Jakey_K

Great stuff!

22/8

Back in the Rogue Islands now. I escaped from the Zig without Arachnos' help this time. Clinging to the underside of the monorail and making my way to Steel Canyon so I could get to Siren's Call was hell on my shoulders. I've been busted back down to grunt jobs but who the hell cares?
Miss Gaze likes me. And I like her.
We're on opposing sides but … we don't always have to be.
Sounds like Lou's about to lose his rag at Elliot again. I'd better go get them both to calm down. We've got a heist planned for tomorrow and I need them both to be on getting-along terms or we're screwed. Maybe I'll buy Miss Gaze something pretty … girls like pretty things, right? I think this could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

12/8

Haven't been able to make an entry lately, too much totally cool stuff has been happening. She got the letter.
SHE GOT THE LETTER!
She visited me. She even believes I didn't commit the crimes that got me thrown in here in the first place. She says she's got some of her friends working on a way to prove my innocence.
She got the letter.
I think I'm going to hyperventilate.
She's interested in me. Actually interested. In me. I think I'm going to puke …

05/8

Ho hum, I'm back in jail again. I thought it might be a good idea to sneak out through the entrance in Pocket D that leads to Paragon City. I just wanted to see Gaze again, see if she got the letter. I came out in some place called Kings Row. Really grotty place, air was heavy with smoke and soot stained the buildings. It was the coughing that gave me away and I swear to Frill, ten Longbow just piled onto me. Knocked me about something chronic and slammed me in the Zig without so much as a 'how do you do'. Jerks.
Got a really strange visitor today. Some guy called 'Gregor' something or other wanted to see me. Kept asking me all sorts of weird questions. Apparently a few heroes have made a case for me. I was stunned. I still AM stunned. What the hell's going on?

30/7

Still no word back from Miss Gaze. I haven't given up hope, I mean, these things take time right. It's not helping that Atters keeps describing her brother as 'the next Statesman'. He seems to be taking more pleasure in scaring me juiceless than I approve of. At the rate he's going, if I ever meet this Midnight Avenger, I'm just going to wet myself and gibber with terror. You know, it's embarrassing to even have to be so scared of him, I'm a bloody general for Frill's sake! I've taken on dwarves and minotaurs and hell, I've even pulled a dragon's tooth. Of course, I wasn't chipped then.
Figures.
The only time having the capacity to punch someone through a solid wall would be useful, and I can't even use it anyway.
On the subject of the chip, I'm worried about it. I woke up with a nose bleed this morning. That's never good. I can't even call my doctor. I may have to go to Styner but one, he doesn't know much about fairy biology, and two, I always have this creeping feeling he wants to open my skull up and fish out the chip for further inspection. Human doctors are still using scalpels …
I'm sure 'barbaric' isn't quite fair, but sometimes human practices are a little … dubious.
Not going to go out today, having toilet roll stuffed up my nose to soak up the blood isn't dignified, no matter who you are.

15/07

Just spent some time talking to a work friend of mine, the Attorney has said he'll use some of his contacts in Paragon to help me get a message through to my fair lady. I'm so excited my hand is shaking and I can barely type. Apparently it's okay to start off with a love letter, but it's more a fairy thing than a human thing. Still, it is done. I must write one. This is my draft so far:

"My dear Midnight Gaze

I am not much of a poet and sorely lack the way with words that some more worthy possess. I just wanted to say that my admiration for you knows few limits and only grows with each mention of your name. I'm sure you don't even remember me, but please accept the enclosed as a token of my esteem and admiration.

Yours,
Immemoria"

I make myself sound like a nob. Still, maybe the amethyst earrings will say what I meant to say. … Maybe I should re-write it to say 'I love you, please don't smite me'?

10/07

I haven't been able to communicate with home for months now. I feel so lost. The chip continues to malfunction and I'm not closer to finding out the identity of the Light Bringer and … I keep being distracted from my mission.
I keep finding myself in Pocket D, scanning the crowd and loitering near the hero entrance. She hasn't come by. Why am I doing this to myself?
Dumb question to ask really. I know why I'm doing this.
She's the one. She's the one for me.
Mother, may her bones rest easily, always told me that I'd know my true love the first moment I saw her. I've had to sit through functions and dinners and all kinds of things as my father tried to find me wives to suit my fancy. Always complained that I was so picky. Said that maybe I spent a bit too much time sparring with men to know what to do with a woman. I'm pretty sure I'm not batting for my own side, though. And now, I really am sure.
Father's going to be [censored] that I've got a thing for a human. Well stuff him. What does he know? It's not like it's wholly unknown for fairies and humans to intermix. Back in the Old Days, it was more or less acceptable.
This is so embarrassing. I haven't even spoken to her again and there's no way I should be talking about intermixing so soon. It's indecent.
Right. This moping about staring at the wall is not going to win her heart any time soon. I must learn how humans go about courtship, and then I will court her. I will win her love and then … I'll work out what to do next.
Y'know, maybe I should have spent more time listening to the bards singing love songs. I feel very ill-equipped to be dealing with this.

13/06

It's been a month. I've been doing small jobs, trying to avoid any messing with innocents, picking my enemies carefully. Usually I crack heads of the guys I know are dealing dodgily, Council, Trolls, those kinds of people. I just can't bring myself to mess with innocents.
Though funny thing happened the other day, there's this new dance club, it's called Pocket D. Some human's worked out how to use dimension technology (which means that hopefully, one day, humans will figure out how to actually store things in a space-sensible way), and he decided to create a club. It's neutral ground for us guys on the Rogue Islands and the heroes of Paragon. I like it there, it feels almost safe, like Arachnos has no power there. I don't mind admitting that guy scares me. Anyway, I was talking to some guy, and he mentioned this cauldron of the Furies. Man, everything those females created is just a mess waiting to happen. Using the cauldron, Arachnos'd be able to make entire waves of super soldiers to do his bidding. I'm not worried about losing my 'position of trust' with Spider Brain, but what the world really doesn't need right now on top of a Light Bringer running around free, is an army of super soldiers bent on world domination.
So, I teamed up with a few people to stop this. Some of them were heroes. And I mention this because the woman who joined me was … wow. Just … wow. She had this bearing, like she was a real quality lady. I don't know how human nobility works, and I don't think there are any around here, but even if she was standing in a crowded room, you'd know she was something special.
She has this … grace. This special quality.
She answered my call for help and she didn't seem to be judging me.
Man. What's wrong with me? She's a security level 50 hero. That's epic.

13/05

Okay, this is pretty weird. There's been a prison break out. En masse. Some guy called Arachnos sent a whole whack-load of troops into the prison and sprang a bunch of people. I was one of them. Apparently one of his fortune-telling peeps told him I was 'important'. Well, since he was springing me from the joint, I figured I'd best take him up on his offer to 'serve' him and all that [censored]. I've never really worked with criminals before. I used to just smash them into walls and throw them in the clink, so … it's a bit weird right now. Lord Arachnos doesn't seem to be a push-over either. I doubt I could take him even with the chip removed. Besides, I don't want him conning onto me. I think I'm in absolutely the wrong place.
[censored]. I'm even expected to break the law for these guys. It might not be my law, but it's still law. I spent five minutes last night bashing my head against the wall. This is so screwed up. At the moment, it seems to be turf wars between Arachnos and other gangs and cults and stuff. I'll be okay if nobody asks me to take down an innocent. I don't know if I'll be able to do that. I really don't.
I'm so weak right now, I don't dare show my true colours, not when I'm surrounded by people who could beat me the snot out of me. [censored]. I sound like a coward.
Oh boo hoo! Poor little me!
Okay, enough self pity. I have to get through this somehow, and keep people from noticing I'm not exactly the criminal type. Should be easy, no?
I think there's something wrong with my chip … it seems to be failing to block my skills that are directly linked to the ethereal parts of my brain. I'll have to keep an eye on this, I mean, I appreciate the fact I can get a handle on my healing magic, but DAMN, I'm trying to be incognito here …
I've been in the hospital a lot lately. I keep forgetting that I don't have my sword with me and that I even have the chip. It's getting mental.

07/05

As I write this, I'm sat in the cell of a human prison called the Ziggurat. It's not so bad in here, there are large draining units that suppress 'super powers' or something. The food's rubbish, but I'll cope. There's some moss on my wall. It keeps me company, which is nice.
I figured I'd write a journal to keep my mind entertained, as the only excitement that happens around here is fighting, and after I broke that dude's arm, nobody comes to fight me anymore. Upshot of this is, nobody asks me to retrieve the soap either, so it's not a total loss.
This all started seven months ago, when I was minding my own business, training my troops and my tenth eldest little brother came legging it over the courtyard at me. He was waving one of his bizarre, spinny instruments and yelling about things being out of balance. Like I knew what that was supposed to mean. Civil defence and warfare is my field of expertise, not gizmos that puff varied coloured smoke every five minutes. Hazel, my little brother, grabbed my arm and pulled me back to his lab. That's no mean feat, I mean, I'm built like a frigging rock compared to everyone else. Anyway, we end up in his lab and he starts going on about the Shadow Bringer disappearing. Just like that. Now, I didn't know much about ethereal mechanics, but I knew enough to know this was a 'bad thing'. The balance of the world just went shonky. He told me that if the imbalance was not addressed, the world would be plunged into increasing entropy until everything just went 'splat'. That was his exact word. I figured the world going splat wasn't a very good thing, so I promised I'd bring it right to Father's attention.
Father doesn't like to be bothered with trivia and minutiae. He says that's what he has his sons for. We get on with the boring parts of ruling and he gets to philosophise and stuff. This arrangement suits me, as I get to run around sharp objects and beat the snot out of monsters trying to break the city borders. It's fun. Very outdoorsy kind of job and I get above ground loads to lay some smack-down on something that's [censored] Father off. Father also … well, he sort of has trust problems. Sometimes I'm the only person he'll talk to for days, he's convinced that his royal court is trying to off him. This isn't as farfetched as it seems, as I don't think the throne has passed from father to son for thousands of years. There are four families that it kind of shuffles around, and there's a constant squabble going on. It's pretty mad sometimes. This is why I like my job, it's nice and simple. Things are bad, you hit them. Things are good, you defend them. Nice and simple.
So I went and told him about Hazel's findings. Father nearly hit the roof. He yelled at me, he found Hazel and yelled at him. He yelled at the servants and he yelled at the dragon. He did a lot of yelling. When I got him calmed down enough to give him the herbal tea my sister prescribed, he gripped me by the shoulders and told me that this was a catastrophe. It would be the End Times if nothing was done, the world to be consumed in sprawling chaos.
Frankly, it was kinda scary. You see, chaos is good, in moderation. The Light Bringer is representative of creation and chaos, and the Shadow Bringer is destruction and order. They exist together and there is balance between them. There have been times when there's been just one before, but the world spirals really quickly into a kind of shutting down mode and it's theorised it would just stop existing if balance wasn't restored by a quick death of the remaining Bringer.
Father told me I was to bring death to the remaining Bringer, the Light Bringer especially.
"The Light Bringer is not a force for good, Immemoria. Light burns."
I don't know, maybe it was just the way he said it, but it scared me. I thought about my niece being burned alive in the light and it upset me. I promised I'd kill the Light Bringer, and Father nodded.
But that old paranoia reared its head again. He said that the Light Bringer would have fey senses and if I came too close, he or she would sense me and see right through my shielding. He or she might even be able to know my mind, as that's part of the Light power as well. I didn't like the idea of my target knowing I was coming, so when brother number eighteen (or is it nineteen? I lost interest after number ten, frankly) suggested a modified inhibitor chip, I jumped at the option. Father was very pleased, I think, at my willingness to have the chip implanted in my brain. He said it spoke highly of my devotion to the mission and the seriousness with which I was treating it. He always thinks I joke around too much. Maybe he's right. Anyway, Ilrisi put the chip in me, told me it was a different, more stream-lined version of what we use on criminals in the city. I didn't know exactly what was different about it.
I even had to hang up my sword and my armour. Both are chock full of attunements and shielding runes, they show up like beacons to anyone with an ethereal scanner. And apparently, the city were I was headed, there was an entire battalion of Elflings. Whoopdedoo.
I haven't rumbled with an elfling since some dwarf ******* tried to take down one of our southern gate-houses and get into the city. I went out there to take him on, and met this surface dweller elfling who promptly attacked me calling me a dwarf! I know I'm stocky, but damn! There's just no call for that kind of thing. Naturally I headbutted him and let my horns do the talking for me. If he ever came around again, I hope he's got a pair of scars on his forehead to remember me by. Of course, found one of his buddies down the line, he smelled the blood on my horns and decided I was an enemy and we were going at it wildly, my sword against his axe. It was a brilliant fight, one of those one in a million ones. It was electric and he was an awesome fighter and I wasn't too shabby either and we were just throwing ourselves into it. Ha, still makes me grin to remember it. I hope I meet him again some time.
ANYWAY, Elflings usually have a handle on the ethereal flows around them, and I didn't want to bring a whole squad of them down on myself when I'm trying to be subtle. So I was left with just my chip and my fists.
The human city, called Paragon, was okay. My gift of tongues got me through and I picked up slang and mannerisms real fast. And you know, it's that kind of city where nobody thinks anything of you being half the size of everyone else and having coal black skin. It was nice, actually. I ate hotdogs and listened to radio and laughed at cars (internal combustion engines equal HYSTERICAL), and it was fun, y'know? I didn't forget my mission for a moment, of course. But trying to find a Light Bringer in a city isn't as easy as it sounds. Sure, the huge, blindingly brilliant aura should be a give-away, right? But you try picking one person out in a square when you can't see a damn thing because of light aura that extends throughout the entire square. I saw the aura every now and then, flashing past, or overhead or whooshing past on a train (I presume). No frigging help.
So I started fishing for information. I knew the sort of characteristics the Light Bringer was supposed to possess. He or she would probably have a high academic award, as Light is the power of the mind, so they tend to be smart. He or she would probably have white hair or skin or glowing eyes, be very fast and have a huge magic potential, whether they're using it or not. Apparently they're also arrogant, what with being super powerful, and have an affinity for fire, lightening and other forms of energy.
My research lead me to believe the Light Bringer was masquerading as a 'Hero', which would provide them with the best cover in Paragon. There were HUNDREDS of heroes there. I saw them all the time but no-one bothered me. The chip was working perfectly.
Right up until the moment I got arrested for trespassing in a garden centre.
I was just talking to some plants, getting intel and stuff like that, when bam, police everywhere. So it was night-time and the centre was closed. So I cut one lousy chain-link fence. Big whoop. Their response was TOTALLY over the top. I put a few through the window and tried to peg it but they caught me, slapped a pair of handcuffs on and then, for some bizarre reason, thought I needed to be sent to maximum security in their prison for dudes with super powers.
Totally uncalled for.
Turns out, some crack-pot human mystic ordered it. She turned up, asking about me later. Her name was Azuria. She needs a slap. She has no idea what having me arrested interrupted. Apparently she "saw" me in a series of visions that had a lot of bloodshed and splat in. My wording this time. Then it turned out she had evidence putting me in the right place and right time for a bunch of crimes.
Let's get one thing straight. I did NOT commit those crimes. The only thing vaguely against the law I did was trespass in a bloody garden centre. Someone set me up, but I have to work out who later. Right now, I have to get out of here and find the Light Bringer before the effects of the increased entropy become apparent even to humans.

On the Honourable Forum, it's in the Completed Works section, rather than the Creative section.

There are some great stories there by other members, there's even a recommended reading list to help build up a narrative sequence.

"Does one of you want to explain what you were doing letting J defuse a bomb in an abandoned building in Boomtown?" Gaze didn't raise her voice. She never needed to. Avenger, Shingi and Esher all stood in a loose horseshoe in the infirmary of Honourable United's small base. Avenger rubbed the back of his neck.
"Well … it's like this. Jakey called us this morning, apparently one of his contacts had heard a rumour that the Circle of Thorns were about to summon a really bad demon in Boomtown. But when we got there, we found all these canisters in the foyer with the Council seal on them and Shingi here said they were bio-weapons, but we couldn't find the detonator. After a lot of searching, we found the bomb in a small pipe, only it had Sky Raider tech all over it. Since J was the only one who could fit in there, he went in to try and disarm it before it set off the bio-weapon and …"
"Failed. Spectacularly." Gaze finished it off for him. Shingi fiddled with the helmet jammed under his arm.
"At least the bio-weapon didn't go off," he muttered. Gaze glared at him and he looked at the floor suddenly.
"The canisters were filled with lemonade. I just had the analysis. Lemonade, gentlemen."
"Esher am like lemonade. It am teh BUBBLES!" Esher was rapidly losing interest in the dressing down, looking over at where Jakey was lying on the gurney, an oxygen mask over his face and blankets pulled up over his midriff.
"Lemonade?! But-"
"But nothing. It was lemonade and you all got suckered into an explosion that nearly killed you," Gaze took a breath to calm herself and looked at them all. Avenger had the grace to bow his head, feeling somewhat responsible for it all. Given the team, he was the voice of reason. Gaze exhaled through her nose, then walked back over to where Jakey was lying. Shingi promptly remembered a few repairs his suit needed, and towed Esher out after him. Avenger watched Gaze uncertainly for a moment, then left quietly. Gaze sat beside the gurney and stroked some of Jakey's fur-like hair back from his face.
"You ever going to get around to telling me what's bothering you, J? You haven't been yourself lately," she murmured. Whether he could hear her or not was irrelevant. She was worried about him. The cat had been disappearing off by himself more and more recently, taking missions alone, and now he had some intensely secretive project he wouldn't talk about, even to his housemates. She remembered the day she'd met him in Eastgate, or the 'Hollows' as it was more often called. He'd been dancing on top of a police car, throwing his arms about wildly.
She wondered what had become of that carefree cat, why his smile didn't seem to come so easily any more. She doubted anyone else had noticed, it had taken her long enough to, and she was closer to Jakey than most. But it was there. Something was troubling him, deeply. Something he didn't feel he could talk about or she'd already know. He rested on, oblivious to everything. Still, that was to be expected after a forced 'resurrection'. When he'd arrived on the telepad, he'd been clinically dead, precious seconds slipping away until brain death occurred as they raced him into the infirmary. She sniffed deeply and reached up to wipe her eyes with the knuckle of her thumb.
"Stupid cat …"

The rhythmic thock of the bamboo water-fountain measured out the moments. Jakey padded over the wooden veranda that surrounded the house, his sandals passing with almost a whisper. Pale pink blossoms fluttered past in the wind that tugged at his kimono. He walked down the steps and down the path to the stream. A small arched bridge spanned the stream and beyond it sat a woman in an extravagant kimono fit for a queen. He approached her.
"Is there any colour that doesn't suit you, Vanessa?" he asked. Vanessa DeVore looked up, long locks of black hair sliding off her shoulders to spill out in the wind.
"Not really. You're dwelling again," she smiled. As ever, her expression was filled with the cunning that had made him respect her. Jakey flicked his ears back and stretched his hands above his head.
"Is that why you decided to go full oriental fantasy on me?"
"I just think the idea of you as a noble samurai is adorable. Tell me, my hero, are you going to stop trying to get yourself killed?" she asked, her hands in her lap. Jakey blew a petal off his lips as he sat down by her side.
"I wasn't trying-"
"You know you can't lie to me, Jakey K, do stop trying." Vanessa reached over and cupped his cheek in her hand, turning his head to look at her. Her thumb traced over his stripes.
"I don't want you to die. We haven't even begun to explore the possibilities together," she said softly. Jakey leaned up and kissed her lips.
"Nothing lasts forever, Vanessa," he whispered. She cupped his face in both hands, giving him a searching look.
"Come to me, we'll escape together! We'll leave the country, to London, Milan! Berlin! The world can be our oyster, Jakey," she said passionately. Her fervour was intoxicating, but it reminded Jakey why he'd arrested her in the first place.
"I don't think I'd make a very good Strongman." He put his hands up to hers, about to pull them from his face but he didn't really feel like it. He rubbed her wrists with his fingertips instead, looking away. Vanessa covered his face with her hands, parting her fingers so he could see out of them.
"You know you'd be more to me than those soul-less cretins. You'd be my counterpart, Lord of the Carnival of Shadows," she whispered. Jakey sighed.
"Vivi, I've had a real hard day, can we leave the megalomaniacal plotting for a bit?"
"Oh very well, I shall play 'good wife' if you insist. How was your day, dear?" Vanessa took her hands from his face, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him close. He closed his eyes and leaned back against her, looking weary.
"… I had to increased the power to the suits." Vanessa looked at a distant point.
"How long do you think you can keep patching it like this?" she asked, her mischievous teasing absent. Jakey watched a petal fall into the stream.
"Maybe as little as months. Maybe a year if I can upgrade the runes a few more times."
Vanessa was silent, then she rested her head against his. He covered her hands with his as best he could, and squeezed them slightly. The only sound was the thock of the bamboo fountain and the rustle of the wind in the trees.

Below, the wheels turned, great metal hoops whirling around a blazing energy that burned with the light of a thousand suns. Jakey closed his eyes, perched dangerously on the very edge of the catwalk above the engine. Behind him, the door buckled and burst open, armoured troops fighting through the cramped space. The line had failed then. There was no time left to worry about his attachment to the handful of years that constituted his life. He bared his teeth in one final, savage grin and before the first soldier could reach him, armoured hand outstretched to grab his fluttering cloak, he threw himself forward. There was an electric moment and Jakey believed, just for a fraction of a second, that he would fly. Gravity seized him out of his delusion and he plummeted. The wildly spinning rings blurred as they shot up to meet him. His hat was torn from his head by the wind sheer and he spread out his arms, hands coming into claws and knees drawing up. His instincts prepared his body to land, but his mind knew that there would be no landing.
To think it would all end here, light years away from the planet Earth, that he was destined for a lonely death far away from everything he had fought to protect.

Six Weeks Earlier

"You doing all right in there Jakey? No pressure, you understand …" The voice of Midnight Avenger sounded in the earpiece of his radio. Jakey rolled his eyes, hands jumping away from the precision work he was attempting.
"No pressure?! You do realise we're somewhat on the clock here, Jakey?! Get your short stripy backside into gear or I'll find out how many ways there are to skin a cat!" Shingi broke in.
"Me am bored! Dancey time!" Esher's voice overruled Shingi and Jakey thunked his head to the floor of the air-conditioning pipe.
"Could you lot shut the hell up? I'm trying to concentrate in here," he snapped, moving the mouth piece to his lips so they could hear him over the repetitive beat of Esher's stereo. A shadow blocked up the distant end of the pipe as Shingi stooped to glare down the length, half imagining he could see Jakey's tail and feet.
"Why are we letting you do this again?"
"Because nobody else fits in the pipe, Metalhead. Don't make me [censored] in your coffee again." Jakey muttered, narrowing his eyes at the mess of wires before him. He ignored Shingi's promise to get him back for that and checked the timer. There was still five minutes left before this thing did whatever it was supposed to do. Whoever had designed the bomb either didn't know the first thing about electronics or knew plenty and how to screw over anyone's attempt to disarm it. He itched his ankle with his other foot absently as he returned to unscrewing the fourth casing. This bomb was a nightmare. He'd disarmed several in his time as one of the heroes of Paragon City, some had been simple, some had been complicated. None had been this fiddly and down right evil. Whoever had planted it and left word with his contacts of its whereabouts was a real nut job. He prised the screws from their housing as the timer ticked to four minutes. He tossed the housing ahead into the tunnel carelessly and then stopped, heart nearly frozen. There was another timer under the last housing. It read thirty seconds. Twenty nine. Twenty eight. Twenty seven.
"Fall back!" Jakey screamed into his microphone. It surprised the other three, who all looked at each other.
Twenty five. Twenty four.
"What?"
Twenty two. Twenty one.
"GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE, THAT'S AN ORDER!" Jakey was already scrambling backwards down the tunnel, heart racing. The conviction of his right to order a retreat must have gotten through their confusion, as Shingi suddenly grabbed Esher and pushed the young man towards the half open double doors to the rest of the derelict office block.
Seventeen. Sixteen.
Avenger reached his hand into the pipe, leaning his whole body against the wall and scrabbling through the thick muck as he tried to seize some part of Jakey.
Fourteen. Thirteen. Twelve.
Jakey scrambled backwards, feeling his hat get knocked off in his haste. He reached for it instinctively when Avenger's hand closed around his tail and he was suddenly torn backwards with a yank that screamed pain through his body.
Nine. Eight.
Shingi, still holding Esher by the cloak around his neck, ignored the lifts, pushing the servos in his suit's legs to their maximum as he threw himself at the double glazed window past the lifts.
"We am fly now!!" Esher yelled as Shingi hoisted him under his arm and threw himself through the window back first.
"Warning: you have not exited building at ground level. Emergency jet packs activating."
Three. Two. One.
Avenger hauled Jakey to his chest as tightly as he could and threw himself around the only shelter he could see, the vending machine alcove.
Zero.
The explosion shockwave slammed Shingi and Esher through the wall of the building opposite, the former only just managing to swing around so his armoured back and jet pack were to the solid wall, protecting the younger man. In their wake, a cloud of dust rattled through the hole, knocking old furniture and both heroes to the far wall. There was a thunderous noise as the top half of the tower block leaned over before, with almost aching slowness, started to crumble as it fell down, adding to the rubble-strewn landscape of Boomtown.
"Warning: You have been injured, please seek medical assistance. Suit integrity at sixty three percent. Jet propulsion system damaged." Shingi grimaced as his suit's internal monitors made him aware of the list of damages to his suit. He could hear the servos grinding as he moved his arm to push half of a long dry water cooler off his head.
"Stupid bloody cat. What did you go set it off for?" he asked into his radio. Esher poked his head out from under Shingi's legs, covered with so much dust he looked like part of the furniture.
"Fun! We do again?"
"No we bloody don't. Sound off check, Shingi okay."
"Esher a-okay an' dancy!" Esher waved his arm from the rubble.
There was silence on the radio for a second longer than Shingi was comfortable with.
"Avenger okay. Jakey's badly hurt. He's not teleporting. I think something's wrong." Avenger's clipped sentences made Shingi suddenly heave the girder off his left ankle, surging up. He ran over to the hole they'd come in through, rubble crunching under his feet. He looked at the gap between the two buildings, then down. The dust was still churning below. Esher poked his head out next to Shingi, looking across at the other building that was now half the size of its neighbour. He pushed his thick blast goggles up over his unruly hair and squinted.
"It am not far. We jump to teh glowie man an' kitty." Shingi looked at Esher for a moment, surveying him through the black faceplate of his power suit.
"Is that your brilliant plan?"
"Me am brilliant. You see. Just stop worry worry forevah an' jump." To make his point, Esher backed up the length of the room and paused at the back wall for a moment before suddenly sprinting forward. Shingi watched as he hurtled past, throwing himself fearlessly over the gulf between the two buildings. He shook his head slightly as the boy made it to the other side, rolling on impact to spare himself any injury and then surging to his feet and looking around alertly, waving back at him. So his jet pack was knocked out by the explosion, he was sure the servos had enough power in them to make the jump. Moments later, he thudded down by Esher on the flimsy landslide that was the top of the building.
"Avenger, you're going to have to help us locate you. Knock on something hollow if you can. Jakey's head should do," he said. Esher was already scrambling over the rubble, one ear cocked to the treacherous ground. Shingi followed him, muting his suit's internal speakers after he got the fifth reminder warning about his jet pack being damaged. He really had to find the time to deal with that warning system before it got on his nerves enough to just rip it out.
Esher's keen ears picked up a rhythmic thudding a little later and Shingi unsheathed his claws.
"Stand back, Esher." He drove his claws into the rubble and used them to dig down. After a while, he struck a flat metal object and human fingers wormed their way out of a gap in the masonry near his fist.
"Teh glowie man!" Esher darted in to help, digging with his gauntleted hands. Avenger helped when he had enough room to move, his suit filthy and there was blood splattered down his side. He looked grim when the other two helped him out of the hole.
"It's not mine. Be careful, he's all … limp. I think something's broken." Shingi glanced at Avenger, then nodded slightly, crouching with him to extract Jakey from where he'd been protected from the crushing embrace of the building by Avenger's invulnerable body. Shingi saw what Avenger meant immediately, suddenly hoping that Jakey's flimsiness was only because he was a cat and naturally more flexible than a human.
"Shingi to Base, we need an emergency medical transport for Jakey K immediately." Shingi watched as Avenger cradled the limp cat close, like a child or younger brother. He swallowed away the fear at how he seemed so lifeless. He'd seen Jakey pick himself up after going one on one with Nemesis Warhulks, cat had more lives than sense.
"Understood. Activating teleport." Gaze's voice sounded in their ears and after a moment, the cat vanished in a flash of light from Avenger's arms. The three men stood where they were for a moment before Esher peered over the edge.
"Me am see house from here."

Author's note: Thank you everyone for reading this. The narrative arc started in 'Case of the Missing Cats', through 'Cosmos' and 'Breuddwydio' will conclude in 'Believe'.

Watch this space.
Well not this space.
This forum.

It was much later, he'd left a note with the front desk telling the others to head to debriefing without him. Jakey K shone the torch on the plastic explosives he'd attached to the Dream Fountain, holding it in his teeth as he stuck two wires into it from the remote controlled detonator. In the torch light, scattered from all the earlier action, several human bones could be made out. Jakey gave them no more thought than he'd given any of the other detritus on the dais. He looked at the inscriptions again, rubbing the word he'd had difficulty translating before.
'Breuddwydio'. It meant 'to dream'.
He straightened and walked away to a safe distance. He pulled the detonator out of his pocket and flipped the safety housing off the switch.
"Three bloody years you ate out of my life," he muttered, as if the device could hear him or heed him. "Three years, some nice new scars and a bloody thorn in my chest. Hell, why am I talking to you, you don't care. You're just a machine. I could blame the Circle of Thorns, I guess. Still, I've given them enough hell on and off for the last eighty years for us to be slightly even now. Oh well, sayonara."
He pressed the switch and in the darkness, a brilliant flash went up and the Dream Fountain was blown apart. He dropped the detonator into the water and crushed it under his boot, thankful that at least his friends hadn't figured out who the janitor really was. That would have taken some serious cover up on his part.
Small mercies.

Fin

He coughed, wheezing and shuddering.
"Cap! Here, pass the water over, Cap's coming round!" He felt a metal rim being pushed up against his mouth and water touching his cracked lips. He gulped it down, wincing against the raw dryness of his throat and mouth. His head was pounding, he felt cold and stiff and aching. He felt a familiar wash of energy pass over him, soothing away his pain.
"I still can't find Jakey." Sally's voice sounded from the left. Cap blinked his eyes open, though he wasn't sure if he had, as it was as dark as it'd been with them closed. He reached his hand up to his face and his fingers touched the goggles over his eyes. He felt a relief so profound he sagged. He was back and he wasn't dead.
"Ferdas?" he asked tentatively, suddenly not sure if he was dead or not.
"Yeah, it's me." Ferdas' hand found his and gripped it, as if he was trying to reassure him that they were both still flesh and blood.
"Muse is still out …" Avenger's voice sounded quietly off to the right, weighted with worry. Cap managed to struggle into a sitting position, emptying the flask with long pulls of water.
"Damn, we're out of water," he muttered. Ferdas took the flask off him.
"Our Jack, get over here," he said. There came a 'sching' of Shingi's carbon claws.
"Where is he?" he asked. There came the sound of chipping ice after a while followed by the tingling smell in the air of Ferdas using his radiation powers.
"Guys, we really can't find Jakey anywhere. He should have been right next to me." Gaze's voice broke through the darkness, she sounded as worried as Avenger had. Cap accepted the flask off Ferdas again, drinking the melted ice.
"Ferdas, wasn't he here when you woke up?" asked Shingi.
"No, I already told you. You guys were still out but there was no Jakey." Ferdas helped steady Cap.
An hour passed as they waited, the only motion from Muse was an occasional twitch, then suddenly, with a small scream, he woke. Avenger had to grab his flailing hands before he hit someone by accident.
"Whoa! Ferdas, pass me the water, he's up." He took the flask as Ferdas reached out and found his hand, pressing the water into it. Avenger supported Muse's body as he held him up to drink.
"It's over, Matt, it's okay. You're awake," he whispered quietly. Muse gulped down the water noisily, then pushed it away.
"I saw you die!" he sounded hoarse, his voice cracked. Avenger pulled him into a tight hug, shaking himself.
"I-I know. It wasn't real, I'm still alive, so are you," he said quickly. Muse sobbed, clinging to him with shaking, weakened limbs. Cap turned his head in their direction, slightly glad that Avenger hadn't seen how viciously Muse had turned on the mages who'd killed him. He listened to the shattered sound of Muse's crying, putting a hand to his stomach as it gurgled so loudly everyone heard it.
"I'm starving," he muttered. Ferdas sighed. Cap realised that his breath stank.
"I don't know how long we've been down here, but it's been a while. If I'm not hungry, my stomach just hurts like blazes."
"Where's Jakey gone?!" demanded Sally, after there was some splashing. She sounded frustrated and worried.
"Could he have slept walked?" asked Gaze quietly. Muse hiccupped, sounding muffled as if he hiding his face in Avenger's chest. Which he probably was.
"N-never known him t-to."
"Hellooooo?" A voice sounded distantly and everyone looked around. In the distance, a series of small lights danced.
"I think the dark got to me, I can see fairies …" muttered Cap. There was a crunching sound as Shingi stood up.
"That's not Venji and Muse, that's a rescue party! Hey, over here!"
"TEH SHINGI-GRUMP BOT! IT AM ESHER COME R3SCU3 J00!" There was a lot of splashing and one of the lights surged ahead of the others. Moments later, Esher had jumped on Shingi, loudly proclaiming himself to be the winn0r and find0r of missing Shingis.
"You people, tch, have you any appreciation for what this water is doing for my boots? This was fine Italian leather I'll have you know." Raphael De Arca, who was the only one not wearing a miner's helmet, picked his way onto the dais with a disgruntled expression. He helped Gaze to her feet.
"My dear, you look radiant for a woman who's not washed herself for several days." He wasted no time, despite his words, in wrapping a foiled blanket around her shoulders.
Cap found himself being helped up by Lionheart, she pressed a thermos into his hands as she wrapped the blanket around his shoulders.
"It's soup," she said. Cap gulped a mouthful, not caring for a moment that he burned his tongue.
"How did you find us?" Shingi had his helmet off, taking some soup from Awai, his peacebringer 'friend'.
"Jakey told us where to find you. He's probably still unconscious at the base. Wilkins is there, keeping an eye on him," Raphael said.
"Wilkins is here?!" Sally demanded, letting Esher do his best to provide her with blanket and soup, even though he seemed more interested in poking the back of Shingi's head.
"We called him after you guys failed to report back in. We've been looking for you all for five days. Now is not the time to talk, come, we're to get you home."

Gaze stepped out of the shower, feeling like a new woman. She smiled to Sally as the other woman attacked her hair with a hair-dryer.
"I always wondered how you got it to stick up like that," she chuckled. Sally sighed and looked around. She turned the dryer off.
"Gaze … can we talk?" Sally rarely asked to 'talk'. Gaze blinked, then wrapped a towel around herself and sat down on the wooden bench.
"What is it?"
"In the dream … god, it's so messed up. I … I was pregnant and married to Jakey … what the hell does that mean?" Sally blurted out suddenly. Gaze sighed, then reached out and put her hand on Sally's, squeezing it gently.
"I think it means that in any other occupation or lifestyle, the strong feelings and bonds we have for and with each other would have different outcomes. We don't talk about it much, but you know … what we have, all of us, is something deeper than friendship. Something closer to family, but different."
"I get that but … why was I pregnant? I'm not, you know," she said. Her expression was hard to read. Gaze sighed.
"We have instincts, Sal. Desires built into us on a genetic level that our lifestyle doesn't really leave much room for." She rose to her feet and went over to her locker and opened it.
"Will J … will he be ...?" Both Sally and Gaze knew how desperately and earnestly Jakey wanted to be a father. Gaze shrugged.
"I don't know, honestly. He's not very easy to read at the best of times. I'm going to go check on him now and say hello to Wilkins."
Sally averted her eyes as Gaze started to get dressed, sighing deeply.
"I still have all my other memories," she said quietly. Gaze fastened her bra behind her back, then pulled the straps over each shoulder.
"I do too."
"It felt so real."

"That's because it was real." Shingi looked in the mirror, poking his ribs. Cap glanced at him, spraying deodorant under his arms.
"How do you figure?" Asked Ferdas, who cursed when his natural aura turned the shower water into hail again. He cranked up the heat again, steam billowing up from behind the curtain.
"I asked Raph to get me some archive information on the way back. Check this out." Shingi picked up the now slightly damp manilla folder from the bench. Cap took it, ignoring Ferdas' observation that mixing paper and water was somewhat redundant. He flicked through the old newspaper articles.
"This can't be right."
"It's true. I asked Raph about it and he looked at me like I'd lost my marbles. Said that everyone knew the old Serenade club was the birthplace of the Midnight Squad. The Dream Doctor apparently went to the club every night in it's boom years, then took over the management of it when the previous owner, one Miss K Midnight disappeared with several of her friends and her brother."
"… We control the horizontal, we control the vertical," Cap muttered. Shingi nodded, pulling on a sweater and running a comb through his hair with a total lack of interest in his personal grooming. Avenger turned off the water to his shower and picked up his towel, wrapping it around his waist as he stepped out.
"Are you suggesting we changed the past?" he asked. Shingi shrugged.
"I'm suggesting that maybe that device did a little bit more than transport people."

"Either way, I'm going there later and strapping C4 to it and blowing the bugger to smithereens." Jakey was lying on the bed in the infirmary still, the blankets pulled up under his chin, his small body curled up tightly.
"Is it really a time machine?" Muse asked, his hair still wet from washing. Jakey sighed deeply, flicking his inhumanly green eyes to his friend's.
"Yes and no. It creates a … a doorway for your mind to travel backwards. It's a Dream Fountain. No offence, but it's hard to put into simple terms." He sounded exhausted. Muse looked around a Wilkins, who entered with a tray, teapot and tea cups.
"So it's a brain time machine?"
"Yeah. Time machine for your brain." Jakey pulled himself up into a sitting position. Muse noticed that he was not wearing his normal clothes. He was wearing a tie-dye tee-shirt with the sleeves ripped off and beads and leather bands on his lower arms. Muse had to look again to check he hadn't miss-seen the first time.
"What on Earth are you wearing?"
"Never mind. Look, there's something I got to ask you." Jakey accepted the tea cup from Wilkins. Muse accepted his next, still not sure if he should salute Wilkins or not, as though the man had retired from hero work, he was still the co-founder of Honourable United and Jakey's oldest friend, Gaze a close second.
"What is it?" he asked, sipping his tea. Wilkins settled in a chair, picking up a custard cream and nibbling it before placing it on his saucer.
"I want you go start going to therapy. Properly," Jakey said. Muse stared at his tea, his hand shaking a little.
"I'm fi-"
"You're not. You might have been able to hide it before, but this was the straw that broke the camel's back. You've got problems and you need some professional help. We can do this one of two ways. You agree with me and I trust you to sort this out yourself, or you disagree with me, and I get everyone united in a concerted effort to get you the help you need. That means Venji, Gaze, Sally, Shingi. Everyone at you to go to therapy. How fun does that sound?"
Muse looked down, silent for a long time. It wasn't until a tear dripped down his cheek and landed on his hand that he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Wilkins. The older man looked concerned.
"Son, it's okay to need to talk every now and then. I know the pressure you feel to be there for someone else, I was a defender too, but you have to look out for yourself sometimes. Jakey didn't give me any details, but he's worried about you. He cares for you a lot, just has a funny way of showing it."
Muse noticed that while he and Wilkins had been looking at each other, Jakey had found the energy to slip away silently. He looked down again.
"You sure he cares? He calls me a lot of names for someone who cares."
"Believe me, the more he insults you, the more he likes you. What's your decision?" Wilkins asked quietly. Muse sniffed.
"I'll … get help. I guess."
"That's good, son. I know a lot of people would be worried about you. You're one of the family, you know."
"I must be the obligatory crazy member then." Muse tried to force a smile. Wilkins waved the falsehood away.
"Oh no, the obligatory crazy member will always be Captain Cathode. Or maybe he's the very eccentric uncle who jumps out a the little ones every holiday dressed as Santa Claus."

Author's note: You do? I don't know quite what to say other than 'thank you'?

The car was a cocoon of silence as Dave drove them from the hospital. Kate's cheeks were streaked with unashamed tears as she stared out the window, her mouth resting against her knuckles. The Captain cleared his throat a lot and Sally stared silently ahead. Adam, sat on the other side to Dave, Matthew between them, frowned out of the window.
"There's nothing we can do for Ferdas any more. We have to keep moving, keep pushing forward. We have to find Jake, or Ferdas died for nothing." Matthew's voice sounded, though his head was tipped down. Neither Dave nor Adam mentioned the tears that were dripping onto his tight clenched hands.
"What can we do against the Circle? Ferdas didn't survive an encounter with the mob," muttered Sally. Adam put a hand over one of Matthew's covertly.
"We'll manage somehow. We have to. Who knows what the Circle are doing to Jake?" he said. Matthew said nothing, but Dave took the turning for Moth Cemetery.

The cave was surprisingly warm when the six of them stepped into it. The smell of spices with the acrid edge of smoke lingered in the air. Adam looked around at the others, everyone had a grim set to their face, he expected nothing else really. Matthew was looking small at the back, rubbing his elbow and staring at the floor. If he'd had his own way, Adam wouldn't let Matthew anywhere near this place. He was deeply worried about what had happened in Fred's office, he'd never seen such cold aggression on his lover's face ever, in either of his life-times. It was almost like he was two completely different people. That thought disturbed him even more, as he wasn't sure he could deal with Matthew having split personalities, one of whom seemed pretty violently inclined.
"Let's go," he said firmly, tightening his fingers into a fist. His knuckle dusters gleamed in the dull, bluish light thrown up from the pool of water at his feet. Sally hefted the machine gun in her grip, pulling the stock against her side a bit more. Adam almost pitied the man who'd abducted her husband, she looked in no mood to negotiate.
They travelled down through the winding, descending tunnels in total silence. It felt unnatural. Finally the tunnel opened out into a pillared room, paving slabs on the ground and a carved archway ahead. They had reached Oranbega, the sunken city beneath Paragon. Adam looked around at the others.
"This is it."
Sally and Dave tightened their grips on their Tommy guns, the Captain prepped the shotgun that had been Ferdas' and Kate took the safety off her gun. Matthew looked up from the back, catching Adam's eyes. He looked so hollow it hurt. Adam was about to say something when a screaming howl echoed from the arch. It sounded intensely wrong. It must have been an effect of the echoes, but the scream juddered like it was almost mechanical in nature.
Sally started running immediately.
"Jake!" She jumped down the flight of steps, followed closely by Dave and then the others. The corridors were wide enough for three of them to run abreast at a time. Sally, Dave and Adam stayed ahead of the Captain, Kate and Matthew. The corridors wound seemingly endlessly, lit every now and then by glowing clumps of crystal and burning sconces. They had to back track every now and then, the echoes of the screaming distorting in the tunnels to give little direction.
Finally, they broke out into an underground cathedral. There were masses of robed people between them and the altar at the far end. Above the altar, suspended in midair, were three rings that spun within each other in different directions. Within the heart of the huge gyroscope was a ball of intense white light, harsher and brighter than daylight, carving the shadows out with a knife-edge precision.
"It is complete! The generator will provide us with more power than you can possibly imagine!" A woman was standing on the altar, her hands stretched up, beads and skirt flapping wildly in the thunderous wind around the 'generator'.
"What the hell is that?!" hissed Dave. Sally looked at Adam, stricken.
"Are we too late?" she asked. He knew what she meant. Had the Circle tapped the unused reserves of magic their friend possessed? He couldn't think how they'd done it, but the arcane had never been his strong point.
"It's not over until it's over," Matthew said suddenly, shaking a little with anxiety. Adam nodded.
"We can't take on this many people by ourselves."
"Then we'll create a stampede out of here. People in groups are stupid," muttered Dave, slipping to the side of the doorway. Sally nodded, catching his meaning. She moved to the other side and the others scrambled to get out of the way, squeezing into the cathedral corners as tightly as they could. Adam nodded to Dave.
Dave aimed his gun upwards and started firing. Just as he did, the generator let loose another of those warped screams that ripped at the air.
The effect was better than they could hope for. The mob of robed people were frightened by the scream, then when they heard the gunfire, the primitive part of their brain screamed at them to run. In a wave of self-preservation powered panic, the robed people suddenly screamed and massed towards the single exit.
Adam realised the danger a little too late as he saw a wall of panicked people coming towards him. He grabbed the Captain, who was standing next to him, and tried to cover him with as much of his mass as he could. The crush hit and he slammed his hands against the wall, pushing back against the heaving mass of bodies as much as he could, trying to protect the Captain.
"Hold on, Adam!" The Captain pulled a grenade out of his pocket, clamping his sweating fingers around the hammer and pulling the pin out with his teeth, "FIRE IN THE HOLE!"
Adam's ears rang with his shout and then the grenade went sailing over his head into the crushing mob, the hammer flying off. Seconds later there was a massive, concussive explosion. Smoke, bits of masonry and what looked like mincemeat cascaded outwards. The other side must have had the same idea, as they heard Sally's voice shout a warning and moments later, another explosion shook the cathedral. One of the pillars cracked and toppled.
"FALL BACK TO THE ALTAR!" The voice was weighted with so much authority that it cut through the panic of most of the robed people and they pulled back. The unreachable ones finally thrashed, clawed and squeezed their way out, fleeing up the tunnels.
There were a bare fifty of the robed ones left, all scrambling over the dead and the fallen pillar. Adam pushed himself off the wall and looked around at the other side. Matthew and Kate were still standing, though both bore bruises and cuts from the mob. The six of them reassembled in the doorway. Sally, her hair pulled out of its neat ponytail, wiped a bit of blood off the corner of her mouth.
"We need to break that generator thing," she hissed. Kate nodded shakily.
"There's no point in turning back now. We have to keep going forward." She looked ill and stretched. Adam swallowed.
"I don't want to do this."
"What choice do we have? If we fail, the Circle could destroy the first heroes of Paragon, and now they're armed with however much power Jake has. They're bad enough armed with just their own," muttered Dave. The Captain smiled with hollow amusement, watching the Circle mages at the other end conferring. He pulled the stock of the shotgun to his shoulder and took aim at one.
"Stay tuned for the most stark reality show yet aired, six heroes, fifty mages, one cathedral and no holes barred. It's Rumble in the Ruins, brought to you by Revenge, for all your Anger Management needs." He fired.
The mage went down, his head snapping back. The two either side of him looked down in shock, then looked back at the heroes. The Captain was already pulling another grenade out of his pocket.
"FIRE AT WILL AND DEFINITELY AT STEVE!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, pulling the pin out and hurling the grenade. As it arced through the air, the hammer flying off wildly, Sally and Dave opened fire with their machine guns. Kate grabbed Matthew and pulled him back behind a pillar as the mages retaliated. Lightening snapped from metal object to metal object, its path impossible to determine. Fire balls rushed across the distance between the two sides.
The grenade exploded.
Screaming ripped through the air from the generator again, drowning out the screams of the mages who'd been caught by the explosion. Matthew clapped his hands over his ears, screaming himself and crumpling to his knees.
"GET UP, MATTHEW!" Kate shouted over the noise, looking around the pillar and up at the generator. She pulled a grenade out of her pocket and pulled the pin out. She clasped it in both hands for a moment, taking a breath and then spinning out into the open. Her throw was good, the incendiary hurtling over the heads of the mages as they traded shots with the others who were also now behind pillars.
The woman on the altar snapped her head around as the grenade exploded against one of the spinning rings, her eyes widening.
"Protect the generator!" she howled at her supporters, turning back and focusing on the ground before her. A circle of red light etched itself on the ground and the room shook even more, dust raining down from the ceiling.
"What's she doing?" yelled Dave, trying to shoot her.
"I don't know!" Sally yelled back, stepping out into the open to spray the other side with bullets. She pulled back into her shelter when a volley of green power shot her way. The Captain cursed when he saw brief sparks of light dancing before the woman when Dave tried to shoot her.
"She's been shielded, try and find the guy who's casting it!" he yelled. Adam peered around his pillar.
"I see him. Cover me!" He suddenly threw himself out from his shelter and sprinted the length of the cathedral.
"ADAM!" Dave screamed, seeing him rush past. There was no help for it, he snapped out from his own hiding place and opened fire wildly, trying to distract the mages from his friend's suicidal charge.
The mages on the left flank saw him coming and as another grenade exploded against the generator's rings, they turned to deal with him. A lance of harsh white light suddenly snapped out like lightening, earthing itself in front of them. They screamed, covering their eyes as the brilliant light seared their retinas. Adam rushed past them and threw himself on the mage casting the shield. His momentum slammed them both down and he slammed his fist into the hooded face. It did so little it took him a moment to remember he wasn't superhumanly strong. The mage tried to kick him off, but he hung on. He made a fist, doing something he hadn't done for so many years.
He hit the mage with everything he could muster.
The mage slumped, only unconscious. It was enough. From the altar, a woman's scream sounded as a bullet finally found her.
"Come Lame One!" Holding her side, the woman pulled her hand up as if against some kind of mighty resistance. Another grenade smashed against the generator and the outer ring cracked, the two halves hurtling away. White lightening hit the summoning circle, throwing up smoke and splinters of stone.
"Sorry, the number you have dialled is busy, please hang up and try again," said a familiar voice from the circle. The woman stared as the smoke cleared and a tiny man with a tail stood there. He pulled his fist back suddenly.
"You wanted a demon, you got one, Karsis." With a screaming yowl, Jakey K threw himself into the mages. Kate pulled back into her pillar, wincing as the last two rings tore apart and fell. She looked at the exit.
"Oh … oh god. MATTHEW DOWN!" She threw herself over Matthew as a wall of fireballs hit the pillar where her head had been. The Captain looked around, shocked at the attack from behind, then he swore.
"JAKEY, THERE ARE DEMONS IN THE TUNNEL! LEAVE THE MAGES TO US!" he yelled as hard as he could. With blinding speed, the cat shot out from the mess of mages and streaked past, throwing himself into the demons feet first. The Captain blinked. By comparison to his powerless state, Jakey was blisteringly fast. It was almost frightening. Was this how civilians felt when they saw heroes in action in the future? He didn't have time to think about it, he turned his attention back to the cathedral.
Adam was sprinting out from the mage line, trying to get back to safety. Sally had to pull back behind her pillar, holding her arm. A shard of ice had gone right through it, her hand flopping uselessly. She sank to the floor in pain, then scrabbled to find another grenade.
Kate looked around from her hiding place. Matthew looked up at her, about to say something when he saw a rock smash into her. She crashed backwards, the rock covering her chest and face. Without checking, Matthew knew it was fatal. His eyes widened and he scrambled over, taking her hand, trying to believe for a second she could have survived that. A scream drew his attention and he looked around.
Adam went down, a thorn sword right through his chest, his back full of eight crossbow bolts.
The cathedral became silent. He could see the flashes of gunfire from Dave and the Captain, he could see the room shaking from the blasts of magic. There was no sound. The world lurched in his vision as he scrambled to his feet. He ran to Adam, ignoring the lightening that seared past his eyes, the rock that hurtled past his back. He half fell, half scrambled to his lover's side and grabbed his shoulders, turning him over. He put his hand on his neck, his fingers seeking a pulse. Blood slicked over them and his hand slipped off. The silence penned him in. He could feel his throat moving, feeling his tongue working as if he was speaking. He shook Adam slightly. His head lolled back lifelessly.
Dave swore as he saw Matthew in the open, holding Adam. He shot a mage who looked about to try and shoot the blond.
A scream of utter despair sounded suddenly, jarring Dave's aim on the next shot, the bullet hitting a pillar. He looked back at Matthew and saw him rocking Adam, howling. The sound set his hair on end and his teeth on edge. His distraction lasted until the pillar he was hiding behind suddenly cracked. He looked up at it without understanding for a second and then he yelled, trying to scramble away. The stones fell and he felt too slow.
Sally looked around, her eyes widening as she saw the pillar crush Dave. She screamed in rage and with her good hand, snatched up her Tommy gun. She stepped into the open, intent on taking down as many of those mage bastards as she could. In a split second, she counted only eighteen of them left. Eighteen was too many. Not with Ferdas, Kate, Adam and Dave fallen. Eighteen was not acceptable.
She screamed as she fired, seeing three go down. Her friends, no, her family were lying still, she could hear Matthew's broken howls, she could see and smell the blood.
"YOU BASTARDS!" Five mages stood up, two more falling to her fire immediately. The remaining three all took aim. Lightening, green fire and ice all hurtled for her. She gave one last scream of rage, throwing the gun aside and pulling her last grenade out. Somehow she had the pin out and threw it back before the triplicate attack hit her. As she fell back, the grenade arced forward, sailing over the mages heads and exploding behind their line.
The Captain saw Sally go down, his shock made him still for a moment, he rested his forehead to the shotgun in his hands, glancing down the tunnel where Jakey had gone. He could hear the roars of demons and the screaming yowl of a furious cat. It seemed he was all tied up with the supernatural elements. He looked around at the altar and froze. Matthew was no longer cradling Adam. He had picked up Sally's discarded gun and was charging the mages. He was insane! The Captain pushed himself out from behind the pillar and broke into a run. If they were going to die, then why cower behind a pillar waiting for it?
"Puuuuulse …!" The Captain jumped up on the altar behind Matthew, firing at the first person he saw. Karsis took the round to the face and was thrown back by the force of the blast. Matthew fired his gun until it span empty, utterly silent now. It was more disturbing than if he'd been screaming. He jumped off the altar suddenly and took the gun's muzzle in both hands and cracked the stock against a mage's face as he drew his thorn sword. The Captain ducked when a stone mallet swung wildly where his head had been. He didn't want to die. He really didn't. The second swing of the mallet smashed into his side and he felt his ribs pop and splinter as he hurtled off the altar. He hit the ground, skidding across the rubble and crashing into one of the fallen pillars. He spat blood as he struggled to get up.
"… period …" he said weakly.
"It's okay, Cap. It's okay to let go. It's time to wake up."
The Captain looked up, seeing the earth thorn caster raising his stone mallet above his head.
He let go.

now that's a good screenie

Choking cloud ftw indeed!

Author's Note: I am now done with Uni for the foreseeable future. Back to writing what I ENJOY.

"He doesn't look like much to be concerned about." A woman's voice flowed over the distant chanting in the background. Jake could feel a throbbing, horrific pain in his head and something hot was pressed up against his back.
"Trust me, Lady Karsis, this is a foe the likes of which you have never known. He hunts us with extreme prejudice and foils our plots at every turn." It was the voice of the man in the green suit. Jake bared his teeth and tried to move, his wrists brought up sharp by shackles that clinked with chain. Now that his senses were returning to his control, he could feel huge, heavy chains crossing his chest and waist and legs. It was almost overkill.
"In your time, maybe. Here … he does not seem so formidable." A finger traced down his nose and Jake bit it hard. He was rewarded by a sharp curse and the hand withdrew. He dragged his eyes open and glared at the woman standing over him. She nursed her hand, her eyes snapping with green fire for a moment. She was wearing clothes that made the word 'flapper' come to mind, her wrists heavy with gaudy bangles and her dress was a squared off sleeve that suddenly swung loose with frills at the bottom hem around her knees.
"I speak the truth, Lady Karsis." Jake turned his head with some difficulty to glare down at the man in the green suit, who was prostrate on the floor.
"Oi! You're in so much trouble, you lame-brain!"
"You had better be, I don't like to be disappointed." Karsis eyed Jake sceptically. Jake spat at her.
"Don't you think the chains are a bit overkill? You gonna sacrifice me or what? I don't have all day to wait around," he muttered. The chains were so thick and heavy they made breathing difficult.
"Apparently, you are some terrible monster who plagues us in the twenty first century. Wouldn't want to take chances." Karsis inspected her hand, but the bite marks had already faded.
"You guys read a lot of pulp magazines or something? Or are you just crazy?! I'm not from the future, that's stupid!" Jake protested, wriggling under the weight of the chains.
"We shall see. If you did use the Font of Fire then reuniting your mind and your body should be easy enough."
"The what with the what now?" Jake looked at her incredulously, "don't you put water in a font?"
Karsis beamed and patted his head.
"My, what a scholar you are! Normally yes, but this is a very special font."
"And you set it on fire?" Jake looked confused. Karsis giggled. Given that the last time Jake had met him he'd been a man, it was slightly disturbing. She beeped his nose gently.
"The fire is spiritual and representative only. Fire is the element of change." She turned around and when she turned back, there was a three foot knife in her hand, the blade gnarled and twisted like it had been grown rather than forged.
"Do you know what this is?" she asked, angling it in Jake's vision. He shrugged a bit.
"Stick with a handle?"
"It's a thorn. A very special thorn. There are no souls in it, don't fear for that. Not yet, anyway." With that, Karsis sudden gripped the handle in both hands, pulled the knife up over her head as far as she could and then slammed it down through Jake's chest. His ribs cracked and splintered and pain exploded through him, he tipped his head back and bit his tongue. Blood burned the back of his throat and bubbled up over his teeth before a wash of green vapour covered him, removing the pain as swiftly as it had come. Jake looked down at himself shakily, but the thorn was gone. Karsis turned and spread out her hands.
"Let the summoning begin!"

"Ferdas! Stay with me, Ferdas!" Kate's voice was high pitched in her panic, her hand pressed over the bloody hole in Ferdas' chest, blood seeping up between her fingers. Adam and Dave had Fred down on the floor, his hand already broken by Adam tearing the gun out of his fingers.
Ferdas smiled weakly.
"N-not going … yet," he gasped, his body bucking slightly in pain. The Captain was on his other side, shaking a bandage out of its roll.
"That's the spirit! You want to stay on the front line eh?"
Kate pulled the lid off the small, single dose morphine needle with her teeth. With her other hand, she scrubbed the skin of his upper arm with a swab and jammed the needle in. The Captain cut the last of his shirt off so he could wrap the bandage around his chest.
"Damnable place to get shot. Lucky it went right through," he muttered. Kate didn't think Ferdas was so lucky.
While the two medics dealt with Ferdas, Adam resisted the urge to break Fred's arm.
"You're going to tell us where the Circle of Thorns is and be quick about it!" he snarled. Fred, the burned part of his head being shoved painfully into the floor by Dave's hand, spat a little.
"I'll never tell yo-"
A gunshot ripped through the air and Fred screamed. Everyone snapped their heads around to Matthew as he re-cocked his pistol, pointing it at Fred's other leg.
"Cut the [censored] and tell us where they are, you snivelling coward."
"You cheap [censored]! They know you're a bed-hopping **** who'll do anything for a couple of doll-" Matthew shot his other leg, his expression cold when the man screamed.
"It's not sensible to goad the man who's holding a gun to you. Next one is your hand."
"There's an entrance … in Moth Cemetery. Trick door, you press your hand to it and say 'for fame and power' … " Fred whimpered, blood leaking over the floor. Matthew lowered the gun.
"We have to get Ferdas to a hospital now!" Kate's sharp voice broke through the silence. Adam pushed himself up, walking to Matthew and putting himself between he and Fred. He gripped the barrel, tugging it slightly. Matthew resisted for a moment, then let the gun go slowly, still staring as though he could see Fred through Adam's chest. Adam flicked the chamber open and shook the remaining bullets onto the ground and dropped the gun into the waste paper basket. The bustle of the others struggling to get Ferdas back down to the car was silent as he stared at Matthew. He put his hand on his shoulder and steered him out after the others, ignoring Fred's cries for mercy and help. He felt the shaking start under his hand and paused outside the door, making Matthew stop too. As the others drew ahead, he wrapped his arms around his lover and held him tight. Matthew was stiff as a statue for a moment. Finally he crumbled as though something just went to pieces inside and he clung to Adam silently. Neither said anything.

"How bad is it?" Dave asked Kate as he climbed into the driving seat. Kate, who was sat near Ferdas' head, her fingers on his neck, frowned.
"It's bad. If we don't get him to the hospital now, he won't make it," she whispered hoarsely. The Captain had Ferdas' legs up over his lap, in an attempt to keep him from going into shock.
"You'd better drive like the Devil himself is behind you." He glared at Dave's head. Sally was trying to keep her composure, sat in the front next to Dave. Adam and Matthew sat in the boot, the latter still clinging to the former. Sally looked at the tousled blond head and tried not to wonder who in the hell that really was and what had he done with the real Matthew. The car started and Dave manhandled it out of the broken glass front, jolting all his passengers. Kate put her hand on Ferdas to try and hold him still but she didn't scold Dave.
"He'll be okay though? Right?" Sally asked finally. Kate and the Captain exchanged a look.
"If this was the future? If we had our powers still? We'd all just shrug this off," said Kate.
"You know what the hospitals are like in this day and age, Sally. His lung's been punctured." The Captain busied himself with locating another ampoule of morphine, just in case Ferdas needed it again. Sally sat forward again, looking at Dave. He looked back with a glance that echoed every emotion swirling around her head.
They drove in silence for a few minutes as Dave sped to the hospital, he was distracted suddenly by thrashing behind him. Kate and the Captain yelled and there seemed to be a flurry of bandages and action. Sally turned around and stared, her eyes widening as Ferdas choked, thrashing his arms and legs almost on instinct. Blood was slicking up over his teeth and splattering the upholstery. The gurgling and thrashing worsened and then suddenly he arched and slumped. For a moment, it was like Kate and the Captain were frozen then the Captain straddled Ferdas' legs and put his hands one over the other on his chest.
"Damnit, Ferdas! Breathe! Breathe soldier!" he yelled, the sharp motion of his arms against Ferdas' chest rocked the car. Sally didn't realise her hand was over her mouth until her nails dug into her skin painfully. She watched as Kate tried to breathe for Ferdas, holding his nose and exhaling forcefully into his mouth whenever the Captain stopped his frantic heart massage.
Dave pulled the car into the hospital parking lot and nearly threw himself out of the car to get a doctor. It seemed to take so long for a gurney to be brought, a doctor running beside it. Ferdas was manhandled from the car to the bed and the doctor climbed up, taking over the heart massage. The gurney was run back into the hospital by the orderlies. Kate looked pale and she lurched, grabbing the side of the car when she got out, putting a bloody hand to her head.
"E-easy there, you didn't breathe enough for yourself." Matthew's voice was pale as his face as he steadied her. Kate welcomed it over the icy exterior he'd shown in Fred's place. This was the Matthew she knew. He supported her all the way into the hospital and she needed it when the doctor met them, walking back out of the emergency room.
"I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do. He's dead."

I love the composition of this, especially the wonderful timing of 'God help us' over Hami.

That really made me grin.

Very very good work,

Author's Note: Sorry about the slow updates, but my uni projects come first

Kate and the others left the club and climbed into the car Matthew had brought around to the front when the Captain had finished shoving grenades into pockets, handing out three Tommy guns in cello cases and various other guns. Kate grimaced as she sat beside Matthew in the front, looking at the Colt .45 in her hand. She didn't think she could fire it except in self defence, and even then she wasn't sure. What worried her more was the cello case between her and Matthew. He was one of the least antagonistic people she knew and it worried her that he'd chosen a Tommy gun of all things. She glanced back at the others. They were quiet and more than one of them had their heads down and eyes closed. She looked forward again, swallowing. If Jake and Matthew had been right, then they could be facing the Circle of Thorns and their powerful black magic, armed with nothing but human tenacity and a few paltry guns. She glanced sideways at Matthew as he watched the road. His behaviour was very odd, he seemed more focused, harder somehow than her memories of the Music Teacher suggested.
"Where are we even going to start looking for Jake?" Sally asked from right behind Kate. Matthew turned left down a smaller road.
"Fred De Marchi has his base of operations over the Black Cat in Astoria, we're going there to get the information out of him," he said. Adam flexed his fingers in the brass knuckle dusters he was wearing. He alone was not carrying a firearm of any description, but he was carrying some spare rounds and grenades for the others.
"Fred's the one you owe, right?" he asked innocently. Matthew just grunted, declining to answer to the question that remained unspoken. Kate looked ahead and frowned.
"How are we going to get in there?"
"Put your seat belts on." Matthew's expression didn't change, not for a second. Kate stared at him.
"Do we even have seatbelts?" she asked. Ferdas pulled his on.
"Captain added them this morning," he tightened it, going pale.
"Safety first, after all," chimed the Captain as everyone else scrambled to pull on the jury-rigged seatbelts.
"Last time someone told me to put my seatbelt on, we ended up jumping a chasm in Egypt," Sally muttered, not leaving this to chance at all.
Matthew's only response was to put his foot down on the pedal, the car slowly picking up speed as they hit an invitingly empty, straight road. Kate found herself reaching her hand up to the hook above the door, her knuckles whitening as she tightened her grip. There were fewer cars on the road than there were in Midnight Gaze's time, most people took the tram to and from work. There was virtually nothing to impede their car. She could hear the engine revolutions speeding up as Matthew's foot pushed the pedal down and down.
"Black Cat, dead ahead," yelled the Captain over the increasing roar of the engine and the wind through his open window. Kate swallowed when she saw that the Black Cat had a glass front, like a café.
"Um … Matthew?"
There was an audible thud as Matthew's foot hit the floor at last and Dave swore, bracing for impact. Sally did the same, wincing tightly.
There was a deep clunk and the car jolted up onto the sidewalk. Kate opened her eye for a split second and saw the window rushing up, looming huge in her vision. She snapped her eye shut again. The world was suddenly filled with a crash so loud they could hear it right through their bodies, the car lurched, the sound of the ground falling away for a moment. Clatters and crashing and a boom and high pitched squeal of tires whirled crazily and they all felt the centrifugal force slamming them to the left as the car pirouetted wildly. Demolished chairs and tables where flung everywhere by the arched wings. A bumper flew off wildly and imbedded itself in the mirror to the left, splintering it to fragments.
There was a colossal thud that shook them all in their seats as the car slammed against the far wall. Kate pulled her head out of her arms, eyes wide and shocked. Suddenly the barrel of a Tommy gun moved through her vision and there was an ear splitting thunder it fired. She snapped her head in the direction the gun was aiming and saw three men holding their legs, their own guns scattered.
"OUT! MOVE IT!" Matthew pulled his gun back and snapped his seatbelt off. Kate scrambled to undo her seatbelt and kicked open the door. She staggered out, still dizzy after the wild spinning of the car.
"What floor is Fred on?" Sally asked, slamming a round magazine home into her gun. Matthew scrambled out, a trickle of blood working down from his hairline.
"Third floor. Dave, you and Adam take point, Sally you stick right behind them and if things get heavy, you withdraw immediately and that's an order. Ferdas, Captain, hang back as much as you can to give covering fire to the guys at the front. Kate, got your field medicine kit?" Matthew's tone brooked no contradictions and Kate just nodded dumbly. When everyone had nodded, Matthew ran to the doorway the injured men had come through and scooped up another gun from the floor, pushing it into his belt as he leaned around the frame to look down the corridor.
"It's clear. Go!"
Dave and Adam ran past him into the corridor, followed by Sally. The Captain hung back with Kate as they watched Matthew follow them and hurried after.
"Okay … this is new. This is our Muse, right?" he asked. Kate shrugged. To be honest, she wasn't sure.

Fred De Marchi had heard the car going through the window downstairs. It was pretty hard to miss. He pulled a magnum out of his drawer and set it in his lap, trying to quell the uncertainty in his chest. This was just not his week. It'd all started with that FBI agent showing up. Things had been good before, he'd been sitting in the lap of luxury, patroned by the Circle. Sure, the organisation had some frankly dubious practices, but they brought him custom and fortune. He'd done some jobs for them. If they wanted someone procured quietly for sacrificial purposes, he was the one who staged the murder to cover the abduction. In return, he was given power and protection.
That FBI agent and his obsession with the arsonist were becoming a real problem for Fred, but he couldn't do anything about him because he had the favour of Karsis. He dared not anger that one. He'd seen what Karsis did to people who resisted her, he could only imagine what she'd do if someone betrayed her.
More gunfire sounded in the hall, drawing closer. His fingers tightened on the sleek handgrip of the gun. There came a loud thud at the door. He knew the tone well enough, someone had been thrown back into it. He necked the whiskey that sat beside his papers on the desk. The door thudded again, different this time, someone had kicked it. The next sound was of the lock breaking and the door slamming open, bouncing off the panelled wall.
The man on the other side looked familiar, he was sure he should recognise him. As he moved in and out of the way, allowing the others behind him to enter, he felt a cold, hard sort of shock. Matthew was with them, and there was that Midnight [censored].
"Well hello Fred, nice evening for it!" Matthew held up a handgun, pointing it at Fred. The gangster resisted the urge to clench his fist. That two bit [censored] was going to pay for his treachery. He was going to pay in blood.
"We've got some questions for you, Fred De Marchi." Fred flicked his eyes to the Midnight woman as she spoke, though he all he could focus on was that smug, self-satisfied grin on Matthew's features.
"What makes you think you can get out of here alive?" he asked, his anger making his voice tense.
"I wouldn't worry about that if I was you, we'll just let ourselves out when we're done here. Now put your hands up," said the man Fred thought he should recognise. Fred smirked.
"Of course." He pulled his gun out from under the desk and a single shot rang out.

Author's Note: I am having a rapid falling out with this tale

Sally glanced sideways at the short man who walked by her side back to the club. She and he had been friends for so long and yet she knew almost nothing about him beyond what everyone knew. Why did he keep himself so separate from everyone else?
Before she could finish her thoughts, Jake's hand on her elbow stopped her.
"Quick!" He pulled her around a corner and leaned to the wall, peering back around. Sally's hand tightened on her handbag.
"What is it?"
"That's the guy from last night! The guy who was talking to the De Marchis!" Jake hissed. Sally frowned tightly.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, but there's not a scratch on him," he muttered blackly. Sally opened her handbag and rooted around in there. She found her compact mirror and snapped it open, angling it so she could look around the corner as well. In the round mirror, cover-up powder falling to the floor in a slow shower, she saw a man in a dark green suit reading a paper.
"Who do you think he is?"
"Circle of Thorns." Jake reached into his pocket and his wife was alarmed to see him pull out a length of piano wire and wind the ends around his hands. She grabbed his knuckles.
"Don't do anything stupid! You're not a deputised vigilante here! You're just an ordinary citizen like everyone else."
"So?" Jake looked up and met her eyes fiercely.
"So if you start trouble, who do you think will bail you out?" For a long time, they stared at each other, then finally Jake sighed and his shoulders slumped. Sally was relieved to see him pocket the wire.
"You're right. The wire's a mistake."
Her relief was short lived, as Jake suddenly snapped around from the corner and raced right at the man in the suit.
"JAKE!" Sally ran out after him. She had no idea what the reaction of the man in the green suit would be. She envisaged him pulling a gun and riddling Jake's body with bullets.
The man in the green suit looked up at her shout and saw the short man racing for him. His reaction was to suddenly scream like he'd seen a ghost and turn on his heel. Jake tore after him as the man dropped his paper and raced across the street.
"Get back here!"
Sally's shoes were not made for running, she staggered on her heel and nearly tripped. By the time she'd straightened, Jake and the man in the green suit had disappeared and she looked around wildly. Several people on the street were staring at her, as if she was the cause of the disturbance. She grimaced and hurried off before anyone could think to approach her about it.

Jake had his confirmation that the man didn't belong in this time any more than he did. He'd seen that expression so often on the faces of the Circle of Thorns mages. They knew him, knew his reputation, knew he was trouble. It was all becoming clear. He bared his teeth as the mage raced into Chinatown, jacket flapping behind him. As always, Chinatown was crowded. Everyday was market day and the smell of cooking fish, rice and noodles countered the smell of sweat and detergent. The mage darted around milling people, looking around often. Jake swore violently and looked sharply to the side. He veered hard right and jumped, grabbing the frame of a stall in his hands and flipping his body up onto the corrugated iron roof. Free of the crowd, he outpaced the mage, leaping wildly from awning to awning until he was in range. The mage looked around behind his shoulder again and Jake saw his opening.
"DEATH FROM ABOVE!" he howled, launching himself off the noodle stand. The mage didn't have time to react before Jake collided with him, knocking him off his feet. People yelled and scrambled out of the way as Jake scuffled wildly with the mage, slamming his fist into the man's head. The mage threw him off and surged to his feet, throwing a roundhouse punch. Jake ducked it and swerved to the side. The mage over-reached and staggered to compensate his imbalance. Jake grabbed his lapels and yanked him forward as he slammed his forehead into his nose. The mage howled and crumpled, grabbing his nose with one hand. People screamed when he pulled a gun. Jake spun on one foot, bringing the other up to crack into the mage's wrist, sending the gun skidding across the tarmac.
"Give up now, [censored], you're coming with me!" Jake snarled. The mage spat at him, pulling his hand away from his face, blood streaming down his nose and staining his white shirt.
"On the contrary, you are coming with me, Jakey K." He pulled a long dagger from his shoulder holster and darted in, wielding it with much more skill than he did the gun. Jake had to jump backwards, his shirt ripping when the knife tip grazed his chest.
"You and which army?"
"I'm with the FBI, there's nowhere you can run, hellcat." The mage was grinning manically, pressing his advantage. "You are powerless here, and I will be the one who bring you in. You have no idea how I will be honoured by the others, you've been a thorn in our sides for long enough!"
Jake winced when the knife caught his cheek, but not from pain.
"That was horrible!" The mage didn't seem to realise his pun, however, and spinned when he tried to dart to the side. Jake swore when the knife bit into his shoulder. He felt so slow and cumbersome. He didn't even see the knee coming up to ram his sternum until the air was forcefully slammed out of his body. He staggered but the clenched fists to the back of his head dropped him like a stone, his consciousness jolting out.

Sally reached the Serenade and slammed her fist against the door. When Dave opened it, she shoved past him, her hair hanging out of its tight bun and her breathing hard.
"Get everyone, now! It's an emergency!" she panted. Dave just nodded and slammed the door shut, ramming the bolt home before racing into the club, calling up the others. Sally kicked off her shoes, one had a broken heel but she couldn't care about that right now.
Kate came out of her office, still holding her customary paper.
"What is it?"
"It's Jake, he went running off after some guy he said was a Circle of Thorns mage …" Sally blurted out. Ferdas swore and brought her a glass of water which she gulped down gratefully.
"You think he's in trouble?" he asked. Kate nodded.
"We're used to having our powers, Jake's not exactly the type to keep in mind his limitations," she said. Ferdas looked uncomfortable and nodded. Even with his super powers, Jakey never knew when to back down.
Kate looked around when the others arrived, her hands on Sally's shoulders at the other woman sat in a chair, still breathing hard. She explained the situation to them succinctly as possible. Matthew swore suddenly.
"[censored] … it does make sense that it's a Circle of Thorns mage … after all, weren't we in one of their bases when we found the darkdial?"
"The what?" The Captain looked confused and Matthew pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it over to him.
"I drew it earlier from what I can remember. Jake ran through that portal and it led to the dark cavern. Whatever that thing is, it caused this. So … probably belongs to the Circle of Thorns. Least, that's my theory," he said. Adam nodded.
"Seems reasonable. If it's the Circle of Thorns, we have to get Jake out of trouble right now."
"Why?" Dave frowned slightly, picking up on Adam's nervous look. Sally stood up.
"Because they might know about him being a reservoir for magic," she looked to Adam to back her up. He nodded, having discovered it at the same time she did - in a mini in Egypt of all places.
"He's like a battery, or conduit for magic. He can't use it himself but the Circle of Thorns probably can. He really shouldn't be in their hands."
Kate hissed a few choice words and then ran to her office. She came back with one of her spare suits and a pair of flat shoes.
"Sally, you can't run around without shoes on. And your skirt's going to be a nuisance. Wear these." She thrust the clothes into Sally's arms. The other woman didn't argue, she just got up and hurried to the dressing room, pushing past the janitor as he mopped the corridor.
The Captain nursed his temples.
"Damnit, trust Jake to get himself into trouble like this." Dave grunted.
"And what's worse is that the Circle are more powerful in this time than they are in our time," he muttered. Kate stared at him.
"What?"
"They've existed since 1890, and if my history is correct, they ran some really notorious speakeasy in the 20s." Everyone stared at him, then Matthew slapped his head with his hand.
"The De Marchis …"
"Are a front." Adam finished, wincing. The Captain looked at Ferdas.
"I think we're going to need guns. And lots of them."
"I think I'm becoming glad you taught me to field strip a rifle in thirty seconds," Ferdas responded. Kate looked at her hands, then rubbed them together.
"And it's years too early for the Midnight Squad to be formed."
"Hey … wait a second …" Dave held up his hand and they all looked at him. He looked slightly stunned, "our club … what's it called?"
"Midnight Serenade." Adam wondered if Dave was losing his grip on reality, as flimsy as that had already become. Dave just stared at Kate and she stared back.
"It's just a coincidence," she said quietly. There was a clatter as Sally returned, wearing Kate's suit and wearing it well.
"It might not be. Before we left the library, Jake brought up Uluru and he was looking into creation myths," she said. Matthew frowned.
"Uler-what?"
"Uluru, Ayres Rock. He asked me what happened there," she continued. Kate frowned, knowing that Sally knew a bit about Australian mythos.
"Remind me."
"It was the site of the Dreamtime, when the world was dreamed into existence. And …" Sally let her voice trail off uncertainly and she looked down. "I think Jake thought that we're dreaming, but we're not dreaming, we're Dreaming. Like the aborigines did. We're … I don't know, but if the Circle could find a way to rewrite history using that myth …?"
"Then they'd take it." Dave finished, looking black. He folded his arms.
"It's not the first time they've tried to screw with history," he added. Matthew looked at Ferdas, then nodded and left. Ferdas turned his attention back to the conversation.
"Okay, that sounds really wildly farfetched, not to mention pure conjecture, but one thing is clear; Jake's one of ours and I'll be damned if I let the Circle or the De Marchis mess with us."
"Ferdas is right, we can leave the theory alone for now. We've got a team-mate in trouble, most likely." Adam pulled on his coat. The Captain nodded.
"Happily I have a stack of surplus munitions in the dressing room. Just give me a moment and I'll have us all kitted out better than the army."
When he left, everyone wondered why on Earth he kept munitions in the dressing room of all places.

Any sensible kidnapper will not try and take down one of HU's ladies. They'll find their 'jimmies' in another hemisphere,

Waking up some unknown quantity of time later gave Matthew a foggy feeling and a slamming headache from the chloroform. His two personas warred for dominance for a moment, then the hero, Muse, receded, as he was too scared to do anything. Matthew sat up sharply, hissing from his headache and looked around. He was on an old tapestry divan and there was an ornate fireplace before him. Walnut panels coated the walls and the carpet was a deep dark red. He snorted and got to his feet, turning around to face the man he knew would be sitting at the huge desk.
"For the last bloody time, you thick-headed idiot, you can just ASK!" he snapped. The man looked up from the newspaper he was reading and arched an eyebrow. There was a surgical pad on one side of his face and a bandage around his crown making his hair stick up at odd angles.
"Mind your manners, Whithers."
"Or what? You'll smack me? I'm so frightened." Matthew walked over to the desk and picked up the jug of water placed near exquisite crystal glasses. He drank from the jug straight, gulping the water down to quell the thudding crashing pain in his skull. The man looked disapproving, straightening his tie.
"Don't tempt me, Whithers. There are plenty of [censored] in this city who would jump at the chance of my patronage." The jug slammed down on his paper, slopping water everywhere. Matthew glared daggers at the man.
"[censored]. You know you can't replace me, Frederick," he hissed, sitting on the side of the desk and plucking a cigarette out of the packet in Fred's top pocket. He swiped the lighter up from the desk and lit it, taking a deep drag and blowing the smoke out with a sigh.
"Isn't that why you saved me from the drive by? Be honest now."
"The drive by was just a warning, Whithers. If I'd wanted you dead, you'd be dead. I hear you've started work at the Midnight Serenade. This has upset me." Fred tapped the arm of his chair with his fingertips. Matthew shrugged.
"So? A lot of things upset you."
"So I've got a little proposition for you. The Midnights have been overstepping their boundaries and disrespecting my family. Since you're in with their little crowd, I want you to tell me if they're going to be up to anything I need to know about." He reached his hands up and laced his fingers before his chest, one entire hand was sporting more bandages. Matthew took another drag on the cigarette and blew a smoke ring before answering, his face revealing nothing of his emotions at all.
"Dear Fred, are you asking me to be your spy?"
"I'm not [censored] around here, Matthew. I've got some crooked FBI on my back to find them the arsonist on the quiet, I've got the arsonist himself to deal with and my boys found this outside the Royal Flush this morning." Fred reached down and pulled something out of a drawer. He flicked the burned and battered hat on the table. Matthew looked at it nonplussed.
"Amazing, your men found a hat at a club. I am … speechless, really. Awed by their detective prowess maybe."
"Cut the attitude, you cheap [censored], and listen up. There's initials in the brim and a book of matches from the Geneva Hotel in Founders Falls. Find out who it belongs to, and tell me."
Matthew resented being called 'cheap'. He was not cheap at all. He sighed heavily.
"Fine, I'll sniff around and see what I can come up with. You better pay me over time for this."
"Be grateful I don't beat the wise guy right out of you."
"I'm terrified. Honestly. Is that all, Freddy, can I go now?" Matthew asked dryly. Fred snorted.
"There's still one more thing before you can go."
Matthew sighed and stood up, stubbing the cigarette out on the highly polished mahogany desk. There was always that one more thing. He ignored the other Matthew inside who quailed and baulked at the idea. This was just business. He walked back over to the sofa, shrugging off his jacket and flinging it over the back of the chair.

Later that afternoon Matthew slammed open the door to the Midnight Serenade, walking past Dave with his jacket slung carelessly over his shoulder. Dave watched him pass in surprise, then closed the door belatedly.
"Everyone, gather round, it's story time!" Matthew yelled, chucking his jacket over a chair and spinning a hat in his hands. Moments later, drawn almost by morbid curiosity, everyone assembled around one of the round tables, all sat save for Matthew himself. Kate frowned.
"What is it?"
"I've just come from a fun fun meeting with one of the De Marchi heads," said Matthew with no preamble. Adam took a sharp intake of breath, nor was he the only one to look surprised.
"You what?"
"Snagged me right after sending some of his goons to put the fear into me via driveby-"
"You WHAT?!" Adam looked stricken, about to go over to his lover and check him for injury when Matthew held up the burned and battered hat in his hand.
"Jake, you forgot your hat." He flicked it onto the table before Jake. Sally was the one to pick it up, inspecting it and glaring at the smoke and fire damage before staring shuriken into her 'husband's skull. Jake opened his mouth to say something but Matthew interrupted again.
"Okay, this is how it is. Uncle Fred wants me to spy on you guys, see, my 'history' is that I owe him or something, pretty extensively too, as he can call on me for pretty much anything. I'm his nasty little spy and informant. However, screw that. Just because some twist of fate has lumped us all here and given us new histories and stuff, doesn't mean I have to go along with it." Matthew pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it from a match.
"Way I see it," he continued when everyone just stared at him mutely, "is that we have two choices here. We can either live like mental cases with two personalities, or we can embrace one and forget the other. I for SURE am not embracing being a prostitute with ties to some ******* mob of violent [censored]."
Adam put a hand over his face slightly as the others heard Matthew's profession for the first time. The Captain opened his mouth for a moment, then closed it.
"Alright, okay … two choices. I call superhero from the future!" He put up his hand. There were nods of assent, then Dave grunted.
"Fine enough, Whithers, but we still don't know how we got here and how to get back."
"We don't know yet, but I bet you good money it has to do with that darkdial thing we found in the dark cavern. Jake, you're what passes for our resident expert on things arcane and magical, so your happy job is to remember everything you can about that thing and work out what it really was. In the meantime the rest of us have to keep our heads above water in this suck-[censored] climate."
"Are we expecting trouble?" Ferdas asked sharply, frowning. Matthew nodded, leaning his hands on the back of a chair.
"We are. Uncle Fred told me that aside from the De Marchis, who are pretty [censored] about us, there's crooked FBI involved, and not just that, there's the arsonist."
"FBI? Did they even exist in 1923?" asked Sally. Dave nodded.
"Sure did."
"There's still the matter of the seven names," said Kate, leaning an arm on the table. Matthew tapped ash off his cigarette.
"Have we looked at them since regaining our memories?" he asked. Kate shook her head, then took out a much folded piece of paper and put it on the table. Matthew tried to find his calm place as the others conjectured about the names.
"Hey … a [censored] second. This is Maiden Justice!" Ferdas grabbed up the paper, staring at one name in particular. Everyone else stared at him.
"What?"
"Maiden Justice, one of the first superheroes in Paragon City!" Ferdas looked at them all, then something sunk in.
"The De Marchis are trying to kill the first superheroes of Paragon?" Matthew asked blankly. Jake swore suddenly and so foully that everyone looked at him. He had the grace to look a little embarrassed by his language.
"I think I just got a little idea about what the dial does. I've got to verify some stuff first." He didn't stop to explain more, he just ran out, barely pausing to grab his coat on the way. Everyone else looked at each other, then Dave sighed and slumped a little.
"I hate time travel."

Jake returned to the city library, too agitated to do more than nod at the pretty librarian before hurrying into the mythology section. The old, leather bound books even smelled dusty but he paid it no mind, running his hand along the shelves, whispering titles to himself. After a few minutes, he found one that suited and grabbed a stool so he could tug it off the top shelf. It wasn't long before he was sat at one of the reading tables, head propped up on his hand and engrossed in the book.
Sally found him there half an hour later. She'd left the club a few minutes after him, unable to keep her mind on the concept of someone trying to kill Paragon City's first superheroes.
"Hey, Jakey," she said as she sat down next to him. "What are you reading?"
"Hmm? Oh, hey Sal …" Jake blushed a little and looked back down at the book. He cleared his throat. "Just a book on creation myths."
Sally peered at the book with a frown. She couldn't read a word of it.
"What language is it in?"
"Greek." Sally looked at him, frowning slightly.
"J, how many languages do you actually speak?" she asked. It had been bugging her for some time now, ever since she'd heard him hold fluent conversations in both French and Korean. Jake glanced at her.
"Enough to get by. The others come up with anything useful to know?" he asked. Sally folded her arms.
"No changing the subject. You always do that when you don't want to give a straight answer. I'm carrying your child here, don't you think I'm owed a few answers?!" she managed to keep her voice down, her 1920's persona slipping in to keep her from causing a fuss in public. Jake winced a little and fiddled with a page.
"I … er … speak forty three languages and I can read another eighteen." He didn't look at her, colour coming to his cheeks. Sally stared at him, trying to imagine where he'd found the time to learn so many languages.
"That's … um …"
"Freakish. I know." Jake glared at the page before him. This was horribly uncomfortable for him. Half of him wanted to reach out and take his wife in his arms, half of him shied away from it. He and Sally were friends, not a couple! He looked at her.
"You spent some time in Australia while working for Crey, didn't you?" he asked abruptly. Sally gave him a sharp look, then turned her face away. While stationed near Ayres Rock, she'd witnessed a catastrophe that had, ultimately, been the result of her deeds. The deaths at Ayres Rock still weighed heavily on her conscience and had forced a wedge between her and her former fiancé.
"Yes."
"Remind me, what spiritual significance is Uluru?" Jake's use of the world's largest monolith's true name threw Sally a little. She met his eyes for a moment, knowing that he knew the answer already. She wondered why he was asking her.
"It was the site of the Dreamtime, where the first aborigines dreamed the world into existence," she said, feeling like a child at school. Jake nodded, looking back at the book. He closed it and took it back to its shelf.
"Sally … I have to ask you a question." Sally glanced at him.
"What is it?"
"Are … Are you angry with me?" he asked, his back still to her. Sally sighed and hung her head.
"I'm not thrilled about this, J. I still love Bruce," she whispered. Jake rested his hand on the shelf, his head dipping a bit.
"That's okay … you're one of my best friends, Sal. But I never thought about you … this way. I kinda have someone." He looked at a spine before him, tracing the binding with a finger.
"This was a marriage of convenience. I was going to be deported." Sally stood up and walked over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Everything else is-"
"Sal, what will happen when we return to our real time? I can't bare for this to be taken away …" Jake was shaking under her hand and she bit her lip. She put her arms around him.
"I don't know. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Don't be scared, Jakey. I don't know if it'll be okay if you're scared." Her voice cracked a little. Jakey's fearless, cavalier approach to life was one of those things you could depend on. If it was taken away, then she wasn't sure they could get through this. Too much needed doing for him to lose it.
"I'm sorry, Sally. You're right." Whether he believed it or not, he pushed the shakes away. This was not the time for him to be self-indulgent with his desires. He was a Hero, his very life was lived in service to others, and if there was a time and place that needed Heroes, it was here and now. He took a deep breath and Sally felt his shoulders straighten under her hands.
"We have a lot to let the others know, and we have our forebears to protect. Whatever's going on here, I bet my future tail the Circle of Thorns are behind it."
"You think the Circle are behind everything," said Sally, amused. Jake flashed her a grin that made her feel stronger already.
"That's because they are behind everything."

Author's Note: The gang at HU have taken to calling Muse the 'princess' as he seems to have the 'kidnap fodder gene'.

An hour later, the eight of them were sitting around Kate's living, Sally nursing a cup of coffee as she tried to muster herself awake. She'd had a busy night, dancing and singing while her husband tried to get himself blown up. She reached up beside her and clipped the back of his head for no other reason. He looked meekly into his brandy glass. Matthew, lounging artfully in an armchair, raised his glass and swilled the brandy around in it.
"As much as I'm a night owl, Miss Midnight, why are we here at three in the morning?" he asked. Kate, still gripping the pad, nodded to Adam as he finished serving coffee and took a seat near her.
"Before I say any more, I have to apologise for what we are about to discuss. It will sound, at first, to be frank madness." She looked at the pad and took a breath, turning her eyes away from the curious and concerned looks of the people around her coffee table. Ferdas blinked.
"What is it?"
"Lately, more and more, I've been feeling like I've forgotten something, like something I needed to buy or a letter I needed to write, and I couldn't put my finger on it until an hour ago." She looked up suddenly, searching out each person's eyes, her face as open and honest as she could make it.
"We are not who we think we are. I don't know what happened or how, but this is not our life."
"My dear Colonel, we can't have that kind of talk in front of the troops, it's bad for morale!" the Captain spluttered. Kate passed the pad to Adam.
"I want you all to pass this around, look at the symbol and say the first word that comes to your head." She nodded to Adam. He looked at it, then frowned.
"White."
"Alright, pass it on." Adam passed it to Ferdas, looking confused. Ferdas had a look like he was only humouring Kate and he regarded the symbol.
"Laughing." The Captain received it next and he frowned tightly.
"Back up," he muttered, passing it to Matthew who scanned it.
"Love." He didn't look the least bit abashed as he passed it to Sally, who rubbed her eyes of sleep dust before she looked.
"Honour," she said, swatting Jake's head with it before giving it to him. Jake rubbed his head and looked.
"Hat." He passed it to Dave. Dave looked at it for a long time, then he looked at Kate. The others all glanced at him, wondering what was taking him so long.
"Justice," he said finally, handing it back to her. Kate nodded, taking it from him.
"We have all seen this symbol before, and not in just any old context. This symbol means something very specific to us. We have to try and remember what that is. I'm going to pass it around again, this time, I want you to write a word on the paper. Any old word that comes to mind."
With that, the pad was passed around and around. Words built up around the fleur de lis, seemingly randomly. It passed into Dave's hand for a fifth time and he wrote something very neatly in the bottom left hand corner. He passed it to Kate who scanned over the words and then she frowned, pausing. She flipped to a new page and wrote something. She then passed it to Adam who also frowned. He hesitated, then wrote two words.
It passed around to Jake again and he looked at the list presented to him. Then he realised that everyone was looking at him and a stillness had fallen. It weighed in the air, like some huge, silent ticking of a cosmic clock.
He looked again at the list. At the top of the page was written 'I am …', underscored neatly. Underneath it was written 'Shingi', then 'Midnight Gaze', then 'Midnight Avenger', 'Dax Ferdas', 'Captain Cathode', 'Music Teacher' and finally 'Sally Storm'. He cocked his head a bit.
"I don't-" he stopped.
"Hey, you, yeah you, dancing on the car!"
"Who me?"
"Yeah you, what's your name?"
"I'm the Jakey K!"
"The who?!" she laughed. He hopped off the top of the parked police car and looked up at her, tipping his hat.
"Jakey K, the cat of the hour, at your service Miss …?"
"Midnight Gaze. You can just call me Gaze though."
"As you like, Miss Gaze."
He could feel the warmth of Sally's legs beside him, something felt like it was bending inside, with the creak of soft ice. For a moment, he wanted to deny it at the top of his lungs. Of two lives, he knew without a doubt which one he wanted to live. His traitor hand moved the pen and the name 'Jakey K' appeared under 'Sally Storm'. He found himself flicking it onto the table.
The silence did nothing to mend the curving pain in his chest. He could see Sally's hand, he wanted to take it and forget the horrible truth. She was his wife and the mother of his unborn child, not his comrade in arms. He wanted to be Big Jake, not this Jakey K.
"Wow … er …" Matthew looked embarrassed and cleared his throat, it hung in the air. Then he stood up and jerked his thumb at Ferdas.
"You're in my space." Ferdas blinked in confusion, then he glanced at Adam sat beside him and realisation dawned. He scrambled up and took Matthew's seat.
"Sorry Muse." Matthew stepped over the Captain's legs and took his place beside Adam, putting his arms around him without a second thought and not caring at how awkward it might be. Adam was tense for a moment, then he just melted, looking relieved and slightly upset, wrapping his arms around him.
As if Matthew's motion had broken the final lock on their minds, the captain suddenly smacked his head with his hand.
"Now wait just one darn second here, if we're superheroes from the future, why are my eyes working right by themselves? And where's Jakey's tail and ears? And why isn't Ferdas freezing the coffee in his cup?! And how come Sally's pregnant!?"
Kate waved her hands.
"I don't know, I don't know!" Sally picked up the pad and threw it at the captain.
"Any more loud comments about me being in a family way are going to get you hurt, boyo."
"It's a good question actually, the evidence suggests we're all human," said Dave. Kate leaned back in her chair, arms folded.
"Clearly something weird is going on here. We're going to have to work out what, but not tonight. I think we've all had enough revelations about ourselves to be getting along with. For now, I suggest we all go to our homes here and then we'll try and work out what's happened tomorrow at the earliest. I suggest you all get your rest." She half smiled, feeling as lost as everyone else.
Sally nodded finally and got to her feet.
"Alright big guy, time to get me home, it's way past my bedtime," she said, poking Jake's head. He said nothing, merely getting to his feet and leading the way out.
"Hey, Gaze, is it alright if I crash here? I really hate driving in all that fog," asked Ferdas. Kate nodded and went to get some blankets from the airing cupboard. Dave cleared his throat.
"Actually, I'd like to stay too."
"Well if Ferdas is staying, I have to. I got lift in with him," muttered the captain. Kate threw a pillow at his head.
"Fine. Sleep over it is. We can do each other's hair and talk about the boys we like." She rolled her eyes, then looked at Adam and Matthew, "you two staying aswell?"
"Um … if it's all the same to you, Kate, no. We're going to have our own sleep-over, ta," Matthew grinned a little apologetically. Ferdas grimaced.
"Gah, I still have 1920s sensibilities in my head, no mentioning the S-E-X thing!"
"Prude," Matthew teased, sticking his tongue out. Adam cleared his throat, taking Matthew's hand.
"So … er … we'll see you guys tomorrow afternoon some time. Bye." And with that, he left hurriedly, towing Matthew with before the shorter man could delight in teasing Ferdas some more.
Kate nursed her head, one half of her was shocked and appalled, the other half was happy to see Adam do something other than mope and wished them well tonight. It was so confusing.

The bare window of Adam's ill-furnished flat was misted with condensation as the night brightened to morning. Adam looked at it lazily, his arm hooked around Matthew's side, one finger idly tracing shapes between his shoulders. The blond man was sprawled half over him, breathing deeply in his sleep. Adam frowned lightly as he watched the darkness become just twilight. Then it occurred to him what was off. The pane was uncracked.
He looked down at Matthew's hair. No sonic resonance. He lifted his spare hand and looked at it in a detached way. Hesitantly, he picked up a glass on the bedside table. He looked at the slightly grimy surface silently. Then he constricted his hand.
There was a moment of resistance and then it splintered in his hand. He cursed at the agony in his palm and looked horrified as red liquid dribbled down from his hand.
"[censored]!" He scrambled out from under Matthew, dumping him on the mattress unceremoniously and darted to the bathroom. After a moment and a sleepy grumble, Matthew leaned around the door frame to see him trying to prise broken glass from his palm and fingers.
"What the Hell!?" He was instantly in the room, grabbing Adam's wrist tightly, compressing the veins to slow the blood. Adam was shaking all over, shocked at the sight of the blood dripping from his hand. There was so much of it and it was so red, so fluid, sliding in trails down the curve of the sink. He barely paid any attention as Matthew pulled the glass out, cleaning up the cuts. He could barely remember the last time he'd seen his own blood.
He wasn't invulnerable.
He watched miserably as Matthew bandaged his hand up with a torn up shirt.
"We don't have our powers," he said, shaking in a cold sweat. Matthew looked at him, then pinned the bandage down.
"Funnily enough, Adam, I had noticed."
"How are you taking this so calmly? We don't have our powers … how are we supposed to get home?"
"The same we got here?" Matthew reached up and put his hands on Adam's cheeks, giving him a searching look, "this is no time to freak out, we need you to be strong for-"
Adam took his arms and pushed him back enough to let him walk past, going to where his suits hung.
"Don't you get it, Matt? I don't have my strength! I'm as weak as the next man."
"You don't honestly believe that …" Matthew padded after him, then winced at the sharp motions Adam was making as he pulled on his clothes.
"I was bleeding, Matt. Bleeding. Blood. Do you know how long it's been since anything's broken my skin?" Adam put his bandaged hand up near his head, as if he was trying to grab thoughts whirling about and just hand them over without forcing them into clumsy words. Matthew gave him a pained look.
"I-I think I know what's happened. Adam, this is a dream. It's not real …"
"It’s not a dream. It's a nightmare," Adam hissed, pulling on his hat and walking out. Matthew stared at the door for a long moment, then he sighed and got to picking up the rest of the broken glass, trying not to let his own upset get in the way. Of course it would be a horrible shock to have your powers mysteriously vanish. He was struggling with the concept himself. He'd always had resonance, always. As much as he feared and resented it, it was part of him and now it just wasn't there.
He got dressed and left Adam's apartment, getting a very funny look from the landlord as he did so. He tipped his hat at him politely and jogged down the steps, then he remembered his 'occupation' and winced internally. He took a deep breath and pushed that aside as well. It was all just a dream, he was sure of it. It made sense in a twisted sort of way, as they were all more or less the same people, but with tweaked pastimes and histories. The last thing he could remember as the Music Teacher was blackness and a strange stone device. Who'd they been fighting that time? The Circuit? The Circus? The Thorny Circus? That sounded about right.
Screeching tyres broke through his deep thoughts and he looked up in distraction. He saw the car veering for him and window rolling down in a split second. There wasn't even time to swear, he just collapsed to the ground like someone had kicked his legs out from under him. Bullets bit the wall at head height, showering dust and razor shards over the pavement. The car engine roared as it swerved past and tore off down the street. Matthew's heart pounded wildly as he scrambled to his feet, cutting into a run. There were other people on the street, he envisaged them cut down under machine gun fire and felt sick, hurdling one man as he huddled, holding an umbrella up like a talisman. The car screamed in a one hundred and eighty degree turn, the tyres squealing as they struggled to find purchase on the cobbles. Matthew found himself running faster, trying to keep his panic under grips as the car gained on him. He grabbed a lamppost as he ran past, nearly swinging off his feet as he turned. There was another scream of tyres as the car skidded right past the turning, turning sideways. Matthew sprinted down the street, panicking that any second he was going to feel a bullet hitting his back when hands reached out from an alley way and grabbed him.
He didn't have time to worry or wonder about bullets, as a handkerchief was slammed against his nose and mouth and the chloroform took all his worries away.

A month passed without much notice other than increased tensions with the De Marchis. Despite their promises to get to the bottom of things, the Midnights still had a club to run, rent to pay and Adam had a friend to worry about. He stood alone under a streetlight in the customary night fog, smoking idly on a cigarette while he waited for Big Jake to show up. He couldn't quell the feeling twisting his insides. Earlier, when Kate had called him into her office, he'd been feeling so optimistic. He'd been feeling so ever since Matthew had started working at the Serenade, filling his nights with song and music instead of his previous occupation. Then Kate had told him that they had word that something very big was going to go down at the Royal Flush. It was a De Marchi club, and normally none of them would be foolish enough to trespass on the other gang's territory without expecting to wind up in a hospital or the morgue. He closed his eyes and took the cigarette away from his mouth to knock the ash off. Apparently Matthew had provided the information. Adam wondered, almost fatalistically, how the musician had come by it, though he thought he could guess.
Why should he feel so wound up about it, he didn't know. Matthew was a [censored], for Pete's sake. There was no pretty way to word it, he sold his body and services therein to other men. Still, it hurt. He'd gotten him a job at the Serenade so he wouldn't have to keep degrading himself for money, or information.
"Hey Adam, sorry to keep you waiting." Adam jumped a little, his train of thought derailing as he whirled to look at Jake. The short man tipped his hat with a huge grin.
"Whotcha."
"Don't sneak up on me like that, jeez," Adam muttered. Jake just smirked and swivelled his own cigarette to the corner of his mouth.
"Hell, an elephant could have snuck up on you then. What's on your mind, sarge?"
"Just cold. Come on, let's get this place checked out." Adam turned his collar up and pushed away from the lamppost, starting to walk down the cobbled street. Jake fell in at his right and slightly behind.
They passed through the fog in silence, the clip of their shoes against the cobbles rang against the thick air's acoustic. Disembodied orbs of light marked each streetlamp as they walked, letting them slide slowly past over their heads. They might as well have been the only two men in a world of silence.
It was not to last. As they passed from Founders Falls to Astoria, they saw and heard more people, a near constant chatter of nightlife in full swing. Every time a door opened, streams of jazz and light pierced the fog and they could hear the laughing of people merrily breaking the Prohibition laws. The Royal Flush was in a quieter area, masquerading as a pool hall and card house. There was no way a De Marchi doorman would let Big Jake in without a thorough frisking by two men and possibly a third to make sure the Irish mutt didn't try anything. People were less zealous about Adam, given that he'd kept himself to himself for the most part and was polite for a doorman.
Jake flicked his dog-end to the curb as they cut down an alley that would bring them down the length of the Royal Flush.
"If there's a meet or a deal, it'll be going on in the back. I'll be able to get to it, don't know about you, sarge. Just keep watch, alright?" he asked. Adam repressed a sigh and nodded. Jake led him around to an even more narrow alley. Adam's first thought when he looked at the black length was of a trench. He swallowed the acid edge of bile that knifed up his throat and looked at Jake. The short man took off his hat and hung it on the corner of a bin, then clambered up onto the cast iron vessel. He tensed for a moment, then jumped up, catching the edge of an old bricked up window with his fingertips. Adam watched in amazement as the younger man fluidly pulled himself up the wall, using holds he couldn't even see. He couldn't help but grin. Climbing came so naturally to Big Jake that he wondered if he was part squirrel. Hell, he was part most everything else. Anyone who asked if Jake was Irish always to the answer, 'half Irish, half Turkish, half Scottish, half French, half Egyptian' and so on. Jake usually only stopped when he got bored.
After a few minutes, Jake was perched on a narrow, now defunct, pulley arm that used to be used to get goods up to the second floor of the club. He was crouched right up against the wall, leaning dangerously backwards so he was looking through a gap in the boards that covered the old opening. Adam looked back down the alleyway to check it was still clear, then looked up at him. He dimly made out that Jake was making hand signals. He watched closely, recognising them from the service. Four men were inside, they were talking and he should stay there. Adam did so, wondering how often Jake found himself listening at windows, perched on rusty bits of metal that could fall without a moment's notice. No wonder Sally gave him hell for it.
While Adam kept watch, Jake kept all his attention on the discussion inside.
"Don't worry about the Sonamas, they're small time punks and can't survive in the real world. Is everything set for July?" asked a man in a sharp white suit. He was the only man in the room sitting down, that meant he was in charge. Jake narrowed his eyes.
"There is something else, Uncle Fred. The Midnight Serenade is still open-"
"Don't come to me with that [censored]. The Midnights are even less of a threat than the Sonamas." Uncle Fred pushed himself to standing fluidly, the other three backed of a step to give him room and he walked to the man who'd spoken, picking a speck off his jacket and straightening his tie, "trust me, kid, I've seen all kinds of wannabes, the Midnights are a bunch of nothing that just fell from don't-give-a-damn tree. All we worry about for now is Spanky. I don't want that [censored] cottoning onto us."
"A wise decision, Fred De Marchi," said a new voice from the far left. Jake strained his position to be able to see the speaker, but a rack was in the way, leaving him with only the suggestion of a dark suit, maybe blue. The four men in the room all turned to glare at the newcomer. Then Fred pushed his hand through his hair.
"So you finally decided to show? You got the next step for us?" he asked. There was a rustle of paper and something was handed to one of the De Marchi henchmen.
"Follow these instructions to the letter. As usual." There was something about that voice, that prickled the dark recesses of Jake's mind. Fred opened the newspaper that was handed to him by his nephew and glanced at it.
"Seems easy enough. We done today?"
"There is one more thing …" the gravely voiced one trailed off, almost as if he was uncomfortable. Fred arched one dark eyebrow.
"Oh?"
"The recent arson attacks on your warehouses. Find out who is responsible immediately. We must have no further set backs." Fred smirked.
"One arsonist found and killed. Got it."
"No!" The gravely voiced man stepped forward sharply, into Jake's view. He noted with interest that the suit was not dark blue, but dark green. Fred scowled but didn't interrupt when the man started speaking again.
"He is not to be killed. Acquire him by any means, then hold him until we arrive. We must deal with him personally. Limbs are optional." Jake had a feeling he knew that man, like a deep sense of déjà vu. Fred looked fleetingly curious, then schooled the flicker away, settling for a nod.
"Sure thing."
"Um … Uncle Fred, what's that smell?" Fred's nephew come henchman looked around as he spoke, sniffing the air. Fred looked annoyed at the interruption, then sniffed. He froze.
"Gasoline …"
Jake smelt it too. He suddenly had a very, very bad feeling. He was about to scramble down when he heard something that made him look back into the room.
A match was struck.
The gangsters and their visitor all spun around, putting their backs to Jake's window. Half obscured by their shoulders stood a man with a pulled down hat and a grey suit. He was holding the lit match in one white gloved hand. His hat obscured his face, but not the grin. That grin was not normal. The second stretched to a lifetime and nobody spoke, nobody breathed, all eyes were fixed on that match so intently the grin became a mere disembodied figment.
The gloved fingers flicked the match, it sailed down to the floor and there was a whoosh of air as fire shot out in two directions. Jake's eyes widened as he saw a design etch itself in fire all around the man. Then he noticed a stream of fire hitting a powder fuse on the floor. He bit down on his curse and just jumped off his perch. Adam turned around sharply when he heard him land a few feet shy of his position.
"What's wrong?" he asked. Jake just grabbed his arm and hauled him after him, breaking into a flat out run.
"We have to get the hell out of here before that fuse gets wherever it's going!" he hissed.
Ten long seconds later, there was an explosion in the Royal Flush, debris and dust blasting out of windows and doorway. Adam slowed to look over his shoulder but Jake wouldn't let him stop. They absolutely couldn't be here. If anything connected them to the blast, the De Marchis and the police would be all over them in a day.

"You saw the arsonist?! Did you get a good look?" Kate demanded, pouring brandy for Jake and Adam as they flopped, panting on her sofa. Her apartment in Woodvale was quiet, it was an ideal place to beat a retreat. Nothing happened in Woodvale of note, and nobody of note went there. It was just a few high rises and a lot of forest.
"No, he had his hat down," said Jake with a heavy sigh as he took the brandy from her. Adam necked his immediately, checking he wasn't shaking. He longed to go visit Matthew, to bury the memories of explosions and fear and running for just a little while. He cursed himself inwardly, he wasn't trying to get him out of [censored] just to have exclusive access to him. He was doing it for the sake of his eternal soul. Angry at himself for his needy clinging, he stood up briskly and went into the kitchen to make a sandwich.
"Nothing at all, Jake?" Kate looked disappointed. Jake put the glass down.
"Hey, I didn't say that. Gimme some paper a second and a pen." He leaned forward and cleared some space on Kate's coffee table as she brought him a journalists note pad and a pen. He pulled off the cap and sketched something, then showed it to her.
"Damnedest thing, he painted out a fleur de lis on the wall in gas, then lit it. The fuse was attached about here." Jake dashed in an 'X' on the design. Kate frowned at the French symbol.
"Why?"
"I have no idea, but the guy in the green suit was very keen to get hold of him alive, probably to find out what he's about." Jake looked up at Kate. Kate was still looking at the design, frowning tightly. After a moment, she glanced down to meet his eyes.
"Jake, call the others and get them over here now." Adam watched as Jake scrambled to the phone, taking the earpiece off the hook and setting his finger to the dial, turning it speedily. He looked back at Kate.
"What's the matter?" he asked, voice soft with worry. Kate's hands were gripping the pad so tightly her knuckles had gone white. She didn't look at him.
"Something is very wrong here."