---

---

”See what happens when we don’t listen?” Her voice was closer to the ground now. She had crouched down, blocking Yue’s attempts to crawl away. ”Go ahead and take a breath for me. Nice and slow. Try and keep your eyes closed. I won’t touch, but it should be easy enough. Like breathin’. Just try and remember the sensation from before.”

Yue froze, taking a few halting breaths. Right right right… a teleporting Mover she couldn’t look at. This was it! This was it. This was it… She did warn us… her breath steadied after a minute, though she couldn’t force herself to uncoil the tension in her body. Yue tried to squash the primal fear twisting in her gut. Too many questions were ripping through her head.

"Okay!?!" Was all that she managed to force out of her mouth.

”Well not yet, but you look like you’re gettin’ there,” the woman answered without missing a beat. ”How are your eyes feelin’?”

"Like I’ve been staring into the sun, but it wasn’t there," grunted Yue.

A breezy chuckle followed her comment. ”That’s nice. I should write that one down.” Gravel shifted in the alley as the woman made the stand. Yue felt a hand reach toward her, hesitate, and pull back. ”Think you can try closing your eyes yourself? It really is important.” The woman snorted. ”Shocked they didn’t teach you that first, honestly,” she muttered.

Was she talking about magic?? Goddammit what was it Archer was saying about how to tell… something about “blue moons” and being awake? All this cloak and dagger nonsense was making her head swim worse than it already was. Why wasn’t she paying attention for something so important?!

"I am… physically incapable of doing that," she ventured at a guess.

A click of a tongue. ”Is that a fact?” The woman scoffed, footsteps moving away and coming back, moving away and coming back. The woman was saying something to herself, just above a breath. ”This was s’posed to be a quick thing…”

”Y’know what, let’s start smaller then,” she said, addressing Yue once more. ”Try squinting for me. Like you’d do at the sun to keep it from burnin’ your baby burgundies.”

"How ‘bout we start with introductions and… you know, like what you want from me? Since this was supposed to be so quick and all," Yue grumbled as she forced herself up to her knees without uncovering her eyes. "You seem to know an awful lot for someone I’ve never met."

”We have met, this is just the first time you’re conscious for it,” the woman answered, apparently not concerned with what a terrifying comment that was. She paced away again, Scratching her head. ”Damn it, I had this whole thing planned out. It was- I was gonna be witty, and clever, and you were gonna find me just so, so charming. Ffffuck.”

"CONCERNING?!"

”Okay.” She clapped her hands together, spinning back on her heel. ”This- well, you’re gonna think this is bullshit now, but I’m your… let’s say guardian angel, alright? Fairy godmother. I’m- I was here to give you some sage wisdom, you know? Help you out and shit, before fucking off somewhere else until you got in trouble again.” She let out a long sigh.

”You can call me… Well, this just sounds stupid now, but it would’ve killed if things had gone to plan, alright? You can just call me Devil God D for now. Don’t comment on it,” she added hastily.

"I’m not-, this is-, you know what?" Yue flustered with a sigh, finally relaxing the coiled tension in her body. Nobody was this awkward before they kidnapped or murdered someone. "I’ll humor it? Bestow upon me your sage wisdom whilst I squint upon thee, oh ‘Devil God D,’" she said, with an air of defeat, tossing her hands up.

Yue let her palms down, careful not to look directly at ‘D’ and instead acted on an idea that had struck her- you know using her Aether threads to sew her astral eyes shut didn’t sound like a terrifying, creepy, awful idea until just then. She decided to try squinting instead, as suggested, and managed to block out the worst of it. She still felt ridiculous, as she was actually squinting at the woman.

A woman in a dark gray salary-man’s suit, tailored in places to keep it from being too baggy on her frame. Polished shoes, black leather gloves. Through squinted eyelids, burgundy hair and eyes met burgundy hair and eyes. D gazed at Yue for a long moment, a smile coming to her lips. When she spoke, Yue could hear it in her voice.

”You’re a good kid.”

D did not continue for another short while after that, shifting her gaze to look down the other end of the alleyway for a moment. She rubbed at her wrist, like she was adjusting a watch that wasn’t there.

”How are you feeling, by the way?” she asked, looking back in Yue’s direction. ”About the magic thing.”

"Angry that it was kept from me for so long. Relieved that I’m not sick. Overwhelmed with all this new information and sensory overload. Like everything is better. Like everything is worse. Like I don’t understand the world, how it’s supposed to work or where I fit in anymore," she found herself admitting. She’d held most of this back from Archer.

D nodded sympathetically. ”Well, everyone’s gonna have their opinions on that,” she stated simply. ”They’re all gonna have a favor, or an opinion, or a cause they want you to chime in on.” She clicked her tongue, studying the tip of her shoe.

”That’s the one thing you can accept with absolute certainty movin’ forward, sister. Now you’re part of the world and so long as you stay in it, no one’s gonna let you just mind your business.” She gave Yue an appraising look. ”Though I suppose that’ll be pretty familiar, yeah?”

”Beyond that… I mean really, your best bet would be to run while you can, but failing that, you’ll do fine so long as you keep a good grasp on who you are and who everyone else is.”

"Tried running. I hit my head… fell a long way," she replied, gesturing to the mean scrape on her shoulder and the flecked cuts along her temple and nose. She knew that wasn’t what D meant, and couldn’t help the half-hearted smirk that flicked across her face. "Don’t think I can run from this, D. It’s everywhere I look, and I can’t close my eyes." Yue sniffled and looked down into her lap, suddenly finding the dirt under her fingernails to be entirely transfixing.

”You’re in Titan’s Fall, kiddo,” D said gently. ”If you couldn’t close your eyes, they'd’ve burned outta your skull by now. More’n likely you used to do it without realizin’ and forgot how.” She shook her head, glancing back down the alley. ”You’ll jus’ have to relearn to do it manually. It’s a practice thing is all.”

”You’re right though,” she said after a moment, clicking her tongue. ”You won’t be able to run, not really. I was hopin’ I’d still be able to give you the option, but I guess I missed my window at some point.”

”I’m sorry about that.”

Northbridge. A city in the bowels of Titan's Fall, perpetually choked by dark fog and the green haze of industry. Today however, something foreign descended screaming from the surface. Blinding lights shifted between red and blue. Cars and armoured carriers roared through the streets. A sea of azure spilled from within. Men and women in ballistic plate over fatigues, their faces shielded by one-way visors. Combat droids with legs of wheels and cannon hands. The words "T.F.P.D." were stamped over their hearts.

Titan's Fall's finest busted down shop doors. Poured into alleys where vagabonds gather, turned over barrels and mattresses and stripped their dignity to search their possessions. They charged into derelict buildings, chased teenagers with streaked hairs and oversized hoodies who succumbed to their flight instincts. Sometimes, they even blundered into discoveries, their guns pointed at the skins and bones slumped and coughing behind booths, surrounded by a sea of needles with black veins rooted in their arms.

All of this, all over Northbridge, witnessed by ripples on the walls and ceilings, too still to be noticed by untrained eyes. The ripples slinked away upon a canine gait, the three slits that made up their sight transmitting directly to a blue screen. A dozen blue screens. Several dozen, a myriad, glowing within a pitch black room. A pointed hood stood before it all, the owner's face unseen within the pitch-black folds.

"Once again, the pigs have come to our streets." A voice came from the hood. A stygian contralto. Stilted in cadence, yet projected with undertones of whispers and hisses. "Whenever unrest spreads across Sector 7, we are the first to blame."

The hooded figure spread her arms - thin and unremarkable beneath white flowing sleeves. "An assault on our Fortress carries a success rate of 0.05%." Her voice seethed. "So they've hit our lifeblood. Safehouses. Chem labs. Chrome shops."

A ripple prowled towards the hooded figure's side. Its four legs became clearer in motion, until its mirror-cloak dissipated, revealing a body of deep blue and gunmetal, of plasteel chassis and synth-fibre legs. Its three slit eyes shimmered scarlet between two backwards-facing antennae. "The scale of this raid is unprecedented, Lady Megahertz," the canine droid spoke. The hooded figure caressed the top of the robot's head, and it sat down on its hinds. "The Upper City needs a scapegoat. Urgently."

Megahertz drew out a long, raspy breath. She turned to face her audience. Four figures stood in a circle.

"Then we'll go up there and give 'em one!" A broadly-built woman rammed her right fist into the palm of a scarlet arm. She towered nearly six feet tall, dark of clothes and complexion. She seemed human at first, until the fangs clicked beneath her cheeks, and the serpent-like slits of her eyes dilated with a predator's instinct.

"Do you ever think beyond bloodying your hands?" A man spat in question, clad from head to toe in yellow and grey. His was a youthful voice, lightly southern and a stark contrast to the grim ballistic mask that confined his face. He shook a pointing finger above as he spoke, "We give them what they want, and they'll have a wonderful excuse to rally the States and smoke us out!"

"Let them COME! HEH, give us more MEAT for the SLAUGHTER!” A behemoth, standing heads and shoulders over the rest, wrought of scale-plated muscles that hosted two distinct heads - one angular, with ears of fins, flashing a fang-filled grin which gleamed with his boast. And a bulbous head, with a fin that ran from the top of his head to his spine. The latter’s smile carried less swagger. “Nye he he, great speech, Megahertz, GREAT speech… but I promised the MISSUS I’d be home to help with the cooking tonight. Can we get our mission and GO?”

The man in yellow scoffed. “You keep talking about this Missus, but I ain’t ever seen a lick of her,” he teased the behemoth, looking him from head to toe, from the faces distorted and stretched to monstrous visages, to the thick, bloated body overgrown with barnacles. “Are we even sure she’s real?”

“HAH!” The two heads spat in unison, baring their teeth as they loomed over the much smaller man. “She’s more real than your MEDALS,” the angular head snarled. “Or your… SEX LIFE! Nyeh heh heh!” The rounder head added. The former glanced with disapproval.

The man leaned forward to meet the giant’s challenge. “What did you call me?” He asked, seething. The colour faded from his suit, and sand trickled from micro cracks that formed all over his body. He raised his hand, which had swelled into a gigantic, sand-made fist. "I'll show you how I earned my medals, mutie. Anywhere, anytime!"

"Enough," Megahertz commanded, her voice echoed with a hiss that grated like nails on chalkboard. "These squabbles are a waste of time. We shall move to reassert control over our city."

“Are they right?” A question grunted between the puffs of a cigar. Lips twisted at the left by fresh burned tissue sneered beneath a horned mask. A ringed hand gestured for Megahertz’s attention. His left. The right arm was golden and hung idle beneath an empty sleeve. It was the failed reaper sent for Marionette’s soul, Ganta. Standing between his colleagues now, an arm and a face poorer. “Are we the ones to blame? Bunch of Ares white collars blow themselves up. Can’t be us. I didn’t think we had that kind of… influence, up there.”

Megahertz chuckled - a robotic sound stripped of humour. She turned away from him. "That knowledge is above your paygrade. Only Lockdown and I need to know… for now." He glowered. Left out of the room yet again. She shifted towards the woman in red. "Katalina. Head to our workshops in East Harbour. Make sure our slicers, chrome-surgeons, and gunsmiths escape the Pigs unharmed.” Katalina held up her scarlet arm, brandishing its sickle-like fingers and orbs that hummed with a low rumble. “You can count on me, My Lady.”

Next, the man in yellow. “Sandstorm. Get your men organised and head to the Commerce District. Those shopkeepers paid well for protection… and we JAHANNAM keep our end of every deal.” Sandstorm rolled his eyes behind his mask. “Right… keep the pigs from burning down everything the chinks and kikes have. Got it.”

After that, the two-headed behemoth. “Rakshas. Go down to the sewers and oversee the transport of our caravan.” Megahertz held up a finger. “Make sure there are no accidents with the contraband this time.” Rakshas’s bulbous head cackled. “It was ONE time, Megahertz! You’ll never let me live it down.” His other head growled. “I’ll keep us in line.”

Finally, Ganta. “You. I have a task even you can’t fuck up,” Megahertz began, summoning more emotion in her voice than before. She leaned close, held out a golden-clawed finger, and poked his chest. “I’ve arranged catering with Miss Chang’s tonight. Pick it up. And don’t forget the plum sauce.”

Laughter and snickers jumbled behind him, a choir of mockery that none of the other Enforcers bothered to hide. He just clenched his hands and jaw. The cigar burst between his teeth and coated his tongue in bitter ash.

Megahertz turned her attention back towards the screens. Her metal hound followed suit. “You have your missions. You’re dismissed.” With one word, the Enforcers filed out of Megahertz’s control room. The sounds of a hundred screens were cranked up through the chamber. To the hooded overseer, such cacophony was familiar, even comforting. Especially in the presence of her personal, and most loyal, enforcer. “Cazadors,” she called out to the hound, who stood back on all fours. Across the walls and ceilings, ripples formed over seemingly empty air. Ripples that crawled and lit up with sets of triple-slitted eyes. “Let’s get to work.”

"Don’t apologize," Yue answered after an awkwardly long pause, then looked up at D and smiled, genuinely this time. "I wouldn’t have gone. Too many unanswered questions. As angry as I am, something happened that was serious enough to spook my whole family into hiding, I’m coming to discover," she sniffled, pushing herself to her feet and wiping her nose on her arm… then grimacing because she just wiped snot into her open scrapes.

Smart.

She kept her eyes averted. As long as she didn’t look directly at D the vertigo was manageable, which was fine since eye contact was a thing that happened to other people.

"In a way, I’ve been running my whole life. Now that I know that there was something to run from, I want to stand my ground and punch it in the face… keep it from happening to anyone else." She extended a hand.

"If your sage advice will help me do that then you are, indeed, quite charming… after a fashion. It’s Yue. Nice to meet you while I’m awake?"

D didn’t take Yue’s hand, but rather extended one of her own, a piece of blank cardstock appearing between her first two fingers as she turned her palm up. ”Likewise,” D greeted in turn. My business card, so you can get in touch with me next time you’re in trouble.”

Yue’s eyes flicked down to the card as she took it and flipped it over in her hand… and flipped it again. What the hell? "It’s blank? H-how…," Yue trailed off, feeling like she was about to sound silly by asking how she was supposed to call a phone with no number. Were there even phones down here?

”It’s not blank, it’s empty,” D corrected.”Of course you wouldn’t be able to see something that isn’t there. You’re looking at it.”

"It’s-, This is-, But it’s-... Sure! Sure… Coolcoolcool," Yue nodded, slipping the card into the thin pocket of her leggings. She was beginning to appreciate Raudd’s disdain for all of this ‘magical bullshit.’ "Is this the part where you vanish into the aether after leaving a charming impression and imparting your sage knowledge?"

D blinked at Yue once, then looked away. ”Hmm. Sage knowledge, huh.”

The pocket of D’s long coat buzzed. Her hand withdrew briefly, reappearing with a small flat rectangle that lit up when she pressed a button on the side. A button, from the looks of it- and an old one. Her finger swiped and tapped across the front for a moment, eyes fixed on the illuminated screen. She sighed through her nose, stuffing the phone back in her coat.

”The only thing stupider than trusting a god is trusting a mage. That’s my sage knowledge.” Her eyes met Yue’s. ”You understand?”

That made her frown. Her whole world was gods and mages right now, and so far it seemed like they were all trying to be helpful… Ulterior motives and overprotective hovering aside, they'd been helpful after a fashion at least. Yue was growing increasingly disquieted with the number of ‘guardian angels' in her life that were hiding in the wings, truthfully enough. What was so goddamn important about her that warranted all this attention? Yue’s eyes flicked up at the woman, and she endured the vertigo for a long moment to make eye contact.

"I’m not to trust you then? Aren’t you one of those things?" And Archer? Wasn’t he both? "Seems I’m finding out just about everyone in my life is some kind of God or mage. Can I not trust anyone then?"

D gave her a conspiratorial grin. ”Didn’t I tell you already? I’m not either of those. I’m a devil.”

Her face sobered, and she looked away again. ”But yeah. You aren’t far from the right idea. Gods are narcissists, and mages are liars. And both of them have intentions for you, kiddo.” D extended out her arm, holding her finger mere inches from the center of Yue’s brow. ”If it seems like everyone around you is one or the other, it’s safe to assume there’s a reason for that.”

She let her arm fall. ”And that reason won’t care about you personally.”

"Sage knowledge from the Devil who creeps on me while I sleep, offered out of the goodness of her heart, then?" Yue smirked. "No intentions there, just being a good Samaritan?"

"That's right."

"Hmm," muttered Yue with a note of doubt. She broke eye contact to keep from falling over again. D felt like every suspicious quest-giver in Final Odyssey. "I’ll keep that in mind."

D gave Yue a long look, her mouth tightened into a thin line. ”You can think whatever you like, girl,” she declared, shifting on the ball of her foot. Her phone buzzed in her pocket again. ”I’m not your boss, after all. Just passing through.”

D looked away, studying a patch of wall. Her ears were red, despite the cool morning. She crossed her arms, hands gripping her biceps. The heel of her shoe tapped the ground as D bounced her leg, agitated about something unclear.

Finally she spun around, marching toward the opening of the alley. ”Well, this has been fun, but I gotta get going before the big guy catches on that I’m here,” she announced, waving a gloved hand up to her shoulder to wave goodbye without looking in Yue’s direction. ”Stay safe, remember what I told you about- Oh!”

She spun back around and pointed at Yue. ”This doesn’t really matter, but don’t go flashing my business card at people. Your eyes only.”

”Right…,” Yue mumbled, rolling the barrier medallion over in her palm. ”Of course.”

She felt like she was missing something. Like there was something she was supposed to say or ask, and it just wasn’t clicking. Instead, she shuffled awkwardly in place and tried to find somewhere productive to look that wasn’t directly at D.

”Good, good!” D cheered, whirling back around. ”I’m glad you understand.”

Her leg moved to take another step forward, but hesitated. D stood near the entrance to the alley for a long while, back to Yue. She fidgeted with her hands, raising and lowering them, clenching and unclenching into fists. It seemed she wanted to say something else, perhaps, and her shoulders were tense with resisting the urge to turn back around.

”I-” D began to speak, but cut herself off. She dug the toe of her shoe into the alley floor, replacing the polished leather sheen with dust and scuff marks. She huffed, eyes fixed on the ground, then clicked her tongue one last time and disappeared.

Yue stared at the the empty alley entrance where D had vanished for a long minute trying to process everything that had just happened. Her head tilted slowly, eyebrows raising as her expression went from alarm to regret to disappointment. She snapped her fingers rhythmically and blew out a disgruntled sigh as she turned in a slow circle to try and get her bearings.

She was still lost.

"Maybe I should've asked for directions... or, you know, a ride out of here?"

---

Right. Well! This… Umbri! That was a nice name. Umbri. Umbri… Umbral? Umber! Umbridge? Umbel! Like on a flower! Wait. Focus! Focus.
Umbri, was clearly determined here, which was a nice enough thing to see! Jemma just wasn’t quite sure how committed she would be after being told the details of the ‘procedure’. Hrm.

Oh well. The shapeshifter nodded once and gave a relatively controlled smile. “Right! I’m gonna explain this as… Me, I can. I’m going to turn three of these things here,” She raised a trio of her tentacles, waving each in a row before continuing,
“Into one large, uh, maw. I’m gonna wrap it around your arm, shoulder, and part of your clavicle. From there, it’s going to form a symbiotic link between your circulatory system and mine. I’ll have to bite into you with a fang. … This, of course, likely won’t feel super great. Nor will the…” She trailed off again.

How to describe them… WAS there a way to describe them? She wasn’t versed on animal biology… Oh!
Show! Don’t tell, duh!
Jemma moved back from Umbri, following through on the changes to her trio of tendrils as explained. From the three limbs, she formed a mouth in the shape of a crocodile… weasel… thing. Maybe it would’ve been cute! If… it also wasn’t about the size of Umbri’s torso. She opened the mouth, revealing the relatively small and unimposing fangs within. From one such fang, veins of ink spiraled out and into the air, like the branches of a tree. Or a lightning bolt. Or blood vessels.

“I dunno what to specifically call these yet, but I do know that they are capable of, uh, subsuming any amount of organic matter. And I can choose what does, and does NOT, get subsumed. Then, with the same organs, I can copy, replicate, and modify to my will! Which means I could not only become the snake, buuuut I could just replicate and synthesize an anti-venom!” Chirped the shapeshifting woman, giving Umbri her best version of a ‘reassuring smile’.
Oh! Right. The original point of showing these.
“That all being said… They won’t feel super great moving under your skin and through your meat stuffs. So… You may wanna either sit down and hold on to something, or, I can ‘brew’ you up a cocktail of numbing venoms. And muscle relaxants. Nothin’ lethal! Or capable of stopping your heart, or anythin’! Just… good for not bein’ in pain!”

Jesus, that was a ramble and a half. At least it kinda looked like Umbri was listening! Right. Finish it off.
“Now, I understand that this might sound incredibly unsanitary, but as stated, the… Ink-Vessels? Eh, name pending— Anyways! My ink can subsume basically anythin’ and everythin’ organic! This includes bacteria and viruses, and parasites! Honestly if you’d like I could give you a once over to your entire system, make sure you— Er! Sorry. Focusing. Hoo.”

Jemma nodded then, finally slowing her rapid fire summation to a stop. That was all she could think of! And that was after not having been a Fixer or an Engineer! For three years! She stiiiiill had it! … Don’t cry don’t cry don’t cry. Focus!!! Shit!
The shapeshifter shifted in place, again. Her eyes slid to the limbless [NULL-DEMON-MEAN-RUDE-helphimtoo?] nearby. “I know you’re still gonna be upset by this, but as you’re the only person here who I think has her best interests at heart… And also the only person she’s yelled at in this room, which I think is a good thing? I’m letting you know that if I hurt her beyond reason you can absolutely take it out of my hide. I [promise.]”

The word ‘promise’ held a weight to it. One that she wouldn’t and couldn’t dare to explain. Jemma just hoped that he would understand she meant it with the whole of her being. So much so, that unbeknownst to her, the noises churning inside her quieted.
Drowned under the forceful ‘Promise.’ that took the place of the noises instead.

The disturbance hadn't been far from her own home, however traversing to them was an entirely different matter now that most of the area around them had an appearance closer to an overgrown jungle rather than the managed gardens. She had barely turned the corner before coming face to face with the first obstacle a pumpkin plant that had decided the flat ground of the road between a row of houses was the perfect spot to grow a 10 feet tall pumpkin bulging against the masonry on either side. No way through here then.

It was during one of the small detours she had to make that one of her flock came to inform her of the situation... At least to a greater degree than just 'trouble', seemed rat had come back again with one of the companions he'd had the day prior. Fortunately not the monster of ink that had engaged in combat with 'crimson' back then. Raudd had briefly mentioned seeing Templar iconography something Rat seemed to corroborate, and apparently rat mentioned something about her looking for her friend. Perfect, exactly at the moment their 'friend' had decided to have light exercise at mach speed. I doubt she's going to take 'your princess is in another castle' as an answer. Zolya found herself struggling to formulate a way out of this mess, however with how close the sounds of swords cleaving astral birds were she didn't have the time think things through... Let's hope they aren't the righteous butthole type.

"Stand down my flock." She called loud as she could without yelling. Her frame still carried by one of her loyal stags rounding the last corner between them and the sounds of one sided slaughter, mixed with panicked screeching from Rat. With the templar now in full view it was clear why the ravens had been so on edge, part of it was quite easily explainable as being a mild reprisal for bringing that fight to the doorsteps just the day prior, though that'd be in the form of some more normal corvid trickery rather than aggression. However considering they had brought along someone that looked so 'wrong' to the ravens... They don't have problems with Temujin though, so why now? She thought looking at the Templar with a puzzled look.

At least right until the moment Zolya realized she had been staring at the Templar for ten seconds without uttering a single word. "My apologies for the rude behavior of my flock, they've been on edge after the events of the previous day and the other 'friend' that had come along with you yesterday." She began though she couldn't help but feel the message might sound less than genuine considering the circumstances.

The sheer amount of ravens that had turned up to cover the edges of rooftops, clotheslines, tree branches, and any other horizontal spaces more than six feet off the ground in a mass of stars and near invisible stares, was somewhat extraordinary. The wolves skulking from the shadows and alleyways, keeping an eye on the safety of their master was quite normal though, including the pack of four that had decided to flank Zolya on both sides... Luckily they had at least decided to lay down, probably feeling reasonably assured by the distance between them that nothing untowards could happen in the span it would take them to react.

"I presume you came here to look for Silver Fang. However I'm afraid I'll have to inform you that she is no longer within this settlement, having decided to head east towards an area called Shieldtown just this morning." Regardless of what difficulties were to come from having a second templar show their face within the Undercity rather than on this little frontier where the spread of rumors could be limited, she doubted this one would leave without Yue and both of them needed to get out anyways.

---

Raudd looked at the grin that had stayed plastered on the face of Archer from the moment that Zolya had shown him that hint of... Well he'd hate to call it flirting, but what else was it really. It was a little bit difficult to believe the person in front of his carried the blood of the original frat boy, seemed more like a virgin that had just had the attention of a female for the first time in their life. "Look if you want to experience a relationship from Hera's position I'm not gonna stop you, but that's fucked up. You do know who her patron is right?" He asked with a somewhat annoyed tone of voice. He really had no clue why she kept doing that kind of crap right in front of his eyes, especially since she really never seemed to give weight to any of it... Maybe it really was just another way of annoying the snot out of him.

His thoughts however were cut off when Archer called out the direction and within the same breath decided to annoy lady Fate, though she didn't even allow him to finish that sentence. "I mean we both knew what was gonna happen when you put that into your mouth."

"And no, Aegis is somewhere over there, probably having breakfast... We call him Alex." He said proudly with some glee before quickly adding onto that with a more serious tone. "Yeah, we know." It was then that Archer informed Raudd that Yue was heading north and with the massive disturbances she left behind Raudd could easily confirm it as well.

"She's trying to climb the crater wall. We'd better hurry up, as... Fuck, I think she just tripped." He Informed Archer as he noticed the movement of the disturbance slow down considerably. After which he instinctively tried to spur the stag on to go a little bit faster, knowing damn well it was already running as fast as it could/wanted to go.

"... buuuut I could just replicate and synthesize an anti-venom!"

"You can?" Umbri blurted. Jemma saw, for a flash, her hope succeed her fear. Her plan had been to present the snake and its new venom sac to the Doctor, but now, her cure was coming at her at a startling rate. This is the right decision, a phrase that repeated in her mind, the strength of it tested against the horrifying process the creature rattled off. Her legs were already numb, and an iceberg sunk in her, a cold sensation starting in her stomach and spreading to her limbs. Those tendrils. Moving through her... meat stuffs. Umbri's face was turning green.

Temujin stared long and hard at the maw that gaped and loomed over Umbri. He expected a barrage of gurgling and slimy noises, but the only sound that came was the trickle of ink, stark and eerie in the quiet of thought. “This is insane…,” Temujin opined, clinging to resistance despite the weariness of his voice. He broke his stare to glance at Umbri. ’The only person she’s yelled at.’ It… brought him some comfort. For reasons he couldn’t fathom.

”...But I’ll trust you,” Temujin resigned aloud. He looked past the maw, scrutinising Jemma herself. ”At least, I’ll trust that staying alive is in your best interest.” He kept the ’aberration’ silent, this time.

Umbri's lips pressed together in a line, holding in the anxiety that was about to manifest in either a scream or pile of vomit. "I don't want..." sputtered out. She swallowed. She badly wanted to not feel everything that was about to happen to her. But numbing muscle relaxant... she was already putting herself in a position so insanely vulnerable. If things went wrong, and she couldn't move? "The numbing venom. I don't want too much. I don't want to be asleep for it, and I want to move," she asserted. A happy medium. ... She might as well have just gone without it. This was going to sting.

"Aegis?" she called for the superhuman in the room with them, but it felt like another futile request. He had restrained her with his powers, but what exactly could those powers do when she was already in the beast's maw, and those inky tendrils were slurping out her fluids and leaving behind an Umbri skin sack? Well, even if it was empty, she was desperate for reassurance. "If things go bad... will you be able to stop her?"

"What do you mean Sabbatical?" Esme barely looked up from the chaise longue she was lounging on, her attention mostly focused on putting an even second coat of electric green nail polish on. "Where would you even go? Back to Scotland? I've already told you, there's nothing for us there anymore."

Astrid let out a flummoxed sigh, "It really isn't any of your business where I end up going, that's kind of the whole point." She watched her elder sister with an almost predatory stare, keen to not miss a single expression. The silence hung in the air while Esme took a moment to examine her left hand.

"What do you think, too bright?" Esme held her hand out towards Astrid, in the way a mafioso might if they were offering a ring to be kissed.

"I think, I don't really give a fuck about whatever obnoxious ensemble you're preparing for." Astrid started to bounce her leg against the ground, trying and failing to be patient. "Yes, or no?"

"That's what I'm asking you, do my nails go with-"

"Cut the shit, Esme! I'm not talking about the nail polish, and you know it." She stood up, the force of which sent the chair she had been sitting in skittering across the ground. "Can I go on vacation and expect you to continue wiring money into my account? Or is this going to be the ballet lessons all over again?"

Esme frowned, giving her sister a concerned look, "I thought you made a lovely ballerina..." She wrinkled her nose and exhaled softly, "I don't suppose I can convince you otherwise?"

"No! I don't like dancing! At least not that kind of dancing, it's too stuffy and I feel like an idiot in those shoes." Despite herself, Astrid was smiling.

"I meant about the sabbatical."

"I know what you meant..."

Esme made eye contact with her sister. Despite being the older sibling, once Astrid was determined to do something, there was precious little Esme could do to stop her; it was partially why she was so valuable to their whole operation. Their siblings listened to Esme, but they looked up to Astrid. "Okay..."

"Okay?"

"Yes, okaay, fine. You can go on your sabbatical. Gods know you deserve it..." Esme put the lid back on her nail polish and took out a bottle of acetone from the basket by her feet. "You at least could have told how garish this green was first; saved us both a bit of time. When do you leave?"

"In the morning."

She uncapped the acetone, putting a cotton ball to the mouth of the bottle and upending it, "Don't leave without saying goodbye, I have a small parting gift for you. I'm sure the kids will want to see you one last time as well."

"You make it sound like we'll never see each other again."

"With this city? You never know."

---

Astrid eased up on the throttle just a bit, the Undercity slowing down just enough to make out street signs, or at least what passed for street signs in this part of the slums. Other bikers had started following her, no doubt intending to jump her and seize her ride for themselves; Esme had practically painted a target on her back by giving it to her, not that she minded. The turbine engine didn't so much as purr, as much as it droned; a nearly silent engine by virtue of its unique design. She grinned; at least life wasn't boring down here, and no matter what trouble she found herself in, it was, usually, due solely to her own actions.

Her speed continued to diminish as she waited for the miscreants to catch up to her, the sooner they were dealt with the better. The motorcycle lurched to a stop as she squeezed on the brakes and dug her feet into the ground. The first thug pulled up right next to her, in a practiced motion he drew the gun tucked into his pants and leveled it at Astrid's head. He kept the barrel steady despite the steady rumbling of the crotch rocket he was perched on; maybe he wasn't a total rookie, though his ability to case a target definitely still needed work.

Pretending not to notice him, she stared in the opposite direction, acting as if she were examining a building in great detail. "Am I even close to Northbridge?"

Her would-be assailant cleared his throat, thumbing back the hammer on his machine pistol, "Lucky for you, it's only a few days' walk."

"Thanks," Without looking at him she drawled out, "How long a ride?"

"Maybe the better part of a day? Too bad you don't have-"

Astrid interrupted him by grabbing the barrel of the pistol with her left hand and attempting to remove it from his hand; instead, the man came with the gun, his grip refusing to relinquish the weapon he was using to compensate for his own obvious inadequacy. Her lip curled up with slight disgust as she continued to pull him off his bike.

The wannabe thug hung just off the ground, his feet struggling to touch the street as she held the gun above her head. He turned back to the biker gang, "Hey guys! A little help?"

Turning to look at the kid, she felt a little bad. He couldn't have been any older than her little brother Cheng, and his crew definitely weren't doing him any favors by having him approach her first. With a grunt she planted her foot against his midsection and kicked him into the street; as he flew, his index finger pulled the trigger for a fraction of a second before he lost his grip, spraying several bullets wildly into the air.

The biggest of the biker gang got off his bike, taking a long stride towards her, "You have done and fucked up now, little lady."

"Little?" His words irked her more than she would have liked. Standing up, she put the kickstand down and stared at who she could only assume was their leader. Interlocking her fingers, she raised both hands above her head and stretched, "I guess I've got a few moments to spare." Putting a fist to her chin, she cracked her neck and smiled, "I'll be taking all the Clat you lot are worth though, consider it a fee for wasting my time."

The big man swaggered towards her, easily over three hundred pounds, probably sporting some heavy modifications; whatever it took to survive in the slums and rise to the top of a gang, even if it wasn't a particularly impressive gang. With a wild grin, she matched his gait, step for step, and when he cocked back his fist to swing, she mirrored the motion. Her fist collided with his, the impact pushing her back over half a foot, the skin on her knuckles splitting open and beginning to bleed as pain traveled up her arm. "Tá tú láidir," She conceded.

With a grunt of acknowledgment, the leader cocked the same fist back and threw another punch. Again, she mirrored his motion and slammed her balled-up hand into his cybernetic arm. This time, however, she gave it a little more 'oomph.' Blood pounded in her ears, her heart racing as her superhuman physiology took effect. A satisfying crunch was the only sound she could hear over the roar of battle, her punch carrying through the opponent's forearm, shattering whatever passed for a humerus on the big lug.

He screamed, perhaps in pain, or more likely, the pain receptors had been turned off in that arm and it was a cry of sheer outrage. Astrid let out a similar cry, her vocalization being one of thrill. Rising to his full height, the leader took a powerful step forward and snapped his free leg forward, it almost connected with her sternum, almost sending her to the ground. Instead, she sidled to the side ever so slightly and caught his leg underneath her left arm.

Twisting her body so that his shin was touching her chest, she drove her right elbow down through his knee, a visceral spray of synthetic blood decorating the pavement. "Ach tá mé níos láidre." Looking up, her attention turned to the rest of the gang as the leader fell to the ground, making various pitiful noises while his immunoblockers struggled to keep up with the sudden blood loss.

"So! How's gang morale? Anyone up for round two?"

In unison, the other fifteen or so bikers revved their engines and disappeared into the slums. The one she had kicked off his bike was last to leave, but just barely; the guy was a quick little thing when he wanted to run, he even left his glock behind. She had the sudden realization that it wasn't the only thing being left behind.

"Wait, wait, what the hell? You guys are leaving him?! Come back!" She started after them a few steps before realizing it would be pointless, "Please?" She stared down at the leader who presumably just lost his crew, along with a few limbs, "Good help is a bitch to find, huh?" He let out several more half-coherent swears while she commiserated with him. "Tell me about it. The only Ripperdoc that'll work on your sorry excuse of chrome charges an arm and a leg- er, no offense."

---

"Fifteen hundred Clat?! That arm was worth two thousand alone!"

"Yeah, it was, before you smashed it to bits. I'll be lucky to even pull intact wiring out of it. Not to mention you won't let me just zero his sorry ass, so I'm spending a fucking fortune on meds to keep a banged-up torso alive!" The Ripperdoc looked up from his work, cyber eyes gleaming with thousands of lenses, each one displaying a slightly different perspective; it made him look like a fly; even the way he tended to rub his hands together reminded her of the insects.

The ex-gang leader, on the other hand, looked so at peace; a profoundly at peace expression on his face, despite being an unconscious torso on an operating table. Every so often he wiggled his nose as if he might have just been sleeping, and not doped up on UltraMorphine and HyperEdoxaban. "How much do we save if you pull the plug?"

"At this point? I dunno, maybe seven hundred Clat?"

Astrid scoffed, "Seven hundred Clat isn't worth my soul, thank you very much. Keep him hooked up." Standing up, she stretched her legs slightly. Sitting on her right foot had proven less than ideal, and as she rose telltale tingles and pinpricks told her that it had fallen asleep. "Whatever," She dropped the Clatter into her backpack, "Getting more and more difficult to make a living down here. If I had known how much the Horde skimmed off the top I might have stayed topside."

"You know Astrid, if you're looking to make some real coin, rumor has it JAHANNAM has been making moves recently, and they're looking to recoup their numbers."

"JAHANNAM? That Jazzercise place on the fourth street?"

"You're kidding, right? The fastest-growing gang in the Undercity? That favorite Corpo scapegoat when things go south? They control all of Northbridge." He gave her an exasperated sigh, "Lockdown's crew?"

Astrid shrugged.

The Ripper let out a cacophonous peal of laughter, "Oh-ho-ho, you're too much Astrid. What have you been doing down here? Swinging first and asking questions later?" Her blank stare was all the answer he needed, "Well if you do end up asking around or looking into it, Megahertz is the person to talk to, she should get your foot in the door at least."

Shoving her hands into the pockets of her hoodie, Astrid started out of the Doctor's office, mumbling to herself, "Usually just kick the door down anyways."

---

Northbridge loomed below her, the under-cityscape had started subtly changing a few miles ago until the stark contrast became impossible to ignore, a green haze hanging over the depths of the city proper. She was headed into gang territory now, all of Titan's Fall was gang territory, in a sense, but this was gang territory. A no man's land separated the area from the rest of the Undercity, a perimeter of land that no one saw fit to claim; not that she could blame them, from what she had heard the past few days, even the Halcyon Horde had a working agreement to stay out of their turf. Respect like that was bought the hard way.

Leaning against her bike, Astrid snaked the last half of the haggis sandwich she had bought out of her bag and tried once more to discern what type of sauce they had used. The taste was familiar, but something she hadn't tasted since childhood. How quaint she would run into the flavor again while wandering the American slums. Washing it down with a freshly opened box of nutrient juice, she got back on her bike and raced down the hill into the cloying fog.

Pushing three hundred kilometers, the metallic skeletons of fallen buildings rose up on either side of her, red and blue lights descending from the sky in the distance. Patriotic snowflakes of light dappled the shadowy sky as they intruded upon the underworld. Frowning, she wondered briefly just what was causing this sudden incursion from the surface. Any further time she might have spent pondering the notion was cut short; upon hooking a turn she found herself speeding into a police blockade. "What the f---" Pulling back on the throttle, the bike's engine roared to life, her words lost to the wind as it tore past her.

"Turn back! This part of Northbridge is closed to civilian traffic." The police got into formation, one of the more enterprising ones even threw out a spike strip, not that it would've stopped her. "Three seconds to comply, then we do this the hard way." The bike sped up. "Three! two!" The police sergeant swallowed hard, slum dwellers were all batshit insane. "One!" The squad opened fire, a hail of bullets, laser shots, and plasma bolts tearing through the undercity.

With a grin, Astrid entered her breaker form and slammed on the brakes, sending the back wheel soaring into the air as she pulled a stoppie. In a practiced motion, her hands outstretched overhead, catching herself and her bike as they started to collide with the ground. Circuiting her strength through her arms, she bent at the elbows and then threw herself up and forward, soaring over the blockade as she did a ten-eighty flip.

Her left leg extended slightly as she fell, touching the ground and transitioning into a slide, bike still between her legs. The moment she saw her chance, she let the bike's still spinning tires touch the ground; they found purchase and her body was yanked along after the bike, speeding away from the blockade. The rest of the city was crawling with police as well, there'd be hell to pay for that at some point, the Undercity didn't take kindly to interlopers.

In fact... She didn't take well to interlopers, and assuming everything went well with the main Boss, this was to be her turf for the foreseeable future. Stabbing her hand into the ground, the bike pivoted around it until she let go, sending the bike rocketing off in the direction she had come from. The first cop got a bead on her, unfortunately, he was on her side of the barricade and there was nothing between them. At the last second, she pulled the bike up onto its back tire and jumped off, letting it collide with the man. Looking around she tried to think of the easiest way to deal with the rest.

Something shot her in the back of the head, metal ringing on metal as it collided with her skull, turning around she sighted a burly man with a semiautomatic rifle. "Wǒ láile," Arching her arm back, she raised one foot straight into the air as if she were pitching, then her leg came down, her arm extending forward as her hand formed into a metal sphere. She flew forward, propelled by the several hundred-mile-per-hour fastball, fist colliding with the man's head as it created a satisfying crunch. Upon impact, her free hand grabbed his rifle and her mutable form coalesced around it so that she knelt in a firing position.

Putting two shots into the nearest deputy's center mass she stood back up and slammed the butt of the gun into the face of the officer running up behind her. Her would-be assailant's hand went to his face, clutching at the blood pouring from his helmet. "Déan aithrí!" Grabbing him by the head she charged forward, bullets riddling his body as the rest of his squad vainly tried to slow her advance. His body slammed into the first of the firing squad, her free hand forming into a blade that swung horizontally through the rest of them. The strike stopped two men short of bisecting them all, her arm catching on a riot shield.

The riot cop gave her a smug grin, "Tinkertech, not even a brute like you can get-" Her arm disfigured and wrapped around the man, squeezing him tight to the shield. Spinning on one foot, she worked up centrifugal force. Once, twice, three times, four times around, before releasing her hold on the man and sending him soaring into the distance. The last member of the firing squad raised both of his hands, dropping the laser rifle he had been holding. "P-please, I have a family. I didn't ask to be deployed down here, just... Just let me live."

Her eyes scanned his face, he was about her age, inexperience plastered across his face. Whatever post he had been working on prior to this assignment, he was still relatively green, but could she really afford to show mercy? Her decision was made for her as something exploded above her, launching a weighted net straight down, electricity coursing through it. As it landed, a lethal voltage coursed through the man whose life she had just spared.

The sergeant turned to the only other surviving member of the assault, "Anti-Brute technology, it's all a simple matter of having the right tools for the j-" A silvery metal spike exploded up from the ground, impaling the man and exiting through the center of his clavicle. Astrid poured out of the ground until her body was standing below the sergeant, holding him suspended in the air on a forked branch of metal.

She looked up at him, "You killed your man back there. He had a family depending on him, and you sacrificed his life, for what? To encroach on someone else's home? You corpo rats are all the same."

The sergeant didn't respond, or perhaps he tried to but couldn't with several metal spikes piercing vital organs. The last member of the blockade group fumbled for his sidearm, clicking the safety off and aiming it at her, "D-drop him or I shoot."

She didn't move for a second, then her head slowly turned until her eyes met his, contempt filled her gaze, lips turning up in a sneer. "I wouldn't if I were you."

He fired three times, each shot ricocheting wildly off of her, the fourth shot hit an unfortunate angle and the bullet bounced off of her and back into his leg. With a swear he dropped his gun, clutching at his leg while blood spurted wildly out of the wound.

With a snort she released the sergeant, letting him fall to the ground, riddled with holes where the metal had been protruding out of him. Taking a few steps towards the last surviving member of the group she squatted down next to him so they were at roughly the same height. "Tough break kid, looks like you hit an artery." She gestured towards the blood pooling around him. "See? It's almost a black color, which means it's lifeblood. You're going to bleed out if you don't do something."

"Fuck! W-what should I do?"

Her shoulders moved in a half shrug, "Got a med hypo?"

"O-O'Malley does, the one with the Tinker shield, he was squad medic."

"Sorry to hear that." Standing up, she dusted herself off, "O'Malley went flying about a mile that way." She pointed to the east, "Even if I felt obliged to help, you'd be a corpse before I got there." Walking to her bike, she picked it up and got back on, "In your next life, when you are picking something to fight for, make sure it is also worth dying for." She revved the engine, "Suaimhneas síoraí."

"W-where are you going? You can't leave me here, fucking slum bitch!"

Her bike carried her away from the carnage and deeper into Northbridge.

---

Felix… Listened. For a bit. He did! Truly and seriously and really, and all that! But… Well.
She didn’t get it. Not really, and how could she! No one else had the itch like he did. The overwhelming press and crush of fear. That paranoia against the inevitability of it happening again. He couldn’t afford it, couldn’t relax, couldn’t slack off! Failure wasn’t an option. Stress testing at all times was the only way! If it failed him once, then it would fail him again! She was SO close to getting it!
So close to getting that overwhelming fear of a man out of control, a force of nature nearly ending his short story—
But it was fine. She… Was right. In a way, yes. He couldn’t sprint back to the lab every time something failed. Even if he really wanted to.

Felix shook himself some, ignoring the vague burning pain of his implants continuing to express their overstress. “No, yeah, yeah. You’re right—”
Or not.

Ion had arrived, and while Felix genuinely loved the giant oaf, he… Well actually, no this time he was severely appreciated! A quick break from the extremely taxing mental conversation!
Not that Dawn was even being taxing or anything like that, just that he really, really, didn’t want to think about his (definitely) maybe being wrong. In how he was approaching this friendship. And his tinkering. Hm.
Anyways! Ignore that! That whole… thinking about himself, thing. Yup! Forgotten! For now!
Felix shifted a bit in his seat, offering the requisite ‘oh yeah no kidding…’ to Ion, while letting his gaze slide to Dawn’s.

He stared at her, not thinking twice about trying to tell her with all the telepathy available to a chaos gremlin: ‘guess where I wanna go next!’
“My thing DID do the thing! Thanks for noticing, Tol King! I… Kinda hope that I did beat her time? If only so I can take over the ‘long distance’ travel part of the job, when I can, y’know?”
He flashed Ion a smile, before turning away and frowning, clearly thinking pretty hard.
“Hey thanks for the heads up though! I’ll make sure to avoid that area, and I’m pretty sure we’re gonna eat here for a bit anyways. My cyber needs a hot minute to cool down and perform their automatic repairs anyways.” He mumbled, flashing sheepish smile for the two at the table with him.

He raised a hand after a moment, looking appropriately sheepish. “Get some rest when you can, yeah man?” Felix murmured, sliding his eyes to the side conspiratorially. “If you don’t catch some sleep when you can… I’ll be the most eligible bachelor, and your- ah- fans will see you slippin’…”

There. That should serve as distraction AND dismissal! And he’d focus on doing his job too well to focus on where Felix would be… Not that that couldn’t be solved with a simple dummy tracker left where he wasn’t.
Hah!

Wolf really had to learn now that she had terrible luck when betting against Dean. Not that he was complaining, being a few clat richer and all. It was good that the Templar hadn't woken up any of those damn bats up there. dog sized, mutant bats with minor telekinesis. Yeah, nobody deserved dealing with those things. As entertaining as it had been to have seen Silver Fang try and brute force her way up to one of the plates, the responsible thing to do was to probably go get her. Alex was busy with . . . A lot and Given that there wasn't already word of something speed blitzing around town, the woman was probably lost. Dean considered bumming it off to someone else, he really did. But Golem looked ready to smack his shin again for some reason. "What?" Golem began to pantomime . . . something. Despite best efforts Dean still had trouble communicating with the selectively mute spirit. Dean received a rocky flick to his leg for his supposed lack in understanding clear instructions.

"Okay okay, I'll get up!" He grumbled and made a show of getting up and out of his favorite chair. "Jeez what is with you today?" There was a sort of impatience with the earth spirit, which was becoming a more common thing in the past few days. Dean however didn't get time to really consider the ramifications of such things as Golem chased him into his room, threatening his poor shins the whole way. "Alright dude, I'll get dressed!"

---

---

All dressed and decked out in his usual gear, The hedge mage marched outside to find Golem waiting. "Alright you wise ass molehill, What now?" He crossed his arms impatiently. Golem sank into the ground for a minute, then Dean was yanked down too with a rather un-masculine yelp at the lack of warning.

The two emerged somewhere else moments later. Dean however decided to spit profanities at the rather pleased looking [Earth Primal]. Golem ignored their steward and waved at a familiar face nearby.

"Uh…! Super-fan!" Yue stopped her slow spin to look at the new arrival, eyes flicking first to Golem… then to Dean. She waggled finger guns at him awkwardly. "Um. Did you…?" She pointed at the ground. "With…?" She pointed at Golem with a concerned expression, and then waved back at the spirit hesitantly.

This sure was turning into a day.

"Oh hey! Good to see-!" Dean blinked owlishly. Looking between Golem and Yue a few too many times before it clicked. " You can see him?" He motioned to the diminutive spirit with a look of surprise. Granted it probably shouldn’t have at this point given the state of her body double.

"...Yyyyeeeess~?" She offered, as though she weren’t sure if she should answer or not. Yue squinted at the spirit. All this protocol was so hard to remember… Was she supposed to check first? Or was it just obvious because he had a waving rock with a teddy bear face on his shoulder. "Can’t… everyone??" Asked Yue with a note of suspicion.

Dean let out a sigh and straightened up. "Well alright then. Could have said something if you were [Awakened] or not. I won't claim to be offended that you went to Zolya instead of me for . . . whatever was going on." He took a much more relaxed posture and put his hands in his pockets.

"Uuuuhhh," she snapped her fingers rhythmically before sucking in a breath. "Right, uh… they sorta came to me, and I didn’t really know to say anything before this morning. So… Blue moons... waking up and all that," she muttered uncomfortably.

There was a pause as Dean’s eyes went a tad bit wide. "Well . . . damn, you got thrown in the deep end huh?" Without missing a beat, he snorted out another remark before she could respond. "Nice try making it to the plate gap by the way. Didn’t think you could go that fast out of your armor though."

Golem simply beamed at Yue, seeming rather happy that she was slowly becoming less [polluted] then she once had been.

"Oh. You saw that," Yue winced. To be fair, it wasn’t subtle. She perked up after a moment, however, holding up the medallion with a note of excitement. "Oh! I can’t, normally: I’d get my skin flayed clean off. Zolya gave me this!" Yue flipped the medallion like a coin, unsure of how to reset its operation except to re-initialize contact. When it landed in her hand it gave a metallic chime and the thin film of force flickered over her skin.

"It’s weathered smooth as you get up there. My foot slipped and I just bled off too much speed but… there was a hot second when I’d dropped this and I didn’t have my arm shaved clean off so I think maybe there’s a… a… a thing I can do!" Yue waggled the medallion at him with excitement and was immediately lost in mutters about threads and braids for a moment.

"Right," she stopped, flicking her eyes back to Dean before she was completely absorbed in thought.. "Hey um… Does…," Yue trailed off, gesturing vaguely to indicate an extremely large person.

"Alex? Oh no, he’s mundane through and through." He took a second to run what he had just said through his head and enjoyed the irony. "He’s got a full plate anyway, that and I'm not sure his brain could handle it all." Don’t need to fry the himbo’s brain after all. Or gods forbid he learns magic to add to his bullshit.

"Riiight right. I’m not sure my brain can handle 'it all,'" she muttered grumpily and then started walking towards them. "Final Odyssey terminology only then. Hey-uh… I have a feeling I’m gonna get yelled at for running ahead. Let’s walk and talk," she offered, reaching up to scritch Golem’s chin.

The spirit’s polished stone surface thrummed against her fingers, and for a just moment she could feel every stone in the settlement down to the smallest grain of sand. A deep baritone resonated through the Earth on the edge of their hearing as a thread of [Silver] peeled out of her skin and stitched into Golem. She raised an eyebrow, but didn’t pursue further contact.

How about we keep it to one Aether Cascade today?

Yue let her arm drop and then shuffled down the alley a few steps before stopping. She took a deep breath and turned back around to face Dean, fists clenched anxiously.

"I’m lost," she blurted out suddenly, like she was going to forget to say it.

That got a grin from Dean. "You don’t say?" He exchanged a nod with his spirit. "No worries, that's what we’re here for. Oh and, maybe be a little more careful when you touch a [Primal Spirit] alright?" Dean gave Golem another look just to be sure the little guy wasn’t showing off. Really wasn’t a good time to scare a new mage with the full appearance and might of a [Primal]. Golem swayed back and forth, looking as innocent as a sentient earth entity could. Dean shook his head and returned his attention to Yue.

"Great…"

He seemed to consider something before giving a shrug. "You, uh, you’re free to ask questions if you want. I promise I’ll be the least convoluted and cryptic of any mage you could possibly meet. I’m not the most technical given that I've willingly locked myself into being a [Hedge Mage] but-" A piece of jade was pulled out of his pocket and flicked around his fingers. "I won't just spout bullshit just to sound smart and mystical." Dean made a face that made it abundantly clear this was too common a thing. Yue’s eyes flicked up and scanned the rooftops like D might be watching this exchange, and then to Golem, then to Dean.

"Primal Spirit… Primal, that’s a Primal? Walking Aetherscape shredding natural disaster shaped and brought into being by human emotion and desire Primal? That kind of Primal?" She asked with a note of not insignificant alarm.

"Ah, right. Final Odyssey. Well, yes and no. There is a Primal for every element or aspect of nature and they can become problems and great disasters. That's why Stewards, like myself, keep eyes on some of them. Some Primals will bind themselves to people though and that can get messy. It all really depends on which Spirit holds the mantle of primal for its given element, the people involved, and a lot of other junk." Dean motioned down to Golem, who seemed to be content to waddle alongside the two. "Golem here, like a lot of earth spirits, is slow to act and fairly docile. That and golems are natural protectors in stories, so his disposition is very ideal. Not the case for other Primals though. Fire, Lightning, and Force are almost always universally intense and hard to truly keep a hold of."

Letting her digest that for a second, Dean was a tad nervous since most mages didn’t always react well to realizing the cute spirit they were seeing was in fact the living embodiment of the earth and its power . . . while also being underground.

"Huh," Yue grunted with interest, tilting her head at the creature. "It’s cute… in kind of an irrationally disarming way," she observed, scratching her chin. "I… honestly would have imagined, I don’t know… an enormous, monstrous, walking craggy mountain with broken canyons for facial features and cloven boulders for hands- what’s that?" Yue asked, pointing at the jade piece as her gaze tracked it.

Yue’s eyes flooded with luminous amber, and her pupils stretched with sharp interest as a ripple of silver traveled across her temples and down her spine. She shivered, and seemed to be lost in a moment before she jerked herself out of it with a flinch. The energy faded out of her gaze as she blinked and flicked her eyes up at Dean.

"Whoa…"

Okay, maybe it was a good thing Golem was playing up the cute. The little guy was shaking in a way that indicated laughter. Dean looked at his piece of jade then back to Yue. seeing the look on her face, she probably had taken a peek. "Oh, this?" He held up the piece with two fingers. It was much larger than the one he had given Ash. more akin to a silver dollar and much thicker. " Tell me what you see first. I’ll explain, but I'm curious what it looks like to the newly initiated."

Yue raised an eyebrow, and then paused in her stride to look closely at the object. Amber flickered through her gaze, but she squeezed the corner of her barrier medallion into her palm to help ground her in real-time. Focusing made her squint against, not just the brilliance of the object, but the other sparks of [Light] seemingly speckled beneath Dean’s clothes.

"Smells sweet, like caramel?" Yue mentioned, crinkling her nose a little at the sheer weight of the phantom scent. "Green glow. Bright. Patterns of lines, like a complex Venn Diagram, burning text in a language I can’t read. A nexus of Light at the center, moving like electricity through a circuit," she explained, pausing and searching for words for a moment as waves of Silver sheen pulsed across her temples.

"It’s vibrating. Heavy: I can feel it pressing against my skin from here. It’s… kind of uncomfortable, like being touched by a stranger. Your clothes are glowing too, like thermal hot spots," she explained, indicating a pocket, and pointing out a patch and a badge on his jacket. "Big one here, kinda drowns out the other lights," Yue pointed at his jacket, probably at an inside breast pocket. After a pause she reached out and gently brushed a fingertip against the jade piece. It rang low like a crystal bell and she tilted her head back and forth for a moment.

"Alto," she commented, without explaining.

Well, she definitely was aware of all his charms, trinkets and mana reservoirs. After getting a better [look] at it and hearing Yue’s description, Dean felt confident he knew what he was dealing with. Who knew all those lessons on the more rare and extreme cases of affinity would actually be relevant? A whistle escaped his lips. " Never imagined I’d see Swordsong myself, can only imagine what you would be capable of with one of these." He considered Yue’s words for a moment before pocketing the coin; what followed was him tapping a few of his pins and patches in a specific sequence. A few mana arrays began overlaying him and dulling each signature significantly. "That any better?"

"Yes, actually," Yue frowned for a second, blinking rapidly to clear the artifacts out of her sight. "You know what it is then? Starting to feel like I’m the only one who has no idea what’s happening," she muttered, kicking a stone aggressively and forgetting about the jade piece for a moment. It sparked as it caromed off a steel beam reinforcing one of the buildings they were walking past and sailing off into the distance somewhere over the settlement wall. She grunted with a small note of annoyance.

"Something… someone told me recently is bothering me," she mentioned, slipping her hand into her legging pocket and touching the blank business card. For a moment she thought to show it to Dean before she reconsidered and folded her arms.

"’Gods are narcissists, and Mages are liars. Both of them have intentions for me. If it seems like everyone around me is one or the other, it’s safe to assume there’s a reason for that, and that reason won’t care about me personally,’" she paraphrased D’s words. "I’ve… only just learned about the magic world and… that seems to ring more true than I would like."

He mulled over her words for maybe a minute. "Kind of a stupid statement. Everyone under the sun is a liar to some extent. If gods weren’t narcissists we wouldn’t have half the stories we do. Granted some gods are spirits that have been primal in the past so there's a reason for that. AND us mages basically live in a secret world, our entire society is built on lies and secrecy to not have mass witch trials again or accidentally have everyone and their mothers know magic and throw the world and its trigger happy governments into a super-magic-techno apocalypse." Dean raised an eyebrow and gave Yue a look. "You're a mage too now, so technically you were insulted to your face by the way."

Yue blinked. She hadn’t really considered that being dropped into this secret world made her a “Mage.”

He leaned his head back to gaze up at the plate high above. "As for me, I don’t know. I’m a Steward to the Primal Spirit of Earth living underground, enjoying my best life. Can’t really say I have any intentions for you other than making sure you're safe and that you and Alex don’t unintentionally ghost one another again. Though that was mostly on him." He began leading her back towards Alex and his place, though the route was more private then the one Alex had used previously.

"Yeah, that kinda happened at a bad time," she muttered in a somber tone.

"I [promise] to be plain with you. Know that that is binding for me in a very literal sense. Things are new, you're in the deep end and people haven’t been doing a good job keeping you from drowning it seems. Let’s just, make things simpler going forward yeah?"

"Please," she sighed with a note of exasperation. "If one more ‘guardian angel’ pops out of the woodwork to speak to me in riddles I might kick a building down," she grunted, rubbing her temples.

"Just say the word and I’ll bury them up to their neck for an hour or two. If it wasn’t before, it was very apparent that Dean shared similar feelings and sentiments. Golem “clapped” their hands together, eager at the mention of burying someone annoying.

---

---

Archer rode looking over his shoulder towards the manor as they departed, trusting the stag to find its way through the overgrowth. He heaved a bit of a sigh, spotting the null-zone most typically associated with heavy cybernetic modification, and... Rat(?) through the haze of elevated Mana.

"That has to be Cruaidín, probably looking for Yue if I had a guess," he muttered, ducking under a knotted branch with bark splintered from explosive growth and shifting his weight to accommodate the Stag as it hopped over a gnarled root. "Well... It might be inconvenient if she found me down here," he mused, sitting back and rubbing at the stubble accumulating on his face with an expression of distaste.

"You know, your lack of humor might be a large contributor towards your romantic situation," he teased, with a smirk as he followed Yue's journey back down to Terra-Firma as a blip on the edge of his senses. He tucked that little quip about Aegis away in the back of his mind: he knew Raudd was being snarky but... couldn't hurt to actually look, right?

"She's still moving," he announced, letting his stag slow down a little to a less stressful speed. "Back South, most likely towards ShieldTown again at a more 'relaxed' pace," he said, making finger quotes. A "relaxing jog" for Yue was still faster than most civilian vehicles could travel.

---

Archer drove the stags at a casual run towards the gates. It seemed like he was lost in thought, but was keenly aware enough of their surroundings to guide them around more than one creature threat. He wondered if maybe he was pushing Yue too hard, or laying it on too thick. Emotional resonance was something his sister and he were particularly sensitive to, and he couldn't help but wonder if Zolya had also felt that spike of anxiety, frustration, and anger resonate through the manasphere right before Yue took off. She had mentioned that she'd already had a lot of dilated time to process what was happening, but clearly still had some lingering feelings to get through.

To be fair, Archer hadn't expected her to be all hunky dory with everything overnight. The fact that she'd come this far emotionally in just a few hours was a feat of mental strength in and of itself. Getting the answers she so desperately wanted, though...

Archer reached back and whipped a card past Raudd. It arced up, whistling as it cut through the air and intercepting a stone that was flying with significant velocity towards the Norseman. The stone shattered on an umbrella of force as it collided with the card, directing the shards over and around them. He looked up with a raised eyebrow, scanning ShieldTown's walls for threats, and just hummed an amused tone when he didn't see anything. He slid off the stag as ShieldTown's gates loomed over and above them, smoothing out his jacket and pants with a huff.

"Hey, I'm gonna give Yue some space. I'm pretty sure she's with someone I trust right now, and who will call me if something goes awry but... second pair of eyes and all," he nodded at Raudd. "I have another errand to run and I want to avoid getting caught out of the office by Cruaidín. Zolya knows how to get in touch I'm sure," he chirped with a smile.

-snip-

A hundred blue screens glowed within a dark room. Megahertz's pointed hood stood like a tower between it all, unflinching and unmovable as she took in every sight and sound.

"Mary-Jane Banou here, with Channel 5000, reporting live from the Ares Justice Square," a voice came from one of the screens. Of a middle-aged woman in a blazer, shouting into a microphone amidst a shrill choir of sirens. Vehicles came in swarms. Armoured carriers painted with red crosses over white, ambulances emblazoned with DocWagon's sigil, and hordes of Sector 7 police cruisers, their blue and red sirens shining behind a blockade armed with Ares's finest. "This disaster, already called the worst in two years, came only just a day after the Tragedy Killer's latest alleged attack which left Cowgirl Blizzard in pieces."

The screen transitioned into the point of view of a shaky camera. It wobbled amidst a sea of sirens and police tape, then zoomed towards a Templar Knight and a Sector 7 Police Captain, their stances tense, their fingers pointing towards each other as an argument broke out, the words "Jurisdiction" and "Fuck off" barely audible amidst the chaos.

On another screen, Katalina skulked beneath the shadowed concrete of a condemned building. A flock followed after her, of scientists wearing oversized glasses and Craftsmen clad in dingy aprons. She gestured to them to stop as searchlights shined through glassless windows, only charging forth as darkness returned.

Sandstorm and his men appeared two screens below, brandishing rifles and shotguns as they stood guard in Downtown Northbridge. "Give it up, coppers. These civillians are under our protection," Sandstorm declared, with his rifle rested against his shoulder, and a fist raised and shifted into solid rock.

A far right screen delved below the streets, within a circular interior, flooded with green-brown muck risen above a man's ankles. The walls were lined with layers of pipes that seemed to stretch forever, caked in layers of rust, moss, and filth. Rakshas emerged behind a turn, with two fellow mutants tailing him. An armoured hovercraft dragged on their rear, protected at the back with rifle-bearing, gas-masked soldiers. The giant's two heads looked up, down, and around, white vapour expelled from their nostrils as they exhaled their perpetual, needle-filled grins. “I smell…,” the rounded head spoke. “...Pigs,” the angular head finished, his voice trailed into a hiss.

And then… something else. On the leftmost screen. An anomaly that drew all of Megahertz’s attention.

---

Ganta shuffled from a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant to his car in an alleyway, in an awkward sideways crab-shuffle, his view obstructed by a mound of takeaway boxes. He chased the jingle in his pocket as he reached the driver’s side door, balancing the stack in his stiff arm - shit, other pocket, shit, other-other pocket. A tub of sauce slid off the tower as he reached for the keys - his good hand shot out and leg kicked behind him, saving the sauce, keeping his balance, and protecting the entire tower from toppling.

… Alright, got the plum sauce, got the keys. Key in the door-

A pain RIPPED through his right arm and uploaded directly to his spine. The split-second flare was the herald of a spasm that sent all the takeaway boxes scattering. He shouted and grabbed at it, but the Chrome limb fought him off, just as the burning pain that screamed INCOMPATIBLE did. He was a helpless witness to its flapping until its final glitch and it fell limp, a dead weight dragging down his shoulder. Ganta panted against the side of the car, staring over the mess of boxes and mongolian beef spread all over the sidewalk. Murmurs trickled in from down the end of the alley. The two girls watching moved on fast when he looked over. Ganta clenched the keys in his fist and put them through the window.

THUD.

The crunch of a body hitting pavement was almost lost in the noise of kicking the shit out of his car. Ganta backed off from the massive dent he'd put in the door and looked over the end of the alley it came from. The frantic beeps of the car alarm followed after him as he approached the body. A riot cop. The man had landed on his shield, which had held up in the plummet. The cop, not so much. Somehow still groaning.

Ganta pushed him over onto his back with a kick of his boot. The man's head rolled in a way that made it clear he probably shouldn't have been messing with the guy's spine. He put his foot on his stomach and leaned over, frisking the cop's chest. The cop's fingers twitched and he blubbered something, a prayer. Ganta dug his fingers in and tore a small device from the cop's vest. Body cam. He put a finger to his earpiece.

"Hey, Megahertz. Who's out here killing police?"

“Huh? What’s this about killing police?” Katalina replied.

“We’re KILLING the po-pos?” Rakshas followed. His other head snorted in revelry. “Good… I was getting HUNGRY!”

“Ganta, you fool. You’re on the wrong channel,” Megahertz replied, with the dry tone of a disappointed mother.

“So do we have the go ahead to ice these coppers?” Sandstorm whispered into his comm, with himself and his men surrounded by the police horde. “They ain’t backing down from this one.”

“We don’t negotiate with crooks!” A police spokesman shouted into his megaphone.

Back in the Northbridge sewers, shadows of men and guns prowled ahead of Rakshas’s caravan. “Base mother, we are deep in the South Industrial sewers, over. No sign of JAHANNAM yet,” the voice of an officer echoed through the tunnel. Rakshas stopped. His two heads looked to their mutant entourage, who all nodded with the same thought. “Let’s do it.” “They’re RIPE for an ambush!”

East Harbour. Katalina perched atop a decayed construction beam, her gaze directed below. Another police blockade had been set up, surrounding all immediate exits. She flexed her clawed arm. “My Lady, I ain’t gettin’ these geeks out of the docks without violence.”

A hiss expelled from Megahertz’s hood, phased into a high-pitched sound not unlike microphone feedback. She hunched over her screens, her hands slammed upon the desk. “Enforcers, stay your bloodlust! Killing the police is UNNECESSARY.” She turned towards Ganta’s screen. “Ganta, fool. You need to go to Bridge Street and destroy all the police cameras at once!” Her hood swivelled towards a nearby screen. The anomaly. "I will look into this… disturbance myself."

An electronic hum came from Ganta’s arm as it came back into use, the weight lifting from it. He flexed its fingers, flicked up the camera, and caught it in his golden hand, where he crushed it. “Yes ma’am,” he muttered, letting the metallic dust slip between his fingers. He looked down at the dying cop, wheezing through a mouthful of blood, and stomped on his head.

---

Bridge Street. The wind rushed past Astrid on her bike. It was daylight, yet the sun lamp barely shined through the fog and haze. Her surroundings were blurred by the speed of her traversal, the lights of street and traffic guiding her towards central Northbridge.

Something stared at her atop a street lamp, through eyes like three slits of green. It leapt, and the street lights illuminated its form. Azure chassis, black synthetic muscles, a canine structure. The chrome dog landed ahead of her with an attention-grabbing 'THUNK', staring as it hunkered into a low stance, an assault rifle mounted on its back.

Alex was pulled out of his on spiraling mind When Umbri addressed him directly. Umbri, shit he had never asked for her name before. thank god he had been present enough mentally to have caught that. She wanted him to stop Jemma if things went wrong. He could do that, and it would get him to focus on something other then the fact that his friend had eaten people and was most likely not mentally sound. He was going to be talking with her about that later.

Walking up to the two women, Alex put his helmet on once again and sealed it just in case. Blue light surged around him again as his voice came through the helm's speakers. "Everyone is coming out of here alive if i have anything to say about it. Reaching out, A gauntlet hand was placed on each woman's shoulder. Unlike his usual combat constructs, an intricate latticework of hexagons and triangles tessellated out from his hands across both Umbri and Jemma. It took roughly 3 minutes before both were covered and it looked more like they had been covered in a blue aura rather then some of the finest barrier fields Alex was capable of. the downside was that it took most of his concentration. "Both of you can move freely, ill be touching you the whole time to make automatic adjustments as needed." He looked to Umbri first. "You say the word, give any indication that you think something is wrong and ill have you two isolated from one another and separated in an instant." He turned to regard Jemma, and he felt a pang of guilt for what he was going to say next. "I want to trust you, I really do. so please . . . don't give me a reason to escalate."

He paused, and soon a similar shine accompanied him as the same fine barrier craft flowed across his own body. nothing but air and sound able to penetrate his own field now. call him paranoid but, dealing with unknown powers unprepared was just tempting fate. Alex mostly nodded to himself. Packing everything else away and reverting back to the focused professionalism of Aegis. A gentle squeeze was given to both Umbri and Jemma's shoulders for reassurance and an indication he was ready.

Máire’s blades shot around at the sound of the woman’s voice, forming a razor barricade at her approach. Máire turned her head to appraise the woman, nearly invisible reticles around her pupils turning back and forth silently. ”What a serendipitous reunion this is,” she greeted dryly.

”Scribble-Ma’am!” Rat shrieked in neurotic half-delight. ”Rat isn’t enemy! Rat doesn’t trespass! Rat brings Knife-Lady to find Templar-Friend!”

Máire’s eyes flickered over to the rodential messenger at the sound of his rhetorical jabbering. ”She knows,” she stated quietly, waving the nervous furball down.

Rat’s head jerked back and forth between Máire and “Scribble-Ma’am”. ”Knows?” he asked, mind chugging to process what Scribble-Ma’am had already said upon her arrival. He blinked twice, standing in silence for a second or two. Then-

”Oh! Knows! Yes yes! Rat is friend to Stoneworks!” Rat cheered, skittering under Máire’s swords and around Scribble-Ma’am’s hips. Máire’s hand twitched to reach out and stop him, but ultimately let him go. Best to let him be. It did look a bit like he was using her to separate himself from Máire, though… but that was his prerogative.

Máire sighed through her nose. The swords acting as a wall between her and Scribble-Ma’am didn't waver. Máire stared the woman down through the fence of blood-iron, perfectly still.

”I just came from Shieldtown,” She stated with careful enunciation. ”How long ago did Fang leave?”

When Kiran stopped seeing red, the entire superstructure was dead quiet. It was from luck or some form of self control that had held on that he wasn't surrounded by gore. Episodes like that tended to result in drones being ripped apart. There was however a bit of damage done to the surrounding equipment and more then one reinforced container was a twisted mess of warped alloy. Letting out a shaky breath, The mad tinker straightened themselves and brushed their hair back out of their eyes. The air was filled only with the sound of dripping chems and the clicking of their cyber tail flicking back and forth. "Ord, Front and center. Now.."

"Y-yes Father." The large mutant came out of his hiding place, his cowering demeanor contradicting his appearance and towering frame in contrast to his "Father".

"Go tell Idris to rally as many followers as he has in the fifth level and wait for me. Wen your done, wake the Stalker hounds. I'll be needing them too." There was none of Kiran's usual mirth or whimsly to their voice. The blank expression frozen to their face was more unnerving then any twisted caricature their too many facial muscles were capable of.

Ord had to have dosed themselves with Nitro seconds after reciving their orders, because the speed at which the mutant ran was unnatural. Kiran hadn't give their youngest "Son" a second glance before they spun on their heel and marched to their nest for their gear and equipment.

---

A humanoid figure stood at a balcony overseeing a fighting arena more fit to be an auditorium currently. Cultists in all many of forms of mutation, body sculpting and mutilation stood in attention. A hushed Murmur of confusion keeping anyone from hearing a pin drop. The being looked down at their Father's flock with nervousness and anticipation. Idris Kingsley was human in shape but with limbs far too long for their body to look right, in place of skin was flayed muscle, and their face was a smooth mask of bleached bone with a ring of eyes and no visible mouth or nose. Simple robes and sashes kept the Hierophant modest. A trace of pharamones was all he needed to throw his hands in the air and grab the attention of the audience. "Blessed Children! Our God has need of you and comes to grace us with his presence! Idris bowed deeply and stepped back for Kiran to step forward. The lingering feeling of anger from him kept the room from exploding into cheers and applause at his mere presence alone.

Their eyes flicked across the crowd before Kiran raised their voice. "Someone . . . has stolen my GIFT. And i intend to find out who." He held up a hand before the crowd could explode into shouts of outrage over the blasphemous act. "I task each of you, and any more of ours you find out there, with finding out who stole it and what is being done with my most . . . precious of blessings." He gripped at the balcony railing, leaning towards the cultists more. "I want nobody to be caught, and whoever the perpetrators are, they are to be left alone." Confusion spread along with outcry and questions until Kiran raised their hand for silence. "You will do this or face a fate worse then death. For I . . ." Kiran leaned back and held a strange flask at eye level. The word "Tyrant" Engraved across it. "Will be handling this personally."

Now that, that got everyone excited. Cheers and howls of approval filled the Coliseum. Cultists practically trampling over each other to make way to the doors. Idris approached their father. "The stalker hounds have been programed and all packs set loose. Will you be awaiting news here?"

"No. I think I'll be going for a walk. Maybe pick a few flowers. Inform on everything that is discovered in the meantime. You are dismissed."

---

Despite the figurative and literal iron fist JAHANNAM had over Northbridge, there were always going to be smaller gangs and groups fighting over what little scraps and unattended territories not considered to be worth the time or resources along the very edges of their borders. One couldn't account for Ripper's and the Cult of Flesh that continued to try and worm their ways in from time to time. The ever present threat of violence and almost constant crime meant that gunshots and dead bodies were very rarely given second thought even with the law enforcer's best efforts.

There were of course drawbacks to having such a desensitized community. All made the more apparent by the gore and viscera splattered about the "Abandoned" storehouse. crates of "skimmed off the top" merchandise and goods lay broken all over.

Whimpering escaped the lips of the last remaining ganger. His hands pierced by a meat hook that held him aloft by a chain. He was just enough inches off the ground to swing just so slightly side to side. "P-p-please. I-i swear I don't know anything. W-we- I only helped get the tech they needed. T-thats all. Pleasedon'tkillmeohgod!" The poor soul broke down into tears again for perhaps the fifth time today.

" Oh don't worry." Kiran purred Like a lion with a mouse in its paw. "Killing you would be a terrible waste of stress relief. Now promise me," He pulled out a vegetable peeler, making the ganger beg and squirm with renewed vigor. "Don't pass out right away, you'll ruin my fun."

Cut.

Peel.

Cut.

"Please . . . Please just kill me."


He was feeling a little better already~

~♬~

Cut.

Peel.





A potato skin flopped into the sink to the choir of sizzles and boiling water. It was nice to be back in his proper lab, where he had a proper kitchen. Sairyn inhaled the melody of aromas deeply and sighed as the stress melted out of his shoulders and potato peels fell into the sink, to be scooped by a mechanical arm through a miniature Conduit to the chamber where the compost was processed and kept at the perfect temperature, later to be used as fertilizer for the hydroponic beds.

Archer was right. He really needed to take some... HIM time... which was suggested in a moment of uncharacteristic fluster after fumbling one too many explosives. Everybody has an off day, right? No. Not everybody, not Archer. Archer never has an off day, he's annoyingly unflappable no matter how many times we test him!

Stop.

He's positively identifiable.

Cut and peel. We're gonna make some latkes... or maybe just some perfectly crisp hash browns. The kettle whistled urgently, and he cut off the heat with a tap to the Slate that floated at his side and pushed the button on the grinder once, twice... thrice... frice? No. Nonononono, nothing comes after thrice. Perfect coarse grind emptied into the french press, followed by boiling water at the perfect temperature. Perfect. Simple was the order of the day... just some simple crisp hash browns... simple Benedict and crisp bacon, with hollandaise simply made from scratch. Simple fresh sourdough, with a simple yogurt parfait made from berries, nuts, and grains freshly harvested from the hydroponics.

Simple.

Squirreled away in a pocket of ExoSpace where nobody could reach or bother him, Sairyn enjoyed a relaxing breakfast in solitude. What had him so wound up? The fact that his gambit against Ares with the stealth drone came up empty, and somehow he was to blame. This was exactly why he hated doing favors for SINS... or anyone, really. He huffed, sipping his coffee gingerly. It didn't help that he'd also lost the eerie cross-market staring contest he was having with the Ares CEO.

The man seemed to be able to suppress all his involuntary body movements. It was like staring at a mannequin.

Sairyn shivered. At least he was free to work on his own projects for the moment, which reminded him: Should he work on finding his missing agent? Or just trust that Maire had it handled? Then there was that blip with Felix disappearing off the Net and showing up at the stake out with the CEO's Executive Assistant?? What. The. Hell? So hard to find good help these days. He simmered, remembering he was supposed to be relaxing, and instead ate in oppressive silence while he read reports from the Slate floating at his fingertips.

"System regression complete," a pleasantly clinical voice slid from the earpiece Sovereign normally spoke to him from, causing him to bolt upright and nearly spill his coffee. He'd forgotten to take it off. "Systems compatible, resuming Framework formatting. Completed. Cooling silos online at 25%. Small power fluctuation detected within acceptable margin of error."

He raised an eyebrow. The blank framework he'd built finished regression and formatting earlier than he'd expected. A few contented swipes brought up the project schemata on his Slate, and he was greeted to the pleasant view of green check marks and progress bars filling. He hummed a pleased note and flicked through status screens and data telemetry while he finished his breakfast. If the rest of the boot went well, he'd be able to install a backup copy of Sovereign later in the afternoon... assuming he could find a way to rip one from the main server without pissing off Leonardo.

"AI systems online," she informed smoothly. Sairyn's spoon clinked against the glass holding his parfait as he froze.

"Excuse me?"

"The boot sequence has completed. Welcome, Guest User, my name is Monarch."

"Guest?!" He let his glass thump against the table as he scrambled for his Slate.

"You have a pending message on your device," she informed coolly. He swiped the notification bar on his Slate with a concerned expression. Nothing. "Your other device." Sairyn frowned and dug frantically into his coat for his Slatephone and clicked the screen on. Nothing. "Your other device."

The other device? The Red phone? The one that only rang to one contact? That device? The one that was supposed to be dark to everyone but him? He pulled the modified, red-covered Slatephone out of an ExoSpace pocket with a swipe of his hand, and it materialized in a flash of white light.

1 Message.



Sairyn spluttered, there were so many questions to ask. First and foremost on his mind was-





"Oh God, here we go," he muttered, rolling his eyes.



"... Fuck."

Zolya had gotten a slight bit startled by the sudden movement of the swords erecting a barrier between the Templar and herself. Quite a visually striking power, being able to maneuver swords with that much speed and precision... At the same time it didn't quite seem like the power was merely a form of telekinesis, there were other object around that could form a much more reliable barrier, while maintaining the option to keep some swords for offensive purposes. Fortunately she could easily detect that this power wasn't from a magical source, which was probably for the best given her augmentations. "Well let's hope this, 'reunion' doesn't lead to more of my replanting effort scorched to cinder." She requested having to make an effort to not sound curtly.

While she had been contemplating the Templar's power Rat had managed to squirm his way away from the Templar's side to hiding behind Zolya's back, which had caused her escort to let out some displeased growls that were quickly squashed by a hand gesture from Zolya. Seemed that he wasn't quite happy with his arrangement with the Templar, then again pulling Rat off his courier duties was already severely frying it's brains, like a honeybee dragged away from it's hive.

"Well, that's very unlucky I would say. And to answer your question Silver Fang left approximately 10 to 15 minutes ago." Zolya's words carrying a little bit of second hand frustration at the situation. Presumably dragged through whatever inane roundabout route Rat had lead them down, only to find that the target of your search has moved to where you had been in the first place. Why did this feel like a classically speedester related situation? Well regardless feeling annoyed wasn't going to solve the problem.

"I have some business in Shieldtown myself and was planning to head there right before my flock decided to cause a ruckus over here..." She said giving a few of the offending corvids a little bit of side eye as she paused. "I could lead you there without taking any dangerous detours, and I have some strong suspicions where she is or at least I have a few eyes in the sky keeping track of her." She suggested in an attempt to deescalate the situation, and serve an effective solution to the Templar's problem... Not to mention that it would make it faster to solve the whole Templar panic problems the Undercity was facing if both Templars were together and under the care of a reliable rogue rather than both roaming separately and unescorted.

---

The shapeshifter was in awe. Her mind lost its tenuous grasp on focus as she instead took a few moments to stare at the blooming lattice of [POWER-FUEL-MIND-STRUCTURE-BLOCK] that had formed over herself and Umbri. An immediate burst of hunger seated through her core.

It wanted to hold this power, consume it like a succulent fruit hanging from a tree. Turn it into nuclear fuel to keep the meat going for years and years and-
No! Focus! That was a friend! Is! A friend
Jemma shook her head, turning her gaze back to Umbri as she took in the ‘smaller’ woman’s requests.
“Huh. Y’know I think she’s actually technically taller than me…” Jemma muttered thoughtfully, seemingly unaware that she was speaking aloud. Welp! Time to begin.
She focused, truly, and felt… Odd. Like she was both falling asleep and waking up. Astral eyes bloomed, and filled the mind with information. The trickle of [LIFE], the wrap of [VENOM-DEATH-Necrotise], and the pulse of [FEAR-DISGUST-DETERMINED-hopehopeHOPE].

Right.

“Administering pain relieving agent now.” Spoke the swiftly disassociating Body. Apathy and clinical intelligence swelled in place of emotional reasoning and empathy.
The [patient] would prefer this done quick, smooth, and without complication. Best to move swiftly then.

One of J-3’s tentacles whipped upwards, coming to a rest against the small of Umbri’s back, before straightening out and following along the muscles of her spine. Ink pulsed once along the length of prehensile muscle and fur, but showed no changes otherwise.
J-3 stood still, motionless like a statue, almost unnatural in its lack of motion, before it spoke again. “Anesthetic administered. Noting for patient: agent will integrate with patient body in one minute, thirty five seconds.” The body froze again, shifting focus and tasks in silence before once more speaking.
“Applying maw to patient now. Patient will note that movement is highly unrecommended. Patient will note that procedure will not be halted entirely, but can be paused by gripping, scratching, pinching, pressing, or holding the cilia within the ‘Maw’ organ. Patient will note that ‘surgeon’ will then halt. Patient will note that proceeding to pat, squeeze, or tap thrice will re-engage the procedure.”
And with that, the aforementioned maw shifted. Umbri’s entire arm disappeared into a throat that led to nowhere, filled with sensitive cilia, like millions of tiny hairs. If the [patient] squeezed or flinched, any movement that prompted readjustment, J-3 would stop. It had [PROMISED]. J-3 halted the maw after a moment, the very end of it pressing against the [patient]’s throat as the fangs laid to rest against the exposed skin.
The shapeshifter waited a moment.

“Note: Pain relieving agent in effect. Patient shall move her left leg to demonstrate that movement is unaffected. Patient will note that pain is dulled. Approximately 84.37 percent reduction in pain reciever activation. Patient will note that agent has been replicated a total of eight hundred and forty three times prior to administration in this procedure.”
Another pause, before the J-3 continued.

“Beginning procedure.”

It bit down, and began its work.
The site of entry and thresher-venom injection was the back of the neck, above the beginnings of a cybernetic spine. So the ink dripping fang bit through the skin there, just enough to sink a centimeter or so in.
Veins of ink rapidly spread through the blood vessels, damaging, consuming, and repairing as swiftly as they went. From its recollections, this process was best described as ‘a horrific internal tattoo that was cold and excruciating. Like nerves dying while paper thin slugs of mucus and frost crawled through you.’
With the venom it had given? Umbri would likely only feel as though she was receiving a deeply uncomfortable tattoo, and even only barely as much.
Finally, the veins reached where J3 needed them to reach.

The muscles of the spine, base of the brain-stem, the nerves still surrounding the spinal-cybernetic, and the veins and arteries of the heart. Ink pooled and waited by the heart, as the other tendrils worked their way through blood vessel and cyber-ports.
“Note: Patient and Surgeon will experience temporary nervous system synchronization. Surgeon requires synchronous communication between Ink and Patient Nervous system to coordinate proper antivenin distribution and acclimation.
Patient may speak through Surgeon, Surgeon may speak through patient. Surgeon apologizes. Sincerely unforeseen requirement. [PROMISE] remains unbroken.”

J-3 felt information begin trickling in, blinking once as the [MIND] and Mind of Umbri clicked in with theirs.
They blinked again, both bodies moving simultaneously, once, and broadcasted to the woman on the other end of the connection a sensation of gentle calm. As if to say ‘Stay calm. Do not panic. You are safe. This will be fine. Everything is okay. You are doing great.’

The sunlamp almost lit her path as it tried its hardest to illuminate the undercity of Northbridge, refracting rays of light every which way as they bounced off the chemical fog. The streetlights had marginally more success, although in a different hue. It reminded her of those heavily edited filters Influencers would put over their streams when they were broadcasting topside. She never understood the appeal, but looking at the otherworldly glow that seemed to emanate from every direction, she was starting to think that she could appreciate the aesthetic. A flicker of sky-blue movement caught her eye.

Some sort of canine flitted down from a lamp and now it stood crouched in the middle of the street. It vaguely reminded her of Failinis, the thought of the lumbering beast bringing a brief pang of longing for the Isle; a moment of curiosity about how her parents were faring. The smartest thing for her to do would have been to ride right past the dog, there was always the chance it was some sort of Corpo drone or a leftover K-90 unit from the war. Despite that, she couldn't help but imagine it was the same dog from her favorite cartoon growing up, LASS-E. Besides that, if it managed a lucky shot while she drove past and thrashed her engine, she would have to sell it for parts in order to afford repairs, and kicking puppies was never a good look.

Her bike crept to a stop as she pursed her lips and let out a low whistle, body shifting into Breaker form, "You're a cute little guy ain't ya?" She looked around for anyone else on the road. It seemed the police raid hadn't reached this part of the town just yet. "You don't look like Ares Tech. What're you doing all the way out here? Did Timmy get caught by the police? They fall in with the wrong crowds so young these days." She walked the bike a few steps closer to the dog, hand outstretched.