Something this big, this messy, we didn’t come out unscathed. People would die. If I fucked up my promise to Jessica again, it could mean worse, that people would become Titans.

I wasn’t sure our chances were that great as it stood, with only this many.

Radiation 18.4

The portals that we’d jumped into took us to the Wardens’ headquarters. It was an area like the lobby that I wasn’t familiar with, that was largely undamaged. Another hero team was partway through the process.

“Masks for the gas,” a staff member told us, eyes mostly on a checklist while her colleagues handed out the equipment themselves. “Goggles.”

The mask barely covered the nose and mouth, by the looks of it. I saw the other teams getting their stuff. Damsel held her kit in claw hands, using the blunted backs of each blade-finger to manage the elastic cords and pull it over, coming perilously close to scalping herself. The elastic still snapped against her temple, making her jump a little.

She saw me looking and glared. She might have planned to say something, but the guy with the clipboard that was handing out stuff to her group was holding out a chunky phone.

“I don’t like phones,” she said, dismissive. It was Trophy Wife who took the thing.

“No thanks, I’ve got a mask,” Kenzie said, bringing my attention back to this.

“You’re not coming,” I told her.

“Uh, haha, what? No.”

“You’re on comms. There’s absolutely nothing you can do on the battlefield itself. I’m not sure there’s anything we can do on the battlefield itself.”

“The deal when I joined the team was you wouldn’t leave me behind,” she said, staring up at me with her new mask, overlarge eyes staring up at me.

“We’ve brought you in, we’ve involved you. You’re a valued contributor on multiple fronts, you’ve had your time to shine, but in this?”

“I’m coming,” she said, stubborn.

“Decadent and Chicken and I are going to stay behind,” Darlene said.

“I have more field experience than Precipice or Sveta,” Kenzie told me, ignoring Darlene. “If you want me to stay, you’re going to have to hold me down, and that means you can’t go.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” I told her. “We can experiment, test the waters, give you field experience on any occasion except when we have an actual Class-S threat.”

“No. I have to come.”

“We’re going,” Tattletale said, gas mask around her face but not at her mouth. It looked like we couldn’t wear the things and talk at the same time.

I just nodded, letting her go. The Undersiders with the three older Heartbroken and Deathchester all passed through the portal. Cassie remained behind.

I looked back to Kenzie, who had her arms folded. Chicken, Decadent and Syndicate were a step behind her. The Malfunctions lingered off to one side.