She said. She stuck out a foot, and rested her foot on Beast of Burden’s forehead. His helmet had tipped back by its own weight, exposing a face with narrow eyes, and a muttonchop beard. His head was resting on the part of the helmet that had once been behind his neck. She moved his head around by moving her foot.

“Stop that, please,” Sveta said.

Damsel paused.

Sveta pointed at the foot. “Please. Even if he wasn’t a great person, he was human. He deserves common decency.”

Damsel stepped back, placing her footsteps where there wasn’t too much blood. There was a dusty print on Beast of Burden’s forehead now, with some small rocks settled into the corner of his eye, by the bridge of his nose.

“Thank you,” Sveta said.

In the background, lights danced around the shadows of the trees at the west edge of the settlement. Vista and Weld’s group. It caught Sveta’s attention, and I saw her focus her balance, swaying slightly less. I could imagine it as a tension in the tendrils within her body.

On the other side of things, while everyone else turned to look at the shifting reds and blues and greens, my focus was on Ashley. I saw something in her expression, as she looked at Sveta, then at Capricorn, and finally met my eyes. It was fleeting, spooked, more like how an ordinary person might look if they were at the mercy of ex-Slaughterhouse Nine member Damsel of Distress, than Damsel of Distress herself.

Hardly the imperious bearing she had a moment ago.

I saw the expression pass before any of the members of the other group could react. Love Lost tilted her head a little, walking around the periphery of the larger group—a wide periphery, given how we’d spread out and backed off.

“This is the true world of parahumans,” Damsel said, turning to look at Love Lost. Damsel’s chin rose a little, as she went back to being the villain queen. “The other things fall away, but this remains a constant. It’s why we all die young.”

“Endbringers and end of the world helped,” Sidepiece said.

“The end of the world never stopped,” Damsel said. “This is it, continuing, wearing demon masks and cheering about fucking over the rest of us. It’s wearing stupid helmets with horns as long as my legs and thinking it can find its way to power by killing its enemies and stepping on anyone in its way.”

“It’s blasting a hole in someone with a stupid helmet,” Disjoint said.

She turned on him. He stepped back some more.

“Don’t blast a hole in the guy with the stupid limb teleporting power,” he said.