Prancer didn’t step forward to meet her, not immediately. Instead, he waited for a moment, surrounded by his allies. Velvet was in the crowd. Moose was absent. So were Hookline and Kitchen Sink. Some stragglers were catching up.

Ashley entered the street, and Kenzie’s camera provided the label above her head: ‘Swansong’.

“Should be Damsel, until she takes the name officially,” I said.

Kenzie typed it out, replacing it.

Damsel was situated near the back of Prancer’s group. Some people reacted, but nobody attacked or lashed out.

She didn’t even flinch at the people around her or the unexpected situation. She walked through the left side of the crowd, until she was near Prancer’s left flank. She leaned against a wall, arms folded, and stared at him, rather than at Advance Guard.

Prancer did note her presence, and looked momentarily annoyed.

The annoyance seemed to spur him forward. He met ReSound at the middle of no man’s land. The camera zoomed in to focus on them.

“This is getting tiresome,” Prancer said.

“What ‘this’?” ReSound asked. I’d expected her voice to sound altered, as many capes with sonic themes did, but she sounded normal. Confident.

“The routine. You guys show up, you’re interested in the area, but you don’t commit.”

“We commit,” ReSound said.

“Hm? I don’t follow.”

“We’re committing. We’re staying for long enough to finish the job. We’re here to break up the villains in Hollow Point.”

“Job. You were hired?”

“We hired ourselves,” ReSound said. “We break up priority targets, and we got to talking. You guys seem priority enough.”

“Based on what?” Prancer asked. His composure had cracked, but he didn’t raise his voice so much as he allowed emotion to affect his words. “We sell grass, we live here. We don’t shit that much where we eat.”

“Who was it?” ReSound asked. “Kitchen Sink. Hookline?”

“They pointed you our way?”

“Someone thought they were funny names, and they were joking about it—”

Tristan groaned out loud.

“—and they wouldn’t say why they were here in the first place. They aren’t alone either. Others have been through. A lot of people find you very interesting.”

“We’re very boring villains, really,” Prancer said. “Insignificant.”

“Houndstooth, no,” Kenzie said. “Ugghh. I recommended you.”

“It was fucking Foxtrot,” Tristan said. “Foxtrot is the clown in Houndstooth’s group.”

ReSound was taking a moment to consider Prancer’s claim of being boring.

“I don’t believe you,” ReSound said. She offered a half chuckle and said, “It doesn’t matter. We do this, we get some points with the public, and with the current attitude about capes? Points matter.”

“We outnumber you.”

“We train. I’m sure you went to great efforts to get your people together. Did you watch us on your cameras, then make sure to bring in a few more, so you could say you outnumbered us?”