---

Quentin & Reed Taylor

---

---

Strong Gold Community, Silver Hills

These days, reunions were never a bad thing for the Taylor brothers.

"... You sure you don't need a ride back?" Quentin asked one last time as he finished locking up the cab. His gear was all in place now; his RAVEN vest worn over the standard uniform he'd hastily slipped on just under an hour before, trusty old Remington 870 dangling by his side from its sling. Strange as it might've seemed for some, it felt natural wearing it all - something he'd become accustomed to over the years.

On the other hand, Reed was formally dressed for the occasion, though he had a holster concealed at his side with a CZ75 compact slipped inside. Just in case. "I'll call a cab, thanks." He waved Quentin off, before taking a step back towards him. "Look, I know you'll probably get something sorted with RAVEN, but if you still can't get some living arrangements - you're welcome anytime."

"What, with you and all of Cass' old junk? Never knew you had the room to spare." Quentin snorted, a wry grin forming across his face. And like that, he pulled Reed into a fraternal embrace. "Enjoy yourself, baby brother. And stay safe."

"You too, Quent." Reed smiled warmly as he was relinquished from Quentin's embrace. "See you later." Nodding, Quentin gave him the thumbs up before heading off. Knowing that the speech would be starting soon and aware that the traffic had left the both of them running late, he set off at a steady pace, brushing past over spectators and staff present for the event. One perk about wearing the RAVEN uniform was that nobody would bat an eyelid if he ever needed to take charge of things. Sometimes, he'd missed the inconspicuous look afforded by plain clothes, yet in the current climate of fear and insecurity, a uniform made people listen. Having a shotgun helped a little, too.

His gaze scanned the crowd, vigilant for anything that looked suspicious in the slightest. Pure, Alleigance, or something else, it felt like another threat was always lurking quietly from behind the corner. It didn't help with all the Saviors around - not all of them were assholes, yet something didn't feel right about them. Maybe it was just a side effect of being in his line of work.

Unsurprisingly, his theory about being late was confirmed when he found himself arriving just in time for Meifeng's uncle to start his speech. She'd spoken a little about him, but Quentin had never deigned to ask about him too much. Why? Well, maybe it was just never something that interested him. He seemed a nice enough guy, wealthy and benevolent, a man who'd paid a large contribution towards rehousing the thousands displaced by the destruction of Verthaven and was now here to open a sparkling new community with the same kind of interests in mind. A rare combination in the good ol' USA. Thoughts drifted to his daughter, Mika and Quentin remembered her too. She'd once helped save Cass and Reed alongside Meifeng. Feels like a lifetime ago.

Scanning the crowd once more, Quentin was eager to catch wind of either one of the Zhaos - he hadn't seen Meifeng since the aftermath of Prague whilst Lihua was a face he'd not seen in years. He wondered just how the Concrete Dragon was handling herself these days, now a teacher in Baybridge's local Academy. But there was one face that Quentin soon recognised, after a moment of disbelief. Cindy? Yeah, it was Cindy. It'd been a long time, but Quentin had never forgotten any of the faces he'd fought alongside back in Verthaven. Reed had mentioned her in high praises too. Glad to see her doing well.

But by this point, Quentin realised he'd kept quiet for too long. Clearing his throat, Quentin brought a hand to his comms piece, switched it on and finally spoke up. "Counterpoint in place. Sorry I'm late."

---

Reed, by this point, had already worked his way into the crowd. Being here made a nice difference from the hustle and bustle of work in the city, yet he couldn't help but keep thinking back to that particular case. His thoughts wandered to the victims, how their killer was still out there somewhere - waiting for another opportunity to strike.

But tonight, Reed had another duty - keeping an eye on things from a place nobody would expect. On the stage, he'd spotted Cindy in all the appropriate gear and a few other familiar faces he'd made out among the masses attending, yet Reed had also pushed for planting several plain clothes agents within the crowd to keep an eye on things from within. Extra eyes never hurt, particularly when nobody knew they were watching.

---

Shizuka & Haruka Takashiro, Akemi Shinoda, & Daphne "Holly" Hope.

---

---

Strong Gold Community, Silver Hills_

Once Jiao-Long's (short) speech ended, Shizuka mimicked the rest of the crowd and clapped politely, before he let himself to be guided by them towards the stall areas. He fidgeted in his suit uncomfortably - he had changed out of the expensive one for the more normal kind - when his earpiece buzzed, and Cindy's clipped voice came out of it: "Alright, is everyone in position? I know this is a fun event, but don't fool around too much - we still need to keep an eye out."

He put his hands into his pockets. He wasn't too happy about being stuck in such awkward clothes again, but at least this was less retarded than the layers of armor that most of the RAVENs were wearing. Besides, unless someone actually scrunitized at the tiny RAVEN badge pinned on the left of his blazer collar, he could easily blend in with the rest of the crowd.

Before he could respond to Cindy's radio message, someone called him from behind. "Shizu!"

He turned around to see Haruka in a red checkered dress shirt, jeans and sneakers. Shizuka looked at him. "So much for a formal party," he muttered to himself, and tugged at his suit collar.

Akemi, who was in a plain white one-piece dress, stepped forward from behind Haruka. "It really is you, Shizuka." She embraced the silver-haired twin. "Welcome back."

Shizuka returned the hug. "Yeah. Sorry, but I'm on patrol work, so I can't really spend time with you two."

"We'll be fine. We can talk later, after all this is over." Akemi gave him a reassuring smile. "But... be careful. By the way, you look great in a suit." She then turned to leave, and Haruka followed suit, giving his brother a quick wave before the two disappeared among the sea of people.

Shizuka sighed. He really could do with a long vacation (far away from work) and spend more time with his family. There were so many things he wanted to talk to them about, to do with them together...

He was pulled out from his thoughts when his comm-piece buzzed again. "Phantom?" It was Holly. "Please confirm your position."

"Damn, I forgot," Shizuka muttered. "Yeah, I'm in position and all ready to start the patrol."

"The patrol duty already began fifteen minutes ago," Holly said, and she sounded mildly amused. Then there was a moment of static before Holly's calm voice spoke again through a private channel, "I am told that Meifeng is also at the party right now. Are you sure you don't want to speak with her?"

"No," Shizuka replied, watching Cindy walking around the site with a clipboard in her arm, busily barking orders to the other agents. "I have a feeling that I'm the last person she wants to meet at this moment."

"I do understand your concern for Rogue Wave's... instability, and I hope everything would work out eventually between you all - because you still have to work together in many more assignments and missions in the future," Holly said softly.

"I know - but it's not up to me to decide," Shizuka sighed, and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'll let Cindy handle her first. She's closer to Mei than I am."

He glanced at his watch; it was an antique model that worked on mechanics (winding) rather than battery. Well, his power would never get along with anything that ran on electricity.

Tonight is going to be a long night.

---

Lihua Zhao, Meifeng Zhao, Lihn Phan , & Kei Phan

_@FernStone

---

---

Strong Gold Community, Silver Hills.

The music, chatting, and footsteps made the Zhao family all but inaudible to outsiders.

Not that they were particularly chatty tonight. Like Meifeng wanted, they were giving the place a look. They were strolling through the whole community. The place was certainly nice. Though, Lijuan kept wanting to run off at the first interesting thing she saw - and was promptly stopped by Lihua's wrapping around the child's shoulder. They kept walking, up until a loud stomch growl came from Lijuan.

Both of the Zhao women looked down at Lijuan, and the child had her hands on her stomach.

"I'm hungry." Lijuan whined.

Meifeng shrugged as she threw Lijuan a disarming smile. "Alright, then, how about we get some food, then?" She suggested. "On me... I'm getting tired of walking around here looking at the food."

Lihua sighed.

"... Just nothing too fattening." Lihua ordered. "She already eats too much." She subtly gestured towards Lijuan's growing stomach.

"Hey!" Lijuan immediately snapped back. "I'm not fat!" Fists were tightly clenched.

Meifeng laughed.

"She already has our inherent anger." She playfully said to Lihua.

Prompting the matriarch to roll her eyes up into her head. "Don't encourage her...." She groaned in a slight irritation. Her eyes gazed upon the area around her. There wasn't much here that she wanted to eat. Only terrible Asian food.

Her eyes landed upon a sign "Belgium French Fries."

"Oh." Lihua remembered getting some of those french fries back in Verthaven. They were pretty good. "Let's get those." She pointed.

"Yeah, sure." Meifeng said. The prices weren't too unreasonable. Five dollars for a tray of french fries!

She stepped over to it, with Lihua and Lijuan behind her. Each of them sat down on one of the stools, and pulled her wallet out her pocket. "Alright, three or-"

"Two." Lihua inserted. "I'll be sharing mine with Lijuan."

"... Alright, two orders of these Belgium french fries. With the cajun remoulade on top." Which sounds weird as hell. Since Belgium and France were two different countries. But whatever. She handed the woman some money, and she came back a few moments later with some french fries. Handing it to them.

Meifeng didn't even waste a second in pulling a french fry and taking a bite out of it.

"Mmmm.... This is good." She said with a smile on her face.

Lijuan was reaching for Lihua's tray of french fries - only to get quickly deflected, and handed one from Lihua.

Being dragged around by a six year old girl had worked up the appetites of all of the Phan family. It had been Kei that had ended up pushing the other two towards a 'Belgium French Fries' stall. Lihn hadn't argued, her brother was the one who knew the most about food.

"Two orders of french fries," Kei went ahead with the ordering, looking at Lihn expectantly until she handed over money to the woman serving. Thanh wriggled her arms, before yawning loudly. Lihn just sighed. Her headache was getting worse.

Glancing to the side, Lihn noticed a family of three who'd ordered very similarly to them. It took her far too long to recognise one of the three. Leaving collecting the fries to her brother she took a step towards the Zhao family.

"I thought there was a chance I might see you here, Lihua," Lihn smiled, realising what she said probably wasn't the best greeting after the words came out.

Almost immediately, Lihua stopped and turned her head towards the woman - whom she was more than content with ignoring a few moments ago. It was Lihn. One of her neighbors up in Greencrest.

"Lihn," Lihua greeted her. "It's so great to see you here."

"Huh?" Meifeng raised an eyebrow as she leaned back to get a good look at the lady that was talking to Lihua. From the way they were talking, they were clearly friends of some sort. Though, that's just a good sign of how much old ironsides here has changed. Meifeng couldn't help but smile a bit.

"What? I leave Baybridge for like five years and you go off and make friends?" Meifeng teased. "What's the world coming to?"

"I told you things change." Lihua answered, before she focused solely on Lihn. "Did I ever mention that I had another daughter?" She asked Lihn.

... Little did they know, the sneaky Lijuan started gorging herself on Lihua's fries.

"Well... This is Meifeng." Lihua said. "My first daughter. You've likely seen her on the news."

"Hey." Meifeng waved. "Great to meet your acquaintance."

"Great to see you too, Lihua," Lihn smiled with a slight nod. "I think you mentioned her a few times." But not often enough for Lihn to remember any details. She turned to look at Meifeng. "Pleasure to meet you, Meifeng. I-"

"You have any hands free to hold this, Lihn?" Kei had gotten the fries and was holding one out to his sister, taking a moment to realise he had interrupted a conversation. "Oh, sorry."

Lihua just had to roll her eyes. The nerve of some people.

"It's fine," Lihn shook her head slightly at Kei, managing to move Thanh so she was holding her with one arm to take the fries from her brother. "This is my brother, Kei. Though I complain about him enough that most people who talk to me for longer than a few minutes find out about his existance."

"Yes, I've heard of the infamous Kei." Lihua said with some playful sarcasm in her voice. She smiled a bit.

"Hey." Meifeng greeted him.

Kei just shrugged, munching on fries, though he gave a nod in response to Meifeng. He was pretty engrossed in eating and didn't particularly care for conversation.

"His infamy is increasing by the minute," Lihn laughed, nudging her brother to try and make him socialise more. It failed. "So, how long have you been back at Baybridge, Meifeng?"

"A few hours, in fact." Meifeng simply shrugged. "I arrived this morning, and I've been in Greencrest the whole time." She near-somberly said. "I'm probably going to be here up until the next big shi- ehhh, thing pops up and Maximilian throws me at it." Meifeng quickly corrected herself when she realized that she was in the presence of two little girls.

---

Cindy Gabrielle Keagan, & Reed Taylor.

_{@Zombiedude101}

---

Strong Gold Community, Silver Hills.

"Yeah, one ice tea, please."

Cindy politefully said to the vendor as she handed him three dollars that she had in pocket change, and he handed her a large container full of ice tea. She took a sip out of it from her straw as she made casual steps around the fair. It was a pain in the ass with these high heels, but she'll managed. She was a stylish woman, above all else. She took large, hip swaying steps as she surveyed the area. Giving them a brief scan before she kept moving.

This place was actually great. She would have loved to visit this place on her own time... but the work of a DOVE is never over. She was taking careful, and deliberate steps as she moved through the fair. She didn't see any of the kids, but she knew that they were around here somewhere.

As she took steps, she heard everyone checking in through the comms. First Alice, then Maxine, then Quentin and Reed, then Shizuka. A small smile found it's way onto her lips as she stepped toward.

"Good, good." Cindy said into the comms. "Keep me posted."

"You're seeing about as much as I am." Reed spoke up from behind wih a chuckle, catching her by surprise.

"Oh." Cindy said as she quickly whipped around, and saw the tall figure of Reed Taylor. A fellow DOVE, and a man that she had much respect for his actions during the Verthaven disaster. She faced Reed, and then nodded her head. "It's great to see you here - in person I mean."

"You too." He warmly nodded, sharing the same sentiment as she did. "How's thing been?"

"Not good." Cindy sighed as she shook her head. "Right when I thought everything was starting to look up for us, the god damn Beast shows up and ruins everything." She sighed. "Some of the kids I've been watching have been getting... attacked."

"Quentin mentioned overhearing some crusty fuckers over in Brookacres mentioning the Campbell kid. He's one of your cases, right?" Reed had recalled.

"Yeah...." Cindy trailed off, shaking her head. "Kid's been through a lot - seven years ago NEST would have been more than content with throwing him in a cell for manslaughter." She adjusted her glasses as she looked at him. "Thank God things have changed, or else he'd probably end up a Changeling or something the moment he got out."

The word sent a shiver down his spine, even now. "You're doing good work, Cindy. Better than me." It made him wonder if another victim was out there tonight.

"Yeah, thanks." Cindy answered. "I'm doing my best to make a difference in these kids - and it's paying off."

"Don't mention it." Reed affirmed her. "Just do me a favour, keep them out of Starrybanks if you can. This case I'm working... there's a killer out there, targeting metahumans." Reed spoke in a hushed tone.

"Yeah, yeah..." Cindy trailed off. Starrybanks belongs to the White Spider Society. The last group of people that she wants around kids. She knows that they say they don't employ kids... but, she'd be dumb as a bag of rocks if she accepted that without even an off thought.

"But, can you do me a favor?" Cindy asked.

"Sure." Reed nodded.

"I mostly have my eye out for those aforementioned kids I have my eye out for." Cindy said. "I know we're not supposed to really... track them like this. But we're surrounded by Saviors, and you know the rumors?" The rumors about how the Saviors and the Pure are one and the same. They've been there since the Pure's conception.

"I'll keep tabs on things." Reed promised her.

"... You know who they are, right?" Cindy asked.

"I know," Reed nodded in assurance. "Don't worry too much. I haven't lost my cop's instincts."

Cindy nodded.

---

Silver Hills, Strong Gold Community.

Hours pass by, the redheaded cyclist was none the more content spending that time investigating every nook and cranny of these homes, and when she got bored of that, found the nicest little spot to take a snooze until the opening. Hardly much of an alarm was needed, as the growing crowds and plugged in speech was plenty loud enough to wake her and let her know what time it really was...

Party time!

Now that she has got these Z's under her belt, she had all the energy she needs for whatever tonight was going to throw at her. She stood herself up, caught some stretches, and made her way out the building from where she originally came in: slipping through the upstairs bathroom window, and carefully inching her way down to the patio roof where she could safely jump off.

"Phew!" She sighed, brushing off the dust from her clothes. The house was a little stiff. She craned her neck around to see if the coast was clear, and then quickly scurried through the bushes to get behind the gates at the front of the venue. There were a bunch of RAVENS wadnering about with their armor on - probably the rich guy's secucirty, it didn't surprise her that those guys could be bought so easily, but that wasn't her concern tonight. She was just in it for all the free food there's gonna be. She made a bee line toward the entrance and was gonna take a step in until...

Fuck! One of the RAVENS saw her. She eyeballed the one with no particular love, now a common gesture the RAVENS have since gotten used to. She noticed the metal detector in his hand. Okay, okay, play it cool.

"Hey, you there," he called, "I don't recall seeing you getting screened at the entrance."

"Ah yeah? Don't recall seein' anybody there either." She lied.

The RAVEN was able to easily read into this lie and approached even closer with a metal detector in hand. Okay, play it cool, he's just going to wave it around and...

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Fuck!

The guy was just about to put his hands on her until she put her own up to block him.

"Don't even think about it, beefcake." She said sarcastically, her other hand reaching into her back pocket. The RAVEN immediately got defensive, and put a finger to his ear piece until she procured a pocket knife and slapped it into his hand.

"Try again now, buddy." She groaned, rolling her eyes. She was all clear.

"Your name, please." He requested. "It's for the record."

"Jolene." She lied, deadpan. The RAVEN looked at her and shook his head.

"Ugh, fine." She moaned. "Reyna. Baker. " The agent nodded and waved her off with his other hand. Reyna took the invitation without hesitating and proceeded into the street. Huh. Her eyes marveled at how many people were here, and... the mood! Everyone was dressing as nice as they could! She snickered a bit, under her breathe. And here she was, dressed the way she is, sticking out like a sore thumb in her typical boots, fatigues, and leather jacket combo. Every dumb RAVEN here probably knew she was in the building since the first asshole set eyes on her.

It went without saying she didn't hold that much respect for them. Her cousin got roughed up in Mendel, and got caught in a cross fire that resulted in her losing sight in one of her eyes. Reyna's own sister being a target of a few's harassment. On top of those incidents, their already deteriorating reputation didn't help their case. As the rumor goes, they were made to combat Hands, and reflected the Hands' own REAPERS. Two sides of a same coin or whatever.

Too bad for them, she only set out to eat all their food. They must be itching to start something. The food bar is right where she went, and she was already salivating at the wonderful array of smells... is that a roasted duck? Hoo boy, that isn't going to last long.

---

Lihua Zhao, Meifeng Zhao, Lihn Phan , & Kei Phan

_{Written in collaboration with @FernStone & @Spoopy Scary}

---

Strong Gold Community, Silver Hills.

Their conversation went on and on, until....

"Lijuan!" Lihua hissed as she finally looked down, and noticed that Lijuan ate almost all the french fries on the tray. That girl's going to be a land whale at this rate. "I said you weren't going to eat like that anymore."

"I'm sorry." Lijuan said in a tone that made it sound like a complete lie.

Meifeng chuckled for a moment - only to receive a sharp glare from Lihua - before she immediately went quiet.

"So, how are you all enjoying this great little fair?" Meifeng asked. "Well, no, what I really want to know is how you all feel about Mr. Liu opening a brand new community...." Her eyes drifted over towards Lihua, whom she assumes still has a negative opinion of her brother.

"Well, if you ask me," Lihua injected. "He's trying a bit too hard to sound like a good person." She rolled her eyes up into her head as she bitterly spoke. "All he's really trying to do is put himself up on a pedestal... When, truth be told, there'll always be someone out there to criticize him."

"Hmm, well," Lihn paused, looking thoughtful. "I can't say I hold a large opinion on this. The fair itself has been fun, if a bit busy. But the new community? Well it sounds like a good enough idea but we'll see how it pans out." She looked over at Lihua. "I can, honestly, see some of the things you say though. I missed most of his speech but it was easy enough to tell there was... some kind of fakeness about it." Lihn shrugged.

"Of course there is." Lihua answered, she reached for a drink that wasn't even there. She shook her head. "Truth be told, no one truly buys into that - except for his-" Lihua finger quoted, "Hardcore supporters. But, no one's going to criticize when they're really just here for the party."

"C'mon," Meifeng said, turning her body towards Lihua. "I know the two of you don't really get along, but ease up just a little bit."

"That man is foolishly idealistic." Lihua rolled her eyes up into her head. "It's been that way since the two of us were young.... But, perhaps you do have a point." Lihua sighed.

She leaned back just a little bit, just look at Lihn (Kei probably didn't realize they were even talking). "In case you didn't notice - Jiao-Long up there is this person's older brother." Meifeng raised a hand up into the air, and pointed down at Lihua, whom merely rolled her eyes up into her head.

"I figured out that much," Lihn responded. "I do like to pay attention to these kinds of things. I wouldn't be very good at my job if I didn't." Though, it wasn't something Lihua had talked about before. Lihn made a mental note of that.

"And that job is?" Meifeng asked.... She had literally no idea what Lihn could have meant. She could be a garbage woman for all she knew.

"I would wager..." a familiar voice echoed from behind the Zhao family, "being acutely perceptive as she is... sociology or... more fittingly, social psychology."

"Hey, wait, that voice sounds familiar..." Meifeng said as she turned her head to look over her shoulder.

"Currently a therapist," Lihn responded to Meifeng before trying to look past the Zhao family (a bit difficult considering the height difference). "But quite an accurate wager." She fell silent, listening curiously.

---

---

Baron met Meifeng with a smile, and stretched his arms out to her. The past seven years has done a bit to help age him, looking as young as he did when he was thirty-five. His black hair had silver strands in it, and was clean shaven as usual. He wore the typical black dress suit and tie, but with a purple dress shirt underneath.

"Baron, hey!" Meifeng greeted him as she turned around. She recognized the man almost immediately - he was Baron Moreau. The neuropsychologist extraordinaire! Meifeng and Baron kept in touch while she was out, and their relationship was pretty good. Despite the fact that Meifeng couldn't get a solid read on the man "I didn't expect to see you here."

Lihua merely shook her head, and kept quiet. She didn't have anything to say to Baron.

"I'm scheduled to meet with DOVE tomorrow night, and I thought I would stop in to see the opening." Baron said, still smiling. "Look at you, you've gotten so big! Try not to hurt me, okay?"

He tilted his head toward her and shook his leg. "I'm a cripple, you know."

Meifeng winked.

"Oh, I never noticed." Meifeng playfully said, before she turned to look over at Lihn for a moment. Baron was a big name with the DOVEs - even though he never was one. Rumor has it that he had connections all the way up to Deborah.

"So, who's your friend Captain Zhao? She sounds like a bright one."

"Oh?" Meifeng said. "This is... Lihn?" She said, almost as if she was unsure of her. "Heh, literally just met her five minutes ago - you're better off asking old ironsides about her." Meifeng said in reference to Lihua, shrugging.

Lihn just nodded in affirmation to what Meifeng said, not saying anything herself. She had just about figure out who the Baron was and was internally freaking out (the headache didn't help with keeping her own mind completely calm).

Baron gave Meifeng a hollow smile. Tsk, tsk. First step of avoiding a tense environment - in a social setting - is to not point out the elephant in the room. Privately, it's good for development, but the case between him and Lihua - that had to be worked out on its own. For a setting such as this... it was less appropriate. But the damage was done. He would hope Lihua could play the same game.

"It's nice to see you coming along, Q-- Lihua..." Baron said to Lihua, catching himself at the last second. There was a brief moment of sincerity. "How'd you come about meeting Lihn?"

Lihua didn't like being addressed in a conversation she was content with staying out of - but she wouldn't be the woman she is today if she breaks down like a crybaby over a situation not being ideal.

"She's one of my neighbors over in Greencrest." Lihua answered. "We met a few years back, and she ended up being my therapist whenever I need one."

She quickly peered towards Lijuan, who was looking up at Lihua like she had no idea what was going on. She was probably a tad frightened by Baron, but Lihua ruffed her hand through her bobcut to calm her..

"She's a very good therapist at that." Lihua answered.

"Oh, is that right?" Baron chirped, picking up his mood almost immediately. "That's good, very good. I look forward to young blood in the field."

He extended his hand to Lihn with a bright smile on his face. "I'm Dr. Baron Moreau, I teach at the University of Washington. It's my pleasure."

"Lihn Phan," Lihn responded, going to shake Baron's extended hand. He shook too, his other hand wrapping around. "A pleasure to meet you. I've heard of your work and it really is quite amazing." She was speaking a bit more nervously than she normally would do, being a generally calm person.

"Amazing?" Baron parroted, backing up a bit. He rubbed the back of his neck a bit and deliberately looked away with a slight smile. "Well, thank you, I have to say that the work I've been studying on these last couple of years is experimental... but I'm seeing progress. With DOVE's cooperation, of course. I send back reports of my studies to them when I can, and come into town myself to give lectures and presentations when I have enough material to discuss."

Lihn looked slightly apologetic at his reaction to the word she used to describe her work. "I've always found studies related to metahumans interesting, however experimental many are. Though I've, uh, only ever known what I can find in books and online which is sadly lacking. Well, really, I find anything psychology related interesting but that's beside the point..." She was rambling a bit, she realised, as Kei gave her an exasperated look in a way to tell her to calm down a little.

Baron calmly put his hands behind his back and smiled. Leaning forward, he spoke slyly and quietly to Lihn. "Well, I might have a surprise for you then! Tomorrow night at the DOVE facility, I'll be giving a lecture... and its open doored."

"Oh?" Lihn blinked, taking a moment to process the information. "Is it really open doored?" As far as she was aware she was free the next night, excluding the responsibility of looking after the sleeping six year old in her arms.

"Opened doored and live." Baron assured. "If you don't feel like leaving home, it'll be live-streamed on DOVE's site."

"Well, I'll have to see, but I'll definitely watch it one way or another," Lihn smiled. "It all depends on my daughter." As she spoke she shifted Thanh slightly in her arms (which were now getting tired from holding her for so long). "But yes, I'm not going to miss watching it."

"I hope to see you there!" Baron beamed. "Here's a tidbit for you that no one else knows yet: I will be talking about the effects on the psyche that comes with being a metahuman, what differentiates us, and the social repercussions, as well as how to manage those repercussions and ultimately offer possible solutions to the growing problem of anti-meta dissent."

"That sounds very interesting," Lihn's dark eyes lit up slightly at what Baron said. It was something she'd always wondered about, but of course there was no hard evidence about it. "I've been curious about that for a long time."

"Damn," Meifeng said... earning a hostile look from Lihua. She awkwardly laughed, before she cleared her throat and finished her line of thought. "Sounds like you got big things planned." She now wishes that she asked for something to drink as well. "Probably won't show up myself - being a RAVEN and all - but I know that your speech will interest a good friend of mine." That friend being Cindy. Boy, Meifeng just knows she's pissed. She'll have to hear the lecture tomorrow.

"I do have to say that it is interesting." Lihua added. "But, I have things to do tomorrow - being a teacher for the illustrious Academy in town, after all."

"Speaking of," Baron pried, "has DOVE yet issued their own set of regulations for the academies? For the sake of their own interests, I would expect them to keep eye on students' development. I haven't yet entered one of the academies to see for myself how involved they are."

"Yes." Lihua quickly answered. The DOVEs were heavily involved in the academies - a bit too much. Lihua can understand why DOVE would want these kids to stay safe, but it's getting to the point where they're coddling them. She merely rolled her eyes. "They've well gotten across that we are to teach them to use their powers - not fight with them. Along with a few other redundant rules that are supposed to be... in their best interest." Lihua said the last part sarcastically. Which well got across that she thought they were bullshit.

Baron nodded pensively. "I see. I'd imagine that they are looking out for the best interests of everyone. Regardless, I'm interested to learn what they've done with the more educational courses to see what kind of social conditioning they're exposed to. I suppose that wouldn't be any of your concern as a power instructor, you are more interested in..." Baron paused for a moment. "...substance! The sociological development and how they integrate may be better suited for the professors... lest DOVE officials have already taken over those positions?"

"Yes and no." Lihua quickly answered. "From what I've heard, DOVE personally selects who's in what teaching position. It could be a DOVE, or someone they figured would be the best for the position." She shrugged.

"Anywho..." Lihua said to cut off the conversation here and there. She slid off the stool, holding Lijuan's hand tightly. "We have to get going... we have a reservation at the VIP section." She started walking.

"Yeah, might as well get moving." Meifeng hopped off the stool as well. "Nice to meet you two, and it's great to see you again, Baron...."

_{Written in collaboration with @Mr Allen J@JunkMail@SepticGentleman}

---

Silver Hills, Strong Gold Community.

Everything was falling into place, for Ari.

Ari had gotten a taxi to her destination, as the only car she had was stolen (and she was fairly certain that there would be RAVEN operatives on-site). And now, she was meeting up with the Spider Society, and namely- Auri.

---

"This celebration is excellent, wouldn't you say, sister?"

Lillian of the Croquetaigne sisters spoke to her twin sister in French. They were in the VIP area, as expected of people of such importance as the White Spider Society. Though, they were secluded from the rest of the group. Too many people were too "proud" to even associate with.

Even though many of the people here are clients.

"Yes, it is." Viollette tapped glasses with Lillian, and the two sipped their wine. With their tall, bodyguard, standing over them with her arms crossed. Jasmine Lloyd. One of the Metahumans who were attacked by the Pure during the nonsense. Now their loyal bodyguard.

Loyal as money could buy, of course.

"Say," Viollette started off. "Where is Miss Auclair at?"

Lillian threw a thumb towards the front entrance of the building, and softly spoke, "... She's "meeting a friend.""

Both sisters rolled their eyes.

---

Just as the Croquetainge sisters stated, Auri was waiting at the entrance of the nice house that Jiao-Long assigned for his VIP guests. It was great that Auri managed to get them in despite their... professions. Yet, everyone was throwing them funny looks. Auri herself was waiting for Ari to show up. Auri herself would be hard to miss wearing a fancy red dress that ended a bit above her knees. She had a golden necklace on with diamonds at the end. She omitted her glasses this time - choosing to wear contacts.

When Ari approached, there was an obvious difference in dress level. While Auri had a red dress, Ari wore a red skirt, and a strapless black top adjourned by a white blazer. She was already taller than Auri, but with black leggings and heels, she stood several inches taller than her friend.

"Sorry for the wait." Ari said, accentuating her accent for socialization's sake. "I hope you weren't waiting long."

"Only an hour." Auri said with a smile on her face. Obvious that she was joking. "Hurry, hurry, come in. The party's getting started!"

Ari smiled. Of course it was. She was just arriving.

"Lead the way, love."

Auri nodded her head, and nearly blushed at the love comment. However, she kept her composure, as she pivoted around on one foot, and started walking up the stairs. She opened the door, and stepped inside - holding it open for Ari.

"Thank you-" Ari said, moving through the doorway. She looked around the room, already seeing potential opportunities, but tore her eyes away from the patrons and returned them to Auri.

"If you have business to attend to, I can leave you to your enterprise." she said, shifting her weight onto one leg, and leaning out. "It's not like I can't meet you... after."

"Oh, of course." Auri said with a wide smile on her face. "It's not like we have to stick together like glue - go on, have your own fun." She laughed a little as she stepped off. She stopped as she looked over her shoulder at Ari, "But just don't get into any trouble, mon cheri."

Ari delicately placed her hand on her chest, with her fingers just grazing her collarbones.

"Me? Never."

---

So far, no George Burns had been sighted. Archie had been wandering about, waiting for Ari to pull something, or even just straight up grab him and lead him somewhere to wait for her while she pilfered. You just couldn't know with her.

"Excuse me, sir?"

Archie felt some tapping on his shoulder. He turned his attention to a RAVEN agent standing right behind him, in all the authority his black-colored armor was exuding. Was this Ari? It seemed risky to impersonate an agent, but he'd been surprised by her before. Oh well, best to just go with it. Archie paused for a moment before he proceeded to take out his phone and start typing. Agent obviously wasn't happy with this, as he stated a little more sternly, "Sir." Archie raised his free hand's finger, rather impolitely requesting the agent wait one moment. Seconds later, Archie raised his phone for the agent to read.


The agent crossed his arms and continued. "Very funny." He said, "Why don't you take that bag off your head and use your words?" Some more typing, coupled with a shred of deviance, and Archie responded.


The agent nodded. "Ah. Meta, right? Part of your 'physical condition'?" He asked, "C'mon, how much would it really hurt?" Not the hundred percent phrasing Archie was hoping for, but close enough. More typing.


In his head, Archie was snickering like a five-year-old. The agent didn't seem to share in his amusement however. "I'm sure it wouldn't be that bad." He said, confident in his assumption. Again, not the proper phrasing, but Archie made due. This was the closest he was going to get to a moment like this without the other party being aware of what has actually happening. Archie paused for a moment, bracing himself as he typed in the coup de grace. Probably not a very good idea, but damn it, he was not a man to pass something like this up. He showed his phone to the agent once again.


He'd done it. Finally, after years of waiting for the opportune moment, he'd Bane'd someone in reality. He was honestly hoping it wasn't Ari at this point, else the the moment would have lost its charm. Archie keeled over slightly, pretending to laugh even though he lacked the appropriate orifice for it. The agent, however, was done with the game. He reached forward and grabbed Archie's mask, yanking it off of his head. Immediately, the light show sprung up for all the surrounding event-goers to see. Bright yellow bubbles floating about, like a walking lava lamp. People were definitely staring by now. The agent looked at Archie with a slight look of confusion as he paused, put his hands on his sides, and lightly tapped his foot. He proceeded to type one more word on his phone and show it to the agent.


"Well, I don't see you choking to death." The agent replied, "Look, I got a report earlier from a civilian about a-"

Another RAVEN agent moved in, around the same height as the first. Male, tall, and imposing. Athletic build and facial hair to boot. He grabbed the first by the arm and pulled him away from Archie. "We have a situation on the eastern side of the building." He said, turning to face Archie, looking over the man for a moment before deeming that this situation played second-fiddle to the first. He pulled the mask out of the first agent's hand and tossed it to Archie.

"Sorry for the trouble, sir."

As the second agent pulled the first away, it didn't take Ari long to make her own appearance.

"You're welcome."

Archie took a moment to return his mask to its rightful place upon his cranium, the floating, viscous lights flowing into the opening as he brought it down to his collar and fastened the elastic. He immediately went back to his phone and began typing, before showing the screen to Ari.


"Surveying, and making a distraction, to get you out of the shitter." Ari said, nodding in the direction that the previous agents had walked off in. Ari looked normal, or at least, what she normally looked like around him. She stood with her arms crossed and looked half amused, and half frustrated. "Have you put together what you think is the plan, or do I have to tell you?"

More typing followed.


He was deleting these texts as soon as she was done reading them. Wasn't sending them to anyone either, just filling in the window and keeping his thumb away from the 'send' button. He was only this paranoid around her, it seemed.

Ari raised an eyebrow and seemed to think for a moment. "Drugs... brilliant idea! We'll get those too." She said in a low voice. She reached over and grabbed Archie, pulling him out of the main crowd. When they were for the most part situated, Ari grabbed him by the collar and began filling him in.

"Lots of people in here have jewelry. Wedding rings, gold bands, chains made of precious metals, wallets, purses..." Ari listed, catching herself going off on a tangent. She shook her head. "Lets just say that they'll be donating it to the Ari fund."


"We've been business partners for years." Ari said, grinning to him. She looked over her shoulder, and then back at Archie. "I'm going to go make a distraction. Stay in the building. I'll find you."


Ari pressed her hand to her lips and blew Archie a kiss before backing off into the crowd. He proceeded to tuck his phone away in his pocket and lean against a wall with his backpack at his side, getting right down to business by doing jack shit.

Times like this, he wished he could whistle.

---

"...And a bit of this... and a bit of that. Some of this, too..." Reyna was muttering to herself. She had a pair of tongs in her hand, filling up a plate in the other - all the while balancing another full plate on her left arm. She utterly intended treating herself with this buffet until she was set to burst. Potatoes, veggies like okra and peas, meats of all kinds, there was no restraint. To think that this Jiao-Long guy was just giving this all away, right? Right?

She didn't have to pay for any of this, right?

An issue to think about for another time. Now she had to think about balancing her meal to a nearby picnic table and go down on these savory, delicious, sons of bitches like she was payed to... thank God she didn't say that out loud.

Reyna procured her plastic cutlery and didn't hesitate a moment before digging in; the long road trip had built up her appetite, it was great to be welcomed with such a banquet.

---

Jackpot.

Across the room, there was a young woman who stuck out like a sore thumb. She had short hair, was around her height, and wore leather. She looked almost like a biker of sorts.

Ari excused herself to the nearest restroom and locked herself in to undergo binary fission. It was a simply, quick process. Similar to stepping in two different directions- but instead of falling or doing the splits, you literally split in two. The two copies stared at one another, and one of them warped, the blazer, skirt, shirt, and otherwise changing colors and reforming into clothing that matched the same style the woman at the table had- leather.

The leather-clad Ari ran her hand through her hair which lengthened like puddy into long black waves, and her lipstick changed from natural to a darker shade of red. She blinked and her eyes went from brown to blue. Her body structure changed from thin-athletic to a slightly more muscular shape, and her skin paled into a more porcelain-esque color. The copies, smiled at one another, and fist-bumped. Then the leather-clad Ari left the restroom, closing the door behind her so the original copy could remain.

So, now she had a target, and a disguise. Now to create the opportunity to rob everyone. Then it hit her.

The RAVEN agents.

Ari's copy rushed towards the general vicinity of her leather-clad target, and scouted the area for anyone in uniform.

Perfect. One of the men from before- the one that had bothered Archie.

Ari's copy waltzed up to the blonde-haired agent, and tapped the man on the shoulder. When he turned around, he very obviously looked her over. She smiled to him.

"I do like a man in uniform." She said, pursing her lips and making a slight popping sound at the end of the word 'uniform'. Her British accent gone. He looked over her shoulder, throwing her hair in an exaggerated fashion. She threw her hand up, motioning to the leather clad woman eating behind her with her thumb.

"My friend over there thinks you're way hot." she said, not taking her eyes off of the RAVEN agent. "Maybe if you're lucky she'll let me have some too, later." She said, giving him a bright smile.

The larger agent behind him, who had pulled him away from Archie pushed him towards Reyna. Ari briefly heard him say "Go for it, man!" as she walked away. Her smile dissolved into a smirk as she made her way back to the restroom. Easy as pie.

---

---

Reyna was doing well for herself in her mission to clear what was on her table, even going so far as muttering to herself a little nursery tune she used to sing for her sister. Taking a spoonful of peas and swallowing it down.

"Sittin' by the roadside on a summer day, chattin' with my classmates passing time away... lying in the shadows underneath the trees, goodness, how delicious eating goober peas..."

It was a silly song, needless to say. Merry liked it, though.

"Haven't heard that old song in quite some time..." Announced the voice of a large ham coming her way. It was one of the RAVENs lurking about.

Reyna slowly squeezed her eyes shut and bowed her head out of embarrassment as she groaned, "Oh... God, no..."

"It goes back quiet a couple years, y'know." He said with a smirk.

"Yep." Reyna simply answered, still not looking at the agent in front of her. She just wished he would go away. "I'm sure you'd know all about that."

"Oh, ouch," the RAVEN replied, but was only amused, "I'm not that old! Still plenty young enough for you..."

Reyna paused, and made a confused expression from under her arms. She slowly raised her head up and looked at the man as though he caught the wrong person. "I'm sorry, just, who are you?"

"Agent Eddy Styles. What's yours, angel?" He said as he sat down on the picnic table in front of her. Reyna subtly pulled her food away from him and toward her in defense. Yeah, she had no idea who this bozo was, and needless to say, not her type. The confidence this guy was exuding was almost gross. Like the green Nickelodeon slime from the 2000's. She set her elbow on the table and propped up her chin with her hand.

"I don't date cops." Reyna casually said, ignoring his question.

"I ain't no cop," Styles purred, "I--"

"You're RAVEN, I know." Reyna interrupted, pointing at the insignia on the man's armor. "It doesn't make you better, though."

"That's not what your friend said." The agent retorted, becoming defensive in retaliation of Reyna's attitude.

Reyna looked at Agent Styles incredulously. "What? Okay, I'm new in town, I don't got any--"

"I can't believe this." The agent grumbled. "Look, you don't get to just lie the second you change your mind and feel like back-peddeling."

Reyna's face went from incredulous and gradually grew angry the more this agent in front of her spoke. She stood up, and set her hands on the table. "Excuse me?"

"You girls always change your mind. You don't know what you're missing."

"What, like you're some hot shit?" Reyna said to him, raising her voice. At this point, she had stood completely up, with one of her feet propped on the bench. She was leaned forward, as though ready to take a leap onto the RAVEN. The people immediately around her was quietly looking on as the argument got more heated. Even his comrades took noticed, and started making cautionary steps forward. He, however, just made a laugh.

"Come on, I'm an agent of RAVEN. Don't ya know who we are?" He boasted. "We kind of are badasses. Check this out..."

A small fireball erupted in his hand. This RAVEN, like many of the others, was a meta-human... and like many of the others, used their traits like weapons. He continued,"I'm even on the squad of the great Hero of Prague."

"I don't give a fuck if you're a Nigerian prince!" Reyna hollered as she threw her jacket down behind her. Her skin was already going red as her adrenaline picked up. "You'll be dickless if you don't fuck off back to your bromo boy band!"

"Come on..." Agent Styles smiled smugly. He was stretching his hands out, preparing to deal with this domestic issue. "Don't do this to yourself."

"Keep talking... and I am going to hurt you." Reyna growled. Her muscles were tight in her fists.

"Try it," he goaded as he leaned forward, "free shot."

Reyna didn't hesitate and immediately took the opportunity to wind back her arm and clocked him right in the nose hard enough to send him staggering backward. The crowd immediately backed away, and even the agent's comrades suddenly took the situation seriously. However, they did not intervene, but stay in standby, confident that
their comrade could handle the situation. Styles recoiled with his hand on his face, but kept his balance. He pulled his hand away, wiping some blood from his nose. He looked back at Reyna who was stepping over the picnic table toward him.

"Come on, pussy!" She yelled at him.

Styles recomposed himself, not yet going to resort to his firepower before his combat training. He took a couple deep breathes.

"I am giving you one chance to surrender now," he said, "before--"

He was answered with another swift jab coming towards him. He immediately shut up and batted her fist away - acknowledging her boxing stance mid-fight and swept his leg hoping to catch one of her feet so he could pin her down, but she reacted quickly by simply lifting her forward foot up and capitalized on his now poor stance by giving the agent a right hook to the left side of his head.

The whole trade moved so quickly it was only a couple seconds that Styles staggered again, having caught his footing once more. He was dazed, but still fine enough to see straight, and looked at Reyna, who was already taking deep breathes. Her skins was flushed, and beads of sweat layed on her skin. She was quick, but was that as hard as she could go? He felt that Reyna was giving it all she had straight from the start. That would be her mistake.

He charged her this time, making a wide punch. He felt if he could use his size and reach to his advantage, he could overwhelm the girl. What he did not expect to feel, however, was what felt like a metal bar hitting the inside of his elbow. Reyna blocked his punch with an incredible amount of force, and now close quarters, headbutt Styles in the nose and used her other arm to elbow him right in the chest. Styles was knocked back and out of breath, with both arm and face in pain. The agent growled in anger, and balls of fire erupted in both of his hands. Reyna marched toward him.

He answered her challenged in a bathe of fire, two small streams gushing out from his hands. The agent expected to see a woman who had forced his hand, blistered in severe burns, soon to be carried out by an emergency response team, and later, a pile of paperwork.

The agent didn't expect to see a flash of the woman before him in the middle of the stream, before a wrenching pain shot through his gut. The fires died down, and Reyna followed this blow with an uppercut to Styles' lower jaw. She pushed him to the ground and landed on his chest with her knees pinning his shoulders to the pavement. With both hands, she was whaling on his face, punch after punch. She yelled at him between each strike.

"Don't you! Ever fucking dare! Look at me! Or any other girl! Again! You fucking! Arrogant! Pig!"

She was just about to lay in the final blow and complete his facial makeover for good.

"... Alright, that's enough." Meifeng quickly caught Reyna's attention the best way she could. She sprayed Reyna with a splurt of water that would be no more threatening than a blast of water from a waterhose. It was ice cold, just to cool the little furnace down. The water, on contact, mostly sizzled, some of it instantly turning into steam, and what remained splashed on her face and ran down her body. The coldness was a shocking, if a touch refreshing feeling on Reyna. She looked up at the new person in front of her. It was built Asian girl, probably not much older than she was - cute were it not for the huge scars. There was Reyna, atop a pinned, unconscious RAVEN, slightly soaked, grabbing onto his collar, and a steady flow of steam was rising from her body.

As Reyna took deep, uneven breathes, looking at Meifeng, a glob of blood dripped from the bruised knuckles her raised fist.

The others had followed behind Meifeng. Baron looked down at the scene and his jaw dropped a bit. "My word..."

Meifeng was going to pin her down, but she felt the heat coming off the girl. She was about to spray her some more, when the other RAVENS finally got off their ass and came over to Reyna. Fortunately, a perk of the RAVEN armor was that it was pretty heat resistant, so they had no trouble with pinning Reyna to the ground, who had opted out of resisting for her own good, and put handcuffs on her. Reyna felt utterly frustrated here. She could take them, she knew she could, but this day already gone so far down the shitter it wasn't worth making it worse.

Why the RAVENs didn't do this earlier was anyone's guess.

"God damn it." Meifeng hissed under her breath as she looked around. "What the hell had happened here."

Lihua had one hand over Lijuan's eyes... she didn't need to see the mess that this redhaired girl had done to the agent. There was a unopened bottle of wine on a nearby table. The owners had long left, which meant they probably wouldn't mind if she pulls it open. She downed a little bit of the red wine, wiping her mouth off with her sleeve.

"... Who the hell let this street rat in here anyway?" Lihua said loud enough for Reyna to hear. "I thought this was VIP... unless brother's security is really that bad." She chuckled a little bit.

"Can't ever trust a RAVEN to do their job right." Reyna called from the ground, faced away from the group. She didn't want to see their stares. She would sit up if she could, only if there weren't two meatheads who were still pushing down on her.

"Okay, what the hell happened here?" Cindy's heels loudly clicked on the ground as she walked into the building. She heard there was a fight going on, and she immediately came fast as she could. She looked around, and saw an unconscious RAVEN, and a twenty-something girl being carted off by RAVENS... She definitely didn't look like a baseline human.

"Wait, hold on." Cindy asked as she reached for her belt. Pulling out a scanner the size (and shape) of a smartphone. She walked over to Reyna, and then knelt down (Which was hard given the heat she was giving off), and ran the device over her skin, and pressed the button.

The machine buzzed red, and Cindy raised an eyebrow.

"She isn't registered." Cindy announced as she put the device back on her belt.

"Good work, Hitler..." Reyna quietly mumbled. The RAVEN on top of her pushed down a bit more, and a bit of sand from the pavement pushed its way into her mouth.

"Erhem..." Jiao-Long said as he took steps towards the DOVE, with his hands folded behind his back, hunched over somewhat. He and Lihua exchanged looks before the man focused on Cindy. "From what my guests say... the RAVEN was harassing the girl for a date and it escalated into a fight." He shrugged. "I was in another room, so I can't tell you what happened from my, ah, perspective."

Cindy immediately facepalmed.

"God damn it...." Cindy groaned. "Not only do we got idiot-one here finding it hard to keep it in his pants, but we got idiot-two here assaulting an officer, unregistered, in a place she shouldn't have even been in the first place."

Cindy shook her head as she pointed towards the RAVENS.

"... Get her out of here, and into a cell." Cindy ordered, and the RAVENS lifted Reyna up, and started carting her off. Reyna couldn't help but have a half-hearted smile. "You can always count on a RAVEN treating their power like a gun," she muttered quietly.

Baron was close enough in ear-shot to hear the words Reyna spoke, but said nothing, only scratching the bottom of his chin. He looked to his side to see Cindy who looked down at the unconscious agent, and knelt down before him, and started looking at his wounds.

"... And someone get him to a hospital for cryin' out loud."

Baron knelt beside Cindy, also taking a look at Agent Styles' face. He brows lowered and eyes widened as he looked to Cindy. "Low velocity splatters, all blunt trauma... and burns? She did all that with just her hands?"

"I gauge that she must be a Super-System type - likely Elemental as well, dealing with heat or fire." Cindy thought out loud. "Either way, we're going to figure out just what she can do in the morning... Maybe a night in a cell will cool her down." She said, irritated.

"In any case, this agent," Baron said urgently, "his breathing is erratic and there's a steady, but slow flow of blood from his mouth. He does have lung damage, likely from a snapped rib, we need to handle him carefully to avoid making his condition worse. As for the woman..."

Baron sighed. "She might need attention too. She may not feel it now, but... she broke at least one bone through his armor."

"She might have durability. I don't know, but it's likely." Cindy answered. "Medics will check once she gets back to base."

Baron smiled as he hung his head low. He stood back up. "I understand, I'm sorry. I used to do this sort of thing all the time. Some habits are hard to break."

Lihua sighed.

"Well, isn't this interesting?" Lihua asked rhetorically. "I didn't expect a street rat to defeat a mighty RAVEN... heh....." Lihua laughed after she heard the damage done to the man.

Baron shrugged. He figured Lihua would know the meta-human scene better than he did, even so, even Baron could acknowledge that some powers were more potent in some respects than others, others more fit for combat, others simply - straight up - more powerful, regardless of experience. In Lihua's case, seven years ago, she was defeated by a man who was disabled on his first tour and was only a newly indoctrinated meta. But that was ancient history, he was still caught up in the young woman's parting words. It was... material that he could work with.

"Be quiet, mom." Meifeng ordered, irritated as she rolled her eyes up into her head. First day back, and a fellow squadmate gets into a fight with a girl. Now, said girl's probably going to see the inside of a cell for a long time.

Though, at the corner of her eyes, she spotted something odd. Another little sparrow made out of ice. It was resting on the chandelier. Meifeng did a hop as she managed to catch the bird with her ice manipulation. She held it with both hands, as it tried to flutter away. This time it didn't melt.

"Hey Cindy," Meifeng said to catch her attention. "What do you think of this?"

Cindy, who was annoyed as is, quickly walked over, and raised an eyebrow.

"The hell is that?" Cindy asked.

"I don't know, but-"

"Actually," Cindy ignored the bird, as she finally realized just who she was talking to. She stared Meifeng right in the eye. "I can't believe you went off grid for like - five months - without saying a word to anyone. What the hell where you doing?"

Meifeng crossed her arms as she rolled her eyes up into her head.

"Yeah, yeah..." Meifeng groaned.

"... This is going to be one loooong night."

_{Written in collaboration with @Mr Allen J@Spoopy Scary@SepticGentleman}

---

---

Silver Hills, Strong Gold Community.

As Reyna was carted outside, the RAVEN agents charged with bringing her to the cell stopped abruptly in front of the transport vehicle, and released her.

"Alright, this is your stop. You can break the handcuffs now. I promise, I dont bite."

"W-wait, what?" Reyna retorted, looking behind her since she didn't believe what she was hearing.

"Do you not speak english? Or are you just having some trouble? Last I saw, the other guy was the only one taking any shots to the face." Ari said, with her accent returning. She was back in her default appearance and getup. She rested one of her hands on her hip and leaned on it. Her eyes had a glint of amusement in them, as if she was truly enjoying this.

"What... wh-what, uh, I..." Reyna stared wide eyed at the strange... random... kinda hot girl that had, well, she guess transformed from the RAVENs that were just there a moment ago? She backed up until she brushed up against the side of the van. She tugged on her cuffs, so she could maybe defend herself, but her strength has since dwindled after she started calming down. The chains rattled harmlessly.

Ari watched her back up, and raised and eyebrow. "Yeah, imagine how weird it was to discover it." She said, watching the woman in front of her struggle with the cuffs. She furrowed her brow. So her power wasn't strength. Her power was... something else entirely. She looked back up to the woman and took a stride forward, grabbing the chain that connected the cuffs and pulling it towards her. Reyna started to grumble. "You..."

"Relax, I'm not going to hurt you." she stated, placing her hands on the cuffs on each arm. Parts of her body wormed their way into the keyholes on both sides, and triggered the locking mechanism. It would be cleaner than just breaking them, and faster than eating through them.

As the mechanism unlocked, she released on one side, and pulled the cuff away on the other, letting go of Reyna altogether while retaining her grip on the handcuffs. "There, little bird, be free!" she said, tossing the handcuffs to Reyna. Looped onto one cuff, which was now locked, was a wedding ring.

Reyna looked at her hands, now free, unrestrained, with a look alot like awe, even beginning to smirk. The ring was a cute touch, it almost made her blush - but her face started growing grim. No, no... she couldn't do this.

"What's wrong with you?" Reyna shot at her. "I can't do this. Do you have any idea how deep in shit I already am? I have a little sister I need to take care of!"

God, if Merry saw her right now. Worse yet, on television? Making national news as a meta-girl that escaped custody? Reyna would never be able to looked her in the eye again. Then this... this lady here, what with her misplaced sense of nobility, with her attempt to help, threatening to tip it all over the line where, here on this side was Reyna, and over there, the point of no return. She was inches away.

"Why did you think this was a good idea?" Reyna asked. She felt herself getting too emotional right now, and fought to keep that in check. "Where did you even come from?"

"Compensation, and a thanks for throwing a distraction for me." Ari said, her eyes flashing to the wedding ring.

"A... distraction?" Reyna questioned. She shook her head. "I never asked for your help."

"And I didn't ask you to do anything." Ari finally snapped, her eyes shooting up to Reyna's. "One of my only rules is to make sure no one gets hurt. I used you to distract everyone, but throwing that punch? That was all you, sister." Ari finished, the fire in her eyes no longer burning, but smoldering.

Reyna narrowed her eyes onto Arianna. This was her. This was all her fault. She must have been the "friend" that RAVEN guy was talking about. Where Ari's eyes were burning out, Reyna's was flaring. She felt blood pumping through her again. "You..." she growled, pointing an accusatory finger at Ari. "You fucking bitch!"

She threw the cuffs back at her out of aggravation. "You're gonna take that dumb-ass-looking ring back, unlock those cuffs agains, and turn back into one of those dipshits and take me wherever the fuck they wanted me in the first place!"

Ari stepped back, turning her body and letting the cuffs fly past her harmlessly. She turned her head, but not her body towards Reyna, and crossed her arms.

"You about done? Because all that yelling is going to attract attention, and I dont think being angry is going to make your situation any better." Ari said, then shook her head and sighed.

"Listen, I'm sorry how this turned out for you. I went through a lot of effort to make sure this goes off without a hitch and I'm putting a good deal on the line to make sure that you're okay." Ari's arms dropped to her sides and she turned her body to face the woman.

"I can fix this." Ari said, waving her hand dismissively. "You wouldn't be the first person who I've gotten RAVEN to leave alone."

Reyna took a deep, heavy sigh that almost got her dizzy. She kept her eyes closed for a second. She looked back at Arianna and her face was as stern as ever. "You've done enough." She responded. "I'm just going to get this chapter out of my way already."

Her temper seems to have cooled down considerably in comparison to before, but this was a fake visage. As she walked toward the rear of the van, she gripped the handle and tried to yank the door open as hard as she could, causing only the metal handle to snap completely off, and the car alarm started blaring wildly.

"God... damn it!" Reyna shouted.

Arianna stifled a laugh, and what looked like Reyna walked up next to her. There were now a total of three people present. Two of them were the same person.

"You sure you dont want me to help?"

Reflexively, Reyna pivoted on her foot and threw a hard punch at the body behind her, but it was only to find it shoot through the head of a person that looked - literally, and in every sense of the word - exactly like herself. The absurdity of the situation was enough to completely derail Reyna's emotions. She just blinked.

"See, this is how you introduce yourself to another person." Ari said behind her. Suddenly the copy of Reyna turned as well. They smiled at one another and shook hands.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Ari!" Arianna said to the Reyna copy. The Reyna copy laughed and rolled her eyes, then spoke in an eerily identicle way to Reyna. "Likewise! My name is..."

Both copies stopped talking in unison and turned to face Reyna. The Reyna copy motioned for Reyna to fill in the sentence.

Reyna just looked at them both, still maintaining that deer in headlights look. Her eyes at this point have gotten red. This? This chick was supposed to be rescuer? She was insane. There was no way she could do what she said she could, she seemed utterly clueless of the consequences Reyna was facing. She was going to ruin everything.

"I'm..." Reyna started stammering, barely audible over the car horn still blowing. "I'm... I'm fucked."

The Reyna copy gave Reyna the most deadpan expression Ari could muster, and grabbed Reyna by the shoulder, and turned her around.

"Stay still." the Reyna copy said, patting Reyna down, and eventually pulling out her wallet. The copy went through it momentarily before reading out "Reyna... Baker. Interesting name. I like it." she commented, stuffing Reyna's wallet into Reyna's back pocket.

"I'm gonna Baker if you know what I mean!" Ari said.

"Ayyyyy!" the Reyna clone said, giving Ari the double gun fingers. Ari stepped forward and helped the Reyna clone open the van doors and put the handcuffs on. One the clone was situated, the Reyna clone stepped inside the van and took a seat (giving them the thumbs up), while Ari shut the doors.

"Dont worry, about a thing, 'cause every little thing, is gonna be alright..." Ari said, mimicing Bob Marley's voice as she steered Reyna away from the van.

"Bob Marley died of toe cancer..." Reyna said monotonically, trying hard to not just snap and lose her shit.

"And more people in America have been married to Kim Kardashian than have died of Ebola!" Ari replied joyously. "I'm gonna take you to the rendezvous point, and we're going to get our asses to a bar or something."

"I can't believe I'm gonna end up a fugitive..." Reyna mumbled, still staring in the same direction she was before. "I left my jacket back where I nearly murdered that super-powered military guy... could... could you eventually go back and get it for me...?"

---

Ari approached Archie in the club, and pulled his arm to get his attention.

"Hey, dude, all's done. We have a small situation, but nothing a taxi-ride to a bar or something cant fix." she said looping her arm with Archie's. Archie proceded to take out his phone with his free, un-looped hand and start typing. He showed his message to Ari - Wait, what about the stuff?

Ari's hand shipped up, exposing a wallet.

"I have way too damn many of them in my body right now for storage." Arianna explained, continuing to lead Archie towards an exit. "Lots of other things too. You were here in case I needed to disappear." He deleted his current text, and typed again - So, ultimately, I wasn't required for this little escapade?

"You'll be helping me store everything, and drive a car while I'm calming a half-catatonic woman." Ari said, leading Archie outside. As she walked, she scooped up a jacket on the ground and led Archie straight into the other copy of herself, who was leading Reyna, who was stubbornly sitting on the dirty ground, hugging her knees. The two copies stepped right into one another, ending up with one of Ari with her arm looped in Archie's arm holding a jacket.

"She has no bones, so I couldn't wring her neck." Reyna's soft voice said casually, and she shrugged. "No bones. What kind of person has no bones?"

"I have no throat either if that makes you feel any better." Ari commented, unlooping her arm (for Archie's comfort) and shrugging, tossing the jacket into Reyna's lap.

Archie stepped forward and made a pointing motion towards Reyna, and the raising both his hands palms-up in a questioning manner.

"Yes. That's her. Can you carry her or... get her to walk while I hijack a car? This one already managed to set off one car alarm."

Archie shrugged and turned towards Reyna, taking out his phone once again and typing - You need a lift, or...?

Reyna read what was typed carefully and looked back up at the strange bag-headed man. How the fuck could that guy type, let alone read? She sighed and gave up trying to understand that nutjob of a girl and her... friends.

"You got bones?" Reyna simply asked.

Everywhere except my head.

Reyna again read what was typed, and gave him a feigned smile. "Then... you might not want to."

Archie retracted his phone and turned back towards Ari, again, raising his hands in a "well what the hell do I do then" manner.

"Just..." Ari said somewhat frustrated as she furiously wiggled her hand in the keyhole on the handle of an old Honda Accord. When the car unlocked, she perked up. "...Get the door for our new guest!" Archie nodded, proceeded towards the Honda, and opened up the passenger's side door. Reyna got up and followed sluggishly behind him. He motioned for Reyna to get in as he threw open the back seat door and tossed his pack inside, taking a seat next to it. Reyna climbed in and felt her knees give out as soon as she hit the plush seat. Struggling, she picked up her feet and kicked them up by the dashboard.

"Whoever is sitting in the front, just a warning, it is going to rain money and valuables on you."

Reyna just sighed in response. Her dignity felt pretty much shattered at this point, and felt little reason to hold back - under normal circumstances, this wouldn't have happened, but she began singing... for her own sake, rather than anyone else's.

"Welcome to your li-ife... there's no turn-ing back... e-ven while we sleep..."

Archie tapped Ari's shoulder and showed her his phone's screen as Reyna continued - Mind turning on the radio?

Ari raised an eyebrow, because Reyna wasn't that bad, but hit the radio button regardless.

"What Is Love" by Haddaway began playing.

---

Haruka Takashiro, & Akemi Shinoda.

---

---

Strong Gold Community, Silver Hills_

Akemi sat at a table, watching the crowd around her while waiting for Haruka. It didn't take long for the older twin to come back to her, but she was amused with the huge plate of food he was balancing carefully in his hands while dodging the passers-by who almost knocked into him.

"Are you sure we can finish all this?" she asked the moment Haruka finally set the plate down on the table with a sigh of relief.

"I'm very hungry right now," Haruka sat down opposite of his disapproving aunt, picked up one of the plastic forks stuck into the food and began poking at the pile on the plate.

"I don't think I'm going to eat much, so you'll have to clear the plate yourself," Akemi said as she picked up the other fork.

"I know - 'don't waste food'," was all Haruka said and he stuffed the fried seafood into his mouth. "Mhmm, the prawn is good!"

... ...

They continued to eat silently without another word until half of the food was gone from the plate. Haruka swallowed his spaghetti before he spoke, "Have you heard anything from our Dad... or Mum?"

"No." Akemi shook her head. "Shizuka did pass me their new contact numbers; I tried to give my sister a call, but she didn't pick up."

"Shizu also said that age and stress are really catching up on Dad," Haruka said, twirling his fork on the plate and curled up some spaghetti. "I can see that for myself in the photos, that Dad is getting too old to keep going on like this."

"I'm worried about him too. He really needs to take a break from work." Akemi put down her fork on the plate, and closed her eyes. "It really pains me to see him - you and Shizuka too - to suffer like this. What is Asami thinking?"

Haruka didn't respond; he pulled the plate towards himself and was wolfing down the rest of the spaghetti.

Akemi leaned back on her chair and looked up at the sky. "...Sometimes the regret would haunt me, that I shouldn't have let him go. I should have fought for him till the bitter end."

Haruka looked up from his plate (he actually did finish everything, just as he had promised) and stared at his aunt. "You mean...?"

"Ah, no one has told you about this before? Yuu was a childhood friend of mine and Asami's. We went to the same elementary through middle school." Leaning forward, Akemi placed her elbows on the table, her chin resting on the back of her hands. "He liked the both of us equally, but he couldn't have us both - he could only choose one of us. And he chose me." She sighed. "But I rejected him - because I knew Asami was obsessed with him at that time. I feared what she might do to me - and him - if I didn't give him up.

Looking back, I'm such a coward. I ran away from the problem, thinking that it's the best for everyone, but I ended up making him and you two to shoulder that problem."

"I don't hate Mum like Shizu is," Haruka said. "And I don't want to give up on my real family. I'm not saying that I'm not satisfied with the current 'family', but..."

"I understand what you mean." Akemi gave her nephew a smile. "After all, 'blood is thicker than water'."

---

Wendy Lucker, Ellen Nile, Rori Aherne, & Alice Barrett.

_{Written in collaboration with @Mr Allen J & @Nosuchthing}

---

Silver Hills, Strong Gold Community.

Quickly going from Roseview, through Prince Edfield, all the way up to the aptly named Silver Hills, was a Vespa Primavera scooter.

Riding on top of it were two students that live in Academy 61. Wendy Emily Lucker, the owner and operator of the scooter, wearing a white helmet, and a pair of nice motorcycle goggles. Which looked a tad out of place with her white blouse, and her long, modest skirt (Both of which blown in the wind). She was speeding on her scooter, since she was making the final stretch to the Strong Gold Community.

The roads were awfully full - especially going into Silver Hills - of people who were heading for, and leaving, the big old celebration. With each foot the group covered, Wendy got a bit more excited. She briefly looked over her shoulder at Ellen when they rolled up on a red light.

Wearing a helmet on a scooter was required by law , but her enlarged eyes were big enough that Wendy's spare didn't have a hope of fitting her adjusted cranium. Fortunately the school had some experience of equipping metahumans that couldn't get by with off the shelf products. They'd jury rigged a helmet that had been left behind by a previous student. It rattled, and they'd padded the inside so it didn't simply revolve on her skull, but it at least kept them from being pulled over.

Despite this inconvenience Ellen's grin was obvious, especially now that they were travelling at some speed. There was something about zooming across asphalt at high speeds that tapped into a primal part of the soul. It was about all she could do not to assume the expression usually worn by dogs in this situation.

Well, Wendy was glad to see that Ellen was at least enjoying the ride - despite all the stops. She knew that they were getting closer. Wendy peered down at the smartphone mirror that she had put on her scooter. According to her iPhone's GPS, they were almost there. The light turned green, and then she pressed on the gas and then the scooter went forward. Making one turn, Wendy managed to arrived right at the entrance of the ceremony.

Smiling wide, Wendy just knew all this driving was about to pay off. She managed to slide into a moped parking spot, and then she turned the key, and shut it off. Wendy stepped off the moped, and took her helmet off. She shook her head of unkempt hair, and let it flow freely. She placed her helmet on the helmet lock on the side of the scooter, and firmly made sure that nobody would come by and snatch it up from the scooter.

Ellen removed her adapted helmet. She reasoned that no one would be particularly interested in something that looked like it was designed for Arnold Schwarzenegger so she simply hid it beneath the front of the scooter as best she could.

"Alright, we're here!" Wendy announced. "Let's hurry up and get inside before they run out of cool stuff!"

Without another word, she started skipping her way over to the entrance of the Strong Gold Community. She took slow and deliberate steps as she looked around. There was a lot of cops here - even a few RAVENS. Oh. There were also RAVENS manning the front gate. Wendy paused for a moment, just to watch.

Ellen loped after her, walking normally was night impossible, but she'd managed to develop a slightly more relaxed looking movement, with some practice. It still wasn't as comfortable or easy as climbing apparently was, but it was less embarrassing and clumsy than how she had been getting by.

People were getting screened at the front entrance by a RAVEN. Names and everything.

That made sense. They were probably making sure that nobody was coming in carting a bomb, or something. Or they were trying to make sure that if a member of the Pure or the Allegiance comes in, they can easily track them down.

Either way, Wendy knew that she was going have to go get screened. Nothing wrong with that. The teen started taking steps towards the RAVEN.

The RAVEN looked at her, holding a clipboard in hand. He pointed a pen at the two of them, and asked,

"What are your names?"

"Wendy Lucker." She answered with a nod of her head. "... Registered metahuman."

Ellen rolled her eyes, "Ellen Nile, registered Metahuman."

"Okay." The RAVEN said, he reached to his belt and pulled out a metal detector... which Wendy missed.

"Oh wait!" Wendy quickly said as she reached into her satchel, and earned a confused look from the RAVEN. She grabbed a camera from her satchel, and held it out for him to see. She also held her cellphone in hand.

He merely ran the metal detector over Wendy's body - and it didn't even go off once.

Ellen held out her cellphone, then allowed the agent to run the wand over her body as well. She didn't elicit a single blip from the compact machine.

He threw a thumb over his shoulder. "Okay, you two are free to go."

"Thanks." Wendy said as she put her cellphone back into her satchel, but not her camera. She didn't want to miss any shots here! She started walking through the gates of the Strong Gold Community - idly gesturing for Ellen to follow behind her. "C'mon, let's go."

Pocketing her phone, Ellen followed on after the other girl, she was staring about herself with wide eyes. Well, she had no choice in that matter, but even if she hadn't developed this form she would likely have been imitating her appearance right now. Her enhanced eyesight allowed her to pick out details even from a hundred feet away, including the few groups of people glaring at her and Wendy, the other girl presumably by association.

Ellen doubted they would do anything here, there were too many RAVEN and DOVE Agents about, but that didn't mean she wanted to give them anymore reason. She crooked her inhumanly long fingers at Wendy, "Let's go this way, we should explore a bit."

She began to head in a direction that seemed to have less glaring figures in it.

Nodding her head, Wendy proceeded alongside Ellen. She can understand why Ellen would want to stay out of sight... given how strange she looks. Wendy herself probably looked like a weirdo by extension! That wasn't nice, but that's kind of how Wendy felt. Though, it won't be a problem if she doesn't pay attention to all the looks.

What her eyes were really searching for was a killer shot to take with her camera.

Only problem was all these weirdos dilluting the shot looking at them like they were crazy or something. Wendy shook her head. Maybe they should find a place with less people.

Eventually, wading through the crowds eventually brought them to the edges of the celebration (and the community) where there weren't too many people around. Only a few bored vendors, and they were out of the way of any glares and stares.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh," Wendy said to Ellen. "Isn't this much better?"

Twisting her mouth, Ellen replied, "yeah, it's quieter back here..."

She was grateful for the fact that Wendy hadn't questioned her desire to find somewhere out of the way, or mentioned that she understood why Ellen wanted to be out of sight. She was under no illusions as to the fact that Wendy had probably guessed.

She wasn't just referring to the stares, but now she can take some camera shots.

"... You know, I wonder how mad they'd be if I got on the buildings."

The shrug was almost mischievous, "Can't get mad if they don't know..."

Wendy briefly mused as she was looking around.

At the corner of her eyes, however, Wendy's rather sharp vision caught sight of a very distinct person. Mostly that blue head of hair, crouched down out of sight. Obviously drawing. That looked a lot like Rori. One of the Metahumans that she had met while she was exploring Baybridge.

"Hey!" Wendy called out to Rori, waving her hand in the air to get her attention.

Rori looked up from what they were sketching, glancing around for a moment to find the source of the recognisable voice. They grinned as they noticed Wendy. "Oh, hey, Wendy! I was hoping I'd see you here! How are you?" They glanced over at Ellen, and waved to her. "Hi, I'm Rori!"

Accustomed enough to her own freakish appearances in the mirror, Ellen didn't blink at the slight physical mutatations this newcomer displayed. Her eyes were definitely not human, and with her new eyes she couldn't miss the faint trace of feathers at her collar and cuffs. She definitely seemed friendly though, and clearly Wendy knew her.

"Hey, I'm Ellen, I'm at the Academy with Wendy. Well... not with Wendy, I'm a couple years below her... Ummm... How do you two know each other?"

"Yeah, you know how I like to go out in the woods sometimes?" Wendy asked Ellen, rather awkwardly. Running her hand through her head of unkempt hair. "Rori is one of the people I met while trying to take pictures in Faircrest."

"Oh, cool."

Ellen had only sort of known, it had been mentioned in passing that Wendy was going for a walk in the woods.

"Nice to meet you Ellen!" Rori grinned, putting away their sketchbag in their bag,

It sounds great that the two were managing to get along. It was most likely due to their shared... physical abnormalities. Wendy didn't like referring to it like that, but it was the simpliest way of saying it. She held the camera in hand.

"I hope that both of you are enjoying the festival thus far...." Wendy trailed off as she started looking at her camera again. "... Hey, who wants to come with me take some... [u]better shots?[/i]" She said with a mischievous grin on her face.

"Yeah I've really enjoyed it, even if it's really busy," Rori grinned. "I was meant to come with my cousin but she's on duty tonight so that's why I'm alone." They shrugged. "But it's fun!" They took a moment to consider what Wendy said, tilting their head for a moment. "Yeah, I'll come." Rori bounced up from where they had been crouching. "It's always nice spending time with people." They seemed way to excited just about the prospect of being in the company of others, rather than alone like they had been just moments before. "So what kind of shots are you planning on taking?"

"You know..." Wendy shrugged as she took steps around Rori. With a sly smile on her face. "A few shots from the roof - there's just too many people in the way." She playfully said. "I'd be a little rude to run off with two guests... I know that our powers can easily allow us to reach the rooftops."

"Sounds like it could be a little dangerous," Rori laughed jokingly. "What if someone here has a real hatred for birds and tries to shoot me?"

"... In a crowd like this?" Wendy raised an eyebrow. "One, no one would have been able to slip a gun in here with the guards at the gate. Two, they would get lit up the very second they pull out a gun." Wendy sounded like she was taking it seriously (Which, in a way, she was).

"Okay, okay, that's true I'll be fine," Rori shrugged in response. She hadn't been serious, but she guessed it wasn't the best thing to joke about. She had had a few close calls when in certain bird forms before. "At least there's plenty of places for me to get food afterwards... I get pretty hungry after changing, y'know."

"Yeah, I'll treat you to some food." Wendy said with a smile on her face. Far as she could tell, Rori could turn into a bird. Wendy herself could turn into paper and turn weightless - both abilities made getting up to high places very easily. As for Ellen... she wasn't sure, but she swore she saw her climb over the fence.

Not entirely sure whether or not she could get Ellen on board, Wendy turned towards her, and shot her a disarming smile.

"... And you, Ellen?"

"Pffft, you''l have to keep up with me..."

The dark-haired human tarsier-hybrid turned and loped into the shadows where a house turned a corner, before leaping nearly twenty feet to latch her fingers onto the edge of the roof. Where walking had been difficult, climbing and jumping had seemed to come programmed into this body, and her wiry strength easily pulled her onto the roof of the house. She swung her legs over the edge and kicked them back and forth.

Sticking her tongue out the girl spoke a little louder, "see, slowpokes..."

"Some of us have a lack of any special without changing," Rori responded, looking up at Ellen with wide eyes. It was pretty impressive. They did have a few bird-like features without changing, but that was mostly better sight.

"She's right, you know." Wendy agreed with Rori as she looked up at the building line.

"I'm always right," Rori joked, before pausing for a moment. "I guessss I should change and fly up to that roof."

"Same." Wendy said, she was trying to decide what she was going to do first. Turn weightless like paper, or straight up turning. Each form had their pros and cons... Eh. She can do both. Wendy took in a breath, bracing herself for turning into paper. She crouched down a little bit, before she jumped up into the air, turning weightless allowed her to take her jump much further. In mid-air, she exploded into a flurry of paper that quickly brought her further up above the building she was aiming for.

The flurry of paper spiraled into a solid body as Wendy reverted back to her true form. She was still weightless in the air, and lazily landed on the rooftop as she returned her weight back to her body.

With an arrogant grin on her face, Wendy mock-yawned towards Ellen as a boast of how easy it was. Afterwards, she leisurely walked back to the edge of the building, and looked down at Rori.

"... Hey." Wendy said. "I expected you to do your bird thing by now."

"I don't want to leave my bag down here," Rori looked up at the two of them with a frown. "Think I can throw it up to one of you? It's not like it changes with me or anything." Clothes, sure. Bag, no. It was odd how it worked. They didn't understand it really.

"Sure." Wendy said. "It's gonna be tricky, though..." Wendy had an idea. She reached into her satchel, and pulled out a hardcover book. A very thick dictionary. "Toss it hard as you can!"

"Uh, okay." Rori took off the small bag and threw it up at Wendy as hard as they could. Which, well, wasn't very hard since they weren't exactly strong.

It was a tricky manuever. Wendy knew that there was a chance it wouldn't even work.

But boy it would look cool.

Wendy had to time it just right. She cocked the dictionary back, and then tossed it hard as she could. It was shot forward using her paper manipulation - opposed to being a fluttering mess, the book cut through the air like a rocket. This manuever would require the right amount of timing. Once the book was close enough to the tinsy little bag, it opened up around the strap, and closed firmly around it. She condensed the paper and cardboard this book was made of together, until it was one solid piece of paper. That wouldn't let go of the bag.

"Nailed it." Wendy boastfully said. It was a little harder moving this book with a little extra weight on it - Wendy was sweating a bit - but she managed to pull it off. The bag and the book started drifting towards Wendy, - it was a little easier since there was already paper inside the bag for her to manipulate - up until she grabbed it. Letting out a sigh now that she could use her real hands.

With a flick of her wrist, the book released the bag, she slipped the book right back into her satchel, and Wendy held it high up above her head.

"See, told you I'd do it!" Wendy said, proud of herself. "Do your thing, Rori!"

Rori concentrated for a moment, turning into a small robin in a matter of seconds and flying up onto the roof. They landed next to Wendy, looking up at her with a few celebratory tweets before turning back and immediately lying on their back. "Ugh, I'm hungry already, and that was only a few seconds... How did I use to stay a bird for hours?"

Rori's bird forms had always impressed Wendy a bit. It was certainly one of the most interesting bestial type abilities she has seen. "It was probably transforming, and turning back, real quickly." Wendy shrugged. "C'mon, we're only going to be up here for a little bit." Wendy tried to reassure her.

Then a thought came across her mind. A lightbulb that shined in her head. Inspiration for her first picture.

"Hey, guys, let's get together." Wendy said as she reached into her satchel and pulled out her camera. She raised it high up in the air. "A group shot with the three of us... to remember this moment."

She wasn't sure if Ellen would be behind the idea. Giving her changes.

"Yeah, probably, and I can survive without eating for a bit," Rori shrugged, before their eyes lit up. "A group photo sounds great!" They hadn't even known Ellen for that long but hoped that the two of them would get on. Rori was always happy to make new friends.

They moved slightly so that they were in a better position for the photo. They hadn't had their photo taken in ages. This was exciting.

Wendy's concerns weren't far off, and Ellen grimaced, "I eh, I don't think I can..."

Partly this was a result of her increased sensitivity to light thanks to her new eyes, if the sun was uncomfortable then she had no idea how much a camera flash would hurt. Mostly though it was because she was a freak. She didn't want to remember looking like this, even if it was with two people who were... well... weren't not her friends...

She gestured to her eyes, "hyper sensitive..."

"... Damn, well." Wendy thought about it for a moment. "What if you close your eyes? Or... Maybe..." She thought about it for a moment. "What if I just turn the flash off? It'll be a little dark, but it won't singe your eyes out."

"Uh..."

Ellen didn't have a good excuse now. "No... It's fine, you guys can just take a picture... I don't mind, I wouldn't want to make you fiddle with your camera..."

"It's fine, Ellen, what are you so afraid of...?" Wendy asked her. "It's just a picture - it'll be for us friends, yeah."

Feeling increasingly uncomfortable, Ellen began to shift awkwardly in place, "I'm not... I just... don't..."

Cornered, she snapped, "I don't want a picture, okay!"

Wendy felt hurt that Ellen didn't want to be in their group selfie. Which isn't even about the picture itself but the moment. Her mouth opened like she was going to say something, but she quickly backpedaled and took a few steps away from Ellen.

"... C'mon, Rori, let's take the picture - wouldn't it look cool if we had the festival in the background?" Wendy asked as she stepped to the edge of the rooftop, and put her back to the festival.

"Uh, yeah, that'd be cool," Rori responded, looking a bit less cheery than they had a moment ago. They'd never been good with dealing with any kind of arguments even if they weren't involved. Shrugging slightly they moved to stand next to Wendy, somewhat comically standing on their tiptoes to look just a little bit taller for the photo. "Ready whenever you are!"

Wendy's sorry, but if Ellen wants to be a crybaby over her "condition," and miss out on great moments like this, then that's fine by her. She'll just enjoy what she's got. Wendy raised the camera up into the air, and smiled like a fool as she said, "Alright, Rori, three, two, one..." She alerted Rori.

Ellen looked away as the two posed. She felt left out, but was too proud and too ashamed to apologise and join the picture now. Sat on the edge of the roof she stared fixedly in the other direction.

Before she pressed the button on the camera, and a bright flash of white light engulfed the rooftop for a brief second. Wendy smiled as she quickly flipped the camera around, and looked at the screen on the other side.

"... This looks great, Rori." Wendy enthusastically said.

Rori was momentarily blinded by the bright flash of light, their eyes being a bit more sensitive than most, and just stood blinking for a few moments before looking managing to look at the photo. "It really does," Rori grinned, speaking truthfully. They were surprised that they didn't look half bad. Their eyes didn't even look that weird!

"Thanks!" Wendy answered.

Ellen glared down at the people slowly filtering into the area they had only recently vacated, and when you had eyes with a diameter of 10 centimetres you could really glare. What she hadn't expected was to see someone glaring back, a petite blonde woman in RAVEN armour.

Ellen swore and clambered to her feet, "guys, there's a-"

Alice hadn't bothered shouting at the kids on top of the house, instead simply appearing amidst them with a faint pop and an artificial breeze. She crossed her arms, looking unimpressed. The kid with the enormous eyes nearly fell off the roof.

"What the hell?" Wendy exclaimed as a woman just popped into the rooftop. She quickly put her cameras alway as she faced the woman. Wendy herself was taller than her - but the woman was a RAVEN, and that made for as much intimidation that Wendy needed.

Rori turned around to face the RAVEN agent with wide eyes. They weren't as intimidated as you'd expect someone to be, though more so due to the thought of possible trouble. But they did have a cousin that worked in RAVEN.

"What do you kids think you're doing up here?""

A loud gulp came from Wendy as she faced the agent.

"Well..." Wendy started off. "We were just..." The teen tried to come up with a convincing lie.

"... Chilling."

"Riiiight... chilling..."

Alice lifted her wrist, "what are your names guys?"

Ellen piped up, "It was my idea officer... they just-"

The RAVEN armoured woman interrupted, though kindly, "you kids aren't in trouble... Yet, I just need to make sure you got in the front door."

Shrugging slightly, Rori spoke. "Rori Aherne- Ah, shit... Might be Roisin Aherne on the official things..." They trailed off at the end, looking slightly awkward. Max had said she'd get it all officially sorted but Rori didn't trust Max to do those kinds of things.

They were probably going to get kicked off the roof at most. Which was annoying since Wendy wanted to take some pictures. She could always hop back up here when the RAVEN is gone, but she figured that she'd try to play along.

"Lucker," Wendy started off. "Wendy Lucker."

She was such a nerd.

Ellen sighed, "Ellen Nile."

This was the second time she'd had to give her name because she had an ability. She looked sullen, though her large eyes made it look more like an attempt at puppy dog eyes, save for the undeniable glint of resentment.

Alice raised an eyebrow at the joke, then checked through the names she'd been given, they all matched up, and each of them was here legitimately. She dropped her wrist again.

"Whatever you say 007, long as you don't kill anyone."

She snapped her fingers in recollection and pointed a finger at Rori, "you're Max's kid!"

Rori couldn't help but laugh slightly. "Cousin, yeah. You know Max?!" Well... that should've been obvious. This person did work in RAVEN afterall. "Of course she mentioned me to people, she complains all the time about my sleeping hours."

Alice glanced at the bag Wendy was wearing, she'd stuffed a camera into it when the agent appeared on the roof. She'd been rebellious when she was about her age, and the tattoos that were visible at her cuffs and collar were her souveneirs of that. This rebellion was much more minor, climbing on rooftops? It couldn't hurt anyone, Rori was a meta who could shift into a bird, Wendy a paper elemental, and Ellen was... Alice wasn't sure what Ellen was, but clearly it had something to do with climbing. It was unlikely they were going to hurt themselves, and cheap though these buildings may be, they weren't going to cave in cause three kids were on the roof.

"Ok guys, I'm going to ask you to do me a favour..."

Wendy raised her eyebrow, and simply patiently waited to hear what Alice had to say.

Alice paused to let them stew for a moment, "Or two. Less of the awful jokes, and send me a couple of those pictures when you're done. Oh, and three, please don't keep your cousin up late for the next couple of days, she's bitchy enough as it is, we could do with some peace and quiet..."

"Oh, uh, sure!" Wendy was taken aback by the response... in a way in which it inflated her ego a bit. She started to blush as she put on a smile. "Oh, if you want to see my pictures, I put them all over social media!" She said in a tone in which she was proud of herself. "Don't worry, I'll send you the links! I promise!"

Alice winked, smiled, and without waiting for a response, disappeared. She'd keep an eye on the rooftop, but doubted the kids would cause much trouble. She didn't want to be that agent who abused their power. They shouldn't be up there but they weren't doing any harm, and she'd rather have them well disposed towards her than resentful of RAVEN already,

"Ehhhh," Rori just looked confused as Alice disappeared. They were getting let off that easily? Well, that hadn't been too bad. Maybe they could let Max sleep a little more... not that it'd make her any less bitchy. "That... That wasn't what I expected as favours." They then blinked, something processing in their mind. "Wait, all over social media Wendy?!"

"Yes!" Wendy said with that same dumb smile on her face. "Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, you name it!"

Ellen was once more glad that she hadn't agreed to be in the photo, and yet that shame still burned in her stomach. It would have been bad enough to have one at all without it being plastered all over the internet.

Rori's eyes widened, but she also smiled. "Okay! Then I can get a copy of the photo too and keep it." Their smile increased at that.

"Yeah, yeah... I'll send it to you over the phone." Wendy said, she started walking on the roof. "Well, now that's over with... let's take some pictures, girls." Wendy said as she burst into sprint.

Rori paused a moment, before smiling excitedly and following Wendy. "Yeah! More photos!"

---

Maxine Diaz, & Alice Barrett.

_{Written in collaboration with @Nosuchthing}

---

Silver Hills, Strong Gold Community.

Alice spotted Max at the rendezvous, there were a few of them, they were spots that she had familiarised herself with earlier, so she could more easily bring in support if needed. They'd agreed to check off with each other for the first few rotations. She waved above the crowd, though whether the other agent could see her petite form was doubtful. She moved to step forward, but her foot came down right beside Max, a good twenty feet away.

"Quiet?"

They'd both heard about the disturbance in the VIP area, but Alice had judged that she wasn't needed, and was otherwise occupied with the three teens. Other than that though, very little seemed to have happened at the festival, people were enjoying themselves, and despite the presence of both saviours and metahumans no one had been stupid enough to start a fight yet. At least outside of the VIP area.

Max looked up as Alice spoke, managing not to jump. She was still getting used to the whole teleportation business. She'd been waiting for a short while, surveying the crowds, but nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"As quiet as festival can be, yeah. I'm assuming nothing major happened on your route?" She was glad, to be honest, that she hadn't had anything terrible to deal with. The last thing she really wanted to was to be involved in any kind of fight.

"I... ran into your cousin..."

"Rori?" Max tilted her head. Well, they had said they were going. "I hope they didn't give you any trouble. They didn't, right?"

Alice shook her head, "she was fine, her and some friends got onto a roof."

"A roof?!" There was obviously a lot going on in Max's mind as she practically shouted out the words.

Rolling her eyes, the petite blonde attempted to placate the angry woman.

"They're just kids, they're fine, and you wanna shout a little louder. I reckon the agents back at HQ didn't hear you..."

"I don't think they're the ones that need to hear me," Max retorted with a scowl. "So, where exactly was my cousin?" Max had a lot that she wanted to say. She'd told Rori to stay safe! Staying safe did not involve going on a roof. Or turning into a bird for that matter!

"One of the houses back along my route- wait... Max..."

Max didn't even seem to hear what Alice said, already heading in that direction. She wasn't as angry as she'd been before, and most of it was fueled by some kind of fear that Rori would hurt themselves, but she certainly wasn't calm or thinking straight.

When Max didn't respond Alice realised she probably should not have mentioned the kids location.

"Max! Hey!"

She scowled and grabbed the woman's shoulder, pulling them both out of the crowd and depositing them in the empty front room of one of the houses in the community. She stepped sharply away as the other agent vomited. It was a pretty much guaranteed reaction for anyone she brought with her for the first time. Feeling like you'd been turned inside out had that effect on a person.

"What... the fuck..." Max could barely speak from where she was now bent over, trying to stop herself from emptying her stomach onto the ground again. It took her a moment to realise that they'd teleported. Well great. "What the fuck did you do that for?!" The reaction was more from the shock of being teleported (without her permission) than from her anger which was now subsiding. Being sick seemed to have that effect.

"It might be something to do with you being a fucking idiot."

Alice eyed the floor of the room, thanfully it was cheap wood flooring, she'd just have to remember to come back with a mop and bucket, and maybe an air freshener before someone moved in.

"Well, I, uh-" Max stammered for a moment.

Alice interrupted her. "No, she's a goddamn kid, she's got to mess about, the worst that is going to happen if she falls is a few scratches and bruises. She's with two friends, let her enjoy herself.

"Two friends?" Max paused for a moment, seeming to consider that for a moment. Rori had only ever talked about one. This thought helped to subside her annoyance at her cousin. "Well then I guess... You know... I'm not annoyed anymore." She'd calmed down a considerable amount. As quick as she was to anger, she was quick to calm after any momentum in her anger was taken away. "I just worry." She shrugged, before frowing at Alice. "No teleporting me again, though! I'd rather avoid being sick as much as possible and that really felt horrible."

Chuckling, Alice nodded.

"You know the only way to get over it is to get used to it... and... I sorta don't have a key..."

Max paled considerably. "Well, I guess it could be useful to get used to it for more dangerous situations. I don't have anything else to throw up anymore anyway... I don't think. So go ahead."

Holding out her hand this time, Alice made it clear what was coming, and as Max clasped it she explained, "I'll just take us out the door, it won't be as far, might make you wanna hurl again, but if you're all out you should be ok."

A moment later they reappeared outside the house, and Alice immediately headed towards the nearest vendor. "Come on, I feel bad for losing you your dinner, and I'm hungry!"

Max felt incredibly queesy again, but this time she expected it and managed not to throw up again. "Yeah, food would be good, I'm a bit hungry after losing all the stuff I had," she said, before following Alice.

---

Anna Aikau

---

One week earlier, New York RAVEN Field Office

"What do you mean 'mandatory leave'?" Anna shouted into her phone.

An unwavering male voice echoed back at her. "Under Article 52, subsection 11b, it the responsibility of a commanding officer to consider the physical and mental health of any sub-"

"Director, with respect, I know the bylaws." She interrupted.

"Apparently not, Agent Aikau! Or you would understand why I'm citing them." Her superior roared.

"But sir-"

"I don't want to hear it! Twenty-two consecutive months of field assignments? And hazard duty no less! Your supposed to rotate out after nine!" His voice boomed enough to distort the audio from her phone's speakers.

"Sir, those assignments were approved through the proper channels-"

"Don't give me that crap! You got some pushover CO to look the other way while you played detective and claimed extenuating circumstances for extended field deployment. You're not the first, and you won't be the last. Your problem is someone in logistics wised up and you got caught. Now your my problem, Aikau."

"I can expla-"

"I don't want to hear it! I've got headquarters crawling up my ass for ten dozen other things, I don't need HR sticking a probe in there as well." Exasperated, the Director heaved a sharp sigh. "I'll make it easy for you: take the cushy desk job in Baybridge and stay for a period no less than 91 days, or be suspended indefinitely without pay for insubordination." The stern voice carried with it the unyielding authority of a parent scolding a child--no room for argument and no patience for rebellion.

A wary silence filled the line as she processed those words.

The Director let out another sigh. "Anna..." His voice was much softer now. "Take an extended leave, if you that's what you want. I don't care. Just stay away long enough for this blow over." He chuckled before continuing. "I've got plenty of boots to put on the ground and more nervous office jockeys than you can shake a stick at. There will still be plenty of bad guys out there for you to track down, once you get back."

Quietly, "Understood, sir."

-Click-

Deep down, Anna knew something like this was going to happen. She had been working tirelessly on high profile cases for months. RAVEN had special regulations in place for agents given combat-oriented or hazardous assignments, but it also covered any assignment with a high risk for psychological trauma.

Profiling the worst metahuman criminals, researching their habits, interviewing their victims, building a chain of evidence for legal proceedings, and apprehending them in the field--all of her usual work fell squarely under the purview of Article 52.

Regular psychological evaluations are mandatory every six months. Anna had managed to stall two and dodge the last one. She liked her work; it gave her a focus, but although she didn't want to admit it, the stress had slowly, steadily been wearing her down. Perhaps if she had recognized the symptoms earlier, she wouldn't have screwed up in the first place. It was her mistake that let a dangerous metahuman escape RAVEN custody and kill two agents. She was lucky to only receive a formal reprimand.

She hated the idea of being sidelined, but the low, sick feeling of having lost hit her harder. She was going to be a lowly records clerk. Even if it was informal punishment, even if it was going to be temporary, Anna dreaded it: being at the East Coast HQ and not being apart of investigations, intelligence, or anything she actually liked doing.

---

---

Havenfield Market, Roseview.

"Looks like we're all settled in!" Megan loudly announced.

"Yeah, into a pair of shitty motel rooms." Ray answered with a roll of his eyes. He was sitting on the bed in this motel that Megan simply demanded that they stay in. Yet, he knew that there were worse motels, in worse places within Baybridge. He merely crossed his arms.

"Just for now... you know how much of a pain in the ass it was to find a motel with a reliable owner?" Megan asked. "They don't come cheap... And I would know! Had to pay him."

"Just so he doesn't rat us out?" Ray asked.

"Not to DOVE, not to RAVEN, not to the Hands, not to the Pure...." Megan answered with a smile as she walked over to the bed, and sat down on it. "Not anyone."

From the other side of the room, sitting down on a chair with his laptop on his lap. "Should provide sufficient cover. However. Suggestion. Do not lull in this area for too long. No. No matter how reliable owner is. They will find other ways."

"... Which is why I found us a lot of cheap motels!" Megan answered.

"So..." Missy asked from the other side of the room, sitting on the bed. "What's our plan?"

"Simple, simple, simple..." Megan answered. "... I've been tracking the Hands of Science's executive Nathaniel Thorne. He's operating in this city somewhere."

Everyone looked at Megan.

"I have a feeling that he's out to recreate the Hands, or he's working for someone bigger - which is why we're going to gather intel before wiping the floor with him!" Megan first said, before she began to tap her chin. "Which is why Rush is devising a little virus that'll get us into his network, and allow us to spy on him, and decide what the best course of action is from there."

Missy shrugged.

"Whatever works."

"Quick question." Rush asked as he was typing away at his computer. "Why so adversed to the festival? Excellent way to gather data-"

"Just no." Megan cut Rush off, and spoke in a tone that was very stressed. "Just trust me, the last place we want to be is there."

Rush looked at her for a moment. "Will take your word."

"Good." Megan answered. "We'll get started tomorrow!"

---

Meifeng Zhao, Cindy Keagan. Maxine Diaz, Alice Barrett, Quentin Taylor, Reed Taylor, & Shizuka Takashiro.

_{Written in collaboration with @Zombiedude101, @Tsukune, @FernStone & @Nosuchthing}

---

RAVEN/DOVE West Coast Joint Headquarters, White Coast.

"Okay..." Cindy said into her phone as the collective RAVENS and DOVES sat in the meeting room. A large room with fancy wooden paneling, and a large round table in the center of the room. Best of all, it had a massive window which gave everyone a great view of Baybridge (Being on the top floor of the Headquarters), which Quentin himself took a moment to appreciate before he sat down.

Cindy herself was leaning up against the table while she talked into the phone, and going off her tone, she was less than pleased. She had a hand on the table, which was scraping the wooden cover with her nails.

"Alright, I'll get back to ya' later." Cindy said before she hung up the phone. "UGH!" She loudly exclaimed.

"Okay, that was a complete disaster...." Cindy groaned. "This is going to be all over the news."

"Not to mention all over town," Reed quickly added, leaning forward in his seat with a grunt. "I wouldn't call it the best impression to leave on people at a time like this." Particularly when it came to RAVEN, much to the expected consternation of his brother. True to that, Quentin soon spoke up as well. "It's a hole in our security. Granted, it's small, but that's beside the point."

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around how she got away from us that easily..." Meifeng said, while sitting in her chair, playing with her thumbs. "Eh, I guess it doesn't matter - long as we find her of course."

"Meifeng," Cindy started off, adjusting her oval shaped glasses. "You don't get it, it doesn't just make RAVEN look bad, it also makes DOVE look bad - along with Metahumans as a whole." She rolled her eyes up into her head.

"First, machoman pretty much sexually harasses a girl, and incites a fight with her. Second, the girl is unregistered, and assaults a government official in a place she shouldn't even be in."

Cindy sighed again.

"In a party full of Saviors, you know exactly what those racist bastards are thinking," Cindy started off, adjusting her glasses. "Oh, DOVE isn't doing their job! They're supposed to be preventing things like this in the first place! Look at this out of control Metahuman!" Cindy said in a mock-tone, before rolling her eyes yet again.

"She's not wrong." Reed said in agreement. "And that's without adding fuel to the meta-superiority crowd. If things keep heating up like this, it'll be like '92 all over again."

"Worst of all, when we brought her into station... she just vanished into thin air. Poof. Without a trace... which gives me an idea that she can clone herself, or has help...."

Meifeng had to sigh in response. "Okay, do we have any clues as to who our mystery brawler is?" She asked.

"Lots of 'em," Cindy said. "First I did was check in with the entrance guard, she signed in at the entrance - I don't know if it was stupidity, or something else - her name is Reyna Baker. I managed to dig a little bit more information about her and she's from Maine, and she's quite the trouble starter. A few trespassings, and she's suspected a few other crimes in her home state, but whatever." Cindy shrugged. "Seems like this whole shitstorm is the biggest offence."

Cindy nodded her head. "The other big thing that we managed to recover was her motorcycle. She just left it there in the parking lot. It's currently in our garage."

"So? Is there a warrant for her arrest or something?" Meifeng asked.

"Course there is. I put one out the second I realized she wasn't in Headquarters." Cindy replied. "But, let me continue... many valuables went missing in that little VIP are... I feel like there's a lot more to Miss Baker than we thought." Cindy gave everyone a look. "I get the feeling that she either was in there to make off with some goods, but that doesn't make sense because... She would have to ."

"Yeah, but..." Meifeng scratched her head as she thought about it. "...why the hell would she give her real name, and leave her bike in a place we can find it... if she's in a thief ring?"

That question stumbled Cindy for a moment. She simply just stared at Meifeng.

"Know what?" Cindy said. "Let's just find this girl, bring her right here, and question the ever loving hell out of her - because I don't know how else we're going to get any answers."

"You want my opinion?" Reed asked, before deciding he'd give it anyway. "Cindy, you were right about her being a distraction - but I don't quite think she was directly involved. From the sounds of things, it was a case of the right time, right place. Opportunist is our key word here."

Cindy sighed.

"And as for Eddy Styles... after Jade's done fixing him up - he's suspended for a month without pay..." Cindy grabbed her glasses. "... Orders came straight from Maximilian himself. He wants to make an example outta him."

"God dammit, Eddy..." Quentin face palmed at hearing the name, whilst Meifeng rolled her eyes. Both of them had served with Eddy during the crusade against the Hands of Science.

"The guy was a jackass anyway. I'm almost tempted to let little Reyna off with a warning." It didn't surprise Meifeng that he was the one who started this, but at least he was getting what he deserved.

This earned her a look from Cindy.

Max had remained silent while Cindy and Meifeng talked, mostly trying to avoid eye contact with all of the other agents around. She wasn't in the mood to be in a meeting like this. Still she couldn't help but say something. "How do expect us to find her if we couldn't even keep her in a cell?"

"Well..."

"Cindy." Meifeng chimed in, as a way of telling her to shut up.

Sighing, Cindy turned her head to Max. "The same way as always - we keep our eyes peeled, and our ears to the ground... If she hasn't split town by now." She shook her head.

"Even then... she still has a lot of states to cross." Meifeng said as she leaned back, and put her arms behind her head. "So, just put out an alert for her, and we'll find her in no time."

"I guess so." Cindy answered.

Alice leaned back in her chair, a plate half full of donuts in front of her. It had been intended for the table of agents, but apparently the sight of Alice attacking a one as if it had personally offended her had been enough to put most of them off. She brushed crumbs from the front of her blouse.

"Doesn't fit, minor misdemeanors then she starts a fight with a RAVEN agent? Clearly she's an idiot."

"That is correct..." Cindy agreed with Alice. It didn't quite make sense to her either, but that's why they're going to get the answers out of her. "I don't know what the hell is even going on anymore - let's just bag Reyna, and get this over with. We have more important things to do."

Cindy looked among her group. "I doubt a mastermind like her would be hard to find."

Shizuka had reclined back into his seat throughout the meeting, not paying much attention to the chatters among the agents (all he wanted was to get out of this room ASAP). As far as he was concerned, it was just a petty incident that didn't require wasting everyone's time here to hear the big shots squabbling at the front.

He sighed and combed a hand through his hair. He didn't know if he should feel amused or pissed that they were all here for a major meeting... about some dumb thieving ants.

Personally he could care less about some insignificant swindlers compared to the actual big bads like the Pure and the Allegiance; but if he, an officer working for a law enforcement agency, did not do his part to uphold the basic rules, then it's less likely the common folks would do the same.

Whatever. More importantly... There goes my vacation leave.

"Gir--- Ladies," he finally spoke up, sounding more annoyed than he intended. He paused to recollect his composure, then he continued, "Before this meeting drags on to nowhere, let's just wrap it up here and now: we'll all go out and bring this Baker girl in for questioning first, then we can continue to argue about what to do with her and her companions... after we get the info we need out of her mouth." Instead of wasting their time here chatting idly or fighting among themselves over stupid things, he thought, forcing down the urge to roll his eyes.

"I guess you're right." Cindy said, in a less than bitter way. She's finally starting to realize that she's just going in a circle on this matter. "We're better off checking out any cheap motels in Springtown, and et cetera - I don't think any Metahuman would hang around Brookarces, so we can cross that off the list."

Shizuka bobbed his head in agreement to Cindy's words, very much relieved that the long meeting was finally coming to an end.

"Let's just get a move on and get to the bottom of this... unless anyone else has somethin' to say; meeting adjourned."

---

---

RAVEN/DOVE West Coast Joint Headquarters, White Coast.

Moments after the group had all but filed out, Quentin gestured for Meifeng to hold on for a moment before they left.

Meifeng was quick to stop for a moment, and look at Quentin, "Yeah, Quent?"

"It's been a while," he folded his arms, a smile softening his normally cool demeanour, "How's things been? Haven't seen you since... yeah." Quentin thought it better not to bring up Prague just yet, memories of the city's burning still fresh in their minds.

"It's... been fine, I guess. I've been trying to take my mind off things." Meifeng shrugged. "I kinda feel bad that I went off the grid for awhile - pissed off a lot of my friends." She said with a awkward laugh.

"You had your reasons. Good reasons, actually." Quentin interjected, "Your friends'll learn to stick by you and understand them too, or not. Fuck 'em if they don't I guess. No offence."

"Yeah... I tried to make up for lost time with Lihua and Lijuan," Meifeng scratched the back of her neck. "But, that whole shitstorm put me right back on official duty."

"Tell me about it." Quentin rubbed a palm along his jawline, sighing. "It'll be good to have you back, though. RAVEN's not the same without our 'Rogue Wave', y'know," he added with a chuckle. "Good that you're wanting to spend time with them, though. Family's important, and I know your Mom's always cared more than she lets on. How's she doing, anyway?"

"She's doing very good, actually... Well, there was that whole shitstorm with Lijuan that I... missed." Meifeng said, regretfully.

Quentin's brow arched at that, "I think Reed mentioned something about it, but he wouldn't go into detail. But, if you ever need some backing on that front, you can always rely on me to twist an arm or two."

"Nah, I've got that front covered." Meifeng crossed her arms. She, like her mother, didn't really enjoy help on such personal matters. "But, thanks anyway."

"Anytime." Quentin shrugged. "Say, do me a favor - give my regards next time you see her."

"Will do." Meifeng said.

"And one more thing," Quentin added, "It's good to have you back."

Meifeng smiled.

"... Same. Same Quentin."

After that, the two went their separate ways.

---

---

After the ceremony, everyone went home, and the night proceeded as usual. The following day was bright, and sun. The perfect weather for the summer, and for people to go out to enjoy it. However, on this particular day, it was not going to be peaceful.

---

Lihua Zhao.

---

---

Greencrest Heights, White Coast.

A scream escaped Lihua's lips as she suddenly awoke - putting her hands over her mouth on reflex so she doesn't wake up Lijuan.

She grabbed her forehead, and started taking slow and deep breaths of air. Trying her damn best to calm herself down. Her head gently turned towards the right of this dark room, her alarm clock told her that it was three AM. Far from when she's supposed to awaken. Her bed was utterly soaked with a cold sweat.

Tears began running down her face.

She looked down, and watched the tear run down her cheek and hit the bed.

It was one of those nights.

She was stronger than this. For everything she's been through, she can't let one bad dream cause her to stop. Yet, she was getting overloaded with thoughts, worries. Everything just pouring into her all at once. Her breathing rate increased. God damn it... She almost curled up into a ball. She needs to get a hold on herself.

Just... go have a walk around the house. Grab some water.

It was just paranoia dictating this action, but she reached underneath her pillow, and pulled out her gun... A Smith & Wesson 686. A powerful firearm. She got up out of the bed, and started strolling towards the door. She was going to grab her bathrobe, but she decided against so. She simply opened the door, and started walking with her revolver in hand.

Nothing felt right - her heart was racing, and she could barely pay attention to her own damn footsteps. Lihua just went for the bathroom, and gently opened the door. Closing it behind her with a foot, she flipped on the lights. She kept walking all the way over to the sight, and pried open the medicine cabinet. Lihua grabbed a pill bottle... Sertraline. A PTSD drug that those damn doctors told her to start taking.

This was going against the god damn instructions, but Lihua opened the cap, and took a few of the pills, putting them in her mouth. Her hand went under the faucet, and she turned it on. Lihua cupped her hand full of water, and then swallowed the pills. In hopes that they would do something-

Who was she kidding? This isn't an instant cure for all of her problems.

In fact, these pills didn't do shit. No matter what pill she fills herself up with, what therapy she takes where she talks about her "feelings," or whatever other nonsense she's told to do - Nothing. Ever. Works. For crying out loud! She was just the same as she was seven years ago. Just this time, she changed the way she sees the world - but that didn't help with all these god damn nightmares, flashbacks, or whatever the hell you want to call them.

A pit of sorrow overcame Lihua as she slump down against the wall, and put both hands on her head, as she tried to figure out what the hell she was going to do. She loudly groaned as she kept breathing in and out. In, and then out.

Yet, she knew that she couldn't give up this easily. Lihua got up from the floor, and started walking towards the exit, and then she took a left. A few steps allowed her to quickly make her way over to Lijuan's room. She grabbed onto the doorknob, and slowly opened the door, which gave her a good look at her young daughter. Sleeping like nothing was ever wrong.

Oh, she looked so beautiful as she rested. Lihua couldn't help but stand in the doorway, leaning up against the door frame, as the presence of what motivated her calmed her down. She couldn't give up with Lijuan's life at stake here. Lihua couldn't cave in until Lijuan saw everything life has to offer.

Letting out one final sigh, Lihua took a step back and closed the door just as she began to awaken her daughter. She could have went back to bed, but she just needed something to drink. First thing she did was tuck her revolver into her underwear (After making sure the safety was on), she then decided to go downstairs, and stepped into the kitchen. With one flick of her wrist, she managed to turn the lights on, and then walked over to the refrigerator.

Opening the door, Lihua leaned in, and then grabbed a pitcher of water out. Stepping over to the cabinet, she pulled out a cup. She lazily filled the cup with water as exhaustion was beginning to finally creep up on her. Once it was full, she put the pitcher of water back in, and enjoyed her ice, cold, water...

The cup slipped out of her hand as her eyes drifted over towards the window.

A face - if she could even call it that - white as paper. Staring at her.

There wasn't even a lot of time to look at it before she whipped out her pistol and aimed at it... then the figure disappeared. Vanished into thin air like it was nothing. Lihua didn't know if she was seeing things, or... But, every cell in that brain of hers was telling her to go investigate. She quickly ran out to the door, grabbing a flashlight that she keeps by the door, with her pistol in hand, and aimed both in front of her as she walked around her house to investigate.

When she arrived, there was nothing. There was no one there.

Lihua grabbed her head, and started shaking it. She wasn't sure if she was losing it, or there was actually a problem...

One thing's for sure;

She was going to arrive at work a little later today.

---

Academy 61, Roseview.

It took a few hours for the woman to compose herself, and get ready for her job. While she has various... problems, she couldn't let them hinder her that much. Lihua just needed some time to gather herself. She pulled up to the front gates of the Academy in her SUV, and then she grabbed her cup of coffee as the gates opened and then Lihua managed to roll the vehicle inside. Fortunately, the staff had their own special parking spaces, so searching for a place to park was no trouble.

Bringing the vehicle to a stop was the first step, then Lihua put her long legs outside the vehicle, and closed it behind her. With a bag of files and whatnot slung over her shoulder. There was a slight exhaustion in her eyes for staying up way later than she should have. But, she had to stay alert just in case it wasn't just a hallucination. Either way, everything looked good, and Lihua managed to catch some Z's afterwards.

The woman took slow and deliberate steps as she moved through the Academy. The students who passed her greeted her with simple, "Hello Miss. Zhao," and, "How are you doing?"

Lihua herself tried to answer with, "Hello to you, too," and "Fine, how about yourself?" Yet she found it weighing down on her a bit.

Though, while she was walking, she encountered a student of hers. A short, African-America girl, that had a rather pronounced nose. What was her name again...? She didn't really raise too much of a problem (Compared to some of her other students), but Lihua did help her from time to time since she's an elemental type.

Phoebe. Yes. Her name is Phoebe Sarin.

"Miss. Zhao, how are you?" Phoebe said as she walked up to Lihua, prompting her to stop.

"F... Fine." Lihua said, backpedaling on her words a bit. She grabbed onto the side of her head. "Just had a bad morning, did someone else fill in for me in my absence?"

"Yeah, Miss Autumn did."

Lihua reminded herself to never call in sick, because she hated Miss Autumn.

"That's... good?"

"Oh! But have you heard?" Phoebe asked, which made Lihua raise an eyebrow in anticipation. "Wendy is sparring one of Jimmy Roe's students... I think her name was Gianna or something? You know, that wrestler chick with the strength?"

"Oh, I am very aware of Gianna." Lihua said. "I'll have to head over to the area, and watch."

Wendy was a very eccentric girl that Lihua found... irritating at times. Her heart's in the right place, however. Just that her methods (And social skills) aren't ideal. Lihua is confident that Wendy can change, and learn to use her abilities. Wendy was one of the students that rarely participated in arena fights. The ones that she does get in, Lihua generally misses.

Good thing she was here at the right time.

Lihua and Phoebe parted ways as the former made her way to the arena. She moved as quickly as she could, but managed to arrive at the observation deck. Which was a large window frame, with a bench or two behind it. Which gave everyone a clear look at the large, oval-shaped, arena made out of a smooth, sleek metal. Wendy was on one side, wearing a special suit. While her opponent was on the other.

Lihua took a sip of her coffee, quickly muttering under her breath.

"Time for you to put that training to good use..."

---

Wendy Emily Lucker

---

Academy 61, Roseview.

Okay, Wendy, just gotta focus.

An exhale escaped her lips as she prepared for this. Arena fighting was something that Wendy did from time to time. A simple sparring match to prepare Wendy in case anything popped off. Though, it might as well be a real fight the way some of these people take these fights too seriously. Wendy wasn't aiming to kill anyone, but she wasn't going to lose that easily. She has to put that training to good use - she can't have miss Zhao looking bad, can she?

In front of Wendy was a double door, and she was standing in a dark room. Wearing her arena outfit. An uncomfortably skintight wet suit, with kelvar and armor on top of it. The standard arena armor - but she's upgraded hers a bit. The suit incorporates paper into it's design (She's created several pockets that are thick enough to hold several sheets of paper). It's not a lot, but they put paper throughout the arena for Wendy to use... and other things for her opponent.

If she recalled correctly, she was facing off against... Gianna Hart? One of the Academy's bricks, having super strength and durability does that to you. She was known for her wrestling ability, and once she has someone grappled, they aren't getting back up until the bell rings. Because of both traits, she was one of the top arena fighters.

Only because she never faced an opponent she couldn't fight.

Today was the day that Gianna's win streak comes to an end, and Wendy's win streak begins! The doors of the arena opened, and that's when she knew it was almost time to begin. The two fighters stepped into the arena. Wendy briefly looked up at the observation window - but couldn't identify anyone from this distance. So, she focused on her opponent.

Because of that sharp eye, and attention to detail, Wendy has developed due to photography. Gianna was certainly a intimidating girl. She was solidly built, but didn't have any obvious muscles - No one would even get the idea that she had super strength until she starts flipping cars. Gianna had a head of brown hair styled into two long pigtails, and she was wearing a similar arena suit; except hers was a tan color.

One thing was for sure;

Gianna was stacked.

It made Wendy jealous that other girls were so much more endowed than her!

Like really-

"... Hey." Gianna said with a odd look on her face. "Are you ready? You look spaced out."

That was enough to get Wendy back into the game. "Oh... oh, yeah." Wendy replied. "I'm ready."

The two walked up to each other, and bumped fist.

"Let's have a nice match W... Wendelin." Gianna said, scrambling to think of what Wendy's name is. Which really made Wendy shake her head.

Right before the match even starts, and then she gets bombarded with this bullshit. She shook her head. "... Wendy."

"Oh, that's it!"

Before their back and fourth could even start, a siren started blaring, and then the announcer's voice blared into the arena, "Are you ready?"

Both Wendy and Gianna put some distance in between each other.

"Three..."

Wendy looked up at Gianna.

"Two..."

Gianna dropped down into her wrestling stance. Feet were shoulder width apart as per the usual. Right leg was in front, leading, as Gianna was bent forward.

"One..."

Wendy quickly pulled the paper slips out of her suit.

"... Go!"

Immediately, Gianna started charging forward, her hands were positioned to grab Wendy's lower body and pin her down. Which is what Wendy was hoping for. She merely grabbed the paper stacks from all over the arena - which was easily just recycling that the staff gathered just for her - with her telekinetic ability. She didn't make it float around her, but she quickly brought it near her. Okay, this was going to require precise timing.

Gianna quickly did exactly as Wendy had planned, and grabbed her by the lower body, and pulling a leg from underneath her, and slamming her to the ground. But, Wendy had a plan. While Gianna was approaching, she was subtly turning the flesh underneath her skin into paper up until she was functionally a sack of skin full of paper. Once Gianna grabbed her, and tried to take her down, Wendy fully turned into paper.

Paper that slipped out of her hands, and surprised the girl as she threw herself off balance. In her paper form, Wendy flew high up above Gianna and reformed. Turning herself weightless, lazily drifting downwards, as she summoned all the paper in the area, and condensed them into blocks. By the time Gianna had recovered, Wendy sent these paper blocks flying right at her.

First one caught Gianna off guard, and hit her in the back of the head. "Hey!" She exclaimed before the second one hit her directly in the back. Which sent her stumbling forward a bit. However, she was quick to catch the last one by punching it so hard that it was sent flying backwards.

Wendy regained her weight, and landed on the ground.

"That was cool." Gianna said. "But now I know my grapples won't work on you." She cracked her knuckles, and gave Wendy a cocky grin. "Looks like I'm gonna' have to beat ya' the good ol' fashion way."

Gianna pushed off her back leg, and quickly broke off into a sprint towards Wendy - whom was surprised by her speed. She cocked her fist back a bit, and Wendy into paper on reflex, and the impact was even distributed throughout her body. Only causing a few slips of paper to explode outwards. Wendy sighed in relief because that was going to be a lot worse if she didn't.

Wendy would have to quickly make some distance, but she was already running a tad low on breath from all the transforming. She quickly slipped outside of Gianna's grip, before reforming, and turning weightless to use that momentum to gain some more distance, but Gianna was chasing right behind her. Thinking fast, Wendy telekinetically pulled the paper around herself, threw the slips of paper in Gianna's face.

The bruiser winced her head in response, before she grabbed some of the paper and then ripped it in half... But Wendy was gone, no where to be seen.

That was behind Wendy slipped behind a square metal structure. She had her back slammed up against it, breathing heavily. Jesus. Turning into paper was going to give her breathing problems down the line, but she has to focus. Gianna has no idea where she is... so Wendy should capitalize on that while there is still time.

Nodding her head, Wendy hopped up into the air, and turned weightless to use the momentum to get the most out of her jump. She barely made it to the top of the metal structure, and grabbed onto the edges of it, and pulled herself up. Gianna was already searching behind the cover. Time to give her a surprise.

Wendy subtly gathered paper around herself until it was floating. She shaped the mass of paper until it had mimicked her own paper form. In terms of appearance, and movement. Smiling, Wendy sent the wave of paper around the corner in which Gianna was searching, in an attempt to distract her.

Gianna saw it, and grinned - chasing after it just as Wendy had planned. Wendy took this time to gather as much paper as she could, and then started running. She did one triumphant leap, throwing the paper forward, before she turned into paper.

The paper that Gianna was chasing stopped fluttering, almost like Wendy had went dead. She stopped, before she raised an eyebrow. Which gave Wendy the perfect opportunity to beat Gianna at her own game. She was flying towards Gianna at high speeds in her paper form, fast as she could. Once again, Wendy reformed so quickly that she was able to simply become weightless and flow like paper.

At the last second, before she was about to hit Gianna, Wendy regained her weight, and then she used her momentum to utterly swipe Gianna's leg from under her.... Though, it was an awkward motion. That hurt the hell out of her arm and shoulder. But, Gianna's yells as she fell backwards told Wendy that she did it. The girl was confused as all hell, and barely had any time to react - yet process this. Before Gianna got up, Wendy raised her hand up into the air, and gathered all the paper around her. It started floating above Gianna.

Gianna looked up, and gulped.

Wendy raised both hands in the air, and slammed them downwards towards each other in a V. The paper funneled and flew towards Gianna, and landed on top of her. Creating an utter pile of paper on top of the girl. Trapping her.

For a moment, Wendy wondered if there'd be more, but the shrill alarm buzzed, and then the announcer shouted,

"That's a wrap!" He said. "Wendy Lucker wins!"

Wendy smiled... she looked up at the observation deck, and saw some people clapping in the window.

This was such a great fight... She looked forward to some more. She turned towards Gianna, who had already liberated herself from the pile of paper. Grumbling about her loss for a moment, before she sat down, and looked at Wendy.

"Good match." Gianna said.

"Yeah, it was great, you were badass with those grapples!" Wendy enthusiastically answered.

"... But I'm never fighting an elemental-type again, that's for sure." Gianna grumbled as she stood up and started walking off.

Inside Wendy's head, she could hear the victory music. She started laughing a little bit at her own accomplishment, but she knew that fight was too easy. Gianna was too reliant on her strength, and Wendy was able to easily capitalize on that because she was something Gianna couldn't beat with strength alone. She shouldn't get cocky...

... Because Wendy's real opponents will be clever as she is.

---

Haruka Takashiro, & Rori Aherne.

^{(Collaboration between @tsukune and @FernStone)}

---

---

Little Seapond, Roseview, 09:00 PM_

Three days had passed since Shizuka came back to Baybridge; after the few brief meetings on the first day, Haruka hadn't seen his twin at all. Holly had informed him and his aunt that right now RAVEN was involved with two troublesome cases, so they were unable to drop by Roseview for the time being.

Dinnertime had been oddly quiet too - since the little conversation they had at the party two nights ago, his aunt hadn't talk about her past with the twins' parents again. Haruka felt that he shouldn't probe her further for now. Not when the two of them were feeling equally worried about Shizuka.

Akemi turned on the TV and sat down on the sofa, staring at the screen blankly when the news about the incident at the party came on; Haruka chose to leave her alone, and walked towards the front door. He stepped outside, and stretched out his arms with closed eyes - ah, the cool breeze tonight felt good against his skin.

Maybe he should go up higher to enjoy the wind better, without much obstruction from the other buildings around.

He willed the air to gather around his feet, until a small vortex formed beneath him, pushing him off the ground. He continued to pull more air towards him, and he was rising up higher and higher... until he was at level with the gently-slanted rooftop of their cottage house. He hopped off the tornado and landed on the roof, waving the whirlwind away where it dispersed into the night, blending back with the light breeze again.

He moved to the center of the rooftop and sat down. He didn't know if this was a side effect from his ability, but after the awakening of his air manipulation power, he had taken a liking for high places. He enjoyed the feeling of the wind caressing his face, the feeling of being closer to the open sky...

The sound of fluttering wings pulled him out of his peaceful thoughts. He turned his head around; landing beside him was a kestrel.

Rori had just been enjoying a somewhat scenic fly, choosing the form of a kestrel due to it having a bit more stamina than the robin they normally stuck with (since she knew it the best). However as they had been flying the air had begun to feel a little... weird. It seemed to be pulling them in one direction, at least. It was easy enough for them to spot the source of this - they were luckily looking in the right direction and had very good vision as a bird (even more so than their enhanced human vision).

And so they decided the best course of action - land beside this person who had been pulling air towards him. As they landed rather ungracefully beside Haruka, Rori let out a quiet series of tweets and looked curiously up at him. They could change back to human form, but they felt like that would just freak someone out. And anyway every time they changed they ended up incredibly hungry. They'd just have to change back in the end.

Though Rori didn't look much different from normal kestrels, if a bit undersized, it was obvious that their actions weren't entirely birdlike - especially the curiosity they seemed to hold towards Haruka.

Haruka watched the little bird's clumsy landing - which was odd, and that attracted his interest towards it. Then he remembered; it was probably due to his power that he accidentally sucked the poor thing towards him in its mid-flight. "I'm sorry," he murmured. He thought of extending out a hand to the kestrel, but decided against it, thinking that he might frighten it further. "I hope it's alright..." Even so, he couldn't help feeling that this bird was more than what it seemed: for one, it was too still, completely unafraid of his presence...

Almost like it could actually understand his words and actions.

He continued to stare at it. "...Can you understand me?" Well, if Metahumans could exist, he shouldn't feel too surprised about the possibility of animals with intelligence on par with human beings.

Rori stared back at Haruka for a moment, tweeting a bit in what seemed like words to them before realising that that wasn't going to cut it as a response. They could understand human language but normal people couldn't really understand bird language. Eventually they manage to nod their head in response to the understanding question. It was a bit of an awkward gesture, trying to make sure it was obvious what it was, but they got it done. They moved slightly where they were, tucking their wings properly in. They were pretty tired from flying in this direction and this was a decent enough spot to rest.

And the person had already seemed to realise that Rori wasn't a normal kestrel - which was cool! They didn't even need to turn back into their normal form of a human for that to be noticed!

Haruka was intrigued at the response he received from the kestrel - it nodded at him, and that clearly was a human gesture. He couldn't understand the tweets and chirps the little bird was making, but that nod was good enough for him. As he studied the kestrel, it appeared to be tired - a long flight journey, maybe? Was it also hungry, and would need some food to recharge itself?

He placed an open palm slowly before the little bird. "Do you want to come into my house to rest? I can get you something to eat, if you want."

The mention of food made Rori perk up. Food?! They were a little hungry... and would on be more so when they changed later. Having something to eat now would help them be less hungry later. In response they gave another funny nod before looking down at Haruka's open palm. They regarded it for a moment, not entirely sure what to do. If they stepped onto his palm there was a chance that they might hurt him. Their claws were rather sharp, after all kestrels did hunt and needed that, and there was no way for them to make them less sharp. After a little bit of consideration they flapped their wings slightly to let themselves rise into the air slightly before coming to land, a bit more gracefully, on Haruka's shoulder. It wasn't the most stable position - but there was clothing here between Rori's sharp claws and his skin. So it was better.

They were pretty sure their decision to land on his shoulder would be answer enough about coming into the house.

Haruka's face fell with disappointment when the kestrel flew away - but it didn't and landed on his shoulder instead, which surprised him. Though its talons prickled through his shirt to his skin a little, he didn't feel any pain. "Hang on a bit," he said as he stood up and moved to the edge of the roof, while gathering some air below, acting as an invisible cushion when he jumped down.

...His landing was as bad as the kestrel's, but at least both of them weren't hurt. Still, the loud thump had alerted his aunt; she rushed to the front door. "Haruka?" Akemi called out, worried. "What just happened?"

"N-Nothing," Haruka got to his feet and replied. He gestured to the kestrel on his shoulder. "I accidentally attracted this little one when I used my power just now. Can I bring it into the house? It seems to be hungry and tired."

Akemi raised an eyebrow at the small falcon-like bird. "I'm fine with that, but... it doesn't seem to be the kind suitable to keep as domestic pets."

"I understand." Haruka nodded to his aunt and stepped into the house. "I'm just taking care of it for the night as an apology for making it lost its way; I'll let it go tomorrow morning." Or it would probably be gone on its own when he woke up the next day.

He brought the kestrel to the kitchen, pulling open the refrigerator. "Hmm... I wonder what you like to eat?" he asked the bird in a low voice, making sure that Akemi wouldn't hear him talking to a bird.

Rori had been incredibly confused for a short while, as another person appeared and started speaking some language they didn't understand to the person whose shoulder they were standing on - whom they now knew was named Haruka. They just remained silent and still, more so than a normal kestrel would, until they were brought to the kitchen.

Well, this was going to be interesting. They weren't really entirely sure what they could eat as a kestrel that wasn't freshly killed rodents - something that they had eaten in the past. Still, Rori leaned forward slightly to peer into the fridge. They at least knew what kind of food was poisonous for birds of different types - it was research they had done a while ago.

Eventually they made their mind up and moved their wing to attempt to point at some cheese that was in the refrigerator. The easiest way to show food they'd eat was to go over to it but they didn't exactly want to go into the refrigerator and possibly ruin some of the stuff in there. So instead they settle for awkwardly pointing.

Haruka was amazed by another human-like gesture the kestrel had performed - the way it tried to point at the cheese reminded him of a similar, comical gesture portrayed in many cartoons... This time in real life, and right before his own eyes. He was somewhat taken aback that it picked the cheese - he thought that it might have chosen some form of meat, given its predatory features (falcon-like curved breaks and sharp talons).

He pulled out the cheese and closed the fridge, then set the cheese on the kitchen table. He helped to remove the plastic wrapping around the cheese before he placed it on a plate. "There you go."

Rori gave a happy chirp as the cheese was place on a plate, hopping off of Haruka's shoulder and onto the table. They had, in the end, gone for cheese because the thought of eating raw, and possibly processed, meat didn't appeal to the human side of them - even if it did to the more bird like sections of her mind (but those would have also rather gone out hunting). And anyway, they had ran out of cheese at home and Max was yet to buy any more.

They bent forward and began pecking at the cheese, breaking it into smaller pieces before eating those pieces. They ate a reasonable amount for a bird - though not in comparison to bird standards. Once done they moved away from the plate and back onto Haruka's shoulder (though it was a bit of a task, now being as full as they were). They were obviously quite content now, almost sleepy, after eating.

Haruka really enjoyed watching the kestrel's every move - besides, it was a rare chance that he could study one so up-close other than those caged up in the zoo. He raised his other hand to stroke the bird's head, but he stopped himself quickly. "Uh... can I pat on your head?" he asked uncertainly.

Rori hesitated for a moment. There was a weird difference between the human instinct of 'that's odd' and the bird instinct of 'strange human' contrasting with the bird knowledge that it would be quite nice. In the end they nodded their head. What harm could it bring? They were a bird at the moment (and slowly beginning to think more like one).

Haruka beamed at the kestrel. He knew that he shouldn't feel too attached to this bird from the wild, and it would be gone from his life once the sun rises the next day... but he couldn't help feeling fond of it.

Not as a pet, but as a friend.

The logical side of him was laughing inwardly at his stupidity. Is it even possible? Even if it looks like it's smarter than any normal avian of its kind, it's ultimately still not a human. The emotional side begged to differ, that it felt this bird was definitely a friend.

A friend he really hope to be able to meet again.

---

The next day_

Rori had ended up falling asleep at Haruka's, though they hadn't particularly meant to. They were sure it would be fine - Max was too busy working to worry about them anyway. They had retained their bird form overnight. A day was hardly the longest they'd stayed as a bird, though it meant the change back would probably be more painful than normal. And they really were getting a craving to go out and hunt which was never a good sign.

They huffed slightly, hopping about a bit to try and find some kind of open window or something to get out of. They had enjoyed their short stay, even if it had been as a bird. Haruka had seemed nice - he had treated Rori well and even fed them. Rori hoped that they'd meet when Rori was in their more normal, human form. It was just be a bit weird to change now.

They eventually found a way out and hovered in the air outside for just a moment, before flying away. They felt like maybe they'd made a friend - even if it was in an odd way.

... ...

By the time Haruka woke up from his deep slumber, the kestrel was indeed gone, leaving nothing behind but a single brown feather on the ledge of the half-opened window in his room.

He stretched and stood up, walking over to the window and he picked the feather up, slotting it between a book on his desk. He then turned his head to look out of the window.

A friend he really hope to be able to meet again...

---

Anna Aikau, Meifeng Zhao, Cindy Keagan. Maxine Diaz, Alice Barrett, Quentin Taylor & Shizuka Takashiro.

---

Greencrest Heights, White Coast.

The moon was out now and only a few shadowy wisps dotted the sky with dark silhouettes. The cool evening air felt good against Anna's skin. It was a nice night for a jog. Wearing a hooded utility jacket over her gray top and cut-off denim shorts, she trotted down the boardwalk at a brisk pace. Upbeat, Celtic fusion music thrummed in her ears as she tried to relax and forget about being relegated to records clerk.

Her boring, uneventful days felt too long, and they ended with an abundance of pent up energy. Sometimes Anna felt she would explode, if she didn't move around.

Following wherever her feet took her, she jogged through much of the boardwalks. She wandered far, letting fatigue replace her frustration. Before she realized it, she was already well into Greencrest Heights. Her pace slowed as she pulled out her phone--she was ready to call an Uber chauffeur--but impassioned shouting coming from a nearby concert venue. While live music played from different places on the block, a crowd of people had gathered around a single man shouting from atop the concert stage. The dull roar of distant concerts seemed to overshadow this venue, and she would've ignored it were it not for the cheering and fist pumps. It could've been amateur comedy night for all she knew, but her instincts told her otherwise.

"They brand us like criminals. For what? For being born better?" The speaker spat at the ground to emphasize his disgust. "Das bos!" His accent Anna couldn't quite place, but it sounded South African.

"Metas have no true freedom. What is freedom when scaly chaiwalas steal your DNA, collar you, track you, watch you like some animal? You are criminal in their eyes. Filthy skollies! To them, we are monsters. But we will show them!"

The speaker raised his hands and from them jumped bright electrical arcs, cutting through the air. Loud cheering rolled through the crowd. Anna knew a pro-Meta rally when she saw one, so she drew closer to the edge, fearing the situation may spiral out of control.

"We will show them that us Meta will take it no longer! We must protect our brothers and sisters! If we do not stand up for ourselves, no one will!"

Another round of aggressive cheers filled the air. There was a subtle tension in the crowd as their numbers grew. A small voice in the back of Anna's mind agreed with him. The mandatory registration of metahumans was a fundamental stripping of constitutional freedoms. The government made promises of increased safety, but It cost many people their civil liberties, and was a surefire way to alienate metahumans as a whole. The country was already sliding down the slippery slope of "National Security". Sometimes Orwell's bleak outlook seemed more optimistic than reality.

Much of those thoughts quickly faded back into their quiet recesses as Anna's senses went on high alert. There was a fine line between a redress of grievances and inciting violence. The longer she stood there the more this "peaceful assembly" started to look like a group of would-be rioters.

"The Allegiance fights for you! They fight for your sons and daughters, so they won't be forced to wear collars! So they won't be treated as dogs! Komang! Kowmang! It is the responsibility of the people to overthrow an oppressive government... this Government!" The speaker pointed in the direction of RAVEN headquarters. "Do you want to bow down to corrupt officials who despise you?"

"NO!" The crowd immediately erupted in a unified chorus.

"Do you want to be treated as second-class citizens!"

"NO!" the crowd erupted again.

"Then stand up, and join the Allegiance!"

Wait. The Allegiance? Shit! Anna had to defuse this situation quickly, if she didn't want a full-blown riot on her hands. She had stood idle for too long; the concert floor held well over fifty people now. She flipped through her phone and typed out a quick message.

---

Meanwhile, in the hall of justice...

Max was bored. Of course, this happened very often when landed with a normal desk job and all its paperwork. At least she'd gotten some amount of sleep the night before. She guessed she should be thankful that everything was peaceful even if there was a lot for everyone to deal with in the aftermath of the escaped troublemaker.

She was almost done and just about ready to take a break when her small amount of concentration was broken by a notification.

"Eh?" So much for things being peaceful. Right after the issues the night before? A fucking protest? Well, there wasn't exactly time to think about that. Max stood abruptly, grabbing anything she thought she might need off of her desk. If she'd known something like this was going to happen today, she would have switched into telekinesis. Actually, scrap that, she was pretty shit at it. Regeneration was useful enough as-is.

"Good grief." Meifeng said as she facepalmed. The Allegiance. Those fools. She personally wanted to find the leaders of that organization and shove her boot so far up their ass that they're going to have toes for teeth. She kicked her foot against the table, and managed to push herself back. Her first day back on duty, and she's going to be kicking Allegiance ass. She started to haul ass towards the locker room.

Alice was the first RAVEN agent in the locker room who hadn't already happened to be in there. Not having to cross the intervening space had given her something of a head start on everyone else, and she strapped the armour on with practised ease. She didn't bother with the helmet, she never had. It restricted her peripheral vision too much. She had recognised the callsign in the email address, White Sun, she didn't know why Anna Aikau was in Baybridge, but she had a lot of respect for the woman generally regarded as the pride of RAVEN NYC.

Not wasting any time (well as little as possible) she headed down to the locker rooms. Time to change into the oh so comfortable RAVEN issue armour and prevent some sort of riot from happening.

Alice nodded at Max, before clipping the comms system against her ear and vanishing from the room with a faint pop, reappearing at an upper floor window of the HQ. She could see Greencrest across the river, it wasn't far, but might be pushing her limits if she jumped the whole way in one shot. She shouldn't really go alone, but she didn't feel comfortable leaving Aikau alone out there before the rest of the RAVEN agents arrived.

The viewing deck was empty once more, only the faint influx of air betraying the fact that someone had stood there mere seconds before.

It didn't take Max long to get ready, since she assumed there was a rush and changed as quickly as she could. Though, in the end, it just left her waiting for the others who were also being sent out as backup--the orders had been clear about not heading out alone.

"Hey," Shizuka called out to the brownie from behind her. "Seems like we're the faster ones." Unlike Max, he had forgone the armor for a simple stealth suit (the black RAVEN insignia on the left side of his chest pretty much blended into his equally dark suit, which wasn't easy to make out without closer inspection). Instead of the trusty CheyTec he would normally use he went for the lighter AR-30 this time, stowed in a long package in a black bag on his back. Well, he was going to be a mere lookout for the team, not a hitman.

Max turned to look over her shoulder, nodding slightly to Shizuka. "Hey. Yeah, seems like everyone else is taking their sweet time. And there I was thinking I had to rush." She shrugged slightly. "I'm assuming you're all geared up for shooting some he- I mean, recon?"

"This time I'll just be watching your backs; hopefully I don't need to blow anyone's head off," Shizuka replied, his voice somewhat grim. "I came back here to demand for a long break from work, not getting more unnecessary paperwork."

"Good to know someone trustworthy has our backs... Hopefully it won't come down to a fight, though," Max shrugged. Crowd control would hopefully be the extent of their job. Though in the past Max would've liked a good fight, not so much anymore when she wasn't annoyed. "Seems you've come back at exactly the wrong time to get a break. A lot of shit's gone down since last night. I hope this'll be the last of it." Then it would be back to paperwork, but at least there'd be less of it.

Shizuka raised an eyebrow when Max thought of him as someone 'trustworthy', especially when they barely knew each other and only met two days ago. After seven long years working with RAVEN, he still couldn't quite understand this whole 'cop trust' thing.

He could only sigh at her comment about bad timing - it wasn't just that, but he knew that there were some issues that would require his presence to get them done and over with...

Around this time, Meifeng came out of the locker room wearing her standard issue, RAVEN armor. She's worn it so much that it was like a second layer of skin to her. She came out to see Shizuka and Maxine talking; she had no idea who the latter was, but she can certainly change that. "Hey, looks like we're going to be on the same mission." Meifeng said to Maxine. "Haven't quite caught your name... I'm Meifeng." She greeted.

"Max," Max responded with a slight shrug. "Nice to meet you."

Shizuka looked up when Meifeng came up to them. "Hi Mei," was all he said to her. He didn't know what Cindy had talked to her about... and he didn't have anything worth saying to her, anyway.

"Yo, Shizu!" Meifeng greeted Shizuka with a smile. "I see that you're enjoying this sniper job of yours."

"Yeah, I guess you can say that - it's what I've always wanted to do after all," Shizuka returned the greeting, leaning his back against the wall; he had held his tongue about how it was similar to Cindy's passion for flying. He was pretty sure that everyone who was at the meeting yesterday could already feel the tension sparking off between those two girls.

He couldn't say the same to Meifeng, that she was also enjoying her field of work... because truthfully speaking, that would be rubbing salt into the wound. Otherwise, she wouldn't need to go on a long disappearance after the Beast incident. He thought of making a passing comment about her feat in Prague but closed his mouth again, and simply shook his head without another word.

At that moment, Quentin rounded the corner donning RAVEN's standard uniform, complete with body armour, sans the helmet - which he was holding underarm. With the other, he jabbed out a hand for Phantom to shake, "Shizu, it's been a while." Slung over his shoulder was the trademark Remington 870, a stack of shells tucked neatly into the pouches of his gear.

Shizuka straightened up at the sight of Quentin - to most of the RAVENs, he was pretty much a senior figure here. He ignored the extended hand and chose to give the older man a friendly punch to his shoulder. "Sure is. Heard that you've been away on a road trip or something."

The punch caught Quentin off guard a little bit, though that only served to prompt a chuckle from him. "Yeah, somethin' like that. You folks in Baybridge been taking care of my brother?"

"About tha--- Well, speaking of the devil," Shizuka cut himself off in mid-sentence, distracted by yet another entrance of someone.

Charging into the scene was Cindy, who was wearing the standard DOVE uniform - a nice pinstriped black suit with the DOVE insignia on her breast - except she had body armor on, and replaced her heels with boots. "Alright, it's an Allegiance protest - you're gonna need a DOVE or two to quell the situation," Cindy started off, but she left the words hanging in the air like she was going to say something else. "But, if something pops off, make sure that you're using taser rounds, and that we peacefully detain the targets."

Cindy adjusted her glasses.

"Last thing that RAVEN needs to do is add fuel to the whole pro-meta fire by killing them." Cindy continued to explain.

"I'll keep that in mind..." Shizuka gave Cindy a curt nod. "...And keep my finger off the trigger." After all, it's a win-win situation for everyone: DOVE could settle this in the most peaceful way without breaking too much sweat - also, to save some face after the party incident - and he didn't need to do anything else to add extra workload on top of his (near-finished) trip report and the retarded troublemaking escapee case.

"Up until they decide to use lethal force against us," Cindy was quick to answer. "Then ya'll can do whatever the hell ya'll want." She shrugged. "If everything goes correctly, then it shouldn't even have to come to that."

"Let's hope they're all smart enough to just go home quietly and not make any more stupid fuss..." Shizuka muttered, shifting the rifle bag on his back. "Anyway, I'll head out first. Later." He turned to leave, giving the rest a quick wave before disappearing around the corner.

Tossing Shizuka an upwards nod, Quentin's gaze shifted over to Maxine - a face he'd never met before. Brow arched, he spoke up with a quizzical tone, "I don't think we've met before."

"No, we haven't," Max responded after a moment. "I only finished training a few months back. I'm Max." She'd stopped giving out her full name after some people insisted on calling her Maxine.

"Two Max's? That'll be confusing," he remarked, before shaking his head.

Max shrugged. "I'm sure we'll figure something out."

Quentin nodded in agreement, "Yeah, probably. I'm Quentin, by the way. Maybe you're familiar with my brother? Reed Taylor?"

"Nice to meet you Quentin," Max looked thoughtful for a moment. "I think I have seen him around, I recognise the name. I haven't actually talked to him."

"That doesn't surprise me, though you'll probably run into him on a case sooner or later. You been with RAVEN long?" He asked, brow arched. From a glance, she looked young - around the same age that Meifeng had been when she'd first joined up with RAVEN.

Max nodded, before answering his question. "I've been with RAVEN just over two years, including training. So not long at all."

Quentin had guessed right. "Well, it's good to know who I'll be working with. Good to meet you, Max."

"It's good that ya'll are getting friendly." Cindy added as she adjusted her glasses. "But, it's time we get a move on, let's go."

Meifeng nodded, before she followed after Cindy as she lead everyone out of the room.

---

Concert Plaza 4, Greencrest Heights.

Having sent out the alert to HQ, Anna was sure command center was going to sortie a "welcoming party". In the mean time, she pulled up the hood of her jacket to obscure her face, and with her phone out, proceeded to livestream footage of the protest to RAVEN command. She blended in just fine with the half dozen other people recording the speech--presumably for their youtube channel.

The impassioned speaker had already won the hearts and minds of the crowd. and with many of them texting, tweeting, and streaming the event, more and more metahumans were starting to arrive from other venues and join the crowd. The Blackfall Effect was already in full swing.

A girl from the crowd, climbed onto stage. She had a standard issue collar clasped around her neck. The speaker helped her up. "Look at this kif sister! She ready to remove that neck shackle, ja?" The girl looked terrified, but determined. She nodded to the charismatic emcee. "So tell your brothers and sisters, why they have you collared? I don't see any hand-cuffs." He leaned the mic towards her.

For a moment the girl seemed to shrink back, but recovered and timidly began, "They said I was too dangerous and couldn't walk around without it."

"And why did they think that? Have you done anything wrong?"

The girl shook her head.

"Did you hurt anyone?"

"No" Again, she shook her head.

"They still make you wear it?"

"Yes."

They whispered into each other's ears for a moment, before he continued.

"This is a perfect example of the overreaching and unjust laws. Julie has never committed a crime in her life. She is a student like many of you. But they treat her like this because she's... "dangerous"?"

The high-pitched inflection in his tone perfectly expressed his disbelief. A soft round of booing circulated through the concert pit.

"Nah. Nah. I think not." He shook his head. "Tell Cezanne: You have any mean to harm these nice people here?" He inclined his head toward the crowd.

So the speaker’s name was Cezanne? Anna didn't recall any name like that in the Allegiance dossiers. Perhaps he was new.

The girl, Julie, made a face Anna couldn't quite make out at a distance, something between a frown and a childish smirk. Two of the Cezanne's cohorts moved in, one from each side of the stage as a blue arc of crackling energy surged into the collar. Instantly, the collar popped off Julie's neck and fell uselessly to the ground. Two of the Allegiance members then hoisted her up onto their shoulders, catching her off-guard.

"That is the first step towards freedom. Now show us what you can do!"

Julie struggled for a moment with suddenly being put on the spot, but then started to hum a soothing lullaby. No matter how breathy or soft her voice seemed, the sound was incredibly intense, as if coming from every direction at max volume.

Alice arrived in time for that awful, intense sound to begin resonate in the air. It wasn't that it was particularly unpleasant, it was that it appeared to key itself into every sense without asking permission. She plugged the ear that wasn't occupied by the communicator and moved over to the edge of the rooftop she was now on. It was higher than the house had been last night, but she resisted the vertigo that plucked treacherously at her.

"Shortcut on site, I don't want to get too close, I think it's best if DOVE get's their shot before they think RAVEN is here to shoot first and ask questions later."

She couldn't see White Sun, not that she'd expected to, but she needed to use her head and start trying to locate the other agent.

As the crowd began to cheer, thinking the girl's power was somehow completely benign. Anna knew better and covered her ears. RAVEN wouldn't have put a collar on a civilian like her unless she was somehow a danger to herself or others.

Flower petals began to rain down from above--bizarre in that they seemed to fall from out of thin air. Startled, Anna maneuvered to catch one with her sleeve, but it passed right through her arm. Oh no.... Whether they were illusory constructs or some kind of hallucination, Anna didn't know-in fact, she didn't want to know--but the situation just went from bad to worse in only a few seconds.

One of the metas at the edge of the gathering flipped a park bench. His face was red and he roared incoherently. The effect seemed to spread quickly after that. One after another, someone within the crowd would fly into a rage and start tearing up the scene. Anna thought it would turn into an all-out brawl, but no harm seemed to be directed to any of the other metas just property--at least for now.

But when a few passerbys strolled down the sidewalk, completely unaware of their surroundings and idly chit-chatting, Anna's heart jumped. One of them was wearing the jersey for the Silver Hills boarding school, an institution well-known for its "conservative values" and anti-metahuman sentiments. They couldn't have picked a worse time to come here.

Anna staggered her way through the sea of people despite still reeling from what seemed like a group hallucination. She had to protect those kids, she thought. Just as she was about to wriggle free of the crowd, one of the crazed rioters began sprinting towards the unsuspecting trio of students.

---

Desperate Measures

Pulling up some distance away from the Allegiance protest was a large RAVEN APC with a foam cannon mounted on top of it. It was a stressful ride, especially when Meifeng wanted to play "X Gon' Give It to Ya" on the way there and started an argument about it.

They arrived out of sight, mostly because they didn't want to startle them and incite a fight. Which, after the whole shitstorm at the party, was the last thing anyone wanted.

Though, no one could have said they wanted to fight.

Cindy was the first to step out, her finger went to her earpiece as she gave orders, "Okay, the first thing we're going to do is find Agent White Sun, then we're going to quell the situation. Got it?"

"Loud n' clear, Green Bird." Meifeng said near sarcastically.

"Understood as crystal." Quentin added, pulling out another taser slug and pushing it into the magazine tube of his Remington 870.

"Got it," Max spoke, checking a last time to make sure she had all the necessary equipment.

"Already in position," Shizuka confirmed via the comm. He did a quick scout around the area before the rest of the squad had arrived - and there was a hotel in the vicinity that could give him a perfect, unobscured view of the open concert stage and the people below while hiding him from their sight in the blanket of the night. Lying prone on the floor of the rooftop, he watched the rally through the scope of the AR-30. "Just a quick update that the protesters are now over a hundred... and a riot is already breaking out among themselves."

"Alright Phantom, keep us updated." Quentin said, an inkling of disconcertion in his tone.

"Shit." Cindy answered. That just makes things a lot harder. "We might have to use taser darts for this time."

"Good." Cindy said as she rolled her eyes and pulled out a megaphone out of the vehicle. "I'm going to sit back here, and wait for the all clear..." She looked at them, and then raised an eyebrow. "What are you all waitin' there for staring at each other? Get to it!"

Shizuka scanned through the crowd for someone who fit the description of a RAVEN named 'Anna Aikau' to no avail. It wasn't going to be easy to search for someone at night - more so that he knew little to nothing about the said agent. "By the way, has anyone tried to contact White Sun - who informed us about this illegal gathering?"

"Not yet, but I'll get in contact with her now." Cindy answered, she pressed her earpiece, and then... remembered that she had messaged HQ's email account as opposed to using her comms. Which most likely meant that she didn't have an earpiece on her - and if she did, she would be in trouble. Which means they're going have to do this another way. Cindy pulled out her cellphone, and quickly went to her contacts list. She remembered White Sun's email address off the top of her head.



"Alright, sent her an email now." Cindy said over the comms. "Just get into position while she replies."

Alice's reply came back swiftly, "That may not be an option Green Bird, I've got three bystanders in a potentially hazardous situation, no visual on White Sun."

"Damn it." Cindy hissed into comms. "Alright, looks like we're going to have to take some direct action...." She groaned. "RAVENs get together and extract the three bystanders at once."

"Shit."

Alice couldn't carry three people, but she didn't have time to stand and debate the vagaries of her ability with the DOVE agent. She had to act.

"No time!"

The three students would probably have been surprised by the muffled thump that heralded Alice's arrival, or they would have been if they'd had time to process what was happening. Instead two of them only briefly experienced the sensation of a hand clamping onto their shoulders before they experienced the sensation of projectile vomiting.

Alice didn't hang around to wait for them to recover, or to explain, disappearing immediately. She'd misjudged, the other student wasn't here, and stood ten feet away, looking around confusedly for their friends. Where was the meta?

That internal question was answered by her own experience of a hand clamping onto her shoulder and spinning her like a top. He opened his mouth to warn the other metas, and Alice teleported to the first thing she could see, or at least in the first direction she looked that wasn't his young, unshaven face. They ended up above the water, and Alice, more prepared for the sudden change of scenery, took advantage of his shock to knee him in the groin as they fell.

He let go, and she vanished again, landing awkwardly on dry land once more, stumbling before she found her feet.

Anna was taken aback for a moment. She hadn't reached the kids in time, but someone else did--and a teleporter at that. So the cavalry has arrived, hunh? They seemed to have been taken care of, but there was no telling where the meta went or the agent. She scanned the road and sidewalk for them with no success, but she instantly noticed one of the students had been left behind; he had stumbled to the ground and was obviously confused. Anna dashed to him.

"My name's Anna, I'm with RAVEN. I need to get you out of here now!"

The boy turned to her, still in shock. "Wait... what's going on? Where are my friends?"

"They're safe, but we need to leave immediately." She urged him up to his feet, and locked her grip around his arm and began to sprint with this kid in toe.

She was about to respond to the text she'd just gotten, but was interrupted. One of the nearby metas began to shapeshift, and their rapid growth into a gangling creature flung a trash bin in there direction, hitting Anna squarely in the back. As she toppled over, she let go of the kid's arm so he wouldn't fall with her. The regret for that decision was immediate.

She hit her head on the edge a nearby signpost, rolled and fell flat on her back. The fall knocked the air from her chest and sucked in a painful breath. The bleeding from her forehead ran into her right eye and she could taste iron. Looking back, the shapeshifter--who now looked more like a lithe giant with long, thin limbs and odd bony spurs ripping through its clothes--was heading towards their way. Anna fumbled inside her jacket pocket, drew her taser gun, and levelled it at the approaching Meta. Her finger rested on the trigger as she took aim.

A bright blue bolt of lightning tore a line through the ground between her the giant. The speaker, Cézanne, had stepped in on her behalf. The giant stopped abruptly, surprised by the sudden flash.

"My friend..." Holding up both hands, he began to talk the giant down. "We're here to have a good time, nah?"

The meta, on the other hand, clearly had little or no sense of self-awareness. Whatever Julie's song was doing was affecting people's mind. But very slowly the light of reason, though dim, began to flicker in the giant's eyes, as if slowly awoken.

" No need to scare this nice RAVEN lady." He jerked his head at Anna.

How the hell did this guy identify her as a RAVEN agent? Anna was floored. She wasn't in uniform and she certainly didn't speak loud enough to the kid to be heard over the roar of the crowd.

The shapeshifter's expression turned dark. Its lips curled into a snarl, when it heard she was an Agent, and took a couple steps forward.

"You angry, nah? You have every right to be. No, you should be angry! They are the ones responsible for all of our struggles."

The giant stepped closer again.

What the hell is this guy doing? She thought. Is he trying to save me or get me killed? Either way, this asshole is blocking my shot.

Cézanne continued, stressing almost every word. "But. If we act like animals. We only justify. Their belief-" He pointed an accusing finger at Anna. "-that we are."

On that note, the shapeshifter huffed; and with a disgruntled look on his face, began to shrink down to his normal size.

"Come! You and me broeta, we enjoy the rest of this show while it lasts, ja?" Cézanne swung a friendly arm around the meta's neck and started back towards the gathering.

In the chaos of the last few moments it seemed that Alice had managed to take care of the situation without getting together with the other RAVENs, though there was no sign of the teleporter anywhere. Max found the exact spot after everything was just about cleared up. "Situation averted. Everyone seems to be safe for now. Shortcut seems to have taken care of most of it," Max spoke into the coms, before turning to look at two who had been attacked by the meta. The boy seemed fine, but the other person seemed like she'd been hit. She was holding a taser... Maybe...

Riding in on a miniature tidal wave, Meifeng and Cindy approached the scene - holding hands in a non-romantic way (It was the safest way for Meifeng to transfer her water-walking ability to Cindy). Meifeng came to a stop before Anna and the kids, Cindy was the first to hop off. She ran up to the kids.

"Is everything okay?" Cindy answered them. "Thank God that you kids are okay."

"Look.... You kids gotta clear the area; we gotta quell this situation before an outright riot spawns out of this." Cindy said. She turned towards Anna, before speaking into her comms, "We gotta end this now, it's gonna end in violence - that goes without sayin' at this point - but we gotta at least try to peacefully resolve this first."

Cindy nodded her head. "Phantom, do you have a bead on the singing girl? Because she's our first target if things don't chill." She asked.

"That's easy, Birdy," Shizuka replied in a bored tone, zooming the telescopic sight into his 'targets'. "She's still on the stage wedged between the two brutes who had zapped her collar just now."

"Counterpoint, Rogue Wave, Shortcut, and Mimic, with me, get into position. Get the Meta-Suppressant gas ready. That sound solve the situation in a few seconds."

"Counterpoint, in position. " Quentin echoed, as he moved up beside them, a hand on one of the canisters. Something told him this wasn't going to be a good day.

It had taken Alice a moment to reorient herself after she'd dunked the Metahuman in the water, and then she'd had to take a moment to throw him a life-preserver. It wouldn't do for him to drown thanks to her defensive action. Now she was back with the rest of RAVEN. There were two canisters of the Meta-suppressant gas clipped to her belt, though she resisted the urge to remove one and prepare it. This situation was already south, let alone going there, and she didn't want to be the spark that finally ignited it fully.

"Shortcut ready."

"Mimic also ready," Max responded, as she moved her belt slightly so that the canisters of gas she carried were in closer reach. The gun she had on her was already loaded with non-lethal rounds. At least she'd be able to take a few hits if she needed to if this came down to an all out fight. She wasn't regretting sticking to regeneration.

This was going to end horribly. Cindy wished that she could try to prepare with her glass powers, but that would sure as hell be begging for a fight. Even though, no matter what she says to them, they won't listen. At least... Cindy reached down to her hip, and realized that she had a glock. Armed with taser rounds. It should work... offensively. Defense-wise, she's gonna have to use those feet of hers.

Inhaling, Cindy clutched her megaphone tightly.

"Make sure that you're using nonlethal rounds until it's permitted." Cindy said, nodding her head. She exhaled. "Alright, time to move on."'

They started moving, with Cindy ahead of the entire group. She held the megaphone in hand, and every step she took, she got closer to the loud chattering of these idiots. To Cindy... The Allegiance was no different from the Pure. Both groups were just racist cultists. Only problem was that they were causing problems.

Even though she was right behind them, they didn't pay her any mind - probably didn't even notice her. Because she was wearing armor with the DOVE symbol on it, they would be all over her. But, with her team of RAVENS at her side, she didn't have much to worry about.

After one deep breath, Cindy raised the megaphone to her lips.

"Attention! Attention, please!" Cindy shouted into the megaphone. Which made everyone turn around and face her. They started getting even more excited as they saw a DOVE. She continued with.

"This isn't the way to gain true equality - all you're doing is perpetuating this cycle of violence." Cindy started off. "Look around you, do you think that attacking people on the street for having a different ideology is sending the right message? You're going to make the situation worse for yourselves, and the peaceful Metahumans by showing the world that Metahumans are dangerous and savage as they seem!"

Cézanne took the stage again. His comrades escorted the singing girl Julie off-stage. He tapped the mic. "You heard dat klak, right? They will make it worse for us because we say and do things they don't like. They tuning us grief!" He countered with a mocking tone. The crowd's attention snapped back to him and they booed in agreement. Even some of the rioting ones stopped to hear him.

"And we hold these truths to be self-evident, hey? That all men are created equal, hey?" He spit viciously at the ground. His words dripped with disgust and his gestures matched with much fanfare, taking an aggressive stance and directing all of his hatred at the DOVE agent.

"Where is our equality? When we are treated no different than Jews in Hitler's Germany. No different than das blacks in King's time. We don't even get the luxury of "separate, but equal'. You took that away from us."

Cézanne turned to the crowd. "What happens when a government is too corrupt to protect its own, hm? When they oppress their own citizens? What do people do?"

As if on cue, one member in the crowd shouted "revolution" and the rest quickly joined in, until the word spread like wildfire. All of them were chanting in rhythm:

RE-VO-LU-TION!

RE-VO-LU-TION!

RE-VO-LU-TION!

Cézanne cast a knowing look at the agents waiting on standby; he wore a defiant grin, like he had just won some great victory. "Viva la Revolución!" He zapped the mic with a small crackle of energy and casually threw it behind him. He spread out his arms, as if to say Come get me.

This worried Cindy. This bastard was riling up a crowd. This wasn't unexpected, which is why Cindy had the RAVENS get ready in the first place. If they carpet the area in gas, and containment foam, they can take everyone out without even having to lift a finger.

"Who is actually oppressing you? DOVE is doing everything in it's power to protect you from the likes of the Pure, along with providing each and every Metahuman with the care they need. While also integrating Metahumans into society!"

The chanting didn't stop, only growing louder and louder, trying to drown out the sounds of the megaphone. The tense atmosphere had reached its boiling point, and this once peaceful assembly was one step away from being an angry mob.

Cindy sighed - her words couldn't reach these people. They were too high off their own words. In any case, Cindy didn't want the ringleader getting away. It was likely he was just another loon imitating the big bads of the Allegiance - but it only takes one man to change things for the worse.

Luis and the Devil taught her that.

"Alright, then! Under the orders of DOVE, you all are to immediately disperse at once!" Cindy shouted into the megaphone... She knew that she was setting things off here, but, honestly, there wasn't much more she could do (Other than stand there with a thumb up her ass).

Cezanne and his small crew melded into the crowded and joined in the angry chanting. But their expressions seemed to say they knew what was coming, and embraced it.

Her fingers went to her earpiece. "On my signal, throw as many gas canisters as possible, and bring in the APC with the heavy duty foamer." She ordered her fellow RAVENS as she put a gas mask on, and then her hand went to her pistol as she took steps back.

Suddenly, a gas canister flew into the crowd from the street and exploded in a cloud of thick glittering red smoke over the heads of the rioters.

"What the hell?!" Cindy loudly said as she watched. All the protesters went crazy, and she exploded in anger. She made sure to aim her pistol at them, and take steps back. She pressed her earpiece and barked, "Who threw that!? I want names!"

"God-dammit.." Quentin grunted, head snapping around to look for whoever might've thrown the damned thing, before he turned back towards the crowd, his shotgun still pointed downwards. Realising they had little time to lose, he quickly snapped his own mask on over his face.

Shizuka cringed at the chorus of shouts and static noise coming from his earpiece. He resisted the temptation to shift his sight away from the singing girl to the source of ruckus on the other side of the stage area; Cindy's order was clear - he had to keep his eyes glued to 'Siren'. "What the hell's going on down there?"

Max had been in the process of preparing her own gas canisters when someone threw one into the crowd from the street. What the hell? She turned her head slightly to see if she could notice who'd thrown it. No luck.

The crowd went absolutely wild, superpowers, objects, and everything else, went flying in all directions. The crowd absolutely went on a rampage, and they needed to be stopped at all costs. Cindy was the target for many of them. Her kelvar vest received a fireball - she yelped in pain as her armor was burnt. She retaliated by firing a few taser darts into the crowd.

Quentin fired off one taser slug, then another as the crowd advanced on his side - narrowly avoiding a brick aimed for his head and responding by firing a slug right at the midsection of the meat-slab sized thrower, who soon keeled over and convulsed.

"Fuck it!" Cindy shouted into the comms. "Throw the gas!"

"Rogue Wave moving in." Meifeng said as she rolled in on a tidal wave. She was adjusting her mask, she quickly put it on, and her hand grabbed onto the canister. "Gonna enjoy this, because I got tired of that bastard sucking his own dick." Meifeng snorted into the mic as she summoned water out of her pocket dimension, she was exposed to a brief dryness in her body.

The RAVEN formed the water into an orb, and then put the canister inside of it. She then stretched both hands out, and the orb was at her fingertips. She pulled her hands back, and then shot them forward, and the canister was launched through the air by a splurt of water that sent it flying through the air at the crowd.

As it went through the air, it began to release red gas that caused anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in it to start coughing, before they passed out. That was good enough, but she saw people were closing in on Cindy. Meifeng leaned in, and dove forward like a missile as she rode upon the wave of water. Right as a feline Metahuman was diving at Cindy, Meifeng had valiantly jumped into the air, and swung her leg in a wide arc - nearly spinning her entire body.

A wave of water followed, and hit the Allegiance follower in the side and sent him sprawling backwards in pain.

"Thanks." Cindy said as she took steps back. "Alright, I'm going to leave this to RAVEN, I did all I could." She took off out of the scene.

Meifeng reached towards her hips, and grabbed one of her pistols that were hoisted onto them. "Alright, let's get this over with!"

On cue, the APC that they had arrived in had rolled up on the concert scene. The foam cannon on top fired a stream of a white chemical that blanketed the group in containment foam. Few could dodge the foam, as they were preoccupied with avoiding the red clouds of Meta suppressant gas.

Shizuka knew the squad below were probably too busy with the full-blown riot among the protesters to spare a thought for anything else, which left only him to watch the stage area for them - all by himself. "Hate to add this to your growing trouble list Birdy, but the backstage crew is now trying to get away with Siren," he muttered into the comm, his finger poised ready on the trigger.

"Hit the Siren with a dart." Cindy ordered from inside the APC. "We can't let the Allegiance get away with a Meta that strong."

"Roger," Shizuka replied without much enthusiasm - even if it was a non-lethal shot, it didn't change the fact that he was pointing his gun at a little girl that had barely reached adolescence.

He shifted his rifle to the right - the breeze was blowing from his right - while his scope was still locked onto Siren; it was going to be harder to gauge the course of a lighter taser shot compared to the usual, heavier bullet... and he had to do it in one shot.

He exhaled slowly. What needs to be done has to be done.

He squeezed the trigger and fired the taser round, which cut through the night sky above the heads of the rioting people and hit his target right in the chest. The girl didn't even get a chance to comprehend what just happened to herself as her eyes rolled up to the roof and she crumpled down onto the stage, unconscious. The two men didn't bother to waste another moment and fled the stage area, not wanting to take the risk with the presence of a hidden sniper around.

"Target neutralized," Shizuka spoke into the comm, his tone cold and professional. By then he was already packing the sniper back into the rifle bag. Now all that's left was for one of the agents to go collect that girl before someone from the Allegiance grabbed her...

The whole situation ended as quickly as it started. The clouds of red gas were starting to fade, and the Metahumans were trapped by the containment foam weren't going anywhere. All that the Agents saw before them was unconscious people knocked out by the gas, and the taser darts.

Cindy sighed as she took a few steps forward, and pressed her earpiece.

"... This is Agent Green Bird, we have quelled the situation at the concert four in Greencrest Heights, and we have incapacitated several members of the Allegiance after they began to riot." Cindy started off, professionally stating. "The ringleaders seemed to have gotten away, but we're going to need a few trucks to round up these protesters."

"Understood, Green Bird, there is a van on it's way to your position." The generic mission controller said.

Cindy sighed. "Greenbird out."

Okay, now that all that's settled with, there was a problem. Cindy turned to her group that was gathering before her.

"Do ya'll know where the hell that canister came from?" Cindy asked. "It couldn't have came from one of us, because ya'll were positioned from a totally different direction."

"Eyes were on the crowd, so don't ask me." Quentin shrugged, tugging off his mask for a breath of fresh air.

"I tried to look, but it was too chaotic to notice someone," Max responded to Cindy neutrally with a frown. "It was from the street, that much was obvious, but I didn't see the person who threw it." It was hardly a useful response, but it was one.

"Damn it..." Cindy groaned.

"Hey, wait a second," Meifeng took a few steps forward, and then crossed her arms as an idea popped up in her head. "I fought against these Allegiance dumbasses before, they're all about this revolution bullshit, making themselves look good, and their so-called oppressors look bad."

A quick scan, and Meifeng looked between her entire group. "Would it be that big of a stretch that somebody got a canister? During, say, a fight and a RAVEN dropped it? And that somebody decided to chuck it to make us look bad?"

"... Meifeng, for the first time in your life, you're making sense." Cindy said to Meifeng. "That creep running his mouth didn't have half a goddamn clue of what he was talking about," She started off, referring to the entire group this time. "But, if a canister, which RAVEN is known to employ, flies into the crowd - wouldn't it just look like he's actually right?"

"It wouldn't surprise me, I've seen enough agitator types out there to know there's probably some asshole trying to stir shit up." Quentin complained, running a gloved palm down his face. "Fucking great."

"Yeah..." Meifeng said, scratching the back of her neck. "Only problem is that no one will believe it if we said, 'some random ass dude threw the canister instead of us.'" Meifeng shrugged.

Cindy sighed.

"God damn it. PR bullshit like this just keeps stacking up."

Shizuka was the last to rejoin the squad for the debrief. He could have just driven back to the Headquarters on his own since this conversation about some random canister shit didn't concern him at all; he didn't even know what the hell was going on at the side away from the stage area anyway, other than some red - suppressant - gas floating around near the climax of the situation.

...Whatever. He simply crossed his arms before him and watched the drama unfold from a corner in silence. It had been another long night, again.

"Anyway," Quentin spoke up as Shizu made his approach, "Phantom, where'd you last see this 'Siren'? You managed to dart her, right?"

"She's sound asleep on the stage." Shizuka shrugged in response.

Quentin nodded, "Alright, can you watch my back whilst I go pick her up?" Despite the deployment of the containment foam, he wasn't up for taking any chances. Time with both NEST and RAVEN had taught him that. And like that, he headed off towards the stage, shotgun still in hand, making sure to keep a wide berth of the unconscious and incapacitated rioters, just in case they tried something. Shizuka nodded curtly, and followed behind the senior agent without another word.

It didn't take long to find the girl; Shizu had hit his mark, though he wasn't interested in making the poor kid suffer. Taking a knee beside her, Quentin first took a moment to gently remove the dart wedged in her chest, before retrieving one of the portable collars clipped onto his gear and quickly clipping it on over the girl's lower left calf. Once he'd felt it click, he then pulled out a pair of cuffs and quickly fastened the girl's wrists together in front of her, just to be sure. With that done, he was certain she was no longer a threat - for now.

Part of him felt sorry for the girl. She'd probably never had an encounter with RAVEN before today, nor had she ever done or even meant hard towards them - but here she was, unconscious at their hands. This wasn't her fault, he knew - but there wasn't any other way. Knowing that people like the Allegiance were out there, willing to manipulate kids who didn't know better into serving their own goals... it disgusted him as much as the Pure did, almost as much as the Hands of Science had disgusted him.

Shizuka could only shook his head at the sight of the girl - part of him tried to reassure himself that it was the only thing he could do to save her from the clutches of those Allegiance bastards, but it just didn't feel right to point a deadly weapon at an innocent, defenseless child. He glanced down at his right hand - with the finger he used to pull the trigger. It was very slight, but the hand was still trembling.

The feeling of having to shoot a person - regardless of who they were - still felt surreal to him. It's a feeling he'd have to get over with one , if he truly want to stay on his job.

But how far would he have to go... at the cost of his sanity, and even giving up his basic morality?

He balled up his right hand into a fist. Now it wasn't the time to mull over this - there were a lot more work to do here.

Help to clean up this damned place, for one.

Bringing a hand up to his comms piece, Quentin shot a question towards Meifeng's way, "Wave, you covering the agitators on your side?"

"Yeah, I'm doing my best here." Meifeng answered, as she knelt down, and applied a pair of plastic handcuffs to the suspects. There were too many people here to give them all handcuffs, or power suppressant collars. They'd have to detain them when the big boys arrive. "They aren't going anywhere."

"Alright," Quentin glanced back towards Shizuka for a moment, before turning back towards the girl, "I'm gonna make sure we get this one out of here. I don't want those assholes coming back to use her as a weapon again." And like that, he knelt down once more and picked up the girl in his arms, heading back towards the others. With some luck, he hoped that DOVE might have been able to pick up a file about her and get her back home. "Just watch the others for me."

"...Eh," Shizuka pulled up another unconscious Metahuman - a teen male - from the ground near the front of the stage roughly (which probably would have hurt if the person had been awake). "I guess babysitting these sleeping beauties is much better than dealing with an angry mob of enraged beasts."

Alice gazed over the scene of carnage, she hadn't had to do much, simply appear at strategic points throughout the demonstrators and drop her gas canisters. The gas and the foam from the APC had made short work of the metahumans, and she'd simply stayed on the outskirts, picking off anyone who tried to make a break for it. She would have gone after whoever had thrown the first canister, but it had come from somewhere out of sight.

She turned to move back to the group of agents, holstering her pistol and running her gloved fingers through her hair. She looked tired, jumping that many times in such a short period of time had taken it out of her, and she was starving.

"I know we've got to sort this out first, but after.. drinks? First round on me?"

With a sigh, Cindy answered, "Yeah, sure, let me just get this shit storm-"

"All Agents!" A female mission controller spoke into the comms. "Please be aware - a Metahuman is going out of control in the Havenfield Market, Lot Twelve, and backup has been immediately requested."

Cindy shook her head.

"Shit... I'm on my way." Cindy answered - except she was utterly exasperated at this point. Things just keep piling up. "Alright, damn it," Cindy started off as she faced the group. "We're going to need to split up - some of us gotta stay behind, some of us gotta go."

Obadiah Raleigh

---

Undisclosed location in Baybridge, the day prior...

A small crowd of men and women were standing in a large room, what looked to be an office presentation center of some sort. This, of course, didn't seem to be its most common usage. None of them seemed at all familiar with the carpet flooring and the dull white walls. The windows were all shut, and the blinds were down. The lights were on, but that would soon change.

Most of these people were here at the recommendation of friends who shared their particular views. Others were long-time attendants, simply there because they knew what it entailed, and they enjoyed hearing it. They all had their fair share of troubles and worries, and they came here because they knew someone was aware of their plights, and more importantly, he was doing something about it.

Suddenly, the door in the back of the room opened. All heads turned to watch two men in black suits step inside, and in their company, an older, bespectacled man, wearing a long, black coat, walking on a limp with a cane bracing his arm. A third suited man followed, shutting and locking the door behind him. The old man made slow movements, one by one, around the gathering, towards the front of the room. He motioned towards one of his men, who subsequently went and dimmed the lights. The three stood guard around the room as the old man took a stand at the front, and spoke.

"Good afternoon." He began, "My name is Obadiah Raleigh. I am the founder, manager, and lead speaker of the Rightful Stead Movement. Some of you are already aware of my work across the United States, the rest of you are here to learn. Among us here today are normal humans who all share in a new-age hardship. People who are out of a proper job, stuck bussing tables or operating cashiers, their experience for more practical and high-profile occupations going to waste."

He paused and looked around the room, gauging his audience's nodding and other gestures of acknowledgment. "Sound about right?" He asked. "As we begin, please allow me to share my story of, how all this started. To give you a better understanding of things."

He began pacing on his cane some as he spoke. "Fifteen years ago, I was part of a construction worker's union in Frankfort, Kentucky. I was good friends with the men I worked with. We worked hard, we earned our paychecks, a- simple, story. Frankfort wasn't much of a hotspot for meta-humans back then, not that it is today, but on occasion we saw a few. At such an interval in our lives, we viewed them simply - they had their business, we had ours. We didn't hold any animosity towards them, for the most part. After all, what good was Frankfort able to do any of them? We believed, at the time, that we were safe. That, however, came to change."

People were listening intently.

"In 2007, my last year on the job, my union ran into a... problem." He continued, "A newcomer to the town going by the name of Hank Danvers came along, looking for work. Hank was a simple man who didn't ask for much, accustomed to the lifestyle we all had there. He was also a telekinetic. A very strong one at that. Hank approached the company my union was working for at the time, Fair Day Homes, and they hired him immediately. No hesitation. They were overjoyed that a meta-human had happened upon their area of operation. Such was a rare case in Kentucky, it seemed. Hank's telekinetic powers allowed him to do the work of thirty-six men all at once. Coincidentally, thirty-six men lost their jobs. Myself included."

Some of the audience nodded, knowing full well what that felt like. Others just looked surprised, and pissed off.

"Needless to say, none of us were happy with this change. Hank received more payment than the rest of us for nothing near the same level of effort, but not as much as all of ours combined. We disputed this with Fair Day for months, but we got nothing for our effort except our severance checks."

Some low scoffs from the crowd.

"Now we were all angry, and with good reason. But while I was content with combating the issue legally, my friends were through with it. They decided to strike at the source of the problem directly. While I was disputing yet again with the site manager, they all came armed. And then..."

Obadiah stopped, lowered his head for a moment, and then continued.

"I won't go into details but, I lost friends that day. And..." He shifted his weight to his good foot and made a slight tapping motion with his cane against his other one, making a clanging noise. He went on to say, "But Hank was sent to prison on several counts of excessive retaliation, assault, murder, destruction of property... you get the point."

Stillness returned to the room. Obadiah began pacing again.

"Now, while I was recovering in the local hospital, I started thinking more on the situation at large. Outside of Kentucky. I did research, and I started to see the bigger picture. All over the country, the same thing was already happening. Men and women who had once lived on honest dollars that they'd spent years earning the experience to acquire were being pushed down by wave after wave of meta-humans. Union workers were losing everything to telekinetics and, people with- enhanced strength. Hospitals were hiring amateur healers over people with years of medical training. And then? With all their careers being dashed, they were left to do the most out-of-the-way, menial jobs of all. Janitors, store clerks, waiters - and even then, some of those jobs were taken from them."

More looks of anger, nodding, and groaning.

"I looked and I saw the slope this country was traversing. The humans were sliding down, the metas were strolling on up. And I was convinced, thoroughly, that this current system will eventually fail. Come enough time, society will operate on a meta-favored basis, perpetuated by an unseen force that they'll just call evolution. And where will we be? Down in the muck, with the bar for working and social standards raised so far above our heads that we won't even be able to see the cities they'd have built on top of us by then."

The audience was getting louder. Obadiah raised his hand, having them quiet down some. Maybe he wanted to keep a less audible profile.

"And this is disregarding if we aren't all outright exterminated first. The Verthaven disaster, the incident at Prague, these and plenty of other incidents serve as proof that this society can fail so very easily, by just one hand. It is, frankly, unacceptable."

They agreed.

"Now. Listen." He continued, "This is not a witch hunt. I am not rallying you for some massive culling, to take up arms and occupy the streets - you'll only get yourselves killed. I know that from witnessing it firsthand. But piece by piece, person by person, you can start making your stand on the matter. Baybridge is a focal point in this whole endeavor - if we can make a difference here, then many more cities across the nation will follow without need of our direct intervention. Let any meta-human who would infringe upon your livelihood know that you're not going to let your "inferior genetics" stop you from achieving just as much as they can. Let them know you want them gone, you want your business kept to people you can trust. Deny them service, make your statement, and do not let them scare you, or threaten you and get away with it."

Piping back up, but Obadiah didn't calm them down this time. He just waited until it was quiet enough to speak again.

"Most of you are here because you're close to losing your jobs, and the rest of you already have. My people and I have spent years combating these individual changes, and by coming here today, you all officially have the support of the Rightful Stead Movement, so long as we have yours. We will get you your jobs back, no matter how much we have to argue with your employers - even if we have to whittle them down first. But the best solution would be to make them see things our way. And that's what I want all of you to do."

He pointed at the audience with his free hand.

"Spread the word. Confide in and enlist people you know you can trust. As an individual, you can do your part. As a collective, you can revolutionize. We won't solve this with guns and missiles - we'll solve it as honest, deserving, resilient men and women."

Obadiah nodded and concluded with, "Thank you for your time." He was met with a round of applause, and as he stepped forward, a multitude of the crowd came forward and shook his hand, before his men stepped forward and escorted him out the door.

But behind the inspiring words and eager followers, something truly vitriolic, poisonous even, was forming.

...

The next day...

Obadiah sat and watched the television screen, unimpeded by anything else in the darkened room, wherever that was situated. He saw the uprising unfold, meta-humans under the Allegiance's influence rioting in the streets of Greencrest.

He looked... content, somehow.

"Sir?" Came a voice from his side, over by the door. Obadiah turned his head as the man continued, "It's getting bad out there. Are you sure you don't want to leave the city?"

Obadiah sighed. "No." He replied, "We're fine where we are. Stay at your posts."

"Yes sir." The man replied, stepping away. Obadiah turned back towards the screen and continued to watch the events transpire.

"Just what we needed." He said under his breath, halfheartedly.

---

The night before, somewhere in Prince Ed-Field.

After the surprisingly smooth drive (considering Ari's general personality), the ragtag threesome had made it to what was presumably a safe distance. And upon that, they ended up in the front lot of a dive bar. Flickering neon lights contrasted the darkness - not even the moon or the stars shone through the dense cloud cover that had blanketed the night sky, and a single street light by the lot lit the area up with an artificial yellow light. Neither did that serve to penetrate the thick gloom.

Archie, still in the back of the van, began typing before exiting the vehicle, going back to using the TTS program. "Surprisingly uneventful drive." He commented, motioning towards Arianna. "My first day in Baybridge and I'm already accomplice to burglary."

Reyna felt half asleep, leaning against the hood of the van with her leather jacket wrapped around her like a blanket. She was busy trying to massage away the pain and soreness she felt in her knuckles and in her elbow. They were purple. Both her hands, and what seemed like the entirety of one of her arms felt like hell, but even between her pain and exhaustion she managed to pick up on the voice that came from Archie's phone. She only looked at him with a scolding glare lacking any sympathy. Archie sought to return the best glare he could, but with that mask of his, it wasn't discernible at all.

"Did you expect any less?" Arianna said in reply to Archie, parking and looking over the seat to her friend. She made a face suddenly, as if she was remembering something, and stuck her hand into her blazer pocket, only to pull out a rolex watch.

"I picked something up for you." she said, tossing it onto his lap. While he wouldn't be able to prove it was a rolex easily without the papers, anyone who appraised professionally it would be able to figure it out pretty easily.

"Figured you'd like it."

"It's better than the last one." Archie replied a moment later, pocketing the watch. He began typing once more - "We gotta go see Goldie later, I'm guessing?"

"Of course. The regular. Everything not made of paper gets put into the vault." Ari said, shrugging. Solid items like watches or rings or gold bars were too easy to track if she sold too many at once, or too often. The last thing she wanted was attention.

"Well first things first." Archie continued, the speech coming with a little delay as he typed, "A safe place to crash would be nice. I don't have anything set up. You?"

"I move from place to place. I'll crash in the Microcosm if need be. I can get a hotel room." Arianna said, seemingly uninterested. She turned to look at Reyna with some concern though. "You have a place? We can drop you off somewhere?"

Reyna looked at Arianna, almost insulted. Her sour expression had at least returned after the couple hours of reeling from what her life was spiraling down to, but needless to say, it bore little improvement on her mood. She slowly stood herself up and made slow, weary paces towards her. "Oh, you know... only the first place I had asked you to bring me, but now that I'm technically on the run, that isn't an option now. Is it?"

"Technically, but the person in that truck isn't you. I altered her looks. She's similar, but as far as RAVEN will be concerned, you only signed in at the front. The bitch who beat the hell out of the agent just happened to dress similarly." Arianna explained, finally getting out of the car. She leaned on the vehicle, resting her arms on the roof of the car.

"Well..." Reyna sighed deeply. She kicked a stone and watched it skid across the lot. "Since hospitals will probably see my face and think, 'oh, that looks like the bitch on the news', and every pharmacy is now fucking closed this way late at night, I guess my only option is to stop standing around out here and drink rubbing alcohol."

As if to show her point, she revealed her hands from behind her jackets, showing the ugly bruises on her hands, and nudged her head toward the bar. One of her arms remained still. It was easy to infer that it hurt to move it.

"I have a suggestion, if you want to hear it." Archie typed out, directed at Reyna.

Arianna pointed to Archie, as if she was a teacher. "Yes! To the man on the front with a letter for a face!"

Reyna sighed in resignation. She mumbled, "It can't be any more useless than all the previous ones..."

Archie nodded, and typed again, "This way." He waved the two over, turned and walked back to the Honda, to retrieve his belongings. Reyna stubbornly stood where she was, in pain and already irritated. He typed along the way, "I am in possession of the perfect non-Euclidean environment in which people in your position may find sanctuary within." He took out his backpack, placing it on the lot below his feet, unzipped it, and began pulling out the opening of the bag inside. Once the bag was laid out on the ground, in such a way that any of them could just jump in, Archie delivered one more comment - "Whackety whack, get in my sack."

Reyna only stared at Archie, and bottom jaw slowly dropping. If she was getting this straight, this weirdo with a bag on his head wanted her to crawl inside of whatever mystery bag he had in store for her.

"Whatever you're thinking, the answer is yes." Arianna said, checking her main phone for any texts from her mother. To her (lack of) surprise, there was nothing. "After everything you've seen tonight, is this really that fucked?"

Reyna shot a look of indigence at Arianna. "You set me up to get harassed by a creep, which turned into a fight he started, I get arrested for it, you kidnap me, and you want me to accept this dumb ass' offer to crawl into his bag?"

"As I said, you threw the punch." Arianna said, turning off her phone and smiling to her new-found acquaintance. "But in short terms, yeah, pretty much. If you want to."

Reyna took a deep breath and nodded. Then she turned on her heels and stomped her way toward the entrance of the bar, shaking her head and muttering to herself all the while. There was only one bright side to be found in all of this, she figured. It was getting her blood boiling enough that her pain was beginning to subside. Still, it wouldn't last long. She personally made it a point to not drink a whole lot - not after what happened to Mia, but there had to be exceptions in some cases.

Ari watched her stalk off and frowned. She had a hard time with people in general. Both her and her mother were fairly unorthodox when it came to socializing with anyone or thing, and that's probably why she and Archie were as close as they were. But Reyna had mentioned that she had a sister. That had struck something very lightly with her. Despite everything she has trained herself to do, she let that small feeling of guilt take hold.

"Hey, Archie, I'm going to go and check on her. I'll be back in a moment, unless you want to come with."

"Go on ahead." Archie replied, as he went to pick up the bag and its container. "I'm going to scout out a better hiding place for the van."

Arianna nodded. "I'll give you a hand." She commented, stepping into two different directions. One copy following Reyna and the other remaining where she was. "Lead on, Arch."

---

Reyna had pushed open the door of the bar with her shoulder, and the bell rang from behind her. Arianna stretched her arm to catch the door before it closed, and as she come closer she checked to see if anyone was paying attention (which was thankfully no one). She took in the atmosphere for a moment. Very dimly lit, minimal lighting, half the tables had their chairs upside down on them, and there were only a couple of people who remained here. The television was nearly muted, and soft music was playing for the night's ambiance. She trudged over to the bar, and climbed onto one of its stools. She set her good arm on the table and leaned her face against it. God, she felt exhausted.

"That looks none too pretty." Reyna heard a voice say. When she looked up, it was the barkeeper. In response, she only shrugged. He asked, "What can I get you?"

Honestly, that was a good question. She just knew she wanted something strong that she could hopefully forget the last couple hours with, but she didn't want to pass out on the floor. No, with the freaks that have taken her away, and those RAVEN idiots probably stalking her, she didn't feel comfortable sleeping.

"Uh..." Reyna hesitated. "Something... strong... and something to keep me awake."

"Kahlua?" He offered.

"Yeah..." Reyna resigned. "That's fine."

"Gonna need to see your I.D." He said. There was a hint of sympathy in his voice.

"Oh, right." Reyna forgot that she still looked pretty young. Uh, now where was... right. Arianna put it in her back pocket. She needed her good arm to lean forward so she could reach it, but couldn't move it if she didn't want to fall forward on her face, as tired as she felt. She went to move her other arm, but a stinging pain jolted up her arm.

"Need some help?"

Reyna turned around and saw Arianna. Ugh, God, she couldn't just leave her alone. "No," she snapped, "I have this."

Needless to say, she didn't have it under control. Another pain up her arm. Instead, trying to lean forward against the counter and balance carefully to use her good arm to reach, but it turned into something of a circus act that wasn't getting her to the place she needed to be as quick as wanted to.

Arianna seemed to take it in stride, and sat down next to Reyna, making no effort to aggravate her even more. She waved the waiter over and ordered a glass of water, which caused a few eyebrows to raise.

Arianna looked at Reyna out of the corner of her eye, stealing glances at the woman as if she was a teenager looking at their crush. She wanted to help this woman. She seemed so... miserable and she couldn't help but feel at least somewhat responsible.

"You, uh..." Arianna said, trying to find a good way to start some form of conversation that wouldn't antagonize Reyna anymore. "You said you had a sister, right?"

Almost immediately, all effort in reaching for her wallet stopped. Reyna quickly sat down and leaned, almost lunged, closely toward Arianna. Her skin appeared to have flushed in that moment's notice. Heat was already starting to radiate from her.

"If you so much as lay a grubby little finger on a single strand of hair on Merry's pretty head," Reyna snarled as her eyes bore deep into Arianna's, "nobody can save you from me."

Arianna looked at her, less threatened as much as she was uncomfortable having someone so close to her. Arianna shook her head and turned away, sighing.

"Not me you'd ever have to worry about. But you know, don't worry about it." Arianna said, seeming to figuratively throw her hands in the air in submission. "Focus on not killing yourself, would you?"

Reyna stared at her a couple moments longer, her chest slightly heaving with each deep breath she took. Frustrated, she went back to her own stool, and now charged as she was, reached for the wallet in her back pocket with no problem, and slammed it onto the counter, then took the jacket off of herself. The red tank-top showed her arms about as red as the rest of her. The bartender watched the heated exchange uncomfortably, and took a brief glance as Reyna's ID before walking off to fix the drink she had asked for. Reyna remained there, head in hand, still taking deep breaths.

"That's right, deep breath in, deep breath out. Feel the burn." Arianna said, sounding just like a yoga instructor.

Reyna slowly moved her glaring glance to the corner of her eye, trained on Arianna. "Nobody ever told you when's the time to stop, have they?"

"I didn't really have anybody tell me what was right and wrong to begin with." Arianna said, shifting in her seat. "Can I ask anything about your sister? I'm trying my best to start a normal conversation here."

There was a moment of hesitation from Reyna. She combed her fingers through and tugged on her red hair, before finally giving a deep sigh. She through her hand down. The image of her sister came to mind. The picture of face helped to calm her, and kept her in enough of a trance that she barely noticed the bartender deliver her drink."Fine... shoot."

Ari shifted a little more, and tapped the counter nervously. She was only now realizing how bad she was at this. "Uh, just... general stuff I guess. How old is she? What is she like?"

"She's..." Reyna began - but as she began to speak, the realization hit her, and she grew quiet and sullen. This silence persisted for several moments before Reyna finished her answer. "...She's twenty."

She took a big sip of her drink, and immediately cringed and shook her head at how strong it was, but her expression returned to the face she had before. It was ridiculous. That is, being so... protective of her sister, who was now actually a grown woman. The sheer stupidity of it was... just...

She took another drink from her glass.

"Wish I had someone who cared about me like that. Damn." Ari commented, eyeing her water as if she was trying to find some secret about it.

"It'd help if you didn't kidnap them." Reyna said idly, not really thinking over what she talking about.

"Last I checked, I took you out of handcuffs." Ari said, shooting her a sideways glance with her typical shit eating grin.

"Your stupid mistake, I'm gonna put you right back in them." Reyna blurted before shooting down the rest of what she had. She waved her hand at the barkeep for a follow up.

Arianna turned to face her, trying to figure out if Reyna was getting tipsy or stupid. She decided it was the former. She decided the look she was giving her was enough, and no words were required.

"Alright, alright, how about this." Reyna started to say between sips. "First impressions. Why in the world did you choose me for your little... burglary?"

Arianna shook her head and gave her chuckle. "Honest answer? You stuck out like a sore thumb. Most people were dressed like me and acting formal. Meanwhile you, in leather, eating like no one's business. You were an easy target."

"Nah, nah, nah," Reyna denied, "you're a liar!"

"I am a liar. It's true. But I haven't lied to you once, not yet."

"That's a lie, too." Reyna insisted. There was a certain unevenness in the tone of her voice that called her sobriety into question. "You know how I know?"

Arianna leaned on her elbow, resting her chin on her hand. "Do tell."

"You could'a done any number of shit to me." Reyna said to her. "I've done stuff like that before, too. Mama knows I ain't a perfect angel."

She took a sip from her glass, and slid it over in front of Arianna.

"You're the one who told the big boy I wanted a ride, right?" Reyna asked. "There was this thing a guy said once... this teacher guy, what was it...?"

"I lied to him, not to you." Arianna said, smiling at her, showing her bright white teeth. She shook her head at Reyna. "First rule is 'Don't get caught', love. Anything I do to you, you wont realize until I'm a safe distance away. Like, your phone for instance-"

Arianna pulled Reyna's phone from her blazer pocket, showing it to the woman. She had taken it from her while patting her down for her wallet. She had accessed it via touch ID.

"You wouldn't realize that I put my phone number into your phone until much, much la--"

At the sight of her own property in the hands of the thief, her adrenaline immediately kicked up, and her arm shot out like a bullet before Arianna even had the chance to pull away. Her hand's grip was tight around her wrist, even though that meant little - even though Arianna's wrist squished beneath her tight hold. She was leaned forward, inches away from Ari, having acted upon reflexes like a spider's.

"That's right, I remember now..." Reyna grumbled. "Projection."

She reached her other arm over and promptly pulled the phone from Arianna's grip. She pocketed it quickly and returned to her drink.

Arianna released her grip on the phone and let Reyna pocket her device. She had enough phones as it was.

"Do me a favor and don't get drunk enough to lose it again."

"Nooo promisess..." Reyna sung, sipping on what was left of her glass. Huh. She went through two tall kahluas already.

"Your turn."

"Hm?" Reyna looked over lazily at Arianna holding the glass close to her chest.

"Your first impression!"

"Huh..." Reyna pondered. The silence went on until her face still stretching wide in silly smile, and shortly after even a giggle. It had to have been the most genuine laugh or smile she had given the last couple of painful hours - but that wasn't saying much, given her inebriation.

"Honestly," Reyna chuckled as she hid her smiling red face behind a single hand, looking at Arianna between her fingers, "I shit you not, my first... my first thought past the 'what the fuck happened to the RAVEN dudes' was...'oh no, she's hot!'"

Reyna lay her head down onto the counter and started laughing as if it were the most hysterical thing she had ever said. "And the next thing I know, you're kidnapping me and I'm a fugitive!"

At this point, Reyna was falling into hysterical giggle fits, her face flushed to a bright red - and this time, it wasn't because she was angry. All natural blush, a wide smile, dimples, and her eyes were squinty as though she were about to pass out - but with two kahluas, that couldn't be further from the truth. It was a face of pure delight. "C-Can... can you believe that?!"

Arianna snorted, and rolled her eyes, looking away from her drunk friend. "I wouldn't believe it unless I was there." she said, motioning with her hand. Unlike most people she wasn't flattered by the appearance compliment. Arianna had lived her life changing appearance like she changed clothes. Compliments came and went, but she never paid that much attention to them. It would be like if someone complimented your hat. It's nice, but it's likely not going to be something you remember the next day.

But, it also meant she was pretty nonjudgmental. It put her high on the list for the Spider Society. She was still hesitant about that. But Auri never stopped trying.

"Then again..." Reyna mumbled thoughtfully, "you apparently change shapes. Weird. Weird power. Do you have a favorite? What's your... uh... your normal... shape?"

Arianna looked down at herself, ignoring the comment on having a weird power, and motioned to her body to Reyna. "This is, for the most part, what I look like all the time. I was born with my powers, and my mother was a shape shifter as well. I don't know if I have any real form. I've just used this one as I've gotten older."

"Oooooh." Reyna cooed, looking over Arianna's face. Honestly, this was the first time she decided to get a real close look at her - slightly drunk, that might not help much, but she wasn't totally obtuse. You wouldn't think a shapeshifter to tolerate any flaws they were self-conscious of for long. True to form, there weren't any immediate flaws she could find. Striving for perfection.

"That's boring!" She blurted out. Reyna stuck out her index toward her eyebrow. "Put a lil' scar here..." Then to her cheek. "A little freckle here..." She landed her finger on Arianna's lips. "My face..."

Reyna was barely able to finish her clever quip before she withdrew her hand and covered her face with it as she started cracking up into laughter again with blush across her face. "Heehe! I'm... I'm sorry!"

Arianna's expression softened for a moment, before hardening again. She shook her head and turned away. She had a rule. Make sure no one got hurt. This? This could hurt Reyna. At least, right now it could. Something in her code of ethics prevented her acting upon any emotions.

"It's fine. You're drunk."

"A little." Reyna admitted, her laughter calming down. She made a relaxed sigh and held her arms close to herself. "I'm a little drunk... but I'm not a liar. I'm also not that dumb, you know. I know what I'm doing. Not... thinking everything through, probably, but... it's not like I suddenly turned into somebody else. Lil' ol' Reyrey still here..."

She threw her head back and stared at the ceiling.

"Man... if I could change how I looked, I'd probably... uh... yeah, send the freckles home."

Arianna gave her a sideways glance and shook her head.

"They're fine just the way you are, love."

"Naw, naw, look at this one," Reyna said, turning to look at Arianna and pointed to what was a freckle that was just barely larger than the rest that was set between her right eye and the bridge of her nose, "that's big Bertha, bitch be the first to go."

Arianna sighed and took a dainty sip of her water. "You don't need powers to do that. Just a dermatologist."

"Doll, you been chatterin' my ear off all day." Reyna objected. "What sand climbed up your vag?"

"I think it's because you're drunk and I'm not. Makes me seem lame." Arianna said, her lips curving slightly upward as she drank the last of her water.

"Hmm..." Reyna pondered as she tapped her chin with your finger. "Yeah... you're right. Hey, bar guy! Bar guy!"

The bartender pointed to a sign near the center of the bar, telling patrons that he was unable to serve them alcohol if they were already visibly intoxicated.

"Not me, this girl!" Reyna yelled, pointing down on Arianna's head. "Give her some of the stuff you gave me!"

"Don't." Arianna said, waving the man off. "Waste of time."

Arianna looked over her shoulder to Reyna and half-frowned. "Cant. My body doesn't have a brain or nervous system."

"Ugh..." Reyna groaned as she threw two hands onto Arianna's shoulders. "Then don't worry about feeling lame if you can't help it!"

She paused for a second.

"That came out wrong."

Arianna laughed, a lady like but hearty laugh. "Yeah, it did."

"But still..." Reyna insisted with a flirty smile. "You can still drink it if you wanna feel included. And quit sounding so depressed, that's supposed to be my job tonight."

Arianna gave Reyna a humored glance and laughed. "Love, I don't think I'm capable of being depressed."

Arianna checked her watch, and raised her eyebrows at the time.

"Do you have a ride, or a place to crash?"

Reyna threw her hands down. "My motorcycle got left back at the party. It's probably being held! Along with all my stuff!"

"That doesn't answer my question, Reyna."

"I'm from Maine and this nightmare was my first day in town." Reyna sighed. "What do you think?"

"A simple 'no' would have sufficed."

"Let's hit up Agent Styles," Reyna muttered sarcastically, "maybe he's still horny enough to give me a room."

"I mean, just throw yourself in front of a car if you want a hospital room. Pretty sure there's something morally wrong about trying to fuck the person you beat half to death after the fact." Arianna said, throwing her head back and laughing at her own joke.

"Hey," Reyna started off defensively, her voice off-key from the drinks, "you're the one who can't catch any cues."

Arianna shook her head, but smiled. "Not while you're drunk."

She looked down at her watch again and sighed.

"I have to go soon. I promised my friend out there I'd go with him to see a fight. Unless you want to come with..." Arianna said, grasping the air as if it would allow her to find the right words. "I can give you some money, and you can call me... tomorrow?"

"What does it take for a girl to hate-fuck the shit out of..." Reyna drunkenly mumbled, nigh out of anyone's ear shot. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to stick with the person she felt she nearly killed twice - between the punch and the wringing, and perhaps this was all the alcohol in her that was talking, but Christ. She wasn't going to bed tonight. She was too wired between the stress and, well, the caffeine. A boring night alone, wide awake through the hours... versus watching some assholes beat the snot out of each other, next to somebody she wasn't sure if she wanted to kill or whisk her away beneath the sheets.

"Who's fighting?" Reyna finally asked thoughtfully.

"We have a guy from out of town. Friend of Archie's." Arianna said, waving her hand.

"And who is that?" Reyna pressed.

Arianna seemed to think for a moment.

"One fighter is a wolf-dog meta. The other... I think he's been staying with a friend recently. They call him Doc. But I think his full name is Henry Olin."

"I'll fight the winner!" Reyna immediately declared. She hopped from the bar stool, meeting the ground with a sloppy landing. Arianna turned, reaching her arm out and catching Reyna by her torso as Reyna scrambled to grab her jacket. Ari slid off her chair to help her friend outside to meet Archie.

"Just... let me help you walk for a bit, until you sober up some, love."

"Call me that again, pleeeaase." Reyna chimed whimsically, finally giving in and letting Ari guide her.

---

---

An abandoned Warehouse. Undisclosed...

A metal figure went flying through the air, it's "flight" coming to an abrupt end once it hit a wall.

A metallic groan came from the source as the figure picked itself up, and pounded it's metal chest.

"... Okay, freak!" A man shouted as he approached. He was quite the intimidating fellow, he was seven feet tall, and incredibly muscular. His African-American skin was covered in tattoos of some sort. He hopped up into a boxing stance - feet were shoulder width apart, and his fists were face high. He began hopping back and fourth. "You better start talking - who in the hell called us here?"

The man - more accurately; beast - got up and revealed his shiny golden body. He was incredibly tall - at least nine feet tall - and even more muscular than his opponent. He was quite bestial in appearance; his head was in the shape of a bull with massive horns, and each of his golden fingers were tipped with claws. Which made the whole creature look like a moving statue made out of gold, and other materials. Instead of replying, the beast started glowing red with heat as it opened it's mouth and unleashed a storm of fire.

The aggressor merely groaned. "If you gon' just whip out your supa power...." He put on an evil grin, and cocked his fist back. Rowdy winds surrounded his fist as he laughed, and punched forward, hard as he could, and a tempest wiped through the area and blew the flames back. The Minotaur was surprised - twice as surprised when the man came running up with his fists cocked. One solid blow to the beasts core sent a shockwave through the air, and the boxer followed it up with another blow to the jaw that sent the beast flying backwards through a wall.

The Golden Minotaur tried to pick himself up, but he looked up, and saw the boxer approaching him.

A bout of obnoxious laughter came from the boxer as he pulled his fist back for the death blow.

"... Bison!" A female voice shouted, and the boxer came to a halt. A woman walked onto the scene, average heighted, bright-blue eyes, and a head of blonde hair that accompanied European facial features. She wore a simple blouse, and some jeans. "Does your sadistic streak ever end?"

He looked back, his name finally revealed, "C'mon, Eliza," He groaned. "Jus' tryna figure out who called us 'ere."

"By immediately picking a fight with the first person you see?" Eliza answered as she walked up. "Instead of just asking."

The golden Minotaur got right back up, and growled at Bison. "... Bastard." He said, his voice was... odd. His voice was deep and menacing, but the metal in his body added many extra vibrations. "I was sent here to meet you by my boss."

"Boss?" Bison said with a grin on his face. He put his hands on his hips, before he shrugged, cockily saying, "Knew a freak show like ya' self wouldn't be the ringleader."

"... That is correct." A mechanical voice spoke from up above, and Bison and Eliza looked up.

"Well, look who it is..." Bison crossed his arms and bared a toothy grin.

On top of a shipping crate, was a being that wasn't seen for ages... By RAVEN nor DOVE. Incredibly tall, and not even fitting the description of a human, was a mechanical being that wore white armor of ceramic. The Mannequin. The third in command of the Changeling Unit - since their "disbandment," the Mannequin has been making... upgrades. Replacing his inferior skinny grey frame with a bulkier, white, ceramic shell, the Mannequin's new body was shaped less like an artist mannequin, and a bit more like a human with it's skin flayed off. It's limbs were still eerily long - it's limbs were triple jointed - and it's fingers were long (With at least five joints on each finger). The Mannequin's feet appear to be exactly like a human's - except it's feet had blades on the ends. The new armor was separated into several "segments" all over it's body that appeared like lines. Underneath this ceramic armor was a layer of a black material that looked like wires, weaved to look like a bloodstream.

The most notable change to the Mannequin's frame was the replacement of it's mask. Instead a vaguely humanoid mask with a single human eye, the Mannequin swapped it out with a featureless mask. That was essentially just a round dome.

Next to the Mannequin... was an Asian man wearing a long labcoat. He merely stood at the Mannequin's side.

"The Mannequin... Heh... Thought you were dead." Bison said. "... Unfortunately, you're still alive an' kickin'." Bison said in a thick accent. "Please tell me that the rest of ya' Changeling freaks didn't come back either."

"No..." The Mannequin said in a robotic voice.

"Phew - Ya' had me worried for a moment."

Eliza was through with letting Bison talk, and crossed her arms, and asked, "Well, you're alive. That's great. Why the hell have you called us here?"

The Mannequin's head turned towards Eliza - the rest of it's body was stationary like a statue.

"Look at the two of you...." The Mannequin started off with a robotic monotone, that was like a whisper. "... Both of you... both of you used to be mighty members of the REAPER organization - reduced to working as hired muscle for what? An Eco-Terrorist organization... Neither of you fit bill of Eco-Natura."

Bison loudly laughed, as he took a step forward and pointed at Mannequin. "You the last person who got the rights to be sayin' shit like that!" He kept laughing like a fool.

Before the brute put on a toothy grin and shrugged - keeping that position. "And, eh; the REAPER business just wasn't workin' out," He started off. "When Doc Cross, Ignatius, Eliza, and the other big shots jumped ship, anyone with a brain left the Hands to fight for itself. Once RAVEN started bringing down tha' hammer, the people without a brain - that weren't fuckin', y'know, busted - left too!"

Eliza looked at him, and sighed in indignant agreement.

"Us two? We were in the former group - because how the hell we gonna get that paper without a boss?" Bison rhetorically asked the Mannequin. "Problem came when you realized that there ain't a lot of job opportunities for two REAPERS - so, to survive, we had'ta join a bigger pack."

He started walking forward towards the crates the Mannequin was on, getting ready to punch it. "We could'a joined the Allegiance - but revolution doesn't get you a paycheck, buddy... Eco-Natura on the other hand... yeah, I don't know who the hell be backing these loons."

Eliza took a few steps forward, and put her hands on her hips. "You should already have figured out that we have no interest in saving trees."

"... Perfect." The Mannequin said, as he hopped up into the air, and landed on ground level with Bison and Eliza. Earning a look from both of them. His associate turned into a purple smoke, and traveled alongside the Mannequin, before perfectly reforming.

The Mannequin stood up - he was over ten feet tall, but he always was hunched forward a bit, so it made him look shorter - and looked Bison in the face. "Neither of you care for the Eco-Natura cause... How about you work with me to build up something greater? Greater than the foolish Hands, or Eco-Natura's terrorism...."

"If you want us to join your new Changeling Unit - then forget it!" Bison hissed, and pushed the Mannequin away. The machine took a few steps backward, stumbling over like he was falling - before abruptly stopping, and regaining his balance. He faced Bison.

"No..." The Mannequin said. "... The Changeling Unit was formed by a fool to pursue his dreams..." The Mannequin paused dramatically. "... As you can see, I am no fool."

"So, what do you want...?" Eliza asked, putting a few fingers on her cheek.

If the Mannequin could, he would be grinning right now.

"If you're willing to enter this partnership; I'll explain everything you need to know..."

Written with @Junkmail and @Spoopy Scary

---

The night before, within the Microcosm...

Out of the darkness of the tunnel they stepped, following the posts with bells hung on them, and the blue cable that brought glorious connectivity to all who dwelt there. The light gave way to a large, rectangular antechamber, made of smooth and simply-shaped concrete. There were no separations in the foundation to denote that it was of mundane construction - because it wasn't. It was illuminated by a multitude of industrial lamps and floodlights scattered about, connected by various cords running into separate exits and hallways. On either side of the trio, two large, headless sentinels stood prominently. Ten feet tall, holding up long, undecorated halberds, all of which were formed from the same material - pure steel, both the sentinels and their weapons. Archie waved to the both of them as they, in response, raised their unarmed hands to their chests in simple gestures of respect for their creator.

All around them were cases of graffiti on the walls - little of the simple signatures that comes with the thought, but more along the lines of little portraits, quotes, and even murals. Straight ahead of Archie, Arianna, and an uncomfortable Reyna was a large concrete slab, protruding upright from the ground with no cracks or splits. And on it was emblazoned a myriad of signatures, surrounding a simple, hospitable message.



"I don't like it here." Reyna commented, still fairly intoxicated.

"Just grin and bear it, love!" Arianna replied soothingly.

"Is all this in your freaking head?" Reyna asked Archie.

"Yes." Archie replied with his phone, "And no, at the same time."

"I don't..." Reyna began, confused, but Arianna cut her off. "Don't get him started, just nod."

They proceeded towards the welcoming slab, and the closer they came, the more they could hear the strumming of a guitar. As they passed the slab, behind it were situated four young men, one of them playing the aforementioned instrument. They were humming happily, and as soon as one of them saw the trio, he began to speak. "Yes sir, I'm afraid you've guessed it." He said, giving a friendly point of the finger to them, "It's the Mills Brothers!" Archie returned a wave of his hand, amused. They remained where they stood while the three walked on by, and their apparent leader began to sing.

Baby what are you out for,
Baby what am I in for,
Is my baby out for no good?

Is my baby got rhythm?
Tell me is hot rhythm?
Is my baby out for no good?

Archie, Arianna, and Reyna headed down the hallway opposite the slab, and the group's singing faded more and more the further they walked, as they proceeded into a much larger, circular atrium. Concrete pillars surrounded the perimeter, with plenty more graffiti adorning them. There were a multitude of uneven exits branching out past the pillars, each marked with odd names - 'Obsidian Plaza', 'The Frontier', 'Marble Halls', such and such. As they made their way to the Obsidian Plaza exit, someone called out to them. "Hey." Sounded a feminine voice. Archie and Arianna turned to see a woman in a wheelchair being pushed towards them by another headless being, only this one was much smaller than the sentinels, and made of glass. The woman was pale-skinned and plainly dressed, with dirty blonde hair running down one side of her head, while the other was shaved. Thick glasses sat in front of her pale green eyes, and she held a tablet in her hands. "You said you'd like a pop-rep when you got back?" She said to Archie, who nodded in reply. The woman looked down at her tablet and continued, "After this morning's drop-off of twenty-six, we stayed at four-thirty-two total, sixty-five humans. No other passes save for your friend Harmon, and now your other friends here." She motioned to Arianna and Reyna, and continued to speak, "So that brings us up to four-thirty-four total, excluding you."

Archie responded with a thumbs up.

"And I know you'll be glad to hear you've got about forty-seven minutes until the last fight over in the Circle." The woman continued, "So you're good on time there." Archie once again raised his thumb in response, the woman nodding before motioning for the glass being pushing her around to head on over to the exit leading to the Marble Halls. As she went, Archie began typing on his phone, and the TTS posed the question to Arianna - "You want to head over for the fight right away or go see Goldie first?"

"Mind if we hit Goldie? I need to drop some stuff off." Arianna said, throwing her thumb over her shoulder. She wasn't at all put off by these strange beings. Appearances were a menial thing to her anyway, and regardless, at this point she had grown used to anything that wasn't normal. Reyna only crossed her arms. She'd rather go to whatever fight first, but wasn't about to walk off in this weird ass place in Archie's brain. As much as it bugged her, she'd follow Arianna around. Archie nodded, and the three continued towards the Obsidian Plaza exit. As they carried on, they came closer to a split in the material foundation of the Microcosm - at some point, concrete became obsidian. Dark, sleek, smooth. No graffiti this time around. The lights became dimmer as they went further inwards, to counteract the reflections of the surfaces. The architecture became somewhat more regal - a curved ceiling, pillars all about, grooves carved along a handful of surfaces. As they went along, in the distance, they could hear the faint sounds of cheering and applause. The Circle was always well occupied when fights were happening, though not everyone attended them.

They passed by several passageways leading to the commotion, seeing a few of the establishments occupied by residents of the Microcosm who fancied themselves business practitioners - though at the moment, they were empty. The trio went further, making a right turn into another long corridor. And two other residents were walking their way. Twins, it seemed - a boy and a girl, brown hair, one tall with glasses on, the other with a French braid. Brother was dressed in a beige turtleneck, a brown jacket, jeans and sneakers. Sister had on a more colorful outfit, including an orange shirt with a long-sleeved red one underneath, and skinnier jeans paired with decorated sneakers. At their side was an adult Siberian husky, trodding at their pace. He barked once at the oncoming trio as they approached.

The male twin waved to Archie, calling out, "Hey, man." And the female quickly stood up to embrace an incoming Ari.

"Good to see you again!" Ari said, hugging the girl. She looked her up and down. "You look beautiful!"

The woman waved her off, and rolled her eyes. "You know me, gotta look good on the job."

"What brings you to the Microcosm?" Ari questioned, crossing her arms and leaning on her hip, looking between the man and woman. The male twin replied, "We've been here for a few months now. Archie picked us up in Montana while we were..." He paused for a moment, searching for the words. "Ah, just... up to stuff. Nothing worth mentioning." He turned towards Archie and asked, "How do you know Arianna?"

"Old friends." Archie replied with his phone, "We just met back up in Baybridge. Toured the town, did a little shopping." The twin nodded, chuckling a bit. "Somehow I don't think it was that simple." Archie shrugged, and the twin continued, "Well, we're gonna go check out the last fight before we head out to the Frontier. Good seeing you again, man." He patted Archie's shoulder, passing by him with the husky at his side. Archie gave the dog a quick pat on the head as he went by. Arianna hugged the woman, and separated to follow in Archie's footsteps, with Reyna in tow. They'd be back. They always came back.

The three made some more distance until they came upon a staircase leading downwards, this one with gold posts and ornamentations lining the way. Much more opulent than the rest of the area. They descended, coming upon a gold-framed entrance, into a very large room made entirely out of the brilliant, shining metal. In the center was a series of desks and pedestals arranged in an orderly fashion, and surrounding the room were circular openings, blocked by giant, ornate golden discs. They stepped forward, and greeting them came a very tall, elongated being with a perfect sphere for a head - once again, entirely made of gold. It held its arms out wide in a welcoming gesture, bowing its head towards the trio.

"Hey big guy, how're you doing?" Arianna said, walking toward the being and pulling out what looked like a large rubix cube. "I picked something up for you while I was out. Thought you'd have fun." Arianna said, placing the mixed up cub in the creature's hand. "Try to get the colors on all sides to match. Should keep you occupied." The golden being bowed once again, placing the rubix cube on what was assumed to be his desk. He turned back to the trio and made a pointing gesture to his side, to one of the vaults surrounding the room. To its side was a sign that read "RESERVED STORAGE". Arianna nodded in response, and all three of them went on over to the vault. The golden being stepped forward and inserted its left arm - which was oddly shaped with a series of grooves and indentations - into the hole in the middle of the door, acting like a key. It twisted its arm, and a loud thump indicated the vault was open. The being retracted its arm and rolled the door over to the left, and Arianna stepped inside.

When they entered Arianna's storage area, it could be noted that she was incredibly... neat. Reyna ripped a long-winded whistle as her eyes traveled around the vault. Filing cabinets, cupboards, and other storage units were lines up against the wall. Ari stepped inside and began pulling a few items out of her gelatinous body through the pockets of the clothing her body had constructed. With her other arm, Arianna stretched across the room to grab a clip board and pen, and then several sheets of paper through one of the filing cabinets. Reyna meandered around, snooping through some of the drawers of the cabinets. Still partially drunk, though, most of it was meaningless to her.

Ari eyed her, and stretched her arm out to push in a cabinet before Reyna could trip on it. Ari walked around the room, pen in mouth, and dropped various precious belongings into different storage units based upon composition and size (dropping certain items into those Reyna had left open). As she walked she picked up a jeweler's eyepiece to appraise items of question, sometimes scoffing and placing the items back in a separate pocket of her clothing. The whole process took the better part of half an hour, but eventually Arianna's final walk around was completed.

Arianna moved to sit by a desk, and began doing paperwork and calculations based upon approximate weights of various precious metals and jewelry, to get an idea of how much money she was working with.

Archie, texting someone at the moment, piped up suddenly - "We've got five minutes until the fight."

"...Carry the eight..." Arianna said, only to suddenly snap up at the sound of Archie's 'voice'. "Oh, right, well, just finished taking inventory. Lead the way." She finished, standing up out of the chair and setting the papers in her hand down on the desk. As she exited, the golden being put the vault door back in its place, locked it up, and waved to the three as they made their exit, to which Arianna waved back, promising to bring Goldie another trinket upon her return.

They made their way back up the staircase, backtracking through the rounded hallways, listening to the chatter coming from the Circle. As they made a right down the hallway, ahead of them was yet another resident, walking in their direction. Clad in a full black suit, no skin visible. On his right-side chest in deep red letters, arranged in a two-column-for-row fashion, was the word "STRANGER". Built-in, pitch black goggles rested on his concealed face. A black jacket with a few crimson decorations was tied by its sleeves around his waist, and at his side was some form of melee weapon, sheathed in a scabbard consisting of what looked like wildly mutated flesh.

"Stranger." He said in a lightly synthesized voice, looking Archie's way.

"Stranger." Archie replied, with his phone.

The two parties passed by each other without further incident, save for Reyna suspiciously eyeballing the strange figure.

They went down one last hallway before finally arriving at their destination. They stood on the top rung of a grand, circular stadium. The rungs dipped down five levels, hitting an open slab of level ground for all to watch. Everything was much more decorated than the rest of the Obsidian Plaza - pillars along the top rung, posters depicting a whole roster of contenders, stage lights shining down on the arena, and then some. On all of the rungs together were hundreds of people, all of different make and caliber. Humans and metas, all present for the same spectacle. Among them too were more beings native to the Microcosm, myriad in appearance and composition - some were made of jade, others were made of ruby. Some had six arms, others had no head, or several.

The variation was immense - such was the nature of the Microcosm in general. They were all chattering audibly, most watching the arena, which was occupied by two relatively normal-looking men. The taller of the two was one with fairer skin and brown hair, with a full but well-trimmed beard in accompaniment. He was dressed in a white collared shirt with its sleeves rolled up, a navy blue vest, a simple red tie underneath, and black dress pants and shoes. The other was a slightly shorter man, younger-looking as well, with lighter skin and wild, platinum blond hair. He was dressed in a black tuxedo, of all things. They both held microphones in their hands, and they looked intent on making full use of them.

"Hey!" Came a voice to the trio's left. Along the rung were three figures - a taller male with horribly burned skin and a lack of lips, wearing orange-lens goggles and dark clothing with bright blue and red designs painted on the top. Behind him was a smaller, petite young woman with much better skin, albeit a little pale. She had long, black hair that looked a little unkempt, and she was dressed in plain, dark clothes with a gray wool cloak over everything. Latched on to her neck was a sleek black collar, with the antiquated symbol of NEST emblazoned on its surface. And last but not least, next to her was everyone's favorite walking pin cushion, Harmon.

The burned man continued, "Just in tine." He had some trouble with his words, owing to his lack of lips, but he seemed to make due. "Last 'atch is on in 'inutes." He gave Arianna a quick look before saying to her, "Eh, yeh look tha'iliar. Wh'are ya again?"

"Ari," Arianna said, holding her hand out to shake the burned man's. "Friend of Archie's. I believe we've met before. Zach right?"

"Ah, 'eah." Zach replied, shaking Arianna's hand. "Yer that sha'echanger?"

"That's me." Arianna said, turning to look at the fight ring. Zach nodded, and then turned his attention towards Reyna. "Sure I dun' know yeh."

"And I'm sure I'm gonna need another drink after this." Reyna muttered as she combed her fingers through her hair. She sighed as she set her hands on her hips and looked at Zach proudly with her chin pointed up.

"I'm new around here, sugar lips!" She said with a smug little smile, though part of her was hoping this freaky dude could take a joke.

"Heh." Zach replied, "Tha'ain't a neh 'un. Gith 'e tine, I'll 'ake sun'thin' u' ther yeh."

"I can't wait." Reyna commented with a blank stare, not understanding a single thing Zach told her.

"Folks!" Came a voice from down in the ring, from the older man's microphone. The crowd immediately began to clap and cheer, all attention turning towards the center. The group of six all decided to put aside the hellos until the fighting was good and done.

Alice needed a drink, tonight had been hard, people had been angry, upset, afraid. People who were afraid did stupid things. Tonight that stupid thing had been to riot, to listen to a man who didn’t really care for their wellbeing. They’d been exposed to a powerful metahuman, and it had destabilised a situation that was already heading south. She knew that keeping the peace was RAVENs primary mission, but last night had felt like they were simply putting down resistance. They were well trained, well-equipped, the metahumans rioting hadn’t stood a chance. It had felt wrong.

Things had gone efficiently back at HQ, those who needed to be processed were, and Alice had spent more than an hour filling out forms, signing her name and making her report. It had only unsettled her even more. Alice prayed every day, but after it all she’d found herself in the locker room staring into space. Her Rosary had been clutched in one hand, her lips moving soundlessly as she moved the beads between her fingers. Some of those people had a right to be angry, and they’d crushed it anyway, it would only make things worse she knew. They’d failed in what they’d gone to do.

She carefully placed the holy symbol back in her purse before changing out of her RAVEN uniform.

She stared at it hung in the locker for a moment, wondering just where this job was going. She’d become a cop to protect and serve, it was naïve, but she’d wanted to help people, and hadn’t really known where else to do that except in New York’s finest. She’d been raised a cop, and she’d graduated from the Police Academy at the top of her class, with a glowing review. She’d never expected to end up in RAVEN, but after that terrifying moment when he’d pulled the knife across her throat she hadn’t thought there was anywhere else she should go.

People like her, people with amazing abilities had a responsibility. God had granted her powers so that she could do more, she’d believed that he had a greater plan for her, but over the last few months that belief was being eroded. Now she only hoped that there was a plan. He had to be testing her, testing her faith.

That’s what the father had said in confession this morning. Doubt was human, but that true faith was about overcoming that doubt. Alice was faithful, it was what had kept her going. God set test for her, and because she was human, sometimes she failed. She never stopped trying though, and tomorrow was a new day, but for now, she wanted to drink away today.

Written with @SepticGentleman and @Spoopy Scary

---

The night before, within the Microcosm...

"Folks!" The man announced, in something of a Bostonian accent, "The last fight of the quarter starts in two minutes!" He was met with a spike in volume from the crowd. He waved his hand and continued speaking.

"But before that, we'd like to take a moment to get a word out for our favorite servicers and establishments this week!" He pulled out a few notecards from his pants pocket and proceeded to call out, "Special mention for Harmon's Official Unofficial Electronic Repair Service! If your phone's just not cooperating with you, or your laptop's being a huge bitch, hit him up. Next, the Odo Brothers' Bath House is back open for business on its twenty-four-hour schedule after the, uh... mess left by last month's incident, parties responsible now appropriately reprimanded."

"It was almost as bad as the first one! But you know what they say, you can never beat the original!" The co-host chimmed in.

"And lastly, Carlyle's Frontier Expeditions have received a limited-time expansion into unknown territories! See the strange sights and bizarre creatures of the Microcosm from the leisure of the open air!" He lowered his microphone for a moment, taking in the applause, much of it in the direction of the parties mentioned. The man continued on to say, "Now! We, being Ted Harvey..."

"And Theodore Cotton, of course!" Cotton said, stealing Ted's microphone and speaking into both of them at once.

"Are proud..." Ted said, ripping his microphone away from his co-host, "...to announce our two opponents for the final match of the night, as well as this quarter of the year 2022, for the fifth running year in our meta-brawling enterprise!" He pointed to one side of the arena, and announced, "Our first contender! A man that is no stranger to the fray of battle! The scourge of Tokyo, the psychological surgeon, the veteran himself - give it up for Doctor Olin!"

The crowd roared, and a massive humanoid clad in sweat pants and a hoodie stalked into the ring. Bestial in nature, judging by the large and muscular tail that trailed behind the fighter's body and ashen-scaled snout that poked out from under the hoodie. The fighter reached upwards, and pulled off the hoodie- revealing a his muscle shirt clad torso. The man was built like a truck- with broad shoulders that were easily over five feet in width, and cadillac sized arms. Armored scaling could be seen poking from underneath the back of his shirt. He tapped his claws against the cement flooring, awaiting the announcement of his combatant, but gave no audible acknowledgment of the crowd.

Cotton proceeded to speak on behalf of the behemoth's opponent. "And our second contender, former wild man-dog turned pit fighting champion wannabe! One-armed and dangerous, never skips leg day, almost bit my hand off that one time! The Broken! Hyena!"

He pointed to the opposite side of the ring, and from an entrance below the rungs dashed a tall, but not as tall as Olin, dog-like figure of a man. Jointed legs covered in an assortment of cloth wraps, leading up to a pair of black brown cargo shorts, a tattered red shirt, and a black scarf around his neck. His right arm led down to a hand full of curved, sharpened claws, wrapped in a fingerless black glove. The other only ended just above the elbow, at a plain stump. A head of wild, dark brown hair rested upon a jutting face, eyes underneath a pair of black goggles with red lenses. His ears were pointed, though the right one was messily clipped in half. He stopped at the ring, listening to a good portion of the audience cheering for him. In return, he raised his head and bellowed, not quite a howl, not quite a cackle - something in between, with a hint of a man's voice in it.

"Take a look at this, Ted." Cotton announced over the microphone. "It appears that Doc is stepping forward to meet the Hyena halfway."

The co-host wasn't lying. The behemoth was in fact pacing towards the center of the ring, with the Hyena meeting him there. The giant stopped a few feet away before putting one of his hulking arms outward, with his fist closed. The Hyena did the same, and in unison they knocked their knuckles together in a sign of sportsmanship. The Broken Hyena, however, added a snapping of his mangled teeth - though somehow, it didn't seem out of malice. The larger reptilian man nodded to him, and began stepping back, his gigantic frame quickly picking up speed as his feet weaved back and fourth below him. His whole body almost seemed to bounch. It was... very Mohammad Ali-esque.

Ted and Cotton began to step away from the two. "You know the rules, boys!" He said, raising his hand. "Three... two... one..."

The contenders locked eyes, poised and ready to strike.

"Fight!" Ted called out, quickly swiping his hand down and getting out of the way. "Cherry!" He called out, turning his head towards one of the upper rungs. Three figures stood there - an African-American man wearing a pair of hunting glasses, a Caucasian wearing aviators, and a shorter, redheaded girl wearing heart-shaped sunglasses. She was sat while the other two were upright, with instruments ready - a drum set and a guitar respectively, both decorated and plugged into the appropriate equipment. The girl, Cherry, raised her finger, waving it a bit, timing the beats. The guitarist, Somilo, began to strum silently, and the drummer Jiver followed with accompanying beats. This was how they started - low, riding into the high as the battle picked up.

The two fighters quickly moved forward, getting within striking distance of one-another. The Doctor had his hands lower, one arm occasionally moving outward at a moderate speed, as if testing the waters. The Broken Hyena was fast however, and with his smaller size, weaved through the punches, and moved past Henry, landing a solid elbow with his only remaining (right) arm.

"Look like Broken Hyena strikes first blood!" Cotton announced into the microphone.

The giant man stepped forward, through the blow, relatively unaffected, and quickly turned to face his adversary again, sweeping his massive tail and taking the Hyena by surprise. The appendage swung like a tree trunk and took out the fighter's legs. However, the massive man did not press the advantage. He waited for the Hyena to get back up.

Once the thinner fighter rose to his feet, the giant began advancing upon him again. The mountain of a man wound back his arm, which Hyena began to back-step in order to avoid, only to be met by a powerful kick to the exposed torso- sending the Hyena stumbling back several feet. The punch had been a fake, and it had worked. The mammalian recovered, and much faster than Henry was advancing. The two began circling once again.

"This is the David and the Goliath of boxing matches." Ted commented.

The Broken Hyena advanced, ducking under a powerful but slow hook that Henry threw, and hopping over the tail. He kicked the back of Henry's knee forward, forcing Henry to fall onto one knee. He spun on his heels and delivered a solid punch to Henry's snout, causing the monster of a man to fall backwards. Henry turned into the fall, and landed onto his hands and knees. The Broken Hyena pressed, taking advantage of Henry's exposed back. He delivered a few, powerful kicks to the floating rid region of Henry's flanks, and attempted to strike Henry's skull again, only to be met with by an arm that swung backwards like a baseball bat, nailing the Broken Hyena and sending the dog-man barreling backwards.

As both fighters regained their footing, the Broken Hyena quickly advanced, pivoting on his heel and jumping in an attempt to deliver a flying roundhouse kick. The kick landed, but was absorbed mostly by the Doctor's shoulder and arm as Henry grabbed the Hyena's torso with one hand and moved straight down, falling to his knees and slamming the Hyena into the ground with both of their weights using a devastating combination of power, skill, and gravity.

The Hyena spat blood onto the floor from the force of the slam, and heaved on the ground. Fractured- maybe broken ribs, potentially broken back. Henry weighed over two thousand pounds and had a massive frame compared to the Hyena's tall and slender one. The two were classed into different fighting brackets. It had been an unfair fight from the start.

Henry stood back up to his full height and looked to Cotton and Ted, narrowing his eyes at them before kneeling down and slapping the floor twice- tapping out and forfeiting the fight.

He stepped backwards to allow the healers to step in to do their job. He looked around the now almost quiet fight ring, and stalked out of the arena. The band fell off their rhythm, now silent.

It took a moment for Ted to raise his microphone and speak up. "Well..." He began, "Folks... it seems Doc Olin's had enough." He stepped forward, just as the two assigned healers finished fixing up the Broken Hyena. "So, that makes the Broken Hyena our winner!" As the Broken Hyena stood upright, Ted grabbed his good arm and raised it up. The crowd cheered, especially the ones who had been supporting their favored contender from the start - but a good number of them just clapped halfheartedly, and the rest didn't react at all. The Broken Hyena immediately tore his arm away from Ted's hand, and looked in the direction that Henry had gone off in, following at a slightly quicker pace. Growling somewhat. Ted, the healers, and Cotton just stood in confusion, until the former grew a look of disapproval on his face and too, followed in the contenders' path. As he went, Cotton made a quick decision to wrap things up in the Circle.

"Well, uh, that's it for the final match of the quarter, folks! Hope you all enjoyed the fight, I'm... gonna go that way!" He said, turning to follow his partner, until the lot of them were out of view. And the audience was left to itself.

...

"'Ell..." Zach said, as the group of six made their way out of the Circle. "That sucked."

"It was a good fight up until the end." Said Archie's phone. The group came to a stop and he continued, "Maybe Henry's just not feeling it anymore. Being champ for eight quarters in a row must have that effect."

"Coulda least took a dithe. 'Ake it look good." Zach replied, "Hyena dun like an unthair 'ictory. Ah, 'ahtether." He sighed and turned his head towards Veronica at his side, saying to her, "'Anna guh chill?" Veronica shook her head, then proceeded to raise both her hands in a thumbs up fashion, palms facing her torso, and waved them up and down a little. Then she brought her hands together and pulled them apart on a slant, and then straight down, parallel. "Ah." Zach replied, nodding a bit. "'Kay, yeh do that. I'll 'e at the lahnge 'en yer done." He turned towards Harmon and said to him, "H?"

"O-okay..." Harmon replied, nodding a bit.

"Arch?" Zach continued, turning towards Archie, who typed in response, "I'll catch up with you later. Gotta handle stuff."

"Ai'ght." Zach replied, waving over Harmon. The two wandered off in one direction, Veronica in another. All that was left were Archie, Arianna, and Reyna. Archie turned towards the both of them and typed out, "Sorry about the fight. Doctor must be having some issues."

Reyna didn't seem to mind, who was whooping and hollering from the stands through the fight. Though disappointed at its conclusion, it did little to curb her enthusiasm.

"Me!" She yelled. "Come on, let me fight the winner! I had dibs!"

She turned to face Arianna with a smug little smile and said, "Whatever man, he's probably a little bitch anyway."

"Unfortunately, the quarter's over." Archie typed out in Reyna's direction, "Ted won't have the next tournament going for a couple of weeks at least."

"Fine," Reyna grumbled, then turned to stick her head out to where the fighters were squaring off before, "I didn't want to get in trouble for kicking around some dog, anyway!"

"Of course. Anyway." Archie continued, stepping towards Reyna. "If you're cool with what you've seen so far, you can stick around as long as you want. There's rooming available, plus the Odos' place to freshen up, the lounge, lots of fun places and friendly people. What do you say?"

Reyna shrugged. It didn't really matter to her, she had no place to go. As far as she was concerned, the safest place was either with Ari as she already claimed responsibility, or turning to the RAVEN base. The latter involved betraying this lot - but it wasn't like they were best friends or anything, and Reyna might even be able to get off without such a huge punishment of she explained the truth.

But the fact that she was still here went to show that Ari wasn't keen on just letting Reyna out her. God, why did she feel even a little hesitant? These people took her against her will!

Finally, she sighed. "You know what? It's been fun and all, but I gave it a shot, and my mind isn't changed."

Reyna huffed.

"Take me back." She said. Facing the issue helped to make her feel a little more sober. "I'm gonna face RAVEN and make my appeal, or I'll take responsibility for knocking Styles down or whatever."

Archie turned his head towards Arianna slightly, nodding in acknowledgement. "Brave girl." He typed out, "Alright. But if you could, leave out this whole place during your explanation. Plenty of folks here are already not on DOVE or RAVEN's nice list."

"I never wanted to run off with you two in the first place." Reyna retorted.

Ari looked Reyna over, trying to decide if she was serious or not only to shake her head and sigh. She turned "Alright, Archie. Take us back."

She looked back to Reyna, her jovial gaze replaced with a colder and more calculating one. She took a step away from Reyna and finally produced a facial expression. Although it was a frown.

"As soon as we get back, I'll call off the clone and give you a ride back to Strong-Gold. That'll be it. But, only on one condition."

Reyna rolled her eyes and leaned to the side with a hand on her hip. "Yeah, and what's that?"

"If you ever see any of us again, tonight never happened." Arianna said, turning her gaze away from Reyna, as telling her that it was non-negotiable. "Archie, ready when you are."

Reyna narrowed her brow, not entirely understanding her meaning, but as far as Reyna was concerned, she wasn't given much of a reason why she should spare them any grief - they hadn't done the same service to her. Regardless, she didn't care for Arianna's reason. There was one question that was really bugging her now.

"What's with the sudden change of heart, huh?" Reyna pried. "You didn't seem to care when you first tried to 'help' me."

Ari gave her a sideways glance and crossed her arms, looking down at her feet. "One of my rules is to 'Not get invested'." Arianna explained, looking back up to Reyna. "I broke one rule 'Don't hurt anyone', and I thought I'd be able to make up for it by breaking another one. I thought wrong." Arianna stated.

While she would never admit it, Reyna was the closest thing Arianna has had to a friend in a long time. The decision Reyna had come to, while not illogical, felt like a form of rejection to Ari. So, as any person with a self serving bias, Arianna receeded into herself and clammed up, bringing her walls back up in an effort to prevent herself from getting hurt any further.

Reyna crossed her arms, and a smirk was beginning to creep onto her face.

'Projection.' Reyna thought smugly to herself, alluding to what she said earlier in the night at the bar. She made a sigh to herself and bowed her head as she combed her fingers through her hair, which then trailed further down where she began scratching her neck. 'This bitch sure can make a girl feel bad for nothing.'

"Well..." Reyna began to pipe up. God, she was going to regret this. "I'm still not totally sober yet. You think it might be a better idea to wait for that before I make the appeal to save my life?"

Reyna made an uncomfortable laugh. "Once the buzz wears off, I'm gonna be hurting again. Maybe they'll even have sympathy for me."

Arianna looker her over, her eyes hopeful but her mind unbelieving.

"Yeah. Sure." Arianna said, halfheartedly. "I'm staying the night here. You can take a room near mine." She said, stepping towards Archie and patting the man on the shoulder. "Have a good night. Thanks for all the help." Archie didn't issue a verbal response. He just nodded his head, turned away, and went in the direction Zach and Harmon had gone.

She took a few paces down a road, only to stop and motion for Reyna to follow. "I'll lead."

Reyna hesitated for a moment, but started following after Arianna. Her eyes lit up a moment as she noticed a man staring at the two of them in a nearby alleyway. It was difficult to discern the figure, save for a white cloth around his neck, and the rays of a street-side light glistening off of an absurd number of bugs flying around the area. Reyna shook it off as another strange person in this strange place. She continued on. In a moment of epiphany, she asked, "Where can we get pain-killers so I can sleep tonight?"

"We can stop by a shop on the way to an inn." Arianna commented offhandedly. "This place has a little bit of everything."

"I'll say..." Reyna muttered, remembering the strange man she saw earlier. Her eyes continued to trail around this crazy place, until they landed on a bee that was on one of the brick walls. Another bug. Reyna looked awkwardly back at Arianna, "Let's just get today over with."

"It's like you read my mind, love."

---

Wendy Lucker, & Lihua Zhao

---

Academy 61, Roseview.

After that certainly exciting arena fight, Wendy found herself in the locker room. Trying her damn near hardest to get this damn suit off. She was facing the mirror, and then she took the kevlar vest off, before she grabbed the zipper, and then unzipped it. Wendy felt a tad embarrassed looking at her underdeveloped body in the mirror. Sometimes she just wished...

Eh, never mind. Wendy merely took off this suit, and walked over to her locker, and put on her normal clothes for the day. Today was something special! So she'd need to dress nicely. Which was why she had a frilly green summer dress hanging from the hanger. She smiled as she finally stepped out of this training suit, and then got into the dress - placing the suit on the hanger in return.

Completing her outfit, Wendy put a green hat to go along with it. She didn't look as stunning in a dress as her friends - but she kinda had that adventurer vibe going on. Something like an artist. Maybe that'd be enough to convince people.

Because today, Wendy is opening up her grand art vendor in the Havenfield Market!

It was going to be great.

She just wanted to get a quick match in... Well, it's less of her squeezing in a match before she has to go - and more of challenging someone a few days ago because she swore she wouldn't have gotten the space. Surprising isn't it? Still, Wendy managed to win the battle and came out unscathed. Which meant today was going to be a good day.

Since everything was coming into place, Wendy figured that she should get ready. She ran out the doors of the lockerroom, and took a hard right... and ran right into the tall figure of her teacher; Lihua Zhao. She managed to send the tall woman back a few steps, but neither she, nor Wendy, were particularly injured.

"Oh!" Wendy shouted as she looked up, and realized that it was Lihua. "Ms. Zhao! It's... uh, yeah, sorry for running into you like that!"

There a a pain in the woman's front as she reeled from her student crashing into her. She let out a gasp of paon, but was otherwise perfectly fine. This didn't improve her mood, however. She merely sighed, as she put on the best friendly smile she could.

"Ms. Lucker," Lihua started off. "Your performance out there was excellent. Utterly superb." She smiled at Wendy.

Which made the young girl get all gushy again as she began to blush. She had to resist the urge to smile at the compliment as she scratched the back of her neck. "Uh, yeah, it was... it was nothing special." She couldn't help herself, and just smiled like she really wanted to.

"I expect to see many more from you." Lihua asked.

"Yeah, I plan on doing a few more arena fights - this week in fact." Wendy nodded her head as she gushed. "I'm gonna win all of 'em!"

"Don't get cocky, miss Lucker." Lihua was quick to remind her as she adjusted her glasses, and put her hands on her hips. "Because... pride does come before the fall."

"...Yes, I have heard of that saying." Wendy sighed. "Anyways, Ms. Zhao, I have good news!"

"Oh?" Lihua was hoping the next words out of her mouth wasn't book related...

"I managed to get myself a place at the Havenfield Market! I'm going to be drawing, and making art for people!" Wendy confidently said.

"I am so glad that you managed to get a spot... from what I've heard it's quite the challenge to get a spot in Havenfield - Especially for someone like yourself." Lihua answered.

"I put it in a few months ago, once I turned eighteen." Wendy said with a smile. "I didn't even think they'd let me have a spot!" She answered. "Anywho... I'm going to get a move on."

"Go on ahead, I have plenty of work to do Miss Lucker." Lihua answered as she stepped around Wendy, and the two went their separate ways.

After the encounter with Miss Zhao, Wendy kept running through the halls of the Academy up until she made it to her dorms. She already had her bag ready! It was full of arts, and crafts, and plenty of paper for her to use. Afterwards, she slung the bag over her shoulder, and went for the window. Okay, she was showing off a little bit here, but she didn't have much time.

She jumped out the window, before turning into paper on the way down. Wendy was partially turned into paper, the rest of her body was weightless. Which allowed her to control her movements enough to gracefully land, and then she started sprinting yet again. She went straight for the parking lot.

Hopping on her moped, Wendy turned the ignition on, and went straight ahead.

---

Wendy Lucker, Haruka Takashiro, Akemi Shinoda, Reed Taylor, Kei Phan, and...

_{Written in collaboration with @Zombiedude101, @Tsukune, & @FernStone.}

---

Havenfield Market, Roseview.

This was simply exciting! Easily the first time that Wendy has ever got her own vendor at the Havenfield Market.

The teen rolled towards the Havenfield Market on board her moped. She should really get gas for this afterwards... though, this whole endeavor was hopefully going to give her more than enough money for gas, and everything! Best of all, Wendy gets to show off her art skills!

Though, it would be cheating a little. Since she's going to be using her ink powers to draw pictures of people.

Hopefully, Wendy can do it subtly enough so that nobody notices that she's a Metahuman. Either way, she was going to make the most of this event. She sped up a little bit on her moped, and then make a right. She briefly peered at her cellphone (Which had the GPS app on), and realized that she had made a wrong turn.

Hanging her head in irritation, Wendy briefly swung her moped around at the nearest turn, and then proceeded forward fast as she could to make up for lost time. She wished that she was still in the Faircrest Woods - no one really drives around there. Around Havenfield Market... in the afternoon, and on a Sunday, cops are waiting for everyone to go speeding.

Wendy herself avoided tickets by going the recommended speed - which wasn't very fast for a moped. She shook her head as she finally arrived at the market in Havenfield. The only one she managed to reserve. Lot Twelve. It was a big space, and it was absolutely covered in several different stands, each with a vendor of some sort. Most of the people here were selling fruit, but some of the others had some dinner foods of some sort.

There was no time to eat! Wendy knew if she didn't get set up soon, she was going to miss out! Wendy parked her moped in the parking space, and then quickly got off the moped, quickly locking her helmet onto the side. Not wasting a second, Wendy reached to the basket, and pulled out all of her items - an assortment of papers, a drawing board, a chair, and a sign that she had made herself.

Hoisting it all underneath her arm, she quickly started running through the crowds and crowds of people. Letting out many polite, but frantic, "Excuse me!"'s, and "Sorry!" as she made her way through the market. Up until she made it to her spot. Which was conveniently vacant, and Wendy sighed in relief.

Her relief didn't last long - because she realized that she didn't have a stand. Okay, this should have been thought out better, but Wendy was going to make the most of it! She quickly placed the stool down, and then set up the drawing board, before she found a nice spot to put her stack of paper (Placing a book on top of it to stop it from leaving), along with placing various other pieces of art that she made on stands for everyone to see.

The last thing that Wendy did was place the sign, which said,

The Wendy Lucker Art Display & Sketching.

...This was the saddest excuse for an art display ever, but boy did she make up for it with some really good art pieces.

On the other end from where Wendy's lot was, Haruka was setting down a pot of red marigolds at Akemi's stall next to another pot, which was filled with soft pink peonies. His aunt was busy tending to the huge sunflower; they had to place that pot on the ground instead of the table like the rest (those were much smaller - suitable as table decorations), where it was almost at the same height as the short Akemi.

He stepped back to admire the sight of colorful flowers around the small stall, all in full bloom, while wiping the sweat off his forehead. Today was probably the hottest summer yet for this year (and the sight of the bright and tall sunflower made him feel even warmer).

"Haruka?" An older, yet somehow familiar voice addressed him from behind. Reed hadn't expected to find a familiar face today and it'd been years since they'd last met.

Haruka turned around, his eyebrows raised at the sight of an old friend - it was the cop who had helped him through the Verthaven disaster years ago, and like himself, had become an actual Metahuman since then.

"It has been a long time, Mr. Reed," he greeted the taller man, smiling. "How are you?"

"I'm good, great - DOVE is just like my old job with the VPD." Reed warmly answered, taking a seat beside him. "How about yourself? You look great."

"Thank you," was all Haruka could offer before Akemi stepped forward to get to her nephew, but was a little surprised to see Reed. "Hello, Mr. Taylor."

"Ms. Shinoda, it's good to see you again." Reed was equally surprised to see her too, but it occurred to him that she was never far behind either one of the twins.

She glanced from Reed to Haruka; she gave him a quick nod and turned back to her own work, while Haruka chose to continue the conversation with the DOVE agent. "Anyway, what brings you here?" He wondered if Reed was here just for a stroll... or for something related to his work.

That made him thought of his still-busy twin; though subtle, his face fell with a mixture of disappointment and worry.

"Just out, thought I'd keep an eye on things I guess." Reed shrugged. "Makes a change from one of the cases I'm working." Thoughts drifted to the killer out there and he wondered, could he be here, with them?

As Haruka chatted with Reed, he felt a sudden chill. He frowned - he could vaguely feel that the air current around him was a little... off, but he shrugged it off without a second thought. He was probably hallucinating - he hadn't been sleeping well the past few days, anyway.

"Oh dear," Akemi exclaimed, and that distracted Haruka from their conversation. He turned to see his aunt looking confused at the sunflower, whose leaves were drooping downwards and no longer as green as a moment ago. It seemed like the plant was withering all of a sudden.

Then Haruka could feel it. The air was indeed getting colder than just now. He looked up at the sky - there were only wisps of white clouds, and no sign of the darker storm clouds around.

Maybe it's going to be a sun shower...

He had absolutely no idea how wrong he was.

---

Kei was located around the vendors that were selling various types of food - from fruit to freshly grown vegetables. It was, in a way, his kind of heaven. As someone who loved cooking fresh ingredients were always the best thing. His sister had even given him some money towards buying this food (with the requirement that he actually use them for their meals, rather than his irregular random eating).

He had even pushed through his general dislike for the outdoors to come here. Food was one thing that motivated him. He just hoped that he wasn't making everything a little colder... He was trying his hardest to keep it under control. He'd ended up coming out alone because his sister had a bit of work to catch up with and wasn't particularly into the idea of being in another crowded place (she was just getting over her headaches from the night before). She had said she'd come meet him later, if he was still out.

Kei wasn't sure how long he would stay here. He was already carrying about one bag full of fresh produce. Maybe he'd force himself to stay in the sun (ugh) for just a little longer if his sister really wanted to come out to meet him. But it was so hot, he felt like he was going to die...

...What changed Kei's rather mundane day was a dart hitting him in the neck. It wasn't any regular dart, it was a syringe of some sort that was full of a glowing blue liquid, and it immediately emptied it's contents into his neck. As it's entered his body, the liquid illuminated the Metahuman energy inside of his nervous system. It's effects would first feel like a sudden surge of strength, giving Kei the feeling that he could do anything. Before that strength would grow stronger, and stronger... until he completely los control. Ice had already began to come off his body.

It didn't take long for the surrounding area to grow colder and colder. It was almost as if there was a sudden season change to the middle of winter. This radiated out from Kei - the coldest areas being around him.

As everything got colder objects also began to freeze, ice forming around exposed surfaces - a thick ice that seemed to come out of nowhere. Kei himself was coated with ice, though he felt colder than he ever had before, it didn't seem to be harming him (yet). It began breaking off in small crystals at a somewhat explosive speed and flying out away from him. The ice moved erratically as it broke off surfaces and joined what was flying off his body.

Kei had lost control before, but never like this. He had absolutely no control and no way to stop his power as he practically created an ice storm around him.

Screaming immediately filled the area as everyone desperately attempted to get some distance away from Kei. Few could even get away in time before they were frozen solid, or were hit with a stray piece of ice.

---

The air started getting cold, all the sudden. Wendy went from being somewhat warm, to absolutely frigid. After one mere exhale, she could even see her own breath, "Huh?" Wendy said to herself when she noticed it. This was inconvenient for her, because she was still dressed for winter. That wasn't the problem, however. What was the problem was that something was responsible for this sudden weather change. This must be the work of a Metahuman.

Just as Wendy was getting ready to investigate, a scream erupted from the crowd in front of her, and Wendy herself nearly jumped up. Her eyes widened as she saw the utter chaos unfold in front of her. A blizzard was unfolding in front of her - the ice started flying out in all directions. Wendy couldn't quite grasp what the hell was even going on.

People were getting hurt - she wasn't sure if she should evacuate or do something. But, what can she do? She's only one girl, and even with her powers, a Metahuman going out of control and devastating the area was still out of her league.

Screw it. Just get out of here. However, her sharp eyes noticed that a barrage of ice was flying towards her - enough to shred her to pieces. "Shit!" Wendy hissed underneath her breath as she thought fast. She quickly turned into her paper form, and the barrage of ice shredded the paper to pieces - however, with no damage to Wendy.

She reformed on top of the nearby stall, with not a simple mark on her due to the attack. What the hell is going on?

---

"Wait, hold on a second.." Reed shivered for a second as the golden summer air seemed to drop down to icy cool temperatures, hairs bristling on the back of his neck as he glanced towards the direction of the screams, then a look of horror spread across his face as he saw the blizzard forming right in front of them.

Shards of ice were forming in the damp Roseview air, the humidity of the region working against them. "Both of you, get down!" Reed's cop instincts kicked in as he sprung from the seat, fingers clamoring for the CZ75D tucked into his concealed holster.

Haruka dashed to his aunt and forced the shocked Akemi down onto the ground; a barrage of ice shards slammed right into the disk of the sunflower head, shredding its petals into pieces, then later encasing the whole stalk in ice - which would have been his aunt's fate if they weren't quick enough.

"Wh...What's going on?" Akemi stammered as she got up slowly, still not quite recovered from the shock.

Reed threw a hand up to shield his face from the immense blizzard, the wind blasting against them at freezing temperatures. Visibility had dropped in mere seconds, but all he could see were Haruka and Akemi just behind him.

Rasping, he shouted at the top of his voice over the frost, "Haru, can you push the wind against the storm?! Give people some cover!" And like that, he pushed forward, fighting to get closer to the storm, before finding himself forced to take cover behind an overturned stall as more shards of ice jolted past him.

"I can try!" Haruka yelled back in response to Reed and scrambled to his feet, raising up a hand before him. Taking in a deep breath to calm himself down, he gathered as much of the air around to push against the incoming storm of ice, forcing back the blizzard to allow them to be able to move forward. Behind him, Akemi flicked her hands to stop any stray ice bits that managed to get through Haruka's air block with her psionic shield.

There were plenty of other people here, their screams barely drowned out by the raging blizzard - that only made Reed want to push through to the center of this thing and stop it before more were hurt, yet he realized that ignoring backup was not an option.

He slipped a hand down to his pocket and frantically grabbed for his phone, barely able to dial the emergency contact intended specifically for RAVEN/DOVE. The voice that answered him could be barely made out, but all the same he shouted back as loud as he could, despite his own voice being distorted by the wind.

"This is Agent Reed Taylor! Need assistance at Havenfield Market lot twelve, there's some kind of blizzard raging here... visibility low, it's got to be another metahuman-" and before anything else could be heard, the line went dead.

Dammit! He thought, realizing that the storm must've somehow interfered with the signal. Not that it mattered - all he could hope for was that the message had gotten out.

Squinting, he peeked out from behind the overturned stall to face the raging blizzard, finding only the frozen silhouettes of some other poor bastards who'd been caught in the worst of it. "Is anyone out there?!" He rasped, hoping to find someone still alive.

It was... hard to see out here. Wendy was shivering at this point, and then as she tried to get away from all of this, she blinked, and fell forward off the stand. No amount of paper manipulation could save her from this. She hit the ground with a loud thud as a sharp pain filled her side. She let out a loud gasp of pain - which she could see her own breath. She tried to crawl away, but she felt the ice building on her body. "N-no..." She voiced as she shivered. She couldn't let herself fall like this - but her paper powers can't save her from this.

She heard someone yell if somebody was there.

"Y-yes..." Wendy called out. "H-help... help..." She desperately whined.

"Anyone?!" Reed could've sworn he heard a voice. It was possible that his mind was just playing tricks, but... no, he couldn't risk it.

"Anyone, I say again!" This time, he vaulted over the stall and pushed back against the storm, a hand raised overhead as he fought against the freezing cold. Frost accumulated on his skin, almost burning him, but he didn't care... he could take it.

Finally, he saw a figure slumped on the ground... a girl. "Can you hear me?!" He called to her.

"Uh- yeah..." Wendy tried to groan out the words. She was shivering at this point, and she couldn't feel her legs. This man was the only hope that she had. Now came the problem of getting out of this predicament.

He quickly made his way towards her, before realizing that the ice had already built up on her le. "Jesus, hold on - I'm with DOVE. What's your name?"

"W-W-Wendy... L-Lucker." Wendy answered the best she could.

"Wendy, I'm Reed - and I'm gonna do everything I can to get you out of here." His eyes darted to the frost, then back to the girl. "Can you move anything?"

In response, Wendy tried to move her left arm, but it was stuck in the frozen ice. Her other hand, she could move perfectly fine. Her legs were stuck.

Reed had to think fast. The longer it took to get her free, the more likely she'd become hypodermic - if she wasn't already. Without any other option, Reed chose to improvise and planted his palm against her neck, before concentrating as hard as he could in an attempt to adjust her blood flow and keep her warm that way. "Don't panic."

Wendy let out a sigh of relief upon Reed helping her. Maybe she'll get out of this... but she needs a plan. Like he said; don't panic. Wait... she had become so reliant on her paper powers, that she had completely forgotten about her fire powers. This could be what helps her - but she needs a flame.

"...D-Do... can you start a fire?" Wendy asked, shaking. "I just need a small one..."

"A fire?" Reed echoed, before a hand clamored for his pocket, recalling the lighter he'd kept on him. Not that he smoked; it was just handy to have around. Clicking it, a spark flickered for the first few times before a dim flame finally erupted from it.

This was risky... it went against her vow to never reveal that she was a Metahuman - not to DOVE, or anyone. But, it was stupid to put a secret over her own life. Which is why her hand stretched out towards Reed's fire, and then she touched it with one finger. At first, it looked like she wasn't even effected by it - then the rest of her hand exploded with fire as the green Metahuman energy illuminated her nervous system, much to the agent's surprise. It all disappeared a few moments later.

However, now she was using fire manipulation. Wendy didn't copy a lot of the ability - which meant it was painfully weak - but a little fire was still enough. She snapped her fingers and then they exploded with a fire which spread to the rest of her hand. Her hand was like a torch, and then she put the flame up to her body. Which was enough to quickly make it melt.

The flame flickered as she started to lose concentration due to how cold it was. What if... She tried to channel the heat through the rest of her body. The heat made it melt, and she felt the water trickle off her body (If it wasn't turned into steam). Wendy managed to break herself free, but she was still shivering.

It wasn't long before she managed to pick herself up... she was hunched over, and shivered. She kept her hand flaming.

Helping her to her feet, Reed was desperate to get her out before things worsened - he could feel the cold biting against his face. "Wendy, can you walk? We need to get you out of here."

The flames were beginning to die out - which was a sign that Wendy needed to go absorb some more... A brief glance around told her that wasn't going to happen. She quickly realized that this brief moment of relief wasn't going to last long. So, she was going to go with the Agent. She could just feel the frost bite on her legs, but she can manage. Wendy managed to get herself to her feet, and get out an answer;

"Yeah..." She said.

Haruka rushed towards the DOVE agent, while Akemi concentrated on covering his back with her force-field. "Mr. Reed! Are you alright?" He raised an eyebrow at the sight of a teenage girl, the look of surprise quickly turned into concern. "Is she okay?"

"I'm fine," Reed grunted, supporting Wendy's weight as they shakily moved back towards them, "Just make sure she's out and safe. Backup should be coming, just get some distance - I've got to go back."

"We really need to get out of here fast," Akemi said grimly - she was now back to back with her nephew. She spun around and glanced from Haruka to the girl. "We should all probably go to somewhere safe, and leave the rest to Mr. Taylor to handle."

"Y-yeah." Wendy said as she tried to stand straight up as possible, but that was hard. She managed to save herself from freezing to death by revealing her power... Yelp. She just revealed that she was a power replicator to the world. This was going to bite her in the ass later. If she can get out of here alive. "L-lead, the way."

---

It wasn't long until the RAVEN APC arrived on Lot Twelve (After driving like a maniac on the way there). The vehicle came to a stop - it's wheels were modified and adjusted for this kind of weather - not before the lot, and all they saw was the blizzard.

"The hell...?" Cindy muttered the words as she looked forward. There was a god damn blizzard. A god damn blizzard. She couldn't believe her eyes. She wished that she could be better prepared for this... but her eyes veered towards her RAVEN friends.

Meifeng, who was leaning back in her chair, looked at the blizzard, and shrugged.

"...Okay, let's pull some straws to decide who goes out there." Meifeng leaned forward, and then she reached into her pocket and pulled out - you guessed - some straws. She always carries some around for situations like this.

"I'll go, Reed's out there and I'm not leaving-" Quentin was cut off by another; Shizuka had raised a hand to signal Quentin to stop. He could understand the taller agent's anxiety - his own family was out there too - but running out blindly without a plan was going to make the already dire situation even worse.

"Meifeng you better put those god damn straws back." Cindy sighed, shaking her head. "We're all going out there, and we're all going to figure out what the hell going on - so we can fix it."

"Right," Meifeng shrugged. She knew better than to argue with Cindy - since that was a waste of everyone's time. "You gotta plan, then?"

Cindy pressed her earpiece.

"Agent Reed Taylor, come in. This is agent Green Bird, arriving on scene with backup - where is your position?"

But all she heard was static.

"Damn it." Cindy hissed.

Damn blizzard must be screwing with the radio. Which means she's going have to do this the hard way...

She walked over to one of the chairs in the front, and then knelt down and pulled out a box. Opening the box revealed a bright red flare gun, with at least ten reloads. She grabbed the flare gun tightly, as she walked over to the back of the APC, and opened the door. Immediately the group was barraged with cold.

"Jesus Christ!" Meifeng said.

Shizuka, who had changed into standard RAVEN armor this time, shuddered at the icy wind that blasted into him. He was glad that he took everyone's advice and didn't stubbornly go with his usual stealth suit.

Quentin threw a hand up to shield his face, grasping for his helmet and slipping the visor piece on over his head.

Cindy ignored the cold, before she raised the flaregun high up into the air, and shot it. Creating a bright red light for everyone to see. Hopefully, they can get some backup.

---

Elsewhere, Reed was still fighting through the storm, his jacket barely affording him any warmth as he made a search for others amidst this mess. The cold had left his fingers feeling numb, but he still pushed on - hoping to find someone else still alive in this mess or put an end to it. Hopefully soon, though; he could feel the frost forming around him, hardening, slowing his movements.. but just behind him, he could make out the flare glaring in the cold, which meant one thing: backup was here.

---

After getting clear confirmation on their target, there was only three choices; foam, gas, or taze him. If they non-lethally disable him, they can possibly get him under control, and then figure out what the hell happened. Killing him would only paint RAVEN as the monsters everyone viewed them as, really.

"Gimme the grenade launcher." Meifeng said, pointing to the grenade launcher that was mounted on the interior of the APC.

Cindy faced Meifeng, and then shook her head. "It's loaded with gas rounds-"

"That's what I'm counting on." Meifeng answered. "Anyone who could be affected by it are long gone - It'll be the best way to take him out."

Sighing, Cindy grabbed the grenade launcher, and then handed it to Meifeng, looking her straight in the eye. "Don't mess this up." She said.

"C'mon, give us some credit." Quentin interjected with a groan.

"I won't..." Meifeng said with a cocky grin. "Just that I'll be a little cold once I'm through - anyone wanna cuddle when I get back?"

She laughed, and made Cindy roll her eyes, even solicited an amused snort from Quentin. "Alright, come on - you've got this."

That was before Meifeng put the mask on her helmet down, and stepped outside. This RAVEN armor has been made to be resistant to most forms of superpowers - the cold being one of them. Long as she's wearing this, and she got a clear line of sight with the target; it should be easy as one, two, three.

Meifeng opened the door to the back of the APC, before she stepped around the APC all the way to the side. She was getting hit with pieces of ice, but she sure as hell didn't let any of that bother her. Thankfully, there were no raging winds to accompany, which meant she had a nice, clean shot...

Though, it was hard as hell to see through all this - she managed to see a black figure in the distance. Which had to be their lucky Metahuman. She lined up the grenade launcher, and then squinted a bit. Holding her breath, Meifeng pulled the trigger, and a grenade went flying out of the barrel.

"Wait," Meifeng started off. "... We didn't pull straws - god damn it."

Instead.of an explosive cutting through the air, and blowing Kei to pieces, it was actually a canister of Meta suppressant gas that exploded into a cloud of red gas, and blanketed the area. The gas would immediately knock out anyone unfortunate enough to inhale it.

Even through the raging cold storm that he had created, and the ice that thickly coated his body, Kei saw the red gas before inhaling it. As he breathed it in he passed out and fell down to the side. The temperature began to rise again, moving away from the polar coldness to what it had been before Kei had lost control. With it the ice that had formed on surfaces began to melt - including the ice that had coated him. With this came a lot of water - but it was better than what had been before it. Still, it didn't fix any of the damage the ice had caused.

The ice that had been previously flying around in the sky fell, now mostly harmless as it was left to melt. It was a quick change and soon visibility went back to normal. Kei lay, now unconscious, in a puddle of water - upon a closer look it was obvious he hadn't quite come out of the affair unharmed. While whatever had hit him had boosted his powers greatly his resistance to the cold hadn't quite caught up and as a result had suffered from a few cold burns due to the ice that had coated his body.

After a few moments, the blizzard began to disappear, and Meifeng smiled knowing that she took out the man who was behind all of this. She pressed her earpiece, "He's been neutralized, waiting for the gas to fade before detaining him."

"Good, alright." Cindy answered. "We're heading out now..."

Before she and the rest of the RAVENS stepped outside the APC. They quickly saw that the gas was beginning to fade, and the coast should be clear. However, they know better than to take chances. Each of them pulled out their weapons, and got ready.

All while Meifeng gleefully skipped over to Kei, and placed a collar around his neck.

Heroically putting her hands on her hips, Meifeng said, "Problem solved." With a smile on her face.

Cindy facepalmed, as Meifeng lifted Kei up, and Cindy pulled out her DNA scanner, and ran it over Kei's skin. It beeped red, before Cindy looked at the results.

Kei Phan - Ice Manipulation. Currently lives in Greencrest Heights. History of a lack of control.

"Huh?" Cindy said. This didn't seem right to her... He suddenly loses control here, and goes on a rampage? Thank God that RAVEN arrived, the Pure or any vigilante would have killed him without allowing DOVE to get any information out of him. She'll have to look into this.

"Okay," Cindy spoke into the comms (Which thankfully began to work again). "Get him out of here - everyone else, start on the damage control."

She began hauling Kei over to the APC with the help of [Insert RAVEN here].

"I'll get on it-"

Quentin was cut off by a familiar voice. "Jesus, little help?!"

It soon prompted Quentin to run off in its direction. When he finally found where the voice had been coming from, he was greeted by the sight of his brother shivering as the last of the ice that had formed around his clothes cracked or melted away, leaving him feeling like he'd been gone for a dip in the lake during winter.

"Shit," Meifeng started off - seeing Reed like this wasn't good. Fortunately, she had the ability to help him. She quickly scrambled over to Reed, and then put her hands over him. The ice quickly turned into water, and then fell off of Reed. Which helped Reed get free.

"God-damn, you picked a time to turn up," Reed dryly remarked, flexing his fingers - still numb from the cold. Quentin could only cackle at that, gently punching him in the shoulder before brushing off some of the melting frost that had

"Well, it's good to see you're alright-"

"Hey, guys," Cindy stated into the comms, getting everyone's attention. She noticed something on Kei's neck as she was pulling him off. She noticed a dart in his neck. Before she even thought of touching it, she put on some latex gloves, and pulled it out of Kei's neck. "There's a dart in his neck." She spoke into comms. She noticed that there was a little bit of the glowing blue liquid left in his body.

"...Someone caused this." Cindy stated. "We'll have to get this to forensics soon as possible - then to the investigative teams..."

"Just another case for me," Reed acknowledged with a grunt.

---

Meanwhile, Shizuka had broken off from the rest and was rounding up the few civilians who were stunned and covered with frost by the unexpected blizzard. So far he had rescued four, and he was left with the last one to go.

He found the final victim at one of the food stalls; it was a slim, middle-aged lady, with one hand outstretched before her. Unlike the previous four, this one wasn't covered with mere frost, but completely frozen in ice. Her terrified face looked even more distorted from the refraction of the ice (he had half the mind to leave her like this as an ice sculpture).

He rubbed his gloved hands together; seemed like Meifeng and co. still hadn't subdue whoever who had caused this disaster yet. He flexed his fingers and sucked in a deep, icy breath, before he put a hand into the ice.

His gloved fingers touched the woman's shoulder, and he began to channel his power into her body. Although very slow and weak, he could feel that her heart was still beating. He quickly ghosted her out of the ice, his other hand (still solid) went to the earpiece. "Phantom here. All the frozen civilians have been thawed out." He lifted up the lady in his arms, frowning at her face - if it wasn't for his ability, any normal person would have assumed that she was already dead, as there were no signs of her breathing and her pulse was too weak to detect. "But one lady has a severe case of hypothermia and requires immediate medical attention."

By then the snowstorm had eased up - which meant that Meifeng had succeeded (with whatever crazy plans she had, he rolled his eyes at the thought). Without the control of the berserk cryokinetic, and adding on with the heat of the summer sun, the ice around him were melting away fairly quickly.

As he walked back to the APC with the woman in his arms, his mind drifted off to the various incidents that had happened ever since he had came back to Baybridge. From moronic thieves to the dumb protest and now this berserk case. While all of them were unrelated, it not only had made the human versus metahuman tension worse than before, even his trusty gut feeling was blaring in his head with red warning lights.

Too many shits were going down within a short span of just four days. Not to mention, an Everest-high pile of paperwork waiting on his office's desk back at the RAVEN HQ.

...Screw paperwork. Maybe he could get Max to join him in shoving them up the asses of those lazy, useless newbies to get rid of those damned papers.

He glanced down at the lady, then he suddenly stopped in his tracks. Her head had rolled over to face outwards away from his armor, and he noticed a small blue tattoo on the neck slightly under the back of her ear:


Shizuka narrowed his eyes at this woman. It seemed strange for an elegant tattoo like this to be hidden behind her ear; there could only be a few reasons why someone would try to hide a tattoo from plain sight.

.And one of those was that she probably belonged to some shady organization.

He continued to march towards the meeting point without another word, making a mental note to get Holly to run a quick check on this person in the database later...

---

"It's... over."

Haruka, Akemi, Wendy and the rest of the people who had managed to run out of the market area were gathered outside behind the police tape. Everyone was waiting anxiously as they could almost feel the icy wind blasting out of the market towards them, which Haruka tried to keep it at bay with his air manipulation ability, though he could only use his willpower. It was too risky to make any obvious movements to attract the attention of the restless crowd, especially not after this incident.

He wouldn't be surprised that if he did all of them would probably turn on against him, to vent their anger on him just because he was a Metahuman.

The people cheered when the blizzard disappeared, but it was brief before everyone started to chatter. Haruka caught snippets of those closest to them blaming the Metahumans for bringing this disaster to Havenfield, some even swore openly with balled fists and cracked knuckles.

Wendy still couldn't feel her limbs that well. The frostbite was a bitch, and if it wasn't for Haruka, she would be falling over right now. She would need some medical attention... She didn't know who this man was, helping her like this, but she was eternally grateful. Wendy smiled up at Haruka.

But, there were people gripping about the Metahumans causing this.

The Metahuman stigma never ends. Wendy knew that. She let out a sigh as she noticed the pain in her body. She would need some medical treatment... wait, she remembered that her power allows her to regenerate long as she has some paper. She never tried it on frost bite (Due to never having the opportunity to), but she might as well try. Though, she was hoping for some solid medical treatment. She heard that DOVE has a few healers....

Wait. Damn it. She thought to herself. That man that helped her was a DOVE, and most likely will be looking up her info. He'll definitely notice that pyromancery isn't in her power set.

...

Today is going to suck.