The crowd is noticeably thinner than it was before. People got away somehow, probably.

And at last, cape interference. Insects and darkness, apparently.

Metal doesn't care about bugs.

Where are the capes, shade of Jack, and what's their plan?

It doesn't operate anywhere near that abstractly. But it would probably be a good idea to dodge, left, right now.

Left it is.

There's no sound, no rush of air, no feedback at all. It probably didn't lead her astray.

Also, it says to dodge right.

Let's see if she can't get feedback.

Prism split. One body stays, the other goes right.

The one that stays gets rammed from the front and knocked backward. It would be bone-breaking force if she had bones at the moment.

It does move her out of the cloud of darkness, so she can see what it was. Or see it, at least. It's some kind of cross between a wolf and a dragon. On balance it looks like nothing so much as the creature that some of Noelle's monster's mutated heads should have belonged to.

Well, isn't that something. How does it react to having its face burned off?

And she can walk her other body out of the darkness,now she knows how finite it is.

It yells. So does a voice from behind her. Cape.

Third body out, looking back.

Yup, there's a cape. No costume except a dog mask, and they're shouting instructions to the monstrosity.

Charge, but then reverse back into the cloud, her instinct says.

No reason to mistrust it. Fake charge into a retreat.

When she starts charging, a red-costumed cape appears near the one with the dog mask, and rushes both of them off. Then one of the energy spheres goes off right in front of her.

Ah, so that's why the retreat. Smoked out another cape, too. Some kind of mover.

Is that wolf-dragon still alive?

Body number two can see. Face unburned, so either it heals fast or there are two of it.

This time she can try with one of the miniature suns.

It rolls over and doesn't get burned straight through, but that's a huge gash down its side. Cauterized as it went, not that it matters. It's out and almost definitely dead. If Ellie weren't metal right now there'd probably be an awful lot of smell.

Any dangers imminent? Cape-based or otherwise.

Yeah, they've got lots of capes waiting in the wings or on their way. Right now the biggest danger is a cape across the darkness cloud from her.

Can she affect the darkness cloud with the Labyrinth power?

She can affect the area under the darkness cloud with the Labyrinth power. The darkness stays there in both versions of the space, and expands every once in a while.

That's slightly annoying. She consolidates, and extends the Labyrinth through the cloud so her path across is free of obstacles.

Empty field of grass is easy. Labyrinth had one of those for a long time. (Well, mostly empty. But she can make sure the fence is running parallel to where she wants to go and it'll count.)

Then she crosses the darkness, towards that cape.

That feels like a very questionable idea, actually.