---

Three Days Ago...

---

---

London, the United Kingdom.

A bus drove through the streets of London, a city known all across the world.

The bus was merely a tourist bus that you wouldn't suspect, just a big blue bus... such a vehicle would draw some major suspicion at this hour. And that suspicion would be one-hundred percent warranted because the occupants were not friendly. It was loaded with people that were dressed like they were either going to work, or going out to the club. However, sitting in the back of the vehicle was the man who was growing in world-wide infamy.

The Black Hound.

With his helmet off, and smoking a cigar as he waited for them to arrive. There was an AK-47 at his side, and several different other firearms. All armed and ready. His helmet was also on his lap, but he heard his radio activating, so he dropped the cigar on the ground, and crushed it underneath his boot as he put his helmet on.

"Black Hound," The Foundation Woman said, "You're approaching Palace of Westminster now. Your target is Lionel Patel, you should have his picture on you... He's in the House of Lords having a meeting. You have to kill him, the usual."

Reaching into his armor, he produced a picture of the middle aged British politician who had neat black hair, with a nice suit on. Just another hit... The Black Hound wondered. "Affirmative." He answered.

"Remember... you have to make it flashy..... They have to fear even the sight of you."

For a moment, the Black Hound was quiet. "... Affirmative."

The bus came to a stop, right in front of the Palace of Westminster, and the door opened. There were already security guards present, and armed to the teeth. The Black Hound was hidden, the lights in the bus were off, as he had already ducked down. He crouch-walked his way towards the doors, until he quickly threw a flash bang into the crowd of people. Before they could react, drew his weapon and fired a shot off at one of the guards through the window. The man took a shot clean in the chest, and fell down dead as the Black Hound stepped out.

The Black Hound quickly closed the distance, and swung the butt of his gun at one of the guards and cracked his skull. He then aimed his weapon at the rest of the guards, and gunned them down.

The Hound turned back at the bus, and the "lost tourists" came out of the vehicles armed to the teeth with weapons. The alarms were already blaring, but the Black Hound didn't hesitate for a moment. He walked up to the front doors, and kicked it down, and his footsoldiers charged into the palace and started shooting it up. However, security guards were already there, putting up a resistance. The Black Hound was taking up the rear, and spotted a guard run in - and with a feat of sheer aim, he took a shot and killed the guard. Which means they have secured the lobby.

There was one matter he had to attend to. He pressed the button on the side of his helmet, and stated, "Are the vehicles in position?" He asked.

"Affirmative, sir!" A man stated, who was one of the Founding Family's footsoldiers. They had completely blocked off the bridge into the Palace with vehicles - including the bus the Black Hound arrived on. It had totally blocked traffic - but there was something worse in store. "Awaiting your signal."

Reaching into his armor, the Black Hound pulled out a detonator, and pressed the big red button. Inside of each of the vehicles, were explosives. Each of the vehicles were absolutely loaded with them. The detonator sent out a signal that caused all of them to go off at once. Creating a massive explosion that utterly destroyed the bridge into the palace, and killing many people.

With that done, the Black Hound had one order.

"... Tear the place apart," He said, and the various soldiers for the Founding Family charged through the building, and started lighting up the place... The footsoldiers were going to be nothing more than a distraction while he goes for the kill. The Black Hound knew his target was in the House of Lords. They should be retreating through a secret escape route... which the Hound knew all about.

He turned down a hallway, and started his march. During his march, two members of the security force attacked him from behind. They had their pistols ready and unloaded them on the Black Hound. He groaned in irritation as he covered the more vital parts of his helmet. Almost every shot had hit the Black Hound, a few even pierced the armor and dug into him. The armor was oozing blood... until the Black Hound's body pushed the bullets out, and the wounds closed.

He quickly whipped around at lightning speeds, and pulled the Smith & Wesson 500 out of his holster and fired a shot that blew a hole in the man's chest. He dropped dead as he closed the distance with the other, and withstood a few more point blank shots before grabbing him by the neck. Almost like it was nothing, the Hound squeezed, and crushed the man's neck, killing him.

The Black Hound continued his march, killing everyone in his path, until he made his way to the other side of the building. Where they were hurriedly evacuating the politicians... at this point, the Black Hound knew that every British soldier was on their way here, so he'd have to be quick. The Black Hound arrived at his destination... a garage in which they were quickly getting politicians into every vehicle.

"There he is!" One of them shouted, as they immediately spotted him.

With eyes like an eagle, the Black Hound immediately saw Lionel desperately getting into his vehicle. He readied his assault rifle to rain bullets upon him - but a purple barrier erected itself between Lionel, and the Hound. He looked around, and saw a woman wearing the MISW armor... of course, his inside contact said they always have a few members on hand at all times. The Black Hound wasn't going to waste time shooting the shield. He walked up to it, and gave it a mighty punch - but, couldn't break it. Despite the impact being enough to crush walls, it wasn't enough. He punched the shield again, to no effect.

"Go! Get out of here!" The MISW agent said. "He's clearly after one of you!"

There was another Agent at her side, with his sidearm in hand. He looked back at the politician, then at the Black Hound punching the shield... and then grinned.

"Alright!" He said... before he aimed the gun at his fellow MISW Agent. He shot her right in the back of the head, and the shield dropped.

The Black Hound quickly aimed his weapon at the vehicle, and began utterly unloading on it. Every shot went inside - and then he reloaded and fired again. Once he was sure everyone was dead, he walked over to the side of the vehicle, and ripped the door off. He grabbed Lionel's bulletridden body, and then threw it on the ground. He was one-hundred percent dead. This should be enough to appease the Blessed Three.

He turned towards the traitor, and said,

"... The Founding Family appreciates your assistance."

He grinned, "I'll do whatever for a paycheck, now how are we getting out of here?"

"I have everything arranged..."

The Black Hound pressed his earpiece.

"... Zenith."

Suddenly, a portal opened in front of him, and the Black Hound stepped in.

Then portals opened all over the Palace for the attackers, and in an instant, one of the worst terrorist attacks the UK has ever seen came to a stop.

---

???

Inside a deep building, there was nothing but metal paving the walls and floors.

Almost like it was the inside of a boat. However, there were pods that seemed to be high-tech mounted on the walls of this massive room. Pods which had a glowing light that made an otherwise pitch black room illuminated. The Black Hound, his heavy footsteps sent out echoes through the room, matched his way inside until he reached the center of the room. Which was a large computer desk that had wires connected to every pod in this room, and had a couple different computers. In the middle of the computer desks was a woman shrouded in darkness. The Foundation Woman.

"The ZODIAC project is..." The Foundation Woman said, looking up at the Black Hound. "... Ninety-five percent. Only the Zenith model is active, and we shouldn't even be using her."

"It's almost ready," The Black Hound said as he looked at the hundreds of pods in this gigantic room. "... You know what has to happen before it is, correct?"

"Yes..." The Foundation Woman said as she looked up at the pods.

"... Our plans must succeed."

---

The Present... October 17th, 12:42 PM.

---

It's been four months since the Overload Crisis, and Eco-Natura's attack on Baybridge. The city has mostly managed to recover from the extensive damage done to it. Afterwards, the city was relieved to experience a few months of relative peace. It's pushing into October, and a fair is coming up. A rather large fair that's hosted every year, later on at night. A harvest festival, one that has a variety of different people from all over, dressing up in costumes. Hosted in Rosemaple Lake.

Though, the Black Hound's actions are making waves in every political circle.

---

Cindy Keagan, & Meifeng Zhao.

---

---

Springshore Walk, White Coast.

With everything going on, Cindy went on a walk.

A Springshore Walk.

Terrible puns aside, Cindy was in this part of White Coast because she had to make a secret phone call to Meifeng. Normally, she doesn't have anything to get from here, other than some fish, but most people - that she fears are looking for here - wouldn't think to look here. There was a restaurant that was a shack, and she took a turn into the alleyway and walked around the building to the shore. It was a quick walk until she made her way to the beach, and then she sat down on a rock. She pulled her phone out, and dialed Meifeng, after looking around.

When Meifeng answered, she was less than lady-like as Cindy heard a loud snort.

"Cindy..." Meifeng greeted. "How's it shaking? And I'm not talking about your ass this time. Ha!"

Cindy rolled her eyes up into her head, and listened in... she could hear Meifeng eating.

"Girl, stop playing around and tell me where you are?"

"In this nice little donated car, eating some Indian food," Meifeng said, very pleased with herself. "I said it before, but I love Singaporean food." Cindy could only roll her eyes as she heard Meifeng take a few more bites. "Hey, aren't you half Indian or something?"

"Isn't it like twelve at night over there?" Cindy asked, astonished. "Girl, you need to control your eating."

"Well, I've spent the entire day until now stalking one of the managers at that damn shipping company," Meifeng said, annoyed. "I deserve a little food break."

"Actually, that's what I wanted to ask you, what's your progress?"

"Well, between helping these guys train - which is ama-zing that they want yours truly to train these lovely people in the ways of beating up Metahumans - and scoping out the shipping building... not too much."

Meifeng said, disappointed.

"It's funny, Singapore doesn't really have a big ol' task force."

"Probably because they don't have a lot of people to begin with." Cindy was quick to say, citing her experience with DOVE. It helps to compare with other countries.

"And what few Metahumans they have are well-behaved - they have it easy!" Meifeng said, nearly spilling her food. "But, I heard they're gonna ship me back reeeeeeal soon, so I'm gonna have to put my plan - months in planning - into action."

"What plan?" Cindy asked.

"I jacked some shipping records the other night, and a boat's about to head out tomorrow night... sooo I'm gonna take a peek at the shipment...."

"How - know what? I don't want to know." Cindy rolled her eyes up into her head.

"So, how are the others doing?" Meifeng said.

"We've been getting by... Quentin and Reed were looking up a few leads, while I'm here in Baybridge, trying to hold everything together."

"That's lovely..." Meifeng said, before she took on a more serious tone. "... Did you hear about what happened in Britain? The Black Hound just marches into a government building, and shoots up the bitch..." She said, irritated.

"He was going after a specific MP," Cindy said. "Who just so happened to oppose the other politicians who we know are working with the Founding Family."

"Worst of all, a MISW-girl was covering for them, and know what happened?" Meifeng said, her anger rising. "One of her own co-workers just comes out of no where and shoots her in the back." That just made Meifeng's blood boil... betrayal for a dollar.

"That just illustrates my point," Cindy started off. "Even if we dig up evidence that would get these companies shut down for good... we can't do anything until we get at the people on top of this."

"I just wish we could tell them about the Black Hound..." Meifeng regrettably said. "... But, this will be better for everyone in the long run, right?"

"Right." Cindy answer.

"But, I'm curious...." Meifeng said, thinking about it. "So the Black Hound is their big badass killing machine? He was under everyone's radars until the whole Baybridge thing, and now he's shooting up government buildings, blowing up schools, killing people."

"Yeah..." Cindy cited the Wright Institute was bombed not too long after the Eco-Natura incident, and there were no survivors. The Black Hound took responsibility for it. Obviously, he was going after the Institute because they were studying the Overload serum - which someone had to tip them off to - but that was just the start of a long line of destruction.

"It seems to me like... like...." Meifeng leaned back in her chair, and put her hand on the side of her head. "... Like, they're creating this big "boogy man.""

That caught Cindy's attention.

"Someone that everyone will fear, and focus on his seemingly random acts of terrorism, instead of looking towards the root of the problem. The Founding Family."

"... Yeah, I get you, girl."

"Anyways, I'm going to head to bed before anyone gets suspicion... You keep an eye on Double Li for me?"

"... "Double Li?""

"Lihua and Lijuan, I'm giving them a cutesy little nickname when I get back... but, yeah, you know Lihua, and her... issues. Which get overwhelming sometimes." Meifeng awkwardly said. "While she doesn't want to admit it, Lihua could definitely use some help sometimes, and I'm on the other side of the planet right now, heh."

That made Cindy smile.

"Yeah, girl, I will."

They both hung up.

---

Wendy Emily Lucker.

---

---

Academy 61, Roseview.

The Wendy was spending her day just as she normally would.

Lying on her bed, and reading a book.

She was reading a college textbook that she managed to find (I.E Steal from the panicking student) during the last throws of the Eco-Natura incident. After restoring it back to full "health" with her paper powers (Repairing the damage, and removing all the pesky highlights), she decided to read it before she returned it. An interesting book on psychology that explored all angles of the human mind, telling Wendy about all sorts of famous physiologists.

Her phone started buzzing, and the girl grabbed it, and flipped it open after punching in her password.

Little sis, go to the front gates of your Academy. This is NOT a drill.

It was from Diana, her lovely older sister.

They haven't seen each other face to face in years, but they certainly talk a lot over skype, and other video feeds. Though, she was wondering what the purpose of the text message was... though, she herself had a fleeting suspicion of what it could mean. However, she was in no condition to go outside... wearing nothing but her underwear and a T-shirt over it.

She was hoping that this would be brief. As Wendy quickly ran over to her closet, and then grabbed a brown trench coat and threw it over herself, stepping into some flip flops. Securing it tight to make sure that she doesn't suffer any malfunctions. She opened the doors, and ran out of her dorm rooms. Wendy was going to be quick. It wasn't long before she made it through the front doors - and was immediately hit with the Fall breeze. Fortunately, she was wearing this coat, and the day wasn't all that cold.

The text message said to head over towards the gate... fortunately, the wind was going in that direction. Which gave her an idea. She let go of her weight, and became one with paper, turning into a cloud of paper as she was sent flying over towards the gate. Right before she could repeat the same incident she did four months ago, she turned back into her human form and came to a stop.

The first thing she saw was a massive, rustic, RV that was parked in the road, and in front of it... Well, it made Wendy smile.

"Diana!" Wendy shouted as she caught sight of her older sister standing right in front of the RV, and she ran right towards her.

They both embraced each other with a hug.

"Little sis, how ya been?" Diana asked as she let go of Wendy, and gave her a look. Her sister looked... different. Diana was always much shorter than Wendy herself, at least five feet tall exactly. She always looked so much different from Wendy... to the point where people wonder if they are related. Diana, in Wendy's honest opinion, was always the "hot sister," while she was pretty much ugly better for the majority of her life. She had a hair of blonde hair, but she had the same brown eyes as Wendy (Except, less Asianic). She was wearing a blue sweater, and a matching navy blue skirt, along with boots. Her usual schoolgirl style. With some earrings added onto it.

"Great, great... I just..." Wendy said, with a smile on her face. "... Just haven't seen you in years - face to face, I mean."

"... Awwww, two sisters reuniting," A female member of Diana's group said as she walked up, Wendy looked at her and she was quite pronounced. She was average heighted, but she had red hair, and green eyes... and a rather well built body. Like she was a body-builder - No, like she was taking roids. She had a distinct cowboy outfit, boots, a white button up shirt, jeans, and a brown cowboy hat. "Just warms your heart, doesn't it?"

Before Wendy could introduce herself, Diana did the honors for her. "Oh, Wendy, I forgot to tell you," Diana said as she walked up to Jessica. "These are the girls... this redhaired menace right now is Jessica."

"Howdy." Jessica said with a hearty smile.

"We all graduated from the Academy this year, and went on a big road trip to celebrate," Diana said. "This was our first stop." She grinned as she leaned up against the RV.

"W-wait," Wendy said, honestly surprised. "W-why didn't you tell me you graduated?"

"Because... We've been planning this for months, and wanted to surprise you...." Diana put her hands in her pockets, and smiled. "... Besides, that academy was inhabited by cocksuckers... it wasn't anything important."

"B-but, but..." Wendy mouthed, but was quickly cut off by Diana.

"Look, lil' sis, I know how you feel, but I'm going to make it up to ya' we're going to be in Baybridge for awhile...." Diana said, and that was enough to get Wendy to be quiet. "Now, let me introduce you to the girls I've shared an uncomfortable-ass RV with."

All three of Diana's friends stepped up.

"You already met Jess."

The first to step up was a girl that reminded Wendy of those MMA fighters (She was never all that well versed in Mixed Martial Arts - or sports for that matter) in terms of build. She was average heighted, but she had the build of a MMA fighter. Thin, lithe, and muscular - with some massive and impressively thighs. The girl wore a green tank top, with a red scarf with thin green stripes, and jeans. Opposed to the boots the rest of the girls were wearing. She gave Wendy a smile.

"Thunder thighs here is Olivia," Diana said. "We're still trying to get her to try to crush a watermelon between them."

"Oh shut up," Olivia playfully said, flagging Diana off. "Just call me Liv."

The next girl that caught Wendy's attention was a freakishly tall girl, who yawned. Just by being in her presence, all Wendy could feel was... cold. Though, the girl was gigantic - at least six something feet tall - and her height was only accentuated by her pudgy body. She was obviously Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander, with her skin tone and facial features matching the Polynesian people. She had straight black hair styled in a straight bobcut. What caught Wendy's eye the most was her outfit... she looked like she was going to climb mount Everest.

"That's Kiri... Everyone calls her Kai, though," Diana said.

"Hi." Kai waved at the girl.

"Don't worry, the bear here doesn't bite." Diana said, pointing back at Kai.

A grin had formed in Diana's face.

"Now for the biggest surprise of all," Diana said, as her hand turned into paper, and a slip of paper came out of her hand. It turned into a paper airplane as it flew through the air, and went into the open window of the RV. Afterwards, someone came out, that Wendy immediately recognized.

"Brianna?" Wendy said.

Brianna is Wendy's tall cousin (tall as her), and had brown hair neatly tied in a bun. The girl was Caucasian as it gets, but she always had a gloomy look on her face (To be fair, she was always gloomy).

"Brianna!" Wendy said as she hugged her cousin. "It's so nice to see you!"

"So..." Diana said, putting her hands out. "... What do you want to do first?"

Wendy reached down to her satchel, and pulled out her trusty camera.

"Group selfie?"

"Yeah, sure!"

Everyone bunched together as Wendy pulled out her precious camera. She got on her tip toes as everyone posed to get everyone into the picture. Before Jessica said something that dawned on her.

"... Hey, wouldn't it be easier if Kiri took it?"

"... Oh."

---

Lihua Zhao.

---

---

Greencrest Heights, White Coast.

"Come on, baby!"

Lihua gave her younger daughter some encouragement as she jogged a little bit ahead of the child. Lijuan was slowing down, coming down to a skidding stop, and kneeling over and panting. Lihua came to a stop herself, and looked over her shoulder at Lijuan.

"C-can... can... can..." Lijuan desperately tried to say in between pants. "... Can I... have a break?"

Lihua smiled.

"Yes."

It took a few months before the various messes were finally cleaned up, and Lihua could finally take a break as the various villain groups were finally dispatched. Which meant it was a time of peace. Even if it's brief, Lihua planned on making the best of it. Since she managed to get Lijuan to calm down, she decided to enjoy this nice Saturday morning with her. Getting that child outside, and away from electronics (Because she was honestly starting to get fat). Which is why she's here, jogging in Greencrest Heights. Though, there was another reason.

Since Lihn had urgent troubles in Vietnam, she has politely requested that Lihua watches the house. Visit every now and then, collect the mail, and make sure that nobody breaks in! This is one of the scheduled days (IE. Days that Lihua remembers to come here). Fortunately, Lijuan ran out of energy right before the Phan household, and Lihua walked the child over to the front steps of the house, and put the key Lihn gave her inside. She opened the door, and Lijuan didn't waste any time in running through the doors.

Lihua walked over to Lijuan, and handed her a bottle of water as she closed the door behind herself. "Alright, you sit tight," Lihua casually said. "I'm going to have a look around to make sure nobody is here - call me if you need anything."

Which was both a lie and the truth. She reached her purse, and pulled some latex gloves out as she walked upstairs. She was going to look around, but she was more than convinced that nobody was here (Just in case, she still had her pistol in her purse). Second she reached the very top of the stairs, she already had the latex gloves on.

What Lihua wanted was to dig deep into Lihn's dirty little secrets - she told herself that it was only out of fear that the woman might be compromised... When she really wanted to dig into her business, and didn't want to pass this opportunity up. She would have to be quick - just in case Lijuan comes in, and that child can't help but blathe. Lihua walked over to Lihn's room - the first place that Lihua was going to look, in fact. Even though she knew that anyone with two brain cells would hide their valuable secrets elsewhere... anyone with a family would have a hard time hiding it anywhere with two other inhabitants.

The first thing that Lihua would compliment Lihn on was cleanliness. This room is pristine! Now, the first place Lihua went was the dresser, and started digging through the woman's clothes in order to find anything. All she could recover were a few pill bottles that were ultimately irrelevant, and... let's just say something for Lihn to have fun with. She just put it back, and pretended she never saw it. She put the clothes back to the best of her ability, and slid the dresser back on (It's been four months, Lihn won't remember a thing). She quickly opened up small boxes of jewelry, and whatever, and couldn't find anything. She couldn't even find anything in the lipstick containers, and Lihn didn't have hide any alcohol in bottles (Amazing, because that's how Lihua sneaks alcohol around).

Moving on to Lihn's closet, the woman snoozed around in there. She wasn't expecting to find anything important in here, but it was worth the look. All Lihua found in here were clothes, more clothes... "Oh?" Lihua curiously said as she came across a cardboard box. It was just full of objects that couldn't be clothes. She opened the box with intent... and... her eyes just shot open wide at the content.

"God, woman," Lihua said to herself. "I get lonely too sometimes, but this... this is overdoing it."

The box was full of nothing but sex toys.

Disgusted, Lihua just put the box back where she found it, and walked right on out after making sure everything was put back. Well, she wanted to find out about her therapist. She did that and more. Lihua walked downstairs.

"Mommy what was that noise?" Lijuan asked.

"I was..." Lihua was trying to come up with a good thing to tell Lijuan. "... Searching really hard. I have to check extra hard for intruders."

Lijuan nodded her head.

"Now, let's get some ice cream."

---

Veronica Emily Davis.

---

---

Lower South Royer Town, Prince Edfield.

Veronica turned the hot water on, and began placing oils, and relaxing products into the water.

While the water levels were rising, she made sure to light the candles around the bath, until it was perfectly relaxing. Once everything was mixed in, Veronica dropped the bath robe that covered her curvaceous figure and put her toe inside the water to check and see if was okay. The water seemed warm enough, so Veronica got down inside, and enjoyed herself. The bubbles were already up to her face, and she closed her eyes. The one thing that she loved was a nice long, relaxing bath...

... But, she couldn't help but feel a little guilty.

While she was in here, enjoying a bath, Sophia and Quinn were suffering in that hell lab. She always told herself she was doing everything she could to save them, but it obviously wasn't enough. Just thinking about her two little sisters ruined her mood. She simply lowered herself down under the water as she thought about all the terrible things she was going to do to the Blessed Three once their era of pride is over... Then... then Veronica can enjoy the baths she used to.

However, she heard something outside the room. That immediately made Veronica perk up as she tried to get out of her bath. Though, she jumped up a little bit too fast, and slipped in the tub. She was surrounded with a green aura as she was quick to readjust herself. She stuck her hand out, and her robe floated over towards her and she was quick to put it on. An intruder? In here? They must be suicidal. Only problem was that she didn't have any weapons on her.

Taking small steps out the room, Veronica looked around. There was no one in sight. She took a few steps forward, into her rather lavish living room. She looked to her left, then to her right... Oh.

There was a woman leaning up against the wall, wearing a jacket, and some jeans - there was a rather long chain hanging from her waist. She was Asian, and pretty tall, almost at Veronica's height. Rather than hostility at the intrusion, all Veronica could do was roll her eyes.

"... Makoto," Veronica said, incredibly annoyed. "You really need to stop dropping in here."

"Sorry, but, you didn't answer your phone," Makoto said, walking around Veronica, holding her phone in her hand.

"That's- actually, why are you here?" Veronica said, getting more and more irritated by the second.

"The Black Hound wants us in Old Raygate," Makoto said. "We have to be there."

The woman wasn't in the mood to argue, since whenever the Black Hound wanted something, it was pretty important. And because she's going to betray them at the first opportunity, she needed to play the loyal soldier role long as possible. She rolled her eyes as she turned around towards her bedroom.

"Now, get lost, I need to get dressed," Veronica hissed at Makoto.

"Hey, now, I think that bathrobe is appropriate attire," She teased.

That only made Veronica roll her eyes as she pointed towards the bedroom.

---

Old Raygate, Prince Edfield.

The two walked into an abandoned warehouse in Old Raygate that was utterly ravaged by the Eco-Natura attack. It was actually abandoned on that day, and they didn't feel like it was worth repairing when a great deal of Prince Edfield was destroyed. Which made it perfect for such meetings. Veronica telekinetically pushed aside some branches, and came into the large room... in which the Black Hound, the perfect terrorist, was sitting on a crate with his helmet off. The moment he noticed them, he put his helmet on. Standing straight up, the visor on his helmet started glowing bright red.

"... I have an assignment for you."

Veronica put her hand on her hip, and gave the Black Hound a narrow look.

"What the Foundation Woman busy?" She asked.

"She requested that I give this mission briefing to you as I am busy..." The Black Hound said as he paused for a moment, handing them a file that they quickly opened. "We need to find her, and you two are the best suited for the task."

"... Project Lazarus?" Veronica asked. "Your little lab experiment? I thought the Founding Family of all people would have an alternate way of keeping tabs on her."

"That is not your concern," The Black Hound sternly said. "Just do it."

He said, before he turned around and began walking off, saying,

"Zenith."

A blue spinning portal opened up in front of him, and he walked inside, before it disappeared into nothing.

Veronica rolled her eyes up into her head. She was wondering why the Black Hound was lumping with her Makoto... that annoying woman would only get into Veronica's way.

"I got this one, do whatever you want," Veronica said as she started walking away from Makoto.

"Hey, we're a team!" Makoto said, "Besides, the Black Hound wants me with you for a reason."

That made Veronica grit her teeth.

"Fine, but don't hold me back."

They were quick to head out the doors, Veronica took one moment to look at the photo, before she memorized it.

---

Nick O'Connor

---

---

Springtown, Hedgemount.

As his morning run drew to a close, Nick's pace slowed until he eventually came to a stop in front of the door to his apartment building, doubled over panting and bringing a sweat-soaked hand up to his equally sweat-soaked brow. He'd had a feeling that two miles every day had been pushing his personal envelope somewhat, but it was something to work towards.

Still breathing hard, he slipped through the door and made his way quickly to the staircase, privately thankful that none of his 'neighbors' were present to attempt to engage him in conversation. He had thought that a crappy apartment complex in the worst part of town would be the perfect place to be completely ignored, but instead of a bunch of maniacs and criminals it seemed he was surrounded mainly by poor elderly women who got all their entertainment from snooping into the business of others. Nick supposed he was just lucky none of them had made it inside his apartment yet.

First floor up, second room on the left. Nick dug his keys out of his pocket, opened the door the slightest crack necessary to slip in, and immediately turned to lock and bolt the door back up.

The floor was crawling. A teeming carpet of insects writhed all over the room, packed so thick it was hard to tell where one began and another ended. In the corner was an enormous mound of fleshy, grey hive-material that dozens of worker bugs were crawling over, building and reinforcing. A huge flyer buzzed past Nick's face as he stepped inside, moving from one of the grey, bulbous roosts that dangled from the ceiling to another. The sound of clicking and chittering filled the room as all the insects carried on their business.

Home sweet home. Just how he'd left it.

"Make a path, guys," he panted out to the swarm. Immediately, the bugs carpeting the floor crawled over each other and shoved to the side to clear a two-foot road between the door and Nick's dresser. The sight of the insects obeying his command long since having grown dull to him, Nick plodded over to the dresser, already peeling off his sweat-stained workout clothes. He was midway through changing into more work-appropriate attire when he slapped himself in the forehead.

"We have a new queen, don't we?" Nick had trouble telling most of the fist-sized insect eggs apart, but it was quite easy to tell when one was going to hatch into a new queen, considering the fact that such eggs usually grew to the size of cantaloupes and had reddish streaks on them. One such egg had been gestating for most of the previous day; he couldn't believe he'd forgotten about her already. "Could the new queen step out here, please?"

A moment later, an enormous, bloated grey sack wriggled free of one of the holes in the hive and dragged itself towards Nick, its beady head staring up at him. "Hey, girl," he cooed at the creature, crouching down to pat it on the egg-sack. "Welcome to the family. Your name is going to be Sally," he said, leaning over to the coffee table and picking up the red Sharpee he saved for this purpose. "From now on, when I say Sally, I mean you. Understand?"

Taking a knee, he quickly wrote Sally on the new queen's eggsack, as was his custom; it made it much easier to give orders to individual broods when he could tell the queens apart. The discovery that individual queens could pass on standing orders to the insects they birthed through a 'hive-mind' had really taken a lot of management stress off him; before he'd known that, he'd just shouted the ground rules every half hour just to make sure every new insect was hearing them.

"Alright, Sally, I'm just going to lay down some ground rules. Pass these on to your kids, okay? One, no hurting people unless I say you can hurt them, or they're trying to hurt me. That goes for pets, too, cats and dogs and stuff like that. Two," Nick paused, swallowing sharply, "People aren't food. No stealing food from people, either. Garbage is fine. Three, don't let anyone see you unless I say it's time to go loud. Four, the bed, the couch, the fridge, the TV, the table and the microwave are off-limits. You can go anywhere else in the apartment, do whatever you want." He straightened his back and gestured back to the hive. "Got all that, you can get back to what you were doing."

The queen wriggled its way back into the hive, and Nick got back to dressing for another day of work (which was to say, putting on jeans and a hoodie; his taxi company didn't have what you'd call a strict dress code). "I'm headed out, everyone," he announced as he snatched his keys up from the coffee table and pulled his hood over his head. "Be good."

Nick was a practiced expert and making quick, quiet escapes from his building, and before long he was plodding down the sidewalk to the parking lot of his taxi company, about two blocks from his apartment. Time for another great day of driving strangers around.

---

April Cooper

---

---

Courtbridge, Prince Ed-Field

April's legs dangled over the busy street as she peered down from her vantage point atop the massive office building. She was not, strictly speaking, supposed to be up here, but one could be surprised at how easy it was to get places if you walked with confidence and flashed any badge at all.

The RAVEN operative gathered a glob of spit in her mouth and spat it down the road below her, peering down to track its progress. It fell slightly short of her previous record, an observation that brought a slight frown to her face. Rolling out the cracks in her neck, she reached into the pouch at her waist to produce a cell-phone. Under normal circumstances, she would have derided the garment as being far too close to a fanny pack, but the tights she was wearing didn't have pockets, and anything that did would be far too baggy for the day's activities, so she had to make do.

A particularly loud truck sped below her, narrowly avoiding T-boning an SUV. "Asshole," April murmured as she listened to the dial-tone of the phone she held at her ear. A moment later, it was replaced by a familiar voice.

"Hello? Sheriff Cooper speaking." April smirked at that. Even in the modern day, the old lawman refused to buy a mobile phone, forcing her to always call at his office.

"Heya, Uncle Bill. It's April. Just checking in."

"April! How the hell are ya, Darlin'? Life in the city all you'd hoped for?"

The girl chuckled and kicked her feet. "It smells like ass and there ain't no stars, but other than that it's pretty good, same as last time I called. How's the office?"

The old man on the other side of the phone sighed. "It's been a rough couple days. That business in London's got folks all riled up, worried the same thing's gonna happen in there houses; even have a few of them 'Savior' boys tryin' to start shit with the metas, sayin' it's their fault. Damn mess. Reckon it's not any better over in your town."

April sighed. The Black Hound's attack on London had been public and brutal, and it wasn't an overstatement to say that it had scared the shit out of a lot of people. "Folks are scared."

"Say, Darlin', it's the middle of the day. Shouldn't you be out fightin' the good fight?"

"It's my day off, Uncle Bill. Not that it's much different from my days on, really."

"Hey, you savor your free time, girl, you gonna wake up one day and figure you didn't have enough of it. Alright Darlin', I gotta go, but thanks for callin' every now and then."

April chuckled. "Of course, old man. Talk to you later." She hung up the phone and tucked it back into her almost-fannypack. The young women climbed up to her feet, wiping some of the asphalt dust off her legs and rolling out her shoulders. She turned and took off towards the other end of the building in a run, making it halfway across the roof before she activated her powers.

Immediately she began sliding across the roof, just as fast as she had been going before. The air slid past her body without producing any drag, allowing her to skate while barely losing any momentum. Soon after, she went off the side of the rooftop, falling ten feet to the neighboring rooftop below, grunting and bending her knees as she landed but not losing any of her speed. She began to make the motion of running once again with her frictionless body, allowing herself to fall into a rhythm before she deactivated her powers and the laws of physics quickly reasserted themselves on her body, turning her confident stride into a more panicked stumbling as she checked her own speed and awkwardly turned to face her right, where there was another rooftop she could skate to.

With a whoop, she reactivated her powers and off she went.

---

Malik Jakane.

---

---

Waterbridge Airport, Roseview.

The plane arrived, Malik stepped off, and got a good look of the Washington environment.

He stepped out of the airport, carting some luggage behind him. This isn't Malik's first time in America, nor will it be his last. However, until he finds out where his friend is, he can't leave. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out his phone. Even though he's on a mission, he can't let his loyal Instagram following down! He aimed the phone at himself, and pressed the camera button, and immediately snapped a picture of himself outside the airport.

He captioned his message with:

You know what I watched on the plane ride here? Here's a hint: It stars Eddie Murphy!

Malik laughed as he hit send. He should be taking this seriously - his best friend's life is at stake here. He needed to find her soon as possible, so he can continue his search. Actually... He heard that Baybridge has a sizable Metahuman population. There has to be someone here who can heal his dad before his condition worsens. Hopefully.

Though, he has another close and personal friend who should be arriving soon....

... And with perfect timing a beat up van came to a skidding stop right in front of Malik. The man had to jump back, he was so startled by it. The window rolled down, and revealed a darkskinned woman.

"... Wah gwan, Malik!" The woman said in a very thick Jamaican accent (Technically, she was speaking Jamaican). The woman was very short, and thin as a rail. She didn't have any muscle tone or curves so to speak. Though, she had a pretty pronounced, and avian face. Her hair was black, and tied up into tiny braids - said hair is a afro-texture. Because she is Jamaican. She was wearing an orange dress, and sneakers.

"Tanya, you scared me half to death with that," Malik said, looking at his friend. "Wait, I thought you said you were send somebody?"

"I did," Tanya said with a giggle. "They said they couldn't make it."

Malik groaned, because he had found memories of his friend's driving.

---

Courtbridge, Prince Ed-Field.

Malik was awkwardly in the back of the vehicle, holding on for dear life.

Tanya took a sharp (and very sudden) right that sent Malik falling off his seat (Even while holding onto the seatbelt of the other chair).

"Oh? Sorry 'bout that, honey!" Tanya said as she took a gander at Malik before looking at the road. "Took that turn a little too hard?!"

"Are the American standards that low?!" Malik asked, face still on the carpet of the vehicle

"No, I just use my celebrity status to get me out of all the tickets," Tanya said in a thick Jamaican accent as she looked back, giving Malik a wide smile.

While getting up, Malik looked up and shouted.

"... LOOKOUT!"

While she was grinning at Malik, they were about to crash into a car. They both let out a yell, as Tanya slammed on the breaks, and the car came to a skidding stop. And Malik went face first into the dashboard. Letting out yet another groan as pain overtook him.

Tanya looked at him, and said.

"... Sorry."

---

After that last traffic incident, Malik and Tanya arrived at her apartment complex.

"Huh?" Tanya asked as she watched Malik pull his (battered) luggage bag out the back of her van. "I thought a high-rolla like yourself would get a big fancy five-star hotel room? Hell, I'd love to do a sleep over with you."

"Yeah, Tanya, but..." Malik said as he scratched the back of his neck. "This whole trip is kinda impromptu, y'know?"

"Not really."

"I was in such a rush to come to America that I forgot to book a room." Malik said, embarrassed.

"Oh? Oh. Ha." Tanya said. "Well, you're welcome to stay here long as you'd like...."

Tanya walked around the vehicle to Malik and grabbed the luggage bag.

"... You're really determined to save this girl?" Tanya asked, as a friendly smile formed on her face. "Then, how about I put this bag away for you? You hero you." She giggled. "Go stretch your legs - go practice that parkour you brag about."

"Yeah... thanks..." It was really ungentlemanly to make Tanya carry his bags in, but she was right. Maybe she should get a feel for Baybridge. From what the booklets say, he's in Courtbridge. The fun part of Baybridge. He walked into an alleyway, and hopped up to the fire escape by running up the wall, and then climbed his way to the top.

The weather's lovely today.

It would be ruined by a storm.

---

Jennifer Marissa Caspin.

---

Greencrest Heights, White Coast.

Coming soon...

---

---

Haruka Takashiro.

@FernStone

---

---

ENTRY #160710 | CLOUDY

Four months... it had been four months since the Eco-Natura incident at Prince Ed-Field. Baybridge certainly had recovered much from the aftermath of the Overload incidents - even now I still felt guilty about what happened at Oakdell Harbor - but the public's hatred towards us, the Metahumans, had shown no signs of waning. Fights and riots broke out around the city from time to time; even supposedly peaceful protest marches weren't spared from the violence. Not just America, but things were looking grim in the other parts of the world too: just last week in Taiwan, anti-Meta supporters protested outside of Taipei 101 - where the annual Asian Metahuman Conference was held this year - but the situation spiraled out of control, causing close to a hundred of deaths and casualties.

Shizu had been working overtime, trying to rally the Asia-Pacific countries together to join the West in sharing resources and intelligence to deal with the increasing Metahuman-related tension around the globe. It wasn't easy, since the Asian politicians had never liked the US to interfere with their regional problems (which usually seemed to make the matter worse than before America had intervened). Even so, I believed regardless of which country they might be from, beneath all the front about personal gain and advantages, everyone shared the same hope for peace and harmony at their core.

Of course, Shizu was quick to shoot me down that human beings would never learn the lesson about the horrors of war, because it's something deeply etched into each and everyone of us - that this was a world where only the strongest would be able to survive, and to do that people would have to fight with one another, whether they liked it or not. I had wished that after working for RAVEN all these years would have mellowed out not just his difficult personality but also the way he viewed the world, but apparently that didn't seem to be the case - he was as pessimistic as ever.

Although Shizu had endless complains about his job (he even asked me for advice to keep girls away from him, which was pretty amusing to hear that coming from my normally snarky brother), I still felt proud of him and his achievements... if only he wasn't so lazy.

Other than his official business, there was another thing - the one that I was worried about the most.

Shizu told me that he had done his own investigation regarding our missing mother's case, but he had no leads whatsoever so far. Where could have Mum gone to? What's going on?

---

---

Little Seapond, Roseview_

Haruka Takashiro gave his backpack one last check, making sure that he had the score sheet inside before he zipped up the bag. He had sent Rori Aherne a message about a rehearsal:

Hi Rori, I have managed to book a studio room in the Academy where we can practise "Bolero" together. I wonder if you are free tomorrow?

Within a few seconds after he just sent the text, his mobile vibrated; his face broke out a smile at the response he had received from her.

After his twin had left on his business trip around Asia, Haruka bumped into Rori by chance again, and that time he remembered to ask for her contact details. The two of them had been keeping in touch since then, deepening their friendship through writing and music since drawing was out of his league. Also, Akemi didn't want him to always coop up with his studies and her flora shop, encouraging him to spend more time with friends, and do the things he wanted or liked to do. "You should try to enjoy the younger days of your adulthood more, especially with all the social unrest going on lately," was what she had said to him.

Strapping on the backpack behind him, he walked out of the door to the garage; soon he was off on his bicycle, riding in the direction of Academy 61.

---

---

...

---

---

Unknown_

The chamber was dimly lit by a kerosene lamp on a round, wooden desk in the middle of the room, and a makeshift bed big enough to only accommodate one person with a small stature was positioned at the end of the scarcely-furnished chamber against the wall. Standing at the table, a young boy was writing a particular Chinese phrase repeatedly on the rice papers - "Every wrong has its cause; every debt has its debtor." - with a calligraphy brush, and his strokes were firm. As he shifted his weight to his other leg, the chained metal cuffs around his ankles clinked sharply against the stone floor. The distant sound of approaching footsteps didn't distract him from his work until the door was thrown open, and the draft blew the papers off the table, scattering them around on the ground.

That finally made the boy to look up slowly - his eyes remained glassy at the sight of an old woman before him. The hunchback woman glanced around the chamber, raising an eyebrow at the black, bold characters on the fallen papers. "Your writing certainly is at the level of masterly finesse, though I cannot say the same... for your immature mind."

She snapped her fingers. Two tall, masculine figures stepped forward, each grabbing the boy's arm and hoisted him off the ground.

"On the account that you have been behaving yourself well enough, maybe this time a... lighter punishment will suffice."

A silent anger flashed across the boy's pale face; the chamber was later filled with the echoes of the boy's agonized scream as the woman watched, the corner of her lips curled up into a sneer.

"Now that your little rebellion against your fate is out of the way, let us get down to the real business..."

---

---

"I think we might as well go home, we're not going to be told anything."

Lihn frowned at her brother where he was lounging on the bed she had been sharing with Thanh for almost four months. "Im sure grandfather will come round. I want to know what happened, it is about my mother."

Truthfully neither of them had expected to be in Vietnam for so long. They'd turned up expecting to be told why they were there in the first place. Unfortunately their grandfather had taken one look at Thanh and Kei (neither of whom should exist in his eyes) and had refused to speak to Lihn. So they were still here, staying with their Aunt Phuong who had thankfully offered them a place in her house.

"I thought you didn't get along with your mother."

"I don't, but that's not the point, Kei. It was important enough for them to contact me." Lihn shrugged slightly as she went back to responding to emails on her laptop. She was still trying to work as much as possible, even with taking a leave. She'd had calls with a few of her clients.

"We'll only be able to stay at Aunt Phoung's for so long," Kei rolled over to pick up his DS where it sat on the bed.

"Well, I've always wanted to visit somewhere in Singapore, Japan and China. We can take a holiday somewhere else. Stop being so logical, Kei, it doesn't suit you."

Kei went to respond, but didn't get a chance as a knock on the door interrupted him, and their aunt peered her head in.

"Lunch is ready, if you two would like to come and join us."

"We'll be there in a minute," Lihn responded before speaking to Kei in english. "We better save the twins from Thanh."

"I don't know I think we might be saving her," Kei shrugged while forcing himself to get up. It took a bit of effort. Since arriving in Vietnam he had gained a bit of weight from eating far too much. Aunt Phuong liked to spoil them and Kei was more than happy to eat her food. He was finding time here interesting, at least. He hadn't gotten to cook Vietnamese food much before.

"Mommy!" Thanh ran over to Lihn as soon as the two left the bedroom and entered the main living room. The young girl had quickly switched to speaking entirely Vietnamese. Lihn hoped she at least remembered some English.

What is it, Thanh?" Lihn smiled softly as she bent down to pick up the little girl. Thanh bounced excitedly in her mom's arms.

"Granda is here for lunch!" she grinned, looking pleased with herself as if she had actually done something right.

Lihn raised an eyebrow, looking over at Kei - who was frowning. Well that was certainly... Odd. "Where is he?"

[i]"Front with auntie," Thanh pointed to the door that led to where they ate. Lihn sighed and handed Thanh over to Kei.

"Watch her, I'll go speak to grandfather." Without another word to her brother she stepped through, forcing a smile as she met the instant, hard stare from the ageing man that was the Phan family patriarch.

"Lihn," Viên lingered over what he said, dark and cold eyes on Lihn. "It's time that we spoke. Walk with me."

Lihn just nodded. Her grandfather was as abrupt as always. It didn't matter though. Finally, she was going to find out why she had been asked to come to Vietnam.

---

---

"You're still not coming back?" Rori pouted slightly as they tapped their pen against the table in the dining room. They held their mobile phone to one ear, pen in the other hand. "But it's my birthday soon!"

It had been an odd few months. Rori had, pretty much, been left home alone. They had taken the opportunity to spend as much time with friends as possible; visiting the academy regularly. They'd also, secretly, started looking into starting school again. They hadn't told Max about that yet.

And then there was Conor. They didn't want to think about Conor.

"Your birthday is in January."

"That's still soon. You might not be back by then."

"I know, Rori," Max responded, voice slightly muffled as she obviously held the phone a bit away from her face. "It's not a choice, y'know? Gotta stay in Europe till RAVEN wants me to go back. Who the hell knows when that'll be?" She paused, muttering something incoherent (to Rori) in another language (probably Spanish). "I am sorry - I want to be there for your birthday. We'll do something when you get back. Feel free to have friends round in the house, though!"

Rori sighed softly, doodling in their notebook now. "I'll have a few friends round, then." They dropped their pen and stood up, beginning to pace in the kitchen. "How is Spain?"

"Boring as fuck. And the office here is incredibly stuffy... Makes the paperwork worse. Nothing interesting is happening at the moment - though I guess I should be thankful of that. There's some nice clubs actually. Cass and I are heading to one tonight."

"Cass?" Rori smiled slightly.

"Co-worker - she's on the same program as me, and from the UK. She's nice enough."

"That's all you've got to say?"

"What are you suggesting here, Rori?" Rori could tell that Max was rolling her eyes, even if they couldn't see it. "I'm not in Spain to get with anyone, or get too close to my co-workers."

"That's not the Max I knowww. Have you matured or something, huh?" Rori laughed. It had been a while since Max had gotten a chance to call them - so the catch up was nice. Teasing Max was nice. "Your fellow RAVEN agents here will be shocked."

"I bet they will," Max muttered. "Maybe travelling around has made me more mature and serious or whatever. I don't care."

"I'm kidding, Max." Rori grinned.

"I know, and it's annoying. Anyway - how are things at your end?"

"Fine. I've been spending a lot of the time out with people."

"Good." There was a long pause.

"Hey, Max?" Rori bit their lip as they interrupted the silence. "Can 18 year olds still go to school?"

"Hmm? Well yeah - some people take an extra year to complete school, or turn 18 in their last year. Why?"

"Just wondering."

"Sure you are. Are you-" Max was cut off, and switched to speaking a few words of Spanish to someone else. "Sorry, cuz, but I've got to go. I'll call again as soon as I can."

"It's fine. See you - try not to die."

"I will. You also stay safe. Bye."

The line clicked as Max hung up. Rori sighed again and put their phone down.

---

It was a bit after calling Max, when Rori was in the middle of or acting a piece on their Violin, that their phone buzzed again. They were quick to pick it up. It was from Haruka.

(Text from Haruka)

Rori grinned and quickly responded. It didn't take them long to sort out all the details through texting back and forth.

Since Max had left Rori had spent a lot of their time out in Baybridge. They'd bumped into Haruka again by chance. This time they'd actually exchanged details and began to meet up more and more. Rori was more than happy to have another friend - and they got on very well with Haruka. It gave them someone to practice instruments with, too!

A lot has changed in the months since Max had left. Rori had let their hair grow out a bit so it now fell, in a shaggy mess, just above their shoulders. The top section they had dyed green so it filtered into the older blue bits. They didn't like their natural hair colour. It wasn't the only thing to grow. The wings they had gained through an unfortunate incident had been slowly growing. It hadn't been noticeable, at first, but Rori had realised after a while. They still couldn't fly with them but maybe one day they could. Their arm was also no longer broken.

Their phone buzzed again - and the name on the screen wasn't a welcome sight. It was the one thing that has been bothering them recently.

You didn't respond to my last text - are you free this week?? You can't always had music rehearsals!

Conor had been pestering Rori for months. They had spoken to Max about it and she had recommended not seeing him till Rori knew why he was in Baybridge. Rori did want to see him - they wanted to meet their family again. But not when Max wasn't around. They hadn't exactly left on good terms. So they didn't want to meet Conor alone.

Wait a minute. Maybe they didn't have to. Rori smiled slightly. They could bring someone else along - someone who wasn't Max. That was a great idea.

Might be. Will text later.

---

Jennifer Marissa Caspin.

---

Greencrest Heights, White Coast.

"Hey, lady, are you okay?"

The voice of a person whipped Jennifer back into reality.

Across from her was a middle-aged man with nice clothes on that clearly gave Jennifer the idea that he was stopping by the place to get some coffee before he went to work. As she phased back to reality, Jennifer looked around the small cafe that she managed to score a job at (the only place that would employ a person like herself). The place was awfully crowded for this time of day. And she was at the main counter, as a line started to form. She didn't know.... She just started thinking about things, and spaced out.

... Maybe I should think less.

"Y-yeah, sorry," Jennifer said as she looked the man in the eyes. She feigned the same smile that she always dons whenever she starts taking orders. "Can I take your order?"

"Large caffeine free coffee, please," The Man said, giving Jennifer an inquisitive stare.

"Yeah, I'll get right on it," Jennifer said as she quickly wrote down his order and headed on towards the back to the machines. She sighed as she grabbed a large cup, and put the coffee machine in action after pressing the button. She didn't know what was wrong with her all the sudden... it was just one of those days wasn't it? Where her horrible pasts ruins the present for her. She can't mess this up. She can't rely on Cindy and Meifeng's kindness forever....

"Hey, are you okay?" A man said to Jennifer... this time not a stranger. She turned her head to him, and his peculiar head of brown straight hair, and was rather tall with blue eyes. While he did technically look older than her, he was in fact the same age. He looked down at Jennifer as he leaned up against the coffee machine. "You seem a little out of it today."

His name was Rexx.

"I just... I been... thinking." Jennifer quickly answered. "It's nothing."

"C'mon, Jenny," Rexx said with a smile. "You can tell me."

She looked at him for a moment.

"... I rather not."

Jennifer looked at the machine, and it had finished filling up the cup.

"I have to get this out to them now," Jennifer said as she quickly walked off.

---

Jennifer Caspin, & Reed Taylor.

(In collaboration with @Mr Allen J)

---

Greencrest Heights, White Coast.

Even after handing the man his coffee... Jennifer still had trouble with the rest of her day. She was troubled - Haunted even - by the past. Some people could just move on from things like Verthaven like it was nothing... It made Jennifer jealous of their personal strength. Perhaps.... Perhaps if her past is bothering her so much, she should just take off for the day. Even though she's been working here for a few months now, she can afford one day off when her mental problems are especially bothering her.

A sigh escaped her lips as she walked back over to Rexx.

"H-hey, Rexx?" Jennifer said to catch his attention.

"Yeah, Jen?"

"Tell Kenny that I'm taking the rest of the day off... I seriously can't get my head around things." Jennifer said as she leaned up against the wall.

"Alright, alright, take care now." Rexx said, waving Jennifer off.

At that moment, Jennifer looked down at her cafe uniform... she didn't have time to run back to Prince Edfield and change. She quickly went into the back room, and grabbed her snow white hoodie and threw it on as she made it outside. The first thing she noticed was the fresh air... untainted by the coffee of the air.

Who could she talk to now? Cindy was busy, Meifeng's in another country... She's still a little afraid to face Haruka. She doesn't have too many close and personal friends. Maybe... yeah, she's willing to give him a shot. She dug into her pocket, and wrestled out her phone, and searched through her contacts.

Reed Taylor

She pressed call, and put it against her ear.

It rang for a few seconds, then a few more, then finally a voice picked up.

"This is Taylor, who is it?"

Jennifer was oddly silent for a few moments.

"... It's Jennifer." She said. "I've wanted to ask if you had some time to... you know, talk."

"Oh, Jen? Hang on a sec," Reed replied, before she heard some movement in the background. "Yeah, yeah I can talk. Like, on the phone or face to face?"

"In person... you know, face to face." Jennifer said.

"Sure, where are you, exactly?"

"I'm right outside my job...." Jennifer looked over her shoulder and then read the sigh. "You know... the Thanks a Latte Coffee Bar... Awful name, I know"

That prompted an amused snort, from Reed's end "Yeah, but that's how everyone knows the place. Actually, that's right around the corner from my place, fourth building on the left if you give me a couple of minutes."

"Alright... I'll be waiting outside...."

---

Reed opened the door for Jennifer, and she had stepped inside his apartment with her hands in the pockets of her hoodie. This was the first time she'd ever been in here... she just had to give it a look over.

The apartment was about normal by Greencrest's standards, not entirely box-sized but relatively compact. Hell of a difference from Quentin's old condo back in Verthaven. The kitchen and living spaces were in the same room, with a single counter and hardwood floor set in place to establish divide.

It was furnished well enough, nobody could deny that - pressed against the wall closest to the door was the TV, with a reasonably sized couch across from it and a small glass table inbetween. By the looks of the bedsheets on the couch, somebody had been making use of it well enough.

Decorating the walls were a couple of framed film posters, signed by their respective stars, along with statuettes of the Terminator and Predator standing on the shelves. It was an easy guess who these had once belonged to - photos of Reed's few family members were placed around as well, the old man among them.

The place where Jennifer gravitated was the couch. She sat down on it, and crossed her legs. Keeping her hands in her pockets. "Uh... Thank you for letting me in." She awkwardly said.

"Sure, this place only gets two other visitors anyway," Reed nodded, "Sorry about the mess."

"I don't mind." Jennifer said... and realizing that there was a mess in the first place. She shook her head at her lack of observation. Her mind was on her troubles, and getting them off the chest. "I just been having... troubles lately. I just keep thinking about the past... more than usual now."

Pulling up a chair from the kitchen counter, Reed took his seat and looked at her for a moment, before answering, "It happens. I know someone else who has that as well. What's on your mind?"

"I'm... having like these flashes back to Verthaven.... the moment where... you know...." Jennifer looked off to the side, referring to the moment where Luis showed her dead family to her. "I've always been having these thoughts... but, now, it feels so overwhelming."

Reed paused again, reminded of Quentin's own demons. "I did, sometimes. For a little while. Bring here helped me get past it. Put things in the past. Still hurts a little, but it doesn't consume me. I know it's hard, but you've gotta put things in the past or it'll eat you up. I know because I'm seeing it happen to someone else."

"I..." Jennifer trailed off. "... I know... but, it's so hard. What happened... it hurts too much."

"You can't change what happened, Jen. Wasn't your fault, no more than any of ours," Reed countered, "And the people who.. who took things from us are dead. Gone. It hurts, but you can move on."

"You're... right...." Jennifer agreed - even though she has recieved this kind of speech several different times. "I can't ever forget about the past, but the only thing I can do is keep moving forward.... lest I...." She stopped herself there.

"You don't have to forget," Reed tried to console her, "But like I said, you get too focused on it and it'll tear you apart. It's happened to Quent too, still is. He might not show it but... I know."

Nodding her head, Jennifer silently agreed with what Reed said. However, there was more she wanted to discuss. "Oh, and another thing," Jennifer said, she most certainly had more to discuss. "I've been gone for... too long. Far too long. I want to know about some of the things I missed. I mean... everyone progressed so much it's... frightening."

"Think how we felt when we saw you." Reed remarked. It'd been like staring at a ghost.

"I didn't-" Jennifer stopped herself, before keeping her mouth shut. What she wanted to say was: I didn't make any real changes.

"Sorry, didn't mean anything by it. It's... a lot to take in for the both of us." Reed apologised, not having meant anything by it. "You've barely aged."

"That's regeneration for you." Jennifer said, trying to change the subject.

"Where to start... after Verthaven, I was out of a job. No idea where I'd go, then Quent offered me a job. I was... had reservations about it at first, until he offered to mske me like him. A metahuman. To keep up with him." Reed chuckled a little bit at his own statement.

"He did that...?" Jennifer asked. "What... what power did he give you?"

That promoted a reluctant answer, "Same as yours."

"Oh?" Jennifer quickly put two and two together, and merely shrugged. "What happened from there?"

"I came to Baybridge with Quent and all the others, started training right around the time NEST was being set up for an early grave. It helped being, being a cop and all, but by the time I was out they stuck me in DOVE as an investigator. Cindy joined not too long afterwards."

She heard about the end of NEST - and the rise of both RAVEN and DOVE - and she wondered how that worked. "What's DOVE like...? I haven't had any experience with them... but a little bit with RAVEN...." She looked off to the side.

Reed flexed a couple of his fingers for a moment. "On paper," he began, "DOVE handles the legal and social aspects of the metahuman community. Keeps track of kids, helps the troubled ones, deals with people who might have issues. It's not as heavy handed as NEST used to deal with things. Half of my job is at a desk, the other half is case work and other things. We work with BPD- the police department on any ongoing cases and assist them when we need it."

"That's great... I feel bad I couldn't catch up myself, but everyone's been so busy," Jennifer said. She was trying her best to stay out of everyone's way, honestly. She didn't want to step on anyone's toes just as she did with the Takashiro twins. "What about the others... you know? Like, the people who survived Verthaven, how are they doing?" She was already told about Quentin and Reed, but she wanted to know about everyone else.

That was a long story, but he might as well have said it if nobody else had. "Quentin, as you know, was one of the founding agents of RAVEN. Meifeng went through training and joined up with him the moment she finished things up. I know those two are pretty close, Quent's said nothing but good about her, so take for what you will. Her Mom retired and teaches at the academy just outside town. Cindy joined up with DOVE, she's more a case worker but she gets her hands in it. Got her pilot's license, too."

He continued, after a brief pause. "The Twins, uh... Shizuka joined up with RAVEN. Haruka's spent some time at the academy, I think. Both have come a long way. Funny thing, Shizu actually saved Quent's ass back in Verthaven, so in a way I owe the kid."

Everyone reaching their hopes and dreams... while Jennifer is here, stagnating. She almost hung her head, but kept her mouth shut. "I'm so glad everyone's alright... I'm going to try my best to... get back into the loop... you know, stop being such a stranger."

"Look," Reed could pick up on her self-doubt, "You've been away. That happens. It'll take some time for you to get used to things, but don't beat yourself up over it."

The girl smiled.

"I won't. I'll do my best."

Jennifer felt much better after having this conversation.

"Oh, and I wanted to ask you," Jennifer started off. "Are you... are you going to that fair tonight? he Harvest Festival, I think it's called."

"Eh, probably-" Reed's voice was cut off by a faint mewling sound coming from behind Jen. Before she had a chance to look, a ginger tabby cat jumped onto the couch and made itself a bed in the pile of discarded bedsheets next to her.

Jennifer was surprised by the cat... Thankfully, she had no cat allergy (Or it was negated by her power). "Oh, you have a cat?" She asked. "What's... his name?"

"She's Cassie. Don't mind her, she thinks she owns the place." Reed smiled, leaning forward to get a view of her. "Good company, most of the time. Quent seems to like her."

Jennifer's hand drifted towards the cat slowly, as she stroked the cat's body from neck to the base of her tail. The cat purred in response to her gentle grasp. "She's... nice." Jennifer said.

"Unless she's hungry. Has a thing for chewing on fingers when she's hungry. Good alarm clock, though. Anyway, about the fair? Yeah, I was probably gonna head down."

"I'm going to go...." Jennifer said, she was unsure of whether or not she was going to go, but now that she's certain that somebody she knows is going, she's definite. "Anyways... I hope it's not too much to ask, but can you drop me off at the bus stop? I'm going to head back to Cindy's apartment to change."

"I'll give you a ride to her place, no point screwing around waiting on the bus." Reed offered. "Just let me grab my keys."

Jennifer nodded her head.

---

April Cooper

---

---

(@Mr Allen J)

Courtbridge, Prince Ed-Field

A sound somewhere between a cheer and a scream mingled with the roar of traffic below as April slid across the rooftop of a very nice Courtbridge nightclub, windmilling her arms frantically to keep her balance. As she neared the end of the roof she crouched, springing off the edge and clearing the several-foot gap to the next building. At the height of her momentum, she switched her powers off, sending her skidding to a halt as she crashed into the ground on the other side. The young woman managed to turn her excess momentum into a roll, and ended up lying flat on her back staring at the sky with a wild grin on her face.

"Fuck YES!" she shouted, raising her arms above her prone form. "The laws of physics can suck my ASS!" She sat up, brushed her hand off on her shoulder, and turned to see someone watching her. He was a young, dark-skinned man, and by his position on the edge of the rooftop, he'd just climbed up this building. "Howdy," she said, waving with one hand without rising, "Were you using this roof too?"

---

Malik Jakane.

_{(@TheWizardLizard)}

---

Courtbridge, Prince Ed-Field.

Right when he came to the edge of the rooftop, he came to a stop as he realized that the next jump was just a little too far. Even for him. He could shift into a storm, but that'd be a bit too noisy... and he heard that Metahumans aren't too tolerated here in America. It's different from the way it is in France, unfortunately. Maybe he should come down, and get unpacked. He didn't come here to fool around, he came here to get work done. Though, he heard someone speak to him,

"... Howdy," she said, waving with one hand without rising, "Were you using this roof too?"

It was so sudden that it made Malik jump a little. Because he didn't expect a thing. It seems like Malik wasn't the only one on these rooftops. He turned around, and saw a rather tall Caucasian girl who was dressed like a cowboy. Pretty muscular, too. Malik was a little curious as to what she was doing, but the man wasn't going to bother. Everyone should be free to do what they please (Long as they don't do anything crazy like kill someone, or steal stuff).

"Heeeeeeeeey, how are you doing?" Malik said in his thick African accent. "Yeah, kind of was... I'm new here in Baybridge, and I wanted to get the best view!" He said as he looked down at the people underneath. It wasn't particularly active this morning. "Nice city, can't wait to try the food."

He was trying his best to disarm her, because he kind of had an idea of why she's up here.

"Personally was wondering if I could get a better idea of what the city's like from the locals - you know, the stuff they don't put in the pamplets."

---

Cindy Gabrielle Keagan.

---

---

RAVEN/DOVE West Coast Joint Headquarters.

After her secret phone call with Meifeng, Cindy quickly went back to headquarters with a coffee.

That was technically her break, but she had to talk with Meifeng before that girl did something. She was hoping that no one gets found out, because right now they're still in a phase where they can't afford to. At the same time, they still haven't found any solid leads, or any substantial information. Which is something they're going have to change soon as they can.

Or else they may be too late.

Cindy stepped through the doors of the RAVEN/DOVE Headquarters and showed her badge to be let in. She had a steaming cup of coffee in hand as she moved towards her office. She still has plenty of work to do, she has to handle some things for her cases, process some claims, et cetera, et cetera. For now, Cindy wasn't going to waste too much time dwelling on the Founding Family, and the Black Hound... though, she can't say that she wasn't a little worried about him, and what the bastards he's working for are planning. Because, as they demonstrated in Britain, they can appear at any time, and smash up anywhere.

Everyone's a target after off.

Making it to her office, Cindy plopped her behind down on the chair, and quickly got to work. She had a pile of paperwork, the usual. Honestly, while this is pretty boring, she would rather take a boring day at work to fighting for her life. Though, she knew that time was going to come soon, so the girl was ready for anything to go down. Especially in the war against the Founding Family, and their army.

Someone knocked at her door, and Cindy raised her head as her pen came to a stop.

"Come in."

On cue, an averaged, redhaired woman stepped into the room wearing a DOVE uniform, and having mousy looks that Cindy immediately attributed to her longtime friend Scarlet Obott. "Oh, hey Scarlet." Cindy said as she leaned up on the table. "What can I do for you today?"

"Um, Deborah wants to talk to you," Scarlet awkwardly said, like she had something on her mind. "She wanted to pass this along to you."

"Oh?" Cindy said, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah, I'll be right there."

Cindy wanted to get her work done, but duty calls.

---

It was a quick walk from Cindy's office to Deborah's.

Since she's the Chairwoman of DOVE, she gets to have a big fancy office that she makes all the decisions for DOVE - which may change the face of Metahumans globally. Of course she has an office like this. With nice big, wooden doors that made Cindy feel like she was going to step into a mansion. Before Cindy could so much as enter the place, she had to get the approval from her secretary. A small, rather effeminate man with straight black hair who reminded her of a close and personal friend that Cindy hasn't seen in years.

"Hey," Cindy said. "I'm Cindy Keagan, Deborah asked me to meet her."

"Oh yeah, I know, just walk right on in."

Nodding her head, Cindy walked through the doors, and remembered that the room was soundproofed. She was immediately pelted with the voice of Deborah's lovely red haired assistant, Shannon Balore. Who was a bit tall (at least had two inches over Cindy) and a flowing mane of red hair and wore a red suit.

"... This is a bad idea." Shannon said, making it clear to Cindy that she was trying to plead with her. "You know what happened in Britain? We don't know what the Black Hound is after - but we do know that he's a problem."

Once Deborah stopped and turned her head towards Cindy, they both stopped and Cindy looked a little nervous for a second.

"Sorry to interrupt," Cindy said.

"Oh, no, you're not interrupting at all." Deborah said with a friendly smile. Oddly enough, Deborah was one of the nicest people that Cindy ever knew... or that was her power telling her what everyone wanted to hear. Deborah was always a good looking person - Cindy was a little jealous of her body. They were both African-American (Well, Deborah was more African than her), but Deborah was much taller, and much more well-built. She had brown hair in a pony-tail.

"I've invited you here because I wanted to tell you of a quick change of plans my grouchy assistant doesn't approve of," Deborah said. "Since you're helping with the DOVE exhibit in the Harvest Festival tonight."

"Yeah, yeah... I hope it isn't canceled, heh." Cindy scratched the back of her neck.

"I'm going to make an appearance there... and make a big speech." Deborah said.

"... Which is a bad idea," Shannon said as she stepped up and crossed her arms. "This building is armored, and full of heavily trained Metahumans, and she wants to leave the safety of it? To make one speech?"

"And I'm saying that we don't have anything to worry about," Deborah said, almost passive aggressively (Cindy could tell that she was holding in her irritation). "I'll double the RAVEN and Police presence there."

"And what will that-"

"Do you ever listen to me, Shannon?" Deborah said, raising an eyebrow. "I've been telling you that acting afraid of the Black Hound is a victory for him, he'll get exactly what he wants - whatever it is."

"Yeah, global terror."

"Uhhhh...." Cindy trailed off as she thought about it for a moment. These two were bickering like a couple. Honestly, Cindy was on the fence on this one. On one hand, she believed that being afraid of the Black Hound would only encourage him. On the other, she knows things that they don't, and Deborah could easily make herself a target for the Black Hound. She also has to remember all the enemies that DOVE and RAVEN collectively have (The Pure, the Allegiance, the Order, etc). God, this is not a good confrontation.

"We should do it... but with some precautions." Cindy said. "To make sure that we can lessen the damage in case something does go wrong... Like, we can maybe make it a surprise visit so nobody has tome."

"That sounds like a good idea, Cindy." Deborah said with a playful smile. "I just wanted to ask the opinion of the best DOVES... I've already got input from Adora, and Marianela.... Actually that reminds me," Deborah said.

"Can you get to Havenfield and help them with the DOVE exhibit?" Deborah asked. "The others must be super busy."

"Yeah."

Cindy said as she got up, but before she left, she had to gloat a little.

"I'm glad that you called me here to ask."

Cindy said, before she walked out the door, and continued on her way. She made it to the garage, and went through the doors.

---

Lihua Zhao.

---

---

Greencrest Heights, White Coast.

Returning home from the Phan household, Lihua quickly opened the door and let Lijuan run in.

Following behind her with slow and deliberate steps was her much taller mother. As Lijuan ran up the stairs, Lihua gave her a quick warning, "Don't hurt yourself, sweetie." Lihua said as she came to a stop, and did some stretches. She wasn't as young and limber as Lijuan, so she had to take some time to stretch. She put her arm in the air and grabbed it with her wrist, before twisting her upper body in that direction. She kept her eyes closed as she focused....

... And she felt a sudden snap on her hips.

The woman felt a brief pain that caught her off guard, but that was nothing to the pain she has experienced in the past. She had to put her hand on her hip, and groan a little bit, however. Possibly all those injuries she has received in the past are catching up to her. Ugh.

The phone that was in the pockets of her sweat pants started ringing, and Lihua reached into her pocket and saw the caller ID.

Jiao-Long Liu.

Oh boy, this will be a good one... She thought to herself as she put the phone up to her ear.

"Lihua Zhao speaking." Lihua said.

"Sister, hello," Jiao-Long said in Chinese. "It has been awhile since we talked."

For good reason. Lihua thought to herself again. "That is true, brother. I've been meaning to keep in contact with you and your daughters." Lihua answered in Chinese, speaking it nearly perfectly.

"Yes, they do miss their aunt, dearly, how is Lijuan doing?"

Lijuan came running back down the stairs, and ran over towards the refrigerator. She got a juice box, and quickly drunk it. That made Lihua smile. Though, the inhibitor collar around her neck made her feel worried.

"... Lijuan is doing great." Lihua said.

"Remember," Jiao-Long started off. "If she needs something, feel free to give me a call."

Lihua rolled her eyes, but had to be formal.

"I will." Lihua said.

"Now, I wanted to call you because it's Honghui's birthday in a few weeks... and I've wanted to make it really special for him," Jiao-Long said. "So, I have decided to throw him a celebration in the Haley Boulevard.... and the entire Zhao family is invited."

"Oh? That's excellent..." Lihua said. "I'm certain everyone will be there... but, Meifeng is currently abroad and I'm unsure of whether or not she'll be back in time."

"I hope she will be there..." Jiao-Long trailed off. "... I hope all of you will be there. Make arrangements, get the best clothes you can. My sister's family will be getting the VIP treatment."

"Even if Meifeng isn't there, me and Lijuan will certainly be," Lihua said. "I promise we'll both be in perfect form once we're there."

"Alright." Jiao-Long said.

They both shared goodbye in their respective language, before hanging up the phone.

---

---

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

"You remember your mother, Lihn?" Viên walked at a slow, and easy pace. He was getting on in years but not to the stage where he had lost the ability to walk.

"A bit," Lihn responded carefully. She had not heard from her mother since she had been a young girl. Not after her and her father had moved to America. For all Lihn knew, and cared, she was dead.

"She was, and still is, a member of the Phan family - even after Dinh left." Viên's lips curled downwards slightly. It was clear which of his three children he disliked the most. Lihn was thankful her father wasn't here - not that he wanted anything to do with his family. Lihn could see why. "The fault there was with him. She was welcomed as a member of our family - we offered to support her. She... Didn't quite see things our way."

Lihn nodded silently. She assumed that this was going somewhere.

"Mai disgraced our family as much as Dinh did. At least he had the dignity to marry first, and to do it on foreign soils." The look on Viên's face was now one of disgust.

Lihn could see why her father had chosen to move away. It took a small conversation with her grandfather to remember it. His way of thinking was... Backwards to her. "Where do I come in to this?"

Viên frowned at her. "Your mother had another child - out of marriage. Thankfully she is no longer using the name Phan. It was not an issue to me." Outside of his disapproval and disgust, it seemed. "Not until she moved back to Vietnam. And this city."

With her child, Lihn assumed. The disapproval was sounding all too similar. Lihn did not feel sorry for her mother as she had no fond memories of her. The child, however? She hoped they never had to meet this family. They weren't even a Phan by blood or adoption.

"I didn't realise this till recently. Mai, and her daughter, are bringing a bad reputation to my name," he glared at Lihn with dark eyes, the wrinkles on his face more pronounced with what had turned to annoyance from disapproval. As if, somehow, it was Lihn's fault. "I do not wish to get my hands dirty with this matter. That is where you come in, Lihn. I don't want those two to be a problem to me anymore. Take them back to America," the disgust increased, "For all I care."

Lihn held back a sigh. As if one problematic half-sibling wasn't enough. At least Kei was from her fathers side - he'd turned out all right. Any child of her mother? She wasn't sure what they'd be like. "How do I find them, then?"

"I will give you the details. Mai is in this city. Her daughter, on the other hand, I believe is not at this moment."

"Where is she?"

"Somewhere in Singapore."

Great. Well, she had wanted to go on a bit of a trip with her family.

---

---

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Thanh bounced around excitedly, hopping from one cushion on the floor to the next. The prospect of her great grandfather being around for lunch was what made her excited - even though he was unlikely to stay around.

Kei sighed softly from where he stood. Thanh had been a handful the entire time that she had been in Vietnam. It had only made her grow more confidence and cheerful. It was odd how that had occurred. Then again Lihn and Kei had tried their hardest to keep her away from the disapproval of certain other family members.

"What's with the glum look, Xûng?"

"Come on, cheer up, cousin."

Kei frowned at the sudden appearance of Tuyên and Mihn at either side of him. They wore identically devious grins on similar faces.

"It's Kei, not Xûng," he responded dully. He knew that they called him by his birth name just to annoy him. It hadn't been entertaining to begin with - but he had only grown more done with it.

"But shouldn't you use your Vietnamese name when in Vietnam?" Tuyên chimed, her grin not disappearing at his response (or lack of it).

"By that logic I should use an American name when there," Kei shrugged, trying to not let himself get too annoyed. He wanted to go back to the room he had been given - or Lihn's. This side of the family was exhausting to keep up with. He had been able to deal with Thanh, as bubbly as she was, for long periods of time. But more than one person with a less calm personality than his sister? Nope.

"Kei sounds more American than Xûng." It was Minh who spoke now, his sister nodding in agreement.

"Leave Kei alone, and help with putting out the food." The twins' mother interrupted their conversation with a stern look at the two. They shrugged and went to do as they were asked. Thanh looked over from her excited running, glancing between Kei and the twins before trailing after them.

If Thanh was a handful when they got back home Kei was sure it would be their fault.

"I'm sorry about them. They really don't know when to stop." His aunt apologised with a soft smile.

"It's fine," Kei replied awkwardly. He hoped that Lihn got back soon. He disliked dealing with relatives. Phuong just nodded before leaving him alone, something he was glad for.

He couldn't wait to go back home.

---

Malik Jakane, & April Cooper.

_{(Written in collaboration with @Mr Allen J)}

---

Courtbridge, Prince Ed-Field.

April tilted her head at the man's very thick accent. Growing up in Bumpass Arizona hadn't given her the opportunity to meet too many obviously foreign people, though time spent in the 'big city' was helping rectify that.

"Lookin' for a local's thoughts, huh? Sure hope you find some. Shit, I don't already look like one of these Baybridgers, do I?" April rose, rolling out the kinks in her and discovering that the man was only a few inches taller than her.

Malik laughed a little. "I've only been here for twenty minutes... so everyone looks like a Baybridger to me!" He said with a smile.

The girl regarded the man for a moment before reaching into her fanny pack holster and pulling out the apple she'd tossed in there for breakfast... lunch... whatever. Taking a large bite of the fruit, April gestured to the man and spoke without quite finishing her chewing. "So, stranger to these lands. What's your name? I'm April, April Cooper. Pleasure to meet you."

A wide, toothy grin formed on Malik's face as he threw his hands behind his head. "I am..." He said, "charging" up for a big reveal. "... Malik Jakane! I come from a far away place." Though, he couldn't keep up the bullshit-y grandoise reveal. He broke down laughing and knelt forward a bit. "Haha... Just messin' with you... Oh, my name is Malik, though."

He stood tall, and let his arms hang. He was pretty lax - and that aura of relaxness would extend to April (And perhaps even the hardest of people). "I didn't come here to play around, I have a friend to look for."

A toothy grin spread across April's face as the man introduced himself. "Malik. Alright." This guy seemed like fun, and something about his presence told April that she wouldn't end up having to punch him for some reason or another. The girl turned her back to him and surveyed the horizon, holding out one arm to cut it in half. "Looking for someone, huh? Alright, you take that half of the city, I'll take this half. That oughta get her done before long."

Malik started laughing. He liked this girl. He hoped the rest of the Americans were like her.

The tall girl turned around, still displaying her chipped tooth in a wide grin. She was still flush from the high-speed sliding she'd been doing a moment ago, and her next question was asked with adrenaline still in her veins. "Unless you want a race?"

"Hey now...." Malik said, grinning even wider. "Think about what you're saying... because... after we're done our little "race," you're going to be so far behind I can catch a movie before I cross the finish line." He started laughing some more.

April chuckled at that. The poor guy had no idea what he was getting into - part of her felt bad for the hustle she was running on him, but she felt like he'd probably be able to have a good laugh about it after she smoked him. "Careful there, you're messing with the best now." She tossed the apple over her shoulder and gestured into the distance parallel to the street below. "See that big ole' satellite dish over there? First to that owes the other a drink." She crouched down into an exaggerated runner's stance, glancing back at Malik with a grin. "If you're up to it, stranger."

"Yeah, I was made for this," Malik said. Thankfully, he had the best parkour training in the world. He's steps from teaching little girls like her! He would leave her in the dust. "I'll be there in like - what? - thirty seconds." He didn't waste any time in quickly hopping over to the other building, confidently rolling as he kept his momentum as he hopped from building to building like a ninja.

The boy was faster than she'd expected, that was sure. Maybe this would be a little close after all. April chuckled as she broke into a sprint, running for the edge of the roof with zero hesitation. In the height of her leap, she activated her powers, causing her to wobble slightly on her landing but allowing her to immediately slide along the roof. She flashed a grin as she skated alongside the running boy, waving with one hand. "Pardon, couldn't hear you over the sound of humiliation!" She shouted as she went streaking past him, scrabbling slightly to keep her balance as she approached the next jump.

What the hell? Malik thought to himself as the woman caught up so fast. It was amazing. He wasn't even paying attention to her since he was focused on not killing himself on a fall. "The hell?" Malik said (Honestly, to himself) as the girl jets past him like the flash. He might be dealing with an even greater parkour master than himself! This is going to be a challenge.

Good thing there isn't any challenge Malik can't conquer.

Malik kicked it into double time as he jumped from one roof to the next. He wondered what the hell this girl was jacked up on as she was able to keep up with him like it was nothing. It was cheating a little, but Malik used his abilities to shoot him forward slightly - a gust of wind that propelled him in the direction he wanted to go. When he made it to the next roof, he was almost to the ledge, catching up with the girl.

Making another jump, Malik launched himself forward again with an oppressive gust of wind that would go unnoticed in their race. He made right behind April, and started running with a cocky grin on his face.

"What was that?" Malik said, his accent thicker than usual. He passed April and jumped to the next roof - this time unassisted by an oppressive wind. They were coming up on the satellite. "Oh yeah, that was humiliation."

Well, that was not normal. Obviously this guy was talented, but to be able to run as fast as April could slide shouldn't have been possible. Unless... what were the chances this guy was a Meta too?

Regardless, April still had a race to win. She grit her teeth as he passed her in the final stretch bending lower and skating into a higher speed than was strictly advisable. She streaked past him once again, windmilling her arms wildly, but there was nowhere near enough space to slow down. April skidded straight past the satellite dish and slammed into a broad piece of metal ventilation a few feet behind it, crashing to the ground a moment later.

Oh. Malik's face took on more of a shocked expression. Okay, maybe they took it a little too far. He probably shouldn't have upped the ante like that. The last thing on his mind was winning their race, he was going to make sure she was okay. Assisted by a quickly burst of wind, Malik shot himself upwards and landed not too far away from April. He approached her slowly.

"Oh, fuck me," she shouted, then giggled a bit to herself. "Ah, that was fun. Was it good for you too?" she asked, sitting up to regard Malik.

"Are you okay, ma'am?" Malik asked as he approached her. "The race was fun, yeah, but don't hurt yourself." He awkwardly laughed as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Aw, ain't you a proper gentleman?" April chuckled, kicking up to her feet. "I'm fine. Crashin' into shit don't hurt me like it hurts other people. Part of my 'thing'. I am curious though, stranger." April grinned, a twinkle in her eyes. "How d'you move like that? Real impressive however you do it."

"Oh, uh....?" Malik trailed off as he wondered what to say. He knows that Metahumans like himself aren't really thought of kindly here in America. At the same time, he was wondering what April meant by "don't hurt me like it hurts other people." Could she be a Metahuman herself? For now, he was going to lie through his teeth. "I was trained in France, by the best, you know.... the people who invented parkour!"

April's nose twitched slightly at that. It was hard to believe that anyone could be trained so well as to run faster than she could slide, but maybe that was her ego talking. "France, huh? Well, you sure are a well-traveled and interesting guy, ain't you?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah... I've been all over the world. Asia, Africa, and all over Europe." Malik bragged as he crossed his arms and looked at April. "I don't mean to brag, yeah. But, like I said, I'm here for... personal reasons."

"Well, shit. You got the advantage of me there. Don't let it go to your head or nothing." She leaned back against the duct that she's smacked into a moment ago, tilting her head. "Lookin' for someone, right? I reckon they're a bit more missing than 'not picking up the phone' for you to come all the way here."

"Well..." Malik said. "It's one of those complicated situations... Uh, you aware of the DGMHS....? The French Metahuman agency?" He asked as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Yeah, 'course I do. They're pretty relaxed over there, right? We could learn a thing or two from them over here, tell you that." Naturally, April had learned all about the various Metahuman regulation agencies in her time in the RAVEN academy, and the DGMHS was notable. They sure could do with a better name, though. If Malik was involved with them, though, maybe her suspicions weren't totally wrong, which would do wonders for her pride.

"I probably shouldn't be running my mouth about this," Malik said as he casually stepped off to the side. "But, my friend was a member of the DGMHS, and was apart of a foreign exchange program over here... when she went missing." Malik was going to keep the message she sent him a secret, for now. Specifically because of the Founding Family, and how he has little to no idea about them.

"Nobody knows what happened to her in RAVEN, or the DGMHS, so I figured that I'd come here myself for some answers." Malik finally said.

April furrowed her brow at the tale. "Now that is real strange. I haven't heard anything about any disappearances lately - far as I know it's all been business as usual. Oh, I work for RAVEN, just so we're clear on that."

"You're a RAVEN?" Malik said, surprised at how lax she is. All Malik heard about the American RAVEN was that they were tough as nails, but she seems... nice. He's not too sure about the others. He's been meaning to find a RAVEN (Or a DOVE), but he's sure that she doesn't know about anything - it's the same as what the American RAVENS said. "... That's great." He said, quickly changing what he was going to say. "That's unfortunate you don't know about my friend, I'll continue my search on my own, then."

Malik said as he walked to the edge of the rooftop, and a dramatic wind came through that ruffed his clothings (And April's). He looked over his shoulder at April.

"I'll definitely keep in touch if you find anything - ehhh, what's your number?" Malik asked.

April rolled her eyes at that, moving away from the duct and stepping over to Malik. "Real smooth, stranger." Deftly, she snatched his phone out of his pocket and added herself as a contact before passing the device back to him. "There you go, stranger. Let me know if you need any help lookin' - or, hey, if you just want to get a beer. I'm flexible."

"Thank you, I'll call you if I need you." Malik said with a toothy grin. "And just so you don't get the wrong idea... I'm not here in America looking for a girlfriend or anything." He laughed a little bit. "I'll see you around."

Malik stepped off the rooftop, and a powerful gust of wind came by and carried him off into the sunset.

April chuckled at that, peering after the young man for a moment after he disappeared from view. "Fuckin' drama queen," she muttered, turning away, activating her powers a moment later to send her skating lazily over the rooftop.

---

Quentin Taylor

Somewhere in New Raygate

Tony Waller was a metahuman with a history of criminal behaviour. Known primarily for being some dumb muscle who'd had enough competence to run his own little crew, he'd been the first one that Quentin had gone after when he'd learned of a connection to the Founding Families.

"You know what I'm after-"

"The hell I do, who the fuck do you think you are?" He wriggled against Quentin's grasp, but the RAVEN had him held in an arm lock, pressed against a wall in the back office of the autoshop.

"You saw my badge, right?" Quentin tightened his grip, pressing him further against the wall. "Better people than you have got in my way and been put down, one way or the other. I'll ask again, who paid you off?"

"Fuck you. I've got rights, where's your fucking warrant?" He looked ready to try and fight again, so Quentin drove his knee into the back of the man's leg.

"There's your rights. There's your warrant. Don't stall me again or you'll regret it." With these kinds of people, Quentin understood that there was a need for force. Violence and intimidation were the only kind of language that they understood.

"... Bullshit. You're a RAVEN. Even your type have standards, so don't play the bad-cop shit on me."

"That's what you think?"

Quentin twisted his arm just a little further, just to cause s little more discomfort. The guy was built like a tank, but he'd had the element of surprise.

"As far I'm concerned, you're dangerous. That means I can put you down if I need to. Besides, who will they believe?"

The man didn't deign to answer. Both of them knew why. "Good. Now, I'll ask again - your people were paid off. By who?"

"... There's some shit out there you don't want to know. These people kept things really low key. Communicating by proxy, dead drop points and all - we never actuslly saw 'em, man! All we got was an address, orders and whatever tools they gave us to use..."

"And one of those locations?"

"I..." The words seemed to catch in his throat. Quentin heard a noise, then another voice. "Hey, the fuck is this?!"

He'd barely a second to react before one of Tony's boys was close enough to go at him with a tire iron. Shoving the would-be boss across to the side, Quentin ducked low as the guy swung for him with the iron, like a bad golfer, then grasped for his arm before he could strike again, driving a knee into the man's groin and wrenching the iron from his grasp with enough force it made him lose his footing and smash backwards into a filing cabinet.

"Come on, you fucking fed!" Tony's voice flared up again. Shit, was all he had time to think before he was blindsided and pinned to the floor, grasping for his neck.

"What kinda game are you playin', huh?!"

Quentin felt the man's meaty fingers tightening around his throat and scrabbled for something, anything, then the same metallic surface grazed his fingers.

"You fuckin' prick, you think you can just fuck with-"

Tony's voice lurched to a muffled grunt as bloody spittle and a few broken teeth spattered against the floor, the bloodied tire iron still in Quentin's grasp. The next time he slammed it against the would-be mobster's face, it made a sickening crunch.

It took a couple more moments before Quentin regained his composure. Two for the cells, he thought, though there might have been questions as to why they'd turned up in such a state. If HQ knew how far he'd gone, a stern word might have been the least of his concerns.

That said, he'd had his reasons. The Founding Family were out there and any leads he could find, well... if Mei and thd others were out there getting results, he'd be doing the sane. Quentin was a lot of things, but if he'd picked up anything from the old man, it was a stubborn persistence. Grunting, he wasted no time in pulling out the cuffs.

"I'm getting too old for this shit."

---

Asuma Obokata.

---

Greencrest Heights, White Coast.

The smell of coffee and freshly made pastries clung in the air, the breeze was mild, and the sun seemed to breathed some extra colour into the autumn leaves which littered the ground. It was a beautiful morning for this time of year, and Asuma was happy to soak up some sunlight (rather literally) as he made his way to ’Thanks a Latte’ to pick-up his phone. It was his day off work, but he couldn’t spend another 48-hours without his phone. Besides, he didn’t actually mind a coffee every now and then when he wasn’t the one making it.

“Hey! Watch it!” came a sudden yell from an irate, balding, middle-aged man as he was nearly taken off his feet by a couple of passing skaters. Not willing to give chase, the suited man merely waved his brief case around in anger, as if the small leather container would somehow put the fear of god into them. Asuma, who was walking in the opposite direction, simply just smirked at the spectacle and gave no notice as the aforementioned skaters zoomed past himself. Skaters were a fairly common site around Greencrest and the White Coast in general, yet a growing number of people seemed to be viewing them as a nuisance. Asuma was not one of these people. Although he’d never so much as stepped foot on a board, he found them interesting to watch. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t see any skaters around when he was living back up in Alaska so it was still a relatively new thing to him.

“They’re almost as bad as those damn meta-humans!” Someone else added, causing Asuma’s mood to suddenly drop. Rather than get himself into a confrontation, Asuma simply clenched his fists inside his pockets and carried on with an exacerbated sigh. It seemed that he couldn’t go one day in this city without hearing some anti-metahuman sentiment. Although it was something he’d learned to expect, it certainly wasn’t something he could accept. Feeling like most of the people around you hated you or were scared of you because the way you were born – it was isolating and devastating. Sure metahumans were dangerous, but then so were regular humans.

Casting his frustration aside, Asuma increased his pace to the ever-nearing coffee shop, reaching the glass door just as his co-worker Jennifer strolled out. He gave her a smile and a little wave but she didn’t appear to notice him, much to his embarrassment. For a moment he stood in the doorway and looked back to her, his eyes looking to the back of her blonde hair before briefly trailing down to her shapely bottom. He certainly thought she was attractive, but had only shared a few words with her due to them being on completely different shift patterns. He wondered whether their boss intentionally avoided having two metahumans on the same shift – it’d certainly make sense to given the tensions at the moment. Rather than standing there and staring at her like a creep, Asuma continued inside and was instantly greeted by cheeky grin. “Hey, what’s up Rexx?” Asuma said with a little nod as he approached the counter.

“It’s all goo-“ Rexx started before immediately being cut-off by their boss, Kenny.

“Asuma! Get behind the counter, I need you to work!” he ordered without so much as a hint of humour in his tone. Kenny was a stocky, roundish man in his late forties. His grey hair was badly receding and what was left was somewhat messy and untamed. Despite expecting the highest standards of cleanliness and discipline from his staff, Kenny’s clothing was often the dirtiest, often with various coffee stains and mysterious marks. He certainly wasn’t a bad guy - he was very tolerant, he paid a fair wage, and he was understanding of personal problems – but he was definitely a grumpy individual. Rexx always commented that he looked like a bulldog eating a wasp.

“haha good one, but I’m fine enjoying my day off.” Replied Asuma jovially, desperately hoping that Kenny was just being deadpan.

“I’m not joking. Jennifer's had to leave early so I’m short on staff. Get back here.” Kenny barked as he began scrambling for something under the counter.

“But I-“ Assuma only got two words into his objection before he was hit in the face by an apron. He made no attempt to remove it, and instead just stood there defeated for a few seconds. “Uuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… it’s not fair.” he moaned as he began walking round the counter, the brown apron still wrapped round his head. The low pitched wailing was loud enough to catch the attention of a couple of customers, who only briefly turned their heads before going back to their coffees and phones.

“If it makes you feel better, you’re welcome to come with me and a couple of mates to the Harvest Festival after work?” Rexx offered as he was preparing the next customers drink.

“Sure. Maybe I’ll finally get drunk enough to quit this job…”

---

---

Shizuka Takashiro, & Nick O'Connor.

^{(@tsukune and @TheWizardLizard)}

---

Waterbridge Airport, Roseview_

The touchdown felt surprisingly smooth after almost an entire day of turbulent ride from Taipei (and that was not even counting the shitstorm that turned a supposedly boring conference into a full-blown riot). Shizuka Takashiro let out a tired yawn and looked out of the window; even though it was only ten minutes to four, the sun was already setting, painting the sky with a reddish hue. Once the plane was docked and the passengers were ushered to the arrival hall, Shizuka dragged the compact spinner case with him and followed the crowd to the check-in area. He flicked open his passport and frowned - he had changed for a fresh book just two months ago, but he was now left with only a couple of visa-free pages.

...Oh well.

Stepping out of the sliding doors of the airport, he was greeted with a cooling breeze - which also had brought the smell of the exhaust fumes from the taxicabs lining up at the stand nearby. Thankfully it wasn't crowded - considering the time - and it wasn't long before it's his turn.

"Greencrest Height, White Coast," he told the driver absentmindedly as he slipped into the taxi.

Nick glanced back at the passenger in halfhearted curiosity. The man in his taxi was obviously young and of Asian descent, and the driver felt an odd sense of curiosity about what brought him to Baybridge; especially odd because he made a point of not being curious about the business of strangers under any circumstances. Maybe it was the stir-craziness from living with a hive of insects.

"You got it, sir," he murmured as he peeled the taxi away from the airport and took off down the road with the practiced ease of someone who had driven those roads several times a day for the last few months. A faint clicking noise emitted from the glove compartment next to him, and Nick shot it a withering glance. "Shut up," he whispered forcefully, and the clicking died down. Hopefully the passenger wasn't paying attention.

"Greencrest, huh?" He asked, glancing in the mirror at the young man behind him. "That's residential. You visiting someone?"

Shizuka didn't hear the clicking noise, nor did he pay much attention to the odd way the driver seemed to hiss at the glove compartment - he had other things in mind. And one of those things was inside the case in the trunk behind him.

Something he had to get to a fellow agent he trusted most, Holly Hope, ASAP.

The driver's question pulled him out of his thoughts. "Uh, yeah, I guess." He had replied without thinking - but he would leave it as that. He wasn't on duty now, and there was no need to intimidate a cab driver about his identity as a RAVEN agent. The less people know about him, the better - though with the premature gray hair (which was pretty much silver-white now) that he was too prideful to dye it black, he was hard to miss.

Looking out of the window, he let out a sigh. "...Baybridge is never the same each time I come here."

"Yeah, I guess they did have the, what, Eco-terrorist attacks not long ago. Or, we did, that is." Nick furrowed his brow. He still didn't consider himself to be a real Baybridger, odd considering that he knew the town like the back of his hand from all the hours spent driving across it. He supposed in that case that he wasn't really 'from', considering how his last home had turned out, which was tragically not the most depressing thing about his life.

Something about the man behind him occurred to Nick, and for once his curiosity outstripped his caution. "Sir," he began. "How long are you staying in Baybridge? Can't imagine there's enough in that little case for a real long visit. What's in there, tooth brush, change of clothes? ...Though I guess if you visit this person often, you might have some stuff there. Dumb question."

Shizuka's eyes went glassy when the driver asked about his case. "Technically I live in Baybridge now, but I'm often out of town - you can say that probably makes me no different from mere visitors of this city." He stared at the driver through the rearview mirror's reflection. "You sound like you're pretty new to this place. Just moved here not long ago?"

Nick's line of thought was interrupted when some douchebag in a green truck turned a blind corner and nearly crashed into the taxi, forcing Nick to slam on the breaks. "Asshole!" he shouted, before instinctively resting a hand on the glove compartment.

Shizuka quickly put out a hand onto the headrest of the driver's seat before him, and his head hit the back of his own hand; he had to control himself not to go intangible out of pure instinct. He looked up and opened his mouth, about to swear at the truck with Nick when his eyes fell onto the driver's hand on the glove compartment.

He raised an eyebrow. "Eh, I don't think we need to go that far to shoot a bullet at that jerk..." he tried to joke in a half-hearted way, but his sight was still trained on the glove compartment. Something about the driver's reaction made him felt that whatever's inside was probably not a gun. He was beginning to feel curious about what the driver was hiding in the compartment, but in the end he decided not to poke his nose into other people's business (and in turn attracting more unnecessary troubles to himself).

Nick pulled his hand back slowly, letting out a breath of forced laughter. "Yeah, it's, ah... it's all good. Man, guess they'll give a license to damn near anyone these days, huh?" He was silent for a moment, the strangeness of his actions becoming very apparent to him, before letting out a large breath and trying to frantically change the subject. "So... what do you do, like, for a living, sir?"

Shizuka watched Nick as the driver seemed to try regaining his composure - he was now more certain not to reveal too much about himself. "...Diplomatic stuff, so I travel around a lot," he said finally, shrugging. It wasn't a lie, just half of the whole truth.

"Cool, cool," Nick replied absentmindedly, eyes locked on the road ahead. The ride was going fairly quickly - they were getting close now, having just entered the bureau of White Coast. "So, is there an address you want me to leave you at, or...?"

Shizuka felt like smacking his own head now - the stress from the incident last week had really affected him more than he wanted to admit, so much that even the simplest things were slipping from his sluggish mind. "Yes, yes, the address," he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose with a hand, while the other went for his jeans pocket. "It's at---" he began, pulling out his vibrating phone but stopped when he looked down at the screen of the mobile.

In a tone of suppressed frustration, he spoke to the driver again, "Change of plans - take me to the DOVE/RAVEN Headquarters."

---

Veronica Davis, & Asuma Obokata.

_{(Written in collaboration with @Fat Boy Kyle)}

---

Greencrest Heights, White Coast.

"Isn't this where she works?" Makoto asked as she followed behind Veronica.

The two women were quite tall, and were of matching height as they entered the building. The Thanks-A-Latte Coffee Bar... Ugh. What a stupid name. Veronica thought to herself as she rolled her eyes. They were following a lead on their target, who is stated to be working here. She just needs to find the bitch, then report back to the Black Hound. Simple as that. Though, if she has to drink anymore shitty coffee, then she swears to God, she'll burn this hipster-ass cafe to the ground.

What broke Veronica out of her rage was that her older associate, Makoto, seemed to be more receptive to getting some coffee. The two women found themselves a seat on the table, and Veronica found herself leaning back and pushing her foot up against the stand. Can we get some damn service in here?

Asuma slowly dragged his tired peridot eyes up from the coffee machine and looked towards the new customers. He had only been there a couple of hours by this point but it felt ten times longer and he was slowly loosing the will to live. "We don't serve customers at tables do we?" Asuma muttered quietly to Rexx, who stood beside him equally bored.

"They're supposed to order at the counter, but who cares? Not like we have any other customers at the minute." Rexx mumbled back, his attention more on his new augmented reality phone game; some stupid new hype game which involved stealing children and making them fight each other. 'Battle-Babbies' or something.

Asuma let out a sigh before slowly moping towards them, two empty coffee cups and a pen in hand. "Good morning and welcome to our tea-rific bar. Order any drink you want, however you want it. And don't be afraid to espresso yourself." Asuma's scripted delivery was utterly devoid of any tone or soul; a clear indicator of his length of employment. Gazing between the two ladies he could tell that at least one of them wasn't in the mood for stupid beverage puns.

The barrage of puns (regardless of how little soul he was putting into it) hurt Veronica to her very soul. She managed to force a fake smile as she tried to remind herself that she's here on a mission. Honestly, she was going to do her best to gather information on their target from him. Up to using her femine charms to sway the man. Veronica and her green eyes went up towards the Asian-man who was pretty tall, and she knew that she could at least do something that could sway him.

She made sure that her smile was genuine as possible - as a way of telling this fool that she was "into" him.

"Just a large caffine-free green tea for me..." Makoto said, winking at the man..

Veronica said, realizing that she had to make a connection to this bastard before she gets him talking. She was looking at the menu. "Ooooooooooh, the cappuccino sounds amazing." Veronica said with a smile, rather cheerfully. "What's your opinion on it?"

"It's got a nice creamy head that's delicious to lick" he replied with a wink

"CF Green Tea" he quickly scribbled onto the side of one of the cups before he replied to the black haired vixen, "It's alright I suppose, but nothing special. All tastes the same to me." Clearly he wasn't picking up on their seductive charms, fake or not, as his reply couldn't have been more nonchalant. Looking back up from the cream-coloured cardboard cups, he noticed how intently both appeared to be staring at him. 'Have I got something on my face?' he thought to himself as he began to feel a subtle but noticable rise of heat in his chest and neck.

"Oh, I'll have that...." Veronica said in a flirtatious tone with a smirk. She didn't want to immediately dive him... she gave this guy one look, and she knew that he probably isn't a total moron. While she isn't dealing with a professional here, she can't afford to get cocky. "You know, me and my friend here are new around these parts - only arrived in Baybridge a few weeks ago..." Veronica said, trying to weave a story that'll go towards their objective. "But we're looking for an old friend of ours that we heard was working here."

"Oh?" he interjected, his tone lifting slightly "I'm guessing it's not Rexx over there? He doesn't have friends."

"Hey, you know I can hear you right?" Rexx quipped back from behind the counter, although his attention was still mostly fixed to his little game.

"Who is it you're looking for?" Asuma continued as he wrote the second order on the remaining cup. He was unlikely to give out any information, as he had no idea whose these people were. After all he knew that if one of his colleagues gave out his information he'd be pretty pissed, even it it was to an old friend; especially because he was a meta and it could be all kinds of weirdos.

"Just... a blonde haired little thing we met in San Diego," Veronica said, trying her best to recall what that file says. If she does it just right, their target should come right to them without the slightest suspicion. "Though, back then, she was brown-haired.... name was Jennifer, I think." She said. "I doubt she even remembers us, it was years ago." Just go with it. Veronica thought to herself.

'Can't know her that well if they're not even sure of her name' Asuma thought to himself. The fact that Jennifer was a metahuman meant that Asuma suddenly had alarm bells ringing in his head - a result of conditioning from years spent at a heavily NEST influenced academy. They would always drill into students the importance of 'stranger danger' and not sharing information with anyone but NEST when it came to their powers. "Yeah... I think there was a Jennifer that used to work here. Not sure if she still does though..." he said cautiously, not wanting to be too revealing or too standoffish. To be fair, given that he was covering her shift, she may well have left. "I can pass on a message if I happen to see her again?" he offered with a little smile.

Veronica raised her eyebrow. She could just see the look on his face, and isn't buying into their bullshit. Maybe she should show showed a bit more of her chest, but alas... she's flexible. She can turn this around in her favor. Thank God she memorized that file before she came in here running her gums.

"That would be lovely," Veronica said. "Tell her that Hailey Guinn from San Diego is looking for her, and wishes to meet her again - it's been far, far, far, too long." Veronica said, mentioning the name on that file... All these stories are getting annoying - especially since she has the slightest clue what any of it means. If the Black Hound says to say it, then she'll say it.

"And aren't you forgetting someone?" Makoto laughed. "Akane, also mention Akane - she'll definitely remember me."

"Hailey Guinn and Akane from San Diego? Gotcha, I'll make sure to pass it on if I see her." he confirmed with a slight squint as he tried to inscribe their names to memory. "You girls staying anywhere? You know, so I can point her in your direction?" he asked, more out of curioristy than out of sincerity.

The two guys looked at each other, and laughed.

Veronica had to rely on Makoto on this one... since it would seem less suspect if Makoto gave him her motel room rather than directing Jennifer in the direction of her apartment... especially if this goes wrong.

"Oh, we're staying in a dingy little place in Havenfield called Apollo Motel." Makoto said, laughing. "It was the best we could afford for the time being... Haha...." She laughed.

Grinning back as they laughed, Asuma gave a little nod of understanding "Cool! In that case I'll go sort your drinks and bill out for you. Should only take a minute." Spinning round on the heel of his foot, he then made his way back over to the serving area. He could see that Rexx was still glued to his phone and that Kenny was still out-back someplace. Placing the two marked cups under the appropriate filling stations, Asuma then took the chance to quickly scribble down some notes. He noted the time and date, the customers names, physical descriptions, and the message they wanted to be passed on. Perhaps a little extensive for a standard note, but then Asuma liked to be cautious; not surprising really considering how badly he wanted to join an enforcement agency.

Veronica nodded her head.

"Take your time."

She grinned as she realized that everything was going according to plan.

Seraphine relaxed in the sun, allowing the golden rays to caress her skin. She was nonetheless grateful for the cooling breeze that blew from the bay, robbing the glare of some of its punishing heat. She tapped her pen atop the heavy book before her. It was nice to get out in the sun, even if she still had to study while she did so. It was tempting to simply relax, the Society kept her well, and would likely have provided her with accommodation here in Spain, as long as she worked for them here as well. She had other plans however, Seraphine was not going to remain working as an escort until her beauty faded, she wanted more, and she intended to exploit her ability in order to get there. She was already part fluent in Spanish, and had nearly completed two years of her course here. At the same time she was currently enrolled in another two universities on the other side of the world, studying Medicine and Law in America. Achieving the grades needed for scholarships had been child’s play when she could revise for twelve different exams simultaneously. The work was tiring, and irksome, but it was a means to an end. Seraphine would not be a whore forever, one day she would have power and influence. She wanted to be someone, and this was what it took.

She was alone here, so to speak, Only the Prime could reabsorb a clone, and each clone needed food, and somewhere to stay. Sending yourself halfway around the world was expensive, and even with scholarships, maintaining three people in University was expensive, the Society paid extremely well, especially for those who were valuable to them, but even those funds were strained by the depths of her ambition.

She nodded and waved towards a classmate, he turned and made his way over to her as she closed the book. Ambition was all very well, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy herself along the way…

---

Alice was much more at home in Baybridge now than she had been some months ago. She’d already acquired a dozen boltholes in the city, places that she knew she would be able to teleport to in a fraction of a second if she was in danger. It had been a practice she’d maintained in New York as well, on the advice of an erstwhile colleague. They didn’t talk anymore, but it had been good advice. Loathe as she was to keep it.

Her phone rang, and she stared at the handsets screen for six full rings before denying the call. She’d been meaning to change her number, but somehow had never quite gotten around to it. The calls were getting less frequent however. It was getting even harder to simply ignore them. Especially considering everything else that had happened in Baybridge since. The riots, the Eco-natura attack, the death of Old Man Winter. Fortunately the cure for both was the same.

She rapped the bar, and her glass was swiftly refilled by the man behind it. This wasn’t a good bar, it was a dive, the kind of place you didn’t find until you’d already had a few too many. Alice was past caring about the quality of the alcohol she imbibed, as long as it meant that she couldn’t remember what happened at the end of it.

He drained the cup already, and tattooed the bar once more, the barman didn’t care, he knew she could pay her bill. He didn’t know she was a metahuman at least, she’d heard the conversations of some of the bar’s other patrons. Metahumans were becoming less and less popular, not that people had ever really been thrilled to see them. She stood, glancing at her watch, it was blurred, and swayed. She realised that in fact the room behind it was swaying, that then lead to another realisation, she was swaying. She blew it off, moving uncertainly to the door before making her cautious way outside. The street was spinning as well, but she began to walk home.

It took her two hours.

It was midday…

---

Academy 61, Roseview, was well equipped, every Academy was. They had expensive labs, complete computer suites, hi-tech classrooms and most importantly, in this case, a brand new, fully equipped gym. Ellen was there now, it was a recent interest of hers, a sudden recent interest. Since the Eco-natura attack she had spent a great deal of her spare time in the gym and the simulation room. It was already beginning to have an effect, her stomach had lost the paunch she had acquired on Academy food. Her limbs were becoming toned and strong.

She dropped the weights back into their rack, wiping sweat from her brow. She was exhausted, her limbs felt weak, and she walked on shaking legs towards the door, pausing only to retrieve her water bottle. It was like an elixir of life, quenching her parched throat. She sat down for a moment to regain some strength, and rested her head against the wall.

She could almost feel the case in her lap, though it rested hidden some distance away. She couldn’t risk bringing it into the Academy itself. After all, it was the property of Mannequin, and he was now imprisoned by RAVEN. She couldn’t imagine what they might do with the vials that he had given to her. They meant to much to her now. She’d used them twice, and each time they had worked. There hadn’t seemed to be any ill effects. He had given her a solution, it was imperfect, but it was the closest to an answer that she’d yet received.

She would have to use it tonight, because tomorrow she was going to engage in an activity she had yet to try in her time at the academy, thanks in part to the limitations of her abilities. Tomorrow she was going to fight someone…

---

---

Strongriver Plaza, Hedgemount

Air whistled past Rhea’s skin as she soared over the Baybridge rooftops. Mid-leap as she was with the sprawl of concrete and alleys below her. The afternoon sun shone bright, and the air was crisp. Rhea adjusted her feet as she landed on the next rooftop, barely throwing off her stride as she continued to freerun. Her body glimmered with small bolts of light that left a faint trail in her wake.

It was rare to find someone watching the rooftops here, but Rhea kept her eyes open. There, on Jenny’s Jewellers, a lady with a set of binoculars scanned the buildings. Rhea changed course and fire-poled down an emergency ladder, navigating around the jewellers from the street. In the eyes of bustling people, Rhea dropped the electrical lights on her body and blended in with ease.

Several blocks down, Rhea returned to the roof and checked her watch. Ah, right on time. The nightclub she had a delivery for was roughly five blocks away. She could make it there in a minute and a half. Adjusting her ballcap, Rhea broke into an empowered sprint. Her gloved hands caught the cusp of the next ledge, and she launched herself over.

“Aegis, what’s your status?” Her earpiece buzzed.

She slowed down, pressing a button. “I’m on schedule.”

“Great. There're no more jobs due, so when this is delivered you’re home free.”

“Affirmative, Hallmark. See you tomorrow.”

Rhea smiled. Going home early was a rare occasion. It couldn’t have better timing since the Harvest Festival was tonight. Having only heard the stories, Rhea wanted nothing more than to experience it herself. She would, of course, need to stop by the public gym to borrow their showers.

The nightclub’s parking lot was devoid of any visitor cars, or people, for that matter. Nighttime was many hours off; their busy streak. That made things less complicated for Rhea. She hung on the wall before landing on a crate in the business’s alley. The back door leading to the parking lot appeared a little worse for wear. Rhea gave the dented door a grimace, knocking out a precise rhythm on the metal.

---

---

Rori Aherne, & Haruka Takashiro.

^{(@FernStone and @tsukune)}

---

Academy 61, Roseview_

To get to the Academy Rori had to take the form of a bigger bird than they would have liked. They, currently, couldn't actually change what they were carrying with them. Which meant they had to carry a clarinet case as a bird. It was no easy feat - but Rori had their way of doing these things (with slow flying).

They landed in the grounds of the Academy before changing back into their humanoid form. It was a lot nicer being able to fly again - the weeks with a broken wing had been pretty hellish. They had been worried that they wouldn't be able to fly again.

Shrugging away stupid, past thoughts and headed into the Academy. They absentmindedly scrolled through their phone as they walked through the corridors. Haruka had told them where the room was... Didn't mean that they could easily find it.

That was why they had arrived so early. They had a habit of getting lost in the Academy.

This time, though, it didn't take them long to find what they thought was the right room. Since they were early they sat down and began to put together their clarinet, before waiting.

---

Haruka parked his bicycle in the designated area before he walked towards the Arts building. He was able to book the studio room without much trouble. (As an ex-student and no longer part of the Academy, he would have to rent the room, but thanks to some connections he made during the days he was still here he didn't have to pay a single cent!) The in-charge had informed him that the door had been unlocked beforehand, so if Rori was early she could wait inside the room - and it was probably better that she waited inside to avoid suspicions from the students and other instructors in the campus.

As he pulled open the door, Rori was indeed already waiting for him inside, and she had finished setting up her clarinet. "Sorry that I'm late," he began, glancing at the time on his mobile screen. "...A bit, but still late." He smiled at her apologetically.

"It's fine," Rori smiled at Haruka as he entered the room, shrugging slightly. "I left early just in case I got lost, anyway."

He set his backpack down on the grandpiano's chair and pulled out the score sheet, then an electronic tuner that he handed it to Rori, asking, "Do you need this?" He didn't particularly need it since he had been born with perfect pitch, but he still got one... just because.

Rori nodded, taking the tuner. They were musically talented, sure, and played many instruments - but they didn't quite have perfect pitch. "I practiced earlier, so it should still be in tune, but better safe than sorry!"

"It's alright - no one else will be using this room, so we can stay in here the whole day." He lifted up the piano cover before he sat down. "I need some time to do warm up too." His right forefinger pressed down the C key - it was in tune, so thankfully he didn't need to re-tune the piano. Taking in a breath, he began warming up with the major scales, his fingers running across the keyboard with expert ease. Even though Rori didn't have the same innate musical talent that he possessed, he still admired her flair with multiple instruments like himself, which made it fun to try out various duet arrangements with her.

Once he was done warming up, he turned to Rori. "I am ready. Do you want to start from the beginning?"

It didn't take Rori long to tune their clarinet - it was just a little flat, as they'd predicted.

"Yep, ready whenever you are," Rori grinned as they straightened out the sheets of music in front of them. "The beginning is a good idea." They'd practiced the piece quite a lot alone, of course, but it was very different playing in a duet. They rarely had a problem playing with Haruka though - they were both good enough, and friendly enough, that they could work through any problems that came up.

After checking to see if Haruka was ready - who counted them both in with the soft, staccato bass on the piano - Rori began playing. Rori played through the piece easily enough, they'd practiced it enough for that. Haruka's part was more mechanical since it was to set and keep the tempo, which didn't give him much room for expression like Rori's. The repetitive beat easily led Haruka slip into autopilot mode, leaving the physical memory from his past practices to play the piece while his mind was drifting to somewhere else.

To his brother, Shizuka.

Haruka received a call from his twin three days ago, It was short - all Shizuka had mentioned was that he might be coming back sometime this week (or even the week after, especially with what had happened in Taiwan), and that there was something important he had to tell him, face to face. Haruka couldn't make any sense to the second half of the message; even though it was subtle, he knew his brother well enough to be able to feel the hint of unusual urgency in his bored - well-controlled - tone. Was it about their mother, who had been missing for months with no leads to her whereabouts... or something more?

He had noticed Shizuka absently doodling a sketch of a Chinese dragon on a napkin when they were eating out on one occasion the younger twin came back to America - and then he was sent away again a few days later. Drawing was the only kind of art in which Shizuka was clearly better than the artistic elder Takashiro, something that he could be smug about only towards Haruka, who couldn't draw anything to save his life (not counting lame stick figures, of course). The way how Shizuka seemed fixated with the dragon worried Haruka. He wondered what that dragon meant to his brother - probably some dangerous triad that Shizuka had to deal with in his line of work?

There were no major issues with the first playthrough at least. Well, not until Haruka was jolted out of his own thoughts when his ears cringed at how Rori's note clashed with his - and then he realized that he was going faster. He stopped playing, then rubbing his head temples, his eyes closed. "My bad - I got distracted. We can try it again from the beginning of the chorus part."

"It's fine," Rori smiled before pausing. "Hey Haru," They glanced over at their friend, looking away from the music in a break between playing. "Are you free again later this week?"

Haruka pulled out his mobile, his thumb tapped on the screen and opened up the schedule app. "Yeah, I am mostly free this whole week." He looked up from his phone and turned to Rori. "Is there something of the matter?"

"Well..." Rori stopped a moment, trying to figure out how to say what they wanted to say. "I haven't seen any of my actual family since I left, and started living with my cousin. My younger brother has moved to Baybridge and kept asking to meet up - and I really do want to see him. Max says I shouldn't go alone, though, and she's in Spain. So I was wondering if you would come with me to meet him?"

Haruka could see why Max - who was also one of his twin's colleagues - would be worried about Rori walking around Baybridge alone. The anti-Metahuman tension had never once slipped ever since the Eco-Natura disaster back in Prince Ed-Field months ago. With Rori's obvious bestial feature, she could easily attract Metahuman-haters to bully her, getting herself hurt. He was secretly relieved that she had chosen to ask him to act as an guardian of sorts - he was glad that Rori trusted him enough to accompany her, to make sure that she would be all right.

"Sure," Haruka gave Rori a reassuring smile. "You can give me more details about the meeting once it is confirmed, and I can pick you up from your house to see your younger brother." He then scratched the back of his head, sheepish. "...I hope you are okay with motorbikes - and I will try not to ride too fast. I promise!"

---

7:23 PM

---

Havenfield Market, Roseview.

When six'clock hit, then the harvest festival began. Taking place in Roseview, Havenfield was a large celebration in the markets. Usually, this celebration takes place at any given time towards the end of the year. It may take place in September, November, or December - this year, obviously, it will take place in October. Decided months ago. However, depending on which year it takes place, it may have a different theme. This year's Harvest Festival has a Halloween theme. People were going to the festival dressed in all sorts of ridiculous outfits. Before anyone could enter, they had to register at the front entrances so that the authorities can keep track of who's entering just in case anything goes wrong.

The centralized in the largest market lot of the Havenfield Market (and the surrounding areas), the Festival is paved with stands of people selling foods, and other novelties. There was also a DOVE exhibit on the far side of the festival for anyone interested in Metapolitics.

However, all was not well...

---

Cindy Keagan, & Jennifer Caspin.

---

Havenfield Market, Roseview.

"Okay, are you sure about this?"

Cindy asked, from the confines of the strictly off-limits DOVE/RAVEN only tent. It was big, it was grey, and inside of it had everything the group needed. It had tables, chairs, and lots of files and anything they needed. Right outside the tent was numorous DOVE vehicles. Inside of the tent - seemingly on a golden pedestal - was Deborah Javuant, sitting on a common fold up chair.

"Well, I'm here." Deborah said with a wink. She had her leg crossed over the other, and drinking a cup of tea. Wearing an expensive suit with a skirt, and high heels, Deborah was quite the woman. "I can't disappoint. It'll be a surprise appearance." She cheerfully said, complementing her statement with jazz hands.

Cindy could see why Deborah was chosen to be the Chairwoman of DOVE. She was... quite charming, if she had to be honest. Cindy herself wasn't the most charming person, but it was perhaps the high-leveled cerebral abilities the woman was known for. She was probably manipulating all the events in her favor, and Cindy was none the wiser! Though, she couldn't care that much.

"Hey, Cindy," Deborah said, catching her attention. "You shouldn't worry about me, go outside and enjoy the festival...." She leaned in close to Cindy's face. "I consider you the face of Baybridge's DOVE, after all. So go out there, and be the face."

Nodding her head, Cindy figured that she should go do as much. She didn't want to be cooped up in this tent all day either, so she should go outside. See the exhibit she worked so hard to create. She stepped outside the tent, and nearly grinned. There were few food stands in sight, but instead, there was a variety of tables with plamplets, manned by DOVES that are as dedicated as Cindy.

There were DOVES discussing policies, helping people, and other rules with people, along with demonstrating of powers, and mostly just getting along with the community.

Great, great, great. Hopefully this whole event will go without anyone getting murdered, attacked, or something else weird. She casually scrolled through the event, and looked around, adjusting her glasses... until those brown eyes of hers set on a specific target.

There was a blonde-haired girl with a white hoodie on that Cindy couldn't help but recognize as Jennifer. Merely awkwardly shifting through the pamplets, obvious that she was a stranger here... With all the shit that Jen went through back in Verthaven, Cindy couldn't help but be patient with Jen.

"Hey," Cindy said as she approached, leaning up against the table. "How are you holding up?"

"Oh... me?" Jennifer said, drawn out. "I'm... fine. I decided to just stay around here since the others are going to be here...."

"Yeah, just... chill. Try to enjoy yourself." Cindy casually said.

"...Maybe I'll go get some food... I always wanted some funnel cake." Jennifer lowly said.

"Maybe we can get it together." Cindy said with a warm smile.

---

Quentin Taylor

_{(Written by @Zombiedude101}

---

Havenfield Market, Roseview.

"Huh," Quentin remarked with a hoarse grunt as he glanced in the mirror. The marks were still on his neck, where the last suspect had tried to throttle him before being introduced to the business end of a tire iron. Rubbing them, he tugged his collar back up to cover the worst of it and shrugged.

Mr. Waller had turned out to be another cold lead. No doubt the Founding Family had hired his crew by proxy at one point, but the man had known nothing that Quentin would've found useful, especially when he'd committed himself to keeping the investigation between himself and the few he trusted. The notion that there were moles in RAVEN or DOVE... well, whoever they were, they would've had hell to pay if Quentin got his hands on any of them.

For now, however, there wasn't a great deal he could do but look into things - but tonight was the harvest festival, an event which would undoubtedly attract some asshole or another to stir things up and he'd offered to keep an eye on things, even if it wasn't on official duty. It gave him a little comfort, really and a fair share of the police and RAVEN units that had been positioned throughout the festival's key points today had come to recognise him as a familiar face during his time in Baybridge, which went a long way. Turning towards the exit, he headed back outside into the market, where the tent set aside for RAVEN and DOVE attendees could be seen over towards the center. He wondered if the others were there, right now.

"Oh-"

Of course, if there was one thing that he hadn't anticipated, it was the hunger pangs that a place teeming with delicious aromatic sensations could induce. Sure, Quent might have been a little reserved about drinking here, but some good ol' fashioned American BBQ couldn't hurt, right?

Heading down to the stall, he went to get a bite.

---

Wendy Emily Lucker.

---

Academy 61, Roseview.

After the group took their big selfie on the outskirts of the Academy, the girls moved inwards towards the Academy. Eventually, making it inside of Wendy's room. The Lucker girl opened the door for them.

"...Here's my room." Wendy said. "Make yourself at home."

Diana was the first to follow Wendy into the room, and looked around with her hands in her pockets. She gave the room a good look, and leaned up against the wall as the first thing she saw was the giant-ass shelf of books.

"Jesus, Wendy," Diana said, honestly surprised. "This is bigger than the one you got at the house." She rolled her eyes up into her head.

"Ye-yeah," Wendy said. "I just expanded the collection a bit."

The rest of the girls walked on in behind her, and Jessica looked at the book collection. Tipping her hat. "Hey, now, don't give her too much hell for likin' books. Least she ain't some fat nerd playing videogames all day. Haha!" Jessica said as she found herself a nice spot on the floor, and crossed her arms.

Walking over towards the shelf, Diana looked at Jessica and rolled her eyes yet again. "... If you grew up with the bookworm in your house, you'd learn that, with her, they aren't that much different." She laughed a little as she started to shift through it.

"You know that isn't true, I've been making plenty of friends," Wendy said. "And we've been having a great time - with all of them! Especially with one friend." Wendy, in particular, was referring to Rori. Though, she realized that her circle of friends wasn't large, but she sure as hell cared for them, and that's all that matters. Really, why should Wendy obsess over being the most popular when she-

"...Dark Lover?" Diana asked as she pulled out a red book that caught her eye and began shifting through the pages.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Wendy said as she quickly ran over to Diana - only to get stopped by an outstretched hand. "That's p-private!"

"Oh my God - Girls! Come get a look at this!" Diana shouted for her girl-posse to run over, and they rushed over. Ultimately acting as a human shield.

Wendy's cheeks ran red as Diana's friends read the book with increasing amusement. All Wendy could hear was "Oh my God," giggling, and "Isn't she a little young to be reading this?"

Getting tired of it, Wendy suddenly remembered that she had the power to control paper. She stretched her hand out, and willed the erotic novel to fly out of Diana's hand, and into Wendy's hand. She slid the book into her coat as the girls gave her an amused look.

"...Just to let you know; it's okay to get a little freaky sometimes." Jessica teased Wendy.

"I don't know... that book was kind of sticky." Olivia chimed in. "How? I don't know."

"Girls, enough," Diana said, defending her little sister. "Let's not tease her too much... but just remind me to never look at her book collection again. Heh." She laughed a little bit.

Wendy didn't take any of their comments to heart. She merely adjusted her coat a little bit, and nodded her head. Though, things got a little awkward. "So, um, I'm going to be heading to a little festival in Roseview later with some friends... want to come?"

"A festival?" Diana said. "Will there be funnel cake?" She asked.

"Oh, yeah, plenty." Wendy said. "It starts at like six..."

"Well... I guess in the meantime, we'll be giving Baybridge a looksies..." Diana said as she lead her girls outside the room. "We'll be back." She said, throwing Diana the peace sign.

Nodding her head, Wendy reached inside her longcoat, and decided to read that book...

---

Havenfield Market, Roseview.

When that time came, the RV came up on the outskirts of the Harvest Festival. The door swung open, and then Jessica was the first to step out with her cowboy hat. Followed by the massive Kai with her hands in her pocket. Diana and Wendy came out at the same time, while Olivia and Brianna hopped out last.

"Hey now," Jessica said as she tipped her hat. "This a costume party? Damn, I would have brought my really sexy ones!" She started laughing.

Wendy gave Jessica a disgusted look for a moment.

"...Yeeeeeeeah, right." She wanted to add "weirdo" at the end, but she kept it to herself.

"So, are we going to stand around, or are we going to have a good time, girls!?" Diana said as she threw her hands up into the air.

"A good time!" All of the girls, sans Wendy, loudly shouted as they jumped up into the air, and hopped up. Throwing her fist up into the air too.

"Then let's go!" Diana said.

---

Malik Jakane.

---

Havenfield Market, Roseview.

So a festival, huh?

Malik thought to himself as he sat on the edge of the building with his legs dangling off the side. He sat in a relaxed position, and spied on the people underneath him. Everyone was dressed up, and having fun. It was amazing! But, Malik doesn't have time for fun and silly games. He hopped up to his feet and ran towards the fire escape that gave him a quick way to the ground floor.

After setting up in Tanya's apartment, it was time for Malik to do some work. He was hoping that he could find someone who had better insight on the inner workings of DOVE and RAVEN. April was going to be helpful later on, but he needs someone to point him in the right direction. Mostly in the direction of this Founding Family Marcella spoke so cryptically about. They sounded dangerous, but Malik can handle this.

He's an adventurer after all.

There was a heavy RAVEN presence... he didn't feel like talking to one, because they looked pretty busy. He needed to ask someone in charge, but then again.... He saw signs about a DOVE exhibit. That'll be perfect! He's going to need to beeline straight for there.

Malik tried to blend in with the crowd as he casually walked through the area.

---

Lihua Zhao.

---

Havenfield Market, Roseview.

Stepping out of the vehicle was the insanely tall Lihua Zhao.

A woman that had such a terrifying height, and appearance of authority to her. However, what she was wearing was betraying that appearance. Instead of a suit, or a dress of some sort, something that usually conveys authority. Tonight, the woman was wearing a silly costume that she had purchased online.

Her tall black heels clicked on the ground as she stood straight up. What she was wearing was a costume so standard that people would criticize her for her creativity. It was a vampire costume, with a long cloak styled like wings, dress shirt, and a skirt that was almost like a dress. She had cheap vampire fangs in her mouth.

It was a costume that Lihua choose to wear for Lijuan. She was going to save the costumes for halloween, but since Lijuan wanted to try them on so badly, Lihua couldn't help but say yes.

Speaking of Lijuan, the child was wearing a race-car driver costume. One styled after NASCAR racers. It was technically a male costume, but Lijuan liked it so much that Lihua figured that she'd buy it anyway. Whatever makes the child happy, after all. Lijuan put on a helmet, and smiled at Lihua from behind the glass.

"What are we going to do first?" Lijuan asked. "Is big sis around?"

"She's still in Singapore." Lihua said. "But, I know she'll be back for halloween... Let's just enjoy ourselves...."

---

Rowan Campbell, & Wendy Emily Lucker.

_{(Written in collaboration with @Zombiedude101}

---

Havenfield Market, Roseview.

"Dumbass carnies," Rowan snorted, with a sigh of relief.

The funny thing about being at a huge festival like this was that, well, no-one noticed the scrawny kid in the hoodie and jeans as something to regard with suspicion. With half the city's heart and soul poured into the harvest festival, all manner of people had turned up - from the working class folks looking for a distration to the typical liberally-minded characters that places like Roseview tended to attract, so Rowan fit in easily enough.

It was handy enough, especially when he found himself at a stall run by some carnie looking to earn a couple bucks. Thanks to the practice he'd had with Wendy, along with a little fine tuning of his own, he managed to tilt the balance of that coconut stand juuuust enough to tip it over. It was only fair, really - like any carnie, the guy had glued the coconut in place and the look on the cheap bastard's face was priceless when he eventually saw that same stand had broken off at the end. Rowan had quickly snatched up the tickets and bolted before the cheat could call him a cheat - last thing he needed was getting caught out as a meta making trouble.

Eventually the guy's angry voice grew too distant to be distinctly heard in the crowd, allowing Rowan to take a breather. That said, there was still a lot to do here, though Rowan had barely a clue about just what to do. Aside from Wendy and her friends, who he only really knew through her, he didn't have anyone to speak with - it was isolating, in a weird kind of way. With a shrug, he figured it might've been worth a shot to see if any of them had turned up here and reached into his pocket for his phone. Who knew - maybe there was something worthwhile he could do before he cashed in on the fistful of tickets.

Wendy you here? Anything happenin?

While she was walking alongside her sisters, Wendy recieved a text message. Digging into her pocket a little a bit, she managed to retrieve her cell phone. It was Rowan. Oh. She had completely forgotten about him. If she hadn't, the girl would have loved to invite him to meet her sisters. Well, now that he's here....

You mean the Harvest Festival? I'm here with my older sister and her friends... where are you now?

Wendy quickly sent the text in response as she kept walking.

Rowan paused for a moment as the message buzzed onto his screen, before glancing over his shoulder and tapping out a response.

Near the carnie stalls. Want some free tickets?!

Wendy still had her phone out, waiting for Rowan's answer.

"What? You texting your boyfriend?" Diana said with a smile as she teased her younger sister.

"What?! No. He's not my boyfriend." Wendy sharply answered.

"Hehe... sounds like a boyfriend to me." Diana coyly said.

"Well... He's near the carnie stands... I'm going to head over there now to meet him - if that's okay...." Wendy said, slowly splitting off from the group. Excited about the tickets... even though he probably used his powers to cheat with them. She, honestly, couldn't care less about that (That carnies are hacks themselves), along with the fact that she and him have been getting rather close as of late. Thanks to him, she can use her paper powers again... plus, she has a neat electrical ability to ultilize. Maybe exiting her comfort zone would be helpful for everyone. Since, the capabilities of paper were quite limited.

"Hey, now...." Diana said with a grin as she ruffed her hands through her hair. "We can definitely meet your friend, too."

"Oh?" Wendy said. "Oh, no. I don't want to drag you around everywhere just hang out with your friends-"

"Well, your big sister's going to follow you whether you like it or not." Diana playfully said with a grin as she stuck her hands into her pockets.

Releasing a sigh, Wendy said, "Fine." As she began moving towards the carnie stands with her sister, and her friends.

Rowan saw her before she saw him, leaning against a fence on the corner near a stand. Before she could say a word, he waved a wad of tickets in her face with that smug look he was want to have. "Carnies don't like it when you play their own game."

"Oh?" Wendy said as the tickets were shoved in her face. She wasn't surprised, because she probably expected this beforehand. She grabbed the tickets, and made sure to examine them using her paper manipulation to hold them up in the air.

"Wow," Diana said, chuckling a bit. "He won you all those tickets... you sure he isn't your boyfriend?"

"... Yes!" Wendy loudly said.

"Allllright," Diana was finished teasing Wendy. She looked at Rowan... and he certainly looked like someone who would rob her. Average heighted, scruffy... a little dirty. He didn't look like the kind of person who would be Wendy's "boyfriend" but who knows? "Oh, haven't caught your name yet... I'm Diana... this one's big sister."

The two girls exchanged glances, and Wendy was quick to correct.

"... Older sister." Wendy said.

He eyed the both of them for a moment with a strange look, before shrugging. "I'm Rowan."

"Heh, it's great to meet you."

"Rowan, hey!" Jessica said in the back of the group, giving Rowan a wave. "Excuse Diana there for being oh-so-rude that she didn't even introduce little old me."

This made Diana look at her and roll her eyes.

"Jessica," She said in a thick Texan accent. She figured that she'd introduce the rest of her group, she pointed at each of them one at a time, "The big girl is Kai, she's Olivia, and the other girl is their cousin, Brianna... Heh, we're all from that one Academy in Alaska!" She said cheerfully.

Each of the girls waved at Rowan.

"So..." Diana said, as she looked at the tickets. "Are you running some kind of ticket racketeering business?" She asked, raising her blonde eyebrow. "Because that's the most tickets I've ever seen one person have at one of these events."

He glanced to the wad of tickets in his palm, then back to Diana with an averse tone. "Well ah.. y'know, carnies have their tricks, right?" He clenched his palm just a little. "I just know how to get past 'em."

"Heh... aren't you a schemer?" Diana playfully said, she was already warming up to this boy. "Truthfully, I think all the money these stupid carnies get goes to hookers and drugs, so does it matter if you liberate some of their tickets?" She rhetorically asked. "But, enough of that... would a master mind sharing some of his trickets?" She finally asked.

That prompted a smug look from him for a moment, before he nodded. "Sure," and shoved a few into her palm, before doing the same for Wendy.

Diana took some of the tickets from Rowan, and quickly and thoroughly examined them. She quickly raised her hand, and a roll of tickets, almost identical to the tickets that Rowan gave her (The differences were so minute that it would take an obsessive amount of examination), came out of her hand.

She handed them back to Rowan.

"This is what they call... counterfeiting... Thanks for the tickets, though." Diana gave him a smile.

"Sure we should be cheating like this?" Wendy asked, raising an eyebrow at Diana. "I mean..."

"Eh, nobody's getting hurt... and I have my eyes on a very special stuffed bear." Diana looked at the stalls across from her, and saw a giant blue stuffed bear with a heart on it. I must have it. Diana thought to herself. "Besides, how about you and your friend go-" Diana made sure to fingerquote. "-earn some."

"C'mon, Wendy - you feel lucky tonight with these carnie games?" Rowan said, with a confident smirk. It felt good to be out and having fun with people.

"Yeah, sure." Wendy said, smirking in return.

"...You two have fun now." Diana said. "It was nice meeting ya', Rowan!"

---

Alice Barrett

_{(Written by @NoSuchThing)}

---

Havenfield Market, Roseview.

Alice felt like shit, last night's stint in the bar was still weighing heavy on her. Six cups of coffee and two dozen doughnuts seemed to have had no effect, and it was only thanks to a clever and careful application of makeup that the hangover wasn't clear on her face. She'd never thought that she would have used those skills for that, they'd worked though. She glanced at herself in the reflection of a car window. She might feel like shit, but damn if she didn't look like a million dollars.

The carnival was heating up, people were having fun, playing games, enjoying the sights, all around having a good time. Alice wanted to be anywhere but here. It just didn't feel right. So much shit had happened, and now people were just celebrating as if it had never happened. It was so fucking pathetic.

She wished she could be celebrating with them, and probably she would be if it weren't for this awful goddamn hangover. It felt like her skull was barely large enough to contain her brain. She rubbed her brow as she looked around. This was bad, she was at work, responsible for people, and she could barely think in a straight line right now. At least she could walk in one.