“He’s only willing to tolerate us until everything else is out of the way,” Rotten Apple said. The cape that was sitting on the rock in front of her nodded.

“If one were to assume that was true, isn’t that better than us deciding we want you out of the way in the next twelve hours?” Accord asked.

“Is that a threat?” Rotten Apple asked.

“Put your feelings aside and look at this logically,” Accord said. “Do you cooperate or not? If you cooperate, we either leave you alone or we eliminate you from consideration. If you don’t—”

“Eliminate. So it’s a threat.”

“Please don’t interrupt me. All of this could devolve into petty squabbling so very easily. Let’s keep this civilized. Cooperate and you have a way forward. Be stubborn and refuse me, and you will have nothing. It’s common sense.”

“Common sense?” Rotten Apple asked. “I have a tattoo on my asshole.”

“She does,” Blasto said.

“You’re using the wrong argument,” Rotten Apple said.

Accord stepped closer to the fire. Detente put a hand on his arm, and Accord stopped.

“We’ll pay,” Detente said. “Clean money, not forged. Give us six hours to talk to some people. You can walk away from this moot and go to sleep, and we can hand you cold money within fifteen minutes of you waking up. We’ll buy your alliance.”

“And the rest of us?” Damsel’s voice carried.

Detente had to pause to consider before answering. He looked at Accord for input, then decided, “Same idea we proposed for the Four. We’ll give you money, resources and assistance to match the impact you could make, if you respect our claim to territory and the alliance.”

They hadn’t even considered the ones who were in the background.

They didn’t think she was a threat?

She smiled, and Detente seemed to take the smile in the wrong way, because his mechanical mask shifted to create a smile to match.

He addressed others in the back, “If you’re unknown, then make yourself known, or band together. If you want to come straight to us, we will give you a job for pay and a chance to prove yourselves.”

“What are your credentials? Have you proven yourselves?” Rotten Apple asked.

“We have money, and we have powered soldiers,” Detente said.

“I bet we have more capes than you do,” Rotten said.

“They posted online,” the leader of the Four said. “Reaching out to anyone with a fondness for ‘green’. They didn’t clarify.”

“Vague,” Detente said.

“Themes work. We’ve got capes who like gardening and we’ve got stoners. We’ve got hero…ish types who want to save the planet, and we’ve got mercenaries.”

“It’s thin,” Detente said. “Your group will implode.”

“It’ll be messy, I’m sure,” Rotten said. “What do you think, Blasto?”

“I think we say no.”