---

---

Life in UnderCity was harsh. It was a fact, not a theory.

Even in the more fortified areas, your safety was purchased with contribution and sometimes the labor was harder than homelessness. Still... people of all walks found a way to thrive. The gangs in particular. JAHANNAM, and Halcyon Horde at least had rules you could follow; guidelines, really. You did your best not to borrow from JAHANNAM if you had a choice, and as long as you paid your taxes and didn't cause trouble, the Horde would mostly leave you alone.

The more esoteric groups like the Cult of Flesh seemed to operate without rhyme or reason; and then there were the Rippers. Psychotically obsessed Chrome junkies that would stop at nothing to get their next augment. They were feared for their unique brutality. Rippers were like cockroaches armed with rockets and lasers, that became aggressive when the lights came on instead of scattering. Where there was one, many were like to be nearby and disturbing them was trouble. They were prone to infectious bursts of psychotic rage that spread through the group at large and lingered long after the stone that struck their nest was thrown.

Like a peculiar hive-mind: stirring up the Rippers in one part of the UnderCity often set off a chain reaction that enraged all the Rippers in the region. Which is why (as a general rule of thumb) you just didn't fuck with Rippers. Like many things, however, there were... exceptions.

"Help... help me..."

The Heap. An enormous scrapyard some distance northwest of ShieldTown. Over the years it'd mostly been picked clean but you could sometimes find an odd spare part, and it was still a rich source of scrap-metal for patches and repairs. It was becoming a more common Ripper haunt as they filtered in to hunt for materials to maintain their cybernetics. Crude as it may be, not everyone had a fully kitted Chrome shop or cryptosleep surgery tank.

"Hey. Hear that?"

"Hear what? Cochlear implant's on the fritz again. Can't hear shit," muttered Grimm, as he hefted a piece of rusted steel. The electric servos in his shoulder and forearm whined as he flung it behind him to sift for the next piece of scrap. "Nothin' here but rust and garbage since those whores at The Den moved in."

"Someone... help me..."

"Hoohohoho, Grimm! That's a pristine Vox Encoder if I ever heard one! Bet me right eye," Slurm's wet, phlegm rattled chuckle scraped over the husks of skeletal cars and warped beams. Implant rejection had hit Slurm particularly hard. Grimm's steel digits snapped around Slurm's collar, pulling him roughly off the pile he was skittering over and throwing him to the dirt. "What gives??

"No fresh picks in the Heap, Slurm... or did ya forget? Den sluts scooped it all. It's a honey pot," Grimm warned as he returned to the up ended semi-tractor he was digging through. "Leave it alone," he ordered.

"Fine," Slurm spat, as he scrambled to his feet and moved back to his spot sullenly. "It'S a hOnEy PoT, he sneered quietly under his breath. "Old man's been a Ripper so long he don't know the taste of honey from that nutrient slop he guzzles down." Slurm continued to mutter as he picked sullenly through the refuse while the siren call of a premium Vox Encoder drifted tantalizingly over the Heap.

Eventually Slurm couldn't stand it any longer and scuttled away quietly while Grimm was occupied, trusting the man's damaged cochlear implants to hide his departure. Grimm had a singular focus when it came to sifting the Heap, and had a knack for consistently finding a good pick, scarce as they were nowadays. He'd be busy in that truck cab for a while and probably wouldn't notice if Slurm snuck away to have a peek.

A peek wouldn't hurt, would it?

"I'm stuck... is anyone there?"

There it was... Slurm peered cautiously from behind what probably used to be a diesel station overhang. Laying there, pinned beneath the the door of an old shipping container that had fallen open. Had to be careful around those: they could fall open at any time and they were heavy as fuck. Amateur.

"Hello?" She called, causing Slurm to flinch. One of the buttons on his worn denim Ripper cut had brushed against the overhang. Bitch had real sensitive hearing if she heard that. "Is someone there?" She called, struggling to look around. Something fluttered and chirped above him. A bat? Huge colonies of the pests weren't uncommon in certain parts of UnderCity, but they didn't usually wander out this far. Whatever.

"And what do we have here?" Rasped Slurm as he prowled out from behind his cover on all fours towards the container.

"This door fell on me, I think my leg is broken are you here to help?"

"Help? Yeah... help myself to that shiny voice of yours," he cackled as he loped over, letting his phlegm-slicked tongue loll out like a hungry dog. He'd only crossed half the distance when something weighty gently struck his back. Odd... though it wasn't nearly enough impact to even throw him off course, he crumpled listlessly and only just managed to keep his tongue intact as his chin painfully struck pavement.

The slither and chitter of shifting metal rose around him as the pinned figure shifted. Another thump: against his shoulder. This time it was accompanied by a searing heat and his scream was only muffled by the fact that he could no longer manipulate his jaw. The acrid stench of sizzling flesh and melted plasteel racked his lungs, and his arm slid foot by foot towards the container as her body bent and contorted unnaturally. Bladed digits with far too many articulations reached out from under the door far too smoothly; alloy plates and synthetic muscle slithered up the frame to her wrist as she twisted herself effortlessly out from under the weight and almost seemed to reconstruct back to her feet.

His arm slid towards her again, dragged by some kind of robotic drone or creature, grasped by far too long digits connected by some thin, leather-like membrane. It turned its singular, glowing red optical sensor towards him as it moved and the staccato shower of light and sparks from the arc-torch which made up what should have been the creature's mouth seared his retinas. A set of long, spindly digits reached into his vision over each eye and dragged his eyelids open, pinning his head back with surprising force.

"My... what shiny eyes you have," she noted, her vox encoded voice devoid of emotion as she reached down and picked up his arm. The limb jerked and shuddered as the drone that had been carrying it burrowed aggressively into the shoulder, and a worn out joint brace clattered to the ground from beneath her cloak. The metal and fiber slithered unnaturally, forming and optimizing new connections, repurposing wiring harnesses and synth-muscle. Threads of light weaved into the limb as she jammed it into her empty shoulder socket. Tactile plates and haptic feedback sensors re-oriented as the hand was forcibly converted from left to right.

She flexed her new hand and shook out the stiffness. Her neck and face were a perfect blend of synth and flesh with no signs of inflammation or rejection, though her mandible seemed to be missing, and her lipless maxilla curled into the simulacrum of a fanged skull.

"Should have listened to your friend. He gives good advice," she informed coolly, dead violet eyes spearing him with loathing and disdain. She twisted her new wrist in her hand as if trying to soothe the chafing of freshly removed handcuffs. Violet reached into her cloak, and withdrew her eyeless black and red kitsune mask. She brushed a few strands of straight black hair out of her face with her new appendage before pressing the mask to her face. A bat unfurled from her torso as she strode towards him and thumped to the ground, almost allowing him to look up into her exposed ribcage.

Slurm's muffled screams echoed quietly over the Heap as it charged him aggressively.

---

"It's Grimm... Slurm's dumb ass fell for a honey pot and he got nabbed. Need more bodies at the Heap: Chiroptera is out hunting..."

The Black Iron crew murmured amongst each other, whispers of questions and curiosities rising amongst the crowd, until Graham let out two thunderous claps that silenced them all. “Alright! It’s time for you bozos to get brunch.” Graham shook a pointing finger. “I know most of y’all skipped breakfast, and I don’t want Riko to get on my ass for workin’ you like dogs!”

Koba signed to summarise, (“So, fuck off.”)

Groans and whoops alike scattered from the sea of black and orange they dispersed, leaving Jemma to enter beneath the roller door with Alex, Graham, and Koba.

Not the Cult’s fault then. Well at least there was that. Still didn’t detract from the shred of worry Alex wasn’t able to shake out of his mind. He couldn’t help but squint when Jemma poked her head back out and had a distinct lack of wings. The Eogue super parts of his brain already turning.

Well it looks like her wings are gone, so probably some kind of changer. Maybe a breaker? But she didn’t look vastly different so maybe she could just tuck them in really tightly? That would just make her a more extreme deviant right? We’re wings all she could do? Ugh, stop overthinking and save it. There was literally about to be time to ask questions. No need to speculate.

Not missing a beat, Alex matched in ahead of everyone else. He was going to get some form of answer out of this. Hopefully, there was a bit of hesitation at the notion of doing anything close to interrogation. “powering up” later in life was usually due to severe fight or flight situations that were more often traumatic. Pushing for the whole story might not be good for Jemma’s mental health right now, she did seem somewhat off. Not that he could really put his finger on what it was but the vibes were off somehow. Gut feelings had kept him alive this long. Not like he was going to start ignoring them now.

Alex removed his helmet when all three men were inside and the doors closed. Graham and Koba were some of many people in Shieldtown that knew Alex’s face already, though given that his secret identity was all but an open secret among the locals really didn’t make that too significant.
Clipping the helmet to his belt, Alex gave Jemma a more appraising look but still managed one of his friendly smiles. ” So, Should I expect Shieldtown to have another local Rogue in the future? I’m mostly kidding. But for real, what . . .” He paused, smile dropping as a look of concern grew across his face.

” What happened?” that was the million Clatter question of the hour. All encompassing and most likely exceedingly complicated. Cause when was anything simple these days? Alex felt like he could already feel the headache ready to slap him upside the head. And this was supposed to be a happy occasion. Being a paranoid Rogue was a curse most of the time.

---

“What happened?”
Oh. Well! That was a question and a half million, wasn’t it! Jemma tried not to feel the panic bubbling under her skin, tried not to display the horrid apathy coming to an abrupt halt. Like all of her was shocked and parsing the question.
‘What happened?’ He asked, simple as the sunrise. Simple as a heart beat!
Jemma sighed and shook her head, dredging up memories that felt both far away, and nearby. Foggy and defined.

“Right. What happened? Okay… okay. Uh… Hm. Well I was snatched up outta the graves by this lady who could set concrete on fire. I … Remember having all the oxygen in the area snuffed up and out by fire, which, y’know, makes breathing super hard. I think at some point I woke up,” She trailed off, thinking for a moment.
“Nah, yeah. I woke up at some point, bare as I was born, with this… I dunno, stone coffin? Around me. It was covered in like, Arabic mixed with Chinese mixed with fuckin Gaelic? I dunno. I couldn’t read it.”

Which, that was a lie. She could. Jemma understood every single letter of script written on that coffin. Understood her entire life- past, present, and bits of future- had been scored into the stone around her. The recollection still filled her with fear.

“There was this… I dunno, ink? I thought it was ferrofluid at first, cuz it kept spiking up at weird points— Anyways! This liquid was in the thing with me. It would light up every now at then, at little points, which is how I could see. At some point, I think I heard a door open?”
She took a breath. And continued, words becoming rushed as Jemma forced the rest of the story to fly from her lips.
“Then my skin was falling off, and so was my muscles, and my bones were melting and I couldn’t ‘die’ per se. I know I blacked out at some point but that may have just been because, and no don’t interrupt me!” She snapped at Graham, who’s mouth slammed shut. She continued, “That may have been because my brain finally melted away too. Did y’all know souls are apparently a real thing? Because I do. I do now. I could feel a part of me that is more and less get fuckin vaporized. Then I was… Awake but not. Again. There was this tank, right? Like a fish tank. But huge, holding me, but I wasn’t me. I was in this… Half awake state, trying to pull my thoughts back together.
Time got real weird for me. Still is! And it never used to be. I can’t focus! As easily, and I can… See… stuff, now.”

She sucked in a breath, pausing for a moment… Before sighing. She told them about three years spent in a state of fugue and utter terror. About experiments run by people in lab coats, about being observed by a thing that both was and wasn’t a person with ball-bearing-joints. Like a living doll.
Told them about the way her new eyes worked. The way her ‘body’ she cackled at the way Koba flinched at her calling it a ‘meat suit’ would just change at random. Ink boiling over her skin and changing everything about her.
Jemma told them about the woman of [SUN AND FIRE]. How she would be the one called when Jemma broke free at any point. Or misbehaved, depending on how bad she was being.
Told them the tale of her breaking free, months ago, starved for fuel. Told them about how she had eaten people and things. How some glowed brighter than others. How some tasted better than others.
How some had been powered, somewhat. How some had been Espers.

She recounted meeting Alex again, for the first time in years. Explained that her mind was so scattered and tattered that he only appeared as a meal so filling. Explained how she remembered being shook around and wrestled with. Explained how she had been hunting a woman who sounded eerily familiar to Yue.

Ink began swirling over her skin as she talked, turning her fingers into boney claws over twice as long. Her face shifted, her mouth and nose disappearing as eight additional eyes filled her face instead. Arranged in a ring around one larger ocular organ. All filled with varying amounts of pupils.
Her voice continued as ink whirled over her, returning her appearance to normal as she resolutely avoided Alex’ gaze.
“… and I met a blonde Templar yesterday, along with Rat. We were traveling buddies for a bit. I guess I liked her easily enough? I didn’t immediately wanna eat her. Or Rat. So. Yay? Anyways. I stumbled on your old house, and it was enough to freak me out. Had a whole mental breakdown as… Everything just… Slammed back into focus. I think people sent me to The Den? I woke up there, at least. Oh! And I don’t really ‘sleep’ anymore. So. That’s cool!” She chirped, finally ending her long ramble.
And feeling the pulse of panic racing through the entirety of her being.
What would they say now? Fuck. This was awful. Who decided communication needed to be a thing. Why couldn’t humans just never talk, that’d be great!
Oh. Koba just looked at her, guess she was talking out loud, hah!
FUCK.

"I agree Zolya is at fault, her design hid the fact that things were about to go haywire up until the point we no longer had time to avoid it." Raudd replied to Zolya's teasing making sure to do so at the exact moment she was stuffing her mouth with a potato cake she practically used as a spoon for the sauce. Her reaction was priceless as her tried to look angry at Raudd with her cheeks stuffed with food, bringing out a grin on Raudd's side.

Watching Yue wolf down her food was while satisfying a little bit concerning. Seemed like the girl had been missing a couple of meals over the course of the last day... Well, it was quite the hectic day to be sure, and it wasn't like they hadn't skipped lunch either.

Her question on the interactions of sword song with tinker made items made Zolya shift her focus from her plate towards Archer's answer, and even Raudd had to admit a minor amount of curiosity for what the man was about to tell them. However the explanation as he feared fell flat quite a bit, causing Raudd to gain a bit of glare from Zolya urging him to speak up.

After quickly swallowing the last bit of the poached egg Raudd obliged the request. "First of all, welcome to my world, tinkers, mages, heck in general powers are just bullshit. I put them into three categories, those that bend the laws of physics, those that break the laws of physics, and magic. Funnily enough that second category and the third look practically the same to me. So it might not be a stretch of the imagination that if something looks similar to magic some of it might be similar enough to interact with mana."

"And that's ignoring the fact that every human could make items which are magical to a very minor degree. Weapons forged through ritualistic methods, good luck charms crafted with care, heirloom items passed through the generations. Belief, tradition, and will, either during it's creation or during the lifetime of an object can make them gain a spark of magic, I don't see any reason why tinker made items should be excluded from that, when I've had a fair share of modern technological items screaming at me in ways that magic does." He finished quite dryly before cleaning scraping the last crumbs of potato and sauce from his bowl leaving Yue to stare into the void.

"I'd have to agree with Archer, it's best not to think too much about it all. In that way it's worse than quantum physics, at least there every answer only leads to five new unanswered questions."

Just after Yue snagged another handful of latkes from the plate Raudd bagged a load of them up and gave them to Archer. "They're even better after reheating. Just chuck them into the oven for a bit and they'll go even crunchier on the outside and fluffier on the inside." He mentioned with the assumption that Archer and Yue were gonna spend the next evening topside. The remainder of the potato cakes went plate and all into the fridge, good for a side dish later.

Meanwhile Zolya had already put on her cloak and grabbed her spellbook from her room, making herself busy to gather enough rides for them all. "Yue dear, do you know how to ride a horse?.. Actually I'm pretty sure keeping up with the stags on foot would barely be an exercise for you." She asked from just outside the door where four stags had decided to gather, and had begun dining on some of the overgrown vegetation.

You ever get that feeling... long car ride. Waiting in a place you can't get up, stretch, move around. Scratch it 'til you bleed, that bone-deep itch to move just won't go away. Can't sleep. Get up. Shake your legs. Stretch. Beat bruises into your thighs... it just... starts up again as soon as you settle.

That feeling was creeping up Yue's spine; settling into her neck and clawing at her shoulders. She splashed water on her face and smoothed out her hair. It really didn't help that it felt like there were far too many hands pressing cloyingly against her skin at all times in the Stoneworks, especially with the spike in...

Fuck it, we're just calling it 'Aether' from now on. Never gonna get it straight, and now we can talk freely about it to other Final Odyssey nerds.

If only she could just... close her eyes. Shut it all out.

Yue stared at the Silverscale Grimoire laying on the bed she had recently made while listening to Zolya distantly through the door. She was right... stretch her legs. Get away from all this... fucking HOVERING and fretting like she was going to explode at any moment.

Well...

She glared at the overgrowth outside her room's window. Had she really become so damaged that everyone had to bend over backwards to take care of her? Yue thumped her fist against the door frame... maybe a little too hard: it resonated through the walls of the manor. Right. Deep breaths.

"I'm... I need to clear my head," she called through the door. "Some light exercise sounds like a good idea now that you mention it. I'm gonna stretch my legs a little," she informed, to the immediate panicked rustling from the adjacent room.

"Yue," Archer called curtly, sliding into the hallway unsteadily while trying to pull a shirt over his wiry, but chiseled torso. "Yue, wait! Ah fuck," he muttered, lightly distressed as his eyes tracked the rapid thump of footfalls over the roof.

The metallic chime of the Barrier medallion echoed through windows, and the whole manor shuddered with the force of her launch. The tall grass, flowers, and trees groaned and swayed as they were buffeted by her turbulent wake. Archer huffed with an annoyed expression.

"Going out to 'stretch her legs a little' has a much different definition to the Parahuman Super-Athlete who travels miles in seconds and doesn't feel fatigue," he snipped, before Zolya could even turn the I-don't-see-what-the-issue is, let-the-girl-run expression on him. "At least she's headed East," he muttered after a second as he finished tucking his shirt in. "Can you keep an eye on her with your birds?" He asked, taking a deep breath. "I don't think I have any prepared summons that can keep up with her."

---

It was strange. The barrier cut through the air with hardly any friction, almost like it were impossibly smooth and the wind just... had nothing to grab hold of. It had actually thrown her off balance and nearly caused her to stumble for her first several steps. Combined with the lack of ailerons, stabilizers, and other control surfaces that were hidden in the crevices of her armor kind of made her feel like she was constantly falling. No invisible fingers clawing at every hard contour or flapping uncomfortably at the backs of her arms and neck, just sliding through like a an egg off an oil-slicked griddle.

The shock from each step which normally rattled in her knees without the Exo-Frame and the impact absorbing gel layer seemed to get effortlessly reflected away from her body. Granted, she could feel a great deal more turbulence in her wake, but its not like she could be subtle at this speed to begin with.

Her foot sank into the grassy earth, and she felt the ripple of kinetic force slap the ground as she pushed off. It rippled out, reverberating back and ripping up the soil like splashed water. She took a breath, feeling threads of [Silver] peel out, slip along her arms and even drape gently across her shoulders, thrumming with power against her skin.

When was the last time it felt like this... gentle authority? Like she had cut through the tangle of strings holding her down. Like the forces of the world bent the knee instead of fighting to restrain her. Thorns and vines had clawed at her heart so long that it just... felt normal.

Yue turned sharply as she splashed through the Stoneworks' barrier and pushed hard on the firmest purchase her foot could find. A familiar ripple of compression pressed against her, nearly knocking her body upright. Yue flared her arms unsteadily to create some drag at the top of her breath, and the barrier seemed to respond to her desire for stability by shaping channels to redirect the air. Appropriate levels of lift and drag were suddenly at her fingertips, and Yue flailed for a moment as the ground fell beneath her just a little more than she was expecting. The normal crackling roar which would flay her unprotected skin clean off no more than a gentle flutter in her ears.

The walls of ShieldTown were rushing up on her far too soon for her liking. It felt like she was trapped in a little sauce pot. The looming darkness stabbed through with artificial light, metal ceiling and distant cliff walls pressed in on her. She just wanted to cut loose. Scream and run for everything she was worth. It burned in the back of her lungs, and nearly knocked the breath out of her as she slid to a halt some distance outside the walls. Yue huffed, staring up into the billowing pillar of dust she had disturbed. A narrow, knife's edge of morning sunlight was cutting through it from the plate-gap above.

How far was it?

How silly would she feel if she could have escaped all this time and just... never tried?

What if it was just as easy as stepping outside and she could save Alex and the others from all the chaos and disruption her mere presence wrought?

What if she could just... go?

That . . . That was a lot. Finding out that your friend had been experimented on and all but totally killed in the process was not something that just easily sank in. Was Jemma still human anymore after all of this? With how fluid her form was and the lacking in wholeness of her mind it was hard to say for sure. Three years, Three fucking years of his friend being treated like some lab rat. Alex endeavored to be calm and reasonable. But right now, it was turning out to be very difficult. Gauntleted fists creaked under his tightening grip.

He wasn’t aware of the flickering in his eyes. While the normal blue light was still there, it suddenly became a crimson red, then a vibrant emerald, only to turn back to blue just as quick. That’s when Alex started pacing. He was like a restless tiger in a cage. ”I want to hurt something right now.” there was a dangerously cold edge to his voice. An attempt to keep the seething anger he was feeling from spilling out.

Somebody had to fucking pay for this. The tidbit Jemma mentioned about being shook around made Alex realize that the talking monster that had attacked Yue a bit ago had in fact been Jemma this entire time. Alex stopped dead in his tracks, not really looking Jemma in the eyes before making a very apologetic face. “Oh . . . Oh crap. I threatened to eat you a bit ago.”

Not really sure what to say, he let that awkward realization hang in the air. It was almost enough to cool his anger and frustration. Up until Alex processed that there was already a second Templar down in the undercity. His eyes flicked between those three colored again and the pacing resumed. This was his life now. Everything was going all over the place and he just wanted to hit something already! Something simpler that wasn’t all this . . . Whatever this was. None of the rogues were going to be happy about this. It was a miracle at this point of Halcyon didn’t already know what was going on.

One thought repeated in Alex’s mind despite it all.

A gust of wind tugged at Máire’s hood as the Stoneworks came into view, a mature Nordic manor drowned in green. Rat scampered past her at the sight, his movement tousling her cloak the other way.

“Look-see Knife-Lady! Stoneworks, Stoneworks, arrived at last! Rat has guided safely, he said he would! Shortcut worked Knife-Lady, shortcut worked!” He jabbered erratically as he scurried to the safety of the cairn-stones, looping back to run circles around Máire once then twice as she followed after him.

”Of course, of course,” she acquiesced with a sigh. Máire refrained from commenting on the Ripper nest Rat’s “shortcut” had led them through, stretching what should’ve been a 2 hour trip well into the mid-morning.

Rat skittered up to the edge of the cairn stones, snout sniffing in the air for a moment as he adjusted the strap holding the sword to his back. His eyes darted to and fro, searching the air above the manor for something. Máire came to stand next to him, following his irregular gaze skyward. Birds? She heard fluttering wingbeats and raucous cries, but saw nothing.

Rat flinched suddenly, letting out a yelp and stumbling backward. ”No! Wrong, wrong, wrong!” he spluttered, waving his arms plaintively at something around him. ”Rat is not enemy-foe-adversary! Rat is friend to Erlings! Rat has prowess with the blade! Rat delivers for Fred!” He shrieked again, diving down to cover his head. Máire could swear she felt something go whipping past her.

A sling of blades whipped through the air, forming a curtain around her or Rat. Máire had no idea what was going on, but it was clear Rat was under attack. The man was nervous, but he hadn’t given her cause to expect an episode like this. He peeked one eye open, and then bulged at the sight of Máire’s swords, scrambling to pull free the one strapped to his back. ”R-Rat has prowess-”

”No,” Máire commanded, cutting him off. A longsword had manifested itself in her hand. ”Stay inside the perimeter. I can’t see what’s attacking you, so you need to be my eyes.”

Rat blustered as he tried to formulate a response, neck on a swivel as he looked from Máire to the sky and back. Máire felt a rush of wind cutting dangerously close to her face, the sensation of talons and feathers brushing the end of her nose. ”Rat!”

”L-Left! Left” he shrieked, pointing through Máire’s barricade. There was no hesitation. Her arm guided her blade in a ballet-clean arc from ground to sky, feeling it pass through something that wasn’t quite physical but was unmistakably there.

And in an instant the scene around them changed. A flock of galaxy-painted ravens swarmed the air around them like enraged hornets, dive-bombing the pair and filling the sky with shrill, vicious insults.

”TRESPASSER!!”

”VOID-BRINGER!!

”DEMON-CALLER!!”

”No! No! No!”Rat protested frantically. ”Rat works under duress! Templar comes seeking friend, Rat doesn’t call anyone here! Rat delivers for Fred!”

”Enough,” Máire ordered, raising her free hand lightly to silence her guide. The swords around him doubled themselves, angling themselves upward at the mobbing birds. One drew too close, and she cut it in half with a flick of her wrist. ”They aren’t interested in listening.”

Umbri splashed her face, wiping off the cold sweats and an odd feeling. Being alone for the first time since... it must have been since she was last at her apartment, making the decision to run back towards the monster - it was sobering. She shook a tube of eyeliner and leaned in to apply it, striking a thick black line out to her temple. As she dotted highlighter on her nose and outlined her lips, she would pause occasionally, to make a face. She coloured her lips in glossy blue. She checked how she looked when crying.

She didn't find any kind of satisfaction with herself before she forced her focus on the stinger. She ran it under water, deshelling it from the crust of gore on its point. She sniffed. The water sprayed violently on the edge of the sink. As she pulled her hand back from under the stream, it was trembling just as fiercely.

She shuddered and leaned back, propping her elbows on the sink's rim as she lengthened her back out. She didn't want to, but she thought of the snake. The sound of its roar right next to her ear. The resistance that shot up her arms as her axe bit into its tail. But mostly the terror. The feeling of being hunted still gripped her body, terrorized by both monster and machine. It wasn't going to pass anytime soon. Not unlike the sudden burn in her throat -

"Bleughhh! Huhk...! Ough.. bleh... pah... ah... ah..." A completely undignified string of splutters and groans accompanied the splashing in the sink. She came out the other end shaking and whimpering. A puddle of glowing sick confronted her at the bottom of the basin. She looked up. Strands of it hung from her lips, and lightning bolts of the radioactive sludge throbbed underneath her skin, creeping in around her temples and cheeks. Her vision blurred, tinged with the same green.

The light overhead flickered for a second. When it came back, a visitor joined her reflection. Stabby the Zombie Rat, standing right behind her. She didn't flinch. She hunched over the sink and stared. Goo dripped from their snout not dissimilar to her own.

This was it. This would kill her, or she would mutate.

Both were bad. Maybe neither had to be. Maybe this Freya would get here in time. Maybe she'd poke her a bit then call another friend. Or maybe...

Her eyes slid to a pair of identical vials she'd set on the other side of the sink.

---

She didn’t have the time to process what she saw before Shanks jumped. The moment his feet left the carriage, everything flipped. Umbri’s sense of gravity lifted and took her stomach on a ride. They were drawn down, headfirst. Then they passed into the other carriage. Down was up again. His boots slammed down on the floor and Umbri was thrown down with the safe. It toppled, bursting open, and Umbri’s double vision settled onto two shimmering vials that rolled free within arm's reach.

Yue just taking off like a rocket was quite unexpected, the rocking on the house even more so. Exercise is quite a good way to clear ones head... However something nagging in the back of Zolya's mind reminded her that only works if they can feel tired... Pretty sure it was Raudd's voice too, which made it twice as annoying.

At least the flash of the Greek sculpting desperately trying to dress up in a hurry was a good distraction from the annoyance. Of course he had to destroy that mood, not only with covering up, but also opening his mouth with a very much blaming tone. With similar sentiments as the nuisance noise within her mind, proving to even be powerful enough to involuntarily shifting her facial expression to one screaming Duh-are-you-dumb-or-something? For a moment when asked to keep an eye on yue with her birds. "Sweetie, we both know they aren't fast enough to keep up. But yes, they will be keeping an eye on her." She says her expression plastered with a cheeky grin as she approaches the now dressed Renaissance art piece. "After all neither of you can take a breath within the Undercity without the ravens knowing it. That includes exposing that lean cut of meat..." She continues as she walks straight into Archers comfort zone, running her hand over Archers chest with barely a hairs width of air maintaining non-contact and leaning in real close to deliver a last line "And I don't mind a little extra equipment." whispering it right into his ear while grinning ear to ear, only to pull back right after and step away.

"Anyways, it would seem my attention is needed elsewhere. I've got a little situation that appears to have riled up quite a few of my flock that I'll have to deal with. Both of you go ahead and I'll make sure the ravens guide you towards Yue." With her quota of making other people deeply uncomfortable filled... Temporarily... She walked out the door taking one of the collected stags and having it traverse her through the wilderness that the mana cascade had created.

"I am so sorry she did that crap to you, she really picked up the worst character traits alongside her magic." Raudd apologized towards Archer for Zolya's little outburst before turning his attention back towards the situation at hand. A Super-Athlete with potentially super sonic capability and no ability to feel fatigue creep up on them going on a little jog, in the Undercity. What could not go wrong?

"We really gotta get a move on, I don't even wanna know what kind of mess she's stirring up right now." The words barely having left his mouth before he noticed himself walk-running towards the stags and mounting one himself. "Heading east you said?" He asked without really waiting for an answer as he turned his stag towards the general direction of ShieldTown finding what practically amounted to a bread crumb trail of ravens leading his way.

---

Outside of ShieldTown bathed in the slightest sliver of sunlight filtering down through the cracks of the plates she stood, soon to find three ravens descending on her position as she looked to the sky with questions, longing, worry, maybe regrets. They looked with curiosity, attempting to understand whether this human would try to fly, perhaps already having forgotten the long fall it took her to even get down here. One of them cawwed and shook it's head, taking off with a soundless clap of it's wings.

Wings that soon seemed to melt as it ascended through the pillar of sunlight. Growing smaller until there appeared to be no more wing to fly with sending the creature tumbling down to the earth below, landing with a thud in front of the human. It cawwed once more as it stood up, shook the dust off itself, and looked at the human trying to see if it had managed to understand.

Umbri held a vial up to the light. A jiggle, and the pearlescent fluid swirled, the shadow of a pill bobbing just under the surface. She had no idea what she was thinking when she stole it. "It'll stay with you forever. Most drugs only make you feel powerful. This one shows you what it's like to be a God." "GIFT is a blight on the streets! We need to destroy it all!" "GIFT being spread around down here feels like the biggest middle finger you could throw at the upper city you hate so much." All these voices shook around in her head like the pill in its bottle. She glanced back at the hallucination of Stabby-Rat trapped in the mirror. It panted, whole twisted form shuddering as it looked - through broken red goggles and one non-punctured eyeball - at the drug, daring her.

To do what? Put a drug distributed by the Mother of Monsters in her blood, to save her from the venom that came from one of the very own monsters he mothered? There wasn't any guarantee that the substance would unlock anything in her that would help. It was a roulette. Laser eyes or whatever that blue stuff was that Aegis had would not save her.

The truth was, she didn't steal it in that moment because she thought it was useful. She knew that miniscule chance it had to be useful now was barely worth considering. She was just -

A shriek cut through her transfixed state, coming from outside the workshop, not within it. She blinked. Stabby-Rat no longer shared her mirror, and the vial lost its tempting lustre. Umbri swept up both the vials and stashed them away in a rush.

---

The only thing Umbri had done about her 'naked' feeling was throw her jacket back over her bikini and thong and fix her asymmetric wig back to her scalp, before she walked back into the workshop on crutches. Temujin's corner was cut off from the rest of the workshop by a screen stretched between two poles, giving the armourless torso some semblance of privacy. Whatever a robot would need that for. Especially now, in this... unnervingly dead workshop. Everyone had been banging around in here just moments before, and now they were gathered in a black and orange blob outside.

"Did you offend them?"

"Everyday," Temujin answered without missing a beat. He looked up at Umbri. Her eyes were puffy and damp, with the whites nearly as red as her pupils. "What happened?" He asked, a tinge of emotion bleeding through his voice. He lowered his head, deepening the angle of his glare. "Did Aegis make you cry?"

Umbri's head whipped away from trying to figure out the commotion outside to look at him, baffled that the robot had it in him to be so astute or even care. "What? No," she snapped, then shook her head and glanced away, flinching. "No, I was- I was just working."

"What?!" He yelped. "There? In your current condition?" He did a double take down the corridor she came from.

"Holographic, remember? All of this made me miss a date so I had to tell my client not to kill himself."

Temujin stared. And stared. "Maybe he should just kill himself."

"Maybe. But I won't get paid for that." Her nonchalant air darkened with a sigh. "And he never will anyway. He gets off on it. Pretty woman sobbing on her knees for him."

"Huh," The ninja grunted. "That feels…" He sought the right word for a moment. "...Degrading." Temujin shook his head, wishing he had hands to wash the thoughts off him. He glanced up at her, his curiosity peeking over his disgust. "How do you deal with that?"

She shrugged. "It just piles on." Her crutches groaned as they carried her over to his table and she sat on the end of it. "In the meantime I put on a different wig and think of who I do it for." She caught her distorted reflection on the bench, the neon green invading her face. "I could die soon. Can we not talk about work?"

"Sure," he replied. Shit. His mind raced to search for topics, scrolling through the dialogue they had. Small talk was not his forte, unless it involved poetic justice and the flaying of one's enemies. "So Aegis didn't make you cry. But he didn't make you feel any better, either."

Umbri bobbed her head, musing, "Well I am dying. That's a hard ask for anybody."

He shrugged. "I do expect too much from paragons. They're supposed to turn water into booze and piss all-curing rainbows." Umbri responded with a half-hearted laugh. "But seriously. What do you think of Shieldtown's premiere superhero?"

She was quiet for a bit as she mulled it over. "For a settlement's 'Alpha Rogue'… he's a bit insecure, isn't he?"

Temujin tilted his head. "Is he? I hadn't noticed," he said, with a tone that beckoned elaboration.

"It's a woman thing, I suppose." Umbri squinted. "... You don't like him."

"What?!" Temujin shrieked. "That's… that's not true! Aegis has saved me plenty of times. Plenty!"

Her eyes crinkled with suspicion as her lips turned up. “So you do? I didn’t think you had it in you. But you still thought he made me cry, and tried to pry gossip from me, so…” She cocked her head. “Hm. You’re jealous.”

Temujin scoffed. The spirit hushed from his voice. "That's ridiculous, why would I be jealous of him?"

“I haven’t figured that part out yet,” she replied. “You’re both defenders of settlements. The Hero of Shieldtown, the Red Oni of Northbridge… just…” She thought of the chatter she overheard while first entering the workshop. The fangirlish way civilians gossiped about their great protector. “Does it bother you to be so feared in Northbridge, your vigilantism looked on like a bloody stain on our settlement, while Aegis is so loved and celebrated here?”

Temujin considered her words. Does it bother him? He was ready to shout his denials in an instant. "Fear is sharper than any blade. Fear keeps evil in its cage. Fear…" He stared straight into her with those pitch black eyes. "Fear… saves lives." Temujin glanced out the roller door, towards the town that prospered beneath its shining sun lamp. "Even here, the hope that binds the people only came forth out of fear for the monsters that plague its walls. Aegis inspires hope… but it is fear that keeps the peace."

Umbri shook her head at the end of his spiel. She’d been leaning back as she listened, and looked on him now with sympathy. “No. It just keeps people afraid.”

Something burst from a door in the workshop and crossed the floor to the entrance before they could continue their debate on philosophy. Umbri caught a flash of orange and brown. “...Can I ask for some privacy with them? I promise I’ll probably explain my shit later! To everyone, maybe. Just, not right now! Thanks!”

Three sets of heavy footfalls joined the scampering. Umbri froze up behind the screen. She looked at Temujin with urging eyes and lips that mouthed 'What's happening?' He looked back at her with a permanent scowl that could mouth no answers back. Conversation started. Conversation she had the prickling feeling that she shouldn't be privy to. But her mobility was hindered, and her crutches too loud, so she stayed planted. Rooted in place for the wildest conversation she'd ever eavesdropped.

A kidnapping. A murder. A ritual. (A giant fish tank? Unimportant.) A resurrection. A warden who controlled flames. Ink boiling under skin, cannibalism, Templars, Rats, holy shit, cannibalism. SOMEBODY BEHIND THE SCREEN HAD EATEN PEOPLE. She shared (or at least assumed to share) a bewildered look with Temujin all the while, until it became too much, and she had to peek around the screen at the owner of a mouth that had chewed human flesh.

A little woman, with a soft face and warm skin and thick coils of hair. Nothing like the monstrous figure she'd envisioned - what the fuck. A substance like black tar bubbled up on the woman's face, shifting her features around. From those black pools sprouted eyeballs, like meat floating to the top of a stew. Temujin could not see it. But the expression on Umbri's face demonstrated the horror quite sufficiently. She pulled away from her crack between the screen and the wall with a hand over her mouth.

“What? What is it?” Temujin asked her, fidgeting in his stand.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Anxiety rose up in her. Aegis seemed accepting of this creature with open arms and familiarity. Umbri had seen mutants in Northbridge - people who had been altered on a biological level as opposed to Chroming up - albeit less shifty than this one. Maybe she'd be more receptive to whatever the hell was going on if she hadn't just heard about all the people she'd eaten, and which ones tasted best. She shut her eyes and willed her heart down.

Thud... thud... thud.

An idea, hatching in the back of her mind and more hopeful than solid, was made clearer as she calmed down. Her hand slipped into her jacket pocket and brushed the tip of the stinger. She looked to Temujin and gestured her head past the screen. 'I'm going.'

“Hey!” Temujin hissed, containing his shouts in whispers. “HEY! Don’t you leave me too!”

Umbri raised a brow at the serial-killing Rogue's abandonment issues. 'Ok, ok!' She placated him and looked back at the screen. She wanted to go, she didn't want to leave him behind. With a thrust of her hand, she pushed it over.

Thud.

The barrier between her, Temujin, and the secret meeting flopped down. She swallowed and tried not to look guilty. She knew her condition was visually one hell of a lot worse. Leaving her room might not have been appreciated, let alone eavesdropping. She lifted her hands from the grips of her crutches in a show of submission, following her first instinct to quell the erratic cannibal. She nodded towards their three companions. "It's ok. They know me. And I'm in no..." she huffed and strained herself as she hobbled over the screen. Cold sweat dribbled off her chin. "Mmgh, position to do you harm. Nobody's..." a wince, "Going to eat anybody."

Hot pink bangs framed a tired glare. "You're a shapeshifter," she stated. Not a question. She'd understood that much from her story. The only question that mattered to her was how far the woman's abilities went.

"Can you show me?"

Archer took a deep breath, forcing his shoulders to uncoil. It wasn't fair for him to snip at Zolya on account of Yue being difficult. He'd only just caught up with her and now she was running off again. It wasn't even that he thought she couldn't handle herself: it was about the unintentional chaos she might cause and the... other elements whose attention she might attract.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I-," 'shouldn't have lashed out like that,' was what he was going to say before Zolya interrupted by suddenly invading his personal space. Her fingers traced the surface of the expensive linen dress shirt he'd manhandled over his frame which was only slightly rumpled from the previous day's wear. His gaze first traced the path of her touch while his eyebrows crested his hairline, and then clear ocean blue's flicked up to meet her olive green eyes as she brushed past. He couldn't suppress the swirl of luminous emotion in them, nor the rather brilliant flush of his cheeks and the involuntary silly grin that curled at the corners of his mouth.

Deja-Vu.

"If she keeps talking to me like that, your wish to marry into the family might get realized sooner than you think," he grinned, clucking his tongue at Raudd. "East, towards Shieldtown. At least she's speed-limited without her suit, unless-," 'that barrier can protect her from some serious air-resistance,' was what he was going to say before the sharp *CLAP* of an over-pressure wave rolling over the building interrupted him. His eyes darted to meet Raudd's.

"Is that where the Aegis went? What the hell kind of artifact did you guys give her?" He muttered as he focused in on Yue's signature. "She's moving North now?" He informed, while trying to figure out what could be in that area that would have attracted her attention.

---

Yue blinked, eyes following the ravens and their display... or warning. For a moment her head swirled before she remembered that yes, indeed, magic was real, and that these creatures belonged to Zolya. She sighed heavily, gnawing the inside right corner of her lower lip in thought. They were probably right: vertical velocity was hard. She couldn't fly or generate the constant thrust required to fight against gravity.

There would have to be sturdy footholds for her to push off of. She didn't think she could develop acute enough control over the shape of the barrier in the handful of seconds it would take to reach the crater wall to glide for any sort of distance.

"So, what then? Give up?" She muttered, more to herself than the birds as her gaze traced the plate-gap to the crater wall some miles in the distance. Yue rolled the medallion in her palm over and over, pausing to squeeze its sharp corners against the inside fold of her knuckles after each flip.

That anxious vibration, the restless urge to move coiled around her neck, causing her to roll her roll her shoulders involuntarily. One of them cracked in protest. She could feel the individual muscle fibers behind her knees screaming as they twitched. An individual mote of dust that had been suspended in the light in front of her came into focus as a thread of luminous [Silver] waved lazily across her gaze.

"Don't think I can let this one go, friend," she informed as she stepped North with a purpose.

Threads of [Silver] peeled out of her chest wildly as she took a deep breath. She tried to recall Zolya's lesson on directing and allowing Aether to flow through her body, though... she found her [Silver] threads didn't wish to move that way. When she tried, they often got stuck part way, or tugged awkwardly against her skin.

Don't force it... what did it do naturally? Her head tilted as she remembered observing the threads crawling up the manor's cairn stone. Her Aether wasn't fluid like Zolya's or Archer's, and it only flowed when she was touching something. Yue turned the medallion up in her palm, watching her threads of Aether stitch themselves into the engravings, naturally laying in complementary support as it formed braids and lattices around what she guessed were the most important structures of the array. The occasional bolt of [Crimson] would arc down her forearm and thrum against the array, usually chasing a spike of frustration or irritation that this Aether thing just wouldn't do what she was asking it to.

She exhaled gently, rolling into a new breath. Keeping a lid on all that inner turmoil was gonna be a thing, wasn't it?

Yue closed her eyes as she walked, trusting the near imperceptible caramel glow from the Earth below her to keep her feet steady. She imagined thread twisting into twine, weaving into braided ropes against her skin and pulsing into the medallion. She didn't have to open her eyes to see the [Silver] complying slowly. Her eyes snapped open to that familiar tension in her irises. She was tuned in enough to feel her pupils stretching. Her hand closed tightly on the medallion at the top of her breath, and she found herself coiled to pounce.

Right. Clear my head. Don't think too hard about it. Just do what feels natural, the Aether will fill in the rest.

Her foot sank inches into the Earth before it started to push back, and her chest slammed into that familiar wall of pressure. She was ready for it this time, ducking her head into it. She imagined creating down-force like her suit would to counteract the strong lift, and the barrier seemed to comply as she angled her body into as flat of a profile as she could while retaining her balance. Clouds of vapor roared over the contours of her shoulders, roiling over her spine as the barrier formed a sharp spike just slightly ahead of her, reinforced with a lattice of [Silver] Aether.

Yue pushed, feeling her foot skip across the broken concrete before achieving friction. She lurched forward, punching through the pressure as a violent cone of white vapor roiled around her waist and thrashed against her thigh as she forced her knee up to her chest.

She streaked across the bleak empty outside of ShieldTown as a plume of curling dust ripping savagely across the landscape, punctuated by periodic explosions of dirt and debris as she skipped across the ground. Long trails of vapor streamed intermittently from her fingertips as she made minor attitude adjustments between steps.

The downforce eased only slightly as the slope of the crater began to increase sharply, and her steps became taller and taller leaps. Finally, for a fraction of a fraction of a second, she was perched on the peak of the sturdiest boulder she could pick out on her approach. It shattered beneath her as she rocketed upwards along the crater wall, her eyes flicking back and forth rapidly to pick out footholds and the barrier angled so that she was nearly crushed against the cliff face by the downforce.

The morning sky, which had just been a brilliant thread moments ago was rapidly expanding to fill her vision. If she could just stay super-sonic past the half way point she should have enough inertia to clear the surface... Yue braced herself for a final push, angling towards what looked like a shallow overhang she could get traction on, though her breath stuck in her throat when she reached it. A trick of the light against the weathering of the rock made it look like there was more to grasp than there was. A quick scan told her there wasn't any other anchor within reach that would allow her to keep her inertia, so she had to commit: there was no aborting at this stage.

Yue's foot slipped and she wobbled unsteadily for a moment, and the momentary lapse of concentration caused the braided lattice of [Silver] threads to buckle and unravel. The barrier lost its curated shape, and she skittered across the cliff face as she tried to re-shape it. Streaks of vapor shrieked over her wildly as the shock cone closed in over her shoulders and she was slammed into the cliff face by the shockwaves. The breath was knocked from her lungs and the medallion spun from her fingers.

She managed to protect her face with her arm, hot sparks dragging along her skin as the lattice of Aetheric threads rapidly unraveled. She pushed away from the wall before any serious injury was sustained. The sharp corners of the medallion dug into her palm as she reached out and grabbed it just before it spun out of reach. The damage was done: she was bleeding speed rapidly, and flailed awkwardly as she hit the apex of her ascent. Her fingertips only just brushed against the corner of the plate ceiling before she started falling.

Yue managed to control her descent by angling the barrier to keep herself pressed against the cliff face and sliding down. Towards the bottom where it became rockier she pushed away from the wall and skipped unsteadily across the rocks until she slammed hard into the dirt, sliding the rest of the way. She stared at the sky through the distant plate gap for a long minute before she pushed herself slowly to her feet and began walking at a normal pace towards ShieldTown... she needed a minute to catch her breath after that.

---

"Hey Dean... are there any Rogues on your roster that can go super-sonic?"

"No... Silver Fang is our guest, though. She could."

"Our surfacer is Silver Fang?? Fuck. She's making a run at the Plate Gap."

"Hah. It was never a question of 'IF' she would try, only 'WHEN.' Easy money."

"I'm flush from the Scarhide bet. 50 she makes it."

"Actually the minimum bet on that pool is-"

"Well, raise it 50!"

"Oooooh! That looked painful..."
"Oooooh! That looked painful..."

"... Fuck."

---

It wasn’t so much that the sudden reveal of a… Whoa. That sure was a skimpily clad lady alright. And hey! There’s that—
Fury burst into existence at the sight of Temujin. All of her- admittedly short- focus snapped away from the incredibly horribly terrifically awful conversation she was in, and instead on the travesty of, “What the FUCK happened to you?! Who did this?! What the hell? And no one’s helped you yet? Jesus! Guys c’mon!”

Jemma snapped, anger boiling in the back of her skull as the more… apathetic, part of her person reared up. It smothered the emotions, allowing her to focus just a bit better. The woman next to the demon who cleaved her?! Looked just as horrible as he did. But that was beyond the point. He clearly needed help, and they stopped helping him… to… gawk at her? She could’ve waited!

Her head whipped back around to glare at Koba and Graham, temporarily ignoring Alex for a second. “Y’don’t leave a fuckin fixin’ MID SURGERY! That’s SO BAD FOR LITERALLY ANYONE!”
Woof. Okay! Okay. Reign that in. Alex is glitching out with his color lights, which is unusual. Split attention… split…
Oh. Oh she knows! Easy! And crutch-girl McNoShame just asked her to shapeshift no less! Ignoring that she seems convinced that Jemma WANTS to eat people. Rude! She doesn’t! Ever again. Please god.

Jemma flashed her a smile, all sharp teeth and ‘okay, but you asked for it.’ As ink swelled over her entire body. Flesh and blood and bone vanished under a tidal wave of pitch, as new body leaned away from the first. Muscle and bone slapped against the floor of the workshop angrily, as ten writhing appendages sprouted from Jemma’s thighs. Her knees and below had vanished, instead giving way to a collection of furred, vaguely spiny, tentacles. Each was about three meters in length, and about sixty six centimeters at the ‘thigh’ in thickness. They tapered to chitinous points, and the ink still swirled.

Her upper half changed as well, as the jumpsuit slipped to the ground, soaked in the pitch. Her arms went from two, to four, and tapered into chitinous protected tips, not unlike her new ‘legs’. The torso was mostly unchanged, save for the keratin plates that now served as armor. Her hair lengthened, filling with bio-luminescent light, and her eyes multiplied to a total of six. Two where one would expect them, another two on her clavicle, and a final pair in the palms of her new arms. Her freckled face, something she’d never had before, went from ‘freckles’ to ‘heat sensitive pits’. And from the top and sides of her head sprouted a quartet crown of branching antlers.

She turned to Alex, then, focusing hard as she overlaid her voice with as much [MANA] as she dared use in the presence of all these faces. “Hey! Hey. I dunno what’s going on in your head, but you gotta chill, o’RGB man of adoration. I’m here. I’m fine. Stop pacing like a tiger. You’re pushing… It’s pushing at my ‘gotta face it or run’ button, okay? Just take some deep breaths sweetheart.” Jemma barked, smoothing her tone out to familial gentleness towards the end.
She turned, looking away from him as she slithered closer to both Temujin and his unfortunate… Room… Guest? On crutches? What the fuck was going on with her face and neck? Hm. Not good! Maybe some sort of rejection? Wait. Focus! Focus.

Ink pulsed once more, centering around her head as some internal changes rippled forth. Focusing on multiple things was easier, and her astral eyes finally turned away from where her mundane eyes were looking. Of a sort. She could see all of them, in the room, and their imprints on the [MANASCAPE].
The woman was afraid, of a sort. More like… coldly determined and probably definitely delirious!
Interesting!

“So I dunno how much of that you heard, but I’m gonna assume mostly all of it. Please don’t repeat it to anyone? … Also, I showed you mine! Whatcha want from it?” Jemma said, clinical at first, and then rapidly devolving into ‘hyper murder puppy-octopus-monster’. Her face split into a small smile, revealing teeth like needles, from which dripped an amber tinted saliva. Venom, not meant to kill— Not unless she had to— but to incapacitate and immobilize. Some neurological paralytics, some physiological muscle relaxants… Yeah, yeah that’d be fine! Ignore the feeling of Koba and Graham staring at her like a crazy woman! It’s fiiiiine it’s fine it’s fine!
Push the panic-FURY-WolfBorneProtectionPolicy-confusion down. Focus!

Focus. Two things were happening, and both were important, huh? Shit.
Focus.
Oh, and clarify.

“Also! I didn’t want to eat anyone, ever, thank you VERY much! I ain’t gonna eat you, and I ain’t gonna eat anyone EVER AGAIN! Never happening!” She chirped, shouting at some points. Anger rolled along the edges of her skin, before fading into a bout of intense self-consciousness.
The emotional whiplash left Jemma’s mind spinning for a moment. She was still struggling with this new… extreme bouts of emotional dysregulation. Shit.
She had to get a better handle on that.

(Jemma’s) head whipped back around to glare at Koba and Graham, temporarily ignoring Alex for a second. “Y’don’t leave a fuckin fixin’ MID SURGERY! That’s SO BAD FOR LITERALLY ANYONE!”

Koba and Graham shrunk, the latter scratching his head sheepishly with his toes. For someone so small, Jemma had a voice like thunder.

Temujin watched as Jemma's form roiled and twisted before him. She grew and twisted and shifted from form to form, shape to shape, embodying aspects of a myriad different creatures. It was like a fever dream, or at least, how he understood what fever dreams to be.

"What… what the hell?" Temujin's sensors honed in on her. His eyes saw what they needed. But his ears… they dug deep beneath the surface. And found more than they bargained for. "Oh, FUCK!" A whirlpool, a death-rattling choir, a thousand pages turned and ripped, blended in a ghastly cocktail that overwhelmed his sensors with static.

"Hey- Hey, Sex Worker! GET AWAY FROM THAT THING!" Temujin screamed and flailed his useless stumps, quietly realising that he had never asked for her name. "These readings… I know them." There was a seeth to his voice. He cross-referenced the data with a recent encounter. 90% match. "I fought this aberration outside the Stoneworks. It's dangerous, unstable, and should be contained!" He declared, directing that last part towards Alex.

Umbri breathed heavily as she gazed back into the woman's many eyes. The shift she'd gone through was everything she had felt to expect yet absolutely incomprehensible all at once. She stretched over her. Umbri flicked her eyes to her mouth and the needle-like fangs within it, subconsciously. The feeling of being in the position of prey was inescapable, no matter the woman's assurance that she was not.

Temujin's warning pulled her back. But despite the knowledge that he'd encountered the shifter before, there wasn't anything else Umbri didn't know from just looking at her. Dangerous. Unstable. Should be in containment. The way she was kept by the fire warden? She shook her head in a sudden jerk, banishing Temujin's assertions.

"Temujin, for once, can you not run your mouth?!" She barked at him, not taking her eyes off the predator. The idiot was going to send the shifter spiraling if he kept rambling. She sucked in a thin breath, not completely believing the words she muttered out, "You heard her. She doesn't want to eat people anymore."

"I don't trust it! The risk is too great. What's not to say it will change its mind and-"

"TEM!"

She exploded. She glared over her shoulder, her eyes wide and showing their whites, their desperate and furious message unmistakable - Do. Not. FUCK. This. For. Me.

Temujin hung his head, his mask glowering with quiet, yet begrudging submission. Umbri composed herself as she turned back. Her fingers wrapped around the integral piece to her plan. It was a long shot. About a thirty-feet longer... shot. One that she didn't even know if the shifter had the capabilities for. She tried not to place too much hope in it, but it was hard not to, when the plan involved approaching a giant, inky cannibal.

Some things just had to be worth it, or you'd lose your mind. Things like everything she had gone through to be here, putting her hope in the aberration.

Umbri took out the stinger and held it towards the shifter's face, taking care to turn the sharp point towards herself, like an offering, not a threat. The Thresher hissed in her ear, creeping closer and flicking out its tongue to taste her in the air, shivering and wet and huddled with the cyberninja in a puddle. Her will hardened.

"Can you turn into what this was?"

The chaos had been controlled. There had been Acceptable losses sure, but nothing that was a major setback. The Hydra for all its durability and endurance turned out to be much more valuable in death then it had ever been contained. A Core was already in the process of being completed from its recovered materials. It’s death at the hands of the Rogue and wayward Templar ultimately trivial in the grand scheme of things.

Life was rather cheep in the world of monsters and mutants. Worth measured far more strictly then in breaths taken and hearts beating. Just becomes something lived did not mean it had value on its own. The Cult and its Children understood this. Or at least, that’s what their “God” would hope.

Kiran Kingsley did not put much stock in people being so smart however. Even His own children had proved disappointments on more then one occasion. Still, everyone had proven their usefulness. Their current prize proof of their attempts to constantly please him.

Classical music echoed out from their current lab space. A rather somber rendition of “In the Hall of the Mountain King.” They always worked better with music.

A recording device buzzed to life. ”Esper experiment number seventy eight dash 1. Continued. Subject, the remains of one Rogue by the name of . . . Green Gunner.” their gloved hand ran across the face of a glass container that held the “mostly” dead head of said rogue currently suspended in some form of viscous fluid. Dozens of wires and tubing funneled into the head’s neck stump, more wiring and prongs had been embedded into the exposed grey matter.

Kiran typed away at their terminal, causing stimuli and chemical reactions to the brain which were quickly recorded in rapid succession. ”Subject shows no noticeable signs of mutation or other genetic anomalies. Stolen local records and documentation further confirm such information. Now listed in file subsection C.” Irritating. Years of tampering and trying to find some evidence of the psychic phenomenon to be exploited continued to come up short. Too many muscles pulled Kiran’s face into a scowl as some form of energy sparked off the head in its tank. While the equipment confirmed what stimuli had caused the reaction, it’s origin remained . . , inconclusive. Another dead end. ” correct Stimulation achieved. Root of psyching power remains inconclusive. Terminating current experiment, experiment seventy eight dash one . . . “ Kiran pulled their hands away from the console as a metal arm plucked the head’s jar from its mount with a hiss and rather satisfying pop. Said arm then placed the jar among many other heads, all labeled in a similar manner.

”-Inconclusive.” The recorder was shut off.

The feeling of time being wasted was always irritating. Part of him still wondered why he had ever bothered to waste the time and resources looking into Espers when he had Deviant powers literally in the palm of his hand. A distain for complacency perhaps. Or maybe a more predictable project to go back to to help keep his mania and unfocused work process somewhat predictable. He had contemplated this exact pattern of thinking more then once before. What was the definition of insanity again?

He allowed himself a bemused chuckle while exiting the lab. Creatures and faceless attendants stopped to pay silent reverence as he made his way down the pristine halls. Nobody daring to interrupt his stride.

Minutes later, They arrived at their destination.

level 8 - Alchemist Nightmare

Worker thralls went about their work almost mindlessly as Kiran inspected a few batches of their chemical concoctions. One figure however did approach. A hulking humanoid with limbs like tree trunks. Their pale flesh littered with scars and chemical burns. Their bald head was dominated by a mouthed gas mask of sorts, tubing ran from various apparatuses into said mask, pumping the massive man with a constant stream of chemicals and narcotics. ”Father! It is an honor and pleasure to see you again so soon. Production has returned to nominal levels and we expect this weeks shipments to go out within the next two hours.” the sound of pumping and gurgling, accompanied every breath of the looming humanoid.

Kiran grinned, showing rows of sharp teeth. ”Good news, finally! You never disappoint when it comes to production, do you Ord?” While he beamed at the good work of their son, something in the Chem-fiend’s demeanor seemed a touch nervous. Kiran squinted. ”Theres bad news I take it? Their tone made it more a demand for an answer then a simple question.

Ord, despite nearly being twice the size of their father, cowered at the sudden scrutiny. “T-There was an incident in the undercity. A robbery.” another sharp intake of breath as their father motioned for them to go on. “We have it on good word that it was one of the trains going through Northbridge.” a slow realization begane to grow across Kiran’s face. “A cell did a sweep of the scene . . . The GIFT is gone.”

Kiran Kingsley’s left eye twitched. Once. Twice. Three times. Their face began to twist, veins and muscles contorted in wretched ways. Everyone else ran, and Kiran screamed.
-

-

-

Flashes of an incident in the past came screaming into the forefront of Kiran Kingsley’s mind. An upstart. A would be Usurper. A damned thief. That one incident caused the knowledge of GIFT to become public, setting back years of hard work in nearly and Instant. And the damned fool still got himself killed in the end. After ALL the work, ALL the painstaking planing and paranoia, Kiran had his most prized of commodities stollen in transit. AGAIN.

What came next could be best described as a wave of emotion. As pure and incandescent as sunlight. Every monster, every mutant, every minuscule vermin, all coward in absolute terror. What rang out from the super complex could be felt by even the more sensitive of individuals, while others had a sudden case of goosebumps or spine chills.
In one, single moment, Kiran only knew one thing.

Ŗ̊͆͏̙͔̠̞̪̰aͦ̔ͣ̅̓͐ͦ̀͏̪̲̠͎̱̪̣gͯ͋ͩ͆̍̚҉̣̥̼̰̕e͎̹͍̭͇͕͇͇̹̊ͣͭ̊̊ͭ̈́̿

---

---

Yue checked over her arm and groped her face where prickles of numbness had cropped up to make sure everything was still there. Besides a scrape, a few nicks, and some road rash, she’d probably have (another) neat looking bruise from her collision with the cliff face. All things considered, it could have been worse.

She wondered if she’d done something to prevent herself from becoming a red smear on the wall in that instant where she hadn’t been protected by the medallion’s barrier. Something to meditate on later…

No doubt Archer was pulling his hair out, so rather than dwell on it, she brushed the dust off with a sigh and started back towards ShieldTown at a much more modest pace. After an uneventful run, she lazy-vaulted the North perimeter and slid down the interior wall. Alex’s place would be the obvious place to wait to be yelled at, and she knew it was vaguely located in the center of town.

Yue turned the medallion over and over in her hand as she walked, letting it sing in her ear while she mulled the events over in her head. If there had been one more foothold she probably would have had enough velocity to escape. Somehow she doubted the others would be amenable to her running loose without supervision around the perimeter of the crater and attempting to climb at all the plate gaps.

Didn’t mean she wasn’t going to suggest it, being a simple solution that didn’t need to inconvenience the lives of the others she’d been imposing on for… what felt like years now. It’d barely been a day, of course, but still. The thought that people were probably panicked over her disappearance weighed heavily on her. No doubt resources were being spent that didn’t need to be, and the Templar… well Sai, mainly, was probably turning the city upside down or concocting some ridiculous plan that involved far too many explosives.

Right. Focus on what we can control.

Yue blew out a sigh, coming out of her thoughts and pausing in an intersection. She squinted at all the buildings, turning in a slow circle and realizing she’d lost sight of the wall, and all these buildings kind of looked the same… to her at least.

"Fuck," she muttered. "I really do need adult supervision."

”Looking for somethin’, Miss?”

A young boy no older than twelve popped up by Yue’s elbow, gazing up with the backs of his hands resting on his hips. There was something… odd about him she couldn’t quite place. He looked like a normal enough kid, tan skin, dusty black hair, but something about looking at him made her eyes… sting. Like staring into a campfire. He tilted his head slightly, waiting for a response, before continuing on his own.

”I can help out if you need directions,” he commented, hopping out in front of her. ”I’m somethin’ of a guide, you see. People ‘round here call me Doll. You know the Rats? They’re good friends of mine.”

"Doll? Rats?" Was that some kind of gang? She squinted at the child for a long moment. "Um… Well…," she hesitated, not wanting to perpetuate the small-town stereotype that everyone knew everyone else. Since… surely that wasn’t the case, right?

"I’m meeting some friends? One of them is a huge…," she gestured vaguely, indicating someone extremely tall and wide.

”Oh, you’re looking for Aegis,” Doll interrupted before Yue could finish. ”Yeah, I know where he’s at.”

Because of course he does.

"O-oh," she stammered awkwardly. "Would you… be so kind?"

Doll stared at her for a moment, as though considering her request. A few seconds stretched toward the full minute mark, his silence lasting long enough to make Yue start feeling antsy. She was about to reconsider when he suddenly spun on his heel and started marching off. ”Sure thing!” he announced cheerfully. ”This way, Miss.” Yue exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

Doll led Yue confidently off the main thoroughfare, guiding her into the narrow twisting alleys of Shieldtown’s heart. He whistled as they walked, some silly jingle which sounded so familiar but Yue couldn’t quite place. It somehow resembled every commercial soundbite released in the last twenty years at once, but she couldn’t pick out any single riff that was quite like any of them. He occasionally cast his glance back over his shoulder, double checking that she hadn’t fallen out of step, but otherwise seemed to leave the woman to her own thoughts.

This was the part where normal people made small talk. ‘From around here? Lead people through sketchy, dark alleyways often?’ Though all she could really muster was a concerned "Hmmmmm," as they vanished into the labyrinth of poorly planned between-spaces that all looked alike.

Clearly… we’re about to be murdered.

Yue chased the suspicious thought with a pang of guilt. The kid couldn’t have breached double digits yet, and she’d faced down far more intimidating adversaries than a mischievous kid in an unfamiliar town… right? RIGHT?? Even still, she watched him as though he would disappear the moment she took her eyes off him.

Doll glanced back at her, as though sensing her eyes on him. He turned back forward for a moment, then after a beat spun on his heel to face her fully, never breaking pace as he continued walking backward. He studied her face for a long while, never bothering to check he wasn’t going to run into anything, turning corners and ducking under obstacles like he had a frame-perfect memory of where they all would be.

”You’re a lot prettier than I’d expect one of his friends to be,” he remarked, finally breaking his silence. ”Are you really friends?”

"Uh!" The things kids say. The question made her flinch, and though she fought against the urge her eyes flicked up and to the right for an instant as her cheeks flushed. "Well…? I suppose I haven’t really met him in person," she admitted. How did you explain online games to a kid who lives in a literal hole?

Doll blinked in a manner which could’ve been pity. ”Are you sure you aren’t being cat-fished?”

"Wh~!"

”Yeah, are you sure you aren’t being cat-fished?”

---

One more time, anger! Let’s see if you change when your button is pushed again!
Jemma flinched at the words coming from the torso with stumps. She wanted to address his, honestly, reasonable concerns about her mental state and the concrete-ness of her words… But he was being disrespectful, on a table, where people were treating him. For his stump limbs.
Yelling.
And flailing.
And he just called it a Thing. Just said it should be Contained.

Its’ voice rang like thunder in the small space, ink boiling away at the throat as it rose to its’ full height. Pupils exploded to consume its irises, turning the gaze from nearly human to distinctly shark-ish.
“I WILL NOT BE CONTAINED! You will NOT CONTAIN ME! NO ONE WILL CONTAIN ME AGAIN! NEVER.”
The voice, cacophonously loud, was distorted. The buzz of cicadas, torn by the howl of a coyote and the bellowing of a cow. It loomed, now. The body rising to put it’s skull at a solid eight feet off the ground.

“I. Am. No. Thing! I am Jemma! I am Dove. You will respect my existence, street-samurai. You encountered me at my closest to worst. Don’t you dare judge me on that alone.” The body growled. The voice was cold, devoid of affectation or inflection. And its stare was one that might have belonged to a crocodile. Reptilian and cold, with a basal fury that left all the blood in the body boiling.

J-3 loomed a bit more, ink seething under the skin as it desperately tried to reign the anger in. “I have not forgotten you either. Memories still burn, y’know? Now. I’m going to focus on the WOMAN who clearly needs help, like YOU. So please. Shut the fuck up.”

No! Be nice.
Calm exploded throughout the body, abrupt as a thunderclap in the desert. There was no reason to get at him! The lady already did that! Shit. Emotions were dumb, why did it eat them again? … Well, not just it, but-
Focus!

Jemma’s shark-black eyes turned away from Temujin, slowly. Instead, they focused on [FEAR-RESOLUTION-CAUTION-dontfuckthisforme-hopehopehope]. Black pools slowly filled with gold-green-grey. Pupils shrank, revealed colored irises.
She sighed, and let all the anger fade, let the bristling fur lay flat, the bared teeth hide behind closed lips, and lowered the protectively raised tentacles, tipped with newly made serrated claws. Woof. Okay. Focus…

Her eyes narrowed on the stinger offered to her, [ASTRAL EYES] noting… Well. It was coated in that potent miasma of something meant to cause harm. Venomous, and highly toxic at that. The ‘apathy’ part of her understood the barest details of what she was looking at, but to understand more? To become it? That would require… More.
Wait.
Oh! That’s what was causing this poor lady’s face to— Oh. Jemma abruptly understood, frowning deep and thoughtful as she took the stinger carefully.

“Right. I could, technically, become this… thing. But, this isn’t quite enough of a … Let’s call it a biological blueprint, yeah? For me to work off of,” She murmured, trailing off thoughtfully before she continued. “I… do have a way of counteracting that lack of ‘blueprint’. But, uh, it’ll be severely uncomfortable for you, and everyone else in the room. And will probably make ’street-sam’ over there super upset.”

Her voice was thick with exasperation and indignation. Jemma’s eyes flicked over to Temujin, staring him dead in the face, before she stuck a startlingly human tongue out at him. Then she was turning back to… Huh. Actually, there was never a bad time… “What’s your name by the way? Oh! And if you agree, I’ll tell you more and make sure you’re fully informed, yeah? Fuckin always hated it when docs’ don’t tell you the whole thing. Y’know?”

---

---

Dawn rested her elbows on the table and rubbed her temples in silence for a long minute before taking a deep breath. Is this how she made other people feel? "Sit," Dawn instructed, with an air of frustration. She turned one of her fingers down and pressed it into the table with a gentle thump as she pinched her brow with her other hand. A barely perceptible iridescent force pushed down on Felix's shoulders and at the back of his knees until he fell back into his chair.

"Take a breath. Felix. I like you, but... you frustrate me. I'm going to impart on you some wisdom I never thought would come out of my mouth," she flicked her eyes towards the ceiling as she took another deep breath. Gods why am I the responsible one in this dynamic? "It's never going to be perfect," she said, locking eyes with him.

"If you run back to your lab every time you experience a glitch or a setback to fix something, you'll always be fixing it. And there will never be any meaningful progress if it can't leave the lab until its perfect. What about the other ten things you overlooked? How about those three situations where it might not perform the way you expect it to? How about... that one time it breaks when you really needed it to work? Where's your lab going to be? Not where you need it?" Dawn reached across the table like she was going to take his hands in hers and seemed to think better of it.

"My brother should be the one saying this to you, not me. I'm not qualified- I~~'m an impulsive, immature fuck up," she said, stabbing the table with a finger for emphasis. "Spirits alive, we're at a restaurant! Just order something! I'm not allowed in your lab, and that's a good thing! I'm here. Talk to me here!"

"Trouble in paradise, Nightlight?"

"Oh, fuck me," Dawn muttered, pressing her face into her hands. Ion rode down on a curtain of lightning, alighting on the glass and sliding a good ten feet towards them unsteadily on Felix's vomit. He squared his chest after regaining his balance and planted his fists on his hips dramatically. His helmet peeled back, retracting in segments into the suit's collar and revealing a roguishly handsome grin. It was clear from his unshaven stubble, and even the dark circles under the thin mask that only covered his eyes that he'd probably been out on patrol all night. Dawn peeked through her fingers and looked him up... and down... and then up again.

"The thing! Your Thing! It did the thing!!!" he gestured at Felix excitedly. "Holy smokes, you were in the Tower one second and then BAM! Wow! I think that beats Fang for the speed record, King!"

"We're not touching, and I didn't drag him off the net," said Dawn, holding her hands up defensively.

"Naw, Felix filled me in. You're on the okay list," Ion informed, snorting when Dawn exhaled in relief. "Hey, listen: I gotta scram. Big hubbub on the Sector 7 plate, some kind of explosion over in Justice Square?"

"Oh, fuck!" Dawn blurted out, covering her mouth. Her golden eyes flicked over to look at Felix... if she hadn't played hooky from the office this morning, there was a chance they'd have been caught up in all that.

"Yeah, bunch of people got hurt. It's an all-hands-on-deck sort of thing. Hey," he smirked, leveling an armored finger at Felix. "This kind of up-all-night chaos is what you have to look forward once you pass your Field Agent exam!" Ion waggled his eyebrows suggestively and clucked his tongue at Felix.

---

---

Doll’s face flew from abject terror to seething contempt in the span of a second as a woman’s voice cheerfully chimed in behind Yue. She turned to see who had snuck up behind them, but a leather-gloved hand slipped over her eyes before she could catch sight of the new interloper.

”Ah ah ah!” the voice tutted, holding Yue’s eyes shut. The field of pitch blackness at the back of her eyelids gave her the sense that somehow that wasn’t the only [sight] being blocked. ”No peeking, sister. Gotta protect your eyes, you know?”

Yue flinched, sending a crack through the foundation of the adjacent building. She heard Doll click his tongue and curse something in a language she couldn’t understand. The woman behind her gave a comically beleaguered sigh. ”Always so quick to run off, that one.”

”And you,” the voice continued, grabbing Yue’s shoulder and gently turning her around, hand shifting to remain firmly over her eyes. ”Didn’t anyone ever warn you not to run off with strangers? Shameful, and at your age, too! You’re lucky I came to help!”

"I am?" She asked with a note of heavy doubt. Clearly she didn’t enjoy being blinded… though the darkness was oddly serene, she hadn’t realized how much she’d come to depend on her… Aethersight(?) for sensory input. Did she give in to the immediate impulse to defend herself and risk hurting a bystander? Would she be hurting one of Alex’s friends? Yue huffed and tried to uncoil the tension in her shoulders unsuccessfully.

"You have me at a disadvantage, it would seem."

”Oh you’ve got no idea,” the woman laughed. It wasn’t unkind. ”I mean honestly, you didn’t notice anything off about that kid at all? Not one bit? Here, let’s try a simple exercise to get you closer to my level, alright? First step in a million.”

She cleared her throat, slowly moving to stand behind Yue while keeping her hand over her eyes. ”Try and remember for me. Which direction did that kid turn you in last? Left or right? Or the walls on either side of you, what material were they made of? Stone, wood, metal? How ‘bout the ground? Was the area industrial, or residential? Oh, here’s a real easy one. How far away was the plate up top?”

The woman sighed again, coming back around to stand in front of Yue again. Her hand fell away until only a single finger rested over each eyelid. ”Come on now, girl. I know you just woke up ‘n’ all, but you gotta be more aware than that.” There was a brief pause. ”Well, not right now, but generally.”

Something about the way the stranger’s touch felt on Yue’s skin made her bristle, more than just her aversion to physical contact. Did this person have powers? Were they touch based? Could she react fast enough to catch this stranger off guard. The medallion wasn’t singing. She turned it off? When did that happen? Yue’s thoughts screamed, and she squeezed one of its sharp corners into her palm to help keep her in real-time.

"I don’t like being touched," she announced firmly, squashing her fight or flight reflex. If she took this person’s arm off and they turned out to be Dean or Alex’s friend she’d feel real bad later. Instead, her brow furrowed and the corners of her lips curled into a frown.

”Yeah, I know how that feels. I’m real sorry about that.” Something in the woman’s tone made Yue feel she could believe that, at least. ”Kinda have to right now, though. One of us has to keep your eyes shut, and somethin’ tells me you can’t, right?” A brief pause. A slight shift in her finger’s told Yue she had probably shrugged. ”At least it's not bare skin.”

Yue forced one of her hands to stay open in spite of the anxious urge to ball them up, though her hand clutching the medallion did flex. A drop of blood seeped out from between her fingers.

”Tell you what,” the woman proposed, sounding more firm. ”Take three steps to your left. There’s a wall there. Sit against it, and we’ll see how well we can do with the no-touching.” An audible grimace. ”But no promises.”

Would three inches be too much? Yue didn’t want to liquefy any organs. She couldn’t judge distance while blinded… maybe just the second knuckle? Open palm would be the safest. She reached forward with disarming slowness, searching for an abdomen or other soft tissue with her lips pressed into a thin line.

There was a soft thump as air rushed to fill suddenly empty space, the soft pressure against Yue’s eyelids vanishing in an instant.

”I told you to sit, girl. I’m tryin’ to help you out here, you know?” The voice reappeared several paces behind and above her, drifting from a low rooftop, accompanied by a quiet swishing of air as the woman kicked her legs lazily.

”Don’t turn around, by the way. I think this is as close as I can get without overwhelming you, and I dunno if that radius gets larger if you’re look- oh, stupid girl.”

Yue whirled around, her eyes burning luminous amber with aggressively thin slitted pupils. She swung an open palm behind her, creating a pressure wave that ripped down the alley, though she had to take a step to steady herself afterwards when the world continued to spin sickeningly. Her eyes darted back and forth, searching for the source of the voice… and then up, dreading that she would see a black and white theater mask.

What she saw was… the world upending as she lost all sense of balance. Yue crashed to the alley floor and pressed her palms to her eyes, rolling onto her stomach away from the woman and desperately trying to keep the shakshouka down. Something. [Nothing]. An overwhelming presence of [NOTHING].

"F-fuck!" Yue spat involuntarily as she tried to wriggle and crawl away without uncovering her eyes.

The woman’s polished loafers clicked across the floor of the alley as she approached from behind Yue, a half-pace to the side to give her some space. ”I warned you, kiddo,” she sighed, footsteps coming around Yue’s head while staying out of arm’s reach.

Temujin glowered at the monster woman, the expression on his mask directly reflecting his soul. Yet he had lost the argument, and he would hold his tongue. For now.

“Right. I could, technically, become this… thing. But, this isn’t quite enough of a … Let’s call it a biological blueprint, yeah? For me to work off of,” She murmured, trailing off thoughtfully before she continued. “I… do have a way of counteracting that lack of ‘blueprint’. But, uh, it’ll be severely uncomfortable for you, and everyone else in the room. And will probably make ’street-sam’ over there super upset.”

Temujin scoffed. "More than I already am?" He couldn't help himself.

Umbri listened to this ‘Jemma’, the stinger still held out firm even as she wondered on ‘severely uncomfortable’. Whatever primal wince she felt for a ‘severe cause of slight pain’ could not stop her from chasing it. And... ah.

Her name.

It wasn't Doll. Lady. Sugar. Hooker. Sex worker. A certain awkwardness took her at the question. An avert awareness for somebody in the room that had dumped his traumatic cyberninja history on her before ever wanting her name like she was on the clock. She could be a nameless civilian to Aegis. You'd think with him they were a few saved-asses past that.

"I'm Umbri," she said. She'd not once strayed a glance from the shifter's eyes since she'd presented her the stinger. Nothing else seemed so important. They held the key to a future, and to look away would be like taking your eyes off a Grizzly Bear. "It's nice to meet you, Jemma." It felt the most natural for her, between the two names. The stinger faltered down as she shambled her body toward the shifter and whatever she was thinking. "Whatever you need to do, for whatever price it's worth. I'll endure every discomfort." She was bold with memories of who to be brave for. But a smaller Umbri spoke next, "Tell me what happens."