---

---

"Sure~!" Dawn leaned casually on the table, with her chin in one hand slurping her concoction, noisily crunching ice, and picking at the inside of her nose with her pinky in a distinctly un-ladylike manner. She raised an eyebrow with interest at him as he twisted his limbs to and fro to reach at his back and do... something. The flexibility of those emitters certainly was a thing.

"If ya don't hurry up I'm gonna need a refill," she quipped into the pause between his ramblings, rattling the ice in her cup for emphasis and then taking a moment to top it off with the rest of her flask. Her eyes shimmered with iridescence as she regarded him for a moment and seemed to think about his follow up question. "All light, I suppose. Disguise? Shoore. But... why make a disguise when we can just stand in the part of light people can't see?"

"If we do your... zippity-zoop thingy, you're gonna land all pukey and useless right? Unless you change a bunch of stuff or go running back to your lab? Listen, I'm not a rocket-doctor or anything, but I know a few things about *urp-* light... might be helpful."

"You know about wave-particle duality right?" she asked, with a bored tone, reaching out from under the umbrella for a moment an grasping nothing with two fingers. The ray of morning sunlight bent unnaturally and illuminated the whole table underneath their umbrella. She spread her fingers and the ray split into the visible spectrum as though it had been refracted through a prism. She turned her hand and it split again through the non-visible spectrum. She slurped at her drink. "You know, that thing that makes it be both a particle and a wave at the same time? Doesn't take into account the secret third state of light. It's everything you can see, a lot of things you can't, and a portion of what you can feel. Moreso in your case I think," she explained cryptically.

"Can I make a guess?" She grinned. The table went dark as the bent ray snapped back to its natural position, leaving a glowing mote in her fingers which she pressed to the middle of the table. It rose and floated lazily like it had its own gravity. To him, the table was painted in non-visible information, geometric shapes, arrays of concentric circles and text in Greek, all pulsing with energy like electricity as it held the miniature sun in place. "So *slurp* to do your zippity-zoop thing right... you do a bunch of maths, calculate a bunch of varibibbles, feed it into your techno-fangled computer-majig and then," she ran her fingers across the table, fluttering a whistle. The array expanded, spilling onto the ground and encompassing them.

"That sure does sound like lots of work when you could just... hitch a ride to where it's already going," she grunted, leaning back in her chair and fishing around in her purse for her Slatephone. She was absorbed in it for a minute or two as she quickly searched up some information on a map application. She waved it lazily over the payment terminal at the side of the table and it chirped as she got up. Dawn twirled with a lazy flourish, careful to keep her drink level as she interlaced her fingers with his and hoisted him out of his seat with a smirk.

"I haven't done this in a while," Dawn whispered into his ear playfully as she pulled him into her personal space. "So relax and don't think too hard, you'll mess me up," Dawn instructed, and then fell backwards towards the transparisteel with him in tow.

The globe of light on their table rose up and flared, spitting a ray like a pulsar ejection, that swept them up right as they were about to hit the glass. For a moment they were falling forever, swaddled in golden light, pushed gently by some impossible force. Inertia, friction, solidity ceased to apply as they were shot through the glass. The urban crush of the plate surface rushed up to meet them, and they were gently alighted on a rooftop near the edge of Justice Square in a ray of radiance.

Physics resumed.

A blast of wind nearly bowled her over and she squeaked and laughed, using him to hold herself up until she found her feet, and then lowered herself on to the edge of an air conditioning unit. She sputtered hair out of her mouth and dug in her purse clumsily for sunglasses.

"I missed a little. Refracted out of that cloud, but at least we didn't land in that news chopper! Small victories," she swirled her cup noisily. "You schtill want that tattoo? I bet I can make it permantent."

Raudd could not help but chuckle a little bit after hearing Yue explained why she ran. "Yeah, I know what you mean." He replied with a solemn note hidden among the jovial tone he expressed. "Archer had a bit of a meltdown though, especially after you decided to power walk out of the crater. Considering all that came of it was some bruises, it was quite funny to see." He continued as Dean explained what he had promised to do if someone decided to harass Yue with more advice.

With Yue's musings about needing a strap or chain for the medallion and the following distracted question Raudd couldn't help but answer. "On the right track, but asking the wrong thing, it's why does it do that for you. And I'm gonna leave it at that or I might spend the next few days playing turnip." He said giving a nod to Dean, and the invisible entropic mass that he presumed to be Golem.

Deans mention of the meeting and Halcyon were met with a loud "Ugh" from Raudd, rogue politics and dealing with Halcyon wasn't really something he was all that into on the best of days, but when Halcyon found anything to 'hoard tax' it became soooo much more annoying almost instantly. Big stick diplomacy doesn't really work that well with Halcyon given the problems it'll drag back to the Stoneworks, and any other method or means of placating would be costly. "Don't remind me, it's going to be such a pain in the ass."

It was as they were walking following Dean to Alex's home that Raudd reminded himself of the bundle of fruit he casually had slung across his shoulder... Mostly due to finally understanding why people had been staring at him, honestly it was kind of surprising that neither Dean nor Yue had made mention if it. "Either of you want a hand cherry?" He asked before twisting a couple of the overgrown cherries off it's stalks and handing them out to the others. "Just be careful I'd wager a guess that the pit is supersized as well." He mused before taking a bit bite out of his cherry... A little sweeter than normal, stronger flavor as well.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't there to help." Raudd muttered under his breath as the shrine entered his view and Dean's feet got glued to the ground his eyes fixated on it for a few long moments before seeming to be returned to reality by his partner.

---

Felix was expecting to deal with precisely a lot and yet not all that much, today. If he was being honest! But this was certainly something new! The ability for Dawn to just... Zip anywhere she wanted? And in the way that she did? He would've killed for that! And apparently she could do it effortlessly- With some caveats, he was sure.
But still. Beyond the point!

And the way she spoke about it all, complicated sciences through the lens of a woman who was ... Wow was she already kind of sloshed right now? Wild! How much did she have to drink again? Oh jeez. Wait- Would this even be a good idea to do with someone who was ... Eh. It was fine! It'd be fine for sure. Okay, now, focus! She seemed to be suggesting just, what, riding the light to the destination he needed to reach? That would've worked, MAYBE, if his tinker-tech could... Be... Huh. Well, could it be edited to operate that way? He hadn't really considered it, if he was honest. Sounded a lot like some... Magic shit. But, y'know. Magic was just sufficiently advanced technology, right? And his ARMS and LEGS were made of hard-light. Which, y'know! Was IMPOSSIBLE! Hm.

Wait. Focus on the wild array of... Of whatever the fuck, she was putting on the table. And the floor?! What WAS that? He'd never heard of such a complicated or versatile expression of Deviancy! Or ESPER shenanigans. Nothing he'd ever heard of... Huh. Well! There was always something new out there, right?
Oh! She's whispering in his ear now- Kinda hate that! Too close! It's fine, it is totally fine, it's fiiiine. And now they're- Moving-
The world tilted, his limbs... Stopped. Existing. He wasn't sure what this was. The light was everything and everywhere. It was beautiful!
And horrible. In the same way that an explosion could be terrifically horrible. Staring into the sun, letting the disk of blinding white become a circle of prismatic blindness. Numbness settled where he ordinarily felt his 'tech. A cold pressure, a warm suffusion, and an utter calm. And then...
It stopped. It was done! Huh.

Felix blinked, stupefied and utterly unable to cope with the whole experience. He vaguely felt Dawn use him to keep herself stable, only barely. His gaze tracked her as she made her way over to her seated position. Huh. Felix followed her, blinking again as the haptic feedback of his limbs trickled into his awareness like honey and molasses. For a moment, he stood next to her, saying and doing nothing, before blinking again as he made immediate eye contact with someone he wished he couldn't have. There, down in the square, dealing with TFPD and press and civilians besides...
His Boss. Just. Looking at him. Staring directly into his eyes. Oh.

Well he sure was gonna be in trouble, huh. Yeah, there was the shift of her hand, and a raised eyebrow. Uh-oh.
Shit.

---

---

Jemma watched the proceedings in the room with a sort of... Detached enthusiasm. She had put her workshop uniform back on, and was otherwise just silent and watching it all. She was aware that she had been addressed by [SUSPICION-CONFUSED-Amaze...]. Oh. He slipped out of focus for her. That was a first. Lots of firsts within the past thirty minutes or so.
Temujin's voice was a distant rumble of distrust, one which she responded to with a mild-mannered smile. Exhaustion marred her features, and though she didn't know he could tell, Temujin undoubtedly noticed her lack of a heartbeat once more.
Ink had caked into dried smears on her cheeks, flaking away into flecks of pitch that fluttered through the air. She blinked at Koba, watching as he signed. A distant rush of relief and [FAMILY-LOVE-Thank...]. Oh. That was fading too? Why?
Oh. She was hungry. Huh. Wack. Well that wasn't good. Oh. She was being addressed again. Graham was talking to her this time. Or about her, at least.
He was too kind, with all that affection and softness in his light. Ignore the gnawing, crawling want to break the flesh open and drink that light from the center.

Jemma blinked again, forcing herself to remember where she was, and who she was surrounded by. Umbri, and maybe Temujin, were from Northbridge. Which meant that payment for services was always expected. Which... No. No, she would not make this woman pay for more than she needed to. Something cheap... Something cheap... Oh!
"Well... I won't speak for Al- Er... Aegis. But you owe me nothing more than a... Sandwich. Yeah. I figure that's, er, not equal but its good enough for me. I totally disrespected your privacy, so..." Jemma muttered by way of answer, eyes sliding like a reptile, back and forth between Umbri and Temujin. She tilted her head slowly, moving as if just existing in that spot was a struggle. Which... Well.
"So I don't wanna make you owe me much else. Nor do I want you to feel like, uh, asking for medical help requires... Payment. Y'know? It's... It's fine."

She was struggling to continue talking, by this point. Awkward. It was like the world just kept... Not being. Nothing had words or labels, or reality, associated with it, really. Like she was forgetting what anything really was, what anything really [MEANT]. Her body ached for fuel, and that apathetic half was utterly silent, too weak to really shove any impulses up and out.
The shapeshifter KNEW she needed fuel. But... Not right now. It could wait! It wasn't like Umbri and Temujin could... ...
"Oh. Y'know what? Actually... I know something. I'm about to crash, like, so hard. So... If you could like, just, I dunno, watch my house for me? If it's even still around... Heh. Hah. Anyways. Yeah."

There! That was explanatory, right? It was so hard to focus.
Jemma shifted her stance, staring at nothing, as she walked over to a nearby op-table. She tried to climb up onto it, only to give a frustrated groan when her muscles failed her. "I am... So tired, and hungry. Hah... Aw man. Hey, do any of you know what it's like to faint? Are your ears supposed to ring when you start losing focus? Cuz-"
Oh. Hello ring of enclosing black.

Jemma's head rolled back mid sentence, as ink sluggishly crawled over the whole of her form. Flesh and bone vanished under the slow rolling tide, leaving only a sphere of pitch on the table. It was about as big as a 'normal' human heart, but it dripped with ink, and roiled in place. Slow moving flashes of light rolled throughout the orb, like lightning in a storm from far away.
And Jemma 'slept', in a fashion.

---

---

Yue tried to breathe. The impact absorbing gel layer of her suit hadn't been enough. Nor the armor, which had practically shattered. Her lungs burned. She couldn't feel her left side. Static erupted over the still functioning half of her visor as the flash compensator attempted to tune out the knife of light stabbing aggressively through the dust, nearly blinding the eye her smashed helmet no longer protected.

Thump.

She was aware of noise through the tinnitus. A voice. Discordant screaming drove her to move through the grinding of bone and the sharp prick of numbness in her ribs. The paper-doll damage readout flashed orange and red urgently as she pushed herself up. Scrolling characters she couldn't make out through the spiderweb cracks rolled across the screen. Most likely a list of everything that was broken.

Thump!

The air was thick with the smell of wet copper and dust. Her hands were slick with blood. Eyes raked the surroundings frantically. A kid? Student. Evacuation missed someone? For a short eternity she just stared, trying to pull herself into the present. Arms, legs... a not insignificant portion of their torso, all crushed beneath the rubble and lacerated with glass and steel. Bleeding. Couldn't move them, the weight of the rubble might be the only thing preventing them from bleeding out.

THUMP!!

The light behind her blotted out. Ice water poured down her spine. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't move, she was the only thing between the monster and this civilian who was screaming for her to do something, anything because... he didn't want to die anymore. The monster spoke. Voice like shifting gravel in an earthquake.



Yue forced herself to take a breath. It slashed the back of her throat. Her lungs ached. Those familiar thorns squeezed her heart. Bolts of [Crimson] raked over her arms and every fiber of muscle in her shoulders coiled.



It was just somebody's memorial. Hardcase? Someone she didn't know. Dean was staring at her, hopefully not expecting a response. Yue shook out her hands vigorously until her fingertips tingled, forcing herself to exhale slowly. Raudd was there offering her some kind of fruit, which she accepted and numbly bit into. She was expecting an apple or something, and nearly spit it out.

"The hell?" She muttered, staring and distracted for just a moment from the lingering dissonance of reliving a traumatic memory. Burgundy eyes flicked between the enormous cherry, to Raudd, to Dean, who was probably expecting an explanation she didn't want to give. She turned on her heels and pushed ahead of the group.



Yue busied herself with walking and eating the cherry rather than say anything, and focused on the tart sweetness to keep from sinking back into her memory of that day.

”The stag is fine,” Máire answered, crossing her arms. She had never ridden a horse before, but if the beast was one of this woman’s constructs, she doubted she needed to know how. She could have traveled under her own power, but if Scribble-Ma’am was watching Silver Fang it would save herself a lot of trouble to keep near her if the skittish Texan decided to run off again.

---

Ah. The target approached. Rapidly gaining speed and distance, like a meteor searing through heaven.
Time had passed enough for it to understand itself, call itself 'Anara'. A-9. It watched, silent and thoughtful, as mana poured in from the very air around it, the [SUN-SERPENT] burned her way closer.
She would try to kill it. Try. It had existed longer than her, longer than the thread of [love-confusion-Fear-motherwaskeepingthis?!].

Ah. Time. That silly thing that those with [SAPIENCE] understood better than Anara understood [MIND]. It was slowly coming to understand it, thinking it over and turning it around in thought and experimentation. There was a before that could never change, a 'now' that changed endlessly from one instant to the next, and an after that would never be known until the 'now'.
How interesting.

Heat was starting to enclose on Anara, and it returned its limited focus to the fore. [PERCEPTION] was so slow, incredibly slow. A wonderful benefit of understanding the [MIND] was changing how it [perceived] the world. The astralshape of the sun-serpent was here, looming over Anara as a gout of flame began to rush forth. [HEAT AND FIRE AND DESPERATION] burned on it's surface. Fuel.
Ah. So this is what the drones felt when they absorbed something? Emotions rushing in like water down a drain. Hungry for more.
Time became more concrete, and Anara suffered in the heat, accepted the burning hellfire that blazed towards it. Converted the [DETERMINATION-FOCUS-killkillkillitnow] into fuel.

A new thought sparked, and Anara stared its' death in the face. Looked past a maw of screaming inferno, gazed past the astral miasma that was whipped up in a storm of [hAzE].
Locked eye to eyes with a human, championed by [The Blaze of The Sun]. Across a distance that could only be crossed by those with the learned, built, or intrinsic talent.
Anara felt nothing, but then, a small trickle of personal emotion.
Sadness. Pity. Loathing. Curiosity.

The fire wrapped Anara whole, coming so close to ending its' existence entirely...
He shifted. Gaze becoming baleful as a [CURSE] lanced through the mana-scape. Seared into the eyes of the astral form in front of it.
"I am Anara, I have lived for two hundred and eighty four human years. I spite thee, o'blazing snake. May the light of your fire wound your eyes. May the warmth of the sun sour upon your flesh. May your sight fail you when you need it most."
Mana shifted with his voice, yanking on the fire around him as Anara wove a spell of gargantuan size with a speed otherwise unexpected.
A curse was a powerful thing, drawing on the very [soul] of the weaver to spite the [soul] of another. The bigger the curse, the stronger a soul had to be.

'Strong'. Hah. Souls were endlessly strong, it was all about 'conviction'. And he was in possession of a soul that fueled him, now. One sacrificed to him in a moment of true desperation.
One shot at this curse, one guarantee that it would be surely settle, seethe, and scour.
Anara felt amusement burn through him, his woven spell becoming complete as his astral and physical form crumbled into dust.
He was dead, dead and gone. Removed from existence forever.

The body that arrived in the depths of a forest filled with mold and fungal growths was definitely dead. There was no now malevolent intelligence hiding within. Assuredly, there was no pillar of salted-marble white, cracked and cracking all throughout, that was immediately supping upon the ambient mana in the area.
Definitely.

Hah.

"You know your Tafsirs. Lockdown would be pleased."

Astrid did her best to appear blank-faced as she thought backward from their conversation to try and piece together the meaning of the word Tafsir. For a moment she thought about asking, but the notion was as lost as quickly as it came. 'Just another name for the Classics I guess.'

The hologram continued circling her, disappearing behind her then suddenly jittering back into view. Its words seemed to resound deep into her bones, a sound she could feel as much as hear. Her gaze followed her assessor's as it swept across the veritable pack of robo-hounds and their sleek designs; their charm was undeniable. She suddenly became aware that Megahertz had finished talking, a moment passed before the words she had heard fully registered. "Wait... You want me to investigate the Justice Square bombing?!"

Her right hand balled into a fist, a reflexive ripple running along her arm as she unconsciously shifted her form. "I don't know anything about what happens topside, I haven't been to the surface-" The rest of her words were swallowed as quickly as they rose. "In a while," she finished lamely. Scrutinizing the hologram, Astrid suddenly cursed how impersonal video calls could be. Did this person know she had come from the surface, that her family had ties to the Corpos? The whole thing suddenly felt like a set-up, she knew better than to trust the Ripperdocs in the Undercity, and yet...

"I'll find them. Whoever orchestrated the whole shebang." A wolfish grin spread across her face, "Pun intended." Esme had probably heard something up on the plates, at least more than most slum dwellers, which already gave her a lead. If that was supposed to be one of those impossible Herculean labours, Megahertz was going to be sorely disappointed.

Closing her eyes, she extended an index finger to the sky and rattled off part of the bedtime stories that she had first heard the name Jahannam from, "Danger, mine to overcome, and in recognition of such valorous acts, an audience with the King will be granted that the true measure of one's character may be taken." Her eyes opened again, fixed on Megahertz, her demeanor lax with sudden ease now that she had actual work to do, "I don't suppose you have a lead? Or some sort of Bloodhound unit among these dogs?"

A series of complex wire frames and tessellations appeared and orbited around Alex as he did what amounted to mental exercise with his power. Dozens of polyhedrons shifting together in swarms before taking on solid recognizable structures. Spheres, cubes, pyramids, mobius strips, and even more complex from there. He wondered if maybe his brain had been altered somehow to be able to manage every facet simultaneously while retaining his train of thought. But then it wouldn't be an esper power now would it? Eh, powers are weird. Oh look that's a pair of fully articulated hands . . . playing rock-paper-scissors. He was only doing this so that he didn't worry and question Jemma further.

Umbri's comment about payment got a confused head tilt from the armored hero. " Payment? Why would I want payment?" He waved a hand, dismissing the suggestion and making the constructs fade out of the air. Alex's sentiments matched Jemma's. "I'm the Rogue of Shieldtown, I don't charge people for protection, even if they aren't a resident. I ain't the horde or some protection racket."

Before he could make another comment he took what felt like a minute to absorb the fact that he just saw Jemma melt into a ball he could hold in one hand. It was probably more like two minutes of silent staring truth be told

Adding that to the "What the fuck?" list. More questions for later, . . . .yay.

He shook his head and turned back to Umbri. "Anyways, you don't pay me. I'd be a pretty shitty hero if i went around demanding payment for every good deed i did for anybody." Alex crossed his arms and looked to the ceiling, his voice growing a bit nostalgic. "Pretty sure the old timer would dig himself out of his grave if he heard I was doing that in his old town." The room grew quieter at the mention of Shieldtown's first Rogue. Hardcase had been a man many to this day would say should have been unkillable and invincible, not the easiest shoes to fill in.

Another bauble of light formed in his hands to fidget with. Not wanting to get stuck in his head with THAT line of thinking again. Alex wasn't really sure where to take things from here so he opted to try and not stare and make Umbri any more uncomfortable then she might already be.

Is she uncomfortable, or Is that just me? Is she still hungry?

Am I still hungry?

Damnit why did I forget my soup?

Man soup sounds good right now.

Should I make soup again tonight? Maybe a pot roast.

Really should use that beef from topside, i mean I did pay a LOT for it.

And there went the big guy's brain. To the outside world however it looked as if the poor man was simply zoning out real hard. Oblivious the the returning shapes and lights that orbited him once again.

---

---

A fraction of a moment stretched on at that temperature that turns earth and steel into soup, locking eyes with this "Anara" as it... as He spoke. Even as this second plodded along at a snails pace, his [Voice] hit with authority. What was this speck of inert matter, rapidly losing molecular cohesion in the face of her [Radiance]? Who was this that defied her so, in his last scrap of existence?

What was once a moment that was happening agonizingly slow, all at once became much too quick to perceive as though the scene were playing catch up after a spike of network lag. His words etched into the flesh of her Astralform, and thus into her. ID reeled with sudden vertigo as her vision exploded into painful white, stabbing deep into the back of her skull. She felt something sticky and wet in her eyes... probably blood. A cold slimy sensation slicked across her skin, and her whole body ached and felt sick.

As ID tumbled blind through the Astral void, the window that she had projected through slammed shut, severing her connection between her Astral and physical bodies. The violent storm of impossible heat and wind roaring through the facility's main entrance halted, filling the air wit the metallic crinkles, cracks, and bangs of rapidly cooling metal and the insistent nearby rumble of thunder. Snow piled urgently onto the landing platform.

ID's vitals flat-lined in MG's visor.

Umbri's brow raised at the lack of financial recuperation expected of her from the Rogue and the shapeshifter. Even her snappier companion didn't expect anything from his vigilantism, but there was something so mundane about the thought of superpowered Rogues needing day jobs. No wonder Stake was a thief.

She bolted up as Jemma's mass was sucked into a black hole, jumping the radio and making it cut out. She was horrified, and mesmerised by the way the ink rippled across the sphere, the tide being pulled on a little planet that had halted its orbit above the op-table. Her consciousness had been rolling in that ocean, just moments earlier... There was a somber weight to the air, as Aegis mentioned the 'old timer'.

Graham bowed his head with a quiet sigh. “A real hero, that one. Ain’t easy to live up to, even with all the strength in the world.” The blacksmith’s gaze - subconsciously or not - wandered as he spoke. Umbri discreetly chased it to the daydreaming Rogue and swallowed the question, 'what are you talking about?' She had a decent picture.

She pushed herself off Temujin's table with a bounce and walked to Jemma, head cocking as she neared. All of Jemma was in that little ball? That ever-rotating gallery of nightmares that had towered over her head? She held her hand towards the sphere. The inky fluid seemed to pull towards her fingertips as they neared.

“What the hell are you doing?” Temujin barked in an instant. “Get your fingers away from that!” He rolled his shoulder forward in a flaccid sort of pointing. “That’s how it eats, enveloping everything in that black slime, like some… freak of nature!” His mask was glaring right at her, baring fangs that curled with unbridled hostility.

Umbri drew her hand away, frowning. The ink slapped back to the surface of the sphere in a ripple. “Does it have to be people?” she wondered.

“What?” Temujin asked… and then thought. “How should I know? I’m not exactly the world’s leading expert on monster-o-logy. Maybe garbage will do.”

She strained her memory of that unreality and the shapes and quiet storms that moved through it. “It has to shine,” a thought slipped. It was the only way she could put it in her understanding. The shapeshifter had asked for only a sandwich and a housesitter, but of course, to Umbri, she owed a lot more.

“If we could find that woman, that warden of sun and fire she talked about, we could learn how her body works - and who the Warden works for.” All she desired was a user’s manual - the Rogue must have been craving something a lot bloodier. The Warden had tortured his friend and aided in her imprisonment for years. Which sparked another terrible thought, “It wouldn’t be so hard. If Jemma’s escaped… the Warden must already be hunting for her.”

At the mention of Jemma’s previous captors still potentially looking for her, the lights and shapes orbiting Alex suddenly took on sharper and dangerous looking forms. A sound not too dissimilar to glass cracking could be heard as he squeezed the bauble in a clenched fist. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Whatever happens, she won't be taken again if I have anything to say about it.” His helmeted gaze turned to Temujin.

”Also, if you keep being a hypocrite I’m going to give you a few new dents. Eating people due to compulsions from one's powers? Fucked up but powers can be that way,’ He pointed at the currently quadriplegic cyber ninja. ”You however butcher people of your own volition. Wearing the flesh of your kills is fucked up, them being scum doesn’t make it any less fucked. Pretty sure you skinned some poor fuck a few weeks back, alive if I heard correctly.”

Umbri jerked her head to Temujin in shock. Of course she’d known of the Red Oni’s violent exploits, he was the bogeyman where she was from and many of her patrons had reason to fear him. But having the reminder thrown at her after fighting together, suffering together, and laughing together didn’t feel… good. “You wear what?”

That was when Alex threw his hand in the air. If it wasn’t obvious that he was fed up before, it was now. His constructs visibly glitched and reformed in jagged shapes but stayed within a close orbit of him. ”Look, even I have taken a life when it was necessary to protect people, but most of the rest of us Rogues don’t slaughter and maim every criminal or “Sinner” we come across.” His voice remained steady and didn’t rise, but there was a hard edge there.

Temujin fumed. Audibly. A low, raspy growl underlined by static. "You can call me many things, Alexander, but 'hypocrite' isn't one of them," he replied, with an uncharacteristically even tone.

"I do what you and the rest of the Rogues are too chickenshit to do. I revel in the blood, shit, and terror of a never-ending horde of vermin, of the dregs who fester my city with the sort of cunning and evil that only humans possess." Temujin's eyes were a pitch-black, seething glare, denying even the slightest glint of light. "...The sort of evil that only fears itself."

The ninja fell quiet, allowing the silence to emphasise his point. "In spite of it all, I have never taken the life of an innocent. I am no beast, I don't kill without feeling or purpose. If you think otherwise…" He shrugged. "...Then do what I'd do, and kill me right here." His voice had only gotten calmer. "...And after you're done, stare into the abyss of depravity that is Northbridge. My ghost will be watching when it breaks you."

Umbri buried her face in her hands. Of course he denied nothing but being a hypocrite.

There was a long pause from Alex before all the constructs orbiting him fizzled out and he was left shaking his head. ”Ok, fine, you're not a hypocrite. But at least be more fucking professional and don’t go throwing real names around you chrome asshole. SOME of us still have identities they’re trying to keep safe.”

A loud series of rattles and grates came from behind them as the garage door rolled up. Light from the sun lamp streamed beneath folded metal, and Ako's petite figure followed, her cheeks puffed and her hands rested on her hips as she strolled.

"Jeepers… why can't I ever remember where I put my-" she came upon the group, and straightened in an instant. "Howdy! Don't suppose you fine folk saw my wallet? Pink little thing, with dinosaurs stickered all over?" The mechanic's eyes flicked towards Umbri. "You're alive!" Her lips parted in a telltale attempt to say Umbri's name… only for the horror of not knowing to settle in her eyes.

Graham stood up and cleared his throat. His entire body jiggled as he shouted, "AKO! Where have you been?! You don't leave a fixin' mid surgery! That's so bad for literally ANYONE!"

Ako stammered, mouth agape and blinking, not from fear, but rather… "W-what??? But you're the one who… told us to-" …Incredulity.

Graham waved away any further words from her, his face a bright, flushed pink. "Just- just get back to work. I'll cover your tab. I owe you from last time anyway." He wiped the sweat from his brow. "And I should go and round up the rest of these lazy good-for-nothins'."

The Doctor, remarkably still present, huffed. “And there’s nothing more to do here, and nothing I can do for that,” he jabbed his thumb at the ink ball. “So I’m going back to work, where somebody might actually need a doctor. Which is getting fewer and farther between these days…” he muttered on the way out.

Koba, who had been content to sit back and watch, signed towards Graham and Ako, ("I'll stay here and watch over Dove.") His attention returned towards the swirling ball of ink. ("If anything changes, I'll send a message.")

Umbri removed herself as the shield between Temujin and Aegis, compelled to be helpful, “Is there anything here that Jemma can eat?”

Graham glanced up to recall. "There's chia pudding in the employee's fridge. Margot left it four months ago, after she gave up on another fad diet."

‘Doesn’t glow,’ she almost spoke aloud, which would be crazy. Umbri bent over, fished her heels out from under Temujin’s table and leaned on it to shuffle her feet in. When she stood up again she’d gained six inches of height. “I’m going out,” she announced and gestured to the Jemma 8-ball. “She said she’s hungry, and that looks -- wrong. We can't leave her like that.”

Umbri started to walk towards the roller door, but her steps slowed as she realised, for the first time since forever, she didn’t know where she was going. It was such a strange absence that instantly had her missing her shithole of a home. She looked back to Aegis.

“Is there a market around here?” She asked, but what she really meant and lost against her tongue to ask was ‘can you show me’.

Shopping? Probably a good idea. Get away from all of the drama . . . and everything that was brought up about the cyber ninja that Umbri had put a lot of trust in. Way to go big guy.

Alex looked to Umbri then back at the ink ball before nodding his head. ”Yeah . . . I should get out of here for a bit anyway before I do something I regret.” Getting up, the chair dissipated once again while helping him up in one smooth motion. ”Give me a second, I’ll meet you outside.”

She watched the superhero's back as he left before her thoughts returned to her silly talking backpack that had recently flayed someone alive and worn hats fashioned from human remains. "I'll, um, see you," she said, unable to look at him properly.

Temujin did not reply to her immediately. It didn't take a smart man to see that Aegis's comments had rattled her. "I don't wear them," he blurted out, a correction so belated that she was already walking away. She whipped back around. "I don't even keep them… the effigies I make are warnings, not trophies."

It took Umbri a second to figure out how to react, but a smile was already twitching on her before she realised. "That's… good, I mean, terrifying," she squeezed out between a laugh that was equal parts relieved and nervous. "Be back soon." She gave a little wave on exit.

Ako lowered the hand she waved back, tossed her head between Temujin and the door, and leaned down to him. "Ya know, Mujin, you really should quit wearin' em tongue necklaces," she advised with a wiggling finger. "Or you're NEVER getting a second date."

"Second date?" Temujin asked, his head lifted with bemusement. His attention turned towards the exit, lingering as the metal unfolded and shut out the light.

"That stupid, reckless, flaming bitch!" MG swore loudly through chattering teeth the moment ID's vitals dropped. She stopped exerting power and forced her dangerously numb body to move, assisted by the suit no longer stressing against the impossible cold. Her cocoon of permafrost shattered violently as her suit's systems screamed to equalize it and her own temperatures, the molecular stasis having faded in moments. The flashing medical scanner forced MG to recognize that she was going to need treatment to her extremities or risk some degree of nerve damage at minimum. That sounded like a problem for her employers doctors and not her right now. The neural link with her armor would suffice. Had to get ID and get the hell out of here.

Seeing the still standing rampart of ice blocking her path, MG opted for the big gun. A weapon that looked like it should be mounted on a vehicle rather then held by a person was pulled out and quickly unfolded. switches and safeties were flipped off in quick succession as the gun began to almost visible heat up before being cooled to an even temperature with MG's powers. With little fanfare, the very experimental Railgun fired and a tungsten alloy rod with a depleted uranium tip accelerated forward at blistering speeds, the rounds weight having been nullified right up until it left the weapons barrel. The round however did not stay solid on its way out the gun. With its alternate firing mode having been activated, What exited the gun barrel was a glob of magnetically contained plasma.

MG's helmet just barely compensated for the sudden flash of hypersonic plasma literally vaporizing the ice before her. She never took so much as a second to admire the weapons firepower before charging ahead.

Power sliding to a halt over ID's prone form, Nora steeled herself before removing her partner's mask to see for herself how bad it was.
What she saw was enough to give the mercenary pause. "Gods, what did that thing do to you?" ID was bleeding from the eyes. Not even that, she was bleeding from the ears, nose, and mouth as well. There was this . . . sickly black . . . almost like spiderwebs covering large parts of her skin, particularly around her eyes that reminded Nora painfully like sub-dermal burns. ID looked like death, but she was still alive if Nora was to believe her computers scans. Still hope then. "If you die on me now I swear I'll fucking kill you." ID's mask was returned to her face before Nora for all intense and purposes carried the woman bridal style and stormed back towards the exit.

The elevator was ignored. Explosive rounds blew it apparent for expedience sake. A pillar of ice was rapidly formed bellow the two woman to facilitate their rapid ascension. In all fairness there wasn't any time to check if any of the systems were still working or if Nora could fiddle with the thing to make it go faster. That did still left the doors leading back out into the Undercity.

. . . Sorry, what doors?

Once outside two things happened. First, Nora flipped on the emergancy channel and barked into her comm's. "This is Field agent Mithral Giant requesting immediate med-evac! We have a man down and I need that med-evac yesterday!!" Without waiting for a response, she hit her detonator. The thwump of multiple plastic explosives demolishing whatever remained of the facility gave Nora some satisfaction before moving back to her original encampment for hopefully a quick pickup given her "precious" cargo still in her arms.

---

Accepting the oversized fruit, Dean gave Raudd a sympathetic look. "We all wish things had gone differently," Realization quickly dawned on Dean. The date of Hardcase's death and Alex's impromptu promotion to Shieldtown's Rogue was the same fucking day as the Infamous Usurper incident that was a VERY significant point in Silver Fang's hero career. And he called himself a Superhero geek. "Way to go me." He grumbled before quickly jogging to get ahead of Yue. He still had to unlock the door and really wasn't in the mood to have Yue break something else in his house. Golem opted to sink into the earth and leave the corporeal's to their business.

With their increased pace it wasn't more then a couple of minutes before they made it back to Dean and Alex's house. Dean was quick to get the door open and lead the two inside. Yue's armor and equipment was neatly arranged in the living room at Alex's insistence before he had gone on patrol. it was out of the way enough that nobody would have been able to see any of it, granted all the shutters and curtains had been closed and pulled so it was a rather moot point, but one couldn't be too careful.

What did tick off Dean was the fact that Alex had forgotten to put his hunting spear away and left it across the living room table. "I swear that idiot was raised in a barn sometimes. He knows I can't lift that fucking thing without possibly breaking something."He was slightly less peeved when he noticed the jade charm still carefully tied near the front of the spearhead. A good luck charm he had gifted the big lug way back when he first started helping out during the hunts, to keep him safe. which was kinda ironic of course given . . . all of Alex.

Dean flopped bonelessly into his favorite chair and waved around to the other two. "Make yourselves at home. Just don't go touching any of my wards or jade please. either of you." He wasn't really in the mood to see what Swordsong could do to any of his shit right now, and Raudd was Raudd but it still had to be said. "Raudd, You can tell Zolya if she wants any of my rocks she can come get them herself. Not in the mood for deliveries this week."

The cool light of the dual moons overhead touched my cheeks. The soft blades of the Veldt’s grassy field tickled the back of my ears, causing them to flick occasionally while I unconsciously wove the velvet purple fur of my tail between my fingers. I could be doing something productive with my playtime, like gathering crafting materials, or raiding a dungeon packed with fiends and monsters. Instead I basked in the moonlight on the tallest hill in the Veldt region, watching the drifts and currents of aspected Aether. My friend, the blue-skinned Oni, TankTastic, or just TT fidgeted beside me, mind lost in his 'nothing-box' as ever-shifting constructs of shimmering [Blue] orbited his head cartoonishly while we waited for Tekkie to finish... something.

"Hey," I broke the silence, and couldn't suppress a smirk as his constructs popped, showering us in blue Aether sparks. "Entertain me. I'm borrred," I commanded imperiously. A low chuckle hissed through my teeth as he squinted annoyance. "Tell me where you're from," I interrupted, before he could retort.

"Oh... I'm studying Electrical Engineering at the Aerie," he replied after some hesitation. Most likely realizing that I would continue to pester him until he gave an answer.

"No shit?! I live in the tower too!"



Yue stood in the doorway of Dean's house for a long minute staring into the space between. The oversized cherry pit pressed stickily against her palm. If she had voiced that thought to him would he still have died? It was much easier for her to be social as her online persona: TetsuKasha, and she'd pinned the idea at the time.

No. He wasn't dead. Alex wasn't at the University during the attack. She struggled to reconcile the fact that "TT" and Alex were the same person as she stepped inside.



TankTastic and TekkieRave both stopped logging on to Final Odyssey following Usurper's attack on the university. Tank... Alex told her they were friends, and she'd always just assumed he'd met the energetic cyber-medicine enthusiast in one of his engineering classes. So when they vanished from Final Odyssey two years ago...

Yue's vision shifted. She could feel the firm tingle of her lenses flexing as a table came into focus, drawing her attention to the object that was laid across it. She sensed some vague dissatisfaction from Dean's direction, but more pressing was the aura of static [Blue] that rippled across the weapon's surface, intermingled with accents of caramel and [Green] wisps trailing from the edge of the jade piece.

She leaned forward, reaching for it instinctively until her fingertips pressed against the spear's shaft. The living room resonated as the spear struck an electric bass note, with a subtle background alto playing in harmony. Burgundy eyes flicked up towards Dean as she was pulled back to the present.

"... What's this?"

A shiver ran through Dean as the bass note resonated. Eyes snapping open to see Silver Fang touching the spear.

Damn, That sure as hell was potent.

Spirits he really wished he wasn't astral-y nearsighted right now so he could see what she was doing with the thing. Granted, he could go and grab his enchanted spectacles to do that for him . . . eh, he didn't feel like getting up out of his chair right now. He gave an exaggerated groan and began to stretch and pop some of his knuckles. "That would be Alex's hunting spear. Ya know, for all the monsters and stuff.

There was a very satisfied sigh was let out after he cracked his neck in a motion uncomfortably similar to how one would try and snap a neck. He then leaned forward and rested his chin in his hand. "Not that he has used it in a hot minute but the big guy still insists on taking care of the thing." He yawned not to dissimilar to how a cat would, tongue and all, as he kept a relaxed demeanor. A mage was almost always most comfortable while in their own sanctum. Though he had made an effort to visually suppress the ungodly amount of enchantments and protections he had around the house given that Silver Fang was apparently incapable of not [seeing] everything constantly. Poor woman, that sounded like a headache and a half. Anyways~

Dean waved his other hand somewhat dismissively. "Lot of it was donated parts from other people, the head of the thing was made by Forgemaster. Leather wrapping the shaft was from some of Alex's first few kills, including from the one he have the skull from that's hanging outside the front door." Truth be told, even if the thing was made for Alex to be able to use, Dean was sure the reason the spear didn't see much use was out of fear of breaking it. That, or the guy just kept forgetting he had the damn thing. Out of sight and out of mind.

What was really interesting right now though was the fact that the Templar touching it made the thing sound like a note from Alex's bass guitar. He had felt something from it sure, probably due to the jade charm affixed to the thing, but the magic involved was too far outside his knowledge and focus to pars. [color=8dc73f][b]"You're doing . . . something to it by instinct I'm guessing. Best i can say in words you would understand is that so long as something is in your hands it is [enchanted] and has traits drawn out of it. Can't say I know much of the particulars though."[/color][/b]

Dean scratched his scalp under his hat and shrugged. "My not so professional opinion? Something that's hand made and well kept," Dean motioned to the spear for emphasis. "- Will be effected very acutely by your magic. More of a story there for your magic to make it [SING]. I don't know, that's the best I got."

Dean pulled his hat over his eyes and leaned back into his chair again. Hyper specialized magic always seemed to get way more esoteric then academic. A lot less of a student being taught by some professor at a school for wizards and witches and more like a jedi training a young padawan. The fact people were trying to sit her down with books seemed asinine given what he knew about Silver Fang. The woman was straightforward. Yeah, leaving a mage to learn on their own was usually a disaster waiting to happen but there wasn't a whole lot anyone present could do to teach her practically. Shit like this was why he had stepped back from the magic community in the first place.

Oh yeah, he had almost forgotten. he lifted his hat with a finger to look at Silver Fang with one eye. "Please be careful with that thing. Its apparently not the most balanced of weapons . . . . and its also rocket powered. Raudd would know. Alex accidentally sent it through his torso a while back. Funny? absolutely. But not everyone here is immune to the dangers of this mortal coil we call life." His words oozed sarcasm by the end. Very obviously directed at the viking.

The Templar scantly had time to finish her sentence before a stag had very casually walked to her side. It passed the Templar a half assed moment of attention before it decided that chewing cud was more important and looked away with it's ears flopping about scanning for threats.

"Well then, shall we?" Zolya asked the templar before giving her a quick demonstration of how to mount these oversized deer. Planting her hands firmly on the back of the one adjacent to her and in one fluid motion jumping up while swinging the far leg over the back of the creature. She then watched to confirm the Templar was following suit, and once she was sufficiently satisfied she had managed to settle onto the back of her respective mount took off with the Templar's mount taking it upon itself to follow.

After riding around the Stoneworks the two stags and their riders had picked up a little entourage, a small group of wolves that formed up an arrowhead formation ahead of Zolya, a couple wolves that had taken it upon themselves to form a sort of rearguard, a flock of ravens scanning from the sky for threats, and a couple much larger packs of wolves that seemed to run off towards whatever direction the ravens told them to to clear the path for the VIP's they were escorting. And threats there still were along the path given the frequency that the wolves had run off into the distance after a load of cawwing from above, and the not so spare amounts of ownerless fresh blood and small chucks of flesh that occasionally came within the outer reaches of their view.

Eventually after a long ride through the agoraphobia inducing empty blackness of the void between where the light of the Stoneworks reached and the light of ShieldTown started that little light on the distant horizon came into being and with it safety and civilization came back into view. Which was also marked by a significant and noticeable dip in the amount of time the extra wolf packs spent away from their protectees. And not long after the light on the horizon had announced itself it had spread to become all that could be seen on the horizon and they found themselves on civilization of the Undercity's doorstep.

"It would seem your colleague is at my friends house, I'm pretty sure they are making sure she stays put there, at least for a while." Zolya said breaking a long bout of silence between the two as they entered the walled city under a city. Although they were now in what one could assume to be a relatively safe area the amount of wolves that were roaming around protecting both Zolya and the Templar hadn't lessened by much. Too great a risk of someone somewhere trying to do something stupid, but with a little show of force they could be deterred from acting against the Templar 'invading' the Undercity.

Yue slapped the spear with her hand, allowing it to roll up her forearm just as Dean was telling her to be careful with it. She swatted one end, spinning it over her arm and into her other hand, allowing a couple rotations before she gave it a hard push. It spun once quickly and popped up lazily, coming to a sudden halt balanced steadily on her palm. She raised an eyebrow at Dean.

"He thinks this isn't balanced?" She asked with a note of incredulity. "I guess it'd be a little unwieldy in tight spaces... thought it would be heavier to be honest," she muttered, throwing the spear pommel forward with a flick of her hand. The weapon spun in place once, landing back in her palm. "Rocket... powered?"

Yue frowned, letting the length of spear roll and slide down her fingers until it nearly touched the floor looking for buttons or switches... though she was swiftly distracted by trying to find a point on the weapon where it would not balance.

"So... he, what... puts premium in this thing? What's the mileage?" she asked with a note of sarcasm as she balanced one of the barbed edges of the spear on a finger. She was only half listening to him as she watched threads of [Silver] rush up her arm towards the spear. The spear's static [Blue] haze seemed to solidify into a translucent crystalline array of polygons wherever her skin made contact. Turning up the time dilation let her feel its mass and density shift, creating a perfect balance point wherever she held it.

"Hmm...," Yue grunted as her gaze focused on the very edge of the weapon's aura where the [Blue] seemed to fray and separate subtly into other wavelengths. She propped the weapon up against her shoulder as she inspected it, grasping it with her fingers experimentally and smearing the edges apart to get a better look at the irridescent [Green] and [Red] aura wavelengths. "Okay... surprised that worked," she muttered... mostly to herself.

"Has Alex ever been... not... [Blue]?" There was a note of confusion and hesitation in her voice like she couldn't find the right phrasing for the question she wanted to ask. Mainly she was interested to know if anyone else had used or maintained the spear. TankTastic had a... thing for Blue... his aura cosmetics, particle, and Aether effects in Final Odyssey had all be customized to be blue... his eyes were blue, hell even his avatar's skin was blue, though that particular change had been made leaning in to the theme of their guild after it had been founded...

Might not be important... finding the button or switch that turned the ROCKET on, however, was.

"I'll find them. Whoever orchestrated the whole shebang." A wolfish grin spread across her face, "Pun intended."

Megahertz was quiet for a bit… and then chuckled, a sound as subdued as any expression beneath that hood. “A comedian. Good. Levity is as rare and precious as a virgin in Northbridge.”

“I don't suppose you have a lead? Or some sort of Bloodhound unit among these dogs?"

Megahertz shook her head. “The scene of the crime is the best place to start. Of course, to even get Upstairs, you’d need a Great Elevator. And those don’t exactly grow on trees.” Megahertz clasped her hands beneath her sleeves, and she inhaled in preparation for her summary, ”Cross the border, weave between the sentries and barricades laid by ARES and their Templars… and find your mark.”

The Cazador units blinked out beneath their camouflage, in formations of sixes, then nines, then twelves, until all but the Red-eyed Hound faded - the latter loyally sitting by its master. ”This is goodbye for now, Astrid. But we will be watching.”

The hologram flickered, then disappeared entirely.

The Red-eyed Hound stared at Astrid, its features empty of emotion. It approached her, its stance low like a wary animal as it let out a hiss of garbled static. Astrid’s phone buzzed once. The hound lifted its head as it spoke, ”Use that number to contact Us, if needed.” The Lead Cazador walked past her, its cloak shimmering over its azure chassis as it faded into the dark.

Ducking into the back while everyone else became busy, Alex went about doffing and collapsing his helmet and armor. Once his bag was exposed and all of his “costume” removed, each piece was carefully wrapped up and tucked into the bag with designed ease. The helmet was left on top in case he needed a “Mask” in an emergency. Finally, the top of his heavy duty jumpsuit he wore under everything was unzipped and tied around his waist, revealing his well fitted tank top as his final layer.

Satisfied, Alex shouldered his bag and snuck out a side door and looped around to meet up with Umbri. ”Sorry about the wait, it didn't feel appropriate to go shopping in costume. That and Tem name dropped in the heat of the moment.” He held a much more casual posture and offered a hand that could have almost been mistaken for a baseball mitt given how large it was. ”You can call me Alex. And sorry if we get stopped on our way to the market, I kinda have a habit of helping people in and out of costume.” An embarrassed but genuine chuckle escaped his lips.

Umbri gave her hand and openly stared at the way it was swallowed up when he shook it. Big… big guy. "That's fine," she replied absently, "It's Umbri, if you didn't catch it between the black ooze and psychic shit." She caught herself. "Sorry. I didn't mean - I'm grateful for what she did. I think the numb is wearing off, my skin feels like hair dragged under- you know when you get a hair caught on a chipped nail and have to pull it out?" Umbri did not often talk so much. Not about nothing. "Nice weather." What the fuck. “Not so much green smoke here.” What are you doing.

Alex’s smile got a little bigger as she accepted the handshake and reintroduced herself. ”Yeah I remember, good to meet you face to face.“ he pulled his hand back and chuckled. ”No no, psychic shit is an accurate way of putting it. Powers are bullshit and esper’s moreso.“ He made sure to give her space but stayed in arms reach just in case. Her attempt at smalltalk rewarded her with a smirk and wave of the hand in the general vicinity. ”Yeah, being just outside the city proper and being more eco friendly does wonders. We are almost entirely self-sufficient here. Key word being almost.“ He shoved his hands into his pockets, shrugging. ”But that's all been here way before I was. Least the airs fresher.”“

Umbri breathed a sigh of relief as he returned the small talk and didn’t catch her fluster. Oh thank God, he’s boring too.

”Anyways, Shopping? I know the best places. Should have some of my favorite stalls opening right around now too.“

Umbri just nodded and followed along. They’d been walking for a whopping five minutes before a little voice calling from the sky grew louder, louder, and she caught the word - ‘Help!’ Just exactly as the Shieldtown Rogue predicted.

“Hey, big guy!” The voice was coming from a rooftop, where a group of three were trying to haul an enormous sign (it looked like it was hammered together from car doors and… bones) to the top, with nothing but a hook, a chain, and manpower. “Sorry mate, d’you think we can get a hand here?”

At that, the sign groaned and dropped an inch, almost falling on somebody’s unfortunately positioned pot of marigolds on the windowsill.

”Just a sec!.“ Without missing a beat, Alex sprung up and scaled the side of the building. Seeming oblivious to how absurd it was for someone of his size and bulk to move like that. Granted, part of that was due to how durable and reinforced the local architecture was in the first place.

Taking the chain from the men, Alex wound the thing up and got the sign in place so it could be affixed . . . Using one hand. The workers present didn’t show any sign that this was out of the ordinary as they quickly got to work. “Thanks! Saved us a few sore muscles.”
Alex just waved them off with his free hand. ”Just happy to help is all. Hey, any of you guys know if Babushka is gonna be at the market today?“

There was a few seconds of drilling before he got a response. “Alright you can let go, we’re done here.” One of the older gentlemen got up and took the chain from Alex. “Last I heard she should be. Better be quick before she runs out of the good stuff again.”

”Cool, if that’s all ya needed I’m gonna head back down.“ Alex made sure to shake each of the men’s hands before jumping off the building. He landed with a loud thud far enough away from Umbri for it to be safe. There were only a few glances from other people on the street, further hammering home the fact that these sort of things were considered normal in Shieldtown. Alex dusted himself off and grinned. ”Sorry, might get a few of those on the way. Thankfully the market isn’t too far away.“ The man folded his arms behind his head. ”Super strength and being a naturally helpful person means everyone likes to ask for help and I rarely have a good excuse to say no. Not that I can complain.“

There was a whistle from above followed by a “Heads up!”. Alex jerked his head up and quickly caught an apple that had been tossed down before returning a wave from one of the packing up workers. ”Also when you live off the barter system a bit, no good deed goes totally unrewarded.“

He paused before giving Umbri a playful look. ”Unless it’s the town Rogue doing their job of course.“ Making it clear that he still did not expect payment.

Umbri looked back in bewilderment. As she walked after him, another whistle from the rooftop followed, and she didn’t even blink. But just a minute later, and a friendly "Hello!" had her flinch like she was about to be jumped.

"Good morning Alex! Do you have time to help me with something?"

Wh - again? Already? Umbri watched the exchange between the hero and a hardened, one-armed woman at a distance. Her focus narrowed in on the apple, as despite all of his insistence, a tick-tick-tick in her head reached an idea of how to pay him back for the debt she owed. So he wasn’t the kind to accept favours from her - but he valued extending that generosity to others. She pushed herself forward.

"What can I do?"

The journey to the markets was more of a meander, tugged and pulled this way and that by every request no matter how sympathetic the plight. First he was helping a woman string up the 50 foot hide of some beast for tanning between two giant stakes. Then Umbri was crouching beside him as he fixed up somebody's pet sweeper bot. Then he was 'pulling weeds', as the gardener put it, but was more literally fighting purple grass that took great offence to being cut and ensnared anyone who tried. Through every errand, Umbri tried to find some way to make it a two person job, generally by just holding something for him, and by the third person to flag them down, this was feeling like harassment. Does this guy single-handedly keep the entire town running? How can all of these people depend on him so much?!

"E-excuse me, sir..."

DO IT YOURSELF!

She was standing by with a critter-catching blanket as he rescued a mutant double-headed cat named Jellybeans from a gutter for a crowd of children before she knew it. At their joyful faces and exclamations of 'Thank you sir! You're the best! Why is she naked?' upon being reunited with their hissing demon, she thought, How can someone this powerful and this liked be insecure? Did she get the wrong read on him? It was rare she ever read a man wrong.

"How do you..." she started as they were back on their path to the markets, a bunch of different questions branching off from the words she spoke before she picked a road. Find time for yourself? Shoulder the responsibility of herodom? Reconcile with being in a co-dependent relationship with your settlement? "... keep your identity a secret? You just used your powers to help all those people."

Ah, he should have expected some questions like that. Given how casually he displayed what he could do physically, it made sense to wonder why the hell he would even bother with a costume. Spinning around to face her, Alex began walking backwards and held up a finger. ”Well there’s three points to that. One, it’s really hard to hide being a brute with super strength and durability.“ A second finger was held up. ”Two, I don’t use my other abilities outside of my costume if I can help it.“ He then stuck his thumb out. ”Third, it’s more of an open secret for a lot of people who I actually am. But there’s kinda an unspoken agreement for most Rogues and powered thugs that you really don’t go after people out of costume unless you have a death wish.“

He shrugged and spun back around. ”Given how few of us have ever died out of costume, it seems to hold up.“ Granted, most had some form of social life outside the costume. Alex was . . . very poor at balancing the whole costume and civilian life.

Umbri thought on it. It was odd to her that there was some kind of, for lack of a better term, chivalric code between the Rogues and their villains. She couldn’t be sure if it stood back in Northbridge. All the Rogues but the oni never lasted long enough. Then there was that other case she’d heard, that one clogging up all the news stations with that Uppercity crap while people were being shot and rippered right in front of the broadcasts. That supervillain offing those high-profile, corporate sponsored heroes, oftentimes targeting their civilian identities.

“Guess the Tragedy Killer topside didn’t get the memo…” she murmured, casting a glance to the plates, then continued with obvious distaste, “But you Rogues don’t lump yourselves with those Corpocapes and Templars, do you?”

Alex looked up towards the plates along with Umbri. ” There’s always going to be some crazies.“ He took a moment before giving her an answer. Most kinda made the assumption that the Rogue’s tried to distance themselves from the “Legal” Super’s found topside. Or at least that was what he would have assumed. ”Well, I mean the rogues are about as far from the Templar’s as you could get without being villains. And the only thing close to a corp down here is the damn horde, but that's not really a thing i want to get into right now.“ Especially since he was pretty sure he was going to have to make a deal with Halcyon tonight to smooth out all of this mess.

Luckily he didn’t have to dwell on THAT uncomfortable thought as the two turned a corner to Shieldtown’s main market street. The widest street in all of Shieldtown by a good margin. The space before them was host to a staggering number of stalls, carts, open vehicles, and camped venders. The most striking feature had to have been the upper stalls and walkways built above the street in a combination of heavy duty scaffolding and monster bones. All manner of goods and services were present. From food stuffs and spices, machine parts, butchered and preserved monster parts, and other sorts of odds and ends. Enforcers both in and out of exo-frames patrolled around to keep the peace.

Alex breathed in the smells wafting in from the open air kitchens and food carts before turning to Umbri with a grin and motioning to the feast for the senses. ”So, anything you wanted to look for first?“

"Well, unless she needs something really specific I believe we're quite well stocked at the moment. Not to mention she actually found a supplier for some stronger fire essence materials so I bet she'll be tinkering with those instead." Raudd reacted to Dean's not that unusual refusal to deliver rocks... It involved two things he disliked a lot after all.

He had wanted to grab himself a seat, one that would put any wards and jades out of arms reach for him, just in case. However he had had his fingers wrapped around the backrest to turn the chair towards Dean's seating when he felt the hairs on his back raise followed by the sound of a bass behind him and Yue asking what that was... A sigh left his mouth as he turned around to see Yue wield the fucking rocket powered monster spear... Of course it just had to be that thing.

"Yue put th..." Was about as far as he got before Dean's sarcasm laden words filled the air and demanded a response. "Not the time for jokes, she finds how to turn it on and there'll be a hole the size of an apex straight through ShieldTown with the way she's waving that thing around." He said with a hint of worry and a thick layer of annoyance in his voice. Seems Archers opinion of the situation had been entirely correct, dean was a good enough to protect Yue from the Undercity... It seemed his ability to protect the Undercity from Yue however was lacking severely.

The discontent was palpable in every step he took towards Yue reaching for the spear where it had pivoted over Yue's shoulder. He wasn't going to win a contest of strength with this girl, however a test of willpower was skewed heavily in his favor. Then Yue came with one of the seemingly most random ass question. "What do you mean his armor, eyes, the hardlight?" He asked with some confusion as his hand took a firm hold of the spear. "However before we answer that question I'd really like you to gently put this spear down, or I'm going to make it scream. I'm not letting you attempt blowing a hole clean through the arcology."

---

---

A bolt of [Crimson] ripped down her arm, hitting the bass tone with a wave of distortion. As she locked eyes with him a wave of amber flickered through them. Yue took a breath to speak her mind to Raudd before a reply from Dean took her attention. Instead she scraped some of the static [Blue] from the widest part of the spear into her hand like a spilled piece of frosting, and let go. Raudd seemed to want it so badly, and since he had such a firm grip on it... The spear's mass returned abruptly and the full two-hundred pounds of the weapon was left in his "care."

”Well in your hands just about any weapon would be balanced I take it." Not even visibly worried about her casualness with the empowered weapon, the earth mage seemed content stay in his chair. That came from the confidence of having been able to transmute the inner walls of the house into basically adamant with the help of golem.

"I mean... that's partially accurate. My touch seems to draw out the best qualities of a weapon, but it doesn't alter mass and density or weight distribution like the spear was doing. Well... I guess it does to a point: any weapon I hold feels appropriately weighted regardless of how heavy it actually is," she explained with a bit of a grin, tilting her head back towards Raudd as she began meticulously separating the wavelengths of the signature in her palm.

Dean didn’t even glance in their direction. Engrossed suddenly in a raw piece of jade he pulled out from somewhere and began to work at like it was clay. His geometric spellcraft naturally flowing into his hands as he worked. ”It has a monsters core in it. So I guess you can say it’s bio-powered.” Yue raised an eyebrow at that, flicking her gaze first to Dean, and then the patterned spellcraft at his fingertips.

He refrained from elaborating and jumped in after Raudd’s point. Stopping the stone shaping to give Yue a confused look. ”Big guy has been in, [Blue] for as long as I have known him. Kinda his thing. Also you don’t just ask people if they are blue. Spirits, I thought heroes were supposed to have thorough sensitivity training.” The sarcasm was laid on thick as he went back to his work.

"I-I did have sensitivity training," she answered defensively. "The color and quality of Aether signatures wasn't covered," she continued as-a-matter-of-factly, crossing the room and holding her hand out for Dean to examine. "Look, it has three wavelengths. That one is him," she explained, pointing to a section of her hand. "But these two? I don't know, but they feel related, and they came out of the [Blue]," she said, indicating another length of her palm.

‘As far from the Templars as you could get without being villains.’

Umbri scoffed at the claim. To her, Templars were villainous in their own right. Gov funded, superpowered law keepers shying their eyes from the crimes of multi-billionaire companies for the sake of order. The white cloaks and red crosses emblazoned on their chests didn't ease off her scepticism of the Texas Templars, either.

So, if Aegis was to be believed, the vigilantes of the Rogue Collective were more heroic than any superhero. Beyond acting outside of government regulation, with no company or political (or religious?) interests at heart: they couldn’t be bought. Temujin would not align himself with their kind if they could. That thought was even more convincing to her than Alex's answer.

The market street stopped her. Something familiar - sort of. She flashed between the Northbridge lights blinking in the grease running down the street from the food stalls --- back to the vegetables on display before her now hosting every colour of the rainbow. A glazed-eyed woman in a miniskirt beckoning with a finger on a corner --- a woman selling handcrafted pots and wind chimes. The shouting and a shiv being pulled during a bartering gone wrong --- clat being exchanged for a steaming loaf of bread and warm conversation. The ensuing fight --- two dogs playing tug or war with a monster bone.

"We're out here for Jemma, so, food, I guess," she replied distractedly as she moved past Alex. Umbri wandered from stall to stall with bright eyes shifting through the displays. The produce on display was colourful, fresh and clean, but nothing she saw felt right for Jemma's situation. It didn't shine. Her fingers trailed through an array of hanging fabrics. She poked her head over a crowd, following a familiar smell, to see charcoal-blackened bird feet smoking over a grill. Alex lost track of her pink hair for a moment only for it to reappear on one of the elevated walkways. She looked through a display of amber jewellery, particularly, a set of butterfly wings encased in the honey-hued resin. She smiled over her shoulder at him as he approached, then pulled up quick, as if suddenly startled by his presence. "We should be looking for meat."

Once the two had entered the market proper, there was a significant decline in people stopping Alex for a bit of help. Though Alex seemed very easily distracted by other things. It was food. And his own shopping. Somehow in the time it had taken for Umbri to begin taking in the sights and browsing, the man had already purchased a clinking bag of herbs, spices, and pickled ingredients. There were also a half a dozen kebabs of mixed vegetables and meats in hand. One of which was being handed over to Umbri. "Thought you might still be hungry." He unapologetically slid an entire skewers worth into his mouth, all but inhaling the food. "Sorry, I need the calories for uh," He motioned to all of himself. "All this mess."

Having a body like his on top of being a living reactor had its perks. Thank goodness he loved food. Right, here for Jemma. Needed meat. Because his friend was now some amorphous shapeshifter that had eaten people. Did changing burn calories and stuff? Did she need extra biomass for what she had done to Umbri? Countering Thresher venom might have been more taxing than he had realized. Focus damnit.

"I know a perfect stop, doesn’t mean we can’t browse along the way since nobody is-"Alex’s jaw clacked shut before he even finished that sentence. Way too soon dude. Without showing too much panic, he eyed the piece she was looking at. "Nice find there, the wings match your eyes. Thinking of getting it before we go to the butchers?"

Umbri discreetly scrutinized the kebab, deemed it ‘non-shiny’, and tested the texture with her teeth before eating. The comment on the butterfly and her eyes took her off-guard and she lifted her brows at him. In her head she started a tally.

“Oh, I can’t -” she started. The butterfly really did match her eyes, actually, it shared them, sporting two violently red eyespots. Despite how delicate its wings were, it almost appeared fierce. Fierce and frozen in gold. “I can’t throw clat at that. I wouldn't wear it at work. It’s not practical.” She tore her gaze from it to scan the markets. ‘Something practical,’ she reprimanded. She couldn’t get trinkets for trinkets’ sake. As she looked around, she wobbled on uneven, broken heels. “I can get shoes. I broke something running from a Thresher last night... Different Thresher,” she clarified, bewildered by the fact she had to specify. Judging from the décor of this settlement, she was still in danger of encountering a third.

Not one, but two Threshers. God she really had a rough time before making it here. Granted Shieldtown had an even more pressing monster issue but at least they rarely got further in then a block or two past the walls. Not that he was gonna say that now. Glancing down at her heels, Alex hummed to himself as two more kebabs all but disappeared down his throat. He perked up as an idea crossed his mind. "I got a guy who does all of my leatherwork, not that I have my jacket or armored boots to show off but he does good work. We can swing by, tanning shop is just a few stalls away from the butcher anyways."

Leading her along at a pace that wouldn’t roll her ankles and still have a chance to see more of the shops. Alex still stopped when Umbri wanted to look at something that caught her eyes, not failing once to give some form of comment of either the craftsmanship or how it might have suited her. All genuine comments sure. He wasn’t really sure why some of the stall owners were giving him dubious looks. Umbri’s tally just kept going up.

Finally, the two came to a rather large tent setup right in front of a heavily graffitied and poster covered building. The smell of tanning and leather drying wafted out through the front doors, just barely noticeable after lunging with the scent of cooking and spices from the other stalls. All manner of leather goods were on racks and display cases. Some with studs and spikes, both metal and bone. Given the patterns and scales a good chunk of the products showed off it was easy to assume that it was all made from monster hides. It did however give quite a bit of vibrancy to their color range.

A heavily pierced and tattooed man at what constitutes a counter visibly perked up and grinned at seeing Alex. "There's my favorite customer!” he walked around the counter as the two bumped fists. "Looking to get something new eh?”

Alex grinned but shook his head. "Sorry, not today. My friend here however needs a new pair of kicks, and maybe whatever else catches her eye." Alex motioned Umbri to the man that was a beanpole compared to him, and only as tall due to a well kept mohawk. "This is Skinny Joe."

The man in question looked between Alex and Umbri before grinning and giving an overly exaggerated bow. "Charmed to meet you dearie." He placed his hands on his hips and rocked on his heels. "Anything in particular ya want?”

Umbri flashed a smile and nodded her head to return the greeting, swallowing down two gnawing thoughts - that Jemma was a comatose ball and she was out here prioritizing herself, and how much she was attached to the resin-encased butterfly they left behind. “Just, anything without a heel,” she replied, scanning over the stock. Secretly she was looking for something dainty like a lace up sandal, but she settled beside a pair of boots that looked her size. They were made from a thick, padded fabric, with hard leather shin guards and soles bolted on with studs and belts. “Can I try these?”

Joe waved over to the boots. "By all means. Can guarantee they will hurt like hell for whoever you end up kicking.” Alex rolled his eyes and went to inspect one of the more expensive looking leather jackets.

Umbri stripped off her heels and jumped into the new boots. There was a -pwomph- as they hit the ground and kicked up dust. They were heavy, far weightier than the clear plastic heels. The padded fabric stopped the harder armor from digging in. They also looked completely out of place on her. Her eyes trailed over to the other items that had been displayed with them.

Several minutes later, Umbri caught Alex’s attention with a hum inflected like a question. Her head poked out from behind a stand. “I might have gotten carried away,” she prefaced, before trudging into view. Leather squeaked as she flexed her fingers, clad in studded, horned gauntlets. She’d tied her pink jacket around her waist, and instead on her shoulders, she boasted pauldrons with wicked spikes curled away from her face. Each piece working in perfect harmony with her new shoes. She looked back at the dusty mirror she’d been using, twisting her body for a better look. Her face softened and a little wondrous smile tugged at her lips. “But it… looks like I belong in Shieldtown, doesn’t it?”

… Moment over.

“Anyway, I probably can’t afford half of it.” She said, the emotion dropped from her voice, and started unstrapping the gloves.

"Maybe. . . . If it wasn’t already paid for.” Joe gave Alex a smirk, while Alex looked suddenly very interested in something else. "Big guy is too damn nice for his own good.” The vendor spun a not so insignificant string of clatter around his fingers and walked back to the counter. Umbri gawked. “...What?” Her tally just gained so many notches it was falling out of her head.

"Welp, guess you own those now. Oh would you look at the time! We really gotta go to the butcher’s." All sounded like it had been said in a single breath as Alex briskly walked out of the tent. Joe proceeded to laugh his ass off at Alex’s usual lack of smoothness and subtlety.