InFAMOUS Sparks

--WRITING-- Ao3 Link (bookmarks & kudos appreciated!) Prologue

Chapter 1: Sparklers & Secrets

Chapter 2: Safe with Me

Chapter 3: Missing Pieces

Chapter 4: Skeleton Closets

Chapter 5: Origami Smoke

Chapter 6: Dead Ends & Decisions

Chapter 7: Sound Choices

Chapter 8: Reunions & Relationships

Chapter 9: Sparking Emotions Chapter 10: ONE YEAR LATER (Part II Begins...)

Chapter 11: Missed Signs (Rosaline)

--ART--

Falling with Grace

Happy Birthday, Benji!

Happy Birthday, Caly!

Happy Birthday, Lucky!

--EVEN MORE INFAMOUS--

Erosion by @rogueshadeaux — When the world comes crashing down around you and everything you thought you knew was a lie, how do you save the world, and your family, without failure?

Shattered by @conduiitz/@kraftledare — Apocalypse!AU. Follow glass conduit Luca Montello as he searches for his best friend in the broken remains of Seattle.

Devil Like Me by @neverdewitt — See the aftereffects of DUP life on a forced conduit trying to make peace with his past sins.

inFAMOUS: No Man's Land by @codenamehazard — Evil!Cole AU. Run away with Beast Cole MacGrath as he traverses through the Wildlands, the untamed and conduit-filled plains of America that hold more secrets than it seems...

All's Well That Ends by @neverdewitt — Follow the tumultuous life of Garrett Jorrer, a Curdun Cay enforcer, experiment victim...and child of Brooke Augustine.

A year can change you, given the chance. That is, if you can’t stop that chance from entering your life, like a 4-year old child who enters your world as unexpectedly as a meteor. It can… really have an impact.

After the altercation between Team Paper and Team Warehouse, I was left sort of holding the twine of lives I didn’t realize I had been tied up in. It felt like walking into a spider web and being unable to see the thin strings to remove them from yourself. I had friends who understood the fact that I needed to keep a low profile to keep my integrity in place and they had taught me new ways to expand my power. I used my powers to help reunite the team after two were lost and locked beyond mirror tricks. I used it to help strengthen my bond with Caly.

I used it to quit my job as a doctor for the maternity ward. I didn’t feel like that was the right place for me any longer. After all of that, I finally felt that my calling was bigger than telling secrets I shouldn’t share from those who could not even speak yet. I was dooming their fates. Well, not all of them, luckily. But it still felt wrong and it tugged at my heart harder now that Caly was in my life.

Where does that leave me? Opening my own practice in the heart of Seattle as a full time Therapist for conduits and those without powers as well. I get to hear secrets and stories from those who are willing to tell me and I can hold those dear to my chest in both confidentiality and in relatability. It feels… right. Good. As though this is where I should be right at this moment in my life.

Of course, this also opens channels that are not too pleasant for me but I work through them. Beyond the trauma and teaching people how to cope or get through things, I’m also working with the local police force and visiting conduits (or suspected conduits) who have found themselves behind bars. This has been an interesting twist of employment for me and while I am not exactly thrilled that I was given high enough marks to do this line of work, it is somewhat gratifying to be able to offer help for those who may be soon-to-be-released and simply need guidance and support with managing life after their powers have gone awry or had been used in a sort of bad karma deal in their lives. Often the ones within the cells are the most grateful for my help and I always find I am humbled by their experiences.

One case I am currently assigned to is the Stella case. I can’t say much on it right now other than the fact that Orion is pushing my buttons on purpose while he remains under a full lockdown. He believes his tether to his sister will save him but after speaking with Lucky on my own I believe he is very misguided on this. Time will tell how that shakes out for him. Or for the Warehouse crew.

Speaking of time, my new job gives me a lot more personal time as I can make my own schedule. I get as much time with Caly as I want and as much time with my partners as I can squeeze in. Every now and then I feel like my power fills up–like it’s some sort of bucket with a lid that can be reached. When I feel this gentle brush at my ceiling I call Garrett and spend time with them. It’s strange in a way, actively seeking a person to help you offload your power, but they haven’t complained and their aura reads in a way that tells me I am not bothersome for needing help navigating my limits. These are, after all, new to me entirely.

I try to keep my abilities quietly locked away for the most part, only tapping into them during working hours. But now and then I get triggered in a way that screams for me to open those gates and those times have been helpful in reading a situation before something bad happens. It’s not quite a premonition as Lucky would call it, more like “mother’s intuition” based on things I’m learning from being around Caly so often. I can’t say I dislike the extra sense though sometimes it’s a hassle and I’d rather be able to turn it off and just be purely human for once.

But I’ve never been one to shun my gifts, no matter how late in life I received them. Benji told me once he also feels the same in regard to his abilities and that’s a bit reassuring. Makayla on the other hand just thinks I’m crazy for not pushing my limits on the daily to see what else I can do. I have to constantly remind her that I am not going to cross that line and especially will not be telling her about my experiences if I ever do.

So that leaves me with a new job, a practice I love, surrounded with the support of those who love me (and some who simply tolerate me). It’s been a wild year, for sure, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

“Doctor Hutch?” The speaker on my phone startles me from my computer and I press the call button to connect to my receptionist.

“Yes, Meg?” The nurse from the children’s hospital had quit as soon as the news of my last day was announced. I scooped her up for my personal practice and she was thrilled to work alongside me once again, even if it was a bit of a pay cut to start. I made the difference up to her with gift cards for coffee and lunch dates. She was my only employee and my favorite one at that.

“You have a walk-in. Can you see her now? She’s a little bit… impatient.”

I checked my calendar, saved my password-protected journal entry and shoved it to the bottom of my screen. “Yes. Did she give you her name?”

Meg was quiet for a moment and I could hear murmuring through the speaker. Then she cleared her voice as she got back on the phone with me, her voice sounding a little strained in a strange way. “Cindy Signet. She said you would recognize her name.”

A chill quickly worked its way down my spine. I did recognize that name. It was plastered across the newspapers and television screens as the list of assumed deceased members of the Stratego building fire were amassed. I also knew from the warehouse team that Cindy was supposedly the niece of the late Brooke Augustine and also her assumed killer.

And now this ghost was supposedly haunting my office.

I debated calling the police to relay this information but instead I found myself speaking into my phone, “Send her in, please. And go on break.”

“Break? I just got back from lunch an hour ago and I–”

“Meg. Go on break. Leave the office and flip the ‘welcome’ sign to ‘closed’. I’ll be in touch.”

“Oh,” Meg breathed, finally catching my drift, “Yes, of course. Please text me. I’ll send her in now.” The call disconnected and I collected my favorite pen from my hair as I still had a habit of shoving them into my messy bun of red hair. I turned to a fresh page in my notebook and stood from behind my desk with a deep breath. Whoever was about to come through that door would not be using that name without realizing that I would understand the implications of it.

I did not have to wait very long.

The woman who stalked into my office space closed the door behind her without a glance. Her prussian blue eyes were entirely focused on my face and narrowed with a mix of distrust and… anger. I pushed my powers toward her, her aura blooming into reds and violets and golds. This woman was clearly on a mission and I was hoping to just be a stop along the way. But a ripple of yellow around her figure reminded me that this woman was also dangerous–she was absolutely flaring a power I could not identify yet. She was a conduit.

She stood behind the chair I swept my hand toward as I offered her a curt hello. “Please, have a seat.”

“I’d rather stand.”

“Whatever is comfortable for you,” I state without moving my eyes from hers as I round my desk to lean against it instead of seating myself, “Miss Signet, would you like to tell me what brings you into my office today?”

She studies me right back, running a full sweep over me from head to toe and back again. I notice her right hand twitch as though she is testing a reflex to reach for a weapon of some sort. I’m not sure if she is unarmed but I am seeing danger mix with her colors and I am doing my best to appear as disarming as possible.

“It took a while to track you down. I didn’t even know you were who I was looking for until I pieced together the clues I was collecting,” she was choosing her words carefully, slowly. “You have her.”

I remained as blank faced as possible though I would be lying if I said my heart did not leap into my throat as a vision of Caly flashed through my minds’ eye. “Miss Signet, I have many clients. You’ll have to be more specific and also understand the rules of my practice; I cannot share personal information about my clients.”

“She’s not your client.” Her voice was so sure, so confident. “I want the girl. Project 42. And you will give her to me.”

I hadn’t heard the codename for Caly in over a year and the thought that this woman before me knew Caly by that name made me feel sick to my stomach. I felt the color drain from my face. Lying was the first thing I could think of to do to protect her. “You must have me mistaken for someone else. I don’t know who you are referring to.”

She narrowed her eyes further at me as though seeing through my words. “My mistake. Maybe I didn’t make myself clear.” Her combat boots slowly crossed the space until she was standing directly in front of me. She bent down slightly to be eye-level, something flashed in my peripherals and a sudden noise to my left caused me to jump slightly. “You have one week to hand her over to me.”

I swallowed thickly but my mouth felt dry. Her aura mixed with mine–her reds and purples spilling into my yellows and blues. Her anger and strength bleeding into my fear and caution.

“And if I refuse?”

“Then I will take her from you, without remorse.”

“I’ll see what I can find out about this ‘Project 42’ and let you know what I find out in one week.” More lies. I am building a steel wall in my head, fortifying my mental strength as Garrett has shown me. At the moment it doesn't feel like it will be anywhere even close to enough.

She smirks and shakes her head slowly. “One. Week.” 

Then she’s gone from my personal space and at the door to my office in a flash of white that feels hot against my skin. She leaves without a look back at me and I listen for the main office door to close, the beep of the door alarm signaling that I am alone. I release a shaky breath and move to better sit against my desk, my legs weak from the stress of that exchange. As I glance down to practice a deep breathing technique I notice a glinting to my left and realize that the noise I had heard earlier was a single dagger now buried in the wood of my desk. The hilt of it has a single number engraved, “9”. I’m able to remove it from the desk and then I cross back to behind my desk, opening one of my drawers to drop the weapon inside before I drop into my office chair, adrenaline coursing through my body.

Caly was in danger. Again. I needed to review what I knew from between the last catastrophic event one year ago and try to prevent this oncoming one. I had to protect this child and I was determined to do so with my whole heart. I pulled up my client files and started to sort through them, working backward from today until I found the first few sessions from the opening of my practice.

“Something has to be here, somewhere,” I whispered to myself. “How could I have missed Cindy being alive this whole time?” Except I already knew how I had missed it; I had made the worst assumption: that her death was the truth despite the lack of a funeral. 

Luck has always been on my side, no matter the situation. It’s how I got my nickname of Lucky. I wield it as easily as I do my spells and persuasion, good and bad luck heeding my every desire. To most, this is a magic they can only wish for, but for me I understand that it is my burden as well as my nature. So when Ferric and I burst through the portal I had created, I wasn’t surprised to see that luck had drawn together the two people I needed in that moment–Orion and Benji, both off-guard and in our way. 

We crashed into them, all of us knocking each other to the rough pavement in a burst of loud expletives and shouts. I had seconds to regroup and focus on sealing the portal behind me, a burst of white light and silver sparks weaving the tear closed before anything, or anyone, could follow us through. Portals were only allowed in marked areas of our realm but I had no time to get Ferric to a location like that when it was a life or death situation I had found him in.

“Holy Gods, you’re covered in blood,” Orion gasps as he helps Ferric to his feet. The werewolf is in bad shape, one arm slung across his stomach. He’s panting and clearly heavily leaning against Orion. My brother didn’t seem to be struggling with the weight.

“Unfortunately, most of it is mine,” Ferric laughs and immediately grimaces.

I’m on my feet and catching my own breath as I throw instructions to my brother. “Get him to a hospital, Orion. He has to shift but carefully. He has silver in his body but I don’t know how much. It’ll complicate his healing.”

“What the Hell were you doing over there, Diaz?” Orion is glaring angrily at his partner but that’s going to be a spat that’ll have to wait.

“It’s not much,” A shift in the air happens to my left and the shimmer shifts as a form takes place. A woman appears, slender and taller than I am with auburn red hair cascading down her back, wearing a deep garnet suit and gold-rimmed glasses. She narrows her eyes at Ferric, one hand reaching out to him. He eyes her hand cautiously. “Please, let me help you.”

Ferric twitches one wolf ear in annoyance before huffing softly and placing his paw in her outstretched hand. A soft golden glow envelopes their extended handshake and the woman reaches toward Ferric but does not touch him as she pinpoints the places that silver-tipped weapons entered him. The points are marked with soft golden light. After ten seconds, she nods and releases his paw. Ferric pulls it back across his stomach, his panting increasing to balance out the pain he must be feeling.

“There. Seven points, though only these four are the worst ones,” four of the golden markers flare in response. “My practice is very close if you want to take him there. I can assist with a blood transfusion–I can smell his blood type is AB.” She smiles softly and the tips of fangs can be seen over her painted lips. “My name is Doctor Rosaline Hutch, but please call me Rosa.”

“Vampire…” Ferric wheezes. “Fine, take me in. The need to shift is very strong and I grow weak against this fight. Can you work on human bodies?”

“Of course,” Rosa nods. Orion is all caution and clearly torn between being mad at his partner and untrusting of a vampire when so much blood is involved. His face shows his disdain for this turn of events.

I reach out and touch Ferric’s arm gently, “Good luck, Ferric,” I whisper, passing my luck to him to boost his survival rate and healing factor. “Orion, go with him. Now.”

My brother nodded once at me, a quickly mouthed thank you passing his lips as he noticed me pass my luck to his partner. I was sure Ferric would be okay. My luck would see him through.

“Are you okay?” For the first time since crashing in, Benji is softly checking on me. I didn’t realize how close he was to me until he spoke and I can feel myself both startled and calmed simultaneously.

I glance over myself and brush my arms over my body. None of the blood on my clothes was mine, just a casualty of being so close to Ferric as I ushered him through to our realm. “Yes, I think so.”

“You found him, huh? Looks like just in time, too.”

“Yeah,” I nod glancing toward Orion and Ferric as they are helped into a nearby building. I take a few calming breaths, suddenly feeling overwhelmed with my adrenaline crashing out. “I got lucky with finding him, but it was bad over there. He was fighting someone he called the ‘Legendary One’ and she was really strong. Her aura was all rough edges and… fuzzy somehow.” I turned my full attention to Benji and lowered my voice to a hush. “She knew his name, Benji. She was going to kill him.”

Benji studied my face, shadowed hands reaching around me and pulling me into his embrace. I stayed put there long enough to reset my emotions, feeling they were all jumbled in the memories as I tried to piece together what I had seen and what I had heard.

“You’re okay. You’re home now,” Benji comforted softly.

“That’s the thing,” I sighed as I pulled back far enough to look into his eyes. I read worry cross his face. “I don’t think any of us are okay with her over there. She knew him. She’s coming after him. And now she’ll be coming after me.”

Rosa came to retrieve us from the waiting room, wiping her hands clean on a towel and smiling wide enough for us to acknowledge her fangs. She was gorgeous for a vampire and didn’t look much older than being in her early forties. I had a good feeling about her even knowing that sometimes that feeling is a passive trait from vampires so that their potential prey feels safe with them, a lure. Despite that I didn’t feel that Rosa was luring any of us toward our doom.

“Ferric is awake and healing quickly. We got all the silver from his body and he’s all patched up.”

“Can we see him?” Orion is already standing and I knew even if Rosa said no he would go to Ferric anyway.

Rosa nodded once, “Yes. I am requesting quiet for him and no rough activities for at least 3-5 days. That includes sex.”

Orion scoffed. I rolled my eyes. No way he would adhere to that rule. My brother is an incubus, after all. That’s like asking a frog not to hop or a bird not to fly. Orion followed Rosa to Ferric’s recovery room with Benji and I in tow. When we entered the room it felt as sterile as it looked but Ferric, despite being in human form, looked well-cared for and bandaged cleanly. His scars through his right eyebrow gave him a bad-boy appeal and I could see what my brother was so hung up on. The man also had hair that was dark brown with a gray patch running from his right temple, falling around his face. The gray stretched into his beard in a streak on the right side of his face. It was like the scars pulled stress at that edge of his face.

“Diaz, you look like shit,” Orion greeted him. I shook my head and caught Benji glancing between the two.

“Shut up and give me a hair tie, would ya?” Ferric grumbled, his voice a mess from sedatives that were still wearing off.

Orion pulled one from his wrist and passed it over. Ferric took it and lifted his arms to tie back his hair into a bun atop his head. He winced with pain or soreness or both but managed the task.

In the silence that followed Ferric looked at me and cleared his throat, “We need to talk.”

“What? With her?” Orion chided. “What about us?”

“Later, Stella.” Ferric growled, keeping eye contact with me while answering my brother. I felt heat lick my cheeks as second-hand embarrassment settled in. Benji gave my hand a reassuring squeeze and he left the room in a soft dissipation of shadows and shade.

I glanced over to Orion and offered a silent apology. He snorted and crossed his arms over his chest, wings pressed too tightly against his back as his tail tip twitched like an angry cats’ would. “Orion, please?”

“Fine. But I want full disclosure about whatever it is you two discuss.”

“I’ll talk to you in a few minutes. I have something to tell you,” Ferric gave Orion a stern look and my brother suddenly looked a little crushed, some of his anger washing away. 

“Just tag me in when you two are done.” The words a mask for his annoyance as Orion left Ferric and myself alone in the recovery room.

The silence stretched between us and although I had a list of questions for the shifter, he looked like he was struggling with something that had to be said first. I let him find his words.

“First, thank you, Lucky. You saved my life back there,” He started, adjusting himself in his bed before the pain made him second think that and he settled back into his pillows as he was. I realized he must have made the connection that I was Orion’s older sister upon seeing us together. Either that or he had asked Orion and my brother told him the details before they were separated for medical aid. “How did you find me?”

I approached his bed and stood beside a chair that I pushed closer to his bedside. “I had some of your fur from Orion and I used magic. I cast a simple location spell.”

“If you are honest with me, I’ll be honest with you. I know you have questions,” Ferric softened his voice. “Let’s start over. How did you find me?”

I sunk into the chair. “I have luck on my side for everything. That’s why I let you go with Rosa for treatment. It’s how I tracked you faster than most could have,” I had nothing to hide here and everything to learn. Being honest with him was easy. “I also have a very worried brother who was afraid you were cheating beyond the veil. I couldn’t say no when he asked me to track you.”

Ferric sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, one hand raising to his face so his index finger and thumb could pinch the bridge of his nose. “Stella thought I was cheating on him? With a human?”

“Yes.”

He barked his laughter out, the sound rich and loud in the small space. “Gods, he’s an idiot, isn’t he?”

I smiled, “I couldn’t agree more with you on that.”

“Listen,” Ferric dropped his arm back to his side and he had me in full focus now. His eyes were so silver they were almost entirely white. “I love your brother. But I’m older than he is and I understand the needs of his kind–no offence–”

“None taken,” I interject.

“I had to see if a shifter and an incubus could even hope to last longer than just a fling. I heard about this oracle who toes the line between our realms and I had to seek them out to ask for guidance. But I’m an idiot in love and it took me a few visits to find the shop and then a few more to even build up the confidence to go inside.” Ferric paused and then sighed. “Okay, I see how he connected the dots to me potentially cheating on him.”

I reached forward and rested my hand over the back of his. “It’s okay. Easy mistake, right?”

“Right,” Ferric gave me a small smile and I noticed that he was opening up so much easier as we spoke about my brother. It was reassuring in a way. “Anyway, I finally met with the oracle and they did their thing and said it was fine to chase this. They said whether or not it was love would be obvious when I got home. Then I was being tracked on my way to the teleport point so I tried to shake my tail. Only I didn’t know I had two of them on me and one of them was…” Ferric shuttered slightly and I felt I was losing the lead.

“And I guess the oracle was right then,” I prompted.

Ferric looked at me with a slightly confused gaze. “How do you mean?”

“Orion didn’t leave your side. You were in bad shape and he could have just left you when we crashed through. But he got you here and he waited for you to be in the clear and he’s waiting for you even now, his anger is temporary.”

Ferric blinked. He clearly hadn’t thought about it like that, if at all.

“But I need your help now. I have you safely here and healing up and I know my brother is going to command your time as soon as you are released from here. I answered your questions, will you answer mine?”

“Yes,” Ferric agreed.

“Thank you, Ferric,” I squeezed his hand gently. “Who is the ‘Legendary One’ and why was she so intent on killing you back there?”

“A monster hunter.” He answered so plainly that I raised an eyebrow and leaned toward his bed from the chair. My eyes flashed silver, my power pushing this conversation into the direction I needed.

“Give me more.”

“Her name is Nines. I killed her father by request of her mother. Her mother was one of us, but was caught and sentenced to death for relations with a full human. Before the sentence was carried out she got word to me to kill her human lover so that the trail would go cold and her daughter would live in secret among the humans,” Ferric paused for a moment with a heavy swallow as though he was trying to stop himself from speaking but could not prevent the truth from flowing. “I could have killed Nines… she was there, hiding when I killed her father. But her mother made me promise not to. It was her dying wish.”

I contemplated this. It seemed to be a heavy burden to bear for Ferric, a secret he’s had to keep for years. I wondered how many other secrets he had like this one. I had heard rumors of assassins within the ranks of shifters but had never met one until now. I filed away that line of questioning for another day. But even with this story, I was still perplexed about the title Ferric had given Nines.

“And her title?” I pushed.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Ferric whispered, his voice low and steady. “She’s the best monster hunter in her realm because of us. She’s half of us.”

I dropped my hand from his and sat back hard in my chair. Nines was hunting monsters but was half monster herself. She was using our gifted abilities to kill us one by one. I didn’t know what abilities she had exactly, but I did know that I could at least effectively block her human ones with my own magic. Or at least, I did in that single moment to save Ferric’s life.

Ferric blinked rapidly as though regaining control of himself and I knew that to be true. My power had been dropped with the lack of contact–both eye contact and physical contact from our touching hands. I didn’t regret pulling what I needed from him in this instance and I did not apologize for it.

“Can I ask you one more question, Ferric?”

“You’ll get the answer you seek, regardless,” Ferric retorts.

I square my jaw and sit straight in the chair. “Can you share the address of the oracle?”

As I stood on the stoop of the so-called oracle’s shop, my dream journal tucked into a satchel at my hip, I remembered something that Ferric had mentioned. He had cautioned about the feeling of hovering on the edge of something that could land either in your favor or against it before he passed through the doorway. I was feeling that same way suddenly, a mix of curiosity and doubt riding the waves of my stomach. Finding the place had been easier than expected. It helped that I also looked incredibly, disarmingly human, blending in at best and narrowing my chances of running into Nines while I was across the rift. 

Unfortunately, something was definitely now going wrong with our mandated teleport points. They were marked and guarded to track our comings and goings but now something was amiss. Some were no longer opening like they should and one was spontaneously closing, trapping monsters on the wrong side at inopportune times. The one I had wanted to take was under scrutinization as it had allowed a human to cross through–a full human! Not only was that dangerous for the human but for us as well. It took a fairy a few hours to wipe the mind of the human so they forgot how they ended up here, while a shifter had to usher them home. Things were falling apart at the seams and I could not only see it but feel it as well. Something about the teleport points faltering had my magic acting up as well. It was stronger than ever and I was having trouble keeping it under control. Small bursts of sparks nearly set my curtains on fire this morning when I awoke and then nearly lit the grass aflame as I walked through my favorite park.I felt like I was bleeding magic in a dangerous way but I also have never felt so strong. My magic needed an outlet but that would have to wait.

Ultimately, I had slipped away from the view of the teleport crew and used my magic to create a portal instead. It brought me close enough to the address I had scribbled into my dream journal while keeping me out of sight from humans. I sealed the portal then, marking the location on a map I had taped into my journal, and found my way to the shop before me. But now I felt that I was wasting time and that wouldn't do. I needed answers and I needed them now. Taking a deep breath I entered the shop.

A soft tinkle of bells sounded against the door as it swung open and closed behind me. The scent of patchouli and jasmine filled my lungs as I breathed in the hazy smoke from burning incense. The shop was all wood and crystals, suncatchers tossing an array of rainbows across the wooden floor and shelves. Amethyst rocks were placed in corners and quartz stones displayed on lovely pieces of fabric that lined the shelves. I was the only one within the small confines of the room, though it felt comfortable inside the shop despite the variety of items for sale and on display, every corner a marvel to look at. The shop immediately felt like home and I could feel my shoulders relax and my guard drop.

“Took you long enough,” Startled, I spun around and saw someone standing within the beaded curtain at the back of the shop. They were leaning on a cane and had long pink hair that was half up in a messy bun, the rest cascading around their shoulders like a shawl. They seemed young and I realized the cane was not for show but for support as they approached the counter by the register. “Didn’t think you’d actually come in.”

I paused to sweep a glance behind me, but they were clearly speaking to me. I cleared my throat. “I… I wasn’t sure I had the right address. Are you the oracle?”

“Oracle, dream eater, fortune teller… I have a million titles but yes, you are right where you need to be,” They seemed to be a little annoyed, as though I was the first customer of the day and had interrupted their morning tea time. But then I saw them tilt their head at me slightly and narrow their eyes. Something like recognition flashed across their face and suddenly they were more alert.

“Then, do you know why I’m here?” I ventured.

They studied my face and slowly responded, “I actually do not, but something…” their voice trailed off and they swept a hand out toward a table at the back of the shop. “Sit with me.”

I nodded and approached the table, fetching my dream journal and setting it down atop the table close to me as I sat quietly. The oracle sat across from me, with only their cane making so much as any noise at all. They didn’t seem to be exerting themselves with the effort to sit and I wasn’t sure if they were masking any pain or if they were just so used to it at this point that it didn’t even register for them. They reached toward a nearby coffee table and pulled a worn deck of tarot cards into their hands, shuffling them in a practiced, comforting motion.

“Would you like some tea? Coffee? I have several flavors of each from both realms,” They offered.

“How did you know I’m not from… here?”

“Your aura. It’s different from humans.”

I was not too surprised by this but the ease at which this conversation was happening was unexpected. “And do you see many people from my realm often? I’m just curious.”

They nodded, “I see enough. I walk the line between the realms and I do not care who shops here as long as they are paying in one way or another.”

“Are you like us? Or half?”

“All human, unfortunately. Though my intuition is very strong, I found I could read others from a young age. I’ve honed my skills to the point of them being well-known between both realms. I can usually ‘see’ why someone is here before they even enter my shop, but you…” They pause and stop shuffling the cards long enough to set the deck between us on the table. “I can’t read you.”

I’m not sure what this means for me and I express as much, “Should I leave? I don’t want to waste your time–”

“No!” They interject so quickly that they suddenly cough and clear their throat, bringing their voice back down to a softer tone. “Don’t leave, not yet. I want to help you, if I can.”

“Alright,” I meet their clear blue eyes, the color like the glass of marbles. Something about it seems so familiar to me in a way I cannot place, like I’m falling forward into some sort of trance state, a thread tugging me gently closer and closer still… They blink and I find the strange spell broken. I shake my head slightly to reset my mind on the task at hand.

They break the small silence. “What’s your name?”

“Please call me Lucky. You have been helping a friend, a shifter with a love problem. He passed along your address.”

“Ah, I see,” They palm the top card of the deck and place it in front of themselves, facedown. “Are you here with a love problem, Lucky?”

I shake my head quickly, heat rising to my cheeks at the thought. “No. I don’t believe in love.”

They palm a second tarot card and slide it to lay just below the first on their side of the table, facedown. “That’s interesting. Why don’t you believe in love?”

“I have bigger issues to resolve than finding love right now. And I’m not about to tell you all about my love life when I don’t even know your name.”

“Do you want to?” They ask, their gaze meeting mine.

“Want to what, exactly? Tell you my history?”

“Know my name?”

Did I? Would it change anything about the answers I was seeking? I wasn't sure I should be on a first name basis with an oracle across the rift. I decided to avoid the question and I dropped my gaze to my dream journal, one of my hands gently moving to rest on the worn leather cover. “How much do you know about the realms and how they are intertwined?”

Another card palmed, but held, hovering above the table between us. “The realms are connected by various magic points that work as one-way tickets for humans, though monsters seem to be able to traverse roundtrip without issue. Humans can be pulled into your realm as long as one of you has physical contact with them. Humans rarely return as humans from your realm, and if they do they are altered in ways so as not to remember the connection points or what they saw beyond our realm.” The card lands to the left of the one closest to them on the table, again with the face of it down. A spread being pulled but not yet flipped.

I’m watching and listening and waiting for an alarm bell to sound in my mind as a warning, that maybe coming here was a trap, but nothing happens. The store is quiet, empty except for us and I’m getting no warning signals at all. “Correct.”

“... Are you going to ask me how I know that?”

“No.”

They freeze, reaching for the deck again and then place their hands on the table, leaning toward me. They are zeroed in on my face and their nostrils flare once before they sigh and lean back to slouch slightly in their seat. “Not being able to read you or hear your thoughts is making this nearly impossible for me to figure out why you are here.”

“Oh,” The noise slipped from my lips before I could stop it. “Am I doing something wrong?”

“No, it’s like you have a shield in place and I can’t work around it even though I’m trying. Not on purpose, of course, but seeing into someone’s consciousness helps me to understand what they need and how I can assist. I get more of the story that way. But with you I’m getting nothing. It’s just a wall of silver.”

I knit my eyebrows together and chew on my bottom lip slightly. “I’m sorry. I’ll be very direct with you, if that will help?”

They sigh and roll their neck slowly before adjusting themselves to sit with a better posture. “It’s… fine. It’s fine, Lucky. I’ve just never met anyone like you and as frustrated as I am by this, I’m twice as curious about you now.”

A heat rises again into my face and I push my journal toward them instead of sitting with the feeling. “The rift between our worlds is starting to break down and it’s causing weird things to happen to those ‘magic points’ you mentioned. I’m not sure what is happening or how to fix it but I’ve also been having this repetitive dream and I see a little more of it every night. I think it may have something to do with it all. Please, can you help me figure this out?”

They look at my journal and reach for it at the same time that I move my hand and we touch for a moment, fingers brushing lightly against one another. Their touch sends a strange shockwave up my arm and I can tell they feel it too, their eyes narrowing at me for a second before they break contact and take my journal from me.

“Garrett.”

“What?” The words hang in the air like mist.

“My name,” They say, “Is Garrett. Give me a few minutes to look this over.”

I nod and watch as Garrett reaches for their cane, pulling themselves to standing, my journal cradled in their other arm. They turn and disappear into the beaded curtain separating the front of the shop from the back. In the silence, I reach for the tarot deck, pulling the next card from the top and laying it facedown to the far right of the line up that Garrett had started. I leave it facedown to match the rest of the spread. I stand quietly and walk the store, my fingers trailing across the countertops, over glass and crystals and runes. Despite my anxiety about letting someone read my dream journal (especially someone not from my realm), I felt nothing but calm mixed with hope that Garrett could help me figure this out.

“I have two questions,” Garrett calls out from beyond the curtain. I spin around from my place across the shop as they appear once again, my journal open as they lean against the doorframe, one finger trailing across my words written inside.

“Ask me anything.”

“You know who the hunter is now, correct? The one in your dream?” They are studying something on the page with an intensity of focus.

I nod, even though they are not looking at me, distracted by pushing the puzzle together from what pieces I have to offer them, “Yes. I know her now. I know her name and her story.”

Garrett flips to the back of the journal, blank pages whipping by and then they page back a few from the end of the book. I hadn’t written anything that far into the journal but even from where I was standing I can tell there is writing on that page. “And who owned this journal before it was yours?”

“My mother… why?” I cross the shop to them, my feet increasing in speed until I’m right before them, reading my own journal upside down. The cursive penmanship is clearly reminiscent of my mother’s hand writing. I can’t read it fast enough before Garrett closes my journal and I meet their gaze.

“I have a few more questions and I need you to be honest with me, okay?” Garrett’s face is one of all seriousness and I only nod in response.

“You are a witch?”

“No, I mean, yes. It’s complicated. I’m technically a cambion–born of incubus and witch–but I feel more attached to my magic as of late.”

“And it’s been getting stronger? Your magic?” They inquire with all seriousness.

“Yes. And more out of control with the way the realms feel like they are collapsing in on one another.”

Garrett sighs and drops their gaze only to refocus on my face again. “I’m not sure how to tell you this…”

“If it will save my realm, please just say it.” I plead.

Garrett places my journal on the table beside us and takes my hands in theirs. I feel that same warm jolt rush through my fingers and up my arms and I’m lost in their blue eyes for a moment before they blink. “It’s you, Lucky.”

“What’s me?” I ask, clearly confused.

“The rifts are shifting and the realms are collapsing because of your power, Lucky.”

I’m shocked. That can’t be right. Garrett just met me and I’m convinced suddenly that they have no idea what they are talking about. “What do you mean?”

“Lucky, you aren’t a witch and you aren’t a cambion. You are a replaced.”

“I don’t understand, Garrett. What are you telling me? What did my mother write in my journal?” Tears suddenly invade my eyes and my vision starts to blur, leaving Garrett’s face a soft filter of pale skin, pink hair and the bluest eyes I have ever seen.

The Crocodile bar is mostly empty at this early hour but that doesn’t deter me from entering and sliding onto a stool before the bar. The bartender nodded in my direction once, a familiar face which probably meant I needed to find a new bar sooner than later. It also meant I could easily get information I was seeking without much interrogation.

“Isn’t it too early to be drinking?” They chuckle, placing a freshly dried glass before me on the lip of the bar where they have easy access to mix anything on the fly.

“It’s 5 o’clock somewhere,” I shrug and tap my knuckles against the wooden countertop twice. A movement to my right pulls my focus for a moment. I cast a quick glance to watch as a young teen struggles to climb onto the stool beside mine. She is far too young to be in here, much less to be seated at the bar, but it’s never been an issue for either of us, especially since I am nearly three times her age. I conveniently return to ignoring her presence as I reach up to tie my black hair into a tight bun atop my head, my shaved undercut providing a coolness to my head that felt good this morning.

The bartender rests their arms on the bar and leans into my space. “What can I get for you this morning, Nines?”

“The usual,” I reply. I am not bothering with glancing around my surroundings but I am fine-tuned into the small talk happening around me as my name is spoken. I have a bit of a reputation here for my line of work and it often comes with the highest highs and the lowest lows of people who want a challenge. Unfortunately for them, I never backed down from a challenge and those challenges never worked out in their favor.

The bartender quickly pours a mix of a drink that was both heavy with alcohol and blended with juices in a way that made it go down far too easily. As I was offered the glass I asked a simple question before taking a sip.

“Any info for me?”

“None today,” they answer, picking up another freshly washed glass and running a rag over it to dry it further.

The girl to my right is staring at the bartender and speaks without missing a beat, “They lie.”

I take a long sip of my drink and it tastes perfect, exactly the way I enjoy it. I place the glass back on the bar gently, the ice inside clinking against the side of the cup, and then lean forward in my seat and lower my voice. “I’m hearing rumors and you are holding out on me, Jay. I don’t like that.”

Jay’s gaze looks like someone who has just been caught shoplifting and I cock an eyebrow at them, further insinuating that I know they are lying and that they are terrible at it. Jay swallows thickly and then places the glass down and picks up another one to keep their hands busy and to give their eyes someplace to focus on instead of them looking at me.

“Someone in here yesterday reported a larger than normal were-something spotted north of here,” Jay confesses, “They said he looked like he had been to Hell and back and they were hoping to take him down before you heard word of it.”

“How much?”

“What?”

I sigh. I hate repeating myself. “How much did they give you to keep your mouth shut?”

Jay drops their hands and they chance a glance at me, meeting my prussian blue stare, “A couple hundred.”

“Damn,” I breathe and sit back in my stool. I look to my right and the girl shakes her head at me. Jay was telling the truth now. Smart move. “I’ll double that once I take the shifter down.”

“Nines, please,” Jay starts, concern lacing their voice as they lower it to a hushed whisper, “Something about this one seems dangerous. I don’t think you should get tangled in this. Just this once.” They take a deep breath. “Plus, I don’t need the money.”

“They are lying~!” The girl sing-songs beside me.

“You can always just ask me for a bigger tip. You know I’m good for it,” I nod and take a deep drink from my glass. My arms flex with the movement, making the muscles seem larger than they are. I worked out frequently and was pretty proud of my defined build. It helped with the hunts as much as it did with picking up women. Unfortunately, I wasn’t here for women this morning.

Jay sighs and returns to drying glasses, “It’s not about the money, Nines. I’m worried about this hunt for you.”

“They are,” the girl confirms.

“Give me the details and I’ll decide if I can handle it or leave it to the loser who wanted first dibs. In fact, I may just let them run into a wall with this one if it’s really all that scary. Maybe they deserve a little death for keeping me out of the loop.” I’m feeling petty now, the fact that someone paid one of my sources to stay quiet just so they could take the first swing isn’t settling in my stomach as nicely as the alcohol is.

Monsters had ways of entering our realm all on their own but humans had no way of traversing back into the monster realm without being under their influence. Monsters came here to spread their fables and tales, stories that humans would pass to each generation which helped keep the monsters alive within our realm and their own. But monsters also came to pick humans for their own sick purposes–vampires took us for blood donors or to create new vampires, demons took us for repopulation or as gifts, shifters took us to help keep their were-lineage strong–it was all terrible and they were all full of lies. Nothing good ever came from monsters and I would know. That’s why I hunted them but not why I was so damn good at it.

I feel a tap on my left shoulder and I can tell from Jay’s expression that whomever wants my attention is probably not someone who knows who I am. I finish my drink and set it carefully on the bar, using the glass to read the reflection of the man standing behind me before I turn to face him. I may be a woman myself but I didn’t like attention unless I initiated it. “Can I help you?”

“Yeah. Heard you were looking for info on the biggest damn shifter we’ve seen in years,” The man invites himself to sit to my left without hesitation. The girl to my right giggles quietly.

“I’m interested, yeah. What do you know about it?”

He holds out his hand, palm up. “$250 will convince me that you’re really invested.”

“I could break your hand for less,” I counter. These hunters were all the same, always pandering their knowledge for money when the monster was out of their league to kill. We all had a living to make somehow.

“Oh yeah?” He growls leaning forward and invading my space. “Just who do you think you are?”

I remain blank-faced and unmoving as I answer him, “My name is Nines and I am the best damn Monster Hunter this generation has ever seen. Keep pushing your luck and I’ll be burying you with the rest of the bones I keep as souvenirs from my hunts and no one will ever find you.”

Jay only shrugs at the man when he looks over at the bartender for confirmation. The girl beside me laughs out loud. The man drops his hand and moves back from my bubble, hands up in surrender. “Alright, okay. I know that name and I’m not looking for a fight. But I’ll give you the info because this guy scares the shit outta me and my customers are not stopping by my shop as frequently. Take him down and I’ll owe you.”

I’m more curious now than I was when Jay had hidden the information from me and I spend my time asking questions and memorizing the information that this man gave me so openly. We settled on a price for the kill. The girl remained mostly quiet and I was thankful for that. Jay refilled my drink once more and I was rightly warmed up before noon when I left The Crocodile to begin collecting my supplies for my hunt.

I entered my small cottage house in the woods just a walk from the edge of the city, tucked away enough to where I wouldn’t be bothered by anyone at all, but close enough to reach the locations of several “hotspots” when it came to monster activity. I had a map on my kitchen table full of pins and flags–markers for where sightings had occurred and where I finished the job–and a stack of mail that was less likely bills and more likely banks looking to house my riches. I just wanted to be left alone.

The girl had followed me in and skipped past me to twirl before my unlit fireplace. “This will be dangerous, Nines. This will be a true challenge, Nines.” She echoed from our previous conversations collecting information. “This will be fun!”

I rolled my eyes at her nonsense and left a new marker on my map before retrieving a book from beneath my coffee table in my living room. It was heavy, a scrapbook full of newspaper clippings and found pieces of information on every type of monster known to man. And how to end their lives. It was something I had collected from childhood, something passed down to me by my father before he passed away after a particularly dangerous hunt. Everything I knew about monsters and my father’s death was between these pages and now everything I had just learned about this new and dangerous monster had me convinced of two things: 1) this monster was a very large, very feral werewolf; and 2) this werewolf was the one who killed my father.

“We need silver bolts. Is my crossbow repaired? Grab that bag over there and toss it to me. I need my daggers, too,” I’m mostly speaking aloud to myself, but the girl is in action gathering materials as I list them off. It seemed that she was coming with me on this hunt whether I wanted her to or not.

“N-i-n-e-s,” She whines the letters of my name and I ignored her as she left a handful of silver-tipped crossbow bolts on the coffee table beside my open book as I fingered through the pages and articles filling my head with information and creating a plan on how to take this one down for good. For my father. For me. For her. “NINES! You gotta remember the thing.”

“The thing?” I met her gaze now and she grinned and clapped once loudly. Suddenly, I had an image of what she meant in my head and I stood, heading into my bedroom and returning with a piece of paper which I folded and shoved into my pocket. With this secret weapon tucked away, I begin packing my bag and was ready to go a few minutes later.

“We are close now,” she says to me quietly as the girl and I stalk through the busy afternoon streets of the city. The sun is hot on my back but I don’t slow my steps despite feeling uncomfortable from sweat as it trickles down my body in odd places. I heard her but I’m focused on the street before me. I’ve found someone who matches the description I was given earlier in the day of a human-form for this shifter—a tall man, around my age, with a silver streak through his hair which was often seen worn in a loose bun at the back of his head, a gruff face with two scars running through his right eyebrow, eyes of light gray in color—and I am trained on waiting for him to make the first move. We’ve been at this for hours and I’m happy to find the potential target very close to the shop that was also mentioned by the shop owner in the bar, but so far this man has done nothing more than browse nearby shops–spending little time inside and even less money.

Until he moves to disappear down an alleyway between two shops, making the mistake of glancing over his shoulder as he goes. If he feels like he’s being followed, he’s right.

“It’s him,” I whisper under my breath. The girl darts in front of me, suddenly stopping in her tracks to study the man I am watching from a distance. She nods once in agreement and I feel the hairs on the back of my neck raise in a mix of excitement and anticipation. Before I can approach his location, however, another hunter takes the bait and I watch as he cocks a gun, knocking the safety into the off position, then follows the trail. My mood sours instantly. “We aren’t alone.”

“Not for long, anyway,” The girl giggles. I feel a surge of confidence in knowing that she’s right and likely this hunter would be long dead before we even entered the fight, if that was our confirmed target.

A shot fired gains my full attention and I’m off at a sprint, sliding into the alleyway following the sound of a very real and painful scream. I spin around and motion to the girl, barking orders at her, “Hold the front lines! Barrier up!”

She remains at the intersection of the street and the alley and suddenly fades out of existence, a shimmering wall of particles raised in her wake causing the entrance to the alley to all but disappear to anyone not already within it. From the street, the buildings would seem to join together. From the alleyway, all sound–human or otherwise–would be swallowed and left to echo in this chamber without help from beyond the barrier. It was a dangerous move to corner a shifter this way, especially this particular werewolf, but I was more angry than afraid.

As far as monster hunting goes, hunters are allowed to use magic if we have access to it. I had come into my own form of magic when I was very young. It was further enhanced when my father died in front of me, a battle between a very large werewolf and himself gone terribly wrong. The werewolf had heard me as I hid in the shadows and I was sure he had seen me there within the brush, but he did not move toward me as he left the scene of his crime. I rushed to my father’s aid and he gave me one final piece of monster hunting advice, told me I was ready to carry the mantle and then left me with the one weapon I could use to avenge him and kill the werewolf. My magic only continued to strengthen after his burial.

Magic in and of itself isn’t very strong for humans, nor monster hunters. Some of us can wield fire-like barriers, or ice-like knives. But most do not have any access to magic at all and must rely on weapons. I was a major exception to this rule as I had a secret to my magic abilities–my father had fallen in love and my mother had been a monster. After she gave birth to me, she fled back to her realm, leaving my father to raise and protect me on his own. And it was a hard job–the monsters had found out what my mother had done and often sought out my father and myself to murder us both for breaking monster rules. Humans and monsters should never fall in love, let alone have children. I was an anomaly and I was a threat to both monsters and humans alike. But my father was wonderful and raised me to hone my skills, using my monster-side and magic to help him track monsters and kill them before they could harm us.

My father hunted monsters out of necessity and protection. Now I hunted monsters as revenge for my father and out of anger at my mother for leaving us to survive without her by our side. Vengeance was my fuel.

A crunch noise was heard and the whimpering sound that followed sounded wet to my acute ears. I loaded my crossbow and slowly stalked forward, keeping my back toward one of the walls and not moving my eyes from peering through the sight of my weapon as I took it in the quietest of steps forward. At the edge of the alleyway, the backs of the buildings abutted another narrow street that ran perpendicular. Dumpsters and trash bags lay back here waiting for trash pick up. A human body with ragged breaths was clinging to life as hard as it was clinging to the butt of a gun while aiming at a massive werewolf towering over him. The werewolf, clearly the shifted human I had been tracking thanks to the streak of silver hair (now fur) and scars running through one eyebrow, was bleeding from a gunshot to his chest, just above his broad pecs. It was too high to have done any lasting damage and I scoffed under my breath. The guy who wanted to take this brute down was just an amateur and he’d die if I didn’t intervene.

I loosed a bolt and it sailed true, landing deep into the hip of the werewolf who stumbled sideways before turning his snarling, dripping fangs in my direction. I quickly reloaded while he grabbed the bolt and pulled it from his blood-slicked hip with little more than a deep growl.

“You’re an idiot and you’ll die that way,” I shout to the man who’s grip on his gun is growing shakier by the second. “Silver bullets? Are you kidding me?”

“They say it’ll kill werewolves,” he huffs in response.

I bark a single laugh, “They lied.”

The werewolf straightens and he takes me in fully, some reflection of recognition passes over his face and he opens his mouth to speak but my second bolt hits him in his neck and he howls in pain instead. I take the moment to fish my first aid kit from my bag and toss it to the man who has completely lost his hold on his gun, the weapon clattering to the pavement by his feet. 

“Hopefully you know how to use bandages better than how to kill a werewolf,” I chastise, reloading my crossbow and drawing closer to the werewolf with the steady steps of a trained monster killer.

The werewolf throws my bolt to the gravel and lunges at me. He’s huge, nearly double my size in height and width and he’d land a nasty punch if I wasn’t fully expecting this reaction and easily dove out of his attack range. He’s faster than he looks and he twists in mid-air, correcting his lunge and basically only hitting the ground to bounce back in my direction. This time I am not prepared and I take a full swipe of claws across my thigh, the pain stings immediately and I work to disconnect from it and refocus on my opponent.

The werewolf chuckles, his voice rumbly and low in his chest. Then he narrows his silver eyes at me and growls his words, “It is you. His child. I’m surprised you survived.”

“Are you?” I question. He was too close for me to have enough time to reload my crossbow. But I had knives scattered on my body and I was able to palm one as he snorted at me. “You should have killed me back then, too. Do you know who I am now? Who you helped me become?”

He stands taller somehow, one ear flicking in the shadows of the buildings, “Believe me, I would have loved to kill you. Your father was a menace to our kind. But your mother wouldn’t let me.”

At the mention of my absent mother I fling the hidden blade toward the wolf in a blind anger and it plunges deep into his chest, just north of his heart. The shifter stumbles back a few steps but now I’m the one growling and lunging for him.

“How DARE you mention her!” I’ve palmed two more knives and fling them toward him. Each hits their mark perfectly and the werewolf slams back into a chain link fence, the racket of steel a round of applause to my ears.

He is fighting through his growing pain and panting between growls. I glance over my shoulder and see my first aid kit open and riffled through, the injured man no place to be found. I realize I no longer care if he lives or dies. My full focus is on the mess of fur trapped before me. I fish the folded paper from my pocket, my thigh throbbing in a steady cry for my attention which I continue to ignore. I open the paper to read it and then crush it in my fist.

“Ferric!” I shout at the shifter. The werewolf’s attention snaps to me in a look of fleeting panic and I know I am right. I have his true name. I can force him to shift back right here, right now and if I do, he will surely die from his wounds. Another trophy for me to claim. Another bounty for me to collect. A personal debt settled.

A sudden flash of blinding light causes me to throw my arms up and shield my eyes. It came out of nowhere and I am left seeing spots of black and white as the light fades and I blink rapidly to regain my full vision. I vaguely see a woman with long dark brown and silver wavy hair, tugging on the werewolf’s arm and pulling him to his feet by her own strength. Except she looks weaker and younger than myself and the shifter she was intent on saving. I’m mentally paging through my monster scrapbook to figure out what category she fits into.

“Go! Now! Hurry!” She’s yelling at him with desperation and I am glancing from her to a strange warping line in my vision. It reminds me of the heat vapors that cause the pavement to appear wet or wiggly in the blistering heat of summer. A crack? A teleport point.

I find my footing and start toward the woman and my target which were quickly getting away from me. I call out to her, “That’s MY hunt!”

“No. He’s my friend. And you will leave him alone.” Her words sound like a familiar song to my ears and I notice her eyes are glowing silver, as well as her fingertips. I suddenly cannot move forward, I cannot lift my hands to throw my knives or load my crossbow. I can feel my motivation evaporating in a foreign way. She was a spellcaster.

“I won’t leave you with her. She is the Legendary One. She is dangerous,” The werewolf mentions as the woman who is holding my gaze has me trapped in her glowing silver gaze.

She waves him forward with her hand and the werewolf seems to slide toward the teleport point like a chess piece sliding across the board. “Help is waiting for you. I’m right behind you,” She’s hovering off the ground, slowly trailing the werewolf sideways to keep her focus on me.

I cannot move and I cannot attack, but I’ll be damned if I don’t get the last word, “When I find you, I’ll kill you! All of you!”

The light swells and bursts in a bright flash that blinds me long enough for the woman and the werewolf to escape. I’m angry, I’m bleeding and now I have a new target to research.

I’m running out of the woods, the treeline hurriedly evaporating beside me. I glance over my shoulder quickly as my breath heaves in my chest and fear tears at my heart like a clawing beast. I don’t see the hunter but I feel her closing in. I try to move faster and faster still as I clench my skirts in my fists and the knee-high meadow grass whips against my shins. I’m in the open now and if she sees me, she will certainly catch me. And if she catches me, she will kill me. I’m the final defense and I am running out of breath, out of hiding, out of time.

I hear someone yelling to me but their voice sounds garbled to my ears, filled with the roar of my heartbeat and rush of my blood. I cannot understand what they are saying. As I run I throw out one hand before me and it glows with light–a bright, white flash that engulfs the shape of it and feels warm against my skin. The voice grows impatient somehow and I cannot see who is calling me. I can hear the voice in my head, echoing through the meadow, somehow surrounding me and avoiding me all at once. Before I can do anything with the light pooling in my palm, the voice cracks like a whip in my ears. 

“LUCKY–”

And I wake up.

The dream is not new but every so often I get a step further than I had the night before. I’m still not sure what it means, or what it’s trying to tell me but I know it’s a premonition of sorts and a frustrating one at that. After writing about this recurring dream and anything new I’ve noticed this time around, I slip my journal my mother bestowed upon me beneath my pillow and start my day with a hot cup of tea. The morning is slowly dawning and I welcome the light into my small apartment. Rays of fresh sunlight reflect and refract off various crystals and suncatchers I’ve strung around the windows, throwing rainbows and small light points around my walls. It is my favorite time of day, usually a welcomed slice of peace before any other beasts stirred coming for magic favors or fortune telling from yours truly.

The day outside is looking like it will be another good one. A soft fog censors the sunlight as it gains more vibrance and very few clouds hover from the evening before. The city is quiet in the soft dawn hours, monsters home and asleep or traversing carefully between our world and the one that keeps our tales spinning–the world of humans. Humans were our targets to coerce to our side, as needed. But humans were also to be feared: monster hunters resided among them and they took that title very seriously, hunting our own kind for sport. Thus, the world of monsters had to be carefully tucked away from the grasp of humans. Luckily, we monsters had developed ways to travel between the realms that kept us mostly safe from danger and left us only as tales as old as time itself that were passed down through generations of humans.

“Lucky! So kind of you to leave your door unlocked,” The familiar voice snaked behind me and I simply sighed into my tea cup and rolled my eyes. My peace is shaken for the moment by this unpleasant interruption.

“I didn’t leave it unlocked, you just simply have unfettered access to me. For now. I can revoke it at any time, Orion.”

My younger brother laughed which sent an unwelcome tingle down my spine. “Of course, Luckster. You threaten that often but at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve forgotten the spell to do so.”

Although bound by blood, my brother and I could not be more different from one another. For one, he was a full-fledged incubus, a devil of a man who knew how to use his attractiveness and sexual prowess to get pretty much anything he wanted from anyone he chose. He never cared much for the emotional attachment aspect of relationships and simply focused on the sex. That was a gift from our father, also an incubus and an absent one at that. Our mother was a witch who fell for him and was left magically with two children and nothing more from the monster himself. I didn’t blame our father as much as Orion did for things that befell our tiny family in our father’s absence, but truth be told Orion seemed to enjoy the hand he’d been dealt. He made the title of incubus bend to his will. He was tall, slender with a toned build, and prided himself on his shoulder-length wavy brown hair, tanned skin, tail, wings and horns; which he kept beautifully ordained with gold jewelry at all times. He looked constantly regal–a model of a monster which never hurt when he chose his partners. They always had a hard time refusing his charm and attractiveness.

With that said, it would make sense that I was a true cambion–born of incubus and human–although somehow I’ve kept my wits about me and avoided being “incubus” as much as possible. I wanted that part locked away and I didn’t want to become like my brother nor my father. I learned the Old Magic from our mother and openly practiced her teachings in a way that felt safe and protectful. The magic seemed to come naturally to me and our mother was thrilled to see me quickly connect and bond to tarot cards, palm readings, potion-making and spellcasting. Other than being persuasive and having supernatural abilities, I looked entirely human–no tail, wings, nor horns, my skin fair and hair that fell in long dark brown waves with silver underneath half-way down my back. Being human-passing was a benefit that allowed me to traverse between realms almost entirely undetected by humans and monster hunters alike. I wasn’t bound to only crossing at certain times like my brother was or other monsters who needed the cover of darkness to make that trip safely. For all intents and purposes I considered myself a true witch, nothing more and nothing less. 

I turn to face him and lean casually against my sink, tea cup in my hands. I am completely over his quips and my day has only just begun. I’m not looking forward to what’s in store for me. “And to what do I owe the pleasure of you barging into my morning routine?”

“I need a favor from my favorite sister.”

“I’m your only sister.”

“And you are also my favorite,” Orion smiles, the tips of small fangs on display, and gestures broadly with his arms outstretched as though welcoming me into his embrace. When I don’t move from my spot and simply take a long sip from my cup instead, he scowls and drops his arms back to his side and gets to the point. “Fine. I need a love potion.”

I almost spit my tea from my lips. “I’m sorry. Hang on. I could have just sworn you said you needed a ‘love potion’ from me.”

Orion crossed his arms over his chest defensively, “I did.”

“You–an incubus, my brother of my blood–is asking me for a love potion?”

“I don’t deal with love, sister. I deal with lust. There is a difference, you wouldn’t understand.”

I shake my head and cross the room to the table that stands between us and I pull out a chair to sit, motioning for my brother to do the same. “I don’t believe in love so you’re right, I wouldn’t understand.” A bird sings beyond my window and there's a soft creaking in the floor to my left but I don’t let these things distract me from holding my gaze with my brother.

Orion clears his throat and is equally upset with me and fighting himself on something. I can see the distress beneath his scowl. “I believe my current partner may be cheating on me.”

For the second time this morning I nearly choked on my tea. “... What?” I sputter.

“I’ve been keeping my bed with a werewolf, but as you know shifters can traverse the realms without much detection when not in were-form. And lately Ferric has been visiting the human world more often than not and I am growing anxious over it.” Orion is tapping his fingers against the top of my table and I realize this is a confession of a deeper level. He didn’t want to tell me any of this but as I mentioned previously our bond is strong so I am tucking this away as a secret to keep.

“I see,” I’m gentle with my response and Orion quickly seems to settle at my table a bit more, “I can give you the potion but it won’t help you discover the reason Ferric is traveling so frequently between realms. I think you simply need to have a conversion with him.”

Orion sighs and settles back in his chair, wings tucked tightly against his form. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

“Brother, honestly. What else would you have me do? Follow him?” I laugh and take a sip of my tea and Orion’s focus snaps back to me in a way that says I have misspoke. 

Oh no.

“Would you, Lucky?” He’s sitting up slowly, leaning forward across the table. His smile is cocked and he looks absolutely devious. “Would you follow him for me? You know I can only go across that line during the dreamstate of humans. But you… You can go anytime. You can go now.”

I’m looking at him like this is the dumbest thing he has ever asked of me. I’m suddenly reminded of when we were kids and he asked me to cross to the human world to pick weed for him to smoke but this was right up there. I shift uncomfortably in my seat and do not answer him. I’m not sure if I even want to entertain this thought further. Not only would I be tracking someone on behalf of my brother, I would be seeking a werewolf–a monster notoriously known for being a natural tracker themselves. Not to mention one with incredible strength. What would I do if I found him? What would I do if Ferric found me first?

My brother is standing now, pacing around to my side of the table. “Dear sister,” he paused as he stalked around me slowly. I wasn’t phased, lost in my thoughts about how this day could possibly get worse. “Imagine how much more you could do if you simply gave in to your power?”

I hated when he brought that up. I had refused whatever power our father had bestowed upon me long ago, before Orion even existed, and yet he still harps on me for not unlocking my so-called ‘full potential’. I stand up slowly, turning to face him as he stands behind me, tea cup forgotten on the table. “And whom I could sway to my side, as you do? I’m not like you, brother.” I retort, my anger bubbles up in my chest. The floorboards creak once again, a soft signal to me. I gently wave my index and middle finger on my right hand in a quick flick to the side of my palm. Orion does not notice, nor seem to care. 

“I do not sway, I simply influence. There is a difference.” 

“Between fear and surrender?” I challenged.

He smiled so wide his fangs were fully exposed, glistening in the daylight. “Between lust and desire, sister. Nothing else matters to me.” 

“No shit,” I sigh. It seems I would be traveling today after all. “Fine. I’ll go. But I need something of Ferrics’ to help me track him when I’m across the border. Do you have fur or something small I can use as a charm? You won’t get it back.”

Orion grins and embraces me quickly, clearly joyful that I am doing his bidding to ensure his boyfriend is not cheating on him. I suddenly have a terrible feeling about this. He fishes in his pocket and removes a small glass vile, a tuft of gray and dark brown fur coiled inside. “I knew you wouldn’t let me down.”

“Yeah, well, this could take a bit of time without any information to go off of,” I take the vial from my brother and scoot around him to set it down on my kitchen counter and start preparing herbs and flowers necessary to transform this into a tracking charm. “Do you know where he goes or does Ferric ever say anything about where he’s been when he returns from the human realm?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Orion sighs as he crosses his arms across his chest and leans back against my table.

“Great. Well, I’ll do my best but no promises that I’ll find him today with enough time to tell you what he’s been up to in only one trip. You’ll have to give me a few days at least.”

“I trust you, Lucky. If anyone can find my wereguy, it’s you.”

I turn to look at him with a look of disapproval hanging off my lips, “Please tell me you don’t actually call him that.”

Orion chuckles, “I have better names for him that I will not be sharing with you.”

“Thank you, honestly. I don’t want to know.”

Orion places my nearly empty tea cup in my sink and then gives me a single kiss on my cheek before he simply leaves with a short whistle of happiness. If he wasn’t my brother I may have offered him poisoned tea but family was all I had here, even if the thought of killing him off now and then brought a small smile to my face.

I’ve pulled a small mortar and pestle onto the counter and I’m grinding materials down into a finer collection of leaves, flowers, herbs and fur. It’s something I’ve done for years so I don’t need to concentrate very hard on the task at hand. I let my mind wander briefly before I remember that I am not alone in this room, despite Orion having long since left my home.

“You can come out now,” I speak softly into my work. “Sorry to make you wait so long. Orion would have gotten unruly had he noticed you.”

A soft noise like the breeze through tall grasses passes behind me and then a form takes shape on my left, leaning over my sink. Shadows weave and coil like the smoke tendrils from a freshly lit stick of incense. The form is simply more defined and less blended into the darkened corner of my kitchen, a man slightly taller than myself, reaching into my sink and picking up my mug in a quiet motion.

“I wish I could go with you,” the shadow-figure confides as he turns on the water and begins washing the mug.

“I know,” I whisper, pausing in my work to look over at him. He was a sleep paralysis demon, one that thrived on the darkest of shadows in order to visit the human realm, though he preferred the comfort of our realm and the quiet he found when he visited me. I hadn’t seen him in some time though, so this yet another unexpected visitor this morning though he was far from unwelcome.

“If you wait until tonight I could…”

“Benji, you don’t have to go with me, I promise,” I reach out and rest my hand atop his soapy ones, the mug held between them. I catch his gaze and he drops his eyes to the mug and our hands almost immediately. “Besides, I’m sure you have better things to do since I haven’t seen you in a while.”

He stirs slightly, shadows weaving between our touch. “I’ve been dealing with some personal things and I didn’t want to bother you, unlike your brother.”

I remove my hand from his and tilt my head at him slightly in curiosity. “Anything I can help with?”

“No,” Benji quickly answers. “Thank you, though. I appreciate that.” He finishes washing the mug and sets it in the drying rack. The water and soap simply dissipated off his hands as though it was never there to begin with.

I get back to work on my charm and leave the pestle to rest in the bowl momentarily as I cross to my hutch and open the first drawer below the glass cabinet doors. I retrieved a small pouch made of tightly woven tulle and threaded with a ribbon as a closure to hold the contents I had blended together. As I return to stand beside Benji my intuition tells me something is off, but I don’t want to push it. He is one of my best friends and I know he’d tell me of his own accord or not at all. A master of shadows and secrets and one of the most empathetic monsters I know.

“I have no doubt you’ll find that Ferric guy but please be careful over there. Something has changed,” Benji warns me. 

I pause in filling my small pouch. “What do you mean?”

“I was over there and I got trapped somehow. I couldn’t cross back right away,” Benji explains. “It was strange… it felt like my connection to our realm was weaker somehow. Like the tether was snapping.”

Suddenly, I have a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach and I quickly finish dumping the contents from the mortar into the pouch, pulling the ribbon tightly and knotting it quickly, a soft chant whispered from my lips to ensure the pouch would track Ferric quickly beyond our world. Then I reach out and touch Benji’s arm, locking eyes with him and tapping into the power I had denied for so long. The words leave my mouth in a rush of cadence like a song left half-spoken, half-sung, “Tell me what you know, Benji.”

Benji’s eyes shift from dark brown to a glowing blue-gray and he speaks as though the truth is being lured from his lips against his will.

It wasn’t a long way back to the warehouse but Benji felt an overwhelming need to use speed to his advantage, the weight of the news he was carrying was too important to be delivered even a second too late.

He decided to use his abilities and used a combination of parkour and shadow dashing to gain and hold speed as he left the train yard behind him. His internal monologue was racing with what he needed to say and what he would tell Lucky once she joined him back at the warehouse. He was very worried about her and could not shake the feeling that she was going to be in trouble once Orion showed back up. 

Maybe Delsin will let me come back to escort her, he thought as he lept over a dumpster and entered the city borders. And then he faltered in his steps, as his name pulled his attention and he nearly fell over trying to stop his own momentum.

“Benji! Over here!”

“Makayla?” Benji jogged over to the girl who was flagging him down from the next block over. He looked her over and she did the same to him in greeting.

“You’re okay! Thank goodness,” Makayla seemed relieved and she placed her neon green fishnet-gloved hands on her hips.

Benji gave her an apprehensive eyebrow raise, “Was I not supposed to be?”

“No, dummy. But Delsin sent me after you because he got your note. Or rather Fetch gave him the note you left in your dorm after she went looking for you this morning.”

“Oh, right, that,” Benji sighed, “I had to check on someone. I was worried. I’m still worried, but now I have to get back to the warehouse. We have an emergency.”

Makayla adjusted her goggles over her eyes and winked at him. “It was Lucky, wasn’t it?”

Benji felt his ears heat up and he cleared his throat, “It wasn’t Celia, that’s for sure. Is everyone okay at the warehouse?”

“Yeah,” Makayla confirmed, “Why? What’s the emergency?”

“Celia is declaring war and Orion is on his way at her side.”

Now Makayla brought her hands together before her chest, cracking her knuckles together. “Then let’s get back to the warehouse and prepare to win the war.”

Benji nodded, grateful to have Makayla on their side now. He wanted to say more about Lucky and his suspicion about her safety but he knew getting to the warehouse was the priority right now. He could tell the Heroes and maybe they could help get Lucky pulled from there as soon as possible. Maybe they’d send a recon team to the train yard under the direction of Benji.

Being a hero was both exciting and terrifying.

Orion returned to the train yard, looking a little worse for the wear with traces of cuts across his face and his shirt in shreds. He was constantly balling his hands into fists and then relaxing them again as he walked directly into the main meeting room.

“Celia!” His shout had the rabbit-mask wearing woman turn her attention to him. Orion summoned mirror shards to his hand and they hung in the air twisting above his palm, reflecting his face as they shifted toward him.

Celia said nothing, just crossed her arms over her chest.

“We need to move. Now.”

“Orion… what gives you that idea?” Celia tilted her head to one side, her mask giving a creepy stare as it tilted.

Orion grabbed his mirror pieces and threw them to the floor, the glass cutting into his palm. He didn’t flinch with the pain. “The longer we wait, the more prepared they’ll be. If you want the girl we need to move before they do.”

Celia nodded and started walking toward him slowly, “What did you do, Orion?”

Orion raised an eyebrow at his boss and shifted his weight between his feet. For a moment he thought about confessing to her–about what he suspected with Lucky, about their fight, about his bar fight after that–but then a new idea took place. Why confess when you can simply lie?

“Lucky warned them. She told them everything. You were right about her.” The words came so easily and he smiled, spitting them out of his mouth.

Celia nodded once in confirmation of the information, then rested her hand on his shoulder, standing on tiptoe to reach him easier. Her other hand touched her mask gently and it exploded into a mass of paper confetti that fluttered to the ground.

She narrowed her black eyes, her gaze locked on Orion’s eyes. “She’s a liability. She could throw the battle against us. You need to take care of her. Get her off the playing field, Orion Stella.”

Orion couldn’t remember if he had ever seen Celia without her mask on and he found himself thinking that she looked as delicate as the paper she wielded with all the sharpness of a knife. Celia’s command settled under his skin and he frowned slightly. He didn’t want to hurt Lucky, unnecessarily, but the more he thought about it the more he was giving himself permission to saddle her with the blame. Whatever she had coming to her was of her own doing.

Now it was his turn to nod solemnly at Celia, accepting her request.

“She won’t be a problem.”

The warehouse was a mess of people.

Students were everywhere, gathering belongings they deemed “important” and packing to leave for a while. The announcement was made via email that an emergency situation was underway and no students were to be left on campus past 3 PM. Rosaline had further assisted with the evacuation notice by mentally intruding on the students within range and filing their heads with urgency sans panic. Her threshold for her ability had been stretched further, thanks to her ongoing training, though her radius only covered the warehouse alone. Anyone off-campus would get the email and hopefully that would be enough.

“I could send everyone a text message, too,” Eugene offered. The office was just as chaotic as several people were inside the space making plans and back-up plans for every scenario they could imagine. Benji was eyeing everyone in the room and picking up on the tension and anxiety around him.

“Yeah, why don’t you do that, Eugene,” Delsin agreed and then turned his attention back to Makayla and Benji who were occupying the couch. “Okay, so we know Celia is coming for Caly. What can you tell us about… what was his name? Osiris?”

Makayla sighed, “Orion! Gosh, Delsin. Get good with names.”

Fetch snickered from beside Delsin and he shot her a disgruntled look. The neon-user just shrugged, “Hazards’ right. Get good,” She playfully hip checked Delsin and he rolled his eyes.

“Says the woman who has a zillion nicknames for everyone,” Delsin refocused and made a note on a piece of paper. “Okay, so what’s Orion’s power? Shape-shifting?”

“Mirrors,” Benji chimed in. He was mostly quiet for this meeting but was clearly paying attention. He noted that the only ones missing from this meeting were Rosaline and Caly. And Lucky.

“Mirrors… that makes sense,” Delsin wrote something else down and circled it, then he adjusted his beanie and seemed to be chewing at the inside of his cheek.

Fetch read over his shoulder and then perched against the desk, her arms crossed loosely over her chest, “That’s probably going to be more offensive. I’ll take him.”

“No one is taking anyone. We’re trying to figure out something without having to resort to an all-out war to protect Caly, remember?” Delsin stated.

“Fetch is right, Orion is more offensive. He’s an asshole, too,” Makayla retorted.

Fetch chuckled under her breath. Benji was glad to see that Fetch and Makayla had put their transgressions behind them for the moment. He cleared his throat, “What about Lucky?”

“The luck-user?” Eugene asked.

“Yeah,” Benji continued, “I mean, she’s not going to help them but we can’t just leave her there alone with Celia and Orion.”

Makayla elbowed Benji and he looked over at her and she winked at him. The heat rose in his ears and drifted over his cheeks.

“How do you know she won’t help them?” Fetch questioned. She had a good point and Benji didn’t know how to explain it without it sounding like a crush and a prayer.

Makayla answered for him, “Lucky doesn’t like hurting people. Did you even have any injuries when the siblings showed up on campus the other day?”

Fetch and Delsin exchanged a glance that Eugene joined in on. That was a solid argument. Benji made a mental note to thank Makayla later for the save.

“Good point,” Delsin sighed, “Okay, so we just need to focus on Celia–who seems to have some new tricks–and Orion. Both of them are going to be a problem together, so our main objective is to separate them if things go sideways.”

“We can’t plan for everything, Smokes. We’re going to have to just wing most of this.” Fetch pointed out.

Delsin paused for a moment and then looked over at Eugene. “Where are we at with evacuation?”

Eugene had the laptop all to himself and he typed and clicked around for a moment before he provided an answer. “It looks like 75% of students are safely off-campus at this point.”

“Excellent. Fetch? Call Juno and Kane in here.”

Fetch gave Delsin an odd look before she pulled her phone out of her pocket and did as she was asked without questioning it.

Benji pulled his phone out from his pocket, too. No new texts from anyone. No communication from Lucky. He was growing more nervous about the situation as every minute passed in silence between the two of them. He was also trying to figure out a way to bring the topic of Lucky back up without it sounding nagging. No one had really answered his question.

“Where are Dr. Hutch and Caly?” Benji changed the subject to occupy his mind with something else instead of missing Lucky and being so worried about her. She could take care of herself, right?

“Rosaline is with Caly in the training room. It was the safest place for them during the evacuation.”

“Wait, they aren’t leaving the school?” Makayla suddenly seemed nervous at hearing this information.

Delsin shook his head, “We thought if we moved them off-campus that Celia would bring the fight to them. Holding the two of them here helps us ensure the battle doesn’t leave the warehouse grounds and we can keep more people safe that way.” He paused and glanced at Fetch. “That is if a battle happens at all.”

“Oh, it’s gonna happen. Orion has always been hotheaded and I can see him acting out without Celia even saying anything at all,” Makayla interjected, “He’s fast, too.”

“Great update, Makayla. I’ll add that to the notes,” Delsin rolled his eyes and wrote something down on the paper plans he had been keeping throughout the conversation.

A knock sounded on the office door and five pairs of eyes turned to look as the door opened. A small, mousy woman with black and blue hair and a few striking tattoos entered beside a taller, thin man with hair about the same length as Delsin’s, only poofier. They both seemed nervous and excited to be in this coveted space, off-limits to anyone who wasn’t a “Hero of Seattle” or in trouble with them.

Delsin gave them both a warm smile and welcomed them in. “Juno! Kane! Welcome. Just the two I needed to see.”

“Uh… hey?” Kane gave a short wave while Juno seemed to be working on finding her words, a blush settling in her cheeks. Benji inhaled softly at knowing that feeling all too well.

“Alright, you two. First, thanks for sticking around during the evacuation,” Delsin began, “Second, I need you to both help make sure the campus is empty–fully empty–within the next hour.”

Juno checked her watch and gave Delsin a puzzled glance, “But it’s only twelve thirty in the afternoon. The text said to be off campus by three.”

Delsin nodded, ”That plan has changed.”

Celia had been acting strange all morning and now that Orion was back Celia was actively preparing for something. Lucky wasn’t sure what was happening but she knew it was something bad and that it was happening sooner than expected.

She had tried to talk to Celia, to get some information out of her that could help the warehouse team but it was useless. Celia seemed to be ignoring her, telling her only to stay put to guard the train yard and their meager space for a base. It was strange and Lucky did not like the feeling it gave her.

Plus, staying behind meant that she couldn’t join Benji, or worse give him more warning of what was coming.

So when Celia abruptly passed an origami dove to Orion and then left, Lucky knew something in the delicate balance of power at play had shifted. She quickly went back to her favorite train car to decide what to do next in the silence as she pushed down the rising panic in her chest.

Familiar footfalls entered the space behind her. As soon as she heard the sound of small silver charms gently striking against one another, Lucky closed her eyes. The air shifted before her and she knew she was in danger.

“Orion… quit playing around.”

“Playing? Who said I was playing?” Orion whispered in her ear, his breath warm against her neck. Lucky hid a shiver and squared her shoulders.

“Open your eyes, Lucky. Or are you scared of what you’ll see?” Footsteps paced behind her but Lucky found steady breaths and scrambled internally for something, anything to grasp hold of that could get her out of this situation.

“You don’t have to do this, Ry. You are smarter than this. Celia has been trying to separate us since we joined her and I–”

“You what, Lucky? You always have all the answers to the unasked questions. All the commands.” Orion cut her off, his voice low and angry. He was directly behind her, Lucky could feel his body heat against her back. “It’s my turn now, Lucky. I’m making the rules. Not you, not Celia. Me. And you will do as I say and not interfere.”

Lucky buckled down in her stance. Her hands were so tightly in fists, small crescents were forming from where her fingernails dug into her own skin. “No.”

“What did you say?”

“I said, no. Orion, stop this.”

He placed one hand against her back and Lucky swallowed hard.

“Open your eyes, Luckster. Open them now and tell me what you see.”

Lucky was terrified. She knew this move and she knew Orion was breaking his promise to never hurt her like this. She felt the end was coming, rushing toward her, yet she did as she was told and opened her eyes. She held her own gaze in the mirror before her, a mirror summoned by Orion’s ultimate use of his power. Her dark brown eyes were full of fear and anger and loss. She had seconds to decide how this would end. Time seemed to slow. Luck was on her side.

Orion laughed, a low gravelly noise beside her ear. It echoed around the empty train car and dared Lucky to break her stare. She did not.

“Your time’s up. No one is coming to save you now. Enjoy the Mirrorverse, sister.” Orion shoved Lucky forward–toward the mirror which now rippled and warped before her–and several things happened at once. Lucky deftly threw her right fist behind her, grabbing ahold of Orion’s wrist and then she lost contact with her reflection, her eyes moving to watch Orion’s reflected face and meeting his gaze. He was snarling, drunk on power as his eyes glowed with bright golden crescents. He looked terrifying. His power increased and the mirror all but sucked her inside of itself.

“Bad luck, brother.” Lucky’s last words rang around the train car, her eyes flashing with silver crescents before suddenly losing contact with everything and being alone in a dark space. The room was huge with a heavy fog weaving around her legs like a cat. There was nothing here, nothing beyond a gaping, empty place and a heavy feeling of loneliness. The Mirrorverse reflected her deepest insecurities back at her tenfold.

But she got a small glimmer of hope when Orion yelled out in frustration from someplace she could no longer see. Her sudden spell and power usage before being locked away beyond the glass had cast bad luck on Orion and the second half of his spell was canceled with her own. No duplicate of herself existed in the world. No reflection of Lucky for Orion to mold as he wished while she was restrained here, all alone.

Luck had been her greatest gift and sometimes her greatest curse, but here locked within a mirror that reflected her soul, luck was no place to be found. So Lucky closed her eyes and sank to her knees, praying to any God or Goddess who could hear her for strength while leaning heavily into the hope that someone would come to her rescue.

Fetch leaped to the ground and stood beside Delsin with a snarl on her face, “They’re here.”

She kept her hazel eyes trained on the horizon and within seconds two figures appeared walking toward the warehouse with a confidence reserved for those who assumed they were in full control. Neither figure seemed to hesitate or falter in their steps despite the welcome party of five that awaited them.

Once they were several feet apart, the pair stopped. Orion was clearly sizing everyone up and he gave Makayla the middle finger with a smirk. Makayla spit at him and flared toxic gasses into her hands. Fetch held one arm out in front of Makayla who grumbled under her breath and adjusted her stance, keeping her powers to herself.

“We meet again, Delsin Rowe,” Celia spoke, breaking the silence from behind her familiar rabbit mask. “I’m sure you know why we are here.”

“For the girl, right?” Delsin responded, crossing his arms over his chest.

“For her freedom. You have no idea what she can do, Delsin. Imagine a world where your emotions and actions are molded without your consent after hearing a single note. Imagine the chaos that could be caused in the wrong hands. Give her to us and no one will get hurt,” Celia spoke slowly, her words enunciated with care.

Makayla scoffed, “Not even the girl?”

Orion barked a laugh and Celia threw an origami dove at him. He fell silent again but Fetch noticed something seemed different in his eyes. Celia didn’t answer the question.

Delsin shook his head once, “Absolutely not, Celia. Your idea of freedom isn’t as freeing as you think it is. Freedom requires rules and boundaries, not endless cycles of battle royales. I certainly don’t trust you with ‘training’ Caly or her abilities and you are not a queen among conduits.”

Fetch saw Orion raise an eyebrow at this and then turn his focus to Celia. The paper-user balled her hands into fists at her side and she narrowed her stance.

“Your name may be more well-known than mine, but I assure you that I am the only one qualified enough for the role of queen.”

“I beg to differ,” Orion interjected. Celia snapped her mask toward him and he didn’t even flinch under her gaze. “If anyone is queen material, it would be Fetch.”

Fetch opened her mouth and then closed it again, narrowing her eyes at this man standing across from her. He was about Delsin’s height but clearly younger than she was. He cocked an eyebrow at her as their eyes met and Fetch suddenly felt like she was being studied. She didn’t appreciate his staring.

Benji, who had been quiet this whole time, cleared his throat and pulled Orion’s attention to him instead. “Where is Lucky?”

He was right. The other girl was missing from the lineup and that seemed odd to Fetch given what Benji and Makayla had said about her and her closeness to her brother. Something was off here.

“Her luck ran out,” Orion stated flatly. He narrowed his gaze at Benji and this caused Benji to take a half step backward.

“If we deny you access to the girl, what will your next move be, Celia?” Eugene asked very matter-of-factly. 

Celia tilted her mask in thought and brought her hands behind her back. Fetch watched her movements like a hawk spying a mouse in a wheat field.

“You already know, Eugene. I’m not leaving without her,” Celia responded, “Whether you give her to me yourselves or whether I take her from you by force makes little difference to me.”

“Two against five? Seems like we’ll win regardless. You should just leave.” Makayla teased.

A noise pulled Fetch’s attention to glance behind her. Running across the grass quickly was Caly, reaching out toward something with a grin across her face. Rosaline was chasing after the girl looking incredibly fearful and Fetch knew she wasn’t the only one who noticed her. Fetch cursed under her breath as a burst of paper flew by her face heading to intersect with Caly. She shot off neon missiles into the paper particles and true to form, did not miss her target. Celia reappeared and staggered a few steps, holding her side. 

Celia yelled over her shoulder, “Orion! GO!”

All chaos broke loose.

Every plan the Heroes of Seattle had devised, every scenario, was scrapped for a new plan as they simply nodded to one another and immediately split up. Fetch dashed forward toward Celia, her neon a good match for the speed of paper before her. She knew Eugene was going to try to stay on Orion to slow him down or distract him long enough to learn more about him and his attacks. Delsin was moving with drained smoke, dashing toward Caly to get her to safety, as long as Fetch could hold Celia’s attention. Benji and Makayla had each other’s backs and would be fine as long as neither of them tried anything too risky. It was the most basic of plans but it was the only one suited for the mess that was slowly rippling toward disaster.

Fetch reached Celia quickly and tackled her to the ground, the two conduits grappling on the grass among singed blades and paper particles. Fetch pushed her thoughts toward Delsin hoping he’d reach Caly and get her to safety.

<CALY!> Rosaline reached out with her mind and her hand, being too far from the small girl to grab her in time. Caly paused in mid-run and turned around to look for Rosaline having heard the shout in her mind. She was a deer frozen before oncoming traffic.

*   *   *   *   *

“What did you find, Caly?” Rosaline asked as she saw Caly squat before a messy corner of the training room. A bunch of props were haphazardly stored here, likely tossed from students using them during class. No one else was here now to straighten things out but something had caught Caly’s attention.

Rosaline didn’t see anything right away and she slowly dropped onto one knee at the behest of Caly pointing excitedly into the pile and then pinching her index finger and thumb together and sliding her hands away from her nose along her cheeks. It was the sign for ‘cat’. Rosaline squinted as she peered into the shadows of the props.

Lo and behold, a tiny kitten was staring back with large pupils and its ears swiveling cautiously. Rosaline tapped Caly on her shoulder and reached slowly toward the shadows, making a soft, soothing sound with her breath and rubbing the tips of her fingers across the floor in a quick flick of her wrist. Caly seemed to be watching both Rosaline and the kitten and then squealed happily once the kitten pounced at Rosaline’s hand.

Rosaline reached out her other hand slowly and gently petted the kitten. It was a small orange tabby and it stilled a moment beneath her touch before suddenly arching it’s back toward her hand for more. Rosaline reached for Caly’s hand and ran her small fingers across the kitten’s back. Caly immediately seemed to glow with joy as she pet the kitten again and again.

“This is just a kitten, Caly. I’m not sure how it got in here. I guess we can keep it occupied while we stay put,” Rosaline spoke quietly so as not to scare the kitten. It rubbed against Caly, walking around her and playing with a string that was dangling from her pants. Caly giggled loudly and the noise startled the kitten enough to have it temporarily skitter back into the pile of props.

Caly reached for it there and Rosaline stopped her before she was swiped at. Instead Rosaline taught Caly the faster movements along the floor and the kitten was quickly mesmerized and pounced at Caly’s hand playfully. Caly clapped for herself. Rosaline was able to get a better look at the kitten and determined it was a boy.

“Let’s call him Colby Jack since he’s the same color as the cheese, or CJ for short. His name starts with a ‘C’ like yours, Caly,” Rosaline signed the spelling of both names and emphasized the letter ‘C’. 

Caly nodded and signed, “CJ! C for cat. C for Caly. Caly’s cat, CJ!”

Rosaline laughed. Then a strange noise sounded from outside someplace and Rosaline felt tension rise in her body. She was running through the things she had been training with Garrett on to expand her abilities and was able to pick up on several strong emotions coming from outside. Now was the time to stay put and stay quiet.

So when CJ suddenly sprinted forward toward the door with Caly in tow, Rosaline felt a flare of her own fear and jolted after the young ones only to be too slow to catch up with them before they were both out the door and running though the grass.

*   *   *   *   *

Delsin all but tackled Caly, sweeping her into his arms with a trail of smoke wisping behind him. Caly had CJ tucked against her chest and the kitten’s face looked just as confused as Caly’s from where Rosaline stood. She sent a quick check around the area and counted bodies–a total of nine, ten with the kitten–and had only a moment to collect herself before Delsin was standing in front of her protectively, Caly sandwiched between the adults and standing at Rosaline’s feet.

“Can you protect her?” Delsin was already breathing heavily with his burst of power and Rosaline found herself wondering how long it had been since Delsin was forced to use his abilities in a life or death situation like this one.

She nodded, “Yes, I’ll try.”

Delsin tossed her a glance over his shoulder, “Do it. No trying. We may not get a second chance.” Then he dashed forward, leaving a puff of smoke to dissipate where he had stood. Rosaline knelt and spun Caly around to look her in the eyes. Caly looked worried and scared, a lot like how she looked the very first time Rosaline saw Caly in the hospital only a week ago. It was a strange wave of deja vu and Rosaline tucked it away into the depths of her mind.

“Caly,” Rosaline kept her voice steady and stern, offering contact by way of running her hands up and down Caly’s arms. Caly was holding CJ tightly but the kitten seemed to understand he was a source of comfort and didn’t struggle nor complain. “No one is taking you away from me. No one is taking CJ either. Stay close to me and do what I say, especially if you are the only one who can hear my voice. Do you understand?”

Caly nodded and relaxed her grip on CJ who shimmied into a more comfortable position within her arms.

“Good. Thank you, Caly,” Rosaline stood and stepped in front of the girl to gauge the battlefield before her.

Eugene swept his arms open and five hologram angels appeared at his aid. They flew quickly toward Orion and the man squatted down before leaping backwards with a smirk. Where he had stood five reflections of himself now stood, each an exact replica of the mirror-user and doing identical movements as Orion dodged and attacked the angels easily. Reflections met holograms and the two clashed, the casualties of the battle quickly shimmering into thin air and counting down to reveal the real Orion among the clones.

Eugene was making mental notes as quickly as he was dispatching his holograms. Orion didn’t seem very strong, though he was well-matched against this tiny army. He was smart, quick on his feet and he didn’t seem to have anything to lose, so his fighting style was brash and focused. Eugene noted that even though Orion was fighting here, he kept glancing over at Celia and tracking where Delsin and Fetch where. This was unnerving to Eugene as he wasn’t sure what Orion was thinking just yet.

A sharp pain snapped Eugene back to the battle at hand. Orion had shoved a mirror shard into Eugene’s shoulder, his final hologram a burst of pixels as the final mirror clone glittered into dust beside him.

“Focus on me, Sims,” Orion growled into his ear before he shoved Eugene quickly away from him and pulled more mirror shards into the space around his right hand.

Eugene gasped and left the mirror where it dug into his shoulder, quickly summoning more angels with a wave of his hand. They doubled now, ten standing before his form. With a final push of breath from his lips, a shield formed before him, the blue color tinting his view of Orion as the mirror shards were flung forward and sunk into the holograms, destroying the decoys in flashes.

The shield was heavily reinforced and the second wave of mirror shards only succeeded in piercing the remaining holograms before bouncing off the shield and clattering on top of one another in the grass. Suddenly, the pain in Eugene’s shoulder doubled and he realized Delsin was there beside him and had pulled the glass from his skin in one swift movement.

“Thanks, Del,” Eugene huffed out between wincing from the pain before conjuring angels into the sky and giving them the signal to rain spears down upon Orion. This caused the mirror-user to have to retreat a bit, buying Delsin just enough time to ask a few questions.

“No, I’ve got him for now. But he’s definitely waiting on something from Celia. See? He keeps looking over at her and Fetch,” Eugene summarized.

Delsin nodded and clapped Eugene on the back while utilizing the shield for himself as well. “Good work, Eugene. Rosaline has Caly in her protection and I’m sure Fetch has Celia struggling. Benji and Makayla look like they are ready to jump in as soon as you give the signal.”

Eugene nodded, already straining a little with pushing his powers in so many directions at one time. Orion seemed to have regrouped as well and a new wave of mirror clones were pushing the holograms backwards. Delsin dipped around the shield and unleashed Smoke bombs lobbed at the mirror clones. They not only successfully wiped out all the clones but one also exploded right in Orion’s face, causing him to cover his face with his hands and double-over. With Orion distracted for a moment, Eugene signaled and Benji and Makayla nodded with the tag-in.

“There!” Benji shouted.

“Finally! Let’s play!” Makayla chimed in and quickly adjusted her goggles into place over her eyes before running full speed toward Orion who seemed to be staggering in his steps after Delsin’s attack landed.

Makayla reached Orion quickly using her toxic gas as a way to flicker in and out and build momentum. She leaped toward him, toxic gasses spewing forward and hitting him in the face as he took a moment to look up. Orion must have heard her coming though, as he dodged to the left and forcefully exhaled, rendering her gasses useless for the moment.

But Makayla wasn’t alone in her leap and attack. Two wolves of shadow latched onto Orion’s arms via his own shadow and the sound he made was one of guttural pain. Makayla winced on his behalf and glanced over her shoulder looking for Benji, but instead found Celia looking directly at her for a moment before Fetch punched that rabbit mask right off her face.

Makayla didn’t have any time to laugh–as funny as that was to witness–because Orion was free of his shadow restraints and he tossed shards her way. Makayla heard her name being shouted and quickly dodged the shards thanks to Benji’s call.

“I’ll only ask this one more time,” Benji stood with shadow weaving around his legs like a fog of hungry wolves waiting for a signal to lunge. He was focused on Orion and giving Makayla time to move into position behind her former teammate. “Where is Lucky?”

Orion now turned his focus on Benji with a snarl, “Leave my sister alone.”

“After what you did to her? No.” Benji retorted.

“What did you just say to me, shadow boy?”

“No.” Benji repeated with more assurance than was written on his face. Makayla pulled more toxic gas into her palms and raised them to her face.

Orion’s hands became fists at his sides and he dashed forward directly at Benji. Benji quickly utilized his shadow dash to move further from Orion than was humanly possible. Unfortunately, this was also further from Makayla and she clenched her fists around her toxic power with a grumble to herself.

“All that for nothing. I gotta get him closer.” Makayla shifted the gas into her own dash to catch up to the two men moving and flinging mirror and shadow at once another in unaimed bursts. She rolled her eyes behind her goggles at the mess they were making. But at least they were giving Delsin, Eugene and Fetch more time to figure out what moves to make next.

“Get off me!” Celia yelled up at Fetch as the neon user had her pinned to the grass. Her mask was gone, knocked off her face and a bruise on her cheek was already quickly fading with color.

Fetch scoffed, “So you can run? No chance, Doves.”

She knew she could catch up with Celia but Fetch knew it was always a risk to even have the paper-user free to run and right now Celia would probably reach Caly before she could, despite Rosaline being in the way.

Celia scowled below Fetch and then started to laugh slowly, “I don’t need to run to get what I want.”

Before Fetch could comprehend what Celia was saying, the girl simply exploded into shredded paper bits and Fetch was suddenly kneeling over the grass and a pile of white confetti. Hazel eyes went wide and she looked over her shoulder at Rosaline to warn her.

<I see her!> Rosaline’s voice flooded Fetch’s mind and she watched as Rosaline grabbed Caly in her arms and dodged right. A viper of paper seemed to rise from the grass and bite thin air where Rosaline and Caly had been seconds before. Then Celia reappeared on the rooftop of the warehouse and was quickly scared back to the grass as Fetch opened a barrage of neon missiles and lasers upon her.

Fetch wasn’t sure how Rosaline saw Celia before she did but that question would have to wait. Celia was now flinging doves with sharp edges toward Fetch and a few of them bit into her skin as she was caught off guard. Papercuts lit her face and arms with blood trails as their only proof of hitting their mark.

Celia was fast with her attacks and relentless now, spurred on by being so close to her goal before she was thwarted. Fetch was having a hard time avoiding attacks and closing the gap enough to knock Celia down again. The struggle was real and for a moment it felt like she was going to lose this battle if she didn’t make her move soon. Fetch summoned neon into her palms and released a status bubble toward Celia which thankfully caught the paper-user in midjump, slowing her descent long enough for Fetch to release missiles into the bubble. Celia flew backwards, bounced in the grass and stayed down.

Four-against-one was not fair in the least bit. But Orion was enjoying himself despite the tables not being in his favor. He bounced his attention between these goody-two-shoes conduits who thought they could stop him and he laughed under his breath. This wasn’t even half his power. Let them continue to push him, he’d show them things they would wish they could forget.

As much as he hated Benji for seeming to win over his sisters’ heart, pushing the battle backwards was all part of his big plan. Orion shifted the conduits closer to Fetch and Celia. After a few more minutes of discarded mirror and avoiding shadow and toxic gas hallucinations, he reached close enough to shift his full attention to the women he was aiming for all along.

Then Celia was knocked out and looked to be staying down. Orion had his suspicions that Celia would be okay but of course this was the perfect opportunity to make his move.

“Fetch… finally, a worthy opponent,” Orion was offering her his hand as though this were some strange ballroom dance. She scowled at him. “Oh please. You know it. You know you are better than everyone here.”

“Define ‘better’ because all I’m hearing is that I can beat your ass and you want me to,” Fetch snided.

Orion chuckled, “Hardly. Though I’d let you test that if circumstances were… different.”

Fetch cocked an eyebrow at him and crossed her arms over her chest.

Orion smiled, “I meant what I said back there, about you being a queen among conduits. Think about it, Fetch. You could fold everyone in this fight, in your school, to your whims.”

“I don’t see the need to do that.”

“No? Not even with a powerful king by your side?” Orion stepped closer to Fetch. Benji and Makayla had flanked him and he knew this but his focus did not waiver. “We could be so good together.”

Fetch tilted her head to the side and seemed to clamp her teeth together behind her lips, “Are you really asking me out right now? In the middle of this fight?”

“Would you be mine if I said yes?”

“I’m taken.”

Orion huffed and narrowed his eyes at Fetch. She stood her ground which was making it hard for him to be angry at her but he hated being told no. He tried one more time, pushing mirror into his palms which he now held behind his back.

“I don’t care for Celia’s idea of freedom. It’s convoluted and tired. I want a new empire for conduits and I want you to be my Neon Queen.”

Fetch seemed distracted for a moment as she opened her mouth to speak and abruptly closed it again. Then after a moment of silence she moved her hands to her sides and neon flared brightly without hesitation, “Fuck you.”

Orion had no time to bring his mirrors to his aid before he was shot backwards by neon, the heat burning into his stomach. Mirror shards scattered to the ground around his feet. Fetch moved toward him and Orion summoned a full mirror shield just in the nick of time as a neon blast headed for his core. Instead it reflected off the mirror and flew backward into Fetch herself. She was unprepared for this defense and was knocked to the ground by her own blast, Benji and Makayla rushing to her side.

Orion took this moment to turn his attention behind him and race toward Delsin. If he couldn’t get Fetch by his side voluntarily, he would take out his competition.

Delsin saw Fetch flinch backwards as her neon collided with her and he quickly left Eugene in a series of smoke dashes across the field.

Before he could reach her, he collided with Orion who looked hellbent. Orion wrapped his hands around Delsin’s neck and through sheer conduit strength lifted Delsin off the ground by a few inches. Makayla screamed something to Delsin but he couldn’t hear her over the sound of his own blood rushing in his ears. Orion worked quickly, summoning a full mirror behind Delsin and growling as Delsin clawed at Orion’s hands that were reducing his air flow. Delsin had no time to ask questions before he felt himself being slammed backwards, Orion’s eyes shining with brilliant gold crescents.

He hit the floor hard. It was cold, concrete beneath his body. The grass gone and the battlefield lost to some doorway he could not reach. The view through the door shifted to show only sky and Delsin knew he was trapped in some magic box lost among the blades of grass. He felt an overwhelming ache of being a disappointment, the fear of never being good enough for anyone creeping from his innermost thoughts and into the open space around him. He sunk into the depression, dropping to his knees in this mirrorverse trap.

Orion knew using his ultimate this early was not in his plans but he wanted Fetch and so he took out the Delsin she knew and summoned his karma opposite to do his bidding instead. The full mirror shrunk and was pushed backwards into the grass to hide it and give him more time to control this new version of Delsin standing at his side. He pointed to Fetch who was slowly standing while Celia seemed to be struggling to sit up a few feet away from her.

“Do your worst, Delsin,” Orion sneered and Delsin shook out his arms before smoke dashing with red embers in his wake toward Celia.

Celia wasn’t sure what was happening but she seemed to have enough power to burst into paper scraps and reform on the rooftop again, out of Delsin’s reach for the moment. She turned her attention to Orion and gave him a hard stare, reforming her familiar rabbit mask in her hand.

“What are you doing, Orion Stella? You dare defy me?”

“You said it yourself, Celia. I’m stronger than anyone gives me credit for, yourself included. I’d advise you to run away now or face your final fold.”

Celia surveyed the ground before putting her mask on, “You will regret this decision.”

“Doubtful.”

Celia moved to dash and suddenly Eugene was on the roof sharing the space and giving Celia another blockade. Orion shifted his attention to see where Delsin was and saw the man sizing up Benji instead.

“Rowe! Get Celia! Benji is mine.”

But it seemed this evil karma version of Delsin had now decided that he took orders from no one.

Makayla recognized the attack Orion was doing on Delsin and called out to him to free himself but it was too late. Delsin was banished to the mirrorverse and would be trapped there until someone could break the mirror or knock Orion out. Breaking the mirror was going to be easier but finding it among the scattered shards and the tall grass was going to make that more like a Where’s Waldo search. Regardless, Makayla burst off toward where she thought the mirror may be to try and set the real Delsin free.

“Forgive me, Lucky. I’m not looking for bad luck right now,” Makayla spoke under her breath while stomping on mirror shards trying to find the piece that Delsin was trapped within. She didn’t know how big or small it would be as she had never stuck around to see what the mirror looked like after Orion had used his ultimate successfully. She was suddenly glad for wearing platform boots at a time like this with glass crunching below her feet on purpose.

For some reason she glanced over her shoulder and saw Delsin seemingly narrow in on Benji. Makayla was too far away to shout a warning so she left her location and hoped she’d find this spot easily enough in a minute. She pushed her toxic gas to her limit, building momentum that she did not stop as she collided with Benji, shoving him to the right as Delsin unleashed a red-tinted smoke bomb that she took the full impact of.

The smoke wasn’t bad to breathe as she was used to her own power but the taste was awful and the blast knocked the wind out of her as she splayed out on the grass, dizzy and weak all at once.

She vaguely tracked Benji leaning over her and shaking her to wake her before she passed out.

Eugene raised a hologram cylinder around Celia on the rooftop. It trapped the paper-user in her tracks and she banged against the side of the blue pixelated walls in anger. They filtered in color but remained in place.

“Relax, Celia. I just want to talk,” Eugene said, one hand raised, palm facing Celia to maintain his creation around her. She shook her paper mask at him from within the cylinder. “Please. All you have to do is call off Orion and promise to leave us alone and I’ll let you go.”

“You don’t understand,” Celia called out, “I lost control over Orion moments ago. I cannot stop him.”

Eugene blinked at her as though this were some sick joke, “Are you serious?”

“Yes,” Celia nodded, “But if you set me free I’ll help you contain him.”

Eugene studied Celia for a moment. It was hard to read her with her mask on and he hadn’t really worked well with her in any capacity but he didn’t have much of a choice right now. Fetch seemed too injured and low on neon to do much fighting, Makayla was out, Delsin was flipped to Orion’s side.

Eugene did what he thought was right.

He let the cylinder fall and Celia glanced over the edge of the rooftop in silence. Then she moved in a flutter of paper pieces to directly behind Eugene.

“After all these years and you still trust too easily, Eugene Sims,” Celia whispered into his ear from behind him before he felt a wet sensation crawl up his legs quickly. He glanced down and saw papermaché forming around his body and encasing him in a shell faster than he had time to react to.

The world fell into darkness as his paper coffin encased him completely there on the rooftop, the last thing he saw was Celia inspecting her work as she walked around him and then disappeared into paper pieces to leave the battle to Orion alone.

Everyone was much closer to them now and Rosaline did her best to protect Caly and keep the child from watching too much of the fighting happening around her. Because of her. Everyone just wanted this tiny spark of a girl all to themselves and it was disheartening to think about.

Rosaline had seen Orion using mirror though she didn’t know what he was planning and she alerted Fetch to be careful. Fetch had done her best in that moment but now seemed very low in spirits and power. She could drain from the warehouse, of course, but she’d have to retreat to do so and Fetch did not seem like someone who retreated that easily when she still had fight left in her.

Rosaline wanted to help in some way. She wanted to help turn the tides in their favor. But with Caly clinging to her legs she knew she couldn’t just run onto the battlefield. Besides, what good would that do? She didn’t have offensive attacks and she didn’t even know how to throw an effective punch.

She ran through her small list of abilities that she had been practicing and expanding and found something that maybe could work, if she could target the right person. Seeing Benji looking distraught, Makayla out cold, Fetch low on power and Eugene lost above her someplace, she had two options to try: she could target Orion, or she could target Delsin.

She reached out to both, pulling their emotions into visible auras for her to sift through. An idea formed in her head based on what she knew about both parties. She pushed her way into Delsin’s head and increased the one thing she knew he wanted the most right now–his desire for more power.

Delsin’s head snapped up suddenly. He swung his focus from Benji, to the one oozing power right now–Orion. The hyper focus was almost tangible. Rosaline magnified the drive for power with everything she had.

“What… What are you doing?” Orion accused Delsin as the man suddenly turned his focus and started stalking toward the mirror-user. Orion took steps backward to keep the distance from closing between himself and Delsin.

“Rowe! Go after them, not me! Make them pay!” Orion pointed toward the group behind Delsin but the mimic with the crimson beanie paid no mind to Orion’s words as he picked up his pace toward his personal target.

Orion knew he was in trouble. He suddenly turned to run and Delsin gave chase. The two men moving at a breakneck pace as they moved over the grass, away from the warehouse. Orion was purposely zigzagging through the field and breaking every mirror he found trying to undo his own spell and set things right to save his own hide.

Suddenly, Lucky was in front of him and Orion stumbled in his footsteps upon seeing his banished sister. The vision of her faded away and Orion spun on his heels, the distraction allowing Delsin to catch up too quickly. Orion watched as Delsin leapt toward him, hand outreached for him, and Orion shielded his face with his arms knowing it was too late to run now…

Thank you for reading and enjoying InFAMOUS Sparks!

A huge thanks goes to my beta readers and friends who encouraged me to write this and get my characters into the world. They are truly my sparks of inspiration.

“... the hell, Umbra? I told you a full blackout!”

“Fetch, I did exactly that. But you heard her! She was having a panic attack. I couldn’t just leave her like that.”

“I don’t care if she was having a baby, you need to follow instructions.”

Makayla groaned softly as the arguing voices started to come in clear within the small room. Both of the voices immediately halted and Makayla struggled to open her eyes. Once fluttered open, the bright lights within the sterile white room were grating on her nerves. She didn’t even try to move her limbs, just turned her head to the side to take in both Fetch and Benji standing over her bed.

“... Hey, losers.” Makayla smirked and then winced. Pain flared at her core. Fetch frowned unimpressed and Benji looked Makayla over before clearing his throat.

 “Makayla?” Benji spoke cautiously as though afraid to cause her more pain with his voice alone.

Makayla forced a single laugh, “I’m not gonna break.”

“She’s fine. Clearly.” Fetch rolled her eyes, shifting her weight to her opposite hip and crossing her arms over her chest. She looked absolutely pissed.

Makayla was tickled pink internally. Good. Let the neon punk be annoyed by her. She enjoyed knowing she was under Fetch’s skin. Makayla went to move her arms and realized she was cuffed to the side of the medical bed.

“You think these will hold me?”

Benji sighed, “No one is holding you here, we just have some questions for you.”

“I’m holding her here. I’ll be honest,” Fetch barked.

“Fetch.” A fourth voice cautioned. Delsin entered the already cramped space. Fetch rolled her eyes and pouted. Makayla felt herself mimic the same expression herself. Delsin turned his focus to the bed, “So… Makayla Grayson, correct?”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s me. What else did Benji tell you?”

Benji interjected, “Nothing, just your name, honest. I haven’t seen you in years.”

Makayla sighed, “Yeah, well you dropped out. So did I. College wasn’t working for me.”

Delsin glanced between the two, “You went to college together?”

“Had one class together, but we were in different years.” Benji confirmed.

“Interesting,” Delsin seemed as though that was something newsworthy. “Makayla, you’re working for Celia?”

Makayla laughed, “Not for her, just with her. I liked the promise she offered.”

“... Which is?” Delsin prodded.

“Freedom.”

“Same ol’ song and dance from Doves. Let’s lock her up and figure out next steps.” Fetch sounded impatient.

Delsin gave her that look. Oh, boy. Fetch was in trouble and Makayla loved to see it. She smiled to herself. “Fetch, meet me in the office.”

“Fine. I’m bored of babysitting anyway.” Fetch flipped Makayla off as she turned to leave the room. Makayla returned the gesture with a loud clanking of handcuffs against metal.

“Makayla, listen,” Delsin sighed and spoke a little softer, a little kinder, “We need as much information as you can give us on Celia and her plans. I don’t want to hold you here and I’ll let Benji uncuff you. But if you can help us, I’d appreciate it.”

“Why?” Makayla insisted, “Why should I help you?”

“Because we can give you freedom, too. The right way. You’d have safety here and a place to train and you clearly have friends here already. Just… think it over, yeah?”

Makayla looked from Delsin to Benji and back to the beanie-wearing man before offering a small nod. Maybe Celia’s version of freedom was a bit skewed to being more like a personal vendetta than an actual, attainable goal.

“How long do I have? To think it over?”

“A few days. Benji, here,” Delsin tossed a set of keys to Benji and he caught them easily with his left hand. “Let her free in a minute. I gotta make sure Fetch is in the office.” Then Delsin left.

Makayla was alone with Benji and while she didn’t consider them “friends” she knew Benji had vouched for her and tried to help her, even if the darkness was his fault.

“How long?” His voice pulled her from her thoughts.

“For what?”

“Since you’ve been a conduit? One of us?”

“Oh,” Makayla turned her attention to the ceiling, “Four years.”

“So, you knew while we were in school?”

“Yeah. But you can’t fault me. You never said anything about your powers, either.” Makayla snapped back. Benji looked hurt but he approached her side and started unlocking the cuffs as promised.

“We’re good here. I mean, I think you’d like it here. No one forces you to use your powers if you don’t want to. And I’ve really learned about a deeper level of control,” Benji spoke softly, a kindness mixed with his words, “Not that you don’t have control, just that… it’s an option.”

Makayla rubbed her newly freed wrists and sat up carefully, already feeling a lot better. She checked her stomach and saw only a smudge of scar tissue that was already fading.

“You didn’t have to save me back there, you know.”

“I couldn’t stop myself. You were–I was so worried about you.” Makayla could see the honesty in his eyes and for a moment they reminded her of Cassidy’s eyes. Her best friend. Her ride-or-die. Her would-be girlfriend, if the accident hadn’t happened. She pulled her attention back to her hands and blinked away the tears that seemed to suddenly be tugging at her eyes.

“I don’t know what they want from me here. At least with Celia I just do what I’m told and even then I’m pretty shitty at that, too. But here? Fetch wants me dead and Delsin doesn’t seem too keen about allowing me to stay…” Makayla took a breath and looked at Benji again, “I have no place to go if I don’t go back to Celia. And I’m not sure what will happen if I do. I failed.”

“Then just stay here. I promise they’ll come around.”

“And if they don’t? Then I’m back out on the streets. Alone.”

Benji gave her a quizzical look, “Listen to me, Mak. Pleas—“

Makayla snapped, “You don’t get to call me that! Ever! There's only one person who can call me that and it isn’t you.”

“I’m sorry. Makayla, please listen to me. I’m not your enemy here.”

“You’re not my remedy, either.”

Benji took a step back and composed himself in silence. Makayla sighed loudly, the rush of air messing up her fringe in a gust before the black and neon green strands fell back into place over her forehead.

She started again, “I’m sorry, that was… Listen, I’m just nervous. I only know you here and you can’t vouch for me forever. Plus, I dunno if you know this about me but I’m kinda on everyone’s hit list here.”

Benji laughed, the sound breaking the awkward nerves in the room, “No shit, really?”

Makayla twisted and threw her pillow at him. Benji caught it an inch from his face.

“Listen, I don’t need saving but I’ll help as much as I can. Celia is acting really weird lately and assigning what should be my missions to Orion. It’s not fair and something is up.”

“Let’s get you settled in and then I’ll tag along when you go to talk to Delsin and Fetch about everything, deal?”

“Deal.” Makayla smiled and suddenly felt relieved, like she had been holding her breath and finally surfaced. It was a weird feeling for her, but something told her she could relax here. Maybe she could even trust someone other than herself for once.

“Remember to breathe, Dr. Hutch.”

The lessons were hard but Rosaline was pushing herself anyway. For Caly, she reminded herself. For Caly.

Originally Eugene had tried running a few simulations with her using his power to project holograms, but these didn’t seem to work with Rosaline’s magnification abilities. It was hard to unlock a more mental-focused power with something that demanded a more physical approach. But after a few more tries, Eugene had an idea and phoned a friend. It took a bit for them to arrive but when they entered the training arena Rosaline instantly felt a wave of calm and encouragement from them and now they were sitting cross-legged on the floor facing one another.

“Please, call me Rosaline,” Rosaline concentrated on her breathing as instructed, “Like in yoga class… I’m finding my center.”

Her teacher reached out and touched her hand, “Stop that. This isn’t yoga. I want you to focus on connecting yourself to your power, not your center.”

Rosaline took a deep breath and pulled her long, red hair into a messy bun atop her head, which nearly matched the size of the pink bun her teacher had atop theirs. They spoke like they’d taught people how to really connect to their powers all their lives, but something creeped into the back of her mind, like that was a lie or a façade somehow. Like maybe this was just how they taught themselves. And maybe that was enough. Rosaline didn’t need to see transcripts or a list of names of successful students, she just needed to make this work. For herself. For Caly.

“Okay, Garrett. Let me try it again.”

Eugene sent an email. Another call for help. At first it bothered him to have to rely on others for help when he was a powerful conduit with connections, to boot. But it was these connections that were a boone to his power, not a fault of it. So now Eugene reached out unabashedly and continued to work while waiting on responses.

This response came at lighting speed. As expected. Childe was one with the Internet, after all.

They seemed happy to help and Eugene toasted his half-empty cup of coffee to them from his side of the computer screen.

“I just need to attack this from both sides. If we can crack this database wide open we’ll be saving a lot of conduits. I have a feeling Stratego may have additional facilities that we simply don’t know about yet.” SEND.

The reply came quickly. {I’m on it. I’ll be in touch.}

“I’ll drink a coffee for you, Childe. Thanks so much.” SEND.

{LOL! Thank you.}

With this being worked on, Eugene finally felt like he was making big strides instead of banging his head against the wall. Amazing what a small breakthrough, some powerful conduits and a few cups of coffee could accomplish.

The meeting between Makayla and the Heroes went better than Benji was expecting. Fetch had seemed annoyed at first, but as she was taking in what Makayla offered, she started asking more questions and by the end of the meeting seemed to be a little more amicable toward the toxin user. Benji was pleased.

Now, Benji was alone in his dorm which felt odd after spending so much time with Caly in here. He was sort of at a loss on what to do with the silence… video games? Art? Homework? Nah, not homework. But his eyes landed on his desk anyway and zoned into the folded paper he had left there. The one from Lucky.

He picked it up from his desk and turned it over in his hands. It was an origami dove and he wondered if maybe Lucky needed help afterall. 

“Are you okay? Do you need help?”

“I’m better now, thanks. Take care of Caly. Good luck, Benji.”

He recalled the conversation and found it to be strange, especially paired with Lucky giving him this paper. Benji suddenly had the realization that this could be one of Celia’s doves and he swallowed his worry that Lucky was working with Celia. Her name hadn’t come up in the conversation between Makayla and the others in the office, but this dove couldn’t simply be a coincidence, right?

Benji was flicking at the folds of the paper when something told him to unfold the dove and he pulled it apart carefully. Inside on the paper was the following message:

Grasp your FREEDOM, now Consider this your invite Accept your calling

“Oh,” Benji whispered to himself after reading the note, “I need Makayla to tell me where to go… I need to warn Lucky about Celia.” And he started tossing things into an old backpack. This was his hero’s calling, he could feel it in his bones.

“Benji? What are you doing here?” Lucky spun around running to Benji with a look of concern on her face. She grabbed him by the wrist and tugged him back into the shadows away from the entrance of the abandoned train yard. Benji thought she’d be happy to see him but her actions spoke louder than words.

“Are you safe? I unfolded the origami you gave me and I came as soon as I knew where to find you.”

Lucky gave him a puzzled look and moved her hand from his wrist to interlacing her fingers with his. Benji felt his cheeks warm and was thankful for the shadows for once in his life.

“Are you okay? Is Caly?”

“Yeah, Caly is fine. I’m fine,” Benji was trying to read her. Something seemed off but he couldn’t figure it out yet. It didn’t help that her hand felt warm in his and it was throwing his senses off. No one ever held his hand. This was new to him and it was really nice.

Benji shook himself to pull himself together, “Listen, Lucky. You may be in danger. That origami dove you gave me? It was one of Celia's, right?”

Lucky furrowed her brow, “Yeah, how did you kn–”

“Celia is using you for some self-important job. She’s going to hurt you once she no longer needs you,” Benji cut in, “You need to get out. Now.”

Lucky’s eyes searched his face. Benji wasn’t sure if she was finding what she needed or not. He just hoped she believed him.

“It may be too late for that. But you shouldn’t be here. If she sees you here…” Lucky’s voice drifted off and she quickly glanced over her shoulder as if she heard something he missed. “Good luck, Benji. You need to leave.”

Benji felt a rush of… something. Like a splash of water in his face. It was a strange sensation and he realized he had felt this once before with Lucky. She went to drop his hand and he grabbed her hand back quickly, holding it between both of his hands now. He was searching her face now and she looked slightly terrified.

“I’m not leaving you here. Come back with me,” His voice was a hushed whisper. He was begging her.

Lucky seemed to hesitate for a moment. It gave Benji a surge of hope. But then she glanced at their hands and she gently pulled hers away again, “I wish I could. I have to stay. For now.”

“Is she hurting you?”

Lucky seemed caught off guard by that assumption, “What? No. I mean, I can leave soon. I’ll find you again, I promise.”

Benji shook his head. He was not accepting this weird flow of words from Lucky. Something was clearly wrong and he decided to stay. What did Fetch tell him? Sometimes you gotta trust your instincts and choose the lesser evil. Let’s hope she wasn’t wrong.

“I’m staying with you, then. I want to see what Celia has planned for myself.”

“Benji I don’t think that’s a good idea…” Lucky started but noticed Benji seemed to have made up his mind. She sighed, “Keep your power hidden but ready. Something is changing and I’m getting nervous.”

Benji nodded as Lucky took his hand again and led him into the tunnel that held their small cohort of a team and Celia’s hidden base for Operation Freedom.

The knocking was loud. Then louder still.

“C’mon, Benji! Open up! I know you’re skipping class,” Fetch’s voice was muffled beyond the dorm door. “I’m letting myself in on the count of three.”

Fetch counted as she found the key she needed and then she unlocked the door to Benji’s room. She was hoping the conduit was just asleep since he was now off babysitting duty and had just used a massive amount of power at her behest. So, when Fetch opened the door and found the room all but empty, she was very, very confused.

And then she noticed something on Benji’s empty desk. A piece of paper that had familiar folded lines which had been smoothed out.

Fetch entered the room and picked up the paper, reading the message inside before fisting it with anger that all but set her neon ablaze. She left his dorm room, closing the door behind her but leaving it unlocked and headed not back to the office, but to another dorm down an opposite hall.

Another loud knocking on a closed door but this one was quickly answered.

“Yeah, yeah, what do you wa–oh, Fetch.” Makayla raised a single eyebrow while standing in her doorway.

“We have a problem that I think you can help with,” Fetch held up the scrunched paper in her fist and Makayla looked from it to Fetch’s face before nodding quietly. “Meet me in the office, now.”

Delsin and Eugene were already in the office planning lessons for the upcoming semester when Fetch crashed that party with Makayla in tow. She stormed to the desk and slapped the paper down on the wood.

“We have a big problem. Benji is gone.”

“Gone?” Delsin read the paper and then looked to Fetch and passed the paper to Eugene to read over as well.

Makayla sat carefully on the armrest of the couch, as though she may need to bolt from the room at a second’s notice, “He’s with Celia. I know where her base is.”

“We are not going to her base. It would be like walking into a trap,” Delsin strategized.

“Smart. I see why people call you the ‘Hero of Seattle’,” Makayla seemed to relax a bit on her perch.

Delsin nodded and then leaned into her bubble, “That’s why you’re going instead.”

Sweat beaded along her forehead as Lucky pushed her abilities and dodged an attack aimed at her head. She had been standing still with her eyes closed, tapping into her luck and relying upon it to guide her actions. It wasn’t a perfect dance, not yet anyway. But Lucky was determined to fine-tune this new skill.

“Too slow!” Her brother’s voice shouted from someplace in front of her, a noise like a razor upon glass alerted her to a new barrage of his mirror shards flying her way. Lucky dove left but as predicted, she was a second too slow and one shard sliced into her calf.

Lucky cursed under her breath, rolling until she sat up and could check the damage. It wasn’t a deep cut but she still frowned at being cut at all.

Orion approached her and stood over her, hands resting on his hips. “I told you to just fight me normally. This whole pushing your luck is going nowhere.”

“Stop being such an ass about this, Orion. I really want to try this. I think I can make it work somehow,” Lucky reached up to him and Orion grabbed her wrist to pull her to her feet while rolling his eyes.

The pain was sharp and sudden. Lucky gasped and glanced down seeing a shard driven up and under her ribcage. She blanched and stumbled forward into Orion’s arms. He held her gently, whispering into her ear.

“You trust too easily, sister. You need to build your pain tolerance before you try new tricks.”

“... Orion… Why?” She inhaled and held her breath, her fingers finding the shard before she wrapped her hand around it and yanked it from her skin. The pain caused tears to escape from the corners of her eyes and she pressed her bloodied palm to the wound as the shard fell to the grass at her feet.

Orion pushed her away from his embrace and ran his index finger under her chin, tilting her head up to meet his gaze. “Anger looks good on you, Lucky. Ready to fight me now?”

Lucky narrowed her eyes, forcing celestial light into her hands. The one over her wound flared with pain as she focused on cauterizing the wound with the heat. She flicked her free hand upward to latch around Orion’s wrist, the burn registering as pain flashed across his features. Lucky smirked internally knowing she had bested her brother for a moment.

Orion yanked his arm from her grasp and immediately summoned more mirror shards to his aid with a flash of golden crescents flickering in his eyes. The shards flew like arrows loosed from an invisible bow and Lucky dodged them all gracefully.

While Orion pulled more shards from thin air, Lucky forced celestial light in his direction. It flew like a thrown sparkler, sparks flying and her aim true. As it reached close enough to Orion, Lucky clapped her hands together and the sparks of light exploded in his face. She was quickly disappointed as the smoke cleared and her brother appeared from behind a mirror shield he crafted to protect his face.

Lucky scowled but then she was hit with sudden dizziness and her steps faltered. A glance down told her the stab wound was still bleeding and that this mini skirmish needed to quit while it was just between the siblings.

Benji caught her in his arms before she hit the ground.

“Lucky!” He was looking her over quickly and then his eyes started fading into this blue-gray color and Lucky reached up one hand and cradled his cheek. Her touch canceled his call to his power and he looked back down at her.

“I’m fine. Don’t hurt him.”

“But he hurt you.”

“And I’ll do it again if she wimps out with our next sparring session,” Orion cut in standing before them both. His arm was sporting a burn mark in the shape of her hand and his face looked marked by small dots of burns. So she had hurt him with her attack. Lucky smiled to herself. “I’m leaving. Let Celia know I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“What? Where are you going?” Benji shouted after him as Orion turned and started walking toward the city.

“To the bar. I’m hunting for trouble.”

“I hope it eats you alive, brother,” Lucky called after him and then she moved to sit in the grass, leaning back against her hands to relieve some pressure from her wound. Orion scoffed and waved but never looked back.

Benji dropped to sit next to Lucky, his eyes still darting from her face to her wound. He looked concerned for her and she gave him a soft smile.

“I’ll be fine, I promise.”

“You aren’t healing?”

“Oh… Yeah. About that,” She shifted a bit and winced just a smidge, “My power is luck-based and that’s pretty rare to drain. So healing is a slower process for me. I will heal, it just takes a little longer than most other conduits.”

Benji frowned a little at that but then sighed softly, “What can I do to help?”

Lucky gave him her full attention and for a moment said nothing at all. No one had ever offered to help her before. No one had ever seemed to care. She searched Benji’s eyes but only found genuine kindness. Her heart fluttered for a moment in her chest.

“Stay with me?” He’ll get hurt if he stays, Lucky thought to herself, But he isn’t going to want to leave you, not like this.

Benji just nodded and scooted closer to her on the grass, “Yeah, sure. I’m here, Lucky.”

“Thanks, Benji.”

The bar was a loud, public place with a thin haze from cigarettes and cigars lingering in the air. By the time Orion pushed through the doorway and approached the bar his face was fully healed and the mark on his arm had faded to a shadow of color. He asked for something strong and smooth and let the bartender work their human magic on a drink that met his requirements. He took a long sip from it before taking a moment to look around him and start to narrow in on a target.

A lot of people were keeping to themselves at the bar, or enjoying the company of friends at the few tables scattered throughout. A few people seemed to be running on liquid courage, while alone with a potential partner for the evening. But as Orion took another long sip from his glass, ruckus laughter pulled his focus and he narrowed his eyes at a man with a slight build and blonde, spiky hair. The man was not alone and he demanded an audience. Orion felt his pulse rise with the thought of stealing that attention for himself.

“... tell us about your new boyfriend, Luca…”

Orion smirked and finished his drink, slamming the glass on the bar before leaving his spot and heading for the blonde, a single, overheard name whispered under his breath, “Luca.”

The goal was simple: Push. If this guy was a conduit, push harder. Orion was looking for a fight and starting one in this crowded bar would be easy for him. A necessary release of anger, energy and power. He wanted to feel something tonight and either Orion would get his ass handed to him, or he’d get what he wanted–it was simply up to the tipsy, laughing blonde that was in his sights.

The night would be a smashing success either way.

“What do you mean?” Benji asked Lucky curiously. The two had been up all night talking and the sunlight was beginning to creep into the space they were sharing within the abandoned train yard building. It had been easy to talk with Lucky about anything and Lucky seemed to enjoy his company, so he stayed. Benji was also sticking by in case her unpredictable brother came in and decided round two of fight club would start before Lucky was fully healed.

“I mean, I think something is going on between Celia and my brother. Orion has been really combative with me for a few days now and just the other day Celia gave him a ‘secret mission’.” Lucky put the words in air quotes, “I’m starting to suspect Celia has it out for me somehow.”

“You should come back with me. I’ll protect you,” Benji took Lucky’s hands in his own, “I mean, the warehouse will take you in. We have Makayla healing there now.”

Lucky gave him a quizzical look, her brows furrowed in a way that read as her trying to understand what he had just told her. “Makayla is staying at the warehouse?”

“Yeah,” Benji confirmed, “At least, I hope so. She seemed like she was done with Celia’s bullshit and now hearing a similar story from you… I think you may be in trouble if you stay here.”

Lucky held his gaze and Benji felt a strange pull toward her. The way the sunlight was playing off her light skin and catching on her dark eyelashes… He shook his head slightly to shake off whatever was washing over him at the moment.

“Okay.” Lucky gave him a curt nod.

“Okay?”

“Okay, I’ll meet you there. As soon as I know my brother is back here safely, I’ll sneak out and find you.”

Benji tilted his head slightly and gave her a slight frown, “Why are you protecting him?”

“I’m not,” Lucky quickly answered, “I’m protecting you. You need time to get back to the warehouse and let them know that something big is coming and it’s going to get bad. If I’m right, Celia is priming Orion to fight by her side and knowing him as well as I do, well, he’s not going to stop until he gets what he wants out of this.”

“What does he want?”

“I’ll help where I can,” Rosaline was in the office and speaking to Eugene while the screen of the laptop reflected off each pair of glasses.

Fetch was discussing something quietly with Delsin at the other side of the desk. It didn’t seem too heated at the moment but it definitely gave off the impression of being a super serious conversation between the two.

Benji sighed softly to himself as he sat on the couch beside Caly. He offered her markers and paper and they were drawing together to keep the kid occupied. Caly seemed content to be in a room full of adults and was now wearing one of Benji’s t-shirts. She hadn’t exactly been dropped off with clothes of her own and Rosaline had seemed too busy to bring anything extra for the small child, but Benji had plenty of t-shirts and didn’t mind sharing one with the tiny girl. It looked like an oversized dress on her and Caly rocked the look regardless.

“I like that kitty, Caly!” Benji grinned and added some orange color to the small cat-shaped art Caly was drawing. She flashed a huge smile at Benji and seemed to appreciate that he recognized the animal so quickly. She went to clap or sign but the paper fell to the floor off the couch and she immediately reached for it, nearly falling off the couch herself. Benji reacted quickly, grabbing her by her outfit which pulled the shirt up slightly but saved Caly from a scary tumble to the concrete floor.

“I’ll get the paper, Caly,” Benji spoke softly as he retrieved the paper from the floor and then knelt before the toddler, “Are you ok?”

Caly nodded but her face looked twisted as though the fear of what had nearly happened was settling in. Benji scooted himself back to the couch and right up against the small child before he realized some of the markers were uncapped and had accidentally left a mark on Caly’s leg. He reached out to wipe away the lines before he noticed a black smudge that wasn’t exactly going anywhere… and it looked familiar somehow.

“Hey… uh, guys?” Four pairs of adult eyes came to rest on Benji, “I think you need to see this…”

Eugene narrowed his eyes at the mark that Benji had found on Caly’s thigh. “Is that a… a QR code?”

“What?” Fetch was making her way toward the couch now with a look of intense curiosity. Delsin stayed where he was and Benji watched as Delsin exchanged some sort of look with Rosaline.

The shutter noise of Eugene’s phone brought Benji’s attention back to Caly, who was still drawing on the paper and ignoring the attention. Strange, Benji thought to himself. She definitely doesn't act like a 4-year old.

“I think this is coming up with a backdoor to Stratego’s website. Hang on a minute,” Eugene was looking at a basic encrypted website on his phone and he moved back to the laptop to scan the photo he took of the QR code with this bigger screen. In a minute he had the website up for everyone to look at on the laptop. 

Delsin was running a hand through his hair, his beanie in his other hand suddenly as he seemed to be processing this information. Rosaline was studying Caly in silence. Fetch was pacing the room, her black boots moving back and forth in front of the couch. Benji took it all in while wondering what was going on. He hadn’t heard the name “Stratego” before.

“Can you hack it from there? Looks like you need a password,” Delsin pointed out the obvious.

“Yeah, I’m on it. I can also compare the code from this page to the code on the main website to see if I can find anything to help me with this. I’ve got this, Del,” Eugene said. The laptop screen showed a basic website login screen that was an odd crimson color and had an owl logo near the top, in the center. Below that was the word “WELCOME” and then below that was a white field with a blinking cursor clearly waiting for the correct password to grant access to whatever was stored here. Benji suddenly felt uneasy, like maybe he shouldn’t be here for this part of the discussion.

Before he could mention anything about possibly leaving the office, Fetch sat on the other side of Caly and caught Benji’s eyes, “This stays here, not out there. Top secret stuff. Understand?”

Benji nodded. He was stuck now and he knew it.

But it did feel good to be trusted with whatever this was. It gave him a little bit of a boost as a potential hero-in-training. 

Suddenly, everyone was talking over one another. Commands, lists, ideas, strategizing. It was a little overwhelming and Benji was lost in the sounds of voices all speaking at once. He turned his attention to Caly, who had been focused on her drawing but was suddenly frozen, a marker in her grip leaving a mark on her paper that was bleeding and spreading as the ink continued to flow. He went to reach for her hand but before he could touch it, Caly let go of the marker and it fell to the floor. He bent to pick it up and was suddenly was hit with a wave of calm. As if everything was going to be okay. As if everything was going to work out just as planned.

He sat back and handed the marker to Caly and she shook her head at him as she hummed softly. She seemed to have switched from art to music. That seemed right to Benji, somehow.

“... but they marked her? With a tattoo?” Fetch looked angry, gesturing to Caly from her seated space on the other side of the girl.

“It’s not an ordinary tattoo.”

“What do you mean, Dr. Hutch?” Eugene asked over the top of the laptop screen. He was typing furiously but Benji couldn’t see what was on screen now, he only assumed as much from the amount of typing sounds he heard.

“Kids grow too fast to tattoo so young. The design would stretch and be unrecognizable in a few weeks, if not sooner. That has to be the work of a conduit,” Rosaline spoke and her hazel eyes were fixed on Caly, “Maybe an ink user? Or someone who could alter pigments within the skin?”

Caly’s soft humming was slowly becoming louder and Benji looked from Rosaline to Fetch. Fetch eased herself back into the cushions on the couch and closed her eyes for a moment. She seemed to be relaxing instead of remaining heated from the discovery.

“Of course. They had conduits there, they could have been using them on each other too. Like in Curdun,” Delsin grumbled and strode closer to Eugene behind the desk. Rosaline stepped to the side to allow Delsin some space between them.

Rosaline’s voice was quieter now as she spoke up, “This website may not only have a backdoor to Stratego, but a way to learn more about Caly?”

Now everyone seemed to be exchanging glances. Rosaline yawned suddenly and pulled the desk chair over as she dropped into it. Eugene’s typing seemed to be slowing as well and Delsin replaced his beanie on his head with a half-hearted motion.

“It’s possible,” Eugene said, “I’m so tired though. Could we break for coffee?”

Fetch straightened from her spot on the couch, “You too? I thought it was just me.”

“Definitely not just you. I’m ready for a whole nap,” Benji chimed in.

Then everyone seemed to realize at once as five pairs of eyes fell on Caly, humming from her seat. She gave them the biggest smile, content that the room seemed calm and quiet again. Her humming stopped abruptly and the edge of sleep stopped just as quickly.

Now everyone was looking wide-eyed at everyone else.

“Holy shhh–” Fetch cut herself off, but everyone was thinking the same thing. Immediately, coffee and doubling down on hacking this website seemed to be the first priority in the room.

It had been several hours and Eugene felt like he was on the edge of cracking the code. Or cracking up with insanity. It was hard to tell which. Delsin, Fetch, Benji and Caly had left long ago, each with their own agendas, but Eugene had coffee and he had Rosaline, oddly enough. The doctor had decided to stay to try to figure out the password based on what she knew about Caly. Nothing had worked so far but neither conduit was any closer to giving up, either.

“Would you help me with something, Eugene?”

Eugene sat back in his chair, sipping his coffee and letting his eyes rest, looking away from the screen for a moment, “What’s on your mind?”

Rosaline perched slightly on the edge of the desk, “Remember how you offered to assist me with… expanding my powers? Or getting to understand my limits?”

Eugene nodded.

“I’ve… heard some whispers in the hallways in regard to trust and the school itself. I would be willing to test my limits with possibly calming the situation, if you’ll grant me time to explore my abilities.”

“Ah, yeah,” Eugene sighed, “We’ve had some unfortunate instances lately with a group of conduits who seem intent on pulling the warehouse into chaos. Delsin, Fetch and I have done our best to avoid any issues, but we’re seeing more students off campus than on these days and that’s worrying.”

“Let me try. I may predominantly work with babies but I know a few things about the human condition as well. It comes in handy for working with adults and I would be willing to try to use what I know here as well.” Rosaline held her coffee in her hands, twisting the cup slowly as she spoke.

Eugene contemplated her offer. It wouldn’t hurt to have her try. And if anything, her abilities could be an amazing boon to the warehouse team overall. “I’ll have to run it by Del and Fetch, but I have a feeling they’ll oblige.”

Rosaline offered a small smile, “I hope they do. After everything the warehouse has done for Caly and myself, this would be a small way I could repay my debt.”

“You don’t owe us anything, Rosaline. I hope you know that.”

Rosaline nodded but Eugene could see her mind was made up and she was here to help for as long as she would be useful to the team. He was secretly relieved about that because after everything they had come across in such a short amount of time it seemed that getting help on their side was as important as ever.

Eugene took his phone from beside the laptop and sent a text to the group chat consisting of the heroes of Seattle with Rosaline’s proposition. He received a text back immediately from Delsin who was in. Fetch did not reply, but she had never been much of a phone person. He put his phone down and turned his attention to the laptop. He had the new backdoor Stratego website up in one window and the code for the website in another. He was scrolling the code when he had a thought and brought the website to the forefront. He moved his cursor into the password box and typed in a single word. Then he released a shout of accomplishment. The password was cracked and the website began to load the next page.

Rosaline moved to stand directly behind Eugene as the website loaded and Eugene made a note on some scratch paper on the desk, circling a single word.

“That’s her. That’s Caly,” Rosaline breathed as she neared the screen from over Eugene’s shoulder. The video conduit pulled his attention back to the screen and there he saw a photo of Caly and a blog of sorts with information and updates on her status. He started to scroll through but noted that a lot of the experiments were heavily detailed and he instead closed the laptop before Rosaline could read forward too far.

“I’ll show this to the group. I’m glad we have this though. Hopefully I can use it to discover more about the team behind Stratego and what their goals were. Also, this gives me a way to get information on a potential… criminal,” Eugene spoke carefully, choosing his words slowly as he sat back in his chair. He could use this new database to aid him in a search for records on the other ‘Projects’ kept by Stratego. He could try to find information on whoever Cindy Signet was too. This could help answer so many questions.

Rosaline seemed curious as she raised a single eyebrow but said nothing.

“I think…” Eugene hummed, “that you should join me in the training room. If just to show you where it is and how we run powers in there. Plus, I could use a good stretch.”

Rosaline contemplated the offer and checked her watch, noting the time. “Alright. I could use more coffee afterward.”

Eugene chuckled, “I can help with that. Follow me.”

Rosaline followed behind Eugene, leaving the laptop in the safety of the office while Eugene ran scenarios in his mind that could be used to help Rosaline push her powers or encounter new ones. He didn’t know much about magnification and he was curious to find out more about it from the doctor at his heels.

It was late afternoon and Delsin and Fetch were atop the roof of the warehouse meeting up for what felt like the millionth time that day. Fetch was tired and hungry, the day fallen to plans and schemes built around what-if scenarios that may never come to pass. She watched Delsin send a text to a new group of people pulled from his contacts–two new additions to the normal office team that now made up the new “Stratego Situation” group. Her phone buzzed lightly in her back pocket and she didn’t bother to fish it out, already knowing Delsin was summoning Eugene, Rosaline and Benji to the rooftop. 

So it didn’t make her feel any better when a familiar tingle lit the hairs at the back of her neck in a timely interruption of the oncoming discussion. A swirl of paper fragments wove between them, fluttering quickly before coming to rest at the top of a capped exhaust stack, revealing Celia in their wake.

“Doves…” Fetch tensed as she spit the name from clenched teeth, neon dancing at the ready behind her fingertips. Delsin held an arm out as though both protecting and preventing Fetch from making the first move.

“Ms. Walker. Pleasure to see you again,” Celia spoke nonchalantly from behind her rabbit mask, her head tilting in an uneasy fashion, “And you as well, Mr. Rowe.”

“Celia. To what do we owe the pleasure?” Delsin spoke harshly but did not move his arm from in front of Fetch. She growled lowly behind him, clearly frustrated with the forced patience.

Celia hummed softly not bothering to move from her perch as she addressed the question. “I want the same thing you do, Delsin Rowe. I want freedom for our kind. I want us to be in full control. Isn’t that something you still want, too? Isn’t that the final outcome for this place, your warehouse? Your school?”

“What? No, that’s so–”

“Fetch.” Delsin snapped her name and the neon user bit her tongue. She glanced between Celia and Delsin from her space slightly behind him and felt her anger blooming in her chest.

“Celia, I don’t think you understand,” Delsin started again, “That was the past. I was younger, we were both younger then. Now we have the world at our powered fingertips and all I want is for people like us to feel accepted and acknowledged without feeling afraid of who they are.”

Celia laughed. It sounded cold and empty. “And you train them to build their power so they can hide it for the rest of their lives? I think you can do so much better than that.”

There was a sound of commotion from below and Fetch heard Delsin curse under his breath. There was a clatter of what sounded like multiple powers clashing at ground level and Fetch realized too late that Celia was only a distraction.

“Maybe you should take a few minutes to really look at what you want from this idea of yours; are you helping your students or are they simply pawns in your version of Curdun Cay?” Celia tossed out a single hand and a whip of paper shot through the air at blinding speed. Delsin and Fetch both leaped away from one another to avoid the attack. Fetch shot neon in response, her missiles of bright light finding their mark just a second too late as Celia leaped over them and landed a few feet away on the rooftop.

Celia shouted, “You owe me a thank you for taking down Stratego, by the way. I hadn’t known that faction was still operating. It’s as dead as our enemies now.”

“We don’t owe you anything, Doves!” Fetch shouted in response. With the chaos erupting below and now on the roof, Fetch readied a new shot but Delsin told her to hold. She did as she was instructed and then Eugene was at her side, angels of blue pixels lining up before the Heroes for added defense and support. Celia cocked her head, her mask tilting to one side before she laughed again. This time it sounded full of vitriol. And then she vanished in a swirl of paper speeding toward the opposite end of the rooftop.

A scream from below had Eugene gasp and he looked over at an angel who was hovering just off the side of the building. A flash of steel wings glinted with the sunlight as a male student flew up to the roof. He was panting slightly, a grimace on his freckled face, “She’s back. The poison one.”

A splash of water was heard over a rupture of shouts and then the steel wings folded and the male student took a calculated dive from his height. Fetch huffed at seeing Brent and knowing his twin sister, Jean, was bringing water to a gas fight. This wasn’t going to plan. At all.

“Celia brought her friends. Of course she would. What is she after?” Fetch hissed and flared her neon at her hands. Colors of pink and yellow arched up her arms.

“Caly. I think.” Everyone turned around and faced Benji who was rolling his shoulders and standing behind them on the roof. “I ran into Rosaline on the way up here and she said Eugene told her to get Caly and stay in the training room.”

“I did. When Rosaline and I got to the rooftop door I could see Celia and I sent her back downstairs,” Eugene confirmed.

“Great,” Delsin griped and then blew out a rush of air before quickly forming a plan, “Eugene, with me. We’ll tail Celia. Fetch? You take Benji and go after the intruder. Everyone protect Rosaline and Caly at all costs.”

Before anyone could alter the plan, Delsin was off rushing in a trail of smoke toward Celia’s game of chase, Eugene and his angels regrouping and falling in line behind him.

“Sure, Smokes. You and Gameboy go after Doves. I’ve got Hazard.” Fetch was furious, fists balled up at her side as neon licked up her arms. But she was ready this time. She knew what was at stake. She knew Hazard’s ability and how to counter it now. She wouldn’t be caught off guard, not again. Never again.

Having Benji with her was a risk but he had an incredible power and a plan started forming as Fetch nodded to him and bolted off in the opposite direction, Benji following her closely as he utilized his parkour skills to the fullest of his abilities leaping over items on the roof with ease.

“How much power do you have stored up?” Fetch dropped into a crouch at the edge of the rooftop, surveying for Hazard below. A burst of neon green gas caught her focus and she narrowed her eyes, tracking the girl like a trained sniper. Old habits die hard.

Benji crouched next to Fetch on the rooftop, “I’m full.”

Fetch cocked an eyebrow and then rolled her right shoulder backwards, loosening up for the battle ahead, “Good. On my signal I’m gonna need a full blackout. Think you can handle that?”

“A full blackout? But it’ll affect you, too. Are you–”

“Benji. You wanna be a hero? Sometimes you gotta trust your instincts and choose the lesser evil. Hazard is a menace and I can handle a little darkness.”

Benji worried his lip for a moment before nodding and taking a deep breath. Fetch watched him carefully and then stood tall and strong, looking focused and calm.

“Follow me, but keep to the rooftops and out of sight. On my signal, full blackout. No hesitation,” Fetch shook out her arms and legs and tested her knees. She was ready to spring to the ground from this distance with her brilliant neon on full display, “And if things go wrong, don’t let Hazard get too close. Keep her as far from you as possible.”

Fetch tracked the neon green bursts for a moment longer before dropping to the ground in a bright display of her own neon colors. She had planned for this location drop and was smirking with satisfaction when the poison girl flit right into place. Hazard paused in her movements, turning to face Fetch with all the confidence of a bird with puffed feathers. She shifted her goggles up over her fringe and gave Fetch the biggest grin.

“I see you woke up! I hope you enjoyed your timeout, Neon Princess.” Makayla hissed out the name like a slur.

“I’m back for my rematch, Hazard,” Fetch snarled in response.

“‘Hazard’? I like that one. Thanks,” Makayla inspected her fingernails for a moment and Fetch tensed seeing the girl bring her hand close to her face in such a familiar move.

Fetch let off a missile of neon directed at the girl before her and it landed at her feet. Makayla leapt backwards, dropping her hand and the toxic gas with it. Without direction, the gas was useless and dissipated quickly into the air. Makayla frowned with the distraction.

“Okay, fine. You’re on. But you’ll have to do better than that, Fetch.”

Fetch straightened her posture, her hands flicking forward with neon ebbing and flowing like waves around her arms. “I never miss my mark.”

Makayla reached up and quickly adjusted her goggles back into place over her amber eyes. She smirked and seemed to welcome the challenge. Then she acted. A blast of green gas was forced toward Fetch but the neon user was quicker and tossed up a shield which lasted long enough to prevent the gas from being breathed in as intended. Makayla took another leap backwards and quickly glanced behind herself. Fetch was all rough edges now, colored in neon light and looking more dangerous by the second. But this spot was perfect as it was the back wall of the warehouse with no place to run. A deadend. Makayla would need to rush past her to get free, or use a new trick.

Fetch wouldn’t let either happen. Revenge was on her tongue and it tasted bittersweet.

Makayla blew more gas toward Fetch, but the neon user instead wasted no time and raised one arm to the sky, releasing a blast of Neon straight into the air. Fetch watched as Makayla flinched and then followed the neon blast with her eyes before she burst out laughing.

“I thought you said you never miss? I’m right here!”

Fetch shrugged, “Maybe I wasn’t aiming for you.”

Makayla stopped laughing immediately and started looking around for anything that would be broken or could possibly trap her right here. Fetch watched as the girl started to slowly be swallowed in a dense fog that was building from the ground up. As it came for her as well, Fetch crossed her arms over her chest and waited.

Benji wasn’t sure what the signal would be but when he saw the neon flare fly straight past him into the air, he knew. He crouched on the rooftop and dug deep into himself. Using his power always made him feel uneasy and nauseous. He hated his specific power. It had always been one thing to be teased about his skin tone and how he “blended into shadows” or “disappeared at nightfall”, but it was another thing entirely to control those shadows now. Controlling the only thing people compared you to in jest was a harsh reminder of how others viewed you. Benji knew not everyone saw him this way and he had been reminded of that when Lucky touched him but it was a hard idea to shake completely.

He shook the feeling of his heart being in a vice grip and poured his focus into calling forth shadow in a way that was an ultimate power move. The shadows rushed from his fingertips and crawled over the edge of the rooftop in a mass of what looked like a shadow waterfall. He could feel when the shadows hit the grass and he pooled and pushed them together, building the shadows into a dense darkness that took over the area and blocked out the light.

Benji worried for a moment about Fetch, but the release of power was a high unmatched and he found he was pushing himself to really make this the best blackout he’d summoned. He would become a true hero, if only by his own standards.

Nothing was coming down. Nothing was loose or shaking. Whatever Fetch had aimed for had missed its mark, of that Makayla was sure. She shook out her hands and started pooling more toxic gas when Fetch seemed to be fading into a fog.

Makayla wiped at her goggles. Sometimes they steamed up when she was in the heat of battle. But the fog didn’t wipe away. Now she shook away her gas from her fingertips and moved the goggles up into her hair. The fog seemed denser and Fetch was surely receding into it. Which is when Makayla looked down at her own hands and noticed the same thing happening to herself. The fog crawled up her body and was slowly pulling her into the darkness.

Panic began to set in.

Makayla swallowed heavily and tried to wave the fog away, but it didn’t budge. The color was slowly shifting from a light gray into a light black, each second passing by in slow motion. The darkness blotting out the sun from overhead and devouring Makayla into shadows she could not escape. A strangled cry came from her throat as the panic took hold and she realized she was fully lost into darkness. Her breathing came in quick heaves, her hands started to shake and her knees collapsed onto the soil beneath her. She realized she was sobbing, wailing quietly to herself as she wrapped her arms around her middle and rocked herself in one place. The darkness was inescapable. This was terrifying.

It was so dark. She could no longer see anything. Not even her own body that she was holding so tightly her fingernails were causing pain to her sides. She was sobbing so much she could feel snot dripping from her nose but she couldn’t regain control here. This was her nightmare come to life.

Then, with an unexplained quickness, the darkness began to recede. It was pulled from her like a million blankets over her head and she gasped for air, a full mess of tears, ruined makeup with snot and spit dripping down her chin.

“Oh my god. I’m so sorry…” A voice laced with heavy concern and regret came from her right and she looked quickly in that direction like a wild animal caught in a trap with no place to run. A man stood there, his eyes glowing a soft gray color before he blinked and the shadows disappeared just enough to make out all of his features. His brow furrowed with recognition as he took in her sorry state. “... Makayla? Is that you?”

The time passed in strange, jarring movements as Delsin drove toward his destination. Fetch sat quietly in the passenger seat, staring out the window. Eugene sat behind Fetch in the back bucket seat of the pickup truck, eyes glued to his phone. The silence was rough on Delsin and he wondered if the missing explosion of anger he had expected from his friends was just around the corner, or if they were simply too preoccupied with the situation at hand to even grant his faux pas of having secret visitation with the enemy for years any thought at all. He chewed the inside of his cheek as he waited for someone to say something. No one spoke.

He parked and the three exited the truck, following Delsin into the Seattle Inpatient Psychiatric Center. Fetch and Eugene remained quietly observant once checked in and issued visitation badges, while Delsin chatted with Nurse Elizabeth. Fetch scowled and Delsin caught her dagger glance in his peripheral. He added that to the list of mistakes he’d likely pay for in private.

After the three exited the elevator with Nurse Elizabeth, she led them to Ms. Augustine’s room and unlocked the door, ushering the trio inside. Then she ran her usual checks on the room and listed off the rules that Delsin knew by heart at this point.

And then she screamed.

The sound was so sharp it brought the view into focus in seconds and all three Heroes took in the sight before them in a quick inhale of breath.

Brook Augustine was dead.

A trickle of blood had dried down her chin but the damage was done. Fetch rushed to Nurse Elizabeth’s side to catch her and calm her before she passed out. Eugene was immediately taking photos as documentation for review in private later. Delsin was watching everyone else take action and simply found himself frozen in place as the realization settled into his olive skin. Someone likely murdered Augustine, killing off the only lead they may have had to connect the D.U.P. to Stratego.

Delsin crossed the room to Elizabeth and stood between her and the body, so the woman had no view of Augustine, “Who else was visiting before we arrived?”

Elizabeth was breathing quickly and Fetch was holding her upright. She did not answer.

“Lissa, please. Look at me,” Delsin lowered his voice and Elizabeth responded to the nickname, looking at him directly, “Who else was here?”

“Today? I… No one else. I would have seen it on the records outside…”

“Eugene, get the clipboard outside the door.” Delsin motioned to his friend and Eugene moved with speed, returning the clipboard to Delsin in a nearly fluid movement, blue glowing pixels trailing off the object.

Delsin glanced at the sign in sheet and Elizabeth was correct–no one else had been here today to visit Augustine. Upon flipping the page an unfamiliar name was listed as having been in very early this morning but was listed at the bottom of the previous dates’ log. Suspicious.

“Who is Cindy Signet?” Delsin read the name off the paper and then turned his gaze back to Elizabeth.

The nurse blinked hard and shook herself out of her trance slowly, “Miss Signet is Ms. Augustine’s niece.”

“Niece? I thought Augustine was a loner?” Fetch spoke up now, questioning the information at hand.

“No… I mean, Miss Signet called every week. She never visited, not while I was on the clock. I’ve only ever spoken to her over the phone,” Elizabeth countered.

Delsin narrowed his eyes at the nurse, “And what time did you start your shift today?”

“Eleven o’clock this morning.”

“Shit,” Delsin huffed the word out and straightened his posture, “Cindy signed in at 9AM this morning. And she’s never visited before?”

Elizabeth shook her head.

“We have our suspect. Eugene?”

“I’m running her name now. It looks like poison, cyanide is my guess, for the weapon of choice.”

Fetch took Elizabeth toward the door and began asking how she could help get police involved. Delsin was furious and curious and… sad. Augustine was not a great person but in the years of one-sided conversation the Akomish man had come to respect her in an odd way. And now, after years of keeping her hidden and safe, Augustine was dead. It hurt.

“We’ve gotta wait to give our testimony when the cops arrive,” Fetch sighed as she reentered the room alone. Elizabeth was gone to make the call.

“No, we don’t. We were never here,” Delsin started to leave the room and Eugene snapped his head at him on the way.

Eugene dropped his phone into his back pocket, “Delsin, we can’t just leave–”

“Trust me. It was part of the deal–I’m a ghost as much as she was. We’re leaving.”

The trio were long gone by the time the flashing blue and red lights flooded the entrance of the Seattle Inpatient Psychiatric Center.

“... breaking news now incoming about the fire at a local lab called Stratego. The building leveled to ash in a matter of moments. No leads on who or what caused the explosion but no reports of any injured or dead at this time. Police are on the scene and a full investigation is underway...”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Delsin was furious as the news broadcast update echoed in the office from the laptop speakers. Fetch had never seen him so angry before. She was still reeling from finding Augustine dead, murdered, this morning. And as they were about to sort through the mess themselves, Eugene had quickly pulled the news up on the laptop in a flurry of fingers and with a look of intense disbelief, his cell phone discarded on the desk in favor of the larger screen as though that would make the news any more real.

“Are you kidding me? Stratego is a pile of ash and Augustine is dead on the same day?” Fetch grumbled. This was not a coincidence.

“It’s real. It’s not a dream, right?” Eugene was glancing between the screen and his friends.

“FUCK.” Delsin shouted and slammed the laptop shut then immediately began pacing the room.

Fetch exchanged a look with Eugene that registered the fact that they were both uncomfortable with Delsin’s intensity right now.

“Okay, let’s be rational here,” Fetch crossed her arms loosely over her chest and shifted her weight to her other leg, her hips swinging with the movement.

Delsin inhaled loudly and held it as he paused in his footsteps. He turned to face her and breathed out slowly, seeming to find and slowly reclaim his calm, “Yeah. Yeah, what do we know?”

“We have a suspect. Two, actually. Cindy Signet and Celia,” Fetch stated.

Eugene cleared his throat, “One, actually.”

Fetch gave him a pointed look, “What do you mean?”

“Cindy Signet isn’t a real person. No one exists with that name in any system that links Seattle and Stratego or the D.U.P. database.”

Delsin inhaled again, hands coming to rest behind his head, fingers interlacing and his beanie sliding backwards just slightly with the frustration.

Fetch cocked her head at the information as though she hadn’t quite understood, “Cindy isn’t real. Great. So we have Celia and her band of idiots as our suspects, then.”

“Fetch,” Delsin breathed her name and when she turned her attention back to him she realized his eyes were closed, “We know Celia has a history of murder but I can’t see her hurting Augustine. That woman was like a mother to her. A shitty one, but one all the same. Which means either she sent one of her group to do the job or she was distracted and whoever Cindy really is took out Augustine this morning.”

“... To prevent us from getting the connection. This was a scheme to stop us.” Eugene slowly added on.

Fetch watched Delsin’s eyes flutter open and he dropped his hands to his sides, defeated. She glanced back to Eugene and watched as the Video conduit opened the laptop, checking quickly for damage, before typing away.

“We have an unknown then. Conduit?” Fetch asked.

“I don’t think so… would you murder someone with poison if you had a power you could leave as a calling card instead?” Eugene’s face paled the second the words were out of his mouth and Fetch narrowed her eyes at him in a flash of betrayal.

“Wanna tell me how you really feel, Gameboy?”

“I-I didn’t mean… I just meant…”

“He’s right,” Delsin interrupted. Fetch glanced at him and raised an eyebrow urging him to continue, “Celia would have left a dove and there wasn’t one. The kid who knocked you out would have left a calling card for sure. And the two you said made you blow up our entrance accidentally also seem like the type to let us know they had been there. So, this fake-Cindy is human.”

“And if it was done to just prevent us from finding the connection between the D.U.P. and Stratego that means two things are true,” Eugene interjected, “One, there absolutely was a connection scrubbed from the files; and two, fake-Cindy is likely done with murders so we don’t have to worry about her right now. I’ll send an anonymous tip to the Seattle Police.”

Delsin nodded and Fetch moved around the desk to look out the window and toward the grounds below. The students had been more on edge since the show with fake-Delsin and she had noticed more of them spent time away from the warehouse than within it lately. Loyalty had been challenged in a matter of minutes and unfortunately it was costing the warehouse.

“... Then Stratego? Leveled in minutes is definitely a conduit thing.” She spoke to the glass, focus lost to the few students outside.

“Agreed,” Delsin spoke up, “Eugene, scrub the news outlet features and see if you can find any calling cards in the footage. I’d suggest we pay the site a visit ourselves but it would link us to the act, unfortunately. And we don’t have time to deal with interrogations right now. Not if we plan on actually helping the Seattle conduit population.”

Fetch turned her attention on Delsin and caught his eyes in a stare, “We gotta work on rebuilding the trust first.”

Delsin sighed and shifted his glance to the desk, “Yeah… what a mess.”

All three conduits exhaled in unison. What a mess indeed.

“... That's another thing…” Eugene cleared his throat and all eyes were on him, “I’ve been trying to track our stolen emblem but with so many students off campus now I can’t locate it.”

Fetch blew air up at her fringe and rolled her eyes. More deadends, great.

“Keep looking. We’ll get the students back on campus now that we have a loose conduit out there. I can’t have anyone blaming our school for that so-called accident. We’ll send a campus-wide email and prepare a statement.”

Fetch looked back at Delsin and saw the frustration building behind his eyes. Everything seemed to be crashing against him now like upset waves in the Sound.

“Hey,” Fetch called out softly and both men looked her way, “We’ll get through this. Together.”

It felt wrong to be here without a mask, without a mission. Lucky knew she would pay dearly for not only breaking the rules but also for being here alone. At the warehouse.

The construction of the front entrance was underway and the missile hole was smaller today than it had been last night. But Lucky wasn’t here to document that process. She was looking for someone, someone she had noticed the previous night before she hexed Fetch with a spurt of bad luck.

After Orion had Fetch’s attention, Lucky had slipped into the crowd and disappeared among the gathered students. She knew her luck power had a passive radius of 3-feet/91.5cm and she needed to act fast. She spread her power as evenly as possible, granting anyone close to the entrance good luck to avoid the incoming attack that wasn’t on anyone’s radar just yet.

It was during this time that Lucky felt something tug at her power, something small and unusual. It was rare that something could pull Lucky’s focus in such a sharp manner but something pulled her attention and she turned around in time to catch a glance from a very small student. This tiny girl was a toddler–maybe 4 or 5 if Lucky had to guess. She held her gaze with piercing gray eyes and then she was lifted into the air by a man who followed the little one’s gaze directly to Lucky. At first his dark-skinned expression was blank as he seemed to see past her mask, trying to place her face. It was… not ideal for Lucky and she blinked at the pair. Then the man flashed her a bright smile, something honest, something gentle. Lucky felt that tug again but before she could process it further her attention was suddenly pulled to her brother via a bright flash of pinks and purples and she realized her time was up. It was up to the students under her spell to react quickly.

Lucky moved so fast, a flash of sparks against the evening until she gathered herself behind the Neon conduit focusing on a bad luck hex that sent Fetch’s next action astray. Lucky had worked her magic so discreetly and so perfectly, no one was hurt in the explosion and she and her brother escaped without a tail.

But she couldn’t shake the faces of the small girl and the man she had shared a glance with. And now she found herself drawn back to the warehouse in search of them.

She had no names and she didn’t bother to collect the hidden emblem along her way. She was just here, standing outside on the grass and looking at the warehouse’s many windows and murals of spray paint and neon. She watched the students mingle, enter and exit the building for a few silent minutes and Lucky realized she had never felt more lonely than she did in this moment.

“What am I doing here?” The words were quiet as they breathed from her lips. She shouldn’t have come back to the scene of the crime. She knew that was the first mistake any criminal made in her beloved crime podcasts but she felt inexplicably drawn here.

“Hey! It’s you!”

Lucky was pulled from her thoughts and she spun on her heels and there he was. The guy with the small child. It felt like magic, like fate. Like a cruel joke. She shouldn’t be here.

“Oh, hi. I’m glad you’re okay,” they were honest words and Lucky glanced over the man in a sweep of her dark brown eyes, then looked past him for a moment, “Where is your… sister? The little girl who was with you?”

“Caly? Oh, I’m just babysitting her for a bit, we aren’t related. She’s fine, too. We were inside before the explosion happened,” he answered so openly and without hesitation, it felt like they had known each other for years instead of just meeting for the first time, “My name’s Benji, by the way. I don’t think I’ve seen you on campus before last night.”

“Lucky. My name is Lucky and no… I’m not a student, yet,” It felt bad to lie to Benji so Lucky simply gave half-truths instead, “I’m glad you're both okay.”

Benji offered her that same, genuine smile he had given her the night prior and it disarmed her in a second. Lucky felt her walls crumble and suddenly she remembered something. Something important.

“Caly… she’s in trouble.”

Benji’s smile faltered and he suddenly looked intense as though some secret code word had been passed between them. He reached out to her and took her hand, tugging her away from the warehouse and to a quieter area out of earshot of most of the students.

“How do you know?”

Lucky did not drop his hand. It was warm and she suddenly needed his contact as though she would falter without it. “I’ve seen her photo and her file. She’s being hunted, Benji. You need to keep her safe.”

Her file had been on the desk when Celia had called an emergency meeting this morning warning everyone to lay low. Something had happened between last night and this afternoon and this file had something to do with it but Lucky had stayed offline and missed the news feed. All she knew for certain was that the little girl in the photo was the same one she had seen at the warehouse and now she understood the tug of fate–she had needed to warn Benji.

Benji narrowed his eyes at her and his lips set in a thin line as though he were accepting this information as his personal mission. He also did not drop her hand, a fact Lucky clung to.

“You should come with me and let Fetch and the others know,” Benji suggested.

Lucky paled at the name and then shook her head quickly, “Fetch and I… I’m not her favorite person right now. But you can give her the heads up yourself. Just… Keep my name out of it.”

“Why?”

“I’m not supposed to be here but I needed to check to make sure you–everyone was okay.” Lucky caught herself and searched Benji’s eyes. He didn’t seem to notice her slip.

“Yeah, okay,” Benji nodded and released his grip on her hand. Lucky immediately felt the loss of contact like a knife to her chest. He seemed to grow concerned for her, “Are you okay? Do you need help?”

The question caught her off-guard. Benji was incredibly good at reading her. Or maybe that was his ability? Lucky couldn’t be sure but she knew she probably wouldn’t be able to keep secrets from him. So instead she reached into her pocket and pulled out a single origami dove and placed it into his palm, folding his fingers around it.

“I’m better now, thanks. Take care of Caly,” Lucky held his gaze and with the contact still present, his warm hand between her own, she passed along her power in a sweep of a decision she knew she may regret, “Good luck, Benji.”

Her eyes flashed quickly with silver crescent moons in a moment as though the light shifted in her irises. Benji blinked and placed the paper into his pocket without looking at it, breaking the hold of her hands on his.

“I don’t need luck, Lucky,” Benji breathed, “I just need–” Lucky watched Benji swallow his words as though he caught his confession in his throat and then he fell silent.

“Please tell Fetch and the others to be cautious. Caly is in danger, this is important,” And the celestial-luck conduit turned around and started to leave. She wondered if Benji would reach out to her, or call her back, but he did neither and she didn’t feel the tug anymore at the edge of her abilities as she left.

“It’s Caly,” Benji spoke urgently to the office of Heroes, having burst through the door without knocking, “She’s in danger being here.”

Fetch, Delsin and Eugene exchanged glances and then Delsin spoke to Fetch.

A low groan sounded and when hazel eyes opened, the light sent pain directly into her head. Fetch slowly moved her arm to cover her eyes and remained laying down. Fetch knew she had been moved and judging by the brightness around her she was now in the infirmary and under Eugene’s care.

“Fetch? Are you awake? How do you feel?” Eugene’s voice sounded soft but had a hint of concern to it.

She cleared her throat, “Like shit.”

Eugene chuckled in response to that. Fetch moved slowly, trying to sit up as the world spun then righted itself around her. The immediate rise of bile in her throat was an unfriendly reminder of the seriousness of powers and fighting with them.

Fetch hissed her words between clamped teeth, fighting the urge to vomit, “No, seriously. What the hell happened? Is Sam okay?”

“Yeah, Sam is fine. They’re on the mend in the next room over. They just said they felt a little nauseous and had a bad headache but otherwise all vitals are normal,” Eugene was already checking monitors and running pixels like a screen over Fetch’s form. They felt cold against her skin but the coolness was a welcomed feeling given her heated state right now.

“I feel the same but also like my body is fighting food poisoning. That girl had crazy powers… some sort of toxin in gas form. Did anyone recognize her?”

Eugene opened his mouth to speak when the door opened behind him and Delsin rushed to the side of Fetch’s bed. He looked panicked as he glanced over her and then back to Eugene.

“What the hell happened? I was gone for an hour and I came back to chaos,” Delsin looked frustrated and relieved all at once… it wasn’t a good look for him and Fetch sighed, pulling his attention back to her.

“Some wild conduit broke in and poisoned Sam and I. I don’t know what she was doing here but she wasn’t a registered student. Sam’s fine, I’m recovering. No one else was hurt. I made sure she was away from the students when I spoke with her.”

Eugene cleared his throat and held out a folded piece of paper, “... and she left this behind in trade for Sam’s emblem. That’s how she accessed the warehouse.”

Both Delsin and Fetch glanced at the paper and gasped simultaneously. Delsin took hold of it and his jaw tightened as he flipped it slowly between his fingers. The folded paper was not just a letter, it was folded into the shape of an origami dove. It was a warning.

“Celia…”

Fetch watched Delsin as he spoke that name and he did not look happy. She exchanged a look with Eugene that read simply as, “oh, shit.”

“Of all the times to visit, Doves chose now? We are dealing with Stratego and missing people–This is ridiculous,” Fetch states.

Delsin goes quiet for a moment and the silence feels like an admission of guilt somehow. Like something else is also happening that she wasn’t aware of yet. She looks Delsin up and down and swings her legs over the side of the bed, readying herself to stand slowly.

“... It’s a lot. But we can handle it. We’ve done it before.”

“But Del, we have a whole schoo–”

“I know!” Delsin’s shout was quick and harsh and he immediately lowered his voice, “I know… and we’ll figure it out. But we can’t plan things out here. As soon as you are both able, meet me in the office.” Delsin meets Fetch’s gaze and she nods, Eugene doing the same. The gravity was sinking in quickly as Delsin left the room and his friends behind, the origami dove still clutched in his hand.

Fetch and Eugene release a small breath that they were both holding in when Delsin shouted. Something was up and Fetch knew it wasn’t good. She understood that Delsin was easily stressed when things piled up this way and right now–between the warehouse, Stratego, a loose conduit with an evil karma streak and now Celia back in town–Delsin must be at a breaking point.

“Am I cleared to be moving around?”

Eugene checked the monitors once again, “Not really.”

“I didn’t think so. But we have no choice. I’ll just drain neon on the way upstairs.”

“Fetch…” Eugene spoke her name so softly, so carefully and Fetch met his stare, “Just… take it slow for now, okay?”

“You know ‘slow’ isn’t in my vocabulary, but I’ll try,” She eased onto her feet and tested a few steps. The world wasn’t spinning but her head was pounding.

“Thank you.”

“Sure thing, Gameboy.”

“Do you know how much you mean to me?” Celia was seated beside Makayla within the confines of the small meeting space. Makayla was swinging her legs freely as she sat atop the cleared table and cocked her head at her rabbit-mask wearing boss before answering.

“Sure, I do. I’m your top gun.”

“You are. And you could be more…” Celia leaned closer, one hand reaching up toward her mask. Makayla’s legs stopped swinging and she seemed to be contemplating the offer but before she could answer, a hand smacked Celia upside the back of her head, forcing the conduit to sputter and growl lowly before looking over her shoulder.

“Stop being an asshole.” The voice came from behind Celia and a woman stood there, arms crossed loosely over her chest with a raised eyebrow and a scowl.

Celia’s form began to shimmer and a sound of soft chimes accompanied the shifting. From head to toe Celia began to shift into tiny mirrors quickly replaced by a new form of a man who looked just as disgruntled as the woman.

Makayla glanced from one to the other and then shoved the man with her hand, hard. “Orion! You jerk!”

“Ow! Jeez… chill out you two. I was just having a little fun.” Orion rolled his shoulder and stood up, moving away from the table and rubbing the back of his head.

“Well, maybe you should have your fun away from your coworkers.” The woman snapped.

Makayla sighed loudly, “Where is Celia, anyway? She shoulda been here by now.”

“She’s running late. I was sent in to let you know but I got distracted by my little brother putting moves on you instead,” the woman waved a dismissive hand toward Orion.

Orion grumbled, “Whatever. I don’t know why she put you in charge anyway. Makayla has been here way longer than we have, Lucky,” He turned his focus to Makayla and gave her a sultry smile. “And we’d be so good together. Think about it, Makayla.”

The green and black haired girl scoffed and then burst out into a ruckus laughter.

Lucky shook her head and relaxed her stance, “Makayla is absolutely not into you. In any form you take.”

“Yeah, Orion. I like real women. Go hit on someone else.” Makayla wiped the start of tears from her laughter away from her eyes, careful not to smudge her makeup in the process. Lucky moved to sit beside Makayla on the tabletop but never took her eyes off her brother. Orion ran his hand through his shoulder-length wavy brown hair and scowled.

“Fine. I’m not apologizing though. It’s good to stretch your powers now and then.”

“... How so, Orion Stella? What did you do?” Celia showed herself, appearing behind Orion in a flutter of paper that collected and formed quickly into her full self. Rabbit mask in place, as always. She was much smaller in height than Orion but she commanded the room in a moment. Orion walked back to the tabletop and leaned against it beside Lucky without answering Celia at all.

Celia did not wait for Orion to change his mind, “We have a problem. Two, actually. I need teams. The Stella’s will tackle one, Makayla and I will be on the other.”

Lucky sighed, “What do you need us to do?”

Celia turned her attention to the siblings, “Lucky and Orion Stella… I know the so-called ‘Heroes of Seattle’ are running the warehouse and I need help throwing them off our trail. This emblem,” Celia tossed the pin toward them and Orion snatched it from the air with ease, “... is likely a tracking device as well. Eugene Sims was always tinkering with something while we were together and I doubt he’s stopped pushing his powers in that way.”

“So… you want us just to run around with this little thing?” Orion was examining the emblem, holding it up to catch the fluorescent lights and turning it between his fingers.

“Yes and no. I want you to keep it someplace close to the warehouse that is easy for us to retrieve. And I need a distraction to lure out the Heroes.”

Orion tilted his head in thought, while Lucky nodded and stood. She tightened her ponytail of wavy, dark brown hair with the undercut dyed a silver color, then tucked her pentacle necklace into her shirt, “You have the coordinates, Ry?”

Orion glanced at his sister and nodded, “I do.”

“Let’s go.”

“Wait. I want to hear what Makayla gets to do.”

Celia turned her attention to Makayla, “You and I are doing more recon. I have a lead and I need your abilities to help me get inside.”

Makayla flexed her fingers, popping the joints with a large stretch, “Alright! I’m ready when you are.”

Celia seemed to teleport across the room and was next to the exit in a dash of paper pulp that was faster than seemed possible. Apparently, Eugene Sims wasn’t the only one who had been flexing their powers in the years since the fall of Curdun Cay.

“If we lure them out, these ‘Heroes’…” Orion called after his boss. Celia turned her mask to stare at him and him alone, “Can we have a little fun? Or no powers this time?”

Celia tilted her head to one side and then a hand pushed the mask up slightly to reveal her lips. She was smiling.

“Have your fun.” 

The tension within the office was palpable.

Delsin was leaning against the desk, facing the couch and slowly turning the origami dove over in his fingers. His friends were seated on the couch opposite of him. No one was making eye contact.

Another heavy conversation. Will these ever end? The thought pressed forward in Delsin’s mind before he opened his mouth.

“I saw her…” The words were quiet, low. Delsin avoided looking at Fetch or Eugene, his focus on the folded paper twisting around in his fingertips. The silence felt heavy.

“Wha–what do you mean you ‘saw her’?” Eugene’s question was so quiet, he seemed not afraid of asking but of whatever the answer may be. “Celia? You saw her?”

“No, not Celia,” Delsin paused and placed the origami dove on the desk behind him. “Augustine. Yesterday, when I said I had something to do. That’s what I did.” Delsin kept his gaze low.

Fetch spoke next, her voice laid with confusion and heavy worry, “How is she?”

Delsin opened his mouth to answer and a sigh fell from his lips as he settled his gaze at the dusty floor.

“She was fine, all things considered. Vitals were fine and all that, per the doctors, despite being completely catatonic still.” He kicked idly at a rock on the floor. The small stone skittered across and ricocheted off Fetch’s boot. “She never looked at me the whole time I was with her. I asked how she was and she didn’t even respond. Not a sound… When I started telling her about Seattle and how Conduits are getting a second chance, she didn’t even blink. I told her, I said, ‘Augustine, you can have a second chance out there now. With us. But we need to understand Stratego.’ And I got nothing except my visiting time being over and a reminder that Augustine’s family was checking in on her every week.”

“A second chance? After all she did to you? To us?” Fetch spit the words and Delsin snapped his attention to her and scowled. A look of disgust crossed Fetch’s features

“You got a second chance. Hell, probably a third one at that. You’re like a neon cat with nine lives.” Delsin knew he was right when he saw Fetch grumble and look away. He turned his gaze on Eugene.

“You also got a second chance. I mean, look at this place! We all got a second chance and who am I to deny Augustine of hers?”

Eugene shifted awkwardly on the couch under the sudden attention from Delsin. Delsin knew the weight he carried. He knew it was hard to argue with the Hero of Seattle. He was correct on every front, and his upbringing of giving second chances and killing them with kindness was slowly showing more and more as he aged. The small town delinquent was no more, replaced by a more refined and mature protector of conduits everywhere.

“Okay… so… where does that leave us in terms of Stratego?” Eugene was timid now, and seemed a little hurt from the accusation. A little uncomfortable. Delsin removed his worn beanie and ran his hand through his hair.

“I don’t know. It seems like Augustine would know about Stratego and did what she could to protect that branch when the D.U.P. failed and disbanded. I have no doubt that she has records or paperwork or something that would connect the two groups together. I just don’t know where to find that information.”

“Give me the dove,” Fetch held her hand out from her spot on the couch. Her gaze was still laced with anger that bit through her eyes. Delsin passed the paper to her without a word.

Eugene sat back now, seemingly a bit more relaxed now that he was forced into information-mode and out of the awkward spotlight for the moment, “How can we help?”

“I need recon work, I think. We’ll have to dig deep into past files to see if we can find a connection between The Department of Unified Protection and Stratego. Then, we’ll have to follow that chain until we hit a dead end or find a breakthrough,” Delsin replaced his beanie on his head and crossed his arms loosely over his chest while he spoke, laying out a plan, “It’s going to be a lot of work but I know the answers are there somewhere.”

“Okay. Give me 24 hours and I’ll find something. It’s what I do, remember?” Eugene took his phone from his pocket and started typing something into it. Likely a list of things to do, Delsin knew him so well at this point.

Fetch suddenly slapped a piece of crumpled paper down on the desk next to Delsin, leaping from her spot on the couch in smooth, fluid movement.

“We have another problem. This was written inside the dove.”

Eugene stood now and approached the desk as Delsin shifted from his spot to make room and look over what Fetch had found. The origami dove had been unfolded by the Neon user and written on the paper was a message:

Corruption, indeed You know nothing of FREEDOM You must pay the price

The three power-users exchanged glances and Delsin caught Fetch making fists with her hands. He knew she had always had something against the Paper conduit but had never figured out what it was. With Celia quiet for years, he had forgotten to ask Fetch about it. Now, it seemed this new appearance was likely to stir past memories that he had hoped had been forgiven.

“Cool. Great. So now we can definitely add Celia to the list of issues we are facing right now,” Delsin grumbled. He was thrilled in completely the opposite way, “Let’s get a plan together and meet later tonight to sort through it.”

“Deal.” Fetch caught his eyes and she looked intense. She was definitely already planning something, Delsin just hoped she wouldn’t act before cluing him in first. Eugene seemed to pick up on it too as he glanced between the two and Delsin shook his head at him in a minor way that cautioned silence. After Fetch left the office, the door slightly closed in her wake, Delsin turned to Eugene.

“Keep your trackers up and focused on Fetch in another window.”

“You got it, boss.”

Night fell across the city of Seattle in a wave of cloud cover and flickering street lights. As the people headed home or out to dinner, two siblings moved along the sidewalk toward the warehouse, away from the bustle of the city and into the quiet of calm before a planned storm.

“Celia and Makayla can reach this thing anywhere we put it, they just have to have the coordinates, right?” Orion spoke quietly, his hands in his pockets and the emblem held within closed fingers.

“Right,” Lucky confirmed, “You can do that part while I mask where you leave it.”

“Love you for that, sister.” Orion cocked his head at Lucky, glancing down at her. She ignored him. He stopped walking somewhere halfway between seeing the warehouse and leaving the city in their wake. He had a prickling sensation deep in his bones and knew this was it–the hiding spot. He moved toward a large tree and reached up into the lowest branches, dropping the emblem into a nook that was hidden from the ground and easy to locate for the ones who knew where to look.

Lucky sighed softly, “I can’t reach that.”

“You don’t have to,” Orion grinned and marked the coordinates in his phone, sending a text to the group. He heard Lucky’s phone chirp to confirm the message sent and was received. Then he shook out his hands and his grin shifted into something more mischievous. “Let’s go have our promised fun.”

“Orion…” Lucky was staring off into the distance of lights around the warehouse. Orion wished he could hear her thoughts at that moment.

“Yeah?”

“Do you ever question what we do as ‘right’? Like, how do we know Celia is on the right side? Lately it seems like everything we are doing is for some payback scheme and not for the good of conduits other than herself.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Lucky,” Orion scoffed, “Celia wouldn’t lead us astray. Besides, if not for her plans we would be stranded in that damn warehouse, too. Don’t you like this freedom we have now? Or are you jealous that Celia knows the so-called ‘Heroes of Seattle’ on a first name basis?”

“I’m not jealous of her, brother.”

Lucky didn’t look as enthusiastic as Orion felt, but he dismissed his sisters’ face and immediately started shifting. His brown eyes lit with golden crescent moons as his body shimmered, reflecting the light from the street lamps. He became a million tiny mirrors that tumbled over like flippable sequins on a sweater, his form quickly changing from Orion into Delsin Rowe. The two were nearly the same height so that wasn’t as jarring as the fact that the Mirror conduit was now wearing the face and clothes of someone he was not. Orion, now Delsin, tracked Lucky’s eyes surveying the shift in full.

“Like what you see?” Delsin’s cocky voice fell from his lips to complete the transformation.

“Listen, if I could shift into Fetch then you’d have a problem, too.” Lucky scoffed at her brother.

“I’m sure I would. But for now, just try to keep focused on the mission and not Delsin’s ass.”

“You’re an ass.”

“I know. Let’s go.”

The siblings approached the warehouse and once they were close enough, Lucky placed her hand on her brother’s arm and her eyes flashed with silver crescent moons, her own power transferring a boost to her brothers’ charm.

“Good luck, brother. Let’s let everyone know who Delsin Rowe really is.”

Orion felt the power of luck settle into his form. It was always like a soft caress–good or bad luck–just a soft feeling that settled in the back of his skull and trailed down his spine. He knew the limits of his sisters’ abilities and worked within the confines set by them as easily as he did with his own abilities. It had always been easy, growing up together. The freedom to test and push each other both with powers and with their relationship. They were a force to be reckoned with, a mix of mirror and celestial luck, an unstoppable team. They knew everything about each other as siblings and as conduits. And now they were about to put on a show for a school of people who needed to be reminded that they were powerful. They were in control. They had the upper hand here.

The Stella siblings were about to shake things up.

“This school is nothing more than a means to an end,” Delsin crowed from the yard outside the warehouse. He made a big show of flipping off the building and attracting attention from anyone outside. 

Lucky feigned shock, “Mr. Rowe, what are you talking about? This is our home.”

Delsin scoffed and approached Lucky slowly, like a predator stalking his prey. It was all play, all pretend, but Lucky reacted appropriately and started moving backwards step-by-step. The actions pulled more attention from the powered people around them. She was using her abilities on herself to blend in, to appear as though she was familiar and one of the students. Luck was a hell of a power and Lucky utilized it well.

“Our home? Please. You know who I am, what I’m capable of, right? I’m the Hero of Seattle! I set everyone free from Curdun Cay. I shut that place down. And for what? What did I gain in exchange?” Delsin was approaching Lucky with drawn out steps, his voice lowering. He noticed people closing in around them, curiosity and danger in the air.

Lucky sputtered, “Freedom? Safety?”

Delsin cackled, high on attention, high on power. And then Fetch appeared behind him. He knew because Lucky’s attention shifted slightly and because her eyes reflected neon in a burst of fuschia, the color bright against his sister’s dark brown irises. He smiled, this wicked grin across a face that wasn’t his. Perfect timing.

“You are a fool. Every student here is. Falling right into my hands!”

“Delsin… ? What are you talking about?” Fetch’s voice rang out behind him, her tone low and cautious. Delsin filled the space in front of Lucky so his sister was masked from the Neon user to his back, but he knew he didn’t have to do that for her.

Delsin raised his voice to nearly a shout, “All I needed was a place to have you all within my grasp. So I can take what is rightfully mine. I set you all free in exchange for your powers as my own!” Delsin lunged forward at Lucky who screamed (as practiced) and sent a ripple of fear out among the students who were witnessing this event.

Fetch rushed Delsin, grabbing his wrist and pulling him backwards with incredible force. For having been taken down by Makayla, she was clearly not going to let that happen on her watch again. The movement allowed Lucky to escape into the crowd unfollowed.

“What the hell is going on?! D, what has gotten into you?” Fetch was furious with the man in her grasp, angry hazel eyes glaring holes into his face. “First Augustine and now this?”

Augustine? Interesting. Delsin tucked this knowledge away for later as he cleared his throat and simply cocked his head at Fetch, “What? Jealous that you aren’t a mimic? Pathetic.”

Fetch looked hurt and released Delsin’s wrist. She slid back into a fighting stance and flared neon at her hands by her side, “Jealous? Of you? Don’t make me laugh, Smokes. Or should I be calling you something else? Delsin would never–”

Lucky was suddenly behind Fetch, reaching out through the neon swirls of power and pressing her hand against Fetch’s back, “Bad luck on timing. We’ve gotta go, brother.”

Delsin flipped Fetch off and started backing up. Fetch sent a single neon missile out of anger toward the man retreating and it blew off course so wildly that it crashed into the main entrance of the warehouse. The explosion was mostly noise and debris–Lucky had already cleared the area of students–but it pulled Fetch’s attention long enough for the siblings to get out of sight.

They tumbled down into the grass and dirt together, Lucky on her stomach and Delsin on his back. As he gasped from breath from the excitement, the hasty retreat, and the dramatic use of powers, a shimmer of mirrors reverted his appearance.

“Damn, that was fun! Great acting, Luckster.”

“We were almost too slow but now we have an easy way in and confirmation that the heroes are all here. Celia will be proud.” Lucky was watching the chaos from her safe place among the ground, “No one followed us. Looks like the student witnesses seem to be second guessing the safety of the warehouse.”

“Perfect. Let’s get home.”

Meanwhile, as the Stella’s carried out their mission, two guards hit the floor simultaneously as Makayla blew them a kiss of toxic gas, the green-hued stuff breathed in for immediate lights out. She had infiltrated the entrance of Stratego in a blaze of neon green, leaving a trail of sleeping watch guards in her wake. None of which were likely to have good dreams.

“Goodnight, fellas.” Amber eyes scanned the hallway now exposed from behind frosted goggles and then she pulled her black, cloth mask down to her neck as she signaled with her other hand–all clear.

A flutter of paper was at her side in an instant and Celia was fully formed a blink later. She was quiet, a woman who utilized her abilities in every possible way, one with the paper she drained and created with such ease. Makayla could only smirk with the thought of one day being as strong and powerful as Celia is now.

“Good work. I’ll be back,” Celia nodded her praise.

Makayla pouted, “What do you mean, you’ll ‘be back’? Aren’t I going in with you?”

“Not here. This place is for information, information only I can pull. I need to go in alone.”

Makayla sighed loudly and rolled her eyes, “That’s not fair. You totally owe me a mission!”

Celia seemed to chuckle but the sound was so quiet it was hard for Makayla to really recognize, “I do and if I find what I think I will, then you’ll have the most fun mission of all–to take down Fetch Walker once again.”

“Oooh… that is fun!” Makayla grinned and rubbed her hands together with the promise, “Be careful then. And good luck!”

Celia nodded and then disappeared in a flurry of itty bitty paper pieces.

“Here’s what we know,” Orion stated plainly to the small gathering of familiar teammates within the confines of their hideout, “Delsin has been exposed as the asshole that he truly is. Several of the students who attend this ‘school’ are now second-guessing their loyalty and have all the tools they need to be powerful without it. Fetch was not happy, but damn was she hot up close.”

“ORION!” Lucky shouted in warning.

Celia tilted her head as she listened and remained seated in a metal chair that had been placed in the center of the room. She waved Lucky to ignore her brother and nodded at the man instead.

“Nicely done. I commend your attention to detail, Orion.” Celia shifted her glance to Makayla, her rabbit mask giving a stoic and unreadable expression as she switched gears. Makayla straightened up in her perch on top of the table, eyes excited for whatever was coming next.

“Makayla Grayson, your next assignment is to lure out Fetch and disable her away from the warehouse. If you do this correctly, Delsin will not be far behind. Extra bonus points if you pull Eugene out as well.”

Makayla grinned and nodded enthusiastically, “Oh yes! You got it, boss! I’m so excited for this rematch!”

“Good. Do your worst. Have fun. Be reckless. I need you to make a scene,” Celia urged.

“Ha HA! I am ready!” Makayla was practically glowing with mischief, “I got the coords from Orion already. Did you get what you needed at that lab?”

Celia nodded, “That and more. They won’t be a problem in the future.”

Lucky spoke up again but this time directly to Celia, “And what am I working on?”

“I need you to watch the hideout. Protect it. Mask it.”

Lucky inhaled slowly and exhaled just as slowly. It was clear she wasn’t a fan of these instructions, but she understood the gravity of them, “Fine.”

“Dismissed,” Celia waved everyone away, however, Orion remained in the room alone with the Paper user. He seemed relaxed as always, but Celia was up and directly in front of him so quickly his eyes betrayed him for a moment with a startled look. Celia smiled to herself beneath her mask.

“What else do you have for me, Orion Stella? I sense you are holding back.”

Orion swallowed heavily and then offered his boss a smirk, “The heroes are working with Augustine, or at least Delsin is in contact with her.”

“Brooke Augustine?” Celia sharply inhaled on the name and paused in a way that seemed like a flight, fight, or freeze response. In a moment she seemed to shake herself out of it and instead tilted her mask up at Orion, “Interesting. Thank you.”

“And Lucky is jealous or something. She’s been moody as hell lately and I think she’s tired of taking orders from you.” Orion’s admission was quiet, like a rushed warning to the Paper conduit. Celia was stationary with this information and Orion shrugged as though he were simply a messenger then turned to leave the room. But Celia called out to him.

“She only exists to serve you. She amplifies your power, not the opposite,” Carefully chosen words, spoken lowly, hushed. A breath of whispers, pulling at invisible strings.

Orion narrowed his eyes as he turned and studied the rabbit mask before him, “Lucky doesn’t—“

“Want to be here? Doesn’t want to fight alongside us? She hesitates. She’s unsure. I know you’ve noticed.”

Orion paused and it was enough for Celia to assume that he agreed with her, “And what do we do if she defects?”

“She won’t. You are stronger than she knows. You won’t let that happen, will you, Orion? You desire it. Freedom. Think of all the things you could do without fear. Without restricting yourself. No holding back. Lucky is holding you back. She’s afraid of you. Afraid of your power. She’s weak without you, Orion.”

“Of course I’m stronger than she is,” And there was no hesitation from Orion now.

Celia moved slowly to stand shoulder to shoulder with Orion, placing one hand on his shoulder and rising to her toes to whisper into his ear, “You are. And Lucky knows you are my favorite. She is growing jealous.”

Orion remained still beneath Celia’s gentle touch. She registered his breathing as calm, calculating. He was folding into her hands like paper.