff in his way.