Sonya was like a statue. If Marta hadn’t knower, if she’d only known the persona she cultivated as a businesswoman and socialite, she would have been baffled. To be ho she was still a little troubled by the behavior. The woman she’d chosen to stay beside, the woman she’d endured agony for, had not so much as blinked-not that she o-as she stared at the portal and more specifically the strange ns (or were they some kind of pylons) that appeared to hold it up.

  Marta pressed her lips together and turo look back at the pylon. It didn’t bother her to stand here, it was rexing to be ho. The swirling lights ag like a fme at a campsite in the dimly lit room. Marta’s power made her tireless, she’d not eve a cramp or ache even after they’d hit the twelve hour mark. Half way there. She gnced back at Sonya and wondered again at the strange knowledge the woman seemed to have. She hadn’t thought much about it at first, shrugging it off as ce, but the ces had only growime.

  Sonya could see the future, somehow, she khings about the world that no one else did. She could perceive truths and had details and ahat were outside of even Amos’ extensive reach. Amos had already long e to the same clusion as her, but the both of them had the same unspoken uanding about that theory. Sonya’s own disfort about the topic had been the warning. If they pushed her too hard, things wouldn’t be the same. They k instinctively, and so, had chosen not to speak.

  A low hum went through the room and the floor trembled with the slight vibration. Marta jerked out of her thoughts and looked up at the portal. It trembled. More importantly, the n-pylon things began to glow.

  “Uh… energy levels are going up…” Amos called.

  They both looked at Sonya who said nothing. Instead, she got to her feet with a serious expression on her face. It was strange, like she was something deeply profound. A bit of sweat dripped down past her ear. She ched her fists, and closed her eyes as if in prayer. She let out a breath and opehem, and stood tall, waiting. Marta felt her stomach d she looked back at the portal, it was flickering now. Was it going to explode? No, Sonya would have said something. Then what? What was happening oher side of that light?

  –

  Do it. You heroes. Exceed my expectations. Win.

  They’d reached the boss. The pylons had annouhat the final struggle for the survival of the dungeon had begun. Twelve hours. It had takewelve hours to reach the final boss of the dungeon. It was a feat she hadn’t believed she could attribute to the neophyte team of heroes and their rather rambunctious and reckless leader. But not once had she seeell-tale fsh of energy that came from the loss of an outsider’s life. They were thriving in there. Was it the nature of their powers? Perhaps they had found themselves a good match-up with the onsters.

  That was logical.

  But the Boss monsters defied that kind of logic. They were aence beyond their own kin. Horrors that were at the peak of their tier. Creatures that could kill an inexperienced hero far beyond their own rating. The snty of tier did not matter to them. Skill, power, and experience were the only things that could overe them. To think anything else was the height of hubris. She’d watched so many die that way. One wrong move, one hint of overfidence, one uimation. That’s all it took.

  The portal flickered angrily again.

  She smiled.

  I think we might not be meeting the way we did st time, will we? ha? Sonya thought and the herself drift back, if only for a little while.

  –

  Sonya atop the observation tower, looking out over it all from afar. The devastation, the waking nightmare that was the ruins of New York City. She opened a bottle of water and took a drink, her eyes sing the movements of the creatures as they raced across the wastend. The ground around the ruins had been turned bd veins of molten e spread across it, even reag into the greenery beyond. It reading the iion. The devils were everywhere now and the ittee had decred that the region was basically a lost cause at this point.

  o her, a young man sat in ption of the wastend. He eering through a pair of binocurs and trying to see what she could see clearly. He lowered them a out a sigh, gng down at his phone. “It’s getting worse,” He said solemnly and looked up at her, “It’s like a rea.”

  She nodded and frowhe explosion in New York had only been the beginning. No one uood why it’d happened, but the catastrophe had only lead to more catastrophe. Simir explosions had ripped across North Ameri a tidal wave, following a clear pattern of spreading from New York as an epiter. Some big wig had expihat the explosion had released something called ‘mana’ in intense amounts and the cloud of this ‘mana’ stuff reading out and being drawn into more hot zones, increasing the speed at which they overloaded.

  Not that it mattered to her at all, she was a scout. Had been for the past month since she’d signed on as a ‘hero’. Marta was bae, safe in the shelter. She and her husband were going through a bit of a rough spot, though, apparently he was a bit of a religious nut and didn’t like her associating with Sonya who’d turned into an ‘inhuman freak’, his words. Sonya snorted and turned back to observation, her eyes clig as she urged them to focus a bit more, zooming in on a pack of little devils as they raced after some unseen prey.

  “See anything iing?”

  The voice had e so suddenly that Sonya almost turned around fully zoomed in. She jumped a little, startled, and whipped around to see a woman standing there as if she’d beehe eime. Sonya’s other senses were pretty good, not as good as her sight, but she could pick up a little bit when someone was nearby. This person hadn’t made a god damn sound. She nearly reached for her knife on instinct before she spotted the pin on the woman’s pel aated. Her eyes narrowed a little, still on guard, “Hero?”

  “Yes,” The woman said with a firm expression, “Lian hua, Bck Lotus, Mythic-Tier, visiting from a to assist,” The woman said, “Apologies for startling you.”

  Sonya felt her guard lower and she let out a breath. She took a moment to look the woman over, appraising her. She was…

  Wow.

  Long bck hair pulled tightly into a no-nonsense ponytail. Eyes as deep as the o, no, deeper. She had a military bearing about her, shoulders straight and exhuding an aura of seniority and trol. She anded her surroundings and demanded respect by her very presence. Sonya got lost for a moment, her jawline, her colrbone peeking out beh the otherwise strict-looking uniform, her powerful hands, one of those hands resting on the hilt of what looked like a sword.

  “Name?” hua asked.

  Sonya blinked a a bit of heat rise to her face, she looked up and into the taller woman’s endless eyes. “H-uh?” She stammered, suddenly wanting to disappear.

  The aused for a moment and raised an eyebrow, a bit of a smirk on her face. “I asked you your name, miss,” She said with a bit of a chuckle.

  That tiny ugh, just a hint of amusement, almost knocked all the thoughts out of Sonya’s head. She had to rally herself, “I uh… I… Suh… Sonya. Sonya ovna,” She cleared her throat, “Sonya ovna, Farsight, unon tier, um… s-scout.” She said the st bit with some relud a whole lot of embarrassment. This woman was a Mythic! A straight-up being beyond her prehension and here she was just talking to her.

  “Thank you for your hard work, Miss ovna,” hua said, deleting Sonya’s train of thought yet again. Sonya looked up at her in fusion, what was she thanking her for? Standing here? The woman seemed to kly what she was thinking, though, and looked out towards the wastend. “It must be pretty dangerous being out here so close to the front lines. You’re miles away from basecamp. That takes a lot of ce.”

  Sonya felt the heat rise to her face again and she looked down at her feet, “I’m just an observer, ma’am.”

  “hua,” The woman said firmly.

  Sonya looked up, “Huh?”

  “I gave you my name, use it,” hua said with a bit of a frown.

  Sonya pressed her lips together and tried to force herself to break eye tact, it was hopeless. Her mouth felt like it was full of cottohroat couldn’t shift at all to swallow, she just stood there like an idiot, staring at this woman with the most terrified expression she’d ever made. She probably looked like a fish for a moment there, w her jaw as she tried to put together a plete god damehat seemed to not have a good effect.

  hua frowned, a bit of disappoi crossing her features. “I see,” She said a bit more stiffly before starting to turn away.

  Oh e on, she’s just another human, Sonya! Say SOMETHING!

  “Um!” Sonya finally managed, Yeah, real smooth, how about words now? “Th-thank you, for ing all this way to see us. hua. I-we, it’s a thankless job sometimes and it be pretty scary,” She admitted, steeling herself. “It means a lot that you came here,” She finally got it out, a bit of relief washing over her as the woman turned back to look at her. She met the woman’s frown with a smile, a genuine one, one she hadn’t managed in a long time sihe fsh.

  hua blushed, it was brief, but she definitely grew a little red for a moment. She coughed and looked autting her hands on her hips. “More of us should e out and che you now and then, it’s nht to leave you out here,” She said gruffly and then fixed Sonya with a hard look, “e see me after your shift.”

  Sonya blinked, “B-but.” Why?

  “Don’t make me track you down, Miss ovna. I have your name now, and I io use it,” She said with a grin and turned away again, making for the other side of the tower.

  Sonya frow her back, The st word type huh? No fair, no, not after embarrassing me like that. You jerk. “It’s Sonya! Not Miss ovna! If I have to call you hua then you better call me by my name!”

  The woman froze and Sonya even heard a gasp from o her as the guy, oh my god I pletely fot he was there, reacted to her shouting at a Mythic. The woman gnced over her shoulder a Sonya’s eyes. She really held Sonya’s gaze. Even as freaky as her eyes were. It felt… good. hua just smiled and nodded before, with a siep, she vanished into a cloud of cherry blossoms. A st that would g to her for the rest of her life. A st that she could never, ever, fet without a sense of longing.

  That night they’d gone on their first ‘date’, if you could call it that. Most of the evening had sisted of drinks and hua relentlessly teasing her. Apparently when the woman wasn’t in business mode she was far more likely to be a bit of the mischievous type. More than that, though, she had a domineering nature that Sonya had never realized she was a bit of a sucker for. They’d parted ways after a meal and it was only a few days ter when she’d learhat hua had been transferred to the group that would one day call itself the Ameri Heroes Guild as part of an iional exge.

  She’d sed pces with a ese-Ameri woman who went by the ame Qilin.

  It was a day ter whe the notice that she would be assigo hua’s unit as a scout per the woman’s request. That was the beginning of their rocky initial retionship. Sonya had resented her for it, for a while, taking trol of her life like that and choosing for her where she’d ended up. She wasn’t a soldier, even if the ittee and the Guild treated her that way sometimes. Despite that, hua had not been shy about her attempts to make it up to her. It was obvious buttering up, but Sonya had to admit after a while.

  It retty nice.

  The day her feelings really became clear was when the ittee finally figured out dungeons. They were in Nevada, just outside of Las Vegas, and at what had been categorized as a Rare-tier dungeon. Not only was it dangerous, it was terrifying. Sonya had been part of the crew to go inside first a a good measure of what the assault team would be getting themselves into. She’d seen the monsters, she khe routes, she’d recorded everything. All the details she could find, she found, she was fident in her work, firm in her resolve that she had learned everything she could, even going as far as to observe the enormous mo the end wheher scouts despaired.

  They’d e out of the dungeon after that, given their report, and stood by as hua and the assault team went inside.

  Sonya had stood there, off to the side, as hua marched towards the portal. She’d admired her jaw, her eyes, the way her robes fluttered around her. But it wasn’t until she saw her ponytail pass through that rippling pool of light that she felt her chest d tears well in her eyes. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. That annoying, overbearing, sometimes gruff, sometimes sweet, frustrating, infuriating, pain in the ass of a woman just walking off into a pce that could kill her without even gng back.

  We’re gonna have a long talk ter, over dinner, and some fug wine. So stop being so damn cool and e bae safe, you jerk.

  –

  Sonya opened her eyes, looked at the portal, and took a deep breath. She ighe look of Marta gave her. She brushed her hair bad held her head high. She knew better than anyone how disrespectful it would be to sit there and quake as the pylons hummed. They were fighting for their lives. It was only right to stand up straight and watch them.

  If she do it, so you, be strong you guys.