We Could Be Heroes 2: A Superhero Adventure
Author: Harmon Cooper
Date: 2019-04-12 19:27:44+00:00
Description: ~Power up!~--Sam Meeko has a superpowered sense of smell. It only gets stranger from there.--Ozella Rose can heal or cause damage through a blue ghost named Dinah. --Zoe Goa Ramone is a half-morphed tiger girl, and no, she's not happy about the fact.--Helena Knight has the power of hypnosis and a vast fortune at her disposal. With an epidemic set to spread across all of Centralia, the four would-be heroes head to the Southern Alliance in search of answers. Rune magic, harsh conditions, intense combat, kidnapping -- their trip south will have repercussions that may put an end to the group once
Publisher: Independently published

We Could Be Heroes

Book Two

By Harmon Cooper

Copyright © 2019 by Harmon Cooper

Copyright © 2019 Boycott Books

Edited by Andi Marlowe @ Andromeda Editing

Audiobook by Soundbooth Theater

www.harmoncooper.com
writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com

Email signup: https://geni.us/HCReaders

Facebook Group: https://geni.us/ProximaGalaxy

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HarmonCooperWriter

All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

The We Could Be Heroes series is dedicated to my alpha readers, James and Scott, and my beta readers, Bobby, Dave, Holly and Kay.

-Harmon

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Centralian Power Classifications

Prologue: Jessica Bunny and Maria Meow

Chapter One: Rewind and Power Up!

Chapter Two: Night Sauna

Chapter Three: Blackmail

Chapter Four: Infamy Incarnate

Chapter Five: Like a Boss

Chapter Six: Just Out Heroing and Shit

Chapter Seven: Backwards

Chapter Eight: And Now We Feast!

Chapter Nine: In the Ghetto

Chapter Ten: Gangster-in-Chief

Chapter Eleven: Playing Dress Up

Chapter Twelve: Ghosted

Chapter Thirteen: Tea Date with a Sociopath

Chapter Fourteen: Zoe Sort of Plays Nice

Chapter Fifteen: Dumpster Pin-Up

Chapter Sixteen: All in A Morning’s Work

Chapter Seventeen: Sexy Sam

Chapter Eighteen: Welcome to the Blood Party

Chapter Nineteen: Crimson Fiesta

Chapter Twenty: House Call

Chapter Twenty-Two: All This to Say “They Got Dressed”

Chapter Twenty-Three: They Got Him! They. Got. Him.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Stress Test

Chapter Twenty-Five: Actual Snacks

Chapter Twenty-Six: Oh Nooeeez

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Turn up the Feels

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Morning After

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Hamza and the Healer

Chapter Thirty: Better to Forget

Chapter Thirty-One: Round up!

Chapter Thirty-Two: Reunited and It Feels So Good

Chapter Thirty-Three: Over the River and Through the Woods

Chapter Thirty-Four: Electric Bearwolves

Chapter Thirty-Five: Crabby Hermit

Chapter Thirty-Six: Family Reunion

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Crawling through Holes

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Snooping Around

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Snow Daze

Chapter Forty: Just in Case We Die

Chapter Forty-One: Thank God for Random Love Affairs

Chapter Forty-Two: Grim Discovery

Chapter Forty-Three: Bloody Mist

Epilogue: Just What the Doctor Ordered

Back of the Book Content

Centralian Power Classifications

Prologue: Jessica Bunny and Maria Meow

Hallelujah, goddamn hallelujah.

Zoe Goa Ramone was herself again, black hair tucked under a red wig, no tiger ears, crystal-clear skin, the perfect mixture of curves and hardened muscle, perky you-know-whats and a banging peach.

No tiger features either.

Damn it felt good to be herself again, Zoe in a black dress that looked nice next to Helena’s pantsuit, the heir to the Knight fortune in a blond wig and a pair of glasses that nearly doubled the size of her eyes. Ballet flats as usual, but other than that, she was looking like a real CEO.

No ballet slippers for Zoe, though. The used-to-be tiger morpher wore a pair of six-inch high heels, each with a strip of tiger fur on the front, rocking her height as the two walked through the series of buildings that led to the main warehouse of a shipping facility.

A few hired thugs stopped to check them out, but no biggie, they got through in record time, and were passed off to another mobster.

“What are you two doing here?” the rough looking guy asked, an exemplar clear as day in the way that his eyes flared up. He was coming down the stairs when he saw them, some files in his hand.

Helena stepped forward and offered her hand. “Hi, my name is Jessica Bunny, and this is Maria Meow, and we’re here from Knight Holdings wondering what DM Enterprises is charging you for usage of this facility. We are prepared to charge you exactly half of whatever they’re charging to ship your goods through our facility.”

“Is that right?” he asked, chewing on a toothpick sticking out of the side of his mouth. “And you think you can just come up in here and offer us a better price, am I understanding this correctly?”

“Would you rather us send you a mental message?” Zoe asked, cutting directly to the point. “We know what you’re doing is illegal, we figured putting this information in a mental message would be a terrible way to start a business partnership, isn’t that right, Ms. Bunny?”

“That’s right, and it’s Mrs. Bunny,” said Helena.

“Let’s cut all the bullshit. What really brings you two here?” he asked with a growl.

“We decided to come directly to the source, which is…? You?” Helena asked. “Are you the source? Or do you have someone that tells you what to do, and can we talk to that person?”

“Now, wait just a minute…”

It only took a second for Helena to hypnotize the man, the dude going from looking like a cocky bastard with a bone to pick to a subservient choirboy ready to do what he had to do in the name of salvation. He bowed his head and respectfully told Helena and Zoe to follow him.

“His name is Donovan, right?” Helena asked, her right pupil still a spinning red bullseye. “Your boss?”

“That’s right, Mrs. Bunny, Donovan. That’s what he told us to call him anyway.”

“Great, we can’t wait to meet him,” said Helena as he took the stairs to the top of the warehouse. “Isn’t that right? Ms. Meow?”

“Correct, and it’s Mrs. Meow,” said Zoe.

“Ah, I didn’t know you got married,” Helena said as they continued to follow the hypnotized mobster.

“I don’t tell you everything about my life, Mrs. Bunny, just the important details.”

“You two sure seem like friends,” the man said as they neared the top of the stairs.

“Something like that,” Helena said under her breath.

Everything was set, Sam and Ozella on the rooftop, Dinah too, the three of them supporting Helena and Zoe as best they could.

They would only have one shot at Donovan, and if the alarm was sounded, shit would yet again meet the fan for our would-be heroes.

But they had made it this far, so hallelujah, goddamn hallelujah.

Everything was coming to fruition.

Chapter One: Rewind and Power Up!

(Because the fast-forward button is currently malfunctioning.)

“Why is she alive?” Zoe Goa Ramone asked, her claws growing sharper as she started tracking Dinah, who continued to run around the room, jumping on the bed, jumping off, slamming into the wall, dancing, happily pumping her fists over her head.

Ozella Rose had just done something to bring the woman to life, but Zoe was still unclear as to what had happened, or how she should respond.

“What the…? Whoa!” Sam Meeko skidded to a halt at the entrance to Ozella’s bedroom, Helena Knight running into his back and pushing him forward. “Hey!”

Ozella glanced from Zoe to Sam to Helena. “It’s… I tried…”

“Dinah, stop!” Sam brought his hands up in front of the now tangible woman. She was no longer blue either, her skin the same tone as Ozella’s, the look on her face devious, her eyes large and reflective.

“How did this happen?” Helena asked Zoe, who merely responded with a shrug to indicate she was just as baffled as the heiress supreme.

“That’s it,” Sam said, approaching Dinah with his hands out. “Easy does it, easy…”

Dinah lifted her hands as well, her breasts moving just a little bit closer together as she took a step toward Sam.

“What happened?” Sam asked Ozella again.

“I tried…” Ozella took a deep breath. “Sorry! I tried something new, and I think it worked. No, I don’t think, I know. It worked. It definitely worked.”

Sam didn’t have a chance to respond as Dinah leapt forward, wrapping her arms around Sam’s neck and kissing him passionately.

“Hey!” Sam said as he tried to push her away, his hands naturally coming onto her hips and confirming that yes, she was indeed real, and she was incredibly light. He was easily able to lift and move her away, giving room for Helena to step between the two, her CEO nature on full display.

“Dinah, if you’re going to be real now, you have to behave yourself,” Helena started to say.

“Okay, I realize that Ozella did something, but will somebody please fucking explain to me what she did, and by ‘somebody,’ I mean you, Ozella, what the hell did you do?” Zoe asked.

“Dinah,” Ozella said, “please come here.”

Rather than stare at Sam in a funny way, Dinah turned to Ozella, hiking her ass up as she walked on the tips of her toes.

“I seriously have no idea what to make of this,” Sam said as he wiped his lips with his arm.

“I’ll explain.” Ozella reached out and touched Dinah’s shoulder. Eventually, her hand dropped to Dinah’s hand, and once she had it, she led the woman to a chair. Dinah sat, her eyes still locked on Sam.

“I gave myself a ‘power-up,’ and I believe I can give each of you a power-up. Apparently, giving myself a power-up gave Dinah a corporeal form, so there’s no telling what it will do to the three of you…” Ozella took a deep breath. “Or how long it will last. I will have to ask my book questions to figure this out.”

“A power-up?” Zoe exchanged glances with Helena. “Ask some questions then,” she said, her claws still drawn, her tiger ears erect.

“Okay,” Ozella said as she started writing in her book. Sam joined her and watched her write the phrase ‘time restraint’ under where she’d written ‘power-up.’

Sam also caught a glimpse of everything she had written (and rewritten), a little surprised at how Ozella had classified herself.

Ozella Rose

Codename: Human Shield

Dinah Healing

Dinah Wound Transfer

Enhanced Mental Imagery

Pattern Sense

Known Limitations: No combat ability. Power can be
overwhelming.

Cleverness: 5

Charisma: 4

Corruptness: 2

Gullibility: 8

Attractiveness: 4

Kindness: 6

Neediness: 4

Known Trigger Points:

Exemplar or Non-Exemplar: Exemplar

Astrological sign: Ignis

Temperature Preference: Lukewarm

Family Relations: Only child. Mother and Father live in
eastern Centralia.

Idiosyncrasies and Nervous Ticks: Often late.

Known Lovers and Sexual Preferences: Classified.

Willingness to Try New Things: 4

Public Awareness: 3

“Interesting,” Ozella said as she scratched down some more information.

Time Restraint: One power-up per day, lasts one hour

Upgraded Power: Tangible Dinah

“Is that what your power is telling you?” Sam asked, pointing at his own eyes.

Ozella nodded. “It makes total sense now. I get one power-up per day, which lasts an hour.”

“So she’ll be tangible for an hour?” Helena asked.

“She’s getting out of the chair again,” Zoe said, moving over to Dinah. “You need to stay seated, little lady; we’re not done figuring you out.”

Dinah stuck her tongue out at Zoe.

“You’re real now, and trust me, you don’t want it with me,” Zoe said. “You can’t just disappear if I come after you; and these things,” she said, showing Dinah her claws, “will definitely hurt.”

Dinah continued to stick her tongue out at Zoe, shaking her head now, her eyes closed.

“So what happens if you do it for us?” Sam asked. “What powers will we get? I’m assuming that each of us can have a power-up…”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” said Ozella. “Maybe we should go to the gym for this, just in case there are any …incidents.”

“You mean like the ghost that has followed you around forever, and kind of looks like you, all of a sudden becoming real?” Zoe asked. Dinah glared at the tiger girl for a moment.

“Yeah, incidents like that. Let’s head to the gym.”

With Helena leading the way, the five of them made their way down the hall into the gym. Once they were there, Ozella began with Sam, adding the word ‘power-up’ to the stat sheet, the number one magically appearing in the air next to it, a number only she could see.

“How did you trigger it?” Helena asked.

“I think I just said something like ‘use power-up,”’ Ozella told her. Dinah was standing off to her left now, looking at herself in the mirrored wall and pinching her nipples.

“Should I say it then?” Sam asked.

“Do it already,” Zoe said. “Let’s see what you got.”

“Use power-up!” Sam said, pointing his finger in the air. Zoe started to laugh, not able to get over how ridiculous he looked doing that gesture.

“Anything?” Ozella asked.

“Nothing…”

“Let me write the rest,” said Ozella. “Maybe if I write ‘Upgraded Power’ as I did for myself, it will tell us what power you have, then you will know how to activate it.”

“Dinah, stop squeezing your breasts,” Helena said in the tone one would remind a young child to stop picking at a scab.

Ozella wrote the information in her book quickly and looked up to the air for the answer.

“Well?” Sam asked her.

“This is going to be interesting; it reads, choose a sense, which I take to mean you are able to choose one of your senses to heighten for an hour. Worth a shot.”

“Which sense should I choose?”

“It’s really up to you…”

“Okay, use power-up, vision.”

As soon as Sam said this he stumbled backwards, the crispness and clarity of everything in his vicinity striking him at once.

He could no longer feel his heightened sense of smell; instead he noticed he had the ability to see everything at once, and he was able to do things like focus all the way across the room on a spot of dust sitting in a far corner, the dust growing in size the longer he stared at it as if he were looking at it through a microscope.

It only took about thirty seconds of this to feel a migraine come on.

“What are you seeing?” Zoe asked.

“You are not going to believe this…”

“Is it working, Sam?” asked Helena.

“Yes, and you need to dust that part of the gym.”

“Excuse me?”

Sam was now looking at Helena, able to see everything on her face, to the pores on her cheeks, small blemishes, and an enlarged vein on one of her eyes. “Holy hell...”

“We need to figure out a way to turn the power-ups off,” said Ozella. “Try saying something else. I’ll try too. Power-up, off,” Ozella said, tit-fondling Dinah fading away. “It works! Try saying that, Sam.”

“Power-up, off,” said Sam, and his sense of sight returned to normal, the power of his nose back at full throttle. “Whew!”

“We’ll have to test your other senses: touch, taste and hearing, but we can do that later.”

“Maybe,” Sam said, rubbing his temples. “The sight one is… damn.”

“Power-up, on,” said Ozella, and Dinah’s form solidified again.

She was happy to be back, and to show how happy she was, Dinah took off toward some of Helena’s gym equipment. She was fast too; at one point, she tried to use one of the parallel bars and ended up landing in a way that would have normally snapped a person’s back.

The four of them just stared at her in horror for a moment as Dinah slowly adjusted herself, got back to her feet, and cracked her back, the sound reaching all of their ears.

“This is very disturbing, but I like it,” Zoe said.

“You like it?” asked Sam.

“Think about it, she’s indestructible. We can send her in at the beginning of a big fight, or whatever, and she take the brunt of the damage, and then we can make her disappear, or she can heal us. It’s genius. And we can test all of this later, of course. For now, Ozella…” Zoe gave her a sweet look. “Can we please see what my power-up is?”

Ozella fiddled around with her notebook for a second, looking up at Zoe fondly as she told her what it said.

“Thank you,” Zoe whispered as she turned to the mirror. “And this better work. Power-up, on!”

As soon as the words left her lips, Zoe’s face started to change back to normal, her tiger ears merging back into her head, her human ears taking shape, her tail shrinking up, her eyes returning to normal, whiskers disappearing, skin reforming.

“Oh my God,” Zoe said as she approached the mirror, tears in her eyes. “Ozella…” She looked at the statkeeper through the mirror’s reflection. “You are… you are a fucking genius!”

Zoe turned Ozella and ran toward her, scooping the woman up in her arms. Zoe let Ozella down just as Dinah approached, an aggressive look on the now tangible ghost woman’s face.

“Whoa, ghosty,” Zoe said. “I saw your little fall back there, and unless you want to fall again…”

Dinah stuck her tongue out at her again.

“I’m keeping this on for as long as I can…” Zoe ignored Dinah and looked to the parallel bars, deciding to give her agility a try.

She ran toward them, and jumped, throwing her arms out, making an ass out of herself as she missed her landing and fell onto the bar in a way that knocked the air out of her. She hit the ground, her black hair in her face.

“I guess your agility doesn’t come with you,” Ozella said matter-of-factly, no hint of snark in her voice.

“Doesn’t matter…” Zoe said as she got back to her feet. “I’m keeping this form anyway. One hour. I’m going out. Fuck. That hurt.”

“Last time you went out, you ended up betraying us all,” Ozella said, a little less matter-of-factly this time. “Maybe you should stay in for the night.”

“You sure are getting mouthy,” Zoe said.

“She isn’t wrong.” Helena stepped forward. “You did sort of do that last time you went out. Also, isn’t anyone tired? We seriously just had our biggest battle yet, like less than an hour ago. Someone must be tired. I can’t be the only one.”

“I guess I’m tired,” Ozella said.

“I’m tired too, but I don’t want to waste the hour I have…”

“Zoe, it’s already late, let’s just stay in for the night,” said Sam.

“Or we could go to the sauna,” said Helena, her eyes lighting up. “A wonderful idea, really. I know a great place, and we can stay overnight there in some of the mineral rooms. All of us together. It’s quite comfy. If you guys give me just a few minutes, I can have Bryan make reservations. Actually, it might be best for us just to have the floor to ourselves, so we can sample whatever room we would like.”

“You’re going to book an entire floor at a sauna?” Zoe asked, her voice a mixture of jealousy and excitement.

“My assistant will, but I’ll be sponsoring it, of course. In the meantime, everyone should get ready.”

“Don’t you want to know what your power-up is?” Ozella asked. “Because I sort of do.”

“Yes, sorry, I suppose that should come first.”

“You aren’t at all excited about a new power?” Zoe asked, now posing in the mirror.

“I am, but I’m also content with the power I had before.”

Dinah moved over to Sam and placed an arm around his shoulders, kissing him on the cheek, giving him a thumbs up.

“Yeah, nice to see you too,” Sam told her, thinking about giving her a sniff, but then wondering if this wouldn’t look a little strange. He decided he could sniff her out later, and then realized that there was no better time than now.

Sure enough, Dinah had no scent; it was entirely bizarre, not even a faint smell about her.

“Power-up, off,” Ozella said. Dinah disappeared, and then reformed into a blue ghost, her arm now partially submerged in Sam’s body.

“Thanks,” Sam told her.

“Okay, let’s see what Helena can do,” Ozella said as she wrote some details in her book of known variables. “Ooo…”

“What is it?” Zoe asked.

“I think she’s going to like this. According to what I have here, Helena will be able to create hallucinations. I am assuming that this targets multiple enemies, not just for some person. But that’s an assumption. We’ll have to try it out. Helena?”

“Okay, power-up, on,” Helena said, both of her pupils spiraling until they were two red bullseyes.

“Creepy,” Zoe said.

“What should I say?” red-eyed Helena asked Ozella.

“I don’t know; make us hallucinate something…”

“Um, how about this? Fire.”

Zoe was the first to react, jumping as she looked down at her arm. Sam now saw flames everywhere, the ceiling caving in, Ozella in danger. He dove for Ozella, who had dropped her book, trying to protect her.

“Sam!” Ozella cried out, her arm around his neck as he lifted her, as he looked for an opening, plumes rising into the air, a giant one, a wicked black smoke clouding his vision, the heat, the destruction, the feeling of hopelessness…

“Power-up, off!” Helena said.

Zoe had gone for the stop, drop, and roll, and was still rolling when she realized that the flames weren’t real, that her body wasn’t actually on fire. Interestingly enough, she had also turned her power-up off, and was now in her half-woman, half-tiger form.

“Sorry,” Sam told Ozella as he helped her to her feet.

“Same,” Ozella said, not able to make eye contact with Sam.

“That’s a hell of a power,” Zoe admitted, her chest still heaving up and down as she caught her breath.

“Do you have to be looking at people for that to happen?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know,” Helena said. “You know just as much about the power as I do.”

“Okay, I get it, I get it,” Ozella said. “First, we need to test and see if you can do it with your eyes closed, and test range. Maybe the people that you use your power on have to be within range of you. Yes, that makes sense. I don’t think we were all making eye contact with you at the same time.”

“I wasn’t,” said Sam.

“I was looking at her feet,” Zoe admitted.

“My feet?” Helena asked.

“Yes, your slippers. They’re a different pair than you were wearing earlier.”

“I have a lot of ballerina slippers,” Helena said. “Let’s just consider it an obsession of mine.”

“We can talk about this later, let’s test these things,” said Ozella. “Eyes closed, please.”

Helena closed her eyes and said “fire,” then realized that she also had to turn the power-up on before it would actually work. She turned it on verbally, and then said the word “fire” again, her three teammates reacting to the flames, even though they knew it was fake.

Next, Ozella instructed her to go to the other side of the gym and whisper the word. Sure enough, it worked. Eyes open, shut, the others looking at her or looking away, with the power-up activated, she could do whatever she wanted.

“Now we need to see if you can hypnotize someone with your eyes closed but your power-up on,” Ozella said.

Sam recalled that normally, Helena needed to have her eyes open, and the person needed to be looking at them for her power to work. But as they soon learned, using Sam as their test dummy, Helena was also able to use her power-up with her eyes closed.

Which was how Sam found himself squawking like a chicken, walking around the room and pretending to peck at the floor as Ozella and Zoe laughed.

“I kind of like him as a chicken,” Zoe said once Helena gave Sam his mind back.

“You turned me into a chicken?” Sam asked.

“For research purposes, yes,” said Ozella. “Okay, this is just too fascinating. We still have Sam’s powers to test. I would love to do this all night…”

“But we have a reservation to get to. Don’t worry about clothing or anything; robes will be provided. Just meet me in the living room in five minutes. Does that give everyone enough time?” Helena asked. “Oh, and power-up, off.”

Chapter Two: Night Sauna

(The only thing missing from this chapter is an intense mani-pedi.)

The lights from the city were everything Sam Meeko expected them to be. The sauna rooms, which were on the 40th floor of one of Centralia’s older buildings, had windows galore, coffered ceilings, elegant lighting, and was stylized like a palace, carved marble wherever there wasn’t glass. The sauna itself took up three floors, the entrance and separate male and female changing rooms on the entry level.

Before Sam could join the ladies, he had to follow protocol, which was clearly listed in bulleted points on the wall of the men’s changing room. He slipped into a pair of shorts that they provided along with a robe, and made his way into a sauna full of a bunch of naked-ass dudes.

Even though he was only in the sauna for a few minutes, just enough time to undress and give his taint a fair scrub down, Sam saw a lot of cocks, enough to fill whatever quota he had for the year, if such a thing existed.

As he toweled off, his mind drifted to the team he’d helped form, Vigilante Justice.

Sam thought about Ozella, how cute she was with all her stats and the details that she kept. How she had figured out the power-up thing was beyond him, but he was glad to be able to utilize it once per day, even if it only gave him rest from his enhanced olfactory epithelium for an hour.

He was also happy to see Zoe back in her non-exemplar form, not that Sam didn’t think she was hot in the half-tiger look, she just seemed happier when she was herself. Of all of them, the one-hour limitation would be the hardest for her to get used to.

Then there was Helena’s power, which seriously scared the shit out of him. Seeing one’s own flesh burn was incredibly uncomfortable, and there was no telling what she’d be able to do once Ozella ran her power through more tests.

But enough reminiscing and self-congratulating.

Once Sam was in the blue shirt and shorts provided by the sauna, he took an elevator to the 43rd floor, using a special key to open the door.

“Hey,” he said, noticing Ozella standing there, her robe open slightly in the front.

Sam was pretty sure she was supposed to be wearing a shirt underneath a robe, but then again, it was Ozella, and she didn’t seem too concerned about it, nor did she really have a sense of what her body did to people.

Or at least lesser men.

Dinah floated up from the ground, a sad look on her face.

“What’s wrong with her?” Sam asked.

“She doesn’t want to be invisible right now,” said Ozella.

“You can tell?”

“I can sense it,” she said. “But I promised her I would allow her to be tangible once Zoe and Helena arrive.”

“What’s taking them so long anyway?” Sam asked as he made his way over to the window, looking out at the sparkling city. Ozella joined him; he could see her reflection in the window, a smile on her face.

“They started debating something, and then they decided to get massages, not long ones, just neck and shoulders.”

“And I’m guessing Zoe is still using her power-up.”

“She’s wearing a watch right now to time it,” Ozella said. “I’m glad she likes the power-up; maybe it’ll help her not join with our enemies to betray us.”

Ozella didn’t say this in a way that was as biting as it could have been, more of a matter-of-fact statement.

“Yeah, that would be a good thing,” Sam told her, not really knowing a good response to what Ozella had just said. “Hopefully, we won’t have to deal with Dr. Hamza again, but if we do…”

“If we do, we let Dinah finish him. Then the blood isn’t on our hands.”

Sam looked at Ozella in the window’s reflection, slightly creeped out that she still had the same smile on her face.

“You think we should let Dinah kill him?”

“He’s not going to stop until he gets what he wants. I think what he wants is revenge now, especially now that he’s been healed.”

“I don’t know why we can’t just go our separate ways,” Sam started to say.

“Even I’m not naïve enough to think that will be the case,” said Ozella.

“You know, sometimes it’s nice to be naïve. At least on the surface.”

“Dr. Hamza won’t give up.”

“Sadly, no,” Sam said as he turned away from the window, taking a closer look at the floor they were on.

He had been so busy talking with Ozella and looking out the window that he hadn’t actually paid much attention to his surroundings. It was an expansive space, a wooden floor that made a Y-shape as it moved to the end of the hallway.

Upon closer examination, Sam saw that the rooms were individually labeled, that there were pamphlets on the table before each room. The first room was set to a pretty warm temperature, and opening it, he found the walls to be covered in purple crystals, the crystal designed in various patterns on the far wall, mixing in other colors as well, blue, white, green, red.

“It’s a mineral room,” Ozella explained. “People believe that warming up minerals releases positive ions into the air, which will make you feel better.”

“Is it true?” Sam asked her.

“No idea,” she said as they moved to the next room, the door of which was rimmed with frost.

It took a little effort, but Sam eventually opened the door to find a room completely covered in ice, the only part of the room not frozen being a pathway to its center, where there were lush fur rugs. He didn’t know what the animals were, but he assumed the fur had come from the South, the coldest country, where some of the grisly frost beasts were the size of Centralian horses.

“Damn,” he said, seeing his breath as he stepped into the room. “Why would anyone want to sleep in a room this cold?”

“Because some people think that cold temperatures help with blood pressure.”

“Even I know that isn’t true,” he said, accidentally taking a sniff through his nostrils and getting a ton of information about the people who had been in the room before, as well as the exemplars who had designed it.

It was too much information, and too many people had been in the tiny enclosed space; Sam quickly switched back to mouth breathing, glad to be out of the room seconds later.

“I’m definitely not sleeping in there. And what’s with the sleeping, actually?” he asked. “That’s what we’re supposed to do, right? Pick a sauna room to sleep in?”

“That’s exactly what we’re supposed to do,” Ozella said as they came to the next room, a glass pane on the door, the other side filled with droplets of water. Sam opened the door to find himself in a subtropical climate, potted palms lining the walls.

“Nope,” Sam said as he stepped back out. They moved to the next room, which opened onto a completely black space, the darkest black Sam had ever seen.

“People use this room for deep sleep and meditation, that sort of thing,” Ozella explained. “I’m sure the room has some added technology, otherwise people could get lost.”

“Could get lost?” Sam asked, the light from outside cutting a swath into the darkened space.

“Close the door and you’ll see what I mean,” Ozella said.

Sam did as he was instructed, both of them completely in the dark once he shut the door. It was pitch black now, Sam not able to see an inch in front of his eyes.

“We’ve got to get out of here.” Sam reached his hand forward, assuming he was reaching toward the door but accidentally grabbing Ozella’s breast instead. “Sorry!”

“It’s okay,” Ozella said. “I thought you knew I moved around you.”

“No, how could I tell? It’s pitch black in here.”

“Lights on,” Ozella said, and as the words left her lips, small lights lining the doorframe started to glow.

“Eastern tech, huh?” Sam asked as they left the room, still feeling a bit embarrassed for grabbing one of Ozella’s funbags.

“Likely.”

“Sorry, again.”

“No worries.”

They started to move to the next room, nearing the end of the hallway. And they would have gone into this room too, a room meant to replicate what it would be like to be underwater, fish tanks lining the walls and soothing lights, had Dinah not risen up from the floor.

The blue ghost woman had a panicked look on her face. She was pointing downward, frantically trying to tell them something.

“What should we do?” he asked as he fired off a mental message to Zoe that Dinah was telling them something.

What is she telling you? Zoe mentally thought back. Of course, by this point Sam and Ozella were already turning to the elevator, Dinah leading the way.

I don’t know yet; we’re going to investigate. Where are you?

Just finishing up a massage, she thought back to Sam.

“Which floor, Dinah?” Ozella asked, pointing at the numbers on the elevator. Dinah looked at the numbers for a moment, clearly doing the math in her head. Finally, she chose the twentieth floor.

“What were you doing down there?” Sam asked her.

Dinah shrugged in a way that indicated she’d been bored.

“I thought she just disappears when you haven’t called her.”

“I guess not.” Ozella selected the twentieth floor, while Sam sent a message to Helena, catching her up on what was happening.

Zoe already let me know, Helena thought back to him. We will meet you on the twentieth floor. Heading there now. Have to get dressed first.

The elevator was fast, and once it reached the twentieth floor, Sam steeled himself for whatever he might find on the other side.

“Just get ready,” he whispered to Ozella as the doors started to open. A few of the lights were out, signs of struggle everywhere, from the toppled plant to some office furniture that had been knocked over.

Ozella pointed to the body of a security guard, Sam’s nod indicating that shit was about to get real.

“What is this place, anyway?” he asked Ozella.

“Let’s see,” Ozella said, looking to the wall for a placard. She didn’t find one, but she did see a brochure on a side table detailing some business investment opportunities.

“So it’s probably about money,” Sam said as she handed him the brochure. “Yeah,” he said, remembering to take a sniff and getting a sense of the greed that had passed through the elevator door. “Definitely about money.”

They heard a large crash somewhere on the floor.

“Power-up, hearing,” he whispered. His sense of hearing immediately shifted forward, Sam feeling something different in his head.

There were too many sounds around, from the elevator behind them, to the other floors, so Sam pressed his finger into one of his ears, moving toward one of the hallways on the left, one ear open to any sound he might pick up.

It came to him a few seconds later, two men talking, a woman as well, the sound of muffled voices…

“It’s some kind of heist,” Sam whispered to Ozella, his voice like a scream into a megaphone in his own skull. “Confirmed.”

“How do you want to do this?” Her response was just about the loudest thing he’d ever heard. Sam managed to whisper, “power-up, off,” and his sense of hearing returned to normal, his power moving to his nose.

“Say that again,” he whispered.

“Let’s just wait for Zoe and Helena.”

“Good idea.”

A mischievous look came across Ozella’s face. “On second thought, we could send Dinah in…”

“I support that,” Sam said, matching Ozella’s mischievous look with one of his own.

“Power-up, on,” Ozella said, causing Dinah’s form to take shape and solidify. “Go in there and cause a distraction,” she told the excited ghost woman.

“This is going to be crazy,” Sam said. Dinah took off into a darkened hallway, toward a light at its end. The elevator behind them opened up, startling Sam and Zoe.

“What is it?” Zoe asked as she stepped off, still in her non-exemplar form and in the same matching blue shirt and shorts that Sam wore, as was Helena.

“Someone’s trying to rob the place, a heist of sorts,” said Sam. “We’ve sent in Dinah.”

“We just can’t get a break, can we?” Zoe asked, biting her lip for a moment. “Okay, fine, fine, power-up, off.”

The side of her face began to morph, whiskers appearing, the hair taking shape, her teeth growing in size, her eyes becoming more feline, her human ears melting into her while tiger ears formed, her tail pushing out of the top of her loosened shorts.

“How should we go about doing this?” Helena asked, just as the four of them heard a scream, the blast of a wrist guard, some other noises they couldn’t quite identify.

“How do you think? You and me, now.” The hair on Zoe’s face was standing to attention a little, the size of her forearms growing as her claws took shape. The two took off, Sam and Ozella moving in behind them.

It was crazy, exhilarating, and to think that they had already fought a battle tonight only to be moving yet again into another.

But there were lives at stake, someone had already been killed, and if someone didn’t do something about what was going on, then the criminals would get away.

And these were no ordinary criminals, especially if they were willing to just kill a security guard in cold blood.

It turned out that the light at the end of the hallway was more than a light, it was actually an opening into a larger space with a big bank vault in its center, the space taking up two stories of the tall building.

Sam skidded to a halt when he saw what was going on. Dinah was latched onto a beefy strongman type, her asshole and the pink of her vag visible as he tried to buck her off, the blue ghost trying to wrap her legs around him.

Helena engaged a woman with incredibly long hair that had formed into several serpents. She moved through sideways cartwheels as the woman’s hair grew in length, the serpents turning into spikes, each one trying to pierce her flesh.

Meanwhile Zoe was going for a guy with two wrist guards, the man not at all prepared once she closed the distance between the two. After dodging a punch, she grabbed him by the neck and slammed him into one of the floor-to-ceiling windows, a crack spiderwebbing outward.

There were some hostages as well, five non-exemplars, each gagged and scared shitless as they watched Vigilante Justice move into action, Sam only wishing he had his wrist guard so he could take out the strongman’s legs.

An idea came to him.

As the strongman struggled to get Dinah off him, even trying to jump back and flatten her, which never seemed to work because she came back to life every time he stood, Sam raced over to the man that Zoe had taken out, and unfastened his wrist guards.

Zoe moved on to the snake-haired woman that Helena was taking on, the tiger girl flanking the woman and coming around with her fist drawn. One solid punch to the back of the woman’s head was all it took, and even though the woman’s hair tried to fight back, latching on to Zoe, spinning her, trying to gag her, it soon gave up as the woman passed out, taking her power along with her.

“Call Centralian law enforcement, now,” Helena told the hostages. “And you didn’t see any of us.” Helena’s right eye began to spin, the red bullseye forming as she looked at the hostages. “Wrap it up, everyone!” she called over her shoulder. “I’m calling Lance!”

The strongman finally managed to get Dinah off, flinging the tangible ghost woman into Zoe, both of them smacking into the glass.

Figuring out how the wrist guard worked was relatively easy; all of them were built the exact same way. What Sam didn’t know was which settings the wrist guard had, and with no time to fiddle with it, he decided to take a shot that would cause the least amount of lethal damage.

Aiming at the strongman’s feet, Sam triggered the weapon. A large explosion beneath the muscled villain’s feet tossed him backward, blowing his toes off as well, blood misting the air.

“Shit!” Sam shouted.

Zoe leapt onto the man’s back and wrapped her claws around his head, pressing her fingers into his eye sockets until he screamed for mercy. It was only a second or two later that Lance, the hired teleporter, appeared, golden sparkles indicating his arrival.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Lance said as he took in the mayhem unfolding before him. “Okay, but I’m definitely getting paid overtime and a half for this one. The four of you, and… um...” He glanced to Dinah.

“Her too!” Ozella said, grabbing Dinah’s hand.

“Overtime,” Lance reminded Helena once the team gathered around him. “Overtime and a half.”

Chapter Three: Blackmail

(What starts as a pretend fight ends in a real fight.)

Zoe Goa Ramone was up the next morning before everyone else, warming up in the gym with some of the stretches that Helena had taught her. She wanted to get the stretches done before Helena woke up; she didn’t need the smug heiress doing her holier-than-thou routine once she saw Zoe actually taking her exercise advice.

In truth, Zoe knew that she owed a lot to Helena, quite possibly her life, and even if there was still some tension between them, Helena had done the right thing by having a vote to keep Zoe in the group.

And Zoe planned to do right by her, regardless of the fact that Helena had sort of stolen her boyfriend.

Well, not really, but sometimes Zoe felt that way.

At least she was sort of back to her old self. The prospect of being able to turn her face and body back to normal for one hour a day reopened some doors for Zoe that she had assumed were shut and locked.

She had already sent a mental message to her agent, letting the woman know that she was available for modeling gigs again, but that she had a very limited timeframe per day in which she could model.

The cosplay model known as Tiger Lily was back, in a limited way, but back nonetheless.

After stretching, Zoe positioned herself in one of the handstands that Helena had shown her, changing the flow of blood (or whatever), and enjoying the feeling of being upside down for a moment.

Even if she had added a new warm-up ritual to her routine, Zoe’s workout ritual wouldn’t be the same without honing her fighting skills. Which was why she approached some of the punching bags after being upside down for a few minutes, taking a few quick jabs and practice swipes, careful not to actually touch the bags when she bared her claws.

She’d done enough damage, and she knew that.

Growing even more comfortable in her skin, a skin that she would have for twenty-three hours a day, Zoe did an aerial into a kick, nearly tearing the punching bag off its chain once she followed up with a punch that would have shattered someone’s ribs.

While she didn’t like her face in this form, she loved her agility, her body able to move in ways that she had only dreamed of before.

She was so much faster too; Zoe knew that if she continued to train in this form, she would be an even more formidable opponent, able to take her enemies down before they could even get a weapon up.

And that was important to her; clearing the distance between her and an opponent would be the way Zoe had to operate sometimes, especially if they were aiming something at her.

So she practiced some sprints, back and forth, stopping as quickly as she could, practicing quick stops coupled with throat punches, swipes with her claws, a roundhouse kick that took an invisible opponent off their feet.

It was around this time that Helena entered the gym, shaking her shoulders out. She hopped up and down for a moment, nodded at Zoe, and began her own stretching routine, both women ignoring each other for a good twenty minutes as Helena loosened up.

“Care to spar?” Helena asked once she was done, already putting boxing mitts on.

They got into position and started up, Helena challenging Zoe to move faster, to strike more fluidly. At first Zoe hated Helena’s coaching, but she knew that the combat dancer was merely trying to look out for her, and it was helpful.

So she eventually loosened up.

Zoe still couldn’t make eye contact with Helena, not fully. The guilt was still there, but she knew it would fade one day. When she spoke to Helena she looked just past her, sometimes to the left or to the right, cordial, but clearly kowtowing to Helena’s influence.

“I hope we can go back to a sauna one day,” Zoe said as they finished up.

Helena returned the boxing mitts to their proper place, and Zoe got behind one of the punching bags, encouraging Helena to step forward, to practice some of her rapid-fire kicks.

Zoe trusted that Helena wouldn’t kick her in the face, but she came close a few times, Zoe’s hands tensing when she did, her claws appearing.

“We will eventually,” Helena said, a little breathless now. “It’s just our luck that someone was trying to rob one of the floors below. I’m just glad we got there in time.”

“I guess that is what Vigilante Justice will be all about: getting there in time.”

“Likely so,” Helena said, driving her heel into the punching bag. “Because of the nature of our powers, and the fact that we aren’t registered, we will always have to be a step ahead of real exemplar teams. But we also don’t have to go through the same security protocols they have to go through, which may give us an edge.”

“It’s a damn shame, too,” said Zoe, Helena’s foot again coming within two inches of her face as the heiress kicked the living shit out of the punching bag. “We need more training; I’m not cocky enough to think that we don’t, but we have the potential to be as good as any of them.”

“I don’t disagree with you there,” Helena said, performing a swift chop.

While Zoe was sometimes jealous of Helena, she couldn’t deny that the woman had worked her ass off to get where she was, at least in terms of physical fitness.

Zoe didn’t know much about Helena’s situation as head of the board of the Knight Corporation, and she rightly assumed that it had been a position handed to her by her parents.

But in terms of physical fitness, Helena had earned every bit of her speed and power.

Her grace too, that was something that continued to surprise Zoe, something she knew she would never be able to replicate. Helena made it look easy; she literally looked like she was dancing half the time, performing even, her hands in the air, her legs poised to demonstrate a ballet appropriate move.

It was almost uncanny.

Not that Zoe was about to give out any compliments; no, that wasn’t Zoe’s style, so she simply held the punching bag, allowing Helena to show off a little, the woman coming up onto one arm and lightly tapping the top of the punching bag with the tip of her toe.

“Bravo,” Zoe said under her breath, her ears twitching as she heard some movement in the hallway outside.

Zoe looked to the door just in time to see some mist coming up from under it.

“Something’s wrong,” she told Helena, releasing the punching bag, her claws forming. “Get ready for some action.”

***

Several of William Bottorf’s clones exploded through the gym door, spinning their batons, the clones scrambling over anything in their way as they advanced toward Zoe and Helena.

“Oh no they fucking didn’t!” Helena said, kicking the first clone to reach her, and using her forward momentum to come around her other foot, connecting her heel with a different clone’s chin.

Zoe wasn’t being so nice.

The tiger girl started cutting down clones and clawing them to pieces just as soon as she could reach them, a furious look on her face as the clones surrounded her.

Zoe kicked some of the punching bags in their directions, avoiding the bags when they came back around, and advanced toward the parallel bars. She lifted herself onto the bars and brought her knees onto the shoulders of one of the clones, clawing him in the face as he went down. Zoe landed hard on her knees and hopped back to her feet.

“Do not resist,” a few of the clones said, and it was at this point that Helena pointed her finger in the air and yelled, “power-up, fire!”

Everyone in the vicinity including Zoe saw flames billowing into the room, enough fire to scare even a clone, mostly because William was part of this group, and they were reacting the same way he would.

“We have to get to the others,” Helena said, her pupils two spinning bullseyes. “Close your eyes, don’t worry about the fire, and trust me!”

Zoe did as she was told, even though closing her eyes wasn’t stopping her from feeling the heat, the fire spreading up her flesh. It was an incredible thing to ignore, but she did so as they moved to the hallway, where Helena swiftly deactivated her power.

They found more mist in the hallway of the mansion, Ozella crying out as Dinah tried to protect her. The sound of a firing wrist guard met their ears, a hole blasting through the wall of Sam’s bedroom.

“I cannot believe they came to my house like this,” Helena said, more furious than she had ever been before. “I do not consent to a telepath!” she cried out into the mist. “Stop the fighting now! My lawyers have already been contacted!”

The mist swelled up until it formed a single, towering man. Mister Fist wore his mask as usual; MindLenz was suddenly next to him; the exemplar known as Plume also in the hallway; and the real William Bottorf was behind them all, his baton still at the ready.

“Is the fight over?” Sam asked, looking through the hole he had blasted in the wall. “I… I’m sorry about this,” he started to tell Helena.

“It’ll be fixed by the afternoon,” the combat dancer said.

“No, Dinah, no!” Ozella said as Dinah jumped onto MindLenz. “Power-up, off!”

And as soon as she said the words, Dinah dematerialized, letting gravity pull MindLenz to the ground, the masked woman landing with a hard thump that caused her to mentally scream in everyone’s head for a moment.

“What is the meaning of coming to my home?” Helena asked as soon as the shriek stopped.

“We’re here to arrest the four of you for impersonating exemplars last night,” said the group’s leader. “Do we really need to recap what you did? Or how you blew the toes off an alleged criminal robbing an investment firm?”

“We were just there for the sauna; shit happened, we responded,” Zoe spit back.

“You should have waited for the proper authorities to arrive.”

“And let innocent people die? They had already killed a security guard,” Sam said, shaking his head at Mister Fist. “I don’t know about you, but if something happens and you’re there, and you’re able to do something about it…”

“I have specifically instructed the four of you not to get involved in any more of this type of work. We have given you two chances now.”

Zoe rolled her eyes. “What-the-fuck-ever. Look, Fisty, I think it’s about time that all of you mind your own fucking business. That or step your game up,” she said, her claws still extended.

“I do not take kindly to threats,” Mister Fist said, his eyes narrowing on Zoe.

“The attitude’s not going anywhere, and if you want to go back to mist form and bring it, then feel free to do so,” she said. “You might have already forgotten, but let me remind you that we saved your asses less than twenty-four hours ago. You would all be superpowered vampires by now, doing whatever the hell it is that the Fang is up to, if it hadn’t been for us.”

“We are a registered exemplar team,” Plume told the tiger girl. “Now, I know you like to parade around here like you are some type of hero, but you have not been licensed, and in that case, you are in our jurisdiction. All four of you are under arrest. There is no debate about this. You either come quietly, or we burn this house to the ground rounding the four of you up.”

“Interesting. Breaking and entering; threatening our lives; threatening my livelihood considering this is one of my family’s real estate investments; assault and battery…” Helena shrugged. “I’m sure my lawyers will be able to cook up some other reasons for the judge to drop all charges.”

“You have to hand it to them,” Plume told Mister Fist, “they are tenacious. Foolish in the way they don’t quite understand that we have jurisdiction over everything they do, but tenacious. It makes me wonder if they’re even listening to us at all.”

“Hey, fire lady, no need to fucking patronize us,” Zoe said, taking an aggressive step forward.

“We were just trying to help people,” Ozella said. “We want the exact same thing you do. We want to help, that’s all. We were just at the sauna to relax after yesterday’s fight. What were we supposed to do?”

“Wait for the proper authorities to get there,” Mister Fist said. Sam’s nostrils flared open for a moment and he caught a scent from Mister Fist that kicked his mind into high gear.

No way… He thought, as what he had just discovered was immediately erased from his mind.

“Breathe out of your mouth,” MindLenz reminded him, interrupting the argument happening between Plume and Zoe. The telepath wore a black mask similar to Mister Fist’s, hers with a white circle stitched over the entirety of her face. While he couldn’t quite make out where she was looking, Sam could tell by the way she stood that she was practically drilling a hole through his head.

“We will come with you,” Helena said suddenly, “but you won’t like what happens next.”

“Is that a threat?” Mister Fist asked.

“No, it is a fact. Wherever you take us next, my lawyers will be there within…” Helena looked at an invisible watch on her wrist, performing the gesture just to infuriate Mister Fist even further. “Five minutes? It usually doesn’t take them that long. That’s the point of being on call, right?”

“Just because you’re wealthy, doesn’t mean you will get out of this,” Plume told her.

“That’s right,” said William Bottorf, “Centralia has laws. This isn’t the Southern Alliance.”

“Please. What would you know about the Southern Alliance? I happen to have friends there and have visited multiple times. So cut it with the patriotic crap. And I agree with you, we do have laws,” said Helena, “but it’s the interpretation of those laws that matters. And unfortunately, these interpretations can take quite some time. I don’t know how many years, because my lawyers haven’t looked into all the details of this case, but let’s just assume it will be a lengthy battle. But I hope you have representation, because we plan to fight this all the way to the end, whatever that end may be.”

“This isn’t right…” Mister Fist said.

“Plus, we’ll just reveal your identities to the public,” Ozella said, startling everyone. “Like you, Bill…”

Sam’s eyes went wide as his nostrils again flared up. “Holy shit, Bill? That’s… Holy shit! Heroes Anonymous Bill?”

“Do something…” Mister Fist said to his team’s telepath, but the next thing they heard was MindLenz falling sideways, cracking her head into the wall.

“Thank you, Dinah,” Ozella said, stepping forward, her bangs in her face as she smiled at the shocked exemplar team. “Let’s talk without a telepath for a moment. And don’t worry, I will heal her up at the end of all this.”

“Ozella?” Sam asked, surprised to see the nerdy statkeeper acting so confident. Upon closer examination (through the hole he’d blasted in the wall) he could see that Ozella’s hands were shaking, that she wasn’t able to make eye contact with anyone as she spoke.

“I know who all of you are, and I also know intimate details about your lives, such as the fact that you volunteer as a sponsor at a Heroes Anonymous group, Bill,” she told Mister Fist, “or that you are having a relationship with one of your students, Ava, an exemplar in training,” she told Plume.

“What? No. That’s not true, Bill, I mean, Mister Fist, that’s not true.”

“I have already forwarded all this information to Helena, who has sent it through via a private mental messaging channel to her assistant. I would choose your next move carefully.”

“You’re blackmailing us?” Mister Fist said with a snarl.

“Bill?” Sam asked. “You are like totally against non-exemplars acting like exemplars, but you are an exemplar, and you lead non-exemplars. My mind is fucking blown at the moment, I’m sorry. Oh shit. And that one-time Plume was actually at one of your meetings with… who was that guy? Roman, yeah, that’s his name. Is that the student you’re talking about, Ozella?”

She nodded.

“This is humiliating,” Mister Fist said under his breath. “Humiliating!”

“We can burn this place to the ground…” Plume said, an inferno igniting behind her eyes.

“I think you already threatened to do that, fire lady.” Zoe shrugged. “But I don’t know how you will justify burning down the home of one of Centralia’s richest women,” she said with a hint of disdain in her voice. “I mean, she’s probably already transcribed everything that has happened here and forwarded it to her assistant. Right, Helena?”

“Yes. Everything has been forwarded.”

“So sure, blackmail,” Ozella said, her voice growing stronger. “I guess that you could call it that. We’re not going to stop. And even if you take us to jail, I don’t think we will stop at that point either. And you can’t take our powers away, you should know that by now.”

“You don’t know that,” said Plume, the ends of her hair igniting and settling.

“So that leaves us with a couple of options: One: we keep fighting each other until one of our teams wins. I don’t like this option,” said Ozella. “Two: you help us get registered and possibly even help us with some of our training. I don’t think you would like that option, to be honest. And then there’s option three: you leave us alone and let us do what we do, and we leave you alone and let you do what you do. Maybe there’s a chance in the future where some information will be shared, but we can address that later.”

“I…” Plume shook her head as she placed a hand on Mister Fist’s muscled bicep. “We need to go, rethink this.”

“Dammit,” William Bottorf said as he shouldered past Zoe. “Damn all of this.”

“Yes, you really do need to rethink this,” said Helena. “We don’t want to battle you, be that fight physical or legal. It’s just going to be a bloody mess in the end, and if we can avoid that now…”

“I hate this,” Mister Fist said. “I hate to agree to this.” A wicked smile formed under his mask. “You will be at all scheduled meetings going forward or I will contact your parole officer,” he told Sam. “The rest of you as well—well, not you because you haven’t been convicted of anything,” he said to Ozella. “But you’d all better be there!”

“Petty,” Zoe coughed into her hand.

“Let’s just go our separate ways, then,” Helena said. “If you want us to attend the meetings, fine, we will do that, and we won’t expose who you are, so don’t expose who we are. That’s how this works. Your information has been stored in such a way that not even the strongest telepath in Centralia could get to it, in the same way we store the Knight Corporation’s financial information. I will do everything in my power to make the storage of this information even stronger. But if anything happens to us, and if you come after us again, well…”

“It’s blackmail,” William Bottorf said, his fists tensing.

“It sounds better than a lawsuit to me,” said Helena. “Especially the kind I was going to bring against your group. I’m sorry that this little meeting had to end in this way, and I hope that going forward we can find a better way to work with each other. I really mean that.”

“No you don’t,” William said.

“Yes, she does,” said MindLenz, who was sitting on the ground, half-revived. Dinah was next to her, still healing her up, her form only visible to the four would-be heroes.

“And one more thing: we have a name now, so when you’re ready to help us get registered, it would be greatly appreciated,” Helena told them.

“A name?” Plume asked.

“Vigilante Justice,” Ozella chimed in. “I’m Human Shield; he’s Nosey; she’s Ballerina; and she’s Tiger Ears.”

“Dumbass names,” William Bottorf muttered. “Dumbass.”

“Says the clone man without a codename,” Zoe said sharply.

“William Bottorf is my codename!”

“Yeah? Well, Tiger Ears is mine, so deal with it.”

“You will never be a registered group,” Mister Fist growled. “Never. Not in a million years. Let’s go.”

And with that a teleporter appeared out of a portal, Mister Fist and his team stepping into the portal and vanishing.

“Well, glad that’s over with,” Zoe said, looking at the group. “Who’s up for some more training?”

Chapter Four: Infamy Incarnate

(It’s time to check in with the good doctor.)

By this point in our narrative, Dr. Hamza Grumio had a tarp covering the hole that the four meddling wannabe heroes had blown in the wall of his laboratory.

It was something that he was planning to have fixed soon, something Hamza would have to bargain for until he got the contractors to his home, where he would be able to use the mind control serum on them.

But for now, it could wait.

After all, his lab did close off from the rest of the house, and he had other rooms that jutted off his lab, allowing him a couple of closed spaces to work. It was in one of these rooms that he set the piece of Mia’s wing, scientific terms and molecular structures floating before him.

Sometimes seeing intricate details of everything bothered Dr. Hamza, other times, he merely accepted it and looked past. But now that he had gotten used to it, it was incredibly helpful in a laboratory setting.

He simply knew things: chemical combinations, anatomical facts, anything related to the classification of matter. And it made him ponder his ability even more. The more he saw, the more he understood.

But how?

The words in the structures, while “accurate” to some degree, were also concepts created by exemplars and non-exemplars alike. They were the names that scientists had given them, which Dr. Hamza understood as his brain being able to utilize information he had once learned, expand upon it at a quantum level, and interpret it as such.

It almost reminded him of the way a brain worked with a person’s vision, filling in the blanks at times, the image making its way to the visual cortex, where the brain tries to make sense of the mess. Except Hamza’s cerebral cortex also provided him with overlaid information to fill in these blanks, theoretical concepts and intricate mathematical equations, the kind of stuff he had always enjoyed.

It was an incredibly odd power.

“Mia, Mia, Mia,” Dr. Hamza said as he put on a new pair of plastic gloves and began dissecting the portion of her wing. He cut some of it, putting it in a test tube lest it liquify, like the sample he had from the other man.

He wanted tissue and blood samples to play around with first, knowing that whatever cure he came up with would need to be tested before he tried to use it on Mia herself.

He didn’t want her to die, not after everything she’d been through.

And yes, Mia had crippled him, but he had enslaved her, and Dr. Hamza figured if he rescued her, that it would solidify their bond, make up for past grievances. Hell, now that they were both exemplars, maybe he would be able to re-spark their connection.

It would be a long sell, he knew that, but freeing her from her vampiric overlords was a start, and eradicating them would be a bonus.

He could see himself now, finally getting the recognition he deserved, the man who cured vampirism.

Dr. Hamza had read up on the Western Plague, as had most Centralians.

Biographical accounts, lengthy magazine articles, comics, various types of fiction—it fascinated exemplars and non-exemplars alike. It was never his main interest, not at the time anyway, but he had perused some of the literature, and knew enough about the infection to know that it had come from a single exemplar.

“And what a strange power you had,” Dr. Hamza said as he used a syringe to absorb some of the blood that appeared on the surface of the wing, careful to put it in a test tube.

The exemplar who had started the initial infection was likely dead, or at least he was rumored to have been killed by some of the vampire hunting squads that the Western Province had put together. At least whoever was responsible for bringing the infection to Centralia was containing it, because if there were vampires running rampant, Dr. Hamza would have known about it.

Everyone would have.

But thus far it seemed awfully quiet, and mental news update about the subject proved fruitless.

Dr. Hamza was well aware that the team of exemplars was looking into it, and if he hadn’t despised them so much, he would have been impressed that four fake heroes had also been involved.

Helena Knight, the one with hypnotic abilities; Sam with his superpowered nose; Ozella with her weird invisible friend who could heal people; and the tiger girl, Zoe, who would have been a great subject had Sam and Helena not ruined their fun.

A great piece of ass too.

It was on Dr. Hamza’s to-do list as well, to find a way to cure exemplarism just to spite the fuckers, but it would have to go on the back burner for now. And maybe if he could get Mia, perhaps he would let that part go.

What was the point of going after those kids anyway?

They were going to get themselves killed sooner than later, so maybe it was best if Dr. Hamza let fate play out.

Then again, they had humiliated him, pretty much caused his crippling, and the one called Sam had blasted him with a pretty gnarly weapon, which left Dr. Hamza stunned for a couple of hours.

A couple of hours in which he eventually shat himself.

Somehow, these four had a way of triggering bowel movements for Dr. Hamza, which was another thing that pissed him off.

So he would probably have to get his revenge in the end, unless they got themselves killed.

But in the meantime, Dr. Hamza would find out everything he could about this vampiric infection, discover its cure, and in the process, come up with a way to spread the infection by treating it like a biological weapon.

After all, if fame and glory wasn’t in the cards for Dr. Hamza, he would settle for infamy.

Chapter Five: Like a Boss

(A chapter detailing why Helena Knight would be a pretty cool person to work for.)

Helena Knight finished dressing, going for her usual sexy tomboy chic, not giving two damns or a single fuck about what others would say.

She knew some of her employees talked behind her back, but she also knew that this was nothing new, that her father and her grandfather had experienced the same thing.

Rather than appearance, what was most important to Helena was getting her point across, reworking the Knight Corporation’s contractual process, and figuring out how Fang got their five or six contracts in the first place.

She had an idea of who had okayed the contracts, or rather, who on the board would benefit the most from this sort of agreement.

Not that the board actually oversaw day-to-day operations like the procurement and management of contracts, but she had a sinking suspicion that one of the board members, Richard “Dick” Moonstar, was likely the culprit.

She was well aware of the fact that he tried to get as many shipping contracts as possible for the Knight Corporation, mostly because he owned a company that developed and sold custom shipping gear called DM Enterprises, which just so happened to have a few spare warehouses as well.

Helena wasn’t too keen on this fact, but DM Enterprises was the best in the business, and it made sense for the Knight Corporation to work with them. Centralian ports were privatized because of the work from Helena’s grandfather, who had spent a fortune softening up members of Centralia’s parliamentary system, allowing for the sale of the ports when the government found itself in harrowing debt.

That was years ago, and while the ports and the shipping facilities the Knight Corporation owned still made up a good chunk of their yearly revenue, even more came from commercial real estate. But the privatization of ports was one of her grandfather’s biggest power plays during his time, and it was a legacy she could feel every time the topic was discussed during a board meeting.

Helena was no longer intimidated by the people on the board, some of whom were nearly four times her age. She was ruthless, yet firm, and while she could be fair, Helena got what she wanted when she wanted it.

Luckily for those around her, she didn’t have the desires or the whims of a crackpot dictator.  Nor did she second-guess the rarity of her wealth, that most Centralians, would never have anything close to what she possessed.

And part of Helena wanted to stay home today, to rest a little bit more after the previous night, but she felt the duty to her family and her post to hold the meeting and go through some of the numbers, with the ultimate goal of cornering Dick Moonstar once the board meeting had concluded.

Zoe had already taken a modeling gig that morning, using her power-up just about as soon as they finished training. She would be back at the mansion by the time Helena returned, and they could train some more, which was something Helena was actually looking forward to. Ozella and Sam had other plans, but Helena wasn’t too worried about whatever they were getting up to.

Helena knew that Ozella likely held more keys to Vigilante Justice’s success, and she hoped that hanging out with Sam might unlock more useful ideas. If not, Helena had an idea of how she could spark some transformation for the shy statkeeper...

After making sure her outfit was in place, Helena took a quick look around her office, which was on the top floor of one of Centralia’s tallest buildings.

Her family owned the building, and licensed out the lower floors to commercial and residential groups, saving the middle floors for their accounting, HR, and legal teams.

When Helena became head of the board, she had made it a point to go to each floor for a visit. She planned to do it again sometime soon, but she really didn’t like being at the office, especially now that there were more interesting things to do.

Her hands behind her back, Helena turned to the window, looking out over the city, buildings as far as the eye could see. Such a grand world, with much more to explore.

Of the five countries of her world, Helena had spent the most time in Centralia and the Southern Alliance, where she had a friend named Juniper. She had tried to travel more during college, but her parents had forbidden trips to any country aside from the Southern Alliance, especially because Helena wanted to travel alone, and they wanted her to travel with a team of chaperones.

So Helena conceded and just kept to her studies, working on one of the floors below after she finished her classes.

That was one thing that many people didn’t know about Helena, that she had actually worked for her family’s companies when she was sixteen years of age, always wearing a disguise when she did, her father making her do everything from be a mail clerk to a week-long stint on the janitorial staff after she’d been caught sneaking in late one night.

What was strange to her, and still fascinated her, was how many things could be going on in the corporate office, while their true business was happening elsewhere, all around Centralia, and increasingly pushing across the borders, the family looking to partner with more stable countries to expand their shipping facilities.

This was something that Helena had tasked an entire department with figuring out, as it required contracts with foreign governments, deals with her own government, plus a ton of oversight. It was something her father had tried, and failed, to accomplish.

Before his retirement, her father had set up the company in the most decentralized way he could come up with to keep revenue growing. Each of the departments had a head who was responsible for that department, this person able to make calls that would normally have to run up the chain of command.

This left the board free to managing overarching issues, and it created a scenario in which Helena didn’t have to stress as much about day-to-day operations. She could keep her vision on the future, while letting those most qualified to monitor intricate details manage their own departments, which in a way operated as sub companies at times.

It had been a genius maneuver on her father’s part.

A knock at the door grabbed her attention. “Ms. Knight,” Bryan King said as he peeked his head in. “The board is ready.” Bryan was a thin man, wearing a nicely pressed blue suit and tan leather shoes.

He smiled briskly at Helena.

“Great,” Helena said as she followed him through a corridor with high ceilings, chandeliers at the top, pictures of some of her relatives hanging on the walls, all of them in golden frames.

There were two doors at the end of the space, one led to the rest of the office, the other to the boardroom.

Helena approached the door that led to the boardroom, smoothed her hands over her outfit, and took a deep breath.

“Thank you,” she told Bryan, who stood off to the side now, his hands crossed over the front of his body.

Helena let herself in, which was something she told Bryan she preferred to do. As the other board members stood, she took no time in asking them to have a seat. After clearing her throat, Helena Knight was all business over the next hour.

Only briefly, while one of the members was talking, did it cross her mind that the three people living at her home would be surprised to see Helena in this setting. This led her to think momentarily about the double life she was living, how dangerous it was, and how much she enjoyed doing it.

The risk was greater than the reward, but she wasn’t in it for a trophy anyway.

Once the meeting concluded, the board members stood, each one filing out individually.

“Mr. Moonstar,” Helena said, smiling to the mustached man, who was trim and wore a tailored tweed suit. “Can you stick around for a moment?”

“As you wish, Ms. Knight,” he said, waiting for the others to leave.

“Please, sit,” Helena told the man, who liked to be called “Dick” and often fit his nickname.

“May I ask what this is about?”

“I’m very well aware of how DM Enterprises benefits off the people who choose to ship with us,” Helena said, her pupil starting to spin. “But that’s not what I want to discuss. I know that you don’t go over every contract that comes through our shipping division, that we have a head manager for that, but I also know that you are good friends with him, and that you have paid him bonuses over the last seven quarters to encourage companies to use your shipping supplies.”

“That is correct,” Dick told her, fixated on her eye as Helena continue to speak.

“You know this is technically a violation of board protocol.”

“I’m aware.”

“But that’s not what I’m after right now, what I would like to know is why? Aside from monetary gain, what’s the reason that you’re going behind my back and doing this?”

“Debt,” Dick said, swallowing hard.

It was weird to watch people make confessions as they were hypnotized, especially when one part of them was actively resisting what they were saying. Richard’s eyes were suddenly red, and he kept sniffing, licking his lips, his body trying to override what he was saying and experiencing.

“And what type of debt are we talking about here? Gambling? Investment?”

“Investment debt,” he finally said.

“So one of the companies that you made a deal with, a group known as Fang, what did they order from you? What did they promise you if the deal went through? You may be wondering how I know all this, but rest assured that I have checked my sources several times now, and I have a team of people working on this as we speak. I should also say that at the end of this conversation, you will forget that we’ve spoken at all. But we can deal with that part later. For now, I want to get back to my original questions: what did they order from you, and what did they promise you if the deal went through?”

“They didn’t order anything,” he finally admitted, “but they did pay me.”

“Good, write down the sum here,” Helena said as she turned her pad toward Richard. He wrote down a number that was higher than Helena had expected, and once he was finished, he turned the pad back to her.

“This number was agreed-upon if I could keep the contracts coming, but now I cannot because of the stop order that you put in…”

“It wasn’t a stop order, as I said in the meeting, we just want to re-examine how contracts are made. That’s all.”

“I understand,” Dick said, nodding.

“Since you aren’t going to remember any of this, I’m going to tell you how this plays out next,” Helena said firmly. “You will not be invited to the next board meeting. But you will not be terminated from the board, at least not yet. You will contact me once Fang contacts you to ask for advice due to their shipping resource being cut off. You will feed all this information to me, and no money will exchange hands with the Knight Corporation. In fact, you will take all the money that they pay going forward, although I don’t think they’ll be paying for a while at least, considering they’ve already paid you this amount. Is this understood?”

“It is, Ms. Knight.”

“Your work here will be instrumental in bringing down an organization that is trafficking children from other countries into Centralia. Now, you don’t need to know any of that, but you will learn a few things as you grow closer to the Fang organization. You will pay close attention to their hierarchy, you will keep active notes on what you have observed and pass them on to me if they ever let you into their inner circle.”

“As you wish, Ms. Knight,” Dick said.

“I’m glad we could come to some agreement here, Mr. Moonstar, ” Helena said as she started to pack up her things. “Glad indeed.”

Chapter Six: Just Out Heroing and Shit

(Vigilante Justice is really starting to live up to their name!)

Sam sat across from Ozella in a bustling diner near Helena’s home. Like many of the places that surrounded the Amor District, the diner was same same but different, “same” in the sense that it looked like all other diners, but “different” in the fact that it was three times the price, the clientele consisting mostly of Centralia’s elite.

It was Helena who suggested that they go to the joint, her assistant already calling in a reservation, which Sam found to be a little ridiculous. A reservation at a diner? He’d never heard of someone doing that before, unless they were trying to throw a birthday party or something.

Diners were so plentiful in Centralia that if your favorite diner was packed, there was usually another diner within a two-block radius that was equally priced, and they probably had the same menu too.

Leave it to Helena to find an exclusive place.

Since it was so fancy, Sam thought about using his daily power-up to switch out to something other than smell, but he ultimately decided against it, eventually settling for toast.

He hadn’t experimented with switching his powers enough, and figured he’d do it at some point, likely with Ozella’s guidance.

Sam pretty much had his olfactory epithelium under control at the moment, mouth-breathing like he was practicing CPR, his focus on keeping his nostrils shut. He recalled the time that William Bottorf the duplicator had shoved two earplugs up his nostrils.

Maybe that would be a way to eat without activating a different power… he thought as he watched Ozella enjoy a bowl of oatmeal, with green eggs and ham on the way.

As always, Ozella was nice to look at. The geeky statkeeper wore a white blouse at the moment, unbuttoned in the front, her blouse tucked into a green and red plaid skirt, her trademark red leather backpack on the seat next to her, a yellow dingy hanging from one of the zippers.

While she ate her oatmeal, she perused her Book of Known Variables, occasionally setting her spoon down, picking up a pencil and making adjustments.

Sam had been watching her do this for the last several minutes, wondering why she went to so much effort when she had figured out the secret of the book. He had yet to speak to her about it. Sam wasn’t the type to immediately call someone out, but it seemed tedious, and Helena had asked him to say something.

Sam figured he would bring it up, trying to keep things as nonchalant as possible. “You know, you probably don’t need to really adjust people’s stats anymore now that you have, you know, figured out a different way to use the book.”

“A different way to use the book?” Ozella asked.

“Ozella, you can write a question in the book and the answer is presented to you. That’s basically what you have been doing, right?”

“It’s one of the things I’ve been doing, but it doesn’t always give me a straight answer.”

“I’m not knocking what you did before, you know, keeping so many details on everyone, I just think that this is what you should be focused on.”

“Just writing questions?”

Sam thought for a moment. “No, not just that. Things like what you did with the power-up is also really cool. I just think you have unlocked the secret, and now that you’ve done that, that’s what we should be working on.”

“You want to work with me on my own power?” she asked, absolutely no hint of animosity in her tone.

“I would love to,” Sam told her. “That’s how we should use this. I mean, the power-up thing is genius. I keep saying this, but it really is. You know it’s genius, we all think it’s brilliant, but you could, in a way, be our detective.”

“A detective,” Ozella said, bringing her pencil to her mouth for a moment, chewing on the eraser.

“Yeah,” Sam said, realizing he had hit on a point that could be expanded upon. “That’s exactly what you could be like. And it would be incredibly helpful to us. Dinah’s healing is already so damn helpful. And I don’t know what we’re going to do with her…”

“Real form?” Ozella asked, finishing his sentence.

“Yeah,” Sam said. “Her real form.”

Dinah started to fade into existence. Nude as always, the blue woman was next to Ozella, her hair in a side ponytail. She looked at Sam for a moment, and placed her hand behind her neck, smiling at him.

“It looks like she’s flirting with me,” Sam said.

Ozella turned to look at Dinah, telling her to knock it off under her breath. Dinah merely shrugged and continued to gaze at Sam.

“Anyway, let’s not let Dinah distract us,” Sam said as the waiter came by and filled Ozella’s cup of tea. He also filled Sam’s water, the waiter coming just a bit too close to Sam’s sniffer.

Even though he was mouth-breathing at the moment, Sam got a small whiff of the man’s scent, the waiter’s history coming to him in an instant.

It was his second job. He had already worked another job overnight. He was a single father, his wife killed in an exemplar incident. Sam felt bad for the guy, but it also gave him an idea, two ideas actually.

“All right,” Sam said as the man left. “I have a couple things I wanted to suggest, but let’s start with this. You see our waiter?”

“Yes, a man named Roger Fortune,” Ozella said, a dazed look flashing across her face. “Interesting…”

“Okay, so you are seeing a little bit about his personal history, right?” Sam asked.

“I am. It’s too bad what happened to his wife.”

“Killed by an exemplar; at least from what I could smell.”

“Something like that,” Ozella said.

“Okay then, that’s our first little detective mission,” Sam suggested. “Let’s figure out who killed his wife and bring them to justice.”

“By just using my notebook?” Ozella asked.

“Exactly. You know the guy now, or at least you’ve seen him, and let’s just see what happens. Ask the book questions, see if you get answers.”

“Okay…” Ozella said, turning to a blank page. “What would you ask it first?”

“‘Who killed Roger Fortune’s wife?’ Try starting with that. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Okay,” Ozella said as she wrote the question.

She looked up again at the waiter as he approached with her green eggs and ham. Sam wished he could have green eggs and ham, but eating meat always gave him the history of the animal, even if he tried to do it with his nose pinched shut, and eggs, while more bearable, had a certain smell to them that was overwhelming.

“What is it?” Sam asked, focusing on his mouth-breathing again as the waiter left. “Did it tell you something?”

He didn’t know if “it” was the right term for whatever was communicating with Ozella, but whatever it was, the entity had proved helpful thus far.

Ozella nodded. “The killer’s name is Jimmy Vela.”

“Did it tell you anything else about him?”

“No,” Ozella said as she shook her head. “I didn’t really ask anything else.”

“Okay, so it can answer questions,” Sam said, running his hand along his beard stubble. He had been meaning to shave, but there were more interesting things to do as of late, like trying to be a hero and shit.

“What if I write ‘Where does Jimmy Vela live?’ That could give us the answer we’re looking for…” Ozella suggested. “We could poke around there.”

“Yeah, write it. Let’s see. As it stands right now, if we can simply ask your book questions and get answers, the sky's the limit. We could solve anything. We would be able to track down anyone too.”

“That would be super helpful,” Ozella said as she ignored her green eggs and ham, focusing instead on what she was writing. She looked up again, in a way that reminded Sam of one of the northern Centralia gophers that his parents always had to deal with on the family vineyard.

“Well?”

“The Book says it doesn’t know, but that a good place to start would be a restaurant called Blue Lagoon.”

Sam immediately fired off a message to a telepathic answering service, asking where Blue Lagoon was located. He got a response almost instantaneously. “Okay, the Goa District.”

Sam was very familiar with this district, mostly because Zoe’s middle name had been borrowed from the district, which was a place that her mother had done business when Zoe was young.

And boy, had Sam heard those stories—Zoe’s hard upbringing, living with her grandmother, her mother out smuggling and eventually being killed. There was a point in her life that Zoe had wanted to change her middle name, but she decided as she grew closer to twenty that she would keep it, to remind herself never to get into the same type of business that cost her mother her life.

“Ask it why it’s giving us the Blue Lagoon as an answer.”

“Sure,” Ozella asked, and Sam watched, albeit upside down, as she wrote the question, ‘Why Blue Lagoon?’ in her notebook.

Ozella laughed, immediately bring her hand to her mouth, her cheeks flushing red.

“What?”

“The book is a little snarky,” she finally said. “Kind of like Zoe.”

“What did it say?”

“It said, ‘go find out yourself.’”

Sam grinned. “All right, once you finish your green eggs and ham, let’s go figure this out.”

“There was another thing you said that you wanted to try,” Ozella said.

“Yes, there is, but let’s hold off on that for a moment and focus on this. Now what other questions could we ask it?”

“Maybe we should find out more about why this man named Jimmy Vela killed our waiter’s wife. Maybe that will help us better understand his motives, or if it was somehow accidental. Let’s start there…”

“We could be at this for a while,” Sam said, looking at her food. “Just go ahead and eat first, and then we can take a trolley over there, and ask more questions in the trolley. Deal?”

“Deal. And later, you can eat a better meal. Something better than toast.”

“How?”

Ozella smiled at him. “I have an idea, don’t worry.”

***

“That’s it, show me that one again,” the photographer told Zoe. “Good, good,” he said, licking his lips as he snapped another picture. “Perfect.”

Irony or not, Zoe was dressed as Tiger Lily, the second-generation Centralian wearing tiger print boy shorts, and an open blouse tied in the middle over a sports bra, her black hair tucked behind a headband with tiger ears attached to it.

It felt good to be wanted, and even though she knew the photographer was paid to make her feel like she was the most beautiful thing that ever existed, this didn’t bother Zoe one bit. As she turned to him, hiking her ass up, the boy shorts just barely covering her ass cheeks, Zoe looked over her shoulder at the camera and blew it a kiss, finally feeling like herself.

Or at least the version of her that she liked to show to the world from time to time.

“This is so great, better than our last session together,” the photographer assured her. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but keep doing it!”

Zoe crouched, her knees going wide, her hands dropping in front of her lady parts, tilting her head to the left just a little as she smiled softly at the camera.

“Vulnerable, I love it,” the photographer said, which made Zoe laugh. “Yes, laugh more, you look like you’re having fun!”

Zoe stood again, placing her hands under her breasts and lifting them as she bent over, a tried and true cleavage shot.

She had lost track of time. And she didn’t care about this fact, so happy just to be in her own skin for once, not a half breed, just Zoe Goa Ramone.

And inevitably, as happens to all who forget that time exists, Zoe’s transformation took place as soon as she turned her back to the photographer, just about to bend over and give him a shot with her looking between her legs.

Zoe felt the change in her face, her teeth morphing, her ears moving from the side of her head to the top as they turned into legitimate tiger ears, the fur sprouting from her skin, her tights shifting downward as her tail began to grow.

“Is everything okay?” the photographer asked.

Zoe burst out of the room before he could figure out what the hell was going on, the tiger girl heading straight to the dressing room, covering her face as she walked past assistants, other models who were showing up for their individual shoots, more photographers and shoot coordinators.

It was torture.

Zoe was just about to push into the dressing room when the door opened on its own, a tall, blonde model stepping out, a rival of sorts. The tall blonde took one look at Zoe, made a disgusted face and then yelped as Zoe bolted past her, shouldering through the doorway and knocking the model to the side.

“You bitch!” the blond model shouted.

“Fuck off!” Zoe cried as she went for her hooded sweater and slipped it on, still in her boy shorts and high heels as she arranged for a teleporter. She kept her back to the other models in the room, all of whom were whispering to each other now, talking about her.

A teleporter appeared, her form lifting up from the ground in a way that reminded Zoe of how Dinah operated in her ghost form. The teleporter smiled at Zoe, not at all concerned with her half-transformed face.

A few seconds later and they were standing outside a fancy diner on the outskirts of Helena’s neighborhood, the diner where Sam and Ozella had said they’d be.

“Thank you,” Zoe told the teleporter before the woman slipped away, melting into the ground again.

Rather than go inside, Zoe mental messaged Sam, letting him know she was outside, ignoring his messages asking her to come in.

Zoe paced back and forth, her fists in the pockets of her hooded sweater. A few unscrupulous fellows stopped to watch the woman in a hooded sweater, tiger boy shorts and high heels pacing back and forth.

Zoe knew they were watching, at least a few of them, but she didn’t say anything.

She was relieved as shit to see Sam and Ozella come out, her ex looking over to her with a smile on his face. He is such an idiot, Zoe thought, butterflies in her stomach as she saw the hazel eyed, dark-haired man come down the steps of the diner and immediately make his way over to her.

“What happened?” Sam asked.

“Hi, Zoe,” said Ozella, her blonde hair framing her face. “We’re going to solve a murder. Want to come?”

“You’re going to do what?” Zoe asked.

“We’ll get to that. But first, what happened to you?” asked Sam, concern still on his face.

“Nothing, I…” Zoe swallowed hard. “I lost track of time. That’s all. And I transformed back during a photo shoot.” She tried to laugh at herself. “I mean, how embarrassing is that? I got the hell out of there as quickly as I could; hopefully not too many people saw me.”

“I am so sorry.” Ozella came forward and hugged Zoe, catching the tiger girl off guard. She was stiff for a moment, not expecting a hug from Ozella, but eventually she loosened up, and part of her wished that Sam would come over and hug both of them, even if that would have been hella awkward.

“I’m sorry to hear that happened,” Sam said, his hand behind his head as he scratched his fingers at the back of his crown.

“I just have to be more careful next time. But damn,” Zoe said, once Ozella had let go. “Everyone saw me. Well, not everyone, and most didn’t see my face, but some definitely saw my tail. Great. It’s my own fault, should have been wearing a watch.”

“Well, we can’t change the past, but we can do something about the future,” Ozella said. “Which is why we’re going to solve this murder.”

“You’ve now mentioned a murder twice without any details. Please explain.”

“So it’s like this,” Sam started to say, instantly catching Zoe up on what Ozella and Sam had discussed during brunch.

He told her about the waiter, how his wife was murdered by an exemplar named Jimmy Vela, and how they had used Ozella’s notebook to figure this out. He also explained that they didn’t know his exact location, but they’d been told to go to a place called the Blue Lagoon, which was where they were heading now.

“Shouldn’t we be doing something else?” Zoe asked. “I don’t know, like training?”

“This is kind of part of our training,” Sam assured her. “Besides, if this works, there may be some other things we can do.”

“Oh, and I figured out a way that Sam can eat,” Ozella chimed in. Realizing her voice was a little loud, Ozella glanced down at her feet, her cheeks turning red as she continued her explanation. “Tonight, we are going to make Sam an amazing dinner.”

“We?” Zoe asked. “And why would we do that when Helena can just order the best chef in Centralia to come to her home to cook something?”

“She does have a point…” Sam said, instantly capitulating when Ozella gave him a sad look. “But I’d rather have your food instead. Yeah, I stand by that.”

Ozella nodded. “We will have Sam use his power-up on his vision, and then we will blindfold him. So he can eat in peace.”

“Have you ever tried eating blindfolded?” Zoe asked.

“Crap,” Sam said. “She’s right. It might be a little hard. Unless…”

“Unless?” Zoe asked.

“Unless one of us feeds him.”

Zoe laughed at Ozella’s suggestion. “No, no, that’s not how this is going to play out.”

“I can feed him, or we could have Dinah feed him. Well, she may be a bit too wild to do something like that.”

“I could just enhance my sense of touch,” Sam suggested. “That could work.”

“But it might make eating really strange when you’re holding the fork and the knife,” Ozella said, in a tone that sounded like they had already had this conversation.

“I know, but it’s worth a shot, right?”

“What if we just got some earplugs and blocked your sense of hearing?” Zoe asked.

“I thought about that too,” said Sam, “but I’ve used earplugs before, and I know that they make a little bit of noise when your jaw moves. And that noise will be amplified. We also talked about enhancing my sense of taste, but that may be too much too.”

“Too much?” Zoe asked. “It could be orgasmic.”

“Yes, maybe…” Sam said with some hesitation in his voice. “Then again, it could be like my sense of smell, meaning I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it because I would just know everything about the food I was eating. Where the beef came from, what the cow’s life was like before it was slaughtered, that sort of thing.”

“That does sound a little bad,” Zoe said. “Worth a shot though, right?”

“We’ll test all the options,” Ozella assured them. “But I’m pretty sure it’ll be sight that we go with, because we can just block that off with a blindfold. Although, thinking about it now, touch may work too. Either way, we are getting some food in you,” she told Sam, beaming at him.

“It’s not a bad idea,” Zoe added. “You definitely are starting to lose some weight, and you weren’t exactly a big guy to begin with.”

“Thanks?” Sam asked.

“You’re welcome,” Zoe said, giving him a playful look, one of her tiger ears bending ever so slightly. “Anyway, let’s go solve this stupid murder. And then we will see what Helena has figured out from her board meeting. Who’s calling the teleporter?”

“I’ll call one,” Ozella said, “or we could use Lance…”

“Let’s not use Lance for now,” Zoe said. “I saw enough of that weird fuck yesterday.”

***

“We probably should get some masks,” Zoe said as they appeared in front of the restaurant known as Blue Lagoon. “I’m not going to say that wearing boy shorts and high heels will draw attention, but yeah, I’m standing out more than even I would like at the moment.”

From the looks of the place, Blue Lagoon was a restaurant dedicated to Eastern Province food, which from what Sam had experienced consisted mostly of potatoes and carrots.

Meat too, lots of hearty dishes.

“Not a bad idea,” Sam said, looking around. Once he didn’t see a clothing store within the immediate vicinity, he fired off a mental message to a telepathic service which instantly let him know that there was a store two blocks west.

“Found one?” Zoe asked as Sam turned to the west.

“Yeah, but you know what? Let’s just take our chances. We go in there, and see if we can sniff up some info, and then we go wherever it takes us next,” Sam told her. “Who knows if we’ll actually need masks or not.”

“We have to make sure it actually works, even if Sam and I are quite certain that our information is legit,” Ozella told Zoe.

“Got it.” Zoe looked up at the restaurant's sign. “Is it too early to start drinking? Because I could use a drink.”

“We should not be drinking on the job,” Ozella reminded her.

“It’s just a little wine,” said Zoe. “Okay, okay, don’t look at me like that. I know you two already ate, but I’m a little hungry. So how about I order a…” Zoe bit her lip for a minute. “What do they have in the Eastern Province? Meat pies? Something like that. I will order a meat pie, and you two can poke around, or whatever it is you plan to do. Let’s hope this isn’t a waste of time. But if it is, at least I’ll be well-fed.”

“Good idea,” Sam said as he entered the restaurant. The place was empty aside from a single couple in the corner, an older man with a younger woman.

The three took a seat and a waitress came over, a thin lady with bad skin. She had unique eyes though, a turquoise color Sam had never seen before. Without looking at a menu, Zoe ordered a meat pie, and the woman nodded, asking what they would like to drink. Zoe and Ozella both ordered tea, Sam water.

“See anything?” Zoe asked.

“I kind of don’t know what we’re supposed to be looking for,” Sam said. He sat across from the two, Ozella already digging in her backpack for her book, Zoe adjusting her weight to make room for her tail.

“Having a tail is such a pain in the ass,” she said.

Sam snorted.

“That wasn’t supposed to be funny,” Zoe told him.

“Well you have to admit…” Ozella opened her Book of Known Variables and turned again to a blank page. “Should I ask it something?”

“I still don’t understand how this works,” Zoe said.

“Ozella writes a question, and the answer appears before her,” Sam said, pointing at his eyes. “But we can’t see the answer.”

“But the answers can be vague, right?”

“That’s exactly why we are here,” Sam said, looking around the dusty restaurant. Maybe ‘dusty’ wasn’t the right word for it, but it did look like it could use a good scrubbing, some varnish on the wood floors, possibly remodeling unless they were going for the old pub look.

“Then that’s simple,” said Zoe. “Ask, ‘why Blue Lagoon?’ See what it says.”

“Already did. How about I ask if this guy, Jimmy Vela, works here or something,” Ozella said as she scribbled down the question. She looked up at Sam for a moment, past him.

“Yes?” Sam asked. He was growing tired of having to ask Ozella for whatever it was she was seeing. He figured by now she would just tell him, but no, she always waited to be asked.

“It says he used to work here.”

“Okay,” said Sam. “That’s a great start.”

His nostrils flared as he took a deep breath in, a crapload of images coming to him all at once. He saw the history of the restaurant, the family that had originally started it, how they had fallen on hard times, how the restaurant was now a front for…

“I don’t like the look you’re giving us,” Zoe said.

“This place is a front for Eastern Province spies,” Sam said under his breath.

“Yes, pies, and I ordered one,” Zoe said.

“Not pies, spies.”

“A front?”

“It serves as a meeting place, and there are also safehouses and other equipment stored in the basement.”

“Amazing,” Ozella said, her eyes going wide. “I always found the spying networks in Centralia to be interesting. They’re all over the place, all the other countries are spying here, and they have all sorts of foreign agents doing various jobs. But it’s happening right under our noses, and we don’t know anything about it.”

“Your teas, and water,” the waitress said as she approached the table and set them down.

As soon as she left, Ozella nodded over at her. “Also, I probably should tell you, the waitress is dating this guy.”

“The guy we’re looking for?” Zoe asked, lowering her tea from her lips.

“That’s right, I see it on her stat sheet.”

“Why didn’t you tell us earlier?” Sam asked.

“I’m presented with a lot of information, it takes a moment to look through all of it and if I don’t focus on it, it goes away. But now that we’ve connected this Jimmy Vela guy to this restaurant, and now that we know she’s dating him, it should make finding him a lot easier.”

“Do you think she’ll tell us where he is?” Sam asked.

“Maybe,” said Zoe. “Then again, when you were my boyfriend, had some weirdos come into a restaurant I was working at and asked where you were, I would have told them to fuck off.”

“Do we really look like weirdos?”

Zoe looked from Sam to Ozella. “Do you want me to be honest? And that’s without mentioning myself. You saw I was wearing booty shorts and heels, right?”

“I think they’re kind of cute,” Ozella told her. “But I prefer skirts. Booty shorts under skirts, but you have to leave something for the imagination.”

“All you seem to have are schoolgirl uniforms,” Zoe said flatly. “And there is plenty left for the imagination, including my cooch. Sorry. Too vulgar.”

Sam snorted and shook his head at his ex. She sure had a way with words.

“Maybe I should get some new clothing,” Ozella said. “But the tops are comfortable, and the skirts allow my legs to move more.”

“I think you both look fine,” Sam said. “Damn, I guess that came out wrong, didn’t it?” he asked, after they both gave him a funny look.

“Anyway,” said Zoe, “we’re here, so we might as well let me finish my lunch, and then get to sleuthing. Did you guys hear that first part?”

“About finishing your lunch?” Ozella asked.

“Listening skills plus one,” Zoe said, cocking her head at Ozella. “Sorry, I’m starving, and I get bitchy when I’m hungry. Before we get ourselves banned from a restaurant for threatening a waitress, I would like to eat.”

“Is that what we’re planning to do?” Sam asked.

“What’s wrong with an innocent threat?”

“No, let’s not go about it that way, Zoe,” Sam said. “Damn, I wish Helena were here. She could just hypnotize the waitress into giving us the information that we need.”

“I can probably get it out of her, or at least some of it.”

“Again,” Sam told Zoe, who was showing him one of her claws. “We don’t need the Eastern Province spies, or whoever else is using this place, to be coming after us once we’ve infiltrated one of their secret locations. You know what I’m trying to say here, right?”

“Fine…” she moaned.

“We could just lie to her,” Ozella said. “Just tell her that you’re an old friend or something, and you’re looking for him.”

“Not a bad idea,” Sam said. “Who’s the best liar?”

“I am,” Zoe said with finality. “When you lie, I’m guessing your cheeks turn red,” she told Ozella.

“Guilty as charged.”

“And when you lie, you can’t make eye contact,” Zoe told Sam.

“Yes I can,” he said, looking away.

“Such amateurs,” Zoe said taking a sip of her tea. “I’ll handle everything, eat, and then we will go find this guy and get him to the nearest police station. How’s that? They can use the telepath to figure out whatever crime he committed.”

“What if he doesn’t consent?”

“Good point,” Zoe said. “We will probably have to find some evidence as well, or at least a confession. Damn, maybe we do need Helena for that part. Well, we can always call her once we find him.”

“Yeah,” said Sam, “I’m sure she would come for something like this.”

“Maybe,” Zoe said, trying not to sound sarcastic but failing miserably, “she is a pretty important woman.”

Eventually, Zoe’s meat pie came, and she smiled up at the waitress, telling her she looked familiar.

“I don’t believe I’ve seen you before,” the waitress said coldly.

“Oh yeah, my face?” Zoe asked. “I try to cover it up when I go out. Hard, I know, right? Anyway… Hey, wait a minute, you’re Jimmy’s girl, aren’t you?”

“You know Jimmy?” the waitress asked, her turquoise eyes softening.

“I definitely know Jimmy. And I have something for him, or better, he has something for me, long story.”

“Jimmy’s not doing that anymore,” the waitress started to say, backing away.

One sniff and Sam could tell that her boyfriend used to be a drug dealer. Sam didn’t know how this was connected to killing the wife of their waiter at the previous diner, but he had a feeling it was somehow related. “No, nothing like that,” Sam interrupted. “She owes him some money. Well, it is from that time, but yeah.”

“You can give it to me, and I’ll give it to him,” the waitress told Zoe.

Talk about good timing. The bell on the door chimed, and a man stepped in, a muscular guy in a leather jacket with an orange beard.

“That’s him right now,” the waitress said. “I guess you can just give it to him yourself. Jimmy, these people want to talk to you.”

“Oh, crap,” Sam said under his breath.

“Yeah?” Jimmy asked. “What about?”

He approached the booth, giving the three of them a funny look.

“Don’t you remember me?” Zoe asked, not at all fazed by the turn of events.

“Should I?”

“Yeah, I owe you some money.”

“No, you don’t,” he said, his eyes starting to turn black.

“Jimmy, not in the restaurant,” said the waitress as she placed her hand on his chest.

“Yeah,” Zoe said. “Not in the restaurant. If you want to talk about this outside, I would be more than glad to.”

Jimmy snorted, an inky blackness radiating from his eyes to his cheeks, up his brow and over his head, painting down the crown of his skull.

“No morphing in the restaurant,” the waitress said again. “Come on, Jimmy, relax.”

“Outside, now,” Jimmy said, turning to the exit.

“Fuck, Zoe,” Sam whispered as they shuffled out of the booth.

“This won’t take very long, trust me.” Zoe turned to the waitress. “And can you pack what’s left of my meat pie up. I’ll just take it to-go.” She set the money on the table, and stuffed her hands in her sweater pockets as she turned to the restaurant’s entrance.

“Don’t worry,” Ozella told Sam as she caught up to him. “I have a plan.”

“I hope someone does, because the last thing we need is a fist fight in the middle of the streets. And I don’t know what that guy’s power is, but it’s some type of morphing, which could be anything.”

“Probably a Type II, maybe III, class B,” Ozella said as Dinah appeared, the translucent woman following behind Sam.

“Hi, Dinah,” he said as they exited the restaurant, where they found Jimmy completely covered in what looked like tendrils of thick black liquid boiling off his body.

“Dinah,” Ozella said.

Dinah nodded and walked over to Jimmy, just as Zoe bared her claws.

“What kind of half breed are you?” Jimmy asked, his voice an octave deeper than it was just moments ago.

“Bye, Jimmy,” Zoe said, seeing Dinah approaching. As soon as Dinah’s lips met Jimmy’s inky neck, he fell to his knees, injury filling his body and making him weak, his form instantly reverting back to normal.

“What are you doing to me?” he asked, his voice straining to leave his lips. “It hurts… it hurts!”

“Jimmy, you murdered someone,” Ozella said as she stepped forward.

“Just one person?” Jimmy asked, trying to laugh but failing as more of his power was taken away. “Fuck! Stop the pain…”

“Yes, you murdered the wife of a man named Roger Fortune, and you probably don’t remember why you murdered her.”

Ozella tore a page out of her notebook. She wrote down some of the details she remembered of their waiter at the diner. As she did, the information appeared before her again, and she was able to sift through it until she found more specific information, which required a little bit more writing.

“Does the name Roger Fortune ring a bell to you?” Ozella asked, motioning for Dinah to ease up for a moment.

“Roger?” A grimace formed on Jimmy’s face. “I knew him in high school. Dated his…”

“His wife, right?”

“Yes,” he finally admitted. “It wasn’t my fault…”

“Is that right?” Sam asked, his nostrils flaring.

“I didn’t mean to…” Jimmy said. “It was my power. It…”

“Power given to you by a drug, right?” Sam asked, narrowing his eyes at the man.

“Power enhancement, yes.”

“Don’t tell me that this power enhancement has anything to do with Dr. Hamza,” Zoe muttered.

“Who?” Jimmy asked, his face twisted up now, exhibiting the pain he was in.

Someone passing took one look at what was going down and turned away, the woman hurrying away, forgetting that she ever saw the three interrogating the kneeling man known as Jimmy.

“I don’t know where the stuff came from,” Jimmy admitted. “But we were having an affair, and I tried some, and…”

“You were having an affair?” the waitress stood behind them now, a to-go bag in her hands.

Ozella wrote down some information as the waitress started to scream at Jimmy. He wasn’t able to protest; he could hardly get his hands up with what Dinah was doing. Eventually, Ozella handed him a piece of paper which had his full confession on it.

“Sign it,” she told him. “In ink,” she said, pointing at the waitress’ pen.

The waitress gave the pen to Ozella, her hands trembling.

Jimmy placed the paper on the ground and reluctantly signed it. Once he did, Ozella nodded at Dinah who went at it again, Jimmy passing out almost instantly, a few inky tendrils slipping out of his leather jacket and writhing.

“Tuck the piece of paper in his back pocket, and we’ll take him to the police station,” Ozella said. “Unless anyone has a better idea?”

“Works for me.”

“You’re just going to take him away?” the waitress asked.

A portal opened up, filling the area with golden sparkles. Lance and Helena stepped out, Helena with a thin smile on her face.

“Thank you, Lance, I’ll take it from here.”

“Ewww, count me out of whatever is going on here,” Lance said. He vanished in a poof of golden sparkles as Helena approached the group.

“We need to get this guy to the police station before he wakes up again,” Zoe said. “Helena, be a doll, and take care of our waitress girlfriend here. Sam, help me pick this guy up.”

“Got it,” Sam said, going to Jimmy’s feet.

“Hi,” Helena told the scared waitress as she turned to her, “this won’t take very long.” Helena’s right eye morphed into a rotating bullseye. “You’re not going to remember any of this…”

Chapter Seven: Backwards

(A chapter written in reverse. Here we go!)

Zoe rolled her eyes. She couldn’t wait for this lecture to be over.

“Thanks for sticking around,” Bill told Helena, Sam, and Zoe. They had just approached the podium, coming forward exactly like Bill had asked them to. “I want to be very clear about our little visit to your home the other day. We were not kidding around. There will be no more hero antics from the three of you. I don’t want to be the one that turns you in to the police, especially with all you have done, but so help me I will be that person if you do not follow the rules. You four are putting yourselves in danger, as well as risking the lives of the general public and other exemplar teams you may encounter. This is not a game. This is real life.”

Sam fell in line behind Helena as they approached the podium. The sexy tomboy wore a shirt that bared a small portion of her midriff, her exemplar uniform slightly visible underneath.

The Heroes Anonymous meeting was over, and Bill had just called them to the front, asking them to stick around after the woman named Barbara finished speaking.

“And that’s my confession,” Barbara said. “I know I am not an exemplar, but I just wanted to impress my niece. Little did I know that it would end in her…” The woman started to sob. “At least she’s not dead, but her hair will never be the same. She looks like a… toy poodle now. An ugly one at that.”

“Quiet, you two,” Helena told them both.

“This is definitely getting weirder and weirder,” Sam told to Zoe, who simply nodded, a snarky grin on her face.

“Kill me now,” Zoe said under her breath.

As if they were the bad kids in the class, Helena, Sam and Zoe were at the back of the room, Zoe sitting in a way that people couldn’t see her face, although that didn’t stop a few from turning and looking at her, her half-tiger features on full display, her tail sort of tucked into the back of her sweater.

She’d hissed at the last guy that had looked at her, which had pretty much stopped the gawking.

Sam hated the fact that Bill kept giving the three dirty looks. Shit, he tried to give Bill a dirty look back, but it wasn’t really a trait Sam had mastered. He had an uncle who was good at maddogging people; Sam’s uncle would sit on the stoop at night and stare down anyone that walked past, exemplar and non-exemplar alike.

As a man spoke about impersonating an exemplar at a brewery in the West, Sam’s thoughts drifted off to what they planned to do after the H-Anon meeting. They were already wearing their exemplar uniforms under their clothing, and while it made more sense for them to simply go to some ghetto southern neighborhood that Zoe knew about, Ozella had insisted on cooking for him.

Which was what she was doing right now.

Sam watched a man approach the podium, noticing a limp in his step. He wondered if the guy was injured, but didn’t dare use his nostrils to sniff it out. He was at the point now where he solely breathed out of his mouth, saving his nose for whenever he needed to do some snooping.

“I just wish this would hurry up,” Zoe whispered out of the corner of her mouth as a different woman spoke, this one an older lady with frizzy hair, who by the sound of it should have died when trying to jump off a building to prove she could fly. She was lucky there had been an actual exemplar around to catch her.

“Shhh…” said Helena. “It’ll be over soon.”

“I’ve heard the story so many times before,” Sam told Zoe.

“We really shouldn’t be here,” Zoe added.

Sam zoned out for about thirty minutes, maybe a bit longer than that. At least two or three people gave their spiels in the time Sam was in straight up la la land. He really wished he was napping, especially if they were going to be out heroing that night.

Bill started up, reminding everyone who had come to the meeting how they were normal people, not at all unique, and how they could use their powers as a “normal, not unique person” to do things like community service. That real heroes didn’t wear capes; real heroes worked for the government, or for volunteer fire departments, or cosplay cafes. Sam almost laughed at this point, especially since Bill was Mister Fist.

Damn if Sam didn’t hate saying the Heroes Anonymous mantra. What a load of bullshit.

“I am not a super powered individual. I am not an exemplar. I have never had a superpower. I am not a hero, nor will I ever be a hero. I am not a superhero, I am half-powered. I will always be half-powered, I am a non-exemplar. There is nothing about me that is extraordinary. I am not a hero, I am not a superhero. I am half-powered. I will always be half-powered. I am a non-exemplar.”

Chapter Eight: And Now We Feast!

(Food, food, food!)

Unfortunately, Bill aka Mister Fist, went on and on, as if he were trying to hypnotize Helena, Sam and Zoe with his words, hoping that not-so-positive reinforcement would help him get his point across.

Once he finally reached a stopping point, Helena Knight, as prim and proper as ever, stepped forward with her chin held high. She reached her hand out to Bill, and shook it, assuring him that they wouldn’t get into any shenanigans.

“I’m so fucking glad that’s over,” Zoe said as they left the Heroes Anonymous meeting, the chill wind hitting all three of them almost immediately.

No, Zoe wasn’t in her tiger boy shorts, she had changed to a pair of black tights, which she wore over her exemplar uniform. Her tail was on full display now, and Sam couldn’t help but take a quick peek at her ass as she moved in front of him, her tail bobbing in the air.

“Is Ozella finished with dinner yet?” Helena asked Sam.

Sam didn’t know why he was at the back of the group, but he didn’t mind the view, so he just stayed there as they walked on the sidewalk, the sun setting in the East and adding a blood orange hue to the streets.

One mental message later and Sam got the confirmation he needed.

“She’s ready,” he called up to Zoe and Helena, who were discussing something privately.

He thought in that moment of activating his enhanced sense of hearing, but decided against eavesdropping. While Sam could be impulsive, and at times he was an idiot, he was generally a pretty trustworthy guy, one who didn’t normally snoop on others.

Zoe and Helena nodded at each other, both turning back to Sam so he could catch up.

“What did I miss?” he asked.

“Not a lot,” Zoe told him, which was a clear enough indication to Sam to leave it at that.

Golden sparkles, golden sparkles, golden sparkles.

Lance stood there in a pair of sunglasses, a sleeveless shirt, a shiny leather vest, his junk barely held in a bundle by a pair of cutoff jean shorts not unlike the ones Zoe had been wearing earlier.

“Someone looks like a slut,” Zoe said.

“Please,” Lance told her. “This is far from slutty. I’m just meeting some friends for cocktails.”

“Remember, you’re still on call,” Helena told him.

“You don’t think I can teleport away, grab my little group of vigilantes, teleport them wherever they need to go, and make it back to my friends in a matter of moments? How long have I been working for you again?”

“That’s up to you,” Helena said firmly.

“Right, anyway,” Lance cleared his throat. “Ms. Knight, Tiger Girl, Dude-Who-I-Still-Don’t-Know, gather around.”

Lance offered them an exaggerated bow, golden energy sprinkling from his fingertips and surrounding the three. They appeared in Helena’s living room, Sam instantly having to pinch his nostrils. Whatever Ozella was cooking was pungent, his olfactory epithelium going off like a fireworks show.

“You know where to find me,” Lance said as he teleported away.

“I’m so glad you three are back,” Ozella said, who wore an apron over her schoolgirl uniform. Dinah was also there, stirring up a bowl of potato salad.

“What if you need her later?” Zoe asked. “Never mind, I still haven’t figured out the usefulness of turning her alive.”

“We’ve already been over this before,” Ozella said as she brought a tray of food to the table. “She’s a great distraction, so we can use her for that. Also, no matter what you hit her with, she can’t die. Want yet another demonstration?”

“Not really,” Zoe said as Ozella set a hot pan down, returned to the kitchen, and approached Dinah with a knife.

“I’m going to stab you now,” she told Dinah.

“Well, this should be interesting,” Zoe said as she settled in.

The nude woman simply nodded, her breasts bouncing.

“Do I really have to say, ‘Please don’t stab Dinah?’” Helena asked.

“Always good to test her, and we should do plenty more tests tomorrow.”

Ozella stabbed Dinah in the chest, the blade going through Dinah’s flesh and coming out the other side. No blood, no pain (apparently), and Dinah hardly seemed to notice it. Once she was tired of a blade jutting from her chest, she pulled it back out, the wound healing instantly.

“Well, that was fucked.” Zoe threw her hood back and sat down at the table. “Ozella, I like you, but stabbing your ghost is taking it a bit too far.”

Ozella’s cheeks grew red. “Sorry, we were just testing things out earlier…”

“How long has she been active?” Sam asked. “You only have an hour, remember?”

He sat across from Zoe, while Helena sat at the head of the table.

“She has been active for about ten minutes,” Ozella told him with a smile. “I just powered her up a moment ago, to help me bring all the food to the table. That’s your bandanna, by the way,” she said, referring to a black swatch of fabric sitting on Sam’s plate.

“I’m definitely not feeding him,” Zoe said, a mischievous smile coming across her face.

“I will feed him,” said Ozella. “But before we go with the bandana, we should try your sense of touch. You really haven’t played around with it, so let’s give that one a shot. Let me bring all the food first. Dinah, help me get the rest.”

Ozella had gone a little overboard. She had cooked casseroles, meat pies that looked like she had made them from scratch, baked potatoes, creamy side dishes, a bit of everything.

“I don’t know how much longer I can last,” he said as Dinah finished setting the last plate on the table, which was filled with meats and cheeses.

“Power-up, off,” Ozella said as she sat next to Sam, Dinah fading away. “The rest of you can eat, but Sam and I will test some things. First, I want you to activate your sense of touch.”

“Yeah, I’ll give it a shot.” Sam took a deep breath in. “Power-up, touch.”

He felt a sensation in his nose, almost as if he was snorting up some liquid that had somehow pressed past the membrane of his epithelium, the sensation moving down his shoulders and his arms, into his fingers.

Sam held his hands in front of him, afraid to touch anything.

“Try the knife,” Ozella said. “One utensil at a time.”

Sam reached for the knife, his fingers grazing against the tablecloth.

It was uncanny.

The simple act of his fingers touching the tablecloth told him a number of things, from the last time it was washed, to what it was made out of, to where it had been stored before being placed on the table.

“Phew…” Sam exhaled audibly.

It wasn’t so bad.

Even as he picked up the knife, he felt relief. Sure, he knew what kind of metal the knife was made out of, the last time it had been used, all these concepts and historical facts taking shape almost as if they were memory he was recalling.

But it was nothing like his sense of smell.

It was much subtler, and Sam nearly cried tears of joy at the table as he looked at all the delicious food in front of them, his mouth watering. Zoe was already filling her plate, while Helena was waiting politely for Sam to start.

“Well?” Helena asked.

“I can’t wait to fucking eat,” Sam said, stabbing his knife into a slice of cheese in front of him.

“No, not yet,” Ozella said. “We have to test the other abilities as well.”

“Why?” Sam asked, practically drooling now.

“Because we haven’t tested them in this environment,” Ozella explained. “Now power up your sense of sight.”

“Ozella, I already know what that’s going to be like. Let me just eat. Please. It has been way too long,” he said, barely able to contain himself amidst all that yummy food.

“Okay, how’s this?” Ozella asked. “Eat a little first, and then power up your sense of sight and taste, to see how strong it is.”

“No way,” Sam said, going for the piece of cheese, enjoying the hell out of it. “No way. I can taste everything I need to taste now. And it tastes so good. So good!”

Sam dropped his knife and used his hand to pick up a slice of meat, a dozen images coming to him at once. The animal’s life, how it was slaughtered, the butcher who made the cut. Sam dropped the meat almost immediately.

“I think I should just use the silverware for now,” he said, reaching for his fork.

“You think?” Zoe asked, already working on the salad she had thrown together. “Just because you can eat again doesn’t mean you have to shovel food into your mouth.”

“She’s not wrong,” said Helena. “We have some work to do tonight, and we don’t need you to be too full. So mind yourself.”

“So you want me to go easy on it, is that what you’re telling me?” Sam asked with his mouth full of meat and cheese.

“I think that’s the best idea,” Helena said, her right eye starting to morph into a spinning bullseye. “Don’t eat too much, Sam.”

Chapter Nine: In the Ghetto

(Zoe shares a glimpse of her childhood.)

Sam Meeko hung back, letting Zoe scramble off into the alley.

The tiger girl was in her element now, suited up, her hood on her head, a similar hood to Sam’s aside from the two tiger ears poking out of it. She was the one who had chosen the location, an area known for its urban blight, urban warfare, urban desolation.

Sam could sense Ozella on his left, the woman in the superhero schoolgirl uniform watching intently as Zoe disappeared. Helena was on his right, a distracted look on her face as she dealt with something involving her company.

Courteous as ever, Helena had warned them that she might have to send off some messages, and every time she did so she excused herself.

Even with the distraction, one sniff in her direction and Sam could tell that she was slightly aroused, something he had noticed the first time they had done something daring, back when they had rescued Zoe from the warehouse.

Interesting.

How could just a few days ago feel like eons? The four of them star-crossed, even if Sam and Zoe’s former relationship had petered out. From zero to hero. Understatement of the year.

That desire, though.

Although Sam sensed that he would get some booty later, he couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to reunite with his ex.

In her tiger form?

Why the hell not? Sam was down to get down, not the most experimental in the sack, but definitely willing to throw something wild into the mix.

“Stop…” Sam whispered to himself, canceling this thought.

He was probably just horny; it happened to the best of them, male, female, non-binary alike, everyone’s juices wet every now and then. So for the time being, he planned to focus on the mission at hand, which was to gather some information.

He could deal with his desires the old-fashioned way, and besides, he really didn’t want to screw things up with Helena. She was way too awesome.

The four would-be heroes were in a sketchy part of Centralia, a straight up war zone where rival gangs squatted in old row houses, windows were boarded up, and families moved out as soon as they could afford to. A place where shadows were overreaching, omnipresent, the sad tale of Centralia’s non-exemplar working class carved into the crumbled sidewalks.

It was one of the only areas of Centralia that looked like this. There were some other border zones that were less than ideal, but even a country as grand as Centralia needed an entrance to its underbelly, and the Army Oaks region served as the gate, its residents the gatekeepers.

“Looking lost,” a man with a limp barked over at them.

If he had been standing there just a few moments ago, Sam wouldn’t have seen him. The man was practically made of shadows, the creepy guy licking his lips, eyeballing Ozella and Helena.

“We’re fine,” Helena told him politely. “But thank you for asking.”

“A pretty girl like yourself doesn’t usually end up in these parts, unless she is looking for something. Tell me, little mama, are you looking for something?”

“Actually, we are,” Helena said, turning to him, her eye twisting into a red bullseye. “We’re looking for information about vampires. Does that mean anything to you?”

“Vampires?” the man glanced around for a moment, as if there were a friend prepared to step out of the shadows and join him. “I damn sure hope there aren’t any vampires around here!”

“He doesn’t know anything,” Sam said, looking to Ozella for confirmation.

“Lobby Robson. Known trigger points? Talking about his family. Exemplar or Non-exemplar? Non-exemplar. Astrological sign? Mortem. Known lovers and sexual preferences? Lobby has erectile dysfunction, but he tries on occasion to visit a prostitute to see if he can get it back up.”

“That’s not quite the information we’re looking for,” Sam told Ozella, trying not to laugh. If she could only see the conviction in her face as she rattled off her information, maybe she would see why he found it funny.

“Sorry, I was just reading off what I was seeing,” she said. “But I don’t think he knows anything.”

“I’ve already established that,” Helena reminded Ozella. “Lobby, why don’t you run off now and get to bed early tonight. I want you to see the doctor about your erectile dysfunction. Don’t be ashamed; there’s medication for that.”

“How do you know he doesn’t already take medication?”

Helena shrugged. “You take medication?”

“Just a blood thinner at night,” Lobby said. “Heart doctor said it was helpful.”

“Great…” Sam turned to the alley that Zoe had disappeared into. His nostrils flared, and he tried to cut through all the scent memories that came to him.

The air seemed thicker here, polluted in a way, a haze to everything that was unlike the other parts of Centralia. Looking up Sam saw a light on in a third story apartment, the shadows of a man and a woman fucking painted across the curtains.

He almost jumped out of his skin when Zoe appeared to his right, telling him to follow her.

“What about the others?”

“Them too,” Zoe said, whistling for Helena and Ozella. Helena took quick strides as she caught up with Sam and Zoe, Ozella behind her, her skirt flapping in the wind as she matched Helena’s pace.

Sam could have never found his way out of the alley once they got deep enough into it. But Zoe seemed at home; navigating drunks; slipping around fat prostitutes talking to each other (their bellies practically touching); stepping over a body every now and then, the person either asleep or dead; a mischievous look every time she glanced over her shoulder and saw Sam watching her.

A man stepped out of the shadows with a knife. He grabbed Ozella and brought it to her throat, his free hand falling onto her tit. “Fuck, we got a busty one here,” he called out, two other men appearing on a fire escape and quickly lowering to the ground.

“How do you want to do this?” Zoe asked Helena, who now stood at her side.

“Ozella?” Helena asked. The look on Ozella’s face was already morphing from fear to fury.

The team’s statkeeper didn’t have to say anything. She didn’t have to direct Dinah, ask for assistance, or sic the ghost woman on the man holding her at knife point. Dinah was already on him, the man’s grip loosening as he fell, his blade lightly grazing Ozella’s neck.

Springing into action, Helena performed an aerial, landing in front of one of the guys who had jumped down from the fire escape.

He swung at her, and Helena used forward momentum to throw him into Zoe, who introduced her fists to his face in a way that instantly broke the man’s nose, and possibly some of the bones in his cheeks too.

He fell to the ground in a heap, Sam cringing at the loud crack caused by Zoe’s fist.

The second guy that had dropped down from the fire escape took this into consideration, along with the fact that his homeboy with the knife was passed out.

He backed away slowly, and once he saw that they were coming after him, he took off, nearly colliding with a guy who was stepping out of the back entrance to a building, a box full of metal pipes in his arms.

The pipes hit the ground, loud and jarring as they settled.

“Should I try to take him out?” Sam asked, lifting his wrist guard.

“Put that down,” Zoe said, pushing his arm down. “There are civilians around, and I know that this area isn’t like Helena’s neighborhood,” she said with some disdain in her voice, “but most of the people here are innocent. They are just living their lives, aside from the occasional thief. Come on, let’s go.”

“You still haven’t said where we’re going,” Helena told Zoe as she caught up to her.

Dinah had already healed Ozella’s small knife wound, both of them walking next to Sam now.

Zoe nodded. “I’ll know when we get there.”

***

“It’s not much further now,” Zoe told the group.

“You still need to tell us a little more about where we’re going,” Helena said. “It would be nice to be a little prepared for what we’re getting into.”

“Look, I’m from this area, well not exactly this area, but a few neighborhoods over,” Zoe told Helena, turning to her. “We’re fine.”

There wasn’t a lot of light in the area, but Sam could see the tiger side of Zoe’s face, the beast morpher baring her teeth slightly as she waited for Helena’s response.

“I’m aware that you grew up in an area around here,” Helena finally said.

“Never seen a place like this before, huh? Well, stay close, not everyone will bite.”

“Hey…” Sam started to tell Zoe.

“Actually, I have,” Helena said. “There’s a soup kitchen and shelter not too far from here. Are you familiar with its name?”

“No,” Zoe said.

“It’s the Knight Soup Kitchen and Shelter. It was one of the first projects I put in place after becoming head of the Corporation. I know it’s not much, and there is more that can be done, but it’s a step in the right direction. Anyway, when I was an intern at my own company, I became fascinated with this part of Centralia. So it’s a project I am actively pursuing.”

“I’m glad that where I come from can be part of a ‘project’ that you’re pursuing,” Zoe said, and even though she meant for this to have some bite behind it, it didn’t have as much as she would have hoped.

It was clear from her tone, at least to Sam, that Zoe was realizing the error in assuming Helena didn’t understand Centralian poverty. Then again, Zoe had seen the worst of it, parts that Helena likely couldn’t imagine. So maybe there was some reasoning behind her defensiveness.

“Anyway, to answer your questions, I’m looking for a gang leader,” Zoe finally said.

“Does that mean were going to have to fight people?” Sam asked.

“Maybe, but nothing we can’t handle.” Zoe turned to an apartment block, at least fifteen stories high, dozens of windows on each floor. “The lower-level members are the ones who fight,” she explained. “The older members are usually more engaged in preserving their legacy, and gaining territory through legal means. It’s amazing how it changes people, growing older. Many go from fighting in the streets to seeing what they can cobble together, and if they’re lucky, what they can cobble together is enough to cobble even more. I’ve never met him myself, but this should be the location of the leader of the Army Oaks gang. He’s definitely the guy we need to talk to.”

“Will my powers be of service here?” Helena asked.

“Most definitely.”

“That’s them!”

Sam turned to see the man who had run off earlier returning with a whole crew of thugs, a few of them with wrist guards, others with chains and anything they could get their hands on to cause damage.

Ozella’s eyes went wide. “They have an exemplar!”

“Bring Dinah out,” Helena said, activating one of her energy blades. “That should throw them off!”

“Power-up, on,” Ozella whispered just as the men started to charge at them. Dinah appeared in all her naked glory, immediately running to the men as Ozella pointed and screamed.

Seeing the naked woman run through their midst threw some of them off, a couple of the gang members jumping out of the way, the gravel parting as a blade created by an exemplar cut through the ground.

Schviick!

Dinah was sliced in half, her two halves falling to the side as Sam and his crew tried to get out of the way. But before Sam could finish cursing, and almost before he could jump, Dinah’s body started to come back together, even though it had been cut in half from head to toe.

Moving faster than ever, Dinah jumped for the exemplar, a crazed grin on her face.

Zoe brought her claws out, Helena flipping and kicking into her full combat dance routine. Sam aimed his wrist guard at a man with a large metal pipe, triggering the weapon and tearing the man off his feet.

He shot down another, and another, feeling like an utter badass as he cut the gangsters down, the air filling with shrapnel, exploded bits of concrete, splintered wood.

Of course some of them started to return fire, but by this point, Sam had taken cover behind a large mailbox, peeking around it, looking for his opening, and taking a shot.

“Everyone get ready!” Helena called to the group. More men were approaching now from the other direction, and from the north as well, cutting through an even smaller alley. “Power-up, on!”

They had already been over this before.

Since Helena’s power-up didn’t differentiate between them and their assailants, Sam simply closed his eyes, cupping his hands over his face, listening as the men’s cries picked up, as the sounds of boots on concrete dissipated, everyone getting the hell out of the area.

The shouting stopped, and after giving it another moment, Sam removed his hands and opened his eyes, slowly peeking around the mailbox with his wrist guard still aimed before him.

In that moment he saw Zoe standing next to Helena, a hand still over her face, Ozella with both hands over her eyes, Helena with her arms cast down, her legs spread wide, her head bent forward as the carnage dissipated all around her.

The only people left after the brief melee were those who had been injured. And it was only a moment later that they heard someone whistle from one of the balconies. Zoe looked up, her tiger ears twitching as a man called down to them.

“What did he say?” Sam asked.

“That’s who we’re looking for,” Zoe said as she turned to the building. “Let’s get up there.”

Chapter Ten: Gangster-in-Chief

(Now it’s time for some answers!)

Acting under the assumption that it might be a trap, Vigilante Justice—boy, did it feel cool as shit calling them that—took the stairs, Sam a little winded by the time they reached the tenth floor.

“How should we do this?” Zoe asked as they came to the gangster in question’s floor.

It was clear that Sam’s ex was trying to be a better team player, even though her instincts were to kick down the door, run in there, and start opening up cans of whoop-ass like they were on sale at a grocery store going out of business.

“Let me see if I can hear anything first,” Sam said as he caught his breath. “Power-up, hearing.” Sam’s hand fell on Ozella’s shoulder for a moment as all the sounds came to him at once, a cacophony of noise ping-ponging in his skull.

He took a lumbering step forward, hearing the low bass of the step he’d taken vibrating the bones in his foot. One more step and he figured he probably should activate his power once he got closer to the door.

“Power-up, off.”

Zoe couldn’t help but laugh. The tiger girl shook her head at Sam, trying to cover the fact that she thought he was cute.

“It would probably be better to do that in the hallway, possibly in front of this guy’s door,” Helena said, stating the obvious.

“Yep, I don’t know how many steps there are between here and there, but that was a lot louder than I thought it would be.”

“Well, we’re in a pretty populated building, and not a very well-made one either,” Helena said, looking at the cracks in the corner. “I believe there may be some structural damage as well.”

“Gee, you think?” Zoe said as she peeked into the hallway, making sure the coast was clear before she stepped in.

“I’ll get ready to activate Dinah,” Ozella said.

“I don’t know if we will need her in such close quarters,” Helena said. “Also, what you did back there was brilliant. Dinah simply appearing out of nowhere and running around naked was incredibly distracting.”

“Thanks,” Ozella said, her cheeks growing red as she looked away from Helena.

Zoe moved to the nicest door on the floor, crouching as Helena approached, the deadly ballerina cartwheeling one-handed over to the other side of the doorframe.

“Was that necessary?” Zoe whispered.

“No, but it was fun,” Helena told her, giving Zoe a bitchy smile.

“I’m going to do it,” Sam said, moving in behind Zoe. She scooted up a little bit, allowing him room to press his ear against the wall. “Power-up, hearing.”

Sam closed his eyes, the sounds of water gushing through pipes coming to him, an argument happening two floors down, a man pacing back and forth in the apartment on the left.

Sam focused completely on what he was hearing now, ignoring any other sensation around him as he tried to target the apartment in question.

He heard his first heartbeat, then a second one came to him, then a third, this one a much quieter heartbeat.

He focused on each individual heart, noticing a clicking noise that overpowered their heartbeats. Sam had heard this noise before—it was the sound of someone toggling the safety on a wrist guard.

“Power-up, off,” Sam said, feeling a warm sensation move from his ears around his cheeks and back into his nose, settling somewhere between his eyebrows. “He has two guards in there; I don’t know if they are exemplars or not, but someone has a wrist guard. Three people total.”

“This should be relatively easy. I can blade the door handle, and you can go in for the kill,” Helena told Zoe.

“No,” Zoe said. “If we ruin their door, it may make him angrier. Weird, but trust me here. I mean, look at this door. It’s the nicest one in the building. We have already shown their leader that we mean business by the way we mopped up the henchmen outside. We’re here to get information, and it might be easier if we do this the right way. Ozella, have Dinah knock on the door.”

“Power-up, on,” Ozella said, and Dinah took shape next to the masked woman in the schoolgirl uniform.

Dinah looked absolutely giddy, strands of her hair in her face, the pale woman wearing not much more than a smile as she took directions from Ozella, who gestured for her to knock on the door.

With a shrug, Dinah stepped over to the door and knocked.

A blast of energy cut through the door, sending wood particles in the air and tearing through Dinah’s chest.

“We tried things your way,” Helena told Zoe, activating her energy blade.

“I really thought they’d take care of the property,” said Zoe with a shrug. “Oh well, Plan B it is!”

A man materialized from the ground behind Helena, his body covered in a slime. Helena was quick to spin around with a kick, but the man slipped by her, his form liquefying again as he avoided her attack.

Another blast tore the door to shreds. Zoe looked to Helena to make sure she could handle herself before zipping into the apartment.

The man made of slime kept trying to punch Helena, going in and out of his slime form, and even though he had cornered her, Helena was able to dodge his attacks.

It was when Dinah launched herself at the man and brought him down that the tides turned. As Sam had seen her do in the past, and even though Slimer was technically suffocating her with his goo, Dinah was starting to transfer the injuries she had healed to the man.

“I’ve got this,” Sam told Helena, nodding for her to go into the apartment.

The combat dancer slipped by, just as Sam brought his wrist guard up, aiming it at Dinah and the struggling slime-based exemplar. He hated shooting Dinah in the back, but if he could neutralize the exemplar…

Sam quickly toggled to an energy beam that would simply stun the man. He fired a shot, the blast moving through Dinah and to the slimy exemplar.

Slimer stopped kicking at that point.

As Dinah stood, the man’s slime trickled off her body. Sam and Ozella exchanged glances, both wondering why they weren’t hearing anything from inside the apartment.

“Get ready,” he told her, lifting his wrist guard, Ozella doing the same thing. “I will go in to the right, you go in to the left.” But as he said this, they heard Zoe call from inside the apartment, letting them know everything was clear.

“Power-up, off,” Ozella said as she followed Sam into the place, Dinah fading away.

It was a nice home, even though the building itself was in shambles. Helena stood near the guy with the wrist guard, the man passed out at her feet.

Sam’s eyes jumped from Helena to the weirdly dressed gangster sitting on a beanbag in the center of the room, the dude looking a lot more relaxed than he should have considering there were four exemplars standing in his apartment.

“I get it, I get it,” the leader of the Army Oaks said. He wore colorful turquoise robes, white pants, and had a pair of red, wraparound sunglasses on his face. Most of his skin was covered in tattoos, aside from his face. “Can I offer the four of you anything?”

“We’re not here to have tea,” Helena said firmly.

“Well, may I at least know who I’m talking to?” he asked.

“I’m Ballerina,” Helena said.

“Human Shield,” said Ozella.

“Nosy,” Sam said, realizing he had never properly introduced himself as a superhero before and taking some pride in the moment.

“Tiger Ears.” Zoe shrugged. “Yeah, Tiger Ears.”

“I’m not taking off my sunglasses,” said the Army Oaks gang leader with a snort. “If you fucks get to wear masks and hoods, I’m wearing shades. And since you were kind enough to introduce yourselves, I suppose I should tell you who I am.”

“We don’t care who you are,” Zoe hissed.

“Well, we know which one in the group is the bitchiest, and I’m guessing the one in the schoolgirl uniform is the shyest.”

“My name is Human Shield,” Ozella reminded him. “And I… I…”

“You what?” he asked.

“I wouldn’t screw with me if I were you. Of the four of us, the way I can kill you would probably be the most painful,” Ozella said, now standing with her fists at her side, her bangs partially covering her eyes as she stared the man down.

“Hachi machi,” the Gangster-in-Chief said as he ran his hand over his beard stubble. “Well, I’m convinced. Not really scared, but I’m convinced that the four of you at least mean business. So we got the bitchy one…”

Zoe bared her claws, and walked over to the wall. She placed her fingers on its surface, and tore through the walling as she made her way toward the Gangster-in-Chief.

“Hey!”

“I’ll move to the furniture next.” Zoe kicked over a nightstand. “Oops.”

“My great-aunt gave me that!”

“Zoe, that’s enough. I will handle this.” Helena composed herself with a calm breath, smiling at the man seated on the beanbag. Sam’s nostrils started to flare open, but he returned to mouth-breathing, already sensing that this guy was a real lowlife.

“Ah, the leader,” the Gangster-in-Chief told Helena. “You four act like this is the first time I’ve been visited by an exemplar team. If you want my opinion, I don’t think anyone, exemplar or non-exemplar, should legally be able to act as if they are above the law. Last time an exemplar team visited me, they broke all the glass on my sliding balcony door. And guess who had to pay to fix that?”

“Well, you are the leader of a pretty powerful gang,” Zoe said. “My guess would be probably the people that you extort money from? Maybe some of the addicts you sell drugs to? And you broke your own front door by firing out at us, so you seem to have the funds.”

“You know, you got some lip on you,” the man said. “You kind of remind me of a…”

“What?” Zoe asked.

He nodded, clearly impressed with his own intellect. “That would make sense. You’re from around these parts, aren’t you? That sass, that ass...”

“Hell no, I’m not!”

“Yeah, you’re from these parts, and if you don’t think I can figure out who you are or who you are related to…”

Zoe lunged for the man, Sam having to hold her back.

“And that temper!”

“This has gone on for far too long,” Helena said as she stepped in front of Zoe. “Yes, I’m the leader of the group, and since you’re the leader of your group, I think you and I should have a simple conversation.”

“Sam…” Zoe said as he continued to hold her back.

“Relax, let Helena handle this.”

“I want to be the one that handles it,” Zoe said under her breath.

“Her power,” Sam reminded her.

“I would love to be the one that handles this,” Ozella said, feeling emboldened.

“Don’t call Dinah,” Sam told Ozella, “not yet anyway. Just give this a second to play out.”

“Yes, how about you and I have a conversation, just the two of us,” Helena told the Gangster-in-Chief.

Sam couldn’t see the lean combat dancer’s face, but he could tell by the way the Gangster-in-Chief was nodding that she had hypnotized him.

“Sure, a simple conversation,” he said, “what’s the problem with that?”

“Exactly,” Helena said as she moved a chair in front of him. She sat down, one leg crossing over the other. “We have only come here for one reason, and one reason only.”

“I’m listening,” he said, his voice wavering.

“There have been a few interesting shipments that have moved through some of the southern regions over the last several weeks. And according to my colleague over here, whenever something moves through any of these ports, someone gets paid. Are you one of these people?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard it,” the man said, a dazed look behind his red shades. “Some terrible fuckers to deal with. Shit, you should have told me this was about them. I wouldn’t have sent the boys after you had I known. And hell no, I don’t get paid.”

“Good, I’m glad we’re coming to an understanding. It is sort of an enemy of my enemy situation now, is it not?”

“You are most definitely right,” the Gangster-in-Chief mumbled. He adjusted his posture, his robes parting, and Sam got a quick view of his happy trail. “What was your name again?”

“Ballerina.”

“That’s a nice name. I used to go with my mom to the ballet, tickets were expensive. That’s why I got into this line of work, actually, to buy my mom tickets. But then I realized it was easier to steal them.” He burst out laughing. “And look at me now!”

“Great, I am glad to see you’ve done well for yourself. But back to what we were discussing. What can you tell us about these shipments, and more importantly, what can you tell us about where they have originated from?”

“I don’t know anything about that. But I do know about one thing,” he said, one of his eyebrows rising. “And maybe this is some information that you will find useful. Who knows?”

Sam watched as Zoe’s hands came to her mouth, as the Gangster-in-Chief revealed to them what he had heard recently. Ozella gasped once the man finished.

“Shit, this really complicates things,” Sam said. “Like really.”

“Yes, it does,” Helena agreed, her focus returning to the man. “What else can you tell us about this? Do you know when this is set to take place?”

“No,” he said, “but I know who you could ask.”

Chapter Eleven: Playing Dress Up

(That’s one freaky ghost...)

Sure, it had been a long day, but that had never stopped Ozella Rose from staying up all night and geeking out over her latest obsession.

Everyone was asleep now, the revelation that they had learned from the Gangster-in-Chief (who Ozella knew was named Thomas Baker through her power) still at the forefront of their minds.

Well, that and probably sex.

Ozella was pretty sure that Sam and Helena had banged it out; she had heard some of the sounds, and quickly got out of the living room when Zoe entered, stomping her feet all the way to the kitchen to get something from the pantry.

Even though Zoe was trying to fight it, jealousy was a bitch that never seemed to go away.

Ozella understood this.

She had been jealous in the past. The nerdy statkeeper had had a few boyfriends, but she still hadn’t done the deed, and when one of her exes hooked up with this other sluttier classmate of hers, Ozella’s envy knew no bounds.

She’d practically stalked him for the six months after they broke up, which was part of Ozella’s past that she had tried to forget.

So she got it, and now she tried not to worry about guys, or ever losing her virginity, more focused on her stats and now her superpower.

It was still strange to think that she was an exemplar; even if Ozella was classified as a non-exemplar on paper. And what a strange power she had. First, there was the visual aspect, and then there was Dinah, and everything that came with her.

Ozella Rose

Codename: Human Shield

-Dinah Healing

-Dinah Wound Transfer

-Enhanced Mental Imagery

-Pattern Sense

Known Limitations: No combat ability. Power can be overwhelming.

Power-Up: Tangible Dinah one hour a day

She didn’t need to look at the stats she had created for herself to remember them; she simply liked looking at them. And to hell with people who didn’t understand her obsession, like Sam, although she couldn’t really blame him.

And maybe he was right, maybe she should drop her Book of Templates.

The standard set for men: Bland Stan, Needy Petey, Chester the Molester, Muscles Miguel, Good Guy Dave, Smarty Arty. The standard set for women: Tammy Big Tits, Samantha Lies, Bitchy Bridget, Gym Rat Pat, No Confidence Karen, Silly Sally.

There were other classifications that she had come up with, but those were her go-tos, and she had worked hard on narrowing exemplars and non-exemplars alike down to several templates.

“But it’s good to let things go,” she told Dinah, who sat before her in her ghost form, braiding her hair.

She probably would let that part of her classification ability go, or she wouldn’t dig any deeper into it.

Now that she could write questions out and get answers, this presented a whole new level of opportunities for what she could do. In fact, she needed to put something about this in her stat sheet, but she didn’t know quite how to list it.

Answer generation?

That would work for now, so she penciled it in under “Pattern Sense”. She flipped quickly to check out the base stats of her teammates, no, friends.

Helena Knight

Codename: Ballerina

-Mental Inducement

-Enhanced Persuasion

-Heightened Agility

Known Limitations: Must make eye contact with target for power to work.

Power-up: Mass hallucination creation for one hour per day

Zoe Goa Ramone

Codename: Tiger Ears

-Biomorphing

-Heightened Agility

-Heightened Senses

*Olfactory

*Auditory

*Vision

*Strength

-Claw Retraction

Known Limitations: Halfway morphed and cannot morph back, no long-range
capabilities.

Power-up: Transform back to original form for one hour per day

Sam Meeko

Codename: Nosy

-Enhanced Orthonasal Olfaction

-Psychometry

-Memory Reading

Known Limitations: An abundance of scents can cause issues, cannot turn power off, cannot identify chemicals by name (classification issues), nasal congestion could lead to diminishing returns, no combat capability.

Power-up: Choose a sense to enhance for one hour per day

Yes, friends, Ozella thought.

It was good to have friends, and even though Zoe had betrayed them once, she felt like she could trust them.

Helena and her fearlessness and leadership skills; Sam and his overall demeanor, his brazenness and his kindness; Zoe and her fierceness, her willingness to sacrifice herself to accomplish the mission, her attitude.

Ozella liked Zoe’s attitude, and she had been channeling it earlier in the day when she talked back to Mister Fist and his crew.

Damn, did that feel good.

Speaking of Mister Fist, she jotted down some notes about his group, just so she could remember them later.

Maybe her notebooks would prove useful after all.

While she could see more information than she could ever process on her pane of vision, Ozella was starting to notice that she couldn’t actually recall all of it. She could recall some details, but there was just too much information to get a grip on all of it.

Which was why she would need to write some of it down, like the details that she could remember about Mister Fist’s team, their identities, a few other tidbits that caught her attention.

And it was for this very same reason that she needed to once again see the exemplar they were after, the man named Donovan. If she could see him again, she could get the info this time and lock it down.

But that would happen all in due time.

And it was rather interesting what the Gangster-in-Chief had told them. From what he had heard, Fang was trying to start an infection, and for the life of her, Ozella couldn’t quite understand why they were doing it in another country.

But they would have more answers soon, in two days, which gave them plenty of time to train and follow any other leads they could sniff up.

Ozella looked up at Dinah and smiled.

The ghost woman had her eyes closed, and was currently massaging her vulva.

“What the hell are you doing?” Ozella asked.

Dinah’s eyes opened and she continued kneading her breasts.

For the next few hours, Ozella took a deep dive into a few of the books she had gotten through Helena’s unlimited resources. She ignored Dinah for the most part, the ghostly woman eventually drifting off, her head falling to the side, hair in her face.

At some point, Ozella looked up at Dinah, waking the blue ghost woman up by calling her name. Ozella had been reading a book on Western Province fashion, which seemed to have nothing to do with the spread of vampirism, but had actually impacted the fashion over there.

An idea came to her.

“Come with me,” she told Dinah, who obediently followed Ozella out of the study and up a spiral staircase to the second floor of the mansion.

They entered the room where Helena kept all of her clothing and costumes. It reminded Ozella of an expensive boutique, some seating, two dressing rooms, and racks upon racks of clothing.

“Power-up, on,” she said, and Dinah’s form solidified, her skin turning the same color as Ozella’s.

“Let’s try to put some clothes on you, just for fun,” Ozella told the woman.

Dinah nodded as Ozella moved to one of the racks, and began searching through the dresses.

She eventually returned with a gothic loli dress that was lined with white frills.

“Lift your arms up,” Ozella instructed. Dinah did as she was told, her arms rising into the air.

Ozella brought the dress over her head and put it on her small frame. Dinah’s hands immediately moved to the fabric and smoothed it out, the woman looking up at Ozella with a curious smile on her face.

Dinah ran her hand through her hair and pulled it back, quickly braiding it before stepping in front of one of the mirrors. She turned to the left and the right, admiring the dress. The ghost woman made a gesture to Ozella like it was too big and Ozella took the hint, helping her get out of the dress and hang it back on the rack.

“You want to try something a little bit racier?” Ozella asked as she searched through the clothing on another rack, coming upon a fishnet leotard.

Dinah nodded.

Once she had the outfit off the rack, Ozella approached her again, helping the now tangible ghost woman get into the leotard, which hugged her body tightly.

“That’s sexy,” Ozella said, stepping back, her hands on her waist.

Dinah walked over to the mirror and turned again, looking over her shoulder at her reflection. Her ass wasn’t as large as Ozella’s, but it was definitely perky in the fishnet leotard.

Smoothing her hands over the front of the fabric, Dinah approached Ozella, stopping just before her.

“It looks good; do you want to try something else?” Ozella asked.

Dinah lifted her arms, and placed them on Ozella’s shoulders.

“Ummm…”

Dinah bent forward like she was going to kiss Ozella but latched on to her neck instead. Pain spread through Ozella’s body.

“What… Are you…?”

It wasn’t three seconds later that Ozella passed out due to the pain, the shy statkeeper landing in front of one of the plush sofas in the room.

That out of the way, Dinah turned toward the door.

Chapter Twelve: Ghosted

(No comment. Just read.)

Sam Meeko felt the covers lift off his body, Helena’s hand wrapping around his penis.

“Wow,” he whispered, his eyes still closed, and even though she had just woken him up, he could feel a growing erection bringing him from the brink of slumber. He relaxed further onto his back and spread his legs just a little, giving her more room to get comfortable.

He felt her warm mouth on his member, his cock doubling in size almost instantly. Her soft mouth moved up and down, Sam letting her work on it for a moment, get into her groove.

Morning head? Sam was living the best life of any life possible, according to him.

Even as he continued to wake up, he recalled what had happened the previous night, the information they had uncovered from the Gangster-in-Chief, as well as what they planned to do with this info.

Of course, he couldn’t focus on this for long, not once Helena started moving her head up and down even faster, her tongue getting into the action, Helena adding her hand into the rhythm, her thumb and pointer finger squeezing at the base of his penis.

“Damn,” Sam whispered. He removed one of his hands from behind his head and brought it down onto Helena’s face, stroking her cheek, some of her long hair falling over his fingers.

Long hair?

Sam opened his eyes almost immediately to see Dinah sucking his dick, looking up at him, the fully fleshed woman wearing a tight fishnet outfit, Helena asleep to his right, curled away from Sam.

He was just about to scream out when he…

“Oh shit…” Sam whispered as he came, his mind equating the sudden shock with pleasure and letting his load go.

“Uhhh… ”

Dinah swallowed it all up, Sam shaking his head as he tried to quietly push her away. A whole host of contradictory emotions came to him as he finally was able to sit up, especially since he knew Helena would be up soon.

But rather than say anything to wake her, Sam quietly got out of bed and reached his hand out to Dinah, who took it after wiping her lips with her arm.

Sam tiptoed to Helena’s door, forgetting the fact that he was nude. He let himself out the hallway, still holding Dinah’s hand, and once he had Helena’s door shut, he placed both his hands on her shoulders.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he whispered to her, seriousness painting across his hazel eyes.

Dinah simply gave him a mischievous smile while licking her lips.

“That was…” Sam’s nostrils flared and while he couldn’t get any scent from Dinah, he could smell his own semen, which triggered a whole slew of information he did not want to process at the moment. Taking a deep breath in through his mouth, he glared at Dinah for a moment before asking her, “Where’s Ozella?”

Dinah nodded up, which Sam took to mean that she was upstairs.

“Let’s go,” he whispered, dragging her down the hallway, Sam in his birthday suit, Dinah in her fishnet leotard. He hoped to high hell that he wouldn’t run into Zoe on the way, which would only make this more awkward.

And like goddamn clockwork, Zoe’s door opened, the tiger girl just starting to turn to the gym when she caught glimpse of Sam and Dinah making their way to the stairwell.

“What the fuck is going on?” Zoe asked, instantly upset with Sam, even though she didn’t know all the details. “And why are you the one that’s naked?”

“It’s not what it looks like…” he told her as she approached, Zoe looking to his now shriveled member.

Her eyes nearly doubled in size. “Holy shit, Sam!”

“Zoe, let me explain…”

Dinah silently giggled as she looked between Sam and Zoe.

“I can’t believe you’re cheating on Helena,” Zoe said, but the tone of her voice didn’t indicate shock, it indicated surprise with mixed acceptance.

“I didn’t cheat on Helena,” Sam said, his voice rising.

“Well maybe you haven’t yet, but you are walking around naked with Dinah in fishnets. Did you dress her? How did you slip her past Ozella?”

“Look, I woke up and she was giving me a blow job,” Sam hissed. “I thought it was Helena. End of story.”

“Helena gives you morning blow jobs?” Zoe asked, a dark look coming across her face. “You never indicated that you wanted something like that…”

“I don’t want something like that, but of course… Yes, who wouldn’t want something like that? Shit. That’s not the point I’m trying to make here! I thought it was Helena, so I kept my eyes closed as she did it, and then I opened my eyes…”

“No,” Zoe started to laugh, her ears perking up. “No you didn’t.”

“It wasn’t me. It was my brain, the shock, the pleasure, all of it hit me at once.”

“You came, didn’t you?”

Sam glanced away from his ex. “Yes, it’s not a big deal, it’s not like… It wasn’t intentional.”

“I don’t see any cum on her,” Zoe said as she stepped around Dinah, checking her out. “But she does look good in fishnets.”

“Fuck, fuck,” Sam said, starting to pace.

“Wait, you came in her mouth?”

“Why do you care?” Sam asked. “It wasn’t intentional!”

Both of them looked to Dinah, who simply shrugged off the whole affair.

“She is an evil, mischievous little whore, isn’t she? Even I rarely let you do that, not that I minded it so much…”

Dinah took a step closer to Zoe, and the tiger girl backed away.

“Watch your step, Ghosty…”

“No, Dinah, don’t do anything to her,” Sam said.

Dinah nodded, her head dropping just a little bit as she moved closer to Sam. “And how does Ozella fit into all this?” Zoe asked.

“I was just about to find out when you opened your door.”

“So to recap, you woke up getting some morning head, and you thought it was Helena, so you just kept your eyes closed and went with it, then you… How did you know it was Dinah?”

“Her hair is longer; I touched her head.”

“Whatever,” Zoe said, turning toward the stairwell. “You always liked to play with hair, didn’t you?”

“No, I mean, I don’t know. It’s just where my hand went.”

“Got it. You were heading upstairs, weren’t you?”

“How did you know?”

“We’re standing in front of the stairwell,” Zoe pointed out.

“Right, let’s…”

“Yes, let’s,” Zoe said as she moved up the stairs, her tail bouncing as she took each step.

Naked-ass Sam followed closely behind her, Dinah closing out their little ragtag bunch.

“Where’s Ozella?” Zoe asked Dinah. Dinah rolled her eyes at Zoe, looking to Sam for guidance.

“Where’s Ozella?” Sam repeated.

“Damn, I’m so sick of this ghosty bitch’s attitude,” Zoe said under her breath as Dinah led them to Helena’s costume room, where they found Ozella lying on the floor.

“What the hell did you do to her?” Zoe asked, helping Ozella onto the sofa.

Sam noticed that there was something a little different about the way Ozella was lying. She didn’t look like she had been sleeping; she looked like she’d fallen over, and he had seen Dinah do this to someone before by forcing injury onto them.

“Dinah, heal her right now,” Sam started to say. “Wait, hold on…” He went for the nearest thing he could find, which happened to be a pink woman’s robe. “Okay, now do it.”

Dinah reluctantly moved to Ozella and sat next to her, kissing her cheek. Ozella’s eyes started to flutter open.

“Where…?” Ozella saw Sam’s silky pink robe and gave him a funny look. “Why are you wearing that?”

“I was lying in my bed and Dinah woke me up,” Sam said, looking to Zoe with a tight grin. She nodded, ready to stick to the lie. “It was the first thing I could put on.”

“Dinah?” Ozella glared at her counterpart. “You aren’t supposed to bother people, and you most definitely aren’t supposed to use your power on me!”

Dinah started to move to the corner of the room, so no one could look at her. If she’d had a tail, it would have been tucked between her legs at this point.

“Power-up, off,” Ozella said. Dinah’s form fizzled away, the fishnet clothing falling to the floor. “I don’t know what’s gotten into her. I just brought her up here to try on clothing and she attacked me and took off. Did she wake up Helena too?”

“No,” Sam and Zoe said at the same time, exchanging nervous glances.

Ozella shrugged. “I guess I will have to watch her more closely next time.”

“Yeah, you probably should do that.” Sam awkwardly lifted his hand to scratch the back of his head, minding the part in his pink robes.

Zoe turned toward the door. “Sam, let’s let Ozella rest for a minute, I’m sure she could use it. Besides, we both have some training we need to do.”

“And I need to change clothing,” Sam said, once they were in the hallway.

“Then again, pink is sort of your color.”

“Shut up,” Sam said playfully as they took the stairs down to the main floor. “And remember—this stays between us.”

Chapter Thirteen: Tea Date with a Sociopath

(Just in case you started wondering what Dr. Hamza was up to in his spare time…)

Dr. Hamza Grumio was up early sipping from a cup of tea, lemon slices in the warm beverage touching his lips with every sip. He sat on a stool in front of one of his work tables, looking at the tarp that covered his studio wall.

The first repairman had been somewhat of an idiot, so he was calling in another, who was supposed to be there in a couple of hours. It would be nice to have his space back, and even though he had done quite a bit of work with what limited room he had, Dr. Hamza really wanted to spread out for a little bit, happy that the repairs were on the horizon.

He heard struggling behind him coming from one of his holding cells, but he ignored it. Another sip of his tea, he wished he had put more honey in there. He was still seeing the molecular structure of everything he looked at, a ton of other information also coming to him.

It was fascinating how his mind worked, and now that he was an exemplar, clearly a Class E, intelligence-based exemplar, this only made him more appreciative of his intellect. As for what type he was, he definitely wasn’t the type IV, like most intelligence-based exemplars.

He wasn’t trying to flatter himself either, Dr. Hamza just knew that part of him was dangerous. It was who he was, and ever since he was a child, that dark side had always been a part of him.

There had been years that Hamza had tried to push it back, to ‘live in the light,’ as his mother used to say, but in the end, he had to be himself. And he was glad to finally be honest, even if it alienated him, limited the number of friends he had, led to the separation from his wife.

Sipping his tea, Dr. Hamza remembered his beautiful wife, a famous researcher who now worked at a university.

What would his ex-wife think of him now? He had done something that Centralia and the other governments of his world had been trying to do since the start of the Western Plague.

Like most governmental entities, they had settled for overwhelming force over understanding the epidemic, trying to gloss over things in the end, rather than pick them apart. That was what people like him were for, people who enjoyed breaking things down into their molecular components.

Ironic, but it was something he’d always known to be true: an instant fix didn’t necessarily come with a sweeping gesture, sometimes it spawned from paying attention to the smaller details.

And that was how he’d been able to do it, that was how he was able to create something that no Centralian had ever created before, just by paying attention to the minute details.

Hamza wondered in that moment if his ex-wife would be impressed with what he had created. She did have a jealous streak when it came to their research, but he was sure she would find his discovery fascinating.

Who would have thought that exemplar-based vampirism could be broken down in such a way? That the infection was really as simple as that.

Three chemicals...

Dr. Hamza finished his tea, listening as the wind beat against the tarp stretched over the hole in his wall. Centralia was always windy, something about the tall buildings creating corridors that multiplied the power of the wind.

He had lived in several places in Centralia, from the south to the north, where it was warmer. There were spots in the city that didn’t have enormous buildings, which, rumor had it, had to do with the sheet rock beneath these districts, the soil not able to sustain buildings that were more than fifty stories tall, maybe even larger. Of course there were suburbs too, and urban blight, especially in the South.

But it didn’t matter where you were in Centralia, it was likely windy.

Dr. Hamza listened to that wind just a little longer, his eyes closed, information flashing before his eyes. He narrowed his focus on the sound of the wind, almost as if he were expecting it to say something to him.

At some point, he decided he wanted to test his experiment again, so he set his mug down on the metal table and turned to one of his containment rooms.

It was a miracle that the glass on the door of this room hadn’t been shattered in all the commotion that had happened in there, and he was glad this was the case, because what Dr. Hamza was trying to contain was a danger to the public at large.

At least for now.

He approached the glass door and tapped on it, the repairman from earlier lunging at him, baring his fangs as he tried to bash his head into the glass, veins pulsing on the sides of his neck.

“Good morning,” Dr. Hamza told the infected man.

It still amazed him that the brightest minds in his world had figured out that the infection was a bloodborne disease, that the original host, an exemplar from the West, simply gave some of his disease to whomever he bit. The man could turn them by giving them just the right amount. Or he could simply kill them, the original gaining power through their blood.

There had been a ton of bad science regarding Western vampirism, and a bunch of ‘cures’ that never quite worked, but Dr. Hamza wasn’t interested in those falsities now. Nor was he interested in all the superstitions that had come out of the Western Plague, the war stories, the copycat events, the fashion, the rituals.

What he was interested in stood before him, on the other side of the glass door, murder burning behind the infected man’s eyes.

“And now, we take it away.”

Hamza still needed to make more of the serum, the antivenom, but it wasn’t hard to make now that he had figured out how to recreate the infection. He pressed his finger on a button near the door, a hissing sound meeting his ears.

A chemical sprayed into the room, the vampire twisting and crying out as soon as he took his first whiff of it.

“There, there,” Dr. Hamza said, his hand now on the glass, watching the man slowly convulse.

Soon, the repairman was himself again, which came with all the other disadvantages of being human. He had already soiled himself by the time he was back on his feet, beating his fist against the door, screaming for Dr. Hamza to let him out.

“Please, please, Mister, I’m sorry! Whatever it was I did, I’m sorry! Let me out, please. Please!” he screamed until he was hoarse. “Please!”

“You didn’t do anything,” Dr. Hamza told him, well aware that the man couldn’t hear him. “And you should think of this a different way. You should think of this as science, and yourself as helping the rest of Centralia, and for that matter the entire world. I am the one that gave you the vampire infection, and I’m the one that has now taken it away, three times. But we’re going to have to do this several more times, and we’re going to have to wait it out for a while, to thoroughly test my discovery. There can be no mistakes here.”

Dr. Hamza took a step back. He looked at the man for a moment, aware that his subject thought that he was insane. It was a pity, really, that the man couldn’t see just how important this discovery was.

“You’ll understand in due time,” Dr. Hamza assured him, “in due time.”

***

Dr. Hamza was stepping into his bedroom to take down some notes when he received a message from Scarlett the teleporter.

She wanted to meet with him, to discuss something private. And initially, he declined.

Dr. Hamza had way too much to do at the moment, plus the repairman was coming in the afternoon, and he needed to be there to dose the man with his mind control serum, hoping that it would help the repairman work faster and more efficiently.

But he did have a few hours to kill…

Rather than agree to meet Scarlett at his home, knowing that his place was in no condition for visitors (even aside from the fact that he still needed to keep his current experiment a secret), Dr. Hamza asked her to meet him at a tea shop a couple of blocks away.

So a date.

Sort of.

In an attempt to look more like a civilian, Hamza took off his lab coat, and put on a black jacket, glancing at himself in the mirror for a moment, at his blonde hair with strips of gray in it, his beard stubble, the dark circles under his eyes. He hadn’t eaten in a while, and he suddenly found himself feeling hungry.

And maybe it was a good thing to go out for a while, to get some fresh air.

It would be nice to see Scarlett as well, Dr. Hamza having not forgotten how she had helped him out when he was in a very bad place.

“In this room, actually,” he whispered to himself, looking to where he had laid on the floor, not able to use the lower half of his body, lying in his own shit.

Tragic.

Hell no, Dr. Hamza hadn’t forgotten about the four wannabe heroes who had fucked him over. But he had plans for them, and he thought of these plans as he stepped out the front door, being sure to lock it behind him.

He took the steps down to the gate in front of his home and turned left. His eyes darted to a woman walking her dog, a shapely lady in exercise gear that screamed for people to pay attention to her, to see just how much she worked out.

A non-exemplar.

“No, an exemplar,” Dr. Hamza said to himself as he took another look at her, a fact he discerned from some of the energy radiating around her.

A normal person wouldn’t have been able to see it, but Dr. Hamza was no longer a normal person, and while he didn’t quite know what power she had, if he stared at her long enough, he could probably figure it out.

But that was impolite, and Dr. Hamza knew to behave himself in public.

As he walked to the tea shop, he thought about grabbing a newspaper, just to give himself something to read while he waited for Scarlett. Then again, teleporters were usually on time because it wasn’t hard for them to be punctual. This assumption turned out to be right as he approached a place with seating out front, a few people gathered around hot cups of tea, discussing whatever it was normal people talked about.

“I thought I’d get here before you,” Scarlett said.

“You did,” Dr. Hamza told her with a smile.

“Oh yeah, that’s right,” she said as she went for the door.

“Let me get that for you,” Dr. Hamza told her as he opened the door for the teleporter, letting her in. As usual, Scarlett wore black, her brunette hair in a cute side bun. The teleporter was all curves, and Hamza couldn’t help but feel a surge in his gut when he saw her.

Damn, she’d be fun to bang.

Scarlett looked a little tired, but Dr. Hamza didn’t say anything, ignoring what his power was telling him. He truly was happy to have some human interaction, Hamza not at all considering what he was doing at his lab (i.e. torturing someone) as human interaction.

“What would you like?” he asked her, turning to the register.

“Just a green tea for me,” Scarlett said.

“Will do.”

Dr. Hamza ordered a green tea for Scarlett, and a black tea with honey and lemon for himself, as well as a couple of scones and a ham and cheese croissant. He thought about ordering some dessert for them to share, but decided not to in the end.

“You didn’t have to get me anything,” Scarlett said as he approached the table with the plates of food.

“Who said any of this was for you?”

Scarlett chuckled as Dr. Hamza returned with the teas, and went to work right away on the scone.

“It is miraculous how quickly you healed,” she said. “And that’s sort of what I’m here to talk to you about.”

“I told you,” he said, giving her a brisk smile, “I’m not able to replicate how I was healed, and well... you saw the four exemplars at the construction site.”

“You mean the residential development?”

“Same difference. It was one of them who did it,” he said, “the one in the schoolgirl uniform.”

“Yes, what a strange superhero uniform. Anyway, I’m here to talk about something related.”

“I’m listening…” Hamza said as ate his scone. He didn’t have the greatest manners, not when he was this hungry, but Scarlett didn’t seem to mind that he was stuffing his face now, as he finished the first scone and moved on to the ham and cheese croissant.

“I believe that, if I’m lucky, I will be running into the usage of a healer, a real healer, in the near future.”

“When?”

“Just a few days from now, maybe sooner.”

“And you’re telling me this because?”

Scarlett shrugged. “I thought you might find that interesting; and I thought you might want a sample of the healer’s blood for research purposes.”

“I’m not interested in healers,” Dr. Hamza said, second-guessing himself as soon as the words came out of his mouth. “Actually... I would be able to replicate healing power now. I’m pretty sure of that. And then we wouldn’t have to worry about healing exemplars ever again.”

“Yes, I was hoping you would say something like that,” Scarlett said, taking a sip from her tea, trying to contain her excitement. “I… I don’t really know what you are capable of, but there’s something different about you now, and I’m guessing that the explosion at your home has something to do with it. Correct?”

“Correct,” he said, drinking more of his tea. “I haven’t gone over everything with you, but you should know that the answer to what you just said is ‘yes,’ something did happen at the explosion, and now I have the power to do something.”

“An intelligence-based power?”

“How did you know?”

“Something about the look in your eyes.”

“Yeah, you caught me red-handed,” he said, showing her his hands. Scarlett chuckled.

There was definitely chemistry between them, chemistry he could actually see, but he wasn’t going to do anything about that for the time being.

“So anyway, if I do come into contact with the healer, I’m guessing you would want to meet with this person, correct?”

“One hundred percent,” Dr. Hamza told her. “I don’t think it’ll take me much time to break down the healing components, and create a medicine that fully replicates the effect.”

“I have another question for you,” she said, slowly lowering her teacup to the table. “Would you be interested in going into business with me after you created it?”

“What part of the business would you be taking care of exactly?” Dr. Hamza asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

“Distribution. I am a teleporter, and I can help get the product out. Because I’m a little bit more presentable to the public, maybe I could deal with that aspect of it as well. Marketing.”

“We may not have to do much,” Dr. Hamza told her. “I might or might not know someone at the Knight Corporation who would be interested in this. I know that they aren’t into pharmaceuticals, but I’m pretty sure this would be a great way to enter the business. I can see it now: the Knight Corporation introduces a healing serum to the general public. Yes, yes,” he said, reaching his hand across the table, “if you can bring me an actual healer, I will replicate the power, and cut you in on it somehow. Sound fair?”

“Sounds good to me,” Scarlett said as she shook his hand.

Chapter Fourteen: Zoe Sort of Plays Nice

(Later that night in another part of Centralia.)

Zoe Goa Ramone’s day had been pretty good so far.

She’d gotten some serious training in, with at least an hour spent whipping Sam into shape; then more training with Helena (she was eternally frustrated by how perfect the heiress was but Zoe was actually learning from the lean combat dancer, so she tolerated it); lunch with the team, Sam activating his sense of touch power-up and carefully wolfing down a catered meal; then more training, this time working on some of their auxiliary weapons, which mostly involved Sam and Ozella and their wrist guards; followed by Zoe and Helena testing Dinah with everything they had.

Nope, they couldn’t kill her.

All in all, a good day, and once her own power-up activated, Zoe Goa Ramone appeared at the modeling agency looking like a badass as usual, hoping that the previous little mishap she’d had would be swept under the rug.

Some of the other girls scoffed as she walked past, Zoe in a hooded sweater and leopard print tights, the hood down, her hair in a top knot.

Lots of jealous bitches around, but Zoe was used to haters, and as long as she kept an eye on the time (through the use of a plastic watch she’d “borrowed” from Helena), she’d be able to get her shoot done and make some fat cash in the process.

Sabrina, a blonde with a perfectly placed mole to the left of her nostril, started up just about as soon as she saw Zoe.

“Look who decides to finally come in,” she said, the girls around her laughing. “What happened last time? Did I see a tail?”

Zoe ignored her as she sat in the dressing room chair, the makeup artist immediately attending to her.

Tiger Lily, which was the name Zoe used when modeling, was becoming an even hotter commodity, especially now that she’d just got word that she’d received an endorsement deal with a company affiliated with the Knight Corporation.

This wasn’t Helena’s doing; Zoe had started the process a month before she’d even met the heiress. But now that word was out, and her photos were in high demand, Zoe found herself being the center of attention in a way she wasn’t quite prepared for, her modeling agency willing to bend over backwards to accommodate her strange, one-hour-a-day schedule.

Of course, the other models, Sabrina included, thought that Zoe was just pulling some diva shit, but that was their prerogative.

Zoe was glad that, aside from Sabrina, no one had said anything about her storming out last time, her half-tiger face just barely hidden by her hood.

Damn, she’d gotten lucky there.

Once her makeup was done, Zoe ignored a few snide remarks as she made her way to wardrobe, where she was outfitted in just about the fanciest retro Centralian dress she’d ever seen.

Bedazzled, sparkly, low-cut, it reminded Zoe of something a rich teenager would wear to prom. But it checked the box on a few fetishes, so she went with it, looking fly as fuck by the time she stepped out of wardrobe and went straight to the photoshoot area.

It was the same photographer as last time, a transgender guy with too much blue makeup around his eyes this time, his look was cute enough though, and it reminded Zoe of what Sam would have to endure the following night...

“Is something the matter, dear?” the photographer asked.

“Just love your makeup.”

“Thank you,” the photographer said. “But enough chit-chat, it’s time to show the world who Tiger Lily really is!”

He lifted his camera and started taking shots, his assistant changing the lighting and Zoe feeling the heat almost immediately.

It only took her a few minutes to get into her element, tunnel vision setting in as she focused solely on the photographer, staring deeply into the lens as she brought a hand to her mouth, her finger pressed to her lip.

“Let’s take that watch off,” he told her.

“Absolutely not,” she told him as she lightly lifted her hand behind her head, pushing her hair up, her elbows splayed.

She lifted the ends of her dress, bringing it up to a point that it stopped just beneath the bottom of her ass cheeks. Looking over her shoulder, she made a kissy face at the photographer, who was nodding as he took more photos, his assistant now wide-eyed.

“Focus on the lighting, not on the model,” the photographer reminded his assistant, and the young man snapped back to attention, picking up a reflective surface and moving to Zoe’s right.

“Jump for me,” the photographer told her. Lifting the ends of her dress, Zoe started to jump, lightly at first, but then she really put some power into it.

She was laughing now, a huge, sexy grin on her face as she tried to stifle her laughter, again focusing on producing the perfect shot.

It felt like time had slowed down, that it was just Zoe and her audience now, the photographer and his assistant blurs in front of her.

Eventually, her watch beeped, letting Zoe know she had fifteen minutes left before the transformation took place.

“We need to wrap this up,” she said with a smile and a wink, the click of the camera again meeting her ears.

“What are you talking about?” the photographer asked. “We just started!”

“You know my contract,” she told him.

“Just a few more. I promise.”

“Let’s turn this up a notch,” Zoe said, pulling her dress down a little, her breasts going down with her hand before bouncing up. She dropped her hand to her waist and jutted her chest forward, turning her head to the right.

“Love it, love it, love it,” the photographer said. “I absolutely love this!”

Her watch beeped five minutes later, letting Zoe know that she really needed to wrap things up now.

“Just a few more,” she told him, “I’m serious.” Zoe crouched, bringing her elbows to her knees, her hands under her chin as she made a pouty face.

“Definitely cute, so cute. People are going to think this is so cute.”

She kept up the pouty face, puffing out her cheeks a bit. Her watch sounded again, letting her know she had five minutes until her transformation took place.

“Got to go. Bye-ee!” Zoe said as she made her way to the exit, barreling back into the dressing room and whipping her dress off.

She slipped into her tights and hooded sweater, pulling the sweater over her ass to hide the hole that she had cut through the top of her tights. With that, Zoe took the back entrance, stepping out into an alley. She was just about to jump to a fire escape and make her way to a rooftop when a fist came out of the dark.

Zoe dodged the fist, hearing a yelp as she caught the fist and brought the woman to the ground, her knee pressed into the woman’s back.

“Sabrina?” Zoe asked, tightening up her hold on her assailant.

“Let me up, you fucking bitch!” Sabrina hissed.

Zoe kept her there for a moment, her knee still on the model’s back, Sabrina’s arm nearly at the snapping point.

She could do it.

Zoe could easily break her arm, which would definitely make her think twice about trying to ambush someone. But her transformation was starting to take place, Zoe could feel it, her tail pressing against the back of her tights, her ears forcing her hood off her head, the right side of her face starting its transformation.

“You are very lucky,” Zoe told Sabrina as she helped her to her feet. “Don’t look at me; keep looking straight ahead.”

“You’re hurting me,” Sabrina whimpered.

“You tried to…” Zoe shook her head. There was going to be no reasoning with this woman at the moment. “Keep looking forward, I’m going to stand you up, and if you move, I swear to fuck I’ll break your arm.”

“You don’t deserve the Knight contract; you don’t deserve to be the most sought-after model with this company…”

“Is that what this is about?” Zoe asked her as she led Sabrina to the darker part of the alley, where the lights couldn’t reach.

“I’ve been here way longer than you…”

“You dumb bitch,” Zoe told her. “You know nothing about my life, nor the training I’ve had. Nothing. You’re so lucky.”

Just saying this last statement made Zoe even angrier, especially because she already knew that Sabrina would never realize how lucky she was, how quickly Zoe could rearrange her features, or snap her bones. How would modeling work out for Sabrina if her face was covered in huge claw marks?

But Zoe knew better.

She was part of Vigilante Justice now, someone trying to be a hero, despite how she looked twenty-three hours a day.

Still, this didn’t mean she couldn’t rough Sabrina up a little bit, considering the woman had tried to ambush her. Once Zoe was in the dark, she pushed Sabrina up against the wall, pressing her face against the brick.

“Kiss it,” Zoe told her, and even though it was too dark for a normal person to see, Zoe’s power came with enhanced senses, allowing her to see clearly.

She could make out Sabrina’s face as she pressed her head into the brick, Sabrina’s lips eventually puckering, her head turning ever so slightly as she kissed the brick wall.

“Good, now get into this dumpster. It’s to your left.”

“I’m not getting into the dumpster. Help!”

“Scream again and I will really give you something to scream about,” Zoe threatened her. She waited for a moment to see if Sabrina would actually be stupid enough to cross her.

“Fine,” Sabrina whimpered, “I’ll get in the dumpster.”

“Good, get into the dumpster, and once you do, I’ll leave you alone.”

Zoe backed away, and as she did, Sabrina started to move to her left, her hands out in front of her.

As she had predicted, Sabrina saw light at the end of the alley and took off running, the model running just about as fast as her two feet could take her.

Zoe didn’t chase Sabrina.

She hadn’t actually expected the woman to get into the dumpster, although that would have been hilarious.

But hopefully, Sabrina would leave her alone going forward.

After making sure no one was coming to investigate Sabrina’s cry for help, Zoe used the very same dumpster as a platform to jump from, and from the dumpster she caught hold of the fire escape, climbing up it as she made her way to a rooftop.

The buildings in this area weren’t as high as some of the buildings in central Centralia, and for a moment Zoe hung out on the rooftop of a five or six story building, just looking off at the blinking lights in the distance.

Centralia really was a beautiful city, especially at night.

Chapter Fifteen: Dumpster Pin-Up

(Nothing like getting wasted with your ex.)

Sam Meeko was hanging with Ozella Rose when Zoe got back to Helena’s mansion. They were in the study, Ozella trying to teach him how to play Kingdom Cards.

Sam was hardly able to focus on what Ozella was telling him. For one, he was experiencing some indigestion, which stemmed from gorging himself earlier using the rest of his power-up to pack in the calories.

He knew he shouldn’t have eaten so much earlier, but there had been a training session with Helena, then he had visited his family’s vineyard just to check in on his folks, followed by a long trolley trip back to Helena’s district, then a long conversation with Helena which mostly involved her venting about things happening at the Knight Corporation, and finally dinner.

So he was hungry by the time supper rolled around.

He was fine the first hour or two after dinner, and spent that time with Helena as she lay in his arms, the heiress eventually falling asleep.

But then the bottom dropped out, literally, and Sam had to rush to his own bedroom to spend some time atop the porcelain throne.

Eventually, he finished up, and at first, he thought he would just stay in his own bedroom, but with that sniffer of his, the mess he’d just made in the bathroom kept reaching his olfactory epithelium, forcing Sam into the study for refuge, where he naturally joined Ozella.

“It’s a three-or-more-person game,” Ozella explained, for what felt like the sixth time. Dinah was sitting there as well, and Sam was barely able to make eye contact with the blue woman.

He wanted to scrub the memory of what had happened that morning, and it was easier to do so by not making eye contact with her. He was glad Ozella didn’t know about this; he didn’t know how she would react if she found out that her ghostly look-alike was off giving BJs while Ozella was passed out.

“You okay?” Sam asked Zoe as she entered the room, ignoring more discomfort in his abdomen.

“I’ll leave you two to your little game. I’m going to bed.”

“Wait,” Sam said, standing almost immediately. “Let’s hang out for a minute. Besides, this is a three-person game, right, Ozella?”

“That’s right, and I don’t think Dinah will be able to play. But Zoe could play.”

“No, Zoe could not play,” the tiger girl said. “Ozella, you are super cute and your nerdiness has already helped us a lot, but it probably won’t be enough for me to start playing card games with you.”

“Okay,” Ozella said, her smile dropping a bit. “I guess I could read a little bit.”

“I didn’t mean that to be so harsh, sorry.”

“No worries,” Ozella said, turning to a stack of books. “I have some things I wanted to look at anyway. I just have to remember which book I read it in.”

“Don’t stay up all night,” Sam reminded Ozella. “We’ve got plans tomorrow night, and I’m guessing we’ll be doing a lot of training during the day.”

“I’ll try not to.”

Sam joined Zoe at the door, and together they made their way into the living room, and to the kitchen from there. “Would you like something to drink?”

“Sure, I’ll have something to drink.”

“Wine or water?”

“Wine, but only if you are having wine.”

Sam shrugged once he got to the kitchen, figuring it would be nice to chillax for a bit. “Sure, I’ll have a glass as well.”

Sam figured Helena would have a wine collection, and even though he hadn’t spent much time looking around the kitchen, he quickly found a door that led down a spiral staircase into a basement wine cellar.

“This is awesome,” he said aloud, hoping Zoe would hear him as he took in the basement. Not only were there racks and racks of wine, but the cellar was several degrees cooler than the rest of the house, downright chilly.

All the light fixtures were crafted from sculpted iron made to look like roots, and there was a little nook down there as well.

Sam made his way over to one of the leather sofas in the nook, taking off his shoes as he stepped onto a white fur rug, clearly an expensive piece. There were two other leather sofas, the same deep brown as mahogany.

“This is awesome,” Zoe said as she caught up with Sam. “It looks like Helena has been holding out on us.”

“Or she just doesn’t drink. I don’t think I’ve seen her drink. Have you?”

“You have seen her more than I’ve seen her,” Zoe said, a hint of jealousy in her voice again. “Anyway, fuck it, let’s pick a bottle. Also, did you see the way Dinah was staring at you?”

“How could I miss that?” Sam asked.

“She totally has the hots for you.”

“She’s a ghost,” Sam reminded her.

“But she can become a real woman one hour per day, which might be pretty nice to date…” Zoe said as she selected a bottle of wine.

She glanced around for a corkscrew but didn’t immediately see one. Her nail elongating, she used her claw to get the cork out as she brought the bottle back over to Sam.

“That’s one way to do it,” Sam said, “and just to be clear, I’m not so interested in dating a ghost.”

“But it has crossed your mind, right?” Zoe teased him as she made her way over to what she assumed was a cabinet full of wine glasses.

“No, it has not.”

“And who said anything about dating? Just think, Sam, one hour per day. It’s genius…”

“Nah.”

Zoe returned with two wine glasses, and placed them on a cedar coffee table infused with a vein of turquoise, commenting on it.

Sam had seen furniture like this before, obviously created by an elementalist. But non-exemplars were in the business too, usually handling the more manual labor part of attaching legs or drawers to whatever the exemplars created.

And selling them.

Oddly enough, non-exemplars ran more businesses in Centralia than exemplars did.

“A little more,” Zoe said as Sam filled her glass. He gave himself just around half the amount that he gave her.

“That should do it for me.”

He raised his glass and they clinked them together.

“Cheers,” Zoe said almost as an afterthought, tasting the wine. “Oh my.” She looked at the bottle again, noting its age and the vineyard it came from.

Showing his experience, Sam swirled the wine in his glass for a moment, his nostrils flaring as he took a whiff of the red liquid. Coming from a family that ran a vineyard, one would think Sam was a wine expert. Alas, he was not, most of his youth spent adventuring outdoors, helping during the peak seasons and reading comic books, and never, absolutely never connoisseuring.

“Well?” Zoe asked after he sat quietly for a moment, his eyes closed. “Any thoughts, my sommelier?”

“Hardly. Where does it say the wine came from?”

“From a farm in Northeast Centralia,” Zoe said, examining the bottle again. She sat down next to Sam, again careful not to put too much pressure on her tail.

“The bottle is mislabeled,” he said with finality. “This is actually a blend of grapes, some from the region you mentioned, others grown in a lab in southern Centralia. It appears they had a low crop at the farm where they sourced most of their grapes, so they had to augment it with a lab grown variant. They spent a considerable sum running test batches to get the flavor right, yet the flavor is incorrect, I believe. I can smell the lab grown grape, it’s subtle, but it’s there.”

“Impressive,” Zoe said, loosening up a bit. “You know, if this whole hero thing doesn’t work out, you can just become a food or wine critic.”

“I would have to be able to eat to become a food critic, and apparently…” Sam drummed his fingers on his stomach for a moment. “Food and I aren’t really friends at the moment.”

“Awww, did someone eat too much?” Zoe asked with a snicker.

“Yes, I did. I have to be more careful. I specifically waited to the end of the day to activate my power-up, and used the entire hour to eat just about anything I could. And now I’m regretting it.”

“As you should. You should pace yourself, Sam.”

“I will, tomorrow, and I might need my power tomorrow night, so I’ll just take away my sense of smell for five or ten minutes and wolf down a quick snack.”

“Yeah, I know that feeling,” Zoe said with a sigh. She took another sip of her wine, trying to smell the lab grown grapes but failing. “It’s like we have this hour to get everything done that we need to get done, and that’s it.”

“Well, I didn’t really need to get anything done…”

“I have this one hour to be myself, at a time when my career is growing, and Tiger Lily is more popular than she has ever been.”

Sam hadn’t seen her most recent photoshoots, but for a while, especially after they broke up, he’d checked out every magazine she posed for.

Maybe he’d checked them out too much...

“And here I am, at the height of my career,” Zoe said, no longer looking in Sam’s direction. Instead she stared at the bookshelf in front of her, just past it, actually. “It’s just not fair. And I’m not trying to be a whiner here. I appreciate all the opportunities I’ve been given with this power… Aside from my face, it’s everything I have ever dreamed of. But I worked so hard for my career, ever since I was modeling children’s clothing.”

“But the one hour a day, they’re working with that, right?”

“They are,” she said. “And I think it has actually helped me, to some degree. It’s made me seem exclusive. As stupid as that sounds, but exclusivity is sort of becoming my thing. And I shit you not, I have gotten more gigs after going to the one hour a day schedule than I ever had before. And I have only been on the schedule for just a couple of days. I mean, this just happened, Ozella’s breakthrough. And I’m now booked for the next three weeks.”

“What about tomorrow night? You aren’t booked then, are you?”

“No, I’ve canceled my shoot for tomorrow. We will only have a limited amount of time to get information.”

Sam nodded, finally taking his first sip of wine, the smell of alcohol infiltrating his nostrils even though he was mouth-breathing.

Tomorrow night they would go to a party hosted by a guy whom the Gangster-in-Chief called Centralia’s “biggest pimp,” a man named David Nightshade.

Sam wasn’t exactly keen on dressing up for the event, not in the way that his teammates had contrived. But they had taken a vote, and he wasn’t one to buck democracy.

“Hopefully, we can get in and get out,” he finally said. “With Helena’s power, we should be able to find out all we need to know about Donovan, which is sort of becoming the least of our concerns.”

“Tell me about it,” Zoe said as she finished her glass of wine and poured up another.

Both of them were hyper aware of what the Gangster-in-Chief had revealed to them. Fang was planning to ship infected children to the Southern Alliance, with the clear goal of spreading the infection across the country—a crisis in the making.

But first they would need to get to Donovan, and from Donovan they could put all the pieces of this puzzle together.

Hopefully.

Sam had this feeling that turning over more stones would create an even larger headache for them. And that was if they weren’t caught by Mister Fist and his team again, an entirely different concern, but one that Sam definitely appreciated.

There were a lot of factors at play, but it would start with getting to Donovan and stopping the transportation of infected children to the Southern Alliance.

“In other news, I almost kicked another model’s ass today and forced her to get into a dumpster,” Zoe said, almost as an afterthought.

“Come again?”

“I’m not proud of it, but this one bitch named Sabrina keeps giving me shit. Anyway, I’ve been trying to ignore it, but she cornered me when I was leaving and tried to slug me. FYI—I’ve set my watch to remind me at fifteen, ten, and five minutes until my transformation takes place,” Zoe said, showing him her watch. “So I didn’t have a lot of time to get out of there when she came for me. But I am proud of myself. I didn’t overreact, for once.”

Sam looked at her funny for a moment.

“In the end, I just made her kiss a brick wall,” she said with a shrug. “I don’t think she was too hurt.”

“And that’s not overreacting?”

“I don’t want anyone to see this,” Zoe said, waving her hand over the tiger side of her face. “And I was going to have her get into the dumpster just so I could leave without her seeing my tail. But she ran off, which was fine by me. Although, it would have been pretty funny to force her to get into the dumpster.”

“You have a strange sense of humor,” Sam said.

“What? You don’t find sexy models getting into trash cans kind of funny?”

Sam considered this for a moment. “It sounds more like a fetish than a comedic situation to me.”

“I don’t know if that’s a fetish or not,” Zoe said, finishing her glass of wine. “But if it isn’t, it could be.”

“Please don’t start taking dumpster pin-ups…”

Zoe laughed, her fists coming up so she could punch Sam in the shoulder. She stopped just in time, Sam already moving to block her attack.

“You’re getting better,” Zoe said.

“I just know that you hit hard, and that was before your transformation,” Sam reminded her.

“Please, I never hit you.”

“You were pretty rough a couple of times,” Sam said. “I think those were warranted, though.”

“Makeup sex doesn’t count,” she said, swallowing hard. “Anyway, more wine.”

“Yeah, but not too much more. I don’t want to be hungover tomorrow.”

“You’ve hardly had a glass,” Zoe told him.

“Okay, okay,” Sam said as he tilted his glass to her.

Zoe filled his glass to the brim, and gave herself a partial fill up.

“So… ”

“So…” Zoe said.

The two former lovers sat in silence, Sam wishing he hadn’t just made the conversation awkward. Or was it Zoe?

“That’s a nice rug,” Zoe finally said.

“It must be hard to keep clean, to keep it white.”

“Oh, I think keeping stuff clean is the least of Helena’s concerns. If her lambskin rug gets dirty, she can just buy a new one,” Zoe said.

“She’s not really that type, though. She’s humbler than that. I don’t think any of this stuff is hers, actually. I think it was just stuff that belonged to her family.”

“True, she doesn’t really seem to have a decorative style, aside from the clothes she wears.”

“Yeah,” Sam said.

“Sexy tomboy or whatever.”

“Yeah…”

As much as this could have been a fade to black moment, Sam and Zoe grinding their nasties together and rekindling a seemingly lost connection with one another, it wasn’t.

The two simply finished their glasses of wine, Zoe the first to stand and say she was going to retire to her bedroom.

“Good idea,” said Sam as he followed her up the stairs.

“And be sure to lock your door this time,” Zoe told him. “You don’t want to wake up to another morning blow job.”

Chapter Sixteen: All in A Morning’s Work

(Gym Rat Pat is at it again!)

Helena Knight’s energy levels were low the next morning, but she knew that was nothing a little stretching couldn’t fix. She began with seated meditation, which wasn’t always part of her practice, but felt good for a day like today.

There was a lot going on behind the scenes, something Helena didn’t bother the others with. Restructuring the Knight Corporation’s contractual business was as tedious as she’d imagined it would be, but her assistant Bryan seemed to have things under control, and she knew the board would eventually agree to it.

It still bothered her that they had made connections with Fang in the first place, and now that Dick Moonstar was under her control, she would be able to get more info as it rose to the surface, starting with what she had recently learned. Apparently, Dick had leased a couple of his spare warehouses to Fang through DM Enterprises.

Things would get interesting soon, but first Vigilante Justice would need to know Donovan’s location, which very well could be one of Dick’s places, but they had no way of knowing until they got confirmation later tonight.

Zoe came in just about the time Helena finished stretching, the fur on the tiger girl’s face ruffled in a way that made Helena think she’d slept on the wrong side of her face.

“You okay?” Helena asked as she went to the mirrored wall, and started doing some handstand work.

“A little hungover.” Zoe had a glass of water with her, which she threw back, wiping her mouth with her hand. “I discovered your wine cellar. Well, Sam did, but I helped knock out a bottle. Hope you don’t mind.”

“That’s what it’s there for,” Helena said, still upside down, mentally timing herself to see how long she could hold her body erect. Eventually she lowered herself to the ground, shaking her arms out once she was stable again.

“I take it you’re not really a wine drinker,” Zoe said as she also started to stretch. She wasn’t quite doing some of the poses that Helena had taught her, but she had incorporated a few things, especially some of the crouches.

“No, that would be my parents,” said Helena. “The basement used to be a gym, back when my grandfather owned the place. But my parents converted this section of the home to the gym because it was bigger, and there was more lighting. The basement naturally made a good place to store alcohol.”

“That stuff down there is worth a fortune,” said Zoe.

“It is, and it’s one of several storages they have. I don’t quite understand their obsession with collecting rare bottles of wine. They don’t actually drink very much, maybe a glass a night. But I guess that’s what us rich people do, right?”

“Come again?” Zoe asked, suspicious of Helena’s tone.

“Well, from the many rich acquaintances I have met, we just seem to collect things that we don’t necessarily need. We have the space to store them, plus we can get the best of the best. I’m guilty of this as well. You have seen my room full of clothing upstairs.”

Zoe nodded. “I have.”

“That’s what I’m trying to say here. People with money to spare usually have the space to store the things that they frivolously bought. Just an observation. Shall we spar?”

“I was hoping you would ask that,” Zoe said, cracking her knuckles.

Helena retrieved a pair of sparring pads. She had to sit down to put them on her hands, using her legs to hold the second one while she slipped her hand in. “You know, I still haven’t forgiven you for betraying us.”

“I figured as much,” Zoe said, a dark look coming across her face as her ears lowered.

“But I’m on my way,” said Helena.

“I guess that’s nice to hear.”

“I thought you would like to know. I was pretty pissed at you for what you did.”

“Do we have to talk about this right now?”

“No one is around; you shouldn’t be embarrassed by the conversation.”

“I’m not embarrassed,” Zoe said, turning away from Helena.

“Maybe I misspoke. I just wanted you to know that I am starting to forgive you. Just so you know.”

“It still sounds weird, but, sure. I guess it sounds nicer.”

“I was hoping we could bond a little more at the spa, but you saw how that played out,” said Helena as she lifted her sparring pads. “Ready?”

Zoe let out quick exhalations as she went to town on the pads, offering up quick jabs, a few of which pushed Helena back a step or two. The tiger girl was stronger in this form, Helena could sense it, and even though there was padding protecting her hands, she could feel Zoe’s strikes in her palms.

“You need me to lighten up some?” Zoe asked.

“No, you’re fine.”

“I probably need to take a nap,” Zoe said after a few more punches. “That wine was more potent than I thought. But I’ll be ready for tonight.”

“Good. Did Sam get very drunk?”

“No, he was mostly doing his best impression of a sommelier as he sniffed the stuff and told me all sorts of details, like how some of the grapes used in a specific batch were lab grown. Shit like that.”

“He’s so quirky,” Helena said, a smile coming across her face. Zoe hit Helena’s pad hard enough to spin her around.

“Sorry. And yes, he is pretty weird, and I guess that is part of his charm. Or maybe it’s his hazel eyes. What do you think? You’re the one dating him. Or is it to be married? I remember hearing something about getting engaged…”

“Want to switch?” Helena asked instead of offering up an answer. She had been in enough CEO situations to know that sometimes it was best to leave questions unanswered, that some fires didn’t need to be stoked.

“Sure.”

Helena handed Zoe the sparring pads, and Zoe crouched a little, her tail lifting up into the air as she got into position. “You going feet or fists?”

“Both.”

Helena started up with a few feet, just simple kicks, nothing that required too much concentration. Once she found her groove, she moved to a combination of punches and kicks that kept Zoe guessing. Of course, Helena never strayed from the pads, but she did keep Zoe on her toes for several minutes.

“Those kicks of yours,” Zoe said, once they had stopped. “I would hate to be on the receiving end of them.”

“You have been before,” Helena reminded her.

“I will not be held responsible for the things I did while I was under the influence of Dr. Hamza’s mind control serum.”

Helena paused, giving Zoe a funny look. Finally she laughed, Zoe eventually joining in with her.

“That wasn’t a fight I was expecting, and I’m glad I got out of it without having my eyes clawed out,” Helena said.

“Yeah, that would have been bad. We should have got some of that serum, though. It could have helped us in the future, I mean, if your hypnosis power was down, or you couldn’t see the person, or something.”

“True, true,” Helena said as she moved over to a set of weights and lay down at the bench press. “But the person doesn’t have to see me if my power-up is active.”

“Aware. I’m sure that will come in handy at some point. Want me to spot you?”

“I was just about to ask. ”

“Does it seem like we’re the only ones who train in this team?” Zoe asked. “Or is it just me?”

“You aren’t wrong there,” said Helena as she lifted the barbell, using short breaths now.

“It would be funny to whip Sam into shape, but I don’t really see that happening. He has his uses though, and he’s getting better with his wrist guard.”

“I agree,” Helena said as she set the barbell back down. “And while it is funny to watch them struggle to keep up with us, we would be best served by having him practice with his wrist guard.”

“Agreed.”

“Especially since I have the target practice area set up. I might spring for a more completed area in the future,” Helena said, nodding her head to the corner of the room, to the goalie net that she had bought from Dave the weapons dealer.

“Maybe we should train more with Dinah,” Zoe said as Helena lifted the bar, Zoe’s fingers under it just to be sure that she could hold the weight.

“Not a bad idea, actually. While she does serve as a good distraction, a naked woman just running around who can get shot at multiple times and never die is a definite advantage. If she had a little more offensive skill…”

“Okay, let’s train her then. Starting tomorrow, though. Because we may need her tonight, and Ozella can only use her in that form for an hour.”

“We could prolong training sessions by starting at eleven at night and then going past midnight to the next day. That is when it resets, right?”

“I believe so, yes.”

Helena grunted as she lifted the barbell again. “It’s strange, you know.”

“Dinah? Ozella? The power-up? The fact that I have a half-tiger face? Your weird hypnosis eyes? Sam’s nose? My half-tiger face? Or something else?”

“All of it.”

Chapter Seventeen: Sexy Sam

(Taking cosplay to a whole ‘nother level!)

The rest of the day was kind of a blur for Sam Meeko.

He had done what Zoe had suggested, only changing out his power for a few minutes so he could slurp down a protein shake Ozella had made, so he had plenty of time left to switch his powers out that night.

But he wasn’t as concerned about that part, even though he maybe should have been.

There were things Sam didn’t know, of course, and one of those things was that tonight would again test Vigilante Justice’s limits, something that all the training in the world couldn’t prepare them for.

But foreshadowing aside, he didn’t know that, and he wasn’t as concerned about infiltrating the southern Centralia pimps’ exclusive party as he was the way in which they were planning to infiltrate it.

“Are you ready?” Helena asked him as she led him into the shower. They stepped into her bathroom, Sam nude and Helena wearing a bralette and matching thong underwear.

“I don’t know if ‘ready’ is the right answer,” Sam said.

“It’ll be fun, well, maybe it won’t be fun, but it will be educational. Now you know what we go through.”

“I still don’t see why this is our only option for infiltration…”

“The only way we are getting into that party is if we are all a bunch of ladies, or ‘hot bitches,’ as Zoe stated. And three of us already meet those requirements.”

“I don’t know; I wouldn’t call Zoe a lady…”

Helena smirked at him. “Careful, she could hear you.”

“No, she’s upstairs figuring out what I should wear tonight.”

“I don’t know,” Helena said as she started the water and tested its warmth. “I’m pretty sure she’ll be able to sense that you were talking shit.”

“Maybe,” Sam said as he dipped his leg into the tub. Helena had already made some lather, which she quickly applied to his leg.

“Ever done this before?” she asked as she started just under his kneecap, bringing the razor blade down and Sam’s dark hair with it, washing it off in the water and starting again.

“No,” Sam said, mouth-breathing, trying not to smell the shaving cream.

It was Helena’s father’s shaving cream, and it smelled like rich pine trees, if that could ever be a smell.

Of course, his nostrils told him more than this.

As soon as the scent reached his superpowered olfactory epithelium, the odor molecules moved up his olfactory tract where they were dissected even further by his amygdala and his thalamus, his neocortex.

He knew that the semi-famous masculine scent was the creation of an intelligence-based exemplar, who was looking for work after he got out of the hero business. The man had grown up on the border of Centralia and the Northern Alliance, where towering pines were the only trees that could grow in the sand dunes.

This was more toward the Eastern Province border, not where Sam’s family had a vineyard, but he was familiar with the place, having vacationed around there in his teens.

“Are you okay?” Helena asked as she finished shaving his right leg.

“Sorry, the smell was just triggering a bunch of memories. I’m fine.”

“We should probably shave a little bit higher, just in case your skirt shifts any.”

“Sure, that works for me.”

Helena lathered up his thighs, and started shaving them as well. Eventually, she turned on the shower to wash some of the lather off his legs, his erection starting to grow the closer Helena’s hand came to his penis.

“Can you make this quick?” she asked, a mischievous look on her face.

“I can sure as hell try,” Sam told her as she put more lather in her hand, using it as a lubricant to jerk him off.

It was a little bit harder to ejaculate while standing, but seeing Helena move just a little bit closer to his cock, her lips parting ever so slightly as she looked up at him was definitely doing the trick.

But it was when her right eye turned into a red bullseye that he knew it was all over. “Finish for me, Sam,” she whispered.

Yes, maaaaaammm….

Helena moved aside just in time as Sam came. She removed the showerhead so she could wash some of his jizz away.

“Now, we continue what we were doing. Are you good?”

“Just let me catch my breath for a moment,” Sam said, his heart still beating rapidly. “Damn, I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Nor was I, but we definitely don’t need that thing poking up tonight, not while you’re wearing a skirt.”

“Are you sure it has to be a skirt?” he asked as he looked down at his cock, a bead of cum now visible on the tip. Helena sprayed this as well, startling Sam with the cold water. “Shit!”

“Sorry, it’s cruel, I shouldn’t have done that,” she said, laughing as she turned the water warm again.

“We have to be careful. Someone may come running if they hear me scream.”

“That would have been funny,” Helena said as she finished shaving his other leg. From there she turned to his arms, and then left the bathroom so Sam could shave his own face.

It had been a few days since he shaved, but eventually, he was looking pretty clean, well, aside from the fact that he was still clearly a man.

But the ladies had assured him that they would be able to do something about this through the power of makeup, and after tightening up the towel around his waist, he intended to see what they were capable of.

“Underwear is there,” she said, nodding to the vanity.

Helena was applying makeup, focusing mostly on her eyeliner to make it look like her eyelashes were a lot larger than they normally were, adding peaks that stretched all the way to her temples.

It was more makeup than Sam had ever seen Helena wear before.

“Yeah, I probably shouldn’t go up there in just a towel.” Sam dropped the towel and took another look at the underwear that Helena had set on the vanity. “Seriously? I have to wear panties?”

“Yes, you have to wear panties. You can’t have your bulky boxers under a skirt,” Helena said, laughing again. She was now in a robe as well, and Sam was secretly disappointed she wasn’t parading around in her thong.

“I can’t believe I signed up for this.”

“It will work, Sam, just go upstairs and let them take care of the rest. I will be up shortly.”

Sam turned the door and stopped. “To be clear, you want me to walk up the stairs wearing a pair of panties?”

“Yes. It will get a rise out of them.”

“Okay, but just remember, this was your idea,” Sam said as he exited the bedroom.

He was moving past the living room when a poof of energy indicated a teleporter was arriving. Bryan King stepped into the living room, a stack of files in his hands.

“It’s not what it looks like,” Sam told Helena’s assistant.

“Yeah, sure, sure it isn’t. I grew up with sisters, you know. Anyway, these documents are for Ms. Knight. Please let her know.” With that, Helena’s bearded assistant was gone, leaving Sam standing there in a pair of lacy black panties, the files now resting on the couch.

“Dammit,” Sam said as he took the stairs, wondering if he should ask Helena to have some telepathy work done on her assistant. He was sure he would run into Bryan again in the future, and he didn’t want the man remembering him parading around in panties.

He heard Ozella and Zoe talking in the bedroom upstairs, the one that Helena had converted into a giant closet. Figuring he would just be part of the joke for now, because it was definitely coming, Sam waltzed into the room and did a quick twirl.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Zoe said, starting to laugh.

“Oh no,” Ozella said, immediately glancing down, her bangs falling over her face as her cheeks turned red.

“Helena said you two would like this, so blame her.”

“She could have found you larger panties than that,” Zoe said as she walked over to Sam, examining him. “And if you’re wearing a skirt, you probably should be wearing a thong.”

“Let’s just get this over with,” Sam said.

“We should probably start with a wig,” said Ozella as she opened a drawer full of hairpieces. Sam was glad that Dinah wasn’t in the room, or if she was, she wasn’t currently visible.

He had promised Ozella that they would visit her parents’ home at some point in the future, where Sam would hopefully be able to sniff around her room a little bit and see if he couldn’t figure out who Dinah was, or what memory, or whatever, had sparked her.

“Definitely not that one,” Zoe said as Ozella lifted a pink wig out of the drawer.

“No, my hair is black, and my brows are black. I’m already going to stand out. Just make me blend in.”

“Fine, try that black one,” Zoe said, pointing at a black hairpiece with a few highlighted curls in it.

“Highlights?” Sam asked.

“Why not? It’s stylish.”

“Says who?”

“Are you forgetting that I’m a model and that I work for a modeling agency?” Zoe asked, her tiger ears twitching.

His ex was wearing a pair of tights and a hooded sweater, but Sam assumed she had already picked out what she wanted to wear after noticing a rack behind her with a single garment on it.

“I remember now,” Sam said, offering her a tight smile.

“Good, now go with the black wig with blonde highlights.”

Ozella handed it to Sam and he fastened it over his head. Once it was in place, he took a look at himself in the mirror, impressed with how authentic it actually looked. He didn’t know how they did it with these things, but the piece really did look like they were his own roots, that this truly was his hair.

“Also, you did a shit job of shaving,” Zoe said as she came closer to him, placing a hand on his cheek. “I can feel the beard stubble.”

“I have dark hair, it’s hard to make it all go away.”

“We’ve got makeup for that, lots of makeup. Now it’s time for wardrobe.”

“These are the ones,” Ozella said, moving a rack over to Sam. There were several dresses on it, a few tops, and skirts.

“As I suspected, going for one of these cute dresses will expose your upper arms, and even if we shave the hair on your arms, you still have enough definition in your shoulders that people will look at you suspiciously. So we’re going to go with a long-sleeved blouse and a tight skirt, dark colors, to hide any bulges.”

“I was going to ask about bulges…”

“That’s what this tape is for,” Ozella said. Sure enough, she had a brand-new package of body tape, which Sam didn’t even know existed until he saw her holding it.

“What am I supposed to tape up exactly?” he asked, already intuiting the answer.

“What do you think?” Zoe reached for a dark blouse. “This one, plus some type of scarf and…”

“I’m going to look so stupid.”

“No, you’re going to look so beautiful,” Ozella reminded him with a smile. “Just like the rest of us.”

“Here, this skirt,” Zoe said. “We need some shoes for you as well. Dammit. You definitely will be awkward in high heels. Although you could wear some ballet flats like Helena wears. Yes, that will work. A dark blouse, a scarf so we don’t see any of your chest, a skirt and ballet flats. Will also need a push-up bra, which we can stuff with cloths. But that shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Like I said earlier,” Sam sighed. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Chapter Eighteen: Welcome to the Blood Party

(Trust me, folks, it’s not as ominous as it sounds.)

Lance the teleporter appeared, the flamboyant man wearing a golden leotard. He nearly fell over laughing when he saw Sam. “Someone is trying to get laid,” he teased just before porting them away.

“Don’t listen to him,” Helena said as their forms took shape in front of an enormous skyscraper, Vigilante Justice standing half a block away from a bustling red carpet. The guy throwing this party, David Nightshade, had spared no expense when it came to making it feel bigger than it probably was.

“Have fun,” Lance said, laughing again as he vanished in a sea of golden sparkles.

Sam still hadn’t had much time to process just how beautiful his teammates looked.

Zoe was in a flowing red dress, low-cut, and a necklace covered in red rubies that matched her dress.

Helena wore a flashy silver dress, tight, the bottom of which barely stretched over her ass cheeks, matching sparkly heels too, more like boots than heels, Sam really didn’t know a lot about women’s clothing.

Ozella was in a schoolgirl uniform, because of course she fucking was, which was actually her new exemplar uniform. Helena had ordered other colors aside from the blue-and-white numbers they had, and this was one of the prototypes. Ozella also had her red backpack with her, uniforms for Sam, Helena and Zoe tucked inside just in case they needed them.

It was all about Helena and Zoe anyway, their celebrity status and Helena’s hypnosis power the key to them getting inside. Sam and Ozella were simply there for the ride, letting the others do the heavy lifting, at least until they reached the party, which was being held in the penthouse of a sixty-five story building.

“You know, these aren’t so bad,” Sam said, admiring the large ballet flats that Helena had ordered for him. Of course, it was her assistant Bryan who had brought them, the man not saying a word as he delivered the goods.

“No talking,” Zoe reminded him. “Just pretend that you have…”

“Pretend that you have a speaking condition,” Ozella suggested. “Or a throat infection. Yes. That could work.”

“No, because then people will think you’re weird,” said Zoe. “Well, people are already going to think this. This tall, lanky woman who looks suspiciously like a man, could possibly be trans, and is definitely wearing a lot of makeup. But at least she’s with two hot baes, isn’t that right, Helena?”

“I’m not a hot bae?” Ozella asked as Helena nodded, although her nod indicated she wasn’t really listening to Zoe.

“You’re more of a hot baby sister, at least in that outfit. But it was your choice.”

“Cosplay is in at the moment,” Ozella reminded Zoe.

“Aware. I make a living doing it.”

“But the amount of makeup that you three have put on me,” Sam said, trying to smile and feeling the makeup stop his cheeks from rising. “Was that really necessary?”

“No smiling, either,” Zoe said. “It looks really bad.”

“It doesn’t matter what Sam looks like once we get into the party,” Helena reminded her as they turned to the red carpet. “It will be dark there anyway, and people will be distracted with trying to fit in and maintain optimum inebriation.”

“Come again?” Zoe asked with a snicker.

“Time limit, remember we have a time limit. We find the guy—”

“—David Nightshade,” Ozella interrupted.

“Yes, and I do my thing, we get info on Donovan, and then we get out.”

“You know, I could have stayed home for this,” Sam grumbled as they walked toward the red carpet. There were crowds gathered on either side, photographers as well, but Helena and Zoe had enough experience with events like this to know that there was always a side entrance.

“And miss all the fun that we’re going to have?” Zoe asked as she looped her arm into his, looking like two girlfriends on their way to a fancy ball.

“It’s time,” Helena said as they caught the attention of a man wearing a white tuxedo. He recognized Helena and Zoe almost instantly, his hand coming out to shake Centralia’s most famous heiress. “Ms. Knight,” he said, before extending her hand to Zoe. “Tiger Lily. And who are your friends?”

“This is my cousin,” Helena said, pointing at Ozella.

“And this is my cousin too… ” Zoe said, shoving Sam forward a bit.

It didn’t matter, the man and his strongman counterpart were already under Helena’s spell by the time they saw Sam’s crossdressing ass.

“Nice to meet you,” the man in the white tuxedo said, bending forward to kiss Sam’s hand.

“Nice to meet you as well,” Sam said, trying his best to use a female voice. It was bad, really bad, but he figured he might as well lean into it. Besides, it really didn’t matter with Helena around.

“You sure are a pretty girl,” the man said, holding Sam’s hand for just a moment longer than he should have.

“Oh, you shouldn’t say things like that,” Sam told the man, glaring over at Helena.

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

“We have a time limit,” Zoe reminded the group, “but yes, that was worth it.”

“Wait, did Helena hypnotize the guy to flirt with Sam? If so, ha!”

“Yes, Ozella, that’s exactly what happened.”

“Focus, focus, focus,” Sam reminded them, although he said it in his feminine voice, adding to their laughter.

“Thanks for letting us in,” Helena said as the tuxedoed man stepped aside, a different strongman opening a door for the group. They took a corridor that led to an elevator, which opened to reveal another man standing inside.

“Welcome,” the elevator attendant said.

There was something about his eyes. One quick inhale and Sam knew that the man was an exemplar, a telepath. Luckily, all four of them were wearing telepath bands, something the attendant definitely noticed but didn’t say anything about as they made their way to the top floor.

Another sniff in and Sam could tell that this telepath had already seen plenty of illegal tech at this party.

The elevator was fast and they were at the top in no time, the man bidding them farewell.

“Glad we wore these,” Sam said as soon as the elevator door shut.

“It was a good purchase,” Helena said. “We definitely don’t need telepaths to pry.”

“Ms. Knight,” a woman in a black dress said as she approached them. “Tiger Lily, and your guests?”

“Our cousins,” Helena said.

“Great, wonderful, right this way,” the dark-skinned woman said as she led them down a short hallway, the sound of music growing louder with each step.

The hallway came to a T, the left the entrance to the condo, the right direct access to the rooftop. She led them to the right, opening the door for the four as they shuffled out.

Sam gasped once he saw an absolutely incredible party spread before him.

There was a pool area with women lounging around it, a few bikini clad babes swimming and a straight up waterfall coming off an epic jacuzzi. The back wall of the condo was open like a garage door made out of a single pane of glass, allowing people to flow in and out for drinks. It was glamorous, unlike any party he’d ever been to before.

“Damn,” Sam said.

“I’ve never even been to a party like this before,” Ozella admitted, moving closer to Sam than she had ever been before.

“Don’t worry,” he told her. “We’re only here for one thing.”

“Scan the area for a man named David Nightshade,” Helena instructed Ozella.

“Ms. Knight, a pleasure to see you,” said a man with a styled bouffant. He was in a three-piece suit, the color somewhere between turquoise and blue, his collar popped, a cravat tied around his neck and clipped to the front of his shirt via a gold pen.

“Always a pleasure,” Helena told the man, extending her hand so he could shake it.

“Who’s that guy?” Sam asked Ozella.

He looked to see where Zoe had gone off to, and caught a glimpse of Centralia’s up-and-coming cosplay model making her way through the crowd toward the drink station, dozens of eyeballs watching her as she moved.

Sam hadn’t expected her to be so popular, and part of him wanted to watch Zoe make her way to the bar, looking for people’s reactions.

But he knew better, right now they were on a mission.

“His name is Brock Manson,” Ozella told Sam. “He’s not very clever, but he has a high amount of charisma, non-exemplar. His family owns a talent agency, and he has a high willingness to try new things. Lately, he has been seeing ladyboys on the side.”

“All I needed was a name, sweetie,” Sam told her in his feminine voice, glad Ozella was speaking quietly.

“Let’s move around a little bit,” Helena told the two of them, “and keep your eyes out, Ozella.”

“I’m going to hold on to your arm,” Ozella told Sam. “No one will think anything of it. Just two girls at a party.”

“Yes, just two girls,” Sam said.

It was hard enough walking with his balls taped up to his taint (which he was pretty sure was not the correct way to hide a pair of testicles), but Ozella latched to his arm presented a different challenge, the nerdy statkeeper pulling Sam toward her with every step, Sam continually thrown off balance.

He put up with it, though, trying not to make eye contact with the other guests. At some point he felt someone come up behind him, a hand moving from the small of Sam’s back down to his ass.

“Excuse me,” a hefty bald man said, the guy doused in an overpowering cologne. He wore a black suit, a bolo tie with an amethyst in its center, a pair of bright pink socks that matched his pocket square.

“Hands off,” Sam told him in his high-pitched voice, causing the man to pause.

“What did you say?” the man turned back to Sam, taking a good look at him.

“You can get by me just fine without touching my ass.”

The man started to laugh at Sam as he brought his hand to his mouth and bit down on a half-smoked cigar.

“That’s him,” Ozella whispered.

“Mr. Nightshade?” Sam asked.

“You’re a special breed of woman, aren’t you, missy?”

“Hi,” Helena said, coming forward, her eye already kaleidoscoping.

“And who might you be?” he asked, chewing on his cigar as Helena took over. “I recognize you,” he said, his boisterous voice starting to smooth out.

“We have some questions.”

The bald man nodded. “I’m sure you do. Let’s get you some answers, then. Follow me.”

***

“That’s it?” Ozella asked after the bald man motioned Helena toward his condo.

“You were expecting something else?” Sam asked her as they followed behind Helena and David Nightshade.

“I do have our uniforms…” Ozella started to say.

“Sometimes the point of being a hero is to not actually have to do anything, as weird as that sounds. We get this information, and we get out of here. We’ll be better off than we were before, and no one is hurt in the process.”

“That’s a good way to look at it,” said Ozella as they passed into the entertainment area of Nightshade’s home.

There were several bartenders at work; Sam looked around hoping to see Zoe, but never ended up spotting her as they moved to the left, a pair of security guards stepping aside and allowing the four to pass into an office that Sam could tell was partially designed by an elementalist. While wood could bend in a variety of ways, it usually didn’t look like this, not so perfect, like it had grown this way.

Case in point: the sofas at the front of the room, which were attached to roots that rose out of the ground, the seats wrapped in leather, blood red throws made of cashmere tossed over their armrests. Or David Nightshade’s desk, the focus of the room, also growing out of the floor as if it were the trunk of a large Eastern Province oak, polished smooth, executive.

“Please sit,” Nightshade said as he went to his chair.

“Sam, Ozella,” Helena said, nodding toward one of the sofas.

“You got it.” Sam sat, Ozella plopping down next to him.

Helena continued standing, the heiress taking the lead as she normally did. “We will just ask you a few questions, then we will get out of your hair.”

“Not a lot of hair to get out of,” he said with a laugh.

Sam found his behavior odd.

Usually, when someone was hypnotized by Helena, they simply became her pet, her mind slave. But Nightshade seemed to have some cognizance, which was making Sam feel uneasy.

So Sam did what he always did (well, lately anyway) when he was feeling suspicious of someone. He scooted his chair a few steps closer as the man looked at Helena, cigar still sticking out of his mouth.

It was going to take some concentration, especially with David Nightshade’s cologne and his cigar; Sam’s sniffer was going to have to work overtime to see if it could uncover what was going on here, and why Nightshade wasn’t responding to Helena’s power like others had.

Sam sat on the edge of the chair now, his arms at his side, his nostrils aimed in Nightshade’s direction.

“We don’t have many questions,” Helena told him. “But let’s start with this one. Do you know a man named Donovan?”

“Donovan?” Nightshade placed his cigar in an ashtray, and fixed the collar of his jacket for a moment. “The name rings a bell. I know a couple Donovans. Got a last name?”

“You know what Donovan I’m talking about,” Helena told him. Sam could tell that she hadn’t quite figured out why her power wasn’t working. It had always worked perfectly before; Helena was growing confident enough in her ability that she didn’t second-guess it.

“Donovan…” Nightshade yawned. “Yes, I think I know which Donovan you are talking about. Has a mohawk?”

“That’s the one,” Ozella said. She looked down to see Sam tapping on her leg. “What is it?” she whispered so only he could hear.

After confirming what he had sensed, Sam bent over just a little, quickly whispering his plan in Ozella’s ear. She nodded, and whispered the name of the strange blue ghost woman that followed her around.

Dinah’s form took shape, her eyes immediately locking on to Sam, and eyebrow rising as she took in his full cross-dressed form.

Ozella tilted her chin at David Nightshade; Dinah walked behind him as he continued to give Helena shit, as the combat dancer started to realize her power wasn’t working, growing agitated.

And that’s when Dinah latched on. Nightshade started to tremble as injuries were pressed into his body. It was weird watching her do this. A person’s first reaction was usually shock, their eyes going wide. Some people struggled, others immediately went limp.

But being on the receiving end of Dinah’s power was something that not even the strongest exemplar could hold up to, so it was only a few moments until Nightshade was pleading with Helena. “Please, whatever it is you are doing, please stop. Please!”

“Hold off for a moment, Dinah.” Helena smiled down at David Nightshade, who had one hand on his desk, trying to keep himself from passing out. “Let’s start from the top. How are you stopping my powers from working?”

“Contacts,” he finally said. “They were designed for telepaths, but the people who made them said that they worked against almost any psychic power.”

“Great, please remove them.”

“I will not,” he said, his hand going under his desk.

“Not so fast,” Sam said. “Dinah.”

David Nightshade writhed in his plush leather chair, a vein on his head pulsing, the man practically panting as he brought his hands up to his eyes and pulled out his contacts.

“Keep your eyes open,” Helena told him calmly, signaling for Dinah to stop for a moment.

She let up for just a moment, allowing Nightshade to look at Helena. It was only a few seconds later that he was completely hypnotized.

“I’m ready to answer questions,” he said in a monotone voice.

“Great, let’s start from the top. You know who Donovan is?”

“I know Donovan and Fang, the organization he works for,” the man said. “They are sons of bitches to do business with, but when you are in my line of work, you do what you have to do to survive.”

“Have you been selling people to them?” Helena asked.

He shook his head. “No, they have their own people that they use, children mostly, but we have pointed a few good exemplars in their direction.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Sam asked.

“Yes, what do you mean you have pointed a few good exemplars in their direction?” asked Helena.

“You know what they are, right?” Nightshade asked. “They are vampires, well, not Donovan, but the people he works for. Never met them. But they definitely have Donnie by the balls. I mean, I don’t think it would be that hard for a vampire to force a human, exemplar or non-exemplar, to serve them. Especially if they promise them that they would turn them.”

“Do you know how to get in touch with Donovan?” Helena asked.

“While it’s possible to send a message, I have found the best way is to visit him in person. He sort of has an open-door policy when it comes to the people he works with, especially if the person coming has a better deal for him. You show up, and his people take you to him. That’s pretty much how it works.”

“Write down where he stays,” Ozella said. “Give us all the details you can.”

“Yes, write it down,” said Helena.

“Sure.”

Nightshade retrieved a piece of paper from his drawer. He scribbled down some information on it, and once he was finished, he handed the paper over to Helena, who read it quickly, her eyes shutting for a moment and reopening as she transmitted the address to her assistant.

Helena walked the piece of paper over to Ozella, who folded and stuffed it into her bra.

“Is that where you normally store things?” Sam asked.

“Sometimes,” Ozella said, looking away from him. “Is that a problem?”

“No, nothing like that.”

“Just one more question,” Helena told Nightshade. A bead of sweat had appeared on the side of the bald man’s head, his eyes bulging and bloodshot. “Where is Donovan now?”

“Donovan should be here any moment now.” Nightshade looked at his watch. “Really soon, actually.”

“He’s coming here?” Sam exchanged glances with Ozella. Dinah looked to Sam and Ozella, wondering if she should go back to work.

“Answer the question,” Helena said. “Why would Donovan be coming here?”

“You didn’t know?” Nightshade asked. “This is a blood party, and Donovan is bringing some of his friends.”

Chapter Nineteen: Crimson Fiesta

(Because the ‘Red Wedding’ was already taken, and technically, no one is getting married here.)

“Let’s get changed,” Helena said, nodding toward Ozella’s backpack. “I’ll send a mental message to Zoe,” she added as she unzipped her red backpack, handing out their uniforms.

David Nightshade simply sat at his desk, still hypnotized, now staring down at his hands, his cigar sizzling out.

“Zoe can stay out there.” Ozella fastened her mask around her face, pulling her hair over it.

“Why would they invite famous people to a party like this?” Sam asked as he tore his wig off and began changing into his exemplar uniform.

It made no goddamn sense.

“I don’t know… Nightshade?” Helena asked quickly.

“There’s no one too famous here now. The red carpet was just for show. Most of the people out there are lowlifes, people that won’t be missed.”

“But I recognized some of the people,” Helena said.

“Anyone of importance has already been told to leave, transported to a different party a few blocks away.”

Helena grunted as she yanked her dress off. She now stood in a thong and a strapless bra. And after shaking out her uniform, she stepped into it, pulling it up tight around her body, turning to Sam so he could zip up the back.

Positioning her breasts, she got everything in order before she asked Ozella for her ballet flats. Since they were lightweight, Ozella had packed those as well, and she quickly tossed them over to Helena.

Sam would have to wear his man-sized ballet flats, but he wasn’t too worried about it as he too got into his own uniform, adjusting it, making sure everything fit right before he put his mask on and pulled the hood up.

“And here they come…” David Nightshade said, still looking down at his hands.

They heard commotion outside, Sam immediately running to the door and saying, “Power-up, hearing.”

He pressed his ear into the surface of the door, closing his eyes as he interpreted what was happening on the other side.

With his eyes closed not only could he hear the echoes of the building, he could also visualize spatial distances between the sounds he heard in the other room. There were muffled cries, people trying to teleport away and failing…

“They have erected an anti-teleportation barrier,” he informed Helena and Ozella, both of whom stood behind him now.

“Yes, we did,” Nightshade confirmed.

“I really wish we had some more wrist guards,” Helena said.

“We only brought one because we didn’t think it would turn into this,” Ozella reminded her as she helped Helena strap the wrist guard on. At least they had brought one that had an energy blade.

Once it was securely fastened, the combat dancer activated her energy blade and deactivated it, just making sure it was good to go.

Still with his ear pressed to the door, Sam listened for Zoe to spring into action. Things were starting to get tense out there, and the vampires had already started to round people up, a few of them clearly about to go to town.

“Look at me,” Helena told David Nightshade. The big man looked up at her for a moment, and Helena’s eye turned into a rotating red bullseye again. “I want you to forget ever meeting us. You simply came into your office to smoke by yourself for a moment when your guests arrived.”

“Someone is screaming out there,” Ozella said, bringing her hand to her mouth.

“I’m just waiting for Zoe,” Sam told her, his own voice practically exploding his eardrum.

He winced, and pressed his ear into the surface again. There were a lot of sounds to pick out, and even with his eyes closed and sensing people’s outlines, he still hadn’t found Zoe. Sam focused even harder than he had been before, listening for…

There, he thought, noticing a foot that sounded different than the others, a nail clacking against the floor. Zoe had transformed, her legs too, and that was definitely the sound of one of her claws.

“Power-up, off,” Sam said as he backed away from the door. “We’ll need Dinah too.”

“Power-up, on,” Ozella said, and Dinah’s form took shape and solidified.

Sam turned to Dinah, the thin woman with stringy blonde hair smiling at him as they locked eyes.

“I know you can understand me, or at least somewhat understand me, but here’s how this is going to play out. Ozella and I can’t fight, and we don’t have weapons. Helena has a blade, and you can do pretty much whatever you want. Just keep them distracted.”

Dinah nodded.

“Good. I’m getting the door now, Helena and Dinah, you’re out first.” Sam brought his shoulder to the door handle, looked back at the three and realized that barging into the room wouldn’t be the best idea for him.

But then he heard glass breaking, a battle cry from Zoe, and he knew that now was the time to strike.

He loosened the door handle, brought his foot back and kicked it open, jumping aside.

Helena charged into the other room and immediately moved into a cartwheel as she engaged one of the ninja vampires.

She brought her blade into his back and pulled it out just as Dinah ran past, the nude woman startling a few already startled guests as she took to the air, latching onto another vampiric ninja and bringing him down.

The vampire bit at her, sure, and tried to scratch her too, but she didn’t pay much attention to him as she rolled around with the man. She restrained the fucker until Helena could bring her energy weapon into his back, her blade also cutting into Dinah’s chest as she finished the vampire off.

Helena helped Dinah up, the gash in her chest already starting to heal as she turned to the next set of blood suckers.

“Get in here!” Sam called to the guests who were huddled near David Nightshade’s door. “Now!” he shouted at a pair of models who seemed frozen in place.

As he tried to corral people already inside the condo, a glimpse of something red caught his eye.

Sam had to smile when he saw Zoe jump onto a table, the bottom part of her dress torn and now fashioned into a red bandanna that covered the lower half of her face.

She jumped just as one of the ninja vampires swiped at her, kicking both legs into the man’s chest and bringing him down. Zoe leapt off just in time to avoid a diving tackle from another vampire.

The diving vampire hit the ground and slid into the bar, scrambling up over it only to be bladed through the chest by Helena, Dinah behind her and standing guard as Helena pulled her blade out.

A bartender came out from behind the bar wielding a bottle of wine; Dinah cold-cocked the man before he could take another step.

“Damn!” Sam said, trading glances with Ozella, who was trying to help a terrified waiter into the safety of Nightshade’s office.

More people were getting the hint and filing into Nightshade’s office. Helena and Dinah were doing their best to protect the entryway while Zoe was a wildcard as usual, flashes of red peppering the battle, a light occasionally being broken, screams, hisses and the cacophony of overall mayhem following Zoe as she did as much damage as she could.

But Sam knew in that moment, especially when they looked outside and saw the chaos happening around the rooftop pool, that the fight had only just begun.

His first indication that shit was about to get much worse was when he saw a vampire tackle a person, the man trying to fight him off as both of them neared the edge of the building.

There was a railing, but that didn’t stop the two from struggling for a moment, the ninja vampire finally getting the opportunity to bite down on the man’s neck, forward momentum sending them over the railing.

It was then that another portal opened up, Donovan stepping out, Mia the beast morpher and the giant, gray-skinned muscular vampire with him.

But that wasn’t the only thing that Sam noticed.

He just happened to be standing at an angle where he could see the night sky above, a few stars twinkling, the moon hidden by a dark cloud. And maybe if the moon was out, he wouldn’t have seen a flash of color high up in the air.

But it was definitely there, and whatever it was, it was coming their way.

***

Sam whispered the words, “Power-up, sight,” keeping his eyes trained on the sky above, his vision zooming forward until he saw four people (who must be exemplars) barreling toward the rooftop.

There was a wolfman covered in blue hair; a woman halfway transformed into a statue; a man wearing a trench coat and a mask with a jewel on it; and a masked woman with both her arms tucked at her sides.

It was that fast.

Something stopped them from smashing into the rooftop, and at the speed in which they were traveling Sam assumed it was a telepath, one who specialized in telekinesis.

Yep.

Floating above the crowd now, the man with the trench coat gave himself away, clearly the group’s mind freak.

By this point Sam had switched his power back to his enhanced olfactory sense, his vision tumbling for a moment as it settled.

Barely a second or two later that the blue wolfman launched himself at Donovan’s big gray vampire, the two cracking together and tumbling into the pool, water splashing everywhere as they continue to duke it out. The pool wasn’t very deep, just three feet or so, which got Sam wondering if vampires could actually drown.

Questions to ask Ozella later, Sam thought as he helped a lady in a pink dress to the safety of Nightshade’s office.

Helena and Zoe were still engaging the vampiric ninjas, Helena softening one up with a pair of kicks before launched the vampire into Zoe’s waiting claws.

Of course, Zoe didn’t have an energy blade, so she simply gouged the vampire’s eyes out, shoving it so Helena could knife the blood sucker in the back. Dinah was doing her thing as well, running around and randomly punching enemies, the ghost woman packing quite a punch.

Now that a real exemplar team was here, Sam knew that this wasn’t their fight, that as soon as they were seen, they would bring even more unwanted attention to themselves.

“We need to go!” he told Ozella, who stood off to his left. “Fire exit!”

The statkeeper had a dazed look in her eyes as she watched the exemplar team on the deck. He had to shout for her again to get her attention, Ozella looking at him curiously for a moment before nodding. “Right.”

Sam felt stupid in that moment. The fire exit should have been where they were funneling people, not into an office.

It was too late now, and he assumed that there would be other guests trying to use the fire escape in the hallway outside, that or cramming into the elevator.

“Helena!” he called out, the combat dancer performing a one-armed cartwheel before flipping over a vampire and pressing her blade into his spine, blood spritzing out of the front of the man’s body.

Sam called her name again, and Helena quickly pulled her blade out, the vampiric ninja writhing once he hit the floor.

“We have to leave before the exemplar team sees us,” he said as soon as she reached him. “Ummmm. Okay, I got it. Use your power-up to get everyone to lay down in the hallway outside. I know there are people out there.”

“Will do. Zoe!” Helena shouted. Zoe swiped her claws across a vampire’s face and dropped on all fours as she raced over to them. “We’re going. Come with us.”

“But I was just getting started…”

“Power-up, off,” Ozella said. Dinah disappeared instantly, and the four of them turned to a hallway, and from there to the condo’s main entrance. There were people in the way, bodies on the ground too, and they eventually came upon a female vampire still feeding, the woman hunched over, blood trickling down her chin as she drank.

She looked up at them and hissed. Zoe offered her clawed toes to the vampire’s face, pinning her against the wall as Helena stabbed the woman in the chest.

“Here goes nothing,” Sam said as he pressed out of the front door. Just as he suspected, the hallway was filled with people trying to leave the party.

He crouched to the side, his hands over his eyes, allowing Helena to pass by.

“Power-up, flying knives!”

Everyone in the vicinity immediately got down onto their stomachs, shielding their heads with their hands. Sam also found himself wanting to get down, to duck a series of sharp objects flying overhead.

But he ignored this thought as he waited for the hallucination to settle. And he knew enough to trust that Ozella and Zoe were doing the same thing, just waiting it out.

“Let’s go,” Helena said, and as soon as she said this, Sam removed his hand from his eyes. Everyone in the hallway was still lying on the ground, protecting their heads, a few starting to look around to see what had happened to the flying objects.

With no time to waste, Vigilante Justice carefully stepped around the bodies, Sam actually stomping on a woman’s finger, the lady crying out in pain.

“Sorry!” he told her as he continued to tiptoe in his ballet flats around people until the four would-be heroes reached the stairwell.

Not a moment too soon either. As soon as they pressed into the stairwell—Helena first, then Zoe, Ozella and finally Sam—he heard the exemplar team’s wolfman burst into the hallway, snarling.

“Faster!” he called to the front of the group, to Helena.

The four ran down the stairs as quickly as they could, Ozella eventually falling and Sam having to help her up.

“I’ve got you,” he told her. “Just focus on getting out of here!”

They were two floors down from the top when the sound of the door slamming open echoed down the stairwell.

Zoe jogged back up, ready to come to Sam’s aid as he moved past with Ozella.

“I’ve got this, Zoe.”

“No, you don’t,” she told him. “Just keep moving. Help Ozella.”

“Dammit,” Sam grumbled as he continued down, still supporting Ozella.

The blue wolfman was fast, and eventually he caught up, Zoe going to meet him.

The platform they had to fight on was pretty small, and at first, the two just sort of circled each other, daring the other one to go first.

“Who are you?” the blue wolfman growled.

“The name is Tiger Ears, and shit is about to get real as fuck if you don’t let us go.”

The wolfman snapped his teeth, saliva spraying into the air as he laughed. “An exemplar team I haven’t heard of? This will be fun.”

But an opening attack wasn’t in his cards.

Standing next to him now, transparent Dinah latched on, bringing the wolfman to his knees almost immediately.

He tried to fight the ghost off, but it was impossible, and he eventually began to lose power as injuries overcame him, the man’s snout twitching, his tongue falling out of his mouth as he transformed back into his human form.

“Shit,” the wolfman said, wincing, rolling to his back, his hand on his stomach as Dinah continue to drain him.

“That’s enough,” Sam told Ozella.

She nodded, and called Dinah off as they continued down the stairwell.

“Too bad,” Zoe said, as she caught up with Helena. “That would have been a fun fight.”

“I’m sure you’ll get your chance some day,” Helena said as they came to the fifty-seventh floor. She opened the door, allowing Zoe to shoulder past, the tiger girl’s tail bouncing behind her as she launched into the hallway on all fours.

Sam and Ozella followed, Sam shutting the door behind them.

Zoe grew self-conscious almost immediately once she saw a mother rushing into her apartment, holding her daughter’s hand.

“I…” Zoe stood, and bowed her head, her tail dropping too.

“Don’t worry about it,” Helena said as she walked past, her shoulders held high.

“It’s fine,” Ozella assured Zoe with a smile. Dinah was already at her side, healing her from the nasty spill she’d taken in the stairwell. Sam was off near the door, fists at the ready just in case the wolfman decided to come at them.

He didn’t know what he’d do if the man regained his strength and came through that door, but he was prepared for anything.

Lance appeared, the teleporter now wearing a golden robe which was open at the front, his chest sparkling with glitter. “I thought you guys would never call,” he said, looking at the group. “What happened to your dress?” he asked Sam with a frown.

“It’s a long story.”

“You still have lipstick on.”

“I’m aware,” Sam said, growing agitated.

“And your dress?” he asked Zoe.

“I got into a fight,” Zoe said, the red fabric from her dress still tied around her face like a bandana.

“Apparently.”

“Back to my apartment,” Helena said. “We leave, now.”

“Well, if it’s that kind of party, I wouldn’t have wanted to come anyway,” Lance said, clearly hurt.

“Wait, were you getting dressed up to come to the party?” Zoe asked, looking at the bare-chested teleporter curiously for a moment.

“Yes, Tiger Girl. Why do you think I have all this glitter on? I thought that you four were going to call me just when the party got real.”

Zoe started to laugh, and looked to Helena for support.

Helena did eventually crack a smile, but that wasn’t until they teleported back to her mansion, when the four of them were officially safe.

Now in her living room, golden sparkles settling everywhere, Lance started to lament about how difficult it was going to be to get the glitter off his chest.

“It’s time to go,” Helena said curtly, but still with a hint of politeness to her command.

“Fine, fine,” he said. “But the next rooftop party you guys get invited to, I’m definitely coming.”

“That’s not part of your contract.”

“Neither is teleporting a team of non-exemplars parading around as exemplars.”

“Fair enough,” Helena said. “We’ll let you know about the next rooftop party we’re invited to.”

“Sweet, can’t wait,” the flamboyant teleporter said as he vanished.

“Can we unpack what just happened?” Zoe asked, removing her bandana.

“Seriously,” Sam said, still catching his breath, the adrenaline making his hands and feet tingle.

“Yes, good idea,” Helena said as she took off her mask. “Ozella, care to make some tea?”

“Sure!”

“Something soothing. That was… quite the turn of events.”

Chapter Twenty: House Call

(While the others train, Sam and Ozella get some brekky, and try to get to the bottom of where the hell Dinah comes from...)

“And what will you have?” the waitress asked Sam.

“Cinnamon toast, poached eggs, bacon and two glasses of orange juice. That comes with a side of home fries, right?”

“It sure does,” the waitress said with a nod.

It was the next morning, and Sam and Ozella were at the fancy Star Diner together. He had promised her that they would look into her little situation, the situation being the mysterious blue ghost woman that seemed to follow her around, and that was what they planned to do.

After breakfast, of course, because why deprive themselves of a morning dose of sugar and carbs?

“Great,” Sam said, “actually, change the toast to pancakes.”

“Will do. Is there a particular type of pancake you would like?”

“Let me see…” Sam said as he leafed through the menu.

“Their chocolate banana pancakes are good. I also liked their whole-wheat pancakes,” Ozella said. “Blueberries too, that’s nice.”

“All good options, but my eyes are on the pumpkin pancakes.”

“Pumpkin pancakes it is,” said the waitress. “And you?” she asked Ozella.

“I want this one,” Ozella said, tapping on the menu. “The big bowl of oatmeal.”

“Would you like brown sugar and butter on the side?”

“On top is fine.”

“Any nuts? Raisins?”

“Nuts,” Ozella told the pretty waitress. “And more tea, please.”

“Great, I’ll put your order in.”

“I wish we could just mental message the waitstaff,” Ozella said as soon as the woman was gone.

“Really?” Sam asked, stifling a laugh.

“I just don’t like the pressure of having to order food when someone is standing there. If I could just message it to them, then I wouldn’t have to waste their time. Sometimes I get indecisive.”

“Well, maybe one day we’ll get around to visiting Dr. Hamza and asking him to make you a telepath.”

Ozella chuckled. “Please, no. The less I see of that guy, the better.”

“Agreed. Did you get any sleep last night?” he asked.

“Sort of. I was trying to teach Dinah how to play this one card game, but she kept getting distracted. I think she gets the gist of it though; she did point out the card she wanted to place a couple of times.”

“Interesting,” Sam said, not able to forget waking up to find Dinah giving him head. He would take that secret to his grave, well, Zoe and him, apparently.

“I was also following up on news sources about the blood party. So far, there hasn’t been much released to the public.”

“What about the people that went over the side of the roof?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know how they are going to cover that up, but I’m sure they will figure a way. With a telepath around, it’s pretty easy to cover up information, to shift public opinion.”

“True,” Sam said as the waitress came by, and filled their glasses of tea.

“But I guess it’s better than the public knowing,” said Ozella. “Also, I wrote down the information on that exemplar team that showed up.”

“You did?” Sam asked.

Ozella reached into her red leather backpack and brought out her Book of Known Variables. It was a little tattered around the edges, but it held up pretty well, even with the fact she had filled at least half the pages. Sam assumed that she got a new book every year or so.

“Team Saint. I looked them up as well through one of those mental message information services,” she explained as she stopped on a dog-eared page. “Their leader is a man named Saint, a Type I Class A. He has the ability to create hallucinations in people’s minds, sort of like what Helena can do. Telekinesis as well.”

“Yep, that’s who I saw,” Sam said, recalling the way that the exemplar team had descended onto the rooftop, caught at the last moment by an invisible force. He was pretty sure that Saint was the man wearing the black trench coat, his suspicions confirmed once Ozella continued her breakdown of the team.

“Then there’s Thalia, a Type II Class C who has the ability to morph into stone. She was handling more of the action on the rooftop, so we didn’t see much of her. The blue wolfman is named Blue, naturally. He’s a Type II Class B, and he morphs into a, well, you saw what he morphs into.”

“I remember,” Sam said, taking a sip of his tea.

He enjoyed seeing Ozella grow interested in a topic, the generally shy statkeeper talking excitedly at the moment, her cheeks slightly red, her eyes wider than normal.

“But what makes their team interesting is they also have a teleporter.”

“You mean one that is actually on the team, right?” Sam asked.

It wasn’t unusual for an exemplar team to have exclusive service from a teleporter, but teleporters weren’t normally active members.

“That’s right. Her name is Banish, a Type II Class F, and she specializes in banishing people from fights, and moving her team around too.”

“And she has no other power?”

“Apparently not. That doesn’t mean that she isn’t a good fighter. I imagine a teleporter would be an excellent fighter if they were well-trained. Can you imagine if Zoe or Helena had the ability to teleport? They could appear out of nowhere throwing kicks and punches, and disappear again before their enemy could engage them.”

“Makes sense,” Sam said. “I just hope that Team Saint won’t come after us as well. We already have one exemplar team on our asses.”

“We only encountered one of them, but I would be surprised if he didn’t relay the message back to his team. Then again, depending on how prideful he was…”

“We can’t assume that, though,” Sam said.

“No, you are right, we really can’t.”

“It’s good to know of these other teams, though. We need to be prepared to neutralize them if they get in our way. I guess that sounds too harsh. I don’t mean in a ‘kill them’ type of way. I only mean that we need to know how to fight back if they engage us.”

“Definitely,” Ozella said, writing something down. “But our best line of defense will be to get out of the area.”

“Of course.”

“But that’s not always an option,” she said, “especially if Lance can’t get there.”

“Better to be safe than sorry.”

The waitress came around again with his two glasses of orange juice, letting them know that their food would be ready soon.

Sam smiled at her, a big grin spreading across his face.

It was so nice to be able to eat again.

***

Sam and Ozella took the trolley.

It was Ozella’s idea, the trolley ride allowing them to test their abilities a little, Sam using his sniffer, of course, and Ozella using her ability to read people’s information.

“It’s important that we always try to improve,” she said as they took their seats.

“I can’t disagree there,” Sam told her as they waited for more people to file on.

It was a nice day outside, but there were gray clouds on the horizon, rain likely on the way.

It was a little breezy too, but Centralia was always like this, so nothing new there. It would have been a good day to head up to the park, maybe go on a hike, and part of Sam really wished that they could do something like that, but they had more important things to do for the time being.

A mental message came in from Ozella.

The man sitting across from us, what do you think?

Sam looked at the man for a moment, seeing that his clothing was a size too large. With one inhale in, Sam was pretty sure he had figured out why.

The man was wearing a fishnet bodysuit under his clothing, nipple clamps as well.

Yep, it was a kink.

And having just worn women’s clothing himself, Sam didn’t quite see the appeal. It was so tight, and nothing about him felt sexy with clothing pressed that close to his body. But different folks, different strokes, and Sam wasn’t in the business of yukking anyone else’s yums, so he took another inhale in the man’s direction.

I’ll tell you what I have, then you tell me what you have, he thought to Ozella.

This should be interesting.

His name is Robert Stromburj and he’s a fetishist. He has been paying a dominatrix couple to punish him and send him on trips around the city for frivolous things. He’s highly aroused at the moment, but his baggy pants are hiding this fact. In fact, he is on his way to pick up a loaf of bread for them, traveling all the way to eastern Centralia for the bread. He is sitting in this particular spot on the trolley because he gets the most vibration…

And?

Let’s just say he’s plugged up, and he likes the way it feels vibrating against his boy parts.

Ozella started to laugh.

You’ll give us away, Sam thought to her.

I just like how you said ‘boy parts’ instead of anus, taint, or ball sack.

Sam gulped. He had never heard Ozella be so vulgar, and hearing a voice in his head transmit this message made it that much stranger.

What do you have? he thought to her.

You are correct, his name is Robert Stromburj. He doesn’t have a lot of charisma, but he is very corrupt, and he is surprisingly kind. He was born wealthy, and donates much of the yearly stipend his parents have given him to charity. The rest goes to lodging and, well, this. He’s a non-exemplar and Terra is his astrological sign. Poverty is one of his known trigger points because he feels that a society as rich as Centralia shouldn’t have homelessness. Plus, he has a high willingness to try new things. Of course, he also has a high enough public awareness to hide his kink from others.

Our powers work really well together, Sam thought back to her.

“They really do,” Ozella said, smiling at him. “Sorry.”

She switched back to mental messaging.

We’ll be stopping soon; let’s check out whoever gets on then.

Yes, let’s. And hopefully the next person won’t be such a kinky weirdo.

Ozella laughed out loud, both hands coming to her mouth. She made eye contact with the kinky fellow sitting across from her, and he smiled, Ozella looking away immediately.

The trolley came to a stop and the doors opened, a new group of people filing on, others leaving.

A thin teenager sat across from them, and Sam exchanged glances with Ozella.

Game on? He thought to her.

You first.

Her name is Regina Tenor. She’s sixteen years old, and she is skipping school right now, Sam thought to Ozella, his nostrils flaring again. Everything coming to him made him feel bad for the teenager, but there was little he could do, and in that moment, he wished that Helena was here to hypnotize her into making better decisions. She’s going to see her boyfriend, who is ten years older than her, at Centralia South.

The prison?

Yes. They aren’t allowed to have conjugal visits, considering she always lists herself as his sister, so she has several erotic messages and comics that she has drawn for him. They’re in her backpack. In fact, the comics are rather in-depth, and she’s thinking of trying to get them published one day. She has a real talent too, so this could be a possibility. Then again, this prisoner boyfriend of hers is a drug dealer, and he has already used her as a drug mule before. So it remains to be seen if she’ll be able to accomplish her dreams.

Yes, Regina Tenor, Ignis is her astrological sign and she’s quite clever, but she’s also very gullible, and what she lacks in confidence she makes up in neediness. Classic ‘No Confidence Karen,’ who has a bad habit of biting her nails to the point that she has to keep bandages on her fingers.

I see them, Sam thought back to her.

Her family life isn’t so bad. Her parents are both together, and she has a younger sister who goes to an exemplar school. Regina is a non-ex, and she’s jealous of the fact that her sister is powered. She has a high willingness to try new things, and she has only had one lover, the man whom she’s visiting at Centralia South.

Well, this is becoming a little invasive. Care to stop for a while?

It’s fun though, right?

Sam nodded at Ozella. “It is until the information you receive makes you sad,” he said aloud.

“There’s always that part, but you just accept it,” Ozella said out of the corner of her mouth. “Everyone has a hidden life, a secret they are keeping from someone. Transparency isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

“You aren’t wrong there.”

***

The two were silent for the rest of the trip, eventually coming to a station Sam had never been to before. Centralia was a large country that doubled as a city, or city that doubled as a country, however one looked at it. There were miles and miles of land, famous landmarks and interesting locations that Sam had only heard of, so it wasn’t unusual for him to be unfamiliar with the station or even a location in the country.

“This way,” Ozella said, leading Sam to a particular exit, which with one quick sniff he identified as the fastest way to get her parents’ home. Leave it to Ozella to have designed the perfect route to save her ten steps or so.

Sam simply followed, happy to be out of the station.

They were in a residential area with both houses and high-rise condos, definitely a quaint neighborhood to grow up in. He could see the skyscrapers in central Centralia on the horizon, another bunch towards the west and to the east, but this area didn’t have such tall buildings.

Which he took as somewhat of a relief.

While he was used to always being surrounded by skyscrapers, it was nice to be in an area where he could actually see what was around him, a few trees actually taller than the homes they were next to.

The two continued along the quaint lane, Sam taking in location information through his nostrils and the general history of the place. It had once been a working-class neighborhood, and it still was to some extent, but nearby industries caused housing prices to increase, which was why condos had been erected that allowed for more people to live in the same amount of space.

There had been some pushback, but many of the local businesses welcomed the new additions, and several tea shops, bodegas, and even a cosplay café had popped up to the recent influx of new residents.

Before Sam could dig any deeper, they stopped in front of a small two-story home, shaped like a rectangle. It wasn’t exactly a rowhouse as it wasn’t connected to the home next to it, but it wasn’t far off.

“Here we are,” Ozella said, her voice quieter than before.

“We’ll just poke around for a little bit,” Sam told her. “And I’ll see if I can figure something else out. It’s worth a shot, right?”

“Sure,” she said as she took the steps to the front door, letting herself in.

“Mom, Dad, I’m home. And I brought my friend Sam.”

Ozella’s dad, who wore a nurse’s outfit, came out of the kitchen with a sandwich in his hand.

“I’m just about to step out,” he told her. “But it’s nice to see you. You too. Sam, was it?” he asked as he stepped forward and shook Sam’s hand.

“That’s right, Mr. Rose.”

“Please, call me John.”

“Do you need something to eat, Dad?” Ozella asked her dad.

“No, that’s okay. I just made a quick sandwich.”

“No, I insist, let me cook something for you.”

“Honey?” Ozella’s mother came out of the living room, her cheeks the same cherry red as her daughter’s. She had been ironing clothes, and carried a shirt on a hanger with her.

“Hi, Mom,” Ozella said, her mom coming in for a side hug.

“And who’s your friend?”

“Sam,” he told them, not yet ready to unleash his nostrils on her parents. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Rose.”

“Call me Ozzie,” Ozella’s mom said with a smile. She had blonde hair like Ozella, but looked tired, puffy bags under her eyes. “My name is Ozella too, if you hadn’t already figured that out. But I have always gone by Ozzie.”

“Nice,” Sam said, not sure if there was another way to acknowledge this bit of information.

“Well, I’m cooking something for Dad, so if you want something too, let me know,” Ozella said as she turned to the kitchen.

“I don’t need anything to eat,” her dad reminded her, biting down on his sandwich.

“What about your friend?” her mom asked.

“We just ate, and he needs to look for something in my room. He’s interested in some of my Kingdom Cards. No big deal.”

“Seriously, Ozella, I can just eat the sandwich,” Ozella’s father said as he followed her into the kitchen.

“Nonsense! This will only take a few minutes, Dad.”

“So,” Ozzie said, looking to Sam.

“So,” Sam replied, his nostrils flaring.

And in that moment Sam knew exactly what had happened.

He didn’t need to go to Ozella’s room, he didn’t need to snoop around her childhood home any further. It was clear as day, but Sam wasn’t confident enough in his ability to make a final call, so he took another inhale, smiling at Ozella’s mother as he did so.

“I should probably hang this up,” she said.

“You know, I can help you,” Sam told her. “We’ll be able to find the cards later. You need any help?”

“With hanging clothes? I’ve been doing it for a good forty years…” Ozzie said, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Yeah, makes sense.”

“But you know what? Sure, I have a bunch of clothes that I was going to take upstairs anyway, so you can help me grab them. Come with me.” Ozzie nodded Sam into the living room, where he confirmed that she had been ironing clothes. Not only was the smell of the fabric in the air, but the ironing board was planted squarely in the center of the room.

“Grab that stack, and follow me,” Ozzie said. Sam lifted the shirts and pants that were resting on the couch. Some of the stuff was male scrubs, and the rest belonged to Ozella’s mom, who worked in administration at a local high school.

With the clothes so close to his body, Sam wasn’t able to utilize his olfactory power, so he simply mouth-breathed until he got to Ozella’s parents’ bedroom.

“She really is helpful,” Ozzie said of her daughter. “You know, she’s made so many meals for us. I don’t even remember when she learned how to cook. She must have been five when she started helping in the kitchen. Her father has a pretty crazy schedule, and while my schedule has normalized over the last several years, it was pretty hectic when I was younger.”

“She makes excellent food.”

“So you’ve eaten her food?” Ozzie asked him.

“Yes, she cooks for me and our roommates.”

Ozzie paused. “She’s living with a boy?”

“Actually, we are living with two other women. I’m dating one of them. So…”

“So?”

“Yeah, so nothing’s happening there. I mean, nothing to be concerned of. You have a great daughter,” Sam said, trying to cut the awkwardness with a smile.

Now that the clothing was on the bed and he had stepped away from it, he took a big whiff of Ozella’s parents’ bedroom. A lot of details came to him in that moment, things that he shouldn’t know, things he did want to know, but the detail he was looking for had been confirmed yet again.

It all made sense now, creepy sense, but sense.

Chapter Twenty-Two: All This to Say “They Got Dressed”

(Still boycotting Chapter Twenty-One. Sorry-not-sorry.)

“I don’t know if you should tell her or not,” Helena said as soon as she and Sam were alone.

They were back at the mansion, all four of them, Zoe taking a shower, Ozella cooking a high-protein dinner, Helena and Sam alone in her room.

Helena had already shared that Donovan was indeed using a warehouse owned by a man named Dick Moonstar, a former member of the board. She assured Sam that this had been her plan all along, that she had already hypnotized him, and was now using him for information.

The point was, they were going to need to pay a house visit to Mr. Donovan, and they were going to need to do it soon.

Which was exactly what Vigilante Justice was planning to do.

“Yeah, I mean, maybe it won’t be such a big deal once I tell her. I really don’t know. Would you want to know?”

Helena shrugged. She draped her arms over Sam’s shoulders, bending down to kiss him.

He didn’t even know when they’d got into this position, it had just sort of happened. Not that he was complaining.

“She probably won’t care,” Helena said. “And to answer your question, I would want you to tell me. I think. Well, maybe it’s better if she doesn’t know. Shit. I see your dilemma here.”

“At least it is pretty easy to lie to Ozella, not that that is necessarily a good trait of hers. When she asked me what I had discovered, I just told her that her parents were working too much, and that they needed to take a vacation. Which is kind of true. Those two work around the clock. Her mom is an administrator at a local high school, but she’s also in charge of all the activities for the second-year students, which keeps her pretty busy. Her dad is a nurse, but he’s moved up the chain of command to the point where he is on call all the time. From what I could tell, they actually treat him more like a doctor, even though he hasn’t officially earned that title. So vacation. Those two could really use a vacation.”

“Okay,” Helena said, cocking her head to the right for a moment.

“What are you doing?”

“Arranging a vacation for them,” she said. “Bryan will be in touch with them with a number of packages paid for by me. There are a lot of options, and my parents have a ton of travel hookups that the normal person wouldn’t normally have. And I’m not just talking about hotel discounts here. It’s a really big world, you know that?”

“Wait, have you been to any of the other countries?”

“Of course I have. My parents travel more, obviously, but I’ve been to all the countries in our world at least once. Well, the West and the North when I was a child. But I have been to the Southern Alliance plenty of times, to the capital city of Argoze.”

“And the East?”

“Maybe a decade ago. It’s pretty out there, lots of trees. There are definitely some eye-opening locations in our world that many know little about.”

“Well, giving them a vacation would be nice, but I don’t know. You think Ozella would be okay with that?”

“Bryan has already reached out to them and offered them several options, so it’s a little late now…”

Sam laughed. He placed his hands on Helena’s ass, moving her just a little closer to him. They were sitting on her sofa, Sam looking up at her, the urge to get busy definitely causing a stirring in his groin. “You move fast.”

“Did you already forget that we got engaged the first night we met?”

“What I don’t understand is why you go so fast with me, but you seem very level and balanced as a CEO…”

“Level and balanced?” Now it was Helena’s turn to laugh. “That’s just something I project. I have the same insecurities as everyone else, and the role that has been given to me is something that is incredibly difficult for me to get a grip on, at least most of the time. It’s actually why, or at least one of the reasons, I started going out on my own and doing hero work. I just needed a change, something different, something that didn’t involve the boardroom and a bunch of uppity assholes.”

“Is that how you would describe the board of the Knight Corporation?”

“No, I can think of other, better adjectives to describe them. Anyway, enough about work. We need to go over the plans again for tonight.”

Helena got off Sam’s lap and sat next to him, reaching for a piece of paper that was sitting on a nearby side table.

“This is a schematic of the building that Donovan is currently holed up in. I don’t believe anything has really been changed around inside, so our best bet will be to enter through the front, go right up the stairs after we’ve dealt with the guards, and greet him.”

“You’ve already discussed this with Zoe, right?”

“We came up with a plan together earlier, when we were training. We will have to get you and Ozella on the rooftop, just as backup, but I don’t think they’ll be too much of a problem with Lance around.”

“And I’m supposed to just hear what’s going on?”

“Pretty much. It’s best if we don’t all four go in there at once—five if you include Dinah. You three will serve as backup, just in case things get out of hand. The goal of tonight is to not let things get out of hand. I would love nothing more than to get the information we need, and either act on it tonight, or if it’s happening sometime in the future, finish our trip to the spa. I really would like to finish that spa trip.”

“Yeah, that would have been nice,” Sam said, recalling their trip to the private spa just a few days back. It was too bad that someone had been trying to rob one of the businesses below at the same time they were getting their chill on.

A damn shame.

“And let’s wear our alternate uniforms tonight, the ones with lime green stitching. I think I will have another pair made as well, so that we have three.”

“I’ve got no qualms about that,” Sam said as he saw Dinah move through the door.

“Looks like we’ve got company,” Helena said, waving at the blue ghost woman. Dinah smiled, did a quick twirl and a funny dance where she shook her hips, Sam’s eyes zeroing in on her ass as she turned around.

“I think this is her way of telling us that dinner is ready,” Sam said, “but I’m not fluent in ghost talk.”

Helena laughed. “We get it,” she told Dinah. Helena stood and did a little dance herself as she made her way over to Dinah.

This only inspired Dinah to dance even more, the ghost woman now doing a move with her arms over her head as her breasts jiggled, something that Sam was pretty sure was called “jazz hands.” It would have been weird anyway, but the fact that she was nude only made it stranger.

After another spin, Dinah pressed back out through the door. Sam assumed she was on her way to Zoe’s room. His assumption was confirmed when he heard Zoe shout out in anger through the wall.

“Let’s go,” Helena said, still laughing at Zoe’s high-pitched yelp.

“Good, I’m starving.”

***

Dinner was as scrumdiddlyumptious as usual, Ozella whipping up a gourmet spread of roasted pheasant, charred carrots and rosemary potatoes, a cream cheese gravy and some dessert dish made out of buttermilk that Sam had never tried before.

He was glad they had another hour or so before they went after Donovan, Sam needing a little time for his food to digest. What was even stranger was the time that he burped, his own burp meeting his nostrils and giving him more information about the food they had eaten than he wanted to know.

Like the fact that the pheasants were butchered inhumanely.

But there was nothing he could do at that point aside from wave the smell away and get back to chilling, Sam in his own bedroom, sitting on the floor with his legs crossed beneath him. He just wanted to kick it for a moment, but he knew if he moved to the bed that he might actually fall asleep, a post-dinner nap, which he was hoping to avoid.

His eyes were closed, Sam mentally going over the plan for tonight. While he knew the basic operation and he had seen the layout of the place, actually mentally visualizing every aspect of the plan was not so easy.

His mind kept drifting off to the things that he had experienced in his past, some of the action the team had gotten into since its formation, memories from his childhood. Most the memories from his childhood centered around Sam wanting to be a hero.

During most of his classes in secondary school, Sam could usually be found drawing epic stick figure battles centering around heroes. They were pretty elaborate as well, at least for an eleven-year-old, Sam always making his figure red so it stood out better.

It was delusional, and at the time, he was pretty sure he didn’t even have a dormant power aside from the occasional enhanced sense of smell, but Sam couldn’t help but wonder what a younger version of himself would think now.

He was on an actual exemplar team, albeit an illegal one, with a codename too.

And they didn’t use their codenames enough, and he was planning to do that more in whatever they encountered in the future. Nosy; Ballerina; The Human Shield (a name that didn’t quite fit Ozella, but it was her choice, so they went with it); Tiger Ears—what a bunch of badasses.

A knock at the door startled him, Sam jumping to his feet as Ozella entered, a tray in her hands.

She wore her superhero schoolgirl uniform, this one dark blue with lime green stitching, which for some reason made it look even tighter than her other one, her mask the only thing missing.

“I thought you could use some tea, for digestion and to give you a little boost of energy,” she said as she set the tray down on a side table.

“Sure, tea,” Sam told her.

“We’re leaving soon, you know that, right?”

“Aware,” he said as she poured him a cup.

Ozella handed it to Sam, whose nostrils flared as soon as he placed his hands around the cup.  His sniffer told him how the tea had been grown through the guidance of an intelligence-based exemplar. The same exemplar had infused it with electrolytes and vitamins that helped to sustain energy and aid in digestion.

“Thanks, I needed this,” he said as he brought the beverage to his lips.

“I figured you would. It’s you and me tonight,” she told him.

“What?” Sam asked, looking at her funny for a moment. “Yes, that’s right, and we will have to be ready for anything. I will have two wrist guards, you will have one, and we will also have Dinah. That should be enough in case we have any guests on the rooftop.”

“Hopefully, we will get the information we need without having to do any fighting. Not that I’m opposed to combat.”

“Yeah, hopefully. It would be best if we could just get in and get out with the information we need. But we have to be prepared for anything. Especially if the shipment of infected children is supposed to go out tonight. We still don’t have that information, and if the night is tonight, we will have to act on it. I’m just hoping that we have a day or two’s lead time to gather more intelligence and train.”

“Hopefully.”

Ozella stepped out, leaving Sam to his tea. He drank it quickly, feeling more energetic with each sip.

Once he was finished, Sam got suited up, able to zip up the back of his uniform on his own.

He equipped both wrist guards, one with an energy weapon and the other with an energy blade. He also strapped on the telepath band. He didn’t activate it, however, knowing that he would need to do some communicating with Helena once Zoe and she were in.

They hadn’t really thought this part through, as usual, but how were they supposed to prevent the reach of a telepath and at the same time be able to communicate telepathically? Unfortunately, and at least for now, it was more important for them to be able to communicate than it was for them to prevent telepathy.

If everything went according to plan, this was an in and out mission. They would get the info they needed, and then they would skedaddle.

He could only hope things went that smoothly.

Sam pulled his mask over his face and brought his hood up.

He stepped over to the mirror and took a look at himself, feeling fresh to death in his new superhero duds, dark blue, lime green stitching, the mask perfectly cut to frame the outline of his nose and provide nostril access.

He could smell the costume, the years of training that Maria, their costume designer, had put herself through to be the best in Centralia. She was a Type IV Class E, an intelligence-based super who clearly had a knack for aerodynamics and design, but she had also spent years honing the skill that she already been granted naturally, putting her a leg ahead of other exemplar uniform designers.

And in the future, Sam would ask her to do even more, possibly put add-ons on their uniforms, better ways for them to address whatever threat may come their way. But for now, this would do, and it was about this time that Sam heard someone call his name.

He stepped outside his bedroom to see the other three waiting for him, all looking hella fly in their matching uniforms.

Zoe’s had what resembled claw marks along her ribs, her tail poking out the back, and more claw markings just beneath her ass cheeks; Helena’s was perfectly cut, with the same vertical, suspender-like lines that ran down the front and met at her vajayjay, the lime green stitching forming a thong of sorts at the back, even if her legs were actually covered by dark blue material; and Ozella looked the same as she had before, aside from the fact that she now wore a mask that matched Helena’s.

“Wait, I thought you two were dressing as businesswomen,” Sam said.

“We are; we just wanted to see how the new uniforms look on us,” Zoe told him.

“Well?” Helena asked.

“They look awesome. But if you guys weren’t ready, why did you call my name?”

“What part of my first statement do you not understand?” Zoe asked, frowning at her ex. “We wanted you to see what we look like in the uniforms. Now we’re going to change into our business attire. Is that okay with you?”

“Easy, easy,” Sam said, his hands coming up. “I was just curious.”

Zoe and Helena both retired to their rooms, Zoe walking past Sam, her tail lightly flitting against his cheek.

“They do look good, don’t they?” Ozella asked as Sam joined her.

“Yeah, we all look good. I think we’re the best-looking exemplar team in Centralia. But what can I say? I may or may not be a little biased.”

Ozella smiled at Sam as she reached her hand up and swept her bangs out of her face. “Are you nervous?”

“No, are you?”

“We have the easiest job tonight, just some reconnaissance, and backup if necessary. Those two are the ones that have a hard job.”

“I’m pretty confident that we will be able to do it,” Sam said. “And if not, you, me, and Dinah will swoop down to save the day.”

“We’ll see about that,” Ozella said as she took a seat on the couch.

Helena was the first to exit her bedroom, her costume folded in her hands.

She wore a slim pantsuit, the waist of which went well past her belly button. Her blouse was tucked into the front, and a silk scarf was tied around her neck. She had a wig on, her hair now blond and longer than Ozella’s. She also wore a pair of glasses that made her eyes larger.

She handed the uniform to Ozella, who placed it in her red backpack.

“Are you going in with weapons?” Sam asked.

“No, Ozella has those in her backpack as well,” Helena said, referring to her two energy blades.

Zoe came out of her bedroom a few minutes later, wearing a form fitting black dress and a pair of matching high heels, a wig tucked under her arm. “Let me know when we are about to go and I will transform,” she told the group as she handed her exemplar uniform to Ozella.

Once Ozella’s backpack was stuffed full, she zipped it up.

“Remember, you’re Jessica Bunny and I’m Maria Meow,” Zoe told Helena.

“How could I forget? Okay, everyone, Lance should be here any moment,” Helena told the group. “He will drop Sam and Ozella on the rooftop first, and once we take out anyone tasked with guarding the rooftop, he will teleport us down to the front.”

“You think anyone will be on the rooftop?” Sam asked.

“There’s only one way to find out,” said Zoe, “but if there are people there, they won’t be conscious for very long.”

They had all agreed to try not to kill anyone, but Sam knew this was wishful thinking. Even if he was new at this, protecting his teammates was his number one priority, and Sam wasn’t afraid to set his wrist guard to lethal if need be.

Golden sparkles in the air signaled that Lance had arrived, the flamboyant teleporter wearing a gym outfit, a gold sweatband wrapped around his head. “You are lucky I just finished cardio,” he told the group, sweating profusely.

“You know where you’re taking us?” Helena asked.

“That’s my job, taking you where you’d like to go. Come, my children,” Lance said as he raised his arms. “Gather around.”

Chapter Twenty-Three: They Got Him! They. Got. Him.

(Now it’s time to remember what you read in the prologue.)

The four members of Vigilante Justice (it just rolls off the tongue) took shape on the rooftop, Lance barely able to get a snide comment out in the time it took Zoe to clear the distance between her and a rooftop guard.

In high heels too.

Which definitely impressed Sam; even though he had never worn high heels, he assumed that they were pretty difficult to navigate in. But maybe that was why Zoe was a professional model, the tiger girl able to actually run in them, leap for the man and latch onto his neck, bringing her knee to meet his face.

“Fierce!” Lance said, clapping his hands together.

“Stop right there,” Helena told a man coming out of the rooftop exit.

The mobster stopped dead in his tracks, lowering his wrist guard.

“Cancel any messages you might have already sent, and let them know that there was a large bird that landed on the rooftop. Blame this guy for being an idiot,” said Helena, pointing at the thug Zoe had taken down.

“Sure,” the hypnotized man said.

“Thank you,” she told the man. “Finally, I want you to lie down here and go to sleep.”

“So that’s how she’s always telling everyone what to do. It’s her eye...” Lance told Sam, clearly trying to buddy up to him.

“She usually doesn’t have to use her powers on us,” Ozella said. “At least, I don’t think she does.”

“We’re going to the front now,” Helena informed the group as she returned. Zoe stood off to her left, making sure that her dress wasn’t rumpled. She smoothed her hands over her body, Sam catching her eye for a moment as her transformation took place.

“You clean up nice,” Lance told Zoe once she was a non-exemplar again.

“Thin ice,” Zoe reminded him as she fixed her hair, turning to Ozella to ask if anything looked out of place.

“Everything looks perfect to me,” Ozella said. “Sam?”

“I guess?”

“You guess?” Zoe asked Sam.

“Looks great, let’s go,” Helena said, taking charge as golden energy fizzled in the air around Lance. The three were gone in a flash, leaving Ozella and Sam on the rooftop.

“And now we wait,” said Sam.

“We have to be ready,” Ozella reminded him.

“Definitely,” Sam said as he got to his knees. “Power-up, hearing.”

All the sounds came to him in that instant, Sam barely able to process the noise before Ozella appeared at his side, an earplug in her hand.

“Thought this would be helpful,” she whispered, her whisper sounding like a scream. Sam cringed as he took it from her, actually hearing the sound of his fingers on the squishy piece of plastic.

Watch the door, he mentally messaged Ozella rather than speak aloud.

She took the hint.

Will do, and be ready to switch powers if someone comes out.

Sam placed his ear against the rooftop, the hood still over his head, which didn’t seem to prevent him from hearing in the least bit. Sounds came to him rapid-fire. The air duct, a creaking in the walls, a rat moving about, but Sam was eventually able to block all that out, homing in just as Zoe and Helena entered.

“What are you two doing here?” he heard a gruff voice ask.

“Hi, my name is Jessica Bunny, and this is Maria Meow, and we’re here from Knight Holdings wondering what DM Enterprises is charging you for usage of this facility. We’re prepared to charge you exactly half of whatever they’re charging to ship your goods to our facility.”

Sam snorted, a sound which threw his hearing off and made his head spin for a moment. Where Helena came up with the name “Jessica Bunny” was beyond him, but it made sense to call Zoe “Maria Meow.”

Focusing again, Sam heard Helena do her thing, the man obeying her as he took her up the flight of stairs to Donovan’s office.

“Power-up, off,” he whispered. “They are making their way to Donovan’s office now,” Sam informed Ozella. “Maybe we should go down there. Maybe they will need us.”

“They don’t need us so far,” Ozella said, “right?”

“Not so far, but that doesn’t mean they won’t in the future,” Sam told her. “What do you think? What should we do?”

“I…” Ozella brought her hand her mouth. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “It’s your call.”

“Power-up, hearing,” Sam said after he pressed the side of his skull back onto the rooftop.

It took him a moment to sift through all the sounds again, but eventually, he fell upon what he knew was Helena’s voice.

It wasn’t too clear, but he was starting to sense somewhat of an outline, a gridline, really, but nothing that gave him enough detail to act on.

He knew Helena and Zoe were standing in front of a wall, no, a door, and he could hear the man from earlier speaking, the one with the gruff voice.

“...Usually doesn’t like it when we bother him like this,” he said, “but Donovan has always been one to look for a bargain.”

“We are definitely here to offer him a bargain,” Helena confirmed. “He won’t get a deal like this anywhere else. And it’s limited too, meaning that it won’t be available after today.”

“If you say so,” the man said. What followed was the sound of a door being knocked on, the percussive noise making Sam cringe for a moment until it died down.

Sam lifted one arm and gave Ozella a thumbs up, letting her know that Helena and Zoe were in.

He focused harder than he’d ever focused before, wading through all the other sounds until he landed again on his two teammates.

The first thing he heard was the sound of a door shutting, then a man hitting the ground, which he assumed was the gruff exemplar who had led them to Donovan’s office. This assumption was confirmed when Sam heard Helena speak.

“Donovan, this won’t take very long, we just need some information.”

“You come to my office, you assault one of my own, and now you want information?”

“Or we could just kick your ass and drop you off at the nearest police station,” Zoe told him. “Or how about we pass this information on to a friend of ours, a friend named Mister Fist?”

Donovan laughed long and hard. “A girl from the South, aren’t you?”

“It doesn’t matter where I’m from; the shit you’re up to ends now,” Zoe told him.

“But not truly from the South,” Donovan went on. “You are Centralian.”

“Born and raised, motherfucker,” and in that moment, Sam heard the sound of Zoe’s hand morphing into claws.

“A half-breed, too. Such a pity, you never will live up to your potential. And where’s the rest of your team? Do you think I’m stupid enough not to recognize the half-tiger?” he asked Helena. “And you… why do you look familiar?”

“That’s enough of that,” Helena said.

“Enough of… Yes, enough of that,” Donovan told her, now clearly under Helena’s spell.

“We need to know about the shipment you plan to send to the South,” said Helena. “I’m talking about the infected vampire children.”

“The infected children, yes, I know the shipment you are referring to.”

“Hold on, while he is hypnotized, let me ask him some questions too,” Zoe said.

“Let me get this information first,” said Helena.

“Fine, fine,” Zoe said under her breath.

“When are you planning to ship the children?”

“They go out tomorrow, once they are ready,” Donovan said. “They will be on a train heading south that is supposed to include building supplies.”

“And what city will they be delivered to in the Southern Alliance?”

“Argoze, and shipping has already been cleared, so we’re not expecting any issues there.”

“That’s the capital,” Zoe told Helena.

“Aware, I have been there numerous times. What time will the shipment be departing, and from which shipping station?” Helena asked.

“The kids will be departing from a shipping facility in the Robmon District.”

“Which one?”

“A new one. We had to change our shipping provider because the Knight Corporation has decided to re-examine their contracts. The new station is managed by DM Enterprises through a subsidiary.”

“Got it,” Helena said. “Ask your questions, then let’s go.”

“Why are you doing this?” Zoe asked Donovan. “Why are you using children for food, to infect others?”

“Business is business,” Donovan said. “There are worse things I could be doing in Centralia. Fang pays well, they pay on time, and I can make the switch if I want to.”

“Switch to vampire?” Zoe asked.

“Yes, but I haven’t made that decision yet. Why be a vampire when I can just be a powerful exemplar?”

“You sick fuck,” Zoe started to say.

“Questions,” Helena reminded her.

“Are you from the South, or are you second-generation?”

“Born in the South,” Donovan said, “but I immigrated here when I was a child. I’ve been back and forth quite a bit.”

“I don’t have any more questions,” Zoe said suddenly. “Sorry, I’m just disgusted with this guy. Let’s wrap this up.”

“We are going to leave your office and I’m going to wake your friend here up before we do. Both of you will sit in silence in this office for the next ten minutes until we are long gone. You will not remember any of this. You will go about your business tomorrow as usual. Even if a telepath tries to break into your mind, you will not recall it. Consider this all a dream.”

“A dream,” Donovan said.

“Good, see you tomorrow.”

Sam pressed off the rooftop and turned to Ozella. “Power-up, off,” he whispered as he took the earplug out of his other ear.

“What is it?” Ozella asked, looking nervous as ever.

“They did it,” Sam said, gesturing for her to calm down. “They got the information that we need, and we’re getting out of here. No fighting, nothing for now.”

“And Donovan?”

“I think that Helena wanted to go about things as normal, so we can actually stop the shipment tomorrow. If they try to take him now, then the organization would be alerted that somebody was after them.”

“Makes sense,” Ozella said. “So that’s it? We’re done?”

A sparkle of gold signaled that Lance had appeared. “Come on, you two,” he told the pair. “I’ve been informed that I should meet Helena and Zoe out front.”

“And where are we going after that?” Sam asked as he approached the man in the golden robes.

“To a spa. Does that sound right? Your little superhero team sure goes to the spa a lot,” he commented as shimmering energy began to swirl all around them. “Quite a bit, if you ask me.”

Chapter Twenty-Four: Stress Test

(A chapter in which Sam gets a bird’s-eye view of Centralia.)

It had been a relatively good night, no one got hurt, and the four would-be heroes felt well rested after sleeping at the spa, which was more comfortable than Sam Meeko had thought it would be.

He had never slept at a spa before, and as it turned out, renting the entire floor had its advantages. One of those advantages being the fact that they could simply sleep there, the four members of Vigilante Justice supplied with comfy pillows and sleeping mats.

There had been some debate as to which room at the spa they should be sleeping in. Eventually, they chose one of the cooler rooms, the staff providing blankets for all of them to get under.

Did Sam sleep under the blankets with three beautiful women?

Sort of.

They were around him, sure, but only Helena was cuddling. And it was quite possible that Zoe wanted to spoon up next to him, but it didn’t take an Eastern Province rocket scientist to know that that probably wouldn’t have been a good idea.

So they were well rested and ready for training the next morning, the four now back at the mansion, Helena and Zoe already sparring.

Sam could hear them as he hurried up and finished his breakfast, the man with the superpowered olfactory epithelium wolfing down a bowl of cereal and cinnamon butter toast that Ozella had prepared for him.

“Here’s a list of the things I want to test today,” Ozella said as she handed him a sheet of paper. She sat down across from Sam, and smoothed her hands over her skirt.

He looked the list over as he spooned more cereal into his mouth, immediately getting a sense of how the paper had been milled due to the fact his power-up was currently set to his sense of touch.

Predictably, Ozella wanted to go over his senses, and she had devised several ways to test them out, most of which involved going out to the general public and snooping.

Lots of snooping.

Sam didn’t mind being the team’s lead snooper, but there was definitely part of him that wished he had a power that was more offense than defense, even with the wrist guards he could strap on for combat.

Alas, it was the power that had been given to him, and not one created by some freak chemical explosion; no, Sam was well aware of the fact that if he ever got classified, it would be as a Type IV Class E, a nonthreatening intelligence-based super.

There were worse things to be, though. He could still be a non-exemplar, for example. That would be worse than what he was now. Not that he’d minded being a non-exemplar, it just hadn’t been going so well for him.

And this was.

Vigilante Justice was seriously making some headway when it came to investigating Fang and the vampires who had descended upon Centralia. Sam couldn’t have been more proud of them for getting the info they needed last night without bringing attention to themselves, even if he had been ready for a fight.

Now it was all about tonight, and this was on his mind as he began his training exercises with Ozella.

The two were paired up for most of the day, using teleporters or trolleys to get to various parts of the city, Ozella checking off her list as they progressed.

There was birdwatching in Mystery Hills State Park; a taste-testing at an ice cream factory in southern Centralia which turned out to be a tastier affair than Sam would have predicted, even if he didn’t exactly like enhancing his sense of taste and eating food (ice cream was still yummy); back on the thrift store kick, Sam using his sense of touch to better understand some of the objects that had been donated, yet this time they didn’t try to find the donor, both of them recalling what the wind user named Catherine had done to them once they brought her the pink leather jacket; they also tested his sense of hearing out by moving through one of the crowds in Centralia’s many outdoor shopping areas, Ozella asking Sam to focus on certain couples and explain what they were discussing.

Lots of training, and they had to be smart about it as well considering he had a one-hour time limit per day. According to Ozella, who was timing him with a little red watch that matched her backpack, by the end of their little adventure, they had used his power for thirty minutes, which meant he still had half an hour left for tonight’s assault.

As they took the trolley back to Helena’s district, Sam noticed an advertisement on the wall listing the next Mister Fist public appearance.

He smirked. What were the odds that Mister Fist was actually Bill, the Heroes Anonymous sponsor? And thinking this made him realize that this Centralian exemplar who was already on their ass would be on their ass even more if he didn’t attend an H-Anon meeting.

“Shit,” Sam whispered as they came to their stop.

“What is it?” Ozella asked.

“Helena, Zoe and I need to attend one of the meetings tonight, you know which meeting.”

“Can people who aren’t legally required to attend also go to these meetings?”

“I don’t think so,” Sam said, “but Mister Fist knows who you are anyway so, sure, I guess you could come with us too.”

“How exciting,” Ozella said, clearly not aware of what she was getting herself into.

The trolley completely stopped, and they got off, Sam narrowly avoiding a woman pushing a stroller. Her baby burped, and a fireball flew out of its mouth, striking a trash can.

“Sorry, sorry,” the mother said, quickly going over to the fire and beating it out with a cloth she had in the back of her stroller. “We just found out she’s an exemplar.”

“I wouldn’t be too excited about the meeting if I were you,” Sam told Ozella as they stepped around the woman and the flaming trash can. The station attendant was already running over, fire extinguisher in hand. “It’s pretty redundant, and it’s not going to make you feel any better especially knowing that Bill is Mister Fist. Actually, it’s quite belittling. A constant reminder that you aren’t special.”

“Well, in that case, I can focus on the people attending and figure out why they are there. I’m sure that’s interesting.”

“Everyone’s there for some ridiculous reason, myself included up until my power activated,” Sam said, pointing at his nose. He was mouth-breathing as usual, doing his damnedest to protect himself from his own ability.

“I know, but I’m sure some of the reasons are still interesting.”

“I guess you could call them that,” Sam told her. “Most are sad, though. Just people wanting to be something they aren’t, and all of us forced to sit around and wallow in this shared feeling. But suit yourself. It’ll be easier to go to the location Donovan gave if all of us are together.”

“And we can bring our uniforms in my backpack.”

“Yep, good call.”

***

“I am not a super powered individual. I am not an exemplar. I have never had a superpower. I am not a hero, nor will I ever be a hero. I am not a superhero, I am half-powered. I will always be half-powered, I am a non-exemplar. There is nothing about me that is extraordinary. I am not a hero, I am not a superhero. I am half-powered. I will always be half-powered. I am a non-exemplar.”

Sam was glad to get those words out of his mouth for a final time; the last hour of his life was something he wouldn’t be able to ever get back.

Who wouldn’t be ready to stop saying that shit? The motto didn’t apply to him, and it definitely didn’t apply to the three ladies sitting to his left.

No, they were no longer regular people, they were exemplars.

Well, not officially, but that wasn’t going to stop them from kicking some ass tonight.

The thankless work that heroes did…

No one would congratulate them in the days to come for saving the Southern Alliance from a vampire infestation. If they were careful, no one would even know that they had done it, which was funny to think.

Saving the world, or at least a country, without any fanfare.

But Sam was fine with this, as long as the job got done.

As they shuffled out of their seats, Bill giving them an especially stern look, Sam was fine with secretly being a hero.

Someone had to do it.

The four were just reaching the back of the room when Bill called out to them.

“I hope the four of you are planning to take the night off,” he said, just as the last Heroes Anonymous attendee stepped out of the room.

“Well you aren’t out there saving anyone, so someone has to,” Zoe said with a shrug.

“We’re watching you,” Bill reminded her.

“I would be watching us too,” Zoe said. “We look so good in our uniforms.”

“I’ll handle this from here,” Helena said, stepping forward. “We have no plans for the evening, and will likely end up visiting a cosplay café followed by a spa. We’re obeying your wishes, and if you want to discuss your expectations of us any further, I can put you in touch with my lawyer, who will revisit the rights of a private Centralian citizen with you.”

“No need for that kind of talk,” Bill told her. “I was just checking in on you four, even though you shouldn’t be attending these meetings,” he said, pointing a finger at Ozella. “Not technically, anyways. If I had my way, though, you’d be front and center at every meeting.”

“I just thought it would be interesting,” she said, her voice growing quiet.

“Bye-ee,” Zoe said, locking arms with Ozella and spinning the shy statkeeper around.

Zoe barged to the door, followed by Helena, and it was only when the three were out of the room that Bill spoke to Sam. “Wait a minute, what happened to her tiger face?”

“She can turn it off and on,” Sam said, also turning away.

“She can?”

“What kind of beast morpher would she be if she couldn’t?”

And with those words, Sam left, feeling pretty damn smug about the way he had talked to the dude that claimed to be a non-exemplar, but was actually Mister Fist.

He met the three women outside, tiny snow flurries blowing in the air.

“This is unexpected,” Sam said, the light from the street lamps making the snow flurries look more powerful than they actually were.

“It should clear up in an hour or so,” Helena said. “Well, are we all ready to go?”

“Let’s take care of this the only way we know how,” said Zoe.

Her face began to morph back, tiger ears sprouting from the top of her head, whiskers appearing, her tail pressing out of the top of her tights.

“Don’t watch me,” she told Sam.

“My bad,” he started to say as Lance appeared, the teleporter now in a golden sweater with an embroidered cursive letter L on his chest.

“Let me guess, going to get into trouble?” he asked.

“We’ll let you know once we get there,” Helena said.

Lance confirmed the drop off location, and once he did, an explosion of golden sparkles covered the team. Seconds later, they were standing in front of a cosplay café.

“See?” Helena said to Sam. “I wasn’t lying to Mister Fist.”

“I’ll see you kiddos later,” Lance said as he vanished, Ozella smiling at the place where he’d just been standing.

“He’s not so bad,” she said as they entered the cosplay café, Helena taking charge as usual.

“We want to cosplay as exemplars, and we have our own uniforms,” she told the woman behind the counter, who was dressed in a gothic loli outfit, her blue hair in a side ponytail.

“We don’t really do that here… Yes, that’s fine. Please follow me.”

Now under Helena’s control, the woman led them to a couple of dressing rooms, Sam, Zoe, and Helena changing first. Sam suited up, strapping both wrist guards to his arms, admiring his uniform in the mirror for a moment as he adjusted the mask covering his face, and brought the hood up. He also had a telepath band, but as before, it wasn’t currently activated.

“What about our clothing?” he called over the door to Ozella.

“We will have Lance pick it up and take it back to my home,” Helena answered from her dressing room.

“He’s not going to like that,” Zoe added, making Ozella laugh as she took Sam’s dressing room next to change from one schoolgirl uniform to another.

Once they were all dressed, Helena arranged for their clothing to be transported back to her mansion. Rather than listen to Lance’s bullshit, she left the folded clothing at the front desk, telling Lance to come pick it up in the next fifteen minutes or so.

“You are evil,” Zoe told her as they stepped back outside, Helena and Sam with two wrist guards strapped to their arms, Zoe and Ozella with one each. Zoe also had her cherry bombs with her, which were stored in little pouches on her belt.

“It’s this way,” Helena said as they moved toward the shipping facility that Donovan had told her about.

It wasn’t very hard to find, especially because it had been built directly next to a train track.

What they weren’t expecting to find was a train already there, a bell sounding a warning that it would be leaving soon.

“We need to hurry,” Zoe said as she took off toward the facility.

And even though Sam was hot on her tail, literally, he made the epic mistake of not staying back and using his power, or at least using his nostrils as they approached the place.

But by the time they reached the place, it was too late.

An explosion collapsed one of the outer facing walls of the facility, the debris flying into the air, knocking Sam and Ozella to the ground.

Helena just barely managed to sideways cartwheel out of the way in time, Zoe going on all fours as she raced past the blast point.

Trying to catch his breath, panic rising in his chest, Sam quickly patted down his body to make sure all his extremities were there. After an initial check, he turned to Ozella to find her passed out, a large gash cascading down the side of her face.

Sam crawled to her, reaching Ozella seconds later and bringing her face into his hands. “Ozella...” he said, lightly tapping on her cheek, oblivious to what was happening around them.

“Sam?” she whispered, and as the words left her lips Dinah appeared, the blue ghost woman launching into action.

And not a moment too soon.

Emerging from the blast point was a chiseled man with arms that had morphed into four-foot-long blades. He had closely shaved black hair and he wore a bandanna over his face, his eyes narrowing in on Sam as he moved to attack him.

But whoever this exemplar was, he wouldn’t make it to Sam.

Dinah was on him in a heartbeat, filling the man with enough painful energy to bring him to his knees in a matter of moments.

Now getting to his feet, Sam activated his energy blade as he staggered toward the man, ready to finish what Dinah had started.

A blast of kinetic energy caused a small explosion of dust to his right. Zoe raced away and circled back around, Sam getting a glimpse of Donovan.

The man with the red mohawk was in his element, toying with Zoe as he kept her at bay with his power, the tiger girl doing her best to avoid his attacks, always rolling, jumping or pivoting just in time.

Sam saw Zoe slip her hand into one of her pockets to go for one of her cherry bombs, but Donovan protected himself from the explosion with a kinetic shield.

Sam was lucky Dinah was still working on the man with the blades-for-arms.

His momentary hesitation should have given the man the opportunity needed to bring Sam down, but he was unable to move with the blue ghost latched on, giving Sam just a few seconds to get his bearings.

That was, until he saw a huge pair of wings in the air above him, wings attached to the body of a woman that he recognized as Mia. Scaly metal skin, orange eyes, dozens of razor-sharp teeth, Mia spotted Sam and made a beeline toward him, Sam not able to get out of the way in time.

Her claws digging into his shoulders, she lifted him into the air, Sam getting a bird’s-eye view of the battle as he struggled to break free, his stomach doing all sorts of somersaults.

And sure, he should have blasted her with his energy weapon, but there was too much going on at the time for him to put the pieces of that puzzle together.

No, Sam was now afraid for his life, realizing that getting dropped from this high would most definitely kill him. And it was then that he caught sight of Helena taking on the big gray vampire, flipping around the man and trying to land an attack with her energy blade that would do some damage.

But it was useless, as was Sam trying to get out of his current position. Try as he might, there was no way he could pry himself free from Mia’s grip, her claws now digging into his shoulders, tearing into the muscles.

Sam heard a whistle, and Mia stopped, hovering there for a moment as she looked down at the battle.

“No!” Sam cried as he saw Zoe fall face first onto the ground, victim of a couple of energy blasts. Ozella was still down, and it only took one swipe from the big vampire to take Helena out.

Mia began to lower back to the battle, and when she was about ten feet up, she let go of Sam’s shoulders, the ground rising to meet him almost instantly.

Snap!

One of Sam’s legs was definitely broken, that he could tell, and even though he was badly beaten, that wasn’t what had Sam afraid for his life or the lives of his friends.

It was what Donovan said next that sent a chill down his spine. “Put them in cages; we will feed them to the kids,” the wicked man said, just as Sam’s vision started to blur. “It will be nice for them to have a snack while they head South.”

Chapter Twenty-Five: Actual Snacks

(Vigilante Justice discover the cheapest way to take a vacation.)

Sam didn’t remember being caged, but for some reason, probably the shift in gravity, he woke up as he was lifted by Mia to the top of the railcar.

His cage was dropped, and Mia left, returning with another cage, this one containing Helena, who was groaning.

Donovan stood off to the right, his hands crossed over his chest as he looked down at a trapdoor.

Once Mia deposited another cage on the rooftop, Donovan kicked open the trap door and threw Sam’s cage in, followed by Helena, and whoever else was behind them. Sam wasn’t able to bend enough to see, but he heard a grunt that sounded like Zoe.

And the landing.

Boy, was the landing hard.

It winded him, sure, and the sound of the cage hitting the wooden floor of the train cabin seriously ricocheted inside his skull, but that wasn’t what Sam was worried about now. He heard movement at the other side of the cabin, a hissing sound, his nostrils flaring and telling him exactly what he already knew.

Vampires.

Or better.

Vampire kids.

Another cage dropped down on top of his. He sensed Ozella’s cage on top of his, Helena’s cage off to his left, and Zoe’s on top of Helena’s.

They were very large cages, Sam crouching inside the metal entrapment, so he was able to catch a glimpse of Helena just as Donovan closed the rooftop opening.

“This is bad,” he whispered. “Helena?”

“Shit…” Helena whispered. “Shit…”

Sam peered off into the darkness, whispering words that he was afraid to let leave his lips. “Power-up, sight.”

The forms in the front of the train cabin were suddenly visible, Sam’s enhanced vision allowing him to see that there were eight or nine children crouched, their faces all sorts of distorted, the ravenous kids curious about what had been deposited in their train cabin, but still too cautious to approach.

It took him a moment to get used to the visual, but soon, he had control.

And just about that point, the train started up.

Sam knew that they only had a few moments to act.

In his delirium, he tried to point his wrist guard in the direction of the bloodsuckers. Of course, the weapons had been taken from them, telepath bands too, but he only came to this realization when one of the braver young vampires realized that they were the ones that were in control, that all they had to do was get Sam and his crew out of the cages.

This young, brash vampire crawled on all fours over to Sam, stopping just a few feet away from his cage.

“Ozella, Ozella,” Sam whispered, the train’s steady movement messing with his field of vision.

“My head,” Zoe said, the tiger girl finally coming awake. And as soon as she did, she rattled the hell out of her cage, toppling it onto the ground and temporarily scaring the brave young vampire away.

Sam couldn’t understand why they were so apprehensive, but he knew it wouldn’t last long, which was why he needed Ozella to wake up.

“Where the hell are we?” Zoe hissed.

“In a train full of vampires,” Helena said, her voice wavering some.

“Locked in cages with vampires?”

“The vampires aren’t in cages,” Sam said as the young vampiric boy approached again, this time baring his teeth, his fangs growing.

“I get that part. You know what I fucking mean,” his ex hissed.

There was an arc of light coming in from a slab in the ceiling, allowing Sam to see even more of the boy’s face. Scarred, twisted, huge fangs, this was going to be bad, very bad.

“Got it,” Zoe said. Sam heard the click of the lock.

“Power-up, off,” Sam whispered, his sense of smell returning to him. “Ozella, Ozella…” Ozella’s cage was still on top of his, her face pressed into the bars. Sam tapped the side of her cheek with the back of his hand, and Ozella’s eyes blinked open. “Call Dinah.”

“Power-up, on,” Ozella whispered, trusting Sam completely.

The vampiric children swarmed onto the cages just as Dinah appeared, punching the first one square in the jaw. Zoe scrambled over one of the cages, sending Ozella’s cage to the side as she tore into the vampire as well, her claws coming back and forth as she tried to avoid getting bit.

This caused them to back off for a moment, enough time for Zoe to turn and pop off Sam’s lock. “Get Ozella and Helena to the back of the train. Dinah?”

The nude woman looked to Zoe and nodded, punching a fist into her open palm.

One of the braver vampires, the brash one from before, came forward baring his teeth. Zoe prepared to launch an attack. Meanwhile Sam grabbed the two cages and pulled them to the back of the train, Helena and Ozella safe for the time being, if the word “safe” could apply to a terrible, shitty situation like this.

“I need a weapon,” Sam said.

“Just stay back!” Zoe called over her shoulder, swiping again at another vampire who had gotten too close.

The train picked up speed, the click-clack of the railcar on the tracks startling the vampires for a moment.

Sam didn’t know how long they held them at bay, Dinah and Zoe doing their damndest to keep the vampires back. But eventually, Helena and Ozella began to wake up.

The only problem with freeing the other two from their cages was the fact that Zoe was still trying to stop the vampiric children from getting any closer.

It was the worst standoff ever.

Dinah was still protecting the perimeter, and it was up to Zoe to keep the bloodsuckers from coming up the middle. Growling, she did her best to keep the vampires at bay, which gave Sam an idea.

He started with Helena, dragging her cage toward Zoe, the tiger girl still pacing back and forth swiping at the vampires, hissing at them, doing everything she could to make herself look intimidating.

“I can’t keep this up much longer,” Zoe said, her voice haggard.

“I’ll help you,” Helena said, “just get me out of this cage, and Ozella, tell Dinah to heal me.”

Zoe crouched before Helena’s cage for a moment, fiddling with the lock. Of course, the brash vampire approached, and Sam met him with a swift kick.

He realized then that it was the size difference that was keeping them away; the vampires still had instincts enough to recognize the size difference between them and Vigilante Justice.

Just kids, the oldest one no more than six years old, a terrible thing to unleash onto a city, especially when they became more cognizant of the power they possessed.

Zoe broke the lock on Helena’s cage and helped her out, Dinah coming to her side immediately and healing the lean combat dancer.

“They must not bite us,” Zoe told Helena, slightly out of breath. “Remember that!”

“Dinah, heal Zoe next,” Helena said. “And once you’re better, get Ozella out of her cage. Sam and I will hold them off.”

“Yeah,” Sam said, trying to psych himself up, “yeah, we’ll hold them off.”

He took a battle-ready stance, ready to launch into a flurry of kicks if the vampire kids came any closer. One eventually came, but Helena gave the kid a roundhouse kick that sent him flying into the side of the train cabin.

“You’ve got to teach me how to do that,” Sam told her.

“That would take a lot of work,” Helena said, cracking a smile.

And even though they were in a train barreling South, a train filled with vampiric children, Sam couldn’t help but chuckle at this last statement.

Ozella approached from the back, her hair a mess but her mask still on her face. “So we’re supposed to just keep them on that side of the train until we get to wherever we are going?”

“Dinah, heal her,” Zoe said, nodding the now transparent wound-sucking ghost woman over to Ozella.

“That’s right,” Sam told Ozella as Dinah latched on. “We’re going to see how this shakes out.”

The four most-certainly-fucked members of Vigilante Justice didn’t have to wait long to see how things shook out.

There was a rumble at the front of the train, the sound of footsteps above them, a sudden explosion, the vampire kids screeching at the noise.

The ceiling above them gave way as two combatants crash-landed into the train, Sam instantly recognizing Mister Fist and Mia.

Sam saw Plume’s terrible inferno rocket over the train, realizing then that the thing was still moving, his center of gravity temporarily thrown off.

“What the hell are you four doing here?” Mister Fist asked, turning to smoke again and reappearing, punching Mia into a wall. The vampire kids scrambled away.

“What you should have been doing all along,” Zoe spit, looking up at the hole in the ceiling that Mister Fist and Mia had caused. “We’ve got to go!”

“Go?” Helena looked left and right, not sure how they should handle the fact that Mister Fist and Mia were still fighting in a cabinet full of kiddie vampires.

“Stack the cages,” the tiger girl shouted. “We’re getting the fuck out of here!”

No, it shouldn’t have worked. Hell no, it shouldn’t have worked.

But the four just so happened to catch a point where Mister Fist was taking his real form, tackling Mia, the vampire kids jumping onto his back as he swung his arms to toss them away.

It was the distraction Zoe needed to stack two of the cages on top of one another, Sam holding it while she jumped up, pulling herself to the rooftop. Helena helped Ozella up next, then climbed to the top herself, Zoe pulling the heiress to the top of the railcar.

Sam was last to go, and as soon as he made it to the highest cage, the same brash young vampire from earlier slammed into it. Sam would have fallen if Zoe hadn’t reached out and grabbed him just in time, her claws scraping up his arms.

“Dinah, heal,” Ozella said as soon as he was on the roof of the railcar. The ghost woman appeared immediately behind Sam and went to work. The stinging sensation on Sam’s arms went away almost immediately. Even weirder was the fact that his uniform had protected him, yet somehow, he could still feel her claws.

“Come back down here!” Mister Fist shouted. The four of them exchanged glances.

“What the hell are we supposed to do down there?” Zoe asked.

But that was about the only chance they had for banter.

The next thing to catch their attention, aside from the fact that they were standing on top of a moving train (something that Sam still couldn’t quite believe as the wind whipped past him), was a battle taking place on top of the railcars behind them.

“It’s Team Saint; they’ve teamed up with Mister Fist,” Ozella said. At the same moment, Sam recognized the blue wolfman whom Dinah had drained. The wolfman was engaging the guy who had attacked Sam earlier, the man with large blades for arms.

Looking to the front of the train, he could see Plume flying around, another fight taking place on one of the rooftops, this one waged mostly by William Bottorf’s clones, the replicas falling off the train every now and then and smashing into the track below, getting caught up in the wheels. There was also the stone woman on a different railcar, engaging Donovan.

“It’s not working,” Helena said suddenly.

“What’s not working?” Sam asked her.

“My mental messaging. I can’t contact Lance.”

“Mine either,” Zoe said.

“Same,” said Ozella.

“We’ve passed the border, haven’t we?” Sam asked, looking around. Surrounding the tracks was a crapton of foliage, way more than there should have been in Centralia, unless they were going through a state park.

“We have to do something,” he said.

“We could jump; Dinah could heal us?” Ozella asked.

Sam and Zoe looked over the edge. “Maybe…” Zoe started to say.

Mister Fist and Mia burst out of the top of the rail car, Mia’s wing cracking against the back of Sam’s head and sending him over the side of the train.

“Sam!” Zoe shouted, jumping for him, her arms wrapping around his body.

They smashed into the branches of a tree, Zoe’s claws stopping them from hitting the ground too hard. The train was gone in a matter of moments, Zoe still tightly clutching Sam.

“Damn,” he said as he rolled to the side and pushed himself up. Something was off; Sam could hardly get stable on his feet.

“We are so screwed,” Zoe said as she got her feet, noticing that there was blood dripping down the side of Sam’s face. The train sounded off in the distance.

“I’m fine,” he said as she came to him, just about to put both hands on his cheeks. “Really,” Sam said as he stumbled in the direction of the train track. “We’ve got to catch them.”

He could still see the train; as he walked toward it his knees buckled, and he tumbled down a small drop into a bush.

Zoe rushed to him. “I think you hurt your head.”

“My head?”

Zoe no longer looked the same as she had before. Something was different about her, her tiger features gone, or were they? Sam pushed himself away from her and kept stumbling toward the train track, one foot in front of the other, trying his best to get to Helena and Ozella. He felt as if he were wading through a thick fog, stars swirling all around him.

“Sam, stop,” Zoe said, forcibly grabbing his arm this time.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“Sam, listen to me. You hit your head. You need to rest for a moment; let’s figure out how we’re going to do this.”

“If we rest, we lose them…”

“No, I don’t think that will happen. Not with Helena. She will figure a way out of this,” Zoe said, clearly not stoked to be talking so nicely about the heiress. “She’s incredibly smart. She’ll figure a way out.”

Sam took another step forward, even though Zoe was holding on to him. He fell to his knees, bringing Zoe down.

“You idiot,” she told him, “stop moving around so much.”

“Got to get to them…” Sam said, trying to pull his arm away again. “Have to help…”

“Sam, Sam Meeko, you will stop this right now. You and I are going to go…” Zoe looked around. “I’ll find us shelter. It doesn’t matter where we go; I’ll be able to find something. There have to be people living around here. We’re clearly in the Southern Alliance, and Centralian exemplars don’t have jurisdiction down here, so if Southern Alliance forces find out that they’re assaulting the train, there could be trouble.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“What I’m trying to say is I don’t think the ‘good guys’ are going to stop that train, even if there’s a hole in the top.”

“What about Helena, Ozella?” Sam asked, now seeing two Zoes.

Seriously.

There were two Zoes now, their forms wavering together, tails bobbing in the air.

More?

Sam now saw a lot of Zoes.

And while this may have been a fantasy of many a non-exemplar in Centralia, and possibly a couple of exemplars too, Sam found it slightly frightening. He cringed away from all the Zoes he was seeing, ignoring the fact that all their mouths were moving now as she spoke.

“Helena and Ozella will make it, Sam, they will get to the capital city, Argoze. Remember, they have, well not better, but arguably more helpful powers then you and I have together.”

“What do you mean?” Sam asked, slurring his words as Zoe led him away from the tracks, still heading south, but now more to a southeast direction.

“I’m saying that I am all combat, and you have, well, a utility power.”

“Utility power?” he asked, the world spinning around him.

“There’s nothing wrong with being a Class E, that’s the intelligence-based ones, right?”

“Right, I think,” Sam told the multiple Zoes leading him deeper into the forest.

He was tripping balls by this point, Zoe’s voice racing in and out of his ears as she spoke.

“All I’m trying to say is that Ozella can at least heal people and quietly attack others. I can’t quite say that having a nude woman running around giving BJs is helpful, but Dinah throws a pretty mean punch too. So stop talking, and keep walking. Stay with me, Sam.”

“Where… are we going?”

“I told you, we’re going to find someplace to sleep. I don’t want to sleep in the forest. I may be half-tiger, but there could be bears or something.”

“Bears?” Sam asked, seeing turquoise, red, yellow and dark blue spots.

“Anyway, back to what I was saying before…” Zoe jerked his arm, her voice again going in one ear and out the other. “Helena is useful because she can hypnotize someone and she could just say, ‘let us go,’ or ‘bring us to blah blah blah city.’ And she has a new power of hers, plus she’s rich. So she could always promise to pay someone off.”

“What about… us?”

“Like I said, an ass-kicking power and a utility power. Keep up, Sam.”

“I can be helpful.”

“No one said you weren’t helpful, and just because your power isn’t like ours, doesn’t mean it isn’t useful. In fact, once we get to a clearing and let you sit down for a moment’s rest, we could probably use your enhanced sight to figure out where we should go next. But first, rest. We need to rest.”

“Fine, rest, take me to rest,” Sam said as he passed out.

Chapter Twenty-Six: Oh Nooeeez

(The inevitable inevitably happens.)

Zoe didn’t know how long she carried Sam. For once, she was glad to have enhanced strength due to her newfound exemplar status. Had Zoe been a normal person—ha!—she wouldn’t have been able to carry Sam as far as she did.

But as the half-morphed tiger girl, it wasn’t too bad.

Sure, she was a bit exhausted by the time she saw lights in the distance, but she could have gone further if she needed to.

Initially, she thought that the best strategy forward would be to go to one of the homes and see if they would let her rest there for the night. But as she grew closer, the fear of the unknown swelled in her chest, Zoe suddenly afraid of confrontation, even with her power.

She was second-guessing herself now; the thought that she was in a foreign country coming to the forefront of her mind. While her family hailed from the South, she had never visited and she didn’t know the customs, or how a person would react to a half-breed tiger girl knocking on their door.

Of course, she could morph to her non-exemplar form, and this was definitely a strategy that would work for the time being, but eventually, she would have to morph back.

That was the thing that Zoe was coming to understand about her life; from now on, anyone that got to know her would eventually have to know this side of her. And unless there was someone in Centralia (aside from Dr. Hamza’s twisted ass) that could make her be able to turn all-tiger and back again, this was it.

Oddly enough, it was these vain yet appropriate thoughts that kept Zoe going, taking her mind off what was really happening at the moment and just how dire their situation had become.

So she continued forward, cold air swirling all around her, Sam thrown over her shoulder, her thoughts on what she would do when she reached her ultimate destination.

Most of the cold spells in Centralia came up from the South, and she figured the one passing her now would eventually reach her country. It was noticeably colder than it had been just moments ago, so she was glad to have Sam’s body providing additional warmth.

She wasn’t great with distances, but most of the real lights started about a mile away, and she wasn’t ready to straight up roll into a city wearing an exemplar uniform with a passed-out dude thrown over her shoulder.

But how would she decide which house to scope out? How would she decide where they could rest for the night?

The forest was behind her, Zoe now walking along a path cut in the soil. It wasn’t quite a gravel road, but there was some gravel to it, the surface reminding her of some of the public parks back in Centralia.

Her sense of sight was helping, yet another advantage to her exemplar nature.

Maybe it’s not so bad after all, she thought for what must have been the thousandth time.

Zoe spotted a small bungalow with a barn behind it. It looked quaint, and she seriously considered marching right up to the front door and demanding a warm bed, but the barn could also work.

No, it’s too cold out, she thought, remembering that she needed to take care of Sam.

Zoe could always threaten the homeowners, hell, she could do much worse than that, but that wasn’t quite the style she was going for, and it wasn’t how Vigilante Justice was supposed to operate.

So she figured she would tell the truth.

It wasn’t that Zoe was opposed to the truth, but she just was reluctant to use it in this situation.

Nevertheless, it could work, especially with…

Zoe set Sam down in a wheelbarrow parked next to the quaint bungalow.

She smoothed her hands over her exemplar uniform, and took off the mask that went over her eyes, pulling the hood down as well. “Power-up, on,” Zoe said, triggering her transformation, feeling her skin change, her strength leave her body.

She now felt the strain from carrying Sam for so long, her shoulder aching, her calf muscles sore. But she ignored the pain as she took the steps to the front door, clearing her throat and smoothing her hair out as best she could.

Zoe knocked twice, and eventually, an old woman answered.

“Can I help you?” the woman asked, not opening the door all the way.

“I’m just going to be honest with you,” Zoe told the woman through the slit in the door, “I am a member of a Centralian exemplar team, and we were battling some criminals and got stranded out here.”

“You’re an exemplar?”

“I am.”

“What’s your power?” the woman asked, raising a suspicious eyebrow at her.

“I morph into a half-tiger. My friend back there, he’s in your wheelbarrow, he has a super powerful sniffer. His nose. There’s a fancy way to say that, but I don’t remember it at the moment.”

“Who are you fighting?”

“That’s…” Zoe smiled at the woman. “Classified information.”

“How do I know you’re really an exemplar?”

“Is that how you would normally talk to an exemplar?” Zoe asked.

“No, but… Well, show me your power, or something. I have to at least verify you are who you say you are. I mean, do you have identification?”

“Does it look like I have room for a pocketbook on this uniform?” Zoe asked, turning to show the woman just how tight her uniform was.

“I get it, I get it, you have a nice body. My niece would have a body like yours if she stopped eating treats from your country. You are Centralian, right?” the old woman asked, opening the door a little further. She was short, her hair under a nightcap, her cheeks rosy red.

“I am, but my grandparents are from here. Mom too.”

“Your family is from the Southern Alliance, huh?”

“Look, I’m not asking for much, but my teammate needs to rest, and I need to get some sleep as well. We will be out of your hair tomorrow, so just for the night. And if you don’t believe that I’m an exemplar…” Zoe bit her lip for a moment. “Power-up, off.”

The transformation took place, her human ears melting into her skull as her tiger ears appeared, the right side of her face changing shape and form, her tail growing out of the back of the uniform, Zoe adjusting her tights in time to make sure her tail went through its proper hole.

The old woman nodded, impressed. “You said you were, or your family was, from the South. Do you know which parts?”

“Hazryn, no, Ovnaze. Sorry, my grandfather was from Hazryn, my grandmother from Ovnaze.”

“Your grandfather was from Hazryn? I went to grade school there. What was his name?”

“Paak Ramone.”

“Paak Ramone… Paak Ramone.” The woman gasped. “I know exactly who that is! He was a friend of my older brother, but he left when I was young, maybe four, five. Yes, he had dark hair like you, dark eyes too, a little beady, like yours.”

“You knew my grandfather?”

“You didn’t?”

Zoe wasn’t in the mood to get into her life story, so she tried to sum it up as best she could in a few sentences. “I was raised mostly by my grandmother. She came to Centralia as a refugee with my mother, but my mother got into some bad businesses and, well, she was killed. I never met my grandfather. All I know is that he was the reason my grandmother was granted refugee status in Centralia. That’s all I can tell you about that, sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry,” the old woman said, bringing her hand to Zoe’s arm. “I’m sorry for being so suspicious. You never can know in this country. Look, you and your friend can stay the night, there’s no one here but me. My son went to Argoze to sell some produce. So you two can stay in his room. I changed his sheets. Unless you want your friend there to sleep on the couch. I totally understand that.”

Zoe looked over her shoulder at Sam. “That’s okay, he can stay in the room with me.”

***

“Come on!” Helena shouted to Ozella as they started to run on top of the railcar.

“But what about Sam!?”

“They… We…” Helena stopped dead in her tracks, shaking her head for a moment, looking back at the trees where Sam and Zoe had jumped. “I don’t know. Maybe we should jump too…”

“You two are coming with me,” one of William Bottorf’s clones said, who had just arrived on their railcar. He swung at Helena with his baton, the combat dancer immediately connecting her fist with his face as she dodged his attack.

With a swift kick, she sent the clone flying over the side of the train, a creaking sound meeting her ears as Mister Fist and Mia continued to fight in the cabin below.

“It’s going to break,” Ozella said.

“Yeah, and when it does…” Helena glanced around. “Let’s get to the other railcar.”

They moved to the end of the railcar, judging the distance between it and the next one. There was all sorts of activity around them, in front and in back, and there was no way this was going to work out unless…

“Ozella, put your hands over your eyes. Trust me.”

“Okay!” Ozella said, cupping both palms over her face.

Helena grabbed Ozella’s other hand and squeezed it firmly. She saw more of William’s clones coming toward her, Donovan in the distance engaging another member of Team Saint, Plume the fire user overhead, more action on a different railcar as the wolfman continued to go at it with the big grey vampire.

Helena only had one shot at this, so she went for it, something that should have been impossible.

“Power-up, on, invisible!” she said. The clone stopped in front of Helena and Ozella, confused for a moment before turning in a different direction.

The fight was still going on behind her even as the railcar made terrible noises, sounding like it was going to separate soon.

But that didn’t matter, not with Helena’s plan.

And she wished that she had thought a little more about what she was doing before she called on her power, but now was too late for that, now was time to wait it out.

Donovan shot off into the air and landed just a few feet away from Helena and Ozella, the mohawked man glancing around for a moment and pointing at someone behind him.

“You’re out of your jurisdiction!” he screamed at Mister Fist. “And unless you want to start a war with the South, it’s time to leave. Now, motherfucker!”

Mist ballooned out of the railcar, Mister Fist’s form taking shape on top of the railcar. Donovan took an imposing step toward it.

“We have exemplar teams to work with down here,” Mister Fist said, gritting his teeth. “It won’t be long until…”

“They know not to fuck with us,” Donovan spit. “Now go. Get the hell out of my country.”

“Come as close as you can to me,” Helena whispered once she was behind Ozella, still holding on to her arm.

“I can’t see you,” Ozella whispered back, her palm still across her eyes, the shy statkeeper totally overcome by the hallucination Helena had cast.

Helena didn’t know if she needed to touch Ozella to make it work on both of them, but she didn’t want to remove her hand to find out.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “We’re going to sit down as quietly as possible, and pray that no one steps over here.”

“Okay,” Ozella whispered while Donovan continued to talk shit to Mister Fist.

“Just trust me,” Helena said as she started to get down to her knees, still holding on to Ozella’s waist. Naturally, Ozella’s legs folded before hers, Helena rearranging herself so that she sort of cradled Ozella in her arms. “I’m sorry for the closeness of this.”

“It’s okay,” Ozella whispered.

Helena still couldn’t believe it had worked, that her power-up was that powerful.

The hallucination that she had conjured made anyone in her vicinity unable to see her, at least that was what she’d meant by saying “invisible.”

There was no way it should have worked, yet here Helena and Ozella were, not four feet away from Donovan, the mohawked assburglar loosening up his hands as he watched the two exemplar teams start to move away.

They had done it; the bad guys had won. Team Saint and Mister Fist were on the move.

There was a large enough hole in the top of the railcar for one of the vampire children, the more brazen one, to peek out.

The big grey vampire landed just a foot away from the two. With a grizzled snort, he walked over to the hole and hopped in, barely able to fit.

And it was only seconds later that the man with blades for arms jumped from one railcar to the next, stepping around the hole in the roof and catching up with Donovan.

“Well?” he asked Donovan.

“Those four kids got away,” Donovan said. “I don’t know how, but they’re somewhere in the Goamone area.”

The man shrugged as his blades began to morph back into chiseled muscle. He was tall, his arms covered in scars, the bottom half of his face still covered by a bandana. “Well, they won’t last long there. They will either die wandering in the woods, or get picked up by Southern Alliance police. If they get picked up, of course, we’ll know about it.”

“Exactly,” Donovan said. “Come, let’s get to the front of the train and enjoy the rest of this trip.”

The man with bladed arms laughed. “Enjoy? What’s there to enjoy about this, Don?”

“The money we’ll get once we deliver the cargo.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Turn up the Feels

(Well, well, well.)

Sam fluttered his eyes open. Everything was blurry, he was in a room he didn’t recognize, a room that smelled like…

The details came to Sam in that instant: the fact that Zoe was in the bed with him, sleeping with the tiger side of her face pressed against his chest, his arm wrapped around her body.

“Shit…” he whispered, more pieces coming together regarding what had happened.

It was Mia’s wing.

Her wing had knocked him off the train, and Zoe had jumped out for him. He remembered that much, he remembered walking along the train track, trying to catch up to Helena and Ozella.

But then his memories blurred together.

And where were they?

Trying to send a mental message did not work.

He knew this was what would happen once they crossed the border, so they were likely in the Southern Alliance.

Sam wished in that moment that they had prepared for it. Sam couldn’t know for certain, but he was pretty sure that Zoe’s weapons dealer buddy, Clean Dave, or whatever, probably had some tech that allowed for mental messaging in foreign countries.

Again, an amateur mistake.

Vigilante Justice was defined by its mistakes as much as it was by its triumphs, which was why the group was now separated, Sam with Zoe, Helena with Ozella…

And who knew where they were, who knew how long they’d be apart.

Zoe stirred, noticing that Sam was awake.

He became keenly aware that she was topless, her breasts grazing against his body as she removed her head from his chest. “Sam?” she asked, moving just a bit closer to him.

“Zoe?”

One of her legs came around his body so that she now straddled him, her hands settling over his shoulders.

Her back was arched, her nipples erect, Sam still trying to make sense of all this but at the same time, not knowing exactly what was happening.

He lifted his hands to Zoe’s waist, and from there slid them down until they were on her ass, his fingers feeling the base of her tail.

He had been with Zoe before, obviously, but it was still strange to him to find a tail attached to her lower half.

So he kept touching it for a moment.

He didn’t know what a concussion was supposed to be like, but his brain definitely felt shaken, like someone had put it in a tumbler and had a go at it.

“My tail,” Zoe whispered, still peering down at Sam.

“Yeah, I can see that,” he told her. “I mean, I can feel it.”

“The lady that owns this place happens to know my grandfather, can you imagine that?”

“This place?”

“Use your nose. It belongs to an old lady who seriously knew my grandfather when he was a boy. What are the odds?”

“Yeah,” Sam said, but his sniffer was giving him all sorts of data at the moment, including a sizeable whiff of the pheromones in the air.

“Sam?” Zoe asked, moving a bit closer to him as his eyes started to shut.

“Sorry…”

“Are you okay?” she whispered.

Sam looked back up at Zoe, something at the back of his brain screaming for him to stay awake for this.

“I think I hit my head.”

“You did, and you need to rest.”

“Why are you naked?” Sam asked.

“You know I like to sleep naked,” Zoe told him, her ears flitting back.

Sam smiled.

That was one of the things he liked about her when they first started dating. He had never been with a woman before that slept naked.

He still remembered the first time he’d slept over at Zoe’s apartment, Sam on the couch because he wasn’t sure of where the relationship was going, Zoe simply walking out of the bathroom completely naked and taking him to her bedroom.

And braining his fucks out from that point forward.

Zoe started gyrating her hips.

It was subtle at first, but it was enough for Sam to start to get an erection. Well, he already had a half-chub before, but with the sexy tiger girl on top of him grinding, it wasn’t long until his proof of manhood was full on pulsating.

“I’m sorry,” Zoe said. Sam could feel through his boxers that she was getting wetter and wetter.

“For what?” Sam asked.

“For…”

“For what?”

“For causing trouble, then and now. Especially now.”

With that Zoe slipped her hand into Sam’s boxers and pulled his member out, holding it for a moment as she rubbed the head of his penis against the lips of her vagina.

“Shit…” Sam whispered as he slipped inside Zoe, his ex parking it for a moment, just letting him fill her, both of them finally back together again.

“No…” Sam started to say, but Zoe had already picked up her pace, her chest heaving up and down as she expertly worked his cock.

Damn if she didn’t still have it, not that she could’ve ever lost it, but Zoe was like a wave rocking up and down, moving all the way up the tip and right back down the shaft, half-concussed Sam not having to do shit aside from listen to the bed squeak.

The smell of sex met his nostrils, Sam briefly wondered if he shouldn’t switch his power out, but taste could be troublesome, as could feel…

No, sense of touch could be awesome.

“Power-up, on, feel,” Sam said deliriously, and as soon as the words escaped his mouth, it was like a thousand nerve endings had been grafted onto his dick.

Sam gripped the mattress as best he could, his head rolling back, the feeling of sheer ecstasy rolling over him, swirling in his gut and exiting through an intense orgasm that left him shaking, Sam completely finishing his load inside Zoe’s snatch, writhing for a moment as she kept going.

“You finished?” she asked, a little breathless now.

“Sorry… Power-up, off,” Sam whimpered.

“So that’s what you were saying,” Zoe mumbled, and he couldn’t quite tell if she was glaring at him or not, but he did notice her body language as she slipped off him, cupping her hand around her lady parts.

“Where you going?”

“I’ve got to get this out of me now,” she said. “Shit. The bathroom is across the hall. I hope the woman isn’t awake.”

“Do you have… A towel or something?”

“Of course I don’t have a fucking towel. We were just supposed to sleep in here, not…”

“Sorry…” Sam said, exhaling audibly.

Zoe cleared her throat. “Not your fault, actually it’s kind of my fault. Doesn’t matter now, I’m going out there.”

Zoe waddled into the hallway, her tail bouncing as she tried to prevent Sam’s seed from falling onto the floor.

“Dammit… ” Sam whispered, the ceiling pulsating for a moment, his head still pounding.

Zoe returned about ten minutes later, crouching down once she closed the door and making sure she didn’t drip anything onto the floor. Sure, she could have turned the light on, but it was clear that all of this happening in the darkness was better for both of them.

The tiger got back into bed with Sam, not cuddling up to him this time.

“What took you so long?”

“I had to finish myself off,” she told him with a huff. “I haven’t had sex… Well, since you. And that was a little faster than I would have liked. So I finish myself off. After cleaning, of course. Got a problem with that?”

“No…” Sam said. “We shouldn’t have done that.”

“Well, at least it is out of the way now; it was bound to happen at some point,” said Zoe. “Now get some rest. We need to get to the capital tomorrow, to Argoze, and there may be people looking for us.”

“Let’s hope not.”

She nodded in agreement as she got comfortable. “Damn tail makes it hard to sleep on my back. Anyway, whatever we do, we will have to keep a low profile. And wearing exemplar uniforms won’t be the greatest way to do that. Maybe we can borrow some of this guy’s clothing until we get to town…”

“We don’t have any of their currency,” Sam said, now staring up at the ceiling, the edges of his vision starting to blur.

“I’m sure I can get us something.”

“What a night,” Sam said, his voice now a whisper.

“Tell me about it.”

***

Ozella Rose just had to trust that Helena knew what she was doing.

The train was moving, and they were still on the rooftop. Helena instructed her to lie down flat. Once Ozella was in position, Helena moved in next to her, whispering the words, “power-up, off.”

“I can’t believe you made them hallucinate that you were invisible,” Ozella said, turning to Helena, hearing the train traveling along the tracks below. It was a percussive sound, something that reminded Ozella of her childhood home, which wasn’t far away from the trolley station.

“I can’t believe it worked,” Helena said. “I didn’t know if it would work, but apparently…”

“I wish I had my notebook,” Ozella started to say. “I mean, I have it, but it’s hard to write lying down. Actually, I’m surprised they let me keep it when they caged us. They took away all your weapons.”

“They did. Maybe they just thought it was part of your outfit.”

Ozella shrugged. “Who knows…”

“We’re going to stay like this until we get to wherever they’re going, which I am assuming is Argoze. Once we get there, I will activate the power again and we’ll escape. We should be able to figure out the city relatively quickly. I have an old friend there; it shouldn’t take us long to get hooked up.”

“What about Sam and Zoe?” Ozella asked.

Helena chose her next words carefully. “I have faith that they will meet up with us. My guess is that they will be staying somewhere around where they were deposited tonight, and then they’ll teleport to the city. They may have actually teleported to the capital by now. But it will be a little difficult to find them once they do. I don’t know. We can leave some signs around, things for Sam to see or something. We’ll figure it out.”

“I’ll think of something,” Ozella said. “It’s too bad we can’t just mental message them.”

“Yes, this is one thing I hate about going to a different country. We are all the same world, yet mental messaging doesn’t always work if you aren’t in your home country. I get why it’s like that, but it can be a hassle.”

“Are you injured or anything?” Ozella asked. “I can call Dinah.”

“I’m fine. Also, were you able to get any information about the man with arms that morph into blades?”

“Yes,” Ozella said. “I’m glad you asked. Maybe I could try to write it down. Do you think that’s okay? I don’t want to forget it.”

“Sure, do it.”

Ozella brought her red leather backpack around and opened it, taking her notebook out. Still lying on her back, she began scribbling down some information. “He’s pretty unique, I’ll give him that. He’s an exemplar, a Type II, Class B. But I’m sure you already figured that out. His astrological sign is River, if you’re into astrology.”

“What’s his name?” Helena said, trying to get to the point.

“Essem Magar.”

“That’s a name. Okay, any more for his arms and the giant blades. Did you get any other information that could help us?”

“Not unless you want to know about his sexual preferences or trigger points, maybe some family relations.”

“Ozella, look at me,” Helena said as she turned to the group’s statkeeper, her eye starting to twist into a red bull’s-eye. “I want you to use your power to get answers that actually help us. I want you to stop getting information that you would have gotten before you became an exemplar. You are an exemplar now, and all of this extra information isn’t useful to us. We need to know things like weaknesses, training, exemplar power, that type of thing.”

“I never…” Ozella nodded, her eyes lighting up. “I think I can do that. I definitely think I can do that.”

“I know you can,” Helena told her. “You have the most unique power of anyone in this group, including Sam’s.”

“His power is cool too.”

“But you can not only gather information, you also have a way to work offensively through Dinah. Just think about it for a moment, Ozella. You can gather any information you want as long as you know the right questions to ask. You can heal other people through Dinah without using your power-up. Without using your power-up, you can also use Dinah to force injury onto someone. Using your power-up turns her alive, an actual human shield, just like the name you have chosen for yourself, oddly enough.”

“I could totally make this work,” Ozella said. “I am seeing how I can do this now. It will work.”

“That’s what we’ll need from you going forward,” Helena told her, smiling. “We need actual information on our enemies and the people we are tracking. Forget about all the social stuff you were collecting before. Make sense?”

“It does,” Ozella said.

“Good,” Helena said, releasing her hypnosis power. “Are you cold?”

“I’m freezing,” said Ozella as she tried to scoot the ends of her skirt down. “It’s so cold out here.”

“Okay, come closer to me then. We’ll have to huddle together for warmth until we get there.”

And that was exactly what they did, spooning on top of the railcar barreling south on a train full of vampiric children and twisted ass villains inside, Helena and Ozella doing what they had to do to stay warm. Eventually, the train slowed, Helena telling Ozella that it was now or never if they wanted to get off the railcar.

“We’d better go before Mia checks the place… ” she said, assuming this was what they’d use the winged woman for.

As soon as it came to a halt Helena hopped down, looking up at Ozella and nodding for her to hurry.

Nope, Ozella wasn’t as agile as Helena, and she hit the ground hard, stumbling forward and scraping her knees against the gravel next to the railroad track.

“Come on,” Helena said, helping her to her feet.

“I think I hurt myself…” Ozella said.

“Hop on my back then,” Helena told her as she got in front of Ozella, giving the team’s statkeeper a piggyback ride.

“Sorry for being so clumsy all the time.”

“It’s fine,” Helena whispered as she took off.

Ozella was a little bloody from hitting the ground, but Helena didn’t care, the lean combat dancer quickly moving into cover behind a building.

Not a moment too soon either.

As soon as she got clear of the train, she heard a voice call out, that voice quickly joined by a couple of other voices, the hiss of the train, and what Helena assumed was Mia flapping her wings.

Helena looked across from her to see a high wall between the station and the street. She wondered for a moment how they would get over it.

“Ozella, call Dinah and have her heal you first. We’ll go from there.”

“Okay,” Ozella whispered as Helena set her down. Dinah appeared in her ghost form, immediately going to town on Ozella, her wound healing up right away.

As she did this, Helena moved to the other side of the building to look at the wall again, and from there, to the corner that the wall eventually made as it cut toward the track.

It had been a while since Helena had attempted scaling a wall, but she knew that she would be able to do it. It wasn’t too high, and she would definitely be able to get her hands to the top, and pull herself up from there.

But Ozella…

“This is how this is going to happen,” she told Ozella quickly. “We are going to go to the corner of that wall over there,” Helena said, pointing to the spot.

It was dark out now, a light on the other side of the courtyard barely reaching the space between them and the wall.

“I can get to the top,” Helena said. “Definitely. But I don’t know if you’ll be able to. So here’s what we’ll do: Dinah and I will hoist you up, and then you have to pull yourself up. Do you think you can do that?”

“I definitely can do that,” Ozella said.

“Good, and then I will jump to the top.”

“You can jump that high?” Ozella asked.

“No, but I’ll manage. You’ll see what I mean in a moment. Just trust me.”

“I trust you,” Ozella told her.

“Good, let’s go then.”

Keeping to the shadows, Helena made her way to the wall, nodding for Dinah and Ozella to follow.

“Power-up, on,” Ozella said, and Dinah’s form took shape. “You’re going to help me get to the top of the wall, okay?” she told the now tangible ghost woman, and in that moment, Helena remembered what Sam had told her, what he had sniffed out back at Ozella’s home.

What a story.

But it wasn’t her place to say anything to Ozella about it, so Helena merely got into position, cupping both hands together. Dinah did the same, and together, they lifted Ozella to the top, where she made her way over the wall’s edge, hanging on the other side for a moment before dropping down.

“Go check on her,” Helena told Dinah, the nude woman simply shrugging and looking up at the wall.

“Dammit,” Helena said. She was just about to call to Ozella to deactivate her power when she remembered that she needed to keep it down.

Leaving Dinah behind, Helena took a few steps back and ran toward the wall, jumping to one side, then the other, then the first side again as she scaled her way up.

She reached the ledge and gracefully flipped over to the other side, actually landing on her feet.

It hurt her knees, more than any landing she’d done in as long as she could remember, but she maintained her balance as she watched Ozella stand, dusting herself off.

“Call Dinah,” Helena said, starting to bend a little bit, her bones aching.

“Power-up, off,” Ozella said. “Dinah.”

Dinah’s blue ghost form rose from the ground.

“Heal Helena,” Ozella told the ghost.

Helena lifted her fist in Dinah’s direction, and Dinah pressed her lips to her knuckles. Soon the pain in her knees was gone, and just to make sure that they were both healed up, she nodded for Dinah to heal Ozella as well.

“Just a little,” Ozella said as she lifted her hand to Dinah.

“Good,” Helena said with a tight nod once Dinah finished. “Stay close.”

She took Ozella’s hand, running with her across the street and getting into a shadow cast by the awning of a small shipping office. There were patches of ice on the ground, and she had to be extra careful not to step on one.

Once Helena was sure that they were clear, she slipped around the corner, still holding Ozella’s hand as they moved further away from the station. After they made it a couple of blocks away from the station, Helena let go, slowing her pace some.

“It looks so different than Centralia,” Ozella said, wide-eyed now as she took in the place. It wasn’t as well-lit as Centralia, but there were pockets of light that revealed an architecture unlike anything they had in their country.

“It does, but not as much as you would think. Of course, the buildings aren’t as tall, and the rowhouses are decorated in ways that aren’t practical for Centralia. They are more square here, thicker to protect against the cold. There are more sculptures as well.”

“I can tell,” Ozella said as they turned onto a narrow lane, the buildings close enough for banners to cross between them, remnants of a recent festival. A few snow flurries had started to fall, and Helena suspected that there would be snow on the ground by tomorrow.

From the numerous times she had visited the Southern Alliance, she was well aware that it snowed frequently, even in the summer. During the day it would be warm enough, but at night it would still snow, the white stuff melting away by mid-morning.

And the further south one went, the colder it got.

This was where the rune schools were located. Not much was known about these locations, but there was some published knowledge about the four schools that practiced runic powers.

And as they moved to the streets, Helena looking for the first person that she could spot, she figured she would tell Ozella about this at some point. It was definitely something that would interest her.

They just needed to find someone…

If everything went according to plan, it wouldn’t be much longer now before they had shelter. Helena would then go over Ozella’s unique power, increasing the statkeeper’s usefulness to the group while Sam and Zoe made their way to the city.

Helena knew they’d get here eventually; there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that the two were capable of making it to Argoze.

All in due time.

Eventually, she spotted a tiny, twenty-four-hour restaurant on the first floor of a block of homes.

A man stepped out and Helena approached immediately, positioning herself in front of Ozella so she could handle most of the talking.

“Where are we?” she asked the man.

“Armand Street,” he said, turning to her.

Like most Southern Alliance men he had an odd haircut, the side shaved and the top long. He wore a sleeveless overcoat, his exposed arms covered in red tattoos.

“Okay,” Helena said, activating her power. “I need you to arrange a teleporter to take me to the Hydroze residence near Gremmal’s Park.”

“Certainly,” the man said.

“Take off your mask,” Helena told Ozella. Helena did the same, pulling off her mask and handing it to Ozella.

“One more thing,” she told the man. “Unlicensed teleporters only. You have something like that down here, correct?”

“Yes, I will cancel the other one.”

They heard a noise that sounded like a low hum.

It grew louder and louder until the ground began to vibrate and a tall female appeared, levitating in the air with her legs crossed beneath her.

“Thank you,” Helena told the man, again taking Ozella’s hand.

“Where are we going?” Ozella asked, but by this point, their forms had started to fade away with the teleporter, reappearing on a well-manicured cobblestone street with statues lining its entrance.

Once the teleporter was gone, Helena spoke.

“Usually, when my family comes south, we visit with the Hydrozes. I became friends with their daughter, Juniper, over the course of my youth. And now the family is quite high up in the Southern Alliance government.”

“You have such a crazy cool life,” Ozella said as they approached a towering gate.

Helena shrugged. “I guess that’s one way to put it. But to be honest with you, sometimes I really just wanted a normal life, none of this crazy stuff. I know, I sound spoiled just saying that. But your life, just a simple life in the suburbs, would have been quite appealing to me.” But even Helena couldn’t keep her voice from wavering when she said this.

“Maybe, maybe not. And what is a normal life, anyway?” Ozella asked. “What makes my life normal and anyone else’s abnormal?”

“Beats me. I guess it really depends on the person that you ask, and their expectations.”

“I think your life is cool.”

“And I think your life is cool,” Helena told her.

Ozella laughed. “No, you don’t. I grew up an only child, my parents working their butts off to afford to put me in the best schools possible. So I paid them back by studying and cooking for them. At least that’s how I looked at it. And I wouldn’t consider a youth spent studying one that was that much fun. And to think, with all that studying, I ended up working at a cosplay café.”

“You shouldn’t beat yourself up like that,” Helena said as she knocked on a smaller entrance to the left of an enormous gate. The wall was much larger than the wall that they had just scaled, vines lining the top of the wall, covered in ice.

The door opened outward as a man with dark eyes appeared.

“It is late to be knocking,” he said, another man now visible over his shoulder.

“I’m here to see Juniper,” said Helena.

“She doesn’t have any visitors scheduled…”

“Oh, I’m sure she can make time for me.”

“Yes, yes, she can make time for you,” the man said, his expression softening. He wore a black suit with white gloves, and a red cravat that made it look like his neck was bleeding. “Right this way, Ms. Knight.”

“Such a cool power,” Ozella said as they stepped in.

“I’ve already told you that you have a way better power than me,” Helena told her. “Just trust me there. We’re gonna fix your power up tonight and get it working for us. You and me.”

“Looking forward to it,” said Ozella. “Also, I hope that Sam and Zoe are safe.”

“I will be dealing with that as well,” Helena assured her as they made their way through a garden clearly designed for winter, the space filled with shrubs, manicured conifers and a few ice sculptures. “Zoe and Sam are very resourceful, and I don’t doubt for a minute that they will be joining us shortly.”

“I hope so,” Ozella said as they took a flight of stairs to a side entrance. They stepped into a room that led directly to one of the home’s many living rooms where they found a woman with her legs up on the couch, a book in her hands.

“Juniper,” Helena said.

“Helena?” Juniper asked, standing immediately. “I wasn’t expecting…”

“Please sit, and there is no reason to ask questions,” Helena said, not feeling like explaining everything that had happened up to that point.

She activated her power, and Juniper simply nodded along, doing as instructed. Helena did notice Juniper’s fingers twitched for a moment longer than a normal person’s would, but nothing out of the ordinary.

“So nice to see you,” she finally said.

“And you,” said Juniper, who had long auburn hair, her skin lightly tan. She wore flowing silk robes, the front modestly tied but doing little to hide her large breasts.

Helena didn’t like doing this to her friend.

And she had noticed more and more lately that she was falling back on her power, rather than using her natural skill of persuasion. But who could blame her? While she was the type to get what she wanted by asking and explaining why she needed it, sometimes it was easier not to have to explain at all.

“You shouldn’t hypnotize her,” Ozella started to say.

“I’m aware,” Helena said, looking over to see the blonde-haired woman now standing with her red backpack in her hands.

“It’s not right,” Ozella said.

“I promise to tell her everything in the morning. Let’s just get some rest for tonight, and work on our little project. Deal?”

“If you say so…”

“Juniper, we are sorry to barge in on you like this, but we need a room for the night, maybe a few nights. Do you have one available?”

“I can have the attendants see to one of the guesthouses in the back. It will only take ten or fifteen minutes or so,” Juniper said, smiling at Helena.

She had developed early. Helena recalled it was right after her fat phase, that she had lost all this weight just to see her friend develop so readily, Helena actually a little jealous with the attention that Juniper got from her newfound bosom.

But Helena started to develop not long after that, and she too got that attention, especially from some of her father’s friends. Nothing that a knee to the balls couldn’t help, and she only had to do that once or twice to get her point across.

Helena smiled as she looked at Juniper, realizing that they had had quite a history together.

She knew this, of course, but being in different countries made it hard to keep up. In fact, it had been at least a year since she had been down here, and the last time she saw her, Juniper had had her hair braided in the traditional Southern Alliance way.

It was much shorter too.

“Would you like anything while you wait?” Juniper asked. “Perhaps some tea, food.”

“I would love something to eat,” Ozella said, licking her lips. “Tea too.”

“Sure,” Helena said as Juniper led her and Ozella toward the kitchen. “We appreciate your hospitality.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Morning After

(When in doubt, blame the concussion.)

Zoe Goa Ramone was up before Sam the next morning. The tiger girl quickly got out of bed and looked at Sam for a moment, standing there in the nude, her arms crossed over her chest.

Nope.

She didn’t regret what had happened last night, and only wished it had gone on for longer. But what could she expect? Sam had been fucking Helena, and probably wasn’t used to jumping in the sack with an experienced woman, a woman who hadn’t hooked up in quite a while.

Zoe smiled at this stupid thought, realizing that she probably wasn’t as good at sex as she thought she was, that some of his premature ejaculation had to do with the forbidden nature of hooking up with her, possibly some of the aftereffects of the concussion, and maybe just a little adrenaline.

And while she was okay with what had happened, she definitely wasn’t looking forward to seeing Helena again. What she had done was dirty, Zoe knew that. But it had happened, and there was no way to change the fact.

It could also have something to do with her looks, Sam turned on by her feline features. It wasn’t like every other non-exemplar in Centralia didn’t have a thing for cat girls, so she wouldn’t put it past Sam to be a little curious.

“Wake up,” Zoe told him.

Sam didn’t respond, so Zoe said his name again, a little louder this time.

“What?” Sam asked, squinting for a moment as he looked at her. “Why are you naked?”

“You are naked too,” she told him.

“Oh, shit…” he whispered.

“What? Don’t like what you see?” Zoe asked, bringing her shoulders back just a little so her tits perked up.

“Don’t… don’t tell me we hooked up.”

“What do you mean? You can’t remember?” Zoe swallowed hard. “Stop playing around.”

“What happened?” Sam asked, his tone of voice growing serious now.

“Use your nose and figure it out,” said Zoe, turning to him so he could see her nude ass, her tail curled in the air. She slowly got into her underwear, looking over her shoulder once to make sure that Sam was watching.

He was, but not in the way that she expected him to be watching. It was a look of confusion, with a slight amount of horror mixed in.

“Whatever,” Zoe said as she pulled her panties up and got into her sports bra. From there she stepped into her uniform, zipping it up and leaving the hood down as she left the room. “Get your ass up,” she said just before shutting the door. “We have places to go.”

Now in the hallway, Zoe turned to the living room to find the old woman sitting in a chair, smiling at her. “I thought you would never wake up,” the old woman said. “I have prepared breakfast for you and your friend.”

“You did not need to do that…”

“Nonsense, Paak Ramone’s granddaughter, and I have some clothes for you as well. That is, if you want clothing. I am assuming you don’t want people to know that you are an exemplar team, right?”

“It would make things a lot easier,” Zoe admitted as she followed the old woman to the dining room table. It was set up with placemats, a full spread of fruit, yogurt, and granola. Sitting in a plastic bin on the floor was a bundle of female clothing.

“I wasn’t quite as tall as you back in my day, but I used to have a pretty good body myself,” the woman said, the smile she was giving Zoe causing wrinkles to form at the corners of her eyes.

“I’m sure you did,” Zoe said.

“You think I’m kidding with you? Look through the clothing I have, see what I mean.”

“Sure,” Zoe said. “Besides, I should probably wait for my friend to get dressed and have breakfast with me.”

“So he is that type of friend, eh?”

“What type?”

The old woman squinted at Zoe, her brow furrowing. “You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t,” said Zoe as she started looking through the clothing.

The stuff had been recently washed, and as she unfolded pieces and re-folded them, Zoe settled on an outfit that was definitely unlike anything she’d worn before. It was a black number, collarless, yet the back had a hood that gracefully flowed down to the small of her back.

While it was a little large, it worked, the hood held up mostly by her tiger ears.

The sleeves were tied off at the elbows, and the dress stopped just above her knees. If it weren’t for the hood, it would have reminded her of one of the gothic loli outfits popular with women a bit younger than her.

“I’m going to go check on my friend, and change into this,” Zoe said as she turned away. “We’ll be back in just a moment, together this time.”

“Good.”

Zoe reentered the bedroom to find Sam still sleeping.

“What part of ‘wake up’ do you not understand?” she asked.

“What?” Sam asked, turning his head and looking up at her, his curly black hair in his face.

“Not this again. Out of the bed, Sam, we have to get started.”

“Okay,” he said as he rolled onto his side, wincing as he sat up. Sam brought his hand to the side of his head, massaging his temples for a moment.

As if she were alone, Zoe began taking off her clothing. Sam looked at her funny for a moment as she did so.

“What?” she asked.

“Look, I… I understand what happened last night,” Sam said, pointing at his nose. “But my mind wasn’t all there, and I don’t want to cause any trouble.”

“No trouble here,” Zoe said as she finished unzipping her exemplar uniform.

“You know what I mean. You probably shouldn’t be getting naked in front of me,” Sam said.

“Seriously? And I’m not getting naked; I have a bra and panties on.” She snapped her bra strap to make her point.

“I mean, I can cover my eyes.”

“Then cover them. And we don’t ever need to talk about what happened last night, if you don’t want to. But you’d better not let Helena find out.”

“She would understand…” Sam said, absolutely no conviction in his statement.

“Pfft. That will be the day. And will she be cool with Dinah giving you some head the other morning too?”

“Look, I had no part in that, and I had very little part in this.”

“Please,” Zoe said, rolling her eyes. “You turned your power-up on, which was probably why you came so soon.”

“What? Anyway,” he said, cautiously shaking his head, “the only reason I remember what happened last night is because of my nose, because I can smell your…”

“My what?”

“It doesn’t matter, I should go get cleaned up. Yes, cleaned up. I am guessing you are going to wear this black outfit,” he said, referring to the outfit that Zoe had set on the nightstand.

“That’s the plan,” Zoe said as she readjusted the cups on her bra.

“Okay, but when we meet with the others, please don’t get naked in front of me. At least do me that favor. I don’t want to have to deal with that.”

“Deal with what?” she asked, making an innocent face at him and bringing a finger to her lip. “We’re all born naked.”

“This is ridiculous,” Sam said as he got out of the bed, instantly grabbing the sheet and wrapping it around his waist, trying to hide his erection but failing.

“It looks like someone came out to play,” said Zoe.

“No, I did not come out to play, and he didn’t either. I’m not trying to…” Sam thought for a moment how he should phrase this. “I just don’t want any drama. Let’s keep it at that.”

“No drama if you don’t want drama,” Zoe said as she approached him, placing both hands on his shoulders. She sat Sam down, the cover still over his waist, and climbed on top of him, wrapping both legs around his body and peering at him for a moment.

“You know you are torturing me, right?”

“A little, but it’s not like I don’t want it too.”

“Let’s just focus on the mission for now,” Sam said, but even though the words coming out of his mouth were telling her one thing, the fact that his hands were on her hips now was telling Zoe another.

And she knew it was cruel.

Sam was a good guy, and Zoe had never been the type to steal another person’s boyfriend (or whatever Sam and Helena were). She had never had to resort anything like that, but now she was enjoying playing the role, even if she knew that once Helena was back in the picture, this would end.

And she knew this because she cared about Sam; she didn’t want him to feel the pressure that would arise if she continued doing what she was doing.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t have a little fun until that point.

Zoe move just a little bit closer to Sam, bringing her shoulders back again so her breasts were almost in his face, unable to resist lightly grazing her breasts across his face.

“Please…” he said, an absolutely enormous erection now pressing against her crotch.

“Okay, as you wish,” Zoe said as she stood, leaving Sam sitting on the bed. She went to the dress on the nightstand and put it on. Sam just sat there for a moment, taking in deep breaths.

“She made breakfast for us,” Zoe said.

“I need to take a quick shower, just a real fast one. I can…”

“You can what?”

“I can smell you all over me and it’s really getting to my head.”

“You already told me that, and you know, that’s really not a very nice thing to say to a woman.”

“No, you don’t smell bad, it’s nothing like that. It’s just all the memories,” Sam said, his face scrunched up as he ran his hand through his hair. “I need to forget all this.”

“Then take a shower and wash it away.” Zoe nodded to the closet. “This is her son’s room, so there should be something in here that you can wear.”

She searched through the closet for a moment and found a shirt and a pair of jeans that looked one or two sizes too large.

“These will have to do. And we should probably take a bag with our exemplar clothing as well. Ah, this will work,” she said as she found a knapsack.

Zoe folded her exemplar clothing and placed it inside. She went for Sam’s, doing the same as well, leaving his boxers on the ground.

“Shower and get changed, and then we will see about heading to the capital. I don’t know how we will find the others, but we’re not going to find them out here in the sticks.”

“Yep,” Sam said, looking down at the ground.

“Don’t be ashamed,” she told him.

“No, I just don’t want to have to deal with the repercussions from this.”

“Sam,” Zoe said, her voice growing softer as she moved to the bed. “I’m not going to say anything, even if I was angry at you. And I wasn’t trying to just take advantage of you last night. I thought you wanted it too.”

“I mean, I probably did want it, but I can barely remember how it started. And I don’t even remember the old woman that you keep referring to. It’s just all a blur, almost like a dream or something. Yeah, I thought it was a dream. And then I wake up and find out…”

“That you fucked your ex?”

“Um, yeah,” Sam said, swallowing hard.

“It happens. Well, I don’t know if that’s exactly how I should phrase this but, it happened, and we can keep it between us. And if it ever happens again…”

“That’s not why I signed up for all this,” Sam said, looking up at her, a fire blazing behind his hazel eyes. “As stupid as it sounds, I signed up for this to actually do some good. So, for now, let’s just focus on that. We really do have to do something about this planned vampire infestation. They are trying to kickstart the Western Plague part two down here, and it is up to us to stop it.”

“You’re right,” Zoe said, adjusting her new dress. “We just need to get to the city and find the others, and then we will go from there. Sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for.”

“Sorry for teasing you about last night.”

“No, it’s fine, it happened.”

“It did.”

“Cool,” Sam said, looking to the door. “I’ll meet you out there. It’ll be a fast shower, I promise, I just have to wash this away.”

“I understand.” Zoe stopped just as she was reaching for the handle.

“Yes?”

“Nothing. See you out there,” she said, not able to look at him now.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Hamza and the Healer

(Kevin Blackbook is from another book series set in Centralia called House of Dolls. Don’t ask how I know this.)

Dr. Hamza Grumio ran his hand through his hair. He straightened his lab coat, and stepped back into his laboratory for a moment, looking at the wall that had recently been repaired.

He heard some struggling in one of the sealed off rooms behind him and he turned to the glass door, watching as the second repairman tried to suck more blood out of the first.

Tragic, really, but sometimes science had to go deep into the dark before it could emerge in the light.

It was something that Hamza wanted to see for himself, something he’d already witnessed several times now yet still found fascinating. How did the infection spread naturally? What was the point at which the victim was drained of all their blood? What would it do to the vitals of the one who had done the dirty deed?

Hamza had already perfected the serum that turned someone into one of these terrible monsters, and he was close to perfecting the serum that brought them back out. In fact, he was sure he had done it, but there were a few small side effects he still needed to work out.

Which was why he had the second repairman go ahead and finish off the first. He had brought the first one back from being a vampire, but it had caused the man to go mad at some point, Dr. Hamza having to gas the room to tranquilize him.

He knew his error, monohydrophia exceline instead of monohydrophia chronaline, and he knew that to make monohydrophia chronaline, he needed to break down a few chemicals he had in very limited quantities.

Hamza would have to be careful, but with his newfound power, that wouldn’t be too hard. “I’m going to need you to stay quiet,” he said, knocking on the glass. The second repairman, full vampire at the moment, tried to break through the door.

He pounded his fists, snapped his teeth, saliva spraying onto the glass as he glared at Dr. Hamza.

Rather than deal with his ornery vampire subjects, Dr. Hamza simply prepared the chemical that would knock him out. He put it in a small machine mounted on the wall, which turned the chemical into a gas.

It misted into the small holding cell, eventually causing the repairman to pass out.

Dr. Hamza stepped out of his laboratory and shut the door, locking it from the inside. He had a key, of course, and it wasn’t like a locked door could really do much to prevent the teleporter from going where she wanted to go.

Dr. Hamza smiled at this thought. He was excited to see Scarlett, excited about their business prospects. He had been cooped up in his laboratory for the last twenty-four hours, and he had definitely jerked off once or twice, maybe three times, with Scarlett on his mind.

The reason he had created the vampire serum and the cure was solely for monetary purposes, and to rescue an old friend. He still had other serums he planned to create, but they could wait.

And even with Scarlett potentially in the picture, Mia was on his mind as well, the reason he’d gone to all this trouble in the first place. Even if she didn’t need rescuing, he would do his best to free her. Sure, Hamza had enslaved her, but that had been for science. These fucks were enslaving her to use Mia as a weapon, something Hamza didn’t approve of.

“Heh heh,” he said as he made himself as presentable as he could. To think there was a fine line between what he had done to Mia versus what the vampires had done was proof that anything could be justified. He knew this, he knew his philosophy had holes in it, but that didn’t make him feel for her any less, and he planned to do everything in his power to free Mia.

Dr. Hamza noticed the subtle chemical change in the air that signified a teleporter was appearing.

Scarlett’s form took shape, the lean, wide-hipped brunette joined by a short chubby man in an exemplar uniform; two cat girls, one with turquoise ears and the other with black ears; and a frail old woman, the woman currently held in the fat man’s arms.

“I see you have brought friends,” Dr. Hamza said, smiling as he took in their details. Nothing to report immediately aside from some apprehension, as well as a strange toxin coming off the cat girls. “Fascinating,” Hamza said as he brought his hand to his mouth.

“We were told that you could replicate exemplar powers,” the man said as he set the old woman down on a sofa. “The name is Kevin, by the way, Kevin Blackbook.”

“Ah, Mr. Blackbook,” Dr. Hamza said, extending his hand. The fat man was in a silver outfit, with black and turquoise accents, and there was some energy radiating off his ring. Dr. Hamza looked from the ring to the man’s face as they shook hands.

“What?” Kevin asked.

“Interesting ring,” Dr. Hamza said. “And to answer your question, getting to the bottom of a superpower is a specialty of mine. Of course, I don’t work for free…”

“We’ve already discussed this,” Scarlett said.

“I know we have, dear, I just want him to know that I will be getting something out of this as well, namely the power. And this is the healer here, the dying woman?” Dr. Hamza said as he moved over to the couch.

“That’s right,” said Kevin.

One of the cat girls moved in front of him, the one with turquoise ears, glaring at Hamza for a moment. “Toxic cat girl, if you will please step aside, I need to examine this woman.”

“I don’t know, Kevin,” she said, glancing over to the fat man.

“Let him pass, Turquoise,” said Kevin. “This is why we came here.”

“She doesn’t have long,” Dr. Hamza told them as soon as he reached the woman and brought his hand to her head.

“How do you know?” Kevin asked.

“You see, while I might not be officially recognized as an exemplar, I possess an exemplar power.”

“That’s not…” The fat man gulped. “How?”

“That information is not for sale.”

“It could be for sale,” said the black-haired cat girl next to the one named Turquoise.

How odd to have two cat girls in one’s employ, Dr. Hamza thought as he looked at her.

“Keep your toxic excretions to yourself,” he finally told her. “Or use them for your man over here. Scarlett brought the three of you to me for one reason, and one reason only. And it involves this woman. So let me do my job, and Scarlett, please make sure these three don’t disturb me in any way.”

“Kevin,” Scarlett said. “This is important.”

“Yes, yes it is,” Kevin told her as he moved away from Dr. Hamza, the two cat girls following him.

Dr. Hamza had already set out the equipment that he would need on a side table. It wouldn’t be very much, just a couple vials of her blood would do the trick.

He also wanted to see how she healed, so he would need to injure himself and then have the woman heal him up, which was why there was a knife sitting on the table.

“This will only take a moment,” he assured the dying healer as he placed his hand on her head again. Dr. Hamza helped move her up in a way that would let the blood flow to her arm, and once she was set, he took three small vials of her blood.

“Careful,” the man named Kevin started to say.

“Just let me get what I need to get,” Dr. Hamza told him as he finished filling the third vial. “And there’s one more part of this test.”

Once the vials were capped and secure, Dr. Hamza reached for the knife.

“I need her to heal me; is one of you able to communicate with her? Can one of you get her to heal me?”

“I think I can,” Kevin said as he came forward.

Kevin went to the old woman, the lady wheezing as he helped her sit up.

Dr. Hamza rolled up the sleeve of his lab coat and looked down at his arm. He pressed the tip of the knife into his flesh and brought it all the way down to his wrist, opening up a line of blood.

“Here,” he said, ignoring the pain as he turned his arm toward the woman.

Her eyes clouded over, strands of gray hair in her face, the woman lifted both hands as energy radiated off her fingers. She started hacking as Kevin patted her on the back. Once she finished, the old woman nodded as she waved her hands over Dr. Hamza’s wound.

It was miraculous.

Dr. Hamza saw the chemicals she was using to do this, the wound healing almost instantly, Hamza feeling like he was going to vomit.

“Getting a stomach sickness?” Kevin asked.

“Yes, it’s quite strong.”

“It seems to be a side effect of her power.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Dr. Hamza said, taking a few steps back. He knew how this could work, and it might take him a day or so, but he would definitely be able to replicate the power and put it into a liquid form.

He also had a subject ready, a human guinea pig desperately in need of healing. If that didn’t work out, he could always get Scarlett to pick up a random person for him run tests on.

“Fascinating,” Dr. Hamza said, “fascinating.”

“How long will it take you?” Kevin asked.

“Why? Do you have somewhere to be?”

Kevin looked to the two cat girls and nodded. “We’re going West, soon.”

“Give me a day, maybe two tops. If you do so, I will have a lovely parting gift for you.”

Chapter Thirty: Better to Forget

(The best way to forget a memory is not to have it in the first place.)

“Let’s start with a market,” Sam Meeko said as he came to the dining room table. He wore the clothing Zoe had selected for him, the jeans a bit loose.

“A market sounds wonderful,” said the old woman as she looked up at Sam, fondness in her eyes.

“Why a market?” asked Zoe. Now in vintage Southern Alliance wear, the tiger girl was spooning yogurt into her mouth with an indiscernible look on her face.

“I’ll explain once we get there. Is it easy to get to Argoze from here?” he asked the old woman.

She gave him a funny look as he sat down. “Through which means?”

“Well, there’s a city near here, so I’m guessing a trolley connects, right?”

The woman shook her head. “No, no, you don’t want to go there by trolley. That will take at least twelve hours, and you’ve already missed the morning one, so you’d have to take the night one. Teleporter will suffice.”

“We don’t have any money,” Sam said. “Power-up, touch,” he whispered under his breath. From there, he carefully lifted the spoon and started working on the yogurt. “Not Southern Alliance currency, anyway.”

“You managed to slip some Centralian money into your tights?” Zoe asked Sam.

“I guess you’re right,” Sam said. “We are technically broke.”

“And how are you planning to get money when you get to town?” the woman asked.

“We have our ways…”

“No, let’s not go down that path,” Sam told Zoe. “We are already in a foreign country, it’s best not to break the rules here.”

“Then how will we get to the capital city?”

The old woman looked at Zoe like she was dumb. “I will arrange for teleportation, that’s how. It’s the least I can do. Were you referring to stealing earlier?”

“No!” Sam and Zoe said at the same time.

“It’s fine, you’ve already done enough,” Zoe started to tell the Southern Alliance woman.

“Nonsense. I was friends with your grandfather, Paak Ramone, and he would have done the same for one of my grandchildren if they had just appeared out of the blue.”

“We will get money to you as soon as we can,” Zoe said.

“No, that’s not necessary.”

“Trust me, lady,” said Zoe. “We recently ran into a lot of money. Just write down your contact info before we go.”

“That’s not how this is supposed to work,” Sam started to tell Zoe, a spoonful of yogurt in his mouth.

“What do you mean? Helena will gladly pay for allowing us to stay here for a night, and that pay can cover our teleportation to the city. No sense in arguing about it. It’s something I will take care of when we meet our friend.”

“A rich friend, huh?” the old woman asked with a sly smile on her face.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Zoe said. “We live in a giant mansion with her. And by giant, I mean it’s like twenty-seven times the size of this place, and this place isn’t small. If I’m not mistaken, she probably has several mansions in Centralia.”

“I see,” said the old woman. “Well in that case, the bathroom in my bedroom needs remodeling. I’m getting older, and it’s hard to get in and out of the tub. So I’ve been saving to have it remodeled. Do you think you can add that to the tab as well?”

“What is going on here?” Sam asked, looking between the two women.

“What?” The old woman shrugged. “She says you have a really rich friend, a rich friend who clearly would pay me for letting you two stay here for the night, what would she know about the cost of a simple bathroom renovation? I know those two things don’t sound connected, but trust me, this could totally work.”

“Deal,” Zoe said, reaching over the table to shake hands with the old woman.

“We don’t shake hands down here,” the woman reminded her.

“That’s right,” Zoe said, bowing her head and bringing both hands up to her shoulders.

Sam copied Zoe, not sure why he was going along with this. Even if Helena was filthy rich, it wasn’t right for Zoe just to promise her money away.

Just another thing that annoyed Sam about Zoe.

Things like this that made him question her loyalty. He still felt that if any of them were in a bind, Zoe would be the first to arrive and help them in whatever way she could.

But she had also betrayed them once already; had taken advantage of him last night (which he really couldn’t remember much of; he wasn’t faking it in the bedroom when Zoe confronted him about it); and now she was promising to renovate the woman’s bathroom.

“Why don’t you pay?” Sam asked. “I’m sure this would only take you a couple modeling gigs.”

“You’re a model?” the old woman asked. “You know, your grandfather was a model. Did your granny ever tell you that?”

“He was?”

“He sure was, just a few small things. But one of his images, a silhouette, was used in pamphlets printed by the military. He got a lot of tail because of that image. That may have been how he met your grandmother, although I would guess she didn’t tell that story the same way.”

“No, she didn’t,” Zoe said. “And we will get some fundage to you, count on it,” she said, giving Sam a dirty look.

The old woman reminisced for another twenty minutes or so, plenty of time for Sam to finish eating and then reactivate his sniffer. It was another twenty minutes or so until the teleporter appeared, this one a middle-aged dude with a handlebar mustache that stretched halfway to his stomach.

Zoe and Sam gathered around the man, a knapsack thrown over Sam’s shoulder which contained their uniforms. After clearing his throat the man started twisting the ends of his handlebar mustache. The teleporter’s hair grew down to his feet, instantly forming a cocoon around the three and fading into nothingness.

Their forms took shape, still in his cocoon of hair which rapidly pulled back, slithering up the teleporter’s body and returning to its normal place as his mustache.

“We’re in Argoze?” Sam asked, looking around at a bustling street market that stretched as far as the eye could see.

There were buildings along its perimeter, people moving about, a few women with baskets balanced on their heads and men standing around, conversing over small glasses of tea. It was cold too, and Sam was glad to be wearing a sweater. There was also fresh layer of snow on the ground, all the sidewalks already salted.

“Argoze,” said the teleporter. “Market.”

And with that, he vanished in the same crazy fucking way he’d appeared.

“Care to tell me why we are at a market?” Zoe asked.

She had a little purse now, one that Sam found to be quite impractical. There was no strap, she simply held it in her hand like it was a book. He was pretty sure it was called a clutch, but he didn’t want to say anything, just in case he sounded dumb.

At least the old woman had given them a little money as well, money that Helena would be paying back tenfold, but it would prove useful in what he wanted to do next.

“They always have someone like this at these markets,” Sam said. “At least in Centralia they do, but I’m guessing the Southern Alliance is no different.”

“Someone like what?” Zoe asked as she followed Sam, who was already several steps ahead of her.

It wasn’t the best usage of the little money they had, but it was something he needed to take care of, something that would make this easier going forward.

“Just trust me,” he told her as she caught up. They wound their way through the market, Zoe stopping occasionally to comment on some of the wares, Sam listening, but still trying to find the particular booth he was looking for.

“Not so many people are staring at me down here,” Zoe informed Sam. “Or maybe they are, I just don’t notice it as much. I notice it in Centralia…”

“I am sure you do,” Sam told her as they moved deeper into the market, walking to the left of the fountain that was surrounded by food carts.

Fat pigeons hopped around, waiting for someone to throw them a treat. Sam watched as a child stepped forward with a piece of bread in his hand. One of the pigeons flew up to his arm, landed and snatched the bread, flying away. His mother scolded him for a moment, the kid crying instantly.

“So glad we don’t have one of those,” Zoe said.

“We?”

“I meant me, and you, but not necessarily together. You know what I’m trying to say. It would just be one more thing to take care of.”

“That’s definitely one way to put it,” Sam said as he saw the booth he was looking for. “Follow me.”

“What’s this about?” Zoe asked as soon as they neared the booth Sam had been searching for.

A man sat behind a low table, red tattoos under his eyes, his skin the color of the snow that rested on the ground between his booth and the person next to him. An uncomfortable white, unlike most of the people he had seen so far in the South, their skin a shade darker than your average Centralian.

“I need to forget the last twelve hours,” Sam told the man. “Also, hi.”

“Well, hello. Did you say forget?” the man asked, looking up at Sam and raising an eyebrow.

“You’re going to blow the money we have on getting a telepathic scrub?” Zoe asked, lightly shoving Sam.

“Hell yes, I am,” he told his ex. “I cannot have this stuff on the surface of my mind, not around her. She’ll find out. I won’t be able to look at her without her knowing.”

“Dammit,” Zoe said, reaching into her clutch (or tiny purse, Sam still didn’t quite know the difference), and retrieving a small roll of cash.

“Is this enough?” Sam asked. “Sorry, I’m being hasty. How much to scrub my mind?”

“That should cover it,” the telepath said, standing and using his leg to bring his stool to the side.

He beckoned Sam into his booth, and once Sam was in, Zoe on the other side of a curtain, the telepath drew the curtain and instructed Sam to lie down.

“I think what you are doing here in the South is a good thing,” the telepath began to say, “I only hope that you can accomplish it.”

“Those aren’t the thoughts that I need you to scrub.” Sam was now on the cot, which was covered in plush satin blankets, topped by a pillow made of seeds.

He rested his head on the pillow, noticing the weird crunch due to the seeds inside the pillowcase. His nostrils flared, and Sam instantly knew more about the telepath, the bed he was lying on, the space in general, and how it had been blessed with a few runes.

That was the weirdest part of the info his nose uncovered—he didn’t know exactly what the runes had done, but they had definitely left their mark on the small booth.

The telepath smoothed his hands over his robes. “I’m not permitted to share what I find in someone’s mind, even if it is incriminating. I have taken the telepathic oath, as have many in my profession. But I wish you luck, and I hope you find your friend soon. Now, you said the last twelve hours?”

“Yes,” Sam told the man. “I don’t want to remember any of it. I just want to remember that we got to a woman’s house, this nice older woman that somehow knew Zoe’s grandfather. We stayed the night there, in separate rooms, had breakfast, and then we came here. I also hit my head. So…”

“I see. You already are having trouble remembering what happened, you just want me to adjust it a little, correct?” the telepath asked.

“That’s right.”

“How would you like this particularly illicit memory to seem in the future? If it ever comes back to you, do you want to know that you had something scrubbed, or do you want to think of it as a dream?”

“I don’t know…” Sam said, not so stoked about how the telepath had labeled the memory ‘particularly illicit.’

“May I recommend that you know you had something scrubbed? Sometimes, it’s just better that way. It gives you avenues to process the information if it ever comes back to you, and with your power, it very well could come back.”

“All right,” Sam said as he closed his eyes, waiting for that telepath to do the deed.

“I will also have a word with your friend, because she is not to mention what happened after this point. If she does, it’ll make you argumentative. Imagine being accused of doing something with someone when you know for a fact that it didn’t happen. That’s what I mean by argumentative. It’s best that she doesn’t pry away the telepathic bandage I’m placing over this wound.”

“It wasn’t really a wound…” Sam said.

“Just relax for another moment, I will speak with her, and once I return, we’ll get this memory scrubbed.”

Chapter Thirty-One: Round up!

(The team never gets back together. Sorry. Book ends here. But keep reading anyway.)

“Did you sleep at all last night?” Helena asked Ozella the next morning. They were sharing a room with two single beds, Helena’s request, as her friend Juniper definitely had separate rooms available.

But Helena had wanted to work with Ozella on her statkeeping ability, which she had done until well past midnight, the two of them going over Ozella’s new classification system. There would be changes in the future, but Helena was happy with what she had helped Ozella put together.

It had been relatively easy in the end, mostly just requiring a change in conceptualization. And if all went smoothly, Ozella’s new classification style would be something that fundamentally changed how Vigilante Justice collected data, and more importantly, how they exploited this data.

“I don’t sleep very much,” Ozella reminded Helena. “A year or two ago, a few people I lived with said I was like a succubus, or maybe even a vampire, because of the hours I kept. I tried cosplaying as a succubus once, but I found the tail attachment annoying, and in the end, it really wasn’t my style.”

“Good to know,” Helena said as she continued stretching.

You bet your ass Helena was up early stretching, loosening up her muscles, going through the routine that she used when she travelled.

“Want to stretch with me?” Helena asked.

“I don’t know if I’m really that flexible,” said Ozella. She was sitting up in the bed still tucked under the covers and wearing borrowed pajamas, her hair in a bun.

“I’m sure you are.”

Helena got to her knees, motioning Ozella over. The group’s statkeeper got out of the bed, avoiding eye contact with Helena as she approached, also getting on her knees on the carpeted floor.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” Helena said with a smile. “Let’s start in a seated position, legs out.”

Helena came around to Ozella’s side, giving her room to stretch her legs out.

“Like this?”

“Exactly. Now let’s see just how flexible you are,” Helena said. She instructed Ozella to bend forward, to try to use her fingers to touch the tips of her toes. Sure enough, she was able to do so with relative ease.

“See? Most people can’t even do that,” Helena said.

“But I’ll never be flexible like you. I’ll never be able to do all those flips and twists and stuff,” Ozella said.

“That’s fine; that’s not your role in our group. But I still think you’re the strongest, I wasn’t just flattering you for no reason. Especially now that you have upgraded your ability to help us.”

“That’s an interesting way to put it,” Ozella said, still stretched forward.

For the next thirty minutes, Helena taught Ozella some stretches that she could do to loosen up in the morning. As they were finishing, they heard a knock at the front door of the guesthouse.

Helena, in her bra and pajama pants, quickly put the top on before heading down the stairs and opening the door. She was informed by a man in a white tux that they would be having breakfast with Juniper soon and should get dressed, and that clothing had already been arranged for them and placed in the living room area of the guesthouse.

“Thanks,” Helena told the man as he turned, making his way back to the mansion proper. She brought the clothing up to Ozella, who took one look at it and shook her head.

“What?” Helena asked. “Is it not schoolgirl-y enough for you?”

Ozella grinned. “You know me too well. I will just wear my uniform without the mask. I don’t think people will know who I am.”

Helena considered this for a moment. “I think it would be better if you just wore the clothing that they have provided for you, more polite.”

“Fine, I’ll wear it,” Ozella said, not putting up much of a fight. “But just because you suggested it.”

Helena handed Ozella the outfit, a form-fitting cashmere dress with long sleeves and an intricate design along the side seams.

“I’ve never worn anything like this before,” Ozella said as she looked it over.

“There’s a first time for everything, right?”

“I suppose so.”

Ozella took her top off and stepped out of her sleep pants. Now in a bra and a pair of boy shorts, Ozella started to go about putting on the tight dress.

“You should probably wear the underwear they gave us too. It’s clean, packaged, and your panty line will show if you wear the boy shorts,” Helena told her, pointing at the rest of the clothing. “You should probably wear the thong.”

“Okay.”

Helena turned away this time to allow Ozella to switch out undies. She also began getting into her own outfit, which consisted of a chic, fashionable dress. She could tell by the way the fabric felt, and the quality of the stitching, that it was a custom piece.

Once she was finished, she turned to Ozella to see her in her tight cashmere dress, looking out of place as ever as she picked at the thong for a moment.

“Sorry,” Ozella whispered, her cheeks going red.

“You’ll get used to it.”

“Is something wrong?” Ozella asked as she pushed her bangs out of her face.

“No, you look great.” Helena slipped into her ballet flats and Ozella her shoes.

While the shoes didn’t quite go with Ozella’s dress, they didn’t look too bad, and besides, they weren’t really going for high fashion here. Once Ozella was ready, she folded her uniform and put it in her red backpack, asking Helena for hers as well.

After taking a short walk through the Hydrozes’ winter garden, Helena and Ozella joined Juniper in the main home, where they found a full breakfast spread, everything from salmon to pastries. The woman with light caramel skin and auburn hair smiled up at them.

“I’m glad you two could join me,” Juniper said, “and I have good news about your friends.”

“What’s that?” Helena asked as she sat down, Ozella taking the seat next to her. “And thank you for inviting us to breakfast.”

Ozella elbowed Helena, looking at her in a way that Helena couldn’t quite interpret. The statkeeper glanced back to Juniper, raised an eyebrow, and looked back to Helena, elbowing her again.

“Cut it out,” Helena said under her breath. “Like I was saying, thanks for having us.”

“My pleasure. And regarding your friends, I have used my father’s connections to enlist the help of the Southern Alliance police in finding them.”

“How do you know what they will look like?” Helena asked Juniper.

“You said yourself that one had tiger ears, and half of her face was that of a tiger. I’m pretty sure that will give her away relatively easily. The cops will be discreet about it, of course, and once they find your friends, they will bring them here. It shouldn’t be long now…” Juniper bit her lip for a moment. “Likely the next two to eight hours. That is how long it has taken before.”

“Good,” Helena said, “and thank you.”

“It was no trouble, really,” Juniper said as three hot bowls of oatmeal were delivered to the table. “My favorite. Please, will you have some?”

“With pleasure,” Ozella said, swallowing hard.

Helena couldn’t interpret the look on Ozella’s face, but she was sure she would hear about it at some point. For now, they needed to maintain decorum, and enjoy their breakfast.

***

“So we’re starting in a market?” Sam asked, looking around at the expansive outdoor shopping area, where more and more people were starting their day with a little retail therapy. Last he could recall, they’d taken a teleporter to Argoze and yeah, here they were.

Weird.

“That’s right,” said Zoe, a pained expression on her face. “What better place to look for Helena and Ozella than a market?”

“Are they that big of shoppers?”

“No idea; we’re not that close.”

“Ha! I guess not,” Sam said as they circled around a fountain with a sculpture in its center of a man riding a bear. There was warm water boiling out of the bear’s mouth, steam hissing off the surface of the pool surrounding the fountain. “Damn, this is a sweet fountain. Nice bear.”

“It’s a bearwolf,” Zoe said, biting her lip for a moment.

“Bearwolf?”

“They have them down here. Grizzly fuckers, really.”

“Is something wrong?” Sam placed a hand on Zoe’s shoulder.

“I’m fine,” she said, pulling her shoulder away from him. “Come on, we need to look for clues.”

“And how do you suppose we do that?” Sam asked as they advanced toward the exit of the market. The booths here were mostly selling rune art, a few of the more eager shop owners calling out to Sam and Zoe, telling them that their art was guaranteed to bring good fortune.

“Is that really how that works?” Sam asked Zoe as they passed a man beckoning them into his shop.

For once, Sam was having a little sinus difficulty, so he couldn’t get as good of a sniff in the man’s direction as he would have liked.

“It really is,” said Zoe. “I don’t know much about the Southern Alliance rune schools, but my grandma did talk about them from time to time.”

“Four schools, right?” Sam asked, remembering what he’d read in a comic book.

“Yep. The School of Ring, School of Heart, School of Whisper and School of Script.”

“Ah, that’s right. I once read a comic about a guy who fought his way to the top of the School of Ring.”

Zoe snorted. “Fat chance.”

“It was a comic, fantasy. You know, what we call stuff that people read for entertainment that isn’t necessarily real.”

“I was never much into fantasy,” Zoe said as they neared a couple of Southern Alliance police officers.

“Are you kidding? Your career is built on fantasy. What else would Tiger Lily be if not fantasy? All cosplay is fantasy.”

“Aware.”

“And you as Tiger Lily have done other things, right? Dressed as comic characters or whatever is required for your shoot?”

“I have. And your point?”

Sam’s nostrils flared as he looked at Zoe, something coming to him in that instant that he didn’t like.

“We fucked?” he asked with a gasp.

Zoe started laughing. “Yeah right, Sam. In your wildest dreams.”

“But…”

“Your nose is playing tricks on you.”

“Maybe it is,” he said, rubbing his fist against his nostrils.

“Besides, Helena would be soooooo pissed if we did something like that. And she already doesn’t trust me.”

Sam shook his head. It was impossible; he knew it wasn’t true, but he couldn’t deny what his nose had just told him. He blamed the notion on his sinuses in that moment—something was off, it couldn’t have been true.

“Ma’am,” a police officer said to Zoe as he approached her from the side. He placed his hand on her arm…

And that was all it took.

Zoe brought her fist into his stomach, the policeman doubling over in pain.

“Hey!” his partner shouted, raising his wrist guard, but he was too late, Zoe cleared the distance between them and swept him off his feet.

“Shit…” Sam said, momentarily hesitating.

The urge to assist Zoe came to him, but he also was wary of finding out what a Southern Alliance jail looked like from the inside. So rather than knock the first officer down, so Zoe could finish taking on the second, Sam ran toward his ex, scooping her into his arms as if she were his bride and hightailing it toward the crowd back at the market.

It was a bold move, one that resulted in Zoe raking a clawed hand along his back during their initial contact.

“Dammit, Zoe!” he shouted as he continued to run.

“What the fuck are you doing!?” Zoe screamed as Sam charged into the crowd, pain surging up his spine from Zoe’s claws.

“I should be asking you the same thing!”

After they were clear of the fuzz, Sam set her down and grabbed her hand. “Come on. We’ve got to get the hell out of here!”

Unfortunately, the crowd had started to part, a few people pointing at them. They spotted a police exemplar rising over the crowd, energy crackling around the man’s eyes.

Sam jerked Zoe’s hand forward, and the next step he took was the strangest he’d ever taken in his life.

A sinking feeling in his stomach told Sam he was falling, but instead of falling downward he was falling sideways.

The crowd filtered away, and monstrous beasts gnashed their teeth at him.

Before Sam could cry out in terror, before he could shit his pants, he was being shoved onto the pavement and cuffed. Zoe was next to him, fear writ large on her face as she was cuffed by a woman with glowing symbols on her arms.

“You two are coming with me,” the woman said, her face leonine, Sam’s mind still reeling from what he’d just witnessed moments ago.

It only took half a whiff as the woman stood him up, congested Sam instantly knowing that she was from one of those rune schools that Zoe had told him about.

The School of Heart, apparently, which was why there were runes glowing beneath her skin.

“That was crazy,” Sam told the woman as she led him away. More Southern Alliance police were on the perimeter now, blocking the crowd from gawking.

“You liked that?” the female officer asked, elbowing Sam in the back.

“Hey!”

“Watch it!” Zoe roared at the lady, kicking her feet out. The tiger girl was also being led by a police officer now, the same one that she’d punched in the gut. He wasn’t happy either, the man shoving her forward every chance he got.

“What are we being arrested for?” Sam asked, wincing at two pains now, the first being the claw marks Zoe had delivered to his back, the second being the elbow that the female cop had gifted him.

“Keep quiet and come along,” the female officer said as she led them to an office tucked behind a bodega. Once they were inside, she pushed Sam into a seat, and Zoe was forcibly pushed into the seat next to him.

The tiger girl tried to kick at the male officer, but he got away this time, going for his wrist guard and aiming it at her.

“Do it, you fucking coward,” said Zoe, a smile coming across her face. Her arms morphed, the cuffs snapping off, Zoe shrieking as she tackled the man.

“Enough!” the female officer said just as another cop appeared with Sam’s bag that contained their exemplar uniforms. “We’re trying to help you. Your friend sent us!”

“Friend?” Zoe asked, just about to gouge the police officer’s eyes out. “Helena Knight sent you?”

“Yes,” the female officer said, “and we were trying to tell you this, but you attacked us! Let him go, dammit.”

Zoe’s tail lowered as she got off the male officer, offering him an unmorphed hand, which he definitely didn’t take.

“Suit yourself,” she said, rejoining Sam. “And sorry,” Zoe told the female officer, offering her a shrug.

“God, these Centralians…”

“We’re really sorry…” Sam assured the female cop.

A teleporter appeared, this one a woman wearing blue leggings and a gray dress.

“These them?” she asked as symbols began to swirl around her.

“Yes. Get them out of my sight, and if I ever see you two again, especially you…” The female officer glared at Zoe. “Let’s just hope that doesn’t happen.”

Chapter Thirty-Two: Reunited and It Feels So Good

(Now it’s time to kick some vampire ass!)

Ozella Rose didn’t know how to tell Helena what she saw when she looked at Juniper.  She couldn’t send her a mental message, and Juniper hadn’t left their company since joining them for breakfast.

The three sat in a room off the kitchen. Maybe it was a nook. Ozella didn’t know; her house had never had a space like this. But architectural preferences of the rich and famous were far from her mind as she triple-checked what she was seeing when she looked at Juniper.

Name: Juniper Hydroze

Status: Non-Exemplar

Power: Script Rune

Strength: Runic Magic

Weakness: N/A

Additional Skill: Portal Summoning, Soft Resurrection, Offensive Runes

Power Rating: 4

Recharge: N/A

Juniper smiled, something flashing behind her eyes. “Good news. The police have spotted your two friends and are trying to apprehend them now. They should be here shortly. Also, since we have a moment, I believe there is something else we should discuss.”

“Yes, there is,” Ozella said, biting her lip for a moment.

Juniper turned to Ozella, a curious look now on her face. “Did you have something you wanted to say?”

“You first,” Ozella said, suddenly feeling nervous. She knew what she saw, but she wanted to see if Juniper was going to admit it or not.

“Very well then, I will cut right to the chase. Last night you used a superpower on me,” Juniper told Helena.

“I did?” Helena asked, the color draining from her face.

“No sense in playing like you don’t know what you have done, I’ve already verified what happened by revisiting the scene.”

“She’s a rune user,” Ozella blurted out. “Script Runes. I saw it, I mean, I know it from her stats.”

“How do you know that?” Juniper asked, her voice wavering. “Are you a telepath?”

“Nope…”

“Wait, did you say you used a rune last night?” asked Helena.

“I painted a note in time as soon as I saw your eyes start to spin,” Juniper told Helena. “Once everything was said and done, I returned to the scene and revisited what I had recorded. Since when did you have a superpower?”

“I…” Helena looked to Ozella.

“We are an exemplar team, an unregistered one, in Centralia,” Ozella said. “We didn’t originally have powers, well, Sam did, and you will meet him soon. Both of us, and Zoe, whom you’ll also meet, gained powers through a chemical explosion.”

“A chemical explosion?”

Ozella nodded. “There’s this guy, Dr. Hamza, and he made a serum that activates a non-exemplar’s dormant power. Our powers were activated.”

“And what would those powers be, aside from hypnosis?”

“One of mine is to collect information from someone just by looking for it. The other is, a bit stranger.”

“Go on…”

“Actually, you can’t see my power. Not unless you are part of my inner circle. But if you must know, Dinah, a blue ghost woman who follows me around, is standing next to you right now,” Ozella said, smiling over at Juniper. “On my command, she can make you feel more pain than you have ever felt in your life. She can also heal you.”

Juniper looked left and right.

“Trust me, you can’t see her, but she’s there.”

“So you are a healer of sorts?”

“She is. I can also turn her tangible. Power-up, on,” and with those words, Dinah’s form solidified. Juniper glanced from the nude woman to Helena. After settling her nerves, she stood and offered Dinah a short bow.

“Nice to meet you,” said Juniper. Dinah stared at her curiously for a moment before Ozella banished her.

“She’s useful,” Helena said, “and definitely works as a surprise in a battle.”

“And do you have a power-up?” Juniper asked.

“Yes, I’m able to create a mass hallucination.”

“Fascinating.”

“But let’s get back to you,” Helena said. “You never told me that you went to a rune school.”

Juniper shrugged. “It’s not something that one volunteers down here. Runes allow non-exemplars to have powers similar to exemplars, but the schools don’t usually take non-exemplars, oddly enough. Their student bodies usually consist of exemplars, who are enhancing their own powers, or wealthy Southerners. As you know, I fit into the latter category.”

A small cloud took shape in the living room, the cloud darkening as it began to rain, the rain forming a teleporter in a gray dress with blue leggings, Zoe and Sam suddenly with the woman.

Zoe was in some clothing that Ozella had never seen before, a forgotten fashion that didn’t look too bad on her, but seemed a bit out of place. Sam was wearing what Ozella assumed was Southern alliance civilian clothing, baggy and thick to hold in warmth.

“These yours?” the teleporter asked with a giggle.

Thunder roared in the living room as the rain that had just spawned the teleporter was sucked back into the cloud, the woman’s body dematerializing with it.

“Sam!” Helena said, running forward and jumping into his arms. She didn’t normally engage in these types of theatrics. Ozella could definitely tell this, and the statkeeper sensed that Helena was putting on the show not only for her friend Juniper, but also for Zoe.

Zoe didn’t have too long to brood as Juniper approached the tiger girl, offering her a bow.

“Who are you?” Zoe asked.

“The person that saved you, well ‘save’ isn’t the right word for it, but I did make it easier for you to find Helena and Ozella here.”

“Hi, Sam; hi, Zoe,” Ozella said.

“And what are you wearing?” Zoe asked Ozella.

“Clothing I gave them, cashmere,” said Juniper. “They couldn’t just go around wearing their exemplar uniforms...”

“Does she know something?” Zoe asked Helena, who was just getting back to her feet after kissing Sam a few times.

“Yes, she has a power, well not like an exemplar, a rune power. Familiar?”

“My family is from the Southern Alliance,” Zoe said with a huff. “I know about runes.”

“And your family name?” asked Juniper.

“You wouldn’t know them. We aren’t royalty, like this,” said Zoe as she looked around the place. “But if you must know, ‘Ramone,’ that’s my family name. Anyway, we can get into that later. What the hell happened last night?”

“We were about to ask you the same thing,” said Ozella as she came forward, Dinah’s form taking shape next to her.

“Hi, Dinah,” Zoe said. “Give Sam some healing real quick, would you? He hit his head.”

The blue ghost nodded and moved over to Sam.

“And your powers?” Juniper asked Zoe. “I’m clear on Ozella and Helena’s, but what are yours.”

“You’re looking at it.” Zoe pointed to her face. “I can do this as well,” she said, her arms  growing in size and her hands turning into sharp claws.

“Fascinating,” said Juniper as she turned to Sam. “And you?”

Sam offered her a tight smile. “My nose.”

“Your nose?”

“Should I show her?”

“By all means,” Helena said as Sam stepped forward, moving away from Dinah, pouting since she couldn’t finish her healing.

“I am a little congested today though. Something in the air down here…”

“A lot of people have allergies in the South due to a variety of winter trees. Anyway, what do you mean by your nose?”

“Are your hands clean?” Sam asked.

“Of course they are,” said Juniper.

“Okay, let me smell your hand.”

“Ummm…”

“Just trust me.”

Juniper held her hand out and Sam brought it about six inches away from his nose. His nostrils flared for just a moment.

“Your name is Juniper Hydroze and your father is Baham Hydroze. He is a high-ranking official in the Southern Alliance government, which is one way your family has acquired so much wealth. Another way your family has created so much wealth is through joint real estate deals that were orchestrated by the Knight Corporation, in which they didn’t receive any property but high commissions. But that’s just about the money. You, yourself, have been Helena’s friend for about a decade. Helena doesn’t know, or she didn’t know up until recently, that you spend time in the far south, studying at the School of Script, but you did not graduate. This is why you are back here, now, because your parents have tasked you with overseeing family affairs as punishment for not graduating.”

“You’ve said enough,” Juniper told him, her finger twitching.

“Last thing I will say. You cast your spells using quick gestures with your fingers. You are right-handed, so you predominately cast spells with the right hand, but you also taught yourself to do it with your left hand, which you never told anyone because you wanted it to be a backup plan.”

“Are you sure you’re not a telepath?”

“Nope,” Sam said, “my olfactory epithelium is twice as good as a dog’s.”

“More like twenty times as good,” said Ozella, “with a big dosage of psychometry.”

“Well now that we are all done measuring each other’s… ” Zoe looked to Sam’s crotch. “Never mind, that doesn’t really apply to the situation. I say we move on to the task at hand.”

“Wait, first tell me about your power-ups.”

“My power-up allows me to turn normal for an hour,” Zoe told Juniper. “Sam’s allows him to switch which of his senses is superpowered.”

Juniper nodded. “I guess that leaves one other question. Why are you here? Why have you come to the South?”

“How much do we need to tell her again?” Sam asked.

“I could just cast a rune that creates a zone of truth.” Juniper brought her hands to her sides.

“Fuck all that noise. We’re here to stop a vampire infestation,” Zoe said, enunciating each word carefully. “And we are not bullshitting you here. And now that we’re back together, we need to move.”

“Yes, we really do,” Helena said, and Ozella could tell by the tone of her voice that she was again taking charge. There had been a lot of chaos over the last few minutes, different people’s egos getting in the way and vying for speaking time.

Now it was time for action.

“If you’re going to do anything in my country, I’m coming with you,” Juniper said.

“Can you fight?” Zoe asked.

“What else do you think we study at the School of Script?”

“She’s not lying,” Sam said, lifting his nose in the air.

“You don’t have to verify everything I tell you,” Juniper snapped at him.

“Noted,” said Sam.

“Well, we sort of have outfits that we have to wear when we’re out heroing,” Zoe said. “Do you have something?”

“I’m pretty sure I can conjure something up.”

“You can create clothing too?” Zoe asked.

“No, but I do have a pretty extensive closet.”

Helena rubbed her hands together for a moment. “Okay, we will start at the train station where the cargo was dropped off. While you find a change of clothing, I will catch them up on what has happened,” Helena told Juniper. “And don’t worry, I’ll give you more details later.”

***

Hell yes, they got the drop on an unsuspecting Southern Alliance man.

The jabroni was in a pair of overalls, carrying a crate across the trainyard when a teleporter appeared, Vigilante Justice falling out of a portal, all performing superhero landings except for Ozella, who landed wrong and ended up falling to her side.

“Ozella!” Zoe hissed.

Living up to her promise, Juniper wore white robes and a bandanna over the bottom half of her face. She had also been the one who had created the portal, which meant that as long as she was with them, they wouldn’t need to call a teleporter.

“What are you doing?” the man asked, who didn’t seem as scared of the five would-be heroes as he was annoyed that they had appeared out of nowhere, startling him. “You know I’m carrying explosive persimmons in here, right? That could have been a disaster!”

“Explosive persimmons?” Zoe asked, eying the man suspiciously.

“Actually, he’s not lying,” Sam said.

“Would you stop telling people if they’re telling the truth or not?” Zoe asked him, Juniper agreeing with a nod.

“No, that’s a real thing, that’s all I’m saying. I didn’t use my nose, that was the same thing that led us to Dr. Hamza. Right, Ozella?”

“I hurt my knee,” Ozella said as she stood. “Dinah, will you help me?”

“Amateurs,” Zoe said under her breath.

Ozella stuck her leg out for a moment, lifting her skirt just a bit, which must’ve looked really strange to the guy who was now barely holding on to his crate of explosive persimmons, the dude clearly hopeful that she would lift the skirt just a little bit further.

“Hey, creep,” said Zoe, “we’re here for some information.”

“I don’t know anything,” the man said.

“Easy way or the hard way?” asked Helena, her hands on her hips.

“The easy way being you make him hallucinate; the hard way being I get to beat some answers out of him, right?”

Helena nodded at the tiger girl. “More or less.”

“Is this how you operate?” Juniper asked.

Sam shrugged. “Not all the time, but, well, more or less. If we get information quickly, we’ll just go that route.”

“By threatening people?”

“Yeah,” the man said, “do you guys seriously go around getting information from people by threatening them?”

“This conversation is not about you,” Zoe told him, wagging her finger at the man.

“Why’s she so angry?” the man asked.

“Let’s get the information we need and get out of here,” Zoe said, ignoring his question. “We have already blown our cover. We should be thanking our lucky stars they aren’t here right now about to pounce on us.”

“You seem to be the best one for pouncing,” Juniper said as she approached the man.

“Hey,” Zoe started to tell the woman.

“Look, I do know who you are, and to be honest with you, I don’t want to know who any of you are,” the man said. “But I swear, I got nothing.”

“Please set the box down,” said Juniper.

“You five need to get off this property. I will call the police, I swear,” he said, his hands starting to tremble.

“Place the box on the ground,” Helena said, her eye turning into a spinning bullseye, “now.”

It only took a moment for her hypnosis to kick in, the man doing exactly what she said.

“Now, tell us what you know about the cargo that was delivered last night. It would have been a train that came in at around 10:30 PM.”

“They wouldn’t let me look at anything,” he said. “They simply paid off a customs guy, and went on their way.”

“Went on their way?” Sam asked, exchanging glances with Zoe. “There’s another destination?”

The man shrugged. “I don’t know. Obviously, they weren’t going to tell me. Now, you may get some more information out of the customs guy, his name is Rob, and he’s currently on his break. He gets real pissed off if people bother him on his break. Real pissed.”

“Great,” said Zoe, “then that’s just what we’ll do. Do you know where he takes his break?”

“He usually just goes around to the side there, to a break room that we added last year.”

“Thank you,” Zoe told him as she turned in the direction he was pointing. “Anyone joining me?”

“I’ll join you,” said Ozella as she caught up to Zoe.

The nerdy statkeeper dusted off her knee, and smiled at the tiger girl once they reached the break room door.

“You really are oblivious to things, aren’t you?”

“Not really,” Ozella said. “I pretty much know everything that’s going on at all times.”

Zoe shuddered at this statement, and kept moving to the door in question. Eventually the others joined her, Zoe looking to Helena to take charge even though she’d originally just planned to barge in.

It was subtle, and if anyone had seen the way that she glanced at her, they may not have picked it up, but Zoe, while headstrong and generally bossy, preferred an enforcer role, not the leader role. Plus she was feeling guilty about what had happened last night.

Zoe wouldn’t have admitted this to anyone, but there really was no denying it: even if Sam had played somewhat of a role, what had happened last night was entirely her fault, and she planned to take what had happened with her to the grave.

And if there was ever a chance for it to happen again…

She would do her best to resist it.

“Zoe, Ozella, you stand guard out here. Sam, Juniper, come with me,” Helena said.

“Will do,” Sam said, flashing Zoe the peace sign as they entered the break room.

“Looks like it’s just you and me,” Ozella told her, crossing her arms over her chest, her breasts lifting as she put a little pressure on them. Zoe looked at Ozella’s breasts and back up to her face, offering her a short smile. “Why are you so grumpy?”

“No reason, and I’m not grumpy. It was just a long night. And don’t use any of your powers on me. I’d rather not relive it.”

“I won’t,” Ozella said, turning away from Zoe. “Besides, it’s not like I couldn’t figure out what happened last night. Wait, did something happen?”

“Of course not,” Zoe said, her voice a little louder than normal.

“Oh, okay.”

“I’m glad you and Helena got a good night’s sleep though, and I’m not trying to be a bitch by saying that. For a minute there, I thought Sam and I were going to have to sleep in a barn. It would have been cold as balls.”

Ozella grinned. “Why do people say, ‘cold as balls?’ Balls are not cold.”

“That’s a good observation. I don’t know why people say that, and I don’t know why women use terms that only guys should use. Not my call. Here they come.”

Helena stepped out, followed by Sam and Juniper, the newest addition to the group with a very concerned look on her face.

“What happened?” Zoe asked.

“I definitely was not expecting that,” Sam said. “I can’t even…”

“They are taking the children south,” said Juniper, her face twitching nervously, “and if the man isn’t lying, which he can’t be because of Helena’s power, they are taking them to the School of Heart.”

“Come again?” Zoe asked.

“They’re taking them to a rune school?” Ozella asked. “But why?”

“Well, sort of how your story about vampires is a long story, the story of the various rune schools is also a long story. And it is a story that I’m going to have plenty of time to tell you,” Juniper said as a portal appeared.

“Where are we going?” Zoe asked.

“Back to my house to get supplies,” Juniper said. “Teleporters and portals will only go so far to the south. From there we will have to make our way on our own to the School of Heart. We could wait for the next caravan to go, but that could expose our cover. So we’re going to go it alone. We will need to camp out at least one night, maybe two, which is why we need to get supplies.”

Zoe looked to Sam, who nodded at her, a confident look on his masked face. “Sweet, this is the kind of shit I live for. Let’s go cause some trouble.”

Chapter Thirty-Three: Over the River and Through the Woods

(Vigilante Justice and Juniper go on a camping trip.)

Sam Meeko had to take a moment to look at himself in the mirror.

He had never worn this type of clothing before, nothing this warm, and he was already feeling the sweat starting to pool under his arms. He was in a lambskin jacket with his exemplar clothing underneath, a pair of pants with fur-lined cuffs and deerskin boots.

He also had other cold-weather gear, a thick scarf, a beanie, leather gloves with cashmere lining. This on top of his normal accoutrements, which Juniper was able to procure so they would be ready for anything.

It was amazing that they fit, but strapped over both arms were Southern Alliance wrist guards, these ones similar to the pair he had back in Centralia, each with a glowing button on the side.

Juniper wasn’t kidding when she said it was going to be cold where they were going, but in the city, in Juniper’s ginormous mansion, he felt both warm and out of place.

What a life, Sam thought as he continued to look at himself in his winter tundra gear. Who would have thought that a guy arrested for getting freaky with a sex doll and accused of impersonating an exemplar would now be on an exemplar team in a foreign country, about to save the goddamn place without anyone actually knowing what they were up to?

A life of mystery, intrigue, danger and excitement.

Hells yeah.

Sam could have never dreamed of this when he was younger, back when he fantasized about doing heroic shit, but here he was, ready to do what needed to be done.

A knock at the door stopped Sam just before he made an ass of himself.

He was about to strike a pose, his arms crossed over his chest, a ‘fuck it I’m going in’ look on his face, a real tough guy.

Ozella entered without first asking permission, the group’s statkeeper in even warmer clothing than she had been wearing before. Somehow, and Sam chalked this up to Juniper’s vast wealth, they had managed to put together an outfit for Ozella that still had a skirt, even if she wore fur leggings, which kind of made her look like an animal.

This was why Sam started to laugh as he turned to her, Ozella giving him a curious look.

“Sorry,” Sam said, “just wasn’t expecting them to nail your outfit so well.”

“It looks okay, right?” Ozella asked. She wore a hood, the fur rimming most of the circumference of her face. Her blonde bangs fell over her eyes as she looked up at Sam, her cheeks turning red.

“It’s awesome,” he said, “but if we have to wear gear this warm, it does make me a little afraid for where we are going.”

“Tell me about it. Anyway, I was told to come get you. The others are ready.”

“All right, let’s do this,” Sam said as he followed Ozella out, mouth-breathing as usual.

The clothing was new; he didn’t need his enhanced olfactory senses to tell him that. They had been at Juniper’s mansion now for two hours while the clothing was being custom-made by an intelligence-based exemplar. This meant that it was perfectly tailored, the fur and leather fused together rather than stitched, which was odd.

Ozella led Sam outside, a few snow flurries swirling in the air.

They passed the man standing guard in the winter garden, who merely nodded at them as they continued along a cobblestone path to a garage of sorts. Juniper, Helena, and Zoe were standing inside, several large backpacks on the table next to them.

Helena wore an outfit similar to Ozella’s, but no skirt. It was also a leather and fur get-up, the soft, white fur on Helena’s jacket and hood looking to be a grade higher than the fur on Ozella’s.

Zoe’s outfit was a bit looser, which Sam assumed was for mobility reasons.

While her jacket buttoned all the way up to her throat, she had the first several buttons open, the tops of her breasts on full display. She didn’t have a hood on her jacket. Instead she used the hood on her exemplar uniform, her ears poking out. She also wore a thick scarf.

Juniper wore something similar to what she’d been dressed in back at the train station, flowing white robes now with thick fur padding the inner fabric. She also wore a fox fur hat, two tassels hanging off the back of the cap.

“Grab a backpack, we’re going now,” Juniper said.

It was interesting to see the dynamics between Helena and Juniper.

In a way, they acted almost like sisters, one taking charge and eventually switching off to the other. Sam could tell that they were more familiar with each other than they let on, probably from the years they had spent having to act in a certain way, never truly revealing their emotions.

It was something he would explore later through his nostrils (which was a weird way to think about it), and he was definitely feeling the change in dynamics of having a new member in their group, even if it was temporary.

He caught Juniper in the act, the woman with long auburn hair tracing her finger in the air, painting an invisible script.

Fascinating.

A portal opened up just a few seconds later, and she invited the four to step through.

Once Sam had his backpack on, he stepped into the portal, his form instantly reappearing in a wooded area covered in snow. Ozella was next, followed by Zoe, then Helena and Juniper.

“Portals don’t go directly to the schools?” Sam asked, suddenly feeling the cold smack him in the face.

“No,” said Juniper, “they have wards all over the far south that prevent any type of teleportation or portal usage. Well, at least into the schools. You can teleport or take a portal out, but going in requires advanced permission.”

“Good to know,” Sam said as Juniper waved them forward. “And yeah, now I see why we needed these warm clothes.”

“The tailors took a little longer than I would have liked, but that gave you time to catch me up on the vampire situation, which is…” Juniper stopped. “I just can’t believe that someone is trying to bring that here. And to the Rune School of Heart?”

“Any idea why they would want to go to the School of Heart?” Ozella walked with her hands holding the straps of her bulky backpack. She still had her red backpack strung from one shoulder as well, which bounced against the larger sack.

“I have my suspicions,” said Juniper. “But we may have to get closer to tell.”

“What are you thinking?” Sam asked.

“Well, what do you know about runes?”

“Only what I have read in comics,” he told her as they made their way down a small hill, Sam careful not to step on any of the ice that had formed. There was fresh snow on the ground, but there were also spots where the snow had already melted a little and frozen again, now with track marks from a cart cutting through it.

There wasn’t anyone around, but he could tell that people had moved through this area, mostly due to the tracks, but also because of discarded food along the path, all of it now with a solid sheet of ice over it.

“You Centralians and your comics,” Juniper said.

“It sounds to me like someone’s jealous,” Zoe said under her breath, shooting a quick smile over to Sam.

He gave her a funny look; it hadn’t been but a few hours ago that she was talking shit about comics as well.

“Jealous of what? Your comic books?” Juniper laughed. “We have our own forms of entertainment down here. Anyway, about runes and rune schools, we should start with just runes. Runes are practiced in both the southern and northern alliances. In fact, it is one of our biggest disputes with one another. But I’ll get to that later. In our world, there are exemplars and non-exemplars, and before the Eastern Province was able to devise advanced tech that could recreate a superpower, there were runes. There were also stones, which the East and the North used, the West as well, but runes represent an ancient technique that all of us used to share, but three of the countries have mostly forgotten about. This is why you Centralians don’t know anything about them.”

“I learned something about them,” Ozella said, “but not as much as I would like. There aren’t many books in Centralia about them, and the ones that exist are hard to come by.”

“We will take care of that, then,” said Juniper. “Before you leave the South, I will make sure you leave with a treasure trove of books on runes.”

“That would be so awesome,” Ozella said with a whisper, smiling up at Juniper, even though Juniper wasn’t looking at her.

Helena walked to Juniper’s left, somehow managing to look dainty even though she was wearing a bulky warm outfit. Sam couldn’t remember a time he had seen her without ballet flats, but even with the fact she wore boots, she still moved in the same light way she always did, almost as if she were poised on the balls of her feet.

He could also tell that she had heard some of these rune explanations before in her previous trips to the South, which was why she was mostly looking around, just keeping an eye on their surroundings. In that moment Sam had the urge to catch up to her and loop his hand in hers, Helena immediately smiling at him as their hands locked.

“Learning and understanding runes isn’t something that everyone can do. It’s almost a dormant power in that way. There are plenty of Southerners who, even if given a full rune education, would not be able to cast a simple spell. Unfortunately, because of the nature of exemplars, rune usage over the last century for non-exemplars has dwindled. I am sure you have heard, as is the propaganda in Centralia, that non-exemplars don’t have rights in the South.”

Sam nodded, it was literally what every Centralian was taught.

“This isn’t quite the case, but class separation is something that every non-exemplar struggles with. Before, the struggle was answered through runes. The four schools mostly taught non-exemplars how to use various powers, and those non-exemplars were able to coexist with the exemplars. But, without getting into Southern Alliance history, a shift in power has radically changed that. Now the only non-exemplars who study runes are people like me, people who can afford to.”

“Why do you think the group we are tracking, Fang, are so interested in going to the School of Heart?” Zoe asked, suddenly becoming interested in the conversation. “We were under the impression that they were trying to start up the Western Plague part two, so this is definitely a new development.”

“So, as I’ve already explained, each of the four rune schools have their various ways of casting magic. The School of Script, my school, uses ancient writing. The School of Whisper uses ancient words. The School of Ring hammers power into objects—enchantment. The School of Heart does the same thing as the School of Ring, only it is blood-based, which is fascinating to see.”

“Blood-based?” Helena asked, looking over her shoulder at Zoe.

“Something is starting to make sense, but I don’t know exactly what it is,” the tiger girl said.

“It does make sense, in a weird way, that vampires would be interested in the usage of rune magic and blood,” said Ozella. “This also brings up another issue, something we haven’t really discussed yet,” she said, looking to Helena.

“What’s that?” Helena asked.

“So we were tricked. We were told from the beginning that they were bringing these children vampires down here to start the next Western Plague. Even Donovan told you and Zoe that. But that’s not what they’re trying to do.”

“We don’t know that yet,” Sam reminded Ozella.

“What are you getting at?” asked Helena, her breath now visible.

“They could have already started that if that’s what they wanted to do,” said Zoe.

“Maybe they’re trying to make the vampires stronger by bringing them down here,” Ozella suggested.

“That could be the key here,” said Juniper as they moved off the path and into the woods. No one questioned why they were doing this; everyone trusted that Juniper knew where she was going.

The snow was about six inches thick now, a light dusting covering their clothing as well. While Zoe’s chest had been on display earlier, her shirt was now buttoned, her scarf wrapped even more tightly around her neck.

All of them were starting to feel the effects of the cold, and it wasn’t even night yet.

“Aside from that part,” said Ozella. “I understand how they were able to lie to the people they worked with, the gangsters, whatever. But how did Donovan lie to you?” she asked Helena. “That’s why I brought this up. How did he lie to you? He was under hypnosis, right?”

“Right, and I really don’t know the answer to that question. Zoe was there though, and it seemed genuine, right?”

“Yes, Jessica Bunny.”

“Maria Meow,” Helena said, a smile stretching across her face as they came to a frozen river. They easily crossed it, Sam preventing Ozella from slipping by catching her hand just in time.

“Maybe this Donovan fellow is a rune user as well,” Juniper offered. “He may have done the same thing I did. As soon as your eye started to change, he cast a rune.”

“Do you think he is a practitioner of your school?” Sam asked her.

“Well, he wouldn’t be from the School of Whisper because you would have heard him say something, but he certainly could have been from the other three schools, even my school. I really don’t know.”

“But that still brings us to the main question,” said Sam. “Why are they going to the School of Heart?”

“Whatever it is, I’m going to assume that it is for nefarious reasons,” said Juniper. “All of you stop for a moment. It’s time I increase your inner warmth.”

The four members of Vigilante Justice stood around Juniper for a moment as she traced some letters into the air. With each gesture, she pushed whatever she had written forward, and when it came time for her to push what she had written toward Sam, he instantly felt a strange warmness spread down his chest and to his extremities.

“Good. It’s only going to get colder from here, so let me know if you start to feel cold again,” Juniper said. “The plan is to walk until we can’t walk any longer, and build a shelter at that point. It’s going to be a cold night, but at least we’ll be warm. Just be sure to stay close. It is very easy to get lost in these woods.”

Chapter Thirty-Four: Electric Bearwolves

(Snow demons they are, yarr!)

Look, Sam was no stranger to the outdoors. His family owned a vineyard, not a very large one, but wine was quite the commodity in Centralia, so they did well enough. And when he wasn’t in school or off farting around, he usually helped out at the vineyard.

TLDR; Sam was used to being outdoors.

But those were generally warm days.

Sure, there was the Centralian breeze, and the occasional cold rain, but it was nothing like what he was experiencing now in the Southern Alliance, the snow now ten inches high, his body warm, but his nostrils red and runny. And he was getting tired as well, not used to the effort it took to trudge through the snow for hours and hours.

The sun would set soon, and Juniper was already talking aloud about settling down for the night. But she was also used to this type of weather, conviction on her face as she urged the group to go further, just a little bit further, no more than a mile. So that’s what Vigilante Justice did, the four putting all their trust into Helena’s old friend.

“Do you have any runes for a runny nose?” Sam asked her.

“I wish,” Juniper said, her nose clearly runny as well. “Just inner warmth, which doesn’t seem to do anything against a cold nose.”

They pressed forward, Zoe’s ears flickering every now and then, the predator in her making itself known. Usually when this happened, they would hear rustling nearby, some forest creature on the move. Occasionally she would pause for a moment, look around, spot Sam and look away.

Weird woman, Sam thought as they ducked under a low hanging branch, the snow falling onto the top of Sam’s hood.

Ozella kept making little snowballs and then tossing them back into the woods, the shy statkeeper entirely enamored by the snow.

Eventually, this prompted some probing from Zoe.

“You know, it does snow sometimes in Centralia,” the tiger girl said, moving lower now, her tail lifting into the air. “You act like you’ve never seen this stuff before.”

“Not this much,” said Ozella. “I really wish we could just stop and build some snowmen. There’s never enough snow in Centralia to build an adequate snowman. Sorry if that sounds stupid.”

Sam laughed. “We’re not here to build snowmen, although that would be fun. Or a snowball fight…”

“With our powers?” Zoe asked. “Pfft. I would have you all screaming for mercy in a matter of moments.”

“I would just hypnotize you and force you on my team, then take out the other three,” Helena said, jumping into the fray.

“That’s cheating!”

“All’s fair in a snowball fight,” Sam reminded Zoe. “And I am not ashamed to say that my powers would be of no use in that scenario. But I do have some endurance, plus I could power up my sense of sight, get far away, and then ambush you when you came after me.”

“Who said anyone would come after you?” Zoe asked.

Juniper laughed at this.

“See? She’s starting to get me.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Juniper told Zoe as they passed by a large rock, roots from a tree nearby jutting over its edge. “Stop,” she said, looking at the rock for a moment.

“A geologist too, huh?” Zoe asked.

“No, nothing like that. This rock was thrown here years ago, must have been hundreds of years ago. As you can tell, it disrupted the trees in the area.”

“Let me take a look at it,” Sam said, coming closer to the rock, and leaning forward so he could give it a good sniff. In that moment he saw an epic battle, one that pitted two rival rune users against one another, a fight that destroyed half the forest and left a mark on the area that had led to dozens of local superstitions.

“Do you sense it?” Juniper asked, glancing at Sam curiously.

Sam found himself looking back at Juniper, staring at her for much longer than he normally would have. He hadn’t really been this close to her yet, and now he was seeing all sorts of details of her face, the way her lips were parted, her cheekbones just a little higher than your average Centralian, her pupils slightly dilated, her intense focus.

“I sense it,” Sam said, turning away. “And what a battle it was.”

“Someone fought in this forest?” Ozella asked, looking around. “That must have been so difficult, especially with all the trees. You could hurt yourself just running around.”

“When they finished, it wasn’t much of a forest. Besides,” said Juniper as she turned back to the path, “the fight actually started a couple of miles to the east. The rock was thrown that far.”

“Through runic magic, right? There’s no way an exemplar could do something like that.” Helena shook her head at Juniper. “Such an untapped resource, especially for Centralians.”

“And the source of many a war, the most recent one taking place in the Western Province, along the borderlands between my country and the North. I do feel sorry for the West.”

“Better there than Centralia,” said Zoe with a shrug. “Sorry if that sounds harsh, but who’d want that type of war in the place they lived?”

“We used to fight in Centralia; that used to be the battlegrounds, long before it was a country,” Juniper said. “And I’m guessing most of you don’t know that.”

“I’ve read it,” said Ozella, Helena nodding as well.

“Never heard of it,” said Zoe.

“Same as her,” said Sam. “I’ve never heard that in my life.”

“Centralia wasn’t always the shining country on the hill,” Juniper told him. “The North and the South and parts of the East developed much earlier than Centralia, and until borders were cut out, it was the ideal place for battle. But that was years ago, thousands of years, in a time much different than now. It does make you wonder what a thousand years from now will be like, where the countries will stand and what will become of these rivalries. There really is no telling.”

“Everyone stop,” Zoe said, her ears perking up. “Something’s coming, something big.”

“Okay,” Juniper said, immediately tracing something with her finger. “Brace yourselves. We’ve got company.”

***

Sam had never seen anything like it before.

Something between a bear and a wolf, an enormous predator stood before them, dark fur, its body outlined in electricity. It snarled, and as it did, its form began to separate into two bearwolves, saliva dripping from their jaws, their dark angry eyes focused on the group.

The next thing Sam heard was the sound of Helena and Zoe activating their energy blades. He did the same, lifting his other arm with the energy weapon on it, his wrist guard now aimed at the first bearwolf.

“There is a rune user nearby,” Juniper said, a spark of energy shooting out from her fingertips and touching everything in the immediate vicinity before fading away. “I’ve marked it. For now, let’s deal with these two.”

“Power-up, on,” Ozella said, and Dinah’s form took shape. “Go, Dinah!”

A smile formed on the strange woman’s face, especially once she saw that she was standing in snow. Dinah took off toward the front of the group, just as the first bearwolf began its charge.

Dinah met the creature head on, doing her best to gouge out the monster’s eyes, Dinah not experiencing any pain as it tried to chomp down on her. In fact, because her ability allowed her to keep growing appendages back, she ended up confusing the creature, riding it in a way as it tried to repeatedly tear her arm from its socket.

“Stay back!” Zoe said, going for the next creature and sidestepping just in time for the bearwolf to jump forward, gnashing its teeth, snow spraying in the air.

The two predators circled each other, Zoe the most feline Sam had ever seen her, hunched over, her arms fully transformed, her tail up in the air.

The creature tried for another bite and Zoe dodged it, scraping her claws along its side and suffering from an intense shock in the process.

“We can’t touch its flesh,” Juniper said as she dialed up another rune, sending it forward just as the bearwolf lunged toward Zoe.

The rune, which spiraled as more written characters formed around it, slipped between Zoe and the creature just in time, the monster slamming into it as if it had run straight into a wall.

“Blast it down, Sam!” Helena commanded, pointing forward.

“Right,” Sam said, his hand now under his opposite elbow as he fired his first shot. The beam of energy struck the monster, sending it stumbling backward, a cloud of snowy mist peppering the air.

Adjusting the dial on his arm to set the weapon to lethal, Sam blasted the bearwolf again, and another time, the monster finally falling to the side, wheezing.

The other bearwolf, Dinah’s arm still in its mouth, took one look at its fallen partner and backpedaled, whimpering for a moment even as Dinah tried to push injury into its body.

It reared up onto its hind legs, knocking Dinah off, and bolted into the woods.

“Follow it!” Juniper said, already starting to chase after the bearwolf.

Helena followed her without hesitation, Sam, Zoe, Ozella and Dinah bringing up the rear. Dinah was fast, and she soon passed Sam and Ozella. Zoe took this as a challenge and increasing her speed as she sped through the trees. Juniper traced a script as she ran, a floating light appearing overhead.

“Thanks!” Helena caught up to Juniper, both of them running at exactly the same speed now.

“Why are we chasing this thing?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know!” Ozella shouted.

“Just shut up and run!” Zoe yelled over her shoulder, still racing Dinah, who turned to Zoe, stuck her tongue out, and increased her speed. “Bitch,” the tiger girl said under her breath as they came to a toppled tree.

She leapt over it, Sam too, Ozella not so much.

The statkeeper tripped forward, crying out in pain as she face-planted in the snow. “Ozella?” Sam circled back to help her to her feet.

“Dang…” she said.

“Are you okay?” he asked as he started dusting her off.

“Sorry, I’m not as fast as you guys,” she said. “So sorry…”

“Nothing to be sorry about. Come on, let’s catch up with them.”

Sam saw a flash of something incredibly fast coming his way. The wolf he had blasted earlier leapt over the fallen tree trunk and brought Sam to the ground, immediately sinking its teeth into his shoulder, electricity coursing through his body.

Sam fired a blast from his wrist guard, but it went wide, cutting into a tree.

What the…!?

The bearwolf staggered for a moment and fell to the side, Ozella standing in the snow, her hair covering her face, her wrist guard still pointed at the creature.

“Damn…” Sam rolled to the side, his shoulder all sorts of fucked.

“Power-up, off,” Ozella said, stumbling over to Sam. “Dinah…”

The ghost woman rose from the ground, her hands coming to her mouth as she saw Sam, his shoulder a bloodied mess, the flecks of snow on his coat stained crimson. She went at it almost immediately, her hands on both sides of Sam’s face as her lips met his cheek.

“Where are the others?” Sam asked as the pain began to fade. It was weird for Dinah to be this close to him, almost as if she was kissing him, but he ignored it as the pain dissipated.

“I think they’re still chasing the other bearwolf,” Ozella said. “But Juniper left some lights for us to follow.” She pointed up at the trees, and Sam noticed a string of small, glowing orbs.

“Sweet. That should make this a bit easier.”

Once he was healed up, Dinah focused her power on Ozella, who wasn’t too injured, but had taken a pretty good fall after hitting the tree stump.

Just to be sure, Sam aimed his wrist guard at the downed bearwolf’s head, firing off a blast that sprayed its brains against the snow.

“Just to be sure it doesn’t sneak up on us again,” he said.

“Good plan. Let’s catch up with them,” Ozella said, “and we can go slower this time.”

“Yeah, let’s go a little slower,” he said, offering Ozella his arm. She took it, and with Dinah in front of them, they began following the orbs.

Chapter Thirty-Five: Crabby Hermit

(Or hermity crab?)

“I really hope that these orbs take us where we’re supposed to go,” Ozella said. They had been following the glowing orbs for almost thirty minutes now, and Sam was starting to get apprehensive. Their bags were getting heavy too. Sam had offered to carry Ozella’s a couple of times, but the shy statkeeper had told him she could handle it.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Juniper; he trusted anyone that Helena could vouch for. But they were in a foreign country with just a small amount of information on their current location, plus it was freezing out, plus they were running around in the goddamn woods, plus it was getting harder and harder to see the glowing orbs.

“We’ll get there eventually,” he told Ozella, who was still latched onto his arm. It was better this way, the two of them braving this together, both occasionally getting a glimpse of Dinah’s naked blue ass as she led the way.

“Are you cold?” Sam asked Ozella.

“I’m fine, but my cheeks are freezing; they feel like they’re frozen solid. I really wish I had a facemask or something.”

“Tell me about it. My runny nose has definitely limited my power,” Sam said as a gust of wind blew past, obscuring the orbs. “Shit. Okay, whew, they’re back.”

“I really hope we get some shelter soon. My guess is that it only gets colder as the night progresses, plus there must be some other types of crazy animals out here.”

As Ozella said this she squeezed Sam’s arm, Sam naturally tensing his muscle, using what little bicep he had to hopefully offer her some encouragement. They kept going like this, deeper and deeper into the forest, a sinking feeling in Sam’s chest starting to move to his extremities.

He wasn’t cold, aside from his face, but he was starting to get scared, and he didn’t want this feeling to rub off on Ozella. So he pushed ahead, following the orbs as stoically as a dude with an enhanced sniffer lost in the woods could until they came to a rock formation.

At first, Sam couldn’t tell what they were looking at, but then he saw light from the orbs cut off in a way that made him believe they were about to enter into a cave.

“I hear voices,” Ozella said as both of them felt a rush of energy.

“Let’s hurry.”

They moved quickly into the cavern, Sam glad to be out of the snow. They stopped once they heard the voices again, and Sam pressed his back against the cave wall. “Ozella,” he whispered, “get ready to use your weapon. We don’t know what’s happening down there; they could have captured Helena and the others.”

“Who?” Ozella asked.

“Helena and the others.”

“No, who could have captured them?”

“Didn’t Juniper say that there was a rune user in the vicinity? I think it had something to do with the bearwolves. Anyway, it doesn’t matter, let’s just be prepared. Dinah can be our backup weapon.”

“Dinah,” Ozella said, the ghost woman appearing at her side. “Stay close, we may need you.”

Dinah nodded as they moved deeper into the cavern. Sam was finally able to remove his hood for a moment, snow falling from his hood onto the rough soil beneath him.

“You brought this upon yourself,” they heard Juniper say. “Stop blaming us for killing your pet. Besides, you conjured it, so it’s not real in the first place. You can technically conjure another one.”

“Do you know how much effort it takes for a man my age to conjure a bearwolf? Especially one as cute as that? Why can’t you understand this? You are from the School of Script. You don’t have the heart to understand it.”

“That’s not what we are discussing here; what we are discussing is why you have taken it upon yourself to attack us.”

“This is my… This is my area,” the man replied. “It’s all I have, dammit. And you were, and still are, intruders.”

“We’re here,” Sam called out, lowering his weapon after he saw Zoe, Helena and Juniper’s shadows, the shadow of an older man as well, the guy hunched forward a bit. They came around a bend and moved over to Helena’s side. There were magical candles, or at least Sam assumed they were magical, lit around the perimeter of the dwelling. He also saw a few books lying in the corner surrounded by bunched up scrolls, pillows and a few empty boxes.

“Glad you two could finally join us,” Zoe said.

“Is everything okay?” he asked Helena.

“Yes, he’s just being difficult,” she said, looking over her shoulder at the man.

“Difficult?” The man started to cough. He wiped his mouth, his long white beard shaking. “You barge into my cave…”

“You attacked us,” Zoe said, “and how many times do we have to go over this? We followed your bearwolf back here.”

“But you didn’t have to kill him! And where’s the other one?”

“We killed that one,” Sam said matter-of-factly.

“You what!?” The old man slapped his hand against his forehead. “Fuck-to-all-the-gods why, why, are you five so interested in killing an old man’s only friends?”

“How many times do we have to go over this?” Juniper asked. “You can just make new ones.”

“But I really liked those two, and you,” he said, his bushy eyebrows narrowing on Zoe. “You killed mine after he led you back to us. You could have spared his life.”

“That motherfucker had it coming.”

“What? Who says something so crass? Who is this woman you brought to me, Girl of the Script?” he asked Juniper.

“Man of the Heart, these are my traveling companions.”

“Some companions they are! Tasty morsels, maybe, but I’m nearly a hundred years old, and it would take more than a couple of runes for me to erect my proof of manhood. I digress,” he said, running his hand through his beard.

He was dirty, and Sam knew better than to tilt his nose in the old man’s direction. He was glad in that instant that his nostrils were still wet, runny from the cold weather.

“Did you just call us tasty morsels?” Zoe asked, her claws taking shape.

“Relax, Tiger Girl, and allow a perverted old hermit to be himself. Why do you think I’m in this cave all alone? Especially now, after you’ve killed my two companions.”

“I think we got off on the wrong foot,” Juniper said, some of Helena’s trademark diplomacy making itself known. “My name is Juniper. This is Helena, Zoe, Ozella, and Sam.”

“All names I will forget shortly,” the old man said, coughing again. “And take no offense to that statement. I’m just not very good with names. Let me try something. Zoe, Zoe, Zoe. Helena, Helena, Helena. Juniper, Juniper, Juniper. Ozella, Ozella, Ozella. Sam, Sam, Sam. Nope, it’s not helping.”

“Well, that’s fine, what’s your name?” Juniper asked.

“My name?” The man looked up at her for a moment, the clearly magical candles he had in the cave allowing Sam to finally get a good look at his face. The man’s eyes were glassy and gray, his beard stained, an ancient tattoo starting from his forehead and running down the bridge of his nose. “Dorzmon. That’s my name.”

Juniper stopped for a moment, her hand coming to her chest.

“What is it?” Helena asked as she moved from Sam to her friend.

“The Dorzmon?” Juniper asked “Yes, it has to be. You’re the famous lecturer from the School of Heart. What are you doing out here?”

“I’ve been out here for a while now, Girl of the Script.” He tilted his head down, a shadow coming over his face. “And I plan to die out here. And now, I plan to die alone.”

“If you really are Dorzmon, you should easily be able to conjure new creations.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve been depressed for a couple of years,” he said, gesturing for them to join him on the ground. He sat, his frail legs crossed under his robes. “Please, set your bags down and take a seat. Apparently, you five will be staying here tonight. I keep trying to kick you out, but you don’t get the hint. But what can I do? You know, I have to be honest with you five. I tried to deny what the rune was telling me. Hell, I sent my two best friends to scare the five of you off. But the rune never lies, the spirit is ever-present.”

Sam and the others took their seats around the man, Zoe the only one not to sit. She crouched instead, still ready to spring into action if necessary.

“Why are you out here?” Juniper asked again.

“I was banished from the school by the new headmaster, a wicked man named Sugoz. But it’s not as bad as it sounds. While the cave can get cold, it’s quite toasty at night, especially if I borrow a little strength from the ground.”

Dorzmon placed a hand on the ground, and a warm wave radiated forward. Soon, Sam was warm enough to take off his jacket, which he did, folding and placing it on the ground next to him. There was still a tear where the bearwolf had bitten into the coat, bite marks which also cut through Sam’s uniform. But at least he was healed up, just a bit of dried blood around the two holes.

“Why have you been banished?” Helena asked.

“The rune schools aren’t supposed to be for commercial gain. Of course, they have become that, especially with the changes in leadership over the last couple centuries. But I always had faith in the School of Heart, that we wouldn’t become a strictly financial institution, like the one you went to, Script Girl,” he told Juniper.

Sam waited for Juniper to snap back, but she didn’t, merely acknowledging what he said with a slight nod of her head.

“But the new headmaster, the wretched Sugoz, is interested in financial and political gain as well. And here I am. This is what happens when you speak up, when you make your thoughts known, and looking back, I guess it’s stupid to say this but it’s true, dammit. I wouldn’t have done it any other way. I don’t know if I affected any of the students in the courtyard that day, when I told Sugoz exactly how I felt, but I like to think I did.”

“We were actually heading toward the School of Heart,” Juniper said.

“I know,” said Dorzmon, a weariness to his voice that made Sam feel sorry for the guy even though the dude’s bearwolf had seriously tried to take a chunk out of Sam’s shoulder.

“Are you a telepath?” Ozella asked. The way she was looking at the man told Sam that she wasn’t getting a reading on him at all. Sam assumed that this was because of a rune, Ozella blinking her eyes, rubbing them, trying to focus on the man and coming up with nothing.

“No, and you won’t get any information from me that way. No, I merely listen to the rune. You know, Girl of the Script, the better you get at listening to the rune, the more it becomes part of you. It is part of my blood and it could be part of your blood, regardless of which school you studied at, and failed to graduate from.”

Juniper hung her head in shame for a moment.

Dorzmon waved his hand in her direction. “It speaks to all of us in different ways, even Centralians. So to answer your question, I’m not a telepath, I simply listen. And you will find that in nature, it is much easier to listen than it is in the bustling cities of our world. Sure, some enlightened fellow may tell you that you can reach bliss anywhere, but fuck that guy. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Sam cracked a grin at the old man. He imagined in that moment being his student, getting a daily dosage of both wisdom and vulgarity.

“So then you know why we’re here,” Helena said, getting right to the point.

“You are here because of the caravan I saw passing through earlier today.”

“Vampires,” said Ozella.

“Indeed.” The old man began to cough. “Excuse me, sorry,” he said after he finished coughing. “It is rather ironic, isn’t it? Sending vampires to the School of Heart? Especially given how our rune casting works. It’s quite the shame, but I don’t think there’s much the five of you can do to stop it. Evil is an inevitability. May I suggest retiring to the world you have created for yourselves, one of wealth in Centralia for you,” he told Helena, “and the same for you here, Girl of the Script. I’m sure the rest of you will figure it out.”

“Sorry, that’s not how we operate,” said Sam.

“I was afraid you would say something like that. Well, just let it be known now that I believe the five of you will end up dead if you go after the caravan, and that’s not considering some of the more powerful instructors they have at the School of Heart. While some used to be my friends, who knows what influence Sugoz has had over them. I can say this, however. Going at it in the way you are planning, by marching right up to the gate, is foolhardy indeed. They have checkpoints along the road, wards you won’t be able to get through.”

“Are you saying that you know another way in?” Zoe asked.

Dorzmon yawned. “All I’m saying is that I know these caverns pretty well, and you would be surprised where some of them let out. If you ask nicely, I can take you to one that would drop you off not more than a mile or so from the school. But that will have to wait for tomorrow. The five of you have ruined my night, so the least you could do is let me get some rest. I know it isn’t much,” he said, sweeping his hand toward the rocky ground, “but it’s home. So please, make yourselves comfortable.”

Chapter Thirty-Six: Family Reunion

(All the feels.)

Resting came naturally for the others, but not Ozella Rose. As usual, she was the only one that was awake, sitting across from Dinah. The blue ghost woman was up too, sitting with her legs crossed, and playing with her hair. Strangely enough, her nipples were hard from the cold.

Ozella was excited to get the books that Juniper had promised her, stoked to learn more about runes.

And what an incredible magic!

Ozella could only imagine what rune magic was capable of. Case in point: the candles all around the cave which gave off no smoke, their flames not actually made of fire. They were made of dancing light, yet another magical wonder available to these rune casters.

And it really did fascinate Ozella.

After everything she had learned in school, and with all the books she had read and games she had played, there had hardly been any mention of runes.

And here they were, in the Southern Alliance, experiencing an entirely different world.

This made Ozella want to travel more, to the West, the North, the East. And hopefully, as a member of Vigilante Justice, they would be able to do just that.

What would the other Centralian exemplar teams think if they knew where Vigilante Justice was now? What if they knew just how close they were to getting to the bottom of a potentially global crisis?

Ozella was used to being marginalized.

She was used to being other, different, and even if they were never accepted by the other exemplar teams of Centralia, she would be okay with it. Maybe one of the others wouldn’t like it, but to Ozella it would be par for the course, something not at all foreign to her.

Still, there was a small part of her that just wished this was normalized, that the other groups would recognize them for what they were contributing (or at least attempting to contribute) to the greater good.

Dinah made her way over to Sam, who slept next to Helena, using his jacket for a pillow.

They didn’t need blankets; the cave was a perfect temperature, not too warm, not at all cold. It did, however, look strange to see people just lying on the ground without blankets, the visual reminding Ozella what it would look like if everyone suddenly just died.

She cast this morbid thought away as Dinah crouched in front of Sam, examining him.

She definitely had noticed that Dinah had taken a liking to Sam, but Ozella couldn’t blame her. Sam was an all-around good guy, and the only male in their group, so she expected Dinah to be curious.

What she didn’t expect was for Dinah to lay down next to Sam in her ghost form, her face inches away from his, staring at him in a dreamy way.

“Stop it,” Ozella whispered.

She saw Zoe’s ear twitch, the tiger girl turning to the other side. Zoe wasn’t far from Juniper, who Ozella was starting to like as well. The rune user brought an interesting dynamic to the team, her attitude somewhere between Helena and Zoe’s, and her knowledge something Ozella definitely was excited to soak up.

“I said stop that,” Ozella hissed at Dinah, who moved even closer to Sam, making kissy lips at him. “You are so much trouble.”

Dinah sat up and moved to a crouching position, scooting until her transparent ass was planted firmly on Sam’s face.

“Stop it!” Ozella gasped, Sam waking up, and pressing his head through Dinah’s rear as he sat up.

“Sorry.” Ozella winced as she watched Helena flutter her eyes open, yawn and go back to sleep.

“What are you doing, Dinah?” Sam asked.

The ghost woman stood in front of him, her bald lady bits inches away from Sam’s face.

“Go away,” Ozella said, a darkness to her voice that Sam had rarely heard. Dinah began to fade almost immediately, but not before sticking her tongue out at Ozella, and winking down at Sam.

Sam scratched the back of his head. “What was all that about?”

“She’s acting up,” Ozella told him, biting her lip for a moment. “She tried to sit on your face with her bare ass.”

“She did?” Sam ran his hand through his hair as he carefully inched away from Helena. He got to his feet and moved over to Ozella, sitting on his knees in front of her. “Let’s talk.”

“Talk about what? I don’t know why she did that…”

“I’m not too worried about Dinah,” Sam told her, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes for a moment. “So she isn’t socialized. I mean, she can kind of do whatever she wants in that form anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.”

“You are right, but it doesn’t make it any less awkward.”

“I need to make a confession to you,” Sam said suddenly. “Something happened…”

“What?”

“Dinah…”

“Dinah, what?” Ozella could tell that Sam was thinking of the best way to explain something to her. Eventually, he shook his head, and shrugged, as if he were having an extended dialogue with himself.

“Look, I like you. I told you I wasn’t able to sniff anything out at your parents’ home, and that was wrong. I did sniff something out, and I’m pretty sure…”

“Pretty sure what?”

“Dinah is your twin sister. She died just before you were born.  You came out first, and then she came out… well, dead.”

Ozella’s eyes started to water. “She’s my sister?”

“Yes. I helped your mom bring some laundry into her bedroom, and that’s where I discovered what had happened. You see, your mom went into labor and had you in her bedroom, Dinah coming next, your dad getting there too late and blaming himself, even though there wasn’t anything he could do. This was why he became a nurse, you know. Before that, he had a different job.”

“I vaguely remember my dad studying when I was young, but that’s just a vague memory. So Dinah was born dead, that’s what you’re saying.”

Sam nodded.

“I guess it makes sense, right? She does kind of look like me.”

“I confirmed everything, and I also asked Helena to have her assistant look into it. Sure enough, Mrs. Rose had two babies, one alive and one dead. Even stranger, she was actually going to name your sister Dinah.”

“My imaginary friend for my entire life has actually been my dead twin sister?” Ozella brought both hands to her cheeks and looked down at the ground for a moment. “But I thought I came up with the name Dinah.”

“I got a sense of that as well, you telling your mom that you kept seeing this blue girl that looked like you, your mother saying you should name her Dinah. It happened when you were young, so I don’t think you remember all the details. And your parents were planning to tell you about it at some point, but as they grew older, and as you grew more independent, they decided not to bother you with it. I think they meant well by doing this. And I’m certain they weren’t trying to withhold information from you in a cruel way or anything.”

“I figured,” said Ozella. “That’s not really their style anyway. But they can be overprotective, which they sort of let up on over the last few years. I just…” She took a deep breath. “Power-up, on.”

Dinah’s form took shape, solidifying, her skin no longer blue. Ozella stood immediately and brought Dinah into her arms, giving her an intense hug. She pulled away, her hands on Dinah’s shoulder. “You are my sister,” Ozella told her, a tear appearing in her eyes.

Dinah started to nod, also tearing up as if she’d known all along.

“I’m just so glad you are here,” Ozella told her as she gave the woman another hug.

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Crawling through Holes

(Spelunk sounds so salacious.)

Sam was a bit groggy the next morning, mostly because he had spent another hour awake, talking to Ozella and listening to some of the stories of her childhood. Eventually, Ozella started to yawn, and once she lay down Sam brought his jacket over to her to use as a blanket. This was purely out of habit, instinct, and even though Ozella told him it was fine, she ended up using it for warmth anyway.

Dinah was transparent again by this point, Ozella wanting to save as much of her time as she could, knowing that if everything went according to plan, today would be the day that they arrived at the School of Heart.

“Are you hungry?” Juniper asked as soon as she saw Sam sit up. His back hurt some; sleeping without a pillow had taken its toll.

“Definitely,” Sam said, “but I have to deactivate my nose if I’m going to eat anything.”

“No, there is no food here, so we will use runes for nourishment.”

“What the hell did we pack then?” he asked, referring to their backpacks.

“I didn’t expect to find a cave. Most of what we packed was other items necessary for a camp. Relax, just like how my runic magic made you warm, it will satiate you.”

“Does that work?” Sam asked, noticing that Helena was in the corner of the cave, stretching. Sam was surprised to see Zoe stretching alongside Helena, the tiger girl entirely focused on what Helena was telling her.

“Of course it works. Why would I suggest it if it didn’t work?”

“Good point,” Sam said.

The former academic named Dorzmon was up as well, sipping from a cup of tea. Only thing was, there was no fire around to make tea, nor did there seem to be any steam coming off the top of the beverage.

“Nothing like a good rune in the morning,” the old man said, smacking his lips. “I’m kidding, there was something in here earlier. It’s just all gone now.”

He tipped the cup over and gave Sam a weird look, as if he were trying to prove some philosophical point.

“Feel that?” Juniper asked, the woman using her finger to trace a gesture in the air that reminded Sam of a figure eight.

“Actually…” Sam burped. It now felt as if he’d just eaten a rather large meal. “That’s… Remarkable.”

“Don’t get used to it. I need to conserve my power for later today.”

“That you do,” said Dorzmon. “And for the record, I still think this is an incredibly stupid idea.”

“We didn’t ask for your opinion, only for you to get us there,” said Zoe.

Once Ozella was up, and Zoe and Helena were done stretching, the old man turned to the wall, the veins in his arms lighting up as he brought his hand to the surface of a large rock.

The rock faded away, revealing a fairly large tunnel.

“Who’s up for a little spelunking?” he asked with a cackle. Lifting his robes, he scooted into the tunnel, Juniper following behind him, then Helena, Zoe, Ozella and Sam.

The tunnel was about four feet high and five feet wide. It was already lit by the time Sam crawled in at the back, the bodies of the people in front of him casting odd shadows into the space.

Sam listened to Dorzmon talk with Juniper about the differences between the school she’d attended, and the school where he’d taught for fifty years or so.

He really is close to a hundred years old, Sam thought, which he found interesting considering the man was so active and spry. Aside from a nasty cough, he seemed to have the stamina of a man thirty or forty years his junior.

Probably runes, Sam surmised as they continue deeper into the tunnel. He wasn’t feeling claustrophobic or anything, but he did hope that they didn’t have to turn back, especially now that the width of the space had started to shrink in size, going from five feet to about three feet wide.

While she was wearing cashmere tights, every time he looked up, he got a glimpse of Ozella’s ass, which Sam found himself watching once or twice, only to look away once he realized he was being a creep.

This triggered the memory of that strange dream he’d recently had about hooking up with Zoe. Even weirder, she had been in her half-tiger form in his dream, so it definitely wasn’t one of those dreams where a person relives a scenario. No, there was something completely new about it, and he was glad that Helena wasn’t able to look into his mind and examine it.

Even worse would be a dream walker.

Sam had heard of those types of exemplars who could move through dreams and modify things, discovering some of their deepest, most hidden thoughts in the process. It was about this point that he tuned back in to the conversation taking place at the front of the line.

“...No, you are all wrong about the School of Heart,” Dorzmon told Juniper. “Like all the other students in the four schools, you have been trained to be distrustful of your brothers and sisters, even though we are using the same type of magic, just interpreted differently. I’m sure you have heard all the rumors about the School of Whisper?”

“That they will stab you in the back?”

“That’s the one. Where do these rumors come from? Have you ever thought about that?”

“From what one of my professors told me, it comes from an incident several decades ago. Maybe forty or fifty years?”

“Forty or fifty years? Girl of the Script, I was alive forty or fifty years ago, and I can tell you that that very same rumor was also forty or fifty years old at the time.”

“You are referring to the one about the man named Zamhat who betrayed a ring runer by the name of Colander?”

“That’s the one. We all know that story. They were friends, went to separate schools, got back together afterward, and Zamhat cursed Colander after he found out that Colander had unknowingly had relations with a relative. And now we all think the people from the School of Whisper are going to betray us. Because of a rumor.”

“There were actual rivalries, ones that go back centuries…”

“I know, I know,” said Dorzmon, “but really, are they worth it? Should you or I really have a grudge against one another over something that happened four hundred years ago? This is what has prevented the Southern Alliance from growing as strong as Centralia.”

“I thought it was bribes,” Zoe said, throwing her tiger ears into the ring.

“Bribes? What is this, the East?” Dorzmon laughed. “Actually, I retract the statement I just said. The rivalries faced by our schools are similar to the rivalries faced by the countries of our world. It is a fascinating thing to think about, and an even more viable thing to go to war over. But I suppose I can save that lecture for another day. We’re here.”

Sam had definitely noticed that the light in the area had started to change as they approached the exit of the tunnel. It was only a few minutes later that they found themselves standing on a path cut into the side of a mountain, overlooking a grand institute of learning set in the center of an expansive valley.

It looked epic, the School of Heart featuring everything a castle would have aside from the drawbridge. There were spires, a wall-walk, numerous buildings set within the walls, from dormitories to casting rooms. It was one of the most beautiful things Sam had ever seen, something completely foreign to a man from Centralia, who had lived his life surrounded by towering skyscrapers.

The School of Heart’s size also presented another challenge: how were five people going to assault something so large?

***

“Well, I don’t really care how you do it, but this is the end of the line for me,” Dorzmon said on the tail end of a cough. He’d just listened to Helena’s plan and didn’t seem too impressed as he picked something out of his beard, looked at it, and flicked it away. “I have upheld my part of this bargain by bringing you here, and now it’s off to my cave again.”

“Then go already,” Zoe told him. “You’ve made your opinion known, and even though you could actually be helpful to us, you’ve decided to go live in a cave instead. But that’s your prerogative. I get that, so go.”

“I will go when I’m ready, Tiger Girl.”

“It’s Zoe, and I know that name may be hard for someone from the South to pronounce, but I assure you, if you give it a shot, you’ll probably be able to remember it.”

“Well, out of the five of you, I see who’s not getting a birthday present from me this year,” he said, his tone of voice one that a lecturer would take with an ornery student, one that he secretly tolerated.

“I just think it’s too risky,” Sam said, ignoring the old man.

Right now wasn’t the time for bullshit antics or negativity.

The decisions they were making now had serious repercussions for the future of the team, including if they would even live to see that future. They were going up against some incredible odds, aside from Donovan, Mia, the gray vampire, and the man whose arms morphed into bladed weapons. There were likely enforcers in the school as well, lecturers who would fight back too.

“The better we know our enemies, the better we will be able to take them out,” said Helena. “Let’s start there, let’s see who we’re truly up against.”

“I am less interested in taking out our enemies than I am killing the vampire children,” Zoe said. “We can deal with our enemies later, after we have portaled out of here; there’s no hope for the children anyway, and it’s better that they die.”

“Taken out of context, that would be just about the most supervillainy thing I think anyone has ever said,” Dorzmon commented.

“Why are you still here?” Zoe asked.

Dorzmon laughed. “So feisty. I would have loved to have you in one of my classes.”

“Then we shall have a vote,” said Helena. “All for the plan I’ve laid out, raise your hand.”

Ozella, Juniper, and Helena raised their hands. Zoe raised hers, only with the caveat that her job would be to kill vampire children.

“I guess I lose,” said Sam.

“I didn’t vote either,” Dorzmon added. “But… You know what, I think I will see myself out. I don’t like the way the tiger girl is looking at me.”

Rather than wait for Zoe to respond, he shuffled back toward the tunnel, getting on his knees once he got near the entrance and crawling forward. “Good luck,” he called over his shoulder as he left.

“So it is agreed, we will stick to the plan,” Helena said. “We have exactly one hour, and then my power will be expended. What I suggest we do is gather our information now, then relax for the rest of the day, waiting for our powers to reset at midnight. It looks like it will take us about an hour to get down from here,” Helena said, looking over the edge of a cliff that had been cut into the side of the mountain.

From their vantage point, Sam could see the top of the trees, everything white as far as the eye could see.

“It’s pretty steep,” Juniper said, “but if we walk slowly, I think we’ll be fine.”

“And if anyone falls, I can heal them,” Ozella added.

“We need to be careful of the ice though,” Sam said as he started down the cliffside.

The path zig-zagged down to the ground, and he realized as he walked that he was going to have to take extra small steps lest he make a mistake and slip over the edge or something. Some of the snow had started to melt, but cloud coverage overhead and the scent of moisture in the air told Sam that it would be snowing again relatively soon.

Helena continued speaking as they started down the mountain. “So that leaves Juniper, me, and Ozella going forward, you and Zoe staying back and waiting for us to return. You can use your power to listen for anyone coming your way, or potentially see them if you can get a good vantage point,” she told Sam. “But the trees should provide plenty of coverage. It’s a beautiful valley, really, and I only wish we had more time to enjoy it.”

“All of the school grounds are beautiful like this,” Juniper said. “Mine is maybe a hundred miles to the west of here, closer to the sea.”

“And how long do people come here for?” Sam asked, dragging his hand along the rock for extra stability.

“It depends on the person and the school,” Juniper explained. “Some people start relatively young and spend their youth here; others, like myself, come for semesters and then return home. I personally started when I was ten, not long before I met you,” she told Helena.

“I just wish you would have let me know you were doing this when we were younger,” Helena said. “We could’ve gotten into a little more trouble.”

“Us? Get into trouble?” Juniper had to laugh. “We always followed the rules, well, most of them.”

“Except for that time we snuck out to go to that concert near a market in the southern part of Argoze. That was really risky. Come to think of it, everyone was asleep when we came back, and I remember passing in front of a guard who just stood there with his eyes closed…”

“See? I did help,” said Juniper.

“In all this time I thought that Southerners could sleep standing up.”

“That’s so dumb,” Zoe said, immediately correcting her harsh tone. “I mean, just dumb kid stories. I wish I could sleep standing up. I bet it’s good for your posture. Here’s something we can talk about: is anyone excited to get back to Centralia?”

“Why?” Sam asked, the cold now freezing his cheeks. “This is kind of awesome, you know.”

“I don’t know, I just miss the city,” said Zoe. “And I’m sure Tiger Lily has some gigs lined up that should be pretty fun. Every day I’m out here is a day I’m losing money.”

“Tiger Lily?” Juniper asked.

“I am a cosplay model back home, and my handle is Tiger Lily.”

Juniper started to laugh. “So you cosplay as a beast morpher, and you are an actual beast morpher? Am I understanding this correctly?”

“What’s so hard to understand about that?” Zoe snapped back. “And what part about a half-morphed face makes me an actual beast morpher? If anything, I’m a half-breed.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear you have a successful career,” said Juniper as they continued down the steep cliffside. They were about halfway down now, and their conversation had startled a few birds, who now swirled in the air above, heading to higher ground.

Sensing a necessary change of subject, Sam asked Juniper more about her exploits with Helena when they were younger.

“She only came like two or three times a year,” Juniper said, “but every time she came, I looked forward to it.”

“You weren’t the only one,” Helena said, “I had friends in Centralia as well, but there’s something exciting about coming down here, and being part of this very different world.”

“And to me, it was like having this friend from a faraway place just appear out of nowhere and hang out for a few days while our parents handled business.”

“And what type of business?” Ozella asked, trying to be part of the conversation. Of the five, she was the most cautious when it came to moving down the cliffside.

“Lots of property stuff,” said Juniper. “Centralians aren’t the only ones who own real estate in Centralia, many people from the South own apartment buildings and commercial facilities.”

“But not the reverse, right?” Zoe asked.

“For a time, we were trying to make that a possibility, well, our parents were. Southern Alliance laws prevent foreigners from holding or purchasing property. Now, if they married someone from the South, then they could hold property, but they aren’t allowed to simply come down here and buy it up.”

“Why is that?” Sam asked.

“A bit of patriotism mixed in with practicality,” Juniper said. “The truth is, Centralia’s GDP dwarfs the GDP of my country, and it would be relatively cheap to acquire lots of property down here. So they put this law in place to protect against those foreign purchases. I’m not actually against this law, but we were hoping to loosen some of the restrictions to allow for joint property developments and co-ownership. That never shook out, yet our families remained friends.”

“It shouldn’t be much further now,” Helena said as they reached the wooded area. Just a few more rocks to climb over and they were back in ten-inch thick snow, the consistency of which reminded Sam of powdered sugar.

He couldn’t resist reaching down and forming a snowball, underhand tossing it at Zoe and hitting her in the back of her hood. She whipped around, baring her claws, making an ambiguous face at Sam.

“You’re mine, if you do that again,” she threatened, baring her teeth in a playful way.

“Now is not the time for horsing around,” Helena reminded them, her hands on the straps of her backpack. “They may have patrols, either exemplar based or runic, so we need to stay alert.”

“My bad,” Sam said as they moved to the forest. “I’m the one that started it.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Snooping Around

(Yet another one of Helena’s brilliant ideas.)

Helena, Juniper, and Ozella moved to the end of the tree line, Juniper using a rune that refilled their footprints in the snow just in case a patrol came around. An open field stood between them and the walls of the school, and after they made it past this hundred-yard stretch, they would still have to figure out a way to get inside.

“Remember, I only have an hour,” Helena said. “Power-up, invisible.”

“That’s it?” Juniper asked, looking down at her hand. She gasped when she noticed Helena was no longer there, an empty space where her friend had just stood. Helena reached out and took her hand, and Juniper watched her form take shape again. “So that’s how it works?”

“Yes,” said Helena, her other hand now on Ozella’s wrist. Both of them wore their masks, and they still had the snow gear that Juniper had provided them. Their backpacks, however, were back with Sam and Zoe. “It will make us invisible to anyone that looks in our direction, but you will still need to keep scrubbing the snow, and be on the lookout for any wards that may be protecting the place. I am assuming there is at least one, along the outer perimeter.”

“More than one, but I should be able to at least get us past it. I won’t be able to take it down completely, but I do know a certain technique that opens a door into these types of spaces.”

“Good, stay alert,” Helena said, turning to the field that separated the forest from the School of Heart.

Holding both their hands now, the heiress to the Knight fortune carefully led them forward, ignoring a cold wind that had started to push past.

She liked visiting the South, but Helena was glad that this would be over soon, that she would be able to return to Centralia, where it was warmer.

At least she hoped they’d be returning.

Helena assumed that her assistant, Bryan King, was having a meltdown worrying about her, but she had sent a message back at Juniper’s home letting him know that she would be out of communication for a few days.

So there was that.

Any important decisions could wait until she got back, not that she really wanted to go back to board meetings anyway. She just wanted to be in Centralia, in the comfort of her own home, not trudging through a field with snow almost up to her knees.

And this feeling struck her as slightly ironic.

Here she was, a covert superhero who had always wanted to travel more, and now she had gone a places most in her home country couldn’t even fathom.

And she simply wanted to go back, to sleep in her own bed, be in her own space.

The irony.

Helena let this thought drift away as she focused on her steps, occasionally glancing over her shoulder to make sure that Juniper was covering up the footprints they had already made.

It was a few minutes later that Juniper told her to stop. Helena did as instructed and continued holding Juniper’s hand as the rune user came forward, her finger tracing some intricate script in the air. Light began to form around the script she traced, and once it started glimmering, she pressed her palm into it, pushing the rune forward.

A radiating energy revealed a light-filled dome that covered the school.

The lights faded away just as quickly as they appeared, and Juniper beckoned them forward.

“How long will it last?” Ozella asked. “I mean, the doorway that you created here.”

“At least a day,” said Juniper. “If someone discovers it, they will likely think that one of the students used it to get out, maybe go for a walk or something. It’s something that most rune students learn early on. The spell looks way fancier than it actually is.”

“Good to know,” Ozella said as they continued toward the wall of the school, the three starting to veer off to the right, to the entrance.

“I am guessing that you need to focus your power to keep us invisible, which means I will have to handle anyone who presents an obstacle in our path,” Juniper told Helena.

“Do you have a hypnosis spell as well?” Ozella asked.

“Not exactly, but I can cast something that puts a person to sleep, among other things. Let’s just focus on getting in, and getting the information that we need. Once we have it, we will return to the others and rest up for our assault.”

“Just let me know if I can do anything,” Ozella said, “I mean, with Dinah.”

“Don’t worry, we brought you along for a reason,” Helena told her.

“Just want to be helpful,” Ozella said, her voice trailing off.

The three continued until they saw two unarmed sentries standing at the school’s entrance. The women wore military caps and flowing blue robes, the ends of which were covered in bits of snow.

“I’m ready,” Juniper whispered, “just in case.”

Helena nodded as they quietly approached the guards. They took very slow steps now, but eventually, they were past the sentries and in the courtyard, where the three were able to keep to the wall as they circled around to the right.

There was a storage room built along the corner of the interior wall, the door slightly ajar. The three slipped in, Helena deactivating her power as they warmed up for a moment, mostly through one of Juniper’s spells.

“Whew,” Ozella said, color returning to her face. “That was close!”

“No, we’re fine,” Helena reminded her.

“Definitely,” Juniper agreed.

The storage space consisted mostly of landscaping equipment, but there was also a cellar which contained banners and other items used for schoolwide celebrations.

“How are we supposed to check this entire school with just the three of us, especially since the three of us need to stay together to use Helena’s power, and we have a time limit?” Ozella shook her head. “I’m sorry for doubting this plan, but the school seems just so much bigger now that we are in it. Are we really supposed to just go around and hope to find one of the bad guys?”

“No,” Helena said, “that’s where Dinah comes into play.”

“Dinah?”

“She seems to understand commands from you. I want you to tell her to go find Donovan. Once she finds Donovan, she can come back here and lead us to him. I’m guessing that he will be around the others. Hell, she could also find Mia, the big gray vampire, or the guy with bladed arms.”

“His name is Essem Magar,” Ozella reminded her.

“Right. My guess is that they will all be in the same area. Then we can go to them, you can get their details, we can find out where they’re keeping the vampire kids, and then get out of here.”

“Remember,” Juniper said, “portals actually work in here. One can’t teleport in, but they can teleport out. Once we have the information we need, I can simply open a portal and we can return to Sam and Zoe. We just need to get the info first.”

“Okay,” Ozella said with a determined nod. “Dinah.”

The blue ghost woman rose from the ground a smile on her face.

“Do you remember the people that were fighting on the train?” Ozella asked Dinah. “Do you remember Donovan, the exemplar with the mohawk?”

Dinah nodded, a scowl forming on her face.

“Good. And you can understand me right now, right?”

Dinah gave Ozella a dopey look.

“Okay, there’s no need for that. I was just confirming that you know what’s going on here.”

Dinah nodded, making a ‘duh’ face.

“What’s she doing?” Juniper asked.

“Being difficult,” Helena said under her breath as she took over. “Dinah, I want you to go and find Donovan, and then come back here and lead us to him. If you see any of the others as well, Mia, the gray vampire, anyone that you recognize, just remember where they are, okay?”

Dinah gave the three of them two thumbs up.

“And you need to hurry,” Helena said. “The longer we spend within the school grounds, the higher chance we have of being caught. Please, Dinah, we are trusting that you will do this quickly.”

“I wish I could see her,” Juniper said.

“That’s right, only the four of us can see her,” said Ozella, biting her lip for a moment. “Maybe we can just ask her to let you see her. Or write it in my book,” Ozella said, going for her backpack. Of course she wore her backpack. She always wore her red backpack.

“Try asking first, and then we can deal with your book later,” Helena said in an attempt to be practical.

“Dinah, I want you to share your transparent form with Juniper here, she is sort of on our team now.”

Dinah pointed at the red-haired woman to indicate that this was who Ozella was talking about.

Once Ozella gave her the confirmation, Dinah started waving at the woman. When that didn’t work, she moved over to Juniper and brought her hand to Juniper’s cheek, her fingers instantly passing through it as Dinah moved forward, kissing Juniper on the lips.

“Whoa!” Juniper said, stepping back, nearly colliding with a rake.

“You can see her now?” Ozella asked.

“I can,” Juniper said, running her hand along her jaw. “And who is she again? I mean, in relation to all this.”

“She’s my sister,” Ozella said proudly, a tear coming to her eye, “my twin sister.”

Dinah flashed a peace sign at the three of them as she turned to the exit, and pressed through the wall of the storage shed.

“I hope this works,” Juniper said under her breath.

“It will work,” Helena said, “we just don’t know how well it will work yet.”

***

Helena stood by the door, trying not to pace. Dinah had been gone a good half hour now, and she was starting to worry that the ghost girl wouldn’t come back.

“We need a backup plan,” Juniper said.

“We have to be patient,” Ozella reminded them. She sneezed, the dustiness of the storage shed clearly affecting her. “I know she’s a little strange, but Dinah wouldn’t let me down, not with a request like this.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Just give it another thirty minutes or so,” Helena said with finality. “I’m nervous too, but we have to be smart about this.”

“I am prepared to take us out of here it comes to that,” Juniper reminded them.

“Any moment now,” Helena said, even if she didn’t quite believe this to be true.

But Ozella was right, and eventually Dinah did press through the wall, an excited grin on her face.

“Power-up, invisible,” Helena said, reaching out to the others.

They joined hands with Helena and quietly stepped out of the storage shed, following Dinah across the courtyard. There weren’t any students out; it was way too cold for that, and in the time they had been in the storage shed, snow had started to fall.

This actually made things little bit easier, because they didn’t have to worry as much about innocent bystanders if things took a turn for the worse. The snow would likely keep people indoors.

But we aren’t here to fight, Helena had to remind herself. They were just gathering intel right now.

The fight would come later tonight.

Still following Dinah, the three passed the main building, a towering structure surrounded by beautiful statues that looked like it had been built centuries ago. Helena would have spent more time appreciating the architecture had they not been in a hurry. It really was something though, the intricate spires unlike any building she’d ever seen in Centralia.

Dinah still in the lead, they came to a side entrance, the ghost woman pressing through the door.

“Should we just go in?” Ozella asked.

“I don’t know…” said Juniper.

Dinah pushed her head out of the door, her body still inside. She gave them a look as if to say, “What are you waiting for?” and motioned them in.

“I trust Dinah,” Helena said as Ozella opened the door. They went in to find themselves in a side corridor with polished wood floors that immediately started showing the remnants of the snow they had dragged in.

“I’ve got it,” Juniper said, casting a rune that scrubbed the floor behind them. They followed Dinah to the second floor where they came to a locked door, the doorknob fashioned into the head of a bearwolf.

“Is anyone on the other side?” Ozella asked Dinah.

Dinah peeked in, and returned her gaze to the group’s statkeeper. She made a gesture with her hand telling them to wait a moment as she looked back in, pulled her head back out, and gestured them in.

“It’s locked,” Helena said as she tried the door.

“I’ve got this,” said Juniper, and with a few motions of her finger, the bearwolf door handle eventually twisted, the door sliding open.

They entered a large room with an elaborate red carpet, a fireplace in the corner, study tables and another room at the back, where they saw a mohawked man sitting in front of some books, pouring through the pages.

His back was to them, but it was pretty clear who it was.

“Donavan…” Ozella whispered.

Still holding Helena’s hand, she focused on him intently, taking in as much about him as she possibly could based on the stat template that she and Helena had devised. She nodded, just as Donovan looked over his shoulder, staring right in their direction.

Helena stopped breathing for a moment, and even though Donovan only looked toward them for a few seconds, it felt like an eternity, all three of them trying not to gasp after he looked away, back to his reading material.

They shuffled out of the room, only able to truly regain their composure once they made their way down the hallway.

“He’s a telepath too,” Ozella confirmed. “That’s… that’s how he was able to trick you back in Centralia!”

“Do you think he picked up on us in there?” Helena asked.

“He shouldn’t have,” said Juniper. “He definitely sensed something, which was why he looked up. But without seeing us, he wouldn’t even know we were there to dive into our minds, and I’ve been trained in dealing with telepaths. I didn’t feel anything.”

“Damn,” Helena said as they made their way down a spiral staircase. “Let’s hope the others are close then.”

Dinah nodded as she skipped down the stairs, the ghost woman completely oblivious to the danger of what they were attempting.

They came to an exit door and stepped aside just in time for the door to swing open, a professor walking into the space, the lean woman with greenish skin making her way up the stairwell. Once they were sure she had moved onto another floor, they slipped out the door, following Dinah down a set of stairs that were mysteriously tidy.

Helena knew it was the doing of a rune, but that didn’t stop her from pausing for a moment and looking at just how strange the completely clean stairwell was, not even a speck of dirt on it. They came to another building, this one with guards out front.

Dinah made a gesture that indicated a big person was in there, and Helena and Ozella knew instantly she was referring to the gray vampire that had been traveling with Donovan.

They still didn’t know who this vampire was, and it was possible that Dinah’s gesture was intended for Mia.

There really was no telling.

The three of them paused for a moment, wondering how they should go about doing this. Dinah slipped into the door and pressed back out when she saw that they hadn’t followed her. She pointed to the two guards in front of the door, both men in robes with furry hats on their heads.

“No,” Ozella whispered, shaking her head at the ghost woman.

Their ears perked up when they heard someone approaching. Helena turned to see Essem, the man with the bladed arms. His arms were normal at the moment, and as he approached the guards they stepped aside, giving Ozella plenty of time to get his details.

She nodded at Helena, Juniper tensing, squeezing Helena’s hand and jerking her to the right.

“What is it?” Helena whispered as they started to move away, their tracks in the snow still being covered by Juniper’s magic.

“I’m sensing something,” she whispered once they were away from the guards.

“What are you sensing?” Helena asked.

“Something… Something…”

Another man appeared, one whom they had never seen before. He wore his hair long and had a perfectly trimmed beard, and was clad in a set of red robes that looked different than any of the robes Helena had seen before. They glowed in a way, and she had the sneaking suspicion that this was a man of importance.

The man stopped, and the three of them froze in place, Dinah already appearing next to him, ready to pounce. He was looking directly at them now, a sly grin on his face.

“Your powers won’t work here,” he said.

As he spoke, Dinah jumped for him. The man immediately caught her by the neck.

Helena knew it was now or never, so rather than run, she jumped into action, ready to protect her friends.

Letting go of their arms, she came forward with a kick that would have knocked the head off a normal man’s neck. Only it stopped in front of this man, Helena frozen in space, struggling to keep her foot erect. Something glowed around the man’s arms as he brought his hands into a prayer position, placing them before his lips.

“I suggest the three of you stop. There is no escape now.”

A portal opened up and he cast it away with a blink.

“Like I said, Girl of the Script, there is no escape. You have officially been caught. This is the end of the road for you three,” said the man. “Interesting to see a daughter of Southern Alliance royalty here, but I’m not surprised that your script spell ultimately failed. You see, I have been tracking you since you came through the front gate. And while most of the people here may not have noticed the spell you cast, it is quite evident to me. And how clever, to make everyone hallucinate that you are invisible,” he told Helena. “How very clever.”

The long-haired man was still holding Dinah by the neck, the blue ghost woman struggling, kicking her feet.

“Let her go!” Ozella triggered her weapon and the blast tore into his chest. The man tossed Dinah to the ground as he bent forward, his arms wide, the energy pooling at his chest and spinning.

“Argh!” he shouted as he released the blast into the air. “Nice try,” he told Ozella.

Donovan came around the side of the school, a smug look on his face when he saw Helena with her leg suspended in the air, Ozella pointing her wrist guard at the man standing before them, Juniper trying desperately to dial-up a rune and failing.

“Ah, Donovan, glad you could join us.”

“I see you’ve found a few intruders, Sugoz,” said Donovan. “I figured they would come around at some point, but I didn’t expect them to be this bold.”

“And to think they could have just gone back to their countries, oblivious to all this. Oh well. They’ve made their beds, and now they will lie in them.” Sugoz ran his hand through his beard for a moment as he looked the three of them over, Helena’s leg still suspended in the air. “The students will be out of class soon; and as headmaster here, it would be best if you weren’t seen. We’d better get you three someplace where no one can find you. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. The easy way is for you to simply follow me,” the man said. “The hard way is…”

“We’ll come with you,” Juniper volunteered, bowing her head.

“Good call,” Sugoz said, “you wouldn’t have liked the hard way.”

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Snow Daze

(Nope, Helena was totally wrong. Back to the drawing board.)

Occasionally, Zoe Goa Ramone would stop and kick some of the snow out of spite, the tiger girl needing some way to release tension. “They should be back by now,” she said for the umpteenth time.

“They really should,” said Sam, who kept looking up at the canopies in the trees, as if there were an interesting bird hopping between the branches.

“What do you keep looking at?” Zoe asked.

“I have an idea.”

“Unless it involves going to save their asses, I don’t want to hear it. It’s been too long, Sam. You know it, I know it. Helena is tough and all, but we really don’t know how strong Juniper is, and Ozella’s power lies in her ability to use Dinah. If Ozella passed out…”

“I think Juniper can handle herself. Seriously, we have no idea what kind of runes she’s able to cast. She seems to know a lot of them.”

“But there is constant mention that she didn’t graduate from the school…”

“Maybe she has her reasons,” Sam said, still looking up at the tree. “Anyway, I think I’ll try to climb up that tree and activate my enhanced sight. Maybe I’ll be able to see what’s going on in the school grounds.”

“That tree?” Zoe asked, looking up at the tree skeptically.

It was larger than any tree either of them had ever seen in Centralia, definitely more than seventy-five feet tall, and Sam seemed pretty sure that he could get a pretty fair view of the school if he could make it to the top.

But to do so, he would have to climb pretty high, and while he may have climbed trees at his family’s vineyard when he was young, Zoe surmised that he had probably never been in a tree as high as this.

“That’s the plan. Hopefully I will be able to get a glimpse of what’s happening, or maybe see them coming back.”

“There’s no way you’re going to get up there,” Zoe said. “Not trying to burst your bubble here, but there is just no goddamn way.”

“I sure as hell am going to try,” Sam said as he moved to the tree. He put his hand on it, wiping some of the snow away.

“Seriously, Sam, there has to be a better way we can do this. Plus it’s snowing pretty hard. You aren’t going to be able to see anything.”

“We can try to get closer, but then I wouldn’t have the height advantage,” he told her.

“What do you expect to see anyway? Really, think about this for a moment. Even if you can see into the school, if they’re on the other side of the main building, or if they are already, I don’t know, in a dungeon, you’re not going to be able to see shit.”

“Okay,” Sam said, bringing his hands down. “Maybe you’re right. What do we do then?”

“I don’t know, but we need to get some information to work from. Anything. And we are definitely not getting it from the middle of this forest.”

“But if we leave this space, and they come back…”

“They would have already come back by now,” Zoe said. “It has been several hours. Think about it, Sam. Helena’s power only works for one hour, and even if they are just hiding out… No, I can sense it. Can’t you? Something is wrong.”

“How are we supposed to go against whatever they have in there, especially with just the two of us?”

“Speak for yourself, Sam.” Zoe wasn’t stupid, and neither was he. If something had taken the other three out, it would be even harder for them, but that didn’t change the fact that they needed to go after their teammates. “They would come for us if we were the ones who were captured. So we have to do the same for them.”

“Yeah, you’re right there,” said Sam. “The odds are definitely stacked against us though, so we need to be ready.”

“But we definitely should wait till dark. Crap. I hope that they do the whole supervillain thing and don’t kill them immediately, giving us time for the rescue. You know, they could do that.”

“Do what?” Sam asked.

Zoe bit her lip as she shook her head. “Just kill them, and be done with it. That is a possibility here. But for some reason, I don’t think that’s what they’re going to do. Just a hunch.”

She turned to the path the three women had left in the snow. It was still visible, but as the forest opened up to a wide field, Zoe knew that it would be harder and harder to see their footprints, especially with the snowfall overhead.

Luckily, she had her powers, and tracking was definitely something Zoe was capable of.

“Follow me,” she said.

“Yeah,” Sam said, steeling himself with a deep breath. As he followed Zoe, he slowly checked his wrist guards, making sure everything was in place.

Zoe stopped every couple of steps, her ears perking up, the tiger girl moving once she caught the scent again.

She wasn’t actually sniffing as much as she was looking at changes in the snow with her eyes, Zoe able to do most of the heavy lifting here, so Sam could save his power up for later.

More snow started to fall as they moved away from the canopy, enough that it blurred the space in front of them. They could only see about fifty feet out now, and the school was all but invisible behind the flurries whipping in the air.

They reached the edge of the forest and paused there for a moment.

“What are you thinking?” Sam asked.

“First of all, I am cold. Damn this cold weather,” she said, wiping ice away from her whiskers.

“It is pretty chilly out here,” Sam said. “I keep trying not to think about it, but it’s kind of hard.”

“And it’s only going to get colder when it gets dark…”

“Yeah. And I’m hungry. Are you hungry?”

“Not really,” Zoe said, touching her stomach. “But some real food would be nice. I don’t how much longer I can munch on fucking runes.”

“You and me both,” said Sam.

“Okay, let’s use this ledge for protection against the snow for the time being,” Zoe said, pointing at a spot to her left.

“Maybe we should get closer.”

“No, we need a way for the snow to die down first,” said Zoe. “I know the track that they took to the school, and I want to stay near it. We’ll wait for dark to come, and the snow to die down, then we’ll make our move.”

“Do you think it’s important to stay on the exact same path they went on?” Sam asked as he sat, Zoe taking a place next to him.

“I don’t know, but if the snow is still coming down pretty hard, it will at least get us to the school.”

“Good point.”

“I hope you don’t mind if I’m sitting this close to you.” Zoe pressed her hip next to Sam’s, moving up a little bit so she could adjust her tail. “This fucking tail. I am getting more and more used to the face, but this thing?”

Sam laughed. “I guess it is kind of strange to get used to.”

“Definitely,” Zoe said, and Sam naturally placed his arm around her shoulder.

“Hope we don’t die out here,” Zoe told him as she got comfortable.

“That’s a pretty morbid thing to say.”

“It could happen…”

“Well, if that’s what happens, at least we made it this far.”

Zoe had to laugh. “All the way to the southernmost part of the Southern Alliance, huh?”

“In pursuit of vampire children, yes, sounds about right.”

“So a suicide mission?”

Sam nodded. “Pretty much.”

While Zoe didn’t always get along with them, she absolutely did not want to see any harm come to the three women. Nor did she want to see any harm come to Sam.

Zoe didn’t care about herself. If she died in all this, then so be it, that would be the path presented to her.

But not her friends, not her goddamn teammates, the people she had formed the strange group with.

And as more snow fell, Zoe moved even closer to Sam, bringing her hood as far over her head as she could. She psyched herself up in that moment; she would see this to the end.

“We will rescue them,” she said suddenly.

“Yes,” Sam agreed.

“And we will take care of the vampire kids.”

“But how?” Sam asked.

“Unfortunately, neither of us have the power of luck, but I have the power of stealth, and with your enhanced senses, we should be able to pull this off. With an emphasis on the word ‘should.’”

“Definitely,” Sam said. “Definitely.”

Chapter Forty: Just in Case We Die

(What better time than now to make a confession?)

“Maybe we should make sure they didn’t go back to the original spot,” Sam suggested. It was dark now, and the snow had settled some. There were still some flurries in the air, sparkling in the lights coming off the School of Heart, not quite a winter wonderland, especially considering all the shit that was about to go down.

“I think you and I both know that they were caught,” Zoe said. “I checked an hour ago; there was no one there. I don’t see why they would be there now. Sam, we’re gonna have to do this. And it’s going to be risky as fuck.”

“Yeah,” Sam said.

“And because we might die, I just want you to know…”

“What?” Sam asked, turning to her. Both were still sitting with their backs against the ledge, close to each other, a bit of shared warmth taking up the space between them.

“Look, I know that you have sensed it, but…”

“But...?” Sam asked. He had sensed a lot since coming to the Southern Alliance. A few things he wasn’t quite sure about, other things made quite a bit of sense to him.

“You and I…”

“Zoe…”

“I’m just going to come out with it: you and I had sex. The first night. You were kind of out of it because of the concussion. So I am admitting that I took advantage of you. Or, at least it seemed at the time that you wanted it. Don’t say anything,” she told him as he started open his mouth. “I’m just telling you this now because we may die. And so you can get it wiped from your brain again later if we don’t.”

“I had the memory wiped?” Sam asked.

“That’s why we were in the market when the Southern Alliance police came for us. Because you were having it wiped. Anyway, confessions are done. That’s all that happened.”

“Dammit…”

“I know, I shouldn’t have said anything,” Zoe said, turning away from him.

“No, it’s not that. I would have to confess the same thing to you. Although I wouldn’t have taken advantage of you while you were suffering from a concussion.”

“You seemed like you wanted it; you even activated your enhanced sense of touch.”

Sam cringed. “Shit. I did?”

“Yep. Maybe I was just excited to be alone with you for once. But don’t worry, it wasn’t like it was good or anything,” she said, lifting her chin a bit.

“What you mean it wasn’t good?”

“You don’t remember any of it?”

“I thought that it was a dream. In fact, I was ashamed of having this dream. So no, I don’t remember any of it.”

“It wasn’t as long of a session as I would have liked, let’s just keep it at that.”

Sam sighed deeply. “Now I am regretting that you told me this. I mean, I was dreading it at first, then I was okay with it, and now I am regretting it again.”

“Yep, that means it’s time to go. Let’s go save our friends, or die in the process.”

“You know I’m going to have to do something about this,” he said as Zoe moved away from him. She stood, shaking her arms out, and quickly tested both her wrist guards, the energy blades glowing with intensity.

“You can do something about it after we rescue them,” Zoe said. “I will personally take you to the best telepath we can find in Centralia.”

“Maybe… No, that’s probably the best idea. We can just decide then. Let’s try to see if we get through this first.”

“Exactly what I was saying,” Zoe told him as she led the way. “And I still am sorry, no matter what happens next. Sorry for everything. From the start. All of it.”

“It’s fine,” Sam said, growing quiet as he followed behind her. His relationship with Zoe had been intense, and it had petered out nearly as quickly as it started. At least it felt that way.

There had been a time a few months back when they ran into each other, both just happening to be in the same park at the same time. Serendipity. But nothing came of it, and he really hadn’t known if he would see her again, that was, until they reunited at the police station, of all places.

Sam let the memories go.

He let the thought of what Zoe had just told him go.

He let anxiety about the future, and remorse about the past go.

Now wasn’t the time.

The two would-be heroes were literally trudging through the snow on their way to certain doom, and what was possibly the riskiest thing they had done yet. Sure, there had been some pretty crazy adventures over the last week or so, but nothing like going to address a powerful foe with only two members, one of whom had a power that was far more support than it was offense.

The wind whipped around them, Sam keeping his eyes on Zoe.

Occasionally she would stop for him to catch up, sniffing the air, Sam doing the same and confirming that his sinuses were still acting up. Or not sinuses, whatever the hell the cold was doing to his nose.

He wished Ozella was with them; she would have known what was happening to his sniffer.

As they grew closer to the School of Heart, Zoe crouched even further. Sam tried to mirror the way she was moving. But he ultimately couldn’t, not without his back hurting. So he tried to squat walk instead, as if he were carrying a heavy object.

Zoe paused, her ear standing to attention.

Sam readied his weapon.

He had a blaster on one arm, and an energy blade on the other. Just to be sure, he had set his blast to stun, knowing full well that he would probably need to twist the knob to lethal in the nearish future.

“Something is different here,” she said.

“I can’t smell anything,” Sam told her. “My nose is seriously out of the picture.”

“Try activating something else.”

“Okay.” Sam took a knee, knowing that he might need the stability, ignoring this cold snow now pressing against him. “Power-up, sight,” he said, his eyes closed for a moment as Zoe approached him.

She placed a hand on his shoulder as Sam opened his eyes, taking in everything at once.

He stared straight ahead for a moment, the wall of the school coming into shape, bits of light emitting from some of the windows.

And that’s when Sam saw it.

It was very light, reminding him of a bubble in a way, but it was definitely surrounding the structure.

“They have some sort of shield up; probably some sort of spell that alerts them,” he said. But…” Looking straight ahead, Sam could see an opening in the shield, big enough for them to go through. “There’s an opening.”

“Does it follow this path exactly?”

“Which path?” Sam asked, too many details coming into his eyes to actually make out the space in front of him.

“I mean, directly ahead. If we keep going in our current direction, will we pass through the opening?”

“I believe so,” he finally said. “Power-up, off.” Sam stood and dusted off his knees. For a moment, Zoe kept her hand on the shoulder, looking at him intently.

“Okay,” she said, moving away. “I am going to guess that they went in through the front.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Again, a hunch. Kidding. Helena said they were, and if you haven’t figured it out already, Helena is a very straightforward woman. Plus she hypnotized everyone to believe she was invisible. In that case, she could go right to the front gate. All this to say that we will have to go through the back. So let’s head to the wall, and take a left rather than a right.”

“Sweet, let’s do it.”

Zoe continued forward, her tail bobbing up and down as she walked. “We’ll have to keep our voices down from here on out. We’re probably already talking too loudly.”

“Right,” said Sam. “Let’s just get to the wall, head to the back, and figure it out from there.”

Chapter Forty-One: Thank God for Random Love Affairs

(They make the rockin’ world go ‘round.)

“This way,” Zoe said once they reached the school’s wall. Sam had never seen her more alert, and even with the snow still swirling around them and obscuring things, he could see her ears were perked, every bone in her body ready to spring into action.

She wasn’t the only one.

Sam found himself continually checking his wrist guards, making sure they were ready to go. Even if it was cold outside, he could feel himself sweating under all the warm clothing, nervousness surging through him and needing some type of outlet.

Keeping low and staying quiet, they moved along the perimeter, Sam’s heart thrumming in his chest.

“Do you hear anything?” Zoe asked, pausing for a moment.

“Power-up, hearing,” Sam said, everything around him becoming louder.

He could hear the snowflakes swirling in the air landing on the snow, one of the sentries at the front of the school coughing, murmuring inside the school’s various buildings, his feet crunching in the snow, but nothing that indicated they had been discovered.

Still, he focused on his ability just a bit longer, pausing and listening for any sound that would indicate they had been discovered. Even though he knew it would be cold, he pressed his ear on to the surface of the wall, closing his eyes, ignoring the instant chill.

He could suddenly see the outline of some of the sentries in the courtyard playing out on the inside of his eyelids, his enhanced ability giving him some understanding of his spatial surroundings, their forms outlined in a way that made sense in his mind, something Sam could have never actually described to someone if they asked what he was experiencing.

“Power-up, off,” he said, feeling a transition of energy from the sides of his face back into his nostrils. “The guards are mostly at the front,” he told her.

“Just as I hoped. Now we just need ourselves a good ol’ fashioned back entrance,” Zoe whispered as they continued along the perimeter of the school.

It was a long wall, and it felt as if they had walked close to a mile by the time they got to the end, the wall curving right, not quite as angular an edge as Sam would’ve expected.

“Any idea of how far it is from the entrance?” Sam asked.

He was second-guessing himself now; there was no way that it was a mile long.

“Felt like a mile to me, but I’m not good at those types of distances,” said Zoe. “And the snow is warping my already warped sense of distance. But we can be certain that it’s a pretty big school. If there is an entrance in the back, they will have guards.”

“Well, I’m ready.”

“Me too,” said Zoe, lifting her wrist guard.

“I really hope we don’t have to climb this thing,” Sam said, looking up to the top of the wall.

One way he had already thought of to climb it would be to use his energy blade to shimmy his way up, but this didn’t seem realistic; it seemed like something he would have seen in a comic book.

“Same here.” Zoe nodded him forward, and they continued along the wall. She paused at some point, lifting her finger in the air, Sam stopping in the snow behind her.

The smell hit Sam in the face, nearly tossing him aside.

His nostrils may have been runny, but as soon as he caught the smell of food wafting through the wall, he knew they had stumbled upon the back entrance to the kitchen. Sam’s mouth immediately started watering, the bodily function reminding him that he hadn’t eaten in quite some time.

“Food is around,” Zoe finally said, licking her lips.

“And it smells good too,” Sam added.

“There’s probably a back entrance. There has to be,” said Zoe as she looked around. “I wouldn’t think that they take the food all the way from the front entrance to the back here, cutting through the courtyard. No way. They’re definitely going to have a back entrance here somewhere, and it’s going to be along this wall. I haven’t sensed any guards yet. Do you want to activate your visual power? Maybe you can look ahead and see if there’s anyone out there.”

“Sure thing,” Sam said, taking a knee again. It was easier to use his enhanced vision this way, the stability allowing him to focus better. “Power-up, sight,” he said, immediately sensing the outer rim of energy that surrounded the school.

It took him a moment to really focus, but eventually, Sam was able to see all the way to the end of this part of the wall, through the swirling snow, and even with the darkness along the periphery.

“No guards,” he said. “Power-up, off.”

“Good. A backdoor has to be somewhere around here…”

It didn’t take them much longer to find the door in question, a wooden one that was twice the size of a normal door, which Sam assumed allowed for them to bring larger crates of food in.

“I know the answer to this puzzle is not to knock,” he whispered.

“As easy as that would be, yes, you are probably right.”

“Then how?”

Zoe looked at the door for minute, and as she did, Sam noticed that there wasn’t a handle on the outside, that it could only be opened and locked from the inside.

“I can explode it with one of my cherry bombs,” Zoe said, tapping the front of her jacket to indicate the pouches she had along her waistline.

“But that would draw attention…”

“Exactly, and we don’t want that. Dammit.”

“What if we listened to hear if anyone was on the other side, and then we blade our way in? I’m assuming that there’s a door handle…” Sam used his hand to trace a circle where the door handle normally would have been. “We could just cut our way in by slicing through this entire area.”

“The only problem with that is if someone discovers it, they will know that there has been a break-in.”

“Dammit,” Sam said. “I really wish we had Dinah with us.”

“We may just have to wait to see if someone eventually uses the door. Unless you can think of something else.”

“Why would anyone use this door?”

“No idea,” said Zoe. “I’m assuming they keep trash inside, and who would want to come out in this cold anyway…”

“What if we could get Dinah to help us,” Sam asked suddenly.

“Dinah won’t come unless Ozella is awake,” Zoe reminded him.

“I know, but if Ozella is awake, Dinah can move about freely. We have seen that before. Hell, it’s how we found those dudes back at the spa. She was on the lower-level, and she came up and told us what was happening.”

“So we’re supposed to sit here and wait for Dinah?”

“Is that any better than waiting for the door to just open magically?” Sam asked.

“But for Dinah to come, Ozella has to be awake. And if Dinah isn’t coming…”

Sam gulped. “Don’t say that, Zoe. They can’t be dead. They really can’t.”

“No, they really can,” Zoe told him, glaring down at the snow. “That’s what these types of people do. I don’t know why they would keep them alive. We may have already waited for too long…”

“Shit…” Sam brought his hands to his temples for a moment, starting to feel pressure. They had already been over the fact that this was a suicide mission, and up until this point, he’d been well aware of this and had accepted it.

But now, with the thought that the others may actually be dead…

The door started to rattle. Zoe and Sam looked at each other, both going wide-eyed as they got out of the way of the door.

The door opened, then shut, then opened again, a man and a woman stepping out into the cold. The man wore an apron, the woman a jacket and robes.

“It’s so cold out here,” she said between kisses, the woman clearly younger than the man.

“I know, but no one will see us out here. I always wanted to do something like this…”

The door now hanging wide open, the man pressed his back against it for a moment as he started to guide the woman down. He shifted his apron to the side, and began unbuckling his zipper.

“Out here? In the cold?”

“Just use one of your runes to keep your mouth warm,” the man said with a grunt.

“I don’t know if I can do that…”

“Then what are they teaching you in this school anyway?”

“I guess I can try…”

“That’s the spirit!”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Zoe said, appearing to their right.

And before the man could react Zoe was on him. She shoved the woman to the side and used her hand to drive the man’s head into the wall, hard enough that he instantly passed out.

As the woman stood, about to scream, her eyes taking in Zoe’s intimidating form, Sam stepped behind her and grabbed her by the waist, his other hand going over her mouth.

“Shhh… Not a word,” Sam whispered in her ear. “And no runes.”

“We’re not going to kill you,” Zoe said. “In fact, you just made our little situation that much easier…” The woman fainted, the shock instantly getting to her.

“Okay, that was…”

“Serendipity?”

“I don’t know if I would call it that,” Sam said as he held the woman’s limp body. “We should get them inside though; they’ll die if we leave them out here.”

“What do you think was going on between these two anyway?” Sam whispered as they dragged them into the back of a food storage area. It was rather large, and filled with boxes, all the lights currently off.

“I don’t know,” said Zoe as she dropped the man. Sam was glad when she shut the door, preventing more of the cold air from slipping into the relatively warm space. “But it looks like she’s one of the students here, and he’s the help, so I’m assuming this relationship is not sanctioned.”

“He looks pretty young though,” Sam said.

Zoe smirked. “This fucker was about to get lucky, and then we actually got lucky. I don’t know what giving a blow job in a blizzard would be like, but we may have just saved them from having her mouth frozen to his cock, which I’m guessing would’ve been a whole ‘nother situation. See if you can find something in here to tie them up with, and we’ll need to gag both of them too.”

“Hmmm… there may be cleaning supplies in here,” Sam said. “But how about I watch them, while you search around. It’s dark in here, and my sight ability can be a bit overwhelming in close quarters…”

“Right,” Zoe said as she dropped the man, moving off into the darkness.

Sam heard some rustling for a moment.

It stopped, silence circling all around him. He felt alone in those long, exhausting seconds.

But eventually, Zoe emerged from the darkness with a bucket full of rags. She tied the man’s hands together and gagged him. She blindfolded him as well, propping him up against the wall of a dark corner.

“Now it’s her turn,” she said, approaching Sam.

They went through the same routine for the young woman, and placed her next to the man.

“If they do wake up, it will be a while before they can figure this one out. At least I hope.”

“Yes, that’s the last thing we need, these two sounding the alarm,” said Sam. “You know, as much as I like being with you, our powers really don’t work very well together. But we still seem to figure it out each and every time.”

“It kind of reminds me of how things were when we dated,” she said as they moved to the front of the food storage area. “And then you started dating a rich girl.”

“Woof,” Sam said. Zoe’s tail lightly flicked against him.

There were two exits actually, one that went straight to the kitchen and another that went into the school grounds. Sam pressed his ear against the door that went to the kitchen; he didn’t need to activate his power to hear that there was some activity on the other side. This led Sam to believe that the two now tied up in the back of the food storage area had come through the other door.

“Let me guess,” said Zoe. “There are people on the other side of that door, leaving us no other option but to do this by going through the courtyard.”

“Exactly,” Sam said as he checked his wrist guards once again, as ready as he could be for what could possibly happen next. “Are you sure you aren’t a telepath?”

“No, just a half-breed.”

“You’re much more than that.”

“Really?” she asked, her eyes softening a bit as she took in his features.

“Really. Now let’s go save the day.”

“That sounded so corny.”

“But it’s sort of what we’re supposed to do, right?”

“You aren’t wrong,” Zoe said, her tail flicking against him again as she turned to the second exit.

Chapter Forty-Two: Grim Discovery

(Evil is as evil does.)

Sam Meeko nearly did a Helena-style backflip once Dinah appeared in the food storage area. Her form wavered, a look of incredible terror and sadness on her face.

“Take us to them,” Zoe said, coming forward.

Dinah nodded, and floated through the door that led to the courtyard.

“Be ready for anything,” Zoe told Sam as he crouched in front of the door, opening it ever so slightly, even though they both were certain the coast was clear on the other side. He let it creak open on its own, Zoe stepping out first and then giving him the go-ahead, Sam joining her in a matter of moments.

They were in a garden area of sorts, icicles hanging off of some of the plants. There was a wheelbarrow off to the right, as well as a collection of landscaping gear including rakes, garden forks and a few frozen spades.

“Where did she go?” Sam asked, looking around for Dinah.

“I don’t know, she was just here, and then…”

The blue ghost woman reappeared in front of a gate that led to the courtyard.

There was something different about her form; it didn’t seem as bright as it normally was, and Sam struggled to keep his eyes on her as they moved to the garden. At one point, he accidentally kicked over a pail, both Zoe and Sam crouching, their breaths staccato.

“You are worse than Ozella,” Zoe finally said once no one came running.

“I didn’t see it,” Sam hissed as they reached the end of the garden.

Dinah was now on the other side of the gate; it only took Zoe a moment to figure out how to unlatch it from the inside, and as the iron gate creaked open, Sam and Zoe mentally prepped themselves for what was to come.

Goosebumps, an increased heart rate, adrenaline firing, perspiration—all things Sam was experiencing as they followed Dinah to the other end of the school, doing their best to keep to any dark spot they could find.

Zoe kept to the shadows, and Sam stayed behind her, as close he could get, her tail occasionally tapping him to let him know that it was safe to move.

Once they reached a certain building, this one situated in a far corner, Sam noticed two bodies lying on the ground, which he instantly recognized as Dinah’s handiwork.

“Stay here,” Zoe said as she dropped to all fours and bolted forward. She checked the bodies and then looked up to Dinah, who kept pointing at the building.

Zoe glanced back at Sam and motioned him forward, her tiger ears standing to attention and relaxing again.

Keeping as low as he could, Sam crunched through the snow and joined Zoe.

“This is it, they are in there.”

“Okay,” Sam said, taking a deep breath in. “Let’s get them, and get the fuck out of here. We both know how to get back to the food storage building. If we somehow get mixed up, meet there, inside.”

“Right.”

“Dinah,” Sam said, looking to the woman who continued to point at the building before them. But before he could tell her to heal them, Dinah started to fade away.

Zoe shook her head. “That’s not a good sign…”

“Agreed. Let’s just get in there and figure this out.”

Maybe it was because it was night, or maybe the looming nature of the building’s shadow was due to a combination of the position of the moon, and the shared fear Sam and Zoe were currently experiencing, but the building seemed large, ominous, dark in a way that Sam had never sensed in a building before.

“Dinah would have told us if someone was on the other side, she would have indicated it somehow,” Zoe said, as she looked at the door.

“Then we just go in?”

“We just go in.”

“Okay, I’ll push it open and you charge in.”

“I was just about to suggest that,” Zoe said as Sam moved to the left side of the door, and reached out for the handle.

He opened it and used his elbow to push it back some, giving Zoe enough space to charge in.

Sam shouldered in after her, immediately activating his energy blade just in case.

There was a staircase in the corner that led to a floor above, but other than that, and a mysterious object in the center of the room, the space was empty.

“What is that thing?” Sam deactivated his weapon and approached the object.

It looked like a giant spindle of sorts, and it was only when he got closer to it that he saw that there were ropes tied to the object, and that these ropes dipped into the basement below.

Zoe’s ears twitched. “They’re down there, in the basement. All of them and… shit, Sam, this is bad.”

“Power-up, hearing,” Sam said as he placed his ear on the ground.

He could still hear his heart beating in his chest, and it took him a moment to focus his power forward, his eyes now closed, Sam starting to understand the spatial layout of basement below. It was a deep basement, an open space three stories tall.

His lips quivered when he heard some struggling, snarling creatures working together.

Shapes began to take form in his mind’s eye, and Sam came to the realization that the weird spindle thing in the center of the room was actually holding ropes, ropes tied to the legs of…

“Power-up, off,” he said as he pressed away from the floor.

“What did you find?” Zoe asked.

“They are hanging from the ceiling; the vampires are beneath them,” Sam said, barely able to get the words out. “We have to get down there.”

“But I don’t see a door to the basement… ” Zoe said as she moved around the room again. “There’s nothing.”

“What if there isn’t a door? What if they are using a portal or something to get down there?”

“That would make sense,” Zoe said, activating her energy blade.

“We cut through the floor?”

“Yes, we cut through the floor and then we drop some cherry bombs down. It may kill a few of them, but won’t get them all. And I only have a handful.”

“But only if we can see how far down the others are lowered; we don’t need any shrapnel hitting them.”

“Good call,” Zoe said as she moved to the corner of the room and activated her energy blade.

“And how are we going to get down?” Sam asked. “From what I can tell it is at least three stories deep.”

“There has to be more rope. Check around the space again, and see if you can find more.”

“Got it,” Sam said, moving to the staircase that led to the next floor up. With a deep breath in he took the stairs, ready for anything as he moved to the second floor. The second floor just had a few boxes on it, and thankfully, he found a rope in one of the boxes.

Lifting it over his shoulder, Sam carried it back downstairs. The tiger girl had nearly finished cutting a square into the ground, a light on the side of her wrist guard blinking, letting her know that her weapon needed to recharge.

“Definitely not what these are designed for,” she said as the weapon fizzled out.

“I have two,” Sam said as he set the rope on the ground. “Take my blade, and I will keep the energy weapon.”

“Okay.” Zoe used her foot to finish the square she had cut in the wood. It gave way, but didn’t fall all the way to the floor below, not yet anyway, which meant she needed to give it a few more stomps before it finally splintered away.

Sam heard it hit the ground below, and the sound of creatures scurrying over to it.

“Power-up, sight,” Sam said as he got to his knees and looked into the hole. His wrist guard was now on the ground, so Zoe could put it on, and as she did so, Sam focused on what he was seeing below.

Even though his vision was a little wonky, and even though it was dark, he confirmed what he had heard.

Helena, Juniper and Ozella were suspended from the ropes, the vampire kids beneath them, struggling to reach the three.

Sam had also heard a dripping sound earlier, and cutting his head to the left, he saw that…

“Shit…”

“What is it?” Zoe asked as she looped one end of the rope on the spindle in the middle of the room, tying it off to give them counterweight.

“Power-up, off. They are bleeding them, or at least they were until Dinah healed them up. But some blood is definitely still dripping.”

“I just don’t get it,” Zoe said as she approached him with the rope. “But it doesn’t matter now. You and I are getting down there. And it looks like…” She peered over the edge of the hole again, confirming her suspicion. “I believe I’ll be able to use my cherry bombs without affecting the others. I’ll go first, and do as much damage as I can. You focus on shooting through their ropes, and getting them down. Maybe being upside down is what is keeping them semi-paralyzed.”

“Am I supposed to catch them then?” Sam asked. “I mean, if I shoot the ropes, am I supposed to catch them?”

Zoe bit her lip. “No, that sounds impossible. Shit. Okay. Let’s just take the vampires out first, and then figure out a way to get them down. I’ll hit the ground running, then you come with the energy blasts. Don’t shoot me.”

“I won’t.”

“Promise?”

Sam locked eyes with Zoe. “Promise.”

***

“We are going about this all wrong,” Sam told Zoe, an idea coming to him just as the tiger girl was about to take the rope down.

“All wrong?”

“We should try to lure the vampires over to this corner, then I blast them with the stun setting on my wrist guard, or you drop bombs on them, or we do both at the same time.”

Zoe considered this for a moment. “Brilliant idea. Sorry, I should have thought of that. All this is happening so quickly…”

“We’re a team; we’re supposed to think together,” Sam reminded her.

“Spare me the pep talk,” Zoe said, a hesitant smile on her face. “We’ll get their attention by lowering the rope. They will come to investigate it. I’m sure.”

“And then I’ll start blasting them, and you drop a few of your bombs.”

“Got it,” Zoe said as she began lowering the rope. The rope hit the ground, and as soon as it did, Sam heard the vampiric children moving over to investigate it.

It was dark below, but with the first blast he fired off into the area, Sam was able to see the monsters, their bodies more transformed, something different about them than last time.

They started to hiss and screech, the smarter ones scrambling to get away. By this point, Zoe had dropped two of her cherry bombs, the explosions causing more noise than Sam would have liked.

He continued firing his weapon as Zoe dropped the last of her cherry bombs.

They listened for a moment, and once the smoke cleared below, Sam activated his sight power-up to see if any of them were still alive. There were bodies littered across the ground, limbs blown off, and he realized that the vampires weren’t actually dead, that they needed to knife them in the chest.

“Power-up, off.”

One look to Zoe was all it took to confirm what Sam was thinking, the tiger girl immediately taking to the rope, and making her way down.

“Just follow me,” she said.

Once Zoe got closer to the ground, Sam began his descent. He heard the sound of Zoe knifing vampires in the chest, terror coming into Sam’s heart as he lowered himself into the darkness.

Even as he heard Zoe continue below, Sam was scared, the most scared he had been in his entire life, but he was also determined to get down there and free his teammates.

He reached the ground, his feet landing in a mass of sticky goo.

“That should be all of them,” Zoe said, out of breath. “Can any of you hear us?” she asked to the center of the room, not at all paying attention to her surroundings as she looked up.

Completely in the dark, Sam looked at his wrist guard for a moment, noticing a backlit button on the side that he hadn’t noticed before. A hunch coming to him, he pointed his arm to the far wall and lightly tapped the button. A beam of light emitted from the weapon.

“Whew,” he said under his breath, glad that it hadn’t triggered an explosion or something.

“That’s helpful,” Zoe said.

“It would have been even more helpful if someone had told me about this feature earlier…”

“Different country, different tech,” Zoe said as Sam aimed the light up at the three. Helena was completely motionless, Ozella twitching a bit, Juniper completely still.

At least at first.

Sam saw Juniper’s fingers curl, the woman’s head start to move as she looked down to see where the light was coming from.

“Juniper!” Zoe said excitedly. “If you can hear me, shake your hand or something.”

Sam shone his beam at her hand, noticing as it started to shake.

“We’re going to blast you down,” said Zoe, “but we have no way to catch you. Can you do something with a rune that would give you a soft landing spot?”

“Maybe she could even cut herself down…” Sam started to say.

“I haven’t seen her use her power like that yet,” Zoe told him, both of them watching Juniper intensely for an answer. Eventually, she gave them the thumbs up signal.

“Okay, Sam, shoot her rope.”

“Will do,” Sam said as he aimed his wrist guard up, changing the selector to the setting that increased the size of his blast radius. He moved his hand to the right just a little, away from Helena’s rope, not wanting to cut hers as well.

And with a steady breath in, and a quick fucking prayer, Sam triggered the weapon.

The shot connected, Juniper started to fall, only to be caught by a sudden flash of energy, which allowed her to roll off to the side and drop to her hands and knees.

Zoe helped her up, letting Juniper use her shoulder for support.

“You came…” she said, her voice barely audible.

“Of course we came,” Zoe told her. “And I need you to cast the same spell so we can get them down as well. Can you do that?”

“I think I can…”

“No, I need you to tell me that you can do it. It’s too long of a drop.”

His wrist guard’s flashlight now pointed at Juniper, Sam noticed that there were cut marks along her arms. They were healed up some, but the pink flesh was still visible.

“Did they try to drain you?” Sam asked, remembering the dripping sound he had heard.

Juniper nodded. “I’ll explain… Later. I’m ready, Zoe. Let’s get the others.”

“All right, Sam, it’s all you.”

“Got it,” Sam told his ex as he pointed his wrist guard at a spot between the two ropes, one holding Helena upside down, and one holding Ozella. With a short breath out, Sam triggered his weapon, the two falling as soon as his blast cut through the ropes.

A flash of energy gave them a comfortable landing ground, Sam immediately moving over to them.

“Helena,” Sam said as he lifted her into her arms. Zoe did the same with Ozella, who had a bunch of blood smeared across her face, matting down her blond hair.

“Sam?” Helena whispered, her face bruised, parts of it bloodied, her white hair crimson.

A fury that Sam had never felt before swelled in his chest, nearly causing him to lose his balance. He wanted to go back up to the school grounds now and destroy the people who had done this to his teammates.

Sam could feel the hate in his gut now. He bit his lip as he looked down at Helena, the only light in the area provided by his wrist guard, which was striking the wall in front of him.

Maybe if he had been paying better attention, maybe if he hadn’t let his emotions take over, maybe then Sam would have seen the vampire approaching out of the corner of his eye, maybe he would have to even recognized this vampire as the brash one that was most curious back in the railcar.

But by then it was too late.

The vampire lunged for Sam. He fell sideways as the vampire landed on him and scurried to an easier target, Helena, the monster grabbing her and dragging her off into the dark.

His wrist guard’s lights flashing all around him, Sam saw Zoe practically drop Ozella as she took off after the vampire. She hurdled over the bodies on the ground, the tiger girl on all fours, her tail bobbing in the air as she tackled the vampire, who was already hunched over Helena, his face at the side of her neck.

Sam stumbled forward with his weapon drawn, keeping his light on Zoe as she tumbled around the vampire, her energy blade eventually activating and pressing out of the vampire’s back.

Zoe flipped him over and pulled her fists back, driving her blade into his chest repeatedly, the vampire gargling up blood, choking, dying.

“What about Helena?” Juniper said as she limped forward.

But she didn’t need to say those words.

Sam was already rushing over to Helena by this point, his light trained on her, and as soon as he got to her, he pressed his hands to her neck to see that…

No…

No, Goddammit, no!

Helena had been bitten.

Chapter Forty-Three: Bloody Mist

(Look at the bright side. Wait. There is no bright side.)

The shock Sam Meeko was experiencing was something he’d never felt before. He wasn’t able to come to grips with what he was seeing as he looked down at Helena, his hands slow-motion moving toward her neck to confirm what he already knew to be true.

He was on the ground now with her, Helena rested against his knee, two bite marks on her neck, blood still oozing from the wounds. Zoe was next to Sam, her head craned forward a bit as she examined Helena’s wound.

“Oh no,” Juniper said, the rune she was conjuring falling to the ground and shattering.

“What are you doing?” Zoe hissed over to her. “We need a portal to take us the fuck out of here. Focus. Everyone focus. We will take care of Helena…”

“Where’s Ozella?” Sam asked.

“Near me,” said Juniper as she choked back a sob. The rune user started swirling her finger in the air, gracefully creating some ancient script even if it was clear by the look on her face that she was completely shattered.

“Okay, Juniper and Ozella, then Sam and Helena, and I’ll come in last,” Zoe said, now crouched, looking around in the dark, her ears twitching.

“All the vampires are gone, right?” Sam asked.

A thousand thoughts streamed through his mind at that moment, his mind working overtime to remember if he had ever heard of a cure for vampirism, wondering how they would get out of here, nervous as to what would happen if anyone else showed up.

But with Helena in his arms, bite marks on her neck, Sam knew now was not the time to let his thoughts distract him.

“They should be. I can’t believe this one slipped out of our view…” Zoe said. “Fuck! I should have looked around better, I should have…”

“You did what you could do,” said Juniper, the portal she was forming starting to rotate and grow larger. “It should only be another minute now.”

“Why is this taking so goddamn long?” Zoe asked.

Juniper sniffed, still trying not to let worry affect her casting. “Because there are dozens and dozens of wards protecting this school, and it’s hard to conjure from within without permission. Like I said, less than a minute.”

“Okay, I’ll bring Helena over,” Sam said as he lifted Helena in his arms, carrying her over to Juniper.

A portal opened on the far side of the deep basement as Sam cleared the distance, the sound of the air splitting ricocheting to the far corners of the room.

Zoe’s ears perked up, her tail straightening out as she saw the man named Essem Magar dropped out of the portal, his arms immediately morphing into enormous blades.

“I’ve got him!”

“Hurry!” Sam told Juniper, even though he knew this wouldn’t help. If this bastard was here, then surely the others would be on their way. Sam was surprised they hadn’t dropped out of portals by this point.

It was only a matter of time now…

Once he reached Juniper and carefully set Helena on the ground, Sam kept the light from his wrist guard on Zoe and Essem as they circled each other, Zoe throwing a few quick swipes in the villain’s direction to test his speed.

She rolled right as he came forward, his blade cutting into the concrete floor, sparks flying. Zoe leapt onto him; Essem threw her over his shoulder and into the wall.

She scurried out of the way just in time to avoid a full-frontal attack, the man pivoting, his blades hitting the ground as she backpedaled. Zoe dove to the side just in time to avoid another thrust.

“Come on, come on,” Sam said.

“Almost there…” Juniper told him.

“Zoe!” Sam shouted, but in trying to get her attention, he also distracted her, Zoe turning to look at him just as Essem thrust his blade-arm in her direction, ripping through her winter clothing and her uniform underneath.

Zoe just barely managed to get away in time to avoid a follow-up attack.

She was stumbling now, her hand on her waist, blood dripping on the ground as she tried to make her way toward Juniper, a look of utter terror on her face.

“Now,” Juniper said, the portal opening. “Let’s go!”

“I’ve got to help Zoe!”

“Hurry!” Juniper said as she dragged Ozella into the portal.

And in that moment, Sam knew Zoe wasn’t going to make it. She was losing speed fast, and Essem was gaining on her, so Sam did what anyone in his position would do.

He took off toward Zoe and Essem, his hand on his wrist guard adjusting the dial to its lethal setting.

And when he wasn’t able to fire a shot in time, he simply waited for an opening and tackled Essem, the impact stunning both of them for a moment as Sam tried to pin him to the ground.

Sam didn’t even notice the blade that entered his stomach and pressed out the back of his body.

He felt the sting, he saw Essem’s wicked grin, but Sam was more focused on doing something else. And with one fluid gesture, he punched his fist under Essem’s chin and triggered his weapon.

The blast turned the villain's head into a cloud of bloody mist.

It was then that Sam noticed that he was practically impaled on Essem’s blade arm, a sensation unlike any he had ever felt before moving through his body.

“Sam!”

Zoe was on him in a heartbeat, pulling Sam off the blade as Juniper’s head peeked out of the portal, the rune user immediately going to Helena and lifting her.

“We need Dinah,” Zoe said, trying not to sob, summoning every bit of strength she had to drag Sam over to the portal. “We need Dinah.”

“I can use a rune to wake Ozella up,” Juniper said as she carried Helena into the portal. “It shouldn’t take me long.”

“Sam is dying,” Zoe said, full on crying as she pressed through the portal. “Sam is dying, and Helena… Helena… Sam!”

“Just calm down; we’ll get through this,” Juniper said as her living room took shape. “Just stay with me, both of you!”

***

It was grotesquely miraculous how quickly one of Juniper’s many living rooms went from posh and clean to terror-filled and blood-soaked.

Sam now sat with his back against one of the sofas, his hand near the gaping wound in his stomach, Sam looking down at it, occasionally fluttering his eyes then regaining his composure.

The blood gushing out of the wound had saturated his clothing, creating a halo of crimson around him, the visual something that choked Zoe up every time she looked over to him.

She too was injured; the foot-long gash down the side of her body had created quite a bit of blood, but it wasn’t too deep, and miraculously, it didn’t cut through any bone or organ tissue.

It still stung like a bitch, but her focus was now on Juniper, who kneeled before Ozella, swirling her fingers, forming characters Zoe would never understand.

“You can heal her, right?” Zoe asked, which was the third or fourth time she had asked the same question and received the same answer.

“It’s not healing. And I need to concentrate,” Juniper said. “This rune creates a surge of adrenaline, which should wake Ozella up, but I don’t want to kill her. So please. Tend to Sam, or Helena.”

While Sam was definitely injured, Helena was the most tragic of all.

Juniper had laid her on the couch, her hands on her stomach, the two puncture wounds on her neck visible. She was starting to breathe, however, and it was only a few seconds later that Helena turned her head to Zoe, staring over to her with a dazed look in her eyes. “What’s happening?” she whispered.

Zoe practically launched herself to Helena’s side and took her hand.

“We’re safe now,” Zoe said, starting to choke up. “Sort of…”

“Are you okay?” Helena asked, a pained expression on her face as her throat quivered. She noticed that something was different along the muscles of her neck.

“I’m so sorry,” Zoe said. “I’m so sorry.”

“I was... bitten?” she asked as she touched the wound.

Zoe nodded. “We don’t know what the effects will be yet. And Sam… Sam…”

“Where’s Sam?” Helena asked, starting to tear up. She tried to turn her head all the way, but couldn’t, wincing at the pain on her neck.

“Just relax,” Helena said. “Sam is… He will be…”

“Please, please don’t tell me he’s dying,” Helena said.

“I don’t know,” Zoe finally admitted. “But Dinah should be here soon. Just relax. We’re going to figure all this out, Helena, I promise.”

“Here we go,” Juniper said, moving back as a spiral of magical script appeared before her, drilling down into Ozella’s body.

Zoe moved rapidly over to the two, just as Ozella started to wake. She sat up with a gasp, Zoe placing her hands behind her back, giving Ozella something to lean against.

“Dinah. Now. Sam,” Zoe said, barely able to get the words out.

Ozella simply nodded and Dinah appeared, a look of utter horror on the ghost woman’s face when she looked from Sam to Helena.

“Sam first,” Zoe said, and Dinah moved over to him almost immediately. “Please.”

Dinah sat on his waist, her body instantly pressing through his legs. She bent forward, her transparent lips touching Sam’s forehead.

He began to convulse, the light blue of Dinah’s form darkening as she absorbed more of his wound.

The blood surrounding him didn’t disappear, but Sam’s breaths started to become fuller, his energy returning to him.

His eyes were only closed a few moments longer, and once he was awake, he naturally started to push Dinah away, his hands pressing through her.

“Relax, Sam, this isn’t that,” Zoe said.

“Isn’t what?” Ozella asked as she started to get to her feet, definitely a little wobbly.

“Nothing. Dinah, just keep healing, and once you’re finished, move to Helena.”

Her hands now over her mouth, Ozella moved over to Helena and looked down at her, immediately starting to cry. “Please tell me…”

“We’ll figure something out,” Juniper said as she joined her, placing a hand on Ozella’s shoulder.

Eventually, Dinah stood and made her way over to Helena, Sam barely able to bring himself to stand.

“Dammit,” Sam said under his breath as he approached Helena, Dinah now bent before her, doing her best to heal the pale woman.

“And it’s all my fault,” Zoe said, tearing up again. “I should have looked around and seen the last vampire waiting for us. I should have…”

“No, I should have,” said Sam.

“You saved me,” Zoe said, turning to him. “That was so brave of you.”

Zoe lifted a hand to his cheek, using her thumb to remove his mask. “You saved me.”

“You would have done the same for me,” Sam said.

“It’s not working,” Ozella said, wiping tears away.

Zoe turned to see that Helena was starting to look better, but the wounds on her neck weren’t healing up.

“Try harder, Dinah,” Zoe said.

“She’s trying,” said Ozella.

“It’s not going to work,” said Juniper.

Helena pushed herself up. “We need to get back to Centralia. It’s the only way.”

“You need to rest,” Zoe started to tell her, her ears flitting back.

“We’re not going to get the help we need here,” Helena said.

“You don’t know that,” Juniper told her.

“I want to go back to Centralia, now,” Helena demanded, her voice quivering. “Now. I want to go home. I just want to be home.”

“I’m coming with you,” Juniper said as she stepped away, clearly flustered.

“That’s fine, but arrange an intercountry teleportation service. I want to go home now.”

Juniper nodded as she fired off some mental messages.

“Sam,” Helena said, reaching her arms out toward him. He came to her side and sat, leaving a large bloodstain on the couch as he did so, bringing Helena into his arms.

And while she could sometimes be heartless, Zoe truly felt sorry for Helena.

If only she had seen the last goddamn vampire, if only she had been faster. She turned away from the group, her arms crossed over her chest, one hand on her face as she tried to cover the fact that she was crying.

Dinah approached her from the front, Zoe at first confused as to why the woman was standing before her.

“I don’t need your healing,” she hissed. “Focus on someone else.”

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Ozella at her side, the statkeeper’s bloodied bangs swept over her face as she looked at Zoe with concern. “You have been severely cut,” she reminded her.

“I know,” Zoe said, sniffing, trying not to show any emotion and failing miserably.

“Let Dinah heal you.”

“Fine.”

Dinah came forward and Zoe lifted her hand, cringing as she felt a strain on the front of her body.

At least her brain didn’t have to handle the physical pain once Dinah finished, and she thanked the ghost woman as she turned back to Helena, who was still hugging Sam tightly.

“You won’t turn…” Sam kept whispering to Helena.

“I don’t want to… I don’t want to…”

“We will figure out a cure,” Zoe said. “I’m sure there is something. Ozella, tell me there is something, dammit!”

“If there is, I haven’t read it in a book yet,” Ozella said. “And please don’t yell at me!”

“I’m sorry! I’m just not good at handling emotions sometimes!” Zoe said, wringing her hands together.

“Breathe, Zoe, breathe. I still think we should stay here,” Juniper said, biting her lip.

“I want to go home, now.”

“I know, Helena, but there may be runes, or… There may be something that we don’t know about, which is here in the South, not there. You know that people don’t use runes there.”

“You will be there,” Helena told Juniper. “You can use runes. There are others there as well. Both of us know that.”

“I would have to find—”

“—There may be other options,” Helena said firmly. “I’m not ashamed to admit that I have money that I can throw at this.” She touched the wound on her neck again. “Maybe if Dinah keeps healing me, I can stay healthy until we can figure out a cure.”

“Maybe,” Ozella said.

“I just wish I had been faster,” Zoe told the group, her face still buried in her hands. “I was so anxious to get the three of you down…”

“You did what you had to do,” Juniper said. “This isn’t your fault.”

“It is my fault,” Zoe said.

“No, it’s my fault,” said Sam. “I had enhanced vision at the time; I should have seen the last vampire.”

“It is no one’s fault. When we took these roles, we all knew that something like this could happen,” Helena said, taking charge as usual. “Now, Juniper, what about your relations here? We encountered the headmaster of the School of Heart, Sugoz, and he must know where you are, and all about your family.”

“He may be the most powerful rune user I have ever encountered, but there are political forces here that will bury him if he tries anything. I don’t think that he will go that route, to be honest with you. It’s too risky on his part, and it could ruin whatever plan he has. Clearly, he is working with Fang, and he knew about the vampire children.”

“There’s one bright side to all this,” Ozella said, interrupting Juniper. “You did kill all the children that they had brought down there. So that will definitely set them back.”

“But will it? They can just infect more. In fact, I don’t know why they were bringing children from Centralia anyway when they could just use children from the South.”

“There may be some connection that we can get to the bottom of once we are back in Centralia,” said Helena, acting as if she hadn’t been bitten. “As far as we know, that’s where the real vampires are, the ones who are taking kids in the first place, the ones who formed Fang. Once I’m better, we will be able to do much more damage, and in the meantime, we will be able to see if we can’t get to the bottom of why they were bringing these kids to the Southern Alliance.”

“Here we go,” Juniper said as a shimmering square took shape in the living room.

A man in maroon clothing stepped out, glancing from all the blood to the five huddled around the couch.

“It’s been a long day,” Helena told him, her eye already starting to morph into a spinning red target.

“I can see that,” the man said.

“Just let me grab a few things and then we can go,” Juniper said. “Hopefully, we can figure all this out in Centralia.”

Epilogue: Just What the Doctor Ordered

A square-shaped portal opened up in front of Helena’s mansion. It was breezy as usual, a typical day in the city that doubled as a country.

Sam couldn’t remember the last time he had entered the place from this location, as they usually teleported inside.

Yet here they were, all five of them now standing, even Helena, who wore a scarf around her neck and was using Sam for support. The bite didn’t seem to affect her energy levels too much, but she still looked a bit paler than normal, and Sam couldn’t help but feel they didn’t have much time before a transformation started to take place.

“Let’s get inside, and from there…” Zoe looked to Helena for guidance.

“We will call the few doctors I know,” she said. “At least they will be able to check out my vitals, and then refer me along. We may have to go to the Eastern Province.”

“Why’s that?” Sam asked.

“The tech,” Helena said as she moved to one of the manicured shrubs that lined the entrance to her home. She crouched, sliding a rock to the side and returning with the key. “Always good to have backup.”

“Let’s just get you inside,” Ozella said, coming to her, “and I will have Dinah try to heal you up again before the doctors come.”

“We will need to think of other ways of addressing this as well,” said Juniper as they reached Helena’s front door. “I will go through a few of my family’s contacts. There are a handful of famous rune users who have taken up residence in Centralia. If that doesn’t work, we could also go to the Northern Alliance.”

“But I thought the South and the North were at war,” said Sam.

“We are, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have runic capabilities that may surpass ours,” said Juniper, a bag flung over her shoulder that she had packed in a hurry.

“There,” Helena whispered as they heard a clicking sound.

“Unlike the people from my country, at least most of them, I don’t think we should be at war with the North,” Juniper said as they entered Helena’s mansion. “We both utilize a similar magic, and if we actually worked to combine our powers,  we would likely be able to change the world.”

“Fat chance,” said Zoe as she stepped inside. “Not trying to burst your bubble here, Juney, but you don’t wash thousands of years of bad blood away with white paint. That’s something my grandmother used to say.”

“Different generation,” Juniper reminded her.

“Let’s just get you somewhere comfortable,” Sam said, his hand on Helena’s waist.

Sam was watching as Ozella walk down the hallway when a blast of energy cut her down, the statkeeper smacking into the wall, instantly passed out.

“Ozella!” Zoe cried, launching into action.

The tiger girl tore past Helena and Sam, Juniper stepping in front of the two of them and tracing something in the air. Sam saw a flash as a protective shield formed.

“You… You!” Zoe screamed once she got to the living room.

“I have to help her!” Sam said, removing his hand from Helena’s waist.

His back to the wall, he began moving toward the living room, his finger inches away from triggering his energy weapon.

He rounded the corner to the living room to see…

“Dr. Hamza?” he asked. The man in his white lab coat stood there triumphantly, aiming his weapon at Zoe, the tiger girl sizing him up, ready to pounce.

“Sam, I’m so glad you could join us,” Dr. Hamza said, his beady eyes still focused on Zoe, the wrist guard on his arm tracing her every move. “Call off the tiger one, and let’s have a conversation.”

“Or, I just blast you down from here,” Sam said, lifting his arm. “We could go that route as well.”

“Why would you do a thing like that? I come here bearing good news, something that the four of you…”

“Five,” Juniper said, stepping around Sam, her finger up in the air.

“No runes, child,” said Dr. Hamza, still focused on Zoe. “I’m sorry to blast the other one—Ozella, I believe—but she will be able to heal up. And I needed to be able to speak to you four before I was attacked by her imaginary friend.”

“You broke into my house,” Helena said, coming around Juniper. Helena glanced around for a weapon and settled on a vase set on a side table. She picked it up, glaring at Dr. Hamza, letting him know that she meant business.

“Is something the matter?” he asked, tilting his head at the famous heiress.

“You have thirty seconds to speak before we kill you,” Zoe said, the claws on her arms growing even larger.

“In due time,” he told her. “But what’s wrong with you, did something happen?” Hamza asked, still staring at Helena.

“It doesn’t concern you,” she said, gritting her teeth.

“But I believe it does. You see…”

The mad scientist lowered his weapon, and then lifted both hands in the air to show that he was surrendering.

Zoe wasn’t buying any of it.

She looked back to Sam and then returned her focus to Dr. Hamza, ready to kill on command.

“Ms. Knight, I believe that you, of all people in this room, will be most interested in what I have to say.”

“Say it quickly,” Zoe said, baring her teeth.

“Yes, yes, you are fierce, I get that, but let the adults talk for a moment, will you?”

“What do you have to say?” Helena asked as she came forward.

“I’m here to ask for your help.”

“I’m going to shoot him,” Sam said, which, he realized after the words came out of his mouth, was totally something that Zoe would likely say.

“Don’t shoot me yet. At least hear me out. You owe me that much.”

“We owe you?” Zoe asked.

“You wouldn’t have your amazing powers without me, and don’t forget that,” Hamza reminded her.

“I believe it’s time we conjure a zone of truth,” Juniper said as she wagged her finger.

“There’s no need to do that when I’m here to offer you the truth, and nothing but the truth,” Hamza told her. “But fine, cast it.”

Juniper lowered her hand, glittering light settling on the ground. “Done.”

“Ask me your questions then,” Dr. Hamza said, smirking at the four of them.

“Why did you come here?” Helena asked.

“I came here to make a deal with you. And seeing your condition…”

“You don’t know anything about my condition.” Helena set the vase down and came forward, grabbing the front of Dr. Hamza’s shirt and pulling him to her. “You know nothing.”

“So aggressive, and for an educated businesswoman…”

“What do you want?” Helena practically screamed in his face, Sam behind her now with his hand on her shoulder.

“I need your help rescuing Mia.”

“Mia?” Zoe asked. “You mean the bitch you enslaved?”

“Well, that’s one way to put it,” said Dr. Hamza, Helena’s hand still gripping the front of his shirt. “But Mia has been turned into a vampire, which I am assuming you all have already dealt with by this point. And I just so happened to have a serum…”

“A serum that does what?” Helena asked, suddenly growing hyper-aware of every word Dr. Hamza was saying.

“Put me down and I will explain everything.”

“Fine,” Helena said, pushing him away, returning to Sam.

“You see, I have a number of serums, as you have already discovered,” he said, a crazed look in his eye. “But I also have a new one, a couple of new ones, actually, but let’s just focus on this one for now. It could help you with your little… problem.”

“It cures vampirism?” Helena asked, her hand naturally coming to her scarf.

“Yes,” Dr. Hamza said, grinning at her. “I would be willing to offer the serum to you if you helped me get Mia.”

“We can’t trust him,” Zoe said. “Helena, we cannot trust him.”

“Oh, you will trust me,” said Dr. Hamza. “And since you have cast a zone of truth around me, I guess I should tell you the other part of all this, which was what was originally going to be my bargaining chip here. Not only will you help me rescue Mia in exchange for a cure for yourself, but seeing as how the Knight Corporation is one of the largest corporations in Centralia, and you haven’t gotten into pharmaceuticals yet, you will get into pharmaceuticals, because I have some things that need to be distributed.”

“You are joking,” Helena said. “I would never do business with you.”

Dr. Hamza showed her the palms of his hands again. “Fine, I get it. We have bad blood, and there’s no overlooking that. But I do have a partner who you have no blood with. And I believe the serums I’ve created, medicines if you will, may be something that your company would be interested in profiting from.”

“We can’t trust him,” Sam said, coming forward. “He will betray us.”

“I know that we have had our issues in the past, but if we can come to some sort of mutual agreement, I believe you will see that I have plenty to offer not only you, but your group, and the rest of Centralia.”

“This is such bullshit,” Zoe growled.

“But it will need to be legitimate, otherwise I will keep having to make serums out of my home. With your network of influence and… financing…  I would be able to get the chemicals I need legally and professionally,” he told Helena. “And I’m not just talking about a cure for vampirism here. I’m talking about something else.”

“I don’t know, Helena…” Juniper finally said.

“I say we kill him now,” Zoe added.

“Would you like evidence?” Dr. Hamza asked, ignoring Zoe. “Step back, and allow me to show you something.”

Helena did as instructed, exchanging glances with Sam in the process.

“Watch,” Dr. Hamza said as he rolled up the sleeve of his lab coat.

He took a knife from his front pocket, and brought the blade against his arm, cutting a trail of blood from his wrist all the way to his elbow.

He was breathing heavily now, clearly experiencing pain as he stashed the knife and took a vial from the same pocket. “I give you, Exhibit A,” he said as he popped the cap off and drank from the vial.

And just as quickly as the cut appeared, it began to fade away, leaving only the blood that had dripped from the wound. He wiped the blood away, showing them that the cut had vanished.

“You see? Completely healed!”

Zoe gasped. “You came up with a serum for healing?”

“I did, and there’s plenty more where this came from. But I need distribution, a place to work, and I want to do right by Mia. So, your group helps me rescue Mia in exchange for a cure for the bite that you have received,” he told Helena, “as well as your company’s vast resources to help me begin distributing my medicines. It’s almost as if I’m throwing in a bonus there, and don’t you forget that. I wasn’t originally going to offer you the vampirism cure….”

“I…” Helena looked to Sam, and then to Zoe, both of whom were shaking their heads.

“What do you say?” Dr. Hamza asked, something flickering behind his eyes. “Do you trust me?”

“It’s a deal,” Helena said, no longer able to make eye contact with him.

“I’m glad to see we could come to some sort of agreement.” Dr. Hamza smiled at them smugly for a moment. “Well, I’d better get going. Ozella will be up soon, and she’s not going to be happy that I shot her. Go ahead and relay the message to her, and I will see the five of you tomorrow morning. And keep an eye on her,” he told Sam and Zoe, nodding to Helena. “If anything starts to happen, you know where to find me.”

The end.

(Book Three will be out in the fall/winter of 2019!)

Back of the Book Content

Reader,

This series lives on your reviews, so please take a moment to review We Could Be Heroes book one and two. I envision this as a three book series, and your reviews are social proof that it is a good read!

https://geni.us/WeCouldBeHeroes
https://geni.us/WeCouldBeHeroes2

Your review is social proof that you enjoyed my work, and I can’t thank you enough for reading it and taking the time to review it. It really helps independent authors like me grow our craft and reach more readers, it also helps me to know that people are digging this style of prose and that I should continue writing it.

Other Centralian books:

We Could Be Heroes is related to my other series House of Dolls and Child of Chaos, which will be out in the summer of 2019.

Here are other ways you can support my writing, hear about the latest updates:

1)    Join the Proxima Galaxy on Facebook where I look for ARC (advanced Review Copy) readers and give away audiobooks

2)    Review the books, which generates more interest from other readers, which makes me write faster because (carrot dangling from the stick!) – I want to please you all!

3)    You can support me on Patreon where you will get a ton of exclusive updates.

So thanks, yet again, for reading, reviewing, enjoying We Could Be Heroes 2. I have some surprises for the third installment.

Also check out the Harem Lit page for more adult-themed novels! Another good one is the LitRPG books page.

Thanks for the support and your reviews.

Yours in sanity,

Harmon Cooper

Email: writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com

Join my newsletter to find out about my latest releases: https://geni.us/HCReaders

Other Books by Harmon Cooper

I have written over thirty books. Here are some of the highlights!

Hate your job, win the lottery, get a superpower.

Don’t miss the best-selling House of Dolls series, which shares a world and characters with We Could Be Heroes.

https://geni.us/HouseofDolls

A SuperHarem Adventure about a sci-fi writer and the superpowered women who are trying to kill him. Fun content, adult read! This one has more of the campy fun you’ve now read in We Could Be Heroes.

https://geni.us/CherryBlossomGirls1

A fantasy harem adventure inspired by Pokemon Go!, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and the Persona family of video games.

https://geni.us/MonsterHuntNYC

What if Ready Player One was a multi-part epic? Gritty LitRPG action, gamer humor, fantastic fantasy worlds, and a killer MC. An epic story told over eight books. This is the series that put Harmon Cooper books on the map.

https://geni.us/TheLoop

If you love dark fantasy, RPGs, Witcher, Punisher, or Mad Max, you'll love this powerful gamer trilogy about a man and his wolf companion.

https://geni.us/LastWarrior

Tokyo, Japan meets online fantasy gaming and South Park-styled humor. Yakuza, goblins, action, intrigue - add this book to your inventory list!

https://geni.us/FICK

Get connected with other LitRPG/GameLit readers

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And the biggest group of them all!

Don’t forget to review this book!

Thanks again.