Blizz

Hope for a Dying World

---

Katrina had generally kept quiet on the journey. She gave out directions and ensured they stayed on course during the ride to Moonhorn Ridge, but she didn't offer much more in the way of conversation. Occasionally, Katrina would pull out a map from a satchel under her cloak, to make sure they were going the right way. Beyond that, Katrina didn't partake in any conversations. None of the physically irritating prayers that Osric muttered or the jabs of Revna. The red haired kid was quiet enough at least. To the others, it felt strange to be in this dead and barren place, but Katrina found the Seven Villages stuffy. There was magic behind the barrier, but out here, there was just death and the dying. These were things Katrina had been long accustomed to- She was there when the apocalypse began, in a time when neither Osric nor Sage had been born yet, she was already 16. This was second nature to her in a way it couldn't have been for them, in her mind.

Katrina had been to the place before. It was the last stop on her trip to the villages, and she camped here for an entire week, living off of dead rabbits she smoked in the hills a few miles east of the Ridge. Eventually the group started to get antsy. The sun would set shortly and this was the ideal spot to start making camp. Unsurprisingly, Revna had misgivings.

"Yes, we're near. And no, you're not the guide, Revna. Don't get your halberd in a twist..." Katrina pulled her paper map out and looked at some distant rocks. One of them had a sort of crescent shape that jutted up out of the dirt. The path they were taking led down a hill around the rock. "Just down there, I slept there for a week once." Katrina led them down the hill and to a left turn. When they stopped, the group was at a small clearing nestled between a few rock cliff. There were old remnants of a campfire here. The rocks provided cover from rain and the warm sun as they sloped over. It was like a shallow cave. Over in the corner of the rocks was a makeshift wooden rack, and hanging on it were clumps of rotting fur and long-dried blood. Someone camped here once, presumably Katrina.

She jumped off and led the horses over.

"Closest thing to indoors we've got out here. Plenty of room to move things off the cart should it need. Before I reached the villages, this is the spot I holed up in. We're good here for a night." It was bleak, the air felt dry, and there were a lot of seemingly meaningless, peeling bloodstains on some trees if anyone was particularly perceptive, but it was goof enough.

Avengers Academy 💥

Leah Jordan

---

Location: Framework
Skills: Battlefield Manipulation
Today’s Fit

---

---

It’s about damn time he died. Leah was a little surprised that Zarina didn’t try to shut off that flesh mech sooner. With Vicky, Ed and Diana all out of the picture officially, that left just Leah and Zari. There were a few ways she could go about this. Leah could try and blitz her and cave Zarina’s face in with her beefy punches, or try to skewer Zarina before she had a chance to react. But in either of those situations, there was no guarantee that Leah would actually kill her. Reality was in the palm of Zari’s hand right now. Anything she did hinged on Zari’s decision to allow it to happen. She was essentially the purple man from those movies that don’t actually exist in this universe. You know, the one who could snap anyone out of existence with just a snap. Strategy didn’t factor in here. And if it did, then the only logical reason would be that Zari didn’t fully grasp her powers. That, however, was not a gamble Leah felt like taking.

She could pick herself up from having her skull caved in when she was 13. But she couldn’t compete in these circumstances. Leah walked up to Zari.

”Between you, me, this sim and the alcoholic cat’s manic tendencies, I’m not fucking around. You’re god in here, and I throw rocks. No contest. You want to just call it a draw and come back later? You’ve got me beat.”

Usagi must be fuming right now. That’s going to be fucking funny.

The Gifted (Reborn)

@Ace of flames01

Good question. Haven’t considered that but I might actually

X-Men: GenetiX

Down in the depths of Umbra Biogenetics, there was a nauseating aura that Jean could feel in ways Xavier could not. It was like feeling heat from a radiator waft up a flight of stairs. A distant sound growing louder as she followed it. One she could not hear, but knew on a subconscious level was there The walls had holes in them, a trail of destruction that practically burned with the traces of psychic energy unique to one mutant in particular. The epicenter was in a level that officially did not exist. Located deep, hundreds of feet beneath the ground. There was the remains of an elevator shaft that Ryder presumably flung herself through to escape.

At the bottom, past a set of dizzying hallways was a child's bedroom locked behind a three ton magnetic door, which lay in pieces at its threshold. If the trail of evidence was a bonfire, this room was the midday sun...

The difference between here and the sterile walls of Umbra's basement was nigh uncanny. The walls inside were painted a faded blue color, minute cracks in the paint suggested it was once a cold white. A bed lay in the corner of the room, barely a hand's width between it and a metal frame. It looked like a hospital bed in a way. The walls were barren, except for a dart board and holes that were probably punched through out of anger. Something about the place felt... Empty. The carpeting was faded and dull as if it had been here for years, and the entire room smelled like it was old. As if no one had really lived in this room beyond sleeping here. Even in this ruined state, riddled with signs of violent destruction where the ceiling was caved in slightly and the concrete floor was exposed underneath, Jean could intuit that nothing happy came from this room. There was no evidence of life, no joy or personality.

A prison cell dressed up to look pretty.

---

The humans in the crowd were getting antsy. Their faces were etched with contempt and aggression. Ryder kept her stolen haul close to her chest- If she didn't have these things, it would make life much harder. Seeing the cop get his gun shot out of his hand made Ryder spin and look at Cyclops. So he was a mutant too... And he could've done that back at the gate. Ryder pushed her powers out and felt there were microchips regulating energy behind that visor. Some sort of choke for a power source, maybe? If she made it fry itself, what would happen? Would he explode and take everyone else with him? Ryder decided she didn't want to find out. The cop was slack jawed as he saw his precious pistol get swatted out of his hands so easily. Meanwhile, Ryder was backing away slowly. She kept her eyes on everyone as best she could, but there were no security cameras around this part of the street. She didn't have any sort of third eye advantage.

Ryder heard a clicking sound behind her. She was inadvertently backing up into someone, and when she turned around, that person had a switchblade. A middle aged man who looked like he had been smoking a pack a day for the last decade, he swung the knife down at Ryder, and it got stuck in in her arm. Ryder shrieked like a banshee and shoved the man back dozens of feet, slamming him into the door of a car and causing the car to start blaring an alarm. Bleeding all the way from her elbow to her wrist, Ryder turned back around and locked eyes with Cyclops and the old man in the wheelchair. She could just throw that thing for hundreds of feet, snap Cyclops's neck and see how quickly Xavier could drag himself over to it. So why didn't she just let herself go all out? On second thought, maybe she would. Her telekinetic powers were the weakest of her abilities, but that was only in the sense of fine control. Broad strokes were still something to fear.

Behind her, the car that was screaming like a tripped alarm groaned and screeched as it floated upwards, high enough that there was no question that Ryder was definitely more than just a technopath. The man saw this, and ran away screaming in terror. Ryder's face held nothing but hate for what was happening. Her injury looked pretty bad, but Ryder was paying absolutely zero attention to it right now. The floating car drifted closer until it was just behind her.

"I don't know either of you, and I want nothing to do with you or fucking Umbra. If you don't stay away from me, I'll fucking kill all of you. Do you fucking understand me?! I'll-"

Bang.

While Ryder was monologuing, the cop has reached for his gun and she didn't pay attention. He shot her in the ribs. Ryder stumbled, and slipped back. Blood trickled from her shirt, and the car fell. She caught it before it could flatten her, but she screamed out of pure rage and ripped the damn thing into shreds while it was suspended in the air. Bits of metal, plastic and glass fell to the ground and flew at the cop. He was smacked by a rear axle in the stomach. He'd be fine, but now he was doubled over trying to catch his breath. Once again, the gun clattered to the floor. Fractured pieces of the car orbited over her in a way that might've been familiar to Scott. Like he'd seen someone go down this road before, or display this level of potency with their powers. She was pissed.

Ryder stood, despite being stabbed and shot.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

The Gifted (Reborn)

It has begun.

I’ve been leaning that strategy for a hot minute lol. I made some NPCs to make it interesting.

The Gifted (Reborn)

---

It was a good day to shatter the Hunters.

The day was getting longer, but it would still be a few days before the heat of Area 06 began to subside. These Hunters had been out in the sun for hours, and what was about to happen would only degrade them further. In the sky above the camp, high enough to be missed by anyone not staring into the sun, there was a particularly large helicopter that bore the insignias of the hunters. This type of helicopter was often used by the Republic to move large amounts of troops quickly. At this altitude on such a bright and sunny day, it was a speck of dust. Easily assumed to be one of their own flying by, perhaps a training exercise or a meeting among higher-ups. Nothing particularly fancy to worry oneself over. Certainly not in heat like this… Right?

Wrong.

For that helicopter had been stolen months ago.

In the back of the nice and air conditioned helicopter, there was a team of 24 elite rebels waiting to drop out. Among them was a flyer who could telkinetically propel himself in any direction, a dynakinetic who could turn the heat absorbed by the metal frame of the helicopter into lasers, and a metamorphic gifted who would provide ground support. He stood at seven feet tall, and there was no evidence that he was ever born a human being. His skin was a thick, rocky stone substance the color of reddish clay. Jagged spikes jutted out across his knuckles and joints and formed a crown of horns across his head. The man looked animalistic, and the interior of the helicopter flowed a faint, warm golden light due to his presence.

This man was none other than the legend himself, Dragonheart. He stood over his fellow freedom fighters like a mountain stood over mortal men. Imposing, unflinching, unbreakable. Dragonheart clicked a radio.

”Beta team, this is Alpha. We’re in position. You know the drill. We’ve prepared and trained for this, all that is left to do is to do it. On Drifter’s signal, you’ll execute Maneuver 9 and proceed with the mission. This is a danger level of level one, due to our intel test the Hound is here. That means Omega protocol. The moment you confirm his location, relay it on all channels. Dragonheart out.”

Off in the distance, too far to see by anyone in the camp, there was a second helicopter on an interception course with the first. Maneuver 9 was a combat drill in which two teams deployed at north and south, and divided into four to cover east and west. The four teams would then perform a pincer assault in tandem with their opposite direction, eventually overwhelming and surrounding anyone who was still standing. Dragonheart was the key to this, as while the other teams were getting into position, he would be on the ground tearing everything to shreds on his own.

The flying rebel known as Drifter gave Dragonheart a nod. Always a man of action first, he checked that his gun was loaded and waited for the shock. The helicopter flew closer, and the pilot relayed that they were in position. The hour of devastation was upon them. Dragonheart stepped over and opened the door. Heat and wind rushed in. Dragonheart didn’t even bring a parachute. After all, it would only slow him down. Every other rebel, men and women with which he trusted his very life, stood with their weapons ready. Beneath his nigh-unbreakable armor, he felt pride.

Dragonheart stepped out of the helicopter, and fell like a bomb from thousands of feet in the sky. The air screamed against his scaly hide with the wrath of a banshee. Down, down, and down. To all below him both innocent and guilty, nothing more than a sudden breeze would break the drone of the day. That was, of course, until Dragonheart made an impact. Area 06’s relative silence was shattered like glass. The thundering sound was like a missile striking a battleship, ringing out for miles and shattering the wall he collided with. Dust, dirt and rocks flew up and out in a cloud and left behind a crater large enough for six tanks to sit in.

Everyone in Area 06 could feel the rumble of an earthquake shake the place to its foundation for a moment. Now that he had taken them by surprise, there was the simple matter of breaking them. Dragonheart charged like a freight train and rushed down the enemy, drawing their fire for as much as possible.

Up in the sky, the whir of the helicopter was drowned out by Dragonheart’s entrance, and Drifter took over. ”Ladies and gentlemen, god has come to bring the rapture. All teams, engage Maneuver 9!” Drifter leapt out of tnt helicopter and soared like a bird. He veered off into a distant direction with his DMR to provide air support. Both helicopters spilled their troops out. They were all fitted with specialized parachutes designed to have a minimal profile. They acted almost like hang gliders and allowed a person to move quicker through the altitude with less visibility.

All 48 of them jumped with a near mechanical formation, and the attack was now in full swing. Area 06 would fall before the day was done.

X-Men: GenetiX

17 minutes later...

Ryder tried not to use her telekinetic abilities extensively, even when the researches were actively running tests on her. She had a habit of underselling her own powers to make others believe she was weaker than expected. Right now, though, there wasn't a need to keep her cards so tightly close to the chest. She repeatedly flung herself hundreds of feet in a straight line with her telekinesis, ensuring a safe landing with the same trick and occasionally dropping herself into a tree to make sure she wasn't being tailed. What would normally be a 45 minute drive down a road full of twists and turns was cut down to less than 20 by Ryder's efficiency. To a certain sensitive telepath, it would feel like the psychic equivalent of seeing lightning flash in the distance sky: There one second, fading away the next. Ryder did this until she came up on the town. As far as she knew, this place was less than friendly to people like her. As long as she played it cool, and ditched the gun, then maybe she could come out of this fine. All she had to do was not start acting stupid suddenly.

Ryder floated the gun up out of her hands, and used her powers to cycle the action and pull out two more bullets. She then sent the pistol flying far into the distance in an adjacent direction, expecting it to land a few thousand feet away from her current location, perpendicular to the town to suggest she went in that direction if anyone found the gun. If not, who cares? Social convention would make it less likely that anyone just grabbed her if she was out in the open. It would raise questions as to why armed personnel were chasing the child without police uniforms. That would give her enough time to find a few things she needed to cement her momentum. Ryder walked to the outskirts of town, and dropped the spare bullets into a storm drain as she headed down a sidewalk. There weren't a lot of people milling about, as this place wasn't particularly large. But there was enough that a crowd could easily form around her if they thought she was a mutant. Ryder was visibly young and not easy to confuse for an adult, so it might raise suspicion if she walked up to an ATM, snapped her fingers and made it spit out a few hundred dollars.

Even with this low concentration of people, she had to assume someone was watching her. It wouldn't be unreasonable to think Umbra had sort of UAV on the town at this very moment. One she wasn't aware of- And if that was the case, she couldn't look in the sky for it because that would draw its attention. Cameras could be scrambled, and she could cause a transformer to blow, but that would be like sending up a flare. No, it was time to play it cool. Ryder stopped at the corner of a street. There was an electronic store on her left with a pretty big parking lot. People could be seen inside going about their days. There were two sets of doors to go in through, both on opposite ends of the building. There were enough cars that suggested the people inside were in rather high numbers. If Ryder could get in there and make off with a few electronic gizmos, then she could put together a gadget or two, to throw off Umbra and supplement her powers in ways she needed. Remote hacking could be made easier with a device that interfaced with something, she could make a drone that linked to her mentally... But she needed resources.

Think, Ryder. How do you turn a disadvantage into an advantage?

...That's how.

---

Approximately 7 minutes later, Ryder was inside with a hand basket. She walked casually and attentively to the back of the store, and picked out a few things that she determined would be quite useful to her. A reel of black ribbon cable, two small starter robotics kits meant for little kids, a Raspberry Pi, portable battery, soldering kit, laser pointer, Android phone and charger. Her basket was mostly full by now, but this was all she needed. Ryder was absentmindedly tuned into the cameras up in the ceiling, aware of everything that was happening right now. She knew that no one was looking at her suspiciously. Feeling out further, it seems there was a room in the back where everything fed to. If she damaged that, everything would go down, but there would be evidence of something weird happening. But she didn't need to hit the brain to make the organism divert its attention. Ryder made her way to one end of the store and stayed near the door. Thankfully, no one was paying attention to her since she was pretending to just be standing around and waiting on someone else.

The door was but five feet away, and Ryder just had to measure her play... Ryder pushed out a very faint, psychic nudge to the surrounding people, providing some motivation to walk in a direction that was further away from her. She waited until the surrounding area thinned out a little, when suddenly the camera bluescreened. Whoever might've been watching the recordings would be lead to believe that something simply disconnected. A loose cable, a dusty socket, and such. Nothing major. Ryder counted to thirty, knowing instinctually that the bug was still active because no one could figure out the problem. When she counted to thirty-one, the lights exploded. Bits of glass showered down with sparks that plunged the surroundings into darkness. Ryder feigned flinching, but a thin layer of telekinetic energy caused the glass to fall around her, and not directly onto her. Someone yelped in fear, and others ran back as another light blew up.

By now, people began running back as a knee-jerk reaction. The anti-theft alarms went dead, and Ryder ran out in the confusion.

---

Ryder briskly walked into the parking lot, and willed another light so go boom above a cash register while she was still thinking about it. Once the automatic doors closed behind her, there was no shouts or sounds of cracking glass to alert someone outside, therefore no one noticed her leave with an unbagged hand basket full of electronic goods... At least, that was until some cop rolled a window down as Ryder walked by. He was an older looking guy and raised an eyebrow at her.

"They let you take that basket with you?"

Ryder didn't respond to the guy. She made his window shoot back up slightly, to make him focus on that instead. He shut his trap for a moment as he wondered what the deal with his window was. But alas, he opened the door and followed her on foot when he noticed she was walking away rather quickly.

"Hey, now, have you got a receipt for that bag, kid?" He asked, in a slightly raised voice.

Ryder kept quiet. His radio started acting up and squealed annoyingly. Instead of stopping to figure it out, he just turned the volume down. She walked down a sidewalk and turned, and there were a few pedestrians on the street corner. The cop caught up to her and firmly dropped a hand on her shoulder. "Hold it. Did you pay for all that-"

This was the point where Ryder had her own knee-jerk reaction. She lost count of how many times someone bigger and stronger than her had mistreated her down in Umbra's basement, and something from that history woke up in her as she turned around and punched the cop square in the chest. Her telekinesis augmented the punch such that the man was flung backwards ten feet away. The air distorted and shimmered like the event horizon of a black hole, and the bystanders realized what they just saw.

"Hey- That's a mutant!"

The cop heard this, and drew a gun as he stood up.

Shit.

Young Justice

The Red and the Blue

---

Cora was a touch disappointed with the way things had gone post-mission. It made sense to keep KJ off of the missions, but the others were way too willing to write Metamorph off as a monster, or just a bad person. Of course they were upset, and of course Cora understood why they were. But he wasn’t broken. He just needed help, and nothing they did would happen without him there, or with his input.

Cora couldn’t imagine how he was feeling. But she was going to figure it out. Gently, she knocked on his door. Several seconds of silence followed.

Then, a voice came through the door, slightly muffled. ”…Yes, Sparky?” It was close, as if right on the other side. His tone seemed calm but rather cautious in manner for the typically confident meta.

”Hey… I wanted to see how you’re feeling. Can I come in?” She asked, gently.

”Oh…sure, yeah.”

The door tugged open to the interior of KJ’s room. Animal patterned carpets lined the floor. A wing chun dummy stood guard near the entrance and across near the window sat a bean bag chair. Guitars lined the wall opposite the closet, above a bed that didn’t seem used. At least not as the hammock that hung in a corner of the ceiling, which seemed to be decorated with painted handprints.

The boy himself was nowhere to be seen, that is, unless one were to look up and see him scaling across the ceiling like a lizard. He stopped on the wall near the window, sitting to face her.

”Is everyone okay?”

”They will be. Everyone else keeps talking about what to do with you, and how they’re upset. But no one said anything about how you’re feeling.” Cora looked up at Ja, concern was etched on her face, but not anger, or frustration. ”No one else stopped to ask, “How does he feel after that?” You shouldn’t have to be alone right now.”

The bushbaby’s lips pursed, shifting a little on the wall uncomfortably. ”I’m…not in pain in the body. Kassy made sure. His hands clasped the sides of his head and shut his eyes.

”I…I couldn’t stop the Beast from hurting my teammates…” His head shook. ”I couldn’t stop it…but…there is something else that is keeping me awake at night.”

”You can’t be blamed for something that’s not in your control. What’s on your mind? You can tell me, I won’t tell the others if you don’t want to.” She stepped out of the doorway, and closed the door behind her.

”Red Robot told me that I sometimes will have bad memories rush at me, like a dream while I am awake. A ‘flash-back’ in english.” He sighed, only looking down at Cora for a moment before looking back through the wall.

”I have had them before, many times…but this was different…On the mission…I think…I fear I heard something, before the Beast took over. Something from…home.

”From home? What is it? I thought you couldn’t remember much from then.”

”…I don’t remember much from Zambesi…I was taken when I was very little…Buredunia though…that is where I was trained…Where I spent most of my life…where a lot of…”

Cora floated up to eye level with him, but he seemed to look on through her.

”A lot of…?”

”A lot of bad things happened…I didn’t know they were…not until my amai found me….” Ja blinked, now focusing on the blue hues of his silver-haired teammate’s eyes.

”…amai promised they wouldn’t hurt me anymore…That things with the Justice League would be different…but they are feeling more the same…Now that the Beast is back…I don’t want to be locked away. Not again.” His eyes aimed to the floor.

”Not… Not again? Ja, did- Did someone imprison you? Because of the Beast, and not because of you? I won’t let them do that to you. You are not the Beast.-”

”No, Sparky. I am…I was locked away because they wanted to control it…but they can’t…No one can…except me. I just…I don’t know how.”

”Maybe we can find a way. Back at the bank mission, one of the robbers had a weapon that fired a subsonic wave meant to disorient people. I saw it and dismantled it in the lab. I found out that it caused a person’s brain to… Confuse itself. The brain tells the body what to do with electrical signals, everything from movement to being asleep. Were you affected by something like that?”

Ja paused to think but through pursed lips, he shut his eyes and shook his head. ”Those are many of what I do not remember…when I try…my head hurts and becomes filled with fog.”

”Okay…” Cora knew about the fact that Ja couldn’t remember things that Kila did completely, or the other way around. She couldn’t frame it that way, this wasn’t the time to tell him that. ”Have you ever been able to remember things that happened when the Beast was in control? Or the specific circumstances that happened just before then?” Smooth.

Ja slowly nodded. ”The memories usually come back to haunt me in time…”

”If you don’t want to talk about them, that’s okay. But, can you think of anything common? A certain something that usually always happens at the start? Something happening to you, a certain sight or sound. At the shootout, the gangs started attacking each other, there was that wounded guy. Anything like that, maybe?”

”I am unsure…Last mission has not fully come to me yet…the other times…the situations are different.” A small groan of discomfort grumbled from within his diaphragm; the sound of an orangutan. ”The pain is getting worse…”

”…Ja, have you had anything to eat today?”

The question actually seemed to jar him from his lost expression of seconds ago into something more of a soft humored smile. ”I…suppose I forgot to.”

If she had discernible pupils, they might have given away some of the concern Cora was feeling. ”Okay. Before you do anything else, you’re eating. We’ll figure this out after. C’mon, let's find something.”

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

Interactions: Yoko and some weird MF

---

Only a few hours ago, Selena arrived in Brazil and made her way to the hub of all the Nomads who gathered here. Wow, this was a lot of people whose asses she could hand to. The fact that she made it this far was enough proof to Selena that she could stop listening to that nagging little voice in the back of her mind saying, Turn back, and they might not be as angry when you go home. But of course, Selena wasn't listening to that, so instead she trudged on through the crowd of fighters, wizards and nerds that were congregating around this "carnival." It felt weird, being surrounded by so many people. Selena had been around large crowds, particularly the one at the magic tournament back home, but this- This felt like thousands. All she could feel was wonder and awe. Every Nomad and their mother must've been here.

Selena managed not to trip over people in the carnival, and eventually stumbled upon a rather unpleasant sight. A shorter woman was being held aloft over the ground by a man holding a stick. Like dangling a cat by the scruff, she thrashed and barked (y'know, like a cat) at the man to put her down. Instead, though, the man just looked at her deadpan. Well, that was unfortunate. Selena figured she might as well help out, and get some information from the woman before she was clobbered like a sack of potatoes. Selena closed the cloak that draped around her shoulders, and looked over to a spot behind the man. Suddenly, Selena was over there. But she hadn't moved- It was a clone. The clone held its palm up to the side of the man's face as a crackling orb of white energy manifested. The magical equivalent of holding a gun to someone's head. The fake Selena locked eyes with the man but said not a word, meanwhile the real one approached at last.

"That's rather impolite, don't you think? Set the woman down, if you would be so kind," She politely demanded, with a snarky smile on her face.

X-Men: GenetiX

Director Becker released a morbid chuckle, as he held eye contact with the mutant. "Your friend will be alright. We have very capable facilities. We're prepared. Now- As for this young lady. I'm afraid I can't discuss her case at length without her presence. We try to respect the privacy of our residents." He said the word "Residents" as if it was a casual thing, like they would live their whole lives perhaps? "What I can tell you is that she has a history of unconstructive actions. The hand a mutant is dealt is often a difficult one, as I'm sure you understand, Mr. Xavier." He looked to Jean for a second with a knowing look as she walked away. "Her situation is a special one, and I'm proud to say that I have the best people I know working with her to make affirming changes in the scope of her case. Sometimes, a person stumbles." He didn't elaborate as to what he meant by affirming changes, or unconstructive actions.

"But there's nothing to worry about. Our security team is trained to handle this type of incident peacefully. The nature of a security system meant to stand forever is that it will fail eventually. We're prepared to resolve the fallout, and you can rest assured that while your friend is given the utmost care, she will be brought back with no harm done."

As he said this, Director Becker's radio perked up with a message for him. But it didn't finish.

---

"No harm done" was a bold-faced lie.

Ryder was running through the trees, it was smarter to have cover than run across the two-lane road that was only a hundred feet from her. Umbra's security team were armed with stun guns and hollow point pistols. They were trained to bring her down as wounded as was necessary, so long as they brought her back alive. Ryder could sense their proximity, they were scattering to pinch her off. Their radios gave their presences away. By the psychic impression she got, one was at the 5 to her 12, and so Ryder pointed the gun behind her to blindly shoot two bullets in that direction. Neither of them stopped the agent, but the second one seemed to slow him down at least. That left her with seven bullets. The sound caused three of the five agents to move fast. Ryder was about 50 feet from crossing paths with two of them. She felt out for their stun guns, their voltages were modified electronically with an interface, and all of them were set to maximum output- Enough to knock out a grown man twice her size.

Suddenly and silently, though, the wattages programmed in began to spike downwards rapidly. 30 feet, 20, 10...

"Stop!" The first guard she ran into shouted. He and his buddy pointed their now-empty stun guns at the girl. One of them radioed for the entire squad to fall in and surround her.

"Drop the gun! Now!" He shouted.

Ryder, however, didn't do that. She put on an impression that she was scared, both physically on her face and as a slight psychic pressure, such that they all believed she wasn't faking. Her hands quickly went into the air, and the gun was pointed to the sky in an indication of a surrender. The guard barked at her to drop it again.

Instead, she slowly bent down to lay it on the ground. Just as she did, one guard behind her made a fatal mistake. He raised a radio to his face. Director Becker's radio crackled to life as everyone around him heard an incomplete message.

"Beta to Alpha, we have apprehe-"

The radio crackled, and exploded against the man's face and nose. He'd live, but sparks and wires sprayed out and burnt him. It was the equivalent of a flashbang. This spooked the others, who instantly turned their attention to their comrade now screaming in pain on the ground behind Ryder.

Ryder quickly sprung back up and performed that same trick on the remaining guards. All of their radios blew apart at their waists, only one suffered a laceration. The rest were temporarily incapacitated. To Xavier and Becker, the guard was updating him when the sounded of high pitched interference practically screamed the message into silence.

All of the guards suddenly started floating above the ground, writhing in the pain from their skin being burnt and flayed. Ryder telekinetically flung them off into the distance behind her, in the direction of Umbra. Two of them collided with the trunk of a tree.

And she continued running.