“I’ve got to go.”

“Red Queen,” Moonsong called out. She had a good, projected voice. “We have more to discuss.”

“I’ll be back,” Amy said, letting go of the giant she’d been working on and walking away. “Be good. If they do anything, my soldiers have permission to defend Shin.”

Moonsong was silent, but I could see her fuming. She’d been ignored, and she was an experienced enough heroine to know that posturing and position were critical for capes. It was something my mom had hammered in many times. Posturing, position, and power. None of those things could exist in isolation of the others.

Continuing to speak into a void or shout after Amy would hurt her reputation because it would have meant begging for a response. Fucking stupid, when it was Amy being the bitch, here.

Call yourself Queen enough and you’ll start to act like one. Keeping in mind that enough queens in history had been sufficiently monstrous or problematic to get the guillotine.

Amy’s absence had cut off the procession line. Leaving a small army of capes she was supposed to be keeping under control behind.

The heroes frozen by the implied threat of a fight, because Amy had left orders to protect Shin, and any action could be taken as aggression.

Fucking fuck, Amy. What are you doing?

“Every time you get in touch with me, my life gets a hundred times more complicated.”

The voice in my ear was Tattletale’s.

Tense, not happy with how the situation had been left, with the Shin capes and the heroes in a standoff that was complicated by the continued production of giants. I rotated through the individual video feeds on the laptop. No Tattletale feed, but the kids were in the same building.

I went to my notes, typing up details on the Fallen, and in the midst of it, typed and deleted a message for Tattletale, hoping Kenzie or her system would catch it.

Coronzon, retreats into a portal, stews, emerges as a monster. White hides and cowl, boiling black blur for mask.

Ahrima, grants danger sense and hyperawareness to others. If she’s protecting Amy, can’t drop something on Amy from a great height. Single eyeball mask, wing motif.

Seir, blasts out shadowy duplicates. Can exchange location with any of them. Horse head, hides, robes.

Bamet, gives humans animal features and vice versa. Permanent. Not touch based as originally assumed. Three-faced mask, animal, human, and hybrid.

Hey Tattletale. Considering what the Undersiders pulled in Brockton Bay Original, that sounds just. Karma coming around.

“If it weren’t for us, the city would have been condemned.”

And controlling businesses, influencing the local heroes, and managing all organized crime in the city are your reward for that hard work.

“Yep,” Tattletale said.