“I’m not saying don’t,” Tristan said. “I’m just saying… what happens if we do this twenty more times and she’s whittled her sentence down to nothing by deals she made? It doesn’t feel right that she’d be back on the streets anytime soon or go unpunished for what she did.”

“I’m on the same page,” I added. I was trying to keep half an ear out, because Naphtha was already on issue three, and was saying something about another group of villains. It sounded like a similar dynamic to issue one with villains messing with the evacuation, but more to do with random fuckheads stealing from people who were leaving the city with their most valuable things, complicated by more power use restrictions. Another team was asking questions, and I felt like it would be weird to interrupt Rain and Tristan and interrupt the other team that seemed to have a more avid interest in the job.

Besides, I wasn’t in the mood to deal with random fuckheads. Over the past five days I’d been prepared to jump in if there was a pressing issue, and that held true, but I was okay taking the backseat and focusing on my team.

Losing Ashley hurt. Her absence at the table was felt.

“What if I told them she was a possibility, but stressed no special favors, or gave them a better picture?” Rain asked.

“That would be my instinct,” I said. I looked at the others, and Tristan nodded. Kenzie seemed distracted, but nodded when I sought out her eye contact.

“Cool,” Rain said. He walked over to the table to wave down one of Naphtha’s teammates.

“Four!” Naphtha called out.

Someone at a nearby table said something snarky I didn’t quite hear, about the number of crises that were popping up and how we should have it handled. The annoying thing was, this was the events that they were having trouble finding manpower for. There was a lot of other stuff going on that already had teams assigned.

“The Machine Army reached Boston in Bet. We delayed them as best as we were able, did a final sweep, and found a crude interdimensional effect that was left over from an ongoing power. We cleaned it up, but the Machine Army is reportedly building a housing for the traces of power effect and trying to build what might be an interdimensional portal.”

“What the fuck?” Vessel asked. “How? They can do that?”

“Using tech they collected elsewhere and ferried to the site. We have capes on the scenes, plenty of firepower already, but given how tenacious the threat is, the higher-ups want some secondary firepower. We want powers that can do damage. You’d be replacement for any wounded, relief, and if we had to pull some of our capes back to the city or one of the evacuation areas, you might be one of the ones asked to stay.”