Enid found herself handcuffed and had a hood over her head. She still had sun on her skin when she woke up from the drug, they had used to knock her out. She could hear them speaking in Russian. She could understand it clearly. She was shit at speaking it, but she could understand it well enough.

Going to have to practice at that.

They were discussing getting her to the Akula. She could hear water and an engine. She assumed they were on the ocean. It took long enough that she could see the world outside get darker indicating the sun would be going down soon. She was stood up and then lowered down off the side of a boat she could hear her feet on metal. It didn’t make sense she was lower than she was on the boat, if she were on a ship it would be higher in the water. She was lowered down again and heard more boots on metal.

Holy shit, never been on a submarine before. Cool.

She felt her ears pop. As soon as she was inside the submarine her powers came back in full force. She could smell the sweat of many men down here. She was led down a few hallways and through a door and sat down on a chair. She smelt cigarette smoke. A few minutes later the hood was pulled off her face and she was met with a woman smoking a cigarette. She had black hair with a few greys, thick glasses and had a file that was written in Russian characters. Enid could read it. Operation Dragon. She chuckled. The woman spoke in English.

“You should not be laughing, you are miles from the coast, in submarine at five hundred feet depth. You are not getting out of here, no matter how skilled you are. You are trapped in here with us.”

Enid responded in Russian.

“I am laughing because you’re trapped in here with me.”

“You are American, I can tell by your arrogance.”

“Sure, I’m American, whatever makes you happy Helga.”

“What is your real name?”

“Melanie Stuart.”

She sighed.

“If you tell me the truth this will not need to get unpleasant.”

“Oh, is this the part where you torture me?”

She nodded and stood up. She opened the door and motioned for someone. It was a normal sized man the woman motioned to Enid and he walked over towards her. Enid laughed again.

“You don’t want to hit me, you’re going to hurt yourself.”

He punched Enid in the side of the face really hard. Enid used her strength to resist the blow. Coming from a mortal it was nothing compared to her own strength, or near bullet proof skin. When the fist made contact, he broke every bone in his fingers and some of the ones in his hand. His scream of pain made Enid wince. He fell backwards holding his wrist.

“I warned you.”

Enid focused on the hand cuffs and popped the lock open and stood up. She rubbed her wrists. The bruises from her time cuffed in the sunlight had already healed. The woman was trying to reach for a red button on the wall Enid yanked her backwards and slammed her on the table.

“You should not have broken into my apartment. And you definitely should not have brought me on a fragile little metal tube in the middle of the ocean with no real escape for yourselves.”

The man who had come in and punched her was trying to make for the button again she grabbed the front of his uniform and threw him into the wall headfirst he went down hard. She looked down at the woman, lifting her glasses up and got close staring into her eyes. She could feel some resistance she slammed her mind against the woman’s and the woman’s nose started to bleed. All resistance evaporated.

“Now, how much do you know about me?”

“The Americans are scared of you, you work for the Yakuza and you are a university student.”

“Why are the Soviet’s interested in me enough to kidnap me?”

“We thought you worked for the Americans, but they are scared of you, so we thought we could use you, or you had information.”

“Why did you break into my apartment?”

“We thought you were dead.”

“You know I can swim right?”

“Now we do.”

“How do I get you to leave me alone?”

“You don’t.”

Enid frowned.

“Fine, guess you’re going to the Americans. You are going to sit on the chair and not leave this room, no matter what, you will fight to stay here. Until an American tells you to come out.”

Enid was annoyed and pounded the command into the woman’s mind a little too hard causing her nose to bleed again. Enid put the man’s gun in front of her.

“You will do anything you need to stop your comrades from getting you out of here, even resorting to violence.”

The woman nodded. Enid released her and the woman got up and sat down picking up the gun and pointing it at the door. The man was groaning on the ground. Enid met her gaze again.

“If he tries to leave you will shoot him in the head.”

The woman nodded. The man stared up at Enid with his eyes wide. Enid looked down at him.

“You might want to stay there.”

Enid walked out of the door and was met by two guards. She punched one so hard in the side of the head his skull cracked and he went down. The other one was reaching for his gun. She grabbed him and pressed him against the bulkhead of the ship and covered his mouth looking him in the eye. She spoke Russian.

“You will guard put this man in the room then you will guard this door. If anyone tries to go in that isn’t me or an American you will shoot them. When an American tells you to put your gun down you will put your gun down.”

He nodded. Enid pulled the shadows around her and started exploring the ship. She eventually found the captains quarters and waited for him to return she followed him inside and did a quick take down and straddled his chest looking him in the eyes.

“You’re going to surface and set course for the docks one of the American bases on Okinawa. You will radio them telling them your intention to surrender. Which you will do once you dock. Now, call your first officer down here. Do not tell him about me.”

Enid worked her way through the entire officer pool of the ship draining blood from them as she went to fuel her mind control powers. Eventually she had most of the submarine’s officers under mental sway. She gathered them all and told them to forget she existed. Within an hour the sub had surfaced and was being boarded by US marines. Enid strolled off of it while cloaked in the shadows of the night. She saw Aiden’s handler on the dock scratching her head looking at the Soviet submarine. She had a cigarette in her mouth. Enid appeared beside her.

“Hey.”

The woman jumped.

“Fuck Melanie.”

“Nice to see you again too, we’re done right?”

One of the marines noticed Enid and started walking towards her. He had been one of the people she’d run into the night she broke into the base. The woman held up her hand and shook her head.

“She’s one of ours.”

He nodded and glared at Enid before walking back to the submarine.

“Yes, we’re done. I thought you were going to tell us where they were.”

“They grabbed me and took me to a submarine, I had to improvise, call it take out.”

The woman took another drag from her cigarette and chuckled.

“You’re fucking nuts kid.”

“Not the first time I’ve heard that said.”

“Do you want a job?”

“No, like I said, I have one already, dealing with shit you don’t want any part of, this is too safe for me, kind of boring.”

The woman shook her head.

“How did you take over a whole submarine?”

“I’m very convincing.”

Enid made herself vanish from the woman’s mind and pulled the shadows around herself and flew away. She landed on her balcony and sighed putting her feet up. Enid has a peaceful few weeks after that, but it wasn’t too last.

She hadn’t seen Nishahara in a few days so she called the inspector to do a wellness check for her. She found him waiting for her outside the building that evening. He looked pretty upset.

“Stuart-san, I am sorry to say your neighbor is dead.”

Enid sighed and nodded.

“He usually goes shopping every second day.”

“I know you were close with him.”

“As close as you can be with a cranky old Japanese man.”

He nodded.

“We were going over his things to identify the next of kin and apparently you were his emergency contact.”

“I was?”

“Yes, he also left a note, saying that he was leaving all of his belongings to you when the time came.”

Enid sighed, she felt her eyes getting moist.

Damn this amulet.

“Was it suicide?”

“Not sure, he was old, we’re not looking at it too closely. We’ve taken the body. As his heir you will need to see to the disposition of his remains.”

Enid nodded.

“I will make sure he is well taken care of.”

“I know you will, of all your flaws I am aware of, a lack of respect and kindness are not among them.”

Ask the Russians for their opinion on that.

“Was it messy?”

The inspector, who Enid knew by this time on account of his card was named, Jeff Yakamura, shook his head.

“No, he died in bed, we removed it to avoid any odor.”

“Thank you, Jeff. I’m glad we’re getting along better.”

“After what I saw you deal with… I understand what you do. We are the same. Nishahara is lucky to have known you. If you need help cleaning up the apartment, I’m off this weekend.”

Enid nodded.

“Thank you.”

She waved to him and went inside. She went into her apartment and got changed into jeans and a t-shirt. She went to Nishahara’s apartment and opened the door. The apartment was just how she remembered it. The windows were open, so the smell of his passing wasn’t apparent to her currently mortal senses. She started with his refrigerator. It was not full of rotting food yet but it would be in a week or so. She took what contents she wanted out and moved them to her refrigerator then the Milk and other things she knew she wouldn’t eat she put in a box and carried to their other neighbor, another older woman.

“Good afternoon.”

She nodded.

“Nishahara-san has passed away and I do not want this to rot, do you have a use for these?”

The woman nodded and Enid passed her the box. After the usual Japanese courtesies Enid went back to the Nishahara’s apartment and was met by a man sitting in one of the chairs pointing a gun with a silencer on it. He was pointing at her. Enid frowned.

“I thought we had agreed this was over and done with.”

When the man spoke he had an obvious Russian accent. Enid frowned.

“What is the American saying? Not by a long shot?”

“The last time you broke into my apartment and pointed a gun at me it cost you a submarine and several agents, now you break into my friend’s apartment, the day I found out he has died, what do you think I’m going to do this time?”

“We Russians, we are used to hard fights.”

“So, what’s your plan here? Kidnap me again? Kill me?”

“Just a few questions.”

“Fine, if that will get rid of you.”

He kicked a chair out and motioned for Enid to sit. Enid looked outside the sun would be setting in half an hour. Enid walked into the kitchen and picked up a two bowls and a bottle of rice wine. She put the bowls down on the table and filled them.

For his sake I hope he’s gone because I’m not in the mood for this shit.

“No vodka.”

She took a drink from hers. He watched her then took a drink from his he flinched. It was strong stuff. She sat down.

“Ask your questions, if you’re not gone before sundown, I will kill you.”

“I have the gone, little girl.”

“I took out a whole submarine myself, they had plenty of guns. Didn’t slow me down. I know you’ve seen the reports, one of you punched me in the face broke his hand. Bullets don’t work on me.”

He took another drink of his sake, his gun still pointed at her.

“How did you take over the submarine?”

“Your people are easily influenced. I made it easy for them, either I launched nuclear weapons at Moscow, or they surrender to the Americans.”

“You didn’t have the launch codes.”

Enid recited all of the codes she got access too while she was in control of the ship’s officers. He blinked at her.

“How?”

“I know a lot about your country, in fact I could launch a nuke from a silo with a phone call. Or just detonate a few. Tragic accident, so many dead.”

“Who are you?”

“I am the goddess you are pissing off.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you are insects to me. You exist at my pleasure.”

He shifted in his seat.

“Why even speak to me then?”

“Because I’m tired of killing people. I’m trying out this new thing, where I don’t go around murdering everyone. There was a time when if you’d dragged me to that sub, I would have killed everyone, launched a few nuclear missiles watched your country burn. But now I just turned them over to the Americans. I would have done the same to the Americans if they tried that shit.”

“What do you want?”

“What I want is very simple, I want to be left alone. See I don’t mess with your government or your people, unless they mess with me, so same deal as I offered the Americans. You leave me alone, I leave you alone, if you don’t, you will have another Afghanistan on your hands.”

“You really think a lot of yourself don’t you?”

“Pick up the phone, call your people ask them to look up Bremen, Germany, World War 2, April, 1945, Nazi tank brigade. You lot captured them after I destroyed thirty tanks and killed a hundred and fifty men. The file will say there was one red-haired girl who did it all. Go ahead, I’ll make supper while we wait. I promise I won’t hurt you.”

He looked at her then went and picked up the phone and called out, he had his gun pointed at her the whole time. He spoke in Russian asking for information on the attack. He gave them the number and sat down. Enid stood up and started to pull stuff out to make rice and chicken. He stood and pointed the gun at her.

“What are you doing?”

“Making us supper. Just sit your ass down and wait. If I wanted you dead you’d already have a knife in your heart.”

He looked a bit uncomfortable and stood there holding the gun on her. She cooked a quick dinner so she could get it in herself before sundown. She put the food out and poured more sake. He had apparently decided she wasn’t going to try anything so put his gun down and began to eat. It was about an hour after dark when the phone rang. Enid had by this time pulled out one of Nishahara’s old books and was reading it while the man watched her silently. He stood up and answered it. Enid watched his face grow paler as he heard the details which Enid knew would be eerily similar to the Submarine’s capture. The remaining officers just surrendered after she told them too. He asked what they wanted him to do. He answered with simply a yes then shot Enid in the head. The bullet didn’t do much damage and he was quite surprised when she had him on the ground his hand turned to mush. The phone was hanging there with whoever it was on the other side still there. They had obviously heard his scream. Then him begging for his life. Enid stomped on his knee. She smashed it so thoroughly he’d never use the leg again. She picked up the phone.

“I’m done playing games with you. Your man will be on the sidewalk by my apartment. You might want to send an ambulance. Don’t send anyone else, you already lost a submarine, I have told you what I can do, and you know how easy I can control people, and I have your nuclear weapons that I can now use against you. Don’t make me do it.”

She could hear quickened breathing on the other end of the line then a click. She took the man’s gun, put it on her table and picked him up over her shoulders. And jumped off the balcony onto the ground below. She dropped him on the sidewalk and stood over him arms crossed. She could see he was crying in pain staring up at her.

“You shot me. What did you think would happen? I told you bullets don’t hurt me.”

She stood over him waiting to see if someone would make a pickup. A black van pulled up the door opened and she backed up arms still crossed. She glared at the balaclava covered faces that peered out, almost daring them to try and attack her, but they didn’t they grabbed there fallen comrade and sped off. Enid turned around and walked back up to Nishahara’s room.