“If I leave you where you are, that’s going to happen too. Someone stronger and meaner will take you out, and they’ll be very hard to dislodge because of what you’ve already set in place.”

“This isn’t you, Prancer,” Sveta said. She was perched on Capricorn’s wall.

“It isn’t, you’re right,” he said.

“Stop. Disband,” I said.

“No,” Prancer said. “This role isn’t me. I have a lot I need to learn, but I’ll change until I fit the role. I think most of these guys will work with me to do it. We need this.”

Velvet put her hand on his shoulder.

“Your people are organizing to mount a war right under your nose,” I said. “Against acceptable targets, yes, but if you think today was a bad day? You’re underestimating just how bad it’s going to get when the Fallen come after you, and the damage they’ll do to everyone and everything between them and you.”

“Not under my nose,” Prancer said. He looked back at Snag. “We’ll manage.”

“You need to keep your mouth shut about that,” Snag growled.

“No. You need to loop the Wardens in. Get the full picture, get help. If you fight them, you need to win, unequivocally.”

“It’s handled,” Snag said. “And if you don’t keep your mouth shut, you’ll be sabotaging it.”

“These are people the PRT couldn’t stamp out,” I said.

“It’s handled,” Prancer said, echoing Snag. “This isn’t about the PRT, or about heroes and villains.”

“What’s it about, then?” Sveta asked. I had to look past Rain to see her. He was remaining silent.

“It’s about monsters,” Prancer said, pacing slowly. “Speaking of. Garotte?”

“That’s not my name,” Sveta said.

“Circe says hi,” Prancer said.

I could see Sveta’s expression change.

“Yeah,” Prancer said. “If you’d only arrived a few hours later. Whatever. We have resources. This is about standing on our own two feet. If we do this raid right, no matter how you interfere, no matter what Beast does, breaking off with his people, Cedar Point is going to be a thing.”

“You do this wrong, and a whole lot of people are going to wish they were dead,” I said.

Prancer continued pacing for a few seconds, then stopped.

“That’s fine,” he said.

“If you’re willing to involve those people in this, we might have to stop playing nice,” I said.

Prancer sniffed out a small laugh. “Alright then. Moose?”

Moose turned his head to Prancer, then to us.

“Sorry,” he said, smacking the knuckles of his gauntlet into his palm. Without any more preamble or prelude, he charged us.

Rain backed toward the door, the loose sleeve of his costume covering his one hand, while he held the glass-caked camera. He withdrew the flash gun, pointing it at the enemy group.