Annou"Ahem!"

  Marta takes a half step forward into a delicate curtsey, "Hello everyone, Marta here, thank you again for reading along. I do hope you're having a good time. We're still accepting questions for the AMA this week, so if you'd like to get your question in, please take a moment to ask in the ents," she says with a smile before standing up straight and tilting her head slightly, "I would be very sad if I didn't get a few myself. As a part-time streamer, I do love eaining an audience."

  "Hey Babe! Are we-" Kingshark pokes his head into the spad makes eye tact with a very annoyed Marta. "Uh... right. Um. Whoops? I'm gonna go. Hey readers or whatever! I like living so... bye!"

  "Barry!" Marta shouts, "Just go already!"

  "I'm going! I'm going!"

  Sonya stepped through the portal and out into the snow. She took a deep breath and tasted the crispness of the air. Going from three enviroally disparate pces in quick succession was an iing thing and it allowed her to experiehe nuance of the air with more crity than she expected, even with her enhanced senses. New York had thid pu air, heavy and tainted with things that cloyed against her sehe subaquatic base was sterile and ft with no distio the air, unremarkable to the point of being remarkable. This pce was sharp and fresh, almost minty as it filled her lungs with a heady chill. The sensation was thrilling in a way.

  “Oh, I like that.”

  “Like what? Oh shit it’s cold out here,” Kingshark grumbled, rubbing his arms as he peered around. Bckrazor stepped out through the portal behind him and frow his surroundings before schooling his expression into somethiral to hide his disfort. Sonya put her hands on her hips and turo admire the se around them. They were standing on the side of a mountain overlooking many more. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but white snow and dark stone.

  “Wele to the alps,” Sonya said brightly, crossing her arms behind her bad gng around, “Now where is it…” she murmured, squinting at the mountainside behiwo panions.

  “I fail to uand why we are here, are you going to build a false base of operations in this remote pce?” Bckrazor asked, turning to look at the sheer wall of stone behind him.

  Sonya strode up o him and ran her fingers over the wall, “Oh the hard part’s already done,” she said and pushed her senses into the wall, reag out until she felt something like a door meism. She trated on it and with a flex of her teopathy willed the doors to open. At first nothing happened and Bckrazave her a skeptical look that she respoo by stig out her tongue. He crossed his arms and sighed just as Kingshark joihem.

  “Hate this pce already,” he said irritably.

  The stoh them shuddered and the two men looked down before looking up at the wall as it began to shift backwards, a portion of it beginning to slide back. Sonya cpped her hands with delight, “Secret door!” she ughed as the moving sb of rock shifted to the side before disappearing into the wall. Ahead of them a narrow hallway stretched towards another door set deeper into the mountain. Lights slowly came on along the path, providing just enough illumination to guide them ihis is the back door, by the way, I hadn’t tried it yet so I figured this would be a good opportunity.”

  The two men stood there staring at the open passage with a mixture of awe and fusion. They looked at her after a heartbeat, Kingshark letting out a sigh. “Of course you have a hidden mountain fortress, it’s you. Why was I surprised?”

  “Like something out of Steel Kit Seven,” Bckrazor breathed before clearing his throat, “I mean, how oh did you e upon a pce like this, Mistress?”

  Sonya shot Kingshark a petunt look before smiling at Bckrazor, “It was actually Queen August’s,” she said and started inside, “Now if you don’t mi's get out of the cold.”

  The two men nodded eagerly and followed her inside. About half-way through the passage the dan to shut behind them. Sonya gnced over her shoulder and shrugged before making for the door at the other end, she gestured and a small panel o it fshed green before it too slid open. They were immediately buffeted by warm air radiating from within. Kingshark let out a groan of relief as Sonya climbed the three steps up and into the interior of the structure. She gnced around curiously, taking it all in.

  They were standing in a positively massive tral chamber. The floor beh their feet seemed to be made of the same stone as the mountain but had been fttened and polished to a marble shine. Everything in the space glittered and sparkled, the furniture, the paintings on the walls, the statues, even the fountai into the heart of the room where a steady spray of water shot into the air and caught the light from spotlights hanging above it. She made a fad wrinkled her nose, “I’m selling all of this as soon as I ,” she said with disgust.

  “You haven’t been in here yet?” Kingshark said, squinting against the overwhelming gleam.

  “Nope, I opened a portal to the front door, sent some of my legion in to check it out and make sure there was nothing dangerous inside. As well as gather up valuables,” she frow the decor, “Seems like my orders weren’t clear or they didn’t see a reason to grab all this stuff. I checked out the exterior with my Astral Eye before I put it out of my mind.”

  “You have beey busy,” Kingshark chuckled, “Guess those statue things of yours are gone by now.”

  “That's what I was expeg as well,” Sonya said thoughtfully as the sound of stone against st out in the rge room. The trio turheir attention towards one of the open spaces on the far side that looked like it led into a hallway or some manner of auxiliary room. Two marble statues stepped out, their stoic gazes falling on Sonya. The figures took the form of women wearing cloth robes that left little to the imagination, their hair bound tightly in rows on their heads with gold wire criss-crossing braids. They strode forward before stopping at a respectful distand dropping to a knee.

  “Didn’t you kill August two months ago?” Kingshark asked.

  “Yep.”

  “These entities are still here,” Bckrazor said.

  “Yep.”

  Kingshark looked her way, “Isn’t that a strain on your mana?”

  “Nope.”

  “What do you mean, ‘nope’?” He asked incredulously. He looked back towards the two statues that hadn’t moved an inch.

  Sonya scratched at her neck, “I’m holy surprised as you are. This ability is kind of a fire-and-fet sort of thing. I don’t think I actually uh… make them. They e from somewhere and I just let them loose,” she tilted her head. Did you notiything when you made them back then? She asked Ishtar.

  Yes, I did. I was aware of this fun.

  Sonya frowned, Why didn’t you mention it before?

  How would that have helped you at any point up until now? Ishtar asked, I expected you to eventually e back to this pd learn it for yourself. It’s better this way.

  Sonya pursed her lips, What else do you know about my abilities that I don’t?

  Signifitly more, and no, I am not going to just hand it over to you. You o explore your abilities on your own. We share the same mind, you figure it out.

  Sonya let out a heavy sigh, You ’t baby me this once?

  I think I baby you enough, Ishtar teased.

  Fine, Sonya whined and rolled her eyes. She g the others who were watg her make silent faces, “What?”

  “Talking to Ishtar?” Kingshark asked.

  She rubbed her ned looked away, “It’s a new-ish development, yes.”

  “Being able to sult a separate perspective at any time sounds incredibly valuable to me,” Bckrazor said thoughtfully, “I admit to being a bit jealous.”

  She gave him a ft look and shook her head before clearihroat and g her hands, “Alright! Anyway!” she said brightly, putting her hands on her hips, “Might as well take advantage of the situation!” she took a few steps bad gestured for her friends to get out of the way before holding up her hands. She let out a breath ahe instincts rise up inside of her. Now that she was more izant of what they were and that they did not draw on her mana to exist she could feel those same funs within her instincts like information she should have known all along. “Bring woe to those who snder me, march, agents of the heavens,” she intoned.

  She pushed the ability as far as she dared without actually exhausting herself, half a dozen thin lines of light f in the air behind the two that were on their khe lights opened into pahrough which more legionepped out, all dropping to a ko join their rades. She let out a shuddering breath and shook her head, she wasn’t drained but it was defiaxing to do it all at once. “Phew, six more,” she said, “I think I’m going to start summoning more when I and leaving them here until I reach the limit.”

  “Is there a limit?” Kingshark asked, eyeing them cautiously.

  She pursed her lips and trated on her instincts, “I’d say no more than fifty right now, give or take, it doesn’t feel like a specifiumber to me.”

  I do not know the limit either, though I have se increase gradually.

  Good to know that we’re learning some things together.

  Sonya…

  It’s fine, just a little hurt about it. I’ll hit a dungeon or something and brush up.

  That would be good, I guide you if you’d like while you do that.

  I’d appreciate it.

  “You have your statue women,” Bckrazor said ftly, “Now what?”

  “Well, I was thinking about having Amos help me with this pce but now I’ve got a better idea. I want to test the limits of this ability and what these guys are capable of so why not have them remodel it into a dummy ir like you suggested, Barry,” she said with a grin, “I’ve only tried dired closed-ended orders. Let’s try something a bit more open-ended.”

  She took a deep breath and fixed her gaze on the eight statues kneeling before her, “Legion,” she arying to sound mal, “I find the garish trappings of excess wealth offeake them down ahem aside, I will put them to better use. Once you have done so, turn this pto a ir suitable for me. ”

  The statues rose as oheir cold eyes regarding her for a moment before they turned away, walking to the jewel encrusted decor and tearing it from the walls and uprooting it from the floor. A few left for other rooms and began carrying piles of jewelry bato the room to dump it at her feet. She winced as one of them ripped a whole portion of wall out as it removed a bust attached to the wall. What happened made all three of them freeze ihe legionnaire pced a hand over the broken portion of wall and the dark stourned into white marble before filling in the hole. It emotionlessly turned away from the patarble before carrying the bust to the growing pile.

  Sonya g the others, “How about we leave them to it? I’ll send one of Charon’s people to pick up the loot and sell it.”

  “Yeah, no offehose things are creepy and I’m literally the huy,” Kingshark said ftly.

  “Agreed, though this has given me much to think about,” Bckrazor said thoughtfully.

  Sonya nodded and made a casual gesture, creating a portal back to the uer base that they quickly went through.

  –

  Adam was not o the life of a criminal. He’d been boung between a solitary lifestyle and w with groups since he was in middle-school. Gangs were not forever as much as the leaders of such groups insisted they were and more often than not they were broken up either by internal problems or politervention. Only the big gangs ever ended up being something that sted. After the fsh that ged, even the big gangs were starting to tear themselves apart as low-ranking members overpowered those above them and individuals in stagnant leadership positions pushed higher.

  The idea that any criminal group could possibly stay sistent for any period of time was ughable to Adam. What was even mhable was the idea that the higher-ups in such a group would show any sort of respect towards the lowest ranking members. It came as a bit of a surprise, then, that when the gang he had joined ile was absorbed into a new light-touched group that the leadership was insistent oier ditions for him and the others. Even so, he was still at the bottom of the barrel.

  Being a nobody wasn’t a big deal, though, it kept him out of the big fights. He’d heard about Vegas and had seen heroes crack down on his friends when they pushed their luck too hard. Fighting some superhero was absolutely not on his to-do list. If he had his way, he’d keep his head low a paid while he was doing it, even if that meant being a janitor. He wasirely sure if the offhanded remark he’d made along the same lines had nded him where he was or if he was just unlucky. Something had caught the attention of the local kingpin, Dupe, which was how he ended up where he was.

  It was also how he learned something he really wished he hadn’t. He had been w on the administrative level of the uer plex run by the supervilin Kingshark, ing the floors and staying out of everyone’s way. He’d never seen Kingshark in person except from a dista from what he did know the guy retty cool with his men aremely protective. That made him proud to do what he was doing. He aid really well and the living spaces were fortable for the most part, not that he could spend the money where he was. That had been on his mind as he opehe door to one of the rooms that the others told him beloo Kingshark’s boss.

  No oalked about who this person was though he had a pretty good guess. The tract he had signed with the non-disclreement had included Ishtar’s name on it. It wasn’t a huge leap of logic. That piece of information had been floating in the back of his mind as he id eyes on the woman standing in the room with an asian-looking guy who practically radiated death. Anyone who hadn’t been living under a rock would have reized her immediately. The Voice of the Hero Movement, Sonya ovna.

  What was even crazier, she knew his name. Just plucked it out of the air before sending him off to go find Kingshark. That had been equally awkward, properly meeting the supervilin for the first time. All that had ended with Adam wandering down one of the deep-sea base’s many halls in a daze, not sure what to make of the revetion when he heard a familiar voice around the bend in the hall ahead of him.

  “Well of course, silly! How else are you supposed to get past that stage?” Sonya ughed, walking around the er with Kingshark and the scary dude in tow. She came to a stop a his gaze with an easy smile, “Look who it is!” she said brightly and he felt his feet root to the floor as three supervilins fixed their gazes on him. “Adam! I liked your energy earlier today. Have you sidered being light-touched?”

  He blinked, “Huh?”