Calliope began strapping on her gear. She touched her chest. A stinging sensation coursed through the scar left behind on her body. The pain was still there, but it was bearable.

Boots, gauntlets, greaves – everything looked good, she thought. She placed a couple of chips at the stand – a tip for the hospital staff as thanks.

All that was left was her chest plate. She looked to the stand next to her. Abe had gotten her chest plate repaired and placed it there for her. He had his own mission to handle, so he hadn’t been able to stay long. Seemed like all the Blackbirds were busy right now.

Including myself, she thought, pulling up the chest plate and equipping it on herself. She issued a non-verbal command, and the armor’s set effect activated. A pocket of air began distorting as Calli reached upwards. She pulled out her glide-rifle.

The pocket space itself was limited, holding about a small closet’s worth of goods. She usually only carried the essentials for dealing with different variety of enemies which included weapons for anti-infantry, anti-Enthipid, medium-range, and close-quarters combat. This armor set ability precluded her from using abilities that the other team members had. She couldn’t move quickly like agility users, nor did she have additional strength and durability like Caz did. But she did get to choose from many options, and though not as adaptable, the glide-rifle sufficed for traversing through the modernized landscape of Magrest, so long as her Johrei held.

Cyr had left a message for her on her comms. They were to rendezvous at the Night Market by nightfall tomorrow by Alyx’s base. She had more than enough time.

She opened her window, letting the cool air waft in through the room. The curtains flapped as Calli breathed a long breath. It was about time. She couldn’t bear being caged up any longer in this stuffy hospital setting. Birds were meant to fly.

She aimed down the sights and targeted a rooftop a few blocks away. After years of using her gun, she intuitively understood the bullet drop distance of her weapon. Aiming slightly above the rooftop, she fired off a shot. A trail of Johrei shards followed the arc of the bullet in the air, solidifying midair in a gleaming, translucent line. They would only last about fifteen seconds or so, given the amount of Johrei that was in that bullet. The bullet connected with the top floor of the building and Calli pulled out a carabiner, attaching it to the Johrei line. She held on to the carabiner, issued a non-verbal command, and began gliding through the air towards the rooftop, speeding down her makeshift zipline, heading in the direction of Lucens Mundi.

*******

“What if the Auditors or patrols find us?” Gargam said. He pulled on his beard, anxious about local district patrols. A pool of blood gathered in front of a woman in her mid-30s. The woman’s eyes began to dim, and the only sensation remaining was the lingering pain of the stab wound in her chest. Another casualty in the alleys of Magrest.

The older man, Antonitus, smoked from a small cylindrical object. He issued a non-verbal command, and the “steamer” device, as the youth called it these days, burned the Twindust drug within. Antonitus was largely used to its effects at this point, and it took more than the average dosage to affect him.

He responded to Gargam, “It’s not like we were going to let her follow us all the way to base. You heard Cadmi’s order. We’re not to let anyone know where any of our members are hiding, no matter what. Plus, I know this area. The guards are out for the moment and the drones don’t patrol here during this time. Plus, we’re in the blind spots of any local surveillance. We’ll get someone to dump the body later.”

“Shame,” Gargam said. “She didn’t seem like a hunter at all.” He looked at the pool of blood beneath his feet, and at the woman, whose jacket held the embroidered symbol of a bird with three tail feathers.

*******

Mimi and Caz cruised down the streets of Necronova. They were waiting in the city before heading to the station, their Sky-Train ticket scheduled three hours from now.

“Abe,” Caz said through his comms, “what’s the sitrep on your search, over.”

“No luck yet boss. I had a tough time getting into Vitadale, but there wasn’t a word on the street regarding any Revenant’s Forge activities, or of the brothers. The nobles here have been less than forthcoming to visitors, to say the least. I think it’s time I headed out for Tresgate next, over.”

“Copy,” Caz replied. “I’ll be at Necronova with Mimi until the Sky-Train arrives. Maybe there was something we missed from before. If I don’t follow up in the next two hours or so, I want you to reach out to the others for a status update, over.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Roger,” Abe replied, and the comms cut.

Caz sighed. There weren’t many clues to go by, and most of the authorities had already patched up the cleanup work at the murder site at the warehouse. There were no tracks left behind by the brothers, which was par for the course for any Division hunters. However, this meant the Blackbirds were going in blind, trying to chase ghosts. Mimi did mention an interesting tidbit though about Tor, the merchant, however. Records from the hunter boards regarding the hunt for Tor during the Twindust indicated that when Tor was still active, he frequented certain districts more than others when conducting his services. This included Magrest, Tresgate, and Lucens Mundi. He could understand the latter, as that was where the Night Market was located, but the first two had piqued his interest. These were military-centered districts. Was he selling more than just drugs?

Mimi hummed a song, walking alongside Caz without a care in the world. He wondered how she could be so carefree. Everyone was spread out over all the districts, trying to find some answers, and he felt his role in this was a little too…lax, given the circumstances.

“Cyriak, Aio. You there, over?” Caz asked over the comms. No response. They must be underground now, though he did tell Cyr to contact him periodically through a private line from one of the dedicated terminals down there.

Calli said she was on the way to meet them, and Nyx said she was heading out to New Celebrant to check for any leads. Alyx was back at her base near the Night Market – said she had more work to catch up on with the Onyx Technicians, and that she’ll meet up with Caz tomorrow if she can. Maybe she can rendezvous with Cyriak and Aio down there. As for the Valkyries…

“How’s your team coming along with the search?” Caz said. Mimi continued to hum for a while, a hop with each step. Onlookers eyed them as they passed through the streets of Necronova. This wasn’t exactly a quiet city, and the pair were household names, for different reasons. Caz thought that they weren’t exactly being subtle here, but Mimi had mentioned that taking advantage of large crowds was an underutilized form of subterfuge other hunters don’t take enough advantage of. In large, public places like this, it is just as easy to hide, and just as unexpected to hunters, as sneaking around quietly in the middle of twilight. She was in her element when she was in the middle of crowds, and hardly anyone is stupid enough to attack them in broad daylight, where the Auditor’s eyes are always watching.

“Cassy and Mari are looking through Ecreville right now and Reina has her songbirds across each district scouring every corner for any sign of the brothers,” Mimi said.

“And of the Revenant’s Forge members,” Caz added.

“That goes without saying, Mr. Blackbird. I’m not a Shogun for nothing, y’know,” she said with playfulness. “Hey. Loosen up a little. I trust my team to get answers soon. Just relax for now. I never see you enjoy the district life.”

Caz grumbled. He was too old for the energy this district gave off. Everywhere he looked, vibrant advertisements lining buildings as tall as the sky, interrupted by youthful faces with fashionable clothing walking to and from stores marketing questionable goods such as action figures, avant-garde artwork, music-chips, and the like. Themed cafes fronted by hosts wearing costumes of exaggerated designs and colors jumped out at him and the atmosphere felt incessantly noisy, to say the least.

No amount of space was wasted in this place, free from hunter activity. Johrei railways criss-crossed above him, carrying crowds of passengers above the banner-lined scenery of Necronova. Grand parks and museums concentrated en masse in the center of the district as distinctive hallmarks highlighting the dichotomy between the antiquated and novel, an intentional design choice that this district wanted to convey.

Technological advancements, such as memory storage bank terminals cropped up every other block or so. Supposedly, a person could relive old memories with their friends, using a modified version of a perception-based Johrei technology. It reeked of something the Onyx Technicians would have made, but Mimi told him it had a local corporation from the Lost Clans named the Leaf’s Wind which had brought this technology into the public sphere.

He could hear passersby chatting, without a care in the world, gallivanting about their day to day without any understanding or fear of the dangers outside of the district.

“Hey, have you heard about the new teleportation technology they’re testing out at the Leaf’s Wind lab?” one person said.

“I haven’t gotten the signed trading card I wanted yet. You would think that after running through four box sets, I would have seen it by now,” another remarked.

“Dad, when are we going to ride the new ride at the mall?” a young girl protested.

Caz’s face was nothing but impatient at this point, though no one could see it. The onlookers continued to eye them, clearly aware of their presence here in this city. Mimi happily signed some autographs, but most steered clear of Casimir, afraid of the presence he exuded, though that didn’t stop people from keeping a fixed distance from the pair. Have they never seen a hunter before? Are they threatening him? No, he knew why, but just didn’t want to deal with it at the moment.

Caz had a job to do, and a team that he needed to watch over, and he can’t do that waltzing through movie theatres, bookstores, and collectibles shops, with a woman who was supposed to be one of the most efficient Division hunters in the business. All he saw was a young, carefree idol girl, who wanted to skip across the streets in ignorant bliss.

“You’ve been exuding a negative aura these past few minutes,” Mimi said. She chuckled. “C’mon Caz, take a load off. There’s this clothing store that opened up down a few blocks from here that I’ve been dying to try out. Maybe you can find something to wear other than your exoskeleton. That’s the same thing as walking around naked to most hunters, y’know.”

“My body is literally metal. I don’t have anything to be embarrassed about. Shouldn’t we be investigating?” Caz said.

However, such complaints fell on deaf ears, as he found himself holding Mimi’s bags in front of the dressing room at the local department store moments later.

“How do I look?” Mimi said, coming out the dressing room in a cozy, cream-colored tank top and denim jeans.

Caz sighed loudly in his heart.