Jeanie and I soared through the sky as we progressed to the structure I had found. Shockingly, it only took an hour of searching to discover it. Maybe after this massive hit of bad luck, things will go smoother from here on out.

When dealing with a resident of the mist, spending an hour in one spot could be a dangerous choice. A few of them were likely in the process of growing wings in an attempt to chase their prey, but there is plenty of distance between us now. Unfortunately, their immortality and adaptability made them something the entire human race could only run from.

"There it is." A giant light wall rose far into the sky shortly ahead of us. It was so massive that we couldn't take in the whole structure from our position. I had tried sending an eye to the side and top, and there was just another wall of light going in a different direction. It was hard to tell from staring at the blinding light, but it looked like some massive box or rectangle.

The first thought that came to my mind was that this had to be a military base within the mist. I had not known of any, but there was no telling how long I was in that stasis pod. The man who made it explained the tech as having a time-warping effect to ensure my body would be in the same condition as when I went in.

"Do you think it's Kim?" My guess was a little far-fetched. Kim had never created something of this scale before. She was a superhuman techie that worked for the military and specialized in designing and building light manipulation gear. It was a simple addition, but she was the one to create and install the lighting system throughout our ship.

"The color is off. The light created by Kim's inventions always had more of a yellow tint to it, while this is bone white." Her observation had me inspecting the light wall again. I honestly could not tell the difference. I even bothered to take the time and open my original eyes to check, still could not see anything through the mist, even with the light.

"For now, let's try getting inside." A simple nod was my response, so I focused on the wall.

One of my extra arms pulled away from me as I directed it to this barrier. I kept my sense of touch dialed down and let the hand make contact. No heat or anything radiated off the surface, and with no significant visual issues to suggest otherwise, it appeared harmless.

"I’m not noticing anything unusual just from touching it. It could be a forcefield, but this is beyond anything I've seen before." I peered at the featureless blue woman in hopes that she would share her opinion.

"I'm going to try going through it. We need to know what's on the other side." She didn't wait for me to pull my bodiless arm away and passed straight through the wall. Her ethereal form did not face any resistance.

While waiting, I continued to study my surroundings. Oddly, there weren't any of the mist people close by. I summoned an extra ear from a team member who had super senses. It failed to pick anything up. The lack of those monsters in the area was starting to bother me. This place was too noticeable to have stayed hidden.

I wanted to get a look at the inside myself. Sadly my mimicked eye of Jeanie's could only partially use her power. I could not control a spectral copy, just a fleshy one. Soon enough, Jeanie returned.

"It's a city, a large one." She proclaimed.

For the life of me, I could not figure out why a city in the middle of the mist would have these light walls around it, which must have been military-grade tech. "Do you think they tried to fortify it before being overrun by the mist?" The fact that they left this tech here still running made me think it was a hasty evacuation.

She shook her head before replying. "The mist hasn't made it inside, and the city has people, Morgan. They're living in there. From what I can tell, they're living their lives like normal."

It was hard to believe what she said. Even if they sealed themselves inside like this to prevent the mist from getting in, what were they doing about food and water?

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Another possibility came to mind as I pondered why the government would protect this specific city when the policy had always been to evacuate. When superhumans first showed up, many turned to crime. Could this be a city taken over by a superhuman? If you could build a base safe from the monsters, the mist made a perfect place to hide from the government. And, based on the tech, it must be an inventor-type superhuman. Perhaps an ex-military asset.

The following words she spoke, I fully agreed with. "You should see it. With your own eyes."

"I don't have any stealth powers. I'll stick out to whoever runs this place." My concerns were warranted. Being in the mist was dangerous, but running into a potential superhuman's base could be just as deadly.

"This place is running like a normal city, and it's huge. When you get inside, disappearing into a crowd will be easy." Her confidence was a good sign. After all, she had experience hiding from the law.

"Did you happen to notice any way in?" I had no luck with my observations on the outside, so I could only hope she did.

"There's a tower on this corner here. It appears to be part of the shield generator while simultaneously acting as a gateway between the city and the mist." She pointed toward the closest edge of this cube. I failed to see anything from this side but trusted her observation skills.

It took a surprising amount of time to reach, but when we arrived, I found nothing to indicate frequent traffic. There was no road or even path in the dirt. If this was a gateway, then it did not see much use.

"Let me scout the tower and look for a way to open it." I almost reached out to grab her arm on instinct but stopped after remembering it would pass through. She urgently needed to hear something before leaving.

"If it looks dangerous for the people inside, give up. We don't want to let the mist in." Luckily, my words were enough to halt her advance. I needed to make it clear that the lives of any civilians came first.

Jeanie stayed frozen for a few moments until turning back to look at me. "You can't stay out here forever. Those things saw you back by the ship. They will be coming."

I understood her worry for me. The creatures that lived in the fog could be slow starters if you just avoided them, but they never gave up. They could evolve in various directions and were guaranteed to find a method of catching up. These things would pursue me to the ends of the mist.

Attacking them would only speed the process up since they evolved much quicker under pressure. I needed shelter from the mist to shake them off my trail. Those things can find you anywhere you hide as long as you are within their domain.

"We will not take the chance of releasing the mist on an unsuspecting civilian population." My words had to be very clear. I knew Jeanie was more than willing to sacrifice innocent lives for my survival. It had happened before.

Jeanie was a survivor of a city overrun by the fog, which left her homeless. The tragedy happened a few years before I put my team together, so her escape from the mist was entirely without help. The government was still trying to figure out what was causing everything and refused to send more troops in to die. They had failed to be of any help during attacks on previous cities, so they stopped trying.

The experience left Jeanie with new superhuman abilities and a powerful hatred for the government. She did many terrible things before I recruited her. We met when I got sent to arrest her, and instead, she ended up saving my life.

"Fine." Her agreement eased my worries. Now I had to hope she kept to it.

I watched her vanish into the wall and again settled in to wait. My bored gaze led to me noticing something new this time. The ground in this area had several spots that were more concaved than what seemed natural. They looked like points of impact that started in the distance and ended here. The edges had smoothed out considerably, so this was old. My investigation ended when Jeanie returned.

"They have a type of airlock system to keep the mist out when the door opens. There's one for ground exits right here and one higher up for an aircraft." She reported to me.

"Good, then I can get in safely. Let's use the ground one." Sighing, I felt relieved. Getting out of the mist would help settle my nerves then we could begin figuring out what happened. Who even were these people? "Anything I need to know about what I'm walking into?"

She nodded. "Judging from the look, the place was made by a superhuman with an inventor power, so a lot of surveillance. I can keep the alarms off with the cameras looped when the door opens, but two guards will see you after entering."

"I'll handle the guards. What kind of weapons?" Lilly was the most useful on our team at restraining targets, so her power would be best. A quick thought and slender feminine arms materialized next to me.

"Some type of light power armor and rifles." The power armor was a surprise, so I created a set of my superhuman limbs just in case.

"There's also a time delay between the first and second door. A minute is needed to dissipate the mist that gets in. So don't make too much noise until the second door opens."

I nodded. "Got it."

Jeanie positioned me in front of where the door would be. It looked like any other part of the wall.

In preparation, I made several sets of hands to form a makeshift mask for myself. Jeanie gave my handiwork a look before getting to business. Not even a minute later, a chunk of the wall vanished.