“It seems counterintuitive but leaders are not supposed to be leading charges,” Blake said as Derrick hopped out of the Tempest. He could tell that Blake wasn't really trying to stop him, he was just taking the opportunity to point out the obvious.

“I'm just going to take a quick peek over to see what's going on. It's probably just another group of Users. I'll probably be spending the next ten minute making new friends.”

“Oh, for sure.” Blake said from the Tempest's driver seat. “Well, holler if you're being murdered.”

The Abomination's sensors had detected one or two weak Fold reactions. Worst case scenario, it was a few of the stealthy breed of Grey Agents. They had cruised around the bend in a dark running Tempest and immediately spotted the likely source of the signal. A small farmhouse with two cars in the driveway.

The vehicles looked worn and dirty but functional, obviously they had been driven to this spot by whoever was inside the house. This suggested that if they were dealing with Users and they were either not from West Hills or not very impressive. Most Users from the Enclave drove Tempests or other upgraded vehicles. These were muted brown colors but were obviously not touched by System technology.

Derrick saw and felt nothing that suggested they had been discovered. The house was close to the highway but hidden behind a small wooded area. Considering the low traffic in the area, the chances of anyone stumbling here by accident was pretty much non existent. Perhaps they hadn't set a watch?

Placing his mask over his face, he took point. As the Hunter with the best stealth and regeneration, he was always in the lead. Just out of sight of the house, the trio crept along the property line, keeping a couple feet of bush between them and any windows. They stopped halfway to the house when Derrick's auril returned with two human signatures in the house.

They seemed healthy, awake and human. All good signs. One of them had a decent amount of auril. More than average among auril users.

He informed his allies of their position and numbers, his voice sent over radio and stopped from carrying by his mask.

“Maybe we should introduce ourselves,” Mathew suggested. “Less chance of a misunderstanding that way.”

“I want a visual,” Derrick returned. “At least some idea of who we are dealing with.”

Pockets of survivors could be...rough. The System did a good job of weeding out the worst of humanity when it chose its Users. It also did a surprising job of giving them hope and preventing nihilism and fatalism from turning people self destructive, mostly by keeping cell phones up and running and that first week where the System would punish people for attacking each other.

Yet, surviving outside an Enclave was stressful to say the least. The horror, loss and desperation led to all kinds of breakdowns and downward spirals. With civilization and the obedience protocols gone, some Users had gone a bit feral and paranoid.

They could also be Spore Tyrant carriers, though those hadn't been seen since the Slaver Node had been bound. He doubted there would only be one of those though, it had come close enough to taking over the Enclave that it had proven to be effective. One of the reasons he'd had the lesser nodes captured was to make sure that trick couldn't be used twice.

So ya, they'd come this far, they might as well sneak a glance. The trio continued to creep up the side of the property until they were out of sight of any windows. Then they darted to a bare wall and Derrick let out another pulse.

Derrick detected three people in the house now. All on the main floor. If they slid up the side, he could look though that large window, they might have a good chance to spy on the houses occupants. One of them was...

“We are in a hurry you know,” Stacy said casually a she tracked the people inside. “Could we get this over with?.”

Ah, he’d spaced out. Using auril tended to do that to him. He got a little too focused.

A wave of auril hit him and was subtly repulsed. From beside him Stacy began to swear though.

“Shit, I've been pulsed.”

Ya, that wasn't great. He sent out another pulse and saw two forms rushing to the back of the house.

Two? There had definitely been three a few seconds ago. An auril ability would probably be active all the time which meant...

Yup, there it was. A slight blur near where the third person had been. A camo device. Something that used manna to hide from auril. Albeit, imperfectly.

That was weird, he mused, manna camo wasn't the kind of equipment an average User could afford. Expensive and niche, it wasn't subtle enough to be useful against Spore Tyrants and, thanks to him, the Grey Legion in this area was very used to fighting opponents that could avoid auril detection.

Huh, could this group be sent by Greta? Either to watch them or something worse? It seemed like too much of a coincidence but the combination of a decent auril user and a camo device meant they weren't ragged survivors.

“One camo-device,” he informed his allies. “Two heading out back. I'll take the third with camo that is heading out front.”

His allies probably didn't have a fine enough senses to track that one anyway. It was headed out front, no doubt circling around them for a surprise attack from the back. Their auril user must have revealed Mathew and Stacy’s location.

Rushing to fulfill his command, his allies turned the corner and he lost sight of them, he heard a strange voice shout out. No gun shots yet, that was good. Talking was better than violence.

He turned his thoughts back to his own confrontation. A common side effect of preventing people from using auril on you, was being unable to use it yourself. So Derrick just waited, pistol drawn and tracking the blur through the houses walls.

In just seconds, a large man turned the corner and froze when he saw Derrick aiming a huge pistol at his chest. His own weapon, a System rail gun, was pointed not far from Derrick's feet but they both knew that Derrick could shoot him before he could get the weapon pointed up and at him. That point must have been especially clear due to the fact the man hadn't bothered to throw any head protection on, he must have been too rushed.

The pistol Derrick was holding was new, a weapon from Teslaforce he'd had built. The last one had been recalled for safety reasons. This one was essentially a combination of a scaled up rail-pistol with a laser gun attachment. He'd had it designed to be an effective way to shoot through shields and it looked mean enough that the man in front of him dropped his own weapon. It fell to his waist, held up by a strap over his heavily armored shoulder. The man was wearing much heavier armor than most Users did, it must have a built in camo effect against auril.

Interesting and novel.

“Thanks for dropping your weapon,” Derrick said and made no move to drop his own. “No need for anyone to get shot. Me and my friends were just in the area and found your group to be interesting.”

The man was maskless and he gave Derrick a pearly white smile. No doubt this was supposed to be reassuring but it just worried Derrick. It was too easy and sudden. Smiling that easily after turning a corner and finding a gun in your face? It was unnatural, Derricks instincts and experience with other Users told him.

“You're from West Hills?” the man asked, apparently relaxed. “We were just headed that way to see if it was all true.”

“True?” Derrick asked.

“That the city was being rebuilt,” the man continued. “We saw videos and thought it would be good to take a look for ourselves. I hear the food is better than ever. Err. Can you put your gun down please? I did.”

“Yes, you did.” Derrick agreed. “Because I would have shot you if you didn't.”

Despite having disarmed himself, Derrick got the clear feeling that this man was dangerous. It was something in his eyes, plus his odd equipment.

“Look, I don't want to fight. Please just let me make sure my friends are OK,” the stranger said in a friendly tone and stepped towards them, curving to keep distance between himself and Derrick. Derrick was also a little curious himself about what was going on out back. He allowed the man to circle around until Derrick was at his back.

“Stop,” Derrick said just before the man turned the corner. He wanted to keep him in sight. So far, he didn't hear any sounds of fighting, which meant his team should have overwhelmed the other Users.

“Look, this is silly...” the stranger began while slowly turning back to face Derrick. With a flick of his wrist the stranger threw a grenade at Derrick.

A perfect Sphere of silver and white. Obvious System make, but of a kind he didn't recognize. Probably lethal. The System chimed him with a confirmation as the object slowly flew towards him.

Fold Grenade A device containing a tiny unstable manna gate. Can have a wide variety of effects depending on the skills of the User.

Huh, he'd heard about these but never seen one. Only System Stations could create them and they were both hard to unlock and expensive.

Derrick extended his own manna into the substrate, seizing control of a small area, letting manna flow from the Canvas and wrapping it around the thrown explosive, he caught the grenade in his hand. Derrick saw a look of pure surprise on the other man's face that only grew when he threw the grenade back at him.

Just like when he'd stopped Greta from calling for help, he had used canvas manna to confuse the grenade long enough to prevent it from exploding. Once it had entered his manna domain , its manna gate had been disabled. Maybe even damaged.

He really should thank Third Striker for the lessons.

It didn't explode when it hit its owner. All he’d done was prevent it from going off near him. It did make for one hell of a distraction though.

He managed two pistol shots into the man’s armor before the other User could react. Crap, sparks of blue light and the lack of holes revealed that the armor was good for more than just stealth. It seemed like he would need to batter his way through the man's manna before he did any real damage. He had a few options if he wanted to kill the man but that seemed premature. Instead, he just advanced, axes drawn.

“Shit,” the stranger yelled as a few more bullets sent him stumbling back. Apparently, the bullets from his pistol hurt, despite the manna-reinforced armor.

Derrick tried to hit the grenade but just hit the man's hand instead, sending the grenade tumbling to the ground. It seemed like he'd damaged the man’s hand though, because his target fumbled their grab at the gun on their hip.

By the time he'd gotten a good grip on it, Derrick had an axe flying at him. The man blocked with the gun, which had been Derrick original target anyway. Sadly, the axe hit on a weird angle and failed to cut deep enough to do any real damage.

With only a few feet between them now, Derrick got a good look at the other man. Strong features and short hair added to his determined expression. He didn't seem like he was going to surrender. Instead, he seemed furious.

The Hunter sent a flurry of blows at his enemy and was surprised when the other man blocked them with a dagger. He had good reflexes anyway. Although his weapon was holding him back.

Derrick always had a bit of lash in his system these days, due to the upgraded drug package the System had installed inside him. He rarely Lashed though. He did now, flooding his body with the alien drug and feeling the world slow down.

Again and again he hammered at the man but the other User managed to dodge and block every time. He was obviously getting desperate but he managed to hold on under Derrick's attacks.

The Hunter only managed to land one serious blow, his axe digging deep into a bicep before he retreated from a knife swing. A kick caught Derrick and the man took enough space to fire a burst of bullets at Derrick.

Derrick easily countered by flooding his gauntlets with manna. A burst of silver light stole the power from the bullets. They dropped to the ground and were immediately trod under Derrick's feet as he advanced again.

“Surrender,” Derrick commanded, hoping the bullet blocking trick would intimidate the other into giving up. It usually did.

The man just looked at him, his face devoid of any emotion Derrick could read. For a few seconds their eyes met and Derrick could see the heavy thoughts behind the man's eyes. Then, he blinked and gave Derrick another empty smile. Dropping his gun and knife, the man pulled out another two grenades. One of which looked like a good old fashioned army weapon.

Still smiling, the stranger collapsed bonelessly as the back of his skull exploded.

It was a horrific sight under the effects of Lash. Thanks to his enhanced senses, tiny bits of skull and brain matter were visible as they flew through the air.

The man had been fast. Lashed, Derrick was much faster.

“Fucking idiot,” Derrick swore as he stared down at the corpse. He put his pistol back on his hip. What the hell had this fucker been thinking? Had he been trying to get Derrick to kill him? A suicide attack with a grenade?

He carefully stepped around the body and the dropped explosives. He didn't want to get anywhere near the old school grenade. He turned the corner. Thirty feet away, Stacy was kicking a dead body and swearing. While Stacy's knife had a line of blood on it, it looked like she had killed the man with her own pistol, much like Derrick.

Other than being masked in a plain brown mask, this other User looked exactly like the one Derrick had killed. It seemed like her experience had been not too different from his own. Mathew on the other hand had a prisoner, a young woman, almost a teenager, wearing black makeup and crowned with short black hair. She wasn’t resisting.

Stacy stopped her assault on the corpse and turned to Mathew.

“A lot of help you were,” she said nastily.

“He wasn't trying to kill just you,” Mathew said almost sadly and nodded to the kneeling girl. “He wanted her dead more than you. I thought it would be best to stay out of your way and keep her alive.”

“Well you did a shit job of that too. If I hadn't shot him you both might have been in danger.”

“Oh, good.” Derrick said, announcing his presence. “They're not all dead. My guy tried to kill us both when he realized he couldn't outfight me.”

Which was really weird. Everything was about survival these days. He had a hard time imagining Greta employing suicide soldiers. Especially ones this well armed.

He wanted answers. Why the hell would Users fight to the death with complete strangers? Were they criminals? People who had committed crimes so vile that they felt the need to murder anyone they stumbled on? The girl didn't seem like the type and she probably hadn't been kidnapped or abused by them. She didn't have a rifle, but she did have a knife, pistol and decent armor on. Not that she'd tried to use any of them when the fight broke out.

The girl turned to look at the new voice and seeing a tall masked man armed with axes striding towards her, panicked.

“Ah, I surrendered!” she screeched at him while flinching. She threw herself to the ground a second later. “I'm not one of them really, they just brought me because of how good I am at auril!”

If it was an act, it was a compelling one. It also hit him right in one of his weaknesses. The chance to learn more about auril. Not that he was seriously considering killing her. That last kill had left a very bad taste in his mouth and a stone in his stomach.

Both morally and practically, it upset him. The entire fight seemed like a waste to him. Two obviously successful Fighters, dead for what? He banished the feeling best he could and got back to practicalities.

The girl was hyperventilating now, he noted, but she was still armed. Mathew was standing beside her, no doubt he would bash her with the flat of his machete if she tried anything. He was a gentleman like that.

“Stacy, please gently disarm her,” he said. “I would really like to know what the hell this was.”

“Fine. Oh stop it,” Stacy told the girl as she flinched away from her. “We’re like the nicest people you’re going to meet these days.”

Sad but true, Derrick though as he watched Stacy disarm the girl and bind her wrists behind her back.

“So I'm guessing you don't work for Greta,” Derrick opened.

“I don't know who that is,” their prisoner said. “I'm from Dewport. They just hired me to come here and use auril to scout a clear path to West Hills.”

“Well, that makes no fucking sense,” Stacy said. “Why do some random Users from a city a couple hundred kilometres away come here just to fight us to the death. There are easier ways to commit suicde.”

“Dewport had a military base,” Mathew added. “A real one where they stored weapons and trained recruits.”

“Huh, these guys do look like military.” Derick admitted. Man, he hoped he hadn't murdered some scouts sent to check out or help West Hills. Although, if that was the case, why the death wish?

“The Captain is in charge of Dewport,” their prisoner added helpfully. “The city is under martial law. Everyone does what he says since he beat back the Scourges.”

“Lovely,” said Stacy with a look of disgust on her face.

Wasn't it just. They were headed towards Dewport too, though not directly. Flint Creek was about halfway there if you took a bit of a detour. The weird coincidences just kept piling up.

“Hey, come check this out.” A shout came from the front of the house. It was Blake. He noted the prisoner without comment and waved them towards the vehicles parked out front. He'd popped the hoods on both vehicles.

“Shitty old trucks on the outside, but brand new System technology on the inside,” the blond User informed them. “Doesn't look like something from West Hills either. The backs are full of equipment and ammo. I already called someone from the farm to come get the bodies and loot by the way.”

Well, at least they'd get something stumbling into this mess. Some engines that might be valuable and a bit of auril and siviril in the bodies. Oh, and he wanted to play with those grenades. He should be able to use them now that their owner was dead.

“They were up to something fishy,” Mathew said unnecessarily and eyed their prisoner. “Something they really didn't want us to know about. Which means it wouldn't have been to our benefit.”

“We're what? Twenty minutes outside the city and we already have complications,” Derrick complained. “We’ll get answers as we drive. If she even knows anything.”

She seemed to be just a hireling. Maybe she could be helpful though.

“When you came south, did you go near flint creek?” he asked her.

The girl blinked at him slowly, looking surprised at the question and quite pathetic with black makeup smeared on her face. After a second she began shaking her head.

“Inoculation territory? No one goes there.” She stated, matter of fact. “Everyone who does just disappears.”