The woman behind the desk disappeared the moment I entered, Cheshire and Flower Knight behind me. It wasn't that hard to find Accord, surprisingly. Cheshire made short work of it after we learned Accord actually wanted to see us.

The woman came back looking a little shaken and said,

"Accord is ready to see you." I nodded to her and entered the door she indicated with a hand. Cheshire shot her a smile as we walked past her.

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to expect from Accord, but the businessman persona he had was oddly fitting for him. He was standing at the windows of his office, looking out with his arms crossed angrily. Flower Knight came into the room last, the door swinging closed behind her. As soon as the door had clicked shut Accord spoke.

"Why are you in Boston and how soon can you leave?"

I looked at Cheshire, prepared for her to answer, but she nudged me and nodded. From what she told me about Accord he probably wanted me to speak because I was technically the leader now.

"We're hunting down members of The Sentient that are in this city, we'll leave once we've taken them out."

Accord took a deep breath and let out a frustrated sigh.

"I can point you in the right direction, for a price." He turned around and approached his desk. He pulled out the chair and sat down, grabbing a stylized fountain pen and a piece of paper.

"What price?" I asked.

"One," Accord stated. "You leave this city once you're done and never come back. Two, you destroy The Sentient presences= here. Three, try not to destroy the city as you do so."

"Your power isn't working." Cheshire suddenly said, a grin spreading across her face. Accord's mask shifted slightly to reflect an eye twitch.

"It isn't working in the same capacity," Accord said vaguely. "Don't mistake it for not working at all."

"Why isn't his power working," I asked Cheshire. She opened her mouth but Accord cut her off.

"Because of you Nova. You presence threw off Thinker perceptions across the city. You break many Thinker powers with this chaotic mist you carry with you. The sooner you're done here, the better."

"Alright," I said seriously. My magic throwing off Thinkers wasn't anything new, but the fact it was affecting the city was somewhat surprising. Although, that could just be a particular kind of Thinker. "Then tell us what you know."

"I'm writing a list of all The Sentient bases, storage, and front companies in the city. I'll have my assistant at the front desk bring you a file containing all the names and faces I've collected on members. But I'll warn of two things." Accord paused and looked up at us seriously. "Those front companies belong to a real company somewhere in Boston, but the closer I go to finding out the harder it became to use my power on it. It was a very similar kind of power negation you bring. Secondly, those bases and names I'm giving you are very low priority to The Sentient here. Once again, the closer I got to the upper ranks and critical locations in the city they power masking effect got stronger."

I looked at Cheshire, but she frowned and shook her head.

"Adkins, probably." She said.

"My thoughts exactly," Accord said. "Whoever this 'Adkins' is, he needs to be eliminated. I'm beginning to think Ragnarok might not be far off in terms of a name."

Accord lifted up the piece of paper and I grabbed it with my magic, floating it into my saddlebags.

"Now," he said. "Get out of my office before you give me a headache."

***

I waited for people to start screaming before I moved to assist. I used my telekinesis to rip open the front doors of the building, a disused office space. People were screaming and shouting as they attempted to kill the rats they were getting swarmed with. The great irony of it all was that the more rats they killed the more rat projections Desh would able to make for the next couple hours on top of the base fifty he was able to maintain. And seeing as how most of the rats were already the black projections, they had killed a lot.

I grabbed the people in the lobby with my magic and hoisted them off the ground. I then forced the elevator doors open and found that three gunmen inside one office elevator. I crushed their guns and picked them up off the floor.

"Desh," Cheshire asked, astride my back. "What is it looking like?"

"You got a dozen men disabled in the sewers below." He answered through the open line all of us were sharing. "I'm moving in on them now. There are people stuck on the floors above, moving towards the roof."

"These people don't know anything," Cheshire told me. "Let's fly up and head them off at the top." I nodded silently and turned to run out the door, throwing The Sentient members into one big pile just as the rat surged towards them again. The police will be here soon, probably.

I decided to skip the flight and run and just teleport straight into the sky, then reorienting myself towards the correct roof just as Sentient members were crawling out onto it. I turned in the air and shot downward at them, slamming into the roof on all four hoofs.

They froze and looked at me. I straightened up and spread out my wings. Slowly, they set their guns on the ground and raised their hands.

"That one," Cheshire said, reaching past my face and pointing at someone. "The one with the bad goatee." I zero in on him, picking him up with my magic and then starting to fly upward with him in tow. I didn't waste my energy pulling him up as high as we could go, the building was high enough. Holding him loosely, I asked,

"What do you know that a stain on the ground wouldn't?"

The man swallowed. Ha, who needs swearing?

"I know the name of my superior." He tried. I rolled my eyes.

"Why is that the first thing you all try? Give it another go."

"Okay, I, um, I know the name of a Messenger."

"That isn't much. How about the location you were trained at?"

"Yes! Its underground place on the outside of town. Underneath a large government building that isn't being used. I don't know the address but-"

"That's enough," Cheshire said. "I got it."

I started floating him back downwards as Cheshire spoke to the others.

"Flower Knight, Shadow Stalker, how are things?"

"We ran into the Boston Wards," Flower Knight responded. "They've been helping us work down Accord's list of people and places. We've hit about twice as many as we thought we could have, but we haven't learned anything." There was some murmuring and a loud bang of a gun on the other end for a moment before she added, "And I think Shadow Stalker is having fun taunting the people into looking like idiots. It is actually really creepy."

"Right," Cheshire responded. "Keep doing that, Nova, Desh, and I have found where one of their training locations are. Imp and Purity, you ready?"

"Whenever you're ready," Purity answered.

"Ergo, Biohazard?"

"We're a little busy with some Sentient on the other side of town," Ergo answered. Suddenly Biohazard giggled madly into her mic.

"Biohazard, put that guy down!" Ergo demanded. There was a pause. "I'm going to have deal with this, I'm sure you can handle whatever it is on your own."

"Alright," Cheshire said. "Then everyone but Ergo and his sister, head to the north end of town, we'll have rooted out the main base of The Sentient out by the end of the day.

***

"Mr. Archer," Anderson asked. Archer was standing at the window, looking out over the city. The effects of these out of town capes were more than obvious, with the destructive power of Purity's blasts being the most conspicuous. Archer took a sip of the amber liquid before asking his assistant,

"What is the situation?"

"They came out of nowhere," Anderson said. "Without warning they start attacking most of our operations throughout the city. They've targeted the traps for the local threats and sometimes specific people they shouldn't know about. We suspect a Thinker but luckily our protocols have protected the most crucial people."

"How long do we have?" Archer asked.

"Sir?"

"How long until they find their way here?"

"... We don't know sir. We hope we can stave them off completely, but we're not sure."

Archer took a deep breath followed by a deep drink.

"Then fuck it," he said, throwing his glass on the ground. "Lock this building down and order all Sentient to go active. Every last one."

"Mr. Archer," Anderson protested. "We don't have any of the opportunities that allowed it to work in Brockton Bay, attempting to-"

"I believe I said 'fuck it' Anderson!" Archer shouted. "I simply don't care anymore. I want every last Sentient member across the country doing their duty to the cause. And no playing softball either, I want as many villains killed in as short a time as possible. Full genocide of the scum. I want bombs in all the PRT buildings. Assassinate the corrupt government officials that run them. In the next few hours I want Boston, New York, Houston, Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle, St. Louis, and Atlanta to be cleansed for better or worse. Then we'll see how this horse magics that problem away."

"... As you wish sir." Anderson turned around and left the room, leaving Archer alone. He walked over to his private bar and made himself a new glass of scotch. With it in hand, he went back to the window and began to drink as he watched Nova fly across the sky in the distance as the lockdown shields slowly shut over the windows.

"Just a few more hours," Archer said. "I wish I actually cared about the outcome."

***

A/N: Accord, like Cheshire, was able to find a way to learn the two halfs of the passcode separately, letting him know Adkins and Ragnarok are both part of it.

And just in case any one is going to complain about it, Archer's spiteful attempt to cause as much damage as possible before going down is doomed to fail pretty hard. They might get some people, but not nearly as much as BB.