One of the women in green was grabbed by a large naked-spider-mole rat and dragged. Somebody used an ability to soften the earth, leaving the creature to sink and struggle in the dirt floor. It was only foot or so of built up sediment, but it was enough to slow the beast as it tried to drag her off into the darkness. Bright blue bolts rushed down the tunnel, popping the eardrums of several people, and piercing straight through two of the mole rats and into the tunnel wall. The tunnel shook.

The red man with the heat blade made quick work of the last rat, though he was nearly shot by a spray of rifle fire as he took it down. Overall it was a mess, but these people were strong. Their harnesses, essentially outerwear, exoskeletons, and armor rolled into one, really shined in combat. Each person moved violently and acted without mercy, and their weapons were so, so powerful. The supers of the past would have struggled with such large, fast moving creatures.

As the last creature breathed its last, the arguing began.

“You nearly took my fucking head off!” The man in red shouted. “I had it under control! Why are you firing off rounds next to my head?”

A green-clad woman shrugged. “I helped, and you didn’t die. Relax Barty.”

"Don't tell me to relax! Control yourself!"

The maskless green man who looked to be the leader marched over to the twins, blood running out of one ear. “You two. You could have dropped the mountain on our head! What the fuck were you thinking firing those things in here?”

One twin scoffed. “Relax grandpa. We’re all here, alive and well.”

The other twin laughed. "We took out two! We're doing most of the work here, you should be thanking us!"

"Thanking you?" The man's face reddened. "You stupid girls will kill us all and I should be thanking you?"

The arguing continued.

Karla sent several texts to Delta, but he seemed shocked. She tried to send a different command, eventually finding that her thinking of the word “Beep” the small display would indeed beep and not just write it down. The noise seemed to startle him out of his fugue.

“You alright?” she asked.

He glanced around, then read the text. “Oh, yeah. I’ve just, never fired a gun at something besides a target before…”

“Is it dead?”

“Yeah… I think so?” He looked over the creature before responding. “Yeah. It’s dead.”

“Then it's not a problem.”

After watching the other clan members argue for a half-hour, the rest of the journey went relatively quickly. Everyone in the group were supers, or ‘gifted’ as Delta called them. They were all faster, stronger, tougher than your average human, and running several miles with gear and weaponry wasn’t a difficult task in the slightest.

“Those with gifts are valuable, to be sure. It’s no use trying to give any of our new weapons to a basic human, my guns would break someone’s arms if they tried to use it without gifts or a good harness. But at the end of the day, a hypersonic slug doesn’t care if you have powers or not. Unless you’re in a decent harness, you’ll die anyways.”

“So the clans pick up anyone with a gift and raises them?”

He shrugged. “Most of the time, yes. And anyone with a decent enough gift is married into the clan. My gifts were definitely changed by my mother, she had some kind of sensing ability that my grandfather had hoped would enhance my family's already strong perception abilities. I didn’t inherent the powerful lightning or wide perception my family has, and now my mom’s seen as a bit of a black sheep of the family. Dad now spends most of his time with his other wives. I think if I perform well, perhaps my mom will not be looked upon so negatively.”

“Your dad has multiple wives?”

“Yeah. All trueborn clan members have multiple spouses. My aunt has six husbands, though not a one has given her a good heir yet. They’re all lesser, like me.”

Karla shook her head. Bloodlines, breeding. What strange times. She had heard of supers giving birth to super babies, it was a thing in magazines and talk shows for a while, watching which child develops what powers. Though the fact that someone would breed their children like one would breed racehorses seemed quite alien to her.

The tunnel opened up around a shaft that cut through the mountain. The group gathered around.

The old man in green clapped his hands to grab attention. “After we’re out of here, assuming William Stoke is dead, this will be the end of our little alliance. I hope we can avoid spilling blood between the clans, at least for some time so we all can recoup our strength. There’s no benefit of us fighting and making ourselves weaker as a whole. There are other threats out there and—”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Ugh, enough!” One of the twins walked up to the hole and shot out a dart with a tether high into the shaft. “You preachy old man. We’ll see you when we see you.” She made a little finger gun and aimed it at him just before the cable pulled tight and lifted her up.

“Yup! See you all around!” The second twin shot her own tether and was whisked away just as quickly.

The man in red was next. He glared at Karla for a moment before ascending with some kind of kite that lifted him smoothly.

The old man in green shook his head. He looked over at Delta. “Us Irons will keep with the tunnels, we have a place in the mountains to hole up and lick our wounds till we figure out what’s going on. Does Miss Olivia’s apprentice need an escort? We can take you to the nearest neutral holdfast.”

Delta raised his hands. “Thank you, Elder Stone, but we will take our own route. My master has contacted me and given me a location to meet with her.”

Elder Stone nodded. “Very well. Good journey. And to you.” He looked over Delta’s shoulder where Karla was peeking over. “Good riddance.” He spat onto the black rock of the tunnel, then turned away, leading his group of green-cloaked men and women off into the dark.

Delta walked up to the edge of the shaft and shuddered.

“What now?” Karla asked.

“We go up,” he said. He looked up through the tall shaft that seemed to go on forever and shook his head. “Okay, okay. This should be easy.”

“You alright?” said Karla.

“Yeah? Yeah! I think so. I’ve never used this after I’ve installed it is all. I’m just a bit scared of heights is all.”

Karla looked him over, he was shaking. He stepped over to the edge and peered down into the abyss below.

“Oh, gosh. Okay.” He took a few deep breaths, then activated some controls somewhere inside the harness. Small thrusters unfolded around his legs, arms, and over his shoulders. With a slight hiss, the thrusters ignited and began to lift him slightly, but not enough to actually fly yet. He looked like he was trying to step forward into the air, and was failing. He lifted a leg, hesitated, then backed away only to try again.

Karla head butted him.

“Ow! Oh, shit!” He stumbled forward and was in the shaft. In his fear, he pressed the thrusters to their maximum output, launching the pair upwards. The large protective harness came in handy as he ground his way up the shaft’s walls, screaming the entire time. Dust kicked up and loose rocks were knocked off, sent tumbling into the dark below.

Karla laid peacefully against his back as they broke the surface, riding atop a pillar of fire and smoke. They soared through the cold night air into the middle of a wide valley. Delta cut the thrusters as they rose, only to fall quickly into a thatch of trees. He tumbled as he fell into the underbrush, breaking hard metallic branches as he passed. Karla felt like she had taken a beating, but it was all superficial and painless to her.

Delta sat up and groaned. “What the hell karla?”

“You were too slow. Seize the day.” She texted back.

Delta glanced at the pad and huffed. “Seize the day? What on earth?” He rubbed the bump on his head. “Fine, whatever.” He set Karla aside and checked over his equipment. Several thrusters were bent or broken, but within a few minutes, he had broken parts replaced or bent back into shape.

“You’re very handy. Are you a technician of some kind?”

He smiled. “Yeah, kind of. My master Olivia is the most renowned technician in the Americas. She’s constantly helping whatever clan catches her fancy. One day she was helping the Lightning God Clan, that’s where she found me and took me in.”

“Americas?”

“Well, she’s known all down the continent, but maybe not so much along the coasts. There’s too much Church out that way. Though you know that.”

Karla felt a headache. “Church? What about the government?”

“Yeah, the Church.”

“What church? Like, the pope?”

Delta looked at her with a bewildered expression. “You are part of the Church. The Church of Undying Light? Your creator Stoke was the leader. Supposedly immortal for living so long, though I guess that’s over now…” He fumbled in his harness and pulled out a small tablet. After sliding through it he showed it to Karla.

It was a map. On the coasts, various countries had settlements, some on the same locations as older cities. New York was still there, City West was there, but most of the central United states Canada and Mexico were one large gray zone. In bold letters, the map proclaimed the area as “Clan Territory” and left it as that.

Karla looked up from the map. “Clan territory?”

“Yeah, areas change hands so much, no point in marking it down. But the clans all know. They keep track of every meter.” He shook his head. “The clans keep fighting in the Americas, as do the warlords in Asia. I think the Church keeps small groups fighting, never coming out in force. The fact that they came out like that this time was strange. They practically forced the clans into a quick alliance. Technically they lord over both areas as some kind of government, but they hardly do anything except cut anyone down who stands out too much. One of the reasons my master moves around a lot. Keeps everyone powerful, keeps the Church from interfering.”

“Where are we now?” She looked around. A quiet pine forest in the middle of mountains… The Upheaval really changed the world in so many ways. Some areas were strangely warm or cold for their latitude, others were full of venomous insects where before there were none. But when she was last conscious, there was still a United States, Canada still hovered to the north, and Mexico to the south. Now they were all just one big… mess.

“Oh, around here.” He pointed. North. Way north. She wasn’t sure where Alaska ended, but where he pointed was somewhere around the Alaska/Canada border.

“So far north…”

“Yeah, it’s a bit dangerous up here for many people, but it’s good for keeping the Church off our backs. There’s quite a few clan satellites out here as far as I know. Hard to say sometimes with how secretive everyone is.” He placed the tablet back into his harness and shrugged. “I might not have much experience with fighting, but I’ll get you to my master safe and sound!”

A deep clicking from a wet, beastly throat sounded nearby. Another answered on the opposite side. Delta shrunk down, hiding away. “Do you see something?” he hissed.

Karla nodded. In the shadows of ironwood trees, creatures the size of minivans slid in and out of shadows. They had dark stripes over their bodies like tigers, but small patches of long, brightly-colored fur rose up from the crown of their large heads. Bears of some kind? She said as much in the text box and Delta cursed. He quickly donned his harness and pulled Karla back onto his back.

“We’re going to move quickly, but we should be able to make it. No problem,” he whispered. The clicking drew closer. “No problem!”

He activated something on his chest and small panels extended from his harness. Like the thrusters, they were neatly hidden away when not in use. A haze of particles erupted, clouding over them both in a fog. Each particle lit up, displaying colors of their surroundings, displaying false movements and false shapes. The beasts took this as a sign to attack.