Shieldtown was no less busy than it had been the night before. The bustle of industry filled the dusty air of the Undercity settlement, if a bit more orderly than the chaos following the previous day’s monster hunt. The crowd flowed around them like river water as Scibble-Ma’am - Zolya, she had introduced herself - led their entourage through the streets, her mint-light wolves flanking them like a barrier. Máire raised an eyebrow at the apparent disinterest the locals took in the sight; but then given their apparent source of protein, such sights must seem rather ordinary. Máire seemed to draw more attention than the wolves did, and she pulled her hood a bit lower despite herself.

Máire turned her attention upward, toward the buildings surrounding the paths Zolya took them along. Many of them were familiar from her… tour with the boy Doll. The order was different, though; they seemed far less cramped and repetitive than they had the first time, with far fewer twisting alleyways and dead ends.

Does this friend of yours live far from the wall?” she asked, looking toward her most recent guide. The woman seemed so comfortable on her mount that the light bounce of her hair with every step the animal took struck Máire as almost playful.

“You asshole,” slipped out under Umbri’s breath as she followed Alex, the shock of the situation trumping her own code of ‘careful what you say’. She impulsively shoved against his back. “How am I supposed to pay you back for that?!”

Alex didn’t so much as stumble from the shove. Simple shrugging his shoulders while looking back at her with that same genuine smile that went all the way up to his eyes. Said eyes flashed blue for just a moment. ”That’s the funny bit. You don’t have to.“ He motioned for her to follow along before holding a door open to a lovely establishment with a rather plain sign etched into an oversized cleaver in a monster skull just over the door that read “The Quality Cut.”

”I do hunting on the side for these guys so I get a nice discount. Just uh, don’t stare too much.“

Umbri scowled at him. She reached for the door’s handle, gave it a yank, lost the contest between her and Alex’s arm, and the door stayed open.

“Alright listen,” she hissed, leaning in and keeping her voice down, “Thank you. Let me get that out of the way. Thank you for doing that for me. But listen. I don’t leave Northbridge, and I don’t ask for help. But here I am, in this alien town, looking like I’m going to be thrown into a Colosseum, and I need help. I don’t know if you noticed, but I’ve been freaking. The fuck. Out. So you have to let me pay you back. Because when you come at me with your whole -'' she shook her hands at him, “Your whole thing, all that’s in my head, is that the worst kind of help you can accept is the kind that parades itself as free.” She shifted back and folded her arms over herself protectively, glancing away. “It’s not that I don’t trust you -” She did, in fact, not trust him. “But you have to let me pay you back. It will scratch at me until I do.”

Alex’s face fell.

The smile he had the entire time they were out died on impact. ”Sure . . . Sorry.“ The door stayed open when he let go and went inside.

The large man behind the counter greeted Alex with a grunt. Well. Man might not have been an entirely accurate word. The gentleman behind the counter making fresh cuts of meat looked like someone had taken a large wild boar and fused it with an equally large man that almost made Alex look normal by comparison. That also was probably the reason the shop's dimensions were so large. ”Good to see you Alexander. What can I do for you?” a deep, rumbling bass voice came from the boar man as he barely took a moment to look up and see who came in.

Alex gave a somewhat forced, halfhearted smile. ”Good to see you too Mr. Houston. Lookin to get a large order. And that special request we talked about from my last hunt.“ He seemed a bit more . . . deflated now. Alex ignored it. Umbri didn’t need a guy like him to be personable and stuff. He was here to be useful. Do a service and get compensated for it. Wasn’t like he was expecting the one person he had met recently that knew nothing about him to accept a little kindness and not want anything in return.

It wasn’t like he wanted to do SOMETHING, literally anything that wasn’t expected of him or needed compensation to feel just a little bit better about himself. Was the world really so fucked up that wanting to be generous and charitable was an alien concept now? He could swear he could hear the faint sound of his fathers mutter yelling in the distance. His scars started to burn. The mounting frustration stopped at a sudden cracking sound that came from his pocket.

He had his back to Umbri currently and Mr.Houston didn’t seem to even flick an ear at the noise. Alex made no indication that he had heard it and moved closer to the counter.

Umbri had heard it. The hairs on her neck stood up and she just looked ahead, determined to not acknowledge it. There was an oppressive tension over them now that Alex’s mood dropped. She couldn’t help but feel that she was now in a room with an angry man.

This is why you keep your mouth shut, girl.

Ignore it. Ignore it. Ignore it. She walked to the only display of live beasts in the shop, some naked rodents rolling over each other in their cage. Her brow furrowed in sympathy. They didn’t shine, but there was a certain… spark, in each of them. She was in the right direction.

“How many of these would substitute for a human?” She murmured thoughtlessly. Definitely not just the ten available in front of her. She looked back around at the meat on display, vibrant and fresh and so unlike the scraps shipped off to Northbridge, but also… dead. “When Jemma was in my head, I saw things. I don’t know if it was real, but she sees it that way. Everything… shines there. This doesn’t.” She started, trying to soften the crazy-factor of her thought process. “None of this meat still has its soul.” Brighter the soul, the more tempting. Like his. She shook the unwanted thought away and leaned on the counter, craning her neck back to take in the massive boar man. “Have you got any Threshers still alive back there?”

Alex’s brow furrowed at Umbri’s explanation. Concerning was one way to look at it. Also apparently Jemma had some minor form of Trump power if Umbri apparently had one of her senses now. The idea that Jemma might have also been a Master did cross his mind, but those that could control people were almost as rare as thinkers. We’ll go with trump. The mention of souls is as ominous. Granted, if he had to guess it might have had something to do more with advanced synapses and developed brains. “Brighter” lights and all that. A built in ability to help facilitate Jemma’s “hunting” more than likely. Multiple Powers in an individual tended to daisy chain together to help one another, Jemma’s new biology probably needed that “Shine” to help fuel it outside of just calories and meat.

Mr.Houston finally came to a good stopping point with his cutting answer Umbri. ”As a matter of fact, I do. Bastard is still kicking something fierce. Things an Apex variant if you can believe it, Hazard rating two if I’m measuring it right.”

The idea of an Apex core potentially staving Jemma off from . . . accidentally eating someone for any amount of time was too good a chance to pass up. ”I’ll take it. Live.“

The boar man emoted for the first time since the two entered his shop. Which came out as a short lived grunt of surprise. ”I know your pretty strong Alexander but are you sur-“ he didn’t get to finish as a string of clatter was tossed down on the counter. Mr.Houston scratched at his chin hair, still looking somewhat concerned. ”Look, I know you're probably a bit irritated from not getting anything from the early hunt. But a live Apex is really hard to-“ Two more strings were tossed on the counter in response. Umbri’s eyes grew two sizes at the sight of them.

The two men stared each other down for a good moment before an understanding was met and the butcher opened up the counter and motioned the two to follow him to the back. Alex still showed none of the mirth he had before coming to the shop.

Umbri hesitated to follow after them. The thunderous roar and bone-shaking hiss of the Threshers she’d encountered whistled by her ears, like their ghosts were hovering right over her back. She looked back at the pile of clat left on the counter. Then she fished a smaller, lighter string from her pocket and laid it out beside them before jogging over to follow close to Alex’s back.

The light from the thing wasn’t intense. But the HEAVILY restrained beast struggling in its reinforced cage lit up like it was under a black light. It was like an iridescent black viber had been fused with a leopard and given spikes and barbs all across its spine. Its spots glowed a sickly green all across its body. Equally venomous eyes glared balefully at the three as they entered the larger holding pen.

Alex noted how the paws on its four limbs were still bloody. Probably from having its claws ripped out. Only thing to worry about besides its solidly muscular form was the jaws then. Mr.Houston hadn’t put up any of the power related ranger signs. So either it had no offensive powers or it was already neutralized. Well. At least one thing was going right today.

Not wanting to put it off. Alex strode up to the cage. In a snap, his fist flew forward at speeds only hyperdense muscles and superhuman tendons could feasibly achieve. Alex’s punch shattered enough for Umbri to hear. He made no attempts to interact with the woman further, but clearly didn’t seem bothered if she stuck around or left.

Umbri stood there a moment, looking at the door. The snuffling of the beast pulled at her heart and ear but she started to walk out. She spared it one last glance at it bashing against the cage before exiting and wiped under her eyes.

Alex didn’t bat an eye as the thing renewed it’s struggling, straining to roar in pain through its mangled jaws and the damaged muzzle biting into its flesh. ”There. Should be safer to transport now..“ he grabbed a rag nearby and cleaned the blood from his hand, none of which was his own.

Umbri’s gasp was just short of a scream as Alex’s fist connected. Her hands slapped over her mouth and she held back. This being still had its soul. She’d found Jemma’s ‘sandwich’. And her eyes were getting redder and damper as they looked between Alex’s bloody hand and its bleeding paws. Its pupils dilated frantically over the torn skin hanging from its jaw. She was ashamed to meet them.

“How are we - God - how will we do that?” she asked with a dry mouth.

”Can get the thing delivered where you need it in less than an hour. Mr.Houston spat on the floor and gave an indignant snort. ”Good riddance if you ask me. Damn thing almost killed five people. Two are in need of cyberware now if they want to walk again.

Glaring back at the Thresher, Alex gave a nod. ”Get it sent to Black Iron. Back entrance, and keep it somewhat discrete please.“ He looked over to Umbri, and the sharpness to his face softened somewhat. Clearly she was not ok with what she had just seen. He started to lift a hand and ask . . . Shit asking if she was ok was stupid. What could he say to comfort her right now anyway? Was she even going to be comfortable around a man that just showed off that he could probably kill the average man with a punch?

”I . . . I’ll be outside.“ he broke eye contact and quickly slipped past the two. The sound of the door's bell ringing could be faintly heard as he stepped out.

Umbri was met with the face of a boar showing very human concern as Mr.Houston looked between her and when Alex had just left. ”Guess I have a delivery to make.” The man lumbered to the cage and went about triple checking everything. ”Hope the big guy’s alright. Never seen him that out of it before.” he said mostly to himself, though it was clearly said loud enough for Umbri to hear. He made no attempts to interact with the woman further, but clearly didn’t seem bothered if she stuck around or left.

Willing to humor her, Dean made a show of pulling out a glasses case from one of his pockets and very methodically pulling out a pair of round lens sunglasses. Once pushed up on his nose the magic arrays layered over the lenses came to life and assisted in his Astral Nearsightedness. "Alright lets see what the hell you are talking about." He paused for a second and glared over his glasses at Yue and Raudd. "My [Sight] sucks, don't judge me."

The wavelengths in Yue's hand were the distinct [Blue] of Alex. Just like that weird esper energy he always flung around. This was one of those rare moments where Dean was kicking himself for not having looked into any of this sooner into his friendship. First Alex's Haze pretension, and now this. What intrigued him right away was how closely it resonated as [Force] when under scrutiny. Now he would have left it at that, but then he noticed the other two colors.

"Huh, well I'll be damned." There, almost entirely obscured by the blue were strands of crimson [Red] and verdant [Green]. There was just enough to be able to figure out that the red had Signatures related to [Heat] and [Energy]. The green was arguably more interesting given that it was force almost entirely focused into [velocity].

First off. Alex had never in Dean's entire time of knowing the guy never once turned red or green. He never fucked around with heat and energy outside of some creative uses of his blue fields. And Alex certainly never glowed green while going fast. If this was magic, Dean would just assume Alex had a disposition towards three focused fields of magic and assumed he just never cultivated two of the three.

But this was Esper/Deviant stuff. and superpowers were almost always more bullshit then magic was. Well, almost.

Taking off his glasses to rub his eyes. Dean let out a groan of annoyance. "You're right. It's all there. but fuck if i know what it means. I'd forgotten Alex's powers have a signature that can be mistaken for magic in the first place. Now there's two more to worry about. Spirits this on top of him sucking up haze for who knows how long is turning into more of a headache by the day, if not the hour."

He stopped suddenly. Eyes wide and lips thin. an almost universal expression that he had not meant to say most of that out loud. Oops.

“Alex?” She called in the tent. She wandered outside. “Alex -” There he was, holding up a wall, head bowed, spiritual tail between his legs and looking at something in his palm. She walked silently beside him, the top of her head barely reaching his shoulder. “Alex.”

He jumped back, eyes switching between red, green, blue, a stream of stuttering gibberish gushing from his mouth until his gaze focused on her and the glow in his eyes faded. Umbri leaned on the wall beside him, looking ahead. Across the street was a graffitied memorial of Hardcase.

“Can I tell you a story?” She spoke up after a moment.

Alex’s hands quickly found their way into his pockets as he regained some level of composure. ”Uh, sure. Go ahead.“ There was a slight raising of one of his eyebrows that signaled his confusion. But he seemed attentive enough as he relaxed against the wall again, mostly facing her.

She looked down, and began,



Umbri took a break after finishing the story, like meditating after a prayer. Then she rolled her head Alex’s direction and met his gaze straight.

“What do you think it means?”

Alex raised an eyebrow at Umbri. Not really sure what the correct answer here would be. So, he figured to go with the second thought that came to mind. ”A warning to not be so charitable that it becomes a detriment to yourself?” He could see that being a decent interpretation. He also wasn’t so dense as to not notice that there was a chance she was trying to make parallels to him with his helping and disposition to gifts. That didn’t click well with him.

Years of not being shown unconditional love or kindness by one’s only remaining parent at the time tended to foster certain forms of reactions later in life. Neglect and abuse had turned Alex into a people pleaser and defaulted to being helpful and showing some degree of kindness when able despite his insecurities and perceived failures. Better than the alternatives by far. It did have a very nasty side effect on his mind when such actions were met with resistance and contradictions. Gifts shouldn’t have to be paid back, kindness shouldn’t need some sort of catch or angle to it.

Alex swallowed the rising bile and did his best to hide his tension and frustration. He wasn’t going to budge on any of this if he could help it. Part of him wanted to find something to hit again. Had to keep that caged.

Umbri glanced down, a crease in her brow. “Hm,” she pondered. “I guess that could be right.”

It was glaringly obvious that he didn’t know what to do with himself at this time. He could distract her by leading them back through the other side of the market, or just head directly back to Jemma and the others. Being boxed in wasn’t the right word for what he was feeling right now, but SOMETHING made him feel like there wasn’t a direct way out of this situation with a woman that was not even half his size. Irritation sparked and he could feel his face twitch. Anger and frustration bubbled like magma in his gut. His hands fidgeted in his pockets. Alex looked away, trying to hide a complicated mix of discomfort and anxiety that he was only barely keeping together.

Umbri's jaw clenched. She looked between the groups of people drifting by, absorbed in their own social bubbles, but still, present. Say something to please him - No. He's getting angry, pacify him - I'm not working. Just give him what he wants. I don't even know what that is. Dance, Marionette! I'm. Not. Working.

"I'm not going to ask if you're OK." She spoke up. Harsh. The gaze she'd averted from him fluttered back and down, betraying her nerves. She continued softer, "You'll just have to tell me. You'll... always just have to tell me." She brought a finger to her lips. "... Maybe, quietly. I understand your - reputation." A subtle nudge of the finger to the busy street. "I’ve seen how you’ve worked hard for it."

All the tension came to ahead as Alex became very still. With a strained look to his face, he turned to look at Umbri. Clear skepticism on display, but there was a glimmer of . . . maybe hope. If you knew where to look. There was a barely registerable flickering of power in his eyes. He swallowed again. Keep it down. ” . . .Are you saying you’re willing to listen?”

‘She’s just trying to dig herself out of the hole she has made. She’s scared. You know she saw you brutalize that Apex. Are you really any better than Temujin? You could kill so easily, why wouldn't she look at you like some monster. Umbri is just placating you, trying to de-escalate because she’s terrified. Monster. Maybe you will lash out and hit her like your father would had. MONSTER.’

He tried to ignore the noise. Letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in.

“It’s an unhealthy habit, but it’s what I do.” She folded her arms and leaned on the wall sideways with a sigh. A brief smile. “You listened to my story, didn’t you?”

“Yeah . . . never really expected the courtesy for myself.” Some of the tension started to leave now and it showed as Alex readjusted himself on the wall. He paused for a second and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. ”That's also probably unhealthy huh?”

Umbri looked at him expectantly. “Yeah.” Certain threads of this man were starting to weave her a decent picture, but it was still missing, right in the middle, the answer to that question - How can someone this powerful and this liked be… “So… is there anything you wanted to say?”

Fuck.

We’re actually doing this aren’t we?

”Do you know what put Shieldtown on a pedestal? What helped to give it its reputation?“ Softly glowing eyes gazed up towards the plates. He thought back to the day he lost his life, so to speak. ”This place was made on the back and ideals of one Rogue. And when he died, a man in glowing blue armor stepped up out of necessity and desperation in the heat of the moment. Aegis is stronger than Hardcase ever was. And everyone knows it.“

The short lived laugh that escaped Alex’s lips was bitter to the ears. ”But he’s not Hardcase. Who’s to say he can handle the pressure? Not like he can afford to break under it. The mounting responsibility, expectations . . . Stress. Who knows, maybe that will kill him before any monster or villain does.“

Alex slumped down the wall a bit, closer to eye level with Umbri. ”You want to know the saddest part of it all?“

Umbri gave him a gentle nod to go ahead.

Alex sucked in a breath and held his eyes shut right. Speaking words he had only ever told one other person in his entire life.”That power like that all came from a Trauma breaking point. And that the unbreakable Rogue of Shieldtown . . . deep down is a neglected and abused boy . . . that’s desperately trying to be better than his angry alcoholic father . . . . . who he killed in a fit of new power fueled fight or flight.“

‘Just met this woman today and you drop all this on her? Your a fucking piece of work dude. You're just gonna get a moment of pity at most. Maybe a half hearted pep talk. Pathetic.’ Alex shook his fathers voice out of his forethought’s.

The ghost of his Father was wrong. It was neither. It was,

“Oh.”

"Oh."

So that was how it was.

It started right where she thought it would. A pressure to stand in the shoes of this prior Rogue that had been a blank outline in her head before, this 'Hardcase'. But he's stronger than him. Shieldtown knows it. Shieldtown loves him. So why-

Then she nodded, and invited the truth. And it turned out, she could colour him the same shade of so many men that had cried into her chest before him. She'd read him right from the start. Because she knew him.

Umbri saw a little kid avoiding bottles. Making art out of the shards and offering it up to the apathetic god of his world. 'Love me, love me, love me, please.' He might be picking glass out of his shins for the effort, until he had enough. Now this was where the story Umbri knew differed. The boy became a man that shattered an Apex's jaw his father's head and tossed her through the air in a blue cage wrapped his father's body in hardlight and crushed it.

Alex was insecure about fulfilling Hardcase's position as the Rogue of Shieldtown, not because he wasn't strong enough. He was insecure as a hero because he was a fake. He didn't belong in this world, with its flourishing community and sunny dispositions and Herculean protector.

He belonged in hers.

Maybe he wasn't even so different from Temujin. She was learning that there were similarities that bound all Rogues, even such insistent opposites as them. To be a Rogue, you had to be fucking crazy. You had to have a death wish. And you had to be a murderer.

Murderer.

Umbri could feel her heart-rate spiking. He'd killed his kin. It was a tragedy. She did not want to look afraid. It didn't feel... safe to show. She was putting so much effort into keeping her face straight she couldn't think of anything to reply to him with. What did he want her to say to that? Did he even know?

"And nobody knows?" She guessed, from the way he'd said it. This certainly wasn't something he normally shared. It was... common, in her line of work, to be told secrets men wouldn't even speak to their families. Some things were easier to give to a stranger. The thought stopped her from ever feeling too special.

There was a pause of consideration before Alex gave an answer. ”Few do. Not all of them know the full story though. My friend Dean, he knows everything. Probably the only real emotional support I have.“ Alex smiled ever so slightly, it was ironic given how much he had to wrangle that man to live a more healthy lifestyle.

A hand reached up to touch the scar across his face that would have almost taken his eye. ”He was trying to kill me you know . . . The moment my powers came. That shitty excuse of a father was going to kill his own teenage son over some twisted delusions that his son was responsible for the accident that got his mother killed.“ Alex’s eyes began to look wet, but no tears fell.

God. Why was he doing this to a total stranger he barely even knew? ”Sorry, I shouldn’t be dropping this all on you. Some Rogue I must turn out to be huh.“ An apology followed by a very poor attempt at reflective self-deprecating humor. His gut twisted the moment those words left his mouth.

"I don’t think you’re so different from the rest of them," Umbri replied. The only Rogues she knew were a vengeful ex-slave cyborg and a vampire who didn't ask for permission to bite. He didn’t need to know that. She played with a buckle on her brace and thought about whether it was helpful to tell him.

‘My mother tried to kill me, too.’ But... ‘I didn't get powers from it.’

She knew about powers being triggered by trauma. It was one of the most common ways deviants and espers awakened their abilities. For every deviant unleashing their new strength on the brink of death, there had to be... thousands of people like her. Reaching to the sky with gashes opening their palms and receiving nothing. There must have been a hundred times she'd folded over a sink, not sure if she could keep going, daring the dormant spark in her to snap and christen her in strength and fire. But she just never had one there. If she'd had one like Alex that night, when she raised her hands against the blade that cut through them to get to her chest, like the way his hands must have raised against his father, if God or whatever force had granted her the power, would they have been...

The same?

She wriggled out of the thought.

“I don’t get this place,” she confessed. “I don’t really know anything about what it is to be a Rogue, either. But the world you came out of -” she held her breath. Tell him? Tell him? It hurt and was caught in her chest before it could even make it up her throat. “I understand.” Marionette took her hand and guided it up to lift a lock of her wig, exposing a rounded burn scar tucked right behind her ear. A cigarette burn, maybe. A carved pocket in the flesh with rough edges. She let the wig settle back after a moment, the breeze on her neck making her feel vulnerable. That was enough.

“And maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, but watching you,” she gave a little shrug, “It looked like you were doing okay.”

He almost reflexively traced a finger across his facial scar again upon seeing It Umbri’s burn. It was such a small gesture. But to Alex it brought a level of comfort he wasn’t expecting.

Of all the people who could have come out of Northbridge, of course it’s somebody he could connect with. What was he complaining about earlier? Oh yeah, living in interesting times and all that.

Sliding back up the wall into a more natural position, Alex finally had his usual smile back. ”Thank you. I know this probably sounds rich coming from the guy that you just saw mutilate what seems like a helpless animal, but . . . (Umbri cringed at the memory and squinted at ‘but’) I try my best to be a good person around here. In and out of the mask.”

His smile faltered for a moment. In his head though, Alex struggled against himself. One last confrontation. For now. He didn’t hear his father though.

It was himself.



There was a renewed resolve in Alexander’s eyes. It was hard to say if he was truly alright. But he did feel somewhat better. He remembered something his grandfather once said to him before having moved to Titan’s Fall. What was that saying? Right “Be strong enough to be gentle.” He wanted that. To just . . . Be kind.

Shaking the thoughts away, Alex turned to Umbri, leaning his shoulder into the wall. ”And hey, sorry if all of uh.“ He motioned to the market scene before him. ”Everyone here is pretty aware that Shieldtown is like stepping into another world compared to, well, everywhere else.“

“It’s fine,” she murmured, having just watched an entire war just play out behind the guy’s smile. “Some things stay the same no matter where I am. Come on.” She pushed herself off the wall.

“It wasn’t my story, by the way. My sister wrote it. I don’t know what it means either,” she spoke as they started tracing their steps back down the street, and their conversation melted in the bustle of everything around them. Umbri’s new clothes blended her in with the crowd they joined and despite being there she faded from Aegis’s side.

She was up to something, that much he could tell from the mass suddenly whirling through the spear, what exactly though he couldn't tell... At least until such a point where the full weight of the spear was released to onto his mortal flesh. "Fuck's sake." Raudd grunted under the burden he was suddenly carrying one armed refusing to allow it to gain more momentum from Yue's sudden release.

His other hand managing to catch up with the slow fall of the object and after it had finally impacted and latched on the fall of the spear was successfully arrested though Raudd had heard a pop and the right arm that had taken the brunt did feel a bit funny, but that was a problem for when that spear was back on the table. Walking with the 200 pound bar of brutestick wasn't an easy feat either, straining his muscles and threatening his balance with every measured small step he took to the table it had once been laid upon.

When finally the spear had rolled onto the table Raudd let out a sigh of relief, taking a look at the 'funny' feeling arm to take stock of the damage. "You know if that was anyone other than me or Alex, that probably would have been really bad." He said with a great degree of annoyance noticing that his arm had gained a couple more inches from the shoulder down and a greater degree of flexibility from that primary joint as well. Seemed that little trick had managed to dislocate his shoulder... Still had movement in his upper arm though, so by some miracle the tendons and muscles had held.

He was about to walk out of the building to 'deal with his injuries' when Yue started up again about the 'other colors' and Raudd looked with scrutiny at the [nothing] she had in her hand, he could see three distinct sources of reality rending aura in her hand, four if you counted the one that was surrounding her. The three though distinctly separated also distinctly the same. "Regardless of how bad your [sight] is it's better than mine, all I'm 'sensing' is Alex's signature spread out like light pulled through a prism."

It was then that the bespectacled beanie dropped a bomb on Raudd and he instinctively reacted with a groan turning his focus away from the hand to look directly at Dean. "What do you mean he's been sucking up magical trash and it's turning into more of a headache by the hour? How bad is it and what are you doing to solve it? Fuck, actually give me just a minute before you answer that. I need a moment. Fuck!" He asked with a mixture of distress and anger in his voice before running out of the room and right out the front door, going on a quick run to find a quiet spot to deal with that noodle limb of his.

Luckily Shieldtown while rare secluded spots where Raudd could employ his self-regenerative routine without causing colateral damage were available. and he quickly made his way into one of the spots no more than an alley way from Alex's home, swiftly forming a ball of violently sparking red energy even as he moved there, only to turn it upon himself on arrival allowing the flames of entropy to take him before rising from the sparking red void like a phoenix from it's ashes. After quickly dusting himself off of any imaginary dust he full sprinted back to the house to meet back up with Dean and Yue. His breath ragged from his double sprint, but none of that visibly affecting the stare emanating from his eyes demanding an explanation from Dean.

Shieldtown. The great anti-Thresher walls cast a shadow upon square-cut concrete, strong and rigid beneath the sea of tarps and wires that made up its rooftops. Another day for the most powerful settlement in Titan’s Fall’s undercity. With the walls, their battle-hardened hunters, and Aegis’s presence, the common folk stayed safe, warm, and prosperous as they bustled amidst the midday trade. The city was more than prepared for any giant monster, but not all threats challenged Shieldtown head-on, with smoke on their trails and fire in their throats. One stayed hidden in the shadows. He was shrouded in a ragged cloak as he skulked behind back alleys, glided between an ever-moving crowd, and melted against the walls, barely beyond the searchlights of the drones that flew right over his head. Three glowing red eyes dilated in the pitch black of his hood, his sight fixated on the entrance of the Black Iron Workshop. Bodies filed out from within, dressed in their jumpsuits and hazard gear, until all that was left was the garage door that rolled back down to shut.

Inside the workshop, Ako worked on Temujin under the supervision of Koba. The monkey-man gestured to guide his apprentice. Temujin had been stripped to his bare body, the raw and sinewy muscles bruised with patches of white and tears that revealed the circuitry conjoined with off-white artificial viscera. The only thing that the ninja did not allow them to remove was his mask, or rather, as he insisted, his 'face'.

"Oh, like this?" Ako asked as she cranked her wrench counter-clockwise, a motion that demanded the entire might of her tiny body. Temujin looked down with concern. Koba nodded, his smile brightened by his blue-red markings. Jemma was still and floating behind them, a ball of roiling ink that reflected no light.

Up on the ceiling, behind the grates of a vent, three red eyes blinked within the shadows. The eyes darted from Temujin, to the mechanics, and the black orb. Cybernetics whirred and clicked beneath his cloak as he pushed the vent open, and leapt.

"LOOK OUT!" Temujin shouted. His words barely finished when a gaunt limb collided against Ako's cheek. The mechanic fell back onto the ground with a gurgle, spitting out blood and teeth. The shadow's cloak scattered behind him, revealing a tall man, with muscles that clung to bone. A pair of slacks were the only thing that provided him modesty, held up by suspenders that stretched tight over his skin. His arms were sinewy and uncannily long, with segments and seams and silver-tipped knuckles. His face was triangular and metallic, hissing and clicking through insectoid mandibles. The cables, tubes, and circuitry embedded into his neck made one thing clear: that was not a mask.

"Out of my way," His voice was a shrill, high-pitched hiss. He hunched to face a snarling Koba, his fingers waggling as he drew one of many knives from his belt. "A little bird told me that Dove is back." Three eyes were embedded in the centre of his face, red and bulging with a compound pattern. ”Where is she?”

"Who the fuck are you?!" Temujin shouted back. The invader glanced at him, yet maintained his focus on Koba, watching as the monkey-man placed himself in front of the orb, his arms spread to shield it, and Ako behind him. Could it be? He drew a pair of knives from his hip. "The name's Mantablack. Slasher. Tearer. Ripper!" He tossed the blades to the air and snatched them in a reversed grip. "Stand aside, mutant. I have a job to do!"

Mantablack launched forward. Koba turned towards Jemma and pushed her on instinct, only - his eyes shot wide open. His heart missed a beat. The orb was unmoving… as Koba's arm sank into the blackness. Deeper, further, from his wrist, up his forearm, and beyond the elbow. He gasped, grunted, and panted. Mantablack screeched to a halt. His three eyes squinted, watching with intrigue as Koba struggled, his heavy breaths bleeding panic whilst he pulled and pulled in a desperate attempt to free himself.

"Koba!" Temujin shouted, squirming within his bonds. Mantablack hunched and stepped back, stowing one of his knives back in their sheath. "How interesting," he mused, with a voice that dripped with glee through machine synthesis. Koba reeled back with bared and gritted teeth. The Jemma-orb was swallowing more and more of his arm, until it hovered close to his shoulder, and threatened to take the rest of him.

"Ko… Koba…!" Ako stumbled to her feet, held onto the monkey despite his frantic gestures of ("Don't!"), and pulled, and pulled, and pulled. The orb was less than an inch from his shoulder when the two pulled through. The force tossed Ako against the wall with a visceral 'THUNK', whilst Koba collapsed on the floor, wisps of black vapour welding his arm stump shut.

The bug-eyed man held up his hand in front of the orb. A net blasted forth from the crevice of his palm, wrapping and twisting around the orb with an electric sizzle. "Thanks for that, little monkey. I would've been mulch if not for your 'sacrifice', kyekekekeke." His mandibles with a twisted cackle as he secured the net to his belt. Mantablack turned towards Koba and the now-unconscious Ako, musing, "Don't take it personally… but I can't leave any witnesses alive." The seams on his knife-bearing arm parted with a hiss and pop, revealing hinges that extended his reach, until the tip of the blade touched the floor. Koba met the ripper's gaze head-on, defiant despite the quiver of fear in his eyes.

A pebble bounced off the back of Mantablack's head. "Hmmmm…?!" He looked over his shoulder, catching the flicker of green in Temujin's eyes. "Hey, diesel-dick. Pick on someone your own size!" The ripper tilted his head. Temujin's lack of limbs did not escape his notice. So how did he…?

"What's the matter? Too chickenshit to fight an opponent on your level? Or do you get off on tormenting a defenseless girl and her monkey?!" The ninja continued to bark, drawing a high, rattling chuckle from Mantablack.

"Kyekeke… look at you. A robot with guts." The ripper prodded Temujin's stomach with his knife… from half the room away. "Let's see what they’re like!"

"Who are you calling a robot, chrome-dog?!" Temujin shouted, glaring with all the rage in his mask. Mantablack zoomed in on Temujin's body. "Wait…" He pressed the knife tip against Temujin's navel, and felt it flex against his blade. "That's not rubber… that's Fontaine synth fiber!" The ripper drew his entire arm back and approached, scanning the ninja from head to crotch. "Your entire body's brimming with treasures, pal."

Mantablack grabbed onto the clasp of his stand and snapped it apart with a pull. "What the… hey-" The ninja squirmed and wriggled as the ripper hoisted him over his shoulder. "Put me down, rust-breath! Put me down or I swear to God, I'll-"

"You'll what, throw another pebble at me?" Mantablack sneered. A ripple in his radar alerted Mantablack of the Black Iron workers' return. He glanced at Koba and chuckled. Killing him now would be too much of a hassle. "Looks like this is your lucky day, mutant." He leapt back up towards the vent, and Temujin let out one final defiant scream that melted with the ripper into the darkness. Koba watched them go with vacant eyes, the adrenaline ebbing off to remind him of his wounds.

Beep.

The monkey-man's gaze flicked down, towards where Mantablack was standing.

Beep.

A black box, tangled with root-like wires. A red dot blinked into a countdown.

Beep.

Koba's consciousness returned for one vital second. With the last of his strength, he leapt to shield Ako from the imminent blast.

Beep.

The box shattered. A blue and purple wave of light exploded from within. The ripple passed through the entire workshop, out into the streets, and past three city blocks… snuffing out all light and electricity as it travelled. The city's drones fell from the sky, many of them shattering into pieces as they kissed the earth.



Umbri stopped on their way back. The three men who had been fixing a sign to a roof cheered as they got it lit up, only to let out a synchronised groan as it suddenly cut out. The hum of live wires overhead went dead. A whistle pierced the air. Umbri looked up just in time to shout and jump away.

A mangle of machinery crashed into the place she'd been standing, its lights dead. Umbri squatted to get a better look at the drone that almost wiped her out, then turned her head up to Alex.

"What's going on?"

---

---

The Den was an ominous black shape silhouetted against the residual light of ShieldTown’s sun lamp in the distance. The structure’s angular surfaces occasionally shined dull matte, suspended hundreds of feet over the crater floor. Astrid passed the occasional curious rock, wreck, or ruin on her approach. They seemed oddly out of place until it became apparent they had been intentionally placed and marked with numbers in thermo-reactive paint that counted down steadily. 3800… 3700… 3600…

'Distance markers? Smart.'

Astrid's foot pressed gently against the kickstand as she gave an awkward glance to the Den. As the stand snapped into place, she hesitantly stood up and cursed herself for accepting this job. Had she been just a few days earlier, the bombing wouldn't have happened yet and she could be doing some other work that didn't require her to head back topside. Not that complaining ever got her anywhere. With a sigh, she slapped her hands lightly against her face twice, holding them there for a second while she composed herself. It had been over a decade since she truly had to rely on someone else, but short of hijacking the elevator by force, it seemed she had no other option.

'I just need to be amiable, lay on that ol' Grunewald charm.' Her reflection stared back at her from the bike's metallic sheen, disbelief painting its face. She let out an entertained snort, “I know, right?” Deciding that her apprehension wasn't likely to go away anytime soon, she started towards the building.

"I'm looking for a..." Her hand fumbled for the note in her hoodie's pocket. Unfolding the paper, she read the words hastily scribbled onto it, "Wolf? I heard she could help me out..."

“Found her,” a voice answered. A dot illuminated dull red in the perpetual gloom outside of the spear of light from Astrid’s motorcycle and a figure slid part way into view with practiced, near silent steps. The pointed, canine cyber-cochlear implants of her namesake were alert and probing, twisting this way and that to catch anyone else hidden in the dark while the watchful red glow of HK settled on Astrid.

“You look pretty capable,” she noted, adjusting the sub-machine gun slung unabashedly across her chest so that it could be brought to bear in an instant. “Where did you hear I was helping people?”

Biting down a sarcastic retort, the former Scotswoman did her best to remember where she had first started hearing the rumors about the Den. In truth, it had been a variety of people, though if she had to say who the first was, then it would have been , “Ripperdoc, the one who did your ears, I think.”

Wolf squinted at Astrid long enough for the dull red glow behind her right eye to flicker slightly. Her ears twisted in thought for a moment before checking the surroundings in a paranoid flick.. She finally exhaled and let the tension in her shoulders uncoil.

“Pascal has a big mouth,” she muttered grumpily, though her ears perked up with interest and one of her eyebrows stretched for her hairline as she first looked Astrid up and down, and then fixed her gaze on the motorcycle. She let out a low whistle. “Whelp,” she turned and signaled overhead. Lights clacked on and flooded the crater floor.

“Bedroll? Or a body bag?!” Someone called down from overhead.

“Bedroll!” Wolf shouted.

“Ah, shit. Y’all heard her, clean out a new bunk!”

“Stowaway! Stowaway! Stowaway!”

“Send out the lifter, we got a machine for the vehicle bay!” Wolf ordered. The Den was suddenly abuzz with activity overhead, and a pair of zip lines were lowered, each with a lift-rig. “Come inside and try not to think too loud, we got a True Esper that’s not so great at the whole ‘filtering out’ thing,” she invited, hooking a foot into the rig and letting it haul her up into the structure.

The buzz of activity came as a slight shock, the place looked relatively abandoned upon approach, but, ‘I suppose it couldn’t have been, if the rumors were to be believed.’ She took a cursory look around the now illuminated crater. There was quite an operation going here, she could probably fit all of her siblings in the building, at least all of the ones that made it to the states. Stepping into the other lift-rig, Astrid pondered exactly what sort of thoughts constituted “too loud.”

The notion made an intrusive thought appear, a vague memory of being thrown from her father’s arms into those of one of her siblings, and then being hauled away at a breakneck pace; a staccato of gunfire, the smell of smoke mixing with violence. She did her best to put her thoughts back in order and focus on the present, ‘Go to your happy place. That hill overlooking the Atlantic, the sea breeze; home.’ The ground sped away from her as she was hauled into the “Den of the Wolf.”

Astrid landed on the platform gold to emerald way too much eye contact, face to freckle speckled face much too close. Astrid’s rig stopped at the platform in her hand with a tiny jolt.

“It’s much prettier without the blood and guns,” she mumbled after an awkward silence. Wolf’s steel knuckled hand rumpled the girl’s sandy blonde hair affectionately, breaking the staring contest stalemate. She flinched at the contact, and a sharp *CRACK* of rushing air gouged one of the battered plates on Wolf's forearm, showering the chamber with fine metal dust.

“What have I said about private thoughts?” Wolf asked, without malice, ignoring the damage.

“But I’ve never seen the ocean before! Nobody ever thinks nice thoughts about the beach, I might not get to see it again after she goes up,” Jade pouted, with a huff. Wolf raised an eyebrow, flicking a glance towards Astrid momentarily before gently shooing the girl towards the facility interior.

“Go see to her machine, we can’t leave it out there for the Scavs or Rippers,” Wolf ordered, hanging the rigs as the hulking freight drone settled on its repulsors in a plume of dust, scooping up the motorcycle effortlessly. All at once, what was a flurry of activity efficiently buttoned up, portals closed, and lights clacked off, shrouding the crater in gloom once again as though nothing had happened.

HK was content to let the women talk. There was other work to be done. [DenGuest-BikeBabe01]'s statement registered as truthful in the vocal analysis, and [HOST] had passive recording enabled for their conversation. HK would listen to it later and flag any inconsistencies in [DenGuest-BikeBabe01]'s vocal patterns. For now, HK had other things to monitor.

[QueryResponse ActiveDrone] . . .
[Albatross01 - ActivePatrolling]
[Albatross02 - ActiveWidePatrol]
[Manta01 - LockdownSuite Standing By] -|
[Albatross01 SweepVisuals]
[Running Path_To_Victory.sim] . . . -|

HK panned the drone's camera over ShieldTown and looked for inconsistencies. [HOST] had agreed with the additional vigilance protocols HK had suggested they implement due to the previous day's disturbance. [BigGuy] was roaming the market with [ShieldTown - SpecialGuest - Aegis02], the one that came in with [RudeRobot] earlier in the morning. [ShieldTown - SpecialGuest - Aegis01] had come back after making a ruckus and nearly disturbing the [FuckingMeanBats] close to the Plate ceiling. At least they weren't wasting more ammunition and fuel on those things after the unscheduled hunt, so that was a thing.

HK's attention wandered for a second, logging two guests from [AllyStoneworks] near the West entrance. Another sleepy day in Shieldtown, thankfully... that was, until something... purple? caught HK's attention. They whipped the gimballed camera towards the source of the disturbance and-

[Albatross01 - Connection Lost] . . .
[Queue Diagnostics]
[Running PingRequest] . . .
[Connection Timed Out] -|
[Albatross02 Report - Crash Detected]
[Cause: Unknown]
[Running Path_To_Victory.sim] . . .
[Alert Host] -|

Wolf flinched as she was leading Astrid across the threshold to the conference room, pausing in the doorway with indecision. Normally she would go investigate a disturbance herself, but she also wasn't about to ditch Astrid before they had a chance to talk about... whatever it was she needed help with. She inhaled, reading HK's suggestions in her HUD silently for a tangible moment before she pressed her hand to the sub-vocal Vox around her neck.

"Hey, I just got a notification that Albatross One might have gone down in the Market. Can I get someone to run out there, diagnose the issue, and clean up that wreck before they yell at us?."

"On it!" Jade chirped optimistically over the comms, and the accompanying *WHOOSH* of wind in the corridor leading towards the Zipline to ShieldTown signaled that the overenthusiastic girl was already on her way before Wolf could protest.

"Be careful!" Wolf hissed with resignation before turning back to Astrid and flopping into one of the conference room chairs with a note of exhaustion. "Sorry about that. You seem to have me at a disadvantage... Officially, I'm Wolf."

The second the drone crashed and electronics in the vicinity sputtered out, Alex was already looking around and swearing under his breath.

Really?! Now of all times???!!!

A growl rumbled in the man’s throat as he pulled out his phone only to find the thing dead and bricked. Confirming his growing suspicions. ”Fuck. Someone set off an EMP.“

While there was a level of panic in nearby residences, there were already people gearing up for the worst like this was just the same shit as usual in Shieldtown. Thankfully not all the enforcer or hunting rigs seemed to be down, they had learned their lesson when an Apex with electro-magnetic abilities showed up not that long ago. Unfortunately, that still left a good amount of equipment down depending on how big the blast had been.

Alex however was already scanning the immediate vicinity for signs of trouble or hostility. Blue light flickering in his eyes as a hand began to creep towards his bag for his collapsed helmet. His features softened momentarily to assure Umbri. ”I don’t know who had the balls to pull shit like that here. But whoever they are, they’re soon going to wish they didn’t.“ There was an animalistic edge bleeding into his voice. Even his posture grew more rigid as steely muscles began to flex with anticipation.

Even with the growing frustration and irritation, he kept Umbri in sight and within arms reach. She noted that - the former, at least, and that it was cast away from her - as she joined his search. She swept her gaze over the skyline and came up with nothing. The second she determined she wasn’t in immediate danger, her thoughts jumped to the people who could be.

“Come on, we need to get back,” she urged Alex and jogged out in front.

Something was wrong when they turned that corner. A shrill voice beckoned them to move faster as they approached the Workshop, shouting for Alex’s help. It wasn’t like any of the requests Umbri had been privy to on their trip to the markets. It was panicked and desperate. The roller door was open, giving them a clear view of the crowd huddled within. They skittered and ducked out of the way of Alex as he came through, Umbri only just making it through sticking to his back.

At the center of the chaos was Koba, slumped by the wall, eyes barely staying open, right arm - gone. Completely, bloodlessly, spirited away. Graham was crouched in front of him, a little figure limp in his arms as he alternated between shouting orders, urging Koba to stay awake and firing questions, so many frantic questions, from him and everyone - “What happened to you! Your arm!” Koba could only feebly sign back, with one hand, and half the words he wanted to say, (“Dove. Don’t… blame.”) Ako’s cap laid by their feet, a dark patch of blood in it.

It was loud. And at the same time, quiet. Quiet of a presence that should have been here, screaming all the profanities for her. Umbri broke away from Alex to rush to the back of the workshop.

No Temujin on the workbench. No hovering Jemma ball. Just a vent cover laying under an op-table. Umbri looked back at Alex helplessly and shook her head.

Hardlight cracked into existence with the sound of grinding glass. Angry jagged shapes crept over Alex’s body but didn’t fully encase him. He moved around the room to try and get any clue of what had happened himself before speaking up. ” What happened and who did this?.“ His voice still a growl, leaning more towards a demand than a question.

There didn’t seem to be any reactions to the overt use of powers given the situation. Alex took deep breaths to retain some degree of composure. Tremors of anger now a lot more visible with the fractals of light shifting across his body.

Umbri searched around the workbenches, for a clue, or for the hope that Jemma at least had safely rolled under one. The alternative made her nauseous - "Was the Warden here?" She picked up a dented piece of Temujin's casing from the floor and clung to it.

Koba shivered, pushing against the pain to set himself upright. Margot reached out with a concerned arm, but Koba gently tucked it away as he held up his surviving hand. ("Rip come…") His fingers flexed with a tentative tremble. ("Look for Dove.") Koba whimpered, and his hand clenched into a fist that quelled his frustration with silence. Until he took a deep breath, and continued, ("Dove gone again…")

Ako laid in Graham's arms. Her eyes fluttered beneath her lashes. Her cheek was a swollen, lumpy purple, with bruises that stretched beneath her eye. Bandages twisted beneath her bangs to the back of her head. Graham drew his hand from beneath the apprentice and stared at the wet, damp colour that overtook his palm. It was red.

The smith shot a glare towards Alex, his eyes wet and his face flushed pink. "Where the hell were you?!" He was shaking. "You're Shieldtown's Rogue! You were supposed to protect us!" he hung his head, hiding the tears in favour of the teeth gritted beneath his unkempt beard as he muttered, "If Hardcase was still here…"

"Hey, back off," Umbri wedged herself firmly in the place between the Rogue, the grief-stricken mechanic, and their rising tempers. "That's not fair."

Graham turned his glare towards Umbri. "This ain't none of your business." He held Ako closer. "Why do you even care? You got what you came for."

Alex snapped in the direction of the smith. Oh that did it. He was not putting up with this after everything he had unloaded on Umbri. ”Get the FUCK off you’re high horse and pull your head out of your ass.“ In one step he loomed over the man. The next words that came out of his mouth were more of a growl than ever. ”I'm. Not. Hardcase. And don’t you dare act like he was everywhere at once. We still had people getting hurt when he was around.“

Not a moment was given for a response as Alex turned on his heel and stormed towards the door. ”If you’re all fucking done . . . I have a Ripper to hunt.“

There was no way trying to chase someone who already had a head start was going to work. That left only one real option.
Stepping outside, Alex wasted no time clapping his hands together violently. The sound was not too dissimilar to that of a shotgun going off. Blue light bloomed outwards from Alex at a rapid rate. Moving faster and faster the further it got from him. The light harmlessly passed over buildings and people, coalescing into a multiple layered jagged dome that effectively sealed Shieldtown off from the rest of the undercity. Sure, you could get it, but Alex had it so nothing could get out. To help emphasize the point, the inner walls began to sharpen and become riddled with spikes and spines all pointing inward.

If there was any sign that this feat of power was straining him, Alex certainly didn’t show it. Given how charged he had been feeling lately he felt like he had an over abundance of energy to spare.

With nothing left to do, Alex picked a direction and moved. Nearly 400.lbs of pissed off brute accelerating to roughly 60.mph might not seem impressive on paper. It was a lot more terrifying to witness in person. Especially when said brute was also covered head to toe in glowing blades and spikes.

Not long after the dome went up. Loudspeakers in areas that hadn’t been hit by the EMP blared to life.



From there, warning lights began to flash down every street as thick blast doors and window coverings began to slam into place over every building.

Even without comms, Alex had effectively mobilized the Town.

---

---

Heat had never burned her before. When the temperature of your skin could melt steel, being burned by things was a non-issue. This was different: ID's skin [BURNED] beneath the surface with Astral fire. For the longest time, all she could do was thrash against this new pain. ID [screamed] into the Astral Sea. Her voice was [fire] and, though it seared her insides, she continued until she could no longer make sound. Eventually she no longer had the energy to scream or thrash, and her Astralform collapsed into loose coils in the nothing.

Traumatized nerves hummed unpleasantly, and the burning white in her eyes eventually faded to cool black. For a short eternity, she floated in the darkness, trying not to move or speak lest she start burning once again. After a while, she cautiously opened her [Eyes]. The residual haze of [Light-Creation-Shines From Heaven] slashed painfully at her vision, causing her to recoil away from it.



ID was stuck Astrally Projecting, separated from her physical body, lost, hurt, and mostly blind. Her Astralform rumbled unhappily as it slithered towards cool darkness to buy a moment to recover.



Where the hell was her body for starters? For a normal Mage, being separated from their body for extended periods wasn't a huge deal, particularly if they had someone taking care of them. ID was dual natured: whatever happened to her Astralform happened to her. It was an inseparable piece of her, which meant that her physical body was literally dying somewhere. She was on strict time limit, made even more difficult by the walls of [Sun]light raking the astralscape, likely through the plate gaps. The normally welcome sight seared her vision painfully and burned uncharacteristically against her astral flesh. She couldn't even get close.

The Astral Sea was a shadowy mirror of the Material swirling with color, emotion, and ideation. Spirits and other entities glided through ambient Mana currents, and around pale shadows that only vaguely represented the physical world. Matter, form, and solidity ceased to matter, and without Material landmarks, there wasn't much exploration to be had. ID's Astralform slumped into the darkest nook it could find, deflating with a long sigh.



Yeah. This is it.













ID wrestled her Astralform roughly into motion despite its protests and glided back towards the light as closely as she dared. It singed her wingtips as she searched in a bloodhound pattern for anything that might give a hint at where they were and... that's when she felt it. Like someone plucking a tightly wound guitar string, something dragged at her attention. A familiar energy. ID dove towards it instinctively, pulling her wings in tight to pick up speed. A surprised sprite leapt out of the way.



ID's wings snapped open and she banked towards a signature she could now sense clearly headed for the wall of [Sun]light at high speed.



She drove her wings down to gain altitude as Copper's hover sled whipped past just out of reach... Maybe we should have left a note saying that moving our body would be bad.



Though it seared her skin, ID pulled on threads of mana. Her Astralform exploded with [Light-Creation-Shines From Heaven]. An enormous winged serpent made of incandescent [Sun]fire coiling for one last lunge into the wall of light that raked her eyes and scorched her hide. She pulled on threads of [Light], sling-shotting herself upwards towards the ascending sled just as it vanished into the [Sun].

---

ID's body lurched and she drew a ragged breath, only to scream as her skin blackened and smoked against the sun's rays. A lance of flame erupted from her throat as she thrashed against the restraints, coming dangerously close to engulfing the sled's crew. She threw herself against the straps, breaking a buckle and wrenching the steel cot support out of shape and grabbing for... anything, until she found purchase on the corner of her cloak and pulled it roughly to shield herself.

"F-ffuck...," ID croaked through lacerated vocal cords, finally calming down. She was quiet for a long time following her outburst and besides her gentle shivering, she let the occasional quiet sob escape.

Yue's eyes flicked from Dean to Raudd and back. She did feel a little bad, but technically she'd done exactly as Raudd asked, and everyone walking on magical eggshells around her was very quickly wearing thin on her patience. She almost preferred not knowing... almost. Yue didn't exactly understand the implications of what Dean had said about Alex but she knew that Haze was generally bad, particularly in concentration. If he was hoovering it up, it probably wasn't a good thing.

Fuck this waiting around shit. Yue pushed past Raudd for the door, though she'd only just managed to swing it open when waves of [Anger] tinted, glass-jagged static blue cascaded down over the town, sending rivers of ice down her spine. The announcement had only just begun as Yue began to strip off her shirt and shoes without regard to modesty. Her hand vanished near to the elbow into a black disk she fished out of her belt, and her clothes ended up in an unceremonious heap as she pulled on the fresh Templar undersuit.

Her armor growled to life as she stepped into it, armor plates unfolding over her skin as she quickly tied her hair up into a tight bun just before the helmet closed around it. Glowing red telemetry scrolled across the front of the glossy black digital expression display covering her face, and the Templar's signature V-shaped visor slammed down just as the four stylized eyelets illuminated menacing red. Her gauntlet glided over the Templar great sword, Brute Stick, and Sword of Justice leaning against the wall, dissolving the weapons into white light that disappeared into her palm as she strode towards the door with a purpose. For just one moment she paused next to the table where the spear was before she stomped the shaft pommel with her foot, flipping the weapon into her hand.

"I'm borrowing this," she stated firmly from her modulated vox, as it vanished into her gauntlet in a flash of white. It spun onto the selection wheel in her HUD as the system registered the new weapon. The cold, stoic mask of Silver Fang quickly took over as she pushed outside. She flexed her fists, taking a deep breath, which hissed through the helmet's exhaust vents as she exhaled. "Coming? Or no?" She asked, barely looking back over her shoulder towards Dean and Raudd. Her posture made it clear that she wasn't waiting very long for an answer.

"Now if you're all fucking done... I have a Ripper to hunt."

A Ripper? Umbri had not been privy to Koba’s answers. The reveal of the culprit took her completely off-guard. A Ripper had broken into a chrome workshop and taken absolutely nothing else of value but Temujin and Jemma - the cyberninja, she could assume the motive, but Jemma? What did they want with her? Did they mistake her ink orb as some piece of rare technology? Whatever the reason, they were going to be torn apart.

She flinched and whipped her arms over her face as the blue light rushed at her, only for it to pass through. There wasn’t any time to ask or do anything before the Rogue had charged off, not even taking the time to equip his armour. Umbri was left behind in a room of terrified civilians. She looked down to Ako, expression stoic. The apprentice's eyes twitched with movement beneath their lids. She came down on one knee beside Graham. The old guy was shaking. It didn’t feel right to challenge him anymore on what he’d just spat at her. If she was upset, she would feel it later.

“What’s the closest place we can get them help?” She asked, trying to coax him back to a solution, and not take charge.

Graham looked up at Umbri. His pink-red face calmed as he took deeper, slower breaths. His eyes were wide and glossy, and whatever rage they portrayed had been drowned by a naked anxiety as he held his apprentice close. “The… The Doctor from before…” he exhaled. “His clinic’s a few blocks down the road. I can- I should…” The giant of a smith lumbered to a stand and turned his attention to the roller door. Margot followed her senior’s lead, looping Koba’s one good arm around her shoulder. Umbri nodded to herself before standing.

“Can you wait for me," she said and dashed off to the bedroom, where she snatched up all her weapons, axe in hand, gun tucked by the small of her back, stinger - which she'd since adopted as a dagger - concealed. As she yanked a drawer open to retrieve a vial of GIFT, she glimpsed herself in the mirror, and her face flashed with neon warpaint smeared across her nose, like that night. She stormed back out, twenty seconds later. "I'll come with you. We don't know where they are out there. They mightn't have meant to keep the witnesses alive."

Graham nodded, the hesitance in his eyes obvious as they fell on her fire axe, its red paint chipped, its edge dulled by the dried and blackened crust of Rat blood. "...Yeah." He turned around and charged out the door. There was no time to look a gift horse in the mouth.

When Umbri stepped out after them, it was like she was underwater. The hardlight cast a filter over everything. She held out her arm and watched a blue sheen ripple over her skin, then stared up at the spikes bursting from the dome - casing the entire settlement directed inward, towards them.

“Attention residents. Thunderdome procedures have been engaged…” an alarm could be heard repeating, booming blocks away. She struggled to steady her breathing. She didn’t know how his powers worked, but she’d seen him sit on one of these projections. That meant, the blue glow could become hard.

And this hard thing that was encasing them could expand. If he could make it grow, it should be able to shrink.

Aegis could kill them all.

---

Mantablack's cloak billowed behind him as he skulked through the dark alleys of Shieldtown. Chains looped and bound Temujin to the ripper's back, even as the former continued to struggle. Distant murmurs and talks grew loud enough to prick Mantablack's sensors, followed by… an energy surge. Bright, unknown, and much stronger than most he'd ever seen.

"...!" Mantablack skittered behind a pile of refuse. A colour bluer than the sky rippled overhead, like a cage of pure energy. The ripper's eyes bulged against their frame. "...Shit."

Temujin scoffed. His shoulders rattled as he held in his laughter. "Aegis has your number, fiend! You're not getting out of Shieldtown alive!"

Mantablack slowly turned his head, to over his shoulder, and then… completely around, with a dry crack that sent Temujin reeling back.

"Watch me."

---

The creature twitched in a nightmare, thick body lurching with the sway of its cage, unable to root itself without its claws, wrenched from the flesh of its paws while it was live and thrashing. Its ears flicked, warding away the echoing memory of a story it had heard, amidst all the rabble and its captor's scorn.

"The lion curled inside its cave and did not move. For seven days and seven nights it wasted away, until the beggar girl was so become she offered to feed it her legs.

The lion ate."

P̶̬͋̌a̷̦͐̉ͅǐ̴̢̼̘ň̸̘̫̀ ̴̠̤͗͛̀͜ͅp̴̛͎̜̑̀̚a̸̡͈͎̾ḯ̷͚͉̱̉̅n̶͔̦͐̉͜ ̴̭̀͑͝p̶̜̟̠͒ȁ̵͎̘̓̽i̶͎̇͌͘n̸̬̂̈́̿͠.̴͇̭̟̤̾̂̉̕ The creature growled in its sleep. Its barbed tail smacked against the cage, a spike slipping through and catching someone's knuckles. "Ah, fuck! Keep still, you fat shit!" A prod jabbed through the bars into its hide, and flashed with sparks. The creature jerked its head back and convulsed with an agonized yowl. "Easy on that. The big man said to keep it discrete." P̵̨̛̹̱͒̽A̶̭̖̙̾Ȉ̸̩̖͋Ṅ̸̨̿̋ ̴̠̻̚͠P̴̺̬̺̫͊̔A̷̹͋I̴̼̙͆̑͑͜͝N̵͇̳̪͎̕͝ ̷̡̞̫̾̂͂P̵̢͈̔́͜A̴̘͙͕͆̂̓͠I̸͈͐N̴͈̖̗̂͒̚

"When the lion grew hungry, she gave it her arms.

When the lion was hungry, she would let it devour her, until all there was left to give was her heart."

The big man... The big man, the big man! The giant that glowed, came here with his h̸̢͓̅͜͝a̷̢̰͍̞͒̐͐t̷͕̹̼̂͐̒e̶̹̭͝ and gave it this p̵̨̲̞̓ã̵̻̥͈͜i̸̜͌n̵̯͇̋̂ͅ!̵̡̗̬̬͗̒̈́͊ Brought her and this f̸̟̱̳́͊͂e̴̢̤̹̩͒̓ả̵̯̜̤̞̎̄͊r̸̳̙̀̾.̷̻̜͌ The creature moaned and shuffled, and its escorts muttered, "Yeah, I hope you're scared about where you're going, monster."



He had come here, [Blue] eyes full of [HATE], and in a throw of his hand, he had transferred that [HATE] to it with [PAIN]. He had brought her face her smell my memory, and in all its hate and agony, the strongest pain it had was [FEAR].

The creature opened its eyes as the [Blue] took over the sky, [Awake].

And as its captors stopped to look up, it melted away from its cage in a passing shadow.

---

Umbri didn't approach the Doctor's clinic with the others as they arrived, turning her head away from the huddled bunch and their relieved 'we're here'-s to watch her back. Thank God, they'd arrived safely without any Ripper jumping them. They were still out there - the thunderdome would be down already if Alex had already pulverised them.

"Hey - I don't want to hold you up, just - is there anything else you can tell me about the Ripper?" She spoke up.

"Mantablack…," a soft voice called out. Ako stirred in Graham's arms, her eyes peering from a pallid, sweat-drained face. "He called himself Mantablack…"

Umbri almost gasped when Ako replied. She watched everyone fawn over her, in disbelief that she had woken up, let herself feel relief for just a second then gripped her axe in two hands. “Thanks. Keep safe, I’m going.”

Margot's eyes shot wide open. She looked from Umbri, to Graham, and back to Umbri. "What?! By yourself? Who-where are you going?"

Graham's brows knitted as he stared at Umbri. It was one thing to watch their backs as they went down the block. But to go after a ripper? With a fire axe? "You can't be serious, girl. Folks like us, we don't stand a chance-..." the blacksmith stammered and gestured to the rippling dome, then shook his head. "Let the Big Man take care of it. That's what he's here for."

Umbri’s hands wrenched around the haft of the axe. Her face darkened with the memory of the Shieldtown Rogue’s confessions. “But he’s not Hardcase. Who’s to say he can handle the pressure? Not like he can afford to break under it.” “Deep down is a neglected and abused boy… that’s desperately trying to be better than his angry alcoholic father… who he killed in a fit of new power fueled fight or flight.” She glanced up at the weapon encasing the town over their heads and tried to swallow the same feeling she had when she sensed him growing angry beside her.

“I don’t think we should put the weight of this onto someone like that,” she said. “He’s not… he’s not yet what he tries to be.” She shook her head and scoffed, “And nobody in Shieldtown has seen what I can do,” she asserted, channelling Temujin’s words to her as she clung to her life outside of an inverted train car, “Jahannam couldn’t kill me, the Threshers couldn’t kill me, and a train full of zombie Rats couldn’t kill me, either, so I won’t be sitting down for some guy when Rippers have taken Tem. I'll survive this, I’m getting him back, and I’m bringing back your Dove. I owe them both my life. And Aegis-” she paused and struggled to find the words without breaching his confidentiality, “He’s quick to leave everyone behind him, but he needs help.” To not explode. She shrugged. "I'll see you when I see you."

She turned back around and walked off down the road.

Umbri ran through a ghost town. The streets of the market that had been bustling with people were dead and absent of noise and movement. Only the distant, repeating announcement, "Any sign of suspicious activity, Gangers, or unknown powers are to be reported to the nearest authorities available. This is not a drill." echoed under the dome. Shieldtown was big. It was too big and there were too many shadows to find the one skulking around in them... so she looked for the other one.

Boom. There he was, ripping through the sky so fast it was like he parted the air, and it rushed back in with a crack. Umbri stuck to the wall as a glowing cannonball smashed into the rooftop across from her, sending sprays of plaster crumbling over the side. In a blink he'd passed her. She swallowed and gave chase - he was already far out of sight.

Alex pinballed between each building, tearing through his settlement and surveying everything below. The momentum barely kept him upright, and he fell to all-fours, always still pushing forwards, catapulting himself to the next platform. Everyone could hear the crashes on the rooftops marking his hunt. He'd find his target soon. Nobody escaped the thunderdome.

As if predicted by the citizens huddled in their abodes, awaiting their defender's inevitable victory - Alex caught sight of flapping fabric. For a split second, while launching himself over the road. Before there was even the chance for his brain and eyes to collaborate any further on what he was seeing, if it belonged to the guy - two pillars of shadow whipped up and YANKED him down. He crashed flat to the ground, an Alex-shaped crater cracking the stone beneath him.

Whatever he thought he saw, it was gone.

---

Umbri had just managed to locate him, catching glimpses of the blue bullet hurtling over the skyline. She was trying to keep up in the same direction some blocks away when something pulled him down. She leaned to the left and changed her path. The new leather armour was clunky and shifted unpleasantly against her skin when she sweated. She knocked the left side of her chest, and her legs melted away, moving her like rushing liquid.

Then something big threw itself at her. Umbri shouted as something - something she'd perceived as just a passing shadow overhead - hit her solid. It let out a remarkably similar, much louder, yowl of surprise. Umbri fell over and rolled to a kneel, and the something that collided with her skidded and made a scramble to keep planted before collapsing. She looked up.

Glowing, slitted eyes looked back over a gory, nearly detached jaw. A jet black puma with radioactive spikes bursting from its scales was hunched down just meters away. Umbri gasped, frozen with fear. The Thresher's pupils shrank and its ears flattened to its scalp. A low warning growl started in the back of its throat, as they both crouched there, watching, waiting. Umbri's gaze trailed down to its clawless paws, matted in blood. She shifted her axe. The Thresher smacked its barbed tail on the ground in a threat then snaked it high over its head and puffed its fur out. Its glowing spots began to pulse. Umbri stared right back into those dilating eyes. She dragged her axe across the ground, and started to stand.

The Thresher backed up hissing and tripping over its maimed feet. It fell towards the shadow cast by a building, and as it touched it, dissolved into a black mist. It shot towards the ground and weaved away from Umbri towards a manhole, where it seeped in with no trace.

Umbri's pulse was left uneven after that encounter. The blade of her axe was shuddering from an unsteady hand. She had a hundred questions about it being free, and what she'd just seen it do, but the most stomach-turning thought that gripped her was... she recognized fear in it. But that was a stupid thought.

She stood over the manhole it had drawn her attention to. Alex had the skies and the streets. Looks like there were other paths this Ripper could lurk in to avoid the sentinel.

She hauled the manhole aside and slipped in, to search for the Ripper, and... maybe, in the back of her mind, the scared monster, too.

---

Umbri stepped out from a spotlight of blue. It was yellow down here, yellow with a green tinge, from all the slimy moss coating the walls. There was a path down here beside the water trickling through, and lights. So people used this road... no. Not people. Rats. Exhibited by the dozen of scrawls on the wall, 'Rat waz here' 'No, Rat waz here!' 'RAT WAZ HERE FURST' 'Fred waz here!' '<- LIAR!' Umbri readied her axe. Who knew if all Rats had been infected by that zombie virus since she'd left the train.

She delved deeper, cautiously. There wasn't much to get lost in, until she came across a fork in the road. She was paralyzed by the choice for a moment, between a shadowy corridor - that made sense, places to hide, both for Ripper and Thresher - and another that just felt... odd. Almost surreal, but she could not put a finger on how or why. The latter won. She crept in. Everything was yellow and flat. She had a little bit of trouble determining the distance and depth of things away from her. It felt like she was in a dream, and she could not tell why, until she checked over her shoulder and saw...

No shadow following her. There wasn't even a shadow cast beneath her. Despite all the lights, there wasn't a single shadow in the hall. So where could they all be...

At the end of this road, before it split into a T, in a perfect circle cast on the wall. She stopped before it. The axe dropped by Umbri's side with her arm, dangling. The circle stretched a good two feet over her head. An impossible absence of light that none of the gas lanterns could penetrate. She swore she saw her own shadow in there, flicking its arm towards her.

"Holy shit," she mustered. Her eyes could not make sense of it. ...Behind her back, just out of her sight, something flickered into being, white hot and burning, unclear... but unfurling from her as she tried. Tried to make sense of it.

Then something thudded down behind her. She whipped around to face it, and the ghost on her back evaporated.

Mud and sewage spat from the point of impact. A hand shot out amidst the muck. It stretched further, faster, than humanly plausible. Umbri threw her axe in front of her in defence. The hand flattened against its haft at just the right moment, then tightened its grip. The curtain of water fell away, revealing a figure, hunched in a half-crouch, cut lean beneath his tattered cloak. On his back, secured by rusted lengths of chain, was a writhing, limbless torso. Black and featureless, stripped of all armour or colour, save for that 'face' she knew well. A face which flinched with jaw-dropped shock at the sight of her.

"Tem!"

"Sex worker?!"

Umbri's worried face instantly contorted. "Seriously?"

The arm retracted into its owner, jerking Umbri with it. "Heh. Not bad," Mantablack mused. His three red eyes scanned Umbri quickly. One of Aegis's Men? She certainly dresses the part. The Ripper kept the axe at arm's length as he glanced over her shoulder, towards the circle swirling with shadows. "What's that you got over there?" 

Umbri tested tugging the axe. His grip was solid. "I don't know. But I'll trade you for what you've got in the net and the rude cyberninja," she said facetiously.

"HAH!" He screeched out, the sound echoing through the narrow tunnels. "A Shieldtowner with a sense of humour!" His eyes narrowed into a glare. "Fat chance. Nothing personal, but this prize belongs to my boss." 

"Hey, get out of here! It isn't safe!" Temujin shouted, the fear bleeding through his voice. Mantablack chuckled, angling the axe head away from him. "Listen to the scrapheap. Killing you won't do either of us any good." 

Umbri frowned, calculating. She looked to the one hand of his holding her axe haft, fixed between hers. Almost casually overpowering her. Her heart rate spiked and her pupils bloomed. In a flash of movement, she switched her hands, palm up on the right, palm down on the left, and wrenched the axe in a circular motion clockwise, twisting it from his grip. She pushed him back with a kick to the abdomen. “What the-?!” In one hand she held the axe close to the blade, the other - she’d whipped out her gun. Pointed directly at the Ripper’s head.

“How about a look at this thing, and a bullet?!” She barked at him, eyes flaring. “Does that entice you?! Put the bag and the chrome down!”

Mantablack gasped. He held his hands up by reflex. Shit. He did all he could to avoid a confrontation with Aegis, only to fall at the hands of this chick?! “Hey now…” He stepped back. “Let’s, uh, we can work something out…” Further, and further. Umbri stepped after him. She let out a breathy scoff of relief.

“And they all said you were too dangerous,” she remarked, a cocky glint twinkling to life in her eye.

Mantablack ground his heels onto the mud. They were right. In a flash, he ducked and kicked out a heap of sewer water towards Umbri as he spun. Sparks flew from the seams of his arm as it shot out. An outstretched palm struck Umbri flat against the stomach and shoved her backwards, off her feet, into the pitch black behind her.

Umbri thought she was dead.

There wasn’t sound, or air, or sensation where she was going. Just absence. The kind you see when covering one eye.

Then she was spat out the other side, and her vision flashed white, and she hit the dirt. Umbri crawled to her knees as her vision cleared up. She sat in the middle of the wastes. ‘... Thunderdome… not a…’ A very distant recording echoed behind her. She turned her head, and saw Shieldtown some good miles away, the dome still up. There were no shadows here, again. A black pool of pitch rotated on the ground behind her. And beside it, Mantablack’s hinged hand. It crawled, and skittered, and… turned towards Umbri. The hand lunged for her ankle, held tight, and yanked her back, right through the portal, across the senseless darkness, and back at the muddy sewers. Mantablack loomed over her. His arm snapped back into position as he drew his knife and pressed it against her throat. The steel was cold. “Where did that take you?” 

Umbri coughed. "Back under the dome," she spluttered. Temujin fumbled to try and look at Umbri. Mantablack pressed the knife closer. A droplet of blood welled at the blade. "It is! It is, it's under the-" The cut burned. The pressure intensified. "The wastes!" She caved.

Mantablack relaxed his knife. Slowly, he stood and stepped away, keeping his knife drawn. He knew better than to repeat his mistake. "Don't be a hero," he warned her. "It doesn't end well for people like us." The ripper turned his back - and thus, Temujin - on Umbri, and she watched as they sank into the darkness, Temujin's mask frozen in a brow-furrowed fear. 

"T- no, Tem!" She shrieked after them, scrambling on her knees then - freezing. The cut on her neck burned like dry ice, and it made her pause. Don't be a hero. The portal was shrinking, casting the shadows it stole back to the road. Come on. Don't be a hero. You screwed up. Go back and get Aegis.

Umbri stood up and launched herself through.

Dead.

White.

She came out of the shrinking portal and blinked her eyes furiously, clearing them to look for him on the mostly flat expanse. But he was already gone. "Shit!" She gasped and scrambled up, doing a 360 of her location. Nothing. With a whine, she threw her axe down. "Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!" She covered her face, and felt dampness there. "... You know my name, asshole…"

"That hood won't hide you from their eyes, it's the Templar iconography upon it that catches those gazes." Zolya said with a light playful tone as she noticed the Templar diving deeper into that cloak of hers. Perhaps the only reason nobody had visibly caused a scene is that the Templar was accompanied by a somewhat trusted figure. Though the woman's reaction to their gazes did probably also disarm her appearance, it's hard to look threatening when you are trying to hide from their eyes like a young child. "Or maybe they are just enchanted by the combined beauty gracing their views." She said with a chuckle while striking a slightly seductive pose on her mount.

Eventually she seemed to manage to wrest her attention from the gazes to the buildings that surrounded them, perhaps recognizing some of them from her prior exploration of the area. There were quite a few recognizable vista's along their path, though Zolya was pretty sure she was looking at other things than the Templar. She seemed quite focused on the architecture of the buildings, seeing the reinforced steel walls, and the arches that held up porch roofs, where Zolya's gaze was more aimed at the stories within seeing the shoemaker, and that quaint glassblowers shop. The Templar then broke the silence between them asking if her friend lived far from the wall, and Zolya stayed silent for a moment genuinely pondering on the answer. "He does live a little further in, but I wouldn't call it far from the wall." She responded after the contemplation.

Her mind had continued to contemplate 'far' as a measure of distance, but not long after her answer was the subject pushed out of her mind as the wave of blue light passed over them and the dome formed over the walled town sealing inside from outside with a blue razor-toothed barrier. Though it was the accompanying message playing over the speaker system that made Zolya audibly sigh. "Good news, bad news. Good news, Silver Fang isn't going to leave Shieldtown for a bit. The bad news is... There's no way she's staying put right now. We'll keep heading in her direction and hopefully we'll cross paths soon."

After those words left her mouth she signaled a few of a ravens to move towards Raudd and try to direct that bolt of chaos to meet up at least. And hopefully along the way there'd be someone to tell them what was going on, staying still and waiting for beefsteak to do whatever he needed wasn't an option... Information was what they needed right now. She looked up at the remaining eyes in the sky and as if on command the flock dispersed looking for the source of the disturbance great enough to cause Alex to react like this.

Máire’s stag nickered as the alert blasted over their heads, halting and kicking at the road with one splayed hoof. Máire’s eyes went skyward, taking in the vast neon dome spreading overhead, sealing off the rest of the undercity.

Sealing them in.

It was all very familiar to her. There were similar protocols plateside, of course, but more than anything it reminded her…

She shook her head, pulling the hood a bit lower. Some kind of threat had breached Shieldtown’s walls, then? Her eyes flashed toward Zolya at the woman’s comment, her lips tightening into a thin line. No, if something was happening, of course Fang wouldn’t keep still. She would be chasing down whatever had provoked that alert, no doubt. No, the quickest way to catch the runaway hero was for Máire to find the woman’s quarry first.

Máire hopped up from her mount, feet finding purchase on the stag’s back. ”Signal if you find her,” she stated, glancing Zolya’s way one last time before leaping high into the air. A flash of metal shot through the sky, and Máire went sailing after it, past the rooftops lining Shieldtown’s main thoroughfare.

Sector 7. Flashes of red and blue lights bled through the dark corners of Justice Square, above the crossed lines of yellow police tape that swayed beneath a gust of wind. A quiet prelude to the rain and storm that descended - slowly at first, then all at once - upon the blood-carved message at the centre. “The tents, Sergeant! Get me the tents!” The Templar forensic shouted, sending men and women in white-grey fatigues scrambling to preserve the crime scene. The city came alight in the reflections of the drenched streets, blurred through the ripples into beams of lights and colours. A Cazador crept on a high rooftop, far away from the lights of the Templars or the hovering of ARES’s security helicopters. It slinked with a low, canine gait behind several rows of spiralling exhausts, its red-eyes whirring as it zoomed into the tents. Its screen flashed through different vision modes, until “DIE ARES” came alight in sprays of neon blue.

Thunk. A jostle of cloth and chimes dropped beside the unit. A girl squatted on the very edge of the skyscraper in a hoodie and a schoolgirl skirt and pulled headphones down around her neck. Water dripped from her soaking hood. "Hey doggie," she said and went to pat its head, "What're you supposed to be? You don't look like you've got a suit for a master."

The Cazador stood with its front legs apart and its hinds close together, its front side hunkered low. A GIRL. Its optics scanned her features for recognition. Police database, no match. Templar roster, no match. It relaxed its posture and leaned slightly forward in a wordless demand for more pets. ”Dober-unit K695,” it replied, emulating the monotone drone of a lesser unit. ”Sector-7 cleanup and reconnaissance unit. Grant affection and move along, citizen.”

“Blahdyadada,” the girl exclaimed to the sky and blew a raspberry. “Don’t talk corpo to me. I know what you are.” She scratched the robot under its chin, between the menacing fangs, an action which swiftly accelerated to rough-housing. “A good boy! Such a good boy! Yes you are, yes you are!” The play stopped abruptly. She smiled down at the Cazador, its head happily nestled between her hands - and pulled.

A red eye glinted from a gap in the kid’s coffin backpack, surveying the crowds she skipped through on the ground. She jumped and snatched a cap from a cop, disappearing from view the second he tossed around and shouted. A notebook and pen was pilfered from another's belt. She bounced through mostly unnoticed for someone whose clothes were so loud, until she was skidding through a puddle, right beside a certain zappy Templar.

"AHEM," she conjured up her manliest cough, dipped the cop hat on her head, and tapped her notebook. "So what's the theory, Officer Templar?" She asked gruffly and shook her head, looking over the chaos with the jaded eyes of a bloke two days out from his retirement. "Where's the sick son of a bitch that did this?"