Couldn't see a damn thing. The thought came to mind as Siena fought with the onslaught within her head, forcing down the worst of Kanon's childish psychosis. Weak, useless in combat--well, perhaps not so much here--and worst of all, incapable of getting a grip on her emotions. A desperation for the spotlight, an inability to own up to her faults.

'Perhaps she reminds me of myself?' A small thought dared to try and speak over the cacophony, unpleasant despite how timid it was. Siena felt her frown deepen, attention starting to scatter as the emotions grew even more restless. Listening to Brent's assessment of the situation was difficult, even as her eyes tried to tear through the smoke. Maybe a second name for vision would have been a better idea.

But it wasn't her fault! How could she have known that Hazel would leave a layer of smoke to blind everyone?

Not her. Not her. Not her.

Even as Siena oppressed the worst of Kanon's emotional tantrum, the mage could feel her companion trying to slip through her fingers. She might have been willing to let her go in favor of someone better if not for Angel's voice tearing through the metaphorical smokescreen. Her eyes darted to the left, vision managing to catch a flicker of movement. Just enough to try and aim an attack, but Kanon was almost gone.

"Oh no." Swearing under her breath, Siena took a few steps back, one hand directed towards the beast. There was no doubt that with Kanon already starting to slip, there wasn't much hope of completely destroying the damn thing. She lowered her aim, hoping to cripple the hound by taking out a leg, if nothing else. In the heat of the moment, she could barely hear a muffled voice. Ernie's group was attacked...? The thought of human opponents flashed to mind. Could it be...? As if waiting for the Arbiter to lower her guard, suddenly the last vestiges of Kanon faded away, leaving behind only the squall behind. Shit. Something akin to frustration welled up behind the girl's thoughts, agitation building in ways she hadn't felt since the first time she'd picked up a knife. Part of her wanted to swear, but a greater part felt a surge of what should have been concern.

Shouldn't she be afraid?

But her hands were already moving, deftly producing her personal phone from a pocket, fingers only having to tab an icon for a page of text to light up, her eyes darting towards it even as her feet took her a few steps back.

"Need a new name! Cover me!" Or at least to retake Kanon's again, though it seemed that one blast at a time wasn't quite enough. Already, the telltale circle marking her abilities sparked to life, color slowly starting to bleed into her grey eyes as the mage grasped for the next name.

Gregory Irving

---

---

Biting back the urge to curse as the staircase shook and rattled from the demolition happening inside, Gregory forced himself to stop gripping the handrail and continue making his way downwards. A spike of panic punched into his heart as the stairs tilted sideways, and he looked up to see the top pull free of the roof. With imminent collapse looming overhead, he booked it down another flight of stairs before just swinging over the handrails and falling the remaining story or so.

Grunting as he pushed himself off the ground and to his feet, Gregory unclipped his phone before he bolted out of the alley. Even without Brent’s warning, the other elephantine constructs weren’t exactly subtle. The ground rumbled as they bulldozed their way towards him, and a quick glance at his map showed they were making a rather steady pace towards him. “You do mean east right? West brings me face first into one south of you,” he muttered into the phone before he sprinted across the street and ducked to keep low with the damaged buildings.

Even just a glance with his eyes told him that nothing in this quarter of town would do much to impede the massive elephantine constructs. They could just step through or over or knock aside what was left of the buildings. Best case scenario for him? They noticed all the fuss the offensive support was raising to the north of him and went to deal with them instead. For now though, rather than run through the area filled with tripping hazards and difficult terrain, Gregory ran to a manhole cover and tapped it quickly. Drawing a line to the south, away from any of the other students, he ducked aside to let the metal disc rip free and fly off before kicking a bit of rubble down and holding a flashlight over the entrance. ‘Please don’t be empty…’

---

---

---

Another blow from Callan crippled Factory's second leg, though not to same degree as the first. Regardless, the ironwork behemoth still swayed with the sudden damage to yet another support structure, crumpling back down to the ground before it had even managed to stand. The repairs weren't able to outpace Callan's output and she had quickly made herself a target to be eliminated. Its head of red-lit eyes hunted for the perpetrator and found the small offender, no larger than an ant from its height and yet so strong.

So dangerous.

Pounding against its chest alerted the construct to the other danger near its core and the creature reached a hand into the hollow of its torso, metal fingers encircling the sphere and Sander both as the wiring and attachments around the orb retracted and slackened.

It whipped the occupied hand towards Callan, using the reinforced core as a bludgeon and revealing the small ruse behind the machinations. The core was independent of the massive creature. Its location had been purely an affectation of importance, and where it was located mattered little to the existence of the remaining creatures. At the very least, what power it possessed couldn't manage both Factory and spawning more creatures, but that was only a small comfort.

Above them, Chris had reached the airborne snake and the stream of white-hot fire hissed at the fine plating across the serpent's metallic body, melting a long swatch down its form and revealing delicate machinery below as complex and physically impossible as most magical things tended to be, finishing the damage at the juncture of a wing and deforming the strange metal there, too. The snake shifted away from the source of damage before the fire could burn anything crucial, however, flicking its body back towards Chris and swatting him to the ground a fair distance from Factory in response.

There was no recovery time. The laser didn't issue from its mouth, but in a series of rapid shots from the remaining seven wings, pelting Chris's location repeatedly with pulverizing fire. The barrage lasted only a few seconds, but left gaping gashes in the dragon's hide where the repeated impacts had torn away scale and skin even if the heat from the attacks had no effect. It was reminiscent of Prism's power, often dubbed as lasers by the general populace but almost certainly far more, as if reaching a certain point in ability produced something definitively beyond the realm of comprehensible science.

Barely had the assault ended when the wings glowed again, amassing another salvo.

A relatively safer distance away, Hazel's attack dismembered several clockwork limbs, leaving the leftmost dog crippled mid-dash. A sudden shout from Angel slammed into the bottom of the projected hand holding the brown-haired girl aloft, but luckily the worst of the impact was directed at the cloud of dust which cleared instantly in the force of the scream. With a target visible and hostile towards its assigned charges, Determination rushed in, pouncing on the disabled dog and tearing it to pieces just as a chunk of dirt from Grant knocked the tulpa off and away.

To the right, Siena's weakened attack bent the metal of the charging dog's front leg, sending it toppling forward and straight into her as she attempted to pull another name. The heavy canine's torso laid across the entirety of her lower body as the clockwork twitched, trying to reorient and align itself.

In front of them, the remaining machines held back initially at Hazel's swipe, but on realizing there was no area of effect to her powers the creatures forged onwards. In the back, the spiders had finished their razor-sharp netting, the lines fine and dangerously thin. The front charge was a distraction, one that became dangerously evident when the spiders wound up and jumped, carrying the net between them like a massive sheet and falling directly downwards towards the main group.

---

"We were trying to find help." The blonde woman, Lauren, pulled at the hem of her cardigan as she spoke, leaning into her boyfriend as he draped his heavy coat over her shoulders. Her gaze fell on the two children already seated in the APC, a troubled frown contorting her sharp features as she noticed the state of their clothes-- covered in ghostly remnants of injuries that had, like her own, been miraculously healed. She quickly averted her eyes upon noticing the X on the throat of the girl sitting beside them.

"The rest of our group is hiding a couple blocks northeast of here," the man continued for her, cool brown eyes tired yet calm beneath a mess of short, thick black hair.

"How many?" asked Lawrence, now seated as he looked over his map.

"Six," he responded, "Not including us. They're holed up in the basement of the preschool over there."

Lawrence leaned forward, turning the phone in his hand for him to see, "Can you point it out?" His brows furrowed as the man indicated where. The location was closer to where those collectors were congregating than he would've liked, but if they continued moving north....

"Alright. Head north!" he shouted to the driver. The APC rumbled forward.

Sliding into view, the building the man had been referring to was easy to spot. "Kidz Preschool" was spelled out in multicolored wacky lettering above a set of shattered glass doors which were mostly blocked off by the fallen half of a banner that read "Enroll Now! Open 6 AM - 9 PM!"

"Alright. Same as before," Lawrence said, stepping from the APC. Savannah didn't protest this time. Standing begrudgingly at the truck's entrance, the man, now coatless, skirted past her.

"Wait!" he called out, just loud enough to catch Lawrence's attention, "I should go with you. They have guns. They won't shoot if they see me."

Lawrence was quiet for a moment before nodding. Turning to Sophia, he'd hoped to confirm there was nothing dangerous lurking nearby. Upon noticing that the faint glow in her eyes was no longer present, however, it seemed that wouldn't be an option. "Be extra careful until you get your ability back," he cautioned before motioning for the man to lead the way. Taking the lead, the man wore a fitted black V neck that did his tall, lithe frame less justice than did his coat. Even so, he seemed confident as he moved forward.

Inside, the school was mostly untouched. Only a few toys out of place-- fallen from shelves and tables. Fortunately Factory's attack had begun early enough that its walls hadn't yet been filled with toddlers-- though one could only imagine what had since befallen those meant to be there that morning. A string stretched across one half of the play room, handprints and fingerpainted scribbles on paper pinned up like haunting shadows of better days.

---

The town's small sewage system was cramped and often clogged. Minor upgrades and repairs had opened up new passageways and closed off others, rendering most of the outdated maps perilously inaccurate for any new worker, especially when knee-high wastewater and inconsistent fortifications made certain paths incredibly unsafe for even an experienced sanitary worker.

Inside the sewer entrance at Gregory's feet was enough sludge and stench to rouse the dead, though within the muck were the forms of litter and larger pieces of trash the town's residents had decided to dump in inappropriate places to avoid the hassle of the landfill some distance away. Tires and sticks floated in the dark liquid among general debris and segments of metal--sheets and shafts like a construction company had decided to liberally reinterpret "proper disposal techniques."

Meanwhile the collectors converged on the theater, the sounds of marching destruction dangerously close as the first creature continued rumbling through the building. Realizing its target was vaguely further away now, the creature sped for the nearest wall, crashing into it repeatedly as the concrete and support beams cracked under the force of each slam.

---

A hidden microphone in Cain's pocket relayed the gist of the situation to the black-haired girl in the repurposed coal mines. She hadn't expected the weak-willed teenager to thoroughly succeed, but failing so early in his first attempt even with the advantage of invisibility was disappointing. The white-marked boy had already made his excuses to not attack the first sets of teams, and by Linus's estimation the first two groups were nothing extraordinary, so she had relented.

But this latest group--the ones held back until the situation proved too dire to justify frugality--had the subtly deranged enhancer jittering with excitement.

"Beyond the sky," the man mumbled to himself, grinning with more teeth than elation. "Beyond the sky. Get me another one of these and I'll find a way to do it. I will. Unraveling the dream. It's possible, it's possible. Now more than ever."

But she found the circumstances of it all cumbersome.

It felt like everything was buzzing and flitting around her head, irritating her periphery, when it would be so much easier to just march towards the school and take what they wanted. Raise hell and wake the veritable demons she was sure USARILN East hid away for fear of using them and inadvertently setting them loose.

Even these strange new subnaturals and their unusual properties could be swept up in the chaos of it all, and she would be far away in relative comfort until the worst of the noise had passed.

But Isaac was adamant about not tipping their hand until he was absolutely certain he could win, and who was she to argue with her esteemed brother?

"Nasrin, I know you're impatient, but these things take time. You can't expect everything to succeed all at once--" She had closed the bedroom door on his face. He couldn't help it, but she found his voice annoying. Grating on her ears even though his business associates seemed to joke too often that he could be a voice actor with how well he presented investment candidates to his fellow shareholders and equity holders.

With the information from Linus about a strange influx of powers at USARILN East, Nasrin had taken the initiative to make these things take a little less time.

---

Is Emma going to be pissed…

That was the second time Determination was knocked away mid-assault by someone. At the very least, Hazel and Emma’s attacks deterred the charging horde from approaching if not for a small amount of time, enough for Angel to evaluate just how fucked they were.

With a clear view ahead, Angel could see what Brent had been warning her about the spiders. She had no idea what exactly the web was made of, but it certainly wasn’t anything soft judging from how thin yet glistening with a metallic gloss. Already, Angel could picture the spiders falling all around her team, slicing everyone to ribbons as the threads made contact with the flesh of her teammates.

Adding to the jumping spider menace was the charging horde of centipedes and hounds. Could it be? Were those creatures holding some sort of sentience and ability to strategize? Was that frontal assault been a plot to distract them from the lurking threats at the rear, spinning their deadly web? Most certainly, these creatures were better at working together than the handful of Mages this team was made of.

The sonic Mage’s heart was racing more than ever before. The stress kept her on edge, her mind struggling between coming up with solutions to their crisis, fighting off her stigma pounding in the backdoor of her consciousness and keep herself just focused enough to take everything into consideration.

When she saw Siena being stuck to the ground by a crippled clockwork Hound that tripped on her, Angélique’s snapped as she unconsciously shouted Siena’s name in worry. There was no way they were going to live from this fight if everyone kept getting in each other’s way. Hazel obscuring everyone’s sight; Grant blindly tossing boulders at his teammates; herself hitting her allies with her sonic waves. It had to stop.

“Hazel, swat the spiders from the sky and tear their web down!"

"Everyone else, keep the rest of the horde at bay! Focus your attacks! We have to stop getting in each other’s way! ”

Angel shouted to her teammate, her voice now heightened further by a more mundane use of her abilities to make sure her words would carry out on top of all the noise surrounding them and to those who were a bit further away, such as Hazel airborne and Emma at the back.

It may be hypocritical of her to order this as she had blasted Emma’s tulpas and nearly sent Hazel knocked from her airborne position, but it needed to be said. For the moment, Angel couldn’t afford to care about the impression she was giving or the opinions of others’. This battle was going downhill, but Angel had the will to live through this and to protect her classmates from being killed. She’ll take it upon herself to make sure they come back alive today.

Turning to a struggling Siena, the raven-haired Aberration rushed to the brunette Arbiter. While anxiety was tearing her up from inside, Angel found the focus she needed in the goal of helping a friend, saving someone close to her, someone she cares about. Focusing on what needed to be done to help Siena out of her predicament, the sound Mage manifested her resolve in the form of a point-blank shot of concentrated sonic wave, aimed precisely at the large metal hound shuffling atop Siena’s lower body.

No way in fucking hell a monster would lay their teeth on someone precious to Angel’s eyes. Even if the clockwork creature was knocked away from Siena, Angélique would release a few more furiously focused shouts at the animal to make sure it stays down and give Siena the time to get her powers back.

While screaming a machine into submission wasn’t half as satisfying as doing so on an actual living being, the obsidian-haired metal singer could feel some ease at the back of her mind; her stigma gradually satisfied with the Aberration taking it out persistently on a single target.

Hazel Baker

---

It was a bit surprising — but extremely gratifying — to have that wide sweep actually hitting anything, but it was even more surprising to have a sudden shockwave blasting her off her perch. It was enough to knock most of her growing bloodlust out of her and replace it with surprise.

She fell some distance away from the group, landing on her side before rolling to a stop. It was fortunate then, that her concentration was broken from that sudden impact of the shockwave hitting her perch; had she landed on her arms when it was translucent, she would, perhaps, had broken something, or even tore off a limb. Grunting, Hazel raised herself off the ground, oblivious to the orders Angel had barked out from the landing and slight feeling of disorientation that came after.

It was perhaps excusable that she froze for a moment upon seeing those high flying spiders, bringing down a large net upon their group. Hazel was sure she could protect herself if she rolled on her back and just projected her palms out above her, but the others will not be so lucky, nor will they have enough time to go under her cover. She could possibly destroy the web enough to render it useless, or at least not as effective, but that required her to shift her position from lying on the ground to one where she could use both her hands, taking precious time she might not have.

"They don't matter." you can't leave them like this

"Casualty. Unfortunate casualties." you aint that kinda gal

"The mission comes first. Your safety comes first." what would she say

Perhaps there was a better way. Perhaps there was something she missed, something that could simultaneously protect them from being caught under a net as well as the attacks from the approaching clockwork monsters. Pushing those whispers out of her head, Hazel acted without thinking, first projecting a large arm to sweep everyone near her away from the danger, before sitting up and projecting a large hand, grasping for the web coming overhead.

---

---

Ernie shrugged at Zoe's question. It wasn't like he had much information to work off either. "There are a lotta big factions out there. Mostly made up of Aberrations since... well, I shouldn't have to explain it to you. But who these Abes are probably won't help us much. What we need to know is how many are still gonna be after us and anything about their powers so we can tell the others." He looked to their captive. "Right, David?"

The thought that other mages would be after them froze Christmas's hands for a moment as he clumsily wound the gauze around his throat, fumbling uselessly with the bulges and bumps across the uneven wrapping and leaving the end dangling from one side of his neck when he couldn't find any tape to hold it together. How was he supposed to avoid both the machines and the enemies? The Commander had suspected another organization but the reality hadn't hit him until now.

Every movement of his head pulled on the light gash and the shoddy bandaging only irritated the wound further, so Christmas held his head as still as possible as he turned to look, dissipating the healing mist when everyone seemed all right. There was a steady panic building in the back of his head, held back only by the rush of fear and adrenaline and the light scent of cologne on the large, blue jacket draped around him. Sander had promised to finish the fight quickly. He just had to hold out until then--whenever "then" was.

Zoe sighed, doubt crossing her expression. The torture session had more than dealt with everything, meaning she didn't particularly want to hurt the kid. Part of her already knew her actions could be seen as despicable. It wasn't normal to be so ready to hurt someone else, to revel in it like she had. Ernie had let her, and he'd fired the first shot, but she'd been the one to really carry it out. That probably made her morally reprehensible in one way or another.

But if the information would help the others, then what did David matter to her? It was necessary, like it or not, and once she got started, she'd enjoy it either way. They didn't need to find out. Irritated by her moment of uncertainty, she shook her head, face set into a resolved scowl. Whatever it took, she had to be willing. "You heard him. Start talking, or we start round two, and you are really not gonna like round two."

"You may as well kill me then. I don't know any more than he does. They didn't tell me anything they didn't have to--and that's almost everything," Cain replied, fresh ear still ringing with the memory of pain. He winced reflexively at the mention of another torture session, blinking as the white, sparkling mist around him disappeared. "You have a healer," he commented almost nonchalantly. "Pretty effective one, too, if he can heal back an entire ear."

Zoe gave David a blank look, clearly bemused at the obviousness of the statement. "I wouldn't be surprised if you were lying to me at this point, so don't push your luck. No way to tell, though..." An idea sprung into her head. It was true, after all. They had no way of verifying information, but if these people were a threat, well, there had to be others that did.

She looked at Ernie, standing abruptly. "I need a second to think. See if he has a phone on him or something in the meantime, I guess."

"Tagging out? Sure," Ernie replied, sparing a look at Christmas' terrible patch-up job. Urgh, he should've just insisted on doing it for him. The long-haired boy fiddled with the roll of medical tape he'd taken from the kit and walked over. If he lived long enough for a next mission, he'd need to bring along some actual duct tape. Or handcuffs. Maybe those Brent-style tech goggles too, or just a small pair of binoculars.

He gave the captive a hearty squeeze of pepper spray as he approached. Sprayed some into the Arbiter's mouth and nose too, in case the effects would last longer that way. The captive immediately cried out, curling up and clutching his eyes and coughing violently. While the stocky boy was indisposed, Ernie rolled him onto his stomach and sat a knee onto his back. Arms behind the back, sleeves rolled up. The tape was deftly wrapped around the entirety of David's joined forearms, fingers taped up along with them to keep him from grasping any other sneaky weapons. Like straitjacket arms, Ernie noted, only behind his back. He'd have to reinforce these impromptu handcuffs with duct tape if the house had any.

"It's important to check the seams and stuff. Shoes too," Ernie commented as he searched and patted, "You wouldn't believe how many assholes try to sneak tiny knives in that way. It's really..."

And there it was. Ernie's features contorted into something between fear and rage and he held the microphone aloft for Zoe to see. How much had they heard? Enough to know that they had a healer. Enough for the healer team to be in serious danger. Fuck, he really was an idiot.

It was almost disappointing. He'd tried so hard to keep it together when Zoe was melting this guy down bit by bit. He'd reined his Stigma in line so that Christmas wouldn't have anything to fear. He wanted to believe that he could overcome that pure glee he felt from someone getting tortured physically and emotionally. Resisting it was supposed to be the first step to becoming better. But David here was so fucking adamant on testing them, wasn't he! As much as he didn't want it, Ernie felt his grimace morph into a grin. At the sight of that smile and the microphone, Christmas blanched and turned back around, shaking visibly.

David thought he was going to die? Ernie would make sure he received so much worse before that.

"It's really such a pain in the ass, isn't it?" he laughed that same giddy laugh from that day in the alley and launched a heavy steel-toed boot right into David's teeth. Brutal stomps and kicks rained down on the boy with no resistance. Ernie only stopped when he realised that he'd gotten blood on his shoes.

As Ernie lifted the microphone, Zoe's eyes widened. Shit. She thought back over their conversation. How much had they given away? Christmas' abilities, her own as well. Nothing about their location, but there was still every chance they were in danger. They'd been careless. She glanced at the healer briefly, hoping they hadn't just completely fucked him over. As the beating commenced she watched with a grim smile, deciding she didn't much care to step in until Ernie stopped. Once he did, she walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm with you on this, but try not to kill him yet." She looked at their battered victim, before shaking her head. "Mind if I take over? I might have an idea, but I'll need to properly disable him. Contact--" She remembered the microphone, stopping suddenly and gesturing for Ernie to get rid of it. He nodded and went to the next room, the kitchen. The bug was placed in the fridge for the time being.

"What's the plan? Does involve getting away from this location?" Ernie asked once he returned.

"Yeah, we're gonna have to move anyway. But I'm thinking we should bring this guy with us." She poked David with her foot. "He's not a threat anymore, but he might know more than he's telling us. We don't have any way to verify his info, but USARILN might. If we can get him to the trucks, or maybe hand him over to the evacuation team so they can take him back... There's a chance we find out more about them."

Normally she wouldn't even consider it, but now that they had him tied, his power didn't mean shit. On a personal level, just killing him felt unsatisfying, and more importantly, thinking about everything that had happened up until now gave her a bad feeling about all this. It made sense to take whatever advantages they could. She shrugged, trying to gauge whether her teammates had any questions. "That make sense?"

A nod. "Yeah, sounds good," Ernie smiled, "So what were you saying before about disabling?"

"Well... As it is, he could pull a disappearing act as soon as he's out of my range. I can snap his tendons or blind him or both, then he's not going anywhere without help." She spoke matter-of-factly, barely sparing David a glance. Just had to focus on the plan. "Could do it now or just before we hand him over. Ideally I'd wait to make transport easier for us, but it'd freak out whoever we're handing him over to."

"I wouldn't snap anything that'd make it hard to walk him around..." Ernie scratched his head. Wasn't tendon the tough, muscley stuff you were supposed to cut from beef? He didn't pursue the matter further, "Blinding is something we could definitely do though. Wait here."

He headed to the kitchen again, re-emerging with a bottle of drain cleaner. The chemical was liberally poured onto some dressing from the first-aid kit, which was taken back from Christmas, now adamantly turned away from the horrifying scene behind him. With another generous drizzle of cleaner onto David's forcibly opened eyes, some bandages, and medical tape, the caustic dressing was turned into an impromptu blindfold and wrapped around David's head. With his hands secured behind his back, there was no way he could remove it and avoid irreversible damage to his vision. It was more subtle and a lot less messier than whatever Zoe would have done.

"Does that work?" Ernie turned back to Zoe, looking a bit too proud for the nature of the work he'd just done.

"Can't fault your efficiency, at least." Zoe grinned approvingly, before it occurred to her that their classmates probably wouldn't take the same view of things. Leaning down to pull David to his feet, she spoke a touch more seriously. "If any of the others blow up at us, I'll say the torture was my idea. I doubt they'll blame either of you for not arguing with me, considering my track record."

"Your...track record," his brow furrowed as he repeated it. He helped get David to his feet, wiping the cleaner from his hands onto their captive's shirt. Once his invulnerability vanished, he'd feel the chemical sting. He was going to have to wash his hands. After a pause, Ernie used the shirt again to wipe the excess off of David's face.

Truth be told, he hadn't been thinking too hard about what would come after this. But if they were going to hand this tortured victim to the Evac Team and Marcus, who already knew about Ernie's dark side and would inevitably think worse of him...

The Aberration frowned. He didn't like how tempting Zoe's offer was.

"Let's just think about that later," Ernie replied hastily, "I need to wash my hands now. You call the Evac Team."

Zoe nodded, grabbing the radio from her belt as Ernie walked away. "Fair enough. Transmit." She kept one eye on David as she spoke, her expression unreadable.

"Evac? It's Zoe, Halvost team. We're gonna need you to pick up a rogue subnatural. The threat's been contained, but we can't afford to keep him with us. Over." Putting the radio back, she glanced towards the fridge. Wasn't sure if she should just leave the mic there, but bringing it with them seemed like a bad idea. They could retrieve it after the fight was done, maybe.

For now, they had more important concerns. She grabbed David by the arm and called out to her teammates. "You two ready to go?"

Thanks to half a bottle of soap and some furious scrubbing, there only remained a slight tingling from the chemical once Ernie dissipated his invulnerability. There wasn't much reason to keep it up now that the threat had been blinded and beaten and bound. He wanted to have the full twenty minutes for later, if needed. The remainder of the first aid kit was shoved back into his backpack and zipped up. His half-used magazine was switched out for a full one. He grabbed his puffer jacket from where it had fallen to the floor beside the couch and handed it back to the healer. Now he was ready.

"Let's move quickly. I don't want to find out if that mic had GPS on it. Christmas, keep your hand on that neck. When we get to the next location, I'm gonna fix that up properly."

The healer just responded with a barely perceptible nod, wincing again at the movement before following Ernie. His mind was still parsing the recent events and with each passing second where the rush of action faded, he felt the oppressive danger of fear. But he couldn't panic now, because who knew what would happen? Ernie and Zoe were terrifying, even if it had been a necessity, and he avoided looking at the battered prisoner they had just obtained.

The pulsing pain from his neck reminded him to ignore the inevitable guilt from the knowledge that they'd maimed a fellow mage, but David didn't look any older than the rest of them, and he was still making those horrible, pained noises as they dragged him along. He shivered from both the cold and the freshly renewed anxiety, doubled in force and almost debilitating in effect. White knuckles gripped Ernie's jacket while they walked and Christmas told himself it would be over soon. A lie or a truth, he didn't dare guess.

---

---

Sander rained blows after blows on the smooth metal, but even against his unbridled strength, it held. Frustrating. It was the Facility all over again, where even the monstrous heat of his fire failed against the clasp of stag chains. His teeth ground together, red eyes saw nothing but the obstacle between him and the rusty scent of blood. His arm pulled back, readying another blow before everything darkened. Metal enclosed around him, pressing him against the orb he was attacking. Then it moved, slamming him against something.

There was no pain, just the dull thud of the impact. It was only in his way. He reacted immediately, throwing back an elbow to free his arm before gripping at whatever was holding him in place. This metal fell apart beneath his fingers easily enough. As the titan’s fingers fell apart around him, Sander gave one last stomp on the deformed palm and lifted the stubborn orb up.

He would soften it up first. Using all his strength, Sander lobbed the metal orb into the sky, aiming for the floating snake.

Emma, in the back, was safe from both the reach of the net and Hazel's sweeping hand. She gritted her teeth- between the remainder of the dogs and the spider's web she wasn't sure where to focus. It seemed that Hazel had a handle on the net, or at least she look like she did, so Emma quickly decided focused her attention towards the combined charge of the centipedes and canines. First came Devotion, who appeared beside her. "As soon as the ones charging are in your range catch as many of them as you can in your field." she was glad that she didn't need to shout anymore, since Devotion was standing right beside her.

She paused for a moment. This would be a good situation to use Happiness, but... she'd have to stick to Love and Determination for now. She summoned them again in the same formation they held before, appearing slightly ahead of her. It worked last time, so as long as no one got in the way it should work again, right? Hopefully they'd listen to Angel, Emma thought even though she knew she was just as in the way as the others. She took a breath. "Love, once Devotion catches them start pulling them towards you! Determination, as soon as they're in your range take then out!"

---

---

---

---

Chris. The serpent. Fire. She didn't see the rest of what happened before her feet suddenly left the ground. The giant metal hand slammed into her just as she turned to face it, obscuring her vision and propelling Callan backwards into the entrance of one of the old mine tunnels. Hitting the inner wall with a heavy thud, she felt her lungs sharply expel some blood along with the rest of her breath. The earth trembled and the roof of dirt and rocks caved in on top of her as she hit the ground, catching herself on her hands and knees.

An earthy scent filled her nose as she instinctively rose her hands above her head, still coughing up a few more flecks of blood while trying not to let the sight of it get her too flustered. The job wasn't over yet. A few drops of blood were nothing compared to her leg injury last time. Feeling the uncomfortable grit of dirt between her teeth as the collapse finally settled, she dug her way out, pushing heavy chunks of rock aside as though she were wading through a ball pit.

Allison stepped away from Kusari as fast as she could, barely acknowledging the girl's words. Allison's stigma was a heavy, burning weight on her body and mind,seemingly exasperated by the situation. It wasn't at it's worst, certainly, and it wasn't unbearable, but the suddenness with which it crept into her mind at full force had startled the brunette into punching a wall.

She paced the floor of the diner, broken glass and debris crunching underfoot. Allison didn't try to think about any one particular thing, just anything but her stigma. She focused on the number of shards of glass still hanging in the frames of broken windows, the toppled chairs, the APC as it moved along its path, Lily slumped in her seat, the fire of lasers and the struggle of a Dragon in the distance, anything.

Allison didn't count the number of times she had passed Lilianna, though, upon considering that as a good pointless thing to focus on momentarily, began counting. It was 15 times rounding the entire interior of the restaurant, passing the girl in the booth seat at each count, before Allison sat into the same chair as before, fingers digging into the sides of the thing, arms much too tense.

Allison was sure she seemed ridiculous. That ridiculousness became more obvious as the silence in the diner grew, allowing the sounds of the surrounding struggle to seep in, the clanking of machines seeming too close for comfort. Allison needed to focus on that, listening to those monstrosities. If one of them really was too close, it would be best to know immediately, instead of waiting for the girl who's too absorbed in her own sick fantasies, and trying to ignore them, to realize what's going on.

Allison's eyes searched the surrounding area, her thoughts ablaze with terrible things, her hands itching to summon the shard.

Those were Chris's only thoughts as everything happened in a blur, like a massive shock wave rippling through his own perception. First he was whipped back to the earth, and then barraged by a bombardment of red light. The sheer physical power of the lasers had pierced his scales with every blow, and as a result the crater he laid in was stained deep in crimson. His own body was trimmed with streams of blood from every wound. The pain still lingered even after the dragon recovered his thoughts. His whole body was throbbing in pain.

The draconic arbiter groaned as he began to stumble back to his feet. He had a bit of a limp, not from the injury itself, but rather from the pain the injuries had accumulated. The birds were mere fodder, yet the serpent's firepower was enough to tear his hide asunder. How was he supposed to get close to it like that? Is there a cool down for its laser? How could he help his comrades in his current state. His thoughts were broken when his eyes caught the sight of the metal orb being sent towards the serpent.

It didn't matter who threw it, what it will do, or if it may be some benefit to the opponent. Chris figured in that short time frame that the serpent would be distracted by it once it gets close enough. If he gets into a stance, and flies up with whatever strength he has left in him...

Chris quickly sprang to his feet and got into a stance. His body low, ready to push off the ground in an instant. His wings were spread and flexed, ready to soar again despite their injuries. His left eye was closed as he was still trying to power through the throbbing pain. As soon as the snake construct would turn its back, Chris planned to tear it in two.

Kusari watched as Allison paced around like an agitated animal. This wasn't just nerves, she was fine a moment ago. It was likely her stigma acting up. Kusari still didn't know how to feel about Aberrations. She wanted to relate to them, after all they were Subnaturals just like her, there were plenty of people out there that would be glad if they just dropped dead, just like her. But she couldn't empathize with them. She still remembered the nightmare she'd had, to think anyone would choose it over the Arbiter's dream was insane.

So she wouldn't pretend to understand, and she wouldn't give her false pity. If she couldn't find a way to help then it was pointless. She walked over to Allison, getting slightly irritated at her left arm as it needed to be maneuvered around the diner. "Allison,
is it bothering you? Your stigma I mean." She really needed to learn how to be tactful.

"We can't have you freaking out in the middle of an emergency, so..." Kusari let out a heavy sigh, she couldn't believe she was doing this again. "If it gets to be too much, you can take it out on me. It uh, stigmas are dealt with by destroying things, right?" Hearing herself speak out loud, it really was shameful how little she knew.

Marcus had also noticed the absence of Sophia's glow as they approached the prechool; a visual clue that he assumed meant her ability had run out for the time being. With no way to tell what was around them, Marcus didn't enjoy the thought of stopping that much, but he liked the idea of leaving people to die even less.

"If you notice anything, anything at all, you call for us. Even if you're not sure - say something." Marcus said to the people in the APC, adding onto Lawrence's statement. "It's better that we be paranoid and careful right now, so you keep your eyes peeled."

He made sure to look to both of the subnatural girls, before following Lawrence inside.

The interior of an abandoned preschool was as spooky as it was depressing; a harsh reminder of the little people caught up in the conflict. Marcus found himself worrying about all the attendees, hoping that they'd managed to get out at some point. The fact that he was probably hoping in vain wasn't a possibility he wanted to think about.

He nearly jumped as the radio crackled to life, pulling it off his belt and up to his ear.

"Evac? It's Zoe, Halvost team. We're gonna need you to pick up a rogue subnatural. The threat's been contained, but we can't afford to keep him with us. Over."

"Rogue subnatural?" Marcus asked, a slight hint of surprised confusion in his voice. That kind of pickup wasn't the best of ideas, especially with the knowlege that the rogue subnaturals around here were not exactly friendly. Still, Halvost Team was Ernie's, the same one who had told him to kill any subnaturals he saw, and now they were requesting one be shuttled out of the area.

Whatever the deal with this one that was so special, Marcus was at least confident that Ernie wasn't trying to doom the entirety of Evac team to death by giving them a subnatural threat to deal with. He sighed once, not exactly thrilled about the demand, but at least willing.

"Alright, drop him off somewhere away from you, mark his location, and we'll swing by and pick him up." Marcus clipped the radio back to his belt, giving a slight jog to catch back up to Lawrence and the other man. His eyes brushed over Lawrence's bloody sleeve as he walked with them. He wanted to apologize, but there was really nothing he could say to amend the situation. Later. There'd be time to own his mistakes later.

Though five minutes sometimes seemed like such a short time, it seemed like an eternity to spend without her power on. Without her power Sophia was useless to the group, like at this moment. Returning Marcus's gaze before watching him leave with Lawrence and the other man, she kept her eyes peeled for anything out of the usual. Not that she had much of a chance of seeing anything hostile before it would be almost upon them. Still, she had to try. It was only five minutes, only five minutes, only five minutes. Those three words repeated over and over in her mind as she sat there, tense.

Leading them through the play area and down a hallway past a couple of small offices, the young man motioned for Marcus and Lawrence to back up as he neared a heavy metal door. On the other side was a dark stairway leading down into the basement. The last few steps were lit by a dim flashlight for a split second before being shrouded in darkness again. One could just barely make out a few urgent whispers as the man stepped through the door cautiously.

"Guys? It's me! Dean! I found help!"

"Dean?" An electric lantern flickered to life, casting the room in a bright, bluish light. Among several boxes of spare paper towels, craft paper, and old play mats were several individuals huddled together. The man holding the lantern stepped forward, holstering his pistol as his weathered features softened with relief. He wore an old brown jacket and a thick red felt scarf. Despite his thinning gray hair, the man seemed physically sturdy and exuded a confident demeanor-- similar to Dean.

As Dean decended the stairs, however, waving for Lawrence and Marcus to follow him, the man to his right, donning a green baseball cap and shotgun, tensed.

"Subs?!" he grimaced, spotting the marks on their faces. Before he could raise his gun, a third man smacked him upside the head.

"They're white marks, stupid!" the man barked. As he turned to face them, the heavily applied and bloodstained gauze wrapped around his right eye came into view. He smiled apologetically, adjusting the collar of his black turtleneck sweater, "Sorry about him. He's an idiot. Still not sure why he gets to hold the shotgun, to be honest."

He muttered the last bit as he shot a one eyed glare at the man in the green hat.

"Like we're gonna give it to some weirdo with one eye," he muttered back, adjusting his hat.

"Hey now, buddy-- you don't know the first thing about me!"

"Will you two knock it off?!" an older woman with short blonde hair hissed. There was a familiar sharpness to her features as she stepped into the lantern light, a sleeping child drapped over her shoulders and chest while another clung to the hem of her jacket. "Dean, where's Lauren?" she asked curtly, bright blue eyes wide with apprehension.

"She's safe," he answered calmly.

"Are you sure we can trust them?" an older girl said, stepping out from behind the blonde haired woman. Her hair was straight and black with side swept bangs. She wore a black petticoat and thin purple scarf, timidly holding it up over the lower half of her face with both hands as her light brown eyes darted between Marcus, Lawrence, and Dean.

"If it affects your little discussion at all, I certainly think we're trustworthy!" Marcus piped up from behind Dean, giving the group around them a weak smile before clearing his throat and getting down to business.

"My name is Marcus, this here is Lawrence." he said, giving a quick nod to his teammate as he introduced him. "We're here with the express purpose of getting you people outta here as soon as we can, as safely as we can."

The girl blinked back at Marcus for a moment before lowering her scarf, returning his smile with a coy one of her own. Though she was short, she didn't seem to be much older than he was.

"Hey, well I'd rather take my chances with these guys than down here," the one eyed man nodded, stepping forward to join them, "You guys wouldn't happen to have any healing powers, would you?" He pointed to his bandaged eye with a cheeky grin, "Because this hurts like hell."

"LAWRENCE!" Before either of them could answer, Savannah's voice shouted through the older Arbiter's radio, "LAWRENCE!!"

Lawrence exchanged a quick look with Marcus as he pulled the radio from his belt.

"What is it?" he asked, quick but calm.

"I think you should come up here! NOW! We need help!"

"Alright, calm down. Stay in the truck. I'm on my way." The others watched in alarm as Lawrence returned the radio to his hip and moved back towards the stairs.

"Make sure everyone's ready to go. I'll radio you as soon as I know it's safe." With that, he darted up the stairs, closely followed by Dean, who seemed hellbent on ensuring Lauren was alright as he ignored protests from the older man and blonde haired mother.

Marcus turned to look at Lawrence as his radio ran out, tensing up at Savannah's apparent distress. With her cry of help, Marcus turned to go up the stairs, interrupted by Lawrence as he and Dean went running up. "Make sure...? You want me to wait down here!?" Marcus shouted after him, arms stretched out in disbelief.

He turned to look at the crowd of people gathered in the basement, the dilemma showing through his eyes. If the group up in the APC was having trouble, that left Savannah, Sophia, Lauren, and the two kids in trouble. If he left, that meant this little group was more vulnerable if anything tried to slip past them. But he couldn't just leave his team to whatever it was that had spooked the APC crew.

He spoke aloud to the group, eyes moving to meet each of them. "Alright, get what you need to grab, and be prepared to move out of here!" he said, trying to rally the survivors. He turned to speak directly to the man with the shotgun, keeping his voice a little bit lower. "I'm going up. You shut that door behind me, and do not open it unless it's one of us three; Marcus, Lawrence, or Dean. Got it?"

The man in the green hat nodded.

"You're leaving us?" the raven haired girl said, frowning helplessly as she approached. The others said nothing as they hastily gathered up their things.

"Just for a second." Marcus said, turning on the bottom step to look at the girl. "Gotta sure they don't scratch our ride!" he added this last part with another nervous grin, forced out through a face that undoubtably hinted at his unease. Without waiting for her response, Marcus climbed to the top of the stairs to join the rest of his team.

---

Savannah sat in the doorway of the APC, swinging her legs as she drummed her fingers against the metal door frame.

"Hey, kid. Can you knock it off?" Lauren muttered irritably, "How are you guys gonna hear anyone coming with all that noise?"

Savannah shot the woman an angry look over her shoulder, but ceased the nervous habit by tightly crossing her arms.

"Sophia, is your power back on yet?" Savannah asked.

One stiff shake of the head was Sophia's reply as she glanced over at Savannah, a worried expression on her face. "Still not." In a still quieter voice she added, "But I sure wish it were."

Savannah frowned, but said nothing else. Several uneventful seconds passed before a distant crash caused Savannah to gasp.

"Did you here that?" she asked loudly, slidding off her seat.

Another crash. It sounded like it was coming from a few blocks north.

The noise caused Sophia's heart rate to spike as she jumped, resuming her observation of their surroundings with more vigor. But still no power, and she could see nothing wrong. Did she hear it? Of course she heard it. It was what was not supposed to happen, especially not when Marcus and Lawrence weren't with them. It didn't have anything to do with those loud footsteps they had heard while driving earlier, did it?

"M-maybe we should call... radio, them? Or..." A pause as another crash sounded. "I really don't know what that is!"

Crash!

Fumbling with the radio, Savannah clutched the device with both hands, "LAWRENCE!"

Crash! Whatever it was, it was clearly getting closer. A shard of glass left clinging to the doorframe of the preschool fell to the ground and shattered.

"What is it? came Lawrence's quick reply.

Crash!

"I think you should come up here! NOW! We need help!" Savannah's hands shook as she looked at Sophia.

"Alright, calm down. Stay in the truck. I'm on my way."

"O-okay..." Savannah said, forgetting to press the button as she spoke. She turned around to climb back inside, but paused as another crash sounded, accompanied by shattering glass and the sound of metal against metal. It sounded so close. Her lips flattened into a line. Balling up her fists, Savannah glanced at Sophia before making her way towards the east side of the APC, peering around it carefully.

Gregory Irving

---

---

Fighting back the urge to vomit as the stench nearly forced him away from the opening, Gregory settled for looking away after taking in the conditions. Probably been a bit too much to hope for sewer channels in a small town like this. Taking another glance, he shook his head again as his eyes watered from whatever the hell was in the air down there. ‘Next time, gas mask...’

For now he had to bolt though. Tucking away the flashlight and looking at the map again, Gregory figured his best bet was to head north a bit before actually cutting west like Brent had mentioned earlier. ”Evac, I’d stop driving straight. Elephants are about to be on the road north of you,” he called into the phone before booking it away from the open manhole.

”Brent. Passing by south of you. Maybe duck out of sight? Coming to a stop as he rounded the corner of the building, he spared a glance out from the corner back towards the theater and then at the phone in hand.

”Oops.” Was what came out of Grant’s mouth when he witnessed his chunk knock one of Emma’s minion things away from the Metalwork it was coming toward. No time to dwell, only time to push on.

More of the Metalworks had begun to advance on the group of students, and the line still had to be held... Deep breaths and focus, he told himself over and over. Just as his chains had begun to lower back down to the earth once again, his eyes narrowed up at the Metalwork spiders that had just launched themselves from behind their charging allies. ”What the…” The second thing for Grant to notice was the net being lead by said spiders.

Before Grant could do anything to act against the strange attack, his feet parted from the ground, and then his body met with it again in impact and sliding. A grunt and confusion came after, his mind putting together what had just happened. His teammate had just swatted him away from the area of danger, at least as much as they could. No, he had to get up. He looked around again. He needed to focus on the approaching horde again. Pushing himself up and shaking the daze away, he heard Emma’s commands to her minions. Taking notes in his mind, he lowering his chains to the ground. Steer clear of Hazel, aim for Metalworks still untouched.

He waited for Emma’s minions to follow her commands at first before he pulled up a chunk once more. Being sure to not hit Hazel, he let loose another chunk, as he has been doing for most of the fight so far, but if it works, then there’s no reason to stop. At least not yet. He had a feeling that he needed to do more, and these Metalworks were getting close. Too close for comfort.

What…what the hell?

Offensive Support was certainly doing work on an individual basis, decimating even more canines, but as Brent watched from a safe distance, his Overclock on the scope finally dissipating, all the arbiter could see was his teammates getting into each other’s ways constantly. Hazel getting knocked out of the sky by Angelic’s scream, Emma’s tulpa getting swatted by Grant’s chunks of dirt, Siena basically…


“SHIT.”

The scope locked back onto the desert eagle, Brent ensuring the safety was switched off as he held the hand cannon in both hands. Amethyst eyes aligned with the scope as silver veins traced down his arms into the weapon, reassembling the weapon into something that gleamed white, neon purple lines tracing down the side. ‘N0 NAME’ was engraved on the side of the barrel, and looking down through the scope, Brent centered the red dot of the scope onto the clockwork canine that was much too close to mauling her.

The bullet would definitely land where the red dot was, but he didn’t have a good enough angle. It’d end up punching through its head and shooting Siena as well, and he couldn’t risk that. His finger pressed against the side of the warm gun, flesh white as breath hissed between clenched teeth. He couldn’t do anything to giant centipedes or fast moving canines or spiders, but at the very least…

A chorus of shouts drove the clockwork canine back, Angelic’s sonic blasts being more than enough to knock the mangled dog away, and as it laid there, Brent aligned the targeting display and fired. With nary a sound, a purple beam crossed a distance of 200 meters in less than a second, aimed to pierce through the skull of the clockwork monster. It may have been overkill, but ensuring things were dead was his job. Immediately afterwards, he lowered his gun and brought out the phone once more, scanning over the rapidly developing battlefield.

The spiders had finally launched their attack, a skywards net-dropping maneuver that prompted Hazel to pull everyone else close to her while another one of her ‘hands’ formed a roof. Emma was once again pulling out her squad of monsters, issuing orders. Grant seemed to have given up on all smart thinking and just continued on with tossing chunks of dirt, but if nothing else, it was working.

They would be fine.

They would be fine?

Even Experimental Unit A wasn’t fine. After all, now that they were all grouped up, wasn’t it an ideal scenario for the centipedes?

“Hazel!” Brent shouted into the phone, “Lift everyone up! The centipedes are going to surround and crush you!”

The x-mark’s anti-matter ability was powerful, but considering how a sonic blast was enough to destabilize it, how much protective power would it provide against those massive metal worms, constructed from the magic of a subnatural that was singlehandedly taking on all of them? Should he go for another Overclock? Try to increase destructive force this time?

He suppressed that urge. If Hazel could react in time, if Emma could slow down the horde in time, they would still be fine. The rumbling of the giant clockworks could be heard coming closer, alongside Gregory’s warning, but at five stories up, behind a grill, Brent remained where he was.

He needed to calm down. He already fumbled with his directions to Gregory. He may have just wasted a bullet and made himself known to the enemy. His directions, his orders, may not even be making full use of Hazel’s own offensive potential, as he was more or less relegating an x-mark to a supportive task.

Brent let out a breath.

He calmed down.

“Copy that, Grego. Siena, are you alright?”

---

---

---

Angel’s attacks punched shallow holes into the dog’s body as the force of her screams shoved the construct off Siena and a purple line of light from Brent’s direction shut the construct down before it could get back up, slicing clean through the creature’s skull and cutting into the earth below before dissipating. The closest clockworks noticed the attack and relayed the information to Factory, but their creator was fending off its own problems for the moment.

Less than a second later, Hazel had forcefully rounded up the group with one hand while her other projection sheared a clean, hand-shaped section into the net just as the spiders crashed to the ground around them, bodies hanging low between their splayed limbs before they recovered from the jump. The metal netting settled around them, still attached to the clockwork arachnids’ front legs as the centipedes, true to Brent’s prediction, began looping their bodies around the cluttered group. The dogs spread around them as well, waiting to finish off whatever remained.

Another of Grant’s projectiles smacked a spider backwards, sending it reeling and tugging at the net, which gathered around their feet. Taking the cue, the other spiders shuffled carefully in unison with the centipedes, tugging the remnants of the net towards them and busily repairing the damage in the center, holding the net upright like a mesh wall around the group. Several of the spiders were tightening the strands with careful flicks and rapid motions from its legs and others detached themselves from the metallic strands, swinging sharp appendages at the centered group to keep them corralled for the kill.

Following their orders, Emma’s tulpas set to work, Devotion’s sludge catching the centipedes, spiders, and the group in its sludge as Love began dragging a spider towards it. The sludge hindered the pull, however, and the creature moved sluggishly through the ground. Determination was equally stuck, even with its superior strength, and waded waist-deep in the sludge still trying to reach the target Love was pulling.

The double-edged play had the advantage of slowing the centipedes as well, and while they paddled more effectively in the sludge than the spiders, they couldn’t tighten the chokehold at any appreciable rate.

With the entire swarm of creatures bypassing them in favor of attacking the second group, Ethan’s team took the time to let their crowd controller descend slowly from his perch, the teen’s breathing ragged from how long they had held the position. The dark-skinned boy was still breathing heavily, an arm around his stomach as he doubled over. Myla and Eric caught the inorganic decomposer as he finally settled towards the ground and each of them helped one of the exhausted mages, moving away from the center of battle and towards the relative safety of the damaged buildings in the distance.

Ethan and Genevieve remained, free to move now that the clockworks’ attentions had shifted towards much more effective targets. With a quick nod at Genevieve, Ethan moved forward, letting the girl take a moment to drop the barrier and move with him. They set up again close enough to the beleaguered group for Ethan to catch two of the dogs waiting on the outside with two separate explosions, drawing the canines’ attentions back to him. The centipedes, however, ignored the attacks, their bodies still trying to tighten around the group.

Near the site of collapsed dirt and old support beams broken beyond repair, Callan’s destructive entry into the mine shaft had garnered someone’s attention, but they remained quiet around the far, darkened corner that led further and deeper into the underground maze of tunnels, watching the powerful subnatural dig herself out with little trouble and banking on the darkness to keep him out of sight and out of mind. Nasrin had wanted as many of this group’s subnaturals dead as possible, but he certainly wasn’t going to make it his business to deal with someone this powerful personally. That was Galen’s job, that goddamn psychopath. Dylan just made sure their hideout stayed intact. With any luck, the girl would rush back outside soon enough and he wouldn’t have to worry about it. It wasn’t like he had joined the group to murder anyone. He just didn’t particularly mind if he had to.

Towards Factory and the floating snake, Sander’s pitch was spot-on even if he hadn’t been too particular about aiming. The sphere rocketed towards the floating serpent that, focused as it was on Chris, failed to notice the turmoil happening directly below it.

Metal collided with more metal in a dazzling display of sparks, the orb emerging from the collision mostly intact while the snake floundered in the air, two of its remaining seven wings smashed into pieces that rained down below. At the apex of its flight path, the sphere began falling, its trajectory en route to collide with Factory’s shoulder.

The gargantuan machine in question was stumbling to its feet again, the swaying of its body unmistakably out of balance as its two remaining legs struggled with bipedal locomotion.

---

There it was again.

A crash accompanied by shattering glass and metal against metal. Only this time, there was also a scream. And it wasn't Savannah's.

Her eyes widened as she watched a car come rolling out sideways from between two tall buildings several blocks away. Narrowly dodging the battered vehicle, a man was sprinting down the street. A long metal arm reached out from behind the nearest building and smashed against the ground as it groped after the man. Its fingertips clipped his ankle and he screamed as he tripped, skidding painfully across the pavement. Despite a nasty gash in his face and shoulder, sprinkled with sharps bits of asphalt, the man scrambled to his feet and kept running.

The rest of the monstrosity soon came into view, long arms reaching as it blinked its many red eyes and stepped forward with another crash. Its elephantine body toppled over a street lamp and kicked aside another car as it moved.

"He... he needs help!" Savannah exclaimed, stepping out from behind the APC. "Hey!" she called out half heartedly. The sight of the metal beast made her hands shake and filled the air with a putrid aroma. It smelled like death. Nonetheless, she took a step forward. And then another.

It wasn't right. She was always sitting in the backlines. Always so useless. Most of the time the fault was her own, but now, when she wanted so badly to help, Lawrence just wanted her to stay in the truck while they went ahead and rescued people like heroes. Why? Did they not think she could do it? Because she was small? Because she was an aberration? She grasped for that familiar fire that seemed to help make everything seem less scary than it was. It had been four hours since she'd sated her stigma at Ground Zero. It was weak but it was there-- there for her to build off of now so she could show them. She'd show them all. Red hot anger spurred her forward. But just as she broke into a run, Lawrence caught her by the wrist.

"LET GO!" she screamed, trying to jerk away, "That guy needs help! Someone's gotta tell him to run over here!"

"We can't," Lawrence replied as she continued to struggle, "He'd lead that thing right to us. It's too dangerous. Now keep your voice down. And get back in the--"

"Stop telling me to stay in the truck!" she shouted in a shrill voice, aiming a kick at the Arbiter's shin. He moved his leg out of the way, filling her with even more rage as her foot hit nothing but air, nearly throwing off her balance.

Unable to discern whether or not this was a stigma issue or something more, Lawrence didn't much care. Either way, he didn't have time to stand here and talk Savannah down. They needed to get out of here while the collector was still distracted. Knowing the gist of what Savannah was capable of, he released her wrist as he activated his power. Just as the glow began to envelope himself and the young Abe, however, Savannah, in one last act of ire, shoved him hard in the chest. The weight behind her shove had little effect on his stance, but as a circle and arrow shaped sigil took shape on the front of the Arbiter's coat, his eyes widened with surprise just before the explosion went off.

Lawrence was knocked backwards onto the pavement, partially caused by the sudden urge to move away from the flames and sparks as they singed his coat and scattered against his cheek. Fortunately, the wishalloy protected him against any severe burns. Nonetheless, Savannah covered her mouth with both hands and stood there, frozen.

Crash! At the sound of the small explosion, the collector paused mid-step while the man made it to the other side of the street, disappearing into the labyrinth of storage units located there.

From behind the APC, Dean held Lauren's hand tightly as he watched the scene unfold. "That crazy little bitch is gonna get us all killed," he muttered under his breath.

---

Gregory was out of the collector’s range by the time it smashed through the building’s back wall and sent a third of the structure crashing to the ground around it. Confused, it wandered north, arms still groping and clawing through cement and asphalt as it resumed its initial purpose of searching and gathering any remaining survivors. At its current trajectory, the creature would soon run into the offensive support group.

The signal for the rest of the creatures to gather ceased, but two of them plodded towards the ruined theater anyway while a third wandered towards the demolished school nearby.

Around Gregory’s location were various battered and broken repair shops for electronics, several demolished clothing stores, and the wreckage of a small grocery store, all of the mom-and-pop variety with what looked like living quarters above the main sales floor. An auto repair shop lay in ruins down the street, tires and tools scattering into the sidewalk while traces of blood and viscera along the ground and across some walls hinted at struggles that the citizens had lost.

---

Linus had his eyes turned to the ceiling in the spacious metal room, watching with increasing interest the pinpricks of light across his vision. Others could see them, too, but without Linus’s power, the flutter of white dots seemed little more than glimmering dust in front of the man’s face.

To Linus, each one was a source of power—a fragment of Dreamcatcher’s magic. Some shone more or less than others, with as much variability in brightness as the stars in the night sky, but the ones he was tracking feverishly looked like blazing suns. Bright beyond belief and almost irresistibly powerful, like they were drawing directly on the source itself, in a way the regular specks of light couldn’t tap. He couldn’t tell which was which without some time spent personally with the user, unfortunately, and he felt like he might have been able to before he messed with the ability, but there was no reversing his effects so he didn’t dwell on the loss of a function.

He had plucked at the threads of his own power carefully, deciding he didn’t mind a few hallucinations and night terrors for the forced changes in his power, and now he watched the lights move with their owners, grinning all the while.

The conversation over the hidden microphone floated towards his ears, but Linus was only half-listening. Something about a healer and losing contact, but he wasn’t concerned with it unless they had something to say to him. Nasrin and Galen were the ones who talked the talk and walked the walk. He was happy enough not needing to manage any more than just his own cell of Fracture and more than happy to relinquish responsibility to the easily irritated Nasrin. At least the girl knew enough to turn the trait into power. It just took a lot of dead people here and there before Fracture members realized she wasn’t kidding about her zero tolerance policy for disrespect. The only ones left were the ones who would listen to orders or the ones too valuable to kill for light transgressions.

When Nasrin asked him to locate Cain, he had to remember which speck the boy was—it was so easy to forget even after affixing a name and face to a light, but Nasrin’s own ball of light wreathed as it was in prickling shadows that stretched and grasped for the lights nearby was also a source of distraction. He swatted at a shadowy hand only he could see, watching the irritation build in the furrows of her forehead.

Linus grunted from his own annoyance, finally locating the particular sheen of sparkle that was the invisibility user. Cross-checking between the skewed perceptions of his power’s senses and a map was a struggle, but he eventually found a rough location.

”Nothing precise, remember,” he clarified again as Nasrin sent three of the nearby X’s to retrieve the healer and take down the rest. ”Things got a little wonky with my…depth perception on these things after, I think, the fourth or fifth time I messed with it.”

A mirthless chuckle followed and he squinted again at the corrupted flares of light that both Nasrin and her personal bodyguard, Galen, possessed.

”Wish you’d let me try my power on you two. Animi’re pretty interesting, too.”

A glare from Nasrin ended that line of questioning and Linus raised both hands in mock surrender.

”I know, I know. I’ll just amuse myself with this real bright healer you’re bringing in.”

---

Being positioned in such a way her back was facing the group, Angélique had been caught completely off-guard by Hazel’s arm sweep. The raven-haired Aberration was so focused on blasting the mechanical hound in front of her that when the purplish arm dragged her to the center of the group, she was knocked from her feet and abruptly met the soil face first.

She lied there for just about a minute, dazed and confused as to what had just happened. Opening her eyes and slowly shaking off the haze, she knelt amidst a pile of half-disintegrated debris; trashed remnants of her own gear. Having been hit sideways by Hazel’s arm, everything that hadn’t been covered by Wishalloy on her left side was disintegrated or damaged. That included her belt, part of the rifle hanging on her back, the radio and the left side of her unprotected clothing, which was mostly half of her military uniform and some parts of the clothing underneath.

Scattered on the ground at Angel’s feet were the pepper spray, the combat knife, half of the disintegrated rifle, the intact shotgun that had left the woman’s hands during her daze and the useless disintegrated helmet that had fallen off her head. As for the clothing, her left shoulder was now completely bare, as well as her left hand and – to her greatest shame – her entire left hip, waist, butt cheek and a clear line of her upper pelvic area was now exposed.

Feeling the sudden cool breeze of an autumn’s evening, Angélique’s face blushed just as red as the day she had been caught wandering practically naked in a hotel in a drunken haze. Piecing the puzzle pieces together, the Mage realized it must’ve been Hazel who had hit her, or at least grabbed her violently to bring the singer closer to the wild Aberration.

Unaware that Hazel had in fact saved them from being sliced to ribbons by the webbing of wires from the clockwork spider, Angel swiftly got up to her feet, one hand covering her exposed ass cheek and the other hiding her uncomfortably unearthed inner thigh and pelvis, Angel shot up the meanest glare she ever did before at Hazel.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!? KEEP YOUR GODDAMNED HANDS ON THE ENEMY!”

Angélique yelled, her composure practically snapped from all the stress this fight was giving her and now the humiliation inflicted to her by Hazel. If this was the ridiculously out-of-place geared girl’s idea of revenge for having been thrown off her perch, she damn well succeeded at pissing Angel off.

She hadn’t been the only one to suffer from this kind of humiliation though. Siena had also been knocked off her feet; evidence of Hazel’s doing as parts of the brunette’s clothing were disintegrated as well. A hint of worry had crept up on Angel’s face, not completely dismissing the scowl etched on her face. The poor girl had thrown off to the ground by a hound just a few minutes ago, to be then done in like that again by a teammate.

That girl is a danger to your group’s survival! To YOUR survival. She must be dealt with swiftly!

“Siena, are you alright?” Angel echoed Brent’s words, equally worried about the Arbiter’s well-being as the Aberration knelt beside Siena to check up on her.

If you don’t kill her now, you will be the one to die for her foolishness!

As much as Hazel proved to be a huge liability so far, she was also the most efficient fighter of her group. Would they have made it that far without her powers? Also, she was a classmate, someone she had internally vowed of keeping safe and bring back alive from this mission. She couldn't just bring herself to scream the girl down and feed her to the clockworks, could she?

Shifting her gaze from Siena to her surroundings, Angel just realized how truly fucked her group was now. Despite being slowed down by Emma’s Devotion, the clockwork army was now closely circling all around them. Centipedes were surely going to try and crush the group as they would tighten their formation, and the spiders provided a barrier than none could pass and would slice everyone up as they drew closer as well.

Rage bubbled inside Angélique once more, this time far more intense than how she felt before during this fight. The feeling of being humiliated this way by a teammate and the powerlessness caused by her inability to destroy a monster all by herself like every other members of her team could, she couldn’t bear it anymore.

For the moment, her mind was consumed in a veil of hatred. Screw strategy. Screw tactics. Fuck trying to come up with plans. Most of all, fuck the others not listening to her. Deep inside, there was a darker intent rising to the surface.

Reclaim your superiority! Don’t let those lowly dogs stand in the path of your righteousness!

Mustering the faintest hint of compassion left in her from the colliding darkness, Angélique turned away to face a direction where she would hit none of her teammates; a direction no one would get in her way.

Then, the infuriated Aberration released a barrage of unbridled broad sonic waves, aiming at nothing in particular but annihilating the northern formation of centipede and spiders circling around them right in front of the direction she was facing.

Hazel Baker

---

She wasn't sure if she could pull it off, but it would seem she had managed to somehow.

Through the hole torn in the net, the team seemed to have escaped relatively unharmed. What more, the monsters had brought themselves into her range, something she was quick to notice. Angel however seemed to be angry at something.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!? KEEP YOUR GODDAMNED HANDS ON THE ENEMY!”

She did not understand why Angelique was angry, nor the rest of the others for that matter. Emma seemed to be the only one she could understand at least a little. Lawrence too. Angel was neither one of those assigned to her or someone Hazel recognized as having authority however, thus only an automatic response came from her.

"I see. I'll keep that in mind." the monsters kill them kill them kill them survive

Once again, she jumped onto one of her projected hands. Twisting her body as far as it could go, she projected another massive sword, jamming it into a point on the circling monsters, before turning her entire body and arm to cut a wide circle around the group, slicing through any unfortunate spiders and centipedes that the blade hits.

---

---

There were cracks in its armor. His victory drew near. Sander could smell it; the rusty scent that had begun to permeate the air. Blood. The monster’s blood. As the orb descended, he watched, uncaring of the lumbering titan before him or the wounded serpent in the sky. Those weren’t his concern. The scent was. His duty was to kill, and that was that. He could do it, and he knew he could do it well. Behind him, he could vaguely smell Callan’s sweeter scent. She was bleeding, somewhere. Above, Chris was wounded as well, the scent of pine needles was very strong. A part of him wished he could help them. The rest knew he couldn’t.

So Sander just held on the singularity of his purpose. He dashed toward the falling orb, leaping at the very last moment to knock it out of the air and into the ground. The impact only threw up more dirt and debris, but Sander soon resumed his pummelling on the metal surface. A touch of desperation was there too, as he moved his hands to catch and absorb the sliver of red.