Jakey_K

"What does this Nathaniel look like anyway?" Sally asked as they got off the plane, all the rest of the passengers had disembarked already, as was the custom, emptying from the middle first. Avenger shrugged.
"I'm sure there'll be a sign to direct us," he sounded more confident than he felt. He was carrying the still sleeping Jakey, who was still wrapped up in his blanket. The small, tightly muscled body with its quiet, lulled heartbeat was oddly comforting. He was somehow not surprised to note that Jakey still smelled like a cat, despite his shape.
"Excuse me, are you the Honourable United team?" a curt, very English voice asked suddenly as they approached the end of the tunnel. Avenger stopped and blinked, Sally also stopped. They couldn't see a thing, and both were having the same thought. They wished Jakey was still awake. His senses were sharp enough that he could often see what they could not, making him hard to mystify.
Ahead, someone made a short, impatient sound.
"Oh bother, I keep forgetting to focus." After a moment, a painfully thin man of average height melded into plain sight. He was wearing a black jumpsuit with the emblem of a sword stitched onto his left shoulder.
"Dreadfully sorry, didn't mean to startle. In the habit of staying out of sight if you will. My name's Gorse Tintagel, and you are … let's see, you must be Midnight Avenger, and you are Sally Storm and who's this little chap?" Sally's eyes were a bit wide, as she not to grimace at this 'so' English introduction.
"Jakey K," she said shortly, her voice sounding more English than it had for a while. Gorse smiled.
"Ah, of course, the cat. Well, come along, come along. Class is no doubt wooing every lady in a ten mile radius as we speak." He started walking off and fading into thin air. Sally exchanged glances with Avenger and they both blew out a deep sigh before following the shimmer of air that was Gorse. Occasionally he'd realise he was invisible, and his polite curse and reappearance would offer a small entertainment in the form of guessing how long it'd take him to remember next time. Jakey murmured something but didn't wake up.
They finally came out into what must have been a sectioned off part of the terminal. Sally, from Gorse's off-hand comment concerning 'Class', was expecting a well dressed man like Raphael De Arca waiting for them. As far as she was concerned, he was the absolute personification of class and always would be. She was surprised to see two people leaning against the wall, one was a very short black girl, and the other was a shortish man with brown hair and both wore the black jumpsuit with the sword. It wasn't until the man looked over and met Sally's eyes that she stopped dead in her tracks, whatever thought she'd been thinking was abandoned to die slowly in the dust of neglect. Avenger stared at her in concern, freeing one arm to wave it in front of her face and when he received no reaction, looked worriedly about. Gorse appeared at Sally's other side and frowned, shining a penlight into her eyes. As if the light flipped a switch, she suddenly split into a grin and blushed, taking hold of Avenger's arm.
"Pretend I'm with you," she whispered. Avenger looked slightly mystified, then alarmed when she giggled, looking anywhere but ahead, "shhh, he's coming over here, oh my god!"
"You must be the boys from the States. I'm Touch of Class and this is my sidekick, Cirrus, pleasure to meet you!" said the short man in what was absolutely a regional accent. He'd put on a pair of dark glasses as he walked over. Avenger stared at him, wondering what the hell was going on.
"I'm Midnight Avenger, this sleepyhead is Jakey K and this is-"
"Sally Storm." Sally suddenly thrust her hand out, again the model of professionalism. Touch of Class took her hand and turned it, bringing it to his lips.
"Enchant." Avenger waited for Sally to punch him, or shoot him down with a sharp one liner, when it didn't come, he looked sideways at the woman and was deeply unsettled by her girlish smile.
"Would you do me the honour of walking with me to the car? It's been a long flight and we're anxious to get you started on your investigation with our full co-operation," Class offered his elbow to Sally and whatever she'd said about being 'with' Avenger was evidently forgotten as she slipped her arm through the crook and let herself be led off.
Gorse sighed heavily.
"There he goes again. Sorry about him, sir, he's …"
"Incorrigible," Cirrus finished for him, her accent was thickly Irish, but not so much so that her words were garbled. Avenger followed when they picked up the baggage left for them by the airport staff.
"What the hell just happened? Why's Sally acting so … giggly?"
"Class has that effect on every woman who makes eye-contact with him. It'll wear off in a few hours and I fully encourage your team-mate to slap him as hard as she can." Gorse sounded tired. Avenger decided to keep a very firm eye on Sally, so she didn't find herself in any compromising situations while under the influence of whatever Touch of Class's strange power was. Cirrus peered up at Avenger.
"Oh don't you be worrying about your friend, Class is rough round the edges but he's a real gentleman an'll take right care of her until she's herself again." Avenger only grunted slightly. Even though he was not that way inclined, he could see that Sally was a very beautiful woman, and sometimes a man could be swayed to forsake reason in the face of something so lovely. Whatever high-minded ideals Touch of Class harboured, he was still a man, and clearly needed watching.
"Gaze?" Jakey mumbled from his blanket. Avenger looked at him as they walked out to the car. The cat looked bleary and tired.
"No, Avenger."
"Hmm … you smell like her," Jakey murmured, moving sluggishly. Avenger nodded to Gorse as he pulled open a side door to a people carrier, getting in and taking care not to knock the cat.
"No [censored], what with being her twin and all," Avenger said fondly. Jakey made a noncommittal sound and nestled against him comfortably. In the seats next to Avenger sat Sally and Class, the latter on the far side next to the window. He was keeping Sally engaged in conversation, talking about this and that and nothing of particular interest but it was holding the woman's attention like a candle held a moth's. In the front passenger seat, Cirrus turned around and rested her slim arm on the back of the seat while Gorse started the engine.
"What's Paragon like? I heard you've got war walls and all kinds of problems there." It was hard to tell her expression, since she wore mirrored wrap around shades, but her tone was interested.
"The walls still keep the Rikti prisoner in the city, but they're always trying to call for reinforcements and break out of the city."
"Must be tough keeping them in the limits, guess you must need every hero you can get." Cirrus rested her chin on her arm, then looked to Gorse for a moment. Gorse nodded just slightly and the elfin woman took her shades off. Immediately, Avenger could see why she wore them. Her irises were pitch black, but in her pupils there was a swirling grey blue light and flicked off and on as she moved her eyes about, like a cat's eye. They were slightly unsettling to see in a human face, she must wear the glasses to keep her eyes hidden from civilians. He returned his mind to the conversation.
"Yeah, sometimes feels like we're not making much headway either," he said. Cirrus nodded.
"Well don't you worry about the outside, we'll keep that mulling over until you guys win. So what's this about me brother?"
"Cirrus." Gorse's quiet voice interrupted their conversation, he gave the tiny woman a sideways look before turning his attention back to the road. Avenger stared at her. He'd gone a whole half hour without thinking about Muse, but now the worry and the anxiety were back. Cirrus pulled a face, then sat facing forwards again. Jakey blinked his eyes open again, his eyelashes tickling Avenger's neck.
"You're Muse's sister?" he mumbled. Cirrus did not look around.
"Yeah. I'm Matt's sister. We're heading to Avalon, Nat's already been helping us piece together Matt's steps that he knows about. We could use your help though."
It struck Avenger then, that this was not a mission for Honourable United, this had just become an international affair.

and la, the case has been closed. Thank you for hanging in there, anyone who wasn't frightened away by the sheer mass of text. I salute you! *salutes*

Three Days Later, 09:52, The Base, Kings Row

The phone rang on the wall, Avenger got up from doodling things on a sheet of paper beside the quiet radio and picked it up.
"Honourable United, Midnight Avenger speaking, how can I help?" he felt a little too much like a receptionist at the moment, but it was his turn to be in the 'call box' so to speak. Everyone took their turn, everyone pitched in. Least it was only once every so often.
"Er … hi. This is going to sound a bit weird, but I think I have one your heroes on my sofa." A young man's voice said on the other end. Avenger arched an eyebrow.
"How so?"
"Well, his ID card says he's from Honourable United. I found him in the alley around the back. Small guy, has stripes and a tail."
"You've found Jakey?! I'll be right over!" Avenger snatched up his hat and was about to hang up before he remembered something, "Where do you live?"
"24b Richmond Court, Copper District, Steel Canyon."
Avenger hung up and wrote a quick note, pegging it to the radio equipment, 'out to hero', and raced out. There'd been a hunt for Jakey K since he'd vanished weeks ago, but then all the nonsense of the curfew had distracted everyone and now it was resolved with Congress voting unanimously to end it, they could get back to finding their missing hero. He hurried to the train station, pausing only to glare at a few Skulls, who instantly found better things to do with their time than inhale solvents on street corners. The train was crowded, a pair of children, a little boy and girl, pointed at him.
"Are you a hero?"
"That's what they call me." Avenger grinned down at them. The little girl put her hands on her hips.
"You don't look like Statesman." She looked very disappointed and Avenger inclined his head, doffing his hat at her.
"Dreadful sorry about that, ma'am, but not everyone can aspire to be the Statesman. He's one of a kind." He felt a bit proud of that answer, he thought he dressed better than the Statesman, but it wouldn't do to trash another hero to a civilian. That kind of behaviour was just not on. He felt very diplomatic, chatting amiably to the children and their young mother until they reached Steel Canyon, excusing himself and getting off the train. He answered the wave of the little children as they pressed themselves to the window and waved energetically.
Finding Richmond Court wasn't hard, it was a single bound from the train station, not that his bounds were quite the same unit of measurement as everyone else's. He found the button for flat 24b and pressed it. There was a clatter and a fizzle.
"Hello?"
"Midnight Avenger here."
"Oh sure, come right up." The door buzzed and Avenger opened it, heading in. The stairs were narrow and a bit dingy with graffiti on the walls. Jakey sure found the best places to hang out. He reached the third floor and walked down the hall, at least there was no rubbish strewn about. He found the door and was interested to note the chap had 'open hours' stencilled onto his door. He knocked and a moment later it opened. A slightly shorter man looked up at him, then blinked very dark eyes behind his glasses.
"Ah, sorry, place is a mess. Got your guy through here. I'm sorry but I think he's been drinking heavily and he smelt kind of minty when I found him," the young man waved him in, picking his way over boxes and past stacks of random junk, "I just moved from Independence Port, so everything's sort of up in arms."
Avenger tried to be delicate, insofar as it was in his mentality, and found his way to the living room. Jakey was curled up on the sofa, looking adorable and purring. He scooped him up, the tiny man was so light, it was a temptation to bounce him like a toddler. Avenger resisted the temptation, as he was sure the other hero would not take kindly to it. He tipped his hat at the young man.
"Thanks, we've been looking for this rascal everywhere. What's your name?"
"I-I'm the Music Teacher." The young man smiled sheepishly, taking a card out of his pocket and holding it out. Avenger's eyebrows raised as he noted the Hero License, then he grinned.
"Security level two? You're just a wee one!" Music Teacher rubbed the back of his neck.
"I signed up the day after the big demonstration, after talking to so many heroes the night before …" he shrugged a little. Avenger balanced Jakey in the crook of his arm and took something out of his pocket, handing it over.
"Says on your card you're classed as an empath, we could always use one of those. If you feel like shopping around for a super group, be sure to consider us, least we could do for you finding Jakey." Avenger tipped his hat one last time and picked his way out. Music Teacher looked at the card, giving details of where to find the base and an invitation to talk to Midnight Gaze, Raphael De Arca, Wilkins or Jakey K for admittance. He looked up when he heard his door close, and then back at the card thoughtfully.

11:00, The Base, Kings Row

Jakey slumped back against a sofa, taking the tea Avenger offered and watching as he went back to the radio, half listening to the joyful yells of people as they called hello's to him, welcoming him back. So nobody else remembered? About Seth and Maau and Cleo? The end of the world had loomed dangerously close and it had just slipped everyone's mind? Nobody else had found themselves in the Hollows, wandering and searching for any sign of Cleo.
He took something out of his pocket and looked at it. A curl of russet ginger hair tied with twine sat in his hand. A few hairs and scattered paper was all he'd found of his sister. How had she turned back Seth, the destroyer? The god of Darkness?
He sighed, he'd never know. She had again erased the memories of those closest to him, but not out of malice. He would not be remembered as the earthly body for a god, a sacrifice for Maau's return to battle Seth in the earthly planes. He was just Jakey.
Just Jakey K, a hero of Paragon City. Her last gift to him.
He drank his tea.

23:59, Cavern of Transcendence, The Hollows

Voices swam in her ears, like they were pooling and running off in any old direction. She opened her eyes, feeling tired and weighty.
"Gaze! Oh God you're alive!" Dax held her hands tightly, rubbing them to get them warm. Gaze blinked.
"What happened?" she asked groggily. Raphael patted her shoulder.
"After Seth spoke through you, you … you died."
"Ah! Jakey moved!" Gaze looked to the side when she heard Lionheart's exclamation. The mummified body was indeed moving, wriggling like a cocoon about to break. Raphael hurried over and took out a pair of nail scissors, snipping through the face bandages as fast as he could. Jakey's ears popped out and he gasped a ragged breath, coughing and hacking. Raphael supported him.
"Eight lives left," Jakey mumbled, wheezing. It wasn't funny, but it made them laugh, they were just so relieved to have him back.
"Where's Cleo?" Gaze asked, wondering if she sounded as hoarse as she felt.
"She left a moment before you woke up," Lionheart murmured. Gaze looked pained.
"We have to find her," Jakey's weak voice broke slightly on the last word. Raphael pulled a face.
"Jakey, you can barely move."
"That's coz I'm still tied up. Be a sport and unmummificate me," Jakey grinned weakly. Gaze felt groggy, there was something to do with the time, something important. She glanced at Raphael's wrist as he moved to cut his slow way through the bandages, there was a glint of a Rolex on his right arm -

00:00, Cavern of Transcendence, The Hollows

Jakey's smile crystallised and the bandages tore when he snapped his arms up to grip Raphael's arms.
"What?" Raphael gasped, mostly in surprise. He winced in discomfort as Jakey's hands tightened on the fabric, pulling it taut and making it dig into his skin. Gaze wrapped her arms around Jakey from behind.
"Keep breathing, breathe with me. In. Out." Her voice was calm, rational, Jakey's breath hissed through his teeth as he complied on instinct. Through the hundreds of battles where her voice had guided him, had been joined with the warmth of healing, she was his guardian angel, and her voice could reach him even through the agony clawing through his body.
Raphael looked at Gaze, asking what was going on with just his eyes.
"We're with you, Jakey. You're safe with us. Maau can't take you, not while we're with you and together." Gaze held Raphael's eyes as she held Jakey's tensed body. Raphael had hoped it'd been over, wishful thinking maybe. He shifted and stroked the fur-like hair on Jakey's head.
"Do not prove my confidence in your indomitable spirit false, Jakey." He wasn't as used to this sort of thing as Gaze, but he had no wish to see his friend cave to some uptight ******* who thought he was a god. Lionheart and Dax pulled closer, both whispering words of encouragement, and swearing to kick the backside of Maau.

00:00, Grendal's Gulch, The Hollows

Cleo stood poised on the rubbled walls of a house, looking out over the collapsed ruins of the Hollows. It would be so easy to just step back and away, let Seth tear through her and bring destruction on the human race. But Seth's release would trigger Maau's release, and that would destroy Jakey.
The wind swirled around her, her fists clenched. No, even if it meant the humans could continue in their barbaric wars and sickening cruelties, she wouldn't allow her brother to be harmed.
~ Who do you think you are to repel my coming, little cat? You're nothing without me ~ Seth coiled restlessly in the back of her mind. She smiled, then cried out, crumpling over as she grabbed her chest. She dug her fingers into the skin, blood dribbling out of her mouth.
"If I am nothing, then sweep me aside and take the world. Go on, I dare you. I double dare you." Her bloodied teeth gleamed as her lips pulled apart in a fierce grin, "There is no pain I cannot endure."

00:00, Atlas Square, Atlas Park

"As you can see behind me, Colin, Atlas Square is playing host to a million people in a spontaneous peaceful protest against the curfew. There are people from all the zones of the city and even some from beyond." Wilkins strolled past one of the reporters, balanced on the steps to the city hall, on his way back from the gentlemen's. A million people? That was rather an impressive number. He wished he could see Chris Jenkins' face right now.
"Hey! Congress is meeting for a late night vote!" One of the heroes on the rooftop howled into a megaphone. Wilkins looked up, noticing that from his angle, the hero had the flag behind him. The press had noticed it too and were thronging to take the picture. Wilkins stepped out of the way graciously, listening to the massive cheer coming from a million throats all around the park.
"I still think we should kick Jenkins in the jimmies." The young woman from before grumbled, her arms folded. Wilkins looked around at her, smiling.
"No, we're going to hit him where it really hurts."
"Oh?" the woman looked up at him, if he'd been a few years younger and unmarried, he might have entertained the notion that she'd like to be asked to dance. You could dance to scattered hip-hop and protest songs, right?
"Right in the legislation." He grinned. The woman cocked her head, then laughed and offered her hand forward.
"I'm Sally Storm."
"I'm Wilkins, of Honourable United," he answered, noting that her grip was very firm.
"You guys are the dudes in white with the fleur de lis, right? Run into your guys a few times before." Wilkins nodded, then looked around, the blond with the guitar was up on the knee of the Atlas statue, belting out a rock and roll song. The butler smiled and looked back at Sally.
"Would you care to dance? I'm feeling a trifle spirited this evening." Sally laughed again, mostly because she was being asked to dance by a man old enough to be her father.
"Sure, why not? Hope you can hold your own in a mosh pit, old man." She grabbed his arm and pulled him into the bouncing, wildly gyrating mob of heroes and civilians, throwing shapes in the church of dance.

00:01, The Cavern of Transcendence, The Hollows

Jakey relaxed suddenly, finally, and he looked up at Gaze in a glazed sort of manner.
"What day is it?" he asked, voice cracked a little. Gaze stroked his hair.
"Tuesday."
"Can I sleep now? I don't feel so good …"
"Yes, you can sleep now. Sleep well, my friend." She continued to hold him as he sagged and then slumped, asleep or unconscious, it was hard to tell. Raphael extricated his jacket from Jakey's hands and put it back on.
"Is it over?" He looked around at Lionheart, who shrugged.
"He didn't go crazy and become a loony god, I think it's over."
All four of them, though they would afterwards never know it, had the mental image of one green eye opening in the backs of their minds.
The Cavern of Transcendence was suddenly empty of heroes, only a good luck charm and a receipt swirled in a tiny eddy of wind before they settled to the floor.

22:43, The Cavern of Transcendence, The Hollows

Another flap of pages and Raphael stumbled, nearly pitching into lava when Dax's hands caught him and pulled him back. Lionheart looked around, in her arms was Gaze, now limp and expressionless. Cleo frowned, then looked sharply at Raphael, eyeing his wings with a kind of disgust.
"Well, human, if you're ready?" she snapped. Raphael drew himself up, taking offence at her tone. Dax put a hand on his shoulder.
"Tick tock." Her reminder of the passage of time forced him to calm himself.
"Very well, cat. Let us sneak through here. We cannot be seen or heard." He spread his arms, and they faded from sight.
"We are as light as the air and silent as the cat." Dax felt her feet leave the ground and squeaked a little, but no sound escaped her throat. She felt a hand take hers and then another, and then they were cruising down into the cavern itself. Pumicites moved contentedly about, picking up rocks to eat and rubbing against each other to groom or wading out into the lava to play. This was their home and the heroes and cat had no right intruding.
The heat from the lava made the air shimmer but soon they had crossed its length and come to blocked way. Raphael's voice sounded in Dax's ear but she wasn't sure how it had gotten there.
"We need to activate the stones, there need to be eight of us."
"You forget, human, that I am far more powerful than you. Open." There was a creak, then the stone that blocked the way slid out of sight, revealing a tunnel. Dax blinked, she'd been here before, to rescue a boy, and it had taken them hours to get this far. Had it been that long? It had certainly felt like it at the time. She felt a hand tug and followed, walking deeper into the tunnel. Behind them the stone slid shut, plunging them into darkness, but they were led true and came to the final cave. The Cavern of Transcendence itself. It was plain, unadorned. Only the pumicites and a single Circle of Thorns mystic knew its location despite the search of thousands.
"Put Jakey's friend on the ground. Next to him, yes." Cleo's voice sounded heavy. Dax watched as the others slowly faded into view, and saw the cat as she truly was for just a moment. She put her hand to her mouth without realising and swallowed. Cleo, who hadn't noticed the brief flicker to her illusion, sat down cross-legged and put her hands on her knees. She closed her green eyes and breathed, then reached out and put her hands on Jakey and Gaze's heads.

??: ??, ????, ????

Gaze jumped when she heard something thump a the front door, Jakey swivelled his head to look in that direction with alert ears. She looked at him for a moment, then walked to door and opened it. She saw no-one, then looked down. There was a cat on the doorstep, and it was the ugliest thing she'd ever seen in her life. One eye was closed and the skin around it was puffy and pock-marked, one ear was so ragged that it hung in a few tatters down the side of its face. The skin of the maw had been torn and scarred so badly that there was a constant snarl. One of the paws was crooked and folded inwards, the paw at ninety degrees to the rest of the leg and whole patches of fur were missing. What remained was a deep russet tabby. Scars from incisions littered the bald areas and the long tail was a sad, ragged pennant, still held up with a kind of stubbornness. A flag that flew over a battlefield where neither side had won.
"Get out of my way, human," the cat said, limping past her. Gaze just stared. That was Cleo's voice. Was that what Cleo truly looked like? She felt a fresh wave of pity and guilt. There was a thump as Jakey prowled out of the living room. The difference between he and his sister was marked. He was enormous compared to her, radiating health and vitality, making her seem even more a withered husk of life. He mewed softly and licked her face.
"As long as you hover in death, brother, Maau is free to tear her way into our world. I have come to take you back, if … that is what you want." Cleo looked up at him when he paused in his washing. Jakey's ears pricked.
"No, it was Seth's will that turned you human, if I were to correct that, then I will not have the strength left to fight him when he tries to free himself of me. Jakey, you must listen. Maau is a light god, yes, she is a defender of life, but you mean nothing to her. You are the hero she will sacrifice to fight Seth. This is what it is to be a hero, this is what it is to be destined."
Jakey's ears went back and he made a small noise. Cleo licked his face.
"I know. I also want you to live. I want you to live so much. Please, do something for me." Jakey mewed a little.
"Find a way to be happy, even if you cannot regain your true body. Have kittens, save the world, smile and sing and dance. And tell your kittens of me. Tell them stories of your sister," Cleo pushed her head against his chest, cleaning the long fur. Jakey looked a little confused, but made a sound of acquiescence. Gaze bit her lower lip, struggling to keep her tears at bay.
"Human, take Jakey and go through the window, smash it if you have to. Take him and go. Keep him awake through the minute of midnight, no matter how much he wants to sleep or die." Gaze just nodded, picking Jakey up. He was heavy, but that didn't surprise her, given his size. He put his paws on her shoulder and heaved up a bit, looking at Cleo as she stood where she was. He mewed plaintively, it only just sinking in that she wasn't coming. He struggled in Gaze's grasp but she held on tight. With no hands free, she had no option and focused her eyes on the glass. A beam of green energy blasted out and smashed through the pane. Gaze scrambled up and leapt out, holding tight to the struggling Jakey, his last wail trailed into the oblivion with her.

23:55, Atlas Square, Atlas Park

"This is exactly the kind of showboating that makes these so called 'heroes' a menace to society." Chris Jenkins was standing on a hastily erected podium with a rank of microphones in front of him, exhorting his opinion to the press.
Wilkins was tempted to shoot lightening up his nose, but curbed the impulse, that was certainly not the way a man behaved, even to Chris Jenkins. To think he'd even been tempted. Shocking. He sat down and spread out a bit of cloth and took out his cup and saucer, locating his thermos.
"He don't half go on. Let's go over there and kick him in the jimmies!" said a young woman nearby, she was standing with her arms tightly crossed, glaring hotly at the attorney and his gaggle of press. Singh, one of Honourable United's finest swordsmen, shook his head.
"Much as I'd like to see his jimmies kicked, that's exactly what we're supposed to not do. We just sort of … sit here."
"How is sitting here going to help?" the young woman asked. Wilkins didn't recognise her, though he had noticed a few heroes of other super groups arriving, as if Honourable United's show of numbers had motivated them, or perhaps they'd all been thinking the same thing all along. He'd like to think the latter. He noticed a few civilians moving around too, there was a young man with a blond beard and a guitar near the torches of City Hall, singing protest songs, and students from the city's universities. He was pleased to see Dave Wincott, a policeman who usually worked out of the Hollows, stopping by to talk to a few heroes. A huge bear of a man with a bald head walked past, talking to a dainty little woman wearing skintight black.
Yes, they were all out tonight. Everyone thought this curfew was a huge mistake, the heroes, the police and the civilians. Only Jenkins seemed to think it wasn't.
"Excuse me, Mr Wilkins?" Wilkins looked up and saw a young woman with vibrant purple hair smiling at him. She had a camera around her neck and was holding a notepad. Classic symptoms of being a reporter. He motioned for her to sit down.
"Would you like some tea?" he asked.
"Yes please, it's cold as brass monkeys out here." The reporter sat down and took the plastic cup from the top of the thermos. She sipped the tea and sighed, "thanks." Wilkins nodded.
"What can I do for you, miss? I'm sure a lovely lady such as yourself would rather talk to some of the younger heroes if it's just for socialising," he smiled. The girl tipped her head to the side, smiling an imp's smile. Wilkins was instantly on guard.
"Well, this isn't just a social visit no. I've been doing the rounds, and I've seen almost all of your super group present, it's a huge show of solidarity. But I was wondering about something, as some very prominent members of your group are missing. I was almost thrown when I saw the amount of hats, I assumed one Midnight Gaze to be here, but on closer inspection, turns out she's not. Would you care to comment on that?"
Wilkins sighed and blew on his tea, then nibbled a custard cream.
"Well, I'll have to be honest with you, Miss …?"
"Fairbright. Violet Fairbright."
"Miss Fairbright, Honourable United is at this moment engaged in quiet disobedience to the spirit of the law, but not the letter." Violet flipped her pad open and started scribbling with a pencil.
"Could you clarify that for me?"
"Midnight Gaze, Raphael De Arca, Dax Furnace and Lionheart are all presently engaged with filing mission reports, testing some samples we had pending and breaking some codes. This sort of paperwork is vital to the smooth running of our operations and they all wanted to feel like they were doing something useful with their time. While they are not being seen working out of the streets, they are working after the curfew. They, I and everyone here this evening believe that the curfew can only result in more crime and, though I pray it is not so, deaths. Though we respect the law, we also respect life and this city. Would Christopher Jenkins have us work a nine to five job when injustice is open all hours?" Wilkins made it clear through his tone that that was all she would get from him. Violet tapped the pad with her pencil and flipped it shut. She then offered her hand out.
"Thank you, and may I say that I really respect what you're doing, and what you've always done for everyone in this city. I can't imagine what it must be like to put your life on the line daily. I admire your restraint in dealing with Jenkins." And with that, she got to her feet and left. Wilkins hurrumphed a bit in his throat, colouring. It was nice to be appreciated.
"This little stunt goes in no way to ingratiate these vigilantes in the eyes of the public. Who threw that?!"
Wilkins looked around idly, and had to hide a smile when he saw that Jenkins had a football lodged in his microphones.
"Sorry sir! Just having a bit of a kick about!" a young hero called, rushing over. He was wearing a backwards baseball cap and he took it off to bob a conciliatory sort of nod. Jenkins watched him retrieve the ball suspiciously, and waited for him to run off before resuming his rant.
Wilkins chuckled, a little rebellion was always good to lighten the mood.

23:10, Heraklepolis, ????

Lionheart hit the steps of the ziggurat and tore up them, her fists were now glowing, something primal within her was stirring. Around her and behind her, leaping athletically and swiftly, were the cat people. They were under her command, they were hers, and she'd protect them and fight for them to the bitter end if she had to. She crested the top, fire blasting all around and there, in a whirling, devastatingly fast clash of fists and feet and fury, Jakey and a taller woman with the same red hair and face stripes fought. All around, paper screamed in the wind, thunder clashed and broke the stones, but neither could hit Jakey, it was like he was untouchable, dancing, his feet a blur and his skill unsurpassable. Cleo, that must have been who the other was, clashed with him again and again, fast enough to dodge his strikes, though unable to get a hit on him. They traded hit for hit, unable to touch each other, both masters, both equal. Lionheart paused, who to attack first?
Her dilemma was solved by the cats at her back, they surged forward and attacked both of them indiscriminately. There was no time to pick sides, there was only time to fight and try to survive. Lionheart roared and rushed in, putting her fist across Jakey's face. He kept his feet, grabbing her arm and flicking his body up in a twist, ramming his feet into her face and somersaulting off. Lionheart took the blow, dances of light played over her skin as an invisible shield reacted. She didn't want to do this with her friend, but she owed him the honour of being the one to take him down. Not one of these nameless strangers, it should be her. He was her friend and companion through dangers too numerous to count, she'd do this for him, and not flinch from it. She struck for him again, but he twisted his body away in a quick dart. He was so light on his feet, she didn't remember him being so light, it was almost as if he could evade the very fire that fell from above at Dax's direction. Lionheart focused, tensing as Jakey rushed in, dropping to the ground to sweep her legs out from under her in an ankle kick. His leg bashed against hers and coloured sparks flew off, his leg rebounding slightly. He didn't have time to dodge when she brought her fist down on his head, there was an audible crack and when he pulled away, blood was seeping down his face. He bared his sharp teeth.
"Foolish spirit of Albion, flee back to your rainy island, for I am Maau, and I am older than you can comprehend!"
"You can't distract me with words, Maau. You're just a flea-bitten cat. Bring it to this rainy spirit, and I'll show you how unbreakable it is!" She snapped her hand forward and beckoned. Jakey, Maau, screeched with a fury that shook the stones underneath, his fight with Cleo forgotten, he lunged for Lionheart as if he could see only her. She met him with a savagery that cracked the very air.
Cleo danced and swerved in tight circles keeping free of blades and edges, out numbered but using that to her advantage, only three could get to her at a time and she wanted it kept that way. She slammed her hand down and clenched her fist, smashing it up suddenly. The top of the ziggurat blasted upwards, throwing the cats wildly into the air. Before they fell, Raphael managed to convince most of them they were stronger and faster than that, and they leapt on the falling rocks like blurs of claws and steel. Cleo motioned with her arm and a river of carved stone hurtled towards Raphael, filling the air with a clattering roar. He had no choice but to run, escaping into the lea of one of the pillars, wincing as shattered shards of stone whistled through the air like bullets. Cleo, enraged she had missed, dodged away from a katana strike in a flying backflip and punched the ground on landing, a ripple of torn stone radiated out, throwing everyone off their feet but the duelling Lionheart and Maau. She clenched her fist and eyed Raphael's pillar of refuge, then brought it up. There was a creak as the altar stone shattered and something gold and intricately beautiful in design tore upwards to hover. She flung her fist forward and the sarcophagus howled through the air.
Maau saw it go flying, then screeched and threw out his hand, arresting its flight. His inattention got him smashed off his feet by a crushing blow to the sternum that sent him flying. He hit the ground on his back and skidded over the edge of the ziggurat, bouncing down the steppe sides.
Both Cleo and Raphael stared at the falling sarcophagus, and both worked it out at the same time. As one, they both hurled themselves after it with utter disregard of everything else. The cats flowed after Cleo, howling and yowling for her blood.
Raphael reached it first, just as the sarcophagus smashed into the ground, cracking on impact, the lid flying off. He ducked as it whizzed over head and hit the side, looking in. A small body lay askew within, wrapped from head to toe in bandages, some dried blood near the chest. Raphael reached in and pulled the body out, holding it tightly as Cleo hurtled towards him. He yelled as she impacted with him, her fist ramming into his face savagely.
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF HIM!"

23:40, Heraklepolis, ????

Raphael threw sand in Cleo's face, snatching the mummified body up and turning to run as fast as his legs would carry him. He knew it the moment Seth had said Maau was projecting. Maau was an illusion, this was the real Jakey, this inert lump of tissue and bone in his arms. A gale struck him in the face, robbing his lungs of air to breath, he half turned, being slammed off his feet by Cleo again.
"Call off you minions!" she screamed over the sound of the storm, holding him down with her hands around his neck.
"Why should I?!" Raphael howled back, he could hear the cats getting closer, soon she would be torn off him and torn apart, hopefully.
"Because it's almost midnight, and Seth and Maau will be free!" It sounded desperate, and truthful, truthful enough that Raphael help up his hand.
"Stop!" The cat warriors skidded to a stop, ringing them and waiting. They had Cleo surrounded, she would not escape.
"Talk fast!" Raphael yelled.
"At midnight on this day, the rift that will allow Maau and Seth to enter this world will be fully open. I and my brother will be consumed in it, we are the gateways through which they will come!" Cleo unlocked her hands from around his neck. Raphael just stared at her.
"How are we to stop it then?!"
"Do you know the location of the Cavern of Transcendence?!" Cleo had to really yell, as thunder split the cavern air.
"YOU WANT US TO GET TO THE CAVERN OF TRANSCENDENCE IN TWENTY BLEEDIN' MINUTES?! YOU'RE BLOODY LOONY!" Raphael howled, this was insanity. Cleo bared her teeth and shoved her face close to his.
"I expect you to do as you were sworn to do, human, and protect this world from two beings whose struggle will only destroy it! I hate your kind, but I don't wish for all to be destroyed, don't worry about transport, leave that to me! Hurry! Maau is unconscious and Seth cannot control me until I lose consciousness or die!" Raphael didn't trust her an inch, but if she was right, then there was no time to question her.
"The Cavern is filled with Pumicites!" he yelled.
"If we work together, we can convince them we're not really there! Look, more buildings are appearing. Heraklepolis is breaking into our world. THERE'S NO TIME FOR THIS!" Cleo snatched up Jakey's body and suddenly collapsed into a whirl of paper, the sound of a book's leaves being thrown about in the wind. The mini tornado surged up to Raphael and suddenly he was falling, hurtling, shooting between the stars. He had no body and no senses, but he had motion. He could perceive a bright, hot flame nearby, Dax, and a howl of wind and boom of surf, Lionheart. Gaze was not with them. She was lying cold on a cave floor. How was he ever to explain this to Avenger?

23:00, Heraklepolis, ????

"Gaze! Keep breathing Gaze!" Lionheart cradled Gaze's flailing body desperately, shielding her from the panicked cats that fled in all directions around them. She knew nothing of medicine beyond bandaging a few wounds up and keeping yourself in combat readiness, but there was nothing physically wrong with Gaze. The woman's mouth was open and she was turning blue, making tight, strangled noises.
"Use your aura, Gaze, USE YOUR AURA!" Lionheart shouted, desperate for her friend to hear her. A green glow spluttered down Gaze's arms, it restored some colour to her cheeks, but they rapidly paled and started tinging blue again.
"What's wrong with her?" Dax shoved two cats aside, nearly falling beside them both. Lionheart looked up at her and Dax was horrified to see tears down the invulnerable woman's face.
"She can't heal herself, she's dying … " Lionheart kept her voice level, only the tears betrayed her fear for her friend.
"You all love and revere me as a god on Earth! And your leg is broken!" Raphael's voice fought to control the cats, they suddenly parted for him like the Red Sea and he hurried over, his hair messed up and his robe hanging a bit loose. He saw to both of these as he came.
"What happened, has Jakey gone stark raving bonkers?!"
"Raph, Gaze is …" It was then that Lionheart realised she could not hear Gaze's frantic struggles to breath, nor feel her hands clawing at her sleeves. She looked down. Gaze was still, her face still wide-eyed and mouth open, frozen into her last expression. The three heroes were still for a moment as the terrible truth sank in.

??: ??, ????, ????

Jakey slipped out of the dog door, prowling up the garden path and leaping the fence. He had a determined look to him, his tail carried parallel to the ground. He got it now. The window. Pretty obvious when he came to think about it. Eyes were the window to your soul, and if you were trapped inside looking out? Why not through a window. Everywhere outside this little oasis of false memory was Maau. He knew the name, he'd always known it, really. Maau had been the mother's voice that had chivvied his steps to the roadside. Maau had been the one to stop the car. She was the one who taught him how to hunt. In his dreams and quiet moments of rest, Maau had been there, in the very back of his mind. Sitting on the windowsill and looking out. Waiting for a moment to steal his life. That he could forgive, she had a mission to destroy the evil serpent, it was her calling and her purpose. But she'd gotten his friends involved, and that was not on.
He slipped under a thicket and padded through the woods, eventually coming out into a meadow with three standing stones. In the centre of them, where he knew she would be, was Gaze. He sprang over to her in light steps and mewed, nuzzling at her face. His long whiskers tickled her eyes and cheeks and she flinched, pulling back and opening her eyes. She stared at the cat before her for a minute, before it clicked.
"Jakey?!" She sat up, staring at him, "You're … you're massive."
Jakey looked down at himself, then up at her. If he could have sighed, he would have. There was a reason he'd ended up a small human, he'd been turned into one with no extra mass added. He had been intended to be Maau's warrior body, of course he was physically impressive. He broke out of his thoughts when he felt a very welcome petting on his head. He flicked his ears up and looked up at Gaze as she stroked him.
"You're so big and fluffy, Jakey," she said, wearing a bit of a silly grin. Jakey pulled his head free from her hand and trotted off purposefully, looking around at her expectantly. When she looked at him, sat up in the grass, he put his paw to his neck, trying to convey to her that while his cognitive functions were all still in place, his vocal chords weren't refined enough for human speech, to say nothing of lips and tongue.
"You want me to go with you?"
"Raaaaaaaay," Jakey tried to say her name, his whiskers pulling back and showing his sharp, white teeth. Gaze stood up slowly and started to follow.
"Where are we?"
"'oooome." A low throated growl would have to do for 'home'. Gaze struggled to work out what he meant, ducking under branches as he led her through the woods to the street. He leapt over the fence and she climbed over.
He led her all the way to the dog door and hopped in.
"Oh you have got to be kidding." Gaze stared at the large flap. Jakey stuck his head out to see what was keeping her. She sighed.
"This stays between us, don’t you dare tell anyone else I did this." And with that she got down on her knees and climbed in through the dog door. Jakey sat watching her from the table, his tail flicking, but betraying none of his internal amusement. He would have told her that the door was unlocked if he could, but somehow, this was much better. He waited for Gaze to straighten and dust herself off, then sprang off the table with a thump and pad into the hallway. She followed him, frowning slightly as she could hear chirpy pop music from somewhere upstairs. She wondered who was in, then turned her attention back to Jakey as he slipped into the living room. She hurried to join him and watched as he jumped up onto the windowsill.
"What is it?" she moved over to join him, and looked out the window.

23:03, Heraklepolis, ????

Paper whirled in a cyclone at the top of the ziggurat, lightening formed from nowhere and stuck the building. Dax yelped and put her hand to her cheek when a menu went by so fast it cut her.
"This is insane, how are we supposed to even get up there?" she demanded, having to shout over the concussive screaming of the wind and crack of thunder.
"I have no idea!" Raphael yelled back, no longer struggling to keep his appearance neat, his cravat flapping wildly near his ear. Lionheart looked up.
"Raph! Didn't you tell the cats you were a god on Earth?" she yelled. Raphael waved his hand, ducking as a bit of masonry hurtled where his head had been.
"It was just out of pique, m'dear!"
"Well that as may be, but they're waiting for your orders!" She pointed to where the cats, those who had not fled into the tunnels, cowered. They were armed with swords, both single and double edged, claws, one even had spines like a kind of hedgehog. Raphael looked at them, then grinned.
"I think I have an idea! Dax, be ready to rain down fire, make it suitably Old Testament, Lionheart, you have the most battle command experience, I want you to play general, and lead these cats into battle. Leave everything else to me!" he yelled. Dax looked down at Gaze.
"What about Gaze?!"
"There's nothing we can do for her now but win this thing and get her home! So let's win it quickly and well!" Raphael turned to the cats, "I am a god on Earth, if you love life then follow us into glorious battle. Those of you who fall will take his place at my side in eternal life!"
Whether they believed him or not was not an issue, the cats were desperate and afraid, too much was happening that was outside their ken and a powerful stranger offered them eternal life even if they fell. It was a better offer than any others coming right now. The first lifted his sword with a yell.
"As you command!"
"Then forward, you blessed cats of God!"
Lionheart privately thought Raphael might be getting too into this 'god on Earth' business, but if it got them through the next twenty minutes, then she couldn't really complain. She put her fists up, then charged with a savage yell. Behind her, a wave of cats surged, holding up their weapons. The screaming mass of them was enough to rival the cyclone and the thunder.
Fire suddenly burst overhead, Dax had her hands up, bringing a rain of it down on the duelling figures atop the ziggurat, a manic grin on her face. It was hard not to buy into the moment, they were avenging angels. A woman lying on the ground was to be avenged, a cat who's mind had been taken was to be avenged. Avenged they would be, in fire and death.
Raphael threw his hand out, flanking him figures appeared, a phantasm made of light, a tall man of shadow and glimmer and three copies of Lionheart
"Go forth, my messengers, and spread the Word!" He flung his arms up and just to cap it all off, three pair of luminous wings unfurled behind him. This Maau and Seth had more on their plates than each other, they had him to deal with too. The Archangel Raphael, with his legion of loyal cat warriors.

22:01, Bettis Woods, Perez Park

The forest was alive with rustles and the cackles of local fauna, only the curl of disturbed mist indicated the passage of something unseen. The disguise was so absolute that Gaze, Dax, Lionheart and Raphael kept their hands on the person ahead lest they lose each other in the poor visibility.
"Dax, is that you?" Lionheart asked after a while.
"Is what me?"
"There's a hand in an inappropriate place on my chest."
"Oh sorry, I thought you were Gaze," Raphael's voice said from just behind her and the hand moved to her shoulder.
"Are we sure we're even going in the right direction?" Dax's voice asked from the back. Gaze nodded, then realised they couldn't see.
"Yes, look there's the entrance to the caves!" She led them the last few feet to the boarded up entrance to the cave network. Someone had optimistically printed 'No Entry' on the boards. Lionheart wasted no time in pulling enough boards free so they can slip in.
The cave was not particularly difficult than any they'd been in before, water dripped from the ceiling in an irregular rhythm, mushrooms and crystal growths gave the place an eerie glow.
"Ah, spelunking. The sport of gentlemen," Raphael said drolly. Gaze was glad she'd thought to change into her 'spelunking suit', the thick fabric hugged close to her skin but the helmet and breather still hung down her back. These caves could get very cold the deeper you went, and she had no particular desire to shiver. There was a rustle as she pulled out the map.
"Damnit, Raph, I can't see the map, it's invisible," she muttered, keeping her voice low in case the echoes carried.
"Yes you can, you can see the map as if it were bright daylight."
"Oh, yeah … thanks." Gaze pored over the map that Rouen had drawn, committing it to memory, "alright, let's go." She picked up Dax's hand and put it on her shoulder, and resumed walking.

22:24, caves, under Perez Park

Faint sounds were starting to reach their ears, like discordant singing and yowling. The tunnels had twisted and turned and looped back over themselves so much that they started to wonder how far they actually extended. Finally they came up against a barrier, which Lionheart prised apart both easily and silently, and they slipped in. The caves beyond the barrier were completely different. Old bookshelves lined the walls and intricate carvings could be seen pulsing with arcane light.
"Damnit, the Circle of Thorns just had to insinuate their way into this mess, didn't they?" Raphael muttered from the back of the line. Dax regarded the stonework around them, then pointed ahead.
"I think the caterwauling's coming from there. Um … the right hand passage."
"Well it's a better lead than we have so far. We must have taken a wrong turning, as Rouen didn't mention any of this," Gaze said uncertainly. Lionheart held her counsel, as Rouen, despite his good intentions, could not have been a reliable witness due to all the drugs floating around his system. They were lucky that they'd gotten this far on his words at all.
They picked their way over fallen rubble and soon returned to the natural caves, winding their way deep into the Earth. Finally they stepped out onto a platform and each one of them stopped to draw a sharp breath.
Spreading down and away, was a cavern of monstrous proportions, it was as large as Steel Canyon itself, huge pillars of stone held up the ceiling and in the centre was a steppe pyramid, a ziggurat. Growths of crystal and great bonfires were just pinpricks of light in the distance and the wailing and screeching was coming from the ground.
"Dax, you have the best eyes, what can you see?" Gaze whispered to her friend, afraid to raise her voice even though the cavern would just swallow any noise they made. Dax frowned and strained her eyes.
"There are people down there, can't tell you how many other than loads," she muttered. Lionheart clenched a fist.
"That's a lot to fight through, chums, but I'm willing to give it a shot." Raphael put his hand on the indomitable woman's arm.
"I think I have a better, more elegant plan than fighting our way through. Let's get a bit closer, shall we?"

22:45, Heraklepolis, ????

"This is stupid, I feel like an idiot," Dax hissed, her tail twitching from side to side in an aggravated manner. Gaze's ears twitched and went back.
"Well, to give it its dues, they aren't paying any attention to us," she said hesitantly. Personally she was rather enjoying the tail. She could feel it swing behind her and she could see it flick into view every now and then, it was as blue as her hair and fluffy. She caught it in her hand and stroked the thick, soft fur. So this was how it felt to have a tail. Dax's was of course fiery red, and Lionheart's was white. Raphael was looking surprisingly dignified with his sleek black fur. All around them, cat people argued, laughed, tumbled and groomed, there were hundreds of them, an entire army. None of the heroes had said anything yet, but they were all thinking it, one of these cats was an equal to three normal humans. How much damage could they wreak if they were unleashed on the populace of Paragon city?
They were nearing the ziggurat now, the steps lead up to a kind of throne on an altar. There were more cats up there, and every so often, one or two from the ground would ascend to replace others coming down. Lionheart tried to put an actual number to the cats that flanked them, 'hundreds' was a number that didn't sit easily with her, she wanted to know exactly how many she would need to fight her way through if things went sour. Infiltration was much easier when you had an illusionist as skilled as Raphael De Arca with you, but even then, things could go wrong and there was no harm in being prepared.
There was a rustle through the cats and Gaze stopped, feeling an almost minute change in atmosphere. They were all looking up at the top of the ziggurat, so she did too. A small figure was standing on the lip of the steps, one she recognised too easily. Before she could shout and give herself away, Dax grabbed her arm.
"My kittens, something unwelcome has come into Heraklepolis!" Jakey's voice came from Jakey's mouth, but there was something about him that was not Jakey-like. The four heroes tried to look small and confused like everyone else. Jakey sprang off the ziggurat and landed with puff of dust at the foot of the steps. Cats drew away from him respectfully, and maybe a little fearfully. He straightened and even though his stature was tiny, there was something huge and intimidating about him. Gaze winced. That wasn't Jakey, it just looked a lot like him.
"One of you is carrying a parasite, kittens. One of you has been dallying above ground with the worst kind of scum," Jakey turned his head this way and that as he prowled through the crowd. The cats shrank away, ears flat to their heads.
Dax tugged Gaze into a cowering mass of cat, hoping they'd be passed over. She didn't want to have to incinerate one of her own friends, no matter how barking he'd become. Jakey paused, then turned his head in their direction, ears pricked. He stayed that way for a few moments, then laughed playfully.
"My kittens, we have guests! Bring her, her, her and him to me." He pointed his finger out, indicating Dax, Gaze, Lionheart and Raphael faultlessly, then turned and sprang back up the steps.
Lionheart dug her heels in when hands grabbed her and started trying to move her, she didn't know what had gotten into Jakey's head, but he was not the same cat she knew and she was damned if she was going to be carted around anywhere by his flunkies.
"Unhand me, you craven louts! If you put so much as a wrinkle in one's garments I shall have you thinking you're a dog for the rest of eternity!" Raphael was also not keen to move, but being significantly less strong than Lionheart, was hauled off his feet and carried overhead by seven cats, kicking and thrashing. Dax and Gaze were hauled to their feet, and then off them, eager cats carrying them to the ziggurat and up. There wasn't even time to object - much - before they were thrown at the feet of the throne. Lionheart joined them a few minutes later, swamped with cats.
Gaze looked up slowly.
Jakey was lounging on his throne, looking like a bored, spoiled prince. His green eyes slide to the side and watched her watching him. Then he grinned.
"And so it begins."

22:50, Heraklepolis, ????

"Your avatar looks ridiculous, Maau." Gaze jumped when she heard a voice speaking so close to her. Jakey laughed, looking at his hand.
"You almost ruined it, Seth. Almost, but not quite." He sat up, one hand on the arm of his throne and the other at his mouth, half obscuring his grin, "Of course, your avatar of choice is a little unusual. I know this one, it may be a mutant, but it's still human." Gaze scowled, why was he looking so intently at her?
"You always are so quick to judge on appearances, I am merely riding this primate to get close to you. And you, like the fool you are, let me." Gaze felt her head yanked back as a laugh sounded, with a horrified sick feeling, she realised it was her voice and her mouth moving. Jakey snapped to his feet angrily and lashed out his hand. Raphael struggled to stand, weighed down by cats, but before Jakey's hand struck Gaze's face, it stopped dead in midair.
Gaze felt her mouth twist into a cruel smile.
"Having trouble with your avatar, Maau? Does he not like hitting girls? Or … oh my, oh my, my, my. You're just projecting." Gaze's eyes widened in amazement as she realised she could see the throne through Jakey's body.
Dax looked sideways at Lionheart, keeping her voice low while their captors were focused on the exchange between their leader and the human woman in the hat.
"If he's not real, then the real Jakey is somewhere else. We're going to need to provide covering fire real soon." Lionheart just nodded, looking for some way to divest herself of the cats who clung to her, perched on her and generally weighed her down.
Jakey, or 'Maau', bared his teeth, then whisked up his throne to stand on the very back of it.
"You are also not at full strength, Seth. The rift is not yet open fully," he sneered, tail lashing from side to side. Raphael was still struggling when Gaze's mouth smirked.
"I don't need to be. My avatar is powerful in her own right." The words had barely finished when an explosion of light and wind blasted the four heroes and their restraining cats off the top of the ziggurat. There was a horrific stab of pain through her head and the fall was an aching hollow rush across Gaze's back and she screamed, the feelings that just prickled the edge of her torn open psyche became a full blown terror. She hit a pair of arms and for a surreal moment, thought her brother had caught her. Lionheart put her down on her feet gently. Gaze felt sick, her knees just buckled and she hit the floor. She could see Lionheart, she could see the cave, but the sound was muffled like it was coming through layers of wool. She felt her mouth working and panicked, were they her own words? Or was that huge, monstrous snake still behind her eyes, working her like a puppet. Frantically her hands scrabbled at Lionheart's arms, to stop her moving away so fast. Why was she shrinking and pulling back? Was there a hole? Was she falling? Why did her chest hurt so much?

17:50, Cygnus Medical Centre, Steel Canyon

Raphael De Arca, Midnight Gaze and Dax Furnace all stared at each other in the foyer. Around them medical staff and patients moved back and forth, the odd hero running outside to answer their radio. Every television was displaying the same news report, now with added clips of the Congressional Assembly Hall voting for the curfew.
"I can't believe news of Striga broke so quickly," Dax muttered, watching two swordsmen arguing hotly with many a wave to a television. Gaze hugged herself tightly.
"How are they even getting away with arresting Cats Cradle? I mean, I know he's not the city's favourite, those little remarks of his a few months ago aren't reason to believe he's a psychopath are they?"
"He's been reported before. Use of excessive force mostly." Raphael stared at nothing, his calm, cultured voice revealing none of the savage anger he felt at all parties involved with this fiasco.
"Think this was the Council's plan?" Dax asked bitterly. Raphael shook his head.
"No, but they are taking advantage of the situation. Setting Chris Jenkins on us was just plain evil. While we're all tied up in red tape, they can find out what happened to their men and crush those responsible or worse."
"Here chums, I brought tea." Lionheart waded her way through the bustling chaos holding a tray. The other three heroes nodded their thanks and took a cup each.
"Join forces with them?" Dax asked.
"At least long enough to discover just how they managed to overpower and kill twenty seven of their finest men," Raphael sipped his tea. Lionheart looked around distastefully when three heroes walked past, swearing liberally about the curfew.
"What did you find out from the boy, Gaze?" she asked. Gaze dropped her voice.
"Rouen drew me a map of how to find Jakey. Apparently this "Doctor" character is looking for Avatar," she frowned. Dax and Raphael exchanged looks.
"The hero?" they asked at the same time. Gaze shrugged.
"I have no idea. He was losing coherence or he just didn't know. Apparently Jakey holds the key to Avatar and he's in mortal danger," she hissed. Lionheart looked upset.
"But what about the curfew?" As a once special ops officer, she at least respected a chain of command, even if she had been placed beyond it now, answering to a bare handful of people and those she chose to. Raphael snorted, he'd never answered to a chain of command that he couldn't charm the pants off in his life.
"The curfew can respectfully kiss my tight, mind-blowingly handsome backside." Dax pursed her lips at his choice of description while Gaze threw one hand up.
"No! Raph, if we break this curfew and get caught, every bit of ****** retentive legislation that Jenkins has threatened us with will get passed. We'll be the bad guys, the ones who are a law unto ourselves, and that could get us all tangled up red tape, or worse!"
"You're forgetting something, my dear ladies," Raphael De Arca drew himself up, putting elegant gloved fingers to his chest, "we'd have to be seen."
Dax looked at Gaze, Gaze looked at her, then at Lionheart. Lionheart grinned slowly, then Gaze's eyes lit up and Dax nodded. Raphael's grin was cunning as he saw that they had all heard and understood, he put his hand forward, palm down. Without words needing to be said, Dax, Gaze and Lionheart all put their hands over his in unison.
"Honourable United does not leave one of their own behind. Ever," Lionheart said quietly. Dax grinned.
"I can't believe we're doing the hand thing."
"Embrace the cliché, Dax m'dear. It's touching me in a warm and fuzzy place." Raphael smiled winningly. Gaze snorted a bit.
"I bet that part of you wears leather and has a fetish for handcuffs," she smiled, the secret rebellion hanging in the air around them made anything seem possible. Lionheart looked alarmed.
"Well there's a lovely mental image for me to get along with."
"Come to my place later and we'll see about those handcuffs, m'dears. But for now, let us formulate a daring rescue plan."

??: ??, unknown, unknown

Jakey fled through the garden, his paws silent on the soil, his eyes fixed on the outer wall. He bunched himself and leapt, hurtling up through the air and his paws found the top, he balanced for a precarious second, then he surged again. He landed neatly on the other side, ducking down to his very chest as to absorb the impact. He sprang out of his crouch into a bold run. This wasn't right. This place, there was something off about it, something he couldn't quite place. He paused on the corner of the street to sniff at his territory markings. All accounted for, this was his home. He sneezed in aggravation, he should be happy. He had his life back.
Only it wasn't his life.
If only he could work out what was wrong about it. He stretched out in a run again, taking pleasure simply from the way his body moved. It was such a liberation to just flex his claws. How long had he been caged in that human body, vulnerable to so much. Now he could leap and run and twist as Nature had intended him to.
After a while, he returned to the house, darting through the dog door. He remembered when it was installed, after he'd gotten jammed in the cat-flap for the umpteenth time. The lino was warm under his paws and he padded into the living room. He could hear Suzie up in her room, listening to the latest cool band her life hadn't been complete before listening to. Morbid curiosity called him up to the windowsill and he stared out. The window sill. It had moments where it didn't show the front garden like it was supposed to, rather changing scenes and moments. He almost understood something about it, but the meaning eluded him for now. His tail flicked from side to side and his green eyes narrowed intensely. Something just wasn't right here.

20:30, Raphael's apartment, Talos Island

Raphael stood by his mini-bar, mixing up a little something 'n' something for himself. Normally he would be congratulating himself over the three very beautiful women draped about his elegant chairs. Maybe it was the presence of Wilkins that was putting a dampener on his smugness. The butler rubbed his beard.
"This will take a lot of co-ordination. Myself and the others will certainly do everything to draw attention away from the roads you'll be using. We don't know how much attention a staged protest will draw, but hopefully it'll be enough," he said, pouring tea for everyone. Gaze had her arms folded impatiently.
"Shame we can't picket Chris Jenkins in his home. I'd like to see him cope being surrounded by freaks, mutants and weirdoes."
"We can certainly chalk it in for a later date," Dax smiled, looking thoughtful. Raphael looked out the window, noting the dusk thickening.
"Are you ready, ladies?" he asked. As one, Dax, Gaze and Lionheart stood up. Wilkins offered Lionheart a custard cream, which she put in her pocket solemnly. The butler then took his radio off his belt.
"Honourable United, this is Wilkins. Time to do like the students do. Operation Inconvenience is now in effect. To your positions!"
"Who thought that was a good name anyway?" Raphael grumbled, 'Operation Inconvenience' just conveyed the impression that they weren't going to open doors for anyone in future and maybe cut to the front of queues.
In another part of the city, members of Honourable United were getting onto trains in the group's colours of black and white. Those who lived closest to Atlas Park were already in front of the statue of Atlas, nodding to each other. They all knew that they, a group dedicated to honourable conduct, were breaking the rules. And not one of them stayed at home. The curfew was a mistake and if they didn't make their voices heard, then innocent people could end up dead.
Wilkins saluted Raphael, Dax, Gaze and Lionheart.
"Good luck and god speed."
"Oh, how delightfully cloak and dagger." Raphael didn't need to speak the words, but he wanted to do it now just for the moment, "we can now no longer be seen or heard."
To Wilkins eyes, the four of them faded into nothingness, and it wasn't until the door opened that he realised they'd moved. He watched the door close itself and he breathed out, wishing he could go with them, but someone had to remain and keep up the illusion that all of them were still in the flat. He turned on the television and turned the volume down, then settled down to the mobile radio unit that was arrayed on Raphael's table. He pulled on the headphones, listening to the excited, determined voices of his super group. They all knew the stakes and they were all ready to rise to the occasion. He'd never been prouder of them.

13:21, Bonny Morass, Striga

A clear night, a gentle pan left to right. The dark mass of trees in the bog stirred in a faint breeze, their sighs picked up on the audio sensors. Some movement down and to the left, zoom in on a patch of rough foliage, some shrubs maybe. Nothing else moves, just leaves and branches in the breeze, start to pan away. Everything was quiet for a long time, then too close there came a strangled noise. Swung around quickly and just caught sight of a figure falling over the side of the wall with something on its chest. Zoom in, try to catch details, but it was too swift and over already. Slow pan, zoom in on cover, watch for more motion. There to the right, figures darting between cover, no there, to the left, things moving. Try to watch both, too fast, too quiet. Another strangled sound, spin around, red liquid splatters over the lens as the view is filled with a uniform, then the man slides down with a thud. A blurred figure, standing close. Can't make out details, see a tail, see ears, watch as the fallen man is dragged over to the wall and then tipped over it.

Wilkins sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. He'd sent the others on ahead, only Avenger was nearby, from the sounds of it, he was insulting some warwolves on the beach.
"You're under arrest, please resist, it amuses me!"
Wilkins rubbed his temples. He wished he could just dismiss what they'd learned from a terrified Archon being held over the side of the wall by Avenger. Cat men who stalked the night of Striga. He hadn't witnessed it first hand, but had been in one of the security stations, monitoring the security cameras. Five tall cat men led by a ridiculously short one. He didn't want to think what he kept thinking, yes, the evidence was circumstantial, but part of him knew. Jakey and his new 'friends' had done it. The butler was troubled when he walked down to the beach and watched Avenger thump a warwolf on top of its head, slamming it into the sand with an audible 'whump'. He focused his mind away from their troubled rings and stretched his hand out to Avenger. He took a breath and a green light suffused through his white glove. A corresponding glow curled around Avenger and then dimmed. The other man looked around and dusted off his hands.
"You seem distracted. Something up?" he asked. Wilkins reached up and rubbed his beard, pulling a face.
"I'm somewhat perturbed by the news the Archon gave us."
"Oh. About the cat guys? Well, it's not so outside the realms of possibility is it? Gangs are always fighting against each other," Avenger said pragmatically, watching a few seagulls further down the beach. Wilkins frowned lightly.
"That is not what bothers me. What bothers me is that I have a terrible feeling that the one who led them was a dear friend of mine." Avenger thought about that for a moment.
"You think he's gone dark side?" he folded his arms. Wilkins grimaced, stroking his beard again.
"Hard to imagine. Gaze is not going to like this."

14:05, Cygnus Medical Centre, Steel Canyon

"What do you mean, 'Jakey's turned into a psychopath'?" Gaze demanded into her radio, standing in the car park of the hospital.
"From the testimony that an Archon very graciously supplied, it's either Jakey or another very little cat man." Wilkins' voice was muffled, and in the background, she could hear Avenger questioning someone's dress-sense loudly.
"I can't believe our Jakey would do something like that. It's just not like him." Gaze insisted, looking around when Lionheart came out of the hospital doors and saw her, waving her over, "Look, I've got to go. I don't care what that Archon says, our friend is not a homicidal maniac."
"He's awake again, asking for you." Gaze nodded thankfully and hooked the radio back onto her belt as she climbed up the steps.
The young man was held down on the bed by leather shackles, from the words stencilled onto them, they were from the psychiatric ward. Gaze felt for him as he lay there, staring up at the ceiling.
"You wanted to see me?" she asked quietly, closing the door behind her. He jumped a bit, as if disturbed from his thoughts, then turned his head to look at her.
"You're Midnight Gaze?" he sounded doubtful, or just confused. Gaze nodded and he looked back up at the ceiling distractedly.
"He told me to go to Kings Row. I tried. Passcendale and Bordeaux tried to stop me. Wouldn't have made it if it hadn't been for that woman …" he said, looking down at his right hand and struggling to move it. His ears went back when the restraints held and sighed deeply.
"Who's 'he'?" Gaze had a hunch, but she wanted it confirmed. The young man grimaced.
"Jakey. He told me the Doctor was controlling us. I feel sick … I need my medicine …" he broke off, shaking all over. Gaze wanted to help him, but there was only so much she could about withdrawals. She reached her hand out and placed it on his forehead, closing her eyes and concentrating. A purple glow seeped between them and the boy blinked, looking up at her.
"How …?"
"Something of a little gift of mine. Where is Jakey?"
"In the old mines under Perez. If you have a map, I can mark down the entrance for you," he watched her hopefully. Gaze held up a finger.
"I'll go get one," she got to her feet, then stopped and looked back, "what's your name?"
"Rouen."
"Alright, Rouen. I'll only be a minute."

15:30, The Base, Kings Row

Raphael leaned idly on his hand, staring at the radio before him. He listened with half an ear to the muted news report on the television, then turned his head to watch Cathode playing with the wires. He looked like he was doing something very complicated and Raphael was about to ask him what it was when something caught his eye on television. He grimaced with distaste as Chris Jenkins, an attorney whom he disliked intensely, spoke into banks of microphones. Cathode also looked up, watching curiously. Any hero worth his salt knew who Chris Jenkins was, and some speculated wildly as to the man's motives for being such a *******. Jenkins was very much of the mind that heroes should be vetted and controlled and monitored. He would rather have every hero acting on orders, rather than skipping about in what he regarded to be unlawful vigilante activities. Heroes were a menace whose very blithe disregard of a command structure undermined good American society. They set a bad example for the children, and through the glamorisation of their actions, encouraged them to follow their path. Freaks and mutants should not have that kind of power.
Raphael rolled his eyes, they'd all heard it before, it was the usual stuff of Chris Jenkins' press conferences. The picture changed to wobbly footage of a man being led into a police van by armed police officers. Raphael frowned and lifted his head as Cathode reached for the volume and turned it up.
"-day, Cats Cradle has been arrested on the charge of murder in the first degree. This is the first time a hero has been arrested by Paragon Police Department for seven years. Christopher Jenkins, attorney at law, called a press conference earlier to allay the fears of the city. He said that "one hero has gone too far, how many will follow? The culture of might makes right must be brought to account". After the bloody massacre of Striga Island, in which twenty seven men were murdered, Congress have ordered a curfew for all registered heroes effective immediately-"
The phone rang, Raphael picked it up hastily.
"Honourable United, Raphael De Arca speaking, how may I be of assistance?" he asked, slightly numbly as his eyes stayed glued to the screen.
"Honourable United, this is Blue Steel calling on behalf of Statesman, you are advised to stand down all pending missions and abide by the new curfew. No hero is to be seen working after dark." A deep voice said on the end of the line. Raphael's heart sank slightly, he couldn't believe he was hearing this.
"But sir, who will patrol the streets? We might be on a curfew, but I doubt injustice will be," he said, forcing himself not to snap. Blue Steel deserved his respect, not his reproach.
"I understand, De Arca, however, as we love and protect Paragon City, we must do this. We enforce the law, but we are all held more tightly by it than any other. Do what you can, but we must all respect this curfew, or we will be as bad as we are painted by the nay-sayers. Remember, De Arca, no hero must be seen working after dark."
Raphael put down the phone when Blue Steel hung up, and he stared at Cathode.
"Get everyone here now. We have a real emergency, Code Seven," he said, getting up and pulling on his gloves. Cathode nodded and scrambled to the radio, taking Raphael's vacated seat.
"This is a call to all members of Honourable United, return to base. Repeat, return to base."
"I'm kinda in the middle of something here!"
"Code Seven."
"… I'm on my way."

10:15, Cyngus Medical Centre, Steel Canyon

Gaze was still furious about her hat, which went a ways to explaining why she walked right into Lionheart in the foyer of the hospital. Since the other woman was invulnerable, there was a significant jolt in Gaze's world, and falling back onto her rump pulled her completely out of thoughts of dire vengeance. She held her nose a bit, grimacing.
"Lionheart, what are you doing here?" she asked, a bit muffled. Lionheart stooped to offer her a hand up.
"Oh I'm sorry, chum, I didn't recognise you without your hat," she looked around, as if it had just fallen off. Gaze made a tight noise.
"Lost it. I'm heading to Icon after this to get a new one," she managed to keep her tone even, and was glad of it. This whole business with Cleo had needled her more than she cared to admit. Something about the woman had just bothered her intensely.
"What are you doing here, you don't often need medical attention." She smiled slightly, straightening her clothes and dusting off her leggings. Lionheart nodded a bit.
"Not here for me. I had a strange morning. Met someone in Perez who needed the attention and I brought him here," she didn't flinch when there came a loud clatter like trays and trolleys being knocked over. Gaze leaned around her to look down the corridor, eyes wide.
"Oh don't worry about that. The doctor said he's just having withdrawals. Apparently his body was flooded with a highly addictive drug." Lionheart sounded sympathetic, turning her head to look around as well. Gaze jumped when she heard a screaming yowl sound, it reverberated off the walls and set all the hairs standing on her neck. She'd heard that yell before.
It had been a while ago, maybe the first time she'd met Jakey. They'd been running through some caves in the Hollows and a magma lord virtually clothes-lined the cat when he raced around the corner. The almost molten, rocky skin of the magma lord had seared Jakey's face into a chargrilled mess. It was a scream one didn't forget in a hurry.
Gaze didn't realise she was moving until she was standing at the observation window to the single ward, staring through. Her heart pounded in her chest, as if she'd just run a mile and the disappointment made a cavern of her chest. She didn't recall actually thinking it really was Jakey, but some part of her must have wanted it to be, or she wouldn't feel so bleak suddenly. She turned her back to the window and leaned against it, to block the sight of the orderlies struggling to keep the wildly thrashing cat tailed man on the bed. A moment passed in echoing solitude before a hand touched her shoulder and squeezed slightly. She looked up to see Lionheart's eyes and half smiled.
"Thought it was Jakey for a moment," she said quietly. Lionheart sighed a bit.
"There were two other cat people where I found him. I think they were trying to kill him."
"Turf war?" Gaze winced when another yowl shook the glass. Lionheart looked through the glass, watching one of the orderlies yell as his forearm got savaged.
"I don't know. I don't think so. Didn't feel like two sides."
Gaze pinched her nose. Cleo, for all her hat-abuse, had been right about an ally being in Cygnus, what had she been intending for Gaze to do here? Why did it feel like she was being led around in circles for the other's amusement.
"LET ME GO! I HAVE TO GO TO KINGS ROW!" The glass rattled again when the young man screamed, one of the orderlies was kicked savagely and there was another crash as the trolley went over again with the man on top of it.
"46 MERCY WAY! I HAVE TO GO!" For a moment, neither Gaze nor Lionheart thought about it, but then they both stared at each other as the significance of the address filtered through.
A second later, the door banged off the wall as Gaze nearly ran in.
"Hey, you can't be in here! Please, for you own safety, get out!" the very harassed doctor said, slotting a needle through the foam lid of a sedative, measuring out several notches of golden liquid. The young man on the bed thrashed wildly, arching his back and screaming wildly. Gaze put her hands to her ears to block out the awful sound, forging her way closer to the bed, ignoring the doctor.
"Why!? Why are you looking for Honourable United?" she yelled over the ruckus. The cat man's tawny eyes slid to hers, the pupils were vertical slits, inhuman.
"Have to find Midnight Gaze. Have to tell her! He's in danger! He needs help! LET ME GO! STOP IT! I DON'T WA-" he was cut off mid word as the needle pricked through the tender skin of his forearm and delivered the liquid. His pupils dilated and he sagged, every muscle loosening. The orderlies stood back with sighs of relief, one holding his bitten arm gently and others touching ginger fingers to their bruises. The doctor discarded the needle into the tray on the trolley, breathing out. Gaze felt numb as she stared at the now unconscious patient. Was this what Cleo had wanted her to see? The cat man had wanted to find her, to tell her that 'he' was in danger. Desperate hope sparked up again. It couldn't be a coincidence. She allowed herself to be pulled outside by Lionheart, and sat down on the uncomfortable, plastic chair outside the room.
"I'll stay here. I want to be here as soon as he wakes up. I think he knows where Jakey is," she said quietly. Lionheart nodded.
"Would you like a cup of tea, chum? They do an alright brew here."
"Thanks Lion, that would great." Gaze watched as Lionheart walked down the corridor, then placed her hands on her knees. It felt like the days when Jakey had been around belonged to another life almost. He'd been gone so long that she was sure some of the super-group were losing hope of ever seeing him again. She hoped that the sedative would wear off soon. Who knew how badly Jakey needed help?

??:??, unknown

Jakey's eyes opened slowly, he could see dapples of light and shadow on the compact earth before him. He turned his head slowly and looked up. Leaves overlapped above, their slim, slender shapes transfused the light with a soft green glow. He rolled onto his back and reached a hand out to touch them, a furred limb came into view. He barely noticed the paw, it felt right. He batted at the lowest leaves, then caught one between both his paws and he leaned his head up to maul it, biting drew out the pungent plant juices and he flicked his head in a sneeze. He released the leaf and rolled to his pads, shaking his thick fur and then trotting briskly out from under the bush. The lawn rolled down a slope, he stopped to sniff at the garden gnome, then rub its ugly face with his cheeks and then knock it over. Having defeated the goblin, he rolled over, wriggling in the grass.
"Jakey! Dinner time!" a call floated from the house at the end of the lawn and he sat up briskly, then bounded through the grass and up the steps, plunging through the dog door.
"Oh there you are!" said a voice above, he slipped past the table and rubbed against her legs, threading around her ankles, mewing in what he hoped was a cute way. The girl continued to chop up the fish on the work surface, the smell of it nearly drove him nuts. It was salmon, fresh, wonderful salmon. A moment later, he could hear the fish being scraped into his bowl and he gambolled around the girl's feet as she walked over to the mat, placing the bowl down. He surged to it and crouched so he could devour his meal. Beside him, the girl crouched and petted him.
"I'm so happy you're home, Jakey. I thought you'd never come back," she said softly. Jakey paused in his gobbling to look up at her. Suzie looked wrong somehow. He blinked, taking a step back.
"What's wrong Jakey, it's salmon. You love salmon," she said. He stopped, confused. It was Suzie, his owner, the girl whose hands had reached down into a gutter of thick rain water and picked up his tiny, shivering body. He knew the smell of her intimately, it had been like a mother's to him, the memory of being held to a white school shirt, his bedraggled fur soaking it through, but finding warmth. The tender hands that had cradled him as he struggled to stand, that had provided him with food and affection. He sank his belly to the floor, feeling confused, like he was missing something. Suzie rubbed behind his ears, her finger disappearing up to the first knuckle in his fur.
"What's the matter? Don't feel well?" her soft voice held only concern for him and his wellbeing. She petted him for another moment, then slipped her arms down around his chest and lifted. She picked him up and then supported his hind quarters, kissing the crown of his head. Holding him close. The smell of her made him feel like … feel like …
"Bet you're full after eating all Mum's plants, huh? You're such a bad kitty." She carried him from the kitchen into the living room, sitting down on the sofa and picking up a brush from the side and setting him on her lap so she could brush his thick fur. He closed his eyes in contentment, one paw reached out in front, flexing the tips of his claws only slightly.
It was alright now, Mother was here.
The brush smoothed through his fur, eliciting a deep purr in his chest. It was all okay now, no need to do anything. No need to run anywhere. Peace at last, and it was right. His skin fit. He looked out the window with half open eyes, then frowned. When had it started to rain? Something moved outside, causing his eyes to open. He pulled out from under the brush and trotted to the window, leaping up to the sill and staring out. He stared at the place where he'd seen the motion, ears pricked. Lightening sparked across the sky and illuminated the garden for a split second and his fur stood right up. Poles had been driven into the ground and to each one was tied a dead person. Their lolling heads and wide staring eyes seared in his mind after the flash had gone. His small heart pounded in his chest. A hand touched his head and ran fingers down his neck and back and curled around his tail, gliding its full length.
"Come eat your salmon, Jakey." Suzie's voice was calm, even. Jakey shivered, still staring, like he could pierce the dark with his eyes. Who were they? Why were they tied to stakes in the ground? Who could have done such a thing? The questions raced, they would not be still. Suzie's hands curled around him, picking him up and taking him away from the window. He mewed an objection, then stopped as they passed the window in the hallway. Outside it was sunny. Jakey stared at it in bewilderment as they went back into the kitchen. Hadn't it just been raining?
What the hell was going on?

06:20, Bone Yard, Perez Park

Lionheart strode gracefully down the tarmac, she had the determined look of someone who thought nothing of taking a brisk morning walk through the gang infested city zone of Perez. She opened the brown paper bag and inhaled the smell from it, loving the aroma of freshly baked bread. She was about to break off a bit to nibble when a shrieking yowl got her attention. She looked at the wall of the park with a frown, then took a surprised step back, unconsciously going into a braced stance, when something hurtled over the wall. She just had time to make out a tail and pointy ears before two more sprang up onto the wall, both landing neatly. The first must have slipped or overshot, as he plummeted to the tarmac ungracefully. The cat man with the claws paused, having seen Lionheart, but the one with the sabre leapt off the wall, his sword up for a devastating hack that would cleave the fallen's head in two.
Rouen scrabbled forward with panicked yelps, flinching when a shadow fell over him.
Bordeaux shrieked when his sword hit, the impact numbing his arms.
The bag of bread hit the ground and spilled its precious contents.
Lionheart stood over Rouen, holding the sabre blade between the palms of her hands, glaring at Bordeaux. Not even the breeze dared to stir. Passcendale still crouched on the wall, uncertain whether to fight or flee. Bordeaux broke the stillness first, gripping the hilt and trying to twist it free. Lionheart snorted air out of her nose, then rammed the sword forward, the pommel smashing Bordeaux's nose. He was thrown back into the wall and slummed, sliding down onto the pavement. The former black ops officer looked up at Passcendale as she tossed the sword aside. He put his ears back, sliding his foot back, then without a word, he spun and leapt into the trees.
Lionheart let him go, stepping to the side and looking down at the cat man. At closer inspection, he was really little more than a boy, barely old enough to become a student. He was staring at her with wide eyes.
"Are you alright?" she asked quietly. He nodded a little, even though he was bleeding from several scratch wounds and a few sword swipes. Lionheart helped him up.
"I'll get you to a hospital."
Rouen, who had seen a woman not much taller than himself, wipe the floor with Bordeaux, did not object, but followed meekly. He was fairly sure that if she wanted to, she could just take his neck and squeeze a bit and his head would pop right off. After a few feet, it became apparent that Rouen was either too injured or just too tired to walk properly, so Lionheart scooped him up like he weighed nothing and set a smart pace to the check point.

07:17, The Base, Kings Row

"Hey Saffy."
"Safuron. Safuron. And what do you want?" Safuron peered over the top of her newspaper at Baruk, who was grinning at her over it.
"Have you seen the news today?" Safuron pulled a face, waggling the paper.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" She tried to get back to reading, but the paper was abruptly taken from her hands and before she could object, another one was thrust at her. It was a wad of reports, that had 'Council' written all over them. This may have been because Baruk had scribbled 'Council' over them with a red felt tip. She raised her eyebrows when she read the reports, then glanced up at Baruk.
"This isn't a joke?" Baruk sighed and sat down next to her, resting his elbows on his knees.
"Wish it was, frankly. Whatever went through the Council Base was a frickin' monster. The Council's going to be so paranoid after this, that even sneezing in Striga is going to get seven homing missiles up your [censored]," he said. Safuron tried to avoid the mental image, looking up when Wilkins came in with the morning tea. She wasn't as into tea as everyone else, but you just couldn't refuse Wilkins. It wasn't done.
"Miss Safuron, sir Baruk, how are you this fine morning?"
"Feeling like avoiding Striga." Baruk looked up at him, accepting the cup and saucer that were handed over. Wilkins frowned.
"Oh? Why?" Baruk and Safuron exchanged glances, and the girl handed the wodge of paper over to him. Wilkins read the reports, his eyes going wide.
"Oh my. We should investigate! Gaze, my dear, have you heard the news?" he turned as he heard the door to the base open, waving the papers. Gaze, who was accompanied by a slightly taller man, also wearing a stylish hat, blinked.
"What news?" Wilkins, however, now looked the stranger up and down, passing the papers over absent-mindedly.
"I don't believe we've been introduced sir." The stranger smiled and doffed his hat respectfully.
"Name's Midnight Avenger, I'm Gaze's brother."
"I see." Wilkins frowned slightly. Avenger just grinned a little, almost self-consciously, but not quite. Gaze handed the papers back to Wilkins.
"We should investigate. By the way, this is my brother, Avenger. Can he join Honourable United?" she asked, having clearly not heard Wilkins and Avenger talking. The butler blinked, then looked at Avenger again. He offered his hand after a second.
"Welcome aboard."
"Hooray, look Gaze, I'm in a gang!"
"Ha ha. Wilkins, do you want to handle this one? I'm going to head to Gemini Park." Gaze gave the butler a meaningful look and he nodded.
"Alright. Baruk, Safuron, Avenger, fancy coming with dear old Wilkins to see if something unholy hasn't decided to tramp its foul presence all over Striga Island?"
"Wow, that offer's too good to pass up," Baruk said drolly, his head hanging over the back of the sofa. Safuron stood to her full, insubstantial height.
"Let's go."

08:52, Gemini Park, Galaxy City

Gaze paced over the bridge, watching the cars swing by, she had no idea what she was doing here really, except that Jakey customarily slept in one of the trees around here. She picked her way down the slope to the river and watched the water ripple slowly past. If she were a people-hating, sociopath cat crossed with book, where would she hide? A newspaper blew down off the street and stuck to her leg. Gaze frowned in annoyance and bent down to peel it off. The news on the Council Base had been unsettling. The only things she could think of being able to wreak that much havoc that quickly were things like the Lusca in Independence Port, and the Hydra in Perez Park. Monsters. She watched the newspaper float away down the river. What an age they lived in, that she could so easily write Striga off as the work of a monster.
"Would-be monsters and one master," a voice said behind her, accompanied by the sound of pages turning in a stiff breeze. Gaze turned around sharply, looking around. She could see no-one standing behind her, but the hairs were standing up on the back of her neck.
"Don't waste your time trying to see me. You came here looking for me. Why?" the voice asked curtly. Gaze took a slight step back.
"How did you know that?"
"I can read you like a book." Gaze got the feeling the voice was toying with her, and she didn't like it.
"Are you Cleo?" she asked boldly, straightening. Given everything Jakey had told her about his sister, which admittedly wasn't much, she was terrified inside, but damned if she was going to show it.
"Yes. And you call yourself Midnight Gaze, the rather sorry excuse for a hero. What is it you do? Patch up people's little bangs and scrapes? My, how your enemies must tremble when your name is spoken." Some old take-away wrappers and bits of newspaper blew across the slope, swirling in a tight spiral for a moment. Gaze clenched her fists a little.
"I suppose the concept of teamwork might be a little beyond you, Cleo."
"Possibly. What do you want with me that you come tramping through my home?"
"Where's Jakey?" Gaze decided not to prolong this meeting longer than it absolutely needed to be. Horrific past or not, Cleo was just plain rude. There came a sound of a snort from nearby.
"Have you only just noticed he's missing? He's under Perez Park." Gaze faltered a moment, she hadn't expected Cleo to just offer up the information. The paper litter whirled lazily.
"I cannot guide to him, nor would I want to. You've poisoned his mind and ruined his talents. As long as he's with you, he'll never achieve the true heights of his potential," Cleo's voice rang harshly off the water, a small breeze making it ripple wildly. Gaze held her hat on, keeping it safe from the spiteful tug of the wind.
"You said it yourself, Cleo, I fix people's bangs and scrapes. If you're going to sit on your tail and make paper chains, that's your problem isn't it. I'm going to find Jakey! At least he fights for something he believes in!" As soon as she said it, Gaze knew she shouldn't have gone there. A blast of wind hit her in the chest like a giant fist, slamming her off her feet and she hit the river with a resounding splash. She thrashed to the surface and coughed, spluttering water out of her mouth. On the bank, a young woman crouched and picked up the purple duster hat from the shallows. Gaze stared. She'd expected someone short, like Jakey, but the woman could have passed for anyone if it hadn't been for the stripes on her face and the gingery tail that flicked back and forth behind her. Her hair was short and spiky. She looked like a punk in her biker jacket and heavy boots, but like a normal woman. There were no scars, no deformities, nothing to suggest her beginning. Cleo inspected the hat in her hands.
"Everyone fights for something they believe in, or they don't fight. Go to Cygnus Hospital in the place you call Steel Canyon. I believe an ally of yours is there currently. Oh, and you may want to hurry," she said, constricting her hands, then snapping them open. The duster hat, crumpled and broken, suddenly warped and a purple bird with a long flowing tail of midnight blue flew up shrieking. Gaze twisted in the water to see it fly off. When she looked back, Cleo was gone.

04:00, a cave, Perez Park

Jakey spiralled away from his disordered dreams of wool that was trying to kill him, and blinked his eyes open. They were crusty and he felt like he'd been under great physical strain, ghosts of twinges in his muscles and the lulled feeling after an adrenaline rush. He moved sluggishly, stretching out his legs and feeling a warm body under his bare toes. Well, he wasn't sure how socially awkward this was looking to get, but he didn't like this development. He worked up a little with his shoulders and sat up. After rubbing his eyes clear of crusty sleep, he blinked, looking around. There were five of the cat men around him, some clinging to one another in the straight-armed clasp that was all cat. Jakey got to his feet, meaning to extricate himself from this cripplingly awkward awakening, when one of them, Bordeaux, stretched luxuriantly. Jakey held his breath for a few moments, but the other didn't wake up and he picked his way delicately through the huddle out into the colder cave network. Now that the thick smell of five other toms was out of his nose, he smelt the other scent more clearly. He'd been ignoring it before, but now he couldn't.
Blood.
He could smell blood on himself, and from the cave. He knew he wasn't injured, so where was it coming from? He looked down at himself uncertainly, then baulked. His front and his hands were smeared with the red brown dusty smears of dried blood. Jakey could only stare at his own fingers, covered with a testimony to his forgotten hours. Part of him was revolted, but all of him was scared.
"What did I do?" his whisper shivered along the glowing crystals. He fell to his knees so hard he banged them on the floor, but such a pain was distant and trivial, all he could see in his vision were his hands, now shaking under their layer of blood. What had he done? What events had transpired to leave him covered with blood and in the middle of a nest of toms?
As if on cue, a memory struggled to reveal itself. Broken into snatches, he remembered running through the caves, following Bordeaux. Cut to night time, the sea air was open and loving after so much time underground. Silence, and just the occasional scent of one of the others. Passcendale, Falaise, Toulouse and Rouen, he remembered their names now. They'd been close and then far, prowling. Their moves were kittenish and inexperienced, and he had taken the lead. Cut to a cemetery, the walls around broken, and the mouldy stink of the dead walking in his nose. They had wanted to prove themselves against the dead, he had cuffed them like errant children and led them on, deeper and up the rise of the mountain. Cut to a search light sweeping over head, just over his ears, he could almost feel the beam of light like it had weight and substance. Flowing over the parapet, his body near flat to the ground, he had his eyes on the tall, muscled Cor Leonis Marksman, creeping after him, silent as the grave. Cut to falling off the wall, something clamped in his arms, the ground rushing up to meet them, a kick and a back flip and he landed safely on his feet while the marksman hit the ground with a crunch and a pop. His hands were wet and his front was slick, he had taken the marksman by the ankle and dragged him to the bushes where the inexperienced kittens waited.
Jakey put his hands to his mouth, shaking all over and fighting off the urge to vomit. He curled his tail about himself, feeling wracked and for the first time, like he didn't know himself. The memories started to flood in, jostling for space, creating a confusion of time and place. His students, drunk on the taste of hot, fresh-killed meat, their first ever such meal, were desperate to learn, and he was willing to teach. Instincts held too long in check, suppressed under high-minded ideals, were unleashed. He had wanted it, he had given over to it. He was a cat and he wanted to hunt, and he had awakened the dormant killer in the others. They had hunted and they had killed and they had feasted.
Jakey hunched over and threw up, trying to be quiet but it was like he'd lost all control. Just like he had last night. The bitter words rang in his mind. He was a murderer. He retched again, he just wanted the blood and meat out of him, as if by purging them, he could absolve himself of the crime.
"Jakey, are you okay? Did you eat too much?" It was Rouen, the slowest to learn. He padded out of the cave and sat down beside him, rubbing his back. Jakey only felt sicker from the human contact. He didn't deserve such affection or consideration, especially from someone whom he'd led down the darkest of paths to Damnation.
"Come on, let's get you cleaned up." Rouen helped Jakey to his feet and walked him to the gleaming pool down the way. He settled Jakey by the side of it and started to wash his hands for him.
"I'm sorry I wasn't a good learner last night, I tried though. Guess I'll always be a bit clumsy, even now. But I wanted to thank you. Last night was the first time I felt like a real cat."
"What?" Jakey, exhausted in the wake of his realisation, looked up. Rouen washed his face off, the water was acrid cold, forming a link between the chaos of his mind and the simplicity of the outside world.
"I sort of felt it before, but it must have been only wishful thinking, because last night … I was a cat. I know it, like I know I breathe," Rouen washed his chest, scraping lightly with his nails to work the congealed blood off his skin. Inside Jakey's head, all the chaos stopped dead, like someone had hit the brakes. Rouen wasn't a cat. Nor was Passcendale or Bordeaux. He could see it now, the detail that had eluded him. They moved, thought and spoke like humans. They were human, not cats at all. At once, Jakey's thoughts surged into overdrive. The Doctor wore robes like the Circle of Thorns, and they specialised in imbuing human victims with the soul and essence of the deceased mages of Oranbega. A change that rendered a very obvious physical change, the burning eyes. The Doctor had twisted even that foul process, to combine a cat with a human. All the missing cats were … here.
Jakey stared at Rouen, feeling defeated. Had he wanted to feel like he belonged so badly that he had ignored the obvious signs? And now here was Rouen thanking him for teaching him to kill.
"How are you so good? How can I be more like you?" Rouen asked, holding his hands. Jakey nearly broke down crying, but swallowed the impulse back.
"You really want to know?"
"Yeah."
"Go to the surface. Go away from here and never come back. The Doctor's got us on all kinds of screwed up chemicals. He took away your lives, both of them. He'll keep on doing it until someone stops him," Jakey muttered, his ears back dispiritedly. Rouen looked confused.
"The Doctor cares for us-"
"Like Hell he does!" Jakey fixed Rouen with a sharp, dangerous look of his green eyes, "he's a certifiable madman! Loony, ******* insane, few sandwiches shy of a picnic, stark raving bonkers. Look, Rouen, you're a nice kid, and I don’t want to see you screwed up by this mess. Go to the surface, and make your way to Kings Row. Find 46 Mercy Way and ask for Midnight Gaze. Tell her I sent you. Tell her I need help. Okay?"
"But, Jakey-"
"Just go!" Jakey insisted, then Rouen grabbed his head and forced it to turn, pointing to the trio of figures who were standing up a little way from them. The Doctor had his arms folded and Passcendale and Bordeaux either side of him. He glared at the two by the lake.
"Late night chat, boys?" Passcendale's claws slid out slowly and Bordeaux reached to his side, he was wearing a sword. Jakey didn't know he knew how to use a sword. He sort of wished he wouldn't find out just how well he could use it either. He rose to his feet, bracing them slightly, his arms at his sides loosely.
"Rouen, get running, there's a good lad."
"But Jakey …" Rouen was already edging back, paling when he saw Bordeaux eying him, the same way he'd assessed prey the night before. Jakey forced a shadow of his usual grin onto his face, half turning to him.
"I can handle these two kittens. Push off will ya?" Passcendale's harsh laugh rang against the cave walls and he slid a foot back, bringing one arm over his head and the other stretched out in front.
"Like you handled me before? I opened you up like a gutted fish."
Jakey's grin became real, showing the points of his canines.
"Want to see if you can do it again? C'mon then." He took a deep breath, and adjusted his weight slightly, ready. The Doctor may have smirked behind his high collar, it was hard to tell, and he moved back.
"I want to thank you, Jakey, before you're torn apart. You've been very useful, teaching my creations a cat's cruelty, but-"
"Skip to the end." Jakey lunged forward suddenly. Passcendale lunged, grinning manically as he slashed down and across with his claws, the metal blades singing in the air. Jakey swerved his upper body forward and curled it under his arm, seizing it in his hands and snapping his knee up. Passcendale's eyes bugged as the bony joint smashed into his sternum, knocking the wind out of his body, folding around the leg. Jakey spun, feeling the air change to the right, hearing the hum of a long single edge moving fast. He ducked as the blade swung where his head should have been, rolling clear of Passcendale's wheezing frame. Bordeaux growled angrily and hurdled his fallen comrade, trying to snap lightening fast jabs in. Jakey took a cut on his arm and one across his face, both of which were aimed for his heart. Blood splattered against the cave floor as Jakey dodged the sword again, infuriating Bordeaux with his speed.
"That all you got Bordie? That's pretty sad." Jakey back-flipped out of range, springing up and somersaulting backwards onto an outcropping of rock. Bordeaux peeled back his lips and yowled angrily, running forward, taking a small jump and then hurtling up to join him. Jakey only grinned and kicked off, rocketing out of reach, hitting a column of stone and running up it for three steps before kicking off it, flipping again. Bordeaux was so busy trying to keep track of him that he didn't see the kicks coming. Jakey's feet appeared from nowhere and smashed into his face so hard he was thrown back, crashing off the outcropping and into the small lake. Passcendale staggered to his feet, one arm curled around his midriff, he gritted his teeth and surged, slashing wildly with his free arm. Jakey swore when the blades scratched across his back again, throwing himself forward into a roll. Passcendale rushed after him, curving his arm back for an overhead slash. Jakey swirled up to his feet, lunging in, meeting his eyes for a split second before sliding to the side in a quick spinning step, then jumping up, continuing the spin. His foot cracked across Passcendale's face, sending him staggering. Jakey landed and changed his weight, slamming his heel out and up, hitting his hip and sending him flying. He was still regaining his balance when he felt the air behind him change. A moment later, three inches of blade cracked through the front of his chest. Jakey barely felt it, looking down unsteadily at the point, watching his blood drip off it and slide down his front. He knew he was in pain, but it was like he'd become detached. His muscles spasmed when the blade twisted sharply. Dimly he felt the foot on his back and then saw the ground rushing up to meet him. Hot fluid pooled on the rock under his front.
"What dreams may come, eh, Jakey?" A bit of material hit the back of his head and he heard the sound of walking fade away, leaving him only with the tiny, distant drops in the darkness.

12:32, "Wynn's Little Teashop", Steel Canyon

Raphael De Arca sipped his tea with a kind of pointed elegance, as if to remind everyone else in the vicinity that he was a man of culture and breeding the likes of which they could only dream about. Wilkins, one of old habits, served Gaze her tea. Neither of the two empaths said anything, but Raphael had an awful suspicion that this was about last night. He would much rather not think about the wretched affair. It was humiliating enough that he'd spasmed and bled everywhere and gone about shouting in tongues without everyone walking on eggshells around him the next day.
"So, Raph, how are you feeling?" Gaze said, adding a few sugar cubes to her cup. With her hat off, her lovely hair was revealed. It was a truly beautiful colour, a dark, midnight blue. Raphael admired it openly, as much to draw her attention away from the inquisition as to behold something beautiful simply for its own sake. His ploy didn't work, as Wilkins cleared his throat.
"There's nothing to be ashamed of, Raph. Both myself and Gaze felt something amiss in the warehouse."
"Oh?" Raphael sipped his tea primly. He didn't care what they all said. He was as in command of his faculties as any man could ever be, moreso than most. The soft clatter and murmur of conversations around them served as both disguise and caution to keep things quiet. Gaze nodded.
"Come on, we're hardly new to the extreme power scene. That storm wasn't normal at all. Someone was behind it. We saw Jakey last night too."
Raphael put his cup down with a ***** of bone china, looking at them both levelly. He knew fishing for information when he saw it, you should never try to play a player. Wilkins sighed.
"It couldn't have been him. Jakey can't just vanish, and he's still not above screaming with joy every time he jumps over a building. There wasn't a trace of him when I got up to the roof."
"It was an illusion," Raphael said curtly, inspecting one of his nails and rubbing it with his thumb. Both Gaze and Wilkins looked at him, and he sighed. They weren't going to leave him alone until there was some account concerning last night from his very lips.
"The truth of the matter is, last night my attention wandered. We were going about business as usual, when …" He couldn't believe he was actually going to say what he was going to say. The two empaths waited quietly, Wilkins sipping his tea.
"I just thought that wouldn't it be nice if Jakey suddenly came running in, like he'd never left. And then I remembered the time we spent in the Cavern of Transcendence together, he was gunning for a fight but was quiet when we needed to be. When that started, I just couldn't stop remembering. I must have zoned out completely, because I found myself behind some shipping crates with Cap. He said my illusions had dissipated and I'd been attacked."
"Cap says you were complaining of pain." Wilkins said it quietly. Raphael shot him a look, then expelled air out of his nose.
"I don't know where the headache came from. But …" now it came to it, he felt almost afraid. He didn't want to admit to his friends that something so apparently trivial could shake him to his very core. A man's mind should be sacrosanct. He took a deep breath.
"I must have blacked out, as I had a dream, just something about darkness and a snake." He frowned a little, picking up the silver spoon and dipping it to the surface of the tea distractedly.
"Strange, it wasn't quite like a dream, my dreams tend to be a little more structured than that. There were storm clouds and a book lying open on the ground, the wind flipped its pages and then this snake slithered out. It was small at first, then it became huge. It was going to eat me, I think, then a cat ran between us and tried to fend it off. Very strange. Must have cats on my mind too much."
Gaze looked at Wilkins, as if to ask if this meant anything to him. Unfortunately it didn't and the three of them looked at their tea cups for a while.
"Perhaps we should ask someone in MAGI? This seems more their area, strange dreams and all that." Wilkins said quietly. Raphael shot him a very dirty look, which was quickly transferred to Gaze when she nodded.
"I agree. Sorry Raph, but I do. Something very weird happened last night, and if weird stuff happens, they tend to know about it first. All those psychics and witches in their ranks, you know how it is." Gaze did not know how it was, but she'd heard things of the MAGI crowd. Besides, they tended to have nice offices filled with interesting things and artefacts, so a visit would be worthwhile even if it turned up nothing.
Raphael drank his tea.
"You can count me out of a trip to the Hoodoo Emporium, I have a date later to the theatre and I must get ready."
"It's barely midday!" Wilkins said, checking his watch. Raphael smiled winningly.
"You don't want me tagging along anyway, I have much more important things to do," he said silkily. Gaze nodded.
"Well, thanks for meeting us for tea, we won't keep you any longer. Good luck, Raph." She waved slightly as he swept up, taking up his gloves and pulling them on as he walked out. Wilkins frowned and rubbed his nose.
"So, off to MAGI?"
"Off to MAGI." Gaze paid for the tea and biscuits and picked up her hat, popping it on as she walked out, closely followed by Wilkins.

14:31, City Hall, Atlas Park

"Is your friend prone to prophetic dreams at all?" Azuria asked, taking a book off a shelf and climbing back down the ladder. Gaze and Wilkins were sat on the other side of her table, the butler was giving a sealed box an uneasy look while Gaze fiddled with her hat.
"No, this is the first time anything like this has happened to him. He's affiliated ELITE and … well, you know how people with ELITE can be sometimes," she smiled hesitantly, as Wilkins was also affiliated with ELITE, the branch of Hero Corps who dealt with heroes who'd come by their powers naturally, having been born with them or simply so well trained that they could do the incredible. Azuria smiled, perhaps it was warm, but her eyes held a perpetually distant expression, so it was hard to match the expressions up.
"Yes, I can imagine that this has been an unpleasant experience for all concerned. You say his attention wandered just before the attack? Was he remembering things, just out of curiosity?" The woman sat down in her high backed, leather chair. It creaked softly, and reminded Gaze of a time she'd had to show Jakey where a store was. It was the smell of the office maybe, a mix of old books, varnish and some strange, musty, almost spicy smell. The smell of magic, or so she fancied.
"A friend of ours who went missing two weeks ago. A hero. You may know him, Jakey K?"
Azuria nodded, her expression softening.
"I didn't work with him personally, he operated out of Galaxy City at first. Myself and the MAGI representative over there have … our disagreements. But yes, I know who you mean," she sighed and leaned back in her chair. Wilkins regarded her.
"You seem bothered about something."
Azuria's smile was sparse.
"Ah, you're both empaths. Of course, of course. Concerning the dream, snakes have long been a part of the human subconscious, mostly they are signs of danger, of malady and catastrophe. Serpents and dragons and all that. I find it interesting, however, that your friend saw a cat try to defend him. He is well educated you say?"
"Yes, I forget which University he went to, but he's very … um …" Gaze tried to think of the best word to describe Raphael, and Wilkins supplied her.
"Erudite."
"It intrigues me then, that he didn't see a falcon." Azuria opened her book, flicking through pages seemingly at random. Gaze blinked.
"Oh?"
"Traditionally, it is a falcon that is the bane of the serpent. The eternal struggle of Horus and Seth, of light and dark, air and earth. A cat is … most unusual." Azuria pursed her lips, regarding something on the page. Wilkins cleared his throat.
"Well, we've been searching for Jakey since he disappeared, and last we saw of him, he was fixated with the city's missing cats. I guess you could say we've all had cats on the mind recently."
Azuria regarded him, her gaze seemed more focused now, as if something was calling parts of her mind back to the office from wherever they customarily resided. Gaze wasn't sure she appreciated this change, as something about the woman was just unsettling.
"Interesting … this could be more than what it seems. If memory serves, Jakey was the one who was turned from a cat into a man? Some book or other his owner had come into possession of?"
Wilkins nodded.
"That's how the story goes. He came to the city to find a cure for himself." He remembered sitting on the slope of a roof, talking to Jakey about it. It hadn't been long after a strange event had flooded through Paragon City. Jakey had woken up one day and gone to start a day's work only to find out that none of his contacts knew who he was, and all records concerning him had been purged from all databases they could check. It was as if he'd never existed before. Wilkins frowned, regarding the table top as Gaze and Azuria talked about ancient Egyptian mythology. Who had Jakey said was responsible for the citywide amnesia? His sister. Cleo, or Chloe. Yes, Cleo, that had been her name. His sister whom had come to him with an appeal for him to join her in her quest for revenge against the human race. Indeed, when Jakey had told Wilkins what had befallen his sister after they were both abandoned on a roadside, Wilkins could certainly understand why she'd want to tear down the edifices of Man.
The removal of Jakey from the memories of the city had been a punishment when he'd refused to give up his Hero license. The rejection must have stung, and she had the power at her disposal because …
"The book," he whispered. Gaze glanced at him, but he waved his hand slightly, indicating that they'd talk about it later. She just nodded slightly and turned back to Azuria.
"I'm sorry, you were saying?"
"I was saying that there are legends concerning a cat goddess striking down a serpent. Take Maau, the feline form of Atet. She went forth to battle a great serpent-"
It was going to be a long afternoon.

22:45, Gaze's Apartment, Kings Row

"I thought she was never going to stop talking," Gaze moaned, throwing her hat onto the stand by the door as she walked in. Wilkins followed after her, looking just as wearied.
"Maybe Raphael had the right of it after all. I'm not sure we learned anything at all. Cup of tea, milady?"
"Yes please." Gaze walked into the living room and pulled off her shoes, flopping back on the sofa and lifting a foot up to massage it slightly, "who would have thought Egyptian mythology was all so contradictory and confusing? Why couldn't they get their act together and just have one god of cats? It would have spared us a great deal of confusion." There came sounds of tea making in the kitchenette.
"I'm afraid I couldn't tell you. But I did think of something we've missed," he called through the hatch. Gaze leaned back on the sofa, frowning slightly.
"Oh?"
"Jakey's sister. Cleo I think she's called." Wilkins came in with the tray, setting it down on the table. Gaze watched him pour, she could do it herself of course, but Wilkins would have none of it.
"He mentioned her a bit, yeah." Gaze tried to remember anything specific he'd told her other than 'she's dead scary'.
"She had absorbed a certain book into herself, making her incredibly powerful. Powerful enough that she caused a citywide amnesia that meant Jakey had to start at the bottom again or give up hero work." Wilkins dropped some sugar into Gaze's 'Don't talk to me about Mondays' mug and stirred it before passing it over.
"You think she knows where Jakey is?" she asked. Wilkins gave a short laugh, devoid of humour.
"I'm not convinced she's not behind his disappearance." He caught her expression and sighed, taking his tea in the 'World's Best Sister' mug and sitting back in the wicker chair, "Cleo wanted Jakey to join her in some quest to overthrow humanity. He was never specific about whether she wanted to subject humans or just destroy them. Jakey, being the man he is, refused and she retaliated with wiping him from everyone's memory. A lot of heroes forgot him, but I remembered somehow, as did you."
Gaze pulled a face, cupping her mug tightly.
"Not surprised he refused, she sounds like a thoroughly nasty business," she said with a sniff. Wilkins sighed heavily.
"Jakey told me why she is the way she is. He asked me to keep it a secret, as it's … delicate, for all involved."
Gaze snorted.
"Oh?"
"You know Jakey had an owner before he was turned into a man, yes?" Wilkins looked at her over his mug. Gaze nodded and he continued, "Well, what he didn’t tell you was that he, two brothers and a sister were unwanted kittens. They were put in a bag and thrown out of a car."
"That's … that's horrible." Gaze looked upset, as an empath, and even, just as a human being, she abhorred mindless cruelty. Wilkins nodded.
"Jakey was the lucky one, he got free of the bag and a car passing by stopped and the people inside picked him up and took him home with them. Cleo did not fare so well. She too made it out of the bag, and apparently she wandered for a long while before being picked up by less kindly folk. She was taken to a vivisection lab."
Gaze could only widen her eyes, then hung her head, feeling somehow guilty, as though she were a participant to such horrors. Vivisection. The dirty little secret behind medicine, behind psychology, behind cosmetics. Now that she came to think about it, being tortured for nothing more than human curiosity would be enough to make anyone want to destroy things. She looked out of the window, at the dark night, putting her hand to her mouth unconsciously. It was like the pumicites. She couldn't bring herself to hate them, or even enjoy the challenge of dealing with them. They had lived in such peace with humans that nobody had even known they were there until the trolls had blown up the tunnels under the Hollows, destroying their homes, probably killing thousands of them.
"You think she's behind Jakey disappearing?" she forced herself back to the conversation at hand. Wilkins nodded.
"Either she was responsible, or she knows who is. It's worth considering."
"How are we ever to find her?" Gaze asked. Wilkins shrugged.
"I haven't thought that far yet."

03:32, a cave, Perez Park

Jakey snapped awake suddenly, rolling to a sitting position. He looked around wildly, convinced he'd heard a familiar voice. He got to his feet slowly and started to walk, stepping over Bordeaux silently. He wasn't quite sure why the other man insisted on sleeping in the same alcove, especially across the entrance, but it made the cave a bit warmer so he tolerated it.
"Jakey …" He turned to look down the tunnel, ears pricked. Had that been Lionheart's voice? Lionheart was his friend! He grinned brightly and ran down the corridor, leaping the crevasse across his path easily. He was pretty sure someone had said the tunnels beyond the crevasse were treacherous and could collapse at the slightest sound, so he took pains to be quiet. It was easy for a cat to be quiet, you just trusted your hands more. Hands. Jakey stopped and looked at the gloved extremities. They looked massive, malformed. His stomach gave a sick lurch and he buckled, going down to his knees and gripping his midriff. It felt like something was burning in there. His skin felt clammy and he was shaking so hard he could barely stay upright. He was sick, he needed his medicine. Needed it desperately. He could still hear Lionheart's voice, growing more and more distant, but she would have to wait, he just needed his medicine, then he'd come back and find her.
Jakey crawled back along the tunnel, only forcing himself to stand when he reached the crevasse. He peered down it, but could see only thick darkness. The caves suddenly cartwheeled in his vision and felt a distant impact on his chest before all he could see was the edge of the crevasse spiralling away from him. Well that was odd. It took too long for him to realise he was falling and he couldn't even begin to do anything about it.
"I hope I bounce," he said, and as if on cue, he hit a flat surface with enough force for the pain to penetrate his warped perception. He hissed with pain and lay there for a while, waiting for it to pass. It didn't, his world was dark and cold, the form of his body picked out in waves of pain like a kind of internal radar. He closed his eyes. He was the wrong shape, a clumsy, heavy limbed simian. His teeth were no good for hunting, his face flat and pointy in all the wrong places. He felt wrong. He tried to move his fingers, felt a flex which seemed promising.
"No sense lying here going to pieces, Jakey," he whispered, trying to move. When he didn't make much progress, he sighed, "Okay, so lying here seems to be the order of the day. Fair enough. Oh god, I need my medicine …" he trailed off on that. He felt so desperate for his medicine, more strongly than he'd ever felt for anything in his life, even catnip. He knew he had a bad habit where the catnip was concerned, but he'd never needed it as badly as he needed his medicine. He twitched, feeling wretched, then finally rolled onto his side, pulling himself over to the cliff wall. He reached a shaking hand up and gripped some of the stone. He tried to pull himself up but his hand either couldn't take the weight or the shakes were just too bad, he lost his grip and slipped back down.
"This is stupid! Just give me the bleedin' meds!" Nobody answered, but Jakey did not have to stand the quietness for long, as he passed out eventually.

10:02, a cave, Perez Park

"It's lucky you found him, Bordeaux, his withdrawals were getting bad enough to interfere with his motor skills," the Doctor's voice broke through the throbbing haze of Jakey's unconsciousness.
"How much longer do we have to baby him like this? You said he'd be useful to our cause." That was Bordeaux, he didn't sound like he usually did, he sounded tense and frustrated.
"He will be, he will be. You must have faith in my skills. Jakey will be one of us soon, and he will bring in the greatest prize of all." The Doctor moved away slightly. Jakey couldn't move, not that he felt much like it after hearing that. There came a growl from the other side of the room.
"Wonderful. You still haven't explained why we're caring so much about a stray cat." He recognised that voice faintly. It'd been the first one, the one who jumped him. What had his name been again? Pashing or something.
"Passcendale, if your mind was as agile as your claws, you'd know," said the Doctor. There came a snort of amusement from Bordeaux.
"It's not just any cat, it's the Avatar," he murmured. Jakey couldn't help but feel a bleak feeling in his chest. They too spoke of cats as things. How could they? Weren't they cats themselves?
"The what?" Passcendale sounded confused.
"The Avatar. Look, every thousand years, a higher being awakens and takes an avatar on Earth. We're currently trying to catch the Avatar so we can make it one of our order. Does any of this ring a bell?" Bordeaux sneered, his opinion of Passcendale dripping off every word. There came the tssshing of claws and growling from both parties.
"If you two are going to fight, take it elsewhere! Bordeaux, if you let Jakey sneak off again, you will be punished."
"Y-yes Doctor. It won't happen again."
"Good, be sure that it doesn't. I think he's ready for the last course of the meds. Take him out on a few runs with you, but keep a close eye on him." There came a sound of tapping nearby, the Jakey felt a scratch on his upper arm. Whatever else anyone said was lost to him, as his world filled with buoyant feelings and joyous thoughts of hybrid rainbows.

00:01, "Denny's", Atlas Park

"I'll have the pancake special with extra pancakes," Dax told the waitress as she perused the menu. Gaze stared at the back of the menu, chin in her hand, tapping the table agitatedly with her fork.
"It's been a fortnight. How does one loud-mouth cat disappear for a fortnight? I bet the Council DO have him and they're just not saying." She glared at the moderately priced specials on the menu, bending the cheap fork with her fingers. Dax decided to scrutinise the starters very carefully lest she get a face full of eye-laser.
"We've trashed every base we've come to, thrown every Archon into a wall and off a gantry, we've burned, kicked, punched, mutated and frazzled every Council member we've seen. I think they'd have told us by now if they had Jakey, just to get us to stop doing numbers on them and their hardware."
"The Family then. They're always taking hits out on people we like."
"After Raph entertained at their last social? I'll be surprised if any of them have stopped yapping and sniffing each other's backsides yet." Dax put the menu down and laced her hands together, looking at Gaze intently, "I think it's time we accept the possibility that maybe he found what he was searching for. Maybe we've been looking for a man, but we should be looking for a cat."
Gaze put the fork down.
"He wouldn't have left without saying goodbye," she insisted. Dax shrugged.
"Maybe you're right, but my experience with cats tends to suggest they prefer to avoid 'goodbyes' wherever possible." She looked up when her pancakes arrived, and smiled, picking up a fork that Gaze hadn't mutilated yet.
"The Circle of Thorns! I bet they have him!" Dax sighed at the exclamation, cutting up her pancakes. She didn't feel like telling Gaze that between all the members of their super-group, they'd interrogated, intimidated and incapacitated every gang that might have even the remotest interest in their friend. Still the whereabouts of the cat remained as elusive as ever. Dax wondered if he really had found a way back to the life he craved. She'd seen a few tabby cats recently, but they'd all be greys. Jakey was a rather striking deep ginger, so she was sure she'd recognise him if she saw him.
The radio on Gaze's belt fizzed for a moment.
"Gaze, Dax, we need you urgently! Repeat, we need you URGENTLY!" Captain Cathode's voice sounded over a background din of crashes and yelling and explosions. Gaze looked up and stared at Dax, who paused in the act of putting pancake in her mouth. They held each other's eyes for a moment, then the forks clattered back down onto the plates and the chairs toppled to the floor. Only a small green note remained in testament to the two heroes' rush. Once outside, they both cut down an alley and a tramp sitting against the bin was startled to see civilian clothes thrown off and hero jackets pulled on. He blinked as the pair suddenly kicked off the ground and soared up into the night sky, dwindling to mere specks.
Captain Cathode supported Raphael as the nobleman nursed his head, the heels of his hands braced against his temples. The once television repair man looked around worriedly, listening to the screaming wind beyond the corridor, newspapers and Chinese paper charms and bits of magazines were hurtling around in the tempest. A sliver of a cut on his cheek oozed blood almost sullenly and he looked back at Raphael.
"You okay yet?" This was supposed to have been a simple task. They'd gotten word through one of his contacts that some deal was going on in this warehouse between the Family and the Warriors. They would have been able to handle it with no problems, but then all Hell had broken loose with no-one's consent.
"Don't suppose you have any paracetamol on you? Aspirin? … … Morphine?" Raphael's voice quivered a bit but he kept his tone light. Cathode grimaced, the controller shouldn't be still suffering if the symptoms were entirely physical. He flinched when something hit the wall behind them with enough force to leave a human-like imprint in the metal.
"What the Hell's going on out there?"
"Where's Scilarion?" Raphael asked weakly. Cathode uncovered his radio and called the other member of their team.
"I'm in hospital, got claws through my back. Managed to teleport out okay though," came the terse response. Cathode shifted his feet, looking down the thin alley between the shipping crates that they where hidden down.
"What did you see?"
"No idea. I've never seen them before, they're not on any of our databases, not even seen any Hero Corps stuff on them."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I have no idea who they are other than … well, cat people I guess. Was like a bloody anime convention after someone asked what was better, Evangelion or RahXephon?"
Cathode looked at Raphael, the elegant man suddenly groaned and toppled onto his side, curling up and biting his sleeve, he didn't have time to ponder the strange analogy, wincing as the screams and crashes got nearer. Motion at the end of the alley caught his gaze and he turned his head in time to see a lithe girl with cat ears and a tail come rushing down at them, she drew her fist above her head with a screech, metal claws flashing. Cathode reacted on gut instinct, lurching to his feet and standing over Raphael. He yelled with pure frustration over how wildly things had spun out of control and slammed his hand forward, a mass of green plasma rushed forward with a howl. The ball smashed into the girl's chest, lifting her off her feet and throwing her back out of the alley. Cathode blinked a bit as the air throbbed still in his ears from the concussion. That had been surprisingly easy.
"Good shot," came Raphael's feeble, slightly muffled contribution from the floor. Cathode looked down at him, grinning slightly sheepishly, then the grin dropped away.
"Raph!" He dropped down beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder. Blood was oozing from Raphael's ears and nose, he grimaced.
"Oh don't make a fuss. Cup of tea and I'll be right as rain," he whispered, then his slightly fevered eyes slid over Cathode's shoulder, "CAP!"
Cathode whipped around to see metal claws and then they raked down his face, catching on one of the eye goggles and smashing the lens. Then there was a concussive blast and a roll of heat and then a body smashed into Cathode's hard enough to throw them both over Raphael's inert body.
"Cap! Raph!" Gaze's voice broke through the ringing of their ears and gloved hands pulled the still cat girl off Cathode. He grinned thankfully up at Gaze, wincing a little as she put her hand to his face and a green light suffused about them, his wounds searing shut.
"About time you got here, what kept you?"
"Train was delayed. What's going on here?" Dax said, keeping an eye out at the end of the alley. Cathode moved to Raphael and helped to prop him up.
"We heard a deal was being brokered here, so came to arrest the usual suspects, but then this storm just smashed in the windows, there was paper flying everywhere, and these cat people came crashing in."
"Cat people?" Gaze frowned, helping Raphael get to his feet, supporting his other side. Cathode nodded.
"That's what Sci said, he's still coming back from the hospital."
"They don't seem that strong." Dax muttered. Cathode looked guilty.
"Raph collapsed and I stayed with him."
"Collapsed? What happene-" Gaze was interrupted when Raphael suddenly started shouting. If there were words in the sounds coming out of his mouth, then they were in a language unknown to them. Dax winced and covered her ears, but Gaze and Cathode had no such luxury lest they drop Raphael.
The noise was so awful, that nobody quite remembered how they got outside, each convinced that their eardrums were splitting and there were cascade failures in their brains. Raphael suddenly collapsed as they stumbled to the outside fence of the car park, dragging both Cathode and Gaze down with him. Dax helped them all sit up, looking around when Wilkins landed abruptly near them, the butler straightened and hurried over.
"Scilaron and Karishba are on perimeter, I called Lionheart and she's still in transit," he said tersely. Dax looked sour.
"I can't believe we're running away."
"I can't believe Raph's on the floor," Gaze muttered, worrying over the unconscious man, pulling open his purple robe and pushing aside the white cravat to listen at his chest. Cathode rested an elbow on his knee and rubbed at his ear.
"What the heck was he even saying? Sounded like someone put a cat through a mincer."
Nobody was looking at him, and he looked up at them quizzically. Every single hero was staring at the roof of the warehouse. Except for Raphael, he was still bleeding slightly from the nose.
"J-Jakey …" Gaze whispered, voicing what was racing through everyone's minds. There was no mistaking that small, lithe frame, or the way he booted a suited gangster off the roof in a spin kick that made the air crack with its speed. Dax jumped slightly when Wilkins leapt from standing, hurtling up to the roof. He looked around frantically for the cat, but he was no longer there, like he'd been spirited away again.
"What's going on, by Jove?" Wilkins whispered, watching some newspaper pages drift down, calm again.

Or apparently now, as I found it in my disc wallet. Go me

10: 30, a cave, Perez Park

Jakey woke up hazily, feeling light-headed and hungry. He sat up slowly and looked at his legs curiously. There'd been something about the right one … something important. He looked at the leg, then poked it with his finger. It seemed fine. What had been so important about it?
"Oh, you're awake! You must be hungry." A voice took his concentration away from his leg and he saw a young man standing by the doorway. He blinked, the young man had triangular ears and a tail flicked lazily behind his knees. He looked like Jakey, only taller. But that couldn't be right.
"My name's Bordeaux. … You're Jakey, right?" Jakey could only nod, dumbfounded. Why was his brain so filled with cotton wool? It felt like everything he knew was just out of reach, or covered with oil so he couldn't get a hold of them. Bordeaux smiled, tipping his head to the side, then holding out his hand, extending the fingers to him. A gesture that meant nothing to a cat, but everything to a human. Jakey slid off the metal bed and walked over, reaching his own hand out. The intricate arrangement of tendons played, uncurling his fingers and revealing his calloused palm. With a sort of distance, he watched Bordeaux's fingers pass over his palm, then felt the warmth of their hands touching. Opposable thumbs hooked over the webbing, fingers curling around the heel and side of the hands.
Cats don't hold hands.
Humans do.
"That's a cute name. What are you hungry for, Jakey?" Bordeaux began to lead him out of the room, out into tunnels lit with clusters of blue, green and purple crystals.
"Tuna?" Jakey finally made his mouth work, his voice sounded quiet in the cavernous depths of the tunnels.
"Sure, I'll get you some tuna." Bordeaux smiled.

20:30, a cave, Perez Park

Jakey put a hand to his head, why did he feel so foggy and disconnected again? He'd felt nauseous after Bordeaux had taken him for a walk around the underground lake, so much so that the other cat man had carried him to the 'Doctor'. What had he said it was? A fever? Was he coming down with something? The medicine had tasted odd, cloying and he'd tried to spit it out. He reached up to rub at his jaw absently, running fingers over the bruises where the Doctor had had to squeeze his mouth open to get the medicine in. Bordeaux said it happened sometimes, but the Doctor would always make sure you got the medicine you needed.
Jakey hiccupped, then wondered why the floor tipped in his vision and rushed up to meet his eyes. He looked at the close-up of the stone for a while. He was definitely coming down with something.

06:46, a cave, Perez Park

Jakey couldn't stand still, he'd felt sick again earlier but a trip to the Doctor had put him back on form. The Doctor was such a good man, always had just the right medicine for whatever ailed you. Jakey jumped when he saw movement behind him and spun, springing wildly at the intruder. It whisked out of the way at the last moment and he scrambled after it in a tight circle, it was always just out of reach but he saw his chance and then pounced.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!" Jakey's howl made the air in the tunnels throb and he bit down on his lower lip as he slowly let his tail go. The limb smarted savagely enough to make him whimper in pain.
"Jakey!" Bordeaux came running, he immediately enveloped Jakey in a hug which made the smaller man blink in surprise, but then he relaxed. It was going to be alright. Bordeaux was here. Everything was going to be just fine again.

15:20, a cave, Perez Park

Jakey sat on his own, ears twitching at the smallest sounds. Was it Bordeaux? No, it was just water dripping somewhere far away. Wait, was that Bordeaux? Was it? Oh was it really?
A rat scuttled past the doorway the small cave tucked off the corridor. It served as his 'room' and smelt enough like Bordeaux to keep him from going far. He coiled his tail around his abdomen, gripping his ankles with his hands. When was Bordeaux going to come back? Why had he left him all on his own? He let out a low murmur, then flung his head back and yowled at the top of his lungs. He was lonely and wanted his friend back. There came the sound of clattering feet and there was Bordeaux, running around the corner. Jakey launched himself at him and clung to his waist in an unsubtle insistence not to be left on his own again.
"Don't worry, Jakey. Soon." The taller cat man whispered, his large hand stroking the russet and black hair on Jakey's head. He didn't question it, soon it would be, and then it would be. Soon.

disclaimer - the author in no way condones cruelty to animals, just so you know

There was a sort of chirping that invaded his state of sleep, Muse rolled onto his back and let his eyes drift open. There was a milky gauze over his head at a peak. He let his eyes track the fabric's gradient and saw it anchored on the side of the bed. He reached out slow fingers to brush the material. It was silky, gauzy, pleasant to touch, a breeze rippled the fabric and he turned his head on the pillow. A pair of glass balcony doors stood open, letting a warm breeze circulate the room. Muse sat up, looking down at himself. He was wearing only a pair of boxer shorts, but at least he'd not been stripped entirely naked. The tattoos on his legs showed up black in the darkness. Outside, the cicadas chirped and he fumbled about for the exit from the mosquito net. He didn't think the Council tended to hang around in a tropical paradise, so he needed to find out where he was as soon as possible. Voices on the night air stopped him in his quest, and he listened past the thudding of his heart.
"You took a great liberty in wielding my name to Lambert." The voice was odd, fully in control and tinged with an American accent.
"I am aware of that, sir," said Langlais, his voice calm but respectful.
"I do not appreciate people putting my name to things I have not verified. You are just lucky that I happen to approve of your actions in this regard." The voice said in a clipped tone. There was something else to the speaker, Muse half closed his eyes, listening intently.
"You may punish me as you see fit, sir. I thought only to secure the asset from harm, by any means necessary, and I apologise profusely for my impudence."
"As well you should, Adjudent Langlais." There was a long pause, and it came to Muse suddenly. The speaker was a Nictus. He'd know that discordant edge anywhere. Nothing on Earth was so … alien. He shrank small in the covers, pulling the sheets around him tightly.
"However, the ends have out-weighed the means. I reviewed your file on the way here and I am surprised that a man of your skill and competency has not yet been admitted to one of our Elite programs. Why is that, do you think?"
"Sir?" Langlais sounded politely disinterested. It must not have put the other speaker off.
"I think you have been waiting for something new to come along. You are well informed about Cosmos, more so than I expected of an adjudent anywhere. After myself and a few others, you may be the most informed person in the Council. Does the concept intrigue you?" Muse knew a loaded question when he heard it, and he wondered what the Nictus was thinking. There was a pause before Langlais spoke.
"The concept does intrigue me, yes. I have paid attention to all communications that go through my station."
"Even the encrypted ones?" That must be it, the Nictus was trying to trap him into revealing that he had been reading classified material, surely.
"As you know, sir, re-encryption of a message gives it higher security, but to re-encrypt, I have to decode first. I merely retain much of what I read. Though … permission to speak freely, sir?"
"Granted."
"I believe force will only result in Cosmos back-firing. I know that I have no right to say this, but I would like to recommend to the Archon you place in charge that Cosmos be handled with subtlety. I believe that would yield the very best results." Langlais sounded serious. There was a long pause and the sound of feet walking slowly on wooden decking.
"You do not favour our theories?" The Nictus drawled slightly, as though he were indulging Langlais only.
"There can be more than one theory, if you would have Cosmos good for only one thing, then your theory is fine, but if you want Cosmos to be versatile, then you have to work for it." The silence held again, then there was a chuckle.
"You are bold, Adjudent Langlais. This pleases me. Your record shows competent work and excellent leadership. I am therefore promoting you to Archon and giving you the base here. You will show me the results your theory yields. Fail, and you will be punished accordingly." The Nictus may have been smiling, he sounded pleased enough. Langlais hesitated before responding.
"Then may I request half a dozen Warwolves, Zenith mechmen and Galaxy to be posted here under my command."
"Making demands so soon?"
"They are necessary for Cosmos's advancement. If you have the time to wait, I can write you a report outlining my plan."
"No thank you, you can send it to me. I trust your excellently trained communications specialists can see to that? As it happens, I shall leave presently. Don't disappoint my expectations, Archon Langlais." The feet walked across the boards again, ending up under Muse's door.
"Oh, and Langlais?"
"Yes sir?"
"Bring the asset to heel, by any means necessary." Muse heard the steps pass under the floor of his room and dim. After a long time, he heard the rotors of a helicopter power up and the echo of the Nictus disappeared. He gulped, then blinked when he heard a puppy bark somewhere. There came an urgent scratching at his door. He was so surprised, he didn't move for a few moments. Finally, when the whimpering got too much to bare, he found the flap to let himself out of the mosquito netting and walked over to the door hesitantly. He opened it after a moment and a puppy with a frantically wagging tail gambolled in, full of such clumsiness and zest for life that Muse smiled. He knelt down and held his hand out to the puppy, grinning when it was frantically licked. The puppy looked like it would be a big dog when it grew up, with a dark coloured muzzle and a wolf-like profile. Muse petted it, then picked it up, turning his face slightly as the puppy licked his chin and face. He stepped out of his room and walked hesitantly down the wide hall. There were a few paintings on the white walls and a wicker basket that looked more like a cat's bed than a dog's.
There came a cough from downstairs and Muse froze, clutching the puppy, who wriggled energetically. He peered over the banister of the stairs, surprised to see a living area and kitchen area as one. Certainly, the large room was spacious, and the lack of second floor allowed it to feel airy, but it was so wholly unlike anything he'd seen the Council use before that he was thrown for a moment. The newly promoted Langlais was standing in the kitchen, looking into the fridge. He was not even dressed like a Council officer, wearing a brightly coloured Hawaiian shirt featuring a twisted oriental dragon on the back over his white tee-shirt and grey fatigues. Muse felt adrift. He was a prisoner, but there were no bars or cells, that man was a Council officer, but he didn't dress like one and this was a Council facility, but was also a tropical paradise.
Nothing made sense and the sum just didn't add up.
The puppy barked happily and Langlais looked around and up.
"Ah, you're up. Do put some pants on and come down here, we have a lot to discuss." Muse, confused, turned automatically and went back to his room. He couldn't find his own clothes but there were a pair of folded grey fatigues, a white tee-shirt and a khaki shirt. Muse checked them, they bore the Council seal, but he'd not seen this style before. He looked around and couldn't find any civilian clothes. His lips thinned and he grabbed up the clothes, marching to the balcony and throwing them over the railing. He stood there for a moment, breathing hard, taking a moment to check his surroundings. Palm trees swayed in the light breeze and there were lights off to the distant right, twinkling as the moving trees blocked and revealed them. Ahead, in a broad sweep was a beach. So that had been the undercurrent of sound. The sea looked calm on the sand, but some way out, he could see and hear breakers. There must have been sandbanks or something out in the distance to cause them.
"What's taking so long?" called Langlais. Muse stooped and picked up the puppy and walked back to the living area, his heart thumped wildly but he tried to look defiant. Langlais took a carton of fruit juice out of the fridge and glanced at him before breaking the seal.
"Don't tell me, you're utterly offended I put out Council clothes for you, because you'd never even consider looking like a member of our organisation." He looked indifferent as he drank straight from the carton. Muse flinched, the way he'd said it, it was clear he knew all about Muse's tendencies to hide himself in the uniform.
"Where are my clothes?" Muse asked, trying to sound in control. Langlais held out the carton to him.
"Raspberry and cranberry?"
"Tell me what you did with my clothes." Muse tried to keep calm, like he wasn't afraid of the six foot four man who was holding out the fruit juice. Langlais suddenly broke into a wide smile.
"You vomited on them in your sleep. I figured nobody would want to wear them again. I did some fun things with them, but I shan't let you in on the joke just yet. You like dogs?" Again, Langlais changed the subject completely, nodding to the puppy in Muse's arms. Muse stroked a hand on the puppy's fur for reassurance.
"I … um … yes. I like all animals." He put the puppy down so it could spend more of that abundant energy running about the wooden flooring with a clatter of claws. Langlais nodded, then drank more fruit juice. He put the carton back in the fridge and then took something out of his back pocket.
"Know what this is?" He put the small device like a remote control on the breakfast bar so Muse could see it clearly. There was just one button on it, imbedded into the black casing with a clear plastic shield over it to prevent it being pressed by accident. Muse blinked.
"Um … it's a remote control?"
"Close, it's a remote detonator." Langlais turned away to take a frying pan off its hook on the wall. Muse paled, immediately checking himself for stitched up incisions where a charge might have been put in. Langlais watched him for a second, then pointed to the puppy as it worried a sock energetically. Muse went a shade of grey.
"Try to escape, and I hit that button, and the incendiary device in the dog's stomach explodes." Muse turned to stare at him, horrified. Langlais picked up the detonator and tucked it back into his back pocket, looking nonplussed. Muse was sickened, how could anyone treat a dog like that? It was such a cute little thing too. He watched, appalled, as the puppy bounded over to Langlais and dropped the sock on his foot, wagging wildly. The officer kicked the sock up into his hand and threw it casually over the room before getting back to frying some bacon.
"You like eggs?"
"You put a bomb in a puppy, you soulless *******!" Muse cried out, unable to keep the objection hidden.
"What would you prefer? That I grenade a kitten?" Langlais managed to make it sound so bland that Muse just sat down on one of the stools, hanging his head.
"How could you?"
"Because I know any man of your sensibilities would hold any life in high regard, and I have no non-essential personnel lying around to load up with incendiaries. It's so hard being a soulless ******* you know, I exhaust myself with my eternal scheming, I really do. Pineapple fritter?" Langlais flipped bacon onto a plate and turned to uncover a fresh pineapple, already halfway through being cut up. Muse couldn't believe the man's callousness, it rang so wrong against his inky green eyes.
"What if I promise … not to run away?" Muse asked weakly. Langlais turned his head to regard him, pausing in his chopping.
"Sorry, I'm not in the habit of trusting a hero's word particularly, but points for trying. Tell you what, if you're good and don't give me any trouble, I'll review the situation at a later date."
"You'll take the bomb out of the puppy?"
"He has a name. It's Bouncer." Muse was doubly taken aback, Langlais had even named the dog he was intending to blow up if Muse tried to escape. Somehow, he couldn't believe that Langlais wouldn't detonate the charge, named dog or not.
"You'll … take the bomb out of Bouncer?"
"Maybe, depends on how good you've been. You can take care of Bouncer, actually. I won't have enough time for him, now I've been punished with a bloody promotion." Langlais was conducting his affairs like Muse was a younger cousin who'd come to stay for a bit, not like a prisoner at all. All the contradictions were making Muse's head hurt, but he clung to the Archon's words that he 'might' remove Bouncer's bomb if he was good enough. He made a mental promise to be as good as he possibly could be, watching the puppy play with his master's sock with gleeful oblivion of his fate.

"Hello, is this … Horatio?" Jakey sat on the newly moved sofa, holding the phone above his head as Sally ducked under the wire with a pot plant in her arms.
"Are you telesales?" asked a curt voice on the other end. Jakey flicked his tail out of the way when Avenger hopped over the sofa to start moving the piano back to its place.
"No, I'm looking for Music."
"Then go to a record shop. By the way, it's not 'Horatio', it's Nathaniel. [censored]." The line disconnected and Jakey peered at the handset.
"Well excuuuuuse me! [censored]."
"What happened?" Sally finished spritzing the plant haphazardly with the mister. Jakey snorted.
"He doesn't know where Muse is." Avenger dragged the piano in and repositioned it.
"Well, did you call him Muse or Matt?"
"I … er … what?" Avenger gave Jakey an amused look, then patted his head.
"You don't think he has 'The Music Teacher' written on his birth certificate do you?"
"His what?" Jakey frowned again and Sally and Avenger exchanged glances. Of course, Jakey wouldn't know what a birth certificate was, and nor did he have one, being a cat and all. Sally shook her head, picked up the phone and pressed the redial button.
"It's a piece of paper that has your name, date of birth and witnesses to your birth. Proves you exist, sort of."
"And just breathing doesn't prove you exist?" Jakey pulled a face. Avenger rubbed the back of his neck.
"It's more a proof you are who you say you are."
"Okay …" Jakey was still looking a bit blank, but Avenger decided he'd probably get to grips with the notion in his own time.
"Hi, is this Nathaniel?" Sally asked, the answer must have been an affirmative as she put the phone on speaker and replaced the handset, "we're really sorry to keep bothering you like this, Nathaniel, but you're Matt's brother, right?"
"There's a lot of Matts in the world, care to elaborate which one I'm the brother of?"
"Matthew Whithers," Avenger supplied, still slightly amused that Jakey didn't know his flatmate's real name despite him having heard it several times.
"Yeah. Well, we're not blood brothers, you understand, sort of adopted each other. What can I do you for?" The man's voice seemed boyish, like he had barely controlled playful side.
"This may seem a little odd, but we're his friends from Paragon-"
"Ah! Then you must be Sally. He's right, you do have a pretty voice!"
"Er … yeah, I'm Sally." Sally blinked, but couldn't help grinning a little sheepishly. Considering Muse was what he was, that was quite a compliment. Jakey rolled his eyes and laced his fingers behind his head.
"I hope you're not as pretty as you sound, Sally."
"Why's that?" Sally frowned.
"Because nobody on Earth can be so beautiful." It was corny and hammy, but Sally couldn't keep the pleased tinge of pink from her cheeks. Avenger put his hand to his face and dragged his fingers down.
"Alright, enough flirting, kids. Can we please focus?"
"Do we have to?" Both Nathaniel and Sally said at exactly the same time, which caused Jakey to look spooked.
"Yes. Look, Nathaniel, I didn't get a letter from Matt this morning, this may mean nothing but I have a bad feeling."
"Missing letters don't always mean anything," Nathaniel said. Avenger took a steadying breath.
"I know that, but I think he's in trouble. He promised he'd write every day and-"
"You're Adam, aren't you?"
"Y-yes." It felt so strange to have a voice on the phone say his name just like that, like it was common knowledge.
"Alright, I'll look into it. He wasn't expected to be meeting anyone for another week, said something about a guy called Nick in Manchester, but I'll put my ear to the ground. Know anyone who might be his enemy?"
"Hell, we're heroes, who isn't our enemy?" Jakey muttered from the sofa. Sometimes it really did feel like the world was against them. Sally shrugged at Avenger.
"Well, there is the Council, they don't like anyone so much. They recruit overseas … everyone else I can think of tends to operate just here."
"The Circle have international roots," Jakey put in. Sally rolled her eyes.
"Damnit, J, the Circle of Thorns is not behind every little plot in the world! Besides, they're out to see how many ways they can skin you, not Muse."
"Oh yeah …" Avenger ignored them both, his hands in his pockets, trying to keep calm.
"Muse hasn't made many enemies I can think of, not that'd be operating in your country."
"I guess I'd better call a few favours in then."
"I'm getting the first plane to England, what's the nearest airport to you?"
"That'll be Bristol. I'll call up Tintagel on your behalf." Nathaniel's mention of the British super-organisation caught both Sally and Jakey's attention, distracting them from just how many ways you could skin a cat.
"Who?" Sally asked.
"They'll send someone to collect you from the airport, and if I'm lucky enough, they'll bring me as your contact. Keep me posted on when you get in."
"Of course. Thank you, Nathaniel," Avenger said.
"Hey, he's my brother. What else am I gonna do?" With that, Nathaniel hung up. Avenger turned off the speaker phone and looked at the other two.
"Can you make my excuses to HU?"
"You're kidding right." Jakey looked offended. Sally folded her arms.
"We're coming with you, you daft bugger. You might be indestructible, but you're going to need me and Jakey."
Avenger shook his head and laughed, rubbing a hand through his hair. He looked from Sally to Jakey and then back to Sally.
"You're right, pretty silly of me to think I could skip out on you both. Guess we should pack light."
"Whoo! Road trip! I'll call Gaze, tell her what's going on. Sally, you get us the flight and Avenger, you finish replacing the furniture. Go people, move move move!" Jakey clapped his hands and snatched up the phone, hopping up onto the piano so he could sit out of the way. Sally pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket, going out onto the fire escape to make the call to the airport. Avenger let them get on with it, replacing the furniture and then going into Muse's room. He looked around at it, then took a deep breath. He might be over-reacting, he really hoped he was, but it was better to be safe than sorry. He started packing.

The airport was packed, today seemed to be the day for travelling. The security guards met the three heroes at the entrance, more than one of them gaping slightly as they leapt out of the sky, or so it seemed. Each one of them was wearing the colours and fleur de lis of Honourable United, a group that had an excellent reputation.
"Midnight Avenger, the plane is waiting for you. Please come this way, we'll take your baggage," the chief security guard said. Avenger nodded and handed his duffel bag over to one of the guards. Jakey and Sally did the same. The three of them followed the security guards inside. It turned out they needed the escort, word that three famous heroes had entered the building had spread like wildfire. Would-be tourists and business executives were craning their heads around and trying to see over each other. Sally did her part, shaking hands that forced their way past the guards and signing the odd piece of paper thrust at her with a pen. This was truly the weirdest part of being a hero, especially to her, as she guarded her true identity so absolutely she often did not take her mask off for days at a time. It was a strange paradox of their lives, that they hid their names and often their faces, but they were so famous that they couldn't go anywhere without being recognised. She almost pitied heroes like Jakey and Raphael De Arca, who made no attempt to divorce their true selves from their hero identity. Did they get any peace at all?
"Hey J, I noticed something," she said, glancing down at the four foot cat man who was rubbing lipstick from his striped cheek.
"Oh?"
"Does anyone know you're one of the two founding members of the supergroup? Nobody seems to call you by your rank …"
"Hopefully nobody'll find out any time soon either," Jakey said offhand, shaking a few hands as they walked, nodding to people who were asking if he remembered such and such a time he'd rescued them, their cousins and that chap who lived down the street. Sally wasn't quite sure she understood his aversion to be recognised as one of the leaders of Honourable United. It was a good thing, surely.
The plane was indeed waiting, actually out on the tarmac, but an easy walking distance from the terminal for the three heroes. They hurried up the steps and apologised to the crew for their lateness, asking them to pass it on to the other passengers and thank them for their patience. They were shown to the special class and all flopped down in the wide, comfortable seats, putting on their seatbelts.
"Nice of the airline to wait for us," Avenger said as the plane rumbled along the tarmac to the runway.
"Yeah, or we'd have to have waited for three hours for a private jet. Hate those pokey little things," Sally sniffed slightly, stretching her arms out expansively to show off how much arm room she had in the centre seat. Jakey flicked his tail around himself, hunching a bit under his hat, tipping it over his face. Sally noticed his sudden quietness and looked around.
"J … are you okay?" Her eyes fell to the armrests and her eyebrows raised when she saw how tightly his fingers were digging into the upholstery. She looked over at Avenger, who was on her other side, motioning slightly for him to look around her. He did so, leaning forward and his eyebrows also rose. Neither of them had ever seen any indication of any kind of fear on Jakey's part before. They'd seen him jump onto Freak Tank faces, throw himself off skyscrapers, run yowling at Rikti, pull faces into the tanks of Nemesis warhulks and kick the feet out from under warwolves. It wasn't that they assumed he had no fear, but it was hard to think he did given how enthusiastic he was about dangerous situations.
"Nervous flier, J?" Avenger asked, trying to keep his amusement out of his voice. Jakey didn't answer and Sally couldn't help but grin. Who'd have thought that Jakey K, the slightly suicidal cat hero, was afraid of flying.
The plane surged and they were pushed back into their seats by the g-forces, Jakey's tail fluffed to twice its size, looking more like a squirrel's tail, it was that fluffy. Sally tried to keep a straight face, it really wasn't nice to laugh at people's odd fears, even if it was so out of place.
Once they were airborne and out of the airport by thirty minutes, Sally watched Avenger discretely call for a steward, when the man arrived, he whispered something into his ear and the steward nodded, leaving. Sally frowned and leaned over the aisle.
"What you ask for? Five minutes in the toilet?" Avenger blushed outright at her words, then saw her impish grin and rolled his eyes, leaning over the aisle as well so his words would be only for her.
"Asking if he has a sedative onboard, for J."
"Good thinking, he hasn't loosened a muscle for half an hour. He's going to hurt himself."
"Yeah." Avenger looked around when the steward returned, watching as he went to Jakey's chair and gave him a glass of something. The cat nodded, taking it with a quiet thanks and they watched him drink it. Avenger nodded his thanks to the steward who took the empty glass away.
"What do you think they gave him?"
"Hell, if it was me, I'd have given him half the contents of Muse's hipflask." Avenger picked up a magazine and looked at it, mostly to hide any indication of how worried he was about his lover. Sally leaned back in her own seat, and when she looked over at Jakey a few minutes later, she was amused to note he was dead asleep. She got up to tuck a complimentary blanket around him and put his hat on the floor where his feet were in no danger of crumpling it.
"Hey Venji, how long have you known Jakey?" she asked, returning to her seat. Avenger looked up from the distinctly uninteresting article.
"A while. Met him before I joined Honourable. He was in trouble in Perez at the time, nearly getting himself killed again."
"Was that a long time ago?" Sally, like many heroes, knew that Perez Park was only really dangerous to green heroes who were still learning the ropes. Avenger nodded.
"Yeah, he was security level twelve or something. Gaze called me to help them out, liked him. Thought he was a good kid and Gaze spoke highly of him," he said with a shrug. To be honest, it felt like he'd known about Jakey for longer than he really had, as Gaze would talk about him often as she sat beside his thawing unit. Being trapped in a block of ice had given Avenger a lot of time with his own thoughts and with Gaze talking to him about certain people, he felt like he'd known them for a long time before actually meeting them.
"There's something I don't get, everyone knows that Wilkins created Honourable United, and people in the group keep saying that Jakey was the guy who signed on the second line, but to be honest, he doesn't act it." Sally pulled one of her knees to her chest, angling her body so she could see Avenger properly. Avenger shrugged.
"He doesn't like being in charge. He prefers to make suggestions and let people act on their own initiative, but he's never felt like a 'leader' if you will. I guess it's because cats aren't really pack animals. J supports people, rather than leads them. It's how he wants it and I'm happy with his support." He didn't want to censure Sally's opinions, but he wasn't sure where this was going. Sally looked at the front of the compartment.
"I guess what I'm saying is, I want him to be recognised for what he does for us."
"And he is, by those who matter. Let him have his privacy, he gets precious little of it."
"Should wear a mask then." Sally stuck her tongue out a little. Avenger grinned.
"I think that's a moot point now. Aww look, he's so cute when he's asleep." He pointed to the snoozing cat, who was curled up against the armrest. Sally grinned.
"Don't let him hear you calling him that, he'll throw a right wobbly."
"Excuse me, Midnight Avenger, Sally Storm?" A stewardess was peeping through the curtains to their section, both heroes looked around.
"Yes?" Avenger asked. The stewardess smiled apologetically.
"There are a few of the younger passengers who keep asking if they can come up and meet you, what should I tell them?"
Avenger and Sally exchanged glances, then both looked back at the stewardess.
"Let them come up, but in small numbers if there's a lot of them, as Jakey's asleep and he needs his rest." Avenger said. It looked like their public relation duties were not yet over. Sally gave Jakey a bit of an envious look, the cat had skilfully evaded the fan club this time, and she vowed to be the one sleeping so peacefully next time.

Muse groaned and pushed his hand across his face, rolling onto his back. He had a killer headache and his back ached, probably from sleeping in a stupid position. He must have gotten more drunk than he remembered. He looked up and around, the room was small and dark, which suited his mood, as frankly, any light at all would probably murder his eyes right now. He pushed himself weakly into a sitting position and tried to think of where he was and what had happened the night before. He'd reached London, he remembered that, the taxi driver had been dropping names all over the shop, asked if he'd ever been on telly. Muse had been glad to step out of the cab and head to a bar. He'd managed to convince the landlady that if she gave him a free pint of beer every hour, he'd play and keep her patrons entertained.
Well he was regretting it now, after he'd finished a few sets, done some requests, it'd been free drinks for the rest of the night. He looked around for his backpack and guitar, frowning when he couldn't find them. The room was literally a shelf of a bed with a coarse wool blanket and a basin. Now that he thought about it, it looked more like a cell. Had he been arrested?
The door opened suddenly and Muse flinched. The two men standing in the doorway were backlit by a bright light. His eyes watered and he didn't get much of a chance to inspect them before they marched in, grabbed him up under his arms and walked him out. They were both so tall and so strong that they didn't notice Muse's toes skimming the ground as he tried to keep his feet down. Muse winced and tried to organise his mouth into conveying some sound in the shape of words. He didn't get a chance to before he was taken into another Spartan room with concrete walls and floor. There was a kind of station with buttons on it and next to it was a table. He was slammed onto it, grunting slightly.
"Wassis? Gerrof!" he mumbled. Why did his tongue feel so weighty and lifeless? And why was his brain so full of cotton wool? And why were they sticking pads to his skin? Were they about to take an electrocardiograph? If so, why?
"The Music Teacher, I presume. Well, I must say it's a delight to welcome you to our wet little country. I understand you're one of the heroes of Paragon City, the Heroes Capital." The voice came from the left, sounding as smarmy and twisted as a theatrical villain. Muse turned his head and blinked, trying to make out the man who spoke. Then he saw his uniform and panicked, trying to surge up off the table. The two big men shoved him back down and got back to tying him down.
"Ah, I see you've finally worked out what you're here for. Don't worry, I'm very experienced at dealing with heroes," the man looked at his hand, then tightened his glove. His Council uniform bore the rank of Archon, an officer, though from the looks of things, only pretended to be a gentleman. Muse whimpered, trying to wriggle his hands out of the restraints, watching with increasing alarm as wires were clipped to the sticky pads. It was going to be shock treatment. Knowing that didn't help one little bit, and his heart thudded in his chest like a bird trapped in a cage.
Without warning, a blow like a hammer slammed his chest and he cried out in surprise and pain, gasping as it departed, leaving him aching in its wake.
"My, you're a vocal one. Don't break too soon, takes all the fun away. We'll start with the easy things. What's your name?"
"I-I'm the Music T-Teacher …" Muse gasped, terrified. How bad was this looking to get? Did he know anything important? A shock hammering through his body derailed his train of thought and he yelped. The Archon nursed his temples.
"I hate heroes … No, not your alias, I mean your name." He twisted a switch and another shock punctuated his words. Muse knew he should keep his name secret, he knew that, but as he screamed a third time, he didn't know how long he'd be able to keep it so.

The pain was intense, it was agony. It felt like he'd been on the table for days. Always with the questions in that reasonable, clear English voice. He'd told him his name, his date of birth, his telephone number and his shoe size so far.
"Archon Lambert, there is a man to see you in your office." Muse heard the runner whisper to the Archon even through his screams. Did this mean he would receive some blessed moments of rest?
"Can't you see I'm busy?" Lambert asked in a snarl.
"I'm very sorry sir, but he says he comes on Requiem's behalf," said the runner. Lambert's fingers twitched on the switch, then he twisted it back to zero and straightened.
"I hate being interrupted. Keep an eye on our little song bird here. Wouldn't want him to lose interest half way through his solo." The Archon pushed the runner out of the way as he walked out. Muse sagged against the table and hiccupped, breaking into sobs again. He knew his distress was only providing the archon with more amusement, but he couldn't help it. He was scared and it hurt. There were long moments of silence broken only by his hollow sobs and aching before the door opened again. Lambert walked in and moved to the side of the door to admit a taller man. He was broad of shoulder and had to duck a little to get into the room. He walked past Lambert with a kind of authority that made Muse wonder pessimistically if he was another Archon. The man walked over to him and regarded him, arching and eyebrow over the set up, then he looked Muse in the eye.
"I'm going to give you a choice, Matthew Whithers, either you can stay here and answer all of Archon Lambert's questions, or you can come with me, and I will not ask you questions," he said, his voice carried a bit of a European accent, was it French or Dutch? Muse could hardly believe it, what possible answer could there be to a question like that.
"Y-you won't torture me?" he whimpered. The man shook his head. Muse sobbed a bit, trying to swallow it back.
"Please, get me out of here. Please."
"Lambert, I am hereby taking custody of your prisoner. I trust there will be no objections? Very good," the man said smoothly, already unbuckling the restraints before Lambert's stuttered objection could be completed. Muse squeaked when strong arms slid under his knees and behind his shoulders, not sure what to make of being lifted so effortlessly. However, he was being removed from the hellish room and taken away from Lambert, right now, that was something to be glad of.
"You're way out of your jurisdiction, Langlais! May I remind you that I am the Archon here and this is my base?!" Lambert stood in the way of their exit, his voice dropping its gentility. Muse shrank against Langlais' chest.
"Really? My apologies sir, I would salute but I appear to be rather encumbered," Langlais said dryly. Lambert inhaled through his nose stiffly.
"Watch yourself, Langlais, lest you want me to ask you a few questions."
"My favourite colour is purple and I like plums. Are you going to continue to delay me? I'm sure Requiem will be pleased to hear from me on time concerning this matter." Whoever this 'Requiem' was, his or their name was enough to make Lambert pale slightly and then step aside. Langlais marched out, ducking slightly to get through the doorway. He strolled through the tunnels and past huge ventilation fans until he reached the entrance to the small base. A soldier let them out and Muse got his first good look at his unexpected saviour in the thin, grey daylight of the English countryside.
Langlais was not unattractive, nor was he going to win prizes for his looks any time soon. His nose was strong and had an aquiline hook, his eyes were a surprisingly dark green, almost inky in their intensity, but they were marred by bitter lines at the corners. His jaw was strong, but Muse could feel muscles like steel cabling holding him up, so strong was a word that could be applied to any part of Langlais with ease. As if he felt himself being scrutinised, he looked down at Muse.
"Something on my face?"
"Why … why did you rescue me?" Muse blurted out, his body still aching from the electric shocks. Langlais half smiled, an action that came easily to his wide mouth.
"I don’t think torture is a particularly useful way of dealing with prisoners. Can't trust the information they give you under duress, as after a while, a man would tell you the sky was pink if he thought it was what you wanted to hear. And frankly, Lambert's a sadistic ******* who should be taken to the vet's and put down. Hope that clears everything up," he said. Muse struggled a little, one of his legs jerking with the after effects of the shocks.
"Er … what are you going to do with me?" he asked hesitantly. Whatever his views on torture, Langlais was still Council, and didn't look like he was about to let him escape any time soon.
"And spoil the surprise? Be patient, Whithers, it is after-all, a virtue." Langlais carried him through the trees to a country lane and slipped him into the passenger seat of a jeep, he then walked around the bonnet and got into the driver's seat. Muse watched him turn on the jeep, only just realising he was shirtless.
"There's a jacket under your seat. Don't try to escape, or I'll pump you full of so many sedatives you won't wake up for a week," Langlais had an almost bored tone to his voice, as if he'd done this so many times, the words just came out on their own. Muse nodded, looking meek. He hated to disappoint this man, who seemed kind in his own way, but as soon as they got far enough away from the base, and close to any landmarks, he was out of there.
"Put your seatbelt on." Muse did so and Langlais put the jeep in gear and pulled away from the hedgerow.
They drove in silence for a while, Muse casting surreptitious looks about, wearing a jacket so massive on him it must be Langlais' own jacket. He had no idea where they were. There were just fields and thin roads that were sometimes little more than gravel tracks. He started to think Langlais was lost, perhaps this would be a better time than any. After all, Langlais in his jeep was forced to stay on the roads, flanked by thick foliage and steep banks, and Muse had the advantage of flight. He waited until they stopped at a junction and Langlais was craning his head around to look down a lane. Muse dropped his hand to the seatbelt socket and clicked the button, surging to his feet at the same time. The jeep rocked with the inaudible smack of sound waves that got Muse airborne, he hurtled up as fast as he could, leaning to the side so he could steer himself over the fields. He didn't see Langlais reach back to the backseat and snap a grey blanket off a rifle, nor did he see the man pull the stock to his shoulder and take aim, however, he did feel the dart strike his backside, and he did see the ground suddenly buck and surge up to meet him.
Langlais put his rifle back on the seat and flicked the blanket back over it. He hopped out of the jeep and walked to the stile half-hidden by an abundant growth of hawthorn. He climbed over it and ambled over to where the Music Teacher was sprawled unconscious in a small furrow of earth. He crouched down next to him and picked the dart out of his right buttock and pocketed it, shaking his head with a smile. It was a spirited attempt, especially so soon after being electrocuted for no particular reason other than Lambert was a massive [censored]. He scooped the hero up and walked back to the jeep, setting him back in the passenger seat and putting the seatbelt over him. Safety first, after all.

"Glastonbury festival has not been something write home about this year, which makes me wonder why it needed this line at all. I left Nathaniel's this morning and I'm taking the train down to Sidmouth. The usual neds and skallies are on the platform, [censored] around, so I'm in the waiting room. I really need a shower, sitting in a washed out tent smoking weed for three days has rendered me a little pungent. I met Fran from school at the concert, how lucky was that? She was pregnant with her fourth kid and the other three were having a great time in the rain and mud. Honestly, spending time with Fran and the kids was better than the actual music this year. We made mud angels, I'm sure you can work out what that entails. Apparently she's naming her fourth Matthew, I asked if it was after me, and she told me to go smoke a kipper. Funnily enough, I saw someone actually doing that, right before someone set fire to the porta-loos. They burned for HOURS. Scary. Anyways, train's coming so I'll break off here for a few moments.
The neds are three carriages down and I can still hear them. There's a man sitting opposite me who really needs to cut back on how much time he spends in the gym. I think he's a bouncer or a rugby player. Big men look daft in suits mostly, still, he must have a tailor, not buy off the rack, as it's a nice suit. Fits him well. He keeps looking at me down his nose, I think I must be carrying the stench of Somerset with me. I hope it crashes his pansy little laptop. Thing's overheating anyway, nothing to do with me, I assure you. Ah, there's a kid just fell over and banged her knee. Poor tyke, I'll go help.
Look at that, I've gone and run out of paper before I could tell you about the amazing cinnamon roll I had. It was amazing. Love you! - Matt."
Avenger smiled as he read the cramped last words scrawling up the margin before folding the sheet and tucking it with the others. Muse had been true to his word and there were now ten letters in the folder, one for each day he'd been gone. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, trying to pretend he'd gotten up early for yoga. Needless to say, the postman was getting used to seeing him casually waiting by the letter slots, tying his laces or reading the notice boards with an earnestly interested expression. He looked out of the window at the light slanting down the tall apartment rises of Founders Falls, picking out the details of fire-escapes and power lines running between the buildings. A magpie landed on his windowsill and pecked at the feeder left out to entice slightly smaller, cuter birds. It dipped its tail a few times and let out its chattering squawk. Avenger watched it until it flew off, soaring up to the roofs. He stood up with a creak of bedsprings and stretched, absently checking the time. The postman would be on the bridge, coasting down the curve with his left leg locked down on the pedal of his bike. The man was such a creature of habit, he always took the same route every day. Avenger pulled on his trousers and tugged his fresh shirt off the hanger. He poured orange juice with one hand as he flicked on the television with the other. Surfing the news channels as he drank, his attention was picked up immediately by a story on one of the international channels his television picked up, courtesy of Captain Cathode.
"- the situation was resolved by Tintagel representatives and all the hostages were rescued. Airports are expected to take new security measures to prevent another hijacking," said the anchor man in a crisp English accent. Avenger checked the channel's icon in the corner of the screen. BBC, that was English right? He hoped so, as he didn't want to have to phone up Cap and ask him, as he'd probably get laughed into living as a hermit for twenty years or worse; have to sit through one of Cap's television marathons. They were rumoured to go on for days.
"The Prime Minister is set to meet with the European Summit in Brussels this week-" Avenger flicked over the channel, the only thing more boring than politics was the politics of another country where he didn't know anyone's name or what anyone stood for. He checked his tie in the mirror and picked up his hat from the side, turning everything off before leaving the flat. He half jogged down the stairs, popping it on his head. He heard the door go downstairs as the postman let himself into the foyer. Avenger jumped down the last two flights and then slowed down, strolling casually into the foyer.
"Morning, anything for me?" he asked brightly, sounding as offhand as he could. The postman stopped delivering number 8's mail and turned to nod to him. He flipped through his satchel and drew out three envelopes.
"Here you go, pal." The postman passed them into Avenger's excited hands. Avenger flicked through the envelopes, then frowned and tapped the postman on the shoulder.
"Sorry to be a bother, but is there another one for me? Hand written address?" he asked, shoving the bills into his pocket. The postman paused before delivering into number 9's box, obliging him by looking through his satchel again.
"No, that's your lot today. Expecting one? Got a girlfriend out of town?"
"Something like that."
"Well, she abroad? Sometimes mail don't get through for a few days, y'know. Strikes in airports, fuel depots exploding, derailed trains. Messes the mail up." The postman got back to tucking bills and correspondence into the waiting boxes, like a mother bird with her greedy chicks. Avenger thought about the news report he'd caught earlier, could a hostage situation in an airport or increased security slow a letter down? He wasn't sure, but nodded his thanks to the postman and headed out. He should check on Jakey first, even if that did mean going all the way to the train station on Talos Island and getting the green line to Steel Canyon. Maybe he had a letter from Muse and only his was delayed. Feeling purposeful, Avenger strode through the streets of Founders Falls, keeping one eye out for trouble, as always.

"Venji! Come on in!" Jakey's voice yelled as Avenger knocked on the door. He pushed it open and frowned when it thudded against something. He had to sort of slither in through the gap available and stopped when he realised the door had struck the sofa, and on the sofa was the table and there were plants all over the sofa and the table and they almost filled the entire hallway.
"Crawl behind the sofa, there's sort of a tunnel into the living room!" called a woman's voice and Avenger blinked. He didn't know Sally Storm was staying over at the flat. He sighed and got down on his hands and knees, squeezing himself sort of diagonally through the narrow gap, booting the door shut as he went. After some tricky negotiation of the piano and a stack of music sheets, Avenger tumbled into the living room. It was devoid of all its usual clutter, and rush mats had been laid out on the floor. Sally Storm was sitting on one, leaning back on her elbows and Jakey was draped over her legs, a habit he'd never been able to break concerning women.
Avenger straightened, then sat down cross-legged and looked around.
"Minimalist. Nice."
"We're using it as a dojy thing." Jakey rolled to his feet and walked into the kitchen, tail hooked over. Sally rolled her eyes.
"Dojo, Jakey. Dojo."
"Him too. Tea, Venji?"
"Yes please," Avenger said, looking around. Sally sighed.
"Been trying to teach Jakey an actual discipline," she explained. Avenger chuckled, as if Jakey acquired discipline of any kind or sort, the world would probably plunge into Armageddon.
"I thought he does tae kwon do."
"Nah, *******'s completely freestyle. Never studied a martial art in his life." Sally looked most displeased about this, as she herself had studied her father's personal style all her life. Perhaps it was the wide competitive streak in her, or a desire to share something of her life with her friend, but she sometimes found Jakey's skill to need training.
Jakey returned with the tea and put one down by Avenger's knee and then left and returned again with what appeared to be breakfast on a platter to share. Sally took her tea and sipped it, moving her position so Jakey could sit down.
"Muse know you've trashed the place?" Avenger asked with a smile. Jakey shrugged.
"He'll suspect I have even if I hadn't, so why disappoint. Besides, it's not trashed, it's rearranged. Given how hard we were going at it last night, if we'd left stuff in here- … what?" Jakey's ears pricked as he looked from Avenger to Sally. Both had their hands over their mouths and were making small, spluttered noises into their palms. He frowned lightly, then winced and his ears went back, "I didn't mean that! I meant sparring! We were sparring! Oh god damnit!"
"Easy there tiger, I'm not sure you're man enough to handle me," Sally grinned, her dark, oriental eyes glittering with mischief. Jakey's tail flicked from side to side and he drank his tea.
"No offence, but you're two legs too short to be my type."
"And you're two feet too short to be mine." Sally's retort made Avenger splutter into his tea again.
"You always have to bring height into it?!"
"You always bring species into it!"
It wasn't long before the two of them were tussling playfully, insulting each other and rolling around. Avenger got up to check if any mail had been delivered, having to lie on his side and slide his hand under the sofa to pull a few letters out. Most were bills and one was strange, looking fat and had the stamp of a law firm on it. Avenger wondered why Bates, Bates and Sanchez were writing to his lover, and set the letter on the bedside table of his room. It seemed so small and lonely without Muse, without his coat thrown over the chair and his jeans slung on the floor. Avenger lay down on the bed and closed his eyes, willing himself to believe that just for a moment, Muse was home and lying on the other side of the bed, still asleep. Fanciful dreams, maybe.
Why hadn't there been a letter today? He could understand no calls, Muse had dropped his phone in some river while drunk, but had written instead. Had something happened to him? He'd last said he was on a train. What if it'd crashed? Avenger sat up sharply and pinched the bridge of his nose. This was getting silly. Muse was okay, he'd just forgotten to write, for some unknown reason.
There came a thump from the living room, and a series of thuds and then a squeal and laughter. This flat really did have thin walls after all. Avenger's eyes slid to the window of their room and grinned, colouring even though he was all alone. Muse's resonating voice had cracked and broken the panes outright on so many occasions that the glazier was on the flat phone's speed-dial and did them a special rate because they 'were such a nice couple'. Avenger stood up sharply and then crawled into the living room, trying not to choke himself on the phone's trailing wires.
"J, Sal, can I interrupt for a minute?" Jakey and Sally looked like they were trying to throttle each other with their legs, they paused and looked at him.
"Sure Venj, whas the matter?" Jakey asked, as if he didn't have Sally's shin bone wedged against his clavicle.
"There was no letter from Muse this morning." Avenger tried not to sound as worried as he was inside, but some of it must have leaked out because Sally and Jakey actually let each other go.
"You suspect something's happened?" Jakey asked, sitting on his heels, his tail tip perked up from the floor.
"Got no reason to suspect anything, other than no letter," Avenger mumbled, he knew he had nothing they liked to call 'proof'. Sally pushed her hands through her wild hair.
"Well, Muse has written to you almost obsessively every day since he left, so I can see why you're bothered. Do you have anyone you can call? Who'll know where he's staying?"
"Yeah, his brother, Nathaniel, and I think he was going to see someone called Nick in Manchester."
"Got numbers for them?"
"I do." Jakey was already diving into the pile of furniture in the hallway. He was back a few minutes later with an address book, "Muse's contacts."
Avenger took the book gratefully and opened it, then blinked. He didn't know anyone who had filled all the boxes in an address book before, so much so that extra pages had been stuck in.
"Man, how come Muse knows so many people? He's not exactly the life and soul of the party. Fact, don't think I've ever seen him at a party …"
"No, he's such a home-body." Jakey was as confused by Muse's address book as Sally was, the two martial artists peered over Avenger's arms as he flicked through.
"What's Nathaniel's second name?"
"No idea, but Nathaniel can't be that common a name, right?"
"Well, there's this guy, but his name's Horatio …"
And the sun travelled across the sky above Paragon City.

"Matt! HEY MATT!" Muse looked around as he walked out of the gate into the main terminal of Bristol Airport, he didn't suppose the voice was calling for him, but couldn't help looking up when his name was called. A hand appeared and disappeared behind a row of heads, it flailed frantically, then a board appeared in it with 'Matthew Whithers' written on it sloppily with what looked like dribbled coffee. Muse blinked, then reached his own hand up and waved.
"Yeah?"
"Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatt!" The board tore down the line of people, then a short, stocky young man with tousled black hair skidded on the polished floor, his trainers squeaking shrilly. He opened his arms up and grinned triumphantly.
"Matty!"
"Nathaniel!" Muse grinned with delight and braced himself for the enthusiastic embrace, laughing, "Oh my god, you've barely grown at all!"
"And you're still sporting chin hair like the devil! Oh man, it's good to see you again!" Nathaniel slapped his back hard and then took the guitar case. As he had when they were children, Muse felt fragile as matches around his 'brother'.
"I'm glad you came to meet me, I haven't been back to England for years …" Muse rubbed his eyes, as the flight had been long and the whine of the engines had stopped him from sleeping. Nathaniel grinned.
"You look all done in, mate. Bumpy flight?"
"Kinda. Just couldn't get much sleep, y'know?"
"Alright, we'll get ourselves the breakfasts of champions and loz about in a pub for a bit, how's that?" Nathaniel reached up and slapped Muse's shoulder and he nodded.
Half an hour later, they pulled their stools up against the bar in a 'gents' pub, the smell of tobacco and spilt beer permeated the air and Muse smiled as he heard the football on the television. Real football, with round balls.
"Two pints of the house, please. Matt, what you having?" Nathaniel stopped eying the pretty peroxide barmaid long enough to look at Muse for his order.
"Three Jack Daniels," he said, checking his guitar was still leaning against his leg. It was, and he leaned his arms on the bar. He glanced at Nathaniel out of the corner of his eye, then grinned when he caught Nathaniel sneaking a peek back. The stocky man shook his head with a laugh.
"You're broader than when I last I saw you. You was all skinny then, and Winters kept telling you to shave." Nathaniel looked fond, then nodded his thanks to the barmaid as she placed their drinks in front of them. Muse chuckled.
"That a polite way of calling me fatter? Well, I was, what? Eighteen last time we saw each other?"
"Jeez, where does the time go …?" Nathaniel held up one of his pints, "Well, here's to absent friends, and returned family. Cheers."
"Cheers." Muse knocked one of his shot glasses against the pint and they both drank. He felt the bourbon burn its way down his insides and looked at Nathaniel, "so how's Bobby and Jess?"
"Bobby's a lawyer now." Nathaniel mimed sticking his fingers down his throat, "and Jess's … well, she took the offer." Muse nodded.
"Yeah, she wrote to me and told me she'd accepted a place in Avalon. Still got her sights set on the Lionheart Program?"
"Nah, she hates the Army, and you have to be military to get onto that. Still, she's doing okay. I swear to God the [censored] she's getting up to is making Winters [censored] blood." Nathaniel sounded half envious, like he was considering taking Tintagel up on the offer they'd made ten years ago. Muse chuckled, savouring his second whiskey, rolling it around his tongue to take in the flavour.
"How is ol' Frosty anyway?" he asked, using the affectionate pet-name they'd called their guardian by as children. Nathaniel blew a raspberry in response which made Muse laugh.
"That good huh?"
"If he calls me 'Horatio' one more time, I'm going to set his hair on fire, I swear to God," Nathaniel muttered blackly. Muse held his peace on that, Nathaniel had been threatening to set fire to Winters over the use of his correct first name since the first day he'd arrived at the orphanage. Muse doubted things were going to change any time soon.
Six pints and four whiskeys later, they'd moved from the bar to one of the corner tables to play backgammon with the pub's set. Nathaniel waved his hand airily.
"So what was that in your last letter about 'Adam'? He your new pretty boy?" he chuckled rustily. Muse rolled the dice and moved two of his marks.
"You make it sound like I trawl for talent at a photo-shoot."
"Hell, if I had your looks, I would. Underwear models wall to wall and a pop starlet for the weekends." Nathaniel belched discretely into his hand while Muse coloured on his cheeks.
"I'm not attractive, Nat," he mumbled. Nathaniel scooped up the dice and shook them energetically with the hopes that more kinetic force would equal a better chance of a double six.
"[censored] you aren't. I swear to god, Matt, once upon a time you used to charm every lady who came your way. Remember that time back when I got in trouble at school and you just talked Miss Jennings around from calling Winters. Always getting free drinks and free cigarettes coz you looked just so and talked just so." Nathaniel swore when he got a double three and tried to make the best of it, moving three of his markers. Muse scowled blackly, folding his arms and leaning back.
"Yeah well, I grew up and got ugly. And no, Adam is not a 'pretty boy'. He's a colleague." Muse missed Avenger acutely, wishing he could introduce him to his 'brother'. Of course, meeting family was a big step. He'd only met Avenger's twin sister Gaze because it was hard not to, what with her being in the same super group. She and Jakey were quite close, some sort of mother or sister figure to his flatmate. It was a fairly complex relationship and he wasn't sure he'd ever even understand the full scope of it.
"You get colleagues in guitar tutoring?" Nathaniel queried, getting up so he could insert an extortionate amount of cash into the cigarette dispenser and buy a pack of ten supers. Muse scratched the back of his neck, then sighed out. He reached into his pocket and took out the slim leather wallet, flipping it open so his Hero Licence was revealed and slid it over to Nathaniel. His brother stopped trying to get his cigarette lighter to work and stared at it, then at Muse. He swivelled the as yet unlit cigarette to the corner of his mouth and picked up the licence, looking it over to check it was authentic. When it tested positive under his intense scrutiny, he handed it back. Muse flipped it shut and tucked it back into his pocket. Nathaniel gave up on the lighter, sticking his thumb up. The tip of his thumb ignited and he lit the cigarette from that before blowing it out.
"Wow … so you're a cape then? Damn, Tintagel must be [censored] you skipped the country. You know, I had a feeling something big had happened. When you first moved to Paragon, you didn't have much to write about, but now it's a multitude of friends and social engagements …" he sighed, then glanced up to meet Muse's dark eyes, "You're being careful though? Keeping yourself safe?"
"Yeah. Adam protects me, and I don't exactly run around on my own so much."
"Good. You can tell him from me that if you get a scratch, I will steal a speedboat and go all the way across the ocean and beat him to a bloody pulp with the outboard motor." Nathaniel nodded sharply, as if to verify the sincerity of his words with himself. Muse tried to imagine Avenger even noticing someone beating him over the head with an outboard motor.
"I'll tell him, but it hardly needs be said, y'know. He's good to me," he said, draining the last of his bourbon and calling for another. Nathaniel snorted, regarding him.
"Jeez, you look desperate to spill the beans. Alright, tell me all about him before you pop already." He tried to sound surly, as though his brother's love life was a mild inconvenience to the smooth running of his own life. Muse grinned.
"Okay, well, he's a bit taller than me, and has midnight blue hair and deltoids to die for. He's sweet without thinking about it and has this great sense of dress. He does random, romantic things off the cuff and it's so adorable when he doesn't realise how corny it is. And-"
"Oh bloody hell," Nathaniel looked incredulous, taking his cigarette out of his mouth so he could finish his beer and call for another, "You're serious about him."
"He wears this hat, and it's just about the sexiest thing in the world." Muse picked up the dice and rolled them around his hands with a grin on his face. Nathaniel pulled a face.
"Just how sexy can a hat be, seriously?"
"Sometimes I don't let him take it off," Muse said, grinning even more. Nathaniel held up his empty glass.
"Oh god, lady, get me that drink pronto, I just got the mother of unwelcome mental images!" Muse laughed as the barmaid got them the fresh drinks, personally he didn't find the mental imagery so unwelcome, but then, he was horribly biased on the subject.
"So other than slightly-more-kinky-than-I'm-okay-with-being-told-about sex, this Adam chump's okay is he?" Nathaniel asked, trying to look tough. Muse nodded.
"Would treat me like a princess if a pretty pink dress didn't make the lousiest super-hero outfit of all time."
"You could call yourself The Godmother and wear a fedora and talk in a Sicilian accent!"
"Show some respect to tha supergroup, Tony." Muse pinched his fingers together and wagged his hand as he spoke, the voice that came from his lips didn't sound like him at all, but Stephanie Peebles with a strong accent. Nathaniel roared with laughter. Muse went to pieces in the face of his amusement and the two of them were doubled over wheezing when their drinks arrived.

"Music was my first love, and it shall be my laaaaast. The music of the future, the music of the paaaaaaast!" Muse and Nathaniel leaned on each other as they staggered down the road, singing as loudly as they could, each trying to outdo the other. A small group of students crossed the road ahead of them, though three of them cheered them on. Muse and Nathaniel waved cheerfully in return. They had sung the song three times before they got back to Nathaniel's tiny flat, stumbling up stairs and pausing so Muse could vomit over the banister a bit. Nathaniel patted his back and Muse suddenly draped himself over his shoulders.
"Hmph, let's not call it a night yet … you haven't shown me where the hot men is at," he hiccupped. Nathaniel rolled his eyes.
"You're drunk as a lord, dude. I'll no be taking ya to a nightclub so you can drag three guys off for fun with handcuffs. I know what you're like when you're pinned. Piffed. [censored]. Shuddup." Nathaniel stood, wavering at his door as he looked at the keyhole with intense concentration before finally negotiating his limbs into the correct series of movements that would get the damn door open. Muse leaned on the wall, then slid down to thud onto his backside when his knees gave out.
"I wouldn't cheat, just wanna window-shop. Mmm, firemen hotties with rippling backs and washboard stomachs." He fell over onto his back and breathed for a while before Nathaniel staggered back and grabbed his shoulders, dragging him into the flat and kicking the door shut.
"That's what you said on my twenty first birthday, y'[censored]. Remember that?"
"No … why, what happened?" Muse put a hand to his head, lying on the hall carpet, which wasn't too clean. Nathaniel slumped down to sit against the bookcase.
"You boned my best mate and his older brother. In my bed. [censored]."
"[censored]? I did?"
"How do you forget [censored] like that, man? The image has been emblazoned on my mind for years." Nathaniel found another cigarette and lit it from his thumb again. Muse sighed and then reached up to pat Nathaniel's knee.
"In my defence, we got pretty drunk at that party. Was the same week Pseudo Apoplexy got signed. I wasn't sober for a [censored] year. Gimme that." Muse's fingers found the cigarette and swiped it from Nathaniel, he took a long drag, then pushed himself into a sitting position opposite his brother, looking haggard. Nathaniel regarded him in a wobbly way.
"You're drunk, Matthew Whithers."
"So are you, Horatio Nathaniel Aldershot III." Muse grinned wickedly at Nathaniel's invitation to go fornicate with himself vigorously. They sat in silence for a while, listening to the world move around them, sharing the cigarette until it was just a dog-end as they had so many years ago.
"How'd you do that anyway?"
"Do what?" Muse mumbled into his arms, his elbows resting on his knees. Nathaniel gave him an almost envious look.
"Get straight men to sleep with you. What the hell do you do?"
"Why you wanna know?" Muse lifted his head, feeling like he was going to be sick again and that he wanted a drink of water really soon. Nathaniel looked at the flat around him.
"Want to know if I can use it to get lesbians. In pairs, of course," he said, grinning. Muse half laughed, shaking his head.
"You wouldn't be able to do it. I use my powers."
"Your powers are almighty sex powers?! And I just get spontaneous voluntary combustion?! [censored]. How's that fair?" Nathaniel slumped, tipping his head into his arms. Muse half shrugged.
"They're more trouble than they're worth. I only use it on patients now."
"You what? You titillate your patients into bed with you? Seduce them on the operating table? You sick *******." Nathaniel was wide eyed, but grinning. Muse could already hear him thinking up all possible ways of twisting 'the doctor is in' and he threw a discarded book at his brother's head.
"No, I use the sonic vibrations to encourage the body to heal. And yes, in some cases give the brain a gentle massage to stimulate the production of endorphins. Never enough to get them off, that's just plain weird!"
"Can't believe you said that without stuttering. It's still not fair though. I should have had the awesome sex powers. I'd have called myself Hard Man, and have a wang shaped car." Nathaniel broke off into a fit of giggling. Muse shook his head and staggered up, hooking his arms around Nathaniel and getting him to his feet. "And I'd go around rescuing women from thugs and gangsters and their lingerie. Lovely, lovely lingerie." Muse shook his head with a laugh, reaching up to ruffle Nathaniel's hair.
"I figured out why you're single."
"Oh?"
"Women think you're [censored] and over-compensating."
"[censored] …" Nathaniel sagged onto the bed when Muse dumped him on it. He pushed his face free of the mattress as Muse picked up his legs and heaved them onto it. He watched sort of befuddled as the younger man pulled them off and tipped them onto the floor before wobbling a bit.
"You're gonna try use those sex powers on me are you?"
"No, you spaz. You're my sort-of-should-be-brother. It'd be indecent. And I don't screw desperate guys. Sleep well, Nathaniel, here's your bear." Muse located Tassles and tucked the floppy, holey, matted teddy under Nathaniel's arm before pulling the duvet over him and staggering out.
"'M not desperate. Well … maybe just a little," Nathaniel chuckled into the covers. Muse sniggered as he fell on the sofa in the next room.
"Get a girlfriend, man."
"Trying, man. Trying."

Muse had forgotten Stephanie's veiled unease about 'Cosmos' when he reached the airport finally, wearing his backpack and holding his guitar case. He was much too excited to be thinking about what the Council may or may not be up to in Striga.
"That's your flight, isn't it?" Avenger pointed to one of the many screens that displayed departure destinations and times. Muse nodded, walking past the check-in lines to a section marked unobtrusively as 'Special Class'. He put his guitar case down and took out his Hero Licence and his passport, handing them to the young girl behind the counter.
"Ah yes, Music Teacher, okay, would you like the chicken or the beef meal?" Muse pulled a face, he hated being asked that at check-in.
"Um, chicken please."
"Okay. Ohh, are you the Midnight Avenger?" The girl paused in the tack-tack of her quick typing, looking up at Avenger from her chair. Avenger nodded.
"Yes ma'am."
"Ooooh, you're shorter than I thought you'd be. I don't say this to every hero I meet, but you are just the dreamiest. You know most heroes have this thing for spandex? It's just so tacky and eighties. I just love how you dress!"
Muse bit down on the impulse to put his arms around Avenger and give him a kiss passionate enough to let everyone know that he was taken, thank you very much. He breathed deep to try and master the jealous impulse, feeling a little ashamed. To be fair, he thought Avenger was rather good looking with a great sense of style, why shouldn't other people? He accepted his boarding pass off the girl as she blithely chatted to Avenger some more. Avenger was taking it in good part, he was polite without being too formal and friendly without being too chatty.
Muse watched as his backpack was sent down the conveyer belt to be loaded onto the plane. He kept his guitar close. It wouldn't like the cold of the baggage hold and he had no intention of allowing anyone to potentially manhandle his beloved instrument by flinging it around as "baggage".
"Well, you have a nice day, Helen. We're going to go to the lounge and wait for the plane." Avenger waved to the girl behind the counter and picked up Muse's guitar case. They walked off through the terminal, looking for a little café where they could pass the time.
"Nice girl, liked you," said Muse, off hand. Avenger was not entirely fooled by the innocence of his tone and put his free arm around Muse's shoulders.
"They only like me because I have a big number for my security clearance," he said. Muse leaned against him, smiling slightly.
"Whereas I like you because you have a big-"
"Oh look, a Starbucks!" Avenger pointed and grinned. Muse chuckled and let himself be dragged into the coffee bar. They found a table by the window and ordered two coffees, one mocha and one caramel latte.
"I thought Jakey was going to be here?" Muse looked out the window at the cars coming and going from the terminal entrance. Avenger shrugged.
"He was, but then he got a screaming call down his radio. A friend of his was having some trouble in Salamanca, so he went to help."
"Ah." Muse stirred his coffee, he'd never really been to Salamanca, though he'd heard it was over-run by witches and pumpkin people or something. Jakey had tried to explain something called a trans-dimensional paradigm rift or something equally as complicated sounding. Something to do with another world bleeding into the real world, bringing a host of alien creatures with it. Such things really were Jakey's area of expertise.
"Well, long goodbyes can get awkward," Muse said, reaching over the table and taking Avenger's hand. Avenger squeezed it slightly.
"Is someone picking you up from the other airport?"
"Yeah, my 'brother', Nathaniel."
"Oh good." Avenger looked out the window for a moment, then drank his coffee. They were both listening for the announcement for flight 22b. Finally it came and they left their empty cardboard cups to be cleared away, walking to the gate. Avenger paused and turned Muse.
"You'll call me as soon as you land?" he asked. Muse nodded, looking up at him, then he leaned up and kissed him before hugging him tightly.
"I will, and I'll call every day. Let you know what a fantastic time I'm having," he said, wishing he could take Avenger with him.
"You better. If you miss one I'll assume the worst, go to Warburg, steal a rocket and strap myself to it and fire it at England."
"Well don't aim for anything vital." Muse pulled away and brushed Avenger's shoulders, straightening his jacket.
"Yessir." Avenger tipped his hat slightly. Muse half smiled and then stepped away, taking his guitar from Avenger and walking off through the gate. Avenger waved a little when he turned around, then stood there for a few more minutes, as though waiting for him to come back.
Muse sighed a little, heading straight to the plane and showing his boarding pass before letting someone check his hand luggage and guitar. Heroes could technically get away without being checked, but Muse preferred to adhere to the standards of his earlier years, when he'd be routinely checked in airports. It had almost become a comfort thing. He nodded his thanks to the security staff as he took his guitar and struggled to return a salute that was presented by the captain. Or was it the co-pilot. Muse didn't know how to tell them apart. He'd not travelled as a hero before, and didn't realise that there'd be any fuss. It was slightly daunting.
He was shown to the 'special' class and found it to be ahead of first class. He was a little surprised, as he had assumed when he'd booked the tickets, that he'd be travelling in standard. Then he winced and remembered that he'd needed his Hero Licence all over the place. His credit cards were still in storage so his identity remained protected. He sighed and settled his guitar next to his wide, comfortable seat. Well, he wouldn't be a hero forever, so he might as well live it up now. He leaned his head back on the seat and looked out the window. He hoped Avenger had found a window and was watching. He put the backs of his fingers to the window and sighed a bit. It would only be five weeks.

"Here's my stop." Muse looked out of the train window, looking up at Avenger, who was holding onto the pole next to him. Avenger grunted.
"Sure I can't come with you? What if someone recognises you?" he asked. Muse put a hand on his chest and patted it.
"Sorry, but you're not exactly very good at sneaking around, love. Say hi to your sister for me, okay? And could you pop into the flat while I'm away, just to check Jakey hasn't decided to grow an acre of catnip over the walls?"
"Yeah yeah, I'll keep an eye on him for you. And I'm going to see you off at the airport, so there." Avenger swayed slightly when the train stopped. Muse smiled and disembarked, he stood there as the doors hissed shut and waved a bit as the train pulled away. In the crowd walking away, someone muttered something about '****'. Muse had heard it too many times to really care any more, he turned and walked with them to the exit of the station. The salty air smelt of rotting seaweed and diesel, the cackle of seagulls fighting over left-overs almost drowned out the ranting of a man by the train station exit. Muse pulled his cap down low on his face as he walked past him, typical Council recruitment speeches mostly.
"Turn away from the hedonistic values of a corrupt and decaying society! Join those of us who work tirelessly towards a better future!" the Council soldier yelled. Muse wondered if he really believed his own propaganda, as frankly, he'd never seen a Council soldier work towards anything but one old man's megalomaniacal dream to rule the world. A ship horn sounded and Muse's heavy boots thudded down over wooden jetties as he took the short cut across the moorings to where the ferry was docked.
"I can't believe I had to stand here on look out again when Tony gets to sit in on the poker game!"
"You want to get down on your knees and lick as much [censored] as Tony, you go right ahead."
Muse walked past two suit wearing men as they stared out over the docks with their backs to him. He had to resist the urge to walk up and tap them on the shoulder and remind them that one of them at least should be watching the jetty ways. Schooling gangsters on how best to keep watch wasn't his job though, if indeed, it was anyone's, and he just shook his head as he left the mooring and walked to the ferry. It was actually a tanker that made a daily supply run to Striga and back, shipping all kinds of things to be parcelled off into other ships in Port Noble and sent off into the wild blue yonder. Muse took out his Hero License and showed it to the bearded man on the gangway. The sailor raised his eyebrows at the military clothes, but nodded and let him past. Muse let himself below decks and worked his way down the narrow corridor to the 'lounge'. He found a deep seat in the corner that he could flop in and be mostly ignored by people.
Fifteen minutes later, the ship chugged into life and was towed out of the Port by a tug boat. Muse watched the port slide away past the porthole. He leaned his head on his hand and smiled as he wondered how Cirrus was doing these days, not to mention Nathaniel and Bobby and all the old crowd. He closed his eyes and for a moment, he could almost smell the heather and distant smell of sheep, could hear the shrieking laughter of the other children in the garden and the squeak of the swings.
"Now entering Port Noble, if anything is on fire, now is the time to put it out. Can all heroes please make sure all their group is accounted for, if there are any invisible members, be sure to pat the seats down so they don't get forgotten."
Muse had to admire the captain really, he'd been doing this run for upwards of forty years, he must have seen it all. What did he tell his grandkids when he went home? A hero jostled past Muse, his cape billowing. Muse watched it swish in his wake. Capes were part of hero lore, a testament to Hero1, declared missing presumed dead at the end of the Rikti Invasion. Indeed, it was through his actions and the actions of his team, Omega, that the invasion was stopped. Heroes wearing the cape all knew this, and understood the honour and responsibility that went with wearing it.
After the other heroes had disembarked, Muse ascended to the deck and strolled down the gang plank. Seagulls screamed and cackled at each other, their raucous amusement could have been aimed at anyone, there was certainly plenty of activity on Striga for them to laugh about. He pulled the blunt peak of his cap down to draw attention away from his face as he walked past some Council soldiers on a jog through the Port. There were so many of them around here, their base was on the island proper, and nobody went there who wasn't prepared to deal with rail guns locking onto them.
Stephanie's apartment was behind a warehouse and Muse pressed the button for her number.
"Hello?"
"Stephanie, it's Music Teacher."
"Oh good morning dear, come right on up!" there was a buzz and Muse pushed open the front door. He climbed two sets of stairs before reaching her door and knocked. Stephanie opened it and looked up at him. Her elderly face pulled into deep smile lines as she hugged his shoulders.
"So good to see you again, Teacher, come in, come in." Stephanie waved him in as she walked back, shooing her fat black cat out of one of the chairs. Muse closed the door after him and pulled off the cap, pushing a hand through his blond hair to loosen it.
"How've you been, Steph?"
"Oh not so bad. How's your beau?" Stephanie already had the teapot and small cakes ready. Muse smiled, Stephanie might be one of his contacts and an insight into the seedy world of Mob activity and Council plots, but she was still one of his favourite people to visit socially.
After the second cup of tea and the fourth cake, after commenting that maybe his 'beau' would not appreciate a soggy midsection, Stephanie leaned back in her chair and regarded Muse.
"I'll be honest, dear, I didn't ask you out here just for your company, as lovely as it is." Muse met her gaze curiously, usually Stephanie looked wryly amused and her accent was thick and friendly. Sometimes there was a sharpness to her eyes, such as now, she had something important on her mind.
"Oh? You have a mission for me?" he asked, somewhat reluctantly. Stephanie shook her head.
"Nothing concrete yet, but one of my other heroes - nice girl with a bow - found something very strange in the files she retrieved for me. I've been telling all my heroes about it, something to do with something called Cosmos."
"A project name?" Muse had encountered the Council enough to know they were always giving slightly silly names to their projects. Stephanie shrugged.
"Could be anything, pet. There was a hint of surveillance, so it could be a place. The name is, as usual, tantalisingly enigmatic. There's no way of knowing what Cosmos means yet. Keep your eyes and ears open though, won't you?" Muse nodded.
"I doubt I'll be much help to you over the next five weeks though." He couldn't help but grin. Stephanie frowned.
"Oh?"
"Holiday. I'm off to England, then off to Scotland for a reunion."
"Aw, well that's nice, you have fun!" Stephanie lifted her teacup as if to toast his wellbeing, then sipped. The conversation slipped back into more comfortable avenues after that, but Muse was reminded that a lot can happen in five weeks. He hoped someone would get to the bottom of what Cosmos was, if it was anything at all.

This follows on some time after 'Cave In', a short piece that sort of paves the way for this beast. All comments about nationalities are intended to annoy and amuse, :P



Music Teacher, or just Muse to most, inspected his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He tilted his head to regard the bristly growth under his chin. Complaints of a certain someone reminded him that going four days without a beard trim might be a bit much. He filled the sink with warm water and set about mixing the shaving soap into a foam, using his antique shaving kit, an heirloom from his mother's side. He had her eyes, they were dark and slanted like hers had been, but his hair was all his father's, blond and tending to vigorous growth. Behind him, coming from the kitchen, he could hear singing. If that was really the word for it. What he lacked in classical training, Jakey K more than made up for in enthusiasm. Currently he was belting out "Poison" by Alice Cooper while he bounced and clattered around the kitchen with a frying pan.
"I'll throw a shoe at you if you don't stop caterwauling, J!" Midnight Avenger's voice sounded from Muse's bedroom. Muse pulled a face when he heard the pan hit the floor, already imagining the fat splattering over the lino.
"Venji!" There were faint thumps of running feet, then a thud and clunk of springs. No doubt Avenger had just received a low flying cat to the chest. Sure enough, a few moments later, Avenger walked past with Jakey attached to his arm, the limp getting enthusiastically hugged. Muse looked around and smiled, working foam onto his soft bristled brush.
"You remember what today is?" he asked, not having to pay attention as he reached up and lathered under his chin and over his cheeks with the foam. Avenger put some toast in the toaster with the Jakey-laden arm and flipped on the kettle with his other hand.
"Our anniversary?" he asked. he knew perfectly well what day it was, but couldn't help teasing his soft-natured lover.
"No!"
"We're taking J for his shots?" Muse paused in his brushing, concerned that Avenger really had forgotten.
"It's the day I fly back to England! For-"
"The Glastonbury festival, then down to Sidmouth, then travel the country with a backpack and your guitar, then you go to a Reunion with all your 'brothers' and 'sisters'." Jakey and Avenger chorused in perfect synchrony, having heard the five week itinerary every day since Muse had booked the plane tickets. Muse scowled at them both and turned back to shaving, picking up the old fashioned barber's razor. Avenger chuckled, getting breakfast underway.
"When are you off then?" he asked, mostly to mollify Muse. He himself wished the holiday was four weeks, six days shorter. He hadn't dated in hero circles before, and their occupation did add a certain need to track the other's movements, just to make sure they were safe.
"After I go see Stephanie about something. Around twelvish." Jakey leaned around the bathroom door, watching Muse shave with a certain fascination. He'd never seen someone with one of the old cut-throat razors before he'd moved in with Muse, not even gangers on the street carried them. It was curious that someone so adverse to sharp things would shave with a seriously sharp strip of metal.
"You're going to Striga? You'll be careful?" Avenger leaned out of the kitchen. Muse sighed and washed off his razor before turning his attention to his throat, he couldn't answer right now, they'd have to wait for the usual assurances. Jakey grabbed up the first hat his hand came to and plonked it on his head. When it fell past his eyes he pushed it up.
"Damnit, I hate it when you stay over, Venji! Can't you leave your hat outside or something?" he flicked it off his head, it sailed across the room to hang off the coat rack and he jumped up, loudly proclaiming his score to be righteous. Avenger snorted, frying bacon.
"It's not my fault you can't tell the difference between an adult size and a child size."
"Neither can Muse, apparently." Jakey dodged the empty cup that was thrown in his direction, darting out the window onto the fire-escape. A few moments later, Muse came in, dapping his cheeks dry and frowning over a nick under his chin that was oozing a bit of blood.
"Is he being a tease again?"
"Thoroughly wicked." Avenger leaned over to kiss Muse's cheek before turning back to the cooking. He tried not to think how the next five weeks were going to go, with Muse away in England, where he couldn't protect him. He knew England had several superheroes, but from the newspapers, they tended to get arrested for drinking a lot. He knew Captain Britain was an alcoholic, that was widely known. Disreputable lot.
"I should go get my disguise on." Muse leaned his head against Avenger's shoulder for a moment, glad Jakey was bouncing off the walls outside so he could have at least one quiet moment with Avenger before the day started. He kissed his cheek and walked back to the bedroom. He was excited about later, he hadn't had a holiday for simply ages, and when Cirrus wrote him to tell him that the old crowd from the orphanage were getting together in a month's time, he jumped on the chance.
He scooped up the khaki fatigues and started getting dressed. Unknown to a lot of people, the Council actually possessed an off-duty dress-code. It was no less militaristic than the rest of their organisation, but it did tend to help him ghost through their territories without any fuss. They only saw the uniform, not the man wearing it. He belted the trousers up and stomped into the high boots, lacing them up and tying them snugly, looping the laces around twice at the top as the Council had a wont to do, to keep long laces from trailing from their boots. He buckled the Kevlar vest over the khaki shirt and then pulled on the uniform jacket, topping it all off by slapping on the cap.
"You know, there's something so wrong with how good you look in that uniform," Avenger said as he walked back in. Muse waved it off.
"You think I look good in everything." He sat down at the small table with Avenger. The other grinned.
"And out of everything as well!" Muse should have seen that one coming, he sighed and got started on breakfast.