A Step Toward Balance

Time: Day of Satellite Attacks - Present Day
Location: Sherman Square, Lost Haven

From the height he was at, Pantheon could see a smattering of strangely dressed people--not that he himself was the fancier--each was garmented oddly enough where ‘superhero’ was the first and only thing which came to his mind. Plus, all the flying still gave him motion sickness. He made himself vertical before descending, and it was in his descent he recognized one of the faces in the small group. How strange did they all look huddled together like this? It didn’t bode well for Hassan’s self-conscious issues. Right as she spoke is when his feet touched the pavement,

“You don’t know me. There isn’t a single person here to represent the magic folk getting terrorized by the Hounds of Humanity the same as you guys. My name is the Alchemyst. I was at the University the day it was attacked. . .

“As was I. I am Pantheon. You will allow me to assist you in eradicating these pests.”

“Jesus fucking christ!” Charlie shouted, jumping away a few feet. She patted her chest, clearly and obviously startled.

“Pantheon! Fuck, do you have any human tact? Suddenly appearing at superspeed is-” She complained, gesturing wildly with her hands. “Really fucking annoying.”

Huffing, regaining some minimum of composure. Nerves already on edge from dodging stalking hounds and an undead cat. Charlie maintained no cool. She went to Lady Hex, telling her to go on while she dealt with Pantheon, promising she’d be right behind her.

Pantheon giggled. Hassan spoke,

“Do you wake up angry all the time? You need a boyfriend or something. Anyway, now that the formalities are done--I need your help. Wow, thanks for accepting! I think this will be fun!”

His rainbow-colored iris’ slid along every person present. Did one of them have a motorcycle? Hassan always wanted a motorcycle, all the bad boys with motorcycles in the movies got the girls--this whole having a mystic entity trying to consume his mind thing made for lonely nights and late night ice cream binges. And lots of crying. Nonetheless, he had come here searching for help, and he found it; well, he found the one person he needed to find, the rest of them looked weak and stupid. He trained his eyes on Alchemyst,

“Wow, really? You act like he knows what ‘human tact’ is. I thought we bonded, Alchemyst, I really did. And since you’re gonna be helping me, you should probably, like, stop being so angry. He gets defensive sometimes.”

Charlie squinted through her goggles up at Pantheon. She let out a big sigh. “Yeah and bouncing between a teenaged boy and a brick is easy to follow. I get angry ‘cause you catch me on bad days alright, I haven’t stopped dealing with the Hounds of Humanity since the University and have had my plate full with bullshit you don’t care about.” She tapped the end of her staff against his head, “What would you need my help with? You can crush a bus between your hands.”

He flinched when the staff touched his head. A jolt of uncomfort rippled through him from head to toe. He took a step back. She presumed he hadn’t stopped thinking about the Hounds since the University attack. . . well, she wasn’t wrong. They didn’t pose a threat to him without those weird tower things, but they did pose a threat to his ohm and his cousins. That was why he was there, for them.

“But that’s why I’m here! Back at the University when you told me, ‘Fuck you, fuck that stupid cape, and fuck that dumbass lightning bolt!’ I thought about it, you know. You had a point, honestly--fuck this dumbass lightning bolt, and so I went home that day and was wondering about how exactly to make him fuck off. Doesn’t seem like I can, which is a shame really because I know how much you love him. According to my cousin, I can make him fuck off. I can learn to control him. . . somehow. And you do…” he waved his hands frantically, “whatever it is you do with the staff, so I came to you.”

He hadn’t come specifically for her, but it made him sound like he was all-knowing; fitting for the whole nigh-all powerful thing he had going on with Pantheon.

“I know you think I’m some dumb kid--I think I’m some dumb kid--but I have people to protect just like you. So, like, help me do that.” his customary snide tone fell to true plea. The news of the satellite attacks drew things into perspective for him; he didn’t have much in the way of people he truly cared about, and he was going to hold on to them whether he figured out how to control Pantheon or not.

Listening, she felt pangs of sympathy for the kid. The whole flying brick thing was pretty new to him. Not really buying the sentiment of him looking for her specifically, she happened to be there with the other metas gathering to deal with the Hound’s satellite. “Look, kid. I don’t know what I can do for you, I don’t know the first thing about your deal with Pantheon. I know alchemy,” She held up her staff to emphasize her point, the wood began to peel apart like a banana showing strands of gold, copper and tin. “Breaking matter down, rebuilding it, separating it, changing it. My alchemy is as natural to me as breathing is.”

She tapped the butt of her staff against the ground snapping it back into shape.

“Tell me a little about your family, how did you end up with Pantheon uh…. Possessing you? I guess? His spirit doing its… thing.” Charlie struggled plainly with the weirdness. She wished Carrie was here to help put his whole deal into words.

He put a finger to his chin, contemplating.

“Here--” he blazed away, a whir; he returned some seconds later with two movie theater recliner seats. He sat one behind Charlie, the other he procured for himself. “This is gonna be a long one. So, from what my granny used to tell me, he’s supposed to be like… the entirety of my family’s life’s work. You kind of know that already, so I’ll skip to the interesting part: he’s part of every person in my family’s lineage, but he doesn’t always show up. Shati, Rahna, my mother, Pantheon has ‘possessed’ them all, he just doesn’t uh, come out unless something or someone threatens my family’s well being. And I mean like, ‘able to wipe us all off the face of the earth’ well being.”

Charlie pat the chair, peeking past at the receding backs of the heroes. Nobody would care about a couple missing movie chairs. She sat relaxing a bit into the cushion, fingers fidgeting - picking at stray string wear and tear.

He reclined the movie theater seat forcefully since it had been detached from its motor,

“Doesn’t have to be some world-breaker threat, nah. The problem is though that Pantheon is, as you’ve seen, pretty--” a swirl of lightning fritzed along Pantheon’s body, there was a noticeable grimace, his eyes briefly shifting to one color, then back to their pallette.

”OUT!”

A pause, and once Hassan gained again he continued,

“Violent. But apparently it’s not just toward whatever he’s after, it’s against my lineage itself. How he manifests, when, it’s all random. All he wants is control so he can. . . I don’t even know. But I don’t think that would be safe… for anyone. That’s why I’m here. What you saw him do at the University was child’s play compared to what he’s capable of. So I need to harness it, control him before he gets to me; and I don’t think I’m strong enough to do it on my own. You know something about harnessing… the flippity floppity magic bullshit. So I’m begging you, help me.”

Charlie flinched when he shouted, dodging some static. Offended at the mention of magic bullshit she snapped, “It’s not bullshit. Alchemy has been in my family for centuries.”

She rolled her staff in her hands in thought, what was one more misfit to help? Charlie wondered if this what she signed up for. “Alright alright, don’t need to beg okay? I’ll make you a deal, protect my ass on this Hounds attack and I’ll help you figure out how to deal with Pantheon. Deal?” She stuck out her hand. “It sounds like you need to set up some boundaries and shit like that. Like a bad roommate.”

A child’s excitement, he ensnared her hand in his own and delivered a bit too strong of a handshake, certainly not enough to crush her hand, however. A boundary? Bad roommate. It made more sense than Hassan knew, the breadth of his business settled, he went on to secondary matters,

“So that’s what this gathering is all about.” He glanced at all the heroes present, few of whom he knew, although the one in the suit and the other who looked as muscled as Pantheon stuck out to him. The rest he cackled at: Lyger, Slipstream, Nemesis, Fletch, Iron Knight, Radiance, Lady Hex. Hassan slipped,

”Hahahahahaha! This is what you believe will stimy these wretches?! Pathetic! All of them, weak! One of them is wearing pink! Do you plan to effeminate them to death?”

He was getting better at it, fighting back. The lapses were becoming shorter, but they were a strain his conscious could not bear for much longer. It took everything he had to maintain control for more than half an hour.

“Hey Pantheon I don’t mind turning your clothes pink if you’re gonna be a dick about costumes.” She said, looking to the heroes as well. “Yeah, that’s them. What’s your name kid? It’ll be easier to address you instead of the blockhead.”

“Hassan. My name is Hassan.” he staked it with pride,

“So long as you don’t blab, I’m Charlie. When the big shots are around just refer to me as Alchemyst okay? I don’t want any of ‘em following me home.” She replied, smiling underneath her mask. “Nice to meet you, Hassan.”

“Charlie. Nice name. If you were just a tad bit cuter I might date you or something... And I don’t know, between you and me--you seem like a big shot.” he winked at her.

She recoiled at the comment, poking him again with her staff. “Thanks for the actual compliment, pass on the everything else. Teenagers aren’t my type and neither are boys.”

She sat up from her chair thinking looking at the chair then deciding on to salvage some of the leather for later. “Alright, try to keep a lid on Pantheon when the big shots start talking and we might actually get to doing the job and getting to go home satellite free.”

Tapping his foot he shifted his weight towards his heel and felt the pressure the feeling of his sock upon his foot as he slid his arms out pointing towards Eddie. “Ayy. Oh man this is smokin’ the feel of leather on my back the way jeans pull on my skin. I miss all this back before when I wasn’t so busted up. And while I slipped I won’t be so careless next time. Hound Dog is back and he ain’t going away any times soon.”

“I suppose you’ll be heading to Lost Haven somehow? Even though as your Doctor I highly advise against it until we understand the full scope of your recovery.” Edward Winters spoke as he watched Hound Dog slip his polished shoes on and laced them up.

“Eddie, Eddie. You worry too much this is the best I’ve felt in ages. I can take on the world. Look out Lost Haven, The God of Thunder is back! It’s one for the Money, Two for the Show, Three to get ready, now go, cat, go!” Hound Dog said as he began to shuffle out humming and singing along as he twisted and jived down the hall.

As Eddie stood back, he signed some papers and turned to a nurse. “Have someone inform LH General that a patient of mine may be coming down there sometime.”

As Hound Dog made his way over to Poseidon Energies he pushed his outburst towards the back of his mind, as he kept repeating to himself. ‘I’m Fonzy cool, Fonzy cool. I got this. And I won’t slip again. Zapping over sliding along the lines all the way towards the horizon

"Oh...hey, Hound Dog! I’m...waaaaaAAAAH!" Hound Dog glanced upwards to see Riley swooping down on him like an incredibly uncoordinated eagle. With a flourish and a quick move, he managed to catch the psionic alien in his arms before she had an unpleasant encounter with a nearby telephone pole.
"Wh-whoops," Voyager said meekly, the purple psionic glow of her eyes fading back to their normal red. "Still trying to get used to the whole flying thing."

“Hey, hey. If it ain’t my favorite candystriper. How’s it hanging?” Taking the time for a fun wink.

"Much better than it has been, I will admit," Voyager said as she clambered out of his arms, her cheeks turning a slight shade of purple before her eyes suddenly lit up. "Oh oh oh, I was actually just looking for you too!"

“That so?”

Nodding vigorously, Voyager quickly recounted the evidence from the police officer and the financial records that Martel found as the pair of them finished the trip to Poseidon, with Voyager concluding that said evidence all connected to the Hounds holing up in Lost Haven.

"-and Mr. Martel says that if we can find a flight soon we can get to Lost Haven in a few hours!" Voyager concluded, the seriousness of the conversation unable to mask her enthusiasm.

“That’s mighty convenient, I was itching to bust up some hounds, heard from that Osiris guy that he’d be out for the big fight so was thinking I’d burn rubber and bring the thunder. How we getting tickets?””

"Mr. Martel said he had an idea, but I left to get you first," Voyager explained, pondering the question. "Maybe SPARK could do something to get a plane?"

“I sure hope so, I maybe fast but I can’t carry too much that far on my chassis not at the speeds I’d need to get there. Let’s head on in and see what’s up.”

The two of them walked inside, the room just as frantic as it was when Voyager left it, with Jordan Fletcher darting back and forth trying to stuff things into a pair of backpacks and Martel deep in an urgent conversation on the phone.

“Hey there Elvis!” Jordan said jokingly. “I take it you’re joining us on our little vacation?”

“I may be rockin’ but I ain’t the King. No ma’am that honor is still all his. But you can count this cat in, all I need is a ride.”

Appearing on a nearby monitor Briley spoke through the set, her sudden appearance making Jordan jump and spill a box of bullets. “I may be able to help with that. We’ve been trying to help discover the location of the satellite in orbit and our Lost Haven branch has been hit hard by these hounds and the relief efforts. Terribly sorry for the scare. And yes. I can see and hear you well enough. New security features and all.”

“Cool! Excellent! Awesome! Would have been great to know beforehand, but great!” Jordan shouted from beneath her desk as she chased stray ammunition.

"Do you have tickets to Lost Haven then?" Riley asked excitedly.

“Perhaps. We need to get our supplies there quickly, and we do have a few military contracts. The ride may not be first, or even second class but it could get you there. Although I am pulling strings now, surprisingly the military and the higher ups I’m in contact with seem more than happy to bend some rules. Hound Dog, I was told you could see electrical currents. Could you say see them in space?”

“If I ain’t in at least Orbit then no. I have a range and no way am I getting smog in the noggin’ by going that far without a helmet. And It’s not a sight based power I can just amplify through a lens either.”

“Shame. Well getting you to Lost Haven is doable. You have four hours. Gather what you need and meet up at the tarmac, I’ll send Jordan all the required papers and documentation you’ll need to get in the air force base.

"Woo, a flight!" Voyager shouted, poking up from beneath the desk where she was helping to pick up shells. "Thank you Miss Patton! We’ll do our best to find that dumb satelite!"

“And I’ve just finished setting up the equipment you three will be needing,” Martel interjected as he finished his phone call. “SPARK will have everything you need that isn’t your carry-on.”

“Does this count as carry-on?” Jordan asked, cocking a shotgun dramaticly.

“I...Jordan don’t bring that on the flight. They have guns there,” Martel said admonishingly.

“Hey just making sure,” she said coolly. “Nothing wrong with a little self-defense in case they come by to grab me again. Not going to let them try without turning them into swiss cheese first.”

“Thank you Charlton Heston,” Martel sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose with one hand.

“So Doc. Any gizmos behind that counter. I’m always lookin’ to expand on my insulated gear. And by insulated I mean what a guy can get at the local hardware store and tape it to his jacket. So anything would be an improvement. Ya dig?” Hound Dog said as he slips behind both Riley and Jordan and grabs the two from behind with a big hug. “You have no idea how it feels to actually have the sense of touch. Ever since Osiris healed me, everything is almost a new sensation. It feels good to hug, the way leather feels on arms is just the bees knees.”

"Wow, that’s really great Hound Dog," Riley said sweetly.

“Yeah, really cool,” Jordan said awkwardly.

“Well if you’re looking for insulation from things other than hugs, I may have something for you,” Martel said with a slight grin. Escaping into his office, he returned with a handful of fabric and handed it to Hound Dog. “Here, what do you think of this?”

Taking the scraps in hand unsure of what it was, as it felt smooth and cool to the touch.

“It’s something we picked up a year ago, made by a technical genius with bad business sense. I could spend the next hour explaining the technicals behind it, but in essence think of this as an electricity sponge. It’s mean to absorb electrical currents and letting them dissipate harmlessly where they won’t cause damage. If you’re interested, I can break out the stockpile and integrate it into your ‘hero outfit’ before your flight.”

“A sponge huh, you know with some work I can come up with a few tweaks myself. If it’s a sponge and can already absorb electricity then it shouldn’t be hard to have it hold a charge. I’m pretty tech savvy when it comes to electricity. But yeah let’s get this going, we can swap notes later.”

“Yes, I’d definitely enjoy hearing your insight,” Martel said inquisitively. “I’ll go pull the rest of this out of storage and get to work then. Make sure you three are ready to go when it’s time, alright?”

“Right-O Doc.”

“In the meantime, Mrs Fletcher you and your team will be arriving at the base in Lost Haven, while Hound Dog and Voyager airdrop over Sherman Square. If we’re to get everyone in place then this will be the quickest route. If you need a parachute Hound Dog it’ll be provided.”

“Not an issue Ma’am. I got a trick I’ve been saving for a safe landing. In the meantime, I got everything I need, what about you Riles? I can call you that right?”

"I think I’m all set too! And yes Riles is fine, or Riley if you like," Riley said with a grin.

“If Mrs Fletcher is still busy and we got time to kill, I know a hip place to have bite. If we’re going in to battle better we leave on a full stomach. You in Riles?”

"Ooh, what sort of bite do you have in mind?"

---

With their ride stopping just in front of a old fashioned burger joint the white tiles and red tables brought all who entered back in time to when things were groovy and hip.

"Whoooah..." Voyager said, sounding awestruck.

“Welcome to Pop’s Malt Shop. Ever had a burger? I recommend the shakes, I think Oreo would be a nice flavor for you, Hey! Pop. One Oreo Malt, and a Strawberry for me. And two Patty Melts. Oh and here’s a list of food to go. We gotta give the crew some food too.”

A large happy man stepped out from behind the counter, his gray whiskers on the tip of his chin were stroked by his fingers as he smiled and ushered them to a booth.

“Pop here took over after the old guy who owned the place retired. Worked his way from busboy to owner, ain’t his real name but Pop suits him. Got that wide friendly smile only a grandpa could give.”

“Well ain't you sweet, you both on your way to hero work?”

“Yes sir, I’ll get the list to go. Sit down Riles, the booth is comfy.” Hound Dog said as it seemed that the owner hurried on over to the kitchen and began to get grub ready.

"Ooh you’re right, the seats are comfy!" Riley said, bouncing in her seat slightly. "I like this place already!"

After about fifteen minutes instead of the owner stepping out of the kitchen it was a young white man instead hair spiked upwards with slightly pointed ears and a smile. “Two patties, and malts careful now that cheese can get hot.” Setting the red trays carefully on the table he turned away and went back to the kitchen as Pop tore down another order card from the window, leaving Voyager to stare at the burger, ascertaining the best way to consume it.

This your first time with a burger? Wrap your hands around it like so, careful not to touch the hot beef and eat. The Malts on the other hand are spoon only, they’re that thick.” Tipping the burger slightly Hound Dog began to eat into it. Following his lead, Riley picked up the burger, measuring it in her head before taking a measured bite.

"Mmph...it’s not bad, I-" Riley began before she froze, her eyes widening in amazement. ”Qu'vatlh Hu'tegh!!!" By the time Hound Dog looked up from his meal, the alien girl’s burger was annihalated, leaving a rather happily dazed Riley slouching in the plush seat.

Pointing to the fries to the side of the burger.“Hey, don’t forget about those there, squirt a little ketchup and dip them. Pops has the crunchiest and freshest fries in town. And the Malt too. If you liked the burger then you’ll love the rest, to which I’m thinking you did dig the burger am I wrong?”

Riley simply nodded. "That...was a warrior’s meal..."

Fletch watched as Icon paused, thinking on his response for her to join them against the scum that was The Hounds of Humanity. As she watched as the famed superhero looked at the others in the group, Archie crawled out of its hiding spot and climbed up her side, perching on her shoulder as it watched the other heroes with curiosity. Even with the others being new faces, it new that they had an air of being important people so it sat there and looked, behaving itself. The archer watched as the hero of Lost Haven looked at the others, each of them nodding with approval.

As he spoke to her, confirming that she was allowed to join them, Fletch nodded in acknowledgement of an important statement. Inside, despite her hardy appearance and stern look, she was shaking with such nervousness and surprise that someone such as Icon was accepting her into such a mission. Finally calming her nerves enough to respond to his question, she looked at him and nodded. ”I’ll gladly help,” she responded, her voice hiding the fact that she was nervous in his presence well in the face of certain danger ahead of the group. ”While I may not have been in this hero business for long, Fletch and Archie will fight in the name of Lost Haven.”

Almost relieved by stating such a commitment to the cause, Fletch heard a voice from behind her. As another person joined the group to respond to the crisis, she turned around to face the new speaker. While she kept her body language composed, her eyes gave away her surprise when she saw Nemesis standing there, leaning on a wall. While she may be an unknown to such heroes, her mind recalled the events down in Chinatown, where Nemesis traded blows with War-Pulse moments before the drones struck both of them down in a fiery conclusion. Assured that she now had a chance to let the new arrival know that she was there to help her escape from Midas’s grasp, her eyes returned to normal, nodding slightly towards her in acknowledgement that she needed to speak to her at some point.

Shortly after acknowledging Nemesis’s arrival, Fletch felt the air shift around her. While she had been wearing practical clothes that would help against such a change in the atmosphere, it didn’t help as she felt chilled at the presence. It wasn’t long before it disappeared and the woman with the staff spoke to another newcomer. The archer turned around and saw another woman, dressed in a red cloak with a cane and red heels, had arrived without making a sound. She looked at the newcomer with a slightly puzzled look. She might be new to the hero scene and had seen a lot of things during that time, but this was yet another thing that would surprise her. I guess that I should expect more things like this in the future if this is the way I should be heading, she thought to herself, finally reaching for the bow on her bike, connecting the finger sling to make sure it didn’t fall out of her hand in surprise. If only you could see me now, Jason. Acting as the tough one that you were. The sudden thought of her former fiancé saddened her, a pained look visible in her eyes. Even after all these years since then, she was still mourning for him and wished she was able to touch the side of his smooth face one more time.

The reminiscing thought Fletch had disappeared as she heard the woman with the staff shout out in exclaim. Looking up, she had seen another man arrive, though his appearance was a little bit more trivial as the woman told the new man off for his arrival. It suggested that he had either super speed or was able to fly. A moment later, though their conversation, the man disappeared and returned with two… The archer once again was surprised when two movie chairs were brought to the scene, where the two heroes carried on with their conversation as if it were normal. However, when the man seemingly shouted above and insulted the whole group. Fletch scowled at him, the thought of making them eat his words by sending an arrow close to his crown jewels to emphasize that she wasn’t to be messed with. However, not knowing the full extent of his powers deterred her, never mind how the others would react to such transgressions. She tightened her grip on her compound bow as she continued to scowl at the man. ”At least we’re here to deal with a problem we all have in common. Not spouting off bitchy comments at the slight thing that we don’t like.”

With her annoyance now cleared out of her system, she looked towards Icon, Iron Knight and Lyger. She grabbed both handles of her motorbike, ready to push it to an area close to the doors of where the heroes were meeting. ”I suppose we should discuss how to deal with this shit, right?” Slowly, she began pushing her bike towards the Sherman Center.

Location: Sherman Square

Time: Evening of the Satellite attack

---

Racheli rolled her eyes under her mask. The molded steel shifted and moved with her facial expression as if it more flesh than a mask. Her figure adjusted upright again then stepped forward into visual range. Casually she made her way across the road, unhurried, toward the growing collection. Of course the boy scout would’ve heard me Rach thought bitterly when she discovered so soon.

Her eyes caught the Alchemyst stare a bit too long at her. Rach’s head turned, her words mumbled under her breath at the rude hero, “Why don’t you stare somewhere else…”

Though she spotted Fletch’s subtle hint, Racheli wasn’t sure what to make of it. All she could do was raise an eyebrow in Fletch’s direction and paused just around the group’s outer edges. She was aiming to be the last to enter the building when her ears caught the name ‘Puck’ from a new female’s voice. It caused Rach some confusion before she realized she had forgotten to shut off her hyper hearing, the conversation happening outside of normal earshot. A small, uncomfortable shiver ran along her spine before she brushed it off. Naturally, her curiosity zoomed into the conversation. When Charlie mentioned what boiled down to metas being unable to do shit, Racheli’s expression soured. The mask’s face began to twist causing the face to appear more pissed than ever.

Grumbling, Racheli changed her mind immediately. She moved toward the building when the new hero arrived and struck up a conversation with Alchemyst. The kid was seriously over his head but so was she, giving Rach little reason to say anything to him. Her hand touched the door just when a series of words anchored her in place.

”Hahahahahaha! This is what you believe will stimy these wretches?! Pathetic! All of them, weak! One of them is wearing pink! Do you plan to effeminate them to death?”

”At least we’re here to deal with a problem we all have in common. Not spouting off bitchy comments at the slight thing that we don’t like,” Fletch shot back at the mouthy kid.

The loud sound of metal being slightly bent and warped echoed from Nemesis’ grip, her magnetic powers flaring with her temper. Fletch would find it harder to push her motorcycle with Racheli standing in the way. Like some invisible force had placed itself around her figure, stopping any metal dead in its tracks. The harder Fletch pushed the more resistance she would find.

Without warning, Racheli twisted on her heel to face Pantheon. Her eyes glowed red as her vision was drowned in the color.

“You know, asshole, if you think we’re weak then why don’t you go off and save the fucking day by yourself. No one is making you stick around,” she snapped then pushed into the building. The door slammed open then cracked on impact, leaving the glass with a spiderwebbed surface. It slowly creaked back into place, now lopsided.

“And you can take your friend too since she doesn’t trust metas to get the job done.”

As the gathered heroes turned to make their way into Sherman Center, Icon was surprised by even more arrivals. A man clad in black and gold, who appeared to be known to another of the new arrivals, the woman who called herself The Alchemyst, arrived on the scene. After making some bold proclamations, he and the Alchemyst had a meeting of the minds, much like the one that had taken place when the woman calling herself Lady Hex arrived on the scene. However, unlike when the two women spoke, this was not a conversation about how the metas couldn’t be trusted to deal with the issue at hand. This was a more intimate conversation between two people that were genuinely concerned about one another. Though he could hear every word that they were saying, he did his best not to listen.

However, he had certainly made a mark on the newly formed “team.” The young archer was the first to speak up, followed by the newest arrival, the woman in black who had arrived just moments before.

“You know, asshole, if you think we’re weak then why don’t you go off and save the fucking day by yourself. No one is making you stick around,” she snapped then pushed into the building. The door slammed open then cracked on impact, leaving the glass with a spiderwebbed surface. It slowly creaked back into place, now lopsided.

“And you can take your friend too since she doesn’t trust metas to get the job done.”

Icon took a look around at the group that had gathered there in Sherman Square, his eyes meeting with Alexa’s, whose expression was one of concern. She simply shook her head and looked down to the ground as if she were able to read his mind.

“Are you kidding me right now?” Icon finally blurted out. “We’re facing a threat that is capable of wiping entire cities off of the face of the Earth, and you’re out here bickering like children.” He said as he looked around and made eye contact with everyone. “We’re here to do a job. We have to take that satellite out before it can ever fire again. We’re here to save lives. If you’re here to help us do that, great. But if you can’t get your act together, step aside and let us do what needs to be done.”

“He’s right.” said a voice seemingly out of nowhere. Then the source of the voice materialized out of thin air before the gathered heroes. Icon and the others were surprised to see a rather striking young woman, who’s teal skin and blue hair stood out in contrast to the black and grey leather suit that she was wearing.

“These Hounds of Humanity are fanatics, and they have to be stopped.” She said. “I’ve seen what people like this are capable of, and I know all to well what happens when nobody stands up and does something. It happened to my home, I won’t stand by while it happens to another .”

“If you’re here to help, we’ll gladly take it.” Icon said to the strange young woman. “And you are?

“My name is Chr...Flux. You can call me Flux.”

“Alright then, let’s get inside and figure out our next step.”

---

Maddy's heart pounded in her chest as she ran through the alleyway. Shadows leapt out at her, faceless men with arms outstretched grabbed at her as she dodged left and right, turning down an endless maze of alleyways. A loud angry buzzing got closer and closer before Maddy realized it was the roar of a motorcycle engine ripping by. There was a loud bang as Maddy clutched her chest, falling through a glass barrel into a sea of green. She tried to pull herself free, but the liquid sucked her down. She tried to scream, and something gently pressed into her chest.

Maddy twitched slightly, still feeling like she was in a fog. She tried to open her eyes, only for the daylight to blind her. As her eyes adjusted and the world around her became coherent, something in front of her mewed softly. Opening her eyes fully, she looked back as Kaiser continued kneading her chest with his paws.

"H-hey buddy," she said softly, untangling an arm from her blankets to scratch the cat behind the ears. "Thanks for the wake up. Was having a bad dream..."

Taking a moment to look around as Kaiser purred softly, Maddy soon gleaned that she was back in her apartment again. Instead of being in her bedroom though, someone had set her up on the sofa with a warm blanket. She also realized with a start that the big TV she played her console games on was plugged into a laptop she didn't recognize and was playing Steven Universe at a low volume.

"Oh, hey. Glad to see you're up."

Maddy sat up with a start at the unfamiliar voice from behind her. It belonged to a woman around her age with shoulder length blonde hair and square glasses, currently in the process of tugging off a pair of oven mitts. Maybe it was because she just woke up, but Maddy couldn't help but feel she heard her somewhere before.

"Didn't mean to scare you," the woman apologized. "I don't suppose you remember me from last night, you were pretty...er...out of it."

The awkward avoidance in the woman's voice confused Maddy before the memory of what happened hit her like a brick wall. Maddy had indeed been out of it, so long as you read 'out of it' as 'reduced to a quivering blubbering wreck on the floor of a stranger's car'. Feeling her face burn red with embarrassment and humiliation, she quickly averted her eyes from the woman, trying to busy herself by scratching Kaiser behind the ears again. She barely noticed the woman vanishing into the kitchen and reappearing with a plate overflowing with muffins.

"Here, have some breakfast," the woman said sympathetically. "Banana bread muffins, I made them myself. Don't worry, I used my own ingredients," she added with a chuckle. Maddy's stomach growled angry as the admittedly delicious scent of the muffins hit her, and against her better judgement she reached out and grabbed one to munch on.

"This are quite tasty, actually."

"Thanks, uh, Madeline," the woman said, grabbing her own muffin and biting a chunk off.

"Maddy is fine, Maddy Fen Ming. You were Terra, right?"

"Terra Vespa," Terra stated. "I'm studying and working with Aleks, if you don't know."

"Where is he anyway? He's missing out on the muffins," Maddy asked, looking around the room curiously.

"He was out getting news and some emergency supplies. We didn't want to leave you alone here, I hope you don't mind us spending the night."

"No no, it's fine. Thank you though."

"Sure thing."

Maddy and Terra made short work of the muffins and mostly spent the rest of the morning relaxing, watching shows on the laptop and occasionally chatting about video games and other minutia. Despite the Hound attacks and the humiliation of the previous night still weighing heavily on her mind, Maddy managed to move somewhat past the whole ugly mess, and was even starting to feel like the day was going to be pretty good considering the circumstances, up until-

"So...how long have you been able to change your size?"

Maddy felt her heart freeze solid and slam into her windpipe as Terra asked the innocent question.

"You were shrinking and growing in your sleep a little bit," Terra went on as Maddy wished with all her heart that she could just melt into the floorboards and stay there for a while. "I don't know if you told Aleks yet, so I covered for you, don't worry."

"Worry!?!" Maddy blurted out. "I...who...you...AAAGH!"

Terra bit her lip uncomfortably as Maddy slipped off the couch and squeezed her face into a throw pillow, trying hard not to throw up the banana bread muffins she just enjoyed. The poor size-changed never felt more like a jenga tower in her life as her anxiety over her powers being discovered collapsed into the mire of her worry about the Hounds attack and humiliation from the mental breakdown, the end result being every bit of her wanting to run screaming out the door and jump in the nearest body of water.

"Sorry..." Terra said meekly. "I didn't know how to broach the subject and I was thinking...well, look." Maddy felt a hand gently tap her shoulder, and she glanced up to see...herself. The other Maddy gave a weak smile as the real Maddy stared in disbelief at her seemingly perfect doppelganger.

"T-Terra? You're a-"

"A metahuman, yes," the other Maddy said in her voice. Closing her eyes in concentration, the other Maddy's hair and features shimmered, shifting in shape and color until Terra sat in front of Maddy again, replacing the glasses on her face as her features solidified and returned to normal. "You should see me do impressions sometime."

They both laughed at themselves in spite of the circumstances, Maddy's anxiety having been tempered somewhat by the surprise of seeing someone change their shape right in front of her.

"But yeah...sorry if I scared you at all. I just figured you'd want to know you were doing that, in case someone else saw you."

"I appreciate it, thank you," Maddy said. "How long were you a...metahuman, out of curiosity? I only found out about mine recently."

"I found out when my hair started changing color in high school," Terra said. "If you want, I can share with you some techniques I have to help me keep my form solid, might help you with your size thing."


"That'd be great, actually," Maddy said, getting somewhat unsteadily to her feet. "Don't want to accidentally pop out of my clothes in front of someone, that'd be pretty bad."

"Shame they don't have a fabric that grows with you like in the comics," Terra laughed before spotting a conspiratorial grin from Maddy. "No...you actually have a magic fabric like that?"

"Better yet, I invented it."

"Get out!"

---

"Hey guys, I'm back!" Aleks called out as he shouldered open the front door and stepped into Maddy's apartment with an armful of groceries and other supplies. "I think Bernie's price gouged me but I managed to get all the essential-"

Aleks yelped slightly as he tripped over a wire trailing across the floor. To his surprise, he found the culprit to belong to one of the hordes of gaming consoles now scattered haphazardly across the floor in front of the TV, each with a pair of controllers in a messy but vaguely organized arrangement as well as a small pile of game casings and cartridges. Aleks wondered what bomb had dropped in the room and where the girls had gone to before he spotted a hastily written note sitting prominently on the end table complete with several smiley faces and hearts doodled around the edges.

Hey Aleks, going to get some lunch. See you in a bit!
-Ter and Mads

Meanwhile, in Little Tokyo, Lost Haven…

(See bottom of post for English translations)

The heavyweight battle between the Triads and the Yakuza kept trucking on, with many bodies littering the Chinatown-Little Tokyo areas of Lost Haven. Many the crime syndicates in the city were taken aback by the sudden start of the gang war and steered clear of the bloodbath, fortifying their own positions in case the two gangs started to focus on the contested territories. As the gang war became confused about who was the victor, The Hounds of Humanity announced their assault on non-human folk and started their attacks on Lost Haven. Few would dare to try to claim territories in the war zones and then try and solidify a position there before expanding from within. And that is exactly what the Penose expected and began to capitalize on it.

In a hotly-contested shoreline warehouse facility in Little Tokyo, the Hounds of Humanity were attempting to either seize the facility to expand their import power to bring in more soldiers and gear. They took the opportunity to claim a small warehouse facility on the docks, left untouched by the Yakuza and Triads in the war. The temptation of starting up their own shipping lanes to provide their own products to the black markets in Lost Haven proved too great for them and struck out for that reason as well. As they spent weeks setting up shop since the Hounds’ first announcement, they were finally ready for them to start their business and were about to contact their suppliers that they were good to send their goods to Lost Haven.

It was at that point that the Dutch syndicate struck with the quiet efficiency that their country of origin is known for. Several men moved from the nearby buildings, the black vans silenced for hours to wait for the right time to strike. Quickly, they approached the building, silenced variants of the HK XM8 and multi-staged frag grenades ready. Three groups opened up vans that weren’t used for personnel. What was inside and driven out of them were ground attack drones that were armed with dual-mounted M134 miniguns, fully automated with state-of-the-art targeting systems and a large drum where the belt of bullets that fed the machines. The other gangs of Lost Haven have little to no intel as to how the Penose were able to get their hands on the military-grade weaponry, with rumours suggesting that they were being sourced by another, larger organization.

The syndicate didn’t know what hit them as the Penose began to silently massacre them. Those that realized they were being attacked on the eve of them beginning operations tried to respond. Their counterattacks were proved futile as their bullets bounced off of tactical armour, a prototype steel plates that sandwiched several layers of sheer-thickening fluid between them. Those that had the common sense and began running away from the area were met with another team, ripping them apart with a hail of gunfire. The rattling of the drones’ miniguns rang out into the air as it ripped through the insides of the building. It wasn’t long before the rout was complete and the drowning sound of gunfire ceased. With the facilities cleaned of Hound personnel, the group leader emerged from one of the black vans.

The tall, blond haired man turned to the littered bodies with disgust, sneering his broken nose away from it. He walked to the open gateway to the inside of the warehouse to see his men beginning to clear the bodies out. “Iedereen! Veilig dit faciliteit! Niemand komt hier voor de nabije toekomst binnen!”¹ he barked, the men snapping to the orders. Much like this facility, the Penose had struck out at key shipping facilities claimed by the Hounds throughout Lost Haven and Crown Ridge, securing them in a similar fashion as this one. As another man walked up towards the group leader, his posture giving the suggestion that he is the second-in-command, the Dutchman turned to him, “Heb je van de andere groep gehoord?”²

“Ja, zij bin succesvol met hun aanvallen,”³ the second-in-command responded. His appearance suggested that he wasn’t Dutch, but an Afro-Curaçaoan. He was dwarfed by the large man, but his build was more than enough to suggest that he could hold his own. “ De Hounden van de Mensheid zullen nooit dit vergeten, meneer.”⁴

“Zij zullen niet deze aanvallen vergeten,”⁵ another voice piped up in the warehouse. The Dutchmen turned around to see a man walking towards them, his eyes glancing around the whole building. As his eyes turned to them, his distinctive half-skull tattoo unnerving the XO, he smirked. “Als ze horen dat hun verzendfaciliteiten genomen zijn, zij zullen ze proberen te hun herwinnen. Zij zullen mislukken. Als ze horen dat hun verzendfaciliteiten worden genomen, zullen ze proberen ze te terugstellen. Zij zullen mislukken.⁶ Of that…” He paused briefly, allowing both men to watch as his eyes to change from brown to red to gold and then back to brown. “I am certain. Not if they don’t want to cross my employer.” And with that, he walked away, leaving the Penose to carry on with their plans.

---
1.“Everyone! Secure this facility! No one comes here in the near future!”
2.“Have you heard from the other groups?”
3.“Yes, they have been successful with their attacks."
4."The Hounds of Humanity will not forget this, sir.”
5.“We don’t want them to forget these raids,”
6.“And when they hear that their shipping facilities are taken, they will surely try to take them back. And they will fail.”

---

Time: Later that Afternoon - Day of Satellite Attack
Location: Carrie’s Apartment, Lost Haven

“Okay Berry, try again.” Carrie said kneeling in front of her grimoire tome. Berry was across from her.

They had spent the afternoon practicing various forms of concentration, clearing of the mind, connection with the spiritual energy surrounding her. Carrie felt it so strongly, it was unwieldy and raw. Littered around them were various stones, cracked in pieces or sitting in neat dust piles. Carrie hoped Charlie would help her put them back together later. Normal stones were not able to withstand the energy, moonlit charged gemstones barely held on for much longer. Carrie had also exerted her own guidance, allowing her own magic to guide Berry’s - appealing to the very present and instinctual animal she was.

The Clan were making themselves at home doing whatever they needed to do, Carrie pretended not to see them for their comfort.

They were practicing levitation, basics to help learn some control.

Berry attempted a rose quartz crystal next, but insistent knocking at the door broke both of them from their revery. The dogs woofed at the door unenthusiastically.

“Hold on Berry, let me go see who that is. I think we need a break anyway, watch some tv.” Carrie commented, stretching her back then picking up the tv remote to turn the set on, she flipped through until she landed on the kids channel. They were sitting in the living room, surrounded by the animals. Some who were curious enough to watch, others just wanted to be in the same room. They were always startled when a gem popped.

Berenice scowled at the box in the corner, then selected another stone. Carrie had been adamant all day about rest breaks, but the siren knew she had little time to prepare herself for the battles to come. So every time Carrie had called a break, Berenice instead practised the little bit that Salamander had explained in the short time they had spoken. Medication, or something close to that. Anyway, she was trying to sense the world around her without using her senses. So far she had only been able to feel her plumage.

Carrie looked out the peephole, confused by what she saw. A teenager with streaks in her hair. Reminding her of Harry. She left the chain lock in and cracked open the door.

“I already recycled my bottles this week, sorry can’t contribute to the high school bottle drive.” Carrie said, making a shooing motion. “Very busy, try the neighbours below they’re really into wine.”

Trying not to be too offended that she was confused as a fundraiser kid Eva responded a little snarky.

”Do I look like someone who does school activities? I was told I could find a friend I suppose I could call her that here at this exact residence. Is Berry home?” Eva said as she stood at a strangers house not sure how she should introduce herself. ”I go by Pendragon. After the Arthurian legends, I have quite a bit of connections to them. Considering he was my great or some such grandfather. I don’t actually know how far back the great should go.” Awkwardly Eva announced as she hoped that at least this lady would be friendly.

Salamander appeared next to her, grinning crookedly and leaning up against the wall. “I told you she’d be just as charming as her friend, though I suppose you haven’t met her yet either.” He turned his head to address the homeowner through the small aperture. “Sorry to bother you, young lady, but I’m afraid the fate of an entire tribe is hung in the balance for either half, and we’d like to reunite them.”

Berry startled when she heard the sword girl’s voice, causing the stone she was trying to levitate to rocket into the ceiling before detonating, but she had already chirped in pleasure and scooted out of the rain of quartz shards and dust, opening her wings near to full and hopping up beneath Carrie’s arm to stick her face as far through the door as possible.

“See, Car-ree? I told you there was a sword girl! You can tell her about the men with guns and the beast of bodies and the Clan is here, Sunheart!” This all came out as a string of syllables, more than a real, constructed sentence.

Eva paused as both Salamander and Bernice began to crowd around the doorway.

”Um, I really wish I were here for your bottles now. The other night was grand, had some gents who just wouldn’t bugger off, bless the Queen of E that we managed to escape you know. Hounds had their hands full with some undead twit. And I, don’t know a clan. No.” Said Eva as she leaned in to Berry. ”I thought that was a no go.”

”That is not a concern here, Warrior,” said Sunheart, peeking out from beneath the siren’s hair. ”Though perhaps we should adjourn inside?”

”Yeah inside might be best given Bernice’s physicality yeah. Can I come in?”

Carrie gave a long, “Ooohhh.” Understanding now herself.

Using her hip to shuffle Berry out of the way she closed the door to unlock it. Opening it wide, she let the odd pair into her home taking their word for it. “You must be Salamander then, the mysterious glue to the necromancer problems.” She commented plainly. The animals watched Salamander and Eva enter.

Carrie’s tabby cat hopped up to her shoulder, watching. Oscar the raven flew immediately to Salamander’s shoulder quorking his hello.

Carrie patted Eva’s shoulder, “My dear, if there was no threat of terrorist nutjobs running around I wouldn’t see a reason to seriously caution against blurting your secrets to strangers, but please do consider who might be listening. Secrets are what keep us alive.”

”Not getting attacked by nutjobs keeps you alive longer. Though as it’s my hero name it’s not too big a secret where I got it from I suppose; I’ll keep that in mind however.”

As the door closed, the Clan swarmed out. Around thirty tiny people erupted from the cabinetry, putting away weapons they had drawn at the knock of the door. They called out greetings to the children and elders that came out from Eva’s person, and there were many tight hugs and sobbing from elderly women and parents of the children. Sunheart watched from Berenice’s shoulder, staying apart from the celebrations, a grim look on her face. She glanced up at Salamander, who was muttering something to Oscar, and said ”No word on the others who departed on their own?”

Salamander regarded her with a kind look. “Your people are too adept at hiding even from my senses, little princess. They will be along, I am sure, but I could not find them myself.”

The old man grinned at something Oscar quorked into his ear, turning to Carrie. “You, madam, I thank for your hospitality. Your friend here says you provide excellent food for him and his subjects, though I doubt the cats would agree to such a title. You are correct, I am the one known as the Salamander. However, as you have let me into your home, and seeing as both my sort-of grandchild and the Inheritor are here, I suppose I should at least let up on the illusions.”

With that, his face practically melted, the beard receding until it was gone, hair turning jet black, shiny, and long. After it was over, he stood almost six inches taller, broad-shouldered and barrel-chested, looking very much Native American. His eyes were almost exactly like Oscar’s.

“Your riddle is making more sense to me now. I wonder if Charlie will puzzle it out.” Carrie commented scratching Oscar’s scruff, “No problem. Oscar has told me as much before, during communions. My coven, my family have had connections to animals for generations.” She was smiling, his transformation not fazing her the least bit. Spirit came in whatever form it chose.

Berry, for her part, stood as politely to the side as she could while the pair made their way in, but as soon as the door was closed and introductions made, she fairly threw herself at Eva, wrapping the girl’s waist in a tight hug and chirping like a robin. ”Thank you thank you, sword girl! You brought all of the children here safely!”

Carrie saw the new wave of people come off of Eva - Pendragon, that revelation slowly sinking in. Smiling a big grin at the happy reunions. Charlie wasn’t going to believe her.

Taken back from the sudden embrace Eva was more confused as to how to respond back. Her face clearly showed some distraught.”HOW DOES ONE HUG A BIRD PERSON!? Um, uh. Yes. Hugs are good, hugs are fine. Anyone have tips for this?” Eva said as her arms tried to find somewhere to hug back unsure if she should wrap around the wings or the torso.

“Well,” said Salamander, resuming his usual appearance, “As lost family has been reunited and introductions have been made, I must be off. There is a rogue student of mine that needs to be found. Berenice, you are not to pursue him on your own, though you feel you must, I am sure. You are not close to being ready to face him, and I am sure he built safeguards into you in case you turned on him, built in weaknesses he can exploit. Until we find out what those are, there is no safe way for you to engage him.”

He turned to Carrie. “I am afraid my little friend must stay safe, and I see no other option other than for her to bunk here with you. I can reimburse you if that is an issue, financially or otherwise, though you seem the type to refuse it even if you needed it.” He sat a small pouch on the counter and tipped his hat. “Thankfully,” he said with a wry grin as he reached for the doorknob, “you’ll have to work to find a way to change that into something more usable, I think.”

Carrie nodded, “You won’t stay for supper? Already feeding a small army.” She joked. Weighing the sack curiously, “I don’t mind obviously, Berry is welcome here as long as she needs a safe place. I just hope I can keep it safe.”

“I’m afraid not. Too much to do, and you seem to have a full house as it is. I will acquire a means of staying in touch.” And with that, the Salamander was out the door and gone, not so much as footsteps on the stairs giving away that he was still anywhere nearby.

Carrie placed the sack back down, looking over her guests. “Probably should think about security a bit more. Always got by on good neighbours.”

With so much more to protect, to look after for - Carrie felt quiet resolve.

”Yes yes. Hugs are okay.” Eva said as she finally reached around Berry’s head unsure where her own arms should even go. ”So now that Mr. Owl from the tootsie roll pop commercial is gone. Dinner does sound nice. All I’ve had is tuna from a quick stop, sure the sandwich was alright but I do miss a healthy meal. We need anything, I could actually portal away for something if you need.” As Eva said finally free from Bernice’s feathery embrace. ”I could also use a pizza, you guys ever ate from John’s pizzeria? Off Bleecker street? It’s grand. Amazing pies. Wait what time is it anyways? Are they even open?” Eva said as she checked her phone.

The crowd of the Clan perked up, and several made a dash for their spaces inside the walls. They came back out with their own meal, one explaining that they couldn’t possibly put anyone to the bother of portioning for them because the Big Folk wouldn’t understand how. They did, however, share what looked like fire roasted snails with the cats as a peace offering.

Berenice looked puzzled as Eva mentioned pizza. ”What is this? Is it like fish? I do not know anything about the human nest foods, I am sorry. But I can go get fish if you want?” Her wings folded back on themselves and tucked along her back, but even as she said that, her eyes caught the stones that she and Carrie had been practising with, and she began sidling back towards them.

”Not fish, but that’s good.” Eva said as she watched the clan with their tiny dishes. ”This is OMG. I don’t know what words I can use right now.”

“Pizza it is.” Carrie said grabbing her phone. “I think you’ll like it Berry.” Calling her favourite pizza place Carrie flipped through channels on the tv heading toward the news channel.

A phone operator picked up her call, “Hi I’d like to make an order for delivery-”

She dropped her phone at the breaking news headline. Scrolling names of cities listed as destroyed from a satellite attack.

News anchors confirming death in the thousands. “This isn’t real…” She mumbled. “How? I thought- . . .”

Carrie covered her mouth looking to Eva and Berry.

The siren chirped in curiosity as the news came on, then stared at the pictures of ruins and smoking craters, uncomprehending until she saw Carries horror-stricken face. ”Car-ree...That’s a movie, right Car-ree? One of those fake things you land people put on sometimes, right?” She cut herself off as the channel went black for a second, and then the ominous warning from the Hounds played. Her plumage bristled at the message, but in the back of her mind, she also memorised the sound of the man’s voice, so she would know when she came across him. Static discharges played in her hair.

”Car-ree. How many? How many nestlings?” There was significant strain in Berenice’s voice. All of the Clan suddenly looked up at the sound. Her talons were digging grooves into the flooring.

”Too many, more than the clan, or there trees in the forest where you lived combined. I’m likely underestimating here but one too many to count. Bollocks. There’s nothing I could do for that, orbital strikes. You see them in movies and you think that’ll never happen.” Eva was still shaken however compared to the sheer horror Carrie held in her eyes and Bernice’s instinctive reactions, Eva began to wonder why she felt more calm. Reaching for her anti depression pills she popped one straight into her mouth and turned to Carrie.

”I think we should stay in touch, in case something happens you call me and I’ll teleport over. Likely the other heroes are beginning to assemble, but I’ll leave this matter up to them. I’m not capable of taking down a space weapon. It might be best we prepare instead.”

Carrie rounded on Eva, “We don’t know anything right now!” Angrily she shut the tv off.

Carrie turned to the siren, desperately quiet and forcing herself to be calm. “Berry please, take some deep breaths like we were practicing e-earlier. In through your nose, control. Search for your control. We don’t know the extent of the bad things that happened here tonight.” Quick, she licked her lips exterting her own will to calm. “Think, think with that big bird brain of yours. Think about where your breath is going, how it fills your diaphragm.”

Carrie mimicked a deep breath, using the motion to calm her own panic away.

“Right Pendragon?” Carrie bumped her elbow against the teen. “We need to stay calm.” She nodded at Berry, brow furrowed.

Eva knew Carrie had to be angry with her, but she never really thought about glossing things over if it was bad and it sure as hell looked bad then there was nothing anyone could do to make it sound pleasant. ”Right, being angry isn’t going to help others, it’ll put more in danger. I have a sword that can cut people down like they’re paper. If I’m not careful, not in control of myself I could easily hurt innocents. There’s a great deal of discipline to swordsmanship or the act of weilding a sword. It’ll be the same for you Berry. You are potentially dangerous, and if you want to protect what you love you’re going to need to hone your abilities to always be in your control.”

”I don’t like killing, it’s bad enough I see ghosts but I’d rather not have blood on my hands. And yet. I could easily kill someone with the flick of a wrist. I’m not in some moral high ground where I can’t kill. But I don’t feel like I should be deciding who lives or dies by my hand, I’m not a Judge and there are better people to make that choice. What we saw was bad men doing horrible things, men who committed genocide. And not stooping to their level by killing by understanding that we can be just as dangerous and that by keeping ourselves in check we are better for it.”

The siren stood there, chest heaving with the effort of trying to keep herself in check. While there was no wind this time, the static continued to discharge in her feathers, and the twinkling motes faded in and out of view. Her golden eyes flicked from Carrie to Eva as they spoke. ”Life and death are simple out in the wilds, Pen-dar-gon. If you need to eat, you kill the rabbit and you eat. If a wolf tries to kill and eat you, you fight back until it runs or it dies. These...“ her voice cracked, and went suddenly more melodious, even if it was choked with emotion. ”These egg crushers are the same! They do not care about your laws and morals, do they? They just want to hurt and to kill. They are like the mad beast, foaming and snarling. There is only one answer for them, even if it hurts you to do it. If they are not dealt with swiftly, more nestlings die, and that is not to be let to happen!”

Berenice had no idea why everyone seemed to be so ill at ease with her reactions. She was angry, angry enough that her talons continued to flex, though she guiltily realised that they were damaging Carrie’s nest and tried to relax them. To alleviate that feeling, she began hopping from one to the other, to keep herself moving, to feel some sort of motion, even if it wasn’t to resolution of the problem. But the animals had all backed away from her, the Clan were hiding behind cups and other things on the counter and staring at her. Carrie and Pendragon seemed to be trying to get her to calm down, but she knew now was not the time for calm.

Then her human brain caught up: “You have no idea where their nests are, nor how to fight their guns or numbers. The only thing you can do is learn how to do so later.” As the idea took root, she suddenly slumped in defeat. Her feathers relaxed, her shoulder drooped, and her wings suddenly fell, not even bothering to fold up as she sat down. Tears ran down her face, emotions boiling over, and since anger and fighting was not an option any longer, she did the only other thing she knew how to do. She tilted her head up and sang out her sorrow, notes from a hundred different voices of birds mixing with her own human one in a haunting cry of despair and regret.

Carrie gasped quickly clasping her hands to her ears and as suddenly as Berenice began to cry the animals around her wailed their shared grief as well. The dogs howled their sadness, the cats whined, Oscar came to her shoulder to perch and look for attention. The feedback from the animals and Berry’s immense sadness hit Carrie like a freight train. She tried to close her mind to her animal companions but they washed over her. She went to her knees, tears dripping down her cheeks. She strained to keep her hands on her ears. She felt the despair, the regret with intensity from various sources, she lost the battle to the emotions. Squeezing her eyes shut she sobbed.

The neighbours below began to audibly sob as well, banging a broom against the roof.

”I think.” Said Eva as she stepped closer while Carrie and quite literally everyone sobbed, taking care to ensure Bernice could clearly see her approaching as she began to feel off as Bernice’s cry echoed through the room. ”That learning what to do with your anger might be best. Unlike the wolves, no perhaps like the wolves of the forest there are enemies and dangerous beings who’ll take advantage of you, use your anger against you or make you hurt others in anger without realizing how innocent they are. Take a look around. The Clan, the animals they’ve sensed the danger coming from you, and while they know you want to protect them they are not sure what you’ll do in anger.” Stepping an inch closer amidst the weight of despair Bernice radiated Eva spoke. ”As you live among humans and others you’ll begin to feel even more emotions, good, bad, evil, things you never thought yourself capable of. But there are people here who want to help, allow you to experience and what to do with what you learn. The people here seem nice and caring. They have a good home that feels warm to me so allow yourself to understand what you are and are not capable of.”

Berry wept for a few moments more, before something small flew from off of the counter and struck her square on the end of her nose. The birdsong suddenly died off as she reared her head back, going cross-eyed to try and see the tiny spear that was stuck there. Glancing up at the counter, she saw new figures, including the Chief. Behind the clan, the door was just closing as two warriors hauled in what looked like a rotting pigeon carcass. ”Why are you bringing foul food in? That has been dead too long to eat.”

The Chief stared up at the big folk, a scowl on his face. “We found it outside, staring at your door. There were more that scattered when we took this one, and it put up a very nasty fight.” One of his arms hung limp, dripping blood. Several others also bore wounds, with one lying still on the counter while a few of the women bound his leg into a splint. “This place may be under attack soon, by whatever sent that which destroyed our home. And you,” he said, pointing savagely with his good arm at Eva. “You need to inform me where my people have been. How many are missing or dead? Where did you take them? And you,” he snarled at Sunheart. “There is much you need to account for, starting with why the Big Ones are standing here staring at our people!”

Carrie broken from the birdsong, coughed reigning herself in. Dragging a sleeve under her eyes she took long steadying breaths patting her chest. “I can explain, just- ugh give me a second.” The grey tabby came into her arms for cuddling. All the animals distressed in various stages. “One moment.”

Finding her balance and tending to the animals, whispering to them individually. Comforting pats, soft words, blanketing the room with her own magic. Cuddling her cat, she stopped at Berry last setting the cat aside she hugged her as well.

“It’s going to be alright Berry. I promise we’ll figure it out, but it’ll be alright.” She pat down her hair, residual static snapped across her finger tips. The dogs took up Berry’s sides, the cats tried to take up space in her lap. The animals now projected the calm Carrie felt herself, magnifying her magic. Carrie looked up to the dead pidgeon, the rancid smell of death clear.

”I get you have you people to look after, but can you give me one second. Just one. I got hit by some sort of emotional wail or something.” Taking a moment to regain her bearings. ”I don’t know of any dead Clan members at least not for the ones I took with me, I feel like Bloody shit. Right I took them to my Grandpa’s place, in New York. I can move between doors in a certain way. It’s I dunno if you know what teleporting is. But it’s that. Like covering cities in seconds I guess, for what take months. Aside from a group of what five they said, everyone else that came with me is here. The five are off exploring the old house, told them I’d swing by for them in the morning. Just ask the rest. It seems like you all need to talk amongst yourselves already.”

Carrie held a hand in front of Eva, standing from her hug with Berry, “Chief, this was out of necessity in order to safely live here, as you can probably see I have quite a few animals. They know to treat everyone with respect now instead of seeing your people as food. Sun-Heart has been putting the security of everyone first and foremost, give her a break.”

Carrie shuffled off toward the dead bird, feeling dark energy pour off of it seeping into the floorboards. “First though before anything else I’ve gotta protect my home.” She opened the kitchen window peering at the buildings aside her and the back alley below. They were right, reanimated dead animals watched her apartment.

“Like hell I’m going to let some necromancer’s pets into my home.” Brow furrowed she quickly went straight for her bedroom, a collection of large pieces of quartz laid across shelves and in the corner of her room was quite possibly the neatest thing about the untidy room. The Altar draped in purple silk, animal bone and teeth. A small bronze mirror cradled in it’s center. A blackberry wreath laid on the table half done.

She plucked what small stones she had, freed sage from it’s bundle, stopping at the hanging herbs above her window - dried and ready to be used. Glancing down her ivy plant growing happily in the receding summer sunlight alongside her little potted rowan scrub waiting to be transferred to her yard. The herbs and plants were gifts from Nathaniel Croll.

Running back with her arms full she laid them across the kitchen island. Then ran back into her bedroom with sheers. She clipped a generous length of ivy, then a small sturdy branch of rowan, whispering her thanks.

Carefully with well practiced hands she weaved the ivy through the wreath, the bright green leaves mixed with the wood of the blackberry tree branches as well as complementing the berries themselves. Finally tying the branch of rowan to the top of the wreath with the remaining ivy. “Let’s see the bastard try to get past this.”

She carefully spritzed it with water then went straight for her front door. A hook already in place for past wreaths, she carefully placed it. Affectionately running her knuckles across the soft leaves of ivy. She closed the door and felt safer.

She came back to her other tools, brightfully noting, “When it doubt, sage it out!”

Lighting the end of the sage bundle on fire, she let it burn a little before blowing away the flames fanning the smoke. “Pendragon if you could help me, grab the salt in the cupboard and draw a ring around the dead pidgeon. I will smudge the entrances. The animals will help to drive away the dead, armed with protections of their own.”

With a nod Eva went to find the salt in the kitchen taking a bit long as she had to look through quite a few cupboards before she returned with it, and assuming she actually meant a circle of salt and not draw a ring in a pile she encircled the dead bird. ”So, what does this actually do? I’ve been watching that Supernatural show and so far there’s nothing on dead birds. It’s also a TV show, so.” As a sheathed sword appeared to her side as she sat it against the wall. ”Just in case I need this.”

Berry stared at the Chief, who was conversing in low tones and gesticulating wildly with the warriors who had come in with him. The rest of the Clan sat around them, forming a semicircle and watching. The siren shuffled closer and let Sunheart off of her shoulder, then moved over to watch the two women administer to the cursed carcass in the entryway. Behind her, the conversation got more heated as Sunheart joined in.

”What are you pouring the salt for? I do not think it will taste very good no matter how much you season it.” Despite her cheerful query, there was a definite downcast to Berenice’s features. She looked more like a scolded child trying to infiltrate back into a conversation than her normal self, and was obviously trying to cheer herself and everyone else up. Shockingly, she had even made a joke, unintentional as it was. Even so, she glanced back at the windows, adding, ”Should we not deal with the ones outside, too?”

Carrie nodded distractedly then took a double take at Berry, softening she replied, “It’s to purify the bad spirits away. We are freeing the animal of it’s necromancy chains. The dogs and cats will work together to remove the others and Oscar will take care of any birds. If not at the very least chase them off, don’t worry Berry we can protect my nest from Sebastian’s spies.”

One by one each of the animals lined up being outfitted with small charms to protect them from any lingering energy about the undead spies. Their strong bond and connections with Carrie ensured that regardless.

The conversation on the countertop broke up suddenly, Sunheart and a few of the warrior types lining up along the ledge overlooking the process. Sunheart herself was staring, while the rest checked their tiny weapons, looking grim. ”You have accepted us into your home with no qualms at all, Witch,” Sunheart said, loud enough she could be heard. There was no inflection on the word ‘witch’, merely a title. ”Now it needs defending. We will aid you in this.” Her tone was clear that she would brook no argument on the matter, and wordlessly, each of the warriors threw tiny ropes down from the counter, affixed to a coffee mug behind them. They lowered themselves down, then each took places a safe distance from one of the animals being geared up. Sunheart herself took a place in front of Oscar, eyeing him warily. ”If you would be so good as to make sure they take no offense to our presence, it would help.”

Carrie blinked, “Oh! Of course, thank you.”

“Let the dogs and cats sniff you out first before climbing aboard, Oscar.” Carrie said sternly turning her attention to the raven. “Be careful you hear me? Knock them out and let the others take care of them.”

Oscar quorked in response, Carrie nodded in understanding. Affectionately Oscar tugged at her sleeve. “All set, Sunheart. If you need to get their attention, call them by their name.”

Sunheart gave a salute, and the rest nodded grimly, faces stern. Most of them were checking their tiny weapons, which were mostly flint or broken glass or wood. A few, though, had already managed to supplement themselves with bits of razors or nails and paperclips. Sunheart herself had gotten a hold of a bow, made of animal bones and a length of springy wood, and had a sheaf of what looked like needles. They all gingerly approached the animals, made their introductions, and then clambered aboard their partners, with Sunheart taking the lead on Oscar, having had the most flight experience. She turned to Carrie with a fatalistic look and said, ”I will make sure they all come home alive.”

---

Time: Morning of Satellite Attack - Present Day
Location: Opéra National de Paris, Paris

Odette Favre arrived early to quiet studios and locker rooms. She changed from her street clothes to her sleeveless leotard, carefully pinning her hair up and away from her face using bobby pins and hairbands. She pulled at the lines underneath her eyes, checking over her shoulder at where the bullet wound was the day before. Not a trace of it remained, she smiled at herself in the mirror. Other dancers began filing in all giving their sleepy good morning greetings as Odette passed heading for her shoe cubby, she paused hearing whispers. Gossip burning her ears. She decided to walk on.

Two new sets sat waiting for her on top of her current pairs. Making a mental note for herself to prepare them later. She grabbed her current pair, soft pink with wrinkly ribbons. She quickly inspected them noticing they would need more glue, running a thumb over the tip of the toe. Slipping them on and tying the ribbons up her ankle she tested them moving her ankle around, it would be fine for morning warm ups.

She went straight to the studios, heading up a set of stairs. She preferred one of the older ones with arched windows and plenty of natural light. Usually reserved for solo classes with choreographers but occasionally on early morning Coryphées would be working through their sets in small groups. On her way she always checked the dark corners for any fey. She restricted fey from the Opera House, except for the spirits that protect the walls and grounds. It was her space. Odette stepped into an open spot on the bars moving through the five foot positions.

Missing days from ballet she knew there was plenty she had to catch up on, rehearsals for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where Odette had earned the role of Helena. No doubts in her abilities, while she often was picked for the role of Hermia the casting director gave Helena to her instead. A role that required a certain level of honesty with oneself to properly portray the honesty in Helena’s love. Odette was able to brew good chemistry with the understudy of Demetrius but had to work with the lead soloist for the same role. What they believed would be a challenge for her.

Among the most frequent pieces of criticism she received from her Ballet Master, Alice Renavand, was unbridled emotion powering past classical technique. Odette took them in stride, dancers put their heart and souls into their craft Odette poured herself entirely. A blessing and a curse with the intensity being the most unpredictable.

Madame Renavand pushed for consistency.

After an hour and a half of warm ups she bent holding the fifth position she felt her muscles creak in complaint. A handful of days out of rehearsals showing.

An administrator tapped her shoulder, telling her that Madame Renavand was looking for her.

Odette nodded scooping up her water bottle and following the admin to one of Renavand’s classes. From behind she saw her Ballet Master, tall - like Odette, square shoulders and wide hips. Muscular, breaking the mould of the atypical body type for ballet dancers. She was in her late 30’s having a long standing career as a principal dancer and star. Long black hair tied into a tight bun, brown eyes watching the Corps de Ballet.

Without turning to address her, a certain tension raising the hair on the nape of Odette’s neck. “Mademoiselle Favre. I want to talk to you, you are looking in good health today.”

“Yes, I feel well enough to make it to rehearsals.” Odette replied carefully, following an instinct. Renavand wasn’t happy, as to why Odette did not know.

“Rehearsals are what I want to talk to you about.” Renavand spoke, looking over her shoulder. “Come with me, we will speak in private.”

Odette nodded, the slightest bit of concern. “Yes, Madame.”

Renavand beckoned her to follow her out of the studio, they branched off to her office. Passing a costume rack being pushed by designers. Tutus, romantic tutus, and long tights sparkling with sequin.

Odette stepped into the office, Renavand closed the door behind her gesturing to the chair. Odette sat at the edge. “Is something the matter, Madame? Did my understudy get hurt or have we had a change in cast?” Odette guessed, watching Renavand’s expression. “I’ve been meaning to play catch up today on any changes-”

The Ballet Master sat, folding her hands leveling a stare at Odette. It was serious, heavy and steely. “You’ve been recast completely due to your health.” Renavand said bluntly, “Due to your sustained bouts of bronchitis and occasional pneumonia we decided for you to be taken off the cast list of Midsummer Night’s Dream. It is a far too taxing role.”

Odette blinked, working through it. Especially from Renavand. “I beg your pardon. I am healthy enough to dance Helena, Madame. I was approved by the company’s medical staff to do this role. That is absolutely-”

“If you don’t believe me there is a papertrail for you to follow, Odette but I gave the final approval.”

She stared, “What?”

Renavand took a deep breath in through her nose, “You and I have always had a very - professional relationship here at the company no?”

Odette waited for her to continue, gnawing at the inside of her cheek.

“I can run down the list of dancers and names knowing a little bit about their personal lives or some of their life story. You - Odette have been a mystery for the better part of your career here.” Renavand looked into Odette’s eyes searching for something she wasn’t going to find. “What is really keeping you away? Is it a lover? An ex lover? Drugs? Pregnancy? Family?”

Odette squinted, letting silence fuel the rising tension. “I don’t understand what you want from me Madame.” She said, a little colder than she intended. “What are you trying to make a point of? Punishing me for what?”

“Off the record, I don’t believe you.” Renavand said painfully she rubbed at her temples. “This is not to punish you, simply… clear the mystery surrounding you. It would be rather upsetting to see you sidelined because of these fake health issues, when your career lies in the balance. You have these bouts of distraction, like your work and performances here are distracting you from what you really want to do. I have never met a dancer as focused on things outside of ballet than you.”

Odette sat straighter, frowning. “That is untrue, Madame. Ballet is my life.”

Renavand laughed, rather bitterly. “Were that true we would not be sitting here. If you were honest, honest as Helena is I could help you. I know when you lie and it is often, you don’t think I would not have picked up on that after so many years?”

Odette was silent, looking sour. “Where is all this coming from? My sickness and absence has somehow offended you, Madame?”

“I am sick of secrets, they impede on the performance of my dancers and nothing looks worse than a soloist falling from grace. Or one that is unreliable.” She said, “I care for your well being, so please. Let me help you Odette, if not…”

Renavand sat back as well, shrugging. “Drop back from your role as a soloist. The work requires undivided attention, there are dozens of other dancers who would gladly step into your shoes.”

A touch of sadness, “One less prima for me to worry for.”

Odette stood slowly, “You are threatening my career on a hunch? No proof?”

Renavand tapped the paperwork on the desk, “It’s already been done Odette. Removing you from A Midsummer was only the beginning. Your health, as fake as it is, is reason enough to keep you out of auditions as well. Give you some time to think about what we talked about today then you can come to me with the truth.”

“This form of tough love is really unsavory, Madame. Even if I were to tell you, you wouldn’t believe me.” Odette admitted, turning to the door. Anger boiling under the surface, Renavand was only leaving her with one choice.

“Try me.”

Odette hesitated, pausing significantly on the door handle. Her hand floated up to the lock on the door flipping it. “For privacy, these walls have ears.”

“What is it Odette, don’t lie to me.”

Odette stood at the desk forcing Renavand to look up. “The honest truth is simple, Madame.” She pushed the file on the desk with the tip of her finger. “I am neither pregnant, in an abusive relationship nor struggling with an eating disorder. Which seems to be the gossip, that I’ve certainly heard.”

“It’s far worse, actually. I’m an underworld crime lord of Paris, magic is real and so are faeries. I control it all.” Odette said with a straight face. “The truth.”

Renavand stood with an angry huff. “Now you mock me with some made up bullshit. I thought better of you - not to be petty.” Renavand snorted. Levelling a cold glare at her student, gathering her papers. “I’m going to deliver the final approval to the medical department and you will be officially removed.”

Odette watched her reach for the door, the lock wouldn’t budge. “I should have known… You have always had a nasty habit of spreading rumours when someone pisses you off.” Jiggling the lock, Renavand grew more frustrated. “I thought you’d be above this nasty behaviour, making things up.”

“I thought I could trust you to keep your nose in your own business Madame, that’s why I liked working with you. You never crossed that line, I wanted to keep things professional as possible. Without proof, without anything to back up your claims it’s all smoke and mirrors.” Odette said with a long drawn out sigh. “Now you force my hand.”

“What are you-”

With her hands around Renavand’s head, Odette’s hands were glowing blue. They casted a cold light over the ballet master’s face. Fear filtering into her expression, her body stiff - immobilized. Slowly pulling Renavand away from the door turning her to fully face Odette.

“Ballet is my life. It is mine.” Odette said kindly, her tone never changed. She tucked a bit of Renavand’s hair behind her ear, completely at her mercy. “I try to keep it separate.”

“You’ve been unfair, Madame. But I respect you, your career and everything you’ve taught me.”

“Y-you weren’t lying…” Renavand mumbled, the truth sinking in. “Please - please don’t kill me. Please.”

Odette blinked once again, genuinely shocked. “What? I’m not going to kill you. Do you have any idea how difficult it would be to smooth your death over with everyone here, your absence and mon dieu! I don’t want to think about it. Far too much work and far too disruptive, your death would ripple across all departments. Nothing would be the same.”

Her thumbs caressed Renavand’s temples, her eyes glazed over slumping a little against the door. Whispering a string of Words of Power, little blue butterflies fluttering around her head. Illusions dancing in Renavand’s head filling her mind with Odette’s will.

“Listen carefully, Alice. Your concerns for my health were unfounded when my doctor confirmed my health has stabilized. You simply believe I have been distracted by a string of bad relationships, confirmed by Kendra, my friend. We simply negotiated lightening the load, compromising for my shifting to being an understudy for Helena and Hermia. Enough work to stay in the production without completely wasting my time. Our relationship remains the same, as if none of this happened today. You are going to take these papers, tear them up write new ones to reflect the compromise.” Odette explained, rewriting her memories.

Renavand’s eyes closed, mumbling.

Releasing her from the spell, Alice slumped forward into Odette’s arms. Odette dragged her to her seat, gently placing her down into her chair. She whispered into her ear, “You will awake to the sound of your phone ringing. Believing your late nights having finally caught up to you.”

Odette straightened the papers on the desk, just so. She left quietly closing the door behind her. Now the only remaining performance she had to focus on was that for the stage.

Nicky paced through the ancient stone halls of the monastery quickly, bare feet slapping across the stones and echoing loudly. Her sweatshirt had long become uncomfortably restricting, so she was down to a borrowed set of loose pants and a tank top. While she walked, she held out in front of her a large tome, retrieved from the small library under promises to be very careful with the old parchment. It was a book only in the loosest sense, more a series of scrolls bound at one end, with a thick lacquered wooden cover to protect the silk inside. She had it open to the fourth scroll, having memorised the first three already. Each one held diagrams and instructions for part of the form she had expressed interest in learning, and in the entirety of the fourteen hours she had held it, it had never left her possession. Sometimes she thought that not having to sleep had its advantages.

She arrived back at the training hall her and Alex had been using. She wouldn’t have left, but she had insisted that she at least eat something, as weeks without food, though not having a tangible effect on her, drove her nuts. Accordingly, she had breakfasted with the rest of the monks, listening to the low chatter of morning conversation in a language she didn’t know while staring at the scrolls in front of her. Now back in the hall, a piece of dried fish still sticking out of her mouth like a lollipop, she barged across the room and set the book down on the lectern she had borrowed for just such a purpose, back off a few feet, and settled into her breathing exercise.

It had taken a while to beat into her head that, while she didn’t need to breathe, the chi wouldn’t flow without air, but now she was circulating regularly. It helped that the scent of old stone and nature was among her favourites.Finishing her breathing, she began the series of intricate movements shown in the scroll, correcting herself whenever it felt like she might be off somehow. It had taken remarkably little time to get her motions smoothed out, though she still needed correction when she didn’t understand something, especially since she couldn’t read the chicken scratch in the scrolls, only see the illustrations. Soon, though, her instructor and translator would arrive and she could begin in earnest for the day. It might irk her slightly that he had to sleep, but she refrained from commenting, at least in part because she was too engrossed in what she was doing.

Alex would have spent most of his past few days with Nicky, making sure everything she was doing was exactly as it needed to be with little change in form. He seemed at times especially hard on her when she made mistakes, almost as if he was expecting perfection at the very start. His punishments usually had to deal with some sort of physical exercise, not because it would hurt or be a pain for her, but because he knew for her it would be mundane and boring.

This morning he had woken up and was told about her having the ancient texts he would have a grin across his face when he saw her at breakfast with it. There were 12 masters in total, but Alex was offered a seat at their table as they watched over the monks. He would understand any word he had heard, the language was pretty much his first after all. After breakfast he seemed to take his time meditating as if he was becoming one with the entire area around him once more. When he felt he was finished he would walk toward the training room and close the door behind him. “Okay, let’s see it Nicky.” he sounded almost like he was halfway kidding, but he really wanted to see her master chi in such a short time, he was hoping to see some sort of flow to it. If she wanted to show him anything else; now was the time.

She almost didn’t seem to hear him, but her movements suddenly switched, gracefully shifting into her neutral stance. A small breath out escaped through her lips, her eyes closed, and she fished the little ball out of her pocket. She placed it into her right palm, keeping her hand open and rolling it in between her ring and middle fingers, then began to move again. This time, though, it was nothing out of the books or anything he had taught her. Two days ago she had realised she could feel the chi flow, even if she didn’t have any control over it, and had started toying with stances and moves while everyone else was sleeping, experimenting with how the flow shifted as she did. Now, she started into what looked almost like a water dance, though she didn’t actually know that term at all.

Her arms swept out in a wide circle, palms out, and then rapidly spun in until they were pressed together at her chest. Her left foot left the ground, spinning her in a single circle before she used the momentum to stomp the ground, at the same time thrusting her right hand out and letting out a loud shout. And the little ball flung out from her fingers and thwacked against the wall almost twenty feet away with a very loud thud, rebounding like a stone and leaving a chip out of the wall.

Nicky returned to her neutral stance, then her eyes flicked open and grinned at Alex. ”So I think I get it. A little, at least. I still dunno how to do what you do, but I can feel it, anyway.” Under her breath, low enough she thought he wouldn’t hear, she added, ”First thing I’ve felt in a long time, too.”

Alex would look with an almost confused look on his face as she did her form. A grin slowly growing on his face as he watched her throw the ball. “Good, excellent in fact. You will learn to do what I do, but this shows me your body is starting to get used to releasing your chi. You are already miles ahead of 80% of the fighters in this world. Let’s see if you can get farther.” He would reach into his pocket and pull out what looked to be a balloon that had yet to be filled up. With it a bag of them. Alex would walk out of the room and turn the corner where there was water and fill up 5 balloons with water. Coming back he would place them down. “ Learning to disperse your chi is just the first step, now you must learn to concentrate it into a single point. Grab one of these.” he himself would pick one up and hold it in his hand. “Pop the balloon with your chi. After this we will work on control of chi, because we won’t want to get into how you can completely do what I did without control first. Otherwise your Chi could come out as a danger to others.” He would look at the balloon and without even seeming to touch it the entire thing popped water splattering everywhere.

“ If you focus on releasing chi through one spot you will find that you can easily pop something like a water balloon, after you pop a water balloon, you will work on crumbling rocks.” his eyebrows would raise as if he was expecting her to make some snarky comment towards him.

Nicky watched him blow apart one balloon without seeming to move, and her eyes were intense as she studied every facet of what he had done, though she couldn’t actually see anything. She listened as he gave his instruction, then nodded once and began staring at the next balloon. Her breathing changed, becoming a slow intake followed by a rapid series of tiny breaths out. Internally, she could feel her build up, but without her form, she had no idea how to release it, if she was being honest. Still, he had done it, so she could too. He wasn’t an alien or anything. So she stood, staring like she intended to develop laser eyes, at the balloon in front of her. Her fists began to clench, but still nothing happened.

Alex watched her intently, his directed his chi to his eyes so he could see her chi better and how it was flowing. “If you need to do you movements that’s fine for now, just know eventually you will be forced to not do you movements. What will you do if you are trapped with no space for your arms? Allow the chi to move through your body, imagine it like a river, and you are opening the dams from your inner being into your physical body and then out of your body.” He would continue to watch her and a few students who were passing by looked on in amazement that she had already gotten to the point of the water balloons.A few of them would speak in chinese about helping her learn a few tips and tricks they had learned, but they would do it when Alex left.

Nicky nodded again, and then immediately stepped back two paces. Hopping onto her left foot only she did a series of spins, right leg only coming down to push off the ground at the end of each turn. The spins carried her scant inches forward, but she began to pick up the pace until, just outside of the range where she could simply kick, she lashed out with a shout and a roundhouse kick. Although she didn’t pop any of them, all four vibrated intensely for a few seconds. The last one on the row had two pinholes that were now streaming out water slowly, where the pressure had been just enough to tear a bit of the rubber but not enough to rupture the whole balloon’s surface.

Nicky let out a growl of frustration, and turning to Alex, she noticed the other students muttering to each other and looking at her. ”Hey, don’t make fun of me, you bastards! I just got here, I can’t do all this shit in one week!” Her face turned bright scarlet.

Alex would look to the students who seemed to tilt their head at her for yelling at them. “They were talking about helping you, but I can't blame you. You don't know Chinese. They were trying to be quiet so I didn't hear them. It’s not allowed here for students to help someone with their training in the first 3 weeks.” Alex would sigh as he picked up one of the water balloons and held it out for her to grab again. “Try to imagine this, imagine yourself breaking out of a small cardboard box, but only in one direction, then imagine letting your chi flow that way as well.” he knew it was a hard task, this is where most people tend to make mistakes and not be able to control it or give up. “Also try to remain in control, uncontrolled Chi can be very dangerous.”

”Oh. Uhhh. Okay. Sorry.” Nicky grinned sheepishly at the other students, rubbed the back of her head, then turned back to her task. Okay. Cardboard box. I can do that. She felt the flow, a river of energy inside her that swirled and eddied, some places deeper than others, some more turbulent. Though the cardboard box didn’t quite work in her head, she knew what he had meant by it. She pictured a sluice gate in the water, and ever so slowly opened it. She directed the resulting flow out towards the balloon, but only managed to make it quiver. Curious, she reached out and poked it, rewarded by a pop and splashing water all over herself. ”Shit! Damn it, these things are two thin, if I can just poke it open. You shoulda warned me, Miyagi!”

“Of course they are thin, what else did you expect, Nicky? Would you rather me give you a rock now to try it? See if you can’t crumble that?” Alex bent down and picked up a rock in his hand, he seemed to focus for a moment and the rock crumbled to dust in his hand. “ That is the next step, but you are not ready yet, that is why you have these thin balloons… just trust me on this. This is a requirement in your training. Without it, your Chi will be wild, and hostile even to yourself, I can even show you what it would feel like if I let my chi loose without much control over it if you’d like.” He’d seem to take a deep breath as he looked back at the door and then back to Nicky, “I am going to give you, 24 hours, make a hole in a balloon at the very least, while holding it in your hand, without poking it. Or, you will have to meditate for 20 hours with me.” Alex would nof a slight smirk crossing his face as he spoke.

”Oh God, not more meditation. Fine, I’ll do it in twelve, and dump it on your grey ass head, old man!” She snatched up a balloon and sat, cross-legged, on the floor, holding it up on one palm at eye level while the other hand rested on her knee. Her jaw set almost comically as she narrowed her eyes, and her tongue once again stuck out while she concentrated.

---

It actually only took her six hours to pop her first one, but she only managed to do it reliably after another ten. Twice, she had managed to lose control and wound up almost destroying her own clothes and the stone around her before she brought it back down. Another two had her able to pop it in midair, so she managed to give herself a break by slinging them overhead and trying to pop them over specific target she drew on the floor in chalk, a combination of skeet shooting and bombing runs.

Alex would walk in after about 12 hours; he had a cigarette in his mouth as he walked in blowing out the smoke gently. “Okay, so, show me what you got.” he would say. He would have his traditional monk robes on him. He would lean against the nearby wall as he waited for her to show him how she was able to get it in 12 hours. “You know most people take at least 2 weeks to be able to have the ability to constantly express their chi through their fists without a problem, let’s see where you got in 12 hours, shall we?”

Nicky grinned at him, then threw a balloon over his head, timing her punch into the air to detonate the balloon directly over his head. As water washed down, she hoped it put out his cigarette, but regardless, she had accomplished her goal.

The water would wash over his entire body, and put out the cigarette in his mouth. His eyebrows raised as he looked down at his wet clothes. He would nod, ”Color me impressed, if there ever was a chosen one, maybe you were it after all.” he’d say in an obvious joking tone. After chuckling to himself for a second he was finally speak again, “Now, if you’d like we can go ahead and start the next part of your training, you have learned to release it, and you have learned to release the chi in a concentrated point. Now, we learn to control how much you release. One of the reasons most people take so long is because they will get exhausted with the amount of effort it takes. But you, I guess you don’t have to worry about that.” he would grin at her before standing in the center of the room.

“Alright… I’m going to show you why control is important, when you start to learn how to use it all throughout your body and at once, it can become an overwhelming force all around you. If I don’t control it and I unleash it as much as I want; then this will happen.” He would take a deep breath letting his arms go to his sides, suddenly a massive amount of chi would come out of him, the entire room would feel heavier for anyone in it. Alex’s Chi was heavy it would start to oppress Nicky’s chi, if she could feel pain she would have felt it, but since she didn’t it would just feel like a heavy oppressive force on her. Alex would release his Chi with a deep sigh as the force lifted and he looked at Nicky.

Walking over and picking up a rock he would hold it out for Nicky, “Take this rock. Split it in half, if you unleash your chi on it, it’s going to crumble, if you concentrate it can be split in half. I want you to keep trying until then.”

”Uhhhh. Okay?” Nicky shook her head, trying to get what felt like pressure out of her ears. She had no idea what else had happened. Maybe it had more of an effect on people who weren’t cursed like her. She slapped her left ear with the same palm like she was trying to know her brain loose while she took the stone with the other. Staring at it, she sat down on the floor, cross-legged, and again, held it in her open palm at eye level. This time, though she was more confident. She might not know what the hell chi was, despite Alex telling her several times, but she knew she could blow stuff up with her mind. And the movements were helping, but she wanted to try this one all on her mental power alone.

She concentrated hard for maybe twenty second before the thing not just crumbled, but exploded, sending chips flying everywhere. She saw several bouncing away from her eyeball. In shock, she blinked and looked up at Alex. ”Okay, so maybe that’s not as easy as it sounds. You wanna give me some sort of advice there, old man?”

Alex watched her carefully as she unleashed chi into it. He held up his hands to guard his face as tiny pieces flew everywhere. Alex sighed as he picked up another rock and dropped it infront of her. “Yes, I want you to imagine that rock in your hand. Close your eyes, and imagine slicing it completely in half with a sword. A sword is a dangerous weapon, but yet it is easily controlled as long as you wield it from the hilt, you wield your chi the same way, you wield it with your connection from your body to your spirit. You control it with how hard you swing.” he seemed to walk away and back to the door to watch her follow up with what he said.

A sword, huh? The only swords she had seen had been in the old-as-hell movies her dad had watched when she was a little kid watching her baby brother, so she tried to remember what that had been like. One huge blade almost as tall as a man, with three or four little prongs off the sides where you gripped it. So she mentally swung it overhand. But nothing happened.

Oh, right, the chi thing, she thought to herself as the image dissolved. She reformed it in her head, then swung it again, mentally and ironically yelling the word freedom while she did so. The wall across her palm from her face nearly exploded, chunks of masonry vaporising and more stones raining down. A vertical pie-slice of stone, starting on the ceiling just behind and directly above her head and continuing forward until it was nearly a foot wide and several inches deep, was simply gone. She looked up, wincing, and simply said, ”Ooops.” The stone in her hand was completely unscathed.

Alex watched closely but when the stones began to almost explode he would instantly bring his hands up to his face to help protect himself again. He looked at the massive amount of stone missing as he shook his head, a grin on his face. “No more chi training. I want you to meditate for 2 hours. Then join me upstairs in the dojo. I’m going to teach you how to fight before we go any further. You need to have a more calm mind and stronger mental fortitude, I am going to help you with that.” he would wait for her response, and then head back upstairs towards the dojo.

---

Nicky had given up on mentally timing meditation. ‘Two hours’ had little to no meaning to her in general, which ruined her meditation, as she had to constantly open one eye and look at the hourglass she had ‘requisitioned’ from the monks. As a result, walking into the main dojo of the temple, she was nothing but irritated and bored. That stopped the second she walked through the heavy, lacquered wooden doors. The first noise she heard was the slap of fist on flesh, almost immediately followed by the crack of wood being blocked by an arm. She glanced around and saw something she thought only existed in movies.

Fourteen monks sparred in various areas of the place, presided over by a surly looking man with a shaved pate and mustachios she was fairly certain she could use as a swing. They were using anything from bare hands to broadswords to staves and nunchaku. Off to one side, a separate group of students were doing forms, being watched by two men in a way that reminded her distinctly of Alex in his class, though she supposed that was probably inevitable. She strode unconcernedly past everything, though in deference to her new fascination with doing this right, she avoided her old blustering steps directly through the other students. Once she stood in front of Alex where he waited, she grinned at him.

”So, Master Roshi, what are you gonna kick my ass with first?” She seemed indifferent to the several students who stopped what they were doing to watch, though internally she took note that apparently word had spread about what had happened in the other room.

Alex seemed to look over and see her approaching, he grinned at her as he took a deep breath. I will tell you what we are going to do. We are going to do some simple training exercises for the first three hours, and then.” he would walk over to the wall and grab a sword as he tossed it on the ground. His eyebrows raised at her as he walked in front of her as well. “I’m going to throw punches a certain way, I need you to do the same thing that I am doing, and throw the punches the same way..” he would get into a stance and take a deep breath as he started to throw punch after punch in front of him. It was slow so she could see every inch of his form.

She copied his form as best she could and threw a punch tentatively, then a little more confidently, trying her best to match his pace. After no more than a few seconds, she became irritated at the attention she could feel on her back, but shook her head and tried her best to ignore it. She focused all of her attention on trying to match her teacher’s form as exactingly as she could. Not that that was much.

Alex would stop and say, “Keep going I am going to correct you.” Correcting he did, walking up to her he would stare for a moment before holding a hand out for her to stop and then getting behind her and crouching down so his head was at her level he would gently grab her arm and show her the corrected form, with her own arm doing it. He would take a step back and nod to her to show her she needed to continue.

She corrected her form as best she could, but her inability to actually feel her muscles was beginning to show. No matter how much she tried, she had to correct after every punch, and her patience was flagging, both with herself and with the world that had cursed her to this. And then a laugh from behind her caught her ear and what was left of her patience snapped like a log in a fire. Wheeling around, heedless of whatever reaction Alex had, she snarled into the room, which had mostly gone back to their own business, ”So, think it’s funny? Little girl trying to do big boy martial arts? White girl comes to China, thinks she can fight? Fine, tough guys, let’s see what you got!”

Alex’s eyes would raise as he saw Nicky spin around so quickly. “If that is what you want Nicky, that is permitted here. Just don’t kill anyone or actually try to physically hurt them to the point of not being able to move.” Alex would be grinning, the look on his face said that he expected this at some point. He would start to speak in Chinese to the man he saw laugh, the man couldn’t have been more than 18. He probably had been practicing since he was 12. Alex explained that Nicky wanted to spar, the monk would turn to her and nod, bowing to her before putting his fists up. “Yong Shun, Hǔ shì” he would say declaring his fighting style and name.

”What the hell did he say? You know what, doesn’t matter.” She went through all the motions of cracking her knuckles and popping her neck, although there was no sounds to evidence that it had any effect, and the little curse she uttered belied that she was expecting it to.

The man shuffled into a stance as the mustached instructor motioned everyone else back into a circle, giving instructions in Chinese that Nicky didn’t even bother listening to. All of her focus was on the man in front of her. He looked calm and ready, and for once, that actually gave Nicky pause. If I just rush him, he’s gonna throw me around like a ragdoll. I gotta be smart about this.. She shockingly even bowed to the man, though it was curt and rude, but still something she hadn’t bothered to do up until today. Alex would feel her chi suddenly drop precipitously. She was obviously planning to do this with only her native strength and exceptional endurance.

The man seemed to also sense the drop, but took it as a sign of opening, and as soon as she finished sketching her bow was in the air, driving his knee for her face. She thought she had it easy, leaning back to dodge only to watch his foot snap forward and catch her in the ribs, sliding her a few inches and nearly toppling her. He came up off that move shouting his breaths, fists slamming out in precise motions to hammer into her belly and hip while she was off balance, sending her over her tipping point and onto the floor.

She got up slowly, light dancing in her eyes. This one was taking her more seriously than even Alex had, launching into an attack as soon as she was up to her feet again, relentlessly assaulting her defenses. But it seemed no one had told him of her unique nature. She felt the pressure of blows as if they were sledgehammers, but her guard went up as she had been taught so recently, and now she had the advantage of time. But she didn’t want to wait him out, even though she knew she could. He had laughed at her, and that mean there were lessons to be taught.

During a kick from his right leg, trying to drive up underneath her raised arms, she made the unexpected move of whipping her head forward, slamming into his toes with everything her neck could muster. She missed the end of his foot and for a moment his toes were sliding down her face inside his slippered shoe. Her forehead finally made solid contact with the top of his ankle, and as he pulled it back in reaction, she snatched his ankle with both hands and snapped a kick into the back of his thigh, just below the buttock.

He staggered back, but she wasn’t done. Now that she had the offensive, she wanted to keep it, and she proceeded into the series of spin kicks she had taught herself, only without the chi buildup. Unfortunately for her, this was probably one of the most obvious attacks she could pull, and he easily swept her supporting leg out from underneath her, tossing her into the ground like a toy. As she staggered to get up, the boy lunged forward, slamming both palms into the side of her ribcage with enough force to sound like a gunshot and send her flying across the room to tumble along the floor and bounce off of the wall.

Still, she got up. He looked surprised, as she smiled at him menacingly and stalked forward again. She had dropped out of form and was now moving like a brawler again, accelerating into a run and a diving punch. He shook his head, sidestepped, and delivered a blindingly fast set of three punches to her temple, sending her crashing to the floor again.

This continued on for several more minutes, the boy beginning to look actually tired, before the mustached instructor called a halt. He rattled off something in Chinese to the other students, who answered in a chorus that sounded like a “Yes sir!” to Nicky. Remembering her manners almost too late, she returned the bow the boy had given her, though Alex could see there was still some fury in the back of her eyes as she returned to face him.

Alex would grin at her as he walked forward, “You lost control again, I want you to use that form, the form I just showed you. Against that.” he would point towards a punching bag that seemed to be kind of an older style looking one. If she punched it, it would feel like hitting a bag of rice (Because it was). Alex would walk back over and once again go behind her grabbing at her arms and if she let him and show her the form once more. “Now, go and get your anger out. Five thousand-punches.” he would be grinning at her as he watched her, if she did it he would also be following along with her pace to mimic the form so if she ever needed help she only needed to look at him.

Zoë let out a huff as she threw down yet another stack of files onto an already overburdened desk that looked like it had seen better days. It would be replaced as soon as some of her more lucrative deals came to fruition, but right now, most of her capital was focused on settling her operations here in this city of golden opportunity. The urban decay had been oddly hidden on her ride in from the airport, but looking out over the city from the airplane she had seen quite a lot, and her research before she even bought the property she was currently in had shown quite a bit of promise. All of that was in the future, however. For now, she had a job to do. Which was where the files came in, as well as the massive cork board behind her, occupying half the wall of the office.

The room was one of the old factory style manager's offices, with wide bay windows overlooking the ground floor open space. All of the walls, even up here, were old brick, here and there showing signs of needing repair. The floors down below her was all concrete, wile up here seemed to be old wood and threadbare carpeting in a dull grey. Nevertheless, it was sufficient for her needs. Even now, several hired hands who had been recruited before she came were busy setting up facilities down below, two rows of desks, a set of obstacle course from her old lair, and cameras everywhere, fed into a bank of computers situated on the far end and out of sight already. Those servers would only ever be connected to the internal network, and it was made clear that her own laptop was to have the only outside internet access in the building. Later on there would be a rec room, but not yet. A construction crew was busy installing a set of metal plated walls to fill out the area underneath her office, creating two rooms of around twenty feet square each, with a hallway separating them. Behind those would be another room, similarly armoured, along with a secure hatch going down into a freshly installed basement area.

Unfortunately, some facilities had not been yet brought in, including her coffee machine and tea kettle. The room behind her office would be her own living quarters, but much of her things had yet to be unpacked, and she was too busy to do it herself. She punched in a search term on her laptop and stared at the results for a while before selecting a link. The investigation into either transportation or creation of those rounds she had been shown was trickier than she thought. Hound security was tight-lipped, and while she had likely targets, she didn't want to hit anything early and tip her hand, which meant making absolutely sure the target was actually a Hound facility before striking.

She sat back, drumming her fingers on the table, thinking, but a phone call on one of the three cell phones she had arranged on the desk interrupted her before she got going. She quirked an eyebrow as she noted that it was the Wraith phone. Only two people in the world had that number, but even so, she picked it up with care and hit the accept button.

"Einherjar Globale Entwicklungsgesellschaft,“ she answered, switching into English with a slight German accent, something she had been working on for some time now and was satisfied with enough to use as a cover. “This is Natalie, how may I help you?”

“Uhhh. Hello? I was given this number by my boss, but maybe I wrote it down wrong.”

“Ahhh.” Her accent switched again, and she pitched down back to her normal American voice. “Alex! Good to hear from you. How is LA?”

“Oh, it's fine, boss. Got a burner phone like you said. Everyone's settling in now. These are nice digs you found.” His voice sounded a little echo-y on the other end of the line.

“Have they not gotten everything in yet?” She heard her tone slip a little angry, but didn't bother to correct it. She did have a schedule to keep.

“No, not everything, but it's cool. Hey, we was looking at these files you wanted me to keep an eye on and we think we mighta found something.”

Zoë sat up in her chair. "Oh? Do tell, Alex."

"Well," he paused for a second, talking to someone else in rapid Spanish. "Okay, so Julio has this cousin that lives in Pittsburgh, and just because we thought it was worth a shot, right, we called dude up to see if any shit was fucked up, right, and he says that yeah, that exact building is apparently got a bunch of dudes moved in and they active at night. Bringing trucks in at midnight and shipping shit out. Nothing during the day, just like if they want something hid, you feel?"

She rolled her eyes at how fast he was talking. Still nervous, even with her being more than a thousand miles away. "This is very good info, Alex. Very good. I need to make a few calls. Text me this cousin's address, I'll be needing to speak with him directly. Do not warn him I am coming, I don't want him acting suspicious, but assure Julio that I won't harm his family member."

"Si, boss. I'll get you that as soon as I can."

"Oh, and Alex? Good work. Showing initiative is very important."

She hung up before she could hear his stammering thank yous, set the phone down, and grabbed the file for the location he had indicated. An old steel mill, abandoned in the eighties and never renovated, on the edge of the industrial district of Pittsburgh. Lots of buildings around it, all in a similar state, though a few were now simply vacant lots, testament to the city at least trying to keep the run down structures from becoming dens of iniquity. Or safe havens for the homeless. She flipped through the surveillance photos, rare as they were, and old satellite images. Over the course of the past year, the place had seen sudden bursts of activity, followed by long weeks of nothing happening. She assumed this was deliveries of supplies, and then manufacture, then shipping.

Well, it wouldn't matter too much longer no matter what they were doing. She picked up her Forge phone, dialed in a rapid series of numbers, then placed the device to her ear.

"Hello, and thank you for calling Ares Tactical Solutions secure line," a prerecorded voice chirped at her. "If you would like to order armaments or gear, please press one. If you need personnel for a security job, please press two. If you need to recruit a team for sensitive operations, please press three. To speak to a representative, please stay on the line. If you know your party's extension, please state it now."

"Zero three eight seven six dash four one eight charlie."

"One moment." There was a click, and then two rings on the other end before someone answered. "Forge!"

"James, good to hear your voice. I was guessing you might be out."

"Surprisingly not, my friend." James had a rather upper crust English accent, something that grated on her nerves to no end. "I took a round to the thigh on my last job, grounded for another three weeks, I'm afraid. What can I help you with? I assume this isn't a call just to catch up."

"No, I need a job done. Could you be a dear and hand pick a twelve man team for a covert elimination job?"

"I certainly hope so, or I'm likely to be fired! When do you need them by, and where's the job?"

"Tomorrow, Pittsburgh. Sorry for the short notice, but time tends to be of the essence with me, as you know. If possible, I'd like the team to be either locals or from areas hard hit by Hounds."

"Hitting back hard, eh? Not to worry, I think I've got just the team on stand by, as it were, waiting for a chance to knock the ol' blaggards on their arses. I'll send you the details tonight. Any requests on armaments?"

She couldn't help but smile wickedly as she said, "Dealer's choice, but heavy as it gets."

---

The boy gestured with his chin down the road, and Zoë nodded before pulling him back around the corner, two blocks away from the target. This whole area stunk, thanks to the paper mill just down wind of the neighbourhood. Trash was piled in drifts in places where city workers either didn't notice or didn't want to bother with, mostly in the shadows of the run down bricks. The whole place felt like a ghost town. A few lights in windows here and there gave evidence that there was humans still alive here, however, as dusk settled in for the night.

She spun on her heel, clapping the young boy on the shoulder, then handing him two hundred-dollar bills and sending him scurrying away with a gesture. She climbed into the driver's seat of a large semi parked in the alley, turned the engine over, and Pulled it out and down the street towards her target. As soon as she had gotten the vehicle within a hundred feet of the entrance, an armed guard strode into view. When she turned the truck into the entryway for the building, he held up his free hand, leaving his dominant near the trigger for the MP5 he had slung over his shoulder. The black fatigues, if nothing else had, would've confirmed to her this was, indeed, her target. She rolled down the window at his hand motion and leaned out.

"You got papers saying you can delivers here?"

She felt the slight tingle as her power took hold, holding up a sheet of blank notebook paper at him. "Right here," she said, adding a slight southern accent for effect.

Either he had been bored enough to not care, or her ready response had him completely fooled, because he waved her through without bothering to take the "papers" and study them thoroughly. Merde, these people are useless, she thought to herself as she inched through the now open security gate. I need to make sure my employees are not this lazy.

Inside, the place was at least orderly. The truck pull in was recessed into the ground three feet at the far end, with a loading dock around where the trailer doors would end up. Beyond that was a temporary wall like they used in corporate "cubicle farms", but with her height advantage from the truck, she could see over a dozen machines, and the old steel mill parts. Several areas glowed with the warm light of fires, more than likely smelting down the metals they needed. At least two men on the other side looked like they were Catholic priests.

As she brought the semi to a stop, another man stepped out. He had a clean military haircut, no face stubble at all, and the lines on his fatigues were perfect. He carried himself with an air of authority that marked him clearly as an officer if the two men flanking him hadn't already. She leaned out of the window again and stared at him.

"We're not due another load for at least a week, nor do we have any shipments ready to go out. What are you doing here?" His tone was annoyed, not threatening.

"Sorry, mon ami," she said, using her own, normal voice and accent. It wouldn't matter momentarily whether they had heard her or not. "Special shipment out of Paris, oui? Sent over with orders to be as quick and quiet as possible."

"From Paris? What the hell are they ordering from France?"

"Well, as to that, I am not sure, but I know what I loaded into the truck this morning."

"Spit it out, woman. I need to know where to put this shit so I can get you out of here."

Her voice went low. "I never said France, fuckface. And I loaded vengeance."

On the last word, she thumbed the radio on her belt twice. The slightly noisy interior of the plant suddenly erupted into noise as rounds ripped through the trailer sides in all directions, heavy enough to leave gaping holes that quickly shredded the metal. Inside were the twelve men James had selected. Five were from Philadelphia, the rest from Texas. All of them had high calibre assault rifles, and two of them were blasting into the main building with a Browning M2 on a tripod. Zoë did her part leaning a pistol out of the window and emptying the clip into the three men in front of her before they had a chance to react.

She had a vulpine grin as she did it, and it didn't leave her face for more than an hour after they were done.

The rhythmic click-clank of boots striking the polished granite floors echoed through the hallway as Travis Murdock traversed the long corridor leading to the Hounds of Humanity’s situation room. In the hours since launching the attacks that leveled three American cities, the people had begun rising up against the organization that had been responsible. Cells in Mexico, Las Vegas and Pacific Point, among others had fallen under attack, and even the President of the United States himself had come out threatening to rain hell down upon the heads of the Hounds.

It was a challenge that he looked forward to meeting head on.

Upon entering the situation room, Murdock immediately made his way over to the large computer array in the center of the room where Clancy and a few others were gathered looking over the reports that were coming in from numerous cells throughout the country.
“Status report.” He said to no one in particular as he briefly glanced at the vast computer array.

“More of the same, sir.” Clancy said. “We’ve been under siege all over the country. Pacific Point, Vegas, New York and Boston cells have all reported losses. We were also attacked by an unknown paramilitary outfit in Mexico, and it looks as if the same group, or at least an affiliated group has attacked the warehouse district here in Lost Haven.”

“Interesting. Anything else?” Murdock asked coolly, if he were angry over the losses they’ve suffered recently, he wasn’t showing it.
“Yes sir. Since the President declared war on us, we’ve suffered total cell collapse in Miami, Baltimore, and San Francisco. Also, the weapons cache in Chicago is currently under attack by a marine task force. I’ve calculated that they’ll be a total loss in under an hour.”
“Damn it.” Murdock spat out. “Does anybody have any good news?”

“Perhaps. The heroes have proven to be predictable, and as you suspected they’ve gathered outside of Sherman Center in Lost Haven.” Clancy told him.

“Ah yes, Arthur always was a creature of habit. What do you say we not keep them waiting? Let’s hit them with everything we’ve got.” Murdock said. “Now.”



Within moments of the order being given, the Hounds of Humanity had mobilized. From the hidden base just outside of Lost Haven, nearly a dozen Black Scorpion series assault choppers lifted off and headed into the city. The futuristic helicopters made the Apache class crafts look like sight seeing helicopters that you might see at a state fair. The Black Scorpions were heavily armed, however, despite the machine guns and missiles that they adorned the craft, each one also came equipped with a bunked buster bomb, capable of destroying enemy encampments even meters underground.

Following behind the Black Scorpions were several dozen trucks, each loaded with Hounds of Humanity foot soldiers. The wave of heavily armed vehicles raced from their secret base to Sherman Square. The traveled at a high rate of speed and with little abandon, forcing other motorists who were unfortunate enough to be in their way off of the road, and early running down a number of pedestrians who were caught in their path.

Several blocks East of Sherman Square, the ground shook as half a dozen Hounds of Humanity troops piloting large mech suits that stood nearly a story tall rumbled toward the gathered heroes. Each of the mechs were equipped with two mini guns as well as a pair of rocket launchers. Taking up the lead toward Sherman Square was the armored Hound known as The Judicator, and the man known as The Revelator followed just behind the mechs in an armored transport van.



From the bunker, Murdock watched as his army advanced on the heroes gathered at Sherman Square. Excitement washed over him as his forces moved in to finally finish what he had started weeks ago. To finish what he set out to do the day that he lost his family.
From the camera in one of the Black Scorpion cockpits, he was able to see what the pilots saw, and what he saw made him grin. A collection of heroes gathered just in front of Sherman Center, though the gathering of heroes looked to be anything but a cohesive unit. From the looks of things, they not only hadn’t agreed on a plan of action, but they looked to be arguing with one another.
Idiots. Murdock thought to himself as a grin formed across his face.

“Take them out, now.” Murdock said coolly. “Open fire.”

And the collective forces of the Hounds of Humanity did just that, firing off an opening volley that rained destruction down on not only the gathered heroes, but on Sherman Square as a whole.

Running past the remains of the HoH security team, Angel wrinkled his nose at the metallic smell of blood, mixed with the acrid smell of gunpowder and dust. Sherlock really did a number on the Hounds, and the entire front of the building was pitted and gouged deeply, with black-armored bodies lying everywhere. Monolithic above the battlefield, however, the ATD stood, cockpit open, hand extended.

Commanding his mech to reach out and grab him, Angel jumped, and in midair, went limp, letting the ATD shove him in the open cockpit. Merging his senses with the mech, letting its' cool electric buzz wash over him, Angel subsumed the machine into his self. Boosting off into the night sky, leaving his scene of one-sided carnage behind, Angel landed on top of a office building, and launched off again, jumping over entire city districts, until he reached the Southside docks, crashing a few blocks away from the target, creating a crater in the pavement, causing dust to fly in the air, covering the street and obscuring the ATD's form.

The Hound cell in the area came out of the woodworks, opening up on Equilibrium with small arms fire, which pinged off him, uselessly. Sweeping the area with liberal application of his Hellbeast arm cannon, he grinned at the vibrations caused by the massive machine gun. GOD it felt good to be able to fire this wildly without having to worry about unnecessary collateral.

Once the vanguard was removed from the picture, Equilibrium boosted to the warehouse, sprinting at an impossibly fast pace, thanks to his boosters. Crashing through a cordon without a second thought, he crushed several people underfoot, and then approached the warehouse.

Choosing to enter the building dynamically, Angel burst through the wall, and began violently and systematically exterminating all life within, slicing some with the chainsaw on his wrist, shooting others with the gun, and crushing others. Quickly finishing everyone inside, a deep and profound calm fell over the warehouse, gunpowder smoke hanging heavy in the air over deep, pitted concrete, stained with blood, and littered with debris and bodies. And in the center of the room, relatively undamaged, the HoH server farm.

Activating the VIGIL auto-aim processes for the ATD, Angel reached out with his power, and connected with the system. Almost immediately, he recognized the system and firmware. Really? Stolen STRIKE computers? They didn't even bother to change the firewalls. Seriously. Bypassing the security and slipping deep into the network, Angel absorbed the information, and collated it, collecting it in every type of document imaginable. JPG, PDF, word document, interdepartimental messages in government organizations, Angel kept the list in all those forms, backing them up in his ATD.

And then, connecting to a derelict STRIKE satellite, Angel broadcast every single location for every HoH cell on the Eastern Seaboard to everywhere. Almost literally. At first it was a bunch of large packets that Angel had to manually send out, but eventually, the programs embedded in the information began to spread throughout the internet like kudzu.

Retreating from the system, and taking control of the ATD once more, Equilibrium sighed in satisfaction. It felt good to do good for once.

And that's when the sensors alerted him to the jet squadron bearing down on his position.

This would be fun.

 
As she pushed the bike forward, Fletch shook her head as she concentrated on moving her bike to a safer point. She was still annoyed with the new kid fobbing off against the heroes that were here to fight the Hounds of Humanity. Unlike the majority of the heroes that have gathered, including that jackass, she was only human. This was even despite the slightly enhanced agility that she received from Evergreen. Even then, she had achieved a fair amount, including the recent fight he had with the Hounds of Humanity, taking down an attack helicopter in the process. Still, there was only one thing she needed to complete and it just so happens that the person she was looking for was here. This was despite Nemesis’s muted reaction to her nodding at her. Guess I’d have to let her know once things get underway, she thought, watching as the woman walked towards the center.
 
However, the groaning sounds of metal bending under extreme weight was audible in Kayla’s ears. And shortly after that, she stopped dead in her tracks. While she didn’t know about Nemesis’s magnetic abilities flaring up, it had affected more than just her bike. She literally just stopped dead in her tracks, her every fibre in her body not budging an inch. She tried her very best to move from her spot, but with her legs and arms frozen in place, there was nothing she could do. Not even turn her head as the woman entering the building snapped at the jackass behind her because of the comments he made. What surprised her even more was her remark to the woman that was talking to him, mentioning the fact that the jackass’s friend had spoken something about not trusting the metas to get the job done. While she refused to move, the new information that came to her made her thoughts sour. If there were people wanting to help in the city, then surely they’d rather do it themselves if they think that the metas weren’t doing a great job? Especially if they are far more capable of doing that sort of thing that they could ever do. The archer didn’t know the recent history of the woman, but she was starting to not like her at all.
 
As Nemesis finally walked back into the building, the magnetic fields stopped. Fletch almost dropped to the floor as her sudden binds were released. Luckily, she managed to steel her legs before that happened. As she managed to recover and start to push her bike again, she heard Icon speak again. She understood his frustrations as there were people arguing over a simple statement that the jackass blurted out. Before she could say anything, a new woman arrived, materializing out of nowhere. Her skin and hair made her stand out from the heroes, which the look of surprise and wonder apparent in the archer’s eyes. As the short conversation between Icon and the woman, who identified herself as Flux, concluded, Fletch took the opportunity to speak up. ”Of course. Sorry for my actions. You’d probably understand that while I’m not a metahuman, I don’t want to be brushed aside as usel...”
 
Just then, as she moved her bike to an alleyway that ran alongside the Sherman Center, Fletch heard it. It was a familiar sound that she now recognized from the recent fight she had with the Hounds of Humanity moments ago: Helicopters. Without thinking on the matter, she grabbed one of her arrows and fired it towards the roof of one of the buildings. Using the grappling mechanism on her wrist, it wasn’t long before she was hauled up to the top of the building. Detaching the cable from her glove, she drew another arrow as she readied her bow for what she was to see next. From her vantage point, she could see a large number of helicopters heading towards them. And they certainly didn’t look like they were touring the city, especially with their armaments visible to her. Guess the Hounds are coming towards us, she thought, getting the clip of her release aid clamped around the D-loop of her bow. It wasn’t just the helicopters that she saw. She vaguely saw the trucks speeding towards Sherman Square. This had been obvious as they’re forcing both motorists and pedestrians to move out of their way. But the scary thing about the incoming Hounds was the ground shaking, even from where she was standing. Her eyes finally noticed the half-dozen mech suits that were lumbering towards them. Their armaments scared Kayla, even as she was perched on top of the building and should be more worried about the helicopters coming their way. ”There’s no way that my arrows could harm them, she muttered under her breath, her nerves showing in it.
 
”Heads up!” she roared, her voice now hiding the nerves she was clearly feeling. ”We’ve got a large number of Hounds inbound!”
 
And just like that, all hell broke loose.
 
Once the Hounds had gathered their forces, their guns rattled throughout the streets of Sherman Square. Fletch took cover as the helicopters fired as well, no doubt seeing her on the rooftops. Unclipping from the D-loop, she reached into her trouser pocket and grabbed two more seeds to attach to the arrow. By now, Archie was hiding in the other pocket in fear, reacting negatively to the loud gunfire that was in the air. As the choppers ceased to fire on her and began to fire down below, she went out of cover and took aim, her sights aimed at the armoured vans down where she was. While the mechs seem to be out of her league, the helicopters, vans, and troops were fair game to her. Concentrating on her shot, she felt her shoulder muscles engage, slowly ramping up in that familiar strength as she pushed beyond the wall of her compound bow. All the meanwhile, her focus on her target zoomed in as her vision tunneled through her right eye through the scope. Snap! With such violent motion, the arrow was released from the bow at frightening speed. The arrow impacted the ground between the two vans closest to her in the streets below, the familiar explosion from the seeds deafening the air of Sherman Square as it pushed the vans apart, crushing troops in their wake. The soldiers already between the vans were dead, the explosion killing them instantly as the shockwave burst from the seeds.

When the dust settled, the Hounds finally took their chance and fired up at the archer above them. With the cover of the building, she ducked behind it. Her eyes scanned the helicopters through her yellow visor, making sure they don’t turn around and fire at her again. When the Hounds stopped firing to reload, Fletch let loose as she reigned down arrows at the fast rate that she managed to train herself to do. Once she had cleared the Hounds in the street below her, she began to move along the rooftops, jumping over venting units, walls and the gaps between the buildings to find her next target.

"Wow, this is really cool stuff," Terra remarked, running her hand over the wintergreen fabric.

"Careful!" Maddy yelped as her friend tried to lift the material from the knapsack. "It's a prototype, and a secret one at that!" Terra raised an eyebrow, skeptical that the small crowd at Pop's Malt Shop would care much about seeing something like this, but decided to acquiesce.

"So, the stuff changes size with you?" Terra said quietly, picking at a few of the french fries left on her plate as Maddy finished off the rest of her shake.

"Yeah, it was meant to respond to energy input. Complete accident that it turned out the way it did, really," Maddy explained. "I tried it on bits of it, not the whole suit yet. I wanted to tweak the coloring so I didn't look like an Overwatch cosplayer."

"Watch as the next hero has the same color outfit," Terra said with a smirk. Maddy laughed and was about to snark back when a motorcycle turned the corner and ripped past the malt shop with a roar. Her heart leaping into her throat at the noise, Maddy instinctively jumped under the table, causing the silverware to rattle loudly as she slammed into the edge on the way down.

"Maddy?" Terra called out. "Maddy, what's wrong?"

Her head clearing a second later, Maddy timidly climbed back into her seat, the color previously drained from her face coming back in full force. Cheeks burning with humiliation, Maddy mumbled an apology as she halfheartedly poked at a few spare fries.

"Uh...what was that about?"

"Nothing, forget about it," Maddy deflected, trying not to look Terra in the eyes.

"Maddy, come on..."

"I'm fine really, just drop it."

"Mad-"

"I SAID DROP IT!"

The malt shop went dead silent as every eye turned on the pair of them, Maddy fuming silently while Terra sat there staring at her. Undeterred, Maddy roughly tore herself out of the booth, swiping up her jacket with enough force to knock over her malt glass as she got to her feet. "Thanks for lunch," Maddy said in a clipped tone of voice. "I'll see you later." Spinning on her heel, Maddy strode out of the malt shop intent on running home and burying herself in a blanket for the next year or so.

"Maddy, wait!" Terra shouted as she ran up behind her, clutching the stitch in her side.

"Leave me alone," Maddy sniped, deliberately staring at the sidewalk to avoid eye contact.

"Not until you tell me what's going on!" Terra sniped back, sounding angry for the first time.

"Nothing is going on."

"Bullcrap, Maddy. You dived under the table in a panic!"

"So what?" Maddy barked, spinning around to glare at her, Terra looking equally upset.

"So why are you acting like someone's going to start shooting?!?"

Maddy didn't know it happened until it was over. She felt her clenched fist fly out in anger, heard a yelp of shock and pain, and the next thing she knew Terra was on the ground clutching at her nose, her glasses lying a few feet away on the pavement.

"Oh God...I didn't..."

Before Terra could react at all, Maddy was gone, bolting down the street at breakneck speed. Running purely on adrenaline, she turned street corners at random until she was sure no one could follow her and made her way to the nearest doorway. Slamming it behind her with the last bit of effort she could muster, Maddy collapsed into a pile at the corner of the room, crying her eyes out. Maddy felt like a walking disaster, reliving every humiliating failing she had over the last few days, even going so far as to imagine the betrayal Terra must have felt for what she did. Sobbing hard into her hands, Maddy felt like a failure. A useless, pathetic failure, who couldn't do anything without getting reduced to a quivering, crying mess.

Crying so loud, in fact, that she didn't hear the approaching footsteps and the door opening. Maddy heard the creak when the door stopped and looked up sharply. The man, gaudily dressed in leather, spikes, and long, shaggy neon hair, looked as surprised to see her as she did, and started reaching for something on his waist.

"Now don't move sugar, just come quietly and we-"

*WHAM*

The man didn't have time to react as Maddy suddenly tripled in size and kicked at the man from her position, slamming him into the wall with her foot and letting off a resonating boom like a bass drum. Returning to normal size just as quickly, she watched with baited breath as the man fell to his knees and finally pitched forward and fell to the ground, unconscious. Quickly getting to her feet, trying to hold the remains of her clothes to her chest, a chill ran up her neck as she heard more voices coming. She glanced towards her bag, the green suit visible within.

Seconds later, two other men looking like they belonged in a Warrant tribute band burst into the room brandishing weapons, quickly finding their third unconscious on the floor.

"Dude, what happened to Rick?"

"Dunno, man. Think someone got in here?" One of the guards glanced across the backroom barely noticing the shreds of what were once clothes piled with the trash in a corner as the other tended to their friend.

"I don't see no one man," the guard concluded. "Idiot probably tripped on something."

"But what about that huge bang, bro?"

"Slammed his face into the wall, obviously!" the guard concluded. "You know what Rick gets into on his off hours."

"Oh yeah, right," the other guard said, a nostalgic look crossing his face. "Yeah, I remember now, we were at that concert with Rick and he jumped on stage and dropped his-"

"Man quit fucking around, Sarge wants us up front for when that pansy ass greaser shows up," the guard interrupted. "Bring Rick with you and lets go."

The second guard obediently picked up his friend and started dragging his unconscious friend out of the room. His companion followed slowly, pausing one more time to scan the room and letting a minuscule, humanoid figure slip through the doorway below him before he slammed it shut.

Cipher ran through the various corridors that the shipping containers and outdoor material shelves made. FAL to her shoulder, cybernetic arms gripped tight, legs that could run for days, and Eagle Eye by her side in the form of a powerful murderbot armed with a powerful belt-fed shotgun, it was clear that they were here for one thing and one thing only, which was to purge a warehouse of corrupted souls filled with blind hatred and evil. And to gather some intel on the satellite, if possible. Make that two things.

Cipher continued to run ahead, passing by a few maintenance cabins, paying no mind to the bored workers who were too busy realizing that they needed a better union. Running faster than most people, even in a slightly crouched posture with her gun ready, she sped through the industrial complex without much of an issue. Cipher then spotted a warehouse up ahead, a dark and dingy-looking building that appeared to be a nest for crime in the area. "Bingo." Cipher smirked.

Remember. There are four tangos out on patrol, carrying concealed submachine guns. You'll notice them as they are the only men and women in the area who don't wear any safety neon.

"Seriously?" Cipher asked. "They are the only people in the area who aren't wearing safety neon, and they are all combatants?"

Probably helps that they are all wearing jackets, hoodies, and gas masks. And some tactical vests. Eagle Eye added. Practically a popular description of your average Western Terrorist, really.

"How convenient." Cipher sighed, raising her gun and slowing down on her approach, getting down lower. She spoke into the comms. "Galm Team, this is Cipher. I'm approaching the target area, and staying low. What's your status?"

"Cipher, this is Valkyrie. We read ya. We're on approach ourselves, and taking the high route towards the front entrance." Valkyrie spoke over the encrypted comms. "While you're at it, can both of you guys do me a favor and leave the cute chicks alive? You do know about how I feel on feeding from men. God, the neck hair though... ugh."

Cipher rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, I know the drill. Besides, the less blood you drink from me, the better."

"Ah, awesome. We're on target, by the way. Give us a boop once you're in position."

Cipher smiled a little. "Copy that." She then turned her head in a slight gesture towards the combat robot that Eagle Eye was remotely piloting. "Hey Eagle Eye, what does background look like?"

There are currently no civilians in the area. You're cleared to engage the hostiles as you see fit. Eagle Eye said through Cipher's mind, despite controlling a robot right beside her.

"Good thing that we're armed with 7.62s." Cipher thought aloud. "Try to make sure no civilians get caught in the crossfire."

I'd doubt that they would try to anyway, as Sherman Square is currently under attack. Eagle Eye said casually.

Cipher stopped dead in her tracks. "Wait... what?" Cipher looked at the combat bot that stood opposite of her. "The Hounds are currently attacking the city?"

The combat bot nodded, despite Eagle Eye speaking into Cipher's mind ear. Affirmative. Crow Team and our Surveillance Drone is picking up a huge battle going on in the square right now. They brought in armored vehicles, technicals, troop carriers, large mechs, and combat helicopters. The latter two are unidentified tech that no known military or civilian force has deployed before, and they are all engaged with various local metahumans. That area is currently in the process of being locked down, and the US National Guard is struggling to form a response. Multiple civilian casualties already.

Cipher gulped. "Damn... didn't think they'd show their hand this soon..." Cipher then spoke into the comms. "Hey, did you guys hear about this?"



Valkyrie brought her blacked-out G3 rifle to shoulder as she crouched upon the top of a shipping container. She looked through the short red-dot scope mounted on the receiver and took aim at what looked like a distant female Hounds foot soldier. The Hound was a woman in a tactical vest, jacket, and gas mask, who was casually carrying an AR-15 variant of some sort. Valkyrie kept her aim upon the woman's leg, planning to spare her life, if only to devour her blood later. Her smirk revealed her vampiric fangs, but the fact that her irises had a fiery glow to them didn't help her case either. She licked her lips in anticipation. "I hope she's a cutie under that mask..."

"Jesus woman... you plan on eating her or fucking her?" Mr. Smith asked, exasperated, as he remained crouched right behind her, booting up his military grade computer tablet.

Valkyrie smirked. "I'm sure a Hound of Humanity would jump at the chance of sleeping with a vampire." Valkyrie said, her smile making her sentence reek with sarcasm. "I'd probably feed from her regardless if we fuck or not, though."

Mr. Smith chuckled a little. "I doubt she'd like to have sex with you if you blow her damn leg off with a G3."

Valkyrie shrugged. "Hey, you may never know, she could be into that sort of thing." She said in jest. "Besides, I could barely see through her mask. I'd probably need a pillow for all I know."

"That's assuming if she was into women to begin with." Mr. Smith said. "I, however, am a charming man with impeccable influence... literally. Mostly for blood and candy, of course. Especially candy. I don't step beyond that."

Valkyrie nodded. "Don't worry, you don't need to explain yourself." Valkyrie said reassuringly. "I know you better than you think... you're practically my cool weird uncle at this point." Valkyrie smirked. "The cool weird white vampire uncle I never had."

Mr. Smith chuckled before looking back to the tablet. "Wait a fucking second." Mr. Smith searched through the tablet, opening up a live video feed of Sherman Square. "What the hell..."

"What's going on?" Valkyrie asked, concerned.

Looking through a tablet through the eyes of one of Eagle Eye's many Avenger UAVs, Mr. Smith watched the battle unfold. "Woah... holy shit." He blinked underneath his opaque black goggles. "God, this is worse than I thought..."

Cipher then raised them up on the comms. "Hey, did you guys hear about this?"

"What? Sherman Square? I'm looking at it right now!" Mr. Smith said, looking at the battle closely. "I can't even identify these helicopters or mechs, none of it is US, European, Russian or Chinese tech!"

"It appears that the Hounds in Sherman Square are fighting a large contingent of metahumans who have gathered in the area. It could either be a trap, or a challenge." Eagle Eye filled in.

"Yeah..." Mr. Smith said softly. "But shit... this is who we were going up against all along? I thought these guys were just like... Al Qaeda who got really lucky with a satellite... this tech is way beyond me. Shit."

"What about the mission?" Valkyrie asked.

"Hmm... this looks like the Hounds are showing their hand here... and most of their forces are dealing with the metahumans in the square." Mr. Smith turned to an area behind him, where Sherman Square was at, hearing the sounds of distant explosions, choppers, and chaos in general. "Jesus, you can hear the battle and the explosions from here. Either way..." He turned back to the tablet. "... the mission remains unchanged. Thanks to their attack on the metas in the square, their forces will be stretched too thin to send reinforcements our way. Recommence operations."



Cipher got all of that in the radio, and nodded. "Wilco." She continued to run forward, but tried ot piece it all together in her head. What exactly were the Hounds doing in Sherman Square? Why were they showing their hand like this? Where did they get all of this tech, and why blow it here? There was something much larger going on than just the satellite, and Cipher hoped she could get to the bottom of this. Not by going prone, but once she approached the warehouse, she took cover behind a large crate and crouched, resting her rifle on the crate and taking aim at one of the guards that stood by the warehouse side entry door. Her murderbot pal simply just hid behind another container.

Cipher then spoke into the comms. "Boop, in position. Just give the orders, boss."

"Copy. Engage at first shot." Mr. Smith replied over the comms.

Cipher remained almost as still as a statue, aiming her FAL at one of the gas-masked goons that patrolled the warehouse. Taking aim with her normal eye, Eagle Eye made sure that her aim was on point with her cyber-eye, which laid out a HUD of sorts for her, making sure that she was on target. Eagle Eye curtiously marked out the targets Cipher needed to engage in red, with her friend and allies marked as blue. It was easy for her to remain still with her cybernetic arms, as she had no blood to pump in them, or any involuntary muscle movement to worry about. Her rifle shined a little in the moonlight, and as the crickets chirped, Cipher waited for the moment to strike.



POWWW! The deep, but loud sound of a G3 firing echoed through the area, and before the guard in front of Cipher could react, his head exploded into a glorious mess from the armor-piercing incendiary round that Cipher fired from her rifle, a second gunshot echoing right after. Can never be too sure. Some shouts were heard, and Cipher engaged the third guard, who stood around in an surprised and alert stance. Two shots was enough to down him, one in the chest and another in the head. Cipher moved forward. "Moving." Cipher said calmly into her comms, Eagle Eye's murderbot following close behind. As Cipher approached the side door, a hound burst through it and nearly shot her! Before the Hound ever got the chance, Cipher grabbed him by the neck and smashed his head against the wall hard, putting a nice little crack in his skull before tossing him towards her murderbot companion, who proceeded to blast him in midair before he fell to the ground, dead. "I'm going in."

Enemy strength unknown, take caution! Eagle Eye warned Cipher as she approached the door.

"Eyes up! We've got metas!" Cipher heard someone shout as she entered the warehouse. The warehouse was quite large and dingy on the inside, and while it had a pair of large vehicle doors up front (where Mr. Smith and Valkyrie were apparently on the either side of), there was several catwalks, balconies and lots of crates, strewn out all over the place, some of them larger than the others. Some of the crates were green and reinforced, which gave Cipher the impression that they had military hardware inside of them. What stood out the most was what appeared to be several medium-sized mechs of sorts standing there, deactivated. What wasn't deactivated was the several dozen Hounds that were working in the warehouse, but were ready to fight this time. Some of them were wearing armor and gas masks, others were just plainclothes men and women armed with submachine guns and handguns. And they were all pointed towards Cipher.

Cipher immediately took cover behind her murderbot partner, who took the brunt of the damage from the assault rifles, SMGs and pistols that fired at them. They had little effect on the robot, however, and as the Hounds attempted to take cover, Eagle Eye's robot raised the belt-fed shotgun and began firing.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! The shotgun fired automatically, spraying hot lead everywhere. Hounds were blasted left and right, taking 12 gauge rounds hard to their heads and chests. Eagle Eye made a point to spare what was within Valkyrie's parameters as preferred sustenance, so a few of the women simply either got their arms clipped or their legs crumbled.

As a majority of the combatants were suppressed, Cipher got a transparent ball with some tech in it out from one of her pouches, and stuck it onto the wall. "Eagle Eye, go ahead and let the guests in. Be sure to turn down the noise, too." Cipher smiled. The ball then began rolling along the wall towards the far end of the warehouse, where the larger doors were located. There were still a quite a few Hounds remaining, many up in the cabin that was situated on the catwalks. Cipher raised her FAL towards one of them and blasted him in the chest before he had a chance to shoot back, and one attempted to close in on her with a large stun rod of sorts. Before he could swing, Cipher kicked him hard in the chest with her robotic leg, sending him flying backwards before she raised her rifle and finished him off with another shot. As Eagle Eye was sweeping away some of the closer targets, Cipher looked around for more. She spotted someone up in the catwalks, spotting a sniper up there about to fire. She tried to quickly aim at him/her and end the threat, but she promptly felt some pain in her forehead, and fell to the ground, unconscious.





"Cipher, you okay? Cipher... wake up." Mr. Smith's voice echoed into Cipher's mind. "C'mon girl... I don't want to have to turn Valkyrie into a crazy cyborg lady now to replace you, would you? Wake up."

Cipher blinked, her mind surfacing from the deep ocean of unconsciousness. Feeling a really dull pain in her forehead, she groaned, rubbing it, before feeling a fleshy and bloody hole, and the slightly dented metal plating underneath. "Ow... ow, fuck." She groaned, before she saw Mr. Smith crouched above her. "Hmm... hey Boss." Cipher groaned a little. "... is the sniper down?"

"They're all down, the whole warehouse is clear of all hostiles." Mr. Smith said. "You can thank Eagle Eye for letting us in, by the way."

Almost as if on cue, the little ball Cipher deployed to open and unlock the warehouse doors and jam their short-range radio signals (the UAV above made sure that long-range signals wouldn't get anywhere) returned to Cipher by rolling onto her body and slipping back into its pouch. Are you feeling okay, Maya? Eagle Eye asked in her mind out of politeness, as Eagle Eye knew almost everything about Cipher's conditions.

Cipher moaned, rubbing the area around her wound as she sat up. "I'm fine... thanks." She looked to the both of them. "That sniper knocked me the fuck out... what round was it?"

"It was a .338 Lapua." Mr. Smith displayed the round to Cipher, with the copper round all crunched up at the tip. "That is a fuckton of velocity there, no one would blame you for being knocked unconscious there."

Cipher groaned a little, seeing the bullet. "That would've killed me if I didn't have that brain bucket... thanks Papa Sierra." Cipher then tested her functions. "Everything's on the up and up, right Eagle Eye?"

Correct. You are free to move as you please. Eagle Eye said.

Cipher nodded. "Awesome..." Cipher groaned as she stood up. Mr. Smith offered her a towel, and Cipher took it to wrap it around her bleeding head. "Alright, how many EKIA?"

Mr. Smith led Cipher through the warehouse, where dead bodies of various Hounds members were strewn about the place. "Around 26. We captured 8 noncombatants, though, they're all upstairs. Valkyrie is feasting upon their blood as we speak." Mr. Smith said casually. "Those that survive Valkyrie's hunger will be taken to our Carver Island safehouse so Sandman can press them for information."

Cipher nodded gently. "Makes sense." Cipher walked with him. "Are you gonna feast upon some lovely virgins yourself?"

"After I made sure that you were okay, and the bullet didn't do any permanent damage." Mr. Smith said. "Well... Eagle Eye already told me that you were fine, I just wanted to get you up on your feet was all."

Cipher nodded. "Okay." She searched around the room, looking closely at the crates. "Did you find anything useful yet?"

Mr. Smith shook his head. "I didn't even look yet."

"I'd suggest you start now." Cipher said with a soft chuckle as she scanned the warehouse, looking around. Cipher took a closer look at one of the green crates she spotted earlier. She looked at the label on it. "COMAT, Raytheon ATGM-75X Rockets, recipient... STRIKE?" Cipher looked at it again. "What the fuck..." Cipher looked at the mechs behind her, seeing the STRIKE insignia on them. "Oh, I think we might have an explanation for all of that unknown hardware we've been encountering."

Mr. Smith glanced to Cipher as he was examining the M-16 one of the fallen Hounds was carrying. "What do you mean?"

"This is all captured hardware from STRIKE. After STRIKE has collapsed... the Hounds took their hardware, and has been fielding it." Cipher said, looking at the stuff. "It also explains why they have automatic weapons... do we even have STRIKE's data?"

Mr. Smith thought about it before shaking his head. "This is gonna present a huge problem for us." Mr. Smith said before turning towards one of the combat bots. "Eagle Eye? Bring your all of your tasked combat bots inside, and update the rest of the team on what's going on. We need all of the help we can get cataloguing and identifying the hardware here. It would be rather nice to know who exactly we're fighting here, and what we're up against."

"I am currently advising the team about the events here, but you must know, that the locations of target facilities have been leaked onto the internet by an unknown source." Eagle Eye informed them both from the combat robot that stood in front of them. "All across the east coast, cells all over the country. I'm currently transmitting both of that data to Crow Team, and to Papa Sierra as well."

Mr. Smith turned to Cipher before looking back to the bot. "Jesus... this is far worse than I could imagine." Mr. Smith sighed before sitting down on one of the crates. "We're practically going up against a Rogue Nation with some pretty advanced tech here... we gotta switch up our game plan, and we gotta do that fast. Eagle Eye, catalogue this as quickly as possible, and try to secure it, we're heading back to the safehouse."

"Wilco. I also regret to inform you that the Hounds are in the process of scrambling fast mover aircraft of unknown origin, and they are currently inbound to Lost Haven. I'm currently tracking their movements and relaying them to Dragonborn. Our Eagles may be their quarry."

Cipher gulped. "Dear god... the Hounds have Fighter Jets!?"

Almost as soon as she was done bandaging herself, she made the mistake of looking over the damage she had wrought in the bathroom. The coppery scent of blood hung in the air, as well as the more unpleasant smells of the human body after it shut down. And she saw the leg of the man with his head through the sink twitching. Apparently a piece of the sink had penetrated one of the major blood vessels of the neck. She immediately bent over and vomited. She had never killed before, and panic, adrenaline, and horror hit her hard enough to cause her to lose what little she had in her stomach. She stayed on her hands and knees for a long while, tears flowing openly as she sucked in huge gasps of air, trying desperately to get a grip on her mind. I can't break down now. There are innocent people in this building who need help. Come on, Darya, get moving!

She climbed to her feet and took another moment to steady herself, snatching a paper towel from the broken dispenser on the wall and wiping away the various fluids from her face, more roughly than she normally might have. Even in the midst of such carnage, she made sure the towel went into the proper receptacle as she leaned out of the door, checking for signs of enemies. No one seemed to be moving outside. She pulled out the radio and pressed the button.

"Dispatch, are you there?"

"Yep, still here Tiamat. How are you doing in there?"

"Well...There are fewer attackers, now? Five in the bathroom, I think at least two of them are dead. Six in the recovery area. I don't know if any of them are still alive."

"Damn! Okay, are you wounded?"

"I'm okay. Took a graze, but I'll live. Can you tell me where the civilians might be?" She glanced at the wall plate nearby. "I'm on floor five."

"Reports on the ground from the perimeter say there's a group holding hostages in the lobby. SWAT's still inbound, so for right now we're just watching. One of the staff members who got out says it was pretty skeleton staff right now, maybe a hundred inside, and more than half got out. Judging by the headcount we've gotten, plus the deaths of the staff you told me about, I'm guessing everyone is there in the lobby."

"Then that's where I am going."

"Whoa, Tiamat, hold on! We can't have you go charging in, not without support. That's how hostages die. You said they had other people in the building, right?"

"Yes. I think they took over the security system, too."

"Okay. What you could do is go to the security room, it'll be somewhere on the first floor, and deal with them. Then sit tight until I call you, okay?"

"Okay, I can do that."

"Are you sure you're okay? You sound a little shaky there."

Her voice failed her, and she couldn't voice what she felt. It took her a moment before she managed to weakly say, "I'm fine for now."

"Alright." The dispatcher seemed not ready to press her. "Whatever you do, stay safe. We'll get you and the civilians out as soon as we can."

The young heroine leaned against the wall, thoughts racing. She had killed people today. Yes, they had been trying to kill her, but she knew she could pacify normal people without killing them. But she hadn't. She had shot men dead. She had broken in a man's skull. And worse, it had been so easy, she hadn't even realised she was doing it. Her mind flickered back to the fight in the plaza that had landed her here. The man in the suit that had supported them, he had killed easily and efficiently, barely even an expression on his face. Then, too, had been a kill or be killed situation.

Was this really what hero-ing was? Killing those who tried to kill you while you tried desperately to remember what the right thing even was? Could she do that? It felt more like being a soldier than a hero, and she had never wanted to be a soldier. Her whole goal had been to...What had been her goal? Her powers had come on her suddenly, Allah gifting her with extraordinary powers, but had she ever really thought what she should do with them, consciously? The Hounds were obviously needing to be dealt with, but was violence really the only way it could be done? Could there be another option? After all, she knew that some of her father's friends had been radicalised, and the same had happened here. Was there a hope of redeeming these men and women, those on the fringes, who were scared of change but not necessarily evil?

Well, she thought to herself, kicking off the wall and standing, her fist clenching. Water sluiced to her from the bathroom and ran up her leg, coalescing into a thin film that covered most of her bodysuit. Whatever happens, I cannot stand here while people are in danger. That much I know is part of being a hero.

---

Darya slid along the corridor wall, barely daring to breathe. Past the door hanging halfway open not five feet to her right, she could hear three people talking in low voices. One of them sounded like they were on the phone. Probably calling in support to pull them out. As silently as she could, the girl slipped up to the door and peeked around the corner.

In front of a bank of monitors ten feet inside the room sat two black armoured people with short hair. A third was facing away from her and the monitors both, hand up to her ear. That one resembled the one who had tried to assassinate Darya at the very beginning of this night, covered in knives and with long hair tied in a bun. Another leaned against the wall, arms crossed, just inside the door, watching the monitors and picking his teeth with a finger. All four had submachineguns on them, what looked like MP5s, though the light was dim and made it hard to tell. Three pairs of shoes were visible in one corner, and she could guess the security guards were not going to be alive, judging by the stains in the carpeting.

She guided the water soaking her clothing out of the fibres and slithering up, along the ceiling through the door. She didn't have much with her, maybe a gallon and a half, but she thought it sufficient for her plan. She divided it evenly across the four people, then dropped it suddenly, steering it into their eyes, noses, and mouths. The woman with the cell phone alos got some along her hands. Then all of it heated quickly up to near boiling temperatures. Not enough to do much damage, she hoped, but enough to make them stop fighting and go down easier.

The panic was easy to see as they thrashed and clawed. As soon as she knew they didn't immediately go for guns, the water flashed down until it froze. She went into the room, then. Her foot lashed out and shattered the man just inside the door's fingers against his gun, and she swung high and hard with a fist, slamming it into the edge of his temple just behind his eye. He went down with a muffled grunt. The other three went down as quickly, and she thawed the ice and drew the water back out of their faces. All four had red marks wherever the water had been, and it looked like she might have gone a bit too hot, because she could see blisters forming already. Still, their fault for being murdering terrorists. They were luckier than the ones upstairs, at any rate. That rationale probably wouldn't hold up to her own scrutiny for long, but at least long enough to get through this night.

She triggered the radio again and let the dispatcher know she had taken care of the security room, and less than fifteen minutes later she watched on the monitors as a well planned SWAT infiltration took down the rest without a single civilian casualty. After that, it would just be answering some questions and heading home.

Right?

With the minor rocking of turbulence the crates strapped to the inside of the Globemaster as Riley and a few Scientist and Doctors held to their straps as tightly as their cheeks were clenched. One of the Docs chattered nervously to himself as even after Hound Dog had reassured him all would be fine he had yet to ease up.

“Yeah Doc, the chances of those doors falling open and you getting sucked out into the cold abyss are negligible at best,” Jordan said, somehow managing to hold her balance as she dug through one of the crates to check on her equipment.

”Not helping the guy Doc. Think happy thoughts, Cars and Burgers, Kittens and Puppies or even your favorite TV show? You see Infinity War yet Doc?” Hound Dog said trying to calm the poor man down as cargo nets thrashed along the walls and wind kicked the bottom of the plane.

”I am beginning to wonder if this was the best way to travel, though, Riley mused, still looking chipper despite not entirely enjoying the ride. ”I suppose it DID get us this far, though…”

”Planes are rough gotta loosen up and let that chassis into neutral.”

Hearing chatter from the flight control tower the Co Pilot picked up the radio as he heard them on the line trying to contact them. “Your flight has been adjusted, we have multiple bogies down in Sherman Square. For your own safety alter your route.”

“Understood,” Removing his headset he carefully stepped into the cargo hold. “WE GOT A CHANGE OF PLANS. SEEMS HOUNDS ARE IN SHERMAN SQUARE. GONNA TAKE LONGER TO LAND.”

“The Hounds are....WHAT?” Jordan didn’t wait for a response as she dived into the crate again, pulling out her laptop and setting up a rudimentary workspace in the span of a few seconds. The first thing she pulled up was a news report detailing a sudden attack by the Hounds of Humanity on Sherman Square. “Damn it, they’re already shooting! I’m picking up foot soldiers and vehicles, tanks, walkers...shit they even have choppers down there.”

”Is there any way we can get down there to assist?” Riley piped up urgently.

”Depends. How are you at flying?”

”Much better, actually. Why?”

“I think I know what you’re planning,” Jordan remarked, picking up her equipment and moving towards the netting on the side. “You might want to grab onto something soon, buddy. That cold abyss is just about to come up.”

”Here we go Voyager! It’s gonna be a new experience for you!” Unbuckling himself and Riley Hound Dog lead her over to the door just behind the Co Pilot side of the airplane and said, ”You hold on until you’re ready to fly, when we drop we’re gonna have to aim for Sherman Square. Only seen it on TV but with all the Hounds there I shouldn’t miss.” Grabbing the handle he paused speaking. ”Time to channel my inner Icarus” Swinging the door open the pressure fell in the plane trying to suck everything away even the skin off Sinclair’s face.

”What’s inner IcaruaaaaaAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

Voyager’s yell was cut short into a gasp as the sudden change in pressure took hold of the pair of them, the shock forcing the air from her lungs for just a moment. Stunned by the sudden sensation of the wind roaring past her, Voyager held tightly onto Hound Dog’s waist, using her psionics to stabilize the pair as they flew alongside the plane. ”Where do we land!?!” Voyager shouted over the wind, squinting towards the specks on the ground that may have been buildings.

Taking a moment Hound Dog zapped the open door before it flew beyond his range, giving it a slight magnetic charge allowing anyone behind them to close the door more easily.”Relax, not often you feel this kinda thing. Just enjoy this let me worry about where we go yeah. Once we get close enough you’ll know.” As the two ceased flying straight and began to plummet, Hound Dog could see the entire city scape all the powerlines, the people and of course even where the hounds had begun to converge changing his profile steering his arms they moved closer and closer to the fighting as teal sparks began to form around Hound Dog until he had created a ball of pure lighting almost stopping their descent letting them float through the sky like a feather. ”Now this is a sight you don’t see. For Heroes who can’t fly this is a magic all unto itself. Icarus is a Greek Myth, the man who made wings of wax and flew too close to the sun. Thankfully our story has a better ending. And speaking of endings. You see those helicopters, there’s 11 of them. I can tell. In a few minutes let’s thin their numbers you toss me towards those four once we get close.” As Hound Dog and Voyager began to pick up speed again as the field Hound Dog produced dissipated.

”Magic...Icarus...wax wings...helicopters...ooh yeah, few minutes, got it!” Voyagers heart banged against her ribs as she watched the specks grow and become buildings and streets, small flecks of colored sparks showing where the Hounds were firing into the center. Spotting a group of dark shapes hovering together, she helped to steered them closer, the screaming wind nearly deafening her as she sped up even more, the shapes growing into the unmistakable shape of the helicopters.

”Hang on...almost there...” Voyager shouted over the din. They were moving so fast that the ground seemed to blur before them. If they knew what was coming, they weren’t moving out of the way fast enough.

”Almost...there...”

And they weren’t going to avoid it-

”DaH!!!”

Putting on a burst of psionic strength, Voyager launched Hound Dog like a bullet out of a gun right at the helicopters. Hound Dog’s hands pulsed with energy crackling and exploding as he spun sending the bolts right into the wave of helicopters steering himself and arcing each bolt back into themselves as chain lighting rocked their electrical systems and clinging to one by grabbing the door pushing a bolt right against the frame the rotors began to sputter out and Hound Dog jumped off towards the next one with teal electricity trailing behind him. Two down, let’s see how far I can take this. Thinking as he launched a pouch of coins like buckshot from a punch each coin propelled with enough force to smash glass peppered the helicopter's windows.

”Qapla'!” Voyager shouted in triumph as she watched Hound Dog adeptly take out the choppers, beginning to cheer him on for going after the others before realizing she was still flying towards the ground at a very high speed. Pulling herself out of the dive, she arced gracefully across the skyline and curved upwards again, turning away from Hound Dog to see herself heading straight towards another helicopter. Voyager barely had time to unleash another klingon swear before she threw up her Psibarriers, cleaving through the tail of the chopper with a metallic crunch. Losing enough speed to regain control, she turned back around to watch the now tailless chopper spin out and crash on a rooftop, the pilots parachuting out at the last second. ”I suppose that is one way to do it. I will have to remember that one!” Charging up her Psiblasts, Voyager flew back towards the fray with Hound Dog, blasting the weapons on one of the attacking helicopters to bits as she returned.

Hound Dog with a smile turned and waved as he quickly grabbed the two helicopter debris with a chain of electricity, charging them one with a negative and the other a positive charge ramping up the magnetism until they were drawn towards each other, smashing the third one as Hound Dog let them loose. And three Turning his attention to the fourth one he simply tried to blast the rotor but missed and swiped the tail rotors causing it to spin. Hound Dog looked at their jumbled mess the trio of copters had made and slinging it with a chain of lighting whipped it into the ground instead of letting it fall uncontrollably likely crushing any hounds below.

”Nice, that is five of them!” Voyager announced as she swung over. ”So what will be the plan of attack? There are plenty of these evil jerks to go around!”

”The plan, meet up with the other heroes. Then clean up the rest of their forces. That cool with you? Keep a look out for other heroes, chances are either in the middle of all this or on a vantage point. I checked for civies while in the air, but keep an eye out for them too. They may be hidden from all the fighting. ”

”Sounds like a good plan to me!” Voyager said, her eyes drawn to one of the Hound’s mechas stomping around a few blocks away. ”I bet those do not have any gemstones to protect them from me.” Before Voyager could rush off to deal with them, the last chopper that Hound Dog crippled swung by, spinning out of control and nearly slamming into her. Avoiding the rampaging aircraft with ease, Voyager looked after it and her eyes widened in shock as she spotted someone on the rooftops dodging gunfire from below, taking cover in the dead center of where the helicopter was going to crash. ”Problem! We got a problem!” Before Hound Dog could question this she was off, flying after the out of control vehicle as fast as she could go. Realizing she had no way to move it, she tried a different approach, measuring up where she thought the craft would land and, at the last second, focusing a PsiBeam to slice the tail off right where it might have crushed the rooftop warrior. Voyager felt a burst of pride as the vehicle separated, crashing on either side of the building as she herself landed, sliding to a sudden stop as she regained her bearings.

”Hu'tegh, that was close,” Voyager sighed in relief to the stranger, a woman dressed in black and orange wielding a compound bow. ”Sorry about that, I have never really fought helicopters before!”

Giving Voyager a wave, Hound Dog surrounded himself with the similar ball of electricity that he had used before slowing his descent towards the ground and lighting crackled from him.

@Mercinus3

Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Icon looked to the source, and was no prepared for what he saw. Aside from dozens of transport trucks, a number of gigantic mech battle suits made their way toward the heroes, along with a flock of sleek black choppers. Before Icon, or any of the other gathered heroes could react, the approaching forces opened fire. Buildings shook as the artillery rained down on Sherman Square, however, much to the surprise of the heroes gathered together, not a single shell touched them.

Instead, the heroes found themselves within a strange bubble which glowed a cobalt blue. Icon looked around the group and found the source, the teal skinned woman who had introduced herself as Flux was standing with her arms outstretched with her palms facing up, with that same cobalt energy emanating from her hands. As the opening volley subsided, Flux lowered the shield. The group of heroes stood there in the center of Sherman Square as the forces of the Hounds of Humanity advanced on them.

“That’s not something you see everyday.” Radiance said with a mix of anxiety and astonishment in her voice.
“Unless you’re us.” Lyger retorted. “Even then, I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“I have.” Iron Knight said grimly. “That’s S.T.R.I.K.E tech.”

“Are you sure?” Icon asked.

“I Helped design it. Yeah, I’m sure.” Iron Knight confirmed.

“Guys, we should probably do something, they’re still coming.” Slipstream said nervously. Though she had fought the Hounds numerous times in recent weeks, she had never seen anything quite like this.

“ Alright folks, it’s time to go to work.” Icon said as he leapt from the ground and made a direct line for one of the mechs just as the Hounds renewed their attack.

As he approached the mech, it opened fire on him, however the rounds from the mini guns that protruded from the body of the mech bounced off of him harmlessly. Icon slammed into the mechanized terror, however, instead of crumpling the monstrosity as he had expected, his entire body was suddenly wracked with pain as the walking tank’s electrified defense system kicked in, hitting the hero with more voltage than that of a massive bolt of lightning. The sudden shock knocked Icon from the sky and sent him crashing into the pavement below.

He lay there dazed for a moment as the mech stood over him. Suddenly, it lifted its massive mechanical leg as if it were about to stomp on an insect. Icon rolled out of the way just as the massive foot came crashing down where he had been just a split second before, fracturing the pavement. He came up to one knee as the foot went up again, preparing to stomp on the hero. However, Icon unleashed a large optical blast that incinerated the leg before it could stomp downward again. Then a blue energy began to crackle around his fist as he soared upward and landed a solid right hook on the body of the unstable mech. The impact of the punch knocked the mech sideways, and sent it crashing into another of the advancing mechs, knocking them both to the ground.

“Right…that wasn’t so hard.” Icon said as the remaining forces advanced undeterred into the Square.

I paced outside the entrance to the the 5th Street Promenade. Emily and I had originally made plans to stroll around the 5th Street Promenade, partially to just hang out and partially to get my mind off the Hounds (although she was unaware of this motive). However, after waiting for fifteen minutes, I had not seen nor heard from her. It was not like her to stand me up like this. Some of the other Viera girls, maybe, but not Emily. What could be holding her up?

I then felt my phone buzz in my hand. She finally sent a text, alerting me that she was running a little late. She suggested that I could start walking around without her, since she would just catch up to me once she arrives. However, she never did mention why she was running late. Nevertheless, I did not press the issue. I guessed it was none of my business, anyways.

My first stop was a store called Yellowjacket. It sold all sorts of posh clothing, although their inventory was mostly targeting a female demographic. I normally don’t shop there, even since I became employed by Viera, but it never hurts to window shop from time to time. Once I passed throughYellowjacket’s entrance, I began to amble around the store.

Eventually, I stumbled upon a cute dress that I just loved. A year ago, this dress would have fit me like a glove. But, alas, no so much now. Now, I have to spend hours rummaging through tons of clothes to just find something that would fit my figure. I normally run into one of two problems. If I try something that fits my bust, the rest of the dress or shirt would be draped in front of me, creating this awkward empty space between the fabric and the rest of my body, which would make me look thicker than I actually am. But if I try for the opposite, to get something that fits my slim figure, I either get a seam running across my bust or my bust would look like it would pop out at any moment. Thank God that Athena had already altered my entire wardrobe so that it would fit me properly, after that magical trafficker had irreversibly altered my body several months ago. That’s the perk of having the goddess of weaving as your friend. Well, I don’t know if I could call our relationship as ‘friendship.’ More like a ‘positive working partnership,’ or something.

But the dress was just way too cute. So, I pulled off the rack a dress of the same style, along with two other ones that also caught my eye. Then I headed towards the back of the story where the changing rooms were located. Once inside, I hung the three dresses up and pulled the first off its hanger. After I had stripped off my shirt and pulled the first dress over my head, I took a look in the mirror. With a little of Athena’s sewing magic, this one would look pretty nice on me.

As I removed the first dress and turned to the second, I heard someone entering the dressing room stall next to me. When I heard sobbing, I got a little nosey and started to eavesdrop. When I heard a pair of boots entering the stall with the woman and a gun cocking back, I started to get concerned. Could the Hounds be here? How could that be? Slipstream and I exterminated those cockroaches.

How should I approach this? I could easily change into my costume right in this changing room and intervene. However, I don’t think I could easily change back into my civilian identity. Although it is probably above the store’s employees’ pay roll to keep track of when customers come and go, it is better safe than sorry. Leaving the store and reentering would be the best option without compromising my identity.

While I was placing the first dress back on its proper hanger and pulling my shirt back on, someone threw open the door to the dressing room stall I was occupying. A woman stood in my only way out. While she was not wearing the usual black tactical gear that the Hounds are accustomed to wear, she held a pistol in one hand and a portal device in her other. I bet she was wearing this civilian disguise to prevent everyone else from panicking and ruining whatever the endgame that the Hounds had in mind for Pacific Point.

“Jackpot,” the woman declared, “I found another one.”

“Hey! Just because we’re both women don’t mean you can just barge right in!” I replied while trying to keep my cool. The question that was running through my head was how did she know I was a superhuman. Was it that device she was holding in her hand?

“Don’t worry, you witch. You will have a part in helping the Hounds remind the world that they are sheep surrounded by wolves in sheep skin. The Hounds will be like the shepherd dog, chasing the metas out for the good of the flock.” She holstered her gun and pulled out a second device from her pocket, circular in shape and no bigger than the palm of her hand.

“Witch? You must be mistaken!” It is definitely a relief that she has not figured out my real metahuman powers. But why would she think I’m a witch?

“You have trace amounts of magical energy in your body. This device doesn’t lie.” The woman responded.

“Wait! I think I can explain this,” I answered back. Oh God, I think I know what this residual magic could be. “A few months ago, a witch used her magic to alter my body. I think that’s what your little scanner is picking up.”

“Unfortunately, you are still stained by the witch’s touch. Humanity will thank you for your sacrifice.” The woman then approached me with her hand stretched out with the circular device aimed at me.

“Wait! Can’t we talk this out?” However, she was definitely in no mood for rational thinking. Struggle ensued, as she tried to attach the device to my skin. I did my best to keep her away from me. I have no idea what that device would do, but it could not be anything good.

“I said stop!” I shouted at her before I threw a punch at her face. It dazed her for a second, but she quickly recovered. She dropped the power scanner on the floor and drew her Glock and aimed it at me.

“You’re going to regret that, witch.” The woman threatened. However, before she could pull the trigger, someone grabbed the woman and slammed her against the wall, which temporarily knocked her out. Behind the Hound’s grunt, there stood a brunette woman wearing a costume inspired by 40’s and 50’s Americana (writer’s note: something like this, but obviously not Wonder Woman). Instead of a domino mask, only a pair of large sunglasses covered her eyes.

“Don’t worry, citizen. You should be safe now.” The costumed woman told me.

“Emily? What are you doing wearing that getup?” I asked my friend, seeing through costume inspired by the 40’s and 50’s. Has she been a metahuman this whole time and I did not recognize it? It makes sense she would not tell me, but how could I not see this coming?

“What?” Emily tried to deflect my response, “The name’s Pinup. I don’t know anyone named Emily.”

Before we could continue this conversation, we heard a voice coming from a radio that the woman had also dropped when Emily (or Pinup as she preferred to be called). Whoever was on the other line was asking for a progress report on whatever that woman had been doing. The woman then quickly snatched up the radio, since we were momentarily distracted with Emily’s secret identity.

“Cry havoc and unleash the hounds of war,” the woman responded back to the Hound commander on the other side of the radio. Then I could feel the air inside of the building grow frigid. The air became more difficult to breath in, as if it were solidifying. How were the Hounds causing the air within the store to freeze?

Suddenly, I felt someone yank me backwards. I knew it was not Emily since she was standing right next to me. One moment I was inside, the next Emily and I sitting outside the store, unscathed. Furthermore, somehow my powers had been activated and my costume was on me instead of my regular clothes. When I looked up to see who had saved us, I discovered Athena standing before us.

“You are welcome,” Athena told me without looking me in the face. Instead she was gazing at the Yellowjacket building, which had been entirely encased with ice. “And before you ask, yes. I got all the civilians out, too.”

“I’ve noticed that you haven’t been around as often as you used to. What’s up with that?”

“I’ve had some important business to take care of.”

“Anything that will involve me?”

“There is a high probability.”

“And are you going to tell me what it’s about?”

“When the time comes, yes. But for now, let’s focus our attention to the task at hand.”

“Great,” I sighed.

“That was great thinking on your part,” Emily, still dressed as Pinup, congratulated me. She had obviously not heard the conversation between Athena and me. She probably can see her. “I don’t know how you did it, Aubrey, but—”

When she saw my costumed drider appearance, Emily’s sentence was cut short by her own shock and bewilderment. It took her a moment before everything registered in her head.

“When did you become a spider person?” Emily asked. “And how did you make your bust smaller?”

“I think we have some more pressing questions at hand, like what the hell is that!” I exclaimed as something broke out of the ice that had engulfed the store. An individual, almost seven feet tall, with an almost crystalline body, tore its way through the ice until it had breached its icy prison. When I realized that the ‘creature’ was wearing the tattered clothes and the circular device that the woman had tried to attach to me a few moments ago, I dreaded what might be the reality: was this the person sobbing inside before the Hound attacked?

Then, a tiny owl fluttered towards Athena. When it had landed on her shoulder, it began to constantly hoot at her in an agitated fashion, as if it were trying to say something.

“I see, Bubo. There is at least a half a dozen of these rage-induced metahumans within the immediately vicinity and many more around the city, correct?”

The owl then nodded its head. I was going to say something about her talking to the owl, but I already knew she would say something about her being the patron goddess of owls and being able to speak every dialect of owlish or whatever bull she would give me as an answer. It would definitely save me the headache.

“I can tell that this evening is already going to suck.”