Just as precarious, in another way entirely, was the existence of Titan Arachne, somewhere behind us. Chris was supposedly keeping her busy, but saying I didn’t trust Chris was like saying I had a lot of dark feelings about my sister. Belaboring the fucking obvious.

I really didn’t want to think about her, as much as that half-formed mental connection between her and Contessa nagged at me. I put my gun down, then began ferrying people around, reaching down to take hands in my own, lifting them over gaps and to people and places they needed to be.

Sveta, unsteady at first, not fully trusting her body, did much the same. She didn’t touch hands as much as she wrapped her limbs around waists and the trunks of people’s bodies and lifted them over.

Preparing our battlefield, as the Titans approached.

Dark thoughts chased me as I was waved down by a cape who was big enough and heavily armored enough to require more lift than my two arms could provide.

“Need a lift?” I asked.

“Over there,” he said, gruff. His mouth was obscured behind the gap in the helmet, with a thick braided beard.

One eye on the horizon, I used my forcefield to pick him up.

“Woah!” he exclaimed, as I lifted him. An armored fist crashed into my forcefield.

Broke my forcefield. He dropped about ten feet, perilously close to a crack in reality. Broken pavement crumbled and I flew in to try to catch him before he tipped over.

A square of forcefield appeared behind him.

“Got you,” Crystal called down.

The guy turned, looking over his shoulder and back at the chasm. He turned toward me, angry, “What the fuck was that?”

‘That’. Did he see you? A power?

“It was me trying to give you a lift.”

“It felt a lot like you throwing me into the air.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I should have warned you.”

“You could have killed me. Fuck. I think I pulled something with that landing.”

“And she had me backing her up,” Crystal said. “Safety net ready. Do you want a bridge?”

The guy stormed off, stomping his way around the crack, instead of taking her offer.

“That’s not the first time you’ve had my back today.” I was quiet.

“You’re welcome.”

“I was going to say thank you,” I said. “Are you babysitting me?”

“A bit,” she said. “Are you going to tell me I shouldn’t?”

I shook my head.

“You look after others, and not yourself. So… I’ll look after you.”

“Who looks after you, Crystal?” I asked, floating, kind of happy to be flying without carrying the equivalent of an empty cement truck around with me.

“My—” she started, then looked off to the side. “Lady Photon has my back.”

“She’s not ‘mom’?” I asked, using my fingers for quotes.