Kevin ran until mid afternoon when finally he saw the city come into view. He decided he wasn’t going to mess around, no risks here on out. Kevin tapped his armor ring and put his armor on. He tapped his shield ring and put it on his back. He pulled out a white flag, in at least a half attempt to look non threatening.

Kevin was still a couple miles out from Katie’s cluster when he saw a small group of people approaching him from the city. Kevin was hoping they were just another group planning to go down the bridge, but he felt like it was possible that this was not a group of travelers but closer to a welcoming party.

Kevin didn’t slow as he approached the group, only two ships between him and them. The group stopped on a oil tanker type vessel with a pretty flat deck that would definitely favor a larger group. Kevin wasn’t worried about their guns, he was more confident in his armors ability to stop bullets now that it actually had. He pulled of his kite shield and got it in ready position, but left the white flag in his hand. He took a low-tier healing pill just in case things turned into a fight.

Finally, Kevin used his Cloud Step shoes to transition onto the oil tanker. He slowed and started walking. Kevin felt as though he shouldn’t take the lead in this conversation. The group was smaller, only 5 people, but Kevin could tell they were stronger than the group he had seen. Much stronger. Kevin couldn’t be sure, but he thought two of them might be almost as strong as he was physically, on top of whatever abilities they had.

Kevin waved the white flag all up until he was within speaking distance of the small group arrayed out in front of him. The group, now that Kevin was close enough to see, consisted of two women and three men. They were dressed pretty casually compared to the militia looking folks he had passed on the bridge. One was in chinos and sneakers with a hoodie. He was definitely as strong as Kevin, without a doubt. He was Caucasian wearing sunglasses under long dark brown hair pulled back into a loose ponytail.

One was a woman, perhaps thirty. She wore athleticwear with a crop hoodie. She looked like she just walked out of an LA fitness, a drop dead gorgeous blonde. Oddly enough, she had a sword in a sheath on her back, otherwise she could have been on the cover of any magazine on women’s health.

Two others looked like brothers, twins even. Kevin wondered if they had the Doppelgãnger ability or if they just got exceedingly lucky and got transported to the same cluster. They wore idenitcal jeans with a long sleeve t-shirt. The only real difference between them that Kevin could tell at a glance was that each had a different preference of weapon. One held a spear with a handgun on his waist. The other had a couple of daggers on his waist, and an assault rifle he held.

The last was an older woman. She was at least as old as Kevin’s mother, but her presence was undeniable. She was like a hardcore grandma who wouldn’t sweat beating the manners into you if that's what it took. Immediately, Kevin could tell she was strong, not as strong as the ponytail guy, or the fitness woman, but strong. The others seemed to defer to her so she was probably in charge, of at least this group.

“Hello stranger.” The old woman started.

“Hello madam.” Kevin responded, not lowering his shield or the white flag.

“You lost?” ponytail said.

“No sir.” Kevin said, looking at the ponytail guy before returning his eyes to the woman.

“Peace Charles.” The woman said, though she didn’t rebuke him until after Kevin had responsed. “What are you doing here son?” The woman continued.

“I’m looking for someone.” Kevin responded. Getting a little irritated that he had to answer this question again, as if these people owned the whole fuckin city.

“Who?” ponytail, Charles, said.

Kevin’s patience broke. “Do you know the names of every single person in the cluster behind you, and where they are?” Kevin said, heat entering his voice.

Ponytail didn’t answer.

“Ah No?” Kevin continued. “It would be possible, powers are real after all. Well, I do know who and I know where. Behind you. I don’t want a fight, I don’t want to get involved, I don’t care about your politics or your factions or whatever bullshit you have going on. I just want to get my person, and if time allows, Leave. That’s it, that’s the total of my dealings with your whole cluster. You want some sort of tax or toll - neat tell me how much or what you want so I can be on my way.”

“There’s no toll boy.” The grandma said, by the sound of it she had lost some of her patience too.

“Wait,” One twin said.

“How many points do you have?” Said the other.

Kevin spared them a glance but no more than that before looking at the grandma again. “Well?” Kevin asked.

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“Take off your armor, boy.” The grandma said.

“No.” Kevin said.

“Take it off Captain America.” Ponytail said.

“How is that an insult?” Kevin said. “And no.”

“We aren’t going to hurt you.” One Twin said.

“Unless you try to hurt us first.” The other said.

Kevin spared them another glance. No one was really holding their weapons. No one was in a threatening position. Kevin tapped his ring and his armor disappeared. He was prepared to tap the armor ring again if need be. He kept his shield up, but tapped his ring to store the white flag.

The old woman looked Kevin over for a while. Her gray eyes had a slight glow to them, and Kevin realized she was probably using an ability on him. He poured a little extra shield energy into his defense, and used Ceaseless Mind to search his mind for any foreign influence. He found none. After a long time of examining Kevin the grandma spoke.

“Daughter or wife?” She said.

“What?” Kevin said, a little taken aback.

“Daughter or wife?” She said again. “You must have been traveling a very long time over a very very long distance to come here. You have the look of a father about you. The way you act makes me think girl.

Kevin watched the old woman for a little before he responded. “Daughter.” He said.

The old woman took a long slow breath. “You have a tracking ability.” She said, not asked, said. “Can you tell which direction she is from here?”

Kevin nodded and pointed towards the south east. The woman sighed again. “The direction was controlled by a strong first waver up until yesterday. The man who controlled it was strong, capable and fair. He was killed.”

“OK.’ Kevin said. “And?”

“The man who killed him is a necromancer, oh blast what does the shop call it, ah ‘Necrozark’ nonsense. Everyone knows what it is. Anyway. That man is not fair. He has been attempting to strong arm the various groups in his area for some sort of tribute.”

“OK.” Kevin said prompting.

“His tribute isn’t only points.”

Kevin got Angry. “Can I go now.” He said, in a whisper. Kevin felt something shift in his soul. It felt like focusing his intensions. The old woman flinched back when his eyes landed on hers.

“Y-Yes.” the woman said, her voice shaky. She took a breath and gathered her composure. “I would appreciate it if you would come see me once you have your daughter.” The woman said.

“Anything you can tell me that might be helpful?” Kevin said.

“Yes.” Said one twin.

“The Necrozark has a body guard.” The other said.

Ponytail guy picked up the explanation. The bodyguard is really good with a sword, really really good. Kill a morankai with a butterknife good, you hear me?” He said.

“I’m Kevin.” Kevin said. He nodded to each of the four people, and then bowed slightly to the grandma. “I’ll come talk to you when I have my girl.” He said.

“Kevin,” The woman said before he’d taken a single step. “You would have fought all of us if we had tried to stop you, wouldn’t you?”

Kevin, internally squweeing at the opportunity to be a little dramatic, tapped his armor ring, his control over the armor making it slide over his in waves starting at his feet. As it climbed his body, Kevin responded “I would have killed you all.” His helmet sliding over his face as soon as he finished the sentence.

Kevin, continuing to take the opportunity to be dramatic, activated Light Heavy and made himself, his armor and his shield as light as possible before leaping as far and fast as he could up and over the heads of the small group. In only a second he was nearly twenty yards away at the bow of the ship. Rather than switch to running, he caught himself and leapt again. After four leaps, he transitioned to cloud stepping and in only another minute, he reached his first skyscraper in the cluster.

There were two men standing as sentries to the ship bridge. They looked between him and the group that had met him. They stood aside and Kevin took his first step in the new cluster. He didn’t bother entering the skyscraper, he only started running with the Cloud Step shoes at an angle towards the ground. In most cases running on the ground was a bad idea, but Kevin would rather fight a few morankai than let this group of people successfully track him.

In moments he was on the street level. He ran quickly down the roads. He drew some attention, but as he considered it, he didn’t draw as much as he would have though. He didn’t see a single abnormal mornkai at all. Kevin wasn’t going to complain, it just meant he could keep moving. He didn’t care, he was faster than the normals were and kept bounding over them using Light Heavy, and the Cloud Step shoes to change direction midair.

In moments Kevin was many skyscrapers away from the ship bridge. He picked a balcony at random and ascended to it, throwing the outside doors open. He entered the skyscraper and lost the bulk of his mornakai tails.

From there he climbed the steps. He hadn’t had any abnormal tails, which was a little weird for how far he’d ran on ground floor, but again, no complaints here. The morankai were too stupid and generally had too short of an attention span to chase a target they couldn’t see for more than a little while so in moments Kevin was clear.

Kevin exited the shed on the roof of the skyscraper and used Soul Tracker to ping Katie. She was still southeast. Kevin used the combination of Light Heavy and a single cloud step to clear the distance from one skyscraper to the next. He hadn’t realized he was strong enough to do this yet. Some gaps between a taller and a shorter skyscraper allowed Kevin to just leap from one to the other. He came down hard and he’d probably be sore but he could do it.

This was the first time in a long time that Kevin really felt like he was superhuman. He was so close to Katie he could almost taste it. He felt the pressure on his soul lifting as he knew she was less than a mile away from him now. He’d have her safe with him in moments.

That’s when Kevin heard the screams.