She stood straighter, which was imposing given her height, build, and the way she was covered in a ‘winter coat’ of forcefield crystals. Not in the sense of a jacket-type coat, but of an animal’s thicker fur. “And I would prefer to keep them as separate focuses. We compartmentalize, isolate the problem and fix it.”

“I understand wanting to do that, but I’m… pretty sure you won’t be able to. I was acting preemptively, I’ll avoid doing that. I’ll be quieter. But if my instincts are right, we’ll reach a point where things get messy. Signal me if you want me to try to curb the messy.”

“Can you?” she asked.

“She’s a damaged individual with a lot of power and one thing she wants that isn’t in line with what Shin—”

“We’re back,” Mark said.

“We’re here,” Narwhal said, turning away from her conversation with me, folding her arms.

“I would summarize their stance as a very pointed ‘Gimel established a precedent’, with our cape concerns and business trampling their sovereignty and security. I just got two signals of confirmation from them.”

“This is willful and dangerous. We’ve been on good terms in recent days, some minor incidents aside.”

“We’re interested in continuing the trend of recent days,” Amy said. “Shin’s desire has been to make things more fair from a power standpoint. You guys were happy to throw your weight around with powers and theoretical military might. You had the ability to send special forces out to handle crises elsewhere, in places that weren’t the city. Now we can do the same.”

“The diplomats are nodding their heads,” my dad said. “They’re in agreement.”

Narwhal asked, “For right now, can you stop it? All power use, all movement? The Dauntless Titan is mobilized, and we have no idea how threatening it is. It might be picking a fight, tapping your giant knight for power, or creating a confluence of power that disrupts everything.”

“Stopping it could be more dangerous. Let’s get him to his destination, and he can begin his work. We think he can cut back the Machine Army in a way you guys haven’t been able to. If the Dauntless Titan fights him, isn’t it better if it happens in the old Earth than in your city?”

“At the edges of a quarantine zone?” Narwhal asked. “No. Not at all.”

“If this fails, we have other options. I can use my power. A disease to infect the machines and sweep over our old Earth and the Machine Army.”

Narwhal approached the desk, leaning over it, and looked over at Carol. “That makes no sense.”

“A day ago, you probably would have said the Shin Defense Initiative made no sense,” Amy rebutted.

“If you recall, Red Queen, I’ve named at least three good reasons why your giants make no sense and are exceptionally dangerous in the current predicament.”