“We were!” Withdrawal protested. “We’re the exact wrong capes to be complaining about that to! We were there every day and every night!”

“You’re poison!” a boy Withdrawal’s age shouted.

The officer wasn’t wrong. This wasn’t helping. He looked over at Fume Hood and saw her nod.

He made room for people to step in. Fume Hood made more orbs, spreading them out to create a perimeter of whirling spheres to ward people off from passing through, then pulled them back as the Patrol uniforms stepped in.

Gotta take care of Carrie. He picked his footing carefully, so he wouldn’t stumble or get in the way of anyone, moving through the growing crowd of people in black winterwear and armor. He stuck the pillar-like pill popper into the ground just next to Caryatid.

“We’re backing off,” he said, reaching down to lay the end of the ‘J’ shaped length of metal at the back of his hand across Caryatid’s shoulder.

He wasn’t imposing like someone in heavy armor was. He was tall, his reach was long, and he carried a heavy ‘weapon’, and he used this to try to draw attention. Carrie was vulnerable while out of her breaker form, and she couldn’t really move easily while in it. It was very all-or-nothing.

This way, he could shield her a bit from anything thrown, draw attention, and give her cover to return to human form and make her retreat.

“Stay close?” someone in uniform asked.

“Okay,” Fume Hood said.

The other heroes were backing off too.

Withdrawal’s pill popper crunched as he set it down on ice and snow, leaning it against the concrete ledge. It started to slide in Finale’s direction, and he put his arm out to stop it. The tool was bigger than she was.

She looked so scared.

She didn’t have the constitution for this. She didn’t have the constitution for not-this, when the long, quiet stretch without anything to do had seen her power start to act up and trigger from even unintended sounds and triggers. He hadn’t connected the dots on that until Antares had brought it up.

“You okay?” he asked Caryatid.

She nodded. “I’m fine, but—”

She subtly indicated Finale. Withdrawal nodded.

Calming her down was their priority right now.

“Brr,” Caryatid said, rubbing her arms. “You need me for anything?”

He shook his head. “I’ll manage things.”

She used her power again, adopting her statue-like state, her face perpetually unfolding. She’d have no concerns about the cold like that.

“Fin,” he said.

Finale turned wide eyes his way.

“Get settled. Like we did at the stakeouts. They’ve got this,” he said, with more assurance than he actually felt. I don’t think anyone has this. Nobody’s been on top of things for a while now.