The Indestructibles

## The Quick View

Here, we meet The Indestructibles, starting with Doc Silence. He assembles the team, starting with Jane at the Hawkins Farm, Kate Miller on the streets of the City, Billy Case in an alley fight, Titus Talbot hunting for his dinner, and Entropy Emily as she's basically destroying New York City. What does he have planned for this "collection of fruitcakes and small gods" as Kate Miller sees the others. How will their very different skill sets combine to become a force of protection? What is a sentient storm? And who are these mercenaries?

## The Deep Dive

**Warning. Here Be Spoilers.** This is a detailed synopsis of this book. If you do not want to know all the gritty details, stop reading now. Go buy the book if you do not have it yet, and then come back to refresh your memory, Amazon.com / Author Website

**Prologue: Once on a Farm**

**Doc Silence** heads to the Hawkins farm, where he comes to meet **Jane Hawkins**. Jane was adopted by the John and Doris Hawkins, moreso, she was hidden here for her safety because Doc and his cohort recognized that the baby girl who survived the plane crash was special, and would only become more special as time goes by. Doc explains these facts, disappointed that Annie is not there to help him explain this situation to a very confused and reluctant Jane. There had been an incident. The time had come. The Hawkins family had raised many special children before. And now it was time for Jane to leave them, and to on her new path.

**Chapter 1: The Girl In the Clouds**

The cyborg, **Agent Black**, and eyepatch-sporting **Rose**, both mercenaries, observe a girl in a glass case, hooked up to tubes and wires. She's described as brain-dead, and her family had been duped into giving her body away. They turn their attention to another glass display filled with a mysterious electrically-charged mist. Rose informs Agent Black this is a sentient storm that was captured off the coast of Norway. **Doctor Wegener** is ushered in by security, unsure that what they're asking him to do is going to work. Rose insists it will; Agent Black is there to exterminate the doctor if the plan does not work. The comatose girl is inserted into the chamber with the storm, The plan, it turns out, is to insert the storm into the girl's body. During the violent process, a power outage results in the human-storm hybrid busting through the glass and busting out through the ceiling, out into the night.

**Chapter 2: The Tower, The City**

Jane is out for a fly-around the City, where she now lives in The Tower with Doc Silence. Jane loves to fly, and is taking in her new surroundings from such great heights. The tower has been the home of three generations of superheroes, people like Doc, like Jane, like others. Jane returns to the Tower where Doc is in repose in the Command Center. Doc pulls up a screen with other potential superhero candidates on it, and asks if Jane would like some company. Jane is open to the idea of bringing some more students into "Hero University." Doc decides to go on the first recruitment mission solo.

**Chapter 3. The Dancer**

Kathy, age seven; Katie, age eleven; Katherine, age thirteen, Miller. Her whole life, she is focused on her dancing, her training, her growth, her potential. She is perpetually belittled by her instructor to always be better. *You'll never amount to anything. You'll never get into a great dance company.* "I am better than this," she tells herself. *You must do better.* "I am better than this." At a stoplight on the way home from an audition in Manhattan, our dancer is age 13. The family is carjacked by masked men. Her dad attempts to escape the situation by ramming on the gas, only to be shot in the head during the attempt. After the accident that results from her father's murder, Kate, as she is now known, is in rehab, rebuilding her strength. Kate survived the crash, but her mother did not. Fourteen year old Kate works to learn to walk, regain control of her body. Her therapists tell her she is doing great. "I am better than this," she says. She is now 16 years old, the refined ballerina begins to evolve her skillset to include martial arts. At age 18, **Kate Miller** calls herself The Dancer, a masked vigilante who runs through the City at night fighting crime. After a beatdown on a local gang, Doc Silence offers to help her be better. She accepts.

**Chapter 4. The Parasite**

**Billy Case** has a problem, there's something living in his head. It is an alien. An honest to goodness alien. It does not have a name, he calls it **Dude**. He can talk to Dude just by thinking thoughts in his head. Dude hears them, and responds, and only Billy can hear him. Billy can also shoot bright blue beams of light out of his hands, and is practicing in an alley. Dude informs Billy they have a nemesis, enemies. The Bender Brothers, Christopher and Kevin, and their smarmy sidekick Nick Carney are headed to start something. Billy's eyes begin to glow the same blue as his hand lasers, but Dude stops him from blasting his attackers. The three bullies begin a beatdown, while Dude holds Billy's powers in check. It's only when Kevin Bender whips out a knife that Dude loosens up the reins and allows Billy to defend himself and unleash his wrath. He blasts the brothers as Nick Carney takes off running. While Billy is winding up a giant blast to finish the fight, his attack is redirected by Doc Silence. The Bender Brothers are encouraged by Doc to leave, and he introduces himself. He informs Billy to inform his passenger that he knew Horizon. He informs Billy that Dude is really named Straylight, and he needs the alien's help. Dude lets Billy know this is true, and that is their name together. Dude says he's willing to help Doc Silence, Billy is concerned that Dude is going to leave him, because "Everybody always leaves." But no. Billy comes too.

"This is the weirdest day of my life," Billy says. "It will get weirder," says Dude.

**Chapter 5: Full Moon**

**Titus Talbot** was always afraid of the dark and monsters lurking around every corner, but shortly after his sixteenth birthday those fears vanished as Titus turned into a werewolf. Titus has been on the run for two years, unsure of what triggers his transformation and even worse, how to control it. Running the borderlands of Canada and New England, he feels like a 70s TV show about a fugitive who turns into a monster. He eschews cities, During dinner, a buck he hunted down and was in the process of eating, Doc Silence comes to him and introduces himself as a friend. Titus is in full-blown wolf mode and can't vocalize himself as a human, or act like one. He attempts to attack Doc Silence, but Doc deflects the lunge. Switching from fight to flight, Titus, or as he calls himself "furball" opts to run. Disappointingly so, because this is the first person in months who knows his name and he would love to talk. Jane steps in and blocks his path. While the wolf is opting to attack, Titus attempts to rein him in and warn Jane off. He knows the wolf has killed before and she looks like a good next candidate. But Jane punches him right between the eyes. Titus is able to transform back into himself, and everything hurts. Doc Silence explains to him that controlling his powers is something that he can help with. Titus receives the gift of Doc's coat, to cover up his now very naked human form, Jane is slightly embarrassed (as is Titus, of course). Offering a discussion about dispelling the lies about werewolves, and the offer of a meal, Titus expresses his desire for a cheeseburger, well done.

**Chapter 6: Entropy**

A young girl is jaywalking with reckless abandon across a street in New York City when a silver car comes flying at her down the road. *How can they not see me*, she wonders. Hair of nuclear blue, t-shirt of equally neon hue, she flings her hands up to stop the car. The driver is checking her text messages, and never would have seen **Entropy Emily** in her path. While this was not her intent, the silver sedan is now flying through the air, with a now undistracted driver. Attempting to stop the airborne car with flailing arms and a lot of vocalizations, another car comes down the road. Emily has the car frozen in mid-air when she sees the next vehicle. Figuring it worked once, she flings her arms at the car, which crumples into the asphalt. Realizing that when she turned to stop car two, car one is now earthbound. It lands on an empty parked car, and Emily decides to run because now there are explosions, and for sure, they're going to blame her for all this. She realizes she's easy to make with her blue hair and neon shirt, and people begin pointing her out. Having little choice in the matter, knowing she needs to get away, realizing there is now a news helicopter tracking her, she unleashes more of her power as she destroys about a mile and a half of turf on her escape route. "If your only tool is a super-powered hammer, well, then every problem looks like a super-powered nail." Her mom calls on the phone as she is in mid-skedaddle, asking what she's doing. Emily denies this is her, but mom knows the nuclear blue hair is on her child's head. Arguing about her wardrobe basically being her easy identifier, a police car attempts to run her down, but Emily gestures an introduction of police car to fire hydrant. Other police cars encroach, and Emily coin-flips one of them up into the air. Jane catches it, and Emily is pretty much speechless. A bluish-white bolt of light slams into her and lifts her skyward. "Just trust me," says Billy to his new passenger. Safely on a rooftop, Emily gets to ask "what the frig was that?" Billy lets her know they needed to get her out of there so Jane could talk to the press. Emily is confounded, tells Billy maybe she didn't want to be rescued, maybe she wanted to be arrested. Billy lets her know he could take her back. Billy introduces himself, and says they now need to talk to the press since Emily trashed the city. Doc has decided it is time to let the world know. Billy welcomes her to the club. "What club is that?" she asks while examining his glowing blue eyes. "The freakshow," Billy tells her. "I have some bad news for you kid. You're superhuman."

**Chapter 7: Suits**

At HQ in the Tower, Kate is nonplussed, unimpressed, and expressing zero interest in or care about the recent "collection of fruitcakes and small gods" Doc is bringing back. The large table in the center of the room is emblazoned with a giant logo of a comet encircling the earth. She figures it has symbolic meaning and pretends not to care. "She exercised a blanket polity of pretending not to care about the past." Her first impressions of the others begins with Jane. "Doc's little prodigy" is okay, with her red yellow hair. She is nice enough and trying to be friendly but Kate has absolutely no interest. She is trying not to like anyone here. Jane is "a little too nice, a little too perfect," but also the right amount of genuine. Kate isn't interested in being friends with anyone even with cool skills like flying and melting steel with bare hands. Next she observes Billy. He is neither nice, nor perfect, and certainly not genuine. She thinks of him as the "human laser show" and can't understand why an "idiot like him got to walk around with the kind of trippy powers he possessed." Kate is a little jealous. He also seems to be enjoying this too much. "People shouldn't want to be heroes." Titus is coiled up in a chair like an animal, uncomfortably. He seems like he just wants to escape, and she feels like he is sizing her up to figure out how to rip her apart. The new girl arrives, Younger than everyone else and possessing "more energy than a Chihuahua on a caffeine high" she pops bubbles constantly, and when she isn't blowing bubbles she is talking about something inane. Kate would like to throw her off the tower roof to see if she can fly, and hopes she can't.

Emily is trying to figure out what Doc has in store for them. A field trip to Disney? "Disney would be rad" she says, but feels that "Space Mountain isn't as exciting when you can fly." Knowing Kate is one who cannot fly, Emily hangs the bait out of "No offense" and Kate stares her down. Doc appears in the Elevator to say there's no field trip planned. An exposition of the Elevator and its powers comes in, and Kate realizes Billy, the "smiling little arrogant nitwit" has something in his head when he tells Dude "told you so." Titus makes a joke about voting someone off the tower, and Kate laughs about it, knowing that he has barely said anything and here is a joke gave it a bit more emphasis. Doc says it is about leaving the tower, but better equipped. "Jeans and Chuck Taylors aren't going to do much for you in a fight."

Doc brings them to a chamber where a computer, machine the size of a small car, and a tube big enough to fit a human await them. He tells them that this is the tailor, and Jane guesses that this is where the costumes are made. Doc tells them his friend Annie made this years ago, she has technology no one else has access to. Doc charges them to think about their powers, and to think about what they need to keep themselves safe.

He looks to Kate. Fabrics in the machine are such that no one has even invented them yet. She can make use of their durability and strength, which is stronger than Kevlar. Kate appreciates this as she's trying to figure out how to be on equal footing with bulletproof girl and werewolf. The team discusses their options. Titus feels no clothing for him would be necessary because whenever he changes, whatever he has on is destroyed. Jane suggests something in a fabric that expands with changing mass, and Titus thinks a werewolf in a bodystocking is not an option. Billy attempts to get in on the computer and Jane swats him away. "Suit yourself," Billy says, If you want to end every battle buckarse naked, that's your prerogative." Titus is irritated with Billy, and he blushes when he makes eye contact with Kate. He decides to try out some form of shorts to wear under his clothing, so he won't end up naked all the time.

The team returns to the conference room and Kate hangs back, literally, in the rafters. Doc lets her do what she wishes. Titus has retained his regular clothing, and Doc asks if he had "no luck" with the tailor. Titus reveals his shorts, and Doc approves. Jane enters, and Kate rolls her eyes. Jane has concocted a gold and red superhero outfit, and has turned herself into an emblem. Long sleeves, form-fitting top, High red boots, she looks like a rocket. "A cape, a goddamned cape," Kate notices. Red at the shoulders and fading to blue at the hem. A skirt, which Kate finds ridiculous, like a cheerleader. Doc says "I'd say it is better to put function over form, Jane. But you grew up around all those photos on the farm..." The Hawkins family had raised many superheroes. Jane says that she knew they were symbols, "They wanted to look like something. The form mattered." Doc agrees, and says that it's good to try it, and they can always go back to the tailor later.

Emily enters. Titus covers his eyes, Jane blanches, Doc laughs. From page 36, the description of Emily's "outfit" is:

*"Emily wore a neon green top, emblazoned, appropriately, with the nuclear hazard symbol in black and white. She had black pants contrasting almost appropriately with the green of her shirt, but the nuclear symbols, repeating down her legs in neon blue to match her hair, destroyed all subtlety. Massive, knee-high combat boots with too-thick soles that echoed back to bad fashion choices of the late 1990s covered her feet. Fingerless gloves - also black - with her apparent choice of personal symbol on the palms, gripped her hands. And, inexplicably, a scarf wrapped her neck, the most hideous scarf Kate had ever seen, striped in a barrage of bland, washed out colors. It was at least ten feet long."*

Billy enters the room, sums up the look as "Holy crap, you look like a girl comic books threw up on. Is Eyesore going to be your hero name?"

A discussion about the scarf ensues, Billy saying that Hogwarts wants its neck-ware back. Emily is stunned. He calls her Harriet Potter, and she lets them know this is "the Doctor's" scarf, from Doctor Who. They have no idea what she is referencing. the black hole where her heart should be, she's bigger on the inside, she toys with her steampunk goggles (which of course complete the look) and then points out Billy's gear, hoping everyone will make fun of him. But there is little to mock. His streamlined suit is white and blue, with a half mask to hide his identity. White piping to catch the light of his blasts, he looked actually pretty good, and the lack of comedy takes the fire out of the room. Kate drops from her hiding place. "You look like you could murder someone with your pinky," Emily says.

Her suit is all clean lines with a slightly sci-fi look, extra padding over vital organs and soft tissue. Cloaked in black and very dark purple, each of her important strikers covered in Tungsten caps. For as long as she'd been a vigilante, she needed to be careful not to break anything but now, she is protected. Added to the ensemble is a tactical belt, and thin gauntlets on her wrists. Titus gazes upon her admiringly, which she finds uncomfortable. Billy calls back the joke about Disneyland and the field trip, but Doc lets them know "If you're going to go up against your first supervillain, you should look the part, right?" Emily has trepidation.

**Chapter 8: Distribution**

They stand outside the base of operations for Distribution, their first supervillain. Billy finds the name Distribution amusing because he wears a suit of body armor that uses kinetic energy to create and distribute strength, AND he's a drug dealer. Jane doesn't think this is funny. She approaches a high end vehicle in the parking lot outside, lifts the car up by the bumper, and drops it as easily as flopping down a playing card. Kate and Titus hide in an alleyway. The plan is for Jane and Billy "the big guns" to take on Distribution himself while Kate and Titus take care of the follow-up goons. Titus prepares to transition and apologizes to Kate for whatever he's about to do. Kate is astonished that this Distribution guy actually wears a fedora. Billy is cautioned by Dude to watch out for this guy, and Jane strikes first. Distribution doesn't even flinch from her punch to the face, and brushes her aside. The shooting begins from Distribution's posse. Titus leaps into action as the wolf, Kate allowing the wolf to get into it first. Titus controls his attack, instead of ripping people to shreds, he throws them. Instead of biting a neck, he bites a shoulder. Kate comes in and fights like a dancer.

Jane and Distribution are in a fight, but Distribution's suit is just absorbing her blows. He is then striking back with greater energy. Billy gets off a light blast, but the suit absorbs it and Distribution is able to fire right back at Billy. Billy and Dude try to figure out where the power absorbing source is in the suit, the "thingy" as billy calls it. Billy is surprised when Dude takes over his vision. Is he Billy or Straylight now? Billy/Dude asks Jane to hold Distribution still for a minute. He explains where the energy hub is on the suit, and how if he just has a clear shot. Jane gets an idea and asks Billy to "Distract him for a minute."

Kate and Titus are having an easier time with the peons. None of them seem interested in protecting their boss, most are injured and on the pavement. One gangster approaches Kate with a "beast of a gun." Kate believes that the gangster is going to shoot Titus, but he shoots her instead. The body armor does an excellent job at protecting her, but it still hurts like "a kick from a horse." She falls to the ground, the last shot hitting her shoulder instead of her head. She doesn't see what Titus does, but she hears it. "It sounded like wet paper being torn to shreds."

Billy pulls his distraction moves, flashing at Distribution's face. Billy notices how young this person is, as he says he always thought professionals would come after him but "Instead I get the teeny bopper brigade. This is disappointing." Jane shorts out the power core on the back of the suit, and punches Distribution in the face again. This time he drops. Jane grabs Distribution by the collar of his suit, as Titus howls. He takes off in a rage, destroying property as he goes. Jane and Billy come to Kate's side, where she is finally able to sit up. "I wasn't good enough," she thinks to herself. She tells them Titus went "Berserk" when she got shot. Jane drops Distribution to the ground to go find Titus but Kate stopped her. Kate wants to go find him. Limping away, she hears Titus howl again. "You don't need super powers. You just need to be better."

She finds Titus with another goon in a parking lot. Titus is slavering and ready to attack. Kate speaks to him, he turns to her and she is honestly afraid. She had watched him in training, but never saw this full fury. She shows him she is okay, that it is all okay. The goon escapes and that's fine, she's got Titus back. He is full wolf but assessing her injuries, touching gently where she'd been shot, examining the damaged armor. He transforms back into his human form, tells her he is glad she's okay, and then collapses, with a giant knife sticking out of his back.

**Chapter 9: Interlude, The Storm**

The sentient storm is tearing across the South Pacific, thinking of her mother. Her mother was beautiful but left her behind, storms have a short life span, you know. She had been finding her own way, until they found her. She felt something in the center of her being, a little voice, crying for help. It begged her to stop.

**Chapter 10: Leadership**

Emily is annoyed that Doc didn't allow her to go on the first mission. Doc calmly addresses all her concerns but, that girl can argue. The more important issue right now is the rest of the team, is Titus. His wound is self-healing. Jane is watching. Doc explains to Emily that she doesn't have the right control yet to go on a mission. Jane throws cars, yes. On purpose. If you learn to not fling them by accident, you can go on the next mission. Emily attempts to storm out but the scarf provides comedic and unintended consequences, and she has to storm out twice. Doc and Jane discuss the readiness, and Jane says she doesn't think they are ready for this. Doc says his old team "saved the day for twenty years" and still never thought they knew what they were doing. Jane is incredibly upset that they almost lost Titus. Doc says Titus' breed will live for hundreds of years unless he catches a silver bullet in the heart. Jane says she doubts her own leadership and suggests that Kate lead. He disagrees and tells Jane "The world, Jane. The world will look up to you." Jane is not convinced that what the world thinks is at all important.

**Chapter 11: Gravity**

Doc had taught Jane a trick to help her when flying, to stick one arm forward. She hoped to not need it someday, but, she felt it made her look heroic. Jane doesn't mind looking heroic while flying. Jane and Billy are flying 20 miles off the Atlantic Coast, 50 feet above the water, and Billy does not need any tricks or devices to fly. Dude takes care of the flight. Jane is more self-reliant, but Billy relies on his alien to get around. And then, there is Emily. Emily can "fly" in that she floated, and kept up, but she remained airborne and that was enough. Billy calls Emily a menace and laughs, but not like a bully - he's developing a fondness for her weirdness. Emily says she is a reject from the "Cirque de Moliére" instead of the Cirque de Soleil. They ask how she flies and she says pixie dust. As she tries to adjust and move around to keep from falling in different directions. She says that she thinks of it as a bubble, a "bubble of float" that surrounds her. Jane reaches out to touch Emily's shoulder to straighten her out and suddenly began to plummet. As she's headed straight for the surface of the ocean, Billy swoops in to prevent the crash. Returning to Emily and discussing the Bubble of Float, Emily says it is about 8 ft wide in her mind. Jane asks her to make it smaller. Think of the bubble as a little ball of light in the center of her. Emily is doubtful. She makes the bubble small enough to center in herself, and they test by having Billy touch her shoulder. The test is a success, and Emily realizes she can expand her bubble, and cause Billy to plummet in anti-gravity as well. Jane rescues him this time.

**Chapter 12: The Failsafe**

Doc and Kate observe Titus transforming back and forth from human to wolf and back. It is a painful process, violent and at times Titus' body is fighting with itself, especially when transforming back to human form. Titus has to convince the beast to let go. It is not a cooperative release. Kate realizes her life is all about control, and watching her friend not able to exercise that control over his process is troubling and causes her heart to ache. She watches Doc as he observes, realizing that he's not watching with a scientific eye but almost a parental one. She knows he favors Jane, but has a deep empathy for Titus. Kate asks Doc why he picked her for this team. There's a werewolf, a sun goddess, a kid with an alien parasite, and a girl with a baby black hole where her heart should be. And then her. Doc tells her she was a hero before anyone else on the team knew they even had powers. Kate says she's not a hero, she was assaulting people without the permission of law enforcement. He says that she put on a mask to try and make the world a better place. If she is self taught, self motivated, it is those who take it upon themselves to make a difference, they appreciate the work more. She questions if she was better off on her own, alone. Doc says that isn't the timeline they are in right now. She questions the "timeline" and he waves her off.

Doc explains that when he was part of a team previously, something very bad almost happened. They realized they needed a Failsafe. "If ever we lost control. Someone who knew how to shut us down. Who could be trusted with our weaknesses in case - " And Kate knows. "In case you ever had to kill one of your own." Doc shakes his head and says it would be to incapacitate each other. One of us would have to know. Kate knows she's needed to be the failsafe. She's the most logical of the group. She can assess everyone, predict behaviours, analyze the quirks. She is deeply aware of the human condition, and would be able to pick up on it if one of the team would go off the rails. She asks what if she's the one to go off the rails. Doc says that she couldn't stand up to the others combined. And that is her fail safe. Kate ponders - how would she stop the solar powered girl? The stories about werewolves - can you stop them with silver bullets. Doc senses her hesitation. He seems to just know that all the time. He says that she can say no. He says that this information is a burden, but if she's up for the task, it is hers. An alarm alerts them that Jane and the others are returning. Kate points out that Doc was the failsafe. He acknowledges that yes, he was. She asks if he had to kill his friends.

Doc then removes his glasses, which he has never done in front of her before. He cleans his glasses, keeping his eyes closed, and replaces them with a soft smile. He says no, it was worse than having to kill them.

"Much worse...we gave up."

**Chapter 13: Disaster**

A storm hits the coast of South Carolina with literally no warning. The destruction is incredible. Emily gets to go on this mission. Jane surveys the damage from above and Emily floats to her right. Emily rescues an overturned fire truck by lifting it gently and righting it. Jane can see Billy in the distance, working on an apartment building by blasting the walls out to get people out who are trapped inside. Kate scrambles inside and helps people out or guides medical personnel to those she can't help. Emily points to the water, a boat is listed to one side and sinking. They are waving for help. But when she arrives, they aren't sure what to make of a flying girl who asks if the boat will still float if she tries to right it. Trying to work without her legs was difficult. She is eventually successful, the crew is thankful. They ask her name and for the first time she says her name is **Solar**. A Code Name, like a mask or a shield. She coaxes the ship to safe harbor and hears Emily's confused and not quite distressed call for help in her earpiece, which they all have now to communicate with each other. Finding Emily holding two buildings up, each one tipping toward the other Emily is not able to take care of both. Avoiding Emily's gravity bubble so she doesn't plummet to the ground like before, she takes the building on the right. Billy is actually distressed with the level of insanity at hand, he'd rather fight a guy in a super suit than a natural disaster. Emily lifts a car off of a man on the street, Jane flies down to help him out, he needs medical attention immediately. She finds an ambulance a few blocks away, and gets an EMT to come to help, and flies him to the injured man. It takes all kinds of heroes in this situation. Titus is heard through the earpieces, he is back at the tower monitoring the situation and the weather.

"Have you ever seen a hurricane take a ninety degree turn?"

**Chapter 14: Following the Storm**

The team is surprised at the news that the storm has made a turn. Titus is reaching his wit's end, flustered and confused, Emily is asking ridiculous questions about the storm. But Emily's questions aren't really ridiculous. She's right. The storm had worked its way up the coast, and turned a hard fight out to sea. Then, it turned south again and further out to sea, over and over again. It wasn't just unnatural. It seemed deliberate. Billy offered to go follow it, Emily wanted to get that on video to post online when he gets struck by lightning. Billy makes an obscene gesture towards her. Jane agrees it should be tracked but feels it could be tracked from the tower. Doc leans back and watches them interact, deliberate, and lets them make up their minds. Jane is aware that he is not studying their dynamics, but allowing them to create their dynamics. He agrees that they have the equipment to track the storm from the tower, Kate wonders if there is any way to find out where the storm came from, retrace where it was before. Her interjection surprises Jane, who almost forgot she was there. Kate is often like a ghost. Doc likes this idea and tells Kate to tell the AI to look into that. No one knows how to do that. Titus is sitting at the command console, Jane suspected Kate knew more than what she let on, and Emily was fluent in ISL (Internet as a Second Language. But even though Titus was a werewolf, he seemed to have the most comfort with the tech. Doc tells him to talk to it. "It's an artificial intelligence. My friend annie brought it back from...elsewhere," Emily is amused and asks if it has a name.

"*My name is Neal*," the AI answers. He refers to Billy, who just asks incredulously, if it could talk the whole time they were there. He refers to Billy as *Designation Straylight*. "*I am programmed to refer to all members of the institute by their official codenames only as part of security protocol 143.*" Emily asks if Neal is the building, Neal replies "*I am charged with maintaining security and monitoring the safety of all team members.*" Kate is bemused, Billy is confounded, and asks if Jane knew about this as she'd been there the longest. Doc had told her there was an AI in the tower, but she hadn't had the chance to "meet" it yet. Emily asks if it watches them go to the bathroom (of course) Neal says that he's not there to monitor biological functions, but *Designation Entropy Emily* goes to the bathroom point eight times as often as the other team members. Emily confesses that she has to pee a lot. "Don't judge me."

Titus decides to try to get back on task and asks Neal if he could show the storm's movement in reverse, back to its origin. Neal agrees and calls Titus *Designation Fury*, which Emily mishears as "Furry." They argue about Fury vs. Furry. Emily thinks he should have called himself Super Wolf or Wolf Man or something. Titus argues that Emily calls herself Entropy and asks if she even knows what that means. Emily replies: "It's the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe in an ultimate state of inert uniformity. I have a black hole where my heart is supposed to be. I thought it fit." While the argument goes on, Kate finds this all laughable, Jane looks at the monitor as the storm moves in reverse, and disappears. Over and over. She asks Neal to play it forward again and he refers to her as *Designation Solar,* and does so. The storm blossoms from nothing, into a full fireball. Clear sky one moment, and then in a blink a full blown hurricane on the coast. With her enhanced vision, Jane is able to see something, a dark mass in the middle of the storm. She asks Neal to zoom in on that "island," They watch as the AI zooms in on the island that appears no larger than a city block. Emily exclaims "Great Googly Moogly," which she is trying to make her catch phrase. They watch the one building on the eastern half of the island has its roof blasted off. They rewind the video, going back to before the roof disappears. And they watch over and over.

They all realize they need to go to that island and check it out. Doc grabs his trench coat, because he doesn't want them on their own for this one.

**Chapter 15: Bedlam**

Jane approaches the building, which looks like the roof has been punched out by a fist from the inside. Jane can see smoking machinery and broken walls but hears no sign of life. She can hear dripping water, and Billy talking to himself a few yards away, but not to himself, to his brain alien. She asks what they're talking about, and he says he's asking Dude if he can breath underwater. She wonders why he wants to know. He says he just does - if you had the option, wouldn't you want to try it out? He says to Jane that she can do everything else, and suggests they try it. Jane is focused on trying to investigate the building. She sees Emily approaching, with Kate and Titus in her gravity field. She has learned to expand and contract her gravity field to carry passengers. Titus was feeling pretty motion sick, Kate was impassive.

Jane headed to the building, Billy staying close, raising one hand to light the way. Doc is already there, he says he's going to perform a scan of the building for mystical tampering. Emily asks if this is like astral projection. Doc says close enough. He looked like he was asleep but Jane could sense an alertness coming off of him like electricity. She urgest the team on, into the building, three levels down, to the ground floor. It was a lab. A huge window is broken, instruments are everywhere. they examine the room where a large sphere was coated in reflective tile. Kate is listening intently and asks Titus how his hearing is when he is not "wolfed out." He confesses not as good s when he is. Jane says she can hear banging, her hearing is superhuman. Billy can hear it too. They wonder if it is machines, but realize it is too rhythmic. Kate takes off to the shadows with Titus behind her. Jane and Billy decide it is futile to stop her, and Emily goes after them saying "I'm frigging terrified of her."

They discover a prison, but perhaps prison is not the right word. All the doors were open, except one. The hammering they are hearing is coming from the other side. Emily sees the nametag on the doorframe which reads "Bedlam." Kate tries the door handle, but it doesn't open. Emily says "Hey I've got an idea, let's open up the big scary metal door labeled with the word 'bedlam.'" Kate says that Emily doesn't even know what the word means. Emily provides the exact definition of "A place, scene, or state of uproar and confusion, also can be used as a synonym for a lunatic asylum."

Emily says reading the dictionary is more fun than Harry Potter.

Billy and Jane are also there, and Billy says he agrees with Emily. "The door isn't labeled 'puppies.'" The hammering grows louder, Jane tries the handle and the door gives, the massive lock slides open. The door flies off the hinges, Jane and the door are propelled through the nearest wall. Emily screams "Holy carp!" Titus transforms into werewolf. Jane says she's okay but a new voice says "No you're not" from inside Bedlam's room. The sound of hydraulics roaring and robotic feet thumping came from the room. A girl, or mostly girl, stepped forward asking "Who the hell are you guys?" She was mostly girl but a lot of robot. the legs were all cybernetics, silver and black, and were nothing human. One arm was unfinished, but should have been like the legs. the exposed parts all moved. The girl wore black shorts, and a men's tank top. A metal ring on her chest glowed neon green in the middle. Kate was concerned about her face. A young face, ravaged by science, her lower jaw encased/replaced by metal. Her right eye organic but her left a glowing green bauble, surrounded by scars. She wore her hair in a fluorescent orange mohawk that had seen better days, and a tattoo marked the left side of her head. Titus jumps at her, and she swung a robot arm at him, connecting with his head. Kate tells Emily "now would be a good time" but Em doesn't take the hint. Billy charges at her with a football tackle to knock her back into her cell, but overshoots the mark, and plows with the cyborg through two sets of walls and out into the open sky.

Dude and Billy have a chat, Billy says they didn't think it through but Dude says no, Billy didn't think it through. It was a split second decision, Billy thought it was a great idea but Dude says it will end poorly. Billy wasn't sure what he was going to do with her if he tackled her but sure didn't anticipate they'd be flying through the air. They crash into a tree (the only tree at the base) and crash land on the edge of the island. Billy is on top of her, they are face to face, and he says "Do you have a boyfriend?" which is not the best question to ask as Crazy Cyborg Girl headbutts him.

Jane and Doc find them on the beach. Doc is conversationally friendly, Jane wants to kick her ass for blasting her through a wall, and the cyborg tosses Billy at them. Doc introduces himself. She recognizes that they are not one of "them," She asks a few questions about where everyone else is, and Jane is aware that the Frankenstein Monster in front of her is appearing fragile and sad. Realizing she was abandoned, everyone was gone, she's rather angry that the "bastards just up and left me." Doc asks if there were others, she says yes, not like me. Different. All kinds of different monsters and freaks. Kate appears walking slowly towards them, Titus is with Emily, with orders to hold him in a gravity field for safety in case he regains consciousness and is in a rage. The Cyborg asks if they are going to lock her up like the others did. Doc offers for her to come with them, if she likes. She decides to pass.

The cyborg tells her story, how she remembered an accident, and she woke up there afterwards. Jane introduces herself by her name Solar, and her name Jane. The cyborg asks what the sign said on her door. They tell her Bedlam. She likes that, and ops to leave. Jane says if Bedlam ever needs them, and Bedlam says they'll be easy to find. She takes off running, and jumps. Kate finally arrives and updates them that this was a research facility, most of the records are destroyed but it was obvious bad things were going on there. Doc agrees, and they turn their attention to billy.

"I'm not dead. Can head-butting someone be considered a type of flirting?"

**Chapter 16: Control**

Agent Black guides the helicopter over to the secondary lab using his cybernetics to control the vehicle. they touch down and Dr. Wegener, and Rose are in the helicopter as well. Rose and Black tell him that they didn't ship monsters to this new facility, well, just one. Rose drags Wegener from the helicopter to two Cold War Era doors built into the side of the mountain. Rose's "boys," her "ninjas" wait for them. "**The Lady** wants a word" one of them says. Navigating the long corridor, dragging Wegener behind them, they get to the freight elevator and then the extravagant waiting area. Wegener asks who are they really working for, and Black lets him know "There's always someone trying to take over the world... all we're hoping to do is make sure we're being paid by the side with the largest operating budget."

The Lady enters the room, she moves like royalty, even when dressed simply in a white button down shirt and black skirt. Her eyes glowed like lava, with a living, active flame. Black knew not to steal too many glances. If you catch her at the wrong moment, you would see her horns, fanged teeth, and skin the color of sunburn.

But the Lady isn't their employer either, she is more than a pawn in the game like Black or Rose though. She traded in higher currency than money. Black wondered what the employers had offered her to get her into this project. Both Rose and Black know her first name, "Natasha." There is a family resemblance between Rose and The Lady, they could be mother and daughter, or even siblings. Rose is certainly very at ease with her. Both are welcomed by The Lady, and Wegener holds onto the couch to keep from passing out in her presence. The Lady begins to grill Wegener about the control measures that failed, so they can try to bring them back online. Wegener asks if she's a scientist, and she laughs "I'm who you call when science no longer works." The existence of Bedlam has been a sore point between Black and Rose. Rose wanted to "put the girl out of her misery" while Black kept her online and left her behind at the lab to be a "booby trap" for whoever would come to investigate. They discuss the Indestructibles, Rose refers to Titus as a dog boy and says "he's mine" if we have to confront them. Rose's missing eye is probably a good indication of previous run ins with shapeshifters. Black seems to feel the Indestructibles are not a current concern, and says "It'll be years before any of them is a real problem. The video looked like a bunch of toddlers in a bouncy castle." Rose points out that Silence is with them and they discuss whether or not to tell the Lady, or if she already knows. "He's always been her favorite problem." Rose says she's not concerned about Silence, that if he's got the gang back together they might be a challenge but "most of them are dead, off planet, or a hundred years into the future." She doesn't consider the current group an issue. Black says he thinks it is funny, "That we're not the only ones trying to build a better monster."

**Chapter 17: A Game Plan**

The team is back at the tower, Kate is going through physical evidence they've removed from the island. Titus is aware of the beating he's undertaken, being zero for two in battle: a severe stabbing and a technical knockout. Jane mentions Bedlam telling them she wasn't alone, Titus says of the twenty rooms, only 9 of them had evidence of occupancy in them. Emily considers the storm may have been one of the kids. Doc says they don't know if all of the subjects were young people, Bedlam left before they could get more information from her. Billy believes they were indeed all kids based on her tone of voice. She was talking about her peers when she referred to the others.

An argument ensues about Billy knows nothing/Billy just knows even though he has no evidence. Even Jane is pushing back, usually the most stable and least sarcastic of the group, Titus finds it distressing that she's borderline losing her cool. Titus adds that he can't be a hundred percent, but he can track scents "y'know, when I'm wolfing off..." they smelled young to him. Emily says it's "fricken gross" that he can smell people after they're gone. "I thought my powers sucked. You are really cursed." Kate says she would like to get whatever she can off the computers and thumbdrives they've brought back, and she "knows a guy." Doc approves of the initiative, and likes when Kate makes a move on her own. She asks to "borrow" Titus in case she needs backup. Titus doesn't like the term "borrow" so she corrects it to having him watch her back. Doc suggests everyone stay put until Kate and Titus return. Emily is happy with that because she wants to watch Netflix. Jane says she would like to see what's inside the storm, grabbing a departing Emily by the scarf to pull her back. An argument about who is going with Jane follows: Emily wants to watch TV, Billy wants to go with, Jane thinks it is amusing that Billy is worried about her going and reminds her of her invulnerability. He says "That's hyperbole. And you can't punch a hurricane." It is decided Jane is going, Billy's her backup, and Billy insists that Emily is his backup.

**Chapter 18: Cultivating Sources**

Kate hides in the shadows of a small office for hours, noting how she'd always been good with light and shadow but her new suit and gear she feels like she is better at being invisible. Titus is keeping watch on the roof. She's aware that he's somewhat of a liability because of his inability to be sneaky, but found it somewhat reassuring he'd be right there if she called. Her target arrives, a "PYT", pretty young thing of a man. She calls his name, **Andrew**, from the shadows and he is startled. Andrew officially works for a tech startup, but runs his own business in the off hours. Kate knew he'd be there, it is how they met. He was out late, getting mugged, alone in the wrong part of town. Andrew compliments the new uniform, and is happy that Kate has had some recent help. "Not that I think you need help. Or, well, I think everybody could use help sometimes. Even you, Kate." She says she needs a favor, he notes she's the reason he's still walking around. Kate produces a briefcase, and asks if he can retrieve data from partially erased and water damaged hard drives. She's looking for names, for the missing people that may be referenced in the data. Andrew says he will give it a shot, asks her to loop back around the next afternoon. She steps into the shadows, Andrew cannot see her but she speaks thanks from the shadows which once again startles him. She then officially disappears.

Joining Titus on the rooftop, Titus notes Andrew is a good looking guy. Kate asks him if he's interested and Titus flusters. He asks rather awkwardly if Kate and Andrew were ever together. Kate says no, "Who has time for a relationship? We're busy saving the world." Titus says he was just curious because none of them really know much about each other. Kate thinks it is better that way, safer, less chance of something bad happening to anyone's families. The quiet hangs in the air, and Kate tells Titus her parents are dead, unsure why she tells him but feels it's just better to say it in the moment. He asks if she does this for them. She says she does it for herself. "I wish I did it for them. I really do." It was the first time she'd ever admitted this to anyone. "You should be better than that, Katie," she thinks to herself.

Titus says his family never looked for him. He says he checked, and then double-checked at the tower. They filed paperwork for death in absentia on him. He says they knew he was "well, this," and they realized he was never coming home. They sit quietly for a while, Titus says he really wants to find these kids. Kate agrees.

**Chapter 19: Eye of the Storm**

Billy, Jane, and Emily (a hundred feet behind the two competitive fliers) fly fast and low over the Atlantic ocean. Emily is not lagging because she is slow, just as always doesn't seem to care. They see the storm on the horizon. Jane orders Billy to a perimeter scan to get an idea of the dimensions of the storm. She plans on flying in alone, stating she is the "least vulnerable to harm," and that both of them shouldn't be in there in case something happens. Emily is relegated to hanging out a half mile back, and is perfectly happy with that. Billy and Jane both take off like matched rockets, Billy works clockwise around the storm and Jane dives straight in.

The wind is notable, strong but not powerful enough to stop Jane from gaining entry, but forceful enough that she feels a drag in flight speed. She didn't anticipate how bad the visibility would be as she is met with incredible rain and hail, but the clouds themselves cause the biggest challenge. She envelops her lead hand in flame to light her way which does not help. The rain doesn't extinguish her fire, but she feels the water fighting her and senses her own body fighting to keep the lights blazing. Billy feels that the storm is messing with him. He consults Dude who says the storm is a changing shape, creating ridges and patterns to slow him down. Billy asks Dude's advice, Dude says to fly up and over the cloud cover, and fly back to Emily. But "I know you will not listen to me," he adds. Billy decides he's going to fly in, and see if he can find Jane. Of course. Billy hovers, watching the storm fluctuate and change shape. He radios to Emily, who says he sounds like he's on the moon. He reaches out to Jane, who replies in static. Billy interprets this as her needing a hand, and flies in.

Jane knows she is lost, and realizes she only knows where "up" is because her blood rushes to her head if she's pointing the wrong direction. Radio communication with Billy and Emily result in static, and she feels worry (not panic) building. She senses her strength is waning, due to the overuse of the firelight in her hands. The storm hits her - it feels like flying into a wall, a head to toe slam. Then again from another direction, and a third time. As the storm is pummeling her, she catches a glimpse of a girl, for a split second. An ordinary girl, in a hospital gown, with skin the color of clouds and hair of blue. She reaches out to Jane and the storm swallows her up. Jane calls out for her to come back, and she is hit again. She hears Emily's voice, "Maybe...should...straight up?" and so she gathers strength and heads skyward.

Emily was talking to Billy when she said "Maybe she should fly straight up?" Billy feels this is brilliant. Emily begins to fly up as well, trying to get above the storm. She continues to call out to Jane, but Jane is not replying. She gets above the storm and she and Billy get a visual on Jane who is not doing well, "weaving like an airplane out of fuel, spinning and drifting on the air currents." Emily notes Jane is tapped out, "done-zo." Jane reaches skyward, not to point her fist up to aim her flight but grasping towards the sun. The solar-powered girl is out of gas. Billy rushes to her aid as Jane begins to sink. Billy manages to get to her, and reaches out his hand, grabbing her wrist. Her hand is hot enough to burn his skin, he feels as she latches on to him. The storm begins tugging at them both, clouds wrap around her Jane's foot and begin pulling. Billy calls to Emily for help and she replies "Air Emily is flying non-stop to get us the hell out of here-istan." He feels Emily's bubble of float encase him - the world lets go of him, he is weightless. He asks Emily if this is how it feels when she flies. She says it is how she feels all the time, "smiling like a devil, looking like a hero." Billy glances at Jane, who looks exhausted, her eyes sunken and hollow. Emily flies them up, heading as close to the sun as she can take them. Billy asks Dude if this is safe, Dude lets him know he is meant to fly among the stars. But Dude is unsure about the girls. Emily says she has always wondered if she can touch a star if she has a black hole for a heart, but Billy asks if they can not find out today. Jane's skin shimmers like a disco ball, silver and gold playing across her face.

**Chapter 20: Debriefing**

Jane tells the team there's a girl in there. Doc is reviewing the near disaster, the "crap show" the storm investigation had turned into. Doc says he believes her, but, there's a hundred things it could mean. Someone with inherent natural powers able to effect the weather but not able to control herself. It could be a supernatural being. They discuss her appearance, Doc says she could be supernatural. If you believe that werewolves exist, there may be other entities you once thought were myths and legends. Emily quotes Shakespeare's line from Hamlet, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Again, everyone looks at her, she's shocked they're shocked she can quote Shakespeare. Billy says "You act like you're semi-literate half the time, and the other half you're some kind of walking encyclopedia." Emily departs saying that they can find her playing video games and to come get her when they "need someone to mess with gravity." They debate whether or not there is any way any of them would be able to punch the storm. Jane says they can deck an alien symbiote, Doc says their best bet is to wait to find out what Kate is able to uncover on the drives.

**Chapter 21: Test Subjects**

Kate returns from visiting Andrew to pick up the drives. She didn't take Titus with her, and he has a twinge of jealousy over the visit. She grabs him upon entering the building, passing Emily playing video games, and Billy and Jane discussing the storm. In the command center, Kate asks where the USB port is, and lets him know that Andrew reports a kill switch was supposed to be activated if a certain protocol occurred. Titus refers to it as a failsafe, and Kate is surprised to hear him say this, mentally noting the conversation with Doc Silence about their own failsafe protocols. She says the laptop she procured was damaged by water almost immediately, becoming inert before the failsafe virus could be activated. They discuss how nothing is ever really gone or erased, even when you think it may be, and the failsafe did not work on this particular drive. He was able to find files, only a few, not much to go on, but enough. Kate is flustered by the technology and says she's got to get better with computers if she's going to do detective stuff. Titus is encouraging and says she's better than the others. Kate says Jane can Google and Facebook, Billy can find dirty pictures without downloading malware accidentally, and Emily is a part-time Internet troll. They talk about Emily's behaviours, how she can fit in being an Internet troll between crime fighting and being an antagonistic first person shooter video game addict.

Kate brings up a record marked

PROJECT DESIGNATION: Valkyrie Snow

PROJECT RATING: Partial Success

The Overview outlines an attempt to merge a sentient weather pattern, captured off Norway, with the body of an 18-year old human, victim of a hit and run in Miami, FL, who is in a vegetative state. The two phases of the experiment are outlined, and the storm begins to show unexpected intellect and it makes an escape attempt. Extra security measures are put into place. Tracking implants are inserted into the test subject's body, electro-stimulation implants are also inserted to use pain as a control mechanism. And a cortex bomb is placed in the subject's skull for termination of the human component if need be.

Titus is confused by what a "sentient storm" is, Kate is concerned about the cortex bomb and how these people seem to have bought a girl from a doctor in Miami. She thinks it may be a good idea to pay the doctor a visit, see if he remembers the "body snatchers." Titus says they can play good cop, bad cop. Kate says she gets to be the bad cop. Titus says he should be bad cop, because he is a werewolf, and inherently bad cop by definition. Kate agrees, and asks how they should get to Florida since neither of them have flight. They were just discussing how Emily needs a little more responsibility - and should take them down. Titus asks if Emily will have a problem if they play the bad cop card, and Kate says "You haven't seen what she posts online. She might be more evil than either of us."

**Chapter 22: Valkyrie**

**Valerie** was her name, she was born in the Chicago suburbs to parents who married late, retired early, and relocated to Florida when they were tired of the harsh Illinois winters. Their child, a teenager at the time, was too young to stay behind but old enough to be upset by them taking her so far away from the life she built. She began to act out, recklessly, nothing criminal, but drove her car into a truck on I-95. Her best friend died instantly, Valerie ended up in a coma. The last thing she remembered were the flashes of pain and confusion, until the other being took control of her body. She senses the other presence. She knew it was alive, but it never spoke. When she opened her eyes, she could see the storm clouds. Sometimes the ocean beneath her. Flashes of destruction that she knew the storm, and she, were causing. When she closed her eyes, she could see everything. She was the eye of the storm. If she attempted to get away, the electric jolts would tear through her, agonizingly, all the way to her bones. The other being, the storm, took notice of the shocks and diverted the electricity into its storm, out into the cloud as lightning. She could hear the voice, it said "No." She asked if it would let her go, again, it said "No." Then she became aware of the intruder in the storm, and she wanted to go talk to them. The storm was fighting the intruder, Valerie desperately fought to get to her, made eye contact, observed her strange costume, noted the hands on fire. And the girl was swept away.

**Chapter 23: The Hospital**

Emily transports Kate and Titus to Miami Central Hospital, where Kate has discovered Dr. Height's office is on the fifth floor of the sixth story building. Touching down on the roof, Titus is relieved to land and almost kisses the ground. Emily is insulted and says "I rocked this trip." Kate ignores their bickering about the quality of the flight, and whether or not Emily may have almost sort of dropped them while distracted, and heads to the access door. Using brute strength, she attempts to pull it open. Titus has already transformed to his wolf self, she noted that he looked ridiculous in his yoga pants, as Emily called them, and the oversized hooded sweatshirt he preferred wearing, which was very large on him as a human, and appeared one size too small for him as a wolf. Emily calls him "Teenage mutant ninja werewolf." Titus reaches past Kate, and grabs the door handle. It opens with an audible clank when the lock snaps. Kate asks Titus to switch back to human, he's a little conspicuous in this form. Emily points out Kate looks like Assassin Barbie, and that she's the only normal one, appearance wise, among the bunch. Titus does not wish to switch back, and opts to pull up the hood on his sweatshirt, covering his ears and leaving his snout exposed. Emily finds this hilarious and makes a Little Red Riding Hood joke. Kate is not amused, and tries to mask the werewolf's face a little better by adjusting the hood. She advises him to not look directly at any security cameras, and realizes that security probably already knows they are there. They get to the fifth floor door and realize they are at the wrong end of the building. She urges them to move quickly, Emily behind her, imitating her walk, and Titus bringing up the rear. His arms are so long they almost reach the ground, and his werewolf legs look awkward.

They reach the doctor's office easily, deciding to slip in and rifle the office. Entering the office, they encounter the doctor, eating his lunch. he reaches for the phone and Kate launches across the room, disconnecting the phone from the wall. The doctor questions who they are, and Kate says "You've been a bad man, Dr. Height." He claims he doesn't know about the girl whose death he faked, as Emily begins pulling binders off the shelf with her mind. Emily asks which files are for illegal dealings, red ones or blue ones? The doctor protests that those are confidential patient records. Kate asks again, there was a girl in a coma, who paid him to fake her death. He says they aren't the police and they have nothing on him. Realizing he was going to be difficult, she says she does have a werewolf, and asks Titus to come say hi.

The doctor yells about a woman, he doesn't know who she works for, and that he was in trouble for something else. Titus' growl indicates this is not enough information, the doctor volunteers he was diverting drugs, and the woman said they would take care of it, but would take it all back unless he helped them. He insists she was a vegetable, the family was having trouble "letting go." He would never do this for someone who had a chance of recovering. Kate begins to recall her own experiences post-accident, the moment of despair when she knew she's never dance again. She would have sold herself at that moment if she could. Height says he has no idea what they were going to do with her, he never asked. Emily thinks it is a good idea if they throw him out a window. Titus snorts in agreement. Kate demands a phone number, a name, an address, anything. The doctor yells that the woman had an eye patch, like something out of a movie.

Security then knocks at the door and Dr. Height calls for help. They barge in, Kate throws the doctor at them. Titus moves and Kate yells "no!" thinking he is moving to attack the security officers. Instead he grabs Emily and Kate, and runs for the windows. Titus smashes through the glass, and Kate yells "Fly us, Em! Fly!" Emily says she's too busy peeing her pants, and they hit the ground with Titus' strong legs hitting the landing easily. They're only two stories down, better than five, but still, it's kind of interesting that werewolf boy can jump two stories carrying two people and land safely on his feet. Titus jumps again to the next building, higher up, and starts to run. Kate asks Emily if she can get her flying on, Emily hesitates but pulls the gravity bubble into place as titus jumps off the side of the building, as if he himself can fly. They hover for a bit, stayed level for a couple hundred feet. Emily regained her confidence and shot them higher and faster as they are cradled in Titus' arms. Kate says he can let them go. Emily disagrees and says "No, I kind of like it here" as she snuggles into his shoulder. Kate does the same while Emily carries them home.

**Chapter 24: What We Know**

Jane is incredulous upon hearing the story. She asks Doc if it is cool to commit assault. She didn't think it was right to attack people who do not have it coming. Doc says everyone has their methods. One of his former associates was fond of dangling informants off of the roofs of buildings to get them to talk. He never dropped anyone on purpose. But he did slip one. He said accidents happen, he'd seen worse. Scaring people into talking can be effective, but it's important to be judicious. Jane asks what his tactic is when he needs to make someone talk.

"Magic," he replies. And magic is a lot less ethical than fear. He refers to it as a slippery slope and says he only did it when no one else's methods worked.

A discussion about badassery takes place. Titus is slightly put off because he was there, and he was a werewolf and all. But Kate may be the biggest badass because she scared a guy with her voice and does not have fangs. Kate says based on the information they got and the medical records she stole - Jane is upset but Kate says she isn't worried about HIPPA, and she was going to put them back, but, circumstances changed. She may know where the girl in the storm's parents are. Emily suggests someone should talk to them and Doc agrees. Kate doesn't see the point because they won't know anything about the storm. Jane says they should know their daughter didn't die, they deserve that. Kate and Jane have a staredown, Doc breaks the impasse and says he agrees with Kate. They won't know anything about the storm, but they do deserve to be told what happened. When deciding who should go, Doc volunteers. He invites Emily, she's not sure why but he says it's just a hunch.

Doc then suggests that if controls were put into Valkyrie, Bedlam may have the same devices. She may be walking around with a bomb in her head and even if she doesn't want the team's help, she is technically a walking weapon, a living bomb. Billy volunteers to go. Jane rolls her eyes and Doc says he was going to suggest that. He advises Billy take Titus. Titus is reluctant because Bedlam punched him in the face. Billy says she head-butted him but he's not afraid of her. Doc says that he got the impression when they met her that she related better to boys, and may be less defensive around them. The goal is to offer help. Titus asks if they're to bring her in by force and Doc shakes his head no. He says to share with her they have the equipment to scan for implants, and the ability to help if they are there. He asks Jane and Kate to look through the results of Andrew's findings. They stare each other down again. Doc asks if this is going to be a problem and Kate says "Nah, we'll get along just fine."

**Chapter 25: Mourning**

Doc and Emily arrive at the small ranch home twenty minutes outside Miami. The family name was Snow, and Emily might have found that funny: The "Snows of Florida," but when she sees the yellow lab searching outside for the girl who would never come home, well, it didn't seem that funny anymore. Emily is very moved by this scene, bites her lip and thinks about flying. Doc had asked her to "dress down" for this visit, so Emily is looking as normal as Emily can. A t-shirt without a weird cartoon character, cargo pants as of yet unripped, a pair of Chuck Taylors that do not glow in the sun. She removes her goggles, which she wore while flying, wrapping them around her wrist hoping they don't look too conspicuous. Doc asks if she's ready, but she is tongue tied, and instead grabs his hand. Doc smiles a sad kind smile that he always reverts to when he has nothing else to say. The smile makes Emily feel safe, and neither of them want to knock on the door. They walk up the path, and knock. Mrs. Snow answers, she has a "haunted look" with her eyes appearing older than the rest of her. Mr. Snow wears the same gaze. Emily wonders if this is what someone looks like who outlives their child. They both seem tired and unhealthy. Doc lets them know they have information about their daughter and they needed to speak to them. They let Doc know their daughter is dead, but he says "Your daughter was taken..." They have her ashes.... but Doc shakes his head.

Emily reaches her hand out as Mr. Snow begins to look around nervously, and she takes Mrs. Snow's hand. She looks into the woman's eyes and says "I'm Emily. May we come in?"

Inside the home, Mr. and Mrs. Snow sit together, holding hands. Emily sits on the loveseat alone, and Doc Silence remains standing. They ask who they are, and Doc identifies himself. They know who he is, but they express that they thought "you were all dead," meaning Doc and his cohort. They want to know what he has to do with anything relating to their daughter, and he tells them they are investigating missing children. Emily listens as Doc twists the truth just a little. He makes it simpler, less frightening. He says they've uncovered evidence that proves Valerie was taken. They are not sure why. But she's not the only one.

Doc sits and faces them, and says "I can't say for certain what we'll find. Can't promise you that the people who took her haven't changed her, somehow, or if she'll still be in a coma if we find her. But I came here today because no one should have to live thinking their daughter is gone when there's a chance she is not. And I came to promise you that we'll do everything we can to find the truth for you."

The Snows look at each other and say "What can we do to help." Doc asks for an item of hers that may help. A favorite piece of clothing. A childhood toy. A hairbrush.

Doc and Emily depart and take off into the air together. After a few blocks he motions for her to land. Doc looks incredibly tired. Emily asks if he is okay. He expresses that he wishes he could look people in the eyes. "I'm tired of never being able to look anyone in the eyes." Emily awkwardly reaches out to touch his shoulder to comfort him. She asks if the hairbrush will really help find her. Doc says he can cast a very simple spell that should tell them if the girl in the storm is Valerie Snow. Emily asks if that will help save her, and Doc says probably not. "Science and magic are funny. Sometimes they play together like it was meant to be, and sometimes it's like they work in two different realities." Emily asks why he chose the hairbrush, and he said if she keeps destroying cities, they can stop her with a lock of her hair. Emily asks if by stop her Doc means kill her. Doc says yes. Emily protests they cannot do that to those people. Doc says "When I say when all else fails, Emily, I mean when we have absolutely no other option. I want her to go home as much as you do." Emily asks if he has killed anyone before, with their own hair. Doc says "I still wake up at night dreaming about it." They leave to go on their mission.

**Chapter 26: Bedlam (Again)**

Billy and Titus find Bedlam on a beach not far from the town destroyed by the storm. She is wrapped in a parka three times too big to hide her mechanical arms. "The entire effect caused her to look like a lost urchin." Titus jokes "there's your hot robot girl" as they land a quarter mile away to approach on foot. They trade insults and zingers, Bedlam referring to Billy as "Sparkles" and saying Titus looks better as a wolf. She asks if she needs to kick Billy's ass again. Billy asks to sit on a rock nearby. Bedlam says she really wants to fight, she needs to punch something a lot, and break things. Billy says that her anger management issues rival wolf-boy's. Billy says they've come to talk, Bedlam gives him three minutes, less if he annoys her.

Billy says "You might have a bomb in your head," Bedlam is surprised. "And so obviously, since you insist on slamming your head into things - namely my own face, I thought you might appreciate being warned." Bedlam asks how he knows this. Titus replies they recovered files from the lab. They know there are cortex bombs in at least one other person as a failsafe if they got out of control, so they've postulated this was done to everyone. Bedlam thinks they could be lying, Billy says "Trust me, if there's one thing I don't lie about, it's brain bombs. If the bomb was in your liver, I'd be making pâté jokes." Bedlam offers to punch him for making the joke. Titus says not to, that Billy thinks "you're cute and he won't try hard enough." He says she can fight him, it's been too long since he has really let loose. She calls him Chewie and Billy asks them to not fight. He says they're there to offer help. They have technology to remove or deactivate, or something. Bedlam is angered and says "Oh good, more lab rat stuff," and says she'll take her chances with the brain bomb. Titus gets up to leave with a "good luck with that" attitude, and that Billy was the one who suggested they should warn her. Billy tries to take credit, but Dude speaks to him inside his head (Bedlam notices) and says it was Doc Silence's idea, so don't take credit for it. Dude and Billy have an animated discussion, and Bedlam wants to know if he's tweaking. Titus lets her know about the alien, and sometimes they argue. Billy is frustrated at this point and says they're just there to offer help, they aren't going to force her, but is she changes her mind...

Bedlam says she's knows where to find them. Billy and Titus begin to leave, and Billy looks back up at the rocks to her to see if she's changing her mind. Bedlam asks if the Storm Girl made the mess of the area. Titus says yes. Bedlam asks if she's doing it on purpose, and Billy says they aren't sure, but she's probably just lashing out. Bedlam laughs and says "There's a lot of that going around."

As they walk away Bedlam calls out "Hey. Thanks for the warning. Would've sucked if my head blew up and I didn't know why."

**Chapter 27: Hackers**

Kate suggests they go to her apartment to look through the files. She's sick of the tower, and can't think there. Jane disagrees and likes the tower just fine. Kate calls her Sunbeam, much to Jane's surprise, no matter what, she's going with her or without her. They are at the apartment, looking through the notes, tossing theories, and for a brief moment, Jane feels that they might be getting along. Kate ponders that there could be an Evil Doc building a supervillain team. They kick the idea back and forth, and Kate says it might be someone like him, from a previous era who's been off the radar back to bring back the good old days, or bad old days. Jane thinks there is something to it. She asks if Doc had the idea that something like this was going to happen, so he was bringing this all together now? Kate says she thinks Doc always thought something bad could happen but he picked now because they are the right age. Ready. Old enough to go out there.... and Jane adds but young enough to make sure we don't go bad. Noting that Emily is much younger than they are, he got Emily because she's a menace to society. Jane adds that she thinks he was afraid someone else might try to turn her into a weapon.

They pull out a laptop and discover an executable (.exe) file. Jane would like for them to click it, Kate is reluctant. Before committing to the action Kate texts Titus to let him know they're about to do something stupid. They see a symbol appear on screen, a cross between a skull and an octopus, in a deep royal purple. It begins to blink. Kate begins to suit up, and asks Jane if she's got her uniform. Jane asks if they're going somewhere but Kate says "They're coming to us." The sound of several metallic thumps on the ceiling above indicates they're on the roof. Jane and Kate run from Kate's apartment, splitting directions down to the different ends of the corridor, leaving the laptop behind. Heavily armored men with the most ridiculous rifles appear, Jane lets her hands burst into flames. She aims into the barrel of one of the guns and the metal warps and bends. Kate lands a heavy punch onto the head of one of the men. His neck begins to spark, and Kate throws a spinning kick to his head, which pops off. Kate yells to Jane they are robots and not to hold back. Kate and Jane fight the robots and blast a hole in the wall to throw the laptop out of, and the robots begin to jump off the roof to get to the laptop. They go out the hole Jane has blasted in the wall, and continue to battle the robots, feeling like they're not going to be able to win when Doc and Emily show up and join the battle. Emily yells "Gravity sucks, huh Optimus?" as she crushes her third robot. Jane notices a robot flying up into the sky with the laptop.

Except for the one that got away, they look around and note they'd destroyed them all. Doc congratulates Jane and Kate for getting along so well, with a smirk.

**Chapter 28: Shared Spaces**

Valerie decides to try to reason with the entity. She wasn't sure if it spoke English, but it was the only tool she had. The storm doesn't respond, except for some annoyance expressed. Valerie begins a one sided conversation, asking if the storm is technically a hurricane, or if it travels inland would it become something else, like a tornado or a blizzard. Valerie thinks of the Chicago snowstorms of her youth and asks if the storm can make it snow, or if it is just tropical. She tells the storm her name is Snow, and asks if that's funny. She says she just wants to go home, and asks if the storm just would understand how she felt. The silence hangs heavy on her, she demands that the storm answer her, stop ignoring her. The storm begins to pick winds up around Valerie. The air temperature drops, and Valerie screams out "I hate you! Hate being here! I want to go home!" Purple and blue lightning laces across the sky. The clouds grew dark, violet, black, massive thunderheads. The storm begins to move in earnest.

**Chapter 29: Follow Up**

Doc asks them what they did. The team is assembled, Billy updates everyone on the discussion with Bedlam. Emily reports they "fought the droid army and won." She lets them know she can crush things with her thoughts and it's really fun. Kate runs down what happened with the .exe file on the computer. Titus is surprised. Doc asks if they discovered anything other than the robots. Kate describes the squid skull. Doc picks up one of the tablets around the table and displays the logo on the screen. Emily exclaims *Ai, ai!! Cthulhu f'taghn* which is roughly translated to hail Cthulhu from Lovecraft. Doc explains this is the symbol of a group called Children of the Elder Star. Emily says she was right that this is an end of the world cult and "we're definitely screwed." Doc said no, the organization hid behind the cult, using it as a propaganda ruse. It was more about power, money, control. Doc says he has no evidence that the lab was run by the Children of the Elder Star, it could be someone new using the old technology. His original team tried to put them out of business, but they kept cropping up. Kate feels this could be them. Doc is sure that they don't want anyone seeing this information, and the robots would be sent out to stop anyone who tried to launch the files.

Kate takes off, and Titus knows exactly where she's headed.

**Chapter 30: Burning Bridges**

Kate heads to Andrew's office and the entire block is on fire. Titus catches up to her, and she says "I killed him. This is my fault. I killed my friend. Titus assures her there was no way she could have known. Kate says that this is why they can't get close to people. "Every time we let someone in, we put them in the way of all the bad things in the world we're supposed to be standing up against. We're supposed to protect them from things like this." Titus asks how was she supposed to know this would happen. She says it doesn't matter, "I have to be better than this." Titus releases a little of his wolf, to smell the street, the scene, the wolf starts to get riled up but Titus reels him back. Titus posits that maybe Andrew wasn't there. Kate says there's no way, the robots came so fast. Andrew never would have known to escape. "Who would? What normal person thinks killer robots are going to come flying through their window and burn their lives to the ground?" Titus offers to scout. Kate says no, she'll just get an autopsy report. She asks Titus to stay with her and watch. She wants to see if any humans show up to make sure the robots did their job.

"And then, you can help me find these people and make sure they never do this to anyone again."

**Chapter 31: Mom**

Emily wakes Billy up, she's wearing a backpack and dressed as normally as he's ever seen her. Emily says she needs to go see her mom and wants to know if he'll come with her. Billy thinks this is a bad idea, and consults Dude, who thinks Billy should go. They debate the benefits of going or not going. Billy calls Dude a bully. Emily busts him for having a discussion in his head and informs him that he has a "tell" when he is having a discussion. "Your eyes glaze over when you talk to him and you look kind of stupid. You should try to work on that." Dude lets him know Emily is right, and his last partner was able to "multitask more easily" than Billy. Billy asks if her mom is okay. Emily confesses the stuff she saw the day before was not "even like remotely okay." She wants to check in. Billy asks why him. She says the others don't have parents so it would be insensitive to ask them.

They take the train, Billy asks why they aren't flying. Emily asks if Billy never takes the train and he confesses that "Public transportation was the bane of my existence before I learned to fly, why would I go back?" Emily says it's one of the few things that makes her feel like a normal person. Emily asks what Billy's mom thinks of him being superhuman. Billy says she doesn't know. Emily says her mom wants her to "check in twice a day to let her know I haven't left the planet." Billy says he hasn't talked much with his family since leaving. He just left a note, didn't leave much of a goodbye. Emily is surprised, loudly. Billy says his note basically says "Off to save the world. I'll call when I can. Love, Billy." Billy says he is a nicer son when he is not there. Emily says they should go visit his folks next. He says he'll think about it.

Emily's mom lives in a suburb of the city. She hears them on the porch and yells to come in. Her mom looks like a slightly older version of Emily, Billy almost laughs. Emily introduces Billy as her favorite teammate, which surprises him. "Well, you're the only one who treats me like I belong in the big kids' table." Emily's mother introduces herself as **Melinda**. Emily unpacks her experiences thus far, from the Snow family to the fight with the Robots and saving Kate and Jane. Billy and Dude have an internal discussion about Kate, as Billy is worried if she'll be okay. He asks Dude about his losses, and Dude says he's lost a lot of partners over the hundreds of years he's been partnered. He tells Billy to listen to Emily's conversation, but Billy says that he wants to continue the discussion later. Melinda asks Billy if he's okay. Emily says he's talking to his alien and explains the tell. "he goes all slack jawed and it looks like he's going to sneeze." Billy tells them he was talking to Dude. Melinda is intrigued. Billy says he is also named Straylight but he has been calling him Dude for a year, so he's stuck with it.

Billy tells Melinda that he has to ask her something. She doesn't seem freaked out that Emily is superhuman, a hero who can control gravity with her mind, and he's got an alien in his brain. "You're totally unfazed. I don't get it." Melinda retrieves a photo album, Emily asks if she was in the circus. The Melinda in the photo is dressed in a leotard, and is leaning on the shoulder of another caped woman. Behind them is a man in body armor. She says "Em, I was one of you." Emily is surprised, and Melinda adds that she wasn't in the tower "But I had my fun." Emily says that she's doing this to get back at her for dying her hair. Melinda says no, she was **Sparrow**. Billy asks if Doc knows.

Emily says "What did you do? I've never seen you do anything more than make awesome brownies." Dude says he remembers her now. Melinda said all she could do was fly. Emily asks why she stopped. Melinda says it's because she had Emily. "Didn't quit right away, of course, but it's really hard to risk your life every day when the most important thing in your whole universe is back home." Emily's dad died, and then it was just the two of them. Emily is trying to process all of this information, and asks if she can still fly. She says yes. Billy asks if Emily's powers came from her but she isn't sure.

Emily says "If you can fly, and I can control gravity, what does that mean my kid'll be able to do?" Melinda says that maybe Emily's daughter will see the stars. Emily says that's what she's been telling the team, "I want to touch the stars."

**Chapter 32: Guardian Angel**

Kate, aka Dancer, is on a vigilante tour of the city. She moves from rooftop to rooftop, throughout the day. In the morning she stops a car theft, a purse snatching, a pick pocketing. Witnesses are confused by the crime fighting in the daylight, and then never think of who is doing this. Three men are left beaten after an attempted robbery of a convenience store. A domestic dispute ends with the abusive boyfriend tied to a streetlamp with a fat lip and black eye. Witnesses describe a masked woman landing on top of a car, stopping a carjacking. A road rage incident with guns involved is ended with one man unconscious, and the second man will only say the woman told him to "Behave." Police are tipped off to a dog fighting ring, later they find twenty seven men beaten severely, and a dog crate filled with money is left on the porch of a local no-kill animal shelter. A female jogger is saved from her attack, the assailant so badly injured doctors say he'll have a limp for life. Another anonymous tip comes in about a truck full of stolen rifles and handguns, and two local gangsters are zip-tied to the truck seats. Associates of these gangsters plan their retaliation against the masked vigilante when 300 pounds of werewolf, who has been following the Dancer all day secretly, kick in the door and change their plans.

She returns to the tower at one in the morning and goes right to her room and closes the door. Titus watches her come in, and thinks about knocking. But he opts to go to his own room. If it is going to be her way to continue fighting crime, she'll need her rest.

"Guardian angel duty was exhausting."

**Chapter 33: Magic**

Agent Black notes that Dr. Wegener hasn't been the same since his time with the Lady. He's still alive, not making eye contact, lost in thought, nervously chewing his nails or pulling his ponytail. He asks Rose what she thinks the Lady did to Wegener. Rose says to ask her.She says it's not torture, if they wanted to torture him they would. The Lady enters, and summons Black and Rose to follow. They've picked a city to test their storme on.

She brings them to a room below the the darkened main amphitheater which is lit up by candles. Black turns on his cyborg eye and sees the stone floor is painted with symbols that look alien in nature. The Lady says that Wegener's controls have failed, but she demonstrates her preparations - scribbling more symbols around and says the storm should perhaps process pain the way a living creature would. They have internal anchors she can channel commands through, which should connect to the human girl's body, and the storm is dependent upon her. "A little malignant guidance is all we need." The Lady kneels down by the symbols and begins to sing. The symbols warm in the dark like heated metal. Her voice changes, almost to a call and answer, and a shape begins to form in the circle. Almost human, but not. A strange form with thin wings. Rose and Black notice the Lady changes. She has black polished horns, and open flames where her eyes should be. He feels the urge to run, but the lights go out. The chamber is in complete darkness, and he feels something close to him. The Lady in doorway, weary from the cost of the magic she just cast, says "Shall we see what happens when our baby storm meets a major metropolitan area?"

**Chapter 34: Hurricane**

The team arrives in Providence, where things are a mess. Jane wonders how they will fight a force of nature as they stand in the smoke and dense fog near where a gas main has exploded. Doc asks Emily if she can push the storm away with one of her gravity fields. Emily believes this is a bad idea, wondering what if it chases her? Jane suggests using a Bubble of Float over the buildings to keep the buildings from being floated away. Emily raises her hand (she's wearing new gloves with the nuclear fallout symbol on both palms). The storm feels her efforts and begins to fight back. Doc takes out chalk, and begins sketching symbols on the roof. He tells everyone not to step into the circle. Sitting in front of the circle, Jan can hear im, but it seems he is talking to himself in a language "...like Latin, but dirtier, more feral." She watches the circle grow darker, filling with shadows that moved, with limbs and long fingers and wings. Eyes stare at her, and she sees several creatures as they writhe inside the circle. "Hello, gentlemen," says Doc. He pulls something out of his pocket and instructs Jane that when he throws it, she should light it on fire and close her eyes. The object is some sort of oversized capsule, and he tosses it in the air above the creatures. Jane blasts it, closes her eyes, and hears the screams of the shadow creatures dying and Emily swearing. Jane opens her eyes to see the storm moving away, but can't tell if it is because of what Doc just did or Emily's gravitational push. Doc reaches out to Billy/Straylight and tells him not to pursue, but to help the rescue teams and head back to the tower.

Jane asks what those things were.

"A complication," Doc replies.

**Chapter 35: Activation**

Rose is speaking to their employers and Black is watching her. Rose is looking both self-righteous and terrified speaking to the folks at the top. Lady Natasha says "they're curious" and Black is surprised, because he didn't know she was there, even though with all his cyborg tech he should have detected her. Rose states the higher-ups want them to release a "few of the rejects" out into the field. Black indicates these are useless, but Rose says they're uncontrollable, but that doesn't mean they don't have their uses. The Lady asks if she needs to implement some of her "controls" but Rose says no. the bosses want to stir things up. They are "curious about our new opposition."

The Lady wants to look into who it was that banished her little pests yesterday. Rose says that the folks upstairs have some intel, but the Lady says she'd like to do her own research. Agent Black looks into the Atrium to see if he can see Wegener, who has been withdrawn since his first meetup with the Lady. Black asks who is being sent out, most likely expendable ones. Rose says "**Tinder** and **Hyde**," Black is curious as to why these two were picked. Rose says because they are the right combination of inherent destructiveness and they failed the psych tests with flying colors. "They're more useful as improvised weapons than long term projects." Black is disgusted by Hyde, but had oped Tinder would have worked out. Black asks where they are going to be deployed.

"You're sure going to get a kick out of this," Rose tells him.

**Chapter 36: Attention**

Jane confronts Doc to ask him what he meant when he referred to the the things she saw the day before as "a complication." Doc was working with Titus, who turns his attention to all of the computer scans and observations provided by Neal. Doc says the constructs, the creatures, were familiar to him. And it may mean "we're dealing with a bigger threat than I originally anticipated." He tells Jane may be needed to help later. Jane begins to dig a little more, and Titus interrupts and calls Doc over to the screens. There is a giant red spot on a heat-register map of the US, it is a massive fire in California. Neal zooms in, taking control of the monitor from Titus, to the epicenter of the fire, where there is a human shape standing there. The girl is walking slowly, as the fire seems to emanate from her. Her skin glows like heated metal, her hair flickers like a candle wick.

Doc asks where she came from and Neal goes back an hour earlier in the surveillance footage. A black, military grade helicopter is flying over the forest and a body is thrown out of the copter. Before the body hits the trees, it bursts into flame. Doc asks Jane to find Billy but Billy is already there, partially suited up to go. He notes Jane and Billy are the only two who can fly fast enough to get there, and he asks if Billy if his force field is fireproof.

"And laser proof, and heartbreakingly beautiful to look at," Billy replies. He begins to ask if Jane is also ... "I'm solar powered. Fire doesn't burn me," she replies before he can even finish asking. Doc indicates they should try to subdue the fire starter, he's leaves it up to them to decide what to do. Titus calls Doc over to the monitors again, and pulls up a view of downtown, a few miles from the Tower. A teenage boy is seen in the center of a major intersection in town with cars spinning out all around him to avoid crashing into him. The boy opens his jacket to reveal a contraption embedded in his chest, with an emblem in the center and wires and tubes jutting out all around. He pounds the symbol on his chest, and his whole body spasms. His muscles pulse and grow, his skin color goes grey, and everything about his look changes into a parody of a human. The boy throws a car into a building where it explodes, leaving a crater where the wall was. Jane begins to offer to go but Titus says he'll go. "He's just a bully," Titus says. "I know how to handle them." He winks at Jane and she's a little surprised by the smile on his face. Titus says he has been looking for someone his size to tangle with. Emily asks if she should help but Doc says that he'd like to keep her in reserve. "This looks intentional. If there is a third incident, you'll need to jump in." Billy asks where Kate is, and Titus says she's on patrol. Doc advises Emily to try and hail her on the radio, and Titus says to tell her "I'm fighting a he-man monster downtown but I've got it completely under control and don't need backup." Emily asks how that's going to find her, and Titus replies "Trust me, that's pretty much guaranteed to bring her running downtown."

**Chapter 37: The Girl Of Fire**

Jane and Billy fly cross country, over the cloud cover so Jane can soak in the solar energy. Both superheroes flex their muscles, Billy leaving a blue-white streak of light behind him and Jane flaring up fire in her hands, leaving her own trail of red-gold in her wake. They race across the sky and drop closer to the surface to see how far the fire has spread, seeing miles of devastation for miles. Jane notes a point on the horizon burning brighter and more out of control than the others. In that one place. Billy and Dude have a discussion about Billy's concerns about the smoke and Dude assures him the shields will clean the air. They fly closer to the girl, and Jane calls out to her. She turns, and Billy can see the pain, confusion, and terror on her face. She attempts to put her hands up to tell them to stop but fire shoots out of her hands. Billy and Dude discuss her inability to control her actions, and Jane flies towards the girl. Jane's cape catches fire but the material is futuristic and extinguishes itself. Jane tries to grab the girl but a tree topples, sending her rolling back down the hill.

Billy attempts to fly at the girl but she sends fire tendrils up towards him. He complains to Dude that it's hot and he cannot breathe. Dude instructs him to stay calm, and fly up. Billy obeys, but smashes into a tree trunk. The girl makes eye contact with Billy. "I can't stop it," she says. "Help me. Can't stop this from happening." Billy tells her he's there to help, and asks Dude what he should do, how can he extinguish her? Dude replies "lethal force." Billy argues back that Dude won't let him. Dude replies that he has stopped Billy from using excessive force when it is inappropriate and childish, but that this is probably the only way to stop her. Dude sees no other way to shut her down. Billy does not want to do it. Dude says he is open to suggestions. Jane comes to him, and they try to figure out a plan. Jane suggests that she could grab her, fly up into the atmosphere, get her off the ground... Billy asks if she needs to breathe like a regular person, wouldn't this kill her? "If flames can't survive up there, neither can a person," he says.

Billy decides to take Dude's advice, and aims a blast of light to strike the girl. He apologizes, and Jane whacks his arm to deflect the blast. He and Jane continue to discuss this impasse and the girl says "I know what I have to do," with a sadness in her voice. Billy calls to her not to do what she's about to do, but she tells them there's only one way to end this - and everything around her gets hotter. "Step back," she says. Dude instructs Billy to listen to the girl. The girl asks them to apologize for her, tell everyone hurt by her that she's sorry.

She starts to glow brighter. She transforms into an inverted silhouette. Jane grabs his arm and they fly up, straight up, above the intensity of the heat. Below them, an explosion erupts, propelling them even higher into the air. Jane lets go of his arm, and Billy looks back to see the devastation below. He looks around for Jane, and sees only a fiery wake of her long streak of retreat left behind. She left him there alone.

**Chapter 38: Rumble**

Titus begins thinking of the rampaging villain as "the bully." There is a swath of destruction that makes it easy to find him. People are taking the hint, and getting out of the way. Titus approaches him from behind as the bully picks up two cars and smashes them together, Titus addresses him, asking if he was the kid who destroyed other kids' toys at recess. The bully turns around and says "I haven't thrown a human yet. Wonder how far I can fling you." Titus tells him he'd like to see him try. His inner wolf growls, ready to come out but Titus asks him to hang on a minute. The bully asks if he's the Karate Kid. Titus introduces himself, and says "I'm really looking forward to tearing you apart." He then releases his wolf.

Before the bully can react, Titus is on the move. An epic battle ensues, blow for blow and broken bones healing with the cool, strange sensation through Titus' body. While biting the bully's arm, Titus lets go of his grip, and the bully pounds the symbol on his chest with the palm of his good hand. The gadget comes alive and pumps mystery fluid through the bully's body. His body heals visibly, very much like Titus' body heals itself. Kate calls to him from above and says "You know what to do," grinning demonically. Titus charges, and the bully is reinvigorated, pounding away at Titus' body. Deep in pain, the feral wolf energy pushes forward as he begins to grab at the device on the bully's chest. Titus pulls it right off, the mystery substance of blue-black fluid like thick syrup sprayed everywhere. Titus looked where the device was, to see scars, ports for plugs and tubes, and burn marks.

The bully tells Titus "You took my toy away," as Titus throws the device aside. Kate picks it up, and the bully says "You better kill me." His body is still healing, but slower than before. The wolf begins to recede, fur disappearing and the human form restoring. He says to Kate, "That was a lot of fun. We should do it again sometime."

**Chapter 39: Working Out Differences**

Jane and Billy are having a huge fight at the Tower, with Doc and Emily watching as Titus and Kate return. Titus asks what is happening, as Doc is passively watching. "They're working out a difference of opinion," he tells Titus. Titus asks if they should be stopped, and Emily says "No way, how else we gonna know who's stronger?" Doc says it is a long standing tradition among heroes. "Fight first, work out the aggression, talk about it afterward." He says the'll be easier to talk down once they've worked out aggressions - and he asks Titus how his trip worked out. Emily says "you look like someone worked your face over with a tennis racket." Titus says he'll get better but says they have a prisoner, they didn't know what else to do with him. Doc says this is good, and he'll call someone in to help. The Tower isn't the place for keeping super powered beings as captives. Doc puts Emily in charge of following the Jane and Billy fight, "Don't let them kill each other," he instructs while asking Titus to come with to meet someone.

Jane and Billy continue to fight it out. Jane is terribly upset that Billy was going to kill her, and Billy is defensive that he didn't know the girl was going to blow herself up. She punches him and Billy pushes her back with a light blast. Billy and Dude have an internal argument about Billy telling Jane that his blast never would have stopped the girl. Billy tries to tell her the truth and says that he thought he'd be able to kill her, but it wouldn't have worked, and this is why she ended things herself. He didn't want to, but there were no other options. Jane said they could have figured it out. They can't just kill people because they don't think they can help them. Billy asks Jane what they should have done. "I have no idea," she says. Jane expresses her anger. That the girl was just like them, and someone used her as a weapon. She didn't have anyone to help her. That could have been any of us.

"We'll get them, Jane," Billy says.

"We never even knew her name," Jane says. Billy asks if they can not fight anymore, and she says "punching you was the only thing making me feel better." They agree to go talk to Doc, and Billy suggests they find someone else Jane can beat up.

**Chapter 40: Tested**

Agent Black and Rose are at the mountainside base, he watches at the work being done to clear equipment for transport. They'd be moving to a secondary location and the plan was to leave no trace of their activities. Rose is overlooking the surveillance results of their "two-pronged provocation of the new metahumans." She is not happy. Project Timber is a complete loss, and nothing was left that they were able to salvage from her. The Lady assures her there are plenty of pyrokinetics out there. Black reviews the self-destruction of Timber on the screen and feels badly about the age of the subjects. But he was also a throwaway test subject once upon a time, and he tells himself to stop empathising. Rose confirms that Timber went supernova and that there were others there with her. One in blue and white, the other in red and gold. They analyze his prepping for the massive strike, and discuss whether it was a killing blow or a bluff, that he seems like he's not afraid to pull the trigger, but ... The Lady says to not bother trying to capture him, and bring him in. "I've made a career out of reading bluffs," she says. Rose asks if he's the weak link, but the Lady says he lacks confidence. So does the girl, but she deals with it better. They analyze the fact Jane left Billy behind, and the Lady refers to the situation as a "spat." Black asks if she is underestimating them, and she smiles. She says she doesn't undervalue what they're capable of but their brains are not fully formed yet. "Don't let them fool you into thinking they're more experienced at this sort of thing than they really are."

Rose switches the footage to the Hyde experiment. Titus and Hyde's battle plays out in silence on the screen. Rose is tense and attentive. Rose notes that in the footage from the lab he was unable to control himself, here he is more rational. "He's evolving." He's getting better at it. Black tries to change the subject away from the werewolf to the drones and the tech raid. She reviews the grainy footage, and notes that "this girl [Kate]" is good. They can't detect any augmentations or special powers, but unlike the other girl, she has moves. The other girl [Jane] has invulnerability and relies on it. Kate has been training, studying legitimate fighting styles for years. Black admires her, and Rose asks him about that.

The Lady refers to her as "a mundane,"

"Every so often a mundane puts on a mask and holds his or her own with the monsters and aliens."

Rose notes that the drones' surveillance cameras all shut off when the fight moved outside the building. The Lady says that some of the elements of the response were magic-based." They discuss more about the fact Hyde was captured. Black says that he is glad to see him go, the jerk. The Lady points out that there are trackers, and a cortex bomb, in the test subject. Rose realizes what she's saying. And the options that are now open to them.

**Chapter 41: Division Of What**

The Tower has holding cells. Doc leads Billy, Jane, Emily, and Titus to the depths of the Tower to the captive, the kid Titus fought in the city. Kate is standing guard. The kid is attempting to get Kate's ire up, as she stands in dead silence in the shadows. He asks Kate if the werewolf is her boyfriend and says "Bet you go for the weirdos." When the rest arrive, the kid looks at Jane and Billy and asks if someone set a bomb off in their pants. Emily offers to squish his brain with a little bubble.

Doc asks the kid his name and he says it is Hyde. Doc asks who he is working with and Hyde says he works for nobody. The door to the cell block opens, and "the skinniest old man Jane has ever seen" walks in. Doc introduces him as **Sam Barren**. Jane starts to introduce herself and Sam tells them to use code names. "It's safer that way," he says. Doc says Sam is the head of the Division, and that he's worked with superhumans and heroes for decades. "He's got rules."

Billy asks "The Division of what?" and Sam roars with laughter. He says they are just called the Division, capital D. Everyone wants to know what they're the division of, the division of what, so the in-joke has become the Division of What. Emily kind of loves the name Division of What and wants to steal it. Sam turns to her next for introductions.

"I'm almost afraid to ask what you do," he says.

"I make things weird," she replies, in a self satisfied way. Everyone gets their round of introductions and they get to Kate he knows her. He's been keeping tabs on her, when he heard there was a do-gooder in town. Kate nods in acknowledgement. Sam turns his attention to Hyde who tells him "Bite me old man," Sam gets a zinger in about how someone already did that today. Sam pulls out a big remote-control looking thing and begins to scan Hyde. Doc asks what he's seeing, and Sam says that without the device strapped to his chest, he's just an ordinary kid. Doc had been concerned that they'd have to throw Hyde in with the other metahumans. Doc says he was not crazy about that idea, throwing an amateur in with the professionals. Hyde would make a few connections and then he's in the latest league of evil. Hyde wants to go there. Sam says that he's just a regular little guy, and they'll hand him over to a regular prison. Hyde flips out and Billy roars with laughter. Billy asks why he attacked the city, if not to call them out. "Did you attack us just to get yourself locked up with other supervillains?" Hyde says no, and Kate presses him.

Hyde says he wants a lawyer, and says they can't keep him there. Sam starts another scan with a different device which beeps and Sam says there are two problems. He says that Hyde has been tagged with a tracking device and Titus indicates it is in a very sensitive location. Then Sam reveals there is a cortex bomb in his head. Emily is relieved she didn't crush his head. Hyde is stunned.

"Were you one of the lab rats?" Titus asks him. Hyde says he was a supervillain, not an experiment. "People were afraid of me," he says. Sam encourages everyone to evacuate the room, that he's probably a Trojan Horse. "Get him in the building, and then blow his brain bomb." Hyde is even more stunned. Doc instructs Titus and Kate to head upstairs immediately and get Neal to initiate a blast door lockdown on this zone. He has Billy put up shields, and tells Sam to go with the others. Sam confesses that he doesn't have the gear to disarm a head bomb and Hyde is freaking out. Doc encourages him to calm down, and asks about the lab experiments. Hyde tells him there were a bunch of them - a girl in a coma, a girl who sets things on fire, some guy with scales. There were nine, maybe ten, they weren't allowed to talk. He is incredibly upset about the bomb in his head, and he said he just wanted to be a badass.

Jane steps between Hyde and everyone else, thinking if he does blow up, hopefully she'll be able to protect them somehow. Hyde says that "they" paid off his parole officer and that he didn't want to go to jail. He begins to tear up, and asks if anyone else can hear beeping. Doc realizes there is nothing they can do, and says "Annie left us a machine..." and if they had twelve hours, but they don't ... Sam apologizes to Hyde and says these things aren't designed to be removed. Emily asks if they can't get Annie's machine rushed but Doc shakes his head.

Hyde is begging - the beeping is getting faster. Jane orders everyone out and Doc eyeballs her. She tells him she can survive the blast. Emily offers to help - and Doc grabs her and Sam by the arm to get them out. Jane realizes Billy has stayed there as well and tells him to get out. Jane and Billy approach Hyde as he's freaking out. She has her arms extended, and Hyde walks into her arms. Jane hugs him, and she can hear the beeping of the time.

The corridor fills with flames. Billy slams into a wall, Jane is knocked off her feet but is utterly unharmed. One minute Hyde was there, then gone. Billy comes to comfort Jane who is upset by this situation. "This has to stop" she says. Jane looks at him - with split lips and black eyes looking like he just spent time in a boxing ring. He whispers to her that he could really use a hug right now. Doc returns to the cell block, where they stand, "two blackened, shadowed figures who had witnessed more death in one day than either had seen their entire, brief lives."

**Chapter 42: Control Issues**

Valerie Snow is angry and so is the storm she's in the middle of. The storm couldn't be reasoned to even though Valerie would spend hours talking out loud to it. The storm pulls into an unexpected different direction, they can fight over control of where they're going and the storm seems to be resentful that Valerie can push for control when she wants to. But it exhausts her to try and influence the storm. She wonders what has caught the storm's attention, trying to rest she looks to see. There is a ship on the horizon and the storm is heading straight for it. The storm is too powerful for Valerie to try and control or even slow down. She screams at the storm, asking why it is doing this. She can see the crew rushing around and hear their panic on the wind. The ship begins to tip but Valerie holds out her hand hoping to will it to not capsize. It manages to work, and the storm is even angrier. Until the lightning. The ship begins to sink, as Valerie is too weak and tired to fight any more.

"This has to stop" she tells the storm as it begins to drift away looking for another victim.

**Chapter 43: The Plea**

Billy finds Bedlam walking down the highway. Dude's ability to fix on unique energy signatures is very helpful in finding the cyborg. Billy is still wearing the wounds from his day of fighting and Bedlam notices and asks what happened. She flirts a little with him, and he feels a little conflicted because of the hug he got from Jane. Billy tells her about Hyde, and the cortex bomb going off in his face. She says they didn't know each others' code names, and says he is one of the experiments in super strength they were playing with. She asks if he was a good guy and Billy says he was kind of a jerk but mostly just a scared kid trying to figure out where he fit in, and then they blew him up by remote control. He says they were trying to test the team with Hyde and a firestarter. Bedlam thinks she was a little blond girl, and she asks if they threw them away to see what the team would do, or they were making room in a new lab. Billy explains they have a machine from the future that can remove the bomb. She asks why they don't just blow her up already and get her out of the way.

"We're trying to develop a no-blowing up policy," Billy tells her. He tells her that when she's not headbutting him, that he kind of likes her, and he thinks it would suck if she blew up. She says nobody likes her. "From one fellow misfit to another, Bedlam, we've got to stick together. If we don't like each other, who will?" She says she has to take care of something first, but she'll reach out to him when done. She asks how to find him, and "if I haven't blown up by then, I'll let your magical machine fix my brain."

**Chapter 44: On The Defensive**

Kate notices Billy has been missing. She's been curious to see how well he's been doing since the explosion. It is pretty clear his alien force field is not invulnerable. She also wants to ask about the firestarter girl. Jane hasn't told her anything, but because Billy runs his mouth she'd probably get a lot of information out of him. Doc is at the head of the debriefing room table, and Sam has been hanging out with the team since Hyde's death. Emily asks where Bi---*Straylight* is, remembering to use their code names and not real names in front of Sam. Doc says he's looking for Bedlam. Jane questions this, and Doc says that she's in danger so Billy is trying to bring her in again.

Doc briefs them on what he has assembled on the details of the metahumans the Children of the Elder Star have been developing. Emily asks why they are using children. Sam has theories about why they're working with with the young people and Emily raises her hand and asks "Do you think they were trying to make a bad version of us?" Doc isn't sure this is the case, and they should worry more about the destructiveness of the subjects rather than their ages. Titus and Doc have a discussion about the homing device Hyde was carrying and how they may know where the tower is. Doc says to assume they know the location of the team.

Doc suggests a scouting expedition to see if they can learn more about what is happening at the enemy's end and Kate offers to go. Doc says that he is thinking of a kind of reconnaissance mission that Kate won't be able to do. Emily says he's going to use astral projection, to everyone's astonishment. Doc says close enough - he's going to trace the creatures he and Jane fried back to where they are. He tells Jane/Solar he will need her help.

"I'm not projecting my astral anywhere," says Jane. Emily thinks this is hysterical and even Doc laughs a little. Kate is aware that Doc is feeling very tired, even though his eyes are hidden by his glasses. Jane asks if it is safe, and Doc says she will be fine. She says "I meant for you, Doc. Will you be in danger?" He shrugs it off - Everything's a little dangerous.

Doc beckons Jane to come with him, and puts Sam in charge. He encourages everyone to watch the monitors and stay on top of things. Titus and Emily discuss what kind of shape Billy will be in when he comes back, as they leave the room. Sam and Kate are left behind. Kate tells Sam that the code name stuff is dumb. He tells her she's probably right but old habits die hard. He asks her if she has any superpowers, "You're a regular person." She calls him out on his previous statements about not wanting to know anything about them as he rummages around in his backpack. She says she's not a metahuman, and asks if it disqualifies her from anything. Sam says no, it makes her the best person for what he's about to give her. He pulls out a utility harness, a duplicate of the scanner he used on Hyde, a pair of goggles, a small computer intended to be mounted on the wrist among other things. Sam says when they shut the Division down he grabbed as much gear as he could because he figured he'd never be able to get this kind of tech again. Kate scoffs a "Congratulations?" at him and Sam says she's well on her way to being a complete misanthrope. He asks if she wants the gear and she asks why. "To make your own ice cream with." He demonstrates a hooked claw gun and says he's never used it. She evaluates the haul, and asks why he's giving this all to her. "Because we're not all born with laser beams shooting out of our hands, or with magical healing abilities or invulnerabilities. Some of us just have guts to venture out into the world and try to make it a better place. And those folks need a leg up when they can get it. ... I think you're brave as hell. It's the least I can do to lend you a hand." Kate smiles and asks how one of the gadgets works.

"I have no idea," Sam replies, What do you say we find out?"

Chapter 45: Astral Projection

Doc brings Jane to a mostly empty, circular chamber. He waves his hand and a globe of light drifts off his finger tips, splits in two and then splits again to illuminate the room in cool, blue light. Doc draws symbols on the floor, and pulls vials out of his coat to make patterns on the floor. Jane asks if it is dangerous, and Doc assures her she'll be fine. Again, she clarifies she's asking about his safety. He lets her know he'd done this more times than he can count. "I can't handle it if anyone else dies on my watch today," she tells him. She says that she's not done learning from him, and if he dies "I'm gonna hold you personally accountable." He lights murky incense on fire, and talks to things she cannot see. She asks if he knows where she came from. She asks what she is. An alien like Billy? A lab experiment? He asks why she's asking, and she says she needs to know because if he doesn't come back, he is the only one who knows.

Doc tells her she has the Gawain Gene. According to the Arthurian Legends, some of the stories indicate Gawain's powers come from the sun, and he was stronger during the day, but weak under the night sky and lost a duel with Launcelot because the fight went long into the evening. Jane asks if she's like Gawain. Doc says Gawain is real, and lots of myths are real. Think about all the heroes and gods who derive their power from the sun. Every mythology has a sun god.

Jane asks if she was an accident. Doc says she was born special. "What's the one thing all those solar powered characters have in common?" Jane says they're dead. Doc says "They're heroes."

"Every so often humanity gets lucky and a hero is born. And they shine in the sun." Jane asks Doc not to put pressure on her. Doc then says what he's about to do might look scarier than it is. "Don't panic." Jane asks how she'll know if she needs to save him and he says she'll absolutely know if something goes wrong. Doc takes off his coat, pulls his tee shirt off over his head, and sits lotus style in the center of the room. He is covered neck to belt with tattoos, which shocks Jane. Some are animal shapes and creatures that are recognizable. Others are stings of sigils and symbols, more alien letters, shapes that bend and move when stared at. Doc removes his glasses, and Jane gasps.

His eyes burn in swirling pools of purplish-red flames. He closes his eyes - and he is gone. His body is still there, but Jane knows, he's gone. She sits on the floor and waits for his return.

**Chapter 46: The Platform**

Agent black does not like the new location. The new base is designed to look like an oil rig in international waters. Compared to the previous base, which was an underground fortress, this is "a tree house in the middle of the sea." Rose is also not happy but says it is a treehouse in international waters. They don't want to be on American soil, or anyone else's soil. The Lady isn't with them, so Wegener speaks a little more freely. It's Black's job to kill Wegener if he goes off the edge, so hearing the doctor speak at all surprises him, even though he pities him. Wegener asks if all the experimental children are gone. Black begins to answer but Rose cautions him. He tells the doctor that a few are left, they saved who they could.

They land on the platform, and Wegener is ushered into the base by security. Rose and Black exit the copter and another one approaches. Black wonders if it is the Lady is arriving and he and Rose turn to watch it landing. Guards exit the copter, and a man with cloth covering his face exits the vehicle. The emblem of the Children of the Elder Star is on the mask, with eye holes lining up with the eyes of the squid-like creature. Rose says she was not aware that a representative of the Children would be there, and if she knew she would have planned a nicer welcome. The man says that isn't necessary. His colleagues think they're doing a hell of a job. She begins to apologize for missteps but the man stops her. "Excuses don't become your reputation." He says if she thought he was there to do away with her, she would have already attacked them. The missteps have worked in their favor. Black asks what about the destroyed lab and he waves it off. They got what they wanted, a working storm. Black notes the storm works when the Lady tells it to. The man identifies Black, and says he was hired to "balance the eggheads. He then asks if the Lady is there. Rose says she's on her way. He says "That woman is playing her own game. Be wary of her." Rose assures him that they do. She asks what has brought him there. He asks if they can get out of the rain.

He says he's the "designated Voice of the Children of the Elder Star." He is there to deliver their premiere message to the world. In a conference room in the rig, he tells them they've served up a series of natural disasters and now they have the opportunity to "scare the hell out of the world." The Lady arrives and offers to make a suggestion. The man hiding behind his mask says he's willing to listen to her ideas. She says they need something different as a show of strength.

"Make an earthquake," she says. They all note none of their subjects has seismic activities. But she tells the man, now identified as "John," that he left a "toy" behind that would be perfect for this situation. John is surprised she knows his name and accuses her of spying on him. Before he can continue with his threats she points a finger at him and approaches.

"You'll never threaten me. Ever. You will maintain a civil tone or you'll incur my deep, deep enmity, and I can assure you that no one has ever benefited from losing my favor," she tells him. She says she is working with him and his people, but if he uses that tone with her again, his own people will kill him slowly just to get back into her good graces. The man nods that he understands and she sits down as if nothing happened.

"Let's talk about what you left sleeping under the city, shall we?" she says.

**Chapter 47: Can't Go Back**

Titus and Kate are out testing one of the weapons Sam gave her. Titus says he thought that she didn't trust the old guy. In spite of all her terrifying skills, she really can't throw well, Titus notices. Titus says that he seems like a creepy uncle buying his niece off with a bunch of presents. Kate says she can't be bought off, and that Same isn't creepy. He is "bugnuts crazy." She says that he is crazy because he wants to make a better world. She doesn't entirely trust him, but he's on their side. Titus points out it took three weeks for her to trust him and she says that he never gave her presents, and Sam doesn't turn into a werewolf when he's in a bad mood. Kate throws a star right above the heart of the dummy that she's been practicing her throws on.

Titus asks her if she wonders what'll happen when this is all over, when they stop the bad guys. Kate responds that they'll find more bad guys. "There are always more bad guys." Titus says he knows, but wonders if this means they totally forfeit all normalcy.

"You're a werewolf. Normalcy? I'd say that ship has sailed." Kate says. Titus says it'd be nice to go to college but the application process would be a trip. "How I spent my summer saving the world, by Titus Talbot." He notes that Billy and Emily have families. Jane talks about the people who raised her. "And then there's us," Kate says. They ponder the loneliness of it all, and how there probably haven't been a total of three dates in the lives of anyone in the building. Kate says that Sam was probably a player in his youth but Titus says no, he means "Us. The gang. The team. Wouldn't it be nice to, y'know... have a life." Kate says it is overrated. Titus asks if she has ever tried it, and she shoots him a look. She says she doesn't know if she could have a life. She asks him what it's like when he wolfs out. How's it feel. He says lately not so bad but for a long time he was out of control. It felt like he couldn't stop moving no matter what. Kate says that's how she feels. She doesn't sleep. If she sits still, she worries. She has to be on the go. She can't have a life.

Kate tells Titus he can't keep following her when she's on patrol. It's like being followed by a two hundred fifty pound dump truck with fangs. He says he just wants to watch her back. She smiles, a rare treat. She says she appreciates it, but he doesn't have to. He apologizes. They stand in silence, and Kate whips her stars at the dummy. She asks him if one of those three dates he mentioned was one of his. He doesn't understand, so she asks if he's been on a date, or if wolfing out got in the way. He says maybe once. She throws her discs again. Kate says she's never been on a date. Titus says it was hard to see someone when on the run, howling at the moon.

Kate says that they should try to go on a date when this is over. Titus is surprised. She says she's not asking him to marry her, it could be fun. The blind leading the blind. Titus asks would she really date a werewolf. She says that she'd rather date a literal werewolf than a figurative one.

"Now all we have to do is save the world," Titus says. "Guys have had to do worse things to convince a girl to go to the movies with them."

**Chapter 48: The Other Side**

Doc never ceases to be amazed at the beauty of it all, on the other side of the looking glass. Doc waves his fingers and his path is revealed before him. When he walks, his tattoos glowed, leaving trails of light in his wake. He found the bodies of the still dead demons that he'd sent there. They were still dead but unchanged, no rot. Death was different on the other side. He examines them, they aren't magical illusions, they are real flesh and bone. He realizes if their enemy can control real demons, this is a real threat. They have access to dangerous tools. He traces out runes and symbols on the shoulder blades of the creatures. A trail of light comes off of the creatures and leads a bread crumb trail back to where they'd come from. Doc steps back, sees his own shadow and tugs it off the ground setting it up on its feet. He tears the shadow man apart, and points it at the glowing trail heading off into the strange night sky. The shadow man are bloodhounds, hot on the trail that was created by the magic he had cast. Doc then begins to dissect the demons, looking for the sigils of controls that may be in it. He discovers nothing, no marks, no symbols. Doc ponders how they were controlled, and he thought of the lab. Creatures from the other side don't have time for science and technology. They work in bargains and .... still.

There are those who work exclusively in bargains. "Please don't let it be her. Don't let her be involved," he thinks to himself. He feels his shadow men getting destroyed, a twinge of pain in his arms. He discovered the incoming attack coming from the backs of the dead demons. Doc casts a protection spell in front of him as the arcing ball of red flames crashes towards him. His tattoos activate, spinning and forming new words, spells, faster than his own mind could work. They are armour, erased his footsteps and hid his face from the probing eyes in the distance. Doc pulls a small knife from his pocket, stabs the knife into his palm. The astral world begins to fade.

Jane hovers over him as he comes to. She screams to him, he's shivering. She grabs his coat and drapes it over him. He smells like a blend of charcoal and freezer burn. She asks if he is okay. He says he's had better ideas, and instructs her to kick the patterns on the floor so they can't be found. She asks what happened, and he says he thinks he knows who is working the magic angle for the other side. He tells Jane about Lady Natasha Gray. He has no idea why she'd be involved and experimenting on kids. It is beneath her. She must have an angle. Jane says it sounds like he knows her.

"Taught me everything I know," Doc answers.

**Chapter 49: The Voice**

Emily realizes she wasted her day online, harassing her nemeses, and missed some weird stuff. No one had invited her along to do things. She looks at the room, Titus and Kate are sitting beside each other at the table, but Kate never usually sits with anyone. Or even sits. Doc walked in looking like he had the flu, Jane being the only thing keeping him upright. Doc prepares to tell them what he has discovered, and asks Titus why he's smiling. Titus says he is not. Emily says that's a lie. Titus says everything is normal, "Morose werewolf boy at your service." Doc returns to delivering the message, that there is a "big player in the game now, a world-class sorceress." He warns them to not engage. Don't talk to her. Eve she even tries to talk, run. Kate asks "What if -- " and Doc just says run. It was the hardest he'd ever spoken to them, and Emily hears the real worry in his voice.

"Leave her to me. Magic is... Magic has its own rules. I haven't prepared you well enough to fight someone like her." Kate says "Or like you," but Doc disagrees. Not someone like me. And he asks for their assurance they won't engage. Jane wants to know if he'll tell them anything about her. But he just wants to deal with her first, and then he'll tell them about her. He asks where Sam is. Kate says he's out, and she wants to know the woman's name at least. Doc questions the "out" part of things regarding to Sam and Kate says he wanted to go get food because the food in the Tower tastes like 1980s space food and he wanted a deli sandwich. Jane says that the woman's name is Lady Natasha Gray, and Emily says this is historically inaccurate. Kate continues to challenge Doc. Doc tells Kate about how dangerous she is, She makes deals and promises. It is worse than it sounds. Doc lets the team know he is exhausted from his ordeal, but the computer Neal interrupts and says there is a broadcast occurring right now that *Designation: Silence* should be aware of. Doc asks where it is, and Neal says "Everywhere, sir."

Doc asks Neal to start the broadcast from the beginning. The screen behind Doc lights up to reveal a man with a deep purple sock over his head with the squid design on it. Emily screams out "Oh my gawd it's the Cthulhu people!" He begins to speak, introducing himself as the designated Voice for the Children of the Elder Star. Emily thinks he has a good voice, like he could read audio books. He speaks cryptically of how everyone is in their world, but simply don't realize it yet. They've caused unnatural hurricanes, forest fire, Acts of destruction perpetrated by children. They control the weather, they have an army of human bombs, walking weapons. "You'll do as we say or be taught to understand that this is no longer your world, but ours."

Titus gets up, listening to something outside the room. The man on the screen says they'll be launching one final attack, and an earthquake will start momentarily. Jane calls to Emily to come with her. Titus asks "Do you guys hear that?"

"Nations of the world, our demands will follow shortly," the man continues. "We sincerely hope you choose to cooperate and not force us to deliver another demonstration." Then, the Tower shakes.

**Chapter 50: Earthquake**

Jane flies down to investigate the damage. It looks like a giant anthill, a dirt mound rising up from the street with a gaping hole at the top. She peers down the hole, past the subway, into the deep earth. Jane turns to see Emily noting a hole in the Tower and glass shards, concrete blocks, everywhere. The interior of the building is gutted and unrecognizable. A monster the size of a city bus crawls out of the building. Limbs everywhere, a drill the size of a car for its muzzle. The creature notices Jane and the drill spins. Instead of attacking Jane, it turns back to the building and begins to rip at the Tower. Jane and Emily aren't sure what to do when they hear the creature roar in pain. The monster cries and whines, and the drill is deafened. Titus bounds out of the building, his werewolf muzzle covered in blood. The creature pursues him and Titus is one step ahead, dodging the huge claws. Titus strikes at the monster when he can, clawing the arms, grabbing the underbelly. The monster returns to attacking the building, and Jane notices "it's like the thing is chopping down a tree." She tells Emily to catch the building if it begins to fall. Emily thinks she's crazy for suggesting this but Jane points out she controls gravity.

Kate comes out of the building and attacks the monster by planting something into the base of its skull. she pulls a trigger and the monster howls in pain. They try to figure out how to get the monster away from the building, and Kate punches it in the face, what she thinks is between the eyes. Jane flies up and calls to the monster "Hey, beautiful," and it pursues her up the building. She flies higher, not her best idea she thinks but at least the monster is away from the civilians below. Emily deploys a bubble of float, and Jane is no longer in control of her flight. The monster grabs hold of her, and slams her into the side of the building. The monster is slow, impacted by Emily's bubble of float as well, but has Jane in its clutch. Titus is suddenly flying into sight, which Jane might have found funny but she can barely breath because of the monster clamp on her body. Titus attacks the beast, tearing its flesh and sending bubbles of blood through the gravity field. The monster swats Titus away, and he falls out of the bubble of float and meets the pavement.

Doc appears at the base of the Tower, waving his hands around, turning hunks of concrete into butterflies or dust. His attention turns to Jane. She tries to overheat but the monster is unfazed. The top of the building begins to give way and float upwards. Jane yells to Emily to stop the bubble of float, but Emily says she's not doing that. Doc flies up to Jane and tells her "The Tower isn't really a tower." The top of the building tears away, Jane notices thrusters and Emily says "Dude, we were living in a spaceship." Doc is trying to figure out how to save Jane, and wonders where Billy is. He arrives right on cue. Jane is annoyed with Billy for not wearing his radio, so he has no idea what is going on. Billy is flying straight for the monster when he hits Emily's Bubble of float. Grinding to a halt, he looks at Jane and says "Oops." The Monster swats him, and he spins up into the air.

"Enough," Jane says, fists above her head pounding the claw holding her in place. The metal begins to dent, but the monster continues to thrash the building. Jane tells Emily to drop her bubble of float for a few seconds. Emily says she thinks it is a bad idea but Jane wants to fly straight up and take the monster machine with her. Kate says "You're insane, good luck." Emily is afraid of letting go of the building because she isn't going to be able to get it back. Doc announces that he's got it, but Emily is worried he doesn't have the strength. He assures that he does and tells her to let go. Jane feels gravity return, the building lurching, the monster slamming her again, but this time she's able to kick off the building for leverage, and launch with the creature into the air.

She is struggling to fly higher, the machine monster is swinging around and hitting other buildings as they go. The Tower begins to collapse and Doc's magic begins to work. He uses his powers to convert what's left of the building into a file, silvery powder. The spell erases the building and Jane feels he's turned the building to salt. Unfortunately not fast enough as it falls to the ground below. The last solid pieces suddenly stopped falling as Emily caught hold of them. Jane feels the bus-sized monster is too heavy, and she's not making much headway.

"Would it help if I pushed?" Billy asks as he flies up from below. He's not nearly as strong a Jane, but between the two of them, they thrust higher and higher. The monster howls in frustration, trying to pull back to Earth. Jane hears Kate's voice in her ear asking if anyone has seen Titus. Jane hears Titus' roar, realizing it isn't through her earpiece radio, but, Titus is clinging to the monster. He is moving around the monster's body by jaw and claw, getting closer to Jane. The monster howls, opening his claw, letting Jane rocket into the air. Billy tries to take the full weight of the monster, and cannot slow the descent of the monster. Titus is shaken free, falling back to the ground. Emily calls to Billy to let go of the monster, flying upward to grab Titus with one hand, and grabbing the monster with another. Billy then swoops to grab Titus, and return him safely to the ground. Emily and Jane are then holding the monster aloft. The monster looked pitiful, tragic, a miserable hybrid of animal and machine. Emily asks how Jane is doing, Jane says she feels like she's going to throw up and asks Emily how she is.

"I'm cool. Can you ask Doc where the wild things are discarded? I don't want to float around with this giant centipede mole bear forever."

**Chapter 51: The Children**

Black watches the storm as it pushes against nature and out to sea. He wonders if she knows they are there, or, if it was just a coincidence. Their pet hurricane had been moving all around the eastern seaboard for weeks, and it was hard to tell what movements were deliberate and what was confusion and rage. Rose says she's never met one of them in person, meaning, one of the children. They hadn't seen the Voice since the manifesto, or speech, and the man had been hidden in the inner chambers of the oilrig conversing with his betters. Rose continues saying she's always worked through an intermediary, lawyers, soldiers. Black says he isn't sure he is one of the Children. He could just be a peon, like they are. A hired actor for the organization. Rose points out that the Lady knew him.

The Lady appears, entering without a sound. "He's a cog. The Children never come out to play. They know where they belong. Cutting checks and winning wars." She says he's been working for the Children for years, "much like you two have." Black asks if she's working for them too. She says that she's working on their behalf, but not for pay. "One does not simply hire someone like me. You have to offer something much more significant than money to me." Black asks what they think of the attack on the city. Rose says not as much damage as they'd hoped, but knocking over the super team's home base was thrilling. Black says it didn't exactly get knocked down, part of it flew away. The Lady says that the other part turned into a pillar of salt, and there aren't too many magicians who know that trick One of them used to live in the tower, probably still does.

Rose asks how that works, and the Lady explains using the things real name to do this. Black asks if they knew there was a massive hovercraft on the top of the building, and what's next. The lady says "We wait." Rose agrees. And says she thinks they'll use the storm again. Black points out that the storm isn't under control, and asks where that damn scientist is. Rose says she hasn't seen him since they got there but Black insists he got off the helicopter. Rose says she'll kill him if they lost him, and heads to the door, demanding Black accompany her.

**Chapter 52: Diner**

Jane, Billy, Titus, and Kate sit at a pizza parlor a block from where the Tower once stood, waiting for Doc and Emily to return from depositing the drill monster on the island where the lab once stood. Emily and Doc return, in deep argument about where they left the monster. Emily is worried about what it will eat, and Doc says when it discovers no food, it'll dig a hole and sleep for years. She asks how he'd feel to be abandoned on an island, and he says he'll go right to sleep. Emily says should go visit and Doc says no, she should not.

Kate asks what that thing was anyway, and Doc says he thought those creatures were dealt with in the past. When he was their age, a group of aliens unleashed a swarm of them on earth as part of a terraforming expedition. He says it took them months to track them down, and they must have missed at least one. Emily refers to the digger as "Bubba" and insinuates it had been sleeping for 50 years, which Doc has an issue with "How old do you think I am?" She says Seventy? Seventy five? He says he is forty and asks if he looks that bad. Emily asks if he really wants an answer. Jane says he doesn't. She asks if Doc thinks the monster was left there on purpose. He says probably not for their team, but, someone knew it was there and was waiting for the best time to activate it and "get the most terror for the buck.

Titus points out the bigger problem. "Our base...flew...away." Doc says it didn't. Titus says "I'm a werewolf. That means I have an anger management problem, not an eyesight problem. Our roof flew away like a spaceship." Doc says it's a few miles away, waiting for them. Hovering. Titus asks how he and Kate are supposed to come and go, by rope ladder? Kate and Titus have a strange little silent exchange that Jane thinks is almost cute. Kate asks if this is one of Annie's inventions and Doc shakes his head. The ship was here before Annie came along. Before Doc came along. Kate asks if he said "ship," and Doc says yes. Billy face plants on the table in pizza, and says it is a spaceship. Emily says "no way." Billy says Dude confirmed it. He wants to know how many others are still active. Doc asks "others?" Billy continues saying that Dude actually knows how many starships are currently masquerading as buildings on Earth. Emily insists that the Gherkin in London had better be a rocket ship. Kate asks why the attack. Were they trying to send a message, Make us look bad on TV? Jane says it could be they wanted to keep the team busy while they get something worse planned. Doc says this is all plausible.

Emily wants to return to the fact they were living in a spaceship all this time and didn't know it. Sam walks in, and says "I leave for a few hours and your entire building blows up?" Emily corrects him that it crumbled. Kate asks Doc why he turned it to salt, why didn't he just make it evaporate. Doc explains magic is movement of energy back and forth. "I couldn't just displace it, and didn't want to turn it into something awful, and I wanted to transform it into something that could dissolve in the rain. It was the first thing I thought of. Next time I'll try baking soda." Sam says he saw the whole thing on the news, considering an entire building is gone and part of it flew off, "you guys did a great job containing the problem." Emily says "Sure did."

Kate notes she thinks they did too good a job. If their goal was to maximize destruction, why attack the home base. "They knew we were there." They put the tracking beacon in Hyde. This wasn't coincidence. Jane notes they're right back to asking what they get out of distracting the team.

A phone rings, and everyone assumes it is Emily's phone. But it turns out it is Billy. An awkward conversation ensues, and Billy says it was his mom. She saw them on the news. Billy wasn't wearing his costume at the time, and she recognized him. Jane wonders what the horror would be of a parent seeing their child on the news fighting a monster. She then thought of her adoptive parents, and if they saw her and worried. Doc said they'd raised more than one hero. does it get easier over time.

Billy says that she just wanted to make sure he was okay. Titus and Kate think that is really nice. Titus asks if he checks in with her much. Billy says no. He doesn't want her to "do this. To worry." Titus says Emily calls her mom during missions. Billy is flustered by their reactions. Emily suggests he go visit and offers to go with. Billy looks very beat up after the past few adventures. Titus says he doesn't look alright. Emily enlists Doc's opinion but he says it is up to Billy. "How you conduct your private lives is entirely up to you. It'll always be up to you." Billy avoids eye contact with everyone.

Kate says "If I had the opportunity, I would," without any sarcasm or irony. Billy says okay. Doc says that Billy should do it right now. "I have a feeling things are going to get worse soon. Take advantage of the time while you have it." Emily says she's going with him. Doc says he'll get everyone back to the .... "Starship!" Emily yells. He corrects her with "our base." Sam goes to pay the bill, and Billy sits and mopes. Jane thinks about saying something to him but leaves. Emily comes back in, and calls him Sugar Bear, and says let's go. He asks why she's doing this, and she says he's her big brother. He says big brothers are supposed to be the ones who are supposed to do the looking after.

"That's one of life's great falsehoods, Billy Case. Big brothers always need the most looking after. Because nobody ever knows how much they need it.

**Chapter 53: The Defector**

Doc, Titus, Kate, Jane, and Sam are back up at the base discussing how best to make it so the non-flying Indestructibles can get back up to the base. There are bikes - Titus is not impressed and doesn't want to fly across the moon like E.T. Kate had seen the bikes before at the base, and recognized Titus' concern. These were like motorcycles, but without wheels. They had repulsor systems jutting out from the bottom and rear, and could fly well into the atmosphere. And they had no seatbelts. Titus expressed concern about falling off, and Jane laughed and says he falls off everything. Doc confesses the ship has a teleporter and Titus says no. Kate says that they'll figure something out and pulls Titus away from the bikes. "The first rule of Kate was to not show fear." But the thought of riding thousands of feet above sea level made her vaguely nauseous.

Kate pulls Titus away to go check on the storm. Everything in the ship seems to be moved around since the Tower collapsed. Kate needed to ask Neal for directions. They made it to communications suite, and Titus says he thinks they got the short end of the stick. "Historically, heroes who couldn't fly suffered a lot of indignities." Kate says. "It's the way of the world." Pulling up a satellite view of the Atlantic, the storm is northeast of Puerto Rico. Suddenly there's a message from Neal letting Kate/Dancer know there is an incoming call from an unknown source. Neal wants to know if he should answer it, and lets her know all incoming calls are traced. Kate masks up, Titus pulls his hood up. A very sad man appears on the screen, with a hippie ponytail, thick glasses and week-old stubble. He asks if he has reached the good guys, and identifies himself as Doctor Hans Wegener. Kate asks him what he wants. He says he "wants to set her free. Want to let the storm escape before they use her for something terrible again." Kate wants to know how, and says they saw the girl in the storm. She motions for Titus to go get everyone else. Wegener explains how the storm required a body, and that they thought if they bound it to a human it could be controlled, rationalized with, or pain could guide her actions. He says he doesn't have much time. He says there are controls there and he's transmitting his passwords. If the controls there are destroyed, she'll be set free. Kate asks what this means, if the storm and the girl will be free from each other. Wegener says that the girl is "a vegetable." The storm gives her life. Without the girl, the storm has weeks to live. They're bound to each other. It can't be fixed without killing them both. Kate asks if they can take her away from Wegener's people. Kate asks Neal to confirm he has the source of the message and says they can rescue him as well. He says they're on the way to him, and he doesn't deserve help and calls himself Doctor Frankenstein. There is a hissing noise, and Wegener slumps. A woman's hand appears, reaches behind Wegener's back, and pulls out a blood covered knife. She pushes him over, and appears on camera, a refined face with an eyepatch surrounded by scars. She asks if the doctor was looking for a rescue. Kate says maybe. Titus says they're coming for her and she says she doesn't recognize him. Then she realizes he is the werewolf. "Do you want to know which body you keep when you die? I've killed enough of your people to be an expert on it. " They trade insults and barbs, mostly with Titus insulting her perceived vision issues. Kate disconnects the call.

"I refuse to be murdered by a chick with one eye." Kate and Titus speak more on the killing part and the fact this woman murdered Wegener right in front of them. She asks if Neal can pinpoint the location, which he already has. She asks him to tell Doc what they've found.

**Chapter 54: Doc**

Twenty years and he's still not sure how to beat her. Once upon a time Doc was a young kid, a street magician who knew how to coax minor creatures from the shadows. He played with fire and blood. Then he rescued a little girl from the sewers, and learned there were still monsters out there. He thought he was a big old hero. But there are so many things that go bump in the night. He rescued this little girl, and left a piece of himself behind. Doc left the city, traveled the world. He conversed with mediums and shaman, stage magicians, men of God and men of other things. He tried to master his craft. He fought a nightmare that had wandered out of someone's dream into the Australian Outback. He burned down a building in London so no one would ever see what he found inside. He exorcised a house in Louisiana and almost died in Moscow. In Paris, a demon with too many faces offered him a bargain that he refused, When he next looked at his reflection, his hair was bluish white. He was 25 years old. A year passed, and a malevolent creature challenged him to a duel. Doc won, but his eyes were forever changed, a small piece of that demon latched onto him, and his eyes perpetually burned.

The Lady approached him a month later and offered to teach him. She removed her glasses and revealed her eyes were also pits of fire like his. "Most everything that goes bump in the night can be reasoned with. Can be bought. You just need to know how to make the right deal. He accepted her offer. She taught him darker magic, more utilitarian, more to gain, but much higher stakes. He knew it was time to leave, he could see where this relationship was headed. He understood the world needed creatures like her, but he knew he couldn't be one of them. They parted friends. They had crossed paths many times through the years. Never as allies because he was saving little kids from sewers and battling evil things. He and his friends would interfere with her plans and she'd defeat them or they would defeat her. Doc wondered if this was intentional. She had trained him just enough to be useful for her and her games.

Doc knows he does not have the means to destroy her, and he isn't sure he wants to. Even if he were able. But if there was a way to strike a bargain, cast a spell.... He poured over books and scrolls, and she shrugged off everything he threw at her like the wind. He thought of the storm, he thought of what could be bargained away. Their friendship, fallout, things they shared and what kept them apart. There was one option, he didn't like it.

He mutters to himself "But I enjoy this world, Like being in it." Jane walks in on his studies, overhears him and asks who he is talking to. "Old ghosts," he replies. He looks at Jane, the one who would make a finer world if given a chance. He had picked her up from the wreckage of an aircraft, feeling the warmth of the sun on her body. He had handed her over to John and Doris Hawkins to raise, because he was no man to raise a child. Annie had never understood why he was so upset when he gave Jane away. He had done the best he could with the time he had. And if this is the only way... If he did it, well, he wouldn't be gone forever. "That was the problem though: the not knowing." Jane asked if he was okay. she was always so earnest. He knew he was hearing John and Doris talking. They did a fine job raising her. He said her name, and realized she'd never seen him upset before.

"There's a way I can take the Lady out of the fight. When we make our big move. She's too much for anyone else to handle. Too much for all of you to handle. But I can...I can remove her from the fight. ... Except I have to take myself out of it as well. And it...it might be a while before I get back." Jane is confused by his cryptic speech. He explains there are worlds on worlds, Layers and layers. He hoped he'd get to show her a few of the good ones some day. Jane asks if there are other options. He says there isn't time. Jane latches on to hima bear hug too big for her small frame, radiating heat like a warm day. He says she can trust Sam. She insists that they barely know how to do anything.

"If you only knew how great you are already," Doc tells her. She asks him to stop talking like he's gone already. He asks her to look after the others, "They'll follow you. You set the tone; they'll follow you." She threatens to put Emily in charge if he leaves, while she cries. Jane asks when, but he doesn't get to answer. Neal lets *Designation: Doctor Silence* know that *Designation: Dancer* is looking for him, they have found the enemy's base of operations. Neal would like to know if he should call back *Designation: Straylight* and *Entropy*. Doc kisses the top of Jane's head, wipes his eyes, and says "Now's as good a time as any."

**Chapter 55: Home**

Billy's family lived in a suburban town large enough to feel like a real city but small enough not to have the name recognition of a real city. His mother waits on the porch, watching him and Emily come in for a landing. She rushes him for a big hug. Mom fusses over Billy and his beat up face, saying she saw him on the news. She asks what happened to him, "Last week, I got punched in the face by a giant bear crab mole and was exploded on yesterday, or the day before. I forget." Mom says they thought he was dead. He said he didn't think they'd worry. She says that's the dumbest thing she's ever heard, and his father has been beside himself. Mom notices Emily and asks if this is Billy's girlfriend. Emily says no, "Billy's like my big brother but he totally has a crush on one of the other super girls and doesn't know it yet."

Billy talks to Dude saying he shouldn't have come home. His father is in the living room, looking big as always... all shoulders, dark hair and that long, exhausted face. Billy knew that face. The face of disappointment because his son was lazy, inept. His father wanted him to take over the family business, a hardware store, but Billy had little aptitude and there was an unspoken truth between them that the store wouldn't survive. Billy had suggested they adopt another son who would be better suited to save the business. Billy says he should have stayed away, and Dude says to give them time. His mother says they never recognized him before because they wear masks. But this time Billy had been on an errand when the attack came.

"My boy's running around the city in tights," says his dad. Billy says it's more of a space age polymer, chemically manufactured.... and then says nevermind. His father says who would have thought it. He leaves and they think he's homeless, doing drugs, and here he is a "goddamn superhuman." Dad asks why he didn't tell them what he was running off to do. They had been looking for him. Billy is surprised they were looking for him. He asks if they would have believed him if he told them, or if they would have locked him up in a looney bin. His mother says she would have maybe had him see a psychologist but then asks about flying. And shooting lasers out of your hands. She asks how did this happen?

Billy turns to Dude and asks how did this happen. He and Dude have a discussion about how he was picked. Dude makes a joke and laughs, which is something Billy had never heard before. His dad asks him why he's smiling. He tells his dad "I have an alien living inside me, which sounds, like, completely insane, and also really creepy." He says that he was walking home from school one day, and a bolt of light hit him. He felt awful for a few days but his mother wouldn't let him skip school. She says he faked it a lot. She thought he was faking. Billy says he then started hearing a voice in his head, The voice started telling him amazing things he could do and then "i thought, well now I'm a freak."

Emily makes a crack about how they're all freaks and that's why they get to do the things they do. Billy's father turns his attention to Emily and asks who she is. She identifies herself as Billy's teammate, "and also his Jiminy Cricket." His dad is having a hard time wrapping his head around this. "So you're not crazy, and you have all these powers, and, what, now you...save people? That's your job?"

Billy says "It doesn't pay much but the benefits are pretty rad."

His father walks through his thought process when he saw the news. First feeling that it couldn't be his kid. He saw how bad it was, and then thought, I hope that isn't my kid. Then he realized what they were doing, out there together, doing miracles, and he says no... I wish that's my kid. Billy's father says that he was so damn proud of him, out there, doing things the others only wish they could do. Not thinking about himself. Billy confesses he was thinking a lot about himself, especially trying not to be blown up. "Again." The again part is important. His mom encourages him to not get blown up. He asks if they're really proud of him, not mad. His mother says she's still mad about the note, and mother's day will make up for it this year. His father says people could do different things with his gift, but he has chosen to do the noblest thing he could do with it. Billy asks Dude if his dad just called him "noble." Dude replies, "you are not noble yet, Billy Case. Give it time. You might get there."

They receive a beep in their transmitters, Emily goes to the kitchen to answer the call. She rushes back to say they have to go. Kate found something important. His mother asks if he has to go, if the team can just do this one without him. Billy and Emily exchange looks and Emily says Jane sounds really worried. His father shakes his hand. They go to take off and his dad tells him to come back in one piece, with roses for his mom. Billy says he'll be back soon, but he isn't really sure if they could promise anyone they'll return at all.

**Chapter 56: A New Ballgame**

Everyone is gathered around the conference table, in full costume. Like a sports team before the big game. The monitor shows the storm over the Atlantic Ocean, and a small blip where Neal had traced the call from Wegener. They sit in silence until Emily breaks the tension saying "I know I'm gonna regret this, but are we really making our big move based off a prank call?" Kate says that the information seems legitimate and the scientist was trying to help them. Emily yells "It's a trap!" Titus notes that the storm is going to strike the east coast soon, and so if they have the chance to stop it... Jane interrupts him and says her, not it. We have to help her, not stop her. Doc had deferred the lead to Kate but speaks up, saying "Here's the plan." Jane, Billy, and Emily will try to distract or contain the storm temporarily. Kate and Titus will mount an assault on the base, and disable the controls they have over the storm. Hopefully the intel they have will help. It will take the opportunity away to do harm to the storm remotely, and also disable the cortex bomb if she has one. Billy asks about the creatures they'd seen previously, Doc says he'll deal with them. He looks at Jane and she averts her eyes. Billy asks if when they've disabled the controls, won't the storm be able to cut lose and do whatever she wants? Doc says that's why the three (Billy, Jane, Emily) need to be there to talk her into managing her own powers. Emily isn't sure she gets it (or isn't listening) so Doc repeats that she is going to contain the storm.

"That's a faboo idea" Emily says. Jane says it'll be a big bubble of float, and she can do it. Emily points out it will be big enough to hold a hurricane "and I can barely do long division." Doc says she has a genius level IQ, and to stop pretending she doesn't. He continues, saying they need to reason with her, Billy has a symbiote living with him and may be able to help her. They share the same body. But someone has to take control. Billy says that his symbiote doesn't listen to him, and just tolerates his behavior and cuts off his power when he's a jerk. Jane asks what their other alternatives are and Doc says the other alternative is one they don't want. Kate says they'll kill her, destroy the human body, so the sentient storm dies. That's what the scientist told her. Jane says she is not going to kill her. Billy agrees. He believes they can help her. Titus asks about Doc. If he's going to be at the ship, how are he and Kate going to get to the base in the middle of the ocean. Kate says they should take one of the flying bikes. Titus is unsure. Kate says they can ride the double and she'll drive. He asks if Emily can just drop them off. Emily said they should take the bike, it'll be fun. Titus says no. Kate says he can swim. "Maybe you're part Labrador," Billy says. Titus growls. Jane notes that this is it - they'll charge off into the middle of the ocean and hope they can stop them? Kate says yes. Jane eyeballs Doc and Kate notices the exchange.

Doc says he has something for you before we go. He pulls a small pouch out from his coat and pours it out on the table. Flat metal objects topple out, and he tosses one to Titus. It has an emblem of an abstract wolf's head. Next to Emily, who stops hers in mid air, and draws it to her hand. It bears the nuclear fallout sign on it, and Emily says "Wicked." Third to Billy, a silver-blue comet is on his. Doc handed Jane hers, which was an idealized artistic version of the sun in gold. Kate says "I don't have a symbol," and Doc slides her emblem across the table.

"I took my best guess. I hope it works." Kate holds it up, sees a dancer spinning in a pirouette. She says "Close enough, Doc. Thank you." Doc explains that in the old days, they put their symbols on the back of their chairs. It's just the appropriate thing to do. Make it official. Titus asks if they're "official," and Doc says they have been for a long time. "Consider this your graduation gift." Billy says "Here goes nothing," and Emily follows him out to the hall. Jane stares at Doc a moment, and follows them. Doc catches Kate by the arm as she goes by. Doc tells her that if something happens to him today, there's someone she should contact. He says he's going to do something stupid and there's a chance he may be gone a long time. He is going to set a trap for the woman controlling the girl in the storm, and if she tries to hit back, he might get kicked out of this world for a while. "I'm going to lead her on a merry chase, and it might take me quite a while to get back." Kate asks if he's going to die, and he says no - "there are rules to what I do, Kate. She and I can't murder each other. It's just not done. It's not allowed." Doc and Kate talk more about his plan to lead the Lady away. Kate shares a parable she'd heard, maybe Buddhist, maybe the Bible, she can't recall. An old man helps a snake or a scorpion, cross a desert or river, something. At the end, the snake bites the man and asks "why did you help me all this time, when you knew in the end I'd bite you?" and the man says he'd lead them far away to ever do any harm. Kate asks if the Lady is really that bad. Doc says she is the most dangerous person he'd ever met. Kate notes how old Doc looks since they first met. She says she wished she had been kinder to him. He says you've been exactly the way you had to be.

Kate asks about the person she's supposed to find if something happens to Doc. He says Neal will help her find him. Kate wants to know why her, why not Jane. Doc says it is because she reminds her of him. He was ordinary, and willed himself to be extraordinary. And he might be good for her to turn to when he's gone. They shake hands. Kate says she hopes he's wrong, and will be back. He agrees, and tells her only Jane knows.

"Great. Always her and I, isn't it?" Kate says.

**Chapter 57: Strike Fear**

The Lady and Rose are talking on the deck when Agent Black finds them. They are looking at enormity of the storm, the thing, her. Black notes she's angry. Rose asks if his men are ready. They've taken up positions, the platform is very large, and if anything goes wrong, there's nowhere to go. Black asks Rose if she thinks they'll come, and Rose says yes, and Wegener piqued their interest. The Lady turns her face to the sky to feel the rain. He wondered why she worked with the Children. It seemed below her, a game. The Lady asks if Rose will let her werewolf problem get the better of her. Rose says she doesn't have a werewolf problem. The Lady says "We both know that's not true. But I do hope you have fun killing the pup. It must be so much less satisfying one that isn't fully grown." Rose says a pelt's a pelt. The Lady asks Black if he has any vendettas to feed today. He says he wants to stay afloat long enough to get paid. The Lady invites them to her ritual. Black shakes his head. Rose stares blankly. The Lady leaves to go set up her extra security measures without them. Black asks Rose if she's seen their (the Children's) list of demands and asks what happens if they don't get what they want, will they hit the east coast with a hurricane every day? Rose says they will be pushing her across to Europe too.

He says it's not really about the demands. Rose says "It's about creating fear. It's about making everything unstable. The Children always did bst in times of chaos." Black asks if their goal is really just to make ... a mess. Rose says and then they're there to pick up the pieces. Black says he'd rather be on the side picking up the pieces than the side losing them. They part, Black saying "Have fun slaying your werewolf," and she says "Don't fall into the ocean."

**Chapter 58: Into The Eye**

Three figures race across the ocean, each with a unique signature. A trail of golden fire, a blue white light, and a faint signature of heat distortion. The storm grew closer threatening, ominous, and vaster with every meter traveled. Less than a mile from the wall of the storm, they pulled up and stopped. "Oh yes, I can totally just put this in a bubble. Totes easy," Emily says. They discuss the badness of this idea, their only choice. Jane encourages Emily to fly up, maybe get an idea of its dimensions, and see if they can be in a spot to contain it. Emily says she'll need a satellite height to get a look at it. Jane tells her to go atmospheric. Billy wonders what they are going to do. Jane said she is going to fly in and try to talk to her like a person. Billy reminds her that went really well last time. Jane said they didn't know as much then as they do now about the storm. Billy asks what he's going to do. Jane points out objects flying their way and tells him he should handle those. She thinks they are just like the robots that attacked her and Kate in the city. Billy says "Been hoping to fight flying robots my whole life."

Kate and Titus raced across the water, staying low, under whatever sensors the rig may have searching for them. Kate is driving the bike like a professional racer, Titus is clinging to her, for dear life. Kate says they're going to have to come in hot, seeing figures up on the deck with firearms. Titus doesn't know what she means, so she says they're going to have to hit them right when they get off the bike. Titus says he has an idea and asks her to "Fly up there and pull a U-ee," which Kate doesn't understand. He yells at her to make a U-turn, she guns the controls of the bike, kicked up speed, She pulls up above the deck, banks a hard right and Titus lets go and jumps off.

Titus can be very graceful when he wants to be. He transforms in mid air, doubling in size. Kate floats long enough to watch two guards get hit by the wolfman, as he tosses one overboard and swats the gun out of the other man's hand and hurls him into the water as well. More men rush to assist, taking aim at Titus. Kate jumps from the bike, leaving it hovering above the deck. She kicks a mercenary in the face. His partner turns from Titus to Kate with his gun, and she punches him in the throat and kicks him in the knee, dropping him to the floor. Titus is on the go, and Kate catches up to him. He speaks to her as the werewolf - in a voice she's never heard before, deep, rumbling, monstrous. "Behind me," he says. She says "You got it, big guy. Let's find us that lab.

Billy was having the time of his life and wanted to send a thank you note to whoever sent inanimate objects to try to kill him. Without fear of injuring anyone. He was able to fly like a lunatic, attacking the robots. He tells Dude this is the most fun he's ever had in his life. Dude tells him he needs to be more careful. He hears a mechanical whir, robots open hatches on their backs with small rockets, which chase Billy seeking his heat. He evades, flies back toward the robots and one hits the robot that launched the rocket at him. He turns around and blasts the rocket still following him, and loses control with the blast back, ending up skimming the surface of the ocean. Two robots come at him, Billy clenched both fists, causing them to glow bright, and punched both robots in the head. His victory is cut short by a barrage of laser blasts. More robots. Including one that looks like a bigger, nastier sibling to the others. Blasting the small ones easily, but others seem to have a shield protected against his attacks. He and Dude discuss strategy, The very big robot fires blasts at him, not unlike his own, sending him spiraling. By the time Billy righted himself the big robot was on him. Billy punched the robot in the face but the robot was relentless. Billy tells Dude he has an idea, and cuts away at top speed, getting distance from the big robot. Billy charges up his light blasts and allows the power to spill right to his head, and aims himself at the robot. Dude tells him "This did not work in the city, and it is a terrible idea now." Billy pours everything he has into the propulsion, and the robot holds his hand out waiting, ready to fire. Billy plows into the robot's torso at full speed. All around him, the robot's torso is torn to shreds. Billy continues through the robot, to the water slamming into the surface. He says it was a terrible idea, and Dude tells him "All your ideas are terrible, Billy Case." He rises up out of the water laughing "I'm having so much fun" as another giant robot flies his way.

Emily is flying miles above, talking to herself as she surveys the storm. Imitating Jane in a mocking tone, she sees flashing light indicating Billy is in trouble. She thinks of going to help him, but it wouldn't help her solve her problem of the storm. She's noting that she has never moved anything she can't see all of. She reaches out with her mind, trying to imagine the boundaries of the storm. She could make a bubble that extended miles across, but would need to know where it ended. Which, she didn't. As she is pondering, the storm begins to move. She looks through the clouds for Jane's heat signature but cannot see it. The storm extended a tendril and on a whim, Emily tries to bubble it. The tendril works against the bubble and splits out. She considers putting a big bubble around Florida to protect it, but imagined all the cars and people and tourists floating away when she suspends them outside of their normal gravity and thinks better of it. "Big bubbles, little bubbles, think different sizes. Lots of bubbles?" She casts little gravitational fields like marbles at the storm. The living clouds think of going through them, but realize it is impossible. Emily let the pockets disappear, and the storm, like water, filled the empty space. "I need to put it in a fishbowl is what I need to do." A tendril reaches toward the coast and Emily makes a fist with her hand, and snaps a medium sized bubble around the tendril. The cloud within the bubble disappears, and Emily repeats the gesture, wrapping her mind around a chunk of the storm still part of the main body of the clouds. A sphere shaped "bite appeared. She released it, and did it again. Each time she does this, the clouds rill in, rushing to replace what has been destroyed, but so long as she maintains the bubble, nothing happens inside.

"Well wouldn't that be funny," she says.

Doc finds her. It was the only time he could catch her unaware - during a ritual spell so deep that she doesn't notice him. There she was, sitting in front of a demon trap, communing with creatures from another plane. " This is the way of all who come in contact with the Lady. All monsters want to serve her, and then they hate her for it." He hesitates. He'd never been afraid before, even at the beginning when he was too young and cocky to know he should be terrified, and too clever for her to trap him. He wasn't frightened, was he worried? Once upon a time they were friends. But they weren't truly enemies, though they are on opposing sides of the same fight. He watched her