The three of us found shelter from the rain inside an abandoned convenience store. There we replenished our strength with a couple of candy bars and went about coming up with a plan. Or rather, getting completely sidetracked by politics instead.

Stumblebum was the first to bring up the elephant in the room. "This is exactly what we had fucking militias for. We wouldn't have to worry about all these hostage-takeover things if everybody was armed to the teeth."

Sixes refused to dignify the comment with a reply as he unwrapped his Reese’s cups. So, I decided to go ahead and take the bait on my own. "We lost the entire state of Utah to one of the militia movements, Stumblebum. Seems like k-kind of a wash to me. Though it might help us right now, it would only kick the problem down the road, don't you think?"

"Hey, the Deserets just wanted to do their own thing, bro," he defended. "We didn't have to flip out and revoke the Two-'A' just because we couldn't keep our people from leaving."

"Um, I'm pretty sure their prophet is controlling them with a mind-power, so that would invalidate the whole 'will of the people' argument you're making. I guess it's not proven, though. But either way, would you really want somebody like me taking over the country? Mass mind-control abilities are not unheard of. Having militias everywhere only makes their job easy."

"Man, if you went full tyrant, I'd-" Stumblebum was saying, but got cut off.

"Besides," Sixes finally added his piece, "even if it was what the Deserets wanted, it doesn't matter. This nation is based on majority rule, and we need the union strong right now. Just because they had the means to separate didn't mean they had the right to. The second amendment, the militias, and the secessionist movements had become too closely intertwined, so they all had to go at once. That was the only rational decision at the time."

"'Making the nation strong' was exactly the thinking that created them in the first place, soldier-boy. Back when powers first showed up and everybody started going crazy for no reason, they wanted to militarize us all. Improve our collective discipline and mental health, they said. But then they up and decide 'oh no, an armed and trained populace is really scary. Better nix that!' It all sounds pretty hypocritical if you ask me," Stumblebum reputed. Then wistfully he added, "but nobody ever asks me for my opinion."

I laughed. "Probably because we don't have to."

But the hero-guard didn't find it so funny. Sixes had his mask off, so I could see the annoyance on his face as he chewed. Though I was somewhat fond of rogues, he didn't seem the type to romanticize their style of vigilantism. I took it that he liked knowing who the good-guys were and having systems in place to vet them. Any bozo with a power could go out and declare themselves judge, jury, and executioner as a rogue. As much as I liked Stumblebum even, he himself walked the line from what I'd heard between a hero and a knife-wielding madman.

I decided to go ahead and swerve the subject back to more practical matters, since I had no vested interest in 'winning' this debate. I wasn't very political by temperament. "One thing we can say is that the People of Deseret probably aren't the ones loaning these guys their help. They don't seem like they'd affiliate with whatever this occultist-vibe is that the Unmakers are going for."

"Between the Red Colony and the Dredge's occupied territories, my bet would be on the communists," Stumblebum said. "They'd do anything to fuck us up. Damn Soviets."

Sixes shook his head. "They're trying to keep us from getting any more involved on the Eastern Front that we already are. They wouldn't jeopardize their position there just to take down a small coastal city like New Marion. There's not even a military base here."

"Oh, look who's the geopolitical expert now," Stumblebum groaned. "Okay, so it's the fishmen, then?"

"Nobody really knows what goes on in the dredges," I said, "so it'd be hard to confirm that either way." This was the only useful bit of information I had to contribute at the moment. Actually, there was one more thought circulating in my mind. "What if... what if we're over-estimating our enemy by assuming these out-of-towners are on loan from another occupied territory? It could be any number of lone-wolf villain-groups going for broke."

Sixes nodded. "It's possible. But it all just appears to be too well-rehearsed."

If we got the opportunity to capture one, I thought, then maybe I could help us find out exactly where they came from. Interrogation seemed like it would be right up my alley, after all...

Just then, the thing that I’d been waiting for suddenly occurred. The only reason we had been able to come inside and get out of the rain was because, unlike Stumblebum, I didn't need to perch on the rooftop to keep my eyes out for the enemy's reinforcements. They would need extra hands, and those extra hands had just appeared at the edge of my awareness. I was getting so good at splitting my attention that I hadn't even had to tune out our conversation to focus.

I dusted myself off then and finished the last of my Twix bar, ready for more bloodshed. "Time to head out," I let them know.

Sixes packed up his rifle and checked all of his gear. "Where?" he quickly asked.

My satisfied expression let him know right away. As I pointed, we three drew near to the storefront window, and our eyes locked on to the car driving up the very same road we were on, less than a half a mile away now. We'd chosen our position well, and they had taken no effort to hide their presence by taking an alternate route.

Already they thought that they had taken full control of the city, with all of their enemies pinned down on the map. They were in for a fun surprise when they realized the truth.

This was the plan. Until I had more information about who we were up against and what resources we had, there was nothing to do but strike and run. With my powers we had the constant advantage in hide-and-go-seek. If we could therefore draw out the villains attacking the hero HQ, we could run them in circles as much as we wanted, picking them off as we went.

"I'm up first," Sixes said. "I'll take out the engine. Stumblebum, you close the distance, and Headcase, you keep them from radioing anything in. Freeze them up."

The fight proceeded exactly as he said it would. Everything went by in a flash as we stepped out the door.

With one shot from his rifle, the car's engine exploded. Our knife-wielding comrade teleported inside the very cabin of their truck and got to stabbing, causing blood to splatter profusely over the inner windshield. The only thing that didn't happen as it was supposed to, annoyingly, was my own part in things.

My luck continues to follow me.

I fired off a yellow bolt of pain only for it to mostly dissipate as it struck the car's window. Unable to penetrate through the gore or the glass, I didn't know. But nevertheless, the villains swerved off the road and slammed into a light post, stopping cold in their tracks.

They were dealt with handily, despite my miss, and the guard and I moved up to finish things off. We watched then as, before we could get there, Stumblebum threw open the back door of the car and drug a man squirming from of the vehicle.

Proudly he tossed him to the ground and spread his arms expectantly, as if we should be impressed.

"Don't kill me!" the man yelled.

Just as I was thinking, there's something familiar about this guy, Stumblebum went and spelled it out for us. "Ah, not surprised to see you here, bitch-boy!" he yelled at him. Stepping on the wound he'd inflicted at their ankles; he elicited a scream of pain back. Then to us, Stumblebum turned and added flatly, "oh yeah, this is, uh, whatshisface. Passthrough."

At that, I beamed. "You've got to be fucking kidding me. We saw him this morning."

"No shit?!" Stumblebum kicked the villain harder. "This guy has drowned me in dirt more times than I care to count."

"That's enough," Sixes warned. "Did they manage to get a radio out?"

"Nah, chief, but that won't mean we can just stay here. Are we taking this one or not?"

There was a moment of silence as the decision was considered. After our run-in earlier and the rogue's bad history with this villain, there wasn't a single person here who would be remiss to put a bullet in his brain. At the same time, this situation was unlikely to repeat itself again.

Of course, the villains had called for Passthrough to get them inside the impenetrable fortress! In hindsight, I should have seen this coming. But this was not an opportunity for revenge, it was an opportunity for learning.

We had been given the exact scenario I hoped for, and I let that be known. "I think I could get information out of him… if I had the time."

Sixes was reluctant, even as his interest piqued. "He's incredibly dangerous, Headcase. One touch from him and you'll fall into the asphalt. Dead."

But Stumblebum, however, was quite enthusiastic. "You mean torture him, Headcase?"

"I have a few ideas," I shrugged, "but yeah, that's one of them."

"Fantastic! I'll handle the dangerous bit, don't you worry. We just have to get him up to the second story of a building. That way if he drops ya, I can knife him before you go anywhere we can't get to you. A drop from that height won't hurt too bad. You’d probably just break your legs."

Passthrough was already looking pale just from our discussion. I could see from his aura that he was full of indecision. He wasn't sure if he would be able to resist interrogation. Those doubts would be the seed of his undoing.

He was a gaunt man, with deep dark circles under his eyes. Yet, he was tidy also, with a cleanly pressed button-up shirt on and a nice watch gracing his wrist. A poor personality masked in ill-gotten wealth. At least this time he wasn’t going invisible, and I could get a good look at him.

"That building over there would work," Sixes said, obviously won over by Stumblebum's plan. Minimal risk for a potentially huge tactical advantage… How could he resist?

We got to dragging our newfound villain with us, thankful for once that the rain drowned out all of his wails of pain. I continually checked back on the auras of those assaulting the hero operations building, making sure they stayed nice and far away at their post. For now, they were unwitting about their reinforcements' fate. However, I doubted that would last.

Sixes was not the only enhanced hunter on the field today, and I shuddered to think what would happen if Carrion got on our trail. I had to keep my attention on Passthrough, though. If he was going to pull something sneaky, I might be able to sense his intention beforehand and stop him.

As for how I was going to get inside his mind, well, I'd never had such a victim before to practice my powers on. He was completely at my mercy, and I was running on full-steam. Who knew what I might get up to...?