“She’s going to be mad,” Candy said, sing-song. “We’re going to arrive at Kenzie’s old headquarters and Tattletale’s going to bend you over her knee and give you a spanking in front of everyone.”

“Again with the spanking? Don’t be weird.”

“I’m not being weird. I’m taking an idea I know bugs you and drilling it in there. We’re gonna drive for another hour or more and you’ll sit there with the idea… Rain would see.”

“It’s annoying and uncomfortable.”

“I’m trying to annoy, so good.”

“Guys!” I interrupted. “Please. Candy, we’ve had way too much uncomfortable for one night. Let’s be as nice to each other as we can.”

“Okay,” Candy said. “Sorry, Chicken.”

“It’s okay.”

The car trundled along. As we got deeper into the city, the snow on the roads got less bad. We were at the point where the road was cleanly delineated, when some of the areas outside the city or closer to the ruins of Gimel’s Brockton Bay had barely had an indent in the snow to mark where the sidewalk dipped down to the road.

“I’m sorry,” Kenzie said. “I don’t want to stir anything up, but I do want to say it. I’m really sorry I hurt you guys. I know I can be a blockhead sometimes but I think I’m really sorry enough that it’s going to carve something into that block.”

“Shh,” Candy said. Her fingers continued to comb through Kenzie’s hair, long after the point she’d combed out the buns and had the hair just long, kinky, and parted to one side. Kenzie had refused hugs, but accepted this.

We pulled onto a road where there was a long line of cars sitting bumper to bumper, many with things attached to the tops or backs of the cars. All of the cars were on their way out, while the road in was mostly clear, and half of the cars that were on it were ones that were trying to pull ahead or were pulling into the incoming lane to get a view of how bad things were further down the jam.

“You were in Brockton Bay, right?” Chicken asked.

“I was.”

“Did you know Armsmaster?”

“Only a bit. I knew him more as Defiant. Saw him earlier today, even.”

“Cool. I can barely remember the times before my parents died, but I had some Armsmaster stuff. I had one of the video games, but I never got past the first level. I read about the bad guys in the manual and I was too scared to go fight them. I mostly just ran around as Armsmaster.”

I smiled. “Which one?”

“Seasoned Heroes Northeast.”