“She needs someone to look after her,” Ashley said. “Now that someone can’t be me.”

I looked up. The sky was still overcast, the light of the sun fighting to shine through in a way that made it look more like the heavy clouds had faint energy glowing from within them, rather than a distant burning orb sending its light to us.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to the team,” I said. “I think people are more shaken than they’re saying.”

“They are.”

“There was a lot there that was rough. There’s still stuff out there—angry people with guns, who just saw their own get attacked, or who were forced to act by Mama Mathers. Good people got really hurt.”

“Bad people got really hurt too,” Ashley said.

I paused, feeling the weight of that short statement. “Yeah. We’ll see how that goes.”

Water pattered against my hood, and I thought the rain had started up again—it was only the wind stirring the droplets from the leaves above.

I saw the distorted space before I saw Capricorn, Vista, and Chasmal. Capricorn had one of his stone constructions over his shoulder, something that looked like a coffin, but was obviously made of Tristan’s power, with hooks and such. Interestingly, though it looked like the sort of heavy something that would have required Tristan’s attention, it was Byron in the blue armor who was hauling it, holding up the thicker, wider upper end, with the bottom end dragging in the path behind him.

Vista was shortening their path. Chasmal would be making the coffin and the person inside light enough for Byron to drag, while simultaneously phasing Mama Mathers partially out of reality.

He had a costume that sported Advance Guard’s geometric future aesthetic with a deep blue color scheme with orange trim. The aesthetic and design seemed to be intended at invoking the dark, vigilante style.

I was really hoping that a measure like that would sever her connection to others, for any point in time that she woke up.

“You got her?” I asked.

“Yeah. We also pointed Mayday’s cape and the Patrol crew to the building we sealed up,” Byron said. “Hi, Damsel.”

“Hi.”

“She’s still unconscious or asleep in there?” I asked.

“Has to be. I’d have felt her struggling, or we would have heard her.”

“She could be dead,” Damsel said.

“Let’s hope,” Chasmal muttered.

“I’m hoping she isn’t,” I said. Damsel nodded her agreement with me.

“I used my power to sweep over the area,” Vista said. “I can get a general feel for when there are people somewhere and as far as I can tell, most of the town was evacuated. We sent some people to rescue and retrieve.”

“Armed, armored people,” Byron said.