"Little lies turn into big lies, every time." The grizzled PRT officer said to the Wards. Jim had been expecting it to be just him, Claire and Carlos, but then Director Piggot had changed her mind—it was now everyone. "And I have a little lie to thank for this." The officer raised his hand to the torn flesh that covered half of his face, scars running up into his mostly bald head. "If you're running late on getting your non-silicate glass formula done, and the PRT is demanding new visors, now, well, just send up a few of the old compound. It won't hurt anyone." He paused, and ran a finger down one particularly ugly scar. "Because it's not like you're going to run into Shatterbird. Until you do. Don't pity me, I came out better than most."

He stared at Dennis, and Jim could see the Ward pale slightly. "You all tried to cover for your teammate, and by doing so, you put her in danger, and she put you in danger, and she wasn't the type to care about that, now was she?"

Jim glanced over at Claire. I wonder where Sophia is? He'd expected her to be in the Wards' Quarters since she tended to show up early, but when they'd gotten up for breakfast, Sophia was nowhere to be seen, and today her things had been removed. Director Piggot didn't seem that angry… But now, they were all on stand down, with a week's worth of workshops on ethics and why you never used powers to bully anyone. Clockblocker had said that he'd never seen anything like this, and Jim took him at his word.

And nobody knows anything. Nobody was talking, not the PRT or the Protectorate, although most of the older heroes got a thin-lipped look when Jim had asked. Even Blinky had changed the subject. The closest he'd gotten to an answer was Assault, who had told him he didn't need to worry, and then when he thought he was out of Jim's earshot (Troll ears were good), muttered "You can give someone a second chance, but you can't make'em take it. Fuck." And Assault didn't sound like he was joking. Assault always joked.

Of course, speculation was rife among the Wards. Dennis thought that she'd actually killed someone on one of her unauthorized jaunts, and that it had come out.

Missy just figured she'd finally mouthed off one too many times.

And sad to say, the mood among the Wards, even with all the meetings, was cheerful. Claire didn't have to listen to Sophia putting Missy down, Jim didn't have to have to deal with her continual hints that someone as strong as he was might you know, accidentally kill the odd villain.

And those conversations had been pretty creepy.

Though granted, he'd have been more cheerful if he wasn't stuck in a chair that felt two sizes too small, while a no-nonsense officer told them all the ways things could have gone horribly wrong.

One thing Claire loved about this world, no matter how much she missed Enrique, Not-Enrique, and her parents, was that walking into a school cafeteria with Jim… wasn't a big thing. In a world with walking natural disasters and boys made of metal, he wasn't that strange…

Okay, there was a negative point to that. Some girls had mentioned that they needed help with their homework, while getting into Jim's personal space with their assets. One had even mentioned that he deserved a girl with a little bit… More.

Jim had looked over at Claire and blinked. "What do you mean?" He'd asked.

My boyfriend is the best, Claire thought. It also meant she would never have to tell Director Piggot that the rules technically didn't say anything about stashing a bunch of people in the shadow dimension by accident.

But right now they were eating, and Ann was venting all over the place.

"My Brother is an idiot!" Ann said. "He's got Saturday School, and a meeting with Mom and the principle, and a behavior contract."

"What did he do?" Claire asked, staring at the Asian girl. Ann's hair was puffed out like an angry cat's as she dug at her plate.

"He was telling some freshmen that he'd sponsor them for the ABB, and when they said they didn't want to, he threatened to sic the Oni on them." She shook her head. "And the new vice-principal heard." Ann glared at the inoffensive biscuit next to her mashed potatoes. "Last week there was some kind of… thing that happened. I mean, Kenji said that some E88 guys cut off a girl's fingers, but Mary said that her brother heard that it was some sophomore who got locked into a locker with… stuff, and nobody found out until the janitor walked by and she'd been in there for at least fifteen minu—"

"Breathe, Ann," Claire said.

"Right. Anyway, all the administration is gone, and they've got like this, total zero-tolerance policy, so if anyone steps out of line, even a foot, they get zinged." She stabbed her pudding. "And Kenji had to go and name drop the Oni." She looked up, a worried expression on her face. "What if someone tells the Oni that Kenji's pretending to know him? I mean, it's not like they don't know where he lives, and Mom has to work and Kim's only in fifth grade, and I don't want to have—"

"Hey," Claire said. She put her hand out on Ann's. "It'll be okay. Boys talk. Nobody takes it seriously."

"Hi all, mind if I join you?" Dean asked. Next to him there was a girl, no, goddess, floating just off the floor, wearing overalls, with the kind of golden hair…

Okay, not being intimidated at all here… Claire thought.

"Hi guys! Names Vicky," Glory Girl said as she sat by Dean with her own tray of food. "Heard you did good with Mush and Skidmark, Jim."

Jim shook his head. "If you consider doing a million dollars of damage 'good'."

"It is," she said and for a moment, all levity was gone. "I know the E88 and ABB does more damage, but I hate the Merchants." She stared down at her plate. "One of the things that Amy does is help detox the kids who are born addicted, and even she can't fix all the problems."

"More will come," Dean warned her.

"Sure, but for now they're gone, and that's a win," Victoria said, once again chipper. "Oh, but Dean has some things to tell you. It turns out when your family is wealthy enough to talk to the Mayor on a regular basis, you get the juicy gossip."

"Vicky…" Dean groaned.

"Oh, C'mon, it's not like they didn't deserve it."

"Okay," Dean looked around. "Do any of you know about Winslow?"

"So, was it E88 or Locker?" Ann asked.

"Oh, you do know." Dean shook his head. "There was some kind of long-term bullying going on, and it all came out last week. A girl was pushed into a locker with some kind of nasty material, crap from the bathrooms, just at the end of passing period, so only her… bullies were out." He shrugged, "The janitor got her out after about 15 minutes, and the administration called the paramedics but said it was just a prank gone wrong."

"Put her in a locker for fifteen minutes?!" Claire's voice rose. "How could they—"

"Yeah," Vicky said. "That's exactly what the paramedics and ER doctors said, especially since the girl had hurt herself trying to get out, so they called the BBPD, and the cops were interviewing people to see what happened." The entirely too gorgeous girl actually floated up and off her seat as she grinned. "So next thing, and I can't say anything more about this, but Mom gets called in for a case. Then the DA's office gets a call from the PRT and on the weekend, the cops just turn the school upside down. I heard a rumor that their might be a low-level stranger active."

Claire glanced at Jim. A call from the PRT? And Sophia goes to Winslow. Then she looked at Dean and he gave a minute nod. Holy… Sophia wouldn't do something that bad, would she?

"Damn," Jim shook his head. "I hope they do something about that, bullies can be pretty terrible."

"At least when you're not knocking their teeth out," Claire said as she reached up and patted Jim on the shoulder. She looked up at Vicky and smiled. Sure you're gorgeous and all, but you're not lucky like me. "See, we had a bully who put a kid into a locker and Jim got really angry…"