I was flying at night, just to clear my head. I didn't like Chicago, it was a bad memory for most of America.

The city had been deemed not important enough to save when the nukes fell, compared to similar cities where there were critical military installations or political institutions within the city, or compared to the military bases on the lakes. Skyweb could only be in so many places at once, and Chicago, and the millions who had lived there just fell through the cracks, as it were.

There had been a great rebuilding effort, thousands of tons of irradiated waste hauled away and dumped in exclusion zones, new buildings erected, a new Chicago for a new world, they had said. People were encouraged to move there, raise their families, stand against tyranny and terror.

Cancer rates in the city were still ten times that elsewhere in the country. Rads in the groundwater were at unsafe levels, and expensive anti-rad treatment had to be done on near everything which was produced or came from the area, resulting in a financial implosion as the cost of goods from Chicago couldn't compete with the rest of the non-irradiated world. Subsidies could only go so far before America realized that this was the new Chicago, and the new world sucked, as it were.

The dream became a ghost town, and the city became more and more of an empty shell, new construction halted and finished buildings abandoned.

It was still a city, with many living in it, but it was a haunted one. I was here now because it was a haven to rejects, malcontents, and political uprising. I was here often, Exhumans who came from this area were often fiercely anti-government and were extremely violent. We were well-paid to remove them, who terrorized the other helpless victims living alongside them more than they posed any threat to the actual workings of the government.

That was not why I was here today. Today, I was here to talk to these people. It was a first for me, though obviously I'd had my share of grooming for giving speeches back when I was still part of the Irenside legacy.

It wasn't anything I wanted. To be honest, heartbroken though I was about my family rejecting me, it also came as a relief. Theirs was not a lifestyle I was equipped to live, with all the duplicity, two-facedness, subtle nuance, and political posturing. My preferred form of posturing was in the air and in the minds of enemies, shortly before I eradicated them. Such victories were not possible on a diplomatic landscape, and I oft wondered how I would make the transition. If I could make the transition.

Well, that had been decided for me. There was nothing left but to move forward.

I landed on the VTOL heliport on the roof of my skyscraper hotel and walked to the edge, sitting with my legs dangling a hundred feet above the ground. This would be my third forum given in as many days, in as many cities. After meeting with Deej and discussing our options, we, and the other hunters in the association, had decided that ours was an issue worth fighting for, and that the first step was to raise awareness.

This wasn't about Athan, not directly. This was about Exhumans, and the things hunters had to do to and with them. Each of us was guilty of executing a helpless child whose powers were greater than their grasp of the world, or putting down an angsty, impassioned, and ultimately confused teen.

We had each been on missions to find and eliminate targets hiding in plain sight, Exhumans who had attempted to integrate into society, outed by watchdogs in their own community, their friends, customers, neighbors. Families. The XPCA urged constant vigilance in keeping an eye out for Exhuman activity, like we were at formal war with them.

For a long time, there had been an undercurrent of resentment and injustice among a group of the hunters, those like me who were more interested in justice than just credits. For the longest time, it felt like prospective contracts were split into either Exhuman events, or 'ices', and those of us who didn't approve of icing someone, simply didn't.

Luminary was the face of the icers. He glamorized killing and violence in all of its forms, and one of his most popular holovids was of him explaining the powers of a compliant Exhuman child, maybe four years old, expressing how dangerous they could be, forcing the child to demonstrate the powers at gunpoint, and then his summary execution, on-camera. I had only seen the holo once, but made the mistake of scrolling to the comments to see if others shared in my revulsion, and the outpouring of hate for the child I found there made me physically ill.

Deej had been assembling others, and while I had normally excused myself from the conflict, my interest in forcing the XPCA's hand and possibly releasing Ashton was enough to push me into his camp. He said that, to many of the younger hunters, I was seen as a beacon of purity, and that where I went, many would follow.

I wasn't sure I agreed, but if that turned out to be the case, I did not mind.

Which led me back to the hotel roof today. This morning I had spoken to Detroit, speaking to them frankly of my experiences and concerns, and relating to them the story of Athan Ashton, an Exhuman who had surrendered everything, including his own life, in the cause of peace and human-Exhuman relations. An Exhuman who, at this very moment, suffered the unknowable fates of XPCA detention, and for Detroit to rise up with the rest of America, along with the other dozens of cities my colleagues were visiting, and demand XPCA accountability and transparency, rights for Exhumans as people, and Ashton's freedom to continue his peaceful existence.

The response was tepid at best, but they listened and did not shout me down. I think most were just surprised to be hearing it from a hunter.

Tomorrow, I would speak here. The day after, somewhere else. Barring an Exhuman event, and the obvious need for hunters to react to such a thing, we planned to rotate across the country perpetually until our voices had been heard.

My visor threw up a proximity alert and I saw a man approaching me from behind, dressed in black. I turned to get a better look.

XPCA military uniform. High-ranking XPCA military uniform. Soldiers lurking in the shadow of the doorway. Was it my turn to be iced?

I rose and saluted sharply. "Deputy Director Blackett," I intoned. "I think I preferred you better when we shared a battlefield."

"Karu. Should I call you Karen? Ms. Irenside perhaps?"

"Karu will suffice. To what do I owe this unexpected displeasure?"

"To your recent inflammatory activities," he said, walking next to me and standing at the lip of the building alongside me. I could effortlessly throw both of us from the precipice, and of the two of us, I could fly. He was deliberately placing himself at my mercy. He was telling me this was not an assassination. He was here to talk.

I didn't relax. I had the visor keep a side view open of the two men left at the doorway, and had it notify me if they began to move.

"What if I killed you right now?" I asked, casually.

"Then you'd have wasted your friend's sacrifice. He gave his everything so that you all could resume normal lives."

"And what if I decided that it was worth it to avenge him?"

"Avenge him? He's not dead, hunter. He is being well taken care of, and when I spoke with him yesterday, said he was confused, but not unhappy with the situation."

"I shall believe it when I hear it from his own lips."

He sighed. "I will not waste more of your time with idle talk. I need you and your lackeys to stop tarnishing the reputation of the XPCA."

"Oh ho?" I asked, turning towards him. "It's working then?"

"Officially, of course it isn't. The XPCA is undefeatable by any threat. Off the record however, of course it's working. There is no voice more damning for the public to hear disparage us than the very hunters we employ. You knew that when you began this campaign."

"I hadn't expected such a turn in such a short amount of time. Apparently the ideals of the XPCA do not run as deep in the public heart as we are taught to believe."

"You know as well as I do that the XPCA is nothing but a thin veneer of comfort given to the masses so they will feel safer in their beds. If they wake up and find their neighbor has turned to an Exhuman, we won't save them. We won't even be close. But we can provide the illusion we will, and that is the only thing keeping the wheels on society. It is an illusion you are trying very hard to destroy, and I do not appreciate that."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"I do not appreciate the endless crimes carried out by the XPCA under the guise of justice. I do not appreciate one of my good and noble friends being taken from me by force, after living a peaceful and righteous existence."

"Zero tolerance is a policy we must uphold. The public must believe that every single Exhuman is a danger, or else they will be lost."

I sat back down again, and to my surprise, so did he. Both of our legs hanging over the glittering abyss.

"I do not see the harm in releasing Ashton alongside a carefully-worded statement," I suggested diplomatically. "It will show the XPCA has the intelligence and compassion to evaluate their own decisions and handle Exhumans as they should be, on their individual merits."

"The way things currently are, it's impossible. If Exhumans are known to be a universal evil, then it's us, being the XPCA and all of humanity, versus them. If you begin to look at each Exhuman under a microscope, cracks will form. Some people will support zero-tolerance, some will look objectively at each case, some will do whatever offers the most profit, some will argue that no case is irredeemable. If you include this option, support in the XPCA will wither, and without that support, we cannot provide people with the illusion of safety."

"So do not."

"If we don't, the world will be anarchy." He glanced around and verified our solitude and continued in a lower tone. "Do you know what is going on in China right now?"

"The same as it ever is, after we turned it into a field of glass?"

"I admire your ability to commit yourself utterly to destroy some myths of the media while consuming others without question. If it were just a field of glass, why would we keep sending invasion teams, and why would they keep not coming back?"

"The glass is sharp, I assume," I said dryly.

"It's not a wasteland, it's a goddamn warzone over there. There are Exhuman warlords of all stripes commanding human armies to their deaths over scraps of land not turned to glass. In that place, without laws or government, things turned on their head and landed exactly where the power spectrum dictates it should. Exhumans on top, humans on the bottom."

"There's less than one Exhuman per million humans born. How are they not simply overthrown?"

"Because most people aren't you, hunter, and don't willingly march to their death just because something isn't right in the world. They have families they want to take care of, jobs they want to get paid to do. Whether they're baking bread for one warlord or another, I assure you, they don't care, they do what it takes to survive."

I sat back to muse on this.

"This information is all classified," he said. "Do try not to spread it around, even among your friends."

"I can agree to that," I said, nodding.

"But the point is, if people do not believe they are safe from Exhumans, if Exhumans do not believe they are the minority, that they are powerless against structured society, it is so easy for the entire situation to flip. You may think you are saving one innocent man's life through your efforts, but you are risking every life in America by doing so. You risk the concept of America by doing so."

"And you are here, driving out to every single hunter who is protesting and telling them this tale?"

"No, I went to you because I assumed you were the leader behind all of this. Nothing like this happened until you went off with the Ashton Exhuman, and nothing like this happened until you came back."

I chuckled. "Well, you're wrong on that account. A close friend of mine is behind everything, it had just taken that long for him to sway me."

"Hmm," he said, scratching his chin. "I am happy to hear that not all of my troubles are caused by your one band of malcontents, but that is potentially even more troubling. Might I inquire who is behind it all?"

"It's you," I said simply. "The XPCA has forced injustices on us so numerously and so long that this was inevitable."

He sighed and stood up again. "While I do not appreciate you evading the question, I can take it as a no. And believe me, despite my position and appearance, I am well aware the XPCA is failing. I would simply prefer it not to fail before precautions can be made to protect the world from what will happen when it does."

He began to walk away while I mused on his words. It was possible they were just words, but no part of this conversation had seemed ingenuine. On the contrary, I almost sympathized for the man, despite him currently holding my beloved friend captive.

"Blackett," I said, standing and turning to him. I got an alert as the two soldiers raised their weapons at my movement and couldn't help but to roll my eyes. He dismissed them with a wave. "Why are you really here? Was this truly a passionate heart-to-heart talk between enemies, trying to win me over to see things as you see them?"

He froze. "Perhaps I am too soft." He turned back to face me. "I suppose it can't hurt for you to know, my position at the XPCA is in jeopardy."

"That seems like the kind of thing it would actually be very bad for you, for me to know."

"I am under some suspicion for mismanagement, and the entire failure of arresting the Ashton Exhuman and now your political rallies are falling squarely in my lap. Director Albion does not enjoy taking responsibility for failures. I am being made out as something of a pariah."

"I suppose you should have done a better job deputy directing, then."

"I suppose to you, I am merely the face of an evil agency, but I assure you, I am your staunchest ally. If you have me deposed, you will discover that quickly."

"So your actual reason for coming out here was to try to save your job? That is an even more pathetic reason that the first."

"No, my actual reason was to warn you that either you must stop, or dark things will soon be coming for all of us. You more than most should know what evils humans and Exhumans alike are capable of, and without the blanket protection over all of us which the XPCA unconditionally provides, you will find the cracks in people grow. And they will grow ugly. I urge you to be careful as you must know it is not as easy to rebuild as to destroy."

"I will take my chances with the friends I have made over the enemies, thanks."

He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "I will be spending the rest of the week chasing down your allies and talking to them as well, it appears. I am sorry I could not convince you."

He began to leave again, and again I called out to him.

"The man you seek is named Rojê Castillo, known as the hunter 'Deej'. He is the leader behind this movement, but you will not find him any easier to convince than I."

He looked back at me, brow furrowed. "I don't understand."

"Would you like me to write his name down for you?"

"No. I don't understand why you would tell me who your leader is, after all this. If you are unmoved by my arguments, why would you direct me to the one man who can dictate your fate?"

"You said you had a week out here, correct?"

"Yes. Likely that little to find some concession before I am terminated."

"That isn't much time. If your arguments truly have heart and merit, and if The Almighty should find you worthy, you should spend that time convincing the head of our organization, rather than barking at its heels."

He looked at me again for another few moments like he was only now seeing me for the first time.

"You are doing me a service," he said.

"Do not feel that you owe me."

"I must apologize," he said, formally. "It was my intention to manipulate the Exhuman Ashton for my own desires and use. And while I still intend to do that, I had thought it convenient that he had formed such a strong bond with you, hunter. You see, had things not gone well in his capture, or had he proved reluctant in his current environs, you were my trump card I could always play against him. I am your superior and could find it easy to place you into harm's way, should that prove sufficient motivation for our mutual friend."

"Shrewd but not unexpected. Why are you telling me this?"

"Perhaps because I am a sentimental, foolish old man, who is trying to right the wrongs I have committed now that the end approaches. Or perhaps it is because in you, I see the hope for humanity, men and women strong enough to stand up to Exhumanity. Or most likely, perhaps," he looked me steely in the eyes. "I've just come to realize you aren't as useless and such an incompetent as I once thought."

"And you seem like less of a two-faced jackass than I had originally determined," I said with a nod. "But you still hold my beloved against his will, and no amount of compromise or flattery will change my opinion of you while that remains true."

"Reasonable. With luck, you will see my efforts soon and with it, re-evaluate my level of two-faced jackassery yet again. Until then, farewell."

He walked off a third time and this time I let him go. The two soldiers fell in behind him and he disappeared into the building. I kept my alert up on my visor in the case they should reappear, but I doubted they would.

Blackett would not have come to me in person to appeal to me in such a manner unless he was truly desperate. On one hand, this was a victory, pressing the XPCA to desperation, to be willing to negotiate and correct their injustices was what we had wanted when we began.

The problem was, he had explained his desperation, and all of it seemed reasonable to me. Whether I agreed with him or not, it was clear he saw himself as one of the few people capable of steering the XPCA towards what he viewed it needing to be, and he, at least, thought that without such guidance, a dark age was coming.

I was no fool, or so I hoped, and I wished for no national turmoil any more than any other. If his words proved true, I would be a Pandora, which was a title I had no interest to bear.

And yet, there remained the possibility either he was wrong, or he was even more cunning and manipulative than he seemed. He certainly had the reputation for it, and I had little desire to fall under my enemy's sway so easily.

After another hour in the moonlight on the rooftop, and another hour of preparing for and going to bed, finding my eyes still drawn towards the moon visible through the open gap in the curtains, I decided I would certainly persist in holding my forum tomorrow, and would continue after that in the name of foolish love if nothing else. If he could convince Deej, I would trust my friend's judgement. Were a dark age coming, I would rather face it with Ashton at my side, whatever the cost.

I closed my eyes and dreamed of storms of plasma and lightning.