Cleaning up the rest of the enemy occupiers was shockingly easy. Flicker had more firepower than I’d expected, and combined with my control skills, we’d made pretty short work of them…for the most part. We’d rolled up all the stragglers, but we were currently surveilling some kind of dance hall, where the last group was camped out.

They weren’t all Wendigos, there were a few of the actual invaders, and this last spot was where the leader was waiting, sent to deal with Flicker specifically. “So, what do you know about this guy?” We hadn’t had time to do much recon here, and even if we had the guy was staying put without doing much, so we couldn’t get a good measure.

“Not much.” She said grimly (although realistically, Flicker hadn’t exactly been a ball of sunshine when she’d said anything else either) “I’ve been watching them since they entered, taking their measure. But that one hasn’t moved much. He posted up here and let the others run rampant. I’ve spent most of my time moving my people out of harm's way, so I wasn’t close enough for him to take a swing.”

Less than ideal, but I had a workaround. “It’s fine.” I said after some consideration. “I can send a clone in to take a look.”

Sadly, while my clones were versatile and could use my Skills, my forms weren’t so easy to utilize through borrowed abilities. Especially since the forms had been perfected and were so much more powerful now. I was working on a clone based form that would fix that issue, but at the moment I only had borrowed clones I could use via stored attack or through the bond.

Closing my eyes, I used one of my stored clone charges to create a shadowy version of me. It nodded mutely, then slipped off the roof we were stationed on to surveil the dance hall and vanished. At least, it vanished to Flicker. I’d used Piece of Mind to slip in a parallel, so I was more than aware of what the clone was doing.

I had the clone slip up to the side of the building, circling around to find a back entrance. There was no second door, but he did find a window about ten feet up the side of the wall in the alley. Ripple Running made the trip up to the window easy, and once he made it in, he stuck to the shadows, blending in with the darkness as he made his way around the edge of the building, trying to find the target.

It didn’t take long, with my Perception, it was easy enough to locate them even in a tiny building. Stealth through the bond mixed with his shadowy nature meant getting caught was unlikely provided he didn’t get too close.

“They’re dying out there, you know?” Said a voice as I closed in. “We’re not supposed to let too many of them die. They’re a pain to replace with our resources cut off.”

The speaker was a tall, thin woman with copper skin and an elaborate series of braids in her hair. She had a nose ring and a leather vest, and her green eyes shone like frozen venom, poisonous and cold.

The two men with her were dramatically different. One short and pale with silver hair and purple eyes, and one tall and hulking with green skin and a thick beard to go with his long dark hair. The pale man had pointed ears studded with silver rings, and he looked relaxed, reclining against a wall from his perch on top of some kind of work bench.

“Relax.” He said lazily. “They’re just locals, and not even useful ones. Wendigos are rabid, even in human form. No point keeping them around. They’re consumables, we don’t have to worry about consuming them. Besides, our surveillance has made good use of their deaths.”

She shook her head. “I don’t like it. They keep vanishing. We don’t even know where they are right now. They could be here listening to us.”

I tensed, worried they might have noticed something, but they hadn’t, a shadow hiding in shadows was a tough thing to spot, especially with stealth active. The lazy elf snorted. “I’d have noticed anyone entering. You know how my Domain works. I’ve claimed this place as my own. The only thing in here is us.” He paused. “Well, and some furniture, bugs, that kind of shit. Nothing that doesn’t belong. Though they do have a rat problem.”

The woman shuddered. “I hate rats. Creepy little things. Always scurrying around and staring with their beady little eyes.”

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“That’s rich.” Said the third guy in a gravelly voice. “Coming from the girl with the spider powers.”

She sneered at him. “How cliche, being afraid of spiders. You’re an Ascendant Hamilton, grow up. My lovelies are sweet and gentle, and they’re artists. Nature’s greatest weavers. Unlike RATS, who only spread pestilence and decay.”

“Rats do not spread DECAY.” Said the leader with an eyeroll. “Any more than any other animal that can kill with a bite. They aren’t zombies.”

“Some of them are zombies.” Cut in the big guy, Hamilton. “I’ve seen zombie rats before. They’re gross. Rotting little bags of pus with yellowed teeth and beady red eyes.” He grinned maliciously at the woman. “And the smell. It’s unbearable.”

The leader groaned and hopped to his feet. “Oh for the love of the gods. I can’t sit through any more of this. Any of the mutts left?” At the woman’s head shake leader guy nodded. “Time to bait the trap. Go get me one of the hostages, and activate the transmission feature on the cameras. Branch leader can’t watch a bunch of her people get murdered, now can she?”

They nodded so deeply it was almost a bow, suddenly serious, and then headed out. I weighed my options. The other two were gone, and this was just a clone, no need to hold back. I triggered Double Trouble, shoving my staff as hard as I could into the base of his skull, unleashing a mercy kill enhanced strike at his head.

It was a pitiful strike. No poison fire in case it gave me away, no stealth bonus from Bael, just my normal strength amplified by Mercy Kill.

Because of those factors, I wasn’t at all surprised when leader guy tensed as I emerged from stealth, and vanished where he was standing, appearing ten feet away facing toward me. “Oh?” He said with interest. “I suppose that rat problem was worse than I knew. How are you here without tripping my senses? A shadow? That makes some sense.”

There was a pulse of…something, and my clone just stopped existing. I cursed as the parallel ended forcibly. I hadn’t been able to tell exactly what had done it from that point of view, but luckily my main body has Eye of Revelation locked onto the leader.

“Domain user.” I said clinically. “Nothing crazy. Something about wires and wind maybe?”

Flicker grunted. “Veddo Dunfrey. Haven’t heard that story in years. Kid made a pair of wings out of spider silk to sneak out of his house. Bribed a spider to teach him to weave, but he never paid up. The spider left his education half finished and when he tried to fly out the window, the wings came apart. It was windy outside, and the wind swept up the threads and carried them down to an outdoor banquet, shredding all the guests. Killed his whole family.”

I grimaced. “What a charming story. Where did you hear this?”

“My parents.” She said dryly. “They used to tell it to us at bedtime. It’s a common WCP children’s story. Moral of the story is to always pay your debts.”

“Of course it is.” I laughed. No wonder my dad had wanted me raised topside among the Conglomerate. “Anyway, I don’t know the story well. Is there some sort of like…weakness we can exploit?”

She paused, thinking it over. “Veddo met the spider when he destroyed its web. Knocked a glass of water on it and it dissolved. The threads were strong as steel, but not so good with moisture. You have anything water based in your arsenal? Because I’m fresh out I’m sad to say. Smoke and fire and what have you.”

I wracked my brain. “Maybe.” I said finally. I started charging cosmic collapse. Moonlit Night was based on Mistwalking, which conjured mist from the moisture in the air. It had been modified, but should still work. I conjured another clone, sending it in the same way. As it entered, I triggered Moonlit Night, flooding the whole chamber with obscuring mist. Of course, my clone could see perfectly, and I used its line of sight to trigger Double Trouble.

As soon as I landed, I activated Mornax. Unlike the clones, I could use my forms fine. There was a whisper of something in the air, and I felt some small scratches on my stone shell, but they were barely noticeable. Moonlit Night had mostly dissolved the wires, and my extra defense had been unnecessary.

Despite that victory, though, the leader elf dove forward out of the path of my cosmic collapse. I tried to alter the trajectory, but sadly that wasn’t to be. I caught a hand in the larger radius, but he got away with just that injury.

Of course, I followed up, my staff smashing out, black flames licking as Mephistopheles emitted my most dangerous destructive power. I wanted to chase with the Waltz, but it couldn’t be used with Mornax. Too much movement and time off the ground. Luckily I wasn’t alone. I’d tweaked Moonlit Night to allow Flicker to see like I did. Among the mist, it was impossible to see the smoke, and the leader didn’t even notice himself inhaling clouds of it.

His escape stopped, freezing in place as he clutched his chest, then he threw up blood and toppled over.

A cloud of smoke emerged from his mouth, coalescing into Flicker, who gave me a lazy wave before becoming smoke again and flashing off. I heard a few screams within the next couple minutes, and when she returned, she had a dozen civilians with her.

I chuckled at the brutal efficiency, but mostly just ignored it as I knelt beside the leader. I reached down, picking up a necklace that had fallen out of his shirt when he fell. It seemed…important. Something about it spoke to me, so I ripped it off, slipping it into my ring. Standing, I turned to Flicker and the others. “Everyone good to go?” I asked, mostly aiming the question at the civvies.

Getting a bunch of nods, I smiled and turned to lead them back to the crowd of survivors we’d already gathered. They would be waiting down here while we went up to deal with the rest of the city, Bethy could transport plenty of people, but until they got into her Domain they would be sitting ducks.

Once we had them all gathered up, we gave them instructions on where to wait, and the two of us headed back up the elevator to involve ourselves in some of the action up top.

As we rode up, I reached out to my wife. “Cal,” I sent mentally. “I need a location on one of the other groups. Preferably not Abel or Bethy. So…not one of the other groups. Just specifically Benny’s group.”

I could literally FEEL the eyeroll through the bond as she sent me the information, and I returned it with a burst of gratitude. When we emerged from the elevator, I triggered Bael, letting just my voice emerge as I told Flicker where we were headed. Then I activated Mephistopheles again and triggered my waltz, blazing off into the distance towards my friends. Once we helped them get our target, we’d be out of here and back to base. I wanted to look into that necklace. I had a feeling it might be important.