Kenzie’s text appeared in my field of vision.

ooh this is good. am working on comms, picking up lw level chatter, nothing super encrypted.

they waiting for you close to where teach is

“They’re waiting. Teacher’s that way,” I relayed the message to the group. I’d have to say it again to others. “Just about everyone’s that way.”

Lookout sent more messages. Now she was asking if Ashley was hurt.

Fucked up ribs, yes. But that wasn’t the real hurt.

Too many things to juggle. Too many things to focus on. I put a hand on Ashley’s shoulder, and felt her flinch, move like she was going to pull away.

Then she didn’t, letting me do that much for her.

“Get Tattletale to double check all info. But if that’s right, then we should feint,” Imp said. “Make like we’re after Teacher while we go after the real target.”

Dying 15.6

It was quiet.

We’d fought every step of the way, practically, and the din of combat had been constant. No time to think, one crisis after another.

Now, for ten minutes, the only sound was the hum of voices and the occasional blub from one of the destroyed, partially submurged filtration tanks.

We had gathered in and near one of the side hallways extending out from the big room with the four building-size water filtration structures. It was high off the ground, giving those of us close to the hall’s entryway a view of the flooding in the room. The water wasn’t deep, but it was a stadium-size dome, and it added up to a lot of water. Every one of the structures had taken damage except for the one closest to us.

I stood near the entry to the hallway, the partially open door giving me some privacy, even though the room I was in was so vast. My breastplate was off, my costume top pulled off. The cape who was looking after me didn’t have any powers that helped, which… helped. I could endure that poking and prodding.

My recently flensed hand was bandaged, and my physical therapist was probably going to yell at me over the way I’d injured it, torn it open, patched it up, then torn it open again. I had bad bruising on my upper body from when I’d taken the bullet to the breastplate earlier, especially early in the sense that it had happened only midway between our entry and our fight here. I had barely registered it until I’d tried to sit down with the others and it hit me all at once.