Meanwhile in Pacific Point...
"It is of no use,
Monsutāneko-san," Typhoon lamented. "I do not believe your techniques are working." MonsterK4t, undeterred, fiddled with his sensors again one last time. The Hounds foot soldier propped up on the couch flinched violently, his whole body shaking from the audio waves bombarding his senses.
"Where. Did. You. Take. Jordan?" Kira demanded, keeping a vice like grip on his collar the entire time she spoke. "WHERE?" The soldier stared up at his captor as he painfully contorted his pale, sweating face into a sneer.
"M-m-mutie...s-s-scum..." He chuckled painfully through the spasms in his face. Kira, breathing heavily, released her hands from around the soldier's neck, wordlessly turning to face the wall.
"I've never seen his interrogation waves fail," the robot ninja mused as MonsterK4t gave a beep that conveyed annoyance. "Perhaps these Hounds of Humanity have some sort of training to-
KUSO!"
Typhoon leapt backwards and rushed to draw his blade by instinct as Kira suddenly spun around, leapt on top of the sofa with enough force to send both her and the soldier tumbling off the back, and started slamming both fists into the Hound soldier's face.
"YOU. FASCIST. SCUM!" she screamed, punctuating every word with a blow. "WHERE. THE. HELL. DID. YOUR. GOOSE. STEPPING. FRIENDS. TAKE. HER?" The soldier sputtered, blood pouring from a broken nose as he tried helplessly to fight back. She swung her fist back for another go before someone caught it. Fury roaring in her chest, she spun around to look up at Typhoon, his robotic mask flecked with the blood that clung to her knuckles.
"
Fullbright-san..." he said, sounding oddly serene. It was enough to bring her crashing back to earth as her blind fury faded. Still breathing heavily, Kira shook off the robot's grip and stood up, making sure to step on the Hound troopers's fingers as she made her way to the other end of the couch, tears streaming down her face. This...this was never supposed to happen, Kira thought to herself. She had planned for so many outcomes of her occupation; hidden bank accounts if she needed a bailout, written confessions if she had to vanish, special arrangements in case she didn't make it home one day. But that had all been for Fullbright; Kira never considered the fact that Jordan would have gotten hurt. Jordan was so tough and headstrong...it never felt like anything COULD hurt her.
"It seems that interrogation was unhelpful," Typhoon interjected as MonsterK4t dragged the soldier by the legs out into the hallway. "To that end, I suspect our next goal would be to track down-"
"Typhoon, I don't-" Kira began before MonsterK4t made a whistling sound in the hallway.
"
Monsutāneko-san is correct, our honor and friendship demands that we assist you in this rescue." Typhoon replied. "Besides, if we let you go alone we would have come anyway at the last minute, and I do not wish to participate in that trope while our time is limited. Perhaps later." Kira couldn't help but crack a smile at that line, but joking aside they would need help to track down these Hounds.
"Alright...l-let's try to figure this out," Kira said unsteadily, trying to stave off the roller coaster of emotions until they at least had a plan. "Fangs loves breaking and entering so we'll need her. Amorphous said he was busy, but I know there's some new blood downtown that-"
MonsterK4t beeped sharply as he reentered the living room, prompting more stares from Kira and Typhoon.
"
Maji?"
"You're joking right?" The DJ beeped again in response to confirm that he was not. "Monster, that's a really bad idea," Kira continued, rubbing her temples in frustration. "She'll probably turn us in the moment we find her."
"Actually..." Typhoon interjected. "She has fought me with honor before. Perhaps she will show honor and help us-"
"We are NOT going to get Voyager to help us. Sure she's nice but-"
More beeps and whistles.
"Yes I know she's always friendly, but-"
"It's very likely we will have the same enemies as she does."
"Typhoon, you're not helping..."
Another low whistle.
"How is her being cute relevant?"
"Well she could be-"
"Guys, ENOUGH!" Kira shouted, the lights in the room brightening around her as she raised her voice. "We're NOT recruiting Voyager to this mission!" To signal an end to the discussion she strode over to the side table and picked up her phone. "Right, I'm going to get a hold of Fangs. We're not going to get that uppity celebrity superhero involved, and that's
final."
-----
The announcement of the Hound's arrival sent shockwaves across Pacific Point that night, and nowhere was it felt more acutely then at an inconspicuous nightclub just off the pier called Logan's. While to many it was just another cheesy midnight hangout, and not a very memorable one at that, to a select few it was a premier destination for people with unusual abilities and strange mutations. Logan's was a neutral ground of sorts, where metahumans and other gifted individuals could just hang out and unwind, whether they were active superheroes, nefarious villains, or just otherwise normal people trying to live their lives. And fortunately for the patrons of Logan's quite a few of them had predictive abilities telling them that the Hounds were on the way, so by the time the Hounds strike team broke into the secret area in the back, all they found was a empty room and a note or two requesting that the unwelcome guests perform feats that were anatomically impossible as the last few guests slipped out the secret escape routes. Two of the last guests to escape emerged from a fake basement area below the street level a block down the road.
"Whew, when the psychics said the Hounds were armed, they weren't kidding," Fangs remarked as she shouldered open the door. "Those guys make the city SWAT teams look like a knitting circle."
"Still wish we could have stayed to fight them," grumbled the girl following Fangs out, dressed in a blouse and blue skirt as a counterpoint to Fang's tank top and jeans combo, her eyes hidden behind a blue, wing-shaped mask. "Those goons sounds like they could use a good beating."
"I like the way you think," Fangs remarked with a toothy smile before poking her head over the edge of the lowered area to get a look around. "Don't see any military-looking goons around, think I can make a run for the alley and slip away. Do you need a lift home or...?"
"Nah, I can fly," the girl said, demonstrating by floating a few inches off the ground. "I'd offer to carry you, but I think we'd be kinda noticeable."
"Darn, that'd be pretty funny to see too," the tarantula girl said with a snicker as the pair of them emerged onto the relatively abandoned streets. "I'm Fangs, by the way."
"Yeah, I heard of you on the news. I'm Me-...er, call me Reisen."
"Ah, an alter ego! Planning to get into the supervillain racket?" Fangs said with a wink and a friendly elbowing with both of her right arms.
"I'm thinking about it," Reisen admitted, curling a lock of her hair.
"Well if you do, let me know. I can always give you a few pointers and connect you with the right-"
Their conversation was cut short, however, when the pair of them turned into an alley and came face to face with a pair of men in black armor, scouring the alleyway in case anyone who got out was making the same exact move that Fangs and Reisen were doing. The Hounds stared between the four-armed tarantula and the girl floating through the air next to her, the black-armored goons sharing a look that was best suited for oncoming traffic. For a second it seemed like nothing was going to happen, until...
"SHIT, CONTACT! WE HAVE METAS!" The pair of them raised their firearms, but Reisen was faster, and with a great rush of wind the two of them were blown off their feet, thrown down the alley like discarded newspapers.
"We need to get out of here!"
Fangs didn't need reminding as she took off in the opposite direction, Reisen flying right behind her. Tires screeched in the streets behind them as they ran for their lives, Fang's speed just barely matching that of her flying friend. There was a sharp crack and Fangs felt something miss her neck by a milometer.
"Snipers!" Fangs shouted as a warning. "Hurry, into this sidestreet, I have an escape route!" The pair of them made another sharp turn as more cracks sounded, Reisen shouting out in alarm as a shot flew close to her as well.
"That...was too close," the blue-masked girl panted, clutching at her side.
"You're telling me, I thought I was dead for sure..."
And then there was light. A spotlight to be exact, set up perfectly to blind them as they walked right into a trap. As her eyes adjusted, Fangs spotted the outline of the black-armored men, surrounding them on three sides.
"Nice try, metahuman, scum," one of them taunted. "On my mark! FIRE!"
Before anyone even took aim, there was a deafening bang as the spotlight behind the soldiers exploded, sending glass into the air like shrapnel. As the light dropped and her sight went back to normal, she threw up her arms to protect herself and Reisen from the flying glass, but despite the screams as glass scattered across the black-armored soldiers, nothing seemed to hit them. The men who were still standing regained their senses and retrained their weapons at the sky behind them.
"Holy shit," Reisen suddenly spoke up. "Fangs...it's her!"
Fangs turned around, seeing just about the last person she expected to run into tonight, hovering above them like she was floating in the ocean. Her suit was torn in places and covered in soot, but there was no question about who it was; Voyager. And yet, she couldn't help but feel something was wrong. She was bathed in that purple light that showed up when she shot those bolts, and her eyes were filled with that same light, her brow furrowed in a determined scowl that was very much unlike her.
Also, she was pretty sure that Voyager couldn't fly.
"It's the xeno, kill it, kill it!" But the order went unanswered. With a flick of her neck, the guns all flew out of the soldier's hands and onto the ground. They scrambled, some going for their weapons, and others pulling out sidearms to keep fighting as Voyager silently picked them off one by one, slowly descending to the ground. Some went down felled by the familiar purple bolts, leaving smoking marks on their chests where they struck home. Others left the ground and flew into their friends, Voyager's hand guiding them like a puppeteer. One man pulled a grenade and hurled it desperately into the air; it stopped midair and crumpled into dust as Voyager responded by slamming him into the ground so hard that the pavement cracked. Voyager turned to the last man standing as he picked up his sidearm and aimed it at Fangs and Reisen, his hand shaking so badly it was hard to tell who he was threatening.
"You come any closer and I'll kill them!" he screamed in manic terror as Voyager, whoever she was, tilted her head as if to feign curiosity. "You hear me? I'll...I'll...no..."
Dropping his gun, the man slowly raised his hands to clutch at his head, his eyes bulging out of his skull in sheer horror.
"No...please...stop...STOP..." Fangs and Reisen watched in horror as Voyager stepped in front of the last soldier, reduced to a quivering wreck, and gently shoved him to the ground. He stood their whimpering as the alien super heroine finally turned her attention to Fangs.
"Holy crap," Fangs said bluntly. "I've never even seen her do that kinda stuff before..."
"Is...something wrong with her?" Reisen asked cautiously.
"I don't know," Fangs said, snapping her fingers in front of Voyager and getting no response. "It looks like she lost her marbles, but she doesn't seem the type..."
"Gabriella."The pair of them jumped at the ethereal voice that came from Voyager, smooth and grand enough to fill the whole street with its sound. It sounded nothing like the superhero Fangs knew, but that wasn't what rattled her.
"Is that someone you know?" Reisen asked again. "That's not me she's talking to."
"It's...me," Fangs revealed. "That's my real name. I never told anyone that, not even my friends."
"Gabriella...please...keep her safe...from Zhanya."Before Fangs or Reisen could question this, something seemed to fade from inside Voyager. Closing her eyes, he gave one last shuddering breath in that ethereal tone, and when she opened it there was no trace of the light left. Swaying on the spot, Voyager looked weakly between the pair of them before speaking.
"I'm...so tired..." Then with an air of finality, she gently tipped forward and collapsed, landing in Fang's arms as the tarantula girl stepped out to catch her.
"And here I was," Reisen interjected, rubbing her temples. "Thinking that tonight was going to be boring. Right, so what do we do with her now?" Almost on cue, an
electronic tone started playing from one of Fangs' pockets.
"Ooh, pardon me for a moment," the tarantula girl apolgized as she fished around for her cellphone with a free hand before answering it. "Y'ello? Oh hey there Brighty! You'll never guess who I'm carrying around with me right now!"
