"Are you sure you don't want to head back home for a bit?" I asked Panacea. She fiddled with the edges of her robes nervously. Cheshire was still getting ready and my Dad was at work so it was just the two of us waiting in our living room.

"I would rather not head back just yet," she said nervously. I tucked my forelegs under me so I could kneel down and talk to her eye to eye. I wasn't that much taller than her, but kneeling would make it easier for her to climb onto my back when it's time to leave.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked.

"Not… really."

"Come on," I nudged her with my muzzle, an attack I found rather odd but fitting. "I won't say anything, just listen. I promise, it'll make you feel better."

Panacea hung her head and fell silent for a moment before speaking.

"I… I don't know who my real father is, but I know it isn't good. He was a criminal of some sort, the kind Carol wouldn't ever talk about. And she thinks I'm going to be like him, I know she does. I fear I might be like him, whatever he was like. So I worked at the hospital. I thought that I could balance it by spending my life healing people. But then you came, told me I was destroying myself and made me stop. Now things have gotten better for me, but when I came home late last night Carol demanded to know where I was. And then she didn't believe what I had told her, followed by her scolding me for improving Cheshire like I did because of the implications. And I just… I couldn't. I couldn't stand her looking at me like I was just a step away from killing someone."

I could tell a knot was forming in her throat as she spoke. Her voice had begun to waver as she tried to force out what had happened. I knew the feeling, that if she stopped talking the knot in her throat would feel like it was blocking her air way.

"I'm sorry," I said, leaning my head against her. She hesitated a moment before wrapping her arms around my neck. She hugged me for a minute before Cheshire came back into the room with a grin on her face. She announced her presence with a clap and said,

"Alright, who's ready to hunt down some terrorists?"

There were still lots of gang fighting, but it was cooling down. The Empire took back most of its territory, the ABB was fighting them tooth and nail for it, The Four was busy defending the little bit they took for themselves while The Workers fought Coil's mercenaries back and forth over the same area of land. But even with all that going on, most of the fighting had taken a significant dip since yesterday. The PRT statement has caused a lot of wary eyes to turn towards The Four. Specifically, The Workers and Doctors. There hasn't been a cape battle since Hookwolf, but it was only a matter of time.

More disturbingly, Lung was silent. Oni Lee had appeared on the scene once or twice but quickly disappeared without Lung to back him up. On his own, Oni Lee could do little to stop the Empire which is what he had been focusing on. But the only reason why Lung wouldn't have shown up, and the conclusion Cheshire came to, would be that he wasn't in town. We didn't know what that meant, but it couldn't be good.

But while Lung was disturbing, the return of The Merchants was worrying. Everyone assumed with most of their capes wiped out they would disappear, but they did nothing of the sort. Instead, they doubled down in their territory and were holding out fairly well. It was a level of intelligence the city hasn't seen from The Merchants. Very, very, worrying.

"Over there," Cheshire said in my ear, reaching forward to point at a warehouse down below us. With a nodded I tucked my wings together and went into a shallow dive, causing Panacea to yelp and lean forward on my back. Probably to get a better grip on Cheshire. The shifting weight threw me off a bit, but I managed to correct for it before anything drastic happened.

"Land on the building over there," Chesire said, pointing across the street from the warehouse. Obeying her instructions, I banked to the right and slowly came to a stop. The building was a single story taller than the warehouse she had pointed out, allowing me to look over the edge at it.

The warehouse didn't have a single person going in or out, in fact, the whole area was dead in terms of foot traffic. Which was odd as even the most out of the way and decrepit places at least had a few people using the buildings for shelter.

"Are you sure this is the place?" I asked as she and Panacea climbed off me.

"Yes," Cheshire said. "They dug tunnels from one basement to another between these buildings. They enter somewhere around here and head to the warehouse. Would normally keep people from telling where they are headed and where they're base normally is. But Shadow Stalker, well, stalked them with her power."

"So how are we going to do this?" Panacea asked. I nodded in agreement and looked at Cheshire.

"Well…" She said, faking a nervous tone. "I'll tell you, but you're not going to like it."

"Simple," Lisa had said, "If the members only know who is directly in charge of them, who's to say I'm not supposed to be there?"

Lisa, of course, knew the answer was whoever was in charge of the place, but she was certain she could avoid them. So, after changing into civilian gear and Nova liberating some gang colours from a nearby ganger, Lisa found herself crawling through the tunnels right into The Worker's base of operations.

'It's fine,' Lisa told herself despite the flutter in her chest. 'I have low-level Brute powers, I just have to hold on until Nova can come crashing through the roof.'

She emerged out of the tunnel to find herself in a small room, barely large enough to be a prison cell. Directly across from her was a gated metal fence with no lock on it covering the entrance to a single ladder leading up into the warehouse. Two guards were standing on either side of it with assault rifles in hand.

Watching for Master protocol message. Lisa's power spoke. Three steps forward, reach down and pull up sock, then nod to Worker on left. Fence is electrically charged and will only shut off when hidden button behind the right Worker's foot.

Lisa followed the instructions to the letter and as expected, the metal cage didn't shock her when she opened it. She continued on through and climb up the ladder hastily.

Coming out into the open area she found herself in a sea of bustling Workers. In the far corner, there were rows of bunk beds suggesting that some of them lived here. While the corner directly opposite had tables set up where Workers were eating and conversing.

Turning slowly to observe the warehouse in a close attention to detail as she could while moving her gaze from one end to the other. The walls were lined with lockers, a few left open to reveal identical sets of gear. Gas, handguns, grenades, various other things.

On the other end of the room, Lisa could see a metal staircase leading up to what might have once been a foreman's office. It had large bay windows letting the person inside view the entire warehouse floor.

More lockers at the top of the stairs. Planned for Thinkers with the limitations of Think Tank. Most will assume there is a good reason they are unaware of if I climb the steps.

Well, she wasn't going to learn anything down here. She swallowed and started forward, her eyes darting back and forth to watch for any sign of any more Master/ Stranger protocols. While there wasn't any of that, lots of curious eyes were turned towards her.

Tightly knit community. Most everyone knows everyone else. All from the same city. Boston. Trained together.

Lisa resisted the urge to swear under her breath and hurried to the stairs. As soon as she put a hand on the railing her power fed her a bit of information that caused her to go into a slight panic.

Alarm. Scheduled time for entering and leaving office by anyone. Waiting for emergency contact signal.

Lisa hurried her pace up the steps, rounding the one corner in their structure before they turned toward the office space. When she reached the top she spun around and gave the signal as her power instructed. She clapped her hands twice and brushed imaginary hair away from her face.

"These guys really like unspoken means of communication," Lisa muttered to herself. The effect of her giving the signal was instant, people began springing into motion. Grabbing their gear and anything they were assigned to handle. Apparently, she gave a really specific signal because they all headed for the ladder and began descending down it one by one with military efficiency.

A little calmer now that almost all of her spectators were gone, Lisa darted for the office. Just outside of it to the right of the doorway into it were three lockers.

Guards on the inside, walls are thin enough to hear through. Lockers have false backs as a secondary escape route if front door is blocked.

Without wasting a second, Lisa wrenched open one of the locker doors and climbed inside. After checking to make sure she wasn't going to push the false back out, Lisa pressed her ear to it to listen inside.

"-is pushing for an alliance between all four of us new gangs." One man said.

"A bond between the four of us would be nice." A women answered him. "And haven't you noticed they operate sort of similar to us? If we got Industry's Brute nets and we gave them our Kinder gas we would work so much more efficiently."

"But," the man countered her. "They likely have capes."

They don't know they all work for the same group or person. Woman suspects, but is unwilling to say. Is dropping hits at man, who's in charge, to attempt to get information out of him on subject.

"We can take them out once we're done, so long as it furthers our cause we can compromise on our values a bit."

"Eh, maybe. But I still don't see what Max is looking for us to get out of this alliance. Haven't we proven we can take care of these villains on our own? We got Hookwolf didn't we?"

"And the Doctors got Krieg and Skidmark. Mush was more of a joined effort. And Clay isn't an idiot, he knows the more people the better. Small groups like us don't- Hey! What the hell is going on down there?"

Rushing to the window, almost everyone is gone now. Working out possible solutions.

"We've got an infiltrator." The man said seriously.

Striding for the doorway.

The man and woman threw the door open and walked out on the metal steps, feet clanking against it heavily. Several more footsteps followed behind them, body guards.

"Hello?" The man shouted out. "I would just like to say:

A̸̹̮̗̬͎̲̩̪̫̥̝͑̈́̓̀̀̈́̃̓̑̄͝ͅd̵̖͔̹́͑͒͘k̵̢̨͔̻̜̪̻̲͔̻͚̹̂̐̑̐͘ͅͅį̶̨̮̹̖̫̠͚͙́͆̎͂̏̐ͅn̷̘̼͉͍̗͈̩̼͎̭̻͓̭͎͔̋̑̊̆s̸̛̜͇̽ͅ ̵̹̄͌͋͊͌̈́̆̾̈́́͑̋̑̎S̸͓͋͜.̴̹͚͕̩̯̟͖̓̓̃̀̃̑̕ ̸̧̖̺̲͋̿̈́̐̒̐̾̿̊̿̇͠͝͠M̷̢̢̢̛̳̩̙͔̪̙̻͆͐̔͗͆̈́õ̴̧̯̞͍̞̺̲̖̗̳̲̘̾̍̈́͐̉͝ń̷̡̮͓̑ţ̷̳̱͎̤̮̖̜̖͙̣͇͓͋͋̈̒͐͛̏̚ģ̶̛̼͕͕̹͎̇̂̎̽̈́͆́̔̅̄͘õ̷͖͕͖̖͍̺̙̮̺̩͋̂̐̑̃̈́̇̚̚͠͝ͅm̸̩̙͊̐̐̓̓̽̓͝͝ĕ̸͉̘͚̳͕ŗ̷̡͇̪̦͎͕̪̝͔̻͠y̵͙̲̘̘̮͈̲̰̫͍̪̩̼͈̾̈̇̽̒́ͅ ̶̡̛̩̗̯͗͒̄͋̇̂͐̉̉́̀͋̚i̸͖̻̪̩͕̞̠̜͕͗̋̈́̚ͅs̶̡̨͇̦͓͙̜͕̥͋̾̔͂̓͜͜ ̴͓͚̥̪͕̯̫͔̲̫̞̈́̇̽̈͗́̾̑̈́̈́̓̓!̸̧̛̛̹̤͉̱̩̲̏̀́̉̋̈̈̔̀̐^̷̨̡̧̛̦͈̣̱̞̯̹͉̲̼̈́̃̃̅̏́̅͜͠#̸̦͈̼͚̳̥͆͗̊̕͝&̴̧̳͇̤̟̘͂͂͛̕͜͝$̵̢͍̩̗̯͔͔̓͗͝ ̶̪̼̄̑́̓̄̀̀̇^̴̨͉̯̤͍̲̤̭͔͓̰͉̱̞̩̍̐͒̅̂̇͒̈́͆̚͝͠*̷̧̡̻͈̥͎͎͉̘͔͓͚̈͘͜͜ͅ%̸̡̗̤͖̏̒̐̐̐͑̌̇̒͘͝!"

Lisa gasped as a headache suddenly stuck her and for the first time in years, her power didn't tell her anything.

"Hey!" The woman called out. "There's someone in the locker!" Lisa didn't have any time to react as her headache began to fade as quickly as it had come. The door was thrown open and she was dragged out by her wrist.

"Who are you," The man demanded. He was tall and lean, broad-shouldered but not quite barrel-chested. The woman was of similar build, but with red hair compared to his brown and ample cleavage.

"I'm a Worker," Lisa said as her power began to kick back in. "I saw the Master come in," she lied. "I ran up the stairs and hid in the locker so he wouldn't find me."

The man opened his mouth to ask something, but the woman hushed him with a hand and narrowed her eyes at Lisa.

"What's the passphrase?" Lisa swallowed and dropped the walls on her power.

The phrase is A̸̹̮̗̬͎̲̩̪̫̥̝͑̈́̓̀̀̈́̃̓̑̄͝ͅd̵̖͔̹́͑͒͘k̵̢͔̻̂̐̑̐͘-

Lisa groaned and clutched her head as another headache ensued. The pair took a step back.

"She's a cape, shoot her!" The guy demanded. Lisa jumped to her feet and darted forward, her adrenalin kicking in the second she was in motion. Her power came back a moment later and she twirled around the gunfire of a nearby bodyguard.

She stepped on his foot and grabbed his arm with both hands, doing a quick dislocation of it before snatching his gun.

She felt something inside of her twitch, like some ethereal connection had just sent some data. She could reflect on that later, she had to find a way to signal Nova and not die right now.

Across the street, a particular pony lifted her head as she sensed her friend was in trouble.