A few of the other prisnced his way and theuro their versation, his lip twitched, most of them weren’t taking him and the others seriously. Not only that, the few light-touched who had already been in the prisohey awakened were tent to do their time and stay off the monster-ridden streets. It was just like the boss had said. They were going to need more than ving words to bee true believers. He let out a breath, Ishtar promised that she’d find a way to help us, she promised. He reminded himself.
“Ey, Wicker,” A big man said, walking over.
He looked up at the wall of muscle called Franklin and smiled at him, “Franklin! Sleep well?” He asked, straightening up a bit on his bunk.
The big man rubbed his neck, “What do you think?” He asked grumpily and leaned against the small wall that designated Wicker’s cubicle. “Tell me more about this dy.”
Franklin wasn’t light-touched, but he’d overheard more than a few of Wicker’s attempts to evangelize Ishtar to the other inmates and had developed a bit of an i. Despite not really seeing any profit in talking to the guy, it didn’t hurt to have an excuse to spread the word by proxy. He cleared his throat, Maybe I’ll talk about my own awakening. That’s a good story. He thought just as a pair of guards walked into the room. One of them carried a cardboard box.
“Mail’s here!” One of the men shouted and the inmates got to their feet. The uard made a fad put his hand on his hip, “Sit down, we’ll call you, you know the drill, idiots!”
There was a susurrus of grumbles but nobody made any pressing moves. One of the inmates sittihe rear of the room tilted his head up and scowled at the guards. He hopped off his top bunk. The guy had short blonde hair that was cut in such a way that it stuck up on its own. His eyes were an ulingly clear blue and he was built like a prhter. He reached up and scratched at a small cut on his lip as he passed Wicker and gnced his way, sn derisively at him. Wicker kept his mouth shut.
After all, nobody messed with Graff.
He strode up to the guards who hesitated, both of them looking at one another before looking at him. He huffed out a breath and held out a hand, “Hurry up,” He growled.
The guard with the box quickly began to leaf through the envelopes before plug o. He ha over without hesitation and Graff gri him, “Do yourselves a favor, boys,” He said and turned away, “Don’t fet that there are some of us here who are only here because we have self trol.”
The first guard frowned, “Is that a threat, Cal?”
Graff turned around, “Yes, it is, and it’s Graff now, you know that.”
The guard didn’t move an inch as Graff made his way back to his bunk and sat down. An awkward silence hung over the room as the few ht-touched besides Graff stared at the guards with warning in their eyes. Wicker frowned, if only he could get Graff on his side, then he could… “Thomas Pile!” The letter carrying guard shouted. Wicker blinked, he slipped off his bed and walked past Franklin befrabbing the letter from the guard who gave him a wary look. Apparently he was being categorized the same way as Graff. That worked for him.
More importantly, I got mail? From who? He looked the envelope over as he walked back to his bunk. He flipped it over and found that it en. He frowned but let it go, it olicy for them to check it for traband at least. He looked back at the front and checked the return address. From the desk of Mephisto? Who the fuck is Mephisto? Sounds like a vilin name.
He paused and gnced surreptitiously over his shoulder at the guards who were already making their way out. The two members of his gang in this block walked over and peered over his shoulder, “What is it, Wick?”
He gnced up at them and shrugged, pulling the letter out, “Says it's from a ‘Mephisto’,” He said and unfolded the cover letter.
“I hope this finds you well, bh bh, you’ll find what you tached, good luck to you, Mephisto,” He read aloud and frowned, slipping a much thicker sheet of paper out from behind the cover letter. He narrowed his eyes, it looked like a tract. He read it over a his muscles tighten and sweat bead on his brow. He hurried over to his bunk aured for the other two to stand guard over him. “Oh shit… oh shit…” He breathed.
A tract that awaken someone’s powers? Just like that? Notarized by Mephisto and… it’s signed by Ishtar! Holy shit! I need a pen. The library might have one I use.
“Wick, what is going on with you, what is that?” Branch, one of his gang members, hissed as he stood guard.
“It’s our way to the top of this pce,” Wicker said with a shaky ugh and gnced up at Franklin who was staring curiously at them from the edge of Wicker’s space, “Hey Franklin, you wanna join me in the library ter? I got something eveer than a story for you.”
–
Sonya opened her eyes as an important email notificatio off at the back of her mind. She tilted her head and called up her HUD. She was sitting in her secret merging room, colleg her thoughts and going over everything she’d mao aplish so far. The sheer walls around her made her feel oddly safe, despite the metal being capable of shrugging off even rare-tier powers with little effort. She ran her fihrough her hair a out a breath as the message appeared.
‘The first wave of letters have begun arriving. -Mephisto’
She smiled, Good. It took a lot of political capital and pressure to orchestrate the scattering of Shark's captured men. Now to see if the training they were given will pay off. She looked down at her hands, I wonder how many talents were left tucked away in the prison system after the fsh?
As her thoughts danced away towards imagining abilities never seen before i life, she felt Amos tact her.
She asked, getting to her feet and heading to the hidden door. It slid open and she stepped out.
He insisted.
She snorted, She teased him as she walked down the hallway.
She ughed,
Doctor Da-som looked up from where he was squinting at Amos’ puter and brightened. “Miss ovna! You o see this, the data is all over the pce!” He called, waving her over. She smiled at him and approached, stoppio the desk and looking down at Amos who was chewing on a pen and gring at a pair of ss. One had an absolute mess of numbers aers cobbled together in a way that made ohink a cat had done a dan a keyboard. On the right was an odd aquamarine cloud that swirled and curled inward on itself at points.
“What am I looking at?” She asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.
Amos looked up and o her before looking down, “Left side is the data from the ser, still haven’t figured out what it all means so it’s hard ta.”
She nodded, “Okay and on the right?”
“A three dimensional proje of the data. I mao at least figure out that some of that mess over there is positional data. The location of ks of mana in the air, but it looks… weird.”
Sonya gnced down at him, hiding her delight. He had no idea, but this particur breakthrough happened years after the fsh. It had been hard to slowly nudge him in the right dire to take this particur step, first introdug him to monster cores, then building gear out of them, then using cores to detect abilities, then the easy jump to using them to deteearby mana. After that he’d insisted on building a much rger scale sensor and done most of the work himself. He was so close, just one more i nudge.
“Huh…” Sonya said thoughtfully, “Looks like a stormcloud.”
He blinked and looked up at her, his eyes searg her face before he looked back down at the eerie blue-green cloud. He rubbed the back of his ned then flinched, “Weather system…” He breathed and his eyes unfocused. The s on the right began to ge, shifting about until it proximate top-down, two-dimensional view of the cloud. From this a was much easier to see obvious swirls and movements. “Wait, wait, wait,” He rambled, “What if I…”
The bck background on the image was repced with a map of New York City with ASTA Labs at the ter. A few of the assistants sucked in sharp breaths as they watched the clouds move around, swirling at points. One swirl grew densed for a moment and then vanished. Amos sucked his teeth and poiowards a monitor on the wall. The monitor turned on of its own accord and began flipping through points of view, drones and cameras set up throughout the city to observe monster activity.
Everyone looked up and there was a collective intake of breath. Even Sonya couldn’t help but gasp, more out of excitement than anything else.
On the s they watched a pack of Hounds materialize out of thin air.
Everyone was silent for a moment, Sonya took a few steps bad gave Amos some space. A sed ter that turned out to be a good idea as his gathered assistants all raised their fists in celebration, cheering and hugging him and each other. There was ughter and exged high-fives. Amos whirled, “I see when they appear! I see how they appear. Sonya, redict a motack!” He shouted, gesturing wildly at the s. He was on his feet, inches from her. She grino ear.
“I’m so proud of you,” She ughed and grabbed his shoulders, “You did it.”
He beamed at her and then his expressiohoughtful, “We need sensors everywhere, hell, a satellite! Ten! Twenty!” He rambled, ting on his fingers.
Sonya ughed, “I afford a lot of things, but I’m a bit short on satellites right now, Amos,” She said, “Oep at a time.”
He nodded furiously, “Right, right, but-”
“Amos?” Da-Som called, “Uh… you might want to see this.”
Amos turned around and Sonya’s expression hardened a little. She knew what they were seeing, she’d spotted it as soon as the map appeared, but she kept her mouth shut. This was his discovery, not hers. She walked over slowly a her expressioral as she peered over his shoulder, “What is it?” She asked.
He poi the s, in a spot the corresponded with Times Square. There was a whole lot of blue-green swirling in one spot. More than had deo create the monsters a few moments ago. She gnced up at the s and saair of heroes nd and make short work of the creatures before looking back down. Amos rubbed his neck, “Its way dehan the monsters, a Lurker?” He muttered and trated, “There’s nothing over there.”
“Didn’t the energy disappear when the monsters appeared?” One aide pointed out.
“Yeah,” Another said, “This one is just getting denser and denser.”
“It’s thinning out the energy levels in the rest of the city,” A third pointed out, “Look at how the oves, its gathering into one point. When bits of eet, monsters appear. But otherwise it's all moving towards that spot.”
Amos rubbed his , “What the hell is this?” He murmured and leaned ba his chair, rubbing the sides of his head, “Monster appearances have been on a downturly, and…” He froze a out a shaky breath, “Dharan.”
Sonya ched her jaw.
“Sonya!” He turo her, “This is the same thing that happened before Dharan! Right? Monster levels dropped all over the pce before all of a sudden there was an explosion.”
She nodded, “Worldwide levels dropped, though, and have been for a while,” She corrected him.
He shook his head, “No, Dharan was the first to see a downward trend in motacks, we’ve got word from the gover over there that they were trag the situation at the time,” He swallowed, “What if there are hot spots like this all over the world?”
You couldn’t be mht, Amos. “We’ll have to see what’s there,” Sonya said ftly and looked at the s, “I’ll call Firestorm’s team and see if they’d be willing to join us.”
He ched his fists, “What if this is a precursor to another Dharan? How do we stop it?” He shook his head, “No, we o get eyes on whatever this thing is before we jump to clusions.”
She o him, “Good idea, keep calm a some gear together that we might be able to use. I want to see this thing personally.”
He swallowed hard, “I’m on it.”
Sonya turned away and took a steadying breath, And just like that, the Times Square dungeon has been discovered. She put her hand on the door and firmed her resolve. Let’s see if we avoid the annihition of New York City this time around. She thought as the memory of a city in fmes cwed its way to the front of her mind.
TheBroker
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