Act 4

Julian

Julian sat outside the room Artemis was in. Seraph and Mirage were with Artemis, keeping an eye on her as she changed out of her armor. If there was trouble, he'd teleport in to help - offers of privacy could only go so far.

He would have stayed standing, until recently. Staying on his feet for long stretches of time was less comfortable now that one of those feet was metal.

I knew the risks going into this work, Julian reminded himself. He liked to think he was handling it pretty well, and it helped that Seraph had gotten a hold of some good tech. Still, it wasn't ideal.

And now he was back in the vicinity of one of the people he'd been fighting when he'd lost his leg. Artemis had assured them she wasn't interested in more trouble, and she'd lost things from the clash as well. Still, it was a weird situation.

Before long, Artemis emerged in civilian clothes, her hands cuffed behind her as Seraph and Mirage lead her out of the room. Which probably wouldn't do much, with her enhanced strength, but Julian supposed it was a matter of principle. Her right eye was an empty socket.

"Cygnus is on his way," Seraph announced. "He's bringing Fenrir and Anima - sounds like things worked out. We'll untangle things once everyone's here."

Bringing all of Cincinnati's factions together hadn't gone over well last time, Julian noted. But this time, the only Labrys member present was in chains.

The four of them headed to the meeting room, where Chroma and Neodym were waiting. Chroma was still cuffed as well, at his own insistence. No one seemed determined to argue with that.

Artemis sat down between Seraph and Neodym, scowling wordlessly at the others. Julian had the impression that she was most interested in talking to Cygnus, which... sounded likely to get heated.

Eventually, footsteps heralded the arrival of Cygnus's group. Julian had never seen Anima before, or Fenrir's current form, but he supposed Anima had to be the one with some semblance of a costume. Fenrir's way of holding herself seemed familiar, as well - not everything about her stayed consistent, but some things did.

"Artemis," Cygnus began. "This sure is a surprise."

"It's what you wanted, wasn't it?" Artemis growled. "Me, at the mercy of your club. Go ahead, humiliate me."

"What are you actually looking for?" Cygnus was still standing, as were his companions. "Thought you'd gone full redcape. What changed?"

"I was never a real redcape," Artemis argued. "We were working as rogues, like you. Redcapes are racist assholes, I got fed up with their shit."

"You knew redcapes were racist assholes, before you started working with them," Cygnus said. "Does this mean you haven't changed, then? You just expected to be an exception, and found out you weren't?"

"No, I... everything happened so fast," Artemis protested. "We were trying to get away, and then Lelti, she contacted Cybermind, and..."

"Lelti?" Seraph asked. "Who's that?"

A fearful look crossed Artemis's face. "She... I still don't really get it, but she had some sort of psychic communication, she never talked to me, apparently it had to be the right people..."

"Oh, fuck," Fenrir said, speaking up for the first time. Her eyes were wide, haunted. "What did she want you to do?"

"Fenrir?" Cygnus sounded concerned. "Do you know something about this?"

Fenrir flinched, clenching her hands. Artemis filled the silence with her own response. "She... wanted Cybermind to build something. Along with Roadripper, he was in on it too. But she didn't talk to the redcapes directly, someone else did. Muriel, I think."

"Muriel?" Anima asked. "Like, an angel?"

Seraph styled herself as an angel, too, but Anima seemed focused on something else.

Artemis nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, they convinced Sniper they were angels. They said... there's this seal on the stuff that makes up powers, keeping most of it underground. But there's some big cracks in it, in Hamilton, and they wanted to... expand those, somehow."

"FUCK!" Fenrir shouted. "Fucking DAMMIT!"

Cygnus still had his mask on, but Julian could imagine the look he was giving to Fenrir. Fenrir had been to Hamilton, he remembered, and if she'd been in contact with those people...

"Fenrir," Cygnus said, "what the hell did you do?"

----------------------------------------

Andre

Fenrir was looking away from him, away from everyone, flinching as if she expected to be punched. Andre didn't want to push her too much, but the longer she danced around the topic, the more he was getting worried about what she was hiding.

"Told you what I did," Fenrir mumbled. "Ate that guy with the shield. But... she told me to do it."

"She?" Andre tried to soften his voice this time. "That psychic woman? Lelti?"

"A different one." Fenrir was twitching nervously, still looking away. "Pan... Pandora. But she was part of this, she didn't want me to kill that one TERF."

"Inferno," Radha growled.

"Fenrir, explain," Seraph said. "And please sit down, all three of you."

Andre took a seat, and Fenrir and Anima took the ones to his sides. Radha glared across the table at the group.

"She said she wanted to get rid of powers," Fenrir said. "Or... maybe she just implied it. Let me hear what I wanted to hear."

"That's what you wanted?" Andre asked. "To take away powers? From everyone?"

"Of course!" Fenrir finally looked back at him, her face pleading for understanding. "How do you think we got into this mess?"

Seraph spoke up again. "Powers destabilized society, but that doesn't mean taking away powers would fix things. What it would definitely cause is another round of instability."

"It would give things a chance to heal," Fenrir argued. "We won't get that as long as random people keep turning into superweapons."

"And what about the people who depend on powers right now?" Andre asked. "People getting medications from Sirona - like me? You couldn't have at least talked to us about this?"

"I was going to!" Fenrir protested. "I just... took too long. I don't think it's what she's actually after, anyway."

"Hmph," Seraph grunted. "We'll set this aside for now. Artemis, what did those people offer your group?"

It was Radha's turn to flinch. "It's not important. Like Fenrir said, it's all bullshit."

"Must have been some serious shit, if you'd rather agree with Fenrir than own up to it," Andre said. "Radha, what did you agree to?"

Radha swallowed. "There were... two offers. Muriel appeared to Sniper, and told him he'd been chosen to help enact... the Book of Revelation. We pretended to be going along with it."

"The Book of Revelation," Seraph repeated. "You mean, the biblical apocalypse."

"And what were you aiming for?" Andre asked.

Radha stared down at the table. "Cybermind was the one aiming for it. I just got pulled along, I realized I couldn't be part of it, I didn't really do anything to help..."

Andre had a sinking feeling about where this was headed. "Get to the point."

"Getting rid of all the men," Radha said.

The room went silent. How the fuck were they supposed to respond to that?

"So," Andre finally said, "by that you mean murder, right? Genocide?"

"I left once I thought about what it meant," Radha mumbled.

Andre took in a breath, let it out. "Out of curiosity, what did that agreement say about trans men? Would we have died, too?"

Radha's gaze dropped further. "I... didn't ask."

"Fucking Christ, Radha," Andre murmured. How do I even process all this?

Another silence, broken by a new voice.

"So, uh, horrifying as all this is," Neodym said, "what the hell is the deal with those psychic people?"

"One of them tried to kill me," Anima noted. "He looked like an angel, I think it was Muriel. He tried to, like... crush my brain, I think. Through the mental connection."

"They can what?" Mirage asked. "Is that something they can just... do, to any of us?"

"Not just anyone," Anima said. "Only if they... fuck, I forgot to check everyone!"

Anima jumped to her feet and walked behind Mirage, in the other seat next to her, then put her hands on her shoulders. "Don't mind me, this won't take long."

"Wait, what?" Mirage asked. "Oh, is this the thing you did for Chroma?"

"Yeah," Anima said. "I can check if people are susceptible to the mental links, and block it if they are. You're clear, next up is..." She looked at Flashstep, in the next seat over. "You."

The conversation paused as Anima circled the room, checking everyone she hadn't arrived with.

"Everyone's fine," she finally said. "Um, Chroma, that includes you, now. I don't think you need the handcuffs, if that's what they're for."

Chroma shrugged. "That's fair." He put out his hands, and Neodym unlocked them.

"Anyway," Seraph declared, "back to the psychics. They're after something, and they think the end times are an acceptable cover for it. What the hell is their deal?"

"Pandora told me she was ancient," Fenrir said. "And somewhere underground, where the powers have been sealed. Could have been making things up, but based on what Artemis said... maybe she wants to get out."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Fenrir seemed to be getting more lucid, which was good. But it also made it easier for Andre to stay pissed at her.

"Hm," Seraph grunted. "Whatever it is, it sounds like bad news. And if Cybermind is working towards it, we need to stop her."

----------------------------------------

Radha

"I've seen a lot of the operations in Hamilton," Radha volunteered. "I can fill you in."

Somehow, this felt like her biggest betrayal of Monica yet.

"Your help would be appreciated," Seraph said, from beside her. "And we will consider it when deciding what to do about your past actions. But do not expect us to just forget them."

Radha lowered her gaze again, guilt bubbling up for...

No. What the hell was she doing, acting like this?

"Why do you keep acting like I'm the worst person here?" Radha snapped. She glared across the table at Fenrir, would have raised a finger to point if she hadn't been handcuffed. "He's the one who killed a bunch of people!"

Fenrir's current body looked disturbingly familiar. Not quite like Camilla, but there was enough resemblance to be uncanny.

"We will deal with Fenrir, as well," Seraph said. "At least she never intentionally fought us. You were part of the attack that killed my predecessor."

Of course. Everyone takes the most charitable interpretations of a man's actions.

"Also, Fenrir's not a he," Cygnus added. "You want to prove you're better now than you were then? Get it right."

They'll take every excuse to humiliate me. I'm here to stop Monica, not to pretend that people are something they're not!

"Ugh," Radha groaned. "Fine. I'll take the punishment for my actions, and Fenrir will take... hers."

"I could hear the air quotes there," Cygnus said. "Try again."

"Now you're going to police how I pronounce things?" Radha asked.

"If it helps," Fenrir remarked, "I go by either she or they."

Radha locked her eye with Fenrir's. "Fenrir will take theirs."

Fenrir frowned. "Scratch that, you don't get to call me they. It comes off different from you."

Radha felt her mouth gape open as she turned to Cygnus. "You cannot expect me to believe that's a legitimate... pronoun... thing."

"Fenrir's got a point, actually," Cygnus said. "It does sound different. Anyway, do me next."

"There are nine capes here," Radha hissed. "THIS is what you want to focus on?"

"Cygnus is right," Seraph said. "Considering your history, this is important."

I'm surrounded by lunatics.

Radha took in a breath, trying to set aside everything she knew about Cygnus. "Cygnus needs to mind his own goddamn business."

"There we go," Cygnus said. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"Next time you want to torture me, just waterboard me instead," Radha grumbled. "If you're satisfied that I'm not gonna flip out on you all again, what about Fenrir? Can you say the same for... her?"

"I fixed the damage to Is- ...to Fenrir's power," Anima said. "I think it's what caused them to get stuck in wolf form like that. I don't know where the damage came from, but..."

"It was Pandora," Fenrir added. "She did something to me, when I refused to spare Inferno."

Radha felt herself wince at the casual mention of Camilla's death. As she did, Anima nodded. "Well, she shouldn't be able to reach you anymore."

"That's good," Fenrir said. "Speaking of problems with my power, did you notice the other one?"

"I noticed something, but I wasn't sure what," Anima replied.

Fenrir gestured to "her" self. "According to Pandora, whatever bodies I take can only last about a week, before they fall apart and I go werewolf again. Does that fit what you saw?"

"I..." Anima began. "I could see that. But... I couldn't do anything about the parts of your power that were already messed up. And that means..."

Fenrir's face split in a fierce grin. "It means in the long term, I'm screwed. As long as this fighting continues, I'll have fresh bodies to munch on. But when things calm down? I'll be too much trouble to keep around. You'll have to dispose of me - and I won't resist. That solves your problem, doesn't it, Seraph?"

"Fenrir!" Cygnus shouted. "This is extreme, there's no need to jump to that. We'll have time to look for another solution!"

"Don't act surprised," Fenrir said. "That holding cell you made for me, you had to have started working on it before the first time I went berserk. We all knew this might not keep working out."

Radha scoffed. "Well, I'm in favor of getting rid of the cannibal psychopath."

"Artemis, shut up," Seraph hissed from beside her, before turning back to the rest of the room. "We will consider alternatives, if any become apparent. However, all things considered, Fenrir is right that this may become necessary, and that it would simplify the matter of addressing her earlier infractions. Thank you, Fenrir, for your candor."

Radha glanced around the room. Fenrir seemed to be taking some sick satisfaction in the offer. Cygnus's hands were on the table, balled into fists. Anima was looking back and forth, between Fenrir and Seraph.

"I believe this concludes our main topics," Seraph announced. "For now, Artemis will remain in our custody, and Fenrir may return to the Alchemists. We will continue planning to address Cybermind and these psychics. Does anyone have any final questions?"

She paused, then continued. "No? Then let's wrap this up."

Radha shut her eye as the assembled capes began to stand, to file out of the room.

Now what?

----------------------------------------

Monica

It was just her, now.

Her and Liz - but Liz couldn't even do anything, she'd never really been one of them. Fuck, what had Radha been thinking?

The only thing to do was keep moving. She'd lost equipment, in the fight in her lab. But nothing she couldn't replace.

Days passed. More building, more testing, more tolerating Roadripper. Until...

"It's working," Monica breathed. All readings from the latest test were within the range they'd needed.

"Finally," Roadripper said. "Now all that's left is to build enough of these things and deploy them."

"And fight to deploy them, you mean," Monica corrected. "Placing the Cincinnati ones will take everything we've got."

Roadripper grinned. "And what we've got is a lot. We've seen to that. We won't lose. We can't."

Cincinnati had similar numbers, but none of them were tech capes. They were stuck with the powers they'd started with, while the two of them could keep building better weapons, and more of them.

Fenrir was a wild card, if they got him back into action, but he'd proven most dangerous in werewolf form. Unusually strong, Camilla had lost even with Monica's tech - but Roadripper had weapons that could hit hard enough to hurt him.

"We better not," Monica said.

The two of them passed on the news to Sniper. He'd organize the other capes - and the militia. They were only good for distractions and shows of force, but now was the time to call that in.

As she returned from his office, her phone buzzed with a message.

> RAD-ha: Monica, you have to call this off.

>

> RAD-ha: Lelti lied. Her group told us one thing, Sniper another, Fenrir something else...

>

> Wrath_Mechanic: Now you're citing FENRIR to me?

>

> Wrath_Mechanic: What the fuck happened to you?

>

> RAD-ha: I'm not asking you to believe Fenrir! I'm asking you not to believe Lelti!

>

> Wrath_Mechanic: You chose your side! I'm not listening to any more of your bullshit!

>

> Wrath_Mechanic: The fact that Cincinnati even LET you message me says everything I need to know about your allegiances.

>

> Wrath_Mechanic: Shove it up your ass and get out of my life!

Who did she think she was? Trying to take away the one thing she had left?

Once the world was fixed, she'd be the most powerful cape around. The only one able to use her tech and Roadripper's. She'd have the chance to find Radha again, see if there was any salvaging her.

For now, there was no time to worry about that. The only thing to do was get ready.

----------------------------------------

Tameka

Tameka frowned as she browsed through social media posts from Hamilton. They added up to a clear picture, and it wasn't a good one.

She pulled up her messages, to inform the others.

> RAD-ha: She's not gonna listen. She's not letting herself consider anything else.

>

> Cygnus: You have GOT to change that name

>

> RAD-ha: What, I can't be *any* kind of radical anymore?

>

> agp-werewolf: if she gets to use that name I get to use this one

>

> RAD-ha: Seriously? THAT'S how you'll refer to yourself?

>

> agp-werewolf: you got it

>

> Cygnus: Look you've seen what those people are when it comes down to it

>

> Cygnus: They stand for cis white women and no one else

>

> Cygnus: You really want to keep associating yourself with that?

>

> Artemis: Ugh. Fine. Satisfied?

>

> Cygnus: Yes. Thank you.

>

> Thousand_Eyes: Looks like we're out of time. Hamilton's on the move

>

> Cygnus: Shit. What are they doing?

>

> Thousand_Eyes: Everything. They're mobilizing the militia, and a bunch of equipment

>

> Seraph: Dammit. We didn't have a good plan of attack before, and we're definitely not gonna have one now.

>

> Seraph: Only thing to do is defend. I'll have August get his folks ready, meet their militia with ours.

>

> Artemis: They'll have capes escorting them. Sniper talked about this, he'll be with them.

>

> Seraph: And we'll do the same. This is gonna get ugly.

That was all she could do for now. Tameka got up, to warn anyone who hadn't been glued to their electronics for some godforsaken reason.

She found Sirona in one of her labs, fiddling with a metal briefcase. As Tameka approached, she caught sight of some vials inside, before Sirona snapped it shut.

"Hey, Sirona," Tameka greeted her. "You see the messages?"

"About Hamilton?" Sirona asked. "Yeah, I saw."

"That's good." Tameka glanced at the case. "Say, what's that about?"

She'd seen the case before, but never the contents. She'd assumed it was some sort of documents for Sirona's medical work.

"Ah." Sirona frowned. "It's a side project, for emergencies. Hopefully it won't come up, but I figured I should check on it."

Tameka hated having gaps in her knowledge, but unfortunately, most people seemed to put a lot of value on privacy.

"Alright," Tameka said. "Well, good luck with everything."

Sirona nodded, and Tameka left. Let's see how well we can prepare before they get here.

----------------------------------------

Isaac

Madison had convinced Seraph that I was relatively safe to allow back into battle - at least, as safe as before my fight with Inferno. I wasn't sure I was convinced.

I'd finally put everything out there. No one had been happy about much of it, but it was still a weight off my shoulders. And after the past few days, my mind was probably as recovered as it would ever be.

I still wasn't sure how many people I'd amalgamated to form my current body, and if anyone knew, they hadn't told me. I couldn't pick out specific impulses and ideas the way I'd done with previous borrowed bodies, there was just this background haze of contradictory feelings. Maybe that was more dangerous, more likely to slip past my defenses.

If so, at least it wouldn't last long. After the upcoming fight, I'd have a new body to take this one's place. And...

"I think you're right," Madison said, her hands on my shoulders as she sat behind me. "The part of your power that's holding your current body together feels fragile. You could stop your heart at will - and, uh, please don't. At least not here?"

I grinned. "Great. No need for a suicide pill this time."

Madison squeezed my shoulders tighter. "God, this stuff is all so fucked up. How do you deal with it all?"

I would have shrugged, if I'd been able to move my shoulders. "Disassociation, I guess?"

"That can't be healthy," she said. "Especially for..."

"For a killing machine?" I offered.

"No!" Madison protested. "Just... a cape. A strong one."

I got up from my chair, then turned to face her. "Look, I'll have time to sort out my feelings after all this. Or I won't, in which case I don't want to spend the rest of my life wallowing in bitterness. I've spent enough time doing that already, you know?"

Madison frowned and looked away. "Maybe you're fine with things going that way, but I'm not. I care about you, and so do Shane, and Hana, and Carlos. And Cygnus and the other Alchemists, too, I can tell."

"I'm not sure about Sirona," I said. "Can never tell with her."

Madison snorted. "She probably does, and either way the point stands, you fucking nerd."

I laughed, and wrapped my arms around her. "Look, we'll do our best, okay? I dunno if we'll get everything we want. But we'll get whatever we can."

Madison hugged me back. "I hope you're right. And not just technically correct - don't think I didn't notice how vague that was."

"You know me too well," I complained.

As we released each other, voices reached us, from a few rooms down. A heated discussion, and in this part of Seraph's headquarters, it was easy to guess who it was.

"Want to see how they're doing?" I asked.

"I..." Madison exhaled. "Sure. Why not."

We made our way over, Cygnus and Artemis's voices growing clearer as we approached. It didn't sound like Artemis had turned outright hostile, and Seraph had been keeping guards present to make sure she wouldn't try anything. Still, she clearly wasn't happy.

"You can't know that for sure," Artemis was saying. "Especially now."

"We know how things were going before the world fell apart," Cygnus argued. "As long as people get the lowdown on what they're getting into, they're not likely to go for things they'll seriously regret. People can decide what's right to do with their own bodies."

"This coming from the drug dealer," Artemis shot back.

I poked my head into the room. Four armed guards stood behind Artemis, who wore the eyepatch she'd gotten not long after arriving, as her remaining eye glared at Cygnus. Part of the scar I'd given her was visible below the patch.

"Ugh," Artemis said. "YOU'RE here, too?"

I gave as pleasant of a smile as I could manage. "Just saying hi. Don't mind us."

I took a seat by Cygnus, and Madison did the same.

"I do mind," Artemis growled.

Cygnus ignored the interruption. "Trying to force people not to take drugs never went well, hormones or not, so sure, I'll take that analogy. Let people do what they want."

I wasn't sure if Cygnus's attempts to deprogram Artemis were having much effect, but he seemed to think it was worth a shot. If nothing else, it was a chance to watch her squirm in the face of basic decency.

"Say, if we're talking detransitioners..." Madison met Artemis's eye. "I'm one of those, you know. And people who discouraged experimenting never did anything for me."

"Maybe we did." Artemis glanced down. "You still have breasts."

"Commenting on people's tits, Radha?" Cygnus's tone was dry. "Thought you knew that wasn't cool."

"That's different!" Artemis protested.

Cygnus cocked his head. "Is it, really?"

"I don't always," Madison mused. "Hooray for binders."

"In any case," Artemis hissed, "it's not just about the people making the decision, either. People should be able to know what sort of person they might be interacting with!"

Cygnus groaned. "Once again, you're overestimating how relevant that-"

"Is this what you've all been up to?" Seraph called into the room. "We need to get ready!"

"Guess we'll continue this another time." Cygnus got to his feet. "Good talk, or something."

"I'd rather not," Artemis grumbled.

The three of us exited. Artemis would be staying here - no one was in a hurry to let her loose or return her weapons. Madison would be staying at headquarters, as well. She hadn't been interested in trying to fight, much to my relief.

Which meant the rest was up to us.