“If Houndstooth sat you down to tell you about me and he didn’t say I’m bad at nuance, he screwed up,” Kenzie said. “And he doesn’t screw up.”

The projector box lit up, and the video image popped back up. Kenzie’s phone changed from the progress bar, and her helmet reappeared, floating just over the paper where it had been drawn.

“Roughly one minute until Houndstooth!” Kenzie reported.

“Got it,” Tristan said.

Ashley approached, standing by Kenzie’s chair, and laid a hand on Kenzie’s left shoulder.

“You good?” I asked.

“Working hands. No pain. We’re still working with this cretin?”

“Cretin?” Kenzie asked.

“Houndstooth,” Ashley said. “He didn’t impress me.”

“Okay, wow. Let me start by saying you impress me,” Kenzie said, looking up at Ashley. “I love those videos you’re in, and I loved seeing you train. You’re awesome. And you’re totally, one hundred percent wrong, this once. Because Houndstooth is awesome and impressive too.”

“Houndstooth’s concerns seemed to come from a well-intentioned, good place,” I said, interjecting. Kenzie’s head whipped around to look at me over her other shoulder. I added, “And despite that, he seemed to come to some extreme conclusions. There’s nuance, between where you’re coming from and where you end up. Like we were just talking about.”

“When I called him a cretin I was being gentle. He’s a disgusting, disappointing, subnormal excuse for a hero, cape, or human being.”

“I will fight you over this,” Kenzie said.

“You’d lose.”

“I will go to war with you. Houndstooth was one of the coolest people to me at one of my uncoolest times.”

Tristan and Sveta had noticed things were a little hairy and were approaching at a jog. I interjected, saying, “We might want to drop this. Let the topic lie.”

“No,” Kenzie said. “Not if she’s going to say anything more like what she just said.”

“He talked about you like you were nothing more than a problem.”

“I am a problem!” Kenzie said, raising her voice.

“Easy,” I said. Tristan and Sveta joined us.

“I’m a problem,” Kenzie said, quieter. “I was.”

“You’re more than the problem,” Ashley said. “That waste of space didn’t—”

“Do you want to go to war?” Kenzie asked, rising out of her seat. “I can build an army of camera drones. I have advantage in the air. I have battlefield awareness. And I’ll fight you on this until you explode me all over the place or you say you’re wrong about him. Don’t say bad things about him. Not when he’s someone that counts. Not when you’re someone that counts. Okay?”

Sveta reached out and pushed Kenzie back down into her seat. Tristan was closer to Ashley, facing her, ready to get between the two.

“Kenzie,” Sveta said. “Ashley’s coming from a good place here.”