The figure doesn’t wait for them to figure out why he’s there, instead raising a hand that launches off and latches onto Ilia who raised her arms up in reflex. The tendon connecting them then contracts and violently pulls her, audibly dislocating her shoulder whilst she screams towards him. Jack moves in a trail of light to arrive between them, knifes bared he uses to try and cut the tendon but does no damage even as he attempts to draw the cut. With Ilia screaming towards him, he turns, braces and catches her only to be pulled with her despite digging his toes into bricks. Donovan jumps and blurs in a similar trail of light, appearing over the person’s head before diving in with another trail, bearing a long knife which he uses to impale it through the heart. His motion breaks the blade off in its back, leaving him to slam into the ground before scrambling up to his feet.

Donovan backs off as Jack pulls Ilia away, only for them both to be nearly pulled back by a thrown hand, saved by Johnson forming from the road bricks. Without pause, he ploughs towards the mutant to punch it into the ground. His leg is then blasted off by a launched hand before its dominant arm is smashed off, then a hole in his chest is punched out by the first hand. Johnson then crumbles with several of the bricks within its mass exploding as the mana holding him together goes. Brandon jumps out from the second floor of his home towards the mutant with his hammer held over his head, his body arcing with green chi as he arcs down and slams the spiked end of his hammer onto its head; the spike doesn’t catch and glances off the plates of callous to bounce off its shoulder instead, only imparting enough force to cause it to stumble to the side.

Brandon brings the hammer around again, this time catching it in the side and throwing it away but doing no damage. Donovan tries to repeat his earlier move as it’s prone, only to be dodged and smashed aside, leaving him a moaning heap a few meters away from it. Brandon had closed this distance in this time as did Jack, but Jack’s the only one that dodges the retaliatory attack from the mutant, letting him get close to do no damage as his knives barely cut into the callous as a large gouge is smashed into Brandon’s breastplate.

“Retreat!” This cry is punctuated by a loud crack as something collides with the mutant’s head, flipping it backwards into the ground “Now!”

On a rooftop is one of Till’s aides, wielding a large armless, barrelled crossbow which is currently folded open just before the stock, letting them insert a thick spike into it. There’s little hesitation to follow the order other than Brandon and Donovan needing help to move. The mutant laboriously picks itself up, the spike dropping from the shallow wound in its cheek as it raises a hand and launches it, missing the retreating group to destroy the front of a house that forms the alleyway they flee through.

They wind through the empty streets again, not attempting to be stealthy and just putting distance between them and the mutant, eventually reaching a regular alleyway where the aide then lifts up a section of bricks to reveal a ladder down. The group descends as quickly as they can before the panel is pulled back over and they continue through a tunnel into a large room where another aide is resting on a pile of cushions, pointing a similar weapon to the other’s at them as they enter and demanding “Phrase!”

“Fuck sake Tulip—” Tulip just grunts in response to the other aid’s grumbling “Wind blows from no gate”

“Good” Tulip lowers the weapon and moves to a nearby chest to start pulling out a large medical box “What happened?”

The first aide lowers Brandon to sit against the wall and moves to Ilia to fix her shoulder “They got caught by a three”

“Fuck, lucky you to be alive—” This is punctuated by Ilia’s pained scream as the aide moves her shoulder back into place “They’ve been tearing through anything less than silver rank”

Jack asks, “A three?”

Tulip by this point has fished out the box and is offering Ilia some medicine “Yeah, cuz it’s the third weird thing that’s popped up lately; had those clock faced things, those are ones, the minotaurs, twos, and those hand launching fuckers, threes. Speaking of three’s, where’s the other three you lot went in with?”

Donovan speaks up as he slowly sits upright “They’ve gone to Till’s place”

“No. Not really” Roxie sighs and watches out the window to the skyline filled with smoke “I was hoping for something simple”

“Shame, seems like everyone’s putting on a big show for you” The aid’s smile shows from under their mask.

Frank interrupts Roxie and draws everyone’s attention out the window and to the moat “And it seems like one of the mainstays have come to say hi”

There is a lithe person in odd, unadorned metal armour standing where they had crossed over; the suit is comprised of a myriad of overlapping triangular sections except for the helmet, which is a disproportionally large upturned pyramid without any openings and is decorated with thin gold tassels that hang off each point. Several sections of its torso shift to release large spikes that float a meter away before anchoring into the ground, before they themselves start floating over the moat. Roxie barrels through the window, down the hill whilst drawing her orichalcum sword and leaps over the moat, using her wings to keep herself under the person and above the water. She barely manages to catch onto the other side with her claws, not pausing at all before scrambling up onto dry land. The armoured individuals head has turned independently of their body to watch Roxie, only upon seeing her arrive to the other side do they reverse their course. Roxie and they both tilt their heads at the others’ actions, until Roxie waves her sword over the spikes, the tethers of mana visibly exploding and being drawn into the metal as the sword crosses them and the persons support disappears, dropping them into the moat.

Roxie steps back and looks into the water with her senses, before batting a spike away, it’s mana exploding like the others. As she moves further back for distance the person rises out off the moat, the muddy water running out of the seams of their armour. Roxie bolts, only turning around to batt away another spike, then dodges to the side as the person fly’s past, tumbling and scraping across the ground.

Roxie looks from them to Jack who’s currently in a combat stance with both hands raised, his palms facing forwards and slightly cupped.

“Way to go!” Roxie lightly chuckles to herself as she rushes to join him.

“Don’t get to be this old without knowing a thing or two” He smiles and starts backing off with her behind him.

They’re stopped at the bridge, that has been raised again, by Frank and the aide, then make way around the moat fleeing to the north of the city towards Blackroom’s mountains.

“I don’t think you should go? You’ve only rested for about an hour” Tulip states this as Donovan slowly wonders out of the room, back to the tunnel outside.

“I don’t have time t—” He faints, him being already halfway on the wall saving him from falling on his face.

Tulip stares down at him with wide eyes “Uhhhh!”

Ilia steps up to him, her shadow pulling away from his, then lightly nudges him with her foot “Don’t worry, I lowered his ‘doggedness’ and well, his body took care of the rest”

Shortly after, whilst Ilia and Tulip are dragging Donovan back to his cot, the other aide emerges from a side room, then slowly asks “Phrase?”

Tulip, despite the mask, gives them a clearly fed up look “Mass your sass, wallpaper, you fucking dolt”

“Nope, I don’t remember adding, you fucking dolt, to the phrase” They shake their head before helping them to move Donovan.

“I did, now stop making our next group meeting more difficult. I don’t want to have to remember another of your pass phrases” Tulip drops Donovan’s arms once he’s been dragged into his cot.

They straighten and hold their head up “They’re the best, and you cannot deny it”

Tulip just growls “What the fuck did Till say!” In response.

They quietly state “This is not over, first off. that’s from me, just so you know—” They then speak normally “Two hasn’t reported in—” They look to Ilia “That means that they’ve either kicked the bucket or are bringing a person of interest to another hide house”

Tulip looks to Ilia “I suppose it’s going to be the others of your group”

“Probably” She nods.

“Second—” The aide raises their hand to get back attention “The citizens have camped outside the city and have started to setup barricades, whilst also kicking out any Gracefuls and of those other races that they were working with—” They then sadly add “Also, she wants someone to replace Tanzanite on hole watching duty”

Tulip sighs and sags back “Guess it’s going to be my job”

“Sadly—” The other aide shrugs “But hey, he brought a pillow”

Tulip just grumbles “Great” They then sigh before restocking from the chest, slipping several pouches and boxes in under their clothes before striding out of the hideout.

Brandon asks “Soo? Where did you learn to Lower people’s doggedness?” From the other side of the room.

Him, the aide and Jack turn their attention to Ilia who shakes her head.

“I can’t tell you that, but I guess I should explain… hmmm---” Ilia pauses and rolls up her eyes up for a moment before continuing “I’m a witch. I can use hex to, override the soul. For lack of a better term”

Brandon admits “Well that’s fucking spooky”

“It’s not as cut and dry as it sounds. If Donovan was in good health and paying attention, then he could have resisted, or I would have had to put more effort into it” She look down to him dead asleep

Jack then asks “So, you can just make people do whatever you want”

“Yes, but technically no—” She tilts her head as she switches “I stop people from wanting to do certain things. If what I want them to do is something they aren’t even considering, then no amount of hex will work”

Jack tilts his head “Huh?”

“So, for example, let’s say that—” She frowns and thinks for a second “Roxie was barrelling towards you with intent to kill”

He nods “Ok”

Ilia raises a hand as she explains “In that moment, you want to do multiple things like run, fight. And freeze is always on the table because nature. I can stop you from considering running or fighting and leave you there frozen as two meters of angry bat woman bore down on you”

The remaining aide, who’s currently listening with his hand glued to his chin, asks “Right. I’m guessing that the more options, the harder it is?”

“Yep. Also, I can’t do anything if there’s only one option, like, just walking down the street. I can’t stop them walking if they aren’t considering stopping. I’d have to get them to pay attention and start considering it, even unconsciously”

Jack, leaning forwards from his cot, asks “Could you teach us?”

She vigorously shakes her head “No. No, no, no. It requires giving up the ability to use any manipulatable energy to even generate hex, then years of steady training and theory to use it”

Jack’s eyes go wide “So, you can’t use, like, Chi, spirit, anything?”

“Nope, that’s why I have to rely on familiars” She fishes through a pouch on her wrist and presents Johnson, Kyle, Dorio and Magni’s gems “These guys. And this girl when I get a gem she likes” Her shadow rises to show the soul gently pulsing.

The aide then asks “Is the gemstone important?”

“Not really, it’s just a more comfortable vessel for them” She starts putting the gemstones away, before asking Jack “Anyway, what about you and that flashing around you’ve been doing?”

“Oh, dashing? That’s like, a Blackroom staple. Launch yourself with spirit, stop with spirit when you’ve arrived where you want to be. Though you do have to use Chi to stop you’re—” He gestures over himself “Everything exploding”

Ilia slowly blinks before her jaw drops “What?”

“Yeah—” He continues on without a hint of concern or worry “You can also melt your veins or just explode in general if you use too much spirit without chi, or if it’s not applied evenly”

Ilia goes to say something, then stops and just asks “What!”

Ignoring her exasperation, Jack continues on “Or stop your heart if you use too much chi, or don’t get the timing right”

Ilia looks around to everyone in the room before quietly admitting “So this is why the elders said that everyone else was crazy—” Then firmly stating “You lot could just kill yourselves by accident!”

Brandon picks up the explanation, getting up so he doesn’t have to raise his voice “It’s why people are dissuaded from cultivating them until they’re twenty. All of the energies come with risks; Chi can tear your muscles from your bones, mana can leave you with a hole in your body if you use too much of your reserves, using too much psychy can leave you brain damaged, and spirit can carbonise you from the inside out” He then raises a hand “But, utilizing these abilities allows us to do things, like dash. Or, in my case wield this hammer”

He takes his hammer from its sling against his lower back and offers it to Ilia. She tries to take it but can barely lift it from his hand.

“I do have to wear weighted armour to act as counterbalance, but it all adds” He shows his vambrace, which is much thicker than standard armour, then makes a show of flexing.

She slowly says “Yeah, no. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything”