Jakey_K

Sally finished applying her make up and put the lipstick into her handbag, closing it with a click. She checked herself in the mirror, then picked up her hat and place it on her head, picking up a few long hatpins and fixing the garment on so the wind couldn't blow it away. She checked her appearance one last time and, finally satisfied, she left the little apartment she and her husband lived in. She fancied a walk to the park today, since it promised to be beautiful. It was clear across town though, she stepped out onto the street and walked to the nearest tramline.
Since it was the time of day when the contentious were hard at work behind bank counters and in factories, the tram was comfortably deserted. Sally sat down on a vacant seat, her small handbag on her lap as she looked out the window. There were whispers behind her on the tram, a few other women passing comment on her hair, her curves, her heritage. Sally ignored them. Let them mutter their small minded comments, mere words could not find their way through her armour. She was impervious to their petty gripes.
The deep blue vault of the sky was littered with clouds that cruised over the city under the encouragement of a high wind. Sally watched them as she disembarked the tram outside one of the gates to Perez Park. She smiled, inhaling deeply the smell of damp grass and deciduous woods. In the distance she could see Bettis Hill, her favourite place in the whole park. She smiled to herself as she started down the winding dusty paths towards it, walking by the river and nodding politely to other people she passed. Overhead some birds flew and she could hear the ducks in the river and ponds quaking noisily. There was a nice pool just off from the river course at the foot of Bettis Hill, the wildflowers were challenging the tended verges of the paths and her eyes fell on the bench where Jake had proposed to her. She half smiled to remember the moment, as she sobbed onto his chest, full of fear of being deported and misery over coming so close to finding her father's killers and having the chance of justice snatched away.
She shook her head sharply, taking a heel of bread from her bag and tearing off a bit of it. She came here to feed the ducks and not think about her rascal of a husband and her concerns for raising her unborn child in an uncertain financial climate. The ducks swam idly in circles, quaking lazily until they noticed her and then they became more urgent and attentive, ready to listen to whatever she needed to say in exchange for the bread in her hands. A breeze stirred at the coiled and curled hair around her neck and Sally smiled, Bettis Hill was still her favourite place to come and think. The breeze swept up to rustle the leaves of the trees and carried with it the sound of children laughing and playing elsewhere in the park. Sally felt a bit breathless as she imagined her own child running over the grassy slopes and between the trees. He would have her eyes and elegance and Jake's freckles and smile. He would be a natural leader and an artist, a poet and a samurai. He would be as wise and strong as her father had been.
The ducks gobbled at the chunks of bread torn of the stale heel, Sally let her mind drift in bittersweet thoughts of a future promised and a past lost. She paused in her feeding, holding the heel lightly, her other hand spreading on the floral print covering her flat stomach. It would be months before she started to show. Her son was just below her palm. She felt a delicious thrill of expectation and fear mingled as one. Her sweet son, so tiny and vulnerable.
So lost in her reverie was she that she didn't immediately register the crack of a branch underfoot. She was seized roughly from behind and a knife edge suddenly pressed against her throat. She froze, smelling cheap aftershave and under it, rank sweat and tobacco.
"Listen up good, [censored]. You tell that Midnight [censored] to start payin' some respect to her betters or we're gonna stop playing nice. You want to keep your pretty face, *****, you tell her that," growled a man's voice in her ear, his breath hot and fetid. She stumbled slightly when he pushed her away roughly. She spun around, glaring furiously with tears in her eyes at the dusky man in his ill-fitting suit.
"I'd watch my language if I were you, that's no way to talk to a lady!"
The man sneered and back-handed her viciously across the face. Sally gasped in pain, her hand snapping to her face as she staggered to keep her balance on her neat heels. Before she could launch into an ear-scorching tirade of abuse, he turned and walked off, dismissing her like she was nothing.
She was so angry she was still shaking when she reached the club an hour later. The captain looked up and got hastily out of her way when she stormed down the corridor, flattening himself into the dance costumes, sequins glittering about his head.
"Kate!" Sally slammed the door to Kate's office open wildly, banging it off the wall. Kate glanced over her newspaper, one eyebrow raised.
"What's wrong?"
"I'll tell you what's wrong! Some ******* threatened me with a knife! Held me at knife point. Smacked my face!" Sally pointed to the reddened mark fringed with bruising. Kate got to her feet quickly and walked over, going to examine it when Sally smacked her hands away furiously, tears standing in her eyes.
"Keep your hands off me! This is all your fault! Whatever you send my husband out to get shot over is causing trouble! You should be shamed!" Kate stepped back, giving the other woman her space and let her rage. She retrieved an icepack from the bar freezer and brought it back to her. Sally took it and held it to her face, sitting down angrily.
"What is so worth this trouble, Kate? What are you trying to do?" she asked heavily, her anger having spent itself finally. Kate sighed and sat down opposite her.
"I don't know, honestly. Something's going on and I don't know what but I intend to find out."
"At what price?" Sally looked into Kate's eyes and held them. The two women both looked away after a moment, as if they couldn't quite bring themselves to talk about it. Finally Kate stood up.
"I've done you wrong, Sally. I should have told you what was going on before now. After we close up tonight, I'll tell you all. Oh, by the way, we have a new act, if you're ready, could you go and talk to him about timing and arrange tonight's performance with him. His name's Whithers."

The club was now empty again, the ashtrays were full of ash and stubbed out cigarettes and cigars, empty glasses stood on tables and on the bar. Eight people sat around the largest round table, smoke idling up from their cigarettes. Kate looked around at each face, Adam, Dave, Jake, Sally, Ferdas, the Captain and Matthew. She had been a little hesitant to include him in her confidence, given that he'd only been hired that day, but something told her she could trust him. Adam had vouched for his discretion and sense as well, which just strengthened her feeling. She reached forward and picked up the teapot in the middle of the table. It contained 'Irish tea', courtesy of Jake's dodgy upbringing, being equal parts tea and whiskey. She poured herself a cup in a dainty white and lavender bone china cup.
"You are probably all wondering why I called you here after hours," she began. There were a few nods around the table. She noticed that Sally and Jake were sitting closer than usual. The short man must have been furious to hear his wife's account, Kate was glad she wasn't the man who'd held a knife to Sally's throat.
"You may or may not be aware that I have been sending Jake out to keep tabs on the gangs, it's been difficult work, dangerous even." Kate nodded a little at Jake, recognizing the risks he'd been taking for her. Ferdas frowned slightly.
"Why?" Matthew asked, his arms folded. Kate sighed.
"We all know that the force is riddled with as many crooks as the streets. The system is corrupt from the inside out. If anyone is to make headway in this city, they have to do with it with a well greased palm and the edge of a knife. I refute this." She slapped her hand on the table suddenly, making more than one person jump. Dave met her sharp eyes for a moment, blinking slowly.
"How do you mean?" he asked.
"I mean that we do not have to let those with the least morals call the shots. If the police are corrupt, we must take the law into our own hands." The Captain grunted, reaching up to work the curl of his mustache with his fingers.
"Colonel Midnight, as ambitious as your words are, may I remind you that we are not so lawful as a unit."
"Yes, I know. But because we have seen both sides of the law that we are in the best position to judge what is moral and what is not. Jake may be a cat burglar, but he has already worked to protect us. Sally is an illegal immigrant but she works honestly for her living. We've all done things that have been decided to be wrong, but our reasons have always been morally driven. Whatever the law, I believe we have all done the right things." Kate looked at each of them, holding their eyes. She knew most of their secrets, she had collected them together because she saw what courts of law did not, these were good people.
"So what do you propose, Kate? Mrs Kasey was held at knifepoint and threatened. How are we to react to this?" Matthew asked quietly. The Captain poured himself some Irish tea.
"I suggest we lure the enemy out and catch him in a crossfire. Several mortars should do the trick. Do you think we could ask for a tank division?"
"Certainly, we have to respond the threat, or the De Marchis will see it as an invitation to walk all over us. However, we have a more pressing matter to deal with. This." Kate took a piece of paper out of the inner pocket of her suit jacket. She unfolded it and placed it in the middle of the table so everyone could see it. Adam frowned at the seven names.
"What is it?"
"That's what we've got to work out. Who are these people, what is so special about them and why are the De Marchi's interested in them?" Kate looked at the seven faces looking back at her. Matthew was the first to shrug easily.
"I'm sure I can find you out some choice details," he said. Ferdas nodded as well.
"I'll do what I can, Kate." Everyone else followed his lead, nodding and promising they would do what they could. Kate half smiled, feeling a swell of pride in her chest. She took a good look at each face, then picked up her teacup.
"Here's to doing what's right. Here's to Honour and Unity."
They all drank to the toast, feeling a connection with each other they couldn't easily explain. Dave looked at his teacup when it was drained of Irish tea. He looked up at the Captain who was sat opposite him.
Captain Cathode.
He looked back at his cup, unsettled. When next he looked up, he caught sight of Ferdas reaching out to the teapot again and finding it empty. He watched him get up and walk to the bar with it.
Dax Ferdas.
He looked at Kate, talking quietly to Matthew beside her.
Midnight Gaze and the Music Teacher.
Dave glanced at Jake and Sally, catching the short man reaching tenderly to his wife's cheek, murmuring something. He looked away, embarrassed.
Sally Storm and Jakey K. They're going to flip out when they realise the truth.
Dave grimaced, distinctly aware of Adam next to him.
The Midnight Avenger. I wonder how he feels about Matthew right now? 1920s weren't big on men being [censored].
He wished he didn't have all this clutter in his head. He had two sets of memories from what he could access. One set had him as a disheartened detective in Paragon City, struggling with alcoholism after the tragic death of his wife and daughter caught in gang crossfire. The other had him as a superhero, struggling to come to terms with the loss of his wife and daughter in an alien invasion.
He wasn't sure which one he favoured. He wasn't sure which was real. The second set of memories sounded like something out of those pulp magazines and comics. It was ridiculous.
And yet, it felt more right than his persona as a detective. He looked at Ferdas as he talked to the Captain, they both started chuckling and the Captain poured them both a drink. These people were a constant of both memories, as was the city.
How was he ever to work out which was the real him?

Ferdas sighed as he stopped at the newsstand, picking up today's copy of the Paragon Free Press, flicking to the news from Wall Street.
"This ain't a library pal. Pay before you read," grunted the badly shaven man in the flat cap. Ferdas didn't look away from the paper, rooting into his pocket and taking out a few coins, knowing from touch he had he correct amount. He handed them over to the grouchy vendor.
"How about them Paladins, eh? Close game with the Sox, right?" Once paid, the vendor had clearly recovered that good humour they were famed for. Ferdas just nodded.
"Pretty good, looking forward to the World Series?" he asked, still scanning the news. He didn't know exactly what he was looking for, but something was wrong with the paper. Something was missing.
"Who isn't? Already got me some tickets. Take the boys to their first big leagues game, buy some 'dogs, make a day of it."
"Sounds good. You have yourself a nice day." Ferdas tipped his hat at the man, receiving a similar wish in return and he tucked his paper under his arm as he walked to the docks. He skirted places that were known territories of the Sonomas, another gang in the area. His Spanish wasn't good enough to convince them he was lost, everyone knew he tended bar at the Midnight Serenade. The Sonomas had no particular gripe with the Midnights, they were, after all, just a handful of people who ran a decent club and sold less lethal alcohol than most. But you could never tell with Mexicans, right? The De Marchis were not so forgiving, Ferdas put that down to the Italian passion, young bucks fresh from the Mediterranean trying to impress their established big men.
It was all a pain in the neck when you wanted to take the quick route to work. Ahead, he saw the janitor padding to work. He slowed down, so the janitor would arrive first. Something about that man gave him the creeps. His eyes seemed almost empty, hollow of any considerations, his hair prematurely white. Kate said it was from the 'medical' treatment he'd received during the war. Ferdas thought, quite frankly, he'd been caught by the enemy and tortured. It seemed more plausible to him. Everyone knew the Keiser ate babies, torturing one or two enemy soldiers would be a mildly entertaining diversion to someone so depraved.
Minutes later, as he hung up his hat and coat in the staff room, he heard the clank of the iron bucket and slap of the mop as the janitor began his work. He shivered slightly as he reached the doorway. He watched him pass in that focused, resolute silence and shuddered. There was something so wrong about that man. He looked around the staff room and sighed, starting to collect up the empty glasses and empty the ashtray. Normally he wouldn't leave himself work for the next morning, but after they'd closed up and drank to the new baby's health, he'd been so tired he just couldn't bring himself to do the chore then.
Kate arrived next, looking thoughtful as ever, she stopped by bar, watching Ferdas wash and dry the glasses.
"I'm going to book the theatre later so we can audition new acts. I want you and the captain on it, alright Dax?" she asked. Ferdas nodded.
"Sure thing boss. Did you read the paper this morning?" he asked. Kate shook her head and he handed her his own. She flicked through it.
"Another fire at a warehouse? Interesting." Kate closed the paper, tapping it against her hand for a moment, then she looked at Ferdas.
"When Jake gets in, tell him I want to see him." With that, she walked away. Ferdas watched her go, then cleaned the glasses. If his barman sense was right, Sally was going to be spitting fire over this.

"So, Captain, what did you think of that last one?" Ferdas asked, tapping his clipboard with his pencil as they both sat at one of the back tables. The Captain tapped some ash off his cigar with a sigh.
"Sure, they can sing, but can they field strip a rifle in under thirty seconds?" Ferdas considered this.
"If you want to call that last one's squawking 'singing'."
"She was rather foul, wasn't she?" The captain picked up a bottle of whiskey and poured himself another drink.
"These dames all want to make it big but they got none of the pizzazz. The razzle. And some of them couldn't even carry a tune in a bucket." Ferdas sighed deeply. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss today, like he'd forgotten to do something incredibly important.
There was a creak on the steps behind them and they both looked around. A short man with tousled blond hair stood there, holding a dark mulberry hat in his hands. Ferdas thought the dark purple suit was frightfully flamboyant and wrinkled his nose.
"We're not open for business yet."
"That's what the doorman said. I'm not here for a drink, I was asked to come and play a bit of piano for you fine gentlemen. Heard you were looking for help." The man had a soft voice, but an infectious smile. Ferdas grunted slightly, looking at the captain, who shrugged, then motioned to the stage.
"Alright, show us what you can do." Ferdas looked disapproving. He didn't like people just wandering in off the street into his bar, thank you very much. The blond man nodded and set his hat and coat on a clear table, walking to the piano by the stage, sitting down.
"Any requests?" he asked cheerfully. The captain grinned a little, sipping his whiskey.
"Just play whatever you like, boy." The man nodded, not taking umbrage at being called 'boy', and set his fingers to the piano.
Ferdas hadn't expected much, maybe a little light fluttering lounge music. He got something classical. He had no idea what it was called or who it was by, but he knew it by sound. It was beautiful, intricate and a pattering quick notes like raindrops in a pond, sending out overlapping ripples. Beside him, the captain's eyebrows rose and he leaned back in his chair, chewing on the end of his cigar slightly. After a minute of playing, the young man stopped and pulled a face.
"Sorry, I'm done warming up now." Ferdas's eyebrows now rose as the man returned to playing, flittering into some light lounge music. Then he opened his mouth to sing. Both Ferdas and the captain braced themselves, having been assaulted by some of the worst singing voices in the city this morning. They needn't have worried, like his speaking voice, the man's singing voice was mellow, but richer. It deepened and rose effortlessly. Clearly the man had some real fancy education to be able to sing so well. Ferdas glanced at the captain, leaning close to whisper.
"If we don't snap him up now, the De Marchis will."
"Allow the enemy no quarter!" Ferdas took that to mean that the captain agreed. He sat back and waited for the song to finish.
"Well, we have to review the applications, take our recommendations to the boss. Wait with the other applicants if you would." Ferdas stood up, motioning for the captain to rise too. "Oh yes, by the way, what's your name?"
"Matthew Whithers, sir." Ferdas wrote that down, then frowned slightly at the name. Had he heard it before somewhere? It felt familiar. As he fumbled at the memories, they slipped out of his grip and he sighed, walking out the back.
He knocked on Kate's door, rapping his knuckles against the frosted glass.
"Come in." He opened the door and nodded to Jake as he sat on the windowsill, shaking a match to extinguish it. Kate looked up at him, covering a blueprint on her desk.
"What is it, Dax?" she asked. Ferdas motioned behind him.
"I think we got our new act. Guy called Whithers. Pretty handy with a piano and can sing too."
Kate nodded.
"Alright, offer him the usual. He's hired." She watched as Ferdas nodded and left, then breathed out and looked at Jake. Jake shrugged.
"I doubt we're going to find anything more at this fire than we found at the last one. Guy really knows how to cover his tracks." He flicked the now cool match into the ashtray on the table. Kate uncovered the blueprints again.
"Still, there is a distinct pattern emerging. He always targets bootleggers, and never messes with the Sonomas, only the De Marchis. Get out on the street, Jake, take Dave with you. I want you to keep your ears open for all rumours and speculation. I may be being too cautious, but this guy targets bootleggers. I don't want my club to be the next inferno in the papers." Kate poked his nose. Jake wrinkled it, then hopped off the sill.
"Right you are, Kate. Tell Adam I said hello when he finally gets in."
"I will." Kate watched the small man leave, then returned to her chair and rested her chin in one hand, gazing out the window. She had a bad feeling.

"Hey, Kasey, you want a dog?"
"I'm more of a cat person," Jake said, looking at a paper, as if it was very interesting. Dave looked at the hotdogs in his hands, then shrugged.
"Your loss." He bit into one enthusiastically. Jake sighed.
"Best get to the library and check my sources."
"A library? Oh pinch me, the excitement's too much," Dave grumbled. Jake just folded up his paper and walked off with his hands in his pockets. Dave shook his head and followed him. Short guys were all the same, all fixated on having something over normal sized guys. Big Jake was into his 'mystery'. It was annoying.
The city library of Paragon was one of the first buildings that had been built when the original cities had been founded. It showed in every brick and carved lintel. The red bricks harked back to a simpler time. Dave regarded the building thoughtfully as the short man jogged lightly up the steps and pushed his way through the heavy wooden doors. He followed him after a while and took off his hat.
"Good afternoon Mr Kasey," said the pretty young librarian. Behind the glasses and hair pulled back into a tight bun, she was a knock-out. The grey skirt, faun stockings and ugly pullover couldn't hide that. Jake tipped his hat at her.
"Hey Gwynne, you mind if I take a look at some of the blueprints in the archives?" he asked. Gwynne smiled shyly, clutching a pile of books to her chest.
"Go right ahead, sir." Clearly she was used to Jake's comings and goings, and didn't think twice about giving him access. Dave frowned, clearly the short man came to the library often. It was odd, Big Jake didn't strike him as much of a reader. He followed him into the civil records section, watching him search for some blueprints. Something was bugging him. Something about the way Jake looked.
He watched the short man walk over to a reading table with several rolls of blueprint. He frowned. Something was missing.
"Hey, Metalhead, behind you! SHIN, LOOK OUT!"
Dave flinched, putting his hand to his head. What the hell was that?
"J, watch out, she's got psychic powers!" He flinched again, the voices in his head gave way to half formed images. A blinding flash like lightening and a woman in a skirt of indecent length.
He sat down heavily, breathing out. They were just flashbacks to the war. That was all.
"Only good thing to come out of the war was nano medicine."
"Dave, shall we talk about your solo missions?"
"It am sleepy tyme, come back laterz0r."
Dave felt slightly ill, he looked at Jake. The other man hadn't noticed his discomfort.
"Oh no, the scary crossdressers have come to put me in a skirt, what shall I do?"
"What are you looking for?" he asked finally. Jake looked up, then back down at the blueprints.
"I'm just wondering if the buildings shared anything in common."
"Other than them being warehouses owned by bootleggers?" Dave lifted his eyebrow. Jake grunted.
"Sometimes the most obvious connection isn't the only connection."
How like him. Dave faltered on that thought. He didn't know Big Jake by anything but reputation, why did he feel so … so … connected to him? Connected with him?
"You're always just out of the hospital, Metalhead."
It hit him like a brick. He knew what was missing now. A tail. Jake should have a tail, and he didn't know why he should have a tail. Dave stood up hurriedly.
"I'm going to find some coffee," he said, feeling the urge to run away. Jake watched as he left, then turned back to his schematics.
Dave leaned against the wall once he was outside, thudding his head back against the bricks. Was he going crazy? Why on Earth would Big Jake have a tail? He really needed that coffee.

Author's Note: some liberty taken with the Allied Force placements

After another busy night that had stretched into the small hours, after the chairs had been put up and the lights turned low, after several drinks to celebrate Jake and Sally's news, it was time to go home. Adam put his hands in his pockets to warm them, sighing out weightily. Jake had been just a kid when they'd met, he'd been too young for the army and had lied about his age. Nobody had cared though. He was volunteering and so many soldiers had died already that they needed everyone they could cram into the war machine. Adam could still remember that tanned face looking up at him from under an over-large helmet.
"Hey, you gotta light, sergeant?"
That infectious grin and often filthy expletives a kid as young as him shouldn't even know. He'd survived the war, standing at Adam's side, following orders and keeping spirits high. There was something naturally buoyant about Jake Kasey, something No Mans Land and weeks of solid shelling couldn't kill.
"Hey sarge, if they keep chucking their ammo at us, we're gonna win this one by being the only buggers with bullets left!"
He smiled a soft, melancholy smile. He'd said it in a gap in explosions, pitching his voice loudly to compensate. Five men either side heard it and burst out laughing. He thought every platoon needed a Kasey. Wars were won in the will, if you could keep your will sound under heavy fire, then the battle would be yours. You just had to dig in and hold on and believe you'd get your chance to make that final devastating blow.
He was glad he hadn't been at Ypres though. He wasn't sure if even Kasey could have banished that horror with a well-timed joke. The reminders of the Great War still lived. Adam didn't think he would be able to forget the flooded shell craters and torn earth of No Mans Land. You could be hunkered down in your trench and a shell would go off and you found yourself praying that the debris raining down on you was just mud and old trees.
Adam had been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't been watching where he was going. He looked up at the apartment building in front of him, his eyes automatically going to the second window across on the third floor. It was lit. He hadn't meant to come here, but when he got thinking about the War, he wanted to forget any way he could. He opened the main door and started up the bare, concrete stairs, one hand on the cast iron railing. He arrived at apartment thirty one and stood at the door, staring at it for a moment. Just as he went to knock, there was a rattle of chain and the door opened. A short man with tousled blonde hair leaned on the door, grinning slightly.
"Y'know, Adam, I'm starting to wonder if we're dating. What, no flowers? Oh well, come on in." Matthew held the door open wider, letting Adam pass him in the pokey hallway before closing it and chaining it again. Adam tugged off his hat self-consciously, running the brim through his fingers.
"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" he asked nervously. Matthew shook his head, leading the way into the living room and pushing his cat off the second armchair.
"It's nearly one o'clock in the morning. Sensible men have gone back to their wives and tucked themselves in," he said drolly. Adam sighed and put his hat on the small dining table, closely followed by his coat.
"Had any more trouble?" he asked, a tad gruffly. Matthew chuckled and went into the kitchenette, from the clanking, he was filling the kettle and putting it on the hob.
"Nice and quiet. Whatever you did, must have gotten through, Gio and his pals haven't been around for weeks. I did remember to thank you, right?" Matthew came out from behind the curtain and shooed his cat off the armchair again. Adam sat down in it, knowing Matthew was going to dither until he did.
"Several times in fact." He looked a little embarrassed. Matthew eyed his cat as it jumped up on Adam's lap and kneaded his knees until deciding it was soft enough to curl up on. He gave up on convincing the cat that the armchair and all subsequent occupants were not in fact her personal property, and sat down in his own.
"Brandy?"
"No, just a tea will do," Adam said, stroking the tabby cat absently. Matthew looked at him.
"So what's on your mind?" he asked after a moment. Adam sighed and leaned his head back on the chair, looking at the ceiling.
"That easy to read, am I?"
"You tend to come to me when you need comfort, Adam." Matthew held up a hand when he started to protest that, "I don't mind, really. It's nice to feel like I've got more to offer than physical attraction."
Adam blushed deeply, looking out the window.
"Don't say it like I'm not going to get married when I find the right woman," he muttered. Matthew smirked, picking up his bell of brandy and draining it.
"Is that what you want, or what society wants?"
"Not everyone can indulge in Anarchy, Matthew," said Adam. Matthew smirked again.
"I always thought of myself as something closer to nihilistic. However, you didn't come here to discuss my ever-present disgust with the arrogance of the State. What's bothering you?" The smirk softened into a genuine smile. Adam flicked his eyes over to Matthew for a moment and sighed.
"I was just … remembering. Feet led me here." Matthew heard the kettle start to whistle and he rose, going to the kitchenette to pour the boiling water into the teapot.
"I see. What were you remembering?" he asked, as if he didn't know or couldn't guess. Adam fussed the cat on her cheek, making her purr.
"The trenches."
"What was it like?"
Adam could almost hear it again, the whistling of an incoming mortar, feel the jostle of men as they fled past him, their screams seeming distant. He remembered standing alone for a split second, seeing another sergeant on his hands and knees in the foot deep of sludge that slicked that part of the trench. He knew that man, they'd been at training together, they'd been friends. Close friends. The mortar blew him apart. How did you start to forget seeing someone dismantled at speed by an explosive, getting covered with him and then spending weeks in a hospital recovering from the same explosion?
A hand on his arm distracted him from the too-vivid memories, he looked down. Matthew was crouched by his chair, hand on his arm. He didn't say anything. Adam took the tea he was holding mutely and put it on the small table beside his chair.
"What did you do in the war?" he asked, realising he'd never asked Matthew what he did. Matthew gazed at him.
"We're not talking about me, Adam. We're talking about you."
"I don't want to talk about me though."
"I noticed," Matthew took his hand off his arm and sat in his chair. The warmth of its pressure lingered on Adam's arm and he took a sip of tea.
"Nothing happened to me that didn't happen to everyone else. We all saw things no man should have to see."
"You served with your friend, Jake Kasey, right?"
"Yeah. He wasn't even old enough to shave though." Adam remembered catching Jake pretending to shave, scraping foam off his face with a blunt razor, just trying to fit in with the other men.
"Did you bring him back with you because you felt obligated to continue protecting him?" Matthew's words caught Adam off guard and he looked at him.
"What?"
"Oh come on, Adam, you talk about him like he's your little brother. It doesn't take great insight to know you worry about his welfare." Adam looked at his cup, the steam rising in innocent curls.
"We were both injured. A grenade landed by his feet. I threw myself over him and we were sent to hospital. The rest of our platoon got the call to move to Ypres."
Matthew went quiet.
"Oh Adam …"
"None of them came back. I don't know if they were killed in the heavy fire or by the gas. I don't want to know." Adam hissed the last part. The cat jumped off his lap and left through the open window. Matthew just regarded him.
"You believe you should have been there?" he asked quietly.
"I'm only still here because of that grenade. Why me?" Matthew laced his fingers over his lap and sighed.
"What do you want me to tell you, Adam? That there is some great, ineffable plan?"
"I still go to church every Sunday, but … God isn't there. He doesn't care what happens to us." Traitor tears were slicking his eyes and he was powerless to stop them. Just like he'd been lying powerless on a bed in a hospital that stank of blood and sweat while his platoon were being slaughtered. Matthew got up from his chair and wrapped his arms around Adam's shoulders, leaning his head against his hair. After a moment of trying to stifle it down, a sob broke from the taller man's lips. He clung to Matthew's arms like a child, choking bitter tears into his shoulder. Matthew rocked him slightly, perching on the arm of the chair and looking out of the window with a sad expression. After a while, the sobs became quieter. Matthew stroked some hair back from Adam's face as he rocked him.
"When God created Man in his own image, it didn't mean his physical image," he said quietly. Adam just listened, hiccupping slightly.
"When you threw yourself on Kasey, you may have saved his life. That compassion and courage is the image of God. You're not forsaken, Adam. God's still with you." He whispered it. Adam sniffled.
"I thought you didn't believe …"
"My beliefs are complicated, Adam. Besides, they don't matter right now. Yours matter."
Adam let him evade the question, he had his suspicions that Matthew Whithers was a Freemason, but no real evidence other than some pretty bizarre theories about philosophy and religion.
After his emotional outburst, Adam found the conversation leading back to less traumatic areas. Trivial things were explored and discussed. More tea was made and some brandy drunk as the hours waxed towards dawn.
"So now Sally's in a family way, we need a new act, desperately. Do you still play piano?" Adam asked finally. Matthew chuckled into his brandy.
"It's been a while but you never really forget. Why?"
"Come by the club later?"
"I'll think about it. So, are you going to come to my room or not?" Adam blushed at Matthew's forthright question, colouring even deeper when the short man took his hand and started to pull him to his feet.
"I-I didn't bring any money …" he stammered, always finding the situation hideously embarrassing. Matthew leaned up and kissed his cheek.
"Then consider it a thank you for getting those gangsters to take a hike," he murmured, backing up and tugging Adam to his bedroom.

Thank you

"Captain, get in here!" Kate yelled from her office, going through some papers. After a moment, a man with close-cropped hair that seemed slightly frizzy peered around the doorframe.
"Yes sir?!" Kate, as ever, let the 'sir' slide. The Captain couldn't help his eccentricities, not after what had happened to him in Ypres.
"Sally's been complaining about exhaustion. I happen to agree that we need another act, if only to take the pressure off. The De Marchis have been making hiring the best singers and dancers hard though. I want you to start scouting out for talent, understood?" she asked, looking around at him, her fingers still buried in the pile of paper. The Captain saluted.
"Yes sir, acquisition of further entertainment. What extra training will they need? Artillery? Munitions? Driving?"
"For now, just entertainment. I'm sure we can educate them in anything else they need to know on the job."
"Oh, I don't know sir. Sounds risky." The Captain pulled at his handlebar moustache. Kate left off her rooting to find another cigarette.
"It will be fine, Captain," she assured him. The Captain looked like he had further misgivings, but he saluted her and left. She sighed, sitting down in her chair with a creak of old, battered leather. She couldn't think of a person she'd hired on anything but compassionate grounds. True, they could do their jobs, but they were all slightly insane. Even Adam. She looked tired as she smoked. He just hadn't been the same since he'd come back from the war in Europe and he'd refused to talk about his experience over there, mentioning only that Jake had served with him. When it came to that, even the janitor was crazy. She'd never heard him speak a single word. He'd told her in writing that he'd been consigned to an asylum for most of the war, suffering from something called 'Hysterical Mutism'. His account of the treatment and lack of treatment he'd received had made her so angry with psychologists in general that she'd hired him on the spot. She was still trying to get him to speak again, but it was an uphill struggle. She was starting to think that his condition had been left to fester for so long that it might be beyond the skill of anyone to heal.
None of this introspection was helping her finish the job she'd started. She sighed and opened a drawer in her desk, taking out the list Jake had secured last night. She still didn't know what the list meant, or what linked these seven names? Why were the De Marchis interested in them? She was sure she'd seen one of them somewhere else, but she couldn't think of it right now. With a sigh, she put the list away.
Maybe it would come to her later.

The club was in full swing when the fog rolled in off the port, turning the street lamps into disembodied orbs of gas light. Jake's long coat glistened with moisture and he kept his head down, the brim of his hat obscuring his face. He carried a violin case in his right hand and his left was in his pocket. His sigh came out in a plume from the cold night air. He knew he should tell Kate about the promise Sally had made him make, but that list of seven names lurked on the fringe of his imagination. He glanced sideways as he passed an alleyway. Seven names that meant nothing at the moment. He saw a shadow flit down the alley and turned off the sidewalk, slipping into the shadows. He put the violin case down by a steel dustbin and ghosted through the fog. He'd been feeling caged all day, the pain of his injuries and the strain of dealing with his emotional wife. He needed to let go somewhere, needed a kind of release. Ahead, he could hear a voice with a thick Italian accent.
"That Midnight [censored] will think twice about messin' with the De Marchis after this."
"Why don't we just go to her place and teach her a woman's place, y'know?"
"Later, boss just wants her scared up first."
The voices belonged to two men, one of whom was assembling a machine gun. Jake felt something harden inside, he balanced his weight and pulled a length of piano wire from his pocket.
"Fine lookin' woman though. Be a shame to mess that pretty face up," said the one with the gun. Whatever his friend was going to say didn't come, as a wire suddenly snapping around his neck and someone pulling him back into the shadows by the car stopped them. The only sound was a dull thud. The man with the gun looked around, the stock in his hand and barrel in the other.
"Tony?" The man who stepped up to him wasn't Tony, he was way too short to be Tony. The man kicked the barrel out of his hand, making the mobster yell with pain. His yell was cut off when an elbow slammed into his throat so hard he couldn't breathe. He fell onto his back, clutching at his neck. The short man leaned over him.
"You take a message to your boss from me, nobody messes with the Midnights. Next time I see any of you [censored] so much as lookin' in a way I don't like, I'll send you to the morgue. You got that?"
The mobster nodded, wheezing desperately for breath, spots dancing in his vision and a buzzing in his skull. The short man straightened and stood up.
"Good, now go to sleep." A weighted beanbag to the side of the man's head helped with the 'sleep' part.
Jake snorted out of his nostrils, pocketing the beanbag and wire, then grabbed the collar of both men and dragged them into the car. He climbed in the drivers seat and turned it on, taking a moment to admire the walnut dashboard and fiddle with the radio before driving out of the alley. He left the car on the docks, parked right on the end of a jetty, so that when they woke up, they had to perform the tricky manoeuvre of backing it down the boards themselves. He strolled back into the city, retrieved his violin and headed for the club.
Jake knocked on the door, looking up when the eye slit snapped open, revealing Adam's eyes. He looked down at Jake, then closed the slit and opened the door.
"Hey Jake, you're late," he smiled quietly. Jake nodded.
"Got a bit held up by an errand. Sally on yet?" he asked. Adam nodded, closing the door firmly behind them.
"She's just taking a small break in her changing room. You missed her singing your favourite."
"Aw hell, I'm not gonna hear the end of that, am I?" Jake grimaced, disheartened that he'd both missed his favourite song sung by an amazingly beautiful woman, but also that if she'd noticed he wasn't sitting at his usual table, listening, a handbag to the back of his head was the least of his worries. Adam looked sympathetic.
"Well, you could cry off with injuries."
"Don't carry any weight with her right now. You know something, Adam? Don't get married. The dames are nothing but trouble," he sighed, then forced a grin. Adam patted his shoulder.
"I doubt I'm getting married any time soon. You always had more luck with women."
"Sure. Luck. I'm going to see your sister for a moment." He pulled off his hat and held it loosely, letting his dark red hair stand in small tufts from where the brim had rested. Adam grinned and ruffled it.
"Go on then." Jake elbowed him playfully before walking down the steps into the club. Opening the door was like walking into another fog, this one made of cigarette and pipe smoke. Ferdas was tending the bar like the pro he was, listening to the woes of many a lonely soul as he fetched their scotch on the rocks. The stage was quiet, the brass band playing quietly while they waited for the lady of the hour to return. Conversations kept an even level of noise bubbling under the music. Jake wove his way through the tables to the door to the back. Once it closed behind him, all went quiet, the conversations muting instantly. He picked his feet up and stepped over the janitor's mop as the man washed the floor of the hallway, not looking at him. He reached Kate's office and knocked on the frosted glass pane before opening the door. Kate looked up from her habitual stack of papers.
"You're late, Jake."
"I know, little errand over-ran. Look, Kate, I've gotta talk to you about something." He said it quietly, but there was something in his voice that made Kate put down her paper and regard him. She motioned to one of the other chairs in the room.
"Well, take a seat Jake and let's talk. What's eating you?" she asked softly. Jake sighed, hanging his hat on the free standing coat rack, closely followed by his coat and the violin case set down by the clawed feet before sitting down.
"It's about Sally, actually," he said with a long sigh. Kate looked thoughtful.
"I'm looking for another act, it's not easy, what with the De Marchis muscling in and snatching all the talent up for their gawdy clubs." She stopped speaking when Jake shook his head and held up his head.
"It's not about that. She … look, I made a promise to her. I can't do the dangerous jobs alone anymore," he said. Kate leaned back in her chair, looking at him.
"She never used to be bothered by it." This wasn't strictly true, and they both knew it. It was more that Sally hadn't made an issue about it before. Jake sighed, tapping his fingertips together and looking down.
"She … ah … doesn't want our kid growing up without a dad." He let that sink in for a moment. Kate blinked, then opened her mouth, then shut it.
"I thought it wasn't like that between you two," she said eventually. Jake scratched the back of his neck.
"We've been married for three years, Kate, that's a long time to live with a really fine woman. And … she's kind of a fiend after a few martinis. Point is, we're going to have a kid and she's coming down hard on the side jobs I do for you." He tried to keep from grinning a little. Kate was quiet for a few more moments, then split into a wide smile herself.
"Well, congratulations. I'll see to it a new act is found fast. Mrs. Kasey is going to need a lot of time off, and she's absolutely right, you have new responsibilities now. I'll not go letting you get yourself banged up and hospitalised, now when Jake Junior's on the way. This is wonderful news!" Kate got up and shook Jake's hand, the short man chuckled awkwardly, looking abashed. He looked even more so when Kate took out two slim cigars from her secret stash, offering him one.
"Have you told Adam yet?" she asked, leaning back on her desk. Jake leaned forward to the match she offered, lighting his cigar and puffing on it.
"No, we've been keeping it under our hats, so to speak. I wanted you to be the first to know."
"Well, now I know, steps will be taken. My, I fear for the world if you and Sally are bringing some wild tempered, fierce little rugrat into it. He'll be able to chew his way through walls, mark my words."

Author's note: to clarify though, there will be no sex scenes. I'm classy like that,

The frantic ringing of the alarm vibrated the clock so much it rattled to the edge of the bedside cabinet and fell off the edge with a thud, continuing its frantic ringing on the floor. A pillow landed on it a second later and then a pair of feet stomped down. Adam peered over the edge of his bed, then stamped on the pillow again for good measure before peeling it back and shaking the cogs and wheels and springs off it in a rain of plinking metal. He put the pillow back on his bed and smoothed it with his hands before getting up, stepping over the ruined clock and walking over the boarded floor. His tiny apartment was almost bare of anything but the necessities of life, given that he hardly spent any time there when he wasn't asleep. He flicked up the light switch and stretched as he entered the windowless bathroom. The cast iron bathtub was playing host to his laundry, hung up in strings, the washing bucket still pushed into the corner with the broom handle sticking out of it. Adam put the plug in and ran some water in the sink. He tested it with his fingers and found it icy cold. With a sigh, he leaned down and splashed water over his face, he could feel the sharp bristle of two days worth of stubble on his cheeks but couldn't find the motivation to shave himself smooth.
After washing, he left himself a note on the wall above his bed, reminding him to talk to the landlord about the absence of hot water, then he pulled on his shirt and trousers, slipping his arms into the braces and making sure they lay flat against his back and shoulders, then he snagged up a dark blue waistcoat to match the trousers and left it open as he tied his tie in the mirror. Once he was neat and presentable, he picked up his suit jacket, pulling that on, and then his trench coat and hat. He held the latter until he was outside, tugging it on as he walked down the steps into the street.
He liked to walk from his apartment to the club instead of get the tram, as it felt good to stretch his legs in the morning, and his route always took him past the bakery. He could smell the fresh Danish now. A smile crept its way over his features as he drew level with it and slipped in.
It wasn't much later that he walked through the nondescript door to the club, descending the steps and passing the alcove leading to the cloak room. At this time of day, he didn't expect anyone but staff to be at the club, and that suited him just fine. He descended into the club itself, the chairs were all up on the tables, the floor being mopped clean of cigarette ash and spilled alcohol by the janitor. The stage was enshrouded in shadows and seemed shrunken, wizened, a prima-donna who had watched more years pass than she cared to.
A figure sat hunched at the bar already and he half smiled, walking over.
"Hey Dave, little early for you to be hitting the whiskey, isn't it?" he asked, equably. Dave pulled his head up from his cradling hand and looked around at him, a ferocious scowl on his face. It loosened only slightly as the man grunted and turned back to the small glass nestled in his other hand, regarding the dark amber liquid.
"Been laid off," he muttered. Adam winced, then sat down next to him, listening to the slap of the mop on the other side of the club as the janitor continued about his work.
"That's the city's loss. You're a great cop."
"Some great cop, I never busted you and your sister for this little funhouse of yours," Dave growled. Adam chuckled, lacing his fingers as he leaned his elbows on the bar, nodding to Ferdas as the bartender polished glasses, lining them all up neatly, ready for another night.
"Oh come on, Dave, you think the prohibition laws are as stupid as I do, or you wouldn't be here every Saturday night."
"Law's still a law, Midnight."
"Hey Adam, boss wanted to see you when you go in," Ferdas interrupted quietly, his bartender sense telling him that the conversation was only going to antagonise Dave into shouting, or worse, breaking the glass. Adam nodded and got up, clapping Dave's shoulder.
"Take it easy today, pal." He smiled at Ferdas and walked off to a side door by the stage, ignoring Dave's grumble that they weren't pals. Once in the back, Adam squeezed his way past a rack of ostrich feathers and sequined outfits that the 'Captain' had left in the narrow corridor. He found the manager's office and knocked on the door once.
"Come in," came the muffled reply and he opened the door, grinning at the woman behind the desk.
"Good morning, Kate," he said, closing the door behind him. His twin sister swivelled her seat to face him and flung a newspaper at him. He caught it against his chest on reflex.
"Is it?" She reached over to a pearl-inlaid cigarette case and attached a new cigarette to the long, slender holder in her other hand. Adam flicked the front page flat and scanned it.
"There was a raid on the De Marchis? Well good. Sounds like a lot of the mooks were arrested." He put the paper down on the desk, the noticed Kate's look. She flicked the spent match into the ashtray and leaned back in her chair.
"Not good, Adam. Not good. Big Jake was there last night, doing a little surveillance for me."
"Is he alright?" Adam looked worried as he spoke. Kate rolled her shoulders in a shrug.
"He'll survive. He got to my apartment despite being shot in three places. He's still on my sofa, sleeping off the brandy. Bloody cops." Adam winced at her curse. It never sounded right coming from his sister's lips, who was in all other respects, a perfect lady.
"Still, it's a raid on the De Marchis. That's a good thing."
"Bless you, Adam, for your eternal faith that justice will prevail. The De Marchi gang members will be let off with warnings or small fines. One of mine was shot and seriously wounded last night, and I will not tolerate it." She tossed the paper into the bin irritably. Adam watched the basket rock with the impact.
"Jake's good, they wouldn't have known he was there. What was he looking for anyway?" He knew that his sister usually had a specific objective in mind whenever she sent Jake somewhere.
"Never mind that. Did you hear about Detective Preston?" she asked, rising to her feet and walking to the window. Adam nodded.
"Yeah, passed him on the way in." He watched Kate, she had her thinking face on, blowing the odd smoke ring. Finally she turned her head to look at him over her shoulder.
"Bring him on board. You've been mentioning getting another doorman to share the load for a while. He could use the money, no doubt. Cop pensions are ridiculous, if he's even eligible." Adam nodded, watching her look back through the window at the road below.
"Hey, Kate?"
"Hmm?"
"Don't worry about Jake, okay? He's tough as an alley cat. He'll be fine."
"I wish I shared your confidence. Go on, go do something constructive with your time. When you see Sally, tell her I want to see her." Kate made a shooing motion with her hand and Adam smiled, leaving. He wasn't too worried about Big Jake, he'd seen the man survive having a grenade thrown at him. He had the devil's own luck.
He ambled his way to the dressing room. If Sally was in yet, she would most likely be there, rehearsing for the evening. He knocked on the door gently.
"Anyone in?"
"Who is it?"
"Adam."
"Just a moment." There was some clattering and then the door opened. Sally was such a different creature during the day, wearing a floral dress and nylon stockings like any other woman on the street. Her hat was on the dressing table behind her, her white lace gloves draped over it. She smiled, her doll-like oriental features exquisitely beautiful and exotic.
"Oh Adam, you never call, you never write and then there you are, on my doorstep. What a rascal you are," she giggled slightly. Adam grinned widely.
"You were amazing last night. The new routine is stunning," he said easily. Sally reached up and pulled a pin out of her hair, loosening it slightly.
"Why thank you, Adam. I was quite exhausted afterwards. When is Kate going to get another act? I really can't keep up this pace you know."
"On the subject of Kate, she wants to see you." Adam pointed his thumb down the corridor. Sally thinned her lips.
"What's Jake done now? Honestly, he's such an oaf sometimes," she muttered. Adam didn't feel like being the bearer of bad tidings, and Kate was much better at these things. Something in his expression gave him away and Sally stared, then walked out briskly, heading for Kate's office.
It wasn't long later that the verbal explosion happened. Adam could hear it from the bar. Ferdas just sighed, rubbing wax into the bar surface, nudging Dave's arms until the now ex-cop got up and walked to one of the tables, taking down a chair and flopping into it with a creak. Adam grimaced when the door to the back banged open and Sally half ran through the club and outside. Jake was about to get his ears royally bent out of shape by his wife. He didn't envy the other man in the slightest. Everyone knew that they'd only married so Sally could get a green card and their 'relationship' was something of an on-going charade, but any time Jake did something stupid like get himself injured, Sally played the furious wife extremely realistically.

"Jake! You stupid, hulking great oaf! Open this door immediately!" Sally slapped her hand against the door to Kate's apartment rapidly. She kept up the barrage of insults and hammering until there was a click and rattle of a chain. The door opened to reveal a man of scant five foot, shirtless and wearing dark trousers, neat bandages crisscrossing his chest. Sally slapped him around the face.
"You wretch of a man, you bring dishonour to me!" she hissed. Jake sighed, reached out, took her arm and pulled her into the apartment so he could close the door and keep their domestic contained. He padded silently to the kitchen while his wife continued to insult him furiously, just bearing it.
"You broke your promise, Jake! You promised me you'd give up working alone! You promised!" Sally burst out finally, suddenly rooting through her little handbag and pulling out a handkerchief to dab at her eyes, struggling to keep the mascara from running. Jakey sighed deeply.
"I said I wouldn't do the dangerous jobs alone. I didn't think this one would be dangerous …" he murmured. Sally smacked him around the back of the head with her handbag.
"You were creeping around the De Marchi's warehouse!"
"I'm always creeping about somewhere," Jake found Kate's kettle and put it on the hob. Sally kept dabbing with her handkerchief.
"Your foolish pride will be the death of you! Then what shall I do?!" she worked his sense of guilt mercilessly. It worked and he hung his head.
"But it was important …"
"Nothing is more important than your word! I'm your wife!"
Jake had the good sense to know when he was defeated and he backed down.
"You're right, I'm sorry." He watched the kettle steam coil up. Sally sniffed deeply.
"If my mother could see me now-"
"She'd die of shock that you show that much elbow. C'mon Sal, I said I'm sorry. I'll talk to Kate this evening about it. I will. Come on, don't cry," he said quietly, turning to give his wife a hug. She was taller than him, not helped by her stiletto heels, but neither seemed to mind that much.
"I won't be able to carry on alone, Jake. I need you."
"You're stronger than you want to think, Sally."

Author's note: This story WILL contain adult themes such as sex and violence. If this bothers you, then don't read, but I promise you, you'll be missing out,

Breuddwydio

"Good morning, Honourable United! My name is Captain Cathode and I am coming to you live from knee deep in some foul toxic sludge in a cavern far below the Earth's surface! With me today are special guests, Jakey K, Sally Storm, Midnights Avenger and Gaze, Shingi, Dax Ferdas and for the first time ever on the Cathode Show, Music Teacher!"
"There's a 'Cathode Show'?"
"Would you watch where you're going?"
"I think I found the edge! There's a wall here!"
"Hard luck, J, that's Our Jack."
"Oh … wondered why it was so cold."
"Whoever's got their hand on my butt has three seconds to move it before I break their fingers."
"Didn't anyone think to bring a flashlight? Jakey, can't you see anything, I thought you had night vision!" Gaze's exasperated voice broke through the bickering, but not the dark, that remained as implacable as ever.
"I still need some light to see. There's no light here at all, so no. I can't see." Jakey muttered from somewhere down at knee height.
"Explains why only Shingi's heat vision is working," said Sally.
"For all the good that's doing us. There's blobs of heat that's us in a blanket of purple and dark blue."
"I like purple." Avenger decided it was the best moment to inform the rest of them this.
"I know, love." Muse's voice came from higher up than the others, he was probably doing his customary hovering, keeping his tender feet well clear of the floor and the icy cold water.
"We all know. The purple suit and hat give it away. Today on the Cathode Show, a pop quiz! Name the film and actor. 'My name is Inigo Montoya. You kill my father, prepare to die'."
"Oh jeez, start with a hard one any day you like, Cap," Dax Ferdas muttered, jumping out of the way of Shingi again. The air around the mutant was so cold that he didn't show up in his heat vision very well.
"I'm sorry, your answer must be in the form of a question."
"What is the Princess Bride and who is Mandy Patinkin?"
"You know, a better question would be where the hell are we and how the hell do we get out?" Shingi interrupted.
"That's two questions," piped up Sally.
"I had a thought-" Ferdas said suddenly, there came a chorus of gasps and small sloshes as all present feigned astonishment. He ignored the compulsory cries of 'did it hurt', 'need a lie down' and 'blimey, you okay'.
"If Muse can send out a series of sonic vibrations, can't Shingi's suit pick them up and build a picture of our surroundings?"
"I suppose," Shingi muttered, his metallic hand groping about wildly before finding Muse's ankle and tugging him down to his level, "it's worth a shot anyway."
"You don't have to grab me like that, I'm not some kind of pistol," Muse tried to prise the metal fingers from around his ankle to no avail.
"Just start singing, songbird. The dark is getting samey." Muse sighed and obliged, feeling he was being under-appreciated.
After a few moments, there was no sound by the strange humming from Muse's throat and hands, then Shingi grunted.
"Next time, J, when you jump into a random portal screaming 'I know the way', you are all kinds of on your own."
"Hey, at least we're out of the house and doing stuff, right?"
"There's a small object ahead. I can't make out much more, measuring the vibrations is a bit hit and miss," Shingi said.
"Alright, everyone, grab hold of the person in front and sound off so we can get moving," Gaze said, her voice weighted with authority. There was some sloshing as everyone groped about for someone else.
"Get your hands off my boob!"
"Er, Venji, Muse, which one of you has his hand on my butt?"
"Gah, sorry Ferdas! I thought you were Muse."
"Clearly."
"This is why I don't like being on a team with couples."
"Why's that?"
"They keep being lovey."
Gaze sighed internally, then reached down and found Jakey's head, putting her hand on it while someone groped down her arm, finding her hand and taking it.
"Sound off. Everyone got something?"
"I'll say."
There were a few more sloshes, then everyone declared themselves to be 'okay' and Shingi led the snaking line of eight heroes to the object he'd detected ahead. He cursed liberally when he hit his foot against submerged stairs, his muttered comments warning everyone else of the sudden incline. The floor felt and sounded like paving beneath their feet, but there was some kind of litter, as several things went crunch under boots and armour. Moments later, they were all ringing the slender object that, to their fumbling hands, felt like a sundial of sorts.
"I know the Circle of Thorns are pretty special, but why would they have a sundial so far underground, there's no chance of it every seeing the sun?" Cathode asked finally. There came a sigh from the chilly space that indicated Ferdas.
"Maybe it's a darkdial?"
"A what?!" Muse asked, he wasn't sure what a darkdial was and he didn't think, given the Circle's penchant for summoning demons, that it boded very well.
"It's a ley indicator," Jakey muttered from Shingi's knees, his voice was lower down than usual, he must have been kneeling or sitting.
"A what?" Muse sounded less scared this time, as far as he knew, ley lines didn't have that much to do with horrible rending death. Though he couldn't be certain.
"I agree with Muse. What?" Gaze ran her hand over the surface of the dial, or indicator, feeling raised, ornate bumps and a dip in the centre.
"Hang on, there are inscriptions, I'm trying to work out what they say by feel, so give me a few moments," Jakey said. The others gave him a few moments.
"Today on the Cathode Show, our guests stand around a mysterious object in total darkness while a former house-cat tries to decipher what's probably ancient and enigmatic carvings using just his fingertips. We're here live with Dax Ferdas. Mr Dax, do you have any insights on this procedure?"
"Well Cap, I'm glad you asked. As we all know, Jakey has on occasion been prone to flashes of keen insight despite his catnip habit and general ridiculousness."
"So you're confident that this is one of those times he does something useful?"
"I sure do hope so, Cap."
"Thank you, Mr Dax, you've been great."
"I feel sorry for anyone who manages to pick up on our frequency," said Muse, now sitting on his lover's shoulders. Avenger nodded, giving his legs a reassuring squeeze.
"They'll probably think it's some kind of elaborate code and try to decode it," he chuckled.
"And contract a high fever in the process, end up speaking in tongues," Shingi added.
"Oh come on, we're not that strange," Sally said, inspecting the raised bumps of the dial's surface with her slender fingers.
"So, Sally Storm, in a recent survey of the men of the supergroup, you were deemed to be 'undeniable hotness'. Would you care to comment on that?"
"Well, you know, I like to keep myself in shape and all that."
"This is weird." Jakey's mutter distracted Gaze from the conversation, and she crouched to hear him better.
"What is?"
"This word, it's being used in an unusual context. See, so far we've got reference to the element of fire, memories and this … strange word. I think it's some variant of the old Celtic languages. A bit of it is worn away. It's … 'infiltration' or something … but the context is all wrong." Jakey sounded like he was thinking aloud.
"Hey, this bit turns!" Sally's voice declared suddenly. Jakey stood up sharply, banging his head on the overhang of the dial's top and grabbing his head with a yelp. There was a quiet, but very ominous click.
"Oh dear." Muse had time to say before there was a whoosh and they all crumpled to the paving stones, unconscious.

It's simple, open your word document, highlight say, a chapter's worth, copy it to clipboard. Open your web browser and either make a new topic or if you have one already open, click on reply and then paste into the post box, and hit continue.

Done. If you keep in mind that you want to post it on a message board and you're using italics and such, just type the ubb code right into the text so you don't have to tinker with it when you come to post.

Simple as that.

Epilogue

Muse leaned against Avenger, arms around his neck as he whispered something in his ear that made the other chuckle. Jakey ignored them as he slumped on the sofa, picking up the remote and changed the channel.
"Why's there never anything on television on my day off?" he asked. Sally looked the corner of the kitchen, even though she was wearing her hero mask, she had dressed down for the day off, wearing jeans and a tee-shirt, her hair back in a ponytail.
"Because the world is conspiring against you, J. Who wants fajitas?" she asked. Muse left off nibbling Avenger's ear to say yes, and Avenger agreed. Jakey picked up his packet of crisps.
"Sure thing. Make lots though, I'm starving," he said around the crisps. Sally nodded.
"Yeah yeah! Get the door," she added when there came a knock. Jakey left Muse and Avenger to their cuddling and got up, walking to the door. He opened it to see a man with broad shoulders holding a younger man's arm tightly.
"Hey … uh … Esher here wanted to drop by and see you guys," Shingi muttered. Jakey grinned and dragged them in.
"Man, it's good to see you guys. Sal, we're gonna need more fajitas! Esh and Metalhead are here!"
"Esher not see kitty and teh glowy man for long tyme! Hear you am back, is now dancy tyme!" Esher might have been grinning, but his expression was hidden behind his bandit scarf and the goggles that protected his ultra photosensitive eyes.
"Sally and Muse are here too."
"Teh Salleee and teh singy man!" Esher bounced into the living room, leaving Shingi to look at Jakey awkwardly.
"Good to have you back," he muttered. Jakey grinned at him, taking his hand and shaking it.
"Good to be back. I tell you, we really could have used you out there. It was mayhem. Voids and vampyrs and crazy storms and Venji busting his way out of a volcano and Sally trying to take on everything that moved by herself and baby-sitting some peacebringer kid and joining forces with a Council archon." Shingi nodded, half grinning.
"Sounds like fun."
"Sounds like 'crazy' you mean. Come on in." Jakey led him into the living room where Muse and Avenger waved, Esher already at the impressive sound system, positively misty-eyed over its capabilities. He turned on some loud, bouncy music to dance to and got right down to it. Shingi nodded to Avenger and Muse.
"Heard you had a crazy time."
"Just another day at the office," Avenger said, snuggling his lover gleefully. Shingi elected to take the completely unmatched armchair, sinking into it with a slight hiss. Jakey leapt onto his lap and sprawled over him and the arm of the chair, making himself comfortable in the way cats do. Shingi prised his kneading hands off his leg with a small yelp.
"Watch it, you crazy *******. I just got out of hospital," he grumbled. Jakey ignored him, as Shingi was always just out of hospital.
It wasn't another ten minutes before Sally came out of the kitchen, triumphantly bringing out huge bowls of crispy lettuce, salsa and chicken filler. The stack of fajitas rapidly diminished as the heroes all drew close around the coffee table that groaned under the weight of all the food. Jakey objected loudly when Shingi spilt salsa on his head, and Esher didn't stop his dancing, even while constructing over-full fajitas, spilling sauce and lettuce everywhere. Muse only glanced at the television on chance, then ducked to see it better under Esher's thrashing arms.
"J! Turn up the volume!" he flapped his hand at the remote. Jakey licked sauce off his wrist as he turned the volume up. The others all looked as their interest was drawn by the news story. A pretty woman was standing in Brickstown if the skyline behind her was anything to go by, in the distance, they could see the huge edifice that was the "Ziggurat", Paragon City's maximum security prison that specialised in super powered prisoners.
"- Officers of the Zigurski prison were left tied up in the prisoners cells, and there is still no clue as to how the break out was accomplished. Paragon City Police Department have released this video, taken by an off-site cctv camera, with a plea to all heroes to be vigilant for the escapees."
Muse's mouth dropped open as he leaned forward.
The video that replaced the reporter showed a large, crescent shaped craft descend onto the prison exercise yard. A ramp was lowered from its belly and a group of men raced from the prison, jumping and scrambling up onto it. One was distinctly large, and he stood by the ship, motioning with his arms for the men to run past him onto the craft, even helping to shove what was obviously a Council war wolf up onto the ramp. Only when all the men were on the craft did the big man turn and jump up himself. The ramp rose and blended back into the belly of the craft and then it turned on a dime and shot off up into the sky and to freedom.
"Wasn't that … Langlais?" Sally murmured. Muse, Avenger and Jakey all wore identical expressions of disbelief and after a moment, they all looked at each other. Nobody said it, because they felt guilty, but not one of them could suppress the feeling of delight and jubilation that their ex-Council team mate had escaped with all his men. It seemed that Stargazer was far from defeated.
"Well … he's going to be a bugger to put back behind bars," Muse murmured, grinning into his fajita.

The typhoon blew itself out a few hours after dawn, leaving the island in a mess in its wake. After a night of terrible conditions outside and running gunfights in the jungle, the Council had surrendered. Langlais nodded to Topoulos, who was wearing a kind of curved sword at his hip, as he approached. The medic saluted him back and he put his hands on his hips as he listened to the man's report. Once the medic had left, he tipped his head back, looking at the cloud strewn sky with a half smile.
"You're looking very pleased with yourself," Sally muttered, feeling cranky because the coffee machine had been broken in the fight. Langlais looked down at her sideways, then chuckled.
"I am. As you should be." Sally frowned.
"Oh?"
"You have witnessed the birth of something, and it was a birth I couldn't have wished for. I always envisaged Stargazer to rise from the Council in a bloodbath and maybe never get free. But it has risen with … honour." He half smiled, as if mocking his own whimsy. Sally blinked.
"Stargazer?"
"My group. It's called Stargazer," he said. Sally looked at the rows of the Council troops as they sat with their hands behind their heads, guarded by the defected troops. Only one of the war wolves was left from a particularly vicious engagement between they and the Council vampyr night wolves.
"Okay. Can I ask you something else?" she asked finally. Langlais nodded, lacing his fingers behind his head.
"Why 42?"
"It's the answer to the ultimate question. The question being, how do I keep my men alive when we defect from the Council." Langlais looked at her again. Sally found herself grinning as she shook her head.
"That's terrible," she chuckled. Langlais grinned widely, half laughing as well.
"I know. I know." They both laughed for a few more moments, then Langlais sighed and looked around almost soulfully. Sally saw something in the sky, far away and shielded her eyes with her hand.
"What's that?" she asked.
"The Tintagel Hercules. Coming to pick up you people and arrest the arrestable." Langlais said it easily. Sally blinked.
"They have a Herc? Where's it going to land?!"
"There's an airstrip on the other side of the island. Just long enough for a Hercules. Where is Avenger?" Langlais turned, looking around. He could see Jakey lounging on a fallen palm tree, napping in the sun, Cirrus perched nearby, braiding her hair. Toby was chatting animatedly to one of the younger Stargazer soldiers, making wild arm gestures but there was no sign of Avenger or Muse. Sally coughed.
"Why you want to know?" She had a feeling that Muse and Avenger were having some very hard-earned private time together.
"I would like to surrender to your leader." Langlais looked at her seriously. Sally put her hand.
"That I can arrange." She walked away from him and over to Jakey. After a moment, she pushed him off the tree, watching him thump to the ground.
"Wakey Jakey," she said sweetly. Jakey scrambled up, rubbing the side of his head with a yawn.
"What?"
"Langlais wants to surrender to our leader. C'mon." She reached over to the back of his tiger suit and picked him up, carting him over to Langlais.
"Commander Langlais, I present you with our fearless leader." It really was too good to pass up and she grinned a little. Jakey looked up at Langlais, then started purring for no apparent reason. Langlais blinked, opening his mouth for a moment, then closing it again, choosing not to question, just to accept. He knelt down on one knee to be able to look Jakey in the eyes.
"Will you accept my surrender, Jakey K?"
"I will. You've been more help than we could have expected or asked for. Thank you." Jakey, for once, didn't cheapen the moment with flip words, holding his hand out. Langlais took it, swamping Jakey's delicate digits in his massive hand and shaking it gently.
The Tintagel Hercules thundered overhead, sending a fresh wind shivering through the island. Cosmos had been set to rest, dormant again.

"Horus Force have moved out all of the hostile prisoners. Guess that just leaves your 'Stargazers' to get loaded onto the Herc," Touch of Class said, positively basking in the bright sunshine of noon. He looked almost sorry to have completed his assignment. Sally grinned at him.
"Wish you could stay longer?"
"It's a tropical island paradise … who doesn't want to stay longer?" Class answered, with just as broad a smile, then he chuckled when Sally raised an arm.
"Alright, alright. Point taken. Well, let's see. Headcount places twenty five Stargazers and one warwolf who they say is with them in our care. You taking them to be tried in Paragon or do we get to charge them in Maidenhead."
"Langlais surrendered to Honourable United, so we'll take them," Sally said. Class nodded and put his hands in his pockets, looking at the trees, then back at her.
"You want another dancing lesson or what?" he asked with a grin. Sally giggled, then linked her arm in his and dragged him off to find somewhere private to be taught how to dance those swanky, posh-type dances he was so good at.
Jakey flicked his ears as he saw them run off together, then shook his head, immediately cooking up excuses for their absence that would indicate they were involved in far less innocent pastimes. Just because he could. He watched as a puppy came bounding along the open field to the soldiers who were all sitting nice and quietly in rows, it gambolled its way all the way to Langlais and bounced around him. Jakey slipped out from his shady patch under the trees and walked over slowly. He sat down next to the big Frenchman, watching the puppy gambol around.
"Yours?" he asked after a while. Langlais nodded. It wasn't long before Muse and Avenger walked along with Bulldog, the former two still holding hands. Jakey privately doubted they'd let each other go for anything longer than a toilet break, and even then, that wasn't especially a given.
"Alright, lets get these bastards into the Herc and get home. Jester will be expecting a full debriefing." Bulldog scowled down at the Stargazer troops indiscriminately. Avenger nodded.
"Langlais, I think they'd prefer you to give the order," he said, addressing the ex-Archon. Langlais nodded and rose to his feet, just as a caracal bounded past Jakey and leapt effortlessly onto his broad shoulders.
"Stargazers, atten-shun!" he barked. As one, the soldiers and warwolf surged to their feet and saluted sharply.
"About face!" With the same knife-edge discipline, they all spun on one heel until they were facing the opposite way.
"Alright, you 'orrible lot, Topoulos is in command." The medic straightened slightly.
"Quick march! Left, right, left right." The soldiers marched off in perfect time, leaving Langlais stood with the heroes. Muse glanced up at him and almost smiled at the bordering on smug expression he was wearing.
"You know the Council are going to be furious over this. Guess we should get started on clearing out the mountain." Bulldog said, his arms folded. Langlais gave a small cough.
"About that." He reached to his back pocket and took out a small device with a single, shielded red button. Without pausing, he flicked the clear casing up with his thumb and pressed his button. Muse nearly screamed and dived for Bouncer, grabbing the puppy up tightly. Bouncer licked his face with a furiously wagging tail.
The top of the mountain rumbled and smoke and fire burst out of every entrance. Langlais tossed the detonator to Bulldog, the redhead fumbling to catch it with an aghast expression.
"Stargazer's secrets remain secrets. Sorry to disappoint you and your government. Well, off to America with me. I hear the prison uniform is so much brighter." Langlais sauntered off. The three heroes watched him go with varying expressions of stunned amazement, the Bouncer wriggled out of Muse's arms and bounded after his master, barking happily. Avenger went to say something.
"Don't say it," muttered Bulldog. Jakey however, was not intimidated.
"You just got [censored] owned, mate." He couldn't keep the brilliant smile from his face, nor did he try.

I especially like the first one, but they're all ace

Muse could hear the storm outside, blowing the trees and rattling the tiles. He stared at the ceiling, listening to Nadir's heavy breathing in the half dark. Only the soft light of candles warmed the dark. He wanted to try and trick himself into thinking the weight of a body against his chest and side was Avenger, but he couldn't bring himself to draw a parallel between them. He hardly dared contemplate tomorrow night, he'd been able to avoid sex with Nadir, noticing that his sonic pulses made the archon go incredibly silly and spaced out. Currently the nictus was dreaming off an overload of seventeen in quick succession. Not before he'd slobbered over Muse's chest and drooled on his shoulder, of course. It was really quite repulsive.
Muse slithered out from under the nictus, sitting up and snagging his tee-shirt from the floor. He felt the bile rising again and put his hand to his mouth. Getting the desire to vomit to pass took a few moments, filled with false starts. He shook his head and got up, dragging his trousers off the bed post and pulling them on. There wasn't much time. The storm would cover the sound of breaking glass downstairs and if Nadir spent a long time sleeping off the sonic bursts, then that was all to the good. Avenger was here, on the island. He just had to get to him, and everything would work out somehow. He hurried down the corridor and down into the living room. Movement by the glass doors drew his attention and he frowned, trying to see what it was in the darkness. A flash of lightening revealed several things. One, that Jakey was standing by the door in the most adorable tiger outfit with cat bell on his collar; two, that he was waving frantically and three, that a wad of plastic explosives were stuck to the glass. Muse threw himself behind the breakfast bar and a moment later, there was a burst and shattering squeal of glass.
"J?!" Muse asked, peeping over the bar. Jakey beckoned.
"You don't wanna be anywhere near this place when Venji arrives. C'mon!"
Muse didn't need telling twice, shooting over the bar and riding a whoosh of sound past the cat and down onto the sand. The wind was loud in his ears and the surf boomed wildly on the shore, slamming it with towering waves.
"How'd you get loose?!" Muse had to yell to get his words to carry over the howling wind to the cat stood right next to him. Jakey put a hand to his ear.
"What?!"
A crash from the chalet made them both jump. Muse paled.
"Explosion must have woken Sleeping Beauty up," he yelled at Jakey. The cat shrugged, grabbing his arm and dragging him away from the chalet. It wasn't long before they reached Sally, Cirrus and Langlais. Muse was startled to see Langlais with them, but he felt immediately safer and started to look around for Avenger.
"Where's Adam!" he yelled.
"He got ahead of us when we got side-tracked by some vamps!" Sally put her hands by her mouth as if to protect her voice from the wind. Jakey swore.
"C'mon! Everyone run, to the chalet!" he turned and pelted back the way they'd come. Muse ran flat out behind him, suddenly terrified he wasn't going to see Avenger ever again.

Avenger was filled with a fury so stark he could barely think straight. He'd been huddled in the corner of the bomb-shelter, trying not to break down crying over what he'd done, when the screen flicked on again. He'd looked up and seen his lover prone on a bed with that foul *******, Nadir, kissing his neck. Just seeing the archon's hands on his lover had been enough. He didn't dare imagine how much further that had progressed, he couldn't bare the thought of Muse being forced to do anything he didn't want to do. He couldn't bare the thought of Nadir harming a hair on his head. Nadir was going to pay, so dearly, for even breathing near him.
He could see the chalet ahead, his rage seemed to manifest around the edges of his vision, tinging it red. He barely registered the smashed door, not when saw a man open the frame and lean heavily on it, nursing his forehead as he sagged a bit. He didn't look so cocky now, nor so neat, but it was Nadir. He wanted to shout something relevant, something about not being allowed to touch his man, but all that came out was a primal, animalistic scream that shook the ground. Nadir looked up foggily, frowning as he saw Avenger sprinting for him. At first, he didn't understand what his eyes were showing him, but once he'd blinked the fractal rainbows and bright sparkles that accompanied every boom of the waves from his eyes, he had time to swear once before Avenger's fist hit his face with enough force to send him flying through the living room. He put his hand to his face, rolling onto his side.
"'Ow did you ged oud?" he demanded. Avenger was too furious to answer, grabbing him up by his arms and spinning wildly, hurling the man back through the reinforced glass leading to the porch. Nadir didn't even hit the decking, instead soared right over the railing and the steps and landed with a thud and a roll in the soaked sand of the path to the beach. He groaned and pushed himself up, seeing Avenger come jumping out of the gloom just in time to roll up to his feet. He circled with the furious man, his hands by his sides lazily, blood streaming down from his nose, dribbling over his bare chest. He smirked.
"I had him twice over, you know. He screams beautifully." Avenger was nearly paralytic with savage rage, but he still managed to swing for Nadir. The archon darted back, sprinting for the beach. Avenger tore after him with a howl like a wounded bear. He pushed his feet tighter against the ground, throwing himself forward in a long leap, slamming into Nadir's back and slamming the man down. They went rolling over and over down into the churning waves. The force of the angry sea was enough to smash them apart and flip them both wildly. Avenger felt his head hit the bottom but he was too angry to pay it any heed, surging up with an explosion of sea water. He looked around wildly.
"NADIIIIR!?"
"Up here, precious. If only you could see the colours." Avenger looked up to see a squid-like creature with tendrils dancing at the shoulders and a strange, ant-like head looked down at him from above. Around it swirled purple black nictus. Avenger snarled, crouching and rocketing up, his fist aiming at Nadir's wedge shaped head. The Nictus looped backwards gracefully, slapping him in the face with the two tentacles of his tail, the sucker pads had razor edges that cut off some of his stubble. Avenger landed with a splash in the breakers, battered by the huge, rolling waves. A sound like a piano dropping sounded overhead and a smash of nictus energy hit him full the face, blinding him. He grabbed at his eyes with a furious bellow. Nadir dived and slapped his head with his tail again, seemingly just because he could. Avenger snapped a hand up and grabbed at the tentacles, missing them by a whisker. Nadir whooshed around behind him, mocking his awkward staggering in the waves bombardment with his aerial grace.
"ADAM!" A voice ringing out, over the screaming howl of the wind, over the boom of the waves and the dropped piano of Nadir's nictus beams, caught Avenger's attention. He looked to the shore, surprised suddenly at how far away it was. Figures were on the sand. Langlais, holding both Sally and Jakey back from the waves, knowing full well that both were daft enough to get themselves drowned by accident, Cirrus with her hair blowing free and wild as the typhoon that raged around them and …
"Matt …" Avenger whispered. There was a massive splash between he and the shore and a creature reared out from the depths, water rolling off great armour plates and massive arms spreading as it roared. Tiny, black eyes set deep in the protective armour shell caught Avengers, and though the face couldn't grin, he could see its amusement.
"My Matt. Not yours anymore. All mine. My very own. Mine." Something about the way Nadir said it made Avenger scream wordlessly, tearing over to him, sending water splashing as he tackled the beast head on. It was even more solid than it looked, and smashed him on the back with enough force to send him under the waves.
Muse started to run into the waves when Cirrus grabbed his belt, hauling him back with all her diminutive strength.
"It's too dangerous, Matt, ye'll be killed!" she yelled.
"Teleport him, Cirrus!" Jakey screamed, dangling from Langlais's grip and flailing wildly with all his limbs. Cirrus kept hold of her 'brother' with one hand and brought the other clenched to her face, whispering words under her breath. There was a flash and a whoosh of displaced air and Avenger fell out of the air by their feet with a thud. Muse tore free and ran to him. There was a second flash, this time of dark energy and Nadir stood between them. He flexed his massive, clawed fingers.
"How nice of you to group yourselves like skittles!" he said, then stomped his right foot forward. The ground lurched under their feet and there were yells of surprise and shock as they all went flying. Jakey landed on his feet, then was hit with rather more low-flying Sally than he could take and they both went down. Nadir laughed, his voice booming over the howl of the typhoon. Muse picked himself up, looking at Avenger. Nadir looked at him as well.
"Seems the Midnight Avenger over-reached the limits of his power after all. Shame, his body would have made a fine house."
"No!" Muse screamed, throwing himself to his feet and running to Avenger's side. Nadir let him, laughing.
"Poor little Resonator, did you think I was all bark and no bite? No more of your precious Adam. Just wait there until I finish with these vermin." He started to turn away. Muse put his hands on Avenger's back, looking at Nadir.
"You wanted the Cosmic note? You wanted to know the frequency of life itself?" he didn't yell above the wind, yet somehow, Nadir heard. Or maybe it was just coincidence, as he turned back sharply. Muse closed his eyes and the air around him rippled, visibly warping. Nadir took a step back, as if expecting a sonic wave to explode outwards.
There was a gentle, soft pulse, a bare ripple in an atmosphere so turbulent it was almost missed. Avenger coughed and choked up a lungful of water, pushing himself up on his arms.
Nadir stared, then pointed a shaking, armoured hand at Muse.
"You had it all along!? You deceitful, lying *******! YOU WILL REGRET HIDING THIS FROM ME!" His howl of rage was accompanied by a crack of thunder. He charged across the sand at Avenger and Muse, then grunted as he felt gravity double, then quadruple under his feet until he couldn't move his huge frame. Behind him, Cirrus had her hands out, the rain whirling around her.
"I'll hold him down! You guys do what you do best!" she yelled. Sally and Jakey needed no further encouragement, they were already running at the huge form of Nadir, both leaping up simultaneously, contorting their bodies to bring their favoured foot forward and slam it into the small of Nadir's back, then both somersaulting off neatly, spinning to the side. Langlais charged down between them, bringing his fists up and smashing them down on his shoulders.
"Go do what you do best, Adam, I'm watching your backs." Muse's feet left the ground as he hovered on his cushion of sound. Avenger nodded and just squeezed his hand before throwing himself at Nadir with a yell of rage.
The archon fought wildly up until the very last moment, as if he was convinced the heroes would suddenly keel over dead. Not while Muse himself was drawing breath. Avenger felt the warm reassurance of his sonic resonance, could feel it reaching into him, encouraging his body to heal, keeping his muscles working at optimal efficiency with an internal massage.
It took a moment for him to realise that Nadir had collapsed back into his human form, looking horrendous. Before he could react, Langlais grabbed the man's head from behind and with a sharp twist, broke his neck. Nadir slumped like a puppet whose strings had been severed. Jakey put his hands on his knees and blew out.
"Damn … " he said it quietly. Killing people didn't sit right with him, but he felt he might be in a minority on this one. Langlais just stood there, staring down at the fallen archon, then looked up at Avenger. The latter frowned lightly, there was something in Langlais's eyes he'd never expected to see.
Regret.
Before he could say or do anything, the ex-archon turned around.
"We've got an island to take back."

It's a big one, we're getting to the last few chapters now

Collecting Cirrus was easier than collecting Sally and Langlais, as the infirmary had been under the control of the now defected troops from the get go. Cirrus was still catatonic from the much stronger drainer she'd been held against. Topoulos gave her an injection to help her back to the world of the waking and Jakey opted to wait with her until she woke up.
Langlais and Sally walked down to the Communications centre, both silent. Sally couldn't keep quiet though, the curious scientist in her begged for answers. She pondered how to bring it up subtly, until she half laughed at herself. Subtly was for mixing chemicals. Men needed self-explanatory sentences or they'd never get it.
"Okay, how the hell did you orchestrate that?" she asked. Langlais glanced down at her for a moment, then shrugged.
"I can talk to animals. I don't know why or how and frankly I don't care. We have more pressing concerns, Storm." He looked ahead again and left Sally to ponder his words. She wasn't sure she could credit him being able to talk to animals. What did animals even have to say for themselves, frankly? That trees were good to pee on? Under normal circumstances, she would have made some crack about Dr Doolittle, but Langlais was right, they had more important things to worry about.
The soldiers in the Communications centre looked efficient and were working quickly, reporting to each other with the confidence they were being listened to and that they knew their task. Sally knew the kind of feeling, she had felt it often herself, working with the other members of Honourable United. It boded well.
"What's the status of the bomb shelter and the lab?" Langlais asked, sitting down in a seat recently vacated by another man. Sally put her hand on the back of his seat as he leaned forward slightly to use the keyboard.
"The bomb shelter's cable was detonated using C4, a lot of the shaft collapsed onto it. The shelter itself is still intact but unless we somehow mod together a deep core drill, we can't get through," said a man to the right. Langlais scowled blackly.
"The lab's hosting all three of the Voids right now. I think they're standing guard over the peacebringer." Sally looked around at the speaker abruptly.
"Voids? There are Voids near Toby?!" She hardly dare think of what a mess the Voids had made of the boy. She did not quite understand what Voids were, but she'd seen what they could do to peacebringers and warshades. Both were susceptible to the energy Voids could fling around, so much so that the mere mention of a Void being present was enough to make a lot of them panic and retreat behind the nearest corner. Three looming over an unblended child and his passenger definitely counted as overkill.
"Show me the fastest route to the lab," she said. The man didn't look to Langlais for confirmation, he beckoned her over and showed her a route through the mountain on his screen.
"These sections will be clear, avoid this bit because Watson and his pack are taking out their frustrations on some of Nadir's Cor Leonis." Sally memorised the route and nodded, slapping his shoulder.
"Alright, I'll see you boys in a few minutes."
"Don't you want an escort?"
"Kid's my responsibility, and you know what they say about maternal instincts? Trust me, those three Voids are going to find out just how [censored] off a girl can get when they go around shooting children in her care." Sally strode to the door. She didn't see the man at the console half smile and bring up his surveillance data on the room's main screen, just so he could keep an eye on her progress while he did something else.
Sally reached the lift, finding it exactly where the soldier had said it was and got in. She hit the button for the lab's floor and watched the doors slide shut. She could barely believe she was working with Council soldiers. Normally she'd kick their spleens out before even looking at them. It was all Langlais's fault. He was different. Just knowing him had changed her. She just couldn't understand why he'd even joined the Council in the first place. Why would a man, any man, do that? If he'd joined the other side, she had no doubt he'd have been a hero she'd be proud to fight alongside.
Maybe that was the crux of the problem. She felt comfortable with him watching her back, like she could trust him implicitly, and she did not want to trust him while he had any affiliation with the Council. It felt like she was dishonouring her father.
The lift door dinged and slid open, revealing an empty corridor, as the soldier had promised her. She marched down it, almost disappointed at the lack of resistance. Still, three Voids weren't going to go down easy, even though she was human. She reached the lab door and found it closed. She took a deep breath and opened it, stepping in. The three Voids all had their backs to her, all facing a gurney pushed up against the wall. If there was anything Sally Storm disapproved of in an adversary, it was being ignored.
"Oi! Bastards!" she yelled. Her tactic worked, as the three turned, almost simultaneously, their balance altering as they swivelled their bodies around. Sally raced over the lab, watching their slow, aching movements, she dropped to the ground, put her hands down for balance and snapped her leg out straight, bringing it scything around their ankles. With a curdling yell, all three fell over, knocking into the gurney and then the floor. Sally surged up and snapped out a quick side kick into one before darting back as his friend got up. Using the extra space, Sally leapt forward, throwing all her weight and motion behind one heel and slamming it into the scarf that covered the Void's throat. He gave a gurgling choke and fell back, assisted by her crouch and thrusting somersault off. She turned to deal with the third Void who levelled a quantum rifle at her. He fired but his aim was bad. Sally felt the energy beam whoosh through the air to her left as she ducked in, grabbing his shoulders in both her hands and pulling him towards her as she rammed her knee up into his groin. He made no sound but a whistling exhale and she let him drop to the ground, spinning the top of her foot across the recovered first's face with an audible crack.
The fight was over in less than ten seconds. She straightened and breathed, putting her fist to her palm and drawing them to her chest before pushing them down and away. That would teach the Voids to pick on children. She turned her attention to the gurney and she bit her lower lip.
Toby was sprawled out on it, clearly having been just dumped by his indifferent captors. His back was a stick mess of blood that slicked his burned tee-shirt and jeans. Sally stroked his hair slightly, forgiving him instantly for screaming in the woods. If she'd been in his situation and seen three Voids coming for him, she would have screamed too. Her doctor's sense told her not to attempt picking him up, so she rearranged him on the gurney and started to wheel it out of the lab, taking great care to stand on any fingers or other vulnerable body parts the Voids left in her way. Toby needed a visit to the infirmary and fast.

"The problem is how to get him out of the bomb shelter. It was designed to withstand a nuclear blast." Langlais leaned back in his seat as he spoke. Cirrus and Jakey stood behind him, the former nursed her head, her long hair out of its customary braid and left to fall down around her hips.
"Well, you must have envisaged a way to get out once the blast is over."
"What about this?" Jakey leaned past Langlais and traced a finger along a dotted channel on the screen. Langlais shrugged.
"That's an old volcanic vent. We blocked it off." He reached forward and his big fingers flew over the keyboard, a square zooming in to the passage and then enlarging it till it filled the entire screen. Langlais pointed to the blockages.
"At every hundred feet, there is a blast wall. We didn't fill it with concrete in case the mountain decided to start building up magma again."
"Pressure release valve of sorts?" Jakey asked. Langlais nodded.
"I don't see what relevance this has …" he said, looking around at the cat. Jakey half grinned.
"That's because you've never seen Venji angry. Cirrus, how much you know about Newtonian physics and quantum mechanics?" Cirrus gave him a blank look and shrugged.
"A little … why?"
"Because if you can manipulate gravity, you should theoretically be able to create a wormhole and transport …" Jakey saw her diminishing understanding and let his voice trail off. Langlais frowned.
"Gravity manipulation?"
"Oh for Pete's sake … just keep your seats warm until I get back or something." Jakey left, snagging a man's pad and stylus as he went. Langlais watched him go, then looked back at Cirrus. She shrugged, not having any idea what Jakey was talking about either.
"How are you feeling?" Langlais asked after a while. Cirrus nodded as a man vacated his seat so she could sit down next to him.
"I'm alive. Thank you, by the way."
"For what?" Langlais busied himself with jamming a rogue transmission from the confused Council outside.
"For taking the grenade. I would have been dead three times over if you hadn't kept getting between me and the action." It was hard to admit, but it was the truth.
"I'd do the same for anyone who fought by my side," he said. Cirrus glanced at him, her stormy eyes tracing over his profile. She believed him.
"This is strange," he muttered suddenly, reaching his hand up to click something. Cirrus frowned lightly.
"What is?"
"I'm detecting active surveillance equipment in the chalet. There wasn't any there before I left." He scowled at the coded encryption that flashed up on his screen, "go see if Starfall is with us yet, I'm going to need help on this one."
Cirrus nodded and got up, limping out to the infirmary. The corridors may have been in control of the rebels, but they were as austere and militant as they'd been under Council rule. The only decoration was the Council insignia, a 'C' in a kind of comet tail. Cirrus found the place to be oppressively dark. It was no wonder the Council were vicious criminals if they had to live like this, day after day.
The infirmary was just as bleak as the rest of the base, the only colour was Sally's yellow and black cloak draped over half of a bed. The woman herself was sat on the edge of the bed, talking to someone quietly. Cirrus walked up to her.
"Sally?"
"Oh hey, Cirrus. You missed me beating the snot out of a bunch of Voids." Sally grinned winningly and Cirrus responded with a small smile of her own.
"Is Toby awake?" she asked. Sally looked down at the boy on the bed.
"Well, sprog, you alive?"
"Mostly," Toby said as he pushed himself sitting with a hiss. Sally slipped off the bed, helping him to sit up.
"Langlais needs you in Communications. He needs help with some machine code or something," Cirrus said. Toby grumbled.
"Great. It'll be a ******* code if he needs help. Give us a hand to the comm. centre, would you?" He swung his legs off the edge of the bed and Sally helped him to stand. Cirrus moved out of the way so they could walk past her to the tunnel.
Langlais looked up when they arrived and nodded to Toby.
"We've got an encryption to work out, I think its using base eight." Toby nodded back and sat down next to him, wincing as his back pressed against the seat, but then he put his hands to the keyboard and such worldly concerns were no longer foremost on his mind. Cirrus stood beside Sally, watching the pair work.
"You know, I thought I was pretty good with computers before this," she said offhand. Sally nodded.
"Yeah. I can deal with most systems but … damn. What's 'base eight'?" She'd heard the term before somewhere, in passing, but couldn't remember what it meant. Cirrus shrugged.
"Short of base eight maths, a mathematical system based on eights rather than tens. Why?" Jakey asked, down by her elbow. Sally looked down at him, arching an eyebrow.
"And you know that, do you?" she said, smiling a little indulgently. Jakey shrugged.
"That or it's the eighth base on a baseball pitch." Sally put her hand to her face. Just when she thought Jakey might be smart, he came out with something so utterly stupid. He passed a pad over to Cirrus and she looked at it.
"That's as simple as I can make it." Cirrus nodded to his words, looking it over.
"Y'know … I think this could work. The range won't reach into the bomb shelter though." Jakey nodded.
"I'm working on that."
Langlais looked up when the screen changed from code to video surveillance, he flicked through the channels, showing several empty rooms of the chalet and then caught the one in his own bedroom. For a moment, he was just frozen, then he reached over and covered Toby's eyes resolutely.
"K! Storm! Tintagel! Get over here." Toby objected loudly to having Langlais's big hands over his eyes, trying to push him off very optimistically. The other three drew over and stared for a long second.
"Okay … that's not right. We've gotta get over there and kill that Nadir *******!" Sally was shaking in anger, she hadn't felt this furious for a very long time. Cirrus paled a little, her hair stirring as if she had her own private breeze. Jakey frowned.
"Is there a screen in the bomb shelter?" he asked suddenly. Langlais looked at him.
"Yes. Why?"
"Because I just thought of a way to get Avenger into teleport range. Start recording this and change the channel-"
"Jakey, we have to go save Muse NOW!" Sally objected angrily.
"We can't just stand by while that is happening!" Cirrus agreed, her hair whipping up above her head. Jakey showed a few teeth.
"We are not 'just standing by'. Langlais, you said there was an old magma vent here, right? That you blocked up with blast walls strong enough to survive everything but a direct assault by a force of nature?" The cat strode over to another computer screen, pointing out the vent still displayed on the screen. Langlais nodded a little.
"Yes, but-"
"Toby's going to patch through to the comms in the bomb shelter, and show Venji what that sick ******* is doing to Muse. It'll make him so angry, he's going to literally smash his way through the path of least resistance. To further channel him, you are going to get your men outside, Langlais, and clear a path from the mountain to the chalet. Cirrus, you will be positioned here-" He pointed to part of the mountain side, "- and you will teleport Avenger as far ahead as you can. You should be able to see the house roof from your position. Sally, you will be helping Langlais and his men to clear the area. Keep ALL distractions from intercepting Avenger's path. Toby, once you're done feeding the video file to Avenger, you are to stay here and hold down the fort. If we lose the mountain now, it'll be a hard fight getting it back. Now, there's a typhoon going on outside, the weather will be wild, hampering both visual and auditory ranges. Keep your eyes open and look after the man or woman on your left. You all know your jobs and your positions. Get to it, and may your hunting go well."
Sally watched as Jakey walked out with his ears back and tail swishing. This was a side of him she'd never seen before. She had to pinch herself to check this was real, then rubbed her wrist ruefully as it objected to being pinched. Langlais gave a great, explosive sigh and stood up, calling for some of his men by name. Sally looked at him and he beckoned to her.
"Come on, time to get out the real weapons. We're going to need them if we're to clear a path of least resistance for Avenger." Sally just nodded dumbly.
Toby immediately fell to doing what he did best and Cirrus ran off, her hair still whirling wildly behind her.
They finally had a plan to go through with.

Jakey … wake up … good kitten … wake up now
Jakey groaned slightly, curling up tighter, flicking his tail over his eyes. He didn't want to wake up and be a good kitten in the slightest.
Jakey, I have fish for you … you have to wake up to get it though
Jakey opened both eyes and sat bolt upright, accompanied by a jingle. He blinked both eyes profusely and reached up to rub at them when he noticed his hand, and more importantly his arm. Someone had put him in some kind of ludicrous costume. It was bright orange fur with black stripes. The jingling came from a collar around his neck. He grabbed the over-sized bell in both hands.
"Oh they did NOT just put me in a tiger suit!?" He scrambled to his feet, ignoring the aching in his back and head. He looked around, livid. His cell had open bars on three sides and a wall at the back, there was a scratching post and some catnip toys scattered about. Acid bile collected in Jakey's throat as he fumed. This was the highest insult anyone had ever paid him. There was even a bowl with 'Jakey' written on the side. He snatched it up and threw it out of the bars. A soldier who was sitting at a desk in the corner looked around at the bowl and then at Jakey, then turned back to whatever he was writing.
"YOU *******, GET OVER HERE SO I CAN KICK YOUR TAIL!" Jakey threw himself onto the bars, his feet braced up on them, his tail fluffed to twice its size with sheer anger.
Try to put that to one side for now, Jakey. What insignia is the soldier wearing?
Jakey didn't question the voice in his head, it was trustworthy, eminently so.
"Hey Spaz-brain, I'm thirsty! Gimme water or I'll start singing," he threatened. The soldier ignored him.
"You asked for it." He jumped off the bars and retreated to the middle of the cell, crouched down and flung his head back, screeching his head off. After a full minute of caterwauling, the soldier came back hurriedly with some water for his bowl, sliding it in through the slot in the door. Jakey picked it up and drank to wet his throat again.
"Was a diamond," he muttered into the bowl.
Excellent. I want you to tell him these exact words: 'Order 42 is now being implemented, clearance code Langlais four four gamma tau mu'
Jakey flicked his ears back and put his bowl down, walking over to the bars and regarding the soldier.
"Order 42 is now being implemented, clearance code Langlais four four gamma tau mu." He watched him hard. The soldier slowly lifted his head and looked around, putting an arm on the back of his chair. He looked back at Jakey for a long time, then nodded, getting up. Jakey watched as he left the room, utterly mystified. Moments later the soldier came back and pulled some keys out, unlocking Jakey's cell.
"I've disabled the security surveillance from here to the communications centre and transmitted the code. The others will clear the way of Nadir's troops for us," he said. Jakey just stared, what on earth was this 'Order 42' about that a Council soldier was voluntarily letting him out of imprisonment? As if to answer, the soldier ripped the Council insignia off his collar and dropped it on the ground. Jakey blinked.
"Okay … what just happened?"
"No time, we've got a whole base of Council [censored] to evade until we get our hands on the real weapons." The soldier reached in and grabbed his arm, pulling him out of cell.
"Do you know where the rest of my team are?" Jakey asked, keeping up with the soldier easily. He nodded.
"Langlais and one of the women are in the detention cells down two levels, the little woman is in the infirmary, the invulnerable dude has been buried in the bomb shelter and that peacebringer kid is up in the lab. If he survived the Voids, of course." The soldier shuddered. Jakey's eyes widened.
"There are Void stalkers on the island?!"
"Nadir brought three of them with him. [censored] creepy bastards. By the way, name's Topoulos." The soldier, Topoulos, grinned. Jakey was trying to get his head around what was happening. It wasn't the first time he'd fought side by side with people he'd considered his enemies, most notably the Fir Bolg in Croatoa. Not bad people if you could get around the fact they had pumpkins for heads.
"Nice suit, by the way."
"Don't make me hurt you, Toppers."

Langlais breathed out.
"K is on his way. They'll take the communications centre first, lock all Council soldiers out of the mountain," he muttered. Sally had trouble believing that, eying him sceptically.
"Oh? And did you somehow magically make telepathic contact with Jakey?" she asked, acidly. Langlais half smiled at her.
"Something like that. I had hoped for more time to prepare for this eventuality, but desperate times, etcetera …"

Jakey was expecting a fight to take the communications hub, but instead, it appeared the fight had already taken place. There was a small heap of men in the corner, being guarded by two others and being gradually dragged away by a third. He looked at the men who were at the communication stations.
"The typhoon's going to hit the island in an hour. They won't be able to get a message out to the Council until it passes."
"Have you finished changing the security codes yet?"
"Almost, sir."
"I've got access to the drainer systems, deactivating now."
Topoulos turned to Jakey.
"We better get down to the boss and your friend. There's some vampyrs on guard down there. Think you can handle it?" he asked. Jakey smirked and punched his fist to his hand.
"Think you can keep up? Just point me in the right direction," he challenged. Topoulos motioned to two other men who'd just arrived, one clearly had just come in out of the rain. They fell in behind them as Topoulos hurried to a maintenance stairwell. The four of them rushed down to the right floor, Jakey jumping the railings out of frustration that the others were so slow. He booted the door to the tunnels open and sniffed. He could smell Sally from the left and he hurtled in that direction. The corridor twisted and looped around wildly but eventually he could see two of the sinewy, half emaciated looking vampyrs standing guard. He took a deep breath and centred himself before rushing forward silently. He was already airborne when he reached the first one, his foot slamming into the side of his neck and cracking it, he pushed himself off in a backwards somersault. The second vampyr noticed his fellow falling to the ground and half turned, taking a moment to register the tiny tiger and having no time to avoid having his legs kicked out from under him. Jakey darted back a step when the vampyr rolled back and slammed up his hand, sending a stream of miasma for him. It hit his chest and he coughed against the astringent stink. He shook his head, surging forward and leaping up in a spinning kick across the vampyr's groin. Whether or not the vampyr had any use for his loins given the way he looked was academic, he still had nerve endings there. He grabbed himself and his eyes bugged before he fell to his knees and collapsed onto his face.
Topoulos and the other two arrived a second after the second vampyr hit the ground, they all looked at the pair of them as Jakey rattled the door handle. Topoulos crouched down and was searching for a key when he heard a deep 'rrr' noise from Jakey and then saw him kick the door in a thrust kick. The door banged open, the lock torn off and it bounced off the wall. Topoulos held up the key he found.
"I take it you don't need this then?"
"Keys are for the under-caffeinated," proclaimed the cat as he hurried into the room.
"Jakey!" Sally grinned, delighted to see him, and especially delighted to see how cute he looked in his little tiger outfit.
"Sally!" Jakey grinned.
"You look so cute!" Sally couldn't resist it. Jakey's ears went back and he made fists.
"I am not bloody cute!"
While they disputed whether or not Jakey was cute, Topoulos unlocked Langlais's restraints and the other two took out little hand-held cutters, burning their way through the bands holding Sally down. Topoulos checked Langlais over, taking out some disinfectant and a bandage to deal with his side. The big Frenchmen only grunted in response to the ministrations.
"How many of us are left?" he asked.
"Twenty seven, sir. Nadir started culling us the moment he got here. Malone and Baxter were first," he answered. Langlais grimaced.
"Damnit, they were both fine men. What's happened to Whithers?"
"He's been in the tuner a few times, but I don't think he's given Nadir anything yet. He's a hard nut to crack when he wants to be. He was in the infirmary last night, was out with Stevens' patrol. I wouldn't be surprised if that son of a [censored] hit him himself. Glad he got crushed by air-conditioning." Topoulos left Langlais after he'd patched him up, going over to Sally and checking her over as she was released.
"Watch the hands, bub," she growled. Topoulos took her pulse.
"You'll be fine in a bit. The drainer's played havoc with your natural rhythms. Give yourself at least an hour to recover before doing anything stupid." He said it with the quiet optimism that he'd actually be listened to. Langlais grimaced, hand to his side.
"Next we collect Cirrus, then see what we can do for Avenger," he ordered. Topoulos nodded.
"Communications is secure, sir." He saluted. Langlais gave him a haphazard salute back, turning to the other two men as they packed their cutters away.
"Beauchamp, Roberts, you know what to do." The two men evidently did, as they saluted and then left hurriedly. Langlais looked at Sally and Jakey.
"To the infirmary." And with that, he strode out. Sally rubbed her wrists, feeling a bit wobbly still, dropping behind enough to talk to Jakey quietly.
"J, how'd you get out?" she whispered. Jakey looked up at her.
"Voice in my head told me this code to tell the soldier guarding me and when I told him, he let me out," he answered. Sally looked at him, then at Langlais thoughtfully.

(and it just keeps getting worse ...

Muse came to when the door downstairs slammed. Moments later, he heard Nadir burst out into nearly hysterical laughter. He pushed himself up laboriously, wincing against the pain in his back and stomach. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood shakily. He found his trousers and pulled them on, taking care to lean against the wall so he didn't fall. Once he'd picked up his tee-shirt and pulled it on, he walked out and downstairs.
"Typhoon! Brilliant!" Nadir spun on his heel, looking up as Muse descended the stairs slowly. He winked at him as he walked over.
"Your rescuers came on a lovely, lovely boat. It's in itty bitty pieces now. I blew it up and there's a typhoon coming in so everyone's going to think they were caught in the storm. I win. I just love it when a plan comes togeth-" He stopped talking immediately when Muse punched him across the face. The archon worked his jaw, putting his hand to his cheek before looking back at Muse, surveying him intently.
"Did you just punch me?" he asked, incredulous. Muse punched him again for good measure, just in case he'd missed the first one. Nadir rolled his eyes and caught the next fist heading for his face, twisting it effortlessly and putting Muse down on his knees.
"Is this about me beating the heroes without breaking a sweat or about me gloating over it? Hmm?" he asked. Muse was holding his twisted elbow, wincing.
"You set me up! You son of a [censored]! You *******!"
"I didn't make him punch you into a computer. He did that all himself. Poor little you, so easy to punch. Do you always pick lovers with violent edges?" Nadir asked sweetly. Muse glared at him hatefully.
"What've you done with Adam?"
"Ooooh, his name's Adam? I like that," he said. Muse yelled, ripping his hand out of the archon's grip and surging up to tackle him to the ground. He lacked any kind of grace or finesse, his hands trying to grip his throat. He got a hold on the lapels of his jacket and tried to slam his head up and down.
"You evil son of a [censored], what've you done with Adam!!" Nadir grabbed his wrists, digging his fingers into the tendons to make them loosen and he pulled Muse's arms to either side.
"Temper, temper, Whithers," he said, grinning in great satisfaction. Muse headbutted him, making him yelp and kick him off, putting his hands to his nose. Muse looked around and saw one of Langlais's fine lamps in his reach. He didn't hesitate, just grabbed it and swung it at Nadir's head as hard as he could.
"You [censored] [censored], if you've hurt him I'll kill you!" Nadir blocked the lamp and put his fist across Muse's face with enough force to spin him once and drop him like a stone. He tossed the lamp aside, listening to it smash as he regarded Muse, who had his hand to his face. The archon reached his hand up to the blood trickling out of his nose and inspected it, turning his fingers back and forth so the liquid caught the light.
"I knew you couldn't possibly be as meek as you appeared. It's not exactly natural is it? You dear Adam is just fine. I figure a few long weeks will degrade his mental defences enough for me to force a blending." He grinned as he spoke. Muse looked up and around at him, dark eyes smouldering, a tear dislodged and ran down his cheek. Nadir smirked when he saw it.
"Face it, your pacifistic tendencies were always, ultimately, going to be a problem. You can't even defend yourself, always need to hide behind someone else. You're not much of a hero if you can't even protect yourself." It was like he was speaking the words that ran through the back of Muse's mind. He hung his head and his shoulders shook. Nadir looked victorious.
"I wouldn't worry about it though, when I've blended with your lover, you'll be the safest creature on Earth, and won't that be fun?" Muse was shaking all over, feeling sick to his stomach, he pushed himself slowly to his feet and turned to look at Nadir for a moment. The smiling mouth and the cruel eyes. He imagined that expression on Avenger's face and from nowhere, the shriek welled. He opened his mouth and just screamed.
Nadir's eyes widened for a moment, then he was slammed off his feet by the pulse of hardened sound, hurtling back a few feet. In a perfect circle around Muse, all the furniture tumbled over and even the dust swirled. Above, the light swung. Muse panted, struggling to keep his emotions, and more importantly, his sonic manipulation under control. Nadir's legs were sticking up over the fallen sofa. Muse's mind flashed up the memory of his mother sliding down the wall, leaving a smear of blood to mark her progress. He felt sick to his stomach, running over and jumping the sofa, kneeling by Nadir's side, ripping his shirt open so he could fumble his fingers to his neck. His pulse was slightly fast but strong. Nadir's hand reached up and grabbed the back of his neck. His eyes looked slightly manic, pupils dilated hugely.
"Whoa … colours … loooots of colours. You broke the world … " he sounded dreamy, then smiled widely and pulled his head down, kissing his lips. Muse tore himself away and darted to the other side of the sofa. This was not normal, this was not normal in the slightest. Usually people said 'ow' when he resonated. After some false starts, Nadir pushed himself up, looking wobbly and he made it three steps before slumping down again, looking at something in the air that was apparently fascinating.
Muse decided to take advantage of Nadir's state to escape, hurrying to the door and trying to pull it open. When it wouldn't budge, he looked around. Nadir was standing again, leaning on the breakfast bar and swinging something between his fingers.
"Looking for the key, Matty?"
Muse looked at his hand, then pulled off his tee-shirt, wrapping it around his hand and throwing the hardest punch he could at the glass. His knuckles bounced off and he gripped his fist, swearing profusely in pain. Nadir ambled over, pushing him back against the door and holding his wrists. He looked at the tee-shirt swathed fist curiously, then grinned in a slightly stoned way at Muse.
"So helpful of you to start taking your clothes off. Leaves less work for me, doesn't it?"
Muse realised there was no escape, his scream died in his throat as it tightened up with dread.

Langlais had his eyes closed, as if he was sleeping. Sally left off contemplating the general badness of her future and looked over at him. Langlais looked up at her suddenly.
"K isn't human, is he?" he asked out of nowhere. Sally blinked, then nodded slowly.
"The ears and tail gave it away, right?" Langlais looked impatient with her answer.
"No, you misunderstand, was he human and augmented? It's very important!" His urgency got to Sally and she frowned.
"No, he was a cat. Still is, he only looks human. Why?" She was surprised to see him smile broadly.
"Because we may have a fighting chance after all. I hope he's alive." And with that he bowed his head, closing his eyes. Sally just watched, mystified.

Sally paced the storage facility with a sharp click of her heels. It nearly tore her up inside to think that the others were knee-deep in Council and she was here, baby-sitting some alien infested kid. She sat down on an empty barrel and rested her elbows on her knees, sighing deeply. She worried about what was happening in the mountain. After a moment, she grabbed her radio.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Toby said quietly. Sally looked at him irritably.
"Why not?"
"Because it could give away our position. Huh … that's odd …" He leaned closer to his screen. Sally jammed her radio back on her belt and walked over to him.
"What's odd?"
"Aside from you thinking leopard print is a good fashion option? Something called the Bomb Shelter has been activated and now flags up as compromised …" Toby pointed to something on the screen. Sally frowned, then swatted him around the back of his head.
"Have a little respect, you pre-pubescent twerp!"
"Hey! You touched me! That means I get to touch you back!" Toby flashed a grin up at her and she narrowed her eyes. Being the genius that he was, Toby decided not to lay so much as a finger on the toe of her boot and turned back to the screen.
"See, here." Sally looked at the incomprehensible strings of code.
"Can't you show diagrams or something?"
"Oh … I forgot you're kinda lame." He grinned when Sally swatted the back of his head again and tapped away at his keyboard, the code vanished, replaced with a far more recognisable sequence of diagrams and words. Toby pointed to a cross-section of the mountain.
"See, the Bomb Shelter must be related to this shaft that goes down here. There's nothing else down there, so it'd be protected by thick rock all around. Apparently … looks like there was an explosion. Odd." The young hacker shook his head.
"Could the team have gotten that high up to be the cause of the explosion?" she asked. Toby shook his head.
"They'd have had to go through the communication hub, and that thing's guarded like several members of royalty are having a [censored] up there." Sally frowned.
"Well, seems-"
"[censored]!" Toby suddenly slammed the computer off, getting to his feet. Sally jumped.
"What's wrong?"
"I got pinged. They know we're here." Toby looked honestly afraid, looking less like the smart-mouthed teen and more like a child. Sally grimaced and grabbed his arm, towing him out of the storage facility and slipping into the foliage. She motioned for him to stay low and keep quiet. He nodded fearfully, pressing himself down under waxy leaves. Sally snuck back to the facility, pulling herself up onto the roof. Lying flat to the tiles she peeped over the peak. Her eyes were used to the dark now, but unlike the city, it was truly dark. Above the stars burned with an intensity light pollution robbed them of in most countries. The night felt more real, and more likely to spring traps on her. Perhaps the absence of light was speaking to a latent instinctual fear from the days when humans were pretty high on the 'good eating' list.
After a while, she heard rustling in the jungle. She narrowed her eyes when something moved across her field of vision. She couldn't be certain, but she was reasonably sure that was a man. She kept flat, turning an ear to the tiles, listening hard. After a while, she was rewarded with a quiet voice murmuring in the room below. She tried to make out what he was saying when a piercing scream ripped through the air. She levered herself up and looked around. There was a wild crashing in the jungle behind her and she swore, pushing herself up and running down the roof, jumping off. She raced in the direction Toby was headed, the boy screamed again, in genuine terror. Stupid little brat, he was giving away his position. Sally hurdled a fallen, rotting log. She was going to kick his [censored] when she found him.
The jungle seemed to suddenly erupt into life all around her, there were shouts and the odd roar of a war wolf. She could smell the astringent smell of vampyr miasma and she swore again. The jungle was absolutely heaving with soldiers. She broke through a screen of waxy leaves and her eyes widened. There were three ranks of soldiers standing a hundred feet away from her. The front rank of five were down on one knee, the second rank of four stood just behind them and a third rank of five were standing on a low wall or fallen tree.
"Fire!"
All fourteen guns spoke at once and Sally barely had time to register the number before a wall of bullets hit her. The force alone slammed her back, pain etched its way through her entire body and she felt the ground hit her knees. She put a shaking hand up to her chest, she might not have taken wounds from the bullets, but she could feel one her ribs was broken. Breathing was so painful. The world skewed in her vision and she slammed a hand out, stopping herself from falling. Not to the Council. She would not fall down here to the bloody Council. Not without one good, solid hit first. She forced herself to look up, fixing the soldiers with a livid look, then she smiled. She was unstoppable, they had nothing on her. Nothing at all.
"KICK 'EM IN THE JIMMIES!" she screamed, every word costing her more pain from the broken rib. With a howl she surged up and threw herself at them. She reached the front rank and dropped to the ground, sweeping her leg around with enough force to slam them flying.
"Fall back!" The soldiers all ran backwards, not turning from her for a second. She didn't care, she could take them, she could take the entire island! She was invincible and they were going to know it really soon.
"Fire!"
Nine more rounds hit her, one of the men she'd knocked flying recovered to crack her across the face with his gun. They were good shots, this lot.
"Fire!"
More pain, it seemed to be reawakening in her body, like she'd managed to push it aside to charge. It was back now, reminding her that under all the enhancements and self-inflicted power, she was human and mortal. She felt the ground hit her side and closed her eyes in pain. Where was Avenger when you needed him?

Coming round was about as much fun as passing out had been. Sally groaned slightly, feeling light-headed and limp. After a moment, she moved her fingers and tried to move. She opened her eyes when she realised she couldn't move her hands because bands of metal were holding her wrists and elbows against a flat surface. Then it occurred to her that she was upright. She blinked and looked down at herself. Another band of metal crossed her chest and midriff and there were more bands down her legs. She squirmed a bit but they all held her down firmly.
"It's no good." A voice to her right said. She turned her head in that direction and saw Langlais in a less complicated arrangement, his wrists chained together and the chain padlocked to a ring in the wall. There were bruises all down his naked chest and face, a set of long incisions on his side that had been left to the air.
"Where're the others?" Sally demanded. Langlais shook his head.
"Avenger took off after some runners, K got hit by a rock, I don't know if he's even alive, and Cirrus will be in the infirmary. They won't let her regain consciousness before they can get rid of her," he said, looking at her, "so what happened to you and Starfall?"
"He got pinged, ******* soldiers were everywhere. We got separated when he went running off screaming his head off." She didn't bother to hide the disapproval in her voice. She wanted to keep feeling anger, anything that would keep her from feeling the terrible thought that he'd been killed and it was her fault. She just couldn't face that yet. Not yet. Langlais grimaced.
"This is not the best day of my life."
"No [censored], sherlock." Sally tried to move again, but soon she felt too tired to do anything but dangle from her restraints, letting them take all her weight. She'd never felt this profoundly exhausted in her life. It must have been an hour or more when the door to the room opened an a slender man with a ponytail walked in. His hands were laced behind his back and he smiled benignly at them both.
"Just came to see if the accommodations suit." Sally spat in his direction, annoyed to see the spittle hit the floor a good yard short of him.
"Go tell your boss that I'm going to spank him like it's an extreme sport and bake cookies on his [censored]!" she snapped. The man grinned widely and Langlais shook his head.
"Storm, he is the boss."
"Oh good, come here and put your head in my teeth." Sally bared her teeth. Nadir covered his mouth with a hand to hide his ever-widening grin.
"I like this one, Phillippe. She's feisty."
"Rot in Hell." Langlais looked at the floor. Nadir sighed, walking over to him.
"So cold, Phillippe? After I've so very generously spared your life even though you've been an exceptionally bad boy?" He folded his arms, staring at the man in chains. Langlais almost growled.
"You don't have any intention of killing me, don't start with the [censored]," he snapped, sounding clipped. Nadir laughed, clicked his fingers and pointed at Langlais.
"That's very true. You're still so clever, my dearest savage. And I'm very happy that you've brought me more pets for my collection. I especially like the work you did with the Resonator. Oh, and the Avenger, he's going to be a lot of fun."
"You're a bloody loony …" Sally muttered. Nadir spun on his heel and walked over to her and patted her on the head.
"'Fraid you're not quite special enough to make my collection. You chemically enhanced types are ten a penny. No offence darling. Shame, you're a bit of a knock-out and I'm sure the men will be very sorry to see you go." Sally tried to bite him but he wasn't even looking at her, his eyes had slid sideways to Langlais. She looked at the big Frenchman as well, surprised to see him standing up straight and his eyes livid.
"Get your hands off her." His large hands curled to fists and she could hear the knuckles crack. Nadir smiled.
"You know what it can be like for men stationed on a remote island in the middle of nowhere. They haven't even seen a woman for months, much less been in the same room with a divine beauty like this." Nadir stroked Sally's cheek, tugging his fingers just out of the way when she tried to bite him again. Langlais pulled his chains taunt as he tried to lunge at Nadir. The archon watched him swing around for a bit, then laughed.
"You know her name is Sally Storm, and not Giselle, right?" With that, he turned and left. Langlais yanked against his chains again, screaming what were undoubtedly obscenities after him. It was a long time before he claimed down enough to speak English again, which was useful, as Sally's French was rusty.
"What was that all about?"
"Never mind," Langlais snapped, breathing heavily. Sally arched an eyebrow and left it there for another hour. She was getting desperate for the toilet so spoke to distract herself from her growing discomfort.
"Who's Giselle?" she asked. Langlais grimaced, then hung his head.
"Doesn't matter."
"No really, why'd he say I wasn't her?" Sally rested her head back against the metal behind her. Her tiredness hadn't cleared up even a fraction, it wasn't a natural tiredness. After a while, Langlais sighed deeply.
"Because he knows that I used to care about a girl called Giselle before I was recruited. It's really not important."
"Well, I think it kinda is. He brought it up for a reason." Sally wriggled her fingers thoughtfully.
"She was the only human being who cared about me." Sally gave him an annoyed look.
"It's more than that. He's trying to get to you somehow by likening me to her. What happened to her? Because, y'know, a bit of forewarning might be nice."
"You really want to know? You really, really want to know what happened to Giselle?" Langlais sounded acidic, Sally met his glare.
"I wouldn't ask if I didn't wanna know."
"Okay. She was [censored] to death while I was held down to watch, then I was beaten to within an inch of my life, both legs broken and thrown off a bridge to drown," he said coldly, banishing all emotion from his face. Sally just looked at him. It was hard imagining anyone being able to beat someone as powerfully built as Langlais to within an inch of his life.
"Sounds fun, doesn't it?" His sarcasm made her look away.
"Is he going to do that?" she asked after a while. Langlais half shrugged.
"I don't know. Not until he gets bored of us, probably."
"Oh fantastic."

Muse picked up a pair of thick gloves from the counter in the lab. Nadir walked over and held out a pair of goggles and a Council helmet.
"Uniformity breeds discipline, remember." Muse took the helmet silently. He didn't want to give Nadir any reason to feel inclined to punish him again. He pulled the helmet on and Nadir hooked the face shield over his nose and mouth then flipped the goggles down.
"There. No sense in giving the other soldiers a reason to think I play favourites, even if you are my favourite." Muse pulled away when Nadir patted his head, feeling sick. He didn't dare say a thing, not with the tuner practically at his back. Nadir smiled widely and put a hand on his back, steering him out of the lab.
"So go tag along after Adjutant Stevens. Even you medics need to do the soldiering." Muse hurried away from him, just so glad of an excuse to leave his presence that he didn't even consider his bad luck at being assigned to Adjutant Stevens, who was as foul-tempered as he was foul-mouthed. The rumour among Langlais's men was that Stevens had shot both his parents and his little sister in cold blood. Of course, nobody knew if it was true, and everyone had heard it from someone who heard it from someone who'd been there. Muse tried to put the rumours out of his mind as he jogged down to the communications hub three floors down from the lab. Adjutant Stevens was screaming blue murder at one of the 'stupid, useless lowlifes' who'd served under Langlais. Muse winced, feeling bad for the men who'd been here first. Nadir's troops were the epitome of good Council soldiers who seemed to take the lax attitude of the island soldiers very personally.
"Medic Whithers reporting for patrol duty, sir," he said, saluting when Stevens was done yelling at Beauchamp. The adjutant wheeled and glared down from his formidable height. Like all Cor Leonis, he was as huge as a bear and looked able to crush lorries like coke cans.
"You're one of Langlais's? You better keep the pace, you short-[censored] [censored], or I'll throw you down the [censored] mountain." Stevens marched out. Muse shot a look at Beauchamp, who gave him a commiserating look in return, and then followed the adjutant.

"I don't like this, it's too quiet," Langlais muttered as they crouched by a doorway. The corridors they'd travelled down were deserted. Cirrus scowled at him.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that I can't believe any archon hasn't marked this section down for routine patrols. The emergency entrance should be always unlocked, but frankly, why leave it so unguarded?" Langlais reached his hand up to grip the crystal hanging around his neck. He looked bothered and it was starting to get to Avenger.
"How arrogant is Nadir?" Jakey asked quietly. Langlais looked grim.
"Very. Has a chronic superiority complex. I can see where you're going with that. He may be convinced of his own power, but he's not stupid." Langlais leaned around the corner of the doorway to look through it, then slammed himself back into hiding, breathing out. Avenger heard the thudding of patrol boots ahead.
"Okay, so he's just a bit laxer about patrol scheduling then." He felt relieved to hear the footsteps. It reassured him that they weren't walking blithely into a trap. Jakey crouched by his calves, fingertips to the floor, tail swishing slowly from side to side.
"Couple of Cor Leonis, few marksmen. Ugh, one of them has minging aftershave." Jakey covered his nose with one hand, grimacing. Avenger had never heard the description 'minging' before and looked down at him with a frown.
"You what?"
"Means horrible," Cirrus whispered. Langlais listened to them, flattened to the wall.
"They're coming this way," he muttered, looking at Avenger, "what are your orders?"
"Think we can take them down without them getting a chance to trip an alarm?"
"Well … I think I can increase the gravity around them …" Cirrus looked uncertain. Avenger looked at her and she grimaced.
"I've never tried it indoors before. I could crush the tunnel if I'm not careful," she explained. He nodded.
"Do it. Jakey, you know what to do. Langlais, you and me are going to hit those guys as hard as we can. We can't let any of them get away to trip an alarm, okay?" Langlais nodded. Avenger took a deep breath, then nodded to Cirrus. She stepped into the doorway so she could see the men ahead. They saw her a second later as she threw her hand forward.
"Hold it right there, boys!" she focussed and more than one man yelped as his body seemed to slump downwards, like he was wearing a suit made of lead. The leader put his fists up, completely unaffected.
"Last mistake you'll ever make, [censored]," he yelled, charging forward. Cirrus's eyes widened in fear as he surged towards her. She squeaked and covered her head to protect it when two men ran past her from behind and both slammed into the adjutant, throwing him off his feet and back into his men. Cirrus blew out in relief when she saw Avenger and Langlais tear into the soldiers ahead, Jakey in hot pursuit. Now that was more like it. With the wall of men between her and the enemy, she felt a deal safer. She threw up her hands.
"I'm gonna blow you away!" A blast of icy wind screamed down the tunnel. Warned by her shout, Avenger and Langlais braced their legs and Jakey jumped up. The gale caught the cat and sent him rocketing past them both, right into the chest of another Cor Leonis feet first. His impact helped the wind knock him off his feet.
The adjutant surged up as his marksmen took aim, throwing himself at Avenger in a very optimistic rugby tackle. His shoulder hit Avenger's midriff and found it to have the consistency of a steel door. Avenger slammed both fists down onto his shoulders, dropping the man like so many bricks.
Langlais skidded between Cirrus and one of the marksmen, flinching as the bullets ricocheted off his sonic shield a bare centimetre from his skin. He saw three of the marksmen backing off, turning to run.
"Avenger, we have runners!" His voice was half drowned out by the sudden roar from the adjutant, his uniform tore to shreds as he reared up, fur bursting out of his skin and his head reshaping into a muzzle filled with dagger like teeth. Avenger swore, ducking back out of range of the war wolf's claws.
"Jakey! Get those runners!" he yelled. Jakey was already on his way, rushing to catch up with them. He leapt over one of the stranded marksmen who was still held down by the crushing weight of gravity under his feet. One of the marksmen ahead turned around and took aim, firing at the cat who shot up the curved wall of the tunnel to avoid being hit.
Avenger threw himself at the war wolf as the beast leaned down and drove his scythe-like claws into the rock floor. The ground beneath his feet suddenly buckled and he staggered to keep his balance as the war wolf tore a great chunk of rock out from under him. In normal circumstances, perhaps he and Langlais would have been able to keep their feet, had the floor not suddenly been ripped out from under them. Both of them went back onto their shoulders with a yell and the war wolf turned and hurled the rock down the tunnel. Jakey and the marksman both heard it coming at the same moment and neither had enough time to move before the chunk of rock slammed into them.
"JAKEY!" Cirrus saw red and looked to the side where a great air conditioning fan was whirling. She reached her hand towards it and gripped a fist, then slammed her hand towards the war wolf. There was a horrendous scream of metal and stone as the entire unit was ripped from the wall and hurtled at the war wolf. Langlais yanked Avenger back down and the unit smacked the latter's hat off as it whooshed overhead. There was a horrific sound of collision and a distinct squelch as the air conditioning fan hit the war wolf. Avenger scrambled up.
"Look after Jakey and Cirrus!" he yelled, racing down the tunnel after the escaping men. This was not going well at all. He hurdled the pile of rock that was pinning Jakey and a marksman down. The last two of the patrol were legging it down the tunnel, taking a hard right. Avenger forced himself to go faster coming up behind the lagging marksman and slamming him into the wall hard. The scuffle had barely started before he knocked the man out, leaving just the last one left. The man, shorter than the others, took another right in the corridor ahead. Avenger raced after him, panicking slightly, what if there was an alarm pull just inside that corridor?!
He skidded around the corner to find the man racing to a control panel on the far side of the very square room. His boots rang against the metal floor as he pulled back his fist. The man's hand was reaching for the console as he sprinted, Avenger yelled as he got close enough and hammered his fist into the small of the soldier's back. The man rocketed forward into the console, virtually folding around it, his helmet smashing the screen to pieces and then he slumped and fell off the console, crumpled in a heap on the ground. Avenger breathed out, he'd gotten out of the habit of chasing down runners since it was more Jakey's thing really. He shook his head and turned, walking back to the entrance of the room.
The door slammed shut.
Avenger stopped and looked around, on edge again. A screen set high on the wall blipped on just as the floor gave a small shake and Avenger felt a lurch like an elevator descending. A man's face appeared on the screen, he was clapping with a sardonic expression.
"Very exciting, I must say, you performed admirably." Avenger bristled, turning to face the screen.
"How about you come here and I'll treat you to a private viewing of act two?"
"I think I'll have to take a rain check, Midnight Avenger. But do work on it, I'll be anxious to see it later. I don't think I've introduced myself have I? I'm Archon Nadir." There was a noise from console and Avenger looked down in time to see the soldier being covered with dark energy before vanishing. He reappeared a split second later on the screen, as though he were sitting in the other man's lap. Avenger watched the screen in annoyance.
"The pleasure is all yours," he growled through gritted teeth. He didn't have time for this nonsense. Nadir grinned, cradling the soldier like some kind of beloved pet.
"It is rather, isn't it. You know, you fascinate me. I had a feeling you only saw uniforms, it was rather nice to see my theory proved right. Or was it just because your blood was up, as they say?"
Something struck Avenger as being very wrong here. He faltered for a moment.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
Nadir's answer was to push the helmet, faceplate and goggles off the soldier in his arms. Avenger's blood ran cold. Muse was unconscious, blood trickling out of his mouth, head tipped back limply. Nadir's smile was cold.
"You didn't even stop to question why someone so short was a Council soldier. I like that kind of resolve. I like it a lot."
Avenger opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came. He felt like he was shrivelling inside, guilt dropping his hands to his sides limply. Nadir chuckled.
"Oh don't look so upset, naturally I rigged the whole thing. In fact, as we speak, the other two in the tunnels are being surrounded by my best troops. I just couldn't resist setting you up like this. I'm so naughty, I know." Nadir stroked some of Muse's hair back from his face and Avenger wavered on his feet. He felt sick to his very core, he couldn't believe he'd struck his own lover. This wasn't happening. Nadir leaned his head against Muse's, looking upwards as if appealing to the saints.
"Oh my, such drama. If only you had stopped for a single second to ask 'aren't you a little short for a Storm Trooper'. Maybe your lover would be in your arms right now, and you'd be running back to help your friends who are under heavy fire and hiding behind a door that will give soon. Oh me, oh my. Well, you get to contemplating that next act, Midnight Avenger, you'll have plenty of time to dwell on this monumental [censored]-up." Nadir regarded Muse for a moment, then leaned his head down to lick the blood off the corner of his mouth. Avenger surged up to the screen, grabbing the sides of it as if he could grab Nadir's throat.
"GET OFF HIM!" The archon laughed merrily.
"You are so easy to manipulate. Enjoy the bomb shelter. I might dig you out in a few weeks if I can be bothered. And on that note, I do believe you've reached the bottom of the shaft." As he said that, Avenger heard a ding behind him and he whipped around. The feeling of motion stopped with a small lurch and he looked around, then upwards. He could only see the ceiling, but noticed a hatch in it.
"Mind the drop," said Nadir, pressing something to his side. Distantly, Avenger heard an explosion, then the floor below fell away from his feet for just a second. He staggered as the room dropped what must only have been a few feet, but it was enough to jar him and everything inside, a chair falling over. Then there was a thunder above as solid objects hit the ceiling, denting it in some places the impacts were so hard. Avenger stared up.
"The question was, I believe, how do you kill an invulnerable man." Nadir's voice permeated the thick silence after the impacts, Avenger looked back at the screen and saw the grin on the detestable man's face.
"The answer is, you don't try to kill him. You just put him away somewhere. Ta ta, Midnight darling, I have other insurgent elements to deal with. Been a lot of fun chatting, keep in touch."
The screen went dead.
Avenger looked down at his hands and realised they were shaking. Langlais was right. Archon Nadir was a monster.

The boat rode anchor some distance away, all lights were off and everything that could make noise was silenced. Langlais waited for Jakey to finish telling the skipper that if they didn't return in six hours, then he was to head back and send a distress call ahead to the superheroes waiting in Korea.
"Will six hours be enough time?" Cirrus asked, buckling on life-jacket that had been blacked out. Langlais nodded.
"Either we'll have succeeded or we've encountered more force than we can deal with. In the latter case, we'll need the back-up." He smeared some waterproof camouflage paint on his face and passed it to Avenger. Jakey returned, nodding to Sally as she pulled on her dry suit for swimming to the shore. He wished he'd brought one from home, but the Icon tailors made hero clothes that could cope with a little sea water. He jammed his hat down on his head a little tighter and looked over the rail at the island ahead. It didn't look so far away, several lights twinkling through the trees. Cirrus looked worriedly at it, then at him. He did his best to smile.
"K, you're on point. Get into the water." Langlais broke the moment between them and Jakey looked round at him. Instead of arguing, he turned back to the railing and dived off it gracefully. Avenger glared at Langlais.
"You're not the one who gives the orders here, what do you think you're playing at?" he asked, keeping his voice down. Langlais regarded him, in the dark, his eyes were just two pools of darkness.
"K is the smallest and fastest of us, he will be most able to get through the defences undetected so if we set them off by accident, he might be in a position to deactivate them. I already asked if he would do it, and he agreed."
Avenger was not pleased that Langlais had been going behind his back on this, but it did make a little sense for Jakey to go first. He watched as Sally climbed overboard and dropped herself into the water, striking out after Jakey. He looked at Toby, the boy half smiled back, looking nervous.
"Let's just get on with this." He tried to sound brave. Avenger smiled reassuringly and climbed over the side, and held onto the ladder, waiting for Toby to climb down and lock his arms around his shoulders. Once the boy was latched on, Avenger kicked away from the hull and started swimming out after Sally and Jakey. Behind, he could hear Langlais with Cirrus. The sea was calm, but still the waves often obscured his vision of the others. He could no longer see Jakey at all, the cat had undoubtedly drawn far ahead. He worried about where the defences were, and if they would indeed remain dormant while swimmers passed them by. Langlais had inferred that they would, but he hadn't said so categorically. The water was cold, not that he noticed especially but from the shivering of Toby's body, it was clear the boy had. It felt like he'd been swimming for hours, pushing one hand before the other just above the water. He was trying to minimise the noise he made, and the island was barely creeping forward. It was lucky they had no light, or they would have seen the large population of poisonous wildlife swimming around them. Not least of all were the lionfish, handsome fish with arrays of dual coloured spines sticking out all over their bodies with bold stripes to accompany. Eventually, Avenger reached the beach and dragged himself and Toby out of the waves, spitting some briny water from his mouth. Some foliage rustled nearby and they were instantly on guard. Jakey's head popped out from under a bush and he motioned for them to follow. They both did so, finding Sally waiting for them. It wasn't long before Langlais and Cirrus arrived.
"Alright, we all made it so far. Everyone good to carry on?" Avenger asked. Jakey nodded.
"I already scoped out that furnace Langlais was talking about. It's not guarded at all, and just a step from here," he said quietly. Avenger looked at Langlais, who looked back, and then nodded.
"Alright, let's move out, team."
As Jakey had said, it was indeed not far for legs aching with the weight of seawater and undertow. The furnace was a long, low building with a tall chimney stack. The doors were closed but not locked, they creaked a bit as they swung open to admit the heroes. Inside there were huge, angular shapes of machinery in neat piles according to type and purpose. Langlais led them over to the old communications equipment.
"See what you can achieve with these, Starfall."
"If I can get it to even turn on, it'll be a miracle," Toby muttered bitterly as he rolled his still sodden sleeves up, unclipping his life jacket and dumping it on the floor. He immediately started pulling bits of computer terminal out of the pile, cracking open the case of the largest, most intact one. Avenger watched worriedly as the boy cannibalised parts ruthlessly, working quickly and competently.
"Cirrus, you still got that emergency tech kit down your shirt?" Toby held out one hand expectantly. Cirrus fished her hand down her top and pulled out a black, waterproof packet, handing it over. Jakey arched an eyebrow.
"Tintagel really believes in being prepared, doesn't it?"
"We're as bad as the Girl Guides that way." Cirrus grinned at him.
"Jakey, get outside, I want you on watch," Avenger interrupted. Jakey nodded and slipped off. Sally folded her arms.
"What about me, oh fearless leader?"
"Just Jakey for the moment, no offence, but he's got natural night-vision." Avenger knew that Sally and Jakey had a very healthy rivalry going, but now wasn't the time for them to be indulging in competition with each other. Sally seemed to know what was on his mind and she sighed slightly, turning her attention back to Toby.
The computer was soon activated, though it was the biggest mess of wires and components they'd ever seen in their life. Toby pulled his goggles down on his head and stuck his tongue out slightly as his fingers flew over the keyboard, text whizzing across the golden holo-screen so beloved by the Council.
"Hello world," Toby said quietly, grinning. Avenger frowned, trying to follow the information that was being accessed, but it was all in code.
"Langlais, you got any back-door codes for me?"
"Try 'four two omicron rho alpha'." Langlais was standing with his back to the wall on the left of the door, head turned slightly to the entrance. He was clearly keeping his ears open for any approach. Toby tried that.
"Alright, I'm into the system."
"You're not going to spout techno-babble are you?" Cirrus asked irritably. Toby turned his head to her for a moment.
"When it's so much more fun to dumb it down for you technically illiterate mooks?"
"Well before you start asking if anyone has a black hat for you to wear, find Whithers," Langlais muttered. Toby grumbled something about people not 'understanding' and hunched over the keyboard. Sally moved to the opposite side of the door to Langlais, listening as well.
"He's in the mountain." Avenger nodded sharply.
"Alright, let's get moving. Jakey, you hear that?" he asked into his radio. There was a click as Jakey turned his to send.
"Sure did, boss. Want me on point?"
"So long as you don't get it into your head to start a fight."
"Aww … I'll try to keep my head," Jakey said. Avenger hooked his radio back onto his belt and eyed the others.
"Langlais, you're up front with me, Sally, I want you at the back with Cirrus. Toby, you travel in the middle."
"Wouldn't it make more sense for me to stay here? I'm a hacker, I'll be more use with access to a computer." Toby looked up at Avenger, making no move to get to his feet. Avenger considered this, looking at Langlais. The other shrugged, leaving the decision to Avenger. He sighed and looked down at Toby.
"Alright, but Sally stays with you."
"What? I'm staying behind to babysit?" Sally demanded hotly. Avenger snagged her arm and towed her over to the corner, lowering his voice.
"Who else is going to stay? Cirrus is good but you're way more effective in close quarters like a storage facility like this. And do you really trust Langlais to look after him? He's twelve, Sal. He's just a child." Sally thinned her lips at that, but then she nodded.
"You better kick some ******* real hard in the jimmies for me."
"I'll do my best. Look after him, okay?" Avenger smiled encouragingly and Sally waved a hand.
"Yeah yeah. Go save your damsel in distress already. Next time, Jakey babysits." Avenger nodded and rejoined Langlais and Cirrus, Sally sat down next to Toby and waved at them. Avenger motioned outside with his head and hurried out, followed by the Council officer and the Tintagel representative.
Langlais took the lead once they were outside, guiding them through the jungle to the black, imposing mass that was the mountain. He evidently knew every inch of the island, leading them around and past patrol routes and sneaking them right to a back entrance where they found Jakey waiting behind a mound of rocks. In silence, Avenger tried the door, surprised to find it unlocked. He looked at Langlais questioningly, the officer just nodded a little, as if this was normal. With a sense of deep trepidation, he slipped in through the doorway.

O_O that was unexpected ...

I didn't think anyone was reading it ^_^;;

Sure, I guess I'll tag along, if only to get myself some nice new debt. ^_^

As the archon predicted, Toby did return, looking quiet and nobody mentioned the tear-streaks on his face still. Sally got him a cup of tea and he sat down.
"I'm sorry guys. I shouldn't have lost it like that. But I'm nothing like a Nictus and don't you ever compare me to one again." There was still the fire of anger in the boy, but he took a deep breath and nodded his thanks to Sally when she passed him the tea.
"Langlais is, as is getting increasingly frequent, right. The Cosmic Crystals are destroyers. You know the theory, right? That every element in creation has its own unique frequency?" Toby waited for nods all round the table and he looked at the steam of his drink as it coiled lazily past the brim.
"There was a theory that there was a universal frequency. One that united all things in creation. I called it Cosmos, or that's the nearest translation in your language." Jakey's ears pricked as he picked up on the small point.
"You called it Cosmos?"
"Yes. I did." Toby looked at the cat sadly, "it might seem strange to you, who has lived a bare five years on this Earth, that I have existed for thousands. Kheldians are beings of energy. We can be born from others, grow and give life, but we don't truly end. We merely ... transcend." Sally was listening avidly, her eyes filled with interest. Jakey shook his head.
"Ah, don't make it sound so airy fairy, Toby. We might be made out of matter, but we change too. There's nothing more alive than a dead body, y'know. We aren't so different." The cat grinned his cheshire grin and Toby half smiled, seeming strengthened. He sipped his tea.
"Anyway, it is important for you to understand that Starfall is old. Way older than our calendar, y'know?" he said, quiet and looking at the table again. Langlais leaned back in his seat, folding his arms and putting his head down. The others nodded.
"I was pretty bright by Kheldian standards, and curious. Matter life-forms fascinated me and I was always exploring new planets and taking hosts of sentient beings to learn their ways. It's where I learned the knack for not bonding utterly. I just kind of sat in their heads, rode around with them and talked to them for a while and then left, off on my own merry way, taking the information back to the others to share. At the time, there was a movement going on. Some Kheldians thought blending with beings of matter was not right, others thought it was just fine if you both gained something from the blending, and others thought of matter creatures as inferior, treating them like transport. I was young and naive, and didn't pay much heed to the politics when I had all this discovery to get along with. It was on one of my forays into the unknown that I and several others found N'Sham." Toby curled his fingers around the mug. Avenger and the others just watched him as the boy gazed into the steam of his drink.
"The sentient race of N'Sham were so strange to us. They were ... I guess you could say they were intoxicating. Their minds and their bodies sang. I took up residence in one and introduced myself. We became good friends. I felt for the first time that I really wanted to blend with her, mingle our minds together. She had such a sense of humour." The smile on the boy's face was full of longing and regret. The boat's engine thudded quietly in the silence and then he inhaled deeply, looking away.
"I fell in love with N'Sham. It wasn't like Earth, which is all opaque and solid because of the high gravity. Almost everything on N'Sham was crystalline. The trees, the animals, the Ta'Ourishin. Even the water was lighter, and the rain no more than mist. Of course, our happiness was not to last. My regular reports back on the properties of the planet drew attention and ... well ... " Toby pulled on the lobe of his right ear uncomfortably, coughing slightly. Cirrus leaned forward, her arms folded on the table.
"What happened?"
"As I said, the Ta'Ourishin, the sentient race, were intoxicating to us. I mean really so. Something about them sent us on wild highs, I guess you could say. While I was conducting my research, Kheldians were coming to the planet for recreational purposes."
Jakey raised an eyebrow, folding his arms and leaning back against Langlais's chest. He was not inclined to judge people for their recreational habits, but he had trouble stomaching it when it involved other people being the recreation.
"A lot of Kheldians were blending just for the buzz. It had a catastrophic effect on many of the nations of the planet, as families saw their loved ones take up with the 'aliens' and become totally different, acting off their heads. It left them open to extremist governments to take control. Which they did and suddenly there was an arms race and cold wars and generations of hostility and resentment and bloodshed. Ta'Ourishin have a fraction of the lifespan of humans, it was devastating for me to see what our presence was doing to them. It was like civilisation on fast forward and you know you're the reason for how terrible and dark the world is becoming. One of my later hosts was a scientist, and with him I was learning their secret. We wanted to find a way to make the Ta'Ourishin less desirable as hosts. I swear to all the Powers of creation and all the Entities that live in the Spheres, that was our intention." Toby went quiet, and nobody wanted to draw attention to the tears that were streaming down his face and the bitterness that weighed his voice. Sally swallowed.
"Did they make the first crystals?"
"The whole planet was made of them. They were crystalline themselves. The scientist and I knew that everything had a frequency, this was fact. He discovered that if you deprived certain crystals of all sound while they were growing, you could tune them to one specific frequency. We had a theory that after conception, if we could use this information to tune the Ta'Ourishin children to lack the vibration that made them so alluring to us, it would go a long way to healing the torn relations between their nations and allow them to return to peace. I forgot about the governments. My political naiveté made me blind to what was coming," he said, resting his forehead on his hand. He sniffed quietly. Avenger felt horrible for making him go through what was obviously a traumatic memory.
"We told the advisors that we could use the frequencies to repel Kheldians from hosts if they were being a nuisance. Obviously not the blended, but joy-riders could be bounced out. Without our knowledge, the advisors took this information and they discovered, with a few tweaks, the frequency for energy that holds us together." Toby suddenly dropped his head and when he lifted it, his eyes were enshrouded with the glowing vaporous tendrils of a peacebringer. When he spoke, his voice was more melodic, as though a subtle change had affected his larynx.
"I apologise, but I have asked Toby to sleep. These memories are not ones he should have to relay for me. He is still just a child." Avenger nodded.
"I take it you're Starfall himself?"
"Try not to apply gender to me, I don't actually have one, Avenger. And I was always more comfortable in female hosts." Starfall half smiled, then drank more tea. He was silent for a while, then spoke again.
"The Ta'Ourishin massacred those of us who were on the planet. We had always felt a degree of superiority in dealing with them, as we were made of energy and light. But they were brutal and cut us down at all sides, shattering the very matrix of energy that makes us alive. I can't tell you how frightening it was. It wasn't long before the blended were being systematically hunted and slaughtered in their thousands. You have a word for it, I believe. Genocide." Starfall ran his fingers around the mug, silent while this sank in. Sally reached over hesitantly and put her hand on his shoulder. As if some maternal instinct tweaked at her, she gathered him into a hug. Starfall leaned into it with a kind of desperation, looking heart-broken. Jakey cleared his throat, trying to think of a way to phrase it that was not totally insensitive.
"What happened after the ... fighting?" he asked. Starfall sniffed.
"The Ta'Ourishin were now warlike and hostile to their neighbours, as you know. They lashed out in all directions, at other races, at themselves. It was my scientist's grandson who first spoke about the Cosmic Note with me, though I helped him refine the theory. He had never liked me particularly, but I was the family secret and dutifully I was kept so. He theorised that life itself had a frequency, that it was an energy we could perceive but didn't understand how to measure. He resolved to find it. And how he found it. The Ta'Ourishin started to build a bomb, to be fired into space at the asteroid belt were many Kheldians of an exploratory bent assembled to share our knowledge. The Kheldians who would later become the Separatists, the ... Nictus, got wind of the bomb, and they struck first. One suicide operative infiltrated their base, she was as skilled as I at host hopping, and her will was strong enough to turn people to her bidding against their will. She activated the bomb."
Nobody said anything. Sally rested her head on Starfall's and held him just a little bit tighter. The engine thudded and the waves slapped past the hull. Avenger tried to imagine the extent of the damage. Starfall must have known what he was thinking.
"The Cosmos explosion was not like your nuclear warhead. It was bigger. One of your most powerful warheads can scratch the surface of your planet, and it will still turn in oblivious disregard to your doings. N'Sham was blown to smithereens. All the crystals of the planet gave voice to one, single, unknowable note, and then it was gone forever. Nothing but fragments and debris remained. Nothing but the memories of we who had survived. I was hailed as a 'hero'. I had stayed at my post until the very last, always providing information on the 'war'. Had I decided to delay my return to my colleagues to report for just an hour ... just one hour, I too would have died. As I should have," he said, his voice dropping to a whisper. Avenger swallowed. He knew that feeling, better than he wanted to. Survivor guilt, they called it in professional circles.
"And that's what this Nadir dude is after?" Jakey asked. Langlais finally nodded.
"Let us consider it his fee for what he really wants. Though he himself would have presented it the other way around," he said. Avenger looked at him.
"What?"
"Nadir wants the Resonator. He wants Whithers," he said. Avenger did not like the sound of that.
"For what?" He gripped the edges of the table, there was a faint groan of wood being compressed. Langlais's smile was a bit grim.
"For whatever he can think of. He thinks of himself as an exotic pet owner. The more exotic, the more unique the creature, the more desperately he wants it. And to him, humans are just another interesting animal."
"News flash, I already knew that, sans the interesting part." Jakey snorted, looking black. Langlais ignored him.
"While he's human, Whithers has characteristics of an extinct race. He is the spiritual child of N'Sham, and Nadir would do anything to keep control of him." Langlais looked like he was holding something back, but Avenger was too angry to think about what it might be. The table splintered under his hands.

"God, that man is impossible!" Sally ranted as they sat around the campfire in the lee of the mini. Jakey looked black, forced to agree with Sally. Archon Langlais had been evasive and resistant to all their questions except to assure them that Muse was fine and indeed, healthier than when he'd left them. Cirrus leaned back on her hands, looking irritable.
"We ain't any closer to finding Matt than we were a week ago. We're gonna have to get rough with him. Make him tell us what we want to know," she said fiercely. Jakey pulled a face.
"That wouldn't make us any better than the Council. We can't go around forcing information out of people under duress. It's not how we do things. Come on guys, I know this is a hard situation, but we can't forget what makes us the 'good guys'. We got here by wanting to protect the values of honour and honesty and kindness. I don't want to hear another word about forcing a confession!" He folded his arms and his tail flicked from side to side.
"I am quite lucky to have been captured by you then, aren't I?" Langlais said, his hands in his pockets. Sally, Cirrus and Jakey all stood up suddenly, in positions of combat readiness. Langlais arched an eyebrow.
"What are you doing up?!" Sally demanded.
"I let him up. He gave me his word he wouldn't try to escape," Avenger said, from just behind the large officer. Langlais walked over to the fire and sat down by it. Sally looked ready to kill, she glared at Avenger tightly.
"You expect us to take him on his word?! Have you lost your mind?!" she demanded. Jakey looked at Avenger aswell. Avenger looked tired, weary to his bones.
"Miss Storm, if I tried to escape now, with four heroes and a peacebringer at my back, I would not get very far. We are at an impasse," Langlais said. Jakey made a deep growl in his throat, tail flicking. Then Langlais looked at him and he was struck by a feeling he'd not felt since he'd been tiny, the first time he'd been given catnip. Absolute wonder filled him and in moments, he'd draped himself over Langlais's lap, purring intensely. Nobody else said a word, an identical stunned expression united old enemies for a full minute.
"Er ... J, get off the archon," Sally said, breaking the silence. Jakey's only reaction was to flick his tail slightly, purring loudly, head resting on Langlais's knee. Langlais had both hands up like he didn't know where to put them.
"Can you ... get him off me?" he asked, sweating slightly, looking disconcerted. Avenger was interested to note that it was the first time he'd seen the man look like he wasn't in control of the situation. It was that, and that alone, that made him sit down next to the fire.
"No. I think you can be left to deal with the joys of an affectionate cat by yourself. You were saying about an impasse?" he asked politely, enjoying every second of Langlais's lost control. The officer shot him a black look, still unready to actually touch the cat man to prise him off.
"Quite simply, you can't let me go and I can't divulge information to you."
"Not so much of an impasse as you might think. This is Toby Starfall, he's been hacking Council databases all day." Avenger nodded to where Toby was sitting cross-legged, tapping away at his laptop. The boy just lifted his hand in a half wave, not even looking up from his work. Langlais snorted.
"He won't get through my firewalls and anti hacking programs." He looked confident, as confident as a man could with four-foot of purring cat in his lap, his knee being drooled on slightly. Toby grinned, his face lit by the plasma glow of his screen.
"Yours, no. I agree. But that doesn't stop me from cracking the rest of the Council to buggery." Cirrus glared at Jakey, like he'd betrayed her personally, sitting down to eat a sandwich. Sally walked away from the fire. She couldn't believe the nerve of the man, sitting there like he'd done nothing wrong. She wrapped her arms around herself. Back when the Council had gone by the name of the Fifth Column, her father had run afoul of some of them in a back alley. She'd been just a child at the time, she'd run in terror and those monsters had murdered him. She couldn't believe Jakey was curled up in the man's lap, like some kind of indulged pet. She was so angry, she could break his legs for this personal insult.
Hunger forced her to return some time later, the smell of the beef stew being heated in a tin pot reminding her how long it'd been since she'd eaten properly. Avenger and Langlais were talking, the latter still had Jakey on his lap, the cat looked like he was dozing contentedly. Oh he was due a beating for this.
"If you help us, I'll put a good word in for you with the Justice Department," Avenger knew that threats were wasted breath on this man. Langlais had no fear of him.
"Midnight Avenger, you don't understand. There is nothing you can offer me that will convince me to give you the answers you seek," he said. Sally saw red, marching over and grabbing his neck, forcing him to meet her eyes.
"How about your life?! That worth anything to you?!" she spat angrily. Langlais scowled at her.
"A stupid question to ask, madamoiselle. Of course it is, but equally, I have nothing beyond the Council to live for. So what would you be sparing my life for me to do, exactly, but return to that as a traitor?!"
They never got a chance to find out what Sally's response to that was, as Toby's shout interrupted them and woke Jakey.
"I've got something!"
"What?!" The heroes and the archon all said simultaneously. Toby looked at them.
"A piece of hardware called a 'crystal tuner' was shipped to the south pacific yesterday. It might be some kind of machine to make cosmic crystals, it's a lead at the very least!" he looked triumphant. Avenger nodded sharply. It was a chance, but a chance he was willing to take.
"Cirrus, call Tintagel, tell Jester we're going to need a drop to the South Pacific."
"I'll call Horus Force actually, since they're closer." Cirrus was already up and clambering into the front seat of the mini to pick up her radio. Sally let go of Langlais to join her.
"Who?"
"Horus Force, they're the Cairo superleague. Their leader owes me and Class a favour." Avenger watched them, looked to Langlais to say something along the lines of 'I told you so', when he saw the other man's expression. Langlais looked at him, visibly concerned.
"Take me with you, please."
"I beg your pardon?" Avenger frowned. This sudden change of tack didn't sit well with him. Just when he thought he had the archon sussed, he changed again. The man looked beseeching.
"Please, if the tuner has been sent to my base, then its creator has gone with it. Please, I beg of you, take me with you. I can help. I will help. I give you my word that I will fight alongside you." Langlais sounded desperate. Avenger scowled tightly.
"Why the sudden change of heart?"
"Because I know what Archon Nadir is like. He is a monster, monsieur. A monster."

Horus Force kindly gave the heroes and Langlais a drop into South Korea, where Toby knew some people who would be able to give them a boat to get them out into the Pacific. The Egyptians apologised profusely to Avenger at being unable to take them all the way, which he waved away. They had already done enough and he told them that they had his deep gratitude.
"It is no problem, Midnight Avenger. If the situation is as you say, then this is of international concern," Asp said, standing on the tarmac with him, her black hair bobbed short against her chin. Avenger nodded, waiting for Toby, Jakey and Sally to get back.
"I hope that it all goes well. With Langlais's help, we should get into the base without too much fuss." He was leaning against the wheels of the Horus jet, hands in his pockets. Asp looked at where the Council officer was standing, being watched zealously by Sally Storm and her two strongest heroes.
"I have never dealt with this 'Council', but I would not trust an enemy so blithely," she said. Avenger shook his head, looking over at the frenchman as he drank some orange juice from a carton.
"I wouldn't either, not usually. This guy ... he's different somehow. I know he's my enemy, but I think he's an enemy I can trust," he said, looking back at Asp as if to ask if that made sense. It must have, as she folded her slim arms, the tight-fitting scaled material creaking slightly.
"Why does he help you, I think is an important question to ask."
"He says it is because the man who's taken over his facility is a monster. Given that comes from a Council officer, that says a hell of a lot."
"Does it?" Asp didn't know the Council's reputation, or if she'd heard it, dismissed it as the usual exaggerations and hero bragging. Avenger nodded.
"It does." She would have to be content with that, as Toby returned with a small group of people, two of them were clearly peacebringers. Their eyes, enmeshed with glowing light, said as much. Avenger pushed himself straight to receive them.
"I am the Midnight Avenger." He held out his hand to shake, and one of the men, wearing a sharp blue suit, appeared to translate his words into Korean for the party. One nodded and shook his hand, speaking urgently with a sparse smile. Avenger listened to the translator with half an ear, keeping his eyes on the real speaker, as was polite.
"We were surprised to receive a message from our English friend, Starfall, but he has told us that this has bearing on Cosmos. We also received a call from Sunstorm from your base city of Paragon. We are of course pleased and anxious to offer any assistance you need."
"I thank you for your offer. Has Starfall told you we need a ship. According to intel, we will not be able to approach the island by air."
"There is one being prepped as we speak, your short comrades have gone ahead to oversee it. There are supplies on board, it is frequently hired by our heroes." The Korean peacebringer indicated off in a direction away from the plane when he spoke. Avenger nodded.
"Thank you, for all your assistance."
"Midnight Avenger, if you need back up, send out a distress call, and we will answer. We invite the Egyptian delegation to remain here on stand by with us." The translator did not appear to know Egyptian, but told Asp in English. She nodded.
"Horus Force accepts the offer. I'm sure the Americans can handle it though." She gave Avenger a half smile that showed off her fangs and he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He shook the final hands and waved to Langlais and Sally.
"We're off to the harbour! Fall in!"
Sally glared at Langlais as he scrunched up the juice carton and carried it until they passed a bin, then watched as he chucked it in. How dare he be so conscientious about his litter.
"You are a very diplomatic man when you want to be, Avenger," he said. Avenger kept walking ahead, being shown to a car supplied by one of the Koreans.
"What with you and Toby breathing down my neck about it on the flight over here, can't see how I wouldn't be." They crammed into the backseat, Toby in the front seat and Langlais in the middle. He looked far too big and crowded both the heroes without even moving.
"There is an English saying, that 'manners cost nothing'." Langlais looked impassively ahead. Avenger looked out of the window until they reached the harbour. The boat the Koreans intended for them to use was a beautiful yacht. Avenger was starting to feel very envious of countries with a smaller hero to civilian ratio, they seemed to get some great stuff to compensate. Jakey met them on the dockside and spoke to the driver in rapid Korean. Sally eyed the cat speculatively, wondering why he knew French and Korean. They seemed a pretty random combination of languages to learn, even if you were Jakey and where therefore random by nature.
"We're just about ready to leave, Avenger, sir!" Cirrus yelled down from the deck. Avenger nodded and nodded his thanks to the driver, walking up the gangplank to the boat. The others followed without much fuss over than Toby making sure he had all the equipment he needed, running back and forth down the gangplank to find little bits that had fallen out of his pockets. Soon, some two hours later, they were leaving the harbour into open waters and the boat picked up its speed.
Avenger gave off looking over the shoulder of the skipper and descended into the forward cabin where the others waited for him. He surveyed his team. Sally and Jakey he knew well and could trust through thick and thin. Cirrus had proved herself valuable both in battle and out of it, but that left Toby and Langlais. The former was a brilliant hacker, no doubt about it, but he was still twelve years old with a lot of life to live. The latter was his enemy and had abducted his lover for his nefarious schemes. All five of them looked back at him. Then Jakey pushed the pizza box off the table and climbed into Langlais's lap to give Avenger room to sit down. Langlais didn't look pleased by this development and Sally looked ready to murder again. Avenger sat down hurriedly.
"Okay, we're going to need a plan of action." He grabbed a sheet of paper and a marker, handing the marker over to Langlais and then helping himself to a slice of pizza. Langlais pushed Jakey's head out of the way as he leaned down to start drawing a diagram of the island.
"This is not going to be an easy operation. Fort Stargazer has never been taken. Mind you, this may be because nobody's actually tried yet."
"Fort Stargazer?" Sally looked sceptical. Both Langlais and Toby nodded.
"It used to be an observatory, the name is quite self-evident," Langlais said, carrying on like she hadn't interrupted. "There is a breakwater half a mile out from the beach to protect the shore from rough seas. Imbedded at sections along the reef are submerged turrets that are activated by engine noise. Unless an in-date code is transmitted within fifteen seconds of activation, they will open fire. Now, to get past these, we are going to swim-"
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Cirrus put her hands up, "swim?! I can't swim!" The others looked at her. Langlais rolled his eyes.
"Then cling to my back and I'll tow you. Similarly, Starfall, you have puny arms, you had better hold onto Avenger. Storm, K, can you two swim strongly for half a mile?" Langlais looked at them sharply. Sally bristled, but Jakey nodded.
"We'll make it."
"Good. After we make landfall and if we avoid the poisonous marine life, we are going to head for this cove." Langlais drew an arrow from their doodled 'boat' to a curve on the island perimeter. Cirrus, looking unsettled at the thought of swimming, looked at it.
"Why there?"
"Because there is an incinerator for old transmitter equipment there. Starfall's equipment is not water-proof, and we will find something there that will let him hack into the mainframe of the base computer system. From there, we can take a short-cut through the jungle, depending on where Starfall's intel places Whithers. He will in one of three locations most probably. Here, at chez moi, in the lab or in the infirmary." Langlais pointed to three locations on his diagram, drawing in a little house, a microscope and a cross in a circle. Jakey frowned.
"How many men are we looking at there being?" Langlais hesitated.
"When I left, there were fifty human troops, six war wolves, three galaxy and a mechman. Nadir may ignore standard procedure and bring none of his own troops, but I doubt it. He is known for getting through men fast so will undoubtedly bulk up the forces with some imports. This, however, can be made to work for us." The heroes all looked at him, and Langlais looked back impassively.
"How so?" Avenger prompted, so far he could see nothing overtly wrong with Langlais's plan. It was good, sound tactics. Nothing fancy to get snarled up in, but not too simple to get them killed.
"Soldiers often do not like it when new guys come onto the base, as it upsets their routines and the established behaviour patterns. There is no skill at all in turning that resentment into anger and then into combat. A child could do it. The hard part of all this is going to be avoiding detection. The systems I had in place can be avoided, but Nadir is likely to have augmented them." Langlais started drawing 'x's with dotted cones coming from them all over the island. Toby sat up.
"This is where I come in, isn't it? If I can hack the mainframe, I can see what's changed on the island." Langlais nodded. Avenger leaned forward and laced his fingers in front of his chin as he regarded the map taking shape before him.
"The chances of us getting surrounded are high. What sort of weapons are we looking at?"
"Rail guns and sonic dischargers for the most part. Nadir is a fully bonded Nictus, and I have seen him transcend human form on several occasions. But believe me, that is the least of what lies ahead." Langlais looked troubled. Sally folded her arms. The prospect of taking on a Nictus on an island with fifty plus troops and a fully automated defence grid was enough to be getting along with for the meantime without doomsayers over-dramatising things. Cirrus frowned at Langlais.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean Cosmos itself," said the Archon. Toby frowned.
"Care to elaborate? I know the British military's designs on the crystals, what was the Council after?"
"The original premise was to use a machine to tune the crystals into Cosmic Crystals."
"Aren't they all cosmic? That's what Jester suggested ..." Sally watched Langlais's face closely. He shook his head.
"Not all the crystals are cosmic. Do you still have that one that hung around my neck?" He turned to Avenger. Avenger nodded and took it out of his pocket, putting it on the table. Langlais scooped it up by its chain and put the marker lid on the table close to it.
"This is a fragment of the Repulsor crystal I had Whithers tune. Watch very carefully." Langlais swung the crystal and when it neared the marker cap, there was a tiny sound and the cap suddenly hurtled across the cabin and bounced off the wall. The heroes looked at the crystal, "it reacts to kinetic force, which is why you can put it down if you're slow enough."
"Wait, so this thing bounces fast things off?" Sally pointed at the crystal as it swung innocently from the chain. Langlais nodded.
"Against people like you and K, a shield that turns kinetic force against you is invaluable. Not so good for slow things like knives, but heroes aren't noted for being particularly slow at anything they do. The plane I flew, the Stargazer glider, it is also powered by a crystal. That one was tuned to flight and is extremely agile. It could outfly anything currently airborne. I had ideas for a regenerator crystal and a camouflage crystal. Naturally nobody else considered these aspects worth considering until someone mentioned 'high-yield' and 'warhead' in the same sentence." Langlais looked bitter and wrapped the crystal up in its chain, regarding it with an almost soulful expression. Avenger watched him.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that the Cosmic Crystals are good for only one thing. Total annihilation. But you know that already, don't you, Starfall." Langlais flicked his inky green eyes up to Toby's and the boy regarded him calmly.
"I don't know what you mean."
"You lie well, save for you use a child's face and he is not very good at it." There was a contest of wills going on, Avenger, Jakey, Sally and Cirrus stared from the huge frenchmen to the slight english boy. After a while, Toby dropped his eyes.
"You can't know what you're talking about, Langlais. Shut up." He sounded quiet, his voice riddled with complex emotions. Langlais snorted, looking at the heroes one after the other.
"The reason the original Cosmos project was called off was at the insistence of Isobel Starfall. The third host that Starfall bonded with. He, somewhat like a Nictus, was preserving his life by taking new hosts all with the same bloodline."
Toby's eyes flashed brilliant blue white for a moment and he surged up.
"You overstep your mark, Langlais! Don't you EVER compare me to one of those brutes! I am a Starfall! I am a member of this family and I guard each new generation and let our collective wisdom live on!" he screamed, flushed red in the face with anger. Cirrus jumped up and put her hands on his shoulders. Langlais steepled his fingers.
"Isobel Starfall visited Jonathan Whithers the night before he sent a letter to the British government, advising them that they had reached the limits of what Cosmos could teach them. What did you talk about with him, that night, Starfall? Perhaps something to do with the secret shame that drove you in especial to descend to Earth and merge yourself into the family that now bares your name?" Toby glared at him a moment more, then tore free of Cirrus's hands and stomped up to the deck. Avenger glared at Langlais.
"What was all that about?"
"It is about why Starfall banished himself here. Wait. He will come back and he will tell you all himself. It is a story worth hearing, both to impress upon you the power Nadir seeks to unleash, and to pass the time. Last thing you need to be doing is stressing about things you cannot control right now." Langlais stroked Jakey's hair gently, making the cat purr without thinking about it. He looked calm. Avenger was starting to wonder if there was anything that worried or phased the officer.

Jakey looked up when Avenger pushed open the flap of the tent, trying to read his expression but for once, Avenger was playing his cards close to his chest.
"Jakey, Toby, I'd like a moment alone with the prisoner. Stick in earshot though, just in case he annoys me enough that I rethink not breaking all his bones," he said. Jakey looked at Toby, who closed the lid of his laptop.
"Would you guys make your minds up? I lose my signal every time you make me move," the boy grumbled, going out. Jakey left silently and Avenger glared at the Council officer, who looked back.
"It appears I owe you an apology, Midnight Avenger. Had I not let my anger cloud my judgement, I would have sought confirmation over the real villain's identity and we would have been spared this little scene," said Langlais. Avenger was surprised to receive an apology, but he was not about to let it show.
"Where's Muse?" Avenger demanded. Langlais snorted.
"Don't think that just because I made a mistake that I am going to help you. Matthew has been perfectly safe in my care. Gets a lot more exercise than he used to." An unwelcome mental image spawned in Avenger's mind at his words. No, that was insane, Muse wouldn't cheat on him with some Council soldier. It was absolutely ridiculous. Then he remembered some mention of a drug the Council used to extract their victims from crowded places with no fuss. He bristled again.
"Don't play mind games with me, Langlais. They just annoy me," he snapped. Langlais gave him a slightly bored look.
"Well what am I to do with my time then?"
"Tell me where Muse is!"
"What time is it?" Langlais looked to the side. Avenger frowned and checked his watch.
"Six."
"In that case, he will be out, walking the dog."
Avenger managed to somehow not hit the man, but for the interests of keeping him in one piece so they could finally get some information from him, he left. It was hard to think of it as not retreating. After getting himself a drink of water, he returned to the tent and pulled up a folding chair opposite the uncomfortable looking camp-bed that Langlais was forced to squat on. He glared at the man for a few moments, committing everything of him to memory.
"Something's been bugging me about you," he said finally. Langlais just looked at him and Avenger drank some of the water in his bottle.
"I was under the impression that you were smart. It's what Toby seemed to suggest anyway. But you came to hunt me down for crimes I sure as hell didn't commit. That doesn't sound too smart to me," he said. Frequently, Avenger's insensitivity had been commented on, but he wasn't stupid. He didn't think Langlais was either. The Frenchman snorted and looked at the thick canvas wall.
"Anger makes fools of us all. But you know about anger, don't you, Avenger? You are strong, far stronger than those who surround you daily. Anger can run away with a man's head and his fists." The way he said it made Avenger wince internally, the soft, accented voice bringing up memories he didn't want to remember. He'd lashed out in anger once, unaware of the limits of his strength. The results had been horrific and still burned at his conscience.
"You do your homework," he forced himself to grunt. Langlais looked back at him.
"As you do yours. I believe it was Sun Tsu who said 'if you know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles'." Avenger folded his arms, leaning back. Everyone knew that quote, it was one of the most over-used in the world.
"Oh really. Well, 'a clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him'." Langlais's response was to smile, a gesture that put Avenger strongly in mind of a wolf.
"'To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme excellence'. You have also read the Articles of War, I assume?" he asked. Avenger was slightly surprised that Langlais had also read it and wasn't just using much publicised quotes to make himself sound more impressive. After more questions that Langlais evaded skilfully, Avenger got up and walked out, surprised to find that night had fallen. He regarded the empty bottle in his hand, listening as Cirrus took Langlais some of their supplies. Something had struck him during what he was now thinking of as the 'interview' rather than the 'interrogation'. He'd fought Council before, and the word that came to mind was often 'drone', or 'fascist'. But when talking to Langlais, a different word came to mind, and it concerned him. Langlais was charismatic.

Muse lay awake in his bed, waiting for his alarm to sound. Nadir's presence in the house had him so on edge that he hadn't slept a wink. He didn't have to worry about Bouncer anymore, he'd taken him to Watson the evening before. The war wolf had been at first affronted by Muse's request to take care of the dog, but with some cajoling and promises he'd relented and taken the dog under his wing. At least that was one thing he didn't have to worry about. Muse curled up against his pillow, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up stiff. He could hear the fingernail to blackboard squeal of Nadir's existence. It put his teeth on edge. He rolled over to get a more comfortable position and froze rigid.
There was a figure standing by the door, he couldn't see a face in the darkness but knew the eyes were on him.
"Oh don't mind me. I find watching you lie awake and fear for your life very soothing." Nadir's voice seemed to ooze from the darkness. Muse wished he'd gone to bed with clothes on, but with Nadir welding the balcony doors shut, the rooms was so stuffy he'd been to hot. He grabbed the thin sheets and pulled them up to cover him, tempted to throw them over his head as he had in childhood. Covers had magical protection woven into them, nothing could harm you under the covers. He stared at Nadir, who might have been looking back it was hard to tell.
The Archon didn't leave until well after dawn, which disturbed Muse all the more. What kind of insane man stood there and watched you all night? Once Nadir was gone, Muse ran to his bathroom to throw up from sheer dread. He washed out his mouth and paused, looking at his hand. It was shaking violently. He didn't blame it. He got dressed and headed downstairs, relieved to find the door unlocked. He'd almost expected it to be locked and electrified to keep him from touching it. The sea air outside felt cleaner, as though Nadir's presence had sickened the house.
Muse skipped the run for the first time since he'd arrived on the island, going straight to the exercise field. As he drew near, he heard some commotion and broke into a run. On the field, all the island's men were present, he rushed up to the large gathering, slipping his way past people until he found Topolous in the crowd.
"Emman, what's happening?" he hissed. Topolous looked at him worriedly.
"The new officer's angry or something. Says the discipline of the men isn't up to scratch …" he said. Muse focused a little and hovered, rising high enough to see over the taller men. Ahead, in a cleared space, he could see Nadir. The Archon looked around.
"You call this an appropriate formation. I want a loose horseshoe now."
There was a little mutter in the crowd, but the men fanned out into a horseshoe around the Archon. Muse stood between Topolous and a thin faced man with scars around his neck. Nadir paced along the curved line, not quite looking at anyone. After a full circuit, he returned to the middle.
"Malone, Baxter and Kerridge. Front and centre." Nadir stabbed at the ground with his finger. The three named soldiers assembled before him smartly.
"Turn around. Face the others." They did so and Nadir started his circuit again.
"You are probably all wondering why Malone, Baxter and Kerridge are standing there now? The answer is simple. Their mode of dress is not in keeping with Council regulations. Uniformity breeds discipline. These men are undisciplined," he said, hands laced behind his back. Muse wanted to shrink behind Topolous.
"Sir, Archon Langlais permits us to-" Malone started to say. The gunshot cut him off. A ripple of shock ran through the men as Malone fell to his knees and then slumped face down, a hole through his head. Muse went deathly white. The atmosphere of stunned horror was broken by the second gunshot and Baxter hit the ground. Nadir pulled back the hammer of his old-fashioned six-shooter for the third time and pointed the muzzle at the back of Kerridge's head. There was no time, the man himself was frozen with terror, knowing he was about to die.
Muse barely heard the wordless yell leave his lips, but the wave of near-solid sound hit Kerridge, sending him carting to the side ungracefully. The bullet passed harmlessly through empty air and Nadir pointed his gun at Muse instantly. Every man went to grab a weapon, despite the fact they were unarmed for training. Nadir noticed all the hands suddenly grabbed to where weapons usually resided and he arched an eyebrow, his gun still pointed at Muse.
"Kerridge, you have burial detail as your punishment. And as for you, interfering with a superior officer's disciplinary hearing is a serious offence." Nadir strode over to Muse, and not one single man dared mention that Muse wasn't Council, so Nadir had no power of authority over him. Muse shook as he looked up at Nadir, in both fear and anger. How dare he call the cold blooded murder of two men a 'disciplinary hearing'? Kerridge was still sprawled on the ground, looking white as a sheet. Nadir rolled his eyes skyward.
"Did you not hear me, Kerridge? Go bury the trash. Or set fire to them, if that's your thing. Oh … but before you do … " Nadir looked at Muse again, eying the medic band on his arm. He turned and reached his hand out to the bodies. The soldiers all drew back in fear when Malone's body surged, being pulled up as if by strings, flailing in a grotesque parody of life. A coil of black and purple energy emerged from his chest and the body dropped with a thud, head lolling. The same thing happened to Baxter's body and one soldier lifted his hand to his mouth. Nadir flicked his fingers and the two clouds of energy coiled around him like kittens.
"Dispose of them." Nadir turned back to Muse, watching him as if seeking a reaction for what he'd just done. Muse wanted to be sick, it must have shown, as Nadir smiled.
"I'm going to have to be inventive with you, aren't I? Can't kill the precious little Resonator." He reached out and stroked Muse's face again. Watson growled ominously, and didn't even flinch when Nadir glared at him. However, the war wolf said nothing, leaving his growl to say it all for him. Nadir pushed his hand into Muse's chest, propelling him backwards a few steps.
"Return to the house, you are to remain there until I say otherwise." Muse swallowed, but he had no wish to see another soldier shot through the head. Nadir might not be able to kill him, but he'd noticed Muse's reaction to how he dealt with the men. The musician was in no doubt that Nadir would use that against him until it was just the two of them standing in a lake of blood on an island of bodies.
Tears ran down Muse's cheeks as he walked numbly back to the house. Nadir was a monster, an outright monster. He wanted Langlais back, desperately.

"Whithers, oh sweet little Whithers, come out come out wherever you are." Nadir's voice slid along the walls of the house below. Muse crawled out from under his bed, realising with a start that it would be the first place Nadir looked for him. He peeped out into the hallway but Nadir was still downstairs. He slipped barefoot down the hall to Langlais's room and hid under his bed instead. There was more clutter, file boxes and several pairs of boots and some bad weather waterproofs that smelt of wax and brine. Muse pulled them over his head and covered himself up, ignoring the heat.
"Come now, let's not be childish. Face up to your punishment like a man," Nadir said, ascending the stairs. Muse heard him go into his room.
"You know, hiding is just going to prolong the inevitable. Now … where would you go to feel safe? Hmm, maybe to a lover's arms?" Muse was alarmed when he heard Nadir's boots clip against the floor of Langlais's room. He wasn't quite sure what to make of the comment about lovers.
"I don't blame you, you have good taste. Dear, dear Phillippe has such a darkness for a human … I helped cultivate it you know. Not that the ungrateful wretch has ever acknowledged my assistance." Nadir sounded bitter suddenly. Muse wondered if he was just talking to himself.
"He was so young and fresh and naïve when he came to us. Barely spoke English. Barely spoke at all, to be honest, with that stupid little crow he treated like a baby. Chewed its food up and everything. Oh that was an obnoxious bird. I wrung its neck first opportunity I got," Nadir chuckled, making Muse feel nauseous. Under the water-proofs, it was sweltering hot.
"Little Phillippe was most angry about his pet. Made him all the more spirited if you know what I mean." Nadir paused to think about this, "Oh, I suppose you don't really, what with being a wet blanket. I doubt you have the balls to take something you desire when you see it. See, that's the difference between us, and why I will win this little contest in the end. I broke free of my limits long ago. You have only a few options to choose from, hampered and penned by your morals and your ethics. I have all the options. Every single one."
Muse heard the wardrobe door open and close. He heard things being moved around close to him, then finally he heard Nadir's footsteps leave the room, still talking to himself. He poked his head out from under the water-proofs and took a breath of cooler air. He sighed and laid his head down on the floor. He couldn't hide from Nadir indefinitely, but perhaps he could pull it off long enough for Langlais to return. He'd hidden himself once before, taking refuge in a war torn Paragon City, surviving in bomb shelters while the heroes above fought for their lives. There was no such option here. He was the hero now, but he was no less terrified. It was funny really, he thought as he dragged himself out from under the bed. He'd always thought that the heroes didn't know fear. He'd hoped that by becoming one, he could learn what courage was, but when it came down to it, he was still hiding and still running. He truly was a coward of the greatest magnitude.
He managed to evade Nadir until he reached the mountain lab, where he was horrified to find his crystals gone. Langlais's equipment and computers had all been moved out to make way for a large white machine. Though he'd only seen them on the movies, Muse thought it might be a cat-scan machine. He put a hand to the closed round hatch that would admit a human body for scanning. The presence of the machine filled him with a kind of dread. It made the lab Nadir's, not Langlais's. Muse backed away from it, then frowned. Dimly he could hear the discord of Nadir's approach. There was only one way into the lab, if he tried to leave now, Nadir would find him for sure. He looked around, the only other door to the lab was the airlock to the sound-proofed room. He slipped in, but was surprised to find all the previous equipment stacked up in the little room, forcing him to remain in the 'airlock'. He kept the door ajar, as it had been when he entered and crouched low. The lab door opened and Nadir entered, he was almost stomping.
"Blasted creature. Flog the skin off his back when I find him, the wretch!" he muttered moving to the slim computer on the side and turning it on, sitting down in the seat with a heavy squeak.
"Langlais's men are insubordinate dogs, his pet project is yielding toys, yet still Requiem indulges and rewards him. Her ladyship was right to send me. Right to indeed! Where have you gone, little Phillippe? So rude of you to be absent when I've come all this way to see you. Will you come running if I make you pet hero scream? Hmm ... I wonder. I wonder indeed." Nadir was quiet for a moment, then yelled loudly and there was a clatter as his chair fell over.
"Why do you all conspire against me?! WHY?! WHY DO YOU NOT SEE THAT THIS PROJECT IS MINE! IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN MINE!" Muse shrank as far into the corner as he could, listening to Nadir smash the walls with his chair.
"CURSE YOU, PHILLIPPE, YOU PETTY LITTLE [censored]! I'LL MAKE YOU SCREAM FOR MERCY FOR TAKING THIS FROM ME YOU SNOT-NOSED WRETCHED BRAT!"
Muse flinched when the chair banged against the door, closing it a little. Nadir flung his chair across the room then slammed his hands into the desk either side of his computer, panting for breath.
"Cosmos is mine. The crystals are mine. The crystal tuner is mine. It's mine. It's mine, mine, mine! The Resonator will be mine too soon. You'll see, Langlais. There's nothing you possess that I can't take away." Muse had his hands over his mouth, trying to keep his increasingly fearful breaths muted behind them. Nadir paused, turning his head slightly. Muse's heart nearly stopped when the man's boots approached his hiding place. For long, aching seconds, Nadir just looked at the door between them.
"I can hear you breathing, Whithers." A smile spread across his face as he opened the door. Muse flattened himself into the corner, staring at him with wide, terrified eyes. Nadir reached in to grab his shirt and Muse reacted on a purely primal level, biting his fingers hard. Nadir yelled and pulled back, leaving the way clear for just a moment. Muse threw himself at it, whooshing past Nadir to the main door of the lab. He grabbed the handle just as the light beside it flicked from green to red and there was a click. Nadir nursed his hand as Muse rattled the handle, trying to pull the door open by brute force.
"That was uncalled for," he was still smiling though, and walked towards Muse, who skittered away when he came to close, circling the walls with heart pounding. The archon folded his arms, watching him.
"You've been very troublesome today, Whithers."
"Stay away from me you freak!" Muse put as much force into his words as he could, sonic waves washing through the air and thudding into Nadir. It make him wobble a little, but then he just smiled and walked over, taking Muse by the arm.
"There's a surprising amount of fight in you. Perhaps you just need the right coaxing to really bring out that spirit." Nadir looked thoughtful. Muse fought the urge to wet himself again.
"Drop dead."
"Unlikely to happen. It's fortuitous to find you here, Whithers, as I have just come up with a delicious idea for your punishment." Nadir turned them both so they were looking at the white cat-scan machine, he put his mouth close to Muse's ear, "do you know what that is?"
Muse shook his head, wanting to scream for his mother.
"It's my own design. I call it the crystal tuner. Of course, the sonic waves it produces are no match to yours, and the crystals created have been subpar. This is why a new element has been added." He reached out and pressed a series of keys on the computer. The round hatch hissed open and a tray large enough for a human to lie on slid out, leather shackles all over it. Nadir leaned his head against Muse's with a contented sigh.
"You value life, as a medic, don't you?" he asked. Muse stared at the tray with a fixed expression. He could only nod dumbly. Nadir grinned and turned them so he could indicate another part of the machine. When the hatch had opened, another part of the machine had slid back to reveal a free-floating orb caught it what must have been some kind of energy field. A blue white light glittered in the orb and Nadir's grin intensified.
"Arakhn herself provided me with this sample to test you on. We're going to find out, Matthew Whithers, what frequency will kill a Kheldian." With that, he slammed Muse onto the tray and fought his arms and legs into the restraints. Muse screamed and struggled with all his might, biting fiercely on any part of Nadir that came too close to his mouth. Ultimately, he was restrained, wedged down to the tray with the straps cutting into his skin in some places, they'd been pulled so tight. Nadir inspected his forearm where blood glistened on the skin. He smiled at Muse again.
"Oh, and when you have shown us how to destroy energy itself, you will sing the cosmic note for me, the note that destroys all things. And then, when we have collected that and tuned the crystals, Arakhn has promised that I may keep you for whatever purposes I choose. Just an FYI." He tapped a few keys and the tray slid into the round tunnel of the machine and there was a hiss as the hatch shut behind him, plunging him into total darkness. Muse had passed beyond fear, he could feel hysteria setting in, unhooking his body from his reason bit by bit. He wouldn't make a sound, not even a whimper. Not for Nadir.
For what seemed an age, there was nothing, just blackness and silence, then above him and around him, the tube flickered on. It glowed a kind of orangey red, then the pain spiked through him. Muse arched against the straps, jamming his teeth together. He wouldn't scream. He wouldn't.

apologies in advance for the '[censored] dramallama'

"What do you mean, something 'dead weird' is coming? Can't you be even a tiny bit more specific?" Sally asked as Jakey scanned the rocky desert hills for good cover. The black mini might have been covered with enough dust to make it grey, but that didn't constitute camouflage. Jakey looked stressed, his tail tip flicking from side to side.
"If I knew what it was, I'd just come out and say it, wouldn't I?!" In his sensitive ears, the distant, melodic shimmering noise was getting closer. Avenger was looking ahead, then pointed to an overhang several hundred yards away.
"Think we can stop the car there so we can scout?" he asked. As if to answer his query, something black shot overhead, trailing the shimmering singing a few seconds later. Jakey swore and swerved the car on reflex, his ears going back. The hills had blocked most of it, and bounced the sound around to confuse the direction, but there it was. The thing itself.
Sally leaned out of the window.
"It's some kind of plane. And … er … it's coming right back at us guys."
"Wow, I hadn't noticed the plane turning and HEADING STRAIGHT FOR ME!" Jakey snarled, slamming the mini up a gear and stamping down in the accelerator. Avenger slammed back into Toby's arm as the car shot towards the plane that was sliding over the road as much as possible.
"Don't play chicken with fighters, Jakey!" Toby yelled, fumbling for his seatbelt again. Jakey bared his teeth. Seconds later, he slammed on the brakes and yanked up the handbrake, making the tyres scream in protest as the mini span, coming to rest under the over hang. The fighter plane veered a hard right and shot off into the sky. Jakey shook Cirrus to wake her while Sally and Avenger scrambled out onto the road.
"That doesn't sound like any plane I've ever heard," Avenger muttered, glaring at the sleek black vehicle as it strafed right. Sally gaped slightly.
"And doesn't move like one either," she breathed. Moments later, Toby joined them, his cap on backwards so he could get a better view, and then Jakey and Cirrus flanked them. All five of them watched the plane slow to a hover and then land neatly on the road. It was like a plane powered by poetry, moving with an elegance and grace and an outright defiance of conventional aeronautics and physics. The hood popped up and a man pulled himself out.
"Okay, this is an unknown quantity. I go in first. Jakey and Sally, you stick behind me and Cirrus and Toby, you both stay well back." Avenger drew himself up. Jakey nodded, letting the invulnerable man march out from under the overhang. It was okay. Avenger was totally bullet-proof. He was probably bomb proof too.
Avenger advanced, trying to make out details of the man, to assess his threat. He was big, taller than himself and seemed to be wearing non-descript combat fatigues, a white tee-shirt and a bright Hawaiian shirt. He could be anyone. He wished his gut would give him a clear judgement on the man, but so far, it was forthcoming only on the fact that he hadn't eaten for many hours. The man stopped, so Avenger stopped too.
"Are you the one they call Midnight Avenger?" he called. Avenger blinked, even in Siwah he was recognised? That was quite an accomplishment on his part. He nodded.
"I am. And who are you?" he kept his voice level, strong, as if he wasn't worried about the child standing by the car. The other man did not disclose his name, and his near animalistic scream of pure rage surprised Avenger. At first he couldn't credit what his eyes were seeing as the man ran straight at him. Didn't he know he was invulnerable? Didn't he know that charging him was much like charging at a brick wall?
Then the fist cracked across his face. And it hurt. Avenger staggered, mostly in surprise, raising a hand to his face, but he didn't get a chance to rally when the other fist slammed into his solar plexus. It hurt. Both blows hit and both blows hurt. He felt his arm being grabbed and a hand slamming onto the back of his head, gripping it tightly and then a hip slammed up into his groin. He grabbed the man's sides, skidding one foot forward so he couldn't throw him over his hip. They grappled clumsily for a few minutes before Avenger caught sight of the man's chin out of the corner of his eye and rammed his head up into it.
"[censored]!" the man swore, letting him go. The surprise was over, Avenger knew that his opponent was incredibly strong now. There was no need to go gentle on him. He pulled back and put his fists up, then slammed one forward. The big man took it in the middle of the chest and there was a musical sound like punching a piano right before the man flew back off his feet. He scrambled up to see two feet heading for him as Jakey and Sally both hurtled in with their individual war cries.
"DEATH FROM ABOVE!"
"KICK 'EM IN THE JIMMIES!"
Neither martial artist expected the man to throw himself flat onto his back, letting them whoosh overhead. They both landed a few feet past his head and spun around. He was already up and running at Avenger again. Avenger braced, bringing both fists up over his head. Instead of slowing down to turn his kinetic force against the hero, the man slammed his shoulder into Avenger's midriff. There was another chime like a finger running over the rim of a wine glass and the force of his collision sent him flying backwards, the man gripping tightly. Their momentum flipped them over, so the stranger was on the bottom and when they hit the ground, there was the chime again and they bounced up, flipping again and there was a lurch as gravity took a role in the proceedings.
"VENJI!" Jakey yelled as both Avenger and his attacker went over the side of road and dropped down the steep hillside. He raced to the edge and threw himself off, Sally in close pursuit. Ahead they could see the two men bouncing and flipping and spinning down the near sheer drop, still locked together. The cat kept his jumps small, skidding wildly whenever he put his feet down, the dusty ground offering little grip. Ahead, Avenger and the assailant hit the bottom and it was a few long seconds before Jakey and Sally joined them, covered with dust up to their knees. Avenger pushed himself up and wiped thick dust off his face, he kicked the man off his legs and got to his feet.
"Venji, you okay?" Jakey asked worriedly. Avenger nodded, looking down at the man who was lying unconscious. Apparently a fall down the hillside had been a little too much for him and there was a thick trickle of blood from his right temple. Sally heaved the man onto his back.
"Who is this [censored]?" she started going through his pockets for identification while Jakey helped Avenger dust off his hat, clouds of the stuff puffing out with each slap. Neither felt much like talking until Sally coughed.
"Guys … you aren't going to believe this," she said quietly. Avenger and Jakey both looked at her.
"What is it?" Avenger asked. Sally was holding a pair of dogtags in her hand, the chain still around the man's neck. She stared at them, her expression disbelieving.
"It's Langlais …"

Going to Siwah seemed a moot point after the main man they'd been hunting had dropped so precipitously into their lives. In his plane, they'd found some heavy duty Council tents, clearly for reconnaissance purposes. Though Sally had fiercely argued against using Council equipment for anything other than firewood, Toby had demanded they be rational and indulge in some poetic license and use it.
Jakey sat outside of the tent, his legs crossed as he thought about things. Finding Langlais was quite a coincidence. Too much of one for him to believe that a certain head of Tintagel hadn't somehow had a hand in it. Sally emerged from the tent, after checking on their prisoner again, but he was still unconscious.
"Hey J, why the long face?" she sat down next to him and he looked at her.
"Sal, you talked to Jester a lot, right?"
"Yeah," Sally wondered what that had to do with anything, and leaned back on her hands. Jakey reached forward and drew something in the dust with his finger.
"Did he give you anything? Like a keepsake of any sort?" he asked. Sally was quiet. Jester had given her something, a little explanation for how he knew her. Of its own accord, her hand reached up to the locket that was now around her neck. Jakey noticed the motion and looked at her expectantly. Sally sighed.
"He gave me this locket. It's got a photo of his daughter in it. See … he recognised me." She felt a bit awkward discussing this, as somehow, Jester's gift had been an intensely personal thing. She missed her own father still, very much, and Jester missed his estranged daughter. Neither she nor he had entertained any thoughts that they'd found something missed in the other, but there had been a mutual understanding. Her feelings were not something she really wanted to discuss, especially not something as complex as this.
"Recognised you? How?" Jakey blinked. Sally squeezed the little silver locket a bit.
"His daughter was a martial artist, apparently really good. She was at one of the contests I won when I was a kid. She did pretty well, was knocked out of the running by an older girl. Still, apparently it was one of the best days they spent together. He gave me her locket, it's got a picture of her holding up her certificate in it. Look, do we have to talk about this?" Sally looked uncomfortable enough that Jakey broke off his gaze.
"Can I see the locket? Just for a moment?" Before Sally could show him the trinket, there was some commotion in the tent. Jakey pulled a face.
"Language."
"What?" Sally got up, and her expression didn't bode well for the Council officer inside. Jakey coughed.
"He just swore rather foully is all. Venji! Jerk's up!" he called. Over by the mini, that had one of its sails out for added shade, Avenger looked up from where he was watching Toby work at his laptop. He and Cirrus came over, the latter still looking drained from earlier.
"Why's he yelling?" he asked. Sally tried to look innocent and the other three sighed and went in.
Langlais was on the ground, hog-tied, his ankles tied to his wrists behind his back. Jakey snorted into his hand, trying to hide his amusement. Avenger just shook his head.
"Alright, let's get this interrogation underway," he said, crouching down so the officer could see his face. He pulled the dogtags and another necklace out from his pocket and dangled them in front of Langlais.
"We know who you are, and we want to have a little chat with you about the Music Teacher." Langlais's response was to spit in his face.
"Let me up and we'll talk, you ******!"
"I don't know what you called me, but I know it wasn't nice." Avenger wiped the spittle from his cheek with a flick of his fingers. Jakey coughed.
"I say we drop him down the hill again. Might teach him a few manners," he said off-hand. Langlais snorted, glaring daggers and other assorted weaponry at Avenger.
"I will not talk with this swine-[censored] of an Americain. I will parle avec la chat et les femmes." Jakey looked at Avenger hopelessly.
"Look, he's wound up. He's going to keep slipping in and out of French unless you're outside."
"How do you figure?" Avenger asked. Jakey spread his hands.
"Because he's doing it now. Situations of high stress often revert people back to their first language. It's just how these things are."
"Sod that. I'm staying here. You speak French don't you?"
"Well … yes." Jakey frowned a bit and Avenger folded his arms.
"So no problem then. You can be our translator." Avenger was not going to play the officer's game. He'd abducted his lover, may have done terrible things to him. He was lucky he didn't just grab his skull and crush it in his hands. Jakey sighed, you didn't have to be empathic to feel the hatred simmering in the air between Langlais and Avenger. Sally snorted.
"Let's just get on with this. I don't want to be around this ******* longer than I have to be," she snapped, just itching to kick the man in the jimmies. Jakey cut the rope holding Langlais's wrists to his ankles but left him tied up. After seeing the man take on Avenger with no regard for his personal safety, he wasn't even sure the ropes would hold if things got ugly.
"I repeat, we want to know where the Music Teacher is," Avenger said. Langlais glared at him, his dark green eyes savage.
"I'll never tell you where he is!" his rapid descent into fierce, quick-fire French made Avenger's eye twitch. He turned to Jakey expectantly. Jakey was listening avidly, then put up his hands, saying something. The exchange continued for a good long time and Avenger was starting to wish he'd taken French instead of Spanish at school.
"Um … Venji, this is going to sound weird but … he says he'll kill you if you ever touch Muse again," Jakey said, looking awkward. Sally frowned, that didn't sound quite right. Avenger also frowned.
"Oh will he now?"
"He says … um … he's accusing you of … look, I know this is going to sound stupid, but he says that you … hurt Muse, and you did … horrible things." Jakey faltered, like he couldn't even bring himself to repeat such things. Avenger looked blank, then Cirrus slapped her forehead.
"Jakey, ask him how he got the information?" she asked. Jakey did so and then translated the answer directly.
"'He talks in his sleep'" It was to Avenger's eternal credit that he didn't stamp on the officer's head there and then. As it was, he bristled and clenched his fists, his mind conjuring up all sorts of twisted scenarios where 'he talks in his sleep' could be misconstrued. Cirrus pulled a face.
"All of you, get out. I have to talk with this guy alone." She pointed to the entrance of the tent. The three Paragon heroes looked at her with surprise.
"But-"
"I said 'GET OUT'!" Cirrus's braid writhed wildly like it was alive and her eyes flashed. Distantly there was an ominous rumble of thunder. Jakey decided that discretion was the better part of valour and left hurriedly. Sally took Avenger's arm and encouraged him to leave with her. Cirrus pulled the tent flap closed and they could hear only quiet murmuring on the other side. Jakey decided not to listen in and went to stand off by himself. Avenger was still keeping a tight hold over his temper and Sally rubbed his shoulder.
"I'm sure he just said that to get a rise out of you." She put as much confidence into her tone as she could. Personally, she wouldn't put it past any Council officer to be despicable enough to indulge in all his twisted little pleasures regarding a captive, but Avenger needed to keep his cool for as long as Langlais could tell them useful information.
Some time later, Cirrus left the tent and looked at them.
"There's some explaining that needs doing. I'll ask Toby to watch the prisoner," she said. Once she'd done that and the boy had gone into the tent, she called them all over to the mini, sitting down with a sigh.
"Look, this does not go beyond you three. Matt has kept this secret for a reason. You aren't allowed to tell anyone, not another living soul. Swear?" Cirrus looked so serious that the three of them nodded. She found a bottle of water and opened it, taking a drink before passing it around.
"You all know that Matt used to be in a band, right? It was called Pseudo Apoplexy. They got signed by a record company in America after one of their internet released singles was 'discovered'." She waited for them to nod, this was all known to them and she continued.
"Now, I was seventeen at the time, and I guess I was happy for Matt, even though he'd be moving to another country. He was the baby of the band, and was sort of loosely going out with Oscar, the front man." When Avenger stiffened at the mention of that name, Cirrus gave him a sharp look, telling him to hold his tongue.
"I never really liked Oscar. He was always pretty impressed with himself, but Matt insisted he weren't as arrogant and self-obsessed as he came across as. Can't think why, but my brother was totally in love with the loser. Anyway, they left and went to America. They had a bunch of number one hits, and they were rolling in the cash. But they were young, and pretty stupid, as boys with money are. Matt hit the drugs bad. See, back in Scotland, we'd experimented a bit, y'know? But Oscar got Matt into some of the freaky stuff that we didn't want to touch. It just got worse when he was away from us. Me and Nat used to look out for Matt … keep him sensible." Cirrus looked bleak, wrapping her arms around herself. Sally put her hand on the older woman's shoulder. Cirrus took a deep breath.
"I only know about this because Matt wrote it all to me afterwards. He didn't want anyone to know what had happened. So what I'm telling you now is me breaking a promise to him to keep it secret."
"Then … just tell Venji. I know how important your word is to you, Cirrus." Jakey got up from his sitting position and forced a grin before leaving to join Toby in guarding the prisoner. Sally knew how curious he was by his own nature, but maybe he had a point. She too wanted to know what was going on, but perhaps it was something she should hear from Muse if he ever felt ready to share it. She sighed and got up.
"Yeah, what he said." She forced herself to walk away. Cirrus seemed relieved, and thankful for their sensitivity. She was quiet for a long time and Avenger watched her. It was like she was battling an internal conflict.
"If you want … I can go too …" he whispered. Cirrus shook her head.
"No, you should know. Hell, the enemy knows." She smiled a bit, as if to thank and dismiss his offer in one gesture. Avenger waited for her to speak again.
"Oscar was ambitious. He wanted to be a superstar, he was desperate for it. So as the band did better and better, he started going to swankier parties. Matt went with him, of course, but the rest of the band weren't invited. These were pretty wild, drug parties. All the richest and most shameless were there. Oscar referred to it as 'making connections'. Now Matt, who I already said was pretty uninhibited, was getting himself hammered on drugs and alcohol. He'd always find himself in bed with someone at the parties while he was too trashed to know what he was doing. The first few times, he panicked that Oscar was going to ditch him for being so unfaithful, then confessed everything. Oscar forgave him and said it was okay. He knew he'd never cheat on him intentionally. But it kept on happening. Every single time they went to one of those parties, Matt'd end up shagging a complete stranger. He tried to limit his drug intake, but somehow, he'd always end up mashed." Cirrus sounded tired. Avenger looked at the floor quietly. He'd known that Muse's past had been wild, and even though his lover appeared mild-mannered now, there were still remnants of his 'bad boy' history. Cirrus drank some more water to dampen her throat.
"Then one night he woke up just after that night's lover, and heard him leave. He got up, I think he was going to try and find his name out or something, and when he got to the door, which was partially open, he saw the man talking to Oscar outside. Then he saw money changing hands." She didn't try to explain how that made her brother feel, if he'd even disclosed it to her. Avenger's knuckles went white suddenly. Cirrus let him digest this information before continuing.
"Matt confronted Oscar about the money, and the cover blown, Oscar went mental on him. You've seen Matt's hands right? That's only the most visible thing he did to him. Matt didn't tell me all the details, but I know what Oscar did screwed him up mentally, he tried to say that Oscar was as messed up on the drugs as him, but I don't think that's any [censored] excuse. There's nothing anyone can say in the *******'s defence that excuses what he did to my brother. But the point is … Langlais thought you were Oscar. He came here to kill you for it."
Avenger was silent. There was too much to think about for him to speak about. He wanted to find Oscar and tear his head off.

It was still dark when Muse awoke, feeling like he hadn't gotten any rest at all. He was worried, as yesterday, there'd been no sign of Langlais. His bed was still unmade and some of his clothes had been left hanging over the furniture. In the weeks Muse had lived with him and known him, he'd never known Langlais not to make his bed with a knife-edge precision. Order and neatness were as much a part of the big man as eating and sleeping.
Bouncer whined at the door, scratching at it and Muse opened it to let him in. The puppy followed him into the bathroom, looking upset. If the puppy was still down, then Langlais hadn't returned. Muse felt as adrift as he, should he go on the morning run and to hand to hand? Maybe it'd help him decide what to do later. The lab would need visiting. There were some experiments he could continue with without supervision. After washing himself, brushing his teeth and getting changed, he went down into the kitchen to make Bouncer and Monique's breakfasts from the fresh meat in the fridge. The caracal was sitting primly on the work surface, eying him intently as if demanding his security clearance. Muse chopped her meat up finely as he could but he was unused to making things so small and she turned her nose up at the bowl when presented to her. Muse tried not to feel rejected and left it on the surface out of Bouncer's reach. Outside it was still dark, but dawn was coming. He stamped on his boots and tied them tight before applying sun-block and putting on his hat. That done, he left the house for his run.
Starting it earlier than the rest of the men guaranteed him a spare hour to talk to Watson and his pack. The big war wolf was growling incomprehensibly at one of his subordinates when Muse arrived.
"Adjutant Watson?" he piped up, still very intimidated by the sheer mass of muscle and fur that comprised a war wolf. Watson turned, then looked down.
"Little Whithers! You come to see me again. That is nice." Watson patted his head, the huge, scythe-like claws scraping Muse's shoulders.
"Is it a bad time?" Muse asked, manners cost nothing, and especially so to something that could crush his head like an eggshell.
"No. We were wondering where the real leader is. Tanner says a new one has arrived and the little men are not happy. I am not particularly thrilled about this either. Langlais is little and fragile, but I am happy to follow him." Watson grumped, his pointed ears going back. Muse looked worried.
"A new leader? What's happened to Langlais?"
"No idea."
"His scent led to the hangar at the top of the mountain. But it was half stale when I found it. He hasn't come back from wherever he went. And he took the new plane." The big, russet brown war wolf, bigger even than Watson, spoke, his voice paradoxically light for his frame. Muse scratched where his beard used to reside.
"When do you think he left?" he asked. Watson nodded at Tanner when he hesitated, indicating he may speak.
"Much before dawn, several hours. He must have moved very quickly and quietly, as he passed by our hollow but didn't wake us. At my best estimate, it would have been around two or three o'clock in the morning." All the war wolves were now looking at Muse, who nodded.
"Okay, thanks. What can you tell me about this 'new' leader?" he asked. Watson growled deeply.
"He is what we like to refer to as a murdering officer." Muse didn't like the sound of that, and his expression prompted Watson to explain hastily.
"Langlais is what we call a killing officer. He will get you killed because he made an honest mistake. Nadir is a murdering officer. He will get you killed because it will serve his plan." The explanation didn't do much for Muse's sensibilities and he nursed his temples.
"I know Langlais hasn't chosen a second in command yet, but could you liaise with Mendez and keep the troop morale up? They're going to be thrown off with Langlais gone enough without some new, ambitious officer upsetting all the understood rules," Muse looked put out. He didn't want a new officer either. Watson paused, and then nodded.
"I will put aside the fact that Mendez couldn't tell his [censored] from his elbow for now. You are right, we should work together until Langlais returns."
"Then you can get right back to squabbling over whatever you like to squabble about," Muse promised, patting the war wolf's immense forearm.
"I never 'squabble'." Watson gave Muse's head another pat and then darted off through the trees, moving more fleetly than his bulk would suggest he was able to. His 'men' fell in behind him and then they were all gone. Muse sighed and decided to make a quick stop at the barracks to give the human troops a few moments of his time. The lab could wait for a few minutes, it was hardly going anywhere.

"God, this island's gone to the dogs." Muse stopped at the open lab door, looking at the speaker intently. He was not as tall as Langlais, and nowhere near as broad. He had a slim, almost waif-like build and hair too long for regulations. It was very fair, almost platinum blond and he wore it in a neat ponytail. How he got away with that was anyone's guess.
"Tch, I expected more from the 'oh so clever' Archon Phillippe Langlais," he muttered going over the files. The hair on the back of Muse's neck stood up. This person was trying to pass himself off as purely human was he? Anger stirred, Langlais would not like this man in his lab, going through his things. Muse found himself marching over the room and slamming a hand down on the file the officer was about to pick up. He glared up the three inch difference in their heights.
"State your business," he said sharply. The officer raised his eyebrows, then looked down for Muse's rank. Aside from the medic band, there was nothing on his uniform but a little diamond pin.
"Might I know your name so I can know who I'm having lashed?" The man was wearing the rank of an Archon, but Muse's anger was sufficient that he didn't care.
"Matthew Whithers. This is Archon Langlais's laboratory and only those with his express permission may enter. I don't think you have that permission." The man smiled suddenly, reaching out and stroking Muse's face. He flinched back a few steps.
"So you're Whithers. I am Archon Nadir. I hadn't expected you to be so … cute." Nadir was about to pat him on the head but Muse moved right out of the way. Alright, this was new.
"I suspect you already know what I am, do you?" Nadir moved after him, looking fascinated. It disturbed Muse enough that he backed right around the table, keeping the crystals between them.
"You're a Nictus," he said. Nadir split into a wide, avid grin. This was just the answer he'd been hoping for, clearly.
"Excellent, just excellent. I see that Langlais has invested a great deal of time earning your devotion. You are loyal to him, aren't you?" The way the man ran the tip of his tongue over his lips made Muse's courage desert him. He realised that Nadir was between him and the door. His heart started to pound fearfully.
"I-I guess."
"I see. I see." Nadir did not expand on what he saw, and stood his ground. Muse, heart hammering, started to go around the edge of the lab. He thought he'd gotten away when he walked past Nadir and reached the door. Then something slashed across his back like a knife edge. He yelped and half turned. A hand grabbed his throat and he was suddenly lifted effortlessly off his feet and slammed back into the door. Nadir looked up at him, smiling pleasantly, a slim cord of a whip dangling from his other hand.
"If you take that tone with me again Whithers, I will have you beaten like a dog and staked out for snake bait. Do I make myself clear?" he asked, sweetly. Muse couldn't answer at first, too shocked to do anything. Nadir slammed him again, cracking his head on the door hard.
"You are being asked a question by a superior officer, you doe-eyed freak."
"Y-yessir! Very clear, sir!" Muse nearly yelled, terrified. Nadir put him down, still holding his throat. After a moment, he patted his head and stroked his cheek.
"Shh, no need to look so frightened. I won't hurt you if you're good and do as you're told. Aw, no tears!" Muse nearly died of fright when Nadir tugged him into a hug, like he was the most precious thing of the world. He kept his arms rigidly by his side, trying to master the impulse to wet himself in terror. Why the hell was the Archon touching him? Touching was a big no-no. And even if it was a yes-yes, Nadir was the last life-form in the galaxy Muse wanted touching him. Tears were indeed rolling down his face, what with fear paralysing him, head to toe.
Nictus or not, Nadir's behaviour was dangerously unbalanced. As Watson had said, a murdering officer indeed.

Captain Manly
level 9
Tank
Fire armour/ Battle Axe
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...hots/Manny.jpg
has red and black camouflage painted armour, ram horns, wild hair and a bit of a cranky expression despite his very jovial nature.

Eight foot of pure testosterone. Apparently. Likes sugar and sweet things LOTS. Has a phD in biochemistry and has been known to hit people with it.