I liked travelling with Rito, it was a lot more comfortable than going by car or rail. We just stood in a loose circle facing outwards, Rito in the middle doing whatever it was she did, moving us from place to place with such subtlety that she often had to announce where we'd arrived because nobody noticed we'd gotten there.

We were all somewhat local, nobody had really had time to go too far from New Eden, and everyone understood (or was informed) how much easier it was to hide out in a large city than a little roadside town. Plus, we needed to stay close to be able to support one another in the event we were attacked.

Albuquerque, Santa Fe, some as far as Vegas or Santa Rosa, we appeared inside living room after living room, a few members saying their farewells at each stop. A few members, I spoke with briefly before we moved on, coordinating our next moves, but for the most part, we'd done what we set out to do and now we just wait.

Hopefully, wait forever. I didn't think the XPCA would be stupid enough to provoke us into open conflict...but I was no expert. I knew they were renown for their ruthlessness, but that was before New Eden, before Director Blackett had taken the reigns and shaken up the organization. Given how New Eden had turned out, one could be forgiven for assuming that the XPCA hadn't changed, but I wasn't convinced.

From what I'd seen and heard, the local administrator Captain Targa had been kidnapping and drugging Exhumans, warping their minds somehow to fit her needs. When word of it got out, the resistance formed, and it wasn't long before they overthrew her in a mad, Exhuman bedlam.

We were there, of course. We'd heard the alerts and the fighting and used the distraction to our own advantage to slip away in the chaos. It was out in the desert sun, miles from New Eden that we all talked and came together, forming the Defiant Unchained. Even then, we had the germ of our current identity--we promised to stay together, to help each other, and that none of us would again be forced to live in New Eden and suffer the empty promises of the XPCA.

It wasn't until the squads started showing up and nabbing people that we realized the Defiant meant something; the promises we'd made with each other under the beating sun walking on that blazing asphalt were more than just the songs of freed jailbirds.

Some of us were taken. Some of us never responded to the call. But the twenty-two who remained were committed to do what was necessary, willing to take the insane leap to put ourselves first in a world which put us last.

I honestly didn't know if many of us had it in us to go on a rampage. I hoped it'd never come to that...if the XPCA was insistent to call us on our bluff, could we destroy the society we were desperately trying to slip into? And if we did...what then? Would we just trash the world until nothing was left?

It was absolute insanity, and I thought it impossible for them not to see that. But somehow, they seemed to miss the insanity inherent in the current system.

Finally, it was just Rito and myself. I made sure I was last to see all the others safely home, and I had to get something for her anyway.

I left her loitering in the living room of my apartment, bathing in the pre-sunset light making long shadows of the blinds, and went rummaging in my bedroom. Tiny little place, but my own, which was better than most of the others could afford. I still had quite a bit of money saved from before, and was only living in places like this to try to make it last.

Which is what made the credit chit in my hand feel especially heavy as I handed it over to Rito, giving her the best smile I had given the situation.

"Your services have been invaluable. The Defiant thank you."

"Oh...it's...it's like, nothing. You don't have to thank me if you're paying."

"Actually, I really do. I don't think today would have been possible without your help."

"Well...if you need anything else ever...you know who to call. I'm not very busy."

"You shouldn't tell people that," I said with a smile. "Or else they'll try to pay you less."

"Oh, I didn't think of that. Sorry. I totes do need the money though," she said, apologetically waving the chit at me.

"I understand. You've got something we need, and we have money."

"You mean...you have money. This is your money."

"It's yours, actually," I said with a dismissive laugh. "Would you like a drink or anything before you go?"

"No thanks. I just mean, you arranged all this and paid me outta your own pocket. And…" she checked the amount on the chit again "...and it's a lot. And you didn't even ask the rest to chip in or nothin'."

"Feeling sorry for me?" I said feeling bemused at the girl's inexperienced reactions. She was behaving less like the logistics behind a resistance group and more like a babysitter who'd just made her first three-figure paycheck. It was adorable watching her struggle with taking my money, but by all rights, she'd earned it.

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I made two cups of hot water, and thinking it was a bit late for caffeine and my guest was a bit young for drinking, put a packet of hot cocoa mix in each. The kind with tiny marshmallows -- a sweet tooth was among my vices, so I had a few packets on hand.

She sat down on the couch when I placed the mug in front of her and didn't touch it. The girl still had some guilt about using her powers for pay, maybe? It was hardly my place to interfere, but I couldn't just leave her feeling bad because she needed money but didn't want to take it. It really wasn't anyone's fault...maybe God's for her being an Exhuman, that she couldn't get a normal job and earn her money in a way she felt she deserved.

I leaned across the table and closed her fist around the chit on her palm. "Take it. You did good work today."

"Did I? I didn't...do anything. And it's so much money."

"It's the amount I agreed to. You should be able to live for quite a while on that amount if you take good care of it."

She didn't respond, but instead sunk further into her guilt. Which meant: I've just put my foot in my mouth, and more importantly, she didn't need the money just for living.

I tried to think of another tact but before I could, her mobile rang. She looked at me shiftily for a moment before standing up and pacing, turning the device over and over in her hands before finally snapping it on and to her ear.

"Hi Mom!" she said with bubbling enthusiasm. "Yeah, I got your messages. Things are just going awesome! I'm mega busy though...sorry I haven't called. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, I know. Look...I got classes in like, a minute, I need to pack and run. Yeah. Uh-huh." She blushed as she glanced over at me and I pretended to be absorbed in my cocoa. "Love you too. Talk soon, bye."

The cheap couch groaned as she threw herself into it.

"Mrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuurrghhhhhhhh!" she shouted into the cushion. I began to put together some possible theories of what might be connecting her mother, need for money, lies about being at school...and her Exhumanity.

"Rito...it's not for me to pry, but if you ever want someone to talk with...well, I'm someone, and I've been told I'm a pretty good listener. I'm happy to lend an ear."

She peeked up at me from between her blonde hair her arm on the couch before smashing her face back into it.

She said something incomprehensible.

"What?" I asked.

"I said," she said, turning her head so there wasn't a sofa directly blocking her face, "I'm just like, an idiot, and I'm sorry."

"Even sorry idiots have legitimate problems," I said with a reassuring smile, "and I don't really think you're either. If you don't want to talk about it, I understand, but--"

I heard the front door slam behind me. As I turned to look, the room suddenly went black as something solid slapped against the windows. Rito screamed and I fumbled in the dark for my mobile, fighting back the blackness with a tiny square of light.

My mind was racing. It wasn't possible for it to be black in here, the windows were letting in the sunlight and it was only late afternoon. Unless someone had turned off the sun or was screwing with our eyesight...but I could see well enough in the beam of light from my mobile, so it wasn't in my head.

I made it to a lightswitch and flicked it to no effect. Same with the one next to it. I made it as far as the window and saw it wasn't dark out, there was goop coating the outside of the window, like an enormous paintball or some kind of thick adhesive gel. The shutter wouldn't move, jammed by the gunk coating it.

"W-what's going on?" Rito asked, her own mobile now lit as well.

"I don't know. Get out of here. Get us both out of here, actually."

"W-where to?"

"I don't care, anywhere. Go!"

"Okay!" she said, trembling visibly even in the small square of light. "Um. Ummm."

"It doesn't matter where. Take us...take us to Demonhand's," I said, thinking of the last place we'd stopped.

"Okay!" She stood there shaking, but the world didn't change around us. "It's not working!"

"Why not?"

"Someone's watching us!"

I ran to her and grabbed her, making her shriek again, but we didn't have time for this. I steered her towards the bathroom and almost got us inside when I heard an explosion and felt like someone had punched me in the back. I fell forward, falling down past Rito, who looked at me with just...just horror lining her face in the dark.

I whipped out my powers, not knowing where to direct them but behind me. The kitchen tore itself apart and imploded, the straight lines of the counters and shelves stretching and bending into impossibly sharp blades, impaling the empty air.

I couldn't stop coughing and it felt wet but I couldn't see anything in the damn darkness, just Rito standing there in the bathroom doorway, frozen and trembling. My own mobile was a few feet away, face-down and framing itself in the dark like an eclipsed sun. I reached for it, and where I touched it, I saw I was leaving streaks of red.

The thought I've been shot only crossed my realization as there was another explosion and another bullet slammed me further into the thin, cheap carpet. I could taste the blood now, my ears rang from the gun being fired from so close. Again I tried to reach out with my powers but I didn't even know if they worked. It was so dark, and my body felt so heavy and useless.

I was going to die, I realized. Those fuckers at the XPCA had done it after all...they didn't care at all about our rights or the threat we posed, they'd deal with us the same way they always had, chased down like dogs.

I smelled something slightly acrid. Maybe something else my attacker was using? It wasn't a good smell, but familiar, like ammonia, almost. I cast my red-smudged light around as best I could, but all I could find was Rito, shaking where she stood, unmoving, a growing dark stain at the bottom of her shorts and her legs dripping.

I'd almost forgotten she was there, trying to make sense of what was happening to me, but if she didn't move, she'd die. Even if I couldn't find my attacker and save myself, I could still do something for her.

Though my mind felt heavy and dull, and it hurt to breathe, and my vision seemed small and distant, I forced my powers to shape the door she stood in, to dump her into the bathroom and seal it off behind her. She squealed as the floor upended her to draw her inside and screamed as the door twisted itself into a warped bramble.

"Rito...go…" I pleaded, as loud as I could muster, but I was afraid my voice didn't carry over the sound of the gunshot going off again, and I didn't know if she made it out because after that, everything just went black.