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“I hate this.” Slipstream said to Flux as they made their way into the heart of the Hounds base. “These places are never pleasant.” She finished, a shiver running down her spine as the memory of the last time she had entered Hounds of Humanity base ran through her mind. The things that she saw that day in the base just outside of Pacific Point haunted her. The image of all those metahumans locked in gages awaiting execution. The smell of blood and death that hung in the hallways, it was an odor that was so thick that no matter how often she showered, she never seemed to be able to wash that smell away completely. In truth, to Slipstream it was as if that experience had somehow stained her very soul, and she wasn’t sure that she would ever be able to escape the effects it had on her. 

“I understand.” Flux said truthfully. While she had also seen atrocities in her life, some of which dwarfed the heinous crimes of the Hounds of Humanity, being an empath, she could feel the pain and trepidation radiating from Slipstream. She didn’t need to know what Slipstream had seen in her previous encounters with the Hounds, she knew just how devastating those encounters were because she could feel it as if she had shared the experiences herself. 

“This must be it.” Slipstream said as she came to a halt at a set of massive bay doors that much to her surprise were wide open. She stepped through the doors into the cavernous room which as evidenced by the strong smell of oil and the large amount of vehicles and vehicle parts was very clearly the maintenance garage that Iron Knight had mentioned. They had suspected that this garage was a sort of launching point for the Hounds’ leadership’s escape, however, if that were the case, they were too late. The garage was empty.
Or so it seemed. 

Once the two heroines were looking around inside the garage, they began hearing a loud thumping sound, almost like extremely heavy footfalls. Both women stopped what they were doing and began to look around for the source of the sounds. However, they saw nothing. As the sound grew closer, Slipstream noticed a puddle of engine coolant that had gathered on the floor of the garage near one of the vehicles. As the loud thumping sounds continued, the puddle of coolant rippled in time with the sounds, reminding Slipstream of the classic film Jurassic Park, and the way the cup of water rippled in much the same way as the T-Rex approached.

“Oh, this is not good.” Slipstream said.

“What?” Fluxed asked, however, she did not need Slipstream’s to say anything, as the source of the sounds became very apparent.
Slipstream looked in the direction of the approaching sounds, and her jaw dropped.

“Oh no, not good at all.” Slipstream said as she laid eyes on the source of the commotion, the mountain of a man called Richter, the same man that she had encountered in Pacific Point when she came across the metahuman traffickers. The same man who had once gone toe to toe with Icon, the man who would have killed her the last time they met had it not been for the combined efforts of herself and Iron Knight.

“You might want to run.” She said to Flux as Richter prepared to attack.

Without saying a word, the man-mountain charged at the two heroines. If not for Slipstream’s quick thinking and even quicker reflexes, grabbing Flux and pulling her from harm’s way, at least one of the women would have been nothing more than a greasy smear on the wall of the maintenance garage. 

“Stand still.” The behemoth snarled as he turned toward the heroines and charged again. Both Slipstream and Flux were able to dodge Richter again, however, Slipstream raced back toward the brute and delivered a series of punches and elbows to the back and sides of his head before getting back outside of his massive reach. 

The assault had begun and ended within the span of a blink of an eye.

“Bitch.” Richter said as he turned back toward Slipstream, slightly wobbly on his feet as he tried to shake off the effects of the attack.
“You’re an idiot.” Slipstream said to the man mountain. “You go out there and do whatever the Hounds tell you to do, knowing full well what they are and what it is that they want. And you still act like their lapdog. You’re pathetic.” She spat, the anger in her voice was undeniable. Anger that she felt toward this man, who had assisted the Hounds with countless atrocities against metahumans, against his own people.

“No, I just know the odds. I’ve seen what they are willing to do. They’re willing to cross boundaries that you heroes never will, and that’s why they’ll win. They will do whatever it takes. I’m just picking the winning side.” Richter told her.

“You’ve already lost. We routed the Hounds in Sherman Square, we’ve taken this base, and Icon is leading a team to take out the Finger of God as we speak. You chose the wrong side, and you’re going to spend the rest of your life in a SuperMax in the middle of the goddamned ocean.” Slipstream said. 

“Well, be that as it may, you’re not walking out of here.” Richter said coldly as he started advancing toward her. 

Slipstream prepared herself for his attack. However, much to her surprise, it never came. She stood and watched in stunned disbelief as Richter gently came off of the floor and floated up into the air as if he were nothing, and then suddenly he was violently slammed into the ground and seemingly held there by an invisible hand which pressed down on him, forcing the air from his lungs with such a force that the metal floor beneath him began to buckle. Slipstream looked over at Flux, who looked at the massive man with a look, not of anger or hatred, but of pity, until finally, unable to move or breathe, Richter blacked out. 

As an empath, Flux could not only read the emotions of others, but she could feel them as if they were her own emotions. When she felt Richter’s emotions she only felt one—

Fear.

Not of her, or the fate that awaited him, but fear of the Hounds and what they would do to him and the ones he loved.

The thought that this man who was responsible for so much death and despair was capable of loving someone at all was shocking to her, but then she realized that he wasn’t working for the Hounds because he believed in their cause…but because he was protecting someone. And for an instant, she felt that she understood this man, and did indeed feel for him.

“We’re done here, we should go.” Flux said to Slipstream as she turned and headed back the way they came.