I backed off, leaving him to it.

Damsel was using her blasts. A lot of it was focused on fending off the attack from the Huntsmen, who were closing the gap. The villains were closing their ranks, Hookline and Gibbet together, Trophy Wife and Backwoods joining them from one direction, while Torso faced off against Breakthrough at the other.

One of the Huntsmen had a flier power, a helmet with a cowl built in and a flame motif at the sides and was flying near outcroppings, provoking them by stabbing at them with a glass spear, then flying away. The wall that was created was almost a barrier to the villains escaping.

Except for Damsel, who blasted at the nearest one.

“Idiots, imbeciles, incompetents! We finally get a good thing going and you can’t do the most basic things!”

She blasted again.

That ugly feeling I’d felt free from in the clouds above was worse.

Hookline’s hook came around. I tried to dodge it, or to catch it, and in that moment, the spell was broken. Training working against me. It was me acting, not the Wretch, and the Wretch in that moment wasn’t as smooth or focused. The hook struck it, and I lost my forcefield.

Damsel used her power again, a continuous burst used as a shield as another net was thrown.

“No powers!” I shouted, top of my lungs. I dropped out of the sky and onto a car, the impact punctuating my shout. My throat felt tight from the cold and the recent high flying.

Damsel blasted again.

Not listening.

“Damsel!” Lookout shouted.

You were supposed to stay back.

Kenzie ran forward, into Torso, who was facing Capricorn and Rain, and pushed Torso out of her way, toppling him, to the extent he faceplanted. He couldn’t get up on his own. She hopped onto his back for the extra height, then hollered, “Ashley!”

Ashley stopped, hesitating. She flexed her claws, glaring, going very still.

In the midst of that stillness, again, I saw mannerisms that were more Swansong than Damsel.

Bleed. Personality leakage.

Followed by anger. Recognition of what was going on.

“Don’t,” Kenzie said. “Can we talk?”

For an instant, I thought there might be compromise in that internal war.

Then she looked at the crowd.

Pride, I thought. That’s a no.

“She already offered,” Damsel said, pointing a claw at me. “I made my answer clear.”

“I’m offering,” Kenzie tried. “We got along, didn’t we?”

“You’re annoying me,” Damsel said. “I destroy things that annoy me.”

I could see Kenzie absorb that, a twisting of a knife in an already tender wound. She shrank into herself to the point she seemed an inch or two shorter, backing up until her back was resting against a car.

“We surrender,” I called out.

Damsel turned.

“We give up,” I said. “You win. Take your loot, leave. Let people continue evacuating.”

“Don’t patronize me.”