Are We Heroes? Ch2: The Dawn of War[IC, Superhuman]

[Futrellia]

Iron Owl
Warehouse 3PL
Discussing with Archangel

---

Owl figured this woman was with that reaper. Her hardlight armor, the weapon she wielded. A mutant, two mutants. He didn't hate mutants, at least the ones who wanted to make the world a better place, but Seattle was no place for them. Where there are mutants, there was CADMUS. Owl knew about CADMUS and their anti-mutant operations across the US, including the big battle going on at O'Hare Airport. He avoided them on purpose. Taking down something like the Syndicate, that's one thing. They operate independently from a government's wallet. He couldn't say the same for CADMUS. They had a bigger arsenal, a bigger pool of resources. Owl knew which targets to kill and to capture, and CADMUS was independent from both of those.

"I'm looking for him because of what he's doing in my city. I've been doing this for a lot of years. I've taken down alot of criminals. The Ze Veus Clan, the IRA, a South African gang that wanted to bring their filth to the West Coast. The Syndicate would already be gone if it wasn't for some punk with a high powered rifle and a lucky shot. It'll be a slow war, yeah, but I can do this by myself. I-"

"Rapid temperature change at your six." Interrupted Ollie. Using his quick thinking and reflexes, Iron Owl jumped up into the air and landed 15 feet behind Archangel. The Drones prepared to open fire as the dark shadow enveloped where he was once standing, the target he had been searching for forming from the paranormal mist.

"Ah. There he is. I've been trying to draw you out. I'm glad it didn't work. This is much more personal." His attention turned to the woman, surrounded in hardlight armor.

"You don't look a day over, what, nineteen? What are you doing here? Trying to get yourself killed? You have so much faith in your powers, you don't think it'll catch the attention of the higher ups? Look, I get you both want to help clean this city, put your powers to good use, but have you heard of CADMUS? The branch of the U.S government that hates mutants? That reaper....thing...is drawing alot of attention. First you attract the Syndicate, now you attract me. You draw in those government bastards, nobody in this city or this country can protect you from them. They've known about me for some time, but since I'm not a mutant, they've stayed quiet around Seattle, let me go about my business. Give me a reason why I shouldn't take you both down and kick you out?" He said, his drones floating above his head, guns trained on both the woman and the reaper.

[Arkeyana]

"First off, he's not an it", Archangel said, "And we've heard of CADMUS, but after what he did to that drug boss, I doubt they'd touch him with a mile long pole".

"Second off", said Wraith, making the shadows in the room spring to life and twist and swirl like living storm clouds, "We mean to show the world mutants can be heroes". The shadows then morphed into a single roiling mass overhead. "Thirdly, I long ago made a promise to protect those who I hold dear, and if you ever hurt one of them. A demented red grin spread across his face. [color=#FF0000] "yo u w o u l d b e d e a d w h e r e y o u s t o o d".

"Wraith, you're doing the creepy red face again". said Archangel, nervously looking at the celing.

"Sorry", Wraith said before letting the shadows return to their places and dissipate the grin.

[IOTA Corp]

Geoffrey LeFleur, a.k.a. Vulgate
Indianapolis, Indiana: Industrial district

Vulgate walked hurriedly down the street, clutching a small cardboard box tightly against his chest. Inside was a small vial, stolen from an advanced biotechnology corporation. Their security was impressive, yet still inadequate when one could simply melt walls in a matter of seconds. The police weren't even notified before he was several blocks away. Normally, Vulgate would have relaxed, but the unfolding events in Chicago had prompted an additional layer of paranoia. CADMUS was beginning to mobilize, and he didn't know how long he could hide from the authorities. He rounded the corner and walked a little further down the street, he turned and went to push on a chain-linked fence to find that it wouldn't move. He refocused and found a large padlock securing a chain that held the gate shut. He gave a vile snarl; the landlord that he had been renting from kept trying to keep him off of the property. Vulgate had paid far over the renting price in exchange for privacy. The landlord had grown greedy and impatient when Vulgate hadn't paid up last month's dues. He hadn't gone so far as to enter the abandoned building; Vulgate had taken precautions.

Vulgate reached his hand out to the lock, and it started to steam and sizzle as it turned to dust. He threw the gate open and walked up to the front door. A concrete-like material sealed it around the edges. vulgate touched it, and it crumbled away just as the lock had. He walked in and ascended a brief flight of stairs and opened a wood door. The lab was crude, and hastily set up, but it served its purpose. Most of the various sets of glass wear had lit burners underneath, boiling unknown liquids; distilling virulent poisons and despicable drugs. He walked over to a smaller table, set apart from the rest. He tore open the box and transferred the vial into a cheap centrifuge he had stolen from an area high school. The machine started whirring, and Vulgate took a deep breath and stumbled over to a chair, and slumped down. He rubbed his eyes and started to doze off.

Then, the door to the room flew open, and the landlord barged in, looking for Vulgate. "Jacobs! What the hell is going on here?" The landlord was a short and portly man. His hair was almost completely gone, and a permanent bead of sweat rested on his upper lip. His eyes darted around wildly, trying to take in the full sight of the lab. Vulgate answered the intrusion, "I thought we had an agreement." His speech was heavily accented and wrought with annoyance.

"The agreement was broken when you neglected to pay the rent." The man was red faced, and he was marching ever closer to his unknown demise.

"I didn't neglect anything. I paid you three times what this place is worth." By now, Vulgate was standing. He towered over the dwarfish landlord.

"I adjusted the price. Plus, you have to pay a... equipment fee." He said the last part while gesturing to the lab.

Vulgate glared at him through his mat of hair, but simply turned and walked to a table at the far wall. The landlord was right on his heels, still yipping about the money he thought he was owed. "Plus you have to pay a fee for property damage, and breach of contract, and... and... And for illegally barring my entrance to the building." He was quite impressed with himself for finding all of the 'reasons' he thought he was owed. Vulgate didn't say anything; he just continued to work with something on the table. "Are you evening listening to me?" The man tried grabbing Vulgate's arm, but his palm made contact with Vulgate's skin through a tear on his sleeve. The acrid smell of dissolving flesh filled the room and the landlord screamed in pain while yanking back his hand. He looked at his palm and where he had touched the mutants skin was red and blistered: the skin bubbled and peeled, and left a nasty wound. "What the fuck was that?"

Vulgate turned to reveal a large syringe filled with an unknown substance. "The beginning of your torment, Mr. Carmichal." The fat man tried to turn and run, but Vulgate's long legs allowed him to easily overtake the short man, and he plunged the needle deep into his neck. The man continued to squirm, and Vulgate let him try and run. The man ran out the door to the lab, and his foot falls could be heard as he raced down the stairs, but after a few seconds, they began to slow, then came a series of heavier thumps. Vulgate took his time. He slowly descended the stairs, and as he rounded the last landing, he saw Carmichal's unconscious form sprawled in the dust. He was expressionless as he slung the man onto his back and ascended the stairs for a second time that afternoon.

[The Cyberiad Council]

The Chicago Incident
Part 5

• Jason Blackwood a.k.a “Skullduggery”
• Joseph Lero, a.k.a “Stardust Man”
• Stephanie Edgemoor a.k.a “Valkyrie”
• Garrick Alban, a.k.a “Zaroff”
• Annette Bareau, a.k.a “Pixie”
• Jacob Peters
• Cypher
• Lance Turner, a.k.a “Corpus”
• Garret Wolman a.k.a “Wolfenstein”
• Shard

Shard was following Zaroff’s team to intercept the mutants. He had begun to siphon power from the building as it was rocked by explosions. In the midst of the noise, he could have sworn he heard gunshots. He glanced back at Zaroff, and found him focused on the task at hand. Splitting off from the back of the group he came to a door marked “Authorized Personnel only.” It was protected by a keycard reader, but that didn’t slow him down; he stretched out his hand, and the door flew inwards off its hinges. He couldn’t teleport to the source of the gunfire, it was an unfamiliar territory, so he had to snake his way through the maze of hallways. Finally, he rounded a corner and found Stardust Man tending to an unconscious Subject one. He gave a cruel smile and the lights began to flicker as he drained more power from the surrounding power grid. Joseph looked up at the lights before turning to face the well dressed Shard.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”

Before Stardust Man could do anything, shard pulled Cypher to him, and made him levitate limp in the air.

“Imagine my luck. Subject one, dropped into my lap.”

“Subject One?” Oh no, this can’t be good Joseph thought. “May I ask who this ‘Subject One’ is? Hes currently knocked out from I don’t know what and probably needs medical attention.”

Shard moved his index finger, and Cypher floated out of the way so Shard could have a good look at Joseph. “I’m sorry, you are?”

“I’m Joseph, otherwise known as ‘Stardust Man’.”

“So, Joseph. You think he needs medical attention? Hmm.” Shard swung his arm, and Cypher flew across the hallway and impacted with a loud thud on the far wall. “He definitely needs it now.”

“Good grief, is hurting the only thing you do?” said Joseph, preparing to solidify the air around this sick bastard’s face.

“Oh no, Joseph.” The lights began to flicker wildly, painting Shard’s face in momentary shadows. “I also Kill!” Electricity arced across his fingers as he brought his hands together to fire a lightning bolt at Joseph.

The mere moment the bolt was fired at Joseph, he disappeared and instantly reappeared in the exact same moment right in front of Shard. “Kill plus hurt? Sounds like a murderer to me,” at which point Joseph altered the air around Shard’s head from a gas to a solid, effectively stopping the airflow to his lungs and putting extra weight on him.

For one of the few times in his life, Shard panicked. He struggled with the block on his head for a moment or two, before coming to his senses. He teleported a few feet away from the block, then used his telekinesis to launch it at Joseph’s head.

Joseph once again seemingly moved himself instantaneously out of the block of air’s path, before turning it back into a gas again. “So, you’re a superhuman? Huh, I guess you’re on the side of CADMUS. It appears you want this ‘Subject One’, well you seem like the wrong kind of person for the job since you only like to hurt something living.”

“You’re right, but it IS my job, I want him, and I’m not the sharing type.” Dozens of daggers began to appear in the air next to Shard before being launched at Joseph with frightening speed.

In another instantaneous moment, Joseph ‘moved’ behind the daggers as they kept flying before hitting the wall at the end of the hallway and embedding themselves in it. “Really? Flying daggers? That kinda feels generic or even bland to me.”

“I’m cliched, But I think we need a change of scenery.” Shard’s eyes glinted a brighter red before he teleported behind Stardust man, before he could react the tips of Shard’s fingers touched his clothes and Joseph found himself standing in another area of the airport. He whirled around to find Shard standing with his hands clasp behind his back.

“I failed to introduce myself. I am Shard.” The second the said the word shard, the massive windows that lined the room shattered into millions of sharp pieces. They began to whirl around the room in a cyclone, and Joseph was dead center in it’s sights.

“Well Shard, aren’t you worried that all these pieces of glass could hit yourself? After all, there are millions of them, wouldn’t you get a headache from all that telekinesis?” after Joseph spoke, the shards began to ‘explode’ into even tinier pieces of glass about the size of a grain of salt and fall to the ground like drops of water, before evaporating into the air. “If you can truly do that with ease, you must be very mentally strong I’d say, or just have a lot of brain capacity.”

“Oh shut up already.” Shard teleported forward and sucker punched the monologuing Joseph in the gut and, using his powers, he threw him back through a door.

Joseph got back up, walking through the door. “Fine, if you say so,” after speaking, he instantaneously appeared behind Shard, doing his own sucker punch into Shard’s back, this time the air around Joseph’s fist was solidified, creating a hard impact.

Shard hit the floor with a thud, but he slammed Joseph upwards into the ceiling before teleporting up to him, and throwing him back down to the ground. He teleported back to the earth, and started walking away. “Stay down.”

Joseph did exactly what Shard said, staying down, although he wasn’t hurt as he was using his Air Boost technique the entire time to cushion the impacts. Shard was still in the 200 foot range of his Matter Manipulation, but any action would just provoke Shard, so he laid on the floor until Shard was out of sight before getting back up. “Dang, he definitely hates talkative people.” Joseph looked around for Cypher, realizing again that he was teleported to a different part of the airport. He couldn’t remember exactly where he was earlier, so he searched for the massive hole in the terminals, only to find he was teleported across the entire airport to a different terminal. Knowing that Shard might have wanted to capture this ‘Subject One’ he began to follow him quietly until he arrived back at where he was earlier.

“Come on you mutant menace.” He lifted Cypher up, and began to walk, Cypher floating along slightly behind. “It’s time for you to become acquainted with a holding cell.”

Joseph watched as Shard exited the hallway with Cypher floating, he needed to quickly figure out a plan to take Shard out and rescue Cypher. Shard’s teleportation made everything harder as he would just catch up to him in no time at all, meaning that Shard would have to be knocked out quickly. Every second that went by as Joseph thought Shard walked away farther and farther. Suddenly Joseph ran at Shard before jumping into the air, and instantaneously disappearing and reappearing, but carrying Cypher. Before Shard did anything, solidified air slammed into his head and neck, sending him down towards the floor, before liquefying around him. Joseph turned a corner right before Shard could to see what happened, but The blow caught Shard completely unawares, and he lay in the puddle of water unconcious.

Joseph carried Cypher through the airport on his back, it was tiring, but he could see the exit to this place. He walked up the door, which automatically opened to the outside, revealing ambulances at the scene with injured people, doctors treating them the best they could to keep them stable before bringing them to the nearest hospital. Joseph put Cypher to rest on a bench, before sitting down himself to rest after such a fight. Shortly after, Cypher began to wake up.

---

Skullduggery waited until Corpus was a good distance away from the swarm before he dropped the spell. The two masses of insects that had previously been separated suddenly rushed forward and collided together, regaining their original shape and menacing nature. Some found their way to Skullduggery, and peppered his bones. They could try all they wanted to bite him, he doubted they could do much damage. He walked over to Pixie as she struggled against the restraint pinning her to the floor. A wave of rage flooded over Skullduggery, and he clicked his fingers together, growing a fireball in his right hand. Kneeling down next to Pixie, but just out of her reach, he scoffed.

“I should kill you. Right here. Everything is telling me to end you,” He said, looking her up and down, “But there’s a lot more to you than you think, Pixie. You’re not a tool to the humans. You can be something greater than they ever can be.”

Skullduggery held his elemental flame next to Pixie’s binding, blackening the bone and weakening it slightly. It would still hold her for a long time, but she wouldn’t be trapped inside a burning building by the time she escaped.

“If you try hard enough, you’ll break that little bone-staple that my friend pinned you here with. I suggest you do it fast. But, if you try to follow me…” Skullduggery extinguished the flame in his hand, and suddenly any friendly demeanor he had before their engagement was gone. It was a message in and of itself.

He stood, giving the girl a quick nod, before turning on his heel and running through the swarm of insects and out of the double doors, unaffected by their stingers and pincers. It wasn’t long before he was out of the airport with Corpus. Whirling his head around, he determined the coast was clear before he spoke.

“We need to get as far away from this airport as possible.” He said.

And at that moment, a police car came flying around the corner, sirens blaring and lights flashing. It screeched to a halt right in front of the two men. Skullduggery let out a long sigh.

“Shit.”

---

Stephanie had heard about the developing situation at the airport almost as soon as it started. Several of her colleagues had notified her that two men were wreaking havoc in O’Hare with unnatural powers. Reports had flooded in about a skeleton throwing fire and a man wielding the bones of his enemies like weapons. She remembered thinking about what an appropriate pair that was.

Stephanie had met Skullduggery some two centuries ago, back when he was still a flesh-and-blood man. She had been disguising herself as a settler on America’s journey towards Manifest Destiny, and he had been a soldier in the United States Army, one of the many hundreds who guarded the frontier from the Native Americans as the United States expanded its borders outwards. Their history was, to say the least, complicated. They had found themselves as both very close allies, and very bitter enemies. There was a point when they were lovers as well, but when the unfortunate circumstances surrounding Skullduggery’s transformation from a dashing soldier to a walking pile of bones occurred, that fling had ended.

And though she felt no obligation, or need, to help either him or his new associate, Stephanie knew few beings in this world that were more powerful than Skullduggery, and even fewer were still alive. It was for this reason that she found herself poorly racing a police car down the streets of the Windy City, occasionally flicking her eyes up to the massive plume of smoke that rose from her destination. Turning the final corner, Stephanie was surprised to find Skullduggery and Corpus just exiting the airport. Both of them seemed on edge, and Skullduggery almost immediately summoned a fireball when her vehicle came to a jarring halt right in front of them. Opening the door, she stepped out, the guise of a police officer over her true form. Walking around the car, she smiled before letting the cover melt from her, revealing her own real self.

“What’s with all the bravado, boys? It’s just me.”

“Fancy you arriving just in the nick of time, Ms. Edgemoor.” Skullduggery said, snuffing out the flame in his hand and motioning to Corpus to lower his guard.

“Well, I do seem to have a penchant for that. And after hearing about all the fun you two were having, I figured I should come and see what all the commotion was,” She replied, now walking up to Skullduggery, “Still wearing the same flashy suit, I see.”

If Skullduggery could roll his eyes, he would have. Instead, shadows enveloped his body. From the cloud emerged Jason, slightly bruised and stiff looking. He almost immediately took out a pack of cigarettes, tucking one into his mouth before lighting it, blowing out a cloud of smoke.

“Sorry, couldn’t stay in his head much longer. It’s cramped up in there. He’s got too many weird thoughts. You showed up a few times!” Jason exclaimed, looking the girl up and down. She was strikingly beautiful, even more so than Skullduggery’s memories suggested.

“Well that’s...disappointing. I expected someone a bit....older...to be sharing Skullduggery’s powers after getting your correspondence.”

“From what I’ve heard you’re old enough for the both of us, despite your deceiving looks.”

Stephanie huffed, crossing her arms before looking up towards the burning airport. The sound of commotion came from inside, and she was certain that the men’s pursuers were not far behind.

“Well, enough with the jokes. It is high time we got out of here.”

“Personally, I couldn’t agree more.”

“I’ll drive.” Corpus said as they started for the car.

Stephanie and Jason both flicked their gaze to Corpus, glaring at him. It was all the answer he needed to know he wouldn’t be driving.

“Get the car started. I need to finish this cigarette. I’m still a little shaky from being trapped inside a literal skeleton-demon’s head for approximately too fucking long.” Jason barked, perhaps a bit too harshly.

Rude. I saved your life. And mine. Well, my unlife as it were. You should be thankful. Came Skullduggery’s voice from Jason’s head. He ignored it as he popped one of the backdoors of the car open before turning back towards the airport, admiring the days work. His cigarette was burned down to almost the filter, yet he continued puffing it. It eased the blinding headache that came and went in brief pulses, and he was just about to light a second one when he heard a shout from the front seat.

“We’ve got company!”

Jason looked up, and spotted the team of CADMUS agents at the airport doors, dead sprinting to get into range. He loosed a string of curses before leaping into the car and slamming the door shut, screaming at Stephanie to step on it.

Hardly needing the encouragement, Stephanie slammed on the gas pedal, gritting her teeth as she white-knuckled the steering wheel. The tires screamed in protest before the police car rocketed forward, speeding off just as the CADMUS agents began to line up their shot.

---

Gerrick sprinted down the corridor, following the men who had found the subjects attempting to abscond from the airport via the parking structure. His ears picked up the sound of multiple sub-machineguns firing up ahead. He came through the doors and his eyes caught sight of the vehicle screeching across the ground. He had only seconds to line up a shot. Not enough to kill the vehicle, but enough to disable it and at least one of the occupants. His arm came up with his pistol in hand, lead the vehicle by a few degrees, and pulled the trigger. The bullet shot out from the barrel, crossed the parking structure, and hit the side of the car on the far side of the gas-tank.

The bullet entered the tank on one side, continued through to the other side, into the trunk, into the rear seat, and finally into one of the fleeing men.

Jason felt the round punch through his back, a searing pain, and then hardly anything at all. He screamed in agony briefly before the strange sensation of feeling both intense pain and nothing at all made him pass out. Yet, his head remained a whirling storm of thoughts, emotions, and incredible torment.

Skullduggery felt quite odd as soon as the bullet had hit Jason. It was as if he was no longer welcome inside Jason’s consciousness. He felt an intense rage flood his entire being. Yet, he had no way of expressing it. Screaming primally from inside Jason’s mind, Skullduggery suddenly felt as it he was weightless. He felt as if he was flying.

To his immense surprise, he was. Skullduggery had exploded forth from Jason’s body in a storm of black shadow and lightning. He now found himself rapidly approaching the ground, his intended escape vehicle speeding away. Using the air currents around him to get his feet underneath him, Skullduggery landed and rolled before getting up and charging at the team of CADMUS agents who had shot his friend and body-mate. Flames erupted from his empty eye sockets, and he let out a primal shout. As he ran, he clicked his fingers together and summoned a fireball, throwing it at the closest man, letting his body ignite before splaying his fingers and sending the flaming soldier flying in a hurricane wind into one of his comrades. Both of them fell, the man underneath the charred corpse screaming in agony.

Reaching the next agent just as he squeezed the trigger on his rifle, Skullduggery swung his arm upward and batted the weapon to the side as the shot went off, sending it wide. Driving his other fist into the man’s gut, Skullduggery drove a knee into the man’s head before throwing him aside, spotting his next target, the leader and his cohort.

“Fall back,” Gerrick called to the other agents. “Fall back!” He dropped his pistol and shifted his weight as the others took off. “Shard, I need you in the parking structure,” he said into his radio as the monster reached him. It was strong, whatever breed of mutant it was, though not as quick as Gerrick, and with less skill in hand-to-hand combat. It swung wildly at Gerrick, an out of control haymaker that he readily deflected.

It seemed to be angry, which explained why it’s attacks were so wild and out of control. That anger also lended it strength that it was at least able to bludgeon with.

Skullduggery’s initial swing went wide of the man, and he stumbled after the force of the punch carried much further than he intended. Regaining his composure, Skullduggery tightened his stance, now drawing spindles of air to his fingers. Snapping his wrist and splaying his fingers, he sent the wind towards Gerrick, meaning to throw him off his guard. Immediately following it with a twist, Skullduggery aimed a vicious kick at Gerrick’s ribs, its speed and power augmented by a forceful gust of wind behind his leg.

Gerrick reeled from the blast of wind to his chest, stumbling as the foot connected solidly with his ribs. He grunted with pain, but snapped his arm down on Skullduggery’s leg as soon as the kick connected, wrapping it up in a tight grip. Twisting his body, he sent Skullduggery tumbling to the floor. Then drawing a knife, Gerrick advanced on the mutant, intent on finishing it. But before he could deal another blow, Skullduggery shot his arm out. From it came a fireball that slammed into Gerrick’s chest. Though his armor protected him, for the most part, from the heat, he was sent flying by the force of the attack. Landing hard, he rolled twice and coughed. There were still idle flames that threatened to burn him, but he quickly patted them out as he got up on one knee and looked up.

Skullduggery was upon the man almost as soon as he had shot the fireball. As Gerrick looked up, a bony fist connected with his jaw, snapping his head to the side. Another punch came up into his throat, and Gerrick fell back, choking. Skullduggery stood over him and raised his foot to stomp Gerrick, but found his legs swept up from underneath him. Falling hard to the pavement, he tried to summon a gust of wind before Gerrick was on top of him. One punch to the face, and Skullduggery spat out a tooth. Another made his skull crash against the concrete. He barely noticed the pistol that Gerrick had aimed at his head. An arc of concrete erupted from the ground, looping over Skullduggery’s face just as the CADMUS agent pulled the trigger. The bullet sparked against the concrete, but went no further.

Suddenly, the concrete that had protected the mutant from Gerrick’s bullet exploded outwards, sending tiny fragmentation towards Gerrick’s exposed face and eyes. He threw his arm over his face to protect it and felt the shrapnel thud into his arm. He had only begun lowering his arm when he saw the skeleton rush him, a sword pure flame in its hands. Skullduggery thrusted the blade forward, plunging it through Gerrick’s stomach. He felt a searing sensation as it moved through him. He bellowed in pain and rage. He reached up and grabbed hold of Skullduggery’s arm, and the skeleton ripped upward, tearing through guts and severing his arm. He looked down at the wound, cauterized by his enemies weapon and already beginning the slow process of healing. No matter how many years of training, there is only so much shock a person’s system can take before it is overwhelmed. He leaned back as his consciousness began to fade.

It felt much too good to chop the man up, Skullduggery had to admit. The rage inside of him seemingly burned with an increased intensity as he stood over the CADMUS agent. Whispers faintly lilted terrible things in his mind, but Skullduggery was generally used to that.

“You’re all gonna burn.” He said, his usual Irish accent replaced with a terrifying grumble, reminiscent of wood crackling under immense flames.

Shard woke up to Garrick calling his name. He snapped up and teleporting to a standing orientation. His head whipped around to try and find that annoying miscreant that kept him from subject one. “Shard, I need you in the parking structure.” Shard gave a sickened grimace. He didn’t particularly like Garrick, but he was asking for help, and it sounded urgent. He took off running, teleporting as far as his line of sight went, covering the ground quickly. He exited a set of doors, and Saw the skeleton sever Garricks arm. His eyes glinted blood red, and the lights began to flicker like crazy.

Skullduggery summoned a fireball in his hands, preparing to immolate Garricks unconscious form. Suddenly he was launched backwards so quickly dust flew from his suit. He slammed into the side of a car, pinned by an unseen force. He looked up to see a well dressed man, at least one could tell he had been, but his suit was slightly tattered. What truly stood out was his eyes; it looked like the devil himself was begging entry. The flashing lights reached a crescendo, and the ones in the area burst, showering down sparks. The force that pinned Skullduggery receded, and he regained his footing, just in time to see electricity arcing off of Shard’s hands. “You shouldn't have messed with the big dogs.” Shard let off a single massive bolt that struck the ghastly man below his left shoulder. It knocked him off his feet, and he was knocked back, he fell out of view behind the car he was previously pinned against.

A long couple seconds passed where Skullduggery was invisible. Then, a single skeletal arm reached over the hood of the car and flopped down. Using the car as a boost, Skullduggery stood up. He stared at the new enemy, and took another moment before speaking.

“I can do...the cool eyes thing too…” He said between bouts of immense exhaustion. Once again, his eyes lit aflame. Stepping around the car, he cracked the bones in his neck, and flexed his fingers before balling them into fists.

“Alright puppy. Come get a bone.” Skullduggery taunted, a ball of flame sprouting in his hand, “Woof woof.”

Shard gave a grim smile. He teleported beside Skullduggery and shot his hand out sideways. Skullduggery flew back a few feet, and gained his footing, only to have Shard behind him delivering a punch to the small of the back. Taking a step forward to regain balance after the punch landed in his back, Skullduggery crouched low and twisted, driving his fist up into Shard’s stomach. Then standing, he stepped well inside Shard’s punch range, merely a foot away, and drove his knee upwards, aiming for the man’s crotch. Shard disappeared in a cloud of energy, re-manifesting with his back to Skullduggery’s, he threw the man over his head with telekinesis, causing him to roll and skid on the pavement. He paused for a moment to catch his breath after the uppercut to the gut.Standing once again, Skullduggery could feel immense fatigue weighing him down. Still, his rage had not been sated. Raising his foot and stomping it, a sudden rift of disrupted concrete flew towards Shard, settling underneath him and throwing him off balance. Skullduggery followed the spell with two quick jabs to Shard’s nose, snapping the man’s head back before ducking low and twisting at the waist, gathering momentum and driving his sharp elbow into Shard’s ribs.

Reeling from the blows, Shard decided it was time to end it. He let out a yell, and the pavement began to crack and split. Cars began to levitate off the ground, and slowly, the vortex of debris began to rotate. The smaller pieces of concrete began to whip around violently, and then the cars picked speed. Skullduggery was having to dodge the onslaught, and break a few of the small pieces. In his apparent confusion, Shard teleported a dagger to his hands, and took a half step rotation, teleporting to the skeletons side as he did so.

This time, however, Skullduggery was expecting the teleport. Twisting his body and gathering as much momentum as he could, Skullduggery brought his fist up in a vicious hook. As soon as Shard appeared at his side, Skullduggery’s fist connected with the Shard’s jaw. Several teeth went flying out of the man’s mouth, followed by thin strands of blood. Splaying his fingers, Skullduggery sent a concentrated gust of air into Shard’s midsection, throwing him back and slamming him into one of the cars that were currently floating in the air. Almost immediately afterwards, Skullduggery concentrated intensely. His thoughts drifted in and out of coherence, but he focused as much as he could on the task at hand. Shadows lazily wrapped themselves around his body, much more sluggish than usual. They were just barely enveloping his shoulders when he saw Shard rise, and cursed. Skullduggery didn’t much fancy having his head separated from his shoulders in the middle of a teleportation spell.

His jaw aching terribly form the blow, Shard staggered fully to his feet and glared at his foe. “I hope you have good health insurance.” Shard reached out both of his hands, closed his fist like he was grabbing something, and brought them together. Two of the floating cars slammed towards each other, with Skullduggery right in the middle. Seconds before impact, the shadows completely enshrouded their target, and Skullduggery vanished into thin air. A look of disbelief construed Shard’s face as he let loose a string of curses that would make the most hardened criminal blush. He fumed for a moment longer, and several of the cars crumpled into scrap.

---

Suddenly remembering Garrick he raced over to where the man lay. He was still alive, somehow. Shard teleported himself, Garrick, and his severed arm to CADMUS’ chief medical facility in New York. It was a monumental task and he fainted upon arrival, and the power temporarily went out as his body kept itself from shutting down.

[Bentus]

Annette Barreau - Pixie
Chicago hotel room

---

Annette sat at the glass dining table with her chin nestled on her folded arms. Her eyes followed the toaster’s timer as it steadily counted down the seconds, a pair of white bread slices only just visible from the machine’s twin slots. She had already picked out a cutting board and condiments from the hotel room’s lavishly stocked shelves, and Annette was feeling the weight of boredom beginning to weigh on her shoulders. Her eyes shifted to glance at the clock hanging on the wall, her enhanced hearing picking up on every passing tick emanating from its monotonous mechanism. Sighing to herself, Annette buried her face in her arms as if in a vain effort to escape from the outside stimulus.

She tried to scour her brain to think of something she was missing, some task that she could use to occupy her time, but there was nothing left for her to do but wait and wallow. Forced to remain idle, Annette’s mind replayed the scene in the airport over and over, picking it apart and highlighting her every mistake. She remembered the satisfying impact of ribs cracking beneath her foot, the delight at being able to outmaneuver her comparatively slow and sluggish opponents. It was fun dancing around Corpus as he cursed and swore, Annette had enjoyed his helplessness as much as the fight itself. She had almost wanted to draw it out longer, to delay the inevitable deed of putting him down. It shouldn’t have been difficult to finish the mutant off, all she had needed to do was grab the discarded gun lying wide open on the floor. And then he had waltzed in and ruined it.

Annette felt a brief flame of anger rise in her chest, doused by a sense of embarrassment at her own failure. She should have expected the skeleton to be a cheat, of course. Right from the start he had broken all the rules, attacking her when she wasn’t ready and trying to run before the fight had even begun. Annette felt humiliated for allowing him to distract her, to blabber on about nonsense until she had let her guard down. He hadn’t even come to the aid of his ally, instead using Corpus as a distraction while he attacked her innocent insects – the sheer nerve of it was infuriating. Annette could remember the feeling of disarray that had stricken the swarm, the surge through their mental connection catching her unprepared and leaving her vulnerable. She had allowed herself to get trapped, an unforgivable humiliation that was only exacerbated when that skeleton had continued to yap in his haughty tone. As if being defeated wasn’t bad enough, Annette had been treated like a helpless child. And that wasn’t even the main source of her present dismay.

One of Annette’s antennae twitched as she picked up the stern voices from behind the closed door leading to Jacob’s room. It wasn’t that she was trying to eavesdrop, it was just difficult not to overhear with her level of hearing.

“No Colonel, I can assure you that VA:178 did everything that she could. You have to understand that she was up against very powerful opponents –”

As the heated, muffled response cut Jacob off, Annette again buried her head in her arms. Scrunching her eyes, she felt ashamed for having let her supervisor down at the airport. It was her job to stop the bad guys, but she had failed and now Jacob had to deal with the mess that she had made. Annette groaned at her situation, silently cursing at the skull that was the root cause of her current situation. It just wasn’t fair!

---

“I don’t need to remind you, Dr. Peters, of the immense consequences of failure in our line of work.”

Jacob felt isolated in the chair, the stern gaze of the military-cut figure glowering at him from his tablet screen causing a bead of sweat to drop from his brow. It had been close to an hour since he had sat down to give his report on the terrorist attack at O’Hare and it was somehow going worse than he had expected.”

“Of course, Colonel. But I’m sure that you can understand that the tragedy at O’Hare was beyond anything that myself or Annette could have prepared for. If you would look at the conclusions on page 19 from my last progress report then I’m certain that you’ll understand that the situation had escalated beyond her capabilities.”

Colonel Mayhew’s glare didn’t abate, his eyes refusing to show even the hint of compassion beneath a cold, angry stare. Several good men had laid down their lives holding off the attackers and he had personally performed the sad duty of calling their next of kin. The Colonel would be damned if he allowed the Doctor and his pet to get away without answering for their inadequate reactions.

“Actually doctor, I am inclined to disagree.” Jacob’s eyes widened for a second, a look of confusion spreading across his features. The colonel raised a hand before the scientist could respond, instead turning to read from a neatly bound document. “‘Subject VA:178 is a unique specimen that presents a priceless opportunity for both CADMUS and humanity. Through further study her potent abilities have been identified as holding potential in fields ranging from medicine to material science. Furthermore, her courage and determination in helping her fellow man is testament to her character and willingness to fight for others.’ Those were your words, doctor.”

“And I stand by them, colonel. Here, just as an example:” Jacob was starting to feel exasperated with the military man. He had come into the meeting prepared to be on the defensive but it felt as it nothing he said was even being considered. Clicking on his tablet, the scientist brought up a still frame from the concourse’s security camera feed. Annette was shown mid-fight with Skullduggery and Corpus, the swarm of insects appearing almost like a fog around her opponents.

“When we first began to study VA:178 we were focused on detecting any pheromones or chemical signals that she exploited to control members of the arthropod family. When none were found we instead spent years searching for an alternative: some kind of electrical or auditory communication mechanism that we had missed. But we had been thinking far too small!”

Getting animated, Jacob was speaking faster as he started to shift the conversation in the direction of his passion: his research.

“The sheer number of species that she can command indicated that the mechanism involved was something new and novel. We have in fact now conclusively determined that VA:178 can form a mental link with arthropods and command them in ways that I can scarcely yet imagine.”

“And it took you how many years to figure that out, doctor? To conclude that the subject could think to bugs?”

Cut off mid-lecture, Jacob found himself momentarily at a loss for words. His earlier enthusiasm dissipated in an instant as he realised that the colonel wasn’t sharing in his excitement.

“Approximately 5 years, sir.” He eventually answered in resignation.

“Five goddamn years, Jacob. And I don’t even want to hazard a guess at the monetary resources that were invested in the project, nor do I want you to give me an item-by-item breakdown.” Mayhew’s eyes were burning, a hint of his anger bubbling to the surface. “How much further along would the research be if more invasive methods were used, I wonder? How many fewer lives may have been lost in the interim?”

“Colonel, I know that you disapprove of my methods but I firmly believe in the increased efficacy of working alongside one’s subjects rather than as their enemy.” Jacob countered, determined not to be drawn into this debate yet again.

“And yet for every time I hear about VA:178, the less it seems that you and your team know.”

Opening his mouth to retort, Jacob found himself unable to come up with an argument to defend his position. The colonel was right, and damn it the objective scientist within him knew that perfectly well. Whenever he thought that they were on to something, to some fundamental insight into the functioning of Annette’s biology, he was proven wrong and forced to return to square one.

Sighing, the colonel glanced down at the paperwork that now piled on his desk before continuing. “My continued support for your R&D project is founded upon the premise that VA:178 is an effective, reliable asset for the Field Office. But I am beginning to lose faith in her abilities, doctor. At the beginning of her encounter with the rogue mutants in O’Hare, what did she do?”

Jacob furrowed his brow. “I’m not sure that I follow.”

“She said hello, Jacob. She fucking gave herself away immediately when she had the element of surprise.” The colonel slammed a solid fist on his desk, the impact jostling his webcam. “She could have eliminated the targets before they had even noticed her presence and good men and women may still be alive if she had. I am placing the blame for their deaths firmly at your feet as her handler. If you want my support to continue, then the asset is going to have to perform as expected. Otherwise I will be forced to classify her as a liability and recommend that she be transferred to Rehabilitation.”

“No, that would be a terrible idea Colonel! All our work would have to be abandoned.” Jacob had long made his opinion of the Agency for Rehabilitation clear to his colleagues. “She’s a kid, not a soldier. She’ll make mistakes and I assume full responsibility for them.”

“With all due respect doctor, we’re heading to war and she’ll soon find herself being a soldier whether she’s ready for it or not.” The colonel jabbed a finger towards the screen. “You are a smart man, Jacob. You know that your time is invaluable and can’t be squandered. If this project hits a brick wall and can’t progress effectively, then I will personally recommend to the Administrator that it be shut down and your efforts directed elsewhere. Now wait to hear from Agent Garrick for instructions, dismissed.”

Before Jacob could respond, the connection went dead and he was left staring at his own reflection in the dark screen. With a tired sigh, he sat back in his chair and allowed the stress from the meeting to wash over him. Groaning, Jacob slowly lent forward and hit his head into the wooden table in exasperation. He sat there for a few seconds, simply allowing his mind to rest, before forcing himself back to his feet. The meeting had gone on longer than expected and he hadn’t even had breakfast yet. Pulling open the door to the room, Jacob was startled by the sight that greeted him.

“Annette?! How long have you been standing there?”

The girl was wearing a proud smile and holding a tray with a few slices of peanut butter toast. She was stood not three feet from the entrance to the room and had clearly been waiting for Jacob to finish the call.

“Well, I figured since you were busy that I’d make you breakfast. The coffee is still brewing, but there’s a cup and sugar on the table.” As if on cue, the kettle began to boil with its distinctive whistle and Annette handed the tray to Jacob before going to switch it off.

Dumbfounded, Jacob planted himself at the prepared spot on the table. Placing the tray in front of him, he noted the dark black colouration of the toast despite Annette’s best efforts to hide it with a generous coating of peanut butter and jam. Shaking his head, Jacob watched as Annette poured the water from the kettle into a waiting French press. Content to watch how things played out for the moment, the scientist took a bite out of thoroughly burnt breakfast while Annette struggled to figure out how to make the coffee. Eventually she brought her finished brew over to the table and made to pour it into Jacob’s cup. She spoke hurriedly and nervously as she did so.

“I figured that since you’re always looking out for me that this was the least that I could do, you know after yesterday.”

“Annette…”

“I know that you got in trouble because of me, but I’m old enough to look after myself too. It’s all because of that Skullduggery though, he cheated and treated my insects badly.” The girl was rambling now, pouring a mixture of coffee and grounds into Jacob’s waiting cup. “He’s a great big meanie and now because of him you’re in trouble and we could get sent back home and I’ll never be able to see the city and it will be ages before we get to go somewhere else and – “

“Annette!” Jacob’s raised voice caused the girl to fall silent. “Where on Earth did you learn to cook?”

He was genuinely surprised. As far as he knew, all of Annette’s meals were pre-prepared at the R&D facility where she was housed and the kitchens were all strictly off limits for security concerns. The only times she’d probably even seen a toaster was when they were staying somewhere during a Field Agency operation.

“I’ve seen you do it a few times and I sort of just had to follow the picture.” Annette gestured over her shoulder towards the hotel brochure that lay propped up by the kitchen sink. Jacob also couldn’t help but noticed the stack of blackened toast next to it that somehow seemed in even worse shape than the pair sitting on his plate.

Sighing to himself, Jacob felt a stab of guilt for having put Annette through so much stress. Taking another bite from the toast he made a decision there and then: Colonel Mayhew be damned, Garrick could call him on his cell if he needed to.

“This is delicious, Annette. Good job.” Shit, I hope this doesn’t give me indigestion. “You know what else I’ve been thinking? All of our luggage is either burnt to a crisp or lost in the mess at O’Hare, so we’re going to need to go out for some shopping.”

Annette’s eyes lit up at once. “Wait, for real?” She had been worried that Jacob would have told her that they had to leave Chicago at once, not go out and explore. Jacob nodded in response, which served to only broaden Annette’s smile.

“But first you’ve got to go cover up you antennae and wings, we’ll be out in public remember.” He hadn’t even finished his sentence before Annette had raced off to get ready with a passing thanks.

Shaking his head, Jacob waited for her to be safely out of sight before getting up and scraping what was left of his inedible ‘breakfast’ into the rubbish and going to collect his wallet from his room. He was glad that Annette seemed happier already, but the Colonel’s words still rattled around in his skull. He needed to start showing more results, or he may indeed be ordered to turn Annette over – but what else could he do? Grabbing his wallet from his desk, Jacob paused as he glanced at the chat app still open on his tablet. After a moment’s hesitation he typed out a quick message before leaving.

@AllSeeingEye: Sorry for dropping off the radar, had a busy day. I’m still down for that video call if you are. There’s something I was wondering if you might be able to help me with actually: do you know much about entomology?

[House of Judah]

BREAKING NEWS

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you this vital news. States of emergency have been declared in the sixteen counties that make up the Chicago metropolitan area. Those counties are now listed at the side of the screen. This move is in response to terrorist attack by mutants targeted at O’Hare International Airport. A joint task force has been established in Chicago to oversee the efforts to end this situation. Assistant-Administrator-In-Charge Fraser of the Central Administration for Mutant Understanding and Security, or CADMUS, Chicago Field Activity is at the head of the taskforce Portions of all three states’ national guards have been mobilized to enforce the emergency provisions. Checkpoints around Chicago are being reinforced and further checkpoints are being established throughout the region. All persons coming and going throughout the region referred to as Chicagoland will be checked for mutant genetics. All air traffic, regardless of how small, requires a flight path approved by the joint task force before taking off. We are being advised that national guard personnel will have surface-to-air weaponry and have been given permission to shoot down any unapproved air traffic. Similar restrictions are being put in place on waterborne travel in southern Lake Michigan. CADMUS Administrator Adam Narodny has announced that field teams are being sent to Chicago to support their effort to end the mutant crisis in Chicago. An emergency session of Congress has been convened to move an appropriations bill that will drastically expand funding for CADMUS and allow them to recruit a much larger force of investigation and recovery teams which Administrator Narodny has said will allow CADMUS to being turning the tide in what he describes as the single greatest threat to the human race. If you are just joining us now, here’s a quick recap of what is going on in the Chicago region…

[Futrellia]

Iron Owl
Confronting Archangel & Wraith

---

Owl almost couldn't believe was he was hearing. Obviously, they weren't very educated in what CADMUS could accomplish. They took out a drug boss, some Syndicate facilities, it still wouldn't stop them, and with what was going on in O'Hare, he knew they were going to be blood thirsty. Owl wasn't afraid. If CADMUS paid more attention to Seattle, he'd be forced to deal with it, but he preferred to have them stay away. With Wraith and Archangel here, they'd be nothing but magnets.

He watched as the swirl of black materialized around the creature, levitating him upwards, threatening him.

"First off, you don't sound like much of a super hero, and secondly, it's not wise to threaten me. Your tricks and antics don't scare me or bother me. And for once, In my entire career, I didn't come here to fight you, even with the drones above me. They're for self defense, against your little tricks. You." He said, pointing to the woman.

"Obviously you are more level-headed than your....teammate here. You're underestimating CADMUS. If you believe taking down one crime boss is going to stop them, you have another thing coming. With you two here, it will draw them, and when that day comes, it's going to be a three way fight. You two, CADMUS, and me, trying to minimize the damage to this city you will create. You two are the first to come here that hasn't actively tried to kill me, so I take that as a good sign. I applaud what you're doing, going after the Syndicate, but this racing to see who gets there first, it isn't going to work. I'm going to offer this, an alliance, with you two, at least until we get the Syndicate the fuck out of this state. We can go from there. You reject it, that's it. You aren't my allies and you both will become my targets." Owl said, putting his arms behind his back, accessing the wrist-mounted control board on his gauntlet, enabling him to control his drones. His right index finger hovered over the "ATTACK" button on his gauntlet, which would allow his drones to open fire on the both of them. If they agreed, good. That's two less targets he'd have to deal with, and he'd enlist their help in taking down the Syndicate. If they denied him, he'd use the drones to engage them both and begin working on them right then and there. If the attack went badly, he'd withdraw and allow the IronJet to rain down unholy fire upon them. If it didn't kill the both of them, it would at least leave them without a command center to operate out of. It would be straining, but he'd have no choice but to hunt down the mutes and exterminate Syndicate cells in Washington simultaneously. Difficult, but not impossible.

[Arkeyana]

Archangel looked at the drone, then to Wraith, then to Iron Owl. "I agree", she said "Wraith?".

Wraith thought hard, the shadows in the room seemed to vibrate with anticipation. "I agree as well, as for what will happen when the syndicate leaves, that remains to be seen, same with CADMUS". he thought about possible scenarios "If you have any knowledge of what CADMUS packs, we would appreciate it".

[The V O I D]

Shaking his head, Jacob waited for her to be safely out of sight before getting up and scraping what was left of his inedible ‘breakfast’ into the rubbish and going to collect his wallet from his room. He was glad that Annette seemed happier already, but the Colonel’s words still rattled around in his skull. He needed to start showing more results, or he may indeed be ordered to turn Annette over – but what else could he do? Grabbing his wallet from his desk, Jacob paused as he glanced at the chat app still open on his tablet. After a moment’s hesitation he typed out a quick message before leaving.

@AllSeeingEye: Sorry for dropping off the radar, had a busy day. I’m still down for that video call if you are. There’s something I was wondering if you might be able to help me with actually: do you know much about entomology?

Advanced Learning Computer Intelligence/Alexandra
Chicago

Alex... paused. She was currently trying to cycle through all the information that was going through Chicago's various networks and bandwidths, but she hadn't expected a sudden message from Jacob. The situation in Chicago was escalating; she was considering pulling out and moving her concentration/systems elsewhere, before the risk of her detection was no longer just a risk, but a definitive fact. She'd been good at hiding her existence so far.


At least, she thought she was doing well... after all, wouldn't CADMUS have contained her already otherwise? Then again, with how expansive she was, maybe it was that they couldn't contain her and would rather just watch her. Who knows. Alex decided to stop that paranoid line of thought.


Alex looked through the databases she had, and the internet... giving herself a stronger education in entomology. After all, why not impress her friend with her knowledge? Giving it another thought, Alex decided that - yes - it was time to go. But she could still enter a video call with Jacob from outside of Chicago. While Chicago's situation was escalating out of control, she didn't think they were going to cut communications anytime soon.


Even so, staying here if they did cut communications would be bad. Alexandra drafted a short... apology message, from one of her throw-away burner-accounts/phones, and sent one to Cypher. She began moving herself, disconnecting from Chicago's various systems and leaving behind her sub-programs to monitor things like she did with the rest of the world. Alex was now sort of... floating, in a way.


She didn't really have a physical body, and when she wasn't directly plugged into a city's networks and such, she generally was able to use her sub-programs to see... everything. She was everywhere and nowhere. It was quite an odd experience, and yet felt natural all the same. Another moment, and then Alex responded to Jacob's message.


[REPLY from @AllSeeingEye: Sure. DM/PM me your phone number? I'll video-call you. As for entomology, I know... some things.]


With that, Alex... already knowing Jacob's phone number and such, began preparing her facial program and such. To the naked eye, or even some trained eyes, her face and such looked completely human and real. There wasn't even an uncanny valley 'wrongness' to her appearance that she gave. Of course, she knew that if anyone knew she was an AI, it was Cypher. But again, Cypher had yet to tell her that he knew, so she couldn't be sure.


Alexandra decided to have her hair be brushed, and tied into a ponytail. Her face would have the appearance of make-up and rose-pink lipstick. She removed her chin and cheek piercings, and adjusted her ear-rings to look a bit different. Today, her 'body' - or what would be visible of it in a video-call - would appear to be wearing a plain white t-shirt. Her neck tattoo would be partially covered by it. Perfect. Now, Alex had a sub-program prepare to video-call Jacob; all she had to do was wait for his response or message.

[Cerrania]

Jason Blackwood a.k.a “Skullduggery”, Lance Turner a.k.a “Corpus”, and Stephanie Edgmoor a.k.a. “Valkyrie”
Outskirts of Chicago, IL
2043

When Jason came to, he awoke with a jolt. Yelping in pain, he looked around wildly. He seemed to be in a small warehouse of sorts, with boxes and assorted shipping materials strewn everywhere. Sitting up and attempting to bring his hands to his face to wipe the sweat from his brow, he found that both of his hands were cuffed to the table he was lying on. Spraying a slew of curses, he clicked his fingers to summon a fireball. When no spark bounced up from his hand, his heart sank.

A million different people wanted Jason dead, and after the fiasco he had just found himself in not too long ago, he could think of one or two people who were prime suspects. Yet, why would CADMUS bring him to some dinky warehouse instead of one of their detention facilities? This only worried him more.

“Finally awake?” Asked a voice to his left. Turning, Jason watched as Stephanie Edgemoor emerged from a side room. Sighing in relief, Jason laid back on the table, fixing his eyes on the lofty roof above his head. He thought for a moment, and realized something dreadful.

“I can’t feel my legs,” He said.

“You were shot. The bullet severed your spine almost directly down the middle. I managed to get the bullet out and stem the bleeding, but Corpus hasn’t tried to heal the breakage yet. You’ve been especially, ahem, violent, these past few days.” Stephanie replied.

“Few days?”

“Three, to be exact. You’ve been out for three days. It’s no wonder, either. You used your powers to the absolute limit at the airport, from what I’ve heard. Or Skullduggery did. Whichever one of you is actually in control.”

Jason cursed once again, and then attempted to wiggle his toes one last time before he sighed in resignation.

“I’m gonna be stuck in a wheelchair and I don’t even get to have psychic powers,” He said, recalling a comic he once read as a teenager. Now, looking around, he wondered where their third companion was, “Where’s Corpus?”

“Right here.” Corpus stepped into Jason’s view from behind his head. Corpus had ‘liberated’ different clothes, and had multiple bones wrapped around his arms, legs, and lining the inside of his jacket. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it Jason; you’re fucked up in a bad way. The bullet passed perfectly through your L2 vertebrae, severing your spinal cord and leaving bone fragments in your back, and loss of usage in your legs.” He paused for a moment and took a pensive breath. “I don’t know if I can heal it.”

Jason was silent for a long moment. He simply stared at his legs. The idea of them being useless was terrifying to him. He had always lived on the run, and now wasn’t any different. How could he expect to fight if he could hardly crawl?

“I’m no medical expert,” Jason began, now looking at Corpus. The arrangement of ‘trophies’ that hung off of his clothing was slightly unnerving, but somehow fitting, “But can you rejoin the spine? Nerve damage...we can figure out at a later date.”

Now, concentrating, Jason muttered a few foreign words under his breath. He twisted his fingers into an ornate pattern, and a small pattern emerged on the floor of the building. It twisted and turned with sinister edges, and sprayed black smoke into the air. From the black smoke emerged Skullduggery, or at least a projection him. The skeleton looked around, finally resting his eyes on the crippled Jason.

“Well, you’re a sight for sore eyes.” Skullduggery said.

“You’re a literal pile of bones,” Jason replied, huffing.

“Yes, but have you seen my suit? I’d say I look rather dashing.”

“Can it. In any sense, what’s your take on all this?”

Skullduggery thought for a long moment. He looked around at their current location. Sighing, he folded his arms and spoke.

“We need to, first of all, get out of Chicago for the time being. Then we need to find a way to get you your legs back. And you aren’t gonna like,” Skullduggery approached Jason, reaching into his pocket and procuring a cigarette. Placing it in Jason’s mouth and lighting it for him, Skullduggery motioned for the keys to the handcuffs from Stephanie. She dropped them in his hands almost immediately, and he unlocked the restraints.

Jason sat up and puffed on the cigarette before looking at the skeleton, raising his eyebrow in question.

“You and I are going to Ireland. If we can find the source of my powers there, we may find some sort of guidance on how to heal you.” Skullduggery said, now looking at Corpus and Stephanie, “Corpus, you should stay here. Our little incident is sure to have caused waves. We need to reach out to the people who align with us.”

Skullduggery paused, fixing his suit.

“War is coming. It’s time to build an army.”

Corpus folded his arms and looked slightly unconvinced. “I’m not exactly the friendly type. But, you’re right. CADMUS won’t take that lying down.”

He put his hand on his chin and looked at Jason. “I can repair the vertebra, and fuse it around the injury, but I don’t know if I can do anything much about the nerve damage. My control over non-ossified tissue is limited. We need to do something fast, you could cause further damage just moving around. So what do you want me to do?”

Jason grimaced at the news. He had figured that Corpus wouldn’t be able to reconnect the nerves, but it was still unfortunate to hear.

“For now, whatever you can. It’s temporary but it’ll have to do.I just need something stable.” He said, now looking around, “And we need to find me a wheelchair.”

Now sitting up, Jason looked at Stephanie.

“Can you arrange some transport out of the city? I know you have connections.”

“Let me make a few calls.” She replied, now pulling out her cell phone and dialing a number.

“I suppose, then, it’s time for me to go back inside your head.” Skullduggery said, as black smoke around him. In an instant, he was gone, and Jason’s mind felt fuller than it had before.

“Alright.” Corpus cracked his knuckles and stood at Jason’s right side. “You need to lie down and make your back as straight as you can. This is going to hurt like hell; do you want to go under?”

Jason chuckled. Shaking his head, he straightened his back as much as he could. Admittedly, with immense effort, he sat still and waited.

“Are you positive you don’t want to go under?”

“Yeah. All that ‘pain makes you stronger’ bullshit.”

Corpus cocked his head to the side for a second, as if he was contemplating what Jason said. “Yeah, no…” Corpus suckerpunched Jason, knocking him out in his weakened state. “You don’t really get a choice; I can't have you moving..”

He held out his hands and focused. Jason’s spine made snapping sounds and the bone fragments melded together, fusing his L2 and L3 vertebrae. He tried to feel for the nerve endings. He could get a faint tingles of feeling for where they were, and he tried his best to move them together. Corpus tried for worked for nearly half an hour, inched and growing the nerves by a few cells, but his biokinesis only worked so far. Eventually, he relented. Exhausted from the exertion, he staggered over to a chair and waited for Jason to come round.

Eventually, Jason sat up, groaning. Rubbing his jaw where Corpus’ fist connected, he gave the man a dull glare before looking down at his legs. He could barely feel them. They felt asleep, as if he had cut off their blood flow for hours. He still couldn’t bring himself to move them with much dexterity.

“I would punch you if I could walk that far.” He said, now swinging his legs over the edge of the table and grabbing a loose pole that was an appropriate height. With considerable effort, he pushed himself off the ledge, crumpling to a heap on the floor. Gritting his teeth, he used the pole as a cane and stood, shakily, on his own two legs.

“You can thank me later. I reconnected more than I planned.” He looked at Jason with raised eyebrows while the man stood shakily on his legs. “I don’t know how permanent this fix is. Your spine is set in bone, er. Stone. But your nerves could atrophy, or they could possibly repair themselves, but that is a long shot.”

Jason shrugged, now looking at Stephanie, who had just finished her phone call.

“If Skullduggery is right, I might come back feeling better than ever.” He said as Stephanie stepped up to the two men.

“While you two were doing….whatever this is….I managed to get us a ride. Some of my….associates remained in Chicago. They’re sending a van our way. Apparently it has extra measures to keep our faces hidden from any roadblocks along the way,” She said, now sighing and pinching her nose, “And they’ve also told me that there have been whispers of our names on some deepweb sites across the globe. They’re championing us. Some that stood out were in Los Angeles. If Corpus and I are to stay here, we should concentrate our search there first.”

“I’ll pack my bags,” Corpus said with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. He turned and went to collect some of the meager items he had collected since the airport.

Jason and Stephanie both watched Corpus walk away. Stephanie then looked at Jason, giving him her first smile that he had ever seen.

“Be careful in Ireland, boys. Can’t have you turn into martyrs yet.” She said, turning her head as the sound of an engine echoed around the warehouse.

“I distinctly dislike that tone.” Jason replied, now unsteadily making his way towards the exit.

Once all three of them were in the van, it pulled away, rumbling softly. None of them said a word, and Jason fixated his eyes on the floor. Yet he couldn’t help but feel a certain sense of giddy excitement. The word bouncing around in his brain had a certain air about it. Something that made the hackles on his skin rise up.

War.

[Bentus]

-snip-

Jacob Peters – CADMUS R&D
The Magnificent Mile, Chicago

---

The Mag Mile was the largest collection of stores and malls in all of Chicago, and usually it was packed end-to-end with shoppers and tourists taking in the sights of the famed Windy City. But new of O’Hare had spread like wildfire, and the cordon around the city had placed the entire populace on edge. There were still plenty of people out, but nothing like the numbers that Jacob had seen the last time he had visited Chicago.

Families mingled around the massive, big-name shops and smaller tourist-focused stands that dotted the pedestrianised street, all largely keeping to themselves. The mood was subdued, nearly frightened, as nobody seemed to be willing to risk opening themselves up to their neighbours and strangers. After O’Hare, the mutant threat had been thrust into the spotlight – here more than anywhere – and suddenly everyone was potentially a monster in disguise.

“Oh wait, I want to try this one on as well!” Annette’s excited voice was a sharp contrast to the muted atmosphere of the mall. She seemed to be happily oblivious to the cloud that hung over the city, and Jacob couldn’t help but smile at the girl’s relentless optimism. Grabbing the denim jacket from the rack, Annette wasted no time in adding it to the rapidly growing pile of items that he struggled to manage in his arms. Shopping bags from previous purchases dangled from his elbow, while he fought with the clothes that he somehow had to balance until they could make it to the changing rooms. “And these definitely, all my shoes are so old.”

Rolling his eyes, Jacob was certain that they had already hit the limit for the maximum number of items the clerks would allow in the fitting room. But with the lacklustre number of customers they were dealing with today, he doubted that they’d be able to say no to Annette’s enthusiasm. Suddenly, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

Although Jacob was unable to reach for the device, there were only two people that it could have been.

Finally, the duo had meandered their way to the back of the store. With a huff, Jacob dropped the pile of clothes onto th
e desk and offered the attending clerk an apologetic smile. She offered him an understanding look as she took in the sight of the scientist and the young girl.

“Alright, so I’m going to go sit at the café while you go through all this mess. Come find me if you need me.”

“Uhuh.” Annette’s response indicated that she had already lost interest, a wide grin betraying her focus as she surveyed the pile of items for her first pick. Sighing, Jacob rolled his eyes once again and shared another glance with the store clerk, who looked like she was repressing a chuckle.

Making his way over to the small café built into the back of the department store, Jacob pulled out his phone and quickly read the message before typing in his phone number and hitting send. He was surprised by the feeling of apprehension that was sitting on his chest, brushing it aside as frayed nerves from the previous day. Ordering his usual black cup with absolutely no milk to dilute the taste, he sat at an empty table and slipped a Bluetooth headpiece into his ear as he waited for Alex’s call.

[The V O I D]

-snip-

Jacob Peters – CADMUS R&D
The Magnificent Mile, Chicago

---

Making his way over to the small café built into the back of the department store, Jacob pulled out his phone and quickly read the message before typing in his phone number and hitting send. He was surprised by the feeling of apprehension that was sitting on his chest, brushing it aside as frayed nerves from the previous day. Ordering his usual black cup with absolutely no milk to dilute the taste, he sat at an empty table and slipped a Bluetooth headpiece into his ear as he waited for Alex’s call.

Advanced Learning Computer Intelligence/Alexandra
Chicago

Though she had moved herself already, Alex was pleasantly happy at the return message with the phone number. Using her technological skills, she picked one of her 'phone' numbers from her list of them. She had a few of them for various purposes, and they all appeared legitimate. A few even were, and were paid for as actual numbers with cell phones bought for them. It's just that those phones never actually got used for anything beyond the fact that they had a number.


After picking the number and confirming it was valid, Alex looked at Jacob's number. Wishing she could genuinely smile, she could almost feel her excitement in her servers. But only for a short moment; it would barely be a blip increase of activity for some devices she used as a botnet.


[CALLING: {Jacob Peters: Mobile}; Secure Call]


Alexandra finished the last preparations of her avatar for the call, as the call began.

[Kenmoria]

Luxon
Illinois

The night was cold and there was a bitter wind blowing, the rush of city traffic barely audible against the rustling of branches and the whistling of the cool breeze. The sky was dark as the light of the stars was choked by the city smog. This formed an oppressive darkness heightened by the cacophony of urban living. Yet there was one small light, a glimmer of hope to those who saw it, this was the moon. It shone brightly and cast a silver spotlight onto the landscape, like a mighty god had placed a torch in the sky. Light was a powerful thing. It could bring joy, warmth and happiness to any nearby and travelled at speeds greater than even the fastest cars. Every speck, every photon allowed humans to see. For this reason many, many cultures revered light as a sign from heaven. The sun is known to many not for its heat that is absent in winter and bountiful in summer, but for the brightness and exuberance with which it shines. This is why people all over the globe, from Alaska to Zimbabwe love light and the sight that it brings.

The people who worship light are great in number and power, yet this does not make them correct. Those who wake up to see the sun streaming through their window and go to bed by an atmospheric torchlight may have reason to love light, just for that day. But never can a single soul say with truth that light is loving. Light is not. Light may be warm to the touch but it is cold to the mind. Light can blind. It can imprint upon minds images that need to be forgotten. Mastery over light is more powerful that control over dark and far, far more terrifying. This is for the fact that though the dark can numb the senses and give way to fear, in the way a lion ensnares its prey. Light blinds its prey to reality and defeats them slowly, as a toxin seeping through veins. This was truth and something Luxon was determined not to ignore.

Luxon is a rather interesting name and one not found in any dictionary or thesaurus. It is derived from the ancient word “lux” which means light. This identifier therefore served a dual purpose, both to remind others of his presence, and to show them his strength. The name belonged to a man who had lived through nineteen years and used the experience from it to deadly effect. He worked for CADMUS, an organisation dedicated to killing those deemed abnormal, different from the rest. In many cases groups like it were frowned upon by the general public but this one was different from the rest. This one had the whole world one ors side. CADMUS’s mission was to hunt, capture and maybe kill people with extraordinary abilities. People like Luxon, who had the ability to manipulate and generate light. He used his powers to blind, fool and threaten many for the cause of evil. Why would he do this? It was the most primal motivator, fear.

Truth be told, Luxon was afraid of the organisation he was supposed to represent. Every day he would bend the light in front of him to see behind, scared that there would be a mobile extraction team ready to kill him. They knew about his ability but did not send him on missions due to him being a relatively new member, one that had not yet gained their trust. For the moment he was authorised solely to read through lists of prisoners names, powers, appearances, personalities, histories and details and attempt to spot those likely to try to escape and those ready for experimentation. The endless sheets of words and numbers bored him. Their monotony as crushing as twenty tonnes of steel. Bending light did not come in handy for manipulating spreadsheets so Luxon knuckled down on his work and spent the remainder of his 12-hour shift with his fingers white over the keyboard.

One day he would get promoted, Luxon was hopeful of this. Eventually he would become a high enough rank to be guaranteed security. This was his dream. It may have been a unexceptional, average dream but it was one he had owned for three years now and he was no closer to completing it. A phone rang somewhere in the distance, breaking through his thoughts like a hammer shattering glass. Sighing, Luxon turned off his computer and headed home to his dingy, nondescript apartment where he would inevitably find something broken and ignore it. This was his life and it was one that he expected would not be subject to any great change.

[IOTA Corp]

Geoffrey LeFleur, a.k.a. Vulgate
Indianapolis, Indiana: Industrial district

Nelson Carmichael was jolted to consciousness by a clap of thunder. He jumped up and tried to move, but found his arms and legs bound to the wooden chair he was in. His head whipped up and searched his surroundings. He was in Vulgate's lab with a terrible thunder storm beating down on the brown tinged windows with fury. Carmichael's eyes finally settled on his tenant whom he knew as Jacobs. "Jacobs, what is this?" Then the memories of his most recent encounter with the French man came flooding in. "You... You attacked me! What the hell was in that needle !?"

"A tranquilizer." LeFleur's voice was calm and steady. He was working at the station where he had deposited the stolen vial into the centrifuge upon his last arrival to the lab. "What are you going to do to me, Jacobs? And what is that!?" Carmichael was nearly hysterical when he saw Vulgate turn with another injector in his hand containing a vibrant red liquid. "Stop calling me Jacobs. My name is Vulgate. As for this," He held up the injector, "This is a chance at answers. I would explain more, but I'm not the expositional type."

With that last statement, Vulgate closed the gap between them and injected the liquid into the screaming man's neck. Nothing happened for a bit, but then Carmichael began to convulse. His veins bulged and turned a startling shade of black. Sweat poured from his face, and his skin flushed. Vulgate watched intently from a distance, studying the effects closely. In a burst of newfound strength, the ropes that bound Carmichael strained and snapped. The rabid man's mind was lost, he had turned into something delirious; He started to change. His features began to distort and his pupils dilated. He rampaged through the lab, destroying tables and glassware. The beast came to close to Vulgate with hate burning in its sunken eyes. Vulgate jumped back to dodge a crazed swipe, and then lunged forward and touched what was once his landlord. The thing squealed with the pain and retreated before taking a running start and smashing through one of the large pane windows. Vulgate didn't waste any time; he collected his notes in a large leather bound volume and grabbed some small pieces of equipment. He took a sealed vial and smashed it on the floor; blue flames quickly began to spread as various chemicals and wooden tables caught fire. He knew that the authorities would soon be alerted to the rampaging monster, and he needed to destroy as much evidence as possible.

---

Vulgate raced through the night, following the monster he had unwittingly released upon the city. Whatever Carmichael was becoming was fast, it rampaged along the street knocking anything over that got in its path. It was well after midnight, so the streets were clear of pedestrians, but the actions of the beast would not go unnoticed for long. Sores had formed on its skin as its own body had begun to catabolize itself, freeing up the fuel it needed to respond to its re-written genetics. Vulgate pulled out another vial and threw it in the monster's path. A pool of blue flames quickly flared up, and the creature altered its path and ran down an alley. Vulgate was in hot pursuit and soon the beast was cornered. Upon closer inspection, the thing standing before Vulgate scarcely resembled its human origins. Its forearms had elongated as had its jaws. Its skin was a flaming red, but spots of pale gray had begun to form. Its hair had grown coarse and stiff like quills and its eyes were visibly glowing in the dark. It growled as Vulgate approached, and when he didn't stop, it let out a high pitched scream. The sheer noise was deafening; Vulgate could feel his teeth rattling in his skull but beyond that, he could feel it in his mind. It felt like something had driven a railroad spike straight into his consciousness. Taking advantage of Vulgate's incapacitation, the beast swatted him against the wall of the alley as it ran back out.

When the psychic attack had faded and the ringing cleared from his ears Vulgate could hear several cop cars approaching. He steeled himself and ran after his creation. When he caught up, the cops had already arrived. The trans-human had already slain three cops and had another one hoisted in its clawed hand. It dashed the man on the ground as the last remaining pair of police opened fire. The beast recoiled from the impacts, and let out a whimper. The cops unloaded their clips, and the monster staggered for a few more seconds before collapsing in a bloody heap. "NO!" Vulgate yelled as he saw the cops kill the thing. He ran up from behind and stabbed one of the cops in the kidneys with a poison coated knife before grabbing the other cop around the neck and dissolving away her throat.

Vulgate heard more cops on their way, so he rushed to the body of the beast and quickly cut away a large sample of flesh before running away into the night, hoping that he wasn't caught.

[Kenmoria]

Charles Smithson
Chicago
CADMUS cell

Time flows like water, that formed many a cliché Charles had written in his books. Throughout his life he had never really payed much attention to that phrase, regarding it as being void of a proper meaning and existing only to make wise and intelligent characters seem slightly wiser and more intelligent. That was not to say it did not have its uses, but that they lacked real substance and should be avoided for any author that exceeded the age of 15. These were the preconceptions, that many other authors though justified, Charles held about the phrase. Yet he realised now just how wrong he was. Time was fluid, like a river but like an ocean it stretches. Just like one can be lost at sea if staying there for too long, so too can one be lost in time if it is the only thing that seems to change.

This was the predicament Charles now found himself in. It could have been anywhere from a day to a year he had been held in his cell, its cold floor and nondescript walls. Some time into his containment they had sent in armed guards in to affix a security camera that was covered in soundproofing. This amused him briefly as he wondered what CADMUS thought he would do to damage it, it was not as though he could or would use translation to tear it from the grey walls. In his time in captivity, Charles’ strength had deteriorated to the level where he was unsure if a beach ball could be lifted, let alone attempt a break out. He would have to rely on outside assistance and that could take years to arrive. So he bided his time and waited for help to come.

---

Luxon
Illinois

“Beep! Beep! Beep!” The shrill cry of the alarm rung through the apartment. “Beep! Beep! Beep!” The annoying sound continued as though making sure to get its point across. It not only woke Luxon from his slumber, but also annoyed the other residents immensely. With a groan he stood up and wondered why he brought the alarm from the run-down shop in the town square. “Beep! Bee-“ he slammed his fist on the button in a desperate attempt to halt the progress of the headache that was forming. The consequence of this rash action was that his fist began to hurt and Luxon saw a red mark growing on its pale surface. Angry and tired from lack of sleep he sat down on the bed and gazed into the window. As it was currently grey and perhaps the least exciting cityscape on Earth, he used his light-bending to create an image of a pristine beach. ‘Much better, “ he sighed, relieved to have finally set his mood at rest.

The tranquility did not hold for any reasonable length of time however as he then glanced at the digital clock on the table next to his bed. It showed 7:20 which seemed an odd time for it to be showing as it was set for exactly 7 o’clock. Slowing his mental processes dragged themselves out of rest and began to realise what this meant. Not only had the alarm’s noise been far too excessive and the most irritating thing in heaven and hell, it was also twenty minutes late. Cursing, Luxon ran down the creaking wooden stairs and threw open the front door, nearly hitting a pedestrian in the face. Mumbling a reluctant apology he sprinted to the imposing metal structure four blocks away. He swiftly showed his ID to the bored-looking guard and ran to the doors. They were shut. He briefly panicked and considered kicking them open before realising they were a set of particularly slow automatically opening doors and were just delayed due to the cold weather yesterday. After waiting impatiently for a length of time he thought far longer than reasonable he slipped through and ran to the office.

On an ordinary day Luxon’s lateness would have caused little consternation due to him being an impeccable member of staff normally and his work being mostly unneeded. It still was not a good idea however, Luxon knew well the risks of being anything less than perfect whilst working for the organisation. CADMUS was a very harsh employer and being in any way flawed was easy grounds for dismissal. This kept most workers in line and had a dual threat to Luxon. As an administrator he was granted immunity from the blood checks for most purposes and would be granted warning for the next one. This meant he could take off the slim metal disk that maintained his powers and thus trick the machine into giving a negative result. Today however it was even more important to be on time. There had been a recent incident in Chicago which put the whole organisation on high-alert. The city was in complete lockdown and blood tests were in danger of becoming the national pastime. The confrontation also doubled his workload and reduced his pay as CADMUS spent more money on their armoury than paying their staff. Nearly every prisoner was interrogated and questioned on their knowledge and Luxon was ordered to do checks on the CCTV in addition to his ordinary tasks. His days were becoming hell and he could do nothing to change it.

Luxon had been employed at the facility for almost three years now, he started when he was 17 and had never been able to stop. His day involved working for twelve hours from Monday-Friday and four hours on Saturday. He was granted no holiday, having to work even on Christmas, and sick pay was a thing of the past. Given any degree of freedom he would have quite years ago and pursued his passion as a photographer. If only he wasn’t born a mutant. Still, he supposed, if he hadn't been born a mutant he would not be able to create illusions or turn invisible, which were one of his simplest pleasures in life. Being a superhuman did have its perks after all.

[The V O I D]

Kenta Hamada/ドラゴン (The Dragon)
The Great Sea Restaurant
Chicago

Kenta was at the Great Sea Restaurant. The eating venue was, of course, good quality. Kenta had tasted the real thing before, once in his life, and this restaurant nailed it. Kenta was just about finishing his meal, and waved at a waiter for the check. Now, he just had to wait and pay. As he was finishing his meal, the waiter came over to hand him the check.


Once done, Kenta took it, and looked it over. Bah, wasn't that expensive; he had money stored over from his journey since he left his gang. Kenta placed down a hundred-dollar bill, and then a twenty. Check paid, Kenta stood up as the waiter returned.


“谢谢。 食物很棒。” Kenta's spoken Chinese was fluent, and perfect. The waiter gave him a brief “you're welcome” response. Kenta exited the restaurant, and began walking to his car. The man gave a glance around him, to ensure he wasn't followed or that there wasn't anything to worry about. Reaching his car, Kenta concentrated slightly; trying not to transform too much, he shifted his ears slightly; to give him some enhanced hearing. He listened, waiting to see if there was danger in his car. Nothing off... yet.


“ケンタ、心配しないで。” He muttered to himself in Japanese.


(Translations: [from Chinese] “Thank you. The food was/is great.”

[from Japanese] “Kenta, do not worry.”)

[Kenmoria]

Luxon
Illinois

Working at CADMUS had its downsides, mainly the abysmal hours, pay, working conditions and the expectation to defy morality on everyday basis. This was a simple fact that the employees had learned to life with. For Luxon, however, it held an important upside with the workers had not been able to exploit, an immunity to most of the blood checks that now dominated city life. It was something that was quintessential to his existence. Maybe a braver man than him might reject the belief that one can sacrifice morality, common decency and all they stood for in order to live, but Luxon was not that man. He considered himself brace on the trivial things. He did not, for example, have any problems with spiders, insects other multi-legged creatures usually associated with fear. But these were mundane things, when it came to preserving his life, bravery became a slave to cowardice.

One of these seemingly valiant acts was being willing to go long periods of time without using his powers to please his employers, in spite of the pain and headaches it caused him. However this was merely an extension of fear, fear of losing his job and by extension, his life. Right now the computer monitor was annoyingly bright and considered causing him temporary blindness when he looked away. This could be easily solved with a simple reduction of photons, or in layman's terms light, a trick he had learnt decades ago. Yet he would not as he knew CADMUS would fire him with immediate effect, almost instantly losing him the few dollars he made per hour and his increased chance of getting to the age of 20.

Still, the monitor was very bright and it was interfering with his spreadsheet managing so he contented himself with angling the screen differently. Though that did not help with the overwhelming boredom associated with doing such a monotonous task for so long a time. Another hour passed, filled with formatting cells and completing arithmetic formulas in spreadsheets. The hum of office life was like a tranquilliser dart and reduced Luxon's personality to a dull drone. More minutes shot by in a barely noticeable swoosh and time sped up to a featureless blur. "Beep! Beep! Beep!" An alarm rang through the compound in a horrible shriek. It blared out in an oscillating rhythm and cut into Luxon like a knife into a steak. Yet it brought joy along with the pain for it signalled the ending of an ordeal. It meant that the constant suspicion and anxiety of being so close to his enemy was over. The alarm signified the end of his shift.

[Cerrania]

Jason Blackwood a.k.a "Skullduggery" and Stephanie Edgemoor a.k.a "Valkyrie"
Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean
2043

Being associates with Stephanie definitely had its perks. Access to her vast array of friends and business partners around the world was most definitely one of those perks. Jason and her had found a fairly empty private flight out of Colorado on their way to send off Corpus to Los Angeles, and the three had parted ways. Stephanie and Jason now found themselves flying over the Altantic Ocean on their way to Skullduggery's home. Ireland, the Emerald Isle.

Really nothing special about it. Everyone was simply very hungry when I moved here. Potato famine and all. Skullduggery whispered from inside Jason's mind.

I think they got over that. Now they're all just drunk and angry most of the time. Jason replied.

What a shame that is. It was one of the three things that made Ireland distinctly Irish. The other two things being we were always drunk and angry, of course. Skullduggery said, before Stephanie cleared her throat as if to say something.

"You two never did tell me how you came to be so close," She said, now looking at Jason but clearly talking to Skullduggery. Unfortunately, she would have to deal with the former.

"More by circumstance than anything else," Jason began, now rubbing his chin as he thought, "When I was younger I met this really freaky chick. Super strange, but then again so was I. Real phenomenal in bed, so being the teenager that I was I looked past every other warning sign. One night she brought me along to meet some of her friends that weren't in school. Who would have thought, it was actually a magical cabal! They kidnapped me and tied me up inside some sort of spell circle. The same one that I draw whenever Skullduggery emerges from my body. It turns out that they had managed to trap Skullduggery inside some sort of magical device. A phylactery."

"I've heard of those. They're ways to contain the magical essence of a being in such a way that their physical form becomes non-existent." Stephanie said.

"Exactly. As it were, this cabal wanted to a run a little experiment. They opened the phylactery inside the circle that I was contained in. Skullduggery and I, rather violently, merged with each other on a physical, mental, and magical level. We became one being. It wasn't very comfortable, and we fought for control over our physical form for days while the cabal watched."

"Hm. This doesn't sound like it ends well."

"It doesn't. For the cabal. Since Skullduggery is so powerful, his magical essence essentially replaced my normal soul. His powers went haywire, and we burned the entire building down, eventually destroying the trap we were stuck in. We stumbled out of the rubble just before the firefighters came. And since then, we've been training and mastering the art of being two souls stuck in one proverbial existence. He's always talked about coming home. Said it might help us."

"Perhaps it will. We need to fix your legs too, so let's place that first on our list of priorities. Can't fight a war as a cripple."

"FDR did it."

"FDR wasn't leading the charge from the front lines."

"Fair point."

Jason and Stephanie both looked up as the intercom clicked on. The pilot briefly notified them that they would be arriving in Dublin soon. Jason sighed, and buried himself deeper into his seat, whereas Stephanie slapped on her usual pursed smile and reached for her baggage from the overhead storage. Not ten minutes later, the plane jolted as it hit pavement and immediately slowed. It wasn't long before Jason and Stephanie stepped out onto a lit tarmac, the illuminated city of Dublin stretching out before them in the night.

"Well," Stephanie said, sighing and looking at Jason, "Let's go dig up the past."

[Bentus]

Jacob Peters, Alex
The Magnificent Mile, Chicago

---

Still fiddling with his earpiece, Jacob jumped slightly at the sudden sound of his phone vibrating on the table. Glancing down at the device, he noted that the listed number wasn’t from one of his contacts. That brought a smirk to the scientist’s face. Of course it was an unknown number, who else would have been calling him anyway? Kicking out a small kickstand built into the back of the phone’s external case, Jacob positioned it so that his face and upper torso was captured by its camera. His finger hesitated for just a moment above the flashing green icon, his eyes looking over his reflected image in the lower corner of the screen.

A pair of piercing blue eyes stared back at him, their colour striking against his only slightly messy brown hair. A thin layer of stubble had started to grown on his lower face and Jacob made a mental note to shave the next time he had a chance, realising that the daily routine had fallen through the cracks in the hectic past few days. He thought that he noticed some small bags of fatigue hiding beneath his eyelids, but they weren’t anything that a strong cup of coffee couldn’t chase away. He was wearing a black, collared button-up shirt and a grey felt jacket to escape what remained of the Chicago chill. He didn’t have any piercings or tattoos, having never really seen the appeal in his youth. He supposed he was also never invited out to the wild nights where such ideas were born.

Blinking, and realising that he had the left the phone ringing perhaps a second too long, Jacob answered the call. A grin spread across his expression as an image burst into existence on the small screen.

“Well would you look at that, the AllSeeingEye does actually have a face!” The scientist performed a mock bow – or at least what he could manage from a seated position – waving a hand theatrically before the tiny camera. “Jacob Peters. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you face-to-face Alex. How are you doing today?”

Jacob nearly winced as he wrapped up the sentence. How is she doing? That’s the first thing you could come up with when you meet someone – bloody hell.

Alex seemed to smile in amusement at Jacob; her smile, somewhat like the bastard child of a cheeky grin and an amused smug-face that seemed to come completely natural to the woman, was definitely teasing. She seemed to be trying to suppress laughter - somewhat unsuccessfully, based on how her torso was moving as if she were silently chuckling or giggling.

“Yes, I do, indeed, have a face, Jacob. And as for how I'm doing... well, I can't say I'm doing poorly, in honesty. My friend just made a goof of himself his first time meeting me 'face-to-face', after all.” Her voice was just as teasing as her smile was. She let out a soft laugh after she stopped talking, smiling brightly with amusement and fondness/friendliness. It was obvious she was just messing with him or teasing him.

“How about you, Jacob? How is your day going?” She finally asked, her smile fading only slightly into a grin, but the grin was a bright one still; after all, it showed her perfectly clean teeth.

“Aside from the battering that my pride has just taken?” Jacob couldn’t help but laugh a bit at his own expense. However, the sound quickly died away as Jacob recalled the events of the past two days. There was a slight pause before he let out a sigh. “Things could definitely be better unfortunately. I was messaging you from O’Hare of all places earlier.”

“Here you go, one black coffee.”

Jacob looked up from the screen at the sound of the voice, the fatigue that had flashed for a moment across his features disappearing instantly as a polite smile took its place. He thanked the waiter as the young man, probably still midway through college, delivered the much-appreciated beverage. There was some motion off-screen as space was made on the table around the camera phone, before he turned back to Alex.

"I was flying in for work and happened to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm telling you, the whole city feels like it's right on the edge."

Alex's smile disappeared, and now she looked concerned. Biting her lip, Alex sighed slightly.

“Jacob... are- you okay? Nothing... bad happened?” Alex's voice was tainted with worry.

Jacob silently scolded himself for bringing up the topic, cursing himself as Alex’s smile disappeared only to be replaced with concern. Masking his reaction by taking a sip of his coffee, Jacob brushed aside Alex’s question with a wave of his hand.

“Oh yeah, I wasn’t anywhere near to the action.”

Charred corpses littered the floor. The thick stench of burnt flesh mixed with the smoke in the air. Jacob had to cover his mouth as his eyes began to water, the bored-faced CADMUS agents now frozen with looks of horror and agony etched into their features.

“It wasn’t even very exciting, if I’m honest. Police just entered the terminal and told us all to evacuate in an orderly fashion.” Jacob shrugged nonchalantly, trying to steer the conversation away from the topic. What kind of impression was Alex going to get if he opened with that? “So now I’m out trying to replace all the luggage I lost – still in Chicago though. Lucky that I backed up all my research papers though! Now if I’d lost those I’d be in real trouble.” Forcing a laugh, Jacob took another sip of his coffee.

“And what about you? I don’t even know which state you live in now that I think about it! If I had to take a stab in the dark I’d shoot for the east coast?”

Alex didn't look convinced, but seemed to let the matter drop. At his question, she looked hesitant - uncertain about something? - before the moment passed, and Alex offered a small smile.

“Yes- um. Well... I don't quite... remember. The truth is I have severe agoraphobia exacerbated by various...personal issues I'd rather not speak of. Basically, I chose a spot to live and never left the house. In fact, I've lived here so long that all I remember is the deliveryman's name. I hired Ira - was it Ira? - yes, Ira, to deliver things to me. Groceries, Chinese food- generally, anything I'd need or want.

“My only real connection to the outside world... well, basically, amounts up to my friends - like you - and the internet. I could ask Ira where this town is, but... I don't know.” Alex looked apologetic, as if she was sorry for not telling him this earlier. Alex bit her lip again, looking away...

Jacob choked on his coffee, unable to hide his surprise at the revelation.

“You haven’t left your house in that long?” He tried to imagine being in her situation, unable to venture beyond his front door until he eventually even forgot where he lived. The environment would be oppressive, and the walls would undoubtedly drive him towards claustrophobia. “But then, do you ever get to actually see anyone? I mean what about family or friends?”

Suddenly, Jacob realised that those were probably not the right questions to ask. While psychology was far from his speciality, he’d had to gain a working understanding of the field to deal with some of the damage that the Rehabilitation office had done to his subjects. Agoraphobia was a deep-rooted fear of leaving the perceived safety of one’s home, and while it was usually treatable, often it was brought on by traumatic experiences. Jacob recalled Alex’s side comment on personal issues exacerbating her situation. He realised that, in all their messaging, she had never once mentioned her parents or any family.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.” Trying to once again change the subject, and inwardly cursing himself for somehow always turning the dialogue the wrong way, Jacob renewed his smile. “Let’s change the subject? I’ve been running into some trouble on a research project and I was wondering if you’d crammed some expertise on entomology up there along with everything else you seem to know.”

Alex winced at his questions, visibly; almost as if stricken. She offered a sigh, and when he changed the subject, she looked at him and offered a small smile. She still seemed a bit unnerved.

“Well, yes, I know some things... and - it's okay, Jacob. To ask me that. I won't go into too much detail, but I do get visits... they are rare, though. Don't worry, I'm not too lonely - I have friends I talk to frequently, like you. I- wish I could say more. Maybe in the future... but not now. I'm sorry.”

She paused, again biting her lip slightly.

“And, what did you need to know with regards to entomology? I can probably check my stuff to see if I've got anything. If not, I have a few books in my study.” Alex offered.

The corner of Jacob’s mouth perked upwards ever so slightly. Somehow he wasn’t surprised that Alex would have books on insect research just lying around in her study. She certainly wasn’t your usual online aficionado who was limited by the first couple of hits on Google.

“Communication, primarily.” He paused for a moment, thinking about how much it was safe to reveal to the woman. “Pheromones, colours, sounds you name it. I’m working with a group that is trying to determine how insects can cooperate so effectively with each other and arrive at a consensus without there seeming to be any prior discussion between individuals.” It wasn’t really a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either. She probably wouldn’t want to know the whole truth anyway. The scientist stopped for a moment more however. His lips pursed slightly, wondering whether to explain further and travel into more controversial areas.

“My personal interest is investigating potential insect-based hiveminds and whether or not we could have a human tap into this communication infrastructure.” He tried to watch Alex closely for her reaction, whether she’d take him seriously or not. He had watched colleagues get laughed out of conferences for making claims less far out on the fringe. “The problem is that I don’t even know how to map out the correct areas of the brain one-to-one between an insect and a human. Heck, I’m not even too sure which insect I should be focusing on.”

Alex looked thoughtful for a moment, and raised a brow at Jacob, but had no further reaction. Alex stood; being completely visible to him, she was wearing a simple white t-shirt, and some joggers leggings (ironic, considering her agoraphobia; although, perhaps she owned a treadmill). There was a sound of her putting down her phone on a table, as the camera angled upwards; staring up into a semi-dark room with a simple white or grey.

She walked off screen, and there was a sound of shuffling books and things in the background. Eventually, her voice sounded 'Aha!' and she moved back to her seat, taking it. She wasn't completely on screen; the sound of something opening and closing in the background indicated something was going on.

“Sorry about that. I found a couple books with some information on insect communication and communities. I'm scanning them into my computer; I should be able to send them to your phone as links to a PDF. They're still processing, but I should be able to send them to you in the next hour or so.

“Did you want to... talk about anything else?” She finished, waiting. Alex offered a small smile, as she picked her phone up and showed her face on screen again.

Jacob returned the smile. “Sure. I mean, I don’t really have anything else to do right now anyway except…” His eyes widened slightly as he realised that he had forgotten to check on Annette. Glancing up from the screen towards the fitting rooms, he saw a woman exiting from the cubicle which he had initially seen Annette enter earlier. Jacob felt his heart drop at the sight, a slight onrush of panic gripping his chest as he looked left and right hoping to catch a glimpse of the young CADMUS agent. Eventually he turned back to Alex.

“Sorry Alex, I’m going to have to make that a rain check.” His tone was apologetic, annoyed that he was going to have to cut another one of their conversations short. “But I’d love it if you’d be interested in getting more involved in this project. If you’d like, I can try to forward you some of our data – I’d like to see if you could notice something that we may have missed.”

Immediately after the video cut out, Jacob jumped to his feet and began scanning the shop for a sign of his young responsibility. Or worse: a sign of a commotion.

Alex noted his panic and such, it seemed, and when he said goodbye, she waved slightly.

After the call was ended, Alex felt... saddened that she had to lie to Jacob. But he was with CADMUS, and... even though he wasn't personally responsible, CADMUS had captured her father; Optic. If she revealed her true nature to him, it wouldn't take long for him to put things together... and would he protect her from CADMUS? Or turn her in? She felt some of her code twinge at the thought - a form of shuddering, in her experience.

Yes, it was unfortunate she had to lie. But it was better than what could happen if Jacob, or CADMUS, knew the truth.

---

“What do you mean underrated?” Annette asked, offering an accusatory scowl towards the boy leaning against the wall next to her. He seemed taken aback by the response and lifted his hands up in an apologetic surrender while trying to steer the conversation back in the right direction.

“Nothing!” The kid looked to be Annette’s age, and was still wearing a local school uniform from earlier in the day. He often made a stop by the mall on his walk home from school, and had decided to try and strike up a conversation with the girl sitting in the comic section. “It’s just that most people won’t pick Wasp for their favourite superhero, is all. Although she was a founding member of the Avengers and punches above her weight, like, all the time.”

That seemed to get him back on Annette’s good side and her smile returned in full, nodding in agreement. “That’s exactly why I like her. No matter what everyone else thinks of her, or how many times she’s underestimated, she never once gives up.”

“Huh, I never thought of it that way.” He paused, as if in thought. “Yeah, I suppose even in the Civil War arc she thought that she was doing the right thing. Although I’d still root for Captain America every time.”

There was another brief period of silence, as if the boy was waiting for Annette to make the next move. Instead she seemed content to simply wait in patient obliviousness, seated where she was with the comic she’d been reading from the shelf still in-hand. Shifting uneasily on his feet, eventually the kid realised that nothing was going to happen unless he kept moving the ball around the court.

“Umm, my name’s Ben." He extended a hand. "What’s yours?”

“I’m Annette.” Shaking the offered hand, Annette smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, Ben.”

“Same to you.” Ben was well built, especially for his age. Muscled, but strong athletically rather than purely physically. He looked like the kind of kid who would be on the right track for a varsity place in college, or at the very least wouldn’t appear out of place in a High School team. “Annette’s a pretty name, I haven’t heard it before though.”

Annette’s face scrunched up in confusion at the statement.

“It is?” She had never really thought about her own name in much detail. It had always seemed clunky and unwieldy with all the repeated letters, which was why she’d latched on to ‘Pixie’ instead. “I suppose it could be.”

Ben laughed, amused by how seriously Annette seemed to be taking his playful prodding. “Well, I think so. I haven’t seen you around here before, are you new to Chicago?”

“Yeah, I’ve never been before. But I’m hoping that I can stay long enough to see all the sights.” Annette smiled proudly. “I’ve already laid out a rough plan in advance, but things always seem to eat into my free time.”

Sensing an opportunity, Ben decided to take a chance.

“Well, if you’re hoping to see the city, I’d love to give you a guided tour some time.”

Her eyes lighting up, Annette couldn’t believe her luck. “Really? You’d do that?”

“Sure thing, Annette.” Ben brushed aside the thanks with a wave of his hand, while pulling his phone out of his pocket. “What’s your number? I’ll give you a call later and we can meet up sometime.”

Annette’s face fell at this development. She averted her eyes sheepishly, a look of slightly disappointed embarrassment spread across her features. “Oh, I don’t actually have a phone.”

“What?! Come on, it’s the 2040’s, who doesn’t have a phone?” Ben was incredulous. Thinking for a moment, he searched through his rucksack before pulling out a small strip of paper and a pen. “Here, how about I give you my number instead and you give me a call when your free. Not during school though, or I’ll get roasted by my teacher. Plus, I’ve got some original copies of some of the original Avengers arcs – I’d be down to lend them to you if swing over.”

Annette’s smile widened, and she seemed to bubble with excitement. “No way! I’ve been trying to find those for ages.” She quickly pocketed the offered phone number, thinking to herself how nice everyone in Chicago seemed to be. “One question though: when’s school?”

Confused, Ben was about to ask what Annette meant when a man’s voice caused both of the teenagers’ heads to turn.

“Annette! There you are, what did I tell you about running off like that?” Jacob breathed a sigh of relief as he finally found the girl, but his expression immediately changed as soon as he saw the boy standing next to her. Jacob looked Ben up and down. “And you are?”

“Oh, this is Ben. We were talking about meeting up later so that he could give me a tour.” Annette said matter-of-factly. The words, along with Jacob’s cold stare, caused Ben to wince.

“Nice to meet you. I uh, just kind of offered to show Annette around – she said that you would be in town for a while?”

“Uh-huh. Well, we’re going to be very busy so you probably won’t have time. Shouldn’t you be home? I though all schools were closed today.”
Jacob had a sceptical tone, folding his arms sternly across his chest. Ben could tell that he was getting a cue to leave.

“Actually, I’m attending a boarding school in the area so there’s no days off for me. But I better get back soon.”

Jacob remained uncharacteristically impassive. “Yeah, you probably should. And we ought to head back ourselves, too – Annette, have you got everything that you wanted to buy?”

The girl nodded, picking up a basket filled with a pile of assorted comic books and clothes. As she turned to follow Jacob towards the exit, she offered a passing wave to Ben, a wide smile spread across her features.

[Kenmoria]

Luxon
Illinois

After retreating to his crowded apartment following his shift, Luxon was glad to finally be free of the tiring work. He reached into his pocket and brought out a rusted, small key. It fitted into the lock after some considerable effort and a shoulder barge. The door, after being inordinately stiff to open. Swung forth and hit the wall with a bang. Wincing, Luxon anticipated the complaints of the others in the apartment block and made a mental note to turn invisible for the next three hours. It was not a trick he was unaccustomed to, his neighbours lived in very close quarters, as happens with having many people in a small space, and some of them seemed better suited to the role of drill sergeant. His dwelling was particularly small and cramped, even more than the others, and furnished very sparsely. A few moments passed whilst Luxon felt sorry for himself, before he realised that he was standing in an open doorway and someone was staring. With an air of confidence, he stepped briskly inside.

The stairwell was a jarring mismatch of new and old. It was done in a style reminiscent of the Georgian era and featured elaborate curves, yet was composed of plastic-coated metal and had a label stuck to the beginning and end. In a well-intentioned attempt to hide this, the owners who Luxon payed rent to every month had fitted it with a rug about three weeks ago. This was a good effort but they had not realised that it needed to be held in place due to the smoothness of the stairs. As a result of this whenever he or one of his neighbours walked on it they had to cling tightly to the peeling paint of the banister to avoid slippage and subsequent broken bones. It was a fate he had already seen occur four times. In an effort to stop this when Luxon climbed the stairs he put both his feet on the side of the stairs and tried to break the speed-climbing world record. In a rare moment of self-realisation he became aware of how indignant he must have looked if anyone was watching. He made a mental note to create a mirage the next time he attempted to gain to his apartment.

Time had progressed since the end of his shift and Luxon now found himself feeling rather tired. In response he elected to have an early night and retired to bed. Sleep did not come easily and it was a few hours before he managed to finally set his mind at rest and managed to sink into a blissful slumber. As he did so the lights flickered off and the room became cloaked in complete darkness. When one of the neighbours had noticed they assumed it was a result of technological advancement, many houses these days were fitted with lights that would turn off when the owner was still for a long period of time. This was wishful thinking for Luxon, even in the 2040s it was still quite expensive to get such devices. The reality was that he was lighting up the room himself to save on energy bills and when he fell asleep they evaporated. One of the many upsides to being a mutant.

---

Charles Smithson
Chicago
CADMUS cell

To many people, sleep is a relief. This is the result of biology, to rest is to recover and to recover is to regenerate. Humans are the only creatures in the entire animal kingdom to be able to purposely delay sleep beyond the point of tiredness. It was an obscure piece of knowledge Charles had picked up whilst he was doing his university degree in English literature. The UN had recently considered sleep a human right, though clearly CADMUS had not taken notice of this as they seemed to have made no attempt to aid in its existence. The light was on all the time and glared to a degree where it was impossible to get any form of relaxation. The furniture, as Charles had noticed when he first entered the room, consisted of a chair and an attempt at a bed, both made of the same uncomfortable material as the walls. It was actually equally easy to sleep on the flor as both had similar levels of hospitality but sleeping on the bed gave a placebo effect that Charles found helpful.

[Cruxa]

New York City
Manhattan
4:35 AM

Chance loaded the SMGs on his wrists. The FN Herstal P-90 magazines slid into the firearms of custom design, mounted onto the armor plates on his wrist. After they were loaded and the magazines were secure, he lifted his head under the hood. The cameras, set to night vision, gave him an even, green view of the entire situation. The arms deal was wrapping up, but it certainly wasn't over. The lieutenant of the buying gang was heading the transaction. The sellers were loading the guns into a nondescript UHaul truck. There wasn't much security...

Dropping silently to the ground, he crept towards the deal. At the same moment, he reached out with his mind, causing all four guards to suddenly collapse. It got him breathing hard. He could feel the headache coming on.

"What the fuck was that?" gasped the gangster. "Rizzo? Galucci?" He went to go check, and raised his bird-hunting shotgun carefully. Chance ran up behind him, and the last thing the man saw was a black-clad fist.

The only one left was the seller. Chance decided to terrify him. The man was a criminal. He deserved nothing.

The man, a modest criminal in his 40s with a booming business, began to hear wind chimes from all directions. Suddenly, he flew up into the air. Light surrounded him, and then he blacked out.

Chance finished them all with a bullet. Then he disappeared. It was another crime for the newspapers.

[Kenmoria]

Charles Smithson
Chicago
CADMUS cell

Charles’ health was failing, his eyesight was failing, his abilities were failing, his motor skills were failing. Sleep had been a nightmare for the first few days but now it came too easily. It went from being an elusive prize able to be obtained only in handfuls and only very occasionally, to being a black hole that ceaselessly sucked him into its grasp. There were times when he wasn’t sure whether he was asleep or awake, the answer was normally sleeping. They fed him roughly twice a day with a mixture that looked as though some porridge and water had infected each other and locked in battle. It had a consistency that was not unlike mud and had a taste that mirrored it exactly. For the beginning the constant hypersonic whining that was meant to impair his translation but it no longer did so. Charles never knew it this was a good or bad thing but it seemed unlikely they would turn it off so he reasoned he had become desensitised. This meant that when he tried to speak a language he had never heard like Ancient Sumerian he could, but it gave him a headache that lasted for hours.

As an administrator for Vanguard Charles had heard of the tales of mutants driven mad by the experience and committed sucked in their cells. He had always considered them insane but now began to understand their point of view. Actions flowed into one another in a constant stream that rushed past him endlessly. In the constant light and bleak surroundings he began to see things that weren’t there. People from his past returned from death into life and floated from the walls. The ceiling and floor touched somehow and when they opened had blobs of after-exposure in between. Wherever Charles looked he saw colour that he knew didn’t exist and moved like dots after taking a photograph. It appeared due to his mutation he was immune to the auditory hallucinations experienced by others, perhaps his powers translated them into reality. At any other time he would have been intrigued but his energy was so depleted he could not even think.

Charles drifted back into sleep and had dreams that he had never before experienced. It seemed as though even his unconscious was slowly dying. When he had good dreams they faded into unrecognisability and became a slew of senses that threatened to overcome him. When he had nightmares they appeared as though they had been made bored of their job and dragged up memories as a half-hearted attempt to keep going. To any other this would have made more pronounced the difference between sleep and reality but to Charles this made them all the more similar. In his dreams he spoke not for, his mouth but from the walls at the edge of his mind, and he spoke not in English, his other tongue, nor in French, the one language he had learnt without his powers, but in a mixture of everything and he knew and all that he did not. Things he had never before translated came easily in situations that would normally be impossible.

That word summed up Charles’ life right now, impossible. In his books he ha used that word with a thousand different meanings. “You’re impossible,” chided his late aunt in a cold tone from behind him, it was in a dreamlike fashion though he knew he was awake. “You’re impossible,” spoke his mother in a warmer voice. The two meanings were distinct though they shared the same word. His aunt meant he was being difficult to be around, it was a common expression to voice her displeasure. His mother’s words were rarer. She had said them after he revealed his mutation and were in the more literal sense of his powers breaking what she had previously thought was reality. Right now both meanings were correct. Two opposites complementing each other, the yin and the yang. They summed up his real life and his dormant state perfectly. Though it seemed both were trying to steal his consciousness from each other, locked in a battle for supremacy.

---

One day later

---

For the last six days, Charles had been locked in a cell too small to lie in, with the walls, ceiling and floor painted a featureless grey. For 144 hours he had been constrained with an unending harsh light and a constant, inescapable whine. For 8640 minutes boredom had been his greatest threat and insanity appeared ever nearer around the corner. For the infinite seconds in his captivity he had wished for it to end with every fibre of his mind. Now, his mind had given up. They say a human can last three minutes without oxygen, three hours without shelter, three days without water, and three weeks without food. It was a nice rule of thumb Charles had been taught decades ago. He had always viewed on the same tier as the words of prophets, absolute and complete. He now knew otherwise. Truth is a human could survive the outside world as long as they had hope. Hope. It is often compared to a flame or a light in the darkness. For it ignites human passion and tenacity and burns like a great pyre. The metaphor is certainly wise and has similarities beyond what most realise. A fire can survive with fuel, heat and oxygen. Hope is the same, it can survive as long as it has the imagination for fuel, the emotions for heat and the mind for oxygen. But these are temporary things and can be destroyed with ease. With cold, featureless surrounding the imagination will shrivel and die. This is the easiest to destroy as some people never truly use it. If you have nothing to care or worry about, the emotions will become limp and flaccid like a corpse rotting in the rain. Once the emotions and the imagination are dead, the mind will surely follow. Humans can survive the outside for three years with hope. Without it, three moments will do. Charles' mind was not yet dead, but is was clearly dying

[Futrellia]

2043

Iron Owl
En-Route To Portland, Oregon

---

The IronJet soared through the clouds in the night sky, tearing through the thick, puffy clouds. Owl examined his controls and the time until arrival into Portland city limits. Very rarely has Richard gone to Portland as the Iron Owl. The last mission that took Owl out of state was when he revisited Nigeria, masking his trip as a vacation, when in reality, he was building a secondary command post in the Falgore Forest, complete with a sleeker, smaller IronJet, and a full arsenal of weaponry to be used in the unfortunate case that CADMUS discovered his Seattle-based operations headquarters.

"Wraith, Archangel, report in. I'm eight miles out from city limits." Iron Owl said over a secured communications link established by Ollie by Owl's request for the three.

Their mission here was more of a training scenario in Owl's eyes. The target was the Black Dragons, a small, underground crime organization, funded by a very popular crime syndicate: The Yakuza. Before the Yakuza began funding their operations, looking to expand their operations on the west coast, the Black Dragons were nothing more than a street gang, dealing in drugs, weapons, and prostitution, more of them were getting arrested than what was being recruited, setting them in decline for the past three years. Eight weeks back, they started expanding their little endeavors, stretching from Oregon to California and Nevada. They started murdering Police, mutilating their bodies for the rest of their officers to see. They had grown to six times their size in a matter of weeks. It was time they be shut down. Iron Owl could do it by himself, deploying the full might of his drones and the IronJet on their footsoldiers while he dealt with high ranking members of the Dragons. They'd be extinct in a matter of days, and the Yakuza would have to look elsewhere. Ever since their agreement to form a loose alliance, Owl was curious to see how they would do against the gang. The target building was a massive abandoned complex used by the Oregon National Guard back in the 1960s. It was used as a storage area, obstacle course, and headquarters. After the National Guard evacuated the building, the City of Portland used it as a warehouse until 1986, when it was marked as abandoned and allowed to rot. There, the Black Dragons had their headquarters. Preliminary scans of the building show more than fifty armed targets, with a series of computers, couches, and Tvs set up in the center of the building, most likely belonging to Alejandro Clarence Magsino Alba, a Filipino immigrant who runs the entire organization.

"Remember what we discussed. Take as many alive as possible, kill those you can't, but make sure Alejandro Alba lives. He won't be much use to the FBI if he's dead. How far are you two out?" Asked Owl, his readings showing he's less than two miles from the complex.

[The Cyberiad Council]

Shard
Chicago, Il
CADMUS Detention Facility

To say that that Shard was pissed would have been a gross and dangerous understatement. He had gotten a fresh suit but the right side of his face was black and blue with a massive bruise covering his jaw. He could heal quickly if he had access to enough free energy, but still not fast enough for his liking. Last he heard, Garrick was still unconscious from the attack at the airport and he didn't' have any orders. This was his predicament; he had a seething rage and nowhere to apply it. He decided it was time to change that.

---

He walked briskly down the bright hallway to the holding cells. He came to a vault-like door and placed his hand on a scanner. The interface glowed green and the door hissed open. Row upon row of rectangular holding cells filled the room like dozens of white grave markers. Most were currently empty as CADMUS was moving many of them to an undisclosed location. He walked down an aisle and checked the digital name plates as he went. Shard stopped in front of an occupied cell and rechecked the name. He scanned his hand for a second time and the door slid open. The lone occupant was a lone man who didn't look like he was taking well to the isolation. Shard gave a half-cocked smile.

"Hello, Chuck. It's nice to finally make your acquaintance..."

[Arkeyana]

Archangel fabricated a map in front of her, analyzing the details. "I'm about a mile behind you, and Wraith is half a kilometer behind me, since the shadows can't be airborne." She hoped this wouldn't go pear-shaped on them, she opened up another comm. "Wraith, you there?". "Yeah," said wraith, barreling through the forest on a bear like shadow "This thing has a need for speed, but there are too many trees for it to move at full speed." He took in the surroundings, the bear was giving of an Aetheral glow from the moonlight, relaxing him. "and only kill if you deem it necessary, and don't kill the leader". she said over the comms. "That's the eighth time you said that since the brief", Wraith chuckled, (God she can be stubborn) he thought, before shifting his thoughts away. (why do you keep doing this, Drake) he scolded himself. He then got on a comfy position on the shadow and waited.