I sweep my fist behind me, and then beckon forwards, and with the training precision of marines, my squad assembles in a wedge behind me. I then raise 2 fingers, then 3 fingers, and pump my fist.

Go time.

I throw my Kevlar Shield in front of me and Thunder-Stride straight into the second-floor window.

With a sonic boom, it erupts in a hail of glass. Two men and a woman in urban fatigues spin around, startled, and I immediately stride twice more towards them and then smash my fist into the floor, erupting into a nova of pulsing electricity.

One of the men is taken off guard and goes down spasming as the pulses burn and ground out through him, but the woman is a teleporter, and zaps behind me, taking her closest buddy with her on instinct.

Unfortunately, her instinct costs her life, as Eileen is through the breach on my tail, and controls all the still hovering glass shards from the breach straight into the woman’s figure. She goes down gushing blood and twitching.

The man she teleported with her is a real pro, though. He hits the end of the teleport already rolling away and avoids the rain of shards, immediately pulling up his sub-machine gun to hammer Eileen. Shit.

John is there in time, thankfully, his flesh steel as he leaps in front of the bullets. I fire off a lance of lightning straight into the guys skull, and his face explodes with the smell of ozone and burnt flesh before we can find out what his magic is, if he has one.

Eileen taps herself and shakes her head. She must have taken a hit still. I give her the okay signal and she falls back.

Messy. I didn’t expect them to have such assets on the top floor. But no time to lose; the front doors and fire-exit have also been breached downstairs and I can hear a cacophony of gunfire and spells being exchanged.

John joins me and we surge down the corridor over to the landing overlooking the main entry to give support. I pull up my shotgun from its holster just in time for us to round the corner straight into another woman in full spectra plate at a full run. I unload immediately into her and she staggers from surprise; but the shot was one handed, and mostly went off her chest plate.

She recovers with inhuman speed, dashing straight at me with a pair of knives suddenly in hand.

I Thunder-Stride back on reflex, but even then, the knives adjust and still pass with an inch of my visor, their cutting power such that it causes a sonic boom and cracks the plastic and pops my ears in passing.

I fucking hate physical enhancers.

John slams into the woman at a full run, covered entirely in steel, but she barely staggers one step before stomping so hard as to crack the wooden floor beneath her and starting to sumo with the steel giant. Her knife flashes again and with a shower of sparks, she penetrates John’s left arm with her knife straight through the steel covering. I hear him cry out.

I fucking hate physical enhancers with adamantine knives even more. I throw down my shotgun and shield and plant my feet.

I call on my sigil. I recall my past lives. Past Flint Myneris, my father, past Katarina Myneris, my grandmother, I spin past many lives in an instant, and I arrive there, Hector Myneris. He spent his life fighting physical enhancing Wildwood Beasts and working with a far-eastern mage to master a very precise technique. I call on his life’s work, the Chi Lightning Tether.

I clap my palms together, the sigil on my palms shining bright blue and my irises doubtless the same. The woman realises what I’m up to and tries to slash away at John to get space, but he does his job as well as he can, and manages to kick in her in the shin.

I spin my arms in a wide circle, and then clap, and twelve glowing blue darts shoot out. Unerringly, they fan out and smack into her into points I recognise as acupuncture meridians, their spiritual nature simply phasing through her Spectra Armour.

Even though she barely moved from my full shotgun blast, this attack literally yanks her from her feet. She struggles in mid-air for a moment, but all the darts then seem to stab in further, and a massive jolt of amber coloured lightning rips over her, holding her dead in place. She tries to scream, but it comes out as a croak from her paralysed throat.

John doesn’t hesitate. His steel armour peels off and changes into a giant sledgehammer, and with a circular spin like he’s about to throw a shot-putt, he slams it into the woman’s helmet.

Even that simply cracks her neck, spinning back her head, where on a normie, such a thing would make it explode like a watermelon. She must have been an enhancer magister at least given her strength and equipment, which is distressing.

It seems we were unable to provide any back-up for the other teams after all, but everything is quiet for now. Me and John check all the other rooms upstairs to be sure, but they seem to be clear.

“This is Serpent Three, status, over.” I call on the radio.

“Purple Six, area clear, no casualties, over.”

Well, Misty’s team had no problems then. They didn’t even need our support.

“Falcon Nine, area clear. Merchandise secured. One Firework, one Shooter taken out. Falcon Three down but not out, over.”

About as expected. The pyromancer and the force mage were guarding the stolen goods. They were quite good to have knocked out Peter. But why the hell was this elite we weren’t aware of up here?

“Roger that. One King Crab, One Ghost taken out. Area clear. Serpent Nine pulled, Serpent Six hit, over.”

“Repeat that Serpent Three, King Crab, over?!” Alice is panicking at this, understandably.

“Confirmed Falcon Nine, King Crab. Black Gold Claws. Had to use history to subdue. Couldn’t go gentle, I’m sorry. Will give details on debrief. Let’s get out of here before anyone else gets in, over.”

“Roger.” She sounds morose.

. . .

I leave the debriefing room of the base with a sigh. Major Ross wasn’t terribly happy with the outcome, unsurprisingly. It’s a bit of blotch on my otherwise fairly good record, but I was only chewed out a little given the surprising presence of the enhancer.

“Jasper! Are you okay!?” Alice practically dashes into me, colliding with my armour.

“I’m fine, darling.” I hug her. “Need a shower and a new visor, mind you.” She snickers.

It’s funny she only loses her cool in moments like this, but it makes me feel warm inside.

Nevertheless, she recovers quite quickly, and returns to her professional mode. She salutes.

“Ahem. Please excuse my impropriety, sir. Congratulations on the success of the operation.” She states.

“Barely. How are the others?” I ask, waving my hand to indicate she can stay at ease. We start to walk along side-by-side towards the common room.

“Two gunshots hit Eileen. Nothing critical, but she’ll be out for a few weeks at least. John will be fine, besides a new scar and wounded pride. Peter is in surgery right now. Fortunately, the fire was put out immediately by Seth, but he still had a pierced lung.”

I sigh. Peter was down worse than I first imagined. He was ambushed by a joint attack from the Force Mage and the Pyromancer.

“Have we found anything about the enhancer?”

She nods.

“She is Rhiannon Wade. Ex-FA Delta Force, went rogue and started working with Queen Feinenjeratha’s Junta in 2015. Been seen all over South Africa mostly. LMP 33 Physical Enhancement. We’re lucky it was you fighting her, to be honest. She would have creamed my squad.”

“What does this mean? Are the Fae up to something? Why would they be supporting the Anti-Nobles?” I ponder.

“I have no idea as of yet. I’ve already got some people on it. I want to hope they were just an interested party in wanting to buy the merchandise. But a lot of things are happening at once, aren’t they?” She gives me a knowing look.

“You’re really adamant that my sister’s marriage is linked to the Anti-Nobles, aren’t you?” I glare.

“It’s just too suspicious, Jasper.” She sighs.

“Dr. Corwin has all the right motivations to marry Lapis. You’ve confirmed it yourself.” I argue.

“I have. But you know I have these instincts, and this one just won’t go away.” Alice grimaces.

Lapis shouldn’t have to come near this world; none of my sisters should, but this world has a way of dragging our family in.

“Leave it for now, Alice.” I order.

She sighs, but nods.

“Fine. I will. But instead; I’m joining you with the shower, sir.” She says matter of factly, her red irises looking predatory.

I raise an eyebrow and chuckle at the audacity of this woman, who has taken my heart.

Yes. I hope Lapis can be happy. I truly hope my wife’s instincts are wrong this time…