Mark sat on the big log beside the fire pit in the open behind the Wuthers’ household.

Coming here had not been a mistake. But being inside of that house was… an ordeal. So Mark was out here right now. Most of the people had been outside for most of the evening, but it was getting late, now.

The fire was low, but it had been brightly burning when Mark had first arrived. It still kept the snow away, but the snow was winning the war against the fire, and when night finally set, Mark expected the ashes to be wet and buried under inches of ice. Right now, the snow just drifted lazily through the air, outside of the heat, as though it was scared to get closer.

Mark could relate.

The house, sitting over there, was filled with people, from Sally’s dad and mom and her two aunts on her father’s side, including a grandma and four other adults and about ten children that Mark did not know the names of at all. Cousins. A lot of cousins. 26 people in total. He barely knew the relations between them all, but he had seen the sleeping bags in the house, and the air mattresses, and he knew that most of those people in that house today were actually living there. A lot of people had evacuated from Orange City, and that included all of Sally’s family. They were still working out the kinks of living arrangements, but there were money problems and transfer problems and all sorts of problems.

Mark only really knew Mister Jim Wuthers and Missus Samantha Wuthers; Sally’s father and mother.

And he knew Sally.

Sally had changed.

Sally smiled as she thonked down onto the log beside him, grinning widely, smacking him lightly on the shoulder, saying, “Thanks for the knife, mister rich man.”

Mark smiled. “You can sell it if you need to, but I can’t imagine why you would. You’re a big time hunter now, just like me.”

“Bit bigger than you, I should say,” Sally said, with a wink.

Sally was 8 feet tall now, and she must have weighed 500 pounds, all muscle. That was her Giant’s Strength, for sure. Her golden hair was just as brilliant as ever, though she was wearing it in braids these days because that kept it out of the way. She looked like a bodybuilder who did super modeling on the side.

She was just as easy to get along with as she always had been.

The moment Mark had stepped onto the property two hours ago, he had been worried that Sally would have been a different person, because Mark was a different person. But so far, everything was normal, even though everything had changed in every possible way for both of them.

“Not too much bigger,” Mark said.

“More than enough,” Sally said, chuckling. And then her smile was a little strained. She lost her grin, and softly said, “Sorry about Aunt Penelope. She… she did not take the move well. I think she hates Addavein just as much as you do, but she can’t…”

Sally went quiet.

Ah, yes; Sally’s aunt who owned the house here.

Aunt Penelope had acted nice for the last hour when Mister Wuthers had been grilling, but when they started actually eating the dinner, she had started in on certain topics. Mark barely recalled what she had said, only that it had been pointed, in the way that people could be pointed sometimes, driving at a goal but not willing to come right out and say it, lest they disturb the peace too much. Disturbing the peace was a big time problem in a house of 20-ish people. Everyone wanted peace.

Sally had whisper-shouted at Penelope twice when she had thought Mark was out of range of hearing, trying to get her to let problems go, but Mark was not out of range anywhere on this property, at all. He might not have heard the specific words, but his Unionsense told him of the undercurrent of anger within every single person here. He could guess at what Penelope had said.

Practically all of Sally’s family was talking about him behind his back, when he wasn’t there.

They had all hid their anger behind kinder eyes and a history of always having Mark over for family get-togethers, since Mark was Sally’s best friend. They all pretended everything was the same.

The only one who wasn’t angry at all was Sally.

Mark said, “I understand Penelope’s complaints, Sally. I really do. Stuff happened.” He sighed and sat back on the log, saying, “You know? In some way it feels more natural to have people be mad at me. Everyone walks lightly around me if they know me, or else they don’t know me at all and they think I’m a hero. It’s fucking weird, Sally. Anger seems more normal. I’m still angry about all of it, too.”

Sally said nothing. She looked away, her vector pointing in every direction and also toward Mark as she thought. Eventually, she decided something. She breathed in, and then she looked at him, and said, “Even so, I’m sorry about my family.”

“… Thanks.”

Sally slumped a little, but she was still an 8 foot tall amazon of a woman. She was still a lot bigger than Mark, even when slumped. She looked at him, and said, “I’m not mad at you. A lot of other people are but… They’re not. Not really... I talked to a paladin friend of mine about how I felt about you, and Orange City, and… and everything that happened…” She went quiet again.

She didn’t want to talk about it, and Mark didn’t really want to talk about it, either.

… And so, Mark changed the subject, saying. “So you’re an acolyte of Drakarok, the God of War and Murder, huh! We haven’t really talked about that yet.” Mark put on a smile, not sure why.

Sally huffed a laugh, saying, “I haven’t killed anyone yet, asshole.”

Mark felt singled out, but he was pretty sure Sally hadn’t meant to do that.

The embers of the fire crackled in the pit, warmth radiating out, keeping away the snow flurries in the air. It wasn’t too cold outside. Not yet, and not with both Mark having a Body at 59 and Sally probably at 90 already, with Giant Strength. Maybe a 50 in her Natural category, too, that Power, gifted and grafted onto her from her God.

“I have,” Mark said, not sure why he said it. “Killed someone. On purpose, too.”

Sally was still, and then she nodded. “Who was it, and why’d you do it?”

Those words seemed deeper than their meaning.

Mark looked at the embers. “It was a Mind Controller. A cultist of Thrashtalon, back when I first got into Memphi months ago.” Mark had never told Sally this, not yet, because he had wanted to tell her in person. “It was after I met the High Priestess of Drakarok, Red Wolf, at Wolf Bayou. The Mind Controller came after me because of money, the first time, and then the second time she came after me because all of her family had died in the last week, after I left them wounded but alive. One by one, her kids died, and then she turned to Thrashtalon all the way.”

Sally stared at the embers of the fire. She said, “My girlfriend was killed two months ago. Her name was Anara.”

Mark tensed. He had no idea how the two things said were connected, but he didn’t need to know. He instantly said, “Oh my gods, Sally. Oh fuck. I didn’t even know you were dating… I’m so sorry, Sally.”

Sally smiled, wiped away a tear, and then she said, “I only knew her for 5 months, but she was there for me when Addavein destroyed Glade Grove. We talked about everything, Mark. She was a survivor of a failed settlement, who had to evacuate when the powerhouses in the settlement moved on and the second string couldn’t hold against a kaiju. Everyone thought the settlement was safe, but… Her home was destroyed when she was 9 years old. She was 19 when I met her, and she had been a freelance hunter for a year.” She looked at Mark, and said, “She was amazing, and I wanted to introduce you two to each other, but it didn’t happen.”

Mark had no trouble saying, “I would have liked to have met her.”

Sally grinned a little. And then she said, “Invite me to the settlement project, Mark.”

Mark practically startled. “Yes! Yes. I want you to come to that… obviously. I just didn’t… get to it yet.”

… Didn’t she have a team? She did. But her girlfriend was on her team, then?

What had happened?

Mark didn’t know. He had thought that Sally was just here for a break and then going back and he would have needed to work hard to convince her to switch teams. He was prepared to accept Sally’s teammates onto his team, too. He had been prepared for a lot!

Mark didn’t ask about any of those things, though.

“I’m sorry about your girlfriend. I think you told me about Anara once… She was a scout, right?”

“A very good scout.” Sally smiled and said, “No more tragedies. For either of us.”

Mark seriously said, “I want that, too, but there have been so many close calls on every battlefield I have ever been on. Fuck! Sometimes it’s everything I can do to make sure no one dies.”

Sally grinned. “But you have saved people.”

“… I have.” Mark felt warm to see Sally grinning at him like that. “A lot of people, actually.”

“Who did you save recently?”

Mark knew she was humoring him, but he had no trouble getting right into it, saying, “Just the other day there was a chimeric cow/snake monster that rewrote every other monster into a copy of itself every time its snake-headed tail bit something else. It was probably some Thrashtalon thing, though we don’t really know the cause, but it’s too close to goblin magics to be anything else besides Thrashtalon, right? Or at least that’s my thinking. Anyway. There were these fucking idiots out there on the field —looked like a Tinker in power armor and someone with some mud magic— and they were trying to take samples of the still-living monsters and the severed snake heads! Normally, this is perfectly fine. Let people do whatever they want, you know. But the mud girl got bit twice and I had to cleanse the infection away twice. I eventually yelled at them to get them off of the field.” Mark said, “They got mad and I pulled temporary rank on them, knocked them out, and sent them to the back lines. I did not want to knock them out like that, but they left me no choice. They were gonna go back out there into the field.”

“Monster cows, huh! Those are good eating!”

Mark rolled his eyes. “That’s what you want to focus on? Sure. Well, yes, of course cows are good eating, but these ones were transformative.”

Sally smiled. “I bet it turns out someone tried to make a cow that could automatically make more of itself, without the need for anything like breeding and growing times and needing to feed the growing cows.”

Like sunshine breaking through the clouds, Mark felt illuminated. That’s what the whole deal with the cows was, wasn’t it? Mark had no way of knowing it for sure, but it felt right…

Wait.

Maybe that tinkerer and mud girl… No. Nope. They were just opportunists who probably saw exactly what Sally had just now seen, which Mark had missed completely. As for the reason for the cows themselves...

Mark frowned. “Nope. Those cows were a Thrashtalon plot, I am sure of it. The team captains on site agreed to burn all of the bodies and make sure no samples were taken… but I am sure someone took samples.” Mark hummed.

“Daihoon is full of shit you would not believe,” Sally said. “Cows that make more of themselves? That is absolutely something that someone would try to create.”

Mark agreed, saying, “Well yeah. Now that you say it, I could see it… But.” Mark frowned a little. “That’s crazy?”

“Dragons eat a lot, and a lot of people over there like dragons, so maybe someone was trying to make dragon food.” Sally said, “I heard that there were going to be dragons at the new settlement.”

Mark scoffed. “Daihoon threw out the dragons. We’re not letting the dragons into the new settlement, either…” He frowned. “But they are dragons, so… I don’t know. They do what they want, most of the time, and humanity just works around them. The people at the settlement are making plans to compensate for Addavein, but I am not being instructed on those compensations, and on purpose. They don’t want the dragon to get anything out of me. Someone is making decisions about that far above me.”

“Ha! Far above you.” Sally snorted.

“What!” Mark exclaimed, barely able to suppress a grin.

“I know you, Mark Careed,” Sally said, teasing, “You want all the power you can get, and you’re gonna get there. I am too, though!” She flexed an arm, showing off her big muscles even underneath her winter coat. “Look at this shit! I’m a times-15 multiplier right now! Grrr! I’m gonna be a powerhouse!”

Mark laughed.

“You better be ready to climb that ladder, too, or else I’m gonna be your boss, Mark,” Sally said, grinning.

“You’ll be a good boss, so that’s fine by me. And if you do it wrong I’ll form a Union.”

Sally laughed. “You’re in the Slayers, yeah? I heard they were ruffians, barely better than adventurers.”

“Rude! The Slayers are fantastic! I’m a few steps away from Green and then come the ranks from 1 to 10. That’s the real slog. Higher ranks mean more and better work, though. I’m probably gonna go out against goblins and their kind eventually. You know, killing monsters hundreds at a time.”

Sally snorted.

Mark teased, “What are you gonna do? Brawny all over all the monsters?”

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Sally’s eyes lit up. She smiled magnificently as she said, “I have these gigantic fucking swords, and I do brawny all over all the monsters. It works very well!” She stood up and held out her hands, like she was holding onto an imaginary sword hilt. Mark could practically see it, too, there in the flickers of fire and snow and imagination. Sally’s eyes sparkled, as she said, “Kaiju blades, Mark.”

She swept her arms around, and Mark felt her vector flash into the ground underfoot, and her steps were absolutely solid upon the snow itself, and the dirt and stone underneath that. Sally had perfect Tactile Telekinesis, and she used it to support herself on ground as solid as stone as she mimed swinging a sword through the air. Mark felt the wind flurry around him as Sally swept around herself, the wind curling at an unseen touch. Sally looked to Mark, grinned, and then tapped her feet, launching herself into the air like a dainty ballerina, but she was really a 500 pound muscle woman. She spun in the air, twice and fast, and came down ten meters away, on the far side of the embers of the bonfire. She didn’t make a single sound as she landed. The ground swallowed her stance and Sally stood tall.

Mark clapped. “Wooo!”

Sally burst out laughing.

Mark said, “I’ll get you a real kaiju blade with adamantium, Sally.”

Sally’s eyes went wide. She instantly said, “I don’t want you to be indebted to That Dragon for any reason at all, Mark. No. Even the small knife is too much.”

Mark added, “And I’ll get you a bigger knife. I underestimated how much bigger you were and you need a bigger knife.”

Sally startled. She was about to say something—

But Misses Wuthers, Sally’s mom, came out of the back door of the house, bundled up tight against the cold, saying, “Sally! Do NOT jump around like that! Holy hell, girl! I know you’re past Curtain Protocol but we’ve got three cousins that are not! And the neighbors!”

Sally was easily 3 times the size of her mother, but she looked small in that moment as she said, “Sorry, Mom.”

Mark smiled a little—

And then Missus Wuthers rounded on him, saying, “And you! Penelope wants to apologize, if you want her apology. You’re always welcome in the Wuthers house, Mark! Always. Now come back inside! Both of you! It’s freaking cold out here.” She turned and began to mumble, “I cannot believe Penelope said those things…” She continued to mumble a little, which is something Missus Wuthers always did, saying something about how she knew that Mark and Sally were going to get into a Power measuring contest the second the two of them were out alone together.

She had probably been watching as Mark and Sally had gone outside to talk ‘in private’. She was in charge of ‘Guarding the Curtain’, as it were.

Mark grinned a little, feeling warm despite the cold. “We’ll save the Power measuring for later.”

“And I’ll win!” Sally said, happily.

“As if!”

Sally walked toward the house with Mark, saying, “A barely-Yellow Slayer up against a full fledged fifth rank Belter! Hardly a contest.”

Mark scoffed again, saying, “I’m High Yellow! And what the fuck is a ‘belter’ anyway? Sounds like a knock-off Slayer to me…”

They went back inside the house together, though Sally had to duck a lot and they had to couch their language around the kids, but Mark felt good, being here with Sally and her family, and seeing that all of the Wuthers family had survived. Aunt Penelope even gave Mark an apology, though he thought it was unnecessary, and he said as much. Everyone in the house was still mad at him, though. They did an excellent job of hiding it, and Mark did an excellent job of ignoring it, just how they all did a good job of ignoring that there were 26 people in the house right now. This wasn’t just a family get together.

All these people living here was a complicated situation, and Mark was an outsider, so maybe most of the anger wasn’t actually directed at him?

… Or maybe that was wishful thinking. Maybe it was a 50/50 split.

Mark bid his farewells soon enough, and then he walked outside, into the dark, with Sally at his side. Streetlamps shone onto drifting snow, like yellow glows onto cracked pavement and white glitter. Snow crunched underfoot. The tram station was up ahead, glowing in the dark, also off-yellow. The lights and the infrastructure around this part of Memphi was simpler than back in Shady Acres… Or maybe ‘less rich’, would be a better way of putting it.

It would have been a cold night if Mark was alone, but thankfully he wasn’t.

Sally was acting weird, though... which was pretty normal, considering everything. Everything was weird. It was what it was.

“I’m glad you came, Mark,” Sally said, though she wanted to say a lot more than that.

Mark stopped walking. He had some things to say, too, and some last minute additions to Sally’s Christmas present.

Sally paused, to stand with him.

Mark said, “Hold out your hand.”

Sally arched an eyebrow, and then she smirked and held out a hand.

“I want you to move in with us at Shady Acres, Sally, and I want you to take this and buy a bigger house for your family. Maybe two houses.” Mark partitioned off a good cubic centimeter of adamantium, which was about 22 grams of the stuff, and he put it into Sally’s hand. “That’s about 800,000 goldleaf, but it used to be about a million. That much made Mom and Dad First Citizens of Orange City, when they handed it over to the city. Memphi doesn’t have the same system because they’re tier 4 and everyone has basic necessities… But this is still a lot of money, and you need it, and I want you to have it.”

Sally tensed, but only for a moment. She breathed, staring at the black cube in her hand. It was so small. And then put it into her pocket. Mark breathed out when he saw that. He wasn’t sure when he had stopped breathing, or when he had tensed so much he couldn’t do anything but stand there, but he started breathing again, and Sally looked… resolute.

Sally first asked, “Can you afford this?”

“I can.”

Sally nodded. “Good, because the family needs money and they weren’t willing to take it from me, but I will force them to take this, if only to get rid of it so they don’t have it sitting in their house.”

Mark smiled a little at that.

Sally asked, “I don’t want money from you though, Mark. Weaponry, I will gladly take, because there is no way in hell I could ever afford the good shit, but money I am gonna make on my own. We’re gonna be on a team, too, right?”

She wanted to team up with him, too? Amazing!

Mark rapidly agreed, “Yes! No gifts of money. Weapons are good. And yes. A team. Right now it’s just sitting at home and waiting for calls to come in… I don’t know how it is for your Belter group but it’s complicated with the Slayers. There’s a whole tier system of who gets called in for what… Can you join the Slayers, too?”

Sally said, “I’m gonna switch to the Slayers, then.” She asked, “Everyone else in your group okay with this?”

“Yeah. They are. I asked Eliot to put an addition onto the house and he did! I was hoping you’d get to use it and you will! There’s… there’s a lot more to know—” Mark wanted to talk about more stuff, but there was too much and another big question suddenly appeared. Or rather, reappeared. “You already have a group, though?”

Sally smiled softly. “I did have a group. It was a good group. Arana died, though, and we didn’t have a proper healer anyway. Terek and Shane decided they had seen enough mangled bodies for a lifetime, too, so they cut and run. I’m a free agent right now.”

Mark felt a hollowness. “I didn’t know that.” And Sally had never told him. Holy shit, how much had she not told him? It always took her a long time to answer emails and messages… Mark didn’t want to think about that right now. Mark said, “I’m sorry, Sally. I’m really glad to have you, though.”

Sally grinned. “Thanks, Mark.”

Mark smiled and then he wanted to hug Sally, but she was so much taller than him, so Mark stepped into the air, lifting off of the ground, and Sally’s eyes went wide before she realized that a hug was happening. She laughed and hugged Mark strongly, and both of them heard Mark’s back crack, but when Mark just laughed, Sally chuckled and held looser.

For a moment, Mark recalled other hugs, after sparring matches, after birthdays, and just because, but back then both of them were only just over five and a half feet tall—

“You’re so fucking short, man!” Sally said, laughing, as she let go.

“I’m over six and a half godsdammed feet tall!” Mark said, chuckling as he set back down on the ground.

Sally patted him on the head, saying, “Short king!”

Mark tried to slap her hand away, but it was like slapping at an iron girder. Ducking to get away, Mark said an old retort that both of them had used against taller people at one time or another, “Short people make harder targets!”

Sally smirked. And then she stood tall in the dark, in the gentle glows of the streetlamps and the dust of snow that fluttered through the air. With a strong voice, she declared, “Do not worry, little man! I will protect you. Let the enemy arrows and spears fall upon me instead, so that I may return them tenfold to all the evils of the wilds!”

Mark stood in shock, and then he smiled, felt fantastic, and said, “Oh my gods, Sally.”

Sally relaxed, grinning wide.

“You know I’m in the Villain Program though. So you’ve got to be more villainous in your speeches.”

“… Oh shit. You are! Oh. Uh. I’ll have to figure that out, then—” Sally interrupted herself, saying, “Give me your best villain lines.”

“I don’t have any,” Mark sort-of lied.

Sally laughed. “None?! No no no. You have one. At least one! It’s probably embarrassing. It has to be. You’re a fucking villain and those guys are corny as Idahoian kaiju shit.” She made a come-on gesture with both hands, flapping her fingers, saying, “Give it to me.”

“… Okay.”

Mark tried to think—

Okay.

Sure.

He could do… that.

Mark squared his shoulders, hovered a foot in the air and spread his arms to the sides, black veins coursing outside of his skin, into the world, into the twilight. He pulsed his Union with light, drawing in brightness and giving out gloom instead. He knew his eyes glowed white and that freaked out Sally a bit, because she stepped back, her own eyes going wide. Mark’s gloom enveloped both of them and also the nearest ten meters of empty sidewalk. Snow dust sparkled like stars in the air.

Mark intoned, “Mercy shall only be granted to the obedient. Beg and live. Fight and die.”

Silence.

“… Holy fucking shit, Mark.”

Mark settled down, wincing. “Err… too much?”

“That was terrifying and you’re gonna be a great villain.”

“The overbearing tyrant wasn’t too much? It’s just one of the options!”

“I like it… I wouldn’t want to meet you on a battlefield, which is the point, but it’s… good— Why that one? What are the other options? Oh my gods I need to know the other options, Mark. Give me another…” Sally pulled back a moment, adding, “Actually… I’ll come over tomorrow?”

“Yes!” Mark took out his phone, asking, “Quark? Send her…” He paused. He had a moment, and then he looked at Sally and said, “There was some stuff I wanted to talk to you about before we teamed and lived together, but... It’s really, really important. I’ll send you a packet, okay? Don’t let others read it, okay? It’s definitely Curtain Protocol breaking.”

Sally was all aboard until she heard that last part. She shook her head. “Nope. Tell me tomorrow. Give me directions to your house, though. You’re like… what? An hour away by tram?”

Mark nodded and then he told Quark, “Send her instructions to reach the house, Quark.” Quark flashed silver on the phone, and then Mark put the phone away as he heard Sally’s phone vibrate in her pocket.

Sally touched her pocket, saying, “Handy AI you got there.”

“Quark is good. Always dies in battle, though. I’m working on fixing that.” Mark continued, “You have to go through a few transfers to get to the fast line to Shady Acres. You might think you can avoid the main hub by taking a side route, and you could, but it’s usually a whole hour slower, so just go through the main hub by Central Memphi and brave the crowds.”

“Will do,” Sally said, with a grin. And then her countenance turned still, her eyes turned watery, and she bent down and hugged Mark again, sobbing once, saying, “I really missed you, Mark. Oh gods, I have so much I want to tell you.”

Mark held on to Sally and he felt his own tears come. “I missed— I missed you, too.” The hug lasted for a little while, and Mark felt wonderful in that moment. He could tell Sally was happy, too. Mark told her quietly, “We’re gonna be killing so many monsters.”

Sally laughed and broke the hug, stepping up to look down on Mark again, sniffing as she wiped away a tear. She chuckled a little. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow! I’ll have a room all ready for you! It’s big! Eliot made it for big people. You got a massive shower space, too.”

Sally smiled.

Mark continued, “You’re gonna love ‘em, Sally. And I know they’re going to love you, too.”

Sally chuckled. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow!”

Mark took a moment, standing there. It was awkward for reasons that Mark couldn’t understand. For whatever reason, or perhaps because it was just what needed to happen next, Mark turned and walked away, waving as he headed toward the tram station.

Sally waved back, watching him go.

Not ten steps later Mark felt Sally’s vector point away from him, and in every other direction. She was thinking about a lot as she walked back home, in the soft snow.

Mark got on the tram and took the route all the way back to Central, then over to Shady Acres. It was crowded and a few people recognized him, their vectors turning absolutely focused on him, but they didn’t approach. They just whispered to their friends, or to their parents, or to their other traveling partners about ‘Is that guy over there who I think he is?’. A few people had wealth detectors, and those guys pinged hard on Mark, but those guys all looked at their watches, or phones, or ring devices, and either decided the thing was fritzing, or that Mark was too much for them.

Almost all of those wealth-detecting people got up and moved to a different tram after they realized their detectors were not on the fritz.

Mark made it home, safe and sound, to an empty house. Isoko and Eliot would be back tomorrow. Mark sent them a bunch of messages about how the reunion with Sally had gone, and then wished them a good time with their families. He hoped that they liked Sally, because she was going to show up tomorrow. Neither of them answered. They were both doing things, for sure, their little icons on Accord all dimmed. But they would answer quickly, once they got around to it.

Unlike Sally who took weeks to answer.

… Mark tried not to think about that too much, though.