"It has not yet been twenty-four hours."

"At the point when you declare war on the Titanium Tyrant -"

(Paladin has five adopted children and is also wearing her Mk. I Uniform, which is designed to make her look like a nice middle-aged lady and doesn't need to be able to stop bullets, since she can do that anyway.)

"Advise my protégé to refrain from taking actions to benefit the Titanium Tyrant."

"You bring the rest of us in."

"I am perfectly willing to tell her that we reconsidered and it is the most sensible decision to heal -"

"I'm not."

"I'm not."

"... So, I successfully guessed what fifty percent or more of the Atlantic Six would conclude, and then I informed the entire Atlantic Six as soon as none of you were busy."

She paused. "Having met Musoka, I am slightly worried she would have immediately flown off to Novapest to heal the Gorgon Queen if I had not immediately suggested this was unwise. She wants very much to do good."

"Who doesn't?"

"So, I know I'm outvoted here, but I still think it's worth bringing up that the Tyrant has a point. We have all been reading the psych reports on his kids, haven't we?"

Nods around the table.

"They've started calling Elizabeth 'Bloody Lizzy,' she's now A-ranked and, uh, really good at killing people. Barry says Catherine had a breakdown over Ilderia rebelling and dropped out of half of her classes. Julius seems to be hiding in a corner and refusing to come out, which is sensible with his power, but... anyone think the Tyrant's kids can hold things together if Count Solaris decides he'd like to be King Solaris?"

"I think we should prepare to intercept missiles Novapest launches at its neighbors, accept refugees, and let that goddamn pot of scorpions sting themselves to death."

"Li-ii-via..."

"Will die in the civil war like the rest of them."

"I think the Smith has a point. We can actually ask Musoka to heal the Queen, then ask for Livia as the price. She's your oldest enemy. And then we won't have any wars and we can get back to trying to solve normal problems."

(Tidebringer is still uncomfortable using 'us' for the Atlantic Six, especially when the founding members start talking.)

"Livia will die whatever happens."

"Will Prudence?"

"We do not let people get away with wiping out towns just because they have enough hostages."

"Still something we have to plan for, sir."

(Evenhand made it to sergeant. The Survivor is still living on his colonel's pension.)

"Teammates, we are not talking about the Tyrant. We are talking about the Gorgon Queen. I would feel much less uncomfortable healing the Tyrant."

(The Titanium Tyrant murdered both of her parents; in his defense they were supervillains.)

"I know."

(He is looking at one of the pairs of frames on the wall; the right frame that was almost white.)

"It would buy us more time," says the Smith, "and it would get Livia actually out of the picture."

He's pretty sure the head of the Italian Nationalist Party is one of her perfetti. Also the head of the Italian Independence Party and the head of the Italian Syndicalist Party. Fortunately none of them are popular... yet...

"If the price is Cuba, is the decision correct? Because a successful invasion of Cuba seems the most likely low price; it is an incompetent tyranny lacking a devoted Great Power protector, and taking it over would provide an opportunity for the Tyrant to placate his younger followers with more land. There are a number of wars he could start that would be much more destructive than attempting to conquer Cuba - for instance, smuggling doomsday devices into New York."

"I guess I'm a lot less confident than you are that we can't actually talk to the Tyrant. We have a chance to make a deal with him that helps everyone! He just has to not stab us in the back about it!"