FSE

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Sebastian’s world was a shapeless, unknowable void of darkness. The cold embrace of unconsciousness smothered him like a blanket - like a weight. The shattered and disjointed fragments of thought and awareness drifted in and out of his mind like the ebb and flow of the ocean lapping against the beach.

Sounds, movement, and voices would pierce through the suffocating haze of unconsciousness for only a few fleeting moments at a time, before silently slipping away into nothingness once again. He had no idea where he was, or what was happening to him, but he at least knew he was alive. Or at least, that’s what he hoped for.

It was through this timeless and shapeless nothingness of semi-lucidity that awareness slowly started to creep into his mind. It was small at first. Some sort of distant, incessant mechanical humming sound in the distance. The feeling of icy cold enveloping his body. The distant and incoherent murmur of voices from somewhere in his immediate vicinity.

As time continued, the layers of unawareness slowly started to fade away. The sound of the mechanical buzzing became louder and more distinct. The voices speaking became clearer and specific syllables were audible, even if the overall meaning of the words fell upon his ears in a jumbled and confused mess. The sound of heavy, deliberate boot steps could be heard smacking off the concrete in perfect cadence, their resonating thumps punctuated by the fast clacking of high heels against stone.

It wouldn’t be long after his consciousness started to trickle back into his mind before another sensation would begin to arise - pain.

From the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, an insidious and searing pain had crept its way inside of every fiber of his being. His head ached as if it had been struck with a sledge hammer. His lungs burnt as they tried to choke down mouthfuls of musty air. His shoulder felt as if the joint had been lined with shards of broken glass. His empty stomach churned and gurgled in a nauseating storm of pain and discomfort. Thankfully, he wouldn’t have long to dwell on these newfound sensations.

The footsteps he had first noticed from earlier were now deathly close. He could hear the muffled sounds of speaking from nearby. There was the sound of keys jingling and scraping against metal as they fought against a stubborn lock.

Before he could so much as pull himself together enough to open his eyes, Sebastian would be greeted with an all too rude wake up call.

A torrent of frigid water would crash against his body like water tumbling down a waterfall. Between both the extreme cold and the sudden shock of the contact, his eyes shot wide in an instant and his lungs forced down a long and shuddering gasp of air.

Dingy yellow light singed his eyes, forcing him to bring a hand up to shield them. It was only then that he realized his arms stubbornly refused to move. He tried again, and once more, his arms wouldn’t so much as budge an inch. Extremely confused and thoroughly disoriented, Sebastian had to squint through the glare of the light to look at the figures standing before him.

“You’re finally awake, mister Gomez! I was starting to fear you’d never wake up.” Came the voice of a female, speaking with a joyful and sickeningly sweet tune. Her voice grated against his ears like nails against a chalkboard.

“W….what?” Sebastian asked, looking up to the trio of figures that stood before him, their forms silhouetted against the light. “Who are you people? Where the fuck am I?”

The woman stepped forwards and pulled up a chair in front of Sebastian. “That’s not really important right now, mister Gomez.”

It was only after the woman had gotten to within mere feet that he was able to make out any discernible features. She was an avaian of some sort - white feathers covering her body from head to toe, sporting a crest of white and yellow feathers that pushed back from the top of her head. Both of her eyes were ringed with a small sliver of crimson red, although it wasn’t clear if that was natural coloration, or mere make up.

Aside from her elegant and refined plumage, the woman wore a similarly classy outfit - a navy blue, pinstripe pant suit with both a CDA and American flag lapel on opposing collars. In her hands she carried a hefty leather binder, its surface emblazoned with the white, blue, and red CDA logo.

The woman cracked open the folder and began to rummage through its contents. “You know, mister Gomez, I have to say I'm quite impressed.”

After several long seconds, Sebastian managed to swallow down the lump of ice that formed in his throat. “With what?” He asked, his voice little more than a parched whisper.

“With you young man.” She said with a disturbingly sweet, and yet utterly disingenuous smile.

“Why?” He asked, trying to sit up. Just as before, his attempts to so much as move were stymied by both the searing pain that tore through his body, and the resolute grasp of the restraints that held him in place.

“Because, you killed a level Beta-two anomaly all by yourself. That’d take two, maybe three teams of containment specialists with D.E.W.’s and M.K.I.W.’s to handle, and yet you managed to do it single handedly. That’s quite a feat, don’t you think?”

Sebastian just grit his teeth and glowered at her. “And what’s your point with all of this, huh? Just cut to the fucking chase.” He spat bitterly. One of the guards flanking her pulled a small, tubular object from their pistol belt and stepped forwards. With a flick of their wrist, the contraption expanded outwards into a full length baton, capped on the end by a menacing rubber ball bearing. Sebastian winced and cowered his head, fully expecting to be met with the force of the baton. But he wasn’t. The woman held out a hand to stop the guard, who, after several long seconds, slackened their grip on the baton and took a step backwards.

“Ah, we’ll get there. We’ll get there. I promise. But first, let’s make sure we got our homework right, hmm?”

“Sebastian Xavier Gomez, born October third, two thousand seven. Parents are Lucia Rose Gomez and Mario Santiago Gomez. You grew up on three-four-two Vermont Avenue, attended the Santa Anna K-12 school, and graduated on May twenty fifth, two thousand twenty five with a one point seven GPA. Do I have that all correct?” She asked, pulling a pen free from the binder and clicking it a few times impatiently, preparing to make any corrections as need be.

The feeling of fear, dread, and anxiety all welled up within him like a geyser ready to explode. These fuckers had every single detail of his life pinned down, even the date he graduated highschool, something which he himself had pretty much entirely forgotten. If they already knew this much about him, it wasn’t a stretch of the imagination to think that they knew both of his parents were unregistered anomalies, and they had probably already arrested them too. Those intense feelings of fear and dread only continued to swell and simmer within him. Like a cornered animal, he had to retaliate in the only way he could, with his words.

“And what the fuck does it matter to you anyways? You already know everything there is to know about me, why are you wasting your time asking me questions? Go look it up in your database if you’re so interested, you dick head.” He snapped, staring intently at the woman. Rather than being taken aback by his words, she seemed bemused more than anything.

“We’re just trying to help you, Sebastian.” She said, tapping the pen against the paper.

“Oh, help me? Yeah, sure thing pal. Kiss my ass.” He said, trying his damndest to muster enough saliva to spit at her. Once he thought he had enough, he pursed his lips and forced a hard gust of air out of his lungs. The spittle flew all of two inches out of his lips before hitting the ground with a wet smack. The woman merely slid her foot back a few inches to avoid the spittle.

While he might’ve fallen short of his goal, he definitely earned himself the ire and fury of the guards. At the same time the both of them stepped forwards with batons and fell upon him like wild dogs. Blow after blow ravaged his body. Pain screamed out from each impact, only increasing his misery and suffering. Sebastian just grit his teeth and thrashed out against the blows to the best of his ability, trying to break free of the restraints. The metal groaned and strained weakly, but the restraints were steadfast.

Although it was hard to see her with both of the guards beating the ever loving shit out of him, Sebastain almost thought he could see the woman with a certain look of arousal on her features. She gripped at the binder in her lap with a white knuckled grip with one hand, and with the other, she blatantly gripped at her groin with a shuddering breath. Was she really getting off on him getting his ass beat right now?

For how long the beating went on, Sebastian had no clue. After the first couple of blows to the head, he was pushed right to the threshold of unconsciousness. From that point forward, each subsequent blow seemed to hurt a little bit less until it all stopped hurting so bad.

At some point, the guard’s decided that they had enough brutality for one sitting, and finally let up on their beating. As his head spun and the world around him came into and out of focus, Sebastian could see deep crimson red dribbling from the tips of the guards’ batons as they stepped away. A cursory look downwards revealed that he was leaking blood like a siv, with a steady trickle of crimson fluid pooling on the floor next to him.

“See, that’s it right there Mister Gomez! That’s why I like you. You’re a little shit head.” She smirked devilishly, leaning in with her elbows on her knees. “You got spunk, you got tenacity! I tell you I want to help you, and you know what you do? You tell me to go fuck myself! That’s why I want you.”

Sebastian said nothing for several moments as he tried to pull himself together. After being beaten within an inch of his life, his mind became cloudy and his thoughts became disparate and jumbled. Even so much as formulating a response became difficult.

“...For what?” He finally managed to croak, looking up to her.

“You know, we really could use people like you. There’s a lot of real nasty anomalies out there, so who better to contain an anomaly than an anomaly?”

Sebastian huffed and hung his head. “Why me?”

“Well, let's see here…” She drew off, hurriedly flipping through the pages of the binder. “Subject S.X.G. exhibited extraordinary levels of speed, strength, and resilience when engaging subject RE one-one-two-b. Review of footage gathered from SCLR-seven determined the subject sustained speeds in excess of forty five miles per hour. Furthermore, autopsies on subject RE one-one-two-b determined severe musculoskeletal injuries caused by subject S.X.G., to include severe compound fractures on the anomaly’s head structure, two broken phalanges, and the severe internal trauma caused by the traumatic removal of the subject’s heart.” The woman read off in great detail, looking up to Sebastian when she finished.

“What I mean to say, mister Gomez, is that I want you to work for me. I think your...capabilities...would be a tremendous asset to my team.” She said, casting an impatient look down at her wrist watch.

“And what makes you think I want to work for you fucking animals?” Sebastian shouted, his raspy voice crackling. “Your whole job is to hunt down, lock up, or kill people like me. What in the fuck makes you think I’d want to be part of that? Look at what you people did at Ten Pines or Rischer Heights. Those were women and children and you fucking SAVAGES killed!”

Sebastain’s pointed words rolled off the woman like water off a duck’s back. She was more bemused than anything. “Why would you want to come work for me? The answer’s simple, really. You come work for me, put your abilities to use for the good of this country, and all of those charges against you and your parents will be dropped. They’ll walk free from this.”

Sebastian’s eyes shot wide as shock rocked his body like a bomb blast. “You know what, fuck you cunt! You leave them out of this! Do whatever the fuck you want to do to me, but you slimy cocksuckers leave them out of this! They didn’t do anything!”

“I beg to differ, mister Gomez. Your parents are anything but innocent…” She paused, flipping through her binder once again.

“Right now they’re facing two counts of felony willful concealment of an anomaly, two felony counts of concealment of a dangerous entity, two felony counts of failure to register as an anomalous entity, and two felony counts of failure to register an anomalous child. I am by no means a lawyer, mister Gomez, but these charges are at least fifteen years in the clink apiece. You do the math.” She said, checking her wrist watch again.

“So please, mister Gomez. Continue telling me to go fuck myself all you want. If you want to spend the rest of your life getting worked to death at Tellehenne, be my guest. At least your parents will be there to share your misery.” The woman said with an aura of cold and uncompassionate cruelty.

Sebastian let out a sigh and rested his head against the floor, a tidal wave of emotions washing over him. Fear, worry, anxiety, and panic all gripped at him as he weighed his options. Maybe she was bullshitting him all along. Maybe there was never going to be a get out of jail free card after all, and she just wanted to revel in destroying his hopes. Maybe she was being genuine. Whatever the case might actually be, no matter how fleeting his chances of getting his parents out of this, he was going to do it. Even if it meant swallowing his own pride.

The woman made her way for the door, flanked on either side by the guards. Just as one of the guards started to fumble the keys off his belt, Sebastian spoke up. “Alright….alright. Fuck. Fine. I’ll do it.” He sighed with a defeated tone.

The woman turned, clutching her binder close to her chest. “You will?” She asked, her tone doing a one-eighty from cold and dispassionate sociopath to sickeningly sweet waitress in an instant.

“Not like I have much of a choice.”

“Delightful! I knew you’d come to your senses!.” She smiled. “I really ought to get going now, but we’ll be in touch, mister Gomez.” She said, nodding to the guard before they turned the keys and opened the door.

The door slammed shut with a resonating bang and he was left in the room all by himself. Frigid, starving, and half beaten to death, it wouldn’t take long for his mind to wander off in mental escapism.

He thought long and hard about anything, and everything, to get his mind off his misery. He thought of his life, he thought of his friends, and he thought about how in the hell his dumb ass wound up in this situation in the first place.

Had he just listened to Eric, had he just put his head down and let the Agency do their job, none of this would be happening right now. He could have been home right now, practicing for their show on Friday, drinking cheap beer and going about his day to day life - but he wasn’t. Because his stupid ass wanted to play hero on a childish whim, he had was now in a world of shit, and he had drug his parents along for the ride.

As his mind drifted to the subject of his parents, he felt a tinge of both longing and regret well up within him. When was the last time he had spent quality time with his parents? When was the last time he told his dad or mom he loved them? A week ago? Maybe two? It was too hard to tell through the haze of fatigue and probable brain damage that clouded his mind, but it felt like nothing short of an eternity.

No matter the cost, he was going to get them out of this fucked up situation one way or another, even if that meant swallowing his pride and working with these scumbags.

With nothing but time on his hands, Sebastian let his mind run rampant with thoughts and speculations about this entire situation. Truth be told, he had no way of telling just how long he had been laying there, teetering on the edge of hypothermia and lamenting his own misery. It might’ve been only a few minutes, or it might’ve been hours for all he knew. Either way, he wasn’t exactly having a great time.

At some point during this seemingly endless ordeal, Sebastian thought he could just barely make out the sounds of a commotion coming from deeper within the complex. Straining to hear over the incessant, maddening buzz of the air conditioner, he listened for a good ten, maybe twenty seconds without hearing another sound. Chalking it up to either an overactive imagination or sensory deprivation induced hallucinations, he lowered himself back down onto the floor. Hardly had he even done so before there came the sounds of more commotion, and this time, it was far more intense.

There was the thundering of several pairs of boots running down the echoing hallway in front of his cell door. There was shouting. Orders were barked, commands were issued, confused agents asking one another if they knew what was going on. It was an overwhelming flurry of movement and activity for someone who had just spent who knows how long staring at plain gray walls and listening to the same, incessant mechanical buzz.

It wasn’t more than a few moments after the thundering of the boots and the screaming of orders that the gunfire started.

There was a muffled cry and a stifled scream as the gunfire opened up from somewhere down the hall. The ear splitting boom of so many gunshots in such an enclosed space was enough to make him wince and try to tuck his ear into the crook of his shoulder for some sort or protection.

Even though he had little more than a six inch by six inch wide window that offered him a view into the outside hallway, Sebastian could piece together that whatever the Agents were trying to fight out there was getting the better of them.

The gunshots only continued to get closer and closer to his cell door. Every now and again there’d be a cry of panic or a scream that’d cut out halfway through. These bastards were getting torn limb from limb out there by the sounds of it.

In only a few more moments, the fighting would finally make it to his cell door. He could see the tops of the agent’s helmets as they went sprinting down the hallway, screaming to one another as they ran for their lives. Whether it was a full fledged route or a mere tactical withdrawal, Sebastian had no way of knowing. What he did know, however, was what came immediately afterwards.

From the other end of the hallway came the screeching, crackling roar of electricity. The walls in the hallway were painted in a ghastly pale-blue color. The taste of ozone hung heavily in the air. One of the agents tried to shout something incoherent from the other end of the hallway, but they were cut off mid-sentence by a thunderous crack of electricity, and great arcs of lightning shooting down the hallway. The shouting turned into a collective series of guttural groans and gurgles, and then fell into nothingness as the arc of lightning ceased.

After that, things went eerily quiet. There were no more gunshots to be heard, no more shouting or thunderous bootsteps filling the hallways; only the incessant buzz of the overhead light and the distant thrum of an air conditioner. The silence unnerved Sebastian more than the chaos did.

With fear welling up within him, his desperation to get out of his restraints only intensified by orders of magnitude. He could only hope and pray that whatever it was that had just rampaged its way through the facility had no business with him, but in any case, he wasn’t about to sit idly by and hope it’d leave him be. At the very least, he wanted a way to defend himself should this thing want to get a piece of him.

Pushing, straining, and struggling for all he was worth, Sebastian thrashed against his restraints with what little energy he had left in him. The chain linking his feet to his hands would tighten, and the metal of the shackles would groan, but they were not giving way.

For how long he struggled against the restraints, he didn’t know. Undoubtedly his perception of time was elongated from the fear and the panic that gripped at his soul, but nevertheless it felt like an eternity that he was laying there, wholly and completely helpless.

It wouldn’t take long for his continual exertion to start to take its toll, and he’d begin to tucker out. His thrashing and pushing against the restraints would continually slow and become weaker with each successive attempt to break free, until finally, he could barely muster the strength to push against the restraints. He had become reduced to little more than a sweating, panting mess on the floor, and no closer to freedom now than he had been when he first started. He was now well and truly at the mercy of whatever this thing was.

To make matters all the worse, Sebastian could hear the sounds of footsteps coming down the hall. Slow, deliberate, and quiet, they made their way towards his cell with a dreadfully slow cadence.

The footsteps would draw worryingly close, coming to a stop just in front of his cell door. Sebastian squinted his eyes and attempted to peer through the small window, but his eyes were greeted with nothing aside from the dark black singe marks that marred the walls of the hallway.

“Hey Star, I think I found him!” Came the unmistakable sound of a man’s voice.

This was it. The jig was up. Whoever it was that had just massacred their way through god knows how many agents had found him.

Hardly had the unseen man spoken his words before there came the loud and thunderous thumping of boots against the concrete floor. The volume and resonating thump of the bootsteps against the floor only suggested that whoever this person was, they were nothing short of a behemoth. As he would come to see, he was right.

The towering visage of a ursine would come into view of his cell window. Stooping down, she peered into the cell window, both her and Sebastain’s eyes meeting. A cold shiver would course through his body as his eyes befell the sight of two massive yellow orbs that seemed to gaze into his very soul.

“Yeah, this is the one.” Came the sound of a thick and deep voice. The voice sounded as if they gargled motor oil and ate gravel, with deep and bellowing under tones and resonating inflections, and yet, the voice was distinctly feminine in a way he couldn’t really pin down.

He wouldn’t have much time to dwell on that, though, as a massive, thunderous ‘BOOM!’ from the other side of the door would ring out, and the entire door buckled and deformed in its frame. Sebastian winced and grit his teeth just as another massive blow struck the door, and it would again deform in its frame. With one last, mighty blow, the door would come bursting off its hinges like a bat out of hell, completely barreling over the table in the center of the room and coming to a tumbling stop directly on top of Sebastian.

A muffled cry of both pain and surprise forced its way out of his throat from the sudden impact. Although the door had lost most of its momentum after it barreled over the table, that was still several hundred pounds of pure cast steel laying on top of him.

The thoughts of who, or what could have just booted this behemoth off its hinges were a lot less pressing in his mind than the thoughts of not getting crushed. Each breath came as a ragged and painful gasp, and each time he exhaled, the weight only seemed to press down on him a little bit more. Try as he might, there wasn’t anything he could do to free himself from the burden.

Following after the door, the massive figure lumbered her way into the room and came to a stop at Sebastain’s side, the tips of her brilliantly shined black boots mere inches away from his face. The sight alone was enough to usher in a way of uncomfortable memories, but he had very little time to dwell on that with him being crushed to death and all.

The woman stooped down low and grabbed the crumpled door off of Sebastain, easily pushing it off of him and casting it aside as if it was little more than cardboard.

“Are you alright, kid? You don’t look well. You are hurt.” She said, squatting down next to him. The woman spoke in choppy, heavily accented english that hurt his ears.

“W-what? Who the fuck are you? Why are you here?” Sebastian asked with a faltering voice, looking up to meet her gaze.

“Ah! Forgive me. I am Red Star.” She said, out of habit extending a massive hand for a shake, only to realize that his hands were bound before awkwardly retreating her hand. “We are what you may call ‘super-heroes’. We are here to break you free, yes?” The woman said, reaching for his restraints. Whether out of fear, or distrustfulness, or a combination of the both, Sebastian recoiled away from her touch, making a frown draw across her features.

“What? Why?” He asked, pressing himself as close against the wall as he could.

The frown spread across her features lingered for only a moment, before that small, self assured smirk returned. “It is a long story, yes? Not much time to explain. We saw you on the TV, and we thought we could use your help. So we will make you a deal. We help you by breaking you out of here, and you help us get one of ours back. Sounds good?”

Sebastian recoiled just the slightest bit more, and sized the woman up.

From head to toe the woman was dressed in what he could only describe as ‘soviet cosplay’. Black combat boots, faded camo pants, a blue and white striped tank top, a washed-out green breast plate with a red star painted on the front, and a matching pair of shoulder pads to tie it all together. In her hand, she clutched some sort of face mask made out of a similar material.

Sebastian pulled his attention away from her…’interesting’ choice in costume and returned his gaze to her golden eyes.

“And what does that have to do with me? I’m not a hero.” He asked. The more the woman spoke of what she and her people did, the more he was feeling a repulsion to it. Why would he ever join some rag-tag group of anomalies, out there trying to relive the glory days of superheroes? The agency had him by the balls here, pissing them off was the last thing he wanted to do.

“But you are a hero! Look at what you did to that monster yesterday. Pretty ballsy, don’t you think?” She asked with a smile. “Now come, this place is going to be full of the CDA any minute now.”

Once more she reached for his restraints, and once more he recoiled away, although at this point he couldn’t retreat backwards any further. That smile on her features faded altogether. Her patience looked to be growing thin.

“Why do you not want to come? Do you like being chained to the floor and beaten?” She asked, hand hovering over him.

“I can’t.” He said defiantly.

“Why?” She asked impatiently.

“Because. The Agency has my parents. They said if I don’t help them they’re going to send my parents to prison. Even though I trust these cocksuckers just as far as I can spit, I have to trust them if I want to get my parents out of this” He spat. “So go. Get out of here while you still can. I appreciate you going out of your way to help me, but I don’t want it. I got to look out for my people, even if it means working with the CDA.”

The woman looked at him intensely for a few moments, her features stoney and impossible to read. He thought he had offended her greatly by his words, but then, her features softened and she began to laugh. Slow at first, her laughter rose into a deep, belly laugh.

“You hear that, Mirage? He said he trusts the Agency!” She roared with laughter, turning her head to look at the empty corner of the room.

“Ha! That’s cute!” Came a similarly chuckling response. It was that same voice from earlier, the one that had announced that he was in the room.

“Wait what the fuck?” He asked, looking at the corner of the room. “Who are you talking to back there?” He asked, straining as hard as he could, but seeing absolutely nothing.

“Oh, him? That’s Mirage.” She said, hiking a thumb over her shoulder. As if on cue, there was a shimmering of light, before a hand seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The hand offered a curt wave, before there was more shimmering and the hand disappeared altogether.

“He can turn invisible, if you can’t tell.” She said with one last chuckle, dabbing away at the corner of her eye with the back of her finger.

Sebastian frowned, becoming both annoyed and impatient with their pedantics. “What’s so funny about that, huh? The woman said she’d let my parents go if I agreed to work with her.”

The bear just shook her head and sighed. “You do not understand, do you?” She asked. “Why do you trust the Agency so much? They were the ones that put you here, and all for defending the public when they weren’t there. Look at what these people have done. Look at Rischer Heights! They told the Lucarians that they would be safe if they surrendered peacefully, and the moment they all stepped outside the Agency gunned them down. Why do you put your trust in people like this?”

She had a point. So eager was he to look out for his parents, no matter the cost, that he was willingly to jump onboard with these psychopaths.

“Because…” He sighed, hanging his head. “Even if there’s only a slim chance that they’re being honest, it's my only hope to get my parents back. I have to take it.”

Red Star nodded empathetically. “I understand. I really do. You’re not the only one the Agency has hurt using loved ones. But you need to trust me, comrade. If you ever want to get your parents back, you’re going to have to trust me.” She said softly, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Sebastian closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. How was he to know she wasn’t lying just as much as the Agency, if not more? The internal conflict over who to trust and who to believe raged within him. Part of him wanted to hold out hope that the Agency was going to be true to their word and let his parents go. The other half of him realized that the CDA was as crooked as they came, and they’d do whatever it took to get their job done.

From somewhere down the hall came the voice of a female. “Hey, Star! You done yet? Agency’s on their way. ETA ten minutes and counting!”

“Almost!” She shouted back, before turning back to Sebastian.

“So what will it be? We help you, you help us, and we all walk away happy.”

Sebastian let out another long and drawn out sigh. He had no way of knowing if they were going to be true to their word or not, but considering that they had just gone through this much effort to get him, he at least knew they meant business.

“Fine. I’m in.” He said, opening his eyes. The woman smiled. “Ah-ha! Atta boy! Let’s get you out of these chains, yeah?” She said, rolling him over to get access to the shackles.

There was some rustling as she fumbled with the restraints. Then, she pushed her thumb claw into the locking mechanism. There was a metallic straining sound, and then the lock popped free and the cuffs popped open.

In an instant Sebastian brought his hands together and rubbed at his wrists where the shackles had dug into his flesh. He had torn his skin up pretty badly trying to break free, but the pain was nothing compared to everything else he was feeling at that moment.

Red Star then reached for his ankle shackles, similarly popping the lock out of the socket and releasing them from around his ankles.

“Let’s get you out of here, yes?” She asked, holding a hand out to help him up.

“Yeah, you don’t have to tell me twice.” He grumbled, reaching up and grabbing her hand. In an instant, she yanked him up to his feet, nearly pulling his wounded arm out of socket from the force. Sebastian winced and grabbed at his shoulder, but she seemed to pay him little mind.

“Can you walk?” She asked, making her way for the door. Sebastian tentatively tried to move forwards. His legs were weak and his knees threatened to turn to jelly at any moment, but he was moving well enough on his own. Taking that as an answer, she started off into the hallway, leaving Sebastain to keep up with her wide strides.

“ Wicca, we have him! Let’s get out of here!” She shouted. Noticing that Sebastain was falling behind in his desperate bid to keep up, she noticeably slowed her speed and waited for him to catch up.

“I never caught your name, by the way.” She said, turning a corner and leading them through a hallway littered with the mutilated corpses of the agents. Some of them had their throats ripped out. Others had arms and legs torn clean off their bodies. One even had the muzzle of his rifle impaled clean through his stomach, pinning him to the wall.

Sebastian felt a rush of bile rise into his throat, and he closed his eyes to avoid taking in any more of the horror show.

“Uh...Sebastian. My Name’s Sebastian. Sebastian Gomez.” He said, holding back the urge to vomit.

“That's it? Do you not have a hero name? A uh….what do you call it? A pseudo-nyphm or something?” She asked, rounding another corner.

“No, not really. I haven’t gotten that far.” He said lamely, opening his eyes just a crack. There were no more dead bodies to be seen, and he could finally open his eyes all the way.

“Hmph. We’re going to have to work on that, you and I.” She said, bringing them into an open room. Without a moment’s hesitation, Sebastian made his way to one of the tables and took a seat, getting some pressure off of his overworked legs.

Looking around, Sebastian’s eyes were greeted by the sight of a control room of some sort. Directly in front of him was a bank of monitors suspended on the wall, showing CCTV footage from cameras in the facility. To both his left and right were all manner of other desks, computers, and arrays of electronic equipment.

Sitting at one of these computers was another woman, presumably the one Red Star had been talking to earlier.

Much the same as Red Star, the woman had a particularly interesting superhero getup. She wore a set of grimey yellow overalls tucked into a pair of work boots that had certainly seen their better days. Beneath the coveralls she wore a white shirt, and nearly every inch of the woman’s skin was covered in strange and archaic symbols. Upon her face she wore a strange golden respirator of some sort, its visage twisted into that of a wolf or some other snarling creature, with two canisters sticking out of either side of the mask.

“This is Wicca.” Red Star said to Sebastian, making a sweeping motion towards the woman.

Sebastian leaned forwards, extending a hand for a shake. “My Name’s Sebastian, nice to meet yo-”

“Yeah yeah I know who you are, real big fan of your work.” The woman shot sarcastically, not so much as looking at Sebastian as she continued to type away on the computer. Sebastian frowned and pulled his hand away.

“So what’s the situation? You find him yet?” Mirage asked from right over Sebastian’s shoulder, making him jump a little. Turning to look, Sebastian was only greeted with the sight of empty air. This whole invisibility gimmick was going to take some real getting used to.

“No, not yet.” Wicca said, clicking through some folders on the computer. “The network went tits up as soon as they realized we were here. CDA’s trying to block access to their external network.”

“So we’re screwed then?” Red Star asked, crossing her arms over her brawny chest.

“No, no. Not really. I still got this.” Wicca said, holding up a flash drive.

“And what might this be?” Red Star asked, cocking her head slightly to the side.

“A copy of all the prisoner files that have come through the site. His name was on there, but I didn’t have the time to read through it.”

“And uh, who is it you’re talking about again?” Sebastian asked

“So how much longer do we have until they get here?” Mirage asked, completely ignoring Sebastian’s question.

“A couple minutes, tops. Last transmission was two or three minutes ago. Airwaves have been dead since.”

“They know we’re listening to their comms.” Red Star frowned, looking to the stack of radio equipment sitting in the corner.

“And how exactly do you figure that?” Mirage asked.

“How long have they been trying to hail the station? Ever since the alarm was activated. It makes sense that they’d realize nobody was getting back to them, and figure out that we had gotten into the command center. Makes sense, no?” Red Star laid out with calculated precision.

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” Mirage added.

“And that’s why, ladies and gentlemen...I say we get the hell out of Dodge. Of course, not before we leave them a little parting gift.” Wicca said, producing another flash drive from her pocket and plugging it into the computer.

“A parting gift, eh? What kind of parting gift are we talking here?” Mirage asked.

“A little something-something i’ve been cooking up for a special occasion just like this.” Wicca grinned. “Let’s just say it's a little...backdoor into the Agency’s network. I found a weakness in their network quarantine after they set off the alarm. If all goes well...I should be able to access their entire network from a remote location. Hopefully it’ll bring us one step closer to figuring out where Boss is.” Wicca’s words carried a sort of gleeful tone, as if she was more than satisfied with her own clever handy work.

“That sounds like a load of techno mumbo-jumbo to me, but you do your thing, girl.” Mirage added.

“How long do you need?” Red Star asked impatiently. “Do you need us to cover you?”

“Naahh. I only need a couple of minutes. Go ahead without me, i’ll catch up later. I need to make sure this place gets torched.”

“Alright then, it's settled. Let’s move.” Red Star said, making her way for the door.

Everything was happening so fast. In one minute Sebastian had been nearly pissing his pants as these ‘superheroes’ tore their way through the facility, and in the next, they were launching some kind of techno-bullshit hacker attack against a government agency and making a daring escape as reinforcements closed in. After this shit show of a day, Sebastian needed a drink.

And just like that, Red Star left the room in a hurry.

Sebastian followed after her the best he could, his legs not seeing it particularly prudent to work in any expedient manner. His footsteps were awkward and clumsy, and his speed was far less than appreciable, making it all the more difficult to keep up with the bear’s massive stride.

After what felt like an eternity, the group would finally come to a somewhat open area within the basement. To the left was an elevator that assumedly led up to the surface level of the facility, and directly ahead of them was a roughly man-sized hole that had been smashed through the wall.

Without a moment’s hesitation Red Star clambered into the hole and jumped down into the inky abyss, a loud splash following shortly thereafter.

Numbly, Sebastian made his way to the hole in the wall. As soon as he started to get close, he started to realize the awful stench coming from the gaping maw. He wrinkled his nose and stepped closer, trying to peer through the darkness to see where Red Star had gone.

“Are you coming?” She asked from only a few feet below him, making him jump back a little.

“Euck! What is this, the sewer?” He asked indignantly, still unable to see anything in the abyss.

“Yes, sort of. It’s a storm water sewer.”

“Smells like...wet dog and rancid ass.” He grumbled, stepping up to the edge. A sense of vertigo started to come over him in waves. He had no idea just what lay beneath his feet. Sure, he could hear her down there, but some part of him filled his mind with terrible thoughts of the abyss being little more than a bottomless pit.

“How do I get down? Do I just like...slide down or do I jump or what?” He asked, carefully lowering his foot to feel around, only to be greeted by cool, damp air.

“Just jump already you pussy!” Red Star grumbled impatiently.

With a subdued sigh, Sebastian took a step forwards and went plunging into the abyss.

He fell for what felt like half a lifetime, but in all actuality couldn’t have been more than a second at most.

Rather than any sort of halfway graceful landing, Sebastian hit the bottom of the sewer pipe and almost immediately went ass over tea kettle, falling face first into the repugnant water. Scrambling to his feet just as fast as he could, Sebastian breached the surface and almost immediately began sputtering and spitting up the foul liquid.

From head to toe he was drenched in the slimy, disgusting water. His stomach was turning in knots, and a warm rush of bile started to climb up his throat. It took all he had to fight back the urge to vomit on the spot.

“See? It wasn’t so bad, no?” Red Star asked, reaching out and grabbing Sebastian’s arm and putting it on her shoulder. “Now come, follow me. We need to get going now.” She said, leading them both into the inky blackness of the tunnels.

As to how she could even see in conditions like this, he had no idea, but he wasn’t about to question it.

“Not so bad huh? I got a mouthful of that shit!” He spat, clenching down on her shoulder for all he was worth. For as dark as it was down here, he couldn’t so much as see Red Star, even though she was no more than an arm’s length away. “It tastes like...hot dog water and used cooking grease”

From the tunnel behind them, Sebastian could hear as Mirage slid down into the tunnel after them. Making a decidedly more graceful landing and hurrying to catch up.

“So how did you guys find me, anyways?” Sebastian asked, spitting another glob of saliva into the knee-deep waters below. No matter how much he spit, he still couldn’t get that awful taste off of his tongue. At this point he wasn’t even sure an entire bottle of listerine would be enough to do the trick.

“Wicca” Mirage said from no more than a few feet behind Sebastain. “We saw you on the news, we wanted to get you, Wicca worked a little bit of her magic...and here we are.”

“So what about Wicca? Are you guys not worried about leaving her behind like that?”

“No. Not really.” Red Star said in a nonchalant tone.

“Wow, that’s…” Sebastian paused. “That’s completely disconcerting of you to say.”

“Relax, man! She can shoot fucking lightning out of her hands. Like, straight up Emperor Palpatine shit. She’ll be fine.” Mirage said.

“Bullshit! You being serious?” Sebastian asked incredulously.

“No. I’m just pulling your chain. She’s just some moody tumblr witch we picked up off the street.” Mirage sneered sarcastically. Before Sebastian could muster a response, Mirage continued. “Of course she can shoot freakin’ lightning out of her hands. Do you really mean to tell me that a Russian bear woman who can tear somebody in half, a deer that can turn fucking invisible, and some smoothskin that can make himself invincible to physical damage is completely believable, but someone who can shoot lightning out of their hands isn’t?”

“I mean...I’m not totally invincible to physical damage, I think... But yeah, no, I guess you got a point.” Sebastian muttered.

“You really are new to this, huh?” Mirage asked.

“Yeah...I guess I am. First time I try to fight an anomaly I get my ass kicked and wind up in a CDA blacksite.”

“Everybody gets their ass kicked. It's all part of the job.” Red Star said, quickening her pace and nearly pulling Sebastian off his feet as she did so.

“Yeah, I guess so…” Sebastian grunted, hastening his speed to try and match Red Star’s.

The group would fall into silence as they continued to forge onwards with their trek through the sewers. By now Sebastain had become wholly exhausted in his infeebled state, his breath becoming ragged and his muscles growing heavy and uncooperative with each trudging step forwards.

At some point, Red star came to a shuffling stop. The sudden change in speed was nearly enough to make Sebastian run smack dab into her. “We’re here.” She said simply.

“Uh...what?” Sebastian asked, peering around Red Star’s shoulder only for his eyes to be met with the sight of more darkness.

Without bothering to explain, Red Star shrugged off Sebastain’s grip and moved forwards into the darkness, and a moment later there was the sound of metal grinding against metal. And then, for the first time in what had seemed like ages, Sebastian’s eyes were greeted with the sight of light.

Dingy orange mercury lights flooded into the sewer, revealing a stone tunnel of some sorts. Holding the door open, she beckoned the two to follow her, before quickly shutting the door again.

Sebastian would find himself standing in a long, cavernous space that stretched for several hundred yards before making a sharp bend to the right. Overhead, a series of massive mercury lights were secured to the ceiling, casting the tunnels in a sickly orange glow.

“What the hell is this place?” Sebastian asked, looking around.

“An abandoned subway tunnel, I think.” Red Star said bluntly, heading to a small recess in the surface of the tunnel wall. With a shrill metallic scrape, another door would be opened and Sebastain would be granted his first peek into their secret lair.

“How the hell did you find this place?” Sebastian asked as he made his way for the door.

“You find many things if you look hard enough” She smirked, ushering them both inside.

After spending who knows how long wading through rancid sewers, Sebastian’s eyes and nose were bombarded with foriegn sights and smells.

From the looks of it, their hovel didn’t look that much worse than a modern efficiency apartment in some of the city’s more high end districts. There was a large screen TV mounted on the wall to his right, a well used coffee table in the center of the room surrounded by three loveseats and a recliner, and further back in the room he could see a rudimentary kitchen set up, and several doors that led off to who knows what.

“Its uh...its a real nice place you guys have here. Lot nicer than my house.” Sebastian said, his mention of home bringing back uncomfortable realizations that his folks were still out there, somewhere.

“Courtesy of yours truly.” Mirage boasted.

Sebastian looked to both of his compatriots, seeing that they were both equally drenched in the foul waters. Although mirage still stood cloaked, Sebastian could see the beads of water conforming to his figure and dripping to the floor in a mesmerizing display. Much the same, Red Star’s fur from the knees down had been totally soaked through and matted down, a small puddle forming on the ground at her feet.

In a way he almost felt out of line to ask to get first dibs on the shower, but Red Star beat him to the punch.

“Why don’t you go take the first shower, yes? I think you are the most deserving” She said, fumbling her boots off.

“If that wouldn’t be too much of a bother. I’d greatly appreciate it.”

Sebastian started to head towards the doors in the back of the room, but stopped just shy of stepping on the carpet. Just the same as with the rest of him, his converses were completely soaked through.

Reeling back he started to wiggle his way out of his shoes, the soaking laces not wanting to cooperate as he tried to tug them loose.

“Oh, and uh, if its not too much to ask, could I borrow a change of clothes?” He asked, poking his finger through one gash in his hoodie and sticking it through another, showing just how badly his clothes had been torn up in the fight yesterday.

“Of course. I do not know if you could fit in my clothes, but something is better than nothing, eh?”

“I uh...thanks. I appreciate it, man.”

Sebastian set his tattered chucks off to the side and gingerly stepped over the carpet, heading towards the doors at the end of the room.

“And uh, what door is it?” He asked, turning back to look at them.

“Second one on the left.” Mirage called after him. Sebastian gave him a thumbs up and pushed his way inside.

Just as with the rest of the domicile, Sebastian was pleasantly surprised at how decent the bathroom was, considering that this was almost certainly originally a utility closet.

Sparing little time to admire the time and effort they had put into fixing this place up, Sebastian shimmied out of his rancid clothes and stepped into the shower proper.

At that point, the water was the best thing he had ever felt in his life. Warm water coursed over his skin, washing away the grime from his body and the tension in his muscles.

He sighed and braced his hands against the wall in front of him, letting the cleansing water roll off his back as he thought of all of the insanity that had brought him to this moment.

He wasn’t sure how long he stayed like that, letting his mind wander off as it pleased. He thought of what Eric must be going through right now, realizing that his life long friend had been an anomalous freak, and he had been none the wiser. He wondered what his parents were thinking right now, having been torn away from their comfortable day-to-day lives because their son wanted to play superhero. He even thought about Rebecca; if she was even into him at all, or if he had been trying to read between the lines the whole time.

Sometime after falling into his contemplative trance, he heard a rustling from the otherside of the door, and a slight knocking. “Hey, the clothes are out here when you’re ready.” Red Star said politely

“Thanks man.” Sebastian said, snapping out of his trance. That was his subtle cue to hurry up and let the others get their turn in the shower.

Perusing through the various bottles of soap that lined the shower racks, Sebastian’s heart sank as he was faced with his options. ‘Pomegranate rosee’, ‘Caress cherry blossom and orange peel fur shampoo’, and ‘Doctor Bigelowe’s vanilla and sandalwood fur conditioner, for women who take charge’ were among his plethora of options, none of which exactly screamed macho manliness.

Seeing as to how beggars couldn’t be choosers, Sebastian started going through the dizzying array of soaps to find the one that smelled the least offensive to his palette. After going through every bottle in the shower, he finally settled on a simple lavender and rosemary all-in-one body wash. Even though the scent was distinctly feminine and not at all something he’d use of his own volition, it was ultimately the least terrible of terrible options.

After washing and rinsing off, Sebastian shut off the shower and got out, grabbing a towel off the rack and starting to dry himself off. After sufficiently drying himself down, he wrapped a towel around his waist and opened the door to grab the clothes.

Sitting on the floor in front of the door was a neatly folded grey sweatshirt and a matching pair of grey sweatpants. Even from first glance he could tell the clothes were far too big for him, but he picked up the clothes regardless and slipped back into the bathroom.

Pulling the towel from his waist, Sebastian unfolded the shirt and held it up to see. Although the graphic and letters were little more than faded splotches of red against the grey background, he could still read the words ‘Titan’ Powerlifting Champion, 2002.’, with the accompanying picture of a bull doing a dead lift.

Slipping the shirt on, Sebastain pulled the sleeves up past his elbows and moved to put on the pants. Much the same, the pants were entirely too long, forcing him to double up the pant legs so that they weren’t dragging on the ground.

After giving himself a quick once over in the mirror, taking note of how his gashed open lip and assuredly broken nose didn’t look nearly as bad as he thought they would have, he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

Mirage and Red Star stopped their conversation mid-sentence to look at Sebastian, quietly sizing him up for what felt like an uncomfortable eternity.

Not really sure what he should do now, Sebastian made his way for the nearest love seat, intending to get off his feet and maybe rub a little bit of sensation back into his legs after their gruelling trudge through the sewers.

As he drew near, Red Star stepped forwards, subtly blocking his way. “You look much better. You’re healing up fast, yes?”

Sebastain came to a stop in front of her, a frown drawing across his features. “What do you mean?” He asked confusedly.

Red Star reached out to grab Sebastain, making him jerk backwards a little bit, but ultimately not moving from his spot. Red Star hooked her index finger beneath his jaw and put her thumb on his chin, tilting his head backwards to get a better look at his face.

“Do you not remember? When we first found you, I could see teeth through the split of your lip, and your nose was broken to the side like this.” Just as she finished her sentence, she reached up and grabbed at his nose, giving it a twist to the side. That proved to be the final straw for Sebastain, making him jerk away from her touch. Red Star merely snickered at the gesture, but Sebastain was noticeably less than pleased.

“Yeah, they uh...they beat me pretty bad.” He said, rubbing at his nose and finally taking a seat on the couch. “But I couldn’t have healed up that fast, could I?” He asked, looking up to her.

Red Star merely shrugged and started off for the kitchen, grabbing a glass and a few other items from the fridge. “I know what I saw, so you must have healed that quickly. That is something that happens as an anomaly, you know?”

Now that she mentioned it, maybe she was on to something here. For as far back as Sebastain could remember, there really wasn’t anything he couldn’t bounce back from. Even the most intense days at the gym and gnarly fist fights he had gotten into weren’t enough to keep him down for more than a few hours at best.

After preparing whatever it was that she was working on, Red Star came back into the room and set a cool glass of amber liquid down in front of Sebastain. Confused, Sebastian quirked a brow and picked it up, swishing the liquid around in the glass. “And what is this supposed to be?” He asked.

“A little something to pick your spirits up.” She smiled sweetly. “We still have work to do. The night is still young, after all.” She said, patting him on the shoulder with one of her massive hands as she passed him by.

“What do you mean the night is still young? Man i’m tired as fuck!” He called back, craning his head to look at her as she slipped into her room. Getting no response, he sighed and picked up the drink, bringing it to his nose for a sniff. Almost instantly, his senses were overwhelmed by a sudden stinging sensation that flooded his nostrils.

“Euck, what the fuck is this?” He asked, holding up the glass.

“That’s her idea of a cocktail. It's about four parts vodka and one part Red Bull.” Mirage said nonchalantly. “She sometimes forgets that not everyone was born sipping vodka from the bottle like she was.”

Sebastian gave the dubious ‘cocktail’ another sniff before knocking it all back in one go. His nose wrinkled and his throat burned, but he was able to force the foul liquid down his gullet long enough to get it into his stomach.

“Eugh, tastes like fucking kerosene” He grimaced.

With him being as hungry, dehydrated, and exhausted as he was, it wouldn’t take long for the alcohol to start taking hold of him. No more than two, maybe three minutes would pass before he could feel that smooth buzz and comfortable numbness starting to creep in on him.

Kicking his legs up on the coffee table, and folding his hands over his chest, Sebastian relaxed into the soft cushions of the love seat. In only a few moments he could feel himself starting to drift off, that combination of alcohol and exhaustion starting to push him towards sleep.

He wouldn’t be afforded the luxury of drifting off for too long, however, as the sound of a door creaking open, and then promptly slamming shut somewhere outside was enough to snap him out of his growing stupor.

Sitting bolt upright, he strained to listen as boots crunched against the soft dirt in the tunnel outside, drawing ever nearer. The footsteps stopped just shy of the door, pausing for a minute before turning the latch on the door and swinging it open.

Standing in the door frame was a heavily disheveled Wicca.

From head to toe the woman was drenched in the foul water. Her formerly gelled hair hung down in her face in stiff and matted clumps. The metallic beast mask she had been wearing previously hung loosely around her neck, a steady dribble of water leaking out of the filters on either side. The bone charm necklace and bracelets she wore gleamed with a slickened glimmer in the warm yellow light of the room.

“Jesus Christ, you alright?” Sebastian asked worriedly.

Wicca huffed and stooped down to start untying her soggy boots. “Well wouldn’t you like to know?” She responded sharply.

“Well fuck me for asking, then.” Sebastian huffed as he settled back down on the sofa.

Once she pulled the boots free from her feet, Wicca proceeded to over turn them and dump the accumulated water out on the ground outside the door, before wordlessly shutting the hatch and making her way to her room.

At the same time, the door to Red Star’s room swung open, and the two met each other in the hallway. Some sort of short exchange would go on between the two. Sebastian strained to make out what they were talking about, but they were too far away and speaking far too low for him to make anything other than half syllables and quiet murmurs out.

Their exchange wouldn’t last for long, and soon they both split ways and headed in their respective directions.

“You ready to go?” Red Star asked, stopping by the door to put her boots on. Much the same as earlier, she wore a faded pair of camo pants and a plain black tank top, making Sebastian wonder if the woman had anything other than Sabaton cosplaying clothes in her wardrobe.

“I guess?” Sebastian said, prying himself off the couch. “You still never told me where we were going, though.”

“Just going for a walk, you know? Talk about some things.”

“Why can’t we just talk here? Why do we have to go somewhere to talk?”

“Put your shoes on already.” She huffed, to which Sebastian finally relented. After all, it wasn’t like he was in a position to tell her no.

Begrudgingly making his way over to the door, Sebastian slid on his soaking wet shoes and hurriedly tied them off. Hardly had he even gotten the shoes on before Red Star was already pushing her way out the door.

“So are you going to tell me what this is all about, now?” Sebastian asked as he hurried to catch up to her.

“You’ll see when we get there.” She smirked, almost seeming to revel in toying Sebastian around.

“Why? What’s so important about where we’re going?” Sebastian demanded, growing increasingly crossed with her flat out refusal to let him in on whatever she had planned.

By now she didn’t even bother to respond to his questions, preferring to let the sounds of the dirt and gravel crunching underfoot to fill the void left by the lack of conversation.

Realizing that he was going to get nowhere with this, Sebastian just grit his teeth and did his best to follow after her.

He had no idea of knowing just how long the two of them walked like that, not saying so much as a word to one another as they traversed the long and labyrinthian corridor.

Every now and again a hatch similar to the one that led into their home would dot the wall, as well as the occasional rusted ladder that led to a manhole cover above. Aside from these, however, the tunnel was completely desolate and barren. It was as if this was another dimension entirely, existing in the liminal space between realities.

Eventually, Red Star came to a halt before one of the ladders that led to the surface. Having fallen into something of a trance following her through the network of tunnels, Sebastian continued on for several feet until he realized that he was no longer following Red Star, at which point he back pedaled and came back to her side.

Peering up at the manhole cover, Sebastian could see nothing aside from inky blackness through the holes, and the distant sound of the omni-present LA traffic.

Without bothering to explain, Red Star took up the first rung in her hand and started to ascend the ladder. Sebastian followed suite, following closely behind her. As she reached the top of the ladder, Red Star effortlessly slid the manhole cover out of the way and clambered out, turning around to offer Sebastian an extended hand.

As soon as he wrapped his hand around her own, she gave a mighty tug and pulled Sebastian out of the manhole up with startling speed.

Sebastian now found himself standing in the middle of a massive warehouse of some sort. To both his left and his right sat thoroughly disused train cars, their paint having long since cracked and peeled away. Directly to his front he could see where the bay doors to the facility looked out towards one of the residential districts of the city, the innumerable dots of light pouring through windows lighting up the horizon. A pair of tall street lights of some sort flanked the entrance to the warehouse, providing the only source of illumination in the otherwise dark space.

Sparing little time to let Sebastian get oriented to his surroundings, Red Star started off down the side of one of the box cars, and upon reaching the end of the car she started to ascend the rusted ladder that led to its roof.

Following after her, he pulled himself up the ladder and on top of the box car. The combination of the darkness and his inebriation made the prospect of negotiating the ladder difficult, but he still managed to ascend it regardless.

Red Star shuffled her way to the edge of the roof and took a seat, patting the spot next to her. “Come on, take a seat.” She said with a barely visible smile.

Sebastian nodded and carefully made his way over, taking a seat on the edge of the roof. He wasn’t sure what was so specifically important about this seemingly mundane abandoned train yard, but at this point he was too tired to question it.

A long moment of silence would pass between the two, Red Star seemingly content to sit there and let the slight breeze rustle through her fur. It’d ultimately be Sebastian who would have to break the silence.

“So what’s this all about, anyways?” Sebastian asked, putting his hands down on the cold metal of the roof. “You drug me all across hell’s half acre just to talk, so what did you want to talk about?”

There was a pause as Red Star closed her eyes, enjoying the warm breeze. “You’re too impatient, you know? Can’t you enjoy the little things for a moment?”

Sebastian sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “There’s a time and a place to enjoy the little things, and this certainly isn’t one the time or place. I’m half beat to death and exhausted.”

“Well, if you really were half beat to death, you wouldn’t be sitting here having a conversation with me right now, no?” She asked, tilting her head to the side as she looked at him.

“That still doesn’t answer my question.”

Red Star let out a sigh and leaned over, reaching into the pocket of her cargo pants. “Since you want to be so blunt, I might as well get to it.” She said, producing a crumpled pack of cigarettes and thumbing it open. “I wanted to get to know you better.” She said, putting a cigarette between her lips before extending the pack towards Sebastian.

“And you had to drag me all the way out here for this?” He asked, taking a cigarette from the pack.

“Not just that, no.” She mumbled around the cigarette, fumbling with the zippo that was all too small for her massive hands.

Plucking the lighter from her fingers, Sebastian shoved the butt of the Zippo into the palm of his hand and pushed off the lid. In one fluid motion, he thumbed the striker wheel and flicked his wrist, sending the now lit lighter tumbling through the air. Before the lighter could hit the ground, he perfectly snatched it out of the air between his two fingers, finally bringing the flickering flame to the end of his cigarette.

Giving the cancer stick a few puffs, he held the flame out for her to light her own cigarette. With a bemused smirk curling up at the corners of her lips, she eyed Sebastian as she leaned in and lit the end of her cigarette.

With both of their cigarettes lit, Sebastian flicked his wrist once more and sent the lid of the lighter clacking closed, smothering the flame altogether.

Before handing her lighter back, Sebastian turned it over in his hand a few times, squinting through the darkness to make out the inscription on its surface. Although it was hard to tell, he could just barely make out the shape of a star surrounded by a laurel wreath, with a crossed hammer and sickle emblazoned in the center of the shape.

Running his thumb over the pitted metal surface a few times, he finally handed the lighter back to her. She gave him a curious look, as if she was expecting him to ask her about it, but he didn’t. Those questions could wait for later. Right now he had far more pressing questions to ask.

“So what else did you want to bring me out here for, aside from small talk and pleasantries?” He asked between long and drawn out tugs on his cigarette.

“We can cross that bridge when we get to it.” She said, a slow billow of smoke pouring out of her nostrils as she spoke.

“Uh-huh, riiight. So uh...you got questions, right? Go ahead and ask away, i’m your captive audience.”

“Hmm…” She drew off, lightly tapping her claw against the box car with a steady ‘Tink-tink-tink’ sound.

“So let’s start off with the basics, yes? Where are you from?”

Sebastian thought about it for a second, flicking the ashes off the end of his rapidly diminishing cigarette.

“Well...I was born in Veracruz, and my family moved here when I was still a baby. Been here ever since.” He said plainly.

Before she could ask her next question, Sebastian beat her to the punch.

“But I got a question for you, Red Star. What’s your real name? And where are you from?” He asked, launching in with questions of his own. “I haven’t caught your name since we met. Or, anybody else’s name, really.”

“My name’s Olga Ivanovich. I was born in a small village in Russia called Rayguba.” Seeing the need for further explanation, she continued. “It was very small, maybe no more than two hundred people living there. It’s by Leningrad. Well, now it’s just called Saint Petersburg.”

Sebastian didn’t have the slightest clue where this ‘Saint Petersburg’ place was, given that he had slept through most of geography class back in high school, but he still nodded emphatically as she spoke.

“So then why did you come here, then?” He asked, cocking his head to the side. She only offered a dismissive shake of her head.

“It’s a long story for another day, friend. This is about getting to know you after all, not me.” She said with a smile, finishing off the last puff of her cigarette before flicking it away.

“Alright, how about this. When were you born? You barely look like you have a peach’s fuzz on your cheeks.” She teased.

“I’m twenty.” He said, taking one last toke of his cigarette before similarly casting it off to the side. “Born on October 3rd, 2007. How about you?”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Where are your manners, young man? Don’t you know you’re not supposed to ask a lady her age?” She scorned with faux displeasure. “You really sure you want to know that, though?”

“I don’t see why not.” He said with a subdued shrug.

She paused and shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I was born in 1967.”

That was enough to nearly make Sebastain choke on the spittle he was trying to swallow down. “1967?!” He cried in dismay, casting an incredibly incredulous look her way. “Man, quit bullshitting me. You weren’t born in fucking 1967! That’d make you…” He paused as he looked down at his fingers, starting to count the years on his fingers.

Olga sat in polite silence as she watched the gears turning in Sebastian’s head as he painfully struggled to figure out a 4th grade math problem.

“That’d make you 67 years old! Erm, no, wait…” He paused again, looking down at his fingers.

“60, Sebastian. I’m 60 years old.” She said softly, either tired of waiting for him to figure out a basic math problem or just wanting to end his struggling.

“Ha. Ha-ha! That’s a funny. I might be stupid, but i’m not stupid enough to believe that bullshit.” He said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Believe me, or don’t. It’s up to you. I’m telling you the truth.” She said quietly, folding her hands in her lap.

Sebastian frowned as he thought about it. “Even if you were right, which I'm not saying you are, how would that work? You don’t look a day over 25.”

“Think about it. Do you remember your parents looking any different from when you were a kid compared to now?”

He had to think about it for a second, a frown drawing up across his features. “I uh...no. Now that you mention it I don’t. They look the same as I’ve always remembered them looking.”

She nodded slightly and looked out towards the city. “It is a part of this curse of ours. The older we get, the slower we age.”

“Really? I mean...I guess that makes sense. But, why have my parents never told me about this?” He asked with a concerned tone.

The best she could offer was a mild shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe they were just waiting for the right time.”

“Maybe…” He drew off, letting the awkward silence consume the conversation for several long moments.

"So what is it that you people do, exactly?" He finally asked, looking over to her.

"What are you meaning by that?" She asked curiously.

"I mean, like...what do you guys do? What are you all about? Normal people don't just wake up one day and say they're going to war with a government agency, so what makes you guys want to do it?"

Olga thought about his question for a long moment, either trying to figure out an answer, or trying to figure out how to word it correctly.

"We all fight for our own reasons…" She started slowly. "We all have reasons to do what we do. Some of us do it for revenge. Some of us do it because we realize the tyranny of the CDA. And some of us...well. some of us are just here for the chaos."

"And why do you do it? You're obviously not from here, so why should you care?"

Olga let a moment of silence pass between the two of them, staring out towards the distant horizon.

“I do it for revenge." She stated simply. "They took away something very dear to my heart. I won’t stop fighting until I die, or we expose them for what they really are.”

Sebastian nodded empathetically. “And what did they take away from you?” He asked softly, trying to meet her gaze. She refused to look at him as she lowered her head and winced a little, remaining silent.

Sensing that he just hit a major sore spot, Sebastian fell into silence and awkwardly fidgeted with his fingers, the void of silence between them like a wall of ice.

An untold amount of time would pass between the two, until finally Olga would speak up.

“So...what are your abilities? What are your erm…’super powers’?” She asked, trying to press on from the awkward silence.

“I uh...Its kind of hard to explain.” He said, rubbing at the back of his neck.

She thought about it for a minute. “Hmm...Want to show me?” She said, a glimmer in her eyes.

“What do you mean by ‘show you’?” He asked, awkwardly fidgeting his fingers in his lap.

“Come. I’ll show you what I mean.” She said with a smirk, hopping down from the train car. With nothing else to lose, Sebastian followed after her.

With no short measure of bravado and swagger, she confidently strode into the empty lot in front of the warehouse, with her shoulders held back and her chin held up high. She’d walk a good ways into the lot before coming to a stop, and turning to face him. .

“So what’s this all about?” He asked, stuffing his hands into his pockets and coming to a stop about fifteen feet away from her. Casting a glance to both his left and his right, Sebastian’s eyes were greeted with the sight of nothing aside from dilapidated concrete and the weeds that sprung up between the cracks.

“To put it simply, I want to see what you’re made of.” She said, turning to face him.

“And what do you mean by that?”

“A little spar, you know! A little erm….fisti-cans? Fisti-cups?” She said confusedly, trying to find the right term.

“You mean fisticuffs?” Sebastian asked confusedly.

“Yeah, that!”

Sebastian snorted and shook his head. “Yeah, no. That’s gonna be a pass from me, boss.”

“Well how come?” She asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Because! I can’t hit a woman. Are you fucking high or something?” He scoffed.

For her part, Olga seemed more amused than anything. “Oh is that right?” She asked, taking a few steps towards Sebastian. “I see your parents raised you with good values, young man.” She smirked, starting to circle Sebastian like a vulture, her footsteps being equal parts measured and calculating. Her boots crunched against the decaying concrete in a steady cadence, and with each pass she pressed closer and closer to Sebastian.

“Yeah, they absolutely did as a matter of fact.” He stated defiantly, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t care what you say, Olga. I’m not going to hit you. I have nothing to prove.”

“Oh, is that right?” She asked, drawing even closer with her circling. At this point, she was no more than an arm’s length away. “You may not have anything to prove to yourself, Sebastian, but you have much to prove to me.”

“And how is that?” He spat, eyeing her fiercely as she continued to circle him.

“See...we went through a lot of effort to break you out, no? It’d be in our best interest to make sure our new ‘recruit’ is, as you say, ‘up to snuff.’”

“Look, I don’t care what you say, I am not going to fight a woman. Do you even know what you’re asking for, dude? I broke that thing’s fucking skull with my bare hands! What if I hurt you?”

“HA! HA-AH! Hurt me? You must be kidding!” She bellowed with an uproarious laugh. “Maybe you should have gone into comedy, kid. You’re a funny guy.”

Sebastian grit his teeth, but didn’t dare move from his spot. “Say whatever you want to say, you’re not going to convince me to fight.”

She nodded slowly.”And you have your heart set on this?”

“You best believe it.” He reaffirmed, hopeful that his pig headedness would win out in the end. As it would turn out, that wasn’t exactly the case.

“Looks like I might have to change strategies, then.” She muttered under her breath, more to herself than anything. Before Sebastian could begin to process what she had just said, she sprang forwards with her fist leveled right for his face.

Just like when the anomaly had lunged for him the other day, time seemed to slow to a stand still. In an instant, a switch somewhere in the back of his mind was flipped, and his caveman brain took control. His mind was thrown into instant fight or flight mode, and once more, his mind was choosing to fight.

Simultaneously pushing backwards, while at the same time reaching out, Sebastian managed to catch her fist mid-air, right where his head had been not even a split second prior.

Olga strained to push forwards against his grip, but he was resolute in his defense.

As his skin hardened and his fervor grew, he started to actively push back on her fist, leading to a complete dead lock.

“There, you happy now?” He strained through grit teeth, looking up to meet her own gaze. A wicked smirk could be seen across her features, and her golden eyes seemed to be nearly luminous in the dark.

“Happy? We’re just getting started!” She bellowed, kicking her leg forwards and sending the tip of her steel-toed boots right into the backside of his knee.

The sheer force of the blow alone was enough to force Sebastian’s knee joint to buckle, and he came crashing to the ground with a muffled yelp. Pain seared through his flesh, coursing up through his leg and into his pelvis.

Sparing him no respite, Olga pounced upon him like a wild beast closing in for the kill. If she got on top of him, he was as good as done in this fight. He needed to react.

Just as she started to fall to her knees, fist cocked back and ready to deliver a fearsome ground and pound, Sebastian thrust his foot outwards - inadvertently planting the sole of his chuck in her crotch.

Her eyes shot wide open and she let out a surprised grunt. All of the momentum and fury of her attack was lost in that very instant, and she was sent wheeling off to the side, grabbing at her groin.

Somewhere deep inside him, Sebastian felt a twinge of remorse for the inadvertent low blow; but there was no time to dwell on that. In only a matter of a few seconds she already managed to recover herself, and now she looked more murderously pissed off than before.

Scrambling to his feet, Sebastian put up his fists and took several steps backwards. With each movement his wounded leg screamed out in protest, threatening to give out beneath him at any second. He was already playing at a disadvantage from the get-go, and his now wounded leg wasn’t helping that.

“We good now?” He called out to her, lowering his fists just the slightest bit. Olga only glared at him, the fire in her soul burning with the fury of an inferno.

“We’re done when I say we’re done!” She bellowed, adopting a similar stance and closing in quickly. Sebastian tried to keep his distance from her, taking several shuffling steps backwards, but his leg was proving to be less than cooperative. On the second step backwards, his knee buckled and he was sent staggering backwards in a wild attempt to regain his balance. This was the opening Olga was looking for, and she didn’t hesitate to seize the opportunity.

Lunging forwards, she unleashed a flurry of earth shattering blows. Sebastian raised his hands to defend his head and body to the best of his ability, but it was of little use, as she merely attacked around his guard.

A blow to the ribs, a blow to the stomach, and a swift undercut was all it took to send Sebastian crashing to the ground. The world around him spun and pulsated in and out of focus, and each breath came as a pained wheeze.

Before he could even get back on his feet, Olga was already on top of him - slamming the sole of her boot straight into the center of his chest. The sheer force of the kick alone was enough to send him flying backwards, coming to a sliding stop some feet away.

Sebastian wheezed and rolled over, once more trying to get back to his feet, and once more Olga tried to swarm him. This time around, however, Sebastian managed to get back on his feet just in time, taking several staggering steps backwards. Rather than immediately lunging in for the attack, Olga kept her distance this time, holding her fists out in front of her body and balancing her weight on the balls of her feet.

Even from the swimming of his head and the darkness of the train yard, Sebastian could tell that Olga moved with the grace and technique of an expert martial artist. Everything from her tactful footwork to her well calculated attacks screamed that this wasn’t her first rodeo by any means - only adding to his overall sense of being hopelessly over matched. Even if this was a fight he stood no chance of winning, that wasn’t going to stop him from doing his best.

After taking several long and ragged breaths to steady himself, Sebastian started to move forwards. Olga started to back up at first, but she soon changed tact and started to close the distance. It’d be Olga that’d open up the bout, using her far superior reach to throw a few jabs, all of which Sebastian ducked and weaved around.

Just as she started to back up even more to keep Sebastian out of range, he lunged forwards and closed the distance, launching in with a quick succession of jabs and hooks aimed at her face. For her part, Olga did a masterful job defending herself, bobbing and weaving to avoid most of the jabs thrown her way, and eating the strikes that got through like they were nothing.

Sebastian didn’t let up though, continuing his furious assault. His muscles ached and his bones were sore, but he just kept going like a man possessed, keeping up the furious assault for all that he was worth. For the first time in their entire fight, Olga was playing on the defense.

Seeing an opportunity to reverse the initiative, Olga launched in with a sweeping haymaker aimed right for Sebastian’s head, a blow he only just narrowly avoided. In the process of throwing the haymaker, Olga’s front leg became dangerously exposed, something which Sebastian was going to use to his advantage.

Deciding to pull a page from her book, Sebastian kicked his foot out and planted the toe of his shoe right in the backside of her knee. Although his wounded leg threatened to give way from the risky maneuver, Sebastian maintained his balance, if only just barely, and Olga was sent crashing to the ground.

With her defenses lowered and her attention divided for just a split second, Sebastian rushed in with a wide right hook. With fist cocked high over his head and animalistic rage consuming his soul, he swung for all he was worth. Olga looked up just in time to see his fist coming for her maw, and her eyes shot wide open on the impact.

A deafening ‘CRACK!’ rang out from the blow and Olga’s head jerked to the side violently. For a second, concern started to creep in on Sebastian’s mind. That right there was the unmistakable crack of bone, he had no doubt about it. Had he gone too far? Had he inadvertently broke her jaw?

If he had, Olga took it in stride and got to her feet once more. Seeing her rise to her feet like that was enough to make Sebastian snap out of his stupor and take several leering steps backwards as she glowered at him. Her eyes burned with spite and anger, those yellow orbs of hers glowing like furnaces.

Turning her head to the side, Olga spit a finger-nail sized tooth and a glob of blood onto the ground, before wiping her lips with the back of her hand. A wave of terror washed over Sebastian as he witnessed the display. If she could take getting a tooth knocked out as if it was nothing, there was not a single thing he could do to this woman to stop her.

Putting her hands up, Olga came for Sebastian with even more fury and anger than ever before. Numbly putting his fists up, Sebastian started to back pedal to put some distance between the two of them, but it was already far too late.

In only a few bounding strides Olga closed the distance between the two of them, coming straight at him with a jab. Sebastian jerked his head to the side to avoid the incoming fist, only to put his head directly in the path of another fist coming from the other side.

The force of the blow snapped Sebastian’s head to the side and he reeled in pain. He tried to stagger back, but she wasn’t going to let him get away this time. She launched in with another attack, this time a fist aimed straight into his stomach. With the force and fury of a speeding semi truck, her fist made contact with his stomach, and out of a knee jerk reaction, Sebastian doubled over to grab at his belly, putting him right in position for Olga’s coup de grace.

Just as he leaned over, Olga seized him by the back of the head and forced him downwards - right into the path of her oncoming knee. His face and her knee would make contact with an ear splitting ‘CRACK!’, and in that very instant, Sebastian was done for.

His grasp on consciousness faltered and his body lost all muscular control, falling face first onto the concrete in a heap.

Olga stood over him with fists balled and chest heaving from exertion, glowering down at him. Sebastian let out a meek groan and rolled onto his back, his skin losing its invulnerability and returning to its normal color.

As soon as his eyes opened, he was greeted with the sight of Olga’s tremendous frame towering over him. With his brain scrambled and his thoughts incoherent, Sebastian brought his hands up to cover his head out of fear of the inevitable next blow. Seeing his complete inability to continue fighting, Olga stooped down. Fearing another punch, Sebastian tightened up and cowered, covering himself in the fetal position. Instead of a strike, however, Olga carefully wrapped a hand around his arm and hoisted him to his feet.

“You alright, kid?” She asked, dusting him off and planting his feet on the ground. Sebastian just groaned and rubbed at his head weakly, his legs threatening to give out beneath him. “I….I think so.” He grumbled.

Olga only smiled and let go of him. The sudden lack of stability was nearly enough to send him crashing down to the ground, but he was able to steady himself enough to remain upright.

“Are you alright? Did I hurt you?” He asked, watching as she made her way over to the puddle of blood on the ground and plucking the tooth out of it.

“Nothing a good night of sleep won’t fix.” She mumbled around the fingers in her mouth, pushing the tooth back into its place.

“How….what are you…” Sebastian drew off. He was too sore and exhausted to even question it anymore.

Once the tooth had been pushed back into her gums, Olga came back to Sebastian’s side, grabbing him up by the arm and helping him to walk back to the warehouse.

“How’d I do?” He asked numbly, pushing stray locks of hair out of his face.

“Much passion, not enough skill” She said, leading them over to the manhole. “You have much more potential than you realize. We’re going to have to work on that, you and I.”

“Thanks.” Sebastian said sheepishly, rubbing at the back of his neck.

“Now, let’s get you to bed, yes? I think you’ve earned it, and we have a big day tomorrow.”

Sebastian nodded. He couldn’t argue with that.