“You wanted to meet. Here we are,” Secondhand said.

“We’re similar in how we approach things,” Snag said. “Maybe we can trade, teach each other something.”

“Maybe,” Secondhand said. “Sounds good.”

“Maybe the deal’s lopsided in your favor, but you give us a hand when we need it.”

“Ah, I thought that was coming. We heard you were recruiting.”

“Mm hmm,” Snag made the sound, and it came off more like growl than agreement.

“The more the merrier?” another member of the Speedrunner’s group asked. It might have been End of Days.

“The more the merrier,” Snag repeated, sounding the furthest thing from merry.

“Why don’t you take a look and tell us what this means to you?” Secondhand asked.

There was a pause. I looked at my phone. The back door of the van opened. Snag approached, with the woman—Love Lost?—hanging a bit back. She had curved claws at her fingertips and thumb, with a thin framework of rods and bands at the back of her hands to keep those claws in place. She had more glittering around her feet and ankle. A mask covered her lower face.

“Victoria?” Sveta asked, through the phone.

“What’s up?” I asked, holding the phone to my ear, so I could use the mouthpiece there.

“Kenzie’s handling the camera and things. I’m hanging back, Tristan’s close. We’ll be your people, mostly. Can you tell us anything about the Speedrunners?”

I was glad I’d checked my books and notes.

“Seattle. B-list villains, but that’s partially because Seattle was setting a really high bar around the time they were active,” I said. “Partially. They’re time manipulators, but complicated by the fact that they have at least one tinker in the group. It could be that they’re all tinkers. A family thing like how forcefields run in my family.”

“They don’t look like family,” I heard a voice. It might have been Chris, or Rain speaking with a funny tone. Probably Chris.

“That’s what they’re talking about sharing, then,” I heard Tristan. “Tinker know-how.”

“Probably. Um. Each of them has a power, but they augment that by having tinker stuff they wear. Secondhand can cover a lot of ground really fast, but can’t affect anyone or do much while he’s doing it. Can’t hurt you, can’t move stuff, can’t set traps. But we already talked briefly about him earlier. He’s the one doing regular sweeps of the area, looking for trouble. The tinker stuff he wears reduces the strain on his body and lets him operate like that for longer. And it means that when he pops out of that mode, he does it with a boom. It gives him some offensive ability.”

“That doesn’t feel B-list,” Tristan said.