Amenirdis

Amenirdis took one more look at the city surrounding her projected body. When she was done, she dismissed the projection, calling back her consciousness.

She woke up, back in her real body. On the ground of the chamber where she and her companions had been buried for millennia.

The first thing she felt was pain, but there was nothing unusual about that. She spotted three stalagmites, piercing through her. One had stabbed up through her stomach, another through her right shoulder, and the third through her heart.

Amenirdis could feel more stone shifting around her, trying to secure more footholds. Fortunately, her companions were already at work. Javed leaned over her, grabbing two of the stalagmites, then snapping them off and tossing them to the side. His ribcage hung open - something had torn into him while she was out.

As Javed took care of the third stalagmite, Pelagia let out a burst of lightning, scouring away the smaller pieces of stone. The room fell quiet - they'd endured this wave of its attacks.

The respite wouldn't last, things were never calm here for long. Whenever one of them was away, the other two had to pick up their slack. Their captor was long dead, but his vengeance would haunt them until they could escape.

Amenirdis pulled herself off what remained of the stone that had impaled her. The holes would close before long, they always did. She walked to the edge of the chamber, and sat down against the wall.

None of them wore the fancy guises they used for presenting themselves to mortals. They could, if they felt like it, but they had nothing to prove to each other. No matter what forms they took, the chamber would always find a way to try to absorb them, just as it had taken all their other companions.

"How's your new protege doing?" Javed asked, sitting down next to her.

"She's started collaborating with Roadripper," Amenirdis reported. "So far, they're tolerating each other, but Cybermind's patience is limited. We'll probably need to have her pull the trigger sooner rather than later, even if it means not causing enough damage to reach our full strength."

The conversation would have been incomprehensible to almost anyone else. In the time the three of them had spent together, they'd hacked together their favorite pieces of every language they knew, and they knew many.

Amenirdis glanced at Pelagia, where she sat facing the two of them. "You know, we wouldn't have to be doing it this way if you had kept your pawn from killing mine."

"None of us have perfect holds on our targets," Pelagia replied. "We both failed to stop our ends of the confrontation. And I did try to convince Fenrir to spare Inferno - that's how we lost her as well."

"True," Amenirdis acknowledged. "No point in looking back, I suppose."

"Speaking of dealing with our losses," Javed added, "we don't have to stick with this attempt. We have others in the works, they might give us better odds at a full success."

"None of them have progressed far enough to rely on," Pelagia argued. "We don't know how long we'll have before others get the strength to match us. If we get the chance to get out of here, we need to take it, and sort out any consequences later."

The two of them had debated those approaches a few dozen times over the past year. Pelagia always won.

"One more thing," Amenirdis said. "Cygnus has been searching for someone able to break Fenrir's transformation. Are there any candidates?"

"I've seen a couple of power sets that might do it," Pelagia replied, "but they're all on other continents. I don't think he could bring someone from that far away."

"Even so," Javed noted, "there could be closer ones we just don't know about yet. And if he finds one, we'll have a problem. Fenrir knows too much."

Pelagia nodded, still looking at Javed. "You're up next, right? Keep an eye out. If you find a candidate, we can nip them in the bud."

"Yeah, soon as my reserves fill back up." Javed tucked his hands behind his head. His elbows jutted out to the sides, spreading his ribcage further open. "Gonna be a few hours, I think."

Amenirdis reached for Javed's ribcage, and ran her fingers down the inside as she looked back at Pelagia. "Guess we have some time to kill, then."

Javed shot a mischievous smile at the two of them. "I guess we do."

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Madison

Madison felt the headache coming back. She tried to listen to her instincts, figure out what her body wanted from her.

The headaches had been on and off for days, now, and nothing had helped. But... the more she considered it, the more she was starting to feel like she should go somewhere.

She was even getting a feeling about where. Somewhere to the west, close enough to walk.

Could just be my imagination, but what the hell. I don't have work today, it's worth a shot.

Madison followed her instincts, walking a few blocks west, plus a block north. She found herself in front of an apartment building - one that didn't look remarkable in any way. She lived in one just like it.

As she took it in, the headache began to fade, replaced by a different feeling. That there was a tiny hole under the building, leaking... something. Gas? No, that didn't sound right. She was sensing something else, some pressure that had become the headache, and she could feel the headache fade as she started to find other ways to process the sensation.

If I'm not imagining all this, it has to be some sort of powers thing, right?

Madison shut her eyes, trying to focus on the leak that had drawn her here, to understand what it could-

YEAH, NO. A deep, forceful voice, punching its way into her head. CAN'T HAVE THAT.

A vision flared into her mind's eye - a figure, glowing too bright to make out anything beyond the silhouette. It looked like a man with wings, at least four of them.

The headache was back, and with every word, Madison could feel it gripping her brain, as if to crush it. What the hell is going on?

NOTHING PERSONAL, the voice growled. BUT I NEED YOU TO DIE.

Madison felt herself drop to her knees, slump against the fence as her body directed all its energy to her brain, trying to stave off whatever the phantom assassin was doing to her. To... try to kill her, somehow? Why? What did I even do?

NONE OF YOUR CONCERN.

The phantom's influence felt like the leak she'd sensed - except it wasn't flowing out, it was flowing in, drowning her. Fuck, it felt like she was going to die, and if the voice was telling the truth, she was. I don't want to die!

Madison felt a spasm run through her, and tasted blood, and she was smelling it, too - was her nose bleeding? She couldn't open her eyes to check, the world around her felt too bright to even look at, how was she supposed to do something about this if she could barely think?

If it was like the leak, there had to be a hole, right? Not a physical one, but one she could sense with whatever she was doing. She focused on each part of her head, fighting through the pain to find something that felt off, anything...

...there. A spot near the back of her head, that the voice was reaching through, trying to crush her, but maybe she could make it

close.

The assassin's presence vanished. No more crushing grip, no more glowing figure, no more of that weird psychic speech.

Madison's awareness started to return to the rest of her body, as she gasped for breath. She wasn't sure how, but she'd blocked off the assassin's influence somehow - and that had been a power, hadn't it? A power that had... made them want to kill her, probably. But... if that was why, it meant they'd noticed the power even before she did. And they might have other ways to get to her.

She glanced around, feeling potential danger from every direction. Unless... could this still be a hallucination? But either way...

Madison grabbed the fence she'd been leaning against and pulled herself back to her feet, keeping a hold of it as she regained her energy. The best way to check if she really had powers was to find Louisville's real capes - Brigid and her crew - and maybe they could offer safety, too. She grabbed a handkerchief from her pocket, and wiped up the nosebleed as well as she could. When enough of her strength was back, she set off for City Hall.

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Eric

Eric connected the last of the power cables to the emitter. The newest prototype, and hopefully a more successful one.

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With everything in place, he retreated from the middle of the lab, joining Cybermind at the control panel off to the side. Even with the two of them in full costume, neither of them wanted to stand close to a signal they still barely understood.

"All good?" she asked.

Eric nodded. "Let's fire it up."

He pressed the button to activate the emitter, and it whirred to life. No visible change, but the noises made it clear that something was happening, and the screen showed readings of the output. It was going up, but...

"It's not enough," Cybermind said.

"Give it more time," Eric argued. "We just need it to hit the target before-"

A crack came from the emitter, and it fell quiet as the output stopped.

Eric glared at Cybermind. "I told you to make the connectors more sturdy this time!"

"I did make it more sturdy!" Cybermind snapped back. "Excuse me for only being able to do so much to contain a type of energy that no one else on the planet has ever even studied before!"

"We don't need excuses," Eric replied. "We need results."

"We will get results," Cybermind hissed. "But maybe you should worry more about your own parts of the project. We're supposed to be a team, you know."

"Did you forget whose lab this is?" Eric asked. "This is my project, Muriel brought you here to assist me."

Eric still wasn't quite sure what Muriel's deal was, or if Sniper actually understood the Book of Revelation as well as he claimed. But there was some sort of power down there, and he wanted to get a hold of it.

And for that to happen, Cybermind would need to quit whining and do her fucking job. They'd been at this for several days, now, and they were making some progress, but there was a lot left to do. Being a tech cape was supposed to mean skipping this kind of hassle - letting his intuition guide him to the right designs and imbuing them with power. Things weren't supposed to keep failing.

Thankfully, he'd always been good at picking up on details, on patterns. Like the trends in the names of the people who just so happened to have all the money.

"If you can't think of any improvements for the connector," Eric continued, "find a way to make this work with the connectors you have built. You're smart enough for that, right?"

"Of course I am," Cybermind growled. "Maybe if we redistribute it more, by... hmm." She grabbed a pen and notepad, and started writing something down.

Perfect. She can never resist a challenge.

As Cybermind scribbled down whatever new ideas he'd inspired in her, Eric heard footsteps from outside the lab. A quick knock on the door, followed by the door opening, without any attempt to wait for him.

Mark strode into the room - or Sniper, Eric supposed, since he was in costume aside from the mask. Artemis trailed behind, similarly wearing most of her armor but no helmet.

"Roadripper," Sniper greeted him. "How go the tests?"

"Not as well as we hoped," Eric replied. "Cybermind wasn't able to make the emitter last as long as we needed, but she's fixing her mistake right now."

Behind him, from where Cybermind was sitting, Eric heard the sound of paper crumpling. He ignored it.

Artemis was silent, scowling as her eyes darted between Eric, Cybermind, Sniper, and parts of the surrounding lab. She didn't look happy to be there, and Eric wasn't entirely sure why they'd bothered bringing her on in the first place. Extra muscle is nice, I guess, but Cybermind is the only one we actually need.

Artemis glared back at him. She'd noticed Eric's contempt for her, he was sure. He didn't care. She didn't matter.

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Andre

Andre swooped down. He landed next to Flashstep, and dropped the lowered gravity he'd used while flying. His suit had needed repairs after his fight with Fenrir, but thankfully, it was holding up.

Flashstep, of course, had much more to deal with. Seraph had sped him through the healing process, and had found a tech cape to send over a new leg built to his measurements, but even so, it had only been about a week since his injury. Having him back on patrols this soon didn't sound like it could be good for him, but he'd insisted as soon as he was decently steady on his new foot.

It seemed like he was in a hurry to move on, to prove to himself that the injury didn't actually matter. Probably not the healthiest approach - it reminded Andre of how Fenrir had acted, constantly finding new things to throw herself into, until...

Andre sighed. Was there another way he could have handled Fenrir's situation, before it reached this point? Either way, it wouldn't be helpful to pester Flashstep about it. Better to leave it to his actual teammates to figure out what he'd be open to hearing.

"You okay?" Flashstep asked.

I should be asking you that. "Yeah, just... God, this has been such a mess." Andre swept a hand out in his best guess at Hamilton's direction. "Still can't believe Artemis joined up with the redcapes."

"Either of them, really." Flashstep dropped down onto a bench, then ran a hand down his prosthetic, as if trying to massage away a pain in the leg he didn't have anymore. "Always thought they hated them the most of any of us."

"Eh," Andre said. "Less of a surprise for white girls."

A silence hung between them. Andre knew he'd made the conversation awkward, but the distinction was too relevant to ignore. He'd seen the sorts of shit Roadripper and other Hamilton capes had said.

"I guess," Flashstep acknowledged eventually. "Anyway, I'm ready to keep moving if you are."

The remainder of the patrol didn't take long. It was still weird, working with the bluecapes like this. Still, things had gotten too messy for them to afford not to collaborate, and it gave them reason to keep listening to him.

He would never be a cop. But maybe he could help make what was left of Cincinnati's capes into something else.

When they finished, Andre spoke into his headset. "Still nothing out of the ordinary."

"Hmm," Tameka's voice responded. "It's good that there's no trouble, but I feel like we're waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"You think Hamilton is planning something," Andre said.

"From the sound of things, ever since Labrys arrived, Roadripper has barely been seen outside his lab," Tameka replied. "Same with Cybermind. I think they're building something."

Andre winced. There was no telling what that could mean, but it didn't sound good. "Can we do something about it?"

"I raised the idea with Seraph," Tameka said. "She doesn't think Cincinnati has the strength to make the sort of strike force that would take. Going after Cybermind's lab was hard enough in our own city, with only a handful of capes defending it."

"Ugh," Andre groaned. "That means we'll have to stay ready for them to throw some real bullshit at us."

"Sounds like it," Tameka agreed. "Maybe we can get some help from... oh, huh. Interesting."

"Is it good news this time?" Andre asked.

"Could be," Tameka said. "Just got another message from Louisville. Woman there developed powers a few days ago, Brigid thinks she might be able to help us."

"Louisville, huh," Andre mused. "That's not too far. Once I'm home, I'll reach back out to them."

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Radha

Radha leaned back in her chair, in the apartment belonging to what was left of Labrys. Enduring Sniper and his team was fucking exhausting.

The door opened, and Monica strode into the apartment. She set down the bag she'd been carrying and started fishing around in it.

"Hey, Radha!" she called out, without looking up. "Check this out!"

Monica held up a small vial, containing a milky fluid. Radha recoiled as she processed the image.

"Is that..." Radha got out. "How did you-... eugh, don't tell me."

Monica laughed. "Ew, no, I didn't collect it myself. Just did some asking around, to find a place that could spare some."

"Why is it here?" Radha asked.

"Because this is the only place I can keep the shit I don't want Sniper or Roadripper asking about," Monica said. "I told you what we're gonna need once we win. But I need to make sure it works, first. Don't want it to turn out that we've doomed humanity to extinction, you know?"

"I... guess?" Radha replied. "So it's what, a reference point?"

"Yeah, need a baseline to compare to." Monica pulled some sort of machine out of a drawer, and slid the vial into one of its slots. Radha had seen Monica tinkering with the device, but they'd never talked about what it actually did. "The scanner can check the cells in the sample, and compare them to..." Monica pulled out another vial from the drawer. "This one!"

She inserted the second vial into the scanner, and turned it on. Monica wore an eager grin as the machine ran its process. Images and data popped up on the screen, rapidly at first, then slowed to a stop as the scan concluded.

"Fuck yeah!" Monica shouted. She raised a hand to offer a high-five to Radha, and Radha put up her own hand to accept it. "It's indistinguishable. No more fucking need for men. Once we get Lelti out, we can finally be free. And with no Y chromosomes around, they won't come back."

"Congrats," Radha said, more quietly than she'd expected.

Monica had told her about the plan as they'd fled Cincinnati, but it had never felt this... real. Kill all men had always been an impossible wish, had barely felt like more than that when she'd learned about Lelti offering it, but this... this was what the world would be soon, wasn't it? Monica's tech, everywhere.

"Nice to finally have things work again," Monica continued. "Roadripper's been all over my ass this past week about all the problems we've been running into."

Are you sure the scan checked everything relevant? Radha considered asking, then thought better of it. Monica had probably made sure of that, and she wouldn't want Radha to ruin the moment by challenging her.

"Roadripper's the worst," Radha remarked instead. "I can't stand the way he looks at me."

Monica's response was a laugh. "You barely see him! Try dealing with him like ten hours a day."

"I see him enough," Radha said, scowling. "At least he actually gives a shit about you."

"Gives a shit about me?" Monica wasn't laughing anymore. "Have you seen how he talks down to me? He doesn't give a shit about either of us, none of them do, we're just tools to them. And they're just tools to us, don't forget that."

"That's not what I mean," Radha hissed. "They built their fucking white supremacist kingdom, they don't think anyone else belongs here. They tolerate me, because I'm with you, but only as long as I toe their lines. I know what that looks like."

"They hate women, too," Monica fired back. "We're in the same boat, don't fucking act like we're not."

"It's not the same!" Radha shouted. "They still want white women to exist in their society, but they don't want the rest of us there at all! That difference matters, I studied this stuff, back with..."

"Back with Cygnus?" Monica snarled. "You're surprised that she would dismiss the exploitation of women, that she would look for ways to feel superior to the rest of us? You're gonna listen to HER?"

"This isn't about her!" Radha's foot stomped down as she rose out of her chair. "This isn't looking for ways to get offended, this is real! The fact that she got into all that gender bullshit later doesn't change that!"

"Doesn't it?" Monica asked, glaring up at her. "If you're getting this shit from people who are so easily distracted from real oppression, that should tell you what to think of it."

Radha breathed through her teeth, trying to figure out how the fuck to respond to that. Are you only talking like that because of the time we've been spending here? Or were you like this all along?

"Ugh," Radha groaned. "I... I'm gonna get some fresh air."

"Hm," Monica said. She seemed to be relaxing, taking it as a win. "Well, enjoy your walk, or whatever."

Radha stepped outside, letting the apartment's door slam shut behind her. She glanced up at the sky, blinking with the eye that still could.

We've lost everything. This is all we have left.

Isn't it?

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???

Where am I?

I'm floating, somewhere. Or nowhere? Drifting into different places, different bodies, different lives.

They aren't mine. They're memories, not real memories, but memories of impressions, extrapolations. From people I killed, or at least, people I ate.

Maybe one of them is mine. It's hard to remember which is which.

Sometimes I fall back into the wolf. In a cell, chained against a wall. I've been eating, but not really eating. I'm still empty, starving. I can't keep surviving like this.

I don't know how long I've been here. Sometimes, faces show up. Familiar ones. I forget the names, everything is so fuzzy.

They talk to me, usually. They don't have much to say, and it's hard to even follow.

I drift back into the cell while one of them is talking to me. He was my boss, I think, or something like that. The one I fought alongside.

I was supposed to tell tell him something, wasn't I. About... her. But I put it off, until I forgot it was even an option.

He's telling me... they have someone who might be able to help? But they need to get her here safely.

I hope it works. I want to get out of here, to be able to move again, think clearly again.

He's leaving again. Fuck, it's too soon. I want to reach out, beg him to stay. But I can't.

He's gone, and I'm alone again. I guess I'll just...

...drift.