The Destroyer of Worlds

Case in question: diamond robbery. Someone had broken into
some store and nicked a pricy new jewel that had just come in. She herself
didn’t really care one way or another, but she’d been offered a significant
amount of money to come in and provide her expertise to the investigation. And
beggars couldn’t be choosers. Thoughts of her empty fridge kept her moving.

“So, as recap:” Skye aimed a hand at the owner of the store,
a man dressed and acted like he was worth his weight in riches – and
considering the way his gut stuck out, that was saying something. “You’re
tending the diamonds. Leave for a break at three forty. Come back at four, you
think something’s off, so you test the pride and jewel of your collection – it
smashes in your grasp. Someone’s come in and replaced it with a fake. Is that
right?”

“That’s right.” The owner exclaimed. He didn’t say anything,
he exclaimed it. He mopped his brow with a handkerchief. “The calacstari
diamond. It’s a disgrace! An affront to my dignity!”

“Yeah, you didn’t have to tell me twice.” Skye said, leaving
out the part where he hadn’t had to tell her *thrice* either, and yet he’d done both and more, and she wasn’t keen
in hearing about how his dignity had been affronted for the sixteenth time.
Trying to put the matter out of her mind, she looked around the room. As well
as the owner, there were about half a dozen suspects lined up, escorted by a
pair of bastion security officers – big men with bigger guns, they were
unsurprisingly effective when it came to local law enforcement.

Not effective enough, of course, to stop this particular
crime from happening. But hey, that was where she came in.

“How do we know that that wasn’t just the diamond you broke,
though?” Asked one of the bastions, adding credence to Skye’s hypothesis that
their big guns compensated for less-than-big brains.

“Real diamonds don’t break, dumbass.” One of the suspects,
of all people, interjected before Skye could say anything.

“He’s right.” Exclaimed the owner, before the bastion could
say anything.

“That’s diamonds, though, innit?” Mused the other bastion
unit. “Rock-solid. You can’t smash them, and they can cut into anything.”

“Including the savings of whoever buys them.” Skye muttered,
taking in the placecard that demonstrated the jewel’s price, still inside the
glass canister and proudly advertising nothing. “Which is probably why it was
stolen to begin with.” She turned her gaze back to the owner. “Hey, maybe if
you didn’t overcharge your customers, we wouldn’t be having this conversation?”

“Insolent…!” The owner exclaimed angrily. He raised a fist
and shook it at Skye. “I did not hire you so that you could give me this
blatant cheek!”

“Business advice, you mean.” Skye corrected him, beginning
to look around the room. “But you’re right, I’m not getting paid for that, so
you don’t have to follow my advice if you don’t want to.” Noticing something,
she raised her own arm and pointed it at the overhead grille that indicated an
air vent. “But listen to me when I tell you that *that’s* almost definitely how our diamond-snatcher got in here in
the first place.”

“Through there?” Gasped the bastion on the left of the
suspect chain, before raising his gun and aiming at the vent as though it were
about to start attacking him.

“But… that’s so small…” Mused the bastion on the right.
Clearly the brains of the outfit.

The owner nodded in agreement. “A person couldn’t fit
through there!” He exclaimed.

“Maybe not *you*.”
Skye glanced pointedly at the owner’s distended stomach before looking back up
at the vent. “But someone less tall and more thin could probably fit through
there.”

“Well- how do you know for sure?” The bastion on the right
asked. Skye rolled her eyes.

“I’m a short-arse myself, I’m familiar with the lifestyle.”
She sighed. “Anyway, we’re looking for someone who’s short and scrawny.
Probably flexible, as well.” Turning around, she examined the line-up. A couple
of people shifted nervously. Of course, with those criteria established, it was
fairly easy to find her main suspect – a man with thinning hair who was
incredibly short, nervously fidgeting with his hands, and the only person who
she could make eye contact with without having to look up at all.

“Hate to judge based on body type.” She said out loud,
stalking towards her suspect. “But unless I’m mistaken, short and balding over
here-” she pointed at him now- “has some explaining to do.”

There was some nervous muttering from the rest of the
gathered suspects. Short and balding looked stupefied and afraid for a moment,
before managing to splutter out: “I- I- I have an alibi?”

“Well then let’s hear it.” Skye replied, coolly. This only
seemed to shake short and balding further. His eyes darted between her and the
bastions and the door – and then back to her. Looked like he was leaning
towards the “fight” part of “flight or fight”. She tensed herself up.

“I was… at… the nearby coffee place. You know, *the blue day*.” He said. Skye would have
asked him some other questions – or maybe just called him out on being a liar,
because his hesitation meant that he was almost certainly making something up
off the top of his head – but at that moment, lady luck stepped in in the form
of another of the suspects: an elderly woman with hair that looked like it had
been styled by an electric socket.

“You weren’t there then!” She said.

There was a moment of silence. Skye figured she’d say
something. “Were you there when the diamond was stolen, ma’am?”

“I work there!” Explained the old woman, rifling through her
pockets and pulling out an ID. One of the bastions took it and scanned it,
before giving it back and announcing in a booming voice:

“This ID is genuine!”

“Good to know.” Skye muttered, before turning her attention
back to the woman. “So, you were there between three-forty and four, and you
didn’t see this guy there?”

The woman nodded. “I was at the front the whole afternoon
shift, manning the cash register. I didn’t see him at all.”

Nodding in affirmation, Skye turned back to short and
balding – who seemed smaller than ever. “You wanna try that again, pal?”

Short and balding remained silent, staring downcast at the
floor for a moment, before suddenly leaping up and making like an
eight-year-old towards an ice-cream van in the direction of the door. Acting on
reflex, Skye leapt forwards and seized his hand. Short and balding’s reaction
to this was to turn around and begin to grapple with Skye, trying to force her
onto the ground and, if his hands grabbing at her neck were anything to go by,
choke the life out of her. Not the best decision to make considering the
presence of the bastions, but the anger on his face led Skye to believe that
this man wasn’t with them in the realm of rationality anymore.

Well then, she supposed that justified a bit of force.

Flexing her hands, she felt the by-now familiar hum of
electrical energy flow through them before pressing them against short and
balding’s chest and pushing. The resulting electrical discharge sent the other
man flying off of her in a blast of kinetic energy. He fell back onto the
floor, stunned in what was likely both a literal *and* figurative sense. The energy from the blast, as well as the
atmosphere of shock it had created, quickly dissipated, and one of the bastions
ran to cuff short and balding before anything more exciting could happen. The
other one set about gathering together the remaining suspects.

“Well, I guess that’s that on that.” Skye remarked to herself,
wiping her hands down on her coat. The owner approached her with trepidation.

“I was under the impression that using one’s… *abilities* in such a way was illegal.” He
exclaimed.

“Not if it’s in self-defence, as per savant regulations
paragraph… twenty-something.” Skye explained to him. It wasn’t a proper
citation, but the fact that her memory had betrayed her on that matter meant
that it would have to do. “And I think witnesses would call that self-defence.”

The owner mopped his brow again. “Yes, I suppose.” He
exclaimed, before turning back to Skye. “But where’s the diamond?”

Skye shrugged. “They’ll have to search his belongings. It’s
not like it’s been that long since he stole it, it’s probably going to rock up
eventually. If it doesn’t, you can just give me another call.” Having said what
she hoped was her final piece, she turned on her heel and began to head for the
door of the shop. “I’ll expect my cheque in the mail.”

“Yes.” Exclaimed the owner, in a tone Skye was all too
familiar with. The “I dislike this uppity young investigator but she’s upheld
her end of our transaction so I ought to do the same with mine” tone. It had
sounded more trepidatious than what she usually experienced, but she figured
that was because she’d demonstrated her electrokinesis outright. It was
amazing, really. Give someone an electric shock, and all of a sudden everyone
else gives you a much wider birth.

As she began to walk down the street (which was
infuriatingly hot and dry), her phone rang. She withdrew it. Unknown number.
Probably either a crank caller, or someone trying to sell her something. Or a
combination of the two. She declined the call and stowed the phone away in her
pocket.

It rang again.

Unsheathing the phone, she saw that it was still from an
unknown number. Her curiosity rose, a little, but considering the two calls
were so close together, it was still probably nothing. She decided to once
again decline the call and put the phone away. This time, she didn’t even get
the chance to put the phone back in her pocket before it began to ring *again*, silently and desperately
vibrating in her hand as she looked on in growing anger. Now annoyed, she
decided that the most therapeutic course of action would be to answer and tear
a strip off this “unknown number”. So, she pressed the button to answer the
call, instead of hanging up, and lifted the phone to her ear. What she didn’t
expect, however, was to be asked:

“Is this Skye Veil?”

She was so startled by the question that instead of
launching into insults as she had originally planned, she actually responded
with:

“Yes.”

“Good.” Said the voice. It was a masculine voice, she
thought. It continued: “You’re in danger.”

Well that was. Something.

“That’s very abrupt.” She told the caller, talking to cover
up her latent worry. “I don’t suppose you could give me context?”

“Someone’s been targeting people.” Said the caller to her.
“I can’t explain it all now, but we have every reason to believe you’re next.”

“Who’s this “we”?” Skye asked, but the caller didn’t say
anything about that.

“We’ll meet you at your house tonight.” They said. “Pick you
up, keep you safe. Just keep an eye out until then.”

“Wait.” Skye blurted, sensing that the callers was about to
hang up. “I still have-”

The annoying blaring of a phone being cut off.

“…questions.” She finished, pointlessly, staring at the
phone in a final gesture of fruitless and directionless disgust.

Well. It looked as though this was going to be an
interesting experience.

### **Chapter 2: Attack**

“Why midnight?” was, in all honestly, the main question that
Skye had asked herself following the call, and had *continued* to ask herself many times throughout the rest of the day.
There was, of course, her questions regarding who the caller was, how they knew
who she was, and what sort of “danger” she was apparently in.

As midnight had drawn closer, and she’d been forced to
suffer through yet more sleep deprivation in order to still be awake by that
time, her questioning had only grown more fervent, and her temper had only
worsened. Grumbling to herself in her apartment (the central heating system of
which had long-since broken down), she folded her arms and pulled the duffel
coat she was wearing further around her, both in an attempt to stay heated.
Neither strategy was significantly effective.

It was as she was in this state – sitting curled up on her
chair, muttering curses and self-pitying utterances to herself – that there was
a knock on the door of her apartment. The temptation was to simply stay where it
was, and let her visitor waste their time as she’d sacrificed hers. But
sensibility won out, and she dug herself out of the chair that she’d
practically wormed herself into in order to answer it. However, as she
approached and reached her hand over the handle, there was what sounded like an
almighty crunching noise from right behind the door, and Skye abruptly
remembered that she’d apparently in danger. A loud rumble, like a body dropping
to the ground, echoed out a moment afterwards – what was even *happening* out there?

Cutting her losses, Skye charged up an electric blast in one
palm and threw the door open, to be met with… nothing, initially. An empty
hallway. It was only when looking down did she spot the figure lying seemingly
comatose in front of her door, surrounded by wood chips.

“What fresh hell is this…?” She mused out loud, still
holding her hand out warily. A tiny stretch of lightning crackled around her
fingers. The energy hummed. She flexed her fingers, nervously.

The figure looked up, and Skye was greeted with the face of
a girl who- who couldn’t have been much older than her. Perhaps eighteen or
nineteen years old. She was wearing a baggy black hoodie, but the hood was
down, and Skye could see long brunette locks that flowed past the newcomer’s
waist, separated by the odd purple highlight. Their eyes caught – hers were
emerald green – and all of a sudden the stranger was back on her feet with a
dramatic flourish, extending a hand out towards Skye.

“Fresh hell sounds like a cool name!” She said. “Mine’s
Gaia, though.”

“What did you do?” Asked Skye, not bothering to introduce
herself in kind. “Gaia” kept her hand extended anyway.

“Well, I kind of balanced on the door handle.” She indicated
with her free hand to the hallway floor where, surrounded by pieces of door,
was the brass handle. Skye could feel the aneurysm rolling in.

“*Why*?” She hissed.
“Why would you do that…?”

Gaia shrugged. “Fun.”

Skye was seized by a sudden and overwhelming urge to wring
this oaf by the neck – the only thing that stopped her was the fact that Gaia
looked to be around a foot taller than her, and that height seemed to be based
in muscle.

“Let’s.” Skye said through gritted teeth. “Recap.” She
sighed, and craned her neck to look up at this idiotic giraffe of a human
being. “Why are you here?”

“Oh, right!” Gaia hit her hand with a clenched fist, in an
“ah yes!” gesture. Had she really forgotten why she was there? “The jet’s
parked a little way away, I’m here to, uh, give you an escort.”

The *jet*? “Say what
now?” Skye asked as she tried to figure out what was happening. Assuming these
were the people who’d warned her that she was in danger (she said “people”,
because the voice on the phone had sounded nothing like Gaia’s) and not the
danger themselves, this was some kind of attempt to get her to safety. She
briefly toyed with the idea that this *was*
the aforementioned danger, but it seemed unlikely that someone would send Gaia
after her with intent to harm. (Or in general, but considering her apparent
good nature, to harm *specifically*.)

“We have a jet!” Gaia said, proudly, like she’d built the
thing herself. “It’s called Eaglestriker – I named it.”

“Right…” Sky said, failing to feign enthusiasm.

What would have happened if the toe-curling conversation had
continued, Skye wasn’t sure. She was already begging the universe for either
patience or an untraceable handgun as it was. But at that moment, however, Skye
heard something from behind her. A quiet scrape. Possibly the clink of metal.
It was the sort of ambient sound that it would be easy to dismiss in most other
contexts. But in their context?

Skye wheeled around, hand full of lighting, to face the
inside of her apartment. The golden lights of the hallway and the blue light of
her own electricity illuminated the hallway directly in front of Skye – there
was nothing. But another heavy shuffling sound, a bit like somebody trying to
drag a cinderblock across a floor, caught her attention.

“Do you hear that?” She hissed to the other girl – *Gaia* – who leaned forward and squinted
into the darkness.

“I don’t hear anything.” She admitted, leaving Skye to
wonder why she was squinting – i.e. trying harder to *see* – when the subject of conversation was *hearing*.

They were cut off by what sounded like a mechanical groan.
It sounded like something straight out of a nightmare, like a motorbike revving
and metal screeching and a human screaming all at once. At the same time,
something stepped into view. Something with glowing blue eye sockets and
snakelike limbs, dragging itself into view as though there wasn’t a bone in its
body. Skye wasn’t sure if the noise had just come from its movement, or if the
thing itself had made it. Either way, she dimly noted that this was probably
going to haunt her dreams for a week.

The metal creature came to a halt in view of the two. Its
head spun around before focusing on them – specifically, on Skye, who blinked
as the jets of light from its eyes suddenly focused right on her. She held up
her hands defensively.

Everything happened very quickly.

The thing lunged forward with a whoosh, and Skye felt
something push past her. There was a clang and the sound of splintering wood.
Looking up, Skye felt a bolt of surprise run through her at the sight of Gaia,
who had apparently grabbed the creature’s head and smashed it into the ground.
She was stunned. The line between courage and stupidity had never looked so
thin, even as Gaia had looked back and grinned at her. The thing’s limbs
writhed before wrapping themselves around Gaia, trying to pull her away.
Cursing, Gaia wrenched herself free from the snakelike grasp and jumped back,
pushed Skye out into the hallway with what seemed like a brush of her hand. The
electricity Skye was holding onto faded away as she lost her concentration.

“Get out of here.” She said. “This one’s mine.”

“Are you stupid-”

Skye was cut off by the thing – she could only assume that
it was a robot, but it looked unlike any preconceptions about robots she may
have had – reaching out with one of its arms towards her. Gaia snatched the arm
out of midair and wrenched it so violently the robot’s whole body was yanked
off-balance. Gaia twisted the arm, obviously trying to snap it off, but the
other arm snapped towards her neck, and she was forced to let go in order to
stop herself from being choked.

“I said *get out of*
here*!” She called, jumping forward* onto
the robot and pinning it to the ground again.

Skye, backed up against the wall, stared at the battle for a
moment longer before darting off down the stairs and towards the door, trying
to remember what Gaia had said about a jet. Nothing about where exactly it was,
which was stupid.

Bursting out into the street, Skye began to look around for
any sign of a jet – or really, any sign of safety – but was dragged out of her
bothered musings by a clunking sound nearby her. Turning around, she saw
another robot approaching at a rapid pace from the other side of the street. It
was more robust than the first one – instead of tentacle-like appendages, it
was blocky and solid, built like a human bodybuilder. Despite its size,
however, it was running rather quickly, so she began to sprint herself in an
attempt to lose it.

Judging by the fact that she could hear footsteps gaining on
her, said attempt hadn’t been particularly successful. Well, things certainly *seemed* dire, but if flight wasn’t going
to cut it, fight would have to do. Turning around, Skye charged up another
blast and let it fly right at the automaton charging towards her. It was a
clean strike, right on the left side of the chest – but the thing didn’t
falter. At all. Faltering herself, Skye charged up another shot (just one more,
to make sure that they were ineffective), and fired it off at her pursuer. This
one hit what equated to the robot’s thigh, but once again, it remained
completely and scarily unaffected.

Suddenly registering the fact that there were perhaps
seconds between then and her getting crushed by a charging robot, she dived to
the side and scrambled off the street and into the middle of the road, watching
as the robot, unable to stop itself properly, charged by. It skidded and
stumbled to a halt only after several moments; at which point, it turned its
head right back around to view her, twisting its neck well beyond the physical
capability of a human.

“Good to see that breaking it’s neck isn’t a viable
strategy.” Skye muttered to herself, embittered by how everything seemed to
have gone to pot so quickly.

As luck would have it, the universe sent unto her in that
moment help. This “help” was in the form of a man on the other side of the street
who sprinted out of an alleyway, saw the scene, and lowered what looked to be a
large metal box from his back into his arms. Before Skye could really question
anything, the apparent box fired off a beam of light that slammed into the
robot. It did not seem to take any damage, but it *did* stumble. So there was some effect.

The beam of light intensified, and the robot fell on its
side, pinned in place by it. Taking her chance, Skye sprinted across the road
and up to the man with the box, who spared her a glance before quickly focusing
back on keeping the big robot distracted.

“Are you with Gaia?” She asked, not quite sure what else to
say.

He nodded. “Yeah.” His voice sounded familiar, though it
took Skye a second to place it.

“You- you were the one on the phone!” She realised,
harkening back to the phone call she’d received earlier that day. He nodded.

“Sorry for being vague. Figured I had to prioritize.”

The pair were distracted from the conversation by two things
happening. Firstly, the laser from the box seemed to dim, or weaken, and the
large robot began to rise to its feet as the pressure on it lessened. Secondly,
something rolled down the road quite suddenly. It was Gaia, Skye realised,
still wresting with the first robot that had attacked them in her flat. She
slammed its head into the street, cracking the pavement, and used one of its
tentacle-like appendages to fling it into a car. The car door crumpled, and the
vehicle rocked to the side from the impact.

Gaia stood up, placed her hands on her hips, and waved at
Skye and the man.

“Hiya-” Whatever she’d been planning to say, that was as far
as she managed to get before the big robot swung one of its gargantuan arms at
her. It hit her in the side and catapulted her across the road, where she
landed with a crash in a bush on someone’s lawn. Switching the box (which, now
that Skye was closer, she could see was more like a handheld cannon than
anything or else) off and slinging it round onto his back, the man ran to where
Gaia had landed. Skye, after a moment’s hesitation, ran after him, not wanting
to be on her own at this point. Despite herself, she hoped she hadn’t just
witnessed a death.

The man looked up as Skye reached him. “She should be
alright.” He said, surprisingly enough. “But she’s unconscious.”

“Deadweight, you mean.” Skye muttered, though really, she
was just amazed that Gaia didn’t seem super hurt.

The man nodded, rolling his eyes, before grabbing one of
Gaia’s arms and trying to haul her on his shoulders. His legs shook with the
effort.

“I could do with a hand.” He wheezed. Skye’s initial
reaction was to either blow him off or just run away by herself, but she
figured that if these people had actually come to help *her*, the least she could do was return the favour. That would only
be fair. So, she bent down and dragged Gaia’s other arm up and over *her* shoulders. She winced at the weight
– did this dolt have bones made of *granite*?

A noise to the right alerted Skye to the fact that they
weren’t out of the woods yet – the big robot was beginning to march towards
them, and out of the corner of her eye Skye saw a squirmy appendage emerge from
the remains of the car the first robot had hit earlier.

Helplessly, she and the man tried to drag Gaia’s body, but
their progress was slow, and the big robot was quickly approaching. Skye looked
around. Anything she could use to help them-? A street light was right by them.
As the robot approached, she stretched out a hand and shot an electric blast
into the light, which flashed with an unbelievably bright light for a moment
before shattering. As she had hoped, the light disoriented the robot (it had
been a bit of a long shot, but these robots probably had visual sensors or
something, right?), and it stopped running for a precious few moments, stunned.
Seizing the opportunity, Skye hauled Gaia with renewed vigour. Putting all her
energies into the high-stakes carrying session she found herself in.

Zoning back into reality after her focus on the robot, she
realised that the man was saying something.

“…ree-dash-four. Just come get us.” He said, before raising
a hand he’d lowered to his ear. He turned to Skye, who must have been looking
confused, because he nodded in acknowledgement before speaking:

“Just getting in contact with our pilot.” He said. “Should be
here soon-”

There was a whirring in the air – quiet at first, but it
quickly became deafening. The man smirked.

“Perfect timing.”

Floodlights suddenly illuminated the street, and Skye
covered her eyes for a moment to let them adjust before looking back up and
making out the shape of a bullhead-type-ship hovering in the air. The back end
fell open into a ramp that hovered in front of them.

“Help me drag this idiot on board!” The man yelled over the
noise of the ship. Skye nodded, and working together, the two pushed with all
their might until Gaia’s comatose form was balanced on the edge of the ramp.
After that, Skye herself hopped up and, after a moment’s struggling, she
managed to haul herself up onto the ramp. However, she had neglected the robots
– the big one lowered its arm and shot something out of it. A ball, flickering
with an ominous red light, landed at her feet and rolled up the ramp from the
momentum. A grenade?

“Get rid of it!” The man yelled, confirming her suspicions.
Skye dived onto the grenade, picked it up (ignoring the frankly terrifying
sound of the beeps it was emitting getting faster and faster) and threw it into
the night with the minimal strength it possessed. There was a clunk as it
landed back on the road – and then an explosion lit up the night. A wall of
orange flames, tinged with green (?), rocketed upwards, and a wave of heat
washed over Skye – contrast enough from the cold night air that she shuddered
in shock. She didn’t look to see if the grenade had done any damage to either
of the robots, because then the man was by her side, and then they were
dragging Gaia into the main body of the ship as the doors shut, and then the
ramp was shutting, and then the shuddering under Skye’s feet indicated that
they were flying away.

Well.

That had been a thing.

### **Chapter 3: Starbound**

“So…” Skye ventured, the first words to be spoken for
several minutes. The bullhead that she had unceremoniously dumped herself and
Gaia onto was well into the air, nought but clouds visible out of the
porthole-like windows. Metal rattled around her as she sat opposite the ginger
man who had saved them. Gaia was sprawled on the three seats to her left, a
seatbelt crudely tied around her waist and her mouth open in a snore. “…who are
you people, anyway?”

“We’re collectively called Pandemonium’s Bane.” Ginger
responded idly. Now that the action had ceased, Skye took the opportunity to
study him closer. He wore grey hiking trousers, complete with legs that could
be detached through unzipping a zipper, and his shoes were scuffed and dirty.
His shirt, which was maroon in colour, was soaked in sweat, and his glasses
were sliding down his nose whenever he wasn’t pushing them upwards. There was
an indigo jacket covering the heavy weapon that sat in the seat next to him,
which had bulging pockets. He looked like a cross between a computer technician
and a hiker, though the frown on his face suggested he was more of a nit-picker
than anything else.

“Catchy name.” Skye commented. “Who came up with it?”

“I did, as a matter of fact.” Ginger pushed his glasses up
his nose again, the cheap watch on his arm jumping up and down the limb as it
moved. “Not that I’m proud of it, really, but nobody else was giving any good
suggestions. It was all just dumb shlock, like “the happy warriors”.”

Skye laughed, in spite of herself. “I’d be proud of myself,
if I’d avoided a name like that.” Her eyebrow rose. “Speaking of names…?”

“Jacen Farrand.” He deadpanned. “I’d shake your hand, but
while we’re still gaining altitude I probably shouldn’t stand up.”

“Fair enough.” Admitted Skye, as the ship lurched again.
“Skye Veil. PI.”

“So I’ve heard.” Jacen’s expression changed for the first
time, as the corners of his mouth tilted ever so slightly. “For someone your
age, your credentials aren’t bad.”

“Okay, about that.” Skye decided to take control of the
conversation, and dig up answers to questions that had been bothering her since
the whole ordeal had begun. “How the hell do you know who I am?”

“We looked you up.” Deadpanned Jacen, leaning back in the
seat and adjusting his glasses. “It wasn’t anything personal, but you were next
on the… uh, predicted hit list.”

“Huh?” Skye’s fist clenched, and she lowered her chin to
stare at Jacen, her electric eyes boring into his; which were dark, shadowed,
and slightly sunken. Freckles ran along the ridge of the man’s nose, and Skye
suddenly realised with a jolt how young he was – was everyone in this
organisation a teen? Why were children her age flying jets and fighting robots?

Jacen’s eyes suddenly rolled, and Skye found her train of
thought derailed as he began to speak again. “Okay, let me explain the
situation for you. For a month or so, there’s been an increase in missing persons
reports throughout Tercerium – that’s the name of your settlement, right?” On
receiving a nod, he continued. “It’s kinda our job to keep the peace around
here, so I analysed the information with my team of idiots, and we discovered a
correlation amongst the missing-”

“They were all savants?” Skye interrupted, hazarding a guess
as to what he might say next.

His smile held no warmth. “More specific. After the
Implosion, everyone who got powers had to report said powers and register them
– you know, to make sure nobody was left unchecked while learning how to
control some pretty destructive abilities. Which is why we know that all the
missing were electrokinetics specifically.”

“Okay.” Skye nodded, her willingness to listen increasing as
the murkiness of the predicament began to increase.

“Anyways.” Continued Jacen, his voice occasionally muffled
by the rattles of the bullhead as it soared through the Nimbus System. “Me and
Maddox – I’ll introduce you later – had a look at the pattern, and let’s just
say that whoever was taking the deviants wasn’t really masking what they were
doing. There was, like, a clear path they were taking, you know what I’m
saying?”

“I think so.” Skye nodded. “Once it became apparent that
there was a streamlined area of kidnappings, it was just a matter of figuring
out which direction the pattern was heading-”

“And predicting who was next in line.” Jacen’s face changed
again, until the smile that had originally been devoid of any genuine emotion
resembled something more human. “Bingo.”

“Well, if that’s the case, I appreciate the save.” Skye’s
mind thought over the fight, beginning to analyse what she had seen. “I’m not
sure I could have handled that thing myself, whatever it was. It looked like a
robot, but…?”

“Could have been.” Admitted Jacen.

“Hmm… it would have needed some kind of resistant coating,
otherwise an electrokinetic blast would just make its way past the armour and
disrupt the circuitry of the entire thing.” Reasoned Skye, coming up with a
primary observation. “But all metals conduct electricity, to a degree. And it
both looked and sounded metal enough…”

“What if it draws power from the blasts?” Jacen, to his
credit, hadn’t disputed her immediate jump into theorizing, and was trying to
come up with ideas of his own – she appreciated both.

“No. I saw my shots bounce off.” Her gaze fell to the
weapon, the glint of mechanics visible beneath the discarded jacket. “By the
way, what is that thing?”

“Just a little something designed for me.” Jacen grinned as
he patted the object. “The Nexus Force lets us prototype their equipment.”

“And you got the giant laser because?”

“It’s imperative that I receive all the heavy weapons, so
that the people I work with don’t get the chance to use them for themselves.
They rarely make more than one prototype anyway, so everything we get tends to
be unique.”

“Well, alright…” Skye frowned. Each answer seemed to raise
more questions. “All things considered, I’m guessing that there’s no
unconventional payment, or anything, right?”

Jacen’s reply confirmed her suspicions. “Huh?”

“That’s what she said.” Skye exclaimed, indicating Gaia with
a lazy flick of her wrist. Jacen dragged his palm over his forehead, clearly
exasperated.

“Sorry. I’m not sure what she said, but I wouldn’t buy into
it. It was top priority that you agreed to come with us, so-”

“That’s something, actually.” Skye cut into his speech.
“Sorry. For interrupting.”

“That’s fine.”

“Why would you go to all of this trouble just to preserve my
life? I’m not special at all.”

Jacen shrugged. “Would you rather have us only save people’s
lives if it would be worth something in the long run?”

“I…” Skye faltered.

“I’ll tell you this.” Determined Jacen. “We don’t have any
ulterior motive for saving you. Once this is all over, you can come back here
and we’ll never have to contact you again, if you want. But what we want is to
save everybody we can, using the advantages we’re lucky enough to have. No
other reason.” He held his arms slightly high in the air, as if in a gesture of
surrender. “Promise.”

“Very noble of you.” Skye pointed out. Jacen shrugged.

“All things considered, the job is a pretty good one.” He
explained. “Dire circumstances such as this notwithstanding, we make our own
hours. We’re also fully funded by the Nexus Force, so we receive good food and
lodgings. Like I said, there’s the fact that we can field test a bunch of
high-tech equipment as well – which, I mean, may not sound like much to you,
but to me, it’s great. And I’ll give it this: there’s never a dull moment.” He
glanced at Gaia again, his eyebrows loosening as an expression vaguely
resembling warmth crossed his features.

“Well, I can see why you might like it so much.” Skye folded
her arms. With no other leads to go on, she reckoned that it was probably best
to get to know her rescuers better, if nothing else. Knowledge was power. “Any
downsides?”

“A couple.” Admitted Jacen. “I mean, no job is perfect. We
don’t get a lot of formal leave, which is kind of trying for those of us with
families, and… well…” He rolled his eyes. “Sometimes events can get very
trying. Plus, you know, there’s the danger.”

“I’m just sorry you had to put yourself in danger to save my
hide.” Skye shrugged – not that she was a regular apologetic, but the words
seemed appropriate in this situation.

“All part of the job.” Jacen reiterated. “Besides, you get
used to all of the mortal peril after a while.”

“Doesn’t sound like the sort of thing you’d get used too
easily.”

“You’d be surprised.”

It was at this moment that Gaia let out a long groan, rising
blearily from her position and rubbing her eyes.

“We there yet?” She grunted. Without waiting for a response,
she repeated her question far more loudly. In response, another voice came from
the front of the bullhead.

“No. But we’re not far off.”

The voice was masculine, and monotoned, and sounded almost
eerie after the vibrant tones of Gaia’s vocals.

“Who’s that?” Skye questioned.

“Our pilot.” Responded Jacen, idly waving a hand as he
spoke. “Call it Max or Maddox, whatever you want.”

“It?” Skye repeated, curious. Jacen shrugged, and turned to
the cockpit.

“Max, is it okay if-”

“Suit yourself.” The voice replied coldly.

“Well, alright then.” Jacen turned back to Skye. “Maddox is
a robot. Our boss basically didn’t give it back after borrowing it from some
acquaintances of ours – good thing no-one really minded anyway.”

“Yes.” Max confirmed from the cockpit. “At the moment, I’m
essentially on a permanent lone from my creators.”

“I… alright.” Skye hadn’t been aware that robots with such
advanced speech capabilities had existed (with most known robots only being
programmed with a select few phrases they could say – and here was this one,
talking in what were undoubtedly replies to the statements said around it), and
was more surprised still when a figure emerged from the bullhead’s cockpit and
ambled towards them, hands in pockets.

“We’re on autopilot.” Max announced, slumping into the chair
on Skye’s other side. “There’s a final, easy stretch from here to the base that
I don’t need to be there for.” It sighed, before turning to Skye and extending its
hand.

“Skye Veil? A pleasure.”

“I… thanks.” Skye reached out and took Max’s hand in hers,
surprised by how warm it’s hand was. The robot itself didn’t look much like a
robot at all, having some kind of external coating that made it look exactly
like a human – with blonde hair hanging over its forehead, loose clothing
consisting of a purple shirt and cargo pants, and an unmistakably human touch
to its smile. However, its voice remained the same (the same being somewhat
deadpan, lacking in emotion), and as Skye studied it further, she noticed a
distinct lack of… well, anything on its “skin”. No freckles, no moles, no
scars. It was just a little too clean and perfect for her to forget what it
actually was. The one exception to this was a small split above its right
eyebrow – instead of scar tissue, however, Skye caught a glimpse of wires and
circuit boards.

Tearing her attention away from this fascinating specimen was
a challenge, but she eventually succeeded in time to catch its next words.

“I trust that the operation went smoothly?”

“About as smoothly as you can expect from us.” Jacen filled
him in, before shooting Gaia a pointed look. “No thanks to someone.”

“Hey, I saved Skye’s ass back there!” Gaia protested, rising
indignantly from her seat.

“You bought us some time.” Amended Jacen. “You also got
yourself knocked unconscious, and played the part of dead weight for the rest
of us. Focus next time.”

Gaia frowned, and sank slightly lower in her seat.

Skye opened her mouth – after all, if it hadn’t been for
Gaia’s interventions, crassness notwithstanding, she probably would have been
taken – but the ship gave a jolt, and Max sprang up.

“Oh!” He gasped, before stumbling forwards and into the
cockpit. There was a moment of silence, and then his voice echoed out from the
pilot’s seat.

“Seatbelts on, everyone!” He called. “We’re landing.”

### **Chapter 4: Banes of Pandemonium**

The
bullhead came to rest on top of a helipad, which seemed somewhat contradictory
to Skye. Nevertheless, the landing was otherwise uneventful, and before long,
the four occupants were out of the ship, and walking towards a door that led
inside the building they had landed upon. It was a tall-ish building, taller
than most houses. The top was wide enough to easily fit the bullhead within the
centre, and the walk to the roof’s door was longer than Skye had anticipated.
Gaia, despite being unconscious moments ago, darted forwards, opening the door
and hurriedly tramping down the stairs as if she couldn’t wait to get to…
wherever it was they were going. Skye, Jacen, and Max all seemed content to
walk as a more leisurely pace. Skye walked with her hands in her pockets, the
others to either side of her. Her coat, made of weighty leather, flapped behind
her as the wind buffeted her form, and she couldn’t help but smile at the
satisfying feeling.

Max turned
to Skye, brow raised in a curious fashion, as Jacen began to pull ahead
(presumably to catch up to Gaia).

“You say
you’re a private detective?” He queried. Skye nodded, once. Not that she was
trying to be brusque, but she had heard the same question from many people,
including various clients and family members. In fact, she had been through
this line of questioning so many times, she could predict what the robot was
going to say next.

“You seem
quite young for the job.” Max continued, fulfilling Skye’s prediction quite
nicely. Ah well. Even if tiresome to answer, it was a legitimate question.

“I matured
quickly.” She explained. She was well-versed in answering this question by this
point, and had condensed her argument into a few key points. “It was something
I was always interested in, and I was never too close to my family. Once I got
old enough, I left to do what I wanted to do.”

“How old
were you when you left?” The next step in the formula. An uncomfortable feeling
grew in the pit of her stomach as she confessed the answer.

“Fifteen.”

Max turned
to her. His brow was raised in a curious fashion, which was nice and muted (she
had experienced much more drastic reactions to that answer), and she took the
chance to realise that his pupils were green. Which was weird. Though his
mechanical eyes wheeled round in their sockets perfectly fluidly, there was no
darkness to be found at the centres of his pale brown irises. Instead, there
was a green oval with the texture of graph paper. If Skye focused, she could
see darker green lines which looked like text inside said pupils.

“Yes,
yes.” Skye deadpanned. “It was incredibly young, and incredibly irresponsible.
What sort of child was I, living in a house on my own, working a full-time job
at fifteen, all of my own choosing?”

Max still
said nothing, in an almost disconcerting silence, as they arrived at the door
to the roof. Unlatching the door, Max held it open, the creaking metal being
shoved aside by his arm. Nodding appreciation, Skye stepped forward and began
to descend down the stairs, the robot at her heels. The stairwell was almost
completely dark, save for a faint golden light below them, and the pair
descended slowly.

“You must
have been lonely.”

Oh.

She didn’t
have an answer for that. Not a really well thought-out one, at least… She said
nothing. *Had* she been lonely? She
would have to consider that, later.

She may
well have pondered the issue in more detail, but they heard a yell from up
ahead.

“Gaia!”
The voice said. “No!”

Skye
raised an eyebrow. “Why do I get the feeling that that’s kind of a catchphrase
around here?”

Max
nodded, in affirmation. “It is one of the most commonly uttered sentences
amongst the members of Pandemonium’s Bane.”

Striding
forwards and into a new room, the first thing Skye saw was Jacen and Gaia
standing about a foot apart, squabbling with one another like an old married
couple.

“*Why* would you put those stickers *everywhere*?” Jacen was complaining,
indicating with a wave of his hand. Looking around, Skye saw a number of
colourful stickers adorning the room in just about every corner imaginable,
including a fair number on the ceiling. There didn’t seem to be a direct motif,
and the clashing colours gave her a small headache before she could look away.

“For the
aesthetic.” Gaia argued, folding her arms. Under other circumstances, Skye
mused, her pouting may have been amusing – but Gaia was six feet of muscle, and
even with the advantage of an awareness of her character, it was still
intimidating to see her glower and stare Jacen down. To his credit, Jacen
seemed unmoved by this display.

“They have
less collective practicality than a tip jar for a debt collector.” He argued.
“And anyone with epilepsy is really going to suffer if they walk in here.” With
a jolt, he turned to Skye. “You don’t have epilepsy, do you?”

“I don’t.”
She was relieved to say. The sparkles and colours were bothering her enough as
they were.

Jacen
threw his hands up in the air. “Marvellous. A reprieve.”

As the two
continued to yammer, Skye’s attention was drawn to the other person in the room
– a dark-skinned woman sitting undisturbed in a corner, watching the two fight
with an ambivalent look on her face. Only half-listening to the pair, Skye
wondered over to this other woman.

“Hello.”
She said, sticking out a hand, trying to observe just a little bit more about
this new person. The woman grasped her hand, shaking it once – softly, with
something of a weak grip – before letting it drop back to her side.

“Hello.”
She greeted back, before indicating to Jacen and Gaia. “I’m… I’m sorry about
them.”

“Nothing
to it.” Skye grunted, pulling up a spare seat and sitting down next to this new
person. After a moment, Max did the same thing, sitting on her other side and
watching the argument without a single emotion on his face. Skye viewed her
neighbour. Infrequent blinks, dishevelled hair and clothes, and a lack of
conversation all indicated that this person wasn’t a particularly social
creature. But, after a moment of observation, a thought struck her.

“Who’s
normally in charge here, anyway?”

“Whoever’s
the loudest.” Max informed her. “The balance of power shifts hourly.”

Well, that
just redefined unprofessionalism.

“Are you
serious?” She couldn’t quite keep the disbelief out of her voice. That couldn’t
be it. There *had* to be a more
efficient leadership system. Then again, Gaia and Jacen were still arguing –
yelling as they did so – with one another…

“That’s
our backup system!” Blurted out the woman to Skye’s right. Skye turned around
to fix her with a curious gaze. Confronted, the woman began to explain, making
odd motions with her hands and fingers as she talked – a bit like a haywire
traffic controller, only not as vibrantly expressive (her forearms remained
clamped to her sides). “We have a leader, it’s just that he’s away on business
right now. Gaia and Jacen… well, technically, they’re the two deputies… but I
think it’s obvious what our problem is.”

“They
don’t get along?” Skye remarked, wryly.

“Not oil
and water so much as oil and fire.” Max deadpanned, folding his arms before
extending a hand towards the two. “Though, to be fair, you’d be surprised at
how little genuine hatred you could find between the two.”

Skye
thought back to her experiences with the two. How Jacen had softened when eying
her, and how Gaia’s disappointment seemed to stem more from a lack of approval
on Jacen’s part than anything else.

“I think I
have an idea.” She admitted.

The
arguing seemed to die down as the squabbling pair simultaneously realised that
all eyes were on them. Gaia threw her arms up in the air in an exasperated
gesture, whilst Jacen simply folded his before staring Gaia down with a look
that simply screamed “are you kidding me?”. A moment more – and both deputies
finally turned to address their audience.

“Yes,
well.” Jacen said, clearing his throat and sounding supremely uncomfortable.
“The stickers can wait. We ought to plan our next move.”

“It’s
going to be difficult now that our perpetrator knows something’s up.” Added Max
from his chair. He was leaning back in the seat, letting his body slide
downwards, his hands supporting his head. “If everything’s gone well for them
so far, why did this one go awry, they’ll wonder? Assuming that they weren’t
just at the scene.”

“What are
you saying?” Gaia squinted at him, suspiciously. “That we should have left Skye
there?”

“Not
necessarily.” Said Max. “But now that they’ve hit a snag in their plan, they’ll
be more cautious. They might change their pattern. They might try to throw us
off.”

“Reckon
it’s our main concern?” The yet-unnamed woman put forward, leaning forward in
her chair to lock eyes with Max, who shrugged in response.

“Our main
concern is probably that we just know so little.”

“We know
some stuff, don’t we?” Gaia posited, peering at Max with furrowed brows. The
robot made a small shrugging motion, an “I guess” sort of gesture, but didn’t
look particularly hopeful as he continued to speak.

“We know
that someone is taking electrokinetics from a specific area. Following our
operation, we know that they either are a robot, or use robots. At least, if
we’re assuming that that thing was a robot. Do we know for sure?”

“Robot
sounds solid.” Jacen admitted, pulling up another seat and sitting down to the
side. “Though we don’t know for sure. In an ideal world, we would have been
able to capture that thing.” Though he made no reference to it vocally, gazes
flickered over to Gaia, who shrunk in her position, hunching inward.
Surprisingly, it was the woman who spoke up.

“Whatever
Gaia did doesn’t matter.” Compared to before, she sounded almost authoritive.
“Wasn’t the primary objective to prevent anyone else from being taken?” Her
eyes roved over the assembled group, before flickering down to gaze at her own
intertwined fingers. “If we go by technicality, the mission was a success. It’s
one thing that we don’t know much more than we did before, but it’s another
thing to get bogged down in negative details. It could have been a lot worse.”
She looked back up at everyone else. “Let’s not attack each other over it.”

A moment of
relative silence passed, before everyone else muttered agreement. Skye turned
to the woman with a newfound appreciation. The resident mediator, apparently.
Looking around at everyone for a moment, she raised her hands slightly in a
questioning stance.

“Plan?”
She ventured.

For her
part, Skye wasn’t quite sure what to do. She felt a little like she was
intruding on a close dynamic, as everyone talked around her. And even if she
weren’t, she wasn’t exactly a member of the group. More like a witness under their
protection. She smiled to herself, wryly. What an inconvenient little situation
she had been thrust into. Still, there was no use complaining about people who
were trying to honestly help her. A group dynamic, after such a long period of
solitude, would just… she eyed everyone again. Take some getting used to, she
decided, before zoning back in onto what was being said. Protected, or witness,
or *whatever* she may have been, she
couldn’t resist the urge to be productive. Even if it mean further interaction
with what looked like to be a certified band of loons.

“…set up a
perimeter.” Jacen was saying as she began to hear coherent words again (as
opposed to just ineligible muttering). “We’ve got to maintain this area,
between these potential next victims.”

“Are there
going to be enough of us, though?” Max ventured. “There’s four of us, and
that’s two potential people they’ll target next – if we go by the pattern –
plus, we’ll probably need someone back at base.”

“Five.”
Said Skye. When all eyes turned to her, she forced herself to remain
unflinching, settling for folding her arms and sinking lower into her chair.
“If I’m here, I want to help. I’m a savant, don’t forget, and I’m also a
self-made private investigator. You might need me.”

A moment
of uncomfortable silence, and then everyone began to nod.

Gaia
over-enthusiastically leaned over and punched her shoulder. “Welcome aboard!”
She grinned.

Skye
rubbed said shoulder. “Let’s, uh… let’s not get ahead of ourselves. But for
what it’s worth, thanks.”

“So, five
people.” Jacen stroked his chin, before turning to Max. “The map?”

Max
obediently extended his palm, the centre facing upwards. It flickered with a
blue glow, and a sizable hologram suddenly appeared, mapping out a sizable area
of neighbourhood. With a jolt, Skye recognized her own house and road near the
hologram’s edge. Even as she watched, her house slowly turned green as the blue
lines changed colour, which in turn brought her attention to a number of other
houses closer to the centre of the man that were coloured crimson. The people
who had actually been taken, she assumed. Having a visualization drove the
situation a bit closer to home (pun unintended).

“Someone
needs to stay behind and man our HQ.” Jacen continued. Now that he wasn’t busy
squabbling with his fellow deputy, Skye could easier observe the traits that
had led to his deputy-ship in the first place. His voice was clear and
coherent, and it possessed a quality that almost commanded people to listen to
what he had to say. That, and what he had to say wasn’t stupid. He continued:
“You know the rule. Home base should always be manned.” He indicated to two
more houses on the map, which flickered from blue to a shade of gold at his
pseudo-touch. “So that leaves two people for each electrokinetic.” He frowned.
“The problem is that those robots- I mean, we don’t know for *sure* that they were robots. Whatever
they were, though, they were tough. Someone like Gaia, a powerful deviant,
could probably hold their own against one. With help, they could defeat it. But
we don’t have two Gaia equivalents, I don’t think.”

“Jacen,
I’m flattered.” Gaia laid her hands against her chest, sarcasm evident within
her voice. “I had no idea you held me in such high regard-”

“I’m being
matter of fact, Gaia.” Jacen said bluntly. “I’m not going out of my way to
shower you with compliments.”

Gaia
shrugged. “Ah, well. One day.”

Rolling
his eyes, Jacen turned his attention back to the map. “The point I’m trying to
make is that we need more help, if we want to be sure of these people’s
safety.” The fingers on his hand tapped rapidly against his thigh,
demonstrating his anxiousness. “Aside from Gaia, we have me – whose current
weaponry has been established to not do enough damage.”

“I thought
you fended it off, though.” Max interrupted, presumably referring to what had
happened earlier.

“I fended
it off.” Jacen agreed. “But that beam is supposed to cut through stuff, or at
least do more damage. The most I was able to do was push it physically back.”
He sighed. “Like I said, the Nexus Force let me *field-test* weapons, which means that they’re not going to be
perfect.”

No-one had
an adequate reply, and so silence reigned for a brief moment before the
as-yet-unnamed woman spoke up once again.

“I might
know someone who can help.” She admitted. All eyes turned to her again.

“Fill us
in.” Offered Max, leaning forward slightly as an indicator of interest.
Interestingly enough (pun… was it a pun? Pun not intended, in any case), the
movement seemed a bit delayed, and a bit sudden – based on the fact that Max
was, well, a robot, Skye reckoned that his leaning forward was not a reaction,
but rather something he had done consciously to indicate interest, since his
body didn’t possess human-like reflexes. At least, that were her guess. He could
have just been stiff or something. Could robots be stiff?

“I have… a
cousin.” The woman explained, anxiously twining her fingers together again.
“He’s a savant, and he’s ex-Nexus Force.” She glanced around at the people
listening to her with a nervous expression on his face. “He could hold his own
in a fight, at any rate, and he… I know it’s weird, but we need more people,
right? Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

“More
people!” Gaia immediately cheered, pumping her fist into the air. Jacen rolled
his eyes.

“Are we
that desperate?” Max asked. “I’d say that’s the question.”

Jacen
folded his arms. “Gaia punching this thing to death, and me shooting it with a
laser, essentially failed. We only got away because we had a jet.” His brow
furrowed as his head began to hang low. “We were able to focus on Skye because
she was undoubtedly the next person in our pattern – but our pattern is based
on distance from one area, and the next two electrokinetics are equal distances
away from said area, so we can’t be sure where they’ll strike next.” He looked
back up at everyone. “Even with Skye’s help, that’s two people for each
location, and that’s not enough for a failsafe for my liking.”

“Aren’t we
strong enough, if we stick together?” Gaia suggested. “Me, and your cool
weapons?”

Jacen
nodded. “The strongest duo I can come up with from our current line-up is
probably you and me, Gaia.” He glanced over to Skye, Max, and the other woman.
“No offence.”

“None
taken.” Max said coolly, echoing Skye’s thoughts. She obviously didn’t have as
much combat experience as everyone else.

“But,”
continued Jacen, “if *we* teamed up,
that’d leave a less strong group for the other house, and what if they’re
attacked?”

“They *could* manage.” Gaia pointed out. Jacen
nodded assent, though he still looked firm.

“Yes, they
“could”.” He admitted. “But “could” isn’t good enough.” He turned to the other
woman. “I’d say we *are* desperate
enough. Get in touch with this cousin of yours. We’ll need the help.”

“We should
call law enforcement.” Mused Gaia suddenly, from her chair. “I mean, if we need
help, why not them, right?”

Far from
accepting or even positively acknowledging the suggestion, Jacen rolled his
eyes. “We *are* law enforcement, Gaia.”
He said. The words dragged as they came out, slightly, indicating that this
wasn’t the first time we had been spoken. This was confirmed when he said a
heartbeat later: “Remember?”

“Oooooh.”
Gaia nodded in an acknowledging (yet still hyperactive) way. “Yeah, I remember
now.”

The woman
nodded. “I’ll go call him.” At that, she stood up and left the room, walking in
a very confident manner when compared to her timid earlier reactions. Perhaps
she was the sort of person who drew confidence from concrete goals. Maybe. Skye
mentally noted this information down.

“Okay, well.
As much as I want to discuss this further, it’s late. Now that we have a
semblance of a plan, the rest of us really ought to get settled in. Get some
sleep. All that fun stuff.” Jacen remarked. It seemed to be as formal a
dismissal as could be expected – Max and Gaia both rose from their chairs, the
latter stretching her arms and yawning. Skye heard a number of cracks from
Gaia’s joints, and frowned in spite of herself. She *hated* that noise.

“Skye.”
She was drawn out of her thoughts by Jacen, who had also stood up. He was eying
her as with a hint of confusion – as though he wasn’t quite sure what to do
with her (which was fair, all things considered.) “We should find you somewhere
to sleep… uh, assuming you want to stay here?”

She
pondered the question for a moment, but it was honestly something of a
no-brainer. She was collaborating with Pandemonium’s Bane now anyway, it was
already extremely late, and it was logical to assume that this building was
safer than her house.

“You
assume correctly.” She informed Jacen, standing up and ignoring a feeling of
mild irritation that came with the revelation that she still had to look up in
order to look him in the eyes. It was another addendum on the list of things
that irked her about being short. “I’ll stay here.”

Jacen
nodded, otherwise unemotive. “Come with me, then.”

### **Chapter 5: Unknowns**

“Once
again, I’m sorry about all this.” Said Jacen from by Skye’s side.

The two
had taken an elevator up a level, moving from the meeting room to a floor
containing a large collection of bedrooms. Some, like the one with the door
painted a bright pink, were in use. Others, thankfully, were not. Opening the
door to one of the unused rooms, which had a completely plain interior, Skye
shrugged as she acknowledged Jacen’s words.

“Not your
fault.” She said, because it wasn’t. Was the whole situation frustrating? A
little. Did she appreciate having her routine thrown out of whack? Of course
not. But, eccentric as they may have been, these *were* the people who had worked hard to save her life, and they were
also the people trying to bring down whoever was behind the attacks.

“Do you
need anything?” Asked Jacen. She turned to look back at him. The picture of
formality, standing up straight with his hands clasped behind his back, she
couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing here. Everything else seemed, for
lack of a better term, very chaotic. Like the name “Pandemonium’s Bane” was
less of a claim to fame and more of a stroke of irony. But Jacen was obviously
cut from a different cloth to his eccentric fellow deputy and the too-human
robot and the base that had a meeting room with a ceiling covered in glitter.
It was an odd contrast.

Still,
bringing it up with him wouldn’t really have answered his question, so she
settled for waving her hand in what she hoped was a casual fashion.

“I’ll be
fine.” She assured him. “Just tell me what time we have to wake up tomorrow.”

“We’ll be
awake at seven.” Jacen said without missing a beat. “Sleeping in probably
wouldn’t be all that professional of us.”

A five
o’clock wakeup it was, then. She nodded. “Sounds good.”

With all
of that being said (it was truly a riveting conversation), she shut the room’s
door and sat down on the bed with a sigh. A lot had happened in the past hour
or two – it was time to sit back and process. What did she know?

1 –
someone was attacking Savants, specifically electrokinetics (such as herself).

2 – either
the someone was using a robot (or possibly robots) to do their dirty work, or
they *themselves* were a robot (or
robots).

3 – there
was a pattern of attacks in that the locations were moving further and further
away from a specific area.

4 – it
made sense that whoever was *behind*
the attacks either lived in that specific area, or at least had their base of
operations stationed there.

For a moment,
Skye wondered why Pandemonium’s Bane (or anyone else) hadn’t already gone
through the area of origin and found whoever was behind the attacks, before
realising that they essentially only just been put on the case, and their time
had been spent creating the pattern and then protecting both her and whoever
was next on the pattern. These guys were supposed to be protectors of the
people (apparently anyway) – it made sense that protection would be a higher
priority than anything else. Skye, though? Her job description, as she saw it,
was to solve mysteries and bring people to justice. (It was, of *course*, a lot more complicated than
that, but that was the general gist of it at any rate.)

So now, to
think.

If this
person was using a robot to do their dirty work (which seemed more likely than
them actually *being* a robot,
considering that basic AIs and computer systems were commonplace throughout the
Nimbus System whereas Maddox remained the only robot Skye had ever met that
even had a chance at passing for human), then they had to have something to
hand. Either finances or resources. The fact that it had remained undamaged by
her electrokinesis, Gaia’s blows, *and*
Jacen’s experimental weaponry lent weight to this idea, because a lot of things
– she figured – would have at least taken *some*
damage.

If this
person was solely targeting electrokinetics, and able to actually *find* them, then – she realised with a
jolt – they probably had access to the records that the Nexus Force would have
made in leigh of the Nexus Implosion. That meant that either this person worked
in a certain position *within* the
Nexus Force, or they were being helped by someone who did. Which was pretty
bad.

The fact
that the (assumed) robot hadn’t made any attempt to pursue them once they had
gotten in the jet was interesting, too. Either whoever it was didn’t care all
that much about their quarry, or the threat of retaliation from the members of
Pandemonium’s Bane had made it back off. *Or*
it didn’t have the capabilities to chase them, which seemed to make the most
sense – it hadn’t been able to fly after them, so there was nothing it could
have done.

Capabilities…
as she thought of it, she realised that if it really *was* only electrokinetics that it was going after, then it made
sense for the bot to be modified specifically to combat electrokinetics. Of
course it had been resistant to at least her attacks – it had probably been
coated with either an insulator (perhaps it was made of a non-conductive
metal?) or made out of something resistant to electricity. And the gas… she
thought hard. Clearly, the strategy implemented when taking electrokinetics was
to knock them out with knockout gas (it hadn’t been that effective when it had
been used against her and Gaia (even if she *had*
had a respirator) – maybe it was designed to be used indoors, or in close
quarters?) and then carry them off to who knew where. And the resistance to
electricity was an obvious safeguard in case the kidnappee decided to fight
back (as a kidnappee may well decide to do). It had been able to fight as well,
which was interesting. There had to be *someone*
involved who knew something about all that, then. AND the figure had thrown
some kind of grenade at Jacen while he had been attacking it, so this person
had access to some kind of firepower (possibly military?).

She had,
of course, noticed that the flames in the explosion the grenade had caused had
been tinged with green – she had seen shades of it amongst the typical
orange-yellow. The fact that the flames were coloured meant that there had to
be some type of other chemical involved, but the fact that they weren’t *fully* coloured lent credence to the idea
that it was, perhaps, unintentional. Or maybe it was? She couldn’t say for
sure, motive-wise. What she *did* know
was that the most common element that produced a green flame was copper, which
mean that – unless it was another material she was unfamiliar with – there had
been traces of copper inside the grenade. Again, whether it was purposeful or
accidental, she couldn’t say. But it seemed like a key detail to keep in mind.

The fact
that there was an obvious pattern was interesting. There was, of course, every
chance that this kidnapper just hadn’t considered spicing things up to make
them less traceable – but then again, there was the option that they were doing
it on purpose. Were they trying to draw attention to themselves? Ultimately,
she shelved the idea – it made little sense for someone to purposefully create
a pattern that could be tracked. Yes, it was still possible, but it was best to
ignore the idea unless something concrete supporting it came up.

Why would
someone do this? That, she didn’t really have a clue. She couldn’t see why
anyone would not only go to the effort of kidnapping people, but specifically
savants, and *specifically*
electrokinetics. It had to be some kind of personal reason, and as it stood,
she knew too little about whoever it was to come to any sort of meaningful
conclusion.

Yes, Skye
lamented, there was still a depressing amount that she did not know.

### **Chapter 6: "Andrew"**

As Jacen
had warned, the morning had essentially started pretty quickly. Skye had woken
up early, as per normal for her, so that by the time she had reconvened with
Pandemonium’s Bane she had been actually awake. She had been the *most* awake out of all of them, as it had
turned out – Gaia had sat down at the table and immediately fallen back asleep,
the other woman (whose name, as it turned out, was “Rose”) had looked pretty
unfocused throughout the whole briefing, and Jacen had drunk at least three
cups of coffee in the space of about twenty minutes. Only Max had joined Skye
in the wonderous land of “being a morning person”, which was ironic, seeing as
whether or not he was technically a “person” was still up in the air.

Once that
rather odd experience had finished, everyone had quickly gotten their acts
together (or, at the very least, made *attempts*
to do so) and after Skye had been made to sign a waiver (to confirm that she
was in fact working with them on her own free will and that any injuries she
suffered would be on her own head), she and Rose had found themselves dropped
off in front of a block of flats by Jacen and Gaia, who had then flown away in
the bullhead. From there, they had gone to the trouble of walking up a few
flights of stairs for the asset that apparently was Rose’s superpowered,
ex-Nexus Force cousin. Skye herself was reserving judgement.

“Is this
the place?” Skye asked from the shadow of the block’s stairwell. Rose, who was
standing outside the door of one of the flats with her hand poised to knock, turned
to look back at her and nodded.

“Yes.” She
confirmed.

Skye
folded her arms, not moving any closer, out of indifference (and, though she’d
be loathe to admit it, a certain discomfort at meeting yet another new person
in such a short space of time). After a second of silence, Rose turned back to
the door and rapped on it smartly. Several long moments went by until, finally,
the door opened. From her vantage point by the stairs, Skye caught sight of a
dark-skinned man wearing a worn T-shirt and holding a pair of drum sticks. The
tips of his black hair were dyed shades of red, making him look a bit like a
rooster. His brow was furrowed as he opened the door, and he was halfway
through a sentence: “…if you want me back, you’ll have to *drag* me back!”, but Skye saw his expression rapidly shift as he
caught sight of his cousin standing in the doorway and fell silent.

“Rosie!”
He exclaimed loudly, enveloping her in a hug (still holding the drumsticks).
Rose huffed softly as the breath was squashed out of her, but returned the
embrace nonetheless. He laughed. “It’s been too long!” Letting her go, he
stepped back and ruffled her hair. “How’ve you been?”

“Good.”
Rose said, smiling. “But I’m actually, uh, here on business. Sort of.”

“Business?”
Turning around, the man saw Skye standing by the stairs for the first time. He
first raised one eyebrow, then lowered it, then smirked and turned to his
cousin. “Rose, won’t you introduce us?”

Rose sent
him a look that reeked of “*don’t*
embarrass me*” before stretching her arms out. “Andy, this is Skye. She’s an*
independent investigator who’s giving us a hand. Skye, this is my cousin,
Andrew Hargrove.”

“Andrew”
shuddered. “Can’t remember the last time someone actually called me that.” He
admitted, with the air of someone who was telling a lie and wishing it wasn’t.
“Andy’s fine.”

“Charmed.”
Said Skye, walking out of the shadows. Not spending any more time on
introductions (which she could appreciate), Andy turned back to Rose with his
arms folded.

“So.” He
said. “What do you need my help with, anyway?”

“Well…”
Rose tugged on the sleeves of the hoodie she was wearing. “It might take a bit
of time to explain. Is it okay if we come in?”

“Okay-a-mundo.”
Andy spun on his heel and strode back into the flat. “Make yourselves at home,
ladies!” He idly called without turning around. Rose and Skye (the latter after
a moment’s hesitation) followed him inside.

The flat
itself was relatively small. Images filled the walls – drawings of various
quality and posters for all sorts of things that Skye didn’t recognise. It was
a splash of abrupt colour, and she couldn’t help the whiplash-esque feeling
that came with seeing so much colour diversity just a second after standing in
a plain and undecorated hallway.

Also
strewn throughout the rooms that Skye could see were various musical
instruments – two guitars, a keytar, even a dinky mouth-organ on a shelf. Andy
sat down on a stool positioned behind a drum kit, where he leant his head back
on his hands and twisted his wrists, sending a series of resounding clicks
throughout the room. Skye noticed Rose flinching slightly, but kept most of her
focus on Andy. He was the picture of a man at ease, gaze flicking between his
two visitors without dropping the cool and smirk-y expression on his face.

“We need
your help.” Rose said, before explaining to Andy the situation in way succinct
yet informative enough to leave Skye impressed. When Rose had finished her
explanation, Andy gave no immediate answer, instead leaning as far back on the
stool as it could be safely advised. He was still leaning his head on his
hands. Several moments passed, and still Andy not only didn’t answer, but gave
no indication that he was *considering*
an answer.

Skye was
about to ask him if he was actually considering their question, or if he needed
the story repeated to him, but he suddenly stood up from the stool.

“I’m in!”
He said, flashing them a thumbs up. “Let me just get all my stuff together,
‘kay? I’ll be right with you.” And, with that, he marched out of the room, the
image of a man determined.

“That was
quick.” Skye mused. “And extremely informal.” She turned to Rose. “So. You’ll
think he’ll help with this whole situation?”

Rose
nodded. “Like I said, he’s ex-Nexus Force. I don’t know how much experience he
has, of course, but he’ll have gone through basic training, at least.”

“Hurrah.”
Skye said sarcastically.

Rose
frowned. “Maybe it doesn’t sound like a lot, but as far as I was aware, we
needed all the help we could get. And for what it’s worth, I trust him.”

Skye,
whilst not exactly bothered that Rose was bothered, held up her hands in a
placating gesture nonetheless. “Hey, I never said it wasn’t a good idea.” It
was true – she had implied, yes, but she hadn’t literally said anything about
it. Thus, she wasn’t lying. Such was the power of pedanticity. “But what can I
say? I’m meeting a load of new people. I also almost got kidnapped yesterday.”
She shrugged, as if she was referencing something far more casual than a
near-kidnapping experience. “It’s been hectic.”

“Sounds
like a fun way to spend a weekend.” Andy interjected, ducking back into the
room where the others were waiting. He was wearing a leather jacket, and there
was a large bag slung over one shoulder, like he couldn’t decide whether he’d
rather look like a biker or a hitchhiker. “Where do I sign up?”

“Right
here.” Rose produced a slightly crumpled form from her pockets. “Ridiculous, I
know, but you *do* actually need to
sign something if you want to help us. So that if you get injured or maimed,
it’s on you and not on us.”

“Fantabulous.”
Andy darted back across the room to snatch a pen from the top of a chest of
drawers. “I can accept that.”

“You’d
better. Those are the rules.” Remarked Rose, as Andy scribbled his signature on
the form.

Skye
watched the whole interaction with her arms folded, nonplussed.

“Any
chance we could get moving?” She asked. In all honesty, she liked to think of
herself as a patient person, but had it not previously been emphasised that
their situation was a dire one? That time was of the essence, that they had
people to protect? The inconsistency was astounding. Rose nodded in a serious
sort of way, but Andy just did finger guns in her direction. She resisted the
urge to tell him to pull the trigger.

“Let’s
go.” She said. “We should… we should, uh… yeah.” Inspiring speech over and done
with, she darted out of the room.

“She has
such a way with words.” Said Andy, voice sincere in a contrast to his obviously
sarcastic words. Skye looked back at him quizzically. He raised an eyebrow and
grinned, in a sort of “what are you going to do?” gesture.

Rolling
her eyes, she followed Rose out the door – the other woman was standing in the
hallway, flicking through something on her phone.

“Where’re
we headed, then?” Andy asked before Skye could, darting forwards and leaning
his head on Rose’s shoulder as he tried to look at her phone. She clutched it
to her chest, glowering at her cousin.

“Give me a
moment!” She insisted. “I’m checking the location on the map now.”

Right, the
location that they were supposed to go to in order to guard some
electrokinetic. Reminded of their purpose, she eyed Andy warily. This’d be
interesting.

“Do you
have the location?” Andy asked, trying to peer over Rose’s shoulder. Rose
ducked away, holding the phone closer to her chest. The reaction seemed to fit
with her non-confrontational sort of personality. Skye herself probably would
have just hit Andy in the face by that point. Though she was aware that she was
*particularly* brittle in terms of
personality, more so than average.

“I’m
getting there!” She insisted, looking back at the phone. “Ah- here.” She held
it up, letting both Andy and Skye peer at it.

“Twenty-three
minute drive.” Skye read, before looking up at Rose. “But we don’t have a car.”

“You
don’t?” Asked Andy, giving a jolt of surprise.

“We
don’t.” Confirmed Rose.

Skye was
about to ask for the phone so she could see how long it would take to *walk* to their destination when Andy
stepped forward, smoothing his hair with his hands and letting his quiff flop
back down over his forehead.

“You’re in
luck, ladies.” He said. “I may or may not be in possession of… a car.” He said
these last words with something of a flamboyant flourish, waving his hands like
a magician. Acting, she reasoned, like he’d magically solved all of their
problems with a wave of his hand.

“Oh,
that’s- that’s great!” Rose said. “Okay, let’s go. The sooner we get there, the
better.”

Skye
nodded, and the trio began to descend back to ground level.

“Now what’d
you girls do without me, hmm?” Andy asked, the self-satisfaction evident in his
voice.

“Be there
already.” Reasoned Skye, remembering the flying bullhead that had dropped them
off. Andy brushed her jab aside.

“You know
you’re grateful to have me along!”

As she
blotted out his grating voice, all Skye could think was: no, she really wasn’t.