Our canine mounts raced through the streets with impunity.

Oh hey, it’s been a while since the last dog-ride.

The glass that covered the roads, the lack of windows, windshields or working dashboards in the few cars that still ran all contributed to the glacial pace of traffic.

At least it’s still kinda moving?

There was little for the dogs to watch out for, no moving vehicles and few bystanders.

Never mind.

Every stride the dog took made the bag I was carrying bang against my hip and made every injury I had explode with pain.  I clenched my teeth and endured it.

Ouch.

There weren’t many other options.  I could hardly complain to Bitch.

Yeah, she wouldn’t take any of that.

Let’s get back to it!

Coil looked at Brian.

“I gave you a hard time about your having to take the same risks as the rest of us, back when you first joined, but I think you’ve done your share.  So long as you’re contributing,” Brian said.

Yep, looks like he’s fine with it.

Coil nodded. “I’ll see what we can prepare.”

Lisa smiled a little, using only the one side of her mouth.

I wonder if this change has anything to do with her injury, besides making her think about how frequently she gets injured. Maybe she feels her role as the manipulative “face” and speaker of the team has been hurt by it and she’d rather give that up and be the eyes.

■

I feel like the fact that we just cut off right here with the reminder of her mouth is a good sign that I’m right about that.

“Anything helps.”

“You think you could get your hands on some surveillance hardware?  Skitter’s working on some new costumes, and I was thinking we could have something like small cameras mounted on our masks or helmets.”

Hm. That didn’t go quite the way I was expecting.

Why exactly does she want this? Is she less aware of Imp than I thought, and wants this to be able to determine what’s going on, why her power keeps telling her about someone she doesn’t remember?

“I can inquire with my usual suppliers.  Why?”

“Well, we’ve got one teammate that’s sort of hard for the rest of you to keep track of, and I think it might help.

Alright, fair enough. I’m not sure they should do it while Shatterbird’s in town, but it’s not a bad idea.

And if nobody objects, I’m kind of wanting to take a less hands-on approach from here on out.  I’ve batted a pretty low percentage as far as injuries over the last few months of action… Glory Girl, Bakuda, Leviathan, now this incident with Jack.

Ah, yeah. Might want to become a pitcher instead at this rate.

If I had a means of communication and the gear to give me some eyes on the scene, I think I could be more useful.”

Oh! Now it makes sense.

She’s going back to her original idea of what she should be doing for the team. Grue might be a little more willing to let her do it this time.

For a few seconds, anyways.  Aisha scowled.  “Enough is right.  I’ll see you guys later.”

Aw, leaving to cool off?

I can’t blame her, honestly.

But I also wouldn’t put it past her to go against the group’s wishes and attempt to spy on the Nine anyway. Perhaps not right now, especially since she doesn’t know where they are, but down the line it’s certainly a possibility.

“Hey!”  Brian stood from his seat.

I think I wasn’t the only one to look up at him and wonder why.

Heh, nice one, Imp.

He looked at us, similarly confused, and then sat down just as quickly as he’d stood.

Imp’s power is so good.

“Professional?  You asshole, you’re the one who’s refusing to use my talents because I’m your sister.

Touché.

I’ve been on the team longer than Skitter was when you guys were robbing a bank and fighting the ABB.”

That’s true. Hell, Tattletale framed the bank robbery as Skitter’s… introduction party, sort of. Though now that the truth is out about her involvement in Skitter’s story, she may have had ulterior motives beyond Coil asking them to do it: “If I’m gonna convert her, I need to show her the fun side of villainy right away.”

“You’re younger, and she’s more level-headed-”

True, Skitter is a bit more mature.

“Enough,” Coil said.  It served to shut them both up.

Professionalism, mr. Laborn.

I think the teacher back in 9.3 said something about powers running laterally in the family, too, i.e. between siblings. That may even have been foreshadowing for Imp’s introduction a few chapters later.