Sonya came to a stop just beh the baly and peered up, smiling as her eyes shifted in her head, adjusting to the sunlight beating down on her face. The wind picked up a little around her and her hair fluttered. She cracked a grin as the woman in the brown cardigan pnted her hands on the rail and with a single movement, hefted herself off the side with a ‘hup!’. Bck Lotus and the woman in the blue robes both turo her in exasperation and reached out but were, ultimately, too te. The wind picked up again and the air around Sonya dried up almost instantly, the humidity fading to nothing as tiny blocks of snowy ied in the air. She hopped down them o a time before nding with delicate grad looking up at Sonya with an almost blinding smile.

  “Guildmaster Evergreeing!” She chirped, bringing her hand up in a casual salute.

  Sonya beamed at her, “Brigid! It’s so good to see you, hun! How are you? How’s Seattle?” She ughed and stepped forward, scooping the slightly taller woman into a hug which was returhusiastically. She took a step bad looked her over. Brigid had fire-engine red hair worn long into two absolutely massive braided ponytails. If one looked carefully, they could see several streaks of white going through it. Her eyes were milky white, reminding Sonya a bit of Charon’s eyes.

  “Fantastic actually, snatched up a few pretty amazing recruits from my camp,” She said and waggled her eyebrows, “Gonna give the scamps around here a run for their money.”

  “Yes, I met e and Magnus,” Sonya ughed.

  “We’ll see how they do,” Another voice chimed in and Sonya gnced up to see the woman in blue robes desding on a ptform of blue light. She had her hands crossed behind her bad was giving Evergreen a steady look with one perfectly trimmed raised eyebrow. “I’ve heard some impressive things about the recruits for this camp as well.”

  “Bluestar,” Sonya said merrily, “You’re looking fabulous.”

  Bluestar tilted her head in a polite gesture and smiled back, “It’s good to see you, ma’am, it’s been too long since you visited headquarters.”

  “I’ll be ba the thick of it after the ceremony. I wao make sure everythi off without a hitch, you know?” Sonya said with a shrug just as the third personage on the baly jumped down without any assistance from her abilities. Bck Lotus stood up tall, t over the other wome, her long bck hair fluttering around those deep bck eyes that alway seemed to take Sonya’s breath away. Bluestar gnced over at Bck Lotus, “I’m also happy that we’ll be getting Bck Lotus back, she is our ace after all.”

  “Don’t let your dear Bandit hear you say that,” Bck Lotus said with a smirk in her dire.

  Bluestar pursed her lips and gave Bck Lotus a terse look, “He’s looking forward to the petition. None of the others keep up with him,” She said defensively.

  Bridgid barked out a ugh, “You two are so cute together!” She ughed, “A dy and her noble archer,” She said wistfully, holding a hand up to her cheek and swayi and right. She made a zy gesture and ice gathered in front of her hand, taking the shape of a woman in a gown dang with a man with a quiver on his back. It quickly exploded in a blue fsh. Brigid whipped her head towards Bluestar, “Hey!”

  Bluestar looked away with a huff, her face a bit red, “Enough out of you.”

  Sonya burst into ughter, “Ah it’s so good to see you all again,” She said, holding her sides, “It’s a shame that Amos had to head back to headquarters but they ’t be without him forever.”

  “How’s the new ping?” Bluestar asked.

  “About done, just handling the interiors now. Maybe another week?” Sonya said with a shrug and put her hands on her hips, “Now, on to business if you three don’t mind!” She said as Marta fell into her usual spot behind Sonya, hands on her p and eyes closed as a patient maid. “Tomorrow we’ll have a lot of guests! The graduates from the West Coast camp are going to be joining us here in Green Bank for the ceremony. All three of you are in charge of security and making sure everyone is fortable,” She said, “I’ll have some of my own security present as well but not nearly as much force as you all provide,” Her eyes narrowed, “I do not want any trouble during this event.”

  All three heroes straightened and nodded, “Yes ma’am!” They said.

  “Good!” Sonya said quickly, “The families of the graduates are VIPs as far as I’m ed, let's make sure they feel like it.”

  “Speaking of the graduates,” Bluestar said, “I’d like a word with one of them.”

  Sonya nodded, “I’ll make sure Joho you as soon as possible, he’s been eagerly awaiting a ce to talk to you as well.”

  Evergreen cracked a grin, “I want a look at the top three here,” She said and reached up to flick a strand of hair from her face, “Maybe get a taste of what they’re made of that impressed you so much?”

  “I don’t know if Otis ravitic will be receptive but I think hua’s apprentice would be happy to engage in a spar if you asked,” Sonya said casually, getting a bnk stare from Evergreen.

  Evergreen blinked a few times and looked up at Bck Lotus who nodded with a smug smile on her face, “Don’t tell me, she fights like you too?” She asked with a deadpan expression.

  “Oh she’s far more brutal than I am. She prefers a broadsword and heavy-harokes,” Bck Lotus said, her smile widening as she peeked down at Evergreen out of the er of her eye. “With her ability I expect her to catch up with me i-too-distant future.”

  Evergreen threw her head ba a groan, “Now there’s two of them? Really?” She grumbled and rubbed her shoulder, “My arm still hurts thinking about our st go at it.”

  Sonya raised an eyebrow, “You two fought?”

  The two of them whipped their heads towards Sonya with wide eyes. Bck Lotus scratched her nose and looked away ily while Evergreen looked down at her feet, shifting a bit. Sonya crossed her arms and g Bluestar whed at her, “It was an exhibition match at headquarters, ma’am. Ihe mana-isoted training room. No risk of runoff.”

  Sonya tilted her head, “I appreciate that, but that’s not the problem!” She said and squi them both, “They didn’t invite me to watch!”

  The ughter carried for a little while as they made their way inside.

  –

  He wiped his brow irritably with a handkerchief, flig his hand as they stepped beh a copse of trees. The jungle was thicker than he had imagi would be, even after doing a bit of research ahead of time. With a murmured word the hound that leaped out of the trees was shredded to pieces, its ruined corpse falling to the ground as he tinued walking. He let out a sigh and stepped over yet ahick root. “Who in their right mind would live this far out in the middle of nowhere?” He griped and brushed a leaf off of his suit coat before cheg his skirt and stogs, frowning at a tear in one of them. “And now my stogs are torn, ugh.”

  “You could leave some for me, you know,” The woman behind him said. He gnced back at her as she walked past the corpse with a frown on her face. She had a distinct punk-rock look about her, off-gray hair highlighted with violet. Her absolutely absurd figure made him wrinkle his nose a little bit as he stared at the additional unnecessary weight. He rolled his eyes and turned back to what he was doing. “Oh e on!” She whined, “I’m so bored!”

  “Your job is to deal with our quarry if something happens,” He said patiently, “Not fry every hound we see ahe entire jungle on fire. We’re trying to avoid attention, not spark an ecological disaster.”

  “Mephisto!” She pined, “You’re such a bully! I miss Bckrazor!”

  “Trust me, Kera,” He said patiently, “I’ll be happy to return you to your fuckboy whe out of here.”

  “You mean it?” She asked.

  He groaned, Why did the mistress pick her of all people to imbue with godlike powers? He winced as aree limb caught him on his slender leg and he scowled at it. “That does it!” He barked and took a deep breath, “Clear the way.” He bit out as a surge of mana rushed into him and out in a wave. Before him, the trees, debris, rocks, is, and any creature unfortuo be in that general dire was annihited, the entire forest ahead of them cut as if an invisible cube had raced through it. He huffed and straightened his tie, “There.”

  “What was that about ecological disasters?” Kera asked as she sauntered past him, her hands cupping the back of her head.

  He gred at her bad huffed, muttering a few words to repair his clothing as he kept moving along the new path they had created. “This Drastic persoer be worth the Mistress’ time, if Masque was any indication the Pandora ittee has no idea what they’re doing as far as the vilin rankings are ed. At least with Mint in charge now they’ll have better dire.”

  “I heard he’s strong,” Kera said, “But kind of a loner or something.”

  “Really?” Mephisto asked, gng around the rai jungle, “What gave you that idea?”

  “Just a hunch,” She said, “Say, you think they’ll have food for us? I’m getting hungry. Bckrazor has really gotteo fruit tarts, gosh I could go for an apple one, or cherry, or…”

  Mephisto rubbed the bridge of his his was going to be a long mission.

  –

  The steaming tart was set down oable beh the cafe, the waitress smiling at the small group before quickly making her way out of the room. Hellion shifted in his seat a bit, looking down at it as he looked up at the others. They were merrily digging into their respective meals and sipping at coffee as if it weren’t the strahing in the world. He couldn’t uand it, they were just talking about what amouo assassinating heroes and viginte behavior but no one seemed to pay them any mind. He rubbed the back of his neot that he minded, he was happy about it, he just didn’t uand.

  He looked to Mimir who was staring at him with those eerie golden eyes of his, “There are a lot of people that agree with what we’re doing, Hellion,” Mimir said patiently and sipped at his coffee, “Not everyone likes how the Pandora ittee is handling things, it's not a lot of people, but it’s enough that eople to rely on.”

  “With Mimir’s eyes we knoe and ’t trust too,” Faux said with a wave of her fork, “So no worries kid, take it easy and enjoy.”

  Hellion cleared his throat and nodded, cutting a pied popping it into his mouth. It was delicious. It felt like hadn’t had a proper meal in weeks which, in truth, he hadn’t. He hadn’t e out of his room for nearly a month it felt like and he was holy surprised he was alive. He remembered eating meals he found at the foot of his door on occasion now that he thought about it a little but it was all such a blur. He scooped another pieto his mouth and chewed slowly before looking at the board.

  There were eight names on it, some pictures attached to them, some without. One of them had a big red x over it. That’s A, he was the guy who attacked Las Vegas, right? He turo the one, And that’s Liberty, I’ve heard of her. She’s that crazy dy that attacked The Hague or something, right? He wiped his lips on his shirt and poi the board as he checked the other names, “Aren’t these people heroes and who’s this Otis guy?”

  The others looked at one another and then looked at Mimir who was slowly sipping at his coffee. He looked up over the rim at Hellion for a heartbeat before setting it dowo him, Faux leaned forward a her elbow oable, her in her palm. “Yeah, it’s about time we hear this grand pn of yours, right?” She said with a smirk, “What do they have to do with the Queen of Vilins?”

  Mimir set his mug down a out a breath, “Major? you start us off?” He asked.

  They all looked with surprise at the red-haired woman who was busy chewing on a sandwich. She frow him before nodding, “Okay, so before we start we o get something out of the way, something pretty important so we all uand how much of a challehis is going to be, even in the pnning phase,” She said, “Mimir has met Ishtar and has seen her face beh the mask, he knows exactly who she is.”

  Everyo deadly quiet. Hellion put down his fork as he felt a chill run up his spine. He knew he owerful, he was strong, the testers from the Pandora ittee had said he was a rare Mythic-tier light-touched. Yet from what he heard, this Ishtar person pyed with mythics like they were children. She was a monster above all monsters. There were even rumors that she was secretly a monster and had arrived with the fsh. Faux and the old man who had introduced himself as Max g one another.

  “Expin,” Max said quietly.

  “From what I’ve been able to gather, Mimir was forced into a deal with Ishtar that awakened his ability. In exge, he ’t say or do anything that could lead someone else to learn her identity. He will literally choke if he tries,” She began, “She killed his partner in Vegas and he’s been on the ath ever since.”

  Mimir nodded, “What I talk about are her goals,” he said, “She intends to save the world, in her own mind, even if that means massive casualties in the process. She has no qualms about the destru she causes and has vinced herself that she’s the only person that do it. She already trols a great deal of territory on the p and no one knows about it, on top of that she has her cws in the Pandora ittee,” He finished before letting out a gasp and reag for his throat. “That’s as far as I go.”

  “So she’s nuts,” Faux said.

  “Basically,” Addison said, “So the idea is this, we’ll go after her targets and force her out into the open.”

  Mimir nodded, “That’s why I came here to Fran the first pce,” He said and poi the board, “One of her targets is someone we all know in one way or another, Lu DuCast, Astaroth. She’s vinced he’s a ‘Herald of the Apocalypse’ or something to that effect. We all agree he o be stopped, but she wants to be the oo do it, she gets power from killing these people somehow.”

  “So we put a stop to him first and piss her off,” Faux ughed, “Alright! Not a bad pn.”

  “He is not an easy man to get to, and even if we do deal with him, the Pandora ittee could style him as a martyr to make him look good,” Max pointed out, “We o discredit him first. It’s a damn shame that pce colpsed like that.”

  Mimir nodded, “Agreed, so we’ll have to take a different approach,” He said, “Here’s what I have in mind…”

  Hellion took it all in. He’d joined up because he wao stop his uncle, but this was so much bigger than that. They were going to take down Ishtar? He swallowed hard and gnced down at his fork before pig it up and looking back at the tart. He stabbed it and leaned forward to listen more carefully. If there was anything he could do to make the world better than the ohat took his brother from him, he’d do it.