“There were none of Mantellum’s vials left,” the boy said.

Egg felt the closest thing his body could experience to a chill. To hear those words said so clearly.

Harbinger.

“He’s on our side,” Sveta explained. “He left them during the attack on Teacher’s base. He went off on his own. They’ve tried to track him down a few times. He gave up a lot to be here.”

Egg stared at the Harbinger.

“What makes you different?” Egg asked. “Why did you leave when they didn’t?”

“I’ve thought about that a lot,” the Harbinger said. “I’m number five of my surviving brothers. I was always the last one to leave, when we filed out. I’d look back and see Jeanne… the closest thing we ever had to a mother. Our ‘number zero’s’ wife. That could have opened a crack the rest of the sentimentality flowed into. It could have been randomness. No numbers are truly random, but… I got less jobs in the last year than my brothers. More time to think, less brutality. I got handed different quote-unquote, ‘random’ memories. Maybe that created a wedge.”

“He’s telling the truth,” Blackforest said.

Egg nodded, taking that in.

Blackforest ‘ate’ babies, drawing them into her center and building around them. The branches and the rest of her were actually like antennae, that reached out to connect to others, and turn emotional connections physical. Through the tentative connections, she could read information.

“I want to help you and the others,” the Harbinger said.

“Why?”

“Guilt,” the Harbinger said. “I won’t pretend it’s natural or primary. But a variable got flipped inside of me, and I don’t think it’s going to un-flip. I can’t get at the root of it, so I’ll handle the permutations.”

“The cracks and wedges,” Egg said. His finger traced a still-healing crack at the side of his face.

“Everything is cracks and wedges right now,” Five said. “We’re trying to find Fortuna’s.”

“Portals,” Egg said. “It came up in planning. The big-headed Case Fifty-Three that joined after the Eidolon revelations.”

“Witness,” Weld said.

“She said there were slight delays when she used portals.”

“We talked about that,” Weld said. And his tone shifted, became the adult that was trying to be supportive of the kid.

Everything I know, you know in more detail?

“The problem with using portals is it tends to put too many tools in her hands, or close to her,” Faultline said.

“It won’t work,” Five added. “We’ve considered other weaknesses. She lost her composure when people triggered near her, but we can’t induce triggers. There were parahumans she couldn’t go near. Blind spots. A few capes who had executions better than perfect that she couldn’t beat, who she could find ways around.”

“I’m a portal,” Egg said. “A lot of powers are portals.”

“Technically, you’re not wrong,” Weld said. “Problem is, it’s not that simple in reality.”

“Powers come from somewhere,” Faultline said. “They originate from within our bodies through, essentially, portals. To get to that origination point… you gotta dig. Or cut.”