I made a loop of the area, getting a better look at Beast of Burden’s violent capes that were on the right side of the street—their right, my left—and with a gap separating them, the other capes, with the thinkers and Prancer. I gave a wide berth to the particles, to help sell the idea they might be dangerous, and then landed beside Capricorn.

“Holding up?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t set it off unless they get close.”

“That’s the plan. Mayday,” Tristan said. “Good to meet you. Are you caught up on things?”

“Spright filled me in. This is your jurisdiction?”

I answered, “We’re babysitting it while other teams tour it. They liaise with us. That you didn’t says something went wrong. People are messing with us, Cedar Point, or both.”

“We can discuss that later,” Mayday said. “My team, Teri, Signal, Prong. Who’s out?”

“I know you might need me, but my focus is gone,” the diagram woman said.

“Go,” he said. The word was barely out of his mouth when she went out like smoke dissipating into air. The smoke held the colors that had been her, initially covering the black of her costume’s fabric, the dark blue armor panels, the lighter blue ‘magic circle’ images on those panels, and her apparently near-black skin and hair. The smoke included the interior colors too, however. White for bone and fat, and lots of pinks and reds.

Within a second and a half, she was gone.

“Prong, Signal Fire, we decide who to evac next depending on situation.”

Five Advance Guard remained, with the five of us. We were outnumbered almost three to one by the collected villains of Cedar Point.

Spright, Mayday, Signal Fire, Prong, and one other. It was a woman with a short dress as part of her costume, leggings beneath, and long sleeves with the panels helping to form the bones of ‘wings’. The panels at the front of her mask swept along the sides of her head to form a wing pattern.

I was going to guess she was ‘Flapper’. A hard name to tie into the aesthetic of the Advance Guard.

Two mobile capes, and three that were waiting to be teleported out. I was betting Mayday would be last. Once their group was small enough, I was betting they would make a break for it. We’d want to be able to go too.

Capricorn’s orange motes were rising up and filling the area between buildings.

Past the curtain, I could hear Ashley’s power.

“Hey!” Prancer called out. “Civilian property. They pay us, we leave their stuff alone.”

Ashley said something I didn’t hear. Nailbiter sniggered.

Natalie was going to get upset with us again.

The standoff couldn’t last. We were walking backward, putting distance between ourselves and the group, while the orange motes collected and filled the space.