"Why is she here?" Tower asked with his typical understated grace. I pushed his finger out of my face with equal parts composure and contempt.

'Here' was a brightly-lit underchamber, concrete walls and rusting pipes. A service depot for underground rail long abandoned; a large room with makeshift boards laid over crisscrossing trenches, installed by the many XPCA swarming about to increase available floor space for their ops center.

If anything, it was Tower who seemed out of place. Too wide and too tall, his short, thick hair was grey with dust from the ceiling it had brushed against in the many passages we maneuvered to get here.

Or at least, I assumed they had. As Tower's words indicated, I had not arrived in their company. We were assembling here for final preparations before entering the lair further below.

Aside from the near-death experience of it and the traumatized and pathetic mental state I had been in, the last technopath lair I had visited was a welcome change of pace. Unlike most others, it was not squirreled away underground somewhere like the warren of a rabbit. The spatially-defying mayhem, while lethal, was refreshing.

"She is here because we need her." Colonel Dawn's voice came in over comms, audible only through the assistance of the hastily-deployed array of devices sharing the chamber with us. "We're missing Tem and Moon now. Chariot is...off his game apparently," she added, glancing at him and his exosuit significantly. "And so we have some hunters and shadow ops with you on this one. And by 'some' I mean...just her."

"You can't be serious. We don't need backup like her! Chariot told us she was behind those murders. She killed an XPCA dude. Tell 'em, man."

Ashton in his exosuit barely turned to face Tower. "It's a violation of my terms to idly chatter. I will not do so." I rolled my eyes. Idle chatter was essentially him in a nutshell, as it were. I had not yet worked in a professional capacity alongside him since his change -- whatever that had been -- though I had been seeing him in a more...furtive capacity on occasion.

It would be interesting to see him fight again. And the fact that I was only joining in on his ops in a situation where they could not refuse my aid was no coincidence.

"I can't believe you'd just put up with this," Tower said, apparently in dire need of getting the last word i. I suspected he was not taking this mission as seriously as he should have been, if he considered me a worry at all at this stage.

"Chariot's right," Colonel Dawn sighed. "And by right, I mean he knows the contract he wrote. Completely non-binding as it may be, let's focus on doing our damn jobs for right now, hmm?"

"It's crap, Cosette, and you know it too. Karu might have even been responsible for Moon disappearing so she could fill her slot."

"Honestly, what do you think I am?" I scoffed.

"Ten times a crazier bitch than I first thought, apparently." He crossed his arms.

"Now, now, Tower. There's no need to provoke hostilities," Jack said, appearing between us as he did. "I suspect we have a full day ahead of us even without creating new adversaries."

"Yeah, and I apologize if it sounded like I was asking before," Colonel Dawn said. "It's an order for you guys to go in there and do your jobs. And not make my life shit."

Tower shook his head but turned towards the tunnel that would be our exit. "This is gonna suck so bad. Everything's so messed up. Why are they sending us on this suicide mission anyway? Why can't we just bomb it or something?"

"I would assume the upper echelons have their reasons," Jack said with a smile. "Though those reasons may be as simple as the fact that we are not well-regarded by the greater XPCA, and are liable to be the first pick for a 'suicide mission', as you put it."

"Awesome," Tower said with a shake of his head, and then finally, mercifully, shut up as Colonel Dawn began her report.

"We initially found this one by abnormal power drain from the grid. The city workers investigated and found the drain coming from the old metro tunnels under the city, and right there is where we should have been called in. Underground, devouring power, abandoned site, smacks of a technopath. But instead they kept poking their noses around until they lost 'em. And the fun news is now she knows we're coming. Recon team just got back and reports a barrier of some kind, like hard light."

"Dude, go grab Tem," Tower said to Ashton. "If it is hard light, she can move that stuff."

"It's not," Dawn sighed. "Everything that looks shiny isn't the same, Tower."

"It might be," he pouted.

"Well, for starters, it's not white, it's translucent green. And second, what the hell crawled into your nutsack this morning? You've been pissy all day."

"Moon's gone," he said. "Moon would never miss an op by choice. Something's seriously wrong. We should be leaving this guy to play with his glowing green BS and looking for her. Girl's got me having an ulcer and an aneurysm at the same time."

"Unfortunately, not the mission. Last we heard, she left by choice, making her desertion--"

"Alleged desertion."

"--very low priority in the great scheme of things. Tower, do I have to bench you too? Because I'm sick of your lip."

He just crossed his arms even more tightly and didn't respond.

"Well, you all know what to do," Colonel Dawn picked up again, more defeated than ever. "I won't bore you with any more details. Defeat the bad guy with words or force. She's already in technopath phase two where she's disrupting the area around her lair, so we're on the clock before she steps it up to phase three."

"What happens in phase three?" Tower asked.

"Boom, typically," I answered. "Technopaths are frequently physically frail -- by Exhuman standards -- and consider themselves more so as their powers develop and they realize how vulnerable they are to such things as their own devices. Their fear drives them to reclusion, but eventually their confidence in their creations will slay that fear, at which point they do what comes natural."

Jack nodded. "Few are as merciless as those who see themselves as oppressed. I had hoped the opening of New Eden would have eliminated these kinds of things. Technopaths more than most I would think could have a place in the world above."

I smiled at his naivety. "Do not forget that Exhumans, all Exhumans violate the laws of physics on the regular. Ashton can create and move electricity with his mind. There is more to a technopath than the creation and deployment of science-fiction tech, and I think you would find them little place in the greater world. But enough words, shall we begin?"

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Colonel Dawn replied. "The tunnels go down quite a ways before you reach the first barrier. After there, we'll probably lose contact with you, but we'll cut the Exhuman from the power grid, which will hopefully let you in. If not...you have Jack, and Jack has blast charges. All clear?"

The four of us replied with an unenthusiastic hooah, helped by Ashton's synthesized voice and Tower's obvious reservations. But we were here, and we were ready.

And somewhere, in the depths below us, she was waiting.

For ten minutes or more, our footsteps echoed with the crunching of loose rock underfoot as we followed the disused rail lines. I had to hope that the target's defenses would be lower on account of the illusion of safety created from the infuriatingly inaccessible place they chose to make their home, but I had my doubts. The others with me had it worse off, as it were; bereft of optics, their vision must have seemed oppressively small in the dark.

I took the opportunity to sidle up on Ashton, keeping my visor on high alert of any unexpected readings and slowing my pace to fall beside his long, deliberate strides.

"It has been awhile," I said to him. "You have not visited recently. Are you coy? Or is your leash too short?"

He ignored me and kept on walking with an uninterrupted pace.

"Oh Ashton, you can speak with me at least. It will kill nobody to see us on friendly terms. And it is selfish, besides, for you to visit me only when you have need of me."

"We will not converse," came the terse, synthesized reply.

"And why not? I hardly consider myself bound to your foolish contract."

He stopped dead. "Those were my terms of cooperation. If they will not be held, I will abort the mission."

The rest of us paused as well, Tower looking weary as though he had seen this all before. "You would abandon the mission over a few exchanged words? Come now." I smiled at him disarmingly. "For old time's sake?"

"I am leaving," Ashton said, turning to go. My mind felt as though it had mud under its tires. This wasn't possibly how Ashton conducted himself. The change was too drastic. And yet, he was plodding away with the same insistent pace, but now away from me.

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"Wait," I called after him. "I will cease my efforts to engage you." I shook my head and glanced at Tower, whose expression clearly said I never had a chance. Ashton paused, turned, and then continued back towards our target without a word.

The mood of the tunnel seemed somehow even darker than before. Ashton's footfalls sounded weighter and louder. At long last, Tower spoke up again, his voice hesitant with the dread which was likely getting to him.

"Hey Karu, what were you saying before about there being more to a technopath? They make tech and use it, right? That's it. That's the tech...in technopath. Right?"

"You are not incorrect," I said, glancing backwards from the front of our little formation. Tower and Ashton were in line behind me, with Jack darting around as he saw fit. "But there is hardly anything supernatural about that, would you agree? Yet we would not claim that every genius inventor is an Exhuman."

"Yeah, I guess. But I thought their tech just doesn't work for others?"

"I am certain it could if they had the propensity and desire to make it so. But they do not exactly tend to welcome the company of others, as you can see." I swept my arms out to gracefully encompass the entirety of this humid, fetid armpit through which we were strolling. "Rather, I believe they tend to make their devices easy for themselves to use, without concern of how it would function for others."

"And how do they do that? Fingerprint locks or something?"

I laughed. "You forget they are Exhuman. Just as you can control your powers with your mind, as Ashton can interface with electricity, so too can they interface with their own created technology."

"So...a neural link."

"In the same manner that it is a neural link which runs down your back and moves your limbs, yes. It is an extension of them, as your powers are an extension of you. It is not so crass as a headset which interprets your brain patterns or the like."

"Okay. But functionally, still just a neural link."

I frowned. "Again, you are not incorrect, but it is dangerous to consider them in that limited regard. It is not a matter of them being able to flip their on and off with a thought, and foolish to draw such an analogy."

"Just tell me already what isn't dangerous or foolish to think, then?" He sounded as though he were not enjoying this conversation, which was understandable as he had done little more than repeat his preconceptions iteratively.

"Consider this," I began a different approach. "Many Exhumans can manipulate primal forces of nature. For you, it is kinetic energies. For Ashton, electrical current. This makes you capable and dangerous. Do you agree?"

"Sure."

"Now imagine that instead of a primal force, you were able to construct your own force and manipulate that. Instead of working with stone and hurtling rocks at you, they could, say, construct chainsaws and hurtle them at you instead."

"Wait, chainsawpath? Is that a thing?"

"It could be," I shrugged. "However a typical chainsaw would likely be too crude and primitive for an aspiring technopath, so they might...jazz it up a bit, as it were. Atomically-honed edges. Blades which could split and recombine. Plasma emitters to make the blades as maneuverable as a Peregrine in flight. All of this, through their 'neural link'."

"Woah. That's not fair."

"My earlier metaphor was apt. The difference between a fully-realized technopath and others is as different as two going to war armed with rocks, or with guns. This, and their propensity for paranoia is why they are considered the very worst of Exhumanity after Code-X. They are flexible, intelligent by definition, patient by need, and relentless given their persecution."

"Their alleged persecution?" he asked.

"Hardly. Were I capable, I would snuff out every one of them given half a chance, and few in the world think differently than I. Theirs is a life too dangerous to live."

"Uh. You do know on this mission we can talk to them. New Eden is a thing."

"She will not accept and we endanger ourselves by making the attempt. I will speak through my weapons."

In the periphery of my visor I could see him walking directly behind me with a frown large enough to match his stature. "Well that's all Exhumans if you want to get into it."

"All Exhumans typically fall into the camps of mentally unstable enough to do something irreparably foolish when they first turn, or clever enough to hide out. Technopaths defy this, and in so doing, step up to the executioner's block."

"So neglecting the part where you're a crazy psycho as we've established--" he said.

"Of course."

"--how do you beat a technopath if they're so strong?"

"Primarily by getting the drop on them. A technopath is only as strong as they are prepared. Our mark has been here for a time, but only recently learned she'd been discovered. How confident or wary she is will--"

I signaled for a stop and the three of us dropped to one knee. In the very remote distance down the tunnel I could pick up an energy reading unlike any I'd seen before.

Jack was suddenly at my side. "You see it as well?" he asked me.

"Yes. The green barrier of which Colonel Dawn spoke."

It crossed the entire tunnel, walling it off from this side. I had expected a side passage with a doorway or the like, not a tunnel-spanning monstrous wall. I did not know how impenetrable it would prove, but if it were any reasonable amount, our progression would be utterly foiled.

"Technopaths, like all Exhumans, have a specialty," I continued aloud as I filtered through my optics to get a clearer look. I could see through the wall well enough and saw no trace of its creator beyond it. "If you cannot attain complete surprise, the trick to beating them then, is to be able to defeat that specialty. I would not come at Ashton without resistive armor, would not fight Jack without some manner of area denial, and would not combat you without a means of harming you which is more than percussive." I looked back at Tower and gave him a smile. "I think toxic gas might be effective."

"So you are on this mission just to creep us out. Good to know," he said.

"The point, as it were, is that while there is nothing similar by necessity in the strategies which will work against technopaths as a whole, each has weaknesses. For example, if our target's specialty is a focus on barrier-generation tech, I suspect their capabilities to be wide-reaching but stationary. Understanding their generation points and avoiding them will be paramount."

"It's troubling," Jack said, "but I don't think I can pass through the fields. Around them yes, but that requires getting an angle, which we just don't have without doing some blasting first."

"Troubling and curious indeed," I said. "Let us advance and signal Central to cut the power."

Jack smiled. "As strike lead, I really should be the one issuing orders ma'am. Especially given that none of us here particularly trust you at the moment."

I made a show of shrugging. "Issue whatever orders you wish. I have begun a new policy of doing whatever I feel like, orders be damned. So no, I will not cease in telling others what to do when my life may be contingent on their success."

Jack did not argue, which was the wrong decision. A team needed clear leadership, and if he intended to be it, it would be in his best interests to shut me down at the first sign of an upset. The fact he did not confirmed what I already knew, that he was unfit to lead and therefore I should.

So as I had said, we advanced on the glowing green wall, thin and luminescent in the dark, as a sheet of glass made from uranium. I picked up a handful of dirt and rock and threw it, where it scattered and bounced as though it had hit a wall. With a clenched fist and a thought, one of my wrist-blades deployed and, hesitating only a moment, I pushed the tip against the surface.

Neither the blade nor the wall reacted in any way. It was a wall. My blade was not heated, the wall did not crackle or falter, nothing.

"Give us a breaching round, Jack," I said, extending a hand back towards him.

"I thought the plan was to cut the power," he asked.

"It is. But if our enemy is so thoughtful as to give us a functioning example of her capability, we should take advantage of the gesture to test its limits."

He shrugged his disagreement, but a blast charge was placed in my hands regardless. I held it to the wall and pressed but it did not adhere, merely sliding across the surface at any application of force.

Hmm.

I pressed the flat of my gloved palm against the wall and pushed, and then reeled at almost falling sideways.

"Lose your balance?" Tower gloated.

"It is frictionless, utterly. It is likely in alignment down to the molecular level. Such things do not exist in nature, and it is fascinating."

"So the charge doesn't have anything to stick to, you're saying? Why not just put it on the floor and lean it against the wall?"

"That would defeat the purpose of the shaped charge. Without secure mounting to contain and direct the force, it would become a very pointless rocket, with us in its flight path. It seems the charges are of no value here. Jack, you said you could not bypass it?"

"If I try, nothing happens, but nothing should stop me from going around, if only there were somewhere to go around from. It appears the nature of the tunnel is as defensible as the resident had hoped."

"Unless anyone else has any tests they wish to engage--" I started.

"I do," Tower cut in, and I backed off to let him stand at the wall. He didn't walk up, instead scanning the tunnel walls next to us. "This'll be a minute," he said, and then kicked off of one of them, flying parallel to the barrier, straight and unaffected by gravity. He ricocheted off the opposite wall with increased speed and force, bouncing back and forth with unerring accuracy, slowly at first but soon rebounding several times in a second through the multiplication of force.

And then at once, as though the wall he bounded off was slanted forty-five degrees, he hit off of it and directly into the barrier, his momentum stopping entirely with a crash.

The wall did react, ripples moving through it as though it were standing water, and it made a grating noise like nails on chalkboard which made the others flinch as my visor automatically caught and ablated the worst of the sound. It shimmered angrily for several moments, the green wavering in pulses, before resuming its previous, tranquil vigil.

"Maybe twice as fast next time," Tower said, panting slightly.

Ashton wordlessly strode forward, the rock crunching under his exosuit's massive feet. He raised both arms and after a moment, a blade was conjured directly before him, on the other side of the wall.

"You can manifest powers through it?" I asked.

"I can. I have to reach around it. It's hard to explain." The blade moved beyond the wall, but only sluggishly. "It diminishes my range to almost nothing."

"So you can't, but you have a loophole. I figured a no when Jack could not bypass it. This will not be an easy or enjoyable task, I fear."

"Let's call Cosette," Jack said. "And have her cut the power. With luck, we'll find our target helpless without it."

I gave him a wry smile. "I very much doubt that, but it is a start regardless. Please do so."

After a brief conversation wherein there was much repeating, as the signal quality was at a minimum, Colonel Dawn finally understood and confirmed our situation and let us know that the power would be cut momentarily.

"What do you think will happen?" Tower asked me. I found it endlessly amusing that he was asking questions of me the entire way, now. He may not trust me, but he recognized experience and sought to learn from it. Not dissimilar to Ashton's and my relationship at the moment, I thought.

"Either the barrier will go down, or it will not. If it does, we proceed. If not, we begin deploying the blasting charges at the walls until we have tunneled around it or can continue no further."

"Then let's hope for the first one," he said.

As though in reaction to his words, the field shimmered and wavered as it had in the aftermath of his impact against it, as though struggling to remain translucent, it flushed green and faded clear in a rhythm like a weakening pulse. And then it faded fully to clear and the energy signatures on my visor were gone.

"Your hope has been answered," I said. "Now let us hope that mine are as well and we find the target helpless."