An old, beat up pickup - as innocuous as they come - slewed sideways to skid to a halt just behind the rear car in the convoy, and another cape climbed steadily out.

It was all Exhilarate could do to keep from rolling his eyes behind the mask. This wasn't a group of superheroes. This was a barely cohesive gang of lunatics with powers. And him, trying to hold it all together.

At least some things were going right. Backlight had been spotless with his arrival, crashing right where he was meant to. Caliber was up high to provide cover. Miasma was blanketing the area in fog. Autarch and Backlight, with support from Menagerie's animals, were intimidating the guards of the van. And now, with my arrival, that van was trapped between a wrecked SWAT van, a bulldozer, and another truck.

And then, there were the things that hadn't been in the plan. Like the 70s music rolling across the block, the fact that the prison van's windows had acquired a spattering of bird crap, or the spastic goose honking madly and trying to swim through its front windscreen. Truly terrifying.

Well, so long as they didn't end up slapped with a label like 'the Rabid Geese', he guessed he could live with that. Pulling a loudspeaker from the seat of the van, he turned to address the convoy. It was one of those gimmicky ones that distorted voices coming through it. Probably more 'corny' than effective as an intimidation tactic, but every little helps.

"Police convoy! You are surrounded! We do not - I repeat, do not - want to hurt you. Release the prisoner and this can end peacefully!"