Drunkard's Walk Forums

What is an enemy? What is a friend? Is it a distinction made by rules and laws? Do the rulers and officers and commanders
determine for us who we are allowed to trust? Is it only once they cross to our side of the line that they are allowed to be seen as people worthy of trust,
camradrie, or love? Or is it that connection, that looking at them in the eye and knowing a sense of mutual respect, that you would rather talk with, fight
with, live with this person than a total stranger, that defines what it means to truly say you know them? We learned that men cannot be judged by the color of
their skin, but by the strength of their character. Is this only applicable if the man in question is human? Or are these Traditionalists, Rikti though they
may be, the first chance to look beyond the inhuman features of a faceless enemy and find a person that may become a friend?

- Incandescent, head of the Vanguard Herald Division, addressing the UN Oversight Committee regarding opening peace talks
with the Rikti Traditionalist Faction.

Riot Force Reports:

The Ties That Bind

Prologue

The conference room was in utter uproar, as the most influential men and women in Vanguard abruptly had to deal with an event that had been thought utterly preposterous only hours before.

"We need to start screening all registered heroes currently working for us," Borea said. "There has to be some sort of way we can determine if there are any more. We have to contain this breach now."

"What about the infiltrator? If she got as deep in as
she did, we don't know what's jeopardized," Gaussian said. "The Rikti could know anything. Our access codes, our transmission frequencies.
We need to rotate every classified frequency and procedure she had access to."

"Do we really know if she's jeopardized
anything?" Serpent Drummer said, frowning from his position. "She turned herself in, and from what she told us, she was infiltrating us to get
information on Hro'Dtohz. If anything, that makes her almost as much of an ally as the Traditionalists. She even sees the war as pointless in the face of
this intelligence."

"In the face of intelligence on Nemesis, which seems
to indicate he incited the Rikti War. While I agree it's proven, how do we know this isn't an elaborate plot by Nemesis with the assistance of the
Restructurists? He's tried replacing their leaders before. What if he's succeeded this time?" Levantera scowled. "We don't know that
she's telling the truth. All we do know is that she's not in telepathic contact with the rest of the Rikti, from what the Psi Division is
saying."

"We need more information. If we could interrogate
her…." Gaussian began, before a cool voice cut him off.

"No," the Dark Watcher said quietly, managing to
still the chaos despite barely being audible. "We're not touching her."

"Why not?" Gaussian frowned. "Don't give
me any of your usual mysterious bullshit, Watcher. This is a serious matter of security! We've had a Rikti in our ranks for almost a month, with full
access to our facilities, and we didn't even know it!"

"No, you didn't know it,"
the Watcher said. "I've been observing Miss W'tin for some time, waiting for the moment to intervene to prevent this from going bad for all
concerned. Us, the Rikti, and especially the young archer."

"With all due respect, Watcher, you've known about
a catastrophic breach of security for months and kept quiet without consulting anyone here?" Levantera said, a touch of shock creeping into her
voice.

"No. I explained my case to the Lady Grey, and she
agreed with my reasoning. Now, you all need to calm down. We can question her, yes, but there will be no interrogation. I also need to prepare some
eventualities in case events get out of hand. And I imagine you'll want to rotate those frequencies anyway, Gaussian, so I'll leave that to you.
Serpent Drummer, get this information to our Traditionalist allies. I'd suggest bringing along some people to help calm them down, for obvious reasons.
We're going to have to handle this very carefully if we don't want it to turn into a disaster, so everyone on your toes. Get going." With that,
the Dark Watcher opened a portal to his side, stepping through it to an unknown location, leaving the remaining members of the upper ranks of Vanguard
staring after him before grudgingly going to their tasks.

***

The Watcher stepped into a classically decorated office,
stepping up behind a large armchair sitting in front of a small fireplace.

"You are sure about this?" the Lady Grey asked
simply.

The Watcher nodded. "I think she's the break
we've been waiting for. A Restructurist who isn't fanatically devoted to Hro'Dtohz. If she comes around…it's a step towards ending this war,
once and for all."

"You speak of objectives, but that is not why you
argued this case so strongly to us before," she pointed out.

The Watcher smiled ever so slightly. "No, it
wasn't. There's more to this than war and politics. What happens next….well, things will get ugly. But I'm going to do my damnedest to give those
two kids a chance to figure this out on their own. If it helps save the world….that's a bonus."

"You're sentimental behind your detachment as
always, Devon. But we agree with your decision. Carry it out, and be careful. We would prefer not to see unwarranted damage befall anyone in this
pursuit."

"As you say, Lady Grey," he said respectfully,
before vanishing into the shadows again.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

Ifrit pulled out a bag of potatoes and did some mental math, working out how many were needed for dinner. Satisfied she had enough to counter the appetites of
her family, she placed some in the sink before turning back to check on the meat. A moment later, the front door being flung open and Gamma Emission yelling
out her name in a rather panicked tone pulled all her attention away from the meal. Closing the oven, she darted into the living room, before coming to a halt
as she looked at the new arrivals.

Gamma Emission and Emerald Blast both looked up at her, both women clearly worried and upset... and between them was a miserable looking catgirl, tear tracks
stained into the fur on her face. In her arms, Alice was holding Neko in a near death grip. Normally, Neko would be annoyed at nearly being crushed, but right
now, she was merely pressing against the girls chest and purring loudly, trying to reassure her. "What happened?" the fey asked softly, concern on
her face.

Before either Gamma or Emerald could answer, Alice pulled out of their arms, dropped Neko, and nearly tackled Ifrit as she started crying again. Ifrit
instantly abandoned any questions for the moment, wrapping her arms around her daughter and holding her close. "Sshh," she said, stroking the
catgirls ear gently. "I'm here... it's okay..."

"No it's n-n-not," Alice managed, before wailing even harder. Slowly, Ifrit guided her to the couch and sat down, working to try and calm the
girl down. Back near the door, the female elements of Hero Sandwich looked at each other, wondering if they should stay and explain, or leave and allow Ifrit
to try and get Alice back to some form of stability without people watching. The fey woman looked up at them for a moment, before nodding in the direction of
the kitchen. They nodded and moved in that direction, as Neko joined Ifrit in simply providing a comforting presence to Alice.

Ifrit didn't really know how long she sat there, simply holding her daughter and letting her vent her emotions. As Alice did that, slowly beginning to calm
down, the fey tried to work out what the hell could do this to the girl. She'd had her emotional moments in the past, a girl couldn't live the life
Alice had and not pick up a few issues, but right now, she was in a worse state then Ifrit had ever seen. When Alice finally calmed somewhat, Ifrit took note
of the crippling exhaustion running through the girl, most likely from the high emotions, and helped her up, guiding the catgirl to her bedroom.

"She never told me," Alice managed, her voice somewhat harsh from the effects of her sobbing and wailing. "Trusted her and she didn't tell
me..."

"We'll sort it out," Ifrit said, guiding her daughter to her bed before getting her out of her Vanguard costume and laying her down. "I know
it probably doesn't look like that now, but we'll sort it out."

She got a weak nod in reply as Alice started to slip into much needed sleep. "You'll be here?" she whispered. "You won't leave?"

"I'll be in the kitchen," Ifrit said, brushing Alices hair out of her face and trying not to start crying herself at the sound of raw need in the
girls voice. "I was making dinner, and I can't let it be ruined... Sammy'd be so sad."

Alice smiled weakly, and for a moment, Ifrit thought she was going to say something... but then her eyes slid closed and sleep claimed her. Her mother knelt
next to the bed for a long moment, then glanced at the clock on the bed stand. It'd been nearly half an hour since the atomic girls brought her kitten
home. She wiped at her eyes, then looked down at Neko. "I'd ask you," she whispered, "But I doubt you'd leave this room."

The small brown cat shook her head firmly. "Not now," she agreed. "I'm sorry, but... she needs me, and if I told you, you'd wake her up
by accident."

"That bad?" the fey replied.

"Worse," Neko replied honestly, sounding nearly as miserable as Alice had earlier. Ifrit nodded, then stood up and moved to the door. She stopped for
a moment, watching as Neko jumped onto the bed and snuggled into Alices arms, the catgirl cuddling her automatically, even now, then sighed and stepped out,
closing the door.

In the kitchen, Lisa and Rhea looked up as she entered. The winged woman closed the door behind her, then took in their own miserable expressions before moving
to the table and sitting down. "You both look like it hit you hard as well," she said softly, watching Rhea squeeze Mister Whiskers. "And
I'm sorry to make you talk about it, but I have to know... What the hell happened?"

Ah, the moment we've all been expecting and fearing...

Looking forward to seeing how this all plays out.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Thirty-six hours earlier:

"So apparently we have a soldier trying to defect from the Nemesis Army,"
Alice said. "A high ranking officer there, but oddly, he's requested Vanguard instead of Longbow, and us in particular.

"Someone intelligent working for Nemesis? That's a first," Gamma noted
from where she was leaning against a wall next to Rhea. "I didn't think he could stand competition."

Alice chuckled. "Yeah.
If you can't figure out Nemmy's an arrogant jerk, you're perfect for his forces."

Inyme, teleporting in beside Alice, got an affectionate hug that she returned
awkwardly, choosing to ignore the amused and fond looks from the various other women. In particular, she tried to avoid the knowing smile from Amberlee, who
she hadn't noticed until it was too late to equip her jamming armor without looking suspicious. She tried to remind herself that the woman's immense
telekinetic ability was her prodigious talent, not her telepathy, even though almost every Rikti born with much telekinetic talent was a prodigy at telepathy
as a matter of course. Putting that out of her mind, she turned to Alice. "So we're extracting him?"

"Yeah. He gave us this contact point, but sounded like he was being pursued,"
she said, stepping inside. "Captain Sherman, I think it was."

"I think I can confirm that he was followed," Amber said, pointing ahead at
where several groups of Nemesis troops were loitering about in clear guard positions.

"If they've caught him, who knows what'll happen to him. We've got to
get him out of there," Alice said, drawing back her bow as she closed one eye. Amber reached out into the men's minds, subtly turning them against
each other as Gamma leaped into the fray, already putting out enormous levels of radiation to weaken and disable soldier and automated Jaeger alike. Slowly
battling their way through the waves, Inyme lost track of anything but the combat until she felt a surge in Alice's emotions as she noticed something.

"There!" she said, pointing to an above ledge where a disarmed Nemesis
soldier was facing a Warhulk, several more Nemesis Troopers, and one of Nemesis's fake automatons of himself.

"The crime is treason against the Nemesis Army, and slander against the good name
of Lord Nemesis himself!" the officer nearby said.

The man on trial sneered behind his own armored mask. "Good name? You have no idea
how ridiculous you sound."

The officer scowled. "Vile cur! You'd dare besmirch the name of a loyal
automaton of the Nemesis Army?"

Sherman shook his head sadly.
"If you knew even half of what I've learned…."

The massive brass representation of Nemesis moved forward, staff crackling with energy.
"And that is why you must be silenced! The sentence is death! To be carried out immediately!" The Warhulk stepped forward at this announcement,
before dozens of Nemesis soldiers and the Warhulk itself staggered as a rain of arrows attacked every exposed area they could penetrate. Sherman looked over at
the heroes coming up the steps in open relief. "Purrfect Archer! You're here!"

Sherman dived out of the way
as a crackling Nemesis staff nearly took his head off, the Fake Nemesis advancing. "The Nemesis Army will suffer no betrayers!" it announced, before
being bowled over as the Warhulk was slammed into its side by Amber's telekinesis. A blast of radiation blinded it as both Inyme and Alice took aim,
another swarm of arrows impacting the two mechanoids at the same time as a tornado of telepathic and telekinetic force hit, forcing both off the edge of the
elevated platform to crash down below, the Fake Nemesis ending up stuck in the shattered dome of the Warhulk.

Rhea ran over to see to the captain's wounds as he nodded at Alice in gratitude.
However, the sound of lockstep boots from the next room over indicated that they weren't safe yet. Before anyone could realize, Sherman'd grabbed a
rifle from a fallen Nemesis trooper, firing an explosive round into the oncoming ranks. "They're coming for me! We've got to get out of
here!"

Alice fired a spread of shots
across the oncoming troopers along with Gamma's blasts as Sherman dived towards the enemy, taking cover behind a set of ruined Jaegers. "Idiot!"
Alice growled. "We're trying to get him out of here! Why's he running TOWARDS them?!"

"On it," Amber said, sending the immediate set of Nemesis troopers to fight
their comrades behind them, as the first pair of psi-immune Jaegers that made it through the doorway were sent flying into a nearby wall and crushed by
Inyme's telekinesis. Alice darted forward, jerking Sherman back the other way as Inyme and Gamma provided cover fire and Amber just provided plain cover,
shots bouncing off the telekinetic fields protecting them. Rhea ran up ahead to help protect Sherman as more Nemesis flooded in ahead of them.

"Kill the traitor!" a Fake Nemesis ordered, temporarily driving the group
back around a corner. The sheer volume of fire pinned them down for a moment, Sherman sliding in next to Alice.

"First, thanks for trying to save me. I know they'll try to kill me before
they try to kill you, to keep the secret, but someone has to know."

"Know what?" Alice said, rolling out to shoot off an explosive arrow into the Nemesis ranks, checking as she did where Inyme was pinned down next to
Amber, Gamma and Rhea a few feet ahead behind the ruptured hull of a Warhulk. Sherman fired an explosive bolt from his Storm Rifle before slipping back into
cover with her.

"When I was still loyal to Lord Nemesis, I was overseeing shipments to our main
base in the Shadow Shard. One broke open, and inside was a replica of your Mr. Manticore. Perplexed, I checked the rest of the crates and found copies of your
entire Freedom Phalanx. I kept digging until I found out why they'd been built." He grimaced, continuing. "The Rikti think your people attacked
them first, but it was all staged by Lo…by Nemesis!"

Alice stared at him in shock
for a moment, before both of them reacted to a lull in the firefight, standing up and firing at once. Inyme had sensed Alice's intent and stood up at the
same time, presumably passing along the signal to Rhea, Amber, and Lisa, as the entire group opened fire at once, mowing down a rank of Nemesis soldiers. Inyme
teleported ahead, looking about before waving the rest forward.

As they headed for the entrance, Sherman continued his story. "He sent those robot
duplicates against their world several times to rile them up, then tricked your heroes into following him right into the hornet's nest. As far as I've
been able to discern, his plan was to use one world against the other, then ride in and save the day, the great hero that saved Earth from the aliens. But the
Rikti fought too hard, their new general was too good, and Nemesis could never admit he made a mistake!"

The others looked vaguely surprised, other than Inyme whose face was concealed as
always. As they exited the building, a Vanguard APC was waiting for them, several Rangers on defensive positions about it, waiting to pick Sherman up. The
wreckage of Nemesis weapons, Jaegers, and Warhulks were scattered about. One walked up to Alice, saluting. "We're here to take Captain Sherman into
custody, ma'am."

Alice returned the salute
awkwardly, as Sherman looked back at her. "Thank you, Archer. I can't believe I was ever one of those fanatics. What a fool I was."

Alice nodded in return before
the APC reloaded, driving off in the direction of Vanguard HQ, while Alice turned to look at her teammates.

"That's…what he said's not possible, right?"

Inyme snorted, an uncharacteristic display of cynicism from her. "It's about
as believable as anything else Nemesis is "responsible" for. Especially given how famous he is for double blinds. He wasn't lying, but that
doesn't mean the evidence wasn't planted."

Amber looked at her askance, before crossing her arms. "Perhaps."

Rhea nodded in turn. "Yeah! I mean, everyone says everything is
a Nemesis plot, right?" she laughed.

Alice considered, before
pulling out a communicator. After a short discussion, she turned back to them. "Looks like HQ agrees with you, Inyme. Watcher wants us to investigate the
Shadow Shard base that Captain Sherman's revealed the coordinates for. But to get there, we need to talk to Longbow, get their technicians to help align
our base portal to access it."

"Which means we get to talk to Dietrich," Gamma noted with a sigh.

"Unpleasant woman…" Inyme noted deadpan, getting a giggle from Alice despite
the situation.

***

As they stepped into the Longbow base, Amber frowned. "I've got a bad feeling
about this."

"It's just Dietrich. She's not going to shoot us without any reason. It
may only take a thin reason, but she needs a reason first," Alice noted, still a little sore from facing the Longbow commander during the Renegade Sword
incident.

"No, I think she's right," Gamma said as they looked around "There
should be Longbow in here checking our papers by now."

Inyme stretched out her senses, but had less than a moment to react before an explosive
round impacted a wall behind her, the second exploding in front of her face on Amber's telekinetic shield. Bullets, arrows, bolts of pure radiation, and
mental blasts fired back and forth again as Nemesis troopers opened fire. Which, unfortunately, the group was getting all too used to.

"This is crazy! Why are they following us here?!"
Alice asked.

"Potentially they don't want us finding whatever it is Sherman directed us to
investigate," Amber replied from her position, visibly concentrating on keeping the oncoming fire from shredding them as they fought their way through the
base.

"Or they just want to make it look good," Inyme suggested. "Still,
I'm more concerned with how they knew where to follow us to!"

"Nemesis has one of the better spy networks in the RWZ. All the confusion from the
Rikti's perfect for sliping in automaton spies," Alice grunted.

"Makes sense. He'd be as interested as anyone else in what he could steal from
the Rikti here," Gamma noted as they finally pushed around a corner, coming to a stop near a set of Longbow furiously working on a piece of
machinery.

"Hey! Where's Captain Dietrich?" Alice asked, stepping up behind them.

One glanced at her, then down the hallway. "Further inside the base. We don't
know for sure where. These maniacs blew up the medicomm systems for the base when they hit us, and Sanders is trying to repair it as quick as he
can."

Rhea paled, as Alice blinked, both knowing the result of medicomm being down. Longbow
forces in the RWZ weren't officially supposed to be there, as Vanguard had exclusive purview to operations inside it. Obviously, Longbow ops had their own
medicomm systems for safety, but if the Nemesis Army had disabled it, dozens of soldiers across the zone would be in danger.

"Right, keep at it. We'll clear out the rest of this," she said, getting
a thankful nod from the warden.

"Give 'em hell, ma'am."

"Will do," she said, feeling rather good for the first time since having to
fight Longbow earlier. Part of her wondered how much signing on with Vanguard had changed her perspective on what she'd previously seen as one of the
foremost organizations for helping heroes. Was it just Dietrich? Gaussian'd practically admitted that there were flaws with how the Vanguard ran things,
and as much as Miss Liberty's abrupt condemnation of the Vanguard had been a blow to her opinion of the woman, could she really judge on that? Miss Liberty
hadn't known about the Renegades until Alice had informed Sefu…

Pushing such thoughts aside, Alice lead the group deeper into the base, soon running
across the imprisoned figure of Captain Dietrich. One Nemesis captain went down, his armor streaming steam from the sudden increase in temperature and hard
rads, while another toppled, hands locked onto his head at Inyme's psychic assault. Several more fell to the ground, arrows extending from exposed areas in
their armor with almost preternatural aim as Dietrich looked around at what was left of her guard detail in a slight bit of astonishment. Kicking one soldier
over, she retrieved her rifle and Eagle pack, nodding to Alice. "So these were after you people?"

"Something like that," Amber said before Alice could snap back, noticing the
catgirl's ears going flat at Dietrich's tone. The Longbow officer nodded. "We'll discuss what the Watcher wanted you to ask me later. For now,
we're dealing with these intruders. Sefu's probably still fighting inside the inner base," she said smartly, heading on ahead as the Legendary and
Riot Force members sort of just fell into her wake.

"How does she do that?" Alice wondered.

"She's a commanding officer. They have to be able to do that, or they
don't get a command," Rhea giggled.

Following Dietrich through the inner passages of the Longbow base, it wasn't long
before they fell into enemy attention again. Alice, Gamma, and Dietrich wound up on one side of what looked like a small power plant complex, while Inyme,
Amber, and Rhea were on the other. A trio of Dragoons kept the heroes' heads down as they unloaded rapid waves of machine gun fire, interspersed with
bursts of napalm. Several Jaegers alongside them kept up the barrage as well, the commander in charge of this detachment having apparently realized that the
powerful, but slow firing, Nemesis Rifles were proving inefficient against Amber's forcefields and sought area denial instead. "Damn! Amber, can you
distract them?" Alice asked, as the other telepath nodded, concentrating.

Lieutenant Olaf was feeling fairly good about his squad's performance in keeping
the interfering heroes pinned, down. Looking aside at his companion, he was about to comment on it when he saw it: the green eggshell shape of a Rikti drone.
They must have taken out the Jaegers while he wasn't looking. Jumping back so he didn't catch his squadmate in the fire, he let loose with a burst of
flame from the bottom of his weapon. "Burn, you alien scum!"

Sergeant Branston didn't know what to do as his commanding officer suddenly opened
fire on their Jaeger support units, but then Olaf morphed into a Rikti, and it all made sense. They were under infiltration! Returning fire at the alien
abomination, the confused Jaegers were easy prey as they tried to comprehend their human commanders suddenly firing at them and each other. However, that
momentary confusion was all they got as they exploded seconds later under fire from the heroes, their confused commanding officers following.

"The main control center is just ahead," Dietrich noted, heading forward.
Alice followed her in, a second before Inyme's senses tingled. "Sniper!"

"Down!" Dietrich ordered, pushing Alice to the floor not a second too soon as
several Comet Rifles fired in sequence, hitting the Longbow officer and throwing her over a railing. Alice scrambled to the edge, looking down, only seeing
shrapnel at the bottom where she'd heard the Captain hit.

She's fine, just injured. They got the medicomm operating
properly, Inyme's voice reassured her in her mind, causing Alice to breath a sigh of relief,
before drawing back an arrow. Waiting, she held it until the squad of snipers prepared to open fire again, thinking her plan at Amber and Inyme. Firing, her
arrow hit the explosive round just as it left the barrel of the Comet rifle, just as twin surges of telekinesis crumpled the long ends of the two beside it so
the rounds couldn't exit. The resulting backfire took out the entire group as the group ran forward.

A short run and gun battle later, the Nemesis invaders were pacified. Alice walked
towards where Dietrich was getting a brief bit of attention from the base medic, grimacing slightly as the bandages were tied in place. "That should hold
the rib in place for now, ma'am, but I'd recommend getting to a med tank sooner rather than later if you'd like to avoid surgery."

"Thank you, corporal," she said, before looking up at Alice. "I suppose
I owe my gratitude for your assistance. What was it that the Watcher sent you to request from us, Miss Romanova?"

Alice blinked, before doing a
mental "duh" as she remembered Dietrich's(and Vanguard's) files would be up to date since the adoption paperwork had gone through. She'd
made the "Baker" last name up on her hero paperwork anyway, so this was more natural than anything, really. "Well, it's something to do with
this attack actual-" she stopped as a warden came up behind her.

"Captain Dietrich," he said. "We've...put together the list of
casualties from the attack, before we were able to bring Medicomm back up," he said.

Alice's ears flicked as
she felt a wince of pain from Dietrich that had nothing to do with the broken ribs she'd sustained. "How many?"

"…twelve, ma'am….and….ma'am, I'm not sure how to say this…" he
said, Alice's senses tingling at the feeling of dread emanating from the warden.

"Bluntly, lieutenant. The more you hedge around it, the worse it gets,"
Dietrich noted.

"…it's Lieutenant Tendaji, ma'am…he's…dead,
ma'am."

Alice started, as Dietrich
blanched. "Sefu? That…that's impossible…"

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but….we have the body here. We were just…trying to figure out where to send the dead… I'll see to that then…" he said
softly, before turning away.

Alice shivered as she felt
the emotions roiling beneath Dietrich's shocked expression. "…this is impossible. Sefu was my right hand….my…he was my best friend…he can't be
dead…."

Her eyes shifted, locking on Alice so quickly, the archer felt like invisible lasers
were pinioning her in place. "You said what the Watcher sent you for was connected to this attack. How?"

Alice's fur rose as she
swallowed down the fear Dietrich's tone caused in her. "We recovered a Nemesis Army defector….he had found evidence that Nemesis produced duplicates
of the Freedom Phalanx and used them to provoke the Rikti. We extracted him from an attempted execution, and he gave us coordinates for the main Shadow Shard
base that Nemesis operates out of, where the proof is. We needed your help to attune our base portal to the Shard's frequency…"

Dietrich looked at her, wheels turning in her head as she put the pieces together.
"…I see….walk with me," she said, getting up and heading towards the base entrance where Alice knew the rest of them were waiting for her. "Sefu
was a good man, you know. Always hopeful. Always upbeat. He'd chide me for being so stern all of the time. He…he saw the best in people. I needed him for
that…I needed…"

Alice remained silent, so
totally unaccustomed to this side of Wilhelmina Dietrich that she didn't know what to say as Dietrich continued. "His wife thought we were having an
affair. We weren't, of course. Sefu'd never have done something like that. But to the Nemesis Army, he was just…"

Sorrow sang in Alice's telepathic senses, but hardened, crystallized. Grim
determination became audible to her, but underscoring everything was a cold, violent sense of vengeance coupled with restrained rage. Dietrich looked at her as
they came to the entrance, where the rest of the group was waiting, Amber's face looking worried as she looked at both of them. "If Vanguard needs our
help to investigate this base in the Shard, you'll have it. I'll get it done….that's what his name meant. 'Sefu Tendaji', "'The
sword gets things done'."

Alice nodded, and started to
walk the rest of the way before Dietrich's hand caught her shoulder. Looking back, Alice once again suppressed a thrill of fear at the look in
Dietrich's eyes. "And when you reach that base, I want you to find that information, and I want you to show every last one of those steampunk fanatics
exactly what that means, understood?"

Alice shivered slightly, but
came to a salute. "Yes, ma'am."

Dietrich returned it, then turned, heading back into her base as Alice maintained her
calm for the five minutes it took them to get outside before stepping over to Inyme and curling in tight against her, protocol and appearance be damned. Inyme
held her hand, as the group quietly headed back to Vanguard HQ.
***

Author's Note: Yes, this doesn't quite go as far as I'd planned the first chapter to do so, but it was getting
ENORMOUS, and I figured this made a good point to transition. Also, I'm as impatient writing this as you all are reading it, so there. =P
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

checking as she did where Inyme was pinned down next to Inyme, Gamma and Rhea a few feet ahead

Inyme is beside herself. 8P
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

Quote: Timote wrote:

---

checking as she did where Inyme was pinned down next to Inyme, Gamma and Rhea a few feet ahead

Inyme is beside herself. 8P

This is what happens when you have two combat telepaths on the same team and no visuals. You start hallucinating they're the SAME PERSON. O_O
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

Cut me free, bleed with me, oh no!

One by one, we will fall, down down!

Fight for life, honor dies!

This ain't my fight!

- 10th Man Down

Inyme's thoughts were chaotic behind the stony silence that her full face helmet
presented to the outside world, though Alice might've gotten a sniff of them if she'd been less concentrated on the task at hand. Part of that was
purely outside stress from where they were. Inyme's growing suspicions about her telepathy regaining its former power in ways that were very un-Rikti like
was beginning to gain evidence as she closed her eyes again, focusing on reinforcing the shields that kept the background thunder of the Shadow Shard at bay.
No Rikti Mentalist had ever reported something akin to being trapped inside the mind of something….else. A small part of her considered it was likely Rularuu,
given the history of this region.

Beyond that, there'd been the confrontation with the false Manticore. Humanlike as
it'd appeared, its corrupted speech had certainly given it away as a fake from the start. Part of Inyme wanted to believe it was a rush job, a poorly
constructed copy to further the deception of what this entire incident's unraveling clues had begun to hint at. Something which couldn't possibly be
true. The part of her listening to her companions was also noticing that they were becoming more and more certain of what they were going to find…and if they
became too sure, her denials were going to seem more suspicious.

Which she couldn't afford to attract, especially not now.

****

Alice didn't know why
Inyme was so tense in the back of her mind, but she really couldn't fault her girlfriend. The implications of what'd been seen so far could unnerve
anyone. As is, she was more concerned with the ongoing attacks by the Nemesis soldiers following them. Gesturing to Amber, she leaned back as the redhead
approached. "Have we shaken them?"

Amber shook her head. "They have a good idea of where we're going, and this is
their base. They don't know where we are precisely, but they're still following."

Alice nodded. "That
should buy us enough time to find the safe Sherman mentioned."

The group stayed close together as they made their way through the base, disabling a
few patrols and eventually stepping past unconscious Nemesis soldiers in what appeared to be the base's main engine room. Off to the side, however, was the
commander's office and between herself and Amber, Alice had it open in short order. The book inside, however, she opened gingerly….only to find drawn out
specifications for the Manticore they'd fought earlier…and Synapse…and Sister Psyche….and Statesman… Alice's eyes widened as she looked up at the
others. Amber was calm, even if Alice could feel a hint of the shock that actual confirmation had caused her. Rhea didn't bother to hide hers, while Lisa
looked at it grimly, a hint of confirmed acceptance in her mind. Inyme, however, was at the door when the blast doors they'd sealed earlier blew off their
hinges in a single roar of green fire. As Alice glanced over from the safe, her eyes widened as an armored figure stepped into the door.
"Positron?!"

[/url]

As soon as she said as much, however, a spike of panic and raw, seething anger seared
through the telepathic bond between herself and Inyme. Before she could even look at Inyme, the young woman had already sprang forward, smashing a Jaeger into
a nearby wall telekinetically as the rest of the group scrambled to back her up. Rhea's face was grimly determined as she focused on keeping Inyme's
armor and body healed from the radiation emitting from the duplicate Positron, while the others took on the Nemesis troops. Gaining an appreciation of the
tactical situation, Positron waved the troops forward as he squared off against the enraged blaster heading at him head on. Alice slammed the door to the
office shut behind them as they all fell into support positions.

The first full on burst of EMP from her opponent startled Inyme out of her red tinted
vision as her armor's systems shut down for a moment before rebooting. Boiling rage became cold, calculating intent as she rolled aside, avoiding a trench
of radioactive slag carved out by one of Positron's energy beams. Reaching out, she anchored him to the ground telekinetically, stopping his movement if
not his attacks for the moment and giving herself some maneuvering room. Mentally, she began tracing the room, identifying where her teammates were and their
areas of attention, using their eyes to a small degree as her own.

Surprise rippled across the bond from Amber, but Inyme ignored it, projecting a sense
of necessity mixed with apology for the intrusion. Mollified, Amber added her own abilities to the link, and Inyme carefully wove Alice's fledgling
telepathy in as well in a supporting role. Carefully, she avoided the damaged tangle of Rhea's lower thoughts, tying in instead to Rhea's conscious
mind and her military training buried beneath it. Had any experienced Vanguard telepath been on hand, he would've immediately recognized the underpinnings
of a Rikti commando squad's tactical bond, but as it was, both Amber and Alice were too busy helping to keep the link stable to recognize what it
was.

Teleporting ahead, Inyme dodged a burst of deadly radiation that melted another stretch
of machinery, and cursed as she realized she was running out of cover. The Nemesis troops were slowly being defeated, but Rhea couldn't help in combat with
her concentration so on keeping all of them from being seriously injured. Amber had caught the telekinetic trap on Positron when Inyme's grasp had waned,
and she was keeping him immobilized, at least, but his mind was too resistant to particularly turn against the Nemesis troops. Alice was pinioning another
group of robots and riflemen, while Gamma was exchanging bursts of radiation with Positron from behind a lead shielded wall that proved resistant to his energy
blasts. Amber's thoughts were turning to her own telekinetic abilities, but until they knew what was wrong with Positron, she wouldn't risk seriously
harming such a hero. Gamma was feeling the heat and wondering how much juice Posi had in that suit, and Alice was feeling a slight hint of relief at the fact
that she'd just KO'd the last of the Nemesis troops. Inyme, shielding her thoughts from the bond for a moment, considered the thoughts from Amber,
realizing that this was a perfect opportunity.

Quickly, she shot the basics of the plan around the link to the other members, editing
it slightly to make it more feasible to the group who didn't know what she intended to do. Teleporting by Rhea, Inyme briefly felt her weariness lift as
Rhea's abilities washed over her, replacing the beginnings of exhaustion with more power than she knew she could generate on her own. Teleporting again,
she drew Positron's fire as Gamma jumped up, unloading a full EMP on the armored figure from behind. Energy crackled over the armor as he attempted to
compensate, only for Alice and Amber's telekinetic abilities holding him in place. Inyme warped in front of him as he looked up, energy leaking from his
forearms in a vain attempt to scorch her to the bone.

"This is for my mother, you bastard..." she hissed, unaware
at the moment that the link meant almost everyone got a decent image of her seething rage, Alice's direct empathic link to her lover meaning it was even
stronger for her, the catgirl crying out in pain before slumping to the side, unnoticed by Inyme in her laser thin concentration as she reached forward. Amber
had a brief flash of what she was about to do before Inyme started, starting to move to stop her…and then three things happened at once.

Inyme's hands almost interlaced their fingers as if forcing themselves between a
small gap, before she forced them apart in a savage single motion.

There was a terrible, terrible silence as Inyme's unsubtle, but powerful,
telekinesis reached out towards Positron…before there was a squealing as metal began to bend. Positron looked at it, before looking up at her. "What…are
you doing to me?"

And then the metallic figure's body split down the middle, as if his right and left
side limbs had been tied to opposing trucks which had suddenly hit the tension point on invisible chains. There was a scream of anguished metal as the armored
figure tore apart….in a spray of oil, steam, and tiny metal components, Positron's head coming off entirely due to lacking any real connection to the main
body as the center of it practically disintegrated, bouncing onto the floor and rolling to a slow stop.

****

For a moment, the room was silent except for the tinkling of tiny shards of metal
falling to the ground from where the telekinetic attack had scattered them, the three remaining conscious heroines staring at the shredded remains of what had
seemed to be Positron, before starting as Inyme dropped to her knees, looking at the pieces. Rhea glanced at her, before darting over to see to Alice, while
Lisa stepped away from her impromptu shield, followed by Amber to walk up beside the girl.

Inyme shook her head as they approached, before something like a shuddering sob made
its way out of her throat. "Damn it….damn it all…he was telling the truth…"

"Inyme? Are you alright?" Amber asked, but the girl went on as if she
hadn't heard her.

"All of it. All the death, the suffering….all for nothing. Millions
dead for nothing!" she snarled, an armored hand sending the Positron robot's head skidding across the chamber to impact against a support strut
with a metallic gong.

"It doesn't have to be for nothing," Lisa said, bending down beside her.
"We can bring him to justice. Nemesis will pay for his crimes. We can stop more from dying…we can end the war…" she trailed off at a bitter chuckle
from Inyme.

"You haven't realized, have you? You don't get it at all. The blood on our
hands. The initial attacks….we didn't think. We just reacted. All the death….it was pointless. Everything was…"

"…we? Who's we?" Lisa said, even as Amber stiffened and a tingle of suspicion and fear ran down the former emergency room worker's
spine.

"That's right. You don't know. No one does. I was so careful. I had to be.
If anyone suspected, the entire mission would've come apart," she said. "But it doesn't matter now if you figure out who I am. Not
anymore."

"What are you talking about, Inyme?" Amber said from behind her. "We
know who you are…"

"No, you don't!" she growled. "If you did, if any of you did…I never would've gotten so close…this damnable situation would've never
happened." Looking up, she saw a mixture of incomprehension and anxiety at her growing emotional reactions. "Don't you get it?! I'm one of
them! I'm a Rikti and I have been ever since I started this damned infiltration! And that pile of scrap metal means that we killed
millions of your people for nothing! For a lie! This entire war is based around a lie! And…and it means…." Inyme started to look at Alice, then looked
away. "Nothing matters any more."

Lisa and Amber shared a brief look before Lisa helped Inyme to her feet, Amber going
back to get the book Alice'd thrown into the office when the battle started. "It still matters, Inyme. We'll sort this out once we get out of
here," she said, hearing shouts coming from down the hall. Stepping away, she grabbed Positron's head, while Rhea activated an Ouroboros portal, the
quintet vanishing out of time and space as the Nemesis troopers came into the room, weapons raised.

****

Alice awoke groggily, her
head pounding with remembered sympathetic pain as she looked up at the fluorescent lights in Vanguard HQ's main medical area. Standing up, she groaned,
Rhea looking over at her with a slightly relieved expression. "Wha'happened?" she managed as Rhea helped her steady herself.

"Well, Inyme attacked the Positron robot, and…some kind of backlash hit you, as
far as we can tell."

"Backlash? Yeah….that…man….what upset her so much?" Alice asked. "Felt
like a brick going 200 miles per hour got launched at my skull."

Rhea blinked, before looking aside for a second, and Alice tasted the worry present in
her thoughts. "What's wrong, Rhea?"

"I…we should go find the others, now that you're awake," Rhea said, getting a surprised expression from the catgirl as she followed Rhea to where
Lisa was turning over the book and what appeared to be Positron's severed head to a Vanguard officer, who took them carefully. Inyme looked at her as she
came close, and unlike the churning tempest her thoughts had been before, now they were almost cold in their serenity. Alice frowned, as the others looked over
at her.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8PiAevS4sQ]

"Okay, will someone tell me what's going on?"

Amber looked at Inyme, then back at her. "It's…something happened after you
were knocked unconscious."

"Yeah, I'd figured that out by the way you're all pussy-footing around telling me," Alice noted, annoyed. She looked over at Inyme as the
woman removed her helmet, letting her short dark hair out. "So what's the big deal?"

"It's me, Alice," Inyme said, and her tone was flat enough to cause Alice's eyes to narrow slightly. "Given the evidence we found…I
can't stay here anymore."

"What, you have to go back home?" Alice asked, blinking. She'd known
Inyme to reference her "mission" from time to time, and that it had something to do with the Rikti. However, Inyme merely shook her head.

"No…I can't go back home. However, I imagine security will be coming now to
arrest me," she noted, as Alice felt the direct, concentrated thoughts of the squad headed this way as Inyme mentioned them.

"What? Why?!"

"Because I'm a Rikti spy, Alice," Inyme said softly, and Alice stared at
her. Through their link, she could feel the inherent truth of what Inyme was saying, but that didn't make sense. Inyme was a Rikti? She couldn't be!
She looked…felt human….everything Alice knew told her…so…

Inyme's eyes confirmed for her the suspicion that came to mind, and Alice realized
that all this time, Inyme had lied. Inyme had taught her how to use her telepathic powers. Inyme had taught her how to detect deception. How to guard her
thoughts. Inyme was the one probably capable of hiding anything from her if she wanted. Her eyes widened as the only question she could think of came to her
lips. "Why?"

Inyme looked at her, teleporting her combat armor away and leaving her usual casual
jumpsuit as the sound of approaching footsteps made itself heard. "Because I didn't have any other choice….and now it doesn't matter at all what
choices I made."

Alice looked at her as the
Vanguard soldiers came into the room, shocking the rest out of their contemplations. Lisa looked at one as Inyme put out her hands to be cuffed. "What are
you doing?"

"Arresting a Rikti spy, ma'am," the soldier said simply.

"On what grounds?" she asked, despite the obvious answer already coming to
mind for why Inyme'd been so quiet in her armor the last half hour.

"Because I called them and turned myself in," Inyme said, confirming her
fears. "I can't exactly be left walking around like this now, can I?"

"Inyme, please…don't…" Alice tried to find words, but Inyme shook her
head, a hint of actual sadness penetrating the emotional cool that hovered about her mind as she turned to let herself be led away.

"This is for the best….for everyone…" she said, and then she was gone, the
soldiers leading her away, leaving Alice and the others flatfooted in their wake.

***

Brightsky wasn't expecting anything unusual as she entered the Vanguard headquarters, but seeing Rhea and Lisa help an obviously distraught looking Alice
out the portal to Atlas. Blinking, she caught a similarly unhappy looking Amber in the hallway.

"I just saw Alice head out of here…what happened?"

Amber's frown deepened, looking up at her with worried eyes. "We just found out Inyme was a Rikti spy. She turned herself in just a few minutes
ago."

A part of Brightsky's mind froze at the simple statement, before becoming almost
instantly calm. Breathe in…breathe out. Think of the center. Calm.

Amber looked at her slightly oddly as Brightsky let herself visibly struggle to regain
her composure from the shock. "…I can't believe it…a Rikti spy?"

"Yes…there's more to it, but…right now, it's just all a big blur of sorts."

"I see," Brightsky said, looking at her watch. "I'll catch the
details later. Right now, I'm late for a raid on a Rikti supply depot. You should probably get home and have some rest. This was probably a bit of a
shock," she said.

Still giving her an odd look, Amber nodded, before sighing and stepping off through the
portal. Once she was safely away and out of telepathic range, Brightsky felt her face harden into a scowl. Picking up her cell phone, she dialed a given
number. "Hey….yeah, it's me. Say, do you know anyone that'd be able to take a look into some records…surreptitiously? …at your work….yeah, I know.
It's important….I can't talk about it on this line. I'll tell you in person after I'm done here….yeah, thanks. Talk to you later,
Syn."

Stepping towards the teleporter, Brightsky's thoughts raced. If Inyme had been a
Rikti spy all this time…and turned herself in? It had to be a trap. And given how deep she'd gotten….Syn would be able to find the questioning records
Security would likely have in a few days. And if it confirmed her hypothesis…it wasn't exactly according to procedure, but Bright unfortunately didn't
think they'd recognize the threat inherent in a Rikti penetrating this deeply without being detected. And if they didn't….well, she'd have to find
some way of dealing with that.

" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNKnzNSgWmk">

" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNKnzNSgWmk">

" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNKnzNSgWmk">
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

"And then..." Rhea gave a weak shrug, looking even more miserable then before, "Inyme just walked up to one of the Vanguard officers and
turned herself in."

"And you brought Alice home," Ifrit said, sounding unnervingly calm for a woman that had just gotten her worldview rather violently shaken up.
Both girls nodded, uncertain of what to say now. Ifrit sat there, lost in thought, before she stood up, face still unreadable as she went to the wall mounted
phones, taking the one marked 'offical business only', hit a speed-dial button and waited.

"Mackie? It's Ifrit. Could you get your sister? Thanks." Lisa blinked at that, then looked at Rhea, who had a look of understanding on her
face. "Sylia, we've got a problem. Security breach. It's Inyme. She's a Rikti. She just turned herself into Vanguard." She sighed,
closing her eyes for a moment. "I know... Look, I need you to get Mir and check the base systems... Yeah, pretty much like we planned for. And let
Lora'lai know, she'll need to do the same. I'd have Nene do it, but given PSI will need her to do this as well, and..." for a moment, her
expression slipped enough for the other two woman to see the raw grief she was experiencing. "I... we need her here. Okay. Thanks."

"What was that about?" Lisa wondered as Ifrit ended the call.

"You've got security protocols for spies," Rhea said, sounding somewhat impressed. "Access codes, teleporter access, classified
files..."

"So on and so on," Ifrit agreed. "Sylia's idea. I'd hoped she was just being paranoid, but given the sort of people we fight, it was
only fair to assume that they might try to infiltrate us somehow..." Her shoulders slumped and she closed her eyes to hold back the tears. "Oh
Christ..." She wiped at her face and dialed again. "Nene? How soon can you get off work and come home? Yes, it's urgent. Okay. Thanks. Love
you." She hung up, holding onto the phone for a long moment, trying not to think, before straightening up and turning back to the others.

"Um... I hate to seem like a bitch," she sad softly, "especially after making you tell me all that. But, I'm not really up to having
company right now..."

"Of course," Lisa replied, standing up. "If you need anything..."

Ifrit nodded. "Thanks for bringing her home," she said as Rhea gave her a brief hug. She showed them to the door and watched them leave, noting
the concern on their faces. Even with all the shocks to their worldview today, their first concern was still to their friends. The fey gave them a weak smile
as the door closed, then walked over to the couch and dropped onto it, burying her face in her hands.

For several minutes she just sat there, not making a sound, just suppressing the urge to break down crying. At the same time, she forced back a growing
anger, partly aimed at Nemesis for his arrogance, but more directed at Inyme. She tried to focus on what Rhea and Lisa had said, how Inyme had been sent to
target Hro'Drotz from an angle he'd never expected, or something, but all she could thin about was the fact she'd trusted her.

Alice had trusted her. Alice had loved her. And Inyme had used that for her own purposes. She'd used Ifrits kitten as another tool in infiltrating the
heroes. Never mind how much Alice loved her, relied on her, needed her... "You don't know that," she murmured. "You're just jumping to
conclusions..." She closed her eyes again, forced the flames away, and tried to wait for Nene.

***

wow, and I thought that the RP during the mission was gut wrenching.

Yay, cause more story is always good, but now I really want to know what happens next
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

That came out of a RP session?

Yow. I wish I'd been there.

Well done. Very well done.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Finally got a chance to sit down and read this, Good Job, sir!

VERY much looking forward to the next piece.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

The entire flashback sequence was done in an RP session in the game a while back... amusing, Alice being knocked out came from the game crashing on me right as
we kicked Positron to the curb

The minute she stepped through the door, Nene didn't say a word. She knew her lover could see the understanding, shock, and dozens of other mixed emotions
that asking Sylia what'd happened on her way home had brought to her. But chief among them, Nene Romanova knew that Ifrit had it even worse, because unlike
her, Ifrit was hardly human.

Which was why the first thing she did was slip onto the couch beside her and pull her tightly to her chest, feeling Ifrit cling to her as she did. "I
heard. How's Alice?"

"Asleep...after bawling her eyes out for half an hour," Ifrit said, her voice bitter and angry at the last.

"Any motives on Inyme's part?"

Ifrit nodded. "Apparently...she fell apart after they found intelligence that Nemesis started the Rikti War. She turned herself in as soon as they got
back to the base..."

Nene nodded silently, as she felt the air around her warm again.

"How could she? Alice trusted her....loved her....and she just..."

"Didn't tell her the entire truth."

"She did more than that, Nene, and you know it!" Ifrit growled, Nene's sweater feeling uncomfortably warm despite the 20 degree temperatures
outside. However, she didn't back down, stroking Ifrit's hair as the fae calmed herself again, the temperature returning closer to normal.

"No, actually, that's all she did. Sylia sent me the opening bits of Miranda's search of the databases....so far, it's come up clean. Nothing
altered, nothing sabotaged. And honestly...I don't expect her to find anything."

"You what?" Ifrit said, blinking. "But...if she wasn't a traitor, why would she...?"

"Because she's a martyr," Nene said softly, seeing the confusion on Ifrit's face. "Think through it, love. She's a soldier. A deep
cover operative. Both from us and most of the Rikti, if her opening statement they've taken makes any
sense....which means what we knew about her life was her life. We didn't know all about it, but you know she was a
private type around everyone but Alice. Hell, the writing was on the wall from the start. She said she came from another dimension, her armor practically
looked Rikti-ish when you sit back and look at it. Longbow had some stupid theory that it was reverse-engineered from Rikti invaders into Inyme's home
dimension...it was plain as day, but we didn't see it....but she never lied to Alice. Everything we heard from Alice about her fits her life as one of the
Rikti, and....I think that's why I don't think she betrayed us."

Ifrit looked at her as if she'd lost her mind. "...what?"

"Where would you have put Alice on Inyme's priority list before today?" Nene asked.

"The very top. Possibly above her own well-being....I was beginning to think about asking her to lighten up a
little."

"Then look at what happened. She's a deep cover agent for an alien power that she finds out attacked...killed...innocent people by mistake. Her
"righteous cause" falls apart. The Rikti are as evil as we see them as, because they killed millions over a provocation that was entirely
faked." She looked at Ifrit, getting a nod that she was following her, before continuing. "And when Vanguard finds out what she is, by accident, dumb
luck, or whatever, who's going to get investigated the worst for being the one that helped Inyme join Vanguard in the first place?"

"Alice," Ifrit whispered, pale now.

Nene nodded. "She's a smart girl....she'd come to the same conclusion I did. That Vanguard would investigate her, possibly see Alice as an
accomplice. Especially if they found out that Alice had learned to control her powers and telepathy from a Rikti spy. Turning herself in, she can try to
mitigate the damage...maybe."

Ifrit frowned. "So she wasn't using Alice at all?" she asked, getting a shake of the head from Nene.

"No...I think that was her initial intent. It makes sense from what we know of her mission....but....she fell in love. Alice became her friend. Her
confidante. Her love and lover....isolated from what she thought was her true "people", living among the enemy constantly in fear of being
discovered, Inyme learned to trust Alice, at least as far as she could....Alice was the only truly friendly face that Inyme knew here. Her whole world....and
that kind of feeling can change your priorities."

Ifrit looked at her, before sighing and hanging her head, leaning against Nene again. Nene stroked her hair gently.

"I know...your first instinct was to leap to Alice's defense....just like Inyme."

"How do you do that?" Ifrit mumbled into her hair.

"Do what?"

"Just...figure it out, perfectly, just like that."

Nene chuckled ruefully. "Some of it helps by being blindingly obvious in hindsight. From there...it was just knowing Inyme. Antisocial, fiercely
protective, and head over heels in love as she was."

Ifrit nodded, trying to let the flames calm as she listened to her lover's cool logic.

"Of course, that means she's gone into full-blown martyr mode now....if her cause is worthless, and Alice is the only thing in her life she feels
worth protecting.... you're right. It's not a healthy attitude for her. Alice's the only one that I think could break her out of it, but..."
she shrugged.

"...damn it," Ifrit said, sniffling slightly. "I....all I could think about was that she hurt Alice...."

"I know. The same we 'hurt' Sammy and Alice when we make a nasty mean rule for their own good," Nene said softly. "And just like that,
Inyme's probably hurting as much or more than Alice right now."

"I know," Ifrit replied, not opening her eyes.

"And it's not your fault that you were jumping to the wrong conclusion. When you run hot, you run hot, love.
It's your nature. It's why we balance each other out so well," the redhead smiled softly, stroking the edges of the fae's wings.

Ifrit managed a bitter chuckle. "Inyme would never want to hurt her. I know it so well... but when I saw my kitten like that, when I learned why..."

"You wanted to blame something you could hurt, rather than some enormous conspiracy that may never be brought to justice."

"I...it took everything I had to hold back the fire..."

"I know," Nene whispered. "It's okay."

They didn't say anything more. They didn't need to. Ifrit remained prone against Nene for minutes...minutes which turned into hours, as Nene just
comforted her with her presence. Eventually, she felt the slow, even breathing that indicated the fae was finally asleep, and smiled haggardly.
"That'll do...." she said, looking out the window.

Now I just have to deal with the rest of the problems this's dug up...
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

For a moment, the catgirl found herself in that quiet place between asleep and awake, staring up at the ceiling, idly noting that the poster she'd stuck
up there was coming loose. For a moment, there was a sense of peace, as her mind focused on nothing in particular. Then it passed, and she was wide awake,
remembering how she'd ended up back here, and what had happened.

Carefully, she climbed out of the bed, taking care not to wake Neko, who had been cuddled up against her stomach. That was somewhat unusual. Neko tended to
prefer her basket and it nice, comfortable cushions. But given the state Alive had been in earlier, it wasn't all that surprising.

She wants to make sure she's still got her puppet, a bitter voice in the back of her head noted. Alice paused, wondering where that idea had
come from, then sighed and left the room. That didn't make any sense. Still, her mind lingered on the subject for a moment, coming up with a rather
unnerving mental image of her throwing herself into battle, time and time again, while Neko merely watched.

She scowled, shaking her head in frustration. "Talk about stupid," she muttered to herself. Thinking that about Neko of all people. Cats.
Whatever. Neko was there with her, helping her, guiding her. Alice sighed, putting it down to a very strange mood swing. She trusted Neko.

Like you trusted Inyme? the voice asked. Alice paused at the door to the bathroom, the thought stopping her cold. Inyme. A Rikti spy. She'd
trusted her too. And look how that turned out, the troublesome part of her mind noted. You didn't just trust her, you loved her. You let your
guard down and she played you perfectly. She tried not to think about it as she stepped into the bathroom. Hell, she didn't just play you, did
she?

"Shut up," she scowled, going to the sink and turning on the tap. Cupping her hands under the water stream, she splashed herself in the face,
rubbing at her aching eyes for a moment.

"Why? Pointing out something you don't want to admit?" her voice replied. Startled, she looked up, staring at the mirror. Her reflection
glared at her, resting her hands on the sink. "You've been ignoring this for too long Alice," she sneered. "Well, you can't do that
anymore."

"What the hell does that mean?" Alice growled, tail lashing back and forth.

"You've been playing at being one of the capes, playing at being someone else." The reflection rolled her eyes. "The real world get too
hard for you little kitty?" she asked.

"I haven't been playing," Alice shot back. "I'm a hero, and I've made something of myself-"

"No!" the mirror snapped. "You've made Purrfect Archer, a fancy little fake life where you're safe and happy! You went and forgot
everything you learned, and look what happened." she leaned forward, nearly touching the glass, and smirked. "You ended up a Riktis
fucktoy."

"Shut up," Alice whispered.

"Not happening kiddo," the image said, shifting to a smaller form, losing the fur, the ears, the purple hair. "Remember this? You never wear
it, but it's your face. Back when you used that brain, you'd have realised this. But you were oh-so-eager to be loved, to be safe, you tossed it aside.
You tossed aside the most important rule, the one that kept you alive, kept you safe. Don't. Trust. Anyone."

"I said, shut up."

"You learned it a long time ago," she taunted. "Everyone will try to use you. I don't care what kind of act they put on. Neko, Ifrit,
Nene, Sammy... all with their own goals-"

"SHUT UP!" Alice yelled, eyes glowing with power. Her reflection backed up as telekinetic energies cracked the glass. "You're full of
it,"she growled. "Inyme may have tricked me, she may have lied to me, but that doesn't mean the others have. It doesn't mean that my mommas
have, or Sammy!"

"How can you be sure?" the image taunted. "Even that telepathy of yours clearly isn't perfect."

Alice leaned in closer, a smirk visible behind the glow of her eyes. "No, it's not. But it doesn't need to be. Something I've worked out
since I was you. I don't need to know everything to trust, and I don't need your paranoia."

"You don't need me?!" the image managed. "I am you! The real you, not that stupid cat!"

"No, you're the parts I outgrew," Alice said calmly. "Even as bad as things may be, I don't need you anymore." The glow in her
eyes intensified, and the reflection screamed as the mirror shattered.

***

For a moment, the catgirl found herself in that quiet place between asleep and awake, staring up at the ceiling, idly noting that the poster she'd stuck
up there was coming loose. For a moment, there was a sense of peace, as her mind focused on nothing in particular. Then it passed, and she was wide awake,
remembering how she'd ended up back here, and what had happened.

Alice sat up quickly, knocking Neko awake with the sudden motion. The cat shook her head and looked up. "Alice?" she asked quietly.

"I... I'm okay," she replied, reaching down and scratching the cats ears. "Just a weird dream," she sighed. She noted that if her
mind was coming up with dreams like that, she was really out of it. Arguing with herself in a mirror? Weird.. The catgirl ran a hand through her hair and stood
up, grabbing a shirt. Her issues about Inyme, Nemesis and the mess of her love life could wait. She was starving.

***

Sammy had been fidgeting for hours, ever since Ifrit had explained the situation to her. She'd sat down, swapped chairs, paced, lay down on the couch,
and had gone up to the door of Alices room half a dozen times.

It didn't surprise Nene. Hell, she was in much the same state, although she'd distracted herself by fetching a laptop from her office and logging
into the PSIs computers to make sure that Inyme hadn't compromised them. She honestly doubted it, given her own theory about the girl, but it was her job
to be somewhat paranoid.

Ifrit was distracting herself with various chores, using them to try and pull her mind from the thought of what her kitten must be going through right now.
As Nene looked up, she saw the fey going through the washing, holding up one item of clothing at a time and focusing her powers on drying them out. It was a
clever way to fine tune her control, but right now, her temper was leaving some items more then a little singed. Nene took another look, and noticed that her
lover had swapped to towels and other non-important items. A slight smile flickered over her face at that.

A moment later, Alice emerged from her bedroom, drawing the instant attention of the other three women. Nenes expression tighted as the awful look on her
daughters face. Tear stained fur, black rimmed eyes, and an expression somewhere between exhaustion and misery. She put the laptop aside and started to stand
up, but Sammy was well ahead of her. The smaller catgirl had launched across the room and tackle-hugged her sister. Alices eyes widened, a little caught off
guard, before a weak smile appeared and she returned the hug. "Thanks," she whispered, holding the hug for a moment, then heading for the
kitchen.

As the purple haired girl started grabbing food at random, she caught Nenes eyes and smiled weakly at the concern her mother was practically radiating.
"Did you want to talk about it?" the redhead asked softly.

"Not yet," Alice admitted. "I need to clear my head a bit first." Nene nodded as the girl ate. The catgirl paused for a moment, looking
up at Ifrit, who was trying to restrain herself from physically fretting over her daughter. "It's okay mum," she said with a slight smile.
"I'm... okay, I'm not fine, but I'm alright for now.

Blushing slightly, the fey rubbed an ear nervously. "Should I take that to mean I'm worrying too much?" she asked.

The question got a slightly larger smile. "Not this time, but it's one of the things I love about you." Alice looked around. "Um, I know
I need to talk about it, but... later, please? I just want to try and calm down first." All three women (and one cat) looked at each other in
understanding and nodded.

***

A few hours later, as she walked down a street in Atlas, Alice found herself reconsidering the wisdom of that statement. Oh sure, it seemed like a good
idea. Don't stress out over the issue, let her mind clear itself for the moment. It wasn't like she'd be able to do much about it anyway. Inyme was
probably locked up in Vanguards RWZ base, or one of their other, more secret facilities, and it was almost certain that Alices own access to the Rikti War Zone
had been cut off. (A part of her wondered why Vanguard or Longbow hadn't come to arrest her as a possible Rikti sympathizer yet)

So, if she couldn't talk to Inyme, she might as well try and wait, to tackle the problem with a refreshed mind. Besides, she didn't really want to
talk to Inyme anyway. The womans betrayal was still ringing in her mind, and she most likely wouldn't be able to deal with her right now without having a
massive freakout.

The catgirl paused, adjusted the hat that kept her from standing out too much, then sighed. What was there to deal with? Inyme was an alien spy, using her
to get cozy with the hero community, and... She growled slightly, forcing the subject out of her brain with a meditation technique (That she very deliberately
did not remember Inyme taught to her), before deciding on food. With that, she turned and headed down an alleyway, intent on the nearby Up n' Away.

A moment later, she had the curious experience of several Hellions emerging from behind a dumpster, two more coming up behind her. The sheer oddity of it
actually made Alice stop in surprise for a moment. One of the gangers in front of her took it as the usual fear of a civilian and grinned at her. "Heya
legs," he said, leering at her and making her regret wearing the tight jeans.

For a moment, Alice wondered just what the hell these goons were thinking, trying to attack a Hero of the City. Then she caught a flicker of thought from a
Hellion and realised that, in street clothes with her tail hidden in her oversized jacket and ears covered by her hat, they didn't recognise her.

A dangerous smile formed, making the Hellions in front of her pause. Then her eyes began to glow with a purple fire that reached out from her eye sockets
and obscured her upper face. "Christ, it's a cape!" one of the Hellions yelped, raising his bat. The one next to him had a look of terrified
recognition on his face and turned to run. He got half a step before Alice held out a hand and a wave of telekinetic force hit him from behind, picking him up
and throwing him. The other Hellions stared as he was thrown down the alley, over the street, eventually landing with a painful looking crash in the park
around city hall.

"What the fuck..." one of the Hellions managed, before Alice merely looked at him and sent a wave of pain through his body, knocking him out cold.
The rest of the Hellions lasted maybe three seconds, the common street thugs no match for a Hero of the City.

As the last of them landed in a dumpster, the smile faded from Alices face. "So much for stress relief... You guys suck!" she growled. " I
didn't even summon my bow... Good God, and I used to be afraid of you jerks?" That statement made her pause for a moment, considering. "I used to
be afraid of you," she repeated, as if only realising how much her world had changed.

Near her feet, one of the Hellions rolled over and looked up at her with an expression that was an odd mixture of confusion and a growing concussion.
"Wha?" the street thug managed.

"I used to be scared of you. Terrified even," the catgirl replied, starting to babble slightly, as Catgirls did on ocassion (And the Hyperkitteh
did at virtually all times). "Back in the old days when I was out here on the streets, hiding from the Lost, praying the Skulls didn't want to do some
death ritual, hoping that I hadn't found some piece of junk the Clockwork wanted. Just another scared little homeless girl." She reached down and
picked him up, magically enhanced muscles easily hoisting the taller man up off the ground. "You know, I remember why I was scared of you. I was weaker,
you were stronger. You had knives and baseball bats and guns. You liked to gang up on us."

Growling, she slammed the man against the alley wall, drawing a pained gasp from him. "You think you're hot shit, don't you asshole?" she
snapped, eyes beginning to glow again. "Strutting around, stealing purses, cutting people just because you can... but you don't like to think about
the truth," she sneered. She leaned forward. "I was a weak little homeless girl... and you're even more pathetic then I was."

"Fuck you," he shot back, only to wince as an unknown force pinned him to the wall as Alice released her grip on his tattered vest.

"You like to pretend you're so tough, that you're the big tough guys, but you run and hide from everyone else. Heroes, Trolls, Skulls, Council,
even the fucking Clockwork," she sneered. "No one would rent out a place to a Hellion, so you're... what, living out of the warehouses you used
to chase me out of?" she wondered, her sneer growing as he flinched. "So, you're just like the rest of us were." Archer looked him up and
down, the mystical glow in her eyes intensifying with loathing, before the light blinked out and the Hellion slumped to the ground. "And you always will
be."

There wasn't a reply for a long moment, the ganger trying to get his bearings as Alice turned and walked towards the alleyway exit. "You say yer a
street kid!" he taunted. "Those clothes are new, yer hairs clean... Yer not one of us!"

Archer paused, and the Hellion paled as he considered how badly she could hurt him, then she turned back. "I was never one of 'you'
Hellion," she said softly. "I was one of your victims. Now, I'm something more. If I ever catch you again, you'll be going to the Zigs
ER." For some reason, the look on her face (was that pity?) left him unable to speak as she walked away and vanished around the corner. He stood there for
a long time, looking at where she'd vanished and thinking.

Meanwhile, Alice was unable to keep a smile off her face as she walked along. That bit of stress relief had turned out even better then expected. Funny how
she'd never even noticed how things had changed. When had the Hellions stopped being so terrifying, and just another group of scum to beat down and stop
from hurting people? If she had to guess, it must have been around the time she pulled a team together to stop the Thorns from capturing the Cavern of
Transcendence. Probably sooner, given how they never dared to go much deeper into the Hollows then Cherry Hills.

She smiled, leaping up into the air, flipping and landing on a rooftop two stories up without a second thought. So much of her life had changed around that
time. One night she'd crashed in a quiet alleyway, hiding behind a pile of half crushed boxes to hide her form, the next morning she found herself with
purple hair, ears and a tail. Then she'd pulled a bow out of nowhere, found she had what should have been a frightening level of skill with it, and seen a
chance to fight back.

Standing on the rooftop, she looked over at the massive statue of Atlas, standing before City Hall, and watched the dozens of heroes that gathered under the
giants feet. Not for the first time, she found herself grateful that the city would hand out superhero licences to almost anyone, even a grumpy little catgirl
in dirty, third-hand clothes and a sudden rush of bravado that saw her mouth off to the lady behind the desk and stick herself with the name 'Just Another
Archer'.

"Changed more then I guessed," she realised with a tone of soft wonder. "A home, parents, Sammy, Neko... Inyme," she said, a touch of
misery returning for a moment before she shook it off. "And a lot of women in power armour that made for an interesting family," she added in a
louder tone.

There was a soft chuckle from behind her, and the metal figure of Edge Sabre stepped up to the edge of the rooftop. "How long did you know I was
there?" she wondered.

"Since about halfway through my Hellion beatdown," she said with a shrug, tapping the side of her forehead for explanation. "I was wondering
if you were going to join in."

The comment got an amused snort. "The day you need help with a bunch of fourth-rate goons like that is the day you'd turn in your bow and
tights," she replied, a laugh in her voice. Alice grinned again, nodding in agreement.

"So... what're you doing here?" she wondered.

Edge shrugged, radiating a slight sense of embarrassment. "Anthy had a hunch you might need a hand...and I suspect she just cdfalls them hunches
because she's modest." The catgirl snickered at that one, her mood improving as she stepped back from the roof edge. Tail waving in amusement, she sat
on top of the air conditioner intake, looking at her, before taking on a more serious expression.

"So, did Anthy tell you what her hunch was related to?" Edge slid up her visor to reveal a young womans face with wide, curious blue eyes and a
few locks of pink hair that made it past her helmets seals.

"No, but from the way she was talking, I'd say it was pretty damn important," she shrugged.

The catgirl sighed, her ears drooping. "It turns out that Inyme is a Rikti spy." The direct comment got a surprised exclamation from Edge, which
brought a faint smile to Alices face for a heartbeat. "It's... kind of a long story," she said.

Edge looked at her for a moment, then sat down next to her, the air vent making a creaking noise under her armors weight. "You ready to talk about
it?" she asked gently.

"...yeah, a bit," Alice said, beginning to talk about the mission she'd been running for the Dark Watcher, the dark truth about the war, the
fight against a fake Positron... and the moment her world lost all reason. "I still don't want to believe it," she whispered, Edges arm over her
shoulder. "That maybe I'm dreaming, or crazy, but... I could see her mind, like I always could. I could see it all, the truth of what she was telling
me."

Her eyes flickered with an angry glow for a moment. "For once," she added with a snarl in her voice. "We're linked, I can see what
she's thinking, and likewise. She's shown me glimpses of her world, her past... she was an orphan like me, and I knew her world was different... she
was so adorably confused by music," the catgirl commented, looking slightly sad. "When I asked, she let me see memories of her music back
'home'... it's like ours, but different. They're telepaths, so much of it is with senses that I still don't really understand. When they
sing, their artists leading hundreds, thousands, in ballads of history and fiction, tales of love and growth... Inyme was stunned at the thought of one person
singing alone, or bands... but she liked it. Said we sang in our own way, conveying emotions, concepts in notes, tunes and words, guitars and drums and
violins... I took her to one of Priss's concerts once," she admitted with a smile that, for now, wasn't tainted by the revelation. "When she
started on Hurricane, she was stunned. Just stood there wide-eyed, listening to Priss, the Replicants... the crowd." She giggled. "It was so alien to
her, but she learnt to understand it."

In the pause that followed, Edge could see the moment of peace fade and bitterness return. "It was all there, right in front of me. What I knew about
her world, her powers, her people... and I couldn't see it. How could she... I couldn't put the pieces together, because I was so sure I knew
her..."

The emotions were ripping through her, and she could almost taste Edges, the woman was radiating that strongly. The shock, the horror, concern for Alice and
others, and... regretful understanding? Blinking the tears away, Alice looked up at her. "There's... I don't mean to pry, but there's
something you know, something important."

Royal-blue eyes met her own in a sad gaze as Edge nodded. "Yeah... There is," she admitted. "From what I can see, Inyme is a woman that
thought she knew how the world worked, but just found out that one of the most important facts is wrong." The catgirl frowned as she continued. "She
'knew' that our world attacked first. She 'knew' our world was the enemy, and given Nemesis framed the Freedom Phalanx, she would naturally
think that the heroes were the true enemy-" She held up a hand at Alices angry growl. "Hear me out, I'm not saying she was right, I'm saying
what her entire people knew to be the absolute truth from the moment Nemesis attacked all those years ago. The man is twisted and evil and insane, but he's
a genius. He knew the Rikti were telepaths, he knew he'd have to make his automations so advanced that anyone would be fooled." She sighed, shaking
her head. "Damn terrifying actually," she said softly.

Alice looked up at her, eyes radiating a growing understanding. "She thought that we..."

"Attacked her world," Edge said gently. "That we did to them what they did back to us. I'm not saying it was right," she said
quickly as Alices eyes flashed. "But it's all a matter of perspective. She had a certain point of view on this world, one she sure as heck
couldn't share with us." Looking over Atlas, she sighed. "She probably even thought the Freedom Phalanx and co were lying to us, keeping their
crimes hidden. Who knows... she might have thought she was trying to save us."

There was a long silence, before Alice spoke again. "How can you know this?" she asked. "How can you be so confident about her? I... I was in
her mind, I could feel her all the time, it was a natural and right as breathing... and she still tricked me," she whispered.

For a long moment, Edge Sabre didn't reply. The telepath could feel guilt coming up from deep inside the armoured heroine, an old, painful guilt.
"Because before I escaped Crey, I was the same way," she admitted at last. "I believed what they told me. They were my creators, why would they
lie? Crey could be trusted. So, I fought for them. Not for long, thank God, but I still did damage. I hurt people, good people, maybe even killed some... and I
rescued Anthy from Nemesis, only to turn her over to Creys' 'qualified doctors,'" she whispered. "If I hadn't heard them talking as I
left..." she shuddered slightly, remembering the moment she'd turned on her creators and saved the woman she'd fall in love with, simply because
she knew what she defined as right and wrong.

"Utena..." the catgirl whispered, stunned.

Closing her eyes, Edge took a deep breath. "Afterwards, I found out the truth, and it nearly broke me. If it wasn't for Anthy and your Aunt Sylia,
I doubt I would have made it." She opened her eyes and looked at Alice again. "I'm not forgiving what she did. Hell, I don't know her well
enough to. But you..." She shrugged, looking for the right words. "I don't know. That's something you need to work out kid."

The words seemed to make Alice shrink in on herself somewhat. "I'd need to talk to her," she said softly, ears drooping. "I can't
sense her like I always could... Maybe she doesn't want me to talk to me... or they've got her somewhere that I can't hear her... I could ask to
see her," she thought, then chuckled. "Yeah, that'll happen. They've probably cut off my warzone access already, maybe even sent people to
arrest me as a possible collaborator..." she paused, sitting up straighter and frowning.

After a long moment, Edge spoke. "Alice? What is it?"

"There's something else I need to do, now," she said. "I can't go through the Vanguard base. More trouble then it's worth now.
But... there's something I need to do in the RWZ. I've been putting it off for a long time, but if Vanguard tries to cut me off, I'll never get to
do it." She looked up at the older woman. "Can you help me get through the Legendary teleporter?"

Utena nodded instantly. "Of course I can," she replied. "But I'm coming with you, just in case."

***

There was a crash as Street Sabre vented her frustrations on a chair in the Legendarys cafeteria. While sturdy, the chairs there were never designed to
handle a power-armour clad leg kicking it with all the strength it could muster, and it came apart in a shower of splinters that went sailing across the room.
Several heroes in that direction dived for cover under the tables, then rose to sent Street a series of annoyed glares that the woman ignored, instead opting
to pace back and forward and swear a lot.

"Well, she's in a calm, rational mood," Quicksilver Nano observed.

"For her, yes," Valles replied with a wry tone, plucking a splinter out of Twilit Blades hair.

"I say we go there, drag the alien bitch out and get some answers out of her the old way!" Street snapped. "Whatever she did to Alice, we
need to know!" she growled, slamming one gauntleted fist into the other.

"They wouldn't even let you in," Twilit snorted. "You'd be stuck at the front door. Hardly the way to get answers out of a
traitor." Streets head jerked towards her, but the hidden glare behind the helmet had little effect on the Warshade. Before the Sabre could move towards
her, the sleeker form of Silicon Sabre moved up behind her and placed an hand on the womans bicep. Street turned to look at her, then relaxed after a moment,
the emotions passing between the two obvious, even if any words they'd shared had been kept to a private channel on their suit comm.

"Brightsky ran off to do something like that anyway," Mag grumbled, looking uncomfortable. "Probably something worse really. The girl
wasn't in a reasoning mood." Next to him, Pooky snorted and tried to light a cigar again, only to have the tanker freeze the end of it again. "We
really should have sent more people after her," he frowned. "Mood she's in, it probably won't just be Inyme that gets hurt."

"We've got the right people after her," Emerald Blast said, absently scratching Mr Whiskers. "Besides, she's in the RWZ. The Vanguard
base there is big, but it's not a safe place to keep a high priority prisoner like her. The moment they know it's secure, they'll move her to a
more secure, more hidden facility to properly debrief her." She paused, looking down to her stuffed toy as several newer heroes that had been lurking
around the conversation looked at her oddly, not expecting such a statement from one of the teams officially crazy personnel. "Mister Whiskers thinks that
might be the best thing to do," she added. "Let Vanguard get the answers out of her whatever it takes. They'd do a better job of it then us,
after all."

Street snorted as space rippled over near the door, and the blue-haired form of Dark Glass appeared. "Well boss, you'll be happy to know that all
the system links between here and our base are all secure," she reported. Silicon nodded, taking what satisfaction she could at the moment. "In
fact," she added as Lora'lai walked in behind her, "I've found no evidence of tampering at all. I've been rechecking all the logs,
including the logs that monitor the main logs for alterations, and the ones that monitor those..." she shrugged. "Everything comes up
clean."

"She's been accessing a lot of files," Lora'lai added. "But frankly, nothing suspicious there. Intel reports from Longbow, the PPD
and Vanguard on various criminal group activities, local law texts, information from informants... Looking at it, I'd just say she was a
workaholic."

Silicon tilted her head to the side, looking at the Legendary leader. "I've always thought of her that way," she admitted with a wry tone in
her voice. "There were times that it seemed that Alice was the only person that could pull her away from that." There were a few weak chuckles at
that.

Whatever Lora was about to say was interrupted by a beeping from her coat pocket. Frowning, she pulled out a PDA and looked at it. "Alice is
here," she noted, slightly surprised. "I thought she'd still be at home." Dark Glass blinked, then teleported again, jumping across the base
towards the entry area, reappearing in time to see Alice walking into the teleporter bay. She frowned and followed, calling the catgirls name.

Purrfect Archer turned back towards her as she and Edge Sabre stepped onto one of the teleporter pads. "Sorry auntie Mir," she said with a shrug.
"Just need to take care of something." Behind her, Bill pressed several of the buttons and they vanished in a shower of light.

The Warshade frowned, then saw as she saw the teleporters beacon control monitor inform her that the teleport had safely arrived in the Rikti War Zone.
"Oh no," she groaned, hitting a button on her wrist gauntlet. "Bosslady, we've got a problem!"

***

Nothing seemed to have changed in the Rikti War Zone, even with the recent revelations of Nemesis and the wars origin. Vanguard soldiers and tanks clashed
with Rikti forces, Crey security officers were trying to steal whatever they could, Arachnos made trouble for everyone... It was oddly depressing.

Aside from stopping to save a Vanguard squad in an ambush, none of whom seemed to know how to deal with the Catgirl before she bounced off again, the two
heroines didn't really slow down as they travelled across the ruined zone. Utena checked her mental map, and decided that they were heading more or less
directly to wherever Alice had in mind, and that it wasn't near the Vanguard base at all, and was more on the eastern side of the giant crater that housed
the downed mothership.

Alice landed on a rooftop, then paused and looked around, before leaping down the side of the crumbling apartment block and landing at the front door. Utena
followed her inside, somewhat on edge... as was Purrfect Archer actually, who was moving along carefully with her bow out. Just because this was a building
that would be listed as condemned anywhere else in the city, and was in a region that had been completely abandoned of all civilians, didn't mean that
there weren't heavily armed villains in there. It was a fact of life in Paragon.

They went up several floors, Alice pausing on occasion, appearing to be mentally rechecking their path. After about five minutes, the catgirl came to a stop
in front of a locked door. Looking rather pleased at that, she knelt down and looked at the lock. Her eyes flashed for a moment, and the doors lock glowed a
similar purple, then the cylinder turned and clicked.

"Do your mothers know you can do that?" Utena wondered with a chuckle.

Alice turned the door handle and pushed the door open slightly, letting the glow fade. "Momma Nene does," she smiled back. "She notes that
pin cylinders make it easy." Then, the smile faded and she pushed the door open, stepping inside.

The home inside looked like a hundred others that both women had seen since becoming heroes and walking in the broken areas of Paragon (Well, for Edge.
Alice had been actually living in such areas for years, before Ifrit and Nene had taken her in). The carpet on the floor had rotted away, exposing cracked
plaster floorboards underneath. A couch up against one faded wall was in a similar condition, probably made worse from an old moisture stain in the roof above
it. An old television stood in the corner, dead and forgotten.

Edge could see a kitchen past the living area, and not for the first time, she noted with amusement that the old images of scavenger animals picking over
mans wastes wasn't really accurate. Even more so then any other dead zone in Paragon, there was nothing for the rats here. They'd eaten everything of
value a long time ago and learned that remaining would give them nothing but starvation.

"What is this place?" she asked softly. Alice didn't respond immediately, walking over to where a picture frame had fallen off the wall.
Picking it up and brushing off the old glass, she looked at it for a long moment, an odd expression on her face.

Then, with a soft, miserable noise in her voice, she replied, "It was my home." Edge blinked, then moved to take a look at the picture the cat
held. It was a family photo, one of the kind that every family had done when their childrens school had a decent photographer handling school photos. A little
girl, maybe eight years old, wearing a properly done up school uniform and sitting in front of her parents, both of whom were wearing clothes that weren't
overly fancy, but respectable.

The Sabres attention was on the girl. A school uniform she didn't recognise, probably destroyed in the war, but it indicated that her parents had put
her in a private school as compared to Paragons less formal public system. The mousey brown hair was unfamiliar, not to mention the braid it'd been put in,
and the eyes were the wrong colour, but the face looked like a softer, rounder Alice.

"Even after Ouroboros, I wasn't sure," she said softly. "I found the younger me by luck and a scrying spell actually," she admitted.
"From there, I found... my name, my address, even pictures from a court appearance he made," she added, tapping the mans picture. "This is my
father, Victor Hancock." She smiled slightly at Edges mental pause. "Yeah, I know. My name before I was adopted was Alice Baker. I made it up. I
didn't remember my real name. Hadn't used it forever..." The catgirl chuckled, standing up. "Alice... well, I think Sammy named me actually,
back when I was still too scared to say anything."

She looked around the room, then stepped down a slight hallway and opened a door. Frowning at the sight of an old bathroom, she picked another door and
stopped, looking into what had once been her bedroom. Edge moved up behind her as she stepped inside, over a set of drawers that had likely been knocked over
in the quake from the mothership crash. She knelt down next to the bed, looking at the handful of dolls and old, stuffed toys. "... I don't
remember," Alice admitted. "I guess these meant something to me, once upon a time... but I don't remember it." Picking up a Miss Liberty
plushie, she looked at it curiously.

"... Do you remember much?" Edge asked gently.

Alice shook her head. "Nothing solid really. Inyme helped me try and focus, but one of the first things I really remember is Sammy deciding I needed a
name." She giggled. "I thought she was so cool, and brave and smart..." There was a pause as she wiped at her eyes. "She looked after me,
kept me safe, taught me how to get food and what I shouldn't eat. She was always so much better at grabbing food from stores." She dropped the doll
back on the bed. "I never could figure out why she was always wearing baggy clothes. I thought that maybe she didn't want anyone to know she was a
girl, but her voice gave that away... Never imagined she wasn't entirely human. Not that it would have mattered. Not with my big sister... she'd always
keep me safe... Then she was in the Hollows when it all fell apart..." she slumped slightly at the miserable memory, the end of the 'better days'
on the streets.

"You found her again," Utena told her softly, placing an armoured hand on her shoulder. "You saved her from the Trolls, got her back in your
life..."

There was a soft laugh, amusement muted somewhat by the darker emotions. "And now she thinks I'm the cool one," she said. "I don't
think she realises I'm only alive because of her."

"She saved you, you saved her," Utena said, hugging her gently. "That's what family does."

It was a simple statement of fact, but it got the result the Sabre was after. Alices miserable mood faded somewhat as she leaned back against Utena, ears
twitching occasionally. After a moment, she broke the embrace. "Help me search, will you? I need to find the important stuff. The photo albums, any family
videos or diaries... my past."

Edge Sabre nodded. "Gladly."

***

wow, and ow.

This is cool and heart wrenching in massive quantities.

(and I always thought that Sammy was younger?)
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

Quote: sweno wrote:

---

(and I always thought that Sammy was younger?)

So did we, until Spud noted that, as far as he's been able to determine, Sammy's physically 21. However, she spent a good deal of time
"feral" and as such has yet to truly mature mentally to match her physical age. And due to malnutrition
during that stage, it's also not immediately recognizable that the two don't match up either.

Alice, by contrast, was orphaned at an early age, but never spent a couple years living like a wild cat, eating out of garbage cans, and the like. Thus,
she's mentally more mature than Sammy, leading to the conflicting data.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

To expand a little on what Ops (accurately) said:

Sammy is pretty confident she's between 17 and 21, based on the 'typical' age of onset of puberty for a human girl. But there are a few confusing
factors, not the least of which is the fact that she's not human, at least not entirely. She's a mutant. She
also has only vague memories at best of her parents, and like Alice, her last name is fictional. At one point she needed a last name, so she picked
'Davis' for no particular reason other than it was easy to remember.

Regardless of actual age, she plans on celebrating her 21st 'officially' this year.

As for why she seems younger (to everyone!), well, Ops nailed it. Up until meeting up with Alice, she lived the feral life, and pretty much completely
subsumed her human personality into the feline one. Cats don't bother with what happened before or what happens tomorrow, they focus on the now, and
survival. If she had food in her stomach (from whatever source) and a dry place to sleep, she was content. So there wasn't much going on for mental
development -- instinct was all she needed, and it kept her alive.

All in all, it puts them in the unique position of being each other's big sisters. Alice is more mentally mature,
less so physically; Sammy is the opposite.

So, yeah. Sammy will quite honestly call Alice her "big sister", and Alice does the same to her, and neither of them is lying.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

ahh, thanks for clearing that up. I was afraid I had missed some major character development in there somewhere.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

---

Sammy scowled at the closed door to Alice's bedroom. The scent trail leading to it told her that Alice was home, as was Neko, and that both of them were
in there. But it also told her that they were upset, more upset and afraid than she'd ever sensed from them before.

That meant trouble. BIG trouble.

But they weren't doing anything about the trouble. Alice was -asleep-, if the breathing noises she was hearing were any indication -- it was hard to tell
over the sound of Neko's purring, but even the purring had a desperate quality to it. It might've fooled Alice, but Sammy'd been a cat her whole
life. She knew a fake purr when she heard one.

VERY big trouble. Neko didn't purr much to begin with, so for her to -fake- a purr... wow.

She moved silently to the end of the hall, where it opened out into the living room. There was nobody there, but the scents on the air told her that they had
visitors -- female, upset and angry and afraid, and recently in battle with -- she sniffed again, carefully, and her lips drew down in a grimace of distaste.
Nemesis. That combination of machine oil, explosives, hot brass, and other odors could only have come from one source.

She began to rise to her feet, intending to stride in and demand to know what was going on, and paused as a barely-suppressed shout erupted from the kitchen.

"She's WHAT?!?"

Uh-oh, Sammy thought, Aunt Ifrit's awful mad about -something-.... She hunkered back down and moved into the shadow of the couch, where she could just
barely make out the low voices in the kitchen.

"... didn't fight them... prisoner... can't be true, can it? ... Vanguard ... Inyme --"

Sammy blinked, startled, and missed the next bit. Inyme? Alice's girlfriend? She didn't particularly care for the odd-looking (and odd-smelling, not
bad, just odd) girl all that much, and she rather thought the feeling was mutual, but she didn't -dislike- her either. And Alice practically glowed
whenever Inyme was around. The way Inyme acted made Sammy feel a bit like an intruder, but there couldn't be something bad about anything that made Alice
-that- happy. She'd taken to avoiding the two of them when they were together -- fairly often, these days -- just to make sure her and Inyme didn't
clash where her big sister could see.

Since Inyme tended to vanish completely when Alice -wasn't- around, it meant they hadn't clashed where Alice couldn't see, either, but that was
probably for the best, Sammy figured.

The voices in the kitchen had died down now, to be replaced by soft crying and muttered ... somethings. Sammy suspected the latter was Aunt Ifrit, whose
temper could run as hot as the flames she played with; the former had to be one of the visitors, then.

If whatever the trouble was was bad enough to reduce Aunt Ifrit to cussing, and make someone else cry, and make Alice cry herself to sleep in the middle of the
day, and Neko to fake a purr... it had to be HUGE. Huge, humongous, epic sewer rat sized trouble.

So why weren't they doing something about it? They were heroes! All of them! Aunt Ifrit and Neko and especially Alice, they stood up to trouble every
day of the week.

Concerned and confused, she returned to the hall, and finally curled up against Alice's door to wait.

---

Later in the afternoon, after Aunt Ifrit had caught her outside Alice's door and drew her away to talk, Sammy was even MORE agitated. Her big sister had
trouble; she needed to help! It was simple. That's all there was to it.

But how?

What was it Aunt Ifrit had said? Inyme was a prisoner of Vanguard, because she'd been a spy and a traitor and lots of other things -- Sammy sensed that
her aunt had been struggling to keep from using the words she REALLY wanted to use -- and had betrayed Alice. All of them, in fact.

Then Aunt Nene had added her voice to the confusion, calming Aunt Ifrit down -- and now Sammy didn't know -what- to think. Was Inyme a traitor? Maybe...
but Sammy didn't care much about things like that. What mattered to her was whether Inyme was a bad guy or not.

She didn't -smell- like a bad guy... and Alice wouldn't have ever done the things she had with a bad guy, either. Sammy wasn't blind -- or more
accurately, deaf or unable to smell; she knew what those two had been up to from time to time! -- and if there was one thing Sammy was sure of, it was that
Alice was one of the good guys. Her big sister wouldn't ever do THAT with someone who was actually -bad-.

So Inyme broke a rule or two. Sammy did that all the time! She made a mistake. Well, Sammy thought, I do too, sometimes. And -I- don't get locked up by
Vanguard over stupid little mistakes.

Vanguard... they seemed to be at the heart of it all. The more Sammy thought about it, as she paced and catnapped and fretted and paced some more about the
living room, the more she began to realize that this was all just so -messed- -up-.

And it was all Vanguard's fault! Well, okay, maybe a little bit of Inyme's fault, too, but still.

It all made sense now. When Vanguard had taken Inyme prisoner, since Alice worked for Vanguard she couldn't stop them or fight them about it. Aunt Ifrit
couldn't, either, that'd look bad on Alice since she was Alice's mom now.

Sammy didn't for a minute believe that Inyme, however weird the girl was, would have actually done anything THAT wrong. She was used to trusting her
instincts, and her instincts said that Inyme was odd and different and good and not-food and DEFINITELY not-play and a half-dozen other things, but not a one
of them was BAD. And hadn't Aunt Nene just convinced Aunt Ifrit of the same thing? Alice and Inyme LOVED each other! And Sammy knew for fact how tough
it was for Alice to say that about anyone, and how certain she'd have been before doing so.

And Vanguard was a bunch of stuck-up paranoid jerks anyway. They didn't like heroes unless you jumped through all sorts of hoops to 'prove'
yourself to them; now that she really thought about it, it sounded an awful lot like the gangs they used to have to run from. You had to be initiated to be
part of the gang, had to prove you were 'worthy', just so you could stand around all day hassling people who hadn't done anything to you.

Oooh! She felt her tail begin to lash, and welcomed it. Those Vanguard jerks had taken Alice's girlfriend prisoner, and there was nothing Alice could do
about it? Fine! SHE'D take care of the problem. She wasn't officially linked to Alice, she didn't work for Vanguard; those goons wouldn't
have a leg to stand on if they tried to blame Alice for something Sammy had done. She'd move out, live on the streets again or crash in the base or
something, if that's what it took.

She stood, a determined look on her face, and moved back down the hall to her bedroom -- a hand-lettered sign said "Danger! Unstable! Really Bad Stuff!
KEEP OUT!" -- and rummaged around in her closet as quietly as she could. There! And there! And that too.

Sammy didn't own many clothes, or see a need for many, really. She'd grown up wearing the baggiest things she could find, to hide her tail and other
things; after finding Mrs. Wilde and the Home she'd learned to dress better and not worry about hiding her catgirl features any longer, but her wardrobe
hadn't expanded significantly. She still preferred baggy sweaters and loose coats, or nothing at all when the weather was warm enough.

But she'd acquired enough odds and ends to be able to put together a costume, she figured, and set about doing so. She needed to look different, just in
case.

When she was done, she looked at herself in the mirror. It was perfect! She'd look like some sort of catgirl-ninja-intruder if she happened to be caught,
rather than Purrfect Scrapper, Alice's friend and sometimes-sidekick. And if she WAS caught, well, she felt certain she could outrun them. They
didn't call her HyperKitteh for nothing!

She twisted and double-checked her reflection from behind. You couldn't tell it was her -- she was a faceless, nameless, dark-blue and black Ninja of the
Night. With a tail.

Grinning behind her mask, she opened her window and slipped out. "Operation Bust-Out is a go! Agent Sammy is on the job!"

---

Four hours later she was in a distictly fouler mood, handcuffed into a chair in the middle of a bare, reinforced-concrete room that had decidedly
unpleasant-looking stains on the walls and floor.

"Stupid Vanguard," she muttered, and the armored figure by the door shot her a dirty look. She stuck her tongue out at him.

Despite her disgust, she had to admit Vanguard was a lot better than she'd given them credit for. She'd used her hero license to get in to the base --
all above-board and legit, Purrfect Scrapper had plenty of clearance, even if she hadn't officially joined Vanguard -- and stashed it in a safe, secluded
cranny of the rafters. No sense trying to disguise yourself if you carried around an ID, right?

Even wandering around looking like a ninja hadn't raised an eyebrow; she'd spotted at least a dozen others dressed similarly, all wandering around the
public portions of the firebase on their own errands.

No, she reflected wryly, it was probably shredding the power room that tipped them off...

But how else to -do- it? If the lights were on and the doors were working and the guards could -see-, then she'd get nowhere, fast.

Of course, everything vital had independent backups. But she knew that. She'd seen TV. She'd figured she could count on at least thirty seconds or
so of confusion before everyone figured out what had happened, and at least an hour to repair the damage. She had done a heck of a job on that power room, if
she did say so herself.

"Ready to talk, kitty cat?" the guard asked, affecting a bored tone.

"Meow!" she shot back defiantly. The guard shrugged and returned to his duty, which was apparently to stand there and stare at her and occasionally
make snarky comments all in the hopes she'd suddenly 'fess up, or something. Sammy wasn't sure.

Not that she particularly cared, either. She had a job of her own to do, and had been working on it ever since they'd left her in this stinky little room
with the stinky little man with the really big gun. She couldn't do a thing against the impervium handcuffs directly -- even her claws weren't THAT
sharp, dammit -- but they'd been in too big a hurry to search her thoroughly, and so had missed the tiny, hand-crafted lockpicks that she kept secreted in
the fur of her tail. They were a remnant of her past, one of the few things that she hadn't replaced or given up entirely yet, and she tried not to grin
as she fiddled the lock bit by bit.

The door opened and a man stepped in. She didn't know Vanguard insignia, but the guard stiffened to attention, so she assumed he was important. She
scowled at him, just because, and let it hide the expression of satisfaction that wanted to cross her features as the handcuffs finally un-latched.

"Good evening, miss," the newcomer said, nodding politely. "I'm Captain Levins. What is your name?"

She remained stubbornly mute.

Levins nodded, as if he expected the response. He brought out a datapad and made a quick note. "Mm-hmm. Okay then. At this point I'm obligated to
inform you that you are under arrest, for suspicion of espionage, treason, destruction of government property, and terrorist activities." He smiled,
then, and raised an eyebrow. "Somehow I doubt I need to go into the details of what the penalties for any one of those, let alone all of them, could
be."

"You don't scare me," she said, though even to herself her voice lacked conviction.

"Told you she was fiesty, sir," the guard put in.

"Mm. Well, one way or another we'll get answers." Levins looked at his pad for a few moments, tapping the stylus thoughtfully against his chin,
then shrugged. "No help for it, I suppose." He turned and left, pausing in the open doorway long enough to say, "The medical team will arrive
shortly so we can begin DNA identification. Call me if anything changes."

"Yes, sir," the guard responded, snapping a quick salute. The door closed. He turned to Sammy and shook his head. "You could make it easier
on yourself, you know. Start by telling us who you are and why you attacked the base, and maybe the captain would petition for reduced penalties."

"Would he?" she asked softly, watching as the guard leaned forward, suddenly attentive. "Would he really?"

"Well, I can't promise, you know," the guard -- Sanders, she saw, from his nametag -- said. She gauged the distance between them and tensed her
legs to spring. "Why don't you give it a try? Can't hurt, right?"

"No... but I can!" she cried, lunging forward out of the chair. She was on him before he could blink, certainly before he could actually react, and
the fight was on.

He was tougher than he looked, but almost from the moment she landed on him Sammy knew she would win. She didn't even need to use her claws -- simply
bouncing his head off the concrete floor a few times had the desired effect. She rubbed at a sore spot on her jaw where he'd clipped her with an armored
gauntlet and resisted the urge to kick him for it. She stripped him of his armor and handcuffed him into the chair she'd been in only a few minutes
before.

Now what? she fretted to herself, her tail lashing in agitation. The minute I step out -- OF COURSE!

---

The worst part about the whole thing, Sammy fumed as she carefully maintained an easy walk rather than the full-speed dash she wanted to do, wasn't that
Sanders was slightly taller than she was, making the armor fit a bit oddly.

Nor was it the weight; impervium was heavy, sure, but she was blessed with strength far beyond what her build suggested. She could carry it easily.

It wasn't even the way it pinched and confined her tail. She was used to that, from her years in hiding.

No, by far the worst thing, the very worst thing of all, was this: Sanders had eaten Mexican for lunch.

The smell inside the armor, for one with as sensitive a nose as Sammy possessed, was overpowering. The odors of refried beans, spices, meat and onions mingled
with the lingering stench of a man who'd spent long hours sweating into every pore, crack, and crevice.

Sammy liked Mexican food, and having a scent she liked mingle with the rancid miasma of a man she most definitely did not like was close to making her
physically ill.

It was thus with some measure of relief that she heard and saw the alarms go off. At least it gave her an excuse to ditch the armor.

---

"Alert! All Shield personnel, this is a class-B alert! Target is a escaped prisoner, identity unknown, appears to be a catgirl. Last seen wearing
stolen Vanguard armor. Tracker places it in D wing, but it's not moving and we think she's ditched it. All available personnel, locate and
apprehend!"

Fusionette blinked at the radio in her hand before a fierce grin erupted on her face. All right! Guarding diplomats was so -boring-; this sounded like it
might be fun!

She acknowledged the alert and clipped the radio back to her belt. "'kay, listen up!" she said to the bickering men in the small conference room
with her. "-Stay here- until I get back, okay?" Without giving them time to respond, she slipped out the door and sealed it with her own personal
security code.

Then she took to the air, ignoring the usual rules against flying inside the base. It was a class-B alert, they could get over it!

---

Sammy took the corner a little fast, even by her standards, and had to scramble for footing. It might have saved her life.

A brilliant blue beam sizzled past her head, splashing off the wall in front of her with a great, resounding crash and a flare of explosive energy. She yelped
in surprise and lost the battle versus gravity; her feet slipped out from under her and she landed on her rump, sliding helplessly in the same wall that had
just absorbed the blast in an undignified heap.

"Aw, rats!" she exclaimed, just as another female voice from behind let out a frustrated "Aw, I -missed-!"

Sammy blinked and tilted her head back, viewing the corridor upside-down. That voice sounded familiar, somehow...

Fusionette floated there, drifting forward slowly, her energy sizzling around her hand and slowly fading.

"'nette?" Sammy inquired.

"Scraps?" Fusionette wondered.

"You SHOT at me," Sammy observed, a tone of outrage creeping into her voice. "After all those times I saved you and then you try to BLAST me
from BEHIND?!?"

"Wait a minute, I only shot at you because you -- HEY!" Fusionette exclaimed. Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "YOU'RE the one who blew up
the power room?!"

"Um, hey wait I can explain, 'nette PLEASE don't throw that blue stuff at me, eep!" Sammy rolled frantically to the side as another blast
ricocheted off the floor where she had been just a moment before.

"Freeze or I roast you, Scraps," Fusionette said, gathering a huge sphere of blue radiance between her hands. "You're under arrest!"

Sammy trusted her instincts... and right now, they were telling her that moving was an extremely bad, not-good, terribly horrible idea. She'd seen that
look in 'nette's eyes before, and it never ended well for the person on the receiving end of it.

"Okay," she said meekly, raising her hands in surrender and rising slowly to her knees.

Fusionette eyed her warily for a moment, then let the ball of energy fade. "What is going -on- around here?" she said plaintively.

"I'll explain, 'nette, I really will but you gotta believe me, I'm -NOT- the bad guy!"

Fusionette glared at her. "Why should I?"

"Umm..."

The radio crackled, interrupting Sammy as she tried to come up with a reason that Fusionette would accept. "Sensors indicate energy discharge in your
area, Fusionette. We're sending backup."

"Acknowledged," Fusionette replied shortly. She regarded Sammy with a suspicious stare. "You've got about thirty seconds. Make it
good."

"Vanguard arrested Inyme 'cause they think she's a traitor but she's NOT she's my big sisters' lover and she's wierd and all but
she's NOT a bad guy and I came in to bust her out and got caught, you gotta believe me I didn't hurt -anybody-, not even the stinky guy, what's his
name, Sanders, I just knocked him out and stole his armor but I didn't lay a claw on him, and I'll -pay- for the power room if that's what it takes
but you have to let Inyme go, it's not her fault and it's all just a stupid mistake and EVERYBODY makes mistakes, I mean, look at how many times
YOU'VE gotten in over your head, 'nette, you should know better than everyone that people make mistakes and that doesn't make them a bad
person!"

For a long moment there was silence, save for Sammy's breathing and the faint crackle of static from the ionization field around Fusionette. Sammy could
hear, over her own frantic heartbeat hammering in her chest, the sounds of approaching footsteps, moving fast and heavy with the weight of armor and weapons.

Fusionette cracked a small grin. "Wow, Scraps. Did you breathe at -all- during that?"

"Hey!"

Fusionette shook her head. "No time," she said. "Get out of ... what is that, Salvation Army meets The Ninja Store?"

Sammy glanced down at her impromptu costume, then shrugged. Vanguard had already removed the mask, and it was a simple matter to get the rest off. Soon she
was clad only in her fur. "Do you believe me?" she asked hesitantly. "I'm tellin' the truth, 'nette, I swear I am."

"Sshh!" Fusionette whispered as she stuffed Sammy's clothing into one of her belt pouches. "Shut up and let me do the talking, dummy!"

The footsteps rounded the corner, revealing a standard Vanguard backup squad moving at a fast jog. "Fusionette," one of them called, "are you
all right?" The others spread out and raised weapons, training them on Sammy -- who for her part, said "Eeep!" and raised her hands again.

"I'm fine, I'm fine -- and put the guns down, boys, there's been a mix-up," Fusionette replied smoothly, stepping between Sammy and the
well-armed group.

The leader of the squad cocked his head. "Oh?" he said. "Looks like you've caught the escaped prisoner... what's the problem?"

"This isn't the escaped prisoner," Fusionette corrected. Shooting a glance over her shoulder -- was that a wink? Sammy wondered -- she added,
"It's my strong and highly capable yet highly twitchy relative Purrfect Scrapper!"

"What about the discharges?" the man inquired suspiciously. He indicated the scorch marks on the floor and wall.

"Oh, well, you see, um," Fusionette said, suddenly at a loss. Sammy rose up on tiptoe to peer over her shoulder and waved one hand in greeting.

"I startled her!" Sammy said brightly. "I wasn't watching where I was going and I came around the corner a little too fast and next thing
you know there's, like, laser blasts or something and it was really crazy for a minute until we figured out that I was me and she was her and now we're
all okay now, okay?"

"Yeah, what she said!" Fusionette agreed.

"(What DID she say?)" one of the squad muttered. "(I think she speaks Squirrel,)" replied another. The men looked at each other and
slowly began lowering their weapons.

"How'd you get back here?" the leader demanded, clearly still unconvinced.

"I'm not sure, actually," Sammy said thoughtfully, scratching her head. "One minute I was out there looking at that big robot-thingy and
then the lights went out and there was this explosion and people were running everywhere and that Borea lady was barking orders and it was NUTS, and I just
tried to stay out of the way and then it was light again and I've been wandering around looking for the way out since."

"Then the alarms went off about the escaped prisoner," Fusionette jumped in as the man's eyes started to glaze over. "And she panicked and
started running, and I was of course out looking for the prisoner, and, well, next thing you know..." She shrugged. "Just bad luck, I guess."

"(Does she have any other type?)" another voice muttered. Fusionette scowled.

One of the men tapped the leader on his shoulder, passing forward a blinking datapad. "Checks out, sir," he said quietly. "Logs show a
Purrfect Scrapper checked in via the Atlas portal earlier today, and hasn't checked out yet."

The squad leader scowled, though it appeared to be more in disappointment than in anger, and shouldered his weapon. "All right," he growled.
"Lemme see your ID and you can be on your way."

Sammy nodded agreeably, then adopted a striken look as she patted her chest and hips. "Uh-oh..."

"Let me guess. Lost your ID?"

Sammy looked downcast. "I must have dropped it somewhere?"

"Catgirls." The squad leader shook his head and blew a sigh. "Fusionette, you vouch for her identity?"

"You bet!" the blue-clad hero replied, nodding vigorously.

"Fine." The man gestured, and the squad fell back. "Escort her to the civilian areas and make sure she doesn't get lost again."

"You got it!"

When the men had left, both women let out a relieved sigh.

"You owe me BIG, Scraps."

"I guess that makes us even for Faultline, then?"

"Not by a long shot."

---

Outside in the civilian area, Sammy retrieved her ID and rejoined Fusionette near the base portal. "Listen," the Vanguard operative said in a
whisper. "Your friend, or whatever she is, isn't here anymore. I don't know where they took her, but you, Miss Furry --" and here she poked
Sammy painfully in the shoulder, "-- need to -chill-, okay? Vanguard aren't the bad guys either. We're not gonna hurt her if she behaves
herself."

Sammy scowled, but nodded. "I guess..." she said petulantly.

"Your big sister is Archer, right? Purrfect Archer?" At Sammy's nod, Fusionette continued. "Well, then, just take it easy and try to help
-her-, okay? She's got lots of pull around here, more than -I- do, even. Let her deal with the brass, and just back her up." Fusionette grinned.
"Like I'm one to talk about charging off half-cocked and all, but anyway."

Sammy chuckled. "Okay, okay, I get it, no more Secret Agent Kitty." She stuck her tongue out at Fusionette, then sobered. "Thanks a bunch,
'nette... I really do owe you one."

"Yeah, well, just don't you forget it, huh?"

Sammy nodded, then turned and stepped through the base portal, popping into existence in The Legendary's lobby. She turned and headed for the teleporter
bay and home.

"I'm not gonna say a word," she told herself out loud. "Not a single word to ANYBODY. I'll never hear the end of it if they find out I
was rescued by Fusionette!"

This last was proclaimed as she hit the button to send her home; and as the room began to fade from view, a sudden clamor from an antechamber off the teleport
bay -- when did THAT get put there?! -- caught her attention.

She vanished and reappeared outside, away from the base, and realized that she had no idea who had made that noise... and who probably had overheard her.

"... aww, -rats-!"

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

Inspired by this brief bit:

Quote: She was used to trusting her instincts, and her instincts said that Inyme was odd and different and good and not-food and DEFINITELY not-play and a
half-dozen other things, but not a one of them was BAD.

---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

*Dies* Sammy, never change.

sammy is so full of cute it's painfull
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

"You understand, of course, that we can't allow you to harm her," the lieutenant noted. He sounded fairly frustrated with this restriction, but professional enough not to comment on it. "We're hoping that maybe you can loosen her lips a little. Since she gave us that initial glut of information, she's remained rock silent. However, we don't believe she's revealed everything. The possibility she has sympathizers, or even brainwashed sleepers unaware of what's happened to them, can't be underestimated. So we need you to make sure that she's not lying. Is that understood?"
"Of course, Sanderson-Chui," the woman sitting across from him smiled. "This one will do everything in my power to ensure she tells me everything she knows."
Sanderson was grateful for the military protocol that allowed him to retain his helmet. He didn't particularly care to see this particular "Destined One" see the way his jaws clenched at how she seemed to practically drip with innuendo and unspoken promise on that last sentence. Grunting, he nodded. "I remind you, you're not allowed to harm her in any way," he added, almost as much to reassure himself as to inform her.
"Hai, Sanderson-Chui," the Lady Nogitsune smiled. "This one assures you that no one will ever think she has been touched."
***
Despite the psi-dampeners and all the various other highly effective equipment that made certain Inyme was as easy to imprison as any human who only engaged in moderate exercise, her psionic abilities were not quite as repressed as her captors thought. Through a tiny bit of telekinesis she could manage through the dampeners, a thin layer of mental energy extended under her door and into the existing hallway. Not powerful enough to move a feather, but it allowed her to feel the footsteps of anyone coming to interrogate her before they arrived. Mentally, she began going through the steps necessary to prepare herself to resist revealing anything she hadn't already.
However, something was different. Impervium armor was lightweight, but notable in addition to the average human weight. This visitor weighed so little in addition to her bodyweight that she might as well be naked: which meant that she was wearing something very expensive. The general bodyweight also suggested it was indeed a woman, or someone much smaller than the people they let in with her before.
Inyme almost chuckled under her breath at the memory of the last good cop, bad cop duo that'd tried to scare her with the "bad cop" mentioning so coincidentally that her biological compatability with humans was literally 100% now. They appeared to be running out of tricks if they thought she was stupid enough to believe, or afraid of for that matter, the concept of her captors raping her. Given how quickly the duo had left after that failed to have a response suggested it hadn't been planned, either. She wondered what kind of punishment he'd been given for threatening her with actual harm...
However, as she looked up when the door opened, she felt her eyes widen against her will at the figure that stepped through, luxurious fox tails trailing behind her as her ears twitched with visible amusement. Inyme didn't have to have her telepathy to see the obvious hints of curiousity with a hint of ownership behind it. Given who she was facing, however, that might be an act. No one had ever accused Lady Nogitsune of being a poor actor...
...and lived, anyway.
Faced with such an impressive opponent, Inyme looked back at the slit pupiled eyes and the slightly mocking smirk and did the first thing that came to mind: she spat, the blob of saliva failing to land on the Lady's expensive silk garments due to her quick movement, but landing on the tip of her dark leather boots. Inyme comforted herself with the flash of annoyance that flickered for a microsecond in those golden fox eyes before she regained her composure and smiled again.
"Well...it seems they were right. You are a feisty one, Rikti-chan." She smiled, letting the darkness flow out of her cloaked figure and Inyme repressed an almost animal instinct level shudder at the kitsune woman's expressed control of magic. Just as she tried to ignore the possibility of said mystical being making the jump to her body. It would be a rather mauled kitsune that would take control of it if she did, Inyme noted grimly to herself.
Lady Nogitsune stepped closer, before draping herself around Inyme's restrained form, leaning in close as if in a lover's caress. The motion, and the similarity in ears and eyes, stoked Inyme's angry resistance to her gestures and soothing words further. She wondered if they'd shoot her outright if "this one" tried something and Inyme was forced to test the limits of the psi dampeners holding her telekinesis in check.
She closed her eyes and shuddered as Nogitsune's hand drifted across the line of her chin, the rank smell of negative energy about them fouling her senses...
Alice...
***
The kitsune stepped out of the door in front of the guard and officer clearly waiting for her report. Nogi made herself pout slightly as she maintained her effette act for the easy crowd. "If she is lying, this one cannot determine it. This one thinks she is not, but you may trust that opinion as far as you wish. However..." she noted the lieutenant look at her. "This one thinks that you would be doing everyone a favor if you simply tried and executed her. The torture she inflicts on herself in such isolation is truly inhumane for someone who appears to have never betrayed you beyond lying about her species," she noted thoughtfully, before nodding and heading out.
Her kuonichi met her at the entrance to the base.
"Was your trip profitable, mistress?"
"No," Nogi said with a snort of annoyance. "This one can hardly have much fun with a captive who's so willing to die for what she's done."
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

Quote:"This one can hardly have much fun with a captive who's so willing to die for what she's done."

*twitch*

I'll be in the corner, hiding.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll