Explosion Touch: the ability to make anything you touch combust.

Once Josh has calmed down and can actually breathe without sounding like an asthmatic, he tells them what he saw. He skirts around the details of the last part of his dream, not wanting to trouble them with what he'd seen.

"So you saw Frangipane?" Hayley sounds almost disappointed. "I really thought you'd see Alley Cat."

"I saw him, but it was different. He didn't seem to notice me," he says.

"Yeah, but I'd hoped he'd reach out to you, try to fuck with your head."

"But Ashley's the one doing the fucking-with-mind stuff," Tiana retorts. "It makes sense that he would see her too."

"I know, I just-" Hayley clenches her fists. "We are running out of time. If they keep cat and mousing us, they'll either kill us before we get to them or we'll be too late to stop them."

"Do we even know what their endgame is?" Tyler asks. "He's after the stone's powers, yeah, we know that much, but what then? He becomes god? Alley Cat is an amalgamation of souls and body parts, he won't last long, even with that power."

Tiana and Josh look at each other, once again on the same wave length. "He's dying," they say.

"I swear to god, you guys keep having these tiny epiphanies." Hayley sighs. "But you're right. He's dying."

"And you knew?" Josh raises an eyebrow.

"Of course I knew. I thought it was obvious. But that can't be why he wants the power."

"Why not? A psychopathic Frankenstein monster is trying to live forever with the power of time and space. Pretty cliche, if you ask me."

"Or he could be restoring the bodies of the people he's made of," Tiana suggests. "We don't know for sure."

"Whatever. Motive doesn't matter. All that matters is that we. Are. Running. Out of. Time." Hayley pounds her hand on her leg or enunciate each word.

"We've got plenty of time. You have me." Tiana grins.

"I think he might be attacking the central hospital first," Josh says. Tiana's face goes white when he says that. "I- I saw the hospital, it was collapsing. But I didn't see Alley Cat."

"That- that sounds like my dream," Tiana stammers. "We were on that street, where my dad works, and Alley Cat's robots were swarming the road. The only difference is I saw Alley Cat and Frangipane there, fighting us. So maybe I saw the beginning part, and you saw the end."

"Does that mean you two just premonitioned us winning?" Tyler jokes.

Josh looks down at his hands, still holding Tyler's and Tiana's. "I don't think so."

"What do you mean?" Hayley asks.

He shoots her a look. "I mean there's two ways we can do this- go after our original target, Canopy Hall, or protect the street. Either way, I think we're screwed."

"That's helpful," Tyler scoffs.

"It's all I have going for us, which is more than what you're contributing. That shit gave me a panic attack," Josh growls in response, suddenly way more angry than he liked.

"Boohoo, we're fighting a goddamn evil scientist, you think that matters right now?"

"What the fuck did you just say?" Tiana stands up, dropping Josh's hand.

Tyler does the same, not towering over her anymore but still being quite a taller than Tiana. "What're you, deaf?"

"Don't make me cave your face in."

"Like you could stop yourself from getting into a fight. Come on, Tatiana, hit me. I dare you."

"This is why Josh will never like you. You're so apathetic and selfish."

"Oh, I'm selfish? I'm sel- you're the one who dragged that weak sack of shit into this, and you're the one who thinks with your fists and not that empty skull of yours."

"At least I can think! You're so fucking brainless you think you're better than a bunch of sophomores. That's weak sauce."

"Fuck you."

"Fuck you!"

"Everybody shut up!" Hayley barks, breaking the three out of this rage-filled trance. "That's it. We are officially out of time. Tiana, you and Josh take a walk."

Josh looks between Tyler and Tiana, who start to realize what they said to each other. They both look ashamed, but Tiana saves face better than Tyler. She heads out the door, looking over her shoulder at Josh in anticipation.

"I didn't mean it," is the first thing she says when Josh joins her on her porch. Her head hangs down to her chest, claws digging into the wooden stairs. "I didn't, I swear."

"Hey, I know, Tati. We're all just high strung," Josh assures her softly, sitting next to her on the stairs.

"I don't know why I got so... angry. I really wanted to hit him, but I didn't, because that was wrong. He didn't do anything."

"It must be Frangipane's influence," he suggests. "She's getting in our heads even more than before."

"We need to act soon or else we'll tear out each other's throats." Tiana lets her head fall against Josh's shoulder, and he gently runs his hands through her jungle of tangled curls.

"Hayley will come up with something. She always does."

"Let's just hope it's not too late for us."

After a few moments of watching the sun dipping below the roofs of the houses, calm finally replaced the anger and anxiety that had been pumping through them. Hayley pokes her head out the front door, blank eyes looking around for them.

"You guys civil?" She asks.

"Yeah, we are," Josh responds. "Sorry about that."

"He knows I didn't mean it, right?" Tiana says hopefully. "Because I didn't."

"Tyler knows." Hayley smiles, but drops it immediately. "But you know what we need to do next."

"Shit."

"Do we know when they're attacking?" Josh asks.

"Nope. But the good thing is they won't know when we attack either."