---

---

---

At this very moment, Layla caused the group to devolve into petty bickering over leadership over solving the important shit, like the murder. Adora merely took a few steps from the group, faced away, and crossed her arms as she listened to everyone speak. For starters, if memory served Adora correctly, Layla was that little kid that other weird girl dragged into the Coven - and Adora remembered giving Alizée loads of shit for it. Naturally, that Layla girl had a problem with Adora being here. Without even looking at Layla, she said,

”... Weren’t you a goddamn kid when all of this went down?” Adora started. ”I don’t care who the leader is, as long as we get to the bottom of this… but I’m not voting for you.”

Then Adora whipped around and put a hand on her hip as she said,

”I’ll vote for whoever the fuck promises to get my damn rings back.”

Then she laughed.

Things got increasingly chaotic as a fucking kid entered the fray with an axe, causing Adora to tilt her head at the kid. Then, another girl started rambling about killing people last night and how some didn’t make it. Adora recoiled as she raised her hands, saying,

”Okay, okay, okay, everyone slow the fuck down for my sake, please,” Adora started, ”I was not here last night. So could someone enlighten me on what the fuck happened? Like, what the fuck happened to Alizee? Who the fuck died? Who the fuck did ya’ll kill?”

She let her question hang in the air as she continued.

”Because I was under the assumption that we got back together to solve this whole debacle we got ourselves in. Not… whatever the fuck ya’ll are on. Jesus.” Her heart started fluttering as anxiety crept down her spine.

”I can fill you in if you’d like,” Lila spoke up from her spot in the pews. She stood up, shuffled past Lynn and Jasper before she reached the center aisle and moved towards Adora. She motioned for an area off to the side, offering at least a more private conversation.

”Please…” Adora said as she followed Anya’s lead and walked off. ”My fucking anxiety is about to go crazy.” She said with a roll of her eyes.

”I feel that,” Lila said as she led Adora to the end of the furthest back pew. ”Honestly, it is one of the reasons I stayed away today.” Lila smiled as she finished her sentence. “It is good to catch up with some of the people, and it is good to see you again,” she paused as she looked back at the rest of the coven, before returning back to Adora, ”I never got to chance to thank you back in the day for everything you did, you saved my life more times than I could count,” she paused as she looked down, ” and I wanted to say sorry that we weren't there for you when you needed us most.”

Adora sighed.

”Thank you… I needed that,” Adora sighed. ”I know, I ghosted you all after… you know, but it was just so hard. It’s… hard being back here, too…” Her heart started fluttering harder as she took a step back; her heart rate went up as she leaned up against the most adjacent wall before she fell on her ass.

”Oh shit,” Lila whispered as she looked around to see if anyone saw her fall. ”It is almost miserable to be back,” Lila said with a sign. She offered her hands to help pull her up, ”If you need anything here, let me know. You’ve done so much for us, might as well repay the favor while how I can. Now, for the recap,” Lila paused as she exhaled deeply, “I was at the Dairy Queen when everything went down. Drake decked Sloane, broke her nose, and then 8th Street rolled up and tried to poach Lynn and I, and they wanted to kill Britney. Across town, Alizée was at the strip club and picked a fight with a gang. A kid got shot,” she paused as she looked at the kid with the axe. ” After the kid got shot, from what I was told, the groomer over there got pinned down, and Alizée tried to save him. She got shot, and it devolved from there.”, Lila paused as she took a deep breath. ” Britney came over to my place after covered in blood, and told me all that before she sealed my apparition.”

”That should catch you up to this morning at least,” she paused as she looked around the Coven, ” Something tells me we have more to come.”

Adora tilted her head, jaw slack.

”... In one fucking afternoon?!?!”

”In one fucking afternoon., Lila paused as she looked out the door and noticed a half dozen crows outside looking at her. ”Just like the good old days.”

Adora stared at her, awestruck for a few moments. ”I mean… you’re just gonna have to explain to me who the fuck 8th St is because remember… I’m a little out of the loop.”

” Emily Reed, remember her?” Lila paused as she let the question hang in the air, “After the fall of the Coven, she formed a crew out of the remnants; George, Greta, and Carol were who we ran into last night, and there are a lot of former friends of ours in their ranks,” she paused as she tilted her head, ” which makes the fact that they are actively trying to control the towns magic scene through force and violence, and have been waging war on all the other groups all the more conflicting,” she paused again as she scratched her chin. ”I don’t know much more about them than that; I have kept a low profile since our coven days.

Adora crossed her arms.

”... How could I forget Emily?” She asked. ”That bitch was Lisa’s biggest bully… George too…” She trailed off momentarily.

”... I’m surprised Greta is rolling with her… If memory serves me right, she didn’t like Emily.”

”I don’t know if you were around when Greta left, were you? We accused her of creating monsters to test her potions and stuff. She wasn’t, mind you, but she left soon after and was poached by Emily,” Lila laughed for a second, ”it turns out all it takes to get back on good terms with one another was how much each of those two hated our leadership. Bonding experience, you know?”

”I mean…” Adora trailed off. ”Not gonna join in on the “down with the leaders” circlejerk they got goin’ on, but Ashley and them let their friends do whatever they wanted. I get the whole bigger picture thing, but c’mon…” She shrugged and rolled her eyes.

”It felt like I was the only one keeping them in line.”

”Do we even need a leader?”, Lila paused as she eyed up Anya, ”Like I think we could get a lot more done if we had a centralized area to meet, get support, and stuff, but work together in smaller groups towards the bigger picture.”

”I mean…” Adora shrugged as she paused, ”... It don’t seem like it’d make a difference. Auri just talked big, walked here, and then dipped off for a wild threesome with Stormy and Brit in the bathroom or something.” She ended that sentence with a roll of her eyes.

”Yeah, feels like they’re keeping shit from us again, you know? I don’t like it. I never liked it, Lila paused as she looked back towards the group.

”Well, I heard from Vanessa and Clem how much it worked out for them in the end, so,” Adora sighed as she shrugged. ”Hopefully, it works out. And if it don’t… ” Adora trailed off.

”... It don’t. Unlike the rest of these assholes, I’m only here because everyone in this building, everyone who died and beyond, is important to somebody. And I can’t just stand by and let us all get cut down.”

Adora, naturally, left out the part where she was past the point of caring if she went down.

”Fair,” Lila said with a smile, ” You don’t have to do that alone, how about this,” She paused she looked over towards Lynn and Jasper. ”While you watch over everyone here, we’ll watch over you. Make sure someone has your back if and when things go south. You have a few people who care about you here.”

Adora was silent for a moment before she said,

”... Thank you,” Adora answered. ”So, what did happen to the old Coven? In your own words.”

”It died the death it deserved…. The Coven could have been special, could have been,” Lila shrugged, “instead, it went out with a whimper due to how it treated the average member.”

”Not surprised,” Adora shook her head. ”We were a bunch of dumbass kids trying to play cult. While the leadership was also playing a popularity contest while we were literally getting cut down by a demon… well, maybe it should have died. Maybe we shouldn’t have reunited.”

”You’re right, maybe we shouldn’t have, Lila said as she looked around the group. In truth, she did not want any more harm to come to anyone in the coven. No matter what clique they were in, how grating their personality, or how much she already hated them. She did not want to see another die. “At the same time, Father Wolf, the missing artifacts, and all the crazy that has happened in the past day already,” she paused as she looked Adora in her eyes, “feels like we’re on the verge of something awful again, and I’d rather face it with the devils I know, you know?”

”Well…” Adora knew that Lila had a point, but there was a point that Adora wanted to raise herself. She lifted her hand and showed Lila the sole Trinity Ring she had, ”At the moment, I can’t do much even if something awful happens… Clem and Vanessa are in DC right now with a fancy government job, and they gave their rings to that pissant Sloane before they left. I’m… I’m… just look….” Adora tried to will herself to fly like before, and she did! She raised off the ground very…

Very.

Very.

Slowly.

”I had the source of my power sealed away, I may be relegated to pulling wounded back to the healers again if something does happen, she nervously laughed, the memory of that was very much still present in her mind, ”If I still had my powers I’d say ‘hey crows, I want you to go across town and search for Adora’s missing trinity rings’ or something like that and have them ei-”

*CAW*

Lila looked towards the door and saw about five crows in the doorway. Each one had their eyes on Lila as if they were awaiting something. Lila recognized the look; it was the look they would give her if she asked them to do something without an offering in hand. She looked at Adora and chuckled. ”I guess they still have a thing for me.” Lila looked down at her hand, removed two of the cheaper rings she had, and jokingly offered them to the crows before one of the crows swooped in and grabbed the rings out of her hands before the small murder left the doorway of the church and took to the skies. Well, old habits and all. Doubt we will see them again anytime soon. Fuck me, those were important.”

Adora chuckled as she fell to the ground (which was like two feet at this point). She crossed her arms and said, ”Who knows,” Adora started. ”I kinda put more faith in those random ass birds to find the rings than them.” She nodded at the group.

”They were always reliable, if a little dumb ha,” Lila said as she leaned against the pew and let out a laugh of her own, ”I’ll tell you what, on the off chance that there is still any magic in those crows, and they find anything, you’ll be the first to know.”

”Yay,” Adora tried not to say sarcastically, but it probably came off that way to Lila. Nothing Adora could help, but she said, ”If they can do that, maybe you can ask them to get Clementine and Vanessa to rejoin, and we can throw Father Wolf through a building.” She chuckled, making clear it was a joke.

Lila could not help but notice the sarcastic ‘yay’, and it caused her smile to fade for a brief moment. She smiled again but it was not as warm or inviting as it was. ”Yeah, I can do that.”

The birds, there was something about Lila that she didn’t quite put her finger on… Adora walked over to Lila, closing the distance in a manner she hoped that Lila wouldn’t interpret as intimidating, as she looked at Lila… she grasped onto her hand (fingers interlocked), and then asked a question. One that was probably going to get interpreted as Adora being an asshole (again). ”My memory is a bit fuzzy…” That was a lie, as Adora was actively suppressing the memory of the Old Coven. ”... I need a reminder on a lot of things. Like… you look familiar but at the same time sooooo different.”

Lila blinked once, twice, and a third more at the statement. Yes, she should look both familiar and so different simultaneously. ”Ummm,” Lila whispered as she rubbed her hand against her other elbow, ”“yeah you probably knew me by a different name entirely back then,” she paused as she took in a deep breath, ”I am going to deadname myself here but does the name Michael ring a bell?”

”Oh shit… you’re…” Adora’s jaw dropped. ”... You’re Micheal? I thought your abstraction sounded familiar. You look…” Adora looked Lila up and down.

”... Different.”

”That…” Lila paused as she rubbed her arm again, ”was the point,” she paused as she looked back to Lynn and Jasper. A small sense of panic began to brew deep inside her and she wanted nothing more than to run back to the safety of her friends. Yet that was what Michael would have done. He would not have confronted these feelings of fear, he would not have maintained the space he was taking up, and he would have apologized for any confusion he caused. ”I was Michael,” she kept her words short and sharp, adding an extra emphasis on the ‘was’,”Michael died during the battle with the snake. Lila was born anew in the time that followed.”

”Are you cool with all that?”

Adora smiled.

”... And why wouldn’t I be?”

”… thank you. It’s just a little weird coming out again after a while. Sometimes I just forget that I had a life before, is all.”

”Come now, it’s just-”

A window broke and Adora immediately whipped her head around, then she saw several canisters being launched into the room through that window. With a fun word on the side saying GAS. It wasn’t more than a second after that Adora experienced absolute hell. Her eyes burned, and she coughed as she fell to her knees, trying her damnest to hold onto Lila.

”... WHAT IN THE - *Cough* - FUCK?!”

The door got kicked down, and people with guns charged in; at the corner of her eye, Adora could see one of them waving a badge around. What the fuck did these assholes drag me into?!

---

---

---

By the time Meifeng had returned to the PRA building, she had already changed into a suit. She stormed in, went to the elevator, and went up a few floors, and a short walk later, she was walking right into Cindy Keagan’s office… she was playing on her phone instead of working. She raised her head as Meifeng entered the office, put her phone down, and said,

“Gather everyone in the meeting room, fully armored,” Meifeng started, “it’s time.”

Cindy nodded.

---

Less than twenty minutes before Meifeng’s little agents were ready to go… she walked into the room, and everyone was wearing armor, with their helmets nearby. She looked to the left and right as she looked around. She wasn’t in armor yet, and she clapped her hands together and said,

“Good morning, team,” Meifeng started, “How have you all been today?”

“Good as we can be hearing the news last night,” Leon said as he leaned on his hand.

Meifeng was silent as she twisted her face up momentarily, then spoke,

“... We’re going to take care of that right now,” Meifeng started as she grabbed the remote control to the projector. She pushed the button, and a slide showing a collage of the various members of the Sycamore Tree Coven was shown. “As you all know, the Sycamore Tree Coven had their… reunion yesterday,”

She let her words hang in the air for a few moments.

“... And in less than two hours, they attempted to kidnap someone, attacked one of my agents, and got into an all-out gang war.”

“Heh,” Samson chuckled. “They got busy!”

“I have no clue just what they are doing, but I feel like it’s time we give them a nice, warm reception and show them that this is my city, and they can’t go around doing whatever the hell they want,” Meifeng calmly said.

Meifeng turned her gaze to Trevor Obott,

“Trevor, did you do what I asked?”

Trevor audibly gulped as he stood up, holding a stack of papers, “Yes, ma’am!” He walked over as Meifeng held her hands behind her back. He then said, “I tapped into all their phone records, internet history, and we are working on placing bugs in all their homes, but after going through it - ^{and getting PTSD from their porn habits} - I managed to track down their lair to this church.”

Meifeng pressed a button, and the slide changed to a photo of the Coven’s new lair, the church.

“Their dumbass leader doesn’t turn off her location services! And going off of her communication, she will lead the Coven to their lair today.”

“... We’re going to be there, waiting for them,” Meifeng said, “Once they get settled, we’re going to go in, hard and fast, and give them a good ol’ scare and find out which one of them is responsible for what happened to Agent Mahendra.”

“... And what about the one that attacked Agent Manalo?”

“I was getting to that,” Meifeng pointed at the projector screen and pressed the button, and it changed to various photos of Everleigh Thorn. “I don’t care what you all have to do; before my shift ends, I want her in a cell.”

“Can we waterboard them?” Leon playfully asked.

Meifeng chuckled.

“... Maybe if they don’t behave,” Meifeng started before she turned to Bianca. “Agent Manalo, do you have an issue with any of this? I’m giving you full permission not to participate and take the rest of the day off, but if you do…”

She chuckled again deviously as she looked off to the side, then said,

“... Maybe Everleigh ”resists”, and you have to employ more drastic measures to detain her?”

“Is that in regs?” Helena asked with her arms crossed.

“Nope, but who will shoot it up the chain?” Meifeng grinned. “I know you don’t care.”

"I've got no issue with this, much as I'd love a day off," Bianca shook her head before cracking her knuckles. "I'd love to give Everleigh back a little of what she gave me."

“Great to hear,” Meifeng responded before she spoke to the rest of the group. “I am authorizing strict use of taser rounds for this operation,” Meifeng started, “However if any of them get violent, switch to live rounds and send them to their God. Clear?”

“Clear!”

“Now, let’s get ready. We’re going to hit them so hard and fast they will have no clue that we were even there,” Meifeng said, then narrowed her eyes at Trevor. “... If you shout ‘Just the Tip’ like a dumbass again, my foot is going sooooooo far up your ass!”

Trevor gulped.

“Now, the meeting is adjourned… we are…” Meifeng raised her fist into the air; everyone raised their fist as they shouted.

“Let’s get to work, everyone!” Meifeng shouted.

---

Long before the Coven arrived, most of the PRA were already set up in the bushes… in full armor, wearing gas masks as they patiently waited for the Coven to arrive. They had surrounded the church… while many were chatting, playing on their phones, and whatnot. Meifeng and some other agents were not in the bushes but in the enormous mobile command center parked on the opposite side to the church - completely hidden by the church itself. Meifeng was sitting in it, texting her husband while sipping some relaxing green tea. She turned her head towards Trevor and said,

“Trevor! I know our intelligencers are off, but if this information is faulty…” She trailed.

“Relaaaaaaax!” Trevor laughed as he put his hands up, “They’re coming, trust me!”

“You better be right…” Meifeng growled, “Or next time you hang out at HQ on your day off, you’ll be cleaning the entire building with a toothbrush!”

“Aw.”

“... They’re coming!” Meifeng heard Helena announce on the earpiece, and Meifeng grinned as she pressed her earpiece.

“Let me know when they are inside.”

A few moments passed as Meifeng heard Nakala speak, “They’re inside.”

“Go in.”

Cindy gave Meifeng the side eye as she said, “You’re excited.”

“Nobody hurts my Agents, Cindy,” She could hear the screaming and shouting, she turned the keys to their truck as she added,

“Nobody,”

It was go-time, and Nakala was selected to lead the insertion group… and the moment the door closed behind them, a team of herself, Maximilian, Samson, Akira, Fiona, Claudette, Sonya, Helena, and Bianca came out of the foliage and converged on the location from all sides. Each of them armed with the M4 Colt Assault Rifle save for Akira, who just stuck with a pistol at her hip, and Nakala… who had a tear gas launcher with only her compound bow strapped to her back and a pistol at her hip.

The Agents formed a line, leaning against the walls at the entrance, save for Nakala, who nodded at Sonya and Helena, who scaled the building and set up shop on the roof. Nakala took a few steps back, aiming the teargas launcher at the window with one hand and then raising her other hand and counting off.

Three…

Two…

… One!

Nakala quickly put her other hand on the teargas launcher and let out several teargas canisters that broke through the window, and she could hear them coughing and screaming inside. With a nod of her head, Maximilian kicked down the door, and the PRA Agents charged in, forming a line as they aimed their assault rifles at everyone. Nakala walked in after them, flashing a badge, her voice booming,



She walked to the front of the line of agents as she shouted, making it dead clear who was in charge here.



“I know it hurts, but just comply,” Maximilian calmly said. “It’ll be over before you know it.”

“Yeah, we don’t want this getting ugly,” Samson added. “Some of you seem like good people!”

Nakala raised three fingers as she shouted!



That was when her eyes landed on Clancy, and she tilted her head…

“... What the fuck?! Why is there a fucking kid here!?”

“Oh lord, we teargassed a white kid,” Samson awkwardly laughed.

“Wait,” Bianca squinted her eyes. “That kid got shot last night!”

“You sure?” Samson turned his head towards Bianca. “He looks fine to me…”

He then thought about what he said,

“... Well, except for, you know.”

“Certain,” Bianca shook her head in confusion. What the fuck. “I got a real good look at him first.”

“Someone get him the fuck out of here! Agent Liao is going to have a fit!” Nakala ordered, pointing to the exit.

“On it,” Samson said as he slung his rifle over his shoulder, walked over to the kid, grabbed him by the arm, and prepared to drag him out of there. “Hey, little guy-” only for the boy to yank his arm back with enough strength to throw him off his footing. Samson landed on his ass, dropping his rifle in the process. He raised his head and raised an eyebrow from underneath his gas mask.

“... What the hell?!” Samson asked.

---

While everyone was pushing in from the bottom, Agent Page and Agent Mayfield would be the eyes in the sky. They both took position by the window that Nakala had just broken and knelt as Sonya aimed down the scopes of her M4, just itching to give someone who couldn’t follow instructions a taser dart. Helena just knelt beside her and summoned her birds, spreading them out as far as possible so they could have as many eyes on this operation as possible.

“I can’t see shit in this damn gas mask…” Sonya hissed to herself as she scanned the room. “That tear gas burns the fuck out of my skin any-”

When her sight landed on Clancy, her jaw dropped.

“... There’s a fuckin’ kid in there!”

“Hostage?” Helena asked.

“Don’t look like it!” Sonya started,

“I can get him out of there,” Helena calmly asked.

“No need, Agent Brown is on it!” Sonya said as she patiently watched the scene unfold… and Samson got put on his ass.

By a kid.

---

---

Anya was unbothered as the insults rained down on her. She genuinely didn't care for these people's opinions, because almost everybody in the room was below her. Most that she respected were dead.

Sloane offered her sympathies (which most wouldn't notice, but Anya had learned to read her slight expressions), which were unneeded but appreciated. Loathe as she was to admit it, she had perhaps jumped the gun a little bit.

”Why thank you, Everlynn, for predicting a future I would have gladly spoken of if you'd just asked. But I understand. There's absolutely no hard feelings towards you all for voting no. I'm not someone who ignores all other opinions and takes charge anyway.” She looked at Lynn with a gentle smile.
”Which the previous leaders did."

Unlike us, were the words left unspoken. But there was no point arguing with those who'd already made up their minds when it came to her and Sloane. It was their loss for not seeing everything the two of them had done for the coven, both in the past and the years that followed. While they may have been kicked out of the coven, which was subsequently dissolved, they never truly stopped working for the city's benefit (in Sloane's case at least, Anya did it with somewhat more selfish intentions).

She put that aside, and turned to the boy who'd crawled down from the roof - strange, but not something to fixate on.

”I'm sorry for your loss, Clancy. My name's Anya Baksh, and I also… worked with Ashley.” She smiled at him, mouth open to offer more 'comforting' words, when the door was shoved open and a very large, very loud man interrupted her.

Leon. He hadn't changed either, it seemed.

”Leon, Greyson,” she inclined her head towards the two latecomers. ”Lovely to see you both. I don't know what teleporter you're-”

A window smashed, and Anya barely had time to react before the whole room filled with burning gas. Her arm shot out for the Altar to support her when her knees buckled underneath her. Her eyes stung like hell, tears streaming down her face, and she couldn't stop coughing.



She got down on her knees as gracefully as she could with snot and tears streaming down her face, skin burning and lungs feeling like they were on fire. She’d managed to keep her breakfast in her stomach, which was about as dignified as she could get right now. She raised trembling hands above her head.

”Do what they say,” Anya choked out. Not like anyone would listen to her, they were too stupid to do that, but it was better to try. She then looked up at the agents through blurry, pained eyes. ”Will you- cough- stop if we comply?”

---

---

Luca barely had the energy to keep up with the infighting, and all the arguments for and against having a new leader. He just wanted to go home and sleep. Maybe he would, if they didn't come up with any leads for them to follow. He could just get someone to text him the information.

Oh, it seemed a kid had appeared- from where? Maybe Luca was starting to hallucinate… wait, the kid seemed to have some leads. Luca shook his head forcefully to try to wake up. Things seemed to be calming down, so-

Shattering glass rang in his ears, and he watching in confusion as multiple canisters flew into the room. What?

Before he could even consider what was happening, Luca felt burning pain like he'd never felt before. His legs gave out from beneath him as his entire body burned.

Luca grasped at a pew as he fell, instantly rotting it underneath his fingers. He collapsed to the floor on all fours, harsh coughs racking through his body. It felt like someone was scraping out his insides and forcing him to throw them up. He gagged, body trying to throw up but all that could come out was mucus and blood. He dry retched, spitting out blood and what little was left inside his stomach. Everything hurt, his frail skin breaking out into a rash as soon as it was exposed. He could barely breathe, chest tightening painfully, forcing him to heave around the coughing.

He could hardly see through his blurred vision, just his shaking arms swimming in front of him, drops of red spilling from his lips as he coughed and coughed and coughed.

The floor beneath his hands began to slowly erode.

Maybe this is what dying feels like.

His already failing body struggled to handle the toxic chemical, gripping him in inescapable agony. His broken wrist collapsed underneath him and he fell onto his knees, dry heaving and struggling to just keep breathing.

”Please,” he groaned, barely audible - and to whom, he wasn’t sure. He could barely think. He could feel the Rot pressing at his mind, trying to get in. He couldn’t get enough air into his lungs, rapid breathing only worsening everything. He was in so much pain - something he thought he could handle - and was suddenly so tired. Exhausted. ”Please, stop.”

This wasn’t how he wanted to go, choking on his own breaths as his rotten body started to give up.

---

---

---

Just like that, it all came crashing down.

Her twin was dead, she barely had enough money to cover the bills and her younger brother was throwing his life away. Everything was fucked, she couldn't catch a break and she was here having to deal with Anya and Sloane throwing snide comments at her. Fuck this!

Had it really been three hours since she met Edict? Fuck, it hadn't lasted anywhere near long enough. She felt like absolute shit. Nothing that these pieces of crap were talking about mattered. They could talk like this because they hadn't lost anyone, because they were only worried about their pitiful little lives. They all lived in fucking privelege while people like her were struggling to scrape by, unable to even take a moment to handle her grief because she just didn't. Have. The. Time.

The change in Linqian was instant, and incredibly visible. All her stresses built into a massive bomb inside of her, and Sloane lit the fuse. Her whole body tensed, lips twisting into an ugly scowl and enraged gaze burning a hole into Sloane. She rummaged in the pew shelf, grasping the thickest Bible she could find (which wasn't quite thick enough). With the Bible in hand she pushed herself up, stalking down the church aisle towards Sloane and the kid.

”Oh, so you do know how to offer condolences, Sloane?” Linqian sneered, eyes flashing with wild rage. ”You didn't even like Ashley. After everything Jinhai did for him, it's the least you could do, bitch.

Linqian was right in Sloane's face now, Bible in hand and primed to smack her right in the face if she so much as opened her mouth again. Maybe she should just hit her over the head now. Fuck it, she had nothing to lose. Linqian raised the bible-



Suddenly, Linqian felt like she was on fire - and it wasn't her body temperature rising too high. She fell to one knee, coughing up her guts and the tear gas got everywhere. Her meticulously tied back hair was suddenly a mess, tears streaming down her face and ruining her meticulously done makeup. This was the fucking worst!

”Are you fucking with me?!”

Linqian tried to lower her body temperature to stop the burning, but it did nothing to alleviate it. The Bible froze in her hands, frost creeping across it like spiderwebs. Why?! Surely this was fucking illegal! Coughing, Linqian glared through teary eyes at the federal agents that had knocked down their door.

“Certain. I got a real good look at him first.”

She’d recognise that voice anywhere. It had been years, but she still remembered it - the way it had spoken to her softly, cheerfully, lovingly and then… Then, so harshly.

”Bianca?!” Linqian gritted out. She curled her fingers around the back of a pew, pushing herself up with a shaking arm. ”What. The. Fuck.”

It was so stupid. She knew it was stupid. But she was suddenly hit by all her problems, the lack of money and Jinhai’s death slamming her head like a sledgehammer, and then her ex show’s up? She was pissed. So pissed she was willing to take a taser just to get some of this anger out. She was already in so much pain, every breath feeling like glass shards scraping in her lungs, what was a little more?

”Are you fucking kidding me? You’re with the fucking feds and you’re tear gassing us! You bitch!” Linqian took a step forward, chest heaving from anger and the tear gas making it harder to breath. She pointed a shaking finger at Bianca - well, at least the one she thought was Bianca. It was hard to tell when they were wearing masks and her eyes were filled with tears. She was going by voice alone. “Some fucking coven loyalty, I swear, I know we didn’t fucking end on good terms, but really?! I texted you just this morning- you said you’d be happy to meet up, fuck! I can't believe you. I can't believe I had feelings for you! I never want to fucking see you again!”

In a fit of idiotic anger, she lobbed the frozen Bible at Bianca. It hit her arm, coating her armour there with a light layer of frost, and clattered to the floor.

"A Bible wasn't very appropriate, was it?" Bianca replied calmly, raising her gun. Thanks to the full body armour it hadn't particularly hurt.

"Fuck you, I-"

A taser dart came out of nowhere, hitting Linqian in the chest. She fell to the ground, gritting her teeth and muscles contracting. Fuck, it hurt so bad, she couldn't move- worst reunion ever.

“I would suggest you all comply," Bianca said, brushing the frost off her arm. She hoped that a recognisable voice (for those that remembered her) would help make them do what they were told. She had no qualms about hurting the majority of them, but it would be nicer if it wasn't necessary.

---

---

---

She tripped, falling on one knee as she fell in a puddle. Splashing water in all directions and soaking her grey jeans, she panted, turning her head around to see if she had finally lost the bastard… before she heard footsteps approaching her; then she saw it… or did she? She only saw the puddles of water getting splashed as if something was approaching her. She hopped to her feet by her hands and ran through the dark alleyways of St. Portwell. It was only the end of the day, as were the streets so… empty? She glanced up at the cloudy skies so thick that it appeared to already be night, with only glimpses of sunlight piercing through the dark and foreboding clouds.

She turned right as she heard the footsteps approaching, getting closer and closer, and she tried to pick up speed… only to feel something slash her back, and she loudly yelped as she hit the ground. She could feel the hot blood drip from her back as she desperately crawled forward, her heart racing… then it grabbed her leg. She flipped over, and then she finally saw it.

It’s otherworldly glory.

It was unnaturally tall, with no features other than its unmoving white eyes that appeared to be holes through its body. It pulled her closer to itself… creating a black portal in which it attempted to pull her into. The girl screamed at the top of her lungs as she desperately attempted to break free.

Whoosh

The creature’s body was suddenly sliced clean in half, top to bottom, as someone appeared before them both. A young teenager with black hair, holding a jet black scythe in his hands like the grim reaper. He was dressed in a grey and gold robe that fumed with black smoke, which clung to him as if it had a mind of its own.

The monster he attacked stumbled back as its two halves split apart and evaporated into smoke.

Something landed before her, and she desperately hoped it was not another one of those things… but definitely a monster of some type. A grey jumping spider, except instead of being the size of a pen tip, it was enormous. It was the size of a UPS Truck… and on top of it was some black girl wearing a black robe with golden spider webs weaved into it, riding it like it was some type of horse, with a saddle and handlebars and everything. She pulled out a walkie-talkie and said into it,

“Stygian Snake’s monsters are everywhere downtown! We’re - we’re gonna need some Backup!”

“We’re fighting the Stygian Snake in the woods right now! But, we can divert some help that way!” Someone replied.

Then she looked down and awkwardly smiled before talking… fast.

“Hi, I’m Lisa! It's great to meet you! I know it’s scary; I am riding a giant spider, you almost got eaten by a monster, and I just fell out of the sky! But we are the good guys! We are going to get you out of here!”

She dramatically paused before giving the scared girl a wide smile.

“... Trust me!”

That was when more of the shadow monsters began showing up… and the girl stopped smiling and cupped her hands together to shout.

“Someone get her up on me!”

“Here, let me help you,” an older Asian teenager leaned down with a far too relaxed grin for the situation, hooking her arm around the girl’s back. “I’m Bianca- hey, Qianqian, help me get her up!”

”Don’t call me that,” a scowling teenage girl - Linqian - huffed, even as she reached down to help the girl. Between the two of them, they could lift the girl towards Lisa and onto the spider.

“You didn’t mind it last ni-”

”Shut up! There’s more of them, we don’t have time for this, Bea!”

“... Could you two, uhhhhhh, focus?” Lisa raised an eyebrow.

Appearing in a shadowy blur on the other side of Lisa’s giant spider, Jack cut in. ”I can’t get all of you out of here the easy way, but I can keep them distracted. When you’re clear, I’ll get help here quicker. Go on, I’ll meet out of here.”

”Oh shut up, Jack,” Linqian rolled her eyes at him. ”Who put you in charge, I swear-”

“Not the time, Linqian!" Bianca cut her off. "Yell at him all you want when we're safe."

”Fine, go get help,” Linqian waved dismissively at Jack. Her body temperature began to drop, lower and lower, till a chill could be felt coming off her in waves. ”We can handle this. Bea, boost me.”

With Bianca starting to boost her, tendrils of ice crawled out from underneath Linqian’s feet as her body temperature plummeted, and she stepped forward to intercept the shadow monsters coming towards them.

“Does somebody have one of Greta’s potions?! Aw, never mind!” Lisa weakly called out to the group before she waved her hand and commanded her spiders to wrap webs around the girl; she thrashed a bit as Lisa said,

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, I’m holding you down so you don’t fall off! Now awaaaaaay we go!”

She commanded her giant spider, and they lept through the air, landing on the side of the building as she scampered away to safety.

Ideally.

---

The Stygian Snake’s minions were swarming the downtown area… They were flooding the alleyway Linqian and Jack were holding out in.

The shadows writhed and came to life around Jack, lifting in thick clouds of smoke, and lashing out like an endless tide of spears to skewer, impale and maim the creatures. The Stygian Snake wasn’t the only one who ruled the darkness.

”He’s getting lazy, this is nothing.”

“Nothing, huh?” Came a call out from behind. A tear opened in the alleyway, and Alizée and Void stepped out, smirking and ready for action. Phantom hands flew, knocking aside the monsters, trying to leap over the spears Jack had sent forward.

“I dunno, looks like a lot of monsters this time around.” Alizée huffed.

"Nothing we haven't handled before! But still, nice to have more backup!" Bianca called out cheerfully from where she was sheltering just behind Linqian. Linqian dealt with each monster that came their way, hitting them with ice-cold fists or freezing them entirely by grabbing them. Bianca was boosting her to entirely bypass their emotional fields, letting her freeze them to death.

“I’ll crush as many as I can, but we need better ground, Bea!” Alizée called out, doubling the size of her phantom hands to scoop up a handful of wriggling monsters, squeezing until she heard several pops. White specks of light flurried around her as Void worked alongside, smashing monsters into the wall and pavement hard enough to leave cracks in his wake.

"It's alright, we can- shit!" A monster got past Linqian, knocking Bianca to the ground. She rolled out of the way just in time, and Linqian spun around, kicking it in the back and freezing it solid.

"Less chatting and more staying alive," Linqian gritted out, lightly panting. Having Bianca boost her was invaluable, but at the same time, it put her in danger - which Linqian didn't like. She shook her head, facing another one. "Fuck, they just keep coming."

The hail of shadowy spears continued to pelt them as Jack decided not to waste time warning them all about his next move. He flickered out of existence, reappearing beside everyone as he laid a hand on their shoulders. One by one, he used his Gloomy Step spell to teleport his comrades up to a roof where they could easily keep their assault up without being trapped. Once the last of them was at higher ground, shadows began solidifying and wall off their exit like a cage.

”You know what to do,” he said.

"Oy," Linqian snapped, attention swapping from the monsters to Jack. She took a step forward, frost coating the roof underneath her. "Just you fucking try to teleport me again without warning."

Another step, and she was close enough to him that he could feel the cold radiating from her body.

"Next time, I won't-"

"Thanks, Jack, you really saved us; just ignore her!" Bianca cut in, jumping in between them. Linqian immediately backed off, not wanting to hurt her girlfriend. "They're starting to climb onto the roof, soooooo…"

As Bianca spoke, one of the hollow-eyed monsters leaped up, trying to slash Linqian. That was, before a phantom hand wrapped around its shadow form, squeezing until it burst into seeping smoke.

“They’re coming, guys. Try to focus!” Alizée spoke, a hint of panic in her voice as three phantom hands cut swathes along the building wall, destroying the brick face as she and Void tried knocking down the alarmingly high number of monsters coming up.

"I had that," Linqian rolled her eyes at Alizée, even though she hadn't had it. She spun around to face the monsters, catching another one's claws before they hit her shoulder, freezing them off.

"We definitely need more help," Bianca shook her head, stepping back out of the way and looking at Jack.

The Stygian Snake’s minions paused… As a monstrous growling and thunderous footsteps appeared. They cleared a path for the shark among little fish… a monstrous hellhound that easily stood twenty feet tall. It growled as it walked down the alley, roared, and lunged up to the roof as the other minions continued their assault - scaling the walls like it was nothing.

”…Yeah. Yeah. I’m grabbing Reza. Don’t die, got it?” Jack jumped off the edge of the building into the dark alleyway below and teleported to somewhere far away, well before he was in danger.

"Jack! Be quick-" Bianca started, but Jack was already gone… leaving just the three of them to face the hellhound. "Fuck, fuck, this is bad."

As soon as the hellhound appeared, Linqian backed away, breathing quickening and temperature rising back to normal as she dropped her spell. Her hands shook, and her chest heaved, practically beginning to hyperventilate. She squeezed her eyes shut so she didn't have to see it.

"Shit," Bianca grabbed Linqian's hand and pulled her behind her - it just had to be a hellhound. She didn't have time to calm her down right now… Bianca dropped her boost on Linqian and swapped to Alizée, layering them up - boosting her abstraction strength and ability to penetrate elemental fields. At the same time, she began to back away, preparing to run. "She's not going to be able to do anything like this. Can you hold them off till Jack gets help?!"

Alizée glanced at Linqian, grimacing before leveling a hot glare at the massive monster approaching them. Her phantom hands flexed, razor tips glinting.

“Dammit, Jack. I'll do what I can, Bea. Just get ready to run, kay?”

Just in case.

She took a step towards the hellhound and almost instantly regretted it. A massive claw swiped down, blocked by phantom darkness, her shoes scraping the cement as she was pushed back.

Before, the remains of an air conditioner were uprooted by Void's hands, smashing across the terrifying face of the hellhound. It was enough to cause a slight distraction, letting Alizée leap out of its claws’ reach.

They were losing ground. Minions on all sides. Void was about to check on Alizée before minions pounced on him. Immediately, his hands and jagged teeth were busy shredding minions apart, leaving Alizée on her own.

The hellhound was staring at Bianca and Linqian, maw barred. But before it could snap its jaws around the duo, a massive void hand smashed across its face.

“Pick on someone your own size!” Alizée yelled, preparing to punch the beast again.

Before its teeth came crashing down, trying to swallow Alizée whole. Alizée was pushed to the ground, void hands trembling on the top and bottom of the hellhound's snapping jaw, trying to keep it steady as the beast tried to press through and eat Alizée.

She sweated, glaring hard at the beast, trying to will away the scattering hallucinations clouding the edges of her vision.

“Get…”

Her grip tightened on the jaws of the hellhound.

“The hell…”

Fingers started to pull apart instead of back.

“BACK!”

In one fell swoop, Alizée heard a crack as bone snapped back, and the hellhound howled. It recoiled, its jaw dislocated and hanging at a sickening angle…

… Only for it to snap back, seemingly automatically.

Dread set in the pit of Alizée's stomach. ”Shit.”

Void was busy sweeping the roof clean of shadowy minions, hands frantically cutting swathes in the numbers that kept coming back.

Linqian and Bianca were behind Alizée, counting on a miracle she didn't have. Jack was nowhere to be seen.

They needed more options.

Alizée called out to the duo behind her without taking her eyes off the beast.

“Linqian, Bea, get outta here!” She cried, phantom hands shoving against the beast, trying to stop its advance.

She cursed under her breath, taloned fingers pulling at the rippled shoulder of the hellhound, through the sinews and tendon, until she had a good enough grip that she tore the arm right off the monster.

"Shit, come on," Bianca turned around and started shoving Linqian. It was enough to jolt her out of her panic slightly, letting go of Bianca's hand and temperature dropping enough to push away the apparitions blocking their way. Bianca kept up her boost for Alizée, straining to concentrate on that and getting the fuck out of there.

A burst of black smoke filled the air, and a white blur shot out of it directly toward the apparitions surrounding Linqian, Bianca, and Alizee. A metallic ring filled the air as all of them fell to the floor dead. As quickly as they were assailed, they were saved. Cloaked in white and gold, there stood a boy with tan skin, holding a sword etched with a red blade. He was fast as a whip crack and looked far too confident for someone surrounded by eldritch horrors.

Reza Cabrera, one of their gayest.

He smirked as he took in the scene. Now that he was here, everyone would be going home today. It was either that or he would be the last.

“Reza, you son of a bitch.” Alizée said, wincing as she picked herself up. The grin on her face betrayed a tone that was relieved more help had arrived.

“Reza!” Bianca let out a sigh of relief, halting her fleeing footsteps. She squeezed Linqian’s hand, slowly coming down from the intense panic she’d been feeling - it would be there as long as the hound was, but at least now there was a chance to calm her down. Bianca kept her boost up on Alizée - Reza didn’t need it. “I’m so fucking glad to see you.”

Alizée’s grin widened, listening to Bianca, before they fell on the hellhound, hobbling on three legs. However long that would last. She flexed her phantom hand, hovering above her, watching the minions gather themselves and preparing to continue the onslaught.

There, her eyes fell on a smile. Reza’s smile.

That smile meant one thing and one thing only: Victory.

”Backup’s here, ladies. Let’s win this and get out of here!” Reza lifted his Noble Vow sword and rushed the apparitions, clawing their way up the roof. He weaved between their claws, fangs, and their everything with uncanny grace, beyond anything the world’s greatest fencers could dream of, as he cut them down one by one. His sword cleaves through their supernatural bodies as if they were ordinary flesh and bone, dropping like flies.

A bright flash filled the environment as a monstrous bolt of lightning came from one of the adjacent rooftops and struck the giant hellhound on the side of its monstrous body. It let out a yelp as it stumbled over, craning its head around to see two girls standing on one of the other rooftops… the Coven sisters Zoey Gray and Elsa Connor.

Zoey raised a fist in the air, then cupped her hands together to shout,

“Take that asshole!”

While it was stumbling, someone ran up, holding a hockey stick… it was none other than Claire O’Sullivan, one of the Old Coven’s most frontline fighters. She lept into the air, hockey stick primed, surrounded by an opaque, dim-blue aura, and whacked the Hellhound with it, sending it spiraling over.

“... You get it, Claire!” Zoey shouted.

The Hellhound made a complete roll and charged her. Claire blew a bubble with some bubblegum as she spun the hockey stick around her back. The beast opened its mouth unnaturally wide and attempted to swallow Claire whole, only for her to stick her hockey stick in its mouth… and it could not close it as hard as it tried. Claire managed to hold it back…

… For a younger Amy Nakamura to valiantly leap into the air, her kanabō overhead, screaming as she brought it down on the hellhound’s skull, shattering it into a billion pieces… and it stumbled over… before exploding into darkness and fading away.

“Good job, homegirl!” Claire shouted while laughing,

“Well, the fight’s not over; we gotta take care of the…” Amy said as she prepared to fight off the others… only to see a massive shadow cast over her. She looked up to see…

… The Stygian Snake.

---

The spider, Lisa, and their reluctant captive leaped from rooftop to rooftop.

Lisa had no clue where she was going or why, just that she was getting this girl out of there. She heard a bang in the distance. Glancing over her shoulder, Lisa saw the hellhound appear and pounce the group… her eyes shot open as her jaw dropped due to shock. She started panting, holding her chest as she commanded her spider to stop. She quickly reached for her walkie-talkie in the saddle's pouch while affirming herself, working up the courage…

“Okay… k-keep it together, Lisa, yo-you’re strong. You’re b-brave. You’re loved. Like what Adora says!”

She took a deep breath.

Then she pressed the button.

“... H-hello? Mission control? Headquarters? Mother base?”

"Yes?" A slightly sharp male voice - Jinhai - came from the other side of the walkie-talkie. He sounded calm, but it was a cold calmness, and his words diplomatically pushed her towards getting to the point. "Has something happened, Lisa?"

The walkie-talkie shook in Lisa’s hands as she said, “S-someone’s h-hurt! N-no one has Greta’s potions, i-is t-there somewhere I can take her before she bleeds out on my spider!?”

There was silence on the other end of the line, then quiet talking between at least two of the people there. “Can you get her back here? We have plenty of potions. If not, the closest to you with one is… Olivia. I can put you through to their channel.”

Lisa looked over her shoulder at the girl bleeding out, and the webs were not good gauze. She could ideally get back to the lair, but with all the monsters… That was a risk.

“I-I don’t think she w-will last long enough for me t-to get back! Where is Olivia?!

“She’s in front of the Five-Star theater. Five streets over, by rooftop, you can get there quickly.” There was a pause on the other end, then Jinhai added, “she’s with Luca, keep the injured away from him if they’re blind.”

Lisa glanced over her shoulder at the girl… she had no clue if she had an abstraction, but probably, given what she just went through. She raised the walkie-talkie to her lips and said,

“C-copy! I am on my way!”

Then she gave her saddle a good grip and commanded her minion to leap until she got there. Then she looked around for them…

Olivia and Luca were backed up against the theater’s entrance, fighting off another group of apparitions that had swarmed them. Olivia had all the ones closest to them bound in thick, thorny vines. At the same time, Luca moved between them as quickly as possible, grabbing whatever limb was closest and corroding these weaker apparitions.

One had managed to free a hand from the grasping vines and lunged towards Luca before a cartoonish-looking arrow slammed into the creature's eye socket, forcing the head back before the arrowhead exploded. From down the road, The Ranger limped towards the theater. Its artwork was more comic book-inspired than not, and its jagged lines starkly contrasted the surrounding area. Its right leg was wounded, and the paint was bleeding off onto the ground below. Behind it was Jasper, Evelynn, and Michael. Blood was pouring down Evelynn’s face, and she was drifting between consciousness and out. Michael had her arm over his shoulder, pulling her along with her. Evelynn limped and was dragged. Above them Michaels crows flew a tight circle, their orders were to attack the eyes of any monster that got too close.

“Olivia, Luca,” Jasper looked up from the canvas he was furiously painting on, “Lisa, I got Evelynn she’s hurt pretty bad, does anyone have a potion?”

A snarl was heard behind them, and before anyone could react, the Ranger had notched another arrow, turned around, aimed, and let it fly down the road.

“Heeeeeeeeey!” Lisa called, commanding her spider minion to scale the wall downwards. She didn’t want to scare anyone again, so she quickly made it to the street level with the others and looked at Olivia. “Do you have an extra potion!?”

“I do!” Olivia pointed to the bag around her waist. Looking at the two injured, she furrowed her brow, retracting the vines binding individual apparitions and having them form a large, thorny cage around the seven people. It trapped them inside, but it also kept the apparitions out. “Here!”

She pulled two potions from the bag, handing one to Jasper and the other to Lisa.

“Thank you!” Lisa quickly said as she took the potion.

“Thank you, Olivia. You’re the best,” Jasper said as he stopped painting and grabbed the potion. He turned his attention towards his two friends, “Michael, get this in Evelynn as quickly as possible; we’ll need her foresight before long.”

“Got it,” Michael said as he laid Evelynn down on the ground, propping up her head with a random brick that was strewn about. “Here, drink up.” Evelynn started by just sipping, which soon transitioned to her potion drinking.

“That shit,” Evelynn paused as she caught her breath, “is nice.” She finished the potion and leaned up.

“Evelynn, look to the possible futures for me,” Jasper paused as he returned to his painting. He was halfway through painting a paladin. “I need to know if we’re going to have any company soon, Michael if anything gets close, have your crows go for their eyes and their throats,” he paused as he shifted his vision and watched his ranger finally melt down completely, forming a giant puddle of oil on the ground, “what can we do to be helpful here while I finish this,” he asked Luca, Olivia, and Lisa, “once I can get it summoned we’re going to run around looking for more wounded.”

While this was going on, Lisa had popped the top of the potion, grabbed the girl by the nose (rather roughly), and said, “Open wiiiiiiiiiiiiide!” Then shoved the potion in her mouth while tilting her head backward, force-feeding her the potion. In a few seconds, her wounds were all healed. Lisa smiled, and the girl looked at her.

“... What? What is going on?!” She shouted.

“Shhhhh, shhhh, shhhhhhhhhh!” Lisa put a finger to her lips and said, “Everything is going to be all right… alright!”

The strange girl looked around… and realized they were on a giant spider. She went stiff… before she screamed at the top of her lungs.

“C-calm down! Calm down!” Lisa shouted.

Before she fainted.

Lisa shrugged.

“... At least she stopped screaming!” She said to herself. “Okay Lisa… what do… I…”

Lisa’s train of thought was interrupted by a shadow getting cast on them… her jaw dropped as she saw it.

The Stygian Snake.

“What the fuck,” Lila shouted as she was pulled to the ground by Adora. All around tear gas canisters exploded, sending their vile contents into the church and bringing pain to her coven. “Fucking hell,” she said as she did a quick glance around the room, trying to spot anything that might be able to help her stop it before it got worse but, sadly, this was a church and not the bustling streets of Portland.

“Shit,” she groaned as her eyes began to scream out in pain. Every instinct told her to wipe at them but she forced her hands to stay down. There was nothing she could do to stop it, there was no way for anyone here to neutralize this gas truly, at least in the moment, but they could still make the recovery easier. She tried to shout to the group but the tear gas silenced any words she tried to muster with its burning.

A moment later she heard the tell-tale sounds of the PRA. She opened her eyes and tried to pull herself up. “Shit, shit, shhiiiiiit,” Lila screamed as she instead pulled herself into the fetal position. “Whoever you ar-”, she gasped, and coughed, “you are a fucking idiot, using this shit indoors.”

Lila tried to watch as the feds began their raid. She watched as Linquian got angry with her ex, and got a taser round for her efforts. She then watched Jasper catch one in the shoulder, forcing him down. Meanwhile, every..single..member of the coven was being subject to a punishment that, as far as Lila was concerned, was cruel. First, tear gassing the group in an enclosed space. Second, forcing the group to get down on the ground without anything being done about the gas. There was no way for anyone to run to get out of the cloud. Lila knew that if it wasn’t for the coven healers, this situation would no doubt lead to long-lasting health consequences for everyone trapped inside, not just the vulnerable members of their community.

Something inside Lila wanted to lash out at the PRA agents, but there was nothing she was capable of doing at this time.



As the tear gas canisters exploded around him Jasper pulled a small 12x9 canvas from his bag and decided that he did not have the time to do a full spell as the tear gas began its relentless assault against every part of his body. Instead, he simply used his brush to quickly draw the orange outline of a traffic cone. Jasper was no stranger to tear gas, this was Oregon after all, and as such he knew there were a few ways to neutralize a tear gas canister. As he painted, he looked through his watery eyes to see if anyone around him had any water bottles and sure enough, he spotted one right nearby. As he finished applying the layer of paint, he quickly flipped his brush around and dried the layer using the bottom of his channeler.

As he continued painting a second later, he looked around for the closest canisters he could find. He spotted one that was two pews ahead of him, and a second one right nearby in the center aisle. In Jaspers's mind, his plan was simple. While the traffic cone would not be strong, it would get solidified by the heat coming from the tear gas canister and he hoped that would create a seal with the ground thus trapping further gas from escaping. Second, he wanted to try and douse the second canister with water. This way, there would be less gas affecting the group and this should make their recovery easier, and less painful.

Everything was going to plan, his painting was almost finished and the water bottle was already within reach. He wouldn't be able to save anyone, but he could at least help them in the only way he could. Everything was going to plan, until the taser round slammed into his shoulder, making him convulse on the spot before he fell out of the pew onto the ground below. As he hit the ground, he felt his nose pop and then felt the warm trickle of blood start pooling underneath his face.



Evelynn was already on the ground and she watched as Jasper took the taser round. A second later, he was on the ground right next to her and she heard a crackling sound. “Hey bu- ahhh shit this sucks,” Lynn paused as she coughed, “hey buddy, you okay?”

“Ow,” was all Jasper could muster in response. His eyes darted over to the painting he had done for the new coven and wondered what the chemicals in the tear gas would do to it.

Tayla didn't even remember who the chuckle fuck that's talking to her is, but he's definitely fucking irrelevant. "Listen here fuckface, as someone who's concerned about my time, you sure as hell prioritized yours yesterday by not fucking showing up. This is my second meeting. This is your first, so that tells me everything I need to know about your 'precious fucking time.' If I feel like mine is wasted right now, then that has nothing to do with you. Stay in your fucking lane."

She pointed at Britney. "How about both of you leave me the hell alone. I wasn't talking to either of you. I was talking Auri. Don't pretend like you care about anything I just said. I don't care about your business. You shouldn't care about mine."

She was happy to leave it at that and hopefully got something more constrictive from Auri, but bitch decided she wanted to yell at them like she's not the fucking problem. She's the one that decided to get them all back together and can't handle it. The group fell apart the first time. Did she think it wouldn't be more of the same just cause a decade passed? She's not dealing with this. All these assholes have her nerves bad.

She followed them far enough to see where the new meeting spot is, then she left. She said what she said. If they were going to the meeting spot and not talking about important shit, then she was going back to work. Moving locations would mean more of the same meaningless shit. Auri couldn't be taken seriously. She definitely couldn't trust her with her life. She'll give these little meetings one last chance, before she looked into saving her own life herself.

The walk back to the bus stop was long, since the church was on an abandoned road. It took her awhile to get there, but she finally got on the bus and called her boss on the way. She told him the thing she needed time off for was a waste of time and she was coming back. Her boss had already called someone else to fill in for her, so she should take the rest of the day like she planned. Fuck. Which meant she wouldn't have anything to do, but waste time. And wasting time in St. Portwell never boded well for her. She got off on the third stop and waited for the bus that would take her back to the church. She could've gone home, but her dad was working right now. She couldn't call him in the middle of a catch. Money was more important than her need to be away from stressors. As long as she avoided the places that would set her back, she could deal.

She got off the bus. She'd been gone about thirty minutes when she arrived back at the church. Only to see a fucking SWAT team in the building and smoke coming out of it. What the fuck? Did this have something to do with Kali from last night? She's not getting caught up in that, so she decided to make herself at home in a tree. She's a little bit of a nosy bitch. Hanging around the Wolfpack long enough and you get used to hearing the wildest stories. This was pretty wild. She jumped for the lowest branch and hooked her leg over it, pulling herself up the rest of the way. She climbed a little higher to a thicker branch and parked it.

She couldn't see too well from her distance, but she figured they'd pulled them out in handcuffs. She didn't think any of them were stupid enough to attack cops.

---

---

---

---

Location: Shadowzone
@Punished GN, @Blizz

---

Layla couldn't help the chill creeping along her spine as she stepped into the portal. Where on earth were they going?

”Welcome to the Shadowzone. My home, away from Shimmer.”

Void breathed in deep as they entered the Void. He could tell they were in shallow waters. The dangers of the deep were unlikely to bother them here.

His eyes glanced over the mundane home, then to Layla. Despite the shivering, she seemed alright. Good.

”Shortly, we’ll eat and discuss what we do in the future.”

Void's eyes landed on Jack, and narrowed slightly. He was being nice. Sure, he had liked Alizée, but he had never stepped out and tried to make Void feel welcome.

In the many years the Void Heart had traveled the war-torn areas of the Void, and the dark alleys of the Shimmer, he had learned one thing: kindness always had a price.

In the case of the Temple, he knew he wouldn't refuse if management asked for a favor.

In the case of Jack, well, it made Void wonder… What price did Jack want? What was he purposefully leaving out?

”And a word of advice- Do not look outside the windows, or open the doors. Do you understand, Layla?”

Layla's shivering increased, eyes wide as she took in what Jack said. Was the Void really that dangerous? Who would want to live here?

She felt scared, a bit unnerved and unsure. But right now, Jack was a beacon of assurance. She appreciated his kindness, and what he was doing for them. Perhaps her good karma in the old coven was finally paying off.

She sat beside Jack on the couch, pulling her leather jacket a little closer around her small frame. Purposefully, her vision dipped, avoiding the windows.

“O-okay, Jack. Whatever you say.” She peeked at him from the corner of her eye as she sat there.

Void stared at Jack for a long moment. No way. He didn't have any definite evidence, but something was off. Way off. Don't look outside? This was shallow waters, Layla would probably be fine.

Why was Jack pushing such an over-protective request such as this?

That got Void thinking… Why didn't Jack just move them to another location in the Shimmer, like Layla's home, or the Temple?

Why was it necessary to be in this specific place, of all places?

Suspicious.

Void moved to the window, peering outside into the darkness briefly. As he began to draw the curtains closed, he narrowed his eyes at the ground. A thin, black line wormed its way down above the stone, black specks drawing into the swirling line. It would eventually become a portal.

Satisfied, Void drew the curtains closed quickly. Now, all he had to do was wait.

He didn't know exactly what or why, but he had a feeling they shouldn't be here long. Jack was acting strange. Very strange. Usually, acts like this ended up badly.

He turned back to the room, eyes studying Jack as he bided his time. He had to give the impression he wasn't suspicious.

He moved to hover in the center of the room, hand thoughtfully placed on his chin.

“If Auri wants us outed, and me sealed, aren't you betraying her for helping us?”

All he had to do was bide his time.

---

Sloane pretended to feel her phone buzz and pulled it out of her jacket as she caught Jack palming a note and walking her way. She turned to allow him to more discreetly slide the note into her hand and slipped it behind her phone to obscure it from any of the others, blocking the back of the torn page with her hand as she slid her phone down to read the note. Her pulse quickened. The Void Heart should’ve been sealed years ago, but Sloane focused more on the fact that she should’ve been consulted. She may have just ruined the image she had spent years cultivating by admitting to the break-in, but this plan clearly came together before Auri or Britney knew about that. They were just excluding her as always.

Sloane resisted the urge to turn her head and look at Jack. She was appreciative that he’d informed her, but furious that he hadn’t gotten her involved. Still, she wouldn’t do anything to blow up their spot. She rolled the tension out of her neck as she pocketed her phone and the vanished note. Unhappy as it made her, she’d have to leave the sealing of Void Heart up to their (in)capable hands, hoping that Jack wasn’t overestimating Auri’s cleverness. As if on cue to stir up her bubbling anxiety, she heard the church doors bang open as Leon demanded information on who had just teleported away. Sloane turned, thinking up some excuse for Jack while two fingers massaged her right temple, yet another headache forming thanks to a Coven meeting.

”Oh, so you do know how to offer condolences, Sloane?” Linqian sneered, actually surprising Sloane by her sudden appearance that the woman took a step back. ”You didn't even like Ashley. After everything Jinhai did for him, it's the least you could do, bitch.

Fingers still to her forehead, Sloane could see the second hand on her watch freeze as her eyes narrowed. Linqian, looking near feral, holding a bible high over her head like an exorcist prepared to literally beat the devil out of Sloane with the good book, mouth open in a silent roar. A shattering window, stained glass bouncing off of the floor, several canisters spraying a faint gas suspended in animation. The front door kicked open yet again, silhouettes of armored figures in gas masks with rifles leveled, a badge flashing above their heads through the haze. The second hand began to twitch forward as Sloane dropped to the floor faster than the orders could come out of the badge’s mouth, snaking her arms out of her jackets sleeves and pulling it up over her head in an attempt to mitigate the pain that was about to come next, hands shakily fishing black gloves out of her inner jacket pocket.

She acted fast, but not fast enough. Hunkered down inside of her makeshift cocoon, Sloane began to cough as her eyes watered, her skin burned, and her nose felt as if Drake was slamming it in again and again. Coughing, shouting, and the hissing of emptying tear gas canisters echoed off the ceiling of the church, creating a mess of unintelligible noises as if the whole building had started speaking in tongues. She didn’t even get the pleasure of hearing, let alone seeing, Linqian eating a taser. Sloane’s mind raced as she tried to formulate a plan as the badge began their countdown: THREE!

Sloane didn’t even know who was arresting—no, nevermind, she knew exactly who was arresting them. She cursed under her breath. Kali had been missing from the group, and idiots like Adora had distracted them all from noticing. The dishonorable snake had sold them out immediately. Outside of the jacket, her makeshift shelter would appear to shake as if the person hiding inside was having convulsions. Inside the jacket, Sloane punched the hard floor of the church until her knuckles throbbed. Surrender was the smart option, but seeing as how quick the only fed she knew was willing to break their trust a contingency was necessary.

Sloane grabbed Jack’s note, crumpled it, and brushed it with her faded tarot card like she was striking a match. There was an orange spark beneath the jacket followed by a blue glow as Sloane infused a quick curse into the page that made the paper yellow like an old book with the ends appearing blackened and smoldering, wavering like a shadow of a candle, as she turned Jack’s blank note into an Object of Obsession. She hid her Channeler and balled the note up in her hand. If the countdown ended with gunshots and screams, she’d toss the cursed page and run. It would force enough heads to turn that Sloane could easily scramble to one of the siderooms and buy herself a few more precious moments on this planet before having her life reduced to nothing more than a redacted report in the bottom of some filing cabinet.

The night before… After Judas’ death.

Screw this.

After the chaos picked up and she didn’t hear anything from Shayton, or anyone else, she did the only thing she knew best and hauled ass out of this raggy-ass alleyway. She kept running, even long after she couldn’t hear anything… trying to make a break for her bike was a fool’s errand, and she would rather just carjack someone.

Though, the buses were still running.

Eventually, Maggy stopped to catch her breath, kneeling, and just started walking after a sigh. Might as well just catch the bus… A gust of wind came behind her, and Maggy turned around and saw Shayton standing there with his hands behind his back.

“Oh…” Maggy sighed. “... It’s you.”

“Judas is dead,” Shayton flatly said as he took a few steps forward.

And Maggy stared at him for a few moments before she asked,

“... Did you kill him?”

“Yes,”

“... Why am I not surprised,” Maggy answered before she walked over to Shayton and jammed a finger in his chest. “Well, I don’t know if you know, but that means that control of the Wolfpack falls into that dickhead Valjean, and I don’t care how much your fucking bosses are paying; I’m not working for him.”

“Hmmm…” Shayton trailed off. “... I believe we can work something out.”

“You fucking better! Where the fuck is Cyril?”

“Dead. Or wishing he was. He got pulled into who-knows-where by an Apparition after killing one of them.”

“... The Sycamore-something? Whatever that one asshole said,”

Shayton nodded his head.

“Well, damn it!” Maggy said, “There goes your boss's plans. Whoop-de-doo.”

Shayton raised a hand.

“Relax,” He started, “We didn’t account for any of this, but we have a backup plan.”

“You better,” Maggy said as she turned away and started walking, “Otherwise, I’m out.”

“... And where will you go?” Shayton asked, tilting his head slightly, and it was enough to make Maggy stop. Shayton took some slow steps towards her as he continued, “Before the Wolfpack, before Judas, you were basically a sex slave. He busted you out and offered you a spot in his pack… only for you to conspire against him the first time someone presents an offer.”

“I didn’t conspire against Judas! I only agreed to keep an eye on him like you asked! Two sources of income!” Maggy said as she turned around.

“... And if he did something my bosses deemed to be… problematic, I would have killed him, so tell me how that isn’t conspiring against someone?”

“Your fucking point, Shayton?!” Maggy shouted.

“My point? I’ve been doing this for a very long time… probably longer than you’ve even been alive. And I can tell you a few things, a few important things,” Shayton responded as he got into Maggy’s face with a stony face. “I can tell you care about your position and status more than you care about the lifestyle or the group. The other gangs? They won’t treat you like an equal as Judas did, and you know this. At best, you’ll just be a glorified groupie, and how long is it until they hook you on drugs again? Even if they do treat you like them, do you think another gig will pay like this? You’ll roll with them for a little bit, and how long is it before you’re selling yourself again-”

Shayton was interrupted by a curt and sharp slap, hard enough to launch his sunglasses off his face. Maggy had put a finger in his face.

“... That part of my life is over,” Maggy said.

Shayton remained stonyfaced.

“... I’ll pretend that never happened.”

In the blink of an eye, he had his sunglasses back in his hands, followed by a sharp whip of the wind as proof he had even done anything in the first place. He put his sunglasses back on his face and said,

“Look, just play along, and you’ll be rewarded,”

Maggy sighed.
“Fine… what do we do from here?”

“Find Dean,” Shayton said, “I need to have a word with him.”

---

Dean’s Apartment

Dean had been at his desk in his office, balancing the accounts he needed to figure out and fast. The clock ticked down, until he’d be in crippling pain. After an hour, he felt the ache in his joints. He had another hour before he was in pain. He was close to figuring out who was skimming money off the top of drug sales. He’d narrowed it down to two people: a kid and an ex-convict. He would have to finish his investigation tomorrow. He looked at the clock. Or later today. It was after midnight. He’ll have to deal with the side-effects of his abstraction for about fifteen hours. He thinks he calculated the correct amount of minutes he used his power for.

He needed a drink. He got up from his desk and limped his way to his kitchen. It’s been cleaner, since he stopped having Tayla around. His home used to be full of the men and women he whored her out to. He hated having to clean up and forcing her to do it was a pain in the ass. She was looped out most of the time. Could barely stand, let alone do anything coordinated. He kinda missed her. Or rather, missed owning her.

He stood at his freezer getting ice cubes from the box, when he turned his head… to see Shayton standing there, holding two glasses of what seemed to be iced tea over ice with some straws coming out, and a lemon slice on the rim. Shayton did not make any noise as he entered… just like he just appeared out of thin air.

He jumped back into his fridge. The corner dug into his shoulder. “Ah, fuck! What the hell, Shayton?” He can’t remember him ever being in his home. He set his glass down on the counter. What he wanted, he hoped he made it quick. He’s got about an hour left on the clock and he didn’t trust any of the Wolfpack to be around him when he was vulnerable.

“Sorry for surprising you,” Shayton calmly said as he presented one glass of iced tea to Dean, and continued. “Want a glass? We need to talk real fast… it’s important.”

“Thanks. What we need to talk about?” Dean took the glass and set it on the counter. He grabbed his rum out of a lower cabinet and poured a little into the tea. “You want some?”

“I’m good, I don’t drink,” Shayton said as he stepped off to the side and took a nice little sip before dropping the bomb on Dean. “Judas is dead… the PRA killed him.”

“Well, fuck.” Dean didn’t know how to take that news. He’s known Judas a long time. He didn’t think it was possible for the man to die. Not with how powerful he is and what he got up to for the pack’s benefit. Guess not even he’s a match for the feds. He’s seen many die in this space, but he never felt anything for them. He’ll have to cry one out for Judas when all this was done.

“But, that leaves us… well, primarily you and the leftover Wolfpack, with two big problems,” Shayton calmly said, before he tilted his head slightly. “... You got your Abstraction from Judas, right?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“Let me paint a picture for you…” Shayton trailed off, pausing to take a sip. “Judas was cunning… smart even… but before all this, he was just a pusher. All of you were. He never would have seen the notoriety that he has now. Then… one day, he comes out of nowhere with several powerful abstractions and just hands them out like candy. But here’s the thing, these types of abilities don’t just come from anywhere…”

Shayton took another sip.

“You seem to be much smarter than Valjean and his junkie sister, so tell me tell…” Shayton let his words hang in the air. “... Just where do you think he got them from? A corner store or something?”

Dean mulled over what Shayton said. He could put two and two together. He always thought it odd that Judas suddenly had abstractions to give out, given all of them were blind before they got them. He could’ve asked him then, but having them busted their business so he didn’t ask questions. He drink half his drink straight from the rim.

“I take it he got them from someone or something too powerful to want to get in bed with, but here we are. Now that he’s gone, I take it they want to collect, or are we renegotiating the deal?”

“Bingo,” Shayton said. “To get to the point: Judas got them from Dollhouse… under the condition that the Wolfpack acts as their little enforcers when the time comes.”

Shayton finished the glass of iced tea as he continued, “Now that Judas is out of the picture… They’re probably going to want the Wolfpack to work for them or pony up their magic.“

“The Dollhouse? Fuck me.” He finished off the rest of his drink in a hurry. He needed that buzz to hit him quick, because the Dollhouse wasn’t anyone to fuck with. None of them knew them at the time, but it’s been long enough to get somewhat familiar with all the magic groups in the city. Now it all made sense.

Shayton put the empty glass down and put his hands together before him. “Which brings me to problem number two: the matter of who will lead the Wolfpack from here on. Judas was smart… but not smart enough to have a solid replacement. So that means that either Valjean, Judas’ so-called number two, or Conrad and his little sect of Nazi wannabes will take over.”

Shayton let his words hang in the air.

“... And I know neither are viable options for anything other than being muscle.”

“Given you’re here talking to me about it, tells me you’re more the middle man. Which means I’m the only viable option, huh?” He poured his rum over the leftover ice and sipped it straight. “And the deal stands that we just need to be their enforcers when called on, and nothing else, right? Cause I couldn’t give five fucks about the magic. I just want the money. If they don’t have plans to interfere with how I want to run our profits, then I can take that deal…provided you can get the rest of the pack on board.”

“They won’t interfere with your money, provided that they give you the same deal they gave Judas,” Shayton said. “I already got Maggy on board… Conrad? Yeah… I don’t think that’s an option.”

“I don’t fuck around with Nazi shit. We can kick ‘em. Valjean and Elodie too if they don’t fall in line. Without Conrad and the ones that died, we’re down a few people. That enough for them or should we recruit?” His hand spasmed, almost making him drop his glass. He set it down on the counter. That’s enough for him.

[there is other Wolfpack I just haven’t shown them yet]

“… What they’re going to want you to do is lay low,” Shayton answered. “You’re on the PRA’s radar, and unfortunately some of their best are in the city at this very moment.”

“Damn.” That might ruin his plan to check on that Sully guy. He had his jacket with his business card in it. He didn't care about returning it, but he did need whatever he knew about Tayla. He could do that without fighting and if Sully put up fuss, he could leave and pretend it never happened. “Alright. I'll lay low…can't promise not to crack a skull in a few days though. Someone's skimming off the drug money. Hope they don't mind me sending someone to the ER.”

“Just don't make any more big scenes and you should be good,” Shayton grabbed his glass and took a few steps towards the door. “But they’ll be coming to you shortly.”

He stopped and looked over his shoulder and said,

“I will keep in touch.”

Shayton disappeared in a burst of speed.

And Dean went to lay down before the pain hit.

Leon had a slight warning before all hell broke loose: Thanks to Lelou, his dogged senses were always going to be a cut above normal, even among Adepts. Canines, as he understood, could hear things up to a quarter of a mile away. Maybe without much clarity, but voices existing in the surrounding were well within his range. The group all talking muffled things a bit, so he wasn't sure exactly what he was hearing. Lyss Burns and, of all people who he hadn't expected to see back, Anya Baksh tried to address him. He was totally ignorant of it as his hightened senses provided him with a painfully annoying experience. He was trying to parse out and separate every sound, attempting as hard as humanly possible to focus directly on the door that he and Edict had just come through. Listlessly, his body naturally gravitated through the windows. New scents filled the air; or, not so new? He recognized some, no, most of them.

They were fresh in his mind. Something about the mixing of smells was just so visceral that it almost paralyzed Leon. They weren't local scents: He figured after taking the time to sit in that parking lot before trying to rescue Alizee would let him be familiar with them all. He could smell Everleigh, Britney, Linqian; easy picks after he'd been in the car with them. But, Brit wasn't there? Stormy too... But, new people who werent there threw his nose off, and now other smells. He stood at the bay window near the entrance like a scene from an alien movie; the main character is nervous to look out the window and see the horrifying creature staring back, yet compelled to it as if the curiosity couldn't be prevented. So close... The hair on the back of his neck stood on end, curling Leon's stomach as his nose worked overtime trying to square up with what his ears were hearing.

Shuffling, clicking and clacking of metal. Preparation. He could almost see a shadow against the blinds of the window as Nakala readied the launcher. Then, everything froze. For what seemed like an eternity to Leon, he had the chance to consider that life was a truly funny thing. Edict had just gotten done accusing him of being a federal agent, and now... Now he heard the shuffling of boots scaling the outside wall, the rustling and shuffling of firearms and bullet proof vests, the telltale hiss that a gasmask gave off as you pulled the tab for the filter to start cleaning the air.
It's a fucking raid!
And it was far too late for the revelation. His body tensed as he heard the slow sound of a trigger being pulled. Again, that grinding metal noise as the action pulled forward and drove the firing pin into the primer of whatever casing was in the barrel. It sounded heavy to Leon, probably not a rifle or some other small arm.

All Lady Lelou could do in her own infinitely slower perception of time was scream and writhe in her tiny padded cell within Leon. But his minds eye, shared between the two of them, gave her a constant option to accaust him within micromoments.
"UNLEASH ME OR DIE!"
He didn't really argue with her. Not as the moments passed by and the light of the explosion coming from outside began to bow the window in toward him. With the half a second he had left, he began the process of letting the seals loosen up for the process of potentially regenerating a great deal of flesh and tissue in case this thing hit him in the face...

Which, it did. As the tear gas canister slammed its way through the window, the trajectory put it in a direct pathway toward Leon's dumb neanderthal forehead. The sound of the knock against the bone cavity was like a drum that punctuated the PRA's door kicking activities. The canister, having bounced off Leon's slanted plate of a skull, completely changed direction as it spiraled up toward the ceiling. It bounced off a rafter, hitting some hanging cloth tapestry which clung to it and forced a near vertical drop. As it clattered to the floor, the canister split slightly, causing pressure to force a second stream of the gas out into the room for a thicker blanketed fog.

Leon, unable to draw forth from Lelou's strength in time, blacked out as his brain rattled harder than any man had ever managed to punch him. For a short moment, pure willpower kept him from falling over flat as he tried his damnedest to force the primary transformation... But it wasn't to be. Like a castle wall crumbling from underneath itself, Leon's legs gave out and he hit the floor like a bag full of sand.

---

Edict was fuming from the interaction outside. Leon had basically bowled over him, the prick, and now here he was at a meeting he didn't even want to attend in the first place. What was having a network of spies for if he still had to attend these fucking meetings? And now he was buzzing in with those Temple stiffs, no better than Federal behavior as far as he was concerned. Even if he was telling the truth, it was a truth he didn't want to hear about or listen to. Big fucker! Edict smoothed his waistband where the holster of his gun was, trying to calm down as he scanned across the large room.
He immediately spotted Linqian, who was looking haggard and pissy as usual... But he knew what she was really feeling. It probably wasn't good: Since Leon and he were both supposed to walk back to her new legitimate car, he figured he'd offer her another bump. Hell, maybe try to get a night out of it for himself, reroute them back to his place as opposed to her going home to be crabby about her brothers and her small life. Vague guilt crept into his heart, and on instinct he hunted around for Britney, who he didn't see. Nothing to be worried about...

Anya Baksh addressed Leon and him, and while Edict couldn't keep his eye of the Big Guy staring at the windows, he was a bit elated to see another Pink Adept. The connection was rare for him, but the Mistress of Dreams had popped into his own dreams on a rare occasion, always somewhat untouchable. He smiled at her and waved, making sure he kept his sunglasses held up on his forehead by way of his hat.
"Good to see you again, Sis. Did you ever get that email I sent about the uh... The whole 'psychic ba-"
The window smashed as Edict was staring at it. Wholesale, it exploded, shattered, and a metal canister the size of a soda can drove itself so hard against Leon's head that Edict audibly echoed a groan of sympathy toward the Jolly Giant before he crumbled to the floor like a wet paper mache house. His eyes trailed up with the canister as it spewed a colorless mist up toward the ceiling and spattered across the wood and cloth of the upper rafters. Its clamorous fall and subsequent smash off the hard tile floor of the aisle busted the thin metal shell open in a second place, causing more gas than necessary to spew from its guts.

Edict was standing pretty much in range of it when it hit the floor, passing over his eyes and face to almost instantly blind him and force him to his knees with a lack of oxygen. Thankfully, by the time he hit the floor, the little thing was spewing in a different direction than his face, because it probably would've instantly blinded him for good. As he hit the floor, the sunglasses on his forehead slumped down onto his eyes. He instantly began channeling upon himself, focusing several Power Words at once to bolster his mind and block out the neurological receptors to pain.
His Emotional Field collapsed in on itself several times, each time etching a different portion of the Command String until he was running on just about nothing. He could only vaguely see shapes, but he kept a crystal clear image of the last thing he saw before the door came off its hinges, and he didn't like it. Body armor, guns... His tendrils reached out in real time, no longer caring about who or what he was knocking on. He was looking for friendlies, any clearly recognizable Emotional Fields he could feel. The many tendrils of the Lotus' roots acted as connectors to each and every one who he recognized as a Coven member.

He'd learned a bit of a technique to broadcast subliminal messaging: It worked much better against those without Emotional Fields, but even here he knew the effect would be strong enough that he'd be able to use it as a budget form of telepathy.
Across each and every Coven member, new or old, a set of images were broadcast into their minds. They played out like a moving picture book as the signals scattered across the Fields.
A pink lotus burst forth, with the word "SCATTER" painted across its surface in thick, densely burning flames that quickly consumed the message and left them with one last image: Edict's own point of view, the last things he saw before things went down. The canister hitting Leon's head, flying up into the rafters, hitting the floor... And then something else. The blurry vision of Edict's one hand lashing out and grabbing the canister. The other swipes a lit cigarette lighter through the thick foggy gas on the floor, while the canister flies from his grip up toward the ceiling.

A violent fireball followed the tear gas, and Edict's illusion broke when he had to refocus himself and make for a senseless sprint toward where he remembered the last window was. He couldn't see, he couldn't smell, and he couldn't breathe: But he couldn't feel any of it. Once he got some fresh air, most of the problems would be manageable, and he'd be able to hit the ground running... All it took was the bomb to give him the chance. He sprinted his numb body toward the edge of the room and smashed himself through the pane of glass full send. Somewhere in the middle of that, the fireball trailing up toward the canister hanging in the middle of the air finally met its own source, and the canister itself exploded into an even bigger and more caustic ball of flames that ate into the spray from before.
The hanging cloth ignited in a magnificent pattern that happily consumed the old wood rafter beams like a hungry termite demon. Cobwebs, dust of twenty years that the previous owners neglected to clean, errant insulation sticking through the shoddy wood slats: Each little component caught ablaze like tinder in the flame. Within an instant, the entire roof of the church was ablaze with fires that danced across old wood beams and crawled into the walls above.

Edict wasn't there for that. He only hoped that anyone else able to take advantage of the distraction did the same thing he did and followed his advice. Still, his Command String of Power Words kept him practically blind and numb. He hit the ground outside hard, hair and clothes covered in glass shards and broken wood. He pushed up off the ground into a pile of glass, ripping his numb hands apart without a care as he sprinted toward what looked to his limited sight like a clear opening. There was a dumpster or something to his left, so he tried to avoid it and slipped right.
Next thing he knew, he felt hot lightning in his right ass cheek as two darts zipped through his jeans and made purchase in flesh. Fifty thousand volts of electricity pumped his nervous system and utterly shattered his Command Line. All of a sudden, all the pain rushed back and he hit the ground in a heap.

"Oh, motherfucker! Fucking fucks! Fucking fucking fuck fuck FUCK"
Edict's body instinctively curled into the fetal position like a cooked shrimp as his eyes once more burned from the residual chemicals.
In that moment, he hated every single member of the Sycamore Tree Coven. Every single one of them deserved what was about to happen next, whether they were the rat who sold them out or some freak on a different cult's leash. He thought about the picture that hung over the desk of his office. "Lumber Day". A vast Sycamore tree being chopped down at the base, countless axes burried in its trunk. He wasn't here to get hit like this... And Leon had been the one who convinced him to come today. Convenient, but... He remembered that Kali hadn't been there as he tried to take deep breaths.

He felt hands on his wrists and a boot in his back. So much for the great escape... Wrong fucking window.

@Atrophy@Fernstone@Punished GN
Church

---

Some had ignored him, or at least hadn't noticed his presence. Clancy looked away, and when he turned back - the host-girl and the parasitic monkey on her back had disappeared, while a few others at the back row were still bickering over something he could only guess was inane high school bullshit that none of them could afford to waste time on.

“... sorry for your loss, as I am sorry for our behavior. This situation has left us at our worst. My name is Sloane..."

Then, finally, he realised he'd managed to turn a few heads, but it took the first of them stepping up from the pew to finally acknowledge him, and imply she had some useful information. “...the rest of the congregation would like to offer this young man their condolences?”

Although he would credit the girl - Sloane - that, the gentleness of her tone betrayed a condescendance that he didn't have time for. "I don't need condolences-"

Two others cut in.

”...for your loss, Clancy. My name's Anya Baksh, and I also… worked with Ashley.”

The first, Anya, followed suit with Sloane, which wasn't much use given they had bigger issues on their plate. Hearing his name spoken aloud by someone else was something he'd almost forgotten, and not a thing he would get used to anytime soon, but that bottle had been uncorked already.

The second speaker, not so much.

”Oh, so you do know how to offer condolences, Sloane? You didn't even like Ashley. After everything Jinhai did for him, it's the least you could do, bitch.

This is going in circles. Exasperation made him question why it took a child to recognise their bickering was a waste of time, in light of everything. Seriously?! As the asian girl seemed ready to smash Sloane in the face with a book, Clancy stepped down from the lectern towards them, thrusting the axe back inside the bag so he didn't give in to the temptation to brain them with the flat end.

"Was I talking Yid-?!" he exclaimed, only for the last few syllables to be drowned out by the pitched crackle of broken glass. Clancy pivoted on his heels, fingers tightening around the handle of the axe, watching as a pair of cannisters bounced off the drywall and skidded across the floorboards of the church, a thin white trail of something noxious released from them, judging by the reaction the others were having.

This wasn't good.

Doors kicked in. People in full SWAT gear, wearing masks and yelling out orders.



They cops or whoever they were had arrived in strength this time, he knew. Clancy recognised a few of the voices, namely the asian girl from last night who'd offered him the business card. She seemed to have history with he girl with the bible, more bad blood.

For a moment Clancy stood there, lips pursed, apparently unaffected by what he eventually realised was tear gas. It rolled over him and he felt... nothing. He'd never been gassed before, not like this, but it still came as a surprise, the perplexed expression creased across his face as Bianca copped a bible nearvthe head and responded by tasing Linqian.

It was an expression that turned to momentary rage when a gloved hand clamped around his arm, close to the elbow.

“Hey, little guy-” the voice was cut off as he yanked the arm back hard enough for the masked man to lose his footing, landing on the floor.

"Don't-" he spat, seething at the masked man. Although he stood over him, he felt a semblance of restraint that kept him from taking that building anger any further.

“... What the hell?!” Samson asked.

Clancy stepped back, wordlessly planting a foot on Samson's rifle and kicking it to one side beneath a nearby pew, before anything stupid happened. His gaze was searching for an exit, fully conscious that all the conventional means of leaving had been covered by the SWAT team.

---

---

---

"Agent Brown!"

Nakala shouted as Agent Brown got put on his ass by the kid! The hilarity of the situation was completely and utterly lost when the kid stepped on his rifle and kicked it off into the distance. Her eyes shot open as she pointed at Samson and commanded, "GET YOUR RIFLE!" Then Samson chased after it, going underneath.

The last thing she wanted was the upper PRA leadership coming down on the office for losing their rifle. She gazed at the "Coven." They didn't put up much of a fight, as expected. The teargas did an excellent job of disabling most of them. The ones that did fight or tried something were swiftly eliminated by the PRA's sniper, Sonya Mayfield, and Nakala didn't so much as flinch.

Maximilian merely tilted his head at the child before he nudged Nakala on the shoulder and said, "That kid is Paranormal... a pretty strong one at that."

Nakala nodded and said, "You handle him, Mr. Champion."

Maximilian began walking towards Clancy as if he didn't put a grown man on his ass. While that was going on, everyone else was on the ground or otherwise disabled. Nakala didn't even need to finish her countdown as the sheer threat of a squad of SWAT team members wearing armor waving guns around. "Cuff 'em, and get them-"

That was when a literal fireball blew up and ignited the ceiling, and Nakala dropped her badge out of surprise and looked up at the roof. It was on fire. Her jaw dropped from underneath the mask as she shouted, "Jesus!"

"Whoa, shit!" Samson shouted as he was on the ground, having gotten his rifle from underneath the pew, but he dropped it out of surprise.

"Agent Philips..." Nakala heard Meifeng's voice on the other side of her earpiece. "What in God's name is going on in there... ?"

Nakala was silent momentarily as she said, "... The building is on fire."

"... Why is the building on fire?" Nakala could just feel Meifeng facepalming.

"No clue, but the situation is under control!"

"I'm sending Trevor in with a fire extinguisher; evacuate the building immediately. We already have a loooooot of explaining to do," Meifeng commanded. "Let's not give ourselves more to explain, shall we?"

"Roger," Nakala answered with a nod before she reached behind herself and pulled out her compound bow; she pulled back the string and created an arrow made out of water, "Get them out of here!"

"On it!" Maximilian shouted, before he noticed Leon and went over to him, grabbing the back of his shirt and effortlessly picking him up and hoisting him over his shoulder as if he weighed as much as a five-year-old. He then walked over to Anya, grabbed her by the cuff of her collar, lifted her, and carried her out towards the door as if the two of them weighed nothing. Akira Shinjo and Claudette ran over to Linqian, and together, they managed to pick her up and carry her out as a team effort. Samson ran over to the nearest person, Luca, put his rifle behind his back, and picked him up, doing the fireman carry as he ran towards the door.

Nakala let go of the arrow and released the arrow made out of water, which exploded and... did not do much to the raging fire above them. It was effectively splashing a bucket of water on it... so she needed a lot of water. She released a few more arrows, which made the same progress as she hissed and just gave up... She ran over to the nearest teargassed, Lila, grabbed her by her arm, and dragged her outside.

---

---

---

"Oh my God!" Sonya had to contain her laughter when she saw Samson fall on his ass. "We're never going to let him live one down, are we?"

She tried to wipe her tear... but then forgot she was wearing a fucking gas mask. She looked at Helena, who appeared to have a stony face and didn't respond. This prompted Sonya to say, "Oh, you're such a sourpuss, Page!"

This was when some psycho decided to try and yeet a bible at the line of agents! Sonya almost laughed at the scene as she aimed down the sights and aimed directly at Linqian's center of mass. Sonya let out a "Pew" before she pulled the trigger, let out the taser dart, and nailed the rebel in the chest. That was when she saw the other one use an abstraction (Jasper) and darted her sights around. She took a deep breath, and at the top of her shot, she squeezed the trigger. The dart slammed him in the shoulder.

"Ay!" Sonya said, briefly letting out a Spanish accent before she looked over her shoulder at Helena. "Like shooting fish in a barr-"

That was when the fireball engulfed Sonya, and she loudly screamed in pain and fell off the roof... however, Helena's glowing ethereal birds went into action and caught her. It wasn't a pretty sight... Helena cringed as she saw Sonya had third-degree burns. The fireball didn't do much to Helena because she wasn't directly in front of the window like Sonya, but she got scaled. Helena sighed, pressing her earpiece, and said,

"Agent Mayfield needs immediate medical attention!"

Her bird apparitions gently lowered Sonya to the ground.

That was when they noticed some girl watching from the tree... Helena made sure to gather a majority of her glowing birds in front of her. Until they formed a massive flock, all staring at her...

Hopefully, she'll take the hint.

---

---

"♪ Speeding 72, we’re faster getting nowhere, baby; we could go there, shining on a secret avenue, hear the burning rubber fanfare, maybe there’s a show there... ♪"

The song on the radio played, which Trevor was (obnoxiously) singing along to, doing a little dance in his seat as he sat in front of his laptop. Meifeng was sitting in the driver's seat of the command center, texting her husband (some of the most disgusting filth known to man), Leon was sitting by the door with his rifle in hand (using his abstraction to create extra eyes around the battlefield), and Cindy was in the passenger seat next to Meifeng (texting some normal stuff to her son).

... Then the explosion rocked the building, and Meifeng almost dropped her phone. That was when she immediately pressed her earpiece to get in contact with Agent Phillips inside. She was praying, praying, they controlled the situation (they didn't), but as it turns out, after a brief chat with Nakala... one of them set the building on fire. The church. It was on fire. Meifeng smiled at the sheer hilarity of it all before hopping out of her seat, running over to the fire extinguisher, and shoving it into Trevor's hands.

"Go in there, hand this to Phillips, and do not do anything stupid!" Meifeng commanded, wagging a finger in Trevor's face. "Do not so much as look at any of them. I know you, and I know your 'Little Trevor' usually takes precedence over what's up here!"

She jabbed him in the temple with a finger and made Trevor wince.

"Roger!" Trevor shouted as he sprinted outside.

Leon hopped up and pointed at Edict, making a break for it, "One of them is getting away!"

"I got it!" Cindy shouted as she pulled out her Glock and opened the door. She held the pistol in both hands as she sprinted as fast as a somewhat overweight, forty-something-year-old woman could. She dropped to one knee, aimed to the best of her ability, and pulled the trigger, and a taser dart flew out... nailing him directly in the ass before he could get away. Cindy hosted her pistol as Leon walked up next to her.

"Nice one," Leon said.

"Hmph, this old lady's still got it," Cindy confidently said.

The two of them walked over to Edict on the ground, and Leon pulled out handcuffs as he turned toward Cindy,

"Will you do the honors?"

"I would..." Cindy answered as she pressed a hand to her back, "But my back's been killing me today."

Leon pressed a foot on Edict's back, and turned to Cindy as he asked.

"You hurt it in the Army, right?"

"Oh no, I was pregnant with Cameron, and I did something, and my back ain't been right since."

"You went to the VA, and said you 'hurt it in the Army,' right?"

"Hell yeah, I did," Cindy laughed. "Like I was going to miss out on that thirty percent; I'm about to get back surgery done in January."

"Oh, right?" Leon said as he put Edict's hands together. "How is Cameron?"

"He's in remission," Cindy answered. "I used to stress about it, but I think he'll have a happy life."

Leon put the cuffs on Edict and squatted down to pull him up to his feet. "That's great to hear, he in St. Portwell?"

"Of course," Cindy chuckled. "We're going to the Halloween festival next week."

Leon began walking Edict back around to the church.

"Sounds corny," Leon chuckled.

"It'll be fun; at least he'll have fun," Cindy said.

Their conversation continued as they walked Edict back to the church.

---

---

---

Adora was not having a good day.

Adora had no clue what was going on, and her anxiety was through the roof... this was not the best situation for the girl, especially since she was practically a human compared to some of the others here. Unfortunately, she was having such a horrible time with the tear gas that she didn't even know what she was feeling. Whether it was an anxiety attack coming on or she was going to drop down was a mystery. Adora had no clue what anyone else was doing - because she was too busy vociferously vomiting, spewing all of her breakfast all over the floor... and herself. Her shoes and hoodie were ruined, and...

... The fucking roof caught fire.

Adora didn't pay any attention, but she just heard a boom, and then she blinked, and the building was on fire. Okay, fuck this. It was less than an hour of forcing herself to come here, and Auri and whoever sold her out to... whoever the fuck these armed goons were. Honestly, the only thing on Adora's head right now was getting far away from these people. So, Adora covered her face, got up, and bolted for the nearest window, hoping to jump through it and take the glass carving her to bits...

... Then she tripped on the nearest pew and busted her head on the pew in front of it. Falling unconscious...

---

---

Drake's Dodge Charger stopped in front of the garage of the Blackmore Manor... He sighed defeated, ran his hands through his hair, and walked up the pathway. He stuck his keys in the door and opened it... and he turned his head towards the first thing he heard was Amanda and Nikki playing on the game console, and they briefly paused as they looked at him.

"... Drakey!" Amanda shouted, "Come take the controller; Nikki is shitting on me."

"I told you I was good at this game, Amanda," Nikki softly said.

"Yeah, and I called you a fuckin' nerd!" Amanda laughed.

"... Girls, keep it down!" Victoria could be heard from the kitchen. "If you wake up the girls... You said be helping me clean!"

"Oh, right," Amanda laughed.

Drake went right past them and straight into the kitchen and saw Victoria mopping the floor... Drake stepped over to the refrigerator to grab a can of Bud Light. He opened it up...

"... HEY! I'M CLEANING HERE!" Victoria hissed as she pounded the mob against the ground... before Drake just chugged the beer and grabbed another one. She narrowed her eyes as she asked,

"Drake..." Victor trailed off, "... What's wrong?"

Drake didn't respond to Victoria, and she gently placed the mop against the table as she walked over to him, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "What happened at the meeting?"

Drake was silent.

"You can tell me." Victoria stated.

"I..." Drake choked out. "... Punched Sloane."

"Wha-what?" Victoria tilted her head as she asked.

"She asked me why I wasn't there to save Jade, then called me a bastard and... I couldn't handle it."

"This..." Victoria shook her head as she turned her body and threw her hands in the air by the elbows, "This is why you should have stayed your ass here. I knew this was going to happen. Someone was going to overstep, and... and..."

Victoria then pointed the finger at Drake and said, "... You can't be acting like this, Drake. I understand everything, but... come on!"

She turned her head as she rubbed her temples, "You just assaulted Ms. Farris because she said something stupid!"

"... You should have told me you were gonna clock Sloane!" Amanda said. Drake turned his head and saw that she had poked her head into the room with Nikki at her side. She gave him a thumbs up and said, "She deserved a lot more than just one litt-"

"You're not helping!" Victoria chided her; Victoria went back to massaging her temples as she said, "Look... you need to stay the hell away from the Coven. There is a reason why they broke up!"

"Believe us, we saw everything," Amanda said with a dramatic wave of her hand. "I ain't surprised none of them changed much."

At this point, the two little Blackmores were awakened... and they made that clear because they were loudly crying. Victoria sighed, resting her hand on her face.

"Look... just..." Victoria started, "...Just don't drink yourself into a coma tonight!"

She took off up the stairs to tend to her children, and Amanda grabbed Drake's hand and pulled him into the living room. "C'mon, big bro! Let's take your mind off things..." She pushed Drake into a seat and said, "... By playing a game about punching people!"

Drake looked at the screen... before the logo for the game appear and a dramatic announcer character shouted<

"NOMADC ODYSSEY! ^{FIND YOUR HEART!}"

Amanda shoved a controller in her hand as she dangled something in her hands... the keys to Drake's car! She smiled as she said, "Immagrabussomepizzabye!"

Then darted out the door.

"... HEY!" Drake shouted before Amanda was gone.

"I promise she won't crash it... again," Nikki chuckled. "So, see if you can beat me, Drake."

Drake put his game face on as he tried to enjoy a night of video gaming with his cousin and sister.

Just like the good old days...

---

---

---

Whatever response the Heart was expecting out of Jack never came. The room they stood in lit up with a green glow, and Void Heart would feel his body and hands begin to feel as if they were burning away. His strength would start to slip from him, as if the floor had just become kryptonite. He and Layla could see glowing patterns reminiscent of shields along the floor and the walls. Those were the symbols used by Stormy whenever he needed to seal something.

It was, indeed, a trap.

---

---

---

---

Auri hopped out of the closet and didn’t even waste time aiming the butterfly staff at Void and barraging him with a sea of lightning-fast butterflies that would hit like little bullets. Out of her back came two butterfly wings, ready to dodge any attacks from Void or Layla.

”Shit!” Void hissed, hand reaching to shield his face. The butterflies seared his skin, leaving cuts that seeped smoke. With a snarl, he tried to reach out and grab Auri, but every movement felt like lead as Stormy's magic played hard on his being.

“You bitch, I fucking knew it! You both'll rot in hell!”

The potted plants around the room went unnoticed as various roots and vines were spawned from them, creeping toward Layla to wrap her up. Starting from her legs up to her upper body. Britney calmly came out of the closet, raising a hand in the air, and said,

”This is for your own good, Layla!” Britney said, ”Trust me!”

Layla gasped, immediately struggling against the vines entrapping her. Her panicked eyes moved from the vines, up to the bombardment of butterflies engulfing Void, then to Britney, whose hand was raised in a calming manner.

“Wh-what are you doing?!” Layla cried out.

Void hissed in Layla's mind. “Isn't it obvious? They're trying to seal me!”

“But Jack said-”

“Jack's a traitor!”

Layla's eyes widened in realization, her voice cracking as she tried to plead with Britney, “No, you can't do this!”

”I’m sorry! Down the line, you’ll understand!” Britney shouted.

Layla trembled, staring up at Britney. “N-no, you don't understand! If you take him,”

Tears pricked her eyes as she struggled. “I'll be all alone!”

Layla summoned her hands, working like a toddler to get the vines off. The phantom hands were shaking, creating scratch marks on the floor from her rushed movements. Once free, she made a beeline to Void.

Void hissed, moving away from Auri, trying to run as one hand smashed through the glass of the curtained window. He could feel more strength leaving him, his eyes burning as he glared.

He wouldn't last long like this.

Layla instinctively moved in front of Void, pushing him back towards the window with pale hands, ignoring the numbness, while her tear-streaked face faced the coven leader, Britney and Jack.

Her phantom hands swelled, capturing the butterflies and crushing as many as she could in her grasp before they hovered as fists in the air, like a boxer taking their stance.

“Just let us leave!” She shrieked, trying desperately to push Void out the window.

The two would only have to jump through…

---

Earlier that day…

The Void was a strange place.

Stormy and Britney were simply left here to do what they needed to do with a simple instruction: Don’t open the doors, and don’t go outside. At least that shadowy dude had the foresight to leave a few potted plants inside for Britney’s consideration.

There would be a meeting at a park soon, so the two of them had to get everything ready as soon as possible before the target of this plan was brought in. Stormy had brought something special for it. A flask with a special mixture of otherwise ordinary things that came together to make invisible ink. This was the same stuff he used to seal dozens of apparitions back in the days of the old coven, and with Britney here helping him, they had all they needed.

The Void Heart would have no idea that the floor of this uncannily normal house was covered in countless symbols, until it was too late.

Okay… we’re in the Void…. Stay cool. Now, when Jack suggested they set up a trap in the Void of all goddamn places, Britney thought that he was mad. That he was crazy. That he was literally insane. Then the more he talked about it, the more it made sense, and somehow he managed to convince Britney… though, the faster they did this and got out of here, the better. With invisible ink from Stormy, Britney ran across this creepy house like a mad woman. She traced her sealing symbol, a fancy tree, in every corner of the house… because they had no clue what the Void Heart was going to do (Or what Jack was going to do to be honest) and she hoped that Jack wouldn’t mind if the Void was sealed into one of his… decorations.

”Stormy!” Britney shouted across the house. ”Remember, this won’t work unless the Void Heart is out of her body! Otherwise, he’s technically already sealed.”

”I know, don’t worry,” Stormy used his ink to inscribe much larger symbols across the floor, working around the old, somehow still intact furniture despite it winding up here. This place was full of things that looked like they belonged in some cheesy dark academia movie. Large rocky crystals, bookshelves, skulls from supernatural creatures, you name it, were in here.

Stormy’s sealing symbols took the shape of, to no one’s surprise, shields. All over the walls between the tree symbols, despite them being invisible, and on the floor. Once the sealing was done, the invisible ink would vanish within hours, so hopefully, Jack wouldn’t kill them for vandalizing his “home.”

”Of all the places to lay a trap, I definitely didn’t expect this one to be up for consideration.”

”Trust me, I tried to come up with an alternative…” Britney rolled her eyes.

”We just gotta hope that Voidy behaves while we’re out here…”

She kept the idea that hurting Layla was a valid option to get the Void out to herself… that type of thinking was why she was so vilified in the old Coven in the first place. They just needed to seal the Void Heart in here, and then they could leave him there and forget about it.

”Maybe we should pick a hiding spot to spring out on the Void Heart?”

”I was thinking that I’d hide in a closet somewhere and leap out to root him in place when he drops his guard. That was the point of bringing them both here wasn’t it? False sense of security, easier to surprise.”

”And what’s the plan if he stays in Layla?”

”We force him out. Or rather, I will. We’re trapping the whole house, and I can cut off as much of it as we need to make him get away from Layla. The same magic I used to ward off apparitions during the old days is going to come in handy now. He won’t expect my spell to drain his strength, so he’ll panic and fly away. Layla won’t be affected, and she doesn’t need to be. Simply put, if I have to, I’ll just light a fire under his ass.”

”What if he takes her?” Britney asked.

”Where will he go? He won’t be able to open the doors, because we’re here to keep him trapped. He won’t be able to run back to Shimmer, because he won’t have access to his Abstraction once I start using magic. No Abstraction means he can’t move freely, no free movement means we have him in a cage,” Stormy said, confident in the plan.

”Once they’re here, all we have to do is lay low long enough for me to get my hands on him, possibly literally,, and then you can leave the rest to me.”

”I get it,” She started, ”I’m just worried he might try and hurt Layla… that’s the one thing I want to avoid if possible.”

”I guarantee he will,” Stormy said, ”But he won’t be able to. He’ll be powerless, Britney. I can assure you that.”

Britney nodded.

”Let’s set up and get out of here, quick,” Britney added.

”Right.” Stormy entered the kitchen, quickly dropping his invisible seals across the floor. It was a small one full of curious foods from all over the earth, and likely other places beyond Shimmer, but there was a storage closet that Stormy made a note to hide in.

It wasn’t long. ”Let’s get the upstairs, too.” Stormy hopped up the flight of stairs and started sealing off everything. He started with the door to what appeared to be a study. Rows of bookshelves lined the inside, and a very comfortable-looking chair was inside.

On the walls were maps, some labeled with descriptions of regions of the Void, as if they could be mapped somehow. Others depicted places Stormy had never heard of: The Silent City, the kingdom of Yurama, Pathway Nine, and more. Decade-old pictures of kids spending their childhood together were scattered across a messy desk.

There was vast knowledge and storied history kept in this room. A window into who Jack Hawthorne was as a person. That explained the sword on the wall, which held Stormy’s attention the longest.

A straight blade with an ornate guard in a scabbard made of sycamore wood. The Sycamore Tree coven’s crest was burned into its side. And an old leather sling was wrapped around one end. It hung on a wooden plaque, with an inscription written under it.

Reza Cabrera

”…I never thought I’d see that thing again.”

Britney’s jaw dropped as she walked over and muttered,

”... Reza…” Britney walked over and traced her fingers over the inscription… ”He was one of the best of us… I watched him die…” She sighed.

”... I wish we could have done more to protect the people like him.”

Stormy’s eyes fell to the floor for a moment. Reza was a fighter who kept the coven together by sheer force of personality. He was downright legendary back in the day.

”Saved my life a few times. We wouldn’t have been a real coven if it were for people like him.” A smile crept up on his face, as he thought back on it. ”It’s nice to see that sword again. I’m surprised Sloane didn’t get her hands on it.”

Britney laughed as she put a hand on her hip.

”You know Jack wouldn’t let that happen, heh.”

”No, I think not.” For a moment, Stormy couldn’t think of anything to say. The coven fell to ruin in the Stygian Snake’s wake. He once watched Reza run towards the Stygian Snake head-on and tear its head off in a single swing. If only it were that simple, though. A lot of them looked up to him for strength.

Good times.

”I never did track down his family. He never told us anything about them. You think he has one? Or that they ever found out about his death?”

”That's an adventure for another day…” Britney mused as she just… Reached for it, she grabbed onto it’s hilt…

… And saw everything.

Reza massacring the Stygian Snake’s hordes and how the sword was functionally a piece of him. All were experienced in mere seconds. Britney held onto the sword and examined it for a few moments. Before she turned to Stormy…

”... We can use this,”

Concern etched over his expression. ”Hold on, Britney. I know that sword’s one of the most powerful artifacts we ever got ahold of, but shouldn’t we ask Jack before we start taking things? That’s important to him, and it’s all he had left of Reza after everything that happened.”

Britney snorted, laughing,

”I’m not going to bring this to the meeting,” She snorted. ”Our good friend the Void Heart might see it and think something’s up.”

She slapped a hand on her hip and said,

”We can ask Jack at the meeting; let’s hurry up. This place is creeping me out.”

”You know what? Sure, he’ll probably understand. Let’s get out of here.”

---

However, another vine had entangled itself around Layla’s foot, trapping her before she could escape. Britney raised one hand as she said, ”But, Layla! You won’t be alone!” She kept trying to wrap as much around Layla as possible so she could not escape. ”... You’ll have us!”

Layla struggled to breathe as vines constricted around her, eyes frantically searching Britney. Britney didn't understand. And Void was about to pay the price…

The Void Heart wasn’t nearly as lucky as he might have thought. Breaking the window and then running to a portal outside the house where it would be risky for the others was a clever move on his part. But something he failed to calculate was that he was in Jack’s domain. One did not come into his house and expect to pull a fast one on him that easily unless they thought he was stupid.

Jack disappeared inside the house, reappearing between Void Heart and his way out. He admitted to Layla that being outside posed a risk, particularly to one’s sanity, but only because Layla and Jack were different people. Jack reached out with his magical hand, and it shot toward the apparition like a harpoon from a canon, grabbing him as if he were nothing more than a foam stress ball.

”You blind fool. Did you think I’d let you escape me so easily? After the life of AGONY you subjected my friend to!?” Jack hissed at the Void Heart, reveling in the fate they were about to subject him to. He had been waiting a decade for this.

“Let go of me, you bastard!” Void spat, phantom hands weakly pulling at the grasp Jack had him in.

“Alizée was MINE!” His metallic voice cracked, eyes tight. “How dare you! She became perfect with me, no you assholes!”

Immediately, Jack teleported back inside with the Void Heart, keeping the bastard out of arm’s reach to avoid his energy-sapping touch.

”After everything you coerced her into doing, after the madness you drove Alizée to, nothing could ever convince me to save your life! DO IT! NOW!”

Void struggled hard, eyes twisted in madness. “You'll all REGRET THIS!”

A faint static built up in the second or two it took Jack to bring Void Heart back into the house. The strange sound ramped to a thousand percent as the sanctity of the area was broken, windows shattering as bullets began to rattle into the living room from outside. Six clear white boxes ripped open in all corners of the room, and several others expanded across the place's windows. As if they were old televisions, they slowly but surely began to fade into color, reflecting the image they looked at.

It was a jarring, illusory field, contextualizing only as the two individuals stepped through one of the screens. The man wore a clean black suit, hair pulled back into a ponytail and piercing blue eyes darting about. He held his right hand in the shape of a gun, the gem on his cufflink glowing bright red.
The woman sported a massive blonde afro, similarly suited to the man in a pinstripe pant suit with a sly smile across her face.

”Ladies, Gentlemen and All in Presence, puh-leeeease put the floating sac down and step away!”

As she yelled, she mirrored the man’s posture, except in her hand was an actual and factual gun, complete with wispy purple smoke curling from its snub barrel.

”A visitor from last night? And our dear Jackie!? Oh, Void Heart, you certainly draw a fucking crowd my friend…”

---

Furio and Clarissa watched as Leon and Edict walked across the park toward the gazebo.

“Break his balls a little bit?”

“Yeah, I mean, he played it off, you know those wise guys.”

The two of them spun around a bit in the distance, and Clarissa started to laugh with a little bit of a snort. Still on the steering wheel, Furio stuck his fingers up as his face pursed with confusion.

”What, yes Leon… There’s nobody there! My guy, like…”

Furio scoffed, clearly not keyed up to the microphone transmitting their walkie-talkies.

”God, we give you the Queen of the Wolves, and you fucking waste it!”

”Hey, easy… You know that’s a blaspheme. Take slow, deep breaths; remember our thirteen properties.”

Furio watched Edict as he stuck his finger down at the ground and watched it trail upward toward a road on the other side. His hand slid off the wheel, and a smile cracked as he took a deep breath. Fucking kid…Good for something, maybe. He remembered the name in the book and the address at the time. It wasn’t up to date now.

Five or so minutes passed by when Leon reported in again.

"Furio, VL on the move. Probable Purple influence."

”Oh? Understood, on the move.-” Furio confirmed, cocking his head to the side. He was met with his wife’s beautiful wide smile. The sunshine of her love. ”Get your beeper on sweetheart. Time to boogie.”

The two of them slipped out of the car, and Furio locked it behind him and slipped the key into his pocket. This was a process that they’d gone through a hundred times in their days; Clarissa clutched the metal of her pistol in the palm of her hand, and with the thick portion below the thumb, she cocked the hammer back. Her focus on the sound projected a sixth sense that echoed across the park field and back to her like a radar feed.
She compulsively flipped the thing in her hands with very subtle movements, tucking her thumb between the trigger and letting the hammer slam back down. Another echo each time she searched for the swirling of a pinhole in the middle of the Shimmer.

The two walked briskly to the gazebo before Clarissa saw something she was interested in. Her hair bounced like a cartoon sun as she took off into a jog toward the location of interest, a nearby tree blocking the line of sight that gave off a strong fizzle on both sides. Either a teleporting Squirrel was using a hollow in the tree.

Furio smiled as he watched Clarissa take off like the bloodhound she was. He’d been by her side to watch the progression of her senses into a honed blade, and whenever she had an instinct, he trusted her explicitly.

Rounding the corner of the tree, Clarissa took a deep breath. It was safe to check at the very least, and she looked around for any nearby pedestrians before smiling and reaching into her pocket. She flicked the gun’s cylinder open, the hand in the pocket sticking a speedloader into the space and twisting away. It made a satisfying click as it closed, Furio coming around the corner just as she pointed the gun at a space in nowhere.

Technically, a tree.

It was a funny thing about Furio, the way his mind worked.

How dare these Gerber fucks force his Lady to shoot this innocent tree in the light of Eden. Why would you be here? Why would you need to teleport here of all places?

All that went through Clarissa’s head was the pleasure of the recoil against her palm as the bullet ripped through the hole she knew was there.

The impact zone expanded rapidly into a flat white screen which she carefully poked her head through. Typical outer Void, but the conditioning was working well, so most horrifying things were visible but imperceptible. Silhouettes in the foreground of an otherwise bleak and dark background.

But up on the hill, there was a house. She had to be quick. Her head pulled back out of the portal and looked up at Furio.
”Alright, Baby, here’s the deal. I’m gonna pick it up in here, you’re going to get ready to dive, ‘cuz a dive’s a jump. When you see my hand come through, you book it as hard as possible.”

Furio nodded. He wasn’t so conditioned, but he knew the score. No eyes, no ears, no mouth. His cufflink began to glow bright red as he channeled a conjure element spell. Shaping solid iron from thin air, he rapidly fabricated a solid helmet to block the outer horrors. Leaving only the slightest strip to see when she was back, Furio backpedaled and thought about everything he hated that day.

It was already a long list. Furio waited, waited a moment longer, and then… The hand. In an instant, he took his last breath and welded the mask shut to the open air. He sprinted, diving into the portal head first. His outstretched arm grabbed Clarissa’s, and for a moment, he felt the cold dark around him, penetrating his suit coat and gripping at his flesh before he felt the vague warmth of a new location. It was still in the Void but some kind of sanctuary. He opened his nose holes first, getting a rush of noise as the portal closed behind them.

Clarissa patted Furio on the shoulder, and he dropped the helmet from his head as he forcibly pulled the atoms apart between the seams. It put up much resistance, typical of these areas, but not enough that he figured he couldn’t overcome it. Everything was made out of atoms, held together by tiny magnets that can just be flicked and blocked and split at will. He’d studied for years, having the chance and the opportunity afforded to him by the Richoux clan.

He hated to admit that he needed those pompous fuckers.

The two of them stared into the house from outside, watching the proceedings until things began to get too bad. At first, Clarissa was going to barge in immediately, but Furio held her back only until after Jack had managed to get Void Heart back into the house after their attempted escape.

She had already grabbed another speedloader, and as Furio’s arm moved out of the block, she immediately began plugging holes through the window with her gun. She didn’t need a lot of precision to make her mirrors, but she did need precision to reload at competition speed as she dumped the empty casings and slotted six fresh rounds, four of which she dumped into a few more portals.

”Move your ass, Baby Boy!”

Furio happily did as he was told, harnessing a channeled spell and stepping through the portal to wherever she was sending him. He trusted her.

---

---

A gust of wind appeared, carrying leaves and other foliage…

Then, the Greenwood Coven appeared in the brushes… at their base camp. It was in the range of Amelia’s teleportation, and thankfully, Judas’ abstraction didn’t work in areas like this… they could hear the chaos of his fight against the PRA in the distance. Which meant that it was something chaotic going on. It wasn’t a fancy setup… it was set up like a generic camp, with tents, chests, and whatnot, hidden in the thick bushes.

However, their fearless leader, Ruby White, had already pulled out an emptied cigar, licked the edge, put her marijuana inside, rolled it, and had it lit in under a minute. She took a very deep puff of it, then blew it out with a sigh… she rolled her eyes as she looked toward the sky.

“... That bitch ruined our plan!” Ruby hissed.

“I mean Rubes, it’s okay!” Jessica said as she tapped her friend on the shoulder before she shrugged. “We can’t do anything about it now!”

“She’s lucky they killed her,” Ruby started, “Because I would have shoved my entire staff up her ass and blew her apart!”

“Again,” Pearl sighed. “She is deceased; there is no need to get worked up over it.” She then rolled her eyes.

“You might need to take a fatter hit of that!” James chuckled as he threw his axe over his shoulder.

“She said…” Noami mused as she turned to Sully. “... She said she was with the Sycamore Tree Coven… was that just bullshit or is that true?”

“Yeah,” Jess raised an eyebrow, “We got another Coven in St. Portwell?”

“... You all are acting like there isn’t a new group of assholes calling themselves a Coven every other week,” Ruby rolled her eyes.

“Sorry, were you talking to me?” said Sully, looking up dumbly.

The large man was sitting on the ground in only a t-shirt and jeans, his jacket snatched by some biker jackass and his boots dumped next to a pile of sand where he’d given up on shaking them free of the debris. He was currently shifting through his backpack, shaking sand that had snuck in past the zipper out of a stack of compostable cups he’d bought, thinking that the old gang’s meeting at Auri’s shop was going to be raucous in the fun way instead of the way it had turned out to be. Enough heads were turned his way to answer his question.

“I mean, they are with the Sycamore Tree Coven,” said Sully, scratching his beard and wrinkling his nose as he raked out more sand. “Were, I mean. They were. The Sycamore Tree Coven isn’t…it’s not really...I mean, I honestly don’t know what they’re doing. By the time I met up with the old gang, everyone had decided to just go to a titty bar.”

“Sounds confusing as all get out!” James laughed.

“Look, either you’re a Coven or you’re not,” Ruby asked. “Sounds like they’re just a bunch of assholes doing whatever…”

Sully held up the Chalice and wiggled a cup. “Anyone else need a drink?”

“I could go for some Henny,” Naomi said before chuckling, “Shots all night!”

“Could love some whiskey,”

Pearl shrugged, “I’m good.”

“You sure? After that mission, I’ll drink myself into a coma!” Noami answered.

“Hey, we don’t question those who choose not to imbibe. Nothing but love for the sober ones,” said Sully, passing generously overfilled cups around the circle. He smiled. “Somebody’s gotta be able to take us through the drive thru when we all end up wanting drunk food.”

“I’ll go for some red wine,” Autumn said as she nervously laughed and glanced off to the side as she addressed the elephant in the room. “That was… weird.”

“Yeah, who you tellin’?” Naomi said. “That psycho tried to kidnap Jess, then tried playing the victim!”

“You should have let them leave after she put Jess down,” Pearl said.

“Yeah!” Jess said, “Ya’ can’t fix crazy with a conversation, you know, sister!”

Naomi rolled her eyes.

“Like we were just going to let them waltz off like shit’s cool,” Naomi said.

“I mean, it was pretty cool when she just put me down and was going to leave us alone, you know…” Jess laughed as she rolled her eyes. “I meannnnnnnnn, I’ve been almost eaten by Emily’s pet monster so many times I’m not so rattled by it anymore!” She ran a hand through her hair.

“She mentioned a ‘quota,’” Autumn said, “I’m… I should have asked what she meant by that...”

“Don’t matter, she’s dead,” Jess said, “Honestly, I don’t want to talk about this anymore. It’s over and done with.”

Ruby took a hit of her blunt and then turned to Sully and said, “... Malik said that Emily was in Sycamore because some bitch named Britney gave her psycho-ass an abstraction.”

“Well Malik should know that anybody who Emily thinks is a bitch must be a pretty good person then,” said Sully, acting like he knew who this Malik person was as he passed out the last cup and positioned himself on Ruby’s left.

“But yeah, I mean, Britney did but it was different times, you know? World was ending, snakes were stygianing, our bodies were changing, hair was showing up in—look, I’m saying we were young and dumb. At the time Britney thought it was the right thing to do,” said Sully with a shrug, holding his hand out. “She’s actually a pretty cool lady. Y’all would get along.”

“... Well, bitch needs to learn that actions have consequences,” Ruby rolled her eyes. “Don’t let me meet her then, I’ll have some very choice words for her.”

His hand dropped as he turned towards Jess, “Wait, who’s dead?”

They all looked at Sully before Naomi answered him with a….

“Alizee… whatever the fuck that crazy bitch name was?” She started, “You didn’t see her go up to the Wolfpack and get blasted? I did.”

“We all did,” Ruby said.

“Oh,” said Sully, lowering his head, his throat tightening. It must’ve happened while he was busy getting his ass kicked. He was glad he didn’t see it. He’d seen enough of his squad die back in the day. “Alizée was deeply troubled. I think she really just needed some help. I…shit…”

“I… Maybe I could have cast my healing field a bit faster…” Kashmira mused out loud.

“There was nothing you could have done, Kash,” Naomi affirmed by putting a hand on her hand.

“Yeah, c’mon kiddo you did great. Actually, you saved my life,” said Sully, forcing himself to be jovial for Kashmira’s sake as he fished a finger through the bullet hole in his shirt. “See? You’re a goddamn hero.”

“By the way, who was that tall girl?” Jess asked with a grin. “Did her mamma breastfeed her until she was like fourteen or something?” She laughed at her joke as she slapped her leg.

“Fifteen. That’s Britney. Why?” Sully nudged Jess. “Want me to set you two up?”

Naomi and James twisted their face up, as they glanced at Ruby.

“Actually, I would like a word with her,” Ruby said, taking another hit. “Me and my foot.”

“Fearless leader,” Naomi injected. “How about we don’t pick a fight with everyone and their mother?” She rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, she was big as fuck!” James said. “She might knock you out!”

“Plus Jess is in love with her. Boss, please, let love win,” said Sully, holding his hand out again, his eyes scanning the face of everyone except for Ruby to see if it was normal for her to bogart the weed.

“Maybe I might try her,” Jessica laughed. “But, I don’t think I’m strong enough for all that!”

“Wait, why were you all even at the strip joint?” asked Sully, turning to Ruby, emphasizing the word joint. He cocked an eyebrow and gestured widely to the group, playfully pretending that he was offended. “And why wasn’t I invited?”

Ruby leaned back… as she turned towards Jess. “Jess, start the campfire, we need it for… dramatic purposes.”

Jessica looked at Ruby blankly before she said, “... Sure,” and began to arrange the logs and sticks in a tent around a random rock…. And turned the rock into magma to light the campfire! Everyone arranged around the campfire, with Ruby sitting down with her legs spread and Amelia at her side. Kashmira sitting ladylike with her legs bent and closed, her hands together as she silently prayed to Shiva. Naomi, James, and Autumn sat next to each other, chatting. As Pearl just quietly sat to the side.

That was when Ruby took another puff, and her eyes were bright red. She raised a finger, and said, “Hate to put it like this, but you’re technically not one of us yet.”

The playful glint faded from Sully’s eyes as he nodded.

“I mean,” Naomi said. “He’s pretty much one of us.”

“Yeah, and we need another guy here so you stop walking around the campsite naked all the time!” James added.

“When I said I like it natural, I meant it,” Ruby told James before she turned her attention back towards Sully. “Yeah, but, you ain’t prove yourself yet, and with Sycamore back in the picture…”

“... Kind of!” Jessica added with a smile.

“... I’m not sure if I can fully trust you anymore,” Ruby said.

“Yeah, and was that 8th Street bitch with the blonde hair with ya’ll?” Naomi added, referring to Eve.

“What does she have to do with anything?” said Sully, a hint of sadness in his voice. He shrugged. “Look, I don’t really know the current status of Sycamore. We’d all just gotten together because a couple of our friends died, killed by some sicko. None of us were really with anyone. Honestly, it had been ten years since I’d seen her.”

Sully stared at the fire. Rolling with Sycamore had dragged him into a fight, nearly got him killed, got somebody else killed, and made him deal with buzzkills like Sloane and dickheads like Greyson. Greenwood on the other hand had already helped him out through some tough times, pulled him out of the grave, helped him escape a bunch of scary ass bikers, and (as far as he could tell) was psychopath free. The scales were heavily unbalanced.

“Look, Ruby, I like you guys, but I like some of those Sycamore cats too. We went through a lot together, and I’d be lying if there wasn’t a part of me that wanted to get the old band back, but that part of me is just stuck in the past. I wanna be part of this team. If I can find a way to make y’all trust me, perfect. I’ll do it. But if my presence here makes you all feel uneasy, hey, you know I don’t wanna be a burden,” said Sully.

He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, “Just give me the word and I’ll get out of your hair. Let you all handle business. There’ll be no bad blood here if I’m unwanted. The way I see it, we can still be friends.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” James said as he got up. “Why are you putting so much thought into what Ruby says? She’s high or drunk half the time; she probably forgets everything she says by the next day!”

“We want you here, Sully!“ Naomi said.

“... And I wonder why Ruby’s tryna’ pull “technicalities” now when we’ve been ignoring ‘im half the time anyway!” James laughed. “Naomi here flip-flops between being a leader and a grunt herself!”

"Yeah!” Naomi concurred.

“And we lost a lot of people during our fight with the Nazis…” Amelia mused out loud.

“Look, Sully,” Jessica put a hand on her chest as she said, “Surely we can work out something... And why is it that I’m the one that’s most chill about almost getting eaten by an Apparition?” She laughed.

“How about we take a vote, our fearless leader?” Pearl suggests, “We vote on whether or not Sully is one of us and settle the matter once and for all.”

Ruby was silent.

It was dramatically long before she just shrugged.

“Sure,”

“Everyone who agrees with Sully’s participation; raise your hand,” Pearl commanded.

“I’ll even turn my head so nobody feels—” the words didn’t even get completely out of Sully’s mouth before Jess, Naomi, Kash, and James raised their hands without thought.

Then Pearl and Autumn raised their hands.

Ruby shrugged.

“Sure,” she said as she raised her hand, followed by Amelia.

“Yes-uh!” Sully pumped his fist, unable to hide his smile. “You guys are the best!”

“But, I wanna meet these Sycamore peeps for myself… ” said Ruby.

“Of course, Rubes! I’m more than just a pretty face and an infinite supply of hooch. Anything you want, Sully’s your guy! Just say the word and I can get a mixer going,” said Sully. He’d just talk with Auri. As the leader, she could easily get everybody on board for a little meet-and-greet.

“I mean…” Naomi chimed in. “The Wolfpack are on our ass… and their ass, too. They seen our faces…”

“Yeeeeeeeeah,” James said. “I’m all for a jamboree, but I think we need to keep our heads down for a minute.”

“Hiding would be the best option,” Pearl said.

“Facts,” Ruby said. “But before you join us, you have to complete the initiation...”

Everyone else looked at her, confused.

“What initiation?” Naomi asked, “We ain't had to do no initiation!”

Ruby then took a long drag of her blunt… Then handed it to Sully. “To join us, you must take a puff of the blunt… Of friendship.”

“Don’t do it! She eats ass!” Naomi warned, laughing.

“Well shit,” said Sully, tentatively looking at the blunt in his hand before taking a big hit and holding it in as he passed the weed back. “That’s just one more thing we got in common.”

Naomi loudly gagged.

“Brooooooooooooo….” James laughed so hard he fell backward in his chair.

“We’re like blood brothers now, Sully… wait, hold on,” Ruby said to herself as she reached into her pocket to withdraw… a pocket knife. She raised it to her hand, as everyone looked on in shock, confusion, and some strange arousal. “We can be actual blood brothers, y-”

Before this could continue, James reached over and snatched Ruby’s hand, all while saying, “Nope, nope, nope, not today.”

“You know what we need?!” Jess shouted as she stood up, walked over to their treasure chest, and pulled out a party speaker. “Some fucking music! Let’s party!”

Then she had to wait a moment for it to connect to her phone. Meanwhile, Sully pulled out his own to silent the ring from a call he was receiving. The old contact photo of Auri smiled up at him through the cracks in his screen and caused him to hesitate, his finger hovering over the reject button. If Auri was calling it was probably something important.

…Then the music started.

"Oh yeah, now this one's a classic!" shouted Sully, silencing his phone and thrusting the Chalice up to the night sky as it filled with beer, foam spilling over the rim. "Let's go crazy!"

---

---

Images played across Luca’s tear filled eyes - the word scatter, flames, and someone’s vision that he couldn’t quite place. Wasn’t your life supposed to flash before your eyes before you died? None of that was his life.

Just when Luca thought it couldn’t get any worse, choking on every breath, the whole place was set alight. Roaring flames echoed in his ears, consuming his barely working senses. He coughed, choking on the thick smoke that followed and mingled with the heavy tear gas. Luca tried to drag himself forward, but his whole body felt like it was being torn apart. His heavy eyes could barely stay open.

This really was it.

Luca barely registered that someone had picked him up until the frigid outside air hit his lungs, like glass shattered against burnt flesh. It only intensified his pain and he started taking deep, heaving breaths. It did little to alleviate the pain clutching his body.

The grass beneath him felt soft for the moment he was set on it, before turning brown and withering away. He didn’t - couldn’t - struggle when he was handcuffed. The metal dug into his broken wrist and slowly started to corrode, flecks of rust floating down to the decaying grass like a rotten snowfall. He rolled onto his side and retched, trying to throw up the tear gas that clung to his lungs. Only phlegm and blood came out, mixing with the brown grass in front of him.

It was still difficult to breathe, even without the smoke and gas in the air around him. Luca’s chest heaved up and down rapidly, his eyes unfocused as he tried to register what was happening. He was too close to everyone, they’d get hurt by him-

He couldn’t move. There was nothing he could do. Luca curled into himself, continually dry heaving. Shivers ran through his frail body and his lips were tinged a light blue.

He just… wanted… to sleep…

---

---

Scatter?

Anya was aware enough to register Edict’s message, resisting the urge to look over at him. It was difficult to follow when he was imposing his own view over hers. It didn’t quite block her vision, but it was difficult to separate the two.

Then a violent fireball erupted in the church, cutting off the live view feed of Edict’s sight. Anya jumped up to a crouching position, beelining for the shattered window past Leon’s prone body-

She hadn’t gotten far when the biggest agent grabbed her by the back of her collar, lifting her well off the floor and away from the exit she’d been aiming for.

”I can walk myself out, thank you,” Anya coughed, words rather pointless when there was no way she could get the large federal agent to put her down. She didn’t struggle, because that would just exacerbate the situation, and let him carry her out, cuff her and dump her on the grass.

She winced, the feeling of decay crawling across her skin, and quickly shuffled away from Luca. He seemed to be… well, dying, perhaps. He certainly wasn’t coping well. The fresh air circulating her lungs brought relief, but the burning sensation across her skin wouldn’t be relieved until it was scrubbed clean. She must look a mess, and she hated looking anything less than perfect. She could handle the pain more than she could the lack of dignity.

”For what reason did you raid our small gathering?” Anya asked, gaze flickering between the large agent and the one who’d yelled at them all - likely in charge. She shifted so she sat cross legged, as if this was just a talk rather than an arrest. Of course, she didn’t look the part, with her tear stained face and unkempt hair. After all the effort she’d put in, too. ”I understand you’re not bound by certain laws, but what did we do to warrant this?”

---

---

They set the church on fire. Because of course they did. Bianca did a quick scan of who was there, and who was missing who’d been there when they entered… Greyson? Of course. Old, criminal, habits died hard it seemed.

“Out, get out!” She gestured to the ones who were still inside, most of the more injured ones already carried out by her coworkers. Her mask helped protect her against the billowing smoke from the fire, Sloane under her jacket, Lyss making weird eyes at Maximillian’s ass on the way out, Lynn safely on the ground, Everleigh who she couldn’t care less about surviving, Adora- Fuck, Adora tripped and smashed her head. Jasper was prone too, from the taser he ate. Fuck.

“Evelynn, Lyss, help Jasper out,” she said, slinging her assault rifle over her shoulder and pointing at them both. She pulled out her pistol with one hand, leaving the other free. “Try anything and I’ll shoot you.”

“Agent Barret, help me get this one out!” She jogged over to Adora, hooking her arms underneath her armpits. She was so tall that even with Fiona taking the other end it was difficult… Thankfully she never skipped arm day at the gym! Between them, they were able to carry her outside.

Bianca dumped Adora on the grass with the rest, pushing her onto her side so she wouldn’t suffocate. She crouched down and pulled her hands behind her back, slapping some cuffs on them. She then straightened up, dusting off her hands.

“Oh man,” she said to no one in particular. “That was not how I expected that to go.”

---

---

When Edict’s tendrils touched her mind again, Linqian was pissed. She couldn’t even completely block him out - his stupid message and vision playing in her mind like a movie she’d been dragged to kicking and screaming by her parents. She’d fucking love to scatter, or whatever the fuck he was suggesting! But she was struggling to regain control of her body as the involuntary convulsions subsided, tear gas practically blinding her.

Fucking asshole, she’d-

Holy fuck! He’d set the whole place on fire! She took it back, this was great. Fucking great! At least they’d all go down in flames together.

With a grunt, Linqian rolled onto her stomach and reached up an arm towards the nearest pew. If she could pull herself up and stumble out of here… Or not.

”Get your hands off me,” Linqian hissed, throat burning as soon as she opened her mouth. She struggled pitifully against the two agents that had picked her up, feeling slowly returning to her limbs - but not quickly enough to prevent her from being lugged outside and dumped on the grass. As the fresh air hit her, her mind cleared enough to sync back up with her muscles.

Before either agent could cuff her, Linqian’s temperature skyrocketed to burning hot. Her skin glowed bright orange and felt like it was on fire from suddenly pushing her temperature to the limits, but she didn’t care. If either of those agents tried to touch her now they’d get some nasty burns. The grass nearby wilted before starting to gently smoulder.

”Stay the fuck away from me,” she bit out, stumbling to her feet. She held her boiling hot hands out in front of her as if to ward them off. Hopefully a taser would be less effective when she was this hot - and frankly she didn’t care. She was just incredibly pissed off. Her chest heaved up and down, bloodshot eyes glaring at the various feds. ”Just try to put those things on me and see what fucking happens.”

Then Bianca opened her mouth again, and Linqian wanted so badly to hit her… except she still had a gun. Instead she turned on her, jumping into another angry tirade. ”How did you expect it to fucking go? That we’d all be absolutely delighted about being tear gassed? You’re fucking worse than that other fed traitor, Kami or something- fuck you.”

Bianca didn’t even respond, which didn’t do much to cool Linqian’s anger. Out of the corner of her eye she saw two other feds coming back… With Edict between them. Even in her rage she let out a short laugh. She couldn’t help but sneer, saying mockingly,

”You set the whole place on fire and couldn’t even get away? Great job.”

Lila fought back the urge to get up and run. Every sense across every part of her body screamed out in pain, and she knew that it would continue being in pain until she managed to get herself scrubbed clean. Yet she knew that if she tried to get up and run, she would more than likely get hit, fall to the ground, and then get dragged out and placed into cuffs. She just needed to hold out a little longer, and she would avoid the taser, the fall, and skip right to the being dragged out and cuffed phase of the raid.

And then, the fucking roof caught fire.

Lila could not see why it did, but all she knew was that the roof of their brand-new lair was on fire. Her eyes darted around, looking for her quickest exit, before she saw Adora do the same thing. The difference, Adora took off first and fast. Lila watched as she tripped, smacking her head, and fell to the ground unconscious. “Adora,” Lila shouted through the pain as she began to make her way towards her with a crawl. Before she could get to her side, she saw the agent round the corner and grab her by the arm, pulling her towards the exit. “No, no, no, no,” Lila said as she smacked the agent's hand. “Grab her first.” As the agent pulled Lila outside, she hurled every insult she could think of towards the agent. “Whoever is in charge of you fuckwits is nothing more than a limp-dick, worthless, waste of sp-” Her final insult was cut short as she seized in pain as a taser round slammed into her back right shoulder.

Meanwhile, after the feds have evacuated most of the remaining coven members, Lynn and Jasper still lay on the ground. They had heard Bianca try and order them about, and that attempt at authority was nothing more than fuel for Jasper’s fire, and he pushed himself onto his knees and looked back towards Lynn.

“You good,” Jasper coughed out.

“Mhmm,” Lynn did the same, “you good to walk?”

“I think so,” Jasper said as he winced. He stood up and located the painting that he had brought. It was too detailed to leave behind in the coming inferno, and it meant too much to Jasper to leave behind. He gave it a quick look. It was a painting that he had spent the past week working on for the new coven. It was the entire group before that faithful final fight with the snake, all dressed in their various robes. He had spent much time getting the faces just right, including small details like Britney’s tongue sticking out, a crow on Lila’s shoulder, and Sully chugging at the beer chalice. It was a fun piece. It was meant to remind everyone of why they got together in the first place and to help maybe remind everyone why it was important that this time was different. His eyes lingered on his face in the image, and it did not look like the chemicals had done too much damage, though he would need to do some restoration after he got it back. He grabbed the painting by the frame with one hand, and with his other one, he reached back and grabbed Lynn’s hand. with a squeeze, he let her know it was time to go.

The two made their way into the main aisle before they found the center, and they turned towards the main door and began to run. As they neared the exit, Jasper sped up, pulling the two back into the fresh air and away from the gas and fire that threatened to bring the building down on top of them. While Jasper did this, Lynn suddenly was pulled into the possible future. As they made their way further outside, Jasper was able to locate a patch of grass away from the commotion. Without a second thought, Jasper tossed the painting in a way that only flew through the air for a second, but long enough that it got far away that when the inevitable fed came in to tackle him, it would be safe from that collision.

And then it hit him. Another taser round, this time slamming into his right shoulder. As it hit, Lynn came back from the possible future and jerked her body to the side suddenly, narrowly avoiding a taser meant for her. Yet, this jerk forced her away from Jasper, and Jasper fell forward again as his muscles seized.

---

---

---

The PRA agents managed to get everyone out of the burning building, while the PRA simply let the building burn down and let the St. Portwell Fire Department handle it... after the PRA had left, however. Everyone was laid in front of the building, on some grass some distance away, so they didn't have to worry about smoke inhalation. They were slumped up in a sitting position, save for Luca. Maximilian knelt over him, and waved his hand, and said,

"... Trevor!" Maximilian shouted, "He needs help!"

"On it!" Trevor ran over to Luca, knelt, rubbed his hands together, and shouted, "Clear!" As he slammed his hands onto Luca's unconscious body and began healing him... then began screaming in pain as Luca's abstraction decayed his hands. He raised his hands in the air, revealing the skin had been rotted off his hands (revealing flesh, tendons, etc), and Maximilian winched...

"Ouch," Trevor said. "Damn it, this is why we need Scarlet here!"

“... So what?” Leon said to Trevor as he walked up with Edict and threw him in the pile of Covenites. “You can Sweet Home Alabama her?”

“Oh, haha,” Trevor rolled his eyes.

”For what reason did you raid our small gathering? I understand you’re not bound by certain laws, but what did we do to warrant this?”

“... I have a better question,”

However, out of nowhere, a taser dart flew directly into the side of Linqian's neck, and then footsteps approached the gathering of cuffed Coven members. It was Meifeng Liao who aimed her Glock at the gathering of Jasper, Lila, and Lynn and let off three taser darts… with one missing as Meifeng narrowed her eyes at Lynn. She kept her pistol aimed at her as she said,

“... Just get on the ground, sweetie, I have a taser dart for everyone,”

Lynn kept herself standing up for just a brief moment before she obeyed the command, getting on the ground without a fight.

“Now… where was I?” Meifeng said as she put her Glock in her holster and remained stony-faced as she gazed at each member of the Coven who had been disabled. She held her hands behind her back as she looked down at Anya…

“... Do you all think you can do whatever you want?” Meifeng turned her nose upwards. “In less than two hours, you attack one of my agents, attempt to kidnap someone and spark an entire gang war. You all are so stupid you couldn’t keep it in your pants? You just had to blow your load that quickly…”

She tilted her head and bared teeth, “I expected your fellow Coven, the 8th Coven - or whatever they call themselves - to behave this way, but do you really think you all can do whatever the hell you want to? In my city? Because that narcissist Emily doesn’t run things, neither do those rich bastards, the treehuggers, the leftover Nazis, or even Dollhouse….”

Meifeng jammed a thumb into her chest, “... I run this city, and the next time one of you decide to lay a hand on any of my Agents, come find me, and try to lay your hands on me!”

Meifeng began to shout as she said, “And just see what happens to you! I won’t kill you! But I’ll fucking make you wish I did! Now, who here can tell me which one of you killed Agent Mahendra…” She let the words hang in the air as she gazed upon everyone.

“... He was found stabbed to death in a Dairy Queen parking lot within two hours of the chaos you all wrought on the city! It couldn’t have been anyone but one of you! Tell me why I shouldn’t haul you all to jail and throw away the key!?”

---

---

---

It took one Google search to find the nearest water treatment facility… to which Maya and Phoebe were spying on from the safety of Phoebe’s car (A Nissan Altima, naturally). Phoebe was looking through her binoculars; she lowered them and smiled at Maya as she spoke.

“I don’t think they’re gonna let us walk in there… maybe we can do like they do in the movies and beat someone up and take their clothes, heh.” Phoebe laughed.

"If you're doing all the beating," Maya side-eyed her. "I'd alert the whole place… I could just put sand in their shoes, then when they try to get it out, we knock them out and steal their clothes."

“Come on now! You’re way too reliant on magic, you know!” Phoebe laughed as she reached underneath the seat and pulled out a tire iron. She slapped it into her other hand and said, “You forgot about your good ol’ left and right, didn’t you!?” She then laughed.

"You think I could hurt anyone with these?" Maya held up her delicate hands and skinny arms that were best at sending out sound blasts or sand. She then eyed the tire iron. "But if you have something else like that… heh, it'll be easy."

“Take this then,” Phoebe handed Maya her tire iron as she eyed two guys coming out of their car and walking towards the building. Going off of the lunch boxes they had, their shift had not begun yet. Now will it ever, as Phoebe opened the door, saying to Maya, “Let’s go!”

Phoebe crept behind them with Maya at her side, and then once they made their approach, Phoebe transformed her hand into a block of solid eye. She let out a valiant screech as she lept through the air and slammed her fist on one of these generic faceless guys’ heads. She knocked him out cold, but then she turned her head to see what Maya was doing...

Maya yelled and jumped at the other generic, poor guy who was trying to go to work, slamming the tire iron into the back of his head. He crumpled to the floor, and Maya grinned, kicking his prone body. She then squatted down in front of him.

“So where are we going to put their bodies after we strip them? A closet?” Maya asked. That was what they always did in movies.

“Let’s just drag ‘im in the bushes! Like the movies,” Phoebe shrugged as she squatted down, grabbed one of them by the leg, and said, “On my count, three…”

Maya grabbed the other leg, grimacing slightly. This was turning into a lot of work…

Exerting her lacking muscles, Maya put all her strength (which there wasn’t much of) into pulling nameless guy number one towards the bushes. With the help of Phoebe they managed to pull him about one centimeter!
“... This isn’t working,” Phoebe muttered as she gave up. “Um… just take his clothes and we’ll dip!”

That was when Phoebe used all of her strength to flip the man over, and then she took all of his clothes and put them on… only to see that they didn’t fit. At all. It was way too big.

“... I look like a five-year-old wearing his pop-pop shirt.”

"You do," Maya laughed as if she didn't look as ridiculous in the other guy's clothes. She couldn't even get the pants on, and it looked like she was wearing a dress. "...This won't work. We won't even get through the front door!"

“... Back to the car.” Phoebe rolled her eyes.

---

After that debacle, Phoebe and Maya returned to the former’s car… sans the clothing and leaving the unconscious guys in front of the building. It was time for Plan B. Phoebe dug underneath her car seat and pulled out a glowing cyan potion. She raised it into the air and grinned like a fool.

“I swiped this from Greta’s lab when she was asleep one time,” Phoebe said… knowing Greta gets pissed when they go into her lab and start touching stuff. “This is her invisibility potion, I think… We can, like, share it, sneak in, find the treated water tank, and pour this in. Easy peasy.”

"Oh shiiiitt," Maya grinned, looking at the potion. That was a way better idea. "This'll be so easy, so long as it lasts… wait, does it work on clothes?"

“Well, only one way to find out!” Phoebe shouted as she popped the top, drank a little bit of it, and everything turned invisible.

Except for her clothes.

“... No,”

"Well," Maya shrugged. "Guess we'll have to get rid of them."

Without any second thoughts, Maya shrugged off her jacket, then pulled off her dress, leaving her only in her underwear. Before taking that off, she asked, "How long do you think half that bottle will keep us invisible?"

“If I ask Greta, she will go batshit again, and I won’t get her, uh, ‘special potions’ anymore.” Phoebe waved her hands as she said, “Either way, we have magic; we can handle anything.”

“Heh, true,” Maya smirked. “Easier to get out than get in.”

She reached over for the invisibility potion, knocking back half of it before taking off the rest of her clothes. Turning invisible, just like Phoebe. Phoebe quickly took off all of her clothes and casually opened the door, saying,

“Let’s go!”

---

After navigating the water treatment facility (holding hands (fingers interlocked) so they wouldn’t get lost), the two made it to the one place they meant to get to: The Purified Water Storage. It was in a water tower that the two looked up at as they approached. They saw a ladder and a nice little service hatch, and Phoebe turned to Maya and asked,

“Afraid of heights?”

By reflex, she smiled… even though she was invisible right now.

“Nope,” Maya made an okay symbol with her free hand… Then realized Phoebe couldn’t see it. Well, whatever. “I’ll go up first… Blast anything out of the way if needed. Wouldn’t want you freezing our precious supply of water.”

She grabbed onto the ladder (having to unlink their hands (sadly)) and started climbing up. When she reached the top, she shoved open the service hatch and climbed through. She shuffled back from the edge so Phoebe could get through, too… without crashing into her.

Phoebe climbed to the very top of the water tower and found a hatch… that was closed with nuts and bolts. She then produced the Potion (seemingly out of thin air!), pointed at the hatch, and said, “Maya, blast it open!”

"Gladly," Maya grinned before shoving out her hands and sending a targeted sound blast at the hatch. Blowing it open, without thinking of the consequences, Phoebe popped the top of the rainbow-colored potion and poured it inside. She wiped her sweat off her head as she said,

“Alright, let’s get some Dairy Que…” Phoebe said before she looked inside the water supply and heard it loudly rumbling. “... What?”

They saw something rising out of the water…

---

---

Suddenly, Luca could breathe again. As Trevor's healing worked its magic, his lungs regained the ability to properly circulate oxygen around his body. His broken wrist began to heal, and the damage the tear gas had wreaked on his already straining body was reversed. He no longer dealt a heavy tiredness that was almost impossible to fight, his lips regaining their colour with each deep breath he took. With great difficulty, thanks to being handcuffed, he managed to sit up to thank whoever had done it... Only to see his hand, with all the skin horrendously rotted off.

"Oh shit," Luca automatically backed away from Trevor... And right into Maximilian. As he moved the handcuffs properly came into contact with his skin, and completely disintegrated away. "I'm so sorry, I can't control it, you should've just left me... Shit, can you heal yourself? I'm sorry."

He coughed, throat still raw from the teargas. He still felt like shit, but that was just normal for him nowadays. It was bearable. A bit of an extra burning sensation on top of the pain of a constantly decaying body wasn't much compared to how it had been... But he would've taken struggling to breathe over hurting someone else. This is why he'd always preferred Sully's healing elixir - they'd perfected the water gun shot right into Luca's mouth to avoid anyone getting hurt.

"It should heal," Luca grimaced, looking at Trevor's hands. It had been a long time since he'd accidentally hurt someone... But it never got easier. It only confirmed why he had to stay away from people. "I'm really, really sorry."

"Now, who here can tell me which one of you killed Agent Mahendra…”

Agent Mahendra... Kali. Luca's eyes widened and his head snapped towards Meifeng. "Kali's dead?"

Every death hit Luca hard, but Kali's was like a knife to his heart. After Olivia, Kali was one of the few friends he had. He'd lost touch with the other coven members, and once he'd left 8th Street he'd hardly seen anyone from there. Kali had been the only person he saw consistently for the past two years. Olivia had dropped contact, and now Kali was dead...

Luca drooped forward, hands gripping the already dead grass and completely destroying it. He couldn't even cry. He just felt numb. It was his fault, he shouldn't have just gone home. He should've made sure Kali got back first so that he wasn't left alone. He'd been too wrapped up in his own pain to think about protecting others.

"I don't know about the others," Luca's voice shook as he spoke, eyes fixed on the ground. "But Kali was a good friend of mine. I'd never want him dead... I wish... I should've stayed with him."

---

---

Getting tased hurt like a bitch. Linqian dropped to the floor, again, and her temperature plummeted back to normal. Minor burns were visibly dotted across her bare legs from pushing her temperature too high too fast. She winced as they rubbed against the grass, unable to do anything about it until the tasers effects wore off.

Still worth it.

“... Do you all think you can do whatever you want?”

"The one who made the kidnapping attempt and started the gang war is already dead," Anya replied. "She did it without any of our input. She was... A rogue agent, I suppose. And as for the one that attacked your agent," she glanced at Everleigh, "well, I won't defend her."

"Yeah, most of us just turned up and got shot at," Linqian complained from the ground. "I was there for strippers! Everyone was already fighting when I got there."

Anya bit her lip to stop herself from saying something scathing when Meifeng started going on what was essentially a power trip. There were two reasons for this raid, it seemed - Eve punching Bianca, and them daring to unsettle the peace in a city she viewed as hers. She was showing them that they were the small fry, and she could end their lives just like that if she wanted to. It was difficult to listen to what was essentially getting belittled - Anya forced herself to take a deep breath to stay calm. She was above this. One woman's opinion didn't effect her. She could have this city, run it however she wanted. Anya had no interest in that. The dream world was her domain, and any St Portwell there was hers.

Ah. There were three reasons, actually. Kali's death seemed to be the deciding factor. It wasn't surprising that Meifeng - and the PRA, who Anya assumed they were part of - had laid the blame on them. They were the most obvious. Plenty in their members were strong enough to kill him.

"Because someone is killing us all," Anya said calmly. How should she convince her when what Meifeng said wasn't wrong? The most likely suspect was one of them. Who else had the motive and the means? But that didn't mean it was someone here, or that they should all be thrown in jail to be easily picked off. "He calls himself Father Wolf, and he's been killing us one by one, no matter where we are. Members in different countries have been killed, and four others were found stabbed to death yesterday... Just like Kali. Each had a wolf statue left beside them."

She shook her head, mustering the best regretful look that she could.

"We've come back together to try and figure out what's killing us," Anya continued. "All of us have lost friends, like Kali, or family members. We're all at risk. Of course, that doesn't help you trust us. I don't expect trust. But if you throw us all in jail, it will be a lot more difficult to find the actual killer."

"Also," she glanced at Bianca - who was much more recognisable after taking off her gas mask. "I'd make sure your agents that were part of our coven have extra protection. He targets people when they're alone. This isn't a threat, just a suggestion. We're taking precautions too."

Assuming they didn't get thrown in jail.

"Nice to see you again, by the way, Bianca," Anya smiled over at her. It was clear that this woman who was in charge cared for her agents. Though Linqian had done everything she could to make it look like they didn't care for their former coven member turned federal agent, it was still worth showing some of them held goodwill towards her. "I just wish the circumstances could have been better." She looked back at Meifeng. "I am sorry about Kali+ Agent Mahendra. His death hits us all. He was a good man."

Bianca awkwardly looked at Meifeng, feeling like it wasn't her place to speak right now. But Anya, weirdly calm as she was after they were all yelled at, did talk to her directly. "Eh, nice to see you too." She glanced at Linqian, who was now obtusely avoiding looking at her. "Bible thrown at me aside."

Linqian rolled her eyes, but still didn't look at Bianca.

She was nowhere near as calm as Anya, though the taser to her neck had forcefully quenched her more violent anger. She was not just tired and pissed. Unlike Anya, she wasn't going to bother with niceties - she didn't like Kali. She didn't care "You think we killed him? Why, just cause he was around us before he died? If we were gonna kill him we would've done it when he pulled out a gun and told us to shoot him! Why wait? Would've been way easier to cover up... I'm fucking surprised he wasn't lying about being a fed. What's with your hiring practices, anyway?"

She was finally able to push herself up to a sitting position, glaring at Meifeng sullenly.

"If anyone did it, it was Everleigh. She was pretty close to shooting him yesterday!"

Lila chuckled as the taser wore off and the leader of the PRA began her villain monologue. Of course, this whole assault, this whole mess, was because someone was upset that their established power was not respected. Of course, this whole assault and the pain she and her coven were feeling in this moment was because some fed had her ego bruised and she just had to remind everyone who the top dog was. The more she thought about the whole mess, the more the urge to laugh built. Eventually the chuckle returned as Lila could no longer contain it. She shook her head until she spotted Luca on the ground, they were healing him but the healing was coming at a cost for Trevor. Lila saw just how hurt he was for the first time, and she spotted the blood that had been thrown up. He was hurt. Really, really, badly. And there was nothing she could do to help her hurt friend heal.

The laughing stopped. Inside, a voice began to call for her to get angry and this anger quickly became visible on her face. How dare they? How dare these fucking feds hurt her friends, how dare this cunt stroll in without a hint of remorse, and how dare they blame us for their dead friend. How can a group be so ineffective that they allow this, all of this, to happen? The church was burning down, Luca was on deaths door, and they were shooting off tasers like there was a half off special at the taser emporium. How. Dare. They. The rage continued to brew inside her. She wished she could call on her crows right now. She wished they could peck out these agents eyes and have them rip at their throats until they too colored the ground like Luca. She took in a deep breath as she shook the thought from her head. Lila knew that using her crows would only result in further harm to the group, but she just wished that she had them before. They could have warned them that the Feds were coming, they could have evacuated and Luca wouldn’t be dying and she wouldn’t be in more pain than she has ever felt. She knew she couldn’t do anything in this moment with her crows. And she knew that for the first time, she regretted sealing The Maiden. Instead, she looked up at their leader and said three words in rapid fashion.

“Go fuck yourself,” Lila paused for a brief second as she shook her head, “if you think we’re going to talk to you after this clusterfuck you’re as dumb as the planning here suggests.”

The sound of a single *caw* caught Lila’s attention and she looked and saw a dozen crows on a nearby building looking at her.

Before anyone could do anything else, a shouted “hey,” cut across the area. Lynn slid up to a kneeling position, hands still in the air still, and her eyes were locked onto Lila in a way that Lynn hoped would read as a trust me. “I think I can say one thing for everyone here, and that while we’re a bunch of idiots,” she pointed towards edict and let out a nervous chuckle, “I mean just look who we have within our midst,” she paused as she turned to face Meifeng directly, “ we’re not murderers, and I think you know that. If you’re able to plan this operation you had to know where we would be, you have access to our phones. Check our location data for yesterday, I’m confident that you’ll see that no one was there when your colleague was killed,” she paused as she sighed, “was anything found with the agent, perhaps an idol of an animal perhaps?”

Jasper rolled onto his back and groaned softly. His nose was broken, it was still bleeding, and if the ringing in his ears and his circling vision was any indication he had a minor concussion. This is why he did not want to come back to the coven. For every good memory, for every person he loved , there was two bad memories and a few people he hated. He could deal with his hatred towards those people, hell he would even consider therapy to figure out what is causing it, but he couldn’t deal with too many more bad memories. In the past, it was these bad memories that pushed him to become an addict. How can one expect to stay sober when the only memories of your teenage years is the sight of your friends dead around you, and the literal war that ripped through the town itself? And now, on his first day back in the coven the Feds burned down a church. He shook his head to shake the thoughts away but as he did, someone off to the side caught his attention.

Jasper rolled his head towards the woman and stared for a brief moment. She wore some strange armor, unlike the rest of the agents, and she had a look to the exposed part of her face that suggested that there was more than meets the eye to her. But he could tell she was very much beautiful. He whispered “you’re very pretty,” towards the agent but too soft for most people to hear. He did not want to be seen complimenting a fed. He turned his head back forward, looked at the agent who shot him, before he turned his attention downward. He was over this day, he was almost over with the bullshit of the coven and he awaited whatever the fates had planned.

Lila looked around the area as more *caws* filled the area. The more she looked, the more beady eyed crows she spotted. She tried to count them quickly but stopped the futile effort as she realized that there had to be at least a thousand. Lila felt an uneasy sensation as she looked over the crows. She knew what they wanted. They wanted direction. Lila did not know what this meant, but she did hope the sight of the massive murder around would give the agents a moment to pause and think of the mess they made.

Tayla couldn't tell what was happening inside the church, but whatever it was, she got a fair warning about staying out of it when a weird flock of birds made from an Abstraction stared at her like she better take the hint. Good enough for her. She wasn't in a rush to leave as long as it looked like she was leaving. She took her time getting down the tree. Like 'climbing down the limbs when she could just let go and land the fall without breaking an ankle' type of climbing down. She'd just reached the bottom when a fire on the roof broke out. Whatever the fuck started that would force the rest of them outside. She'd be in their line of sight for trouble.

"Fuck." She hit the path running, but didn't make it far before she heard boots on the ground behind her, presumably the Feds running out of the building. She ducked into the bushes, going several feet in before stopping next to a tree. If they didn't hear her, then she's Gucci until they leave. She peaked her head around a tree and saw the Feds pulling the Coven members out of the burning church. At least none of them will die via arson. She just needed to hang tight.

She heard murmurings from the conversation they were all having, but she didn't heard anything clearly until someone started shouting,

“I run this city, and the next time one of you decide to lay a hand on any of my Agents, come find me, and try to lay your hands on me! And just see what happens to you! I won’t kill you! But I’ll fucking make you wish I did! Now, who here can tell me which one of you killed Agent Mahendra…”
- Don't know her. Don't want to.

Kali's dead too?

"What the fuck?" she whispered. She crawled on the ground around the brush to get closer and figure out what the hell is going on.

“He was found stabbed to death in a Dairy Queen parking lot within two hours of the chaos you all wrought on the city! It couldn’t have been anyone but one of you! Tell me why I shouldn’t haul you all to jail and throw away the key!?”
- Really don't want to know her.

Tayla had no idea what the Coven got up to last night. She was at home, in her bed, hoping for a better today. For a meeting that would lead somewhere, but it seems like someone she knew stabbed someone? This crew? Why not use their Abstraction? Why didn't Kali protect himself? Surely a knife wouldn't have taken him out. Not with whatever crazy he had going on upstairs. It had to be this wolfman they were looking for. No other option made sense to her.

She laid down tucked behind a bush closer to what's going. That one girl who talked too much told them everything they knew. She didn't remember the detail about wolf statues being left with the bodies. Then again, her memory's shit sometimes. Could be something she missed when she left yesterday or just an hour ago too. Either way, it's news to her that she'll keep in mind. But it seems if it had to be one of them, it would Everleigh. That crazy bitch from yesterday that was the main reason she got the fuck out of there. On top of needing get a ride home, but she could've stayed longer if everything didn't go to hell in a handbag the moment she walked through the door. Oh boy. Shit's just going from bad to worse.

---

---

---

Rooftop Group

Claire stood there, watching as the Stygian Snake rose from the darkness… its massive body blocking the night sky. Its eldritch red eyes shone brightly through the darkness as red electricity pierced through its body like an eldritch storm cloud. The Apparition recoiled for a moment before its jaw opened unnaturally and let out an echoing, blood-curdling scream that sounded vaguely human and was so loud that it hurt her ears; she had to drop her hockey stick as she had to grab her ears.

“... of fucking course,” Claire mused to herself; she bent forward and grabbed her hockey stick, and raised it in the air. Returning to her group, she announced, “Everyone, we gotta cut and run! We are not prepared for this fight!”

Alizée paled considerably and gave a nod to Claire.

"Shit, let's go," Bianca winced, boost dropping. With the hellhound gone, Linqian snapped out of her panic enough to react, glaring up at the snake. She stepped away from Bianca, body temperature rising to dangerous levels as she started to glow. There were still apparitions; they'd need to get through them to flee.

"Bea, stick with me," she hissed before beginning to burn her way through the constant wave of apparitions away from the snake.

Alizée slipstreamed behind Bianca, using her hands to ‘part the seas’ and scoop away handfuls of minions so Linqian had less to burn through. Like hell she was sticking around when the snake was so close by.

While this was going on, Jack took Reza to go make out in the corner.

At this point, the Stygian Snake had created a barrage of spear-like tendrils, ending in a barb. He created dozens and launched them at the group on the rooftop… each striking with enough force to shatter concrete and quickly flatten the buildings around them. Destroying a majority of its minions in the process

Several of the tendrils hit the building they were standing on…

“Everyone, jump!” Claire shouted as she hauled ass to the edge of the rooftop and lept… landing on the adjacent building with a roll. Fortunately, her barrier was enough to stop most of the damage from the roll. Amy had lept and landed next to Claire, using his club to take most of the impact by slamming it down first.

Alizée was the next to jump, balancing herself in the air and landing cleanly in a roll on cushioning void hands. They only felt a little cold.

"Fuuuuckkkkk," Linqian yelled as she jumped to the other roof, landing on her knees and rolling to the side, increased temperature making it only a little less painful. She immediately dropped it back to normal and turned around to catch Bianca as soon as she jumped over - like hell was she letting her get as hurt too.

A bright flash filled Claire’s eyes as Elsa and Zoey launched a monstrous bolt of lightning at the Stygian Snake… it had to be a distraction, as the two hauled ass down the fire escape immediately.

The light stung, but Alizée couldn't afford to let it slow her down. Alizée took a slightly faster approach than Claire, dropping from window sill to window sill until she reached the ground floor. She cast her eyes up, waiting for Claire and the rest to make it down safely. Linqian and Bianca ran for the fire escape, scaling down it as quickly as possible.

The Stygian Snake wrapped its dark tendrils around the building Zoey and Elsa were standing on… bringing it down as if it were styrofoam. Sending debris and a blinding cloud of dust in all directions. Claire prayed the two of them had made it off safely.

However, before Claire had a moment to think, Amy (a girl that was far smaller than her), scooped her up over her shoulder like it was nothing. “Hey, wa-” Claire tried to protest.

“No time, sugar!” Amy shouted as she lept towards one of the non-destroyed buildings… and slammed her kanabō against the wall, and it dug in; their momentum stopped just seconds later, and they were ground-level. Amy threw Claire off her shoulder and then stuck a booted foot against the wall to pull her club out.

“Thanks,” Claire said.

“Don’t mention it!” Amy shouted.

The two turned and ran in any direction the Stygian Snake was not in; Claire dug into her fucking utility belt that she had under this stupid robe and shouted, “Hey! Anya! ANYA!? Is this damn thing on?!”

"Yes? You don't need to shout."

“I thought the Wonder Women were keeping Stiggy busy!”

"Well, clearly they failed," Anya replied drily. "The situation is worse than expected. What's your status?"

“Our status?” Claire mused, “Our status is that we’re beating feet! We can’t take this thing on!”

However, the Stygian Snake dove into an alleyway, completely immersing itself in its shadows… before reappearing before the group, towering above them. Amy and Claire stopped as they looked at the Apparition in shadowy glory. It created a massive, club-like tendril made of darkness that violently slammed on the ground and swiped it across the area, knocking over buildings left and right.

“Shit!” Claire shouted before she turned her head over to Bianca. “Bianca!”

“... What are you planning?!” Amy shouted.

“Boost me!” Claire commanded.

“Heh,” Amy shouted as she slammed her club on the ground, creating fire, “I want in!”

"On it!" Bianca frowned, starting to boost Claire. Then, with great difficulty, she split it to boost Amy too. She'd just improved this spell recently… Claire bared teeth as she dropped her weight, digging herself into the asphalt, and stuck the hockey stick out like a shield. She sweat, as the tendril got closer and closer, and closer, and closer. However, she collided against the tendril, and with the help of Bianca’s boosting and Amy at her side, they could slow down the colossal tendril and bring it to a halt. It wasn’t easy, but Bianca, Linqian, and the others had an opening to escape..

“Ge-GET OUT OF HERE!”

Behind the group came a brightly colored pink snake out of the shadows. Its shape much like the Stygian Snake’s. It roared to get the snake’s attention. Behind it stood Tayla, pink lux activated for the illusion. Beside her was James; his orange lux added to her power, making the illusion real. Out of its mouth came barbs, similar to the ones it released earlier, but concentrated on one target, the Stygian Snake. The Stygian Snake countered the barbs with its shadowy tendrils, which wrapped around and knotted them.

The Stygian Snake quickly flew through the shadows with some unholy grace and wrapped itself around the illusion, constricting it.

“Get going, you guys! Or hit it! Something!” Tayla yelled. She could only hold the illusion for about five minutes without James’s help before she needed a break. James boosting it extended her time, but she’s afraid of the aftereffects if she exceeds the entire time limit.

It went without saying that Claire and Amy were a little bit tied down at the moment, as the Stygian Snake’s darkness was beginning to push them against the wall… it looked like they would get flattened, regardless of Abstraction. However, a portal opened behind him, and the Stygian Snake’s darkness gracefully pushed the two through it. The two fell on their ass and looked up to see Victoria and Drake Blackmore.

Drake had his makeshift wooden sword slung over his shoulder, crackling with electricity, and grinned, “Looks like we made it in the knick of time!” He laughed. “Don’t worry, the Blackmores got your back!”

“Drake, take this seriously!” Victoria rolled her eyes.

“Am I happy to see you!” Claire shouted as she raised her hands, and Victoria and Drake hoisted Amy and her to their feet. She looked around, and then Drake spoke again.

“We would have gotten here faster if Victoria hadn’t teleported us to St. Portwell in a different dimension.” Drake gave Victoria a shit-eating grin as she could only slap a hand into her face.

“... I’m still working on the spell.”

“Who gives a shit?” Amy said with a raised eyebrow. “Where are the others?”

However, the others made themselves known when the Stygian Snake destroyed the illusion… Amanda came flying in, slamming her hands together and creating a massive burst of fire and electricity that vaporized all the minions. She landed on the ground and wiped the sweat off her hands as the next up was Samantha Alger, who picked up a sedan and threw it at the Stygian Snake.

“By the power of the Sycamore, I will vanquish you!” Ella appeared in her magical girl glory, yelling a cringy catchphrase and hitting the Stygian Snake with prismatic light. Saskia rolled their eyes behind her, blood-forming long blades from her knuckles.

“... Thank you for making me vomit in my mouth, weirdo!” Emily G. Reed shouted after she loudly and dramatically gagged. Babylon floated over her shoulder with a delightful smile as she flamed them down. Other members of the Coven joined the fight: Ripley and Lionel Hunter, the Blackmores, Lynette Domingeuz, Paige Auclair, Carol Doyle, George Nelson, and more….

A spinning pile of bones slid onto the scene as if it was some type of blob… on top of it was the Coven’s leadership, Ashley Stone, Auri Auclair, and Daisy Hunter. Ashley pointed at the Stygian Snake as the other members of Sycamore came in, then grinned as she shouted

“... Go, Sycamore, go,”

---

Theater Group

Lisa experienced pure horror as her heart was pounding, and she stared up at the Stygian Snake in horror… while trying to reach into the pouch for her walkie-talkie. She grabbed it - almost dropping it - and finally raised it to her lips.

“J-Jinhai! The Stygian Snake… i-it’s… it’s…” She couldn’t get the words out. She was so scared right now. Before panicking, she shouted into the walkie-talkie, “... WHERE IS ADORA AND TRINITY?!”

"The woods," Jinhai replied, sounding more harried now. "They couldn't keep it contained."

There was a brief silence before Lisa continued calmly and reasonably...

“... YOU THINK?!”

She shook the walkie-talkie as she said it.

“Don’t worry, Lisa!” She could hear Adora on the other side. “We’re on our way!”

Their conversation was interrupted when something came crashing down some distance away like a meteorite… when the dust settled, it was revealed in its eldritch glory—a tall, demonic-looking man with razor-sharp claws, and a wide and sinister grin. Many would recognize this creature as Scott Reese, the man behind the massacre at the party before everything went wrong. He walked over to a stop sign and pulled it out of the ground as if it was nothing… facing the group as he menacingly sauntered before sprinting. His heavy footsteps could be heard from down the street.

“Uh-um, Jinhai!?” Lisa spoke into the walkie-talkie, “Scott Reese is here, too! What do you advise!?”

"Run," Jinhai said succinctly. "Towards the woods. Olivia, try to slow him down."

“Run… Okay, run… okay… we can do that..” Lisa said.

Olivia, who also had a walkie-talkie and had been tuned into the same channel, said, "I'll try!"

Olivia pulled back in all her vines before using them to form a thorny wall across the street between them and Scott - ten feet tall, likely not enough to stop him but enough to slow him down.

“Fuuuck,” Jasper shouted as he stood up and watched as the vine wall blocked off Scott, “I’m spent for now,” he looked down at the Paladin in process. He knew he needed at least five more minutes before it could do anything, “Evelynn, can you run?”

“Yes, yes, I can,” Evelynn responded as she wiped some of the blood off her face. She paused as she channeled her powers. Returning to the present, she looked over towards Michael. “Crows are still useless on him I’m afraid.”

“We’re going then,” Jasper shouted to the group, “run.”

“Everyone, get down!” Lisa shouted as she cupped her hands together… and, in a move that has disturbed many members, vomited two handfuls worth of random spiders into her digits. She threw them at Scott, and they quickly mutated, growing bee-like wings and horrible acid-filled cysts, and they flew around Olivia’s wall towards Scott.

… They exploded in his face and released their horrible, toxic, acid-filled load. He dropped his stop sign as he grasped his face and stumbled momentarily.

“Get on!” Lisa shouted as she slammed both hands on her mount, which was engulfed in a brown-colored wave of energy, which was a sign she was mutating it… causing it to grow dragonfly wings. The fastest insect in the world…

…The only issue was that it would be loud.

”Uh, I can’t,” Luca shook his head from where he stood at a distance to them all, holding up his hands. ”I’ll hurt it- and you all. Don’t worry, though, I’ll be fine!”

“... We are not going to leave you!” Lisa shouted… then she had to think fast, she closed her eyes, tapped her temples, speaking to herself. “Think, Lisa, think!”

Then it hit her.

“Quick! Turn around!“

“Okay!” Luca had no idea what Lisa was thinking, but he turned around instantly and Lisa hopped off…. She created a thick strand of web between her hands as she approached. Then stopped.

“... Your Abstraction doesn’t work through your clothes, right?” Lisa asked.

At this point, the hulking monster Scott had broken through the vines, using the traffic sign as an axe as he cleaved apart Olivia’s barrier. He roared as he raised his sign and rushed the group.

”Shit- It doesn’t!” Luca replied.

Olivia winced when her barrier was destroyed, drawing back her vines and trying to use the remainder to entangle Scott’s arms and legs. At the same time, climbed onto Lisa’s spider.

Michael was the first one onto the back of the spider, followed quickly by Evelynn and then finally Jasper. Jasper turned towards Scott and shouted, “fuck, that'll have to do,” as he flipped his paintbrush and began to pull the Paladin from the canvas. He groaned as the canvas fought his attempt, but before long, the Paladin was pulled from the page. The artwork was clean, and a lot of the detail was there, but it was missing a lot of the polish that Jasper typically added to his works. The Paladin looked like any old painting of a knight, with thick armor on the chest and arms, complimented by a large shield and an armored-up fist. The only noticeable issue was the legs were not as detailed as the rest of the body, clearly missing a few layers of paint.

The Paladin hit the ground and stumbled before charging at Scott, shield raised in front. He took the hit head-on; Olivia’s vines held Scott down, but the Paladin tanked the hit. Scott used his strength to pull one arm free…

“Okay, um!” Lisa tried to find the words to explain her crazy idea to Luca as she commanded her spider to spin a web in a long rope… she connected the one rope that she had in her hands to Luca’s back and connected the two strands into one that was lengthy enough to keep them all safe from Luca’s abstraction.

Scott freed his other arm before his legs grabbed the stop sign and continued his offense.

“... You know what? We’re a little short on time! So just trust me!” Lisa shouted as she hopped back on the spider and then commanded it to begin flying. It fluttered its wings as it started to fly, and it was painfully loud for everyone, but this was a last-ditch effort. Due to the strand of web, Luca was hoisted below like he was in a rescue helicopter, and he was the stretcher thingy they used to hang underneath. Lisa remained in the street, using the buildings as cover, because the last time she flew into the sky, she got mobbed by the Stygian Snake’s minions. Then, the Stygian Snake itself.

Fun times.

As she flew down the street, she could hear that hulking bastard Scott running behind them very faintly… he was just that goddamn loud. The issue was that Luca was dangling helplessly below them. She glanced over her shoulder and had to scream just not to have her voice drowned out by her voice,

“... DOES ANYONE KNOW THE FASTEST ROUTE TO THE WOOOOOOOOOOOOODS!?”

“I DO” Michael paused as he grabbed a handful of cheap jewelry, dollar bills, and various treats and held it out to his crows, “DIRECT…US…TO…THE…WOOODS..” His crows swarmed the offering before they flew above and before the spider-fly. “LISA… FOLLOW THE CROWS.”

“OOOOOOKAY!” Lisa shouted as she desperately tried to avoid hearing damage… there was that part of her that was jealous of Luca who was precariously dangling below her. However, Lisa focused on the trail of crows that Micheal was so gracious to use to lead them to the woods. She was desperately hoping that Adora would see them and get rid of Scott… who was jumping up in the air, trying to whack Luca with a stop sign like some type of fucked pinata. Lisa was sure that when she made it out of this, she would laugh about it with Luca and the others in ten years!

The birds led the group to an intersection, and Lisa narrowed her eyes as she lowered her body, grabbed onto the straps tightly, and shouted,

“EVERYONE, HANG TIGHT!”

Lisa’s voice started to burn after that. Still, she made a hard left, desperately hoping that Luca would hold on, and everyone yelped before she managed to correct her flying minion and continued heading toward the woods. She could still hear Scott chasing after them and was tempted to slow him down with some minions, but she stopped hearing the footsteps. They came to a complete stop.

Which was concerning.

Lisa looked over her shoulder; then her eyes widened as she saw Scott priming his stop sign to throw it like some type of fucked up javelin. He chucked it, and Lisa attempted to dodge, but the stop sign cleanly cleaved through one of her flying mount’s wings. Everyone on board screamed as they approached an excruciating death by crashing….



… They were stopped midair.

Lisa looked around, confused, wondering if she finally made it to the other side. However, they gently floated to the ground and were placed… and at both sides, they could see Vanessa and Clementine Washington, standing with their arms crossed, and Adora floating above them holding the strand of web that Luca was attached to. To which she gently lowered him down. All three of them were wearing a golden colored robe with black accents.

“... Good thing Jinhai was on his shit today,” Adora said, “Made it in the knick of time.”

Scott Reese slowed his approach, grabbing onto a nearby pickup truck and cleanly ripping off its bumper to use as a weapon. None of Trinity was phased by this, as Adora pulled out her walkie-talkie and said, “Jinhai, Lisa, and the others are safe. Should we engage Scott Reese or the Stygian Snake?”

"Scott Reese. Deal with the immediate threat."

“Copy.” Adora answered, then looked over her shoulder, “Get out of here; we got this.”

“Adora,” Michael shouted broadly, “thank you so much.” He looked towards Evelynn and Jasper. Evelynn had stumbled off the back of the spider and already started moving in the opposite direction of Scott Reese. Meanwhile, Jasper had his canvas in front of him, and he was painting it black. “I owe you one,” Michael said to Adora as he ran towards Evelynn’s side and began to walk with her. Jasper, looking down at where he was at with the next summon, whispered “fuck” and started towards the group. They would be able to find others who needed help before long.

“Don’t mention it,” Adora said.

“Hey, what about us!?” Clementine said with a smile.

"Shit, I thought I was a goner!" Luca exclaimed, looking a lot worse for wear. His hair was an absolute mess, and the right side of his body was covered in scrapes and bruises from bashing into a building when Lisa had to make a sharp turn. He turned to Lisa with a grin and a thumbs up… not realizing that half his face was utterly fucked up and bleeding. It hurt, but his whole body hurts nowadays. "Thanks; we wouldn't have made it out without your quick thinking!"

"Hey, drink this," Olivia piped up before he could continue talking at Lisa as if they didn't need to escape. She threw him yet another potion from her seemingly endless supply (her bag was stuffed). Luca carefully caught it, concentrating on not destroying it and knocking it back. "Thanks, Adora, Clementine, Vanessa… Luca, let's go."

“Don’t mention it!” Adora shouted for the three as she put her walkie-talkie away. “We gotta take care of Scott! Get out of here!”

Lisa was still on her mount and made the other wing fall off; she looked back at Adora as Scott made his monstrous approach. She sighed as she commanded her mount to take off to safety. Adora, Clementine, and Vanessa merely stood side by side as Scott approached them with the bumper. He roared as he raised it into the air and tried to bring it down on Adora’s head as hard as he could… Adora merely raised her hand and stopped the bumper in its tracks. This caused it to bend as Clementine and Vanessa flew forward, and they both kicked him in the chest hard enough to make Scott stagger backward.

His chest was caved in… but there was a sickening sound as his chest regenerated, and he rushed forward, punching Clementine hard enough to knock her out of range of the other members of Trinity and down the street.

“... Fuck,” Vanessa said as the two cut and were desperately running to get back in range of Clementine before this Hulk wannabe got close… and right, they got their true power back right when Scott bearhugged Vanessa. Adora whipped around and kicked Scott in his knee, making him stumble as Vanessa could get free and elbow Scott in the face. All three charged Scott, flying at him and pinning him to the ground with enough force to leave a crater. Adora began savagely punching Scott in the face, turning his face into a bloody mess. However, he grabbed Adora’s body with his monstrous hand and slammed her on the ground…

Only Clementine and Vanessa charge Scott from two directions and punch him in the face. Caving in his skull in an attack that would have killed anyone else… However, his skull decompressed, and the two managed to grab Scott’s arm he smacked them with the free hand he had, but they caught it. Adora caught it too, as she shouted,

”TOGETHER!”

They lifted Scott into the air by his arm, flying as high up as possible until it was absolutely freezing. All three of them let out their battle cry as they brought Scott down on the ground as fast as they could, all while he thrashed around…

… And hit the ground and turned Scott into a stain, leaving a crater. Scott exploded into darkness as Adora dusted her hands off and reached for her walkie-talkie.

”Jinhai,” Adora started, ”We eliminated Scott Reese, has Lisa and the others gotten out of range?”

“Affirmative,” Jinhai replied. “They’re all clear.”

”Good,” Adora nodded at Clementine and Vanessa, and then looked up at the Stygian Snake. They all flew up at it as Adora said, ”We are going to engage the Stygian Snake,”

She grinned.

”... Wish us luck.”