“If you picked twenty random people out of a crowd and asked me to put my life in their hands, I wouldn’t be able to,” Dinah said. “The difference is that when they have powers and they have an incredible amount of say, the ability to take my life into their hands no matter what I want, there’s no choice in the matter. Believe me, I get the irony of it being me who is saying that. I know how much power we have.”

“Do you drive?” Miss Militia asked. “Sorry, that was a question.”

“Yeah. I drive.”

“Then you put your life in the hands of more than twenty people every minute you’re on the road.”

“I have car insurance, Miss Militia. My car has seatbelts and airbags. There’s no insurance against what a parahuman can do to you except being very wealthy and hiring competent mercenaries. I can do that. Gary can’t.”

“You want rules in place.”

“Laws, consequences. The goal was to have all violent retaliation fail, to put Gary Nieves at the head of an outraged and energized majority of the population, letting him choose a course of action. Gary?”

“You’re asking what I’d do?”

On the screen, Dinah could be seen wincing. “No questions, please. And yes. Your actions, assuming you were in charge.”

“Sorry. If I was going to go with the most extreme idea, because I don’t think small could have any impact…”

“Do,” Dinah said.

“A city-wide strike. Or… a strike across the resettlement camps. Peaceful resistance, work limited to subsistence only. Shelter for ourselves, food, clean water. Parahumans want amenities, clothes, convenience, they want to reap the benefits of the society the rest of us build. It’s a long shot, we would be opening ourselves up to being preyed on and to retaliation, I know that, but…”

“The Wardens would do their best to stop any predation or retaliation. Most of the heroes would,” Miss Militia said.

“I can’t help but doubt that,” Gary said. “But I would respect it if you did.”

“They would have,” Dinah said. “You could get the message out at a time shortly after the internet is online at the new settlements, when a pair of videos are making the rounds. A man and a woman talk about how they wish they’d struck out on their own, and discuss self sufficiency. I went and looked.”

“Going to look for specific futures and eventualities devastates you,” Miss Militia murmured.