Bouncer’s shot down the stairwell like a nervous impulse, landing on some goon’s shoulders in the midst of a firing squad. There was a split instant before they registered her presence, double-masked and crouching on their buddy’s back before she disappeared again, popping back into existence at the top of the stairs over Kitsune’s head in a mist of electrical spider webs. Air rushed in to replace her in the next breath, followed by a [i][b]CRACK[/b][/i] as Bouncer hit the ground hard enough to splinter its foundation, shaking the ground and sending the cadre of guards stumbling as they lost their balance.

Bouncer took a deep breath, savoring the scent of sweat and violence as that glorious, all consuming music swelled through her nerves. [i]This is what she was looking for.[/i]

Men whipped their guns through the air as they found their footing, casting around for the second intruder. She disappeared the instant each found her, flickering around the landing behind backs and over heads, legs and arms shooting out like gunshots. The men fell one after the next, quicker than their increasingly panicked brains could process what was happening. 

Then Bouncer took off, sprinting full tilt down the hall of the underground facility, not so much searching as [i]hunting.[/i] The hall pulsed with bodies, clamoring to respond to the invasion of their nest. Slow, barking drones with small caliber stingers they were all so terribly convinced made them strong. They had no idea what it meant to be strong, not like she did. She knew what it meant to be strong. [i]Relished it.[/i]

She’d come here for a reason, with others, but that thought was distant and small. There was something far, far, [i]far[/i] more urgent to attend to, and these grunting morons weren’t nearly enough. This place made monsters, didn’t it? Where they hell were they? 

She stepped off the back of some witless croney, eyes darting around for some sign of direction. There were all sorts of little rooms, locked tight without windows. They were all marked by little plaques with pointless combinations of letters and numbers on them. How was she supposed to find the ones that would give her what she was looking for? She paced back and forth across the halls, growing increasingly frustrated. This one? No, this one? 

She ran right past the dour fox woman, going one way, then another. If she recognized the other woman’s presence, she didn’t acknowledge it, stalking around with quick, urgent steps and mumbling constantly behind her masks. 

[i][b]Where the hell were all the monsters?![/b][/i] The music burned loud in her spine, angry and unsatisfied and demanding. They’d all gone somewhere else, they must have. Where would they even go? [i]Out on the streets,[/i] some part of her mind whispered. Right, right, the ones running wild outside. That’s where they all went. Why the hell was she here then? This place sucked. Why did she even come here? There was nothing to do, all the bad guys were weak losers. What rat bastard tricked her into wasting her time in some shithole like-

Bouncer blinked once. Oh, right. There was- Some gay dude in cosplay wanted to find his boyfriend, or whatever. She was supposed to be- they were looking for that other guy. 

Where the hell was she? What hall was this? She’d been- She’d come from over there, so- Right, right, she could find her way back from here. The stairwell shouldn’t be too far from- Oh right, Kitsune. They were- this was a team exercise, or whatever. 

Bouncer called out for the fox hero, releasing the locked doorknob she hadn’t even realized she’d been gripping. Her feet glided over the polished linoleum floors of the facility, back the way she’d come. She should- no, the plan was for her to take point anyway. She was just doing her part of the teamwork. She’d done a good job, yeah. 

She turned a corner, side-stepping another unconscious guard slumped face-first against the wall before stopping in her tracks. Had that door been open before? Or, well, been broken before. Wait, had there been a monster down here all along?! Bouncer hopped up and down on the ball of her feet, feeling giddy at her luck. Her leg swung forward and she vanished midstep, teleporting across the hall to the busted door frame, crouching down to see what she was working with-

Oh, it was Joel. A monster! But also just… Joel. Did he… make friends with it? Oh, there were others in the room. An old dude and some chick tied to the bed. Kay.