The flight into Athens had been an awkward affair. Packed into a VTOL, the six of us shared a couple hours of uncomfortable silence.

I meant...five of us.

Cosette had some issues with me, and even more with Tem. I didn't want to deal with anyone, much less be stuck staring at either of Tem's or Jack's smiling faces. Tower seemed to have no idea what to do with the tension and kept cracking terrible jokes, while Tem seemed deliberately oblivious and just kept trying to crawl further and further up my arm.

"So," Cosette said idly over the low hum of the props. "How'd last night go with your lady friend, Chariot?"

"Good, actually," I said. "We had dinner with my sister and another of her friends, went shopping for some clothes, and that was it." I tried to make it obvious that nothing was going on.

"Oh, she's your sister's friend?" She seemed almost disappointed.

"Sure. I mean, she's my friend too."

"Given her weird tattoos and hair, I was almost certain you'd gone and hired a hooker."

"You guys don't pay well enough for me to afford a hooker. Also, that's a super weird conclusion to jump to."

"I walked in...broke in…on you and Tem naked with every bone in your body broken, and then again with you having a tea party with a body modder. In both of the two days you'd been single. Is it that weird a conclusion?"

"Still yes, but I get your point. Thanks for not actually giving us the surprise inspection, by the way."

"I wouldn't really do that. I'm here to keep you guys safe, sane, ready, and out of trouble, not to follow the rules." She said the last word with obvious distaste. "And by the way, you all do a great job of making my job very difficult."

"Uh," said Jack.

"Okay, some of you. I won't say any names, but you know who you are. Chariot. Tem."

"It wasn't Chariot," Tem said defensively, clutching my arm tighter. I really needed to hurry up and get that thing amputated so she could just keep it.

"Whatever. You two are idiots. Wake me up when we land," she said, whipping out a pair of sunglasses and slouching into her seat against Tower's side.

"You are truly the paragon of a CO," I muttered.

She lifted her shades and shot me a smile. "Hell, I think so. I'd take off my pants to sleep more comfy, but these harnesses are a real bitch to get in and out of, and the pilot yelled at me last time I did."

"There was a last time?" Tower asked.

"Kid, when you're as old as me, there's always a last time." She dropped the shades back into place and snuggled in more comfortably.

"Old?" I asked. "What are you, twenty-five?"

"And that's why Chariot's the strike lead you guys. Grade-A ass-kissing right there."

"I was being serious."

"No bonus for persistence." She scratched at her armpit where the harness was holding up her slouch. "But you don't have to stop."

"I think perhaps inquiring into her age might be considered rude," Jack explained.

"Well, I wouldn't want to be that," I said, admiring her ability to seemingly occupy more space than Tower.

We touched down and disembarked, enjoying another ride in a van this time before finally arriving near our destination, a tiny little rural town which seemed entirely composed of houses and stores stretched along a highway at random, with a city center identifiable only by the courthouse and police station being close to each other, a diner, and a gas station, in addition to the other bizarre little stores.

I hadn't really been in a place like this before, and had to gawk at all of the nothing around us while the others stretched and disembarked like the town was utterly uninteresting.

I mean, it was. Utterly so. But somehow, that made it even more interesting. I'd had a lot of the city recently, and a whole lot of the wild before that, so seeing a city or village or whatever you'd call this that only barely was? New to me.

But after a couple minutes, yeah, utterly uninteresting. Cosette had summoned a police officer from somewhere and was talking with him while flashing a badge. He looked completely untroubled by our presence or the situation of a potential Exhuman event, and I had to wonder what, exactly Cosette was saying. I gave my wrist holo a couple taps and put my earpiece in, but she wasn't transmitting.

She walked back to us. "Well, they say both of them are in the diner. So is half the town, and the police have no interest in evacuating anyone, so if things go south, I guess we just kill everyone," she said, but speaking loudly enough for the officer to hear.

"They won't. Just keep your guns in your holsters," the cop said as he headed back.

Jack had a pack with much of the gear assigned to our team. It seemed unfair to force him to carry everything, especially when the pack was reasonably large and would barely qualify as more than a handbag to Tower, but as Jack had pointed out, if someone needed equipment, he could get it there the fastest. I agreed, but I also thought that with that line of logic, Jack would be doing a lot of work around the team.

"Jack, can I get the optics?" I asked. He appeared next to me, on one knee a little wobbly, back and pack facing me. I dug around the excellently-organized bag for only a moment before I pulled out something almost resembling Karu's visor. I turned it on and the three round glowing red eyes on the outward side made my heart do a flip.

I looked into the diner, flipping through various lenses. Dark amp, audio visualization, infrared, all seemed to indicate, yeah, there were a lot of people in there.

"Seventeen people, three of whom are employees. Two patrons seated in a booth third from the door on the left, one male, one female, appear to match the description we were given. Eight of the remaining patrons are actively engaging with them in conversation, it seems, the remainder are at least listening, based on body language," Jack said. I put the optics back, damn near worthless compared to him.

"Thank you, Jack. So we want to do this diplomatically if possible. Is there a chance that there's a Code-X in play here, if they have half the town under their thrall? Including, apparently, the police?"

"Possible," Cosette mused. "If so, we all know the protocol right?"

"The old protocol," I informed her.

"Still the protocol. The only thing that's changed is now, if they take over our minds, their puppets will be a lot more dangerous. Kill Code-X on ID."

I shook my head. "They're still just people. Code-X or no, we can talk it out."

"Chariot, you know I don't put my foot down on much, but this is one of them. Code-X is too dangerous, and we all have to be on the same page on this. If they take over one of us, that's time for them to take the rest. We need to all act as fast as possible to put them down, no exceptions."

"Except Saga," I said.

"Saga isn't here, buddy. Get your head in the game or I'm kicking you off and Jack's lead."

Get your head in the game. How many times had I heard that one before. Coach used to say that half a dozen times every practice, but only rarely to me. I never really had problems focusing on the game, the game was what I lived for.

So what was this? Could I treat it like another game? Go in there and chalk up another win for the Black Sharks?

I thought back to the playbook. Just take something we were all familiar with, assign duties to each role, and lay out options for the plan to change.

"I'll go talk to them, honestly let them know who we are and why we're here. Tem will be on-hand to provide support in case I get in trouble. Jack is extraction, and Tower is the big guns. Cosette is...on comms, I guess. Comms will be open, if we give a keyword...say...red, we're in danger and Jack will extract both of us and we'll regroup for an attack. If we say codeword blue, Jack will extract both of them and take them somewhere unpopulated. If we say green, it's safe for Jack and Tower to come in. Or we need them in. Should be obvious by if we're screaming it or not. If you do come in hot, Tower, your job is to attract as much attention and fire as possible, and Jack, you need to use the distraction to take them down."

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It wasn't even a plan, just some contingencies, but people seemed to like it.

"I protect Chariot," Tem said, with a wistful smile.

"Just keep your lasers in your pants unless we manage a code blue." She didn't look like she was listening, just what I needed.

"Any questions?" People shook their heads. Cosette smiled at me. "Okay. Uh. Break." We split up. Tem turned invisible and I headed for the door.

"Comms okay?" I asked.

"Papa-Foxtrot Central, five by five," Cosette said.

"Tem...here."

"This is Tower, reading y'all loud and clear."

"And...Jack, I suppose."

I pushed open the door as the report out finished, and when that didn't work, pulled it open instead. Very dramatic entrance there with the XPCA uniform and not knowing how to work a door.

I strode three tables down, right where Jack had said they'd be, and there they were.

"Hello," I said, as the place grew silent and still. "I'm an officer from the XPCA, do you mind if I speak with the two of you?"

"Is this guy a Nazi or something?" asked the man looking at my uniform. He seemed like he was reasonably athletic but like me, had withered away. Considering the empty plate with maple syrup on it in front of him, he seemed like he was on his way to recovery. His hair was a mess, but had been cleaned recently, and he was clean-shaven.

"Ajax, please," said the girl. "He's in uniform and he has a gun. Maybe not the best idea to call him a Nazi out the gate?"

She had light brown hair, tied up in a bun at the back of her head. As she spoke, she made a gesture I only recently recognized when I saw AEGIS do it when first installed in Rua, attempting to adjust glasses that weren't there. She also looked like she'd been run ragged recently, but was much faster at recovering than he.

Both had only new clothes on, and both looked in their late twenties or early thirties, but given my earlier assessment of Cosette, apparently I was a bad judge.

"If that's a US uniform, I'm a Sino," he said. "Black is not in red, white, or blue."

"Neither is green camo, you idiot, and that's what you wore, right?"

"Camo is functional. He's wearing a collar equivalent of ballerina shoes."

"A gun is functional, and he's wearing one of those too. Can you please knock it off?"

"Guys," I said. "I'm standing right here."

"Good of you to notice," he said. "So what can I do for you, Nazi? If you want to be seated, you'll have to ask the hostess, I don't actually work here."

"Ajax," she hissed.

"Celia," he hissed back.

"Okay, I think we've gotten introductions in a roundabout way. Ajax. Celia. I'm Char...I'm Athan."

"Did you just say you were a chair?"

"I think he meant he needs a chair."

"Chariot, is my call sign," I gritted. "I'm from the XPCA, and I need to speak with the two of you."

"XPCA? Is that some kind of military re-enactment troupe or something?" he asked, fishing a toothpick out of a dispenser at the back of the table.

"Please, if you'd like to talk, go right ahead," Celia said. "We've dominated the conversation enough, haven't we Ajax?"

"I meant, in private."

"Anything you can say to me, you can say to the good people of Haydn, isn't that right!" Ajax shouted.

The response was deafening silence. I guess the XPCA did hold some amount of sway even out here. I couldn't help but feel a little pride, though I wondered how much was respect and how much was fear.

"Sir, ma'am, do you know what the XPCA is?" I asked incredulously, but that was the only thing I could think of to explain what was going on here.

"I did just ask," Ajax said. He swore as something hit him under the table.

"No, I'm afraid not, please go ahead with your pitch," Celia said.

My pitch. "How...do you suppose it is people deal with Exhumans?" I asked, out of curiosity.

"Exhumans?" she asked and looked at him.

"Weird way of referring to Sinos?" he replied. "I kind of like it. Exhuman."

I sighed. "Jack, can I have a code blue please?"

"With pleasure," he said speaking both in my coms and right next to me, touching each of them on the shoulder.

"Who--" Ajax asked.

"An Exhuman," I shrugged, and held Jack's arm. I sensed Tem on his other side, and then we all jerked uncomfortably. After a few moments where Ajax tried to pull Jack off of him and Celia stared at us uncomprehendingly, we were in a field. The two of them fell down without anything to sit on.

"Wha...wha...wha…" she said, but he sprang up, fists at the ready.

"Exhuman," I said with a shrug again. "It's my understanding that you two did something similar just a couple of days ago?" I glanced at my holo. "Says you both appeared out of nothing in the middle of a clothing store near here."

"I ain't telling you squat," he said, and squared up. I leaned sideways and around his jab.

"Please don't," I said.

"If you did anything to Celia, I swear I'll kill you."

"She's fine. She's right there," I said, pointing. I guess...it wasn't very convincing. She was spread backwards on the ground, looking around like this was absolute sorcery, trying to find the trick, hyperventilating. She was wearing a skirt and needed to close her legs, badly.

"That's not what I meant and you know it, you arse," he said, and came at me again. An easy left jab and right hook. I frowned, had it always been so easy to read people's attacks like this?

"Please stop. I really don't want to fight either of you. I just had us moved here so we could talk in peace. You honestly--" I dodged another punch "--don't know anything about Exhumans or the XPCA?"

"I know," he said panting "that there's an XPCA who's going to get his ass beat."

"Hmm, Cosette? Thoughts?"

"Memory loss, maybe? Might very well be Exhuman still if that's the case. We do have footage of them popping out of nowhere. If nothing else, they might be victims of an Exhuman from elsewhere."

"And we'd want to know where from. Good point." I stepped forward inside a punch as he charged at me, and pushed him backwards, stumbling back out of reach. He was leaning on his knees now, almost punched out. Celia was still looking like a confused doe.

"You ignore me?" he roared, and ran at me. I reached behind me and grabbed something, wrenching it forward while I took a step back. He tripped over the invisible Tem I'd just put in front of him and fell face-first on the ground.

"Ow!" she yelped. And then in a breathier, much more disturbing voice, "I helped."

Girl had issues.

"Please stay down there and explain what you remember?" I asked.

"I ain't telling you anything, you bastard," he yelled, trying to right himself, but stuck on Tem, whom he was probably somewhat crushing.

"Ajax, it's fine," Celia said, staring at him with the same blank expression now. "We've told everyone else so far, we can tell them too."

"They're devils or something, Celia, we can't trust them."

"We're Exhumans, and also the good guys. It might not seem like it, but trust me, if we wanted you hurt or dead...you'd be so. So please, let's just sit down and talk and stop trying…" I took a step back while he lunged for my leg. "...to kill each other."

"Ajax, let him go."

"I almost had him!"

"No, you didn't."

"He's a damn mind-reader. They're all demons, they can move people and make you fall over nothing, a Sino bio-weapon I tell you."

"If they're Sinos, why are they here in Georgia? Why did everyone else in the diner know what they were and nobody flocked to your aid?"

He scratched his head, still laying on the ground. "I...I don't know. Nothing makes sense here, Celia."

"I know. But this is where we are. If there's something we need to learn, we should learn it, yes?"

"You always want to learn things."

She made a superior noise. "Guilty. Now, mister Chair? We'd be happy to answer any of your questions. If you'd like."

"Some of your questions," Ajax added.

I sighed again. As glad as I was this wasn't shaping up like the kind of Exhuman event we'd just had, I could still tell this was going to be a long day. I really wasn't in the mood for this kind of belligerent crap right now, and just wanted to be back in my bunk, now that the threat of losing someone seemed remote, I'd lost all motivation.

But Cosette was right. They may still be Exhuman, with lost memories, or victims of one. We had to sort through the pieces and figure out what we could.

"It's Chariot, actually," I said. "Please, go ahead and tell me as much as you remember."

"Well that's a damn lot," he said.

"Hmm, but you've never heard of XPCA or Exhumans? You don't have memory loss?"

"Look, bastard, you're the mind-reader here, so why don't you take what I'm thinking now--"

"--what Ajax means is that no, neither of us have memory loss. I think...we're just from a very different place from here. So please please be patient with my addled friend here, and if things don't make much sense, well..."

"They don't make much sense to us either," he finished.

"Then I suppose, tell us how you got here at least?"

"Now that I can do, Nazi."

"Ajax."

"Right. Chair. Is that Private Chair, or Ensign Chair or what?"

"Uh, technically I think we're in a new rank. Invoked Sergeant or something?"

"The name actually offended the existing Sergeants," Cosette said. "They're coming up with something entirely new, just so nobody gets butthurt. But yes, Invoked Sergeant."

"Catchy as hell," Ajax said.

"Look, just shut up and talk," I said, sitting down next to the two of them. "We've got Exhumans to catch, okay?"