March put the sword nearer to the man’s neck. He gripped the axe tighter.

“Don’t,” Rain said. “He’s a relative.”

She lowered the sword, and she poked the handle of the axe with the tip. She said something I didn’t hear.

The soldier dropped the axe.

Rain was kneeling by Erin. He placed a hand on a little boy’s arm, where the boy lay next to her, hands at his ears.

He reached out for Erin, and she pushed his hand away. When he stood, it was abrupt.

“This feels like a trap,” I said.

Rain approached me. He looked at the building, then raised a hand. In the recess of one voluminous sleeve, I could see another hand hidden within.

“What is it?”

“One person,” he said. “I think.”

“It could still be a trap,” I said.

“Yeah. But… this gets people out safe. If we went after her and she hurt them in the last moment, and if we couldn’t turn it off…”

I nodded.

March was walking toward us.

“You got a look at her. She’s in you?” Rain asked.

“Barely,” I said. “She blinded me once or twice.”

“Okay,” he said.

March joined us. She put out a hand for me to shake. I hesitated a moment, paranoid, then shook it.

“We have things to talk about,” she said. “People we both know. Power things.”

I nodded.

“I’ll go in to get her,” she said. “I’m immune.”

“So am I,” Rain said.

“This is personal for you,” she said. She put a gloved hand on his shoulder. “It’s the objectivity that makes us valuable to each other.”

She winked at me, then sauntered indoors.

She bothered me. I didn’t like whimsical and show-off in someone that could easily kill. The mask and the marching band outfit only marked out the contrast.

“Immune?” I asked.

Rain indicated the two capes with gray hair, a young man and woman. Both had eyepatches, the steel-gray hair, and costumes with white and black. Chris’s age, or a bit older. “Dino and Enyo. They’re multi-triggers, and they’re also twin triggers. One of their powers is that they can transplant body parts, with some special rules. I’m borrowing someone else’s eyes and ears, and a few other bits, so she can touch me and make it hurt, but it’s dulled, and she can’t do anything else. The transplant recipient is back at our base, sedated.”

“All multi-triggers?” I asked.

“She… collects them. I guess. She studies them. It’s supposed to be important.”

Rain was looking back in Erin’s direction. She had the little boy with her, and two adults. From the resemblance, a sibling and her parents. She and they all looked like anyone might after having seen things that had them screaming for ten or fifteen minutes straight. Weary, eyes wide, defensive.