Torso pulled his hands back. He swayed for a second, then put them out again, pinky finger and thumb on one black-gloved hand tucked in. Eight.

“His skull is too thick for her to get to him,” Gibbet said, giving Torso a knock on the head. Torso, in turn, gave her a thumbs up.

“Others are ahead,” Cryptid said, before joining the advance group, closer to Damsel and Trophy Wife.

‘Ahead’ was an open area containing rows of pumps. It was only partially lit, with the lights flickering, but there was a set of stairs leading up over one of the pumps, to a higher level. Some of the other groups that had come in on the same planes as us were up there. I saw Parian and Rachel with one of the dogs, some of Semiramis’s group, and two Wardens. Vista was among the Wardens, looking down our way. Keeping tabs on Byron.

Sveta reached up to grab the railing and haul herself up. “This way!”

“Anyone injured, needing a lift?” I asked.

“Weak.”

It took me half a second to realize the voice hadn’t come from the group, another half-second to realize that Caryatid was approaching me.

“I’m not injured, but…”

“Sure,” I said.

The gun was heavy and very close to my tolerance levels, but an added hundred and twenty or whatever pounds wasn’t enough to make flying impossible. The stairs that led over the massive pump were the equivalent of three stories. I grabbed her with forcefield hands, then lifted.

“Me too, when you’re done?” Byron asked.

“I got you,” Sveta called down. She’d just been talking to Vista. Maybe telling Vista that Byron was at a four, here. She hopped down onto the pump, grabbed something, and then unfurled to reach down to Byron, on the ground.

Metal squeaked, and the squeak paralleled the shifting pitch of the screaming in my head.

Others took the stairs.

It’s not just that she drives you around the bend, I thought. It’s that she’s constantly gathering information. Constantly refining that ability to drive you crazy, and refining her precognition, so you’re less and less effective against her in a fight.

“Dungeons are below us,” Sveta was saying, to a group of capes who looked like they were one of Foresight’s peripheral groups. “On the next floor will be the first main floor, including the lobby, which you’ve probably seen. If you go beneath the stairs, you’ll find the arboretum.”

“Arboretum?” I asked.

“Lounge area,” Sveta said. “They were using it as a backup cafe. Vista says we’re set up on the ground floor, but floors two and three have a few dangerous parahumans, so we’ve been delayed.”