Throughout the broad majority of the press ference, Sonya was on autopilot. She’d practiced the speech a number of times, ready to make adjustments on the fly if necessary as the mood in the room shifted. It was important to keep the audiengaged regardless of how ‘official’ the proceedings were and to make it abundantly clear that ASTA was at the helm of what was going on. She’d had her reasons, she wao watch the audience. She had no idea whether or not Otis had spies starting to move against her but she was vinced he was likely oail by now, he had to be. She was taking the narrative away from him and from what she uood about the guy, he hated that.

  Her priorities shifted a little just before the press ferehough. The presence of Duong and Hyunh hadn’t been wholly ued but it was hat they were there. It gave her the opportunity to practice a little with using her powers while doing other things at the same time. Specifically, bsting Duong with Imperious at irregur intervals just to see if she could get a rea. Unsurprisingly he barely flinched, his agend persona held down firmly by Hyunh. Even so, she k was w given that Hyunh seemed more and more strained as the press ference wore on.

  The ‘lecture’ part of the press ference also gave her time to think and work through her observations. Her cyberic brain allowed her to a parallel with her external as. She sidered Duong, A, carefully. The first thing she had noticed about him was that while his presence definitely gave him a bad vibe just as it had in the previous timeli wasn’t nearly as severe as before. It made sense since he hadn’t had nearly long enough to develop his abilities, uand them, and allow them to flourish. He wasn’t the almighty being she remembered him as and she o internalize that a bit more. Her instinctive fear of him wasn’t unfounded, of course, but he wasn’t a nation-ending threat. Not yet anyway.

  In short, he was far more kilble now than he would be iure and her pn to try to eliminate him while in Las Vegas was her best option currently.

  Then there was Hyunh, the ‘real’ Herald of Otis. She clearly was just beginning to develop as well and had only begun to lean into this method of using her fiance as a on against her enemies. Sonya got the feeling that she hadn’t met Otis yet. Otis built his team from the top national heroes around the world and while officially Duong, A, was the top hero of Vietnam, he hadn’t had the onstrate just how powerful he was yet. There was n evideo give Otis a reason to seek him out. In short, Sonya wasn’t going to let this ce slip through her fingers.

  They both o die, but with Feng, it ersonal. Memories of that day pying over and ain at night in vivid re-enats of Sonya’s helplessness and anguish. Certainly she wanted Hyunh to receive the same message, the same call.

  SHELTER 55 HAS BEEN LOST: NO SURVIVORS

  HOSTILE PARTY IDENTIFIED AS THE AMETHYST ORDER

  The words sprang into her mi again, the visceral hatred boiling in her blood aing her mind on fire. She imagihe families of those heroes who fought so desperately against forces that were just beyond them. It was the same rage she felt when she killed Ocche. She trolled herself, though.

  She stood there, giving her presentation and forced herself to remember why she was doing what she was doing, what her goal was. She had promised revenge for herself, yes. She would have it. Yet she had to get her revenge in a way that mattered, that wasn’t meaningless. She wasn’t Otis or Feng Hyunh. She was eliminating not a potential threat, but a real oo the world and to herself. She could have givehe same offer as the gangs of New York, join up or die. The syndicate and her , without knowing, had chosen a side. They had to go.

  I’ve been pying Empire builder long enough, held bad pyed nice. I wao know how it feels to lose everything. I’ll crush her spirit into paste and push her link to him to a breaking point. Even if she’s somehow normally able to maintain the e through a portal, I’ll make sure her grip is so tenuous that it’ll fail. She thought as she went through the motions, absently making eye tact with the woman. One day, Hyunh would have an army of mindless super powered thralls at her bed call ready to annihite the loved ones of anyone she or Otis deemed to be an enemy. Not yet, though, and not ever.

  I’ll stack the deck against her. Crush her pletely. On my orders though, as my decision. Ishtar be the mouthpiece but it’s me doing these things. It has to be. Sonya would settle for nothihan total victory.

  She smiled at the cameras, “I’m opening the floor to questions,” She said and the room erupted into noise and camera fshes.

  –

  Sonya let out a sigh as she sat down in her office at the ASTA bs. Marta, back to her usual prim self standing at the door for a moment and bowing before turning to make her leave, off to make something for Sonya to drink. Somethihy of course. Sonya pursed her lips and slid open one of the drawers at her desk and gnced inside hesitantly. She’d been craving snacks for days and hadn’t had a moment really to sit down and just rex with a little bit of junk food. She was about to pull out the bag of dy she had squirreled away behind a few items in the drawer when the door opened again.

  She gnced up as Marta approached with a cup of tea, setting it down in front of Sonya.

  “How are you feeling?” Marta asked.

  “Better,” Sonya said, though sounding a little huffy that she couldn’t sneak a snack. She took up the tea and sipped it. At least its delicious. “I had to let off some steam.”

  “You went to a dungeon?” Marta asked.

  Sonya frowned up at her, “Did Amos tell you?”

  “No, you smelled like blood and dirt when you got home despite your best efforts to hide it,” Marta said without a hint of disapproval in her voice, which was holy a little scarier.

  Sonya sighed and sipped her tea, “Marta-”

  Marta held up her hand, “I’m upset, but not for the reason I believe you think, ma’am,” She sighed, “I am your bodyguard and caretaker, it’s my responsibility to look after you. I’m your friend first, though. You don’t o hide from me that you need some aloime, even if your way of ‘letting off steam’ is a little more dangerous than I like,” She said with a frown. “Even without your ‘uptime’ using your merged abilities, you’re still powerful, Sonya. I have no doubts you handle a few monsters.”

  Sonya looked up and searched her face for a moment before letting out a breath she didn’t know she had a a bit more of that tension leave her body. She raised an eyebrow, though, “Then why were you grumbling the entire way to the venue?” She asked with a small ugh.

  Marta flushed, “Because I had been practig the speech all night! The memories helped but it still felt like someone else's memories, Sonya! It felt off. And do you realize how long it takes to get enough glitter powder ready to emute your unique skin?” She rambled, putting her hands on her hips, “Man of Many Faces replicate a lot of things but it ’t do that!”

  Sonya blinked and leaned back a bit, “Well, that’s good information at the very least. I didn’t know that was a downside of Share the Path,” She rubbed her neck, “Sorry Marta.”’

  Marta smiled, “It’s fine. I’m here till the end, I put up with a few inveniences.”

  There was a long pause as Sonya sipped her tea and looked down at her desk, she set it down a out a sigh, “Do you mind another invenience?” Sonya asked.

  “Anything,” Marta said.

  “Stay with me for a moment while I make a call,” She said and rubbed her thumb over her palm. “I’m about to do something irredeemable.”

  Marta didn’t miss a beat, “Uood,” She said with a nod and stepped to Sonya’s side, her hands crossed in front of her waist. Sonya smiled up at her, w again how she’d gotten so lucky to have such a devoted attendant. A right hand that she simply couldn’t be without. She leaned ba her chair and closed her eyes, activating the call fun with cyber-punk and dialing Bckrazor’s number.

  “Bckrazor,” She said aloud as he answered the phone.

  “I’m here,” He growled back.

  “Is it done?” She asked.

  “Yes,” He said with finality, “The Night Society is yours.”

  She nodded slowly, “Good, I have your first job.”

  “We’re ready,” He said.

  She shifted in her seat and cast her gaze to the ceiling, opening her eyes as the glow intensified. The tig in her head grew louder as her brain, she had to do this, she o do this. Her first act of true viliny had been Hero Day. As for her sed: “Annihite the Da Mau Syndicate and the Feng , leave only Feng Hyunh,” Sonya said, her voice dripping with cold wrath.

  There ause, “Timetable?”

  His response was so ical. She’d sentenced people to death with a siatement, not all of them were grown adults. Some might even be children, she didn’t know. She chewed on her lip. She could back out now, she could revise her statement and show merlike Hyunh. Would that aplish any good in the long run? Would that interfere with the greater pn? Was it enough to satisfy her grief? She bit her lip harder. This had to be about the pn, about the goal, not just about herself.

  This was an absolute measure, proof more to herself than anything just how far she was willing to go for this. Yet there was a small part of her that couldn’t bear it, couldn’t e. It cracked a little beh the pressure. She ched her eyes shut, wishing she could cry like everyone else. A hand reached out and squeezed her wrist, she gnced down at it and then up at Marta, the very reason for her rage. She was here. She was alive.

  She grabbed hold of her hatred and grief and redirected it. This was about Feng Hyunh and about eliminating her and Ahis was about dragging humanity kig and screaming into the future.

  “Bckrazor,” She said after a pause.

  “Yes, Mistress?”

  “No unnecessary suffering,” She said heavily, “We’re vilins, not monsters.”

  “There are options, I will ha,” He said fidently.

  She closed her eyes and squared herself up, drawing the ice bato her voice. “You have a week. After that, report to Las Vegas to meet me and assist with a follow up operation,” She said.

  She expected him to protest the timetable a little, it was a ridiculous order if oook the old world into sideration. Instead, he just chuckled a little. “A worthy order for the reborn Night Society, mistress. May I ask for some resources?”

  “What do you need?” She asked.

  “One of my spies iates told me that you’ve been making special tracts and distributing them to prisons. I’d like a few written up.” He said, “I have a few top people here who would be more useful with a bit of a boost.”

  “Is that all?”

  “Yes ma’am, it’ll be done, no issues,” He said with absolute fidehe Night Society is yger, I will send all of ents to Vietnam if I must.”

  She smiled, “Gd to hear it, I like the sound of your fide’s grounded.”

  “All thanks to you, mistress,” He replied easily.

  She chuckled and tilted her head, “Oh, one more thing, how do you pay your people? I’m a bit curious,” She asked with a wicked smile.

  TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK

  –

  Bckrazor hung up the phoaring at it for a long time from his seat in the rge office. He smiled lightly to himself and gnced around. For all the sinister vibes that surrouhe Society, his new office was remarkably pleasant. Lots of warm colors, browns, greens, and reds filled the space. Every wall was either a bookshelf or a one of a kind painting that had been lost to history and any museum curator would literally kill to get their hands on. The mahogany desk in front of him was kept , only a feers on its surfacluding a tract his spies had unknowingly intercepted. He’d have to apologize to Mistress Ishtar ter about that.

  He ran his fingers over it, Fasating. Her powers tio grow. He thought, gd that he had chosen the right side. Sure, he’d sold his soul for the powers he had, but he thought it was worth it given the results. His mind was clear and his heart satisfied after what he’d aplished. He got to his feet and walked to the window looking over the campus, young men and women were sitting in the peaceful courtyard, ughing and talking as they went about their daily lives. Some of them knew, some of them didn’t.

  He turned from the window and walked past his desk, pushing open the heavy doors to his offid stepping into the main administrative hall. The lights were kept dim at all times, only the statues and paintings on the walls given any form of direct illumination. Shadows danced across his skin and he felt strength well up inside him in this dark pce. Here, he was at his most powerful. In the dark, he was a master of his surroundings. Not even an i moved without his attention and awareness. The poisonous metal blood pumped in his veins, strohan ever, improved even. He had taken some time to experiment with it and the bination had beore than the sum of its parts.

  Even then, it wasn’t enough, it would never be enough. Strength and personal power was nothing more than illusion in the face of a being that could give and take at a whim. He could only make himself as valuable and irrepceable as possible. So he would tio experiment, tio develop, tio rise.

  His heels clicked to a stop in front of another set of doors and he pushed them open. Before him, eleven people in dark hooded robes had taken to their knees on the marble floor beh them. Their eyes fixed on the ground.

  “We greet the Headmaster,” They said as one.

  He raised his hand to his heart, “I greet the Deans of the Night Society,” He said aured to the huge table behind them in the grand feren. “Please have a seat.” The windows at the far end of the room had been covered with thick velvety blinds that fluttered a little as the air pressure in the room shifted. The door shut behind him and he made his way over to the seat at the head of the table. The eleven hooded figures settled into their seats. He looked at each of them in turn befng at the five empty chairs in the room. He’d have to promote new Deans from the Tenured members of the society soon to shore up from the ones he’d had to kill in order to ensure his position.

  “We have our first orders from our Patron,” He said, drawing all of their attention.

  The hooded man immediately to his right ined his head, “We’re ready.”

  Bckrazor held up his hand, “Before that, she is sending gifts for a few of you. Not all of you have awakened your abilities yet and that will o be rectified first.”

  This annou was met in a shift in atmosphere but not a word spoken by those present. He smiled at their diligent attitudes even as he could feel their heartbeats tick up through the shadows that cast across their bodies. “Let me make something clear, as some of you know, these abilities are not to be taken lightly. They be intoxig and interfere with your judgment especially if you already possess skills of your own. Make no mistake, they are tools to be developed and should be sidered as such. I experienced such folly myself.”

  A few of the hooded people exged looks but he tinued, “When you are awakened, sider how you will ie your abilities into your existing strategies. Do not hamper yourselves with overreliance. Uood?”

  “We uand, Headmaster,” They said in unison again.

  He nodded, “Good, now let's review the job before us. We will need all of our skills to make it happen in the given timeframe.”

  This would be his life now, his new reality, his ruth. It was a little funny how, despite the power of the society, it had all fallen into pply and in just a few weeks. Such was the reality of this new world.