***Victor Remington***

“If you dumbasses ever get confused about who you’re supposed to be shooting, there’s a helpful graphic on the top of your guns.”

Victor tapped the picture of a young woman with fairy wings on top of his gun.

“Your glasses will allow you to see a glow around anyone with a symbiotic spirit. Those things are worth millions apiece, and mages don’t fare well against high powered rifles, so it’s a match made in heaven, so if you see one, cap ‘em, then mark then for extraction by the extraction team.”

Victor pointed to four men manning a large cannister with a wicked looking spike on the end of it.

“Unicorn team, keep in mind to only collect a unicorn if its dead. Those things are far too dangerous to keep in captivity.”

Victor was being redundant, but in his time in the military, he’d learned that when managing a large group of people, being redundant to the point of insanity was the only way to make sure everyone was on board.

“Now from the moment I hit the button, you have two minutes to bust in there, take whatever prize you can, and leave. For you math-challenged individuals, that’s one hundred and twenty seconds. There are some very powerful mooks in the audience, gentlemen, and overstaying our welcome would be ill-advised.

Victor pulled out a handy graph that stacked the attendees of the mook’s ball in a pyramid, organized by the value of their organs.

“Of course, the more valuable mooks are the tougher ones to bring down, but keep in mind, even a half-fairy like Pixie is worth three hundred thousand on the open market.” He pointed at the picture of Pixie on the bottom of the chart. “We’re all here because we’re greedy, but don’t get too greedy, understood? Respect the signal to leave or your life is forfeit.”

The men nodded silently as the train of black vans swept quietly into the parking lot. Ahead of them was the massive palace that had sprung up overnight, glowing against the night sky.

I should thank these mooks for being such valuable prey, Victor thought, taking the spare moment to check his own weaponry.

They would break even if they only caught a half-fairy, but they wouldn’t really turn a sizeable profit until they bagged a mage or two to resell their powers. Victor glanced over and patted the shiny metal contraption that would put the mooks out of business for five minutes, guaranteed.

With science.

Sure it’s that kooky tinker bullshit, but at least it’s human, and it runs on good old electricity and not blood sacrifices.

***Natalie***

Natalie’s heart throbbed painfully as she watched her two beautiful friends weave through the dance floor, complementing each other perfectly in a dynamic twirl of youth and energy. There was a thunderclap of feelings crashing against her fluttering stomach as she watched Heather’s legs wrap around Paradox’s.

Seeing the two of them together filled her body with a swirling cauldron of envy, lust, and a deep, burning need to do something about it.

But what?

The dance came to an end as Natalie was deliberating, and Perry glanced over at her. She saw his face pale, and quickly schooled her expression so as not to worry him.

She wasn’t planning anything bad.

After Heather went her separate way, Paradox locked his gaze on her, and began making a bee-line through the crowd towards her. Because of her height, other people blocked her view more often than not, but those piercing green eyes kept rising above the crowd, fixing her in place and making it hard to breath.

Is he using magic on me, or am I just this smitten?

Then a dark-haired young woman seized Perry’s hand and practically gave him whiplash with how quickly she wrenched him back out onto the dance floor.

Natalie got one clear look at Perry’s helpless expression as he was dragged away by the dark-skinned woman, and she nearly broke into a wild chortle.

Cackling madly at other people’s misfortune (especially the host) was generally considered bad manners, so Natalie contained her laughter to a single snort, hidden behind her purse.

Nat tried to motion to him that it was fine, to relax and have fun since they had all night to meet up, but he was already halfway across the floor and out of eyeshot.

“Excuse me, Miss Smith?” an enchanted tuxedo bearing a tray full of tiny sandwiches approached. Natalie tried not to overthink how an animated suit could talk. Sometimes it was best to just roll with it.

“Yes?”

“There is a woman claiming to be your mother causing a bit of a disturbance at the entryway. Do you want us to remove her from the premises?” The tuxedo paused, seemingly waiting for her response.

“HOW DARE YOU!?” The dark-skinned woman shrieked, stepping back from Perry and frantically wiping herself off.

“You know what?” Natalie said. “I’ll take care of it.” As much as Mom deserved to be hauled away by magical bouncers, Nat couldn’t stand the thought of treating her so…impersonally. Plus, the dark-haired woman was beginning to make a scene, and Nat needed to flee before she died of second-hand embarrassment.

Nat got on her tippy toes and snagged one of the sandwiches to steel herself for the asinine conversation she was sure to have with her mother.

She retraced her steps to the entrance of the massive building, and grimaced as her mother’s grating voice came into earshot.

“You can’t stop me from seeing my daughter! That’s KIDNAPPING, and you know it! I’ve read all about the sort of stuff you people get up to, and I’ve got the police on speed-dial, so don’t you DARE try to stop me.”

The bouncer, a tired-looking troll approximately nine feet tall, put a single finger on the dumpy woman’s shoulder, stopping her reckless forward charge.

“That’s it, I’m calling the cops,” Mom said. “Whatever you disgusting child traffickers are doing to my Nat in there is going to be all over the evening news.”

“I assure you ma’am, Ms. Smith has been contacted, and will inform us whether or not your claims are true.” The troll rumbled, looking bored and irritated. Or maybe trolls just always looked like that.

“Bullshit! You think I buy that crap!? You can say whatever you want, but until I see her with my own eyes, I’m not…going…”

Mom trailed off, glancing over at Nat.

For a brief instant, Nat’s heart was warmed by her mom’s protective instincts, willing to wrestle a troll to ‘rescue’ her from the big bad Manitians.

Then she ruined it by opening her mouth.

“Natalie, are you okay!? When I pried where you were going out of your dad, I knew it had to be some sort of a trick. I mean, look at what these mooks dressed you up in, looking like an expensive whore. They were probably bidding on you the entire time. You know they’re child-traffickers, right?”

“I picked the dress.” Nat said, her voice flat as the anger began building inside. Honestly she was kind of glad her mom pissed her off right off the bat. It would make it a lot easier to keep her guard up and not fall for her manipulation.

“Oh, well, it’s um, lovely, Nat.” Mom said, recovering as best she could.

“What did you want again?” Natalie asked.

“To keep you safe, obviously,” She said, grabbing Nat’s wrist and tugging her out to the dimly lit parking lot. “You don’t know what I know about these kinds of people. They’re not okay to be around, sweetheart.”

“Oh really?” Nat asked, digging her heels into the asphalt and bringing her mother’s tugboat impersonation to a grinding halt. “You get all that off one of your websites?”

“It’s a fact! Why are you so. Hard. To Move!?” her mom said, grunting as she tugged fruitlessly on Nat’s wrist.

Her mother outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds, but Nat was wearing a low-tier super suit disguised as an ‘expensive whore’ dress. There was no comparison.

Perhaps Paradox and Heather were infecting her with a bit of their disrespect for authority. Maybe it was the burning anger of having her magical night interrupted by an avalanche of racism-motivated conspiracy theories, because Nat couldn’t stop herself from mocking the woman.

“Try a little harder. You can do it,” Nat said patronizingly, holding herself in place with her toes as Mom huffed and puffed.

“Don’t you dare speak to me like that!” mom said, her face turning red from anger and exertion as she dropped Nat’s wrist. “You’re too young to know what you’re getting into. Those ‘friends’ of yours are just trying to use you! They do virgin sacrifices, you know!”

“That’s not gonna be a problem.” Natalie said with a shrug

Mom gave a dramatic gasp.

“Natalie Erina Smith! How could-“

“Yeah, I had sex, and you know what?, I had sex with a GIRL too! AT THE SAME TIME! And you know what happened? NOTHING! God didn’t smite me, I didn’t immediately turn to drugs to cope with the shame, NOTHING!”

“Who was it!? That Paradox boy you’ve been hanging out with…and Wraith? I swear to god I’ll-“

“You’ll do NOTHING if you want to keep getting money from me!” Natalie bellowed, her voice echoing across the parking lot.

Mom’s tone shifted in an instant, and Nat smelled blood in the water.

“Honey, I-“

“What happened to the last check I sent Dad? Did he even get it?” Nat asked.

“You just don’t under- I mean- you’re such a small, defenseless girl, I have to protect you.“

Nat opened her mouth to respond when a long line of identical black vans caught her attention, cruising silently into the parking lot with their lights off.

That’s highly suspicious, Nat thought, a tingle of dread and anticipation working its way down her spine.

“Mom, hide under that truck,” Natalie said, reaching into her purse and slipping on her magnetic gloves. They slipped easily over the skin-tight material of her dress.

The glove’s HUD in her contacts flared to life, showing her a new interface with a breakdown of the integrity of her dress, its power levels, and the amount of force she could distribute to her actions.

It’s compatible with my gloves. Of course it’s compatible with my gloves, Paradox made it for me.

Nat’s heart warmed in her chest, blowing away all the frustration and anger as men in black ski-masks with automatic weapons poured out of the ten or so black vans.

***Victor Remington***

Victor reached over and slammed the top of the magic dampener, A light came on the top of the shiny metal cylinder. They had until the light faded.

“Alright, start your timers.” Victor said over the comms, then motioned for the guys near the door to open it. In a satisfyingly synchronized moment, all of the dozen van’s doors opened at once, and victor’s crew began piling out.

They were in a dark parking lot only a hundred feet or so from the entrance. From here Victor could make out a troll bouncer,

$800k

A vampire standing just outside the entrance to smoke,

$500k

And a cute little half-fairy girl walking towards them curiously. Probably not the brightest bulb.

$500k

“I take it you guys don’t have an invitation?” the naïve half-fairy asked as she approached. Victor frowned and reassessed the girl.

No wings. Weird, bulky gloves on her hands. A girl who weighs ninety pounds wouldn’t have the balls to approach a group of armed men.

That’s not naïve.

That’s not a half-fairy.

That is a super! Victor’s blood thrilled in his veins as he whipped out his silenced subsonic and shot the girl between the eyes.

The lead bullet fell away from her face along with a plume of dust.

“I guess that answers that question,” She said, reaching out with the gloves. Victor instinctively threw himself to the ground, because you never knew what was going to come out of a super’s hands.

In this case, a whole lot of bad.

Victor gasped as his subsonic and the submachine gun slung over his shoulder ripped themselves away from his person, along with a few of his buttons, his knife, watch and phone.

Magnetism, He thought as he watched the entire group’s weapons compress into a tight ball in front of the tiny super.

Goddamnit, how the hell did I get so unlucky?

The lump of destroyed guns popped and sizzled as a few bullets broke open and ignited. A moment later, the girl made a dismissive wave, and the sphere of guns flew over her shoulder, landing in the center of the parking lot with a metallic shriek.

She reached out with both hands and crooked her fingers.

Anticipating her next move, Victor threw himself to the ground and rolled backwards. The trusty black vans they’d come in leapt forward like predators, crushing more than half of his men, who were still reeling from losing their weapons.

What the hell is a Tinker doing partying with these mooks? Vincent thought as his van missed him by a hair’s breadth, pinning down a couple of the other boys.

As far as Vincent was aware, Nexus was generally unaffiliated with the Manitians, and the Manitians didn’t really get along great with Nexus. That would add an extra couple minutes onto the response time.

But no, there was a goddamn Super right in front of them the moment they opened the doors.

What the hell is wrong with my luck today?

Vincent sprang back up to his feet, jumped up on the side of his van as it slid toward the Tinker girl, then leapt over it, emerging into the girl’s field of view with only an instant to react.

“Bluh-“ She waved her arms, but Vincent managed to close the distance before anything came of it, delivering a solid punch to the little girl’s face.

He felt gritty sand interposed itself between his knuckles and her face, but from the way her head rocked back, he knew he’d made some solid contact. Maybe not enough to knock her out, but it gave him the time he needed to slip around to her back and put her in a chokehold.

Vincent grunted as he lifted her off the ground so she couldn’t get any leverage.

“Alright, missy, just set our vans right-side up, nice and easy, and we won’t have any-“

Crack.

Vincent’s brows rose as her heel struck his kneecap with a supernatural amount of force. His leg gave out, dropping him to the ground, where the tiny girl wrenched his arms away from her neck, then she placed a leg under his waist for balance, grabbed his arm, and threw him back into his pile of groaning crew.

Oh, come on! Vincent thought before his face hit the rear-view mirror and everything went black.

***Natalie***

Nat dabbed the blood out of her nose with one of the napkins she kept in her purse, leaving the pile of groaning saboteurs behind as the security trolls converged on them.

She found her mom, standing stock still exactly where she’d left her.

“Let’s pick up the conversation where we left off,” Natalie said. “Something about me being ‘defenseless’?”