Julia almost slit the man's throat when he attacked Rhia. She knew she could, he was close enough and she was fast enough. It would be so easy to take out her knife and take his life for the way he treated her.

Then what? asked the nagging voice of logic as she eyed the gun barrel pointed her way. Instead she had to settle for fixing him with a deathly glare and moving to cradle Rhia's head. She gently moved the hair out of the wound and tore a long strip from the hem of her shirt, bandaging the wound.

"Neither of us know when to stop, do we?" She asked quietly, looking away. She hated everything about this situation. She hated being trapped, she hated being powerless, she hated Rhia suffering. The last bits of her self control started burning away as she thought about how easilly they had been cought.

Rhiannon lay still for a moment before slowly turning over with a groan, exaggerating the pain she felt. She looked up at Julia and winked as her companion wrapped a cloth bandage around her head.

"Looks like they're out for us Empowered, in any case. We need to leave before this 'Enforcer' gets here or else we won't make it out at all." She murmured, her voice so slow it would sound like the troubled sounds of one who was unconscious. From her vantage point on the ground she could see at a different angle and it was then she noticed a slight imperfection in the cage's construction. One of the hinges on the side closest to Julia had not been knocked all the way home.

"Might wanna take a look to your left and down. That knife of yours could be a good lever." She murmured in the same low tone, keeping an eye on the guards so that Julia could set to work.

Julia nodded silently and moved slowly, so as not to attract attention. She carefully worked the knife out of her boot and into the crack of the hinge, twisting the handle and levering the pin up. It was slow agonizing work, but the guards didn't seem to have any interest in them anymore, and eventually she pulled the pin out and put it in her pocket. She signed to Rhia that Objective 1 was complete, then she started making more complicated signals.

I'll breach the door and take one of them hostage, then while their attention is on me you sneak out and see if you can disable that device. Don't turn back even if I go down, the best way to save me is to turn off that noise. The entire conversation took about a minute, but the extra time was worth having a solid plan. She moved into position by the door and held up her hand with all five fingers up. Silently she counted down until she reached one, then kicked open the bars. Taken by surprise, the guards had no time to react before she put her knife to one of their throats and backed into a corner. She was a lot stronger than she looked, and when the man struggled she pressed the knife point into his neck. "Don't think I won't take revenge for what you did. The only reason you aren't spilling blood on the floor is because you're more useful to me alive. I can work with you dead though, so don't make too much fuss."

Rhiannon winked to show she understood before Julia got to work and then detailed a plan. Once her companion was out the redhead slid gracefully up from the ground and through the open wall of the cage. She escaped past Julia and disappeared into the maze of tents, losing herself in the quieter part of the camp and avoiding any patrols.

I need to turn these off fast or we're both done in.

The high-pitched jamming noise got louder as she approached the centre of the camp and found several machines hooked up to cabling then buried into the ground. She had noticed several speakers set up around the camp and outside of it with more men and women carrying the equipment to spread the effect's radius.

"Looks like we'll have to turn it off at the source." She muttered to herself as she watched from behind a crate. Something solid jutted into her back with a loud, recognizable click following the sound.

"A bit far from your cage aren't you?"

Julia hadn't exactly expected an unconditional surrender, but she definitely hadn't expected them to immediately shoot their own teammate. As the life drained out of the body, and with it her protection, Julia knew she only had a few seconds left before those bullets found her. Suddenly the screeching noise cut off and was replaced by a familiar voice.

"Sorry I took so long, you guys," Grace said over the speaker that had been blocking their powers just a few seconds ago, "These guys have a really beefy system. It took me almost a full thirty seconds to crack." The soldiers didn't seem to hear her, not even noticing that the speaker was offline. Julia reached for the dead man's gun, and the look of amusement at what seemed to be her final act of desperation turned to shock as the metal crawled up her hand and over her body.

"You've got nine seconds to turn around and run before I shoot you bastards full of holes," She said smugly, turning the barrel of the gun at the already retreating soldiers. "Good choice."

Now that she was prepared, nobody could hurt Julia. She ran the way Rhia had gone until she heard screams off to the side. She changed course smiling, muttering "That's my girl."

Rhiannon smiled as Grace's voice sounded over the speaker system and power flooded through her veins. The soldier behind her lost focus for a moment, giving the redhead the time to twist around and knock the weapon away. Before her opponent could react Rhiannon stared right into their eyes and assaulted their mind with visions of destruction and horror, implementing personal experiences and fears into the ensemble for extra effect. The soldier screamed and fled as if hell itself was on his heels.

"Bit louder than expected." Rhiannon grumbled before dashing away from the area now that it was sure to receive plenty of attention. "Time to get the hell out of here. Julia, where the hell are you?!"

"Here I am!" Julia said, bursting through one of the tents. The metal of her body crashed against and through things, creating a racket. "Let's blow this pop stand."

She grabbed Rhia's hand and started leading her through the spreading chaos, taking a moment to smile back at her friend. "Just like old times, huh?" she yelled over the noise. She barely paid attention as someone's gunshots ricocheted off her, hitting three of their own troops.

"A bit too much!" Rhiannon yelled back as Julia led them both out of the military complex. Soldiers were closing in around them, she could sense it. Confusion was overriden by order as officers arrived to take control. Rhiannon pushed herself so that she was running level with Julia and wrapped an arm around the other girl's waist.

"Hold on!" She shouted over the chatter of gunfire, concentrating air underneath her feet before exploding it out behind her like a one blast rocket. The two hurtled three storeys high over the camp and into the streets surrounding it, less occupied by the soldiers. Then they shot down to the ground, bouncing along until eventually rolling to a stop. Out of habit Rhiannon rose slowly grunting although there was no pain and rubbing her back.

"I'll get used to that one day." She got her bearings, using the taller buildings on the skyline to identify where they were before pointing towards a more densely populated area. "The security HQ is that way, we better be off quickly before their search teams come and find us."

Julia suddenly dragged Rhiannon into an embrace, holding her silently for a few seconds before letting her go with a sigh. The worried frown on her face morphed into a grin, and she held her friend at arms length.

"I. lmost didn't think we would get out of there." She said, looking back in the direction they came, "I mean, we probably would have been fine, even if they killed us, but I'd rather not take that chance." She quickly brought the girl into another tight hug, then let her start walking and fell into step beside her.

"Let's hope Grace can find a way to counteract whatever that noise was," she said with a grimmace, "I don't like feeling weak." Suddenly she stopped, hit by a sudden thought. Her hand flew to her leg and she groaned, slumping.

"They've still got Gracia," she said, showing her empty holster. She glanced back in the direction of the camp, as if debating whether or not to go back for her favorite pistol. Then she remembered there were going to be other people going in there. Pulling out her phone, she flicked her finger across the screen to find a certain app. "I'm glad I had the resident technopath attach a tracking become to her." She said, relaxing, "She'll make somebody pick it up."

"Dying's never pleasant anyway, whether it's final or temporary." Rhiannon agreed. Sirens sounded from the camp but there was no longer the sound of confusion; order had been regained. The two girls set off at a quick pace towards the Observers HQ where those tasked with keeping the rebels and the dangerous within the areas assigned as no-man's land maintained their watch. As they got closer cameras became visible as well as the occasional glint of a sniper rifle's scope or the quickly disappearing shadow of an operative, vanishing out of sight.

"We must be nearly there." As they reached an area where reinforced barricades with purpose-made loopholes carved into the metal structures blockaded the street someone yelled out an order to halt. They were IDed by various scanners, some simply DNA scanners, facial recognition software and metal detectors, while more still checked their brainwaves for Empowered identity.

"You may pass." A small, concealed door opened in the wall allowing the two girls through. Armed men and women were everywhere on the other side, calm and cool despite the fact they had probably seen a dozen attacks off that morning alone already. They were asked to make a quick report, which they did, before being shown to a comm station where they could contact Julius; almost all mobile technology was blocked off by jammers with few exceptions here.

"We'll let Julius know they have Gracia and the strike teams will return it to you, I'm sure." Rhiannon said, sitting down as they were patched through to their former headmaster.

"I hear those Humanity-First thugs have managed to reinvent the Empowerment Interceptor. You better fill me in." Julius began, getting straight to the heart of the matter. Rhiannon nodded to Julia; for the first part of their small adventure she had been playing dead so her contribution would be limited there.

Julia scratched her head and sighed. "Well, sir, after we took care of the disturbance you sent us to take a look at, we were forced to hide from a small group of armed combatants. Using some device, they pinpointed us, we assume by detecting the use of Rhia's ability, and forced us to run. While we were planning, we were accosted by another group. Before we could run or fight back, we were hit with that awful noise and captured. From there we planned and began a daring escape, and that's when the reinforcements arrived."

Now that she was done giving her report, her brain caught up with something Julius had said. "I'm sorry sir, did you say 'reinvent'? As in 'invented it again'?"

"That's right, Julia. Before the Civil War when I, Mr Gomez and Miss Wils- I mean Mrs Gomez and my wife were being hunted that machine was used against us. Research into the Empowered formerly funded by the military had come up with the Interceptor as an extension of the drug they had made; both switch off or at least limit an Empowered's abilities by stopping the release of unique chemicals in our brains. It effectively makes us human."

There was a silence and then the young President sighed.

"If they've brought it back either some scientists from the original project bear a grudge against us or I wasn't as thorough as I thought in destroying any records pertaining to the device. Either way it's a disastrous setback and could result in another civil war, or even a world wide conflict. Good work you two, have some down time for the rest of the day and I'll get back to you with your next assignment."

The communication channel was hung up on the other end leaving the two girls to contemplate Julius' words.

"Well I guess we've got the rest of the day off. Do we rest or make the most of it?" Rhiannon asked cheerily, stretching; her wounds had already healed up and she felt rejuvenated now that the matter was out of their hands. For now, at least.

Julia shook away the feeling that 'Inhibitor' had left her with and smiled.

"I think we should do both. Why don't we head home for a bit, then later we could go somewhere nice for dinner?" Her body was already back to top shape, besides a slight ringing in her ears still, but her ability did nothing about emotional fatigue.

Rhiannon nodded her head in strong agreement.

"Absolutely! I need to contact... a few people. Let them know how we're doing y'know? After that we could visit that new Italian place down the road, the one with the chef who has a really fake accent." She stood up, feeling tired from the day's events; a small afternoon nap wouldn't go amiss either it would seem.

"Right, let's call a taxi and head off then. I feel like taking the normal route home even if it's a bit slower than the Empowered one."

Julia pulled out her phone and called a cab, then sighed and put an arm around Rhiannon.

"I would say I miss the days when we weren't fighting for our lives, but I can't remember any days like that. What does that say about me?" She leaned her head on her friend's shoulder, silently seeking support that she would never ask for out loud. She knew Rhia could probably sense her true emotions, but hoped that she could conceal how terrified she was anyway.

"I'm tired," She said suddenly, closing her eyes and putting her other arm around Rhia.

"At least we have some days off now and we get paid for it. With more than our lives, that is." Rhiannon reminded her friend. She put a comforting arm around her friend until the taxi pulled up. Rhiannon helped a clearly exhausted Julia into the vehicle before getting in herself and giving the driver directions. They arrived at the list of apartments which were reserved especially for 'government employees' while being kept secret from the public; it was safe in any case.

"Alright, I'll catch you in an hour or two then. I want to contact a few people first." She waved farewell and jumped up the stairs, her energy returning in bounds. Her large, modernly furnished apartment was the way she had left it, clean but a tad untidy with non-important paperwork and letters everywhere. Dismissing a half-born thought about cleaning the mess she went to her small office space and dug a laptop out of the desk, booting it up and logging into Skype.

"Hi Ela, how're you getting on? Just wanted to have a quick catch up..."

Julia got to her to her own apartment about five minutes after Rhia left her. She pushed open her door and headed straight for her bedroom, passing several weapon racks on her way. She barely made it to her bed before she fell over, lazily kicking off her shoes. With all the events of the day, the major healing she did, a full body conversion and whatever that new weapon was, she was exhausted enough to fall asleep almost immediately. The last thing going through her mind was an entirely uncharacteristic thought for her.

"What should I wear to dinner?"