---

---

ID walked briskly into the outskirts until the Stoneworks was out of sight behind her, and for some time after... just in case. After a while she found herself kneeling beneath a shelf of rock, observing the flight patterns of the Corvids illuminated by her pact.

"Yareyareda kuso ttare- that woman's vermin really are everywhere," she muttered, half wishing she'd remained ignorant. She sighed and settled down after taking the moment to ensure she wasn't being observed before reaching into one of her insulated belt pouches. ID swiped the screen of her modified Slatephone open. It processed for a moment after she entered her password and it connected to the Menagerie network. She spent a few minutes catching up on notifications and messages before dialing the contact labeled "Mother."

"My brilliant Star! What can I do for you, my dear?" A voice answered after but a single ring. A smile spread across ID's face beneath the mask, she couldn't help it, and she listened to Mother shoo someone out of her office, most likely an assistant before responding.

"Mama!" The tension audibly fell out of ID's shoulders. The mask of collected stoicism melted away. "I know you're probably super busy...," she hesitated for a moment while playing with the end of her braid idly, though she didn't wait quite long enough for a reply. "This couldn't wait though: firstly we need to call Cobalt Weasel off the search for the missing subject," she explained with a note of urgency as she leaned back into the rock to take a more relaxed posture.

"I ran into the Subject on my investigation- I'll get to that- It's powerful, Mama! I mean, I knew it was dangerous, but holy hell, Mama!! It improvised third tier spells at me on the spot!! Rapidly! AND! AND! And it BAMBOOZLED a Templar into protecting it! THE QUEEN OF SWORDS no less! He doesn't even know, you have to call him in. I mean like... he's an incompetent waste of space, but that's not even fair," she urged.

"My dear, let's not meander on too long!" Mother cut in, as ID was taking a breath to continue.

"Right right, sorry Mama. I found a community of mages set up where the Grave Haunt Domain used to be: they re-aspected it and built a rather large settlement there. I bought some good will with them, and I opened up a... pretty lucrative trade channel for enchanted items: One of the principal Awakened on site is a Runesmith, hungry for material enchanting," ID beamed, clearly anticipating the praise she was about to recieve.

"That's not the real reason I called though... I found her," she revealed, in a voice of low excitement. "My... The Night Star, I found her! Mama! We can finally rescue her!"

Ok. Maybe, just maybe, it might have been a poor choice in judgement to use the entire cell’s worth of juice in the booster. Alex REALLY hoped that those last few boulders he had plowed through weren’t considered landmarks of any kind.

It was a wonder how Yue hadn’t been startled awake from the crashing and speed alone. That probably warranted a visit from Doc once they were in town. He mentally put more barriers around her just to be safe. Truly a testament to his years of experience gained living in the underground. Considering he was white knuckling the steering wheel and trying his best to keep on a direct path to Shieldtown.

The thought of turning off the anti-grav midway through at this speed was tempting, also probably stupid as all hell considering the physics that would be involved. He wasn’t even sure he could break at this point. Yeah . . . . . They were probably going to have to crash. And the best thing to even crash into would be the towns outer walls. Fantastic. Amazing plan. A spark of genius for sure. . . . Okay now he was just being mean to himself. There really weren’t any better options for a sudden stop.

Which was gonna happen. Right now. Using a months worth of energy, plus anti-grav tech and essentially rocket propulsion kinda trivialized travel time. Shieldtown was probably a minute away given how fast it was “growing” in the distance. The booster was either gonna have to be overhauled or straight up replaced after this. And that’s not accounting for the oncoming damage about to happen. Ah hell, that was Dean’s problem.

Alex dropped the shielding around Yue and pulled a crank on the dashboard hard. In seconds Yue was engulfed in a breathable shock absorbent foam before being ejected from the vehicle. Alex opted for the simplest of methods. He opened his door, unbuckled, jumped out, then tucked and rolled.

The vehicle slammed into the reinforced fortification with a resounding crash. The lack of explosion meant it was probably fine. Getting up, Alex brushed himself off and looked around to see where his friend had been launched off to.

Turned out the prone foam blob that housed said friend was about to be inspected by one of the remaining beasts. ” Oh I am NOT doing this right now. And I want some fresh meat damnit.”

Before the poor monster had a chance to react, Alex catapulted onto its head and punched right into its skull all the way up to his elbow like it was paper Mache. The creature collapsed with a startled, gurgling yelp. Sliding the gore and viscera off of his arm in a soft flash of blue. ” Im guessing you taste like beef. You better taste like beef, I’ve got enough seafood and pork tasting stuff.” He brim led to nobody but himself. Not wasting any time, he hefted the beast nearly twice his size over his shoulder, and then Yue’s foamed up self over the other before making his way to the settlement.

Instead of calling for the gates to be opened, Alex made his own telekinetic platform and floated up. Any stragglers we’re picked off by the towns hunters. While the sound of Scarhide’s triumphant roar made it clear that the other side of town was in good hands. . . Paws?

Alex’s comms instantly started to buzz with people trying to contact him. They would all have to wait till he had a second to settle. A cursory glance once he got over the wall didn’t show too much damage, and hopefully no casualties. Once he finally touched down inside the town proper, Alex let out a loud sigh of relief. Home safe. Maybe he could actually relax.
Even with the continued attempts at hailing him over comms, probably from Wolf, Alex made his way back home relatively unmolested. Most interactions being simple “good to see your safe.” Or “Welcome back big guy, you missed the fun!”

Yeah, he was home.

---

A woman sat in an office suffused by a source-less, ethereal, golden glow. Her features were sharpened by this light. She glanced around the well decorated office, letting her gaze fall on the intricately complex symbols that sprawled across the floor. They spiraled out from the center of the room, and had once been glowing with the very same golden light that now filled the room from the floor. The light was a sourceless thing.
She recognized the design as a temporary ‘Soul Cairn’. It was flawed. Whatever the trap had been designed to contain had clearly escaped.

[MANA] swirled in a whirlpool of faded power, an echo of a massive lake that had apparently passed through this space. Hm. ‘Improvised third tier spells’ indeed…
She snorted derisively, listening as the voice of her ‘Brilliant Star’ rambled on in the background of her hearing.
This office wasn’t her office, of course.

It used to be under the purview of a woman named Josephine Heller. But… Well.
Josephine had apparently taken a rather abrupt vacation.
A mere twenty four hours before she had arrived, which was oh so terribly convenient.

She clicked her attention back to the phone call.

Maria Menagerie would later remember her words as if they were from far away. The excitement filling her body at the time was… Almost blinding.
‘The Night Star’. So close, so close at hand… how exciting!
“My Brilliant Star! Light of my life, how wonderful! I almost can’t believe that you’ve been so successful my dear!” she intoned calmly, though the wide smile in her voice was audible.

Never-mind that the smile wasn’t on her face. Never-mind that her expression changed not once during the entire conversation.

Her voice still held a happy smile, still exuded a happy warmth.
“But I shouldn’t ever doubt you, should I, my dear? You’ve done so well! The mages can be handled by either yourself- if you feel up to the task- or by an intermediary of our choosing. Either way. We’ll have to start moving forward with plans for her rescue. Well! My dear my dear, it’s been lovely, but I will have to make this… Concise! I have two new tasks for you, my love.”
She took a breath, ‘taking a moment to think’, as it were.

“I need you to investigate something for me, as a favor, my love. Our… Marble Statue seems to have gone missing, and I would love for someone to investigate the circumstances for me! I haven’t been able to garner contact, and we both know everyone answers our calls, no?”
A chuckle as she finished.

Then, before her daughter could reply.
“And my dear? The… Missing project? I’ll pull Cobalt Weasel from following, and instead I’d rather have you, shall we say, observe. From a distance, preferably, my dear. We do not want to engage with the Templar. I’ll trust in your judgement, as you’ve shown yourself capable! I’ll have some… Discussions… About the details you’ve shared.”

Maria flicked her gaze to the assistant standing behind her shoulder, watching as the stoic man tapped at the integrated slatephone on his forearm. He nodded to her, and she turned away.
“You’ve done supremely well, dear. I’ll have Copper Drake take you wherever you wish to go upon your return to Ichabod. I have to go now! I love you.”

The pause was long enough for the requisite reply, before the connection was severed.
Maria stood, crossing her arms and thinking silently, before she turned to her assistant again. They were about the same height, both about five feet and eight inches.

She hummed, he returned it in kind, a strand of [MANA] pulsing between them as speech without words passed.
Then, as one, they turned and strode out of the office, taking in the carnage of the facility before them.

Blood, viscera, bone, salt-water and ink made a mess of everything.

She sighed.
“Idiots. All of them.”

Transferring the design from paper onto the medallion hadn't taken much time at all, especially since she could cheat a bit using her magic to bake the enamel onto the medallion saving her multiple cycles in the furnace. While she was working on it there was a slight interruption in the form of some not so great news from one of her scouts, a particular nuisance had wandered into the Undercity, Shieldtown to be specific. There were a whole two potential reasons he could be down here, either investigating that mana scream from not to long ago or... They were looking for a missing 'child'.

Whichever reason it was as long as Alex made a stop at the Stoneworks everything would be good... At that thought a second raven came flying in through the workshops window giving Zolya an bird's eye view of Alex's high speed escapade aiming directly for Shieldtown's outer wall... "Fuck" With that the last bit of relaxation they would be having this day was squashed, with a sigh she put down her pencil onto the drafting table and with some reluctance she got up from her stool.

"Change of plans, Alex went straight for Shieldtown. Best of all a 'friend' is already there." "Uh, sure. Give me a sec." Before Raudd had completed that sentence Zolya had already taken off running to get one final piece of the puzzle, leaving him to deal with the cut veggies on the counter and fried mushrooms on the fire.

It didn't take Zolya long to find who she was looking for, leisurely enjoying a cup of tea in one of the recesses of the temple sat a brown haired and green eyed man sharply dressed in victorian style tuxedo, gloved hands, and a walking cane leaning onto the side of the table. If you didn't have an eye on the immaterial side of the world you'd never know half the truth, atop his neck rather than a head there was a bestial skull seeming like that of a wolf with a set of straight twisted horns protruding at the back, red beads pierce out from the black empty eyesockets. "Merllwyn, would you mind assisting us with helping a new initiate? We have reason to believe she has the sight." "Lady Zolya, it would be my pleasure." He said before quickly downing the last of his tea, followed by him getting up and grabbing his cane in a smooth motion. "Where to my lady?"

"First we'll have to swing by the mansion to pick up Raudd, then to Shieldtown." "Time is of the essence is it not?" He asked before letting out a high pitched whistle that got answered by a few ravens and a couple wolves. "They'll pick up my lady's kin, we should go to Shieldtown without delay my lady." "Thank you, let's go." With that Zolya lead Merllwyn to a couple stags hanging around at the temple and took them as their ride to Shieldtown.

Meanwhile Raudd had gotten dragged out of the kitchen by some really impatient wolves who pulled him to a waiting stag. Seeing that resistance wasn't going to work, he reluctantly abandoned the veggies that he hadn't managed to fit into containers and into the fridge at this point. Hopefully they would still be salvageable by the time they returned he thought as he got onto the stag, which took off immediately after he had planted his butt onto it's back.

Close to the edge of town Raudd's stag had managed to catch up with Zolya and Merllwyn through sprinting like a demon was on it's heels. With a trail of dust behind them the three raced away from the safety of the bramble barrier and towards the formidable defenses of Shiedtown's outer wall. The sizable escort of wolves and ravens would keep them from being slowed down by any straggling beasts, unless they were directly on the path of course.

A fair bit later the three managed to reach the field of carnage that lay just outside Shieldtown, the rocks covered in blood, chunks, and what some might consider to be 'still edible meat'. But as the three closed in on the town, with the stags taking diverging paths to avoid slipping on fleshy bits, another problem arose. The gates were still closed, not entirely unreasonable as there were still stragglers roaming about. "So what's your plan to get in?" He asked his sister as the wall became an ever larger feature in his view. "I believe I may have a solution, please follow me, lady Zolya, sir Raudd." He said as his stag took off taking point and just before him a dense bundle of brambles shot out of the ground forming a kind of narrow ramp for the stags to run over onto the wall, to the confusion of the people on the wall who just watched it happen.

"Sorry, coming through!" Raudd yelled at the people on the wall as the brambles reached over the wall creating a path down to the ground for the stags. Once the stags made contact with the soil the brambles withered and receded as fast as they had appeared. With the three within the safety of Shieldtown's walls they got off their stags and decided to walk the last part, not in the least to avoid running over any residents.

"I’ll trust in your judgement, as you’ve shown yourself capable! I’ll have some… Discussions… About the details you’ve shared.”

"Of course, Mama. I have a shelter arrangement at ShieldTown, I'll set out first thing after the activity in the Outskirts has settled down," She informed, drumming her fingers on her knees.

“You’ve done supremely well, dear. I’ll have Copper Drake take you wherever you wish to go upon your return to Ichabod. I have to go now! I love you.” ID gasped with audible excitement. An outing with Copper Drake potentially meant a trip to the surface. She could finally see the Sun again, and hopefully not through some crack in the plates either. She still vividly recalled the last time they went, so many years ago...

"I LOVE YOU TOO MAMA!"

She drummed on her thighs and stamped the ground, basking in the glow of praise for a long few minutes before she could regain her composure. She exhaled slowly, still smiling cheerily beneath her mask as she swiped through her contacts, noting the cluster of Zolya's birds crossing the Outskirts in haste. She took a moment to damp her signature and make herself as small as possible. After she was confident she wouldn't be noticed she rapidly tapped out a message.



ID carefully emerged from her hide, keeping her signature suppressed and taking care to give the birds a wide berth, though it did slow her travel. She could run across the outskirts at a fair clip, but it would attract less attention to walk... assuming none of the stray beasts attacked her at least. She thought back to her last trip to the surface. ID had awakened very young: she'd been steeped in the magic world for as long as she could remember, and Mother had kept and educated her at the Menagerie underground facilities to protect her from extremists that might try and take advantage of her. Her sister hadn't shown any signs of awakening, so they'd thought it was safe to let her attend school topside. ID had written so many letters.

The memory was so vivid. She was holding Copper Drake's hand: they'd gone to pick up her sister from graduation. They couldn't make it to the ceremony. She couldn't remember the reason why, probably due to trauma. Everything happened so fast: her sister's limo approaching, ID recalled the nervous excitement in her chest. An armored truck ran the light, smashing into the limo's side. It flipped so many times... people in uniforms poured out of the truck like an organized column of ants. She screamed something, and just as Copper Drake was pulling her away, ID saw her... wreathed in brilliant silver, arm crushed under the weight of her own explosive power.

ID shuddered, recalling the anguished shriek of her sister's Astralform tearing its own eyes open before landing back in Ichabod, recoiling from the shock of having her breath forced out of her lungs. The memory only dampened her mood a little, but galvanized her resolve... those Templar extremists would eventually face a reckoning. She'd deliver their justice personally.

She settled back into her collected stoicism as she approached Shieldtown's walls from the broken Sun Lamp. Crossing underneath The Den wasn't optimal, but the drones that normally policed this area appeared busy farther up the wall. ID leapt silently to the top and slid down the interior side into a shadow, where she vanished in a small ripple of heat distorted air.

The pair of shiny shoes took two steps, paused. A flicker of orange caught on their armored surface in tandem with a click and a fizzle. Embers scattered around golden heels, flashing before crumpling into ash. The shoes resumed their stroll inside.

"H... Hey! I said we're closed!" Patricia stammered, regaining her confidence as she reached under the bar. Her hand didn't get far when a streak of yellow followed the intruder and the barrel of a shotgun aimed right between her eyes. Sweat trickled off her clenched jaw, the barrel so close it was an unfocused blur. Smoke from the freshly fired weapon coiled around her neck. Slowly, she pulled away from the bar with her arms up and hands empty.

"Sorry about the excitement, doll." The first intruder mused. Another one marched through the door and took a dutiful stance at his side, hand draped over the hilt of a katana. Mr. Shiny Shoes tilted his head back as he puffed a cigar. The smoke hissed through the gills of a metal neck. "We would respect your business hours... but we saw that your Marionette was in. Old pals. You understand."

All heads turned to Umbri. Patricia mouthed at her - what? How do you know... and tossed a frightened look at the leader. More specifically, the word emblazoned in gold across the back of his jacket: JAHANNAM.

"We won't be a minute," the leader said and flicked Patricia a clat. Despite being held at gunpoint she scrambled to catch it. "I've got a headache. Fix me a pick me up, will you."

They approached. Three of them. Armed. She knew their names. She knew what they were here for. She knew she didn't have it.

"We haven't been seeing you, Umbri," the leader remarked as he loomed over her. He held his gun like it was just an extension of his hand, gently slapping it against her cheek. Her head rolled, eyes low and guilty, but he knocked her around until he had her attention. "No, don't look down. Don't look down. What's been happening, huh?" Umbri could barely focus on him. Her tongue was dry and void of an answer. "Tch." He batted her head away. "I forgot dolls can't talk."

He tossed around with a thin inhale of his cigar, locked eyes with the woman holding Patricia hostage, and gave her a little nod. Patricia was in the midst of pouring from a strainer into a martini glass when the shotgun was removed from her face. But there was no time to be relieved about it as a hand seized her by the hair and SLAMMED her face into the bar. The glass shattered under her and Patricia whipped back up, holding her hands over the damage.

"MMMMMMMMFFFFFUCK?!?!" She squealed. Blood flooded from under her palms. "MYNOSH! UMBRI, YOU DUMB WHORE! WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?! Fuck! Fuck!!"

"Agh, Canary," the leader exasperated, gesturing with his gun Patricia's way, "She spilled my drink. Get on that, please." Canary stoically lifted the shotgun back at her.

"Make it again." Patricia drew her hands from her face, shaky. Heavy bruising was already spreading out from her nose and eyes.

"No. No, I'm not gonna..." she started to protest.

"Make it again, bitch."

Patricia resumed bartending, her nose whistling when she breathed. Her hands were shaking almost too much to do anything and she was fighting back sobs. They could have chosen a nicer hostage, but something about watching them play with her pain and fear for their entertainment... it stung Umbri's eyes.

"Ganta, stop it!" She broke. Frozen in fear as she was, there wasn't a tremble to her voice. The leader turned back to her. She could feel all the violence in the air train on her and threaten to snap like a tightly drawn string. "I had to get my Chrome serviced. That's it. You'll have last month's money by the end of the week."

"And we want to believe you, doll," he drawled, "But you've got a bad track record. I'm not feeling a lot of trust here." The gun trailed from her chin to tap against the left side of her chest. "You've got... some pricy equipment tucked away in there, haven't you?"

He burrowed the cool metal between her ribs until they groaned. Palms torn open and turned up to the sky. Smeared blood across a face she tried with all her strength to push away --a familiar face-- Desperate beasts, one fighting for survival, the other rampaging for a fix. She screamed and screamed, murder! MOTHER! As SHE tore at her, straddled the chest in a mad frenzy to - "It won't cover your interest, but the big guy's about ready to cut his losses."

"I wouldn't. It's not hers," the man in Ganta's shadow murmured. Ganta did a double take.

"Not hers...? Get out. You're still paying off Menagerie?" Ganta's grin grew unsettlingly wide. He barked with laughter and squeezed her cheeks. "Oh, dollface. You're fucked." He whispered. Like she didn't already know. For the last time Umbri had her head knocked back and he was off her. "We're going to be right outside. When you get out tonight, you're going to give us every piece of clatter you earned in this dive, then we'll figure out this little problem from there. And don't you dare think about giving us the slip."

He looked over his shoulder from the doorway with an alligator grin. "From my understanding, your sister isn't Menagerie Tech property, hm? Just... flesh and bone. See you after the show, Marionette."

He left with a renewed pep in his step, his stoic bodyguards quick to filter out behind him. Patricia collapsed over the untouched drinks she'd made and grabbed onto the bar. "What the hell, Umbri?" She wept. Umbri looked over at her, her feet still sealed in place. A minute passed before the weight of Jahannam's presence lifted enough that she could walk over to the bar and get Patricia ice.

---

---

He needed to get out, it had to happen now. This was too much! This was almost as bad as the— No! Not thinking about that now. Where was the door? Fuck!

"Is this what you felt like, Kassandra?" Dawn muttered, clutching at her heart. Dawn’s eyes flicked past Felix to the bar, which was conspicuously vacant and squinted her eyes at the dubious amusement trailing into the back room. She gulped down the rest of her wine and hurriedly waved her Slatephone over the credit terminal embedded in the table’s edge as she stepped after him.

"Felix, wait!" She called after him, waiting until he’d made it outside. Tears stained her cheeks in dark, ruddy rivulets of ruined mascara. "Take a deep breath. I can’t… purposefully control what you’re feeling."

Can’t… purpose… Feeling. Was all that Felix heard, mind and breath racing too fast even as he stepped out of the building. The air… Maybe it cleared? Maybe it just got more open and he wasn’t in unfamiliar territory. He took a deep breath, registering her words a couple long seconds later.

The knot in his chest kept churning; like coils of acidic snakes chewing his heart alive. He shuddered, gasping once before forcing himself to … to… well. To focus. His mind turned itself in loops as the emotions began to settle, the prickle-wriggle sensation of high flying panic falling away.

So he turned to Dawn, and spoke again after a long moment of calming himself. “Okay! Okay okay. I’m! I'm trying to stay calm. Explain yourself! Please.” The whiplash of his emotions was… Something! Christ.

"I can’t PURPOSEFULLY control what you’re feeling," she repeated slowly, with emphasis, making sure to keep a respectful distance and keep her hands jammed into her pockets. She sniffled and wrinkled her nose. "There is an empathic component; I can’t really turn it off. It’s just a side effect of being… what I am," she explained, dabbing the corner of an eye with a palm in a vain attempt to save her makeup.

"It doesn’t control what you feel: that’s all you. Just encourages people to be honest, both with me and themselves. Just keep breathing, okay?” She took a deep, controlled breath herself and let it out slowly. One thing at a time…

Felix’ eyebrow twitched, anger pulsing up and slamming against the tenuous grasp he had just reasserted over himself. He blinked once, twice, breathed in deep, and spoke.

“Okay. So… You have a component of your power that makes it so… What? People can’t lie to you? You can’t lie either? If that’s true then—”

"I mean… you’re not forced to tell the truth, but you’re not wrong…"

Again, his emotions SHIFTED like a crack of lightning. Whiplash ran through him as his voice uncontrollably grew elated. He was piecing something together, he knew he was, there HAD to be more to this! “If you can’t lie, and I can’t lie either… What's different about me? Emotional response isn’t part of lying… Amplification of it at least… Brain chemistry? No. Well… Maybe? No wait— ‘Goddess’,”

This he said with scorn, clearly disbelieving.

“Of light, truth, arch…ery… Wait wait, if you can manipulate light— Which, considering what you do to my arms— would that have an effect? I’m otherwise normal, and I don’t have any hidden Thinker or Esper abilities so I mean…,” His mouth clicked shut as he abruptly remembered to let her talk. And if THAT wasn’t a lot. Christ. Shutting up was hard!

"Ah shit… I’m so STUPID! I didn’t even think- I’m sorry, I’m sorry, let me-" she stepped towards him and froze for a long moment, biting the inside of her lips apprehensively. "I can shield you from it, but I have to touch you, is that okay? Gods I feel awful," she muttered as she closed the distance, pulling her hands out of her pockets to reach for him.

"UNHAND MY SHORT KING, HARLOT!!"

Dawn staggered back unsteadily as lightning sprang up to separate the two. A sharp blast of wind and thunder. Blue and white tights, tabard fluttering, the Templar emblem shining in the overhead light as he rode a curtain of electricity to the ground and his white cloak billowed. He flung one corner of his cloak behind him dramatically.

Felix’ eyebrow twitched again; relief and exhaustion rising like a tidal wave to drown him. He shook it off and sighed, shoulders coming down from the tense rise they had settled into.

“Ion, I swear to fuck. You just… totally ruined my train of thought, you jackass! She wasn’t even touchin’ me anymore! Sheesh.”

The words were harsh, but the hug he threw at Ion from behind was bone crushing in its sincerity. Almost literally, if the ‘Lightning Rod from God’ wasn’t wearing his field armor. Felix’ arms were… Not to be underestimated.
Oh! His HUD was beeping at him, notifying him of a string of messages from Sovereign, and from himself TO sovereign. … That was a LOT of SOS notifications. Oops.

"Whoah, whoah Night Light!" Ion protested over the creaking of his suit, though he reached back and scooped Felix with one arm off his feet without hesitation, sweeping him to the Templar’s side. His other arm braced between the pair and Dawn, who rolled her eyes and folded her arms. "Ya done did us a fright, Night Light. I ain’t as fast as Fang but, I came as soon as you blipped off the net," he explained, though he visibly relaxed after surveying the location and… the state of Dawn’s makeup.

"Oh… breaking hearts again are we, King?" The smirk in his voice was apparent even through the mask.

“Just because I’m exhausted and exhilarated to see you, I’ll let you have that one… She’s got an aura of truth-telling, low level with the less… I guess… I think my hardlight cybernetics are impacting my susceptibility. … Also I didn’t mean to— She said some intensely upsetting things.” Felix whispered into Ion’s side..

"Not on purpose, jeeze. I’m an empath, not a damn mind reader," quipped Dawn as she wiped muddy streaks from her face.

"Silence, strumpet!"

He lifted his head out of Ion’s chest, shooting a simultaneously apologetic and accusatory grimace her way. ‘Sorry. One sec.’ He mouthed to her, stepping back and heaving a sigh. More alerts from his HUD, Sovereign asking to access his video feed. Felix accepted, and watched as his screen fuzzed for a half second before clarifying.

"Any other day I’d be your wingman, King. Today we got two agents MIA, Sai-Guy off the grid and Chief Lady running interference with the media. Gotta let me know before you jump off the net, even if it’s for a cause I support," he chirped, leaning his head towards Dawn.

"Aw hell, If I’d known I-," Dawn cut herself off as her gold eyes shimmered iridescent for a moment. "Let me help. I’m good at finding things, in a sense."

"THIS IS A PRIVATE CONVERSATION, MISS FLOOZY! Some people. I swear," he muttered. Dawn pursed her lips into a frown, wide eyes flicking back and forth between Felix and Ion..

Felix frowned and held eye contact with Dawn, ‘let me help’ huh…? … Well. A field test first then.

He snapped his gaze up to Ion, frowning harder and cuffing him over the back of his head. “Hey! The first time was okay; I was stressed and I needed it. But she’s NOT a floozy! She’s a bit misguided,” A pause, a thought clicking with others!

“Aren’t you the ladies man? Wow, I guess I’m better at talking than you are mister ‘Lightning Rod from God’!”

Felix looked back at Dawn as Ion spluttered, giving her a quick smile before swiftly slamming his face back into a scowl. She smiled back nervously. Two ideas ran in his head, and idea one required playing on Ion’s pride… Doable! He DID tell Agent… Uhhhhhh… Ducky? Agent Ducky not to scream! 30 minutes ago.

"Uh, I’m an every gender man? Thank you," he quipped, seeming pleased with his recovery. "Listen, I’m glad you’re okay, seriously. I gotta get back to it: we’re super short handed with Fang missing. They’re recalling Mitts and a few others from overseas via Hypersonic, and the entire Cyber division is rolling into town to help. Media spits a lot of hate on her but nobody realizes just how much she actually does around here until she’s not out there doing it," he muttered with a bitter note.

"Anyway… NO TOUCHING THE SHORT KING!" He pointed firmly at Dawn, causing her to flinch. "You. Stay on the net," he ordered, poking Felix firmly in the chest. "Go get her, Tiger," he smirked beneath the mask, and shot into the air with a flash of electricity and thunder.

There was a tangible pause after he left before Dawn slapped Felix squarely on the back. A warm energy pulsed through him leaving an… oddly geometric tingling between his shoulder blades.

He stiffened for a moment, turning to put her on blast before… Noting the relieved sensation blooming in his chest.

"If that’s the company you keep, I’m not sure I feel bad anymore," she muttered, retreating to sit on a nearby bench, before finding his hand in the crook of her elbow.

“Don’t even pretend you weren’t that bad in highschool, lady.” He chastised in return, voice low and below volume as his eyes flicked through screen after icon after notification. He sent off a rapid message to Sovereign, promising an explanation if he could just give Felix a hand.

“Okay so here’s what I’m thinking. One; I need to apologize to you. I shouldn’t— I KNOW powers, right? I shouldn’t blame you for something you can’t control. Especially if… Well, I’m like… sixty percent light based matter, right now,” he paused, mulling that over. One of Dawn’s eyebrows shot up, and her eyes flicked involuntarily down to his belt line.

“That's not an excuse. And anyways, two; how do you feel about fucking with a government agent who’ll be more inclined to not lie to us? … And also help me help your brother's friend? I think? You know light shit, and esper shit, and I— Y’know what? Third and final question!”

He abruptly took a step back, raising his hand up into the air, palm facing the sky. Felix swept low, bowing at the waist and offering his hand forward as he spoke again. “Would you like to work with me in pissing off my boss and also digging deeper into… What your powers do to me and mine?” He asked, face turned away as he swiftly added, “And also because I feel really bad for blowing up at you for past instances that weren’t your fault—”

"Don’t worry about it," she exhaled after a long minute, flicking one of her manicured hands at him dismissively. "There’s nothing to feel bad for, hon: this is definitely an edge case for ability interactions. I’m the one that pulled you away from an important duty to have a bit of fun at your expense, and into an (unintentionally) uncomfortable situation,” she paused, gazing at him with a neutral expression for a long time. Her eyes shimmered iridescent for a moment.

"There’s something else you should know about me: I have… a thing. A hint of Clairvoyance, or whatever you’d like to call it. I’m attracted to people and items of significance that’ll help me or someone I’m close to me ’avert evil.’ Don’t question it, we’ll be here all night. The short version is, we’re supposed to meet, and something we do together will be helpful for either myself, or someone directly connected to me. It’s why I wanted to talk to you privately and candidly without any…," she gestured to the Arcology ceiling.

"I’m pretty sure I can trust you and your… virtual companion with that information. Pissing off government agents, now…," she paused, a sly grin blooming across her lips. "That. Sounds. Like. Fun."

---

---

"DEEEANNN~!" Wolf called after the man as he slammed the door to his house. There was a short moment where it looked like she might pursue him further; instead she broke into a peal of laughter followed by a snort.

She'd fully intended to fetch the physician herself, but trying to get Dean to do things for her was always entertaining. Harassing the lay about was her second favorite pastime; shooting things that didn't belong in the area was her first.

"Speaking of...," she muttered, as a border alert caught her attention. She blew a sigh as she flipped the view of her cybernetic eye over to the Hunter-Killer drone as it swooped overhead from the rear of the settlement. Being the only conscious member of The Den that could operate the drones was taxing her neural net, and she was going to have a hell of a headache in a few hours. It was better than not having the support at all though.

An object was approaching the settlement at high speed, and though the drone's optics didn't have visual, she had radar lock. Wolf rocked her head back and forth in indecision. The Hunter-Killer climbed to get a better angle, and the targeting pod locked onto the object's thermal signature. She very nearly gave the command to launch a Maverick before the Drone's VI identified the object as "The Tumbler." Wolf exhaled and commanded it to Chase instead, causing the drone to perform a Wingover and follow Alex and the Tumbler.

"Oi... coming in hot?" Wolf clicked over to Aegis' radio channel. "Gonna check that speed? Start braking, or you're gonna-" It was too late, the Tumbler slammed into the settlement wall causing Wolf to breathe an exasperated sigh before cutting off the channel. The Tumbler was a sturdy vehicle but... it was gonna need a visit to her Frame Straightener after that impact.

"Big man's bringing in a wounded," she chirped over the settlement frequency. "Nobody's critical at The Den, send the physician to Aegis' guest first, and then shoot me a heads up so I can cover his crossing..."

Aegis crashing the tumbler following a monster attack while the "Spooky Nature Siblings" casually vault the settlement wall with a road of brambles while riding stags made out of dark matter and stars?

Just another day in Shieldtown...

---

---

"What to do, what to do...," Archer muttered, exhaling a plume of smoke from his second cigarette of the day. Dawn was going to give him a talking to for sure. The disturbance at the wall had caught his attention long enough for him to notice the arrival of some principal members of the Black Moon Society in signature fashion.

He held his elbow with one hand while tapping his cheek with his fingers in indecision. It probably wasn't a coincidence that their arrival so quickly followed his own, and it was likely that Yue had made contact with them in some capacity, since he had been following her trail in that direction. On the other hand there was the Amalgam Soul: a gross and deliberate manipulation of forbidden dark arts. Levin would have his head if he just turned a blind eye...

Archer had been following the creature deeper into the settlement before BMS arrived. It was fast, and inquisitive and it hadn't presented itself as a danger... so far. His eyes flicked back and forth as he took a long drag on his cigarette and exhaled it from his nose. He turned his eyes back towards the wall.

It would be rude of him to not say 'Hello' after they came all this way... Losing track of the creature now might cause some problems later though.

He flicked a tarot card into his hand after a long moment of thought and etched an improvised spell into the array on the back. [Mark] was an innocuous cantrip that would allow him to track a target that he had touched over long distances. Physical contact was the limiting factor, but by combining it with a 'Null" array that would just hold Mana and not do anything, and a Transference circuit he fashioned himself a little lure that would Mark whatever had the mind to take a bite.

"Now it's just time to do a little fishing..."

---

---

The dream was all there was.

First was the hole. The pit in the earth. Cavernous and filled with static-hissing-dark-sadness. Cold lavender light poured out from it, but only reached the edges of the pit. A broken city surrounded it.

The sky was visible, for just a moment, as a scream poured forth. The light flashed, and then there was the body.



The body was cold. It stared up, making eye contact. Pupils blown wide, iris pale gray, sclera so blood filled it was black.

Metallic taste on the tongue; like copper being fused to taste buds.

The body? It was familiar. But the name kept slipping away, like an old memory in disuse. Female. Definitely female.

Was it actually remembered? Or … Maybe from a picture? A long time in the past.

Round nose. Almost button-like. Slightly upturned.
Soft face, no harsh lines or angles. Just barely on the cusp of ‘full’.
Cheek bones unassuming.
Ears, unassuming.
Brows raised, like perpetually somewhat surprised.
Full lips. Naturally dark? Painted a light, almost cheerful red. Smile lines in the corners.

But her mouth hung open, now. A perpetual scream.

The skin-tone was sun warmed, tawny brown in the gray light. Alopecia all over, with a dermal spike just under the left eye. Barely an inch high. Black like a porcupine quill-tip.

Full, thick, hair; black. Silver highlights, almost natural.

Is she old?

Then. Something… a spider? An insect crawls out from under a thick mane.
Marble white carapace, glossy— Made of stone? Or actual marble?
Eight limbs, pushing on cold skin, claws digging in, as it crawls down… And down.
Settles over the body’s mouth, like a shield.

No peeking, no talking.

The body vanishes, and she becomes aware of herself again. She screams against a howling void, hugs her knees to her chest, wailing. A crimson light, oil-smeared with silvers and grays, hovers just out of reach. It’s cacophonous, but safe. Safety guaranteed. If she… could just… reach it!

It lies too far.

The world shifts, filled abruptly with cackling and cooing. Hysterical static snaps over her eyesight; turns everything muddy and fuzzy and out of focus.

Shifts again.

One clear image, like a snapshot of clarity in a corrupted film of confusion.
Looking into one. Great. Eye. Staring into it, as its’ four pointed star of a pupil contracts in agonizing slowness.

Time warps, slows and speeds up in equal measure.

A familiar sensation.

It drinks her in, absorbs her every detail. A scream begins at her throat, presses down around her like the weight of the tides.

Fire ROARS to life, crackling around a sky-blue shield. A blade whistles, cuts through a twisted face.
The eye blinks, taking a thought/eternity to complete.

Abrupt silence. Powdered glass under her feet makes itself known. Lavender-gray light suffuses her. Turns the whole world pale and unsettling. The air does not stir. There is no air! And…



In the far distance, a scream builds… And builds… And builds and builds and rushes and whorls and slams into her mind. It pierces like a blade through butter, deafens her and blinds her.

Locks her in eternity, frees her from oblivion, loathes that she will not come to it. Follow its source. Find it.
It wails for her.

Cries for no one.

It rises in its volume, intensity growing. Rising like a tidal wave, crushing, all encompassing. The sun formed directly before her, seeking to immolate her! Like the wrath of an old forgotten lover, scornful and hating.
It crawls under her skin, tearing at her, loathing her! She is hated and she knows it, she screams and it screams and it all twists and coils and hurts and hurts until—!

It shifts again.

She watches as a woman’s shape, warped and filled to bursting with ethereal light, twists a sphere of silvery-gold-green-blue-white light. The sphere ripples, warps, and the woman turns to look at her.

Her dream says ‘Mother…?’

Her dream wakes up in a bed, cold and vulnerable. Memories dance and fade, and fire coils everywhere. The sun, in a room.

There’s a brief pain, a spider bite in the palm of her hand. She looks down and witnesses a truer fear than she’s felt.

Her mind slips off of it, like trying to associate it to anything if impossible. It shifts on her skin, prickle crawling like spiders and ants and centipedes and bugs and weakness and—

It looks at her. It loves her.

Yue woke up.

---

---

Yue bolted upright, clutching at her breast and gasping for air as though she'd been holding her breath for far too long. It was dark. She was drenched in sweat. Her heart pounded, and she couldn't shake the FEAR. Yue was in her street clothes, in a room that wasn't hers. She looked around frantically, unable to find her things.

Door!

She stumbled towards it, trying the handle and rattling the door loudly though it didn't come free. She turned around, swallowed by her anxiety. She spotted a window and bolted to it, scattering a bunch of small slips of paper that had been loosely adhered to... the wall probably.

The unfamiliar urban crush of lights and structures of a foreign settlement greeted her. What was the last thing she remembered... falling?!

Something shot up over the horizon, like a shooting star that fell upward. Shining, pulsing hypnotic [WHITE]. Yue held her breath against the dread that something might happen, and just as she was beginning to relax, an inhuman mass of color and swirling ink streaked up from the darkness and swallowed the star. For a split second all she could see was the eye with the pupil in the shape of a four pointed star. She couldn't breathe.

Air. She needed air.

Yue scrabbled at the window lamely for a moment, and when it didn't immediately open she grasped the nearest object with her shaking hands. Wood, or maybe bone cracked, as her fingers crushed down. The muscles in her arm coiled, and she sent the night stand and its contents crashing through the glass. She rushed to the edge, leaning out in time to see the night stand swallowed by the darkness below. How high up was she??

She reached up, gaining purchase on the lip of the roof. Yue swung herself up, flipping herself up to the roof... foreign lands in every direction. Buildings made of bone, leather, and steel. Was she still dreaming?? She turned away from where she had seen the star get swallowed, running to the edge of the roof and the building and jumped.

The chill air bit her face as she soared across a gap, and she rolled gracefully as she landed on the be adjacent roof and kept running...

On the floor of her room lay scattered the slips of paper, illuminated by the door opening.

The doors burst open and Umbri's image shattered, scattering to every mirror of the dressing rooms. Hoots and cheers followed her in and she ran away from them, heavy with bracelets and necklaces of clat bequeathed to her by a grateful audience which she now tore off with the ferocity of pulling free from a web. She dumped it all at her dresser, pausing just a moment to catch her breath. The sweat melting off her body glitter was turning cold. The next act gave her stash a jealous side-eye as she sashayed out to the stage. Umbri eyed her in the reflection until she'd left the room and she was alone, then locked her eyes upon herself.

"And don't you dare think about giving us the slip."

Her hand clenched over the strings of clatter.

---

The club was eerie after hours. The lights had dimmed but the smell of their clientele remained, giving the impression someone was still leering over your shoulder. Girls scoured the floor and picked up what their audience dropped; be it clat, alcohol or personal artifacts, anything could be of use to someone in here. Patricia wiped down the bar. She wore a bdsm-styled bunny mask she'd pulled from the back to hide her nose. She moved sluggishly, the pain of her injuries catching up to her now that the rush of the evening had come to an end. Umbri stood five feet from the bar in her jacket and held out a string of clat.

"Hold this for me back there," she said.

Patricia's hand stopped. She looked up at her. "Stash it?" she asked evenly. Umbri nodded. Patricia tilted her head, getting a look at the rest of the clatter still dangling on Umbri's chest. Umbri stood solid, glaring Patricia in the eye with a determined scrunch in her nose. Patricia shook her head.

"Please," Umbri insisted, lurching a step closer. Patricia backed away.

"No fucking way."

"I'll be in tomorrow night. If I'm not there, you keep it. It's just my rent."

"Like hell it is. You said you worked today. This is about pulling a fast on them."

"Patricia -"

"NO!" Something wet accompanied her bark, spraying the inside of her mask. Patricia coughed and pulled at the back of her head. She unstrapped it and dumped it on the bar, and Umbri got a good look at how her injuries had developed. Black, blue, mottled and congealing, a trickle of fresh blood running between the gaps of her teeth. "You don't have a right to pride, Umbri."

Umbri's tight grip on the clatter faltered, her hand lowering. Patricia leaned over the bar with a sigh and beckoned her, pulling up a bottle of tequila and two shot glasses. Umbri watched warily as Patricia poured the shots and knocked one back followed by a pained hiss. The tequila splashed over the rim as she poured herself another one. Umbri sat.

"You think a skunk cares how much it stinks when it sprays you?" Patricia spoke up after the second shot and gestured Umbri to take hers. Umbri curled her fingers around it but nothing else. She shook her head with a shrug. "I don't think possums care about looking stupid when they play dead, either." Patricia swirled her third shot, staring into the light refracting from the glass. "It's not just prey. Even lions. When a new lion challenges the king, throws him out, kills his kin, do the lionesses reject their fate? Band together, fight him off like it's some fucking Disney movie? No. They roll over and do what they have to do." She took her shot. Umbri shifted upright, deeply uncomfortable. Patricia's eyes were old and sad when they laid on her.

"Do what you have to do, Umbri," she said bitterly, her whole heart and will poured into those words. "Creatures like us, we aren't big enough for pride."

Clatter.

Umbri's string of coins was left behind, smacked down defiantly beside her untouched shot. Patricia caught a streak of pink leaving the club.

This would be the last time they saw each other.

---

Umbri got about ten steps down the street before she heard shoes dragging through puddles on the concrete. She slowed to a stop, wincing. A whistle commanded her to turn back. She faced the shadow of Ganta strutting towards her with arms outstretched and his bodyguards in tow.

"Did you forget about us, doll?" He crooned with mock-hurt. Umbri was frozen, eyes large and heart pumping like a scared rodent's. Ganta's hand lifted a necklace of clat away from her chest. He bounced it in his hand, feeling the weight, and whistled. "You're lucky you're pretty, dollface. Do you get a kick, showing these off?" He ran his thumb over the coins and leaned into her space and sang, "A shiny, pretty coin for every man who's thought about fucking you."

His last words growled. Umbri jerked out of his grasp, her breath shuddering with anger. Her eyes flashed a warning that Ganta only smirked at and she tore off all her clatter, throwing each piece at him. She shoved the last string into his chest before tossing around. She barely began to storm off before click.

"The big guy wants to see you."

The cocked gun pointed directly to the back of her head. Umbri's blood was ice. A menacing silhouette flashed before her mind's eye.

"If it's not enough, I can get you more. Right now," she insisted as soon as she pushed through her stutter. Ganta scoffed.

"It's not that. You did good, pet." He walked until his gun was an inch from her, threads of her wig floating up to meet it. "I told you, didn't I? He's ready to cut his losses. Let's be real here," he nudged her, "No dolly's pretty enough for a debt like yours."

Umbri shut her eyes. Her breath escaped her in a thin whimper. She didn't mean for her voice to come out, but right now, everything was threatening to. Ganta nodded to his entourage and they flanked her. Canary gestured her to move with her shotgun. "Come consciously," Ganta commanded, "We don't want to carry you."

Nobody was out on the street to help her. Not that anybody watching would. Ganta poked her in the head with the gun again, forcibly enough to jostle her forward. Slowly, she walked towards her fate. The three members of Jahannam escorted her out to a black vehicle parked on the street. The quiet swordsman opened one of the back doors, and Canary 'helped' her inside. The door slammed with a loud THUD and the tinted windows muted all colours from outside.

Umbri was alone, cut off from all sound and light. Trapped with nothing but the wet, snivelly sounds of her own fear. She pressed her palms to her eyes with a little gasp, and they pulled away damp. This was it. Anything could happen to her. She could be forced into labor, sold, killed, tortured... anything and everything a creature like her had to fear. Absent of the terror of a gun pressed to the back of her scalp, all she could do was think about what came next and weep in the dark. In an hour or less, something terrible and nebulous was going to happen to her. Something she might not even survive.

But nobody came to take her to it.

Her soft whimpers and tears came to a confused stop as she realized. She'd been left alone in the car for about five minutes. Nobody had come in, nobody had even locked the doors. She brought a hand over her mouth, forcibly quietening herself. The car was sound proofed, likely to hide the screams of Jahannam's victims being ferried inside, but if she strained her ear... shouting. A thud. A... rumble. Machinery? Umbri's hand hovered over the car's handle. She swallowed and let herself outside.

It was unnaturally quiet out here, for the commotion she'd made out from inside the vehicle. Something was snuffling, digging around. She couldn't see it. She moved in a crouch towards the hood of the car, but was halted in her path as a pair of bloodied hands crawled into her vision. The torso of the silent swordsman dragged after them, huffing and moaning.

"Kite?" Umbri whispered his name. His eyes locked with hers and Umbri saw the stare of a crazed, terrified animal. His hands clawed against the concrete desperately.

"No no NO NO FUCK!!!" He shrieked, and was yanked back. Umbri looked up and took in the creature that rose above the car. Far, far above it. Twenty feet up. She'd seen monsters like this before. Dead and chopped and ready for consumption. Her lips hung open in awe and disbelief - it wasn't supposed to be here. They weren't supposed to be in Northbridge.

Thresher.

Kite's body flailed in the air, tossed around in the monster's maw. His sword flung uselessly before flying out of his hand. The silent swordsman was screaming. The monster shook its prey, and Umbri heard the bones breaking and sinew tear. Viscera and Chrome rained down on the street. Kite's torso hit the hood of the car and folded it in. The monster swallowed down his lower half with a snap so powerful it made the air pop.

"KITE! SON OF A BITCH!" Canary hollered. The BOOM of a shotgun stole the monster's attention. It roared and twisted, whipping its tail out and catching the vehicle. Umbri brought her arms up to shield herself as the car was swatted past her, crashing into a building in a smoking heap of metal that could have easily been her coffin. Now she could see everything. Ganta, his butt on the ground and scooting back from the monster, cursing and sweating and shaking too violently to take aim. And Canary, approaching and unloading all her ammo into the beast with wicked fury. She dodged the creature's bite, prosthetic legs glinting as she jumped between vehicles and walls to get above the creature and strike it from the back - the tail. Canary was cut-off mid battle cry. The tail hurtled through her and pinned her body to the wall, the deadly tip spearing her head. Her feet dangled ten feet above ground, her body fell limp. It slid down, leaving a messy streak as it left her cranium behind.

Umbri watched it all and didn't move. The air shook more violently than it ever had. A persistent ringing was in her ear since the crash of the car.

"The sound was like... you know, a train? When you hear one coming. Not just that horrible scream of the wheels, the tremble of the air around you."

A bullet fired into the monster's leg, halting barely an inch into its monstrously tough hide. It's glowing eyes turned to the flea that had dared. Ganta squeaked.

"You know there's no stopping it. No matter how far away you are, when you hear it coming, everything stops for just a second, and you are on those tracks."

"Shit. Shit! No, get away from me," Ganta blubbered as the monster prowled towards him. Umbri's acrylics dragged over the concrete. The ringing was so loud she couldn't hear him beg for his life. The monster's quills spread out and it reared back with a snarl.

"It was that kind of sound."

Ganta's gun went spinning through a red splatter, whipping it into an arc. It skipped across the pool of blood to Umbri's feet. She snatched it.

And on the tracks of a train headed right for her, she ran.



The sound of her heels pounding the pavement turned the monster's head. It snarled and barreled after her. Umbri spared it one glance when she heard it coming, caught the claws splitting the road with every bound, and behind the beast - a flood of fire from something she did not see, drowning out Ganta's screams. Don't look. She turned her gaze back. Her pupils dilated. Feeling left her legs as she moved. Inside her chest, metal contracted and pulsated. Blood rushed around her head so fast, the world turned slower.

She skidded, taking a sharp left into an alley. The monster followed, shoving its head in after her and slamming its body against the narrow passage. The buildings rattled as it threw itself after her again and again and rusted metal shook loose, before it roared its displeasure and bounded another way. Even without it right on her back Umbri ran, only stopping a second to paw at her ankle.

"Come on, come on!" she whispered fearfully amidst curses, her acrylic nails getting in her way. The monster's roar echoed through the labyrinth, coming from everywhere and shaking the corrugated metal. Umbri abandoned the idea of taking off her shoes. She banged against her heart, muttered "Come on," a final time, and fled. Leaving a bloody smear behind on the poster she'd leaned her hand against, a half torn down advertisement for Ares Laser Technology.

Umbri dashed through the miserable back alleys of Northbridge, crunching over broken glass and splashing through inscrutable substances past shanties made of shipping crates. The clicks and rumbles of the monster never too far behind. Hunched figures slinked back into shadows as she passed them, others looked down from the safety of their homes. Lights flashed past her, blasting from billboards advertising products and lives nothing like the muck she ran through. Cushy jobs working for the upstairs Corpo Estates, the next new Chrome implant from Menagerie Tech, and glamorous products nobody could afford sponsored by the Halcyon Horde. It all just blurred into a stream of colour to her. Bile slickened her throat like oil, her insides were hot and burning and all thoughts seized by instinct, thinking wouldn't help her, JUST MOVE!

She burst out of the shanty town into the markets. The chatter and foot traffic was long gone as she sprinted through - when her clear heels stumbled to an abrupt stop. The pick-up truck that had made today's delivery was still in the middle of the street. It rocked violently side to side, as the beast perched upon it dug through its load and gorged itself on the flesh of its brethren. Burning eyes locked on her and the giant lizard raised its head, bloody sinew stretching between its teeth and its meal. It launched itself off the truck and charged.

BA-THUMP BATHUMP THUMP THUMPTHUMPTHUMP - Umbri's heart hummed with energy that exploded through her limbs as she turned to run. With a gasp, her pupils dwarfed the reds of her eyes and locked onto an approaching flagpole. The monster's breath washed over her back. Umbri jerked out her hand.

It grabbed the pole. Her body followed, violently flinging out as she was jerked back by her own strength. Something in her arm popped. She whipped around in a flurry of limbs, biceps and thighs bulging with hidden power as the momentum carried her up to the top of the flagpole. She didn't stop to watch the monster charge past and roll as it tried to correct its course with a frustrated bellow. She'd already thrown herself off the pole and onto a rooftop under her.

She skidded down the slanted roof to the next street, before falling and tumbling into a pile of trash bags below. One arm was out. Limp and unable to move from the elbow. Didn't matter. Couldn't feel it. MOVE. When she did, an unbearable pain shot from her left ankle up her leg, like being stuck with a pike. Her ankle was purple and swelling - broken. She slammed her fist on the left side of her chest twice. "COME ON!" she roared, and ran. Ran through the agony until it too melted into the white-hot rush of adrenaline with everything else that DIDN'T. MATTER. She ran until she slammed against her final obstacle.

Dead end.

Umbri tried jumping. She flailed to reach up to something with her good arm. A sickening crack came from her ankle as she landed and her legs went out from underneath her sideways. A series of low clicks rumbled behind her, emanating from deep within the monster's throat. Umbri slowly turned to look at it. It prowled out from the shadows of the alley, shaking a mane of spikes. Expressionless eyes like fire fell down on her. Umbri must have looked much like Ganta in this moment. On her ass, back to the wall, nothing but a gun between her and a monster a story tall above her. But for a strange reason, unlike the gangster and despite her terror, Umbri's aim did not shake.

Her heart could not beat any faster if it tried. Such an alien, metallic noise, thrumming through her body. Something she never adopted as a part of her despite being buried deep in her tissue. As the creature loomed above her and death drew her in closer, the Chrome in her chest went silent.

Ba-thump.

And in her memory, she heard another heartbeat.

Ba-thump.

Something familiar. Something that was hers. Something she now held close to her ear, nestled against the chest of another.

Ba-thump...

Umbri shut her eyes and thought of her sister.

Over the rooftops of Northbridge, beneath the distant shadows of cranes and the looming darkness of the exterior plates, obscured by fog that had grown thick and stagnant beneath blinded skies. A silhouette perched atop the remains of a lighthouse. Lean of form, with jet-black limbs that reflected no light.

<SCANNING._>
<SCANNING…_>

He could see it all. The city. His city. This heap of rust and scrap and stagnation, choked in the green haze of industry. Northbridge. The city was always spared from The Hunt, but human predation knew no boundaries; moral, physical, or temporal. Many sleepless nights he had spent here. Sleepless… never bloodless.

Waveforms rippled on the low corner of his vision. Waveforms that burst with high peaks and short ends. Again, and again, in tune with a faraway cacophony. Names screamed, shells spent, insides trickled outside. Another sleepless night. The silhouette rose to his feet. His gaze panned across the skyline of crates and wires. He took a few steps back, with motions as even as they were symmetrical. Then he sprinted forward, on the edge of the broken railing, and leapt.

<DISTURBANCE FOUND_>
<BEGIN PURSUIT_>

The wind rushed against his sensors. Crimson-steeled feet landed upon the rooftop. Silent and breathless, he rushed. Across the edge, over pipes and debris, beneath vents and spotlights. He zipped from roof to roof, towards the heart of Northbridge, always too fast or too dark to be seen. The air grew thicker as he descended. Not just with smog or blood, but…

A roar.

An inhuman sound that disrupted his view with static. Impossible! he thought. Those footfalls. Weighty yet light of sound. A biped. A predator. Thresher. His pace hastened. He jumped, straightened, and spun, right through a too-narrow opening between two fallen containers. Time seemed to slow as he plummeted.

Ba-thump.

The thresher’s dark shape clawed towards a dead end.

Ba-thump.

There was a heartbeat. Not the warring drums of the monster. A murmur.

Ba-thump.

Blades of light ignited above his arms. He came lower, closer, until-

A sharp hiss. A white-hot flash.

The blade went deep, bolstered by the momentum of his fall, into the base of its skull. The creature reared up with a screech; high in pitch and leaking fear. The silhouette vaulted his body over the beast’s sinister side, his blade dragged across its flesh before it tore away, ripping a half-moon wound that glowed with fresh cauterisation.

The silhouette landed onto the wall above Umbri, standing upon it as if it was the floor. He braced into a crouch, then bolted right back into danger. The monster swiped - too low - and snapped its jaws - too high - as he darted around it, a blade striking at each distraction, every undefended moment. Bright orange wounds trailed every cut, marking an elbow, a shoulder, an ankle, beneath its neck. The thresher thrashed and whipped, lashing out with every inch of its wounded body. Its tail cracked and struck out at the leaping silhouette. He contorted back, just far enough, so that the spear grazed his armour and cast sparks upon the night sky. The force from the blow rattled him nonetheless. The silhouette fell, flailing his arms in a second of panic, before he held out a palm.

Fhwoop!

A length of wire shot out. The strand caught light from a sparking sign, then pierced right through the creature’s eye. The silhouette held the wire tight to steady his landing. He was close to Umbri now, less than a stone’s throw away. And as the sign flickered, she saw him first in the light.

A jet-black body, with muscles close to the frame. Scarlet and crimson was bolted into his form. She could neither see nor hear him breathe as he pulled the wire. His widened steps bore no sound, and the blackness in the eyes and mouth of his bone-white mask defied any sign of life. A word was etched onto said mask, between a pair of horns.

TEMUJIN.

The creature hunched low and backed away, cornered as any animal. Fresh blood seeped down the scales beneath its eye. With claws outstretched, the beast charged at him, the earth shaking beneath its vitriol. Temujin flicked two fingers above his grappling wire, and zipped forward, launching to meet the beast head-on. The distance between them closed in mere seconds, less, and-

The thresher swiped inwards, colliding its claws in a shower of sparks. Temujin was shredded before her eyes, torn into scraps of black and red that tumbled beneath its feet, into a white, viscous puddle. Slowly, the monster turned towards her, baring all its teeth. The false flesh of the cyborg stoked only fury, no appetite. Unlike hers. It approached her, its every step louder than her heartbeat. Saliva dangled between its open, hissing jaws, with a mouth laden with a thousand knives…

…A shape flickered into view above the beast, shadowed save for the green rings upon his eyes. Green rings that gleamed against a bone-white mask.

Temujin landed atop the beast’s neck, unscathed, and plunged his blade into its deepest wound. The beast reared up in shock. Temujin ran down its right side, dragging his blade along the neck, until he ripped it out, landed, and rolled across the concrete. A low, unholy gurgle came from the beast. Steam rose from its cooked neck-wound, which tore wider, more open, until the entire head dangled loose, then dropped with a thud. The rest of its body followed suit, with a sound that boomed across the alley.

The shredded illusion of Temujin disintegrated not far from the beast’s body, just as his own eyes disappeared into the darkness of his mask. Temujin’s blade hummed, a bright green blade that betrayed no trace of the kill… save for the pungence of cooked flesh, swiftly fading beneath the hum. The blade shrunk into its base, and the entire contraption collapsed into a narrow slit within Temujin’s arm.

---

The sensation of sparkling satisfaction settled in. Hunger had bloomed in her stomach after a time, and though she had been walking for… For… Well shit. How long had she been walking?

Didn’t matter! The flash of [MANA] that had sparkled into the air was too much to ignore, even with the sensation of [STONE’S GAZE] blooming underneath her. Maybe it would ignore this opportunistic hunt on its territory? And what even WAS it? Powerful, that was for sure. But it didn’t seem terribly annoyed by her?
Wait, what was she doing?

Where was she again— RIGHT! On the street, in… This odd town. Having just eaten what was effectively a massive [MANA] battery that got ejected into the air. [UNASPECTED] too. So obviously it wasn’t [STONE]’s.
God, she couldn’t focus, and she was TRYING.

She was tired too, but, alas. She hadn’t slept, not that she really ‘needed’ to, if what she remembered of the… Scientist?

Jemma paused in her jaunt, letting her thoughts trickle around in her core like water in a babbling brook. It was… Easier. To think, now. She had spent so much more time around people now. And the whorls and eddies of [MANA] that spiraled everywhere had done, well, something! To her.

A memory jiggled itself loose from the moors of the past; a clinical voice whispering to another. “Honestly? I think the more, ah, solution we feed it, the more stable it’ll get. We’re already seeing it comprehend reflections, and…”
The words faded. The memory was fuzzy, like trying to hold sand. Hm.

Jemma shrugged, twisting herself in an acrobatic maneuver to duck under a massive length of bone being carried by two men. They called out to her, one scolding her inactivity. ‘Don’t stand in the middle of the road!’

The other whistled, congratulating the move she pulled. ‘Where were you when I need a gymnastics teacher?!’
They moved on, balancing the … rib? Rib. Between their shoulders as they continued up the street. They hadn’t even commented on her state of dress. Though… Maybe that had to do with the massive, now brown and navy feathered, wings she had wrapped around herself. Maybe they thought it was a cloak? Hm.

And for Jemma, the words settled on her thoughts like balm. The buzzing that had taken over her mind for MONTHS had faded.
She waved goodbye to the two of them, turning and sprinting down the busy thoroughfare she found herself in. Lights buzzed above her, surrounded by moths and other midnight bugs.

Time began to, well, melt. It stopped holding importance for her, even as she tried her best to hold onto it, and even as she tried to remember what a second meant, or even felt like.

She was all of a sudden stood at the wall again. Or… Part of the wall. There was a scent in the air. But it wasn’t a scent, as much as it was a [SMELL].
Her mind started buzzing again, but she tamped it down. Shut it in a box. Quieted it with a pillow. Slammed the door closed.

Wait! There. A wisp of… familiar… [CRIMSON]. What was it doing here?
A trail bloomed before her, as she focused, surprised that she could even MISS it in the first place.
It writhed in the [AIR], coiling and uncoiling like a snake being electrocuted. An eel out of water and struggling for breath.

Jemma tilted her head, and followed the path. It led up, and up, and up and up. She could [SEE] the main path above her, and the comparatively dim and dull branch that she was following.
Her wings flared open, and with a great WHUMP of air, she rose up.
And then swiftly settled fifteen feet away from a familiar woman, whose breathing was as erratic as her thinking.
[CRIMSON] seethed around her like a nest of vipers, lashing out at itself and everything around.
Hm!

Another memory rose unbidden, of a man of auburn hair slumped against the wall. Another man knelt before him, and his voice and words were soft; gentle and quiet. He walked his fellow through… Breathing? Breathing.
The memory swiftly faded, and Jemma sat down silently.

And then, like a fool, she spoke.
“You’re… Panicking. Do you want help?”

The void yawned underneath her. Yue's breath came heavy in clouds of condensation. Beyond the brilliantly lit wall of the settlement was pitch darkness, save the faint glimmer of another settlement in the distance, and the thrust glow of drones patrolling. She'd run across the rooftops clear to the edge of ShieldTown. Her heart thumped in her chest, and all she could hear in the unnatural silence was her breathing.

Her fists clenched and unclenched rhythmically against the pins and needles sensation she'd come to associate with pain. She was banged up, particularly her head and her left side. Fingers ran across the rough texture of of an old(?) scrape on her cheek, and her skin protested as she prodded a tender spot beneath her eye.

Right. She fell.

Yue took a deep breath and tried to relax, though the coiled tension wouldn't release her bones. [Crimson] coiled itself angrily around her limbs, and she tried to brush it off her skin reflexively. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking.

Tragedy. She encountered the masked killer. A teleporter. She'd been translocated beneath the plate surface and she fell.

Yue's heartrate slowed.

Something had happened after she fell... that part was still fuzzy. She met Sir Viking, Runepriest... no, Raudd and Zolya. Murder-Bot... she couldn't remember his name but that probably wasn't it... and Meathead.

Call me Alex while out of costume. Jabbing and banter aside, I’ll make sure you get back topside.

They split up. She went with him. Met his Super-Groupie... Dean. Drove to the Ignis Citidel, or a replica of it at least.

Did my favorite angry kitty ever get that 0.5% epic sword drop?

No. She didn't. Because you were the one that kept us all together... and you Ď̵̪͉͉̈́̈́Ǐ̴͕̦͈͌͝E̶̖̝͆D̴͔̀̃ left.

The Scream.

Yue flinched as she recalled the sound and that feeling like she'd been torn free of her body and left to fall in an endless void. That part she remembered vividly, as well as the dream that had accompanied the sensation. Was it a dream? Dragons weren't real. Or were they? We don't talk about the second moon, her psychiatrist changed her meds last time she tried.

I̶̘͆'̷̙̎m̸̹̐ ̷͓̿n̷͕͑o̴͔̾ť̷̹ ̸̤͆š̵̮ḯ̴͍c̴̗͐k̵͊ͅ

Deep breath. Exhale. š̵̮ḯ̴͍c̴̗͐k̵͊ͅ Count to ten.

Does it kill Kaiju?

Oh, enthusiastically so.

n̷͕͑o̴͔̾ť̷̹ ̸̤͆š̵̮ḯ̴͍c̴̗͐k̵͊ͅ

Right. They fought the Hydra. And then...

"You’re… Panicking. Do you want help?"

Yue flinched, and her eyes flicked towards the source of the voice involuntarily, but her head didn't turn. Every muscle in her body was coiled.

Don't look. You won't like what you [ş̶͝ē̸͉e̶̗̚].

She pressed her palms to her eyes and tried to collect herself, though that just made the threads of [Crimson] coiling around her bones stand out against the black. Coming undone. Yue inhaled and blew a long shuddering sigh as she tried to hold herself together.

"I'll be okay. I just need... a minute," croaked Yue after an uncomfortably long silence.

---

---

As night fell two cloaked figures slid into a secluded alleyway both with a couple serving of some greasy street food in their hands. "Why didn't we just wait at Alex's place?" "We can't exactly have an open conversation in front of Alex now can we, also I'm pretty sure she's gonna escape that building anyways." "...Yea, that actually makes sense."

A dull thud behind them announced the arrival of the third member of this mission, who took the moment to dust himself off. "Did you find something?" Raudd asked as he tossed the man a wrapped burger thingie. "Well yes. I took a little peek through the window and I can tell for sure that she's dual natured. However there is a problem, her astral form is wounded." "Wounded?" "Yes my lady, it's her eyes... It looks like her eyelids were torn off by something long ago."

"... That's a problem right?" "On a person uninitiated in the magic world, more than you can imagine. I don't think there even are any mages that would willingly have those eyes open all the time." "So how do you solve that, can it be healed? Or does she have to put her astral hands in front of her eyes every time she doesn't want to see?" "No that's redicul... Wait, that might be possible. Did you just have a good idea?" "Yeah, helps if you don't have your mind in the gutter all the time." A true statement which immediately resulted in a retaliatory jab from his sister.

An unmistakable crash of glass shattering then pierced through the sounds of ShieldTown followed by the crunch of something a little weighty and wooden being the loser on the second impact. "We got movement." "Well you were right." He said as he jumped onto one of the stags and rushed after Merllwyn who was tracking Yue's trace while running as fast as he could through the streets and alleys. His uncanny speed and acrobatics allowing him to easily pass through, over, and around even the most densely packed crowds, who needs ground when there's walls anyways.

With a considerable delay the three managed to follow the trail to it's owner. "All the way back to the edge, fuck." He exclaimed noting they were not that far away from where they had jumped the wall in the first place. Merllwyn was standing still as he looked at the two atop the rooftops, the hairs in his neck raised, his graceful posture lowered down to a fighting pose and low rumbling growling escaping his mouth. "What's wrong?" Raudd asked once again being annoyed at the magic bullshit he knew was happening, but simply lacked the tools to perceive. "I'm sorry my lady, there is something truly malevolent up there, and it's powerful. It's taking everything I have to maintain composure, I won't be able to go any further." "Could you make us a path up at least?" To which Merllwyn slowly nods with some uncertainty and a path of brambles begins to form.

"You wait for that, I'm going up." Raudd said as he ran off to parkour his way up the side of a nearby building, vaulting from narrow balconies up to the edge of the roof several times in his hurry nearly missing his jump he manages to beat his sister to the roof.

"You're not holding up well now are you? You're shaking like a leaf. I'm considered to be a good listener if you need to vent." Raudd said as he sat himself down next to Yue opposite of the 'dangerous creature' Merllwyn waned him about, but still within range to grab Yue should miss featherdress try something. Honestly she didn't look all that dangerous, little strangely dressed though... No wait, those weren't clothes, that's a whole different kind of dangerous. Better not look too much directly at her, and especially not with sis present.

The sizzle of burning tobacco preceded his presence, and though the space next to Zolya was vacant moments previously, Archer now occupied it. His breath billowed in a cloud of smoke and he flicked ash off the end of his cigarette with a dismissive gesture.

"Ayo... Would'ja look at that: all the people I'm looking for in a nice little bundle, what a coincidence," he noted, observing the scene developing at the top of the wall with a distinct lack of urgency. "You came all this way and didn't even stop to say 'hello.' I'm wounded, Freyja," he smirked at Zolya. "Merllwyn," he acknowledged.

"Y'all aren't planning to do anything silly now... are you?" He asked, his smirk widening into a grin as he stepped past her onto the brambles. He took a final drag on his cigarette and put it out between his fingers, stashing the stub with the others in his foil pouch. He made eye contact with the feathered woman as he exhaled, allowing a flash of Mana to escape his Suppression Seal and flicker through the eleven spell arrays tattooed on his person. Besides that momentary flicker, he didn't seem to disturb the Manascape at all, and his expression took a predatory air as he climbed the brambles towards the wall.

"Raudd?" Yue seemed to relax a little, though she didn't turn her head towards him. She seemed transfixed by the void in front of her... or terrified of what she might see if she turned her head. "I had a bad dream. I didn't remember where I was. I get night terrors so... I don't like to sleep," she explained, while flexing her fingers at her side. For a moment it looked like she might say more, but she just slowly exhaled instead.

"Hey, Babydoll," Archer called up softly. He stood at the edge of the ramp of brambles with his hands in his pockets, letting the growth carry him slowly across the last couple meters to the wall. Yue inhaled sharply, and for a moment it looked like she might break down on the spot.

"If I turn around and you're not r-real...," Yue stammered.

"It's safe, I promise."

There was a tangible pause before Yue swiveled on her heels and jumped the gap towards him. She embraced him in a bear hug and lifted him off the ground, burying her face in his chest, her muscles coiling as she squeezed him. He continued to smile, however, after a moment a strained groan began to escape him and the arrays on his body began to flicker with Mana in spite of the suppression as his barriers worked overtime against the pressure.

Jemma blinked slowly, watching as the familiar one was abruptly surrounded by OTHER familiar ones. And two new people.
They were people. Not ‘ones’. People. People… Hm. What were they saying? Why was it so hard—

The one with the… Cigarette! Was lethal. Uncomfortable. He had no space to him, and while he flashed his threat display— Was it a threat display? She couldn’t figure it out.
So instead, Jemma abruptly stood, stepping back a fair deal as she narrowed her focus on the tattooed man.
She watched in silence, as they all talked, embraced, and displayed their familiarities. The air twisted with their collected Astral Selves.

And again, like a fool, Jemma spoke again. Her eyes went sliding to the [CRIMSON KNIGHT]. “Why are your eyes broken? Why does your [CRIMSON] move like that? … It’s very distracting.”

All of this, spoken with the same air of simplicity that a child might tell an adult that the sky was blue, or that they were hungry.
She blinked again, and before any of them even answered, spoke again.
“Also, I am going to leave now. I do not wish to be assaulted again. Or to assault all of you again. So. Goodbye.”
Another two steps, wings flexing experimentally as she dropped down into a … Battle ready crouch. It was time to leave! Right? These were all former enemies. Right? Right.

Thinking was… Getting hard again.

While it was hardly unexpected that Archer would arrive to the scene, what with two of the biggest magical anomalies this side of the Undercity in one place, she still attempted to be mildly surprised by the cigarette smoke laden arrival of the mage. "Well you didn't stop by the Stoneworks so I was under the impression you were here for pleasure not business, and who am I to interrupt a night of fiery passion." Zolya retorts with a cheeky smile while giving the air a very intimate hug. "Child of Olympia." Merllwyn replied respectfully to the entity that had arrived.

Following the nonchalant mage up the brambles Zolya replied pulling the jar with a sample of Yue's haze out of her cloak "We leave the silly stuff to Olympia, they're the reason all of this got out of hand. Now that the genie is out of the bottle, we're making sure she gets the guidance she needs." Her words mostly directed at the organisation behind Archer than the man himself, knowing he didn't see entirely eye to eye on these matters with his higher-ups.

she then got to take a look at the 'malevolent entity' Merllwyn had gotten himself worked up about. Surface deep there wasn't that much wrong with the harpy, looking at things with another eye though... His concerns and Archers reaction weren't unfounded, and she subtly cast a little barrier spell on herself just in case.

"I can imagine, being forced to see that bullshit all the time, all the while they keep you in the dark. Kinda makes me glad I just can't see it, period." Raudd told her tensing his hand into a closed fist as a way to redirect the frustration he felt towards those who put her in this situation. In a way that made it a little more frustrating to hear Archer appear behind him, though probably also for the better. Any other Olympia member he might have punched in the face to vent those frustrations.

Raudd got up onto his feet when Yue jumped into Archer's arms and gave him a bearhug. "Easy now, if you keep squeezing him like that, you're gonna break him in two." A grin came over his face as he watched the reunion. Zolya on the other hand quietly stepped in and added a barrier of her own to help the poor man with pressure of the bearhug.

That was the moment when the harpy spoke up asking about the crimson moving around. A true blessing the creature likely wasn't even aware she'd just given, an unprompted confirmation that what you're seeing is in fact real. It then followed up with a tangent about being assaulted, and attacking them... Was it Archer that put it on edge or... Shapeshifter was what popped into Raudds mind seemingly finishing the blank his sister was drawing.

She quickly shook off the thoughts and used the momentum by answering the question. "Because that's what happens when you drop someone in a gilded cage with surveillance and pretend they are crazy when they are seeing things normal people shouldn't be able to see. Worst of all if the person in question has no way to shut it out without someone telling them how." She then turned to Archer. "So, are you gonna tell her, or will she go under my wing?" She said with a couple of the ravens taking it as their cue to land on the rooftop. Of course she knew the answer, but who knows he might actually surprise them.

Meanwhile attempting to be as non-threatening as a fairly large Viking can be Raudd put a few steps towards the creature and pulled a card out of his pocket. "Sounds like you have your own set of struggles, if you need help just follow the trail from this card. There are friendly people there that can help you." He said putting the card on the ground and sliding it the remaining distance to the creature. It might be the shapeshifter, but he had a gut feeling this behavior was genuine, which would have been one hell of a reformation if it was the shapeshifter.

Yue's eyes snapped open at the question. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled upright and she dropped Archer abruptly. He puffed dramatically and smoothed out his jacket while Yue gazed absently at her hands.

"Oh shit, I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed, blinking rapidly as she snapped back to her senses and started to fawn over Archer.

"Sssh," he smiled, silencing her with a finger. "Hold this," he instructed, pressing the keychain into her hand. She flustered for a moment but her fingers closed around it involuntarily, and she stared off into space with a concerned expression as he spun her around and pressed his hand between her shoulder blades.

The array hidden in her tattoo sparkled to life for a few moments before the [Crimson] seemed to dissipate, calming from the lively and angry coils to a thin and tranquil aura close to her skin, now scarcely noticeable. He sighed, waving a hand dismissively at the words of Zolya and the others.

"Okay what the fuck?!" Yue blurted out. "Is this real?! Am I dreaming? Is that what's happening here?!"

"Things are gonna get weird from here on, hon," he muttered as she turned around to face him. Archer took a breath and huffed, blowing a stray lock of hair out of his eyes. "I'll have you know, the request to keep her in the dark came from her family. I shan't be taking the blame for them wanting her to live a life free of the perils of our world. You put me in a difficult position, Freyja," he explained curtly, turning his head back towards Zolya.

"Not that I agree with the policy or anything, it's just not my place to say anything about it," he said with a sigh, his expression and posture relaxing. "Now that the proverbial cat is out of the bag so to speak (through no fault of my own I might add), however, it's probably better if the explanation comes from me," he admitted. "Why don't we find a place where we can chat comfortably and I'll explain everything... I just have something to take care of first, hon."

Archer stepped past Yue, and between Jemma and Raudd without explanation, the card Raudd had placed on the ground popped into the air and he caught it between two fingers. He stopped an arm's length away and held it out to Jemma casually, one hand in his pocket, his blue eyes gleaming with interest and amusement. Archer slid his fingers apart slightly to reveal two cards: the one Raudd had left, and a Tarot card labeled "7 - The Archer."

"I want to talk to you," he informed, bluntly. "Later. When you're feeling less... 'assaulty.' These people can be trusted," he explained, tilting his head towards Zolya and the others. "When you're ready, I'll come find you. My name is Artemis," he revealed. The name carried a different weight as he said it, resonating through the Astral Sea almost as though it invoked power just by utterance.

Umbri hunched beside the wall, her gun bobbing between actors on the scene she’d played witness to. The collapsing, headless prey and its demonic hunter. The hunter did not breathe. Umbri caught breath for the both of them...

The fight that had stood between her and death was an oddly quiet one. The monster growled and flailed against a completely silent opponent. The blows that landed on it held no weight, gliding through the thresher’s tough flesh that even a bullet could barely penetrate. Umbri’s eye couldn’t keep up to her defender. It was as though the monster were fighting a phantom. Her head jerked up as it landed on the wall above her. Green rings lit up from the shadows, revealing the vaguest outline of a demon’s face. Her body flinched in fear. Against all logical thought and reason the idle thought solidified - it is a phantom!

But phantoms weren’t made of the metal she now saw glinting in light. The hunter stood before her wearing sculpted, tight-fitting armor - no, those were synthetic muscles shifting underneath the red plates: he was a robot. She subconsciously looked for the brand or name of his make, the cyberware company he owed allegiance to, and came up with only the name: Temujin. She knew that name.

It was grumbled over games of poker she was privy to from her seat on the lap of a gangster. Said in hushed tones in the corners of Hysteria, usually accompanied with admiration or fear. His name had only recently been known among the Rogues of Northbridge, but the path the demon had cut through the settlement had been so bloody and ruthless it was known to every Northbridge citizen with even the slightest darkness to hide - that was everyone. Umbri didn’t know he was a robot. Then what corporation was behind him? Who had programmed him? Questions that would never be answered as he was shredded to pieces. A gruesome, bloodless death.

And she was back to the way she'd been, alone, but torn out of the peace she had made and the memories she’d held like her childhood blanket to ferry her into her final sleep. She wobbled up onto her feet, pushing herself upright with a hand on the wall. What a horrible, pointless way to go.

Whoosh.

Her back smacked against the wall with a gasp. Down tumbled the monster’s head. About as big as the one used as a BBQ pit at that satay shop in the markets. A fresh bounty of prime meat cuts Northbridge could only dream of followed it down.

Umbri was shaking and sweating a fever, looking like she’d gotten caught in a freezing rain. The nerves screaming "danger!" were not calming down and she couldn’t tell, as the aim of her gun switched between them, if it was from fear of the monster rising from the dead or if it was him. Her mind retraced her steps to a memory of fire.

Her gun lowered.

“There…”

She limped a step from the wall, further into the street light. Her make-up was melted, mascara running from her eyes and mixing with glitter, joining the state of her blue lipstick smear. The lingerie showed off every scrape and bruise she’d earned running. Even the pink jacket couldn’t hide her limp, overextended arm, nor her clear heels disguise the swelling of a broken ankle. She swallowed down the impulse to scream as she tried speaking again.

“There were two of...”

Words that almost faded as something took his attention above her. A dark coiled shape, rearing up. Segments lit up along its serpentine, almost aquatic body, red and neon green, starting from its tail and curving up to its mandibles. It lit up the street with its glow. Click click click click… It opened a fanged mouth, looking down, its entire body taut with the intent to strike. Its throat swelled up with a red hot glow.

“... them.”

The snake snapped forward, unleashing a cone of fire down at them.

Jemma twitched as she watched the Astral Scape shift and morph with this gathered assortment. First, the whirl and turn of Raudd's mood and thoughts. It smeared [CONFUSION] and [CALM-ASSES-MURDER?] into the milky cloud of static that [ENTROPY] created. Then, as if on the mightiest of breezes, [FRUSTRATION] speared through it all as the so called Artemis appeared. And after no small amount of response to their earlier, well, inopportune query... He turned to J3, [OH ITS YOU] rising into the air on a cloud of color. And then... His [AURA] shifted AGAIN.

Good god, he was always feeling that? There were SO MANY EMOTIONS, so many changes! What the fuck. Wait- He was talking again.
This was taking forever! Or... Maybe just a little bit. How long had it been? What was happening again? Struggles?

Struggling food? Struggling prey? Struggling Hunt? Hunt?- Wait. No. Focus. She could do this! The hunger wasn't worth it! Right!
Jemma blinked slowly, feeling the blooming sensation of relief settle in her throat. The buzzing had built up again, like a sickly insidious wave.
She had been reaching for the card on the ground, focused on just... Trying to keep it together, when all of a sudden.

There. In their face, far too close to the eyes and [The Eyes]. J-3 yanked back with a feral hiss, flinching away when it spoke in [POWER]. Something strong, in the shape of a man, made of [DEVOTION] like a concept made manifest and tangible. They were nothing to this!
It was just like her! Like THAT ONE!

[The one of Sun and Flame]. [HATE!]. [HATE], [HATE], [HATEANDHATEANDHATE]!
They needed to flee. They couldn't consume this one, this one was too big to consume.
They had to leave. Now. Fast.

J-3 leapt back, hissing again as [FEAR] and [BETRAYAL] and [knewit...] erupted through their ink-watery aura.
Back to the blonde one! Now! They had to go!
Or at least they had to know, they could always meet up somewhere else. Would only need to find a Rat.
'Rat guides the Templar' after all, right?

Fuck! Still there! Leave!

And so, they left. Cards forgotten and marked as signs of betrayal. Obviously. The [WHITE COAT EVIL MIND] ones always used cards, for everything.

Zolya watched with curiosity as Archer lit up the array, never hurt to observe how others weave their magic into the physical. The effect of the array were quite... Interesting. Using an array to reduce the signature by forcefully mixing the haze with the surrounding mana, hiding like water in the air. That was probably also what allowed him to go around unnoticed.

The keychain on the other hand was quite shoddy, no doubt a temporary fix for the haze problem. It was however properly attuned to her signature... Which wasn't a small feat.

The potential revelation was followed by a revelation of another kind from Yue, who after years of being in the dark had that same crumbling of the reality around her happening that Zolya herself had experienced an odd 20 years ago. A quite hard to swallow pill, but with the way things were it was bound to happen one day.

"I can understand wanting her to live free of those perils and we don't blame you, but if I hadn't been there to stand in between her and the entities that have expressed a direct interest in her. She would have gotten the talk from a real shady organisation before the sun even had set. Regardless of philosophy that isn't a sustainable situation if you need to keep them within reach 24/7." She retorted staying calm and mild mannered wanting to keep the organisations clashing philosophies out of the practical debate and more importantly wanting to keep things easy on Yue, or at least as easy as it was gonna be.

He then offered to make things even easier for Yue by taking it upon himself to do the explanations himself, suggesting they find themselves a comfortable spot to speak.

On Raudd side things weren't going too well, Jemma seemed to be having an increasingly hard time foccussing and he doubted that Archer stepping into the comfort zone of someone already in a defensive stance was going to improve things and of course he had to pull more of his patented magical bullshit. And indeed she had jumped back and hissed as a result of the rather inconsiderate actions, Raudd felt the entropy surrounding her rise as she got pushed more into a confused and panicked state after Archer dropped that name, before looking on as she fled without taking either card. "Zolya?" "On it." Her reply followed by a few of the ravens flying up and keeping an eye on Jemma by extending their patrol area fluidly to any desolate area she might escape to.

"Well anyways, I think most decent and discreet places to have your chat have closed for the night. Unless you're gonna teleport back into the tower, the best places are either at Zolya's or my place (I guess mine would be less distracting), as a bonus we have guest rooms you can crash in for the night." Raudd said as he picked his card back up making sure not to touch the card Archer had pulled out of his pocket.

"Oh, and here a little present." Zolya quickly grabbed the medallion out of her cloak holding it out to Yue. "It's a bit of a rushed job, but this should help with the crimson problem, and it was designed with your powers in mind so it should be quite resilient to damage." She explained keeping most of the information at bay leaving that for Archer to explain.