Tristan straightened, fixed his armor at the front, and cleared his throat, drawing it out.

“You’re setting us up for disappointment,” Rain said.

Tristan cleared his throat again, exaggerated, until everyone from Sveta to Chris was rolling their eyes.

“Wet and Horny Teens,” Tristan said.

It said something that nobody wanted to give him a laugh at that. It was Chris who cracked first, falling out of his seat before the impact let the initial guffaw loose. I chuckled, half at Tristan, and half at how much Chris seemed to be enjoying this.

“That’s atrocious,” Sveta said, but she was smiling.

“Tristan is pretty atrocious, so it makes a lot of sense coming from him,” Rain said. “It says a lot that that’s his idea of subtle.”

“It’s subtle like a brick through a window,” Sveta said.

“Come on,” Tristan said. “You guys give me so much shit, you don’t give me any credit. I deserve a win for this one. It’s great.”

Chris was on the floor still, pounding one fist on the floorboards while holding in his laughs.

I looked over at Kenzie, who had her back to the group, her face in her hands as she held in her laughs.

Immature, stupid, but so valuable to have the little bonding moment. I had a smile on my face as I returned to the whiteboard.

My eye returned to the people the group needed to take down, the ones who were in the way, or who were set up in such a way as to make the covert information gathering fail from the get-go.

I wrote down ‘Rain’s situation’.

He needed protection. I added the three members of his cluster, and then drew an arrow, looping back to Tattletale.

The smile dropped away from my face as I stared at her name. It kept going back to her. She was a massive obstacle.

Sveta came to stand next to me, looking at my whiteboard. “Distract me from these perverts.”

I stuck out my marker, putting a dot beside Tattletale’s name.

“You’ve got a bit of a grudge,” Sveta said.

“I’ve got a lot of a grudge,” I said. “A lot of things would be simpler if we could do something about her. I’m thinking…”

“You have an idea?” Sveta asked.

“Yeah,” I said. I turned around. “I have an idea. I don’t suppose you have any contacts or favors you can pull in? With capes, specifically?”

“Maybe,” Sveta said. “Weld, and Weld’s friends. I’m kind of reluctant to go there though.”

I nodded. It made sense that she was reluctant. Sveta wanted to stand on her own. Going that route would be the opposite of what she wanted.

“What’s this?” Rain asked.

“Friends, contacts,” Sveta said. “Capes we could reach out to. Victoria has an idea.”