Pheonix was not a very talkative person. In fact, he's also not very sociable, which is amazing considering everyone around him in Paradox HQ was an undeniably sweet person. Standing in Leila's office for the third time since he had formerly joined Paradox, he felt as if he were being a bit too distant from his co workers, and it didn't help that they all seemed indefinitely patient with him.

"You have gone without a partner for 3 months now, Pheonix." Leila said, sitting in her brown mahogany desk. Pheonix couldn't quite meet her eye this time, and he wondered why but knew the answer immediately. Her eyes were an unsettling shade of jade. He kept his head down, eyes pointed to the elegant moth carved into the side of the desk. His feet, bare like always, rubbed against the dark green carpet. "Pheonix, is everything going alright? The missions haven't been too hard, have they?" She asked, a kind and worried tone to her voice.

Pheonix looked up, almost ashamed when he spoke softly. "I am doing fine, ma'am." Leila chuckled.

"Ma'am? I look about as old as you do." She said. "Well, I'm glad the missions are going well. It's just..." She sighed, and a slight green moth flew from across the room to land serenly on her shoulder, blending in perfectly with the suit Leila wore. She played with the moth's wings, brushing one lightly. "Charlotte has been worrying about you." Pheonix's eyes landed on the moth.

Charlotte was by far the strangest thing the future had to offer to Pheonix. He didn't quite understand what she did, or how she worked exactly. All anyone could tell him about the curious moth and her powers was that she never left Leila's side, and she always knew more than anyone in the room. Of course the moth would worry about him, really, he should have seen it coming. He tried to apologize, but the words got stuck in his throat.

"Charlotte says it's fine, you don't need to apologize for anything." Leila relayed to him. "She thinks...well, we both think, that you need to partner up." Pheonix dreaded the idea of partnering up. He gulped, slightly uncomfortable with the conversation ahead.

"I...I work better. By self. Alone." He said. Leila nodded, resolutely.

"I understand. But doing missions by yourself is dangerous, especially as you get stronger. We wouldn't want you getting hurt with no backup." She said. "You're getting to that stage in training Pheonix, and we're both proud of you, honestly. But," She paused. "Greater power means greater responsibility. And that responsibilty requires two people, I'm afraid." She smiled, sadly.

Pheonix breathed in deep. "Yes. I understand. I can find partner." He said, giving in. Leila shook her head.

"Now hold on, you don't have to do the picking at all." She said. "Charlotte picks all of the Agents partners, and she's never been wrong!" Leila beamed at the moth, the latter fluttering disapprovingly. "Now, once she picks someone, you two don't have to start doing missions together right away. We give you one weeks worth of wait time, and then we hand you your first assignment." She said. "As you know, Agents have a full month, depending on the scope of the situation, to solve their mission. Their Paradox so to say. Failure is not an option, and if it comes to that, I'm afraid we can't trust you to do bigger missions anymore."

Pheonix didn't particularly like the sound of no more Paradox cases. He liked the missions he was getting now; the Bermuda was the first big case he ever got. Getting small cases wouldn't be quite as fun. "I will not fail you." He said, determined.

"Good. And now, Charlotte is done looking for a partner." She said. Pheonix blinked. The Moth had not moved at all, save for a flutter of her wings. "Oh! What a curious pair you two'll make!" She excaimed. "I hope you're fond of Elvis, Pheonix. Miss Goodoire is especially kind to the rockabilly sort!"
...............................

The first time Pheonix saw Eris Goodoire, he couldn't believe someone who wore such outrageous colors would be matched with him. They dressed in horrendous pastels, and Pheonix found it insulting to the eyes. He decided to focus on their face instead. The house behind him, the one he had burned to the ground, was instantly being repaired with the help of Charlotte. Leila wasn't really expecting Eris to show up, but she made up for it by lying. It was the first time he saw her lie. They all sat down, and for an hour, Pheonix sat on the couch being watched like a hawk by Max Heighnsworth, the man who owned the house. Pheonix glared at him, still angry at what he had said to him. "He's not even from our time, and you're letting him stay in? Dude can barely speak english as is!" Back then, Pheonix knew he would regret setting the house ablaze later, but he hadn't cared. Now that the house was back to normal, and Max Heighnsworth was thoroughly traumatized, he felt a little better.

It still didn't stop him from wanting to punch the man in the face repeatedly, but it would do for now. MIndy, the brilliant scientist that came along with Eris and the butler, went upstairs in search of her friend. Leila cleared her throat. Pheonix got up from the couch, and went to the table, taking a stand right next to Leila's seat. Darius and Charlton both got up, and stretched sleepily. "Well, we'll see you around then. Goodnight, Leila." Darius said. Mindy and Eris came back downstairs, and soon the house was just as it was an hour and a half ago. Leila finally put her cup down.

"I'd reprimand Pheonix for his borish behaviour, but what you said hurt even my feelings." She said. "Apologize." Her voice grew cold. Max shuffled his feet, embarrassed.

"Look, it's not like that. I'm not a-" He began.

"Pheonix is a valued member." She said simply. "I will not tolerate you insulting him like that, especially not in his company."

Max scoffed, and looked directly at Pheonix. "You're my replacement, huh?" He asked. Pheonix blinked, suddenly hyperaware of a stray blonde strand in his face. He didn't want to look at Max Heighnsworth anymore.

"Pheonix is-" Leila began.

"I am no replacement." Pheonix spoke for himself. He gulped nervous, but he soldiered on keeping both his fear and anger in check. "I am my own Agent." He looked up at Max, determined.

"Hush about replacements. Ex-Agents aren't supposed to discuss such matters." Leila said. She sighed. "Eris has found your pin, it seems." She said, tired suddenly. Max's eyes lit up.

"You...you took my pin away years ago..." He began. "You wiped everything I ever did for you away, how could there be a-"

A slight flare of green could be seen in Leila's eyes, as she petted the soft wings of the moth on the table. "We have eyes on our Agents, Max. And we especially have eyes on you." She tapped the side of her face, right next to her eye. "Traitors, I'm afraid, don't get privacy after their actions."

Max was seething. Pheonix grabbed the back of Leila's chair protectively. "You are a real piece of work, Mayner." Max hissed. Pheonix could feel the air in the house getting warmer, and he knew it wasn't him this time. "People don't even know about my powers now. Charlton definitely knows and yet-"

"The butler has agreed to stay silent, for your own good." Leila said. "What you did was despicable, Max. You don't get to be a hero after doing something like that." She stood up, gently placing a hand on the table. "I didn't come here to discuss your punishments, though. I have come to discuss your partner. Former partner."

Max huffed, and sat down. "How's he doing anyway? I didn't think sellouts were still welcomed."

Leila ignored his quip. "He's gone, Max. Shou left in the middle of the night, and no one can find him. His parents are very worried." Max scoffed, leaning heavily on his arms, his head in his hands.

"I don't know where the kid went. He ain't here if that's what you're asking." He said. "Just a minute ago you said you had eyes all over, so what's this got to-"

"Shou is using his own power, I think. Charlotte hasn't been able to see him." Leila explained. "We've decided to look around now. We started with you because Shou was very close-"

"We weren't close. Not by a long shot." Max said, stonily. Leila's brow furrowed.

"But....you seemed so-"

" 'Seems', and 'Auctually like', are too different things Mayner." He said. "He hated me."

Leila swallowed nervously. This was the first time Pheonix saw her nervous. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. "I appear to have made a greivous mistake." She said, quietly. She got up, suddenly. Max didn't look up at her.

"Money is important, you know." Max said. Leila froze.

"Yes." Her voice was like the waves, then. "Money is important in this world, that I cannot deny. But stealing it, and jeopardizing a mission for it..." Pheonix looked away, feeling as if he were intruding on a private conversation. He was somewhat knowledegable of Max's actions. Stealing money he was supposed to use for his mission, and using his powers to fight back against other Agents, was enough to get him permanantely banned from being an agent of Paradox. He remembered Crow warning him one morning about what could really happen if you botched a mission badly.

"Do you still have that stupid shop?" He asked, referring to a record store all the way in Atlanta.

"Yes, we're turning it into a hub for Agents. People will be able to ask for our help all the way in Atlanta now." She said. "At least some good came out of punishing you."
.................................

That night, in his room at Paradox HQ, Pheonix couldn't go to sleep. He was up thinking about Max Heighnsworth, and his shop in Atlanta. Pheonix had never heard of such a city until that night, at his house. He wondered how a man who like things as simple as music could let greed control him so much like that. Was he really that...desparate for money? Pheonix would never know the feeling of having too much money. The voice whispered to him, "Neither do I, Pheonix. We have more in common than you think." His voice was stronger now. Louder. It had grown slightly over the last two missions.

He raised his arm, tucked under covers, and studied the scar that had begun to etch itself into his skin. The Orange Jewel was not gone it seemed. It was scattered, broken into a million pieces. "Do you want to know how many shards you hold, Pheonix?" The voice asked.

"Xa..." He said, aloud to himself in his darkened room.

"23." The voice responded to Pheonix only.

He laid his head back. No one knew about the voice, or the jewel. Or the voice of the God in the Sea in his head. He had tried to explain, but everytime he tried the words would gett stuck in his throat. He felt as if he were afraid of telling people about the voice in his head. He had thought that the moth would know at least of The God, but she didn't say a word about him. "People can't know about me yet, Pheonix. In due time." The Voice said.

Pheonix closed his eyes. But much like the flames from his wings, sleep did not catch him.
..............

yay i got his first post up, and i got to set up the world of Paradox a little, which is something i've always wanted to do! also half of you probably won't even actually remember max or who he is, and to that i say go read the origin story posts, lol.

Maddy charged through a hail of heavy weapons fire that would have shredded her to pieces were she not several stories tall. The enemy mech realized too late that it hadn't stopped her and tried to raise a new set of weapons, only for Maddy to deliver a front kick to the chest of the robot, knocking it onto its back with a thunderous crash.

"Never expected to use those old Taekwondo lessons like this," Maddy mused aloud, catching her breath after the dash and attack. There was an appreciative amount of cheering from the crowds that hadn't been escorted to safety by the police as the robot struggled to get up. Maddy sighed in relief at the thought of the fight being over so soon, only for the robot to twist and then fire off what had to be rockets mounted on the arms that propelled it back to a standing position.

"Well that figures..."

Maddy ducked to the side at the sound of rushing fuel, narrowly dodging a burst of flame before coming around and getting right in the robot's face, gripping the flame-shooting arm and twisting it downwards away from them. She wasn't sure how flame-resistant she was at this size and frankly she did not want to experiment on that front.

"You can't fight the music, man!" came a muffled voice from inside the metal machine's innards, somehow audible over the intensely loud KISS track blaring from the speakers. "Rock and roll's gonna save our soul!" Powering on through, Maddy took a gamble and squeezed her fist around the arm firing the flames. Surprisingly, it gave easily in her grip, the crunching metal drowning out the pilot's squeal of protest as the flames sputtered out.

"Dude you're gonna break it!" the pilot whined as Maddy braced herself against the chest, wrapping both her arms around it.

"What...do you think...I'm...DOING!?!"

Feeling the robot lift from the earth, she called on every last bit of strength she had to lift the machine right over her head. Maddy felt her muscles burning up as the robot flailed in the air helplessly, the rockets firing off in a desperate bid to escape. Hoisting the robot onto her shoulder, she deftly pulled the rocket pack off one of the limbs with a tug, the rivets snapping and flying off like shrapnel.

"You didn't even weld these on?" Maddy commented in spite of herself, tossing aside the defunct rocket pack and moving to yank one off the other leg. "I wasn't thinking this would be professional by any means, but that's just lazy metalworking."

"Screw you, you giant bimbo!" Maybe it was her imagination, but Maddy was sure the pilot had made the music even louder. Slightly miffed at this point, she decided it was time to call it a day. Mustering her strength again, she lifted the robot off her shoulder and dropped it onto the ground with a thunderous crash. Making sure to step on one of the legs with enough force to disable it, Maddy bent over and lifted the chassis up to a sitting position. There was a whirring sound as the last working arm moved to aim a cannon at her, only for Maddy to grab the arm and direct it at the machine's head, turning away briefly to avoid the blast. The close-range shot knocked the robot's crudely designed metal head clean off and thoroughly wrecked the arm cannon in turn, letting Maddy peer down the neck hole at the pilot of the mech, the color drained from his tattooed face as he fiddled helplessly with the controls.

"Statistically speaking, I really don't like your odds at this point," Maddy said matter-of-factly overhead of her very tiny enemy. There was a rather impressive stunned silence before the pilot gave a half-hearted squeak as a response, then stiffly reached over and finally switched off the loud rock music.

"I'm...sorry I called you a bimbo...ma'am," the pilot mumbled as he unlatched himself from the pilot's seat with trembling hands before giving a frightened yelp as Maddy grabbed him and lifted him out of the pilot seat like an action figure.

"That's alright, when I figure out a name I'll let you know what you can use instead," Maddy said almost too casually, dropping him at the feet of a couple of police officers who quickly cuffed and dragged him off. Taking a deep breath, Maddy closed her eyes and concentrated, feeling her body shift sizes once again. When she opened them again she was just below eye level with the other people swarming around, and although she had no way of knowing, she was sure that she was at her old, perfect height once more. Relief washed over her as Maddy braced herself on one of the police cars.

"Thanks again for your help, miss," one of the senior policeman announced as he approached her. "I'd hate to see what would have happened if you didn't show up when you did." Maddy gave a weak smile and a nod in response, prompting a concerned look from the nearby officers. "You're not hurt are you ma'am?"

"No sir, just...a little tired," Maddy sighed. "Guess being that big takes a lot of energy. I don't have to stay and give a statement do I?"

"...well, technically yes, but most of the time the hero flies off before we can catch them," the officer said, sounding surprised that she mentioned it. "You don't look up to it though, so if you want to make a break for it I'll look the other way." Maddy shot the officer an appreciative look as she jogged towards the side street closest to her, insulated from the crowded city by the police cars. Stopping when the sirens finally dimmed, she stopped to catch her breath, leaning against a car parked in the side-street as she checked the names to find out where she was.

"Wonder how I'll get back dressed like this," Maddy mumbled to herself.

"You could call and ask for a ride," a voice from the car announced.

Maddy gave a yelp and backed away from the car before she recognized both the car and the driver.

"Terra!?!"

"Come on, let's get you home," Terra Vespa said with a slight smile as she started the car, switching on the lights to reveal herself in suitably dramatic fashion. Eternally grateful, Maddy darted to the other door and hopped inside before the car took off down the road.

"I think I would have collapsed if I had to walk back the long way," Maddy mused, feeling herself already drifting as the scenery zoomed along outside.

"Glad I followed you and managed to get home to the car in time, then," Terra replied. "You'll have to tell me all about your robot fight when you get back."

"Yeah..." Maddy said weakly, remembering what she had done before stumbling onto that hostage situation. "Terra...I'm sorry I..." she began, feeling the tears already beginning to leak out, but stopped short when Terra placed her hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay Maddy," Terra said apologetically. "I'm sorry I pushed you into doing that, I didn't know that it was so serious for you. I just...wanted to help, is all."

"I appreciate it, really," Maddy said, still trying not to cry. "I just...sometimes I can't stop seeing that in my head...feeling it..."

Terra nodded solemnly. "I...heard about what happened. I can't imagine what that's like for you."

"It's rough...yeah," Maddy said, looking up into Terra's eyes and feeling a swell of hope, the same sort of feeling she gripped onto to use her powers. "But...I think for the first time..."

"It's getting better?"

"Yeah..." Maddy said sleepily, squeezing Terra's hand for comfort as her eyelids drooped slightly. "It's getting better..."

---



"Miss Durante has made things difficult for us."

"I'm well aware of that, Mr. Yeng," David McGregor said coolly to the holographic projections over his desk. "But this is a problem that you've created, nonetheless. And that shortsightedness has left you compromised."

"It was one rogue agent, how has that compromised-"

"Calm yourself, Ms. Shen, please," McGregor said smoothly, pouring himself a helping of expensive liquor. "I hold no ill will against you, but the fact of the matter is, the Hounds have compromised you. I cannot guarantee that she was the only member of Silver River to fall under their hand. That's problematic."

"So what do you suggest?"

"Liquidation, of course." McGregor swirled his glass casually, taking a swig as the Silver River leaders all shouted at once over him over the suggestion. "Not that your input matters of course, since the liquidation has already gone into effect."

"WHAT?!?" the leaders chorused.

"By the time they connect Durante to the Hounds, Silver River will cease to exist," McGregor explained calmly. "Safest way to ensure our arrangement goes unnoticed. We'll shuffle your group around to useful areas of course. I for one would love to get in on that little science project Briley Patton is up to, but we'll need to vet you to be sure none of you have given your loyalty to the Hounds."

"We have not!"

"Good to hear," McGregor responded cheerily. "But we'll make sure that's correct. If your loyalty is so easily bought and sold that you would run to a band of crackpot terrorists, then frankly you wouldn't be worth the risk." There was a moment of silence as McGregor calmly took another sip of his drink, before speaking again. "You'll be contacted with your next set of instructions shortly. Take care, loves!" McGregor pressed a button on his desk to dispel the holograms, his expression souring slightly.

"Awful year," he remarked to himself before pressing another button on his desk.

"Would you like a different brand, sir?" the automated voice of his AI secretary piped in.

"Not yet, MAY," McGregor mused, taking another sip. "Do me a favor though and send out the order, I want Silver River's liquidation done within the day."

"Very good sir. Would you like specifications on leadership transference?"

McGregor mused over the area where the leaders of the Silver River Institute once were. "Full liquidation, please. They're not valuable enough for us to keep around. Once that is done..."

Setting down his glass, McGregor picked up a folder on his desk and leafed it open. Inside was a blurred photograph and a few articles clipped from newspapers, all discussing an alien super-heroine from Pacific Point alongside printed orders from higher up on his next task.

"...let's see what Darrow Industries wants to do with this Voyager character, shall we?"

As the Police came, and questioned Barron’s rather large arsenal which even he had to admit explaining why he had a mech suit was more than a stretch if he himself didn’t have the ability to influence others they might have actually gotten a straight answer from him. Lights hung by cords and a slot machine spat out coins intermittently with the last of the surviving guests taken to safety some still decided that staying was safer given how the hounds ran liking their ass, the ground floor was devastated chips lay broken chalk marked outlines of those who had not managed to flee in time and over forty lay dead Hounds and those who had not yet fled. Most of the body count had been in Hounds with a good twenty five people in tactical armor. However even the numbers of innocents he did have were unacceptable and as he finally was done with the police took off for his office up the only other working elevator this side of Gomorrah checking his watch as a glitter of gold reflected in his eye he tapped his foot while the elevator dinged to his penthouse floor. Passing into his office, he took a moment to water his plant with strange red branches as he set the bucket to its side as he took his seat waiting upon his guests to arrive. Setting his legs upon the clean table polished to a shine he could see the black of his soles as he fiddled with his bangs combing them with a slight bit of wax clinging to the teeth slinging out a pocket mirror to examine his mug tilting his chin left and right until with a pleased grin he folded the silverish case that contained the mirror and reached for his right breast pocket placing it back where it belonged.

Sweeping his legs off the table he spotted a coaster inlaid with gold trimmings off center and carefully realigned it to match the others arching back and taking a proper view of the room ensuring not a detail was missed, kissing his fingers as he snapped them. ”Perfect.”

Six warm bodies swept the floor of Gomorrah, passing over the devastation as if floating, unseen by the lingering officers who surveyed the the grounds for remaining dead or injured patrons. Hekate led this midnight procession, draped in violet garments that flowed in an ethereal wind. At her side stood Circe, golden locks glowing in the neon light, basked in the same divine splendor as her mistress. Behind this pair walked the leading members of the remaining Four Families of Las Vegas; Genevieve Lachance, Syrenna Rowen, Aaron Wright, and Cassandra Loyal, each adorned in fine dress that spoke to and complemented their individual traditions.

”This is how your associate does business?” Circe snided with an upturned nose, put off by the stench of rot. Such solemnity was not an uncommon sight for one such as she, but it was a far cry from the pleasures she had come to expect from a den of sin.

”Come now, Circe,” Hekate reprimanded her in a motherly tone, ”Mr. Vanderbilt and his estate have fallen under attack. A pain we know quite well given the recent loss of Roman’s line. Let us stand in solidarity rather than mock his home. For now, he has our sympathy.”

The Four nodded to one another in response, agreeing with the sentiment.

Eventually, the group came upon Barron’s office on one of the higher floors, passing the remnants of his cruelty. Despite the numerous injustices committed by the lot of them, none quite matched the depravity of Barron’s bloody machinations.

They stepped over the threshold, each one offering their condolences in the form of a bow.

”I see now why you were so insistent on our prompt arrival. My sincerest apologies for our absence. How do you and your wife fare in these trying times?” Hekate decided to embody diplomacy, speaking like the woman the Four had once known, the cunning and silver-tongued Lydia Velis.

Barron smiling with a gaze that lingered over to his freshly potted plant; responded. ”Honestly frustrated, cost of repairs will be expensive and it’ll be hard to pack this place again for a while, still.” He said as the plant began to squirm and moan. ”Quite well otherwise just got myself a new hobby too um what was that thing called again, the thing the Japanese do. YES yes, the bonsai plant. This little hound had the misfortune of lingering around. But his heart just wasn’t in him. Barron giving a short laugh as his eyes glimpsed the plant’s still beating heart in its branches. ”And that is tame really. If you think that’s bad you should see my homeworld, people there are real depraved. But down to business. Have yourself a seat.”

”With Roman Adessi gone and the recent attack on my home and hounds ramping up their weaponry we really aren’t the top pecking order anymore. We’ll need to remind them why we’re to be feared and respected of course. I always like setting an example and right now we need to bring in some big guns, bigger than spells than artifacts. A real legend. I came about an old Norse legend speaking of Hefilstein the Unliving, a Draugr. They say a mage raised him from the dead and gave him resistances to all tools that one could turn on mages and magic, a creature who turned against his creator and was banished with great effort.” Rubbing his hands together excitedly he continued. ”Sounds exciting. I’d personally like to get something like that a good protector to defend against guys like these hounds. And I have quite a few ideas regarding what to do with its temperament. Took a bit of effort and I’ve been working on this project a while but I have found his resting place. With a slight issue. Whoever sealed him put the works on him, I mean no expense in regards to spells, traps and whatever hexes they left lingering. I’ve already cleared some and I’m working up a team to go in and finish the job. I just need to know one thing, Do you want a clear dome. Because I can change the opacity of the braincase. Right not the question just a joke, although there will be a braincase, got myself a fresh brain in biogel thing is already brainstorming as we speak. But honestly do I have your approval. And I can go over the plan in more detail if you want. I’d like to keep in good standing with both Ms. Velis and the Four.”

Those in attendance looked to one another with no shortage of concern, obviously worried that Barron had made some oversight, and if not, that he would. Hekate shared their concern, but her expression didn’t betray her thoughts.

”Well, I hardly think you require my approval, Mr. Vanderbilt, but I appreciate that you hold our opinion in such high esteem. I would be remiss, however, if I said I had no concerns.” Hekate moved closer, pacing in front of Barron’s desk.

”You intend to create your own Frankenstein’s Monster from the corpse of a thousand year old draugr? Well, Mary Shelley would be proud . . .” Circe sarcastically interrupted.

Hekate glanced back at her companion with a knowing smile.

”Forgive my colleague for her intrusion. This is a dear friend of mine, Kirke, or Circe as the Romans knew her and her preferred title. If it was a legend you wished for, one has stumbled right into your home. Circe is a legendary witch of some renown, although given your lack of familiarity with this world’s legends, I wouldn’t expect you to know all of this.”

Circe gave a half bow as Hekate introduced her.

”I didn’t expect Circe anytime soon, you were big on turning your enemies into beasts and had been renowned for your potions. And Frankenstein's monster, close, I’m more thinking something along the lines of robotics. See the Gov in my world had quite the time experimenting on others. Put live human brains on top of robots and that is what I plan to do. A pairing of magic and machine.”

Circe raised an eyebrow but remained quiet for the time being.

”Ah, a student of classics I see, if only for your own benefit. That aside, I share my companion’s concerns, not because I doubt your ability to perform such an operation, but because I fear you have a fundamental misunderstanding of exactly who and what you’re dealing with.”

Hekate removed from her person a silver bullet and an iron cross, relics carried by the Hounds who infiltrated both the Gomorrah and Adessi’s restaurant. She loathed their very presence.

”These do not belong to the Hounds proper, but a secondary group, one I believed long dead. They call themselves The Winter Court, a name stolen from the Good Folk of the British Isles, used to mock them. Witch-hunters and mercenaries make up their ranks, with blessed silver armaments and protective talismans almost unmatched in their potency. I led a coalition to destroy them centuries ago, erase all memory of them and their vile deeds, but somehow, they persist into the modern world.”

”Fortunately,” Circe interjected, ”Their numbers are all a fraction of the existing Hounds, and the blessings required to forge their weapons are arduous and difficult to mass produce. Should your monster find a home here, it is unlikely that you will face off against the Court again.”

”But should they return,” Hekate resumed, ”We have already taken measures to ensure our protection . . . and yours, of course.”

Cassandra Loyal walked forward, a younger woman in her mid to late twenties dressed in dark clothes that fit her well. She was a small woman, slender, with red hair arranged in a neat bun atop her head. She removed a small token from a pocket inside her jacket and placed it on Barron’s desk, smiling at Hekate before returning to the group.

The token was a small coin bearing a strange symbol, something like a labyrinth or a wheel, fashioned from a heavy metal.

”While you might be of the opinion that our spells are of little use in this instance, I have devised a ritual nonetheless that I believe will be to our benefit. This token is made from a vessel that we shall bless come midnight. Simply drive a nail through its center with your wife and whomever else you wish to keep safe present, and you will be immune to the Court’s tricks, for a time, at least.”

”I think you too misunderstand. Magic is powerful and I do not doubt that in the slightest. But I do not wish to be immune to their tricks. I want them hung. Their entrails lining the walls and heads rolling at my feet. I like to set an example and an example is all they’ll be.”

Hekate stopped pacing, standing firmly in front of his desk, her posture very telling.

”Do not mistake my intent, Mr. Vanderbilt. I too long for their demise. They have taken far more from me and my kind than you can imagine. But when last I met The Winter Court with fire and brimstone, some yet remained, rose again to join the ranks of the Hounds. We must be cunning as well as cruel. Which is why another of my associates searches for their leader as we speak, and why I am, at this very moment, staging a means to bring his financial ruin, to drain his resources that he and his troop may be rendered weak.”

”To that we have a common goal, as before you have my resources within reason. But if we are to meet them I’d like us to be better prepared. The Hounds under the Winter Court and the Witch Hunters did not expect to face such diverse means of offence. They were prepared for the building’s security, but not for those I keep in my employ. And I owe it to my men that turned the tide to my favor; in my home I had resources I needed, talented employees and the prior experience of facing a mentally superior enemy.” Setting aside folders of various heroes, Barron opened one. ”Heroes, Champions, Enemies. These so far are all those I have been keeping tabs on. All powerful to some degree and all have potential to tip the balance. To keep order and business well I think we must ensure that our world should not be shaken just yet. Heroes like this Pendragon, White Witch, Van Helsing among others. Some are too new, others have bad blood with us. We’ll need our own champion if they decide to turn their sights on us, and Hefilstein the Unliving has that potential for that. So for as long as we keep these so called Champions focused on other efforts they, including Hefilstein the Unliving, will be useful tools.”

”Do not concern yourself with The White Witch,’ Hekate replied fervently, surprised at herself. ”She is of . . . particular interest to me for reasons I care not to divulge. I would request that she remain firmly out of your sights. Other ‘heroes,’ and champions, I have witnessed many in my time. If it is your desire to manipulate them into fighting your battles, I will aid you in the manner we have discussed, but their motions are of no concern to me. As for the draugr . . .”

Hekate mulled it over, convening quickly with the Four and Circe. They all shared concern for Barron’s methods, but he had been successful, for the most part, in thwarting the Hound’s attempts to destroy his establishment. For that reason, Hekate decided that he deserved more credit than they’d previously given.

”If you think yourself capable of containing this monster, so be it. We offer our blessings. I would humbly request, however, that you not pursue The Winter Court too keenly. They are my enemy, and I shall be the one who reduces them to ash.”

”With all due respect, they are our enemy, and we shouldn’t race each other to end them first. Let us work together proper and finish them while they think us divided.”

Location: At the HoH base
Time: Attacking the second Base.

---

Fletch and Racheli scaled, with a bit of trouble, down the building that they managed to escape to earlier. Bodies of the unconscious and defeated Hounds of Humanity littered the streets where the heroes had left them. The place looked like a battlefield after the winning side had departed. Rach’s eyes noticed several heroes’ absences while the pair slowly navigated the now quiet scene. Police would be arriving shortly to clean up the mess causing the two to quickly locate what they were looking for: Fletch’s motorcycle. It appeared the vehicle had sustained some heavy damage during the clash. Fletch leaned over and examined it while Rach located another possible transport. They finally settled on a small, white van that was only slightly dented by a random fist.

After hot wiring it, the girls made their way toward where Iron Knight had indicated the HoH base was. Just outside they encountered Roadblock who looked like he was on lookout for any Hound that managed to escape. It appeared that the others had entered the building and were seeking to sabotage it, leaving those who fell behind to pick up the rear.

A grumbling Rach reached for the door when it abruptly opened, revealing Hound Dog’s confused expression.

She frowned, then turned to the other two, he thumb jerked in his direction “This guy with one of you two?”

There was a moment when the confused and clearly distracted Hound Dog stood speechless in the doorway. ”This is a bad time to get lost in thought, they make this place like a maze youse know all churning round ‘n round. Shocked how anybody is supposed to find their way.” Popping his collar he slipped into his suave bit giving a dashing smile and a slight pose to introduce himself. ”Name’s Hound Dog youse cool cats, met Fletch over there a while ago. And honestly, we need a map.”

Up until that point, Fletch had been in a bad mood. It had been pretty much that way since she learnt that her bike had been damaged during the fight against the Hounds. The various explosions had sent rubble careening against the paintwork she had spent ages and money to get perfect from Taylor’s Garage. And to top it all off, a stray bullet managed to rip through the electronics in the bike itself. No matter how much she would have tried, the bike wouldn’t start up without her thumb print recognition and that wouldn’t happen the way the bike was. While the descent from the rooftop with Nemesis in tow was just a funny inconvenience, looking back at it, it was nowhere near enough to get her out of the bad funk. The hot wiring of the van didn’t help her mood either, sparks firing into the car as she shouted expletives.

After asking Roadblock to tag along with the group and get inside the base, that bad funk she was feeling was apparent in her eyes. Now I’ve got to spend more fucking hours trying to fix the mess these asshats made, she thought, seething with the image of her toiling for hours to get her bike fixed. All because of these stupid ‘Hounds of Humanity’. Protecting our interests my a…

However, the archer’s thoughts got pushed to one side as Nemesis opened a door and revealed a person behind it. Before she even contemplated on getting her bow armed and ready to shoot the new person, she took the time to look at the person. Instantly recognizing as the lightning meta she came across when she met Voyager. Seeing that he was still alright, despite the shoulder injury he sustained during the brief time together, turned Kayla’s bad mood around. Now that they knew his name, Hound Dog, Fletch quickly confirmed what he said. With eyes looking relieved, she turns to Nemesis, ”It’s ok, Nemesis. He is one of the good guys, along with his partner Voyager.”

She then turns back to Hound Dog. ”To be honest, I’m glad you’re ok after the Hounds attack. Did the medkit help with your shoulder?”

”I don't feel anything anymore, turned off the nerves in my body so they don't transmit pain. Everything still attached to my chassis so I assume I'm well enough.”

”Oh… I guess that’s… good? Just be careful as to not cause further damage to it.”

She then thinks about the map comment. Raising her right hand to her chin, she ponders for a moment. ”Well… considering that the Hounds did take their advanced gear from S.T.R.I.K.E, I would assume that they’d have a database. If we find a terminal nearby, I’m sure we could get the blueprints of the base. Sound like a plan?”

”There's a lot of clustering wires down these halls. But yeah if we can find where they all connect we might be able to find a map and more. So smooth thinking.”

Having little idea what was being planned, Racheli’s eyes turned to Roadblock, and Hound Dog. She studied them for a moment before finally speaking what was on her mind, “I suppose you two came late to the attack? Before we walk into what could be death trap, what’s the highlight of your abilities? Fletch isn’t the strongest or most durable, but I do know her shot is dead on. I have no idea about you two…”

Taking a moment Hound Dog watched as lighting still crackled in the sky.”Easy. I'm a force of nature. I bring lighting and absolute control over it. Well until I finally find my limits. I can do magnetism as well.”

None of the other heroes could see it but Richard’s brows furrowed from the other meta’s comment.

Huh, that’s weird, I thought I came with everyone else….guess Blacklight really wasn’t that fast.

”Settle down, kid, don’t blow off all your energy showing off. As for me, I’m not so bad a shot myself, but I imagine with this suit I’m a little better armed and armored than the rest of you. I can tell a few of you are packing your share of scrapes and bruises, you let me take point and I’ll keep you all alive.” Richard gestured to the large riot shield on his back as he talked. Overall, his share of fighting was on the lighter side, so it was only polite that he offer to take point.

Smirking Hound Dog stated. ”If I was showing off youse would know it. But everything sounds like a plan.”

Fletch smiled underneath the cowl of hers. While the compliment Nemesis gave her was a rather unusual one, but it was a complement nevertheless. ”Thanks, Nemesis,” she responded to the comment. ”Must not forget that you can heal yourself from a lot of injuries. That’s more than my archery and my enhanced agility, courtesy of Evergreen again.”

Racheli rolled her eyes at the pair, a soft groan escaped her lips. Her head nodded at Fletch’s acknowledgement at her compliment and her arms crossed over her chest, letting the group continue.

While Fletch knew about what Hound Dog could do, the archer listened to what Roadblock had to say. From the exosuit he was wearing and the sound coming from it, she gathered she is a part of LHPD and that was something that made her hesitate slightly. After all, she did break into the HQ and ‘roughed up’ a suspect to get the information on the Penose. She even got around to naming herself Fletch after leaving a note behind to a Det. Hembolt. It would be risky if they’re still needing to take her in after all of that. But for now, she’s working with them to a common goal of the Hounds.

”But before we start a pissing contest,” she spoke up, rallying the group to focus on the task at hand. “We definitely should get inside and get to a terminal. If no one objects to it, Roadblock will take point. We’ll need to make sure we’re watching our backs as to not get surprised from behind. Anyone want to cover the back?”

Racheli shrugged, unbothered by the decision, “As long as he wants to take the risk, it’s his choice. I’ll cover the back unless someone thinks they are better suited for it. Through if they aren’t good at covering our asses, I’ll rip them a new one.”

”Unless one of you forgot to mention you were bulletproof, it’s not much of a choice.”

Shrugging Hound Dog replied ”I'm bullet resistant as long as there's military rounds. They tend to use ferromagnetic metals. Otherwise no.”

“If I knew how to fully use my abilities, I could do something similar. Right now, the only reliable one is the fact I can lose limbs and take several bullets without dying,” Rach tossed in to the list.

”Alright, I think I got the hint that I’m the squishy one,” Fletch moaned, her eyes not hiding the roll in them at the trio’s notes on their bullet resistance. She limps over to the doorway where Hound Dog was found, the bullet wound still itching her mind with its pain. ”Anyway, shall we make our way to that terminal?”

“It can’t be helped,” Rach pointed, slightly amused at Fletch’s resentment at being the least physically capable individual here.



As they edged deeper into the faculty, each one fell quietly into position. Their footsteps echoed in the identical halls while the group sought out a terminal. The walls were blended together by their white and pristine condition, giving a false sense of progression. Strangely there was no signs of life aside from the discarded gear or weapons scattered on the floor. Occasionally the white paint was broken by bloody smears across the surface.

Richard moved off slightly from the main group to inspect the blood, he moved in close to a nearby splotch to let his forensic sensors get a look at it, they were more limited and less detailed than a full laboratory but that was to be expected from a mobile peacekeeping unit, and at the very least it would help keep the data around until they could do a full investigation.

”It’s human blood, recent.” Artemis said privately to Richard through his helmet speakers.

”I would have thought that Pantheon meta would be the only violent one, but there isn’t a body, I don’t think it was him. One of the Hounds’ dirty work, or one of the other metas has a real mean streak” Richard said out loud, his voice took a sudden stern edge to it, and he found himself focused.

”Hhmm, blood splatter suggests victims were slashed. Did you see if anybody had a sword or knife?

”I haven’t seen anything of the sorts,” Fletch responded. The sight of blood was nothing new to the archer, seeing some of that through the combination of her ‘interrogations’, the gang war in Chinatown and when fighting the Hounds. Nevertheless, it still felt nauseous to her. While she had seen a few dramas where bloodstain pattern analysis was used, she didn’t have an idea on where to begin with looking at this. Not that it would help as forensics was out of her depth. ”I say keep an eye out though, just in case.”

Racheli’s neck hairs stood on end. Some primal, predatory instincts were screaming inside her head. Get out… Get Out… GET OUT! The urge kept getting louder the farther they went. The tingling sensation of being watched passed over Racheli’s back causing her to abruptly pause mid-step, her eyes pulled back over her shoulder. She spotted brief movement into an open vent. She frowned then cautiously edged into that direction followed by Hound.

Meanwhile at the other end of the long hallway appeared to be a control room. The setup was exactly what Fletch needed in order to map out the whole base. As Roadblock and the archer approached, they would spot a human figure of a Hound of Humanity slouched over in his chair. The first sign that the base wasn’t completely deserted yet.

Slouched over, what the hell is going on? Richard wondered as they got closer, it was weird as most of the Hounds seemed like they were trying to leave, they seemed to prefer death over capture, but if there was a chance he could take this one in alive he had to take it. But, why is his body the only one they’ve found so far.

Richard silently gestured for Fletch to wait behind and moved towards the Hound, he positioned one arm to grab the chair, and held his rifle in the other in case he needed it.

>

Hound Dog wondered why the air felt stale, as if this section were cut off from the rest of the underground facility while a heavy scent of iron waifed through the air. Continuing to ponder if what he and the other heroes were doing was justice, he had killed a few Hounds at the least and walking through this serile hall towards a control room of sorts that almost felt too clean almost like a lab save the smears of blood and the room ahead devoid of bodies. But as he continued to think to stop this concerto of crime started by the Hounds of Humanity heroes would need to rise and just like those before him he’d have his own challenges, even if they weren’t on a battlefield fought on a world’s stage. As the other two entered the room Hound Dog paused as the hero, or perhaps she was more villain than hero, Nemesis had begun to inspect a ventilation shaft. ”Hey hey. What we have here, these guys don’t strike me as the type to perform maintenance before fleeing a base, not when the city is about to be rubble. Think someone hid something there?”

Racheli paused long enough to touch the metal on her neck. It melted into liquid then thinned out across her skin, giving her appearance a metallic color now. It wasn’t the best protection, but it was better than just flesh and bone. Carefully she crouched down on one knee near the vent. Slowly her upper body edged to look inside. A red trail coated the vent’s floor as it slid around the corner then disappeared farther down. Claw marks tore along the tunnel where the thing had obviously haul itself forward in the cramp space.

“Maybe. Whatever was here, it’s using the vents to travel and been collecting the bodies I think. It’s gone now…” She lifted upright, frowning then added toward Hound.

“Unless you can fit into small spaces and want to follow it? I say fuck that though…I don’t think this was done by the group that came before us. It’s too predatory.”

>

As Roadblock closed in on the slouched Hound, Fletch stood her ground. While she had appeared to be on top of everything as they walked through the building, her body language suggested she was being far more cautious than before. Even her movements to have an arrow nocked on her bow betrayed such caution. I don’t like this, she thought, eyeing up the control room. Much like the hallway before it, blood was smeared from around the room and streaked into the two vents. As the blood was still fresh, it had set the archer on edge. Slowly, caution in her mind turned to dread.

As soon as Roadblock turned the chair, the Hound began to slide out of it. It hit the floor with an audible thud. The archer recoiled at the sight, raising her right hand to where her mouth was to stop the sudden nausea overwhelming her into puking. The man’s face had been ripped to shreds, the helmet doing naught to prevent what attacked him from getting to it. Several claw marks streaked over the surface, gouging through everything that he was wearing. It was clear to whoever was in the control room that the man was dead. But what worried Fletch the most was the blood, still oozing out from the wounds. ”Stay sharp!” she suddenly barked, her right hand snapping onto the string of her bow. ”Whatever caused all this is sti…”

It was then that Kayla saw it. While she couldn’t figure out what it was, she saw movement coming from the lone vent in the control room from the corner of her left eye. Her body turned to face the vent, catching her sudden movement out of the corner of his eye, Roadblock and turned to face her and the vent. Her heart raced higher and her breath got more ragged as fear was slowly starting to set in. She focused on the vent, trying to figure out what was in there. After a few intense moments, nothing. Were her eyes playing tricks on her? Was there really nothing in the vent? At first, she began to ease off. Snap out of it, Kayla, she thought, beads of sweat forming on her forehead. It was just a figment of your imagin… Audible in the room, a gutteral snarl crept into the control room, audible enough to be heard from the hallway. The archer’s eyes betrayed the sheer panic as glowing red eyes appeared in the vent. Vicious teeth were visible from the same glow that came from whatever source the creature had inside of it. It was at that moment, everything went to hell.

”WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?!”

”Get back!” Richard had shouted, but his warning wouldn’t have been fast enough.

Without second thought, not even a moment to think on instinct, Fletch snapped the bow taught and loosed an arrow into the vent. Panic had set in when a howl suddenly erupted from the vent as the arrow hit its mark. Not deterred by what had hit it, the creature surged from the vent, gunning straight for the archer. Without any moment to think about it, she rolled out the way as the beast dodged her and slammed into the opposite wall. As soon as the beast regained its composure, the sirens in the immediate area of the control room blared out in time with the flashing red lights.

”UNKNOWN BIOLOGICAL SUBJECT IN THE CONTROL ROOM. LOCKDOWN IN EFFECT.”

A few clicks of the gears in all the doors around the control room and the hallway simultaneously went off. A moment later, thick, titanium doors dropped from the archways in the vents and the control room doorway. Slamming shut with a loud crash, another titanium door slammed shut, appearing out from the recess in the middle of the hallway. As the sirens blared out, whatever was in the area was trapped.

And they were not alone.

Location: At the HoH base
Time: Attacking the second Base.

---

As soon as the beast burst out of the vent Richard was already in a full sprint towards them, but luckily he didn’t need to travel all the way back over, as soon as Fletch miraculously dodged out of the way Richard unloaded his rifle into the animal, or at least he tried. Several of his bullets made contact as tiny spurts of blood shot out, but the beast was quick, and sprung into action. It’s quick leaps and jumps were erratic.

”Shit, he’s fast!” Richard shouted, he continued to use quick bursts from his gun, but it wasn’t enough.

It continued to dash and jump towards him, it deftly climbed around his armored body and mounted itself on the front. It’s claws tried to tear into his chest, furiously clawing and scratching at what it could, and the head of the figure clamped it’s jaws around the sides of his head, destroying the outer sensor module in the process; a sparking mess of wires and ruined metal hung from the side of his head.

As the beast took aim at Roadblock, Fletch remained on her hands and knees at the final resting place from her roll as her bow remained nearby. Having such a thing trying to attack her with killing intent, the thought had sent her into a sheer panic. The repressed memories of when she almost died in Pasadena - the night she lost Jason - flooded back into view. Reliving that night had caused her to freeze up, almost sending her into a sobbing mess. In her frantic mind, she knew that there was danger still about and she needed to help fend it off. But the only thing her body and mind wanted to do is curl up into a ball and sob her heart out. I don’t want to die, was the only thought running through her mind, jumbled in with the flashbacks and the fond memories of Jason.

Then, another feeling came into her mind.

Snap out of it! While she had been frozen in place, the mindset of Fletch came back through, almost shattering whatever was holding her in place. That was in the past! You are in the now and you freezing up here will get yourself and everyone you’re with killed. Now. Get. UP!

As if the mental bitch slap was enough to shake her out of it, she looked up and examined what was happening. The beast, a large, canid-like humanoid that had been marred with various scars and sutured-tended cuts was gunning for Roadblock. While she could hear Nemesis yelling through the door and bangs as she and Hound Dog were hitting it to get through it, it was too muffled for her to understand what was said as the beast collided with the suit. The monster had grappled the policeman, trying to get into the suit with its razor-sharp claws and vicious fangs. While it wasn’t as visible as it was before, the neck had been torn open and whatever was inside it was glowing red off of the metal surface of the suit.

Now thinking a bit more clearly from her panicked state, though fear was still the dominant feeling, she charged at the pair of them. Grabbing an arrow from her leg quiver, she jumped onto the main console and onto the beast’s back, her left hand grabbing a huge tuft of hair on its head. ”Take this, you ugly son of a bitch!” Grabbing a secure footing, she thrusted the arrow into the beast’s neck. As the blood spurted out of the new wound, some of it landed onto her hand. While she didn’t know of it, the blood began eating away at the already damaged glove. It didn’t take long before it got through and began to burn her skin. She yelled out in pain as soon as it began eating away at her hand. But the move was enough to distract the monster.

The canid yelped out in pain, quickly disengaging its hold with Roadblock. Sensing a new threat on its back, it began to thrash about trying to grab the archer off its back. Fletch remained where she was, though was struggling against the powerful and rapid changes in movement. As soon as one of her feet slipped off the back, she almost fell off. But one of the large, clawed hands managed to grab her around her torso. She screamed in pain as claws dug into the sides of her rib cage, though the awkward position meant that she wasn’t crushed in its hands. As it finally got a hold of whatever it was holding, the beast threw her away from it, sending her body slamming into the wall. Bouncing off of it like a doll thrown into a wall, Kayla dropped to the floor and remained there, dazed from the collision. The claw marks left on both sides of her were deep, but fortunately not long enough for her to need many stitches. From there, she remained motionless in her daze as the canid began to focus on the weaker of the two targets.

”Stay down!” Richard yelled. Fletch didn’t seem to be one of the physically enhanced metas, if she was at all, but she also looked dazed, so there was no telling if she heard the warning, which meant he needed to get over to her as fast as possible. He jumped towards it, holding his shield in arm, he rammed into it, slamming it right into the wall with a fleshy thud. Blood escaped from some of its earlier wounds and burned at the shield, but Richard gave it another slam before it pushed back.

He pulled his rifle up again to suppress it in a wave of inaccurate hip fire, but Richard barely had time to level his gun before the creature was up, a few of the bullets hit, but it didn’t seem to cause any notable damage. However, with the sudden change in targets, along with the fight escalating, must have caused it to rethink its actions as it quickly darted up the wall, and crashed through a ceiling vent.

Richard stared down the vents in the room and even the door for a few more moments before quickly making his way over to Fletch and examining her. Blood leaked out of the claw wounds on her side, but it didn’t seem serious so they could address that later. She was thrown across the room, that might have broken something, and depending on how she hit a concussion wasn’t out of the question either. However, the base in the blood from earlier was still active and continued to slowly eat away at her hand. Artemis saw his hesitation as he scanned over her.

”Use water to help neutralize the base on her hand.”

Richard glanced around the room, scanning for anything with water, and spotted a half empty bottle. He wasted no time moving over to grab it and nearly tore the cap off while emptying the cool liquid all over Fletch’s hand.

”Are you alright?”

For what seemed like a long time, Kayla remained motionless. While she had been dazed from being thrown into the wall, it was fortunate for her that the impact hadn’t been hard enough for her to have any broken bones, though the grip it had on her might have broken one or two of her ribs. And from the impact, her head didn’t hit the wall at the same force so a concussion was likely to be out of the equation. But the impact had knocked the senses out of her and had spent those moments regaining them. During that time, any sound coming from the room and from the hallway.

The first thing that came back to her was the throbbing pain that her right hand was experiencing. While her glove took the brunt of it, the caustic blood had left some damage on there. But as the cool sensation of liquid hit her hand, she finally began to stir from her stunned state. She moaned as she slowly raised her head up to look at her surroundings. The first thing her groggy vision had noticed was that the beast was no longer in the room. The second was that the room was still under lockdown. Finally, Roadblock was by her side tending to the wound on her hand.

When he asked if she was ok, she slowly began to work her way through what had happened and what her condition was. As she slowly got herself up to a sitting position, she noted the pain on the left side of her chest. Her head had been spinning, but it was quickly disappearing and there was no pressure in her head. ”I think that apart from a couple of broken ribs and the feeling the room is spinning around in my head, I think I’ll be alright.”

With the threat immediately gone for the time being, the first thing that came to mind was the lockdown. ”We need to get this lockdown lifted. For all we know, whatever that bastard is might be attacking the others.” Slowly, using her uninjured hand to prop herself up against the wall, she managed to get herself back onto her feet. ”I’ll… I’ll try to get it lifted using that console… If you want to stand watch in case it comes back. Your armour seems to be able to resist the caustic blood much better than the fabric my costume is made off. Sound like a plan?”

When Fletch had mounted the creature earlier its blood had also managed to take off a little from the top, but that was probably because there was so little. Other than his damaged sensor module, there were numerous paint scratches all over his torso.

”Sure, but if you need me too I can take the console.” Richard moved to follow her, if the creature burst out again he needed to be in it’s way, it was far too fast to try to intercept it from any amount of distance safely.

”The lockdown must have activated when you shot it earlier...Although, that beast doesn’t seem like its a part of normal Hound operation, and yet its presence alone didn’t activate the alarms.”

Once she was steady on her feet, Fletch listened to Roadblock talk about the console and the lockdown. When he mentioned about the possibility that the blood might have triggered the lockdown in the first place, she thought about it. ”Yeah, that makes sense,” she replied in agreement. ”I mean, it being in the room before to take out that lone Hound didn’t trigger the lockdown before.”

Then, she slowly made her way to the console. With the Hound now on the floor, it made sense for her to sit down on the chair while she began to work on lifting the lockdown. She made slow progress getting into the mainframe, so she thought about something to break the silence in the room. ”What do you think that thing was? Looked like something you’d see in An American Werewolf in London. But when I got on it… it looked like it had a lot of stitches in it…”

”Sure, looks like a werewolf, but that kind of thing doesn’t really exist.”

”Lycanthropy, have you heard of it Mr. Hunter? It’s the transformation of man into wolf, most believe those are merely fairy tales, and yet, the tales had to come from somewhere.”

”Eh, yeah, those stitches, and that weird red glow from earlier, I still don’t think we’re looking at a ‘werewolf’. But some kind of frankenstein project, maybe. Richard said, he didn’t try to hide his skepticism at all.

”Say, while we’re in the clear, you happen to look like someone that raided HQ a little while back. You want to explain yourself, ma’am?”

Once her mind had gotten clearer from being thrown into the wall, Fletch was busy at work getting the lockdown lifted. She had to admit that she knew some things about IT from her degree, but nowhere near enough to disable the lockdown. But she had to try anyway. Her brow began to furrow as she focused on the computer.

While that was happening, the archer listened to Roadblock’s reasoning to what they were facing moments ago. While it was amusing to hear the skepticism in his voice about the ‘werewolf’ idea, what other explanation was there to determine what that thing was? Maybe there was more to this world of superheroes than what it seemed, especially as the idea of metahumans and an alien helping out humanity was a known fact. And she reflected on that when she replied to him. ”Well, we are in a world where people like Icon exist. Maybe there is another area of the world where cryptids like the werewolf exist. That plus it is another thing that the Hounds of Humanity would want to get rid of.”

”I don’t remember those fairy tales talking about werewolves having acid blood. Like I said, I still think this is some kind of animal the built from scratch somehow, maybe to hunt down metas, to stalk them when they can’t.”

She carried on typing onto the computer when Roadblock mentioned her raid on LHPD HQ. At that moment, she stopped what she was doing, her hand freezing in the spot. That moment she decided to go after the man that had attacked her wasn’t the lightest moment she had done during her time as a vigilante, but it wasn’t done, she would still be a target to the Penose until she was killed. While her mouth was hidden from it, the eyes through her yellow sunglasses showed the pained expression that was on her face.

”While it probably would be better to lie about what happened there, but that person you’re talking about and I are the same people,” she replied, her voice more of a loud whisper that reflected her guilt. ”To be honest with you, I never intended to cause any hurt to anyone on LHPD force. But the person was hired to kill someone close to me. The group that hired him was already targeting her for some reason or another and they blew up a bus to try and get to her.” She let out a sigh, her hands sinking to her lap as she leaned back in the chair. ”That bus bomb killed a few people and her friend’s would-be fiancé is still in a coma from it. It’s because of that I raided the HQ: I wanted to know who was behind the bus bomb and my friend’s attack and stop them from causing anymore harm.” Another sigh escaped her lips, her eyes shifting from the computer to look at Roadblock. ”I’m not expecting that this explanation would exonerate me from what I had done, I really don’t expect it. I just hope it brings an understanding for why I had done it.”

After a moment of silence, with the banging from the other side of the blast door ceasing, she got back to trying to get through the lockdown. The more she focused, the more she felt the pressure of the focus behind her eyes. Perhaps I do have concussion, she thought, stopping to pinch the bridge of her nose. ”Sorry to have to ask this, but could you take over from getting into the console. Starting to think that me being thrown into the wall has caused more injuries than I had thought.”

She really is just some reckless vigilante, she’s going to get herself killed.

”Alright, just stay close to me, just in case that..werewolf..comes out again” He hesitantly said it, but just calling it an animal might be confusing if the Hounds had another lying around. As he walked up to the console, he realized he actually didn’t really know what to look for, the UI was way different from any computer he touched, and they really didn’t have the time for him to start searching aimlessly through the setup.

”Lost? I’m not surprised, they don’t give any computer training at the police academy, I imagine.”

”I’d like to see you try this.” Richard placed a finger on the other side of his helmet, as if he was activating some earpiece, just in case Fletch was close enough to hear him whispering.

”It can’t be helped, I want to see what the Hounds are up to as much as you do. But for future reference, I hate this.” An awkward moment passed and Richard still hadn’t moved, it became clear he was waiting for her to do something. She gave off an exasperated sigh, which was fake of course, but it was meant solely for Richard to hear.

”I guess it was too much to expect you to read the entire manual. On the underside of your arm, you can pull out a USB cord, plug us in and I can do the looking.”

”Luckily the Hounds computers are more are less the same.” Richard took an extra moment trying to pull the USB cord out, but eventually he managed to plug it in. Now that Artemis could get to work, and maybe help him save face, he remembered he still wanted to speak to Fletch.

”I’m not saying you’re in the clear, or you were right to tamper with evidence, along with assaulting an officer. But it sounds like they’re targeting you specifically, it might be time to bring in a third party, somebody they don’t expect.”

Fletch nodded as Roadblock came up to the console to try and get into it. She rolled the chair out of the way so he could face the console itself. Then she remembered her bow being on the ground near where she dived out of the way and quickly went over to retrieve it. Much like before the bow had suffered some scratches, but was otherwise undamaged. Not wanting to hang around to inspect the bow properly, she moved back close to the control panel. She hadn’t forgotten his reluctance to call that beast a werewolf, but decided not to press him further on it. Much like him, she was still coming to terms with what they had seen and fought. But the odd thing was that it had caustic blood and that red glow that seemed unnatural for such a monster.

She remained near the policeman as he fumbled around getting started on the console. It didn’t take long before a USB cable was pulled out from his suit and plugged into the computer. I’m guessing his suit has some sort of AI that could bust through whatever encryption the Hounds were using, she thought. She had been tempted in asking Roadblock if that was the case, but with her mentioning that she was the one who raided LHPD HQ she decided against it.

When Roadblock talked to her about the raid itself once it was sorted, she could hold back the surprise in her eyes at what he had said. While she had expected that she wasn’t cleared for what happened on that night, she hadn’t been expecting him to offer his assistance in tracking down the Penose. It was also the wording he used when making the offer, suggesting that he had put two and two together in knowing her true identity under the Fletch guise. It was that kind of wording that the thought of turning down the offer. She weighed up all of the pros and cons of allowing the policeman to help, she made her decision.

”I figured as much that I wouldn’t be cleared for what had happened. Hell, I think I wouldn’t have cleared myself if I was a cop. Might face the consequences of my actions in one form or another in the future. But for now, whatever I am dealing with with the Penose is my fight…” She sighed, determining if she had made the right choice. A moment in reflecting on it, she looked up to Roadblock’s visor. Her eyes had shown relief in his offer to help. ”But I figure that I am only one person against god knows how many of them. So any help will be appreciated. Don’t want these bastard to trouble anyone else in our city, eh?”

This dumb kid still wants to fight, but I can’t blame her, they made it personal.

”Yeah, you pick up any more leads on these Penose, and you call me. I’ll help you out, and vice versa. More and more metahumans are going out trying to be heroes, but none of you have to do it alone, remember that.” Richard’s words were earnest, nobody becomes a policeman for the money after all, so he honestly wanted to help, but there was another reason for this too.

He couldn’t know what her day to day life was like, but considering she only had a bow, he wagered she could use a hand. Of course he thought about dissuading her, like any normal policeman would, but these Penose sound like they made the fight personal, and he knew what that was like.

It was then she had an idea about what to do once they broken through the Hound’s console in relation to what they were facing. ”I just thought of something. If that thing wasn’t a member of the Hounds and it’s in their HQ, they must have some form of record on it. Think that AI of yours could try and find any information on it as well as find a way to shut down the lockdown?”

”It’s because you keep leaving everything to me she figured it out.” Artemis’ voice turned to audible venom. He didn’t know why her existence had to be kept secret, but it really made things unnecessarily complicated sometimes.

How can she even get angry, she’s a damn program. Why couldn’t it just be a guy that said “yes” all the time?

”Hmm, AI? We wish. No, only Iron Knight has something that advanced, probably. What I’ve got is more like an automated google search.” As if on queue, several new tabs appeared in what looked to be the taskbar, Richard quickly pulled it one up to fullscreen, there were several options, the one at the top appeared to be asking for confirmation to lift the lockdown. The password appeared to already be entered, just awaiting confirmation from him, and with a click.

The dark red emergency lights spinning in the room shut off, then replaced by the sterile, bright white from earlier. The control room door gave a slight hiss before it opened up.

"So, when do you think you can do this interview?" Kyle Yuuteki asked, as he leaned enthusiastically over his desk in the Provence radio station downtown. It was one of two separate radio stations that were created and funded solely for the use of the Yuuteki twins. Kyle worked in the East building, and was responsible for the more somber stories told on the news. Eris, who had to take a step back due to Kyle's exciting nature, looked utterly embarrassed for what they had to do next. "I'll do the interview now, if you want." They said, a nervous smile gracing their face. Kyle's eyes glowed a startling amber, before they cooled down again upon remembering his sister.

"Kassandra would be...livid if I did this without her." He said. Mindy stood next to Eris, and she had a protective hand on their shoulder.

"Why don't you two just do the same interview together?" She suggested.

Kyle shook his head. "Kassandra and I have agreed to keeping our stories separate from each others. It gives us a sort of edge, and keeps us unique." He said. "You have to do two interviews, and then we'll research your friend."

Eris grimaced. They didn't like that at all, but a firm pat on the shoulder from Mindy reminded them that they were not entirely alone in this. Swallowing their fear, they said, "Yes, okay. I will do the interviews. It's for a...sort of good cause I guess."

Mindy smiled, "Yeah, don't worry about it. Interviews are easy peasy!"
.......................

The interview would take place in a room with a light, a fake potted plant, and cameras. Eris and Kyle sat in different faced chairs, Kyle held a clipboard in his hands. Eris squeezed the arm rest, to ground themselves. Mindy stood in the background, giving a thumbs up from backstage, expertly hidden behind a deep velvet curtain."So, Mr. Goodoire, I am aware you prefer neither pronoun correct? What is your greatest achievement since coming here to tiny, little Provence, New Jersey?" Kyle asked, professionally. Eris gulped and tried to think of an answer.

"Well...I haven't really used my powers for all that much. I would say the greatest thing I ever did was...uh, that time I stopped those bank robbers from robbing 1st Colony?" They said, unsure.

Kyle nodded, however, as if that answer was satisfactory. It wasn't to Eris, it sounded like a stuttering mess of words to them. "Nice. You did an amazing job then. You know, you're powers are especially unique in the super world, at least I think so. What kind of training are getting to control them?" He asked. Eris perked up. This was a question they could answer.

"Actually, I'm friends with Leila Mayner." They said, sheepishly. Leila's name would surely wow viewers more than their own.

"The head of Paradox? Such tight connections. Paradox, unlike what we would expect of an organization of their caliber, aren't the most secretive of agencies. I guess this means working with an identity is out of the question completely?" Kyle said.

"Yeah, secrets aren't really my thing. And besides, I've got nothing to really hide."

"You're past is quite colorful, literally." He gestured toward the bright clothing they wore. "'You're past and origin are strange to say the least. We've heard quite the tale from the butler..." "But you want my take on it, huh?" They asked. They sighed."It is what it is. That's...all I have to say on the matter."

Kyle nodded somberly. "I understand. It is a rough past, to be quite honest with you. Uh..." He cleared his throat. "We here in Provence are very...Grateful for you coming here, Eris. Helping a small town like us out instead of taking your powers else where, to a bigger city..."

Eris waved his thanks away. "It's nothing, really. I'm happy to help out." They said. Kyle straightened up, and awkwardly shifted in his seat.

"Well, I think we're done here now. Thanks for tuning into KRCTV at 9, stay tuned for the 10 o' clock program with Kassandra Yuuteki, as she will be holding the follow up interview here with Mr. Eris Goodoire, or as the citizens of tiny Provence like to call him, E.G. Thank you, and have a wonderful night." The camera man, the only camera man in Provence actually, signalled to them that the camera was off, and they both got up at the same time.

"Uh...Eris, I really did mean what I said, you know about the town appreciating you." Kyle said. "It wasn't just camera talk."

"Yeah, I know. And again, I'm happy to help." They said, smiling. Mindy bounded up to them, happily.

"You did wonderful! See, I told you it wouldnt be so bad!" She said, humming softly. "Now it's off to across the street!"

"The radio stations are literally across the street from each other?" Eris asked, bemused. "Man, that's some sibling rivalry right there."

"Kassandra's building is smaller compared to mine though," Kyle said, smugly. "I doubt you'll enjoy her studio as much as the one me and Chris have here." Chris, being the only camera man in Provence waved energetically toward the group as he packed up his things across the room. Eris refrained from rolling their eyes.
......................

Kassandra's studio was the exact same as Kyle's. In fact, the two were so similar, Eris did a double take across the street, trying to make certain they stepped in the correct building. Chris, the camera man, had followed them to the building and was quietly setting up again in the exact same spot he was just set up in Kyle's studio. Mindy sighed, amused at the identical surroundings. "You gotta admit, they're commited to the Twin bit, through and through." She said. Eris just nodded, confused.

"You're here!" Kassandra came whirling out of her office, a ray of sunshine and energy. She grabbed Eris' arm, and dragged them over to the same exact chair that they just sat in, albeit in a different building. "I just saw the 9 o' clock news, you were amazing on there! So professional!" She said. Mindy walked up to stand behind their chair. Kassandra gasped when she saw her. "And I saw you, as well! I mean, you didn't speak at all, but it's so nice to see two best friends supporting each other like this! Kyle explained to me you're..." She leaned in to whisper. "Position...on interviews. And I get it, I understand. Interviews are yucky, especially with a past like your's, and a mother on an anti super crusade-"

"My mother?" Eris balked. They remembered mindy mentioning something about Charlice being on some crusade against supers. "What's the deal with that anyway? Is it a small thing or...?" They asked Kassandra.

"You don't know? Well, of course you wouldn't! Duh, Kassandra." She bonked herself on the head lightly. "I haven't covered this story, mainly because no one outside of Atlanta actually thinks Charlice is going to succeed in her whole 'Abolish all the Supers' idea." She chuckled, laughing at the very idea of illegalizing supers. Mindy gulped nervously, and Eris looked as if they had heard the worst news yet. "But not to worry, right now we have an interview, starting in 3, 2, 1.... Good evening, citizens of Provence New Jersey, I'm Kassandra Yuuteki here with the 10 o'clock news cast. Firt things first, we have an interview with Miss Eris Goodoire, the esteemed new super in town, E.G!" She stealthily pressed a button underneath her armrest, and a fake round of applause issued from hidden speakers.

Mindy tried not laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. "Hi." Eris waved to the camera, nervously.

"So, we understand that you're powers are kind of dangerous, but I mean, c'mon. Music powers? What's that like?" Kassandra asked, leaning forward on her chin.

"Well it's actually pretty fun to use my powers. I know a lot of supers think their powers are a curse or a stain on society, but I think mine can spread a bit of positivity to others." They said.

"We've all seen you in action before, I mean the way you destroyed those robbers with the power of Marvin Gaye, it was the most hilarious thing I think any of us in Provence have ever seen." Kassandra said. Mindy couldn't hold back a giggle, they hadn't exactly heard all of the details of Eris' first save, but she had to admit the idea alone left alot to the imagination.

Eris laughed as well, the memory easing the tension a bit. "Yeah, that was pretty funny. I'm just glad no one got hurt." They said. "Though the bankrobbers probably don't apprecite me saying that..." They had a wild memory of one guy in a ski mask being rolled up in a terrible 70's afro out of the bank as music swelled around the room.

"I'm sure they don't like it at all." Kassandra agreed. "Next question..." The interview with Kassandra was going great, Eris felt as if they were being ridiculous for being so afraid of doing the interviews. Mindy kept encouraging them, and laughing even more as she was filled in via Kassandra about all of the ridiculous capers Eris had solved. Though it was faint, Eris welcomed the sound gladly, happy that there was something else to ground them during the interview besides the chair they sat in.

Mindy's phone buzzed suddenly, and she went to answer it. Chris, the Camera Man, also paused to answer his phone. When Mindy opened it, she was met with an utterly horrific sight. She let out a strangled cry.

Eris shot up out of the chair, "MIndy?" They asked concerned. "Whats wro-" They stopped when they spotted the disgusting image on her screen.

It was a picture of Mix Tape, the new club that was meant to open in a couple of days. Hanging from the scaffolding, however, was the unmistakable body of Darius Winters.
........................
wow i am so fucking late guys, omg, im so sorry. in related news, look at me making things from the first post relevant again, wow I may not be on time with shit, but I definitely have this continuity down pat, man.

The turrets on the Finger of God opened fire of the heroes even as they approached the deadly satellite. Finding himself slowed by the lack of gravity in the Earth’s orbit, Icon was nevertheless able to avoid most of the laser blasts. Fortunately, the few blasts that did strike home had little effect on the hero. Then, a shiver ran down Icon’s spine as something began to happen at the satellite itself.

The Finger of God’s main weapon, the cannon that had wrought so much destruction already began to glow with a red hue.

My god, it’s powering up. Icon thought to himself as he pushed himself to move faster toward the satellite. Unable to communicate directly to the others, he gestured toward the main cannon accelerated toward the satellite. However, he was met with a barrage of cannonfire. Though the individual energy blasts did little to harm him, the more sustained barrage made it nearly impossible for him to get too close to the satellite.

He circled back around to get out of the crosshairs of the satellite’s defenses and regroup. It was clear to him that a direct assault on the main cannon was out of the question, the defenses were too powerful to get close enough to take it out right away. He also knew that they were running out of time. He made another pass at the satellite, this time flying alongside the Finger of God, striking at its defenses with optic blasts, then as he pulled away from the satellite, he hit it with a pair of energy blasts from his fists. Icon circled back around to where some of the others had gathered which afforded him a better view of the satellite. While his attack had damaged the Finger of God, it hadn’t disabled the weapon’s defenses. They still had a lot of work to do, and they were running out of time.

Voyager, meanwhile, had pressed herself against the side of the satellite when the weaponry popped out to fire at the oncoming heroes. She braced her PsiBarrier in the expectation that the lasers would turn around to blast her off too, but they seemed to ignore her in favor of keeping the others at bay. Charging up her PsiBlast, she tried to find an angle of attack to let her rendezvous with the other heroes, but couldn’t find a shot that wouldn’t leave a lot of those turrets left to pick her off.

Abandoning that plan, she vaguely wondered if she could channel enough power into a PsiBeam to punch through the satellite and disable it that way, but putting everything she had into a shot like that wouldn’t leave much power for a second attack, and judging by how hot the metal felt under her PsiBarrier, there was no time left for a second chance. She had to meet up with the others and somehow work together, maybe by firing all at once. It was a big dumb solution to a big dumb problem, but it was the best chance they had. But how was she going to run the gauntlet in time without being made into swiss cheese by the time she reached Icon and the other heroes he was leading into the fight?

David had a decent amount of heroing under his belt too, but there was no question that Icon was probably a little more experienced, so as soon as he gestured towards the satellite cannon David immediately followed his lead.

Hit it hard and fast, gotcha.

He flew towards the underside of the satellite, trusting in the others to take their own angles. However, much like Icon, David also experienced the barrage of laser blasts thrown his way. He tried to dodge them, but was forced to cross his arms in front of him to guard his body. The consecutive blasts pushed his body back uncontrollably and spun him every which way for a few more seconds before he was able to stabilize himself.

They can’t even make a normal satellite.

David saw Icon move off to hit the satellite with some of those energy beams of his and he almost flew off to join him but stopped himself. He had a lot of powers, but it didn’t really seem like some would work in space, the Earth was a little ways away, and lightning probably needed some atmosphere. He might be able to use some kind of solar beam, but the most he got out of those were a type of flashbang, and with the fate of hundreds of lives on the line, this was definitely no time to experiment.

“We’re running out of time dammit.” He angrily muttered, but the in the depths of space nobody should have been able to hear him. He had meant that to just vent his frustration, and yet, that had actually helped. He could hear himself, in space, and that got him thinking. His power to control earth, to move stone, it could affect asteroids, those little bits of former planets and moons floating around everywhere.

“Hey, all of you! Come to me, I’ve got an idea!” David shouted at the top of his, well, whatever he was using to talk, and flew a little closer to the other heroes.

“Stick behind me, I’ll get us past those turrets!” As David said that he reached out to the stars, grabbing at the smaller asteroids and bits of debris near him, gathering them closer, and closer. All to form, a shield, a thick barrier between them and those cannons. The pieces of rock, mineral, and metal turned into a mushy substance as it all blended together into a large bulwark.

David then quickly pushed forward, it wasn’t long before the defense guns opened fire again, burning and blasting craters into his wall, the area around them lit up like fireworks in the night sky. ((But just a few more moments later, it opened up, it’s pieces jettisoned across the area, like a glass mirror being shattered.))moving maybe))

Those fireworks were Voyager’s cue, as she took notice of the fiery display and zoomed out from cover, throwing PsiBlasts to confuse the turrets and provide more cover as rushed to join the other heroes.

The heat of the sun, it permeated the entire solar system, its energy was the beginning and end of it all, and David remembered he had gathered that same energy once before, just smaller.

So he channeled it towards his arms,then as if taking a slow deep breath, he pushed that energy towards his hands, he brought his hands toward his chest, as if he was holding a ball. A brilliant aura of energy surrounded his entire body, folding, and bending itself to his will, gathering into his hands, forming a fiery fusion of red and yellow energy that danced about in between his hands.

He then carefully expanded his hands till the gap was as big as his chest, giving the energy room to grow, the orb greedily ate the energy David fed it, and it pulsed as if it was alive. The asteroid wall was taking a beating and David was folding the outer edges in to buy them more time. The alien heroine arrived seconds later and, spotting David gathering his energies, nodded to show her understanding and began gathering psionic energy in her own hands as her eyes began to glow more intensely.

“We do this at the same time..”

As the heroes stayed behind the asteroid wall, the bright red light emanating from the Finger of God’s main cannon grew brighter and brighter with each passing second. Icon knew that whatever they were going to do, they needed to do it fast, The only shot that they had to save the city and the countless millions that resided there was to hit the satellite with overwhelming force, and pray that it was enough.

We need to take this thing out, now. Icon thought to himself as fear began to grip him. Fear that whatever they would do would be too late.

Then, just as it seemed that the bright red light could not possibly glow any brighter, that the destructive cannon would finally fire and lay waste to yet another city, instantly vaporizing countless lives…

The ominous red glow went dark. The cannon did not fire. To Icon, it looked as if the immediate threat to the city had passed, for now. Icon then took his place beside Terra Firma, who was seemingly in control of a pulsating orb of energy, and then he heard the impossible...the other hero spoke, telling them to combine their efforts in one massive strike against the satellite. Icon looked to Terra Firma, then the female heroine who had rejoined the group, as well as the massive mech suit that was still floating out there, using bursts from its thrusters to keep from floating off into space.

Icon then looked to the satellite. His lungs burned from a lack of oxygen, but he forced the anguish from his mind. He dug down, and his fists began to glow a bluish hue as he allowed the energy to build. This is it. He thought to himself as he prepared to unleash hell upon the Finger of God.

“We hit it at the same time.”

The glow leaving the cannon was their signal, David cast off their shield, sending it flying off into space, like pieces of glass from a shattered mirror. With the wall gone the turrets now had an opening, but they wouldn’t be firing for long.

“Now!”

Taking Terra Firma’s words as a queue, Icon unleashed a massive energy blast directly at the satellite. The sheer force of the blast impressed Icon, and even scared him a bit, as he had never used that much force in a single assault before, and to be perfectly honest, he did not know that he was capable of such a feat. However, that was not all, as Icon also assaulted the Finger of God with a powerful, sustained optic blast, which pounded the satellite even as the others joined in.

David gripped the miniature sun he had been nurturing until now with one hand, he shifted his arm back, then launched it forward, tossing the orb like a baseball. His blast incinerated even more of the armor, striking at key components and the inner structure with a massive flaming explosion. This was something he definitely would never use on Earth.

Just a little more now.

The glow in Voyager’s eyes intensified to a nearly solid shade of purple as she pressed her hands together and unleashed a full force Psionic Beam. Wisps of psionic energy arced from her hands and eyes as she sustained the intense beam of energy right where Icon and Terra Firma aimed their own energy blasts. Voyager was taking no chances; she was going to make sure this thing never razed another city again no matter what.

Opening up with every gun he had, including the Hellbeast laser, Equilibrium stared at the rapidly decreasing power and ammunition gauges on his HUD in dismay. It’d take days to siphon all this energy out of the power grid of Lost Haven without being detected, but even with the satellite shutting down, it was in his best interests to destroy the superweapon, should it ever be used again against Metas. He did make sure to save enough power for the shield on reentry, however.

Just because he was being altruistic didn’t mean he had to be stupid.

The Finger of God was a technological marvel. Originally created by an artificial intelligence light years more advanced than anything that mankind could possibly conceive. It was designed to be an instrument of good, as a means of protecting the people of Earth from things out there in the cosmos that would do them harm. However, after that artificial intelligence was destroyed, man took control of its greatest gift. First, S.T.R.I.K.E., which simply kept it hidden amongst the numerous other satellites which orbited the planet, just in case it was ever needed to be called upon to serve its original purpose. But then, S.T.R.I.K.E. fell, and the Finger of God fell under the control of Travis Murdock and his Hounds of Humanity. They corrupted it, turned it into a weapon of terror to be used against the very people that it had been created to protect. It wiped entire cities off the face of the Earth and left another in ruins, a twisted monument of hatred.

The Finger of God buckled as the combined powers of some of Icon, Terra Firma, Voyager, and Equilibrium bombarded it. The turrets that protected the satellite began to crumble and break away from their moorings. A combination of steel and other alloys bent and twisted under the combined assault, until finally the Finger of God collapsed in on itself before erupting in a brilliant, yet silent explosion which cascaded out from where the satellite had once orbited the Earth in a spectacular light show, the magnitude of which had not been seen since the Allies had dropped The Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

When the light from the explosion faded, so too, did the threat posed by the Finger of God.

It’s over. Icon thought to himself as he watched the fading of the light from the explosion. [i]It’s time to go home and finish this, once and for all.[i] He thought as he turned away from the now vacant space which had once held the Finger of God, and headed back to Earth, with the others following in his wake. Voyager stalled a bit as the resonance from her psionic blast echoed back at her, but shook off the hazy feeling and quickly zoomed after Icon and the others, thinking nothing of the strange images that just flashed through her head.

Location: At the HoH base
Time: Attacking the second Base.

---

”WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?!”

”Get back!”

Racheli’s eyes hardened, her attention snapped to Hound Dog. Quickly her mask’s demonic features twisted into worry as she shoved past the hero. Her figure flew down the tunnel with a snappish demand in her wake, “Come On!”

Red light flooded the control room when a machine’s voice rang out. It spurred her feet to run faster, trying to eat up the distance.

”UNKNOWN BIOLOGICAL SUBJECT IN THE CONTROL ROOM. LOCKDOWN IN EFFECT.”

Abruptly a thick, titanium door dropped into her path. Her feet skidded to a stop before she collided into it, her vision promptly sought somewhere to get a solid grip. The door appeared completely smooth. Racheli cursed out loud and tossed a punch at it. She hoped to dent it, but the metal resisted her force. It would take her several minutes to get through. Enraged by this fact, Rach’s hand fisted tighter then punched again at the same place. More surface gave, centimeter by centimeter, to her temper.

“FLETCH! ROADBLOCK! WHAT’S HAPPENING?” Racheli tried to shout through the door.

When the other door shut, her head shot over her shoulder to see Hound Dog had followed her inside. Now they were both trapped in what appeared to be a glass wall hallway. Taking a break from her fruitless punching, she stepped back from the door.

“Do you got anything to bust through this door?’ She asked bluntly.

Hound Dog knew that if the door didn't buckled at a punch a force that had quite the impact it was unlikely that he himself could break it any faster.”Course I dos. But that's some serious chrome plating. Even with my railgun it will take more than a few hits.” Pulling back his arm he whipped out a disk and as lightning crackled and discharged the load and with a boom the door barely gave way as scorch marks plastered the surface and only a singular indentation was visible when the cloud of particulates cleared. ”I think we'll need a bit of time. A couple shots and some force perhaps and we can clear this containment lockdown.”

Racheli had been about to answer when muffled gunshots caught her attention. She gritted her teeth, then kicked the nearest glass wall. Cracks spiderwebbed from the impact, but it appeared to be minor damage.

“I don’t think we have time! Can you make some sort of hand hold so I can lift the damn thing up myself?” Her frustration and temper was getting the better of her. Even as she knew it, she tried to tame it and fell short of accomplishing it.

”Might wanna stand back a bit. This is where things get heated.” Flipping out a couple of coins Hound Dog snatched them and readied one as he held the others in a position to fire them off rapidly. ”Well allow me to get the door M’lady.” Firing off the first round with a flash of light and a burst of searing heat the coins smashed into the dent caused it to grow slightly larger as metallic dust settled to the floor, with each subsequent shot increasing the diameter little by little. And after a few more shots perhaps it would be enough.

Racheli couldn’t help but shake her head at the mention of M’lady, “You know something, you’re blinder than a bat.”

Trusting him, she decided to move toward the other side of the tunnel. Hopefully clear of anything he decided to do or at least give her enough of a reaction time. Curious at what Hound intended to do, her eyes closed a moment and her mind focused on her vision. Her irises became dark for a moment then lightened back to her original color.

She crossed over her arms in front of her chest while she waited for him to do something. She frowned at the coins being pulled from his pocket. Unsure what was going on, she was about ask something then found her mouth pop shut. Her eyes widened in surprise as the coins shot off his fingers into the dent at blinding speeds. If not for her bird of prey eyesight, it would’ve appeared like the coins had vanished completely. Small, metallic traces floated in the air before they glided to the floor.

“Alright, that was neat. However, be careful with the heat… It doesn’t mix well with me.” Racheli popped off.

”Don’t mix well with me either. I sweat buckets after this. Do youse know how much moisturizing lotion I need, I perpetually smell like coconut and fried bacon.”

“Yeah, I rather not become useless during this job…” She mumbled grumpily.

The woman began to move back to the door when a sound caught her ears. A whirring and grinding sound started up, shifting to either side of the walls. Through the glass two small lights glowed then shot across to connect at the center. A humming echoed through the small space. It shot forward causing Racheli to slam hard into the floor, narrowly avoiding it slicing her in half.

“Watch out!” She screamed toward her ally.

It had definitely caught Hound Dog off guard even though he could see something powering up he had never expected a laser defense system. Snapping into action he done for the wall and kicked off just in time to avoid the beam as he landed in front of Nemesis. ”Okay new game plan they turned up the heat with some added difficulty. What's our plan?”

“Shutting it down would be the goal, but how the hell to do that is beyond me,” Racheli watched the laser split then vanish a moment.

The laser reappeared as it darted back for them. Her gut stirred again, giving the impression this wasn’t that simple and rose up to her feet.

“I think that thing is learning,” Just as Rach spoke, the laser slit into two separate beams.

One end of each laser lifted onto the ceiling while the other fell to the floor, creating a X across the hallway.

Examining everything at his disposal Sinclair knew that Nemesis had some power behind her punches spying the minor damage to the glass he had a basic plan. ”Alright. Plan time.” Hound Dog said as he dodged the next laser wave. ”I'm going to fry the wall like a Christmas turkey but I need a hole in the glass. Let's not test just how many limbs you can regenerate.”

Racheli rushed to the tunnel’s other side as the beams advanced on her. She was stopped by the locked door, realizing she had trapped herself and cursed loudly.

“Fuck...fuck!”

She paced back then forward, seeming to debate on her next move. Her magnetic abilities were still unsharpened save for tossing or pulling metal to her. Finding no way out, Rach held her breath then bolted for the door’s surface. Her right boot magnetized on the surface while she scaled up it. At the peak, she kicked off. Her figure thinned while she backflipped through the top hole.

Racheli immediately landed on her ass afterwards. The scent of burnt leather wafted in her nose as she noticed her soles were scorched. She had gotten damn lucky it didn’t severe the leg or she wasn’t regenerating it. Hearing Hound’s comment snapped her out of her shock.

“Why not, I love feeling excruciating pain,” Heavy sarcasm came from her lips.

Not washing time, she jerked up on her feet. It wouldn’t take the lasers long to redirect themselves and she didn’t want to see how close she could cut it this time. Having a rough time finding traction with her damaged boot, Rach managed to stop right at the damaged glass. Her foot kicked out at the already cracked spot.

The laser was already coming back for a third round. This time the beams advanced before they spread out into a net pattern with the intention to fully wipe out the intruders locked in its dangerous lair.

Feeling the pressure, Rach kicked out with all her strength. Frustration and panic over Fletch’s screams urged her onward. Once… twice… thrice. Finally the glass gave away. Seeing a small hole suitable for Hound’s arm to fit, she stepped back shouting, “Go, Go, Go!”

Barely sliding right underneath Nemesis so much so that her heel licked Sinclair's back as his arm touched the wall and sent a voltage strong enough to send power surges throughout the entire base. The lasers flickered and simply ceased. ”Bout time. I could feel hell on my heels. I'm just gonna sit for a bit. And let you handle the door.”

“Right…” Racheli then turned to the door.

Her fingers found and gripped the hand holds that were created. Her legs widened for balance while her muscles tensed, her body used her knees to lift the heavy door. It screeched in protest, but refused to give. Racheli gritted her teeth in anger. She was going to move this damn door, with or without its cooperation. Adjusting her grip, the woman growled then pulled once more.

This time...the door gave away. It shot up quickly causing Rach to fall backwards and on her ass, giving a loud grunt when she landed. It was obvious she wasn’t the only reason the door opened up.

---

The Penose had achieved their goal. Every one of the smaller outposts in the Lost Haven and Crown Ridge area belonging to the Hounds had been taken over. And the Hounds that had managed to retreat from their battle in Sherman Square had come back to an ambush. With the head of the Hounds no longer communicating their efforts, any attempt to take back the lost outposts was met with swift defeats. While some had died in their vain attempts, nearly thrice as many had been captured. However, the unusual thing about the Penose’s victory was not the manner they achieved it, but who was assisting them when the Hounds returned.

Another unknown group had appeared once the outposts were seized. Similar to the Hounds, the new organization wore an attire that was black in colour: black body armour, black full-helmets, black boots and black trousers. However, the key difference that made them stand out was the lone, golden emblem that was spray painted on the right breast and on both shoulders. While the Hounds did have S.T.R.I.K.E to thank for their armaments, this organization had similar specifications of technology. The few that stand out had additional weapons. The first man that stood out had two ornate axes attached to either side of his hip, while the man next to him had a similar style of spear strapped to his back.

As the Hounds faced away from the doorway in their room of capture, location in what was determined to be this organization’s new headquarters, there were two men. The first was a beast of a man, standing well over 6’5” and was ripped with muscles that would make most bodybuilders envious. While his uniform was similar in style to the men that stood watch around the room, the shoulders were more elongated from the tops of his shoulders. Another big difference was the rifle was strapped to his back, though two unusually-designed swords on both sides of his hips suggested that he, too, was someone of significance in the organization. The dark brown hair was left draped over the back and front of the armour as his piercing eyes scanned the room of their prisoners.

“Brothers and Sisters of the Hounds of Humanity,” the man spoke up, his voice just a spoken tone but carried throughout the large room. “For the past few weeks, your masters had tried to wrest back the power of back from what you deemed was the plight of humanity: beings with powers and traits that are deemed a danger to the world. For weeks, you have tried to take back the control you have had nary a year ago. For weeks… your masters have failed you.” Measured in steps, the man moved from where he stood to stand in front of the kneeling men and women. “What would you think would happen? That you’d be able to fight these beings with simplistic weapons that one of them could snap like a stick? That your powerful Finger of God would allow you to take control from those beings, despite it now being nothing more than space debris that will crash upon this Earth? Your games of fear and false ideals against the metahuman, mystic and supernatural worlds was doomed to fail from the moment your masters had wrought their agenda to the world.”

Finally, the man stopped at the end of the very small platform that was indicated by black and yellow tape. “But don’t let your ideals end here. Not on the day the Hounds of Humanity were finished. For there is another path to follow. Your ideals were heard. And while the Hounds are to diminish into the history books as nothing more than a terrorist organization that failed, the ever-present eye has been watching. Waiting. Biding its time to find the right moment where our goals are to be accomplished. Where our goals that once started will cause the inevitability of the new era where beings of power will be managed. And I ask of you: What will it take for you to complete the ideals you once had with the Hounds of Humanity? If you say that you will die to make this world a safer place for all who reside in it, then I ask of you this one thing: Join us. The Eye of Osiris has been watching, it has been waiting and it is ready to lead the charge where a new world order will be achieved. The plight that you see is on the verge of being purged from this world and we welcome all to our fold and embrace the change that you so desire. For those that deem our goal to be unworthy for you to take on, then we ask you to stand tall. But for those who want the change, want the peace they are wanting from this world, then we ask of you to remain seated and you will be deemed worthy to be welcomed in the Eye of Osiris.”

As the Hounds murmured amongst themselves about what was said, the man returned to where he was standing, waiting to hear what the captured in the room were deciding. It hadn’t been long before one Hound stood up, followed by a few more. After a short moment, no more than a couple of dozens were on their feet.

“If you so think you are worthy of fighting back these scum, then why haven’t you done it by now?” The man closest to the front shouted out. “Why wait until after the Hounds of Humanity made its charge? You know what I think? I think you’re cowards and you’re never going to accomplish near as much as we have done.” The Hounds that were standing up cheered.

While the man that was standing had been the focal point of the standing Hound’s furious disagreement, the other had been sitting there. While the facial expressions were unseen behind the metallic sheen of his helmet, the red-tinted glass that covered his eyes, the appearance of him slouching in the chair and head resting on his propped up left hand gave the notion that he appeared bored by what the man had said. Motioning towards the standing man, he whispered something as his comrade leaned in close to listen to what was said. The blond-haired soldier stood upright again and turned to the defiant Hound. “I believe we haven’t met. And you are?”

“The name’s Dominic.”

“Right, Dominic,” the man spoke in kind. “The reason we haven’t acted until now that unlike your masters in the Hounds of Humanity, we are waiting for everything in our plan to align before we make our presence known and felt throughout the world. We don’t plan on going half-cocked, which we have clearly seen with your pla…”

“Oh, bullshit!” Dominic spat out. “Unlike you, we don’t wait for ‘everything to align’. And certainly compared to that cowardly piece of shit that you’ve spoken to, we aren’t afraid to go out into the light and show what we’re made o…”

Before he could finish his sentence, something grabbed him by around the neck, choking the last few words into silence. His hands reached out to grab what he felt was a human spine that had grabbed him. The man that was sitting down, with his body now upright, held onto the user end of the skeletal whip that appeared out of nowhere. With a simple tug, the Hound was thrown to the ground. The sitting man then stood up from the chair, the red-tinted lenses of his helmet now glowing. ”Because of the feeble men you had pledged your allegiance to,” the man started, venom laced in his voice as he walked towards his trapped prey. ”Your plans to stop who you deem as your ‘oppressors’ has failed. And who by? By the superhumans that you swore to defeat. To the likes of Icon.” When the hero of Lost Haven was mentioned, the venom in his voice seeped through as he spat the name out. ”If you were the so-called Hounds of Humanity, you would have achieved your goals. What say you, Dominic?”

As soon as the Hound’s name was mentioned, Dominic felt an overwhelming feeling of dread in every fibre of his being. Almost shaking from the sudden fear he was feeling, he looked up to the man that had grabbed him by the throat. The red glow that was in the man’s eyes disappeared, both eye sockets and the mouthpiece fizzling into empty cavities of black. Then, as if the deepest, darkest fears had come to life, a whole manner of spiders and snakes seemed to creep forth from the cavities, each arachnid and serpent slithering and crawling out to the floor. It hadn’t been long before the Hound was made into a quivering mess, wetting his pants at the sight.

”That is what I thought,” the whip-wielding man spoke as if amused by the sight that was in front of him. ”It is also because of men such as you that the Hounds of Humanity had failed. Weaklings such as yourself had tarnished the lofty goals into failure. And that will not be tolerated.” Once again, he tugged onto the whip. Unlike before, the tug of the whip had done something else. For those closest to Dominic, they see the coiled bones of the whip morph into shape, turning sharper in appearance. The end result surprised all witness into shock, with Dominic’s head cleanly taken off as his body was dropped to the floor. Returning the length of the whip to his hand, the man turned to the armed men around the room.

”For those who are standing, you have been weight and measured. In the end, your ideals are left wanting. And in the eyes of Osiris, you are deemed unworthy.”

As if it was a signal, the members of the Eye raised their rifles and pulled the trigger. The remaining Hounds that were standing had no chance to defend themselves as the bullets ripped through them in a firing squad-like fashion. As the smoke of gunfire settled, the dozen of men remained motionless, their black attire riddled with bullets as the hollow-point bullets remain embedded in their bodies. The whip-wielding man then turned to the remaining Hounds. ”For those that remain, the Eye of Osiris has deemed you worthy for our cause. Be not afraid, for our gracious goals are soon to be upon us and the revenge that you are longing for is within your grasp.”

With what seemed to be the initiation into the organization, the captured Hounds still surprised with what had happened, the whip-wielding man returned to his chair. Once settled in it once more, his head turned slightly towards the blond-haired soldier of the Eye. ”My dear Sobek, have you heard from Anhur of the Pasadena girl?”

The dual-sword wielding Sobek turned towards the man, his expression remaining unchanged during the moments before. “He has located the girl in Lost Haven and is still proceeding to track her down, Dullahan. It won’t be long before we are in possession of what was taken from us.”

Dullahan’s red eyes looked on from Sobek, turning to the people leaving the hall to begin the next phase of their initiation. Inside the helmet, his lips curled into a smirk. ”Good, then all things are proceeding as normal. Tell Anhur to proceed as normal. We leave for more information on our missing treasure.”

Time: Evening - 10:00 PM - One Day After Satellite Attacks
Location: Cotting-Smith Assembly House – Salem, Massachusetts.

---

”Mab,” Marie concisely requested, looking to Odette for confirmation, who eagerly nodded her approval. ”The former Faerie Queene is of special interest to the Ambassador and I. Before I aid you in renewing your pact with Salem’s sacred Land, we’ll need everything you can give us on Mab and her involvement with Andover.”

“Very well,” Maryann conceded, visually pleased by the rather simple negotiation. “All it will take is time. I’ll look through our records and see what I can find. As I’m sure you’ve been told, I am also an heir to Mary Eastey, her several times great granddaughter and one of the only biological heirs to Salem’s former coven. If all else fails, I’ll conjure her spirit and gather her recollection of events. In the meantime . . .”

Maryann turned to her assembled witches.

“Victoria, ready the space on Gallows Hill. Form the compass as you’ve been taught, and scatter any would be viewers who might linger in the trees. We don’t need an audience.”

Victoria nodded, patting Marie’s shoulder before seeing to her duties elsewhere.

“Jordan,” Maryann continued, “gather the vessels and the braziers. And remember, it’s nine braziers, Jordan, not six.”

Jordan nodded, mumbling something under his breath that made Maryann playfully swat him as he passed her by.

“Alexander-”

“Have my familiars conjure the corners and collect the herbs,” Alexander interrupted, nodding as he left the room.

“It’s three parts foxglove to one part mugwort!” Maryann called after him, “we don’t want Jordan passing out again!”

Maryann shook her head, letting out a deep sigh.

“I swear, they never appreciate the work I do,” she smiled, turning back to Odette and Marie.

“While they prepare the ritual, I’ll away to the town’s library. All of our records are hidden among more mundane volumes, some are even on display. They’re all locked, of course, but they certainly lend an air of mysticism to the town’s atmosphere. Meet me there in an hour’s time. I should have everything you need by then. Talk amongst yourself, tour the town, whatever you please.”

Maryann sped off, heels clacking on the hardwood floor, echoing off the high walls of the ballroom.

Holt let down his ethereal cloak, floating about the room as a jet-black raven, the faint glow of ephemeral light lingering on his wings. He once again took to banners draped over historical displays, perhaps trying to place them. Were they familiar? He had once served a witch in New England not far from the trials in Andover; she was his master before Joseph Mathers, whom he served for nearly three centuries. Was it nostalgia that caught his eye, or grief?

Marie left her familiar to his own devices, taking a seat at the center table, pouring herself a glass of water. She was beginning to feel the wine she’d had both at dinner with her parents, and in her meeting of Salem’s finest. But it wasn’t the time to be caught in alcohol induced delirium. Marie needed to remain sharp.

”What are you hoping to gain from Maryann?” Marie posed the question to Odette, filling the silence that had come over them after the other witches’ departure. ”Seems like as close a link to Gwyneth as we’re likely to find, and I trust your judgement, but I’m betting you’re not interested in history alone.”

Odette relaxed into the chair eating more on her plate, standing up getting more fruit on her plate. “Anything really. I need clues, I need hints, last whereabouts - anything I can learn. You are right, history isn’t all that interests me.” Odette agreed, spearing a slice of kiwi. “While I am sure the connection to Mab is relevant for Gwyneth, other connections to her do not concern you, Marie. Rest assured knowing that Mab’s connection to Gwyneth is my priority.” She fluttered her hand at Marie, dismissing the question. Eating more fruit, breads and sipping on the wine. Unlike Marie, Odette’s tolerance for it was far higher. It was all fuel for her spells.

“Take the moment to breathe and eat. We haven’t had a proper meal tonight, I am unsure what toll your witchcraft takes upon you but mine requires calories. I prefer the silence to eat and think.” She said texting with one hand and spearing a cherry tomato with the other.

”Fine,” Marie sighed, plating a handful of strawberries and a croissant that was strangely still warm, ”keep playing the mystery game for now. But if you won’t talk to me about Mab, what about you?”

Marie positioned herself directly across from Odette, moving a few of the serving trays so that her vision wasn’t obscured.

”I’ve had limited interaction with the supposedly famed Ambassador of the Fair Folk, yet I keep hearing about your numerous accomplishments from strange corners of the world. Who is she, the Ambassador? What’s her story? And before you try to dodge the question, you literally know my life’s story at this point, both of them. I think it’s only fair.”

Odette gave the witch a withering look, chewing through more vegetables. Bach shrugged behind her, refusing to comment. Odette knew how he felt about oversharing. In reality it was just sharing, period. She finished her text, placing her phone facing down. Marie wanted a resume, intentional or not attempt to open Odette up to list off her accomplishments - an appeal to her ego. “Everything you have heard of me is true. I earned the title of Ambassador of the Fair Folk a handful of years ago. I have connections in every seasonal court, I have favours and alliances built from the isolated fair folk that make their nests in nightmares to nobility that lounge upon beautiful thrones made of bones. I have treated with duchies of light, luck and chaos.”

Leveling a curious gaze at Marie, resting her chin on the back of her hand. “I scrapped every ounce of my influence and power from scratch. As I’m sure you have no doubt noticed, I take great pride in my work. It has taken significant time, but-”

“Petit a petit, l’oiseau fait son nid.” She pinched her fingers around a cube of cheese. “Not to mention my own vestments outside of the needs and wants of the fair folk.”

Vague still, Odette hoped this would give Marie plenty to think on and allow Odette back to her own thoughts and food.

Marie chuckled. She expected as much from Odette, always working an angle, keeping something hidden, wording her sentences just so. Marie was familiar with the practice of secrecy, of holding one’s tongue, it was a necessary part of her job at The Red Devil, and something she’d picked up from the fey who frequented.

”How about this then,” Marie responded, not letting silence settle for too long. ”immortality. That’s Gwyneth’s aim, or something vaguely similar. Have you thought about what might happen once I achieve my goal, assuming I still mean to? Were you offered the same opportunity when we last spoke?”

Odette sighed shortly through her nose. “Gwyneth clearly found some success in preserving her soul, if this entire quest is not the very definition of conditional immortality then,” She shrugged, dropping the cheese to the plate. “I would not be interested in it, our agreement was alliance in exchange for helping you regain your memories-” Odette slipped, intentionally pushing to blur the line further between Marie and Gwyneth. “I mean Gwyneth’s memories. Mutual immunity from the other, as you already know.”

“I believe…” She began slowly. “The more I learn of Gwyneth and yourself I believe she would be capable of crafting unconditional immortality for herself. I do not know the theory or ideas she has but I believe it is within her capacity.”

”Myself,” Marie whispered in response, shaking her head to let loose any reservations. ”Myself,” she said louder, ”It is within my capacity, something I can craft for myself. There’s no longer any sense in trying to separate the two of us. I am Gwyneth, just short a few memories. Amnesia, essentially. So thank you for the vote of confidence, I appreciate it, but that’s not quite what I asked.”

Odette counted a point in her favour at that.

Marie leaned in closer.

”What happens to you once I’m back on the track of immortality? Mutual immunity is all well and good, but from everything you’ve told me and everything I’ve heard, that’s not nearly enough for you. To have Gwyneth Owens as an ally would be a great boon. And at the risk of sounding overly confident, I think you’ll need me, especially when it comes time to deal with that little prophecy of yours. Achieving immortality for yourself might change things for you. Apparently I was searching for it to live in peace and escape persecution, but for you, it might be the difference between your survival, or your destruction.”

Marie leaned back, pulling apart her croissant and taking a bite. Odette’s eyes flicked down at the pastry.

”Just something to think about,” she added.

Odette squinted at Marie, recognizing this tactic. “You are trying to use the same leverage I had used back at the grocery store. I am well aware of the advantage I would gain from unconditional immortality. I certainly do not need you to tell me what I need and what I stand to gain.” She pressed her forefinger on the back of her phone.

“If you managed to figure out immortality, offer or not the cost would be high. I do not put all of my eggs into one basket thinly pinning my hopes of surviving the prophecy onto a singular thing.” She sipped her wine, “As if I haven’t already been searching for a way to immortalize myself.”

”So you search for Mab, the long lost Faerie Queene who, coincidentally, is somehow involved with my past, which is all the better for you because, and this is only a guess, I get the feeling you’re trying to expand your reach. Ties to the seasonal courts is fine and all, but a former Queen, one who, if I’m not mistaken, is a member of the oldest tribe of Fey in existence. The Tuatha, right?”

Marie took a sip of water. Holt grew ever conscious of Marie’s overextension. It was unlike her, but in truth, Holt wasn’t entirely sure who or what Marie was anymore.

”If you were on their good side,” Marie continued, ”well, then you could dodge just about anything, couldn’t you? Reach greater acclaim than is possible through the courts, have you name and image truly immortalized. Am I close?”

Marie held up a hand.

”And before you try to be dismissive and let that famous paranoia dictate your answer, know that I’m not playing any games, despite what you might think. There are no tactics here, nothing other than sheer curiosity. Convince yourself otherwise if it helps, but I stand to gain nothing from knowing, other than to offer you a little peace of mind, as I’m sure, in your line of work, that’s hard to come by. I can’t have my ally plagued by worries that could jeopardize our mission. I’ve let go of my baggage, now it’s your turn.”

Odette leaned forward about to retort with a barb of her own, then sat back. As she was Odette was appalled at Marie’s attempts to dig for more information curiosity or not, good intentions or otherwise - Odette hated that Marie thought herself to understand her. No amount of empathy could help.

She folded her hands on the table, unaware of the way she gnawed on the inside of her cheek. “As if, I would allow something as useless as ‘baggage’ to hold me back from completing anything. It’s about as useless as being told to just - let it go.” She scoffed at the idea of it. “If you truly understood why I feel the need to keep details to myself we would not be having this conversation. It may not seem like you gain anything from knowing more but I know information, no matter it’s form or method of collection - is power. A healthy dose of paranoia has kept me alive for years.”

“You say I can trust these details to you and perhaps I can, but until you have gained all of your power and memories you are just as vulnerable,” She said, “Vulnerable to anyone attempting to mine for information by manipulation or forcefully cracking that head of yours open to find out everything you know. The Former Faerie Queen Mab may just do that and you are right she is Tuatha.”

She continued, standing - the control she was exerting over her tone to remain even was extreme. Marie’s prying aggravated Odette, severely. “I would very much like Former Queen Mab to be my ally but facing her is a daunting task, even for one such as myself. I have an ego, yes. I have a string of accomplishments that have built my status but I know exactly what I am capable of and I understand the Fair Folk. You act as if my baggage is volatile when right now I am looking at the most unstable witch in salem.”

“Do not, I repeat - do not assume to know or understand why I act as I do.” She warned, the temperature in the room dropped several degrees.

Marie couldn’t place the emotions she felt after hearing Odette’s rant. It wasn’t fear, they were both past that. Was it shame for having potentially alienated an ally, sorrow? Or was it amusement at having pushed someone, exploiting a weakness or exposing their limitations? Should she frown and apologize, or grin and remain silent?

”Alright,” Marie finally responded in a softened tone, ”I might have overstepped, I’m sorry. This is . . . new for me. I’ve never done well in teams, and now that I have a partner . . . I’ll leave this alone.”

Marie pulled out her phone to check the time. Nearly an hour had passed; Maryann was likely waiting for them.

Standing up, Marie hailed Holt with a hand and began walking toward the exit.

”It’s just about time,” Marie called back to Odette. Before the two had left the assembly house, Marie turned back around, only a few paces from Odette and Bach.

”I’ll be civil moving forward,” Marie spoke in a hushed tone, ”But let’s not pretend that threatening me does you any favors. I can’t hurt you, you can’t hurt me. That’s the deal you made.”

Gradually the temperature climbed back to normal as Odette pulled back. She averted her gaze. It reminded her of what Silence once said, did she want pawns or partners? Odette felt that memory wash over her. She wanted her boundaries to remain intact but Marie was climbing over them. For the first time, Marie was finally standing her ground against Odette but not as enemy.

She clenched a fist then let it relax. “That is the deal I made and as this is new to you, it is new to me.”

She felt Bach’s eyes burrow into the back of her head. “I have more than enough puppets and-” She gestured to Marie. “Not enough partners.”

That was about as close to an apology Marie was going to hear for the day. She made eye contact, nodding.

---

---

It was a short walk to Salem’s library, only a few paces down and across Essex Street, the red-bricked building signaled by a simple street sign in the colonial style. A few windows were lit up, possibly by emergency lights that kept the building filled with a dull luminescence. It was certainly well after the building’s hours, but Salem’s witches seemed to care little for the city’s boundaries or regulations. In fact, they were likely the ones who set such rules in place.

A slender woman sat at the front desk, nodding to Odette and Marie as they passed, expecting them. She moved around the counter and handed Marie a keycard to the third floor.

“Ms. Douglas is waiting for you in a private room upstairs,” the woman directed, “third floor, second door on the right, just behind a small memorial statue.”

They nodded, following the stairs up to the third floor to search for Maryann.

Upstairs, the interior was as much as would could expect from a public library. Rows upon rows of books separated by subject, title, author, etc. Dotted around the space were tables and booths for quiet study, as well as small rooms here and there for quiet escapes. Between particularly wide rows were the odd map of Salem, globe, or raised placard. Eventually, the pair found the memorial mentioned by the librarian downstairs, a small, carved figure of Tituba made by a local artist. Behind it were a set of doors, the second of which held the same number as the keycard.

Marie swiped the card, unlocking the door and revealing Maryann seated at a desk with a collection of books, journals, worn parchment, and a variety of witching tools strewn about every imaginable surface.

“Ah,” she said as she looked up at them. “Good, you’re here. I’ve come up with a few mentions across various texts. I hope it’s what you’re looking for. Just ask a question and I’ll see if I have an answer.”

Odette already knew some questions she needed to be answered, “What are the last recorded memories of Mab’s whereabouts?”

“Even if your ancestor did not see her last, even her account of where or when she last saw her is a clue.” Odette said.

“I have no need to recall Mary Eastey’s memories,” Maryann replied, “at least not yet. There is an account, although brief, from a witch named Peter Marberg in 1699. As acting head of the Essex Wyrd prior to the turn of the century, Peter’s personal journal has been kept in near perfect condition.

“During the Samhain ritual carried about by the four covens and Tituba on October 31, 1699, Peter recounts witnessing a female figure dressed in silken robes the color of freshly turned soil. He describes the spirit as having fair skin covered in a fine powder that shimmered in the moonlight, wearing the head of an owl, and sporting large, moth-like wings that held a golden iridescence. Peter’s description matches those of witches from Andover prior to the Salem trials. However, he reports having only seen her for a moment, ‘risen from brittle leaves’, before she vanished.”

Maryann shook her head.

“There is no other mention of Mab in the colonies after that night. It was assumed in later years that she returned to the Isles, but as you know, that’s never been confirmed.”

Odette nodded affirming that point. “Otherwise we would not be here asking.” She pulled her phone free, thumbs typing her own notes. “What exactly was Mab doing prior to her departure? She clearly helped the witches settle but are there hints of projects, goals, anything that could possibly bring her back to Andover or even Salem?”

“Capricious in nature but fair folk nobility always have something to occupy their attention.”

Maryann took a second glance through a selection of loose pieces of parchment, all stacked haphazardly on the study room’s central table. Odette and Marie could make out vague images of Mab’s description on a few of the pages, likely taken from a grimoire years prior.

“This is heavy speculation,” Maryann qualified, “but from what I’ve gathered, it seems that Mab was acting on behalf of her sister, or whom the witches of Andover assumed was her sister. Nicnevin, the Witch Queen of Scotland.”

”Nicnevin and Mab are sisters?” Marie questioned, slightly in awe. She’d heard plenty of tales of the witches midnight flights with Nicnevin in her early studies, and her name was mentioned a number of times in various trials from Scotland.

Maryann nodded.

“Apparently, although I’ve seen no other records that confirm that suspicion. Either way, it seems that Mab was keen to reposition herself after her departure from the Summer Court only a century prior. Perhaps she hoped to regain her power and position through the witches in Andover; take a portion of the New World to act as her throne.”

“Making roots in the new world is seemingly difficult then as it is now.” Odette said, “Others, many others still cling to the ‘old world’. Mab was well ahead of her time. As to be expected. . .” She trailed off in thought, Nicnevin was a mysterious figure to be involved in this in any capacity. Should they prepare for a powerful witch’s meddling as well? Mab was inevitably who Odette would focus on but she thought to put Marie on preparing for the Witch Queen. Powerful players waltzing onto the board was trickier to predict. “Naturally, she was seen on Halloween. We are still off from any major turn of the season, celestial events, save for a full moon. I wonder if The Land can give us some impressions of Mab… A spirit such as her would surely leave her mark centuries later.”

“While the Veil is still firmly in place I have no issue pushing through if need be.”

“I have something else that might interest you,” Maryann added.

Gently moving the other books aside, she brought out a large wooden carving depicting multiple scenes, along with pages taken from an illuminated manuscript that Marie and Odette assumed would explain the carvings.

“These pages,” Maryann explained, “are from a 13th century dictionary of spirits. I have no record of when they came into the Essex Wyrd’s possession, but, quite fortunately, they describe Mab in further detail, including a sort of prophecy regarding the birth of five distinct children.”

The first scene in the carvings showed a woman, not far from Peter Marberg’s description, cradling a small goat. A second scene presented Mab, or whom Marie and Odette assumed to be Mab, aiming a bow at a great stag. Another found Mab planting a seed, which sprouted roots upon touching the soil. Next, Mab lifted a child from, or perhaps lowered it into, a raging fire. Finally, Mab was seen dancing under a bright moon, drinking from a cup in the shape of a horn.

“How interesting,” Maryann noted, “pieces of the manuscript switch between Latin and a strange fey dialect. One that I unfortunately cannot read. The Latin, however, is roughly as follows: ‘Five borne from Malice, a jealous wife. The first a babe from Hell was brought, to offend her paramour, a good Christian was he. The second babe masked by cruel treachery, a regal beast turned wild in death. The third babe carried by cursed winds, borne of a mother’s weeping to the Earth’s fertile womb. The fourth babe turned ash, called back to the place where day and night yet linger. The fifth and last is both gift and curse, borne in celebration and jest with poisons unseen.’”

Maryann shook her head.

“I’m not sure I can elaborate much further. I’ve personally never known Mab to have any children, but I suppose it is one of the many facets of her being that remains a mystery. You’ll have to find more on your own, or ask the Land when the time comes.”

Odette leaned closer examining the piece, the carving. Five distinct creatures born of Mab, it rang a very distinct bell making the hair on her arms rise in a instinctive chill. “I would like to take pictures to tag along with my notes. This is very interesting for reasons outside of our current focus on Mab. I would love to study this carving in depth.” Odette said raising her phone up taking several pictures in portrait and landscape, flash off of course. Bach illuminated a soft light giving Odette crisp, highly detailed pictures.

She flicked through them, a knowing curl to her lips. She typed away her notes. This may prove to be an actual one up in information, uncommon knowledge. Maryann hadn’t an idea. Marie however, only needed a hint. “Isn’t that right White Witch? When we have a moment we could study this, together.”

”Sure . . .” Marie replied, her mind trailing off, conjuring up a memory, a recent conversation. At first she hadn’t caught on to Odette’s fascination with the carvings, believing them to be scholarly, something useful in finding Mab. That wasn’t far from the truth. There was a twinge of something there, a subtle shift in her tone, inflection that felt out of place without reason. But not a moment later, Marie knew.

”Right,” she responded a second time with more enthusiasm. ”It should lend itself to an unrelated endeavor. Thank you, Maryann.”

Maryann nodded, tidying up the small room while speaking.

“Is there anything else? Midnight is nearly upon us. If you’ve any other questions, be swift.”

“I believe my questions have been sufficiently answered with the resources at hand. We have context now.” the sorceress said, differing to Marie once again. “Yourself?”

Marie shook her head.

”We have everything we need for now. It should be enough to ask the Land for greater insight.”

“Well if that’s it,” Maryann replied, “I’ll show you girls to Gallows Hill. I imagine everything will be in place by now.”

The wind metahuman summoned a gale that blasted the three heroes who had appeared to stop the ramage of the metahumans victimized by the Hounds of Humanity. These winds would have knocked the average person off their feet, but Gajana, a mountain of a man, crept forward, approaching one step at a time. The wind metahuman kept pumping more power into the violent winds, but no matter how much the winds raged, Gajana kept inching forward until he was standing right next to the man. Gajana then raised his arms up and slammed his fists against the wind meta’s shoulders. As a result of blow, the wind metahuman was momentarily stunned, which caused the winds to die down.

“Firefox!” Gajana exclaimed, since he had made an opening for his teammate.

Another portal appeared next to the elephant man and the nine-tailed fox girl hopped out of the portal and landed next to her teammate. Using her fire powers in the same way she did on the speed metahuman, Firefox pressed her hand against the circular device that was attached to the metahuman’s stomach. In mere seconds, she was able to deactivate the device and revert the metahuman back to his original state. Gajana then lifted the now unconscious metahuman and gently placed him down on the other side of the portal, so the individual would no longer be in danger.

“Look out!” Firefox called out when she saw the light-powered metahuman charged up an energy blast and shot it at Gajana. Firefox instinctively leapt into the path of the beam and took the hit for her teammate. However, due to her powers, Firefox’s body absorbed the energy. As a result, the tips of her nines began to glow, signifying that the energy had been stored in her body.

Meanwhile, the Wanderer had been tussling with the rust and ice metahumans. The buffeting winds from the wind meta had done little to deter him, his bloodied face scowling at his two opponents through the purple haze of his barrier. The combined strength of rust spears, the wind and a blizzard-like beam did little against the strength of the barrier despite it looking impressive. As the attack brushed up against the barrier, the mutant focused on the area around them, trying to find the best place to launch a counterattack of his own. As he focused on a potential location, he knew that with the three attacks striking up against the barrier, there was little in the way of him preventing himself from sustaining an injury.

As soon as Firefox took down the wind meta, the mutant saw his opportunity to strike. Releasing his hold of the barrier for a second, he focused on phasing to the next location. While the icy blast and the metal spears struck him as he focused, their attacks seem to do little to deter him. The spears were only glancing strikes against his arms and legs and his body armour slowed the advance of the cold against his body. Smirking, The Wanderer disappeared into thin air, reappearing a moment later between the two metahumans. Before they had a chance to react, he low kicked the ice meta across the knee. The kick itself was ineffective, but it gave him the position needed to blast the rust meta across the street with a beam of psionic energy.

Reduced to one enemy, he began focusing on the ice meta and launched an attack of his own. The psionic blades began to work as they chipped away at the icy exterior of the meta. As he shifted between attacking with the blades and phasing around the metahuman, the blades disappearing between each shift, it wasn’t long before his barrage became too overwhelming. The ice metahuman collapsed to the floor in a daze, much like the wind meta before her. ”Another metahuman down,” he called towards Firefox. He then turned to face the rust meta, managing to get back up on its feet after getting blasted.

While the Wanderer was facing the rust metahuman, Firefox opened up another portal and jumped through it. She landed next to the downed ice metahuman and started working on destroying the device that had turned these metahumans into these raging monsters. The light-based metahuman was momentarily disorientated by his target suddenly disappearing. However, when he turned around, the metahuman immediately found its target again.

“Gajana,” Firefox shouted to her teammate. In turn, Gajana rushed forward the light-based metahuman and he threw a right uppercut. However, the punch did not hit its mark. Instead, his fist passed through the metahuman’s body, as if the light being was intangible. The light-based metahuman turned, raised his hand, and blasted the elephant man with a light burst, which sent Gajana flying into the side of a nearby building.

While her teammate momentarily distracted the light-based metahuman, Firefox was able to revert the ice metahuman back to normal. However, she did not have enough time to open another portal and transport the metahuman to safety. Therefore, the only option she had was to take any hits the metahuman could dish out.

As the fight with the rust metahuman was about to start, The Wanderer noted the two warriors as they were preparing to remove the device from the downed ice meta. As psionic blasts hit the surface of his opponent, he watched from the corner of his eye as the device was successfully removed from the victim, though at the cost of Gajana being struck into the side of the building. While the rust meta was being dealt with medium success, his slight distraction wasn’t enough to fully put the monster down. When the light metahuman was ready to launch an attack on Firefox, with the recovering metahuman still in the field, he had to act.

As the light meta was done focusing on the elephant man, it raised its hands to begin another attack towards the kitsune woman. After it finished charging up, tendrils of light shot out from the ball of light that formed within its hands, each finger darting towards their target. A moment later, the attack connects. However, they collided with something other than their intended target. A translucent dome of a faint purple hue appeared in their path, the damage from the attack doing nothing to dent it. A little further away, The Wanderer had his back turned to the rust metahuman, the monster getting back onto its feet after a psionic detonation blasted it off its feet.

As the tendrils disappeared, the mutant focused on the light meta. His eyes narrowed as his thoughts channelled in on one thing to do, much like he had done with the group of Hounds. The barrier fizzled out, but the beam used to create it surged from it towards the light metahuman. The psionic beam successfully hit the meta, sending it flying. He chuckled at the result. I’m starting to get the hang of thi…

As his thoughts were finishing, the rust metahuman had reached him and slammed its right arm into his side, sending him flying into the building close to where Gajana was. As he collapsed to the floor, groaning at the pain that was now pulsing through his body, he turned to the elephant man. ”I think it’s best if you go for the rusty one while I go for the light-based one. What say you?”

“Sounds better than being blasted by this human lightbulb,” Gajana answered the Wanderer.

Gajana then pulled himself back onto his feet. Before he had time to rush into action, the rust metahuman had Firefox in its arms while trying to squeeze the life out of the fox girl. Gajana could not just confront the enraged metahuman without endangering his teammate.

Suddenly, fire burst out on the tips of Firefox’s tail. The flames then started to spread down her nine tails, until it had covered her entire body, from head to toe. The heat that the flames were giving off grew in intensity. Once she was outputting enough heat, the rust metahuman loosened its grip on her, allowing her to slip out of its grasp. She then rolled out of the way, giving her teammate an opening.

Once Gajana saw his cue, he picked up one of the wall chucks that were created by his impact with the building and chucked it at the rust metahuman’s head. The blow to the head dazed the metahuman for just enough time for Gajana to charge over against their opponent. With one strong punch to the jaw, Gajana knocked the metahuman out cold. As a result, the rust metahuman crumbled to its feet and rolled over.

Firefox dropped to her knees and began working on the device that had drove the rust metahuman crazy. This time, since she had used her powers to covered her entire body, including her suit, with flames, this procedure took even less time, since it took less time to heat up the device. Once the rust metahuman had been reverted back to normal, Firefox stood back up next to Gajana, who had turned to see if the Wanderer needed any assistance.

As the rust metahuman was reverted back to normal, the lone light metahuman snarled at the two heroes. Like a feral animal trapped in the corner, it roared at them in defiance as it began to charge another attack. As both hands were forced into the air, the light in the surrounding area began to darken. Even in the broad daylight, the light from the sun seemed to wane as the skies around them seem to go black. Each passing second went by and the ball of light grew bigger and bigger.

With the attack from the enraged metahuman almost concluded with its charging phase, The Wanderer phased into the line of sight between it and Gajana and Firefox. While he blocked the way so that he would take the brunt of the attack instead of the two heroes, the mutant thought about how to counter whatever the attack was. He thought about the barrier to shield them from the attack, but with the length of the charge then the surrounding area would probably get destroyed. Likewise, if he used a barrier to surround the metahuman, the attack could risk killing the person inside of it. Seeing no other choice, with even a close-up attack being ruled out for it being too slow, he began charging his own attack. He raised his right hand and pointed it towards the light metahuman, the flames of his psionics migrating to his hand as a ball of psionic energy formed in it.

Then, both of them fired. The purple beam of psionic energy and the beam of light collided in the middle of the street, the destruction in the road forming at the point. At first, the two beams were equal in strength, not wanting to budge an inch. But with the previous exertions of the past couple of days became apparent as moments later, the beam of light slowly started to creep forward as it pushed the psionic beam back. The mutant gritted his teeth as he dug his heels into the ground and searched within himself to find more energy to stop the incoming attack. ”I don’t know how much longer I can hold this back,” he grunted at Gajana and Firefox, his body slowly edging back towards them. ”Get the changed people to safety before I lose my strength.”

Suddenly, something tweaked throughout his being. As if something was beginning to break within him, The Wanderer started to feel more energy coming into him. This was visually apparent to those near him as the purple flames of his psionic aura began to flicker with shades of blue in the tips of the flames. Whatever had happened, it gave the psionic beam more energy than before and started to push the beam of light back. Then, as the energy started to increase, the purple beam split the beam of light in to. It surged forth until it hit the light meta. The enraged person was sent flying down the street as the beam of light disappeared with the attack. The purple beam disappeared as soon as The Wanderer reacted to the attack hitting the metahuman. He collapsed onto his hands and knees, panting heavily as the sweat dripped from his face.

A moment later, he looked up towards the light metahuman. With the sudden surge of energy that went into the attack, he feared the worst had come to pass. While his normal eye saw the metahuman’s body looking limp, his psionic eye saw the waves of psionic energy still emanating from the body. ”Good,” he muttered, audible enough for Gajana and Firefox to hear. ”The metahuman is still alive, but they would need some serious treatment after this.”

While Firefox took care of the now downed light-based metahuman, Gajana immediately contacted the authorities to send an ambulance as soon as possible. Before the heroes knew it, emergency sirens were blaring in the distance, signalling that the EMTs were on their way.

“Thanks for the assist,” Gajana told the Wanderer. “However, I would suggest you let the medics take a look at you. You took quite a beating back there.”

“I agree,” Firefox said while she walked away from the light-based metahuman. As she approached, the flames that had covered her entire body started to extinguish itself. However, when these flames disappeared, her costume turned out to have not been damaged at all, since it had been designed to withstand the heat that Firefox could output. “You don’t want those wounds to fester.”

The Wanderer panted as the two heroes dealt with the last of the enraged metahumans. It wasn’t too long before the sound of the emergency vehicles were in his ears. Guess with this over, it’s time for me to make my leave, he thought to himself, getting back to his feet. While he had suffered injuries from both the Hounds and these metahumans, he was still new to the timeline he was in. Meaning, there wouldn’t be any record of him in the books at all bar the heroics he will have written about him in the news outlets. Besides, he suffered injuries like that before and he figured he could pull through them again.

When Gajana spoke to him, the mutant nodded at the elephant man. ”And likewise,” he responded in kind. When the suggestion of getting the medics to check his injuries from both heroes, he shrugged off the idea. ”While I am sure you’re right about me needing to get checked out by the medics, I’m afraid I’ll have to give that a pass.” He paused for a moment, deliberating on whether to reveal that he was from 200 years in the future. Ah, fuck it, he thought. They might press on their point on getting the medical attention so he better reveal it now than learn about it in the future. ”Besides, I’ve shrugged off much worse injuries from worse beings in your future and still live to be able to get to your time.”

If any word could describe the expression on Firefox and Gajana’s faces, one would use the word ‘surprised’. Although this world had seen interdimensional demons, metahumans, and users of the mystic arts, something like time travelling was too far-fetched to be science fact. This had to be this guy’s gimmick. It was either that or he was mentally unbalanced enough to believe in such a delusion, or possibly both. But what superhero isn’t a little crazy in the head when they run around a city in tights to beat up bad guys.

However, although the Wanderer had taken a beating from his encounters with the metahumans who had been sent into a rage by the Hounds, Firefox and Gajana decided that it was probably better not to try to take the Wanderer in to inquire about the validity of his claim about being from the future. They would only endanger the first responders and any other civilians by starting another metahuman battle.

If the expression that the two heroes were any indication, The Wanderer’s declaration of him coming from the future had taken them by surprise. Of course, he thought, the feeling of disappointment in realizing the error in making such a statement. They probably think that me being from 200 years in the future is too outlandish for this timeline. Nevertheless, he needed to convince them that what he was saying was true and not a delusion that anyone would make up when meeting other superheroes in this city.

Ok, trying to convince them is the next part, but how? was the major question that ran through his mind now. The easiest solution would be to show the various news articles that had been saved in the small memory banks of his wrist device. But, with the more advanced technology he was used to, he decided against it. Without calling past events of this year without much in the way of knowledge on his part, there was only one option for him to take. One that he didn’t like at all.

”Judging by the looks on your faces, what I have said seemed to be a bit… absurd?” He asked, pretty much validating that he has read their expressions. ”It is a large bit of information about me that I have given you, so it might be deemed as impossible. We can talk all day about it and try to convince that I’m from a time 200 years in your future, but that might make either one of us frustrated at the other.” He paused for a moment. ”It doesn’t matter if you think that I am delusional or not, that is the truth that I will say about myself. Whatever its interpretation, I’ll leave to you. Nevertheless, you still have my gratitude and I hope that we meet again under better circumstances.” As his time with this fight has drawn to a close and the threat on civilians are no longer around, he nodded farewell to them and walked away from the scene.

Location: Lachance Stronghold – Henderson, Nevada
Time: Noon, the Day before the Satellite Attacks

---

Genevieve slumped onto her desk, exhausted after hours of pouring over Marie’s vague instructions. This was all up to chance, and Genevieve didn’t want to assume any responsibility in the event that everything went up in flames. But she was eager to rid her sanctuary of unwanted guests. The walls spoke to her, relaying a troubling message of an intrusion, brief but apparent. Someone, or more appropriately, something had seen fit to wander into the space between and visit the Lachance’s sacred dwelling.

Even more reason to be rid of them, Genevieve thought to herself, pulling back her crimson hair into a tight bun to keep from pulling or burning it during the rite.

Like many elements of the craft, the actions and components were fairly simplistic, but the force behind it, the symbolism, was rather complex, and binding a spirit in such a way had scarcely been done before. Even so, Genevieve began the working, first crafting an effigy from twigs and straw, yew specifically, in the shape of a wolf. She added bits of flesh and hair taken after Benjamin’s transformation, the taglock which would access and bind his essence. Next, she anointed the poppet with a deadly mixture, aconite extract, jimson weed bulbs, and mugwort ash. Into the wolf’s mouth, Genevieve placed a rough obsidian stone set in silver. Finally, the words:



Uttered thrice and the spell is done, but only time would tell if Marie’s formula had been successful, and Genevieve wasn’t keen on breaking the news to Ben that his friend had gone.

Wrapping the talisman in twine to forge a crude amulet, Genevieve collected herself and the trinket, moving with haste out of her office, past the arboretum, and on to the corridors where Marie’s friends had slept the night before. Fortunately enough, Ben was wandering the halls, and Genevieve could tell he was already on edge.

“Not having a good morning, I take it?” she greeted him with a less than enthusiastic tone, heels clicking on the wooden floors until she stopped about ten feet short of Ben.

Benjamin felt he was talking to his fourth-grade math teacher. A woman who expected perfection out of all her students, often frowning on those that didn’t fit with her expectations and making them feel lower than dirt. He forcibly swallowed the sensation of aggression surging in his chest. He didn’t want to start a fight in the very sanctuary his group was taking refuse within, especially with what appeared to be the leader.

He let out a breath then nodded, “Yeah, I’m starting to get used to it. It’s just been a while since I’ve nightmares of a crow.”

“I figured I should let you know we’ll be leaving your domain as soon we figure out where to head next and I make arrangements. I’m pretty sure Kat’s spell has worn off by now so Lori will be seeking me out soon.”

“I haven’t the slightest what any of that means, but let me make your leaving a little easier.”

Genevieve motioned to the walls.

“You’ve likely noticed that there are no doors leading outside, and very few windows, all of which show . . . well, certainly not the desert. You and your friends got in the non-traditional way, so to make sure you can go as quickly and as easily as possible, here.”

She removed a slender white wand from her side, carved with strange symbols that were just visible.

“Whenever you’re ready, just snap the wand in half and think of the place you want to be. It’ll carry you and your friends wherever you wish.”

“Thank you. And I noticed that, but I figured it wasn’t any of my business,” Benjamin commented, then held his hand to retrieve the wand.

He looked it over briefly, hiding how impress he was at the simplicity, then he carefully pocketed it. Feeling like their exchange was done, he shifted to pull away and find Kat and Yeong to determine what was next.

“Before you go,” Genevieve spoke up, regaining his attention, “I have something else. Your friend, Marie, left while all of you were sleeping. She reasoned it would be better to complete her quest without endangering others who had no stake in her, shall we say, former self. But she didn’t leave you empty handed.”

Genevieve held out the wolf effigy.

“Apparently, Marie had been researching ways for you to gain control over your transformations. Before her departure, she relinquished her findings to me and asked I complete the spell in her stead. I won’t bore you with the details, but in theory, this talisman should allow you and your other half to work in conjunction, granting you control over your changes. We also found a note addressed to you. They’re yours, if you wish.”

“Yeah, why not? She couldn’t tell me herself after all. Just another reminder that the only person I can count on is myself.” Benjamin said with venom and a coldness in his words then caught himself. He sighed in acceptance at his fate before apologizing.

“You shouldn’t have been the one that should be delivering this news and for that, I’m sorry you were involved.”

The words appeared to be genuine.

Genevieve sighed.

“You don’t need to apologize, I made a deal and I’m honoring it, simple as that. And while it’s not my job to console you, let me give you this piece of free advice. How old are you? 16? 17? Point is, you’re young, and whatever betrayal you think you’ve experienced up to this point is likely nothing compared to what’s to come, or compared to your companions. People come, they affect our lives in a variety of ways, and they leave. And it is incredibly naive for you to think that they’ll stay when faced with issues greater than emotional, or even supernatural, bonds.

“Be angry, if you must. Scream, cry, brood, feel whatever you want if you think it helps. Or you could put yourself in her position, try to understand why she, and others, might not still be here. You have a lifetime to be disappointed. Don’t start getting bitter now or it’ll ruin anything good that happens to you. Or ignore me, if you like. Leave with or without this talisman, it’s all the same to me so long as you aren’t here tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I suppose that rings true when you’ve had eight people leave in a span of days,” Benjamin pointed out.

“That speech isn’t very effective to someone’s who had to raise themselves since eight, but I thank you for it anyways. We’ll be out by tomorrow, you have my word. Now if you will excuse me, is there a phone somewhere I can make some calls and arrangements from?”

Genevieve set the letter and the talisman down on a wooden table nearby, the legs made to look like vines.

“Unfortunately no,” she responded dryly, “I’m afraid there’s no reception here. Our only means of communication is the tree at the center of the sanctuary. If you need to get a message to someone, you could write a letter and hand it to the tree, although the recipient might not have a positive reaction to a random letter falling into their hands.”

“Yeah, that’s why I was hoping for a phone,” Ben’s fingers rubbed his eyes, trying to rein in his rising frustration and stress.

He wondered if it was that his whole stomach churned inside his middle. Like it was rejecting the food and nutrients he had managed to eat. Pushing those thoughts aside, Ben had to focus on the present.

“Is there a range for the travel spell? Or anything I specifically should know before using it that you haven’t said?”

Genevieve shook her head.

“It can take you anywhere you imagine, but especially places that have significance to you. Just ensure that you and everyone you want to go with you are touching before you snap the wand. Oh, and you might want to close your eyes, it can be a bit bright.”

“Like everything else today. Now I just have to try not to get high off the magic of the wand or the effigy,” Benjamin mumbled, for once hating he could smell magic even in his human form.

At least he wasn’t a wolf right now, or he would just lay there inhaling the scent for hours.

“Oh,” Genevieve called over her shoulder, turning back before leaving the corridor.

“If you decide to take that little trinket, avoid touching it with your bare skin. It’s coated in wolfsbane. We wouldn’t want you to be poisoned, would we?”

She let out a little chuckle before turning away, waving over her shoulder.

When Genevieve was out of earshot, Ben looked at the effigy. He approached it slowly then considered reaching out a hand, but stopped just inches from touching.

“To be honest... At least it would be better than what I’m feeling now,” Ben said quietly.

Cautiously, he pulled his sleeve over his hand then picked up the handcrafted figurine. With a few light jerks, he managed to rip the sleeve off his shirt and wrap it tightly for later. The last thing he picked up was the letter as he left to find what little remained of his pack.

Zoë flickered into visibility inside the sealed room she had discovered, grinning wickedly. The foolish bigots had apparently thought that sealing a six inch blast door, then welding it, then collapsing a tunnel behind a secret panel door in an otherwise unassuming wall would deter all the metas coming for them. Her unique powers, however, let her explore completely outside the floor plan. She had been walking, phased out, just on the outside of the tunnel walls, one hand out to give her the sense of whether she was still in the right line. The collapsed rock had given her pause, so she had followed it, only to find herself in a hidden vault.

The bag she had custom-ordered had finally come, just in time for this little escapade, well outside the purviews of her current job. The thing was the size of an Army rucksack, but made entirely of carbon fibre and other fireproof materials, lined with tungsten plates. While she could actually light the thing on fire herself, the ambient temperatures from her burning her surroundings wouldn't affect it or anything she squirrelled away inside it, making her combat abilities finally compatible with her thieving abilities.

Her grin grew wider as colour and depth returned to her vision the same time the motion sensor light triggered, revealing to her rows of file cabinets, a stack of laptops, and in one corner, a huge safe, reminiscent of a bank vault in miniature. Like the famous cliche of the kid in the candy shop, she was unsure where to start, so she paused for a moment before ripping open the first drawer, and began pouring through the contents.

"Ugh, shipping manifests? This will take forever," she muttered to herself. Overhead, the muffled thump of a grenade going off caught her ears, but it sounded like it was at least one level above her and outside, so she continued her search. Two drawers later and only a few valuable finds later and the lights flickered once and then went out. She gazed up at the ceiling with a curse.

Thinking quickly, she glanced at the first cabinet, now hanging completely open and all valuable files already removed. With a wave of her hand, the papers in the top drawer burst into flames, illuminating the entire room in dancing oranges and yellows. Knowing that she had a limited amount of air, now, worse than before, she flung every drawer open with abandon, searching for anything that looked remotely like a bank statement, deed, stock voucher, or anything else. Everything matching that description was shoved unceremoniously into her fireproof bag. Once those were covered, along with anything that look like personally identifying information or blackmail either on the Hounds or that they had on anyone else, she turned to the laptops. She was surprised to see that they were, in fact, stacked in front of what looked like a server tower, which was also surrounded by PC towers.

Not bothering with niceties or care, she used her enhanced strength to rip open the cases, tear the hard disks out of them and stuff them on top of the papers, and then cast the rest behind her. Within fifteen minutes she was sure she had secured everything of value out of more than two dozen computers and the server, plus jammed one of the laptops whole into her bag, but at this point she was running out of room for loot. Her gaze flicked up, locking onto the safe, standing ten feet tall and at least half as deep.

Striding up to it purposefully, she pointed her right index finger like she was playing cops and robbers, then put it an inch away from the hinge of the thing. A bright white jet of fire shot out from the tip of her finger, which she expended all of her concentration to control as much as possible. Ever so slowly, at least as far as she could tell, she glided her torch down the hinge, then repeated the process for the other three. Once those were cut, she did the same along the side just in line with the lock, though in two points above and below it instead of a straight line. She didn't know the safe model, not having been much of a cracker before, but she knew that was the most common location of security countermeasures like sealing mechanisms. Feeling like she had done all she could, she put the tips of all her fingers where she could on either side of the lock, triggered jets on each one, then dug in until she could get a grip and wrenched with all her surprising might.

The door fell off with a booming clang, revealing only a single object, a four inch cube of some sort of crystal. Without any information to go off of, she snatched it up, stuffed it into the pack, then sealed the bag up. Having secured what she felt to be a worthwhile prize, and with the heroes all occupied apprehending the enemy, she felt perfectly safe exercising herself, so she triggered her fire powers as high as they would go and began melting her way out through the collapsed tunnel.

A single beam of terrifyingly high heat first scorched its way out through the blast door, out of the rock, and then into the outer corridor, a few inches wide and now glowing on the edges. With breathing air flowing in, even if it was superheated and thin, she proceeded to slag the rest of the blast door, stepping through the liquid metal as if it was just particularly stubborn water. Part of her concentration went into making sure the bag on her back didn't ignite, though it took much less than it would were it made of different materials. In her mind's eye, she could feel all of the temperatures around her as various viscosities of air, viscosities she could manipulate at will with but a thought. She did so, and swiftly strode out into the outer corridor in an expanding cloud of flames and molten cement.

The terribly swift increase of temperature did not go unnoticed by the likes of Alchemyst and Lady Hex. The fiery orange light casting long shadows down the hallway. Nearby sprinklers - that remained intact - spouted in vain against the intensity of heat - the water turning to vapours. With a little distance away, Charlie smashed the alarm, with a little bit too much force above their heads with her staff silencing it. She peeked around the corner, Hex at her side. The pair of them sneaking around having found their prize were perusing while looking for a discreet exit. The blast doors would have been a decent route but it was now a pool of lava.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

Charlie peeked around the corner seeing the one responsible. Through the haze it was difficult to discern who they were, on the small side in dark armour with what Charlie assumed was leftover metal melded to her armour. Similar to how she had added the kevlar to her forearms and shins. They wore a mask slits for eyes, a domino pattern. Clearly not a Hound but another metahuman just melting their way through was alarming enough as is.

Charlie smashed another alarm.

She motioned for Hex to lean closer, she whispered, “Alright, we’ve got a lava-fire-whatever metahuman down the hallway. I don’t remember seeing someone slinging fireballs at Sherman. I don’t remember seeing any fire-themed heroes running around in Lost Haven. Who the fuck are they?”

Madalena shook her head in response, annoyed that yet another obstacle would keep them from a safe retreat. But at this point, she was determined that nothing else would stand in their way.

”Dunno,” Maddi whispered, ”and I’ll be honest, I don’t really wanna get into a fight right now. We just got this damn file. I want a minute to celebrate before it all starts crashing down.”

Maddi gripped Charlie’s arm, looking into her goggles.

”But they definitely picked the wrong duo to mess with. The Alchemyst and Lady Hex can hold their own.”

Zoë stretched her arm out wide for a moment, then let her hands drop. As she did, the molten rocks around her cooled. She was careful to remove her feet before it solidified, then adjusted the pack and look up the corridor. With the glow of heat gone, her eyes began to slowly adjust to the dimness of the area, but she was still having problems.

”As much as I like a moody atmosphere, mon dieu but would it kill them to put in decent lighting?” she said to herself, not bothered too much by the echoes around the hall. As far as she was aware, everyone was topside fighting each other, or off trying to stop that horrible laser, leaving her free to poke around. She kicked a piece of smoothed, cooled metal down the hall with a ringing clang and began making her way forward. While she could have phased again, she was curious to see what all trouble she could stir up while she was here.

Charlie heard the feminine French accented voice, it sounded to her like she was completely unaware of them as of right now. She patted Maddi’s hands on her arm, “It doesn’t sound like she knows we’re here,” whispering she continued, “As much as I would love to believe we’re tough enough to take on some fire lady, I don’t want to take my chances and get singed.”

She wasn’t sure how to deal with this, a surprise could get a fist full of fire from the mysterious meta. Maybe talking could get them out of it and around her? Just going separate ways. Charlie knew all they cared about was getting the fuck out of there.

She patted Maddi’s hands again, “Here goes nothin’.”

Charlie stood up from her crouch, back against the wall raising her voice, “Yo! Frenchie!” She said, bracing herself. “We’re not Hounds but we’re not cops and you melted our escape route out of here! Can we just, like, not fight?”

She waved her staff past the corner to show where they were.

The Frenchwoman’s eyes snapped to the sudden appearance of a…stick? She stopped, noted the direction of the weapon waving around a corner, and held up her hands in the universal, “I don’t want trouble,” gesture, though she was well aware that with metas like her it was not a safe place for the hands. Even so, with everyone’s nerves on edge, she had to think fast. If they weren’t Hounds and they weren’t cops, that really only left the heroes. And they had her at a distinct advantage in at least placement, though she was confident in her combat capabilities, should it come to that.

”Oh, my mistake!” she called out clearly, pitching her voice up a bit to emphasise innocence and thickening her accent for dramatic effect. ”I am here on behalf of a European organization, oui? Government sponsored and very hush hush, and zese chiens, zey had some valuable intelligence that I was sent to recover. Sorry I ruined your escape route, but I am afraid my powers don’t really lend themselves to, ah...how you say, fixing things?”

”Same here!” Maddi called back with a little too much enthusiasm. ”At least, I don’t think they can, although I could probably conjure a handy imp or create some sort of infusion? . . . Sorry,” she apologized, displeased with her ability to ramble even under potentially dangerous circumstances, yet intrigued by the prospect of creating or finding a way to reverse a destructive bewitchment.

Lady Hex slowly lifted the file on the Witchfinder above her head.

”You’re not the only one who likes a little espionage,” she joked.

Charlie relaxed a little at their wordy exchange but why the fuck would Interpol or a vague European body of government be sending a singular person to act apart from American authorities? Especially when that person wasn’t being nearly as sneaky by melting their way into a facility. Charlie was skeptical, the excuse of it being a hush hush operation was a convenient point to fall back on to get by without identification. The believable point of the Hounds stealing intelligence to get as far as they have made sense. Maddi’s show of familiar goals, a sense of commonality was smart. All they had to do was get by without trouble.

“I can fix anything but it’s about us being in your way. What are the chances of us meeting halfway and no funny business? Just letting us pass you and us letting you pass by. You don’t know what we’re capable of but we know you can melt stuff by whatever means you got, frankly we’re not in any shape or form to go messing with you. How’s that sound miss euro secret agent?”

Charlie leaned around the corner the barest of her mask being made visible, “We got a deal?”

”Ca sonne bien...mais…” Forge’s head cocked to one side, eyes narrowing slightly. “How do I know you are not part of ze Hounds, eh? And that you will not try to gun me down when my poor back is turned? Not zat it would do you any good, but still, one can never be too careful.”

Not that she was particularly concerned in either case, but since she had a contract out on them, any Hounds agents would have to be dealt with. These two didn’t sound particularly dangerous, but she didn’t live this long in her business by being lackadaisical with her security.

” I tell you what, I can get us out of zis sticky situation tout de suite. Back zat way is nothing but ze hole zey had buried zis stuff in. You could poke around, see if zere is anything unburned, though I am very thorough. Or, you can go back ze way you came, I can go back ze way I came, and if you’re Hounds, ze heroes up at ze top will catch you and I will not have to worry, oui?”

There was a thought, just going back down the hallway at least before the fire spread. Charlie rolled her staff in her hands, thinking. Fairly, they could have very well been a pair of cowardly Hounds trying to make a quiet escape instead of gunning down the first dangerous metahuman they crossed. However, defending their very non-Hounds status was about principle, “I don’t know, did you hear something about them recruiting abominations? Shit, if I’d known that the bastards were that tolerant we could’ve gotten along just peachy keen.” She said laughing, her sarcasm obvious, “Fuck no, we’re not Hounds. Ever heard of a terrorist carrying around a staff instead of an ar-15? Come on.”

“We’re magic folk. Whether you believe in it or not, we’ve been targeted all the same as metahumans.” She said her tone growing serious, “With that said, we’ll go back the way we came. I don’t trust you and you don’t trust us, that’s cool. Give us a head start and we’ll vamoose.” Blunt but not unkind as was Charlie’s nature. Whether the mysterious fire meta took to it or not, they could at least agree not to fight right?

Zoë blinked, watching the stick. It was true! While she carried no weapons herself, because she was one, she knew most people at least used a baton or something. That was an actual stick. Terrorists or not, who uses a stick? She’d have to ask the Ambassador about sticks next time they talked, maybe it was a magic thing. But then something else the girl had said caught her attention.

”Abominations? Nono, ma chère fille douce, zey are ze abominations. But oui, we can do zis thing. However, headstarts are not necessary, eh? Just close your eyes and don’t get nervous, I will be gone in less zan a few seconds.” Making sure they were not currently looking at her, she phased out, becoming both invisible and intangible, and made her way past them, stopping to take a good up and down look while she had the chance. She had to stop herself from laughing out loud.

Oh my, they certainly are living up to that magic folk thing, eh? Maybe I should see if I can fund a stylist in this area for metas and such, they seem to need it. She laughed to herself all the way up the tunnel they were at the corner of, poking her head through walls to make sure there were no more goodies to be had on her way back up to the surface.

Charlie whipped her head around and she was gone. Frowning behind her mask she said, “Fuck, did she teleport? Or was that just a sleight of hand thing by asking to close our eyes?” Charlie turned to Maddi, “I feel like we dodged a bullet.”

Madalena blinked a few more times, wondering if the mysterious meta’s disappearance had been a trick of the light, or if they’d just had a shared delusion. As quick as she appeared, she vanished even quicker.

’Maybe,” Maddi leaned in, voice a riddled with worry, ”Maybe we should quit while we’re ahead. We’ve got the file, let’s get the hell out of here before someone, or something else turns up to crash the party.

“How about Croll Corner?” she suggested with a warm smile. ”The family might not yell as loud if you’ve got company with you, and it’ll be the perfect time to find out about your grandpa’s formulas.”

Charlie winced at the thought of facing the music, “I’m fine with sending them a postcard from the otherside of the country, really. It’s not a big deal.” Charlie said grinning at Maddi’s expression. “Hopefully Gramps is more forgiving and willing to help us out. After the week we’ve had I feel like I could sleep for a hundred years…” She thought for a second adjusting her hood. “Or go for a bar crawl.”

Shrugging she pushed away from the wall. “We’ll find another way out.”

“Darius was married, you know.” Mindy said from across the table. Eris was with her, they both sat at a table in the Pig and Anchor diner on the east side of town. They hadn’t ordered anything, though the waitress had stopped by to place two menus on the table in front of them. She took one, sad look at Mindy before scuttling off without a word.

“I didn’t know that.” They said. Mindy had her eyes glued to a spot on the marble table, a red stain of ketchup left from months ago blotched the oak paneling. Her eyes were red, and her vision was undeniably blurry. It felt as if she still had more tears to cry, yet none would come. Mindy could tell that Eris was feeling uncomfortable at the diner, especially so early in the morning.

“He was married to a detective. He never told anyone, he didn’t like to...talk about his life like that.” She said, quietly. Her finger scraped the edge of the table lightly. “I don’t know what to do now. Or whose going to tell his husband. Or whose going to take care of Snowflake, or if I’m even going to be in Snowflake, anymore.” She paused for awhile, and they both sat in silence. The waitress came over again, and set down to glasses of iced tea that neither ordered. Mindy took her glass, and nursed it while they talked. She almost took a sip, but couldn't bring herself to even drink from it because the only smell lodged in her nose was that of the bleach they used on Mix Tape. To get rid of the blood. Mindy wondered why someone would bleed when being hanged, but there was a small part of her psyche desparately trying to block such a question from her mind. Eris spoke up finally.

“You’ll still be in Snowflake, Mindy...I know you probably don’t care about that right now, though.” They said. “Let’s...talk about what you wanna do now. And then worry about all that other stuff, okay? Tackle the small things.”

Mindy nodded her head, slowly. “Okay.” She spoke softly.

“We’re at a diner now. Are you hungry for anything?

“No.” She said.

Eris nodded. “Do you want to go home, now?”

“I...do, but I can’t. My parents are on active duty. Darius was looking after me until then."

Eris nodded, solemnly. “Right. Then... that crosses food and rest off the list.” Mindy perked up at the sound of rest. She was tired, and still grieving. She appreciated Eris trying to help her in their own way, but no amount of food, or music could take her minds eye away from the image of Darius hanging from the scaffolding of Mix Tape.

“Actually, rest doesn’t sound too bad.” She said.

Eris smiled. “You can stay with Charlton and me, for the time being. If you want, that is.”

“Yes. That...that’s what I’m going to do now.”

…………………….

Mindy decided that she would take a small nap in Eris and Charlton’s small apartment. The hotel she and Darius had shared, though grieving alongside her, couldn’t really let her keep the room. The apartment was perfect; it was small, and Eris' bed wasn't so bad though they really needed to clean the sheets. She laid in the bed, her head completely submerged in the blankets. Once her head hit the pillow, she began to cry. It wasn't like the other times she had cried though. Yesterday, for example, she had cried a whole lot. There was a lot of inconsolable sobbing, and a few tearful wails.

This cry was silent, she couldn't even fathom the energy to whimper silently. Her throat felt tight with sorrow, her voice was completely gone for the entire time she cried underneath Eris' blankets. Soon what began as a few tears, turned to many, and then the pillow was soaked. Mindy slowly got up, a completely defeated mess after crying for 15 minutes on Eris' pillow. Her face was wet, and the tears were still streaming when she decided she couldn't sleep or scream.

It was early morning, Eris had taken her out to eat at around 6. Mindy knew that if it had been any other day, or if it had been a different timeline, she would of asked why so early. But she knew why. It would take awhile to get Darius' body down from the building. Whoever put him there had tied him to it elaborately. When Mindy first saw his body on her tiny phone screen, she knew what type of knots and how terse the rope was. She knew his arms must have been hurting being held in that awkward postion, and that his spine had to have been severed due to the coil wound around his waist. To describe the way Darius looked when he was hanging from Mix Tape would be very difficult. It's hard to imagine how one's foot could be twisted and pulled so that the toes face toward the head. It's not easy to talk about how you could severe a hip bone with a coil of rope, and a terrible pully system.

Mindy's fist clenched in the sheets, as she sat on the side of the bed. Her shirt was now wet. The tears had not stopped. The window in Eris' room showcased the sun rising slowly over a sleepy Provence, New Jersey. She doubted anyone could have seen something like this coming, but once she thought about it seriously...She still couldn't understand why it had to be Darius. The legs of her jeans were now wet. The tears were still flowing, and she could not scream. She stared listlessly into the suns glare, silently hoping that if she stared long enough she would stop crying.

The door to the apartment opened. She knew from the heavy footsteps that it wasn't Eris. Charlton stepped into the room, and she could practically feel his eyes bore into the back of her head. "Miss Mindy. How are you feeling, this morning?" She could not scream, and oh how she wanted to in that moment. She turned to him, and he saw her tear stained face. She saw his face blanch, and his chest heave as he breathed in deeply. "I'll let you grieve then-" He began to walk away from the doorway.

"Wait." Her voice came out strained, and tired. It did not sound like her voice at all. She could feel the tremor, and it pained her to speak, as if she had been silent for thousands of years and was just now getting used to her voice. "Please stay." Charlton nodded, and sat down next to her on the bed. He pretended not to notice how sopping wet the pillow was. Or the bed. Or how Mindy seemed not at all like herself today, and that Darius was not a contributing factor this time.

"I..." Charlton tried to speak. "I understand how you must feel right now. I have lost people close to me before, many times." He said. "If you want to cry, then it's alright. We'll give you as much time as you need."

"Who did you lose?" Mindy asked, bluntly. Charlton tried hard not to stare at her face because of how messy the tears made her look. He resisted the urge to give her a tissue, but he had a feeling these were tears you couldn't just wipe away. He cleared his throat, awkwardly.

"Well, he was a close friend of mine. We used to live in the same city for awhile, but then he moved away, and I became a butler." He recounted. "I used to work for him, and it was almost as if he had never moved away then. It was nice to see him again, after all those years."

Mindy stared at him, still with tearful eyes. "And he died?" She asked.

"He was killed. By a super, actually." Charlton spoke softly. Mindy let the words sink in, her mind was too muddled in grief to pinpoint her ideas.

"A super? Why...?" She began to ask.

"He was a villain behind the scenes. I never knew, the entire time I worked for him, he was plotting villainous things." He said. "I cried, much like you are doing now. Betrayal was one thing, but I was just sad he was gone."

Mindy gulped. "Oh. I understand' I'm sorry for asking."

"It's fine. It happened a long time ago, way before you were even born probably." He laughed a little. "I hope you feel better miss, though I won't blame you if you never will. Losing people is hard, I understand that more than anything." He stood up, finally. "Eris and I will be down at the police precinct. They might ask you to come after awhile, so be prepared for that."

Mindy nodded, not noticing the tears had finally dried and she was no longer crying. That strange tightness in her throat was gone, and she felt like she wanted to talk more. The scream she had wanted to release moments ago was gone now, the urge to release some form of sorrow had passed. The pillow was still wet, however. She didn't know what was wrong with her eyes before when she was crying, but seeing how she had never actually experienced something to this degree, she chocked it up to something that anyone would experience when filled with sadness.

Her eyes had been like a faucet, and it had hurt slightly to cry. She touched the skin under her eye and flinched slightly. It hurt badly. She had somehow hurt herself crying. She got up off the bed, and went to the bathroom to better see herself. The door to the bathroom was open when she went inside, and the mirror was dirty.

However it wasn't dirty enough to hide the two dark blue bruises forming around her eyes. She leaned into the mirror, confused, and went to touch it again but stopped when she saw her hand in the mirror. A tiny splotch of an inky blue substance had stained her fingers, the same hand she used to prod her eye from before. She squinted at it, slightly scared now. The bruises on her eyes weren't bruises. Not at all. They soon began to drip, and run down her face like tears, and the inky blue substance spilled into the sink, and on the bathroom countertop.

Her breathing quickened, and she slammed into the wall backpedaling away from the mirror. She stumbled out of the bathroom, and made her way back to the bedroom. She shuddered in horror when she saw the giant, blue stain on the bed sheets, and the pillow. Her tears had seemingly dried, and turned a startling blue. She felt sick then.

The urge to scream came back, but that terrible, familiar tightness closed around her throat. She could feel the tears come this time, but they were not her own.
............

welp here is mindy's post, and finally I'm getting to her cool powers! It's gonna be awhile before she starts using them for good and shit, so bear with me. in other news, I'm excited to start writing as Pheonix again, it feels like forever since his first post, and I know you guys love him, so I'm gonna start brainstorming the minute I put this up!

“Bring it around by the landing pad!” Jason Brogan called to the chopper pilot. To say that it had been a bad day for Brogan and the rest of the Hounds of Humanity would be a massive understatement. Not only did a coalition of metas and supernatural beings decimate the Hounds’ ranks and destroy the Finger of God, but rumors had quickly begin circulating among the remaining Hounds forces that their own leader, Travis Murdock himself had been captured.

However, none of that mattered to Brogan at this moment. His chopper was one of the few remaining units still in the sky, and he and his crew had one job—To make sure that none of the heroes made it out of the Hounds base alive. As the chopper’s gunner, he would use the side mounted mini gun to mow down as many of the interlopers as possible. Should that fail, the chopper was equipped with a bunker buster bomb, and the pilot was to send the chopper into a nosedive and level the entire area. Though Brogan did not want to die, and hoped that it would not come to that, he was willing to sacrifice himself for the cause.

“There they are!” He shouted, pointing at a pair of female heroes, one dressed in purple, pink and chrome, and the other with teal colored skin. “Get me a bit closer!” He ordered the pilot.

On his order, the pilot swung the chopper around which put the two women directly in Brogan’s line of fire. Brogan took aim and was just about to pull the trigger when he thought that he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He wasn’t sure what he saw, it was just a blue and silver blur that was gone just as fast as it had appeared. Truth be told, he wasn’t actually sure that he had seen anything at all.

Then the chopper violently tilted to one side, forcing the mini gun skyward. Then, the chopper rocked hard the other way. Then there was the sound of crushing metal and the collision alarm began to blare as the chopper seeming spun out of control toward the ground.

Brogan was sure that he was dead. Whatever, or whoever had hit the chopper had ensured that, of that he was sure. The chopper would crash and the bunker buster would do the rest. He took some solace in the fact that although he would die today, he would take his enemies with him in a single explosive blast.

However, the chopper did not careen into the ground. Instead, something, or someone had slowed the chopper’s descent and gently set the chopper down on the ground. Then a white gloved hand reached into the chopper and grabbed Brogan by the collar of his shirt and pulled him from the wreck. Brogan immediately reached for his side arm, but when he looked in to domino masked eyes of the man who had single handedly bought the chopper down, he thought better of it and just resigned himself to the fact that he’d been captured.

“Smart move.” Icon said as he set the Hound down on the ground and handed him over to several National Guard soldiers who stood behind him with their weapons trained on the chopper and its former occupants.

After Icon handed over the crew of the chopper to the National Guard, who had oly just arrived on the scene, he immediately made his way toward the entrance of the Hounds of Humanity base. However, as he approached the base he saw some movement at the entrance. Then, a sense of relief washed over him as he saw both Radiance and Lyger making there way out of the complex.

“Was that you?” Icon asked as he pointed to the sky to where the Finger of God had been.

“Yeah.” Radiance said as she brushed his hand slightly. “We made a pretty good team.” She said to Lyger who had already begun walking away.

“We did.” Lyger called back over his shoulder.

“What do you say we finish mopping up here, then head home.” Icon said with a grin.

“I think that’s the best idea you’ve had in weeks.” Radiance said with a grin as she headed over to some of the other heroes who had begun gathering outside.

SPACE, near Sol System

The dark, empty void of space was currently stretching out before Hara. Every so often, he could see the glimps of shields reflecting and deflecting plasma torpedo and laser fire.

“Status” He asked the hulking fishman next to him. His brother in arms and closest ally. Huey towered over him by a good 2 feet, but spoke in a deliberate, intelligent manner. He was both strong and intelligent, a perfect second in command.

“The ISS Lightning has sustained enough shield damage for a boarding” Huey said as he made the battlemap project before them. Showing the ISS lightning in a high detail render, updating in real life as it took damage from the pirate fleets barrage.

“And her escorts?” Hara asked, pointing to the smaller gunships trying to come to the larger ships aid.

“The ISS Machinea is about to blow an-” Hueys word stopped in his mouth as bright blue explosion lit up the viewscreen. “Any minute..” He finished with a slight grin. Another explosion briefly lit up space as the other escort ship of the ISS Lightning went up in fire.

“That would be the Stalwart then” Hara said, a manic, amused edge to his voice. There was a sense or warped and terrible enjoyment in the way he carried himself. Huey on the other hand, looked almost bored. This was a job, they were good at it . If the world wanted to judge them for it, it should have treated them more kindly as kids. His moment of contemplation was distrupted by his more wired and highly strung brother strapping his energy saber to his hip.

“Prepare me a boarding party. Get me two engineers and… five footpads. That should be more then enough.”
“The ISS have a contingent of at least 100 Icarian Marines.” Huey said, one scaley eyebrow raised. Icarian were a race that lived for combat. But Hara had no doubt he could handle them with a little backup.

“Hm. You are right. Give me Tenga and her marauders. They are always up for a little dicey fun. Tell them we are going full metal on this one, no energy weapons.” Hara spoke while walking over to pack up hi suit. Slipping it on, he clicked the chest protector and a myriad of small nano enhanced scales flowed out and interlocked across his entire body from neck down. Rolling his arms, the armor rippled like water across his skin as it adjusted.

“Right you are Captain.” Huey grinned before barking a few orders into his com “TENGA, GET YOUR GIRLS UP AND READY. NO ENERGY WEAPONS, BRING YOUR BlADES AND KINETICS.” There was a howling laugh on the other end as Tenga, a certifiably insane lieutenant of theirs had clearly been hoping for a chance to cut loose.

As they rounded the last corner to the launch bay, they saw Tenga and her crew. They were from all over the galaxy and some possibly from outside it, all of them the worst kind of remorseless killers and coldblooded to the core. They all wore spacesuits of similar make to that of Hara, only styled different.

“We are hitting the Lightning, Huey will direct the fleet to cut off any rescue attempts. We are going heavy metal on this, no energy weapons. They are bound to have reflector shields and energy dampeners installed. Once we are inside the vault, blades only. We don't want the place to go up in a plasma chainreaction.“ Hara stepped Onto the boarding Shuttle with the others as he barked orders, the court boarding crew answering wih slow, deliberate nods. When he was done his face split in a grin.

"Remember girls, we take no prisoner today. We are the scalpel that cuts the cancer out of this universe, we are the heated knife cauterizing the bleeding wound." He grinned a horrifying and cold grin as the shuttle launched at high speed. "We are the Bloody Rose Crew, and we got a reputation to uphold."

----

Interstellars Peace Corps:

Commander Amelia stared at the report. "Damnit Hara..." She gritted her teeth as she replayed the footage of one violent nad ruthless boarding crew expertly cut a swathe trough the poeple onboard the ISS lightning. "What were you after" She flipped trough some other holovids and a detailed map of the ship. One area was showing up as just solid metal. A place were the cemeras where nonexistent. Her eyes widened and she began flipping trough information about the ship.

"Oh no" She stepped away from her work, grabbing on of the Cadettes. "Get the Grand Admiral on the line now! We got a huge problem"

Location: At the HoH base
Time: Attacking the second Base.

---

Moments before the lockdown had been lifted, Fletch listened to Roadblock as he talked about the information sharing on the Penose. ”That sounds reasonable enough,” she replied. ”Certainly will let you know, just the method on how will be a thing we’ll need to figure out.” That was the thing, how were they going to contact each other in regards to the Penose? While the wording he had used suggested that he had a vague idea on who she was outside of the archer, but it was too vague to figure out if he had. Especially after she had been thrown against a wall.

”Well if you don’t feel like using nine-one-one, you could always drop by precinct 13 and ask for Roadblock. My name might be a secret, but I work with the rest of the LHSCD and that’s where we work out of for now.”

When the policeman said that the computer programme in the suit was nothing more than a glorified Google search engine, she was left feeling like he was trying to hide something. She thought about asking, but decided against it. Besides, there might be a reason to it, she thought. When Roadblock commented on how to contact him, she nodded. But before she had a chance to respond to the policeman himself, the archer had heard the click of the mouse. She guessed that the programme had gotten through into the system and had stopped the lockdown as soon as the lights returned to normal. Her eyes took a hit from the change in colour, making her head hurt, but it only took a moment for them to readjust when the security door to the control room had moved up. And it readjusted in time to see Nemesis begin her comical tumble onto her ass. Fletch chuckled to hear the loud grunt from her, causing her sides to hurt from the pain of the monster grabbing her. Reflexively, her left hand reached up from its resting position and pressed onto the gouges, still holding onto her bow. Then, with a cheeky look in her eye, she looked at her falled friend.

”Guess I won’t be the only one who’d make an ass of themselves today, eh?”

”Nice landing.”

Steading himself as he stood Hound Dog seemed to be fine at first but blood began dripping from his injury earlier and he hadn't yet noticed as he casually strolled up. ”Who the hell installs a laser defense system. Those just never work in movies. Kinda surprised none of the hounds got killed by their own security system. Anyway how's the hacking going Crash and Burn?”

“Oh shut the fuck up,” Racheli barked as she lifted onto her feet again.

“Lets see you avoid a batch of lasers eager to slice you into pieces and then open a door, only to have it abruptly open on you. See if you keep your balance well,” she pointed out, summarizing her experience as she dusted herself off.

“What the hell took you so long?”

”The Hounds look like they’re trying to be literal. There’s something else in here with us, and it wanted more than a few friendly pats.” Despite being a civil servant he wasn’t above a little sarchasm.

When Hound Dog walked into the room, commenting on the lasers they faced, Kayla noticed the wound on his shoulder bleeding. ”Yeah, they usually don’t,” she replied. ”Not from the movies I’ve seen anyway. The one thing they seem to be good at doing is reopening wounds that were stitched up. Much like your earlier injury to your shoulder.” While there was a simple solution to it, there wasn’t much she could do personally as she gave her first aid kit to Voyager to treat the wound as they were fighting the Hounds in Sherman Square. ”When this is over, I’ll go about tending to that shoulder to stop it bleeding until it gets checked by someone more qualified than me.”

Looking down at his jacket he simply sighed. ”Dang. I'll just take a seat for a while if I find a chair not covered in blood.”

Fletch chuckled as Nemesis swore at them for making fun of the fall she had to take, turning her gaze towards her fallen friend. Though there was amusement to be had, her eyes grimaced from the pain at her sides. Much like Hound Dog, the metahuman talked about the laser system. ”To be honest with you, I’d rather deal with the lasers than that thing that triggered the lockdown in the first place.”

As Roadblock spoke about what had attacked them. ”Well, if you count it being pissed off with them in the first place and becoming a murderous rage monster.” She lifted her left hand from the wound on her side, indicating the bloodied hand and handle of the blow. ”It’s things like this that I wished that I wasn’t as… vulnerable… in comparison to you guys. But we’ve managed to get into the system and lift the lockdown. Hopefully, we’ll find what we’re looking for and get the hell out before it comes back.”

”Before we talk about that again, why are you doing this, especially since you seem a little more than vulnerable?” He gestured to her bow with a slight nudge from his head. Both Nemesis and that Dog guy had decent sounding powers, they seemed to handle themselves well all things considered, even Fletch from what Artemis had shown him.

But there was a critical difference, that bow. Fletch somehow managed to fight off the Hounds well enough, but could she really carry on like this. Why did she want to be a hero, that might be too personal, but he had to ask, especially since she always seemed to be at such a disadvantage.

As Fletch was left to answer Roadblock’s question, Rach decided to take matters into her own hands. They needed strips of cloth to stop the bleeding and possibly something to sterilize the wounds. She moved into the small office. Rach abruptly stopping right at the corpse as she leaned down, her hand reached for the sleeve. With a sharp tug, the cloth ripped loudly off in one movement. She repeated the action with the other sleeve while the two talked.

As Fletch finished speaking to the group, Roadblock had asked her one simple question. It was simple, yet a defining one that took her back in it being asked. Why I am doing this? she thought. In that one moment, the key moments that had spurred her into becoming Fletch come to mind. The first, which isn’t too much of a surprise, was the night that Jason died. Learning that the people who killed him were now coming after her is pretty much her driving force. But for her to become a vigilante? It was the night when they blew the bus up, almost killing Mark and leaving her friend Mia traumatized as a result. She hadn’t forgotten that feeling, the sight of her childhood friend being in that same position she had been in all those years ago. And with the man that had caused it being close by when it happened, she vowed to get answers. She placed her left hand back onto the wound on her side, eyes looking down at the console. Her eyes gave a sense of melancholy as she gave her response.

”A lot of people close to me got hurt. And when they did get hurt, I had been helpless to stop them getting hurt.” Her right hand, hanging down along her side, clenched into a fist. ”There was nothing that I could do that could stop them from feeling hurt. And when I saw the face that had caused it, right there in the moment of me feeling helpless, I thought enough is enough. No more would those I care about be hurt again. Those that would hurt them will face the justice they deserve. And if anyone along the way was getting hurt, they’ll face that justice.” Her eyes looked up from the console and turned towards Roadblock. Unlike a moment ago, there seemed to be a relentless fire burning within them. ”If that means that I’ll have to drag my broken body to achieve that, then so be it. Does that answer your question?”

Those eyes...

”Revenge, and justice, I understand. It seems we’re doing this for the same reason,” Richard replied solemnly. He didn’t know why she chose a bow of all things but that didn’t matter, that passion in her eyes reminded her of him. It was for that reason he understood and sympathized with her so easily.

”Can you keep up like that?” Richard gestured to her hand from earlier, he didn’t have a medkit on him, so unless one of the metas had some kind of healing power, it looked like she might not be able to fight.

“Are you done nagging her?” Rach asked as she stepped in between the two.

”She's a sunny one.”

There was several strips in her hands now, her mind paused long enough to divide them evenly then pass the second batch to Hound Dog.

“Have him help you use those to patch yourself up. If you need longer ones, we’re going to have to tear off the corpse’s pants and see if they work,” Her voice was neither amused or joking.

She then added, “You two might want to attend to your wounds outside.”

”Well if the lady says so. How badly are you hurt Fletch? Any pain?”

”Yeah, I’m in a bit of pain. Concussion, probably a couple of broken ribs and at least 4 gouges from where the wolf-like monster grabbed a hold of me and then threw me against a wall. And just a heads up, it has a caustic blood that hurt my hand a little, though I can still use it to use my bow. I’ll leave the punching to someone else.”

As she mentioned the gouges, Fletch lifted her hand up once more to show the claw marks on the left side of her rib cage before returning it back to her side.

Racheli frowned then glared at the two. Her expression screamed for them to move it or she would do it for them.

”I’m hoping you’re more gentle than you let on, if you feel like playing nurse you’re going to have to be careful, especially with injuries like those, and try not to use any contaminated pieces of cloth.” Richard said; although he tried to give advice earnestly, if Fletch really had the level of injuries they suspected she definitely wouldn’t be able to do anything here and now, the least she could do was be gentle, but it didn’t seem like that was in her personality. He pitied Fletch.

He gestured for Hound to leave with him before unplugging himself from the computer and tossing a quick look at Rach and Fletch.

”Knock when you think you’re done, I’ve got something to tell everyone.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rach said, seeming uncaring about his advice.

Rach eyed them through the door as she paused, shifting to ensure it was closed completely. To be honest, she suspected neither had been laid with for a good part of a week and would gawk at a partly naked woman in their midst. She didn’t want to deal with the distraction. After she find satisfaction with the door’s seal, she turned back to Fletch then spoke.

“Well, pull off your shirt so I can look at the damage. You mentioned four gashes and bruising near the ribs. I want to make sure that’s all the damage done. Or do you need help?”

Her arms crossed her chest as she waited for an answer.

As the bandages were handed out, Fletch feared that both hers and Hound Dog’s wounds were being treated in the same room. But she didn’t hide the sigh of relief as both the men walked out of the room and closed the door behind them. As Nemesis checked to see if the door was closed properly, the archer placed her bow on the console so it was ready at hand in case the wolf monster came back.

”Four gashes from what I know and there will be bruising. Not 100% sure if there’s any broken ribs, but that can be checked by a doctor at a later point.”

With both hands free to help both the customized jacket for her archery and her top, she began zipping the jacket down and took it off. While the pain in her ribs nagged at her, it hadn’t been much a problem. When it came to the shirt underneath, it became clear that the ribs would be a problem. Nevertheless, she managed to get the top off. The falcon tattoo on her shoulders and the scar going through her left shoulder and the upper part on the left side of her chest. The four gashes on her left side ran for about 2-3 inches along the lines of her ribcage.

Racheli edged closer. About five makeshift bandages were still dangling in her hand, thin and slightly shorter than she would’ve originally liked. As she looked over the damaged areas, her lips curled into a tighter frown.

“He got you pretty good,” She stated, then asked, “Tell me you at least got a chunk of him too?”

Already her eyes were examining the first cloth for any blood. There wasn’t any. Relieved it wasn’t going to cause infection, Rach then sat down behind Fletch. With surprising gentleness, the cloth was applied and fixed in place. The ends were tied to other strips, making the bandage slightly longer. Easily they wrapped about the wounds about three times before she knotted it off.

“There doesn’t look like anything is in them, but if you feel feverish then tell me quickly. We’ll find some painkillers or something,” Rach’s tone had taken on a softer version, through it still held a hint of attitude within it.

”Yeah, though I think I did piss it off by jabbing one of my arrows in its back,” Fletch replied. While her cowl was still on her face, it shifted to show the smirk underneath. ”And that was after I nailed it with a shot from the bow.”

As the bandage was about to be applied, Kayla braced herself to feeling a bit of pain from when the wraps go around her chest. But as the wraps were being built up, she had been surprised with the notion that Nemesis was applying the bandages gently, though firm enough to keep the pressure on the gashes on her side. As there wasn’t too much of a sharp pain in her ribs, her earlier assumption of broken ribs was put to rest. Looks like there’s just a lot of bruising in the area. With the wound now covered up, she checked to see how viable the bandages were with the use of her bow. Just by raising both her arms to the position they would go at full draw, she felt satisfied with the positioning. However, the impact with the wall seemed to make her left shoulder feel a bit uneasy, trying to relieve it with a few rolls of her shoulder.

”I think I should be fine in terms of the infection.” Kayla replied. ”As long as I get some painkillers and antibiotics within the next couple of days, I’ll be safe from the bandages.”

The archer had been surprised with the softened tone that Nemesis was using when talking about the possibility of infection. In her mind, it showed that there was more to her than the usual tough exterior she put on. If that’s not proof that she’s human, I don’t know what is, she thought. Rolling her shoulder one more time, she reached for her top and put it back on. She noticed the slight burn marks on her right hand, but it hadn’t looked too severe so she didn’t take notice of it. ”I’ll definitely say one thing. I’ve never seen anything like that monster. And as a heads up, one that had that Alien-like shit with something caustic in its blood. Much different than what I’ve seen with you back on the rooftop.”

Racheli’s eyebrow raised. She was not happy to hear something else had untouchable blood as she had been considering what to do about the bruises. Her head turned to the door where the boys were likely wrapping up.

“Just when I thought this place couldn’t get any more complicated… it turns into a sci-fi horror,” She mumbles as she knocks sharply on the door.

“You two can come in, now.”



Richard walked just a little past the door, enough that it closed by itself, allowing for Fletch and Nemesis to have the privacy they wanted. Although he had a good amount of medical training, per his academy days, he suspected it might not look so good to certain higher powers if he tried to push to stay in the room, even if it was to help Fletch. The best answer here would have been to tell them all to wait for an ambulance, but this Fletch should know her limits by now, and he wasn’t going to deny her justice.

Following behind Roadblock, Hound Dog had already began taking off his jacket revealing a unique layer of padding underneath.

”Huh, take a look at that padding, Richard. It never got public mass production, but I remember reading some research journals about it. That’s a type of insulation, this ‘Hound Dog’, apparently can’t take his heat.”

Insulated padding, and no form of directing equipment. The problem isn’t that he can’t control his powers…

”You’ve got some kind of special insulation, can’t handle your powers?”

”I can handle lighting. But the heat no. Once broke a thermometer trying to gauge how much rubber I burn. What about you, that suit of yours? Didn't realize that LHPD had a mech unit. Does that thing have a AC unit? ”

”Technically, this is the LHSCD’s mech, and yes it does come with AC. Can you imagine lugging yourself around in a metal shell with no air at all? Sounds like torture. Hmm, your skin’s a little dry and cracked, but nothing I can really help with, you should heal on your own soon enough.” Richard said, he was about to hand Hound Dog’s jacket back but suddenly stopped mid motion.

”Say, do you mind if I lifted some of this padding off your jacket? I’ve got the feeling it’s rare, could be handy for me in the future.”

”I kinda do. Heat is a major concern for me but I might try and see if SPARK is willing to hook you up.”

”Please, if it’ll help the boys and girls in R&D work on something a little slimmer that would be great.” Richard casually mentioned one of the gripes he had with the suit, completely forgetting about a certain factor.

”Are you calling this suit fat?” Artemis' voice suddenly oozed with hostility, Richard broke out into a cold sweat. A couple knocks sounded on the door from the other side, and then Rach called out to them.

Saved by the bell.

”Well what do you know, she knocked, come on. Time to get to business.”



As Richard walked in, he was surprised that Nemesis ended up doing a decent job wrapping up Fletch’s wounds, she should still visit a real professional, but until then, at least she won’t fall apart. He gave a nod to them as he walked in.

”I know both Hound Dog and Nemesis encountered the Hound’s defense system right outside. But inside the control room, both me and Fletch were attacked by a ‘werewolf’. As weird as that sounds.” Richard said as he moved back towards the central console.

”As we all know, the Hounds have made it their mission to attack anything Metahuman related, or other.” Richard continued as he pulled up several tabs and displayed them on the giant wall-sized monitor. The screens changed from the previous lockdown shutdown window, to a window displaying detailed medical data on the sides of a box, with the silhouette of the werewolf from earlier in a static pose.

”According to what I pulled from their science logs, at the beginning they realized they didn’t have the firepower to attack certain beings, so one of their first goals was to abduct some of these beings, whether they be meta, or supernatural.” Richard changed the screen to display a list of some of their weaponry, to view it all would require him to scroll down more, indicated by a thin vertical bar on the side.

”They managed to find, and capture a werewolf. Over the course of their experiments, they found ways to alter and attack the bodies of meta and supernatural beings from the inside out.” Richard pulled away and turned to face everyone else.

”And that’s all I pulled before someone shorted out the main data banks, I’m assuming that was you Hound Dog.”

”I suppose in the end,” Fletch started, with the whole story about what they were facing finally sinking in. ”I’m just glad that I didn’t get bitten by it. That would complicate things on a different scale.”

”We should keep an eye out for it. Finish it off before it can get topside if possible. I hate to think what kinda damage it'd do if left to wander. Assuming it's still around.”

”Agreed. I downloaded the layout of the base earlier.” As Richard said this Artemis was kind enough to display it on his visor for him to see.

”The vents leading to and from this room don’t actually connect to the outside, but instead, to a mechanical room two floors below us. The rest of the Hounds have probably been taken out by now, I’ll handle this ‘werewolf’ the rest of you should go home, get someone to look at your wounds.” Richard aimed his words at the group as a whole at first, then looked at Fletch for the latter part of his statement.

At first, Fletch wanted to object to Roadblock’s statement. She had been involved with this fight with the wolf beast, she wanted to see that job through. But the returning feeling of pain in her side as she reached for her bow made her doubt that conviction of seeing the fight through to the end. So if you decide to take the fight on in your state, she thought, weighing up the options through. You might be hindered by the injuries you’ve sustained. And if you have an concussion, your focus will be out of whack. That near-hit on Hound Dog earlier today will not be that fortunate if you’re stuck in that situation.

”You’re right,” she admitted, a mixture of defeatism and relief in her voice. ”I need to see out these injuries. I’m probably going to be another person to watch out for in case that thing reappears.” With the adrenaline slowly easing out of her system, the familiar throb from the gunshot wound was returning to her leg. ”With the Hounds gone, it’ll be easy for me to head on out of the building. Will catch you guys at some point.” With her bow in tow and Archie still cowering in her trouser pocket, she began limping out of the control room to make her way back to the van.

It was clear to Richard that Fletch was taking this hard, he personally didn’t mind these vigilantes running around here, since he wasn’t supposed to be here either. But she had already been banged up pretty good, and if they pursued that animal further they might end up walking into an ambush.

”I know you wanna take the fight to the Hounds, everyone here does, but you don’t need to die for it. I’ll be more than happy to fill you in when you’re ready.” He knew his words would be nothing more than a band-aid but he felt he had to say something, and he was ready to leave it there when he noticed her limping.

”One of you give her a hand, there should be an ambulance outside by now, have them take a look.”

“ I’ll do it. I’m dead weight anyways,” Racheli huffed, turning on a dime to follow Fletch out.

The day had been won. The heroes had captured Travis Murdock, along with the other high lieutenants of the Hounds. They had destroyed the killer satellite, which was dubbed the Finger of God. Now, the only thing left was mopping up the mess that the Hounds had left after their reign of terror had ended.

While the heroes had been dealing with the Hounds, the National Guard were scrambling to mobilize in response to the attack on Lost Haven. They were even preparing to launch a counter strike on the Finger of God satellite when it suddenly appeared out of nowhere, had the heroes lead by Icon not already knocked the doomsday weapon out of Earth’s orbit.

The National Guard’s first priority was to secure Sherman Square and Lost Haven in general. Although the heroes had thoroughly beaten the Hounds who were present at the Sherman Square attack, the National Guard could not take any risks of allowing stragglers performing further acts of terrorism. Once it was confirmed that the threat was neutralized, the FBI swooped in and took into custody as many of the Hounds as they could get their hands on.

Although at the onset of the attack the military did not have any intel on the location of the Hounds main base near Lost Haven, it soon became apparent from the way the heroes of Lost Haven assaulted a location on the water front of Carver. While it was clear that the heroes had the situation handled, the weapons and information stored in the Hounds’ base were too dangerous to let fall into the hands of any civilian, no matter how well-intended he might be.

Soon, the military, and closely followed by the FBI, rolled onto the scene. Personnel and vehicles were stationed at all four locations where the heroes had found an escape route out of the Hounds’ base. Before the ground forces made their way into the labyrinth that the Hounds had called home, they ensured that there were not any death traps waiting for them inside. No one wanted to die on that day.

Meanwhile, Chris, along with Blacklight and Pantheon, had stopped the ringleader of the Hounds, Travis Murdock, from escaping the scene in one of the advanced coppers that were at the Hounds’ disposal. Once Chris realized that the National Guard had arrived, he took hold of Murdock and descended to the street. He made sure to identify himself as Iron Knight so as to make sure that the military, who definitely had to be on high alert, would not fire at him as if he were a hostile. Although it would be pretty clear to anyone who Iron Knight was, Chris did not want to take any chances.

“He’s all yours,” Chris told the highest commanding officer who was present after he had dropped Murdock, who was still tied up, onto the ground. “There’s more where he came from on the rooftop.”

As soon as Chris had released Murdock, a handful of FBI agents, rushed forward and grabbed the mastermind behind the Hounds’ resistance against the rising metahuman and supernatural threats.

“You are under arrest for domestic terrorism, genocide, and crimes against humanity,” one of the FBI agents told Murdock. “You have a right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney…”

The FBI agent continued to read Murdock his Miranda rights as the group of federal agents led the leader of the Hounds into one of their vehicles.

---

After Chris had finished dealing with all the governmental red tape that came with such a massive crisis, he finally was able to return to the Sherman Center. Although a little battered during the Battle of Sherman Square, Chris found that nothing major was compromised on the building, at least on first glance. The Hounds had already blown up his home in Virginia. There was no way he was going to let those domestic terrorists send another to kingdom come.

Chris then descended into the basement, where he had sent Maya during the onset of the Hounds attack on Sherman Square. Not only did such a move protect her from the Hounds, but it also helped the heroes locate and eventually destroy the highjacked Archangel satellite.

“The coast is clear now, so we can focus on getting you out of—"

The Archangel armor that Maya had been trapped in was sitting next to the computer monitor, depowered. Since the armor had to connect with the satellite to reveal its location in space, there must have been some sort of unique unique link between Archangel and the orbital technology. When that link had been severed by the destruction of the Finger of God, it must have overloaded the armor and short-circuited it.

Chris tried everything in his power to reboot the armor to no avail. Because the technology he was using to test using Archangel’s old shell was only in the prototype stage, Chris had not had the time to test what would have happened if someone’s self-consciousness was still within the armor. The only option left for Chris was to try to call her home in the hope that she had woken up in her own body when the armor failed. Otherwise, that accursed armor would take now taken two of Chris’ girlfriends, this time for the sake of scientific curiosity. Curiosity was supposed to kill the cat, not its lover.

The phone rung one, two, three times. All seemed hopeless until Chris heard Maya’s voice on the other end of the connection. After all the death and destruction that the Hounds had laid waste on the heroes, Chris could finally breath easily. Although there will always be another villain or another crazy group of idiots who will make trouble for Chris. But for now, it was time to rest easily in this victory.

Location: Lachance Stronghold – Henderson, Nevada —> Sunrise Hospital
Time: Noon, the Day before the Satellite Attack —> Morning, Two Days after the HoH arc

---

Benjamin sat in the overly starched sheets curled about his thin body. The back of his bed propped up his torso while his head stared at the window, watching the morning light dance through the gossamer curtains. Birds bobbed fluttered across it while singing their morning songs in blissful ignorance about his mood.

The IV drip mixed with the hospital’s activity in the backdrop, adding to the depressive state his mentality was in. Chemicals, body odor, and sickness swept through his nostrils causing his middle to churn from rising anxiety. The wolf inside him didn’t like this place. A mutual feeling he shared after discovering he couldn’t hold anything down, making him weaker since the Lachance stronghold.

Memories began to swirl around in his head.

He had went back to his room in order to inform Katarina about their departure when he found the letter. More evidence that he could trust no one to stick around and their connections were fleeting, his heart drowned in disappointment. Knowing he couldn’t stick around, Yeong and him used the wand to return to his hotel room. Once back, Yeong received a call about Ji. Something had happened during the Agency registry causing the pair to become fugitives. He doubted he likely would ever see them again.

On the day of the Hounds of Humanity’s attack, Vegas went into lock down. Civilians were ushered into underground areas, from parking lots to bunkers, where everyone ended up huddling into darkness. The next day, the threat had passed and word of the heroes victory spread. It was during that time Benjamin remembered collapsing from weakness. The last thing he heard before he wound up in the hospital was Lori’s voice trying to coax him awake. A failing attempt for kindness.

Now he could only watch time pass as his figure got weaker and weaker. The doctors were baffled to why he couldn’t hold anything down. Series of blood tests were done, and none resulted in an answers. Theories were tossed about with no evidence to support them as drugs were introduced to his IV to see his reaction to them. He wondered how he hadn’t overdosed yet.

---

Things had been strange as of late, for Joseph Walhforth it was even abnormal. But as he found himself in a Hospital in Nevada he knew exactly what he was here for even if he himself doubted his existence. Memories that were and weren't his flowed into his mind as he changed his clothes and donned scrubs. He was a doctor even as his sisters chose the business side of the family he went to medical school being the second oldest meant he had far less pressure to succeed as the heir; so he studied medicine and psychology. Stepping through the halls he had already checked in with the nurses specialists had been called in with an unusual case and he was already aware of the patient having disguised himself earlier. He was a doctor, and a hunter. And now a patient needed him and he knew what the diagnosis was. “Mr Reeves. Dr. Walhforth. I heard your son had a unusual condition. How is he faring?”

Daniel Reeves turned from his cell phone conversation, cutting it short with a quick word and pocketed it. His attention turned to Dr. Walhforth before nodding his acknowledgement. Fully turning his figure around to face the man, Daniel began to address the situation.

Standing before him was a young man who was far younger than the average doctor specializing in their field should be; he wore it as a badge of honor that he could graduate and accomplish so much before his thirtieth birthday. He held out his olive skinned hand for a greeting and listened as the father began to explain things for a second time. As his earlier disguise was either that good or the man simply couldn't bother to put the two together something he couldn't help but judge the man for. “Early bulimia. Odd. Perhaps I can find something. Can I have a few moments alone. I'd like not to crowd the boy if possible. This must be quite stressful on him, hospitals are often strange for young children. Even those of adolescent age.”

“I suppose if it helps,” Daniel glanced back at Ben, silently, then gestured for his girlfriend to come with him.

Lori hesitated before she stroked Benjamin’s head, pushing his bangs away. She leaned down to whisper something quietly under hearing range. Casually she stood upright then followed Daniel out of the room.

“Thank you Mr Reeves.” Moving into the boy's room he softly closed the door behind him. And no doubt the boy could smell him if he was conscious enough. “Benjamin Reeves. I am Joseph Walhforth perhaps your new doctor. That depends on how this goes. I heard you had signs of bulimia which would make sense if you had the damage from it. I assure you that is not what you have. And I know what you have with certainty. After all I'm a specialist in your kind. Tell me how does the wolf fare these days?”

Benjamin weakly twisted his head from his pillow and faced the doctor. His eyes narrowed on the man before causing the gears inside his head to grind slowly through the weakness attacking his body.

“I don’t know… what do you think?” He couldn’t help but growl, through the sound was like a defeated animal. One waiting for the end.

“He's dying. You're dying. If you can't answer a simple question then that means you haven't received any training or even social cues from other wolves. Loneliness is a serious issue for wolves and it will kill them if something isn't done. Not all. But for someone as young and inexperienced as you it has begun to reject food and is killing you both. I can temporarily stop that. But it is a stop gap. A medicine that is a weak poison. Enough to weaken the beast. Something used by other werewolves to prevent turning, something no longer in use because it'll build up and kill you.” Joseph stopped and sat next to the boy. “Your choice. A single use won't kill you. But this will not happen again, you need to learn to be in harmony with your wolf. And we'll need to come up with something to satisfy the hospital. And your father.” Pulling out a jar with an unusual worm. He sat it down. “This will do. Eating it will not be pleasant.”

“No way I’m eating that. Why do you care? I’m just another series of numbers on your paycheck,” Ben snapped abruptly, his words intended to hurt and distance himself.

His figure slumped back into his pillow where he turned to the wall. He refused to look at the worm as he continued to explain.

“Besides, my ‘wolf’ doesn’t want to be in harmony with me. Something about it’s hard to co-exist with someone that’s unable to face… things.”

“I don't, I don't know you. But I did nothing once I lost someone and I became a doctor because I didn't want to sit on the sidelines again. I'm a Champion of the mortal realm. Just perhaps not this realm.” Joseph said as he paused a few times in his speech.

“I’m pretty sure every doctor might’ve thought that same thing at one point. It still doesn’t resolve the problem. When my wolf wakes up, I’ll just start throwing up again,” Benjamin pointed out, accepting that he was trapped in the conversation.

“How do you intend to prevent that?”

Thinking Benjamin did have a point, it would be hard after the boy ate to keep any food down once the wolf began to stir. He'd have to make a bond with someone soon, hopefully he could come up with something. “We'll cross that later. I have an Aunt who works with SPARK she may be able to provide some services to connect you with more of your kind. If not something will need to be done. For now we need preventative measures to improve your survival rate. And I might need to be quick about it as your father and I say that lightly, will be getting impatient.” With a flourish Joseph's hand moved and he let loose a wave of light that almost moved with it's own will. “Just a simple healing spell.” Engulfing the boy it permeated his skin and sunk all the way to the bones as if he was being warmed from the outside in.

Ben’s nostrils flared. His nose caught the scent of magic causing his head to snap toward Joseph, feeling the magic swell across his skin and dig deep into his being. Even as it faded, his eyes blinked in confusion.

“That sort of smells like… her,” Benjamin commented, not realizing his body had edged closer to the man. Like trying to draw comfort from a memory.

Joseph was a bit startled. Only a few creatures he knew of could smell magic. He had never heard of a werewolf with the ability even more so that he was entranced by it. “We’ll need to talk about that later. And 'her’ but for now..”

Benjamin Reeves, and his father Daniel. A laugh echoed as a man exited his car and strolled through the pristine halls. Coming to a corner he stopped when he saw Daniel.

”Mr. Reeves, and Lori. If you were coming to Vegas you should have let me know, but no I understand I hear your boy has become afflicted with something and I say that because I know the Editor of the local paper, good fellow. You owe me by the way convinced him to run his story later I’m not the only one keeping tabs on you. Being popular and all.”

With a red glow his eyes began to shine leaving Daniel and Lori almost zombified.

”But that’s not why I’m here and I’ll need to ask you two to give me a moment. Sit down, you both look exhausted.”

Lori was the first to notice him. She turned from staring at the room door then flashed him a weak smile. Daniel, meanwhile, had been busy chattering on his cell. She lightly smacked him with her hand, getting his attention immediately. Pausing, he held his other hand over the speaker to and saw Barron. The DA promptly closed his phone to give his full attention to the man inquiring about his son. His eyes glossed over in the familiar trance state while he shifted over to the nearest plastic seating arrangement, his cell pocketed for later. Lori appeared to follow suit as well.

Their figures slumped down a bit, relaxing their tense muscles and laying onto each other for support. For the first time since they arrived, they looked like an exhausted couple waiting for news about their child.

Daniel was the only one that spoke, “We’re still waiting to hear news about Benjamin’s condition. I hope it’s treatable.”

”I'm sure it will all work out. Though I will need you to advert your attention as I walk on in. I'm sure you won't be the wiser while I'm gone.” Barron said as he reached towards the door he could feel another was in the room. His eyes glowing as he greeted the young Doctor. ”Ah how is young Benjamin? Barron Vanderbilt, family friend..” The glow grew brighter as he tried to convince the doctor who he was.

Joseph clutched a talisman a crudely made creation of his one he had to prepare hastily as he woke a week earlier. “Are you. I’m afraid this is for families only, we’re not letting the patient have visitors at this moment.” Joseph could tell almost instantly that what just walked in the room was no ordinary vampire. Powerful and immensely dangerous he just had to hope that there wouldn’t be a scuffle.

Benjamin jerked toward the door, his tension melted at Barron’s image. A mixture of intense anger and depression wrestled within him. The two poisonous scorpions trying to own the same shoebox. His eyes closed as he inhaled, catching the vampire’s rusty iron scent mingle with the blood magic he wield. It seemed to draw just a hint of life into his wolf for the moment.

Not wasting it, he let his eyes open then spoke, “If you keep popping up like this, people might start thinking you got a thing for underaged guys.”

He turned to Joseph.

“He’s not going to hurt me. He had the chance when I tried to rip out his throat when we first met.”

”Hey! Snarky remarks like that could get you killed one day, better bulk up even Spiderman learned that lesson. But you two seem cozy enough I suppose I can drop the act. Yes I know the boy, and yes I do show up quite often and this time with reason, well a few. I’ve been keeping an eye on you and your Witchy freind bumping elbows with a blue haired fae witch,” Pausing he questioned if that was the right word before his abrupt continuation. ”Ehh witch or not she’s just as cold hearted. Something about their craft just makes them cold you know, too professional or some shit. Anyways you talk to her again let her know her friend is a bitch.”
“Well, she’s not here. She left,” Ben tried to keep the hint of pain out of his voice, “Just like the ten others that left since I was turned, about what… nearly a week now?”

”Well shit, that’s rough but I heard you needed peeps so I got you some.” Barron said holding out a box of marshmallow confections. ”See they’re dogs.”

“I can’t keep anything down. I’ve already tried...and marshmallows are disgusting being thrown up,” Ben frowned, looking slightly green at the thought.

His eyes looked at the box then shook his head, trying to rattle the queasy notion away.

“Smooth. But the boy needs his rest and a pack. He can’t go on..” Interrupted by Barron he shushed at Joseph.

”Look I have that covered, I can set him up with a few wolves, let him train. Either here or in New York. I’ve got the manpower.” Barron said tossing the peeps behind himself. ”Look we fought, or well I beat your ass. But hey I took an interest I know that you’re valuable and right now more vulnerable than ever before and that is why I’m helping. I help you out and you’ll help me with a thing later. And unless you can convince your father that you weren’t here helping witches find lost artifacts and all that hair is just puberty; you’re going to need some help yourself.”

“I trust this guy like mold in my kitchen.”

”Your opinion is noted and ignored.” Clasping his hands together, he continued. ”Your choice is either be in my debt, or take whatever magic boy here is badly hiding from me. Honestly what the fuck is in that jar?”

Ben turned to Joseph, “I don’t either, but honestly do you have any better permanent solutions? “

Part of him was hoping, even slightly, that the man did. However, the logic and realism pitted the odds in Barron’s favor on this problem.

“I.. No.” Joseph said failing the boy. “I however if you wish will continue to be your doctor. I’d prefer to keep tabs on you than let you disappear.”

Barron holding his hand over his chest faked a shocked expression.

”You doubt me!? The boy will be perfectly safe. I’m not going to snatch him away. Not like a kidnapper though it does feel like it. I think I should rephrase something.” Shifting the conversation Barron snapped his head up quickly. ”Anyways your in charge Ben, my guys will just help you understand your wolf.”

Ben just gave Barron a look. One that screamed distrust and suspicion created by the simple, innocent statement. It was very clear Benjamin trusted Barron as far as he could throw the vampire, a distance that measured very little.

“Since I’m in charge, I decided to keep him as my doctor. I feel like I will need it. Our last few encounters rarely ended without someone drawing blood in some fashion…”

”Fine. Easy enough to accomodate. See I’m easy to work with we’ll be buddies soon.”

“Doubtful.” Leaning in he whispered to Ben. “I’ll get something to even the odds later.”

Ben just nodded.

It was over.

The group of heroes that had come together to stop the Hounds of Humanity had managed to get the job done. Lyger and Radiance had been able to infiltrate the Hounds’ main base of operations and shut down the killer satellite from the ground, which gave Icon and the other space farers enough time to destroy The Finger of God once and for all.

They had routed the Hounds of Humanity troops, destroying much of their weaponry along the way. Their fleet of destructive vehicles, the advanced choppers as well as the walking tank-like mech suits lay in shambles. With their war machine in ruins and their leadership scattered or in custody, the Hounds of Humanity scrambled to avoid capture by the authorities who had since come on the scene. Though it was unlikely that every member of the Hounds would be captured on this night, the organization had been crippled.

Lyger emerged from the Hounds base just behind Radiance. As he stepped out of the entrance, he saw that both the FBI and the National Guard had arrived on the scene, along with Icon and some of the others that had gone into space to deal with the satellite. He surveyed the scene, and could see several men being taken into custody by the National Guard, including one man who was being escorted by Iron Knight himself, though Lyger didn’t recognize the man, he assumed that this was the man, or at the very least one of the men responsible for all of the death and destruction that the Hounds had caused over these last weeks. As they stepped out into the street, Radiance looked back at Lyger.
“Good work.” Lyger told her.

“You weren’t so bad yourself.” She retorted before making her way over to where Icon and some of the other heroes were gathered.

“Harry.” Lyger said into his comlink. “It’s over, we’re done here.” He told his mentor as he slipped away into the darkness.



Sam Myers sat with her eyes glued to the television. The new coverage of the assault in Lost Haven confused to say the least, offering conflicting reports almost throughout the duration of the event. There had been rumors of casualties on both sides, and she could have sworn that she had seen at least one of the female heroes gunned down by a group of Hounds, though the chaos of the battle made it impossible to follow exactly what was going on.

Then the battle moved from Sherman Square to Carver, and the news coverage quickly became journalists speculating as to what was going on inside of the Hounds of Humanity’s headquarters. She watched as several loud explosions on the inside of the base could be heard, which led to even more speculation from those covering the event. The simple fact was, nobody really knew what was going on…and it was driving her mad.

She felt sick to her stomach not knowing what was going on in Lost Haven. Her heart pounded in her chest as she saw numerous heroes emerging from the Hounds compound, but the one hero that she was desperate to see was nowhere to be found. As the reporters began to cover the apprehension of the Hounds of Humanity leadership, the cameras focused most on heroes such as Iron Knight and Icon, but not one word was said about the one hero who she was desperate to hear about.

She watched the coverage for about another hour, which had begun to repeat news that it had already reported as there was very little new information to report.

“Come on, Kyle.” She said as she had tried calling his cell phone for the tenth time, only for it to go directly to voicemail.

As she sat there in front of the television with no word about, or for that matter, from Kyle, there was an icy pit deep in her stomach as her imagination began to take hold and she began to fear the worst. She reached again for her phone and just as she was about to press the button to call him, her heart jumped as she heard a key in the front door. She jumped to her feet and raced toward the front door. Her heart continued to pound as she saw the door begin to open, and then relief as Kyle walked through it.

“Hey babe.” He said quietly, barely above a whisper as his gaze met hers. She said nothing as she stepped toward him, wrapped her arms around him and met him with a deep kiss.