[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/iyJuAe0.png
[/img][img]http://i.imgur.com/KDaLzr2.png[/img][/center][center][b]Aubrey Adkins[/b] | [b]Amanda Allen-James[/b][/center]
	Slipstream dashed into the depths of the Hounds’ base searching for other hostages. As she zipped from room to room, she found that most of the base was relatively empty. The Hounds had appeared to have cleared out, and either there were no more hostages, or the Hounds had taken them with them when they abandoned the base. However, as she entered the last room at the end of the hall, she learned that this was not the case, though she wished that it were. As she entered the room, she was almost overwhelmed by a powerful coppery smell. When she took a moment to look around the room, she discovered what was causing the overpowering odor. 

	Death.

	As Slipstream looked around the room she discovered dozens of bodies in various states of decay. Some looked to have been there for quite some time, while others looked to have been executed within the last several hours. The victims looked to have been executed in the same manner, a single cattle bolt to the middle of the forehead.  As Slipstream gazed at the bodies that were strewn around the bloodsoaked room, she suddenly felt as if someone had punched her in the gut. Suddenly, without warning she bent over and released the contents of her stomach upon the floor. 

	She had barely had time to try and regroup from the sudden shock of what she’d discovered when she heard something coming from where she had just left Arachne alone. Several small explosions rang out from the room that they had discovered the hostages, and she felt a sudden pang of anger wash over her. 

	“Oh no you don’t, you sons of bitches.” Slipstream said as she steeled herself against her urges to vomit again, and raced back toward Arachne and the Hounds.

	When Slipstream had returned to the room where she and Arachne had found and freed the metahumans whom the Hounds had captured and, as she just discovered, were designated to be slaughtered, she stumbled upon the counterattack that the Hounds had planned. Arachne appeared to have been dazed, probably by whatever the explosion she had heard that prompted her to rush back to check on the superheroine. There were a handful of Hounds aiming their weapons at Arachne. However, they had yet to realize that Slipstream had entered the room again.

	The Hounds squeezed down on the triggers of their guns, launching dozens upon dozens of rounds against the cornered heroine right as Slipstream entered the room. However, Slipstream was shocked as she watched the bullets miracuously whirl past the spidergirl without hurting her. It was almost as if some sort of invisible guardian had redirected the trajectory of the bullets so that they would purposefully miss. The Hounds, of course, were also shocked at the result of their gunfire. They were perplexed at how they could have missed all of their shots at point blank range.

	Once they have missed their first opportunity to down Arachne, the Hounds were not going to find another chance. Before they could launch a second barrage of gunfire, Arachne had used her webshooters to grapple the firearms belonging to two of the present Hounds.

	[color=b22222]“If you aren’t careful, you might hurt someone with these,”[/color] Arachne taunted as she proceeded to use her weblines to drag the two Hounds whom she had just disarmed towards herself. She then slammed the two men against the nearby wall and plastered them with some spider silk, rendering them incapacitated and unable to move away from the wall.

	Slipstream watched in amazement as the bullets that the Hounds had just fired at Arachne, bullets which should have shredded that arachnid-like heroine’s body veer off course, instead harmlessly hitting the wall instead, with surprisingly little ricocheting. She was dumbfounded by what she had just seen, however, she decided not to question her new friend’s good fortune, at least not at this moment. Instead, she darted toward the Hounds of Humanity thugs that Arachne hadn’t already incapacitated. 

	As she stepped toward the Hounds, some of whom had resumed firing on the spider-esque woman, everything slowed down to Slipstream, it was almost as if time itself had slowed to a crawl. She rushed toward the first thug, lowering her shoulder and leaning into him just before she she made impact, the force of which sent him flying into the wall across the room. She didn’t stop there, moving onto the next Hound and dropping him with a hard right hand to the face. She repeated her attack on each of the remaining Hounds, leaving them sprawled all across the room before the blink of an eye. 

	After the final Hound had fallen, Slipstream stopped in front of Arachne. She bent over slightly as she tried to regain her breath.

	“Now might be a good time to get out of here.” She said between strained breaths.

	[color=b22222]“Definitely,”[/color] Arachne agreed with Slipstream’s suggestion. [color=b22222]“All we need to do is follow my webbing to get out of here.”[/color]

	Then the spidergirl paused for a moment.

	[color=b22222]“Although I guess you already know the way out, since you got all the people the Hounds had kidnapped out of here.”[/color]

	“Yeah, it’s this way. I think...maybe it’s a good idea to follow your webs.” Slipstream thought that she knew the way out, however, the hellish scene that she found deeper inside the base left her unsure of herself.

	Therefore, the two heroines dashed out of the Hound’s secret base, following the spider silk that Arachne had left on the hallway floors. Although the two women were cautious about any more ambushes orchestrated by the Hounds, they did not run into any more trouble on their way out. Once they had exited the maze of a base that the Hound’s secret lair was, the two women caught sight of the gas station that was the mask to the base. In the distance, they could hear the police sirens blaring in the night as the police rushed to the gas station.

	[color=b22222]“Well, I guess this is our time to ditch the scene of the crime.”[/color]

	“Not a bad idea. The things that they did...they…” her voice drifted off as she replayed the images of the executed metas inside the base. “We’re going to stop them. We have to.” She said as she zipped off back toward Pacific Point, leaving the nightmarish base behind.

	Arachne felt a burst of wind rush into her as the speedster dashed away. Then she peered towards the lights on the horizons, which marked where Pacific Point was located. She sighed before making her way through the nighttime darkness.

	[color=b22222]“Where is Athena when you need her to teleport you back home? She has to be here. How else could you explain those bullets miraculously missing me?”[/color]