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“That’s good, but, uh... er, we might still be able to help a little, right?”

Garovel floated back down. ‘I know your heart’s in the right place, but we’re a little too famous right now. With all the police around, we’d probably just create chaos if we tried to get involved any further.’

“Agreed,” said Colt. He opened the driver’s side door and stuck one foot inside. “C’mon, Hector. We’ve done all we can.”

Hector glanced over everyone, then gave a nod and took a seat in the back with the twins. The car’s seatbelts didn’t fit the kids properly, so Hector had gotten into the habit of keeping his arms around them. They didn’t seem to mind terribly, though Stephanie occasionally tried to pick his nose for him.

It wouldn’t be a very long trip back to the motel in Maxwell, but Colt saw Hector pull out his phone. It only had to ring once, and Hector put it on speaker for everyone.

<“So you’re on the news again,”> said Gina. <“They’re already blaming the Darksteel Soldier for what happened.”>

Hector took a heavy breath. “Seriously? How did they even... I mean, so soon?”

<“Eye witnesses, so far. I saw one guy defending you, but the reporter just kinda dismissed him. They’re also saying they’ve got footage of you from someone’s camera phone, but they haven’t shown it yet.”>

“No mention of Karkash?” Hector asked.

<“Oh, they’re talking about him, too. I’m assuming he’s the ‘flying lightning man’ they’re referring to, yeah?”>

“Yeah.”

<“He’s gotten some attention, but they don’t know who he is, so they’re focusing on you. In fact, they’re speculating right now that he was trying to stop you from hurting people.”>

Hector shut his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “You gotta be kidding me...”

Colt just kind of snickered, and when he saw Hector giving him a look in the rearview mirror, he returned a blithe shrug.

‘That might be to our advantage, actually,’ said Garovel.

Gina interrupted before anyone could ask what he meant. <“So what really happened?”>