“Do we really have to talk to him?”

“Yes… unfortunately we do have to actually talk to Parasonic.”

Aegis and Alex walked the lower halls of the Hill, the ground level medical wing that provided emergency and standard care to the central district of Kadia. On good days there was maybe a troublesome sprain or a transfer from a civilian hospital seeking Mediknight’s healing abilities. But, since the graduation, it’s been full of people on the recovery list. Punching someone through a glass façade was one thing, doing it at a mach speed too excessive to comprehend in the middle of an overcrowded foyer was something altogether more destructive. Luckily there hadn’t been anything fatal as a result, but the injuries were extensive, and intensive. Families, friends, the lucky few who were able to buy tickets, no one was truly spared. The people closest to the blast almost had their bones turned to dust, organs were ruptured, not a single eardrum went unburst. A few were thrown off their feet and slammed into the walls, others had bits of ceiling and façade fall on them, one guy split his head open on the frame of the Kashmir Peace Accords. But all had been in range of Mediknight’s healing field… and all were now forced to wait for him to fully heal each and every one of them.

The halls were spilled over, beds lining the walls on either side. Most were thankfully empty by now, but a few patients still milled about with their loved ones awaiting treatment. The pair weaved through the collective healing ache that permeated the air, staff trying their best to get people in rooms or discharged so the wing could actually be used. A somewhat callous crowd of still bandaged patients were crowding a room ahead, angry collective grumblings clear from down the hall. Once they got close enough, Aegis knew these people were less grievously in need and more impatient.

A faint warmth permeated the air, Mediknight’s healing field emanating from the room in question. But heavily weakened from several days worth of power consumption. As they slowed to push through, she could see him hunched over a bed. His hands were shaking, armor rattling as they covered a woman’s abdomen. A family surrounded the bed as he pulled back, hand grasping for a window sill to lean back on. Aegis had never seen so much fatigue on those blank armored slats. There were too many patients to fully heal, and only two hands that could. She stopped in the middle of the crowd to express her sympathy, but they surged as the family inside finished thanking him, trying to draw his attention to-

“Hey, you going to heal me now?!”

“No me, I need to get back to work already!”

“Get in line, I’m next!”

“I’ve been here for days already, I’m next!!”

All the while he wobbled through the deluge, desperate to move on to the next critical patient, orderlies and nurses trying to keep a path so he could move. Alex winced back, but saw that simmer in the air again, as Aegis wound up to-

“THAT’S ENOUGH!!!”

The crowd recoiled and groaned of their mildly pained movements. Her expression was an absolute inferno as the crowd scrambled back.

“Get back to your god damn rooms and be patient or so help me I’ll set your fucking bones with a sledgehammer!!!”

The actually frightened hobbled away, the more intimidated slowly dispersed as the staff finally found a chance to help Medi along. He practically fell into their arms, armor echoing wheezing breaths. He’d done too much for today, but Aegis knew he wasn’t going to just stop. She put a hand to his shoulder and let that inferno become a warm worry, a soft demand for him to just get some rest before she and Alex continued on. On to a thankfully more polite and courteous part of the wing where the hero casualties were recovering.

“F-FUCK!!!”

Well… at least they were staying in bed. The room ahead was spacious, curtains folded back and windows out to the city making it nice and-

*clink*

“g-god DAMN IT!!!”

Pleasantly lit. Para was set up on the left side, bed table over him and full of knocked over items. A limp hand weighing the table down, desperate to pull up just one of the items. Desperate to prove he wasn’t an invalid, that he wouldn’t be stopped by some stupid injuries. But they just slipped through barely flexing fingers as the realities refused his will. A plastic cup splashed its water as it fell through his grasp, immeasurably pained expression staring down at it with just the right eye remaining. Pins jutted out of his left jaw, setting what few bones remained and keeping him still, but the bandage over the eye was just window dressing for a hollow socket. His right arm struggled to move, an arm brace discarded to the side said he had chosen to start physical therapy on his own, but the prospects were almost nonexistent.

Mediknight had tried to heal him that day, but, as far as his powers were concerned, there was nothing to heal. The nerves in his right foot, right arm, and the left side of his face were torn to shreds. Odd sections were just disintegrated to nothing, split open several times over and burned into… into a gradient that told a familiar story. His left eye though couldn’t even be found after the fact, let alone reattached. There was just nothing left, and it was obvious he was fighting still against that refusal.

“Para, at least wait for the actual physical therapists. I know you can’t stand it, but you won’t heal like that.”

Aegis was still coming off a little bit of her simmer from before, but still-

“Like you really give a crap!”

She wasn’t willing to take Para’s shit.

“Why the hell didn’t you chase him down? Why the hell is he still alive, while I’m…?! rrrrAAAHHH!!!”

That limp hand flailed away the plastic cup, splashing it across the room at-

“GaAh!! What the hell!?”

“Shove it Butterknife!”

Razor, who apparently drew the unlucky straw several times over.

First he had his knee slammed into the hallway corner during the blast, shattering it of course, then he got saddled with Para as a roommate, and finally put on the lowest priority list for healing. So he was stuck here with only commiserations and a hail of insults to keep him company.

“Hey! I earned my hero name, so use it!”

“As if!! You’re only here because I needed to make sure that THING didn’t graduate! If I had-“

“PARA!!!”

Aegis may not have lost enough of that simmer as she took up the room from just its doorway.

“It’s a good thing you’re in the mood for confessions, because we need to speak to you about that… thing!”

Aegis stormed over and yanked a chair up to his bed, Alex trying her best to sneak in without ire but there wasn’t much point. She waved to Razor, both thankful there was at least one friendly face here. Notepad in hand, she was ready to follow along, but it wasn’t looking pretty.

“We need the files you took out of the system, chiefly Seth’s application. We need every bit of information we can get.”

“Hmph… You’re two months too late. I burned it.”

Aegis’ expression was flaring again.

“You what!?!”

While Para had regained his smug.

“As if we were ever going to allow someone like that into the League! As if they ever had a place in this society from the beginning! You saw with your own eyes just what kind of person he was! What kind of thing he became! He didn’t survive the crisis! He didn’t survive the laceroids! He fucking BECAME ONE!!!”

All of Para’s conviction stared back through his one remaining eye, dared Aegis to refute his assertion. They both saw the same eyes, the same terror remanifested. But only one seemed to care for other possibilities.

“That doesn’t matter right now… does it?”

Aegis’ fury seemed to cool, whether a show of force or just a bluff, she was done arguing.

“We need anything you remember, any details, anything that can tell us where he could go or what kind of-“

“*Yo it’s the man of the hour!! The crew with the power!! The-“

*beep*

All three looked across the room at Razor, scrambled over to his night stand and silencing his… custom ringtone. Face red as a beat and mouthing “Sorry” as best it could as he quickly drew his privacy curtain over and answered with harsh whispers.

“Dude what the hell?! I said I’d call you later!”

Aegis looked back at Para’s sneering, both at least in some amount of agreement. Alex snorted a little as she stifled a laugh, drawing Aegis to look back. She smiled flatly at her, but quickly Aegis started chuckling in kind. The curtain drew back open as they tried to hide their laughter.

“I can hear you, you know!! It’s not funny!! My friend made it special for-”

“SHUT UP BUTTERKNIFE!!!”

Razor recoiled, but franticly redrew the curtain. Para wasn’t letting go of the tension. Aegis sighed and went back to it.

“So… anything… everything. I don’t care what you don’t want to admit. We need everything.”

Para kept sneering, it was clear he had little to give.

“What’s there to even say by now? Dit- hrghm… Mimic here already has enough to refill his dossier right? And I sure as shit don’t care to know the fuckers name, let alone what hole he crawled out of! Why not ask the receptionist, it’s her job to take those sorts of things.”

“We did… but Felicia already told us about your little scheme. You’re supposed to file those applications immediately, not have them funneled all to you so you can know how best to get your trainees to quit. So you’re the only one who really laid eyes on that piece of paper… and the only one who knows anything else about Seth. So…”

Aegis leaned in close, hardened stare putting a point across that even she didn’t want to throw out.

“Unless you want to get shipped to HQ for Psyclops to play with… I’d suggest you get remembering.”

Para never let up his sneer, simply grunted off her intimidations, but looked down to at least try. The only reward being a deeper sneer.

“Half the damn thing was blank, no social, no claimed history. Heh… didn’t even know his own blood type. But… grrr… can’t picture the fucking address. M… something. Too many damn numbers. Think it was an apartment.”

He looked back up, a defeated smug shrug meeting Aegis.

“Yeah, that’s all I got. I tore the damn thing up as soon as I even laid eyes on it. I at least give my trainees the first day to surprise me. And look how that all ended up.”

His scowl returned, but at least he was quieter n-

“HOLY SHIT!!!”

The three… once again… stared over in Razor’s direction.

“Butterknife…!”

Para was losing the quiet moment.

“I swear to god…!”

Distortions flaring up around his good hand before Aegis stifled it with her own and turned back to the now cowering curtain.

“Razor…”

Even she was tired of it by now. A sudden orange flash and the curtain flew open, shield pushing it away leaving Razor exposed and regretting.

“You going to share with the class or am I going to have to drop you outside, take the phone away, and explain your burgeoning needle fetish to your friends?”

“GAH!! What the… ffff I’ll call you back!! *beep* Huggh… Okay!!”

Razor was withering under her growing glare, and Para’s but his was just expected.

“My… friend was just telling me about some new guy in my town that beat them up and… Well fuck he took on an entire crew of Dockers and… and fucking disintegrated them!”

Aegis’ glare flinched.

“Did you say… disintegrate?”

Even Para was intensifying his glare.

“Ye- yeah. Like… turned them to piles of ash or dust or whatever. Even chewed through chunks of the alleyway it went down in. Apparently he saved someone but-“

“Butterknife! Description! Now!”

Razor flinched, but tried to work through what his friend had told him.

“Uh Uh… er! He… said he was wearing a hat and trench coat, like he wanted to stay hidden. Uh… oh he’s got a red scarf kinda like…”

He didn’t need to say anything more, even he knew what he’d just described. Para’s good hand was rippling, Alex was jotting down as much as she could, but Aegis’ determination was shining brighter than ever. But it dimmed slightly into a puzzled stare.

“What the hell is a Docker though?”

The Eagleville docks were a whole level of dystopia worse than even the ruins left beyond The Wall. At least they get to have nature take them over in the end. Here, it was nothing but crumbled buildings and chewed up streets, and it was certainly not as quiet. Even during the day there were the sounds of partying and excess, despite how little there seemed to begin with. Blaring music from a built up basement entrance meant it was some sort of club or bar, yelling and pounding from a ramshackled warehouse were pretty clearly someone’s fighting arena, and… less savory noises from the few actually maintained buildings were… indicative unto themselves. Seth hoped he wouldn’t have to go in there, more so since he was tracking people who kidnap children. And he feared he would lose himself again and tear this place down to the bedrock.

The punk ’err Zor’ said the place he’d seen in the Dockers’ cannibalized memories was their main hideout, though apparently it was more of a hub than a base. What it contained was hard to say, but it was where people were taken when they were kidnapped. Seth was going to have to fight his way in, probably fight his way back out just for what was already expected to be in there. Though most of the people he passed as he walked these dilapidated streets seemed to be itching for that outcome. A lot of glazed stares and distracted goons. Seemed like a lot of their phones were going off at rather opportune times.

‘Something about wanting to renew their extended warranties. Heh.’

The route was fairly clear, no desperate crawling from shadow to shadow, just another person walking the street looking for a good time. Yet headed for its dark heart without so much as a look back. The Hotbox, as it was known, was a heavily repurposed warehouse that backed into the artificially expanded Plateau River. Concrete docks putting it out over the water and in prime location for distribution. The smell of the half made sewer system that permeated the district melded with the stench of saltwater decay, with a heap of both dry and wet rot to round out just how bad this place reeked. But all that foul air paled in comparison to the horrid feeling Seth had about the building he was just waltzing right up to.

Corrugated and cut apart metal panels lined the outer walls, armor against a siege they had no hope of winning. But the rusted through plates and slatted windows, the darkened metal and piled high rotting boxes surrounding. Something about this building made it into an entrance to hell. Held-at-bay anger started to boil over, instinct flaring it up for a fight because flight was too damning of a prospect. But that anger wasn’t alone, it was harmonized with. That oh-so-still present chest ache, those spiked beats rumbling his nerves in merciless unison, swirled that boil with purpose and method. This place was evil, and even his guilt wanted it gone.

A pair of guards in common dress, suspended waders and thick coats, lazily camped out at the door. Representing the only resistance to be seen, beyond the general understanding that this place was a fucking human warehouse! Seth could do little to fight his power flaring up, his care for these faceless nobodies waning away. And really he offered it little resistance. The guards sat up from their positions, pipes and pistols their only defense to the audacity of the one advancing on them. All they probably saw was some suicidal idiot in a trench coat walking up their concrete path, on their turf, thinking he owned the place they carved out themselves. All before that idiot saw their world for them.

The kick off was instantaneous, destructive. A spray of salt etched concrete replacing that scene as a hand reached and locked around the right guard’s arm, without so much as a flinch allowed to manifest. Powered flare, focused, pushed and pulled, spreading through him like searching tendrils, like linking connections absentmindedly created before. A watchful and careful focus making sure this goon would live to face judgment for what was scrounged up. Seth’s mind latched to his, just as when Erdwut sliced into his shoulder and his threads attached to Eschenwald. He could see bits, make out what he was thinking, see the world through his eyes. And see what he’d held emotion to as it all flew by. But was seen threw Seth’s control out the window. This guard had watched countless numbers of supers, people, children, all get carried kicking and screaming into this place… and enjoyed it. He saw them as weak, deserving, impure, tools to abuse, and-

“grrrrRRRAAHH!!!”

Seth had seen too much, and this bastard was too far gone from this world. That spread returned to its sender, reeled back under what control he had left, but beyond that civil discourse was ruthlessly denied.

That barely perceptible moment ended as the guards caught up as best they could, and as the other hand slammed the right guard’s knee in. The sound of bone and tendon snapping apart drew the attention of the left guard, and the right guard for that matter. He was toppling over without even understanding he was just hit, but knew even less of what was about to happen to him. A sudden loss of balance, hands steaming and grilling his arm as they clamped down, and all the gravity in the world was lost to him. The left guard’s attention only afforded him a chance to see the head of his fellow guard hurtling toward his, a human missile laser locked on his face. The conking of their heads signaled their incapacitation, the resulting wood splintering of their unconscious bodies slamming into a nearby rotten shipping box meant that Seth had over done things. But who gives a fuck, they deserved worse! And there were a lot more waiting inside for the same treatment.

The reinforced main door loudly screeched open like the shipping container it was taken off of, stealth wasn’t an option or a consideration any more. The smell of the bright outside was lost in the blighted deluge from the dank and darkened interior. Human shit, crammed together bodies, cordite, skunky tones, and an altogether fucking abominable atmosphere cause every fiber to bristle and flare. Seth took a step in, and the world turned to base particles. Outlines shone through the walls, perturbed goons manning makeshift rooms built into a front corridor. Another step, and a door on the right was doomed to fly. A locked left, a concrete shattering kick off, and a metal buckling punch sent the metal door careening at its occupant. The screech of its violent removal overshadowed by it slamming into the far wall, one goon brought along and panini pressed.

The opposite door opened as he stood back up, and immediately turned his attention. The reacting goon never saw him move beyond the sudden appearance of two locked feet slamming into his chest. The one behind saw even less as his compatriot was violently kicked into him and both were dented back into their corrugated room. Seth stood back up in the middle of the corridor, eyes glowing below his cap, fists clenching off still mounting rage, and no ache in his chest to stop his advance.

The corridor continued deep into the warehouse, and the smell only intensifying. More reacting and far too slow Dockers were cratered into their sheet and stressed metal creations. They probably won’t die… probably. But Seth still didn’t really give a shit either way! Not even enough to see them as the people they were, only the monsters they made themselves into. His only goal, the only agreeable outcome, was this place burning to the ground. His advance finally led him to one final door in the corridor, solid steel and locked tigh- *SKRANG* Well it was locked. Seth was assaulted by the source of this foul building's air as he tore the door open with his bare hands. Antiseptic effluence, festering wound and rotten blood, the sting and burn and grinding implications only driving that fury higher. Even as shots kicked that stale and confined air, the doorway filling with lead and sparks. A gaggle of goons awaiting this inevitable, but only scoring their construction, and driving that fury to its limit.

Because Seth was already in the room, careening into the first goon he could see, left locked low to gut check him into a world of hurt. Impact spread Seth’s flare, gave him the look into the Dockers thoughts he definitely didn’t need to calm himself down. Every one of these guys reveled in the pain they caused, enjoyed the hell they created. And every one of them was going to pay for it. That flare receded back, but the goon flew regardless. The clang of his unconscious body hitting the bars of the rusted cells he once guarded threw the rest of his fellow Dockers for a loop, and only served to help them understand the true hell they had consigned themselves to. As the room’s paltry lights crashed away, leaving only the blue burn of Seth’s eyes rising to cement this condemnation.

That blue plasma became a blur, traced toward each goon, flashes of gunfire trying to rival and catch it but only served to draw it straight to them. The sound of bodies crumpling, cracking, slamming into walls, and crashing into other bodies. There was no hope for these bastards, nothing truly stopping Seth from tearing them apart, piece by piece! Nothing but that harmonized guilt sparing them that sudden end. The pockmarked darkness flashed in his face, cordite burst and blinding light trying to keep him back. A fist smashed jaw, as that flash failed its duty. Bone shattered, flesh tore, but only enough to make the point clear as another unconscious body was remanded back to gravity’s course. The dim aurora flare of infinitesimal threads splaying and fraying as they failed to reel back in time. And a disgusting feeling of shared experience and being left in all that wake. Only that unconscious instinct keeping this condemnation from being a permanent solution, like an unseen retainer keeping him to his path. Even as he became one with the darkness.

The flashes fell off, only but one final sound tried to play out. A goon, no someone important, had seen the error of his ways and was trying to flee. The clack of his dropped pistol was undershadowed by the jingle of a key ring, and a clear imprint in Seth’s mind of him being the warden to this horrendous place. Old grudges, unpowered jealousy, a henchman turned villain in his own right. A real nobody carving out his path to be somebody. No matter who he carved to get there. That blue glare turned to him like the eyes of the devil come to show him the final error of his sins, and his shadowed form was whipped around into the air. His fall accentuated as that glare slammed him down to the sound of shattered concrete and the finality of this god forsaken place.

The world slowly seethed back to material despair, slowed and highlighted world returning to speed with every heinous breath. The dim lighting buzzing back alive, a little brighter as Seth poured the excess power he had into them, a need to just use it up rather than hold to it. The room was finally visible beyond its now convicted contents. It was wall to wall jail cells, rusted bars and metal plates. A shattered table was splintered in the center, an unfortunate casualty he… didn’t really remember crashing through. But the whimpers of the unjustly incarcerated tossed all other thoughts aside. The cells had no lights, but the forms of countless numbers filled them. But barely a few could stand. The cells were separated by age, adults were piecemeal at the flanks but the children were crammed together at the back wall. All of them stared back as he looked around at them, scarf absentmindedly pulled over his face but eyes meeting theirs in crushing empathy.

They were emaciated, skin and bone the only common indicator of time served. Their clothes torn and stained with blood and dirt and…

‘God please let it just be dirt!’

Several of them were scarred in too many ways. Wrists and arms scarred over from obvious malpractice worthy blood draws, cuts and bruises from beatings, broken bones and slashed tendons from desperate escape attempts. He looked down, almost in desperation to get the images surrounding him away, but with better purpose. He scooped up the wardens keys from the crater he left him in and immediately stormed over to the children’s cell. Several cowering back, started to tear up like this was a trick to crush them. But none cried out, only cementing Seth’s ultimate wish to nuke this place to fucking kingdom come. His hands refused to stop shaking as he jammed key after key into the lock, each one failing to turn and only adding to his-

“ggrrrrAAAAHH!!”

The last key spalled to splinters as he tore it away and clamped down on the rusty bars, flare spreading like wildfire through them. With an almighty yank, his hand came away from the dust cloud that used to be a cell door. Desperation seething through the rusted dust, eyes glaring above the frightened children, but a sharp breath cleared his frustration and the rusty cloud that obfuscated him. Fear refused them their joyous release, cowering stillness locking them down like dear in headlights. He knelt down, the huddle cowered back more, save for one staring straight into his eyes. It was a girl, brown hair and eyes, couldn’t be older than ten.

‘How much fucked up shit has to fucking happen to 10 years olds?’

An oversized barely blue shirt hanged off her by ripped up seams, a scar on her cheek triple wide and marking her defiance, but her eyes still teared up in spite. Seth stretched out his hand, the same one he just dusted their cell with. Her hesitation was crushing, but shakily she raised hers and placed it in his. It was pale, cold. Then hot, too hot. She had powers, an uncontrolled blue aura started to tear at Seth’s hand, burn his skin and etch at his soul like ghostly fire. But held it regardless, fought back against the pain, wrapped his hand around hers like they were just going to cross the street together. A beacon to the rest that he really was her to free them, lead them out of the hell they’d been left in. Back to a better life than this.

The air around Aegis rushed by with a velocity Alex could only just barely keep up with, this was a lead she really didn’t want to miss and she wasn’t going to hold back in reaching it. The pair zoomed out of the skyline of Kadia toward the circling hills, toward Eagleville. A red hinted Aegis, Alex, desperately forming up alongside as best she could. If what Razor had described was true, they just found where Seth was hiding. And if not, they’d at least found some people in real need of rescue. The radio in Aegis’ ear tried to buzz to life, but a quick flick silenced it before anyone could admonish her. This was happening no matter what.

The dystopian streets of the neighboring town came into view over the tree covered hills, Alex could hardly believe a place like this existed so close to Kadia, but her thought was interrupted as Aegis shifted. A thoughtful slow down, followed by a sudden stop and boom upward into the cloudy sky. Alex scrambled to a stop, doing everything she could to catch up. Aegis was ridiculously fast when she needed to be. Thankfully she slowed as the white fluff cloaked their intrusion, Alex finally hovering in alongside her.

“Hughugh… Would it kill you to slow down once?! Your flight is insane!”

Aegis’ serious face finally cracked from the moment she heard Razor’s description, even chuckling a bit with a nostalgic look on her face.

“You should have seen what it was like growing up with it. Breaking your wrists will teach you control real quick.”

The pair casually zoomed through the seasonal dour, plenty of cover to get them over the docks without too much notice. And they needed to keep unseen, else another Kineticlysm-esc fiasco could ensue and a lot of innocent people could end up paying the price. Their target was hard to miss at least, the majority of the warehouses below all looked decayed beyond structural soundness. The only one worth its salt was the one covered in salvaged container walls and brimming with an uninviting aesthetic. These Dockers were all about intimidation factor. Also the roof was painted up with “Death to Supers” on it, really hard to miss from the air.

But something was off as they hit the airspace over the building. The entrance was wide open, there were no guards anywhere near, and… it didn’t seem as intimidating as it should be for a human trafficking base. Aegis looked back at Alex, stern look back and a silent nod the go ahead to descend. As quick as before, Aegis dropped to the ground, halting a foot above the ground and blowing away the built up garbage and dirt with the wind force alone. Alex psyched up and tried to repeat her move, the sudden assault of the dockyard air wincing her out of focus. Lurching her to a stop just above the creates that stacked up three high on the concrete dock, nose held tight before she looked around at her haphazard descent. A quick release and she landed down proper and immediately got back to regretting ever learning to breathe.

“Oh god! Uguugh… What the hell is that smell?”

“Nothing good.”

A desperate change turned Alex to a cloud of red smoke, another Marvelous mimic. Can’t smell if you don’t have a nose, and they needed to be stealthy anyway. Aegis glared at the entrance, the pair were occluded from the main path by the surrounding boxes, a glowing wispy eye poking out to check wide.

“All clear… For some reason.”

“Because he’s already been through.”

Alex looked back up at her and followed her eye line. A matching set of orange overalls and rubber waders were sticking out of a smashed in box, their owners unconscious and heaped inside.

“Sheesh he-“

“shhh!”

Aegis shushed her as she glared at the door, figures appearing in the unnerving dark. She tensed, air at her feet pushing another layer deeper into the built in grime, but abating as the figures staggered into the light. Rags, torn and bloodied clothing, emaciated forms leaning on their beaten and aching comrades. Her tension melted as the tide of human suffering stumbled free of their captivity. Without a care for consequences, Aegis shot out of her cover and ran to help as best she could. Alex didn’t even have a chance to dissuade her, nor an inclination as she glanced back at the clear path and morphed her way toward the wounded. Red clouds turned to red hued armor and medical power. She couldn’t compare to Mediknight, but she could do her best.

Aegis scooped up an emaciated woman about to fall over and hurriedly laid them down away from the entrance, hand grasped to hers in reassurance a failing hard not to grip too tight. An immediate relinquishing, a flick of the radio on her ear, and she was already off to the next needing way more than she could offer.

“Hill Control, Valerian Actual in need of an immediate medical flight to Eagleville docks, will pop flare for direction but we need multiple VTOLs here now.”

Wait… Aegis we-“

“I am counting 50+ victims in varying states of god damn torture and starvation here!!! There is no time for HESITATION!!!”

“Roger mam!!!”

“Mimic focus on the-“

“Already on it!”

Alex had already started triaging those in dire need. She could heal bones and organs, but malnutrition wasn’t going to just go away. The stream of humanity soon lost stature as group after group of children came out from the dark, thankfully with less injury but more existential weight. Aegis stormed through the crowds, trying to identify those who needed attention first, directing everyone else to stay near but get free of the door. Eyes that had not seen the sun in far too long squinted and cried. Those who had been spared the worst ran into the light with undefeatable joy. Many tried to cling to and hug Aegis as she tried to check them, frail forms too weak to properly grasp. Every time she drooped low, scooped them up, and pressed them into her shoulder, but continued scanning the tide for the wounded. Alex was swamped on the box walled sides, hands wrapped around poorly healed breaks and lesionous bruises. The sickening smell had faded away as adrenaline and desperate duty drove her on.

Soon enough the thunder of a VTOL was heard over the gathered whimpering and lapping of the river. Aegis threw caution to the wind, passed off the child in her arms and pulled her hands in. An orange ring cowered the mass back as it rose slowly from the concrete in the center of the dock, translucent barrier folding over and over to get it as bright as it could be. With a massive forceful raise, the cylinder shot up into the sky, a beacon that few could miss. The thunder grew louder, as did finally her concern for the result of this shifted mission. But this was not the time for that.

The roar of the VTOL increased as a flight of three cut through the clouds, flyers breaking off from their railings and streaking toward the dock. Small models pulled ahead, side doors sliding open to reveal teams of medics and security staff. The grime and trash on the street side docks blew in everyone’s faces as the first came to land. Security stormed out the opposite side, guns and mild powers trained on the town that surrounded them. The medics filing off the warehouse side and running headlong toward Alex and the worst of the injured. Heavy packs and cases laden with as many Mediknight set packs as they could carry. The VTOL emptied, it powered back up to roar and pulled away, another already coming in to take its place and reinforce the response.

Aegis released her beacon as the flight circled above, as the hero laden heavy VTOL pulled over the warehouse, loading ramp wide and scraping onto the corrugated roof. The ominous glow of Eschenwald illuminated the angling dark as Erdwut stepped off, stoic glare scanning the area before staring down on her. Teams of heroes scrambled off behind him, set missions already known, Aegis saw a few of her former trainees in tow. Kabar rappelled off of the building and followed a team around the side, Maya staying up and punching a hole in the reinforced roof for her team, and even David following a few marine heroes over the edge of the docks into the river. A bit of pride carried over her concern, but melted as Erdwut stepped off the roof like a damn statue.

A standing straight up Erdwut crashed down on the concrete, startling a few of the stragglers still coming out into the light. A little girl cowering back behind a piece of paper she clutched in her hands. He scanned over them, none looked injured at least. With an almost uncharacteristic shift, Eschenwald dissipated and returned to his hip as he moved to address them.

“Keep moving and find a clear place to sit. We will protect you, don’t worry.”

His tone was soft, measured, a side Aegis had not heard in a long while. But her relief was short lived as he turned back to her and stepped out of the apathetic crater he had made, all softness gone from him again.

“Where is he?”

His voice grated against her, demanding an answer he knew he wasn’t getting. Aegis steeled herself, but knew this wasn’t going to go well.

“I don’t know… we-“

“Aegis! If we just-“

“Don’t! Even! Start trying to say it!”

Her glare matched his, fiery expression turned against him.

“There are too many people here that needed help. If he got away because of it, then so be it. But don’t you dare try to say I was in the wrong!”

His stoic glare at her didn’t waver, but hints of rebuked fury were clear as his grip tightened on his stowed away sword.

“Then find him… Find anything! Don’t make this a pointless gesture to people who want nothing to do with us!”

Aegis released her own grip, calming breaths trying to ease back the tension. She at least had the high ground on thi- *tug*

Aegis looked down, the little girl cowering behind her paper shield was tugging on her sleeve. The desperate expression of de-escalation on her face like she wanted her parents to stop fighting. Aegis’ expression softened out of shame, a final calming release wiped away her tension as she knelt down to her.

“Don’t worry. You all are going to be safe from now on okay. We just-“

The girl closed her eyes and shook her head, messy brown hair toulsing her nonverbal want for understanding. She pressed her grasped paper shield out for her to take. Aegis gingerly accepted it, a slight burn nibbling at the edges of the page. Looking down and patting down the embers on the crude drawing on the other side she flipped it over to make sense of it. Crayon and marker mixed together as best they could to show people. The little girl in question was clear, brown hair and eyes matched with cartoonish depictions. There were others, red mixed with purple and odd colors in places. Wounds and… powers. But one was unlike the others. A dark figure standing over figures in similar orange to the Dockers, hand extended up with a metal barred door grasped in it, or at least part of it. It looked to be colored over at the top in a lot of… rather well shaded brown. But Aegis didn’t focus on that much. Her focus was on the figure. Dark clothes, bright blue eyes glowing under a dark cap, and a red scarf flowing on their neck. This was him… he really had been here. And just maybe he was trying to be a hero on his own. But he still had too much to answer for.

“He’s been here! We will find him!”