I didn’t even send the message, and Kenzie’s eye camera let me see the response. Gold text that appeared outside my normal field of vision.

WILL DO.

I made sure I scanned the crowd, searching every face there.

A screen descended behind the stage. Naphtha stepped forward.

The babble of nervous conversation went quiet. A few people acted with alarm as the portals closed behind them.

Roughly five thousand, I thought.

“Entry point,” Naphtha declared, his voice amplified by the microphone. The screen showed one particular section of crack. “Short descent, into what looks like a plain of red crystal. This crystal is a computer system, and what it computes is powers. In a matter of minutes, we’re going to have people inside the system, mostly ex-PRT officers and Patrol team leaders, doing what they can to interfere with the code, the software. You may even see them if you peer through the crystal. You must not harm them or harm the crystal if they are visible on the other side. Your job is to attack the hardware, in specific areas…”

The briefing went on. Portals opened, but not because the speech was over. People were handing out equipment. Pickaxes. A team with capes and Warden staff was handing out parcels as well. Explosive charges not unlike the one Imp had gathered, presumably going to people who were able and ready to handle them.

The message from Kenzie flashed across my vision.

RAIN SLEEPS.

What felt like five minutes but was probably closer to thirty seconds passed.

We should be backing him up.

“…Thank you,” Naphtha said. “When the portals open, we’re going to need you to move swiftly. The Titans won’t be close, but they may be aware and they’ll be swift to arrive. Some of the ones I noted in particular. Titan Oberon’s cell is swift-moving in particular.”

Placing us at a location far from the Titans, but close to one of the presumed focal points. The screen perpetually had a corner with a map of the paths the energy had traveled.

“We’ll be right at your side,” Naphtha stated.

I hefted the gun, lifting it from the floor. The portals appeared, wider this time.

This many people took time to make their way through. More portals appeared on either side of the stage. Cold air blasted through, along with a bit of the snowfall.

Sveta and Tristan walked through. I followed them.

Into the darkness. Into the cold. Facing a hole in reality that branched across three spatial dimensions, with folds and cracks at the edges that caught snow and sliced at the wind.

There were no city lights here, but some capes used powers to produce light. Capes on two risers above one mass of civilian volunteers.