---

---

---

Courtbridge, Prince Ed-Field_

Kannix felt water dripping from above and knew for whatever reason the sprinklers were on. The wet stream made her clothes and hair cling to her body. It was a bad time to wear long-sleeves and her hair covered her eyes. Spreading her bangs to bring back her vision, she only caught the glimpse of blond man getting flung away.

In the instance of this suddenness, she empowered herself again as a reflex for safety, deflecting whatever would hit her. Next thing she noticed, however, was the long string of fire knocking the beast that had been charging at her away.

“Whatever I do? Heh. Sure.” Even in the state of it all, she spoke calmly and even arrogantly. She watched as another beast charged at her tag-team partner, only to be sent hurtling back with an arc of flame.

So cool.

She readied herself in a quick crouch before launching herself. The tiles beneath her cracked violently, evidence to the power that she brought. Like a bullet, she hurled herself at the airborne monstrosity and it caved in on itself, flying away like a ragdoll towards the floor above. As Kannix landed, hero-pose-like, the sound of debris and glass breaking from up above confirmed that the hit was a home fucking run, perhaps even down for the count.

As soon as she stood up, a monster turned right around the corner and with its giant fist prepared a haymaker. In that moment, Kannix energized and the power of the monster’s punch was deadened. Kannix negated the supposed kinetic energy that would send her flying, but Kannix had made sure to not try to reverse the power - for sending the blond man flying away was evidence enough that it had so much more power than she did at her unready state. The predicament now was that the monster was still forcing its fist at Kannix’s side. She has no super strength, and if she dared move, she was afraid of not being able to save herself.

“A little help?”

---

The Orchestra Mall, Courtbridge, Prince Ed-Field.

The sounds of fire and chaos rang in Audrey's ears as she struggled to find their source. The myriad hallways and floors of the mall made it feel like she was navigating a maze. Glass shattering, things breaking, people screaming...the madness was unreal. After running around like a headless chicken for what seemed like forever, she stumbled upon a monster being flung away by a stream of fire. Not every day that fire acted that way, so she ran towards the source.

What she found was two people: her employee Kannix being physically attacked by one of those things (but not hurting in any way) and a young man with flickers of flame dying out on his right arm. The monster in question had just rounded the corner ahead of her and set its sights on Kannix, and as the beast's oversized fist met the side of her body and did nothing, she dashed forward, put her thumb and index finger into her mouth and whistled as loud as she could. Her other arm burst into smoke as she reached the young man's side and she threw forward a desperate punch, her smoke form extending straight forward as fast as it could while her fist (still flesh and solid) collided with the monster's face. The impact sent it reeling backwards on its feet while she ran forward, ignoring both her colleague and the stranger as her smoke arm retracted and formed back into flesh and blood.

Not wasting a minute of her momentum, like her old boxing training, she drew back her right fist and threw it in a wicked hook, knocking the monster to the floor. Then, with both hands underneath its bulk, she shoved it away across the wet floor, her arms turning to smoke as it carried her hands all the way down the length of hallway, only stopping when it met wall.

Audrey spat what remained of her cigarette out of her mouth as her hands came back to her body, and she pulled a fresh stick out of her pocket and lit it with her Zippo lighter. She then turned to glance at Kannix.

"Stupid little girl! Don't run off on your own! You may be able to fend for yourself, but what if something happens and you can't force your way out of it? You could've at least slowed down to let me catch up! I cannot run as fast as you molodezh' these days."

Great. It’s the water again.

Every goddamn time Jackson used his powers, the water seemed to not be that far away. Couldn’t there just be one instance where these monsters appeared that Jackson would be able to flare up without the sprinkler system in a building acting up?

Jackson sighed, seemingly losing himself in his own thoughts, not at all hearing Kannix despite telling her the plan just a few moments ago. Due to that, he almost missed out on striking the beast when it was his turn. In an ideal world, he would blast that beast with his superpower, sending it flying and the girl — whose name he has still yet to ask — would use that rather nifty ability of hers, and they would rinse and repeat until all enemy threats were done away with. However, due to spacing out, Jackson nearly cost them both of their heads.

That, was, of course, until some older-looking lady - probably Russian or something — came in like a pro, and saved both of their asses. A woman, who had a rather unusual ability. Jackson couldn’t help but note the smoke trailing along her right arm, effectively being used to pummel the beast away. He also couldn’t help but notice how skilled she was in hand-to-hand combat. A boxer? Based off of her form, there was no question.

Quickly, as she had done away with one of the beasts, she found the time to scold the young girl. “I guess they know each other,” Jackson would say under his breath. He was thankful for this Russian chick for showing up when she did. He couldn’t say the same for Cannon Girl, though.

Unbeknownst to them, though, there were another one of the beasts approaching them. This time, the shoe was on the other foot. Jackson was aware, but they were not. So he leapt into action. Literally. Hopping on one leg, when Jackson got close enough, he dove head-first, rolling as he caught the beast in a leg sweep. As it would fall face first, Jackson rolled back, popping up on his arms, catching the beast who had approached him in a back dropkick. As the beast would stagger, he would land on his good leg, spinning into an awkwardly-placed high kick to the beast's jaw, sending it spinning twice, and landing on its back. Hard.

As Jackson had landed back on his feet, he looked to the two ladies. “Oh please, don’t mind me — just trying to save your asses while you converse amongst yourselves. Please continue,” Jackson sarcastically said, gesturing them to do what they were just doing.

---

Courtbridge, Prince Edfield_

---

---

Lihn watched Daniel as he created a wall of ice before wrapping the creature itself in the substance, trying not to pay too much attention to it and just how different he used his power compared to her brother. Slowly she was beginning to get her head under control. Just ignoring the anger a bit at a time. The sudden increase in strong emotions around her had caught her unaware and had been difficult to stop from flowing in, thus why it had crippled her so much.

Now that she knew what it was it was easier to zone out. Still a pounding in the back of her head, but taking less concentration to suppress. With years of experience it was possible for her to recover from the massive influx of emotions.

“I’m fine, now,” Lihn responded evenly, picking up Penny’s annoyance. She couldn’t blame her. If her friend hadn’t stepped in Lihn would probably be dead but the two of them would have been able to get away.

She felt a weight lift off her as the anger she’d been picking up, and was now managing to tune out better, began to reduce. It was still there, but less. And it certainly wasn’t her causing that anymore. Huh. Concentrating on it slightly, she could pick up the calm feelings that someone else was putting out. It didn’t particularly affect her, being an empath herself, but it was there.

“I can help,” Lihn moved, still shaking slightly, to the other side of Daniel from Penny, so that she could help carry him towards the entrance. Between them, as short as both were, they could probably do it. Lihn was quite fit herself. Though she doubted either cared, she figure she should give an explanation for just why she stood there and took a fist to the face. “I’m not sure I’d quite call it freaking out. They’re very angry and I’m an empath, you see. It’s very difficult to think when there’s a lot of strong emotions everywhere.”

Even as she spoke Lihn began to put out her own calming aura again, stronger than the last time now that she’d managed to push the rage to one side and stop it from taking over her mind. Even while supporting Daniel she was able to concentrate on pushing down the anger of those in an area around her – and could continue to do so as long as another abomination didn’t run into it. Hopefully it would help any people who were still around as well.

“I have it more under control now,” Lihn looked over at Penny and Daniel. “It helps that someone else is calming them down too.”

---

---

---

Courtbridge, Prince Ed-Field_

"Awwwww, is the little boy upset his powers don't work anymore?" Kannix pouted exaggeratedly at the blond man.

"I'm fine, Audrey. I am a lot tougher than you think! We'll be out soon before Isaac misses us. Just got to get a few more of those mean bastards." The sprinklers kept on going and she wiped her eyes to clear her vision.

"Anyways, I'm Kannix. Pleasure to meet a fellow freak," directed at the blond man.

---

Courtbridge, Prince Edfield_

---

---

Oh, an Empath.

Doesn't that mean she can read Penny's emotions and shit? Oh, the broad probably picked up all that irritation. Ain't that like giving someone a middle finger - but, metaphorically? At this point, Penny couldn't care less. Since the broad was making herself useful, that was everything Penny could ask for, and more.

Only thing was that she wasn't that much taller than Penny herself, and there was a lot of boy to carry out the door.

God damn it.

"Oh, that explains a lot," Penny was trying to hold in her irritation... and ended up sounding really passive aggressive (damn it). "I'm not really much into this Metahuman bullshit, so I don't really have much to offer right now." Penny was never one for grand displays of Metahuman prowess... especially since DOVE and Penny don't get along that well. And she fucking hates them.

But, for now, she glanced back up at Daniel... he wasn't doing that good. He did the best he could to freeze that freak of nature in it's tracks, and his reward? Hypo-fucking-thermia. Well, that was what happens when Daniel can't use his fire, and honestly, it wasn't all that worth it. Well, it saved a life, but he could had thought it through better. She could think of at least ten ways to detain the monster that didn't involve the sprinklers!

Though, that wasn't important. She could hear something, she looked over her shoulder and saw one of those bloated freaks. This time, it's body was twisted and elongated in such a way that looked... wrong. As if it's spine was broken, or developed incorrectly. Crooked, bent, and turned... it was obvious the mutant was a woman because of her exposed chest, but she was straddling the line of humanity. Her mouth had grown across her entire face.

What concerned Penny was her long arms... and the fact that there was no real way of defending herself.

She ran towards Penny, and the girl literally had to stop dicking around. Whether she wants to use it or not, she still had a valuable power in her back pocket. A red pulse went from head to toe, and bodyfat hardened as it converted to pure muscle. The chubby girl quickly became buff as she reached into the (strangely heavy) purse that hung off her shoulder, and pulled out...

... A brick.

She grasped it tightly with both hands, and narrowed her eyes at the charging mutant. She pulled back her arm, before throwing it with all of her super strength, and the brick was nearly propelled by super sonic force. It impacted the mutant with a boom, and it was shot backwards and crashed into a storefront.

"... Penny-" Daniel faintly tried to warn her that another mutant was charging right into her. She turned her head, and her eyes went wide as she only had a second to react.

However, a stone spire seemingly erupted out of the ground in thin air, and surprised the shit out of Penny. First she thought that the thing had bitchslapped her into retardation, but there wasn't a scratch on her. She looked around, and saw that the monster was sent flying away...

... Then her eyes landed upon Penny.

"Penny," Wendy said as she walked up... her hands were bleeding for some reason. But, that's a question for another day.

"Well, ain't you a sight for sore eyes, Wen?" Penny asked with a smile as she leaned forward with her hands on her hips.

"Save the sarcasm for later," Wendy said with a quick roll of her eyes. "What's wrong with Daniel?" She looked over to Daniel.

"He pushed himself too far," Penny said, shaking her head. "And we need to get him out of her before the situation gets even more tits up."

Wendy saved the question of who the woman was for another time.

"Would be helpful if you carried him because, y'know," Penny looked Wendy from top to bottom. "You're real fuckin' tall."

Wendy rolled her eyes as she turned to Daniel, quickly telling Rori, "Watch my back." As she took the side that Penny once stood under to support her friend. She winced a little since he was really cold, but she can handle it.

But, by then, the two mutants had recovered, and were right on them.

"Oh, boy..." Penny rolled her eyes as she just beckoned them to come for her. "... Looks like I'm the last line of defense."

---

RAVEN/DOVE Joint Headquarters, White Coast_

---

---

Only a few minutes ago, Andrea had parted ways with Aaron, carrying a plastic baggy on her arm to her car carrying a couple unscented palm-sized candles with every intention of using them for emergency purposes (a la blackout via power outage). Then she drove off after a few failed attempts of starting the ignition. Only a few minutes ago, she had a conversation with a man she had helped a couple of days prior, and left feeling as though he had helped her back with nothing more than a few words of reassurement. She left the candles in a lunchbox cooler in her car once she stopped in the DOVE/RAVEN Joint HQ parking lot and tied her blonde hair back into a ponytail before she entered the building. It was only a few minutes ago when everything was okay.

When she entered, she didn’t find office workers milling around until they could finally leave and go home like she expected. It wasn’t the same quiet day as it was when she left, instead, the offices were a chaotic flurry of activity. People were yelling at each other - not angrily, but urgently, and it seemed no one could hear each other over the crude, imperfect cadence of ringing telephones. A man walking out of the building abruptly brushed shoulders with Andrea, nearly causing her to stumble backwards, but he barely seemed to notice. In-between all the noises, she could also barely ignore all of the surface thoughts that were practically shouting at her. Her eyes darted between the apparitions, and with barely any thought, the volume died down.

Something was wrong. It took something very big for hell to have gone to the hand basket so suddenly. She had to - no, all it took was… she looked toward one of the office workers on the phone, and through her eyes, an apparition floated next to them. The woman’s thoughts live-streamed as she spoke, “...don’t know how bad the situation is right now, we just started getting calls ten minutes ago from the Orchestra Mall at Courtbridge in the Prince district…”

Andrea looked at a different worker, “...is insane. I don’t know about you, but there’s no way in hell I’m staying in this city. Not after everything that’s been happening.”

“--dozens of them-- ”

“--the thing that attacked the Golden Throne…”

Andrea’s heart sunk. Not again - not again, not again! She knew where Orchestra Mall was, she knew what it was like and what kind of people hung out there. She might not have been sure before, but now? How long was it going to take until people around here started to believe her? How many more people had to get hurt? She had to find Ms. Bayard. She was bound to be busy, but she had to talk her! As though on cue, the apparitions around her formed a line that cut through the crowd. Andrea mumbled a silent thanks and followed the chain, dodging and weaving through the crowd, the line adjusting to every change, to every thought as the crowd of people moved. It wasn’t long until Andrea practically appeared right next to her supervisor who was so busy barking orders that she barely noticed her. “Miss Bayard--” “And you, relay the information to the mayor ASAP, the city has to act on this too.” “Miss Bayard…!” “Hayes, make a record of all the dispatched RAVEN agents for posterity. Coordinate with the DOVE ground team to record all present civilians.”

“Miss--” “I know you’re there, Pasternack, I’m busy.” Bayard snapped, finally looking back to her with a frustrated expression. “You can direct any and all questions to your handler in HR.”

“I think I know--”

“I don’t care what you think, Pasternack.” Bayard said. She started flipping pulling papers out of a printer and hastily scribbling over lines. “We don’t have time for crazy theories or ideas or anybody trying to make waves, we just need people working so this place can run like a well-oiled machine.”

“Then at least let me help with that!” Andrea pleaded.

“I don’t need you!” Bayard retorted. “I don’t need interns getting in the way, I need experienced workers who know what to do at a moment’s notice without somebody else holding their hands. Unless you coming in to bring us more coffee, you can walk up to HR and stay put there.”

Andrea looked hurt. She said, “But you said yourself that I could do twice the work of half the people here.” Instead of changing the supervisor’s mind like she thought it might, it instead prompted a vicious glare, and it was at that moment Andrea came to the haunting realization of why.

“I don't ever recall saying that, Pasternack.”

“I-I'm sorry, ma'am, I--”

“That doesn't matter right now. Go to HR or go home, I need to get back to work.”

"...Yes ma'am." She answered. She watched the supervisor storm off to finish her business, leaving Andrea alone to figure out what to do next while she processed her feelings. She felt hurt by the woman's words, frustrated by everyone's lack of belief in her when felt so sure - God, so sure - and with so much research to support it, she hated being an intern, but yet, she also felt miserably awful from the realization that she hasn't been respecting of everyone's privacy this whole time.

She kept her face rigid, but wiped away tears that were welling in her eyes. She couldn't hide that. She couldn't hide the redness in her flushed cheeks. She took a deep breath and cleared her throat. "Okay," she said to herself, "I'll just... get out of the way then. They don't need me. HR won't need me. I guess I, um, I'll just go home then..."

---

Of course, right when Francis was getting into his paperwork, something happened.

It was like the situation at the Golden Throne... but times ten. This was not a coincidence. RAVEN was getting fully geared up and prepared for war against these monsters. Francis heard that Maximilian himself may show up to help. Either way, Francis was in the armory, putting on his black RAVEN armor, along with his black longcoat. He threw on his sunglasses as he grabbed his Stranger BS 211 Semi Automatic Shotgun. It was modified to fire taser rounds, but it was still a reliable weapon. Maximilian, and Deborah want these people back alive so they can figure out a way to fix the affected, and put a stop to this.

But, it felt like just the beginning.

Francis rushed his way to the vehicle all the RAVENS were going to get into. He needed to be quick, because the longer they take, the more people are going to die. However, during his sprint, he caught Andrea with a dreary look on her face headed out the door as he was, and he had to bring those legs of his to a stop. He doubled back to Andrea, and looked at her.

"Andrea! Ain't got a whole lot of time here," Francis quickly said... and with his accent and fast manner of speech, it was almost like he was speaking another language. "I'm startin' to see a connection here!"

Andrea looked back at the RAVEN with an expression of disbelief, but as her eyes focused on him more, her mouth fell slightly agape. She said incredulously, "...You're suspicious!"

Francis figured he was talking a bit too fast.

"HQ's story just doesn't add up, and..." Francis looked to the side for a moment to see the rest of his RAVEN buddies leaving. "... There's no way possible that this is a coincidence if it happened a second time, on this scale!"

"A dozen or so meta-manifestations spontaneously going wrong at the same time does sound like a stretch, doesn't it?" Andrea asked. Her voice sounded passive-aggressive, though not directed at Francis; it was more like she was just venting. She took a deep sigh the threaded her fingers through her hair. "I... don't know what to do. No one else here believes me, and... I can't do anything to help! I was ordered off the floor, and now, I just..."

He understood her emotions, and he did one thing. He extended a hand.

"You seem to be the best bet for putting a stop to this," Francis said. "Come with me... you can just say you're there to help with the evacuation."

Francis probably didn't have the authority to waive the orders of another. But he knew that, with his link to Maximilian, he can pull a lot more than other agents. Andrea was taken back by the agent's offer. Her? Helping at a scene as grisly as a massacre by the hands of tumored monstrosities? The very idea made her feel sick to her stomach, and yet... it was either that or going back to feeling helpless and she had enough of being pitied. She took another deep breath, clearly trying to process Francis' offer. She remembered being called in the other night to be questioned and the monster... no, the man that was behind the window. It was a man that needed help, now there were more of them at the mall, whether it was keeping at least one of them under control or helping civilians evacuate.

"Are you sure?" Andrea asked after some hesitation.

"Absolutely."

There was another brief moment of hesitation, fully conscious of the fact that Francis had to get going this very instant, so she tried to push herself to come to a decision. Finally, Andrea held her breath and said, "Lead the way, then."

---

Courtbridge, Prince Ed-Field_

---

---

RAVEN had to move at the speed of light to get there in time, but, unfortunately, it was far too late to get there before anyone was injured.

That was the price of being a RAVEN, Francis knew. There would be times when RAVEN would just be too late. For now, Francis hoped that the damages weren't as extensive. But, there wasn't much for him to do but wait in the back of this RAVEN truck. With his shotgun in his hands, in between his legs, all he had to pass the time was his thoughts. Andrea sat at his side, but Francis couldn't make small talk. Not that he wanted to, to be honest. Francis just shook his head.

The vehicle came to a sudden stop, and the small Haitian man hopped up with one hand on his shotgun as he ran to the door. He was the first to open up, and hop out. He was followed by the rest of the RAVENS, whom rushed inside with lightning speed. Francis hung back for a moment with Andrea, who was fussing over the fit of the precautionary ballistic vest. To her, it was unexpectedly heavy, and kept pulling on the fabric of her white blouse. Every time she thought she straightened everything out, she found herself with yet another wedgie. Her mere appearance at the scene, however, was out of place as she was still wearing her work clothes - a black pencil skirt and cuban shoes.

"Make sure that everybody gets clear," Francis ordered, "And let me know if any of em get outside.'"

He pumped his shotgun, and then said, "Don't worry, orders are to detain, not kill."

"I didn't think so. HQ seemed pretty concerned with, um, preserving their humaity." Andrea said absentmindedly. "Who knows? I couldn't read any of the first one's thoughts. It didn't seem like he much cognition left."

"HQ will do everything they can to fix this," Francis said. "These people got families, and all."

"Just try to stay safe in there, Francis."

"Don't worry about me," Francis said, before he activated the Psychic Shell as he called it - just for a brief moment, he was surrounded from head to toe in seemingly a lilac colored "hard-light" armor. Before it faded away, and he smiled, "I got one hell of a shield!"

Francis ran inside with haste, thinking he couldn't miss this for anything. Andrea, who was left behind to help with the evacuees, rolled her eyes in response to the RAVEN agent's bravado. She had a feeling that armor of his was making him overconfident when she felt there was no need to be taking any unecessary risks. Her eyes darted around the parking lot, tagging every apparition she saw as it were. She pointed at Francis, and they trailed after him forming a line between herself and him. The longer the distance, the more apparitions joined to form that chain. She transmitted a thought - from her to one ghost, from it to another, until the last one connected her thoughts to the gungho agent.

'Don't be so hasty, mister.'

Francis came to a slow stop, as he looked over his shoulder. Almost as if he was looking for the girl standing right over his shoulder. "... Andrea?" He asked.

'Did my accent give it away?' She tittered.

Francis was a bit caught off guard by Andrea's ability - given that he had no idea she even was a Metahuman - but this wasn't the first time someone prodded around in his head. Given that his father and grandmother had a form of telepathy, he was used to it.

'A little, the rest was intuition.'

'On a serious note...' continued Andrea, 'all of the evacuees so far have already been escorted where safe. Until more get out of the building, the least I can do is help you in the meantime. I can tell you what's around the corner.'

Francis pumped his shotgun, and thought, 'Guide me to where the mutants are.'

'Give me a second... let's see... God... okay, okay, he's close. First hallway on your left going in. About... thirty and a half meters down that hall, maybe. He's in front of a shoe store... three teenagers are hiding there. They look trapped.'

'On it.' Francis helded the shotgun with both hands as he broke off into a sprint straight towards the location. He took the first left, and began running. He quickly found that shoe store... and the hulking beast in front of it. He swallowed, as it looked like a woman hunched over like a gorilla with a grotesquely bloated body. Her mother was gaping, and a brown fluid flowed out of her mouth, and with all the blood, the beast was drenched in liquids. Francis was glad he had a strong stomach. The woman let out a loud yell as he moved over to Francis, and he put his arm up as he activated his psychic-shell. The mutant swung at Francis with all of her strength... but his shield was much stronger. He was only knocked a few steps back. He could've swore he heard Andrea wincing.

Ignoring that, he drew his shotgun and took a shot at the mutant's core, firing a dart which dug into her and she convulsed as electricity rocked her body. Francis took the opportunity to draw his containment foam sprayer. Before the beast of a woman could even react, she was coated in the foam. Francis dropped his shell, as he signed.

"... I'll get you the help you need," Francis' shotgun was tightly grasped with both hands. "I promise."

'Evacuees are heading your way, Andrea.' Francis quickly opened up the door to the shoe store... before the thought occured to him that Andrea and Francis could just use comms to communicate with each other...

'You didn't give me any comm, Francis.' Andrea interuppted.

"Right." Francis thought out loud as he went into the store. "Hello!" He loudly announced, "Is anyone here?"

Someone came from the dressing room, some kid with messy blonde hair, who looked like he seen a monster.

"It's alright, kid," Francis nudged his head over his shoulder. "Head to exit B with your friends."

"H-how did you know to find us?" The kid asked.

"Well," Francis said. "Let's just say I have an eye in the sky."

The kid didn't ask anymore questions as he went into the back and the whole group of his friends followed. Francis also tailed them to ensure that nothing happened to them.

'Eyes sounds like a neat codename, what do you think?' He heard a voice echo in his head.

'Might need to give it more thought.' Francis replied. 'Imagine what they'd think if they were saved by someone called Eyes?' He playfully said.

'I imagine you watch too many horror flicks.' Andrea responded in kind. 'Anyways... there's a bunch more in the food court up the same way, but... God, there's... so much blood. I don't... think anyone made it out of there. I think the wing you're in is clear.'

Francis paused for a moment, and tightly clenched his fist. So many innocent lives lost... and there was no telling if they were all just adult males. Families come here... He sighed.

'Understood.' Francis somberly thought to himself.

'We'll be waiting outside to take the evacuees off your hands... I'm going to regret telling you this, but you'll have to get past that food court to make any more progress. Wait a minute... there are a bunch more civilians inside the mall, too. Some of them are fighting back. One of them...'

Outside of the mall, Andrea's mouth fell and she slapped her her hand against her forehead out of bewilderment. She continued, 'Are you kidding me...? Do you remember that one doofus fighting with the, I don't know, the pimp? After the rally? He's here, along with a few others.'

'Oh, Jackson?' Francis thought. 'Where are they? He may be a Metahuman, but he isn't the brightest light.'

'They're actually working their way towards the food court. They're all metas. They, um, might be taking care of themselves for now, but they're walking into an ambush... huh?'

"Excuse me miss, are you okay?" Said a man's voice, abruptly pulling Andrea's senses back to herself as a hand suddenly touched her shoulder. She looked at the man who had pulled her back, clearly alarmed, and focused on his face. Agent Parks. Concerned. He continued, "You looked like you were spacing out. Are you alright? It's tough on everybody the first time."

"Uh, I-I'm fine." Andrea stammered irritably. "Don't-- don't worry about me. I'm a psychic - uh, I think - I mean... I was just scrying for agent... uh, Francis. I'm fine."

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to interrupt anything, I just..."

"You thought I was freaking out, I know. It's okay. He's bringing out three civilians in a minute, get ready."

"Ten-four. Alright, listen up everybody...!"

Andrea made a heavy sigh and sat down at the edge of one of the vans. She returned to her trance, and in little time, found Francis again. '...Anyways, take a right up ahead for the exit. I'll warn the outside ground team for the evacs.'

'Understood.' Francis replied before he decided what he should do next. A majority of RAVEN should be doing their best to solve this crisis, but Francis had the shaking feeling this was far from over. He ran alongside the teens, and knew that he'd have to breach the foodcourt. Maybe he can get Jackson and the others to evacuate.

Meanwhile, on the outside, Andrea was shifting uncomfortably in her seat. She has been trying her damnedest to multi-task, between trying to keep on eye on what she could inside the mall, especially around the exits, and trying to keep an eye on Francis; but there was one mutant that was giving her some concern on the other end of the building. It was actively looking for a way out, it seemed. She muttered to herself, "...Something isn't right. One of the mutants are on the move... towards..."

She immediately returned her senses and jumped off her seat and cupped her hands around her mouth to tell at the agents forming the perimeter around the mall. "...One's coming our way!"

---

While RAVEN were doing their best efforts to hold back the beasts, there was only so much they could do.

And it showed when a hulking joy mutant burst through the front doors of the mall.

Glass was sent in all directions as the bloated, tumor-ridden, man. His head was contorted to the side, as his body was full of large, gaping, bloody holes that one could see the man's organs through. His legs were enormous, while his arms were long and muscular. The beast immediately turned over a car as it began it's rampage through the parking lot. RAVEN agents, thanks to Andrea's warning, were able to dive out of the way of the flying debris in time, scrambling for their weapons. The ones clear of its rampage opened fire right away with their taser rounds, but were dismayed when the electrical prongs dug into its fatty tissue and had little effect on the mindless creature. Andrea reacted as soon as she could to the rolling car, and with a point of her finger, all of the nearby apparitions flocked around it and the car was suddenly suspended above a nearly doomed agent for a brief moment of time, and was gently let back onto the crowd. Andrea let go and found herself panting and holding onto her knees. Stopping two tons of weight plus however much momentum it had: Not. Easy. She felt her chest getting tight as she tried to catch her breath. 'Stop. Slow, deep breath. Exhale slowly. Repeat.'

She had to stop this thing before it caused any more damage. She had to do something. But it looked so... 'Deep breaths. Do something. It's got to be me.' She swallowed the lump in her throat and stood back up and faced the abomination. She pointed her finger at the mutant this time, and suddenly, a gust of wind blew over the creature, slightly stunning it. It had no idea what force had punched it in the chest, and seemed to be looking for the offender. Andrea took a step forward with her hand still up. One, two more gusts, and the creature took a step back. Andrea looked around, and the apparitions flocked around the mutant this time. The faceless ghosts seemed to throw their arms at them, and every time they did, it was like multiple weak psychic forces blasting the creature in its center, creating small gusts of wind. The RAVEN agents previously helpless against the creature with the taser rounds they were supplied with, just watched curiously as the little blonde intern from DOVE took step after step closer to the mutant she was forcing back, which was roaring in anger. Every blast also seemed to have some blowback on Andrea, who grimaced every time the mutant was struck.

"Are you kidding me?" One female RAVEN agent cried out. "We're getting one-upped by a skinny little girl!"

'If it... he was strong enough to throw that car, he's strong enough to push back on my hold. I just have to weaken him...' She glanced to the side again at some of the surrounding apparitions. 'Scream.'

The sounds of what had to be dozens of shrill voices screaming like banshees tormented the mind of the mutant, causing him to howl a grisly scream of his own as he fell to his knees and clutched its own head. Andrea pointed at his head with her finger, then down to the ground. The mutant's body was pressed against the asphalt by an invisible telekinetic force, and was still crying out in pain from the ghastly screeches in his mind. Andrea was wincing at the sound, and was using her other hand to clutch the side of her own head from an aching pain of her own. Ordinarily, she could do a bunch of different things on her own with little ill effect... but she was putting so much into restraining this creature that her psyche was being strained. Once the RAVENs started deploying their containment foam units, she was finally able to let go and breathe easy. The mutant struggled in vain against the fast-hardening material. She could hear a couple of agents cheering her on in the midst of her sigh of relief. She hoped Francis was having better luck.

---

While that was going on outside, Francis had to lead the trio of teens outside. He wished it was just him, because he was worried that one of the teens would freak out at any minute, and make this much harder than it needed to be. Despite that, Francis was going to do his best to accomplish this task. With zero casualities. He crept up on the foodcourt with his shotgun in both hands, he briefly took his hand off it to signal the teens behind him to stop. He glanced around the corner, and saw several of the mutants lingering around. Far too many of them to even consider fighting head on, and from what he can tell, they're attracted to light, sound, and movement....

Francis' hand went to his ultility belt with lightning speed, and pulled the flashbang off.

Well, he's got a hell of a light and sound right here in his hand. Only thing was that he didn't know how long they'd stay distracted. Might as well give it a shot, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Francis turned to the teens.

"Okay," Francis started off, whispering. "I'm going to throw this, and you are to follow me no matter what, got it?"

They all collectively nodded. Good, they're already quiet. Francis focused on the task at hand, he held the flashbang tightly in hand, and pulled his arm back to throw it. He only hoped that they didn't retain enough intelligence to figure out where the flashbang came from... and he quickly pulled the pin, and threw it fast as he could! Because the last thing he needed was a flashbang exploding in his face.

The grenade flew across the room, and exploded mid-air!

Well, it didn't go as far as Francis hoped it would, but he wasn't wasting time whining about it. "Go, go, go!" Francis said as he rushed the teenagers along. He was running in a crouched position, and encouraged them to do the same. Running all out would only get them killed...

... One of the kids in the back tripped, and let out a loud yelp. Only for all the mutants to turn their attention to him.

"Son of a..." Francis said in a deep accent, as he waved for the kids to keep going as he went back for the other kid. He felt the Flash he was going so fast, he grabbed the kid and helped him to his feet. Then he pointed away, where he kid darted off to. He went back to his ultility belt, and pulled out a flare. Today his luck had been... pretty shit, and he hoped that it was up from here. For now... He turned the flare, and it flashed on with a vibrant red light....

... He hoped to put all that running he did in school to use.

"Hey!" Francis loudly shouted, "Here I am!" He ran down a different hallway, with at least five mutants behind him. He pressed his earpiece, midstride as he dropped the flare.

"Evacuees heading towards you..." Francis started off. "... And I'm going to need backup - Lots of backup!"

---

Orchestra Mall, Courtbridge

Taylor entered the mall about five minutes before Happiness went berserk. She entered in the middle of three men clothed in black suits. They were about as suspicious as you'd expect; standing rigidly upright with their gorilla-like chests puffed out and their fists clenched at their sides. Taylor walked over to a Starbucks just above the mall food court, heads turning as the metal woman passed, and nodded to the head guard, the one who stood at her left. The other two guards dispersed themselves into the crowd, looking for the Valos. The head guard (whose name was Bernard) followed her into the coffee shop. Unlike the other three, who looked human, Bernard had skin made of polished wood and what looked like grass for hair. He stood at least seven feet tall.

Taylor ordered a macchiato and sat down at a small silver table just outside the restaurant. As she sipped her drink, wishing she were in Italy where the coffee was real, she pulled out her phone and sent a text to Johnny:

"Here, at the Starbucks. Second Story." Several people were stopped staring at Taylor. She looked up at them, looking them straight in the eyes, and tapped on the table with her metal fingernails. The resulting "ping!" startled them enough to run off somewhere else.

"Putain de batards regardent," Taylor said to Bernard. (Fucking staring bastards)

"Je suis desole, mademoiselle," Bernard said. "Que puis-je faire pour vous faire sentir mieux?" (I am sorry, madam. What can I do to help you feel better?)

"On ne peut rien y faire," she replied. "Ils ne nous comprendront jamais." (It cannot be helped. They will never understand us.)



It was about then that Taylor heard screams come from down the hall. From down below, a massive, bulbous creature jumped onto the second-story balcony. It was ten feet tall, white as a sheet with enormous fleshy tumors covering its body. One of its arms was long and muscular, like a gorilla's, and the other was shriveled and diminutive. It had one enormous, bloodshot eye and a sharp beak like an octopus. The beast attempted to struggle to its feet, obviously not accustomed to its own body, and let out a gurgling roar that was more akin to a violent belch. Desperately, it swung its enormous arm about and swatted a teenaged girl off of the balcony, into the food court below. Before the creature could figure out how to stand, Bernard pulled his gun, a Sig Sauer P320, out of his breast pocket and unloaded half the clip into the creature. Taylor jumped to her feet and backed up against the wall, aghast at the hulking creature. Bernard's bullets ripped through it like scissors through paper, and the creature collapsed to the ground, half-heartedly belching as its eye rolled back.

"Mademoiselle! Alons-y!" Bernard yelled, grabbing her by the arm. Taylor followed him around the corner and they sprinted for the door. Another one of the monsters stood in their way. It was long and hideous, covered in arms that all grasped at the air and floor all around it. Its head was taken up by a massive piglike nose. When they came close to it, the beast turned towards them and squealed like a pig. They turned back and ran towards the center of the mall, the creature in hot pursuit. Bernard shot at the creature and hit one of its arms, but it hardly flinched.

As they rounded the corner and passed the beast Bernard had killed only minutes before, Taylor saw another member of her security detail running as fast as he could towards them. Just before he reached them, a third beast exploded from an alleyway and shoved him to the ground. This one was blood red, with dozens of eyes on its head and a body skeletally thin. White tumours stuck out from its sinewy muscles. Its enormous jaws tore into the security guard's shoulder, ripping out a chunk. Taylor screamed and Bernard shot at the creature. He hit it in one of its eyes and it made a hideous croaking noise, like a frog. The pig-nose creature rounded the corner and charged at Bernard on its many arms. He opened fire on it, hitting it twice in the nose and on several of its arms. As the bullet struck the creature's nose, it flinched like it was stunned and rolled into a ball. Then it bounced itself off of the balcony and crashed into the food court.

The eyeball creature ripped at the security guard's flesh despite its injury, eating him alive. Bernard shot at it more, striking it twice on the head and once on the chest. A fourth bullet missed and cracked the linoleum floor. Wounded but not dead, the creature grabbed the security guard with its teeth and ran off. Bernard charged after it, his muscles supernaturally bulging as he ran. Before he could reach Eyeball, yet another creature slunk from out of the alley and attacked Bernard. This one was green and slimy, with one giant arm exploding out of the top of its body that had needlelike quills on its fingertips. Bernard's gun flew out of his hands and fell over the balcony as the creature pinned him to the floor. It roared in his face, its slimy tendrils pinning him to the floor. Saliva dripped from the hole in its head that counted as a mouth. Teeth shot out from the sides of its mouth like a lioness' claws.

All of a sudden, the creature screeched as it felt its whole body go airborne. Taylor crashed into it full-force, her weight and muscle comparable to that of a small car. She tumbled to the floor, the gelatinous beast in her arms. It writhed with impressive strength; it's slimy tentacles lunged at Taylor's arms with all their might, but they couldn't get a grip on her metallic skin. She rolled to her feet and threw the creature full force through the window of a shop. Shard of glass rained down as it fell through the shop front, cutting it to ribbons. Taylor jumped through the window after it, landing on its back with a powerful stomp. It squealed and writhed away, knocking Taylor back. Before it could lunge again, she landed a kick right to its jaws and, spinning on her other heel, jumped back through the shattered window. The creature slunk after her, leaving a trail of blood in its wake. Before it could attack again, Bernard ran up and kicked it as hard as he could. The creature's ribs cracked as the steel toe of Bernard's shoe collided with it. It struck with its enormous clawed hand. Taylor jumped in the way and blocked the attack. Its pointed claws turned to splinters on her metal arm. It punched at her and was once again deflected. Taylor swung an open hand at the monster. Her fingernails caught it just under its wrist and slit its arm wide open. Blood poured over the creature's head. It curled into a ball and hissed. From behind Bernard and Taylor, the wounded guard fired a shot and hit the creature in the chest. It screeched in pain and fell to the floor, writhing.

Taylor and Bernard ran back over to where the wounded guard was laying. He looked like he was in a poor position; blood spilled across the floor from his gaping shoulder wound. Just as Taylor reached for him, the floor shook. The linoleum exploded into dust as Pignose returned to the battle. Its enormous mouth, which was concealed under its pig nose, chomped down on the wounded guard, tearing him in half. Taylor screamed and fell backwards. Bernard ran towards it and punched at its writhing body. One of the hands caught his fist and clenched hard. He shouted in pain and stumbled back, his hand broken. Pignose chewed the guard up, leaving nothing but a few chunks of meat, and then turned towards Taylor. With no escape, Taylor struggled to her feet and, arms out, charged at Pignose.

Taylor collided with Pignose's nose and dug her claws into the sides of its head. Her weight made it recoil quite a bit, but its arms grasped the linoleum tight enough to shatter it and kept the creature from going flying. The much heavier Pignose reared its head, bringing Taylor up into the air with it, and then leapt through the air nose-first, crashing Taylor into the floor. The tile cracked beneath her as she was driven into the ground. She let go, the wind knocked out of her, and tried to crawl away, but the creature caught her with its many crushing hands. It squeezed as tightly as it could, denting the metal on Taylor's forearm. Then it squealed and lunged at her, mouth wide open.

Suddenly, a bullet rung out of nowhere and hit the creature square in the center of mass, followed by two more shots that pierced the beast's head.

A twirling gun smoked as Johnny walked up, followed by the Valos siblings.

"... Why the hell can't we go anywhere without a monster going on a rampage?" Johnny asked as he walked up. "Like seriously, the fuck is going on in this city?"

He turned to Taylor, before he said,

"Oh yeah," Johnny softly said. "Hi."

The massive beast twitched, curled into a fetal position, and stumbled through the glass railing around the balcony. It crushed a table down below and lay still. Heaving for breath, Taylor rolled over to see Johnny looking down at her smugly.

"Perfect...fucking timing," she said. "I thought that one...had me." Bernard walked over and helped her to her feet. His broken hand leaked saplike blood. Taylor grasped what was left of the railing and caught her breath.

"Not that it could do anything to ya'," Johnny shrugged. "Y'know, being made out of metal."

"I'm not indestructible," she gasped. "Never was." She looked down at her right forearm; the creature's supernatural grip had dented it slightly, and it hurt like a bitch. She figured it would be better in a day or so.

"I'm not indestructible either!" Johnny said. "Just skilled."

"Let's get out of here," Gabe said, with one hand on her hip, and the other hanging... glowing with a red light. "Let RAVEN handle whatever the hell is going on here, I ain't got a clue."

"Agreed." Jake said.

Taylor stood up and looked across the mall. Absolute chaos was reigning supreme. Down below, people ran fast as they could, shoving over tables and pushing each other to the floor to get to the doors. Taylor looked down at her hands; they were stained red and little pieces of flesh were stuck under her fingernails. She closed her eyes and clenched her fists. She hadn't even known that guard's name; it was his first day on the job and she hadn't talked to him yet. Now he was dead.

"Why," Taylor shouted, regaining her breath. "Why does utter carnage seem to follow you people at every step!?"

While Taylor was emotional... the Valos were indifferent. They all just shrugged.

"I dunno." Johnny said.

"Guess we're just a magnet for it.." Jake said.

"I've thought this was... normal," Jaska awkwardly answered as he played with his claws.

"I've been asking the same question for years now," Gabe answered. "The universe must have a hard on for us."

"At least you can handle yourselves," Taylor said. "Let's get the fuck out of here. Bernard, ou est Clemont?"

As if to answer, Clemont came busting down the corridor towards the group of metas. He was horribly disfigured, with paper white skin and black pustules oozing with slime. His left arm was massive and took the shape of an elephant trunk. A single moth wing stuck out of his right shoulder. What was left of his suit still clung to his flailing body.

"Fuck," Taylor said. "Why him?"

Johnny quickly slid in and said, "... Your friend there is looking a little sick. Does he get health benefits?"

Gabe loudly sighed as she pointed both hands at him, and they glew a blood red color that nearly seared their eyeballs as it was so bright. "... I got this."

She fired a large laser beam at the man, and it cut through the air and hit him in his center of mass. He loudly cried in pain, as his pale white skin burned. He fell backwards, and Gabe stopped the onslaught... only to hiss in pain herself.

"Jesus Christ, where's a fountain!?" Gabe damn near shouted as she hopped up and down. Her hands were smoking.

Jaska pointed down the lane, and Gabe ran down the hall, and jammed both hands into the fountain. Steam came out as she sighed in relief... only to see an eyeball float past it. "... Oh."

"Well, I don't think health insurance is going to save him now," Taylor muttered. She felt bad for making a joke of the death. "I have two more men stationed outside. They should keep these things from following us. Where are you parked?"

"Oh, out front," Johnny pointed towards the front door.

"Alright, we should be close by," she said. "Are you still driving that ungodly hummer?"

"You bet your shiny metal ass I am," Johnny said. "I go everywhere in style."

"Christ, so flamboyant," Taylor said. "I'll just go with you. My detail can get Bernard to the hospital."

"I'm fine, mademoi-"

"Not hearing it," Taylor said. "You need medical attention." Before he could fight back, she stared at him steely-eyed and he backed down.

"...fine. Please call me when I am needed again," Bernard replied. He began to walk towards the exit of the mall, and Taylor followed.

"Alons-y," she said. "Let's go before another monster shows up."

---

Courtbridge, Prince Edfield_

---

---

Lihn just shrugged slightly at Penny as she mentioned the fact she didn't have much to offer, not seeming all that bothered by how passive aggressive some of what she said sounded. It wasn't like her annoyance wasn't well founded - Lihn had just made herself a very unmoving target earlier. She felt bad for what it had resulted in, and carrying Daniel wasn't am easy task even between the two of them.

They had to deal with the situation at hand, though, and there wasn't much else to do.

When another mutant appeared she was all but prepared to stop her general calming aura and force it's anger down, even if it just put her back to square one migraine wise. What she didn't expect was for Penny to suddenly... gain muscle? And throw a brick square into it. Well, that certainly helped the situation.

And then there were two others that Lihn didn't recognise, but Penny clearly did.

"Hey Penny!" Rori added all to cheerfully from where they stood beside Wendy. They were relatively unharmed, entirely thanks to their friend, and had a grim smile on their face. Bumping into Daniel and Penny seemed a stroke of luck - for both of them.

They listened carefully to the conversation, head tilted slightly and glancing at Lihn curiously before looking back at Wendy. "Sure thing, Wen, I've got your back. I'll scratch their eyes out or something."

Rori turned around so they could work backwards, wings spread out slightly. As painful as it could be if one came for them instead of Penny (who looked like she could probably handle them) Rori would rather it was her wings that got caught. There wasn't exactly any vital organs among the feathers. And if they could stop one of the creatures from getting to the other three that would be something of a success.

"If you need one of them distracted, Penny, I can do that," they added as a bit of afterthought. If they turned into a bird they'd be pretty hard to hit right?

Lihn raised an eyebrow at what was going on, nodding to Wendy slightly where she was supporting the other side of Daniel. Now wasn't the time to ask about these new two (not that she knew much about Penny and Daniel anyway). Instead she concentrated on helping Daniel walk, and reduced the area of the calming aura she was giving out - just so that it came down more heavily on the two mutants that had come at them. If she could reduce their anger, things would be a bit easier for Penny.

---

Courtbridge, Prince Edfield_

---

---

It was only just after he'd dropped off the bus and stepped into the mall that Rowan realised that his message to Wendy had gotten through. When he checked what the buzzing from his own phone was, he realised she'd sent out a message which was probably addressed to their entire 'group', not just him.

Guys, there's something we need to discuss, head over to 4 Goldfield Rd, Silver Hills.

Guess it must be important. He wondered if it had anything to do with the warning he'd sent her. Probably. Regardless, he figured he still had just enough time to drop by a few of the stores here, as planned. The place looked a little shittier than he remembered, but then those Founder assholes had set the Black Hound and their people on the place and trashed it in a shootout with the feds. A few of the stores that had been open a few years ago were now closed, or had been replaced with names that were largely unfamiliar. It all seemed cheap in comparison to what it had been before.

On his way in, he found himself eyeing up a DIY store that undoubtedly had some paint stuffed in the back. That was one thing he'd missed about the academy, being able to rack paint from the art storeroom. On the road, he'd had to resort to racking it wherever he could - which wasn't too hard, but still took some work, even with a little magnetism involved. Now in this case, it was almost tempting to try the same here - but in light of things Rowan figured it best to stock up another time. He was here for another reason.

Simply put, he wanted to grab a little something for Wendy - as a token of appreciation and because, well, she deserved it.

Over the last few years she had watched Rowan's back and always given good advice and direction, being the smartest of their circle. And they had been through their share of things together - from beating on those Founder assholes to getting their first tattoos. Even now, he was crashing on the couch at her mom's place without anything expected in return. Mom aside, she was the only other family he had in town and one of the only people he actually trusted without question. Truth was, he cared about her a great deal. He just wasn't that great at putting it into words, or saying and doing anything about it.

Besides, someone like him? He was out of that league - despite how she might've lamented about her looks, she was kinda cute in her own way. Deciding on the gift, though, was a somewhat difficult matterHe couldn't buy liquor - most places wanted ID and even if he was of the age, he didn't have any to begin with. He entertained the idea of grabbing her some art supplies, but he had no clue what she'd want, if she wanted anything. A book, maybe? Rowan was clueless when it came to books - and there was always the chance that whatever he got her she'd have already read, or otherwise have no interest in. It was only as he passed the shopfront of a multimedia store that he spied something from the corner of his eye.

Studio Ghibli Collection - Only $19.99!

Intrigued, Rowan stepped inside and quickly grabbed one of the shrink-wrapped copies of the collection off its stand, then examined the back. Wendy liked anime, right? Especially the Ghibli films - Rowan had watched one or two in the past, even though he hadn't exactly 'got' them, they were still pretty good for what they were. And shit, life on the road hadn't exactly given them much of a chance to keep up with this kind of thing.

Deciding on this DVD, Rowan took it over to the counter and after handing over a wad of dollar bills, then waiting another moment to remove the security tag from the case, he quickly shoved the DVD (and the receipt, since he didn't want store security up his ass) in his knapsack and turned towards the door, yet his train of thought was interrupted by a great crashing sound, along with the sound of screaming and the sight of other shoppers rushing past the storefront outside. Stepping out to see what the commotion was, he began follow them after what he saw - a stumbling, almost disoriented woman coated in crystalline growths which seemed to envelop her entire body, lashing away at whatever she could. One lucky guy managed to narrowly duck down as the mutated woman slammed her arms downwards, leaving deep gouges in the tile floor where the crystalline growths had jabbed in.

Rowan kept pacing backwards, still watching, yet something caught him in his tracks as he saw that there were a few people still in the media store, staff and shoppers - and they were trapped, cornered by this crazy diamond-looking woman with murderous intent. Only then, against his better judgement, did he really stop. Clenching his palm into a fist and focusing on the storefront, he gesticulated downards with his arm, pulling the store's shutters down with a loud metallic screech, before calling out to the mutant with as harsh a voice as he could put on.

"Hey, you crusty fuckin' bitch! Leave them the fuck alone!"

For good measure, he drew in the nearest object that he could and hurled it at the woman, but that didn't seem to deter, only infuriate her further.

He was probably going to regret this.

---

Taylor's external security met the Valos as they left the mall. One more of the monsters tried to incur the group on their way out, but the heavily-armed security made quick work of it. In the distance, sirens were blaring, and RAVEN cars were screeching into the lot. In the chaos, the security detail mowing down a monster was nearly unnoticed. Inside, Taylor could hear screams and sounds of gunfire as RAVEN forces clashed with the monsters. So much adrenaline was pumping through Taylor at that moment that she hardly remembered that two of her secuity guards had died in the line of duty. It was a thought in her head, but not a reality quite yet.

The Valos and Taylor walked to Johnny's Hummer, the security detail guarding them as they walked. Then Taylor bid farewell to Bernard and got in the Hummer's second row.

"If you need me for any reason," Bernard said.

"You know I will be safe, Bernard," Taylor replied. Bernard sighed and drooped his head.

"D'accord," he finally said. "Au revoir." (Okay. Goodbye)

"A bientot," Taylor said. (See you later)

Soon after the security detail departed, Johnny pulled out of the parking garage and drove away from the mall. They passed a RAVEN blockade, who ensured that they were not injured. Taylor let them know of Bernard's broken hand. Then the Valos and Taylor pulled onto Courtbridge Parkway and drove off. Taylor was sitting directly behind Johnny, to the left of Jake.

"Where exactly are we going now?" Taylor asked.

"Far away from this clusterfuck as humanly possible!" Johnny answered with a chuckle, which the rest of the Valos awkwardly joined in on. "But, no really, we're heading back to our little hideout in Oakdell..."

"I'm certain you have a lot of questions." Jake said to Taylor.

"Questions we probably don't have the answer to."

"Well, if you want any explanations, might as well ask now..." Gabe asked as she leaned back in the chair and put her hands behind her head. Letting out a puff of air as she tried to relax. It was hard when her power always burns her own fingers off. Taylor shivered. The Valos family was in sync to a truly scary degree.

"What do you know so far about the missing members of your family?" Taylor asked.

"So far?" Johnny asked. "They're being held by what's left of the Founding Family... a small contingent of those stupid motherfuckers that hold onto their beliefs." Well, Johnny hoped they were being held by them. There was no evidence of them still being alive, but he was going to hope for once.

"Say... how familiar are you with the Founding Family?" Johnny asked, with a raised eyebrow as he looked back at Taylor.

"Too familiar," Taylor said. "They've been coming after my family for about a year now. They," she paused. "They killed my fiancee about a year ago, and now they've been coming for me." Taylor seemed a little guarded. In the back of her head, she was panicking.

"Do you - by chance - know what Mechanized Memories, means?" He asked her.

"No, haven't heard of that before," she said.

"How about the Secretaries?"

"Or better yet," Gabe said as she leaned forward. "Why the hell do they want to kill you, huh?" She asked.

"I don't see any assassins coming after us."

"My fiancee was a computer scientist working for the DGMHS," Taylor replied. "I helped him to investigate the Founding Family in France. Together we managed to leak the names of some of their top French members. They didn't appreciate that." Taylor's story was well-rehearsed, but she could feel a pang of guilt lying to old friends.

There was something off here, but Johnny was going to give Taylor the benefit of the doubt. After all, Taylor was one of their closest allies.

"Okay, now can you answer my question?" Johnny asked, pushing her on it.

"Secretaries?" Taylor asked. "That one I know. The Founding Family kidnap people, and alter their memories with a power of some kind. They're the most devote to the Blessed Three..."

"Well..." Johnny let the word hang for a few moments, as Jake and Gabe looked very uncomfortable. "That's what Sylvia, Ivete, and Camille have been turned into...."

He sighed for a moment as this got really awkward for him. Like, he didn't want to say it out loud, but at the same time, he felt it was a little obvious.

"... We were Secretaries. Me and Jake." Gabe just came out and said it. "For months... I don't even remember a thing. Johnny had to tell me the sick things they did to us..." Taylor gasped and put her face in her hands.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "That must have been absolutely horrible."

"Yeah, it fuckin' sucks..." Gabe said, trying not to snap at Taylor for not understanding. "Either way, Johnny saved us... but we still got people in there. And we got to get them out."

"It's not going to be easy," Taylor said. "But you already know that. Do you know where they're being held yet?"

"... And that's the other problem," Johnny said. "We don't know exactly where they are... we just have the location of one of their bases, and that's it."

"I see," Taylor said. "And exactly where might that be?"

"Somewhere in Old Raygate," Johnny shrugged. They reached a light, and Johnny looked over his shoulder at Taylor. Just so he can see her emotional aura.... Fear... and guilt. He raised an eyebrow as he turned to focus on the road.

"We're gonna go scout it out tonight, then figure out what we can find."

"Alright," Taylor said. "I'm in." The car fell silent. Taylor looked out the window at the cars passing by. A wave of depression sat over her as the adrenaline began to wear off and the thought of the dead men came back. Clemont was an old friend, a member of her detail for almost as long as Bernard. He was a good man, a father of a little girl with the most beautiful green eyes. There wouldn't even be a corpse left to bury. Taylor sighed.

"Excellent!" Johnny said. "Let's go back to Oakdell to chill."

"Do you know what is causing people to transform into the creatures we saw in the mall?" she asked. "Is it just a metahuman's ability?" She thought of all of the Founding Family members she knew; none of them had a power that ridiculous or she was sure she would've remembered.

"No fucking idea!" Johnny loudly said. "And it ain't our problem, either! Let's leave that to RAVEN, and the other supermen, shall we?" He asked.

"Aren't you forgetting something, Johnny?" Gabe asked. "Remember, our contact?"

"Miranda?" Johnny asked, before he flagged her off. "Let's forget about that broad, even if she helped us... she worked with the Family, and therefore cannot be trusted."

"Speaking of the Family," Taylor said. "How did you break Gabe and Jake free of the mechanized memories? The DGMHS couldn't even manage to do that."

"Well," Johnny stopped at another light, and raised his finger up into the air. It glew with a white light, and several different colors pulsed across the light. "As it turned out, my ability can combat other Cerebral types... specifically those damn Domination types."

He started off his explanation, and Jake and Gabe resigned from the conversation again.

"Secretaries are created by the mother of all Domination types," Johnny started off. "So, all I have to do is touch them with a little bit of this to break the trance!"

"That is...amazing," Taylor said. "That could help bring this entire organization down. Does RAVEN know about this?"

"No, and I don't want them to," Johnny shortly, and bitterly answered. "Know how many of em' were sucking the dicks of the Family?" He asked.

"Yes, but-" she stopped herself and looked down. She wasn't in a position to argue with an empath gunslinger. She looked down at her phone. A text from Jeanne confirmed that Bernard was receiving medical attention. She replied "D'accord. Faites-moi savoir si quelque chose change." (Okay. Let me know if anything changes). She looked out of the window and the car fell silent again.

"But, what?" Johnny asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nothing," she said. "Don't worry about it."

"Alriiiiiiiight," Johnny shrugged, and the vehicle fell into a deep silence as the rest of the car ride took place. While Johnny was told not to worry about it... he couldn't help but worry about it. He wasn't the type to let things be left unsaid. Especially when the lives of his sisters are on the line. It wasn't long before the Valos left Prince Ed-Field, and went straight back to Oakdell Harbor. They arrived outside their scenic blue beach house, and the hummer came to a stop. The Valos hopped out the vehicle - but Jake opened the door just for Taylor. The four made haste as they entered their beach house, and the first thing Taylor probably laid her eyes upon was the coffee table covered in guns... with Jaska asleep on the sofa. Taylor walked in and gave the room a once-over. As expected, it was as nice, if not nicer, than her hotel room.

"Jaska, wake up!" Johnny said, as he walked over to the sofa and kicked it. "You were supposed to keep an eye out! Not doze off."

"Oh, sorry," Jaska said as he rubbed the side of his head. Still half asleep. "I got bored..."

Then his eyes rested upon Taylor... first he was surprised because he didn't notice her at first, but then said, "Oh, so you got her to help?"

"Yup!" Johnny said. "There ain't nobody we can trust more than Taylor, Jaska!" Taylor smiled a bit at the boy. She wasn't sure how sarcastic Johnny was being.

Gabe crossed her arms and narrowed her eye at Johnny. While Jake awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.

"... I can name a few." Gabe bitterly said.

"Oh, speaking of which, Taylor," Jake said. "We do have more allies in this fight."

"Oh?" Taylor asked. "How many others are there?"

"Oh, just the entire Liu family." Jake casually said with a shrug. Taylor would had to have been living under one hell of a rock if she didn't know who the Lius were. "My girlfriend, Lin, and her older sister, Mika, have been helping us the closet - but, they all want to help us."

"Y'know, the girl that made your good ol' friend Carole go on a warpath." Gabe said with a cocky smile, and Jake once again nervously scratched the back of his neck.

"... Just presently they're busy with other affairs." Johnny answered.

"Oh don't even get me started on that woman," Taylor replied. "Story for another time. Anyways, I can have at least four armed men, three of which are metahuman, on the ground whenever you need them. They might not be useful for tonight and I can't guarantee they will provide any significance when it comes to abilities, but if we need cover fire they will serve us well." Most of the other members of Taylor's detail were metas, but really only Bernard was near Taylor's impressiveness among them.

"Good. Meat-Shields!" Johnny said completely straight faced. Taylor frowned.

"Unfortunately, yes," Taylor said. "Let's just try very hard to make sure nobody dies."

"... Don't pay Johnny any mind, Taylor," Gabe rolled her eyes. "The jackass once crashed a hummer through the front doors of a club."

"And for the last time, Gabe," Johnny answered. "I didn't do it on purpose!"

"Trust me, ma soeur," Taylor said. "I've been around Johnny enough to know how much of a jackass he is." Taylor picked up off the table the absolutely most ludicrous gun she had ever seen. It was three feet long, all metal and black plastic. So many knives jutted out from its exterior that Taylor was certain it was impossible for a normal human to hold. It had at least three magazines, four grips, and three barrels. "What could you possibly ever need this for?" she asked, looking through the scope. There were no less than thirteen crosshairs inside, pointing each to individual objects.

"Killing people!" Johnny answered.

"But...how is this any better than a normal rifle?!" she exclaimed. "How do you even hold this without stabbing yourself?" She looked down at three five-inch bayonets that literally stuck out of the butt of the gun, right where a shoulder should go.

"I wear armor, of course," Johnny answered. "And do you see the munitions on this thing? It can't kill anything without armor or something stupid like that!"

"But so can a...this is stupid," Taylor said. She put the gun down and muttered a French curse under her breath. Then she sat down on the couch and put her feet up on the coffee table, to the left of a quad-barrel shotgun.

"Maybe you can use it."Taylor was over it. She looked to her right where Jaska was sitting, rubbing his eyes. She waved and said "Bounjour!"

"... Do you even need sleep?" Gabe asked Taylor, with a hand on her hip. "You're like a robot."

"I'm not a robot!" Taylor snapped back, offended. "I just have metal skin. My insides are just as squishy as yours!"

"Oh?" Gabe asked with a sly smile. She reached forward, and asked, "Can I see?" Awkwardly, Taylor opened her mouth and stuck her tongue out. It was pink and fleshy. Her teeth, however, were silver like her skin.

"Shee? Plesh," Taylor said with an open mouth.

"Oh, sweetheart." Gabe said. "I was only teasin' ya. Ha!" Embarrassed, Taylor closed her mouth and looked at her phone in her lap.

"So what do we do now?" Taylor asked.

"We're gonna just chill..." Johnny said, before he looked at the table covered in guns. "Y'know, for all the guns I brought, know what I forgot?"

"If the answer is liquor I'm gonna stab you," Taylor said.

"Even better!" Johnny said.

"The weed!"

---

---

---

DOVE/RAVEN Headquarters, White Coast_

Shizuka was more than happy to leave the cleanups to the Taylor brothers. After all, they were the most involved, deserved the credit for snatching the Devil's arm out of ZODIAC's clutches, and there were no better people to handle this case from here on. ("What about Meifeng?" - "Puh-leeze.")

Was he looking for more excuses to push his job onto others? Not really. His involvement with the fierce crossfire at the Oakdell Harbor - of all places, again - was minimal (thank goodness).

Maybe you'd want to argue that he wasn't ready for the task? Wrong again - that would be an insult to his marksmanship skill, and all the effort he had thrown into getting where he was today. Besides, Meifeng and the Taylors were more than enough to handle the frontline.

He had his own issue to deal with while the RAVENs were in a tug of war over... a disgusting piece of corpse from a decade ago.

Nothing could be more important than another encounter with the ghost of his past.

He reclined back into his chair, alone in the dim office room. On the table before the young agent was the box he had recovered three years back. And on top of the box, the diary of the woman he despised laid open before his tired eyes.

<sub>Sinking slowly
The lights out of my reach
Down the darker waters
To the point of no return.

Trapped in the cold agony
I looked into the mirror
That soulless gaze
Of a broken marionette.</sub>

He let out a sigh as he ran a hand through his hair. Too much to bear, and so little that him - or anyone else for that matter - could understand.

The truth that his mother knew. About Polaris. About Metahumans.

About what the twins were created for.

---

Few days ago | Oakdell Harbor, White Coast_

Shizuka knew he was supposed to be focusing on the fierce crossfire ahead from he was positioned at - where RAVEN was fighting hard against ZODIAC over the possession of the Devil's arm. Hidden among the shadows of the buildings away from the dogfight, the Japanese agent watched the chaos through the scope of his rifle (SRS this time for better mobility), adjusting every now and then to switch his view to survey the area surrounding the source of din while assisting the other agents to take out the ZODIAC members with every shot.

What a drag.

He didn't so much as batting an eye while taking out the ZODIAC minions. None of them seemed to be aware of a sniper shaving down their numbers - his movement went unnoticed thanks to the chaotic gunfight as he ghosted through the walls, slipping through the shadows out of anyone's sight.

Though, everything was going too smoothly for the usually paranoid young man.

He paused his shooting spree and lowered the rifle, his eyes glanced to the side without turning his head. He could feel a presence stalking after him - merely observing his every move, but he didn't sense any malice from this person.

He raised the rifle up and peered through the scope. It wasn't hard to locate where his comrades - Meifeng and the Taylors - were amongst the mess, and they were holding their own grounds well against the monstrous Hound - or Sovereign - or whatever the fuck he was calling himself now.

Slinging the SRS behind his back, he pulled out a handgun and turned his back at the blazing gunfire, then began to stroll towards the source of the watching eyes.

"I know you're hiding there. Show yourself."

Stepping out from around the corner, the tall, slim figure of Xing Huo came into Shizuka's vision. "Impressive! You could tell it's me without even using your powers. I know you are a much better specimen than the puppy and his little kitten up ahead."

Seeing Shizuka's unimpressed look with his gun still firmly trained on her, the Chinese woman let out a dramatic sigh. "And you're nowhere as cute as your older brother. How long are you going to play this police game with those 'friends' of yours?"

Shizuka responded with an eye-roll. "Are you here just to lecture me about stupid things?"

"Uh-uh, you're no fun at all." Xing Huo shook her head in mock disappointment, dropping the disgustingly sweet voice for a less shrill, more serious tone. "But you really shouldn't be wasting your time here. Especially when that--" she jerked her chin to where RAVEN continued brawling with ZODIAC behind Shizuka, "--doesn't concern you one bit."

Shizuka lowered his gun, but not without a narrowed look at her. "What do you want this time?"

"You don't seem surprised to see me," Xing Huo replied, her lips curling into a smirk. "Ah, of course, that chloropathic 'sister' of yours. You're also probably aware that Haruka and that Caspin girl were already back in town, but you pretended not to know."

She then started to walk towards Shizuka. "Oh well, I shall cut the chase. That 'Pandora's Box'... it's still with you, isn't it?"

Shizuka didn't reply, but his hardened expression was all Xing Huo needed to know. Still smiling, she continued, "The robe is the key to what you have been searching for. Also, sometimes destruction is what you need to progress to the next step."

Shizuka considered her words for a moment, then he ran a hand through his hair. "The cryptic way you talk really pisses me off." But he did caught what this woman was trying to tell him.

Xing Huo shrugged. "Unwanted eyes and ears are everywhere, my dear. Especially when anyone who has a brain would love to have a piece of you and I." Her eyes shifted to the gunfight beyond Shizuka's shoulder, earning another eye-roll from the young man.

However, the Chinese lady wasn't done with the conversation yet. She raised a fist before Shizuka's eyes, and a fine gold chain fell out of her balled-up hand, with a small, tear-shaped phial attached to the end that glowed with a strange blue light.

"Take this, for your personal insurance." She dropped the necklace into Shizu's hand, then leaned closer to whisper into his ear, "No matter how hard you try, you can never be one step ahead of me."

With a quick turn on her heels, Xing Huo's curvy figure disappeared into the shadows once more.

---

Stupid woman, was the first thing Shizuka had thought when he read Asami Takashiro's diary. Even though he was beginning to understand what this failure of a mother had been through, he still couldn't forgive her. The hatred had run too deep in his memories filled with neglect and abuse, from the person who was supposed to teach the twins about family love.

Asami's diary was more than just a record of her daily, personal life. It felt more like a commonplace book as Shizuka thumbed through the neatly written pages that went from mundane writings - to-do lists, random poetry - to notes about Polaris and their inhuman experiments.

Even some terrifying secrets about Metahumans.

How and where did this woman get all these intel... these sensitive information that could easily turn this world upside down if they were ever publicized?

Also, whose side was his mother on in the first place?

---

---

Courtbridge, Prince Ed-Field_

---

---

`So far, the mall had been going excellently.

Getting Lijuan to calm her was easy enough with some ice cream. The girl was licking away at a chocolate ice cream cone, as Meifeng held her hand, and Jen walked at their side. She casually swung the little girl's hand. Jennifer also had a cone of vanilla ice cream... she said that she hated chocolate. Heh. Meifeng smiled. For a moment, the two almost looked like a [/i]couple[/i]. She laughed at the thought, before she continued, and her little sister looked up at her. Lijuan suddenly broke her grip from Meifeng and paused. Which caused both Meifeng and Jennifer a bit of confusion as she just stood there.

"Li, what's wrong?" Meifeng asked with a raised eyebrow, her hand quickly reached for the power suppressant collar that hung off her hip. "Is your power acting up?"

Lijuan sighed for a moment, before she continued, "It's nothing... I was just reminded of something...." She continued walking, Meifeng tried to grab her hand again, but then she swiped it away.

The eldest Zhao was floored by her little sister's sudden aloofness... but, then it hit her. I get it, I know just what Lijuan means... Meifeng thought to herself, as she remembered that Lijuan was still grieving. She just needed to give her a little bit of space.

A large boom from the distance made Meifeng jolt, followed by frantic screaming. Meifeng quickly reached for her pistol as she whipped around to see... a bloody abomination of a person. It's body was seemingly made out of... organs. From intestines, to livers... It was spewing blood everywhere. It's torso was bloated, and it's right arm was oversized. She couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman... or even a person. It's humanoid body told her that it was somewhat rooted in humanity.

Meifeng had no idea what was going on, but she quickly drew her gun on it. "Stay right there! Don't get any closer!" It took several steps closer, and Meifeng fired a shot that went into it's body... only for it to miraculously heal the wound. She raised an eyebrow, and realized that it had to possess Metahuman abilities to some extent or another.

Lijuan was frozen in fear as the only motions that came from the girl was shaking. Her draw dropped, and eyes were wide - but Jennifer quickly slid in and covered her eyes.

"It's okay," Jennifer said as she tried to pull Lijuan away... but she loudly yelled when her hand was badly burned, and she snatched it away. She grabbed her wrist... before she looked and Lijuan was giving off so much heat. She quickly turned to Meifeng, and said, "Mei, we got a problem - another one!"

At this point, Lijuan's body had burst into flames, almost like a massive torch. She cried out in fear, and flames came out of her mouth. The sprinkler system came on to extinguish the flames, but it barely cooled down her overheated body.

Meifeng turned between Lijuan and the monster... this was going to suck.

---

True to form, the crystalline woman lumbered further towards Rowan, a low rasp erupting from her mouth. She could see him, clear enough it was - and he had become the target of her animalistic savagery as any objects she could reach were punted towards him, shards of the growths breaking off from her flesh and scattering towards him. "Oh shit, shit, shit-" He murmured, backpedalling still as he tried to draw her away from the other shoppers. Further and further he moved, tossing pieces of metallic debris her way just enough so that he could keep antagonising her and luring her away. He could've really used Wendy at this point just to back him up, but that what could have been and what was were two different things - he had to deal with it now, he could talk shit about it later.

This was a stupid idea.

Common sense and his gut would've told him to hightail out of there, instead he was still pulling further inside to lure this crazy bitch - if only because he'd committed at this point and wasn't in a position to do anything else. Experience taught him that he had to try and end this fast because if it got drawn out it would have gone the same way the fights with Blake and the Hound had, all screwed up. Remember Ezekiel, he reminded himself, get it over and done with.

Then overhead, Rowan spotted it - a heavy looking display piece suspended from the ceiling, held in place by a chainlink and metal frame. Rowan gave pause as he ducked down again from another one of the shards being cast his way, then tore at the frame with all the might he could, bringing the full weight of it down upon her body with an ear-splitting clatter. What remained was a warped metal frame, the original advertisement that had been plastered across it now ruined. The body wasn't in sight, concealed under the mess - which was probably for the best. The implication of what he'd just done were... they were fucked up, to say the least, so instead he put the gruesome thought of what he'd done to what remained of that woman's body and turned towards what he thought would've been the easiest exit point.

Yet a short trip down one of the corridors made him realise that this woman wasn't the only mutant asshole lurking in the mall today.

"Oh, fuck."

---

A wave of water swept underneath the joy mutant's feet, and quickly froze. It barely did anything, as the mutant stomped on it, but Meifeng had her arms back as if she was willing water along. She slammed it into the creature that sent it skidding backwards. It slammed it's disgusting, fleshy, hand into the ground and it pulled out tiles on the ground. Which told Meifeng that, if it was tough enough to take that, then there was little she could throw at it.

She looked around her shoulder at Lijuan losing control of her power.... That was something that her talents were better suited for...

"Jenny!" Meifeng shouted behind her. "Switch!" Before she broke off into a sprint right towards Lijuan, gathering as much spare water as she could. While Jennifer shook her head and two bone spears erupted from her wrists in a bloody display as she ran towards the monster as it recovered. She leaped up into the air just before the ice began. It threw it's monstrous arm up, before Jennifer slashed at it's arms and created a huge gap in it's flesh. It screamed before Jen went under it's arm and rammed both of her spears into it.

Meanwhile Meifeng was using all the water she could and pouring it on Lijuan... this wasn't right! Lijuan's power was fire, but she was going supernova here. She felt the heat radiate off of Lijuan's body, and she sweat profusely. It was just a sensation, as Meifeng was determined to die before she let Lijuan ash. She merely used the sweat to hose Lijuan down, but couldn't hold off the flames for long. She needed something more than water.

It thunderously roared in pain, but quickly whipped its arm around and sent Jennifer flying. She hit the ground rolling, and grit her teeth as pain was sent throughout her body. Briefly, there were bruises on her arms that quickly disappeared. She got back up as the monster kept running towards Meifeng and Lijuan. She rammed those spears right into it's back, but then the creature's hellish regeneration kicked in and it began to heal over the spears. Jennifer tried to pull it out, but they were stuck. She had one choice; she detached the spears. They snapped off halfway so she can quickly remake them, but the beast whipped around and hit her hard as it could. There was the sickening sound of her rib cage breaking as she coughed up blood as she hit the ground behind her.

Her vision was blurry and she saw the hulking beast stand over top of her. "No..." She whispered as she put her hand up. The beast did the same as it primed to slam its own gnarled fist down upon her.

A grating metallic groan rattled across the section of the mall, followed by the sight and sound of a hefty metal frame smashing into the grotesque mutant's frame from its flank, jagged pieces of the sheared display tearing into the viscera that enveloped it, throwing the creature off balance and to the floor.

As Jen lay there, badly wounded, a bearded youth wearing a hoodie rushed over to her, hooked an arm under her shoulder and tried to pull her to her feet. "C'mon, move!" Rowan urged, his other arm being used to keep the mutant pinned under the metal frame.

Jennifer hissed in pain as the boy pulled her up. "... It's hard when your rib cage collapsed." Jennifer hissed in between her lips at the boy. She didn't even look up at him, but she was focused on repairing her rib-cage over her organs. Long as her backup organs were functioning, she was fine. She stood on her feet, and grasped her ribs as they snapped back into place.

The mutant, pinned beneath the metal, quickly healed much like Jennifer did. But it healed over the metal, and it seemingly became apart of the mutant. It lifted itself up with all of it's strength, then quickly began to march towards Rowan and Jennifer. During its march, it drove its hand into the ground and dragged it along, before whipping it forward and sending chunks of broken tile towards the two.

Narrowly avoiding a chunk which soared overhead while another shard which rippled past his shoulder, gashing his sleeve, Rowan sucked in his breath and yanked Jennifer as far out of the lumbering mutant's path as he could, then twisted in place and reached out with his palm, clenching his fingers into a fist and twisting upwards, causing it to it writhe and gurgle as the metal embedded within its monstrous form was moved against it, stemming its mobility.

Or so he'd thought - a grisly sight ensued as the mutant tore free of the twisted metal embedded within, which disturbingly remained in place, still coated in a mass of gore, all whilst the thing continued dragging itself forwards, thrashing away at anything in sight, its ruined legs yet to reform.

How was this thing still alive?

Rowan was about to drop the existing metal frame on it one more time, but his concentration was thrown when a wooden bench swiped at by the creature erupted into a volley of splintered chunks which slammed against him, this time throwing him off his footing and causing the frame to clatter against the ruined tile floor.

Jennifer's ribs were finally in one piece, and she smiled as she reached it was time to exploit a little weakness that she saw in the mutant. When the bench hit the beast, Jennifer sprung into action, and created one large bone spear about the length and width of her arm. She ran towards it, and rammed it deep as it could go into the creature's leg - but, she quickly detached it, and left it stuck in the creature's leg. The beast roared as it regenerated over the spear embedded within and tried to walk on it, but it couldn't keep its footing.

But, there was another problem. Jennifer could feel the heat that Lijuan was giving off from all the way over her. The mousy-girl whipped her head around at light-speed, and saw that Meifeng was still doing the best she could to extinguish Lijuan. But, she was shaking, and her body was sweating like no other.

Mei wouldn't survive at this rate.

"Keep the monster down!" Jennifer shouted as she ran over to Meifeng. Getting close burned her skin, but she grabbed Meifeng by the shoulder and arm. "You're gonna die! You have to get away!"

Now alone, Rowan was left with the writhing, crawling mass and had little other option - he tugged at the nearest object again and smashed it into the creature, but all that achieved was a spatter of viscera across the ruined tile floor. In the heat of the moment it was fight or flight and he'd chosen the first of those two, desperately tossing whatever he could, ducking and dodging debris scattered towards him by the creature's swipes, until an unlucky shot from a stray object hamstrung him and caused him to lose his footing once more. With the mutant looming over him, Rowan's gaze desperately darted from left to right, searching for the nearest object within reach - but he found none, his heart pounding away.

But he was stubborn enough to fight on, regardless, instead drawing both hands inwards, fingers clenched as though he was grasping at a rope with all his might, concentrating as he had practiced in his sessions with Wendy. Something came within his senses as he reached out, then came a brittle cracking sound - one of the concrete pillars just ahead seemed to crumble at the top, a thin cloud of dust forming overhead, then he saw the fissures forming across. After a moment's hesitation at the idea that he might bring the ceiling down upon the both of them, Rowan took a hold and pulled.

This time the concrete gave way as the steel beam within was torn from its place and pulled down onto the grotesque mutant and along with it came about half a ton's worth of scattered concrete and other debris, the ceiling above it giving way. Rowan scrabbled across the floor, narrowly pulling himself to safety before he could be caught underneath the architectural avalanche, but the creature it was left completely covered, with any view of the scene obscured by a growing cloud of dust.

"Holy fuck..." He murmured. It had been intense, the last time he'd used his powers like this had been during the fight with Ezekiel. An occasional practice session in-between had kept him on his toes but there had been nothing to prepare him for it as the real thing. Then the heat hit him and his gaze became fixated on the girl wreathed in fire.

Jennifer managed to pull the weakened Meifeng away, but only because the heat exhaustion had almost gotten to her. This was a battle no one was going to win... but, Jennifer felt that collar hit her in the thigh, before a lightbulb went off in her head. She didn't know what this kid's power was, but he was the only thing that could save them. Jenny yanked it off hard as she could, and threw it at Rowan's feet. Before pointing at Lijuan.

"Put that on her, please!" Jennifer said. "There's no time!"

"W-what?!" Rowan almost stuttered, before hesitantly picking up the collar and glancing towards the girl once more time.

"You need to put it on the little girl on fire!" Jennifer commanded again, trying to make her point clear as day.

If what he'd just done hadn't been stupid, then this sure was - but she had a point, that girl was burning up quick and they were going to burn with her. Sweat trickled down his forehead, not just from the fight but from the sheer heat. Rowan took a step towards the girl for a moment, almost hesitating as he glanced back towards Jen, then started to make the approach, slowly edging closer to the whirling inferno with an arm raised to shield his face from the intense heat, the sobering taste of smoke filling his mouth as he grew closer, trying to withstand the flames.

Rowan reached out towards the girl, collar in the other hand as he hoped to steady himself, but then a column of fire seemed to widen around the girl and he recoiled, almost falling flat. It was too much, he couldn't...

[jen or mei says something to try and encourage him? idk]

He had to try. They couldn't just die like this, not here. Not the girl, either. Wendy wouldn't have wanted that. He'd held it together before and he could've done it again.

Concentrating with all his might, Rowan tore at one of the shutters covering a storefront close by, bending what he drew in around himself it around himself as a makeshift shield against the flames. It wouldn't have done much, but he could only hope that it would've been enough. Just as things had quickly heated up with Blake, the flames licking at the shutters did the same, the heat enveloping him so that the air almost burned to the touch of his skin. It was like being inside a furnace, but he pushed on, edging closer to Lijuan, now almost entirely wreathed in frame.

At this point he was just a few feet away from her, within what could've been arm's reach - it was now or never. Tearing a viewport in his shield, Rowan could make out the girl's form through the tendrils of fire that surrounded her and reached out, using his magnetism to push the collar through the fire and fasten it around her neck. Relief washed over him, prompting him to drop the shield in the wake of a lucky success.

But just before the collar had fully activated, a final burst of flame erupted from where Lijuan stood and threw her would-be savior to the floor, his left sleeve wreathed in flame. "Gyragh! F-fuck!" Rowan howled, beating away at the burning section of his hoodie in a blind panic, frantically trying to put out the flames.

Thinking fast, Jennifer quickly formed a blade out of bone and grabbed onto the sleeve, then hastily began to cut away the still-smouldering fabric. Soon enough, the sleeve sloughed off, Jennifer's protruding bone having made short work of it. But now it was exposed, the extent of the damage was clear - Rowan's outer forearm was an unsightly mess of red-raw blotches running from elbow to wrist where the impromptu scorching had left it burnt. By all means, it wasn't a third and probably wasn't a second degree burn, but right now? It hurt like hell, like something Rowan hadn't felt in a long time. Exposing it to the open air had only converted his frantic yelp into a stifled hiss, his left fist and jaw both clenched alike.

"Are you okay?" Jennifer asked, looking at Rowan's red skin. "I don't think you need a doctor... but, you might need some ointment."

"Tss," Rowan sucked in his breath, then snapped back at her. "You think?"

"Yeah." Jennifer sarcastically replied, before her eyes landed on the two.

Wth the collar now slipped on, Lijuan had felt relief, but she quickly fell unconscious and hit the ground with a thud. Her body pushed to its literal limits as she was on the verge of ashing before being saved by Rowan's intervention. There was a faint smile on her face before she hit the ground. Meifeng also smiled, letting out a quiet, "Thank you." Before passing out from the heat, as well.

"Mei!" Jennifer shouted as she ran over to her, and checked her vital signs. She's okay... but burned. Shit. This wasn't good. But, she went over to Lijuan who was also in a poor shape, but didn't have a burn on her thanks to her heat resistance. They're alive... but with everything that was going on... could Jen get them out of here? She couldn't. Not without help. "Hey," She said, looking up at Rowan. "I'm sorry that it's a lot to ask of you since you got hurt helping us - but, can you me get them out of here?"

There was a part of him that wanted nothing more than to beat it out of here and find some ointment or other shit to slap on these burns, like she'd said, but his conscience got the better of him again, particularly when he saw the little girl slumped on the floor, barely conscious if at all. It hit a raw note on him and, well... like he'd just told himself a few moments before, Wendy would've probably wanted it.

"Fine, sure." He answered, sourly.

"Thank you." Jennifer said - sweetly as she could - as she got up and lifted Meifeng's unconscious frame onto her shoulders. She left Lijuan to the stranger, but the thought never occurred to her to ask for his name. Maybe later. They had to focus on surviving first.

Whatever the case, there was no way Rowan could've carried the girl out with his arm in the state it was. Knowing himself, he'd probably have dropped at her the moment he felt the raw skin's irritation, so instead he restorted to an alternative means, if somewhat unorthodox. With his unburnt arm, he reached out towards a discarded segment of the steel shutters he'd used a shield and set it across the ground, flattening it where he could. Then, for good measure, he moved over to where Lijuan was curled up on the ground, fatigued but otherwise unharmed, and began to shift the girl's weight towards the flattened shutters as best as he could, laying her out on top of the surface, making sure she was tucked in neat.

Next was the scary part.

Rowan reached out again towards the shutters, this time with Lijuan set on top of them. Slowly, they rose up - then partially curled inwards with a shrill metallic groan, forming a makeshift stretcher which was now shaped in a manner to make it a little easier to move her without her slipping out. He'd done something similar before, like with the bands of metal around his limbs, but unlike this it was for his own movement, for his own body where he was in full control - this was someone else, someone who, if he made the slightly wrong move, could get crushed or slip out and end up even worse off. Yet again, he made a mental note reminding himself that someone like Wendy would've probably handled this better.

Whatever the case, both Jennifer and Rowan set off on the move - each bearing their unconscious cargo. Jennifer wondered how a simple day at the mall had escalated so fast, at literally the worst possible time - but, she was going to survive it either way.

---

Courtbridge, Prince Edfield_

---

---

Before the mutant that was charging at Kei could continue, it was suddenly frozen in place. It loudly groaned as it twitched, and attempted to resist, but an irresistible force was cast upon it.

A red aura surrounded the monster as Ada walked up to it's side, with Megan carefully peeking through. Ada pointed towards the nearest exit, before she said, "Go. Take the little one, and leave." Kei left, and Ada pointed a finger at the creature's skull. It extended with a blade at the very end of the tip, before it pierced it's skull. Dropping harmlessly to the ground with a thud.

The little one didn't need to see that, her psyche was probably already damaged by this event. When they left, Ada continued.

With every step the woman took, she traced the former humans back down to their source: An abandoned store deep within the mall. The shutters were destroyed, but Ada merely willed them away with telekinesis. It was a disgusting mess of gore from the transformations, and the untimely massacre of the drug dealer. Ada slightly winced at the sight, but marched on as her shoes were stained with blood.

Ada shook her head slightly as she continued to march forward, but she suddenly stopped, and knelt down. Putting a finger on the floor, seemingly touching the blood. Instead, she was merely sensing another not-so-distant memory. The memory of the man who started this with a canister... so it was a gas that did this? Was it terrorism, or...?

Then Ada saw a detail that wasn't apparent to the naked eye.

"Oh... she's behind this?" Ada stood straight up, and looked at Megan. "We need to find Adora, we have to leave soon as possible."

Megan raised an eyebrow, as Ada grabbed onto her shoulder.

"There's other things we have to attend to."

The two sunk into the ground, disappearing into nothingness.

---

---

Courtbridge, Prince Edfield_

---

While the situation at the mall was getting far more out of hand than it needed to be, RAVEN had no real efficient means of cleaning up the mall.

A black sedan with the RAVEN symbol on the hood rolled up to the scene, and Maximilian Cornell got out of the back seat of the vehicle. Wearing a black suit, and a long coat that matched. He walked up to the other RAVENS. They quickly gave him a "Sir!" before he marched on past.

"How is the situation in there looking?" Maximilian asked one of the RAVENS... before he turned his head as a blood red tear in the middle of the air appeared. A golden light surrounded him as he briefly considered summoning Echo, but a group of terrified civilians came running out before the portal closed. "... And what's that?"

"We are unaware, sir!" One of the RAVENS said. "It just keeps popping up!"

Another RAVEN spoke up. "We have teams in the mall handling the mutants, sir! But, there are too many of them, and too many civilians in the way."

Maximilian Cornell shook his head, as he realized with every second that passes, the situation got worse and worse. He put a hand on his chin, and thought about it for a moment.

"... Could we be of assistance, Chairman?" The voice of Graham Morris surprised Maximilian as he turned around. He saw Michelle, and a new lady... of short, well-built, stature, and Hispanic descent.

"Mr. Morris, what are you doing here?" Maximilian asked. "This isn't an official operation against ZODIAC."

"We know... but MAVERICK is all about protecting the people from what they cannot hope to fight," Graham started off, his invisible hands behind his back. "We will lend you our services."

The hispanic woman stepped up, and said, "I can enhance the powers of someone for a short amount of time." She said. "Maybe that can help?"

"Even if enhanced... my Echo can't handle all of them."

"What about her?" The RAVEN that Maximilian was talking to threw a thumb at Andrea. "She took down one by herself."

"But..." Maximilian realized that she was a DOVE, before he merely shook his head, and walked over towards her. He was unsure of how he should approach her, and ask. But, he was going to do his best. He cleared his throat as he asked. "... Hello, excuse me?"

The blonde girl and one of the DOVE medics looked up to see the seasoned RAVEN agent. They shared a glance to one another and Andrea nodded. Her caretaker left her alone with Maximilian and Andrea turned in her seat to face him, apparently winding down from whatever headache was wracking her skull just some few minutes ago. She remembered seeing him in that briefing room just over a week ago before the DOVE rally, when she was delivering the papers he was supposed to be using for the speech (likely one of many candidates). So much has happened since then that quivering and getting nervous in front of the man just seemed so silly. Especially in the face of what they were dealing with right now. She stood up and faced the man. She would've tried a smile to greet him, but right now, she couldn't bring herself to force one. There was nothing to smile about. She said, "How can I help you, sir?"

"We have an agent of MAVERICK here who can put an end to this," Maximilian started off, he crossed his arms. "But, we need someone else for her to put her talents to good use."

He looked over his shoulder at the MAVERICKS... it was stupid of them to be here, but whatever it took. "Let me just cut to the chase; she's a power booster, and some of the RAVENS recommended you to have your power enhanced. Would you be up to the task?"

Andrea blinked a couple times and refocused on Maximilian, looking at him in disbelief. She asked incredulously, "Me?"

"I know you probably weren't expecting this," Maximilian said as he crossed his arms. "But, I'm willing to do whatever I can to bring this bloodshed to an end." He landed a fist into an open palm, before he focused on Andrea.

"So, I repeat," Max started off. "Are you up to the task?"

Andrea thought carefully about the man's offer. She wasn't exactly sure of what it entailed. What would amplifying her power even do? What were the repercussions? Did she have any powers beyond her eyes and the connection to her... what, spirits? Apparitions? Would she be too sensitive to function? But on the other hand, the sort of potential available to her was... if she could just find every mutant in the mall...

"I'll do it." She answered. "There are dozens of mutants still inside and about as many civilians..."

"Come with me then," Maximilian said as he gestured for the Intern to come along with him. He walked valiantly towards the three MAVERICKs that gladly lend their help to RAVEN to bring this situation to an end. "I'd like to introduce you to the agents of MAVERICK."

Michelle merely waved and said, "Hey." She started off. "Agent Gallus, here."

"So, uh, you're just a DOVE?" The hispanic woman started off.

"Just barely." Andrea answered.

"What's your power? Just so I'm sure to boost you enough, because...."

"Don't be so shy, Carmen!" Michelle said, elbowing Carmen in the side. "If Maximilian trusts her, then so do we. We don't have a whole lot of time either."

Carmen nodded her head, as she looked at Andrea. "Stick your hand out when you are ready."

"Alright." Andrea muttered. She took a deep breath, and after a few seconds of working up the nerve, offered her hand to Carmen.

Carmen sighed as she grabbed onto her hand, and suddenly a green light sparked inside of Carmen. Glowing brightly through her skin, and illuminating her nervous system, until it was transferred into Andrea's body. Starting with her hand, her nervous system slowly lit up all the way to her feet. Before it faded when Carmen broke contact. Andrea would feel strong, but the feeling of strength faded as the enhancements did.

"... Make sure to tell her that you just shaved ten years off." Michelle teasingly "whispered" loudly enough for Andrea to hear it. Andrea would've smiled knowingly at her, aware of her teasing, but she was far too preoccupied with something else. As Carmen's power surged through Andrea, the next thing she knew was that the number of apparitions she saw in the next moment looked to have tripled. They were everywhere, floating every which way, and her connection to each and every one of them almost felt tangible.

Carmen ignored Michelle, but she still had a warning for Andrea, "Alright, make sure to be careful, you'll ash if you go at it too hard."

"Then it's a good thing I have all of you nearby... isn't it?" Andrea said quietly. She had no intention of killing herself today, but how would she know how much is too much? She sighed and closed her eyes, and at the faintest notion of her will, her mind's eye darted from link to link, seeing from the perspectives of each of the hundreds of apparitions at once. Through the surrounding parking lot, to inside the mall - she saw Francis fighting his way through the mutant legion, he saw agent Meifeng protecting a little girl, the pimp and some of his friends, a cluster of children, a mysterious old lady and a young woman by her side. Their thoughts seemingly radiating off of them in a way she hasn't heard before, and not just because her senses were amplified. No, when she focused on the old woman, it was like there were hundreds of voices echoing from her. Not overwhelming or loud, but her mind was crowded and chaotic. And it wasn't speed, it was like there were a hundred individual people in one person... how could that woman sort out such madness? Even Andrea had trouble finding her way through the disorganized, tangled web of thoughts - but it was like moving through a crowd in a way, so with the help of multiple apparitions reading the surface thoughts of this woman, she could filter the irrelevant information.

It was when the woman touched the blood that Andrea heard her thoughts as loudly as one might hear a megaphone - '...so it was a gas that did this?' Andrea heard. She hesitated to do anything, just taking a moment to process all of the information coming her way. Then a name came, 'Britney,' which had belonged to the face of an African-American girl. An old friend. In the moments that followed, the two women were gone. She had no idea who that old woman was, but she was onto something. Still... her focus shifted to the mutants within the mall - there was something else she had to focus on right now. She tracked down the remaining mutants in the mall. All thirty-two of the lumbering monsters. A single breath taken in, a single word breathed out: "Scream."

Each and every single one of them fell to their knees, and even outside of the mall, the RAVENs manning the barricades could hear a cacophony of pained roaring echoing through the halls. The sounds of their agony ripping through the air. The agents both outside and inside the mall heard her voice in their minds, 'All of the mutants are held down. Now's your chance.'

The tide of the fight was turned in favor of RAVEN in an instant. They were quick to capitalize on this, by whipping out their containment foam sprayers and hosing down as many of them as they could in the time-frame allowed. A majority of them were captured, as the remaining civilians took the opportunity to escape.

Francis was still running around, frantically trying to lead the monsters away. Okay, he knew that the kids got away, but he also knew that losing them wasn't as easy as one-two-three... especially when he used his sole flashbang as a distraction. He shook his head as he kept running. His throat was burning, but adrenaline was keeping him going until his heart explodes or something. He was trying to stay positive in this dark, dark, day. He heard the collective roars of the monsters behind him... and the sound of their stomping... stopping. He looked over his shoulder to see the horde of monsters clenching their heads, and falling to their knees. Before Francis came to a stop. He heard the voice of Andrea - he didn't know how she did it, but she did! Francis didn't waste a second of time as he rolled a containment foam grenade at the monster's feet. It exploded in a triumphant display, and bound most of the monsters to the ground. He stopped for a moment to take a deep breath, kept his shotgun held tightly in his hands in case something went wrong.

He quickly moved his way towards the exit - he needed to regroup - but as he went along, he saw that the situation was being cleaned up nicely. He couldn't believe it, a damn miracle fell from the sky and saved them. Francis managed to run out the door, and made it to the RAVEN garrison. In one piece, too! He felt like he lost what little body fat he had left running, but, hell, he's alive. He ran up to his fellow RAVENS, and was greeted by the shining golden copy of Maximilian standing at around twelve feet. Francis smiled, and Echo did the same as a silent nod to keep going. He kept going until he encountered Maximilian Cornell.

"Agent Jean-Pierre, are you alright?" Maximilian asked, worried about his team mate.

Francis smiled as he got up on a barrier and sat down. "I'm perfectly fine sir... just a lil' tired." He said. "The situation?"

"The situation is looking brighter by the minute," Maximilian said. "All thanks to her, and MAVERICK."

"MAVERICK is here?" Francis asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes... We couldn't have done this without them," Maximilian said with crossed arms. "... But, I feel as if we're revealing a hand too early to the enemy."

"Doesn't matter, anymore, Max," Francis said with a raised eyebrow. "We gotta work with the cards we've been dealt."

He looked at Andrea for a moment, but said nothing, deciding to let her concentrate. Sweat was beading on her forehead, her face and eyes wrenched, but her expression softened for a moment. He saw the corner of her mouth curl up into smile for a second before returning to her concentration.

---

It really was hard dragging a limp, fully grown, woman... especially one like Meifeng who was fit as they come.

Jennifer was struggling to carry Meifeng, and it made her wonder if she should start hitting the gym. Could she even get muscle mass? Ugh, didn't matter. Jennifer's head was darting in the direction of ever cry, or even any odd sound. Because with Meifeng in such a shitty state, it was up to Jen and... this mystery boy, to keep her and Lijuan safe. But, the pained roars were not ignorable - Jennifer's head darted down a hall to see the hulking monster pinned down by... something? She raised an eyebrow at the sight, but kept moving. This seemed to be the work of another Metahuman. Ugh, this was making Jen's head hurt, and she was close to the exit.

She could see the doors now! Exit! Freedom!

Hope made Jennifer burst with energy as she pulled Meifeng with all the strength that she was saving up throughout the whole trip. What was actually a minute felt like a second as she finally pushed through the doors, and didn't waste a second in saying, "Hey!" She loudly shouted, "They need help! I think she's having a heat stroke!" She added on, but as she looked over her shoulder, all she saw as Lijuan on the shutters - the boy was gone. They didn't even know his name, but yet he helped them.

RAVENS were quickly swarming the trio, but there was not a single mark on Jen. All because she regenerated before they got a chance to see anything. Except for maybe some blood.

---

The Orchestra Mall, Courtbridge, Prince Ed-Field.

"We do not have time for chit-chat, Kannix and other person. We need to get out of this mall! Before things get worse!"

Audrey grabbed onto Kannix's shoulder and whirled the girl around, intent on taking both her and their new stranger friend person to the nearest exit. But, due to the young lady's powers, she didn't move an inch and she instead yanked herself backwards and stumbled against her back. She swore in her native Russian and shook off the collision. Audrey glared at Kannix and pointed towards where an exit sign hung from one pole, half lit and flickering in the hallway.

"That way, Kannix! I do not care if I have to push you! Now move!"

"Psh, fine! Not like anything else could scratch me, let alone hurt me."

Together the two women made their way down the hall, hoping that their fire-throwing stranger friend was following right behind them. When they rounded the corner, they were greeted by a score more of the tumour-ridden monsters. With a roar, they charged the duo, and Kannix responded by throwing herself headlong into the fray. Her powers activated as a beast swung a forearm at her, stopping it dead in its tracks.

"We've got this! Just get them off me and I'll take them out!"

Wet from the sprinklers, all Audrey could do was charge forward. Her fist met the monster's misshappen face and drove it backwards while she shoved it away from her co-worker. She ducked and dodged a wild swing, returning a punch to the second beast. Kannix lowered her powers and ran forward to reactivate them like a battering ram, using her momentum to blast the last two things backwards over themselves. Audrey urged her onwards, sparing a glance to Jackson who was behind them.

"Sorry, young man! Can't stop, else those things will attack again. Come Kannix, we go! Follow us if you can, young man! "

Without another word, Audrey turned heel and ran for the exit to the mall, barely avoiding one of the beasts as it swiped at her ankles. Kannix turned briefly to look at Jackson and gave him a cheeky wave, winked and stuck her tongue at him before following in her boss' footsteps. Hopefully they'd get to the exit in time.

---

Courtbridge, Prince Edfield_

---

---

Jesus, Daniel was cold.

Wendy wondered how in the hell this happened, but she was the least bit familiar with the boy's ability. After all, all she saw was a glimpse of his power back at Penny's house. From what Wendy gathered, maybe overuse of his ability leads to a state of hypothermia. She looked back at Penny for a moment, as her full attention was keeping guard. That was just another thing to note in case it... came down to that. But, for now, Wendy focused. She reached down into her satchel, and touched a piece of paper. Her hand turned into paper as it traveled up her arm for a moment, before she put all of her strength to holding Daniel up. In worst case, she can turn all three of them into paper, and whisk them away from the danger. That'd only leave Rori and Penny to fend for themselves - but, she was more than certain the two could easily take care of themselves.

And, out of nowhere, a monster came running through a storefront.

Wendy clenched her teeth as she stared at the nine foot tall mountain of muscle - opposed to the tumor ridden beasts that the rest were populating the mall. Penny was quick to (begrudgingly) meet the challenge by quickly pulling a wooden plank off a bench. She had it primed over her shoulder to hit him... then realized her true strength lies in throwing objects (and she didn't want to get blood on her). She quickly whipped with the bench in hands, and threw it. The spinning plank shattered into pieces against the creature's skull and caused it to fall backwards. Penny fist-pumped as she said,

"Go, go, go!" Penny kept her eyes on the monster, as it got up, and she pulled off another plank. "This thing's on a fucking warpath!" She figured that if she keeps throwing planks at it, it'll give them a chance to get the fuck out of here. Wendy carried Daniel out of the way.

Right when was back up, it was immediately hit with another plank, and Penny was quick to rip off another. Again, she threw another plank, but the mutant wised up and swiped the piece away, and Penny said, "Fucking..." Under her breath as she to come up with another plan. These fucking things wisen up real fucking quickly. Perhaps too quickly, because she needed another idea to keep it off Daniel.

But, it suddenly froze up - desperately tried to break free, but all that happened was that it was locked in place by something. Penny raised an eyebrow, confused as to what the fuck just happened. Well, weirder shit went down; a miracle is more than appreciated at this point. Penny just casually walked by the brute with a wooden plank on her shoulder, as she caught up with the rest of the group.

They were finally breaching outwards to the RAVEN garrison, but Wendy hesitated back for a moment. She remembered something... that RAVEN would be less than pleased to see her once her figure out that she's a runaway. Right when she breached the door, and closed her eyes and thought really hard about this. Even though she didn't trust (or like) Penny and Daniel that much, it seemed selfish to just abandon them for personal reasons... then remembered that they would do the same thing. She got from under Daniel's arm, and said,

"I'm sorry, but this is as far as I can take him," Wendy said as she took a few steps back. "Just meet up at that address I sent you all..."

"Ugh, you're leaving us now of all fuckin' times?" Penny said with a hand on her hip. "Fuckin' typical." She bitterly said as she got underneath Daniel's arm and pulled him out. "Don't worry, I'll just take it from here."

"I'll see you soon, Rori." Wendy said. Even though Penny was displeased, this helped everyone in the long run. Penny was looking at the "small picture" here, but that was a different discussion altogether. She turned away, and became a cloud of paper. Quickly flying away into the halls of the mall, leaving a very disgruntled Penny behind with Daniel.

Well, no fuckin' choice but to continue, now? Penny pulled Daniel outside to the RAVEN garrison, before she was greeted to the sight of RAVEN.

---

---

RAVEN/DOVE Joint West Coast Headquarters, White Coast_

---

The meeting room was eerily silent.

Even with the top members of RAVEN and DOVE attending (with members of MAVERICK), they were silent, as the massacre at the mall was fresh in their minds. Even Maximilian was shaken, doing nothing but holding his hands folded as he stared into his team as if they were not even there. He took in a deep breath, as he stood straight up. Hands on the table.

"Okay, I think some things just go without saying," Maximilian started off. "So, I'm going to say them. What I am going to say is that we're currently torn between an actual problem..."

He trailed off for a moment as his eyes landed on Francis, "... And a crisis waiting to happen."

Francis knew that Andrea was right, because all the mutants they captured had the same chemical formula as the Happiness drug. There was just no way that this could be a mere coincidence that some of the other RAVENs thought it was. He was on the fence with Andrea (admittedly, there was good reason to believe that this was a job for the DEA), but now, he felt bad for having even small doubts. Now... now people were getting killed in the boatloads, and RAVEN had no choice but to intervene.

At the same time, they had to find the Devil's arm. Or else that could potentially wipe out entire cities... as Prague demonstrated.

But, Francis had a solution. One that helped everyone.

"Sir - well, uh, all of you," Francis started off, rather awkwardly (which was shocking for the normally sociable Francis). "I know it'd be stupid to focus all of our efforts on one particular threat... so I have an idea."

All attention was on Francis, and he coughed, "I propose that, like our task force for the Devil's arm, we create a task force to get to the bottom of the whole Happiness situation, and to do that... I suggest deputizing Ms. Pasternack."

This fell on Deborah, whom raised an eyebrow. "Well..." She trailed off, but was quickly cut off by Francis.

"She's the only person who looked into Happiness," Francis said, "she's pretty much an expert on it. I've seen her notes, she's the best we got."

"I'm a bit hesitant," Deborah said, "She is an intern, an untrained one at that. I would only feel comfortable deputizing her if she just provided advice and stayed out of the way."

"Of course," Francis nodded his head. "Wouldn't want to put her in the way - but I also wouldn't want to undersell her either."

Reed, who had been listening observantly, leaned forward from his seat and affirmed the Creole agent with a firm nod. "Javaunt, if you don't mind, I'd like to place my support behind this. For both of Agent Jean-Pierre's suggestions, since it looks to me as though Miss Pasternack has proven herself competent enough to be involved in this investigation." Whilst he wouldn't say it just yet, the Director of Baybridge's DOVE branch found himself impressed as the intern's intuition. It almost reminded him of himself during his cop days, just a bit. "Correct me if I'm wrong, she's currently an intern?"

"Yeah," Francis quickly answered.

"Right, I think this might be an opportunity to pull a good resource onboard. But, first - let's see where this goes."

"Shannon," Deborah said to her red-haired assistant, "could you call Andrea in here for me?"

Shannon nodded her head, as she whispered a message into comms to be relayed to other DOVEs.

The meeting room waited a couple more minutes before the door finally opened with a DOVE agent and Andrea trailing closely behind. She didn't feel comfortable being here, considering the events that had just passed, and she was partially expecting some form of punishment for even being present at the mall when probably shouldn't have been, hence why she stayed at headquarters instead of sauntering back home. She was an intern, after all. But when she scanned the room and all the faces in it, focusing on each person's face, she learned the true reason why she was summoned. Francis' idea? She shot him an incredulous look that asked him "why", or "what were you thinking?" Still, she was here now and resigned herself to whatever decision these men and women came to. She could tell that many of them still had reservations, and Andrea couldn't blame them.

"Hello, Ms. Pasternack," Deborah started off as she turned towards Andrea. Just a few hours ago, she would had considered Andrea as nothing more than, well, an intern. One that got a little too ahead of herself, but still a valuable part of DOVE. "We have much to discuss with you tonight, mostly concerning the incident at the mall."

"And how we can put an end to it," Maximilian quickly chimed in

"So, I'm going to cut to the point; presently you have the most information on the whole crisis, correct?" Deborah asked.

"Well... that depends if you've officially determined the Happiness drug to be the root cause of these mutations, ma'am. Uh, with respect, of course." Andrea replied timidly. She tilted her head a bit as she looked at her curiously. 'She has.' Still, as haughty as it might be, she wanted to hear it from Deborah for herself.

"We have in fact," Deborah answered clearly. "An incident of this scale could not have been an accident."

Everyone in the room nodded.

"And so far, we... just have no one with any real way information on this," Deborah nonchalantly shrugged "Which is why... I'll just cut to the chase and say we're assembling a team to figure out just what is going on... and we want you to advise it."

Andrea's jaw dropped a little, but quickly recovered and met Deborah with a smile. "That would be such an honor," she said, but after some hesitation, had something to add, "but... are you sure I'm qualified? I went to school for law, not for... uh, meta... chemistry, if such a thing exists? I mean, I investigated all the records I could find, but..."

"Andrea, it's okay," Deborah softly said to reassure her. "You'll just be advising us on some things, and that's all we want from you."

"Yeah, we wouldn't want to put ya' in the fire too soon." Francis added on.

Andrea chuckled a little bit and stuck her hands behind her back, where she was playing with her fingers. Her face was flushed and she pursed her lips in both humility and careful thought. She looked up and met Deborah's eyes with a meek smile.

"In that case," Andrea began, stealing a quick glance at Francis, "I would like to advise placing agent Jean-Pierre on the team. He... he has proven himself resourceful, open-minded, and insightful. I think he would be an excellent addition."

"Oh me?" Francis asked by pointing to himself. "I have to work on the other case-"

"Agent Taylor can handle it from here, Jean-Pierre," Maximilian said with a smile. "You have been reassigned."

Francis nodded, "Yes sir." Before he looked at Andrea. "Thank you for your recommendation, Ms. Pasternack."

Deborah folded her hands on the table, "We have much work to get done... so I think it's best that we conclude the meeting while we can." She nodded. "You are all dismissed."

---

Francis was relieved that this was the first step to putting an end to this. Part of him wished that they took Andrea seriously while they had the chance, but... now they had the chance to make up for lost time. Francis had already taken off his armor and left it in the armory. He figured now that he should head back to his office to give his notes to Mr. Taylor so they could get started already. As he turned around to get on the way, he saw Andrea entering the room with a perturbed look on her face. She smiled stiffly and walked up the agent, clearly having something stuck in her mind. "Francis," she said curtly in greeting, "I've been looking for you. There was... something I wanted to run by you - if you don't mind."

Francis smiled, "Of course."

"When MAVERICK responded to the situation at the mall and helped us regain control... well, I think our case now has a suspect." Andrea explained. "There was an older and middle-aged looking women there. The older one was responsible for these... I don't know, these red portals, I guess. She knows something about the mutants."

"Yeah, about that..." Francis trailed off for a moment, before he figured that this is something he should just show Andrea. "Come with me, Ma'am." He said as he lead Andrea to his office. He had a few disks from security that he requested on his desk. They've all been viewed by other RAVENs earlier, but one of them stood out among the rest. He slid it into his computer and quickly hit play.

"There were a few deceased mutants," Francis trailed off. "Not killed by RAVEN or anyone fighting back, but..."

It displayed the video of Ada effortlessly stopping a monster's swing towards a woman, then killing it by extending her finger. A body manipulation ability, Francis noticed. She continued through the mall, cutting through the monsters without one so much as laying a hand on her. Until she came across a mutant about to kill a man and... his daughter? She pointed a hand to the side, and the beast was tossed aside, and she executed it like the others. She uttered some words to the people, before moving on.

"... Does this woman fit the description?" Francis asked.

"That's her." Andrea confirmed. "When I tried reading her mind, it was like there were a hundred people talking at once. I don't get it, but I managed to sort it out a little. When she, um, touched some of the blood on the floor, she thought of an African-American girl named Britney and somehow determined that it was a gas that had caused the event. Does this mean anything to you?"

"No one I can think of," Francis trailed off. "There's a lot of people who probably fit that description in Baybridge... and that's taking into account if she's even in any systems." He grabbed his chin for a moment. "But, that woman... she fits the description of someone your boss ran into a few years ago."

He reached down to his earpiece and said, "Agent Jean-Pierre here, could I get Director Taylor to my office for a moment, it's important?"

"I'll be on my way." Without wasting any time, Reed made his way down to the agent's office and stepped inside, finding that Andrea had already been invited in. "Agent Jean-Pierre, Miss Pasternack." He exchanged a nod with the both of them, closing the door behind him, then got straight to the point. "What is it you wanted me over here for?"

"I need you to identify this woman for me, sir," Francis said as he played back the disk again for the director.

The Director's gaze narrowed as he got a closer look at the woman in the video, and her powers. "Jesus..." He pointed an index finger towards Ada's position on the screen, following her along. A chill ran down his spine as he recalled the raid on the Founding Family's facility, their base of operations. The children. "This footage was taken from the mall?"

"Yes, sir." Francis answered. Andrea nodded.

"During the raid on the Founding Family's central facility, my team found this woman with a group of kids being kept there," He began, recalling the events of that raid. "Uh.. 'Cultivators', they called them, some kind of... I don't know, brainwashing is probably the better term for it. Like the Hitler Youth - training these kids to be the next generation of their ideology." The 'quarters' for the children had been furnished as though they lived in a mansion, with ornate wooden entrance doors, a chandelier and so on - opulence at its worst.

"Cultivators..." Francis repeated... he heard one of these "cultivators" defected to the side of RAVEN. Daniel or something? Francis didn't know.

"Anyway," Reed continued, "This woman - Versh... Verschlin-something one of the others called her, I didn't hear it well enough, she took the children with them through a portal. We tried to stop her but she pinned us to the wall with her powers, she's definitely powerful and without a doubt dangerous in that respect, but she didn't do anything to harm us directly. I tried to talk her down, y'know, but she..."

"I am denying them nothing. I asked them what they wanted in their lives... freedom, servitude to the Family, or joining me."

"She told me it was their choice." Reed said, almost bitter at the thought."It didn't look like she was forcing them to go with her, but like I said, brainwashing is probably the better term for it, if there is anything 'better' about it."

"That's definitely..." Francis looked at Reed, before looking at Andrea. "... Concernin'."

"That's putting it lightly." Andrea remarked.

It was more than that, it sounded like she had her own cult going on. She took the Cultivators to... God knew where, and it was uncertain if they were even alive. But, that wasn't the present issue; she was their only lead, and Francis knew she wasn't going down without a fight. And that would be one hell of a fight - Francis wondered what kind of power she had.

"So, even if she doesn't know anything useful about Happiness," Francis said to them as he crossed his arms. "We still have more than enough reason to bring her in, and lock her up for good."

"I'd like to find out where she took the children," Reed nodded, "As I said before, they're children. They have a right to a childhood, to actually be kids, not caught up in this cult environment." The Director then turned his gaze towards Andrea, raising an eyebrow, "Miss Pasternack, I hate to put you on the spot, but did you learn anything else about her? Anything that might give us a lead on the kids?"

"Sir." She addressed him nervously. "I'm afraid all I managed to get from her is that she believes a gas caused the mutations, so maybe it's some kind of chemical weapon that reacted with the Happiness drug in their bloodstream... and that an African-American woman named Britney is somehow related to it."

A brief moment of disappointment washed over the Director's mind at the dead-end, but she'd given him another lead. "Britney?" Reed asked, then shifted his gaze over towards Francis. "I'd like a copy of the footage sent to my office, please. I'll have that name run through our system, see if there's anyone matching that description registered with us." Then, he paused for a moment and turned back towards Andrea to address her, "In fact, I'd appreciate if you could work with that team on this. Your thoughts?"

"Right away, sir," Francis said, as he saluted Reed, before grabbing the disks, and carrying them off.

"I'd be honored, sir." Andrea replied.

"Good to hear, we'll get started right away."

---

Oakdell Harbor, White Coast_

---

---

Alright, after the whole escapade at the Orchestra Mall, Wendy had managed to assemble most of her group into the Philosopher Mansion.

Except, she left out the part about the Philosophers, and just said that her mother worked here. But, she managed to find them some alone time in the library room, which was stacked to here with books. Books that Wendy would looooove to get her hands on, but she can't get carried away. Not now. Everyone was seated except for her, but Wendy paced back and fourth - wondering if she should even tell them that they could be in danger. Part of her wanted to; they had a right to know, after all... but, she didn't want to drive them off.

"Nice fuckin' place," Penny said as she reached into her purse and pulled out... a cherry lollipop. She put the sugared treat in between her lips and sucked on it. "Now what'd you want to talk to us about? I'm just tingling with excitement."

But, Wendy ultimately decided to keep this to herself, at least until she got more information. She just... didn't want to lose her friends.

"... I want to discuss my findings in the book," Wendy simply said, worried that she'd have to bullshit something boring.

"Oh! Is it the thing I found out?" Penny excitedly hopped up.

"Which is?"

"Course you didn't figure it out first - didn't expect you to!" Penny quickly took the scene as she stood up next to Wendy as she quickly went into that satchel. "Give up the notes, sister!"

"Hey! Just ask!" Wendy said, before Penny just yanked the first book out, and quickly went through it until she stopped and loudly shouted,

"Aha! Just as I thought!" Penny enthusiastically said, then pulled out the other book from her own purse. She quickly wrote something down, and showed it to the group. It was a set of coordinates... that appeared as random numbers to the groups "Coordinates!"

"... To where?"

"No fuckin' idea, but guess what?" Penny reached into pocket and pulled out her phone. "There's an app for that!" She quickly went through her phone, before she stopped and gave them a look.

"Somewhere in, uh, Roseview?" Penny started off, "Look, I don't fuckin' know, if it's in the book, we should give it a look!"

"Well, it's a clue," Wendy shrugged. "So, uh, what do you guys think is the best course of action?"

Before any of them could pitch in, another set of footsteps cut in as a hooded figure entered the room, their left hand clenched around their waist, almost trembling. "It's me, relax." Rowan said with a weary tone, then yanked the hood down with his other hand, revealing himself to them. He was wearing a different hoodie to the last time they'd seen him - in fact, this one looked new, straight from the store.

"Rowan!" Wendy said, "What... what took you so long?" She asked.

"Somethin' came up," He answered with a half-wince, doing as best as he could to draw his thoughts away from the agonising wreath of fire that was his arm right now, "Have you guys got some water and a first aid kit around here, or somethin'?"

"I'm not sure, I'll have to ask Kumiko, but..." Wendy walked over to Rowan, with a raised eyebrow, "... What's wrong?"

"Guess I'll wait on her," He shrugged, then "My arm's a little messed up but it can wait, what're we talkin' about?"

"Well, our friend Penelope-" Wendy had to resist saying it like an insult. "Found coordinates related to Sean Rosier, and I'm wondering if we should check it out."

"Nice hoodie," Penny said, then refrained from asking who's dick did his mom have to suck to buy it.

At least she hadn't asked how he'd got it, but Rowan had to fight off the temptation to snap at her or fire off a sarcastic retort. "Yeah, sure. Look, uh... where's Daniel? Shouldn't he be here?"

"Uh, yeah, about Danny-boy," Penny put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Shit went down at the mall, and he gave himself mild hypothermia."

She tried to say it with a straight face, because she was trying to hide her irritation... and sorrow that Daniel wouldn't be joining them. "So, the docs told him he needs to be on rest for a bit, even though he's probably perfectly fine now."

"Oh shit, least he's good now, yeah?" Rowan asked, raising an eyebrow. Hypothermia? It was a funny thought, almost ironic when he thought on what state his arm was in, but any laughs he might've had out of it were promptly silenced as a fresh wave of burning pain ran up his arm as it caught against his sleeve again, prompting to suck in his breath between his teeth and tighten his clenched fingers.

"Yeah, I guess," Penny sighed with her arms crossed. Maybe if he stopped rushing into everything head first then... Penny just shook her head. No need to whine about it. "What's wrong with you? Hurt your arm jerkin' it?" She laughed for a moment, before the door suddenly opened. Which was fuckin' weird, since nobody was supposed to interrupt them (According her best fuckin' friend Wendy).

"... Heeeeeeey kids!" Kumiko said as she walked in... holding a plate covered in cookies, and a first aid kit and bottle of water hanging from her chains. "I heard Dannyboy wouldn't be joining ya'll, and I made cookies!" She placed the plate on the table between all the kids, and Penny didn't waste a second in helping herself to one... then two.

"Hey, wait a second," Penny said as she took a bite and raised a finger in the air. "You got this shit from a food truck down the street!" She said... while still eating the cookie.

"Yeahhehe...." Kumiko quickly turned away as she handed the first aid to Rowan. "Here sweetie, need help applying it?"

It earned her an odd look for a moment, but he promptly shrugged and took the kit from her. "Think I'll be good."

Then, after a moment of pause, Rowan pulled up a chair beside the table in the room and set the first aid kit down and water upon it beside him, before holding out his burned arm with his palm flat on the desk. With a stifled hiss of pain, he began to roll his sleeve up, revealing a hastily applied layer of gauze around his forearm.

"Jerkin' it, right?" Rowan hissed, echoing Penny's earlier remark, before peeling back the dressing, revealing a blotchy, raw mess of skin that had suffered first degree burns at the very least.

Exposing it to the air only made him stifle a whimper, but it felt like a mass of fire ants had set to work on him.

Penny winced for a moment, disgusted by the sight. It almost felt like her arm was on fire for a second! Shit, that looked nasty as fuck. But, Penny quickly shrugged off the display of emotion, and tried to play it off. "Fuck," She said. "Did you jerk it so fast it caught fire?"

"Eat a dick." Rowan retorted.

"I'd love to," Penny said with a smug smile. "But, I can't beat the master." Especially with how hard he beat his dick.

Which actually earned a chuckle from Kumiko who shook her head and said, "Given that I'm a licensed nurse..." Then she stopped before looking at the group, "...for the most part, I'm your best bet... but suit yourself!" She sat down next to Wendy who looked worried. Daniel's hypothermia, Rowan's burns... something clicked in Wendy's head.

"Rowan, were you at the mall?" Wendy asked.

"Yeah, same crazy shit like what you guys saw, right?" He asked, reaching over for the kit and popping it open to fish through it.

"Yeah..." Penny shrugged, "I don't know what in the fuck happened. One second I was trying to gaslight this broad, and another second here are all these fucking monsters!" Penny spontaneously threw her hands up into the air. "That's how Daniel got hurt, he played Superman trying to save another broad."

"I just wanted to take pictures at the mall," Wendy said, looking around. "I wonder what in the hell happened... Was it the work of a Metahuman?" She asked.

Soon enough Rowan had retrieved a cotton wipe, some fresh gauze and a tube of antibiotic ointment, all of which he set beside him and then moved onto the bottle of water that Kumiko had been decent enough to grab for him. Then, unscrewing the cap from the top, he pressed the cotton wipe against the neck of the bottle and tilted it sidewards until he felt it dampen all the way through, then set it down again and laid his arm back along the table.

"Fuckin' beats me," Penny replied. "Either way, it ain't our problem."

"... But are you sure about that?" Wendy asked no one in particular beneath her breath.

Penny heard something, but chose to keep her mouth shut for the sake of ending this stupid back and fourth.

He winced, then clenched his teeth and began to dab at the burned area, cleaning it. Once this was done, Rowan then squeezed a small amount of anti-biotic gel onto his fingers and began to apply a coat across his burned skin, this time letting slip a pained murmur as the flames seemed to set upon him once again. In an effort to take his mind off the pain and because it needed to be addressed, he spoke up through clenched teeth. "Wen', you got my text?"

"Y-yeah," Wendy awkwardly said, and hoped that Rowan wouldn't....

"I was being followed. Some asshole was waiting outside my Mom's house,"Rowan seethed, almost spitting out the words as he began to redress the burn, "My fucking Mom's house. I caught the guy tailin' me when I led him on, made the asshole take a dive into traffic, but that still means we're being watched."

... And he did. Wendy almost mentally facepalmed, when she realized that this could spell the end of the group.

"Wait, fuckin' hold up there, Eminem," Penny said, with a raised hand. She was less disturbed that . "Maybe before you got your murder on, maybe you should'a, maybe, I don't know - figured out who the fuck was after you." She spat at him.

"Beeeeeeeeeecause..." Penny looked around for a moment... and decided to keep her involvement with the Family a secret. "Well, to put it simply for ya', there are other people after the book."

"Wait, what?!" Wendy said. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because I didn't want to break up the superfriends," Penny answered with a roll of her eyes.

"Smart fucking move right there, nice fucking work." Rowan fired back, having finished dressing his injury and begun closing the first aid kit. Clearly unimpressed, he fired out another question at her, "What other people?"

"That's the thing," Penny shrugged. "I don't fuckin' know myself. Some people... just follow me and Daniel around-" It could be because they want to keep an eye on their special boy.... "-and that's it. Could be after the books, could be after some pocket change." She leaned back in the chair.

"But, either way... let's just find out, alright?" She asked, almost passive aggressively. "... Without murdering anyone else, please?"

After a moment's consideration, Rowan shrugged, then reclined in his seat. "Sure. Wen', what do you think?"

"I think..." Wendy trailed off, giving it thought. "We shouldn't let this stop us here... right when we just got started. But, I'm wondering if anyone else has a problem?"

Rori gave a slight shrug, having listened silently to most of the conversation. "I don't want to stop..." They paused thoughtfully. "Though I do live alone, and I'm pretty recognisable. But I am hard to follow, bird form and all! I don't want to stop when we're just beginning to figure things out."

"I don't want to stop, either - fuck these people," Rowan opined, folding his arms."Me? I think we should figure out who's followin' us and give 'em a reason not to, throw them off our tails." He was still infuriated at the notion that the people they cared about were potentially being tailed by whoever these people were, his Mom just one example.

Kannix had slipped from Audrey again ("I've got to be somewhere. Emergency!") when she read the text message about the meeting. The entire time up until this point she had only been sitting at the edge of the sofa, reclining back as much as she could, listening to the conversation at hand. She was silent because primarily she was tired as fuck, recuperating as much as she could after her exchange at the mall. Though her powers made her unbreakable, they also left her fatigued, given the debt of 'not getting hurt' being exhausting.

She could not get hurt in the conventional way, but seeing the effects on Daniel and Rowan, and to think less selflessly, if it could happen to anyone else? The imposing threat of her mom being in danger plus the damage that could happen to them as well was more than enough reason for her to want to stay. It would be a moral crime to not put herself to good use for this cause.

Kannix stifled a yawn so as not to seem rude: "I'm in. I've got my own mom to protect."

"Good," Wendy said with a faint smile as she looked at the rest of her group. Even though she didn't like Penny, maybe she had something useful in her. Maybe. "So, that means we'll be giving this place a look later on?"

"Might as well," Penny didn't like going to a place without Daniel... especially since it was more than likely a Founding Family base of some kind. She didn't want to tell them that because too many goddamn people piss themselves when they hear those two words together. But, she regretted having Daniel on the team not because he's a powerhouse, but also because no one knew the Founding Family more than him. Penny grabbed a cookie, and took one bite out of it before finishing it off. She shook her head.

"We'll head there later on," Penny said. "We still need to get ready... I ain't a fan of charging in dick first without a plan or preparing."

Even though Penny didn't particularly like Wendy... or her band of mongs, she had to admit that when they just fell into her life, she made more progress than ever before! Is that luck or something? Penny didn't know. What she did know was that getting those notes back was top priority... then taking out the people after them so Penny can finally start going to sleep at night.

---

???

---

---

"Well then," Father started off, his arms crossed as he stood behind a glass. Looking into another room incredulously with his arms crossed. "On with it, then."

"Okay, sir." One of the men in labcoats said, as they turned to the enormous machine - which looked more like a high-tech cannon. With seemingly hundreds of cables attached to it, at the end was a ray of some sorts. Shiny, and expertly crafted, the entire machine was big as a delivery truck, and the room was rectangular, leading to a sole wall. Many of the wires lead to a control panel operated by a woman.

She nodded her head and pressed a button, and the machine powered up. Lights glew brightly, and the ray dish at the end of the device formed a orb of a dark-blue energy with pink swirls.

Father widely smiled... before the machine just... fizzed out.

"Excuse, what just happened?" Father asked, "I was told the prototype was one-hundred percent finished! What's this?!" He pointed a finger in the direction of the machine.

"How is this?!" Father said, "You made the machine exactly according to blueprints, correct?"

"That is correct, sir!"

"And here I was thinking that we had competent men and women on the job!" Father said as he walked over to the scientist, and she shivered in fear of her own life. "We started the next phase! Do you know the risks we took!? We could have RAVEN breathing down our necks the very next minute!"

In fear of Father, the head scientist on the project fell to her knees, and shielded herself with a clipboard. Desperately hoping that Father wouldn't kill her. "I'm sorry! There may have been a design flaw!"

"Oh, Father," One of Father's "assistants" said, interrupting him as she looked at the blueprints. "I think... I think the possible design flaw has been designed... intentionally."

"Hm?" Father raised an eyebrow.

"Remember, we're dealing with someone who vehemently hated the Family," The assistant said as she walked over to Father. "Maybe he put a failsafe in... in the event someone takes his plans, and tries to replicate his work."

"... And what are the odds of us being able to figure out that kink? That little flaw he planted?" Father asked with his hands behind his back.

"Difficult, if not impossible," The scientist answered, "We have no idea what he did. He could have intentionally made fake blueprints, and..."

"Might I suggest we find his notes?" The Secretary asked.

Father put a hand on his chin as he walked around, giving the prospect some serious thought. "We should." He said as he put a finger in the air. "But, I suggest we let Ms. Lucker's group recover all of them before we take personal action."

He put his arms behind his back as he kept walking. "With what happened... I think it's best we keep our heads down...."

He looked towards the machine, and smiled widely.

"... But, our ears open."

Delhi, India.

---

'It's been awhile, hasn't it?'

The thoughts went through the woman's head as she slowly walked through the bloated downtown of Delhi. It was all kinds of active as she took steps with no destination in mind. Clearly dressed like no native of the place. Weird, even though a big part of her descended from this city, she didn't belong here. It was simply not her city, not her country. Eh, she was used to the big large cities, but this place was too crowded, wasn't it?

'It's been three years, and... I haven't really spent that much time off, have I? Only about one day, before getting thrusted into another adventure altogether. Funny.'

A woman bumped into her, and quietly apologized before moving on, and her face was forgotten in an instant. So was the encounter. Maybe the woman thought she should stop thinking so much. Maybe she should hurry up already, and decide if she wants to stay here.

'I'm not even sure if they'll believe me, the sheer coincidence of it all... it was stupid for me not to tell them and get help, but at the same time... it was easier. No one else to watch, and no other stupid decisions. But... there's something that they have to know. Something that Meifeng needs to know. She might rush off on a quest.'

The woman took another turn, before entering a sleazy motel. She didn't waste any time in packing up, she had to be out of here by the morning. She packed up her things, before thinking again.

'I hope Deborah gives me back my job... I'll literally get on my knees and beg for it. But, that's for another time. I need to sort one more thing out before I head back, and then....'

She grabbed the suitcase, and quickly walked away, but at the corner of her eye, she saw something move. It wasn't another person, but something falling out of the suitcase. She quickly knelt down and picked it up. Thank God... because she would just hate it if she left it here.

A photograph that was taken over ten years ago of Meifeng, Cindy, Trevor, and Jennifer, after Meifeng won that karate tournament. The look of joy on her face was priceless, but these were the good old days.

Nologia ran it's course before Cindy walked out the door.

---

---

---

---

Strongriver Plaza, Hedgemount

---

---

"... There's no need for this, my child."

"Oh, in fact there is," Noelle held a Kimber Super Carry Pro to the back of Ada's head with cold fury in her eyes as she continued to bark. "So, I'll cut to the chase; why have you sought me out, and how?"

"It's simple," Ada said as she faced the wall of the dark and damp alleyway they both found themselves in. She didn't even move an inch from behind the robe. "I am looking for someone... someone you may know, assassin?"

"I don't know shit," Noelle hissed through her teeth.

"Oh?" Ada said. "Then... why is it that you have so many former members of the Family blackmailed? Living in fear of your very face...?"

"Because..." Noelle said, but Ada cut her off.

"Because you have a powerful network of people in your pocket, and no one to moderate you," Ada said, with a blank stare as she finally turned her head around halfway. If her eyes weren't obscured by the band, she would be staring Noelle straight in the eye. "You're like a child in a candy shop, but that is none of my concern, assassin."

"Then what is it that you want?" Noelle asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"Just some information, since you seem to have all of it," Ada smiled. "What do you know about Britney Williams?"

"Nothing," Noelle said. "After the Family fell, she fell off the map."

She pressed the gun to the back of Ada's head, and said, "And even if I did know, she'd be the first person I'd kill, got it?"

"If you're lying," Ada sharply said. "I have ways of finding out."

"Tough talk," Noelle said, "When you have a gun at the back of your head."

"If you thought you were the one in control here... you were wrong," Ada said with no response, before she just sighed, and shook her head, and just said;

"... Megan."

"Surprise!" Megan shouted as her head suddenly popped out of a nearby trashcan behind Noelle and made her heart race for a moment. Noelle fired a few shots from her pistol into Ada's body... but it didn't seem to do anything to the woman. Ada quickly lunged forward and grabbed Noelle's wrist, the pistol was seemingly absorbed into her body. Before she quickly struck Noelle across the face with her other hand. Noelle fell over, dazed and confused, with Ada standing over her. Megan quickly transformed back from a... trash can.

Ada took a few steps over, and as she walked, the bullets traveled through her skin... before exiting through her fingers. She focused on Noelle. Unconsciously, Noelle floated in the air as Ada's telekinesis hoisted her up to her level, head first. Ada put both hands on the side of her head. Before a red aura surrounded her head, and Ada entered her mind, before releasing the telekinesis and just letting her fall.

"She doesn't have the information," Ada said as she turned away. "Adora." She pointed at Adora, who was also hiding. She quickly slashed into the air and created a large red portal that appeared as a tear.

"Maybe we should kill her!" Megan added on. "We don't want them to know who we are!"

"No..." Ada said, as she turned away. "Great doubt rests in her mind, it would be... ill fitting to kill her before she figures herself out."

Ada slowly stepped into the portal, before saying, "Besides... life is precious."

Noelle was still dazed as all hell. Confused as to how this started. It started with a mere date going horribly wrong when Ada showed up, and started rattling on. Ugh, it didn't matter. Noelle grabbed the side of her head, and all she could hear was ringing... and the sound of siren. Shit. Ada left her gun on the ground... and the last thing Noelle needed was the police finding an illegal gun on her.

She quickly grabbed the gun (just in case), and tried to find her way out of here. This was bad... Ada was able to find her real easily, and yet she didn't have a clue just who she was.

---

Faircrest Woods, Roseview_

---

---

Despite her reservations, Penny made sure to arrive at the place at their scheduled time.

She was rolling through the streets of Faircrest at night on her moped... definitely an unsettling feeling. As Penelope made a note to stay the fuck away from the place on the account of there being nothing here. 'Cept for trees. And shit. Penny kept her eyes peeled, though. This felt like the start up to some horror movie, she was just waiting for a monster to pop out. But, Penny made it to it to the place. She came up to some metal gates that have been chained up, that was surrounded by a stone wall. But, she could see the massive mansion built on a hill. It was high enough for her to see the wooden monstrosity that was before her. Which was mostly reclaimed by nature given that it was damn near coated in plants, or something. She hopped off the moped for a moment as she walked over to the gate. There was a plaque or something... but it was covered in fuckin' plants. She rolled her eyes as she pulled the roots away with her bare hands to reveal the plague.

AUER MANOR

"Huh?" Penny said to herself as the name was familiar to her in some way. Almost as if it was mentioned in passing by someone... but who was the question?

That line of thought was brought to an end when she saw two lights in the distance rapidly approach, and figured that it could only be the rest of her group. A red minivan, followed by a white moped with Wendy and Rowan on top of it. The rest of the group came out of the minivan as Wendy got off, and took off her helmet. She let her hair flutter for a moment, as she looked at Penny.

"Here already?" Wendy asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You bet." Penny said, "I've been waitin' for ya'll to get here, but you took your sweet fuckin' time as always."

She put a hand on her hip as she chuckled for a moment. "That's okay, I don't mind waiting."

"You could have just came with us, Penny," Wendy said, annoyed.

"Well, given that I'd be ass to ass in that van," Penny's eyes ventured to the uncomfortable minivan. "Pass."

Penny chuckled again, before adding on, "Besides, I had to get suited up!"

And that prompted Wendy to look at the girl from top to bottom. She definitely took this seriously, but she missed an important memo. This was just an exploration, not an infiltration. Given the camo warpaint underneath Penny's eyes, the large black backpack with a crowbar poking out of it, steel toe boots, and the... utility belt? It had bottles of pepper spray, and a taser hanging off it.

"Well, someone had fun," Wendy teased Penny, "We're just looking around, you didn't need to bring all this."

"Well, given that there's a mysterious group of fucks after us," Penny said. "I didn't want to take any chances, that's why I'm prepared for anything."

Rowan took a look at her and shrugged, "Sure, because your mall cop belt is really gonna spook these assholes. Might work for junkies but these people ain' gonna be junkies now, are they?" A rhetorical question, no doubt, but it was hard not to wonder just how far they were going into the rabbit hole.

"Well who fuckin' knows?" Penny asked, with her arms crossed, as she looked at Rowan. "Could be a buncha mongs hopped up on Happiness, we never know." She shrugged.

Happiness... the thing that took Baybridge by storm, Wendy heard. It was one of the things that made her feel like a fish out of water, even returning to the city she spent over five years in. Well, while Wendy wasn't ashamed to say that she and Rowan dabbled in a little drug usage during their journey, it wasn't anything like Happiness. But, she couldn't help but chime in a little, "If they were just druggies, we'd have no problem." Wendy took a few steps over to Penny, and crossed her arms,

"Well, if I were to take a guess," Wendy said with a sly smile on her face, looking at Penelope. "I'd say you're afraid of something."

"I'm not afraid of shit," Penny said, putting a hand on her hip, "What gave you that idea?"

"Oooooooooh, well," Wendy said. "Reasons."

"But that'll help get us in, I guess," Rowan said, eyeing the crowbar peering out of her backpack.

Kumiko then got out the van, and shook her head at the kids, before looking at the fence and saying, "I gave this place a look earlier on, there wasn't anyone here for years," She started off, "But, that isn't to say that somebody could have moved in between when I looked and now."

"Yeah," Penny said as she reached into her backpack and pulled out a lollipop. She stuck it in her mouth and began to suck on it casually, before saying, "I'd feel a lot more comfortable if we get a second look."

"Well, I can go look," Wendy said as she turned her hand into paper. "But, Rori?" She asked, "would you join me? We'd cover more ground."

"Sure can do! Should be easy between the two of us," Rori agreed readily, before looking thoughtful. "Hmm... what bird has the best vision that I can turn into? Oh, I got it!" Taking a moment they turned into a red tailed hawk before hopping up and onto the fence, ready to go look around.

Wendy first turned into a paper cloud and landed on the stone fence, before she felt the night breeze as she raised a hand up into the air. She then turned back into paper and let the breeze carry her away. She reached the highest height above the mansion, before she quickly came down. So far she didn't see a single person outside, but she whirled by the windows really quickly, before she ran out of breath and had to make a quick landing. Taking a few soft breaths, she was back in the air and made several laps around the building, and could safely say that it was... clear. She went to the rooftop, before calling,

"Hey, Rori!" Wendy said to get her attention. "Did you see anything suspicious?"

Rori had been able to make a few laps in the sky, easily seeing the entire building from above with the enhanced vision of a hawk. They went by all the windows as well; just in case they saw something that Wendy hadn't. Bird eyes did have some advantages. The coast seemed clear as far as they were aware but they checked it again from up high just in case before swooping back down towards Wendy on the roof. Changing just beside her, Rori took a moment to catch their breath.

"Nope, nothing that I could see."

"Alright," Wendy said as she slowly turned into paper. "Let's meet back with the others."

Rori just nodded, and turned back into a bird (albeit a smaller one) to make their way back to the rest of the group.

"What's that leave, just us getting in?" Rowan asked, nodding towards Penny.

"I mean," Penny said as she looked at the fence - mainly the chains. She crossed her arms, the lollipop still hanging out her mouth, before she said. "Y'could just Magneto the gate open at any time."

"Let's just wait a sec for the all-clear, Rowan," Kumiko said. "The last thing I'd like to find out is that we aren't the only people there."

He nodded. "Sure. It's on you, then."

During their discussion on whether or not they should go through without waiting for Wendy, the two returned. Wendy just falling from the sky and Rori turning back from a bird just before the ground. Wendy nodded her head, and simply said, "The coast is clear."

"Good!" Penny said, sucking the lollipop a little harder. "Now, I could break the chains off with this crowbar..." She said as she reached back and pulled out the crowbar, then she turned towards Rowan and said, "But, at the same time, could you do the honors, Magneto?"

"Nah, I'm sure I'll let you handle this one, Paul Blart." Rowan said something smart and earned an eyeroll from Penny.

"Yeah, yeah," Penny said, as she pulled the crowbar out of her backpack, and her muscles puffed up as her body fat converted into pure muscle. "You sound really manly making the small, frail, girl open the door for you." She said, very teasingly as she shoved the crowbar in between the chains, and with one hard pull she popped it with ease. Penny smiled with pure satisfaction as the chains fell to the ground, and she then kicked the gates apart from where they met. They loudly creaked, since they were old, worn, and rusted, but they showed the view of the grass in front of her when the gate was closed. Probably because she was focused on the gate. All they saw was a stone road leading to the mansion (Or, Auer Manors) overtaken by nature.

"Well," Penny said, "We got a spooky ass mansion to explore, time's a wastin' - don't want to keep all those fuckin' ghosts waiting, do we?"

Wendy shrugged, as she lead the march towards the mansion. Though, as ridiculous as Penny's statements were... the closer she got to the mansion, more ominous it seemed. It reminded her of three years ago, when she raided base after base, looking for Diana... only then, she was too driven to take into account how frightening it looked. Now... she had more time to think about her actions. As she approached the door, she noticed that it was slightly ajar. Letting in a slight whisper as the wind blew in and out of the building. She stuck a hand out, but paused for a moment.

"... Well?" Penny asked as she had both hands on her hips, and leaned forward. "Just push the door open, there ain't no such thing as monsters!"

The people who were at the mall know otherwise, as an awkward silence filled the air, and Penny shrugged.

"Well, I don't see any 'round here," Penny rolled her eyes, before she just paced past Wendy, and simply pushed the door open. Nearly causing spider webs to fall all over them. The first thing they gazed upon was absolute darkness, but they could see the rooted wooden floors illuminated by the moonlight.

Which was a problem, mainly because the last thing Wendy wanted was for them to trip over themselves. Thankfully, Wendy always planned in advance. She reached into her satchel, and pulled out three flashlights. "Alright, guys, I only got thr-" Penny was quick to snatch one without a word, causing Wendy to narrow her eyes, as she continued. ".... I only got two of these, so who wants to hold the other ones?" She held them out for her group.

"Guess I can." Rowan quietly snatched up a light, turned it on and shifted the beam towards the building's decrepit interior.

"Sure thing!" Rori took the other light cheerfully and switched it on. They could see slightly better in the dark than most, what with the bird-like eyes, but having a flashlight also made things easier!

"Hey guys!" Penny shouted to catch everyone's attention. Since she so graciously went ahead. "Check out this shit!"

Penny then shined the flashlight down the hall, and past the door was a giant foyer that had several halls leading out of it. Including several wooden, and decayed stairs that Penny wouldn't touch. But, what caught her (and by that extent, the rest of the group's) attention was the giant statue in the middle of the foyer. The subject was what elicited anger inside of Wendy. It was a brass statue of the so called "Blessed Three," styled in the manner of ancient Greek sculptures based off Gods. Each of the Blessed Three underneath a giant globe, seemingly holding it up like Atlas. Dressed in garbs similar to Greek Gods

"So, we're here..." Penny said underneath her breath, this was a place Daniel told her about. She knew Auer Manors sounded familiar! Now she really wished Daniel was here. Before she shook her head and said to the group, "Behold! The monument to the greatest circle jerk ever to face the earth!"

Thinly veiled contempt washed over Rowan's face as the gratifying likenesses of the three came into view. Ezekiel was hard to miss with his pompous visage and Blake's olympian figure had been emphasised even moreso. The third, however , was of some woman that he didn't recognise.

"Not anymore," he spat at the foot of the sculpture, curling his fingers inwards. Rowan had seen to Ezekiel's death personally with a shard of metal in the man's gut and last they'd heard Blake had died like a bitch on the run from RAVEN, but it was infuriating to see these assholes immortalised as statues and for a moment his disgust overtook him as he tried to crush them in his grasp, only to recall that brass was a non-ferrous metal. Instead, he ceded with a contemptuous remark, "At least those two assholes are rotting."

"It's a shame that the statue is, though, the material could be worth a lot," Rori hummed slightly, stepping up and tapping a bit of the statue. The artist in them thought it looked nice enough but also didn't appreciate them being done in such an ancient style. And while they hadn't been directly affected by the blessed three, not like Wendy and Rowan, their cousin had been lost to the fight in them. They definitely didn't deserve a statue. "Not that that's important! Although it could be a lot worse... Greek style statues tend to have a lot more nudity." They realised that was a bit off topic - damn their habit of rambling.

"Ah, sorry, I'm being insensitive."

"It's... okay, Rori." Wendy replied to Rori as she merely shook her head. This was what the Blessed Three wanted, wasn't it? Even in death, they are all immortalized forever. It disgusted her... it disgusted her so fucking much. She tightly clenched her fists as she nearly had an outburst. The mere thought of Blake brought up some rather ugly memories. "It... really is."

"Well, Rori," Kumiko said under her breath, as she walked over to the bird girl. "They have other statues that are a bit more, uhhhh.... detailed."

There wasn't much else for Wendy to do other than deal with it. She nodded her eyes as a look of passion replaced the grief. She took a few steps over to the statue, before her eyes rested upon the woman, "But... who's this?" She gestured towards the woman. Instead of Kumiko answering like she expected, Penny did.

"Julia O-fuckin'-Sullivan," Penny said as she turned around. "An Irish-bitch that was a 'medical genius'-" She finger quoted. "-and the third member of the Blessed Three. Wasn't as blatant as the rest of the three, but she sure as hell was crazy."

Wendy raised an eyebrow. "... and you know this how?"

Penny rolled her eyes and shook her head as if Wendy was annoying her. Before she merely skipped by, "... Maybe you didn't read those notes as hard as you think you did." And that's all Penny said, annoying Wendy. "Now, I think I'm done marveling at the dick statues, so uh... where do we even fuckin' start?"

She looked around, and she never noticed how expansive this whole place was. They could be here for days checking every nook, cranny, and etc, for a god damn lead - maybe even more in the dark.

"Oh! That gives me an idea" Penny said. "How about we turn back on the fucking power... if it's possible? This whole place is rooted to shit, so it may not even work anymore."

"Or we could burn down the whole place," Wendy said.

"It's better than stumbling around in the dark for nine hours like a buncha' mongs," Penny rolled her eyes.

Kannix had been staying at the back of the pack the whole time, side by side with Rein, one of among the population of the group that did not totally hate her guts. Light illuminated from her phone, flashing a screen of brightness onto her face, casting a huge shadow back beyond her, the face of the device displaying the messages of concern form her mother again ("Out with Rein again - be back home soon!").

Though the statues that put the group's march to temporary halt were in the biblical meanings of 'awesome' and 'horrible', there was a bit of detachment facing someone/something so far beyond the seeming capacities of the human-Metahuman realm. Knowing what they'd done, Kannix could not help but wonder if it was all real.

She took her phone and aimed it forward to have its light brighten a small scope of the room in front of them, though only managing to see the floor just a small distance away.

"I can go walk ahead first into one of the halls. I'll yell if I see anything weird, yeah?" Kannix began her unstoppable march but not before activating and launching herself at the statue's globe. With her powers, the mass of the globe deflected against Kannix's repulsion. It wasn't enough to send the globe flying away like a baseball, but it caused the whole statue to shuffle and the globe to stress and break from the base, making it roll over backwards and fall sharply and loudly to the wooden floor.

"Wait, Kannix-" Wendy tried to stop her, because she didn't think it was the best idea to go wandering around a dark mansion alone - but, Kannix had other... much dumber, plans. When she knocked over the statue, it went barrelling into the ground and damn near causing it to fall through the floor. As for the globe? It flying right into the wall. The sound was horrific, and she winced. It was probably heard from miles. "Jesus Christ!" Wendy shouted, whilst Rowan seemed ready to pull up anything he could to shield them from the possibility of the roof coming down on top of their heads.

After the noise and the moment dissipated, Kannix, atop the globe, announced: "That might have been a bit much." She shrugged to herself and leapt off to the nearest hallway. Her selection seemed a long dark bunch of nothing.

On the other hand, Penny responded a bit less kindly.

"Hey, dipshit!" Penny shouted down the hall. "Stop before you crash the fucking place dow-" But, she was gone.

Not only did this mong make a ton of noise, she was going around trashing the place. Worst case scenario, she destroys something useful (far more than she was) and look! They were shit out of luck! Penny had her legs ready to go chase after her, but she had a few words

"You fuckin' think?" Even Rowan, who had wanted to watch the statues crushed under their own mass, found himself cringing at the untold bullshit that she'd potentially dragged their way

"Your friend's dumb as a bag of rocks - no, that's insulting rocks!" Penny said to Wendy. "Now we have everyone in five kilometers knowing exactly where the fuck we are."

Wendy raised a finger to object, before the finger went down as if it deflated, and sighed. "... She isn't my friend."

"Yeah, yeah," Penny said as she just decided to run after her with the flashlight. Hoping to knock some sense into her with it.

"... Uh, yeah, kids," Kumiko said as she walked up and put a hand on both Wendy and Rowan's shoulders. "It's probably in our interests to stop her."

As time went on, Penny's rage seemed more and more justified. Wendy shook her head, and just gestured for everyone to come along as they participated in the chase.

---

---

---

Academy 61, Roseview_

Ever since the little break-in incident with Wendy and co. - together with a grumpy Kannix - few nights ago, Rein hadn't stepped out of the academy for another adventure (and getting into another close call again)... Not when he was currently under watch from returning to the dormitory way past midnight. He had to take a long detour to get Kannix back to her home in Springtown first, which was the least he could do after getting her involved in this mess if it wasn't for him. He couldn't help feeling a tad responsible, even if no one was to blame. (There were definitely better ways to do it than breaking into someone's house uninvited.)

There wasn't much he could do while he had to stay indoors, so he spent most of his free time in the library. Housing the largest book collection in Baybridge, it was the perfect place to do some research on his own. If there was somewhere he could look for Metahuman-related information, the academy's library was the best place to start off.

Rein strolled deeper into the labyrinth of bookshelves, towards the shelves where archives of Metahuman-related journals and research materials were located. He zoomed into the section marked with the letter 'R' - to look for any papers written by Sean Rosier.

It was less about his suspicion towards Wendy. Of how she got the books with that shocking revelation, of how her secretive involvement with the Founding Family that she was obviously reluctant to divulge to an outsider like him... It was more to satisfy his own curiosity about the relationship between the existence of Metahuman powers with reality bending, even with the possibility of parallel dimensions of their current world.

To any logical person, Wendy's proclamation was a tall tale - too far-fetched to believe in, too abstract to spare the time and thought to even consider the possibility of her findings. But Rein chose to give her the benefit of doubt, merely because of his own experience.

What if her crazy story might help to shed some light to 'Scape', his own powers?

As he had suspected, there wasn't any materials written by this 'Sean Rosier' he could find. He wondered if his papers were removed by the likes of the Family - or even some bigger and badder organizations out there - to prevent ordinary bookworms like him to access such dangerous information that could easily overturn this world... for the worse.

He let out an inaudible sigh as he finally straightened up, disappointed at hitting another dead end. So he'd be stuck with browsing for generic books on the theories around parallel dimensions and the Black Fall Effect...

"...Rein." The Asian boy looked up, distracted by a whisper behind him. It was the same African-American girl who had asked for his help back at the DOVE rally. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Sorry to startle you," she spoke again in the same low voice. "But I just can't help, well, noticing you. Not in that way, if you know what I mean... but, yeah."

Now both of Rein's eyebrows were arched. Something about the girl's vagueness with her words demanded all his attention on her.

The girl shifted her eyes from Rein's face down to his hands. "I've always found it strange... that you're always glowing the brightest whenever I use my power."

She took a step closer to him. "Maybe it's because our powers are very similar... that we're both clairvoyants of sorts. I think you might be able to help me as much as I'm going to help you."

"...What do you mean?" And more importantly, "Sorry, but who are you?"

"Ah," the girl exclaimed, then looked around sheepishly when she realized she was too loud. "Abigail. Abigail Dixon." However, Rein still didn't show any sign of recognition at the name, so she added on, "We're in the same class for, you know, Physics?"

"...Oh-kay." Rein wasn't convinced. Sure, he would see her around the campus from time to time, but he didn't recall them being in the same classes. He chose to keep that to himself and nodded, waiting for the girl to go on.

Abigail grabbed his hand. "My power... I can see these psychic lines that connects different people together. I still can't control or fully understand what these lines mean, but I can't change or prevent these connections from happening, no matter how I try to stop them."

"Hmm..." Rein looked down as he considered her words. "Something like the 'threads of fate' in Asian culture?" Interesting. Another vague ability just like his, but it didn't sound as complicated as Scape.

"If you say so." Abigail shrugged. She seemed rather distracted and not paying much attention to the conversation, her focus still on his hand.

"Uh... Is there something on my hand?"

That pulled Abigail out of her own thoughts. "M'bad," she mumbled, and let go of Rein's hand in surprise. "Well... I think you'd understand better if I show you how my power works."

Rein tilted his head to the side, frowning at the girl. "How?"

"I'll lead you to the person you're supposed to meet," was the simple reply, and with that Abigail tugged at his arms to drag him out of the library.

---

...And she led him to a music room. Where someone was at the grandpiano playing a classical piece. The melody sounded familiar, though Rein couldn't quite recall the title of the score. He didn't recognize the stranger either, but something about this person made him feel he might have seen that face somewhere before. They seemed just as surprised when the pair barged into the room (with quite a bang, no less).

Before the pianist could open his mouth, Abigail spoke first. "We're students of the Academy." Then she turned to Rein. "I merely followed the psychic string attached to your hand... and it led us here, to this person." Her eyes shifted from Rein back to the pianist with a knowing look before she left the room.

The stranger let out a small chuckle as they stood up and moved away from the grandpiano once Abigail was out of sight. "Not the kind of first meeting I'm expecting, but it saves the trouble to get in touch and set up a meeting with each other."

Rein narrowed his eyes at the pianist. "Did you ask Abigail to bring me here?"

The stranger shook their head and returned Rein's glare with amusement. "That's my first time seeing her," they replied, leaning their back on the piano with elbows resting on the polished cover.

Something else the pianist had said before continued to nudge in Rein's mind. "So your target is... me?"

"Interesting choice of words," the pianist commented, then straightened up and walked closer to Rein. "It's true I've wanted to see you, but not like this."

The two continued to lock gaze with each other. Rein had never met this person before, but he couldn't help feeling at ease. He didn't feel any hostility or tension from the pianist, only this strange tranquility - an urge to trust this person.

Urge? To trust someone I know nothing at all? He found himself laughing on the inside at that stupid thought. Though, this unnerving mind game made him forgot about his manners.

"Oh, I'm Rein, by the way."

The pianist nodded once in acknowledgement, but their face remained impassive. "I know who you are - and that is not your real name."

Rein's eyes widened when the stranger switched to Japanese, the wild beating of his heart felt as if they were amplified in his ears.

"Pleasure to meet you, Yagami Naoki-kun. I'm Haruka," the pianist returned the greeting with equal politeness. "I believe you have some information about my mother, Asami Takashiro."

---

"Contact established as you've requested," Abigail spoke into her mobile once she left the building of the Music faculty.

"Good, good..." the voice of a mature woman replied from the other end of the call. She had a funny accent - clearly someone who wasn't a native English speaker. "What do you think of him so far?"

"Weak," was the immediate response. "Undependable. I don't get why he's that important to you - or anyone, at all. His power wasn't anything special."

The woman laughed. "Do you actually believe that is all he's capable of?" Abigail could feel the woman sneering at her through the tone alone. "If any government is aware of his true abilities, they would all love to kill each other for him."

Abigail's grip on the phone tighten. "Wha--?"

"That's all you need to know," the woman cut her off. "Just make sure he doesn't fall into the wrong hands."

And the call ended.