It was the sudden shout that alerted Marcus to the danger. He was sat on his bed, flipping through some of the interviews and pictures that had popped up since the group had found themselves in D.C. He was on a particularly embarrassing edit him and Ernie getting smashed together when he heard it.

Flinging himself off the bed just as the emergency siren started blaring, Marcus found himself in the main room, having followed Emma’s yell.

“What’s wrong!?” he shouted, eyes floating from the apparently unharmed Emma to the window.

His question was immediately answered by Officer Brahms shouted out the situation, but Marcus focused more on what he was seeing than what he was hearing. His body didn’t move as the office building came flying at them, and it didn’t move as the shaking of the building knocked him off his feet.

The sensation of falling. The sound of chaos drowning out everything else. A sharp pain as shards of glass embedded themselves into his skin.

This all seemed eerily familiar.

---

He must have blacked out for a second, or it had all happened too quickly for him to even comprehend. His body hurt, and his mind was groggy, but he was alive. He was vaguely aware of Brent’s voice shouting at him from somewhere.

He was alive. Despite the searing pain in his body as he sat up, dust falling off him like snow, he was mostly uninjured. Certainly nothing he hadn’t dealt with before.

“Transmit. Marcus. Minor injuries only. Over.”

He pulled himself to his knees, and then to his feet, staggering slightly from the combination of disorientation, and a sharp gash across his left leg. There had been other voices coming through his cuff, and his slowly clearing mind was starting to take count.

Healers. He needed to find the healers first.

The slight fogginess in his brain was starting to be replaced by the acute clearness of adrenalin – his eyes fell on the golden hair of Lily as she crumpled.

Golden hair

Lily. The priority. He started limping towards the small group that was forming, panic starting to softly settle below the heat of calm. He had to make sure everyone was okay first.

Her phone and earbuds had been her constant companions ever since coming back from breakfast that morning. She cycled through playlists from albums and artists that she fell back on when she felt this way-- letting the music just envelope her so she didn't have to pay attention to anything else.

This time she was disappointed, so disappointed in herself. There had been that party last night, and she'd gone. But she hadn't said anything to anyone. Except for Lily a bit, but she already knew Lily more than the rest. She was supposed to have used that as an opportunity.

Still listening to music, she left the room she and Lily shared, deciding to head down to have an early lunch since she didn't know what else to do. She hadn't gone far, though, when the sirens stopped her. Then rumbling. Shouts. Not an earthquake...

She was already on her way back to the suite when a soldier came for her, and once back inside the suite she could see what was happening more clearly. Sophia stared out of the window in shock as she caught sight of the giant ice creature and the blob with veins and a heart like it was alive. Officer Brahm's words were almost lost on her, for she only picked up the part that defined the monsters as high threat, and the word "assault".

It was different this time. At Wisford they had had a warning, time to prepare, a plan. But the threat was here, and there was no time. What had she done in the past situations? What could she do? At Wisford she had stayed away from the front lines, but here was a different matter. During that "game" she had been a healer, and spent the entire time hiding. The day she had woken up in the hospital and ended up being flown over to a battle, she hadn't actually had to fight. But there had been a plan for what she was supposed to have done... something about her power and weaknesses in monsters that weren't so threatening... something--

The building had been shaking under her as she thought, and now she fell. No, not just her. The entire building. She needed to grab onto something but there was nothing, though she felt someone latch onto her just before something hard hit her. She let out a yelp just before the entire weight of the bookcase landed on her, and she fell unconscious from the sudden pain.

That darkness didn't last long, for it soon spit her out again in time for her to feel the weight being lifted, catching the words that... that... the person spoke. She couldn't match the voice to a name. She wasn't so alright this time, was she? There was that familiar ringing in her ears and lightness in her head, and she felt so distant, as if everything was far, far, away. She heard the muted sounds of footsteps, and people talking.

Including Brent. She should say something if she was alive. That was her, right? Alive. But since the pain wasn't going away, all she could manage with the tight breaths that she drew was a faint "Mmmmm" hummed through her lips.

It hurt too much to do anything else, and she'd never had a very high pain tolerance.

---

---

---

---

After a morning that was much groggier than usual-- the result of late night drinking, chatter, and a shared couch for a bed-- Callan had eventually managed to stumble back into her typical morning routine. A light headache, which she's almost giddily acknowledged as her first hangover, had since faded as she stood out in the hallway alone. Pacing nervously with her phone in hand, she finally mustered the courage to make the call.

After a few short rings, the line was picked up. She felt her breath catch in her throat for a moment.

"Callan?" came the familiar voice.

"Uh... hey, Dom."

It wasn't her parents. But baby steps were better than no steps at all.

"Oh, so NOW you want to talk?" She could hear that obnoxious whine in her younger brother's voice as he spoke. The one he used when he was feeling slighted, but trying to act far more upset than he was. Though she felt bad for ignoring him for so long, Callan couldn't help but smile.

"Sorry, bro. Magic school is hard work. I've been busy."

"Yeah, like I'm gonna believe that," he huffed. He was silent for a moment before adding, "I'm glad you called me, though. For a while there I though you might actually be dead."

She sighed. "I really am sorry. I was super pissed about mom and dad. Didn't really want to talk about it."

"It's fine. I don't wanna talk about them either. They're being fuckin' assholes."

Callan didn't find that funny, but she laughed. "Ohh, better not let mom hear you," she teased.

"Yeah, right. They're both at work. Pretty sure they'd disconnect my phone if they overheard me talking to you. They already chewed me out for accepting your friend request on facebook. Spewing some bullshit about how-- er... anyway they're not here. We can talk."

Weird. The older they got, the less she and Dom seemed to get along. Mean spirited teasing and insatiable desire to get on each other's nerves was what home was to her. Hearing Don try to be so considerate was... strange. In an endearing sort of way. But also slightly unsettling.

"Heh. I don't really know what to say," she said honestly. Another part of the reason why she hadn't answered him back. Maybe it was the grumpy teenage part of her, but all she wanted to say was that she was fine and not to worry. But of course, that couldn't be enough.

"Well... have you seen the news? All those subnaturals fighting over at that town that got attacked? And apparently, a bunch of 'em are staying at some super fancy hotel in Washington? There was some guy on the news with scars all over his face with time powers and some other girl that can summon these weird shadow things and this crazy red haired chick that can--"

"Alright, alright-- yeah, I saw the news, Dom."

A pause. "And??"

She knew what he was really asking. She tried to think logically before she answered. Telling Dom that she was involved might make him worry, but... it wasn't like he'd tell anyone. There'd been that picture at the buffet, but whoever snapped it couldn't haven't gotten a good shot of her face from that angle, right? And... maybe it'd be nice to have any least one person back home who knew what was going on. At least one person to worry about her. She smiled sheepishly, leaning up against the wall. "Super fancy isn't even the half of it."

She could practically hear his eyes bugging out of his head before Dom plunged into a stream of questions-- barely pausing for breath. His overactive side got the better of him sometimes. Usually when this happened, Callan used to tell him to shut up or throw a cushion at his head, but instead, she just listened. It was a welcome little slice of home-- not particularly pleasant to listen to, but beggars couldn't be choosers. In any case, it was kind of fun to entertain his eagerness to know more.

She managed to confirm a few of his questions concerning what her classmates had said before sirens suddenly drowned out everything else. She caught sight of the soldiers pouring into the hallway-- barging into rooms while one beelined towards her.

"Dom," she said, barely audible over fists on doors, blaring sirens, and her brother's excitedly oblivious blabbering, "Dom! I gotta go!"

"What? Now? But--"

She ended the phone call and shoved it into her pocket before being rushed out into the room where General Brahm was gathering the others. She listened attentively before wide amethyst eyes were drawn towards the icy giant outside.

---

Callan bumped into Siena first as the metal groaned and everything started to tilt sideways. One hand found the edge of a countertop while the other latched onto Siena's hand. "Hang on!" she screamed, trying to sound as confident as she could with the fear of falling heavy on her mind. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Everyone and everything were sliding towards the back wall. Glass splashed across the scene below her as she desperately watched on, unable to do anything but hang on and pray. A heavy couch raced by, slamming into a pair of soldiers with a grotesque crunch as they abandoned their weapons in an effort to find purchase on the polished marble floor.

The building lurched once as the structure beneath the penthouse continued to collapse on one side. The movement frightened her and she tightened her grip on the counter top. Too much. The surface immediately crumbled in her hand. Callan cried out as gravity pulled her down. Squeezing her eyes shut, she pulled Siena towards her. The fall was shorter and softer than expected, but she still couldn't bring herself to move until everything was finally still again. Letting go of Siena, she quickly noticed what-- or rather who-- had broken her fall and immediately scrambled to get off of Kusari, and Grant, doing her best to help Siena to her feet in the process.

_{TBC in the Bleeding collab...}

---

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---

---

Little time passed before the subnaturals and guards organised themselves into the separate teams. Gregory stayed with Brent and Ernie's makeshift Offensive Support team. The remaining teens began to move out, first heading south down New Jersey Avenue. Siena and one of the uninjured guards carried an unconscious troop while the remaining two unharmed soldiers teamed up to carry another knocked out comrade. Using Determination, Emma was prepared to transport Lawrence and another guard, one on each of the tulpa's shoulders. Kusari and Lily took care of another USARILN troop while Marcus helped Sophia to her feet for evacuation. A still-dazed Angel's arm was slung over Grant's shoulder as he lifted the remaining two incapacitated with his chains. That left Christmas and Brahms for Sander to transport.

"Be careful when you're moving," Ernie called out before they left, "Subnaturals strolling around during a mage attack won't be a good time for the Regulars. For anyone, really."

With that last warning, the remaining class went their separate ways.

---

---

Hazel’s sword took the ice giant by surprise, along with several of the fighter jets attempting to draw the behemoth out of the metropolis. The blade whizzed clean through the creature’s chest, detonating where it made contact and further showering the area with shards of ice. Most of the fragments scattered into the nearby buildings and smashed through wall and glass while smaller, lighter pieces burst away at slightly higher trajectories. Several skimmed past Hazel and several more struck her body and transparent arms, turning sharp nicks into three gaping puncture wounds on her left arm and one on her right with myriad more lacerations across the width of her arms where only thin cuts should have rightly been. The force of the large detonation knocked Hazel off her projection, her flight path fortunate enough to land her on the roof of a nearby building already sagging from structural damage. Her left arm snapped at the elbow from the impact, dangling uselessly while her right arm colored itself red. The rest of her body felt the unmistakable sting of severe bruising.

But her attack had its intended effect. The giant reeled, its upper torso and arms sliding off and crashing into the ground below, crushing buildings and people alike.

But it did not fall.

The sky light hummed again with that sharp ring, sending another beam of light towards the far river again and the Potomac drained even further, its waters already lower than half. More wisps of ice snapped and exploded across the length of the beam, frosting over the air and freezing solid anything within their range, including the larger portion of a jet unfortunate enough to be near the beam’s direction. The frozen F-35C plummeted away, towards the direction of the encroaching slime and heading for a crash into the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. That same distortion appeared in the air—lines of gray solidifying and crumpling in on themselves. But it appeared a short distance away from the falling plane’s descent, as if preemptively. Or protectively.

In the second it took for the magic to compress the targeted area, the jet had reached the distortion. Titanium, steel, and aluminum caved inward with the ease of tissue paper and the ice encasing the machine exploded into a fine dust.

There was almost nothing left of the plane by the time its pieces clattered to the ground below.

In the same moment, before the dust and debris had even settled around the ice titan’s fallen bust, the monster was already reforming, its thundering steps spastic as it wavered unevenly, waiting for the regeneration to restore its missing body parts. The pilots of the remaining jets jumped on the opportunity, firing a salvo of missiles at the body’s stump.

The damage slowed down the regeneration by a fraction, but not nearly enough. The titan would be whole again soon.

That was the thought, at least.

A line of white light fired from the direction of the Pentagon on the other side of the river, slicing clean through the air across the draining Potomac and colliding with the sphere of light above the city center. The detonation washed the sky white for an instant, temporarily blinding anyone who happened to be looking in that direction. When the harsh light of colliding powers faded, the floating cluster of energy in the sky looked—as much as a nebulous bundle of magic could—frazzled. The edges of its light looked ragged and what had appeared to be almighty light and power seemed to shiver sporadically. A wounded animal.

The giant’s regeneration slowed as well, forming only half of its head before finally sputtering to a stop. It careened wildly, flailing out of control as the power source flickered like a dying light bulb. But the danger it now posed was immense; without any sort of focus that could be used to bait it away from the city, the monster was now blindly rampaging, tearing through the city at breakneck speed. Sharpened spears of ice jutted out from its body at random as the magic struggled to regenerate the humanoid shape while the monster struck down buildings with reckless abandon. People and rubble became one as it crushed them underfoot, every heavy step leaving deep craters in the ground.

Had the disaster been a movie set, Kadabra’s dramatic appearance at that moment would have been perfectly timed. The Precursor floated up from behind a building in the intact sector of the city, standing upon a large platform of what was once the wall of a small business, the remnants of a “Grand Opening” banner still clinging sideways to the edges. There was little fanfare to his counterattack. One second the jagged remains of asphalt and high-rises were floating in the air like a swarm of concrete and wood, and the next they were raining onto the giant, burying the ice construct in a veritable mountain of man-made materials. It fought back viciously, however, and the ensuing chaos of a monolithic monster batting away entire edifices rained a new sort of hell on Washington’s downtown.

Below the airborne chaos, Zoe and Allison’s approach down Massachusetts Avenue and towards the intersection at 5th Street near the looming monsters took a turn for the worse when their path narrowly missed a heavy step from the rampaging giant that was being slowly hemmed in by the force of telekinetically pitched buildings. Glass, wood, and broken beams rained down upon them as the giant smashed through several of the buildings with arms like battering rams, the collision forces drowning the area in deafening waves of sound.

The sheer brutality of literally throwing parts of a city at something, however, at least forced the creature backwards, pushing it past Gallaudet University and into the less congested grounds of the National Arboretum, Kadabra moving forward as well at a safe distance while he constrained the giant’s actions.

The focus, however, left the spreading slime to happily engulf more of the city unimpeded. Closer inspection would reveal the patterning of black, spidery veins to be nested deep within the clear ooze while the gargantuan heart and brain at the core of it made for tempting targets. The caveat, however, lay in the disseminated bits of clothing and flesh as civilians unfortunate enough to be caught by the viscous liquid were slowly digested alive, their masses adding to the bulk of the sentient fluid.

By the time the giant had been corralled, the slime had spread to within ten blocks of the two girls’ location, its speed as it greedily surged down their same street appearing to pick up the more it consumed. Anyone with a sharp eye would notice that by now the ooze was starting to eat through even wood and plaster with threads like mycelium crawling up vertical surfaces in a strange imitation of hyphae.

At the same time, the mass of light in the sky still seemed unable to consolidate its power, a feeble attempt at a direct beam of ice aimed towards Kadabra failing to extend any further than a paltry ten meters. The effect of the unknown attack from the Pentagon lingered tenaciously, revealing why Kadabra had waited until then to emerge.

On the ground, civilians stampeded away, most abandoning their cars in the congestion to flee on foot towards designated escape routes that had been hammered into public knowledge for the past 10 years. Towards the chaotic outskirts as forces withdrew from the surroundings to deal with the surge of panicked citizens trying to flee, the members of Cat’s Cradle sported rings of red on their left hands while Cecilia gathered her transparent panels, readying for the moment the guards had thinned enough from the outskirts to allow the group a quick peek for a clear shot.

---

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---

Callan felt guilty for ignoring Brent's advice. Part of her felt obligated to listen to him, but she knew her limits. That light in the sky was out of the question. Recalling the boy's barrage of inquiries addressing every minute detail of Callan's ability, a thought flickered through her mind. Also out of the question.

The streets had filled quickly with frenzied citizens before Callan jumped down from the toppled penthouse. A wide girth was provided as the superhuman girl landed effortlessly on her feet. Screaming escalated at the sight of an obvious subnatural. She tried not to focus on how much that hurt. A pang of unparalleled heartbreak pierced her chest as she cast her eyes around what remained of the street and nearby buildings.

Already Callan could see that the death and bloodshed hadn't been restricted to the soldiers of the penthouse alone. It was a miracle none of her teammates had been killed. One she was severely grateful for as she forced herself to move forward, passing weeping mothers and injured children and feeling the weight of their desperate gazes on her back. She wanted to help them. This wasn't like Wisford. These people could still make it. She could grab them and run... they were right there....

No. Now wasn't the time to let emotions take over. Heroes needed a level head. Now if she could just figure out a way to take it down without getting any more people killed....

In order to get a better look at the ice giant's location as well as to escape the crippling guilt, Callan leapt onto a nearby building that was several levels high. She watched the events unfold as Hazel's attack connected, leaving the girl badly injured. The blast, the crushing gravity field, and Kadabra... she followed everything with her eyes as she trailed after the rampaging ice giant from the rooftops, tying her hair up as she moved. This wasn't like Wisford and she was going to make damn sure it stayed that way.

"...you could have done better."

Steeling herself with a deep breath, Callan was quick to realize her attempt to catch up with the ice monster was leaving much to be desired. At this rate, there wasn't going to be a city left to save. Her eyes flashed towards the open area Kadabra had corralled the ice giant into and, just as the rumbling sound of a large chunk of building nearby drew her attention, an idea sparked. Drawing her hammer as she ran, Callan jumped, barely managing to land on the forward-facing section of the quickly rising building while managing the weight of her weapon.

The Precursor would have missed the girl's presence entirely were it not for the flash of ludicrously colored hair that tapped at the corner of his vision along with the flicker of movement that he didn't command. The section of building Callan had jumped onto stopped moving and hovered in place while Kadabra turned back to the ice giant. Another building swung itself at the monster in a large sweep, catching it by the legs while its arms remained occupied grappling with a large steel mesh that had been the frame of an ongoing construction project. The impact dropped the giant to one knee, but didn't topple it. Kadabra took the opportunity to bury it in rubble again, attempting to hold down the dome of building material like a makeshift prison.

Now he had time for distractions.

"WHAT. ARE YOU DOING?!" he shouted towards the superhuman girl, lifting her platform closer to his location high in the sky.

Callan blinked as the building piece came to a stop almost as soon as she landed. Expecting forward instead of upward momentum, she wobbled for a moment, adjusting her stance as Kadabra yelled and lifted her away. She quailed a bit in the face of one of her childhood heroes, but the weight in her hands as she tightened her grip around the ethereal steel was a reminder. She wasn't just some kid watching from her television set at home anymore. She intended to help.

"SEND ME TOWARDS THE GIANT!" she yelled back, surprised and somewhat embarrassed by the amount of confidence in her tone as she commanded the Precursor.

Kadabra hesitated for only a second. Some choices had to be made on the spot.

"Then hold on!" he answered, giving Callan only a few seconds of warning. She nodded in reply.

The giant finally tore through the net of steel beams during the brief discussion, but Callan's ride was already speeding through the air towards its head. A good football field's distance away, Callan lowered herself into a crouch and launched towards the ice giant's chest, straining to aim and swing her heavy hammer while falling. The chunk of building continued on its way, crashing into the creature's exposed face and sending it careening backwards. Leaving little room to recover, Callan's hammer connected with the giant's chest with a resounding crack. It reeled back further but remained upright.

The frigid air surrounding the giant's frozen body rushed past her as gravity pulled her down. Callan mentally cursed. She wouldn't be able to knock it down as long as it was in that position. The weapon in her hand unraveled into dark wisps as she reforged the hammer into a large sword. She exhaled sharply as the earth rushed to meet her. Shifting her weapon to the side, she rolled upon impact, breaking into a run towards massive ankle supporting the giant's weight. Already this was beginning to remind her of her role in Wisford, but she pushed the thoughts aside. This time would be different. Sander wasn't here, but it didn't matter. She could handle this. She could do better.

Jumping to clear the height of the foot, Callan threw the weight of her sword across her body, hanging on tightly as, led by the momentum, she spun once before the blade made contact. The attack blew out a massive chunk of the creature's ankle, sending fracture lines shooting upwards along the length of its leg. The power attempted to compensate by sprouting a wave of spiked ice all around the area of damage, but the attack had done its work. The giant now kneeled fully, unable to push itself back up on just one leg while Kadabra's buildings forced its hands to remain busy.

Grunting with exertion, Callan instinctively rose her arm to try and brace herself against the icy spikes. They shoved her away roughly, but she landed on her feet, feeling some of the rubber leave the soles of her shoes as she skidded backwards through a concrete path. Her forearm throbbed, but she could tell nothing was broken. Pushing a sweat drenched strand of aquamarine out of her eyes, she admired her handiwork for only a moment before bolting towards the massive kneecap belonging to the uninjured leg. That last attack had worked well, but she wanted to avoid being pummeled by anymore spikes.

Callan jumped earlier this time, swinging the heavy sword across her body just as she'd done before. As she swung the blade towards her target, however, seeming as though she'd come up a bit short, she extended the weapon's length-- similar to the way she'd done so with the rod on the La Plata hospital roof.

"...you could have done better."

The words resonated in the back of her mind again.

The blade shattered through what passed for the giant's kneecap and then further into its leg, causing the limb that held it upright to collapse under the sudden brutality of the precision strike. The broken regeneration sprouted more icicles at random, but not quickly enough and not in the right places to defy the pull of gravity.

The earth shook as the giant fell forward, Kadabra's sustained assault further helping Callan push it down though the teetering of the massive torso nearly fell upon her as well. Instead, a wave of dirt and rubble shoved her back several meters away. The force caused her to release the sword. It burst into black wisps just before she tumbled away. Rolling from her back into a runners pose almost as soon as she had hit the ground, Callan grit her teeth and burst forward, leaving a small crater in her wake.

If Hazel's attack had been any indication, it wouldn't be long before the giant managed to regenerate enough to stand. Choosing to leave herself unhindered by Misery's weapon form, she knew she her window was small.

Hazel Baker

---

Anger. It hurts.

Pain. It hurts!

Fear. It hurts!

A myriad of emotion swirled and raged within her. But the strongest emotion of all wasn't rage, fear or even worry; it was a feeling of sheer exhilaration. It did not matter that her arm was bent at an unnatural angle, it did not matter that her body felt like it was made of red hot razor wire, it did not matter that she may very well die if she made another misstep. She wanted to — needed to — tear the goliath down, to destroy that imposing figure, to crush the behemoth beneath her heels.

To fight. Why?

To destroy. There's no reason.

Catching herself in a projected hand before the building toppled completely, she launched herself once more towards the giant. Controlling her speed and angle, Hazel slowed herself enough to take advantage of the giant having fallen over, positioning herself just where its splayed legs were, executing what could loosely be called an axe kick to bisect it lenghtwise.

Christopher Francis

---

The sound of a screaming arbiter morphed into an inhuman roar as the dragon's skeleton formed and sculpted through the debris on top of its puddle. After flesh and blood formed and molded into shape over a now completed skeleton of a dragon, Chris immediately flew out of the room and left a large hole through the wall in his emergence.

While he had been debating himself for a target, Brent's voice transmitted through the cuff fused in his ankle; "Chris, can you hear me? Fly towards the light. There's a person up there who's most likely the subnatural causing the ice golem stuff. Stay at a range and roast her with your fire."

Chris then made a beeline straight for the mentioned light in the sky, moved as fast as his body could permit him in the air, and had flames preparing to shoot out in his maw. The crackling of flames lingered around his jaw as he held in the exhale.

The Evacuation team had only made it less than a block when a blinding light flashed across the sky, seemingly centered above the Potomac. Another cacophany to the sound that was a monolithic fight, while they scurried through the ruined city streets and abandoned traffic jams like ants. It seemed like any moment, a piece of building would come careening out of nowhere and destroy the whole group, but that tragedy never happened, despite the constant threat of it looming overhead.

It would be so easy to destroy all of them, even accidentally. A thought that rang uncomfortably in Marcus's mind as he slowly walked with Sophia at his side. If nobody took care of those things, they'd be crushed underfoot before the team even made it halfway. The fighters needed help - and there was only one person on the team who could feasibly assist.

"Sander. Hold up a second." Marcus said, shuffling up to the bloodsucker.

"I know you want to get Christmas to safety personally, but we're sitting ducks out here. If nobody takes care of those giants, we're gonna end up as collateral here before too long." A short rumble of debris colliding with the ground a few blocks over seemed to punctuate his point as he spoke, a small pleading light in his eyes.

"Huh?" -Sander blinked, noticing Marcus just now as he was distracted by the explosion of sights and sounds. He turned his head to face the scarred Arbiter, trying to wrap his head around the other's words -"Yeah?"

"And...well...you're probably the strongest person in this motley little group of ours, if not in the whole class..." Marcus continued, slightly taken aback by Sander's complete lack of useful response.

"I'm not." -The denial came quick and easy, even when Sander wasn't even sure what kind of strength they were talking about -"Not really."

"Sander." Marcus said, a slight hint of irritation in his voice. "Between you and Callan, Factory didn't stand a chance. Right now, we need that kind of raw power again, or we're going to get stomped on. Literally."" he said, gesturing to the looming figure of the Ice Titan.

"I'll get Christmas out of the way first." -Sander looked briefly toward the monster -"I'll get you all out of the way too."

Hearing over the exchange Marcus and Sander were having, the Aberration girl had ushered Grant to help her walk over the two. Marcus was right. Sander would be of better use if he could hold the monsters at bay while they were evacuating. After all, Sander and Callan took down Factory by themselves.

"Sander, please." the fallen rockstar pleaded, mustering all the compassion she could find within herself to speak to Sander, despite her mind addled by the anger the voices kept stirring. "Marcus is right. We need you to delay the monsters. You're the strongest there is in our class. We can't afford to stand here for too long with a monster rampaging right behind us."

While she was remaining calm in her voice, there was a clear hint of irritation and impatience, byproducts of the darkness clouding her mind from her stigma screaming inside. They had to move quickly. They had no time to lose by stalling like this. "We need you to make sure that monster won't come after us even if we reach the evacuation point. Zoe, Allison, Hazel, Callan They need your strength to survive out there. We need your strength to make it out there safely and survive."

Angel paused, her tired eyes reaching over the unconscious blond boy Sander was carrying in his arms. "Please. You can trust us, alright? If not for us, do it for Christmas. We'll take care of him, but you have to make sure that monster doesn't follow us to evac point."

"I'm faster. Back soon." -Sander frowned, protesting -"I'll carry you all back then I'll go kill that."

Sander was thick-headed, again. This time, Angel could not tell if it was because he was as dense as ever or if it was just him being overconfident in his abilities. "The drop-off point is miles away. You may be strong, but you can't carry twenty on your back, and running back and forth is just wasting more time." she answered Sander's defiance with her own.

"It's not just us. The soldiers, the civilians. We all need to help them evacuate safely. You can't do all that on your own. You need to freaking stop doing everything by yourself. We're teammates, for god's sake! I'm trusting you to keep everyone alive, so please at least trust us to do something useful. Not only for us, but for what we're trying to build."

"Remember when Christmas told you about Ernie? How strong he was then?" Marcus said, immediately following Angel by leveraging a bit from the one interaction he'd be present for. "He needs you to be just as strong. Strong so that we can make it there safely. So that we can get him back to to the Evac point without getting hurt." he continued, his tone light and airy, as if he was talking to a child.

Sander looked pensive for a moment, red eyes dropped and his occupied shoulders sagged slightly -"I-I...will be back." -He said quickly, before dashing off with the unconscious officer and Christmas.

Angelique could not supress a look of angered disbelief rising up to the surface as she watched Sander sprinting away with his load in direction of the evacuation route. Did he just ditched them all under the pressure? Did everyone meant so little to his eyes.

It's like that night again. He is not worthy of your trust. You are putting your hopes on someone undeserving...

Through gritted teeth, Angel turned to Marcus. As mad as she was right now, they needed to keep moving. If Sander was going through with his plan, then he'll return. But if he wouldn't then, they won't take the chance of standing here and getting stomped by a rampaging titan. "We've got to move... I can't fucking believe that idiot She hissed the last statement into a barely audible whisper.

Marcus gave his own look of disbelief, his mingled with more surprise than Angel's anger. As if to confirm what had happened, he turned to look at the rock-star, catching the quick expletive she muttered under her breath. There was a moment when he stood dumbfounded, staring at his back as he bolted off.

There was a slow anger boiling inside him; a bubbling heat that took him back to the APC; another evacuation attempt, hopefully one that this wouldn't mimic. Huffing to himself, trying to calm the irritation that was rising to the surface, he continued on. "Angel's right. We can't stop here; we can meet him further along."

Lily walked behind Marcus, Sophia, Angel and Sander, silent and thoughtful as she trudged along supporting an injured person she didn't really know and listening to her classmates' exchange. It was strange how they needed to convince the blood mage to go help out when it should be automatic. He used to be like that. She agreed with Marcus. Sander was probably the strongest among all of them. The blonde teenager might not have interacted much with him but she knew what he was capable of. She glanced towards the unconscious Christmas in his arms.

Then again, she can understand why he didn't want to leave the fainted boy without making sure he got to safety. Christmas must be a really close friend.

But even with that understanding and because of her present mood, she felt frustrated at Sander. Here she was offering her help to fight and was turned away while he had all the capabilities to make the monsters bleed and he was hesitating. She shook her head as she watched him speed away. She would have said something but what use would it be? No one would listen to her. No one really does.

She continued moving without saying anything.

---

The evacuation seemed to go smoothly for the retreating USARILN students, despite the commotion happening all around them. Whatever hate the citizens harbored for the Subnaturals now out in the open, it would seem the fear of death was stronger than harassing the majority of Experimental Unit B from fleeing the hotel along with the many escapees. In a matter of thirty minutes, the evacuation group had managed to finally reach Washington’s Supreme Court of United States through their slow pacing.

The surge of panic that came with the rumbling of the icy titan’s fall and rampage gave that ominous and foreboding feeling creeping in Angel’s spine. Luckily for her, it was cloudy enough to allow her eyes to adapt even just a bit to the ambient light of a midday of September. With all the panic, she could not help but notice how slowly their progress had been, from being slowed down by carrying all the injured personnel or their own classmates, and being shoved randomly by fleeing citizens.

Scanning over the crowded street, Angélique could not help but notice the vast amount of cars left abandoned. Monster traffic had impeded the escape by car. But Regulars had no way to deal with traffic jam. Mages though…

An idea sprouted in the Aberration’s mind. It did not take long looking down the street to find what she was looking for. A freight truck, luckily not carrying anything for cargo, obviously left abandoned because of its size and poor maneuverability. Would it be faster to evacuate using this truck? While most of the most powerful members of Unit B were away fighting, there still remained a small amount of respectably strong members among them.

“Guys, wait!” Angel’s voice magically reached out to everyone in their evacuation group. “We’re going too slow. If we want to evacuate the injured and return in time to our friends fighting their asses off, we should quicken our pace. How about we take one of these trucks there, load everyone inside and make our way through the city while some of us clear us a path ahead?”

Marcus stopped suddenly as Angel's voice called out, almost as if she were standing right beside him. It took a few moments for him to locate her, cocking his eyebrow quizzically in her direction. She was a ventriloqist now too? A regular grab bag of voice-related professions, apparently. But that wasn't important right now; the aforementioned truck was the focus point right now.

"Hmmm...that's not a bad idea actually." Marcus pondered, allowing Sophia to shift her weight into a more comfortable standing position. "We'll have to take a detour though; I don't imagine the city-wide evacuation route is going to be any less crowded than this."

In all honesty, it was probably what they should have been doing in the first place; not only would the evac route be more crowded, but it would probably be more dangerous; DC's monsters were around to kill humans, and that was the largest grouping of them - plus they as subnaturals weren't the most friendly treated people in the city.

"Sounds fair enough." Angel answered, looking over the street. An eighteen-wheeler sounded like a good idea. Sure, the thing was big and unwieldy, but that vehicle could carry a lot of stuff. While they needed to quickly leave the area and bring anyone unavailable to fight to a safe place, their self-imposed mission was to help evacuate. If there would happen to come across anyone injured on their way to the evacuation zone, they could pick them up and load them in the freighter. Not that is was only because it was the human thing to do, but that would help the USARILN Mages gain a good reputation. At least that’s what Angel was thinking. Show the world they weren't walking killing machines out to destroy humankind

With Grant’s help, Angel reached the semi-truck with its cargo still attached at the rear. Luckily for them, the truck was empty; the previous driver was probably on his way back to a warehouse to load up his next delivery. "Perfect. It's empty. Everyone, climb aboard, we're leaving." Angel called out magically to her classmates.

Satisfied with the outcome, Angel slowly walked towards the driver’s door.

Throughout the entire trip of evacuating the injured to somewhere safer, Grant had been helping Angel stay on her feet, lending her his shoulders. When she suggested that they all could use a freighter, he sure as hell wasn't going to refuse. It would've been a weight lifted from his shoulders, quite literally. Helping her toward the vehicle in question as she informed everyone of the plan, it was only when they were close enough to it when Grant realized what seat she intended to go for.

"Wait, hold on. Are you sure you should be driving in your condition?" He would ask the Aberration girl rhetorically. Even if the truck idea was good, it wouldn't be so good if everyone just ended up crashing. Seeing as she already needs help with walking, there's doubt to be had about her driving.

Angel turned to Grant, giving him a an exaggerated innocent look. Of course she wasn't in a condition to drive. She had trouble focusing her vision, and the ambient light sure didn't help with her daze, giving her now a slight headache. "I know, but who's going to drive truck? If we're going slowly, I don't think I'll be crashing into anything, right?"

When she had asked that question, Grant took a quick look around at just who was around them at the time. Anybody available, knowledgable would be fine, he would think. He scanned the faces of everyone, to see if anyone at least looked like it. He knew they couldn't be out here for too long, or they'd just be sitting ducks. A choice had to be made. He gulped down the lump in his throat before he looked back to Angel, getting out an answer. "I could try." A faint sense of regret lingered within him, but if it was the better choice, he'd just have to tough it out, or wait until an even better choice comes up.

A small sense of relief lightened up Angel as Grant proposed himself to drive the truck. He didn't seem to know how to drive one, considering his bearing, but it was probably safer to let him drive than let herself take the wheel. "Hmph, fine. I'm still sitting at the front though. Want to make sure you don't crash us into a building." she teased her walking partner as she opened the door to the driver's cabin and hopped inside.

Once inside the cabin, Angel shuffled with difficulty to reach the passenger seat. But before taking a proper seat and settling in, she rummaged inside the truck's cabin. Searching through the glove box, the sunglare-blocking pads and the dash's paper box, she didn't find anything of use aside business papers, delivery proofs and a pair of working gloves. Damn, the previous driver must've escaped with the shades. With a sigh, the raven-haired Aberration sat comfortably inside the passenger seat and buckled in, waiting for everyone else. In the meantime, she was thinking who could possibly help with clearing the road ahead if the traffic jammed the streets.

Though Angel had intended her comment to be in a teasing manner, it would also be the best. Grant hadn't exactly ever driven a semi truck before, but at least there was someone supposedly experienced in the group. "Thank you." He said with a nod. Helping her up into the cabin, he let her move her way to the next seat before he himself stepped up in, sitting down on the seat. He took in his immediate surroundings, moving his feet a bit to touch the pedals. He tried to mask his nervousness, taking a quiet deep breath as he shut the door to the cabin as his current 'partner' took her seat. He tried to get accustomed to... well, everything he was seeing. The steering wheel in front of him, the speedometers, etc.

Calm down. Breathe. Another deep breath, and as he waited for all of the evac group to get inside, he spent his time trying to reassure himself and getting comfortable with everything, pulling his seatbelt on.

"You sure you're good with that?" Marcus said from the ground, looking up at the boy in the cabin. Grant's apparent discomfort was easy for him to notice, perhaps only because he'd tried to read the boy's face as he climbed in, for this exact reason. They didn't need a runaway semi truck in addition to the numerous monsters rampaging around the city - that would just be another problem for the worryingly large stack of problems they were faced with.

"If you don't want to drive, we can always have someone else hop in; you could probably help clear the roads in that case." he suggested.

The unspoken suggestion was that he take Grant's place, but it remained unspoken because he wasn't sure that he'd be any more comfortable than Grant was. He'd only ever driven a small SUV before, and even then he hadn't driven it that much. But surely it wouldn't be that difficult at low speeds. Maybe the turns - his mind wandered thinking about watching some of the larger vehicles come through Panshaw. They always seemed to take up so much of the road when they came through.

He looked up at the cabin, pausing a moment to gaze over the road before them. There were a lot of cars to clear out of the way.

Angel was clearly oblivious to Grant's discomfort as she had been sitting with her eyes closed, as if that would make her think better, or ease her growing headache. It actually did, for the most part, help her concentrate as no light made it through her eyelids and worsened her state. She however kept an ear out, recognizing Marcus' voice and hearing out his proposition with keen interest.

It did made a lot of sense. With his current set of powers, Marcus could be of no use but stay at the back of the truck with the others. Grant, however, had the power to move things with his chains. And with her previous fighting experiences with the young man, Angel had no doubt Grant could move cars aside. Hell, even others could help him do so, as she figured out in her moment of clarity.

"Marc's right. We could use your powers to clear us a path."

Her eyes opened halfway as her head turned to the two boys. "You think you can handle driving this thing, Marcus?"

Even with his attempt to mask his nervousness, one of his classmates apparently saw through Grant, causing a lapse of confusion in his expression before he looked over to the boy in question. He looked familiar. His name started with an M, he was sure. Oh, right, he was just asked a question. Plus, he was hoping to pass it off into another, more capable driver. "Yes. I suppose sounds better." He would agree after the scarred boy mentioned a change of job to moving the roadblocking vehicles.

Grant had already unbuckled his seatbelt when he relearned of the other boy's name. Marcus. He gave a glance to him, placing the name to the face. After that moment, he opened the door and stepped down from the seat to let Marcus take over.

"I've driven Go-Karts before, can't be that different." Marcus said nonchalantly, his tone not quite making it clear if he was joking or not. He gave Grant a small nod as he hopped down beside him, something to hopefully spread the comraderie around a little bit; they were all part of the same team after all, no reason to be completely ambivalent about each other.

He grabbed the edge of the door and pulled himself up after making sure that Sophia was steady, taking a moment to look around the cabin and find his bearings. The road looked a fiar bit different from the height of the cab, and he gave the pedals a quick tap (making sure the vehicle wasn't in drive first) to make sure he knew where they were.

"Alright. Ready to move when you guys are." he shouted out the window, before pulling his head back in and buckling his seatbelt.

"Way to reassure us, Zippy." Angel sighed uncomfortably as she heard Marcus' claim. Inexperienced as everyone might be, at least she was sitting close if he to know anything. Not that she was used to driving these huge vehicles, but she had some basics down.

Memories of a past figure swiftly brushed her consciousness. A man lifting a raven-haired young girl in his arms and making her sit on his laps, behind the big steering wheel of a truck in a field of corn. A time back when Angel was but a child. A time when she harbored no ill will towards her parental figures.

"It's a shame, really... For such a loving presence to turn into a greedy fuck at the first signs of your success."

With a frown etched on her face, Angel brought herself back to reality as the whispers in her head reminded the young woman about things that were better left forgotten in the past. She needed to focus on the task ahead. Resume to her previous train of thoughts.

"Grant, tell Emma to help you moving the blockade with her Tulpas. And ask Siena to come see me." Angel's lips moved, but her words did not came out inside the cabin. Instead, her voice had reached out to Grant's side, her tone straight-to-the-point and on the edge.

As Grant surveyed the road jam, his chains appearing behind him, swaying in rhythym, he slightly flinched to the sound of a voice beside him. Angel's voice. Though he looked to the direction it was in, Angel wasn't physically there. No time to worry about it, since she had asked him to talk to some of his teammates here.

Both Emma and Siena's names were familiar, though their faces in his mind were hazy. He was sure he had heard and witnessed Siena's power, and scanning the faces of everyone, he believed he spotted the one he was thinking of. He strided over to the arbiter helping with an unconscious guard, telling her simply, "Angel wants to see you." before heading off to the next person he needed to talk to.

Again, another scan of faces, and he walked over to the aberration that he believed was Emma. As he arrived to her, without too many words he said, "Help me with the roadblock."

Emma had been quiet up until now- something about falling several tens of stories took something out of you. When Grant approached her she merely returned a quick nod, having noted their new plan to use the semi; one that she wasn’t quite sure she agreed with, but would go along with. They probably knew better than her anyways.

”Determination, put Lawrence and the guard in the back of the truck.” Emma said, gesturing towards the semi’s trailer. The Tulpa was characteristically slow to follow, but he got the job done.

Just as Determination deposited Lawrence and the guard in the back of the truck, Lily herself got into the truck. Silently, she made sure that the unconscious Lawrence was in a comfortable position before she slumped next to him. With her mood low and all the adrenalin gone from her system, she felt the exhaustion from both the blood loss and the effort she had exerted to sate her stigma. Her eagerness to help out was gone. Ernie's suggestion was pushed to the back of her head despite the belt being strapped securely around her waist. She leaned back and closed her eyes. The silence in her head was a welcome change.

Emma herself started walking towards the mass of cars that blocked the way forward, giving the scarred boy in the front seat of the truck an uncertain smile as she passed.

He knew what he was doing, right?

After turning to make sure he had finished his task Emma resummoned Determination to her side. ”Alright, start clearing out the cars blocking our way.” she said, glancing along the stretch of road in front of them… this wouldn’t go very fast, was it really best to slow down with all the sit going on around them? Either way, Determination began to unceremoniously knock cars aside.

A quick nod to Grant was all that Siena could afford to give before she made her way to Angel, a sense of disbelief still washing over the brunette. Though every rational thought in her head said--no, screamed that the events were real, her heart seemed to still itself. A mortifying sense of calm that made her feel almost as though she was walking through a haze.

...but hadn't she already sorted out those inconsistencies?

"Grant said you wanted to talk to me?" Disgustingly calm...it felt wrong. It felt so wrong. Her fingers traced the phone. No service, but she'd taken advantage of the wi-fi in the prior days to arm herself with an arsenal of names to take and faces to wear. Needless to say, she could see where things were going, but...it was best not to strike up a dissonant chord in the midst of the situation at hand. Best to continue playing the obedient follower until the need to be more than that rose.

When Angel saw Siena approaching from the mirror, the black-haired Aberration had opened the passenger's cabin door to allow the girls to speak to each other without hindrance.

Scanning her friend up and down, Angel deduced the Arbiter had suffered a bit through the fall, just as everyone else, bit seemed rather well, contrary to a few guards and a dazed Sophia and Angélique.

"Yeah... I've been remembering about that time. You were impressive, ripping supporting beams of steel away from that building. Think you can take up something like that again to help moving the cars away? No need for anything drastic or too tiring, simply just push those out of the way. Emma and Grant should be helping doing that too."

Another nod. Still morbidly calm about the entire situation, Siena noted to herself, but at least she could be useful. While she was certain that a powerful ability like then would have been useful, she was more than aware of the fact that taking on a name that filled her with a white rage was far from the wisest course of action. (But wouldn't it feel good?) She slipped her phone from her pocket, only giving it a glance as she deftly maneuvered through her arsenal. A few roundabout saved locations, but otherwise business as usual.

A hollow laugh echoed within her somewhere. This was far from business as usual.

"I have an idea already. It should make it easier for others to help move things too." Grey eyes dropped from their usual habit of staring at something that wasn't quite the eyes of the people she spoke to down to the phone screen, words seeping into her vision as the circle of light formed as she beckoned for her mark. Business as usual.

She chose people more mild-mannered than her usual fare. People that Siena knew were inherently good--well, at least as far as she could tell--and not yet broken in to the workings of a harsh reality. Kennedy first, then Dekka. The weakest versions of them that she could remember. Just enough of Dekka to negate--no, that would be too difficult with both names. At best she could reduce--the weight of the cars, and the newly awakened Kennedy to help push vehicles out of the way. Both felt more than she did. As the light faded and the grey eyes dimmed to a deep, muddy brown, she gave a weak smile and moved to provide her support as best she could.

Business as usual.

Upon seeing Emma starting to clear the way with her hulking Tulpa, shortly followed by Grant and Siena each using their powers to move the cars out of the way, Angélique was pleased by how things began to look. But it was only the beginning of their evacuation plan. Now, all that remained was the actual evacuation part as they had to make their way into the city via a different evacuation route.

Focusing her magic once more, the Voice Mage this time projected her words to everyone in the back of the truck, including Marcus at the front as well. “To all the others who are capable to standing and helping, Mages and soldiers alike, look out for civilians to help. The elderly, the children, the severely injured; help everyone who can’t make it to the evacuation point into the truck. We’re going to evacuate as much people as possible while we’re on the road.”

Shortly after, Marcus began driving the truck forward down the path Grant, Emma and Siena created. Worried over if Marcus wasn't joking about his driving skills, Angélique gave the scarred young man a few driving lessons as they were slowly moving. The way to shift speed using the clutch and the manual gear (although at the speed they were going they rarely moved past second speed), distance tips, rearviewing and some other basics.

Eventually, when Time Scar would start to getting the hang of things, Angel focused on the path ahead. Now that the driving and clearing the blockade questions were out of the way, it was time for her to focus on the evacuation. She hated sitting in this cabin, doing nothing but watching most of her classmates making themselves useful in one way or another. She wanted to be out there and help too, but her dazed state of mind and Grant's concern over her situation shackled the young woman down on her seat.

If she was to be sitting there, then she'd make herself useful one way or the other. She had the power to do so without moving an inch, now that she thought about it. It was simply a matter of focusing hard enough about her queries and make the best of what she had available, a skill her first beloved manager had drilled into her.

"Attention all citizens! This is USARILN Special Evacuation Relief Unit coming through. We ask everyone to make their way to the evacuation zone in a calm and orderly manner. If you come across someone unable to make it to the safe zone by themselves, give us a shout and help us bring those people into our emergency vehicle."

The raven-haired Sonic Aberration's voice echoed throughout the area all around them, result of a focused effort to project her voice everywhere all at once. Every few blocks they would drive through, Angélique would broadcast her message all over again, trying to make the most out of her power to help evacuating those who couldn't escape. Angel tried to hide the shaking in her voice, from how stressed and tired she currently was. She tried to sound as professional as possible, turn her group into a legit evacuation force sent by USARILN. The last thing her classmates needed was to deal with a panicked and angry mob of citizens. If she could manage to gain the citizens' trust and ligthen their hatred towards Subnaturals in favor of surviving, then she would be happy with her provided efforts.

"We're going to need a healer down here by the slime in a few minutes if everything goes well. If Zoe's plan doesn't work, presume both of us dead and stay clear. Over."

Anxiety gripped the fallen idol's heart as she heard Allison's voice through her cuff. What was going on with the monsters? Damn, why the fuck was she crippled now of all times. Now that the shadow of death loomed over both Zoe and Allison, Angel yearned all the more about being over there with them and help fighting these giant freaks.

She was at a loss now. Christmas was taken away by Sander to the evacuation point, and Lilianna had already lost too much blood from healing soldiers and classmates alike, she was in no condition to quickly make her way back to the scene where all the chaos was happening. And yet, she did not want any of those two to die. She couldn't bear losing another one, not one that had grown so close to her.

Speechless, Angel's face froze, her gaze slowly turning to Marcus, as if she desperately wanted to find an answer from the driving young man, or any of her teammates, for that matter. Her ears, however, were actively listening to whatever argument was going on through the cuff's speakers. Seemed like Zoe and Brent were arguing about a plan of sorts. Hopefully things would settle well on their end. God, did Angel was mentally cursing herself for being in this condition.

---

The lights, the heavy steps of the ice creature as it continued its destruction, the noise that all the panicking and evacuating citizens made, it was all too noisy and hectic and scary and... just all too much. While leaning on Marcus Sophia tried to keep track of where all the noises and disruptions were coming from, but they came from every side. Her eyes darted from place to place as she observed all she could, but everything she took in seemed to come in through a haze.

It wasn't really because of the blood loss, at least not entirely. It was just her reactions to these kinds of events. This was the... second time that she had been in the midst of such chaos, and she far from accustomed to it. Her heart seemed to be beating so loudly that she wouldn't have been surprised if Marcus was able to hear it, even through the background noise. Her legs felt weak as ever and the feeling wasn't improving speedily as she had hoped would happen.

And the worst part of her reactions was this horrible feeling that she didn't know anything, and it was true. She couldn't even keep a proper track of where the monsters were and what they were doing, because she just couldn't focus and she couldn't see everything at once. She was tempted to turn on her power simply for the sake of being able to see more, not because she wanted to find people. Because she hated not knowing and not having control.

Sophia hadn't even paid full attention to the "plan" that had been formed while they were still in the hotel, because her head had been ringing too badly and it still did somewhat. All she understood that the people that stood around her had the same purpose: to get out. What would happen afterwards she didn't know.

Afterwards. Because they would make it out, right? They-- most of them had made it through the last time, so if that... luck was still with this group, perhaps things would be okay.

Angélique's call using voice projection to tell them all to get in the truck didn't startle Sophia as much as it yesterday evening, but perhaps that was because the Aberration's voice couldn't compare to everything else around them. The idea of sitting in a truck instead of having to walk appealed to her, but when she finally left Marcus to get inside, it reminded her too much of her time inside the APC. A different vehicle, yes, but still. She was enclosed by walls that made it harder to move around if anything happened to require them to get out quickly. Like the appearance of a gargoyle, perhaps.

Still, she settled herself in a seat and tried to listen to what she hear of the conversations going on around her. Relaxing wasn't possible at this point. She listened as Angélique made another announcement, about looking for civilians to help, but though her thoughts had been on her power before, it didn't occur to her now to use it to look out for people. Once she had determined that it didn't concern her, she was quick to dismiss the words.

Likewise, the back and forth conversations happening through the cuffs were listened to, but perhaps not dismissed as quickly. She didn't understand what was going on, couldn't get what exactly was being referred to. Needing a healer soon, wanting to meet someplace... and all those other words. She tried to piece the lines of conversation together as they came in, but all she could get was that something was being planned and argued about.

Zoe was single-minded at the best of times, and this situation was far from changing that. Right now, she was completely ignoring most things around her, barging the odd civilian out of the way and generally trying to run as quickly as she could without completely exhausting herself. Part of it was just the fact that she really wanted to fight this thing. A larger part of it was that she didn't want to pay too much attention to the classmate that had followed her.

All she could think about was how much she needed to hurt. Couldn't let it be one of them. Especially important to stay focused on that, seeing as Allison had decided it'd be a great idea to follow her right away.

Did Allison know how much of a threat Zoe was right now? She'd made the effort to try and stay ahead of the other girl for a reason, after all. Of course, there were problems with her approach. Problems such as the fact that her own powers were completely useless for dealing with the sudden tide of falling debris. Barely noticing the movement until it was too late, Zoe found herself unable to do much other than brace herself against the sudden assault as something struck her right leg and sent her sprawling over the ground.

The next thing she knew, she was half-buried under a layer of something or other. None of it seemed too heavy, and it was a fairly thin layer, but the moment she started to try and stand she knew something was wrong. Agony shooting through her right leg and leaving her unable to support her full weight, especially with the added pressure of the materials that had piled on top of her. Of course her stigma meant the pain itself didn't exactly feel bad - anything but, really - but as she tried to stand, it buckled underneath her. With a hiss of frustration, she glanced back in the direction of her teammate. Hopefully she'd have made it through unscathed, because Zoe wasn't going anywhere without help.

Thankfully, Allison had been smart enough to take cover from the falling debris, and it wasn't too difficult to find her classmate in the rubble. Luckily, most of what was burying the redhead was light enough that Allison could lift it off without too much difficulty, and it didn't take too long for Zoe to be able to drag herself free.

"Guess I should thank you for following me after all, huh?" Wincing in pain as Allison helped her to her feet, Zoe shot the other girl an appreciative smile and a nod of acknowledgement before her scowl returned and she turned her head away. Almost like she was deliberately trying to ignore her, despite the fact that she'd have been fairly screwed without the other girl's prescence.

Zoe was almost certain that she'd sprained something. Walking was possible, but she was obviously limping and couldn't go anywhere near as fast as she'd have liked. Which meant she quite possibly wouldn't be able to outrun the slime anymore, and the sensible thing would be to retreat. After all, there was every chance she'd die here. But so could the others if she left, so Zoe couldn't bring herself to care.

The pair continued on their way towards the slime with little incident, but once they got close enough to see more detail, Zoe's scowl deepened. It was breaking things down as it caught them, she could see that now. Shit. That meant there wasn't any safe way to get to the veins herself, at least not when she couldn't run. Range, she needed range. With the size of this thing, she wouldn't be able to affect it if she stayed too far away, but she needed range somehow. Allison wasn't offering up any ideas, but Zoe figured the girl was smart enough to have realised the same thing.

If they went back without killing it, she'd hurt someone, she knew it. She couldn't afford to flee, not now. But with her and Allison, they just weren't going to get any range. They were still a while away from the slime, but it wouldn't be too long until they had to start dealing with it properly. Still, she couldn't think of anyone else that'd be able to kill this thing, considering you couldn't exactly punch it to death. If she asked for help, maybe a healer could fix up her leg and she'd be able to just outrun the monster.

She had no intention of letting the healers endanger themselves for her sake. So this was it, right? There wasn't any--

No. No, it wasn't. Because she wasn't like them, she wouldn't turn away. The whole reason she could push things so far, give in to the monster at the heart of her nature, it was that she could deal with this shit. For some reason, her gaze rested on a nearby bus. Words sprang to mind, a conversation from a few days before. The only difference between them was--

How far you're willing to go.

"Allison, help me up. I've got a plan." Allison looked like she was about to ask for an explanation, but after a couple of seconds pause, she headed over to the bus and boosted Zoe onto the roof. Reaching down to pull her teammate up behind her, Zoe didn't care if she looked like she was losing it. Sacrifice, pain, that was the key, it had always been the key. If they didn't fight, then they deserved to fall. All or nothing. Standing up with Allison's help, she looked down towards the cuff on her ankle. "Transmit."

"Brent, I'm gonna need you to come down here. Bring a gun, and tell me when you see me. Over." Urgency in her tone before she glanced towards Allison. "If this works, I'll need you to shield us from any slime or debris that's coming our way." As Allison nodded, Zoe's attention turned back towards the creature, the smile on her face more than a little out of place. Maybe it was because she realised how many things were wrong with this idea, and felt like laughing was better than freaking out.

It felt better to fight than to turn away.

"Zoe, what's your plan here?"

She'd been hoping they wouldn't actually ask, but there you go. "Transmit. Long story short, I need you to shoot through me and into its heart." A pause. "I'd rather just put some blood on a bullet then fire it, but you won't get here in time and I can't outrun this thing anymore. I'd rather you don't come too close anyway. Personal reasons." It was bad enough with Allison here and the pain in her leg to distract her. If anything, getting shot would help on that front. She probably should have minded the idea, but her smile didn't disappear as she waited for a reply.

Allison stepped away from Zoe as she transmitted her plan. This was ridiculous. How hard was Zoe's stigma hitting her? Hard enough for her to want to get herself shot, it seemed. This was ridiculous. Well, running away wasn't exactly an option, and running at the monster would probably get them both killed. She could try to convince Zoe to wait for Brent to reach them, but that would probably also result in death. So, Zoe's only reasonable solution was basically suicide. Was there anything for Allison to do? Anything to keep Zoe alive?

You're going to get one or both of you killed. Why did she follow Zoe? To stab a giant monster blob. It was stupid, suicidal, and crazy, but it had a chance of working. It was a worse option then Zoe getting herself shot, though. Zoe could probably be taken to a healer in time. If Allison attacked the thing and it didn't work... You're about to let your friend get shot. Allison turned back to Zoe, keeping her distance.

"Make sure they can get a healer over here at least, after you do your thing of course." Her voice was cold and meek. She had followed Zoe to her own death. "You can get yourself shot, just don't get yourself killed, alright?" Allison sat herself on the edge of the bus' roof, staring off at the slime's approach. This was suicide.

"I don't plan on dying. You can call a healer if you want, just make sure they're not in danger. I'll need you to make sure I stay conscious until I can kill that thing, too." Zoe shrugged, seeming relatively at ease with the situation. What she said was true, but the prospect of dying here didn't bother her much either - wouldn't at all if she didn't suspect Allison would blame herself. Suddenly exhausted, Zoe felt her smile fading as she glanced down at her classmate. "If this doesn't work, leave me behind and run."

"I respectfully decline." Allison continued to stare at the slime. "Transmit." She sighed before delivering her message. "We're going to need a healer down here by the slime in a few minutes if everything goes well. If Zoe's plan doesn't work, presume both of us dead and stay clear. Over."

"I take it we're ignoring my advice on reckless bullshit, then. Good to know." Despite sounding annoyed at Allison's refusal, there was a note of something approaching respect in Zoe's tone and she didn't push the point. "Guess I'd be screwed if you weren't here, though." The muttered addition was as close to a 'thank you' as her pride would allow.

"Transmit cuff, Zoe, Allison, we're going down the main road right now. Meet up with us, please."

Of course, there was still that to sort out. Barely sparing a glance at her cuff, Zoe grimaced. It was never just that simple, was it?

"Transmit. No."

Sitting in the rumbling metal box of the container truck Kusari had remained silent ever since they left the hotel. She'd been too busy trying not to hyperventilate to comment on the kaiju ravaging the city or offer any meaningful opinions. She'd begrudgingly carried an injured solider to safety. Helping someone that wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet in her head for acting up in the slightest didn't exactly feel right. Unfortunately leaving him to die would feel even worse.

Her breathing eventually subsided, only because the inside of the container gave her a moment of solace from the chaos outside. There was still an uncomfortable tension in her chest, it was a pressure reminding her that at any moment she could lose another ally.

She flinched as the the cuff around her ankle came to life and she heard Zoe speaking to Brent. Kusari blinked in confusion. Whatever her plan was it sounded more than insane. Zoe really must have a death wish. Regardless they would need a healer soon. Kusari considered trying to tell them to stop, but she knew that would be pointless, Zoe seemed as stubborn as glue on the bottom of a shoe.

Allison followed up, actually requesting help. She didn't know what she was saying to each other but somehow Zoe had convinced Allison to let this happen. But why was she so easily saying that they would die if it didn't work?

She looked at Lily, the girl had just gone through healing nearly everyone's wounds at the hotel. Kusari wasn't sure if she could put her through any more. But there wasn't any other choice, Sander had selfishly run off with Christmas leaving Lily to be the only healer they had.

"Lily." Kusari spoke to the girl, her voice coming out rougher than she thought it would. She cleared her throat and continued. "Will you be able to come with me to help Allison and Zoe?"

Brent's words had been received loud and clear but Ernie couldn't manage a response. Partly because he knew better than to make empty promises to someone he respected. Partly because of the emotional turmoil still churning within him.

But mostly because of the paralysing vertigo that had suddenly seized him as Sander took flight.

Ernie's stomach seemed to do corkscrew maneuvers as the ground zoomed away and was replaced by building tops instead. His terrified whimpers could be heard even over the screeching winds, arms and legs tightened their knuckle-white embrace around the brunette. Ernie decided that it would be better to take this deathride with his eyes closed and just wait for the nightmare to end.

"S-so what's--nngh!" the Aberration attempted to stammer out a question but was cut off by a brief landing that shook his bones and made the assault rifle rattle painfully against his spine, "What's your plan here?"

"I fight." -Sander answered curtly, taking only a fraction of a second to recover from the landing before continuing his breakneck sprint across the desolated rooftops. -"You...should stay near." -He added after a bit, though his tone made the suggestion sounded more like a demand.

Another jump. Another half-hissed scream from the buzzcut boy as he struggled to hold on, grasping the fabric of his shirt sleeves with everything he had. He could probably survive from this height if he summoned his rope. Didn't make it any less freaking scary though.

"Why me?" Ernie had to yell over the wind, "How am I even gonna help you?"

"I...watch you." -Another curt answer that didn't really answer anything.

Sander probably couldn't see the angry frown growing on Ernie's face right now. "You think I'll do something bad if you don't babysit me?"

The blood mage didn't answer that. Instead, he just took a sharp turn and leapt off another rooftop, dashing toward the looming figure of the ice giant in the distance.

After a few seconds though, Sander asked, voice almost pensive -"Will you?"

Inertia almost flung Ernie off to the side as Sander made the turn. He shuddered and readjusted his grip while he thought the question over.

"I'm...doing better," he said carefully, perhaps even genuinely. He thought to his interactions with Emma, to the blurred rage he could vaguely recall from Saturday night. Not really answers he could give, "I won't. You're here, after all."

"You hit me on a head with a pitcher." -Despite the accusation, Sander's tone remained flat.

"Wait, what?" Ernie opened his eyes in surprise, immediately regretting the decision. They scrunched back close, "What?"

There wasn't much he recalled from that night. Fruity shots. Dancing. A walk back with some Asian man. Sander. Anger. The last two rarely came without the other. But there was something else too. Pain, in his hand and on his lip. He'd woken with a glove practically knitted from bandaids from his own kit. Was that because...oh god. It was coming back to him.

Ernie couldn't manage anything besides another "what".

The other Aberration seemed confused, so Sander let him take his time, remaining silent as he focused on the path ahead.

Pieces of the night put themselves together. Something swung. Something banged. God, how much did he have that night? As much as he absolutely hated the guy, attacking him, starting a fight between subnaturals in a public area, in D.C. of all places, in front of his friends...

No wonder Sander wanted to kill him.

Ernie groaned loudly. "Shit, that was really stupid. I'm...man, I'm sorry. I don't usually get that drunk."

"I'm fine." -Sander said dismissively, shoulders raised in a shrug -"I can take it."

"Doesn't mean you should have to. Not from an idiot like me, or anyone else. Aren't you angry?"

"Should I?"

"Uh. Only if you want to, I guess," Ernie sighed. He'd never understand this guy, "Getting angry's never really helped me."

Such a weird conversation. Were these really going to be among his last words? Ernie's hug-grip tightened involuntarily.

"I wouldn't blame you if you were."

"Huh?" -Something akin to surprise lifted Sander's brows -"Why?"

It was Ernie's turn to shrug. "Bad people deserve badness, I guess? Anger is badness. And anger's what naturally comes from getting hurt. You already hate me to actual death so getting pissed over a stupid bar fight won't change much."

"I don't...hate you." -Sander felt his lips curled briefly into a smirk, like Ernie was saying the most ridiculous thing in the world.

Ernie didn't believe him for a second. His expression knit into something resembling irritation. "Didn't you say you'd kill me?"

"I said I don't want to."

"Hah. I don't believe you. Man, do you even believe that?"

Sander's response was another shrug -"Doesn't matter if you don't believe me."

Ernie tilted his head to Sander's face, feeling the nonchalant shrug in his arms. Annoying. Chatter over the cuffs alerted the Aberration to Zoe's incoming stupidity. More annoying. Hopefully Brent would get the bitch under control again. Still, talking strategy was something he needed to consider too. "Whatever. Alright, subject change. How are you gonna take that ice giant down? Any weak points you plan on hitting?"

"I'm not sure." -The blood mage admitted, eyeing the monster in the distance.

This was their class' strongest hope? Ernie suppressed a sigh. "Take out the legs first. Stop it from destroying any more of the city or reaching the river. Then do whatever you want. Understand?"

Sander didn't really respond. He looked up at the glowing orb in the sky instead. It was a bit too far away, but Brent did mention that it needed...burning? Was it a weak spot?

His mind went back to Factory fight and he remembered the twisted body within the metal sphere. Was this the same? A human, barely, within the monster?

How did that work, exactly? Sander decided that he didn't really care.

"What's up there? In the floating...thing?" -He gestured toward the orb and licked his lips, asking as if Ernie knew the answer.

"It's the weird light that was fixing up the giant with some ice beam. Got hit with a bright-ass lazer so I think it's out of commission for a bit. I wouldn't worry about that right now, Chris is gonna fly up there and take care of whatever lady's inside."

"Person? Inside?"

Ernie didn't have a good feeling about this. "Uh, yeah. A woman, apparently."

"Is she...helping the monsters?"

"Sander, what are you planning?"

"Fighting."

"Fighting what?" Ernie's voice turned harsh, "The giant? Or the woman in the light? Are you just gonna leave Cal to fight alone?"

Kadabra was with her, of course, but Ernie refused to count him as an ally. Not with that subnatural-killing track record the Precursor held. Not that Sander was any trustworthier.

Sander blinked, then hastily shook his head, even when Ernie probably didn't see it.

"Sander. Answer me properly, please."

"I'm helping Callan." -Sander frowned, though his eyes still focused on the glowing orb.

"Wait and see if Chris succeeds first," Ernie pleaded, moving in closer as if his point would get across better that way, "Help Cal by fighting alongside her."

At this point, he and Sander was close enough to the golem. Not quite in combat range yet, but close enough that the thick curtain of dust from crushed debris hung heavy and the scent of iron was smothering. Sander's breathing shuddered as he stopped on a nearby rooftop.

"You can stay here." -He said to Ernie after a short pause, surveying the scene before him. Something rather uncharacteristic, but Sander didn't let himself think much about it. His attention was fully directed at the giant monster rampaging through the streets. Callan's sweet scent nudged at him like an afterthought though, so he turned his head, trying to locate her.

A sigh of relief as Ernie finally touched his unsteady legs on something solid. Finally. His limbs were starting to get sore from all that holding on. Like Sander, the buzzcut boy scanned their surroundings, paling at the sheer scale of the monster his classmates were facing.

His classmates. Not him.

He turned to Sander. "You haven't answered me yet."

"Huh?"

"You're gonna help Cal with the giant first. And you're gonna let Chris do his job, right?"

"...Alright." -Sander finally nodded, a slump in his shoulders like a child not getting his way -"It's not...good. That thing isn't...good. Isn't alive." -He mumbled, almost just to himself.

Ernie wasn't sure what he meant. Probably better to just ignore it. "Just...help our friend. Please. Don't let her get hurt."

Sander nodded then, stepping toward the edge of the building.

"You should stay close." -He said over his shoulder, before letting himself drop into the streets below.

---

Lily kept her eyes closed, the truck's movements almost lulling her to sleep. In her present mood, she really didn't care about what was happening outside the moving vehicle. Destruction and mayhem all around them and she didn't even wanna look to see if they'd make it out alive. Chaos was a part of her life the moment she woke up with an X mark on her throat and a power that was in all sense morbid. Even though her classmates all probably valued her safety, she found that it didn't matter if she lived or died. Sure, she escaped death from that head wound she had when USARILN found her but a day will come when she'll eventually find herself at the end of the line. If that was today then she couldn't and wouldn't really do anything about it.

She heard the voices transmitting from the cuffs. An argument. Plans.

Slime. Guns. Shooting through Zoe. Range.

Again, she paid them no heed. She just didn't want to care.

Why should she when there were so many people more capable than her in helping out exterminate the danger? Her earlier excitement about helping out and her initial confidence that her powers can do significant damage to the enemies were gone. There was no point in moving from where she was sitting. If someone needed healing then maybe...maybe she could help out...if she wanted to.

Kusari's voice calling out her name made the blonde Aberration finally open her eyes.

"Will you be able to come with me to help Allison and Zoe?"

Dulled golden orbs stared at the pale Arbiter. Kusari was her escape from pain and the answer to her stigma. Her abilities to heal anything she transferred to her was amazing. But even though the girl was immortal, she hated passing pain onto her but at the same time enjoyed it.

Morbid.

She wanted to say no. It was easy. No need for words. Just a simple shake of her head. They would allow her to stay in the truck won't they? They valued her safety, didn't they? She had to be kept out of harm's way, wasn't she? And choosing to stay was perfectly fine, right?

In the corner of her eye, she saw one of the guards looking at her. He was one of the first few regulars that she had healed after some contemplation. She glanced briefly towards him and he immediately averted his gaze but not before Lily caught his look. A mixture of pity and fear.

Seeing that look made Lily immediately change her mind. Being out in the field helping out people who were like her and who understood her was so much better than having to endure stares like that from people who should have been thankful she helped them. She turned her attention back to Kusari, a determined look replacing the bored one on her face. She could still feel the lightheadedness and the fatigue but it didn't really matter.

"Yes," she nodded. "Let's go."

---

---

Chris’s approach didn’t proceed unnoticed by the feminine shape in the flickering light. He reached her and before he could fire, she extended a hand, turning it supine before the same beam of light that had drained the river shot him point blank, originating from a space inches above her palm and scattering the wisps of ice around Chris.

”Why?” a flat, androgynous voice asked in the brief second before the flakes of white detonated. If there was any emotion to glean from the passive face that--upon closer inspection--only vaguely looked human, it was confusion. Consternation, even. As if it couldn't understand why the dragon was turning on it.

The sparks of ice snapped and froze Chris’s dragon body, ready to send him plummeting back down to earth in a trip he likely wouldn’t survive intact. Unlike the ice statues of dead humans below, the dragon form’s durability stymied the ice’s effects, its damage freezing just the outer layer of scales and skin and trapping Chris in a molded prison.

He fell two meters before colliding with a clear, glassy platform that spread quickly around him as his frozen form tumbled and slid before finally coming to a stop. In the distance, a sharp scream cut through the air and then through the ice maiden’s arm, severing it clean at the elbow. The lost arm exploded into tufts of deadly white wisps that returned to the owner and reformed her whole.

But Whisper had simply been testing the waters.

Trial and error and close shaves had made clear for the group that, with very few—and very terrifying—exceptions, regenerators often needed a portion of their original body to reform. Mere inches away from the reptilian ice sculpture that was Chris sprawled across Scaffold’s saving platform, a horizontal column of heat flashed away all air in its range, becoming a thick beam of light that engulfed the entirety of the ice girl. The light cut across the skyline like a blade, but anyone who was familiar with the effects knew what they were looking at: Firestarter, heavily amped by Refrain.

The attack lasted only a second and originated from a point towards the southwest end of the city, across the river, and at an even elevation with the ice manipulator and converter. When the heat flash faded, there was nothing left of the ice girl or her light and the golem she had created in the distance stilled, its body crumbling slowly even as Hazel’s attack bisected it vertically. Callan’s charge towards the body continued and the supergirl pounded through the breaking points, making sure death would be a permanent affair.

With the ice creature gone, however, the slime and the crusher were free to proceed. Gray lines warped and broke around Scaffold’s platform and the frozen dragon, the same phenomenon that had practically disintegrated the fighter jet earlier. Not a millisecond too soon, a blunt force shout fired at Chris, knocking him out of the targeted location and shattering the ice, tearing off large swatches of scales and skin as the cost for saving him from annihilation. Scaffold’s platform was crushed to a fine dust by the power and the material dissipated soon afterwards. Chris collided with a building that had fallen sideways, chunks of ice still clinging to much of his back and tail, flash frozen with the skin there as well. A hindleg had been broken by the shout’s impact and one wing bent uselessly at his side. The dragon lay atop the fallen building, bleeding heavily from where Whisper’s shout had torn away both ice and flesh.

With the notice that Cat’s Cradle was in the area, what was already a screaming, mindless evacuation turned into utter pandemonium. People had pushed and shoved at each other earlier as they made their way to the escape routes. Now they trampled over one another, some abandoning children and loved ones to flee while others shook off the pleading injured to escape unburdened. The military, frazzled already with the combined attack, decided the ten subnatural terrorists were of bigger concern than the slime and the crusher, redirecting a large portion of their forces towards the direction of the attack just as Perfume’s signature golden cloud bloomed into life in the far distance as a blurry mist, the sphere of deadly gas buying time while a large, elongated Tumor circled around the group, swallowing up bullets fired in their general direction. Kadabra raced towards the group on his floating platform, throwing the full brunt of everything he had used against the ice giant towards the infamous subnaturals.

A tear in time and space appeared, its tip peeking just over the rim of Tumor’s massive body like a spearhead, the lining of its existence ragged at the edges and an abyssal black within. Backdoor. They were running.

By the time the broken buildings and cars collided with the ground, Cat’s Cradle was gone, their one opportunity to attack safely used up to defeat the Dreamcatcher creature that had appeared above the city in tandem with the second awakening of two new Animi. Nico had chosen the most accessible target to assuage lingering sentiments that the group could (and Donovan would have argued should) help, but there was little chance to remain if Kadabra was present. They weren’t in this for another relentless fight and it was too late to engage the two new Animi regardless. Too deep in the city. Too mired in Washington’s hatred and military. And conspiracy.

Too many forces were at play and even Donovan didn’t protest when the de facto leader called for a retreat. The past year they had noticed more frequent monster attacks, along with more activity from Fracture. What one had to do with the other, they had never bothered trying to find out, but it didn't take a sociologist to understand that something was shifting in the climate for both humans and monsters alike and something or other reeked of desperation. More than one something. And with strengths like theirs it was only a matter of time before the Precursors organized a search and destroy on Cat's Cradle as well--a serious one, on the level of the operation that turned Garrote into little more than a long, red stretch across the ground. If the monsters were ever dealt with, Nico was certain a reckoning was due. And for that moment, he already had plans.

In that time, the slime had appeared to hesitate, the presence of the infamous group of Animi slowing its spread to a feeble crawl. When the danger seemed to pass, however, it surged forward again, veins and organs pulsing rhythmically beneath its casing of digestive liquid. With newfound vigor, it rushed down the street, mere minutes away from where Zoe had briefly fallen.

---

Christopher Francis

---

---

Just before Chris received his latest edition of the worst pain imaginable, a single word echoed in his mind.

Why

Why indeed, did that monster actually speak to him? Maybe it was another subnatural, but nothing about that voice felt human enough for him to believe it. Time had seemed to slow down on his head as he dwelled on the thought of that voice.

Reality did set in though, and unlike thinking about that single word, the pain that followed sent him in a blur. Flash Frozen, Chris didn't even have time to scream as his body plummeted. He barely noticed that his fall ended sooner then it should have. Before he had time to even acknowledge he had been saved a horrible scream sent him flying. The force did thaw him enough to move, but at the price of another great wave of pain. By the time he landed he was practically conscienceless from his body pounding in its broken state. Most of him now felt numb, both from the abuse of pain, and the ice that had once frozen him.

When he came to, he lifted his head in a slow motion. His eyes opened, one could notice a filmy membrane that disappeared from the eye as it did; much like the protective gland from a crocodile. Toxic blood flowed from his frostbitten body. Torn scales revealed flesh and tissue beneath which created large gashes in his body, weak points in his armor. One of his legs was broken, so was the wing. Flying was out of the option now, at least until he could get help. Knowing his leg was broken would make walking slow and difficult.

In hindsight, charging head on like that was a stupid idea; something he didn't seem to learn from the mechanical serpent either. Its a miracle he's even still alive. With his present conundrum, Chris debating between options. He could undo his transformation, but he'd be far more vulnerable; both in the sense that he was naked and that he had far less power to defend himself in comparison. He hadn't exactly practice his untransformed powers well enough to take any of the current threats head on. It wasn't as if staying transformed was a good idea either though, he could barely move now; which is a piss poor condition to fight in, what good could he do in this broken body?
As far as healers went, Christmas was down when he left and he wasn't sure of his condition right now, which left Liliana as his likely healer. That would imply though, that anyone had saw him get demolished out there.

Inside he loved the thought of being watched by his comrades, to be some kind of inspiring force with whatever might this form brought him. That secret desire was put to rest with his utter humiliation of a charge; Whether or not anyone was watching he failed. It came with it a sense of loneliness he was familiar with. Only now he can feel the piercing glares of dead souls he once knew, souls of disparity turned into spirits of menace. As if his failure had suddenly caused his former loved ones an ire that wanted to destroy him, to finish the job that the monster did to him.

For what felt like a while, All Chris did was lie there. Some moments staring at the sky, others eyes closed. He felt like a horse with a broken leg; something that was going to be put down because it was no longer useful and suffering in his waiting. His crippled and battered body was still gravely sore. Parts of him screamed that he should just transform back now, give up and wait it out for the others to hopefully take care of everything.

No

It wasn't that simple. Chris couldn't accept that reality. There was a part of him that only burned a stronger desire to get up and fight. Whether that was him or his dragon's, if it was even capable of thought, idea; he didn't care. He willed himself to move; First to roll off of the building and onto the street below. A fall that really didn't help his immeasurable pain. He continued still. First he pulled his upper body up, then the hindleg that wasn't broken. The fourth leg, broken and battered from his injuries, dragged against the ground as he pushed himself to move. He limped over to a crushed car, and then proceeded to rip away the car until he could retrieve the fuel tank underneath it. A process that if he wasn't so injured would have been simple, but each tear with his claw or bite only worsened the pain in his body.

He had a break to catch his breathe, part of him still asking if he could really do this. The bastard already made up his mind though and he ripped out the fuel tank with his mouth. Gasoline sputtered from the torn tank, leaking into his maw and spilling over his lips and front claws. He thrashed the can around to coat himself in the flammable fluid. His tail swiped to a second car, tipping it over so he could get a second tank. He was more careful with the second fuel tank, carrying in it in his maw no matter how much his pain receptors beamed at him not too. He then started to make his way towards the slime, towards the monster. When he had flown in the air he had a glimpse of it before so he wasn't exactly lost; but he knew he had a long way to go.

First he just dragged his lower body behind him in his struggle, but he started to pick up the pace the more he thought over that desire. A desire that was rooted in past fear; If he can't do anything, then they'll end up like them, the friends he lost in his home town, his family, or even his roommates. He had to do something, he had to keep going to prevent that cycle to repeat. No matter how much blood he lost or how much his body denied him of the thought, he kept going.

He had gotten to the point where he was standing more upright. No matter how much he willed it, he could not sprint; not even jog. His broken leg couldn't afford it and would not respond to his own willpower. The best he could do was limp at a fast pace, like a horse that was desperate to prove its leg wasn't broken despite all evidence to the contrary. After some progress he crushed the second fuel tank and tossed it above him, dousing him more in fuel. He then widened his maw, despite how sore he felt. As the fire started to form inside him his throat lit up a red light, and then the flames splattered beneath him. This caught fire to his entire body, laced with fuel, it completely coated him like a veil.

If Chris's dragon form wasn't so much of a monster before, his silhouette encased in flames gave him the appearance of some kind of demon. The action would have been some form of crazy suicide had Chris's dragon form didn't have its heat immunity. His frostbitten scales thawed. With his body heated up it inspired an illusion of more energy which aided his willpower. Thus, he moved as fast as his broken body would allow him. He tried to kick up into the air with each step to compensate for the broken foot, but the speed difference wasn't much of a boost and the action only worsened his pain. That didn't stop him from continuing in this method of motion however.

---

---

Chicago.

Ernie watched Cat’s Cradle’s intervention through the pilfered binoculars around his neck, utterly horrified by the implications of their sudden appearance. But obliteration didn’t follow. The skylight was gone within a few efficient moments, their escape was completely unhindered by the efforts of the Precursor and D.C. military. The civilians continued screaming nonetheless and honestly, he couldn’t even blame them. He was sure that same single word was running through their minds too.

There was so much panic in the air, screams pounding his ears harder than any gunshot could. He doubted that he’d ever witness such raw, collective fear in his life ever again, even if he managed to live through this nightmare. Such reckless, unleashed emotion. A catastrophe that showcased the true filth of humankind as loved ones and wounded were abandoned and trampled. It should’ve been the most Stigma-empowering thing he’d ever basked in. It would’ve, if his comrades’ lives weren’t directly on the line because of this.

He didn’t have a clear view of the group from his perch so he needed to make do with the map on the communicator. A worried click of the tongue followed as he looked at the various groups on the map. Zoe was still determined to get that slime, even if it meant dragging Brent and others down with her. The Evacuation Team were in the quagmire of screaming Regulars. He knew what high-running emotions could do. They needed to get out of there. And the Strike Team…

The buzzcut Aberration paled as Hazel’s attack connected with Cal. He ducked down behind the barrier surrounding the rooftop, breaths going wild. Oh fuck. Everything was going too wrong, too fast.

His hands scrambled for the 'Transmit All' command. “Everyone, stay in your teams and get the fuck away from the Regulars. Rooftops, side-alleys, anywhere you can avoid them. Cat’s Cradle are here and people are going fucking mental. Lily, don’t leave the Evac Group. Slime Team’s just gonna have to deal with the consequences of their dumbass plan by themselves.”

An ominous rumble in the vicinity. A deathmatch between the Strike Team was the last thing they needed.

“Hazel’s gone psycho again. Sander and Cal might have it under control but…” A harsh breath. “Stay away from the north-east.”

His transmission ended there but he continued keeping an eye on the map. In the meantime, the Aberration snuck a peek over the edge of the roof. Such caution was probably unnecessary. Here on this rooftop, unseen by all the biggest threats in the city, he was probably in the safest position he could get.

Just like Wisford. This is what you wanted, right?

His hand involuntarily clenched around the phone.

Broken.

Torn down.

The behemoth, powerful, imposing, destroyed like it was nothing but sand in front of the ocean. But it was not enough; pain still wracked her body, memories still haunts her, she still needed to move, to move forwards.

That figure, wielding weapon of pure shadow, caught her eye. Powerful, strong...

Hateful.

Loathesome.

Hazel's blood was still boiling, her heart beat sounding like war drums in her ears. Forward, she needed to move forwards. Into the red, into the white, where everything left her, where nothing followed.

Her eyes were hidden, but the rictus grin stretched over her face as she swept a giant sword towards that girl's neck was enough to tell anyone of her current state of mind.

A giant sword was difficult to miss, especially when it came from right in front of the girl. Despite this, the sheer surprise of the sudden attack caught Callan off guard. The shadow hammer was lifted barely in time to perform a clumsy block, though the force of the swing swept the Arbiter to the side. She landed on her feet a few meters away from her initial position, the hammer now transformed into a dark katana.

"Hazel, what the hell?!"

Almost immediately after Callan spoke, Hazel had already started moving again, once more swinging that giant sword from the same angle. But, while she was blinded by that murderous beat in her blood, she wasn't attacking blindly. Her broken arm turned transparent, as a giant flail appeared, threatening to crush Callan from the other direction.

An attack from both sides. Nowhere to go but up. Callan launched herself at a low angle, her trajectory a shallow arc to land directly on Hazel and slash at her shoulder with the blade.

Meanwhile, Sander witnessed the fight from the side, watched as Hazel threw the first attack. He remembered what happened with Christmas. And now, with Callan. Despite his conviction, he couldn't stand aside. With fury in his red eyes, he began sprinting towards the battle.

The projected sword and flail crashed behind Callan, exploding spectacularly. Callan, making a brave move, dodged while attacking at the same time. However, whether she had forgotten how Hazel's ability worked, or had no knowledge of it whatsoever, jumping towards Hazel in a straight line while in her line of sight wasn't smart.

Hazel's good arm flickered as she simply swept it outwards, turning visible but for a moment before going transparent again, projecting the sword straight towards Callan's path.

The force of the explosion shook Callan mid-air, sharply diverting her from her original flight path. With no awareness of this new ability, she was caught off-guard once again. Another attempted block, significantly less successful than the first. Her own blade deflected Hazel's only slightly, directing the disintegrating surface away from her chest at least. The giant sword met the Arbiter's bottom half, sending the girl pinwheeling away and into the ground with only a few scraps of fabric still lingering on her legs. She groaned and attempted to get back on her feet, katana still in hand.

Sander, seeing the brutal sword connect with his friend, launched himself at Hazel from the side, a fist raised and ready.

That euphoric feeling surged through Hazel as the blow connected, the feeling of pain, of blood spilling from her body, growing more and more distant.

Forward...

She moved to deliver the coup de grâce, to shove the entire length of the sword into the fallen girl's heart, if not for the moving shadow she caught at the corner of her eyes. Moving more out of instinct than anything else, she just barely caught Sander's attack with a projected limb. The red-eyed Aberration was knocked back a fair distance, clothes promptly disintegrated as he flew back. Callan seized the distraction's opportunity, going for yet another aerial strike, her sword raised high above her head.

Sucking in her breath, Hazel backed into Callan's swing, behind the sword and right into Callan herself. In a move reminiscent of what they were taught in the school, she pulled onto Callan's arm, throwing her onto the ground, before slamming an enormous projected fist onto her for good measure.

The Arbiter gasped, the breath knocked out of her and the familiar sting of a fractured rib prompting tears to well in her eyes. A shaking hand stretched out to prop herself back up. In the distance she could see Sander speeding back. He'd be here soon. He'd stop her.

With a horrid grin seemingly stretched to disturbing dimensions, Hazel noted the still moving girl, that feeling welling up in her chest as once again, she slammed a giant fist onto the girl. Once, twice, thrice, again and again, until the girl moved no more. She couldn't feel anything anymore, just that feeling of intense pleasure.

That, and the need for more. To destroy more until she herself broke apart.

From his watch, Ernie removed the binoculars from his face, feeling sick to the stomach as he watched blow after blow pummel his prone friend. Callan, his clumsy but good-natured companion, beaten into something exposed and broken.

She's smiling...

Hazel was smiling. Why the fuck was she smiling? Of course he knew 'why', but it still disgusted him. A familiar terror and rage churned. Cal wasn't moving. These fucking binoculars weren't strong enough so he couldn't even see if she was still breathing or not. Hazel was beyond forgiveness now. He didn't give a shit what Emma said, that murderous bitch needed to die. The binoculars were raised once more and he observed Sander's incoming attack with vindictive ardor.

Hazel's previous attack had hindered the blood mage's advance, but otherwise leaving no lasting damage. Sander was quick to recover, and soon enough, he was launching himself toward Hazel with reckless abandon. His right hand clenched into a fist as he pulled it back, ready for another devastating blow.

A bullrush.

One from one of the more invulnerable one of them. Images flashed of crystals encasing him and his apparent rage then. He was fast, he was strong, and he was invulnerable. Intense hate and jealousy mixed in with the swirl of emotions, as well as an almost overwhelmingly white feeling of anticipation.

Hazel swiped upwards, bringing up the projected hand to simply swat him upwards, ground and all.

Sander, in his bloodlust, had not seen the attack coming. It sent him flying, but he reorientated himself midair easily enough, landing on his feet a few blocks away from Hazel.

Emboldened and encouraged by the ease of which he simply flew away, Hazel quickly launched herself towards him, twisting in mid air. A large fist from below, this time, to bring Sander straight up. It was, after all, a place where he could not move freely at all.

A large explosion, and another swipe upwards. Landing on her feet, her muscles tensed, ready to launch herself after Sander if he did get launched upwards.

The blood mage anticipated the attack this time. He leapt backward to dodge Hazel's projected limb, expression twisting with rage and frustration as the dust from the explosion clouded his senses. Before it barely settled though, he charged again, inhuman speed rushing toward Hazel.

Still blinded by her own smoke, she did not — could not — anticipate the attack through the dust. His speed and strength simply punched through her stomach with a squelch, as if it was but wet paper.

But still, she stood, showing no signs that she was in pain, or that she even noticed her stomach was torn open. With him so close, all she needed to do was form a blade with her still working arm, and shove it straight into his body.

The blow collided with Sander's torso and launched him backward. He stumbled, but quickly regained his balance, bloody fist clenched at his side. However, he didn't charge right away, instead standing back to regard Hazel with a puzzled look. He had seen enough injuries on people to know what was bad enough for a grown man to curl up and pass out. Yet, the Aberration before him remained on her feet even with a hole in her guts. He frowned, right hand kept clenching and unclenching, unable to come to a decision.

He was there, unscathed, unfazed, as if she had been nothing against him.

Powerful.

Loathsome.

Strong.

Hateful.

Powerful emotions urged her to continue on, rage and rampage, to keep on destroying everything and him as well. But, her body seemed not to listen, as she took one faltering step, with a slight look of confusion upon her face. Just for a moment, it seemed as if she might just topple over unconscious, before her eyes focused again.

With all her remaining strength, she sent one last giant fist flashing towards Sander, the impact of which would send out her largest explosion, knocking her off her feet, and into the deep oblivion of unconsciousness.

Sander leapt sideway to dodge the blurry outline of the projected limb. Still, the explosion that followed caught him off guard again. He was thrown forward, landing hard on his arms and knees. In the aftermath of the impact, he righted himself slowly, shrugging off dust and debris as he climbed to his feet. The off scent of Hazel's blood still remained though, the beat of her heart was still going, faint as it was. He blinked, taking a few seconds to collect his thoughts before lifting her into his arms. The gaping hole in her torso gave him pause, but seeing as how she was unimpeded by pain, he swung her over his torso and went to seek out Callan.

The Arbiter was unconscious when he found her, so he tucked her beneath his free arm and dashed off, heading toward the evacuation point.

Ernie's view of the fight had been completely obstructed since Hazel's smoky explosion. One final bang, bigger than the rest had marked the end of the match, though there was no way to tell who the victor was. A few moments passed before Sander's naked form shot out of the cloud, carrying an unconscious Callan and bloodied Hazel with him. Ernie raised an eyebrow, partly out of confusion and partly out of annoyance, as he tracked the Aberration across the sky. What the fuck happened to 'staying close'?

He clicked his tongue once more, flicking through the communication options on the transmitter until he found the blood mage's channel. "Sander, what happened? Are they still alive?"

"Yes." -Sander answered curtly, before he realized he didn't enable the cuff to transmit yet. It took a few seconds for the knowledge of how to come back to him -"Transmit. Yes. Over."

"...You didn't kill Hazel." A statement rather than a question. There was obvious disappointment in his tone.

"I won't." -A pause, just as Sander remembered about the cuff, again -"Transmit. I didn't kill you."

Ernie's lip curled. So even Sander of all people had more morals than him? Bullshit.

"We had orders to kill her if she threatened someone again. You sure you want to let her go?"

"...They can kill her later. I won't."

"...Fine. Where are you taking them anyway?"

"Evacuation."

A check of the map told Ernie that the red-eyed mage was talking about the point and not the truck. That was a relief.

"Make sure that the guards put those extra cuffs on Hazel when you get there then."

A pause.

"And tell someone to put a shirt on Cal."

If there was any notion that the panic running rampant through the capital's streets had reached its peak, it would have been immediately shattered as Tumor's eclipsing form stained the sky.

Angel's empowered declaration of the 'USARILN Special Evacuation Relief Unit' was met with mixed reactions, though 'mixed' seemed like the understatement of the century. It didn't take much mental effort for the evacuating citizens to identify the vehicle they had been suggested to use, a semi-truck escorted by a surreal parade of floating cars and a nightmarish, shadowy golem knocking obstacles aside with horrifying strength.

More monsters among the destruction already inflicted.

The voice mage's offers fell on deaf ears. Most of the crowd clambered over each other in an attempt to escape the subnaturals, running, screaming, trampling over the unfortunate who lacked the mobility needed to flee. But a strange energy took over some of the citizens in the vicinity, a rush of adrenaline and determination that only emerged in the worst of life-threatening situations. Hatred smothering fear. Among the screams, fragments of angered shouts of "fucking subs", "it's that Scar Guy" and "in the truck" could be heard by those with keen hearing. Ernie's transmission blared through the cuffs like a poorly timed omen. Despite the panic in the street, there was almost an eerie standstill between the subnaturals and the bold regulars who were sick of living in fear and had nothing left to lose. Right as the Aberration's voice mentioned something about Hazel, half a brick flew through the windshield of the truck, shattering the glass and nailing Marcus in the shoulder.

A catalyst for the hell about to descend upon the USARILN teens.

Bricks and debris hailed down on the vehicle, shattering the remaining vehicles of the cab and lightly raining glass on its inhabitants. The two nearby soldiers barked orders to cease the attack to no avail. Miraculously, no one beside the scarred Arbiter was directly hit by the incoming projectiles yet. In the back, thunderous banging consumed the atmosphere as loosened concrete battered against the trailer's outer walls, thrown by frightened and outraged civilians. With the absence of any new audible orders, Determination continued its task despite the attacks, its armor holding well against the rain of construction materials. The stoning of the subnaturals' vehicle didn't look like it was going to end any time soon but the regulars at least kept their distance for the moment.

Piss poor timing, that was the only thing Angel could accurately think of as shit hit the fan for the evacuation effort. Not only the citizens did not trust them to accept their help, but the appearance of Cat's Cradle, Ernest's message and the unfolding panic, it was too much to bear on the young woman's stressed mind.

Angelique let out a sudden shout of fright as a brick came flying through the windshield and hit Marcus square in the shoulder. But fear soon was overcome by wrath.

"Marc, are you alright?"

They dared to this to those who were trying to help them. Just how fucked up this society was? Is this what she was living with all those years before becoming a Subnatural? Was this really the humanity she was trying to cling onto, despite having been demonized as an X-marked?

"STOP! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? WE'RE TRYING TO HELP YOU!"

Angel's voice boomed all over the area, noticeably growing louder and panicked. If she was on the edge, now she had one foot over the ravine. The voices inside her head began screaming in rage, egging her to let loose. The violence seemed unresponsive to her rage, the crowd's fear only ramping up with the unnatural voice shouting in their ears.

Angel's teeth were grinding on themselves as each thud against the truck's surface; each debris that flew past her head only fueled her hatred towards Regulars. She couldn't take it anymore. Her friends were in danger. SHE was in danger.

"THEY DON'T DESERVE YOUR KINDNESS!"

"THEY SHOULD JUST ALL DIE!"

The Stigma was banging at the back of her mind, breaking through, invading her thoughts. There was nothing but sheer hate towards those who dared bring pain to her classmates, her friends, her kindred. Those people were unworthy of being saved. They should be left here to rot, to die in their filth like the human trash they were. At this point, Subnaturals felt even more human right now than the garbage that kept throwing debris out of unjustified spite.

"Everyone... get back inside. We're leaving, NOW!" Angel ordered, her magical voice reaching out only to her comrades, struggling for control.

"They want to hate and fear you so much? Give them a reason to do so!

Returning the defiant and hateful look in her eyes back to the Regulars that kept pummeling the truck with all sorts of debris, Angel leaned towards the windshield instead of trying to protect herself behind the dash.

"PROVE THEM ANGELIQUE LACHANCE ISN'T ONE TO BE PUSHED AROUND!

"STOP!"

But this time around, Angel's voice did not come out as a warning ringing to everyone's ears. Her voice was unleashed by the full power of her destructive abilities, sending a forceful sonic wave of debilitating intensity towards the majority of the Regulars that kept pummeling their vehicle.

It all happened so fast. Off in the distance, reflected brightly in one of the truck's side mirrors, a large bloom of fire engulfed what looked like empty sky from this distance. Then the growing form of a sludge monster - not the slime that was currently engulfing the city. For a moment, Marcus was completely baffled; there wasn't anybody on their team that could do something like that.

When he noticed the disturbing face of Tumor writhing through the black mass, it all clicked. They had to leave now.

And it was just as he made this connection and turned to see if Angel had also caught on that the windshield exploded, raining small shards of glass down as something large impacted his shoulder. Marcus let out an involuntary yelp of pain as the brick caught him across the shoulder, bringing his other arm up to cradle it.

Nothing broken. Nothing dislocated. But not for a lack of trying.

"What the hell!?" Marcus shouted to nobody in particular, bringing his hand back to the steering wheel. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Just caught me in my shoulder."

The words came out through gritted teeth as the sudden shock of impact gave way to the rising bloom of pain. His pain transferred from soft disbelief to growing anger as he fully realized the situation: that hadn't been an accident - not a wayward piece of stone from one of the nearby collapsing buildings. That had been thrown. By a Regular. The same regulars they were trying to help.

The patter of other debris rang across the truck like the sound of large hail as something exploded next to him. There was a soft ringing in his ear as he turned to the source, his eyes falling on where Angel sat next to him.

Too much.

Siena could practically feel the panic rising from the masses as she noticed the presence of something more dangerous than mere monsters--subhumans that knew how to use their power to spill blood...something in the back of her head tried to chime in at the situation. This was wrong. Dangerous. Wrong. Her concentration wavered for a moment, the cars precariously slipping down for a moment when gravity tried to return to normal before quickly snapping back to where they were before with a grimace from the brunette. Careless--she couldn't afford to lost her train of thought and drop all the vehicles she'd been--

SMASH.

Glass showered in a blanket of fine, jagged points that made Siena flinch. The Arbiter couldn't hold all the cars--half of them slammed back into the ground as her concentration snapped away, reducing the effective area of her ability. The disgustingly calm part of her mind told her that it wasn't such a big deal--nobody was stupid enough to stand under a floating car if they didn't know why it was floating. The same part of her reminded the girl that she needed to react in an appropriate manner, lest she give away the horrifying sense of calm that threatened to pull her under.

"Shit...!" But it wasn't enough to regain herself when the name threatened to slip through her fingers, the grains becoming finer the more desperately she scrabbled at the draining sands. Going, going...did it even matter? A startling sense of clarity cut into Siena deeper than any glass would have managed, eyes shifting from a muddy brown to an awkward charcoal color as she felt the last of Dekka's power escape like a wispy breath, the sudden weight such a fierce burden that Siena had to bite back a yelp of surprise. Too much, her mind scolded as both names escaped. First Dekka, then Kennedy.

The cars came crashing down all at once as Siena felt her legs obeying Angel's demand before her mind had caught up, the usual flutter of her fingers bringing the familiar thrum of knowing. Things were going bad, fast.

A shout shattered the air despite the jagged shrieks that had pierced it over and over again, and another pair of voices mocked the brunette in her head. So much for trying to help them. Now you're the monster they want to see. It wasn't her fault.

"Angel, those were pe--" The protest cut itself off. They were people. Fragile bodies that were afraid of them because they saw subnaturals as monstrous figures. Plenty of monsters played at being human. Plenty of humans were monstrous. Another chilling calm trickled down her spine, one that froze her heart in place for a fraction of a second. She tried to shake it off. "We shouldn't..."

...she didn't know how to finish that sentence.

Hazel was rampaging again. Once again, Emma wasn’t sure what to do. The girl was clearly a danger to everyone around her. A danger to her friends. But wasn’t she also supposed to be her friend? Emma gritted her teeth. She couldn’t worry about that now. Not when they had their own problems to worry about. Not when... Emma’s head craned around to make out the form of Tumor, the lights dancing in the sky, the sight of…

Cat’s Cradle is helping.

It was a realization that hit her like a truck; Cat’s Cradle, Animi, terrorists, public enemy number one, was one of the few allies that they had right now. Of course, that’s not how the regulars saw it. The sound of the shattering windshield drew Emma’s attention back towards the truck. Emma took a second to ensure that Marcus was okay before turning back towards Determination, who was still carelessly going about his business despite the rain of debris being pelted on him. That was good, he just needed to keep doing wh-

A scream came from Angel, directed towards the crowd.

What the fuck?

Suddenly, the cars suspended by Siena’s power were released, shrieks cutting through the air.

What the fuck?

Emma turned back towards the truck, hearing Angel’s demand that they come back. She was right, they were in danger, danger that was amplified tenfold by the Subnatural’s own hostilities. As she started moving for the relative safety of the semi’s trailer she spoke aloud, ”Transmit, what the hell are you guys doing? Attacking the regulars is making things worse! We need to get out of here, not fight them!” Emma shouted.

Angel's scream had a devastating effect on the crowd, disabling dozens of evacuees and throwing them backwards. The ones that received a direct hit were curled up on the ground, clutching their ears. The civilians caught on the edge of the sonic cone stumbled around blindly. One of the soldiers was among the less severely affected. The other, however, was standing to the side with his rifle aimed at the voice mage. He would have taken the shot had it not been for the sudden cacophony of falling cars. A disjointed rhythm of shattered glass and distorted metal filled the air, easily masking the sounds of crushed bones and ruptured organs from the fallen vehicles. Angel's shout had inadvertently pushed numerous civilians into the drop zone. There was no one standing in front of the truck to block the horrific view of blood oozing out from beneath the twisted chassis. The screaming continued as those that weren't caught in the blast rushed to the dropped cars to lift them from their loved ones. They begged for help but none came. The others were now revenge-bent.

Everything was happening so fast. Lily had just agreed with Kusari to go out and help Allison and Zoe and then the next thing she knew, there was a sound of shattering glass and then Angelique was screaming. Her eyes widened as her senses were barraged by multitudes of injuries all around them, the initial plan of going out to help Allison and Zoe completely forgotten. Shattered ear drums, crushed bones, punctured wounds... She could perceive all of them and felt that overwhelming need to help. But couple with the need was an equally strong desire to destroy. The voices that she thought were gone began whispering in her head again just as the truck they were in was continuously pelted with whatever the Regulars outside could hurl at it.

Debris continued flying towards the truck, leaving sizable dents in the trailer now. But that was far from the worst of it. Infuriated by the sudden attack, a handful of civilians surged forward to board the truck, ripping the side-doors open to grab at the shouter and the scarred boy and wrest them out of the vehicle. The undazed soldier levelled his rifle at Angelique again but hesitated to open fire for fear of hitting the civilians. Ironically, the attackers were indirectly saving the voice mage from certain death for the moment.

Emma hadn't gone unnoticed in the chaos of it all, the X-mark on her throat acting like a homing beacon of hatred. With the appearance of the world-infamous Animi just then, fear of the violent X's was at an all-time peak. Most of the evacuees on that side of the shuffled backwards but others attacked with more vigor. One man in particular raced towards the girl in a rough tackle, pinning her on the ground. She was met with a brutal fist to the jaw, his other hand raised for another. He'd seen the goody two-shoes X-girl on television. Easy target. On the other side of the truck, Grant and Siena were experiencing their own swarm, about five people lunging at each of them. While all this was happening, the last of the emboldened civilians leapt onto the back, opening the unlocked trailer door to get the rest of the subnaturals.

Emma hit the ground hard, the wind suddenly knocked out of her. ”Wait-“ she didn’t have time to finish her sentence, a hard fist meeting her jaw.

Did you think that you could make these people love you?i

The man cocked back his fist again, ”Please, stop…” she choked out in between sobs, tears filling her eyes, pain welling up in her face. Another impact against her skull, completely ignoring her pleas.

Emma’s lip was busted open now, blood running down her face. ”Don’t…” she started but didn’t finish. It’s pointless, they hate you. What did you expect? They’ll never love you. Not like the Precursors. Not like Sparrow. They’ll never admire you, you’re… you’re one of them. Subnaturals are nothing more than monsters.

Emma didn’t try pleading again. She didn’t try fighting. Determination, mindlessly continuing his assigned task of pushing aside the cars, suddenly disappeared.

Lily watched with confusion as her classmates were attacked. Weren't they supposed to be helping people out? What was happening? Why were they being attacked? As the Emma's assailant's fist connected with her face, the golden haired Aberration froze and lifted a hand to her lip as though she was punched. Golden eyes sought out Emma outside, pinned down and being attacked. It was a strangely familiar scene.

Suddenly Emma had long blonde hair and the man pinning her down had messy brown hair. Lily stared at them in horrified wonder. "You... you're a menace, a plague, a rabid dog that should have been put down a long time ago." The male voice from her fragmented memories was full of malice and hatred. The same voice had been filled with love and tenderness when her neck didn't have that cursed X mark. The soft, warm hand on her cheek was now rough as it wrapped around blonde Emma's neck. The lips that pressed a kiss to her forehead were now pulled back into a sneer. "You and Sebastian. You two should have never been born."

Oh god.

The sickening crunch of bones told Marcus all he needed to know about the situation. The screaming, the begging. Everything had gone to hell, and they were right in the middle of it. DC hated them, and they'd given the civilians the proverbial match to light the powder keg, and boy if it wasn't one hell of an explosion.

Marcus's horrified glances were interrupted as his door swung open, a hand reaching up to grab at his shoulder, nearly tearing his shirt off his body. He panicked for a moment, turning to deliver the heel of his foot directly to the grasping face of the person beside him, before scooting across his seat a little more to give himself some distance.

To the side, a flurry of movement caught Marcus's eye. Emma was on the ground. He watched in slow motion as the fist connected with her jaw, before reeling back for another attack.

Fuck it. If they were going to be the bad guys, then so be it.

"Angel! Emma's under attack! Clear me a path!" Marcus said, reaching over to the door and slamming it halfway in an attempt to hit a few of the frantic civilians with the metal barrier.

It was with horror that Angel witnessed the death she caused. This time, it wasn’t like Montréal’s massacre, where she was presumably innocent and framed by another Mage, as Brent suggested. This time, she actually CAUSED someone’s death by throwing them underneath floating cars that crashed onto them. The pang of guilt was immediate. Angel muted herself, tears started to well in her eyes as she realized she was responsible for murdering innocents.

But the guilt would not last for long, as infuriated citizens redoubled their efforts to take down her classmates. Hell, she could spot a soldier taking aim at them, at her specifically. Self-preservation began kicking in. No, she couldn’t die here, not like this. Not after swearing to become better.

“Become better? You’re actually becoming worse. You’re a murderer now…”

Everything that Angélique feared of becoming, she was getting there right now. As the angry mob of escaping refugees tried to wrench her away from the truck, she would not move from her spot as her seating belt secured her into the seat. But with every single pull, Angel’s rage only intensified. It eventually grew worse as she saw Siena and Grant being grabbed.

She was past redemption now. It was fight or die, and she absolutely won’t allow any of her classmates to die for having made a grave mistake. She made this mess, it was up to her to clean it up. The same debilitating scream that caused deaths was repeated once more. She was aiming that shriek at the soldier in plain sight, taking him out of commission before turning her attention to the pulling assailants, whom she screamed down just as easily as the others before.

"Grant! Take out their weapons! They are going to shoot us dead!"

Hearing out Marcus’ plea, Angel felt a rush of mixed emotions. Emma was being assaulted? That was an entertaining thought, but Emma was Marcus’ girlfriend. She respected Time Scar far too much to have a good time over the misery of his loved one.

“A’right, let’s go get her! Shut your ears tight and give me a hand!” Angel shouted, unfastening her seatbelt and throwing herself onto Marcus’ lap. Her dizziness wouldn’t allow her to move that efficiently considering everything that was happening, but she could at least manage to place herself up in an angle she would scream down Marcus’ side Regulars without putting him into her effective range.

True havoc. That's the way to describe the very situation. One moment, Grant was just helping with the roadblock. The next, yells of hatred and anger broke out. Now there was just screaming upon screaming. The boy was shaken at the familiarity, but he quickly shook it off the moment the chaos had their sights locked on him.

Instincts kicked in as his chains shot out to the very clothing of the people closing in. "Stay the hell away from me!" He yelled in anger, making contact and knocking many of them together enough until they were all just crumpled on the ground. For good measure, he tossed the ones who he had chained away from him.

He took in the chaos going on around him. He was still, frozen, trying to figure out what to do. He had to move, he had to... Angel's familiar voice broke through. Weapons. Shoot dead. His eyes locked onto the guards around in the range of his chains.

Following Angel's order, he sent his three chains out to different guards, focusing in on their weapons. The immediate moment they touched, he focused on making them completely useless. Molding the matter quickly and tightly around the wrists of the guards before pulling them up, meeting their faces in impact.

---

---

---

---

Resting her back onto the semi’s cabin, Angel struggled to keep herself onto her feet, leaning heavily onto the metal structure off the vehicle for support. She couldn’t leave Marcus alone to save Emma with this many people still throwing them debris and gazing upon them malevolently. Seeing chunks of bricks, rocks and concrete flying so closely to them, Angélique decided that it was enough. It was time to teach these assholes who she was and to not mess around with her.

Unleashing a barrage of sonic waves upon the attacking crowd, the raven-haired Aberration made sure that none of them would be able to stand for themselves for a while, leaving them to die here if need be. She didn’t care at this point. Right now, her mind was addled by the taunting and sadistic screams inside her mind. Who knew screaming at people felt so damn good? Actually, it felt more relieving than using her powers against the denizens of Ground Zero. Deep inside, it was because this time, those people were not semi-realistic. Those citizens were the real deal, living and sentient, with emotions and fear.

Angel took a step back, startled as she heard the sound of gunshot near her; the young woman saw the sight of Marcus killing in cold-blood the man that had been assaulting Emma with a handgun. No fucking way. Marcus really killed someone just like that? What been this world was doing to them?

But as guilty and remorseful as she could be, there was no time to feel down. Their lives were at stake here. It was her classmates or the Regulars, and after what transpired here, Angel could give no fuck about it all anymore. Instead, she’d capitalize on the fear Marcus instigated into the Regulars’ minds. Strange, for people to actually be more fearful of a firearm than actual super powers. Maybe the reason was because those people did not believe Angel could actually kill with her voice?

Suddenly, memories of what happened a month ago came back flooding into her mind, filling her more with grief, despair and wrath. If fear was what would drive the common folk away from them, then by God will she fucking harness the legacy that she destroyed and build a new one with the smoldering embers that the media stirred after Montréal’s massacre. Some of the social media online gave her a nickname, some tried to drag her name into the mud. Let those fuckers know the monster they created.

“Those people are underestimating you… Maybe it’s time to remind them with who they are dealing with?”

“I’M ANGÉLIQUE LACHANCE, THE BANSHEE OF MONTRÉAL’S MASSACRE! LEAVE IF YOU DON’T WANT TO FUCKING DIE RIGHT HERE!”

Angel's threat echoed in a loud boom in the area, her loud voice intensified only by the fact that she was screaming full of spite at the top of her lungs while using her area-wide magic. It was a lie of course. She wasn't able to kill with her voice, or so it was what she believed after constantly training and using them. But it didn't hurt to use her infamous reputation she got ever since her homecoming concert's tragedy to back up her claim.

Anyone brazen or idiotic enough to linger by the 'Special Evacuation Relief Unit' fled at this final warning from the famed former rockstar. The flying debris ceased; the injured and trapped abandoned to Lily's whims.

Marcus sighed softly, pulling himself into the cab of the truck and sitting down. His hands were on the wheel, his eyes were straight ahead, but he made no motion to move. He was weary. Beaten and broken from everything that had just occurred, and he just wanted to leave.

"Anybody got any plans for this?" he said softly, making it a point to avoid eye contact, and staring straight ahead.

Finally it was over. One of the worst moments of her life was actually fucking over. Who knew that Angélique would start of as a benevolent member of an evacuation team and end up like a psychotic screamer? She just revealed to everyone the kind of monster she was, both deep inside and outside from reputation.

Truly, this afternoon was one gigantic fucking mess. At the very least, the voices inside her head quieted down to basically a faint usher. Peace returned to her mind, but with this serenity came the realization of everything she did, and what everyone did to ensure their survival.

Angélique was unsure what to think about all of it. She killed people for sure, but she did it to make sure her classmates and herself were coming out from this alive, didn’t she? Even Marcus got the idea and used his firearm to save a life. But still, the raven-haired Aberration felt some part of her humanity leaving her after all that happened. Regulars really didn’t see Subnaturals as Humans anymore, and Angel kind of proved them right now. No, she wasn’t the same anymore. Ernest was right.

But for now, the Voice Mage couldn’t let this weakness show. She swallowed her shame and guilt. The others didn’t need to see this part of herself. She already showed it enough already. They needed resolve to get through this mess. If she had to brand herself as a villain and a cold-hearted bitch for the sake of others, then so be it. She could cry about it later when she’d be by her lonesome self.

“We’ve got no time for this shit anymore. Let’s get the hell out of here and find a safe and quiet spot for the disabled. We need a quick way to get rid of the cars on the road without exposing ourselves to danger like now." Angel’s voice reached out as a calm whisper to everyone. She was tired, dizzy and ever-more stressed out than before. She didn’t feel like raising her voice more than needed, not when she had the power to help her communicate with ease.

Then, a sudden realization. They just knocked out some army men right now, some of which fled after being disarmed and faced with the overwhelming forces of the Subnaturals. By now, the whole army was probably looking for murderous Mages driving a Semi. What if they would be waiting for them at the evacuation point? There’s no doubt they would be shot on sight and killed if that was the case.

“It’s probably best if we don’t go to the evacuation point. Soldiers will be waiting for us there and shoot us on sight considering what happened earlier with them. Let’s take the bus over there too. They’ll probably be looking for a semi by now.”

Just as she finished speaking, Angel's gaze wandered about, settling upon a familiar blonde figure kneeling in the dirty concrete. Black threads connected herself to the fallen silhouettes of the dazed citizens. Half-blind from the ambient light, Angélique could not discern that Lilianna wasn't actually healing those people, but instead finishing the job Angel couldn't achieve with her current level of power.

Fearing her musician friend might overexert herself from trying to take wounds, Angel tried to rush towards Lily, pushing herself off the semi's trailer. After a few steps, dizziness would remind the young singer why she needed a human-crutch earlier. Her legs gave out, but no one was around to catch her. Angel fell to the ground, a few feet away from Lilianna. Mentally cursing her inability to walk alone, Angel reached out to the blonde Aberration with her magic.

"Lily, please, stop. It's over. These people aren't worth getting yourself hurt for." the faint, tired whispers of Angel's voice came next to Lily's head, as if the girl was standing next to her.

One by one she targeted them, the ground was turning red so fast. The half crazed Aberration didn't show any signs of stopping until her black thread reached out for a man with messy blonde hair who was desperately trying to get away from all the gore and destruction. Lily's eyes widened and the black strand that signaled her power stopped just before it touched the man's wrist. It was at that exact moment when Angel's voice reached her ears. It's...over? What's over? her thoughts were confused, disjointed. The black thread quivered before it dissipated into thin air, horrified golden eyes watched as the blonde man glanced back at her with terror and hatred. Sebastian?

And then it finally dawned on her. The memories, the battle... Regulars scared to the point of attacking them... The need to protect... The moment she saw her friends getting hurt, she no longer thought the regulars were real humans. But the people that laid bleeding and dying on the ground were real people and not something imaginary or a product of another Subnatural's mind. She wasn't in Ground Zero.

There was no turning back. What did I...? She was a monster now.

A murderer.

Drained from expending too much power amplifying injuries and from giving in to the rage and the hate, the small blonde haired stared down at her hands.

They deserved it. The voice in her head was calm, the words unhesitating. Was it her thoughts or was it her stigma? She can no longer tell. But the horror of what she had done was too heavy and rooted her on the spot. It didn't matter how much she tried to control her stigma. At the end of the day, there really was no denying that she'll eventually give in. Exactly like what she just did.

"Angel!" Marcus shouted, looking out the window at the fallen girl. They could argue about destinations and healing and planning later, right now they just needed to leave. Before more people arrived. Before more people could get hurt.

By them.

"Grant. We have to get going. Can you make anything that'll help us get through these cars any easier?" There was a pause as Marcus heard his own voice come through the cuff around his ankle, barking out a sharp "Shut that thin-. Over." before returning to his train of thought. The consequences of the transmission didn't occur to him, with so many other things to be worrying about.

"Right now, we need to get to the Evac point and at least retrieve Christmas. If Sander just dropped him in the middle of a group of regulars, then one of our healers might be at risk. The semi has less points of weakness than the bus, and more overall power - which if we're going to get through this street, we need."

Calm and calculated; a very drastic difference than his usual tone. Although Angel probably couldn't hear him from the cab, he didn't raise his voice. The plan was more for his own benefit; something to keep himself focused on - a line of reasoning that he could follow.

Grant had taken a few steps toward the fallen Angel, worry quickly crossing his mind before the scarred boy's voice caught his attention by calling his name. At the mention of the roadblock, he assessed his surroundings. Moving the cars one by one with more injured around seemingly wasn't an option. Instead, Grant looked back to the semi, more importantly, the front.

"I could possibly make the front of the truck into a plow." He suggested.

Concern. Numb. Guilt. Numb.

What had she done?

The weight of the situation hadn't had a chance to press on Siena until she was herded into the vehicle. When she'd lost her grip on Dekka's powers, she'd known. Felt that same gnawing sense of horror try to break through the front lines of her thoughts, only to be pushed down by panic when she couldn't confront it immediately. It wasn't the same as hurting, trying to kill a subnatural. She'd attacked people. Human beings.

She didn't mean to... Did it matter? Another tepid wave of something that washed away her ability to feel properly came over her, trying its best to distance her from the situation at hand. You've become the monster. Aren't you proud? Not just her, she tried to acknowledge. Almost everyone had done their part.

The distance she felt seemed to grow as she quietly voiced something.

"If we don't go to the point, they'll probably hunt us down anyways."

Well...they were probably as good as dead in either case. At least if they showed up to their execution, they might be done in painlessly.

---

---

With the two girls secure in the back, Grant made his way back to the front cab of the semi, attaching all three of his chains onto the front of it. He climbed up into the passenger seat, and once sat, he focused, the weight of the action pushing down on his shoulders. Morphing and changing the front bumper until it somewhat resembled a plow, for the intention of getting through the cars clumped and strewn across the street. Once the act was done, Grant slumped back in his seat, visually tired. Or wait, that's just how he always looked. His chains still phased to the front, attached to the makeshift plow, but either way, he signified his completion with,

"Done."

Satisfied with the makeshift plow, Marcus gave Grant a solemn nod. It seemed like he was one of the only people who was still keeping his head in all of this - it was nice to see someone retain their calm, if only because it helped Marcus imitate it better. There were a thousand thoughts all piling up in his head, none of which were currently helpful at this moment.

Later.

Again. Always later. Yet, there was a part of him that realized it wouldn't be as 'later' as he would have liked. Not like last time, where he could just maintain the facade until he was alone. There were cracks, and not enough time to fill them.

"Last chance to climb in the back. It might get a little bit rough up here." Marcus spoke aloud, turning the key in the ignition to restart the truck with a sudden roar.