The aircraft streaked through the dry air, pockets of human life streaking by. Three of the four heroes on the ship sat together iive sileheir eyes focused, their jaws set, their minds on what they o do. Acc to the anonymous tip, Queen August was going to be attag a private gallery show of jewelry and rare gemstones in the middle east. She had arrived in Syria before moving south-east before pivoting straight for Iran. They’d hoped to catch her along the way but had iably been forced to ge tactics, aiming for the small city on the border of Iran and Pakistahe show was being held.

  “Still seems a little iffy to me that it would be held there,” Breach said, rubbing his neck a little and scowling. He leaned ba his light gear, ASTA had made it specifically to work with his phasing ability. He go the right and frow the new guy. “You seem rexed.”

  Luca had found one of the benches in the aircraft to be the most fortable of them all and had strapped himself in, ying down on it and admiring the bndness of the ceiling. He grinned a little to himself, his eyes closed behind his sungsses. It had taken forever for him to get to this point but he was finally here. Finally on his first probationary mission with the Iional Team. He didn’t let that kill his vibe, though, there was something to be said about maintaining a sistent demeanor even when not in the ‘public’ eye.

  Not that these eggs get it, sour bunch. He thought and his lip twitched. Heh, Ss. He chuckled again and gnced down at the guy who’d called him out, tilting his sungsses down a little, “Hey are you scrambled or over easy?” He asked with a snicker.

  Breach gave him a baffled look before turning to the hero sittio him. Fontaiheir group healer, sighed and shook his head, his ponytail bobbing a little bit. Breach’s eyes fluttered with momentary annoyance before a new voice spoke up. “He’s calling you an egg, or rather a ,” the woman sitting a bit apart from the rest of them said. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she was frowning at the floor. Her gear seemed to be tailored to her body and made of some kind of tight fitting fabric that could stretch easily. Uhe off-white of Fontaine and Breach’s gear, it had been dyed and stylized to a rather vicious looking grey-red color scheme.

  She looked up, her glowing red eyes turning towards First Wind, “Could you please not antagohe support team?” Protean asked, “This is your first mission and I’m monit you.”

  He snorted and sat up, resting his arms on his knees. He she air, Gunpowder and Blood, hen keep wat,” He said, “Cuz Imma get to work if you don’t mind,” He said and uncsped his restraints.

  “Pardon? We’re not at the target locatio, we’re at least five minutes out, sit-” She began but he was already walking to the rear of the aircraft. He spped the button to open the ramp and fresh air washed over him. He closed his eyes and took it all in, the rapid winds, the dry heat, the strength of the sky in this pce. “First Wind! We aren’t at the target location!”

  “You aren’t, I am,” He said with a gnce over his shoulder and a smarmy grin, Losers. He thought before turning around and falling backwards off the craft. There was a shout as he fell through the air, his floral shirt fpping about him, his chest exposed to the sunlight. He sneered a little, “Let’s fu’ go,” He hissed and embraced the wind. Everging. Unstoppable. The air pressure above him decreased while the air pressure beh him skyrocketed. With a shift and a flip he was standing in the air. He altered the air pressure in front of him , dropping it to o nothing before increasing the pressure behind himself steadily. Faster, faster, faster, he pushed himself along before stabilizing the air pressure above him and turning into a rocket that shot across the terraih him. Just up ahead was the city.

  He paid no attention to the buildings, he followed the air, that smell. Blood. He could hear it now too, sirens and shouting. It was faint on the aircraft but now it was getting delightfully close. He barked out a ugh as he neared his destination, “Someone’s having a good time!” He shouted and slid to a stop, rising up above the city and looking down at the rge solitary building. It was gaudily built with all those weird modern shapes to it, cops had formed up around it and were moving civilians away. His lip twitched and he raked his eyes over it, Iron sidings, lockdown huh? Civvies are trapped ihen, no big, this whole gallery show thing sounds shady as fuck. Might as well bring the whole building down on ‘em and save the trouble. She’s definitely inside.

  He held out his hands and got to work. Urging the wind through the city streets. Sand and bits of trash began to bounce about as he pivoted and pulled, dragging the wind about slowly, turning it as he adjusted the air pressure and temperature. Good thing I practiced! He thought merrily, This power is hard to trol. He ched his fists and began pulling harder, more wildly, baby, gimme a tornado! Let's go! Tornado in the desert! He barked out a wild ugh, e on, e on, e on! Party time people!

  That was when he saw it, the first hint of something bigger going on. Something glowed on the side of the building. He paused and tilted his head, squinting a little. His powers didn’t e with le vision so it was hard to make it out. Then the glow began to spread. Not in a ‘bathing the area in light’ kind of way, but more signs of it spreading throughout the area. Streaks of pale white light that gave him an odd feeling. The light was crawling up buildings like- Vines? Roots? He squinted again and lowered himself towards the ground. The fuck is this? This ain’t gold.

  As he drew closer he could make it out a bit better, ign the shouts of the police that were aimed at him. They were definitely roots of some kind made almost entirely out of that eerie white light. He scoffed and held up his hands again to clear it out as the first root reached the top of a building. It touched the air and bloomed into a flower, beautiful, almost awe inspiring. Flecks of light rose up from the flower like pollen that spread out and touched other objects and the roots began to spread on them as well. He raised an eyebrow and the wind began to pick up around his body, pushing away some of the pollen as more and more of the stuff was released into the air.

  “rick but it won’t-” He started and froze, narrowing his eyes. Somethi very wrong. His instincts were screaming at him. His ability was screaming at him. The light was intensifying on the flowers, spreading, truly bing the pce. He hopped back as the light washed over him. He pushed for the sky and… fell? He blinked and hit the ground stumbling back a few paces. He looked at his hands in fusion for a moment and flicked his wrist, wind coiled around it. He tried to adjust the air pressure around his body again but nothing happened. One of my ability’s funs was cut off. He realized and looked up at the glowing pnts, That shit is bad news.

  He grinned, “Aight, challenge accepted!” He ughed and began w the wind harder.

  He turned and began ing the building in a tight band of wind, the air current ripping around it so quickly it was starting to bee visible. While he did, he began pushing the wind around the buildings where the vines were going, trying to peel them off. Metal rattled and paint chipped as casually increased the pressure. Even without true pressure trol, there were other ways to make his tornado happen. He exhaled and the temperature began to drop on the ground, the cool air pressing hard against the heated metal and stone of the building. Metal began to bend and peel, the reinforced ptes twistih the force of the wind.

  “Open up! Let me in!” He sing-songed before he sensed a ge in the area, a shift in air pressure that reminded him of those portals Euclidia could make. He turned his head, “Huh? What’s she doing? This is my-” He stopped and stared.

  A tall regle of light began to form in the air across from him. He gowards the cops who’d been pushed out of his mind for now. They were all looking at the strange boxes in fusion as well. This isn’t Euclidia. He realized and cut off the wind cyg around the gallery before adjusting his sungsses and smirking a bit, “I’m waiting,” He said aloud, “e on! Show yourself already! I-”

  The first oepped out and for the first time in his life, in a long, long time, even before he’d gained his powers ahis sense of invincibility, he felt his blood get a little cold. It wasn’t a person that stepped out of the portal. It was a seven foot tall statue of marble. Its burning eyes smoldered over a humorless mouth covered by a transparent silk veil. It had ‘hair’ that despite clearly also being made of marble seemed flexible. It was muscur, regal, and had a feeling of cruelty about it- No, tyranny. He thought as he took a step back to observe. It stepped fully into the world and brandished a long, curved, wicked looking sword.

  “THIS IS A MANDATE.” A unfeeling voice came from the statue, the words were both outside and inside his head, he heard it in his native spanish and in maori. “THE HEAVENS HAVE ORDERED YOUR DEATH, HERO FIRST WIND.”

  First Wind poi himself and ughed, he gestured at the big thing as it started marg towards him and ed its arm in a tight coil of wind. He wrenched his hand to the right and down, snapping it. The limb went sck for a moment as the statue tis approach before immediately snapping bato pce. “Oho! Tough!” He ughed as gunsh out. Bullets pinging uselessly off the statue. That was when aepped out, and then another, and then another.

  One of the statues turowards the police, “INTERFERENCE WILL RESULT IH,” the statue growled and lifted a fug car before hurling it at the police who desperately scattered.

  Munsh out, the police hurrying to make a new perimeter. One of the cops even charged forward, light glowih his uniform as he lunged only for the light to flicker out as he drew he statue that had thrown the car. His raised fist hesitated, his power weakened by the light. The statue grabbed him by the head and drove it a foot into the crete before stepping over him and marg towards the police. He clicked his tongue and ig, fog ohree that were now marg in his dire. So they want to py rough, huh?

  He threw his hands down before swaying and pulling them up, the wind that he had been gathering around the city to peel off those annoying pnts ged dire. He pulled his hands together, g them hard as the wind smmed into the three approag figures. They crashed into one another in a tangle of limbs and he hurled them into the air just as a body flew past him. He turned his attention back to the siatue and the cops. It raised its on and brought it down on the car they were standing behind, cleaving it in half and pulling one piece out of the way to get to them.

  He clicked his tongue and gnced up as he picked up on something in the air, “Fun’s uess,” He muttered and gnced up at the Pandora aircraft shifting its wings aering a h posture. That was when he saw what had happeo the three statues he’d thrown. They nded on panels of hard light and quickly extricated themselves from one another before turning their attention to the aircraft.

  Wait. Hard light? He whipped his head around, No way. She’s here?

  He grinned wildly, “She’s here! Hell yes!” He ughed, “Sorry Protean! Fun time ain’t over yet!” He howled and cut loose as more of the statues began to march out of the portal, the brutal things marg towards him as the screams of men desperately fighting the solitary statue fell on deaf ears. He raised his hands high and called on the wind. Even if air pressure wasn’t in his pybht now, he could just bring a fug hurrie down and eliminate any witnesses. He ched his fist and called on all of the wind he could, pulling from all around him, f the air through the ey to move faster and faster.

  “e on out Ishtar!” He shouted, “I’mma make a name for myself today!” He bellowed.

  Buildings shook, men screamed, the world creaked, and an explosion sounded overhead. He didn’t care even as one of the statue things fell to the ground and got back up, badly burned but still mobile. It turs eyes on him and he gri it. It lowered its on and tilted its head, an odd posture for such a rigid thing. Then its eyes ged color, turning into a bzing hot pink.

  “ime, perhaps, First Wind. I’ve got what I came for,” Came a raspy voice.

  He blinked, “Huh?”

  “Farewell, little hero. Perhaps focus on the job iure?” It mocked him before it bowed its head and dissolved into motes of light.

  First Wind’s eyes went wide as more motes of light rose into the air. He felt his air pressure feature return and he spun towards the gallery. “Oh you gotta be kidding me,” He ughed and wrenched one of the metal panels off the gss wall before twisting his hand and ripping the gss out. He darted inside and found nothing but corpses. Gold ttered everywhere, the floor, the ceiling, golden bullets, golden rocks, golden people, but there was no sign of Queen August. He licked his lips, “She deyed me,” He mused, Just like Vegas and Bck Lotus, huh? She doesn’t like direct fights. Noted.

  “First Wind!” Protean called out behind him, “What happened here? What the hell were those things? Breach is hurt, Fontaine’s looking after him.”

  He gnced over his shoulder and griilting his sungsses down, “I just fought Ishtar apparently,” He said with a ugh.