Hazel giggled as blood and teeth dropped from the cold metal hammer she was holding. A dark purple bruise was forming on her cheek.

She whipped her hair back and revealed her face, blood stained the corners of her lips as they twisted into a grin.

Cub and the man with the machete took a step back, terrified.

"It's just one girl, fucking kill her."

"Try," Hazel said as she whipped forward and unleashed a wild uppercut with the hammer. The thug managed to block it with his machete but the force snapped it out of his hands and sent it flying into the sky. She gripped the hammer with two hands and used the momentum from her last swing to bring it down.

The thug’s hand turned to stone just in time to block the pipe and deflect the swing.

Hazel walked past him as he fell to his knees, screaming. Pieces of rock littered the ground around him, remnants of his now shattered hand.

Cub took a step back and roared as he hunched in on himself. His bones cracked as he grew up and outwards, ending once he reached eight feet. He now dwarfed Hazel, but her stride didn't slow.

It didn't hurt when Grim walked anymore, so she assumed he'd started targeting Hazel with the pain boon, but she didn't seem to be reacting to it at all.

Cub ran forward and launched a kick at Hazel. She didn't even try to dodge as she was launched straight into the air; she came back down hard on the concrete. When she didn't move, Cub turned to Grim, "Look's like you're next."

A hand grabbed his ankle, and he looked down, "I'm not done with you yet." Hazel said.

Cub went to kick her away from him, but Hazel dissolved into smoke. Grim resummoned her, and she was already walking forward as Cub was still confused by the shadowy smoke swirling around his foot. He turned just in time to feel a steel hammer hit him in the stomach, which caused him to hunch over, and when he did, she stepped to the side and brought the hammer down on his head. He hit the ground and groaned as he tried to recover.

"Attention, this is the Watch. Drop your weapons and surrender. You are all under arrest," a megaphone blared at the entrance to the alley.

Volk and Bear were still fighting but disengaged when they heard the megaphone. Bear was bloodied and heaving, while Volk looked physically unharmed but more tired. She wasn't sure, but she thought she saw more gray in his hair.

They separated, and Volk ran to Maribelle and helped her with her wound while the rest of Bear's gang gathered around Cub, who was now getting up.

In the fighting, she had gotten separated from the others, and now the orange stripes marched in with their pistols raised. There were at least 10 of them, with a Sergeant with three stripes on his armour. She backed away slowly and made it to the car as gunfire erupted. She turned around and saw that Bear had run forward and clocked a Stripe in the side of the face. It hit hard enough to knock him clean out. The rest of the Watch didn't hesitate and opened fire on him; the bullets were a low calibre and barely drew blood.

"Switch to BP rounds!" The sergeant yelled, and the Watch listened.

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She watched as the rest of the unit ejected their magazine nearly simultaneously and reloaded a new one. In the time it took, Bear was able to reach another one of them and snap their neck. Before he could reach another, a broadside of bullets hit him and knocked him on his ass. Blood now trickled freely from his chest, but he still tried to get up. A group of four stripes dogpiled on top of him and stunned him until they could get restraints on him.

Grim had hid behind the car and saw the tail end of Volk smashing a gate to get him and Mari out. They left without looking behind them.

"This way!" She looked up and heard a voice yell at her. She could tell he was holding a rifle, and he was on the second floor of the parking garage.

"Can we trust them?" Hazel asked, a goofy smile still on her face.

Grim frowned. "We don’t have a choice. It's either the creepy sniper guy or getting shipped straight to the crater."

"I'll kill them if they try to take you," Hazel said as she shoved her face in front of Grim's. They were only a couple of inches apart and way too close for Grim's comfort. It was like staring into the eyes of a predator. She didn't know what had happened to her, but she was glad she was on her side.

"Uhh, okay, sure. We'll take our chances with the guy with the gun."

"Yup, yup," Hazel said as she backed off, giving Grim some breathing room. She took a look over the car and nearly got her face blown off by a round that took off the mirror.

"Shit!" Grim said.

The stripes definitely had their position clocked, and while the journey wasn't far, she sincerely doubted she could dodge a hail of bullets coming at her. After leaving the car, there wasn't much cover until she got through the garage doors. They were open just a crack at the bottom, which they hadn’t been before; it was just big enough for her to squeeze under.

The rest of the gang had ignored them and were fighting a losing battle against the watch. At some point, they had gotten Bear freed, but they were a lot less bulletproof than he was, and the fight was quickly turning into a horror scene.

She looked back up at the shooter and shouted, "Cover me!"

All she saw back was a silhouetted nod, and before she could say anything to Hazel, she had already picked her up, almost effortlessly and shoved her forward into a run, "Go, I'll be right behind you."

Grim didn't need anything more, and she ran as fast as she could, a roar of bullets unleashed above her as their mysterious shooter took shots at the Stripes. Their response was swift, and half of them switched from fighting off the gang to suppressing their assailant. With their attention split, Bear and the rest of the gang were able to close the distance between them and the stripes.

It was a light show as various Boons from both sides activated and lit up the parking lot.

"Fighting retreat! Boonwitch is on route," The sergeant said as he sprayed blindly at Cub, he took a few shots and went down.

Hazel jolted as one of the shots hit her.

The force of the impact sent her stumbling forward and knocked both of them to the ground. They started to roll down the ramp to the parking garage together until they stopped at the bottom. Hazel covered Grim with her body as more bullets started to spray overhead.

"In here! Quickly," a voice said from the other end of the parking garage door. At the same time, they lifted it just a crack, but it was enough for both of them to roll underneath it. The door slammed shut as soon as they got in.

Bullets shot through the door, and they pushed off with one last burst of energy to get behind the thick concrete walls. Both Grim and Hazel sat with their backs to the walls and recovered.

"What kind of mess have you got yourselves into?" the man said. Grim looked up, and he was wearing a mask made of plant matter and bark. It was form-fitting around his face and rose into a horn that curved around his skull.

"Who are you?" Grim asked.

"The one who saved your damn life, kid. I thought you'd have been smarter than this. You really don't recognize me?"

Grim saw a large man encased in plant matter roughly resembling a ghillie suit, but made out of living plants. The colours were a bit duller, and she could see them warbling as they tried to blend in with the colours around him. He also had a large rifle strapped to him that he was currently holding, which was super illegal. Something in Grim's mind twitched, and she felt about how the plants seemed alive, his general demeanour, and most importantly, the slight belly protruding from his armour.

"Phil?"