Kenzie had me bend down. She gave me the eye camera, sliding it smoothly into my skull. I could see from the trace glow that illuminated her gloves and face that it was giving my eye the characteristic golden glow, now. To match the effect on my armor.

“I’ll be with you guys,” she said.

I maneuvered my gun through the portal, and Chastity, Sveta, and Tristan followed me through.

The de-facto meeting place. The lobby of Teacher’s headquarters, tracked with mud and muck from the recent passage of many people coming in from the winter, though it was largely empty now. A space that a four story building could have fit in, large front doors opposite an unnecessarily wide set of stairs. The stories above us looked down at the lobby, and there were already capes and civilians gathered there. At the base of the stairs, something that might have been a truck lift to carry a truck up the stairs had been elevated to serve as a stage.

A few of the Wardens were there on the stage. I saw Naphtha, and I recognized Canary’s face and uncannily yellow hair, though she wore power armor. Roughly thirty capes with a minimum of armor and weapons were by the front doors, forming a loose line.

We were instructed to come, and we went. I took the back corner of the stage, holding my gun so it pointed at the wall above the front doors, because any other direction was problematic and threatened to put others in the line of fire.

My team gathered on the stairs just beside me. Chastity came with us, and approached the Wardens.

“Any reports yet?” I asked the Warden nearest me. “Are they responding?”

“No idea. We sent Patrol members who were willing to help out to the likely gathering places. They’ll agree, and hopefully others will follow them.”

I nodded.

I was spooked. Scared, not because of what was happening—that was terrifying in its own right, but scared because I’d asked for people’s trust and I wasn’t sure they’d extend it.

If I didn’t have powers and my life had followed a similar enough course that I was still roughly the same person, I wasn’t positive that I would have extended that trust.

Portals began opening. The capes that had formed a line now gathered so there was space to file past them. Chastity skipped down the stairs to join that line.

The first people to appear were more capes. There were other Heartbroken, and Chastity called out to them. Others to form a defensive perimeter, guards and guides for those coming through. Some of the capes who filed through were directed to the sides. Different role?

“What are they up to?” I asked the Warden.