I shook my head. “If that’s really a thing that happens, you being in constant pain is going to make you weaker than deigning to have a tinker service your arm.”

“I know what you do, Antares,” she told me. “I know how you brainwashed Swansong. You pick your words. ‘Deign’. ‘Service me’.”

I folded my arms. “So? That’s the game, Damsel of Distress. The back and forth. Villain preys on civilian, hero fights villain, civilian supports hero, or they’re supposed to. The hero-villain interplay continues until something so big and bad happens that we get stuck on the same battlefields. When that happens, we put aside the old rivalries and snark at each other, picking words carefully, cutting each other down with words while cooperating in general.”

“Or you could not cut each other down,” Finale said.

“Can’t help it,” Damsel said. “I have blades for fingers. I could pat you on the cheek, child, but I might slash your throat.”

“I’m eighteen.”

Chris snorted. “Weren’t you sixteen two years ago, Ash? You were brought out of the cloning vats at the same age you were when you were at your peak, back in Boston. You’re the same age as that ‘child’.”

“Look how conveniently positioned you are. I could obliterate you and the mess would get sucked straight out the back of this ship.”

“You could not obliterate him!” Defiant raised his voice. “You are a guest on my ship, we are operating under a truce!”

“Killjoy,” Sidepiece snorted.

“Let’s not bait the A-tier cape,” Disjoint murmured to her.

“Wait, when’s your birthday?” Chris asked, baiting both Damsel and the A-tier cape. “I’m curious if you’re younger.”

“Chris,” Sveta said, beating me to it by a hair, her voice sharp.

Rain started to get up, hesitated, and then navigated his way through the people in his way, mainly Caryatid, a flock member, and Withdrawal’s frame. Damsel of Distress looked like she was going to say something, but he dropped to his knees.

“Give me your arm?” he asked. He put a hand out, reaching into a pocket of his costume for tools.

“I have more tools if you need them, Precipice,” Defiant said.

“Great,” Rain said. “I don’t think I will, this should take a minute or two. If she’s willing.”

Damsel made a head movement that might have been her rolling her eyes, except she didn’t have irises or pupils, so the effect was somewhat lost. She laid her hand in his, blades facing up and resting along his side. He sliced open her wrist, accessing the mechanical parts of the hands that the blade-fingers were mounted on.

“Anyone else need first aid?” Clockblocker asked. “I remember stuff.”

“Ooh, could you patch me up?” Sidepiece asked. “My stomach has a small hole in it.”

“Urgh,” Finale said.

“I don’t think I could manage that,” Clockblocker said.