Anath and I moved to the gathering point for the reserve-unit and were welcomed by a small group of Heroes, in League Colours and the Pathfinder in his Guild-Colours. It felt a little oppressive, being the only two unaffiliated powered in a group like that. The female hero we had fought before walked over, as if to welcome us.

“Great, I got stuck teaming up with the two crazies. Call me Voltic.” was her greeting. Maybe her tribe had some strange customs.

“Hello, to you. I don’t know why you question our sanity, but for now, this is Anath and you can call me Metis.” I introduced the two of us.

“What else to call you? You let bombs fly around the city, that’s just insane. And if your friend does not stop you, she is just as insane.” She got a little agitated in her answer, I felt a small need to clarify.

“They are no more bombs than any car is a rolling bomb. With the right stimulus, you can make them explode. Believe it or not, my bombs are better secured than the cars rolling around. But every measure to fool-proof something, can be overcome by a sufficiently talented fool.” She blinked for a moment, as if she was confused and Anath started laughing, sounding seriously creepy thanks to the voice-distortion in her mask.. I would have to re-calibrate that.

“Now, don’t be mean, sister.” Anath said. Now it was my turn to be confused for a moment, but I realised that she wanted to sow misdirection, by claiming that there was a blood-relationship between the humans beneath their masks.

“It’s not her fault she is a little slow, but then, she has to be, to be part of the League.” It was my turn to laugh. My voice-distortion was properly calibrated, giving me a rather charming, if unnatural laugh.

“I’m not stupid!” Voltic shouted at us. “The League protects society from people like you!”

“I think you are right, Sister. She is a little slow.” I said sotto voce to Anath. Of course, it was entirely fake, if I wanted to tell her something without people hearing, I would use our com.

“Now, riddle me this, Volly, if the League was about protection, why would they want a register of every Powered and their powers?” I asked the confused Heroine. “Tictoc, time is ticking down.” I pushed after a moment.

“They need to know who could do what, to keep people safe.” she said, trying to project certainty in her answer.

“Oh, poor, little sheep. Think again. Control. it’s all about control. If you want to control a society, you need to establish a monopoly on violence. As soon as you are the only one who can project violent force, you win. Some countries try to prevent this by establishing the right of their people to bear arms, but it’s just a gesture. Only Powered can withstand a modern army. Well, Powered or another army.” I spoke in a measured way, as if I was lecturing and comforting an especially slow student.

“But why would they want control?” she asked, now rather intrigued. It was unlikely that we would manage to break her from the League but maybe we could plant a seed.

“Think, little sheep. If they make sure that nobody has a voice to speak, a power to resist, they can do whatever they want. They scream and shout their patriotism, using it as a club to beat down those who want to resist. It was patriotism that allowed them to create the forced registration-laws. But think, what is the logical conclusion of patriotism?” I asked her, now fully in the role of the teacher, hoping that the student would understand the lesson and draw the right conclusion. Sadly, it was not to be.

“Don’t listen to those two, Ticcy, they are just common criminals.” Battlemaster broke into our conversation. “Sure, they talk high and mighty, but at the end of the day, they just need a pretense to justify their law-breaking.”

“Ah, yes, just as you use the law as a pretense to justify your assaults?” I turned to him. “After all, the first time we met, I was doing nothing wrong. Yes, I was wearing armour. But does that give you the right to assault me with enough force to kill most humans? Do you have the right to gang up on someone and beat them into submission, risking their death?” I asked.

“The law is the law.” he said, a smug tone in his voice.

“You know, by now we know that during the middle ages, torture made the witch. Not every law is just. Now, Heroes like you, create villains. But I doubt that you care about that.” I told him, before turning back to Voltic. “Could you tell us what you know about the scourge? Knowledge is sadly censored on them.”

Both Voltic and Battlemaster started to speak but my raised hand cut Battlemaster off.

“Erm, sure. I don’t know much, just that there are multiple types, I know of wolves and shepherds. Wolves look just like, well, wolves, large, canine monsters, completely bronze, looking almost metallic. They hunt in packs and range from normal wolf-sized to horse-sized. Little intelligence, just pack-tactics but physically strong and durable enough to shrug off most normal weapons.

Shepherds are rather strange. We call them that because they are bronze humanoids, carrying a shepherd’s crook with them. They are smarter than wolves and just as durable, but not as strong. I have heard that each of them has some kind of elemental manipulation, you know, throwing ice, fire or stuff like that. Current theory is that they guide the Scourge, lead their incursions.” She placed a hand on her face, as if thinking. Battlemaster had miraculously taken the hint and stayed quiet.

By now, our group had drawn the attention from Pathfinder and he took over.

“Their incursions mostly follow a pattern.. If it’s only one point of incursion, they come from what’s called a den. It looks like a hole in the ground but nobody was ever able to find out what is inside. From that hole, wolves pour out and we try to contain them. For some reason, they are drawn to population-centers and try to kill as many humans as they can, while we hunt them down.” he explained.

“But it gets truly bad if there are multiple points of incursion. They don’t appear at the same time and most of the time, shepherds emerge to lead the scourge. I doubt that will happen here, if it did, we would have had more warning.” Somehow, his explanation send shivers down my spine, but there was little time to focus on the conversation, Galatea had opened a window from one of her drones, showing me that the battle had started.

Watching from above was rather sobering. From a huge, strangely shimmering hole in the ground, wolves poured out. I had to agree, they looked menacing. But the heroes around the hole were even more impressive. On each side, a group of blockers made sure that the wolves were unable to run free while behind them other Heroes poured attacks into the hole. It was an insane mixture of power thrown their way. Some attacks were probably invisible to me, as some wolves simply slumped over and stopped moving. Some wolves even went berserk and started attack their brethren. I watched as huge shards of ice speared multiple wolves at a time, piercing them like a skewer, ready to grill. Others were hit by strange, silver bolts and simply tossed through the air, landing in crumbled heaps and no longer moving.

A primal part of me was scared silly by the display of power, seeing those mortal man slay monsters that would not be out of place in myths and legends. But the practical part of me knew, I would be able to do just the same. My weapons allowed me to stand toe to toe with them. It was a sobering thought. Just yesterday, I had seen what could happen if I was careless. Now, I was seeing what could happen if people like me wanted to cause destruction. And it would be so easy. I would have to keep in mind that I should always keep some kind of reality check. Maybe Galatea could help me there, if anyone was not prone to self-delusion, it was her.

As I was contemplating the trappings of power, Galatea showed me a different scene and now, my blood truly ran cold. It was another shimmering portal and wolves came out. But what truly scared me were the three shepherds, standing next to the portal.