“Maybe. But… I dunno if I see myself being alive and well a few years from now. That might be some of it.”

“Because of your cluster?”

“Because capes don’t tend to live that long. Because things were going south well before Gold Morning and it doesn’t feel like anything’s over or stopped. Every day, I think about the fact that there are still Endbringers out there. Broken triggers. Dangerous people with too much power.”

“There’s heroes. People stopping those things. Maybe you’ll be one of them. People die—it sucks but not all of them die. Not all of us.”

“I guess,” he said. “It might sound like I’m trying to ask for a pep talk, but I’m really not. Right now, I’m focused on things I gotta do. Like a name.”

That was my signal to back off. Fine.

“Clasp is a fairly decent name. Could work with the right costume. I’m not sure it feels right with the blaster power.”

“I was thinking of seizing something, as a prelude to something, or unclasping as… it sounded better in my head. Don’t laugh at my terrible names or reasoning, please,” he said. “Making a name that captures all of your powers when you have four is a pain in the ass. I’m just brainstorming.”

“I’m not going to make fun,” I said. “I have no idea what I’m going to call myself when I get back to the costumed heroics.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I was trying to think of names that might sound like they refer to the hands and the set-up, knock-down part of the power. Kind of. I don’t know.”

“Bracer’s taken, by the way,” I said. “I’m not sure of the others.”

He reached down to the pile of stuff at the foot of his board and picked up one of his tinker arms. It was just a bit thinner than his regular arm, just a bit shorter. Kenzie’s picture of a gun had looked more ‘tinker’ than this. It was wires with sheet metal bent into a crude, hand-like shape around it. He brought the textured plastic pad up to his shoulder and bound the straps around his shoulder, armpit, and upper arm before tapping it twice. He winced, showing his teeth momentarily.

“Hurts?” I asked.

“Nervous connection, and a bit of excess energy with the switch-on. I could fine tune it so it doesn’t shock me, but I might break something in the process. Ashley’s hands are made by someone who doesn’t even focus on prosthetics and they’re better than what I make.”

“You might be better than you think.”