I wondered what time of night it was.

Pointy would have known, but she was away, with Cassie and Priya and the rest of the kids. The moon couldn’t be used to tell time like the sun. Maybe someone with more astronomical knowledge would be able to figure it out, but not me. Same with the stars. I had a vague recollection that you could only see one of the planets - Venus? - in the early evening and morning hours, a fact that might have helped me narrow things down if I had any idea which star was actually Venus. I could find the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, and Orion; that was about the extent of my stargazing expertise.

There must be at least a few mechanical timepieces in the neighborhood. Heirloom grandfather clocks, or maybe windable mechanical watches. We should track some of those down.

It was clearly late enough that my mind was wandering. In my college days, I would have thought almost nothing of staying up for 24 hours straight to play the latest videogame release, but I was long past that age. I needed my eight hours of sleep, and even with that I was constantly exhausted from dealing with the kids.

At least with the alien upgrades, that fatigue was only mental and emotional now. Physically, I tired much more slowly.

…And I was letting my thoughts get sidetracked again.

I took off my helmet and rubbed at my face.

“I can’t keep going much longer,” I told Tamara. “My mind is wandering like a toddler in a toy store.”

She looked tired, too. “We should be able to turn in soon. We have the corpses indoors and we got someone to Freeze them. That should give us some time there. They brought Dane home. He’s still asleep, but he’s back safe where the loose Dragons can’t get at him. All the injured are stable and sheltered, and we’ve brought in everyone we could find who had Cleanse. We’ve got three groups lined up to take turns watching over the Shop. We’ve sent groups out to notify people on both ends of the neighborhood, and scouting groups to see if the escaped Dragons are causing any obvious problems… they should be back soon. If they haven’t found anything, I don’t think there’s anything else that can’t wait ‘til morning.”

“Yeah.” I hoisted myself up on the stone wall that was half-built around the Shop. The street was well-lit now. We’d copied the hospital’s plan of purchasing Small Light Sources and attaching them to defunct street lamps and other high places, something I wished we’d had in place before the battle. In spite of the outdoor visibility, the remainder of the partying crowd had moved inside. Someone had gotten drunk enough to try to hug a leafenrat, and taken a bad set of slashes across his face before anyone could stop him. With all our healers exhausted, we’d been able to offer only bandages, which had put a serious damper on the celebration.

The injury wasn’t life-threatening, but we’d have to wait until the morning to find out if he’d lose an eye. So far, we didn’t have any healers who could replace body parts. If someone lost a finger or a hand, the stump could be healed shut easily enough, but not regenerated. No one had found an ability that explicitly replaced missing body parts either. Maybe Healing Touch could do it with high enough synergy? I hoped so. It was starting to get distressingly common to see people missing a couple fingers, and I knew that there had been one man who’d lost most of his leg last night, pulverized by a blow of Chris’s hammer to the point where our tired healer corps hadn’t had the energy to stabilize it. They’d had to amputate to save his life.

The only people still outside were Tamara, myself, and the Combat Group guarding the Shop. There’d been a lot more a half-hour earlier, people wanting updates about the battle or reporting sightings of the Dragons on their way out of the neighborhood, but that stream of people had largely trickled to a stop. If the Dragons had caused any more trouble, we hadn’t heard about it. Everyone who had seen them had said they’d disengaged and run as soon as possible.

“I hope Matilda’s okay,” I said.

I assumed she was; she had more abilities than almost anyone at this point, having earned a seventh in addition to the one she’d started with and the five farming abilities she’d gotten from the Siphon. I couldn’t imagine who could possibly outrun her other than another Points Siphon recipient, and all of them were accounted for. She hadn’t gone back to her home.

Tamara grunted, looking away. She’d been furious about Matilda’s apparent treachery, and free with her criticism. “Soft-hearted” and “weak-willed” were among the nicer things she’d said. We’d gotten into quite an argument, as I’d stressed that we couldn’t be sure what had happened until I’d heard her side. That hadn’t held much water with her, but my other argument - that I didn’t want to lose our first and most talented farmer - was more persuasive. We’d reached a sort of truce on the topic after I’d agreed that if she really had let an enemy free, that we couldn’t just pretend she hadn't done so.

I’d probably been endangering our unspoken truce with my worried comment, but my brain-to-mouth filters work a lot less well when I’m nearly asleep on my feet.

I wasn’t in the best emotional state, either. I’d accidentally killed Crystal during the challenge three days earlier. At the time, I’d sworn to be ready the next time the aliens pulled some shit. I had all sorts of contingency plans to try to ensure nonlethal outcomes if the aliens had tried to set us against each other, but I hadn’t quite believed humans would be the force that endangered us so soon. War. An angry mob marching on my home, trying to take or destroy the very Shop I’d won after Crystal’s death.

It could have been worse, I told myself. The Dragons' soldiers… some of them died, but most of them didn’t. There’s a good chance we won’t have to fight the rest. Most of the people from our neighborhood are safe now. The Dragons shouldn’t be killing anyone in Cotton Acres anymore, or keeping them from earning Points. The Shop is still standing, and it will feed hundreds. Provide clean water, too: that nurse at the hospital said they were almost out.

The rescue group wasn’t back yet, but there were a lot of explanations for that. They were a hellishly strong group. Even if four or five Dragons had escaped our defenders, it was hard to imagine that they could do much to thirty-plus strong fighters.

I would still rather we had heard from them.

“Look.”

I followed Tamara’s arm, pointing toward the corner where Lavender Lane met Azure. People were coming around the corner. It was too dark to make out features, but it quickly became apparent that there were too many to be the missing Dragons. Good. I hoped it was one of the groups we’d sent out to scout, but held myself tense; there was still an outside chance it could be the Dragons' former soldiers, back and angry with us for some reason.

As they drew nearer, I could see that many of the shadows among the crowd were short. Children. The kids from the Combat Groups? Out on the street already? That seemed like a horrible mistake. They could have-

“MOM!” A familiar voice interrupted my thinking. Micah bounded down the street like a gazelle, his enhanced strength bearing him along far faster than should have been possible. I’d barely registered his identity before he reached me, his arms wrapping tightly around my waist, his face pressed against the armor on my chest. “Mom, you’re okay. I was so worried, but you’re okay. Wait. What happened to your armor? Where’s your shield?”

My ramshackle armor was decidedly worse for the wear after my battle. The vest had torn open on the back, and the Roman-style skirt made of paper had gotten soaked with blood after Chris’s tail had snaked beneath it to cut my thigh to the bone. My shield was gone. I didn’t feel like explaining that.

“I got hurt, but the healers fixed me. I’m okay. It’s good to see you… but what in the hell are you guys doing back here? You could have been killed moving through the streets. Didn’t you hear? There are four Dragons on the loose!”

Most of this was directed not at Micah, but at Priya, who was approaching while carrying Arnav on one hip. Close beside her, Gavin carried a sleepy Cassie, while Anju and Samar trailed behind.

Priya shrugged. “Everyone else was coming back. Safety in numbers seemed like our best bet, especially with my appearance.”

“We could have organized an escort for you tomorrow! Having the kids out at night with hostiles roaming the neighborhood is too big of a risk.”

Micah frowned at me, and when he spoke, his voice was mildly condescending. “Mom, you’re forgetting how strong we are. If someone attacked, I would just put a Shockwall on them and Anju would do Burden. Anju’s mom could get in front of them if she had to… but I don’t think she’d have to.”

“Yeah! And even if I’m holding Cassie, I can use my Super Tail!” said Gavin, whipping it from side to side as he struck a ‘cool’ pose.

It still scared me that they’d taken the risk, but… “I’m glad you’re home safe.”

“Is George back?” Priya asked.

“Not yet. I’m sure he’s fine, though. We’re just waiting on a final report from scouts, and then I’ll head to sleep.”

Priya nodded, her face still tight and worried. “We’ll wait with you.”

They should probably go inside, where no one would mistake Priya for one of the Dragons. Where the kids would be out of sight.

I almost said as much, but instead I set Gavin up on the wall next to me, and took Cassie and Pointy from his arms. Micah snuggled up on my other side. It would have made sense to send them away, but their presence was too comforting. I made the selfish choice.