"You've got enough food, water, and shit to do for a few days, I'll be back before then," Leap declared.

"Wait, what? Where are you going? I thought we were hiding out together?" Audrey asked.

"We were, then that lug got himself hurt," Leap answered.

Audrey furrowed her brow and tucked a loose strand of brown hair behind her ear. "Look, Cat, I get it he's helped the both of us, but he led the GSO away to protect us, right?"

"He did, but I won't have anyone martyr themselves for me, not if I can do something about it."

With that, Leap was gone; leaving Audrey, and her next question, standing there, unanswered. "What are you going to do, Cat?"

Leap arrived back at her apartment after a series of calculated warps and carefully placed video screens, warping via photo or memory always left her gassed, and having a live feed of where she intended to go was always the better way to do it.

She rifled through her things at blistering speed. The GSO attack heli's had been loaded up with the Elite goons and both Atreyu and Arclight were after Grimm. Capable as he may be, there was no way the intern was getting out of that, not unless the GSO wanted him to.

Leap stashed her pilfered stun baton, nanofiber switchblade, her recently acquired pistol, a pair of grenades, and was gone before she reconsidered her decision. Finding Grimm wouldn't be hard, she could follow the helicopters, and if that failed, the explosions.

"'Ello boys," Leap announced her arrival in the chopper's vacant gunner seat with a smirk, a wave, and the metallic clink of a grenade pin against the deck.

Five seconds

Leap was a blur, meting out punishment with a series of jobs from her switchblade and wheeling around to plant the soles of her boots on the outer edge of the helicopter and turn the gauss cannon into the passenger compartment.

Leap squeezed the triggers sending three ferromagnetic projectiles tearing through the hold... and the soldiers.

Three seconds

She scooped up two of the drum-fed assault rifles and slung them over her shoulder before warping to the rooftop below and sliding down the fire escape into the alleyway. The night sky cracked and bloomed with the flames of the grenade's detonation, and then the helicopter's.

Almost in time with the impact of the chopper's "landing," a body soared through the wall next to Leap and the wall directly across. She peeked around the hole in the wall where the body landed.

"Blyad," the form mumbled before going limp. It was Arclight.

Leap checked the other hole, where the body came from, and felt her jaw slacken. A block away, through a very recently made tunnel, she saw Grimm, encased in ice and being hauled away by the GSO goons. She whipped back around the corner as Atreyu turned to look her way.

The poster boy would be coming this way any second to, at the very least, check on Arclight. She weighed her options; warping with Grimm earlier hadn't been too taxing, but warping with a block of ice half a dozen times to shake the GSO, Atreyu, and the risk of revealing that was something she could do was a bit more than she could justify.

"You know, he wouldn't leave you out to dry like that, Ms. Knight." a voice said from behind her.

Leap whipped around, her baton sliding comfortably into her waiting hand and cracked the smug-looking man standing there across the jaw at maximum voltage.

The surge of electricity was subsumed into a radiating viridian aura as the man's head turned aside. Leap warped back across the hole, slid her baton back up her sleeve, and unslung both assault rifles, leveling them at the man in the suit.

"Alright love, I'm going to count to three then I'm going to start shooting and Atreyu will get down here much faster. Who are you and what do you want?"

The man wiped his thumb across his chin and looked down at the small splotch of blood that came away.

"I'm not your enemy for starters, so I'd appreciate it if you'd lower the rifles. I want to help."

"Whatever kind of help you're offering, I don't want. You look like the sort who offers with strings attached and I hate owing anyone anything. I'll handle things my way, so stay out of it or I'll pump you full of holes, got it?"

"Did you just -"

"Ta for now," Leap interrupted as she warped away.

"Was that a no?" Isto questioned the empty alleyway.

"Password," the thug at the door to the booming nightclub asked.

"Jog on," Leap answered before vanishing into the club with the swing of the door. That was the convenient part of her powers, if she wanted to go somewhere, she just did. The steady clomp of her boots on the dance floor sounded in time with the pounding of the bass and the sway of her hips as Leap sauntered toward the corner booth.

Brandao's ring of body guards stepped forward, out from the crowd, the shadows, and the dancers and formed a line in front of the man, and his table.

"Debonair, we have some business to settle, I'd hate to make mulch of your mates just to talk," Leap warned. She crossed her arms over her chest and kicked out her left hip, being sure to prominently display the two GSO rifles and the Union Jack patch on her shoulder.

"Let her through, not that you lot could stop her," Xander Brandao ordered as he rose from his seat. He spoke slowly and deliberately when speaking English.

"Eu disse mexa-se, droga!" he rattled off in Portuguese, causing his men to jump and scatter.

He was impeccably dressed, wearing a slate suit, deep purple shirt, and black loafers. His head was clean shaven to show off an impressive number of scars and tribal tattoos and his eyes punched holes straight through the neon haze of the club.

"Come, let us speak," he gestured for Leap to step forward "it seems you have been busy since last we spoke," he moved back to the booth and sat, gesturing to the seat across for Leap.

"Catching a slug in the shoulder will do that, Xander. I trust that your boys found the package at the drop?" she asked as she took the seat Brandoa indicated.

"They did. However, those that were beaten were taken into custody -"

"That's your problem Xander, I'm here on other business. We're settled from the last job, the agreement was that I get the item from deposit box 522, drop it where instructed and leave. That's what happened, yeah?" Leap challenged, thumping one of her boots down, heel-first on the heavy mahogany table before crossing the other over it.

Brandao smirked and leaned back into the plush padding of the booth.

"That is what happened, Gata, what is this business you're here for then?"

"I need a crew, small, smart, enhanced, blokes who know how to use their heads in the moment."

"Oh, so just a handful of my most capable men?"

"Women too, let's not be sexist Xander," Leap chimed in with a smirk.

"And what operation do you need this for?"

"That's my business, do you have the crew I need or do I need to go to the Coterie directly?"

Brandao's eyes went wide, though the rest of his face remained neutral, "You wouldn't - "

"I bloody well would," Leap answered, ineffable in her statement.

"I can give you three," Brandao answered through a scowl, "you have payment?"

Leap unslung one of the high-end GSO rifles from her shoulder and tossed it onto the table.

"What is -"

"So glad you asked, Xander, that is a rifle from one of Atreyu's strike squads. 5.67 ferromagnetic projectiles, the most advanced rifling, immaculate drum-feeding, perfectly balanced with compensators, and advanced linking aim systems. If I recall, not one of these has been recovered and brought to the black market, yeah?"

Brandao's eyes widened again, hunger and ambition shining clearly through his dark irises.

"That is... all correct." he answered.

"And you get to be the first one to crack it open, reproduce, and bring them to market."

"For you, Gata, I have four assets, and a recent acquisition," Brandao said, leaning back in his seat again.

"Oh?"

"Yes, Gata, I give to you two of my personal lieutenants, Shadow and Go Loud, two of my specialists, Radio and Techno, and her," Brandao said pointing toward the bar, "Verna Riggs, I believe she was called 'Panzer' by the GSO?"

Leap resisted the instinct to whip around in her chair and instead, casually gazed over her shoulder. It was no small wonder as to why she hadn't spotted Panzer when she walked in, she had shed the GSO mandated uniform for much more suiting apparel. Leap looked her up and down and let out a low whistle.

Panzer wore a pair of heavy combat boots, tactical pants that, thanks to the two thigh holsters and gun belt, hugged the curves of her powerfully built legs and hips. As Leap's eyes continued to wander, "powerfully built" was an accurate description for Panzer overall; the dancing neon lights highlighted the deep cuts in her musculature put on display by the form fitting amber tank top she wore and the straps holding Angry Daddy against her back. The sides and back of Panzer's head were freshly shaved, her hair was a much darker shade of red than Leap remembered from the night she caught a bullet through the shoulder.

Leap realized she was staring when Panzer made direct eye contact with her. Despite the intensity of her gaze, Leap couldn't help but throw a wink her way.

"And what do I get if I throw you the other rifle?" Leap asked, tearing her eyes away from the warrior woman at the bar, "I kid, Xander. I'm keeping this one."

Brandao smirked, "Best of luck, Gata. I have never seen you so focused. I must know, what is so important?"

"Keep your eyes on the news, and you'll find out. Send your lieutenants and specialists to this address," Leap said, flicking a card across the table, "I'll take her home with me."

"Grimm Raven, civilian name Sorli Grimmarson. Orphan of the Thorn Titan Incident twelve years ago, recently licensed as a street-level hero with the registered powers of speed and reflexes, markers in your blood show additional powers of superhuman strength, stamina, speed, and reflexes; meaning that your registered powers are understated or missing. What do you have to say for yourself?" a tall, slender woman demanded. She wore a powersuit, had her hair tied up in a tight, black, bun, and her blue eyes bored into Sorli's.

"Law-yer," Sorli repeated through chattering teeth. Atreyu had only thawed him to his elbows, everything lower than that was still encased in ice.

"Allow me to make one thing perfectly clear, Mr. Grimmarson, you, despite your licensure, have been arrested and processed under Villain clause 54.3 B, subheading 2. You, effective immediately, have lost your right to counsel, your right to remain silent, and your right to ethical interrogation. You will tell me what I want to know, even if I have to tear it from your mind." she dictated.

Sorli blinked rapidly in an attempt to clear the fog from his mind. "Psycher?"

Psycher - The Inquisitor Hero - Civilian Name: Anastasia Guidry. She made a name for herself supporting the more prominent combat heroes, compelling confessions and cooperation from villains and their underlings once a super had softened them up, then vanished from the spotlight. Sorli put together why.

"So, you get to do the dirty work, making people talk when they don't want to?"

"Oh Mr. Grimmarson, you say that like I don't like to get my hands dirty. I can tell that you and I are going to have a lot of fun."