“Can we stop talking about this?” Sveta asked. It felt strange hearing so abrupt a question when I hadn’t felt it in her body or breathing.

“We can,” Tristan said.

“Sorry,” Sveta said. “To cut in like that.”

“I don’t mind, love,” Dido said. “We can talk about other things. I’d welcome the distractions.”

“Mr. Giannone is at the center of town. He seems to know where to go to talk to the villains,” Tristan reported.

“Lovely,” Dido said. “Some silliness to take my mind off of things.”

Silliness. We were treating this situation as serious, we were trying to save Cedar Point and the people within, and we were trying to break up a criminal organization before it extended its reach too far or imploded. With all of our various issues, with one team member’s life on the line, we were making sacrifices and devoting ourselves to this in the long term.

Silliness?

To someone that was trying to head off a war with another universe? I could concede her that, but I could also think she could have worded it way more respectfully.

I decided to write her off as a bit of a ditz and let it be.

Giannone entered the bar, and my first thought was that we wouldn’t have the audio or video.

Moments later, however, he emerged with Prancer.

“…not involved in this.”

“Andre, if you don’t want to be involved, walking into the bar where we gather isn’t the way to do it. Not voicing your issues in earshot of ten people with powers. Let’s talk in my office.”

“Being seen walking into your office isn’t any better,” Andre Giannone said, resisting being led by the arm. Prancer stopped trying, and the older man said, “Thank you.”

“We’ll keep it polite,” Prancer said. “Both in what we talk about, and in appearing civil.”

The people in the bar could see out the window.

“They called me. What am I supposed to say? If this goes to court—”

“Let’s not talk about court.”

“What if?” Andre said.

“It’s not going to. The courts have too much to do to bother with someone like you. Even with people like us.”

“You said the heroes wouldn’t bother either, and how many have we seen or heard about now?”

“Andre. Listen. If they decide they’ll bother with petty crime, they’ll come after me, the other villains. They won’t go after the scared citizens. If they thought someone had done something, they would think it was because the people were forced.”

Prancer’s tone changed at the end there. Too light to be anything but joking. I wondered how tone would play out with the court, if Giannone was charged. I let go of Sveta and walked over to the whiteboard to note the question. Something for a future discussion with Natalie or someone like her.