{"sf1_id":921667,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Born of Dreams","author":"Volcan MacAingeal","words":20747,"posted_at":"2015-10-14T13:50:00.000Z","tags":["Colmation Universe","Lioness","Monster","Salamander","Superheroes","The Warp","Whiptail","caribou","kaiju","lionheart","super powers"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/921667-born-of-dreams","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/921667","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=921667\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"-City of\nToronto, basement of unknown building-\n09 October,\n2015\n            \"Where are the other opium crates?!\"\nThe leader of the trucking crew yelled as he arrived and saw, all around him,\nmen who should have been loading boxes of materials into the backs of several\ndisguised shipping trucks, were doing nothing. There were no crates, several\ntrucks were sitting empty, and the men were distressed by the arrival of the\ncrew boss, not wanting to face his wrath at this moment.\n            They turned, and with quiet stares,\nwondered who the unfortunate fool who would have to tell him the news. He\nwatched them, quietly fuming as he waited for one of them to give him an\nanswer, until one stepped forward and shakily explained, in their native\ntongue. \"The... trucks from the docks have not come, sir,\" he said. \"We have\ntried to call them but... they do not answer.\"\n            The Arabic fox growled angrily\nbefore he punched the jackal across the face, sending him reeling to the floor\nalmost comically. He lay there, groaning as he held his broken nose, two of his\nco-workers coming over to help him as their leader began to address the rest of\nthe group. \"Keep trying!\" He commanded, before pointing at three of them. \"You,\nyou, and you; come with me! We're going out to find them and, if they are not\nyet on their way, motivate them to travel faster! The rest of you, arm up and\nprotect what we have; if we lose this shipment\nas we have the others, the master will eviscerate us all!\"\n            The spurred into action, following\nhis directions. Those set to guard whatever opium they had left hastily armed\nthemselves with firearms from a nearby weapons locker; AK47 rifles and even one\nwith an RPK, fitted with a drum magazine, scurrying about to take up positions,\nwhile the leader and his three followers collected their own armaments and\nheaded for the exit door, entering the stairwell and heading up to ground\nlevel, pushing open the door out to the parking lot...\n            A flash of red, and stars exploded\nacross the eyes of the leader followed by a searing pain across his face as his\nmuzzle was crushed by the fist, breaking his nose and, quite possibly a tooth.\nHe was sent spinning to the ground, howling in agony as the pain set in, curling\nup and putting both paws over his face. His followers looked in horror as their\nleader hit the ground, and then elevated their gazes to see the white and red\nclad caribou standing before them, shaking his fist. \n            \"Thanks for showing me the way in,\"\nhe said in English.\n            They both screamed something in\nArabic, raising their weapons; The Warp vanished in a blink of light, sending\ntheir bullets flying into nothing but the concrete wall of the entry ramp for\nthe underground garage. They both felt powerful hands grab their heads from\nbehind, and then grunted as their heads were smacked together noisily, both of\nthem falling to the ground with a groan.\n            He turned to the downed leader, who\nwas trying to raise his AK47, but Warp seized it, ripping it from his hands and\nyanked out the magazine, snapped the bolt, and discarded the now unusable\nrifle. He repeated this for the remaining two, rendering the weapons useless,\nbut the leader was not unarmed yet; he rose up while Warp wasn't looking,\ndrawing his Jambiya with the moon symbol on it -an item carried by every member\nof the Desert Moon syndicate. Just as practical as it as symbolic, the deadly\nsharpened blade was ready to draw blood, and with a belly of fury, the\nSyndicate lieutenant charged at Warp, brandishing the large knife and slashing\nat Warp's throat as he turned to face him.\n            Warp brought up his arm, letting the\ndagger hit his glove; with a metallic clang, it glanced off, and before the fox\ncould bring his weapon back to strike again, Warp non-chalantly punched him in\nthe face once more, reigniting the agonizing pain he already felt and sending\nthe fox collapsing to the ground, practically crying. With that, Warp kicked\naway his knife, and hauled the fox to his feet, looking him square in the eye.\n            \"Your boss,\" he said. \"I want him...\nnow!\" He bellowed.\n            The fox, despite his pain, let out a\nweak chuckle. \"You are truly a fool... if you think I will betray the master,\"\nhe said. \"What he would do to me is\nfar worse than any of you men of the north-west could ever muster.\"\n            \"Try me,\" stated Warp. \"How about I\ndrop you off of the top of a skyscraper?\"\n            The fox only laughed again, but the\nfear was apparent in his voice. \"That would be act of mercy,\" he returned. \"Go\nahead; spare me his wrath... drop me\nfrom top of precious tower. But I will never betray the master.\"\n            \"If you're so terrified of him, even\nwith him not being here, what's the harm in telling me his name?\" Warp asked,\nchanging his approach. \"Because if he's as dangerous as you're making him\nsound, clearly I'd be no match for him, correct?\"\n            The fox eyed the caribou as if he\nwere insane, pulling his head back from him with an expression of disgust. \"You\nsay that honestly, yet still wish to pursue him?\"\n            \"It's what I do,\" replied Warp. \"So\ntell me, what is this leader of yours called?\"\n            The fox was silent for a moment, his\ngaze meeting that of the Canadian's for a moment, silent and still, until finally\nhe released a defiant his, baring his bloodied teeth and bristling his fur.\n\"Never! I will not betray him; long live the Desert Moon!\" He swung at Warp\nwith his fist, nicking the caribou across the tip of his nose as he leaned his\nhead back to dodge it.\n            Warp delivered an uppercut to his\njaw in retaliation, knocking the fox out completely. \"Stubborn vulpine,\" he\ngrumbled as the fox went still, shaking his hand to relieve the ache.\n            \"I\nguess my suggestion about appealing to their egos didn't work either, did it?\" Akio's\nvoice buzzed in his ear.\n            \"Not so much, unfortunately,\"\nreplied Warp. \"This is getting ridiculous; I've tried everything to get the\nname of their leader out of them, and I'm still no closer to finding out his\nidentity.\" He ran a hand down his face. \"Where's a detective when you need\none?\"\n            \"With\nhow secretive these guys are, I doubt even the greatest investigators in the\nworld could shed any light on the identity of Desert Moon's leader,\" stated\nAkio. \"Not without resorting to some\npretty drastic measures.\"\n            \"What could be more drastic than what I've tried already?\"\n            \"Torture.\"\nAkio replied bluntly.\n            Warp fell silent.\n            \"Hey\nyou asked. I'm not saying you should actually try it.\"\n            Warp sighed. \"Either way, I'm still no closer to getting these\nnarcotics dealers out of my city,\" he said, annoyed. \"Their leader is probably\nhiding out back in the Middle East; maybe this whole thing is just a wild goose\nchase.\"\n            \"Maybe\nchasing the leader is, but you've... what's that word? Botched? Yes, botched up\nenough of their operations that they've ground to a halt.\"\n            \"They can always get more drugs from their suppliers -I don't even know\nwho those are,\" Warp pointed out. \"Take out a thug, they can be replaced, take\nout a lieutenant it sets things back but they too can be replaced, but take out\nthe leader, the whole operation comes crashing down. It worked when I took down\nTakeo Kameyama; it may not have beaten the Yakuza as a whole, but it drove them\nunderground, and since then, J?sh? was the last one to reveal himself; no one\nelse.\"\n            \"Not\nyet anyway. If there is one thing I know about my own countrymen -especially\nthose in the Yakuza, is that some of us are prone to bearing grudges,\" remarked\nAkio.\n            Warp rolled his eyes. \"Great,\" he\nsaid, exaggerated. \"I suppose I better go deal with the rest of these punks in\nthe garage here.\"\n            \"Hai,\nyou should. But don't forget; you need to finish up early tonight,\" Akio\nstated. \"You've got a holiday to get to\nafter work tomorrow.\"\n            Warp perked up at Akio's words, his ears flicking out and his eyes\nwidening behind his mask. \"I completely forgot; thanks for reminding me.\"\n            \"Not\na problem. Want me to cut off the electricity into that garage and leave your\ntargets in the dark?\"\n            \"I certainly wouldn't mind it,\" replied Warp.\n            The rest of the night went just as planned; Warp got the drop on the\nother Desert Moon members, ambushing them in the darkness of the underground\nparking garage. Many of them had flashlights, making it easy for him to zero in\non them, carefully calculating the reaction times of each of them as he picked\nout his targets, and using the flashes of his own teleport to find those who\ndid not have lights for him to track. In the meantime, Akio sent out a dispatch\non the police networks, directing them to the underground parking garage, but\nby the time they got there, all they found was a room full of battered men and\nbroken guns.\n            With that, Warp returned to the\nBunker, appearing as he always did in a blink of light; Akio turned from his\nstation to greet him. \"Welcome back, Daniel,\" he said.\n            Warp lifted the corners of his mask,\nretracting the nanites that disguised his fur to their hiding places within the\nconfines of his mask, and when he lifted it free, he was back to his natural\ncolour of brown. \"Thanks, Akio,\" returned the caribou.\n            Akio turned away as Daniel began to\ntake off his costume, unzipping the sleeves from the collar down to free his\narms and shoulders. \"So tell me,\" he began. \"What is this Onota... Onotee...\nUm...\"\n            \"Onöta'ke,\" Daniel corrected.\n            \"Yes, that. What is that place?\"\n            \"It's the village where my dad's\nside of the family comes from; the side that gave me my powers,\" the caribou\nexplained. \"It wasn't until after I got my teleportation that my aunt taught me\nabout it; it's a well-kept secret, to keep the outside world away. Onöta'ke\nitself sits on a range of privately-owned land, and although is still part of\nCanada, it's mostly an area of independence; nobody bothers them out there.\"\n            \"Hai... and this festival you're\ngoing to?\"\n            \"The Harvest Festival, held every\nAutumn,\" replied Daniel. \"All Iroquois tribes celebrate it, and ever since\nvisiting the village the first time, I decided it was only right I start\nattending the festivals whenever I can. I am, after all, one of them.\"\n            \"From what you tell me, the village\nelder doesn't seem to think so,\" remarked Akio.\n            At the mention of the elder, Warp\ngrimaced. \"Ohanzee is from a very old line of thinking, neck-deep in\ntradition,\" he said. \"Don't get me wrong; he's a very wise man, and knows much\nabout our abilities, but he considers the modern world beyond that village to\nbe the greatest abomination since the dawn of time.\"\n            \"How can he hate the modern world so\nmuch?\" Akio asked, baffled. \"We've got computers, global positioning, advanced\ntools that can work at a microscopic level...\" He grinned and licked his lips.\n\"And juicy Alberta sirloin hamburgers! How can he hate the modern world?\"\n            \"Well... aside from the burgers,\"\nDaniel began, eyeing Akio quizzically for a second. \"What he hates is how\ndependant on the modern times we are; fossils fuels remove the need to learn\nhow to make fire, GPS stops us from learning how to navigate the land, and how\npaved roads tear down wildlife habitats to allow 'mechanical monstrosities' to\ndrive on them.\"\n            \"So he's an environmentalist?\" Akio\nasked.\n            \"Yeah, more or less. He feels that\nstraying from the old ways of survival and learning make us weaker,\" replied\nDaniel. \"I've studied the ways of the Iroquois; I've practiced what I could. I\nknow how to make a fire from two stones and I can make a raft out of some vines\nand logs; I respect the old ways, but the modern times aren't the abomination\nhe thinks. Look at how far medical research has come? There are fewer deadly\nillnesses in the world every day, there are no longer tribal chieftains or\nmonarchs squabbling for wealth and resources to lord their positions over\neveryone, machinery has boosted agricultural production tenfold and there are\nhardly any wars anymore, when centuries ago we lived in ages of endless war;\nconflicts that just never seemed to end. Modern times are what brought all of\nthat about.\n            \"There are times I can see where\nhe's coming from; if we don't respect the old ways we won't have them when the\ntime comes we need them,\" he carried on. \"But his stance on the modern world is\njust as naive as how most people of modern times neglect the older ways. He\njust doesn't believe that he can be wrong.\"\n            \"And that's his reason for not\ngetting along with you? Just because you live in modern-day cities and live\nlike any average person?\" Akio asked.\n            \"That about sums it up, yes,\"\nreplied Daniel. \"If tradition didn't forbid him from doing so, he'd probably\nnever let me into the village. But since I am Iroquois, he can't stop me from\ngoing unless I do something criminal while I'm there, and that is never going to\nhappen.\"\n            Akio nodded. \"Alright. How long will\nyou be gone?\" He asked.\n            \"The festival usually lasts a few\ndays, but I'll only stay for one or two; can't leave the city for too long,\"\nreplied Daniel. \"But, thankfully this holiday also grants me a week off of paid\nvacation; I intend to make the best of that.\"\n            \"If anyone has earned it by now, it\nis definitely you,\" stated Akio.\n            \"Will you be okay without me for\nthat long, though?\" Daniel asked.\n            \"It's only two days, Daniel; go!\nHave fun. Bring me back a souvenir if you can.\"\n            Daniel chuckled. \"I'll see what they\nhave this year.\"\n            Akio nodded. \"If any sort of big\nemergency happens, I'll text you. But I'll make sure it's something big before\nI consider interrupting your vacation.\"\n            Daniel chuckled. \"Then let's both\nhope nothing that big actually happens.\"\n            \"Hai,\nindeed,\" returned Akio.\n            ~~~~~\n            The next day, at McKenzie\naccounting, Daniel Tonraq was hard at work at his desk; he was only working a\nhalf day that day, before he'd be leaving for his vacation, and so he urgently\nmade certain that he was caught up on all of his work, ensuring that he didn't\nleave any pressing issues that would build up while he was gone. He checked the\ntransaction records of his clients, emailing them off to said clients, and then\nfiled away the hard copies into the cabinet behind his desk, locking it\nsecurely.\n            It was almost the end of his shift,\nso time was running short. He doubled his efforts, cleaning up his office to\nmake it look as tidy as possible, all the while bearing a light smile on his\nface. He often looked forward to these events, attending the festivals of the\nseasons; it was gratifying to see the traditional ways of his ancestors, the\nmusic, singing, dancing and giving thanks to the spirits of old for their\nprosperity and continued existence. It was virtually identical to Thanksgiving\nin Canada, but with a Native American touch.\n            Finally, he finished. He powered\ndown his computer, packed away some items in his briefcase, and then stood up\nfrom his desk. \"Done,\" he muttered, before he began to leave his office.\n            Halfway out the door, he nearly ran\ninto Colin, who was approaching with two coffee cups in hand. Daniel nearly\nreacted, but he held back; his persona as Daniel Tonraq was that of a kind yet\nclumsy caribou, and if he were to display his honed reflexes, he'd risk\nrevealing that he wasn't as careless as he pretended to be; he forced his arms\nto stay down, and simply let Colin run into him.\n            Predictably, some hot coffee spilt\nonto his shirt. \"Hey!\" He yelped\n            \"Crap! Sorry Danny!\" Colin returned.\n\n            \"No problem... good thing I didn't\nwear a white shirt under my suit today,\" returned Daniel. He quickly removed\nhis overshirt before the coffee could seep through and dampen his button-down\nshirt underneath, folding the removed piece over his arm and adjusting his tie\nbefore turning to face the fox again. \"Did I smell hazelnut coffee in that\ncup?\" He asked.\n            \"You did,\" replied Colin, passing\nthe partially-emptied cup to his friend, which Daniel graciously accepted.\n\"Just the way you like it; a little send-off for you before you leave us.\"\n            \"Colin, I'm only gone for the week,\"\nDaniel reminded, sipping the coffee in his hand. \"I'll be back next Monday.\"\n            \"I know, but we like having you\naround the office,\" replied Colin.\n            Daniel smiled. \"Well, I appreciate\nthat. But I only go to these festivals twice a year and I hate to miss them.\nI'm proud of my ancestry, and would like to keep at least one tradition in my\nlife. The festivals make for great stress relief too.\"\n            \"You should take me along sometime,\nthen,\" stated Colin.\n            The caribou chuckled. \"Would if I\ncould, but I'm afraid the people of the village are fairly reclusive\n-especially the elder. He's pretty strict about his stance on non-Iroquois and\npeople in the modern world.\"\n            \"Old bastard,\" muttered Colin,\nbefore looking apologetically at Daniel. \"Oh uh... no offense, of course.\"\n            \"None taken; there are times I want\nto call him that straight to his face too,\" admitted Daniel. \"But, he is the\nelder and I must respect him, just as I was taught.\"\n            \"I guess,\" said Colin, sipping his\nown coffee as he walked with Daniel to the door. \"Well, see about bringing us\nback some souvenirs, eh?\"\n            Daniel chuckled. \"You're the second\none to ask me to do that in the last twelve hours... I'll see what they have\nthis year.\" He downed the rest of his coffee, and carefully passed the mug back\nto Colin. \"Alright; I better scram. I have to catch the next bus back to my\ncondo to pack up and leave this afternoon.\"\n            \"You the man, Dan; don't forget\nabout us.\"\n            \"Just a week, Colin,\" Daniel called as he headed for the door, waving\ngoodbye to everyone he passed on his way out.\n            ~~~~~\n            200\nsouth-east of Toronto, shore of Lake Ontario...\n            Daniel had long since left sight of the rest stop after disembarking\nfrom his bus, trekking between the trees in a high rise overlooking the\nbeautiful surface of the great Lake Ontario. He could see for countless miles\nacross the water, knowing only that the United States lay at the other side.\nHe'd never actually travelled over the border and seen the country neighboring\nhis own, but he'd never really wanted to; Canada had plenty of things to see,\nfor those who knew where to look for them.\n            He continued up the path... or at\nleast what could be seen of it. The trail he was following wasn't exactly easy\nto spot, but he knew it well, and it was the only way to Onöta'ke village. He\nhad changed his clothes at the rest stop, adorning a traditional Iroquois garb\nhis Aunt had given him when he had first begun attending Onöta'ke's festivals,\nalthough his village made their clothes out of linen or cotton instead of\nDeerskin -it would seem rather strange for a tribe of caribou anthro's to make\nclothes from feral deer, wouldn't it?\n            His garb consisted of a\nshort-sleeved shirt, inlaid with patterns of beads along the sleeves. The shirt\nwas long, hanging down past his waist, where a belt pulled it tight and made it\nlike a tunic. He wore cream-white leggings, and a pair of calf-sleeves around\nhis legs that fit snugly -his calves had developed some muscle since he had\nlast worn these sleeves, and were tighter than last year, but they still fit\nwell enough to make him presentable. The last piece of his costume -and oddly\nreminiscent of his hero costume, was a red cape inlaid with hundreds of golden beads\nforming symbolic patterns. He wore it over one shoulder, across his back and\nover his left arm. This cape was almost weightless compared to the one he wore\nas the Warp, and he barely felt it swaying as he walked.\n            His hooves noisily crushed sticks and\nleaves along the trail as he walked, kicking some dirt with each step. Soon, a\nsmell reached his nostrils; the unmistakable smell of corn porridge with a hint\nof maple. He smiled; he was almost to the village. Quickening his pace, he\nbroke into a half jog, eager to get to the village to sample some of that\nporridge, and...\n            A flash of movement out of the\ncorner of his eye, and he felt himself ducking as something sprang into view,\nlaunching itself towards him. Falling into a hand-sprint after dropping his\nsuitcase, Daniel flipped back onto his feet after one somersault, and turned to\nface his would-be attacker, finding another caribou like himself staring back\nat him, only this one had slightly dark hue to his fur and a bushier collar of\nit around his neck, revealed from the inside of his uniform -he was dressed in\nthe clothes of a Park Ranger, minus the hat and gun belt, carrying instead a\nmachete that was still protected by its scabbard. His antlers were trimmed\ndown, smoothed manually by tools to fit through the wide-brimmed hat he wore\nupon his head.\n            The other caribou lunged forward,\nswinging his fist, but it was slow and Daniel easily teleported before the\nattack reached him, appearing behind the second caribou before kicking him in\nthe buttocks and sending him falling onto his face with a grunt.\n            \"Is that any way to welcome me back,\nHan?\" Daniel asked, crossing his arms.\n            The other caribou chuckled as he\nturned over and sat up, looking up at the older and larger caribou with a pair\nof green eyes much like his own. \"What better way to welcome Toronto's greatest\nhero than with a little adrenaline?\" He asked before Daniel helped him to his\nfeet, and the two of them exchanged a one-armed hug. \"Welcome back, cousin.\nGood to see the garb still fits you, putting on all those muscles.\" He pinched\nDaniel's arm playfully. \"Is that a bicep or a pineapple? It's huge!\"\n            Daniel laughed heartily and gently\npushed Han's arm away. \"Good to be back,\" he returned. \"How're the festivities\nlooking this year?\"\n            \"Fantastic; we had a bumper\ncrop this time around,\" replied Han as he picked up Daniel's suitcase and\nwalked alongside him, dusting off his uniform with his other hand. \"They're\nmaking lots of your favorite; you can just smell that porridge, eh?\"\n            \"That I can,\" replied Daniel. \"So\nhow's the ranger business?\"\n            \"Oh you know... boring. Nobody ever\ncomes around here, so I rarely have anything to do but practice my\nsneak-attack.\"\n            \"Spend a week of training with me,\nand you'll know what a real sneak\nattack is,\" Daniel returned, smugly.\n            \"Bragging, Daniel, from you of all\npeople?\" Han asked. \"Did my head hit a rock when you kicked me over or\nsomething?\"\n            Daniel chuckled. \"No, not at all,\"\nhe said. \"But sneak attacks are my specialty, you know. It's why they call me\n'the Ghost' of Toronto, not just because I'm dressed all in white.\"\n            \"And you can teach me how to do\nthat?\"\n            \"Ever heard of Whiptail?\"\n            \"The guy with the rubber tail I've\nseen on the news?\"\n            \"Not necessarily rubber, but more or\nless accurate,\" replied Daniel. \"I helped train him.\"\n            \"Really? You never mentioned you had\nan apprentice.\"\n            Daniel chuckled. \"We didn't work\ntogether for long. Not for lack of getting along, mind you; he just wanted to\ngo his own way. I taught him some of my tricks to get him started, and sparred\nwith him to refine his technique. He's actually become quite famous in the\nnorthern part of the city. He's the only 'official' hero from the Bureau\noperating in the city full-time.\"\n            \"Why haven't you joined the Bureau\nthen, like he did?\" \n            Daniel's pace slowed a little at\nthat question. \"To be honest, the thought has crossed my mind,\" he admitted.\n\"But... I don't know. The heroes of that group operate globally; they bear the\nweight of the world on their shoulders. I'm not sure I'm ready for a responsibility\nthat heavy...\" He sighed. \"Besides, Toronto's become a better place; I'm doing\nsome real good there, I just know it.\"\n            \"Well, think about it, cousin,\"\nurged Han, patting his shoulder. \"The Bureau could use someone like you; you\nalready have the skills, the experience, and hell, like you just told me,\nyou've even trained one of their\nmembers, without expecting anything in return but an ally of justice like\nyourself, and you did just that. You've got what it takes, and they need all\nthe people they can get.\" He sighed. \"I'd join myself if I had the skills for\nit, but my powers aren't exactly special like yours.\"\n            \"Whiptail thought that same thing\nabout his, and I taught him how to make\nthem special,\" replied Daniel. \"Why don't you let me train you, too? If I could\nmake a hero out of someone fresh out of high school, I can certainly make one\nout of someone with Forest Ranger training.\"\n            \"You really think I have the\naptitude for it?\" Han asked.\n            \"You're twenty-three years old;\npossibly the youngest Park Ranger in all of Canada, and you've always been a\nquick learner,\" replied Daniel. \"But you never know anything for certain until\nyou try, right?\"\n            Han grimaced at that, but the tilt\nof his head was a sign of intrigue. \"I suppose I could give it a shot\nsometime... when should we start?\"\n            Daniel chuckled. \"It can wait a\nwhile,\" he assured. \"You know where to find me.\"\n            Han smiled warmly at him, but then\nhe frowned as another thought seemed to cross his mind. \"So, uh... how's my\nmother been doing?\"\n            \"She's okay; I was talking to her on\nthe phone just a few days back,\" replied Daniel. \"Why do you ask?\"\n            \"Well... you know how my dad never\nlet me go visit her after they divorced?\" Han asked. \"It's because my dad was\nscared of her, once he knew about her heritage despite, just like with your\ndad, she never showed any sign of having powers. But my dad didn't care; he\ntook me away, and told me to forget I ever had any connection to a 'freak\nline'.\"\n            Daniel scowled. \"The day you told me\nthat, made me want to pay my 'uncle' a visit... so I could kick his ass,\" he\nsaid. \"How could he be so judgemental?\"\n            \"It got worse after that, as you\nknow,\" Han remarked.\n            Daniel's scowl turned to a sad\nfrown. \"Yeah, I know... when you found out you had superpowers too your dad tried\nto throw you out, but you were only fifteen, and so doing so was unlawful.\"\n            \"Moment I graduated highschool, he\nkicked my ass out the door; told me that no freaks were ever living in his\nhouse again,\" said Han. \"Haven't seen him since, and can't afford the money or\ntime to go see my mom.\"\n            Daniel put a reassuring hand on\nHan's shoulder. \"If you would like, I could invite her out some weekend; maybe\nyou could book time off?\"\n            Han smiled back. \"That sounds like\nan idea,\" he said. \"Thanks, cousin.\"\n            \"No problem; we're family after all.\nNow, let's get to the village. That porridge is calling my name, and my stomach\nis crying out for it.\"\n            Han chuckled lightly. \"Right; let's\ngo. I know a few others who are dying to see you too.\"\n            ~~~~~\n            Onöta'ke was just as Daniel\nremembered it; stepping into the village was like going back in time, to the\nera of the aboriginal people of Canada. The village was very private, being\nringed by a large fence -or maybe more of a wall of upright logs bound\ntogether, the inside filled with several longhouses and many dome-shaped hovels\nresembling old-fashioned wigwams, with some modern improvements, such as tiled\nrooftops and wooden walls to repel the weather. Despite the upgrades from\ntraditional Iroquois homes, they emanated a feeling of nostalgic wonder of\ntheir own.\n            The entire village was filled with\ncaribou folk like Daniel himself; men, women and children of all ages, many of\nthe latter whom remembered him and flocked over like wild geese to meet him,\npawing at him as he greeted them joyously, reminded once again why he loved to\ncome here; a haven away from the noise and frustration of the city, but a place\nwhere everyone knew him and what he was -here, he didn't have to hide. They\nconsidered him as much a part of their village as anyone else, even if his\nvisits were few and far apart.\n            After managing to get away from the\ncrowds for a bit he wanted over to the crafter's hut, easily recognized by the\nfact it had a table outside, covered end to end with various trinkets -necklaces,\nbracelets and headdresses alike, all made by the skilled hands of one of the\nvillage women by the name of Nijlon, who stood there working as Daniel\napproached, organizing the various items she had lain out across the table.\n            She looked up as she heard Daniel's\nhooves crushing the dry dirt of the village, and beamed when she stared into\nthat smiling, green-eyed face of his. \"Meoquanee; you have come back to us!\"\nShe said gleefully as she walked around the table and approached Daniel,\nembracing him tightly.\n            'Meoquanee'; a Cheyenne term,\nmeaning 'Wears Red'; a few people in the village knew of Daniel's persona as\n'The Warp', but Nijlon was one of the ones who did. In fact, she had been the\none who had crafted his original cape before he switched to using the kevlar\none he wore in his newer uniform. He still kept the cape around, in case he\never needed it -although 'needing' might have been a strong word, since the\ncape in general was more symbolic than practical.\n            \"Good to see you, Nijlon,\" Daniel\nreturned her greeting, both vocally and physically, with warmth, hugging her\ntightly. \"How are you?\"\n            \"This year has been well, young\none,\" returned the elderly doe. \"I am pleased to see you could attend the\nfestival again this year.\"\n            \"I always try to make sure I can get\nhere,\" he assured her. \"But, I did promise a couple of friends some souvenirs;\nwhat do you have this year?\"\n            \"Of course; step over!\" She\nexclaimed, guiding him over to the table. \"Maybe they are looking for a nice\nnecklace or bracelet?\"\n            Warp hummed in thought as he\nexamined the hand-crafted accessories, consisting of beads and shiny stones,\nwith different sizes depending on where they were worn on the body; the\nheaddresses he didn't imagine Akio or Colin liking much; they'd look pretty\nsilly wearing them... of course they could always just use them for decoration,\nbut the accessories seemed more practical. \"I'll take two of both; whatever\nones they take I'll keep the others,\" he decided, fishing out his wallet.\n            Nijlon nodded to him, and accepted the\npayment for the items. Daniel thanked her, and put the items into his pocket\nfor the moment. He once more smell that porridge, and just had to go get some;\nsaying goodbye and thanking Nijlon again, he headed to the center of the\nvillage, eager to partake.\n            Until he heard that voice; the\ngruff, thoughtless voice coming from his left that had him pausing mid-step.\n\"Daniel... so you're here.\"\n            He forced himself not to scowl as he\nheard that all-too-familiar voice, and slowly he turned to face the owner of the\nvoice, coming face to face with an elderly male caribou, sullen and bent at the\nback, wearing a mohawk headdress, and a grassy skirt to cover his legs. Around\nhis neck he wore two different necklaces, one that looked just like one of the\nones Daniel had just purchased from Nijlon, and the other one decorated with\nthe teeth of a shark -how he had obtained those, Daniel didn't know, but there\nwere two dozen of the yellowed things on the accessory.\n            Ohanzee, the village elder, with fur\npaled and eyes wrinkled with age, leaning on a walking stick. Daniel could\neasily see the male's open disapproval of his presence in the village. As\nDaniel had spoken of with Akio, he had never gotten along with the old man, his\nopen disdain for the outside world and how Daniel was 'tainted' by it the cause\nof their somewhat spiteful relationship. Few in the village shared his\nopposition of Daniel's presence, most of them elders or adults from the same\nline of thinking, but it was only by tradition that Ohanzee had to allow Daniel\ninto the village at all.\n            \"Hello, elder,\" Daniel returned\nrespectfully.\n            \"Here to once more defile us with\nyour presence, I see,\" said Ohanzee.\n            \"And I see your dislike of me hasn't\nwaned in the past year,\" retorted Daniel.\n            It was at that moment the young\nadult caribou noticed the small figure standing at Ohanzee's side. A small\nfemale, not even into her adolescent years garbed in a traditional child's\ngarment, looking up at Daniel with tired, bagged dark-brown eyes; she was\nunhealthily thin and appeared ready to fall over as Daniel stared at her,\nfeeling a pit in his stomach at the sight of the poor girl.\n            \"And who's this?\" He asked.\n            The elder put his hand in front of\nthe girl. \"Her name is Kaniehtiio, and she is none of your concern.\"\n            \"She looks sick,\" Daniel stated.\n            \"We are taking care of her,\" Ohanzee\nretorted. \"Now go back to the festivities; the sooner you are gone the better.\"\n            Daniel's scowl finally found its way\nto his face as the elder harshly grabbed Kaniehtiio's arm and turned them both\naway from him, his eyes burning into the old man's back and his knuckles\ncracking audibly as he clenched his fist in irritation. \"Withered old bastard,\"\nhe muttered, too low for the elder to hear.\n            \"Daniel?\" Han's voice caught his\near, and he promptly turned to face his cousin. \"You okay?\" He asked, but\ndidn't even need Daniel to answer as he noticed the elder. \"Oh... old man\nOhanzee up to his usual?\"\n            Daniel nodded. \"Yes...\"\n            \"And, he's got Kaniehtiio with him\nagain.\"\n            \"Who is she?\"\n            \"A girl from here who just recently\nstarted showing signs of her own gifts,\" replied Han. \"Ohanzee and the village\nShaman are helping her learn to control them, and see if they can be used\nproductively.\"\n            \"Why does she look so exhausted\nthough?\"\n            \"I'm not sure; Shaman says it's some\nsort of sleep condition she has. Apparently she doesn't rest very well.\"\n            Daniel grimaced. \"That's not healthy\nfor a little girl.\"\n            \"Certainly isn't. But there's not\nmuch we can do; there's no place out there that can help her.\"\n            Daniel looked at him oddly. \"Of\ncourse there is,\" he said, firmly.\n            \"There is; where?\"\n            \"In Colmation there's a care\nfacility with supers who need certain treatment for side-effects to their\npowers,\" said Daniel. \"You really think they wouldn't consider something like\nthat when the Bureau was formed?\"\n            Han scoffed. \"Good luck convincing\nOhanzee to agree to it though.\"\n            \"Too true; only way he'd agree is if\nsomeone showed up with a court order,\" said Daniel, rubbing his chin in\nthought. \"But we risk exposing the entire village doing that, and even then,\nknowing him, he'd use that brain of his to make them forget they ever found\nthis place.\"\n            \"You really think he'd go that far?\"\n            \"I'd bet my antlers on it.\"\n~~~~~\n            That\nnight...\n            The first night of the Harvest Festival was just as much fun as Daniel\nremembered it. The music, the dancing, the chant-like singing, the food and all\nof the companionship; it was as good as he remembered. Some heroes had hobbies,\nfamilies and friends to cope with their undertakings, something to help them\ndeal with the stress. This was what the Warp entitled himself to; one to two\ntimes a year, at this quiet, peaceful village, where the stresses and dangers\nhe faced in Toronto did not exist.\n            It was paradise, and it was enough\nto help him persevere.\n            He took part in everything; he\ndanced, he feasted on that porridge he loved to eat every time he came here -to\nhim it was like tasting tradition itself... with just a hint of wheat and\nraisins. It was such a simple dish, yet he loved it for that very reason; it\nwas simple, it was filling and it was made with the hardworking hands of the\nvillage cooks, and not by machinery or by boiling the contents of a paper\npackage. He even took part in playing some instruments, shaking a pair of\nrattles while he danced, working up quite a sweat from the combined effort of\nmovements and playing.\n            He retired early that night. It had\nbeen so long since he'd been to one of these festivals, he had forgotten how much\nthey could take out of him, and proceeded to Han's shack, accompanied by his\ncousin. The younger caribou got a cot from his closet, and set it down in the\ncorner of the shack, where Daniel was laid down to sleep while Han returned to\nrejoin the festivities.\n            It was well into the night by the\ntime Daniel awoke; his early sleep had led to an early rise. He sat up from his\ncot, noticing Han asleep in his own bed on the other side of the room, and\nquietly got up to stretch, placing his hooves carefully to nullify the sound as\nmuch as possible before rising up to his full height, stretching out his arms\nand holding back a grunt before he decided he wanted some fresh air and so\nwater. With that, he headed for the door, pocketing the spare key, and stepped\noutside into the night air.\n            He glanced up at the sky, and guessed\nit was probably after midnight if not later. He took in a deep breath of night\nair, and started to turn his attention towards the lake, when he felt\nsomething... strange. Like a strain in his body, not do to a sore muscle or any\nkind of effort,  but like the very land\naround him had changed... somehow. Visually, it all looked the same; trees with\nyellowing leaves, browning grass, dead flowers...\n            Wait... dead?\n            Daniel walked over to the flowers,\nkneeling down and looking at them closely. Daniel wasn't any sort of expert on\nplants, but these flowers he knew from biology class. They were Asters; purple\nflowers that bloomed from late summer to late autumn, but the weather wasn't\nyet cold enough for these flowers to be wilting.\n            Now that he thought about it... most\nof the plants around him seemed to be a little premature in their stages; the\nleaves of the trees were already fully yellowed, and the grass wasn't just\ndying... it was already dead.\n            \"These plants were healthy when I\narrived this morning,\" said Daniel. \"Why're they all dead all of a sudden? It's\nhardly even cold out here.\"\n            Something was very wrong here, and\nfor some reason, the distortion felt stronger towards the heart of the\nvillage...\n            Daniel turned to face the inside of\nOnöta'ke village, and his eyes fell upon the healer's hut across the heart of\nthe town. Something about it seemed... off. The air around it was shimmering,\nlike heat waves. It certainly wasn't warm enough to cause those this time of night. Furrowing his brow, Daniel teleported,\ncrossing the village in an instant, and stood before the flap that served as\nthe door, suddenly feeling a hundred pounds heavier. He nearly fell to his\nknees as he stood there, feeling that overwhelming pressure, as though gravity\nitself had increased the closer he got to the hut.\n            'God\ndamn it... what is this feeling?' He thought. 'Feel like I weigh a ton all of a sudden and it isn't from all that\nporridge.'\n            Through the flap, he heard\nsomething. Chanting, and the moaning of a young voice. Curiosity was getting\nthe better of him, and slowly he opened the tent flap and peered inside the\nhut.\n            He saw Ohanzee, and the village\nhealer, both knelt down at the head and side of the same little girl he had\nseen earlier -Kaniehtiio, he recalled, with her shirt rolled up to expose her\nbelly where the healer was applying a salve over her stomach. Ohanzee had his\nhands upon her head, and the moans Daniel had heard were coming from her, her\nface contorted as if in pain. Daniel narrowed his eyes in suspicion, watching\nas the two continued... whatever it was they were doing with Kaniehtiio. He\ndidn't know... but the look on Kaniehtiio's face told him it wasn't pleasant...\n            Suddenly, Kaniehtiio began to\nthrash, nearly pulling her head out of Ohanzee's hands as she did. He held\nfirm, even as her moaning intensified to loud groans, as if trapped in some\nkind of nightmare. Ohanzee muttered something to the healer in the language of\nthe Mohawk, a language Daniel himself didn't speak, and pressed his hands\nfirmer against Kaniehtiio's head, forcing her to go still. Her eyes flared\nopen, and Daniel saw a shocking colour of electric blue emanating from her\neyes, followed shortly by a scream and more thrashing, throwing out her arms\nand trying to pull away from Ohanzee.\n            Finally, Daniel couldn't take it\nanymore, and pushed through the flap. \"What's going on in here?!\" He demanded.\n            Ohanzee looked up in shock.\n\"Daniel?!\" He demanded, before his gaze shifted back to Kaniehtiio. \"No! You\nbroke my focus!\"\n            A blue stream of energy seemed to\nappear out of nowhere around Kaniehtiio, starting to form around her, enveloping\nher in a field of energy like a shell that seemed to be fighting to take shape,\nbut it could not complete its coverage of Kaniehtiio; it touched Ohanzee's\nhands, and stopped, unable to push past them. The healer was forced back as the\nenergy touched his hands as if burning, but Ohanzee remained firm, his elderly\nface becoming ablaze with determination as he continued his efforts.\n            Kaniehtiio finally stopped\nthrashing, and the blue energy around her began to recede, cracking like an\neggshell and each piece of the 'egg' shrank rapidly until fizzing out\ncompletely. In a moment, the intensified atmosphere became more tolerable\n-Daniel no longer felt like he was in an intensified gravity field, an took in\na breath, suddenly realizing he'd been holding one while the spectacle before\nhim was unfolding.\n            Daniel took a step forward, but then\nOhanzee elevated his gaze, glaring at Daniel with a face that would stop the\nheart of a lesser man, and suddenly the younger caribou felt as though he'd\nbeen hit by the explosion from a bomb, sent flying back through the tent flap,\nthrough the air and hitting the ground hard, skidding across the dirt as if it\nwere ice. The fall ruined his native dress, tearing open the back and making\nhim grit his teeth as he felt rocks digging into his ribs from behind.\n            Letting out the warrior in him,\nDaniel flipped over, throwing his legs over his head and flipping around to\nland on his hooves, taking a stance in readiness for a fight.\n            Ohanzee stormed out of the hut,\nwithout even his walking stick in hand, crossing the village center where\nDaniel had been thrown. \"You imbecile; you nearly caused a calamity that could\nhave destroyed Onöta'ke!\"\n            \"What calamity?\" Daniel demanded.\n            \"Kaniehtiio!\" Ohanzee barked. \"I was\ntrying to keep her powers under control; you distracted me and they nearly got\nloose!\"\n            \"How can Kaniehtiio already have her\npowers?\" Daniel demanded. \"Neither Han or I gained ours until we were fourteen;\nshe's too young!\"\n            \"Powers manifesting one or two years\nearly is not unheard of,\" Ohanzee pointed out. \"Hers started appearing when she\nturned eleven years of age, and since then she suffers recurring nightmares\nthat cause her powers to go out of control. I use my telepathy to keep them\nsuppressed; I keep the nightmares at bay, but because of you it almost erupted\nagain!\"\n            \"She was in pain; I could see it on\nher face!\" He pointed past Ohanzee at the hut. \"How can a little girl be so\ndangerous she needs to be put through something like that?!\"\n            \"If you saw even a sample of the\npower she wields, you'd know that what I am doing is an act of mercy,\" retorted\nOhanzee. \"My first priority is to the safety of the village, and that is what I\nam doing!\"\n            \"And the others approve of what\nyou're doing to Kaniehtiio in the process?\" Daniel asked.\n            \"Of course they do!\" Ohanzee\nretorted. \"Everyone in the village knows of this!\"\n            Daniel scowled at Ohanzee. \"I wish I\ncould believe you, old man, but I'd have an easier time doing so if I didn't\nknow you were a telepath, capable of erasing memories.\"\n            \"I am bound by the oath of my\nforebears never to turn my powers upon my own unless necessary,\" Ohanzee\nreturned, his own scowl deepening. \"You, however, are testing the limits of how\nmuch I wish to honour that oath.\"\n            \"Have you seen what was happening while you were in there?!\" Daniel demanded,\nthrowing out his arms. \"Every piece of vegetation around this village was\ndying! I know that wasn't because of you, so that means it had to be\nKaniehtiio's doing. If her powers are capable of doing something like that\nthey're in a complete league of their own!\"\n            \"I will keep them under control, so\nlong as you don't get in the way\nagain,\" the old caribou returned. But just as soon as he finished that\nsentence, he grinned widely. \"In fact, your act of interrupting my work put\nthis entire village in danger, and I have a witness to prove it; the healer.\"\n            \"I didn't know Kaniehtiio had powers\nalready; how could I have?!\"\n            Without even answering Daniel's\nquestion, Ohanzee continued. \"Daniel Tonraq, for your act of reckless\nendangerment to the people of Onöta'ke, then by the power vested in me by the\nwill of the spirits and the ancestors,\" his attempt to hide his satisfaction as\nhe spoke was easily detected, as there was still much pleasure visible on his\nface as he finished. \"I now banish you\nfrom ever setting foot in Onata'ke again. As of tonight, you are no longer one\nof us.\" He then added silently. \"As you never were.\"\n            Daniel's heart sank, but his rage as\nstill billowing. \"You cannot ban me for an accident!\" He protested.\n            \"I can, and I have,\" returned Ohanzee. \"Return to the wretched world\nof the defilers where you belong, and never set foot in Onöta'ke again. If I\nfind you here, the consequences will be dire.\"\n            Daniel opened his mouth to protest\nfurther, but he knew that this would get him nowhere; the village healer was an\nelder just like Ohanzee, and after what had nearly happened he would never\ndefend Daniel, and nobody else in the village had seen what had transpired; no\none could protect him and allow him to keep coming back to this peaceful\nhamlet... the one place where he could rest peacefully and enjoy himself. The\nidea made him feel... empty, and hollow. He considered these people to be his\nfamily, as much as his aunt in Ottawa, but now he would never get to see them\nagain.\nBut he pushed those thoughts aside; this was about\nmore than his holiday life, this was about a child in distress and in need of\nhelp. With a defiant glare, he faced Ohanzee again. \"This isn't over, old man,\"\nDaniel warned. \"I'll be back, with child services and the B.O.S, to get\nKaniehtiio away from you; you can count on that. If it means saving her from\nyou, I'll gladly give up my visits here.\"\n\"By all means, try,\" retorted Ohanzee. \"One outsider\nsets foot through the village gate, I will erase their memories of all of this,\nand leave them comatose and lost in the wilderness.\" He stuck a bony finger\ninto Daniel's chest. \"No one is going to take one of my people from here, not\neven the mighty Warp, not while I draw\nbreath.\" His scowl deepened. \"Now... begone!\"\nThe veins around Ohanzee's eyes pulsed, and once\nmore Daniel found himself sent flying through the air; he was caught so off\nguard by the telekinetic assault that he didn't even have time to speak again\nbefore he was carried out of the village by unseen forces, the ground falling\naway from him as he soared above the tree line, flapping his arms and kicking\nhis legs wildly through the whole ordeal.\nAt this speed the caribou would have every bone in\nhis body broken when he hit the ground! He had to do something, fast! Once he\nwas out of range of Ohanzee's telekinesis, perhaps he could teleport backward,\nlet his momentum slow and somehow land...\nHe couldn't teleport.\nTry as he might to activate his powers, they would\nnot work. He couldn't teleport!\nSuddenly fearful for his life, he screamed. It was\nall he could do without his powers, no doubt locked out by the old man. On an\non he flew for what seemed like a long time, until he was completely clear of\nthe trees and saw shoreline, water, and suddenly knew exactly where he was.\nThe caribou male braced himself, angling his head\nforward and putting his hands around the back of his neck to brace it against\nwhiplash as he hit the surface of Lake Ontario, skipping across the water like\na stone for several dozen feet until he finally slowed and simply plunged into\nthe cold water, feeling it hit him like a sledgehammer. His entire body ached\nfrom the ordeal, and continued to ache as he struggled to realign himself and\nfigure out where the surface was in this dark water.\nHe forced himself to calm down; panic now, and he\nwould drown. Keeping his eyes clenched shut he spat out a bubble of air; it was\ntoo dark to see clearly even if he could open his eyes in this great salt lake,\nbut he could still hear it moving through the water and followed which way it\ntravelled, letting out another bubble and confirming it was going the same\ndirection he was. Finally he felt his head break the surface of the water, and\nhe took in a deep, filling his lungs with air and coughing out some water he'd\ntaken in.\nHe didn't know which way the shore was; hitting the\nwater had thrown off his bearings, but he knew he couldn't possibly have flown\nfurther than his powers could reach. He only hoped Ohanzee could not still\nblock them from this range. Shutting his eyes, he pictured Han's cabin in his\nmind, and then willed himself to teleport there, vanishing from the lake in a\nflash of light.\n~~~~~\n            \"Ohanzee did what?!\" Han demanded. \"He threw you into Lake Ontario all the way\nfrom the middle of the village?! My god if you'd hit a tree on the way out\nyou'd be dead!\"\n            \"So will you help me confront him?\"\nDaniel asked.\n            \"Damn right I will; that old fuck\nhas gone too far this time!\" Han said in ready agreement as he went to put on\nhis ranger hat, almost impaling it on his trimmed antlers in the process\ninstead of carefully maneuvering them through the holes. \"I'm going to haul him\nto Toronto kicking and screaming if I have to!\"\n            \"Forget about him; Kaniehtiio's the\none we need to help,\" said Daniel. \"If Ohanzee was telling the truth, and\neverything I saw last night wasn't some dream, then she needs help; she's a\nhigh class meta-furson, and if we don't get her some help it could lead to\ndisaster.\"\n            \"I'm still going to make sure he\ngoes down for nearly killing my cousin,\" Han reaffirmed, and Daniel doubted he\ncould change the younger caribou's mind on the matter.\n            Out of the cabin they went, and\nturned towards the village, but they stopped dead in their tracks when they saw\nthat the gate was closed; the door, normally meant for sealing the village at\nnight to keep wild ferals out while everyone was asleep, was closed well into\nthe morning, preventing entrance. Han stormed up to the gate, cupping his hands\naround his mouth and bellowing out for the door to be opened, but nobody\nresponded to his call.\n            \"Dammit,\" said Han. \"This is\ndefinitely the old man's doing; he's locked us out.\"\n            \"He finally got an excuse to get rid\nof me; he's not going to let it be compromised while he knows I'm still here,\"\nsaid Daniel. \"But he's going to have to do better than a gate to keep out The\nWarp.\"\n            Han grinned. \"Then make like a\nburglar and let's bust in there,\" he said with enthusiasm, placing his hand on\nDaniel's shoulder.\n            Daniel shut his eyes, and began to\npicture the village in his mind, getting a mental picture of the inside to...\n            His eyes reopened, and his\nexpression turned to horror. \"Oh no...\" He said.\n            Han tilted his head. \"What's wrong?\"\n            \"I...\" Daniel began, raising his\nhands and placing them upon his head. \"I can't remember!\"\n            \"Can't remember what?\"\n            \"I don't remember what the inside of\nthe village looks like!\" Daniel replied.\n            \"What?! But you were just in there\nyesterday; how could you forget?\"\n            Daniel looked at him. \"How else?\" He\nasked, plainly. \n            It took Han only a second to\nunderstand what Daniel was implying. He rolled his eyes, and groaned. \"Damn it\nthat bastard thinks of everything!\" He exclaimed. \"But how?! How could he erase\nyour memory of the village while you were out here all night?\"\n            \"He must've done it while I was\nconfronting him,\" replied Daniel. Try as he might, he had no recollection of\nwhat Onata'ke looked like inside; every attempt to remember led only to a black\nvoid as he stared at the wooden fence that rose higher than some of the\nbuildings within, preventing him from even spotting a rooftop to teleport onto.\n\"Since I wasn't thinking of the village then I didn't even notice he'd done\nit.\" One thing Daniel had to hand to Ohanzee, he was thorough, and precise; to\naccess a memory that Daniel wasn't even thinking of and erasing it like a file\nfrom a computer hard drive was no small feat, and only spoke volumes of how\nstrong the elder really was.\"\n            \"Can you...\" Han began. \"What about\nteleporting into the air above?\" He suggested.\n            \"I teleport, Han, I don't fly,\"\nDaniel pointed out. \"The sky looks the same virtually everywhere; I need a\nmental picture of where I'm teleporting to or it could just send me off\nsomewhere random -or just not work at all.\"\n            \"So Ohanzee even knows how to stop\nThe Warp,\" Han stated. \"...Maybe, I could knock the gate down?\"\n            \"No,\" Daniel stated firmly. \"Someone\ncould get hurt if you use your powers to do that, plus you'll be breaking and\nentering -your property is outside the village, not in. You do that, and he can\nban you from here too.\" Daniel hung his head, sighing. \"There's nothing we can\ndo... he's locked us out of there.\"\n            \"Then what do we do about\nKaniehtiio?\"\n            Daniel hung his head sadly, his ears\nflattening against his skull. His answer was simple, but his voice was pained\nas he replied to Han's question.\n            \"I have no idea...\"\n            Defeated, Daniel said goodbye to Han\nthat afternoon as he packed his things and left the village behind. Han was\nsorry to see his cousin leaving so soon with two days of the festival left, but\nthere was no other choice... Daniel could no longer attend the festival,\nOhanzee had sealed the village for the rest of the duration and already banned\nDaniel from ever setting foot in the village again. His one escape -his one\nretreat from his stresses back in Toronto, were forever lost to him...\n            Han promised he'd do everything he\ncould to try and make Ohanzee reconsider, but even he knew it was futile.\nOhanzee hated Daniel -hated the world he came from. He'd never go back on his\nword now that he'd finally be rid of the younger male; the old bastard was\nprobably celebrating in his own way even as Daniel wandered up the trail, back\nin his civilian attire as he began to make his way home to Toronto.\n            At the bus stop, the same one he'd\narrived in, he used the payphone at the convenience store to call Akio, letting\nhim know he was on his way home. \"Already?\nBut you have only been gone a night; what about the festival?\"\n            \"I've been kicked out of the village,\" replied Daniel. \"Ohanzee's\nharboring a dangerous meta-furson and I saw him in the act of trying to\nsuppress her powers; he forbade me from ever coming back and even erased my\nmemory of the village so I couldn't teleport back in.\"\n            Akio's response to that was more or\nless how Daniel expected. \"He found a way\nto stop even you? Kuso, who is this\nold man?\"\n            \"A powerful psychic,\" replied\nDaniel. \"All the works; telepathy, mind reading, mind wiping and even some telekinesis -he's even got some ability to\nsuppress the powers of others. He actually locked out my teleporting when he\nlaunched me out of the village like a rocket.\"\n            \"Are\nyou okay?\"\n            \"I'll be fine, but Kaniehtiio won't be if I don't find some way to get\nhelp for her,\" replied Daniel, leaning his forehead against the phone. \n            \"We'll\nthink of something, Daniel,\" Akio assured. \"How soon will you be back?\"\n            \"Bus should be here soon so, hour, maybe more; depends on if they're on\ntime or not,\" replied the caribou. \"I'll swing by the Bunker on my way home.\"\n            \"Hai, I'll see you then,\" bade Akio. \"Do\nnot be worried my friend; we'll find a way to help that child.\"\n            \"I sure hope so,\" replied Daniel.\n            A voice spoke back through the\nearpiece that didn't belong to Akio; it was the electronic female voice warning\nthe caller that they were almost out of time. \"Quarters are used up; I'll see\nyou soon.\"\n            \"Safe\ntravels, Daniel.\"\n            Mere moments after the caribou hung up the phone, his ear caught a\nsound; he looked over his shoulder and saw the bus approaching the stop nearby.\nHe took a glance at the illuminated lettering on the board above the\nwindshield, the posted address Daniel recognized for downtown Toronto. At least\nthe timing was convenient that day.\n            Picking up his luggage, Daniel took\nonly one more look back into the woods in the direction of Onata'ke, knowing he\nwould never see them again... and it made him fight back a tear that tried to\ncreep into his eye as he walked over to the bus, never looking back again for\nfear of falling into melancholy...\n~~~~~\n            On the bus ride back to Toronto,\nDaniel took a brief nap in his seat, awakened by a disembarking passenger and\nrealizing that this was his stop. Ignoring the soreness in his neck he\nscrambled off the bus and waited until it left. He was about to teleport, but\nthen he decided he wanted to sit down for a moment, and reflect on everything\nthat had transpired for the last day.\n            He was ablaze in emotions at that\nmoment; sad he would never see Onata'ke again, heartbroken that Ohanzee had\nstripped him of the memory of the village itself so that he could no longer\neven remember what it looked like, only the faces of the people within -that at\nleast brought him some comfort. He was concerned for Kaniehtiio, her health and\nsafety, and the safety of everyone who lived in Onöta'ke; could she be that\nmuch of a threat? And if she was, what would happen to her if Daniel did report\nher?\n            But most of all, he was angry. What\nhe was angry about needed no explanation, he felt. There was only one to blame\nfor his sadness and Kaniehtiio's suffering, and it was no supervillain this\ntime... Daniel had fought thugs, crime bosses, a destructive monster and a samurai\nwarrior faster than the eye could see, and always through might, willpower and\ndetermination he had overcome them as The Warp, but never had he felt so\ndefeated before; even fights he had lost hadn't felt as bad as he did now...\n            Well, moping here at the bus stop\nwould get him nowhere. He stood up, picking up his belongings, and after\nchecking to make sure the coast was clear, he ducked into a nearby alley, and\nteleported before anyone might have seen him, reappearing inside of The Bunker,\nwhere he saw Akio in his usual place. The weasel looked up at Daniel appeared,\nhis face sympathetic as he folded his hands across his lap.\n            \"Are you okay?\" He asked.\n            \"Not really,\" replied the caribou.\n            Akio's gaze shifted off to the side,\nand Daniel suddenly heard a footstep to his left. More out of reflex than\nconcern he turned to face it rather swiftly, wondering who or what could be\ndoing in his bunker. The person approaching him was a casually dressed brown\nsalamander with dark green eyes that hard big, round pupils. The salamander was\nslender, most of the musculature focused to his legs, and he had an unusually\nlong tail swinging about behind him as he stepped into view, hands in his\npockets.\n            It took Daniel less than a second to\nrecognize the smooth skinned face looking back at him with a friendly smile.\n\"Pierre,\" he said.\n            \"Bonjour, Dan,\" the salamander\nreplied before approaching Daniel. The two hugged each other tightly, in a\nbrotherly manner, and Daniel felt a little better. \"Akio told me what happened;\nI'm sorry your holiday got ruined.\"\n            Pierre Chappelle, better known to\nthe public as a salamander who sold movies and video games at the local\nshopping mall, but secretly known as Whiptail, a new member of the Bureau of\nSuperheroes in Canada, and once short-term sidekick to The Warp while they were\ntraining together. It had been a few months since Daniel had seen Pierre, and\nit felt good to see his young friend again, especially at this time when he\nneeded him most.\n            \"I'm glad you came,\" returned Daniel\nbefore they pulled apart. \"But don't you have work today?\"\n            \"It's Sunday, Dan, and tomorrow's\nThanksgiving,\" Pierre pointed out. \"I got the day off. And good timing too,\nno?\"\n            \"I called Pierre thinking he might\nknow someone in the B.O.S who might be able to help Kaniehtiio,\" said Akio. \"I\nalso figured you might need a couple of extra ears to listen, even if one set\nof those ears can't be seen.\"\n            Pierre eyed Akio incredulously, but\nstill had a light smirk on his face. \"Akio, leave the jesting to me; it just\nsounds wrong when you do it.\"\n            Akio scowled, and not even Daniel\ncould hold back at laugh at the weasel's expression -god how he needed that\nlaugh. He looked at Pierre hopefully, and asked, \"What do you know?\"\n            \"Not much, sadly,\" admitted Pierre.\n\"I'm afraid I'm still too new to the B.O.S to give a suggestion. Taking\npossession of the little girl is going to require nothing short of a court\norder, and they'll want proof of what's happening there.\"\n            \"There's a telepath who's watching\nKaniehtiio's every move,\" explained Daniel. \"And anyone who tries to take her,\nhe'll probably wipe their memory to keep her away.\"\n            \"If a meta-furson is involved, then\nI'll have to ask Mighty Moose how we'd proceed,\" replied Pierre. \"Hell, maybe\nshe'll go down there herself.\"\n            \"You think she'd be able to handle\nOhanzee? He's powerful, you know.\"\n            Pierre arched a brow. \"Daniel, she's\nnot called 'Mighty Moose' for effect; she's powerful too, and there's a hundred\nother heroes she could call in as well. Somewhere out there, there's got to be\na Psionic at least as strong as Ohanzee if not stronger.\" He clapped a hand on\nDaniel's shoulder. \"Trust me; we'll get that girl away from that old creep.\"\n            \"What will Mighty Moose do if she\nfinds out the whole village is inhabited by meta-fursons though?\" Akio asked.\n            Pierre looked over. \"Say what now?\"\n            \"Akio!\" Daniel barked, making the\nweasel cringe. \"Wrong time to mention that!\"\n            \"Sorry!\"\nDaniel let out a sigh before turning to face Pierre\nagain, and saying plainly, \"superpowers aren't uncommon on my dad's side of the\nfamily. I have a cousin who lives out there, named Han; he has powers too.\"\nPierre blinked a few times before he grinned.\n\"Awesome.\" His smile then faded. \"Wait... the entire village is full of\nunregistered supers?\"\n\"Well to be accurate only half of the villagers\nthere actually have powers; Han, Ohanzee and of course Kaniehtiio are three\nsuch people. The rest don't really use their powers for anything; they have\nthem, but they only scarcely acknowledge them. I actually don't know who else there\nhas any sort of superpower; they've never shown them.\"\n\"I'll... try to keep that to myself,\" promised\nPierre. \"Right now Kaniehtiio's our focus, right? Not to mention making Ohanzee\nanswer for his crimes.\" He nodded. \"I'll contact Mighty Moose as soon as I get\nback home and see what she says.\"\n            Daniel nodded gratefully. \"Thanks,\nPierre,\" he said.\n            The salamander nodded back. \"Anytime,\nDan.\"\n            \"How about we all head out for some\nlunch? My treat,\" said Daniel.\n            \"Sure I should be going out?\" Akio\nasked, warily.\n            \"Akio, the Yakuza are not going to\ncome after you,\" assured Daniel. \"By now they've probably forgotten all about\nyou. Even if they haven't, both Takeo and Masaru are in jail and you said\nyourself Ren, who's probably the one leading them right now, is a coward.\" He\nlooked at Akio with a serious expression. \"You can't hide here for the rest of\nyour life. Lack of sun and proper food\nis going to kill you sooner than the Yakuza will.\"\n            Akio swallowed nervously, but Daniel\nknew the weasel missed being able to walk out in the open, and the idea was\nclearly tempting to him. He tapped his fingers on the desk in thought for a\nmoment before he eventually shrugged a long shrug, sprang up from his chair,\nand walked around to join the two.\n            \"Alright, you talked me into it;\nwhere we going?\" Akio asked.\n            \"There's this diner a few blocks\naway that serves an amazing breakfast,\" said Pierre.\n            \"Was thinking the same thing,\" said\nDaniel. \"I could really go for some pancakes.\"\n            \"Oui.\"\n            \"Hai.\"\n~~~~~\n            The\nfollowing morning...\n            Daniel had set his alarm clock to\nradio when he had retired at home for the day. The police scanner was quiet\nthat evening except for a few robberies, and so both Akio and Pierre encouraged\nthe Warp to take another night off. Normally Daniel might've refused, but he\nfelt oddly tied that day after the recent ordeal, so he took them up on it, and\nwent home. He watched a few movies he'd been saving for a night in before he'd\nretired to bed and slept through to the morning.\n            \"Happy\nThanksgiving, people of Tor-on-to!\" The voice chimed. \"This is your favorite voice on the radio, Zackie Zone! That's\nDouble-Zed for those who want to keep it short!\"\n            \"Ugh... wish they'd fire that guy,\" grumbled Daniel as he rolled onto\nhis back and sat up, yawning as he stretched. \"His voice is more annoying than\nwhining clients at the firm.\"\n            \"Going\nto be a cold Thanksgiving tonight as our temperatures, though not too bad for\nthis morning and afternoon, drop into the negatives tonight at a low of minus\nfive degrees Celsius. Winter's coming folks, and tonight will be our first\ntaste of it. Try not to let that block out the taste of turkey for those of you\nwho didn't celebrate early this year. Oh! And speaking of early celebrations, I\nhave a interview here today with someone  sounding like something out of science\nfiction. Apparently some boaters who were out celebrating on Lake Ontario had\nan uninvited guest to their little get-together!\"\n            \"Teenager driving his dad's overpowered speedboat?\" Daniel asked\nrhetorically as he stood up.\n            \"I-I-It\nwas unnatural; there's no way this thing was a living creature,\" a new\nvoice spoke over the radio as Daniel went through his drawers to pick out his\noutfit for the day. \"It was huge; it\nlooked like some kind of shark but it was way too even for a great white; it\nate one of our boats -swallowed it whole in one freaking chomp. I see that look\non your face; I'm not exaggerating -this thing was huge! I can't believe\nsomething that big is in freakin' Lake Ontario I mean what the *beep!*\"\n            The voice switched back to the regular anchorman. \"Please excuse the interruption; appears our interviewee hadn't\nrecovered from his traumatic experience yet. Now, I won't lie to you, people; normally\nwe might pass this off as some wild imagination brought on by a certain drug we\nall know can cause hallucinations like this, but I don't believe that was the\ncase.\" \nHearing the man's tone, Daniel stopped what he was\ndoing and listened. \"Six youths, all of\nwhom were confirmed by witnesses to have been out on the Lake with our\nanonymous interviewer -nine people total, only three of whom returned. One of\nour own field reporters even went down to the civilian docks and was shocked to\nfind that the docks were damaged, like something had run through them, and\nnobody believes it was a boat! Ladies and gentlemen we may have our own Loch\nNess Monster living in the lake.\" \nThen the man laughed. \"If you believe in such things that is! We'll be right back after we\ndelve a little deeper into this mystery.\"\n            One minute he sounds like he's being serious, the next he sounds like\nhe mocking the superstitious, thought Daniel with a scowl. One thing Daniel\nknew for sure, not everything was as it seemed, and after encountering The\nGremlin some time ago, the lines between reality and fiction were starting to\nblur for him. There were mysteries the world had yet to solve, and this unknown\ncreature of the lake could be one such mystery. Of course, it was out of\nDaniel's field to be concerned with; whatever this creature was he would not be\nthe one to find it.\n            The phone rang, catching his ear. He\nstepped over to the cordless, cradled phone on his nightstand, picking it up\nand holding it to his ear after tapping the talk button with his thumb.\n\"Hello?\" He asked.\n            \"Dan,\nit's Pierre,\" the voice on the phone replied. \"You watching the news?\"\n            \"Listening to it, more like; that stuff at the Lake?\"\n            \"Yeah.\nWhat do you make of it?\"\n            \"I fail to see if it's a concern of ours,\" said Daniel.\n            \"The\nB.O.S thinks it's a Kaiju,\" replied Pierre.\n            \"A... what?\" Daniel asked. \n            \"Kaiju.\nWhat, you don't watch Japanese monster movies?\"\n            \"Only ones dubbed in English.\"\n            \"At\nleast tell me you know who Lionheart is.\"\n            \"Sure, she's a B.O.S agent.\"\n            \"She's\na Kaiju Fighter,\" Pierre explained. \"And\nMighty Moose just called her over from Japan to be on standby in case their\nsuspicions are right. There's some evidence the news didn't mention; some of\nthe remains of the boats returned. They were bitten right in half, and the\npatterns of the bites suggest all three were bitten simultaneously with teeth\nmarks big enough to belong to a Megalodon Shark.\"\n            Daniel looked at the phone curiously. \"Pierre, that's impossible; the\nMegalodon has been extinct for millions of years,\" he stated. \"And Lake Ontario\nisn't big enough to support a creature that size, especially not for so long.\"\n            \"I'm\njust repeating what the investigation team uncovered,\" Pierre replied. \"I shouldn't be telling you all this to begin\nwith, but I thought you'd want to know that Lionheart's coming to town.\" He\nthen mumbled something to himself that Daniel couldn't quite pick up, but he\nhad little doubt it was something like 'Hope she signs an autograph for me'\nknowing Pierre; he idolized many heroes in the Bureau not the least of which\nbeing some of its most famous heroines, Lionheart included.\n            \"What's that you said, Pierre?\"\nDaniel asked.\n            \"Nothing!\nAnyway, just thought you should know to keep your head down. Remember, you're\nunregistered so by law, she has to arrest you if she sees you. Mighty Moose\nisn't exactly a big supporter of that law herself, but I don't know if\nLionheart is or not, and you don't want to get into a fight with a Lioness that\ncan grow to fifty feet tall.\"\n            \"I have no intention of picking a fight with any B.O.S Operatives,\nPierre,\" assured Daniel. \"If she ends up fighting some... monster shark, I'll\nstay out of her way, I promise. Let's just hope that there isn't really one out\nthere in the lake.\"\n            \"Oui;\nI'm getting shivers just thinking of it,\" replied Pierre.\n            With that, Daniel, said goodbye to\nPierre and hung up the phone. Although he'd expressed disinterest in\ninvestigating, he knew he should however much he didn't want to; he knew why.\nHe was still letting the events of the day before bother him, but he was not so\nweak as to let his own anger stop him from doing the right thing... even though\nhe had failed to do the right thing yesterday...\n            No! Don't think about it that way,\nhe thought. It was out of his hands; there was nothing he could have done...\nwas there? No... Don't think about it...\n            Before he allowed his thoughts to betray\nhim any further, Daniel decided that he would go down to the docks that night,\nand see if he could collect any evidence of his own...\n~~~~~\n            Lionheart slowed her steps to allow\nthe investigators accompanying her to keep pace with her as they approached the\ndocks where she saw the damage caused by the suspected Kaiju attack. Though it\nwas not yet made public knowledge in order to avoid stirring panic, as a\nveteran Kaiju fighter herself, Lionheart knew the signs. Destroyed docks,\ntrails of debris leading out to the lake even though the water was calm that\nday on account of the still weather, as if something large moving through the\nwater had dragged them out with the current caused by its movement.\n            The initial reports she had read\nstated that the bite marks from the wrecked boats, found further along the\nshore beyond the city limits, were unlike any creature known to exist in the\nmodern world today; some initial experts had claimed the bite marks matched\nfossilized records of a long-extinct shark. Lionheart was no marine biologist,\nbut she knew that was very unlikely; such a massive, prehistoric beast could\nnever live in one of North America's great lakes, not even the massive Lake\nOntario. If one had, why had it waited this long to appear?\n            But an even bigger question, if the\nB.O.S was right and this was a Kaiju,\nperhaps having been lying dormant at the bottom of the lake for thousands of\nyears, then why hadn't it come ashore? Why had the damage only been confined to\nthe lake shore, when clearly the creature could navigate in shallower waters-\nlike those of these docks? One of the investigative agents handed her a written\nrecord of the witness statements, which she read over again. All of the\nstatements were consistent, but made little sense. They described the creature\nas a humongous shark, with a body glowing bright blue like a giant neon light;\nno two Kaiju were ever the same but this was like nothing she had ever seen\nbefore.\n            \"Ms. Lionheart,\" one of the\ninvestigators spoke to her, catching her attention and waiting until she turned\nto him before continuing. \"Our divers arrived too late; the sun will be down in\nan hour or so and the water will be too dark to navigate. What should we do?\"\n            \"If the creature didn't appear\nduring the day, it may have returned to the bottom of the lake,\" replied\nLionheart. \"Far too deep for them to travel; tell them to pull back for now\nplease, and they may try again tomorrow.\"\n            \"I'll relay your instructions to\nthem,\" the investigator returned before heading off.\n            She had only just arrived in\nToronto, she still suffered from some mild jet lag, but she didn't let that\nstop her from doing her job. It was dusk, the sun was already beginning to set\nagain, and since the shark-creature hadn't reappeared during the sunlight\nhours, if it intended to make another appearance, it would be at night. It made\nsense, actually; if the creature had been dormant at the bottom of the lake for\na long time, or was some sort of deep water dweller, it stood to reason light\nwould bother it.\n            But now, the sun was almost down,\nand if her theory was correct, it would soon emerge again...\n            She walked along the pier, examining\nthe scene from afar. The wrecked boats and docks didn't seem to suggest a\ndeliberate attack, as nothing had any severe damage. It simply appeared as\nthough a fish too big for the area swam through, possibly thrashed about trying\nto get back out to deep water. No boats were bitten or torn up, just flipped\nover and the hulls dented. It hadn't come here looking for food; it had simply\nbeen wandering, maybe looking for deeper waters or naturally drawn to try and\nfind its natural habitat.\n            Time passed, and not much seemed to\nbe happening, but suddenly Lionheart began to feel strange. Her shoulders\nached, like she had overworked her arms, but she hadn't done anything strenuous\nthat day; an after-effect of jet-lag? Well, that didn't make any sense. But as\nshe looked around, she noticed other people showing signs of it as well. Some\nwere even leaning on one another for support while others sat down, catching\ntheir breath.\n            Something struck a chord with the\nlioness. A foreboding sense of familiarity... hadn't the witnesses of the\nprevious attack mentioned feeling tired just before the creature had appeared\nthe night before?\n            Lionheart turned her gaze out\ntowards the water, and saw something that immediately set her on high alert.\nThere was a wave in the water, coming towards the dock -not a wave like a\ntsunami, but like something big was moving through the water, just beneath the\nsurface, and it was coming fast.\n            Immediately, the experienced Kaiju\nfighter in her took over. \"Everyone, away from the docks, hurry!\" She called\nwith concern, trying not to sound too excited so that nobody panicked, while\nshe remained where she stood.\nThe investigators and police who had quarantined the\narea reacted immediately to her call, spotting the approaching mass in the\nwater and knowing what was coming, they backed away as much as they could. The\ncreature was returning, and it was up to Lionheart to stop it if it turned\nviolent. She watched it closely as it approached, the red-pink lioness staring\nwith her sky blue eyes, waiting. The strain she felt seemed to increase as the\ncreature came closer and closer to the shore. At one point, she saw the head of\nthe monster emerge from the surface of the water just briefly before it started\nto thrash slightly and disappear below the water again.\nAs Lionheart had thought, the beast was too big for\nthe shallower waters close to the shore. But that brief glimpse confirmed the\nreports; a creature with a body ablaze in a blue glow like a neon light,\nresembling a shark-like beast and larger than a pair of buses sitting\nside-by-side. It wasn't a Kaiju as she knew them, but it was a monstrous and\nterrifying thing none the less. Still, as long as everyone was away from the\nwater, they were safe...\nWhat happened next had Lionheart's jaw dropping in shock.\nThe shark-creature dispersed as though it were nothing but mist, but in its\nplace, a whole new creature sprang out of the water, flying through the air as\nif coming out of a mighty leap before landing on the street and landing with a\nthunderous crash onto top of one of the police patrol vehicles that were parked\nnear the docks, with only one foot needed to do the deed.\nThe beastly creature was huge, standing more than\nthirty feet tall at least, stand on short, muscular hind legs and bearing\ndisproportionately long arms, each one ending with a powerful hand much like\nthat of an ape, but skinnier and with longer fingers -three on each hand - and\nthumbs, each one ending with scythe-like claws. It had a head like an ape,\nwitch a slightly elongated cranium, and covered in fur, including a patch\ngrowing like a beard from its chin, and a mouthful of fangs, including\ntusk-like ones protruding from the bottom row of teeth at the front. It\nmaintained the previous, seemingly incorporeal form of the shark -a creature\nthe glowed blue as though it were actually made out of condensed energy.\nPeople backed away in terror, Lionheart stood her\nground. It wasn't the largest creature she had ever fought, but it was still\nbig -more than big enough to cause tremendous damage to the city if she didn't\nstop it. Furthermore, from what she had just witnessed, this creature could\ninstantaneously change its form. Shapechangers, Lionheart knew of, but had never\nfought one that could change shape and size\nat the exact same time.\n\"Everyone, get off the streets!\" Lionheart called\nwith assertion as she activated her powers, and began to grow. What changed\nfirst was her size, followed immediately by her overall girth, planting one\nfoot and shuffling the other to the side as she continued to grow larger by the\nmoment. Her outfit expanded with her, stretching to match her increased size,\nand she continued to grow until she was roughly the same height as the creature,\nwhere she shifted her stance to a combat-ready pose.\nThe creature opened its mouth to roar, throwing out\nits arms as it did, but the sound was dull and drawn out, more like a long moan\nthan an actual roar, but the gauntlet was thrown, and the massive, muscular\nmonster charged at her. It attacked like a primal beast, swiping at her with a\nclaw as it drew close; she dodged, and waited until at attacked again before\ncatching it by the arm and executing a Judo throw, flipping the beast around\nand slamming it down on the street.\nThe behemoth seemed to cry out in pain, once more\nonly coming out as a moan, before it swiped at Lionheart with its other hand,\ngoing for her legs. She let go of its arm to instinctively dodge the attack,\nand the creature flipped over, pushing itself up on its hands before using them\nas well as its feet to propel itself at her, tackling the giant lioness. Were\nit not for her super durability, she would have had the wind knock out of her,\nbut she held firm. Though her eyes soon widened with shock as the creature\nreared back and threw back its head, launching Lionheart through the air; she\nyelped as she was sent soaring over four city blocks before she neared ground\nagain, spotting people who had failed to clear the street.\nPlacing her hands carefully, she caught herself on\nthe office buildings on either side of the street, ignoring the concrete and\nglass shards that poked her hands like slivers, and landed on both feet,\nsuccessfully stopping her from landing on the street and accidentally crushing\ninnocent civilians.\n\"All of you, get off the streets!\" She barked\nharshly at them, more out of her stress from the current situation than out of\nanger; she was afraid for their safety. This creature she battled was stronger\nthan she had imagined, and if this fight was to end without too many civilian\ncasualties, they had to get clear of the danger zone.\nTurning to face the beast again, she saw it was\nalready charging her way, both arms out as if to grab her in a tight embrace,\nbut the flexing claws at the end of its fingers told another story. She stood\nsideways, shifting weight back into her back leg, and when the creature came\nnear, delivered a powerful kick right to its face that immediately sent it\ncareening backward, stopping its charge completely as it fell onto its back.\nThe creature was cross-eyed and dazed from the kick,\nand Lionheart quickly pounced it and tried to hold it down until she could find\nsome way to incapacitate it, but she would soon regret this decision as, very\nsuddenly, the creature went still and dispersed again, as it had when it first\nbecame the creature she was already battling. In its place was a beast not\nquite as big as its previous form. It had turned into a monstrous snake, longer\nthan she was tall, and with a mouthful of hooked teeth as it hissed at her.\nSliding out of her hand it threw itself around her arm, and immediately she\nfelt powerful muscles constricting the limb.\nShe stood up, and tried to shake the creature off as\nit squeezed her arm, gritting her teeth from the pain. She remembered something\nshe had seen on television in a historical documentary about constrictors; how\nto get them off of you if they managed to coil themselves around any part of\nyour body. Finding the creature's head, she seized it with her paw, squeezing\nits neck to hold it in place before readjusting her arm to unwind the coils\nfrom around her limb.\nBut she had failed to notice the tail while doing\nthis, and suddenly felt both of her legs pulled together by it. She lost her\nbalance and cried out as she fell over, landing on her back and then again in\npain as she felt the powerful muscles of the giant snake squeezing her legs;\nshe held onto its head, refusing it let it coil more of itself around her. It\nhiss, spat, even tried to bite her several times as she held it by the neck,\nbut it was a losing battle; if she didn't get out of this situation soon, it\nwas going to completely crush her legs, and then she would be helplessly\npinned...\n~~~~~\n            With the news ablaze about the clash\nnear the docks, it was only a matter of time before The Warp would appear on\none of the buildings overlooking the street where the fight was taking place.\nHe looked around, and quickly spotted the ensuing battle, shocked to see what\nwas happening. Instead of Lionheart battling with a huge shark as he had\nexpected, or a massive ape-like creature like the news had reported, he found\nthe giant lioness wrapped in the coils of a snake, her paws around its neck\ndesperately trying to keep it from coiling her any further. In her current\nposition, she was in a losing battle, and soon the snake would gain an\nadvantage.\n            He had to do something!\n            \"Warp!\"\n            The caribou looked over his shoulder\nin time to see a figure swinging by their tail off of a nearby flagpole,\nlaunching themselves through the air where they performed several somersaults\nbefore dropping onto the rooftop nearby. He spotted a salamander clad\nhead-to-toe in a form-fitting, flexible body suit covering every part of him,\nincluding a pair of cloth 'boots' that seemed to merge seamlessly with the rest\nof the suit, and gloves to match the rest. He wore an eye mask, actually\nsimilar to Warp's but clearly nothing more than a piece of fabric, and after\nlanding, his oddly long tail seemed to retract back to his lower body, becoming\na more average length.\n            \"Whiptail,\" said the caribou.\n            \"I told you to keep your head down;\nwhat if Lionheart finds you?\" He asked.\n            \"She's the one in trouble right\nnow!\" Warp replied, pointing down to the street.\n            Whiptail followed Warp's finger, and\nhis eyes bugged wide open as he saw Lionheart pinned on the street by a\nlarger-than-life snake, still fighting for her very life. He shook off his\nshock and turned back to Warp. \"What do we do?\"\n            \"You say she has the ability to grow\nand shrink at will, right?\" Warp asked.\n            \"Yeah.\"\n            \"I need you to try and distract that\nserpent -any way you can. I'll take care of the rest,\" instructed Warp.\n            \"What'll you do?\"\n            \"No time for questions; just go!\"\nWarp snapped before he teleported away.\n            Thinking quickly, Whiptail looked\naround and spotted an anchorpoint for him to grab with his tail. Whipping it\nover his head like... well, a whip, he snagged the flagpole of neighboring\nstructure, before he leapt off the building and went into a swing, keeping the\nrest of his body still and straight as he swung himself towards the ensuing\nbattle. \nIn an amazing display of acrobatics he hurled\nhimself into the air, catching himself on the leg of a water tower before he\nswung around again, planted his feet on the leg of the tower and, after\nuncurling his tail, leapt away again, sending himself flying towards the snake,\nwhere he took careful aim before performing another aerial somersault, and\nlashed out his tail sharply, striking the snake in the eyeball with the\nsnapping appendage.\nLikely more out of instinct than actual pain, the\nserpent recoiled, realizing that it had another threat to contend to and was\nquickly distracted. Warp, who had teleported to a building nearby to get a\nbetter view of the situation, teleported again down to Lionheart herself,\nappearing next to her head; the flash of light emitted by him caught her\nattention, and she turned her head to look at him. He cupped his hands around\nhis mouth before he called out. \"Brace yourself!\" He called before running up\nto her and placing his hands upon her collar.\nThe flash of light that emitted from the teleporting\nLionheart was enough to blind the snake; its coils fell askew and tangled as,\ninstantaneously, the figure it had been constricting had simply vanished into nothingness,\nleaving the serpent disoriented and forced to try and right itself again.\nLionheart, along with Warp now hanging off her shoulder awkwardly, reappeared\nup the street, and Lionheart fell to her knees as the soreness of her legs\ncaught up with her. Her lowered height let Warp drop back down to the ground\nharmlessly, where he turned to her with concern.\n\"Are you okay?\" He asked.\n\"Yes... just need to let some feeling get back into\nmy legs,\" she replied.\nWhiptail suddenly dropped down from above, landing\nnext to them and addressing Warp as he started at the fluorescent creature in\nbewilderment. \"First it was an extinct shark, then a behemoth and now freaking\nTitanoboa -what the hell is this thing; how does it keep changing shapes like\nthat?!\"\n\"I wish I had an answer,\" replied Warp. \"But there's\nsomething... familiar about that creature; I can't place it but it's like I've\nseen it or something like it before.\" He rubbed his chin in thought. \"But I\ncan't remember where.\"\nLionheart began to stand up, taking in a deep breath\nbefore rising fully to her feet. \"Regardless, this fight is not over yet; I\nstill have to stop this thing before it hurts anyone else,\" she stated with\nfirmness.\n\"We'll help however we can, Ms. Lionheart,\" Whiptail\noffered.\nShe looked down at him, having to lean forward\nslightly to see him better. \"Then do what you can to get all civilians clear of\nhere; we can protect ourselves from this beast, they can't. Can you do that for\nme?\" She gave him a smile, and the reaction from the salamander had Warp\narching an eyebrow at him as he spastically readjusted his stance to a\nstraight-up salute to the giant heroine.\n\"Yes ma'am!\" He returned.\n'Seriously,\nPierre? Have a little pride,' Warp thought to himself.\n\"Good,\" returned Lionheart, before elevating her\ngaze. \"It's changing again!\" She warned.\nWarp and Whiptail turned, and saw that once again\nthe creature had transformed as its previous form literally turned to mist and\nvanished as though it never were. This time, it had taken an avianic form, nearly\nreaching the height of the ten story office building it stood next to, with\nwingspan so massive they dwarfed even that of a Boeing-777 Airplane, covering\nentire streets in shadow as it stood, flexing out its wings and threw back its\nhead as if to shriek, but again there was only that moan. It had a muscular\nbody, built like an Olympic furson but made larger than life by whatever force\ncomprised the creature. \nGrowing from its head was a huge mane, like a lion,\nso dense that it covered its entire neck and even part of its back, and when it\nturned to face them, it had the head and face of a feral hawk. It 'screeched'\nagain, before expanding its wings and flapping them, shattering the windows of\nbuildings with the sheer wind emitted by the wingbeats, forcing the three\nheroes to brace themselves as it carried itself skyward, flying above the\nbuildings.\n\"Now what the heck did it turn into?\" Whiptail\ndemanded.\n\"It's a Garuda,\" replied Lionheart. \"This is\nsomething I'm more familiar with.\" She began to grow again, continuing to increase\nin size until she reached a total of fifty feet in height -Warp estimated\nanyway- and then her expression once more turned to that of determination\nbefore she stated, \"Here I go again!\" and then she took off, surprising both of\nthem as her body was practically a blur as she sped towards the beast, making a\nmighty leap at it before it could get too high and seizing it by the legs.\nThe Garuda beast flailed its arms as it tried to\nkeep control of its flight, but no bird was built to carry multiple body\nweights, only their own; Lionheart successfully dragged the winged kaiju, even\nif it wasn't a real Garuda, down from the air above the buildings and back to\nground level, where she forcefully attempted to throw it to the ground. It caught\nitself on a pair of structures before lunging at her and delivering a\nheavy-handed punch to her face, sending her reeling, but not enough to knock\nher down. She wheeled herself around and charged, slamming into the Garuda with\nher shoulder, slamming into the creature and sending it stumbling backward.\nAt some point, the Garuda's feet found no purchase,\nand instead continued to drop into ice cold water; the fight had moved back to\nthe shore of the lake, and the Garuda, losing its balance, fell backward and\nplunged into the water, soaking its feathers -if such physics applied to a\ncreature evidently not composed of organic matter. Lionheart stepped into the\nwater as well, flinching from the cold but she didn't let that stop her as the\nGaruda emerged from the water, glaring at Lionheart.\nThe battle of fists was on, the two giants -the\nGaruda still the larger but not the stronger- trading powerful punches that\nseemed to shake the very air upon meeting their targets. Large waves were\nthrown onto the shore as they moved, sending boats crashing onto the pier and\non top of a few cars -even the boat rental house was not spared as Lionheart\nfought to defeat the Garuda. \nWarp and Whiptail used this time to do a sweep\nthrough the blocks closest to the battle, making sure everyone had evacuated to\na safe distance from the lake, checking everywhere they thought people might be\nhiding. After finishing their sweep, they returned to the shore and watched the\nunfolding battle. Lionheart seemed to have the upper hand; the Garuda was big,\nbut she was stronger and faster; its advantage was when it was airborne and she\nhad already robbed it of that edge.\nBut the fight still took a turn. As Lionheart moved\nto punch the Garuda, and the creature itself was in the midst of taking a swing\nat her, it suddenly changed again, causing her to pause mid-swing as she beheld\nthe horrifying thing that emerged from the haze where the Garuda had once been.\nA monstrosity, bigger than even the Garuda, with a body of smooth skin over\npowerful anthropic musculature, with hands ending in clawed fingers, shorter\nthan the Behemoth form it had taken before, and legs proportionate to its size\nequally muscular and straight.\nBut it was above the shoulders where the terror\nemerged. The creature had a head like a giant octopus, with a dozen short\ntentacles growing from its face. Two bright eyes, these ones actually a\ndifferent colour than any of the forms before, glared out in bright orange at\nLionheart. From the creatures back, a dozen more tentacles, these ones as long\nas the giant snake that the beast had been earlier, extended into view, waving\nand writhing about behind it as though each one had a mind of its own.\nLionheart stared, paralyzed, at the eldritch horror\nstaring back at her, and failed to react as those tentacles lunged forward like\nstriking snakes, whipping around her upper arms and her thighs; she started to\nreact, but then a fifth wrapped around her neck, squeezing tightly and blocking\nair from reaching her lungs. She grasped it with a hand, trying to pull it\nfree, finally a sixth lashed around her belly, all of these tentacles squeezing\nher tightly, and beginning to pull her towards itself, those lifeless, blazing\neyes all the while glaring at her as the tendrils growing from its face elevated,\nwaving towards Lionheart's face like grabbing fingers.\nWhiptail stood, jaw wide open, at the spectacle as\nhe and Warp stood helplessly watching as Lionheart was reeled in by the\ncreature's numerous tentacles; it was too big for them to help her this time,\nand Warp wasn't certain he could teleport Lionheart at the size she was\ncurrently -even when she was at only thirty feet height it had been a gamble,\nbut now that she was fifty feet he wasn't sure his powers would affect her.\n\"Mon dieu is\nthere no end to what this thing will change into?!\" Whiptail demanded. \"That\nthing is like something out of a recurring nightmare!\"\nWarp's eyes shot wide open, those two words\n-recurring nightmare- ringing like alarm bells in his ears. Before his very\neyes, memories began to flash before him, playing like a movie in fast forward\nas he relived memories he had somehow forgotten. The night of the harvest\nfestival, he peeking into the doctor's hut, seeing a little girl strewn out\nacross the floor, suddenly surrounded by an energy barrier, only for it to\nrecede again within seconds, and the angry face of Ohanzee glaring at him, and\njust as suddenly the memories stopped, and the caribou still stood, mouth\nhanging open and eyes wide in horror.\n\"Warp? Warp!\" Whiptail exclaimed repeatedly.\n\"DANIEL!\"\nAkio's voice screamed in Warp's ear, the pain of his eardrum this time enough\nto snap him out of his trance.\n\"Ow! Damn\nit; quit screaming at me!\" He snapped.\n\"Quit standing around like a post and I will!\"\nWhiptail retorted. \"What the hell is wrong with you; you're standing around\nall...\" he imitated Warp's previous position, but exaggerated it strongly with\ncrossed eyes and his tongue hanging out, letting a long-drawn out 'duh' before\nhe shook his head and resumed what he was saying. \"While Lionheart is getting\nstrangled by fucking Cthulhu! Get your head in the game man; think of\nsomething! We have to help her!\"\nWarp turned to look at the glowing, blue creature,\nthe memory of that girl flashing across his mind again, before he said plainly.\n\"I know what,\" he caught himself, \"I know who\nthat thing is.\"\nWhiptail's face fell to a blank expression. \"Say\nwhat now?\"\n\"You know what\nit is?\" Akio asked.\n\"Yes... that night at Onata'ke, I saw her; she was\nsurrounded in an aura just like that creature,\" explained Warp. \"It didn't have\na shape; it was just enshrouding her like a protective shield, before Ohanzee\nsuppressed it. But I remember the colour and the light exactly, and this\nfeeling of suppression the creature emits... there's no doubt about it; that\nmonster is Kaniehtiio.\"\nWhiptail looked at the Cthulhu creature\nincredulously. \"You're telling me that abomination is a twelve year old girl?\nWarp, that's impossible! No child could have that much power!\"\n\"Look, I have no time to argue the point,\" stated\nWarp. \"I know I'm right, and I have to save her; Lionheart doesn't know what\nshe's fighting!\"\nBefore Whiptail could protest, Warp vanished, his\nname being called out by the salamander falling on deaf ears as the caribou\nteleported down to the short, staring up at the creature desperately. He was\nrunning out of time; Lionheart was only inches from those reaching, short\ntentacles, where the creature would surely end her. He squinted his eyes as he\nstared at the creature, trying to find where Kaniehtiio could be inside of it.\nIt wasn't likely he could spot her, but maybe there was some way -some trace he\ncould follow, back to the source of the strange beast's life.\n\"Daniel, even\nif you are right, what do you plan to do? That thing is too big for you to fight,\"\nAkio warned.\n\"I'm not going to fight it,\" replied Warp. \"I'm\ngoing to teleport inside of it, I'm going to get Kaniehtiio.\"\nAkio's response was garbled as the weasel was no\ndoubt screaming his protest into the microphone. \"You have no idea what could happen to you; just being near that thing\nfeels like being in intensified gravity -you said so yourself! We don't know\nwhat the inside of it could be like; it's too risky!\"\n\"I failed Kaniehtiio before, I won't fail her\nagain!\" Warp asked. \"I may not be her family, but I should've stopped Ohanzee\nwhen I had the chance; I should've just grabbed her and left! Right now I'm the\nonly one who can save her, and I'm not going to let her down again!\" He calmed,\nand then spoke calmly into his communicator. \"If I don't make it back, Akio...\nit's been an honor.\"\n\"DAN...!\" \nWarp shut off the communicator before Akio could\ncontinue to try and talk him out of it, before he looked up at the creature\nagain. After searching carefully, he spotted it; deep inside the distorted blue\nbody of the Cthulhu-cloning beast, he saw a dark silhouette at the very\nepicentre where the heart was located in the body of a living being. He fixed\non that spot, not sure what would happen to him once he did what he was about\nto do. He wasn't aware of Whiptail coming up behind him, moving at full speed\nas he ran at the caribou from behind, and sprang at him to tackle him.\nWhiptail hit nothing, simply falling to the sandy\nbeach awkwardly as Warp disappeared just before he reached him.\nThe instant he appeared out of teleport, Warp felt\nas though his body was being bombarded with small explosions, bursts of kinetic\nenergy assailing his very fibre of being. His head pounded, his organs hurt -places\nwhere he didn't even realize he could feel pain were hurting. He couldn't see;\nany attempt to open his eyes was met swiftly by an invisible fist right to the\norb itself, and despite feeling no ground or air around him, he wasn't falling.\n\nHe could not breath, he could not move from where he\nwas, only shift his body about as if floating in zero gravity. What brief\nglimpses he got of the space around him were all blue, but it was not the blue\nof the sky. Every passing second felt like he was enduring a beating from an\nangry mob of thugs wanting payback for him bringing about their arrests in the\npast, but he felt nothing but force hitting him -no sound, no shape of fists\nimpacting his body, no feet kicking his ribs. It was all simple force assailing\nhim from every direction...\nHe flailed his arms about instinctively, vainly\ntrying to ward off his billions of invisible assailants, until his hand landed\non something warm... Soft fur -baby soft, a bony hand, muscles tense and stiff.\nThe hand was not his own, but based on where he had teleported, there was only\none person it could belong to. In his mind, he saw a flash memory of her again,\nremembering Kaniehtiio's restless, sleeping form the night he'd first seen her.\nHe knew it was her; it could be no one else.\nWith renewed vigour filling him, Warp grasped that\nhand tightly, and once more he teleported, vanishing from the inside of the\nbeast...\nLionheart was nearly seeing black as she began to\nrapidly run out of air in her lungs, trying desperately to pull off the\ntentacle from around her throat as the other slimey, cold appendages dragged\nher closer to her opponent, who spread the tentacles of his face out wide to\nreveal a beak-like mouth, opening wide enough to engulf her entire head as she\nwas pulled closer. The sight of that mouth made her realize what it was about\nto do; it intended to take her head, and eat it like a morsel.\nPure survival instinct drove her actions; she did\nnot even notice as the creature suddenly froze, its countless appendages\nimmediately falling limp as it stood unmoving. Lionheart did not hesitate for\neven a second, delivering a mighty fist to its chest, only for the creature\nto... explode.\nOr, not so much explode, as simply burst, its blue\nbody turning to a powdery haze reminiscent of a bag of flour being broken open\nin the air, and the blue 'powder' simply fell towards the water, but never\ntouched it; it continued to get thinner and thinner until there was nothing\nleft. And just like that, the creature was gone without a trace, no sign of it\nhaving ever existed remaining except for the red spots on Lionheart's body\nwhere its tentacles had bound her, or the bruise her cheek now sported from the\npunch she had suffered from its Garuda form.\nShe placed her hands on her knees to steady herself\nas she gasped for breath, panting desperately to refill her starved lungs with\nair. Though her mind was nagged with questions, she needed to recover from her\nordeal, barely able to remain standing as she carefully turned about and began\nto limp back to shore, one hand rubbing her neck.\nWhiptail stared, shocked, by what he had just\nwitnessed... the creature had vanished, as if it had been nothing but an\nillusion all along, but the damage to the city behind him was real enough to\nremind him that what he had seen was not some cheap trick. It had been as real\nas himself and everyone in Toronto...\nA cough caught his ear; he spun around, and saw Warp\ndown on his knees nearby, clutching something to his chest. Whiptail strode\nover as quick as lightning, literally stirring up sand as he crossed the beach\nfull-tilt over to caribou, falling to his side and seizing him by the\nshoulders. \"Daniel! Are you okay?\" He'd mentally kick himself later for\naccidentally using Warp's real name, but for now he was just glad to see his\nfriend was alive.\nWarp was panting for breath, his face showing he was\nstill in a lot of pain. There was actually smoke coming off of his suit, and\nyet nothing was burning, but everything was damaged; pieces of his antlers were\nmissing, he had dozens of little welts on his face reminiscent of being shot by\nairsoft guns over and over again, his gauntlets were misshapen and damaged, and\nhis cape was torn in places. He looked as though he had just walked through the\nmiddle of an active gang war, despite having not even been gone for more than a\nminute, and the fact he was even still conscious was a miracle.\nMeanwhile, the young female caribou cradled in his\narms was completely unharmed, garbed in a night dress. She seemed somehow at\npeace in her dreams, as if pulled out of her very nightmares by The Warp, but\nmost of all she was unharmed, and the rest of the crisis was averted...\nWarp eyed her with pain in his eyes, a tear finding\nits way to his eyelid as he whispered to her, \"Kaniehtiio, I'm sorry,\" and held\nher tightly against his chest. \"I'm sorry I didn't save you sooner...\"\n            \"Mr. Warp?\"\n            Warp didn't turn, but Whiptail did,\nand he saw Lionheart standing nearby, looking keenly at Warp with a firm stare.\nShe walked around him slightly, and it was then she saw the child in the arms\nof Warp. The sight of Kaniehtiio made Lionheart's brow furrow, and Whiptail saw\nher hands tighten into fists again when she saw the child. \"Who is that girl;\nwhat did you do to her?\"\n            \"Ms. Lionheart...\" Whiptail began,\nbut stopped as Warp abruptly stood up, turning to face Lionheart with a hard\nstare.\n            \"This girl,\" he said plainly. \"Is\nwhat you were just fighting.\"\n            Lionheart's eyes shot wide open as\nthose words left the mouth of the caribou. \"What?\"\n            \"He's telling the truth, Ms.\nLionheart,\" Whiptail defended Warp's statement, stepping forward. \"This little\ngirl... her name is Kaniehtiio. She's the...\" He paused. \"The beast you were\nfighting.\"\n            Lionheart cupped her paws over her\nmuzzle in horror as the truth of Warp's words were backed by a fellow Bureau\nagent -she had no actually met Whiptail but she knew of him, and knew that it\nwas him addressing her. She stared in shock at the unconscious girl as suddenly\nshe felt weak in her knees and collapsed, landing on her knees in the sand as\nshe mumbled something incoherent behind her paws.\n            Warp looked at Kaniehtiio again,\nbefore he turned to look at Lionheart once more, and slowly, he approached her,\ncradling the child protectively, and though his face was firm, Lionheart could\nsee the pain in his eyes as he approached her. \"Can the Bureau help her?\" He\nasked.\n            Lionheart barely even hesitated with\nher answer, springing to her feet again and nodding. \"Yes. I can arrange to\nhave her taken to a proper care facility. The people there are specialists;\nthey'll take care of her.\"\n            \"I will not allow that.\"\n            The three supers spun towards the\nvoice, and saw a figure with a wooden mask hobbling over the three, crossing\nthe beach and leaning on a walking stick with every crooked step he too. The mask\nwas in the likeness of a hawk, covering his face with a wooden beak over his\nmuzzle and also over his eyes, with a mohawk of feathers over the back of his\nhead, covering his face and neck. The untrained eye would be unable to see the\nantlers growing from the skull of the stranger were natural and not part of the\nmask, but Warp didn't need to see the face of the man to know who it was.\n            \"Ohanzee,\" he growled with spite.\n\"How did you here?\" The decrepit old\ntelepath could never have made such a journey on foot; the way he moved, he\nwould take several days to travel to Toronto, yet here he was...\n            Without even answering Warp's\nquestion, Ohanzee spokehis response in a commanding tone of voice. \"I'll be\ntaking Kaniehtiio home with me now,\" the old caribou, hidden behind his\nbird-mask, stated plainly. \"Bring her here, Daniel, now.\"\n            Warp held Kaniehtiio protectively\nagainst his chest and took a step back. \"Over my dead body, old man,\" he\nretorted. \"You have put her through enough; she needs help.\"\n            \"And she'll get it,\" returned\nOhanzee. \"But she will be helped by her people,\nnot the Defilers of the land.\"\n            \"Your old ways don't work, Ohanzee!\"\nWarp shot, losing his patience rapidly. \"If they did, this would never have\nhappened! I'm not going to let you risk the lives of innocent people just\nbecause you hate the outside world!\"\n            Though Warp could only scarcely see\nOhanzee's eyes, he could see the hellfires raging in them as their gazes met,\nthe tension between them reaching boiling point quickly. Warp didn't care if\nevery bone in Ohanzee would shatter by the effort; he would not hesitate to\nknock the old man down if he didn't back off...\n            But it seems he didn't need to,\nbecause Lionheart stepped in, placing herself between Warp and Ohanzee. \"This\nchild is under the protection of the Bureau of Superheroes now, and I can have\nchild services here in less than an hour to put her under their care. Don't\nthink I won't.\"\n            \"Go ahead,\" returned Ohanzee taking\na step forward. \"Your idle threats are nothing to me, she-cat; they'll come,\nand then they will forget about everything they were doing, while I leave\nquietly and take the child home. Now step aside, else I will erase your mind\nand leave you no more intelligent than an infant.\n            Whiptail stepped in to stand beside\nLionheart, crossing his arms and keeping his gaze firm as both he and the\nlioness stared back. \"If you want her, you'll have to go through both of us\nfirst,\" he warned.\n            \"You underestimate me, boy,\" Ohanzee\nretorted as he raised his hand. \"A mistake that will cost you dearly...\"\n            Before Ohanzee could do anything,\nhowever, there was a clap of hands, and the very air itself seemed to distort\nas Ohanzee was stricken by an unseen force that sent him careening to the\nground, falling to the sand in a heap and grunting as he put a hand on his mask\nto keep it from falling off his face. He shook his head to clear it before he\nturned to face his assailant, seeing a rather oddly garbed figure had arrived\non the scene, wearing a casual clothes including a button-down shirt and jeans,\nbut his face was wrapped in cloth to conceal it as he shook his hands around,\nrelieving the pain of what had to have been a very hard clap.\n            \"Ow, that hurt,\" the masked stranger\nremarked, confirming the suspicion.\n            \"Hania! You dare attack me?!\" Ohanzee\nsnapped as he lifted himself back up.\n            \"Damn straight, old man,\" retorted\nthe masked stranger, who now Daniel knew was none other than his cousin. \"I'm\nnot going to let you take Kaniehtiio back to the village.\"\n            \"She belongs with her people!\"\n            \"She belongs where she can be cared for; I spoke to her parents. They\nagreed!\" Han retorted. \"Let the lady take her where she can receive the proper\ncare until she's mature enough to control her powers!\"\n            \"I will not let her be defiled by\nthis wretched outer world!\" Ohanzee retorted, waving his hand towards Toronto.\n\"These fools have evolved into abominations, forsaken their ancestors and\ncontinue to cover the world in filth; does she belong with such people?!\"\n            \"The only monster I see here is you,\nOhanzee,\" Warp stated. \"You're so stuck in the past that you refuse to believe\nthere is anything good about the modern world. Whether you like it or not, as\nlong as Kaniehtiio's parents approve of us doing so, we are giving Kaniehtiio\nthe proper care she needs, and you are not her legal guardian, therefore by law\nyou have no say in what happens to her!\" He pointed harshly at Ohanzee. \"I\ndon't care if you are the elder of the village; if you don't stay away from her,\ndon't think I'll even hesitate to take you down, do you hear me?\"\n            Ohanzee clearly realized the\nadvantage was not his. It was him, an elderly psychic well past his prime,\nagainst four youthful -and angry superfurs; he may have been able to handle one\nor two of them but all four of them would easily be able to overcome his\npowers. His eyes stared into those of Warp for the longest time, the dead-gray\norbs of the younger caribou filled with spite, and no indication that anything\nwould change his mind...\n            Ohanzee scowled deeply. \"So be it,\"\nhe said. \"Kaniehtiio leaves with you... but know that if you ever set foot near\nOnata'ke again, Daniel...\" He pointed his staff at Warp. \"It will be the end of\nyou.\"\n            \"Not so fast; you're not leaving!\"\nHan protested.\n            \"Yes I am,\" returned Ohanzee plainly\nbefore, very suddenly, he shot skyward, carried up by unseen forces and\nhovering forward as he angled his body to a horizontal position, and with that,\nhe flew, straight and true, away from the scene, across the lake and to the\nwildness beyond, leaving four baffled heroes to stare after him...\n~~~~~\n            With a few calls, Kaniehtiio was\nsoon to be on her way to a care facility endorsed and supported by the Bureau\nof Superheroes; Lionheart claimed the place was reputable and reliable, and\nassured Warp and Han that Kaniehtiio would be well cared for there, until a way\nto help her control her powers could be found...\n            First, though, she had to be taken\nto the hospital for examination, to find out just if any harm had been done to\nher physically during the ordeal. The three heroes and the fourth, who kept his\nmask on, watched as Kaniehtiio was loaded onto an ambulance gently by\nparamedics; Warp wished he could go with her, but he had to stay out of sight,\nsimply watching, and silently hoping the best for her.\n            Lionheart was standing nearby,\nwatching with her hands folded over her chest as the ambulance doors closed and\nthe paramedics got back on board. Warp waited until it was gone before he\nturned to her. \"Will she be okay?\" He asked.\n            She looked at him and nodded.\n\"She'll be well-cared for,\" she promised. \"But since she'll have to be relocated\nto Colmation, I imagine there'll be some complications in her parents visiting\nher.\"\n            Warp sighed. \"Sad, but true... but\nit's for her own good.\"\n            \"You did a good thing, Warp,\"\nLionheart complimented.\n            The caribou eyed the lioness warily.\n\"I suppose now is when you try to arrest me?\" He asked. \"I warn you, I cannot\nbe restrained.\"\n            Lionheart smiled at him. \"I'm not\ngoing to arrest you,\" she returned.\n            \"You're... not?\" Warp asked.\n            \"I don't support the B.O.S's stance\non unregistered superheroes, especially not after what I saw here today,\"\nreplied Lionheart, honestly. \"You've shown you are not a risk to anyone here in\nToronto; you're willing to lay your life on the line to help those who cannot\nhelp themselves. I think that makes a\nhero, not whether or not they work for the Bureau.\" She folded her hands behind\nher back. \"I'll be heading back to Japan soon.\"\n            Warp smiled warmly at her as she\nglanced back over her shoulder at him, and said softly, \"thank you,\nLionheart... for all your help.\"\n            \"And thank you for yours,\" she\nreturned. \"If you ever consider joining the Bureau, I'll make sure to sign a\nrecommendation for you.\"\n            \"I second that,\" Whiptail piped up.\n            Lionheart smiled at Whiptail as\nwell, before she looked at Warp again. \"Good luck, and goodbye for now.\"\n            Warp, too moved for words, answered\nher only with a wave, and watched the lioness as she departed. He smiled again\nas he noticed Whiptail following her -probably to ask for an autograph, and\nwhen they were out of earshot, he turned to Han. \"What happens to Ohanzee now?\"\nHe asked.\n            \"Somehow I doubt the old bastard\nwent back to the village,\" returned Han as he finally decided it was safe to\ntake off the wrapping he used as a mask. \"He knows I'll arrest him the moment I\nget back; probably long gone by now.\"\n            \"Would he really leave Onöta'ke,\nthough?\"\n            \"I doubt he'll venture far,\" replied\nHan. \"He loves the village, but not enough that he'll be incarcerated for it.\nOne day, I'll find him, and I'll bring him down.\"\n            Warp nodded to his cousin. \"Be sure\nto call me when you do; I want to see him brought down too,\" he returned. With\nthat, Warp adjusted his posture, crossing his arms and giving Han a wry smile.\n\"So... decided to make use of your powers, have you?\"\n            \"What makes you think this isn't a\none-time thing?\" Han asked, rhetorically.\n            \"Because you seem to have a knack\nfor laying the smackdown on scumbags when the need arises,\" replied Warp. \"My\noffer still stands, cousin; if you're willing to learn then I'm willing to\ntrain you. I can help you become a hero.\"\n            \"And my job as a Park Ranger, for a\nvillage a hundred kilometers away?\"\n            \"Part of being a hero is to manage a\ndouble-life,\" replied Warp. \"It's not an easy living, and you certainly don't\nget paid for it. But to some... the justice you serve can be its own reward.\"\n            Han chuckled. \"Well, I've never been\none to knock something without trying it,\" he returned, smiling broadly at\nWarp. \"So when do we start, boss?\""}