After take-off, I mentally went over the eight relatively unknowns currently in the back of my aircraft and what I had seen of them during the short walk to the plane.

Two of them, Pheronica and Metanite, I had seen before, one of them even twice. They had been present during the hearing regarding Battlemaster’s attack on me, albeit their reactions had been quite different. Metanite had seemed relatively unconcerned that I had been attacked without reasonable cause, Pheronica had obviously shown disgust at such actions. Looking at the files send by Technica, it seemed almost ironic, Metanite, who had always worked either with the authorities in his home-country or the Guild, did not care about unlawful actions, as long as they targeted what he saw as a villain, and Pheronica, apparently a con-artist and general thief-for-hire, was all for defending the sanctity of secret identities.

In addition to that, Metanite had commanded the rather disastrous action against the Scourge in New Brunsburg. While I had little experience with anti-Scourge actions, I was under the impression that he might have the powers, according to the files his powerset was similar to Anath’s only more focused on physical strength, but that did not make him a competent leader. It was a mistake I had to make sure I would not make myself.

The rest of the group had obviously been selected for their powers, just like Pheronica and Metanite.

Hancock was a third Atlas, adding more physical strength but also considerable experience, having been in the Guild for twenty years. There were notes that his daytime-job was in one of the Universities, teaching in a civil-engineering course. It gave me hopes that he would be able to allow the group to essentially act as construction-equipment using their powers.

Liam, on the other hand, was an aquakinetic. Sadly, there was little in the file what he could actually do with his power, if he was able to cleanse water, it would be invaluable. But even if he could only shift water, it would be useful in flooded conditions.

Iron Maiden’s ability was one I would want to study, if the circumstances were different. She was able to manifest a suit of armour around herself, which was curious in and off itself, but the notes indicated that the suit gave her increased strength in addition to the obvious protection. But damage it sustained carried over to the next manifestation, slowly ‘healing’ over time. I would have to convince her to assist me in a few experiments.

Steelbender was another specialised kinetic, moving metal that he was in contact with. While his power had certain limitations, it was incredibly strong in its boundaries.

Fixit, another one for the list, interesting due to his ability to heal wounds and injuries. His abilities were apparently unable to fix diseases and he had been studying medicine to further his understanding of them, making me hopeful that he might agree to experimentation.

And lastly, there was the unfortunately named Tenderiser. He had lacked the foresight to think of his own name and publish it, causing the press to name him as he made a, well, name, for himself as a street brawler. If anyone had reason to hate the press, it was him. Another Atlas, this one focused on toughness, able to shrug off most damage but also able to pull his weight.

There was also a small note about Fey, the Councillor we would meet at our deployment-location, stating that she was the magician amongst the Guild-council, specialised in local scrying. I had no real idea what ‘local’ meant in that context but it would hopefully help with our rather limited surveillance capacity. We had the drones on the plane but they had their limits.

The flight itself was very unspectacular, we checked with the appropriate air-controllers, set our transponder as necessary and otherwise were left alone. I kept a careful eye on the instruments, the aircraft was still rather experimental after all, but a little over eight hours after we had started, we were starting to near the Island.

My first action when we reached the deployment-area was to start dropping drones, after flying a large circle above the area. The drones and the aircraft’s sensors were able to paint a picture of the ground for me and what I saw was disturbing.

Our deployment-zone was on the east-coast of the Island and Galatea and I had looked at images of the region we found online, trying to get a bit of an image of what awaited us. We should not have bothered, the images had shown a tropical paradise, palm-trees, white beaches, smiling people.

What the cameras showed me looked more like a warzone, gone were the palm-trees and the beaches had turned into mud, mixed with debris. From above, I could see that there had been a city here but the composite, taken from various images to add depth-perception, showed that most houses had been destroyed, even kilometers inland. Having a rough idea of the local physical situation, I started the final approach to the landing-zone Technica had sent us. Judging from above, it was a soccer-field, next to what might normally be a school of some sort.

It was a good thing that the aircraft was designed to land even in hostile conditions, not needing landing-lights or anything, really. The whole, devastated town was cloaked in darkness, the last remaining shreds of the setting sun giving only very little light.

“Metis calling for Guild-Councillor Fey. Metis calling for Guild-Councillor Fey.” I radioed, using a frequency and encryption given to me by Technica. Hopefully, Fey would be in the area and able to respond. I was a little uncomfortable simply landing in a foreign country, right after a natural disaster. I had no idea how the locals would react if my rather menacing plane suddenly set down and while I doubted they could destroy it, fighting back would pose problems.

“Metis, this is Mordred, Councillor Fey’s student. I notified my teacher and she will contact you shortly on this frequency.” a voice told me over the radio. It sounded rather young and clearly male, making me curious about another apprentice, or student, in his case, of a Guild-Councillor.

“Acknowledged Mordred, we will go into a waiting-pattern.” I answered, balancing thrust of the various engines, letting the aircraft hover.

“We are above our deployment-zone, currently awaiting confirmation from the ground-team. Please remain seated until we are landed.” I told my passengers over intercom, almost making some sort of airline announcement but decided against it.

“Can you show me what it looks like down there?” Anath asked from next to me as we waited. I had kept the images internal, directly processing the data with Galatea’s help, so she had no idea what was down there.

Nodding, I displayed the images on the screens in front of her, on a whim sending them to the people in the back. That way, they would be able to see for themselves what was down there, before we got into the thick of it. Next to me, I heard Anath mutter a small oath, or maybe it was a prayer and the microphones in the back-cabin picked up a few similar sentiments, some voiced as swears, others as prayers.

“This is Guild-Councillor Fey, calling for Metis.” I heard over the radio. The voice sounded a little tired but overall warm and pleasant, despite the situation.

“This is Metis, calling for details on ground-situation and landing-zone.” I answered, slightly reducing throttle, causing the aircraft to descend further.

“Landing-zone is clear, ground situation is tense but stable. We can use any help you have with you.” The voice told me and I could hear relief in her voice. But judging by what I could see, she had every reason the be relieved, the situation had to be serious.

I let the plane descend as swiftly as safely possible, the engines ripping up the soccer-field something fierce before the wheels were down. A quick look showed me that a figure was waiting for us, clad in the costume the picture of Fey was showing, a dark, hooded robe with the Guild’s emblem embroidered on the chest. Ultimately, that did not mean anything and we had a passphrase to establish contact but it made me confident to tell the passengers to disembark, opening the doors and letting the stairs down for them to do so while I started to extend the additional stabilizers needed to provide a stable platform for the fusion-generator. While excessive vibrations did not cause any serious damage, they reduced the power-output to almost zero, making it pointless to run the generator.

Once that was done, I checked outside, seeing that my passengers had gone over to the hooded figure and were waiting for me.

“It is time to disembark.” I told Anath, mentally putting my game-face on.

“Let’s go.” she agreed, walking ahead of me.

Outside, the first thing Galatea and I noticed was the heat, quickly followed by the smell and the oppressive humidity. We were wearing an insulated suit of armour, only taking in air for breathing, but it felt more as if I was drinking the salty air.

Walking over, I extended my hand to Fey and as we were shaking hands, I gave her the nonsensical passphrase from Technica, talking about the desserts at Technica’s favourite restaurant, to which Fey was supposed to praise another establishment. I had no idea why or how those passphrases came to be, but I did as told and was rather surprised when Fey burst into laughter before answering exactly as she was supposed to. I made a mental note to ask what was that all about at some point. But for now, there were other, more important, things to talk about.