“I mean, way to play into the trope of strong and stupid, Rocky! Like seriously, why?! That thing looked like a pufferfish; you could have been a little more cautious with the monster covered in spikes!”

As Clover shouted, Bob started to slip from my back, so while adjusting him, I responded, “Well I’m glad you’re ok Clovey, I really didn’t expect you guys to stick around this long.”

Hunter glanced back, choking on some harsh words, prematurely changing his tone, “With two Units there was no way we were getting out of that building without getting in any trouble. We’ve been wandering around for a while, acting as a lure for monsters, allowing workers and civilians to escape to the catastrophe centre.”

I thought about it for a second, “Doesn’t that sort of go against your mission of ‘keep the VIPU safe’?”

He glared for a moment, choosing his words carefully, “Don’t overestimate our importance. The last thing my company needs is more deaths, especially among agents. If our loses increased- especially against a single member of the mountain- then that would invite nothing but trouble.”

Clover scoffed, “You almost sound like you know what you’re talking about. In fact, you kinda reminded me of that old lady, Professor Chafe or whatever her name was, she sounded like a real-

Hunter raised his voice, “Watch your tongue, bitch,” and at the same time Bob shouted at Clover, “Oh come on Kid, she helped you out! And I wouldn’t be here without her.”

Clover ignored Hunter, instead questioning the cleaner.

“And who the hell are you really?!”

She’d asked the question before, but now she had a couple more to go alongside it.

“You know the Chief researcher in the Ints, your sister is investigating space-time manipulation, you have ties to the lead Ai expert, and you apparently ‘dated’ that teleporter, the most feared woman in the world- apart from me of course...”

She turned to nobody, “...Though I’m pretty scared of her myself...”

Bob pulled a cocky look across his stony face, “Haha... Haven’t you realised? I’m one of the most important members of this organisa-”

Hunter exploded, “SHUT YOUR FUCKIN’ MOUTH!”

Charlie, who had gotten a bit of a grip, flinched at her bodyguard.

Hunter continued, oblivious, “You’re just some guy who’s crashed in his thirties! A guy who couldn’t become an exterminator, so he became a cleaner. A guy completely over-shadowed by his younger sister and her connections. A guy who ‘dated’ a fickle monster. I’ve caught this disgusting excuse for a professional with his pants around his legs more times than I can count!”

Bob didn’t seem to dejected by the harsh words, he just smiled and said, “Alright Hunter, this isn’t really the time for all this, shouldn’t we be more focused at the task at hand?”

A vein bulged on the exterminator's neck; he was clearly annoyed that the blame for our attention being derailed was being placed on him.

“Right,” he hissed, “our two problems.”

“Firstly, there’s the issue of how we’re going to get out of here- how we’re going to get to Simmons airport. I can think of two routes- if we’re still going to go through with that plan.” Hunter finally focused on Charlie.

“‘Course we are”, said Clover, “Why would we want to stay in this monster infested city?!”

Bob still had that smile on his face as he weakly interjected, “Well, it’s only 4 or so monsters, city wide- not counting the Channeler-”

Hunter ignored his college, regaining his own, sadistic, smile, “What the hell makes you think I was asking you, Mountain pig? I’m thinking about my VIPU’s safety. The easiest and shortest road to take is to the shelter. I doubt they’ve been sealed to the public yet.”

I considered it for a second, “That’s a bad idea.”

He looked at me.

“Me, Clover, and Charlie are magnets for trouble. And I’m not talking about monsters, I’m talking about the real enemy, out east. We don’t know what his initial reason for coming here was, but he said he was going to come looking for whoever told you guys about him.”

I looked at Clover.

Hunter chuckled, “She asked who Agent Parker was, who the hell are you supposed to be? You don’t have a clue what’s going on over there. Why are you betting on the Channeler.”

I guess I hadn’t introduced myself, “Oh, I’m Shamrock,” I said, holding back a wide grin, “I’m just a small-time hero, but even I know that our original plan is the safest. It might not be the easiest to pull off, but if the worst comes to pass, if all the Units out there are taken out and Jack comes looking for us, the more distance between us, the better.”

It was hard for him to argue with that, it was pretty much true. Though, I guess he really wanted to argue, to resist me. In his eyes I was an enemy, and a powerful one at that.

“Fine,” He stopped walking down the decimated street, “then how are we going to get there, asshole?”

On our way to picking up the cocooned Bob, we had talked about our options, now we were going to go over it one more time.

“Walking there is off the table,” I nodded up, “While me and Bob were up high, I noticed a pretty large cloud of dust, and possibly debris being blown about. Not only is there a chance that can reach us, but Jack could always turn that meteor shower back on. Debris will slow us on foot-”

Clover interrupted, “Right, we get it, that’s off the table. Let’s take the other option off the table.”

I nodded, “I can’t carry everybody over the roof tops, even if I wanted to. Not because you’re too heavy, but because Charlie’s weightlessness makes it hard for me to aim jumps safely-”

I nodded back, “and Bob’s really hard to carry like this.”

Everybody was quiet, solemn; everyone but me and Charlie. She and I were still in disbelief.

It was like they weren’t even listening to my points anymore.

Hunter eyed me, Clover was the only one to speak up.

“That, Rocky, and the fact that we don’t know when that poison is going to take effect.”

I snickered, “Don’t worry about that, seriously.” I looked about, “I’m built different, remember? I’m stronger in every way.”

None of them were convinced.

Hunter talked to me, cutting the snide remarks and insults; he was being real with me, “Sure, I believe you. Usually, those afflicted would fall unconscious, the Sermilik’s venom targets the brain, auditory hallucinations and tiredness sets in within minutes of it entering the nervous system. You should be foaming from the mouth, but you aren’t. However, it’s in your body. And you took a lot of it in. It’s only a matter of time before it coagulates in your brain.”

Though they were taking this seriously, I wasn’t.

Never the less, I went along with them, “Alright, to summarise, we can’t go through the city, we can’t go over it, and we can’t go back- so-”

I clenched my unbound hand, “We’ll have to go under it.”

…

The under-city was designed with the same purpose as the buffer zone: to dissuade, confuse, and trap invaders. It showed in how the halls wound around corners only to come out in long dark halls. While it was meant to be maze-like, as the under-city people needed to be able to find specific points for plumbing, electricity, and gas, (or whatever this hyper advanced city uses for heating).

Understanding of the underground was limited to trade professionals and the internationals organisation, civilians living in the city would probably get lost if they ever decided to open a man hole cover and jump down.

Luckily, there was one International who knew what he was doing.

“Uhm, yeah, we take three more rights,” Bob pointed.

“If we take any more rights, we’re going to end up back at the start.” Clover wasn’t a fan.

“Don’t doubt him, bitch,” for some reason Hunter was, “This is a part of his job, he’s incompetent, but he’d have been fired if he didn’t pass the yearly mapping test.”

As I was the one carrying Bob, I noticed sweat start to build up.

I thought to myself, Yuki’s probably covered your ass on that too, hasn’t she?

Hunter continued talking to himself, “As an agent, he’s affectively worthless, but as a Cleaner, I doubt he’d have been kept on for so long if he was completely useless.”

Bob’s sweating only increased.

Charlie squealed; I looked back.

In the dark, Hunter had let her drift just a little too high up, dragging her against the dripping roof.

“Hey Hunter, how about you let me carry her for a while?” I had some experience.

He smirked, “And why would I let you do that, I’m her bod-”

“You’re shit at it. And I'm going to get dirty if I keep carrying this sticky thing.” I left it ambiguous whether I was talking about the cast or Bob.

Hunter was about to shout, but Clover chimed in, “That would make more sense, you and I carry the dirty, useless, waste-of-space, while the nigh-indestructible man carries the package.”

Ignoring the complete dehumanisation of the Parkers, we eventually switched over, as we did, I noticed Clover grinning against the phone torch light that Bob was holding.

I just wondered to myself what that was supposed to mean, as I hugged Charlie close to my body.

My usual method of transportation, slinging people over my shoulder or back, didn’t seem too effective with her, so I tried a more traditional method.

At first, she wasn’t holding on to me, but after a while she tightened her grip on my costume. She was definitely a lot warmer than Bob; she smelled better too. That got me to thinking about how I smelled.

Well, whatever I smelled like, whether it was gunpowder, Bob, or B.O, I hope it was drowned out by the sewage running nearby.

Thinking about my scent tangentially got me thinking about SP2... Not whether or not I should use it, I wasn’t going to, but I was just... It had been a long, long time since I'd even considered it. I used to have it on all the time, I used to pull it out whenever I got in a tight bind. Against the Pooka, on Valentines, and in Irminsul.

I was wondering if I could get us out of here without it.

After a feeling had built up and left my stomach, there was only an awkward awareness of the silence.

“So, how are you holding up?”

It took Charlie awhile to respond, “Oh, m-me? I’m... alright.”

I laughed quietly, trying to keep a conversation between the two of us. She didn’t seem like the type to be able to speak to a group this big, let alone one comprised of strangers.

“You really don’t have to pretend like this is ‘just another Tuesday’, this is a pretty screwed situation. I’m not gonna dress things up, this is a tricky situation.”

She didn’t reply, so I continued.

“But don’t worry, no matter what happens, no matter what monsters pop up, I'll be able to beat them. Nothing's going to take me down.”

She seemed like she had something to say now.

“T-thank- Thanks...”

There was just enough light for me to make out her face. I think this was the first time I'd seen her smile all day.

I laughed, “Come on, that’s a given! It’s my job to save everybody.”

“O-ok...”

Still, there was more that she wanted to say, “When this is over can we- can you- uh- can- can- we m-meet up? After this?”

I thought about it.

“Well, I live in Ireland, so... it’ll be pretty hard for me to get to California,” I smiled, “So just call, And I’ll be there the next day.”

Again, we returned to silence.

It stretched on for ages, longer than I can convey with a few paragraphs.

There were a couple times where it was broken by voices in the dark, Clover and Hunter arguing about how to carry Bob usually, though I could occasionally hear murmurings from above.

I doubt it was actually people, old pipes, even well-made ones, tend to make strange sounds.

“Sh-Shamrock.”

It was hushed, Charlie K’s voice, maybe I just heard it like that, but the tone she was speaking with sounded different from usual.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“T-the Channeler is from the Mountain, right? Doesn’t that mean he shares the same objectives as Clover?”

I kept marching forward, a few steps behind the others, “No, he’s a radical,” I mumbled.

She cut me off, surprisingly, “In the end, he wants the same thing, i-if through more radical means. One thing I'm sure they share the s-same stance on is t-time manipulation. From that video, he seemed like the type who figures himself as the ‘protector of this world’s natural order’.”

Did she watch the video with me? I glazed over that question and asked, “Are you afraid that Jack’ll come for your experimental tech?”

“W-what? W-w-wasn't he here f-for something about June...?”

Weren’t you the one suggesting that? I wasn’t as confused as I should have been

I told her, “Well, He’s aiming for the higher ups, so it isn’t much of a stretch that he’d get his hands on that information? I guess?”

“It would be safer if you took the time-ball,” whispered the voice.

“Time ball? Well, if you think it’ll help us at all.”

She raised her voice now, “H-how do you know a-about that?” She quieted herself off at the end.

I still don’t know how that voice in my head had known about what Charlie had in her bag.

“Don’t answer that. Be honest with her. If worst does come to pass, you won’t stand a chance against The Channeler, you’ll need all the power you can get, you’ll return it- once you defeat the bad guy. Then we can go home.”

“If worst does come to pass, I’m not going to be able to fight him off on my own. I’ll need your help. I wouldn’t dream of risking your life, but if he succeeds, he will come for you. So anything you can provide is helpful.”

I think sweat was beginning to build up on her now too, “W-what are you- aren't we going to fly out of here?”

“You are.”

Again, we fell silent.

And I was left to wonder where that voice was coming from.

“Stop,” came another voice.

And I stopped. If I was in a good condition, I would have worried whether or not that voice was really Bob’s.

“I don’t recognise any of this.”

The collective sigh told me it was.

“Seriously?! You really are useless!” Clover dropped her half, Bob’s top, letting him fall to the floor.

“Ah, my back!” he said with a groan.

Hunter was gripping to his half, bearing teeth, “I swear to God, Parker-”

“No no-no-no, wait-wait, let me explain, I’ve basically recognised everything up to here! Up to this split path- oh, wait, hold on a second, set me down.”

Hunter did as he was asked.

“Hmm...” Bob sighed. Then he groaned. And then finally he started to wriggle in the grime.

Hunter asked “What the hell are you-”

Bob freed a leg, and crawled to his feet.

“See! Now I’m not just dead weight!”

Hunter grabbed him, “Stop fucking with me! Where are we!”

Bob put on a serious face, “I know where we are. But these halls aren’t listed, this was constructed recently.”

“Recently,” Clover repeated.

“Sometime this week. It’d have been after the post-June check-up, or else we would have heard about it.”

Hunter eased off. He slinked back. “Understood.”

Clover walked in front of him, “No, not ‘understood’, what the fuck is that supposed to mean?!”

“At least one Powered prisoner has escaped custody. There was always a risk of something like this happening... what are the odds that it’d be him?”

Clover slapped her face, “Stop with the ‘that man’ talk, just say what we’re up against, you stupid fucking- sonuva-”

Before Clover could finish her curse, a whistle rang out through the tunnel.

We were all startled by it, I thought to myself, ‘speak of the devil’, but it wasn’t a coincidence that they had showed up just when we were talking about them.

They had been observing us.

“Hell-o!” Echoed down the new hall, the one that had apparently been constructed in the last hour or so, not that it looked any different to the rest.

All of us, or at least I, froze. Jumping straight forward really didn’t seem like the best idea, I was thinking about blasting through a wall, circling over to them, but I'd have to abandon the group. And that didn’t seem like a good idea, especially if they could reconstruct these tunnels.

“Seriously! What are the odds of us meeting like this? What’s it been two- four years? How old are you now?”

My first thoughts were that they were fucking with us.

Then Clover screamed, “No Fucken’ way!”

I crouched low at the sudden scream, ready to go against my better judgement and bull rush into the darkness.

But Clover did so first.

“I thought you were dead you shitty geezer!” Both the voice in the dark and Clover were laughing now, as the latter passed out of sight.

“Holy crap, you really have grown up! But from that foul mouth of yours, you haven’t matured much.”

“If we’d known you were still alive- Bastard could have worked something out-”

“Nah, it’s alright, it was in the Ints’ best interest that I be kept off the front lines, they wouldn’t have traded me over, at least not until the war ended. How’s the situation back up north anyway?”

“Oh, that’s gone to shit. Canada’s gone to shit, the werewolves' tribes have unified, the ints aren’t letting go of any territory past Quebec... It’s cooled down, but it’s a battle of attrition, to see who loses interest first.”

The two agents were confused, but me and Charlie had even less of an idea what was going on.

She whispered to me, “Werewolves?”

I nodded “Werewolves are real. That’s as much as I know.”

Hunter had his hand to his side, “Hey, would you and your Mountain friend like to come on over here? You know, where we can see you.”

The voice, definitely that of an older man, spoke up, “Why are you in here with the Ints anyway? You know, if you thought they blew me up, and all.”

Clover laughed, and we could hear them walking over, “Right, sorry- and that goes both ways. We’ve got a... common enemy,” I was sure that the pacing sound belonged to more than two people, “A guy named Jack Chandler, was one of ours but he’s sort of an extremist. And he’s not a big fan of me.”

“I gotcha.”

First I saw Clover. Then came a figure, his hair shaved, the top left quarter of his head covered with a white wrap, with an eye piece jammed into his face.

Behind him stood two other figures. On the Mountain man’s right was a mummy, or at least somebody completely wrapped in bandages, with only one eye ball, unblinking, peering through.

It spoke up in a raspy voice, “You’re going to trust them? Two are agents.”

“And you’re criminals,” Spoke up Bob, “I’ve heard of an assassin that fits your description.”

Behind both the wrapped man and Clover’s friend, stood a man taller than all of them. He didn’t say anything.

“We aren’t going to have a problem,” Hunter put a hand in front of Bob, “You two can go free. I’ll forget I saw anything, and so will you. We'll all go on our way.”

Something seemed out of character about that proposition.

The man from the Mountain stepped forward into the torch light, “There’s three of us here-”

Flash. Bang.

The man in the back was killed.

I didn’t even see Hunter raise the gun. There was just a flash of light and the prisoners fell silent.

My eyes dropped. I tried to free myself from Charlie’s grip so I could jump in, she was holding on to me tighter.

Whether or not that silence actually stretched for as long as I thought, or if it was just in my head... I don’t know.

Clover’s friend turned around and looked down.

“Eh, that seems fair, we got caught. But he was the one tunnelled us through this shit hole, so... We’re sorta screwed if we keep walking around down here. They’ll find us, or we’ll die of starvation.”

I looked over to Hunter, who was standing with his arms folded now, “Loot the surface. Civilians have evacuated, and all agents are engaged with the enemy to the east, or are defending the higher-ups. Take a change of clothes and head north. Stay away from the Channeler. Stay away from the Beast in the west. And do not follow us South. That’ll ruin both of our chances.”

The wrapped one spoke up, “Hah... That’s generous, isn’t it? Letting the war criminal return to the battle field? Letting the murderer roam free? Hah... It’s a wonder you passed the psychiatric evaluation.”

“This isn’t out of the goodness of my heart. With you getting out of here scott-free, there are zero chances of me facing repercussions for killing that man.”

“Ah, we’re your cover. They find him, but not the other two escaped convicts. In the wake of all this chaos they just assume that it was us. What was it, a personal vendetta?”

“A personal stance. That man, for the sake of the future, needed to die.”

The two thought about it for a second.

“North? We’ll have to pass by Administration, right?”

Clover backed the agent up, “The city centre shelter is west of the admin, you’ll be fine, as long as you go straight north.”

The man smiled and hugged Clover, “I’ll take your word for it! Call me when you get out of this shit hole.”

She beamed, “Will do!”

I couldn’t move. My legs locked up.

Before I could say a single thing, the two prisoners had already wandered off into the darkness. Leaving that lifeless body there.

“Who... who was he?”

Clover answered my question, “Oh, that was Harrison, he used to be a pretty high ranked member of the Mountain until, well, he was presumed dead-”

“Not him!” I snapped.

I wanted to point but I couldn’t, “Him! The man you just murdered, Hunter! The person you risked antagonising three Units to kill!”

He walked over to me.

“It’s none of your business. We need to work together to get out of this, a part of that means trusting me.”

I spat my words at him, “None of my business? I’m just supposed to ignore that?”

He looked for my eyes, “I thought you were some sort of moral absolutist? If that man had been allowed to walk free then there was a cha... no, if he had gone free, not just this city, every one of our cities would be put in danger. What happened to Egypt on a global scale.”

I clenched a fist, putting all of my rage into it, using all of my will to keep it from moving.

My blood was boiling, churning, pumping.

“Who. Was. He.”

Who was he? Somebody far more dangerous than a supernatural assassin or enemy leader. Who could that be?

“He’s the man who made these cities.”

Bob shrivelled up as I looked to him for answers.

“What did he do?”

Hunter, who had always been brimming spite and mockery went cold. “Nothing. But if he had defected, or turned against us...”

I asked again, “What did he do to get locked up?”

He chose his words carefully, “Nothing... Nothing.”

I was trying to understand.

Clover tried to explain it to me, “That guy built the city. He’d know how to take it apart. He was a threat, so they brushed him under the carpet. He was supposed to stay locked up, wasn’t he? He was filed away. That’s the sort of organisation the Internationals are.”

The exterminator nodded, “A dumb idea. They kept him around just in case we needed him again. I’m sure they’d like him to have worked on another city, now that Egypt’s gone. But after being locked up for too long... I’m telling you; billions would have died.

I was no longer gritting my teeth. My jaw had slacked.

“You killed him... imprisoned him... because he built you five cities?”

I was going to go easy on him. My rage over powered my reasoning. I was going to hit him.

“For all the cities in the world? Of course.”

I took a step forward, and fell to my knee.

“What?”

I was confused. How was I having trouble standing?

“Shit. Rocky!”

“Kid!”

I let go off Charlie, and slumped over.

I couldn’t hear much of what they were saying anymore.

There was just blood pumping, and pumping through my ears.

That poisoned blood deafened me to everything but that voice in my head.

.

.

.

At this point, I don’t have much of a clue what was going on in the buffer zone.

Yuki and Ali had been fighting Jack for the past hour, so there really wasn’t much for her to tell me later.

Except that apparently, without being a Unit, she was somehow capable of fighting a ‘perfect being’. And she didn’t get hit.

She never got a hit on him start, not since the start.

If I had to guess, I'd say Yuki was using the same technique as earlier. She was reading the room, everything that was happening, and reacting accordingly. I’ve heard of a concept in martial arts called, ‘pre-initiative’, apparently, if you gain enough experience, grow to a high enough technical level, you can read your opponent perfectly and plan a couple steps ahead according to how they are going to act.

It’s the same thing that grandmasters do in chess.

It’s not something I could ever pull off, like I said, I tried to learn martial arts and folded at the door.

I was told to put on muscle and fight like a brawler, if I wanted to be a superhero... That’s a story for another time, if that time ever comes.

The thing is, a martial artist needs to pay attention to their opponent's stance, where their hands are, where their weight is; it’s a case of numbers, from where they can hit you, and how you can punish or avoid certain attacks.

Yuki was fighting someone with six superpowers, she had to look out for metal materialising, stomps to the ground, all while being weary of another ability being pulled out of nowhere, or having her senses reversed.

Somehow, some way, she navigated a situation she had no right living through.

What I've said about martial arts was just a shot in the dark, for all I know there is something else to her.

Whatever the case, someone with the same job description as Bob was able to go toe-to-toe with Jack Chandler for over an hour.

Diving deeper into speculation, I’d say something about that ticked Creh-umha off.

A couple days ago he was boasting about how powerful he was; prior to his evolution he had been fixated on his position as a ‘king’.

I’m sure he realised what he was doing now was cowardly, not that he cares about shooting people in the back, or sucker punches.

He was being protected.

Where ever he was hiding, I’m sure he looked at Aayan, a short pasty man, and asked himself, “Is this where I belong? Do I belong in the same place as this person?”

What I do know, is that he did eventually leave his hole.

It was out of the black smoke that Jack stomped out, that’s what Isaac used as his cover to move in and strike.

The thing is, Chandler wasn’t a slouch when it came to combat. He foresaw it as a possibility, maybe the most likely outcome.

I don’t know how Ali’s illusions work, not how they’re cast, but when Isaac took his shot, it missed.

Nothing serious came of it, the thin jet of water was just a little off due to the inversion of right and left.

It did tell Jack Isaac’s general location, and an enormous tail was slammed to the ground.

Now that Isaac had entered the fray properly, he would have to fight under harsh restrictions. Unlike Ali who due to the nature of the sword he was swinging around couldn’t have that ability copied from blocking or attacking Jack, the king was forced to run away, in order to keep his supernatural strength out of the enemy’s hands.

A fight, without any fighting. As hard as it sounds, really.

Yuki had told me, that at this point she was beginning to lose hope in their group.

While Jack had two or three opponents to focus on, he wasn’t physically exerting himself, he had been primarily using his ability to summon the fake Gator to block and attack.

Despite being able to stick it out for an hour, Yuki was only human physically, the same goes for Ali. They were running around rough terrain, jumping, swinging weapons; there was no way they were going to keep it up.

Isaac could dodge indefinitely, until he eventually runs out of water.

Yuki was waiting for a major change, something unexpected. A fault in the ground, reinforcements, a monster, anything to tip the scales.

Luckily, Ali had a more proactive plan. And it was Jack who noticed it first.

It was a couple seconds after he had swung his tail at Isaac that he had realised what was happening.

Like I said, he was no slouch. When only Yuki attacked him following his attack, it was too strange not to notice.

He had lost track of Ali, the master of misdirection had succeeded in diverting his attention long enough to pull off something big.

Jack searched. He twisted his eyes back and forth. And that was enough of a shake-up for Ali to integrate the illusion.

Yuki described Jack’s face as unchanging when he looked up-at first.

Then shock horror.

What did Yuki see? She saw a cluster of stones that had been hastily tossed into the sky.

What was it that Jack saw?

He saw down. It was apparently the maximum range of Ali’s illusion, in the sky was a mound of earth that had been transported from the ground.

Did it trick him? Yes, and no.

Tricks do not last forever, and if it was just the illusion on its own, then it wouldn’t have worked at all.

But because the hidden Ali had thrown up some debris while Jack was confused, he was able to give the impression that a floating island, dripping stone, was falling to earth.

It worked for a few seconds, because Jack hadn’t been able to copy or learn Ali’s second ability, whatever formed that sword, whatever had kept the three Units alive in the meteor shower.

It was something like five seconds that Jack spent asking if it was real, if he should summon the gator and fly away, if he should call Ali’s bluff.

And that was enough time.

Accounting for any illusions he might have been cast under, Isaac centred his aim, and fired a shot.

Just in case the Channeler was putting on an act, to get the Fomorian to take out an ally, the mor aimed for his leg.

And there was a second hit.

And as it turns out, he was the Channeler was human too.

The shot landed somewhere in his lower calf, and finally he made his decision, he summoned the full Gator for protection.

Yuki knew what she had to do.

Run for her life.

It was officially above her pay grade. Jack was preoccupied with two things anyway. Creh-umha firing shots at him, and the disappearance of Ali.

I’m sure that while he was held up inside his fortress, I’m sure he guessed right, that he realised where Ali was heading.

Ali was going to scold Aayan.