Invisible, almost flush with the container. Something that resembled a cross between a wire Christmas tree and an antennae.

“I’d give you mine, but—”

There was a lull. One of the capes who was propping her up gave her a slight shake.

She rallied, with more vigor than before. “—a friend of mine would be hurt if I gave you mine. Take it. It’s like a syringe… maybe it counts. Flick this, insert the eye. Supposed to go to yellow.”

“The one in yellow.”

Swansong nodded.

“We could get help. Go after Black Lamb.”

“No. No. Death doesn’t scare me. I’ve beat it enough times before. No, don’t let her have me. Val…”

“Is that why you said not to wake her up earlier?”

There was a pause. Spawner couldn’t see enough to know if there was body language.

“I thought I’d go out screaming and ranting, sick and hating myself for it. I did… every other time except the first…”

“You said you had a friend?”

She nodded. “Glad it was me. Means there’s less chance it’s her. I can handle this. Been here enough times.”

“You think you’d learn,” the boy in white said.

She scoffed, a light, soft sound.

There was no more conversation. More of the flock emerged from the tunnel. The wounded were gathered and tended to, and they had their own conversations.

The two boys remained near Swansong for a few more minutes, and then they walked away.

“Kid,” the one in white said. “Can you make heads or tails of this?”

“Looks like a camera with some broadcast tech.”

“Why would she give it to us?”

The conversation overlapped with another, similar one. The girl in yellow had the syringe, and another cape held the broken traces of the other one.

“What do I do with it?”

“I think you use it, Canary.”

“And the broken one? I don’t know how I’d get that little fluid in, but I don’t like the ideas, not when it’s mixed with broken glass, or whatever that is.”

“It seemed important.”

There was a pause. The two groups converged.

The one in yellow injected herself with the intact syringe. There was a long pause, and then she nodded.

Then she stabbed her upper arm with the broken end of the other syringe.

Spawner saw the group patrolling to look for his children, killing them wherever they were found. They drew steadily nearer to him.

One locked eyes with the fragment of his head that rested on a forklift seat.

That was enough. He was dead and done for. He closed his eyes and waited for the killing blow.

⊙

Capricorn and Antares used their powers in alternation. Stone wall, then forcefield. Wall, then forcefield. The attack was relentless, not helped by the fact the Speedrunners were spearheading the attack.