I looked. Her arms weren’t wholly there. In the gloom, with Kenzie’s partial night vision tech, I could see strands working to braid together, leaving gaps because they weren’t in their usual spot.

“You can’t settle it down?” I asked.

“I can, but it takes concentration. It didn’t after Mr. Bough worked on me. I’ve been trying to let my guard down and calm down, to see if it goes away, but…”

I could see the fear in her eyes.

“…Panicking,” she said, finishing.

I reached for her hand, and she gripped mine. I could feel twitches.

“Did you change?” the Number Boy asked me.

“Is he legit?” I asked Sveta.

“I think so. A friend, kind of.”

“Okay,” I said. “My forcefield shrank three sizes,” I said.

“Interesting.”

It really wasn’t the thing capturing most of my attention right now. Back to Sveta, “Should we contact someone, try to get you help?”

“I’ll manage,” she said. “I wanted to stop for five minutes, see if things resolved on their own. Or if calming down helped.”

“Where’s Tristan?”

“Hitting the Titan. Go find him, come back? I could use the rest of those five minutes.”

I could see other Case Fifty-Threes around, like Whippersnap and Chantilly, and I could see Weld wasn’t that far off either. It was surprising to see Weld on the periphery of all of that, but I was pretty sure the weirdness of that situation didn’t extend to the old Irregulars being wholly cool and fair to Sveta again.

A lot of the Case Fifty-Threes were struggling. Weld’s skin was crawling, so to speak, textures shifting. Chantilly had shed some lace. Engel was flaring, bright lights dancing along her skin. Tastes, physical sensations, and smells flooded my mind.

Fuck. I didn’t like taking that in.

“You’re sure?” I asked, worried I might be overheard if I made it clear why I didn’t feel great leaving her behind. Some of those people had been outright hateful in the past.

“Five has my back.”

The Harbinger nodded.

“Alright,” I said. “Okay. Be safe.”

“You too. You weren’t here, but they’re saying the Stranger Titan is insanity-raying anyone who steps out of cover,” Sveta told me. “Stay low.”

I nodded.

Crystal and Aunt Sarah were close enough that I could have flown to join them in ten seconds. Maybe a minute if I went to get my gun and got it operational again.

“Crystal!” I called out, as I flew up, first.

She turned, looking, hand still glowing as the laser was emitted from her fingertips.

“Keep an eye out for Sveta?”

She nodded.

I flew over to get my gun, and took a few seconds to check it over and make sure it wasn’t going to fall apart on me the next time I picked it up.